This took, an astounding amount of time out of my life. I really do apologize for how long this took but engineering is an absolute bitch. On the other hand, this is two chapter's worth of content and I will for sure be uploading one for Halloween, mark my words.

Chapter's not perfect, I still feel like it's rough but honestly, I'm tired of putting this off just to edit it, and if I don't do this now I won't get another chance until next week so, while I still can... plus I'm pretty sure by this point you guys are pissed at me for not uploading for like 2 weeks.

So here we go enjoy ^-^


Chapter 63: Who ordered the giant monster movie?


Nova sat there in silence, meditating on her aura. The sounds of the Calavera's story droning out to silence as she deepened her connection with the Maiden's power. It reminded her of the time she was unconscious after the fight with Adam. Back then she was on the brink of death, incorporating foreign DNA into her body just to survive.

It wasn't that much different now, incorporating the foreign Aura into her own to find the balance between the heaven and hell of her power.

The mindscape sucked in her consciousness faster than a vacuum on turbo, and as she spiraled down she knew, that she wasn't coming back up until her mental state was settled.

Fantasy books and shows portray the mindscape as an endless segregated world where the different parts of one's personality would create its own landscape, but Nova found it to be the complete opposite.

The mindscape was a vast expense of emptiness, completely void of anything yet filled with everything simultaneously. Just thinking of something, the very fleeting thought, could make it a reality. This made the mindscape convenient… and all the more dangerous. One could easily get lost within it, fall down the rabbit hole with no end.

Suddenly a rabbit popped up next to Nova, staring unblinkingly at her, "Oh… I guess inner monologuing also counts toward the mindscape…"

"All right… we came here for balance. Think… power…" she closed her eyes and for a moment there was nothing until the sound of crackling flames and a roaring fire was heard just before her, the heat radiating onto her face.

She opened her eyes to see two small children standing amidst an empty landscape, only a flat plain of grass existed. One was a boy with brilliant silver-white hair and the other was an orange-haired girl. The boy had red eyes and the girl hand black irises, both staring at each other with irritated gazes. Their faces were similar with the exception of their skin tone, the boy had a light caramel complexion while the girl had a darker more hazel skin tone.

Immediately Nova placed the girl to Amber, the two looked incredibly similar, while the boy looked like her ancestor that he saw through Jinn's vision. They seemed to be arguing about something, a campfire between them.

Nova approached the two children and listened, "Stop it! Leave the fire alone!" the boy yelled, as the fire went from being a standard flame to a brilliant red-orange inferno.

"And I said that I want a turn!" the girl yelled back, the fire then changing colours to a light standard flame that seemed to sparkle and pop.

"But I'm older! I've been here longer than you! I know that he needs this fire!" the boy argued back, the fire changing in colour again.

"And I'm saying no she doesn't! She needs me!" the girl countered, flickering the flame.

"You're not even supposed to be here in the first place! Why don't you just go away and leave us alone?!" the boy fumed.

The girl huffed, "Puhh-leasse, she's so much better off with me here! She's the perfect host for the magic!"

"Hmph Magic shmagic, you and your abracadabra mumbo jumbo could bugger off! He just needs the power of nature!"

Nova had heard enough, she understood what was going on now, exactly who these two were. They were the representations of her power. The boy was the natural power of fire, the Aspect's ability, and the girl was the power of the Fall Maiden.

"Hello?" Nova waved her hand in front of them, this seemed to catch their attention. The boy's face brightened up considerably from the sour expression he held earlier, so did the girl's.

"YOU'RE HERE! Oh, this is fantastic! Can you please tell this witch that we don't need her magic and kick her out so we can go back to being the two of us?" the boy asked with pleading eyes.

"Witch?! Oh hell no! Don't you see how disrespectful he is? Kick him out instead, you know we belong together!" the girl insisted, clutching onto Nova's leg since the two children were about waist height.

Nova knelt down to their level with a perplexed expression, "I'm sorry little ones, I don't understand. Can you explain it to me?"

The boy sighed, "Oh so it's that bad… alright…"

"Let me tell her! See in here is your mindscape, it's connected to your soul!" the girl started.

"Grrr! That fire over there is your soul's power! Before she came here I was controlling it, you were using my fire," he said the red mark of a dragon appearing on his cheek, just like that of the Agniseki.

"And when I got here this place was a mess! I had no control over anything until you called my power! Then I would make the fire! At least… that's how it was until he wanted to be mister all-powerful and take over whenever you weren't using anything," she stuck her tongue out and blew a raspberry at him.

"That's because she's unstable when you're not a girl! If she recklessly uses her power while you're a boy, it could ruin us! I've had to put out so many wildfires…" he complained with frustration oozing from his pores. "Magic is just reckless!"

"And I'm saying just give me a chance you dummy!" she hissed at him.

Nova was growing exhausted just listening to their constant arguing. She was beginning to see the picture. When she used the power of the Aspect, the Maiden's power would be locked out from interfering with the soul, and vice versa when the Maiden's power is activated.

The barrier between the two was negated when she was countered by the frozen lake, the toll on her body was too much draining both the Aspect and Maiden's abilities. So when it all went to chaos, the Maiden power tried to take over to make things better, but the Aspect power tried to do the same thing. The two ended up butting heads because they can't influence the same soul simultaneously… or could they?

Nova remembered what she'd been taught by Randolf. The Aspects and Maidens exist to balance off each other, nature with magic.

"Hey, you two!" she said shaking them from their bickering, "Why don't you try working together?"

They both deadpanned, "Duhh because we can't!" they said simultaneously.

Nova giggled, "But you were both in sync just now!"

"NO, WE'RE NOT!"

Nova shook her head, for children they needed to find a compromise, "You both have things you're really good at."

"Oh yeah? Name one thing she can do that I can't do," the little boy said with zeal.

Nova placed her finger on her chin, "Well… her fire works underwater for one, and…"

"And I can do more than just manipulate raw energy. Magical Fire can be used for more than just throwing fireballs!" the girl said pointing a finger at the boy before folding her arms smugly, "I'm just you but better in every way!"

The boy suddenly began to deflate and Nova noticed the fire flickering dangerously low, so she took up action, "Not necessarily," she turned to the Aspect of Fire, "While she does have those things, she can't do what you can do either."

"Huh…?" the boy was confused.

"Well, I've been with you longer so I can say for sure, that your raw energy is much higher than hers. She has more use for long periods of time, but you're much more explosive and dangerous! You can even get so hot you melt diamond! Magic could never hope to achieve those temperatures! Hell, I know for a fact you can infuse yourself into objects! Like when I used you to propel my weapon for flight back then!" Nova said, taking the boy's hand in her left, and the girl's in her right.

"Can't you see? You both have things your good at that the other can't do. You have your uniqueness even if you both have the same baseline. That shouldn't drive you apart, it should bring you together!" Nova said with a warm smile.

"But…but how do we know what to do when you're in trouble?" the boy asked looking worried.

Nova smiled, "Leave that to me. You both chose me, remember? I think I'm capable of at least knowing what I need when I need it."

"What if… when you go back to normal… he just never lets me do what I need to?" the girl asked.

Nova shook her head, "You mustn't think so little of him. Believe it or not… he was the one that helped me realize that you weren't happy with Cinder. If it wasn't for his effect, I would've never heard your voice. You should thank him," she ruffled her hair. The boy turned his face, his cheeks dusting of pink.

"Is… that true?" The girl turned to the little boy.

He refused to face her, "So what? You were suffering, I just did the right thing… don't think you're special or anything…"

The girl smiled, "T-Thank you… for helping me…" she said staring at the floor.

Nova found it quite adorable and simultaneously strange when she realized that these were the manifestations, representations of her conflicting powers, and not actual children.

"N-No thanks needed… ugh I'm willing to work with you but I have some conditions…" he said finally turning to the Fall Maiden. "If you agree to not force magic on him without me agreeing to it, then we can work together."

The girl nodded, "I won't force magic on her again, and work with you if you agree to let me help even if I'm not called upon."

The Aspect hummed, his eyes squinting and his brow furrowing before he sighed, "Fine, agreed." He stuck out his hand, to which the girl took it and pulled him in for a hug, making him sputter in embarrassment.

"Aw look at you two, finally getting along!" Nova said cheerfully. "Now can I get a promise that you two won't fight again? It kinda messed me up out there…"

"We promise!" they said simultaneously, with bright smiles.

"We'll send you back now," the girl said walking over to the fire with the Aspect next to her. They took up a spot on opposite sides of the campfire.


Nova was about to question how when they both ignited the fire at the same time, the inferno was so bright she was forced to shield her eyes. After a dull moment of haziness, she reopened her eyes to find herself back in reality with Ruby standing over her with a curious gaze, the glimmer of moonlight cascading onto her beautiful face.

"Hey love, are you okay?" Ruby asked leaning down and placing a hand on her face.

Nova leaned into her palm, "I think so… maybe even better than ever!" she then pressed the button on her gauntlet and, unlike before, was actually able to transform back into a boy.

"AH, MY BODY'S BACK TO NORMAL! FINALLY!" he cheered, standing up way too quickly, causing him to almost fall back over.

Ruby giggled and hugged him, "Well, I'd say just in time too! You've been sitting on that lawn for two days!"

Nova almost choked, "TWO DAYS?! THEN THAT MEANS…!"

"Yeah, tomorrow is the day we enact the plan. If you didn't wake up tonight we were going to pack you in one of Hex's storage cubes to go." She said teasingly.

