The Emerald Forest was trembling. Trees were shaking and carelessly knocked over, flowers were trodden on by those without hearts, the earth was upheaved as numerous bodies moved over and through it, the lakes and rivers were in turmoil as many soulless arose from the waves or rode them, and a cacophony of hungry growls, roars, and snarls filled the air along with countless winged beasts. Hundreds if not thousands of burning hate-filled eyes marched with a single purpose as the creatures of Grimm made their way over to Beacon Academy. And it wasn't just the Grimm of that ancient forest that was stirring, the Grimm of the nearby mountains, valleys, and plains were all answering the call of their grand purpose, they were coming to bring death to the kingdom of Vale and to turn that Academy of so-called Huntsmen into ruins.

The youngest of those Grimm was at the forefront of the horde and in particular were those belonging to species known for their speed, but they were not scouting ahead. Grimm at that age lacked any capacity for thought beyond killing, these beasts were at the front only because their long legs and slender bodies allowed them to be. Bloodlust instead of any strategy was what guided their thoughts and fueled their bodies, it was what led them. Soon they would arrive at the walls of the Academy, they would scale it, they would pour in, and then they would tear apart the so-called future guardians of Remnant… or at least that was what their undeveloped brains thought would happen.

"Fire at will!" Bullets flew from the top of the wall into the forest below and embedded themselves in the skulls of the creatures who were reduced to mist.

The walls of the academy fortress were guarded by soldiers, Atlas Knights, Specialists, Huntsmen, Huntsmen-in-training, and the faculty of the Academy. Medical and supply stations were stocked and manned, multiple routes were planned and secured, layers and layers of defenses were at the ready, comm links were opened and guarded, and there were even lights that would allow all the defenders to see even in the pitch dark of night. And in the air, the Atlesian fleet hovered overhead ready and eager to provide additional firepower, troops, civilian evacuations, and whatever else the Academy would need. Though they would not need much, this was the very kind of situation that they were trained to handle and that gave the fleet more room to focus on the airborne monsters.

Already the first wave of Grimm was all but annihilated as the civilians were being safely shuttled to Vale who had even more defenses at the ready. The second wave met a similar fate as did the third but the Grimm did not care about losses, troop morale was of no concern to them and already the older Grimm was learning from the mistakes of the less mature of their kind. Furthermore, the bigger slower monsters were starting to catch up, these beasts were not the kind that could be taken down by a mere soldier with a rifle. These walls of flesh were built to take hits and they were happy to do so if it led to lives being lost, and their ignoble sacrifice would not be in vain. Each wave of a Grimm was getting closer and closer to the walls of the Academy, it was only a matter of time before they reached them, and after that, they would either scale or break through the walls entirely.

"Keep it up. Hold your ground until they reach the wall and then retreat to the second position," shouted an Atlesian captain as she tried to ignore the flaming eyes of the Grimm and their gleaming teeth. But try as she might, she couldn't put them out of her mind, they were just below her and she couldn't ignore how the roars were getting louder as the beasts got closer. Already a squad of Knights was sent down there to engage the monsters in melee but all they could do was delay the inevitable breach, it was what they were built for. Thank the Brothers our engineers invented those tin cans, but why aren't we sending more out? Is the General hoping to save them for later?

"Captain! One of the ships spotted goliaths!" shouted a soldier carrying communication equipment that was producing an odd static noise.

She turned to face her subordinate, "They'll handle that, keep focusing on the small fry. Do you have an update on the Paladins?"

"The Paladins were deployed to the mountainside, apparently there is something big there that the General is hoping to nip in the bud. However, a Huntress is coming to our location."

"ETA?"

"I'm already here," Professor Ann Greene said while ignoring the surprised yelp of the captain who leaped backward out of surprise and fear. However, it only took the captain a moment to realize that Ann was not some kind of Grimm and then she gave an apology for her reaction despite how she hadn't done anything wrong.

