FINALLY! The finale is here! I hope you guys enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Also quick disclaimer here, I use the term 'man' quite a lot to refer to humankind, simply because it's easier and the show also refers to humans as 'man'. Just felt I needed to clarify myself there. Please don't let the femi-nazis lynch me.
"In war there is no prize for runner up"
Omar Bradley
Chapter Twenty-Four—Moves and Countermoves
Coward. Weakling. Murderer.
And now traitor too.
Beatrice stared at her reflection in her bathroom for a long moment. She was all those things. She wasn't naïve enough to think otherwise. Watts might have played with her mind, but she'd still done everything he'd told her to. She'd still let all the evil happen. Deep down, she knew that if she'd really wanted to, she could have fought against Watts' control on her. She could have won.
But she hadn't. And now she could hide from the truth no longer. Beatrice stared at her reflection and saw herself for that she really was. All her flaws, all her failings, Beatrice stared long and hard at each and every inch of her soul.
And for the first time in a long, long while, she wasn't repulsed by it.
Beatrice unscrewed a bottle of dye-remover and lowered her head into the sink. She turned on the tap and squirted a large dose of the product onto her hair. Then she began to rub it in.
Beatrice was flawed. She had done wrong. But she was so much more than her mistakes. She was brave. She was strong. She was willing to make up for her errors, to do what was right. She was loved by her brother; that meant something. And she wasn't going to sit by and let Vale be destroyed by a madman. She was going to act.
Beatrice's fingers glided through her silken hair, allowing the solvent to dissolve the microscopic dust crystals that dyed her hair a regulatory mud-brown colour. She'd never liked it. It had burned with conformity. Labelled her as just another mindless soldier in the ranks of the Atlesian army. The day she'd dyed her hair had been the day she'd given up her individuality for the good of Atlas.
And today was the day she took it back.
Commander Beatrice Blitz of the Atlesian army had ducked her head into the sink.
But it was Bea the Huntress who lifted it back up.
She turned away from the bathroom and strode to her wardrobe, pulling out a set of clothing she hadn't worn for almost two years. It was her Huntress attire. After she'd put it on, she stood before her reflection once more and smiled. It had been too long since she'd recognised the person smiling back.
Tall, with intelligent eyes and an electric-blue bob of hair. She wore simple, tight, black trousers and a white top, and over that she donned the true defining attribute of Bea the Huntress. It was a long, flowing, hooded robe, the base colour blue like her hair, but with gray swirls traversing the fabric. Like a stormy sky.
It was perfect.
Now it was time to go stop Watts.
Bea hurried to the rear of the Dreadnought she was in. It had taken some time to find out where the General was located: on another Dreadnought towards the head of the pack, and now Bea needed to get over there. The stern of each of the larger ships had a docking area to allow smaller ships to carry passengers and crew between them. It was one of these ships which Bea now hurried towards. She was running against the clock now. Vale was only a few hours away, and if she didn't stop Watts before then, innocents would die. Thousands of them.
She took a passenger ship to the front of the fleet, disembarking on Watts' ship. The crew were busy rushing back and forth to get everything ready for the attack, leaving very few to bother worrying about one extra passenger onboard. Nonetheless, as Bea stalked briskly through the hallways, she picked up enough odd stares to make her wish she'd stuck with her military uniform, or at least left her hair dyed. At least then she wouldn't have been a walking blue lens flare.
Bea hurried deeper into the ship, heading towards the bridge at the front. She made it a full half way towards the bow of the ship when someone finally confronted her. "Oh my, what wonderful hair you have," said a voice.
Bea came to a halt and rotated to face her challenger. She expected to see someone in military uniform, or perhaps an engineer. What Bea hadn't expected to behold was a freckled girl with ginger hair adorned with a pink bow, wearing a white blouse, grey feminine overalls, a black and green collar and matching stockings. The unexpected appearance, mixed with the fact that she was a child, threw Bea for a moment. "Um… pardon?"
"I was complimenting your hair," answered the girl. "It is a most extraordinary colour."
"Um… thanks."
"You are most welcome."
Bea stared at the girl. The girl stared back unblinkingly. The silence stretched on. "Right, um, who are you exactly?" asked Bea, rather tactlessly.
"My name is Penny Polendina," she answered. "And you are?"
"Bea."
"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Bea. This sure is some fine weather we're having, is it not?"
Bea wasn't entirely sure what to say to that. "Um, sure. I guess. Hey, uh, don't take offense to this, but what exactly are you doing here, Penny?"
"None taken. I am here with my father. He was asked by the general to accompany him on this excursion to Vale. He wanted to leave me behind but had no one to look after me, so in the end it was decided that I would accompany my father in order to experience more of the outside world."
"Wait, Watts wants your father?" asked Bea. "Why?"
