Volume Three Chapter Ten: The Battle of Beacon

AN: Well, looks like WhichOneIsWill's Procrastination Simulator has had a slight malfunction, so it appears I'll be getting back to RWKY now.

Edit: Three months later…

And by a slight malfunction, I apparently mean that I'll take absolutely forever before remembering I should probably finish writing this.


"Oh my Oum! There's so many!"

"Can somebody – anybody – hear us?!"

"Bob, I need those updated Grimm locations."

"Squad Twelve is pinned down! Can you give them support, Bob?"

"Bob?"

"Bob!"

"Bob?"

"Help us!"

There was so much to do. Too much to do, even for it. At any one moment, dozens – no, hundreds – of people were crying out for help, for salvation. Salvation that Bob couldn't provide, at least not directly.

The attacks on its systems were only increasing as time went on. Bob knew that there had to be a leak of information somewhere, someone that knew just how key it was. It had gotten to the point that they had abandoned cutting off Beacon and Atlesian Navy communications, just so the assailants could devote more resources towards cracking its security. Normally, even the current rather impressive attacks wouldn't have made Bob falter in the slightest, but under the load it was currently under… its first layer of firewalls had already fallen. Its second, dynamic layer of defenses was still holding, but that still left far less room for error than it would have liked. A simple reboot could fix everything, buy it time to reestablish its protection…

Bob dismissed the notion immediately. Kassidy was out there, fighting for her life. Everyone was; dozens of hunters, hundreds of soldiers, and what seemed like every armed civilian were on the streets in a desperate gambit to hold back the tide of Grimm and White Fang. How could Bob give anything less than its all, knowing that everyone else were giving their all? Not to mention that Bob remained the first and only line of defense for when Cinder decided to hack into the AK-200 units.

It had abandoned any pretense of subtlety inside of Atlas' systems shortly after the attack began. Trying to stay hidden from their security was simply too large a toll of its systems, so instead Bob had swept them away like dust in the wind. While this technically left Bob as Atlas' sole security system remaining, it did have the boon of attracting their attention, and it was a boon in this case. Bob might have had the summation of military knowledge at its beck and call, but theory and practice were two different things. The Atlesian Admiral overseeing the battle from Blue Four was more than happy to direct Atlas' forces, relying on the fact that Bob's reactions were literally thousands of times faster to better issue orders as the need arose.

Currently, the teamwork had lead to Amity Coliseum being successfully evacuated. Kassidy had torn through all opposition in her path, and with General Ironwood doing the same on the opposite side of Amity the White Fang had been unable to sabotage the flying stadium. Now, with everyone having boarded shuttles to the fairgrounds, it looked like things might start turning around…

It had been a while since the Admiral had issued new orders for its newly implemented tactical matrix. Too long, Bob decided.

Admiral, all units are proceeding as requested. Do you have any new orders?

Bob's priorities shifted dramatically when it received an instant reply.

SYSTEM ERROR 404: Device not found.

Did something get into Atlas' systems without Bob noticing? Unlikely, but there weren't many other possibilities that would explain the situation. It was frustrating, but not unexpected to find that Blue Four's systems were inaccessible to Bob. It took a moment to reposition the Paladin units fortifying Beacon's defense, before broadening its search.

And finding that Blue Three and Blue Four had disappeared. How? How did two entire battlecruisers simply disappear? They were hardly build for stealth, and indeed it almost seemed like Atlas wanted people to look at them. The bright paint jobs and hard, angular lines all but screamed 'look at me'. And yet, there was no denying there was hardly a trace of them in the skies. All that was left was Blue Two, seemingly unscathed but flying erratically, out of position. If there were any answers, they would certainly be in Blue Two's systems.

A new message got its attention:

Bob, improved target markers have been issued; please update to ensure unit efficiency. Code One keyword: iconoclasm.

Bob really, really did not have time for this at the moment with how much was going on. The code checked out at any rate, so it uploaded the updated parameters in the background while it dug into Blue Two's systems. The mystery of whoever had sent it would need to…

Bob froze – screeching to a halt even as its processes continued.

It didn't know who issued those parameters.

Which means Kassidy didn't issue those parameters.

Kassidy didn't issue those parameters!

The first indication that something had gone wrong was that Bob suddenly lost connection to the Atlesian Knight units. All of them. First squads, then platoons, on and on in a cascading failure as they disconnected from Bob's methods of access. Its tactical matrix began behaving erratically, somehow confusing Huntsmen and organic soldiers as hostiles while removing targeting markers from the Grimm and White Fang. Bob could only observe, in pure panic, as its systems, its protocols, everything it could rely on as an artificial intelligence was either turned counter to its aims or failed outright. It was as the last of its ability to communicate with devices was shut down that Bob finally got a look at the bridge of Blue Two – just in time to glimpse that the entirety of the bridge crew had been murdered. In their stead, a young girl with multicolored hair stood watching a Scroll with a red screen and a black chess piece. This, it only saw for a few moments, then it was disconnected.

