Volume Three Chapter Twelve: Defeat

Don't say I didn't warn you guys.


Sun's staff twirled around and dispatched a pair of Beowolves that had jumped him. Yang, however, was more focused on emptying Ember Celica's clips into the Ursa Major that was in front of them.

It was over. They'd lost. Beacon was being evacuated. Her and Sun, Neptune and Sage and Scarlet, they were the last Hunters here. Everyone else was piling onto the ships; they were looking for any final survivors, any stragglers, before joining them. But there weren't any. They hadn't found any survivors, only victims. The only way Yang could keep from throwing up, or from giving up, or from doing anything other than continuing to look, was by convincing herself that this wasn't real. This was all a horrible, horrible dream. Nothing, from Kassidy getting her arm cut off, to handing her off to the JNPRs, to the dozens and dozens of mangled corpses they'd found… none of those were real.

This was all a nightmare. That had to be it. Any minute now, she'd wake up and her K would be in her arms, whole and unharmed. She'd complain about how long Weiss took in the shower, they'd all get ready for class, and have a giant pile of pancakes while listening to Nora talk about her latest crazy drea-

"Hey, you still with us?"

Sun's question broke Yang out of her thoughts, and made her see the world around her.

"Yeah," she answered lamely. "Sorry, I was just –"

"Don't be," Sun said, shaking his head. "I can't believe it either." When neither of them said anything, Sun put his hand on her shoulder and reassured, "Hey, Kass is gonna be alright. She's in good hands."

"Yeah, I know," Yang mumbled. She couldn't trust herself to say any more.

"I think we need to call it soon," he said. The other three members of his team nodded, but he turned to the sixth member of their group next. "You have anything yet, Bob?"

The green-tinted Paladin, pretty much the only one that hadn't been destroyed yet, spoke up with Kassidy's AI. "I actually detect one humanoid lifeform about a hundred yards down this street on our left."

Sun nodded. "We'll grab them, and then we need to get out of here before we get left behind. Let's go, people!"

Yang plodded forward, taking care she stayed under Bob's shadow. Every now and then, the Paladin would pivot and blast a Grimm that had been too stupid to get out of the way. It felt safer being next to it. Away from the Grimm, away from that monster, away from…

"MISSILE!" Sage roared. Yang blinked, looking up a second after the word was yelled. She dove the moment she saw a fire race towards them, and as such just barely managed to not get hit in the face by the missile in question. The detonation still threw her off her feet and disoriented her as it ripped into Bob's Paladin, taking the leg off and making the whole thing topple. It fell, and it fell, and before Yang knew to look up –

Calling what Yang uttered a scream didn't give the sound justice; calling what Yang felt pain didn't give the feeling justice. She'd never felt a worse pain in her whole life, and it was only made worse every time she tried to move. But no matter how much she thrashed, she was pinned from the waist down by the Paladin's arm that had fallen on top of her.

When she could next bear to open her eyes, Neptune and Scarlet had a hold of her arms. A look to her side showed Sage and several of Sun's clones struggling to lift the arm. The immense, indescribable pain on her back lessened, and Sage yelled, "It's coming off! Keep lift-"

He never got to finish his sentence as a hole suddenly blasted through his head, spraying Yang's face with his blood. Immediately, Neptune and Scarlet let go of her arms and drew their weapons while Sun's light clones disappeared. Scarlet needlessly yelled out, "Sniper!"

"Behind you!" Yang cried out, seeing a figure step out from one of the buildings into the street. No, not just a figure – brown cloak, red faceplate, padded shirt and pants, sniper rifle raised. Munsell shifted his aim, and before Scarlet had finished turning around his arm was ripped off before a second shot blew through his neck. If their Auras hadn't been so reduced from all the fighting…

Neptune transformed his glaive into its signature plasma rifle form, giving Sun cover fire as he closed the gap. This fight wasn't to be, however, as Munsell's rifle shifted into a spear before their very eyes, hooking into Sun's staff and dragging him into Neptune's shot. Yang got a perfect look at the rictus of fear and agony on Sun's face as he was hit with the friendly fire, before Munsell's spear erupted from his chest.

The corpse of Ruby's boyfriend was ripped off the end of the spear and unceremoniously shoved to the side, and that was all it took for Neptune to lose the last of his composure. Transforming his weapon back into its glaive form, he yelled a savage war cry and charged into the melee; even through the tears, even through the pain, Yang could tell that there was no strategy, no rhyme or reason to the rage. He never stood a chance.