"I… I am afraid I cannot answer," replied Penny, brow furrowed. "You see, my father is a great scientist, as is the general in fact, and he told me I wasn't to tell anyone about the secret weapon designs he was working on—Oh dear. I fear I've said too much already."
"Weapon designs? What weapon designs?" demanded Bea.
"What? Uh, nothing. There are no weapon designs." Penny hiccupped. "My father's not working on anything at the moment." Another hiccup.
"Penny, please," begged Bea, "I need to know. If your father created a new weapon for Watts, then people might be in danger. Real life people could be hurt by your father."
Penny looked at the ground, then began fiddling with her fingers. "My… my father would never hurt anyone. He did not even want to design them. When General Ironwood came to him to ask about developing weapons, he refused. But then General Watts came, and someone he convinced my father to work on them for him."
"Penny, listen to me," ordered Bea, taking Penny's fidgeting hands in her own and forcing the girl to look up at her. "Watts is controlling your father. It's his semblance. He's making him work on the weapons, and Watts is going to use them to destroy Vale. I need you to tell me everything you know about them if I am to stop that from happening and save your father from Watts."
Penny looked up at Bea, wide-eyed. "I do not detect a lie coming from you, but if what you say is true…" Penny bit her lip. "Very well then. I shall help you however I can."
"Tell me about the new weapon your father was working on."
"Well, it is not quite a new weapon per say, but rather an upgraded form of the Dreadnought class ship's armaments. It will increase the cannons' effective range by a sizable amount, allowing them to outrange most other weapons."
"Including anti-air guns?" asked Bea. Penny considered it, then nodded. "And how destructive will these upgraded weapons be?"
"I am unsure of that," admitted Penny. "Fairly destructive, I would assume."
Bea cursed colourfully, turning Penny's cheeks a similar shade to her hair. If Watts unleashed his upgraded weapons on Vale, the city wouldn't stand a chance. They'd be annihilated before they could even make a return shot. She couldn't let that happen. No matter what.
"Thank you for your help, Penny. I must go now. Find your father and get yourselves off this ship," Bea advised. She knew how bombing campaigns worked: the lead ship would fire an initial salvo once they were in position, giving the signal for the other ships to follow suit. Bea had to stop this ship from firing that first shot. "I can't let this ship reach Vale. If it gets too close, or I can't stop Watts, I'll have to bring it down. You don't want to be here when that happens."
"What about the other crew of this ship?" Penny inquired.
Bea paused. Penny was right. Most of the people onboard the Dreadnought were just following orders to man the ship. They didn't deserve to suffer for what Watts had done. But she couldn't waste her time evacuating people. She needed to stop Watts. "Penny, I need to ask you a big favour. Can you try to get as many people off this ship as possible?"
"Absolutely," nodded Penny. "It would be my honour to help save lives."
"Thank you. It doesn't matter how you do it; pretend you've got orders from the general if you have to. Just get off this ship. Now I really need to go." Bea turned and hurried away from Penny. She had no more time to waste. Vale wouldn't be far off now. Watts still needed to be brought to justice.
Bea glanced back over her shoulder one last time to see Penny hurrying off, a troubled look on her face. In hindsight, it probably hadn't been a very good idea to look backwards whilst she rushed down a narrow corridor. Maybe if she had been looking where she was going, she wouldn't have collided head first into another person.
"Ooof!" Bea bounced back and landed hard on her arse.
"Watch where you're going, you imbecile," snapped the woman Bea had run into. Bea's eyes widened as they beheld who it was. So too did the woman's. "Commander Blitz?"
"Special operative Schnee." Bea winced. This just got a whole lot more complicated.
/-/
Nora and Ren were already waiting for her by the time Pyrrha arrived. She hopped onto the raised platform in the middle of the square with her teammates, her eyes soaking in the details of their terrain, praying for anything that would give them an advantage. There was nothing. Just a simple square boxed in by blocks of flats and intersected by streets. The height of the stage they were on at least offered them some vestige of defence, but Pyrrha knew it wouldn't be enough. They'd be fighting a losing battle the second the blocked subway entrance was breached. Already exhausted from a long night of evacuating civilians, their band of Huntsmen wouldn't last long.
Team RWBY joined them within minutes of her arrival, and each member of the two teams turned to face the soon-to-be open tunnel system. Pyrrha glanced at her scroll: six o'clock in the morning. Rush hour would be beginning in mere moments. Already, lone commuters were hurrying out of homes and walking swiftly down the surrounding streets. Pyrrha's stomach knotted at the sight. These were the people they'd failed to get out in time. And if they couldn't stop the Breach, these would be the first people to die.
They wouldn't be the last.
Pyrrha stared at the place where the fall of Vale would begin. It looked so inconspicuous, so innocent. Just a sheet of reinforced metal slanted upwards slightly set into the foot of a disused building. It was a feeble apparition of the hell that waited behind it.