Or at least that's what Ann thought the younger woman was doing, she wasn't paying attention to the cute younger captain. Her attention was out there on the battlefield, she was using her Semblance to see far and wide to see through the trees and the dark, The Knights are as good as scrap and there are a few packs of Beowolves spread wide, a couple of Boartusks, a family of Ursa, and even a few Howlers in the trees… this terrain favors the Grimm and starting fires would blind us and make the civilians scared. I'll have to do some landscaping.

Ann then pulled her flying guillotine off her back and prepared to launch it, "I'm going down there to clear some space, get ready to turn this into a kill box."

"How are you going to do that and do you need us to get out of the way?" the captain asked.

Ann patted her weapon, "I'm going to go down there and make room. The only thing I need you to do is to hold your fire until I come back, the smarter Grimm might see the pause as an opportunity and make a mistake."

The captain saluted and began issuing orders to the soldiers under her command as Ann walked up to the edge of the wall and leaped off and into the forest below. The fall would have killed a grown man without a doubt but Huntsmen were used to this and always had a landing strategy ready. Her strategy involved slamming her weapon into the side of the wall as she fell while gripping the chain and activating the weapon recall mechanism, normally this would have pulled her upward towards her weapon but the device came with adjustable settings, and right now it was slowing down her descent to point where a landing was no issue.

Before her feet even touched the ground all the Grimm that could see her began to rush right at her but she paid them no mind as she landed. Instead she just calmly yanked on her chain which freed her weapon from the wall before throwing it at the Grimm. The guillotine flew through the air and began spinning like a buzzsaw as it tore through the Grimm, the trees, and what few Knights remained with ease. Ann then angled the chain and gave it a pull causing the weapon to swing to the side cutting up a swath of plant life and everything else unfortunate enough to be in its way. Once the weapon returned to her hands, she swung again and again and again with each swing clearing away more land and leaving behind rapidly vanishing black mist that once were monsters.

She then recalled her weapon and surveyed her work, already Grimm were coming to replace the ones she had destroyed but they would not have the benefit of cover. More importantly, these creatures would be forced to climb over the fallen trees which would slow them down and provide the soldiers with ample opportunity to do damage. But it won't stop the big ones and eventually, this will get cleared out… however, time is time and we need as much as we can get.

Ann then swung her weapon back into the wall and activated the recall mechanism at full strength, the force catapulted her up the wall and soon she was standing back amongst the soldiers who were gazing at her destruction with awe. "Captain, I recommend that you focus on the Beowolves and Ursas, their claws will allow them to scale the wall while most other Grimm will struggle to find footing."

"Please marry me," the captain said before her brain could process what she was saying.

Ann's brain short-circuited as her cheeks lit up with a bright red blush and she began to stammer, "W-what!?"

Then it was the captain's turn to blush as her brain caught up with her mouth, "Oh fuck! I can't believe I said that out loud! J-J-Ju-!"

Ann interrupted, "I-I-I'm flattered but I'm at least 20 years older than you!" Why did I say that?! Am I really so taken aback by someone confessing to me? I'm a Huntress! I should be used to this!

"That's fine, I'm into older women!" The captain answered before slapping herself, Why did I say that?! Am I really so turned on by a woman who aged like fine wine and can kick my ass… Yes, yes I am but this is not the time for this!

"Please make our captain happy!" one of the soldiers joked as he lined up a shot on an Ursa trying to move the logs out of the way.

The captain turned to the soldiers to try and find out who had spoken but soon gave up and just shouted, "Shut up! I don't know who said that but I'm ordering you to survive so I can punish you properly when this is over! And that applies to all of you!" She turned back around to face Ann, "I apologize for what I said, please forget about it."

Ann shook her head, "Actually, I think I won't forget about it."

"W-what!?" The captain was now fearing the worst.

"I think what you said is worth… discussing after this mess is over. In the meantime, you can rely on me to keep you all safe." Ann gave her a wink before walking away from the now-blushing captain and back to the edge of the wall where she began to plan her next move after asking herself an important question, I wonder if she'd be okay with a threesome?

