The following day, Beacon Academy: Link's dorm at the crack of dawn

"Hm?" Link's eyes struggle to open as he wakes up before his alarm is even set to go off, despite of this he is very aware of the events that transpired the night before, "Weiss?"

"I-I'm here." Weiss whispers but is audibly more asleep and tired than Link as she lets out a soft yawn, "I have not been awake this entire time, I am a light sleeper."

"So I woke you up?"

"Yeah but it's okay, I do not imagine I can spend the entire morning here, I should head back at some point." Weiss says all this but does not move an inch and remains in the same position

Link fully opens his eyes and looks down, Weiss' arms remained around him, his hands are still grabbing her arms and their faces are still touching but despite it happening last night in the dramatic way that it did and waking up in the same position, neither he or Weiss break away or express regret

"Thanks for being here for me."

"You don't need to say-!" Weiss is cut off as she feels pressure on her forearm courtesy of Link's hand giving her a firm squeeze

"I do though." Link lets up on the squeeze and instead rubs her forearm, "I'm going to sound all over the place but hear me out. I am innocent BUT only I knew about my innocence based of what I saw and what I already had knowledge of... considering the past. However, not a single one of you that did believe me had any reason to trust me or be by my side and yet I received support, it honestly warms my heart a lot but the person who deserves the most praise is you Weiss. I owe you a major a apology for doubting your trust, after all you were the first person to believe me and you were the reason Skylar was convinced of my innocence too. Hearing you stay in my dorm and give me a chance when the rest of your team walked away. And then telling me word for word that you believed me, it played a huge part in convincing her and giving me hope."

"Wait, she heard me?" Weiss opens one eye

"Oh yeah." Link chuckles, "She was on the ledge outside and when all of you left she came in."

"How does she even balance on that when it is so small?"

"I would say beats me but I have done that before." His chuckles turn into a laugh

"Riiiiiiiiight you and Neptune." Weiss shakes her head, "It is crazy how much has happened ever since that day."

"Yeah no kidding. I mean it as well when I want to thank YOU more than anyone, I know we have not always been on the best terms but listen carefully when I say this."

Link briefly shakes Weiss' hand and as he is about to continue with what he is saying, he holds it gently

"There are no more bad terms, bad blood, awkwardness, hatred, anything like that. Seeing where you stand and where you have been since the start of all this craziness with what happened in the tournament, I know you are someone I can trust and rely on. With that I will reiterate what I said last night plus more, you will forever have my love and loyalty and I promise to protect you with my life Weiss Schnee."

"I am a strong person and will soon be an official Huntress so hopefully I don't need you to protect me with your life but I will not dismiss what you said. Thank you Link, your words still mean a lot to me and I will always be by your side to care about you and be there for you." Weiss nods with complete confidence in what she just said

"That is great to hear, do you want to head back now? I certain don't mind sleeping for a bit longer. If not I can walk you back to your dorm, no chance somebody spots us hanging out together this early."

Weiss is the first to hesitate as she momentarily pulls back and gets out of bed but after some thinking, instead of following through with that plan she does the unexpected now that everything is much calmer and clearer unlike the night before where she was just acting on instincts. Weiss wraps her arms around Link once again and presses her face against his, easing back in the comfortable position was just in not long ago.

"Good choice Weiss, see you in a bit." Link smiles and closes his eyes, letting the warmth of the ice queen ironically take over the coldness he feels inside

It does not take long for the two friends who used to always be at odds with each other to go right back to sleep as the sun continues to slowly rise

...

...

...

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

SLAM!

"What was almost perfect sleep but I did it to myself." Link groans as the slam came from his hand hitting his scroll

"It really is as simple as disabling it." Weiss yawns quietly

"Yeah well what can I say? I'm just lazy."

"No doubt, it's a miracle you are as good as you are physically and technically." She retorts in a very annoyed tone

"There's the old Weiss."

"Shush." She smiles, "Never again okay I will be better."

"And I believe you." Link nods as they finally break away from each other and both get up to stretch, "Also you do not need to worry about how you come across all the time, we can all be mean or have our moments where we are being critical to the point of coming off as harsh, we are human after all. Nobody is perfect so don't hold yourself up to that standard, you will only set yourself up for disappointment."

"I know I know, it is just..." Weiss sighs, "You're right, I am eager to change who I am as soon as possible and I really wish it would happen overnight. Speaking of soon, how long has it been, please don't tell me-!"