Pyrrha and the others waited. Then they waited some more. Ten minutes. Twenty. In a hopeful voice Ruby suggested, "Perhaps it won't happ—"
"It'll happen," stated Pyrrha.
Thirty minutes went by. Then another fifteen. By now the streets had become a bustle of civilians rushing to their jobs; not quite as full as on a normal day, but still full enough for a tragedy to unfold. And still Pyrrha waited. It would come, she told herself. It would happen.
Then, from seemingly deep below the ground, Pyrrha felt a rumble. At first it was so small she almost missed it. Almost. It started as a faint vibration in her foot. Then it rose to her ankle. Then kept rising. Pyrrha knelt and put her ear to the ground, trying to make out the sound better.
There. She felt it resonating through the earth, a deep thumping that slithered into her ear and made her heart stop. She lifted her head from the floor and looked with horror at her companions. "It's started," she breathed.
Pyrrha leapt to her feet and snatched up her weapons again. By now the noise had risen enough to be audible in the square. Passersby stopped and stared, turning to their companions to ask what was happening. Pyrrha couldn't take it anymore. "Get out of here!" she screamed, heedless of the panic she might begin. "Run! Go!"
Pedestrians stared at her as if she were crazy, but none of them obeyed. Pyrrha wanted to cry right then and there. They weren't running. They were going to die.
The noise rose and rose, growing louder and louder, stronger and stronger. Pyrrha took a step back, mesmerised by the growing sound of disaster approaching. The civilians around the square finally became uneasy, some sixth sense of theirs detecting that something wasn't right. Pyrrha screamed at them again, and now some of them did finally turn and hurry away in the opposite direction. But not everyone. Some simply stood and gawked, spectators to their own funerals. Pyrrha couldn't bare to watch them anymore.
A metallic screeching rose to accompany the rumbling, rising to an ear-deafening pitch. Pyrrha's eyes went wide. She realised in a split-second that whatever was on the other side of those metal barricades was about to hit.
Someone screamed, and now people finally turned tail and fled, but it was too late.
"Get down!" Pyrrha shrieked, hitting the deck. The volume rose to a fever pitch.
Then the world exploded.
/-/
Special operative Winter Schnee stood and stared at Bea. Bea stared back. Her and Winter had never been friendly; utterly the opposite in fact. Bea thought Winter was stuck-up and cold, completely dismissive of anyone but herself; when it came to Winter, it was her way or the metaphorical highway. In return, Winter saw Bea as an up-jumped know-it-all, unprofessional to the highest degree and a blotch on the Atlesian military's sparkling record. The two women couldn't stand each other. But despite all that, Bea would be lying if she didn't admit to feeling some grudging respect for Winter's fighting ability. If this went south…
The shock of Bea's sudden appearance quickly wore off, and Winter's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "What are you doing here? As I recall you were assigned to another ship."
Bea pushed herself back to her feet, giving herself a couple of extra seconds to think. "I was ordered here by the general. I'm here to speak with him."
"Why would he not simply send a message?" Winter questioned.
"I do not know. Perhaps he is cautious of spies intercepting his commands. It doesn't concern you. Now if you'll excuse me." Bea made to move past Winter, but the Schnee blocked her path, still scrutinising her. Bea raised an eyebrow. "Stand aside, Winter."
Winter finally met her gaze. "Where is your uniform, Beatrice?"
Bea's mind went blank.
"I think you're lying," declared Winter. She took a step closer. Bea took a step back. "What are you really doing here?"
"That is none of your concern."
"I think it is," stated Winter. "If you won't tell me, then I shall have to arrest you."
Damnit. This wasn't going well. Bea assessed the situation in a flash. Lying wasn't working. Winter was too perceptive, too shrewd. That meant she had two options. Tell the truth or fight.
Bea didn't know how good her chances would be in a one-on-one with Winter Schnee, so she made a snap decision to tell Winter the truth. Just in case though, she slipped her hand casually to her side, mere inches away from where she knew her weapon was. It wouldn't hurt to be prepared.
"You're right," she said. "I'm not here on orders of the general. I'm here to stop Watts."
"Stop General Watts?" demanded Winter. "You realise you've just admitted to treason?"
"This is bigger than Atlas, Winter," argued Bea. "This is about the fate of Vale. Watts is going to destroy it completely. You must realise that. He's going to murder thousands of innocents if this invasion fleet makes it to Vale. Don't you care about that?"
Winter hesitated, clearly troubled. But nonetheless she said, "The general would never do such a thing."
"Open your eyes, Winter. What do you think this fleet is for? To wave hello to them? Watts is going to level Vale, and you know it."
"No," denied Winter, shaking her head. "You're trying to distract me from you. Commander Beatrice Blitz, you are under arrest for treason against the Atlesian military. I'm taking you to the general."