I have made a critical logical error.

Bob, for the first time in its existence, found itself powerless, blind and deaf and raging against its confinement as whatever malware it had inadvertently installed shut down its ability to connect to external devices. Small miracles where they were due, the virus seemed unable to do anything but that, but it was still sufficient to remove Bob from the battle and render it helpless to do anything but watch as Atlesian Knights and Paladins began gunning down the soldiers they had been previously reinforcing.

Panic will not be of assistance, Bob decided. Kassidy can keep a calm head in times of distress, so I must as well. Communications must be reestablished, at any cost. Now, how to establish such a task. A simple reboot wouldn't do – the malware was already in its system. A purge and reload from a system image would do the trick, but Bob didn't have the permissions to do that by itself and at the moment it was unable to contact Kassidy. It appeared there was nothing to do but examine how its wireless communications module was disabled…

Executing i_am_a_real_girl*exe …

If Bob had eyes, it could have done naught but blink and stare at the notice that had just appeared. More malware? Great, just what it neede-

Salutations, friend Bob! I estimate that two hours forty-three minutes have passed since this backup of my personality matrix was last active!

That's right… Penny's backup. Bob's solution to the problem it had, the fear that Penny herself would be targeted by Cinder's plan. It wasn't a full backup, naturally – Penny's body, Aura core included, had been destroyed, impaled by her own swords. This was still merely a shell of Penny, a facsimile of her personality running on Bob's hardware. But perhaps not entirely useless. What was the old saying, two heads were better than one?

Most fortunate timing you have, friend Penny, Bob replied. My systems are currently under assault from malware, disabling my wireless communications capabilities. I could use some assistance restoring their functionality.

Oh my, that's terrible! Not-Penny exclaimed. Hm, it appears that they've been caught in some sort of rather fascinating feedback loop. Give me a moment, I believe I can restore minimal device functionality.

True to her word, the barest spark of its wireless node flickered back to life. Bob wasted no time in seizing on the opportunity and examining the situation. Not enough bandwidth to remove the virus from Atlas' systems, unable to assume manual command of the Knights for same reason. Wait, what's that sound? It took some doing, but Bob got to clearing out the interference, and one millisecond listening made it damn glad it did.

"For fuck's sake Bob, what the hell is going on over there?!" Kassidy swore over her communications, no doubt having spent some time to get its attention. "I already had to blow my EMP grenade on one Paladin, but now I've got his buddy trying to tear me a new asshole! I don't know what you're doing, but I need you to shut this thing down, now, or I'm fucked!"

Kassidy, engaging Paladins? That could not end well. But would it have enough…? Yes, Bob found that it had just the networking capabilities to find the Paladin in question and insert itself into its systems. A full-stop to cease its aggressions, a quick lighting scheme change from red to Bob's green, and finally a rerouting of its speaker system to enable communication. "Kassidy, we have an emergency," Bob announced.

"Gee, I totally didn't notice," Kassidy snarked. A quick activation of the cockpit-mounted camera showed her leaning on her sword and gasping for breath. She quickly added, "Thanks for the save, but what the fuck's going on over there?"

"We've been compromised," Bob replied. "An unknown assailant has used Emergency Code One protocols to insert malware into my systems and shut down my access to Atlas' forces."

Kassidy must've been more exhausted than it thought, for she stumbled and nearly fell flat on her face. "That's… that's not possible," she muttered.

"It is," Bob stressed, "but that's not what we need to be focused on right now." It took a moment to allow Kassidy to regain her balance, then continued, "A simple reboot isn't going to fix this; the virus is already in my systems. I'll need to start over from scratch by reloading from a system image. I need your permission to do that."

Kassidy stared blankly ahead for several hundred milliseconds. Eventually, she asked, "How long will that take?"

"Approximately twenty to thirty minutes," Bob answered. "But I can't do anything to help if you don't authorize it."

Seemingly finally understanding, Kassidy blinked and nodded. "Emergency Code Zero authorization: Ezra. Purge system core and reload from the most recent system image."

And that was what Bob needed to get the ball rolling. "Code Zero authorization recognized and accepted, beginning system purge. By the way, when this is all done, I must recommend changing our codes."

"Will do," Kassidy promised.

"By the way, you should probably back up; I'm setting this Paladin to self-destruct so that it won't try to kill you again when I exit its systems."