Nova gulped, "Oh… god I'm sooo glad I actually woke up…"

Ruby just poked him in the abs, "Oh come on you know I wouldn't let them do that. I can't risk damaging the goods," she said feeling the muscles beneath her hands.

Nova turned red, "Ugh when did you get good at flirting?"

"You're my boyfriend, it comes with the package deal." She kissed his cheek lightly before opening the back door to the kitchen. "Come on there's still leftovers from dinner. Luna made fried tofu and stir fry noodles."

Nova's stomach growled loudly at the mention of food, "Oh fuck yes!"


As they sat together at the table, Nova noticed that no one else seemed to be around, "Where's everyone?" he asked glancing about the kitchen.

"Well it is three in the morning, no one save uncle Qrow would probably be up by now," she said matter of factly.

Nova almost choked on his noodles, "Wait it's that late? Why aren't you in bed? Wait have you been…"

Ruby shot him an embarrassed smile, "Watching over you the whole time? Yeah kinda, I um… couldn't get much sleep, the blankets just feel so empty without a certain someone with me…"

The dragon instantly melted at her expression, "Oh Rubes, as adorable as that is… are you okay? Sleep deprivation isn't something to scoff at…"

She brushed it off, "Yeah I'm fine, I'm no stranger to going maybe one or two days without sleep."

"But that's not healthy at all…"

"If you're feeling bad, don't be. It's not like I was getting much sleep either way," she said pointing to her eyes that had the hint of dark circles, which stood out against her pale skin.

"Your training? How was that anyway?" he asked, curious to know the fruits of her labour.

She flinched slightly but answered anyway, "It started off normal. Well, as normal as training to use Silver Eyes go anyway… except I kept having to dig into this dark part of my mind, where all my insecurities and fears resided, just to get a hold of the feeling I needed to let the power out." She clutched her right arm in anxiety, "Maria said it would get easier the more I did it, that I would stop needing to draw on those feelings but… it's just so hard…"

He sat in silence, staring at her in worry as she explained the visual mindscape she was forced to see each time. "And the worst part is," she continued, "That no matter how much I see it, It still hurts the same. I can't get used to it!"

Nova inhaled sharply, "Well, I don't think that's something you should ever get used to, the sight of your loved ones dying. That pain is the mark of a pure soul, and that's what you have."

"Maria said I would eventually be able to deal with it, but she won't say how. I have so much more to learn but…"

"But we're out of time." He finished up his food and washed up his dishes before returning to her side, "Ruby listen, you're a strong, talented, beautiful person with the biggest heart of anyone I've ever met, you might not have been able to master what you were taught, but I'm positive, no… absolutely sure, that whatever little knowledge was imparted on you, you'll take it even further beyond."

"That still doesn't change the fact that the visions still hurt so much…"

Nova cupped her face with his right hand, rubbing his thumb across her cheek, "The Calaveras used pain as a trigger, the feeling of wanting to protect out of fear, but look at them. Are they really the shining examples you should be following?"

Ruby was confused, "Huh?" her expression looked perplexed and sad.

"If the trigger for you is your desire to protect, instead of drawing on fear to elicit that feeling, maybe think of something happy?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, for me, whenever I think about why I'm fighting, I envision my future. There's mom, dad, Luna, and everyone, laughing together on a beach house in Vale. I see Luna's all grown up, being able to walk around without fear, that the only thing we ever have to fight is the Grimm." He leaned down and pulled her up from her seat, holding her at arm's length. "And then there's me, standing on the balcony, staring out onto the ocean accompanied by a certain red hooded reaper, reveling in the peace and quiet."

Ruby felt all the blood in her body rush to her face, "I-I like that future…" she said almost mumbled. In a relationship with someone you genuinely love, being able to see a future with them is the most important part, but for your significant other to outright tell you about a future together, is something truly heartwarming. For her, it felt like all of her fears were being washed away, seeing what he saw in her mind.

"A future worth fighting for huh…" she muttered quietly. "I'll give it a try sometime," she smiled, though Nova could tell she was forcing herself to stay awake. "Well I think I should go make some coffee, we gotta get moving in a few hours anyway. Preparations need to be done and... WAH!" she was caught off guard when Nova swept her off her feet, picking her up bridal style.

"HUH?!"

Nova chuckled, "None of that now," he walked into the living room and plopped down on the couch, leaving her to rest on him as he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close.

"What are you doing?" she asked confused. They were supposed to get things prepared for the mission.

"There are, what twelve other people in this house? All fully capable of preparing without you. I think no one would argue if you were to catch a few hours of sleep." Nova said kissing her on the cheek, pulling the blanket over them.

"But…"

"No butts, only sleep. You aren't leaving me until you get a solid eight hours of rest." He insisted.

She struggled against him for a few moments before quickly giving, up. The feeling of his warmth, welcoming her with open arms that she readily accepted, falling into a deep slumber.


The next morning the team began their plan. It was a simple, get in, grab a jet, and get out while simultaneously disabling Atlas communications so they can't radio ahead and cause an alarm.

Nova, Ruby, Jaune, Nora, Ren, Nitro, Qrow, and Elain would be waiting at a pick-up point, while Blake, Hex, and Yang would head to the Atlas communications tower and put down a signal jammer, after which they would rendezvous for the pick-up.

Saphron would be accompanying Weiss to act as seeing her off while Tera went to work. The bespectacled woman's job was to relay the bypass codes to Hex at the time of arrival since the codes were changed via automated scrambler every three hours.

"Does everyone understand their roles?" Hex asked as she began packing her instruments into her bag.

Jaune raised his hand, "Um, Question."

"Jaune if this is about needing to use the bathroom I told you not to eat the spicy breakfast burritos," Nova said dryly.

Jaune shook his head, "Well yes but no… what about Oscar, Luna and granny?" he threw a thumb toward Maria and Raisa, the latter of whom slowly backed away from her pissed off sister.

"Oscar will be accompanying Weiss as a plus one under the guise of her porter. Weiss' father hired him to watch over her in secret, here's a fake ID and security badge with the Schnee seal on it, combined with signature of Jacques…" she handed them to Oscar baffled.

Weiss blinked rapidly, "How did you get those? Where…?"

Hex waved her hand, "My semblance is Forgery, remember? I came across a few signed documents while perusing the Argus Atlas Military database. I even added a profile for him so he would show up on their scanners.

"Why didn't you just do that for all of us?" Yang asked confused.

Hex shot her a blank look, "Babe, one person is easy to slip into the systems unnoticed, but fourteen people?"

Yang made a popping sound with her mouth, "Right…"

"And what about me?" Luna asked tilting her head.

Hex grew devious smile and walked up with a tape measure and began gauging her height, "Hmm, yeap you'd fit just right…"

"Fit just right in what exactly?"

Hex pulled out two rather large suitcases, "Luggage."

Maria looked about ready to explode while Raisa was cackling like a mad-woman, "Oh this is great, absolutely rich!"

The younger Calavera jabbed her sister in the ribs earning an 'OOF', "Don't you have somewhere to be by now?"

Raisa nodded calmly, "Indeed, well... I'll be seeing you all, I think." she said as she waved her walking stick before hobbling to the door.

Ruby looked slightly disappointed, "You're leaving? Just like that?" she asked sincerely.

The old woman just smiled, "Don't worry, this ain't the last you heard or saw of me, that I can count on, my little protege." and with that, she was gone, the only thing left in her wake was the fragrant scent of flowers and luminescent petals on the wind.


The gleaming sun bore down upon the open runway of the Atlasian Military Base. Weiss Schnee casually strutted along the tarmac, lugging behind her was Oscar carrying two large white suitcases, and Saphron carrying Adrien. She made sure to move with the purpose and pompousness of the average Schnee while Caroline Cordovin waddled behind her with the twin security guards.

"Oh, it was such good news to hear you finally sobering up and abandoning the rabble to go home to Atlas. Your father must be so worried," Caroline said with a smile that looked plastered just for high-class people.

Weiss fought down the urge to wince at the mention of Jacques, "Yes well as a Schnee I do have my priorities."

"It simply melts my heart to see you deciding to leave Beacon and go to Atlas. It was soul-wrenching when we found out you'd chosen to go to Vale instead of our own prestigious Atlas Academy." She continued on.

Weiss actively grimaced but hid it just as quickly as it came, "Yes it was time I woke up and realized my true purpose in life."

"But if I may ask, miss Schnee, why do you insist on keeping the likes of 'him' around." Caroline pointed to Oscar who looked offended.

Weiss made an 'ahem' sound, queueing Oscar to start acting. The tan boy straightened his posture and pulled out the security badge given to him by Hex, "Likes of me? I don't know who you think you are, but according to this, I have the official role of Miss Schnee's right hand. You'd do well to remember that, lest you incur the wrath of the SDC."

Luna almost choked in laughter inside the suitcase. Oscar was performing the role of a pompous high-society boy very well.

Cordovin began to sputter, "I… well, my apologies for doubting your credibility Mr…"

Oscar forced himself to narrow his eyes and opened his mouth but Weiss answered for him, "Windshield, Augustus Windshield. You claim to care about my wellbeing but you don't even know the name of the person assigned to me? HMPH!" she turned her nose away from the old woman.

The old woman began to panic, "I sincerely apologize Miss Schnee! It was not my intention to disrespect you or your company. Things have just been so busy…"

"Yes yes, I'm sure they are." She waved her hand indicating to Oscar that he needed to begin wheeling the 'luggage' on board when the two guards walked up.

"Let us help you sir!" they said simultaneously.

Oscar brushed them off, "No, I'm fine really…"

"We insist!" they then picked up the cases to which one remarked, "These are quite heavy, what's in these…?"

