Sera's eyes shot open in the middle of the night. She blinked uncertainly before sitting up in her sleeping bag and rubbed her eyes. The fire next to her flickered dimly in the dark room they were in.

After she and the others started the fire, Sera rolled out her sleeping bag to get to bed early. Even if all the fighting she did hadn't exhausted her like it had the others, she was tired. She was asleep before Ruby and Oobleck had even returned to the ruined building.

As usual, while she slept, she didn't dream. Like always, she simply drifted through a field of mist and darkness as a corporeal entity. That is, until a low rumbling shook the entire dream like an earthquake and forced her to wake up. She had no idea what to make of it. Something like that had never happened before, but she knew there was no way it could be good.

Sera knew she wasn't going to be able to fall asleep again any time soon, so she crawled out of her sleeping bag and got to her feet. Yang, Blake, and Weiss were still asleep, so she made sure to be quiet while she put her coat, boots, and body holster on.

She popped open the breech on her shotgun to make sure it was loaded, then holstered it smoothly and set off for the exit.

"Sera?" a voice said quietly, making the amnesiac stop in her tracks. She turned around to find Ruby sitting on the balcony overlooking the ruined city, Crescent Rose in hand. "Where are you going?"

"Just for a walk. Can't sleep."

"You sure that's a good idea?" she asked tiredly.

"I'll be fine, Rubes," she gave a reassuring smile. "I'll just make a circle around the block and be right back. Secure the perimeter 'n stuff, y'know?"

"If you say so…" the younger girl said.

"Promise," Sera said. "If I'm not back in less than fifteen minutes, call my scroll and come looking. I guarantee I'll be around the corner."

"I dunno, Sera," she said.

The amnesiac walked up to the team leader as quietly as possible. "Ruby, I'll be okay. I can handle a few Beowolves. Okay?" she held her fist out.

Ruby grinned and lightly gave her a fist bump. "Okay. Fifteen minutes," she pointed at the white-haired girl.

"Fifteen minutes," she nodded.

The huntress left without another word, walking into the brisk air of the abandoned streets. Ruby watched her stroll away in the darkness with an uncertain light in her silver eyes.

Sera walked through the darkness without much direction. Truthfully, she just needed to get away to be on her own for a minute. But now that she was exposed to the cold wind, she was missing that fire.

She replayed her latest dream in her head, still unsure of what to make of it. Even when that weird voice visited her, there was never any sort of earthquake. So, what does it mean? Sera was so lost in thought, she almost didn't hear the voices nearby.

"…Waiting for the plan to start. How long is it going to take?" a male voice asked from around the corner of a building. Sera was at the opposite end of the block from her friends. At least, she thinks she is. She wasn't sure if she'd accidentally gone further during her self-reflection.

"Who knows, man? The more that guy gives us orders, the more I wish that chainsaw guy would run him through," a second voice said.

"I'm just ready to get it all over with and give them all what's coming to them," the first voice said.

Sera braced herself against the nearest wall, hiding in the shadows. Fat lot of good that'll do with her stark white clothes, but she couldn't think about that right now. The two voiced sounded like they were on the move, so she did her best to stay hidden. She peeked around the corner as slowly as she could while staying so close to the wall she could hardly breathe. An image of her melting into it flashed through her mind and she smirked.

Then she saw who the voices belonged to, and her smile faded. A couple of White Fang goons were standing in front of a set of double doors with guns in their hands.

"I found it," she thought aloud. She left the corner and braced against the wall, pulling her scroll out to get in touch with her team. Unfortunately, she had no reception, so she had no way of reaching them. "…Fuck."

The White Fang members were getting farther away the longer she sat there. She had a choice to make—she could either go back and get her friends and Oobleck and possibly lose track of the goons and therefore lose the hideout. Or she could follow them.

The obvious decision was to go get her team and the licensed huntsman, right? They could sweep the area that these two guys were in to find the base… Right?

Well, Sera never claimed to be the smartest student around.

She left the shadows and tailed the White Fang members from a distance, hiding behind piles of rubble or walls as she went. Every so often, she'd check her scroll to see if she could get reception, but she never did. She did take comfort in the thought that when she didn't return, Ruby and the others would come looking for her. If she hadn't fallen asleep.

Sera stopped and jumped behind a low wall when she saw the two goons stop in front of a building. They walked inside, still unaware that they'd been followed. She grinned to herself. Things couldn't have worked out better! Now she could go back and get the others and—

"What do we have here?" a voice said from behind her.

