"Damn…" Mercury mumbled. He looked down through the blinds of his hotel room. Several stories below him, the streets of Vale bustled chaotically. Cars, firetrucks, cop cars and police vehicles careened down the streets. Blazing alarms, gunfire and even distant roars called up to him as he saw the despair and chaos from his window. Bullheads stormed through the air, shooting down flying Grimm. Bright flashes illuminated the deadly conflict ongoing at Vale's walls, where cannon emplacements blasted down surging Grimm. Atlas robots shot up anything that moved. Mobs of people rushed preemptively to emergency bunkers, like ants swarming in desperation to the safety and their hill and its dark crevices.
"Get away from the window," Emerald said. She packed their luggage, jamming as much clothes as she could into backpacks along with water bottles and, of course, ammunition. "Don't attract some nevermore or something."
Mercury scoffed and said, "Ah come on, like anything's looking up her with all the stuff in the streets." Despite the attitude, he shuttered the blinds, shutting out the glow from emergency lights and fires. The apartment became an insular space only dimly lit by a lamp on the nightstand. The sounds of gunshots, blasts and roars still resonated through the walls.
"How long you think it'll take them?" he asked. "I mean, to get here."
"Roman and Neo?" Emerald looked up to Mercury, and now it was her turn to scoff. "I doubt they'll show up."
"Really?"
"Yup. Cinder and the others think they're just going to make a break for it. Whatever, they don't know enough about what's planned next to be a threat."
"Hmm." Mercury leaned back on the wall and crossed his arms. "Shame."
"And it's a coinflip when the White Fang or the Enclave will pull the same thing," Emerald said. "We really have to be careful with them from now on."
"Eh, we've still all got something to gain from working together—"
The apartment door exploded.
Jaune pulled the trigger, and the last Grimm in his sight—a rugged beowolf—dissipated into gore and smoke as a bolt of lightning ripped into it. Crimson Arc felt dangerously hot in his hands, and smoke fizzled out of its barrel.
"I think we're safe for now," Pyrrha said behind him. She paused to huff, face flushed red and drenched with sweat. "We must have killed most of the Grimm in the forest by now."
"Oh definitely," Weiss said, trudging up to Jaune and his partner. Ruby was beside her. "Are you two alright?"
"Yeah, especially after we got our lockers." Jaune brandished Crimson Arc.
"It works great, huh?" Ruby said with a small, satisfied smile. "That's good."
Jaune smiled back at her.
"ATTENTION!" The word blared out loudly over a radio, followed by a spotlight's intense, searching beam. "ATLAS PERSONNEL HAS ARRIVED FOR EVACUATION!"
Jaune looked up and saw bullheads descending on their position, a veritable flock of transport aircraft. Each bristled with turrets ready to blast any oncoming Grimm, either from land or sky.
As it were, much of the forest before the fallen stadium had been leveled through the liberal use of gunfire and explosives, creating a harsh and open field for the ships to touch down on.
"PRIORITIZE CIVILIANS AND THE WOUNDED!" roared the lead bullhead as they neared. The cavalry had finally arrived, their salvation from the air.
And from above arrived yet more danger.
Chaos erupted as a flock of nevermore shot down from the sky like arrows. Beak-first, ranging in size from pigeons to cars, the winged Grimm crashed into the bullheads. Immediately, their saviors were thrown into disarray, with turrets firing at enemies while the aircraft scrambled.
The nevermore did not stop there. The whole flock followed through with their deadly charge and descended on the survivors of the stadium. They viciously attacked the front line of defenders; but horrifically, the monsters also flew overhead and made for the defenseless still huddling amidst the ruins of the stadium.
"Damn it!" Jaune swore. He wrenched open Crimson Arc's dust cell, ejecting the empty casing while fumbling in his pocket for another load of electric dust.
"CAW!" Jaune looked up to see a large nevermore sweep doing towards him. In the black night, he saw only its glowing red eyes. By then, it was far too late.
Jaune tried to lunch back, but the thing's massive talons gripped his shoulders. With a flap of its wings, the Grimm had him in its grasp and in the air. With several hearty beats of its wings, it brought Jaune higher up and further away from his friends.
He immediately dropped Crimson Arc to the ground and gripped the monster's talons, squeezing tightly; the nevermore had unwittingly picked up a vicious creature that was more predator than prey.
"Bastard!" Jaune shouted as he crushed the nevermore's ankles in his grip. With a sharp, immediate yank, he pulled his hands away—and ripped the creature's talons from its own body.
The monster screamed, shuddered and beat its wings, all while Jaune dropped like a rock. Thankfully, he fell no more than two stories. Still, the tough ground did not serve as a good cushion for him.
He landed on hard, rocky soil. Immediately wheezing as the impact smashed out the air in him, Jaune nevertheless forced himself up to his feet. Taking in great gulps of air, he staggered and tried to see where he was.
Right when another, larger nevermore dove for him like an arrow—the tip of its beak razor sharp.
Perhaps Jaune would have managed to get out of the way at the last second. Perhaps not. Theorizing about such does not matter, however, as an intervention saved him.
