Author's Notes:

-Thanks to my readers. I honestly didn't expect this much popularity for this story. Now, I know some of you are wanting to see Jacques injured or killed, but calm down. I know he is despicable, but I haven't gotten that far yet. I'm still planning out Weiss's story arc and his ultimate fate.

-Since I can not put a third category for this story, I'll tell you right away; this third category I would add is angst. Angst has already been present (as seen in previous chapters), and now you're going to get more!

A week had passed since the Fall of Beacon. The sky was grey and the gloomy clouds blocked out the sun. Blake jumped across the rooftops while crouched, then stood up and looked at the Grimm Dragon on top of what was the Beacon CCT tower. She then jumped to the next rooftop. After doing this for a minute, she stopped sat down on the edge of one of the rooftops.

She realized that she was getting nowhere. She got out the poster of Roman Torchwick and ripped it into pieces before throwing it on the ground. She sighed.

Okay, let's review. Roman is nowhere to be found. I've been searching for that criminal for a nearly a week and haven't found a trace of him. I've searched nearly every inch of this city. Since he has not been arrested and thrown into the slammer, this means one of the following things have happened;

One, he's disguised himself to hide from the authorities.

Two, he's fled the city with wherever the Vale White Fang branch ran off to.

Three, he died while fighting a hunter/huntress.

Four, he was killed/devoured by Grimm.

Just great... What now?

She mentally reviewed who Roman's allies were. As Blake went through her memory, she recalled the night she and Sun snuck into a White Fang meeting. As Roman spoke to the new recruits, she remembered a girl with pink and brown hair and eyes wearing a white, brown and pink outfit standing on the left side of the stage, and later on, nearby the prototype of Atlesian Paladin-290 that Roman acquired. He referred to her as 'Neo' in the match that ensued. Neo... She had that look of Neapolitan ice cream about her, in both her outfit and her physical traits.

Maybe Neo is short for Neopolitan. Blake thought to herself.

She had no idea where Neo was, or even if she was alive, but if she wanted answers, she didn't have much choice. With no other options left, the cat choose to pursue the destructive sociopath.

Meanwhile in the city, Pyrrha and Jaune were traveling the streets, hoping to find Edom's Electronics Repair, a shop that repaired all sorts of electronics from scrolls to televisions and computers. Pyrrha was no longer wearing the circlet or any of her jewelry. She still had some bruises and visible damage, but it would fade away within time.

"You really think this place is still open?" Jaune asked.

"I hope that's the case, otherwise we'll have to travel out of the city." Pyrrha stated. "Which is undesirable."

"As if outside the city isn't any more dangerous than where we are now."

"Most of the Grimm are centered around Beacon Academy, and the electronics shop is far away from our former school." Pyrrha added. "Also, trying to..."

She lost her train of thought when her eyes laid upon the sight of another team on the opposite side of the crosswalk. They saw the leader of team NDGO Nebula Violette with her teammates Dew Gayl, Gwen Darcy and Octavia Ember. Dew and Octavia glared at Pyrrha. As the team crossed the sidewalk and stopped in the middle of the road, Octavia folded her arms with her fiery kris in her hand.

"Why are you even still here?" Dew interrogated Pyrrha. "Shouldn't you be in jail for what you did?"

Gwen and Nebula frowned at their teammate as Dew finished her questioning. Jaune glared at the blonde-haired huntress. "What are you talking about?"

"Were you not there when that murderer ripped Penny Polendina apart?!" Octavia shouted in anger. "She should be in jail and perhaps even executed!"

"You can't even control your Semblance!" Dew scolded. "You incompetent klutz!"

"You murderer!"

Pyrrha covered her ears, trying to drown out their shouting. "Stop it! I didn't mean to hurt anyone!" She groaned. "How was I supposed to know that Penny was a robot?"

"You liar!" Octavia screamed. "Even if Penny doesn't count as a person, she should still be arrested for destruction!"

"That's two reasons you should be in jail!" Dew exclaimed.

