Disclaimer: All characters belong to Rooster Teeth Productions

Co-Authored with ToxicExotic

Overwhelming Odds

"I've got you." Ruby breathed, leaning down to pick up somebody she couldn't make out. "Keep going!"

Spinning around, she lashed out with her scythe, its sharp blade tearing clean though a Beowolf that had leapt at her. Unable to see much in the inky blackness, she extended her aura as far as she could to make sure nobody was behind her. Sensing nobody else, she turned on her heel and followed the flashlights ahead of her.

Growing up on Patch, she'd heard many horrific sounds in her life. It hadn't been that uncommon to hear vicious growls and haunting howls drifting through the windows; nor had it been rare to hear the occasional scream as someone happened across the source. As such, Ruby thought that she would be prepared for the sounds of battle that would no doubt be the soundtrack of her near future.

If only she'd known just how wrong she was.

Those howls, those screams; they were nothing. The growls and snarls were no longer barred by walls, instead nipping at their heels in an attempt to bring down anyone they could. The dark road around her was filled with the screams of the people unfortunate enough to be dragged down by the Grimm, and with no distance between herself and the gore as there was back home, the sound stuck in her head far longer than it did in the air.

Kali had been right. It had barely been a minute after Prince's death that the first pack of Beowolves had shown up, and only a few more before the entire clearing had been swarmed. Nevermores and Griffons had descended from the sky, Creeps and Centinals had burrowed up from the ground, and all manner of other Grimm had surrounded them on all sides. It had taken almost ten minutes to clear a path to the road and three guards had been snatched in the process, but with no other choice, the decision had been made to run straight to Securay.

Thankfully it wasn't much further. They could already see the lights in the distance, and having already crossed the border of the dead zone, a call to the village had already been made so Ruby knew that the defences were being readied. All they needed to do was get there. Unfortunately, with a horde on their tail, that was easier said than done, especially given how tired she was.

Her body had still yet to even recover from her interaction with the Chill. There was still a general feeling of unease and numbness to her body, so much so that every swing of her scythe made her feel that it was slipping from her grip. However, even worse was the guilt. Her mind was still racing, and she knew the memory of Petilly crying over her brother's corpse would be etched into her brain forever. As was the memory of what her actions had forced Blake to do; but before she could even process and come to terms with any of it, she'd been forced to bury it and focus on the mission.

To do anything else would cause even more lives to be lost.

Lifting her sniper, she took out a Griffon that had dived at the group. That was one thing to be thankful for at least. Though she was unable to see any members of the group for more than a second, the dark fur and scales of the Grimm stood out rather prominently against the darkness. While it was nowhere near as easy to track them as it was in the daytime, their silhouettes and gleaming red at least made it so that they weren't impossible to see.

Slicing through a few more, she finally caught up with the group and found herself next to a familiar feeling aura.

"Weiss!" She panted. "We need to see what's back there!"

"On it!" The girl huffed.

A large glyph formed in front of them, and out of it burst Weiss' giant Queen Lancer, its bright white light covering the entire crowd of people. In the split second that it hovered over them, Ruby was given the first clear look at their group since they had left the cabin. Ghira and Yang were up front, the former pulling the cart in which Petilly, Dotty, and her grandson sat inside of; as well as Prince's body. Blake, Ilia, and Saber ran alongside them, defending them from whatever Grimm came their way and using their night vision to keep everyone on the road. Kali brought up the rear and led the other civilians, while the quickly thinning guard tried their best to surround and protect them.

The light only lasted a second however, and the Queen lancer immediately took off towards the horde of red eyes that were behind them. Unfortunately, as it reached them and illuminated the Grimm, Ruby felt a pit in the bottom of her stomach. There were far more than she had thought.

Beowolves, Boarbatusks, Creeps, Howlers, Berserkers, Deathstalkers, and many more that she couldn't make out. In their attempts to reach the group, they all crawled over and knocked each other aside, the constant rippling of the horde looking more like a wave of tar than anything resembling animals. The second the Lancer reached the horde it was swallowed, and the light was extinguished.

"Well?"

"Not good." Ruby breathed, knowing that there was no way they could take on so many Grimm. "We have to slow them down."

