Chapter-30

Ruby, Sigurd

"What do we do?" Blake spoke as Ruby was still processing how they were caught.

Did we get spotted somehow? Ruby thought. Perhaps someone saw them inside the house?

Whatever it is, now wasn't the time to ponder. They had to figure out a way to…

"Escape from this little standoff?" The man's voice spoke as Ruby slightly jumped in surprise.

"Then I must tell you that you have a few seconds before I have you two come out by force. So do execute your plan. Whatever you'll do, I'll put an end to it." The man spoke as they heard guns click.

Ruby could see no other option but to use her semblance again. She nodded to Blake, who nodded back before Ruby fired up her semblance and flew out in a red blur.

Alright, let's…WOAH! Ruby screamed in her mind as a wall of flames suddenly erupted in front of them. Ruby swerved away to avoid the flames before another erupted in front of her, almost singing her. She then noticed that all around her there was a circle of flames.

"Ruby…" Blake spoke worriedly as Ruby floated inside the circle.

"Blake…I think we'll have to go through them." Ruby spoke.

"…Ok. But be quick."

Ruby nodded before dashing towards the boundary. Her aura will take most of the damage, so they should be…

"AAH!" A scream came out of Blake's mouth as soon as Ruby touched the flames. Ruby almost fell numb from the heat of the flames.

"GET BACK IN!" Blake screamed in pain as Ruby dashed back, turning back to humanoid forms as she and Blake had steam coming from their bodies. Ruby could see burns on Blake's arms.

"That was so hot…" Blake rasped out.

"Of course, that isn't normal fire. Your aura wouldn't be able to offer much protection against these flames." The man spoke as he approached them with a number of grunts pointing their guns at them.

"Of course they're here…" They heard someone speak with a sigh as they noticed Perseus, Semiramis and the Knight come up with other people.

A man with blonde hair squinted at them. "These are the ones that managed to best you, Perseus? Really?"

"Castor…don't be so rude." A girl who looked like the boy spoke. "Although, I do have to agree with him. They are inexperienced children."

"Which makes it even worse that Mini-Lancelot lost. I mean…I took them down as well as another two morons without a lot of effort."

Perseus sighed. "I'm not talking about it." He spoke. A tall man in armor stayed silent. Ruby felt a sense of familiarity looking at the armored man. His posture, his expression…they all seemed like she'd seen them before.

"Enough arguments." The man spoke. "It seems another unlikely possibility happened. Perhaps I underestimated your willingness to jump into danger."

Ruby stared defiantly at the calm expression of the man. Although she was feeling a little scared. Perseus, Semiramis, The Knight…all three of them were extremely dangerous from what she knew. And she could only say that the man and the girl as well as another tall man in armor were also very dangerous.

"That's putting it lightly." Perseus spoke from the side.

"…Who are you?" Blake spoke as the man smiled. "You may call me The Carrier, or, the person Perseus reports to. You could say I am the mastermind behind this entire operation."

Ruby and Blake furrowed their eyebrows. It wasn't the lady who used fire? Although…they did see flames so the lady had to be close by.

"Its not Cinder, if you're wondering. She is in the top rung, but she doesn't run the operation. She merely provides connections and helps keep our little patchwork alliance together. The White Fang works with us because she keeps them on a leash, since we are under strict orders not to reveal everything about ourselves to you."

"Cinder…" Ruby spoke. So that's her name.

"You gave her name that easily?" Blake asked in suspicion as The Carrier shrugged. "Its not like Ozpin doesn't already know about her. He's two steps ahead of you and your group of friends when it comes to information regarding Cinder and the organization she works for, the difference is that he has the knowledge and experience to take the right approach with that information. Only problem is that you do not communicate your actions and came here without any support other than yourselves."

"Very foolish." Ruby and Blake noticed someone else arrive. They had long black hair and amber eyes that seemed to brighten with fire, although not as bright as the man's eyes. They wore a red dress with long sleeves, with one hand being black like a grimm's and sporting sharp white claws. This woman, they were able to recognize.

"You're Cinder." Ruby spoke as Cinder smiled. "Well…your guess was right."

"Suspicion was high once I noticed the Stymphalian birds' chips were perfectly fine and our sentries noticed many of their machine guns ruined."

Ruby was relieved and concerned at that. Sun and Neptune were doing their job, but they had attracted suspicion. She hoped they hadn't been caught.

"Should I go capture the culprits?"

"No…one of my observation units is reporting that a fleet of bullheads is heading to Mount Glenn. We don't have anymore time."

Cinder's scroll rang. She frowned looking at it and picked up the call.

"Roman."

"Hey, Fire Bi…I mean boss! I'm in a little pickle over here!"

"…What?"