The huntress whirled around just in time to meet a boot heading straight for her face and knock her to the ground. She grunted when she slammed into the concrete, dazed from the kick to the head. Sera looked up to see a hulking man in a White Fang mask that completely covered his face. Muscle rippled across his caramel-colored arms, and he held a strange-looking weapon in one hand. Some sort of chainsaw sword, or something.

"A huntress sniffing around where she doesn't belong," the man leered down at her.

Sera's eyebrows narrowed once her daze cleared. What did she have to lose. "Isn't it you guys that do the sniffing around?" While she did hate the mistreatment that a lot of Faunus received, she felt that the White Fang deserved at least one comment. Who was she going to offend, the terrorist in front of her?

The man's head tilted to the side. "Mouthy one, aren't you?"

"That's what they tell me," she said, then made a move to get to her feet. Unfortunately, the White Fang guy kicked her again, sending her rolling across the ground for several feet.

"Ouch," she groaned.

The tall man walked towards her, his strange weapon resting on his shoulder. "The boss is gonna wanna see you," he stated.

"Great, why don't you introduce us?" she rolled onto her hands and knees.

"Oh, trust me, you'll meet him," he said, his mask devoid of emotion.

Sera flashed a grin, then reached for her shotgun. Before the goon could kick it away, she fired both rounds in his direction. His aura absorbed the pellets without effort. Her gun clattered on the concrete and out of reach, but she couldn't help but smile.

"And what were you hoping to accomplish with that?" he asked smugly.

She smiled wider up at him. "Calling in the cavalry."

If the White Fang man was smiling, she knew that it would've just melted. He raised his fist into the air, and it was the last thing Sera saw before blacking out.

. . .

"Where is she?" Yang asked while her eyes searched one of the many dark streets of the abandoned city.

"I don't know!" Ruby said frantically. "She said she was going for a walk."

"And you let her?" Weiss raised an eyebrow.

"What was I supposed to do?" the silver-eyed girl demanded. "I thought she had to pee or something!"

"Ladies, arguing about it now isn't going to solve anything," Oobleck called from around the corner of the block. "Let's all just focus on finding her. Sera didn't fire off those shots for nothing."

Ruby and Yang traded worried glances. Even Weiss looked a little concerned for their lost teammate. None of them could even begin to know what happened. Ruby's first thought was that some Grimm had found her, but Oobleck had a feeling it was more sinister than that. Right when the sisters were about to continue searching, their final teammate called out.

"Guys!" Blake shouted from further down the street. The rest of RWBY and Professor Oobleck hurried to see what she was yelling about, then they came to a stop when they saw the double-barreled shotgun laying on the ground. They stood several feet away from it, neither of the five huntsmen sure of what to make of it.

Ruby was the first person to move. She approached the gun slowly with Crescent Rose in her hands.

"If her gun's here… Then where is she?" Yang asked quietly.

The ground cracked beneath Ruby's feet and shattered before she could react. Oobleck reached out to her and cried her name, but it was too late. Ruby shrieked and threw her arms, looking for anything she could hold onto and throwing Crescent Rose in the process. Unfortunately, there was nothing for her to grab. The hole in the ground was big and the edge was far out of arms reach. Ruby fell straight through, screaming at the top of her lungs the whole way down.

"Ruby!" Yang screamed, rushing to the edge of the hole. At least, she would've if Oobleck hadn't stopped her.

"Wait!" he said while Yang fought against him. "We don't know if that hole will break more!"

"I don't care!" Yang shouted. Weiss and Blake could only stare at the hole in the ground that had swallowed up their leader. "Let me go!" Yang kicked and screamed, but Oobleck was far stronger than he appeared.

Where had Ruby fallen to? Was she okay? Was the hole a bottomless pit, or maybe it wasn't as deep as it looked? None of them could tell, but Professor Oobleck knew their next plan of action was to find a way down to where the hole led.

When the ground first fell beneath Ruby and she threw her arms, Crescent Rose went flying—and landed right beside Sera's shotgun.

. . .

When Sera came to, the first thing she noticed was that her head was pounding. It was her second worse headache—her first being when she woke up in Forever Fall.

She groaned and tried to clutch the earthquake going on in her skull only to find that her arms were stuck behind her back. Shaking off some of the daze that had come with being knocked unconscious, she realized she'd been handcuffed.