The Atlas fleet hovering above Vale was abuzz with activity with each one of the ships performing multiple roles at the same time. They engaged in direct combat, observing and reporting enemy movements, planning and directing the evacuations, performing supply drops, and deploying and controlling the disposable Knights. Furthermore, they were doing all of that and more on a skeleton crew as most personnel were deployed in Beacon, if it wasn't for the highly advanced and complex AI that was present throughout Atlas' entire network, such an operation would have been impossible without at least five times the number of crew present in each ship.

Of particular note was the crew of Blue-2 who as General Ironwood's ship had added responsibility of leading the rest of the fleet while their General was on the ground. This was a duty and a challenge that they met while having the smallest crew in the entire fleet. Everyone on board was either on the bridge or one of the small handful of guards whose job was to watch the prisoners.

"Sir! There's a minor problem with the comms, it's an odd static noise that no one can ID what's causing it." The communication officer of Blue-2 reported.

"Run a scan and find out what caused it!" The captain of the ship ordered.

"I already did, the issue seems to be software related but I can't find out anything more than that."

"Software? Is it going to obstruct communications?"

"Doesn't seem like it, sir!"

"Then ignore it for now." The captain ordered as the lights flickered, "Why are they doing that? Did we take a hit?"

"Negative sir! But the other ships are reporting similar occurrences, there have also been reports that the Knights and Paladins occasionally twitch but they are still responding to orders and their combat efficiency is normal."

The captain stroked his chin as he thought it over, "The General is going to want to know about this, log every single incident and get ready. When this is over he is most likely going to order a thorough investigation into this. Also, contact the brig. We need to know if whatever is going on is affecting them."

"Yes, sir." The communication officer pressed a few buttons before speaking into a microphone, "This is Officer Cobalt, can you hear me?"

A couple of seconds later they received an answer, "This is private Stepford, I can hear you just fine but what's with the static I've been hearing over the speakers?"

Cobalt suppressed a chuckle, "We're going to investigate that as soon as this is over. How are the prisoners?"

"They're sitting nice and tight."

"And the cells? Have you checked if the cells are being affected by this?"

"Yes we have but I'll gladly check again if that's what you'd like."

"I would appreciate that a lot."

"Alright, I'll call you back in a minute." Stepford ended the call and looked towards his fellow guards, there were currently three other people in the room with him and there were a few others currently taking their break. "Alright, let's quickly check the cells. Brad, you take the ones on the left, I handle the right, Jake will take the center-right and Martha will handle center-left."

The guards, with the exception of one, groaned but did as they were told even if they were doing it halfheartedly. The cells were spacious cubes arranged in a manner that created four pseudo hallways, on each cell was an electronic interface that could display any information about the cell or its occupant. With a few presses, it was possible to alter the internal climate of the cell as long as the changes did not harm the person inside, this was not something that could be over-rewritten.

"Man, this sucks!" A young overconfident guard named Brad said as he examined the screens on the cells. "We're right at the sight of a battle that will go down in history and we're stuck here?! Why? These losers can't get out, we don't have to be here." said as he leaned against the wall of an empty cell and sighed, "We should be down there kicking ass and making a name for ourselves."

Stepford shook his head, "Tch, don't be stupid. We're the lucky ones, we get to be safe and sound while everyone else is risking their necks."

"Don't tell me you're scared of a few Grimm? All you gotta do is line up a shot and pull the trigger, anyone could do it."

Stepford sighed, "I'm going to guess that you were born and raised in Atlas."

Brad shifted uncomfortably, "So what?"

Laughter erupted from the cell that was holding Peter, "So what?! Boy, you spent your life living in comparative luxury and now you think you're a badass just because the army gave you a gun? I'm willing to bet 100 lien that the only Grimm you've ever faced was spawnlings fresh out of the pit."

Jake, who was a rather large man, walked up to the holding cell and whacked it with his baton before shouting, "You will speak when spoken to!"

"Or what?" Ruffio mockingly asked from his cell. "Are you going to shout some more?"

Jake walked over to Ruffio's cell and whacked the walls with his baton, "Keep talking like that and you'll be dealt corporal punishment!"

"Oh really? Then do it, go on big guy. Open the cell and punish me for being such a naughty boy!" Ruffio started to laugh and the rest of his crew was quick to join him in either laughing or mocking the guard.