"On it!" Another glyph was produced and Allie the Beowolf emerged at Weiss' side. "I need a base."

"Got it."

As Weiss hopped up onto the summon, Ruby activating her semblance and petal burst ahead to the cart. Averting her eyes away from Prince's covered body, she grabbed a tube of water Dust.

"All of it?" She called to her partner..

"Yes!"

Hurling the vial backwards, she raised her weapon and switched her scope to night vision mode. Finding the canister, she fired off a round and caused the container to rupture. Blue Dust glittered across the sky for a second before erupting into a large wall of water. As it rushed towards the ground and sprayed them with a mist, large glyphs appeared along it and the entire thing quickly began to freeze over. While plenty of Grimm managed to avoid it, the sickening sound of flesh hitting the hard ice filled the air and Ruby knew that they had at least succeeded in buying themselves a few minutes.

Taking one last glance at Petily, who was huddled up in her brother's cloak, Ruby jumped down from the cart and rejoined her partner in defending the convoy.

Ruby was not prepared for the bright lights that greeted her as she burst through the treeline and into the clearing. Covering her eyes from the floodlight, she looked up at the twenty feet wall and felt a large sense of relief rush through her. They had made it. She'd never been so happy to see a wall before, but before she could take a moment to appreciate it, a male voice boomed over them, filling the clearing and causing the leaves on the surrounding trees to shake.

"GET DOWN!" Dropping to the floor, Ruby saw twenty tiny lights flare to life ahead of her from holes in the wall. "FIRE!"

Flashes of blue, red, and yellow lit up the wall as the turrets within fired into the trees. Looking over her shoulder, she saw the gleaming red eyes blink out of existence one by one until there was nothing left but darkness.

"POWER DOWN!" The voice shouted again.

"NO!" Pushing herself up to her feet, she sprinted over to the wall and quickly found the source of the voice inside a small bunker beside the gate. "Don't power down! There's more. A lot more!"

The man surveyed her through his monocle, which was flitting back and forth between different images of the clearing, and gave a short nod.

"Engage the rotary field and raise the southern gate." He said hurriedly into his Scroll before turning back to her. "Escort your people inside. Have you any fighters, your aid defending the wall would be appreciated."

Hearing a loud buzzing to her left as the thick metal gate began to rise, she ran back over to the group and began to usher them towards safety. As she did, she saw small posts lift from the ground on the edge of the forest and a thin pale blue light began to run from one post to another. Recognising it as hard light, she watched a Beowolf try to run through it, only for it's paws to be sliced off. As it skidded to a stop, Ilia lashed out with her whip and shoved the tip through its eye.

"Yang?" She called, running over to her sister. "Get th- ARGHH!"

She only managed to make it halfway before a fully grown Nevermore slammed down next to the blonde and unfolded its wings with an ear-piercing caw. The force of the impact blew everyone nearby off their feet, and the contents of the cart were scattered across the area as the truck bed rolled over. The beast itself was almost as tall as the village's wall, and a thick plate of white armor covered its face.

"Ruby!" She heard Weiss shout worriedly as she corrected herself. "The crystal!"

"Huh?"

Shaking her head and looking over at the wreckage, she saw the Dust canisters rolling along the ground. While most of them looked fine, one of them was starting to emit a yellow glow from the small window on the side. That was definitely not a good sign.

"I got it." Ruby replied and tried to grab the vial.

Unfortunately, just as she reached out for it, large feathers slammed into the ground in front of her and she was forced to jump backwards as more flew past her ear and slammed into the wall. Another shriek left the oversized bird as it moved to stand over the vial. A whirring filled the air and the turrets turned on it and opened fire, but the thick feathers merely repelled them.

"Yang." Ruby called, getting the attention of her sister who tossed aside a feather that had almost struck Dotty in the chest. "Me and you are on the Nevermore. Weiss, Blake; you two focus on getting everyone inside the village."

"Got it." Both Weiss and Blake replied, rushing to help pick up the people who had fallen from the cart.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that the Grimm had wisened up to the hard light tripwire and had begun to jump over it; but even as they did, the faunus guard and fighters from the village engaged them. So, with the smaller Grimm being handled, she prepared herself to take on the larger one.