Using the fire dust, Octavia unleashed a fiery shockwave from her kris, knocking down Pyrrha.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune looked at his partner before turning to the girls. "Leave her alone! How was anyone supposed to know Penny was a robot?" He pointed to the respective person for emphasis and raised his arms at the end of his rant. "She didn't know, you didn't know, I didn't know, nobody knew!" He let his arms fall and got out his sword as Pyrrha got up from the ground. "So leave her alone or I'll fight you. Both of you!"

Pyrrha gasped, putting her right hand to her mouth. "Jaune... Are you crazy? You'll get hurt! I can't let you do this..."

"I can, and I will. Also, since your weapons are gone, what other choice do we have?"

Octavia smirked. "You're toast!"

"Bring it." Dew said, taunting him with a motion of her right hand.

Jaune charged at her, before Nebula stopped him by placing her right hand, glowing with a royal purple aura, to his chest and pushing him back a few steps. She smiled at him. "Young man, you are bold and courageous for defending your friend, but a duel is not necessary. You need not fight each other." She placed her left hand to her chest. "Also, since I'm their leader, it is my job to scold them." She folded her arms and looked scornfully at her teammates.

"Uh oh..." Dew mumbled under her breath.

Dew and Octavia tried to back away, only to bump into Gwen who glared at her teammates, arms crossed. "Don't even think about it."

"And Octavia and Dew, do you find such malice necessary?" Nebula asked, continuing to glare at them with anger.

"We're not being mean, we're being truthful!" Dew protested.

"There's a difference being truthful and being harsh." Nebula glared at Octavia. "And you, Octavia! I thought I made it clear for you to be better at keeping your temper in check when not on the battlefield!" She looked at Dew and Octavia, who were ashamed of themselves. "Both of you are being overly harsh on her. Also, you don't know what it was like being in her shoes, so don't be so quick to judge. She may have been cracking under all the pressure placed on her shoulders."

"Something that I perhaps, never mentioned to say..." Pyrrha began. "When I stumbled backwards in fear, I saw Penny's swords suddenly multiply themselves by the dozens, then hundreds, a thousand blades being aimed at me. My brain was failing to think this through, I had to do something to stop the blades from slicing me into pieces."

"So you're delusional?" Dew asked.

"I don't know if it was stress, or someone's interference or what, but that's what I saw." She looked down. "Or what I thought I saw."

"Earlier we all thought we saw Yang attack Mercury who was simply walking up to her, but she thought she was being attacked by him..." Jaune noted. "Could there have been someone or something messing with their senses?"

Gwen responded, "But if that was the case, wouldn't someone have noticed and/or stopped the source of the illusions?"

"I don't have answers to either of these questions. Either way, apologize to her." Nebula ordered her other teammates.

"I'm sorry, Pyrrha." Dew said. "Honestly speaking, if I had been in your shoes and that same vision occurred, I probably would have countered the attack by creating a large twister that would end up having the same tragic result."

"My apologizes, Ms. Nikos." Octavia said, bowing forward with her hands together. "I can't say what would have happened if I had been in your shoes in that moment, but perhaps I was a bit too quick to judge. With what happened... what am I supposed to think and feel? As well as everyone else?"

"It's alright. I... I didn't even know what to think at the time."

"Come girls, we need to move." Nebula instructed. "The flight for Shade Academy will be arriving in less than two hours." Team NDGO walked on. Nebula briefly stopped, turning to Pyrrha and Jaune. "Good luck to you both."

"We should get going." Pyrrha said.

As they walked forth to their destination, Jaune smiled briefly. Behind him, Pyrrha looked the other way, concealing the sorrow that Jaune didn't see on her face.

What if Dew and Octavia were right?

They had reached their destination. Unlike many of the surrounding buildings, Edom's Electronics Repair was visibly undamaged. The lights were off, the building seemed to be empty, and the paper sign read in big red letters, Closed.

"Aw man, looks like they're closed." Jaune groaned.

"Maybe we can try elsewhere." Pyrrha said, trying to be optimistic.

A guy with red hair saw them, came forward and flipped the sign to say open, turned on the lights and unlocked the door. "I wasn't expecting any business today." He motioned them to enter. "Come on in."

The two warriors entered the shop. The room was circular fitted with black carpeting. The walls were painted red, maroon actually with two television screens spaced far apart from each other on both sides of the room. In the center of the room was a big circular desk made of wood. To the left and right side of the room was an open door frame that led to other rooms down a hallway. The man went behind the desk.