"Ice Queen and fisticuffs are here trying to send me to sleep. Neo's holding off fisticuffs while Ice Queen is looking for me. Get somebody over here!"

The Carrier looked at the knight. "Mordred."

"Yeah, yeah…I'll go deal with it." Mordred spoke before walking off.

"Now…go to your positions. We need to begin preparations for the enemy. Cinder…" He spoke handing her something. "They're all yours." He spoke before walking off.

"…Well, I'll be off." Perseus spoke with a pensive expression and walking away. Semiramis smiled but didn't say anything and walked off as well. The male twin sniffed in disdain before leaving with the female twin, leaving Ruby and Blake with Cinder and a large number of White Fang grunts.

Ruby and Cinder stared at each other. Cinder's eyes held contempt as she looked down on them with an aura of self-assurance and arrogance.

Blake looked at the grunts worriedly. "Why aren't they saying anything?" She muttered.

"That's thanks to the Carrier. Although they are terrorists…many of them are still young and inexperienced. They still have pointless beliefs they try to stick to, such as being averse to harming their own people. So, to ensure loyalty, we had some chips implanted in their brains…"

Blake's eyes widened before she snarled. "They're not in their right minds, are they?" She spoke. "Even if we are enemies, many of the White fang's soldiers would not be so unhesitant in harming a faunus. So you decided to enslave them to do your bidding, didn't you?!" She demanded.

Ruby's eyes narrowed in anger. They didn't have control over themselves. The thought made Ruby sick. Enemy or not, they did not deserve to lose the ability to think freely. This was their first meeting, yet Cinder was already getting on her nerves more than anyone else.

Cinder chuckled. "Not all of them. To ensure things go smoothly, only a portion of the Vale branch's white fang are under the influence of the chips."

"Why are you doing this? They're already under your control, so why take away their freedom to think?!" Ruby demanded.

"As I said, to ensure absolute loyalty and that their beliefs don't get in the way. But the main reason is that they shouldn't really get the full knowledge of us and our allies. Such a thing would be bad for us. You don't understand, because you're just reckless idiots jumping into a pit you have no idea of. You should have let Ozpin handle this. But like at Nepotain and the warehouses, you decided to come assured of stopping us 'bad people'."

Ruby stayed silent.

"So, I believe now is the time to crush you like the bugs you are. I respect the Carrier, but I think he's been too lenient on you." She spoke as shadow servants arrived.

"You're going to kill us." Ruby spoke.

"Exactly. Now," Cinder spoke turning to the servants, "You know what to do. Make sure you kill them slowly." She spoke stepping back as Ruby and Blake raised their weapons.

"This is really bad, Ruby." Blake spoke worriedly.

"I know, Blake." Ruby replied. "Listen, I will…"

"Shut it, Ruby. I know what you're about to say, and I'm not going to do it. I'm your teammate, and I won't run away. If we're going to have to fight, we'll fight together." Blake spoke as Ruby blinked in shock.

"Blake…"

"No."

Ruby pouted. Blake had a really stubborn look in her eyes. Ruby knew at that moment that nothing she would say would get through Blake.

Well, there goes that plan. She thought before looking back at her scroll. She could send out a distress call, but that would mean giving herself and her team over and be possibly expelled.

Ah, what am I thinking? Getting expelled would be a better outcome than dying here. Ruby thought before closing her eyes and pulling out her scroll to press the emergency button, sending out her distress signal.

"There." Ruby spoke. Now, all they had to do was last long enough before help arrived.

"That was kind of easy." Cú spoke. "I was expecting the base to be a lot well-defended." He spoke as the four servants stood in the main square where the huntsmen had set up defensive positions.

"True. But we must still keep up our guard." Shirou spoke. "Who knows what else does our enemy have with them?"

"Excellent work." Ozpin's voice came in. "But I may have some bad news."

Sigurd sighed. "Yes?"

"Qrow found Sun Wukong and Neptune Vasilias hiding in the outskirts of the city. Which means…"

"…That Team RWBY is here." Sigurd spoke in resignation. Perhaps he had jinxed himself by hoping they hadn't come. Now, his concern skyrocketed. With the amount of phantasmal beasts that they had encountered, it was very dangerous for them to come.

"Those kids sure love jumping into dangerous situations." Cú spoke shaking his head. "Honestly, how did they even find out about this?"

"Most likely eavesdropping on someone. But the question is: where are they?" Tristan spoke.

"…Ozpin. Where are Sun and Neptune?" Sigurd asked.

"Qrow's with them. I'm sending his location. Go there."

Receiving the location, the servants arrived in a broken building where Qrow stood with his arms crossed while Sun and Neptune stood behind him with nervous looks on their faces.

"Qrow, are you fine?" Sigurd asked as Qrow grunted.