Meanwhile Jake gritted his teeth and for a moment seriously considered opening the cell but Stepford grabbed his arm and stopped him, "Don't. They won't be laughing once we return to Atlas, but if you fall for this… Ironwood will make sure you spend that entire trip in a cell next to them"

"Tch," Jake snarled at Stepford but walked away without a fight and began to sulk away from the others.

"Ugh, I don't know about that guy." Stepford shook his head but didn't say anything else to Jake but then his eyes turned to the one guard who so far hadn't said a word. "Is there something wrong Martha? You're being weirdly quiet tonite."

Martha just shrugged and as she did the lights flickered for a moment.

"Okay… I guess I'll call the bridge and let them know that everything is okay." As Stepford walked away he mumbled to himself, "You're always such a cold bitch Martha."

However unbeknownst to him and everyone aboard the ship, Martha was already dead. Neopolitan killed her back in Amity and took her place to sneak aboard the ship and it worked. But now she was feeling frustrated, her partner Roman Torchwick was within arms reach but she had to resist the desire to free him now. She had to stick to the plan that Cinder laid out despite how Cinder was the reason why Roman needed to be saved in the first place! And yet obeying Cinder was without a doubt the best way to ensure her and Torchwick's future that hopefully would not involve that bitch… Neo just had to wait for the signal.

The light flicked again, "There it is again," Brad said as he pointed towards the lights, "I haven't been here long but I know that they are not supposed to be doing that and then there's the weird static I've been hearing in the comms ever since this battle started. Has this ever happened before?" He asked Stepford while leaning against the wall near the older guard.

The older guard scratched his chin, "Now that you mention it. I don't ever remember that happening before even in other combat situations, granted this situation is more intense than anything I've seen before but-!" The lights then turned off completely for a second or two before coming back on, "Huh that's concerning."

A smile stretched across Neo's face, the light going off was the signal she had been waiting for and now only three idiots were standing between her and Roman. She first glanced at the big guard who was still sulking away from the others and then she looked at Stepford and Brad who were standing close together and more importantly close to the console that controlled the prison doors, it was an easy choice.

She extended the blade on her weapon, a parasol named Hush, and began to walk towards the pair while planning out how she would do the deed.

"Ah! So you finally decided to join us, Martha!" The younger guard said before Neo's blade plunged into his gut with a twist, "Wha-?!"

She dropped the disguise and activated a mechanism on Hush that allowed her to separate the blade from the parasol. Because of that, she could pull her blade out of the younger guard's gut while still leaving her parasol embedded in his waist while swinging the blade at the throat of the older guard who was cursing and trying to draw his pistol. The next sounds Stepford made were futile gasps as he tried in vain to draw breath through his severed windpipe, all he could do was try and fail to grasp at Neo who reinserted the blade back into the parasol and opened it up killing the younger guard almost instantly... Now it was just her and the big guy and he was foolishly coming at her with his baton instead of trying to use his pistol or trying to call for backup.

Jake swung with a massive overhead that was easy for her to sidestep and gave her a window of opportunity to counter. But when she went in for the stab, the point of her blade ran into an invisible barrier the moment it came into contact with his skin. Jake then threw a punch that she avoided while declaring, "I'm not like those two fools, I practice with my Aura daily!" He swung again and again as the prisoners hollered with excitement.

Neo calmly used her open parasol as a shield to block his strikes and obscure his vision as she moved around him scoring little hits along the way. The fight was nothing short of agitating for her but not because the guard was strong, but rather because she was getting in her way and she knew better than to take stupid risks especially when she had a ship to take over after she was done with him.

"Stop moving around!" He screamed as a stab to the back of his knee caused him to fall over, "You bitch!"

Neo swung Hush like a baseball bat and shattered his Aura while knocking him out cold. She then walked up to the console that controlled the cell doors and opened all of them.

"Finally!" Peter yelled loudly as he walked out of his cell, "Do you have any idea how scraped it was in there!? Geez that bitch better make this worth it in the end."

