Author's Note: The bottom Author's Note will have a section asking something for the audience, so if you could take a moment to read and answer that would be appreciated. Otherwise, enjoy the chapter.

Pyrrha crossed the open portion of the field quickly, ducking behind cars to both mask her approach and offer cover in the event that she was spotted. Dozens of White Fang had already collided with the defenders of the blockade, turning what had been a well-prepared kill box into a chaotic fight to the death. She had to keep her back to that however, as she weaved in between the vehicles strewn about the field. She had lost sight of Adam when she did so, but she could still see parts of the group that he had exited the building with.

Circling around to the flank, she caught three with their sides exposed and she threw herself into the fray before they could alert anyone to her presence. She slammed her cross guard into the side of the first one's head, snapping their head to the side with a sickening crack as she pushed onto the two men that had started to turn away from their cover to face her. Her eyes flashed with golden fire as she swept her hand in front of her, a jet of flames lashing out to knock them back into the car.

The commotion drew attention however, and a small group splintered off from the main body and moved in her direction. One, which had been closer than the rest, managed to close the distance and lunged for her. Pyrrha lowered her head and charged forward with her shoulder, catching the underside of the woman's chin as they collided. The breath was knocked from the terrorist, and she was sent back enough for Pyrrha to bring her sword up to cut across her chest. She collapsed in a heap, leaving Pyrrha to focus on the dozen or so opponents that were still moving from the city hall in her direction.

Pulling up her sheath, she transformed it into its shield form just in time to stop several bullets from hitting her chest. There were more shots fired, but most missed as she rushed her attackers, forcing them to adjust their shots.

"This one's mine!" Adam Taurus came to a stop to her right, forcing her to skid to a halt as she tried to place the group and him in front of her rather than risk either being behind her. "The rest of you, go deal with the Mistralians!"

The group hesitated for a moment, before continuing on to support the rest of their comrades that had pushed ahead and already made contact with the defensive perimeter. They pushed past her cautiously, but her eyes never moved away from Taurus. If she had the time, she would have stopped them, but she knew better than to turn her attention away from her opponent for even a second. The soldiers could deal with the additional fighters, at least long enough for Team CFVY and Penny to arrive and help, dealing with Adam was her responsibility.

The last of the grunts moved past, leaving a small, empty distance between her and Adam Taurus.

"Now is your chance to surrender." Pyrrha offered, even as she bent her legs, giving her the tension she would need to dodge his first strike. Adam did the same, his foot sliding back to offer a better stance to either push her or pull back if she struck first.

"Perhaps I will take you up on that, human," Adam slowly drew his sword and, even though the move was too slow to be a proper attack, Pyrrha tensed. He leveled the blade to gesture at her. "If I don't kill you first."

Pyrrha wasn't surprised he denied her offer, she hadn't ever expected him to accept it. Honestly, a small part of her hadn't wanted him to, and was happy he had not only denied her offer but threatened her.

"In that case… this is for Meadows." Pyrrha leapt forward as she adjusted Allos into its spear form, stabbing out with the point of her blade directly for the center of his mask.

He parried it easily, drawing his sword one-handed and clashing it with the head of her spear in a flash of sparks. His free hand had a hold on his sheath, and she had the time to notice him angle it up before a spread of buckshot crashed into her Aura. Her shield caught the second shot, and she pulled her spear back, chambering it, before thrusting once more. He deflected the blade, with a downward cut of his own, before stepping to her left.

She felt another blast of buckshot slam into the metal of her shield, but it held easily, and she pulled Allos back, shifting it once more into a sword before stepping forward suddenly with a slashing attack. Her opponent was caught off guard by the shift, his footing prepared to move to the side in anticipation for another thrust, but he managed to bring his sword up to catch hers for a moment while he stepped back. It almost caught her off-guard, how quickly he'd managed to react, almost, but not quite.