"Only an hour, I try to wake up early now even though I don't really do anything with that extra time. I find myself feeling much better than waking up late and getting as much sleep as I can." Link shows her the time on his scroll

"I am not sure that is healthy but as long as you feel better then good. Regarding my team I am sure they are still asleep anyway but at least around this time I could fool them into thinking I woke up early and went for a walk or grabbed coffee."

"Yeah, that's nice I suppose." Link shrugs and sits back down, dropping his head

"Hey." Weiss does her best to unwrinkle her dress by patting rapidly it with her hands before walking around the bed to look at Link face to face, "What's wrong?"

"Sorry sorry, it is simply me being sad but also bitter about how everything has gone for me." Link sighs and ponders everything that has gone down. "It isn't even about my past either, I would say it is more about all of this if not ALL of what is going on now. It is very frustrating and I have a question or two for you Weiss."

"Yes absolutely, ask me anything."

"Alright well before you came after me, tell me about Yang." Link picks his head back up to meet Weiss at eye level, "Not about her because I could care less about what she feels but how was what she did received by Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, Ren, anyone really. Did she get the same could shoulder treatment as I did?"

"L-link..." Weiss stammers, unsure of what to say

"Please Weiss, I promise nothing will fall back on you since you are only the messenger."

Well..." The Schnee heiress sighs loudly, "We talked to Jaune and his team, more like they heard myself, Ruby and Blake in the hallway talking and came out to express support for Yang. Their immediate words were asking if Yang was okay and offering support, Ruby took over from there and asked Pyrrha to win her match for Beacon."

Weiss nervously finishes her sentence and then thinks fast in order to change the topic swiftly

"And she was chosen last night actually but something weird happened, I did not go to the colosseum but Ruby was there to witness it. She said Pyrrha's opponent was never selected so they postponed her match for today. It was almost like she was going to fight someone specific but then the randomizer went back to regular speed."

(That certainly isn't suspicious.)

Link wonders before seeing right through Weiss' attempt, he looks angry for a slight second before easing up the tense look on his face, remembering the promise he made to not get upset with her.

"Did you guys see anybody else yesterday?"

"I did not, Ruby saw Velvet but I did not get a lot from that in all honesty. Ruby was selective with her words." Weiss rubs her chin in confusion, "She said their conversation went well and Velvet also supports Yang, even comparing her situation to what happened to Coco. I have a feeling Ruby is up to something else and it has to do with what has been happening with these moments in the tournament, so I wish she told the team more."

"I see." Link gets up and paces back and forth in his room, feeling anger building up inside at a fast pace, "I know what you are going to ask and the answer is I feel very angry right now. When Coco commits a crucial error and loses a vital match in the tournament it is attributed to stress induced hallucinations. Yang breaks Mercury's leg on camera and what was said about that? Did she mention anything Ironwood said?"

"Stress induced hallucinations..." Weiss says with shame and uncomfortably fidgets with her sleeves

"Unbelievable." Link shakes his head furiously, "Stress induced hallucinations for attacking someone after their fight was over when in reality Yang would not ever hurt someone the way she supposedly hurt Mercury. And what about me? I go through something very similar to what Yang went through where it looks like I basically killed Jaune and seriously injured Pyrrha but in reality, Jaune needed days of rest and Pyrrha was up and about the next day. They got support and were offered a helping hand or a shoulder to lean on, but what about me? Maybe it was because of who I 'hurt' I know you guys like Emerald and Mercury but you aren't exactly close. Yang 'seriously injuring' Mercury doesn't compare to me 'seriously injuring' Pyrrha and Jaune."

Link does not do anything brash or crazy but instead of continuing to pace back and forth in his room, he decides to walk over to his desk and sit down

"I got absolutely nothing!" His voice cracks loudly, "I know Yang had to wait until the next day just like me to get a stern talking to from Ironwood and then face of music of what her peers thought of her but our paths go in complete opposite directions from there. I had support from one close friend and support from two distant friends, to give you your credit however, you are now a close friend I am talking about before then. Nevertheless, everyone else told me to go to hell basically."

Link rests his left arm on the desk and taps his fingers against the wood intensely at first, feeling everything wanting to come out: pleading, sadness, anger, screaming and even more types of emotions

"Coco and Yang got open arms, supports, and lots of love but I was nearly abandoned completely, how messed up is that? I trained hand to hand with Ren for days and we did not even have to exchange a lot of words to get along, I guess all of that meant nothing. Nora I thought was a giant cloud of sweetness and fierceness whenever she needed to bring out either side but it seems like all I am getting from her now is resentment. The first person at Beacon I related to was Blake and I even helped get her to come to the dance before Yang even tried, hell she read about me from that stupid false book before any of you even really knew me."