Weiss shot a look of panic toward Saphron.

The blonde Arc girl nodded and whispered to Adrien, "Just like we practiced…"

The toddler nodded and let out an ear-piercing wail, "WAAAAAAH!" he fake cried so loudly it halted the entire facility.

Saphron then began to pretend that she was disheartened, "Oh, look at this, he's going to miss you so much!"

"A CRYING CHILD!" one of the twins said.

"WE MUST CONSOLE IT!" the other finished.

Cordovin just facepalmed while Oscar successfully wheeled the two cases inside, letting out Maria and Luna.

"Oh thank Oum I'm out, I was getting cramps," Luna said straightening her clothes out of vision of the outside.

"Hmph! Heavy! It's all muscle I tell you!" Maria waved her stick at no one in particular.

Weiss rolled her eyes, "Come on don't blow our cover before we have a chance to leave. We just wait on Hex's signal and we're outta here."


-Meanwhile at the communications tower-

Yang and Hex were riding on Bumblebee with Blake on the side-car. The self-proclaimed alpha-females were riding with just visors while Blake huddled in the sidecar with a cute helmet designed specifically for Faunus since it had ear protectors sticking out. For some reason it just made her look more cat-like than she already was.

The motorcycle came to a steady halt as the tall grey-steel tower reared into view, just beyond the inclined slope of a dirt road lined with snow-covered pine trees.

"This is our stop, come on kitty," Hex said poking her on the cheek before hopping off the bike. Blake feigned to bite her and missed when her finger retracted. They ended in both of them laughing like idiots.

Yang on the other hand was looking less jovial and more on the annoyed side, "I should be going with you…"

Hex leaned over the bike and kissed Yang on the cheek, "Babe, we'll be fine. Besides, you're not exactly stealthy, miss I blow things up when they don't work."

Yang feigned offence, "Hey!"

"My last infrared and sonar scanners say otherwise."

Yang rubbed the back of her head, "Well… I lost my hairbrush!"

Hex shot her a blank stare, "So you thought an inanimate object would have a heat signature or movement blip?"

"… Point taken"

Hex pulled out her scroll and contacted Tera, the Cotta-Arc's face showed up upon her answering, "Are you in position?" she asked.

Hex nodded, "Yeah, the tower's right up that ridge," she pointed behind her.

"Okay I'm issuing the codes now, you have ten minutes to deploy before they change," Tera explained sternly. "And don't forget. This conversation never happened."

Hex nodded, "All data traces are being auto-wiped as we speak don't worry about it. This will never be traced back to you or your family, I made sure of it. Besides it's not the first time I've broken into Atlas security."

Tera sighed, "I hope so, or it's your heads." She then cut off the video feed.

As the two stealth-based fighters approached the tower, they saw the layout of the area. There was a fence around eight feet high surrounding the tower and guards posted at the front gates and on the tower itself.

"Alright kitty, how are we doing this?" Hex asked her friend.

Blake squinted her eyes, her ears flickering, "I can take care of the two on the ground but I need the one up there not be looking at me."

"Understood."

The two sprung into action. Blake slipped into the shadows using her powers, blending in disappearing faster than Hex had a chance to realize what was happening.

"Goddamnit girl, a little warning before you do that shit would be nice!" Hex hissed before scrambling out of her hiding spot.

She raced around the tree-line that surrounded the tower until she was facing the back of it. Then pulled out two small cubes from her bag of trinkets and threw them into the snow pile. Two hyper-realistic holograms of Atlas soldiers appeared in a pair, she then coughed until her throat was slightly hoarse and spoke in the deepest voice she possibly could.

"Hey! You there atop the tower!" she said loudly.

All three guards' heads turned to the sound of the voice but before the two at the front gate could properly turn, Blake was directly behind them. Their shadows began to take form, creeping up from their legs and covering their eyes, effectively blinding them.

While they panicked Blake was able to successfully knock them out by chokehold and hide them in a nearby shrubbery.

Once Hex noticed the guards were gone she dropped the holograms, disorienting the guard above

"Huh what?" he voiced in confusion, "What's going on…" before he could turn around Blake was already on him.

She used Gambol Shroud's ribbon to grapple her way up the tower and deliver a swift blow to the back of his neck, knocking him out cold.

Once that was done, Hex made her way through the gate and up the tower to Blake, they now stood on a grey metal platform of grated steel, and before them was what looked to be a control panel box.

"We make a pretty purrrfect team don't we?" Hex asked, stifling her giggles.

Blake shot her a blank look, "Please don't ever do that again."

Hex shrugged, "Sorry, I'm dating the pun queen herself. I think it's growing on me."

"It started with Nova and then spread like a disease. THE PUNS WILL NOT HAVE ME!" Blake threatened to the sky.

Hex rolled her eyes, "Alright calm down," she turned to the panel box, unscrewed the face, and observed the keypad accompanied by wires. She then pulled out her own device, it was rather bulky, like a hard-cover novel, but made entirely of metal with a digital display screen and its own keypad to the side. Hex took some wires from the panel box and hooked it up to her device and ran some program that Blake had no clue about. The program then prompted her to enter a passcode to which she inputs the code Tera had sent them.

"Aaaandddd… done!" she said chirpily, before closing back up the box and making her way down the tower.

Blake blinked rapidly, "What that's it?"

"Yup! Now we get back to Yang and rendezvous with the others. Mission accomplished."

Blake was about to mouth her concerns when her Faunus vision spotted something in the distance to the West, far off in the sky.

"Kitty? What's wrong?" Hex asked concerned by why she suddenly stopped dead in her tracks.

Blake saw on the horizon, a quickly approaching black cloud, or at least what appeared to be a cloud. Upon her eyes' adjustment, they widened in horror, and her skin went pale.

"Blake…?" Hex asked again.

The Faunus girl looked down in panic and immediately leaped off the tower, "GET GOING! BACK TO YANG BEFORE THEY CATCH US OUT!"

"WHAT? WHAT'S GOING ON?" Hex yelled back.

"Grimm! LOTS OF THEM!"

Hex felt a surge of panic. Grimm weren't supposed to be this close to the city, let alone be travelling in hordes. This threw their entire plan for a loop.

Then Blake smacked her forehead, "SHIT! THE GUARDS! WE NEED TO GET THEM TO SAFETY!" the cat-Faunus then clambered back up the tower to grab the guard. She hauled him down and was making her way to Hex when the Grimm came down.

They weren't normal Grimm, not anything that Hex had seen before. They resembled Nevermore, but they were just barely bigger than normal ravens. The only distinctions between them and birds were the clearly defined white Grimm mask and multiple red eyes that adorned them.

"Oh fuck…" Hex mouthed as the flock swarmed around them. There were dozens of birds swirling around the two girls, forcing them to huddle together back to back, weapons drawn. The birds however weren't attacking, nor did they seem interested in anyone besides them.

"What's going on? Why aren't they attacking…?" Blake asked shakily.

Hex shook her head, "Hell if I know how Grimm work!"

Suddenly the flock began to condense and coagulate until they became three concentrated black masses that slowly came into being.

They were all identical, with vaguely humanoid figures, wide waists, and thin bird-like feet. Their skin was covered in black feathers and their hands had talons for fingers. Their masks were elongated like bird beaks. The birds that made their body seemed to occasionally peek out from their body, squawking as if they were a writhing mass of corvid death.

"I'm going to second that, Oh fuck…" Blake said raising her blade.


-With The rest of the team-

Nova stood checking his scroll as he leaned against a pine tree, "Where the hell are they? Something's holding them back."

Ruby took his hand in hers, "Hey, it's going to be fine. It'll work out."

"When has anything we've done ever worked out perfectly? All our plans always end up the wrong way somehow." Nora pointed out casually.

"Now's not the time…" Ren berated her.

In the distance Jaune spotted the ship, "Hey! Look I see them!" then he paused, "And… something else…"

Elain peered into the distance with her Faunus eyes and uttered the words, "Holy. Fucking. Shit." As she pointed toward a giant looming shadow chasing them.

-Back with Weiss' party-

Maria sat at the cockpit of the aircraft and had already taken off while Luna and Oscar sat behind, with Weiss as co-pilot. They were well away into the air, a solid distance from the base when they received a call on the radio.

At the base, one of the soldiers who'd been monitoring air traffic notified Cordovin, "Ma'am it appears a vessel has entered our fly zone."

Cordovin scoffed, "Who the hell would be stupid enough to enter our air space?"

The soldier looked confused, "Well, ma'am… apparently… us?"

This prompted him to call the craft through the local channels, "Manta 5-1 you are unauthorized to be in this air space at this time, please state your situation."

Maria smiled cockily and picked up the radio on her end, "Argus base this is Manta 5-1, feel free to gaff-off. We thought we were going to scrub due to FOD but we're back up and green across the board. Over."

Oscar almost choked on how well she rattled off that complete rubbish.

"Manta 5-1 return to base or you will be treated as hostile over." The soldier responded.

Weiss widened her eyes, "I THOUGHT YOU SAID YOU KNEW THE JARGON!" she said not noticing Maria had clicked the talk button on the radio.

The voice came over, "The jargon was fine but none of our pilots are old women."

Maria laughed aloud, "Fucking hell why'd you kids let me drive this thing?!"

Back at base Cordovin was in a rage, "MARIA! You have undermined me for the last time. You think you can just come here and trample on my authority on my territory?! YOU WILL TURN AROUND THAT SHIP IMMEDIATELY OR FACE THE CONSEQUENCES!"

There was just crackling on the other end, like someone eating potato chips.

