RWBY: Destiny of Remnant

by UGX7

In the wake of the fall Team RNJR sets out to bring Cinder Fall to justice while the new Fall Maiden overlooks her master's plan in Haven City. Meanwhile Weiss tries to help a friend, Yang struggles with the loss of her arm, and Blake deals with guilt over the White Fang. Meanwhile someone from Cinder's past returns and Salem's newest pawn rises. Arkos, WhiteRose, SunnyBees, Renora

72. Salem Strikes Part I, The Battle Begins

This chapter is dedicated to my Great Aunt Riena, 1925-2018, we buried her today. May she rest in peace.

My cousin was home for a few days, but had to be rushed back to the hospital due to… well, the organ damage wasn't as fixed as they hoped it was, so keep him in your mind. Thank you all for your support and kind words.

Chapter 71: Salem Strikes Part I, The Battle Begins

Up in Heliosia's room, Jaune and Pyrrha finished telling the two Maidens, as well as N1CK3L, the basics of their knowledge of the Aura Crystal as well as informing everyone about the tome that Sharp Strike had gifted them the night before on Hyperion One.

"Sorry we couldn't tell you more, but I did explain it adequately enough when we first met in the mindscape." Pyrrha said to Heliosia, who nodded.

"That's all right, I didn't mind hearing it again. Besides, I think one would need to have this relic explained to them multiple times before the truth sinks in." The Summer Maiden commented as she admired the beautiful crystal, floating above its open case with the help of a levitating field.

"I still can't believe that Ashe guy managed to keep it safe for so many years, even though it didn't really communicate with him. That's dedication right there. No way would I have been able to do that, don't have the patience for it." Amethyst remarked, her hands coupled behind her purple head as she leaned back on the sofa.

"Yeah, Ashe was pretty serious about protecting this crystal." Nora agreed with a nod.

"So according to the book Sharp Strike gave you, the Aura Crystal used to have more guardians than just one family?" Ren asked in his usual quiet voice.

"From what we have read, it seems that way." Pyrrha confirmed with a nod.

"Practically a whole religion dedicated to it, one that apparently died out to protect it from falling into the wrong hands." Jaune added, "Their numbers slowly dwindled over time until only a single family was left, one specifically deemed worthy by the whole of the crystal itself."

"And you said that some raiders tried taking the crystal by force, and wanted to shatter it to pieces, but it somehow attacked them and healed itself. So just how much protection does this thing need?" Sun asked aloud as he pointed a finger at the gently shimmering crystal.

"I think it only protects itself from physical harm. From what we can tell those raiders thought it was just a shiny chunk of rock worth a lot of money and that the Guardians were hoarding it for themselves. They had no idea of its true power." Pyrrha explained to the Monkey Faunus, who nodded understandingly.

"So, it only lashes out at people when it's under physical attack. But what would happen if a thief tried to move it somewhere else? Would they be attacked too?" Coco questioned thoughtfully.

"We… don't actually know," Jaune confessed as he looked at the fashionista, "There were recorded entries about attempted thefts in the sacred tome, and some of them were really brazen as well, but none of them mentioned the crystal resisting its captors. Perhaps it allows its guardians the chance to reclaim it and redeem themselves for allowing the theft in the first place."

"Wow, the Aura Crystal gets more interesting the more we learn about it." Ruby said as she looked at her reflection on the faultless surface of the relic.

"Agreed." N1CK3L commented, "And I am beginning to wonder if it is wise to have such an important item here with us."

"What do you mean?" Penny asked with a curious look on her face.

"If this crystal is truly as powerful as you all claim, then it is logical that the enemy we face would be also looking for a chance to obtain it for themselves." The male combat android pointed out, "Should it be here out in the open among the Maidens when there is a high probability that the enemy would make an attempt to attack or capture them?"

"Well, if the bad guys knew about it being here, yeah it would definitely be in trouble. Though for now it doesn't only just have Jaune and Pyrrha protecting it, but all of us; four of Beacon's top teams, two Maidens, two advanced combat androids, and a Remnant Knight, plus all of the other knights, Vacuo Rangers, Desert Guards, professors, and students down in the academy." Yang argued, "Even if they can steal the crystal, they can't escape with it without fighting through all that."

"That's true. If anyone tried to make a move on it, they'd be in a world of pain in record time." Fox agreed.

"Oh yeah, no doubt about that." Nora remarked jovially, cracking her knuckles as if preparing for such an event.

Yang smirked, her own thoughts echoing Nora's sentiment, and she shifted her gaze and noticed Amethyst glancing at her. The blonde brawler smiled at the Spring Maiden in return, knowing that it was always nice to be admired, but then she had also noticed the Spring Maiden looking at Velvet in a similar fashion earlier. There must be some reason for such a behavior, and Yang had a feeling that it may not be related to the purple-haired maiden's free-spirited nature.

"So, I guess the life of a Maiden can get kinda lonely, huh?" She asked the both Amethyst and Heliosia.

The younger of the two Maidens sighed and replied, "Oh yeah."

"It can be," Heliosia confirmed with a nod, "Though less so in recent times due to our knight protectors keeping close to us, in order to prevent a repeat of what happened to Amber."

"But the knights aren't the best company, am I right? No offense Sharp Strike." Yang quickly clarified.

"None taken. I do see your point, we knights tend to be quiet when we are not amongst ourselves, so we're not exactly the most talkative companions." The Knight Errant stated.

"And being a Maiden usually means you're unable to keep healthy relationships with other people intact." Heliosia sighed as she looked around at the various members of Team Beacon, "It's been years since I've seen my original team from Haven."

"Me too," added Amethyst, sadness clear in her voice, "Plus, even if you do make new friends on your travels, they're always bound to be short-lived and we can never tell them about our real identities as Maidens."

"That sounds like a pretty rough situation." Ruby mentioned, "Being unable to make any friends or experience love just because these powers you have to carry..."

"It is. Elsa has endured it fairly well due to Kaifin, and I… well, I do my best," Heliosia continued, a slight pause in her voice, "But Amethyst has always taken it worse than the rest of us."

The Spring Maiden nodded, her head looking down at the floor of the bedroom, "I was formerly an orphan, so when it comes to bonding with other people and making friends… it wasn't easy for me. When I first entered Beacon Academy I had a team, so it wasn't much of a problem anymore and forging bonds with others became easier. But when I became the Spring Maiden I had to sever those bonds, and leave everything I was before behind. I could love people, fall in love, but I must remain a Maiden at the end of the day, and to do that I can never… get real love on."

No one said anything at this, Pyrrha had told the rest of Team Beacon about the virginity rule of the Maidens, and it was clear to everyone that it was hard for a flirty, emotional girl like Amethyst to indulge in her emotions without breaking that rule. Pyrrha's hand clasped Jaune's tightly, reminding herself once more how blessed she was to experience the love she shared with her partner.

"The temptation is great, and Elsa and Kaifin have long since learned to resist and control their… amorous urges, but that's hard for someone like Amethyst, whose emotions are so important to her." Heliosia explained gently.

"So, outside of the Maidens I don't have many friends anymore. And even then, they're so far away from me and Amber… she's gone. You can see that's why I don't have many friends." Amethyst finally finished.

"Well… you do now." Velvet remarked softly, getting everyone's attention.

Amethyst looked over to the Rabbit Faunus and asked, "What?"

"Well, we know about you. The Remnant Knights and the Guardians of Remnant like Headmaster Ozpin and General Ironwood trust us enough to let us protect you. So perhaps we could be your new friends?" Velvet suggested softly.

"That seems to be the most logical answer to your problem, for the time being at least." Penny remarked as Amethyst's dour face brightened up a bit.

"Yeah, I mean they would probably let you call and talk to us when you're in a secure place. It makes sense." Ruby said as she and Velvet got off the bed.

Amethyst smiled happily and quipped, "I'd honestly like that… if you guys actually want to be friends with me."

"Well, of course we do!" Velvet told her kindly, "We do our best to help people, and I can tell that you could use some friends."

The Spring Maiden looked over to Pyrrha and Heliosia, who nodded supportively before she said, "Y'know, before today I knew Team Beacon were an impressive group of Hunters-in-training who managed to deal Cinder and Salem a big blow, and from what Pyrrha had told me you were all wonderful people, but I didn't think you guys would be this generous and kind, as well as attractive for that matter."

"Well… we do our best, but looking good just comes naturally to us." Sun said as he leaned back in his chair, his prominent abs showing off.

"True that." Yang agreed with a grin, which made Blake smirk and roll her amber eyes.

"Seriously, what are the odds that every single person in this group ranges from cute to sexy as hell?" Amethyst asked jokingly, before she looked at Velvet and quietly nodded, "Or both in some cases."

Velvet blushed at the compliment obviously aimed at her while Heliosia spoke up, "That's true, I don't think any of you could be considered less than 'cute', as Amethyst had said." The Summer Maiden agreed before chuckling at Velvet's blush, "And don't mind Amethyst, Velvet, she likes to flirt whenever she can."

"Guilty as charged, I hope you don't mind Velvet. I wouldn't want to offend you." Amethyst said with a wink.

"Um…well, I don't really mind. I suppose it is rather flattering." The Rabbit Faunus said as she glanced at Yatsuhashi, who gave a small passive nod.

Suddenly a loud rumbling sound echoed outside the tower's windows, and everyone's attention immediately turned towards the source of that sound when they heard many more of the same sounds. "Uh, guys? Something's happening out in the city." Sage announced as he walked over to the open glass windows and took a look outside into the urban landscape of the capital city, before pointing to the rising pillars of black smoke that rose from several different locations.

"Fires?" Weiss observed as she and Ruby approached the windows.

"Maybe it's just a fire breaking out, maybe it's an accident or a gas leak." Ruby suggested hopefully.

Jaune, after looking out at the city himself, shook his head and said, "No way, those smoke pillars are in different locations and don't look connected. Something else has happ-"

The blond knight was cut off when Penny cried out "Look!" as she pointed to where a moderately-sized explosion erupted in the distance, spilling more black smoke from its mushroom-cloud eruption.

"Oh crap." Sun muttered.

"Heliosia, what was that you said about Sanus Deathworms a while earlier?" Ren asked the Summer Maiden, "Could they have reached the Kingdom of Vacuo's walls?"

"It can't be an imminent Grimm attack since there would be an emergency announcement about it already." The brown-haired Maiden mentioned as Pyrrha and Jaune did their best to sense any Grimm, "And my Knight protectors would definitely inform me about that."

"I don't sense any Grimm out there. They might be too far away, but… something definitely feels wrong about this." Pyrrha said cautiously, sharing a look with Jaune who shook his head as well.

Sharp Strike nodded just as the holographic television pinged urgently, and a white box with red outline appearing on it alerting Heliosia to an incoming message. The Summer Maiden grabbed the remote on the table and accepted the electronic message, and the box opened up to reveal the armored forms of Fire Walker and Wind Runner on the screen.

"Knight Vanguards, I take it you've noticed the fires appearing about the capital?" Heliosia inquired urgently.

"Yes, we're getting reports of gang attacks happening all over the city." Fire Walker reported, "The Vacuo Rangers and the elite Desert Guard units are already scrambling to respond."

"Gangs? Like the Black Vipers?" Heliosia asked once more, her fingers gripping the remote tightly.

"They are among the gangs that have been mentioned, yes." Wind Runner confirmed.

"Wait, what do you think is happening?" Blake looked at the other members of Team Beacon, and then at the images of the two Knight Vanguards, "Is this a sudden uprising or something?"

"We aren't sure of the specifics at the moment, but we've been in contact with Commander Strider. He's sending out some of the Vacuo Ranger squads stationed here to support their comrades and the police in countering these gang attacks. However, there's still a possibility that this unrest could be an enemy ploy, so stay alert and remain in the tower for your safety. Amethyst, Heliosia… is that understood?" Fire Walker said sternly.

Heliosia and Amethyst shared a look, with the Spring Maiden rolling her purple eyes a little but nodded her agreement. The Summer Maiden looked back to the screen and said, "We understand, just make sure those lowlifes don't hurt too many innocent people."

"The rangers will do their best, I'm sure of that." Fire Walker assured her calmly.

"Sharp Strike, you and the rest of Team Beacon will protect the Maidens while we find out what actually happened. Depending on the developing situation, we will send you the rendezvous coordinates if things get…uncontainable." Wind Runner looked at Sharp Strike who nodded silently as he acknowledged the Knight Vanguard's request before they cut the transmission.

Getting curious, Ruby gripped the handle of the balcony's glass door and slid it open, though it was heavier than she expected it to be, and so Weiss helped her out. The Maidens, Blake, Yang, Team CFVY and Sharp Strike went out onto the high-rise patio and looked out into the city as another booming sound was heard and another tower of oily smoke began rising upwards into the morning sky. Penny and N1CK3L both looked out of the nearby window, their robotic eyes carefully looking into the distance in ways that humans and Faunus can't were unable to perform.

"Blake, Velvet… I guess you girls can't hear anything from up here, right?" Ruby said as she looked at both Faunus, while Velvet began concentrating hard on trying to hear anything.

Blake listened for a few seconds before shaking her head, "Not at this distance or at this height, no."

"I… I can hear gunfire," Velvet spoke up, which made everyone look at her, "It's hard… but I can hear them down there, maybe a couple of blocks away."

Yatsuhashi placed a strong, comforting hand on his partner's shoulder before Coco turned to the Summer Maiden and asked, "Heliosia, you mentioned the Black Vipers a few minutes ago. I know that's a big time gang in this city, but you sound as though you're familiar with them."

"I am, I have personally taken out dozens of their members, mostly thugs who prey on the weak, the poor and the defenseless. Of course, I did it in secret so as far as they know I was just some random vigilante protecting the common people." Heliosia elaborated quietly, "However, I haven't fought any of them in about a week since Fire Walker found out about what I've been doing behind his back and forbade me from doing it anymore."

"Do you think the Black Vipers are behind this?" Amethyst asked, "Could it be revenge?"

"Fire Walker mentioned gangs, plural, so that means it's not just one." Weiss clarified, "Perhaps it's a gang war?"

"Or like Fire Walker said, it may be a ploy to distract us from our enemy's true motives." Yatsuhashi pointed out.

Ruby and Coco looked to each other and nodded in agreement, seeing that the green armored samurai had a made a fair point. "Keep alert everyone! If the baddies are up to something, we need to be prepared." Ruby told Team Beacon, and received affirmatives in return.