"Great," she exhaled. She thought back to just before she was caught and how she'd found the White Fang hideout, but that big goon had found her.

How had she been overpowered so easily? Was there that large of a skill gap between her and some White Fang member who'd been hitting the steroids a little too hard? Then again, he did kick her in the face before she could even get her weapon out. She was going to have to pay him back for that. But to do that, she'd have to escape.

Sera examined her surroundings. She was in a small room with metal walls and what looked like a large metal sliding door. The room was long and rectangular with a few cargo containers. What was in them, she wasn't sure. Part of her didn't want to know.

Deciding it was time to bust out, she struggled against her bonds. Unfortunately, they were strong. Top quality huntress handcuffs. Her body holster had been taken off and was missing. Even her long white coat was removed and was lazily cast aside onto the floor.

After another few minutes of wrestling against the cuffs and when she was about to just give up, the sliding door in front of her began to creak from the other side. Sera froze in place, her heartrate picking up when it started to open.

The metal door screamed open, metal grinding against metal, and the light from outside blinded her. She winced and tried to look through the light while her eyes adjusted.

"Well, well," a familiar voice said. A man in a bowler hat stepped into the narrow room. "Who do we have here?"

Sera's eyes finally adjusted to the light, revealing that the man was Roman Torchwick. This was rather unexpected, if she was being honest. She'd never come face-to-face with Roman. The closest she'd come was when they'd fought under the freeway, but even then, they were a hundred feet away.

"Torchwick," she said distastefully.

"In the flesh," Roman spread his arms. "And I've heard a lot about you."

Sera froze. "What do you mean?"

Roman grinned and wagged his finger while walking to the side of the room. "That's not important right now. What is important is what you're doing snooping around where you don't belong. I know you're not alone," he paced in front of her.

"Maybe I'll tell you if you tell me what you meant a second ago," she said, struggling against her handcuffs again.

Torchwick chuckled. "Even if I wanted to, it wouldn't be worth it, kid. All you need to know is that there's a plan."

"Well, that's fuckin' ominous," she muttered.

"You don't know the half of it," he spat, bringing out a cigar and placing it between his lips. Roman sparked a lighter and lit the end of the cigar, inhaling deeply before sighing at the huntress in front of him.

Sera coughed when the disgusting smoke hit her nostrils. She never cared for the idea of smoking, and this was only reinforcing her disdain. "What kind of plan?" she asked.

Roman snapped his lighter shut. "You're not at liberty to know. Now," he leaned onto the arm of the chair she was strapped to, their faces inches apart so that Sera could feel the heat of the lit cigar. Smoke was getting into her eyes and making her want to cough, but she just stared hard into the master thief's eyes. She wasn't going to back down from a stare-down. "Where are your friends?"

An explosion rocked the room they were in and drew their attention. Roman sneered and turned away. "What was that…?" he muttered. "Someone, go find out what that was!" he shouted at the door, then Sera heard a few pairs of footsteps hurriedly trail away. "Freakin' animals," the crime lord sighed.

Sera slammed her head forward and into Roman's nose. Unfortunately, his aura took the brunt of the blow, but she got her point across.

Torchwick grunted and backed away from her, his cigar falling from his mouth as soon as she'd hit him. "Gah!" he clutched his face. "You little brat!"

The huntress smirked. "That's where my friends are, you bowler hat wearing idiot."

Roman's eyes widened slightly. His face morphed into a mixture of anger and surprise, then Torchwick growled and stormed out of the room. Sera smirked as the door slammed shut. Immediately, she fought against her bonds with even more determination. If the others were actually nearby and fighting the White Fang, she wasn't sure if they'd actually find her.

"Come on…" she twisted and yanked at the handcuffs, but it was pretty much useless. If she was like Yang or Nora, she could've just broken them, but she just wasn't strong enough for that. More explosions shook the room, only they were closer. She cracked a smile. "Hey!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. "I'm right here! Help!" Sera shook from side to side, agitated. Several voices shouted from outside the room she was in, rushing past from the distant explosions and gunshots.

She heard a familiar high-pitched voice from what she guessed was a few dozen feet away, so she yelled more.

Unfortunately, the thing she least expected to happen happened. The room shook before lurching to the side violently.

"What the fuck?" she thought aloud. Slowly, the gears began to turn in her head. From the rectangular room and metal walls to the sliding doors, she realized that she was in a train car.