"What. Is. That?" Cordovin seethed through the radio.

Maria laughed, "That's the sound of me not caring!"

Weiss looked shocked, "Do we really need that right now?!"

This seemed to set Caroline off, "That's it. I am going to set an example out of you. Show them the true might of Atlas!"

On the ship they were casually sailing, bickering about antagonizing Cordovin when the sound of thundering metal was heard in the distance, resonating far throughout the land. They all observed the rear to see the mountain base of Argus open up to reveal hollow interior. The rock and snow caving away like a door, and out of it strode the largest robot they'd ever seen.

It was wide at the torso and thin at the wait with beefy arms and no head, instead, the face was mounted to the torso.

"What the fuck is that?!" Weiss screamed.

Suddenly the machine raised its arms and a cannon opened up from its right arm, and a blast of yellow energy flew out, rocketing through the air and narrowly missing the ship, landing in the ocean beside them.

"HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT MARIA?!" Cordovin said through the coms.

"She's piloting that thing?!" Luna exclaimed incredulously.

"And apparently lost her goddamned mind! I swear with her it happens all the time but this takes the cake!" Maria threw down her chips and initiated battle mode, sending the ship into high gear.

"That was a warning shot Maria, the next is heading straight through your hull!"


-With Blake and the others-

They were currently staring down three corvid-like manifestations of darkness in the form of Grimm. They were making clicking sounds out of their beaks as if talking to each other. No signs of attack were being made by the monsters, but Blake could feel the radiating intent from them. It was like a thick tension in the air, the first person to move would be cut down.

"We're outnumbered…" Hex muttered to Blake.

"Not if we make it back to Yang…"

"I don't think these guys are going to let us get that far," the purplette grimaced.

Blake bit her lip, "Me neither, but we can disengage. Ready?"

Hex didn't know what she was planning but she nodded.

Blake then instantly dropped her hands to the floor and shadows erupted from the birds' feet, knocking them back as pillars of pitch-black shot up from the floor. Hex then threw down her holograms and began sprinting toward the direction of Yang with Blake in tow.

They barely made it a few meters when the sound of angry cawing and flapping was heard. Hex turned just in time to see the three monsters in the sky above them taking a nose dive toward their location.

Blake spun around and summoned another wall of shadow to block them. Thankfully by the time they made it over the ridge, Yang could see the commotion.

"Holy shit I leave these two for TWO MINUTES!" she yelled leaving Bumblebee parked against a tree and charging up the hill to join them. She spotted the beasts and instead of asking questions, fired off shots of Ember Celia toward the middle creature. It seemed to react violently toward the bright bursts and narrowly dodged them mid-air, dropping to the ground.

"Should I ask?" Yang said as she grouped up with them, huddled together the three stood back to back each squaring off against one of the Grimm.

Hex just showed a nervous smirk, "We don't have a clue either. Glad to see you join us, babe," she said preparing Loki and Eris' chains.

Yang didn't utter a word as she ducked low and threw her fist out, sending off a shot of her gauntlets, even with her speed the monster was too nimble, sidestepping it with ease and doing something a Grimm had never done before. It grabbed the weapon and held her in place.

The brawler's eyes went wide as she realized the beast had caught her and before she could wrench herself from its grip, it landed a solid punch to her gut and sent her flying into a tree. As she was crashing into the tree-line, the thoughts rang out in her head like an undeniable truth.

The Grimm were intelligent. These things knew how to fight, they understood combat. They weren't normal Grimm.

"YANG!" Hex yelled out as she saw the blonde get thrown into the trees, the Grimm following after her. The moment she called out, however, her own opponent thrust its long, razor-sharp claws into her face, forcing her to counter by throwing up her chains, wrapping them around the hand, and throwing the Grimm over her shoulder.

The beast let out a loud squawk as it recovered, the feathers on its body began to writhe before dozens of pitch-black smaller Nevermore shot out of its body.

Hex let her instincts take over, connecting her blades into the Glaive form and spinning it to block the attack. It seemed as though the materialized birds were made of black ooze that splashed around as they died, evaporating into black mist seconds after coming into contact with the ground.

She didn't have much time to ponder on it as the bird launched itself again at her, covering the distance in a fraction of a second. She tried to reactively dodge but speed wasn't her strong suit and she ended up taking the blow to her right shoulder, the impact severely draining her aura.

"Alright birdy, is that how it's gonna be?" she asked the thing. It just clicked and tilted its head in a jittery fashion, making crackling sounds from its throat.

She wasn't an expert on Grimm but this thing was definitely mocking her.

"Think you're some kinda wise guy eh? I'll tear that beak right off your face…" she glowered.

The two met in combat half-way, as it threw feathers at her like a Nevermore, the bladed plumage slicing at her skin as if cutting through her aura. She was now bleeding from her face and arms as they began swiping at each other. She would swing her glaive at its head only for it to duck and throw its sharp wings at her.

She jumped out of the way and kicked it on its back. For some reason, though its movements were fast and precise but highly uncoordinated as if it was just given a crash course in fighting rather than trained in it.

Meanwhile, Blake was having her own trade-off with her opponent. This beast seemed to gauge her wearily as if it was preparing itself for unexpected assaults by her shadow powers.

It dashed toward her but stopped itself just before her face as Blake was prepared to drive Gambol Shroud's blade into its stomach. It lurched backward and somersaulted into the air, sending flying feather daggers at her. Blake blocked it with her shadow wall, just before it dropped, she used her semblance to place a clone of herself in her exact position.

During her stalemate with it, she was able to at least observe the one fighting Hex out of the corner of her eye. She was not about to be caught off guard by its bewildering attack patterns and instead went for the killing blow.

When the wall dropped the creature saw Blake's clone and went in for a straight blow but was unprepared for what happened next. With her cat-like agility, she was able to almost blink behind the creature, rooting it in its own shadow with her powers.

Hex saw her seemingly freeze the creature in place so she hatched an idea.

"Hey, Blake! Remember what you and Yang did at the Vytaal tournament?" she called out, referring to their team battle.

Blake caught on instantly. Instead of responding she wrapped Gambol Shroud's Ribbon around her opponent and sent it spinning into the air such that it was unable to open its wings and steady itself. Hex disconnected her Glaive back into the chained weapons and threw Loki at the creature's feet, anchoring the blade into the ground.

While the Grimm was distracted, she kicked off her legs and slide along the snowy ground before picking herself up and entrapping the creature's legs. She then yanked the chain ripping both Loki and the Grimm out of the ground and flinging it into the sky.

The two Grimm collided head-on as the two fighters simultaneously stabbed them from the back, dissipating them into mist.

"That was… so much harder than it needed to be." Hex groaned as she panted on her knees.

Blake nodded, "Those things, they knew how to fight. How the fuck do Grimm know how to fight?!"

The purplette grimaced, "Wouldn't be the first time. Remember that thing we fought back at the lake? It had weapons."

"Grimm are evolving faster… this isn't good," Blake muttered.

Hex then realized they were missing a person, "We need to find Yang!"

The blonde brawler was having her own tussle in the forest. Branches broke and tree trunks cracked as the two enemies brawled in hand to hand combat.

The one she was facing seemed to be different from the others, it was definitely stronger, and a lot smarter. It knew it was fighting in an enclosed space, not enough room to fly due to the trees so it stuck to what it was good at. Strength and speed.

Yang wasn't as eloquent at dodging while maneouvering her environment as her opponent, as sometimes she would trip on a tree root or patch of snow. Sometimes it worked in her favour but others she was forced to collect a clawed hand to the arm or torso.

The Grimm's fists connected with her aura, but its bladed talons and feathers seemed to pierce her defences, which terrified her. She was essentially fighting for her life from the get-go.

Her skin was scratched and bleeding along her arms, and there was a deep cut on her stomach where her skin was exposed. In other places, her clothes were torn.

The Grimm seemed to be taking no damage from her physical blows, but whenever she tried to hit it with Ember Celia, it dodged, as though it were afraid of the explosion.

As the creature ran at her through the snow, expertly placing its footing over roots and failing to trip, Yang held up both Gauntlets and let out a single shot from each, and, just as she theorized, the creature dodged it like the plague.

"So, you're afraid of my shotgauntlets huh?" she taunted.

The creature made what she assumed was an angry series of clicks, the multiple eyes on its mask seemed to glow violently.

Given her environment and style of fighting, there was only one way she was going to land a proper attack on a creature more agile than she was. "Time to get up close and personal."

She let her arms drop, unloading the empty shells of Ember Celia. They fell almost in slow motion toward the snowy ground, making no sound upon contact. She took a deep breath and generated her aura into her hands.

If Aura wasn't going to stop its blades, then she didn't need it for defence. She recalled her training, letting the bright yellow light concentrate on her fists.

The creature didn't know what she was doing but it knew instinctively that it was in danger. The sound of battle outside the tree line stopped, followed by rapidly approaching footsteps and human yelling. Its comrades had been defeated.

It now had two options, fight or flight. It hadn't been born for long, but it had one purpose, one mission, to kill the humans or die trying, so, it followed its basic instincts, as all beasts do, and threw all caution to the wind in an all-out assault.

"Wrong decision…" Yang said, her hair covering her eyes. The creature didn't care as it came in talons swinging wide, unleashing a rain of feathers as it closed the distance between them.

Yang let out the breath she'd been holding, the hot air swirling in a white mist in front of her face just as the creature was at arm's length.

She threw herself into the line of its attack, tanking the feathers and getting into its range. The blades came down on her back but she didn't care, it only fueled her semblance, her hair igniting a bright yellow as her eyes went from lilac to red. With a single decisive blow, her fists loaded with all the Aura she could muster, collided with the creature's torso.