He pulled his sword back before she could try to use the locked blades to her advantage. Stepping forward, she intended to follow after him, only to see a flash of red as his blade came hurtling in from above. She managed to get her shield up to block it, but another blast of buckshot crashed into her chest, driving the air from her lungs. Almost without thought, Pyrrha thrust out with her sword, catching him in the stomach and forcing him back a few steps.

Flicking the catch on Allos, her weapon quickly expanded into its spear form, allowing her to take advantage of the increased distance with two quick jabs, one towards his head as a feint which he easily dodged, but the second struck his chest, centered over his heart. Were it not for his Aura, the fight would have ended there, and even with it, it was still a solid blow. Pyrrha pulled her weapon back before he could direct it to the side, spinning as she did, she kicked out with her leg and successfully kicked his own out from under him, but he corrected his fall with a blast from his sheath, allowing him to land roughly on his knees rather than on his back.

Pyrrha had used the few moments of his eyes being away from her to switch Allos back into its sword form, and was quick to strike down on him, her blade angled towards the space in between his horns. His sword snapped up, catching her own, and he was forced to take his hand off his sheath to fully stop her from pushing through his hasty guard.

She could see his eyes through his mask now, but rather than frustration or the hate that had seemed so present previously, he looked to be almost intrigued.

"Cinder was right," Adam grunted quietly. "You are strong… but not strong enough." He pulled his blade to the side, throwing himself with it but failing to entirely clear her sword as Allos clipped his shoulder in a heavy spark of Aura.

He rolled into a low stance and sheathed his blade. Pyrrha had enough time to see the glow and register what it meant before he ripped his sword back out and a wave of red light was thrown at her. The distance was so close, it was only her instinctual move to raise her shield that caught the blast before it could hit her Aura. The force was so sudden, her footing so ill prepared, that she skidded back and nearly stumbled. The light blinded her as it slowly subsided, and before the spots in her eyes could even fully clear the tip of a sword was coming in towards her eye.

Her parry was rushed, and only managed to move his blade off course rather than fully out of the way as it clipped her cheek. Her Aura held strong however, and she took the opportunity to pull back and try to regain her footing. She thrust Allos out in front of her, forcing her opponent back for a moment as she finally slid her feet into position. With her balance restored, she went on the offensive, fully-intent on reclaiming the momentum she'd fought for.

Allos cut down towards his neck, his sword coming up to block her blade, forcing him to brace it with both of his hands again and leaving him momentarily over extended. Pyrrha thrust out with the edge of her shield towards his side. The metal sparked off his Aura, earning a grunt as he visibly jolted. He didn't let the pain slow him however, and with her arm outstretched he diverted her blade over and cut down on the top of her elbow, scoring a hit on the joint that forced her shield arm down.

Taking advantage of her weakened defenses, his free hand had fallen back to his scabbard, and two shots of buckshot crashed into her before she was able to get her shield up to block two more that had been aimed higher, forcing her to cover her eyes behind the shield. The metal-on-metal ringing in her ears as she orientated herself. Something struck the front of her shield suddenly, forcing her back.

She allowed herself to move farther than normal, successfully avoiding the follow up that had been intended for her right side. The added distance gave her the time to switch Allos into its rifle form and take several shots; the first landing directly on target, centered directly on his chest, while the second was a little more to the left. He caught the last three on his sword before he had successfully closed the distance enough that she switched Allos back into its spear form.

Rather than pursue her, Adam stopped and held his sword before him. She didn't instantly pursue him either, holding her shield up enough to protect her chest but not cover her eyes as she held Allos up against the shield's side in a guard as old as time as she formed a one-woman phalanx. Adam had proven strong enough to hold his own against her offense, but a shield and spear was far better defensively than a sword was good at attacking, and she was content to take the moment to wait.

As the seconds began to drag on however, and the sounds of the battle around them began to filter through the haze that had fallen over their duel, she realized he could be stalling for time. The question of what she couldn't imagine, reinforcements were on the way for her, not only in the form of Team CFVY but from Beacon as well. They would be there any moment, and everything she knew about Adam said he would understand that.