"Oh it will be," Rufio said as he walked up to his old friends. "We got the gang back to get- hold on a second… Where's Curly?"

"He ditched us," Slightly angrily said as he walked over to the unconscious Jake, stole his pistol, and shot the guard dead. "He ran away while the Twins and I were getting our asses beat by a Huntress and some brats."

Rufio couldn't believe what he was hearing, "I'm not surprised Curly left, I'll have to pay him a visit when this is over. You on the other hand, you've never admitted to a defeat before. Has prison really changed you that much? You weren't here for that much longer than I was."

"Roman helped me understand that I couldn't live life blaming others for my mistakes."

Rufio glanced toward the thief and saw that Roman was in the middle of a heartfelt embrace between himself and his partner Neo. "By the Brothers, that is the cutest thing that I have ever seen!"

"It is, isn't it?" Peter said before asking the still-hugging pair, "So are we going to take over this ship or what?"

Roman separated from Neo and scratched the back of his head, "Fine, fine, let's get this mess over with. The first thing we have to do is get our weapons and Scrolls back. Neo, I assume that you have a map."

Neo nodded before pulling out her Scroll and projecting a map of the entirety of Blue-2 complete with labels for each room.

Roman then walked up to the map and pointed to their location which was then highlighted, "We're here and our weapons are-," he moved his fingers across the projection and left a path of light behind as he did, "-here." He tapped that spot a few times to emphasize it, "Thanks to our mutual… employer, the crew are completely unaware of what has happened but they will find out the moment we make our move-,"

Bell raised her hand while stretching out her wings, "How?"

"How?"

"How did they do this and why? What are they trying to get out of this?"

Peter glared at Bell, "You better not be thinking of ditching us."

"I'm not! I just don't like how we're so in the dark about all of this… like why were we after that Jaune kid?"

"I'd like to know as well," Slightly admitted.

"Even you?!" Peter even imagined anything like this happening before, the Lost Boys were supposed to be a carefree group that didn't ask questions… but, This is nothing like our past jobs.

Roman smiled, "I have no idea."

"What!?"

"Sorry to disappoint, but I'm only a part of this because that flaming hot bitch put a metaphorical gun to my head and promised not to pull the trigger if I played along." He sighed, "I don't think she told me the truth about letting me go but she was absolutely honest when she threatened to pull that trigger on the spot…" He shrugged, "Sometimes Lady Luck just isn't on your side, but chaos does come with opportunities. So are we going to waste time here until the crew figures it out… or are going to roll the dice one last time?"

Up in Amity the fight between the defenders buying time for the evacuation of civilians and the Grimm was ongoing but it was reaching a conclusion. The sounds of battle were beginning to die down and had reached a point where even someone in the middle of a fight would notice the difference. Jaune was one such person, he was never an attentive person but even he couldn't help but notice how quiet things were especially when compared to just ten or so minutes ago. He was sorely tempted to quickly glance around to ascertain the situation but his opponent was a feisty Griffon who would have happily taken any opening to attack.

I'll take care of this thing first and then I'll peek, Thought Jaune to himself as he got ready to dodge a charge from the Griffon. After I dodge the thing will turn around and try to swipe me with those talons. But I'm faster so I'll stab it as it's turning around.

The creature went in for a tackle as Jaune predicted but it didn't turn around, instead, it ran a little bit further before leaping into the air and using its wings to gain extra height. Then as it approached the peak of its leap, it used its wings to position itself towards Jaune for a dive bomb.

Jaune readied his hook arm and waited for the beast to get a little bit closer, If I was faster then I could have gotten him while he was leaping. Oh well, I better not mess up this shot or I'm going to be in a world of hurt. He carefully watched as the creature folded its wings and fell towards him, as it did he swung his arm and let his hook fly at the underside of the Grimm.

The Griffon cried out both pain and surprise when the hook struck its abdomen but the creature still had unholy life within its bones and its eyes blazed with hateful desire as it continued its dive. The primordial mound of pseudo flesh that constituted its brain tingled with the knowledge that it would perish upon reaching the ground but it did not care. As long as it killed someone in the process then the cessation of its existence was a paltry price to pay… fortunately, it wasn't enough.

