Disclaimer: I do not, nor do I claim to, own RWBY or any other media that may be referenced. All rights go to their respective owners. The only thing I lay any claim to are my OCs (which are yet to make their appearances, I swear they are coming though).
Oscar is the first to reach Rosa. He has his staff and dagger out, and she doesn't even question how he managed to get them past security.
"I'm sorry, Ojos Avellana," she weakly tells him.
"You know, I asked her to be my girlfriend. That was a week ago. I... I know you wouldn't have done this on purpose, that you're a victim just as much as she is. So, I forgive you, it'll just hurt for a while," he says. He crouches down next to Penny's broken body and places a kiss against her head before untying the pale pink bow in her hair. The ribbon lays limply in his hand for a moment before he ties it around the hilt.
Rosa lays a hand on his shoulder. "Did you know?"
"That she was made of metal and electricity and not blood flesh and bone? Yeah, I knew. She was the first synthetic person capable of generating an aura. She was so scared when she told me, she thought I would think she wasn't a real girl. I think she didn't see herself as a real girl. She was. She was real, as real as you, me, Abuela, and everyone else in the world. She had hopes and dreams, things she liked, things she was good at and things she was bad at. She was a real girl," Oscar brokenly explains, swiping at the tears in his eyes. "She wouldn't want us to fight each other. So I'm fighting the people who are to blame for this. You can't stop me, Rosa. I'm fighting. For Penny."
She squeezes his shoulder. "We both are."
The rest of the students that decided to stay and fight, reach them.
"What's the plan?" Arslan asks, pointing at the nevermore trying to get in to them. Oscar glances at his sister and nods.
"We'll take care of the nevermore," he says, steel in his voice.
Rosa holds her sword out on a downwards angle and he steps onto it, one hand snaking across her shoulders to grip onto her other shoulder after he tucks his dagger away. The barrier breaks and Rosa spins, gaining speed, before abruptly slicing her sword upwards. Oscar lets go of her and flies upwards towards the grimm. Rosa uses her semblance to follow quickly after.
Oscar pulls out his dagger and throws it upwards into the nevermore's wing and activates the magnetic link between the dagger and his staff, catapulting him the rest of the way to the grimm and slamming him into its wing.
Rosa lands on the opposite wing. With a downward slice, she lops of the wing she's standing on, and opposite her, Oscar drives his spear into the joint connecting wing to body.
The nevermore doesn't have any control over its descent anymore, so the siblings take action. Oscar rips out his spear and relocates it to the back of the nevermore's neck, puncturing its spinal cord. Rosa swings her swords in a deadly arch that misses Oscar by millimetres, and the twin blades slice cleanly through the nevermore's flesh and come out the other side with a fountain of sulphuric blood as the head comes away from the body.
Less than a second later, they slam into the ground even as the giant grimm bird disintegrates.
Rosa wipes her swords on her skirt and nods in approval at the other students retrieving their weapons from their rocket-lockers.
"We need a group to stay here and fend off grimm long enough for all of the civilians to evacuate. Once that's done, we can retreat and join up with other students and hunters on the ground," Rosa explains.
"It will be an honour to fight alongside you, Rosa Calavera," Arslan states.
"Let's just hope we don't die in the process," Rosa says with a weary smile.
"That won't be necessary," Port's voice says. He's holding his musket axe and Doctor Oobleck is hobbling along beside him. "Barty and I will defend Amity. The rest of you evacuate."
Oscar shakes his head. "No offence, but one of you is on crutches. You're going to need more help, and I'm not leaving Penny's body behind."
"I can't allow that. Ms Calavera has made it quite clear to me that the endangering of student's lives is completely unacceptable, and you aren't even old enough to be a student," Port tells him.
"Don't start singing a different tune when it suits you. That's my little brother, and he may not be the same level prodigy I am, but he's still a prodigy. Penny was his girlfriend; this is his fight. You're going to need all the help you can get. If he wants to stay and fight, he gets to stay and fight," Rosa scolds.
