"Deja Vu! I have seen place before!" Speaking
'Higher up the street and I know it's my time to go,' Thinking
"Standing on my feet, it's so hard to try to be me, WHOAA!" Communications
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Destiny
"GET OFF ME!" Mercury orders as two Atlas soldiers pin him down to his medical bed as another soldier pulls up his pants legs.
Ironwood took Natsu's information seriously so he personally chased after Mercury's transport across Vale till it stopped a few hundred miles from Vale. Suspiciously Mercury's medics are unconscious and the assassin himself lying in bed when Ironwood and his men boarded the aircraft. Now Ironwood and his men are checking if Natsu's info is accurate if not.
The Soldier's eyes widen as he discovers that both of Mercury's legs are indeed made of metal, Ironwood nods his head and looks at his men, giving him a stern look as he approaches the bedside, "Arrest him," He orders.
Mercury tries to resist as the soldiers attempt to cuff him, "What is going on?! Leave me alone, you think you can just barge in here and arrest me? I didn't do anything!" He resists.
"Oh no that's where you are wrong Mr. Black, your legs are prosthetic," Ironwood corrects.
"Yeah they are, so what?" Mercury mumbles as the soldiers make him sit up straight.
"Then your showdown with Ms. Xiao Long shouldn't of ended in the way that it should," The General mutters.
"What, you think just because I have prosthetic legs means I can't feel pain, sorry but you're wrong about that," Mercury corrects.
"I do know what it is like to have a prosthetic limb Mr. Black, and I have a feeling that my own prosthetic hand is just as the same as your legs Mr. Black," Ironwood counters and takes off his white glove to reveal that he has a robot hand.
Mercury grits his teeth as he realizes that his cover is blown, Mercury was supposed to fake his death by blowing up the aircraft a few miles away from Vale to draw more Grimm to the Amity when news reaches Vale of his so called 'death' but it seems this isn't the case. Cinder and Emerald left this matter to him while they finalized their grand scheme to bring Vale to its knees, which is why they aren't with him.
Ironwood uses this moment to seal in his doom, "Mr. Black, you are hereby arrested for conspiring against Vale as well as Atlas, you have the right to remain silent, everything you say can and will be used against you," Ironwood starts his speech as the soldiers pick Mercury up and force him to walk out of the aircraft.
Black doesn't say a word as he is marched off to the prisoner unit of Ironwood's ship. As the three leave the aircraft, a medic reports to Ironwood, "Sir the medics were only unconscious for several minutes with slight bruises, nothing but a little rest can fix that. The two are heading home to rest sir," She reports.
"Affirmative, dismissed," Ironwood assures, the medic salutes him and heads back outside to give out the orders to her comrades.
Ironwood is left alone in the aircraft as he takes one last look around before he leaves, he notices something poking out of Mercury's pillow. The General walks over to the bed and picks it up, he found a black queen chess piece.
'What is this doing here?' Ironwood thinks and starts to believe that Mercury is more than just a cheating coward, but a deadly terrorist.
Back At Vale: Several Hours Later
"It was a set up?!" Ruby yells as she and her team sit in their room with the T.V on.
"-News from General Ironwood himself say otherwise on the current conflict between two Vytal Tournament Combatants that disturbed the Amity and the world, what was thought to be foul play could be tactical sabotage. We to our reporter for further details," The News anchors explain.
"I would like to personally apologize to everyone participating in the Vytal Festival here on the Amity to the ones at home. I can tell this is quite emotionally straining on many who love the Vytal Tournaments, especially the combatants themselves, but I have some good news. I was given vital information that changed this whole situation in which I, myself, would never have thought of being a possibility. Yang Xiao Long is innocent and only the victim of this situation. Mercury Black framed Yang Xiao Long of foul play, how did he do it? We all saw Mr. Blake with a broken leg after the attack of Ms. Xiao Long. Mr. Black has prosthetic legs therefor losing a leg should not hurt him, in other words, he was faking it. I presume that he made Ms. Xiao Long attack him for he had blackmail against her, that is why she attacked him first so we all thought she was the suspect," Ironwood explains the 'truth' on the news.
RWBY's faces all brighten up at the wonderful news, especially Yang, Yang has her hand close to her heart as she hears the news.
"I see I told you Yang wouldn't do this! You'll should of listened to me in the first place, I'm always right," Weiss proudly brags with chest puffed out and her head held high.
"-and the detective that started this all was the same man who first fought for Yang's name while the whole world said otherwise, Natsu Dragneel, our Specialist-In-Training revealed the truth to our eyes," Ironwood gives credit to Natsu for his 'gift'.
"Alright! Natsu did it! I'm so happy right now I can explode!" Ruby cheers as Blake comforts Yang by resting her hand on her shoulder.
"Good things happen to good people," Blake whispers.
Yang smiles at her as the T.V returns to the Vytal tournaments feeling extremely relieved and grateful to have Natsu in her life.