So why would he be willing to wait? Patience in battle was important, she had faced more than one opponent who had forced her onto her back foot only to lose their advantage because they were too eager.

What could he be waiting for?

As the seconds continued, the answer never revealed itself. That worried her more than any attack from behind, and she cursed softly as she advanced with her shield forward. Stabbing out with her spear, she expected him to sidestep or divert the blow, instead he took it on the flat of his blade. He was fast, capable of keeping up with most of her attacks. When she had been at her best, in her original body, she was confident she would have been able to overwhelm him, but she had yet to fully regain her conditioning, and he was able to bring his sword around most times, only the occasional small strike slipping past to nick away at his Aura.

It became clear what he was doing by the third strike. He was focusing on the defense, but also in making sure his sword took the full force of her attacks rather than mitigating or dodging out of the way when possible. She didn't have the specifics of how his Semblance worked, but it was clear he couldn't do it endlessly, otherwise he never would have bothered with using the shotgun on his waist. It seemed to require charging, much like Yang's Semblance in a way, and she suspected he was using her attacks to do so somehow.

Her next strike was the same as the rest, though this time he angled it so that the tip of her spear scraped against the blade and drew her in. He turned and lashed out with an overhead strike that she brought her shield up to block. A blast from his scabbard crashed into her as she thrust out with Allos and brought her shield down to catch two more blasts. His sword caught the tip of her spear again, and it pushed him back. Before she could follow up he began to rapidly fire his sheath.

Round after round crashed into her shield, bouncing off harmlessly but no doubt denting the front, until, suddenly, the rounds stopped. She lowered her shield in time to see Adam sheath his blade as he seemed to glow, before he slashed outwards.

She was able to respond quicker this time, and she dodged to the side. Adam corrected his angle as best he could at the last moment. The attack was no longer centered on her, that amount of movement being too much to manage on his part, but it would be enough for the edge of the blast to strike. She brought her shield up to stop it.

The metal, dented and weakened from repeated point-blank blasts, groaned, and snapped in half.

A sizable portion of the force had been absorbed by her shield, causing the metal to tear rather than make a clean cut, but the strike carried through enough to hit and pour over her arm and damage her Aura.

Pyrrha cried out in shock and pain, dropping her broken shield. A blast hit her chest and pushed her back, thankfully it was only the weapon at his waist. The pain helped to bring her mind back to the present. He pushed his advantage now, lashing out with his sword and putting her on the defense this time.

With her shield broken and forced from her hand, she was left with no way to stop the blasts from his waist as her sword kept his own busy, but with the loss of her shield, her hand had been freed.

Adam moved in to attack, knowing that if his blade failed to connect, she had no way of stopping his sheathe. She even allowed him to force aside her sword, creating what he would have seen as a perfect opening. She saw the briefest of expressions cross his face, a smile that seemed almost feral in its joy as he saw an opportunity to move one step closer to killing her.

His face was blocked by flame as a blast of fire spit forth from Pyrrha's hand to crash into his chest, launching him back several feet as he struggled to stay standing. The initiative was once more hers, and she held nothing back.

Allos crashed with his sword, but the moment he braced himself to try and push her weapon aside, she fired a shard of ice the size of an Ursa's claw at his foot, causing him to wince and his footing to slip. Her sword crashed down into his shoulder in a spark of metal on Aura.

Moving with the momentum as her sword swung down, she leapt off the ground and spun, her sword encasing itself in fire as it slammed down into the ground beneath her. Adam had started to move the moment her eyes were turned, but he had not made it far enough, the force of the blast sent him flying back. With a blast of his sheath, he corrected his fall and tried to put up his guard.