There was a fraction of a second where nothing happened, but it was merely a fraction, as the blast ripped a hole through the creature, yellow light exploding from her fists. The force of the impact sent waves of wind rippling through the trees, the ground cracking and then breaking open, forming a crater at her feet as the creature dissipated into black mist.

The blonde brawler then collapsed onto her knees in exhaustion, blood pouring from her wounds, soaking the snow in red.

Hex rushed up to her and caught her before her face fell into the dirt, "Holy shit Yang are you okay?"

The blonde shot her a weak smile, "Do I look okay?"

"You always look amazing babe," Hex said with a teary smile.

Yang snorted though she winced from the pain, "Look who's being cheesy at a time like this."

Blake finally caught up to them and wrapped Yang's right arm around her shoulder while Hex held up her left, "You look like hell," she commented.

"I feel like it, but I'll be fine. Let's head back to the others, Nova's mom will heal me," she said through the pain. The two then began their trackback to the others.

"I hope things are fine on their end, if the Grimm came after us who knows what came after them."


-With The Giant Robot-

Cordovin sat in the giant grey-brown metal mech, cannons aimed at the group standing on the edge of the cliff face. The ocean waters splashed upon the feet of the metal, barely making it above the feet, emphasizing the sheer size of the mechanical monstrosity. It's right arm cannon aimed directly at the team, charging its blast.

Maria and the others were flying just behind on the ship when they saw the situation, "DIVE!" Weiss yelled as she unbuckled her seatbelt in a panic. Maria did as she was told and the ship did a nosedive toward the cliff. Weiss then opened the door and jumped out landing just in time with her team to summon a giant wall of ice, blocking the blast from the cannon.

"That was perfectly timed Weiss," Nova said breathing a sigh of relief as they took cover behind the ice. It seemed that the cannons on the mech took time to recharge so Cordovin was unable to act while they were hiding.

"What's the plan? We can't get out of Argus if that thing is breathing down our necks." Weiss said composing herself with her team.

Jaune placed his hand on his chin, "That thing's not made for smaller targets, so she has a hard time hitting us. Why don't we spit up and give her more targets than she can deal with?"

"That's a brilliant idea but how do we bring it down?" Nova asked looking at him.

Nitro groaned, "If only Hex was here, she could probably tell us if this thing has a weak spot."

"Alright, we'll think about that later, right now just hit it hard and see what happens," Ruby said with vigour, unsheathing Crescent Rose.

The time simultaneously nodded before breaking off, splitting up into several directions, distracting the robot.

"OVER HERE!" Jaune yelled as he and Ren sprinted along the robot's left side in unpredictable patterns, Ren firing off blasts from his machine pistols that didn't seem to do much to the sturdy metal.

"GET BACK HERE!" Caroline yelled as she reared the mech slowly, aiming the cannon and firing off in rapid succession. Apparently, the recharge speed was dependant on the ammunition used, and in this case, it was using dust to raise the dirt and form rocks, which the team began using as cover.

Ruby and Weiss snuck onto the water, using Weiss' ice to form a platform around the feet of the mech. Ruby then began to draw its attention by firing from Crescent Rose, bullets harmlessly bouncing off the surface. The machine tried to swipe at her but with her semblance she was too quick, dodging through the air in a flurry of petals and sinking her blade into its armour, tearing down a long scratch on its right arm.

Nora saw the opportunity and began launching her grenades at it, the explosions detonating on its torso, knocking the machine back a little.

Cordovin wasn't amused, "So it seems you've chosen the hard way..." she then pushed a button on her control panel and thick layered dust shields enveloped it like a secondary layer of armour.

Qrow who was flying around the side to spot out a weak spot transformed back and latched his scythe onto the back of the machine, "Cordovin just activated shields, ranged attacks are going to be even less effective now." he said through his communicator.

Elain took behind one of the rocky barriers created by the blasts, she wasn't a combatant so she couldn't do anything in the situation, but she had an insight. "Qrow just said shields right? Shields have to have a generator. Generators of that magnitude need batteries and batteries need replacing. It would be too difficult to replace them from the inside since the Dust crystals would be too large so..."

Nova's eyes widened, "There must be a hatch on the outside!" he then pushed the button on his earpiece, "Can anyone spot a panel on the machine? Anywhere that looks like a shield generator?"

The ship flew around the machine while it was distracted with the others and Luna spotted the vague outline of a hatch-frame on the back, "Upper-middle back, there's a panel. It's right above you uncle Qrow!" she relayed.

"Alright if I can get the shields down, we probably get one shot at taking this thing out so hit it with everything you got at that point." Qrow relayed and began climbing up the side of the mech with Harbinger.

Cordovin noticed this and tried to swat him off but Ruby drew her attention again as she and Weiss began blasting the front with fire dust explosive rounds.

"RUBY LOOK OUT!" Oscar yelled into the earpiece as through the smoke they saw what appeared to be a missile launcher pop out of its cannon wrist and fire off several missiles at them.

Weiss barely pulled up an ice wall in time to block the blast, which Ruby used to gain elevation and clamber back up to the cliff where the others were.

Nova had been trying to draw attention with his semi-auto rifle but it wasn't exactly doing much good against the shields.

"This thing is tanking everything we throw at it!" she said frantically as she reloaded her cartridges.

Cordovin seemed to be growing tired of the incessant distractions and unleashed a flurry of missiles at the cliff face out of frustration, seemingly throwing all of her resources into eliminating them, no matter what cost it would have to Atlas. Ruby and Nova saw the missiles approaching them.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" he asked as he raised Helios' scope to his eye.

She smirked and stood next to him, with Crescent Rose in sniper form, "Target practice."

Together they brilliantly executed perfectly accurate shots, detonating the missiles in mid-air in quick succession, creating a line of explosions that disoriented Cordovin.

This gave Qrow the edge he needed to make the last climb toward the hatch on the back of the mech, and with an enormous amount of effort, carved away at the thick metal plating exposing two large glowing dust crystal batteries. With all the strength he could muster, he ripped them out, effectively disabling the shields, much to Caroline's horror.

"SHIELDS ARE DOWN! TAKE HER OUT!" He yelled as he sheathed Harbinger, jumped off the mech, and into Crow form.

"HMPH, YOU CAN TRY!" Cordovin yelled out as she switched to cannons and fired at them, a range of blasts shooting out, forcing them to disengage. Now that the shields were down, they needed to disable the cannon if they wanted to take it out.

Luna observed the mech from the airship and she noticed something while it was firing, "GUYS! Cordovin's mech switches dust cartridges each time it needs to fire, there's a load time on everything except the missiles!"

"WE SEE THAT!" Weiss yelled back as she narrowly dodged a blast from the cannon.

"No! What I'm saying is, if you can get one good shot off on the missiles, it could blow the arm right off!"

Everyone facepalmed, of course, it wouldn't be easy. If what Luna said was right, then they needed to land a proper shot, someone would have to be in the direct line of fire as the armour platings on the side of the missile chamber would deflect any bullet.

"I've got a way you can get the shot off," Maria said as she pulled the ship alongside the cliff. Ruby spared no hesitation and instantly bolted off the cliff and onto the airship. "RUBY WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Qrow yelled to no avail as he watched his niece take up a sniping position on the side of the ship.


As they flew through the air, Maria radioed Caroline, "Hey Cordovin, I got one missile left and I know exactly where I'm gonna stick it!"

Cordovin smirked deviously, "Try me bitch."

Oscar watched in horror from the front seat as they drove directly toward the mech, the barrel of its cannon raised at them missiles ready to fire, "ARE YOU INSANE?!" Oscar and Luna yelled simultaneously

Maria just had a mad grin, "Sometime's the best approach is the most direct!" and flew headfirst into danger.

Ruby readied her shot but as she fired, the missile chamber closed and her bullet bounced harmlessly off, much to their horror.

"YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD FOOL ME?! TRY AGAIN!" the Atlasian woman yelled with fever, switching over instantly to the cannon and firing off a preloaded shot of lightning dust.

Maria engaged evasive maneuvers but the beam still narrowly grazed the ship, disabling the controls and Maria's eyes, "I can't see!" she yelled out. The ship then began to swerve and spiral out of control, heading directly for the cliff where the team was.

The Calavera thrust the controls to Oscar, "LAND THIS THING!"

Oscar almost jumped out of his skin, "FUCKING HOW?!"

Luna decided she wasn't about to risk anything and grabbed Ruby and Calavera, pulling them close to her as Cyan aura covered the trio, their weights were suddenly glued to the seats and wall of the ship, the power acting like a superior seatbelt. Oscar on the other hand began wrestling with the controls, freaking out, "We're gonna crash!" he yelled out in panic.

There was a moment of disorientation before he blacked out.

Upon waking up he found the ship was intact and still more or less alive, and everyone, including him, was unharmed. "W-we're alive?! W-what happened?" he stuttered out, his legs like jelly as he clambered out of the ship.

"You somehow managed to crash-land us safely... if that's a thing..." Luna said with wonder, "How did you do it?!"

Oscar shook his head, "I... don't remember..."


Ruby was already ahead of them, wasting no time on recovery, she marched forward to the edge of the cliff looking pissed, in every essence of the word.

No one got a chance to ask if she was okay, she just walked past them all and stood staring down Cordovin's mech on the cliff edge, the massive hunk of metal towering over her.

"Surrender for your crimes and accept your punishment!" Caroline said, pointing a finger at her.