Jaune stabbed his rapier into the ground and with his free hand took hold of the wire connecting his arm to Grimm pulled with all his might. This caused that monster to lose control of its descent and instead of crashing into the young pirate, it crashed into some of its kin, killing them all on impact.

"That was awesome Captain!" Nora ran up to Jaune and patted him on the shoulder, "Where did you get the idea for that?"

"It wasn't from any one person in particular, I've learned from everyone- wait for a second, can we afford to be talking about this here!? We're in the middle of a battlefield!"

"Naw it's fine! We kicked their ass!"

"We did?" He looked around and quickly saw that she had spoken the truth… to an extent. The Grimm that had initially attacked them were all but wiped out but the main hoard was still very much a threat and new Grimm were trickling in drawn by the accumulated Aura of all the students here. However, any new Grim that arrived soon found themselves under attack by multiple people and quickly defeated, it was tempting to see that as a good thing and it was.

But there was a major downside that made it hard to be happy about this.

"They found a new target," Jaune bitterly said, unable to take any joy in their victory here, We tried to buy time and now look! The Grimm are just going around us! "We need to get back to Beacon right away!"

"Weiss and Penny are already working on it, in fact, there are already some ships here to pick us up. We're just waiting for the replacements to arrive."

"Replacements?"

The rest of Jaune's team started to gather around him as Nora answered, "The Knights. Sure those buckets of bolts don't have Arua but Grimm will fight anything that attacks them first letting us make a sneaky exit."

"Oh… then should we wait or should we start making our way there?"

Ren looked around, "Well some people already left but most seem to be waiting, makes sense, don't want the Grimm to follow us."

"And… Did you see Tock anywhere?"

Ren shook his head but Pyrrha did have an answer, "She was talking to someone on her scroll and then she and her crew left ahead of everyone. I think Ozpin sent a ship for her."

Jaune sighed but wasn't upset, "Is it silly for me to say that I wanted to show off a little, maybe impress her?"

Pyrrha giggled, "No Jaune, no it's not silly at all and I'm sure that she would have loved to see how you've improved. Thought maybe next time you can hook the Grimm and move out of the way of its divebomb?"

"Yeah, that might be a good idea."

Ren then said, "I don't mean to be a downer but we are still in the middle of an active combat zone."

"Shit! I forgot about that!" Jaune's eyes nervously looked around and quickly spotted Grimm in battle with other fellow students but those beasts were soon dispatched, often by a student that attacked the monster from a blind spot.

A small naive part of Juane wondered why he ever considered the Grimm to be a threat but the smarter, more experienced part of him understood that they had just gotten lucky. If the giant Nevermore hadn't been taken out right at the start of the fight then things may have turned out very differently, if the less Grimm had been killed by the Rocket Locker ambush then this fight would have been far harder and, of course, he could forget how everyone chose to make their stand here. If they hadn't then maybe it would be the Grimm attacking distracted students from behind, We can't afford to underestimate anyone or anything.

Jaune then sheathed his sword and pulled out his scroll to check his Aura. He frowned when he saw that was dangerously close to the yellow, "Tch, looks like I got a little careless."

"You're still learning Jaune, you're going to make mistakes. Own up to them and learn from them," Pyrrha said, trying to encourage him and distract him from his frustrations as well as her own.

"Salutations everyone!" Penny's voice rose above the sound of combat and the roars of the remaining Grimm, her words were being carried by the Semblance of a Vacuo student who could amplify vibrations. "Very soon a ship carrying Knights will appear and deploy them here so we can leave. The evacuation site will be Bullhead drop-off sites one and five, please have someone in your group use their scroll to find them. Keep alert, and we'll all make it out of here so we can assist Beacon."

Since Jaune already had his scroll out it made sense that he'd be the one to chart the course and he did, while his teammates guarded him, he figured out that the closest drop-off was number five and quickly figured out how to get there. "I got it!"

"Do we head off now?" asked Nora.