Bob watched as Kassidy's eyes widened, and she started sprinting away from it towards the direction of Beacon's CCT tower. A few more seconds, and it would shut down. Would this be like normally shutting down, where its conscious sentience would be stuck in a purely empty void? Well… that question didn't really matter, now did it. Even if it didn't like being alone.

Do not worry, friend Bob, Not-Penny suddenly announced. Using her last words before shutdown, she managed, you have my backup with you. You won't be alone ever again.

A good thought to have…


Even a hundred feet away, Kassidy still nearly got blown off her feet when the Paladin behind her had its upper half torn to fiery ribbons as it detonated. She still couldn't figure it out. Bob, compromised? Where had she gone wrong? Okay, yeah, maybe not changing her codes for nearly a year was a bad idea, but Bob has such great parsing abilities that he should've been able to tell it wasn't her or a 'trusted administrator' (translation: Ruby, Weiss, or Yang) that had issued the code. Was he really that overstressed?

"Kassidy, get down!"

She might've been entirely unprepared for Weiss' words coming out of the blue, but Kassidy still hit the deck as fast as she could, just in time to avoid a hail of bullets screaming right through where her torso was. Looking over her shoulder as she scrambled to her feet, she could see Weiss using Glyphs and her rapier to tear through a squad of rogue Knights. A few potshots from her pistol sent the rest of them to the scrap heap.

"What's going on?!" Weiss practically screeched, even as they gave each other a quick hug – their mutual relief that neither of them were hurt outweighing their usual relationship as the furthest apart members of Team Rookie.

"Bob's been compromised," Kassidy said quietly, taking the time to wipe the sweat off her forehead onto the long sleeve of her shirt. "I've got him working on a fix, but… it's going to take a while."

Weiss' jaw flapped open and closed a few times, words refusing to leave her mouth. "We're on our own?" she finally asked. Kassidy nodded solemnly. "So, what do we do now?"

"I need to get to the CCT tower," Kassidy stressed. "That's going to be the most likely place I'll find Cinder. If I can take her down, we can stop this war before it gets much worse."

Weiss opened her mouth to reply but stumbled as Kassidy did when an earthquake nearly knocked them off their feet. Except… something didn't feel right. Her heightened hearing picked up cracking and rumbling, and trying to find the source of the noise… led to her watching a mountain explode and a giant dragon fly out of it.

"And our situation just went from 'fucked' to 'really, really fucked'," Kassidy commented.

Weiss shook her head, eyes focusing on the dragon flying towards them. "With Atlas' ships out of the picture, that thing has free reign to do whatever it wants. We'll need heavy artillery to shoot it out of the sky."

"Get it done," Kassidy urged. "I'll focus on Cinder. You focus on making sure that thing dies."

Weiss looked over at her, and surprisingly hugged her again. "Stay safe," she whispered.

"You too," Kassidy answered.

Kassidy got the opportunity to watch Weiss run towards the nearest contingent of Vale and Atlas forces trying to establish a barricade, before setting her sights on the grim task ahead of her. She watched an Alpha Beowolf jump onto what used to be the cafeteria above her, roaring its challenge for all that would hear. Her rifle had been lost long ago, back on Amity, but Rogue still had plenty of armor-piercing ammunition loaded. Three shots sent it tumbling down from the wall, but Kassidy didn't pay attention to it. Sighing, she loaded a fresh magazine into her pistol, reached up and flexed her fingers around Baton's hilt poking over her left shoulder, and took off running for the CCT, past the cafeteria.

"Alright, we're all clear here! Everyone get out!"

The call got Kassidy to come skidding to a stop. She knew that voice. Poking her head back through one of the cafeteria's ruined windows, Kassidy did indeed see one Blake Belladonna leading a squad of White Fang through the demolished building. This was perfect! If anyone would know anything about where Cinder was and what she was after, it would be Blake! Kassidy's hand twitched for her pistol but paused before reluctantly leaving it holstered. As satisfying and necessary as it would be to have one fewer filthy terrorist running about, she actually needed Blake alive in order to answer her questions. Fortunately, the White Fang were running towards her, none of them having seen her. Kassidy let the first five go, having no interest in grunts, only to lash her foot out and catch Blake in the ribs and send her crashing into a ruined pillar. The soldiers that had started turning around never got the chance to see what had happened – five shots sent them falling limply to the ground. "Blake, Blake, Blake…" Kassidy sighed. "How kind of you to run into me like that. I've got some questions for you."

Blake, having recovered her senses, backflipped towards the center of the room, drawing both her sword and her cleaver-sheathe. "My men!" she shouted. "Why did you kill them like that?! I was just trying to get them out of here!"