---

Tyrian led his small infiltration team through the empty corridors of Shade Academy until they approached the colonnaded section of the combat school that met with the base of the tower which was supposedly the temporary residence of the Summer Maiden.

"We can't approach that area; the cameras may be off but the security is still tight." Ilia whispered to the others.

"Where's the secret door, Sustrai?" Thorn quietly asked Emerald, who briefly used her illusion Semblance to make sure they passed by some Vacuo Rangers unnoticed.

"Not far, apparently it's on that section of the wall behind a painting." Emerald whispered back as she pointed to a sandstone wall a few meters in front of them, where a painting of some long dead Huntress hung on the wall with a small golden plaque attached to the bottom frame displaying her name: Artesia Aria.

As the group reached the painting, Ante and Ilia checked behind them to make sure they weren't noticed yet. Emerald quickly took out the pass key their spy had slipped them the other night and pressed it against the plaque, which lit up with a green light before the painting retracted into the wall and it began to slide open, revealing stone stairs leading into a dark, dusty-looking secret passageway.

"Excellent, let's move. This path will take us under the courtyard and up to the top of the tower. The spy said he would deactivate the security measures down here, so we should be free to move." Tyrian cackled.

Thorn smirked at this and teleported down to the bottom of the staircase, and was glad to see that her weight triggered no alarms and she could also identify the small security cameras that occupied the ceiling had all been deactivated like the rest.

"We're in the clear!" She said to her cohorts as they followed her down the stairs, and once they were all in the passageway, Tyrian closed the wall back up, making it appear that nothing had happened to anyone who laid eyes on the empty corridor and the painting.

The group quickly made their way through the dark underground tunnel, with Ilia using a small flashlight taken from her belt to light the way.

"The gang attacks should be in full force right now. Hopefully that'll be enough of a distraction." Ante commented.

"If they're not, then we got plenty more to keep those bastards busy." Tyrian chuckled before Thorn, who had been running ahead of the group, came to a halt.

"We're here. We should be directly below the tower." She said as Ilia's flashlight allowed them to see the long, sturdy-looking steel ladder attached to the sandstone walls.

"How far do you think it goes?" Emerald asked as she looked upwards, noting that the ladder extended away into the darkness above them.

"Let me see…" Thorn volunteered before she teleported up to the next level, some twenty-five feet above them. She looked to her left and saw another ladder attached to the tower walls in the small space between the interior and the exterior of the entire fortification, "It has multiple levels, so at least you don't have to climb the whole way."

"Well that's a relief." Ante muttered as Tyrian began climbing up nimbly.

The group made good, quick progress, climbing up the several ladders to reach the different tiers of platforms that were built along the entire length of the tower. So much for all the extra security.

Thorn teleported again to the top level, where there was a small staircase that led up to the other secret entrance built into one of the bookshelves, presumably similar to the one in the halls below. She ran her hand over her shaved down head and breathed in deeply before allowing herself a dark grin.

All these years of training, all the waiting and the various malicious tasks she had completed for her master were about to pay off, and she would finally get what she deserved. Before being discovered by Salem, Thorn Branch had been a street rat in the lower levels of Mistral's capital, a mere runner for the gangs under Garrett Odinson's control, doing anything for cash or food to survive. When her teleportation Semblance activated, she got noticed by Odinson before he lent his support to Salem over a decade ago, but once Salem stuck a deal with him she took an interest in Thorn as well, eventually taking her in as a disciple alongside Cinder to replace some other girl who… didn't meet her expectations.

After all these years, Thorn knew she was finally going to get the power and respect she deserved. And she didn't care how many people, innocent or otherwise, that she had to kill to get it.

She looked down for a moment to see Tyrian climbing up the last few rungs, the others close behind him. She then glanced at the door and bit her lower lip, knowing that after all this time she couldn't afford to let impatience get the better of her. But she did notice something; a small horizontal line in the back of the bookshelf's far right side that looked out of place.

Intrigued, she walked over quietly and placed her index finger on it, smiling roguishly when she felt an opening. Apparently it was an old, low-tech security measure that had been left in for whatever reason, perhaps so the security personnel could secretly spy on the guest staying within the tower if he or she didn't approve of a guard being in the same room with them.

Thorn opened it up just a little, and looked through the small rectangle-shaped opening, just enough for her eyes to look through, and what she saw surprised her. She looked into the room for a moment more before quickly closing the opening, just as Tyrian leaped up onto the small platform behind her.

"Would a secret elevator have been too much for this cheap school? Idiots." Tyrian griped quietly, even though the secret entrance itself was sound-proofed for security and secrecy reasons.

"Callows, I think we have a problem." Thorn said, turning to look at the assassin.

"What? Is the Maiden not there?" He asked with a frown as Ante came up, catching his breath.

"She's there all right. However, it looks like she has visitors." Thorn said quietly.

"What kind of visitors? If they are just some students I'm sure we can easily take 'em out." Ante said before taking another breath.

"Well, there's Ruby Rose and her team, there's also Arc and Nikos with the rest of Team Beacon, along with what looks to be a Remnant Knight. There's also the android girl, and there's two more unknowns; a female Huntress with purple hair and a tall black armored figure, maybe another Knight." Thorn reported softly.

"What?!" Tyrian seethed in a hushed voice, doing his best to keep their presence undetected as Ilia helped Emerald onto the level behind him. The Red Fang agent's head snapped around and looked at Thorn with quite a surprised look on her face; if Ruby Rose's team was here then that meant she was also here. Blake was in the very next room.

"It's true, plus I think I spotted a large crystal floating in mid-air above some kinda case, it's a dead-ringer for the Aura Crystal from what Cinder had told me about." Thorn mentioned.

"The Summer Maiden, the Aura Crystal, along with Rose, Belladonna, Arc, Nikos, and the rest of Team Beacon all in one place? Oh, this is definitely interesting." Tyrian mused while stroking his chin.

"Interesting? Yes. Good for us? No. This means we're outnumbered twenty-one to five! Even with the element of surprise on our side there's no way we can take them all on." Emerald objected.

"Yes, that is quite a predicament. We're going to have a chat with our spy about the lack of warning for this. But no matter, we still have to strike and take the Maiden's powers. We don't exactly have a choice." Tyrian argued, "Plus, we'll have quite the bonus for our queen if we get the crystal or capture one of those brats, I'm sure you're all aware of which ones?"

"Ruby Rose, Jaune Arc and Pyrrha Nikos." Thorn jabbed her finger at the closed wall opening, "With Arc and Nikos I can understand, but why does she want the Rose girl?"

"Who cares? As long as it's an order from my goddess, I will capture Ruby Rose for her!" Tyrian rubbed his hands together in maniacal glee.

"So…what do we do now?" Ilia asked in a hushed voice.

Tyrian looked at the Fusion Faunus and said, "You contact the Red Fang," then he looked to Ante, "And you, contact your Enforcers. Both of you tell your groups to begin their attack on the school. Looks like it's time…" He took out his scroll and brought up Anansi's number, "…to declare war."

---

Meanwhile, outside on one of the secondary roads leading to Shade Academy Mercury was gazing at the Huntsman Academy through the tinted windows of one of Ante's cars when Trooper spoke up from the front seat, "We just got a call from the boss, it's time to get to work. You all know what to do."

"Right…" Lao grinned as he opened the door by the driver's seat, rising out of the car and bringing up his 40mm multi-shot Dust grenade launcher, "I have been itching for a chance to try out my new toy anyway."

Trooper got out of the seat to Lao's right and looked up to the rooftops of the many buildings situated opposite the school, searching for the one with an advertisement billboard selling some kind of sunscreen on its roof. He then raised his hand up with fingers spread to send a message to Merrick who had hidden himself at the top floor of that building that the time was upon them. Looking carefully with a pair of binoculars, Trooper saw Merrick giving him the 'message received' hand signal.

Mercury, Trooper, Lao, Fireball, Little Steve, Tom-Tom and Executioner jogged down the sidewalk flanking the stone wall that surrounded the academy's circumference, which was interrupted by occasional gates of black iron that served as entry points. As they approached the main gate, they passed by a large transport truck that the Desert Guard used to transport troops, but it was empty for the time being as their occupants were on patrol elsewhere.

"Steady." Trooper whispered.

Mercury looked up at the school again and quipped, "You know, these academies are honestly a waste of time, money and resources. I actually learned everything I needed to know from my old man, may he rot in hell, and I only needed a little more training before I was ready to help take down a school better than this one."

"What, looking forward to doing it again?" Executioner asked the silver-haired teen.

Mercury smirked and replied, "You better believe it."

Little Steve looked over to another building near the school, a multi-level car park for an office building across the large street and could see the Red Fang members hiding within the shadowed areas within, while additional Faunus were hidden in a few streets just off the main road waiting for the signal to strike with heavy trucks.

"Our Red Fang allies appear to be ready as well." The large heavy-set Enforcer observed, making Trooper look up spotting the hidden Red Fang troops as well.

He could see Hui, unmasked, looking down at them. The Bear Faunus gave them the all-clear signal as he pulled down his Red Fang mask and Trooper returned it before looking over to Lao who was holding a scroll and nodding his head. Everything was in place, and their diversion attack was about to go off.

The attention of the squad of Vacuo Rangers who were on duty at the immense main gates of Shade Academy were caught when they saw a dark brown and black-colored truck heading straight for them, summoned by Lao's message. A pair of Rangers ran out from the security blockhouse, their rifles raised and shouting for the vehicle's driver to stop. A second later they both dropped where they stood like puppets with their strings cut, as Merrick shot them both in the foreheads with precision shots from his sniper rifle.

Before the rest of the remaining Rangers could do anything, the truck screeched to a stop right outside the gate, and its back door was kicked open to reveal half a dozen Red Fang members armed with heavy rifles and protected by plates of body armor. They opened fire immediately, riddling the stunned Rangers with so many bullets that their bodies danced briefly for a moment before collapsing onto the ground in heaps. The last Ranger dived for the alarm panel, but was shot twice more.

A Hyena Faunus with a Red Fang mask covering his face gave the all-clear signal and Lao marched over briskly to the main gate and placed several small explosives in the center where the gates met, before attaching a rather bulky circular explosive device which he fished out from his backpack and connecting them together. He flicked on all the switches on the bomb and keyed it in to his remote detonator, and gestured to the rest of the Red Fang troops to get to a safe distance.

"Explosives in place, FIRE IN THE HOLE!" Lao shouted.

The explosives ignited even as the truck reversed, while Lao and a couple of Red Fang members took cover in the security blockhouse as a massive explosion blew the huge gates wide open, sending shattered brickwork, fragmented masonry and pieces of broken metal flying into the air. At the other side of the main gate, the sentry guards performing their assigned duties were sent hurling across the huge courtyard that led to the main plaza within Shade Academy, thrown around like toy dolls before hitting the ground with dull crunching sounds.

Tom-Tom laughed at the devastation that stemmed from his handiwork and clapped, "Oh ho man! That was sweet!"

"It's gonna get a whole lot sweeter from here." Mercury chuckled as he sprinted into the premises of Shade as more security guards began to emerge from within the school, along with other Vacuo Rangers and even the more heavily-armored and armed members of the elite Desert Guard. They were already firing at the incoming enemies, while taking behind whatever cover they could find despite being hit by the surprise attack.

"Open fire!" Lao commanded, and Trooper, Little Steve, and some of the Red Fang troops hidden in the car park revealed themselves and began firing down into the courtyard and onto the ramparts of the combat school itself, blasting into the sandstone walls and shattering whatever windows they could see, while Hui and his group began to exit the car park and head for the shattered gates of the Huntsman Academy, while other Red Fang members ran out from the car park to support the Enforcers.

Mercury grabbed a guard's head and brought it down in a vicious bash into his robotic legs before jumping up and kicking out at another Ranger who was charging at him from behind. The mechanical-limbed assassin grabbed a small explosive charge from his belt and lobbed it through a second-floor window, where it went off with a loud bang but not enough of a blast to kill anyone, just enough to cause some real trouble.

His gray eyes were already searching for his next target, all the while an intense gun battle erupted across both sides of the spacious courtyard and the main plaza between the defenders of Shade Academy and the attackers.

---

In the upper levels of the school, Teams NDGO and BRNZ were currently in their second period when they heard the chaos below which was preceded by a huge explosion that nearly many windows of the fortress-like building's front. Ignoring their teacher's protests, they headed to the nearest window with other students, peering out at the escalating battle that was unfolding in the square below their classroom.

"What's happening?" Nolan asked rhetorically.

"Who'd be dumb enough to attack Shade in broad daylight?" Gwen wondered.

Brawnz surveyed the ensuing skirmish below and his dark purple eyes widened in recognition when he realized who was down there. Most specifically, he caught sight of the large minigunner known as Little Steve was blasting away at a group of Vacuo Rangers who were sheltering behind a large statue that was gradually being whittled down while blindly returning fire.

"Uh… guys, anyone else recognize those creeps?" He asked the members of his team and NDGO as he pointed down into the battle.

"Yeah… that's Mercury Black!" Dew cried, "And those are the same punks we fought in Haven at the CraftTech factory!"

She traded looks with the rest of her team and Nebula asked, "Think this has something to do with Team Beacon's mission taking place here?

"That's a safe bet!" Octavia exclaimed.

"Wait, Team Beacon? Are they-" May began before Nolan caught sight of something.

"Hit the dirt!" He shouted and grabbed Roy, who was right next to him, by the collar and slamming both of them down onto the floor of the classroom while everyone else did the same, and narrowly avoided the barrage of bullets that slammed into the windows, shattering them. Shards of broken glass and chips of sandstone rained down on them as both teams kept their heads down.

---

In her office, Luna was jolted by the sudden explosion and the cup of tea on her table tipped over and nearly ruined her paperwork had she not snatched them out of the way. She quickly brought up the security program on her holographic computers and watched the live feed from the exterior cameras, observing as Executioner slammed the pole of his ax right into the gut of a Desert Guard before swinging around to slam it into the chest of a Vacuo Ranger.

"Damn it!" She swore as she stood up tersely from her chair, knowing that this attack might be a prelude to something much bigger later on just as her scroll beeped as she received a call from Fire Walker. Answering it quickly she heard he speak, "I take it you've noticed the attack on the main entrance?"