Ruby was undeterred, instead unsheating Crescent Rose and stabbing the hilt into the floor, taking up a stance, "We. Are. Going. To. Atlas. And you can either let us go... or else..." she glowered. Nova felt a shiver run down his spine. This was the first time he'd seen Ruby genuinely angry and it scared him.

"Or else what?" Cordovin mocked.

"You know something? Bigger people than you have tried to stop us and failed, and we're supposed to be on the same fucking side! We came to you for help, and you shut us out. You left us no choice but to steal from you. We didn't want to but we had to because even though we're supposed to be working together, to use our power to protect the people, you're just using yours to look down on everyone else!" Ruby was fuming, her eyes were glaring daggers at Cordovin and even the old woman was beginning to feel uneasy.

"I'm giving you one last chance to stand down and hear us out."

"I've heard enough..." Caroline responded, raising the cannon to fire at her.

Qrow and Yang both lurched forward to protect her, but the others held them back, even Nova, "She's got this." he said with confidence, even though he himself was feeling queasy.

Ruby then did arguably the most badass thing Nova had ever seen her do besides juggle a Nevermore in the air. She jumped off the cliff and petal burst into the air, dashing directly into the barrel of the cannon as it was charging.

"You had your warning..." Ruby said as she anchored Crescent Rose in the barrel and fired off an explosive dust round. The cannon exploded from the inside, blasting Ruby out of it, her Aura fizzling out as Nova leaped forward and caught her in his arms. The dust cartridges began to overload and mix together as rock, lightning, and ice broke out like growths on the arm, until it was so heavy that it anchored the mech.

"That was so cool..." he said as he helped her to her feet.

She shot him a smirk, "How's my style points on that one?"

"I'd give you a twelve out of ten," he said as he kissed her on the cheek.

The mech felt the recoil from the blast and loss of power and began to falter toward the cliff, its singular free hand clutching onto the earth for support, giving the team access to melee range.

"Alright guys," Nova said turning to his ready team, "Light 'em up."

Explosions echoed from all sides as Nora shot grenades, Ren with his guns, Jaune tried whacking his sword and even Ruby was tearing at its metal hide with her blade, but it seemed to just barely injure the inanimate object.

"Nitro, we need some heavy impact," Nova said as he unsheathed Helios in scythe form, placing it behind him the way Ruby does when she uses sniper recoil as a launcher.

The redhead's gauntlets encompassed his arm, the fins extending for jet propulsion, "Finally it's my turn," he said with a cocky smile.

Nitro activated full boosters on the gauntlets and fired off toward the mech. No one registered anything until the sonic boom of a sound barrier-breaking fist of destruction rocketed past them, crashing into the mech's torso, throwing the entire thing off balance, and placing a massive dent in the thick armour.

"NO! NO! NOOO!" Cordovin cried out as she began to lose all control.

Nova just chuckled as flames began to pour out of Helios' scythe head. The dragon eyes on the blade seemed to emanate fire as a raging inferno shot out of it, propelling Nova into the air at incredible speeds until he was face to face with the machine's windshield.

Cordovin watched in horror as the heterochromatic Faunus boy reared what appeared to be a flaming scythe before her eyes, "You should retire Cordovin, you're all burnt out!" he said before swinging Helios, pouring his fire into the blade and igniting the Incidium. The metal cleaved away, as a blast of explosive fire detonated through the previous impact made by Nitro, knocking the machine onto its rear. It was dead, but Caroline seemed fine as she was yelling profusely through the windshield.


Hex, Yang, and Blake had stumbled their way through the dense forest to the pick-up zone to see a downed mech and lots of ice and rock everywhere.

"What the fuck happened here?!" Hex exclaimed raising everyone's attention to the party coming from the forest.

Ruby's eyes widened upon seeing the state of Yang, she was somewhat healed from her Aura but she still looked pretty badly beaten up, "FORGET US! YANG!"

Elain saw the blonde girl and instantly rushed over to her, placing an arm on her shoulder and using her semblance. The brawler's wounds began to quickly close up as the scratches disappeared, and her pale skin returning to its usual glow. She wrenched herself free from their grip and did a stretch to make sure everything was working properly.

"Thanks, Dr. E, I needed that," Yang said as she threw a few test punches in the air.

"What happened to you guys? Did you run into a woodchipper by accident?" Nitro asked incredulously.

Blake sighed, "No, worse... much worse, but we can talk about this later, right now I just wanna pass out."

"You and all of us here I think..." Jaune groaned as he tried to dust off his armour.

Once Maria saw that it was safe to land, she parked the plane and everyone began climbing on board. They were fully prepared to pack up and leave Cordovin there, after all, she deserved it, but something made them falter.

"All that's left is to head on over to Atlas... what's that sound?" Luna asked as the team was suddenly drawn to the growing sound of thundering like something massive was stomping around. All eyes turned to the ocean before them.

As they cruised into the sunset, the band of misfits saw an uncomfortably horrid sight. Tremours began to shake the ground as they saw trees rattle violently, waves began to form more rapidly in the ocean as several meters off the coast of Argus, rising out of the water like a scene from a movie, was a Grimm.

It seemed as though the constant fighting and explosions woke it up. The team's fleeting relief upon the defeat of Cordovin, was changed to absolute terror as a hulking monstrosity, with the body of what looked like a reptile on two legs, a muscular build and crocodile-like mouth appeared out of the water, on its back was a large white spine. It was a Grimm, and it was heading straight for Argus. Then their attention was brought back to the downed mech, the very same mech that was Argus' line of defence for creatures like that.

"Uh... guys?" Oscar stuttered out as he pointed shakily to the front of the ship.

In the direction they were heading, a ways behind the colossal Grimm, was a flock of black, travelling like a cloud of death. It was a swarm of Grimm, Gryphons, Nevermores, and Manticores, travelling in what seemed to be a small army.

One name rang out in their minds, one thought. "Salem's made a move..." Nova said darkly.

Ruby looked back and forth between her team and the monster. They could avoid it, fly around, and head to Atlas, but... they couldn't just leave the city defenceless.

"Guys we have to save them," Ruby said adamantly.

"Well duhh, but how are we going to deal with that thing?!" Nora yelled incredulously, gesturing comically to the slow-moving behemoth.

Ruby bit her lip nervously, "I... have a plan..."


-Argus Hospital-

Pyrrha lay on the hospital bed, still in a deep sleep, as she'd been for several days. In her mind, she saw what seemed to be memories playing out in front of her like a movie. Everything was slowly being played out to her almost in real-time, filling in the blanks in her hazy memory, from the time she left Argus and her family, to her arrival at Vale.

Her experiences returned in sequence, she saw her first meeting of Jaune on the bullhead to Beacon, their conversation on the cliff just before they were launched into the forest for initiation. She remembered thinking that he was an interesting person, and perhaps the first real friend she would ever make. She remembered meeting Nova, their squabbles, and then their eventual duel, the feelings of exhilaration as she finally fought someone on equal footing as her. The laughs they shared together afterward.

Of all the moments she remembered exactly when she fell in love with Jaune, those fluttery feelings surging toward her, replacing one of a desire to help him grow, and the feelings of pure love that followed. When Jaune confessed to her under the starlight of Beacon cliff after they were done with nightly training. She never expected him to ever reciprocate the feelings she felt for him, given how dense he was.

The sweet memories began to fade as the darker times came, visions of fighting Penny at the tournament, panicking in combat and her semblance slicing her to pieces. The emotions swarmed her like it was her first time feeling it again, the pain and anguish, the guilt.

She was thrust even further when she saw the Grimm come, she, Jaune, and Nova working to defend Beacon... to eventually watching Cinder take the Fall Maiden's power and eventually kill Ozpin. She remembered locking Jaune away in a rocket locker so he wouldn't stop her or be in any danger when she confronted Cinder alone. The feelings of shock when she found out there was another powerful entity with Cinder atop Beacon's tower, the feeling of relief when Nova showed up almost out of nowhere to fight alongside her, and the eventual horror as they were both defeated.

Pyrrha remembered being helpless, unable to do anything as Cinder threw a glass spear at her, and Nova sacrificing himself to save her, and then nothingness.

She woke up with a start, glancing around the room frantically as all the memories flooded into her mind, taking their places and patching up the missing information. She wanted to burst forth in tears.

Jaune was there, in the hospital room, she remembered the look of complete emotional death on his face when she told him she couldn't remember him, she wanted to say she was sorry, to hold him in her arms and tell him that she remembered everything, but the room was empty.

Suddenly there was a click of the door handle as a red-haired woman walked in wearing glasses, it was her mom.

Upon seeing her awake, her mother burst into tears and hurried to her bedside, "Pyrrha! Sweety! You're awake!" she sniffled clutching onto the bedsheets.

Pyrrha's expression softened, "Yes, and... I remember everything."

Her mother looked up at her with tear-filled eyes, "Oh honey thank god... I..."

"Mom, I'm sorry to cut you short, but... my friends... where are they?" she asked.

The mother wiped away her tears. She knew her daughter loved her, but she had her own life and was eager to get back to it, "I'm not sure, I never got an address but I have a number for that Nova fellow..." she pulled up her scroll and gave Nova a call, after a few rings he picked up.

"Hello?"

"Um, Mr. Flareheart? This is Pyrrha's mom..." Chrysanthemum said with a still sniffly voice.

"Pyrrha's mom?! Oh good I was worried, listen I don't have much time *CRASH* It's pretty bad *BOOM* You need to evacuate the city! NOW!"

"Why what's going on?" she instantly composed herself with a worried look. Pyrrha saw her mom's expression change as well.