"Very well. Mr Calavera, it will be an honour to fight alongside you," Doctor Oobleck states. Oscar nods in reply.
"My team will stay to help as well," Arslan says. At her side, her teammates nod.
"Everyone else, let's go join the others on the ground," Rosa orders. She watches the others leave and pauses. She wraps her arms around her brother. "I love you, Ojos Avellana. Stay safe, don't get killed, and kick some grimm butt."
Oscar squeezes his arms around her and nods into her shoulder. "I will. You better do the same, Ojos Plateados. Love you."
"I promise."
With that, Rosa goes after the others.
The grounds are in chaos.
Jaune is trying to keep Pyrrha down in their dorm.
"You aren't up to fighting!" he yells at her.
"I have to help!"
"You'll only get yourself killed!"
Weiss is leading a small group of students after a pack of grimm that are tearing through the fairgrounds.
"Keep moving! Don't stop or they'll get away from us!"
She's in pain, her arm aching and waves of heat pulse up into her shoulder every few seconds. She doesn't pay it any mind. She has a job to do, she can worry about herself later.
Blake is chasing after the White Fang, searching for a high-ranked member to take out. Send confusion through the ranks. Yang isn't far behind her, a bit slower with her still recovering shoulder, but causing enough of a distraction that Blake can slip unnoticed through the scores of White Fang members.
Mask after mask she tears free and she recognises some of these people.
That girl with rabbit ears was at the rally.
That boy with scales covering his face grew up with her in the Fang.
That woman over there with a lizard's tail had just had a baby before Blake defected.
That man Yang just punched, the one with stag horns, was engaged when she left.
She knows these faces, but she can't hold back. She can't let them go free for all she knew them, she has to protect Beacon, protect Vale.
Ren and Nora are teamed up with team CFVY, holding back a hoard of grimm in the centre of the school.
They have Atlesian Knights backing them up, but even then, they are hard pressed to keep their line.
Nora is taking out her anger of being used like a pawn on the grimm. Her allies stay well out of her hammer's reach.
Everyone else is practically running on fumes already though.
Unless they get more reinforcements, they can't see how they'll pull this one off.
Qrow is fighting alongside Goodwitch, trying to clear at least some grimm off the Vale streets, but even with the help of the Atlesian Knights, they're fighting a losing battle.
"They just keep on coming! Shit!" Qrow curses, barely dodging a Fatal Feather from a nevermore flying overhead.
Glynda pants before straightening up and waving her riding crop at the destroyed street before her. The sections of shattered tarmac fly together.
"We can't afford to stop, Qrow. Keep pushing."
"You don't need to tell me twice."
Ozpin goes below the school, down to the Vault, to wait.
He knows that Amber's assailant will come. She will find no prize, and he will have a chance at taking her down.
He grips his cane tightly, ignoring his mounting arthritis.
He's old now. He knows this all too well. He's old enough in this life that his students could be his grandchildren, and he's been fighting his age for years already.
The reality of the situation is that this could be it. This could be the last room he ever sees in this life. This next battle could be the last he fights in this body. Amber's assailant could be the last person he ever sees before his soul is forced to find a new host.
Strangely, it doesn't scare him.
It hasn't for a long time, he's grown used to death and rebirth, but for some reason, his calmness in the face of death always manages to catch him off guard.
"If I am to die today, I will die in the defence of my school," he says to himself.
Rosa and the motley group following her reach the docks, meeting up with General Ironwood.
"General, how can we help?" she asks.
"Some, vagabond, has taken control of one of my ships. The skies are out of our control, so I'm going to take it back. The lot of you have a choice. You can either run and save yourselves, or you can go down into the city and fight. No one will fault you if you leave," Ironwood outlines. With that, he turns and walks onto his ship. Rosa shakes her head.
"He's not going to be able to do that without help," she mutters. "Okay, those of you who are still up to fight, head into the school and city, help out where you can. Try not to get yourselves killed. If you don't want to fight, then get to safety and don't get in the way of the fighters."
"What are you going to do?" Sun asks.