"Of course. However, I don't think this is only a simple gang attack." The Knight Vanguard replied doubtfully.

"Agreed. None of those scum would dare attack this academy so brazenly. I think I recognize the youngest-looking ruffian, it looks like Mercury Black. The masked Faunus supporting him and there looks to be thugs from the Red Fang. The enemy is here, can you send some of your Knights down to support the Rangers and Desert Guards?"

"I'm sending a team from my detachment down right away. They'll take care of this." Fire Walker replied with steel in his deep voice.

"Not alone, you won't. I am the headmistress of this school and I will defend it to my final breath. I'm not letting this incident turn into another Fall of Beacon!" Luna remarked with conviction before she activated an open channel on the P.A. system for the entire combat school, "Attention students, Shade Academy is under attack! We will not let this act of violence go unpunished. Arm yourselves and get your gear, because today we fight for our school and the Kingdom of Vacuo!"

---

Back up in the tower, Team Beacon, the two Maidens and N1CK3L had quickly caught sight of the attack and were currently watching it progress into the main plaza of Shade.

"Heliosia, do you think it's those gangs? Would they be brave enough to attack this place?" Weiss asked the Summer Maiden.

"No, they might be confident and sometimes foolish, but not outright stupid. Most of the various gang leaders in this city have enough intelligence and common sense to know they'd never survive an operation like attacking Shade Academy, due to its stronghold-like design and number of Hunters within, not to mention the various security defenses throughout the entire place." Heliosia replied, "Even if they pooled their numbers together, the difference is still far too great."

"Should we get down there?" Nora asked.

"No, this might be a part of some plan to get to Heliosia. If things get too rough downstairs, then we will have to fight." Jaune told the bouncy hammer-wielder, "The attack at the main gates and throughout Vacuo city might be distractions to pull the Rangers and Desert Guards away from the enemy's real objective."

"In other words, they're trying to divert the attention of Shade's protectors elsewhere," Ren commented carefully, "And when the guardians of the Summer Maiden have been stretched thin, the real enemy will then strike from an unexpected direction."

"Misdirection followed by a sneak attack." Sharp Strike said quietly.

"Hey, Penny?" Ruby called to her robotic friend, "You do have a way of magnifying your vision, right?"

"That's correct, Ruby. Both N1CK3L and I have that ability, and I suppose you want us to get a good look at the attack?" Penny inquired.

"Yeah, please?" Ruby asked kindly but urgently.

The android girl stepped up, N1CK3L right beside her as they both looked down from the balcony extending from the tallest section of the tower, their mechanical eyes brightening up a bit as their pupils seemed to enlarge. There were sounds not unlike that of a camera focusing as their eyes magnified and focused on the battle that was steadily raging in the main plaza several floors below them.

"What do you see?" The scythe-wielding Huntress asked.

Penny held up a finger for a moment, then she spoke, "Oh no… I recognize someone among the attacking forces; Mercury Black is down there."

"Mercury? Here?" Yang said in a surprised voice, before she cracked her knuckles, "Is he looking for another rematch?"

"And wherever he is, Emerald's likely to be around." Ren stated with a serious look.

"No, I don't see her, nor can I see Cinder Fall anywhere. However, I do see the armed men resembling those of Damien Ante's Enforcers fighting alongside them, and it seems that they have a new member who I don't recognize." Penny reported as she kept looking down, scanning around the area where the main gates were breached.

"Yes, Penny is correct. They are doing an adequate job of a frontal assault. Wait, there are more people coming through the main gates that were blasted open." N1CK3L added.

"Gangs?" Amethyst asked as she raised an eyebrow, "They must really have a death wish."

"A possibility…wait, no. Their outfits and masks distinguishes them as the Red Fang." The male combat android clarified as he recognized the red emblems and the masks of the newly arrived attackers, who opened fire on the Huntsman Academy's exterior and a couple of Vacuo Ranger jeeps and a police truck that was rushing onto the scene.

"The Red Fang?" Blake and several others Team Beacon members echoed, knowing full-well what kind of things the fanatical followers of the late Adam Taurus were capable of.

"Indeed, I did not expect them to be here." N1CK3L said as he looked back at them, his blue electronic eyes returning back to normal.

"Just what we needed, unwanted surprises." Heliosia bemoaned quietly, "But even they should know that attacking a Huntsman Academy is tantamount to suicide…"

"…unless they are providing a major distraction for someone." Sharp Strike finished, and the Summer Maiden looked at him with as though they both reached the same conclusion at the exact same time.

"Well then, this is gonna be a really bad day for you all." A new female voice came out of nowhere, announcing the owner's presence. Everyone twisted immediately with startled looks on their faces to see Thorn standing at the other side of the tower's bedroom behind the occupants, a cocky smirk upon her face.

Her proud and arrogant attitude obviously rubbed many of Team Beacon's members the wrong way, and her pale skin, short dark-brown hair, and clothing of a long black jacket with a white inner shirt along with dark trousers and black combat boots brought to mind someone that obviously had spent quite some time in the criminal underworld of a Kingdom and probably engaged in more than a few murders. At each side of her waist were pistol holsters, each containing a personally-customized pistol that looked well-used enough to be an immediate danger. Finally, there was an aura of contempt and intimidation radiating from the female newcomer like a invisible wave, along with her intent to kill someone in particular.

Yang activated her gauntlets while Jaune drew out the shining blade of Crocea Mors from its sheath. Ren brought out his Stormflowers even as Sharp Strike withdrew both of his swords from their scabbards on its back. Yatsuhashi and Sage drew their longswords as well, Sun got out his staff in a defensive stance while Neptune and Scarlet aimed their weapons at Thorn.

"Who are you? And how did you get in?" Heliosia demanded.

"Oh, I just let myself in," Thorn answered, "As to who I am… well, it doesn't really matter since you probably won't live to see me leave, but I suppose it'd be rude of me not to introduce myself. My name is Thorn Branch, and I'm the next Summer Maiden."

This caused everyone in present to tighten their fingers on their weapons, their senses fully alert and ready. Thorn meant business, and it was all too obvious she worked for Salem like Cinder.

"So, my dreams were right!" Amethyst cried out as she readied Gembreaker.

"You were foolish to come here, thief, and even more so to come alone." Sharp Strike growled as he levelled one of his twin swords at Thorn as he stepped in front of Heliosia, and so did Amethyst with Gembreaker in a guard stance.

Instead of being intimidated by the number of opponents against her, Thorn laughed with mirth and said, "You really think I'm so stupid to be the only one here? Then again… am I really here?"

As the last word left her lips the pale woman abruptly vanished before them in a blink of an eye.

"What the-?" Went Fox.

"Where'd she go?!" Ruby wondered as the group carefully spread themselves out, but staying within protecting distance of each other while already primed to fight. They all looked around warily, expecting an attack from the enemy Maiden candidate at any moment.

All of a sudden Thorn appeared in mid-air between Sage, Scarlet, Amethyst and Weiss, and all four of her limbs struck out like rapid-fire pistons, hitting all of them before she landed on her hands and knees. Crouching down as she ducked a horizontal slash from Sage, she placed her hands on the ground and rapidly lifted up her legs to kick Velvet in the gut, the Rabbit Faunus girl crying out as she was knocked down.

Nora tried to smash the infiltrator with Magnhild, but Thorn jumped out of the way and landed on one of the chairs. In a blink of an eye she drew one of her pistols in Heliosia's direction and pulled the trigger. A trio of bullets exited the barrel of her pistol, their reports loud in the bedroom, only to be deflected expertly by Sharp Strike who spun his sword in a rapid circular twirling motion. He and Jaune sliced their swords towards her, only for the pale woman to vanish from sight and their swords hit only the leather of the chair.

"She's a teleporter! Don't let her out of your sight!" Jaune warned the others.

"I guess that's pretty much her Semblance?" Neptune said as he looked around, trying to find any sign of Thorn.

"Watch each other's backs." Heliosia advised as she gripped Flameguard in its fully-extended form.

There was nothing for a moment which allowed everyone to recover, when suddenly Thorn appeared on the bed in a careful crouch with her pistols aimed in two separate directions. She still had that damnable smirk on her face, much to many of her opponents' visible irritation.

"Let me guess; the tanned beauty over there with the name 'Adara Aenia' as an alias must be the Summer Maiden right?" Thorn asked mockingly before teleporting away once more as shots fired from Ruby, Neptune, Blake and Ren punched into the wall behind the bed harmlessly.

Next she appeared standing by the holographic television, holding onto the display shelf above it, "And it's good to see you again, Fotia, or are you going by Pyrrha again?"

She teleported away again before Sun's nunchaku could hit her, this time reappearing in the bathroom doorway, "Of course, you probably don't even remember me since we didn't interact much… but if you ever feel like just throwing your life away and trying to get yourself killed for no good reason like you did during the Fall, I'm certain Salem would be more than happy to have you back on the winning team instead."

Pyrrha let out an uncharacteristically angry snarl as she threw Milo in javelin form at the intruder, only for her to disappear once more with the elegantly-crafted weapon hitting the tiled wall.

"I can already tell I'm going to dislike this woman." Penny muttered as she activated her arm cannon.

"I have reached the same conclusion." N1CK3L added as he scanned the surroundings, his left arm disengaging to reveal a similar laser cannon.

Thorn appeared again in midair, kicking Fox in the side with her booted feet as she landed. He turned his fall into a twisting slide, slicing out with his arm blades but missing as the woman fell backwards with unnatural speed as the blades passed harmlessly above her. "Wow, a pair of machines that are actually capable of disliking me. I wonder what other emotions they have?" She sneered before feeling a pair of bracer-covered arms grab her into a tight choke hold, which made her cry out in surprise.

"You talk too much," Yatsuhashi remarked as he tightened his grip on her.

Yang, seeing her chance, dashed forward with the Ember Celia on her robotic hand already cocked with a ready Dust shell as she moved to knock the intruder's lights out, only for Thorn to smirk and vanish at the last second. Luckily, Yatsuhashi managed to catch the punch in his large fists, with the added effect of only being moved back a few feet by Yang's punching power.

Just then, there was an explosion from behind one of the bookcases, knocking it down and scattering damaged books and scraps of pages everywhere. The secret passageway hidden behind it was promptly revealed, just as Ante came charging out.

"Miss me, assholes?!" He shouted loudly to announce his presence as he took out his explosive daggers in one hand and a rather detailed custom revolver in the other.

"Not in the slightest, jerkweed." Ruby answered as Emerald leaped out from the grey smoke behind Ante, already opening fire on them with her revolver-sickles with assistance from Ante, forcing those whose weapons couldn't deflect bullets to drop behind whatever available cover they could find in the bedroom.

Tyrian and Ilia came out next, the former leaping onto the table in a crouch with a crazed smile on his face while the latter quickly snapping her whip out, which wrapped it around a recovering Sun's right foot and with a sharp tug she pulled him down again with a sharp cry.

"Ante, grab the crystal!" Tyrian ordered.

"You got it!" Ante called back before he rushed forward, grabbed the relic and shoved it down into the case.

"No!" Jaune shouted, diving forward to make a grab for the Aura Crystal's case only to get blasted by Emerald's weapons.

"Ha!" Ante laughed before he kicked the collapsed Jaune in the gut. "That's for my arm, blondie," He added before avoiding Pyrrha who leaped at him with her shield held before her. He smashed her shield aside with a nearby chair, and delivered a kick to her chin before she could attack him as he shut the case and mocked, "Now, I'm not one for thanking people so I'll just say fuck you very much. Hahaha!"

He laughed and jumped back to avoid getting his feet cut off from a horizontal swing of Crocea Mors as Jaune let out an enraged grunt. Thankfully his aura was still holding, but he would be damned if he let Ante escape with the Aura Crystal while he and Pyrrha were its guardians.

"Hello, Blake. It's been a long time." Ilia announced as she slid her Red Fang mask upwards, revealing who she was, and causing the amber eyes of the Cat Faunus to widen in shock.

"Ilia?!" Blake cried out.

"So you do remember. Good to know." The Fusion Faunus said darkly.

"Um, no offense Blake, but how many former friends from the White Fang had grudges against you?" Weiss inquired as she loaded up a fire Dust crystal into Myrtenaster.

"That's a good question." Blake admitted as she fired Gambol Shroud's pistol form at Tyrian, who dodged it effortlessly.

The demented assassin laughed maniacally as he ran forward and leaped over Coco, who tried to whack him with her handbag. He noticed Ruby and grinned before he struck out with his scorpion tail, nearly stabbing Ruby who jumped out of the way as Tyrian narrowly avoided being slammed by Magnhild's hammer form.

"Stop this foolishness!" Sharp Strike shouted as he adopted a fighting stance with his twin swords, which he kept pointed at Tyrian, "You cannot hope to win this fight! We outnumber you over five to one!"

"That's true, but we have friends outside." Tyrian dismissed with a casual wave of his tail, and pointed his wrist blades at Sharp Strike and fired the twin-barrels concealed underneath the plating mounted on both wrists, making the Remnant Knight cry out in surprise as he deflected the bullets that sprung off the blades of his twin swords. Turning his head sideways, Tyrian hollered, "Thorn! Get the Summer Maiden!"

"Working on it!" Thorn called back as she did her best to avoid getting blasted or cut down by the various members of Team Beacon who were exchanging fire with the infiltration team, "But it's way too tight in here to fight her directly!"

"Well then, I guess we should take it outside!" Tyrian hooted as he ducked a vicious swing from Crescent Rose's scythe form while Emerald kept Yang and Weiss from helping Ruby.

"Wait a minute…" Ruby said as she took notice of Tyrian's scorpion tail and her silver eyes widened, "There are no bug Faunus. What are you?"

"A freak! And proud of it, little Miss Rose!" Tyrian announced melodramatically before he jumped up and kicked Ruby in the chest, knocking her into the wall. He did a backflip as Sharp Strike's swords slashed through the area he occupied a second ago, jibing a little, "Whoa! Almost got me there! Nice reflexes though, really remind me of someone I murdered rather painfully in the past..."

He avoided another series of swift cuts and jabs from the silver-blue armored knight, "By the way, there's something about you that particularly interests me, and by extension my goddess Salem. You wouldn't be the same Remnant Knight that fought Steppenwolffe, the one with the interesting sword?"