"Grimm! Lots of them! *Gunshots* Heading for the city from the Ocean! TAKE PYRRHA AND GET OUT!"

His voice sounded loud enough through the scroll speaker. Pyrrha heard him completely and looked to her mom with a strong gaze.

"Pyrrha I know that look. You are not going out there!" Chrys said sternly.

The champion responded by ripping off her monitors and hospital sheets and getting up. It was the first time she'd properly gotten up in a long time so her muscles felt wobbly, but given her master control of Aura, she was able to use it to begin repairing her body.

"I can't stop you can I..."

"No, you can't."

"Then at least take some weapons with you," she handed Pyrrha the keys to their house, "Your father's armour and weapons are mounted on display in the study. They might be antique but they should still work."

Pyrrha took the key gratefully and gave her mom a tight hug, "Thanks mom, I love you."

The older woman just accepted the hug, "Love you too sweetie, just... be careful..."


-On the ship-

As the team finally made their way back to Argus, they saw that they were almost too late. The Grimm had already landed on the beaches of the city and the Atlas Military base had engaged all protocols. Ships were already in the air firing at the Grimm while soldiers were on the ground trying to stop as many stragglers as they could from getting into the city. The main brunt of the fighting was being done on the sandy beach while the base itself was firing from mounted cannons at the approaching behemoth, to almost no avail.

All the cannons seemed to do was slow down its pace minorly as the giant electrical antennae that surrounded the coast activated, raising two massive dust shields around the coast, preventing the beast from entering the city. There were currently two lines of defence separating the leviathan class Grimm and Argus.

"What's our plan chiefs?" Nora asked, looking to Ruby and Nova.

The dragon leader scanned his team and began to formulate a plan, "With the swarm of Grimm we can't get close enough, Ren can you mask the ship with your semblance?"

Ren nodded, "With his help, I can," he pointed to Jaune.

"Alright, Maria take us as close as you can get to the base, once we're there, anyone able-bodied goes down with me to help clear out Grimm that got inside the city walls. The rest of you stay on the ship and support Ruby's plan," he said glancing over to Ruby. "What is that plan by the way?"

"My silver eyes, I froze a Wyvern once, I can handle this," she said with half-hearted confidence.

Nova didn't like the idea, "How do you plan on doing that? What if it doesn't work? You could die!"

"I trust my training, I can do this... besides... what other choice do we have?" in truth Ruby didn't trust herself. She had two days of shaky training that was barely a sliver of what she was supposed to know, she still hadn't even mastered the basics of her eyes, but for the sake of protecting the people of Argus, she would do everything she could.

The Leviathan-class Grimm was wasting no time, upon seeing the first ring of shields, opened its mouth and a bright pale yellow light seemed to emanate from within it, growing bigger until it fired off a massive beam of destruction. The beam was initially blocked by the shield but as the monster shifted its head, the beam caught on one of the antennae and destroyed it, granting the beast passage to the second layer.

By now Grimm were being fended off by flying ships while Ren and Jaune worked in cohesion to mask the aircraft, guiding it to the beach. It was then that they spotted the sight of a red blur, tearing Grimm apart, leaving a trail of black smoke in her wake.

"That can't be... can it...?" Nova mouthed in awe as he couldn't believe his eyes.

Everyone on the ship turned to what he was staring at, Nora's mouth dropped open and she almost fainted while the rest were just too shocked to speak.

"Guys, what's going on out there?" Jaune called as he released his hold on Ren temporarily, and looked out the side window of the ship, what he saw almost gave him a heart attack. There on the beach was the distinct visage of Pyrrha Nikos clad in a full suit of golden armour, wielding a two-handed greatsword, cleaving down Grimm in a whirlwind. The ship was hovering just about twenty feet from the ground and Jaune didn't hesitate for a second. Without warning he pushed past his friends and launched himself out of the plane, diving onto the sand with his shield under his legs, using it to break his fall as he ran across the sandy beach.

Griffons tried to swipe at him from all sides but he just cut them down with single strikes, not even bothering to look as his eyes were fixated on one thing and one thing only, the beautiful girl who was viscously murdering Grimm in front of him.

Pyrrha had just cleared off a group of Grimm and was wiping the sweat from her brow, looking toward the horizon when she almost blindsided by a straggler, before she could bring up her defences a white shield came soaring through the air, crashing into the Grimm and knocking it into the ocean where it turned into a black mist.

She spun around just in time to see Jaune sprinting across the sand toward her, his golden hair glowing the light of the sun, "PYRRHA!" he shouted, stumbling across the uneven ground toward her, "What are you doing out of the hospital?!" he exclaimed as he finally stopped in front of her, slightly out of breath from all the running.

"And where did you get all that armour? You're in no condition to be fighting, you could barely remember how to use a sword when... MMPH!" he was cut off from his rambling when Pyrrha grabbed hold of his face with both hands and crashed her lips onto his in a passionate kiss, filled with longing and need. She poured out all of the emotions she'd built up inside her for so long into that one moment, and Jaune felt it. He reciprocated the kiss, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her to him by the waist, tears streaming down his face as he'd done what he so longed to do, just hold her in his arms.

When they finally broke apart for air they were both crying, "Y-You remember?" he choked out, with a goofy smile.

She nodded, "Everything. Jaune I... I'm sorry for not remembering you. I'm sorry for pushing you into that locker and going off on my own, for..."

Jaune silenced her by placing a finger on her lips, "That wasn't your fault, you did it to protect me. What's important is that I get to say these words right now... Pyrrha Nikos, I love you, more than anything in the world... and I've missed you so much..." he cried.

She choked up, "I love you too..." she was about to lean in for a second kiss when the sound of an airship engine was heard, "HEY! NOT TO BREAK UP THIS ADORABLE MOMENT BUT THERE'S MORE COMING!" Nova yelled over the loud engines.

The two broke apart embarrassedly and picked up their weapons, Pyrrha concentrated on her semblance and managed to pull Jaune's shield from where it landed after killing the Grimm.

Everyone besides Ruby, Weiss, Maria, Yang, Blake, Hex, and Elain jumped out of the airship and landed onto the sandy beach, each stepping out with their weapons drawn and intent to protect on their face, except Nora who instantly tackled Pyrrha crying about how much she missed her.

Nova was about to step off when he turned back to Ruby, "Don't do anything I would do okay?" he kissed her on the forehead before jumping off. She shot him a lopsided grin, "So don't do anything stupid and reckless? Sorry love, but it's in our nature!" she yelled back as the airship took off.

The dragon leader just wished her silent good luck before turning to his team, "Alright, we can reunion with Pyrrha later, right now... protect the citizens of Argus at all costs! No Grimm get into the city!" he yelled as they stormed into the fray.


Maria took off again with the others on board, preparing to leave the safety of the current airspace. Without Ren on board or Jaune, they would need assistance to cover Ruby until she got within range of the leviathan.

Just then a blast of energy shot past the rock of the base, bursting through the second layer of shields and even destroying the Argus Clock Tower.

"Fuck it's broken through!" Yang pointed out as the monster neared the base.

Maria picked up the radio on the dashboard, "This is Manta 5-1, we need cover to get one of our operatives to the Grimm, we have a plan to destroy it."

"Negative Manta 5-1, you are designated as hostile and will receive no help from our forces," the soldier on the other end responded.

Hex blew a gasket and grabbed the radio, "REALLY?! Are you being for real right now? We are trying to help you and this is the shit you're gonna pull?"

"Manta 5-1 we are not prepared to provide assistance to a hostile target when dealing with a Grimm invasion," the man said calmly as if orders were more important than the lives of people.

Hex was about to rattle off again when Ruby shook her head and took the radio, "Fine, we'll do it ourselves. Just don't get in our way." her voice was calm and cold, it was the most serious anyone had seen her in a long time and quite frankly it gave them all chills.

"What's your plan Ruby, how do you plan on doing your eye thing to that beast?" Weiss asked, shuffling around nervously.

"Can you summon a Lancer?"


Back at the crash site of the giant mech, Cordovin was fuming, trying desperately to get the machine up and running again. The blast had taken out most of the armour plating but left the main energy source intact, it was just a matter of getting it unstuck from the ice that was frozen over its cannon arm.

As she sat there, her rage was beginning to boil down, she had blamed the kids for causing this situation in the first place, and if anything happened to Argus it would be on their heads, but the more she raged, the more she began to calm down and realize the situation.

Yes, they shouldn't have stolen the ship and undermined her authority, but she could've been a bit nicer to them and co-operated. What reason would a bunch of kids have for harming Atlas? If anything they were probably speaking the truth about having credible information for Ironwood.

Blinded by her duties and role as an Atlas official, bound by the rules she ended up overreacting, losing herself in her anger. It didn't help that Maria annoyed her over the edge, but thinking back... was it really necessary for her to have used a giant robot against a group of teenagers?

The gravity of it all came sinking in. This was her fault, not theirs. If she had listened, if she had only taken the time to understand and think rather than act, this whole situation could've been avoided.

"Aeros, what is it you used to say? That I'm a patriotic rule book-obsessed idiot? I'm starting to think you might have been right..." she muttered to herself.


Ruby stood atop a giant Lancer Queen summoned by Weiss, fluttering just above the waters of the ocean, approaching her at a steady pace was the Leviathan Grimm.

"Ruby this is crazy!" Weiss yelled back from the ship as they hovered near her.

"Crazy... but I have to try..."

"NO! YOU COULD LITERALLY DIE!" Yang argued back.

Ruby was not moved by her words of anguish, "Just... trust me. Get out of here before the monster goes after you instead of me and Weiss? Yang?"

