AUTHOR'S NOTES: A final battle so big it had to be spread over two chapters. Sorry about the cliffhanger. Because I'm sure you don't want to wait four days to find out what happens to the cast, especially Pyrrha, I'll be posting the next chapter either tomorrow or Saturday.

Near Trempeleau, Wisconsin, United States of Canada

1555 Local

Cardin Winchester prided himself on never really having been scared in his flying career. Well, there had been that time he and Cardinal Flight had dueled an enraged Pyrrha Nikos, but even then, deep down, he'd known it was a simulation.

Today was different, however. Cardin was not only scared, he was terrified, and he was quite surprised to find himself still alive. In the space of less than an hour, he'd seen his flight wiped out aside from himself, nearly been killed by a SAM fired by his own side, and then barely evaded a F-22 that seemed to be more toying with him than anything else. It had finally broken away after a wild chase down the Mississippi River valley, but once he was sure it was gone, he'd climbed back up to something resembling safe altitude, taken some deep gulps of oxygen, surprised himself by discovering he hadn't wet his pants, and gotten the vector to engage the GRIMM approaching Beacon. GRIMM—stupid drones that didn't make him feel like deer being hunted by a wolf—sounded like just what the doctor ordered to get revenge for Cardinal Flight.

This was something new, however. Beowolves and Ursai were like old friends, almost. The monster Wyvern that brought up the rear was something else entirely. Short of a nuke—and they certainly didn't have anything like that—he didn't see how they were going to stop it.

"Cardin, this is Crow 13. Is that you at my three o'clock high? Waggle your wings."

Cardin did so, and caught movement against the forest. It was a F-117. He had no idea what one was doing here, but at least it was friendly. He hoped. "Crow 13, are you in the Nighthawk?"

"That's a rog. Neon, you out here?"

"Roger that!" Neon Katt's ebuillence was good to hear, but both men heard the tinge of rage in her voice. "We're trailing the big bastard at 40 miles. We worked our way behind it. The GRIMM didn't seem to notice us until we got within 20 miles. Soon as we backed off, they didn't pursue."

"Yeah, sounds like they're programmed to maintain close escort. Good; we can use that." Cardin watched the F-117 begin to climb. "Cardin, Neon: I'm going high. Neon, continue to trail. Cardin, circle east and join up with Interception Package Alpha. Pyrrha has command. I'll try to find you guys some weak spots."

Cardin acknowledged after Neon did, and circled around. He checked his fuel gauge. Half tanks, but that was still plenty. Luckily the F-15 was built for long engagements. He saw the cloud of fighters coming up from Beacon, and beyond them, the specks and flashes of a dogfight. He wondered who those were, but that was someone else's problem. Normally, he might have chafed at being under Pyrrha's command, but now issues of who led who seemed rather secondary. He saw the gray Mirage F.1 of Emerald Sustrai, followed by the blue F-2A of Yatsuhachi Daichi and, to his surprise, the gray Jaguar of Ruth Lionheart. "Yatsu, Cardin. Is that Coffee Flight?"

"Cardin, Coco," came the feminine voice. "Yeah, it's us. I'm borrowing Emerald's Mirage; that's Velvet in the Jag."

"Mind if I join up?" Then he remembered how he'd treated Velvet Scarlatina; he wondered if joining up with Coffee was such a great idea after all.

"More the merrier. You're now Coffee Four." Cardin realized he'd been informally demoted, but like being led into combat by Pyrrha Nikos, it seemed rather pedestrian to be concerned. In the distance, he could still see the fires where Cardinal Flight had been shot down.

Jaune watched Pyrrha's F-16 disappear into the clouds. He began turning again, but Qrow's voice stopped him. "Hold formation, Juniper Lead. Ruby Flight, come in. We need you to backstop Pyrrha." There was a pause. "Ruby Flight, this is Crow 13. Come in." Another pause. "Beacon Tower, contact Ruby Flight. They may not have heard the channel call." Beacon Tower acknowledged. "Juniper, we need you right here. Pyrrha will be along. Stand by to engage." Qrow's voice was calm, and Jaune took strength from it, beside himself with worry for Pyrrha.

Then there was no more time to worry, because they passed through a bank of clouds, and there were the GRIMM. A veritable cloud of GRIMM were in front, but it was the monster behind that seemed to fill the horizon. One part of Jaune knew that was impossible, but it certainly seemed so, and he had some kind of deep ancestral memory surface, of being prey in a deep French forest, hunted by something bigger and more cunning than he was.