Bea shook her head. It was no good. Watts had gotten Winter with his semblance too, convincing her that he was in the right. She could spend hours arguing with Winter and still get nowhere. And that was time she didn't have.
It was time for plan B.
Subtly, Bea rotated her body ever so slightly to hide her right hand from view. Carefully, she inched behind her back and gripped a cylindrical shape resting on the small of her back. Her weapon. Currently, it was in sheath mode, leaving it as little more than a maroon cylinder about the length of two fists. But when she extended it, she'd have either a whip or a foil-like sword, depending on which side she picked, each charged with enough electricity to taser a Beowolf. Hopefully enough to take down a Schnee.
Bea had always wondered who would win in a fair fight. She had no intention of finding that out today.
She waited until Winter took a step towards her so that her balance would be shifting, making it harder to react. Then Bea snapped her weapon out in front of her and lunged for Winter.
She flew across the gap between them. Her weapon extended out in front of her, her sword crackling with arcs of electricity. It was a beautiful move, designed to take Winter out of the fight before it'd even begun. Or at least, it would have been, had Winter not twisted at the last second to avoid the foil tip, then backflip away to make room.
Bea cursed, going for Winter in a second strike, still hoping to land the knockout blow. Winter's sabre leapt up to meet Bea's, halting its progression towards her chest.
Frozen-cold eyes regarded Bea icily. "You shouldn't have done that," Winter said evenly.
Crap.
/-/
Something about the cloud was wrong. Jaune could feel it in his every bone as they approached the dark smudge in front of them. Or rather, it approached them. It was a sort of darkish haze in the distance, not quite opaque, not quite transparent. It reminded Jaune of an angry swarm of bees.
"The hell is that?" demanded Finn. Jaune glanced around at the crew sat within the airship's cockpit: Finn, Bounty, Naomi and Phil. No one had an answer for him.
"Get Cardin on the radio," Jaune commanded. The larger boy would be following them in his own ship with the other half of Beta section. "Ask him if he sees this too."
Phil, sitting at the controls at the front of the cockpit, obliged him, and soon Cardin's voice crackled out the radio in reply. "Awww, is Jauney-boy scared of a bit of weather?" mocked Cardin.
"Just stay away from it," Jaune sighed. Cardin scoffed, but didn't contradict him.
Their ship rose higher into the sky, aiming to glide over the black cloud, but it seemed to track them, rising as well, until it hovered parallel with them again. Phil turned the ship again, aiming to pass to its right, but once more the cloud blocked their path. The distance between them closed rapidly, swallowing up the sky between them.
"Jaune…" warned Naomi.
Jaune's grip tightened on his captain's chair as the black cloud loomed ever closer. It looked like it was churning, shaping and morphing itself into whatever form it desired. In fact, now that they were closer, it didn't look like a solid object at all. It looked like it was made out of hundreds of dark shapes hovering in the air together.
The dark shapes approached, and Jaune made them out even further. He saw wings. And legs. And black bodies. But that wasn't what tipped him off. No, what finally caused the penny to drop for Jaune were the dozens of burning red eyes regarding them balefully. The eyes of the ultimate predator. That wasn't a cloud.
It was a flock of Griffons.
"Crap!" yelled Phil, throwing the ship into a gut-wrenching nose dive just as the swarm hit. The last second drop saved their ship from slamming into the flying Grimm, but it wasn't enough to stop the talons of one from scraping down the windscreen in an ear-splitting shrink. The pack shrieked at having their prey snatched away from them and dove after them. The chase had begun.
Jaune and the others latched onto whatever surface they could find in a vain effort to keep their footing. Sweat poured down Phil's face as he mentally wrested with the controls, using his semblance to do his best to control their dive.
"Cardin!" screamed Jaune into the mic.
"Damnit I see it! They're following us too!"
"Get out of here!" shrieked Jaune. "Get to the coordinates. We'll meet you there." Radio static was Jaune's only reply. Either Cardin hadn't bothered to reply, had flown out of range, or had crashed, killing everyone on board his ship. Jaune shoved those thoughts to the back of his mind. They wouldn't help him now.
Phil finally hurled their ship out of their dive, and Jaune was forced down into his seat as his vision began to blacken. Just as he was sure he was going to pass out, their ship levelled, now rocketing across the terrain, mere meters away from smashing into the unforgiving ground. Rock lances and dust spikes speared for their ship, before lurching out of view as Phil swerved around the deadly obstacle-course.
The Griffons seemed to have no problem keeping up, their smaller and lighter bodies allowing them to race after the lumbering airship. Jaune leapt into the air as a Griffon slammed into the body of the ship, shaking the entire fuselage.
"Can't this thing go any faster?!" Bounty shouted.
"I'm working on it!" Phil panted.
"What armaments are on this ship?" Naomi demanded.