Ren quickly answered, "No, let's wait for the knights. We don't want to risk the Grimm leaving because too many of us chose to head out early." As he spoke, some teams did walk out of the arena, most were people that he didn't recognize but there were a couple of familiar faces among them but none that he was too close to.

"Hey, guys! Glad to see you're still kicking!" Shouted a familiar voice.

Team JNPR looked towards the voice and saw their friends Team RWBY heading towards them, "By the way, those were some noise moves you pulled off there Captain!" Yang said with a smile. If someone didn't know her too well they may have gotten the impression that she was unaffected by everything going on around her but that couldn't be further from the truth. Yang was merely putting up a facade for the sake of everyone around her, that was something she had a lot of experience doing.

Blake then added, "However, you took an unnecessary risk by not moving out of the way first."

Jaune nodded, "You're the second person to say that."

Weiss said in response to his comment, "If multiple people are giving you the same piece of advice then you should take it under consideration… unless you have reason to suspect that they're trying to gaslight you. But I don't think that's what's happening here."

Ruby gave a concerned glance towards her partner, "Okay, there's a lot to unpack there but that's going to have to wait." She then looked at her friends in Team JNPR, "Race to you to the-!"

The loud blast of a horn filled the air and it was quickly followed by the cheers of the students who could now fall back and the roars of Grimm who were now turning to face these new foes; The dropships carrying the Knights had arrived. They came in from the side opposite of the evacuation zone and came in loud to capture the attention of the Grimm who would otherwise remain facing the foes in front of them, then they followed with a barrage of bullets and rockets to make it clear that they were a threat to be removed and it worked. The simple mind of the fresh Grimm and even the more complex mind of the older Grimm immediately recognized the threat the ship posed and switched targets.

It was at that moment when the Knights were deployed, armed with bayoneted rifles and tower shields, the robots fell out of the dropships and formed ranks, and opened fire on the charging monsters. Meanwhile, the dropships launched one final salvo before departing to assist with the transportation of the students. None of the Knights would survive this clash and that was fine, they were built specially to be expendable and that was a role that they played well. In that regard, they were like the Grimm, they felt no fear or pain, had no thoughts beyond the mission, and would fight and destroy until they were destroyed themselves.

As that played out, the students made their way through the hallways and rooms of Amity, and for the most part, the interior was strangely normal. Besides the regular wear and tear that you'd expect to see from areas that saw heavy foot traffic and the abandoned belongings of people rushing to the evacuation sites, there was nothing out of place… It was a haunting reminder of just how normal things were just a couple of hours ago.

Questions and doubts filled the heads of every one of those future Huntsmen. Memories were recalled in great detail as they searched for any red flags that they might have missed or ignored; Conversations that they overheard that may have held clues, strangers acting in ways that seemed harmless at the time, and even objects that were just out of place. But those thoughts led to nothing but dead ends and frustration, the truth was that everything and everyone that they should have been able to depend on, had failed and failed miserably.

It's up to me now.

That was the conclusion that they all reached as they climbed aboard the transports and flew away from Amity. Most of them had no idea why any of this was happening and it didn't matter, not now. What mattered right now was making sure that Beacon would still be standing when this night was through, everything else was secondary.

As all of that took place, there was another moment unfolding within Amity's now abandoned medical bay, a moment that was completely separate from the violence and yet also unequivocally connected. Inside an enslaved pair was preparing to sever the chain connecting them to a cruel mistress who had gained their loyalty with promises that she had never intended to fulfill, who made them feel like they could approach her with their concerns and then lashed out when they did.

"Are you sure about this?" Emerald asked Mercury as she glanced first at the obsidian ring on her finger and then at that explosive in his hand. "What if you're wrong?"

"If I'm wrong then we die but, I don't think Cinder has any intention of letting us go either way."

"I was talking about the rings."

"Oh, well if these things could somehow let her know what we were doing, then she would have killed us. So either they can't or we're too far," Mercury was trying his best to sound confident but the truth was that he had nothing to back any of this up.

"There's also the possibility that she's waiting for us to do something first before killing us with these things," Emerald said, holding up her hand that had the ring on it, I can't believe I used to think that she cared about us. She then sighed before putting her hand down, "It's do or die, what's your plan, what does the explosive have to do with this, and why did you want to meet in the medical bay."