The red-haired man appeared to be in his mid-30's. His red hair was unkempt like he just got out of bed. He had choppy long bangs brushed to the side, tucked behind his ears. He had white skin and had brown eyes that silently screamed out sadness. He wore a crimson turtleneck covering his muscles with a black belt hanging around his waist like a hoop paired with black cargo pants and black dress shoes.

"I was just about to close up shop, so I'm really the only one here at the moment. Ever since the chaos that happened a week ago, business has been painfully slow. I've been forced to let go of some of my employees, which I hate having to do. My name is Edom, the owner of this little shop, and I'll be taking care of you today." He smiled. "So, enough about me. How can I help?

Jaune retrieved his broken scroll from his front pocket. "I need this scroll fixed."

"That'll be no problem. Just sit tight and I'll have it fixed in no time."

He took the scroll and went down one of the doors to a repairing room. Jaune and Pyrrha took a seat on a ladybug colored sofa.

"I can't believe our luck." Jaune said. "I thought this place would be closed."

After a moment of silence, Pyrrha asked. "So what are we going to do?"

Jaune looked at his girlfriend, baffled. "About what?"

"About this current situation we're in. Beacon Academy is in tatters, and as much it pains me to say it, we can't stay here forever."

"Well..." He hesitated.

He didn't think about that. But what if she was right?

I don't want to leave her... I don't want her to leave me...

"So," he began, trying to change the topic, "what are we going to do about getting you new weapons?"

"The remains of Milo and Akouo are back at Beacon tower, but going in there unarmed with the current situation is the equivalent of a death wish." She frowned. "Also, as far as I can see, there's no weapon or weapon repair shop that remains here in the chaos."

A moment of silence passed between them. Then Jaune came up with an idea. A crazy idea that might not even work, or that Pyrrha could have qualms about. "There might be one place to find a weapon, assuming the arena hasn't been cleaned up from the Battle from Beacon." He paused. "The swords of Penny Polendina."

Pyrrha blinked. "Penny's swords? In the Amity Colosseum?" Jaune nodded. She put her thumb and index finger to her chin and mused to herself. "It seems like a long shot, although it's better than nothing. But how are we going to get there? I doubt air buses are taking students there anymore."

"We'll figure something out."

Pyrrha thought to herself. What will become of Amity Colosseum? Will it stay here, or will the kingdoms fight over it? Will the next Vytal Festival Tournament happen here to make up for the incomplete festival?

She paused to herself and more sorrowful thoughts entered her mind.

Will there ever be another Vytal Festival ever again? Or will this feeling of doom and gloom, mistrust and hate, last forevermore?

Just then, Edom came back with Jaune's repaired scroll. The two arose from the sofa and went to the desk.

Jaune got out his wallet. "So how much is this costing me?"

Edom thought to himself for a brief moment. "Hmm... Normally, I'd charge the regular piece, but since I'm feeling nice, I'll give you a discount; 40 Lien."

Jaune put the money on the counter. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. And thanks for your business. Good luck to you two."

The two left the shop and tried to find the nearest air bus.

"Come on, please!"

"I said, 'No!'"

The air bus driver glared at Pyrrha. The two members of JNPR stood there on the bus, trying to reason with the grumpy old man.

"Why not?" she asked.

"Cause you're a murderer! And taking the swords of your opponent, if they're even still there, only proves that you're the monster everyone thinks you are!"

"Come on, the girl's weaponless and all the shops have been destroyed or closed." Jaune argued.

"Also, I didn't mean to hurt her in any way!" Pyrrha retorted. "I had no idea Penny was an android!"

"She's an assassin! She should be in jail! I won't do it!"

"She didn't know, you didn't know, I didn't know, nobody knew! So shut your mouth and take us up there!"

The old man groaned. "Alright, I'll help. But I'm charging you guys for my time. You'll pay before we leave the arena on the way back."

The two sat down in the sea green seats, not saying a word to each other as the airbus ascended into the sky. Pyrrha looked at the window, seeing the sky with less clouds yet still remaining grey. She could see the city below, the ruins of many buildings, the gloominess lurking in the city, and the Grimm Dragon frozen atop the Beacon CCT tower.