"Thanks everyone..." Yang mumbles but a knock on the door interrupts them.
"Hello? Can we-" They hear Jaune outside but they hear someone prepare to kick it open.
"Oh just open it already!" What can be assumed to be Nora says as she kicks the door down and team JNPR walks in all with happy faces, well all but one.
"Did you hear the News!?" Ruby asks.
"Oh yeah we sure did! Take that you stupid stupid head person I forgot the name of for framing Yang, we all knew you wouldn't do that right guys?" Nora assures, making Jaune and Ren nod their heads in agreement.
"Of course, Yang is simply not the kind of person to do such things people say she did," Ren agrees.
"Duh, we known each other for a long time now, we got each other's backs, right Pyrrha?" Jaune asks and the group of people look to Nikos who is lagging behind at the back of the group with a worried look on her face.
"I uh-Of course Jaune, Yang you are one of the nicest people I know if not the nicest, Team JNPR and I believed you 200%," She assures but the group can tell she was thinking about something else.
"Pyrrha, is something wrong?" Ruby asks.
This makes Nikos slightly jump but she shakes her hand in front of her, "No, nothing is wrong thank you Ruby," She plays off but Nora just shakes her head.
"Aw she's just worried about her fight in the singles match, we just need to get her PUMPED!" Nora yells as she punches the air in front of her, almost knocking Jaune out cold.
"Whoa watch the face...the face Nora, friendly fire!, friendly fire!" Jaune yells as Nora releases a stream of punches buzzing pass his face.
The sight cheers Pyrrha up a bit as she smiles softly, "Hey hey I heard a certain someone was on the News today!" They hear at the doorway. They turn around to find the Legendary, Grimm-Slaying, Specialist-In-Training, Lady-Killing Badass Natsu Dragneel poking his head from the right side of the door frame.
"NATSU!" Ruby and Nora call as they tackle him to the ground, no matter how strong Natsu gets...he is infinitely defenseless to the Waifu hoard's signature, The Great Tackle.
Natsu groans as he feels Ruby and Nora hugging his arms, "It's...good...to...be back," He mumbles as Ruby and Nora chuckle.
They watch as their boyfriend shows them his toothy smile, "How's everyone doing?"
"HI Natsu!" Ruby calls as Natsu tries to get up.
"Come get off the ground guys," Jaune mumbles, this is a norm for Nora and Ruby just to greet Natsu with a tackle every once in a while and Jaune is kinda jealous of Natsu's game with the ladies but the least he can do is prevent his teammate from getting a concussion.
Nora and Ruby sigh as they get up and pull Natsu by the arms to get him up and on his feet.
He nods his head in thanks as he looks at Yang, "How you feeling Yang?"
Dragneel watches his mate turn to him and smile, "I'm feeling great Hotshot,"
...
After bonding with team RWBY and JNPR, Natsu left to assist JNPR prepare for Pyrrha's upcoming match in the singles round. Yang watched as Team JNPR head down to the Dining Hall to fill Pyrrha's stomach before her fight, yes and Natsu's stomach too, from her room window.
Pyrrha and Natsu clicked together the whole time at the Dining Hall, the rest of JNPR tried to comfort Pyrrha but Natsu was the only one that calmed her down. Now the deadliest couple at the school now rest one of the walls of the Dining Hall in the afternoon with the sky a calm orange.
The two sit next to each other holding hands and with Pyrrha resting her head on Natsu's shoulder.
"This is nice..." Natsu mumbles as he rubs her hand with his thumb.
"Mmm..." Pyrrha hums in agreement.
They hear Jaune, Ren, and Nora turn the corner at the edge of the Dining Hall.
"And then I just came in then BAM right on its head I...you know what let's go back to the festival grounds yeah? I think they have that strong arm game! Oh we should totally destroy them!" Nora cheers as she drags Jaune and Ren back to the festival grounds without their consent.
The couple watch as they leave then they look at each other and smile, 'I'm in your debt Nora,' Pyrrha thanks mentally.
"You know I will always love you, no matter what, you know that right?" He asks softly.
Nikos's eyes widen to show him her beautiful green eyes as her heart tightens up from his words, "Natsu?"
"No matter what happens, whatever choice you make I will be right by your side," He continues, making Pyrrha get the idea of where Natsu is getting too.
"I-I'm scarred Natsu...terrified," She mumbles and tightens her grip around his hand.
"Me too, but we can get through this, you don't have to go through...that...there are other ways of fighting Pyrrha, if-if we just train hard enough we can take whoever took Amber down," Natsu tries to convince Pyrrha to back down from the transfer of Auras.
"But if she...Amber, dies then whoever put her in that state will get all the power. This isn't right Natsu, this wasn't suppose to be this way..." Pyrrha begins to break down as he lets go of Natsu's hand then gets up.
"Pyrrha, we have to be strong, we can do this!" He encourages but he sees a sight that begins to break his own heart.
