I don't own anything from RWBY, that honor belongs to the fine people at Rooster Teeth.

Chapter 5: Humbled

After leaving nothing but scrap metal and amberlight on the floor of the ship, Ruby eagerly awaited the next group of electric Grimm that would come her way. Her scythe wasn't exactly the best tool in this confined space and while the navigation deck certainly allowed her to utilize her weapon to her fullest potential, she knew if she was moved away from it, she was going to be outmatched quickly.

All she was hoping for was Yang to come back soon with the fabricator and Blake. After the hectic fight she had in trying to fight that Marauder, just hearing from her sister proved to be a much-needed reassurance. Life was uncertain in these badlands and until they could reach Vale, Ruby's only real solace lay with her sister.

Despite her fears about Yang going without her, she was nonetheless a little bit at ease with the fact that she wasn't going alone and given by how both of them didn't seem to mind each other while Yang was on Bumblebee, she was sure that Blake was someone she could trust.

T A sonic scream from outside took her out of her thoughts. Covering her ears in pain, Ruby was nearly sent to her knees as she looked up to find the infernal beast making all that noise. After finding nothing in the entrance to the ship, she decided to move deeper towards the navigation deck where she had kept Weiss for her own safety.

After allowing her weapon to cool down after initially overheating, Ruby took to her sights again, this time finding the source of all her trouble.

"Is that a Tachyon?" she nervously asked out, spotting the grotesque beast that had wandered into the ship's wreckage.

Its four huge pylon-like legs dug into the floor and wandered around the ship. Its scanners began to turn in a circle as Ruby watched it begin to move towards Weiss, who she placed at the navigation deck to keep her safe from the storm. Seeing the Grimm slowly come towards her, moving unnaturally as its legs slammed through the floor. Fear dripping into her spine, she petal bursted into a vent looking to get a better view.

Crawling through the vent, Ruby followed through and ended up right above the beast. Its head was pushed back into its disproportionate, vaguely humanoid body. Shaking with fear, she watched as the beast walked closer and closer right until she saw its red scanner pass over Weiss's body. Weapons came out of the beast's legs as Ruby watched in horror as a targeting laser began to creep up on her unconscious ally.

Taking out her sniper rifle, she reacted immediately and shot. Her bullet ricocheted off the beast's armor and bounced around the room before nearly striking the vent, startling Ruby. Scared out of her mind, she ducked her head back inside.

Whatever this creature was, it's armor plating was far stronger than any Grimm Ruby had ever fought and given how many weapons it had, Ruby was certain that there was no way she and Weiss were ever taking this thing out. Not alone.

Which meant all she had to do was hide. But any chance of doing that was squashed when she noticed the red scanner highlighting her location. Breathing rapidly, Ruby prepared her semblance before a swarm of lasers managed to rip her out of her hiding location.

She may not be able to win a fight against this thing but that wasn't going to stop her from buying time for both her and Weiss. Time for Yang to hopefully arrive and save the day.

Turns out forcing the Afterburner and running through a Grimm was a pretty terrible solution overall, if not a very fast solution. Despite being able to deal with the Grimm almost immediately, it also meant Yang had no time to process any information about her direction.

Which just so happened to be off the cliffside. Tumbling through the floor, both Yang and Blake barely jumped off Bumblebee before it was sent into the crashed ship. Slamming against the wreckage, Yang wondered how on earth it was still standing as she attempted to get up only to fall.

"Slow down there daredevil. You just took a huge fall." Blake said, helping her up.

"I'll be fine… in a couple of minutes." She replied with a weak smile.

"Is there an ion storm?" Blake asked, making Yang look to the sky to confirm her suspicion and sure enough, there was an ion storm.

"Crap! Ruby and Weiss are on their own right now! We need to get them out of there!" She said, nearly pushing Blake out of her grab and limping over to Bumblebee.

Ember Celica began to heal her sprained ankle as she limped her way through the wreckage, Blake right behind her.

"Did you disable some of your rig's systems?" She asked.

"I was hit by an EMP Yang. I don't think I'm going to have much more than my semblance active." Blake replied.