Pyrrha took a deep breath and stood from the kneeling position she had landed in, ignoring the pain in her shield arm, she forced the shaking to stop as a calmness fell over her thoughts. She felt her Magic welling up inside her, and for a moment she feared it might burn out of her control, but she felt it bend to her will and flood her limbs, just as she had practiced with Ozpin in the garden. The world seemed to move in slow motion as she felt the Magic course through her.

To his credit, Taurus managed to block her first strike, the edge of his blade catching hers before being quickly forced aside. She pulled back and moved around his guard before he could blink however, and stabbed out into his stomach, chest, and throat. Four strikes before he could even fully register that she had pushed his sword aside. Pulling Allos back, she held the hilt with both hands and spun, scoring a cut across his chest as she kicked his feet out from under him.

The world sped up again and Pyrrha felt her legs ache, driving her down to one knee as she dug the point of Allos into the grass to support herself. The moment of weakness passed quickly, and she was back on her feet moving towards Adam within a matter of seconds.

He hadn't spent that time idle, using that moment of hesitation on her part to crawl back to his knees as he struggled to catch his breath. To Adam, it must have seemed like a dozen of her struck at once. His Aura visibly flickered and sputtered, struggling to maintain a coherent defense around him. Even so, there was no doubt in her mind that he was still a threat, even a small amount of Aura was enough for a veteran fighter like him to potentially regain the advantage.

"A Semblance?" Adam whispered to himself in-between gasps for air. "But then… what was the fire and ice? Dust?"

Pyrrha did not answer him. "You are under arrest, drop your weapon and-" Her words were cut off by the sound of his sword hitting the ground. Even that ringing deafened by the words that he spoke.

"I surrender."

Pyrrha paused, having genuinely expected him to deny her offer once more. It had been more training than thought that forced her to say it at all. One of the lessons learned at Sanctum had been the importance of offering a downed opponent the chance to surrender. She had kept that up in her tournament days, and it had been an almost subconscious act to do so now. Adam had accepted her offer of surrender.

And she hated him for it.

Pyrrha glared down at him, holding Allos' hilt so tightly that her knuckles ached. Everything he had done, all of the people he had killed, and he just gave up after she had gained the advantage? It didn't make sense, not to her at least. He was a terrorist, wasn't he supposed to be fanatically dedicated to his cause?

"Are you planning to kill a defeated opponent?" Adam's voice was mocking, as if asking her to do it. "Or is it just that mercy only extends to humans?"

Pyrrha bristled for a moment at the insinuation, but took a deep, calming breath. The thought of killing him hadn't crossed her mind, and she wasn't going to let him plant it there. Adam Taurus deserved death, that much Pyrrha believed, but it was also not up to her to decide.

Taking the chance to look back over her shoulder, Pyrrha could see that Team CFVY and Penny had arrived to help the Mistralians, and were already finishing off the White Fang assault. Turning back before Adam could try to take advantage of her distraction, the last piece fell into place. All she had to do now was keep Adam from joining the fight, and it would be over in a few more minutes.

"You are under arrest," Pyrrha coldly stated. "For your own safety, don't resist."

Adam glared up at her through the slits of his mask, but even with that clear hate, there was something else hidden there. Something confident, or perhaps proud. Whatever it was, Pyrrha couldn't place it, and the look unsettled her.

A few minutes later, and two Mistralians moved over to force Adam down onto his stomach as they pulled his arms behind him. Pyrrha didn't let her shoulders relax until the Gravity-Dust handcuffs were placed on. Specially designed for Huntsmen, even the strongest of them would struggle to break out without some kind of Semblance to aid him.

They lifted him up and took him away without a word, just as her friends stepped over.

"Adam Taurus huh?" Coco watched the man's back as he stepped away. "Guess he wasn't as good as the news says."

"No." Pyrrha insisted. "He is." Adam was skilled, that much was clear, and he had a powerful Semblance that only needed small openings to be devastating. He certainly had Aura remaining, so the question of why he had given up continued to bounce around her head.

"Pyrrha's just better." Fox sent with an easy tone.

