Chapter 36

Beacon was a battlefield. Grimm tore through the once beautiful grounds, ignored by the army of robotic soldiers who were currently doing the best to kill anyone who crossed their path. Weiss grimaced as she unleashed a wave of flame, burning several Beowolves to death.

Gunfire sounded as Ren and Nora arrived, tearing apart the nearby Atlesian Knights. Weiss motioned to them and together the trio moved into the fairgrounds. People ran to and fro, trying to escape the monsters that came for them.

A Deathstalker burst through a pair of stalls, only to be gunned down by Coco. Weiss summoned a glyph and launched some Dust projectiles into a Beowolf coming from behind the older student. They exploded and covered Coco in quickly fading Grimm gore.

"Nice hustle, Schnee!"

"What's happening over here?" Weiss asked as Ren and Nora caught up.

"My team split up to protect civies. Wanna huddle them all together before we get them out."

"Alright. Let's get to work."

Coco chucked. "Took the words right outta my mouth!"

I'll evacuate everyone from here and then I can join Yang and the others.

Ozpin tightened his grip on The Long Memory. The elevator felt so slow,. Pyrrha seemed resigned to her decision whilst Jaune was confused. She didn't tell him. I wonder if that was the right choice.

Eventually, the elevator door opened with a soft ding. Ozpin led the two down the long hallway towards the Vault and the machine.

"Pyrrha. Now is the last chance to change your mind…" Ozpin said, worried.

"I've made my choice." Pyrrha replied resolute.

"I… I need to hear you say it." Ozpin looked to her as the pod door opened.

"I accept the risk and I'm ready to take on this responsibility."

"Thank you." Ozpin couldn't hide the weakness in his voice. He'd never wanted this. He wished he could have held off even longer. He couldn't however. "Then please, enter the pod. Mr Arc stand guard."

"What's happening?" Jaune asked as Pyrrha stepped into the machine. The door closed and a brilliant glow ran up out of Amber, through a series of tubes and into the machine housing Pyrrha. Ozpin looked on worried as the girl began to scream. "Pyrrha! What's happening!?" Jaune yelled.

Ozpin turned, ready to tell Jaune off for looking away from his job. Instead his eyes widened as he noticed, too late, Cinder Fall. "No!" He screamed but it was too late.

For a moment Amber awoke, looking down at the arrow in her chest, her eyes wide in surprise, her brain unable to register the pain. Mercifully, she died moments later. Unfortunately, the golden energy of her power flew from her and into Cinder.

"Yes!" She yelled as she began to slowly levitate off the ground, magical energy coiling around her. She was a full Maiden now.

"Go! Both of you!" Ozpin yelled. "Go!"

Pyrrha pushed her way out of the pod and, after a moment of hesitation, she grabbed Jaune and rushed past the floating foe. Cinder let them go, they were insignificant, her focus was on Ozpin.

That's fine. As long as those children survive. He wondered if the soul who originally owned this body would have approved of such an end. For a moment he almost could see the man he would have become. A good man, taken from this world because of the curse placed on Ozma.

I wonder who I shall curse next.

With The Long Memory in hand, Ozpin made his final stand.

The screaming coming from the cafeteria guided Adam. He was alone now, he'd lost Zwei somewhere along the way. He'll be fine. He's smart. Jumping through a shattered window brought Adam face to face with the one person he wasn't ready to see.

Blake smiled as she pulled her foot from a young man's broken leg. She brought me here. Adam took a deep breath. "Blake. Stop all this."

"Adam. When will you learn? That didn't work the last time, why would you think it would now?" Blake drew her blades as she spoke.

"Why cause all this chaos? Do you really think this will help the Faunus? People are going to hate us even more after this!"

Blake's smile didn't fade. "Oh, Adam. I'm doing this because they will give us the strength we need to make our own Kingdom." She paused and tilted her head slightly, before she spoke again in a kinder voice. "You can still come back you know. We'll forgive you for your betrayal. Just join us." She sheathed one of the blades into the other and held out her empty hand.

"I'll never return to the White Fang. They want my friends dead. I won't let that happen."

"Adam if you return then we'll let them live! They can live in our new Kingdom. They would be beneath us, of course, but they could live!"

Adam shook his head. "You don't even see what's wrong with that, do you?"

"Humanity enslaved us, now it's time they were enslaved! Then they can know our pain!"