"Crow 13 to all Beacon elements. We're going to hit the merge with the GRIMM in a few seconds. Engage with close-range weapons only; save your big stuff for the Wyvern if you can. Neon, engage with Phoenixes now. You should distract the GRIMM. Coffee, Sun Flights: engage the GRIMM, clear the way for Auburn and Juniper to engage the Wyvern. Dew, Octavia, attach yourself to Auburn. Reese, you're in command." Qrow didn't really know any of the girls from Auburn or Indigo Flights; he only knew Reese Chloris because she flew that ancient Hunter.

He saw the Phoenixes arrive—the Beowolves and Ursai were out of position, out in front of the Wyvern, Neon and Kobalt's F-14 out of detection range. One Phoenix slammed into the Wyvern, and the other exploded just short. For a wild moment, Qrow thought the giant GRIMM had some sort of force field, but then saw turrets appear the length of the ship, and realized it was very much an upscaled Nevermore. Two Ursai peeled off to engage the new threat to the rear. "Coffee and Sun, go!"

Then Qrow dived on the Ursai as he saw the Tomcat roaring in, wings swept. The Ursai never detected him, the F-117's stealth making him practically invisible to their radar. He opened the weapons bay and fired his last two Sidewinders at one Ursai. Both tracked and the GRIMM exploded. The remaining Ursai's computer brain acknowledged the attack from behind, couldn't find a target as it turned to engage, and confused, went straight and level as its CPU tried to figure out what was going on. It joined the other Ursai seconds later as Neon emptied her cannon into it as she swept by. As Qrow climbed back into position above the Wyvern, Kobalt locked the F-14's radar onto the Wyvern—at this range, it wasn't hard, stealth or no—and Neon fired her two AMRAAM, then broke off as the rear turrets swiveled in her direction, climbing away and overtaking the F-117. Both AMRAAM hit, but the Wyvern flew on without noticeable damage.

Near Viroqua, Wisconsin, United States of Canada

14 May 2001

1555 Hours Local

Cinder Fall checked her fuel and smiled. Glynda Goodwitch had apparently made sure her F-22 was fully fueled and rearmed. She kept her speed down nonetheless: Watts had informed her that fueling arrangements were being made at Torchwick's former base at Mountain Glenn, but she couldn't count on that. She would probably have to land at Hector, and then probably move on to one of the boltholes in the Pacific Northwest that even Sienna Khan wasn't aware of. It was going to be a very long day, but it was going to be a very profitable one. She'd already killed Goodwitch and Ozpin, which would make Salem happy, and now she was going to ensure the giant GRIMM made it to Beacon and beyond. Cinder knew Salem intended to raze the base to the ground, which she thought was a bit petty—Beacon, without aircraft, was no threat, and an attack on Chicago would do far more to destablize the United States of Canada than an attack on Beacon would. She climbed slightly, positioning herself in the scattered clouds; by now, she had to assume someone at Beacon knew there was a wolf coming into the sheep herd. Still, there would be hesitation and fear.

Her Radar Warning Receiver abruptly shrilled for her attention. Cinder's eyes went to the threat display, which showed a radar-guided missile headed her way at Mach 3. She slammed the stick to one side with her right hand, dropping chaff behind her as Cinder broke hard to the right. The Raptor's sudden maneuver and the chaff cloud caused the AMRAAM to miss and explode behind her. Cinder blew through a cloud, rainwater appearing and dissipating off her canopy in a second, and she craned her head to see her attacker, switching on her radar at the same time.

Then she saw it: a F-16, in the two shades of light gray camouflage of the Hellenic Air Force. Nikos, she thought. Well, well. A quick scan of the sky and the RWR showed no other threats: Pyrrha was alone, offering mortal combat as the old days, when knights and samurai would ride out to do battle between the lines. Cinder smiled beneath her mask: there was something rather appealing to that, actually. And she could kill Pyrrha and still disrupt the Beacon interception of the GRIMM.

She tightened her turn a little, as did Pyrrha. The two women stared out of each other's canopies as they made a close pass. Cinder was wearing Glynda's purple helmet, but she was quite sure Pyrrha was not fooled. In the split second they looked at each other, the contract was sealed: one of them was going to die.