The armored maiden covers her mouth with her hands as tears trail down her cheeks, Natsu takes immediate action and attempts to approach her but Nikos snaps. She unknowingly activates her semblance as she holds her hand out in front of her.
'NATSU NO!' She panics as she feels her own power increase and fire toward Natsu.
Dragneel feels something push his whole body back like a strong wind but he stands his ground like the unknown force was nothing he couldn't handle, "Pyrrha?" He calls, noticing that her eyes closed shut.
She slowly opens her eyes to find Natsu unharmed from her semblance as if he was resistance to her semblance itself.
A sob comes from her lips as she runs to him and holds him tightly, clenching his jacket tightly as she sobs on his chest, "I'm so sorry, I-I didn't mean to-" She mumbles but receives Natsu's soothing hug with his strong arms around her comforting her in what may be her darkest hour.
"We'll get through this Pyrrha, we got each other, nothing can stand in our way," He whispers.
He lets his mate finally let loose, accepting her fear and choosing to fight it right beside her. As the sun makes its approach down the horizon, Natsu holds Pyrrha like there was no tomorrow.
...
Natsu may have cleared Yang's name and comforted Pyrrha in a situation only he could understand, but that doesn't mean the hatred of the people simply disappeared, it shifted, now the world hates Mercury 10 times more than they hated Yang...and we all know what hatred brings.
The Next Day
Natsu and Pyrrha stayed at the Dining Halls for a bit before heading back to his room to sleep, they didn't have any 'action' of course for neither of them were in the mood, but they did enjoy a soothing cuddle together as they succumbed too their fatigue of the day.
The Dread Hunter woke up first the next day and he got a message from Qrow to come see him down at the bunker. So that's what Natsu did after taking a shower, brushing his teeth, dressing up, and kissing Pyrrha on the forehead before leaving the room.
The two hunters are alone in the bunker with Qrow next to the pod by the control pad while Natsu stands in front of it, looking at the 'Snow White' inside.
"You want me to try it again?" Natsu asks.
"Yeah, the first time was good enough proof about that fire of yours is something more than just to fight with, first you found out Mercury was with whoever attacked Amber, maybe this time you can unveil another one," Qrow explains as he presses the blue button on the console, making the pod depressurize by releasing all the air locked inside the pod that's keeping Amber alive.
As the pod comes to a fully open state, Natsu approaches Amber but looks at Qrow, "Round 2 it is..." He mumbles and looks back at Amber then thinks of...'negative' thoughts. How Amber could of been the next great guardian of the world, how her life was taken from her at such a young age, how she will probably never see the light of day ever again if she lives to walk on her own two feet again. All these thoughts corrupt Natsu's mind like wild fire, one thought building up his anger and sadness after the next.
That's when Dragneel starts to slightly shake as he puts his hand out in front of him, "Take it easy kid, we don't want you to lose it and drop the ceiling on top of us, slow and steady," Qrow warns with his hand ready to dispatch Natsu if necessary, he knows that Natsu isn't fully in control of this dark flame of his but the hunter is showing some improvement.
He watches as Natsu snaps his fingers and a dark fire burns around his left hand. Natsu has a little trouble looking away from the fire, so dark and creepy, making him think where did this flame come from and why does he process it. Sadly, Natsu keeps these questions for another time as he puts the fire closer and closer to Amber's cheek till he finally rests his hand on her cheek.
Dragneel then closes his eyes and lets his dark flame reveal her past memories.
Flashback Flashback Flashback?
Natsu only watches as the darkness of his mind flows around him like a power wave flowing toward the beach shore. He sees a blurry image of two silhouettes standing in front of each other, he can't tell who they are but he can at least recognize one voice.
"-after that return back to Vale once your search is complete, understand? She knows of your power and will use anything to capture it, this includes taking your life," He hears Ozpin explain a mission, assuming to be Amber's last mission.
"Of course Headmaster, I'll use the utmost of caution," Amber assures then the two silhouettes vanish to a different scene of Her last memories.
'Who are these people?! Do they work for 'her'?' Amber thinks as she blocks a male shadow man as he stands on her staff, but the male shoots off her like a rocket and does a back flip to gain some space between himself and Amber.
Natsu watches as shadow Amber fights off the male but he notices something purple glow in the darkness. Amber turns to the glow and gasps, but the memory changes again.
The final scene shows Amber on her knees with two shadow people holding her still, one the male, which is Mercury, but the other is unknown. Natsu watches as Amber screams while something scars her face, the last thing Natsu can see as the memories turn black is an orange flame.
Back To Reality
Natsu opens his eye again to find himself back to 'normal' with his dark flame gone. He steps back from the pod and looks at Qrow, still in front of the pod's control pad.
"Anything new this time?" Qrow asks.
"No, it's the same as last time, Mercury fights Amber, she gets overwhelmed by his partner then ends up losing half her power from a third combatant...why would Mercury do this?" Natsu mumbles as he rubs his chin as the pod closes again slowly.
"Well it's better than nothing," Qrow assures.