"Yeah...?" they asked simultaneously.

"If anything happens to me..."

"NOPE! NOT HEARING IT! You are coming back alive you hear me?!" Yang yelled out of the ship as Maria drove off. The monster saw Ruby standing on the wasp and began its advance.

She took a few deep breaths and began chanting, to herself, the relic of knowledge swinging at her side, "Okay Ruby, you can do this... remember your training. Your desire to protect..." she closed her eyes and began concentrating on her visualizations. She imagined that feeling of loss of her mother, wanting to protect her friends from a dark future. It hurt, seeing the horrid images again, the pain and anguish were driving her mad.

She opened her eyes as the silver light began to glow slightly, flickering like a dying light bulb. It wasn't enough, the beast was fast approaching, her heart hammering against her chest as she found her anxiety rising, she was afraid, that her stupid idea wasn't going to work.

"Come on! Come on! Please..." she tried again, this time when she opened her eyes, it flickered for a moment, but the beast was already upon her. All Ruby could do was stare in horror as the beast reared its head, jaw open wide for a bite as it came down hard and fast.

She didn't want to die, she couldn't fail now, not when the people of Argus were depending on her, so she did the one thing that came to mind at that moment, closing her eyes she inhaled, "JINN!" she called out.

Time slowed to a complete stop as Ruby peeled open her lids to see that the beast had frozen, its mouth mere inches from her face, seconds from closing down on her. The blue misty form of Jinn materialized onto view as the large woman floated next to Ruby, "What is it you wish to ask?"

Ruby faltered, "I-I'm sorry Jinn, I don't have a question for you... I just... needed time..."

The celestial being regarded her curiously, then saw the obvious massive creature towering above them. "Oh, dear... I see... I will overlook it this time... but you are never to summon me again without having a question..." Jinn warned.

Ruby cursed under her breath, "I'm sorry.. I really am..." she then began to concentrate again, "Please... work... please!"

Jinn saw her struggling and felt sympathy for the poor girl. Perhaps she had spent too long in the relic, and she was becoming soft, or perhaps it was because she genuinely admired the smaller girl's courage, she spoke, "A piece of advice, free of charge. Pain is not always the right way to go."

Ruby was struck for a moment, standing stock still as she remembered the words Nova told her before they started their mission, "The desire to protect a brighter future..." she mouthed quietly. Digging into her mind she began to push past the dark imagery she'd been focused on, and think of the future. She slowly began to manifest it, a world where they would all be able to live peacefully.

No fighting, no Grimm, just them, living out their lives without having to worry. She saw her dad and sister back at Patch, cooking dinner and laughing together, she saw her team sitting in the living room sharing smiles and stories. Curiously enough, on the living room rug next to Zwei were four children, each sporting familiar looks and around the same age, barely toddlers.
Then she saw Nova, standing on the staircase, hand in hand with a little person, the features were blurred in her mind but she felt, a connection to them. Her mind was filled with joy and wonder, as she realized she wanted nothing more in the world than to see that future become a reality.

The reaper found her hands drifting to her necklace, clasping around the gem as silver light began to radiate off of her.

"Jinn... I'm ready. You can go now..." she said with confidence, no hint of hesitation in her voice.

The genie woman regarded her with interest, "So... you really have been chosen..."

Ruby didn't fully register her words as she was too focused on keeping that feeling inside her.

When the timestop dropped, Silver Light radiated from her entire body, as if her Aura itself was manifesting it. Everyone seemed to stop what they were doing, even the monster as when the light came into contact with its body it shut its jaws and reeled back.

Even the team on the beach stopped fighting momentarily to see Ruby, standing onto the Lancer, her eyes glowing bright silver as the light radiated off of her. The crystal in Ruby's hands began to hum and suddenly she saw her cloak turn from bright red to pure silver-white.

A cloak of pure silver light enveloped her original one, the hood covering her head as it the light shot forth in a dazzling explosion. Every Grimm caught in the burst of light was instantly vaporized with white light and the Leviathan class Grimm, try as it did to avoid the blast, was frozen in stone.

"HOLY SHIT SHE DID IT!" Yang yelled from the ship as cheers of victory erupted all around.

Ruby breathed a sigh of relief as the silver cloak dissipated into thin air, leaving her with her original red hood in its place. The relief was short-lived however as the stone petrification of the beast began to crumble bit by bit. The leviathan wasn't dead.

All hope would have been lost if, at that moment, the mech that was thought to be inoperational came striding across the ocean, wielding only a drill arm. Caroline's voice echoed over the radio, "FEEL THE MIGHT OF THE ATLAS MILITARY!" she yelled as she thrust the drill into the stone Grimm, crumbling it to dust.

It was finally over, the crisis was done.


Nova and the others were celebrating with victory hugs on the beach, the sun beginning to set on the horizon as the light of the world became a comfortable orange.

"Pyrrha, so you got your memories back huh?" Nova said approaching her.

The red-haired girl smirked, "Yeah, and I remember you taking a shot that was meant for me... thank you..." she held out her hand for a handshake.

Nova shot her a goofy smile, and slapped her hand, "I'd do it again too!" and embraced her in a tight hug, "Glad to have you back Pyrrha."

She was thrown off guard since she didn't think she was close enough to Nova to warrant such affection. He definitely seemed different from the last she remembered, but... a lot did happen between the Fall of Beacon and now, so she just accepted it.

The airship finally arrived on the beach with Ruby stepping out of the aircraft first, only to be tackled by Nova, "For the love of all that is good, Ruby Rose you insane, absolutely crazy, reckless maniac. Of all the goddamned plans..."

She rubbed the back of her head with a nervous smile, "Well it seemed like a good idea at the time... and it worked!"

"Thank god it did or I wouldn't be able to do this..." he scooped her up in his arms and planted a firm kiss on her lips, dazing the hell out of her. "You were incredible out there red, but please don't do that again..."

"No promises," she stuck her tongue out at him. She then looked around and spotted Pyrrha who waved calmly. "PYRRHA!" Ruby then barrelled into the girl with a petal burst hug assault causing everyone to burst out in laughter.

It was then that Cordovin arrived on the beach from an airship, cutting their joyous celebration short.

"You're not going to arrest us now are you...?" Ruby asked meekly.

Cordovin held a stern gaze, "For everything that you just did? Violating several laws, stealing an Atlas ship, lying to an officer, destroying precious military equipment, and evading capture... I should very well have you all arrested right here!" she said scaring them all, only for her to follow up with a heavy sigh, "But I won't. See I don't have the authority to grant you safe passage to Atlas but... if by chance in all this chaos, a ship were to mysteriously disappear and head for Atlas well... we would be powerless to stop it."

Everyone's eyes widened at the implied statement. She was letting them go.

"You know for a stuck up bitch, you really do know when to do the right thing, Caroline," Maria said from the ship.

Cordovin's left eye twitched, "Just leave before I change my mind! And YOU CALAVERA! DON'T EVER COME BACK HERE OR I WILL ARREST YOU!"

Maria just cackled madly from the cockpit, "My sister sends her regards!"

They began packing up their equipment on the airship, when Nova noticed Jaune hanging back.

The blonde was holding Pyrrha's hands in his, Nova could see clearly on his face that Jaune didn't want to leave her. He knew, that if it was him in that position, he wouldn't want to leave either, especially after they were just reunited.

"Pyrrha would you like to come with us? I mean... it's not just me..." he pointed to the extremely giddy Nora sitting in the ship throwing thumbs up.

The red-head looked tempted, one could see the yearning in her eyes, but she shook her head, "With the Atlas military being down, Argus, my home, needs as much help as it can get."

Nova looked between them and he realized that they needed some time together so he looked Jaune in the eye, "Jaune, you don't have to come with us. You can stay here with Pyrrha, I know... that if that was Ruby and I was in your position, I wouldn't want to leave either. No one on the team would think less of you for wanting to stay."

The Arc boy looked at him with conflicted eyes, "I can't abandon our mission... not when we've come so far..."

"You say that, but your heart wants to stay, we take off in five minutes, take your time."

Once Nova was back on the ship, Jaune turned back to Pyrrha, and she held a knowing look on her face, "Go, Jaune, you don't need to stay with me either, I can handle myself."

Jaune looked down, "Yeah but... I don't want to be without you... I lost you once, and I don't wanna be away from you again..." he leaned forward and rested his head on her shoulders, savouring every moment they still had together.

"You could stay with me, we'd spend every day together, fix up the place, go on a few dates, maybe... other things in between," she said to which Jaune turned bright pink, "You could live the quiet life with your sisters and we'd be happy..."

"That does sound nice..." Jaune started but she interrupted him.

"But... you and I both know it won't happen that way. You'd spend every day worrying about them, that if something went wrong and you weren't there to help, you'd blame yourself, and ontop of it all, you're not the type of person to just abandon something you started. Face it, the choice has already been made for you." she finished for him.

Jaune sighed heavily, slowly raised his head, and kissed her tenderly on the lips, "I promise you, the minute we're done... I'll come find you..."

Pyrrha giggled, "Or, I could come find you huh? Call me when you get the chance alright?"

The two shared one final kiss before they parted ways, both wishing in their heart to join the other


Yes, this was a lot, and it did take forever to right which I apologize for...again. I have a metric ton of assignments this week, again, but I'll be damned if I don't write a chapter for Halloween. Peace out guys.

Also if there are any suggestions on how to improve this chapter, I'd gladly take it. I need to adjust this at some point but I'm in a position where I neither have the luxury of time nor brain power to see it.