In memory of Gene Larkin.

"Heads up!"

You've got to be fucking kidding me...

Ruby was falling to the ground right on top of us. I started moving to a position to try and catch her when another person slammed into her midair, sending them both flying into a nearby tree.

"What the hell…" I muttered to myself, trying to figure out in my head what had just happened. My attention, however, shifted to the treeline where Nila and I came from. An Ursa came stumbling from the forest and into the clearing, knocking down a few trees in its way.

"YEEE-HAAAW!"

A yell pierced the air and an explosion seemingly coming from behind the Ursa made the Grimm collapse to the ground. As it did a girl in a pink and white outfit came rolling off of it's back and onto the ground. The Ursa lay motionless on the ground, much to the disappointment of the girl. Out from behind the lifeless Grimm came a boy wearing a green coat. He appeared to be out of breath, probably trying to catch up to the girl.

Doesn't that seem familiar…

I felt a tug on my sleeve and turned my head to see Azura looking around cautiously.

"Do you ever get the feeling you're being watched?" Azura asked quietly. This was something Azura asked me frequently, especially during our past three months here. I always played it off as here being paranoid because I never really felt like someone was monitoring me, even back home.

"The government does it all the time, why do you ask?" I replied sarcastically. Azura scowled at me in return.

"I'm being serious," she replied angrily, pulling me closer to her, "I think someone is watching us."

You're always being serious.

"Ozpin and Goodwitch are watching us from the cliffs," I told her, "But no one else is watching us-"

"I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the Castle!"

"Nora!"

Without realizing it the girl in the pink and white outfit had made it to the temple and started dancing with one of the white rooks on top of her head. She stopped, however, when the boy in the green coat called out her name from the treeline.

"Coming Ren!" The girl said cheerfully, saluting and dropping the rook into her hand. Nora skipped off happily to Ren leaving us wondering what the hell just happened.

"Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?" Blake wondered out loud. Yang, who was just as confused as the rest of us, tried to say something but was once again interrupted by a loud screech to our right. Out of the forest came Captain Canada herself, followed closely by a giant scorpion-like Grimm. The giant Grimm tried to hit her with it's giant claws, the girl just barely avoiding them. I heard her yell something but I could not make out what she said. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something red and black fall to the ground next to me making me jump a little. To my relief it was just Ruby and not a small Grimm.

"Ruby!" I exclaimed. The girl looked up at me and smiled.

"Ash!" The girl yelled cheerfully as she moved in for a hug.

"Nora!" The hyperactive redhead appeared out of nowhere between Ruby and I, surprising us both.

"Is she bringing that Death Stalker towards us?" Lloyd asked no one in particular. Before anyone could answer his question Yang suddenly exploded into a ball of fire.

"I can't take it anymore! Can everyone just chill out for two seconds before something crazy happens again?!"

Yang's sudden outburst scared the shit out of us. Azura had panicked and hid behind me while Lloyd hid behind a fallen pillar. Nila and I stayed where we were, but the wolf Faunus took a couple steps away from Yang a second after her outburst. Ren, the boy in the green coat, finally made it over to us, much to Nora's delight.

"Um Ash…" Ruby said while tapping me on the arm. I looked at her to see what she wanted and noticed she was looking and pointing to something in the sky. I looked up at the sky and saw a Nevermore circling above us, followed closely by something white. It took me a second to realize that it wasn't a something but a someone.

Weiss Schnee.

"Well at least nothing happened for two seconds." I said disappointingly.

"Why did you leave me!?" I heard the heiress yell down to Ruby.

"I said jump!" Ruby called back.

"She's gonna get hurt." Nila pointed out to Ruby. Sure enough Weiss let go of the Nevermore and began falling to the ground. The only person who could prevent her from getting hurt was me, but before I could use my semblance Jaune jumped out of the tree he was in to catch her.

In mid air…

I used my semblance to stop the Jaune and Weiss from falling. When they finally realized they were still in the air they clung to each other and I stopped using my semblance, letting them fall to the ground as a joke. They were close enough to the ground where they wouldn't get hurt from the fall. Jaune landed on the ground first and then Weiss landed on him.

Our attention then quickly shifted to Captain Canada and the Death Stalker. Ren and Lloyd drew their weapons just as the Grimm finally landed a hit on the girl and sent her flying into the ground right in front of us.

"Great! The gang's all here! Now we can all die together!" Yang deadpanned.

"Not if I can help it!" Ruby charged the Death Stalker and unfolded Crescent Rose.

"Ruby no!" I yelled as I unsuccessfully tried to grab her cloak to pull her back. Ruby attempted to strike the Grimm but was hit by one of it's claws and was knocked into the ground. As Ruby tried to get up the Death Stalker started moving towards her. I saw what was about to happen and grabbed Janus off my belt, activating it and throwing it at the Grimm. My weapon sliced into a couple of it's eyes causing it to stumble around. I used my semblance to bring Janus back to my hands and started running to Ruby.