"Wait...I think was something new," He corrects, getting Qrow's attention.
"I don't know what this means but after Amber lost half her power, I saw an orange flame. It was shaped like an eye, just looking at her. My guess the third one got her power," Natsu explains.
Qrow claps his hands, "Good work kid, I think I can get behind that, Amber did have her eyes glow whenever she used her power, so if it was one eye then it's true. Our enemy has half of the Maiden's power," He confirms.
"Okay, now what, we're back at square one, full circle," Natsu points out.
"You got to get to your match that's what, I'll report this to Oz, you go on ahead I'll take care of it," He assures.
Natsu pulls out his scroll and checks the time to find that it's very close to 18:00, the time in which Ironwood said he would participate in a bonus match to test Natsu in combat and to show off Atlas superior training.
"HOW LONG WAS I OUT?!" Natsu yells, shocked of the time he spent just standing in front of Amber.
"A couple of hours," Qrow answers plainly.
"Aw man I need to go, I'll catch you later Qrow!" Natsu panics and makes a dash to the elevator, leaving Qrow in his dust.
Qrow shakes his head as he pulls out his canteen and takes a swig, "Go get 'em kid," He mumbles as he looks at Amber, feeling guilty of her condition. If he was only faster he could have saved her.
In The Amity
"To end today's tournament matches we have a special match for you all, isn't that right Professor?" Port explains on the speakers of The Amity.
"It's Dr! Yes, General Ironwood has requested for a special match between two crowd favorites, one a man of the people, the other, a World-Renowned fighter and a member of The Champions Of The Vytal Tournaments," Oobleck explains as two pictures spin on the screen, behind the teachers, in a slot-machine like fashion.
"This will be an intense match ladies and Gentlemen, The Man Of The People with a Heart Of Gold, our first combatant represents Atlas's elite...he is...NATSU DRAGNEEL!" Port hypes up Natsu as his pictures shows up on the screens all around The Amity. The Amity roars in excitement of an Atlas Specialist will fight for everyone's entertainment.
That's when Natsu walks onto the stage with the biggest smile on his face, he waves to the crowd as they cheer for him, he scans the Amity and sees many of his friends in the audience, Team RWBY, JNPR, CFYN, Ozpin, Dr. Eirwen, Glynda, Arslan, May, Reese, Mia and her mom, and many more.
Natsu walks to the center of the stage till he is standing right outside the circle that marks the middle of the stage.
"And on the blue corner! We have the Champion of Mistral, The Armored Maiden, The Scarlet Beauty, representing Vale with deadly skill and grace...she is...PYRRHA NIKOS!" Oobleck hypes up Pyrrha as she walks onto the battlefield, the crowd cries her name, chatting it, as they watch her approach her opponent.
"Pyrrha, Pyrrha, Pyrrha, Pyrrha!" They chant as they watch their Champion take position in front of the circle.
As the crowd chants, The Armored Maiden smiles at Natsu with weapons in hand, "I'll have you know I will not go easy on you Natsu," She teases.
Dragneel can get a sense of deja vu to her words, "Give it your all!" He encourages as Oobleck starts the countdown.
"3..." Pyrrha hears and her grip around Milo tightens.
"2..." Natsu goes into his 'first stage' by going into a draw-like stance.
"1..." Both combatants stare into each other's eyes as they seem to wait forever for the match to begin, their hearts beating like drums of war.
"FIGHT!" Oobleck cries and Pyrrha takes the first move and charges Natsu while Natsu draws only his left revolver.
Pyrrha runs toward him with her shield held in front of her and her rifle firing at Natsu while it rests on her shield. Natsu fires at Pyrrha bullets and the crowd watches in awe as Natsu shoots at the flying bullets successfully till he runs out of ammo. When he does he throws his gun into the air and quickly draws his right revolver and repeats his defense. This only slightly slows down Pyrrha as she comes into melee range as Natsu throws his right revolver into the air.
On cue Natsu's left revolver drops down from the sky just in time for him to catch it and block the incoming spear. Natsu counters by shoving away the spear then aims for Pyrrha's stomach but the maiden is too quick as she slaps the gun away, activating her semblance, she manages to launch the revolver out of Natsu's hands and soaring off the stage.
With quick thinking, Natsu recovers quickly and drop kicks Pyrrha to put some room between them. The plan works as she slides back from the force of his feet on her shield as Natsu falls to the ground. He lands on his back hard, Knocking the air out of his lungs but he catches his remaining revolver, Sally, and fires at Pyrrha using his own energy to fuel the guns.
Nikos drops to her knee with her shield protecting her from the shots but she can feel that they are slightly more powerful than regular bullets. She refuses to stay pinned any longer, so she takes the offensive and rolls to her right then throws her spear right at him. The speak quickly chips Sally and the firearm flies out of his hands then skips across the field with Pyrrha's spear stabbed into the ground far away from the two.