"What's the plan, Rubes?" Yang asked, throwing the giant feather in her hand at the large avian, only for it to glance off the faceplate.

"Keep it distracted."

On her order, Yang reared her fist back and fired off an explosive shot, striking the hard armor of the Nevermore and creating a black cloud. With it's sight obscured, Ruby ran to the side and climbed onto its wings. With a swing of her scythe, she cut through the bird's flight feathers. A shriek of pain left it, but as its head turned to face her, Yang fired off another shot and its head swung back to slam its sharp beak into the ground where the girl had been standing only seconds ago. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Ruby dashed over to the other wing and clipped those feather's too.

With another loud shriek, the bird began to flap its wings. Despite it not doing anything to help it fly, the action itself was still powerful enough that Ruby's feet were swept out from underneath her. As she fell to the ground, a powerful wing clipped her shoulder and sent her crashing into the dirt, where she felt her aura flicker. After hours spent running and fighting and using her semblance, she knew there wasn't much left.

"You oka-"

"I'm fine." Ruby grumbled into her earpiece and pushed herself to her feet. "It's grounded, I just need an opening."

"Rear up into guillotine?"

"Sound's g-"

Ruby was cut off as the bird let out another loud shriek that rattled her bones. Clearly realising that it could no longer fly, it began to lash out at Yang with it's clawed wings. Trusting the girl to handle it, Ruby replaced her magazine with a gravity Dust one and got in position while Yang smacked the claws and beak aside. After a couple of seconds though, instead of dodging a strike, Yang's hand came out to meet it.

Her hair glowing gold, and Ruby felt the impact blow through her own as the woman caught the claw, twisting her body to stretch the wing out as far as possible. With the wing extended and the hard feather's parted, Ruby saw a straight path to the soft flesh beneath and shot towards it, shearing through the wing and causing the avian to rear up and let out a cry of pain.

"Now!" Ruby called as she landed.

Springing into a backflip, Ruby lodged her feet between Crescent Rose's fangs and shaft. Feeling the nuzzle meet something metal, she looked back and saw Yang's fist pressed against it, the arms pulling back until the back of the blade rested against her chest. Once again, her hair shone like the sun and she lashed out. Her arm shot forward and there was a loud bang as Ember Celica shot off a round.

The world turned into nothing but a blur of color. Blacks, greens, reds, and whites all rushed past her, all blending together as she shot towards the Nevermore. WIth each pull of her trigger, the colours merged more, and finally everything came to a stop. The blade made contact with the corvian's neck, and though the hard feathers gave some resistance, one last gravity round proved too much for them to handle. Hearing the ring of metal in the air as Crescent Rose slipped free on the other side of the bird's neck, Ruby activated her semblance and rushed towards the ground. Grabbing the lightning crystal, she dodged out of the way just in time as the heavy body slumped to the floor and began to disintegrate.

Looking over the canister, she was thankful to see that there was no breach; and while the crystal was emitting more light than it had previously, it still seemed to be safe… as safe as it could be at least. Slipping the canister into her back pouch, she turned around and sniped a Beowolf that had jumped at Ghira from behind.

"I've got the crystal." She relayed to her team. "Is everyone inside?"

"Everyone except Mrs Fern." Blake replied. "But we can't find her anywhere."

"She was taken before we got here." Saber replied, his words causing Ruby's stomach to churn. "The civilians are safe. Just focus on defending the wall."

Though she hated to admit it, Ruby knew the man was right. She wished she could go and search for the missing woman, maybe even bring her back if she could, but she knew that was impossible. She had no idea how long it had been since she was taken, or what had even taken her. Not to mention that the last time she'd gone against Saber's orders, she'd only made the situation worse. So, deciding it was better to obey orders for once rather than give them, she loaded a new magazine and prepared to hold off the oncoming horde.

Unfortunately, that was easier said than done. With every Grimm that was felled, three more would arrive; and as the bodies began to stack up, it was becoming rather difficult to find her footing. Worse still was that the field was beginning to grow dark with the smoke that their bodies generated. Even with the floodlights bearing down on them, it was getting harder and harder to see again as the mist surrounded them. More and more she found herself relying on the specs of red to see her targets, but that only told her their location.