Cinder moved first. She racked the F-22 into an extremely tight left turn, using the Raptor's thrust vectoring to cheat the turn even tighter.

Pyrrha saw the tailplanes of the Raptor move and knew that Cinder was going to turn in behind her. She wants to end this quick, Pyrrha thought, pushing the thoughts of Jaune out of her head; she could afford no distractions now. Her F-16 was outclassed in every category by the F-22, and she already knew Cinder was a superb pilot. This would be the fight of her life.

But she still might have one advantage.

Pyrrha pushed the throttle forward and engaged the afterburner, going into a hard climb as Cinder got in behind her, then throttling back slightly and throwing in a few rolls. One finger rested on the countermeasures button: Milo was now an excellent target for a Sidewinder shot, hot aircraft against cold sky, and Cinder could simply slow down, or even simply point her nose upwards and fire a missile. Pyrrha watched the mirrors in her canopy frame.

Cinder followed her into the climb and closed the distance. Despite herself, Pyrrha smiled, because now she knew her opponent's weakness: Cinder was going for a guns kill, to finish her in the old way, and make it personal. Cinder Fall was overconfident and cocky, and that was the one advantage Pyrrha Nikos had.

Pyrrha waited for an agonizing second, then suddenly throttled back even further, almost to a stall, and let the F-16 fall over onto its right wing, then drop out of the sky. The F-22 shot past, and Pyrrha once more pushed the throttle forward, speeding up, gaining space. Cinder might want to duel like it was World War I, but Pyrrha had no such intentions: she was going to blow Cinder out of the sky with a missile if she got the chance. A quick look behind her, and then she came out of the dive back into level flight, and turned back into Cinder.

"Skata," she cursed. She's so fast! The F-22 was already out of its climb, twisting around, diving on Pyrrha. The two went head-on again, missing each other by only feet, feeling the others jetwash. A scream escaped from Pyrrha's lips as she went hard left into a horrific 9-G turn, trying to make the turn—but once more, the Raptor's ability to thrust vector left her coming out of the turn with Cinder right behind her.

Near Sparta, Wisconsin

1600 Hours Local

Cardin stayed loosely on Velvet's wing as they went in, his radar alive with returns. The range spiraled down. This is it, he thought, a cold sweat breaking out, the merge. The merge was where a lot of fighter pilots died, in that sudden collision when both sides were in range and opened fire. Qrow had said to hold fire, engage with short-range weapons only, but Cardin couldn't take any more waiting, with the GRIMM bearing down, the closing rate nearly the speed of sound. He locked up two Beowolves and fired. Two AMRAAM dropped from the F-15's fuselage and bored in, destroying both targets.

"Here we go!" Coco yelled to no one in particular, and then Cardin tried to get smaller in his cockpit, throwing the big fighter around as cannon shells and one missile flew past, and at least one Beowulf passed so close he was sure he could've reached out of the canopy and touched it. Then he was through, and the Wyvern was in front. Cardin unloaded both of his remaining AMRAAMs at it, then turned away into a hard left turn, coming back around. He couldn't tell if either of his missiles struck.

"Cardin, check six!" someone yelled; it sounded like Jaune. "You've picked two of them up!" Cardin kicked the tail around, and saw the two GRIMM bearing down. There were no expressions on the drones, of course, but he could have sworn they looked downright pissed. One fired a missile, and he decoyed it off with a flare. Another missile spiraled towards him; Cardin hit the countermeasures button, but nothing happened; he had used up all his flares getting away from the red F-22. He rolled and dived, and somehow the missile missed. The GRIMM were still on him—one was, Cardin corrected himself, as he saw one vanish in an explosion. The other stayed on the F-15's tail as if it was tied to it. "Bastard's on me tight!" Cardin shouted, in his fear forgetting about his callsign. The Beowolf came closer, and now the fireballs of cannon shells skipped across Cardin's wings.

"Cardin, Jaune! Level out and drag him!"

Sure he was about to die, Cardin did as asked. Then the Beowolf blew up, and Cardin saw the Mirage 2000 sweep past. He'd never seen something so beautiful in his life. "Thanks, Jauney!"