Sarah Lyons chopped her claymore down faster than a human could blink, as quickly as a hummingbird can flap a wing. With one deft strike, she beheaded the nevermore just as it got low to the ground, just seconds before it would have skewered its prey.
Momentum carried its headless body forwards nonetheless, and the carcass crashed down into the earth where it rolled and barreled into Jaune. The heavy corpse sent him roughly to the ground yet again.
"Get up!" Sarah yelled at him. Two more nevermore dived down towards her, and two more nevermore she cleaved with deft swing.
Her massive claymore she wielded expertly and effortlessly, moving the weapon as if it were an extension of her own flesh and bone. Caerulea Mors was its name—the blue death. The sister sword to Rubra, Crocea and another.
Sarah's impressive display for a moment made Jaune forget their dire circumstances as he watched her slash straight through nevermore—each coming in at a bullet's speed—with perfect cuts.
That spell wore off quickly, of course, and he got shoved aside the carcass pinning him down. Getting back to his feet, he drew his chainsword. Crocea Mors's many vicious little teeth rattle and whirred. A strong, mean companion that had served him for what felt like decades.
Sarah cleaved a nevermore just as another dove for her from the side. She ducked—just barely avoiding its hooked talons—and before it fully passed her by, sprung back up and grabbed its tail-feather. It yanked her along for several feet before she jammed her boot down in the earth and hauled the nevermore back.
"Rah!" She pulled the creature down and out of the air, smashing it into the ground. It flapped it wings wildly and feebly—Sarah brought her claymore down.
Another nevermore swopped down for Jaune. This time, he met it head on. Crocea Mors crashed head-on into its beak, which erupted in a spray of blood, gore and shattered bone. Several more of the creatures whipped around him, but each one he reduced to tatters when it tried to strike.
Looking up then, he saw that the sky was again mostly clear of Grimm; the nevermore flock had largely been exterminated. Even those that had gone for the civilians had gotten taken care of by the rear guard of semi-injured hunters.
"Jaune!" Ruby screamed.
He heard her voice before he saw her; and when he did see her, it was too late.
Ruby flung herself into him, reaching her arms around his body and squeezing tight. "You're okay," she mumbled while burying her face into his shoulder. "You're okay…"
"Heh, guess I am," Jaune said; she had instantly put a smile on his face.
"Get to it!" Sarah shouted at them. She hefted Caerulea Mors over her shoulder, handle gripped firmly by both hands—ready to launch the blade through the flesh and bone of whatever might come next. "Help with the evacuation!"
Hearing her voice made Jaune angry. He supposed he should be grateful for her saving his life just a moment ago, but the human psyche desires more to latch on to old hate than to relinquish it for new gratitude.
Nevertheless, Jaune extricated himself from Ruby—though he did still hold one of her hands in his own—and looked up at the sky once more. The bullheads were back on track, none of them appearing to have sustained substantial damage from the sudden attack. Once more, a lull in the fighting came in, allowing them all to breath and rest—like a shipwreck victim finally grasping onto a piece of driftwood. Now the furious battle for dear life depleted in intensity.
Cannons and turrets still boomed and crackled from the ships higher above, but the bullheads came closer to touching down on the ground. Relief.
"Come on," Ruby said while tugging his hand, "let's get back to the others." Jaune noticed her conspicuous glare at Sarah; without another word, they left.
Stepping over a few dissolved nevermore carcasses, Jaune developedd frown on his face. None other than Headmaster Ozpin had rushed up to Pyrrha and was talked with her. Qrow was at his side, a part of the conversation. Nora and Ren were further to the side.
"What's this?" he asked the two.
"The headmaster and Qrow wanted to talk with her about something," Ren said.
Jaune narrowed his eyes. All around them, hunters were readying their weapons or waving up at the incoming bullheads. What was so important that it needed private talk at a time like this?
The rest of team RWBY congregated, but Jaune left them all behind to trudge towards his partner.
Qrow was the first to see him. "Hey Steve," he said with wry, tired grin. "We're just chatting with the wonder girl for a moment."
Then Pyrrha turned to look at him, and seeing her made Jaune stop in his tracks. The look in her eyes—it was the same kind of sheer panic he had seen back during their spar just a day before. He had never imagined Pyrrha looking so vulnerable.
He glared at the headmaster.
"We were just discussing something personal we had brought up earlier," Ozpin said. "Miss Nikos was just reconsidering something important."
Jaune looked at Pyrrha again. In her eyes, not only a sense of panic, but also one of pain. She looked back and forth between him and the headmaster. Uncertainty wracked her.
"Pyr," Jaune said, "come on, we're waiting for you.,"
"Mr. Arc, we are still—"
"No." Pyrrha shook her head and quickly stepped away and to Jaune's side. Looking back at the two men, she said, "No. No, I'm sorry but no. Find someone else for it. I'm sorry."
"Miss…" Ozpin contained his frustration. He readjusted his glasses—now cracked, perhaps because of the fall or Grimm or both—and looked through them, staring straight at Pyrrha.
Jaune brought an arm around his friend's shoulder. "Yeah, whatever it is, I think it's best for the team to stick together right now." Jaune met Ozpin's look.