"Alright, then let's pack up what we need. I think I can fit all of us on Bumblebee if I remove one of the storage units on it. Although it's gonna be a tight squeeze." Yang replied, feeling her ankle recover mostly.

"Let's hope the Schnee won't complain." Blake commented.

"Schnee?"

"You didn't recognize the heiress of the SDC that's on your ship?"

A Schnee? On Patch? Why wasn't there any news about this sooner? Such an important figure in the SDC should have attracted quite the storm due to her disappearance and given how much Dust was on the ship this had to be someone close.

But no. There was no news about some major disappearance or even about the SDC in a long while. Normally there would constantly be reports from some news outlets about the many unfair practices of the SDC against their workers in their mining colonies. However, it seemed that the last few days there had been zero reports on an event.

'Life with the richest family in the Remnant system must have sucked if she wanted to leave. What might have happened between her and her family to cause this?' Yang pondered.

Any further thoughts she had were immediately quashed, as she heard a pained gasp from Ruby.

"RUBY! Blake come on!" Yang exclaimed as she heard a thud against the wrecked ship.

Arming her gauntlets, she ran inside the wreckage and saw Ruby on the navigation deck as The Tachyon Grimm lay over her with two of its lasers pointed straight at her.

Rage filling her veins, Yang let out an enraged scream.

"STAY AWAY FROM HER!" she bellowed before striking the Grimm with a charged shot, stunning it.

The beast turned around, facing both of its legs at Yang and showcasing its grotesque face before two burst lasers appeared from its body and began firing at Yang. Using her shotguns, she quickly leaped away, attracting the attention of the Tachyon away from Ruby and towards her.

Charging her charge shot in the air, Yang shot against the Grimm. To her horror, two constructs arose from the Tachyon's shoulders and formed a vortex shield, sending the shot right back at her. The impact took the wind out of her lungs and sent her flying out of the ship's wreckage, back to where Bumblebee was. Slamming into the hard ground, Yang silently thanked Ember Celica's more resistive aura shielding. Given how her aura was flickering rapidly, her suit's systems were almost completely disabled, and the fact that she may have bruised her back, Yang knew that this was not a fight worth taking.

The real worry through her mind right now, was what was going on with her arm. Shaking violently, her arm was starting to tear apart. Luckily, she was close to Bumblebee and by relation, close to the modding tools. Opening up the workshop, she grabbed some screwdrivers and began unscrewing the bolts. Her arm was starting to glow red hot and she knew that there was only one component not built to withstand her suit's temperature. Breathing rapidly, she frantically removed the plates covering her arms internal circuits and opened up the modding components.

Frantically searching for the red and yellow wires providing energy, she took out the pliers and immediately cut the power to the circuits. Sure, it would damage the arm but assuming they made it out- no when they made it out, Ruby would be able to fix her arm.

Ripping out the burning hot mod from her arm, she threw it onto the grass, watching as it sizzled. Breathing rapidly, she lay herself on her hoverbike and desperately tried to relax her mind. Her mind had been going on panic overdrive ever since she saw Blake get EMPed and saw her sister and Weiss on the floor, helpless against the Tachyon which almost killed them.

It broke her sense of security, her pride, her false belief that she and Ruby would be able to take on anything. And there she was, sitting helpless as that same Tachyon now attacked Blake who was all alone, without anyone to help her. Striking her bike in frustration, she tried her hardest to get off her bike but found herself unable to even stand.

Frustration rising, she again struck her bike.

'Why?! Why can't I fight through this?! Right now, they need me to be strong, and here I am, stuck on my bike like a helpless child.'

Images flashed through her head; the day she tried looking for answers. Anything that could relate to her mother. Images of her carrying Ruby in a stroller, pulling her along through a dead forest. How could she ever forget that night? It was the night that she was humbled. The night where she learned just how weak she was in this world.

She distinctly remembered being attacked by Grimm as she tried to run with Ruby. She ran and ran but eventually they caught up. In a desperate bid to keep Ruby safe, she jumped in front of the Grimm and took their blows.