Sera fought as hard as she could, pulling her wrists apart as powerfully as she could. She grunted with exertion, squeezing her eyes shut while her muscles strained so hard, she thought she'd pull something.

Then she heard a crack, and her eyes shot open. She smirked and yanked at the metal binds again, then heard a chain hitting the ground. Sera immediately brought her arms in front of her and rubbed her sore wrists. Thankfully, her aura was already fixing her up. She pulled the bindings from her ankles to get completely free, then the huntress jumped out of the chair. She didn't know where her weapons were, so she'd have to make do until she could find them.

Sera opened one of the cargo crates in the train car with her, then a grin broke out on her face. She pulled out a basic military rifle and slammed one of the many magazines into it before pulling the bolt until she heard a satisfying click.

"Oh, yeah," she said. She grabbed as much ammo as she could and got ready to make her next move.

The amnesiac quickly put her coat on and held the rifle with one hand. She threw the sliding door open from inside the room, gusts of wind instantly blowing her hair and coat. She saw that the train was inside a long, dark tunnel that was leading to an unknown location.

She threw the rifle onto the top of the train car, careful not to miss, then grabbed the edge of the roof and swung herself on top with acrobatic ease. After getting solid footing, the huntress saw that she was relatively close to the front of the train. She picked up her rifle and did her best to not get thrown off. Then her mind flashed back to when she'd used her aura to stick her feet to a ceiling, so she tried the same thing here. With a triumphant smirk, she planted her feet on the train car and felt them hold fast.

First order of business, she had to find her friends. Knowing them, they were probably on the train with her. And if they weren't and were still back wherever the train had taken off from, then she just had to stop the train.

"There!" a voice shouted over the wind. Sera whirled around, pointing her rifle towards the source. Several White Fang members were also on top of the train cars, but they had been heading towards the rear until someone spotted her. A few of them aimed their own weapons at her and Sera got ready to fire.

It was in that moment that a crucial memory surfaced in her mind—being at the firing range with Ruby. She cursed, remembering how she couldn't hit a single target unless she was using a handgun. Nonetheless, she'd have to try.

A White Fang goon fired at her, missing by a few feet and hitting the roof near her right foot. Sera set her jaw and minded her footing, then sprinted at them as fast as she could. The White Fang let loose with their weapons, firing dozens of rounds in her direction. Fortunately, she was able to avoid almost all of them. A stray round would hit her here or there, but her aura blocked it with ease.

As soon as she was within ten feet of the nearest goon, she squeezed the trigger of her rifle and managed to hit him with several of the many rounds she fired.

"Spray 'n pray," she mused.

Sera used the rifle to club the nearest White Fang and knock them off the train, then fired another volley to down the next. She avoided their bullets and melee attacks relatively easily, then either knocked them off the train or knocked them unconscious. She'd just cleared a large area of the train when an explosion shook the entire tunnel and nearly sent her off.

"What the hell?" she demanded, her heart skipping a beat when she almost slipped. At the end of the train, a big explosion blew a hole right through the roof of the tunnel. And when she looked down the length of the train, she couldn't help but notice a small and colorful group of people.

She grinned wide, the wind blowing her hair in all directions before she took off sprinting across the train. She'd almost made it to the next group of White Fang when she saw something that made her smile falter. A few of the cars opened up from the top and large mechs like the one Roman used jumped up to her level and shook the train. They were facing the opposite direction, so at least she had that going for her.

Sera ran harder, swinging her gun from side to side while her boots pounded the train. Finally, she was right behind the first mech.

She jumped onto its knee and scrambled up the body until she was holding onto the top of its large chassis. It still didn't know she was climbing it. Just like with Roman's, she slammed her fist into it and pulled out a handful of wiring. The mech shuddered and swung around, now aware that she was there.

"That looked important!" she cackled as the mech swung her around. She didn't even care if she'd already used that line before. How many opportunities was she going to get to use it?

Sera shoved the barrel of her rifle into the hole she'd made and pulled the trigger. The mech shuddered violently and swung around, the pilot inside probably panicking. It tried to grab her, but Sera was quick enough to evade the metal hands. She grinned as the gun unloaded into the mech until eventually, the machine's lights died and started to fall forward. She leapt off its back and landed in front of where it'd fallen and reloaded the rifle. The other mechs took notice of her while she stood there with the rifle resting on her shoulder and a smile on her face.

"Okay, who's next?"