"Just stopping myself from socking these two after they decided to let my nieces go behind enemy lines." Qrow replied. "Just…talk to them. My hand's started twitching." He spoke before walking out.

Sigurd looked at Sun and Neptune. "So…"

"Look, it was Ruby's idea! We just wanted to help her out!" Sun immediately spoke.

"Yeah, we couldn't really stop her!"

"Wait…"

"Are they alright?!"

"They have to be, right?! You guys took over the…"

"Would you two shut it?!" Cú snapped as the boys fell silent. "Now, just tell us from the beginning."

The boys recounted their experience till the point they split up.

"So they headed for the railway station, you say?" Sigurd spoke. "Ah, that is the last place in the city still under our enemy's control."

"Which means they are still in danger." Tristan spoke before they heard the sound of a distress call on their scrolls.

"Ozpin?" Sigurd asked.

"Its from Ruby Rose and Blake Belladonna. I suspect they are in severe danger."

"Shit! We need to get to them, now!" Cú exclaimed.

"We do. But I am seeing more enemies approaching the city. Clearly another horde of monsters sent by the enemy. We can't afford to ignore that."

"We don't. Me and Lancer will go rescue Team RWBY. Tristan and Shirou will stay back to defend our positions."

"You will be outnumbered." Shirou pointed out.

"It shouldn't matter. We'll be clearing the way for the rest of our forces. We just need to secure Ruby and Blake and get them to safety." Sigurd spoke. "Come on."

Cú nodded and the two servants went to leave.

"Good luck!" Shirou called out as Sigurd nodded back. They then took off, heading towards the railway station.

"So, now its us and Torchwick." Yang spoke as she and Weiss looked down at the multitude of White Fang grunts. Ruby and Blake had managed to go down to the underground railroad.

Good luck, Rubes. Yang thought.

"So, Weiss Cream. What's the plan?" Yang spoke with a grin. "We go in swinging?"

Weiss looked at her. "While I highly doubt we can lose against the white fang soldiers, don't you think Torchwick will run away if he hears the sounds of us fighting?"

"Oh, good point."

"We can keep a low profile until the remote's out." Weiss spoke. "Now come on, after him."

The girls got up and slowly went down the staircase.

"Honestly, all this is freaky to me." They heard one grunt tell another. "Just where did these guys even come from? They've got these weird monsters who don't look anything like the grimm. Its as if I'm in some sort of fairytale."

"Just ignore it. We're just with these guys until Vale's fallen."

"But still…I've seen what those monsters can do. Those giant ugly guys who can freeze a room by just breathing in it, those giant robots, those little guys that do all that hocus pocus bullshit…I don't like it."

"Are you questioning Adam's decisions?"

"What? No! I'm just saying…Ah, forget it." The grunt spoke sighing as the other grunt walked off. "Fight for your rights on your own, they said. I swear this is going to backfire on us one day." He muttered before walking off as well.

Yang and Weiss exchanged glances before continuing forward. They went through the door Torchwick went through, finding themselves in a hallway.

The two girls continued walking through the hallway, watching for any white fang grunts. They peeked into offices, looking for Torchwick, until they finally stopped in front of one door.

"Oh boy, Torchie, you really got yourself put in a pickle over here." Weiss and Yang heard Torchwick speak from inside.

"Fire ladies, weird armored guys…and girls, and monsters that don't look anything like grimm. Sure, the pay's good, but damn do I feel like a rat caught in a stampede. At least I have some insurance with this remote."

Weiss nodded to Yang before she raised the door to kick the door open.

But before she could do so, Weiss grabbed her shoulder.

"DUCK!" She yelled as something stabbed at where Yang's neck had been. Weiss stabbed Myrtenaster somewhere behind Yang and the space shattered into glasses, revealing a girl who was even shorter than Ruby.

She had the colour scheme of a Neopolitan ice cream, with pink and brown hair, pink and brown eyes and mostly white clothing.

The girl pouted before smirking as she unfolded a pink parasol and placed it on her shoulder, looking at the two with a cocky smile.

"You really thought you could sneak up on me, girls?" Torchwick spoke walking out of the office. "That time at Nepotain was only a rare case. Otherwise…Neo's always by my side."

"Hand over the remote, Torchwick." Weiss stated as Torchwick laughed.

"Oh gods! I didn't know you watched cheesy action movies, Ice Queen!" He spoke chuckling. "I thought you Schnees were over such 'uncivilized acts'."

Weiss narrowed her eyes and she raised Myrtenaster. Torchwick smiled before pointing his cane and pressing the trigger.

However, instead of a bullet, smoke came out, obstructing Yang and Weiss' vision.