When Neptune collapsed at his feet, Munsell took the time to wipe off the blade of his spear, before transforming it back into a sniper rifle. "You people always did talk too much," he groused, before stalking over her way.

Yang tried to raise her weapons, but Ember Celica wouldn't work – the mechanisms were jammed. She tried to crawl away, but it was no use – the Paladin's arm still crushed her back, still held her pinned to the ground. She was helpless, powerless, to do anything other than cry and ask, "Why? Why are you doing this?"

Munsell stopped at her feet and knelt. What he did while kneeling Yang couldn't see, but he eventually answered, "My employer asked me to. That, and I could see your flaws, your imperfections." Yang stared up at him, only to find herself looking right down the barrel of his rifle. "But do not worry. I will make you beautiful. I will make you… perfect." Yang closed her eyes and sighed. She never got the chance to tell Kassidy how much she loved her. At least… at least her K was safe, though.

The shot she was waiting on never came, though. Instead, there was the sound of steel carving through steel, before Munsell yelled out and stumbled back. Yang looked back up, just in time to see… "Mom?!"

"You," Munsell seethed, clutching at his stomach. "Why must you always insist on interfering with my jobs?"

"You know the rule," Raven declared. "This is her one time."

Yang couldn't see behind the faceplate, but she was pretty sure Munsell was scowling. He reached for his belt, for a pistol she hadn't seen before. Raven tensed, but before anyone did anything Munsell suddenly dove into a roll to his left, just in time to dodge Uncle Qrow's attack from his blind spot.

"The fuck did you do to my niece?" Qrow growled.

Munsell didn't answer. One quick glance at everyone arrayed before him, and Munsell reached for his belt again, this time dropping a ball that erupted into a ball of smoke. By the time the noxious-smelling stuff had thinned out enough for everyone to see, he was long gone.

"Mom… Uncle Qrow…" Yang said, not really being able to come up with much more to say.

Uncle Qrow was at her side in an instant, cradling her face and looking over her situation. "Shh, it's okay, Firecracker. Let's get you out from under this." Suddenly looking up and behind him, he asked Mom, "Do you at least mind sticking around long enough to help with this?"

Mom took a second too long to answer, but eventually harrumphed her assent. A slice from Qrow's sword separated the arm from the Paladin, and Mom and Uncle Qrow working together managed to finally, finally get the accursed weight off her back. Qrow was there in an instant, checking over the injuries more carefully. "Raven, we need –"

By the time Yang and Qrow looked at where Mom was last, she was already gone, disappeared to… who knows where. Uncle Qrow swore up a storm, but Yang wasn't listening to him. The pain was gone now. It was completely gone. She couldn't feel it. She couldn't feel…

"Uncle Qrow," Yang asked weakly, "why can't I feel my legs?"

Her uncle's silence was damning.

"Uncle Qrow?"


A dull, deep ache was what greeted her return from consciousness. Her head felt like someone had used it as a drum and had rocked out hard, but still Kassidy bit back her groan and let it die in her throat. Not only could she not account for what happened while she was out, she had a hard time knowing where she was or even remembering exactly what happened. Furrowing her brow, she tried to focus on the last thing she remembered. She was panicking, she was –

"Yang!" she cried out, eyes flying open as she shot up to a sitting position – and instantly regretting her decision to move as her body flared in pain.

"Oh shit, she's awake!" she heard someone yell. Something pushed down on her shoulder, trying to force her back down. Kassidy grit her teeth and pushed back, but paused when Jaune stepped into her field of view. "Here, lie back down Kass," Jaune urged, pushing more firmly on her shoulder.

"What happened?" Kassidy demanded. "Yang was in trouble, I have to get to her! I need to make sure she's alright!"

"Yang's fine," Ren groaned. Kassidy craned her neck to look over her left shoulder, and her eyes bugged out when she saw both he and Nora leaning against a concrete barrier, bandaged up and obviously in a lot of pain. The action made her right arm twinge, but she ignored it. "She's… she's the one who brought you back here."

"That's right," Kassidy muttered, the words making the scene come back to her. "That's right. She… I think I found my Semblance, guys." She gave a light laugh at the words but groaned immediately after. "Wish it didn't make me feel like shit, though."