. . .

Ruby was getting worried. They'd searched the whole hideout for their missing friend and found nothing but her sword and body holster near the back of the train. Yang volunteered to wear it until they found Sera.

Now that they were on the train, the five of them, and Zwei, had made a rather disturbing discovery—each of the train cars had a large bomb in them. One car had already detached and exploded, blowing a hole tunnel's roof. One by one, more train cars were detached to also blow more holes into the tunnel. Professor Oobleck deduced that they were leaving holes for the Grimm to get into Vale.

The four girls of RWBY and Oobleck ran across the tops of the train cars to get to the front. Then a few dozen White Fang members crawled onto the top of the train, quickly followed by more Atlesian mechs than they cared for.

"Great!" Yang said, readying her gauntlets. "Now we've got these guys."

Weiss rolled her eyes and spun the cylinder on her rapier and launched a wave of flame Dust at their opponents. Then the rest of RWBY ran forward, taking on as many White Fang grunts as they could. Finally, they had to fight the mechs. Oobleck launched fireballs from his thermos/baseball bat thing and managed to knock two of them off the train with ease. Team RWBY didn't have time to marvel at just how powerful the professor was, because not long after that, the mechs nearest to the front of the train started to explode and turn towards each other.

The girls glanced at each other, unsure of what was going on. Then they heard a familiar voice hollering over the wind and their eyes widened.

"WOO-HOO!" Sera shouted as she rode a mech to the ground before leaping to another one with an Atlesian rifle in her hands. She seemed to be having fun tearing the mechs apart, and it looked like she wasn't hurt, to the others' relief.

"There she is!" Ruby cheered. Zwei barked excitedly.

Then another explosion rocked the entire train and reminded them that they had to keep moving, or their train car would get detached too. The five of them ran to the next car just as theirs was let go.

"You four, get to the front of the train and collect Sera! We have to stop this train before it gets too far into the city!" Professor Oobleck ordered.

"Right!" Blake answered. The four of them dashed towards their fifth teammate. Zwei looked like he wanted to stay with Oobleck, so Ruby let him. There were a few mechs between them and Sera, but they decided to just not deal with them. That was what Oobleck was there for.

The professor swatted Zwei in the butt with his weapon, encapsulating the corgi in a ball of fire to launch at the mechs. As soon as RWBY ran past the first mech, Zwei crashed into it and knocked it off the train.

Sera had jumped into the air, spun, and kicked a White Fang member to the ground when she felt footsteps coming up behind her through the soles of her boots. She whirled around with her rifle pointed and a focused look in her eyes, ready to fire at the newcoming White Fang. Then she saw that it was her team, and she nearly dropped the gun.

"Oh, you guys almost got shot," she said, lowering the rifle.

"Nice to see you too," Yang tossed her Igneous Amethyst. Sera immediately put it on and took comfort in the familiar weight of her weapon on her back. Blake handed Sera's double-barreled shotgun to its owner and the huntress holstered it smoothly before tossing the military rifle to the side and off the train.

"It's definitely nice to see you guys," she smiled. "Why are we on a train?!" she put her arms towards the sky.

"The White Fang are blowing holes in the tunnel to let Grimm into the city!" Ruby answered.

Another explosion shook the train and Sera looked past her team to see dozens of Grimm wandering the tracks, heading for the new hole in the tunnel.

"We'll catch up later, we need to stop this train!" she yelled over the wind, then turned to run for the front.

"I'll stay here and help the professor," Ruby stated, pulling the bolt on Crescent Rose. The rest of RWBY simply nodded and sprinted after Sera. "That's the second time someone's taken my line," Ruby murmured.

The four of them jumped down from the top of the train and entered the nearest car once they were about to run face-first into another mech. Sera ushered them inside and closed the door behind them. They wordlessly dashed through the train, hurrying to the front.

Then a familiar girl stepped out of the shadows in one of the train cars, and Sera's eyes narrowed.

"You!" she pointed at the ice cream-colored girl. She smiled and stuck her tongue out while pulling one of her eyelids down with an index finger. Sera was about to lunge at her, but Yang stuck her arm out to stop her.

"You guys go on," the blond told them. "I'll handle this chick."

"No way, I have something to settle with this one," Sera drew Igni and held it with both hands.

Yang rolled her eyes. "Just go. If this chick kicked your ass, then I better handle her."

"I told you she didn't!" the amnesiac angrily put her arms at her sides.