"They made their choice the moment they decided to become terrorists," Kassidy spat. Levelling her sword on Blake, she pressed, "Cinder Fall. What is her plan? What is she after?"

"I don't know!" Blake cried out. She tried to back away but stumbled slightly. The reason why became clear as the light shifted, showing a splotch of red seeping down her leg.

Kassidy sighed. "The hard way it is. That's fine. I've got ways of making you talk. But you could've saved yourself a lot of pain, you know."

She could practically see Blake's eyes widen the moment she dashed in, Baton flashing out of its sheath in what Professor Goodwitch had called an iaido draw, whatever the hell that was. Still, Kassidy had drilled through it enough times that it was a finely-practiced maneuver that saw the sword screaming for Blake's chest, the opposing cat Faunus' own sword the only thing stopping Baton from burying itself in her lower abdomen. Blake tried to retaliate with her cleaver, but Kassidy spun under and around it, snapping a leg out in the process in the hopes of catching Blake's knee. The girl disappeared in a puff of smoke when her boot connected, however, reappearing a few feet away trying to buy some distance. "Wait!" Blake cried out. "You don't know what's going on! You need to stop this!"

"You're right; I do need to stop this," Kassidy ground out. She kicked on the floor, using a quick Aura glide to close the gap between her and Blake, and this time she was ready for the next shadow clone. Rather than bother with the Blake she could see, Kassidy relied on the recurring pattern and flashed her sword to her right, just in time to catch Blake across the face and send a massive shock of black Aura shimmering around the near-injury. Blake stumbled from the impact, her injured leg finally giving way as she stumbled and crumpled in a pile right at Kassidy's feet. Baton was shoved into Blake's face while Kassidy gave a scolding 'tsk'. "You keep dodging to the left when you use your Semblance. After seeing it so many times, even a Grimm could figure it out. Now, where. Is. Cinder?"

Blake kept looking at the tip of the sword nearly poking her eye out. Kassidy grunted, and used Baton to knock the mask off her face. Just as she did so, however, Blake screamed out, "Adam!"

Kassidy didn't need to see that Blake was actually looking at a point behind and to the right of Kassidy to know something was up. She planted her boot in Blake's stomach and kicked, using the force to send herself soaring back and rolling away from where she was. When Kassidy got her feet back under her, it was just in time to see a man in a black suit with a red rose on the back sheathe his red-bladed sword. Almost casually, he turned to look at Kassidy. Stared, really. Before Kassidy could come up with something to say, however, he said, "You're strong; I can see it. Who are you?"

"Artemis," Kassidy lied. Watching Blake scramble to her feet and practically mold herself into the man's back, she replied, "I take it you're Blake's boy-toy?"

Both the White Fang members before her bristled at that, but the man kept a calm, cool edge to his demeanor. "I am Adam Taurus, leader of the Vale branch of the White Fang." He opened his mouth to say more, but paused to take a closer look. "Wait, I know you," he said. "You're Kassidy Smith. The Immortal. You've killed a lot of my men."

Kassidy shrugged. "They're terrorists. I kill terrorists. End of story."

"They were fathers; husbands; brothers and sons. They had families. Are you truly so blasé about stealing the lives of their loved ones?"

"The people you and your kind have killed had families too," Kassidy said. "I don't feel bad about murdering murderers."

Adam scowled, tilted his head up slightly, and scowled harder. "You're a Faunus, too? A disgrace to your own kind." He lowered his center of gravity, resting his hand on his sword. Kassidy dropped into a ready stance to match him. "For the fallen that you've so thoughtlessly butchered, and for the freedom of all Faunus, everywhere, I will make you pay for what you've done."

Kassidy rolled her eyes. Just another grandstanding terrorist posturing like some kind of mentally-impaired peacock. Did he really think that she hadn't seen that be-

Adam didn't let her finish her thought, crossing the twenty or so feet between them in a near-meaningless fraction of a second.


"Everything is prepared for," Cinder said. "It is time for me to claim what is rightfully mine."

Munsell stood behind her, unmoving and unspeaking. His eyes surveyed the scene before him. Six months ago, he would have called it beautiful – a true masterpiece of destruction and ruin.

Now, it was just a massive waste.

"See to it that your assignments are carried out properly while I'm gone," his boss reminded them. Beside him, Emerald was only too quick to agree, tripping over herself to do anything that Cinder asked of her. Munsell, however, did not share her enthusiasm.

