The Lady in the Shoe.

Cordovin controls the giant Atlesian mech, which trudges through the ocean, and goes after the airship Maria, Bernadetta and Weiss took before.

"You're joking, right? You want to fight this thing?!" Weiss asked

"We've fought giant monsters before. This is just a tiny old lady... with one very big robot" Ruby said.

"Seriously! That is more than a little overkill!" Lyre said in utter disbelief of the sight of such a massive machine.

"You little spider-roaches thought you could creep your way to Atlas?! Well, let's see how your resolve holds out against the might of the Atlesian Military!" Cordovin prepares to take down the airship with a missile that pops out from a slot on the arm cannon.

The missile fires and tracks the airship, but suddenly, it explodes harmlessly just right behind it. Cordovin turns to see Ruby with her Crescent Rose. Ruby lowers her weapon and glares at Cordovin while the others get ready to fight.

"SO BE IT!" Cordovin prepares to shoot the missile at Ruby and the others. Bernadetta, Weiss and Maria sees Cordovin doing so in shock.

"Dive!" Weiss unbuckles her seatbelt and gets off from her seat while Maria dives for the landing. As Maria heads to the others, Weiss approaches the airship door with Myrtenaster in her hand. She jumps off and raises her weapon creating a rock wall and protecting the group from Cordovin's ice Dust attack.

"That was close" Oscar said.

"We need to figure out how to stop Cordovin and protect the airhsip until we do" Ruby said.

Jaune nods in agreement "Let's give her more targets to focus on".

Nora frowns "You mean us, don't you?".

"Look at that thing. It's not designed for small enemies. It's probably meant for giant Grimm that come in from deeper waters. We can turn our size into an advantage. We just have to be smart" Jaune said.

"He's right. She was so determined to show of her power, she failed to remember that big weapons are made for big enemies" Lucina said.

"Maria, can you keep the ship out of harm's way?" Ruby asked.

"They can take my driver's license, but I won't let them take this ship!" Maria declared.

Ren deadpanned "Very reassuring...".

"I'll be more useful if I go with her. From up high, I can try to spot a weakness" Oscar said.

"Well, he's not the only one who can grab a bird's eye view" Qrow said with a smile.

"You said you needed me on the ground?" Weiss asked Ruby.

"Not exactly" Ruby said as she smiles nervously.

As the team strategizes, Cordovin keeps an eye on their location keenly. Suddenly, her eyes widen as the group splits into three: Bernadetta, Jaune, Nora and Ren run down the left path along the cliff, Maria flies the airship to the right, and Ruby and Qrow fly straight up into the air using her Semblance and his corvid form, respectively. Ruby reforms from her Semblance and fires Crescent Rose, cracking the mech's windshield and causing Cordovin to growl. She fires a volley of missiles to Ruby's location.

Ruby lands on a tree branch and uses her Semblance to dodge the missiles. She eventually reforms and runs and jump along the missiles before freefalling down to the ocean. An incoming wave is frozen by Weiss as Ruby slides along it "Let's go!".

Weiss also slides off the frozen wave before using Myrtenaster to freeze small patches of ice for her and Ruby to leap on toward the mech. As Cordovin keeps her attention on them, her mech is suddenly struck by a volley of pink grenades.

"Hey! Over here!" Jaune called out.

"What?!" Cordovin looks over to Jaune's group as they keep running.

"And you said it wasn't beach season!" Nora said to Ren.

The four then take cover behind a boulder for each of them. Nora fires off more grenades from Magnhild, and Bernadetta fires several dust powered arrows, but suddenly, a hexagonal shield pattern appears protecting Cordovin's mech, doing no damage to her.

Cordovin laughs "Surely you knew Atlas was the father of hard-light Dust, or do lesser kingdoms simply lack proper education?".

She charges up her mech's arm cannon again, this time firing rock Dust, forcing Jaune's team to abandon their cover.

"Cordo just activated shields!" Jaune said.

"I saw that. We need to find whatever's generating it" Oscar said.