"Sera!" Weiss pulled her along.

Neo was about to try to stop the four girls as they ran past, but Sera drew her shotgun with her free hand and blasted the short girl. Unfortunately, Neo was fast enough to block the shot with her parasol, and the girls managed to rush past her before she could recover. As soon as she lowered her parasol, a pair of explosive rounds rocketed towards her from Yang's gauntlets.

They made it to the next car, only this time it was a large guy blocking their path. He held a specialized chainsaw in his hands that was almost as tall as its wielder.

"You!" Sera pointed at him.

"How many of these guys do you know?" Weiss asked.

"Too many," Sera aimed her shotgun with one hand.

The heiress rolled her eyes and looked to their remaining teammate. "You go stop the train; we'll handle big ugly."

"You sure?" Blake asked.

"Oh, yeah," Sera flashed a smile. "You aren't taking this one away from me, too."

Blake smirked and gave a nod. "Right." Then she disappeared, running past the chainsaw guy at a speed that rivaled Ruby's.

The White Fang Lieutenant didn't seem to care about Blake, though. He was far more interested in the pair of girls in front of him. He chuckled to himself rather sinisterly, "Finally I get to kill the Schnee and the brat."

"Brat?" Sera asked, a little offended.

The Lieutenant revved his chainsaw and ran at them, his face hidden behind his mask. Weiss raised her rapier just in time to parry his attack, but the force was powerful enough to send her sliding backwards.

Sera swung her sword and hit the goon in the side, sending him back to where he started from. He seemed to find her attack amusing.

"Look, dude, you might as well give up now," Sera raised Igni.

The Lieutenant revved his chainsaw again, and the two girls rushed him. They brandished their swords and swung, Sera aiming for his legs while Weiss went for the torso. He spun and blocked both of their blows in one move, his long chainsaw revving to deflect the blades away from him. The lieutenant grunted with exertion and shoved the huntresses away before swinging his chainsaw.

Sera caught the weapon on the edge of her blade just before it could hit Weiss. The heiress immediately followed up by delivering a barrage of stabs to the goon's midsection, shaving away at his aura as quickly as she could.

"Ivory Tower!" Sera shouted. She dropped to her knees without hesitation and braced her sword with two hands in case she had to block. Weiss ran up behind her and jumped off of her shoulders and above the lieutenant's head. Sera swung her sword in a deadly arc and took the goon's legs out from under him, turning his body horizontal just in time for Weiss to slam into his torso and send him to the ground. He grunted as his aura flickered dimly.

Without hesitation, Sera performed a quick somersault and brought her foot down onto his face, shattering his aura for good. She landed nimbly and blew hair out of her face while sheathing Igni. Chuckling, she couldn't help but notice the irony. He'd kicked her in the face, so she kicked him in the face ten times harder.

"There," she smugly dusted off her hands and turned to her teammate.

"Not bad," Weiss shrugged. "I see some slight improvement."

"Slight?" the huntress asked.

Weiss rolled her eyes. "Let's just hurry and stop this train, Sera."

"You go help Blake do that, I'm going to go see if Yang needs help," she hooked a thumb at the door they'd come from. Plus, she had a bone to pick with that Neo girl.

"Fine, just hurry," she replied, then ran towards the front of the train.

"Oh, I will," Sera cracked her knuckles. "But first…" she picked up the Lieutenant's dropped chainsaw. "Hello~"

. . .

Yang was losing her fight, as much as she hated to admit it. She just couldn't land a hit on the strange girl. She dodged her punches with ease and returned her own blows before Yang could block them. She was losing—so, she needed to stop pulling her punches.

She let out an angry shout and flared her aura, calling forth her semblance to turn her eyes red and hair fiery. The blond lunged forward and threw an explosive punch at the short girl, only for it to get blocked and Neo to slam her parasol into Yang's face. She stumbled backwards, hardly able to believe that she could be countered so easily.

"Now, I know why Sera had such a hard time with you," Yang muttered. Neo shrugged smugly and twirled the parasol in her hand. Yang stared her down, her chest rising and falling slowly. She was getting tired, and she knew she couldn't keep this up much longer.

Neo smiled in a way that seemed pure evil and readied her parasol to attack again. Then someone grabbed her shoulder from behind.