The two get back on their feet and they get right into the action with Pyrrha throwing her shield at Natsu with tremendous force. Natsu only smirks and he catches the shield and throws it right back at her, "RIGHT BACK AT 'CHA!" He yells.
The crowd can't be anymore pumped up and down right in love with this fight. They watch as Natsu and Pyrrha resort to hand to hand combat with the sounds of banging metal and sheer power fill the Amity.
"This is unbelievable! Both combatants refuse to back down from this fight, countered each attack with the utmost of grace and quickness that they have to resort to their bare hands to fight. This is the fight of the decade ladies and gentlemen! We are in a show today folks!" Pork commentates.
"GO NATSU!" Velvet cheers with Coco as they watch him go toe to toe with the legendary Pyrrha Nikos.
"Pyrrha get 'em!" Jaune cheers with Ren and Nora cheering for both sides.
"Look at them go, they're evenly match!"
"Did you see that?! He just shrugged off that shield throw like it was nothing!"
"He's a Specialist-In-Training Britney! He's not even fully trained yet! She's done for,"
"She going to win, no doubt about it, Atlas boy got nothing on Nikos,"
"HOW IS THIS HAPPENING!?"
The crowd at The Amity are losing their minds over this fight, and at home the same can be the said. They all heard of and know of Pyrrha, but they're having problems choosing who would win, Natsu and Pyrrha look evenly match from the start of the match till the present. At this rate the winner has to completely think of something crazy to outdo the other.
They watch as Natsu and Pyrrha take another break from fighting by giving each other some room after clashing again, Pyrrha managed to get her spear and shield back while Natsu is still unarmed, but that doesn't mean he's unprotected.
"Let's take it up a notch!" Dragneel declares as his hands are consumed with blue winds, gathering around his fists.
"What is this?! Natsu Dragneel has activated his semblance, the ability to use the four basic elements to his every desire, Nikos is in quite the predicament ladies and gentlemen," Port explains.
Pyrrha's eyes widen, she has never seen Natsu use his semblance for combat, she only seen him use his semblance for boosting people up large cliffs, but this is challenge just up Pyrrha's alley, and she isn't the one to back down from a challenge.
Her eyes are filled with the fires of determination as she readies herself for what could be the most intense match of her life.
Natsu charges her, ready to show her what he is made of; but as he closes in on her, time seems to slow down with each step. He gasps as his vision begins to change and he sees a beaten, bloodied Pyrrha staring at him with wide eyes. A state that Pyrrha wasn't in a second ago.
'PYRRHA!' He calls as he instantly drops his guard and slows down to a stop.
Nikos doesn't notice this as she raises her spear and unleashes a powerful diagonal strike. The sharp blade of the spear cleanly tears into Natsu's right upper arm and makes an abrupt stop when it makes contact with bone.
Every single person watching the fight, including the combatants themselves, are shelled shocked as fresh blood unleashes from Natsu's new wound. and splatters in below him. He lets out a horrific scream as he takes a step back, swiftly removing the blade from his arm but that makes more blood from his wound pour out like a river.
"NATSU!" Nikos calls as she drops her weapons and freezes in place, completely horrified from what she just did.
Natsu breathes quickly as he tries his best to keep the blood from pouring out his arm by covering the slice on his arm with his free hand.
In the audience Natsu's mates stand up with shocked faces, "N-Natsu?" Ruby whispers, feeling that her heart stop from Natsu's scream.
Yang and Blake are totally speechless while Weiss is almost on the verge of crying and running down on the stage to help Natsu, but she's too scared to move.
Fear consumes The Amity and all at home who watch the fight as Natsu tries to stop his bleeding.
"Stop the broadcast!" Oobleck orders but the screens all around The Amity and on all the home glitch to a red screen with a black Queen chess piece in the middle of the screen.
"This is what happens when you trust..." Cinder's voice is heard by everyone who is watching the fight, initiating Cinder's grand scheme to crush Vale.
"M-my arm...st-stop the bleeding..." Natsu mumbles as he looks at his arm and slowly removes his hand to reveal that Pyrrha got him good, he can see his blood covered bone in all the meaty mush of his arm. He then lights his left hand with his fire then proceeds to cauterize his wound. He grits his teeth in pain but his arm stops bleeding after completely burning his open wound.
"N-Natsu...what have I done..."Pyrrha mumbles in shock. She did this to him, with her own hands she hurt the man she loves. She made him bleed...what kind of woman is she? How can she live with herself after this, what has she done? All these negative thoughts corrupt her mind, leaving her in a lost state of mind.
"Pyrrha I'm fine, just a flesh wound," Natsu tries to explain through mumbles as he hears Cinder explain something about fearing the kingdoms and guardians, but he ignores it to focus on Pyrrha.
Nikos only shakes her head as tears form in her eyes, "I'm sorry," She whispers as she falls to her knees.
"Pyrrha?!" He calls but stops to here an alarm on the speakers around the stage.