Sharp Strike chose to remain silent, not willing to grace the assassin with an answer even as his swords spun in his gauntleted hands, slashing and slicing at Tyrian who either turned away or dodged the knight's blows. Anything that he said, even if it was unintentional, might give the enemy an interesting angle to work on should they discover something about himself or the Order. The twin sword-wielding knight could feel his third sword which was sheathed in its own ornately-crafted scabbard tapping against his left thigh, and thankfully it was hidden from sight by his midnight-blue cloak… for the moment anyway.

"You don't talk much, huh?" Tyrian snarked as he dodged another couple of piercing strikes from the young knight, "I hope I can hear your screams once my stinger gets you!"

Ante avoided another blast from Yang's gauntlets, only to get himself tripped by Velvet who stuck out a leg in his path and the crystal's case went flying out of his hands due to Pyrrha using her Semblance.

"Damn it!" He shouted before being elbowed by Jaune who tackled him in a bodyslam, both of them rolling across the floor of the bedroom.

The case was a second away from returning into Pyrrha's hands, only for Thorn to teleport on and kick the female Spartan into the book shelves. "I'll take that." She said, grabbing the case before teleporting again, narrowly avoiding Jaune's attack like it was nothing.

Blake avoided the sharp whip attacks Ilia was lashing at her, and when she saw her moment to strike back she quickly took it. The black ninja swung Gambol Shroud in its sword form into the path of Ilia's whip, allowing it to wrap around the blade so she could draw her ex-White Fang associate in.

"Ilia, please listen to me! I know you, and you're better than these people!" Blake pleaded as she strained against the fusion Faunus who was trying to pull back her whip.

"Do you really know me, Blake? I doubt it!" ilia growled before she tore her whip free from Blake's katana blade and kicked out at her former friend.

"Ante! It's time we moved on!" Tyrian called as he avoided a few more rapid slashes from Sharp Strike's swords, before ducking as N1CK3L fired a few laser blasts from his left arm and then charged in to throw some punches at the scorpion hybrid assassin.

"Right!" Ante answered as he grabbed the case from Thorn and threw his explosive dagger towards the open glass door leading to the balcony. The dagger sailed out gracefully into the sky and exploded, which gave the signal for Merrick to perform the next part of their plan.

Below the tower and across the street, Merrick shot another Vacuo Ranger in the shoulder and sent the unfortunate Ranger toppling over the lip of the wall and down to his death before he saw the signal and began rapidly loading up his sniper rifle with a special kind of ammunition…

"So was that supposed to do anything at all?" Sun rolled his blue eyes as he hit Ante in the side with his staff, before twirling it around to knock out the crime lord's feet from under him.

Just then something volatile struck the balcony, causing a sizable explosion which shook the floor beneath everyone's feet and knocked all the fighting combatants back. A significant portion of the far side of the tower crumbled away, revealing a jagged opening which allowed sunlight and smoke to pass through unimpeded.

"Yeah, the little explosion just called its big brother!" Ante joked as he ran towards the now wrecked end of the bedroom with Emerald, Tyrian and Ilia who was joined up with Thorn, just as the bedroom door was kicked off its hinges to reveal the armored forms of Fire Walker, Wind Runner, Flame Weaver, Steel Punch, Spear Dancer, Storm Bringer, Stone Claw, and Moon Hunter. Needless to say, they all have their own weapons drawn and ready to battle.

"There's nowhere for you to go! Halt and surrender!" Fire Walker demanded as the Knights and Team Beacon saw all of the assailants grab onto Thorn's hands, arms and shoulders.

"You'll have to come and catch us!" Thorn called mockingly before she vanished, teleporting herself and the rest of the infiltration team all away.

"NO! They have the Aura Crystal!" Jaune shouted with anguish as he ran over to the ruined edge of the tower bedroom.

"We have to stop them before they get away!" Pyrrha cried as she came up next to him, an equally distressed look on her face.

"What happened?" Fire Walker asked sharply.

"Minions of Salem appeared and attacked us while targeting me specifically, and they somehow knew about the secret passage." Heliosia informed the Knight Vanguard, "Where were you all?"

"What? How can such a thing happen?" Wind Runner tilted his helmet a little, "The secret passage was only known to a small handful of dependable individuals."

"I trust you aren't hurt, Summer Maiden?" Flame Weaver inquired with concern.

"Thankfully no, thanks to the protection of Team Beacon, Amethyst, and N1CK3L," Heliosia replied, "And Sharp Strike here dutifully protected me as well." She gave a grateful nod to the knight representative beside her who responded by lowering his helmet respectfully in her direction, "What took you?"

"My deepest apologies." The Knight Vanguard with the double-bladed sword and shield answered, "We called Spear Punch and Spear Dancer down to guard the tower base when the rangers went to aide their comrades, but when the alarms went off the tower's reinforced security doors suddenly activated on their own. We had to cut through them one by one in order to get to the upper levels which unfortunately delayed us."

"We can discover the reason for the security lapse and assign blame after we deal with the enemy," Wind Runner spoke quickly as he jabbed a finger at the ruptured opening at the other end of the tower's bedroom, "…because right now they are at Shade Academy's gate in force, not to mention their associates are also striking out all over the city. We need to mount a counterattack immediately."

"I agree, we need go get down there right away to prevent their escape!" Sharp Strike pointed out.

"Right. Flame Weaver, Steel Punch, Spear Dancer, get down there, now!" Fire Walker barked at his fellow Relentless Crusaders, who nodded and began running back down the stairs. As the Knight Vanguard walked past Sharp Strike, he turned his helmet and looked at the young knight while saying, "Sharp Strike, protect the two Maidens with your life."

Sharp Strike's reply was simply a silent nod.

"My knight detachment will take another route, and hopefully cut them off." Wind Runner said as he gave some quick hand gestures to the Eternal Warriors accompanying him and they swiftly ran off in separate direction.

"They did not go far. They just reappeared in the courtyard with the rest of the infiltrators." N1CK3L mentioned as his enhanced vision spotted Thorn and her associates below, and pointed down for the others to see her, Tyrian and his cohorts fight the Vacuo Rangers and Desert Guards.

On the ground, Tyrian stabbed his tail out and impaled an unlucky Desert Guard through the neck and nearly severing his head. The scorpion hybrid assassin hollered as he retracted his tail and the elite officer fell to his knees, gurgling in shock as blood gushed out of his punctured throat. The assassin swerved aside an incoming blow from another Desert Guard with a ceremonial sword and kicked her aside, then landed some punches on a Vacuo Ranger who was trying to use the butt of his rifle as a makeshift club before grabbing him by the shoulder and pulling him in. There was a loud snap as Tyrian broke his neck, and threw the corpse directly into another pair of Rangers.

"Shouldn't we get the Aura Crystal away?" Emerald asked the assassin as she fired at a small group of security guards.

"Don't be hasty, let's wait a bit before we make them chase us for it. Thorn, you know what to do, right?" He shot a look at the woman with the teleporting Semblance to remind her of the plan they had improvised in the secret passageway not ten minutes ago.

"Of course," Thorn answered as Tyrian then took out his scroll and sent a quick message to their Grimm Commander associate.

"It'll take too long to get down this tower, we'll never catch them in time!" Velvet said while gesturing frantically.

"Wrong," Weiss replied as she walked up, "If I put enough of my Semblance into them, my glyphs can get us down quick enough."

"But Weiss, that might be too much for you." Ruby objected with a concerned voice.

"Don't worry about me, I've gotten better at mastering my glyphs. I can handle it." Weiss assured her.

"Okay, anyone who doesn't need Weiss to get down quickly, do whatever you need to do!" Sun shouted before he looked to Blade who nodded back at him, "Blake and me will do what we do best and make our way down."

"But Sun, your tail…" Neptune began as he gestured at the flicking robotic appendage.

"My robo-tail can take it." Sun dismissed with a wave as Scarlet stepped up.

"I'll glide down there myself." The redhead volunteered.

"There's no need to worry about me and N1CK3L, since we are capable of withstanding long jumps with no discomfort whatsoever." Penny said with a smile.

"Correct, my armored boots have impact absorbers that can protect me in falls from great heights." N1CK3L confirmed.

"And I can use Crescent Rose to get down like I have before." Ruby said, not wanting her partner to overexert herself.

"Okay, anyone else? No? Good, let's get moving everyone!" Jaune said hurriedly as he waved Crocea Mors in the air, desperate to get the Aura Crystal back as neither he nor Pyrrha wanted to fail as its guardians.

Weiss, taking a deep breath as she channeled her Semblance into forming a large black glyph beneath her while waving Myrtenaster skillfully, created a series of black glyphs that went straight down the tower and into the courtyard, while Ruby and Scarlet went over the edge together, the former whipping out Crescent Rose and the small bar popped out of the pole for her feet to stand on before she began firing it off to slow her descent while Scarlet flew down somewhat gracefully with his arms spread out. Penny and N1CK3L simply jumped onto the roofs of the lower levels, their mechanical bodies handling the impact of their landings quite well. Blake and Sun leaped out to the right of the balcony and Sun used his robotic tail to grab a piece of wreckage and flung himself out farther before it collapsed while Blake used Gambol Shroud's pistol form with a black ribbon tied to her right arm to grip onto the damaged handrail of the balcony before she jumped over and performed the acrobatic maneuver again, this time snaring it on a sturdy ledge. Sun, determined not to be outdone, grabbed a flagpole and whirled his entire body around it before he sent himself flying out towards Blake, who caught him as she lowered herself down onto one of the lower roofs a few stories from ground level allowing both of them to drop off safely.

All this while Weiss gathered up her energy, carefully putting her Semblance into the glyphs to get everyone down to the ground safely. The complex black symbols appeared all along the tower, stark against its sandstone surface as everyone braced themselves for the drop.

"Everybody ready?" Weiss asked the rest of the team, and everyone nodded.

"You sure you can handle this, Weiss?" Yang asked her teammate.

"Trust me." Weiss answered before shouting, "Now!"

In one quick movement, the remaining members of Team Beacon along with Heliosia, Amethyst, Fire Walker and Wind Runner began dashing down the side of the building, the black glyphs working against gravity to keep them on the side of the tower as they made their way down as fast as they could. They hit the ground level of the campanile structure just after Ruby landed onto her feet and twirled Crescent Rose around, ready for a fight while Scarlet glided down smoothly and landed a few feet away from her, his cutlass and flintlock drawn. Blake and Sun also landed in crouches on the ground safely and dashed over to them while Penny and N1CK3L landed behind them, their own impacts cracking the stone surface underneath their feet.

As Weiss and everyone else came to a halt at the bottom of the tower, most of Team Beacon and their cohorts were actually surprised by the effectiveness of Weiss' plan.

"Can't believe that actually worked." Fox remarked.

"Hey!" Weiss shot a glare at him angrily.

"Argue later, fight bad guys now!" Nora told them as Team JNPR and Yang led the way to join up with Ruby, Blake and the others. Weiss, Yang and Team JNPR came up alongside the other two members of Team RWBY, the younger Schnee daughter nimbly sliding a fresh vial of black gravity Dust into its internal revolver-like mechanism.

"Nice job Weiss!" Ruby complimented.

"Thank you, Ruby, but let's focus on the enemy for now." The Schnee heiress said as they watched Mercury, Ante's Enforcers and the Red Fang members surround the group that had infiltrated the Summer Maiden's tower.

Blake, Weiss, and Yang all glared as they recognized the large Bear Faunus towards the front with his buzzing chainsword-like weapon, having traded in his White Fang mask for a Red Fang one.

"Hui." Blake narrowed her amber eyes, "You're still a lapdog for these criminals?"

"Better than being a lapdog for the ruling class like you, Belladonna." Hui growled with contempt.

"Why don't you come over here and say that to my face?" Yang invited as her liliac eyes began to glow, both her robotic and flesh gauntlets ready to deal out punishing punches.

"They sure got down here fast." Emerald muttered as Team Beacon, the two Maidens, and the Remnant Knight came together and linked up with the remaining Vacuo Rangers and Desert Guards in the main plaza.

"You have taken something that doesn't belong to you!" Fire Walker shouted, "Surrender it now along with your weapons and maybe you will be dealt a lighter punishment!"

"Ha! Tell me, does that ever work?" Tyrian rolled his gold eyes.

"Sometimes, and when it doesn't things tend to get ugly." Wind Runner said as he aimed his gunmetal silver-grey custom rifle Cyclone Caress at Tyrian's head, his finger already on the trigger. Everyone else readied their own weapons, and a wide diverse array of various types of dangerous weaponry were all pointed at the infiltrators and their attacking associates.

"Oh, we love it when things get ugly!" Tyrian chuckled in a crazed manner.

"After all these years, you haven't changed a bit, Tyrian Callows." The voice of Headmistress Luna arrived at the main plaza, making the assassin scowl briefly and look up.

Everybody present looked to the great entrance of Shade Academy as it steadily opened up to reveal Headmistress Luna Aria, who was accompanied by several Remnant Knights from both the Relentless Crusaders and Eternal Warriors Knight Legions, multiple Huntsmen Teams like BRNZ, NDGO and many others along with various teachers who worked and lived in the combat school. She glared down sternly at the pale-looking assassin, a defiant look in her dark blue eyes as a few more additional squads of Vacuo Rangers and Desert Guards arrived, cutting off any potential avenue of escape.

She and the cavalry she brought with her joined Team Beacon, the two Maidens and their respective Knight Vanguards, reinforcing them with much-needed numbers and fighting strength. As Team BRNZ came up beside Team Beacon, Brawnz looked at the entire assembled team of colorful individuals and posed a quick question to all of them, "Why is it that every time we meet, something like this always happens?"

"It's a curse, I'm afraid." Ren, who was the closest to the claws-wielding Huntsman, merely deadpanned as the new arrivals also readied their weapons and struck battle-ready stances.

"Well, if it isn't Luna Aria! You've aged well, Flower of the Desert Sands, and maybe if I can live out some of those fantasies I had when we were still students." Tyrian sneered, licking his lips.

Luna glared at him with a disgusted look, but when she noticed his scorpion tail rising up in the air, she felt her eyes widen slightly in disbelief, "A pity I cannot say anything about your appearance, other than to ask what you have done with yourself?"