"You know, in video games, the weak spot's usually on the back of the giant boss!" Ruby said.

"Really Ruby!?" Lucina asked in disbelief.

"Ruby, this isn't a game!" Weiss added.

"I'm just trying to- LOOK OUT!" Ruby shouts.

Cordovin's mech is seen stomping at a part of the ocean. Unbeknownst to her, Qrow flies around in his avian form "You are ants! You are lower than ants!" As Qrow flies through the clouds, he transforms back into his human form and takes out Harbinger's scythe form. He propels himself forward and grapples onto the giant mech "Ah! What was that?!".

"Until the shield's down, we're gonna have to get up close and personal with this thing" Qrow starts to fire at the scratch he just made. Suddenly, he notices the mech's giant hand start to reach for him. Qrow dodges out of the way, transforming back into his avian form.

"That's easier said than done!" Ren said.

"Weiss and I are on it!" Ruby and Weiss land on a patch of ice on the ocean together.

"Hold on!" Weiss stabs Myrtenaster into the ground, creating an ice attack that knocks Cordovin's mech off balance for a bit. Cordovin let's out a frustrated yell.

As the airship flies by, Oscar realizes something "Wait, that's it. When she..." Suddenly, Cordovin aims her cannon at Ruby and Weiss and Oscar gasps "RUBY, MOVE!".

Cordovin fires a volley of missiles at Ruby and Weiss, creating a large plume of water.

"RUBY/WIESS!" Lucina and Lyre screamed at the same time.

Weiss and Ruby emerge unharmed as they ride Weiss' Queen Lancer summon. Ruby leaps off and uses Cresecent Rose to propel herself onto Cordovin's mech, embedding the scythe's blade into it. Maria cheers Ruby on. The force of Ruby's strike knocks the mech back into the cliffside, the tremors being felt by the citizens in Argus. Cordovin let's out an enraged scream.

"Go!" Jaune and his group proceed forward.

Ren leaps onto the mech's arm and runs along it, while also using the blades of StormFlower to hang on. Jaune uses the twohandler form of Crocea Mors to slash at the mech's hip joint along with Lucina who was slashing it with her own blade, while Nora uses the hammer form of Magnhild to smash at the arm cannon and Lyre leaps on to the mech and began climbing on it. Cordovin manages to stand the mech back up, causing Ruby to be lowered down into her view on the windshield. Ruby hangs on to Crescent Rose as she nervously smiles and waves at Cordovin.

"Get off of me!" Cordovin tries to grab Ruby with the mech's left hand, forcing Ruby to let go as she uses her Semblance to fly downward. Luckily, Weiss flies by on her Queen Lancer summon and catches Ruby.

"What if I hadn't caught you?" Weiss asked

"I knew you would" Ruby said as she grins widely.

Weiss just groans before she noticed something, or rather someone "LYRE! GET OF THAT THING RIGHT NOW!".

Lyre smiles sheepishly as she was holding on for dear life. As they fly around the mech, Ren lowers himself down along the mech's back. He notices a panel with a humming machine sound coming from it. Ren uses one of his blades to pry the panel off, but almost falls as the mech keeps moving around. Fortunately, Qrow appears and catches his wrist.

"Gotcha. What'd ya find?" Qrow tosses Ren back up as the both of them look at the panel he just opened. They see a whirring machine with the label "AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY, SHIELD GENERATOR" written on top of it "Well, alright then".

Qrow and Ren draw their weapons and shoot at the machinery, disabling the mech's shields. Cordovin watches her screen as the shields are reduced to zero.

"No, no, no, no!" Cordovin then feels a tremor as Nora fires a volley of grenades at her.

"You get back here with my man!" As Nora continues firing at Cordovin, Weiss and Ruby fly by to Ren and Qrow.

"Jump on!" Weiss ordered The two men do so "Lyre come on!".

"I am trying to find a way inside!" Lyre called back.

"What?" Weiss asked.

"This mech may be big and powerful. But on the inside there is nothing but a small fragile old lady. If I can get inside I can stop her without us having to fight this thing" Lyre answered as she was climbing around.

