Chapter 3: Feel The Knight

Hayato was having a… certainly less-than-restful sleep. A cold sweat formed over his body as he tossed and turned, and eventually he mumbled utter nonsense, but in his mind his troubles couldn't be any clearer.

"Everyone is either missing, or too unwell to pilot…"

"Just tell them that things didn't go as planned, and that I'm sorry."

He heard those words, but he stood in a black void. He frantically looked around for the source, and finally saw lights ahead of him… green lights, and a pair of yellow eyes. A massive, mechanical face was staring him down, and it only seemed to intensify its glare.

The machine suddenly faded away, as if repelled, and he felt a familiar presence behind him. He turned to face the approaching presence, and was met with the sight of Summer Rose. For what felt like forever, she said nothing. Her hood obscured her face, and eventually she uttered a single word just loud enough for Hayato to hear.

"Getter…"

His eyes shot open and he sat up quickly like a man possessed. He took a deep breath, and slowly let it go. He wasn't going to get any more sleep, and he did not bother checking the time. It always happened like this.

He got dressed, putting on what had become his signature lab coat ever since he began work on the robots, and decided to go take a walk. As he exited the compound, he looked to the early morning sky and could still see the stars.

"Getter…" He muttered to himself, wondering just what that word meant. It wasn't anything he was familiar with, a totally foreign word that strangely felt… right. His thoughts were interrupted by the quiet flapping of wings behind him, "I already know what you will say, Qrow."

"Then you wouldn't object to me punching your sleazy face, will ya?" Came the rough voice of the scythe wielder, "I told you to stay out of Ruby's life, yet here we are."

Hayato turned to face Qrow, his eyes betraying no emotion.

"I'm doing what's necessary to save humanity… the fact she turned out to be our best bet for the main pilot was an accident-" He was interrupted by a fist to the face, but he did not retaliate.

"So what? You're not just gonna let Summer die, but kill her daughter, too?!" The dark haired huntsman cried out, glaring at Hayato. Neither spoke for a few moments, and the air was tense.

"…Ozpin trusts my decision, and you need to as well," Was Hayato's response, "And we have been over this. Summer left before I could do anything. If I had a choice, I would have gone myself and gladly died in her stead."

Qrow thought for a few moments, and scoffed.

"You always did end up as the one left behind. Just don't make that a habit when Ruby is involved," Qrow said, an underlying threat in his voice. "I'll make sure you join your old buddies if you do." That one was not so thinly veiled.

A few minutes of silence was shared between them, an understanding of sorts. The sun began to rise, and Hayato looked up at the sky.

"If you'll excuse me, I have work to do," Hayato stated, a flapping of wings and a croak being the response he was given. When he looked back to Qrow, the man was gone with only a single black feather betraying that he was ever there.

"…I did not start this war, but I do plan on ending it."

Unknown Location

"Tell me, Ashura, who is it that you are truly loyal to? Me, Salem, or that long dead empire you once served?"

"My loyalty is only to you, Doctor!" A pair of voices responded in unison, one masculine and the other feminine.

"Good… it seems that the device works after all. I will forgive your insolence at choosing Salem over me all those years ago, for I have need of you." The speaker, an old man with a cybernetic eye faced, his creation. One that has proven a disappointment time after time, yet still has its uses. "For the sake of my grand mission, we will pretend to fall before Salem and act as her subordinates. But! When the time is right, we shall turn her own creations against her!"

"As you wish," His creation began, speaking in a female voice before continuing in its male voice, "Doctor Hell!"

"No," Was the scientist's response, sucking his teeth at the name he had been called for years now, "Not Hell, I've always hated that name. The world will not know of the wrath of Doctor Hell, but rather it will know its Savior! Doctor Merlot!"

"Now go, Baron Ashura! Your first mission is to take one of my newest creations and assault Vale! Ozpin is the first obstacle in my path!"

"As you wish, Doctor Merlot!"

Beacon Academy

"Tell me, Doctor Jin, what do you make of her?"

Hayato stood before Ozpin in the headmaster's office, hands in the pockets of his lab coat as usual. The current subject of their conversation was displayed on one of Ozpin's holographic screens.

"She has a stellar track record, but that alone is not enough to qualify her to pilot Aura Zeus," Was the scientist's response, and upon seeing Ozpin's raised brow he elaborated, "How does she fight? What is her semblance? How strong are her aura reserves?"

And, most importantly: "What drives her to fight?"

Ozpin hummed at that, and he was seemingly amused as he spoke, "Your parameters seem to change by the day."

"For good reason, each machine is suited for a different role."

"And what, Doctor, is Aura Zeus's role?"

Hayato grinned at that, as if he had been waiting for that question.