"Ruby run!" I yelled out to the girl. Ruby turned away from the Grimm and started running to me. I heard Yang call her sister's name and was sure she was right behind me. Then I noticed the Nevermore swooping in behind Ruby. It then stopped in the sky and flapped it's wings in our direction, sending several giant feathers hurtling towards us. I saw one of the feathers snag onto Ruby's cloak. Then I realized there were feathers coming towards me and Yang. I suddenly felt someone grab onto the back of my jacket and pull me back. I realized it was Yang when we both fell down just as we were about to run right into a couple of the feathers. Ruby was trying desperately to get her cloak free of the feathers as the Death Stalker came closer and closer.

"Ruby get out of there!" Yang yelled out to her sister. I saw the the Death Stalker raising its tail and jumped back to my feet, running around the line of feathers. A flash of white passed me and collided with the tail of the Death Stalker, which was quickly stuck in a wall of ice. I stopped where I was to try and figure out what just happened. Weiss had come in just in time and trapped the stinger of the Grimm in the ice, saving Ruby from a horrible death. Weiss started walking away from Ruby after a short conversation. I ran over to Ruby, who was staring at the trapped Grimm, to make sure she was alright. She turned around after probably hearing me run over to her.

"Ash-"

"Ruby are you alright!? You're not hurt are you!?" I said frantically.

"Ash I'm fine!"

I let out a sigh of relief when I heard those words come out of her mouth. I was suppose to protect Ruby and I had almost failed not even half a day after I made that promise to Summer.

"I'm just glad you're ok." I told Ruby. She was about to say something when Yang came in and enveloped her in a hug.

"I'm so happy you're ok!" Yang said as she released her sister from her hug. We then ran back to the temple where everyone else was waiting for us.

"Guys that thing is circling back," Jaune said anxiously, "What are we gonna do?"

"There's no sense in dilly-dallying," Weiss told him, "Our objective is right in front of us."

"She's right. Our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the cliffs. There's no point in fighting these things." Ruby explained.

"Run and live. That's an idea I can get behind." Jaune replied. He and Ruby then quickly grabbed their relics. The Death Stalker was close to breaking free of the ice and we did not want to fight it.

"Time we left!" Ren told everyone. We started running for the cliffs when I noticed Azura was not moving at all. She was just standing there doing nothing.

"Azura?"

"I knew it." She replied. I didn't know what she was talking about until I realized she was staring at the tree line. I looked in the direction of whatever she was looking at when I saw it.

Someone wearing a dark gray hooded cloak was watching us from the tree line of the forest. They had a hand holding onto their cloak and another hand up on a tree. The hood of their cloak obscured their face from our view, making sure we didn't know who they were. Azura suddenly drew Aeterna Flamma and dashed for the cloaked figure. The mysterious person then ran into the forest not wanting Azura to catch them.

"Wait Azura!" I called out. I wasn't gonna wait while someone took off carelessly again so I started sprinting after her.

"Ash what are you doing!?" I heard Ruby yell. I turned around so she could hear me clearly.

"Just get everyone to the cliffs! We'll catch up!" I yelled as loud as I could. I then continued to run after Azura and the cloaked figure. Azura was a lot faster than I remembered. "Azura stop!"

She just kept running

I was running as fast as I could to try and catch my best friend while dodging several trees in my way. Finally she stopped, seemingly losing the the person who was watching us. I ran up to her and grabbed her by the arm.

"What the hell are you doing!?" I yelled angrily.

"I told you we were being watched!" She replied, pulling her arm out of my grip. "That person was watching us! We need to know who they are and why they were watching us!"

"That doesn't mean you can just run off after them like that! They could have attacked you!"

"But they didn't! If they wanted to attacked us they would have already done it!"

I couldn't argue against that. She was right. The person watching us, whoever they were, would have attacked by the time we saw them. They would have attacked us while we were split up in the forest. We would have been easier to take out. So why watch us?

"You fucking morons!"

I turned around to see Nila and an out of breath Lloyd run up to us.

"Why the hell are you running off like that!?" Nila demanded.

"That person was watching us! I wanted to know why!" Azura asserted. Nila just looked at her confused.

"What person? What are you talking about?"

"Someone was watching us from the trees," I replied, "They ran off when Azura drew her weapon and charged them-"

"And if they could have attacked us anytime today but they didn't!" Azura interjected. Then I remembered that Azura drew her sword before charging the cloaked person.

"Hold on. If you didn't think they were a threat why did you draw your sword on them?"

"Well what would you have done?" Azura demanded.

"Smiled and waved." I replied sarcastically. Azura shot me an angry look as she put her sword back into her scabbard.

"I'm trying to be serious right now." She hissed. While I was being sarcastic I also meant it.

"Well if that's the case then I would have done nothing. We have no idea who they are or what they are capable of."

"So you would have done nothing then!?" Azura shouted.

"It's better than not knowing what you're getting yourself into!"

Hiss.

Azura and I stood still and completely silent as soon as we heard that hiss. There was no doubt what it was. We turned our heads and saw two giant snake heads, one black and one white.

A king Taijitu.