It seems like the Grimm will stay at the top of that tower forever... I wonder just how long that Grimm dragon will stay frozen on top of that tower. What if it doesn't stay like that? What if that freezing spell or effect wears off?

The thought of the Grimm dragon unfreezing was a scary thought, so she tried to shove it out of her mind. After a few minutes of silence, the bus landed on the loading dock, extending a ramp to get off the plane.

"Here you are. I don't expect you to find anything, but good luck anyway."

The two got off the airbus and left for the stadium. They walked through the entrance and went down the stairs to the arena entrance. Once they entered the arena, they saw how deserted it was, and how there were holes in the default biome areas.

"Hey, Pyrrha?" Jaune asked out of the blue.

"Yes, Jaune?" Pyrrha responded.

"Do you think it's possible that when Cinder infiltrated the CCT like you told me about, that she may have manipulated the random match-up to match her desire?"

"That... might actually be possible. She's probably the one who made the speech. Unfortunately, we can't prove anything." she answered as they entered the arena.

The viewing arena was completely deserted. The red-haired warrior remembered the Griffon had blown Penny's remains to the side, so she searched behind the octagonal arena on the ground. She found what she was looking for, but she found something else. Pyrrha couldn't help but bring tears to her eyes. Guilt and sorrow overcame her. She saw the remains of Penny's metal body, all in pieces next to the ten swords nearby her.

"I... I know it's important for me to have a weapon in my hands, but I'm not sure I can do this."

"It's not your fault, Pyrrha. How many times do we have to tell you to reassure you?"

"Then why do I still feel this crushing feeling of regret and sorrow?"

Jaune was crestfallen. "I.. I can not answer that. But if it helps you feel any better, you could apologize to her..."

"That doesn't sound like a bad idea." Pyrrha Nikos approached the robot that was known as Penny. She knelt down on one knee and touched her face. It was cold, even colder than the corpse of a human. "Penny Polendina..." Pyrrha began as she held her hand to her cheek. "I know you can't hear me, but I've come to apologize for what I've done. I swear I never meant to hurt you. I don't know what happened back there. I don't know if I was succumbing to stress or if someone was casting an illusion on my eyes, but I thought I was defending myself from an onslaught of over a thousand swords. In reality, there weren't that many blades present. As a result of this, I... I ended up tearing you apart into pieces. I feel crushed and torn apart inside like you were. Words are not enough to describe this horrible, soul-crushing guilt I feel inside. I'm sorry."

"I'm truly sorry for what has happened. I believe that someone has manipulated the match, and perhaps even the Vytal Festival as a whole, to create all this chaos. My weapons are gone, so if you don't object, I wish to make them mine. I swear that I will never use them against the innocent, and I promise that if I find the ones responsible for this, I will take them down."

She didn't feel anything else negative when she picked up the first sword, so she grabbed the others and carried them in her arms. Ms. Nikos felt a little bit less guilty, but it would take more than an unheard apology to help reassure herself.

"That was well spoken." Jaune said. "Who knows? Maybe somewhere from afar, Penny is watching this and smiling down on you."

Pyrrha briefly smiled, but it faded after a few seconds. Then she felt a cold rush of energy rush down her back and her eyes went wide. "Freeze!" a voice shouted. "Hold it right there!"

Pyrrha gasped and dropped the swords. Her and Jaune turned around to see James Ironwood, standing there with his arms folded and a scowl on his face.

"General Ironwood." Pyrrha spoke.

"What are you...?" Jaune began.

"I came here to see if there were any survivors hiding from the chaos up here." Ironwood answered. "But you don't look like you've been hiding here all this time."

"No, Mr. Ironwood, we haven't." Pyrrha responded.

He looked at her skeptically. "You wish to use Penny's weapons as your own?"

"Yes. At least until I can find the remains of Milo and Akouo."

"We're going back to the tower?" Jaune asked. "Do we have a death wish?"

"We don't have much choice."

"Are you sure you should go back there? The area is infested with Grimm." Ironwood warned them.

Pyrrha nodded grimly. "I am aware of this."