"You don't even know how to get inside! Just get of before you get yourself killed!" Weiss shouts.

"I've had enough of you ingrates!" Cordovin slams the mech's arm into Bernadetta, Jaune and Nora, knocking them back and breaking their Auras. The three struggle to get back up.

Lyre holds on until she thinks she's found an opening. She tries to pry it open, however a shadow above her alerts her that something is coming. She looks up just in time to see the large robot hand descending towards her. She tries to escape but is caught in it's metal grip.

"Lyre!" Weiss shouts in concern.

"This is what happens when you think you know better than those rightfully in charge!" Cordovin said as she moves the robot's hand and swings it towards the cliff side with Lyre still in it's hand.

Lyre desperately tries to climb out of the hand but it smashes her against the cliff side at full force.

"LYRE!" Weiss screamed in horror.

The rest looked on in horror at what just happened.


Back in the forest, Blake and Adam continue to fight each other intensely. Their blades clang loudly as they clash back and forth. As their blades lock, Blake hears a distant explosion from behind her. Blake's distraction causes her to dodge quickly from Adam's attack. Blake uses the kusarigama form of Gambol Shroud to grapple and swing from tree to tree. Adam gives chase.

"Can you do anything besides run?!" Adam then jumps onto a tree trunk and leaps off of it as he continues to pursue Blake, who continues leaping from branch to branch.

Adam then fires Wilt and it crashes into Blake's kusarigama just as she was about to grapple onto another tree. Due to her loss of momentum, Adam manages to catch up and slash at her, but he merely just slashes Blake's trench coat off. Blake then kicks off Adam, knocking him back. As Blake lands back on the ground, she fires at Adam, who blocks some of her shots but some manage to still hit him. The two then leap out of the forest and find themselves on a natural stone bridge in front of a waterfall.

The two then clash again, with Blake evading Adam's attacks with her own Semblance. Blake manages to catch Adam's sword with her own cleaver/sheath, leaving Adam to defend himself with Blush.

Eventually, Adam catches Blake's wrist and blocks her katana with Blush. "I wouldn't have to be doing this if you just behaved!".

Suddenly, Adam grabs his sword and flings away Blake's cleaver, before knocking her in the side of her head with the hilt of Wilt. Blake gets knocked back several feet.

"But you're SELFISH!" Adam knocks Blake back again "You're a COWARD!".

Adam again knocks Blake back a few feet, she glares at him "You're delusional...!".

Adam then points his sword at Blake's abdominal scar that he gave her before. Adam then uses his Semblance, which causes Blake's katana blade to break in half. The broken weapon clatters a few feet away from Blake.

Adam then stops to remove the blindfold from his eyes "People hurt me long before we met... All sorts of people in all sorts of ways..." Blake looks away sadly upon hearing this "... but no one hurt me quite like you...".

Blake looks back up to Adam as she sees his own eyes: his right eye a healthy blue eye, his left eye scarred permanently with a brand labeled "SDC".

"You didn't leave scars, you just left me alone" As Adam continues talking, Blake hears a certain motorcycle drawing close "So... tell me, Blake... how does it feel to be alone?".

Blake doesn't pay attention to what Adam says as she hears the noise get closer. Suddenly, Adam raises his sword and lets out a loud yell in fury as he stabs Blake in the abdomen.

Suddenly, her form disappears, another Semblance clone. Adam then looks behind him as Blake picks up her cleaver "I'm not alone".

Suddenly, from above the waterfall, Yang drives off the cliff and hurls her motorcycle, which crashes into Adam, knocking him down, before falling off into the river below. Yang lands a few feet away from Blake as she stares down Adam.

"You..." Adam said before Yang fires a shot him, which he blocks. Yang then activates the shotgun in her prosthetic arm.

"Yang!" Suddenly, Blake falls to her knee as she holds her stomach in pain.

"It's okay. Catch your breath for a second. I can hold him off" Yang said.