"Let's just say I have got myself some… organic upgrades. Y'know, when I heard you became the Headmistress of this dump of a combat school, I wasn't really surprised," Tyrian said, his face now shifting to a bored-looking one, as if he was a student in class about to undergo some tedious lecture after playing a nasty prank on his teacher, "I mean, you always were the 'no fun allowed', snobby upper-class type of girl who always looked down on everyone, so it figures that you'd eventually be running an academy."

"I only ever look down on fools and monsters, and it seems that you've become both of those things. Then again, I suppose I should have seen that coming, considering your poor choice of career path." Luna shot back bluntly.

"Oooh!" Tyrian placed a hand on his scarred chest as he acted surprised in a purposefully dramatic fashion, "Your tongue is still as sharp as ever dear Luna! No wonder you still have men around the Kingdom falling heads over heels for you!"

Luna ignored that jab and instead looked at Team Beacon who were standing protectively around Amethyst and Heliosia with their weapons pointed outwards, asking them carefully, "What happened?"

"They snuck in through the secret passageway, launched a surprise attack on us, and took the Aura Crystal." Heliosia explained quickly, "And that pale woman in the middle apparently wants to kill me."

"Well, so it goes without a doubt they are all working for our enemy." Luna narrowed her eyes slightly, "They also took possession of the crystal?"

"It's true, Headmistress, and we have to get it back right now!" Jaune said as he tightened his grip on Crocea Mors, ready to resume fighting at any moment.

Luna exchanged a quick look with Fire Walker and Wind Runner, sharing an unspoken question with their helmet lenses and sharing a nod of agreement before she looked back to Tyrian and his hostile cabal and said irritably, "What do you want?"

"Oh, how magnanimous of you, Luna!" Tyrian pretended to think about something while stroking his chin, unheeding of the arsenal of weapons pointed at him and his associates, "Hmm, how about… the Summer Maiden, for starters?" He purposely leaned towards his right in a way that would have made a veteran trapeze artist green with envy, pointing with a finger straight at Heliosia and causing more than a few students to gasp and look at the brunette-haired girl they thought was 'Adara Aenia', an honored guest of the Headmistress. Even the girls of Team NDGO were among them, as Nebula gasped loudly, Dew's violet eyes were as wide as they could go, while Gwen and Octavia's mouths dropped open. A couple of the security forces and Vacuo Rangers also exchanged perturbed looks with each other, but nevertheless kept their rifles and guns pointed at Tyrian's group.

Heliosia glanced at the students around her and offered an apologetic look as she spread her glove-clad hands apart, Flameguard within her right hand, and was about to speak when Thorn beat her to it, "Yeah, she's a nice prize, so if you don't mind we'll take her. Or her powers at least!"

"Fat Chance!" Amethyst shouted back, "You gotta be pretty stupid to believe you can beat us all!"

"She's right." Sharp Strike agreed as he pointed his sword Hong Long at Thorn, "You cannot hope to defeat us without suffering massive losses. You are outnumbered, outgunned and most definitely outmatched."

Instead of showing fear, Tyrian instead snorted and said, "That's where you're wrong, kiddo! We have friends in low places!"

The scorpion hybrid assassin's peculiar choice of words caused a ripple of whispers to move through the assembled contingent of Huntsmen and Huntresses, many of them wondering what in the world he was talking about although most of them agreed that he was probably missing a few marbles.

"What are you talking about? Those gang riots in the City? As if we couldn't handle them." Heliosia said as she got into a combat posture with Flameguard firmly gripped in both hands, ready to strike. At her left Sharp Strike did the same with while expertly wielding his twin swords, while on her right Amethyst readied Gembreaker in an offensive stance the Summer Maiden had taught her a long time ago.

"Well, we are behind those, but they're not exactly what I'm talking about. But don't worry, you all are about to meet my friends. NOW!" He suddenly screamed the last word, and with that the ground began shaking erratically, wayward stones, pieces of shattered metal and other rubble jumping about the whole main plaza.

"W-what-? Ruby managed to say before a huge Sanus Deathworm Grimm burst through the stone-covered pavement, coming to a rest before them with its huge mouth wide open to unleash an ear-splitting roar. Another one came through a second later, this time bursting right under the thick walls surrounding Shade Academy, flanking the right side of the villainous group while intermittent gunfire sparked off its thick plates of leathery flesh.

"Deathworms!" Neptune cried out fearfully.

"B-but how did they get past the Kingdom's walls and into the city?!" Amethyst wondered aloud.

And that was when a third, somewhat much larger Deathworm burst through the street behind the infiltration team, rising into the air to look down at the assembled army of academy students, teachers, Knights, security guards, Vacuo Rangers and Desert Guards like a vengeful god looking down at mortals. Its vast mouth split apart in five separate directions to unleash a terrifying roar of its own while revealing countless rows of large thick greyish-white teeth as long as a fully-grown man. Riding on top of the massive Deathworm with four large spider legs appearing upon what passed for its head, hoisting up the body of a familiar figure that grinned at them evilly from his vantage point high above.

"Why hello there, Team JNPR, and you two as well," Anansi called as he looked down at Team JNPR with Fox and Sage, "It's been a while, and I look forward to fighting against you again."

"Anansi, I presume?" Coco asked in disgust as she hoisted up her transformed handbag which had become her trusty minigun, ready to blast chunks out of the Deathworm.

"In the flesh!" He called out before the Deathworm brought its great weight down on the street, causing many empty cars, trucks and debris to shake violently or topple as it hit the ground. Anansi's spider legs carried him down effortlessly, and miniature Tarantula Widows crept out of his brown jacket and inner white shirt.

"Uh, okay… I think I'm gonna be sick." May muttered as she resisted the urge to shoot the man-spider Grimm hybrid there and then right in the red hourglass mark on his forehead, while hordes of other types of Grimm such as Beowolves, Creeps, Boarbartusks, Tarantula Widows and even a few Ursas and Sabers began crawling out of the recently made holes to join the Deathworms which were already on the surface.

"Is that all you have? This is a Huntsman Academy, we can take on your beasts and your street thugs before making you pay dearly for the all the lives you've taken." Luna rebuked boldly as she drew her gleaming scimitar and khopesh swords, receiving wholehearted shouts of agreement from her students.

"Is that so? Well then, luckily I brought more to the party!" Anansi snickered boldly before pointing out to the city, where suddenly another ground-shaking tremor coursed through the ground. A dreadful moment later the entire downtown area, where the Path of Perseverance was suddenly pierced from below by a massive Elder Deathworm that took up the entire crossroad on a busy street, spilling out tunnel debris everywhere and crushing everything that couldn't get out of its way fast enough. Even the unfortunate buildings that were in its surroundings were spared either, collapsing in clouds of broken sandstone and concrete while throwing up brown clouds or dirt and dust. Its colossal form rose into the air, allowing it to be seen in its ancient, grotesque glory as it managed to bring itself down upon a nearby financial building, causing a tremendous crash as its bulk crushed the whole structure entirely. It then unleashed a deafening roar that was the harbinger of nightmares, which reverberated throughout the streets of Vacuo City.

Out of the giant hole it emerged from, more swarms of Grimm came pouring out, including the giant wasp Grimm known as Lancers together with Hellhounds, Beringels, Beowolves, Creeps, Griffons, Vampires, and many more, flooding out in a near-unstoppable and attacking the fleeing citizens while police officers and Rangers did their best to fight back, their situation made worse as additional dozens of Grimm Knights began flying into the city from either the holes created by the tunneling Deathworms, or down from the tops of skyscrapers and other buildings, or from hidden nooks and crannies hidden around the city. The mechanical automatons with glowing red visors and chest pieces unfurled their varied arsenals of weapons, and began to unload them into anyone that was still alive.

Within mere moments, Vacuo's capital was completely engulfed in chaos and fear.

---

Meanwhile across the city, back in the trainyard, Tom Allcroft had been using his downtime to watch a comedy-action show that he had lagged behind on and enjoying the remaining relaxation time his little family had earned before they set out that afternoon on their next run through the Kingdom.

"Ah, this is the life." He sighed happily as he leaned back in the chair he was sitting on, watching the television screen he had rigged up some feet away from him in the frontmost passenger coach with a cold soft drink in his hands. The deal with the mining company he had got was a godsend, since it had been a while since his family had gotten a contract this well-paying. The job was pretty straightforward really; travel across the desert for an eight-hour trip to the station near the facility, drop off the Hau Bakuhatsu there and the stuff would be placed into and then transported by armored cars to the mining site after they'd finally get paid by the supervisor in charge.

As long as they are careful and take every possible precaution, everything should work out fine at the end of the day and they will get their promised payment of eight thousand lien. After all, nothing can go wrong, right?

"Tom! TOM!" The voices of his sisters reached his ears and Tom cried out as his cold drink fell from his hand clumsily and spilled its contents all over the floor, but thankfully nothing got onto his uniform. He jumped up from his seat, a little annoyed that his downtime was so abruptly interrupted, but when he looked up he saw the side door slam open as Anna and Clara came running in with alarmed looks on their faces he knew that something was wrong.

With a growing sense of unease,Tom asked his sisters about what happened as he dusted himself off. In reply his sisters told him that a number of gang attacks started not too far away from the train yards and the Vacuo Rangers patrols in the vicinity were scrambling to respond. After hearing a couple more distant rumbling explosions, he quickly told them to stay in the passenger coaches and lock all the doors until things had calmed down.

But soon enough, it seemed like all hell was breaking loose, as they heard a particular noise they have never heard before. It was a thunderous commotion made up of hellish roars, of concrete being broken apart, of metal being torn asunder, of people screaming, and the unmistakable sounds of property damage. Nothing about this bode well for their current situation.

Curiosity ultimately prevailing over caution, Tom dashed over to the nearest door while muttering, "What's goin' on now?" He unlocked the latches of the first coach, looked out and got his answer.

Beyond the yard, pillars of black smoke from the earlier gang riots still rose into the sky, but now they weren't the only shocking sight as Grimm or varying kinds roamed and rampaged through the city, with several Lancers and Griffons attacking places nearby. Judging from the frightened screams of both running civilians and Rangers, they were getting closer.

"Oh, Oum above…" Anna muttered behind him as they watched a Lancer attack a nearby car, trying to sting its way through the windshield while the man inside scrambling into the back seat. Other civilians and train workers still in the open were scattering in all directions, either running to the small building near the main exit of the trainyards, or back to their own trains searching for safety.

"Clara, get the guns ready. Bring up the guns!" Tom cried hurriedly.

"On it!" His elder sister shouted as she ran towards the rear coach.

"Erm, I don't think we should draw attention to ourselves…" Anna objected, but Tom turned to look at her and pointed in the direction of the attacking Grimm.

"I seriously doubt that those Grimm are going to leave us alone, and if they're already in the city, things are going to get much, much worse!"

Anna was about to retort when all of a sudden several dark-grey and black-colored robots with dark red details on certain parts of their heads, chests and limbs dropped down from the smoke-wreathed sky, crunching heavily onto the surroundings of the trainyard. They looked similar to the Atlesian Knights used by the Atlas military forces, except with heavier armor plates and different kinds of weapons on their arms. Their frightening red optics glowed dangerously as they surveyed before activating their arsenal of weapons and began blasting at everything in sight.

Tom let out a shout of surprise as Anna grabbed him by his collar and hauled him back into the passenger coach, just as a couple of stray blasts hit the side of the coach, mere inches from where he had been standing a few seconds earlier. Soon the thuds of bullets and shells could be heard peppering the sides of the nearby trains, including theirs as well, and any visible windows shattered into lethal flying shards as armor-piercing bullets punched through them as though they were paper.

"Whew, thanks sis… stay down!" He muttered as she slammed the door shut, pushing her prone to the floor of the passenger coach, bullet slugs flying just inches above their heads through the shattered windows. Keeping close to the ground, Tom pushed himself a little upwards and peeked through the window to see the carnage unfold across the trainyard; laser blasts, cannon shots and machine gun blasts hitting the various trains and metal trucks, sending fire and sparks flying while overturning over stationary trucks and train engines.

Some of the trainyard workers and other staff were fighting back with whatever weapons in their hands at the moment, which included iron picks, shovels and even a couple shotguns, but they were only making sporadic progress. While one or two enemy machines were gradually brought down by lucky shots or even crushed by the payloads of the towering cranes overhead being swung into them, the others immediately converged on the perpetrators and mowed them down mercilessly before moving on in search of fresh targets.

Reaching up to a cabinet above him, Tom pulled it open and dumped its contents onto the floor. Pulling out a grey pistol with a couple of bullet-filled clips which he had bought a couple of years ago as a last resort against any encounter with the Rail Pirates, he ducked again as another salvo of bullets slammed noisily into the exterior metallic shell of the passenger coach.

Keeping Anna's head down he cried out, "How did this happen? Grimm and killer robots don't just come out of nowhere!"

"Yeah? Tell them that!" Anna shouted back as Tom saw one of the more heavily armed robots let loose a missile from a rack on its shoulders, which impacted into one of the train engines at the far side of the trainyard and blowing it up in an expanding explosion of angry black clouds and razor-edged shrapnel. Bullets bounced off its thick armor plates as a couple of Vacuo Rangers hunkered down behind an overturned transport truck container tried to put it out of action, but it honestly looked like they were throwing stones at the red-visor masked machine.

"I don't know about you, but I think we should get out of here!" Anna shouted over the din of endless weapons fire.

"I wholeheartedly agree!" Tom shouted back as he prayed that the missile launcher-wielding robot won't turn its murderous arsenal on their train, or Oum forbid, the reinforced boxcar containing the Hau Bakuhatsu...

---

"Alert. Grimm attack in progress. Threat Level: Nine. Please seek shelter in a calm and orderly manner." Wailing alarms echoed blaringly throughout the halls of Shade Academy and its surroundings, while at major corridor and street intersections were multiple orange and red holographic screens flashing "CAUTION" and "GRIMM ATTACK".

It wasn't a message that many liked to hear again, it brought back too many memories about the Fall of Beacon. And now Shade Academy, as well as Vacuo City at large, might be next.

The gathered group comprising of Huntsmen, Huntresses, Hunters-in-training, two Maidens, detachments of Remnant Knights from two separate Knight Legions, Vacuo Rangers, and Desert Guards all watched in shock and mounting horror as the Grimm hordes began to invade the city. This wasn't a drill, it was something out of a horrible nightmare.

"Oh, this is bad…" Neptune voiced what was in everybody's heads, "…really, really bad."