"Weiss! Go get Torchwick! I'll handle whoever this is!" Yang exclaimed as Weiss nodded before running off.

Yang noticed Neo was gone and fired a burn dust round in the space behind Weiss, immediately Neo flipped away from the explosion and levelled an annoyed glare at Yang.

"You're not leaving. I'm your opponent." Yang spoke raising her fists.

Neo tilted her head before a bloodthirsty grin formed on her lips.

Weiss ran through the hallway, chasing Torchwick. Torchwick rounded a corner and Weiss did so, only to yelp as a bunch of dust rounds flew at her face. Weiss hastily put up a glyph as the rounds exploded against it, sending her through the wooden wall and into an office.

Weiss groaned as she got up. Thankfully, her crashing through the wall didn't do much damage to her aura.

"Look, Ice Queen! Your future workplace at the SDC!" Torchwick taunted as he continued to run.

Weiss grit her teeth and placed a time dilation glyph to enhance her speed. She moved quickly, dodging and weaving past Torchwick's dust rounds. Weiss twisted to dodge another round before pirouetting to send a wave of ice towards Torchwick, who shot the ice before it could reach him.

"Not so fast, Ice Queen! It'll take a lot more than that to catch me." Torchwick spoke before yelping as Weiss suddenly appeared in front of him, Myrtneaster landing a good hit on his aura.

It'll take a lot more than that to rile me up. Weiss thought. She only acted snappy on her first day because both Ruby and Blake caught her off-guard. This time, however, she had her guard up.

Torchwick swung his cane as Weiss nimbly hopped back, creating a gravitation glyph that pulled Torchwick down before Myrtenaster hit him with another devastating stab.

"Gah!" Torchwick backpedalled as Weiss went to attack him before a large hand grabbed her by the throat and slammed her face into the wall before throwing her back. Weiss blinked out the spots dancing in front of her eyes before getting a good look of her attacker.

They were white fang, but a lot taller than the other grunts and holding a massive chainsaw.

Torchwick picked up his scroll.

"Hey, Fire Bi…I mean boss! I'm in a little pickle over here!"

"…"

"Ice Queen and fisticuffs are here trying to send me to sleep. Neo's holding off fisticuffs while Ice Queen is looking for me. Get somebody over here!"

"…"

Torchwick put down his scroll. "Boss is sending someone over. Hold her off." He spoke before running off.

"That won't be necessary." The large white fang grunt spoke before chuckling. "This is going to be so much fun."

Weiss pointed Myrtenaster at him as the grunt levelled his chainsaw. "Now, little Schnee. Know that you're about to be in a world of pain. That I, Lieutenant Banesaw, can promised you." He spoke before charging at Weiss.

Neo stood with a grin as Yang came towards her with her right fist aimed towards her face. Neo twisted to dodge the punch before hooking her parasol onto Yang's arm and yanking Yang off-balance, landing a spinning kick on Yang's stomach and sending her into the wall.

That surprisingly hurt. Yang thought launching herself off the wall at Neo, who dodged her charge again. Yang followed up with another punch which Neo blocked with her parasol and pushing it aside, kicking at Yang's shin. Yang stepped back to avoid the kick and shot burn dust rounds. Neo unfurled her parasol and blocked the rounds before sidestepping Yang's following punch again.

Damn it! She's a lot more slippery than grey dude! Yang thought in frustration as Neo's parasol struck her back. Yang held her ground and lashed out with another punch which Neo dodged before a boot struck Yang's jaw, knocking her to the ground.

Yang rolled away as Neo's flipped around to slam her foot to the ground and quickly raised her arms to block the following kick. Yang jumped from her crouched position and shoulder-checked Neo, but the girl flipped back and quickly unfurled her parasol to block another round, quickly dashing forward to have the next round explode in Yang's face.

Yang closed her eyes as they burned from the heat and felt the parasol strike her stomach and nose before a boot hit her in the nose again and kicked her in the stomach, knocking her down.

Yang opened her eyes to see Neo's boot coming down on her and grabbed it, throwing the girl away before her hair lit up in flames as she punched the ground, which erupted in flames as Neo was knocked slightly off-balance, this time being unable to block a furious Yang's punch and was launched through the wall. Yang went into the office and leaned back to avoid a kick as Neo quickly went behind a desk.

Yang heard a distress call ring on her scroll and her eyes widened.

Ruby. She thought. Ruby was in danger!

I can't waste more time on her! Yang thought. By now, she'd gotten a better idea of Neo's moveset.

Yang tried to go around her, but Neo moved away from her, hiding behind the desk in a game of cat and mouse. Yang let out a frustrated yell before driving her fist into the desk and smashing it into smithereens, uncaring for the splinters that hit her.