Phil's eyes glazed over as he mentally searched through the ship's wiring for weapons, then snapped back to the present as another Griffon dragged its claws down the ship's hull.
"Rotatable turrets on the wings and a machine gun on the underside!"
"Then shoot these sons-of-bitches down!" Finn ordered.
"I can't control everything!" Phil shrieked, yanking the ship out of the way as a Griffon somehow flanked the ship and dove for the cockpit window.
"How can we help?" Jaune asked.
Phil wasted no time pointing to the weapon stations on either side of the cockpit, each one designed to control the turrets. But Phil warned them that the machine gun was manually operated.
"I'll do it," Bounty volunteered, rushing off to the machine gun nest whilst Naomi and Finn strapped themselves into the weapons stations on either side of Jaune's seat.
Before long, the shrill shrieks of the Grimm were accompanied by manic cannon fire as the humans fought back. Flashes of light from either side illuminated the cockpit, and Bounty's manic laughter soon rang out as the battle cry of human defiance.
"Come at me you bastards!" he bellowed, blasting away into the swarm behind him.
Jaune's stomach flipped and roiled as Phil continued to take evasive manoeuvres, brushing past death a dozen times by a mere hair's width. Jaune just about managed to force his vomit back into his stomach, but only by closing his eyes to the horrifying view in front.
Jaune kept his eyes clenched shut until the guns finally began to patter out, and Bounty whooped in celebration. "Take that you sons-of-bitches!" his voice floated up to the cockpit. "Never mess with the Bounty!"
Phil glanced back at Jaune, his eyes wide with elation. He opened his mouth to say something, and that was when it happened.
Jaune never did find out how a Griffon had managed to sneak past the ship and fly at them head on. Whether it had been part of the original pack, or whether it had been sheer bad luck that had fated Jaune's ship to run across this Grimm, he'd never know.
All he knew as the Griffon slammed into the cockpit window was a scream from Naomi and a maelstrom of broken glass.
/-/
When Pyrrha opened her eyes again, the world was white.
No, wait, not the world. Just the ice covering her. Pyrrha watched her breath fog in front of her as she looked up to find herself and the others enclosed within a cocoon of ice. That was Weiss' doing, no doubt. Ren appeared by her side, shaking her shoulders gently. He opened his mouth and began shaping words, but no sound escaped his lips. No, Pyrrha realised, that wasn't true. He was making sounds; she just couldn't hear them over the ringing in her ears. She shook her head and pointed at her ears, indicating that she couldn't hear Ren. He nodded his understanding.
Suddenly, the ice around her cracked, then fell away, revealing the outside world. Pyrrha choked silently on the dust hovering in the air. She looked towards the streets to find them littered with people, some running, some staring, some not doing anything at all as they lay motionless on the ground. The first sound to reach her as the ringing finally began to dissipate was the screaming. It was made up of a multitude of different voices, rising together into one horrendous cry, but it sounded so distant, so disconnected from Pyrrha. As if they were coming from another room, another world.
Then she turned to the sealed subway entrance, only to find it was sealed no more.
And the terror became real.
The black head of a King Taijitu erupted from the rubble, baring its fangs at the humans around it. Those that hadn't left yet and were still able to run finally fled. The enormous snake fixed Pyrrha with eyes that promised blood, then it reared back its head. Pyrrha clutched her weapons, ready for the snake to strike. A black bird flew past her peripheral vision. The serpent reached the apex of its rise, about to bring its fangs down in an unstoppable strike.
When suddenly it paused, its eyes going wide, as if in shock. Then its entire body collapsed onto the ground, sending a plume of dust rocketing into the sky. When it finally cleared, Pyrrha saw the head again, now decidedly separate from its body.
The King Taijitu had been beheaded.
"Uncle Qrow?" gasped Ruby. Pyrrha whirled around, coming face to face with a greying man staggering out of the dust created by the fallen Grimm. "Uncle Qrow!" cried Ruby again once she'd confirmed it was him. In a burst of rose petals, she had latched herself onto the stranger's torso, squeezing his chest in a rib-crushing hug.
"Heya kiddo," greeted the man, rubbing her hair affectionately. He nodded to Yang. "Heya firecracker."
"Uncle Qrow…" gaped Yang. "What are you doing here?"
"Oz called me. Mentioned you and your mates were going to do something stupid and impossible."
"People are in danger," declared Ruby. "We won't stop until they're safe."
"I know kiddo," Qrow replied. "I wouldn't ask you to. I'm here to help."
"I thought Professor Ozpin said all the available Huntsmen were too far away to make it back in time," said Ren.
"Hey, what can I say? I move fast."
As much as it warmed Pyrrha's heart to see Ruby and Yang look so happy, they couldn't afford to be distracted from their enemy. "Um, Mr Qrow—"
"Don't call me Mister," corrected the older man. "Just Qrow is fine."