"Heeeere's Miss Groovy!" Sera punched Neo across the face after spinning her around by her shoulder. Neo clutched her face and stumbled backwards. Yang tried to capitalize on the opportunity to land a hit, but Neo wasn't as hurt as she made it seem. She ducked under Yang's punch and brought her head up fast to headbutt the blond under her chin.

"Gah!" Yang exclaimed.

Sera swung the lieutenant's overly long chainsaw and managed to catch Neo in the shoulder, shredding away at her aura and sending her into a pile of crates to the side of the train car. She took the chance to get to Yang's side and raise the chainsaw.

"'Miss Groovy?'" Yang looked to her teammate.

She shrugged haplessly, "It's what popped into my head."

"Nice chainsaw."

"Thanks, I stole it."

Neo angrily jumped to her feet and glared at the two girls. She spun her parasol and dashed towards them without any hesitation.

Sera lifted the chainsaw to intercept her but was too slow. Neo landed a flurry of sharp pokes with her parasol and made the amnesiac grit her teeth. She tried to swing the clumsy weapon again, but Neo avoided it easily. She wanted to use the cool chainsaw, but it was too long and awkward to effectively fight a small, agile, and skilled opponent.

In a final effort, Sera jumped to the side and chucked the weapon at Neo. Thankfully, her gambit paid off. It slammed into the short girl and made her stumble. Yang threw a punch and caught her in the shoulder… or would have if Neo hadn't shattered into a million pieces of glass.

"WHAT?!" the two huntresses exclaimed.

Something hit Sera in the back of the head and sent her to forward into Yang. They turned to find Neo standing smugly with her parasol on her shoulder.

"Oh, right," Sera said, rubbing the back of her head. "Weird semblance."

Yang rushed her, throwing a barrage of rapid punches at the short girl. Neo evaded them with ease, apparently not even winded after all her fighting. She slammed her parasol into her midsection and spun, delivering a powerful kick to the side of her head. Sera tried to help, but Neo was already on top of it. She redirected Sera's sword into the ground and used her parasol to hit the huntress in the face.

Sera stumbled backwards and gritted her teeth. Yang was on the floor, presumably unconscious after a blow to the head like that. She wiped her mouth and lunged, swinging Igni at her opponent as fast as she could.

Neo either avoided or deflected every blow, then batted the sword aside to hit Sera in the chest with the most powerful blow she could muster. Sera flew backwards and slammed into the wall, making a pained grunt upon impact. Neo smirked at her handiwork and moved towards Yang, who was still unconscious on the floor.

Sera picked herself up shakily. Her aura had only absorbed a fraction of the damage from that attack, and now her body was aching so bad she wasn't sure if she'd get to her feet. She glared at Neo, but what she saw instead made her eyes go wide.

The ice cream-colored girl raised a long, sharp object that looked like it had been unsheathed from her parasol. She grinned wickedly at Sera; the tip of her weapon positioned over Yang's chest.

With Yang unconscious, her aura wouldn't activate to protect her from the fatal blow. Sera was too far away to do anything, and she wouldn't get close enough in time even if she could move at her usual pace.

A spike of pure fear and anxiety stabbed into her heart as she watched helplessly as Neo got ready to attack.

Oobleck was right. This was a serious assignment, and she wasn't as prepared as she thought she was for it. She ran in, just as cocky as usual, and now she was about to watch as her friend was skewered in front of her.

Something overcame her. Be it a second wind of some sort or maybe even just a wave of pure emotion, she didn't know. She balled her fists and shouted angrily at the short girl. It felt… off, somehow. Like she'd managed to put her aura into the yell. Nonetheless, as soon as it had happened, everything seemed to stop. Neo, the flickering lights of the train car, and even the train itself and all noise seemed to freeze.

She had time to blink uncertainly, then it was over. Everything moved again like normal, and an enormous wave of exhaustion hit her like a truck. Sera gasped, her arms were too wobbly to hold her up anymore, and she fell. The edges of her vision were already darkening, and her head swam as if she were intoxicated. She wanted to check on Yang, and if Neo had delivered the final blow yet, but instead she found someone else entirely.

A figure dressed in red and black with a sinister Grimm mask stood above Yang with a long and narrow sword with a blade that slightly curved. Neo was nowhere to be found, but it looked like Yang was safe, from what she could tell from her place on the floor.

Her vision darkened completely just as a sense of weightlessness hit her, and the last thing Sera could think about was if any of that had really happened, or if she'd hit her head too hard when Neo slammed her into the wall.

Then she blacked out.