Neo parried her punches, flipping her parasol to block and parry and responding with kicks and swings, but now her attacks weren't working on Yang as effectively as they did earlier. While earlier Yang was stunned from her counterattacks, now she shook her head before continuing her onslaught.

Neo tried to hook her parasol with Yang's arm.

Oh not this time, you little shit! Yang thought yanking her arm back, turning the tables on Neo as her free hand cracked against Neo's jaw, shattering her aura and sending her to the floor.

Neo looked at her with eyes wide in shock as Yang raised her fist to deliver the finishing blow. But before she could swing, Neo wrapped her legs around Yang's and tripped her up, flipping around to kick Yang away as she got up.

Yang's flames faded as her semblance faded away. Her aura was low from the fight, but she didn't care.

I have to get to Ruby! She thought getting up and noticing Neo run towards her. Yang swung again but Neo slid under her punch and wrapped her arm around Yang's stomach, flipping around to forcefully spin Yang to make her lose balance. Once she gained control, Neo leaned back, using whatever strength she had to lift Yang up with her leg and hand on the ground in support, and launching Yang through the wall. Yang tumbled back into the hallway and lay there, her aura shattered.

Yang tried to get up but Neo kick her in the face to lay her on her back before planting her boot on Yang's stomach, knocking the wind out of her.

Yang grit her teeth and tried to get up, but her semblance had consumed too much of her energy and she couldn't shake Neo off her.

Neo grabbed her parasol and a thin blade slid out of it. Yang's eyes widened as Neo grabbed her blade in reverse grip and raised it.

But before she could bring it down, Yang heard sounding of something ripping open before a familiar red blur dashed towards her and Neo at blinding speeds.

It's the same one. Yang thought as the same red sword that saved her from the beowolf when she was little swung at Neo, the girl managing to dodge just in time to avoid getting cut in half and flipping back before her eyes widened in fear.

Yang noticed a woman in a red mistralan kimono with black shorts and red gauntlets on her forearms. Her face was covered by a mask resembling that of a grimm. In her hands was the red sword.

Yang recognized her from the pictures…

"…Mom?" Yang rasped out but the woman did not glance her way. Neo's eyes were wide with fear as she turned to run, but noticed the other direction being blocked by what looked like Professor Saber, whose face was covered by a fearsome black mask with two horns jutting out and two glowing blue lights staring at her mother with no emotion. Professor Saber in that mask looked as if some terrible monster was snarling at her.

Neo vanished from sight but Professor Saber's hand shot out and grabbed at air, shattering Neo's illusion and grabbing her by the throat.

"Laguz." He spoke inscribing a symbol on Neo's head before she fell limp in his grip and the professor dropped her.

They stared at each other before her mother swung her blade to open a portal behind her.

"Wait!" Yang spoke as she tried to get up. "Mo…"

"I'm not going to harm her." Her mother spoke looking at Professor Saber. "Besides, I can tell that trying to fight you will mean a really difficult fight for me." She spoke before finally looking at Yang.

"If you want answers, then have patience. You will get them later." She spoke before stepping through the portal.

"hold on! Get back!" Yang yelled as the portal vanished.

She left me again…She thought in anger as her eyes turned crimson before a hand fell on her shoulder.

Yang tensed before looking at Professor Saber, whose mask collapsed to reveal his face with its usual neutral expression, although Yang could see a little relief.

"You're…here?"

"The siege has begun. And you girls are in trouble when we get back. But that's for later. You are thankfully safe. Where are the others?" Professor Saber asked as Yang's eyes widened.

"Ruby…" She spoke in realization. "Ruby's in danger!"

"I know."

"Then what are we waiting for?!" Yang spoke going to get up.

"Your aura is shattered, Ms. Xiao-Long. And if your sister has gone where I think she has gone, then you'll be putting yourself in danger." He spoke as Professor Lancer came up.

"Take her to safety. I'll go look for Ms. Schnee." He spoke as Professor Lancer helped her up.

"Wait! I can help!" Yang spoke desperately as she struggled in Professor Lancer's arms.

"Kid…"

"My sister's in there!" She screamed as Professor Saber looked back. "You've done enough, Yang." He spoke pressing his finger and gently inscribing something.

"Laguz." He spoke before Yang's world went black.

Weiss began with launching ice shards as Banesaw, who raised the flat side of his chainsaw to block them before swinging down his chainsaw to hit Weiss.

His chainsaw hit a hard-light shield, staggering Banesaw as Weiss stabbed at his chest multiple times before swinging Myrtenaster to cut a gash in his aura.

Banesaw stumbled back and growled, wildly swinging his chainsaw at Weiss, who gracefully dodged his swings before blocking a swing with Myrtenaster, sparks flying off as the chainsaw's teeth whirred against Myrtenaster's blade before Weiss stepped in and spun around to stab Banesaw in the chest.

