Out of all the explosions Church had ever suffered, he'd rank the train explosion at around 3rd, above his first death by Shelia, but below his robot body exploding.

Although the fact that he could rank all of the explosions he'd ever suffered once again proved that his life plain sucked.

With the usual amount of grumbling Church got himself up, thankful that due to lacking a proper body he couldn't feel any pain.

He could see the others get up around him as well, an alarm was sounding and all the civilian's were looking anxiously at the wreck.

Not a moment later a snake type Grimm burst from the ground followed by a swarm of others.

"Son of a bitch." Church swore.

And then he spotted something equally as important.

Nora Valkyrie groaning in pain on the ground with the banged up form of Tex beside her.

Without thinking, Church started to run over but this eagerness died within a few steps as he heard an inhuman growl.

But it wasn't the Grimm, instead it was the scariest mute in the fucking galaxy.

The Meta advanced slowly towards Tex and Church panicked.

As such he came up with an appropriately dumb plan.

"Hey Meta!" Church called out. "Over here!"

The Meta turned slowly to face Church and the cobalt blue ghost suddenly realised that it may not have been the smartest of ideas to call the Meta.

In less than a second the Meta went from a slow walk to a roaring charge towards Church.

In response Church did the riskiest thing he'd ever done.

"Caboose help me!"

There was no immediate response as the Meta grew closer, and closer, and closer...

Then at the last possible moment a blue blur came over Church's head and the Meta was forced several meters back.

An inhuman growl emerged from the Meta as they took out the brute shot, while Ruby-and-Caboose unleashed Crescent Rose into scythe form.

It was the strangest Mexican stand off in the history of Remnant, well at least as far a Church knew.

In one corner was the Meta, the galaxies scariest mute, equipped with the brute shot and most likely several freelancer enhancements.

In the other was Ruby Rose, huntress in training that was also combined with Caboose giving her insane levels of pure strength.

the stare down lasted only a moment before Ruby-and-Caboose charged in, swinging the scythe in a wild fashion, lacking most of the skill and grace Ruby usually had.

But the Meta blocked the blade with the one on his brute shot, and redirected it to the ground, causing the scythe to get stuck firmly in it.

The Meta then fired off a grenade, but Ruby dodged it and gave a mighty headbutt to the Meta, causing him to stumble back.

Ruby-and-Caboose then tried to pull Crescent Rose out of the ground, but overestimated just how much strength would be needed. As a result, rather than pulling the scythe safely out of the ground, they incidentally ripped off the handle instead, utterly destroying Ruby's 'baby.'

Church winced. This would not be a fun conversation when everything was over.

The effect was also immediate as even combined with Caboose there was an expression of pure angry and outrage on Ruby's face, and being the emotionally healthy person she was, she and Caboose decided to take it out on the nearest person, which thankfully was still the Meta.

Using the broken pole, they charged at the Meta, giving powerful swings, and while the Meta blocked the first two, the same could not be said for the third which impacted his arm, Ruby-and-Caboose used this momentum to swing down and force the Brute Shot from the Meta's grasp. Then in one fluid motion, they lifted up the Brute Shot in one hand and crushed it until it was inoperable, and then throwing it away.

Ruby-and-Caboose then dropped the pole and cracked their knuckles, the Meta did much the same and charged for a battle of fists.

Now the real fight had begun.

After a few minutes Tex's Hud finally came back online.

It was annoying trying to bypass all of the little systems and fail safes to divert power to it, but Tex needed information.

However, the only things she learned was that the sky was a lot smokier than usual and that people were screaming, both most likely because of the bomb.

Through sheer force of will, Tex managed to use her remaining arm to force herself upright, only to find Grimm terrorising the city while some girl fought the Meta.

Well, fuck.

Next to Tex on the ground, Nora finally stirred and got up.

"Are you two alright?"

Tex turned to see a ginger girl in a green dress rushing over to help up Nora.

"Penny?" Nora asked groggily. "What happened?"

"It would seem that somehow an explosion has caused Grimm to swarm into the city." Penny explained seriously. "Team RPBY is already at the scene, can you stand?"