"She's right, Blake. It's okay, we have... unfinished business" Adam agreed.

The two combatants stare each other down. Adam makes the first move, delivering a series of quick slashes and Semblance arcs that knock Yang back a short distance. Eventually, Yang starts to strike back, managing to land some hits on Adam that he wasn't able to block.

Yang knocks Adam back a good distance before firing at him. He blocks and absorbs the shots with his sword. Adam then quickly runs in circles around Yang before letting out another Semblance attack that causes Yang to slide back a short distance.

"His Semblance is like yours! He absorbs energy through his sword, stores it up and then sends it back when he's ready" Blake said.

"He gets to dish out damage without having to feel it? That's just cheap..." Yang said.

The two proceed to trade blows again. Yang lands a series of punches and kicks on Adam, but he manages to send her back when she punches his sword. Yang gets knocked back next to Blake and the two share a glance with each other. Adam notices this and lets out an angered growl. He readies his Semblance once again.

"YANG!" Blake screams

With a loud yell, Adam lets out a devastating attack with his Semblance, however something got between the attack and Yang. When the smoke clears, Severa stands up with her shield in hand, glaring at Adam with her remaining eye.

"Severa" Blake spoke silently.

Yang smiled in relief "I had a feeling you would show up. Glad you did".

"Well well, looks like this is one big reunion" Adam said as he stood ready "Want to loose your other eye?".

Severa turned her shield in to it's blade form "You just don't know when to quit, do you? You already took everything from us once. How many more people need to suffer and die before you are satisfied?".

"Before I'm satisfied? I will not be satisfied until humanity has fallen. I will not be satisfied until everyone who's hurt me pays with their blood. I will not be satisfied until all faunus has justice!" Adam said.

"Justice? What the hell do you know about justice?!" Severa demanded as she took a step towards him "Everything you've done has been for yourself. You harm and kill innocent! Destroyed a symbol a hope for the world, harmed someone who used to care about you, and you sacrificed the lives of the very people you claim to fight for. Drop the charade already, you know nothing of justice or even compassion".

Adam was furious "YOU KNOW NOTHING!".

He dashed forward with a powerful strike which Severa barely blocked in time. Severa played defensively, having learned her lesson from their duel at Beacon. She parried Adam's attacks to try and find and opening to counter, whilst Adam attacked relentlessly, trying to overwhelm her before she had a chance to do anything. After a brief battle, the two locked blades, finding themselves face to face with one another, looking in to their enemey's only good eye. With a quick motion, Severa swept at Adam's legs with a kick, which he quickly flipped away from, drawing Blush and firing shots at Severa who blocked each of the shots before lunging at Adam with a stab. Adam ducked and sheathed his weapon, allowing Severa's attack to pass above his head, before unsheathing his weapon again and slashing for Severa's chest. Severa managed to move her weapon in the way in the nick of time, and used the leverage to leap over and behind Adam, kicking the Faunus' in the back.

Adam stumbled before she growled before slashing at Severa again, who blocked his strike before reaching out her hand and briefly grabbed his face. He broke free and their blades clashed again in a blind flurry, before Adam prepares his semblance again and unleashed another wave of destructive energy. However, having copied his Semblance when she grabbed him earlier, Severa focused her own built up energy in to her weapon's shield form, using it to cancel out Adam's attack.

Severa took a breath, his semblance was so powerful she was barely able to control it "Not so easy this time?".

Yang walks up next to her "Leave. Us. Alone. This is your last chance".

Adam stares back at the two as he grips the hilt of his sword again but he noticed Yang's left arm trembles slightly "Heh, do you really believe that? Or are you just trying to scare me away so you won't have to die trying to protect her"?

Yang, angered, prepares to fight him again despite her hand still trembling. Suddenly, Blake takes Yang's hand with her own.

"They are not protecting me, Adam" Blake said as she takes Severa's hand as well "And I'm not protecting them. We're protecting each other".

Severa smiles at both her cousin and girlfriend before all three looks back at Adam. This time they were ready for him. It was time for one final battle.

.

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