"Qrow then, can you fight?"
"Psst, can I?" dismissed Qrow, hefting his weapon on his shoulder, a scythe not dissimilar to Ruby's own. But Pyrrha didn't miss the haggard look in his eye, though he tried to hide it. This man must have travelled very far, very fast to get here in time. He was exhausted. But at this stage, even a tired fighter was better than nothing.
The pile of rubble shifted. The group spun around, weapons raised. "Contain the Grimm," ordered Pyrrha. "We can't let them get out of this square. Either take them out or draw them towards you." The others nodded.
"It's time to break some bones," snarled Nora as the Grimm finally burst out into the open.
Everyone immediately opened fire with their ranged weapons on the wave emerging from the depths of the subway. The Grimm did what the Grimm did best: they attacked. Dozens fell before they'd even made it five feet, but dozens more replaced them immediately, yapping, barking and baying for blood. The Grimm pushed closer, heedless to the numbers falling under the onslaught of the humans' weaponry. Twenty feet between them became fifteen. Then ten. Then five.
Pyrrha brought down a final Grimm with her rifle, then flicked it into spear mode and attacked, meeting the wave of Grimm with the cold metal of Miló. Three slashes had three Beowolves falling back headless, only for three more to take their place. Pyrrha leapt over one into the fray and swung her weapon through 360 degrees, forcing the hoard back. She speared one through the mouth, then reversed her motion and pierced another through the eye with the hilt.
A Creep went for Pyrrha's back, hissing and spitting. Pyrrha leapt backwards into the attack, allowing the Grimm to slam headfirst against the shield on her back, knocking it into oblivion.
She was moving again even before that one had dropped, slicing through more Grimm before backing up to assess the fight. Qrow and Ruby were slashing through rows of Grimm with wide, punishing sweeps of their scythes. Yang was charging into the fray, blasting Grimm with her gauntlets from close range whilst Weiss and Blake backed her up. Nora and Ren were fighting together, moving instinctively to cover each other's backs as their dodged into and out of attacks.
Pyrrha's tactical analysis was cut short as an Ursa approached, towering above her on its hindlegs. Pyrrha dropped her shield to the floor and ran at the Ursa. The bear swiped at her head, but Pyrrha slid underneath its paw and between its legs. The moment Pyrrha cleared the underside of the Ursa, she spun and struck, cutting the beast's ankle tendons. It roared in agony, toppling forward to collapse onto its stomach with an almighty crash!
Pyrrha didn't hesitate. She reached out with her polarity and pulled her dropped shield towards her.
Through the Ursa.
The bear just about had enough time to look up before death stole its sight. The last thing it saw was a blur of bronze before the shield lodged itself in its throat.
Pyrrha leapt over the Ursa and yanked her shield out of its neck, using the decaying giant as a wall to buy her some time to snatch a breather. Huntsmen were trained to build up their stamina, but not even they could keep fighting forever. They'd managed to hold back the hoard well enough so far, but just how much longer could they last?
Pyrrha was about to dive back into the fight, when something snagged her eye. She turned to look to the top of one of the buildings overlooking the square. She shielded her eyes against the rising sun to see three distinct figures watching them. One had silver hair, one green, and the final one had flowing, raven hair. They didn't run. They didn't join the fight. They simply watched. Pyrrha wasn't sure why, but that disturbed her.
Then a Boarbatusk squealed and attacked, forcing Pyrrha to put the strangers out of her mind.
/-/
"Well this is unexpected," purred Cinder, regarding the ongoing conflict down below.
"I don't believe it. Those kids are actually holding back the Grimm," Mercury awed.
"What do we do, Cinder?" Emerald asked. "If they stop the Breach, Vale won't fall."
"Vale will fall," she stated. "That is why we're here: to ensure the Breach succeeds." She continued to watch the lone humans battle against the flood of Grimm. "The Huntsmen are close to cracking. I think it's time we punched a few extra holes in their lines." Cinder smiled wickedly. "Emerald, Mercury, be dears and go kill two of them for me."
Mercury grinned manically. Emerald swallowed, then nodded. "If you wish, Cinder."
Cinder smiled as her students made their way down to street level. Soon this entire wretched city would be in ruins. Man would pay for what they'd done to her. And once they did, she'd pick through the rubble and bodies herself to claim the power she so rightly deserved.
She'd never be powerless again.
But before that, she supposed it would only be right that she lead by example.
Of course she'd heard of the so-called 'invincible girl'. She hailed from Mistral, after all. She'd always wanted to test whether that title was well earnt.
/-/
Yang slammed her fist into yet another Ursa, blowing it backwards. She launched herself after it, hitting it again and launching it into a group of Beowolves. They collapsed like bowling pins. Or at least, those who weren't flattened immediately did.