"To be an immovable force, yet strike with the power to overwhelm. It is both the spear and the shield," He said, then seemed to remember something, "Hm, who are her teammates again?"

The emerald clad headmaster nodded to Glynda, who pulled up that information on her tablet. She cleared her throat and read off the names that showed up.

"The teammates of Miss Nikos are… Lie Ren, Nora Valkyrie, and Jaune Arc," She listed, seemingly speaking with a disappointed tone when getting to Arc.

Hayato seemed to think for a moment… then came to a conclusion as he looked to Ozpin.

"You can do as you wish with Nikos, headmaster. Choose her for your maiden project if you feel so inclined, I've found my own potential candidate," Was the scientist's final answer before he moved to the elevator. This caused both Ozpin and Glynda to raise a brow, and the blond was the one to voice her curiosity.

"Who is it?"

Hayato simply smiled as the elevator doors opened, and gave no response when they closed.

After a few moments Glynda sighed and crossed her arms as she looked to Ozpin.

"I can never help but feel that that man is hiding more from us than you know," She said, and noticed Ozpin's pensive expression.

"You and I both, Glynda…" He muttered, placing his hands on his mug as he thought, "He is no threat to us, but there is much he keeps hidden from even me…"

Once again, Glynda sighed. She had a feeling she would be doing that more than usual this year. "Let's just hope he doesn't blow up the school…"

Some time later, Ruby Rose was "studying" in the library with both her own team and team JNPR. Well, more accurately, she was gazing off into space as she imagined herself piloting Aura Rose again. It's been a while since Dr. Jin had met up with her for regular practice, and she was aching to be in the pilot seat again.

"Miss Rose," Came a voice behind her, causing her to almost jump out of her seat in surprise. Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. "Time for another study session."

This caught the rest of her team's attention, and Team JNPR's as well.

"Oh, okay!" She said happily. Whether it was actual studying or piloting practice, she never knew until they were actually doing it, but she always greeted each chance with glee. She gave a wave to her team as she got out of her chair, only Yang returned the wave as Weiss and Blake were focused on whatever they were reading. Ruby did notice Hayato glance at Team JNPR for a moment, but thought nothing of it.

Once they were gone, Yang gave a quiet sigh and spoke up about something that had been bugging her lately.

"...Do you guys know what they even do?"

Weiss perked up, lifting her eyes from her book to look at Yang as she spoke, "He's her tutor, right? He's helping her keep up, of course." In response, Yang shook her head.

"But half the time when I ask her about it, she seems kinda… excessively happy, you know?"

Weiss just shrugs in response, "Of course she is, it's Ruby."

Blake takes over. "I'm sure it isn't anything like you're thinking," The black haired beauty responded, closing her book.

"Uh huh, and just what do you think I'm thinking?"

"Don't worry about it."

Yang's worries began to subside, but what the trio didn't notice was Jaune overhearing their conversation. He frowned for a moment, remembering the conversation he and Ruby had about being a reliable leader during that whole debacle with Cardin, and made a decision.

"I'll meet up with you guys later," He said to his team as he got up. Pyrrha shot him a questioning glance, but he simply responded with a confident smile and nodded towards the remaining trio of team RWBY. She nodded in understanding, and let him go without saying a word.

Beneath Beacon: Saotome Lab

"Today, we will be using the simulator again," Hayato's voice rang out from the screen beside Ruby. She was sitting in a replica of Steel-1's cockpit with the windshield replaced by a screen. "This time, we'll be going through a scenario that a previous iteration of this machine has experienced. Of course, the scenario is adjusted to keep up with modern upgrades, and the scenario was also experienced with it fully manned."

Ruby cocked an eyebrow at the lack of pilots. "So how's this gonna work, then?"

"Well," Hayato began, inputting some values, "In this adjusted version of the scenario, your goal is to simply survive until reinforcements arrive. If you can survive long enough, you're already ahead of the projected curve, meaning that we can move on to practical flights instead of continuing to use the simulator."

That last part got Ruby excited, a smile on her face as she realized how close she was to being behind the real controls again.

"Alright then, fire it up!" She called out, receiving a grunt of acknowledgement from Hayato. He signaled for his staff to boot up the simulator, and simply watched the screens in front of him to personally monitor Ruby.

As the screen came to life, Ruby immediately analyzed her surroundings. She was already in the Aura Rose configuration, and she was standing before some kind of facility built into a mountain. Looks like she's protecting it for now.

"Pilot of Aura Rose, our pilot is still quite a ways away, please defend this facility in their stead!" She heard over her comms. She simply nodded, and noticed some kind of energy field form over the facility behind her. She focused ahead of her, and noticed multiple large figures coming her way in the distance, accentuated by the sunset behind them.