They cut and slashed her arm. The pain was unbearable, but it kept Ruby alive, so she fought through it. In those moments all that was going though Yang's head was the single desire to keep her safe as long as she could. Luckily, she didn't have to do it for long.

Their Uncle had been following them and was watching guard. The scene of Uncle Qrow enraged, destroying the Grimm with his scythe and then taking both her and Ruby back to safety was forever ingrained in her brain. As was the news of her arm being amputated.

At such a young age, Yang felt her life's dreams were over. Everything she was hoping to be, dashed away, all because she was an idiot. But that time, she at least had her father to pick her back up. Not to mention a chance to regain her life with her robotic arm.

This time, if she failed there were no safety nets. There were no backup plans. Out in the badlands of Vale, it was either survive or die. Which was why she couldn't fail Ruby again. Why she wasn't going to let this Grimm be the end of her family. She was no longer the helpless little girl who tried looking for her mother in the middle of a Grimm forest.

She was Yang Xiao Long. And she was ready to burn.

Waking up, Weiss felt cold, which surprised her. Her time in Atlas, had trained her to withstand the cold with Myrtenaster thanks to her aura growing used to the climate there. Was her suit starting to fail? Had Ruby done something to her?

Her mind began racing as she found herself wrapped in a sleeping bag with… Ice Dust? Her hands moving to her Dust blade grip, she activated the hardlight blade and ran it through the fabric, ripping through it like paper. What was going on with her? Why was her aura starting to fail her?

As she rolled out of the bag, she felt pain flare up her sides again, as she clutched them to find her aura flaring up. Before she could even try to act on it however, she heard an enraged scream and several shotgun shots right in front of her. Immediately using the desks for support, she checked to her left and found… Ruby?

Running over to the unconscious girl, she grabbed her face in her hands and looked into her closed eyes. "Ruby?" she asked.

No response came.

Taking out her scroll, she immediately activated it's bioscanner and ran it over Ruby. Her worry was building into panic as she wondered what on earth was happening. Thankfully, the scan revealed Ruby's vital signs weren't critical. However, that was the least of her concerns as a tether latched its way onto the navigation desk and then another latched its way to the other side. Taking Ruby with her to the ground, Weiss dove in the nick of time as the desk was pulled out from over her and thrown.

Her eyes glued to the desk, she watched as it flew over their heads and was slammed down to the lower part of the wreckage by a Grimm. And not just any Grimm, this one was a Tachyon, a Grimm found in ion storms and was known for its technical superiority and dominance in a fight.

She had heard stories of her grandfather encountering these Grimm once and nearly dying because of them. In those days without a team of people you could trust, even the lowliest of Grimm could easily become a death sentence. And that was especially the case with Tachyons.

Often entire Hunter teams were needed to handle such Grimm and even then, the bonds of the team must be unshakable in each other to even give the team a sliver of hope in winning the fight. They would also need to make sure that they held a technical edge and could control the fight.

All things that Weiss was certain she couldn't do. Especially not with her current group of companions. Hiding as she snuck up on the scene, she watched as the Tachyon fired burst lasers at some figure in the distance whose black body camouflaged it perfectly with the destroyed wreckage.

The Tachyon fired its tethers trying to grab onto its combatant but somehow all of them missed as the fighter, with her inhumane agility managed to dodge them. Looking back to the Dust storage room, Weiss remembered Rock Dust's overall resistivity to lightning and if used correctly could serve as a counter against lightning Dust.

Small problem was that using Rock Dust indoors could cause the ship to fall apart.

Before she could even think anything further about her next move however, she felt a sharp tug on her clothes. Turning around she found Ruby looking at her, pleading.

"Weiss please, you aren't in any position to fight."

"Thank you for your concern, but I'm not going to sit here and let a Grimm send us both to our deaths." She sharply retorted before pulling out her dust blade and made her way to the Dust storage unit. A handy thing about her weapons was that both of them were heavily configurable with Dust. One of the handier applications of this was being able to use her Dust blade as a controller for Dust. That included Rock Dust.