"Also, how are you going to carry all those swords without taxing your aura?"

"No problem!" She activated her semblence to make the swords levitate by their metal strings, then she tied those strings together until all the swords were in one threaded circle. She lifted her arms up and the circle of sword was fitted around her hips, almost like she was wearing a skirt. Once she had tightened the strings to properly fit, she lifted her arms down and her hands stopped glowing. "Viola!"

"Hmm... Certainly creative." Ironwood admitted.

"Come on, Jaune." She mentioned to him. "We should get going."

"Alright, but before we go, I'd like to ask the general a question." Jaune answered.

The man looked at Mr. Arc curiously. "Hmm. What is it?"

"Well, that speaker that questioning Atlas having a soldier disguised as a little girl... Why did you disguise her as a girl, or what was her purpose meant to be?"

He sighed. "It's a long, complicated story, but to give you the short unclassified version; Penny was supposed to be a hero, the world's savior. She was meant to participate in the Vytal Festival to test her skills in combat. If she didn't meet our expectations, she was going to be trained privately by the best huntsmen and huntresses in Atlas. If she did well enough, she would have be enrolled in a huntsmen training school, most likely Atlas Academy, although according to what I was told by one of her teammates, she expressed a desire to stay at Beacon. Eventually, after graduating from the Huntsman Academy, her identity as a robot was to be revealed to the world and she would go on high-risk missions that no other android or human could do."

Pyrrha sulked. "I really do feel awful about this. Despite reassurance from my teammates, I still feel like this is all my fault."

"Don't. It's not your fault, and I know that because over the last few days, I have discovered a shocking revelation; someone hacked into the CCT before the Vytal Festival started. They hacked the slots to choose the matches, but there's no way of knowing who did this."

"Cinder..." Pyrrha stated, scowling, gritting her teeth as her hands formed fists. "It had to be her. On the top of tower, when she descended down after taming the Griffon, Ruby called her out for hacking into the CCT, to which she admitted her guilt. Then she drew her bow and was about to fire an arrow at her. Without even thinking, I jumped in the way, intercepting the blow. Even though it scared Jaune half to death, it was ultimately the righteous decision to do. Ruby would have been killed if I just stood there and did nothing."

Ironwood gave her another skeptical glare. "How can you be so sure?"

"Because Ruby is approximately this high." Pyrrha said, using her right hand to demonstrate, stopping a few centimeters after reaching her mouth. She recalled the flashback from her view. After Ruby had broke the arrow pinning Pyrrha down by her boot, Cinder had landed on the ground.

Ruby gasped. "Wait a second. You were the one I saw that night! The masked woman who infiltrated The Cross Continental Transmit System in Beacon!" She angrily stepped forward, leaving Pyrrha a few feet behind her. "Cinder, how could you?!"

She laughed. "You may be right, little girl." Cinder put an arrow on the bow and drew back the string. "But what could you possibly do to stop me?"

Pyrrha quietly gasped. Time seemed to slow down as Pyrrha recalled this moment. She began to run forward. Cinder released the arrow only a second later. "No!" She jumped up as the arrow was only inches away from her neck, causing it to be embedded in her gut. Ruby gasped in horror and sadness as Pyrrha fell to the ground.

She stopped the flashback in her mind as a visual came up. "Had that arrow not been intercepted, it would have gone right through her neck, which would cause her to suffocate and die from lack of oxygen."

In the present Ironwood nodded in comprehension of her statement. "I see. The problem with this revelation of hacking is that we don't know which matches were really random and which were chosen by her."

"She had to have manipulated Pyrrha vs Penny, and probably Yang vs Mercury as well." Jaune suggested.

"Come on, Jaune." Pyrrha mentioned. "We have an angry air bus driver to pay."

"Be careful, young hunters." Ironwood said.

They only had to pay five Lien each and they were transported back to the fairgrounds, which were mostly destroyed after the Fall of Beacon. There were ashes, ripped tents, collapsed tents, wooden planks and ruins as far as the eye could see.

Jaune turned to Pyrrha, feeling somber. "Is this all that remains of the day?"

"Unfortunately, yes. Come on, we have weapon remains to find."

And so they went forth back to where it all began.