"Alright… I've got this," She mutters to herself, moving Aura Rose forwards as she furrows her brow. As she counted how many enemies there were, she definitely could see why her objective was to just survive, "Over a dozen Grimm," She mumbled, then set Aura Rose into a full sprint.

The first enemy ahead of her was some kind of Leviathan, but it was even larger and more armored than the typical kind. An alpha Leviathan? How old must it have been before it fell in this battle? Ruby pushed that little question out of her mind before attacking.

"Thorn Tomahawk!" She shouted, grabbing the hardlight axe as it formed in front of her.

Hayato still hasn't finished implementing her preferred weapon of choice, so she's had to get used to using an axe instead of her beloved Crescent Rose when piloting. She's no master at it, but it's good enough to fight Grimm.

She swung at the Alpha Leviathan's head, but in a clever move it ducked beneath the swing and headbutted Aura Rose's torso. They went crashing to the ground, and Ruby was pinned underneath the Leviathan's weight. She punched it in the side of its head and rolled away when it recoiled in pain, screeching as its mouth began to glow with energy.

A giant insect-like Grimm flew above Ruby, spitting some kind of fluid that Ruby swerved to dodge. The fluid quickly hardened into a kind of string, showing that it was planning on restraining Ruby for the Leviathan's beam.

"Thought you were smart, huh?" Ruby smiled, she was getting fired up. Aura Rose grabbed the string, seeing that it was still attached to the mouth of the Grimm and pulled it down to her. She managed to surprise it with that method and successfully threw it off balance, and proceeded to yank the string off of the ground and swing the Grimm into the Leviathan who had remained in place while charging its beam.

"Take this!"

The insect and Leviathan collided, just as the reptilian fired its deadly attack. The Leviathan kept firing, but its aim accidentally turned to some of its allies who were ill prepared for the friendly fire. A giant ape-like Grimm got it particularly bad, having its unarmored head vaporized as it was clipped by the wild motion of the Leviathan's erratic aim. Two others were killed by having major parts of their bodies caught in the beam, and another was heavily injured.

"Totally planned out…" Ruby muttered to herself, running to the gravely wounded one and finishing it with a chop from her tomahawk. It was some kind of giant bipedal beetle with spike arms, and now it's dead.

The sheer size of the dissolving Grimm meant that the smoke could very well end up obscuring Ruby's vision if she wasn't careful, so she decided that she would have to space out her kills timewise to avoid that outcome.

The ensuing battle was, as Hayato predicted, a battle for survival on Rub's part. The Leviathan had definitely learned to only fire its beam when it was a near certainty for it to hit, and the insect began working to try and catch Ruby off balance instead of a full entrapment. The other Grimm also closed in, one of which was very fast for its size and seemed to know how to perform basic attacks like punching and throwing Aura Rose. It had features resembling both a dog and a lion, but was very humanoid in shape.

Ruby swung her tomahawk, but the agile Grimm deflected the blow with the bone-like armor on its forearm and grabbed onto Aura Rose's wrist. She tried to punch in retaliation, but it got too close within her reach and pushed both her arms out of the way as it slipped behind her. Before she could react, it wrapped its arms up underneath Aura Rose's, and restrained her arms in such a way that prevented her from using them. At the same time, she saw the insect Grimm fly overhead and spit out its silk, pinning her feet to the ground with the quickly hardening liquid.

"Uh oh…" Ruby whimpered out, fiddling with her controls in an attempt to break free. She saw the Alpha Leviathan's glowing mouth a decent distance away, and furiously began looking through her controls and armaments for something that could help her.

The fire within the Leviathan's maw turned blue from its intensity, and it growled as it prepared to attack. Ruby's eyes were drawn to one function that could save her, but unfortunately Aura Rose seemed to lack whatever energy was required to fire it.

"Dang it," She whispered, accepting defeat as she slumped back. Suddenly, she jumped in surprise at a voice resounding from her comms.

"Rocket Punch!"

A black metal fist flew from behind her at high speeds and slammed into the Leviathan's maw, sending the monster stumbling as it fired its devastating attack. The beam carved a trough through the ground and incinerated one of the relatively smaller Grimm, a massive spiked ankylosaurus-like Grimm. The fist returned to wherever it came from, some kind of guidance system aiming it on the fly.

"Rust Hurricane!"

A visible whirlwind of some kind snaked through the air, heading right for the flying insect and seeming to quickly eat away at it. Whatever made up that wind ate away at the flying Grimm's wings in an instant and dissolved its natural armor, even destroying some of its limbs as it fell dead to the ground.