"This is not a drill, The Amity is under attack by Grimm, threat level 9, please evacuate to the nearest shuttle in an orderly fashion. I repeat, this is not a drill..."
The crowd of The Amity follows their instincts to flee the stage and toward the nearest shuttle back to Vale. Screaming, Yelling, and the sounds of hundreds of people running fill the Amity as the stage empties, leaving only a few hunters behind.
"Pyrrha I'm alright, I swear I am," Natsu tries to comfort his mate as he walks to her but he stumbles from an abrupt quake that makes the flying stage tremble.
He looks up to find an Alpha Nevermore trying its way of breaking through the Amity's shield.
"GET OUT OF THERE! It's gonna break in!" Jaune yells and points at the Nevermore above Natsu and Pyrrha.
Nora takes action and jumps down on stage then runs toward the two while ignoring pleas for her to stop, "RUN!" She orders but the Alpha destroys the shield after a few pecks and falls down to the stage. This makes Nora run faster into a sprint to try and save Natsu and Pyrrha but the Nevermore makes a rough landing right in front of the two, sending a large shock wave around the epicenter of impact.
The force is too fast for the three to evade, it sends the three flying back away from the bird. Natsu screams again as he skits to a stop on the concrete stage, slightly tearing his wound open again with Pyrrha in the same situation next to him.
They finally come to a stop with Natsu holding his arm again and Pyrrha slowly recovering from the fall, Nora on the other hand lands a few yards behind them but recovers quickly. She sits up and sees the Nevermore staring right at Natsu and Pyrrha. Acting quickly she looks around for anything to distract the big bird, a rock, a stick, a shoe, anything to make the Nevermore agro on her. Luckily she sees one of Natsu's revolvers in arm's reach so she grabs it quickly.
Nora isn't very good with firearms that don't fire explosives but she wastes no time aiming at the Nevermore's head with her eye aiming with the iron sights of the gun, "Oh no you don't!" She whispers and puts her finger on the trigger than squeezes tightly.
Click
Her heart stops for a second as she looks at the gun and squeezes the trigger again.
Click Click
Her hope completely dies within her as she realizes that the gun is out of ammo.
"No no no-" She mutters and tries to get up but the Nevermore is already in killing range of Natsu and Pyrrha.
Through the pain Natsu sits up and comes face to face with the Alpha, with its red eyes staring at him, he twitches as he hears Pyrrha groan next to him. Dragneel takes a quick glance at her to find her defenseless. He snaps his focus back at the bird to find it raises on of its claw to swipe at it.
Dragneel goes into defense mode and flings his body over Pyrrha, with his back facing the bird, to protect her from the hit, naturally he would want himself instead of her to absorb the attack. He shuts his eye closed tightly and waits for the attack, but it never comes.
A high pitched battle cry fills his ears as a blade screeches in the wind, Natsu opens his eye then looks behind him after he hears the Nevermore screech in pain.
"LEAVE MY COMPANION ALONE!" Penny orders, standing in front of him with her blades in a circle formation above her head.
Outside Vale: Minutes Earlier
Outside Vale two Atlas soldiers patrol around the heavily misty forest around their outpost. The two soldiers are wearing the basic Atlas uniform but one of the soldier is different from the regular soldier.
He is around 6, 3 feet tall with an odd looking rifle at his feet. It is a FN FAL rifle with ironsights with an advance-like color scheme of white and sliver. He takes off his helmet as his partner puts away his scroll after a strange speech from some girl.
"Stupid thing is acting up again," The soldier mumbles as he takes off his helmet, it is revealed that he is actually a faunus with horns curled around his ears, he's a goat faunus, with dark skin and a shaved haircut, his eyes were quite creepy as his pupils are very dark so his eyes look like the eyes of a demon.
"Syrian, do you know what the hell that broadcast was?" The faunus's partner asks.
"Not a clue, but we better head back to base for debrief, and to get this damn HUD checked up again," Syrian suggests as he taps his helmet to try and fix it. His equipment has recently bugged up and it's starting to get on his nerves. At this rate he'll just break the damn thing and keep his thick skull unprotected, but Syrian's attention focuses on the mist in front of him as they feel the ground below them tremble.
"What's that?!" Syrian asks as he lower his helmet.
"Oh shit! GRIMM!" His partner screams as he raises his rifle at the silhouettes in the fog.
Syrian watches as a line of Beowolves break the fog and sprints toward the two. He watches as his partner raises his rifle, "There's too many of them!" The soldier yells as he fires into the hoard, but Syrian slaps his rifle down.
"Exactly run for it!" The goat orders and drops his helmet as he runs back to base.
"Syrian wait-" The soldier calls as he runs attempts to run after him but a Beowolf tackles him to the ground.
The only thing Syrian can hear besides the screams is the sounds of his partner screaming before his inevitable death.
...
Syrian didn't take long sprinting back to base with the hoard right behind him. The soldier jumps over a fallen log and sees the outpost just ahead in an opening in the trees. He waves at the two sentries at the front of the outpost.
"WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!" He warns as he hears the hoard behind him growl and roar their battle cries.
The sentries slightly jump at his words as they raise their rifles and crouch behind the sandbag barricades in front of them, "Sound the alarm and wake up the others!" A sentry orders as Syrian jumps over the pile of sandbags to his right and takes cover.
On cue an alarm goes off, but it wasn't the Outpost, it was a distance alarm coming from Vale's Multi-Purpose Endangerment Siren, "OPEN FIRE!" Syrian orders as he pops his head out of cover with his rifle aimed at the incoming hoard.
The three soldiers squeeze the triggers of the rifles, sending a blue volley of death at the dark creatures. The Outpost echoes with the sounds of dust-powered rifles as the bodies of Humanity's enemies tumble down to the dirt and burst into a black smoke. The first wave of the Grimm falls quickly of Atlas's superior weaponry and training.
As the last Beowolf bites the dust, more Atlas soldiers, around 5, group up with Syrian. The Outpost is not the best thing ever but it can hold its own against a few Grimm, but a hoard is a different story. With a small fighting force, a few defenses like two sniper towers and one sentry turret the Outpost can only hold out for so long.
The front of the Outpost, where Syrian is, holds one tower and the one turret. The goat watches as one soldier climbs up the tower and watches for the next wave of Grimm to arrive while the other soldiers get into position.
"Syrian where's Brian?" A soldier asks as he takes cover next to him.
The Faunus looks around for his partner but realizes his ultimate fate, "He-He was just behind, I swear he was. Damn it, the wolves must have got to him in our retreat," He explains.
The soldiers feel their moral take a blow but they must stay strong if they want to survive, "Someone call this in and turn on the turret, we can't survive another wave without it!" A soldier orders as they hear another roar in the fog.
"I'm on it," Syrian hears as he watches a red laser scans the fog. He looks to his left to find the turret activate. The turret is standard, just a big gun strapped on to a tri-pod.
"Alright boys we can survive if we work together, hold your ground and make every bullet count. The faster you can kill 'em the longer we can hold out for backup," Syrian rallies as a soldier in the back of the group hides behind the tower trying to establish comms with Atlas's main force.
"OP 3 to Indigo over? Repeat OP 3 to Indigo over?" The soldier calls.
"OP 3 what's your status?!" He hears.
"Indigo we're under attack by abnormal amounts of Grimm, should we retreat?"
"Aff-Bull-on w-st-by" Communications start to break.
"Indigo say again, you're breaking up," He says but all he receives his static.
"Damn it...guys we're-"
"ANOTHER WAVE!" Syrian warns as he watches the laser stop in a fixed position and waits.
"URSAI Inbound!" The scout on the tower informs as the ground trembles once more with two lines, back to back, of Ursai charge at the outpost.
Bullets fire into the fog and completely decimates the first line of Ursai and turns them into black smoke, but this doesn't deter the second line so they charge through the smoke of their fallen allies and push harder toward the base. Leading the charge is a Boarbatusk with more Ursai following behind it.
"Shoot the Boar!" Someone yells as the sentry focus on the Ursai.
Syrian hides back into cover and presses a button, making the rifle internally switch the type of round from bullet to slug all within the dark chambers of the rifle. The gun then glows a dark red from its chamber as the boar breaks through the Atlas line by jumping over the sandbag barriers then landing back down on its feet.
The faunus turns around with shotgun in hand as the boar charges him. With quick reactions, Syrian squeezes the triggers and unleashes three slugs soaring right toward the boar. The attack was successful as the boar's face drops to the ground like a rock as it begins to transform into a black smoke.
He sighs in relief as he stands up and turns around, what he finds is the remaining hoard either dying or retreating back into the thick fog, "Our line held strong, what's the status on our backup?" He hears behind him.
"Indigo said something about bullheads before comms deactivated," The radio soldier reports.
"Then we hold out until reinforcements arrive," Syrian suggests as he stares into the fog.
'That was too easy...why did they run,' He thinks.
The soldiers take a moment to recollect their sanity as the fog slowly clears up to show a dark creep forest.
A few minutes of silence past as the soldiers prepare for the next wave but a familiar sound echoes into the distance, "BULLHEADS INBOUND!" The scout sitting in the tower reports and points to a black silhouette on the horizon.
"Atlas?" Syrian asks.
"Look for yourself," A soldier suggests as he tosses a binocular to the faunus.
Syrian looks through the binoculars and zooms in on the approaching bullheads. He finds that there are three in formation with Atlas symbols painted on the side of the ships.
"Their Atlas boys alright, stand down soldiers, the cavalry has arrived," Syrian reports as he puts down the binoculars and lowers his guard.
The group of soldiers sigh in relief as they sit down to rest while Syrian watches the Bullheads close in on their position. He sighs as he waves toward the bullheads, two fly past the base while one lands in front of the base.