Nora nodded as Penny picked helped her up.

"I can help." Nora stated as she gripped Magnhild. Nora then glanced at the girl fighting the Meta. "Looks like Ruby's holding off the Meta, will you be alright Tex?"

Wait, Ruby? As in Qrow's niece? Tex watched as Ruby delivered a thunderous punch right to the Meta's head. Well shit.

"Peachy kid." Tex gave a thumbs up.

Nora then went off to join her friends in battling Grimm.

"Holy shit, Tex are you alright?" Church cried as he stumbled into view and all thoughts about leaving the fight to someone else left Tex's mind.

"Dandy." Tex drawled sarcastically.

It was at that point Sarge and agent fucking Washington walked into view.

"Is that you rookie? Thought I'd never see you again." Tex admitted.

"It's been a long time since I've been called rookie." Wash said before he went to business. "But reunions can come later, is that the Meta?"

"With Sigma and a bunch of enhancements to boot." Tex confirmed.

"Shit." Wash swore. "Ruby and Caboose won't be able to hold him off forever."

"Wait, Caboose?"

"He's combined with Ruby, we'll explain later, also me, Sarge, Caboose and Church are all actual ghosts, again we'll explain later."

Well that was some new information.

"I could help, I am combat ready." Penny claimed, but Wash shook his head.

"No, the Meta is well above your skill level. You should focus on the Grimm"

"What about Lopez?" Sarge asked as the robot in question wondered into view.

It wasn't the original Lopez obviously (it was too clean and new looking) but it was most likely a Sarge creation.

"Que esta pasando? ¿Están todos bien?"

[What is going on? Is everyone alright?]

Yep. Defiantly a Sarge creation.

If Tex had a mouth, she'd be grinning.

"What? No! Lopez doesn't have any- wait, Tex what are you doing?"

Her body went lax as Lopez's went stiff.

After all Church wasn't the only one who could possess people.

The Meta blocked a punch and delivered a headbutt to the annoying obstacle in the way of their goal.

Ruby Rose was not matching the profile they had for her from Beacon. Instead she was far stronger and more competent at hand to hand combat than what was reported.

But the discrepancies mattered little to the Meta, indeed Beta herself was now of secondary importance.

The Alpha was within their grasp. He was so very, very close but it seemed that Rose was hell bent on being a thorn in their side.

The Meta shot a quick punch out, catching Ruby in the face, causing her to cringe at the attack, but otherwise recovered quickly, grabbing the Meta's head and bringing it to her knee with tremendous force, draining a good portion of the Meta's aura.

But the Meta then counter attacked by sending out a kick to the left of Ruby, followed immediately by using the other leg to sweep her off her feet. They then pinned her to the ground and wrapped their hands around their throat and squeezed.

Ruby tried to struggle and used her strange strength to get the Meta's hands off her throat and a brief struggle ensued.

Then their was a sharp whistle which caused the Meta to look up...

…Only for them to be hit by something which sent them flying back.

A moment later they got back on their feet and saw a brown robot helping Rose to her feet.

Who was this new contender?

"Buenos días cockbite."

It seems agent Texas has re-entered the fray.

The Meta cracked their knuckles and charged, but as they got closer Tex dodged under him and Ruby blocked the Meta, Tex then delivered a kick to their back.

The Meta turned around to punch Tex, but the freelancer dodged back and Ruby took the advantage to grab the Meta's arms and hold them behind them and Tex delivered a flurry of punches to the Meta's stomach.

Thinking fast the Meta activated the bubble shield, forcing the duo away from the Meta, they then attacked Tex, grabbing her and smashing her of their knee, damaging the robotics, but then they were hit by a blue blur.

Then again.

And again.

The blur attempted to pull the hit and run a fourth time, but the Meta activated the speed booster to match Ruby's speed and put agent Maine's full strength behind it, and at the same time Ruby went for another punch with her full strength behind it.

The result was the two fists meeting in spectacular fashion, causing a shockwave that broke the ground and sent both combatants flying back.