"No argument there…" Fox added dryly, but even he was overwhelmed by the sudden attacks that made their odds seem so much worse.

Sharp Strike, realizing the deteriorating magnitude of their situation, quickly opened up a communication frequency in his helmet and contacted the Hyperion One, " Captain Ross, this is Sharp Strike, we're currently under attack."

"Yeah, we noticed!" Ross's voice returned from inside his helmet, "Hyperion One's scanners have detected multiple Grimm incursions spreading throughout Vacuo City. We're about to lift off and try to reduce their numbers from the air."

"Good idea, but can you let out my bike first? I require for the upcoming battle." Sharp Strike said as he tapped some buttons on his personal scroll which remotely activated his customized motorcycle.

"Tell you what, Luna!" Tyrian announced with a demented smile, as he set his armbrace weapons into their pincer forms, "If you surrender to me and have the Summer Maiden, along with Ruby Rose, Jaune Arc and Pyrrha Nikos give themselves in, I'll call this attack off here and now. What do you say?"

The Headmistress, still shocked by the sudden appearance of so many Grimm, managed to collect herself and maintain her grip on her emotions before answering, "Never! Not so long as we can fight for our freedom, and surrendering to you will only lead to our freedom being stripped away and our world falling into ruin!"

"So if you want us, you're going to have to defeat us!" Ruby declared, her defiance earning a rousing chorus of agreement from her teammates, friends, and many other fighters around her.

"Oh, so the little rose does have thorns! Very well, if that's the way you want it…" Tyrian said with a shrug before a series of bullets from Merrick and the Red Fang gunners with him rained down upon the courtyard and main plaza between the opposing sides, making the Remnant Knights bring up their shields while Ruby and the others flinch just as the maniacal hybrid assassin suddenly dashed forward.

By the time Ruby recovered, Tyrian was but a meter away from her, his scorpion tail ready to sting and the guns of his braces ready to shoot into the crowds…

And then an all too familiar figure with a large-bladed weapon appeared out of nowhere in a blur, dropping down from the sky boots first to land a forceful kick right in Tyrian's face and sent him crashing back into some Red Fang troops, knocking them over like a frame of bowling pins.

"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby and Yang cheered as the Huntsman rose up from the ground, smirking as he took in the aura of surprise that came over the area.

He glanced back at his nieces and quipped, "Sorry I'm late, had to stop a few crimes on the way here."

"Save the excuses for later, we need to get ready to kick some butt." Yang said as Team Beacon and the others gathered about Qrow, leaving him enough space to swing Reaper around.

The veteran Huntsman's smirk grew, since Yang reminded him so much of both Raven and Taiyang that it was amazing. He looked to Ruby and asked, "Miss me, pipsqueak?"

"Yeah, but you always make up for it, just like now." Ruby told him as she readied Crescent Rose before informing him with, "Uncle Qrow, these guys are after the Summer Maiden's powers, and they've stolen the Aura Crystal."

"Crap." Qrow muttered before looking at the recovering Tyrian who was pushing himself up with a surprised growl, "Tyrian Callows! I've been hunting your ass for a week now. I had to follow a convoluted trail, but Madame Viper eventually led me to you."

Tyrian seethed angrily as he spat out a mouthful of bloodied spit and then readied himself for a proper fight, "Qrow Branwen! Should've known Ozpin had sent of his dogs after us." He looked to the others and added, "Emerald, Thorn, Ante and your Enforcers, get the Aura Crystal out of here!"

"Time we weren't here!" Thorn threw a mock salute at Team Beacon as the Red Fang troops covered them as they walked backwards while still aiming their weapons at their opponents.

"You're not going anywhere!" Jaune shouted as he ran outwards to stop them, and at the exact same moment Ruby, Yang, Coco, Neptune, Ren, Penny, Nora, May and Nebula let off shots from their weapons, blasting into the large crowd of enemies and Grimm. Before the blond-haired knight could get close he was cut off by Executioner, whose axe blade struck at him which Jaune hurriedly parried with his shield.

"Go! I'll help hold them off!" Executioner shouted to his employer before be began exchanging blows with Jaune.

"You're getting a raise!" Ante shouted as he and the others ran off, while the Grimm hordes and Grimm Knights began charging towards the crowd of forces protecting the combat school, either being shot at or met in open combat with her security forces doing the same. Soon, the entire length and breadth of the main plaza was engulfed in the throes of an intense battle, with furious fighting and gunfire exchanged on both sides.

"Attack! Go, my students! Go out and defend our city!" Luna ordered as she split the rifle of a Red Fang member in half and whacked him in the face with the pommel of her scimitar sword. She regretted sending her students off to war, but mentally reminded herself that it was nonetheless a necessary duty.

Jaune and Executioner slammed their blades viciously against each other, pressing hard for dominance in the battle as the Remnant Knights began battling with the various Grimm and incoming Grimm Knights while Anansi leapt into the air to dodge the weapons fire coming from the Vacuo Rangers, coming down on the prognosticator Flame Weaver who managed to block the Grimm Commander's spider legs from impaling him with his force staff and one of his curved swords. It wasn't long before they were battling ferociously in some kind of lethal dance, attacking and counter-attacking in equal measure.

"You think you can take me, boy? Do you have a killer in you?" Executioner asked, the eyes behind his mask looking into Jaune's blue ones.

"I've killed before, but only in self-defense, never if I can help it." Jaune answered, straining against the new Enforcer.

"Then you don't have what it takes to survive this!" Executioner howled before he began slamming his axe against Crocea Mors rapidly, making Jaune hard-pressed to parry or avoid his heavy-handed blows, only for Pyrrha to blast him down from across the plaza with Milo's rifle mode. The Enforcer snarled with anger as he leaped back to his feet, only for a Remnant Knight armed with a halberd to step in and keep him busy.

"Come on, we have to catch them!" Pyrrha cried out to Jaune, Ren and Nora as she broke into a run through the fiercely battling combatants, the rest of Team JNPR sprinting right behind her.

"Hey!" A Desert Guard who was clearly a grey wolf Faunus shouted from nearby, "Take the armored vehicle parked out in front of the wall!" He tossed them the keys to the vehicle before evading a charging Creep, before hosing it down with chattering gunfire from his assault rifle. The keys flew through the air where Pyrrha used her Semblance to grab them and brought the item directly into her gloved hands.

"Thank you so much!" She called politely as they dashed through the chaos.

Ruby blasted down a roaring Beowolf and shouted to her team, "Guys! I'm going to help them get the Aura Crystal back! Can you handle things here?"

"We got this, Rubes!" Yang hollered back as she slid downwards as a Beowolf tried to disembowel her with its sharp claws, tripping it up before she aimed both her arms back and used her dual ranged shot gauntlets to blast its head off with a brilliantly-executed move.

"Go, Ruby! We'll cover you!" Blake added as she cut off a Creep's legs, sending it crashing into the ground before using her Shadow Semblance to dodge an Ursa's lunge before blasting it full-on with Gambol Shroud's pistol form. Behind her, Amethyst expertly shot a fire-Dust tipped arrow into the air and beheaded a Lancer, causing its headless body to crash into the debris strewn main plaza and dissolve away.

"Good luck!" Weiss voiced as she used the ice Dust vial in Myrtenaster to freeze a Grimm Knight with machine guns on its arms, which Sage then shattered with a mighty blow from his sword.

Ruby nodded her thanks as she joined up with Team JNPR, just as Team CFVY came alongside them after managing to fight their way through the turmoil throughout the main plaza.

"We're coming with you! This city's going to hell and we need to do everything we can to stop it." Coco spoke firmly as her team joined up with Jaune's.

"Count me in as well." Heliosia added as she caught up with them, running beside Ruby.

"But that teleporting lady is with them! She's trying to get your powers!" Ruby pointed out.

"I know, but I can't let that stop me from protecting this city or helping my friends. Besides, I have a score to settle with her,hopefully I'll make her think twice about messing with me." Heliosia replied boldly as Sharp Strike leaped over a pair of disintegrating headless Beowolves after he killed them with his swords and joined them.

"And as a Knight of Remnant, I have a sworn duty to protect both the Summer Maiden, the Aura Crystal, and my teammates." He told them before sidestepping and then delivering a crippling punch with his sword-wielding fist to deck a Red Fang member who flew back into the fighting melee.

"Glad to have you two with us." Yatsuhashi said.

"What about Amethyst?" Heliosia looked at Sharp Strike, jabbing a finger towards her fellow Maiden fighting alongside the Eternal Warriors, "She needs protection too."

"I've informed Wind Runner and he has pledged to protect Amethyst with his life as well as those under his detachment." Sharp Strike spoke easily, "They will ensure that no enemy will get within harming distance of her. You have my word on this."

Heliosia thought for a moment before eventually giving a nod of acquiesce, "Very well, I trust you."

Just then, a group of Red Fang thugs ran out in front of them, guns aimed and ready to fire. "You are not going anywhere!" One of them shouted menacingly as he banished a serrated cleaver, "You have to go through us first!"

"Look out!" Jaune yelled as he jumped in front of the group, using his powerful emotions and care for his team to create a powerful shield with his Semblance to protect them from the intense gunfire. Bullets rang like deadly hail against the knight's Semblance-enhanced shield, but most importantly it held strong and managed to shrug off most of it. A single lucky round bounced off the armor plate covering Jaune's forearm, eliciting a grunt of effort from him.

N1CK3L suddenly charged past Jaune's shield and presented his armored-plated right fist and arm towards the firing Red Fang thugs. In a blink of an eye, his right hand snapped smoothly backwards and the forearm changed shape behind it rapidly to form the dangerous muzzle of an internally-built pulsing white energy projector within the male combat android's arm. Before the Red Fang members realized what was happening, N1CK3L fired an invisible deuterium-fluoride laser which instantly generated a huge wall of concussive force that sent those assault rifle-wielding enemies flying backwards into the air like dolls tossed away by a child, along with any stray debris caught in the projected energy blast. The lucky victims hit the ground in twisted heaps, while the unlucky ones slammed into the sandstone walls hard enough to leave small impact craters.

"Enemy obstacle eliminated, you may proceed." N1CK3L gave them a nod and strode into the fray once more, eliminating the other attacking red-masked Faunus with excellent precision, striking them in just the right places on their bodies to knock them out while blasting the weapons out of their hands without injuring them.

"What the heck was that?" Jaune asked with his mouth gaped open, stunned by the effects of N1CK3L's powerful weapon concealed within his right arm.

"Some kind of new Atlesian weapon, perhaps? Can't argue its effectiveness!" Coco replied as she shredded a number of rampaging Beowolves, Boarbatusks and Creeps to bits and pieces with intense enfilading fire from her minigun.

"We can't get through the main entrance, it's way too crowded with Grimm and other enemy forces." Velvet observed as she deflected incoming bullets with a copy of Jaune's shield, "The vehicle is over the wall, right?"

"Yeah, and we're gonna have to go through that Deathworm that slammed through the wall." Fox suggested.

"Yes, but I doubt any of us has the firepower or weapons that can harm it." Ren pointed out as he pointed one of his green automatic handguns at the snarling Grimm creature that was trying to wriggle back into the hole it had emerged from moments earlier.

"We can help!" Penny's voice cut through the sounds of the raging battle as she rushed over to them, "N1CK3L, toss me!"

N1CK3L looked over to his sister android and nodded. He knelt down, cupped his hands together, Penny jumped onto his linked hands and with a heave of superhuman strength he tossed her high into the air towards the roaring Deathworm.

As she somersaulted in mid-air, all of Penny's swords emerged from her backpack, splitting themselves apart and acting like wings for her. Once she was in range of the Deathworm she swung her swords out, the sharp blades impaling deep into the flesh of the bus-sized Grimm in seven places and causing it to roar angrily at the female android. With a smile gracing her lips, Penny made a heaving gesture and her swords effortlessly sliced the huge Grimm creature into many circular sections.

Once the Deathworm fell apart and faded away. Ruby, Heliosia, Sharp Strike, and Teams JNPR and CFVY rushed through the vast gaping hole where the academy's wall once stood, Penny standing aside on the edge of the wall to bid them goodbye.

"Thanks Penny, you're awesome!" Ruby called to her friend as she ran past.

"As are you, Ruby! Go get them!" Penny returned before jumping back down into the fray, as many students from Shade Academy began pouring through the same hole to go out and protect Vacuo City.

Ren blasted away a Beowolf with StormFlower that was attempting to follow them, while Pyrrha looked around the streets outside the academy and cried out, "There they are!"

Sure enough, Ante, Emerald, Thorn, and the remaining Enforcers were up ahead, getting into their truck with Lao driving and Ante in the passenger's seat. Trooper and Tom-Tom, upon spotting Pyrrha pointing at them from down the street, brought up their guns and began firing in the pursuing group's direction, making them duck into cover.

"So long, kids!" Ante laughed gleefully, while Thorn daringly beckoned them to give chase over the rising pitch of the truck's awakening engine.

Ruby quickly aimed Crescent Rose in its gun form and fired at their tires, but the bullets simply bounced off, instead making the truck buckling a little as they drove away.

"Reinforced tires, don't waste your rounds, Ruby." Heliosia placed her gloved hand on Crescent Rose's barrel and lowered it while gazing around their surroundings, "Where's the Desert Guard's armored tactical ground vehicle?"

"Right over here!" Jaune said, gesturing to the aforementioned vehicle parked by the sidewalk. It was large, with a somewhat rover-like design decked out completely in desert camouflage colors, while sporting a four-wheel suspension and a powerful engine capable of producing high horsepower, and thick armor plates on the side and windshield for the protection of its passengers, despite its roofless nature. There was also a turret-mounted machine gun for basic defensive capability as well, but there was only one problem: It could only seat nine people.

"Pyrrha, hand me the keys." Coco said, and the spartan quickly did so as the leader ofTteam CFVY was one of the few members of Team Beacon with a certified driver's license, "The rest of you, get in!"

"That vehicle can take all of us." Heliosia pointed out as she swung Flameguard's Kusarigama up to ensnare a Lancer and pull it down so Sharp Strike could obliterate it by slicing the flying Grimm into four separate pieces with his twin swords.

"No need to worry, I've already called for another ride." Sharp Strike calmly explained.