"Yeah, she told us how you two switched places," Jaune said. The way his voice fell made Kassidy turn back to him just in time for him to mutter, "If only I had that right now."

"What do you mean?" Kassidy asked. "What's going on?" When nobody answered, she pressed, "Guys?"

"Beacon's fallen," Jaune eventually admitted. Kassidy gasped, but he continued, "A general evacuation order was issued; they're pulling everyone out. Yang went back out there with Sun's team, looking for survivors to pull out before the last airships leave."

"Pyrrha's still out there, though," Nora whispered, softly enough that it took Kassidy's Faunus ears to hear the words.

"She is?"

Jaune grimaced. "Yeah. Ruby and Weiss went to look for her, but… but I don't know if they'll be quick enough." Closing his eyes and shaking his head, he whispered, "It should have been me. Why… why did you do it, Pyr?"

Kassidy knew there was more to that story than was being told, but there were more pressing concerns at hand. "I think I might be able to bring her back," Kassidy thought aloud.

Jaune's eyes snapped up to her. "Wait, really?!"

"But your injuries," Ren tried to interject.

Kassidy cut him off, though. "I'm still having a hard time remembering what exactly happened, but other than vaguely feeling like shit I think I'll be fine. I've been out long enough that a bit of Aura's regenerated for me. Here, just let me get my stuff."

While she reached her right arm over (having not seen her gear on her left side), Ren spoke up again. "Kassidy," he began. He paused for a bit, almost like he was searching for the right words to say, but eventually continued, "how much don't you remember?"

"I remember swapping with Yang," Kassidy grunted. "Everything after that gets hazy."

"You were –" Ren began.

"Hang on," Kassidy interrupted. "Okay, where they hell did they put my…"

When she turned over to look for exactly where they had hidden her gear that she couldn't reach it, and why her arm was stinging more and more as she waved it around, she was expecting something like them hiding her gear, so she couldn't go back out there. Whatever rude things she had to say on the matter, however, died as quickly as her scowl. For it wasn't Baton or Rogue that greeted her sight.

Instead, all she found was a bloody bandage wound around what was left of her arm.

"… oh."

Kassidy could vaguely hear Jaune and Ren saying something behind her, but she didn't hear what it was they said. All she could do was stare at where her right hand used to be, where it should have been but wasn't.

"Kassidy!" Something shook her other shoulder, finally getting Kassidy to peel her eyes away from the blood-stained cloth that had replaced her elbow and focus back on Jaune. "You said you could get Pyrrha back, right?!"

The manic way he'd asked, not to mention his panic-stricken face, made Kassidy pause for a moment. Her nerves being as frayed as they were gave Ren enough time to argue, "Jaune, we can't just ask her to do anything. She needs to rest. She's not in any shape to go back out there."

"But what if she can get Pyrrha back?!" Jaune shot back, actually making Ren flinch. Turning back to Kassidy, he begged her, "Please. Please tell me you can bring Pyrrha back."

"I…" Kassidy began. She stopped to clear her throat and try to force her thoughts on what was asked of her. "If I knew where she was, I could probably switch with her. I… I don't really know how this thing works."

"She's on the top of Beacon's tower," Jaune said hurriedly. When Kassidy nodded and closed her eyes, Jaune begged, "Kass? Kass!"

"I think I found her," Kassidy whispered back. What she felt… didn't feel like anything she'd felt before at all. This had nothing to do with the normal five senses, she knew that. It was almost like she had a map of Beacon in her head, and when she was told to look at the top of the tower, she felt them. Two… the best way to describe them were presences, two blips on her mental map that Kassidy simply knew were people. One of them was almost blindingly bright, simply radiating with power. The other, dimmed almost beyond recognition. "I found Pyrrha! She's… I think it's her Aura. Her Aura's weak. Whatever she's fighting, she's losing."

"You can see them?" Jaune asked. "What else do you see?"

At Jaune's bidding, Kassidy 'looked' again. The next thing to catch her attention were two more presences, which at this point she guessed were Auras, not terribly bright but nowhere near as weak as Pyrrha's either. Just as before, the moment she focused on them Kassidy simply knew what those Auras belong to. "Ruby and Weiss are making their way to the tower. But… they're still pretty far away. I'm not sure if they're gonna make it in time."

"How can you even tell?" Ren asked.