"What the…?! How is that little pointy stick so strong!" He exclaimed in frustration.

Truth be told, Weiss herself had no idea how Myrtenaster's durability was so high. All she knew of her blade was that the 'best weaponsmith on remnant' forged it for grandmother Sophia as a birthday present.

Weiss pushed those thoughts away as Banesaw almost got her with a swing, Weiss managing to duck in time.

Weiss felt her back hit the wall and her eyes widened before she quickly dashed away as Banesaw's chainsaw tore through the wall.

Weiss cast a time dilation glyph to increase her speed as several glyphs formed around the incarcerated Banesaw. Weiss was a white blur as she streaked past Banesaw at extreme speeds, landing multiple severe blows before appearing behind Banesaw.

Banesaw swung his chainsaw behind him which Weiss again duck under before swinging Myrtenaster and following it with a stab. Both connected and Weiss jumped back from the staggered Banesaw to send two waves of fire and exploded against him.

Banesaw collapsed to the ground in pain, his back smoking as Weiss charged at him. But as she got closer, Weiss noticed something on his now exposed back and her eyes widened.

SDC…? She thought as she lost track of her surroundings, her mind focussed on what was on his back.

The words SDC on burnt flesh.

Weiss couldn't see more as Banesaw's hand wrapped around around her face, a furious expression on his face.

"SCHNEE!" He roared picking Weiss up and slamming her to the ground multiple times before raising his two arms and slamming them down on Weiss.

Weiss lay on the ground with bruises on her face and blood running down the corner of her mouth. Her vision was blurry and her ears were ringing. She could feel something was broken in her body, as her abdomen felt like it was burning from even the smallest of twitches.

Yet, the same thought was in Weiss' mind.

What…was…that? She thought.

"…My back. You little bitch." She could hear Banesaw say something before he knelt down to grab Weiss before a black blur appeared, a fist cracking across banesaw's jaw and shattering his mask as the grunt flew back.

Weiss noticed the faint figure of Professor Saber stand protectively over her.

Sigurd glared at the faunus from his mask. Again, he had arrived in the nick of time. The Allfather knows what would have happened to Weiss if he hadn't arrived.

The faunus' expression shifted into what seemed like a glare, but it was unclear from how disfigured his face was. Sigurd estimated his punch had shattered the faunus' jaw, his nose and his cheekbone. His face was completely covered in blood as pieces of his mask were stuck on his face. One of his eyes were also pierced

"Schne…" He spoke with a bestial snarl. "SCHNEE!" He yelled charging towards him, but Gram was out in a flash, cutting the faunus' chainsaw in half as Sigurd shoulder checked him before punching his daggers to pin the faunus to the wall.

"Schnee!" The faunus yelled struggling against his daggers as Sigurd knelt down to help up Weiss.

Weiss winced. "My ribs…" She spoke as Sigurd applied structural analysis.

Her ribs are broken. She's sustained other injuries as well. He thought before inscribing an Uruz rune to heal her.

"Kennaz. Laguz." He spoke as he looked at her mental state.

Fear. He observed. Weiss was radiating a lot of fear.

"Ms. Schnee? Is everything alright?" He asked as Weiss stared at him blankly.

"SDC…" She muttered as Sigurd sighed before putting her to sleep with a Laguz rune.

Cú came up. "little ice queen's sleeping?" He asked as Sigurd nodded.

"Something has terrified her a lot." He spoke as Cú looked at the snarling Banesaw behind him and whistled. "Was that you?"

Sigurd nodded.

"Well damn. Even though you're very calm and stoic for someone from Lochlann, I can see that infamous Lochlannach brutality."

Sigurd snorted. "History tends to paint us that way. I still think you Gaels are a bit more crazier."

Cú laughed. "That we are. Now let's move. We've still got two more lasses to save." He spoke as Sigurd called his daggers back to him.

"SCHNEE!" The faunus yelled again crawling towards them as the two hurried out of the hallway, leaving them with nothing but Banesaw's enraged screams.

But as they came out, they found people waiting for them. Sigurd saw the knight, the Dioscuri and Perseus.

"Good day, Sigurd Sigmundsson and Cú Chulainn." Perseus greeted. "Good thing Mordred didn't charge in when she spotted you while coming to help Torchwick

"Oh, great its you again." Cú spoke. "You three got your asses handed to you by my buddy over here. And with me here, you really think you stand a chance?"

"Shut up, you irish cunt!" The knight snapped. "We got beaten up, but we almost had him."

Cú frowned. "Ok, you've got a point. But you still are…"

"Lancer." Sigurd cut in urgently. "Now's not the time for banter." He spoke. Ruby and Blake were in danger. But he also noticed that they couldn't get Weiss to safety without getting past these three.

