Hello everyone and welcome back to HellFall!

Haven't had a Grey chapter in a while, eh? Well here's one now! Enjoy!

I'd landed fairly easily on the roof of the library, and quickly spotted Cinder. I'd actually seen her as I leapt. She'd launched a fire blast at the helicopter itself, sending it to the ground. I briefly considered going to help the other two, but decided that my place was here. If I could finish it, I needed to finish it.

"How brave of you," the woman started, walking towards me slowly, seductively. Her voice reflected the same, "To come here all alone"

I reached back and drew ShoGun, ready to fight at any given moment.

"Don't you want to talk?" She asked, "I don't want you to rush anything"

"I'm here to kill you. Plain and simple" I replied.

She sneered, "What about a kiss?" She asked.

"You're wasting your time." I said, "I'm an AI, I have no emotions, no feelings. If you were to kiss me, I wouldn't feel a thing. If you're trying to seduce me, I can't tell. If you want to throw me off that way, good luck. I'm constantly as alert as possible"

"What if I were to torture you?" She asked.

"Good luck getting me in that position" I replied.

She smiled wickedly, pushing her long dark hair behind her ear, "I'm happy to hear it. Everything's much more fun with resistance"

Her twin blades came out, and we began to circle each other. Not once did I allow my focus to shift from anything but her. I studied her eyes, her face, her body language. If she dropped a hint at any movement, I would know.

Suddenly a ball of fire racing towards me penetrated my vision. I saw her charge beneath the brightness of the flame, hoping to hide. I ducked and rolled, passing her legs and swinging my blade as I spun, cutting her back wide open. Blood spilled out as she fell to her knees, enveloped in the flame.

She stood, perfectly fine save for the wound on her back. With a quick flick of her shoulder, she was fighting again.

We clashed blades, back and forth, upwards, downwards, side to side. My limitless energy against her extremely high amount matched each other for quite some time. I activated the vibration of ShoGun eventually, causing the blade to act more like a chainsaw with better cutting power.

"You're just full of surprises, aren't you?" She asked when she first noticed.

Our blades collided, but instead of drawing back, I pressed forward. Her swords chipped, cracked a little. She withdrew them, unwilling to part with her weapons quite yet.

She leapt into the air, pushing off so that she moved towards me. Her dual swords combined to make a bow, and arrows appeared out of nowhere. She fired two at once. I deflected one with my sword, but the other stuck straight into my shoulder. I pulled it out as quickly as I could, making sure I didn't leave the arrowhead inside. It could affect my machinery.

Cinder landed lightly on her fight, watching me curiously.

"So it really is just cogs and gears in there, isn't it?" She asked.

"Duh" I replied as sarcastically as I possibly could, despite the fact that it probably came out monotonous still. I didn't joke often, but I decided to give it a go today.

She frowned, clearly not liking the joke. She fired another arrow, then charged, switching her weapons to swords again. As she neared me she switched again, firing three arrows this time before switching back yet again to blades. Two arrows stuck into my chest, the third into my upper arm. In my moment of reaction to the new piercing she swung her blades, slicing through my clothing and sending me skidding across the stone roof.

I stood slowly, pulling the arrows out as I did.

"You're not so tough, are you?" She asked, strolling casually towards me.

Suddenly she stumbled forward, an explosion of dust emitting from her back. I looked past her, seeing none other than Ruby Rose standing on the other side of the roof, sniper rifle pointed right at the fiery woman.

"I got your back Roy!" She called, her voice so high it would have hurt any human's ears.

Cinder charged immediately, weapons drawn. Ruby reacted with surprise, but caught herself quickly enough to transform her weapon into a scythe and block Cinder's attack. The air was ripped apart by the sound of their collision. I could tell that Cinder was unhappy at the uneven odds and sought to rid the rooftop of this girl as quickly as possible.

I stood and switched my weapon to plasma gun state, ignoring the arrows sticking out of me. I took aim and hit the trigger as many times as I could. Blasts of blue plasma shot out, almost like a machine gun.