"Dunno," Kassidy answered. Her arm was hurting again, but she ignored it. "Pyrrha's fighting someone and losing. Ruby and Weiss are about ninety seconds away, but I'm not sure if Pyrrha's got ninety seconds. I just need to buy time…" Kassidy made some quick calculations and nodded. "I can get her back," she said authoritatively. "But I need some help from you guys before I go."

"Tell us!" Jaune yelled at her, making Kassidy jump back a bit. "Please, tell us what you need! Just save her! Please!"

"Nora," Kassidy said, making the girl flinch. "Do you have any grenades left?"

"Just the one," she replied softly, digging it out of Magnhild's chamber. "Are you sure, though?"

In lieu of answering, Kassidy simply nodded. "Where's my stuff?" she demanded, getting Jaune to hand her belt and sheath over. Kassidy tried putting everything on, but failing to catch Rogue in her now-nonexistent right hand made her realize her problem. "Give me a hand, Jaune? Ren, can you load a magazine of armor-piercing into my gun? Black stripes."

While he loaded the requested ammunition for her, Ren tried once more to convince her not to go out. "You don't have to do this, Kassidy. You're injured; you're in no state to fight. You need to rest."

"I'm in better shape than Pyrrha is," Kassidy argued.

Jaune helped finished hooking her belt around her waist and her sheath over her shoulder, taking care that Baton was accessible over her left shoulder. After that, though, he surprised her by trying to break her ribs with a hug. "Please, save her," he whispered, tears running down his cheeks and damping her shirt.

Kassidy closed her eyes and nodded. "I will," she said, before searching for Pyrrha's Aura again. By now, it had almost vanished completely, like it was just an outline. Before she could think on how to make her Semblance work, though, her Aura pulsed in response to her desire, her need to be in Pyrrha's place. The world fell out from under her, Kassidy felt as though she were being pulled through space, and just as quickly as it had disappeared the world around her came rushing back.

Just in time for an arrow to bounce off her chestplate with enough force to make Kassidy stagger a few steps back.

"What?!" a new voice cried out. Kassidy snapped her eyes open and found herself face to face with the woman who was to blame for everything that had happened. Cinder pulled her bow back and nocked another arrow. "You bitch, you just ruined everything!" she yelled. "Bring her back! Bring her back right now! I need that power!"

The barest of glances showed that they were in Ozpin's thoroughly… remodeled office, and it was just enough for Kassidy to plot out a path. When Cinder released her arrow, Kassidy sprinted right, drawing Rogue and sending three bullets screaming for her adversary. The moment she'd loosed the arrow, though, Cinder had separated her bow into a pair of swords and swatted the bullets out of the air. Kassidy grit her teeth and skidded to a stop behind the remains of Ozpin's desk. Time. She just had to buy time. Even now, in the back of her mind, she could feel Ruby and Weiss. They were almost here. Ruby was ascending the tower now.

All she had to do was survive the next thirty seconds.

"Do you have any idea what you've just done?" Cinder growled. "After all these years, I'd finally done it! The Maiden's powers were finally mine! But no, just when I was about to claim the last of it and complete my ascension, you just had to ruin it, didn't you?"

Kassidy was more than fine spending the last few seconds talking, honestly. Cinder ruined that plan, however, by literally flying over the desk to try and get at her. Kassidy Aura glided to the side and tried to put another four bullets into Cinder's back. Obviously, though, since it seemed that absolutely nothing was allowed to go right for Kassidy today, the four bullets slammed into Cinder's back and managed to do precisely nothing. With only one bullet left in the current magazine, Kassidy needed her sword; she doubted that Cinder would give her the opportunity to reload. While Cinder busied herself with righting herself from her missed strike, Kassidy flipped Rogue to her other hand and reached her left up to her shoulder…

She realized her mistake only a moment too late, as both she and Cinder got a front row seat to Rogue sailing right past her outstretched stump and clatter into a corner some dozen feet away. A throaty chuckle brought her attention away from her mistake as Cinder stalked forward with the Grinch's grin sprouting on her face. "Oh, how… wonderfully appropriate. For all your efforts, it all ends in failure." Taking a couple more steps and idly twirling her swords, Cinder asked, "Tell me, Kassidy: do you believe in destiny?"