"Can you use your Semblance on yourself?"

"Yeah but… why are you asking me that?"

Mercury took a deep breath, "I know that this is going to sound nuts, but I want to cut off our fingers."

For a while neither said anything, Emerald was waiting for him to reveal that his plan was simply a joke of poor taste. And he was waiting for her to ask for clarification before explaining what he meant. As the seconds marched on it slowly dawned on Emerald that he was being completely serious, which caused a deluge of questions to erupt in her head but they were quickly answered. There was no way for Mercury to know this but his conclusion was the same as hers, she just wanted to try and find another way before doing something so drastic.

She then spoke, "Let me guess, you want me to use my Semblance to cast an Illusion on both of us so that we don't try to reflexively use our Aura to protect our fingers?"

"H-How did, oh, you were also thinking about this. In that case, help me find the tools to do this and some medicine to keep us from bleeding out. We'll also need a way out of here."

"A lot of VIPs came here on personal vehicles that they were forced to behind, we'll just take one of those. But first, tell me what the bomb is for."

Mercury looked at the explosive that was still in his nads and placed it on a nearby table, "This is plan B in case we don't find anything here that can quickly cut through bone. And if we do find something, then I want to throw it at Cinder's face."

Emerald laughed, the idea was so dumb, and yet it was exactly the sort of thing that she needed to hear at the moment, "Okay. Let's do this before we have a chance to change our minds."

The Medical bay was a bit of a mess, when the bombs went off the only thing that mattered was evacuation and the ones who needed to get out first were the patients. Every occupied bed was wheeled out, everything in the way was shoved out, and anything that wasn't a person was left behind without care. Documents were left on the desks and floors, computers were left on with the users still logged in, cabinets were unlocked or open, and tools were left unattended. This made the task of gathering supplies to be a rather easy one and the hardest part of finding the surgical tool was learning how to operate them.

Soon they had a supply of painkillers, Aura boosters, gauze, bandages, and a pair of tourniquets that they were already wearing. In front of them was an operating table with a surgical saw attached to a mechanical arm, the robot was programmed and safety protocols were disabled with the help of the same virus that Cinder was using to attack the school.

"Last chance to back out," Mercury said knowing full well that the time to do that was long before things had reached that point.

Emerald didn't answer him right away, first, she used her Semblance to change the entire room into a sunlit back alley with a garden growing at the end. "I used to come to this place all the time when I was living on my own before I met Cinder."

Mercury was stunned by the illusion, "I can even hear chirping birds… since when could you do this?"

"It's easier to make illusions when I'm drawing on memories rather than making something up. Now let's get this over with, casting illusions on myself gives me a headache." She then guided him to the surgical table that now looked like a quaint wooden table one might see in a park, on the table where there were two handprints, one for Mercury and one for Emerald.

The pair nodded at each other and placed their ringed hand on their respective hand print, "Thank you, Emerald. Thank you for trusting me, that means a lot to me… I know I'm an asshole but you're like a sister to me."

"And you're like an annoying brother, I'm happy I got to meet you."

"Me too," He then activated the saw, took Emerald's free hand, and tried not to think about what was coming.

Author's Notes: This was an interesting chapter to write and by interesting, I mean it was a damn nightmare but also a good lesson. You see, when I plan a story I do it in a rather vague way, I have points and scenarios that I want to reach but I don't have a planned path forward. Instead what I do is consider what the characters would do and how they would react to certain things, I then use that understanding to have the characters push the story forward, which is fine but it has weaknesses.

A lack of planning often leads to things being forgotten and paragraphs and even entire chapters feeling like filler. This chapter felt like filler for me, sure there was some progress that is pushing the story to a definite conclusion but it felt rather inorganic to me. Even worse was that originally Tock was going to play a big role in this chapter but the tool I use to help write her speech is having problems so… yeah.

Tock is also a good example of the weakness of how I write because if you made a mistake about a character, like giving them the wrong accent… then there are going to be problems. But my mom didn't raise a quitter!