Cú frowned. "You're right, sorry. Leave Ice queen here. I'll deal with them."

Sigurd looked at him. "Cú…"

"We still have two others to rescue. Don't worry. I've got plenty of experience in dealing with multiple opponents." He spoke as Sigurd gently placed Weiss down and headed down, leaving Cú to deal with the others.

"You're going to let him go?" Castor spoke as Perseus nodded. "He's not our target, Castor. This barbarian celt is."

"Hey! This 'barbarian celt' is more than enough to take on you scrawny Greeks!" Cú spoke before frowning. "For some reason, that felt really wrong."

"Don't forget about me." The knight spoke.

"Right, you!" Cú spoke before frowning. "You feel really familiar…as if I've fought you or someone related to you in the past."

"…I don't know what you're saying, but we haven't met before!"

Cú shrugged. "Eh, maybe we fought in some holy grail war back home on Earth." He spoke before grinning. "And I'm pretty sure I must have gotten you." He spoke taking a stance.

"Enough with this nonsense. Let's take him down already." Castor spoke as Cú readied himself, standing over Weiss' sleeping form before letting out a cry as he charged at the three servants.

Blake panted heavily as she cut down another shadow servant. It felt like hours since she and Ruby had begun fighting, cutting down shadow servants while dodging bullets from the white fang grunts. It was going well at first, and Blake had hoped that they would be able to hold out.

But soon, fatigue started taking over. Despite being so weak, the shadow servants were no slouches in combat skill and it took a lot of Blake and Ruby's energy to take them down. Not to mention the grunts firing at them. Ruby had begun using stun rounds to get them but Blake couldn't for some reason.

Whenever she tried to shoot, she found herself unable to pull the trigger towards the grunts. Her arms simply froze up whenever gambol shroud was pointed at a grunt. Blake couldn't understand why, but she just couldn't muster the courage to raise arms on her own people, so she focussed on the shadow servants.

With all these factors, Ruby and Blake both received painful hits to their aura. Yet they could not afford to stop and continued to fight.

Blake could glare at Cinder, who watched the entire fight with a satisfied smirk. Blake wanted nothing but to wipe that smirk off, after what she did to her fellow faunuses.

Yet they couldn't get past the seemingly endless horde of enemies. No matter how many they put down, others took their place.

"Stop." Cinder spoke as the onslaught stopped, giving Blake a good look of their state.

Their clothes had several cuts from the hits they received from the shadow servants, some had even drawn blood. Ruby stood with clear pain in her eyes as her face shone with sweat. Ruby staggered and fell to her knees from exhaustion. Blake knew Ruby had used up a lot more energy than she did, as was evident from her better performance against the horde of enemies.

"Ruby…come on…" Blake spoke panting as she knelt next to her leader. "We…can't stop." She spoke.

"I'm so…tired…" Ruby replied. "It's…not ending…"

Blake heard a giggle and glared at Cinder with rage in her eyes. "You have a surprising amount of tenacity. I applaud you on that. But…as you can see, you are little girls with no idea of the power you are fighting against. Just accept it." She spoke.

"We're…not surrendering…" Ruby spoke with her eyes shining like steel with determination.

Cinder only smiled. "Still have some fight left in you? Well, then we'll have to continue this a little bit longer." She spoke. As the grunts raised their guns.

"Goodbye."

"Ruby…get up!" Blake spoke as Ruby struggled, propping herself up on Crescent Rose. But before the both of them could continue…

"Algiz." Someone spoke as the grunts' bullets bounced off an invisible shield. Four daggers took down shadow servants as Professor Saber jumped in, looking at the shadow servants from a snarling mask.

"Professor…" Ruby spoke in relief. Blake smiled.

"Algiz." Professor Saber spoke stabbing Gram into the ground as a shockwave knocked the shadow servants and grunts back. The grunts fell unconscious and Professor Saber sprung into action, cutting down shadow servants very quickly. Blake and Ruby stared in awe as their Professor wiped out the entire group of shadow servants.

Professor Saber is perhaps the most strongest and most skilled person I've ever seen in my life. Blake thought as Professor Saber's glowing blue eyes stared at the dissolving bodies of the servants,

"You!" Cinder growled as her face twisted into anger, her left arm igniting. "I haven't forgotten what you did to me, Sigurd."

"After knowing what all you have done in this city alongside the rogue servants, I am disappointed I wasn't able to kill you that day." Professor Saber spoke as Blake's and Ruby's eyes widened.

"Well, you're going to regret that." Cinder snarl before her grimm arm shot towards Professor Saber.