Out of the corner of her eye, Kassidy could see Rogue poking out from under a fallen gear. Hell, Cinder was so busy monologuing like some Saturday morning cartoon villain that she hadn't even noticed Kassidy start edging closer to it. "Destiny is for those without the strength to choose their own fate," Kassidy replied. "Our fates are for us to grab, if only we are bold enough to grasp it."

"Oh, I am more than ready to grab my fate," Cinder cooed, swords reconnecting into a bow and another arrow materializing out of thin air. Kassidy only had one response to the arrow pointed right between her eyes.

"Then catch."

Cinder's furrowed brow gave way to widened eyes and lips pulled back into a scream when Kassidy pitched Nora's grenade at her. Cinder dove to her right, trying to get out of the way, but Kassidy was faster. She rolled to the gear, arm snapping her gun back up and aiming to plant her last armor-piercing round right into its target.

Kassidy could only assume was happened next. One moment, she was pulling the trigger to detonate the grenade mere feet from the both of them, and the next she was collapsed on the further ruins of Ozpin's desk and struggling to breathe. Rogue had gotten flung from her hands at some point, and risking a look down showed that shrapnel had forced its way through her armor and making red leak through a couple new holes in her cuirass.

Despite the searing pain, her head snapped back up when something was knocked over a few feet into the dust that had risen into the air. Cinder strode slowly, her glass heels clacking unevenly. Might have had something to do with the fact that a good half of her face was ruined, and her left arm was in even more of shreds than Kassidy's right arm. Kassidy's stomach fell, and she tried to get up, to fight back. She couldn't, though. Broken legs didn't move very quickly, after all.

Cinder finally managed to shamble right on top of her. With her remaining hand, she reached out, and despite Kassidy's brief struggle she still managed to clamp it around Kassidy's throat. "You… are going… to regret… doing that," she seethed.

"Kass!"

The newest visitor made both of their eyes bug out, and as one they turned to the source of the disturbance. Kassidy, trying weakly to beat off Cinder, weakly managed to get out, "Ruby!"

Whatever she was going to say next died in her throat as those strange silver eyes of her team leader started glowing. And glowing. And still glowing, until the whole top of the tower was awash in a white light that seemed to burn everything it touched. Even so, even above Cinder's screams of pain, she could hear Ruby yelling out, "Get away from her!"


She didn't know how long it took for her head to stop ringing, or the room to stop spinning. When she finally came to her senses, she knew that however long was too long. It took too much energy even to move her head and look around. There was only one conclusion to draw.

She was about to die.

The idea… didn't scare Kassidy as much as she thought it would've. Cinder was nowhere to be found – whatever the hell Ruby did, it looked like it had all but wiped her from existence. Speaking of, Ruby lay a few feet away from her. Still. Unnaturally still…

With soft cries of pain, Kassidy managed to slide off the desk and collapse onto the floor. She ignored the shards of glass and stone digging into her palm, focusing her entire will on dragging herself along. It took a minute to get to Ruby. That white light… did it really…?

A quick check of the pulse and of the chest was enough to assuage Kassidy's fears. Ruby was unconscious, but she was still breathing. Kassidy's smile turned into a grimace, though, as she flipped herself onto her back and groaned from the pain. Or, at least, she tried to groan. What actually happened was she had to cough up some blood that had worked its way into her lungs.

Some fluttered movement caught the corner of her eye, but Kassidy was too exhausted, too in pain to even be able to tilt her head. Next thing she knew, though, someone was yelling at her. Her eyes were starting to lose focus, but some squinting made Qrow appear in her vision. "Heeeeey Drunkle Qrow," Kassidy slurred.

Qrow's mouth moved, but no sound came out. In fact, now that Kassidy thought about it, she couldn't hear anything. "Look," she said with all the decorum as if she were blackout drunk, "I can't hear anything, but you're being too loud. I think… I think I wanna take a nap."

At that, Qrow started moving more, mouth moving more rapidly, but her vision was already starting to grow dark. She wasn't lying, Kassidy was dead tired. There really wasn't anything to it. Qrow was here; he'd be able to take care of Ruby.

So, Kassidy closed her eyes. She was pretty confident in feeling that she'd earned a nap.


Coming up next: RWKY's final (normal) chapter

Kill List: Penny Polendina (?), Mercury Black, Team ABRN, Neo Politan, Blake Belladonna, Team SSSN, Cinder Fall (?), Kassidy Smith (?)