Before anything else, I own nothing but the original characters, and content therein related to them. RWBY is owned by RT, and any mentioned creator's work belongs to them, and them alone. Rest in peace Monty, your vision lives on in us all.

CHAPTER 10

"Le… Ale… Pale… PALE!" His own name slowly faded into existence, as Clayton shouted at his partner, shaking his shoulders the entire time. "We have to move!" Clayton shouted, as he started dragging Pale by his arm. Pyrrha stepped back from the scene, as Ruby, Yang, Halcyone and Siniy formed a protective circle around the traumatized sniper. The rest of team JNPR came down from the stands to pull Pyrrha out of her own daze. Looking up, Pale saw the giant nevermore preparing to break through the hard light dome above him. Still unmoving, and with a half empty look, Pale took the bayonet off his belt, and attached it to Pride of the East.

The Nevermore came crashing down in front of the teams, and let out a war cry, only for a 17 inch blade to be launched into it's eyeball. Shrieking in pain, the Nevermore thrashed it's head around, as the hitchhiker it had picked up ascended up to eye level with it. Pale was that hitchhiker. Drawing Guerrilla Warfare from his rifle stock, Pale put the muzzle of the revolver against the skull of the nevermore, and put every last bit of his semblance behind that gun. The round tore straight through bone and brain matter, and with it's unlife ended, the bird dropped to the stage, stone cold.

Pale pulled his bayonet out of the creature, and started walking off the stage, ignoring all the transfer students and his unarmed friends summoning their lockers. He had a bone to pick with someone his deluded mind believed responsible for this attack on the only place he'd been able to call home… The only place since Sakkura.

Pale blocked out all the noise that was going on around him. He was taking notes, but he wasn't really there. Everyone was going down to Beacon, Ironwood's orders. The White Fang was there in force. They were unleashing grimm into the school… Just like at Roanoke… Just like the Breach... Pale had a moment of clarity just long enough to see that Siniy was on his knees praying in Cyrillic.

The giant polar bear had not been able to call Weiss the entire time they were separated. Be that from poor reception or more dire reasons, Siniy had broken down enough to begin praying to his gods for her safety. He wished nothing more than to be there for her in that moment. Even if it meant death, he would save her should she be in danger.

Once on the ground, everything changed. Jaune had taken an unnatural charge of the situation, and organized the teams, allowing them to push through the wave of grimm that stood between them, and their home. The heavy weapon toting members being Coco, Siniy, and Nora, made strongpoints in a triangular formation. As Pyrrha, Jaune and Yatzuhashi made up a defensive barrier between the few projectile throwing Grimm, and their gunners. On the flanks the more mobile and close ranged members of the groups swept the sides and ran circles to ensure the rear was never unplugged. As the fire teams roamed in a loose search pattern, they picked up more students from every academy, willing to fight at every turn, and those that did not immediately fight, were ushered back to the safety of the landing pads, where teachers and soldiers had secured an evacuation point.

The only one who seemed to be lingering behind was Pale… At every instance of danger, he shot down what threats he saw, reloaded, and lifelessly walked… Until something caught his eye. They'd neared the front of the school, close to the cafeteria, and Pale's attention fixated on her. The Belladonna. She was standing outside of a cafeteria window, looking in, completely unaware of her surroundings. Pale walked off from the formation, an act noticed by Halcyone and Yang. They ignored him for just the moment, as they could not see around the corner he disappeared behind, and were dealing with an ursa.

Up on the Atlesian airship, Rot, Roman and Neo had fended off the remainder of the AK's and had managed to gain access to the bridge. They hit the kill switch to the androids, but none of them seemed to want to power down, Watts's doing no doubt. Groaning, the trio made their way back to the landing bay, and got themselves a ride to Beacon. "Why exactly do we need to find Little Red?" Roman asked.

Rot grunted. "Ruby has silver eyes."

"Like yours?" Roman asked quickly. Rot rolled his eyes.

"Yes. Our eyes, they're like genetic weapons. Anti grimm, they can burn right through them." Rot said.

"So what are you, her granddad or something?" Roman asked.

Rot scoffed. "Or something. It's a rare trait but it's not something only one family has… We've just been hunted to the brink of extinction."

"Hunted?" Roman asked sceptically.

"Cinder's boss, she's a right bitch, turned my pupils white… And I was lucky. When I was growing up there used to be bounties on our heads, and I missed having my eyes gouged out by about a week's time, that's when I put on the mask. A decade ago a bunch of us got together, and we planned on killing the witch, but she managed to capture a few of us. I drew the longest straw, she only fucked with my eyes. You should have seen what she did to this poor dog faunus." Rot said somberly, before the pain in his chest got marginally worse.

"And you want to ruin her little plan to destroy Vale… Credit where it's due, that's mighty selfless of you." Roman said. Rot chuckled.

"Call it a dying man's charity."