Adam's hand fell to the hilt of his blade. "Blake, leave. I don't want to fight you, but I will."

"You won't be enough to stop me, Adam." She drew her blade again. "You will have to kill me and I think we both know you can't bring yourself to do it!" She charged him.

He blocked the first blow with his blade and fired Blush, forcing Blake back. He stepped forward and slashed down, but hit nothing but one of her clones. He followed after her, cutting twice more. The first hit a foggy clone, obscuring his vision slightly and when he saw her out of the corner of his eye, his second slash sunk into her from for a moment before it began to glow orange.

Adam's eyes widened as the cline exploded in flame. His Aura took the brunt of the attack, but it was a sizable amount, more than he wanted to lose in one hit again, that's for sure. She's augmenting her Semblance with Dust. How much does she have?

Adam took a step back and sheathed his blade, taking a defensive stance. Blake smiled and charged. She struck, twisting and turning to unleash a dozen different attacks between her katana and cleaver. Adam blocked and parried what he could, managing to only take a couple nicks on his arms while diverting the rest.

As Blake jumped back to evaluate Adam struck back. He fired Blush, launching Wilt at Blake hilt-first. She blocked the blade but didn't manage to block the kick he followed it up with. Adam caught his sword and slashed down, slicing her arm. He twisted the blade and slashed upwards, only for Blake to turn into Ice, trapping his weapon.

Almost immediately the ice began to melt as it was countered by the fire within Wilt. Unfortunately, it wasn't quick enough to stop her jumping down from above and raking her blades across his back. Adam let out a scream of pain and wrenched Wilt free of the ice, slashing back only to hit another clone, this one was not imbibed with Dust.

And then it began. Blake began to use her superior speed once again, zipping around Adam with the aid of her clones. This time however when she came in to slash he twisted around, narrowly causing her to miss. He parried her next attack and blocked the third. Dodge, parry, block, dodge, block, dodge, parry.

Blake growled in frustration as she was rebuffed once again. Adam's breath was getting heavier than he expected, but yet he allowed a smile onto his face. It felt strangely good to counter her so well.

As the pair straightened for another face-off, the sound of a shotgun could be heard going off. Adam turned in time to see Yang launch herself at Blake. He also saw the smirk on Blake's face.

"Yang wait!" He cried out but it was too late and Yang's fist struck Blake, passing through her face and causing the clone to glow a bright reddish-orange. Adam tried to shield himself as the clone exploded, much larger than the previous ones.

The world went white.

"That's everyone nearby." Coco announced. Weiss nodded and took a deep breath. She wasn't exactly built for sustained exertion. She looked over to the group they had gathered.

Both teams CFVY and SSSN had gathered with Weiss, Ren and Nora to protect a few dozen civilians. So far they hadn't had to face anything too dangerous, just some Atlesian Knights and low tier Grimm.

"Uhhh you guys see that?" Sun called out, pointing down the wreckage strewn path that had once held dozens of stalls. Stalking down said path towards them was a monster of a man, as tall as Yatsuhashi while wielding a massive chainsaw. The full-face bone-white mask sent a shiver down Weiss' spine.

"Great, White Fang." Coco muttered.

"Schnee!" The monster ahead called. "Come forth and face your judgement! I'll spare the rest if you do!"

Weiss blinked in confusion and looked between him and her allies. "I think we'll be alright." She called back. "I suggest you surrender."

"Ha! I was hoping you'd say that, I've always wanted to kill a Schnee!" He roared and charged with a speed that belied his size. Myrtanaster clicked as Weiss switched to Hardlight Dust. With a flick a barrier formed in front of her, blocking his initial attack as he tried to shred her with his chainsaw.

Gunfire sounded around them. But it wasn't from her allies, at least not at first. A glance to the side revealed why. The White Fang were ambushing them. A few civilians collapsed as bullets tore through them. Weiss was unsure if any were fatal wounds.

We have to finish this quickly. Weiss spawned a glyph beneath herself and slid to the side as she dropped the barrier. The sudden lack of resistance caused the Faunus to overextend. Weiss switched to Burn Dust as she stabbed into his side, upon impact it erupted and bathed the man in flames.

Another glyph pulled Weiss away from his counter attack. She quickly stabbed down and focused. Within a moment a golden glyph formed beneath her. As a clock ticked loudly she felt the world slow. With a smile, she summoned numerous glyphs all around her opponent. With a flourish of her blade she jumped onto one and propelled herself.