Near Viola, Wisconsin

1605 Hours Local

Cinder found herself breathing hard into the oxygen mask. She knew Pyrrha was a good pilot, probably the best at Beacon—besides herself, of course—but already this battle had gone on a little longer than she thought it would, and it needed to end. The Immelmann out of the climb had been a nice touch, but Cinder had outmaneuvered her opponent again, and put the gunsight over the middle of the F-16. "Goodbye, Nikos," she said, and pulled the trigger.

As the first round left the 25 millimeter gun in the Raptor's starboard side, the speedbrakes on either side of the F-16's tail suddenly split open, and then it seemed to disappear out of her gunsight as Pyrrha did another turn. Cinder overshot, and worse, lost sight of her opponent. She strained against her harness, dipping the wing, trying to see where Pyrrha went, but she was gone—and Cinder had a feeling where she was. She dived for the forest below, and finally spotted the F-16: behind the twin, canted tails of the Raptor.

Pyrrha had pulled in her speedbrakes and accelerated, thankful her trick had worked, and knowing the measure of her opponent now. Often, a fighter pilot's personality could be seen in how they flew: Yang was aggressive to a fault, Blake liked to hang back, Sage Ayana loved the speed his F-104 could give him. Cinder was something of a bully, Pyrrha had noticed back at Beacon, and if she wasn't as bad as Cardin Winchester, her attitude showed up in the way she flew: Cinder liked to crowd her opponents. It also made her prone to overshooting—and now, finally, Pyrrha had the shot she'd been angling for since the beginning of the combat, an eternal three minutes ago. A Sidewinder shot from her right wingtip and guided towards the Raptor.

Then Cinder showed her mastery of her craft. The F-22, already barely above the trees, suddenly turned hard, dropping flares; the Sidewinder, confused by the flares, the heat from the ground below, and the F-22's ducted exhausts, missed and blew up in the forest. Worse, the Raptor was vectoring around again, forcing Pyrrha into the overshoot.

Pyrrha climbed, hating the fact that she had to, but hitting the ground was not going to win the battle either. She quickly glanced behind, knowing the Raptor was dropping in behind her, but saw Cinder was not closing in this time: she'd learned. Pyrrha turned, rolled and dived, leaving flares in her wake.

"Goddammit!" Cinder shouted, as her Sidewinder went merrily away, chasing a flare. She threw the Raptor to one side, trying to follow Pyrrha into the dive. This time she wasn't going to overshoot, at least.

To her horror, she saw the F-16 come out of its dive, seem to skid in midair, and fire a Sidewinder at her head-on. Cinder's eyes widened in terror, and her hand pulled the stick back and she climbed hard. She felt the detonation of the Sidewinder; her hasty reaction had saved her. How is she doing this? Cinder screamed silently. She's not human!

For the first time in her life, Cinder Fall wondered if she was going to lose. The F-16 accelerated after her into the climb, closing for the kill.

Near Tomah, Wisconsin

1605 Hours Local

Sun Wukong led Sun Flight into the swarm of GRIMM. The flight split up; there were simply so many bandits that it would be impossible to keep flight integrity in a furball like this. The GRIMM broke up as well, as the drones chose their own targets. Sun looked forward out of the windscreen, as an Ursa came right at him.

Sun smiled. "Okay, buddy, what's on your mind?" He kept on course. A sentient opponent would have broken away, but no one knew if the GRIMM had a self-preservation algorithm. Nonetheless, Sun held his Ching Kuo for as long as he dared, then fired a Sidewinder and dived underneath as the Ursa opened fire. A single Sidewinder was normally not enough to destroy an Ursa outright, but this one struck the GRIMM right in the nose and blew it apart.

"Sage here, going in!" Sun rolled out and saw the F-104 streak past the GRIMM, moisture shockwaves erupting for a moment. Sage ran up the F-104 to twice the speed of sound and fired both of his Sparrows at the Wyvern, keeping his radar on the huge GRIMM as the distance closed in seconds. Both Sparrows hit, and fire and smoke erupted from the Wyvern's leading edge. Sage let out a war whoop as his supersonic shockwave buffeted even the Wyvern, and was gone to the west. It would take awhile for him to slow down and turn around, but he had hit and done the first real damage to the main target.