Aura Rose lurched as the Grimm holding onto it was ripped away, and so Ruby turned to see what was going on. Her eyes widened as she saw the Grimm's neck get crushed by a single hand gripping intensely. Said hand was attached to a primarily black and white machine with certain red components that she knew all too well from certain books pertaining to Super Robot history.

"Mazinger Z…"

The black iron fortress tossed aside the dead Grimm, and lifted its arms in a kind of flexing motion. Ruby knew what was coming next and quickly moved Aura Rose out of the danger zone. At the same time, the Alpha Leviathan was charging its breath once again, its gills furiously venting energy as the creature let out a roar that echoed across the surrounding landscape. Mazinger Z remained steadfast as the red parts on its chest began to glow.

"BREAST FIRE!"

A furious heatwave equaled only by the fires of hell was unleashed from Mazinger Z's chest, the energy coalescing into a wide beam of energy that consumed the Leviathan in an instant. Mazinger Z's pilot commanded the machine to pivot, sweeping the inferno across the remaining Grimm who failed to escape. The attack ended, and all that remained of the enemies were their smoking corpses that were quickly disintegrating.

"Pilot of Aura Rose," Ruby heard through her comms, bringing her attention to one of the screens. It was a new voice this time, one that didn't sound much older than her, and was distinctly male. "This is Kabuto Koji, pilot of Mazinger Z. Thank you for protecting the lab, I'll take over from here!"

At that, her screen was filled with the words "SCENARIO COMPLETED" before it went dark.

"Good job, you passed," She heard Hayato say while she was disconnecting herself from the controls. She gave a sigh as she finished and moved towards the exit.

"Just barely," She said, disappointed in herself, "I know I could do better than that."

When she came face to face with Hayato, she looked to a clock and noted the time. She'd spent over half an hour fighting.

"A pass is still a pass," Was Hayato's response, his hands in his pockets as usual. He too checked the time, and continued to speak, "Next time, provided the conditions are good, we can perform a practical flight."

That got Ruby's spirits up, and also sparked a memory. She'd been meaning to ask about something she saw in the simulator.

"Oh, by the way, Doctor," She began, tilting her head, "what's Silver's Gleam?" she asked, curious.

Hayato was silent for a moment, thinking on how to answer that. Ultimately, he decided it was Ozpin or her family's call to tell her the truth of Silver Eyes.

"Just an unfinished function of Aura Rose. I plan on finishing it as we go," was his response. Technically correct, just like all good falsehoods.

"Oh, okay," Ruby said with a nod. The scientist gave a simple grunt before he began leading her out of the facility. They went up a flight of stairs, passing by some staff who Ruby waved to, and arrived at an elevator. When they entered, Hayato swiped a keycard of some kind and se them to go up.

"Oh, Hayato," Ruby said, putting her fist in her palm as she remembered a question she had, "when do you plan on finding more pilots?"

"I'm always searching, and if things go right then we could very well have a pilot for Steel-3 soon."

"Really? Who?"

"You will see."

After that exchange, the elevator doors opened to reveal Hayato's office as a Beacon Academy faculty member. It was relatively bare, only some pictures and books being his personal effects on his desk. The two made their way to the door, and at that very moment there was a knock.

"Doctor Jin? Ruby? You there?" Came the voice of Jaune Arc. "Man, I really hope this is the right room, it's very hard to find it."

Hayato opened the door, an expression on his face that Ruby couldn't read.

"What good timing, Arc," He said as he swung the door open, "We were just talking about you."

"R-Really?"

"Yes, step inside if you wouldn't mind."

Jaune followed the scientist inside, and Ruby had a VERY confused expression on her face.

"Jaune?"

"Hiya, Ruby," He responded with a wave, somewhat confused as to why Ruby was so surprised to see him.

Hayato motioned for them both to take a seat. Before they could, an alarm started blaring throughout the office that caused the two teenagers to jump in surprise. The older man quickly moved to his desk, checked the computer, and shut off the alarm.

"...On second thought, it looks like we'll be having a trial by fire," Said the aging scientist. A dangerous smile unknowingly made its way onto his face as he read what the approaching threat was.

"Looks like Doctor Hell decided to pay a visit!"

Author's Note:

Here's the next chapter, and as you saw I revealed one of the many Mecha running around Remnant. It's just not right without good old Mazinger Z in the picture, especially since my dad introducing me to it was what got me into Super Robots in the first place.

Also, making Dr. Merlot into Dr. Hell was easily the biggest brain play I made to incorporate him into the story. On the topic of villains, still scratching my head on how to best incorporate a few others, but I wont be going too crazy on the amount of villains I want in this story. Salem still needs to be relevant, after all.

Until next time!