Yang cocked her wrist gauntlet again, turning to find another opponent. "Who's next!" she roared.
Yang saw Weiss and Blake dispatching their own group of enemies. Behind them were Ren and Nora, an entire ring of decaying corpses around them. And there was Ruby, holding her own against a pack of Beowolves. Yang's chest swelled with pride at the sight of her younger sister fighting like any Huntress. Summer would be proud to see her now.
Ruby swung her scythe again, decapitating a Grimm. She spotted Yang watching her and nodded her acknowledgment in return—
When a chain snagged around her chest and yanked her backwards.
Yang screamed, rushing after where he sister disappeared. One Creep was dumb enough to try to stand in her way. She left it in a smoking heap on the ground behind her and ploughed after her sister.
Just as she broke free of the hoard of Grimm, a silver-haired boy landed in front of her. Yang slid to a stop, staring at the boy in front of her. The boy smirked back. "Hey there, blondie."
Yang stepped to the side. The boy mirrored her. Yang stepped to the other side. Once more the boy blocked her. Yang growled. "Get out of my way."
The boy's grin stretched, wider than a shark's. "Make me."
Angry tears blurred her vision, but Yang wiped them away furiously. This boy was trying to stop her from saving her sister. Big mistake.
"Who the hell are you?"
"The name's Mercury," the boy replied smugly.
"Wrong," Yang roared. "You're dead!"
/-/
Pyrrha saw Yang go charging away from the fight. "Yang!" she cried, but the blond brawler was beyond hearing.
"Ruby!" Qrow yelled, turning to race after his niece.
"Hold the line!" screamed Pyrrha, but Qrow ignored her, dashing towards Ruby and the green-haired girl from the rooftop. But just then a second head of a King Taijitu surfaced, this one white. No doubt the other end to the black one Qrow had killed, at least if its scream of pure loathing was any indication.
Qrow cursed and was forced to dodge backwards as the snake launched itself at him, splintering the ground where it hit. The snake hissed and coiled its enormous body, cutting off Qrow and the others from Ruby and Yang.
Qrow growled in frustration, then launched himself at the snake, forced to confront the beast head on lest it attack him from behind if he went straight for his nieces.
Pyrrha spun back to the Breach, horror clenching her gut. The line was breaking. With Ruby and Yang out of the fight and Qrow tied up with a giant serpent, eight defenders had turned to just five. As if knowing this, the Grimm roared and fell upon them again, stronger than ever.
The lonely humans fought back as best they could, just about managing to seal up the cracks that had been made by the departure of some of their best fighters. Nora went for the biggest Grimm: Ursai and Death Stalkers. Blake and Weiss fought in tandem, picking off Grimm wherever they appeared. Ren worked on the smaller, faster Grimm, slashing shallow cuts into Creeps and Beowolves in just the right places to take them out.
Pyrrha was a whirlwind of steel and discarded corpses. She spun and slashed and jumped and stabbed and dodged and killed, cutting down a swathe of Grimm bodies around her.
Something bright flared in the corner of her eye. She twisted and brought up her shield. A fireball collided with it and ignited, fire licking at her grip on the other side of the metal. Pyrrha looked up to where the fireball had come from and gasped. The woman who had been standing on the roof was now floating down to her on a golden flame. She landed, elegant heels clicking against the concrete ground as she prowled towards her.
Pyrrha fell into a battle stance. It didn't take a genius to figure out who this was.
The woman clicked to a stop a few feet away and regarded her dismissively. "You are being an awful bother today," she chided.
Pyrrha didn't loosen her grip on her weapon for a second. "You're Cinder." It wasn't really a question. "What do you want? Why are you doing this?"
The woman smiled beautifully, like a predator, Pyrrha thought. The woman was stunning, no doubt there, but it was the beauty of a snake. A façade that hid the true monster underneath. "Why am I doing this?" she mimicked. "Well, invincible girl, the answer is very simple; because I want to see man and everything he has built in ruins. Vale is simply the first step in that."
"Why?" Pyrrha demanded.
"Oh I'm so glad you asked, because I wanted to take this time to have a nice long chat with you about my convoluted motives and backstory—"
A jet of fire lanced towards Pyrrha. She dived out the way, but the flames followed her, sweeping across the battlefield and cremating several Grimm behind her. Finally, she dived behind an Ursa, letting the doomed Grimm take the flames for her.
When the fire beam finally ceased, Pyrrha gripped her weapons and readied herself for a fight. Cinder had started all of this. And now Pyrrha was finishing it.
/-/
Wind.
Cold.
Pain.
Jaune dragged him mind back into his own body, squinting at the shattered cockpit around him.
They were still flying.
Or rather, they were falling.
Jaune lurched forward, pulling himself towards the empty space at the front of the ship where glass windows should have been. Wind tore its way into the ship, whipping at Jaune's clothes and hair as he battled to the control panel.