"Mr. Arc, I appreciate your concern, but—"
"Man just fuck off already," Jaune said. Pyrrha stiffened up beside him, but right now he really could not care any less for politeness.
"Ooookay then," Qrow said, stepping in between the two and raising his hands in a gesture of reconciliation. "Let's not fight, alright? Steve"– he pointed at Jaune –"you and your team can focus on killing stuff. We're all gonna get on these nice Atlas ships, then head straight to Beacon."
"Beacon?" Jaune asked, "why there?"
"Because," the Headmaster said, stepping around Qrow, "I just got a call that both White Fang and Grimm are attacking the premises."
"What!?" Jaune and everyone else in both RWBY and JNPR asked.
"They're taking their chance to try and attack Beacon… probably to get something they want." Qrow said.
Pyrrha crossed her arms and looked away.
"So yeah, we gotta get back there, ASAP. Though I guess some of you can get onboard with the civilians and high-tail it for Vale."
"Although the city itself might be safer, Ironwood has been in contact with forces there," Ozpin said. He nodded to his side, gesturing to where the Atlas General stood huddled with some personnel, speaking on a radio. "Some Grimm have started to infiltrate the city, as well. Not to mention robotics in Atlas's military have gone completely rogue and are sparking mayhem. Your assistance there would also be helpful."
"We have to stop the White Fage," Blake said.
Jaune sighed, knowing there would be no changing her mind. "You can probably put us all on the list to get to Beacon…" he trailed off as he looked up into the sky. Something had caught his eyes—well, not caught it so much as demanded its attention, like a roaring, angry campfire draws in a little moth.
A massive shadow came down across the broken moon, a sight more menacing and impressive than anything else in the night sky. Anything else Jaune had ever seen. A gargantuan figure barreled down from the clouds and crashed right into one of the battleships. Four huge legs smashed down into the ship's hull, immediately crushing the formidable defenses and tearing into the sheets of metal with huge claws.
Spotlights from the other ships immediately trained onto this new foe, which itself was just as large if not larger than the ships themselves.
The massive Grimm dragon raised its huge wings up in the air and roared.
"What the hell is that!?"
"That's our cue to get out of here!"
"By the gods…" Roman whispered, looking out the deck's window, "pretty sure that's our cue to get the hell out of here."
"Jesus Christ," Bishop said. For a moment even him, a bringer of death, stopped. An overwhelmed mind could not muster a single thought for a few excruciating, awed seconds as he looked at the dragon not far from the very ship he himself stood in. As he watched, the monster brought its maw full of huge, sharp teeth down to the ship underneath it. With a single strong bite, it started to tear out chunks of the ship, which was quickly collapsing down into the forest below.
"Come on!" Bishop snapped, breaking himself and the others from their surprise. "We needed to finish this!"
His team had gotten to work stripping the bridge for all it was worth. They had plugged drives into every computer they could see, stepping over the corpses of the engineers and sailors they had killed to get there. They used passwords already memorized to break into each computer and download everything they could, hoping to pilfer something valuable among the data. They had even cut and ripped out some of the computers, which they would haul back. Part of this haul included the inert head and corpse of Penny Polendina, which Bishop had taken.
Now, Bishop demanded them back to work, after the brief spell of the dragon's arrival.
"Hurry up," he said, "instead of getting out of here before they aim their fire at us or the marines come, we need to get out before that thing turns toward us."
"Alright pal," Torchwick said, "maybe we should really just skedaddle right now. You know, get back to the city and split up and—"
"Shut up."
"All I'm saying is—"
Bishop completely ignored the pathetic thief's pestering when his radio crackled. He routed the call directly to the mic in his helmet, where it could not be heard by any other. He silently listened to a quickly uttered report.
"Only one? Fine. Keep him in acceptable condition in a secure location until I can reach him personally. Over."
"And what was that about?" Roman asked.
"Nothing of your concern—"
"We're done!" one of the Enclave soldiers reported, shoving a pilfered hard drive into an already stuffed duffel bag.
"Excellent," Bishop said. He turned to Roman and Neo, the two outlaws who had stayed out of the way and kept their gas masks on thus far. He pointed to a set of computer banks at the back of the bridge. "You said that's the control unit for the robotic forces?"
"Um, yeah, we put the virus in from there."
Bishop turned to his troops. "Destroy it."
In a second, several rifles and pistols were drawn, triggers were pulled and the computer banks were riddled with bullets. Glass, plastic and metal shattered; lights died as the whole system ceased.
"What the hell!?" Roman shouted.
"Enough damage has been done. We can spare more humans. The terror is what we needed, and we've accomplished that."
"Yeah, well, that might give the gang going to Beacon a harder time, won't it?"
"We're heading for Beacon."
"Huh?" Roman's grip on his cane tightened. He became keenly aware that ten murderous commandos were looking directly at him and Neo. "Sorry, but none of that's part of the plan."
"No, it's not a part of your plan," Bishop said.
He drew Rubra Mors; the dark sword hissed insidiously as it was drawn from its sheath, like a snake coming out of its burrow.
"But it is a part of our plan."
If you were worried that Salem's forces would be too strong with the Enclave on their side—the Enclave was never on their side.