Jumping from glyph to glyph she stabbed out, cutting into the large Faunus. Again and again, she zipped past him, cutting into his Aura with each pass. The man grunted with each attack but he would just not go down.

Soon enough her Semblance began to wane and the moment it died completely her opponent acted. In a flash, he grabbed her face and slammed her into the ground. Weiss coughed as her Aura flared. The massive Faunus lumbered above her. He raised his chainsaw but as he went to strike he paused.

The massive blade of Yatsuhashi slammed into him while he stalled. The Faunus went flying back into what had once been a noodle stall. Neptune appeared a moment later and, with a flirtatious grin, helped Weiss back up. She looked around and nodded appreciatively. They'd dealt with the attacking grunts rather quickly, faster than she had expected at least.

Yatsuhashi and Fox quickly chased after her opponent, but they returned a few moments later. "He ran." Yatsuhashi said simply.

"Leave him." Coco said. "Let's get these people out of here and to safety. ASAP."

The group began to move quickly, the civilians carried the wounded while the Huntsmen and Huntresses I'm training formed a circle around them.

Weiss couldn't help the feeling that she was being watched, but, thankfully, her attacker didn't show up again.

Cardin wasn't the best person. He knew that. He'd never given much reason for people to like him. Adam had inspired him to change that, however. It still surprised himself that he was here, shielding a downed Faunus student with his own body from a dozen Atlesian Knights firing upon them.

He grunted as pain washed over his back. It ended a moment later with the sound of tearing metal. Cardin turned to see Sky ripping his halberd free from the Atleasian machines. "Thanks, Sky."

"Yeah sure." He grumbled. Cardin sighed and held out a hand for the other student, who took it a little apprehensively.

"Where're the others?" Cardin asked Sky.

"Why do you care?"

"Because you are still my team. You're my friends."

"No, we were your friends, before you changed after your fight with Taurus." Sky grumbled.

"Now isn't the time for your bullshit Sky! We are in a damned war zone!"

Sky was quiet for a moment before he sighed. "They were heading to the statue. Saw a bunch of Grimm heading towards some unarmed students."

"Then we get over there." Cardin turned to the Faunus. "Do you need a scroll you call your locker?"

"Y-yes." He stammered. Cardin threw his over. Quickly enough a locker crashed nearby and the Faunus armed himself with a bow before passing the scroll back.

"Let's move." Cardin ordered.

The trio ran through the ruins of their school towards the statue at the front of the school. It didn't take long before they arrived to see the battle raging. Several teams from the other schools were fighting Atlesian Knights and several massive Paladins. With a roar Cardin leapt into the fray.

Knights crumpled like tin cans when he struck them. Dove and Russel gave him dubious looks but decided now wasn't the time for their squabbles and rushed to meet up with him. They all looked to him.

"Sky, you get one leg I'll get the other. Dove, break it's cameras. Russel finish it off. Move!" Cardin quickly ordered, rushing over to one of the Paladins. It was so busy blasting at Neon that it didn't do anything as Cardin raised The Executioner.

With a loud cracking sound the leg gave way as Cardin smashed it. On the other side Sky's halberd cut into the knee. The Paladin collapsed down, getting it into range of Dove's sword. He speared upwards, impaling the camera on the bottom of the chassis. Russel ran up its back and stabbed his daggers into its torso and cut open the metal before carving out its innards.

Within moments the Paladin fell, defeated. Team CRDL turned to face their next opponent.

Deep within Mountain Glenn, beneath tonnes of rock and stone, something began to stir.

It felt the negativity from Vale, the city under siege, as it spiked.

It tasted the feeling.

It loved it.

With a thunderous crack, the mighty beast broke free, sending stone spewing across the countryside.

It took in its surroundings and looked to Vale. It watched as the last of the Atlesian Battleships fell from the sky. With the heavy beating of wings, it took flight.

The Wyvern was coming to Vale.

A/N: Here there be Kevin. So yeah, little more skipping around. It's all just canon stuff really. No need to retell Ruby Vs Roman and Neo when nothing substantial changes, ya know? The WF LT shows up yet again but manages to not die! Poor Banesaw. He seemed so strong in canon but just died to the Grimm I guess. RIP. Oh and Blake blows shit up. Who knew giving a terrorist explosives could be so... explosive!

I hope you all enjoyed and I'll see you next time!