The Meta's Aura had finally broken and they could see that Rose's had as well.

But rather unfortunately the Grimm had all been slain and the Meta found themselves faced with several huntsmen backed by dozens of Atlesian Knight-200s.

Neither would be much of a problem on their own, but together...

They had neither the power reserves or Aura left to fight them off.

The Meta growled as they realised that the Alpha would have to wait another day.

And so they activated the time distortion and fled.

Alternative measures would be needed.

At the Meta's disappearance several things happened.

Yang Xiao Long and Blake Belladonna would check up on Pyrrha and bring her to the medics that started to arrive on scene.

Nora Valkyrie would get the attention of the medics and lead them to extract the rest of her team and Qrow.

Ruby Rose would shrink back to her usual size, become red again and collapse exhaustedly, only for Tex to bring her sleeping form to the medics as well.

In his office Ozpin would begin to start on damage control and collect footage that he could review later.

But miles away, in the desolate cold of Mantle, the final chess pieces would come into play.

"But to tell you the truth, I don't actually think he said it." Doyle admitted with a sad melancholic smile.

So this would be his end, still he had faith that Vanessa would lead them to victory.

He had faith.

Then the reactor exploded and the world went white...

...and stayed that way.

Doyle blinked and realised that he could still feel his everything, and that he was on the ground.

Confusedly, he picked himself up off the ground to find himself on a snowy mountain.

Was this the afterlife? If so heaven was very cold.

And windy, very, very windy.

Doyle stood there in contemplation for a few minutes, but then he heard a voice.

"Hey, you alive over there?"

Doyle turned around to see a man approaching him in the same type of armour that agent Washington and the others wore, only this time it was tan with a silver trim.

"Well, in the spirit of honesty, I'm not entirely sure." Doyle said back.

"How so?"

"Well, I died."

"Interesting." But it was not the soldier that said it, rather the glowing artificial intelligence on his shoulder did.

"You have an A.I?" Doyle inquired curiously, perhaps it was related to Epsilon.

The man straightened and shook his head.

"Where are my manners? I'm York, and this is Delta." He made gestures at the appropriate persons as he made his introductions.

"Ah, well I am general Donald Doyle, at your service." He held out his hand.

York took it and shook it. "Pleased to meet you."

"So are you...?" Doyle awkwardly asked.

"Dead?" York rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, I've been wondering about that myself."

Delta interjected. "You flatlined and I was destroyed in an E.M.P."

"And I was disintegrated in an atomic explosion." Doyle put forward.

"Well, that's quite the way to go." York paused. "Anyway, we should all be dead, but we actually aren't according to Delta there's electronic signatures over that way." York pointed down the mountain. "We were going to see what's what when Dee detected your armour."

"Well, in that case may I join you?" Doyle asked.

"Sure thing." York said easily. "Any objections Dee?"

"None."

York clapped his hands. "Great, lets get on our merry way and find out where the hell we are."

Notes:

And that's the end of that chapter.

Well, to be honest this chapter was meant to come out last week, but then my computer committed die. As a result after it was fixed I needed to rewrite the ENTIRE FUCKING CHAPTER.

Needless to say I was filled with rage.

Not much to say except welcome to York, Delta and Doyle in the cold plains of Mantle.

Thanks to everyone for reading, with extra thanks to does that comment/review, you dudes are awesome.

Next time the gang recovers in the hospital, ten points for whoever guesses the title of that chapter. But till then, I'll catch ya'll on the flip flop.

Review replies:

Brain.H.H: Oh yeah, the aftermath is going to be fun for writing about for the reasons you've mentioned. And also to answer your question about why Raven never showed up, it's because here Blake was going to be killed first and then Yang, at which point Raven would show up, but thankfully Pyrrha prevented any deaths.

ReaderWarrior: To answer your question after volume 2 I'll be taking something of a minor break to write some other ideas before returning to write about volume 3, so yeah time skip.

Annonamous Elephant: Great to see you! And it's good to see that your enjoying everything.

Sanszilla2984: Yep, Caboose is defiantly strong.