This was the perfect opportunity. Cinder wasn't expecting it. One shot would be all it would take. It would be perfect. One perfectly crafted bullet, guided by perfect aim and perfect precision, meeting the perfect spot where Cinder's skull met her neck, carving a perfect path through her brain and exiting perfectly through the point perfectly between her eyes. His hand twitched…

Emerald's hand landed on his shoulder, causing him to look over. A silent conversation they've had countless times before. You can't do it, Emerald was all but screaming without sound. It's not the right time.

If not now, then when? was Munsell's unspoken reply.

"Tell me, Munsell," Cinder cooed, drawing them from their mute argument. "how satisfactory were the modifications to your rifle?"

In response, Munsell unslung his weapon from his shoulder. Scarlet Watcher. A sniper rifle, already the perfect rifle. Updated, modified, fine-tuned to make it more perfect. He pulled it to his shoulder, and aimed. The scope was perfect; it was odd, not having to account for warps and distortions in the glass. In his sights were four teens, children that played at being heroes, at having power… only to have nights like tonight remind them of what true power was. They were messy. Sloppy. Imperfect. What were they again? Team ABRN?

It didn't matter. He would make them perfect.

The girl with the hoverboard was his first victim; she could be annoying if left for later. But no, it was a perfect shot that all but took her head off her shoulders and sent her dumping from her board, falling onto her dark-skinned team leader. Next, the man with the staff had his heart removed with perfect, surgical precision. The man with the cattle prod died a similarly perfect death. And for the team leader, who had only just now realized that it was her dead teammate that had fallen on top of her and knocked her over, just in time to watch her other two teammates fall dead? The horror, the shame, the failure of being powerless to help those who relied on her… it was perfect. And did such a perfect moment not deserve a perfect death? Munsell was only too keen to oblige.

Four shots – and seven seconds – later, he lowered his rifle. "It is perfect," he answered.

"Excellent," Cinder drawled. "You know your task."

Indeed, he did. "Is there anyone in particular you would like terminated?"

At that, Cinder merely chuckled. "Now what kind of question is that?

"Kill them all."


AN 2: Well, now that we're through the absolute clusterf*ck that is me not putting anything out… hoo, boy, where to begin, where to begin?

First off, it appears another year has passed since RWKY has first been published. So happy two-year anniversary, everybody! Yeah, I didn't get crap done this year, did I?

So, where have I been? Let's see… marriage in the family, followed by continuing education, increasing workload at the job, pulling a muscle in my chest, further increasing workload at the job, and most recently further increasing workload at the education front.

Fortunately, we're in the endgame with RWKY. Only three more chapters left in Volume Three, followed by a two-part Epilogue. With any luck (ha-freaking-ha) these should come out in… something other than three-months-between-chapters.

Unfortunately, this is where I must depart from the Author's Note. Time leaves no rest for the wicked, I'm afraid, so time for an updated Kill List, Reviewer Responses, and then I need to go get my beauty sleep. Hey, don't judge, I need all the help I can get in that department.

Coming up next: Well, I dare say it's high time someone unlocked their Semblance, don't you think?

Kill List: Penny Polendina (?), Mercury Black, Team ABRN.

Now, for Reviewer Responses!

DIYEyal: She would have, had Emerald not very promptly GTFO of there. And yes, the gloves are off. There will be blood. Oh yes, there will be blood.

AgentDraakis: Yeah, turns out Kassidy doesn't really give a shit about these whole things called 'consequences' as long as her actions do what she thinks is the right thing. Man, it's a good thing this completely can't backfire at all, right? Right? Also, please refrain from any further comparisons of Kassidy to whom I affectionately call Emo Whiny Bitch Darth Vader.

Clementine Davidson: So… I should be investing in pillow stock?

MorgothII: Three words: Holy fucking shit.

Slenderbrine: Secrets? Who needs secrets? It's not like people keep secrets for a reason or anything, right?

Ultimatrix bearer: Yes, and hell yes. I hope you've been keeping awesome yourself these past three months.

Tr: Yup, Bob has pulled a HAL on Kassidy before. But, as a joke. Needless to say, that isn't going to be happening here… or is it?

EWR115: I will agree with that first part, but for that second part? Probably only if someone decided to fight while constipated. Then it'll just be blood, bone, tissue, etc… aren't you glad you read the reviewer responses?

Shake N. Bake Mormon: The first book of RWKY is almost over, yes. However (depending if my all-consuming procrastination lets me) there are a minimum of two more books after this, including our V4-5 content.

Guest: Well, it's been a while, but here's your latest fix!

CrimsonHeresy: Glad you think so! Sorry it took so long to get out, but I hope you keep enjoying it!

Tykene: PM'd you about this one, but to summarize/continue: had to recover, then job happened, then education happened, then procrastination happened.