Most every shot hit her square in the back. She fell forwards. Her aura had prevented her from exploding, but it was scraped, bruised, and bloody in several places. She hadn't saved herself from all of the knockback either, and thus Ruby was able to strike. She swung her scythe, wrapping the blade around the woman's back and pinning her against the roof.

I made my way over, ripping the arrows from my body as I did so, then aiming the tip of my gun directly at her head.

"Why're you doing this?" I demanded. I hadn't the slightest idea what her motive could be, and I knew that I, among others, was wondering the same thing.

"You think I'll tell you anything?" She spat, face pressed into the grey stone.

"In your position I'd recommend you do so" I replied.

She smiled, sliding her hand over as close to me as she could and spreading her fingers. "I wouldn't recommend making such demands in your position" She retorted, a crazed smile playing across her lips.

As quickly as I could react, I switched my gun into sword mode and stabbed downwards, into her hand. As I did so a geyser of fire shot upwards, hitting me hard in the face and throwing me spinning back through the air before landing hard on the roof.

"Roy!" Ruby called.

Cinder took that sudden moment of weakness and freed herself, throwing the small girl backwards.

I struggled to stand, realizing that I could barely see. I reached up, patting my face. The entire left side was gone, blown into oblivion.

Cinder was approaching a scared Ruby. She raised one dark blade above her head and swung. Instinctively Ruby raised her right arm to block the attack, dazed by what I assumed was the sight of me. I guess she didn't know what I was until now.

Her arm stopped the blade, but only once it had cut through half of it. Blood spilled out, almost relentlessly. She screamed in agony.

I stood, ignoring my lack of vision and charging. She swung again as Ruby cried, severing the arm altogether.

I leapt forward, swinging my blade wildly. I cut deep into her lower back, staining my own blade crimson. I bent down, pressing my hand against the ground as I turned and skidded to a halt, charging again towards Cinder. I activated the vibrating blade of ShoGun and threw it at her, running past her at the same time. The blade stabbed through her gut, throwing blood from her back at my face. I reached out and clapped my palms on either side of the shaking blade within her, and pulled, dragging the blade straight through her body, hilt and all.

Now she was the one screaming in pain and bleeding profusely. She fell to her knees, blood gushing from her gut. She pressed her hands against the wounds, hoping to slow the bleeding while she focused her ever leaking aura.

I went to Ruby and got her back up on her feet. "Are you okay?" I asked, then saw her arm stub, still raised in the same position it'd been, "Stupid question, come over here. Away from the edge" I guided her to the other side of Cinder, then when she'd sat down, went to the dying fiery woman with my blade ready to cut her head off.

In that same moment she turned, eyes ablaze, palms erupting with flames. She fired a massive wave of flame straight towards me, stretching as long as the rooftop itself, and almost as high as the library was wide.

And in that same moment I made a choice. I threw ShoGun aside, clear off the rooftop, and went to Ruby, demanding that she stand. She didn't quite process it, so I lifted her and turned around, facing the fire head-on. I spread my arms and legs, embracing the flame in its entirety. My clothes went first, leaving me buck-naked before the small girl behind me. I doubt she noticed, though. I felt my insides heat up to insurmountable levels. My gears and cogs spun infinitely quicker than ever before, trying to both cool my body and keep it protected. But to no avail. My artificial skin melted away, and my hair was singed off my scalp. As my brain fried inside my metallic skull one thought remained: I wasn't a living being. There wasn't a single reason to allow this living girl to die when there was nothing in me to begin with.

I turned around, seeing Ruby staring at me with the most sorrowful of eyes I'd ever seen. Tears drizzled down the cheeks of this girl I barely knew. I smiled, or at least did what I could with what remained of my face.

Then, as I released the last of my energy into keeping my body materialized, I let out a ferocious battle cry. All I could see was white tinged with orange flame. I could see the eruption beginning to die, but by that point I was already gone.

In that moment, everything went dark, and I ceased to exist.