Sun laughed as he saw Sage score his hits. He looked for more targets, and fastened on the tail of a Beowolf. As he lined up to fire, it suddenly burst into flame and went down in a terminal dive. He saw a Mirage go by, wearing the two shades of gray of the Egyptian Air Force: Nadir Shiko. "Nadir, splash one!" she called out exuberantly. The Mirage pulled up, and suddenly it was on fire. "Allah akhbar!" she yelled in Arabic, then switched back to English for the Fighter Pilot's Prayer: "Oh shit!"

"Nadir, you're on fire!" Sun yelled. "Get out of it!" He saw the Beowulf that had hit her; it had come in behind both of them. Sun cursed himself for not watching the sky around them; it could be him on fire. "Get out of it!" he repeated. As the Mirage stalled, Nadir ejected. Sun opened his speedbrake and slowed, forcing the Beowulf to overshoot, and dispatched it with a Sidewinder. A beeper filled the airwaves for a second, then was shut off almost immediately: Nadir had survived the ejection, though she had escaped into a sky alive with missile trails, gunfire, aircraft, and GRIMM.

Coco lost all three of her flight in the merge, the flight going to all angles, but there was no time to call them back together. She only had Sidewinders loaded, but that was enough.

Ever since Coco had climbed into Emerald's Mirage F.1 back at Beacon, her attention had been drawn to a red button in the upper left side of the instrument panel. It was unmarked, but it was surrounded by cross-hatched red and orange paint. Coco knew the Mirage better than any lover, and that button was not there on any Mirage F.1 she'd ever flown. Now seemed like as good time as any to see what it did. Hoping it wasn't some sort of self-destruct, which would be slightly embarrassing, she punched the button.

Nothing happened. Coco shrugged and spotted a Beowulf trying to get in behind Reese's Hunter, which was going straight for the Wyvern. Her Sidewinders might not do much, but the Hunter's quad heavy cannon were a different story. Coco slid in behind the Beowulf, checked her mirrors to clear her tail, and saw an Ursa go past. She got ready to break, but the Ursa continued on, looking for a target elsewhere. Her RWR was silent. She quickly blasted the Beowulf off Reese's tail—kill number 15, she made a mental note—and edged ahead of the Hunter. "Reese, Coco. Let me go in first, due some flak suppression."

"Thanks, Coco!"

The Mirage closed in on the Wyvern. There were at least four turrets on her flight path that she could see, but none turned in her direction. Ah ha! I knew it! That's why I never saw Emerald behind me in the exercise! It's some sort of radar jamming device! She took advantage of it, whatever technology it was, and strafed the Wyvern, knocking out a few of the turrets with her cannon. Reese did the same, getting a few more, pounding the giant GRIMM with her own guns.

The radar jammer wasn't infallible, however. As Coco climbed, rolled out over the Wyvern, then dived down for another run, no less than four Beowolves attached themselves to her. Their missiles went wide, unable to "see" the Mirage, but that just made the GRIMM close in with their guns. She couldn't see Reese anywhere. "Coco here. I got four on my ass."

"Coco, Velvet. I'm on your Beowolves."

Coco came out of her dive at full speed, abandoning her run on the Wyvern, trying to get away. Then she saw the Jaguar. Velvet blew away one Beowulf with a Sidewinder, then a second as the formation scattered. One turned back into her, firing its cannon, but the Faunus simply evaded the shells, and then the Beowulf was on its back, burning as the Jaguar's cannon chopped through it. A fourth tried to reacquire Coco, only to be hit in a 90-degree deflection shot with yet another Sidewinder from Velvet, and finally she dispatched a fifth with her last shot. Coco's mouth dropped open. Velvet had five kills going into this fight; she'd just doubled her score in less than two minutes. "Lionheart!" Velvet shouted as she swept past her last opponent, unable to resist punching a fist in the air.

Then Coco saw the Ursa coming in behind the Jaguar. The fighter wobbled as a cannon shell punched through the wing. "Velvet, break left! Ursa!" Coco yelled. The Jaguar pulled hard left, but the Ursa followed her through the turn. Coco was out of position, coming out of the climb she'd gone into to evade the GRIMM.

A smoke trail shot under the Mirage and blew the wing off the Ursa. It went into a spiral and disappeared into the woods below.

"Thank you, whoever that was," Velvet called out.

"Velvet, Weiss. You're welcome." They saw the Typhoon join the fight, then the red-trimmed F-16. Ruby Flight—what was left of it—had arrived.

And still the Wyvern flew on, making a slight turn to the southeast. Beacon was only fifteen miles away.