"Really? Where is it then?" The Summer Maiden inquired before the roaring sounds of Swift Wing's engine came up behind them. Sharp Strike and the others turned to see his stunning-looking bike speeding down a nearby street before screeching to a halt right in front of the knight representative, driven by the auto-pilot.

"Shall I honor you with a ride, my lady?" Sharp Strike asked politely as he noticed that Heliosia's eyes were taking in every detail of his personally-customized mechanical steed, and was very impressed.

"Please do." The Summer Maiden replied with a smile, getting onto Sharp Strike's motorcycle with him as the members of Team Beacon got into the Desert Guard's vehicle. Coco, Ruby and Jaune had taken the three-seater front, while Velvet, Pyrrha and Yatsuhashi were in the middle passenger compartment, and finally Ren, Nora and Fox were in the rear. Ren tried to activate the machine gun, but didn't have the key for it.

"Okay, enough dallying," Coco said as she inserted the keys into the ignition and brought the engines roaring in seconds, "Let's roll!"

The Desert Guard vehicle quickly took off down the street after Ante's truck, its wheels spinning quickly as it rounded a corner and promptly gave chase, avoiding the other vehicles on the road.

Inside the vehicle, everyone fastened their seatbelts and made sure they were secure for the chase ahead, while keeping pace with them was Sharp Strike's motorcycle, which he was riding with Heliosia who had her arms wrapped around the Remnant Knight's chestplate to keep herself steady.

Sharp Strike turned his helmet a little and glanced back at her, saying, "Are you sure you don't mind riding with me?"

"Not at all! I've always wanted to ride on one of these!" She told him with a grin, "Besides, I want to face these terrorists head on and teach them a lesson they'll never forget!" Upon hearing the Summer Maiden's words, Sharp Strike found himself grinning underneath his helmet as he sped up.

Back inside the Desert Guard vehicle, Yatsuhashi leaned up behind Coco and asked her, "Coco, are you sure your driving is up to the task?"

"Just hang on and see, Yatsu." She replied as she pressed harder on the gas pedal.

"Now we're talking!" Ruby mentioned eagerly.

"There they are!" Jaune shouted, pointing up ahead to the criminals' getaway truck.

"We may not be able to shoot out their tires, but we can slow them down!" Ruby said as she transformed Crescent Rose into its rifle mode and began firing at the truck, aided by Pyrrha and Ren, who undid his belt and stood up to shoot, and was held in place by Nora.

"They're gaining on us!" Tom-Tom announced worriedly as bullets began hitting the reinforced windows.

"I'll slow them down!" Thorn said before she teleported away.

All of a sudden, the would-be Summer Maiden appeared on the hood of the Desert Guard tactical ground vehicle, surprising the members of Team Beacon slightly as she clung onto the front of the rover and drew one of her pistols to aim at Coco.

Jaune let out a grunt as he stood up and swung his sword outwards, which Thorn teleported away from and reappeared hanging onto Pyrrha's side of the car by one hand. She tried to take a shot, only for Pyrrha to punch her in the face, knocking her off the vehicle and onto a street sign pole, which she caught easily before she teleported yet again and appeared on the back of the Desert Guard vehicle. As Ren was sending bursts of gunfire at the escaping truck, he couldn't turn quickly enough to deflect the punches that hit him between his shoulder blades. Thorn pointed her pistol at Ren, only to get a painful punch in the knee from Nora that knocked her down.

As the maiden candidate of Salem grabbed into the rear of the speeding vehicle, she looked up to see Nora glaring at her. The face of the redhead caused something to jog in Thorn's mind despite her precarious situation…

"Hey, don't I know you from somewhere?" She asked.

"Doubt it!" Nora answered before she brought her leg up to kick Thorn off the Desert Guard vehicle and sent her falling onto the road, but she teleported once again in the nick of time to prevent herself from becoming roadkill, this time reappearing atop Ante's fast moving truck. She heard the roar of a motorcycle, and saw the Summer Maiden riding with the silver-blue armored Remnant Knight eating up the distance between them, and knew that they were coming for her specifically.

Thorn grunted in annoyance, this wasn't going to be as simple as she had thought.

---

Back in front of Shade Academy, the battle raged on, but became more spread out as large numbers of students fought their way past the furious gunfight between the Red Fang troops and the Vacuo Rangers. The Desert Guard and the Remnant Knights were keeping the Grimm busy, often putting themselves in harm's way as they cleared the way for the students to get out into the capital city so that they could protect it.

Qrow fought as hard as he could in the thick of it, killing Grimm of all kinds as well as shooting and cutting down Grimm Knights with all the energy he had in him. It was a good thing that the Branwen bloodline had a history of having aura to spare, because he needed every last bit of it like hell right now.

As he narrowly avoided getting his head sliced open by a Grimm Knight with twin saw blades coming out of its wrists, Qrow leaped forward and grabbed and forced into its own the red-visor face, causing sparks to erupt from the back of the machine's head as it shuddered and twitched violently. With a grunt of effort, the veteran Huntsman placed one foot on the deactivated Grimm Knight's body and vehemently kicked it away with revulsion. Memories of the Fall of Beacon in which he had to fight Ironwood's rogue mechanical army rose unbidden through his mind, and now he had to contend with the Grimm Knights again which were strangely doing battle in a variety of different fighting styles. That means whoever was behind the creation of the Grimm Knights had upgraded them with advanced combat protocols, and thus bringing them down would be a little harder.

However, a familiar maniacal laugh soon caught his attention through the sea of battle.

Tyrian blasted a Desert Guard point blank in the forehead with the guns on his wrists, killing her instantly before jumping onto his hands and whirled his feet around, kicking a Vacuo Ranger in the face and knocking him backwards into a Ursa which began to set about mauling him, the unfortunate screaming soldier dying in a whirlwind of scything claws.

Qrow tried to avenge him, but another Grimm Knight stepped into his path and unleashed a salvo of bullets in his direction, forcing him to spin Reaper in a twirling motion to rebound the rounds flying his way.

The Fusion Faunus assassin dashed through the battlefield, using his wicked gauntlets to shoot and cut anyone and everyone in his path before he came across a first-year team from Shade who had just finished off their Grimm opponents.

"Why, hello there!" He cheered, announcing his presence, "A group of promising young heroes! Let's cut that shit out right here and now, shall we?"

Tyrian shot the leader in the shoulder, knocking him down before he grabbed one of the two female members and forced her face savagely into his knee, breaking her nose in the process before he tossed her into the other crossbow revolver-wielding male of the team. The final member of team tried to fight him head on with her axe-taser hybrid weapon, only for the psychopath to grab her by the throat and lift her up, her legs kicking futilely in the air as she gasped for breath.

"Hope you had a good life, little one!" He hooted evilly as the folding blades on his wrist bracers transformed into pincher mode as he moved to force her brown-haired head into them, causing her to scream for help. Tyrian grinned as he savored her fear, but he stopped and looked sideways when he heard someone rushing towards them. Tyrian spun around just in time to counter an attack from Qrow, using his bladed braces to parry the sharpness of Reaper's blade, "Ah, finally a true Huntsman! You are sure a persistent pest, Branwen."

"So I'm often told." Qrow said with a shrug before demanding, "Now let the girl go!"

"Fine," He sighed before he tossed the young Huntress into her friends, who had recovered and were readying themselves to attack him and save their teammate, "These kids aren't worth my time anyway. You, on the other hand…" The assassin let out another manic laugh as he assumes a crouching position, getting ready for a proper fight.

"Come and get some, you sick bastard." Qrow invited as he curled his fingers invitingly.

Tyrian rushed at Qrow, and the dusty Huntsman began firing at the Scorpion Fusion Faunus, who managed to dodge his shotgun blasts before he came up and sucker-punched Qrow in the face before spin-kicking him in the side, causing the Reaper-wielding Huntsman's aura to flare red briefly. Qrow countered with a slashing swing of Reaper, which Tyrian met with a deflecting strike of his scorpion tail though the minuscule wince on the assassin's face made it clear the blow wasn't a painless sensation.

Tyrian jabbed out with his wrist blades at Qrow, who dodged quickly aside and ducked down from the next punch heading his way before kicking up with both legs, landing a solid hit on Tyrian's chest and followed it up with a sharp right-hook to the cheek, making the assassin's aura flare purple. Tyrian snarled as he used his tail to whip Qrow while narrowly missing Qrow's chest with his right wrist-blade, and avoided Reaper's return upward slicing motion which nearly decapitated him.

Qrow fired Reaper's shotgun mode at the Fusion Faunus, who dodged the blasts before letting off a few shots of his own, the last of which scored a hit on Qrow and sent him skidding back a little before he recovered and charged at Tyrian, both of them bringing fresh blows against each other.

The two met, but Tyrian wrapped his tail around Qrow's midriff and tossed him onto the plaza's stone ground. Before Qrow could recover the assassin kicked the Huntsman in the chin, sending him sprawling onto his back. Tyrian then jumped atop Qrow's prone body, laughing in a disturbing fashion as he tried to stab the male Branwen twin with his wrist blades, only for his opponent to quickly interpose Reaper's huge blade between them and stop those sharp blades inches from cutting into him.

"Cinder killed your sister, now I'll just put you out of your misery!" Tyrian mocked as he used his tail to rip Reaper away from Qrow and placed his left hand around Qrow's neck before bringing up his right wrist-blade and steadily pushed down against Qrow's straining face. The Huntsman grabbed the assassin's hand and struggled to keep the pinching blades away from his red eyes, "Oh come on now! Don't fight it! If you let me kill you, you'll see your sister again! And don't worry, your nieces will be with you soon enough!"

Tyrian began laughing again as he brought up his scorpion tail and aimed it at Qrow's glaring face, ready to stab him in the head, only to be hit by a powerful punch right in the side of his head as Yang, Blake and Weiss emerged from the fighting masses and unleashed a barrage of Dust-powered weapons fire that pushed Tyrian back and saved Qrow.

"Argh! What the-?!" Tyrian roared in annoyance as he weaved through the shots directed at him, trying to avoid being blasted by Blake's bullets and the Ice Dust attacks from Weiss.

"Uncle Qrow, are you okay?" Yang asked as she reached down and helped her uncle up.

"Yeah, I'm peachy fine. Thanks a lot, firecracker." He gave her a smile of gratitude.

"Uncle Qrow! No pet names on the battlefield!" She groaned.

He chuckled before saying, "All right, thanks girls, now go help your friends and fight lesser evils. This one's mine."

"You sure? We can take him together." Yang brought up the Ember Celicas.

"Very sure. I will kick his ass until he begs for mercy." Qrow winked at his yellow-haired niece before bringing Reaper into a guard stance once more.

Blake and Weiss looked to Yang who nodded, and they all stepped back to let Qrow take Tyrian on again.

"Oooh, a big bad Huntsman needs these little girls to fight his battles?" Tyrian mocked.

"Callows, I was gonna kick your ass before, but now you've insulted my late sister and threatened my nieces. Now I'm going to beat you so bad you will run home crying to mommy Salem!" Qrow roared with visible fury before he charged straight at Tyrian.

Tyrian's gold eyes and grin widened as he let out an excited yell and met Qrow head on, both of them closely locked in the brutal dance of close-range combat once more.

Team RWBY (minus Ruby) returned back to the fight, willing to let Qrow handle the assassin for now. Weiss impaled a Hellhound on her rapier before ducking below a Dust orb from Mercury's robotic feet. She executed a few backflips to avoid the laserfire shot her way from the Grimm Knights and took cover behind a statue of Shade Academy's founder, only to bump into Amethyst who was spinning the Dust chamber on Gembreaker's bow form to generate a new arrow.

"Hey Weiss, how's it going so far?" The Spring Maiden asked as she shot an ice Dust arrow into a Grimm Knight, freezing it in the air and causing it to fall down onto an Ursa, killing it instantly. She then ducked back into cover as bullets and laser blasts punched chunks out of the statue, not only beheading it but also cutting off its right arm which shattered when the statue's body part hit the ground of the main plaza.

"Maddening." Weiss answered as she loaded up another Dust vial into the revolving dust chamber of Myrtenaster before a particular thought hit her, "Why aren't they trying to attack you? I know they're here for Heliosia, but they've barely noticed you."

"They probably don't know who I really am." Amethyst gave a small shrug, "Besides, they probably only know that one Maiden was here, so they probably think I'm just some friend of hers."

"Makes sense to me." Weiss nodded before she created a large glyph in front of her and channeled her Semblance to bring up her most recent summons she had obtained. As the intricate glyph shone bright, a large Boarbatusk made of light appeared in front of the heiress, who stood up and came alongside I before she pointed at a group of Grimm Knights, which the summoned Grimm then charged into, obliterating a number of Creeps on its way.

As the incoming enemy fire slackened slightly, Amethyst came up next to her and asked, "Need some help?"

"It wouldn't hurt." Weiss answered before they both charged at their enemies and began dealing out as much damage as possible.

Blake fought back against a medium-sized Death Stalker that crawled towards her, shooting it repeatedly in the face causing the huge Grimm creature to shriek in annoyance. It let out a seething hiss before snapping its claws at her twice and then attempted to snatch her up, only for the Black Cat Faunus to slash both of its claws off with one swift swipe of her katana blade.

The arachnid Grimm roared out in pain, only for Dew to jump on top of it and slam her staff's tip through its head. The Death Stalker screeched a final piercing death cry before dissolving away rapidly.

"Guess Ruby was right when she said we'd know when you needed our help." Dew said to Blake, who nodded as she took a moment to catch her breath, while reloading Gambol Shroud's pistol form.

"Sorry, we didn't mean to drag you back into a fight like this." Blake apologized before she shot a Red Fang member in both knees, causing him to drop to the ground hollering in pain.

"Ah, don't worry about it!" Octavia called as she used her dagger to send a wave of fire from the Dust in her kris dagger to slice a Beowolf in half as she came over to Blake. "We're always happy to help save the world."

Blake nodded before a whip wrapped around Dew's staff and yanked her down to the ground with a surprised cry. She turned to see that Ilia had returned from the fray, her smokey grey eyes glaring right at the black cat ninja.

"Ilia…" Blake said quietly as Dew recovered, seeing that her friend in the White Fang had changed her allegiance to its new master due to the horned Red Fang mask she wore on her upper face. After the fall of Adam's White Fang, she had hoped that Ilia had survived the huge battle and joined up with Razor's reformed White Fang, but now her hopes were dashed.