"I'm going to help Ironwood," she says, stepping onto one of her swords and rising into the air. She lingers long enough to watch them all pile onto an airship, but then she goes after the largest airship in the sky.
Ozpin tenses as the elevator door dings and watches as a woman matching Rosa Calavera's description of the CCT tower's infiltrator. She walks towards him and stops barely fifty metres away.
"Where is she?" she asks.
"The powers are not yours to claim," Ozpin tells her.
"Yet, I have laid claim to them anyway," she says with a smirk. "So, tell me, Ozpin, where is the Fall Maiden?"
"I will never tell you."
She tuts. "Are you dumb? If you don't tell me where to find the Fall Maiden, I will kill you."
Ozpin settles into a combat-ready stance. "You can certainly try, but I will never tell you anything."
"Then you are a fool," she tells him.
They both charge forward, meeting in a clash of power.
Blows are exchanged and Ozpin knows.
He can't win this fight.
His joints ache, and he's taking too much damage, isn't dealing enough back.
He feels an arrow rip through his aura and manages to hide behind a column to try and catch his breath. He has an arrow sticking out of his leg, but he still needs to fight. With his wits gathered, he rounds the column and is jolted.
He looks down and sees the arrow sticking out of his gut, blood already blooming across his clothes, staining the dark green, red. The world goes dark around him even as he feels his body fall.
Cinder watches with conviction as the old man dies. Turning on her heel, she walks back to the elevator. She has an invasion to lord over after all.
She's on board the ship, and she sends a message to her whole squad.
I'm on one of the Atlas Airships trying to take back control. Skies are against us if Ironwood or I can't take them back. Will come to ground ASAP when done here.
Of course, she doesn't anticipate accidentally destroying the ship in its entirety.
Mercury watches from the rooftop with Emerald at his side, he's recording and trying to keep himself from vomiting. He never wanted this.
A mountain in the distance explodes and out flies a grimm like none he'd ever seen. The only reference he has is Rosa Calavera's drawing of a Wyvern that day she wrote out every grimm known to man.
He turns his head to look at Emerald and finds her staring at him.
"If you want to leave all of this behind, now's your chance. I won't stop you; I'll stay and keep the broadcast going," she offers.
Numbly he nods. He passes her the scroll he's been using to record everything, before he walks to the fire escape. He pauses for a moment.
"Thank you. I never thought I'd get this chance," he tells her.
"Next time we meet, I doubt it'll be on friendly terms. Cinder won't take you leaving very well, she'll kill you if she ever sees you again. So lay low and don't get in Cinder's way. If I ever have to choose between you and Cinder, I'm choosing Cinder without any hesitation," Emerald informs him. "So don't put me in a situation where I have to choose."
Mercury nods. "I won't. Goodbye."
Weiss screams when she sees the airship that she knows Rosa is on explode against a cliff face. How could this have happened?
Yang screams when she loses her sister yet again. This time, it could be forever.
Blake doesn't let herself mourn but focuses on her hunt.
Pyrrha and Jaune cry and hold each other as they watch the broadcast. They can't believe that Rosa is gone.
Nora drops her hammer and Ren defends her in her moment of weakness.
They've lost Rosa...
A/N: Welcome back to the Grimm Reaper. Yes, another short chapter, but that's because I wanted to give you another cliffhanger. I'm sorry (not really, but I know I'd hate having it done to me, so I'm appologising anyway). I'm also sorry that I got this out late. I got swept up with way too much this week between uni and my new job (HR screwed up and told my boss and I that I couldn't start this week due to me not having filled in paperwork fast enough, but then they changed their tune so I was not expecting to have shifts and had not accomodated for that around study and yeah, putting this out yesterday slipped my mind.
Anyways, lots happened in this chapter despite it being so short, and the whole chopping and changing thing is meant to simulate the chaos of battle, so I hope that worked. Apart from that, I don't have much else to say. Feel free to leave a review letting me know your thoughts, or send me a PM if you want or need someone to talk to (I'll get back to you as soon as I can). Otherwise, I'll see you next week with another chapter (I swear it's longer than this).
- RebeccaMagic9