The group watches as Syrian walks up to the side door and knocks it, "What the hell took you guys so long, we got-" The faunus stops as the door opens to reveal the last thing he wants to see.
The bullhead is filled with soldiers dressed in white, wearing Grimm-masks, they are soldiers of the White Fang. Syrian's eyes widen to their fullest extent as he raises his rifle, "Oh shi-"
Time slowed down as all the soldiers in the bullhead raise their rifles and fire on the lone goat faunus. Faunus or not Syrian was still the enemy, the White Fang soldiers emptied their clips into him, making the Atlas riflemen twitch as the bullets mangle is body while he slowly falls toward the ground with the endless wave of dust bullets ripping through his flesh like a pin popping a water balloon. As his body hits the floor time resumed to normal speed while the soldiers hold fire.
The goat is now the remains of a holey corpse with blood pouring out of him from his every wound. His body is left stiff with a horrified expression on his face, shot down like a 'dog' Syrian will be one of the many that will die this day.
"SYRIAN!" A soldier calls as he runs toward his fallen ally but a bullet pierces his helmet right between his eyes, killing him instantly.
The Atlas soldiers are confused, unorganized, and alone as the remaining soldiers scatter for cover inside the base while the two bullheads, from before, return for an attack run.
"Open fire, open fire!"
"On who?"
"Those aren't Atlas soldiers, the bullheads, focus fire on the bullheads!"
The soldiers blindly fire from their cover as White Fang troop's storm out the landed bullhead, but the battle's fate was already decided before it began.
While the troops lead the assault, the scout in the tower watches the miniguns on the approaching bullheads spin up and fire at the outpost. The remaining soldiers stand no change as they all are shot down, they all drop like flies as the attack finishes on the outpost tower, destroying it instantly with the scout still inside it.
The troops scan the outpost of the bloodied bodies of the Atlas soldiers. They hear a raspy cry for air, they see a soldier farthest from the group slowly turns on his stomach and starts to crawl toward a radio.
One White Fang soldier decides to end his misery and slowly walks toward him. Watching the poor Atlas boy crawl away from his fallen comrades almost made him pity him, but this is war where death is a necessary must.
The Atlas soldier looks back to see his executioner, making him crawl faster. He gets to the radio and picks up the walkie talky connected to the radio.
"OP 3, what's your status? OP 3 do you copy?" He hears.
"Un...der...a-attack..." He whispers as he feels his last breath approaching.
"Soldier say again, we can't hea-" The comms stop as a bullet destroys the radio.
The Atlas soldier starts to whimper and tremble as he drops the walkie talky, he doesn't want to die. The Faunus kicks him over, making him scream in pain, showing the Faunus that this soldier has two gaping holes oozing blood out of his body on his chest.
He watches as the wounded man slowly raises his hand toward him, but the Faunus shows him no mercy as he raises his rifle at him and fires a shot. A clack echoes around the two as a bullet rips through his hand cleanly and embeds inside the Atlas dog's neck.
The White Fang soldier watch him stiffen while he chocks on his own blood, the pain in unbearable but a bullet to the head put him to rest. A second bullet casing falls to the ground to mark the soldiers' death.
While the outpost falls from the White Fang, a fourth bullhead passes the outpost. Inside the bullhead is several other White Fang members, but one stands behind the pilot looking at Vale in the distance. He is Adam Taurus, commander of the White Fang forces.
He tightens his grips around his special sword as the bullhead approaches Vale, 'Our paths cross again my beloved, for the last time,'
Final Rollcall
"WHERE IS EVERYONE!?" Chibi Rey yells as he looks around an empty briefing room with Chibi Nila next to him.
"Well we were MIA for around a month Rey," Nila points out then looks at all the cobwebs around the room to show that the room hasn't been tended since their absence.
Rey pouts and crosses his arms, "Then we have to call everyone again! Let's get a rollcall out," Rey plans.
But Rey's plan will have to wait as the room shakes and gunfire can be heard in the distance, "We're under attacked? Now?!" Nila mumbles as she picks up her Atlas rifle.
"We'll regroup with the others later, stack up on the door," Rey orders as he cocks his pistol back.
"Copy that," Nila mumbles as she takes cover to the exit of the room, which leads outside.
"Safety's off," Rey mutters following her.
Rey takes the other side of the door and looks at Nila, "Will you do the honors?"
"What a gentlemen," She teases and kicks down the door then the two breach outside to meet a blinding white light.
Okay let's go! People this has been the moment I've been waiting for, The Fall of Beacon, Fall of Vale so would you'll kindly tell me what do you think will happen during the fall and what would you like to see in a review so we can make this part of RWBY badass and EPIC!
To all OC's who will fight next chapter please Pm/review me your OC name one last time so I can organize our fighting force.
Guest Review: Crimson- Sorry Beyond The Summer Season has the Hiatus backup when TPHH is finished. Maybe next time.
Next Time on The Pink Haired Huntsman: Death Is Inevitable, Fear Is A Choice.
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