As such, when an armor-clad berserker appeared out of the smoke, Ruby was completely unprepared and failed to dodge the heavy fist that slammed into her stomach. Feeling her breath leave her, she was thrown across the clearing and landed face first on the ground. Spitting out a mouthful of mud and watching the red eyes make a beeline towards the wall, she coughed and raised a hand to her ear.

"Weiss!" She coughed. "Berserker headed for the gate."

"I've got it!" She called.

A pair of gleaming blue orbs emerged in front of the red ones, and a loud sickening crunch reached her ears. As the force of the impact blew the smoke away, Ruby saw that Weiss had summoned a Berserker of her own, and it quickly began to trade blows with its darker brother.

"You okay?" She heard over the turret fire, feeling a hand closing around her arm and pulling her to her feet. Looking up, she saw Blake's amber eyes shining in the darkness.

"Yeah." She groaned. "There's too man-"

She only just saw the bright yellow stinger in time. Pushing her girlfriend out of the way, they both tumbled to the ground and found themselves looking up at a giant Deathstalker. Smaller deathstalkers crawled from its back, roughly twenty in number and each as tall as an adult human. Thankfully they had less armor than the adult and were easier to kill, but even as she and Blake tore them apart, Ruby knew it was pointless.

Another Deathstalker had already emerged from the trees, along with more Berserkers and all manner of other Grimm. Creeps burst from the ground scattering the hard light projectors across the field. Nevermore shrieks filled the sky as more of the giant birds joined the fray, and more Griffons than she could count were repeatedly dive bombing the fighters.

"There's too many." Ruby breathed, finding herself pushed back towards the wall as more Grimm emerged from the forest. "We can't hold them all off."

"Well the walls won't hold without us." Yang replied.

"Then what do we do?" Blake asked, transforming her katana into a sickle and whipping it around her. Two baby Deathstalkers fell dead, only to be replaced with three more.

"I…" Ruby felt her back collide with the wall, and something hard pressed into her. Her eyes flew open. "I have an idea!"

Weiss let out a groan, just as she always did when Ruby claimed to have an idea; only that time Ruby knew the girl was right to be concerned. Digging into her back pouch, she pulled out the canister holding the lightning crystal and looked through the small window. The power held inside the tube was definitely enough to clear a majority of the horde, but what else would be caught in the blast? How much destruction would it cause?

"Weiss…" She said cautiously as Blake moved in front to protect her. "How powerful is this crystal right now?"

"You can't be serious, Ruby!"

"What other choice do we have?" Ruby fired back at her sister, receiving no reply. "Weiss?"

"Uhh…" A sigh came through the earpiece. "Anything within twenty meters will be fried from the heat of the rupturing alone, but the lightning will reach for miles."

"So we just need to get it into the forest?"

"And the forest f-"

"For crying out loud!" Saber's voice cut through them, his edge of annoyance back as he grunted from fighting. "You are huntresses. If you do not act, the village falls regardless. Now stop stalling and do your damn job."

Ruby knew he was right. Even with the turret's support, there was no way they could hold off the horde. There were simply too many. A choice had to be made.

"He's right." Ruby mumbled, unscrewing the cap. "We have to risk it."

"Dammit, Ruby!" Yang snapped. "Will you just listen to me for once?"

"We're out of time, Yang!" Ruby snapped back, gently pulling the crystal free of the canister. Nothing could be left to chance. "I have to do this."

"Wha-"

Before Yang could respond, Ruby gripped the Dust tightly in her hand and activated her semblance. She needed the crystal as far away from the village as possible. Feeling tears sting her eyes, she rushed towards the Grimm. Ducking under the paws and weaving between legs, she reached the edge of the treeline and hurled the crystal as hard as she could.

The small yellow gem glinted with a light of its own, and as it flew through the air, Ruby felt a claw slide along her back, but ignored it. Pulling out her sniper, she raised the scope to her eye and lined up the shot. She knew there was no way to escape the blast radius in time, but the shot had to be taken. So with a deep breath, she pulled the trigger as one last thought entered her mind.

I'm sorry, Yang.

"RUBY!"