Professor Saber charged forward as her arm bounced off his armor, punching daggers as Cinder yelled in pain, staggering back. Blake swore Professor Saber's eyes glowed as he brought Gram forward for a clearly fatal blow. Cinder's eyes were wide as her expression turned to one of fear.

"Wait!" Blake spoke but a silver blur jumped in front of Cinder and Gram slammed against a silver longsword, sending a shock wave that blew Blake's hair back.

Blake's eyes widened as Professor Saber stood in a deadlock with the same armored man, with his silver hair matching Professor Saber's. His eyes were the same shade of blue like Professor Saber's and his silver armor glinted while his chest had a design glowing blue on it.

In that moment, Blake felt like she was looking at two Professor Saber's as the armored man pushed Professor Saber back.

"What…?" Blake heard Professor Saber speak, hearing him surprised for the first time.

"Is it me or does he look like Professor Saber…?" Ruby spoke in surprise as Cinder's fear turned back to her usual confidence.

"You are a powerful warrior, Sigurd. The Carrier says that most of the servants you fought so far aren't much of a challenge. So…we called in someone who is more of a match for you. You could say…we called in you to fight you."

Cinder spread her arms in glee. "Sigurd Sigmundsson, hero of the Völsung clan…" She spoke as the man stared at Professor Saber with a stoic expression.

"…Meet Siegfried."

A/N: Well, here I thought 'Perfect! I'm going to get a free week to upload chapters!' and then my school mercilessly piles up work on my back. Then, came the weekend, which was the time for Durga Puja. I'm a Shakta Hindu, so Durga Puja is as important to us Shakta Hindus as Christmas is to Christians. There was a five-day break and I thought 'Ok, I can do something during that time', since my family has this tradition of visiting numerous 'pandals' or pavilions to see various idols of Durga, Ganesha, Lakshmi, Saraswati and Kartikeya and I would have some time to write. But we visited a lot more pandals than usual, and I was out of my house for the entire day. So, all my plans were dashed.

But, I was able to finish Atlantis, and I think it had the best story of the LB arcs so far. I'm right now playing through Olympus. As for Genshin Impact, I'm almost done with the Inazuma storyline. I actually enjoyed the challenge in Signora's boss fight with the hot and cold meters, because I did not have a single shielder in my team due to my F2P status. However, I had my Lv. 60 Anemo traveller dealing the damage to Signora, my Lv. 40 Kuki with her elemental skill and Traveler's handy sword healing my Traveler within seconds, My Xiangling sacrificing herself to get through Signora's ice cocoon face and my Barbara coming in with a clutch by saving my entire team with her elemental burst. Now, comes the Ei boss fight. I'm excited for that.

This chapter was a pain to write because it involved stealth segments that I really don't like writing.

Going into the chapter, The Carrier is partially revealed. I've been dropping a lot of hints as to who The Carrier is since the beginning of this story, so if you have been paying close attention to the details, you can tell who he is.

Regarding the fights, I noticed Neo actually doesn't use her blade at all. I am so used to seeing her fights in the Atlas arc that I forgot Hush's blade is only for delivering the killing blow, while the parasol is just for parrying and opening up the opponents' guard so that Neo can counterattack. Again, damn you RT for almost having me write Neo's fight scene like that.

Also, as you can see, Sigurd has his mask on. In case you're wondering, its still his 3rd ascension, except instead of glasses, Sigurd is wearing his mask from the 1st ascension.

In Weiss' fight, I didn't realize Banesaw is the lieutenant's name given by Coeur in his works. So, oops. Moving on, I decided that maybe poor Weiss shouldn't go on a losing streak like she does in canon. Well, she did lose, but that's because of the reveal that Banesaw has an SDC brand on his back. Otherwise I guarantee Weiss would have won.

Lastly, Hey Siefriedfan1999! If you're reading this, This is why I was laughing at your review back then. I was like 'Hm, It would be a great idea to introduce Siegfried as more of an enemy to foil Sigurd's strength' and then a few minutes later comes your review. So here you go! Siegfried's not the MC of this story, but at least he IS there.

Hope you guys enjoyed and constructive criticism is appreciated!

Content analysis:

Lochlan and Lochlannach: Its what the people of Ireland called the Scandinavians.

Gaels: It refers to Celts, but I highly doubt the Vikingrs actually used the term. Just roll with it.

Laguz: Alongside being the Rune of water, Laguz also represents 'dreams'. So it can be used to cast a sleeping spell.

Kennaz. Laguz: One of Kennaz's meanings is 'vision' while another one of Laguz's meanings is 'emotions'. So these runes can be combined to be able to 'see' a person's emotions if you focus on that purpose.

Response to Reviews:

Stickmanreader: Thank you so much. I try not to let positive reviews get to my head, but it still feels so nice to hear someone praise my story.