As she fitted her Dust pouches with the various Dust crystals and rearmed Eispunkt's Dust Chamber, she heard another roar which made her almost drop the crystal on the ground. Coming outside she found the Grimm had managed to tether its combatant. She watched as the combatant desperately struggled against the metallic wiring. It was the Faunus from before who had come to Weiss's aid on the flight.

Watching her struggle as she tried to break through her bindings, she immediately noticed that the Tachyon wasn't just holding her in place but was also charging up an attack. And given the blue sparks Weiss was seeing coming off, she was pretty sure that whatever it had in mind was going to kill the Faunus. Despite all her problems with the Faunus, she didn't share her father's bigoted beliefs.

Using the Dust in her Dust Blade she sent a boulder towards the beast and disbalanced it before it could electrocute the Faunus. Watching the Faunus drop to the floor, she plunged her Dust Blade into the ground and sent a spike wall of rocks towards the Grimm staggering it managed to respond. The same tethers that once held the Faunus captive now came towards her. Taking out her revolver she shot down two but was unable to take down the other three.

As the metallic tether wrapped around her body, she used the Rock Dust in her Dust blade to raise a wall of rocks to flatten the wires of the tethers. As they were flattened the beast let out a scream of agony as the tethers slowly unwrapped, leaving Weiss free to attack further. Using her semblance to give herself a boost, she raised rock walls all around the beast she flattened three of the beast's legs. But right as she was about to squashed the last leg, her body failed her again.

Collapsing to the floor, she suddenly felt herself unable to breathe and was left on the floor gasping for air. Staring to black out she tried to cover the Grimm, she desperately tried to bring up the last wall to trap the Grimm but found her energy fade as her hand fell to the ground. As she lay there unable to move, she prayed for something to finish what she couldn't and someone to make sure her sacrifice wasn't in vain.

Blake had no idea why the Schnee even bothered to save her. To her, all the Schnees were the same. Bigots and racists who viewed the Faunus as nothing more than slaves for their never-ending greed and desire to control the production of Dust all over the Remnant system. To think one of them would have bothered to even try to save a Faunus was like thinking oil and water mixed.

And yet, this one was different. Instead of leaving her to die, she jumped in the fight and saved her from electrocution. She watched as that very same girl used her Dust to nearly incapacitate the Grimm entirely. Much to her horror however, she watched as the girl fell to the floor as her aura failed her. Watching it flicker and fade all over her body, Blake felt nothing but pity for the poor girl as her last attempt to lock the Grimm in place failed.

As she saw the Grimm break out of its bindings,, it finally shook Blake out of her shock. Recovering her fallen pistol, she quickly fired it to gain the Grimm's attention. Then using her semblance, she managed to distract the Grimm long enough to regain her katana. Activating it's hardlight sheath, she immediately slashed through a tether that attempted to grab onto her. Running in a zigzag pattern, she was able to easily make out the predictable movements of the tethers and dodged each and every single one of them using her grappling hook.

As she rushed over to the unconscious heiress, she immediately scooped her up and began to pull her out of the wreckage of the ship, so far she had the Grimm's attention meaning as long as she could avoid getting shot by it's lasers she would be fine.

Luck however was not on Blake's side, as she was about to exit the wreckage, she was struck in the back by a laser shot. Falling to the floor, her aura flickered rapidly and broke. Grabbing her pistol, she aimed it back at the towering beast which approached her menacingly. Hearing what seemed to be the Grimm's attempt at laughter, Blake desperately began looking for any weaknesses, anything she could exploit.

But there was nothing. It seemed that she had finally ran out of luck. She was going to die here, alone protecting a Schnee of all people. What an irony.

She closed her eyes and waited for the shot to come. For it to end her life, the life she chose to throw away when she joined the White Fang. The life she chose to throw away with Adam. But it never came. Instead all she heard was the familiar sound of a hoverbike coming and the Grimm screaming out in agony.

Opening her eyes, she found the Grimm staggering back into the rock wall, and to her side, her friend Yang, looking more than ready to end this fight.

A/N: And we're back! I will have to make a slight change to how I upload the chapters on all my stories from now on but for now enjoy the chapter. As always huge shoutout to 0neWhoWanders!