Yang felt the scream tear through her throat as Ruby disappeared into a cloud of rose petals and took off towards the Grimm. Before the girl even reached them, Yang felt her stomach twist and her heart ache as she knew Ruby had just committed herself too. The girl had just done what Yang had spent her whole life fearing, but surely it couldn't have come so soon. It just couldn't. There was still so much left for her, so much she'd yet to experience. She'd found a girlfriend, a best friend, both of which still held so many more possibilities for her.

"Yang, move!" Her partner's voice was faint, but she felt a shoulder slam into hers and fell backwards.

Looking up from her position on the floor, she saw Blake running straight at Weiss with a hard light projector in hand. Not wasting a second, Weiss snatched it from the faunus and ripped out the Dust tray. Flipping the cylinder of her rapier open, she haphazardly poured the bright blue powder inside and gave the weapon a twirl. Not even a second later, a deafening explosion erupted in the forest and all chaos broke loose.

Lightning and fire spread out before her in equal measure. As a tremendous amount of heat washed over them, thick yellow lines of electricity arced through the air striking things at random. Trees shattered into splinters and caught fire, canvassing the clearing in red hot ash. Grimm ruptured from the inside out and furled into smoke, their spikes and armor flying off at such a velocity that any of their allies nearby were shredded to pieces. Even the wall behind her ruptured and sprayed concrete over the surrounding as lightning struck the turrets and caused the Dust inside of them to explode.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw an arc of electricity connect with the tip of Weiss' rapier, throwing her backward into the heavy metal gate and breaking her aura. Almost immediately, Blake took off after her; but Yang didn't. Instead she took off in the opposite direction. Running as fast as she could towards the source of the explosion, she punched her way through the few Grimm that barely survived and swung her head from side to side.

With every second that passed, more and more panic began to set in. There was nothing. Nothing but destruction and dead Grimm everywhere she looked. But she knew Ruby was there somewhere. She'd still had aura, and Weiss had done something. Weiss was smart, the smartest person she knew. Surely she couldn't have fa-

"RUBY!"

Yang's thoughts were cut off. A few feet away from her, sticking out from amid a mass of disintegrating Grimm was Crescent Rose. Running towards it, she slid to her knees and hastily pushed the bodies aside. It took three unrecognisable Grimm until she finally caught a glimpse of red clothing, and four more until Ruby was uncovered. She looked terrible. Her clothes were singed and falling away, harsh burns covered her arms, and blood leaked freely from a large cut on her head.

"Nononono!" Yang muttered, feeling tears roll down her face. "You can't… pleasepleaseplease…"

Yang's hand shot out, quickly finding the girl's neck and testing for a pulse. For a second, she felt nothing and her stomach twisted nastily, but then she felt it. A small thrum on the vein. It was weak, very weak, but the fact that it was there made Yang's heart sing with joy.

"Thank go-"

"YANG, LOO-"

She didn't need Blake's warning. She'd already heard it, and felt it. Something large was approaching her from behind, but whatever it was, it had chosen the worst possible time to attack. Ruby was alive. Against all odds, she was alive. And there was nothing on Remnant that was going to change that. No Grimm, no animal, no person, not even any gods if there were any; were going to touch her so long as Yang was by her side.

So standing to her feet and feeling more heat than even the crystal had produced rushed through her body, she reared back her fist and turned around.

"AAAAARGH!"

With as much force as her body could allow, she struck out. Powered by the full force of her semblance, her fist crashed into the armor-clad face of a fully grown Deathstalker, shattering it like glass. As it disintegrated, her fist continued unfazed and she was forced to a knee as the hand struck the ground, ripping it apart and sending stones and splinters from the previous explosion screaming towards every Grimm that had been behind the oversized scorpion. Fire from her hair ran down her arm, spreading out and engulfing all in front of her.

One by one, they all crumbled to smoke, but Yang felt her aura break. She didn't care, all she cared about was that her sister was safe. So despite her body screaming at her to stop and rest, she turned around and gently picked up her sister's frail form.

"You're okay…" She muttered shakily, more for herself than anything. "I've got you."

Standing to her feet and pushing away the guard that tried to take Ruby from her, she took a deep breath and began the slow trek back to the village gate.

Raalm's Note

Sorry for this being a little late. It's been a rough day, so there are also no notes. I hope you enjoyed it.