"I observed a portion of their fight." Penny quickly added. "Adam Taurus has been known for fighting far past his current limits, It is strange."

"Ha! You scared him!" Fox slapped a hand against her back. "At any rate, I think a celebration should be in order. We did save the day after all- eyes up."

Pyrrha looked up to see a group stepping out of the battered entrance way of city hall. Colonel Aurelian was stood beside a woman in a similar uniform to the Police Captain from earlier, but she held herself with the familiar confidence of a Huntress. Both of them were bruised, their clothes torn in places, but they were otherwise unharmed. The Colonel seemed to notice them watching and met her gaze long enough to smile and nod, before turning towards a few of his soldiers that had approached. He issued a few orders, the men saluting before rushing to escort the council members, as Colonel Aurelian moved to board the Bullhead that they had loaded Adam onto.

As it took off, three more started to circle above, each baring the recognizable insignia of Beacon.

Winter would be on one of those, along with the rest of their reinforcements from Beacon. They had arrived quickly, but not quickly enough, and as a result Winter had missed the action. Qrow would have words to say about that, certainly. Pyrrha couldn't help but smirk at the idea and she finally felt the tension slip from her shoulders, along with the adrenaline of battle.

"Oh, Winter's gonna be pissed, she missed all the fun." A voice spoke up from behind her, causing Pyrrha to jump slightly before her mind could process who it was. Turning, she got a good look at Qrow's smirk. "Still feeling a little jumpy?"

Pyrrha wasn't the only one to have been surprised.

"How the hell did you-" Coco was cut off before she could finish.

"Flew." Qrow shrugged.

"I'm telling you, that would be so useful!" Fox exclaimed. "Pyrrha could you-"

Coco turned to glare at Fox, but held one finger up to point at Pyrrha threateningly.

"If you turn me into anything we will be having words."

Pyrrha chuckled nervously. "I wasn't going to."

"Keep it that way." Coco said.

"It's not that bad." Qrow rolled his eyes. "Comes in handy, but hey, your call. I'm not here for you lot anyways. Just thought I'd stop by to say you did good." Qrow nodded to Pyrrha. "Caught the end of your fight, knew you could handle it. I was off dealing with some of the nasty presents they left inside."

Pyrrha froze and everyone's eyes quickly fell on Qrow.

"The White Fang planted bombs?" Velvet asked quietly, almost afraid to hear the answer. It made sense, they were terrorists after all.

"Standard work for them." Qrow shook his head as he sighed. "Even if they lose, they get one last win." Smirking, Qrow leaned his head back. "I took care of them though, so you can relax-"

A loud explosion could be heard echoing throughout the city. The group's eyes all moved in the direction of the sound.

Pyrrha tore her eyes away to look towards Qrow. "What was th-"

She was cut off by the sound of another explosion… then another, followed in quick succession by half a dozen more. The Bullheads that had been circling ahead quickly began to split off and move in various directions.

Qrow quickly pulled up his scroll, an image of Winter's face displayed as he answered the call before it even had a chance to ring.

"Winter, what the hell-"

"The attack on city hall was a diversion!" Winter shouted to be heard over the sound of the engines. "We have reports of White Fang attacks all throughout the city!"

Author's Note: Actions and consequences. I wonder what all of this will mean?

I did want to take a moment to apologize for vanishing for so long, as stated in previous chapters, work has been keeping me busy, but I've also been unmotivated as there are a few things in this story that I think I fumbled quite greatly and wanted to ask you all about.

Do you want me to go back and rewrite Pyrrha and Jaune? Specifically the fact that they did not end up going to the dance together. I know that the path taken rubbed some people the wrong way and, with hindsight, I can say I think it was a mistake. If I were to do this it would take some time before another chapter was uploaded and it would require people to go back and reread chapters they have already read.

I want to hear from the audience, as I know my own opinion is compromised when it comes to my writing, so be sure to let me know in the reviews.

Sincerely, SE