"Lilyanna?" Octavia asked as she got ready for a fight while Nebula and Gwen also arrived, sweaty from the battle.

"I thought I spotted you with the attackers, who are you really?" Nebula asked as she readied her crossbow.

"Her name is Ilia Amitola, she was a friend of mine back when I was with the White Fang, and now she's part of the Red Fang." Blake explained, a bit of reluctance coloring her voice.

"And you didn't even notice I wasn't there when you took Adam down." Ilia retorted bitterly, her grey eyes narrowing in anger.

"No! I looked through the crowds of White Fang members and prisoners for you in the aftermath, I even asked Razor where you were. I thought you were dead, or had been captured before it happened, or that you had deserted like me." Blake explained hurriedly.

"So you were content to stay among humans thinking I was dead, a fugitive, or imprisoned. Such a good friend." Ilia said darkly as she got ready to fight, her whip weapon at the ready.

Blake sighed sadly. She really hated having to fight another person from her past she had cared for, but it seemed that she was left with very few options as Ilia wasn't going to listen to anything she said.

"Do you want us to help?" Nebula asked, glancing a little at Blake.

"No," Blake declined, "This is my fight, just go protect the city."

Nebula nodded and looked to the rest her team, who reluctantly nodded back before charging off into the battle for the city outside Shade Academy.

"You got this, Blake!" Gwen called encouragingly before they vanished into the crowd.

Blake knew she could hold her own against Ilia, since she had faced tougher opponents in the past, but she didn't really want to fight someone who was most likely more confused and angry than genuinely evil, but it didn't seem like she had a choice.

"I don't want to fight you, Ilia." Blake said quietly.

"Too bad." Ilia returned before her skin turned a furious dark red and she snapped her whip into its blade mode before she let out a furious yell and charged Blake, who met the opening strike with a well-timed parry.

Blake's eyes widened in surprise at the change of skin color and asked Ilia, "Wh-what happened to you?"

"Humans called me a freak, Blake. Made me feel like one…" Ilia said as her eyes softened sadly and her skin briefly turned blue, "So now I really am one."

She attacked again, Blake either meeting or avoiding the strikes as quickly as she could before Ilia lashed out with a kick that connected with her in the gut.

Blake cried out in pain briefly before she rolled out of the way of Ilia's whip as it came down onto the ground, crackling with yellow light. The Cat Faunus pushed herself up quickly and used Gambol Shroud's pistol mode to fire a few shots at Ilia, who managed to just barely dodge them.

"You left us behind!" Ilia cried as she struck at Blake with her whip, who forced it away with a swing of her katana, "You didn't even say goodbye!"

Blake did her best to defend herself against Ilia's attacks, but when the whip wrapped around her hips and slammed her painfully into a wall of the school, Ilia snapped the whip back into blade form and moved in to stab Blake, only to hit a stone replica created by Blake's Semblance.

Ilia was then kicked back from the side by Blake, who struck at her with Gambol Shroud but Ilia managed to parry it as sparks flew from the contact between the katana's edge and the whip's blade.

Yang, who had just used some energy absorbed by her Semblance to literally punch an Ursa's head off, took notice of her partner's intense duel. Sun, having just taken down a couple of Grimm Knights with his Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang's staff form, had noticed too.

"Wonder who that Red Fang girl is?" Sun asked.

"Don't know, don't care right now. Hang on Blake!" Yang shouted as she and her fellow blond began to rush to their mutual lover's aid, only for both of them to be kicked down by the robotic legs of Mercury Black.

"Oh no you don't," The assassin's son said, "From what I know Ilia's been looking forward to this reunion, so let's not break it up."

"Mercury," Yang's lilac eyes briefly flared red as she and Sun got up, "I've been wondering when I'd get to break your balls and send you running away crying."

"More like crawling away, there are people without legs who deserve those things more than you." Sun snarled at Mercury.

"Oh hey, that's right! We're all amputees!" Mercury noticed, "My legs, Yang's arm, and Monkey Boy's tail! Maybe someone can put our parts together and make a combiner robot?"

Yang and Sun looked over to Blake and Ilia, and noticed their feline love interest was holding her own just fine.

"Blake can take care of herself, want to kick his ass?" The buxom blonde asked Sun.

"Ladies first!" Sun insisted as he gestured with a red bracer-clad hand.

Yang grinned and charged at Mercury who dashed at her as well before jumping up to kick her in the face, only for the blonde brawler to duck and whirl around in an attempt to blast him but he pivoted about and avoided them, before he threw a left hook which she speedily sidestepped. He then threw up a kick into the air, aiming to hit Yang's head, only to miss again. Sun leaped up and landed several hits on Mercury's shoulders and head with his bo staff, but the grey-haired teen stood up on one leg, twirled around and kicked Sun in the side, knocking him down before Yang grabbed the offending leg and hauled Mercury overhead before slammed him into the ground so hard he left a sizable depression in it.

With her eyes changed to blood red, and her hair as well as Ember Celica gauntlets glowing, Yang jumped up and brought her mechanical fist down, aiming to knock Mercury out of the battle, only for the silvery-grey haired teen to roll out of the way, just in time to avoid Yang's robotic fist which slammed into the main plaza's stone ground, sending cracks erupting in all directions from the impact site.

Retreating several steps, Mercury kicked up into the air a few more times, sending more Dust orbs shooting at Yang, which she dodged before opening fire on him with both gauntlets. She landed a few hits on his chest but Mercury's aura held before he ducked down, charged straight at her, and jumped up to execute an elaborate roundhouse kick on her midriff that sent her flying back a couple of meters.

"Want some more?" Mercury asked smugly as he approached Yang whose aura flickered a little.

"More than you can give." Yang replied before charging at him again.

As they fought on, Sun moved to attack Mercury from behind, only to narrowly avoid being cut up by Hui's chainsaw.

"You again!" Sun said as he crouched down, bo staff at the ready.

"Adam took your tail from you, Sun Wukong, but I'll take the rest of your body." Hui growled menacingly.

"Try it." Sun muttered before he launched himself and some Semblance generated clones at his enemy, the two clones burst, knocking Hui down, but he deflected the shots from the now separated Ruyi and Jingu Bang with his chainsaw.

Hui swung his weapon in an overhead slash, but Sun jumped over it and landed behind him, only for Hui to jab the chainsaw right at Sun as he turned around but the monkey Faunus used Ruyi and Jingu Bang to block it and stop the whirring blades inches from his face at Hui recovered and kept pressing it closer, his intent to cut Sun into half clear for all to see.

Suddenly a bright blue blast which hit Hui in the side gave Sun the opportunity he needed to push the chainsaw back, nearly forcing it into Hui's face, but the Red Fang commander managed to avoid it as he stumbled backwards.

Sun looked over to Neptune, who had blasted Hui with his weapon in its rifle form.

"Thanks man." Sun bid his partner with a grateful nod.

"Always happy to help." Neptune returned, smiling.

"Really? Then take Scarlet and Sage and get out there to help defend the city, we need to save as many people as we can." Sun ordered him.

"Got it!" Neptune said as he ran over to the rest of his team.

Sun looked back at the recovering Hui and said, "Well, let's get to it then."

As the two Faunus resumed fighting, Neptune arrived next to Scarlet and Sage who were fighting alongside Team BRNZ.

"Guys, the fighting's moving away from the academy and into the city. Sun and the others will stay here to protect Shade, but he wants us to go out and protect the people." Neptune said as he shot down a Red Fang member toppled over.

"Sounds good to me!" Sage declared as he crammed his sword down the mouth of a Hellhound who was trying to slash at him with its claws.

"Mind if we join you?" Brawnz asked as he grabbed two Red Fang thugs and slammed their heads together to knock them out.

"The more the merrier!" Neptune agreed.

"Count us in too!" Nebula announced as she and the rest of NDGO joined in the fight.

"Good to have you!" May said as she shot a Grimm Knight perched upon the roof of the school in the face, causing the enemy robot to fall over the roof and crash into the plaza.

"May we offer our assistance?" Penny asked as she cut a Grimm Knight into spare parts while N1CK3L finished ripping the arms off a Beowolf.

"Didn't even need to ask!" Neptune quipped, "Now let's get moving!"

"What about those Deathworms?" Scarlet asked as they saw the Remnant Knights attempt to drive the large Grimm back, when all of a sudden thundering laserfire from gatling guns and laser turrets from above came down and blitzed up one of the Grimm Deathworms, destroying it completely. The other Grimm were forced to scatter as the bullets and laser blasts raked across their ranks, killing many while others roared in defiance as they were shredded apart by the sheer volume of firepower.

The eleven students and two combat androids looked up to see the Hyperion One hovering above Shade Academy, its many turrets firing and blasting down the airborne Grimm in its surroundings.

"Ha ha! Yeah!" Neptune cheered as he pumped a fist in the air.

"Whoa, what is that?" Gwen asked with wide eyes.

"That's our brand-new airship. Now let's go!" Neptune said before he, Brawnz, and Nebula led the way into the city.

"Your ship? Okay, once this is over you seriously gotta fill us in on what we've been missing." May told Sage and Scarlet as they ran together.

"Sure thing! Hey Sage?" Scarlet asked.

"Yeah?" The sage-green haired boy looked over at his partner.

"You think this stuff happens to other people?" The pirate boy posed.

"What do you mean?" Sage inquired.

"Y'know, do you think we're the only group of students that get wrapped up in major crap like this? Like, is there some other group saving the world or are we the only ones?" Scarlet spoke quickly.

"I doubt anyone our age has to put up with the stuff we have to on a regular basis!" Sage answered as he cut down a Vampire Grimm that had attempted to divebomb them.

Not too far away, Luna slashed out her scimitar and khopesh swords, bisecting a Creep that had tried to jump on her. She then stabbed them backwards into the chest of a stealthy Beowolf before pivoting around and jumping onto the body of a Death Stalker, which she obliterated with swift slashes that severed its tail, claws, and legs from its body. Luna jumped up onto the wall, cutting down a solitary Lancer as she did so, and surveyed the area.

She had hoped Amethyst's premonitions would prove false, but sadly that wasn't the case. Grimm, chaos, and widespread fighting had torn through the city like the light of the noon sun. She could only hope they could prevent these monsters from killing anymore innocent people before the damage much worse and that the two Maidens were still with them once the battle was over.

She looked down to see the Vacuo Rangers and Desert Guards bravely fighting the Red Fang that had remained in the courtyard before looking over to see Fire Walker and Wind Runner fighting the Grimm hybrid identified as Anansi, who now had stinger-like claws coming out of the tips of his hairy spider legs, which were trying to stab the two Knight Vanguards with them while also using them to parry the occasional sword strike that got through, hinting that the claws were resistant to significant damage.

All of a sudden Anansi dropped to his human feet and lifted his arachnid limbs into the air before he spun around, knocking the two Knight Vanguards off their feet.

Fire Walker tried to get up, but was stuck to the ground when Anansi shot webs at him, trapping him in sticky webbing and unable to bring his sword nor his shield to bear.

Anansi grinned darkly as his eyes shone red, bringing over some Tarantula Widows that had been attacking the Desert Guards, now surrounding Fire Walker with their fangs clicking together. "Time to feast, my pets. I wonder how a Remnant Knight tastes?" Anansi said sadistically.

"You'll never find out." Luna rebuked as she leapt onto one of the Tarantula Widows and stabbed her blades into its eyes, making it screech out in pain before pressed them in deeper, killing it. She leapt off its disintegrating corpse and flew over another one of the Spider Grimm, her blades cutting it in half as well before Anansi, now pushed up by his spider legs, grabbed her by both arms and hoisted her up.

"Perhaps my Grimm would like a Headmistress for a meal?" He growled before Wind Runner sprinted in from the side and collided with the Grimm Commander, knocking him down and freeing Luna.

Wind Runner brought up his customized rifle and opened fire at Anansi, forcing the Grimm Commander to defend himself while adding, "Go help Fire Walker! I'll cover you!"

"My thanks!" She called to Wind Runner, who nodded before he joined up with Flame Weaver and Stone Claw to fight back against the Grimm Hybrid, who growled in irritation as he did his best to combat them all.

Luna dropped to the ground, ran over to Fire Walker, and cut the Knight Vanguard free of the webbing that stuck him to the ground.

"Thank you, Headmistress. I've always hated Tarantula Widows, that would have been a terrible way to die." He commented as he recovered, shaking bits of sticky web from his grey and brown cloak.

"No arguments here." She agreed with him before she heard a weapon charging and turned around just as a Grimm Knight attacked, blasting her in the side and knocking her down.

She glanced up and saw it land with a crunch a few meters away from her, its arm laser cannons ready to shoot her again, only for Fire Walker to leap into action by reliving the mechanical robot of its arms before impaling it through the back of its head with his double-bladed sword and then decapitating it with his shield.

"I suppose we're even?" He asked before helping Luna up.

"Of course." Luna answered, brushing dust and dirt from her brocade dress.

"Headmistress, Callows and his cohorts successfully infiltrated Shade Academy and they knew of that secret passageway leading up to the tower. They nearly got the Maidens." He told her as he used his shield to bash down a charging Beowolf before splitting it vertically in half.

"What?! That's impossible," Luna returned, her dark-blue eyes going wide, "The only way they could have known about it or gotten through my school without detection is if… if…"

"If there's a spy working for them among your staff." Fire Walker finished.

They shared a glance and Luna continued, "We can discuss this later, right now we need to…" She was interrupted by the screams of a Vacuo Ranger as a pack of Beowolves ganged up on him and overwhelmed him in a frenzy of scything claws and teeth. Luna shuddered and finished with, "We need to fight for our lives! Before we end up like that."

"My thoughts exactly." Fire Walker spun his sword in his grip and charged back into the fight, the Headmistress of Shade Academy beside him after she had informed the main security bureau to bar all the entrances, lower all the barriers and seal all the inner gates of Shade Academy to prevent the enemy spy from escaping.

She would find that spy herself, and personally make them pay for this treachery.

To Be Continued...

This chapter was co-written by Relentless Crusader

This chapter was meant to be longer, but I cut the last two scenes and moved them into the next chapter, and cut that up as well, so chapters 72 and 73 are pretty much done, just in the editing/revising process as we speak. This also means that there will be more chapters than initially thought.

If you liked this story fave, follow, and review. Some feedback on what's good and what's not would be appreciated, thanks for everything guys.