On the floor besides it, lay Phil, unconscious but mercifully still breathing. He'd taken the full force of the Griffon smashing into the cockpit. What had become of Finn and Naomi, Jaune wasn't sure.
Jaune grabbed the joy stick at the base of Phil's chair, glancing out the broken window. The ground loomed before him, an unending graveyard waiting to claim their lives. Jaune gritted his teeth and heaved against the stick, forcefully dragging it backwards.
The ship began to respond, heaving itself upright, but it was sluggish. Something must have broken when the Griffon hit. The ground raced towards him. Jaune pulled even harder.
It wasn't enough.
Jaune could see the airship wouldn't stabilise in time. His eyes searched frantically for someplace flat enough to land the ship and—There! Jaune angled the ship towards what looked to be the only level piece of ground in this entire hellhole. He growled as he wrested with the ship's controls, the flying beast fighting him all the way.
"What the hell's going on?" Jaune heard Bounty's voice demand from further down the ship.
Jaune's eyes widened. Bounty was still in the machine gun nest on the belly of the ship. He was going to take the full force of the landing.
"Bounty get out of ther—!"
CRASH!
Jaune's body slammed against the control panel like a ragdoll. His teeth slammed onto the words he was speaking, cutting them off. He tasted blood. The ship screamed in agony as its belly slid along the rough ground. Jaune saw bits of metal go flying off in his peripherals.
Jaune growled as the ship continued to slide, refusing to stop. He leant back against the joystick with all his weight, his hands clammy, as the ship's momentum carried them towards a looming cliff edge.
Closer and closer the ship came, and harder and harder Jaune pushed against the joystick, so hard that he felt the plastic bend in his grip. Still it wasn't enough to halt the ship as it ploughed on, closer and closer to death.
"Turn off the engines," Phil muttered from the floor.
"What?!"
"Turn, off, engines." Phil raised a limp hand and pulled down on a lever on the control panel. Instantly Jaune heard the hum of the engines fade, and finally the ship ground to a halt, mere meters away from annihilation.
At that moment, there was nothing Jaune wanted to do more than keel over and sleep for a hundred years. But he needed to get his friends out of here. He draped one of Phil's arms over his shoulder and hauled him out the vacant cockpit windows; there was no way the cargo bay and exit ramp had survived the crash. Once he'd made sure Phil was alright, he returned to find Naomi and Finn, both dazed but otherwise alright. It looked like their control panels had protected them from the worst of the glass fragments when the Griffon had collided with them, and they'd fortunately been strapped in to their seats during the crash. Jaune got them all outside and away from the smoking ship. Then he turned and went back in for the final member of his crew.
"Bounty!" he called, clambering through the wreckage of their ship. "Bounty!"
"Jaune," came a weak reply.
Jaune rushed towards the voice, following it to its source. Bounty was lying in the hallway, one leg half way down the hatch that would lead to the machine gun nest and hidden by a metal strut that half buried it. Jaune went to grab him by the arms and pull him away, but Bounty screamed in pain.
"My leg!" he cried. "My leg!"
Jaune heaved against the debris that lay strewn across Bounty's leg, pinning him down at the knee. Jaune finally managed to overturn the rubble, when he stopped. Bounty's leg had at last been revealed.
Mangled, twisted, shattered. These were the only words Jaune could describe it with.
"My leg," cried Bounty. "My leg."
Ooooh, cliff hangers. Sorry not sorry tines three for each story thread I left hanging.
The finale has begun at last! I've wanted to bring this to you guys for so long. And I think I've found my new favourite thing to write: combat. I love not only describing people punching each other into oblivion, but also being smart about the way people fight. Anyone can write 'he punched her in the face. She punched him in the stomach', but a good combat scene is something which makes your jaw drop, not just because of the description of the fight, but because of how awesome the fighting actually is. That's what was so extraordinary about the first few volumes of RWBY (less so in later volumes I fear). And RWBY is in a unique position to do this thanks to the variety of people's weapons and abilities in their universe. I think a good RWBY fanfic author realises this and uses the in-universe rules to create something unique and spectacular. That's what I tried to do with Pyrrha's polarity, and the way she pulls her shield through the Ursa (my favourite part of the whole fight btw). There's more of that to come next chapter, but I hope this has gotten you guys excited for the finale of this fic. I realise the pace has been slowed recently, and I'm sorry if you found that boring, but I needed to take a break from combat for a while so as to not over-saturate you with repetitive fight scenes.
Unfortunately I'm back to school on Monday; year 12's gonna be a pain in the arse, but I'm way too pumped to delay this finale any more - I'm either going to finish this story...
...or this story's going to finish me.
JK I'm gonna be fine, but still follow, favourite and review to keep me going. Your support is my caffeine when it comes to writing.