Link stands up and walks over to his bookshelf, pulling out the coverless book and letting it drop to the ground, it hits the ground and makes a loud noise.

"So SHE should know what it is like when people lie about me or when I am framed. Speaking of Yang though, sure I did not always see eye to eye with her but there was something about her that made me like her, I only ever had one sibling so the competitiveness she always brought to the table gave off major sibling rivalry, so much for any of that thinking because she was ready to turn my head into ground beef the other day. Jaune I do not want to even get started on that guy, I always dedicated time towards him whether it was in class or in training and the way he tried to attack me yesterday by merely seeing me near Pyrrha, that is how much he does not want me around his teammate seriously? Next time I see him, I'm going to hurt him. Coco and the rest of her team always seemed to like me so for Coco to shed some crocodile tears and not even give me the benefit of the doubt." He balls up his right hand, "Ruby and Velvet should be self explanatory considering at some point feelings were exchanged, I patched things up with Ruby and we are amazing friends while I thought Velvet and I were getting closer. But forget all of that, and I mean every word."

"L-link..." Weiss walks towards him to potentially hug him again but is stopped by a hand, Link's arm is extended now and his hand is outstretched

"It's okay Weiss." Link's eyes water up and tears slowly fall down his cheeks, "This is why I said last night that they do not deserve you defending them and as sorry as I am for being rude to you, I do not regret shutting that conversation down. Everyone I listed does not deserve praise or defending, you went out of your way to be logical and smart. You even told me to my face that you believed me and stood by my side so you are the one who deserves the praise and defending. The rest of them could not even send me a message or call me through this thing!"

Link reveals his scroll in his right hand, showing that he is looking out for potential message or calls or voice messages before proceeding to violently slam it on his desk.

"I do not like when you cry." Weiss does not react to the scroll slam as she looks at Link with a lot of pity and does her absolutely best not to cry herself

"Me neither, but right now I am a giant ball of emotions, I do not know whether to cry, laugh, shout, attack, sleep, run, hide, beg, double down, I don't know!"

However, before Link can really let out his emotions despite not being aware of what he was about to let out, a loud knock startles him and Weiss. They look at each other and say nothing; hoping it was just a rude student harassing Link or some prankster. About twenty seconds pass and the loud knock turns into the slam of a fist against the door

"Now is NOT the time." Link reaches for his sword and shield, not worrying about the rest of his gear

"That won't be needed." Weiss steps in front of Link with her back to him, "I will answer the door okay?"

"But..."

"Trust me, I will handle it with no violence... please?" Weiss gives a nod of pure confidence

"Alright, say whatever you need to say to help yourself if you need to do that."

Weiss carefully walks to the door and slowly opens it to find... General Ironwood, two Atlas soldiers and two Atlesian knights

"Miss Schnee?" Ironwood blinks and clears his throat, "What are you doing here?"

"I am checking on my friend sir; I will let him know that you stopped by, thank you and have a great day." Weiss puts on a generic fake smile and tries to close the door

Ironwood conveniently uses his right hand, places it on the door and 'suddenly' Weiss makes no more progress at shutting it

"H-hey! What are you doing?"

"What's best for you, your peers, the entirety of Beacon and Vale." Ironwood speaks with his usual monotone yet firm voice as he and the Atlas soldiers enter Link's dorm

"You seriously chose the wrong day to come terrorize me." Link pays no attention to the soldiers, staring daggers into Ironwood

"Whatever issue with have with me or Atlas can wait for another day. Men, please escort Miss Schnee back to her dorm."

"W-what?" Weiss shakes her head and retreats further into her friends dorm, "You cannot prevent me from being where I want to be."

"This is not about you, it is about him." Ironwood does not even look in Link's direction, he simply points a finger at him

"What about me? I'm not a threat to anybody!" Link grunts

"That is for me to decide, until further notice, you will be kept in his dorm for the rest of the day, I was informed of one of my ships hijacking because of you additionally. Besides, after what you did in the tournament and with my ship, you are too much of a risk factor to let roam free."

"So then why can't Weiss stay? We were just talking."

"Because you will be kept here by reinforcements." Ironwood signals to his two soldiers and the Atlesian knights

"Just one more thing." Link grips his sword tightly, "Is Yang Xiao Long getting the same treatment?"

"No." Ironwood rolls his eyes

"!" Link without saying another word has his sword and shield in hand

"Don't make this any harder on yourself kid."

"Well, you cannot make me leave." Weiss speaks up, she is seen with her arms crossed and head turned, "I will call my father if I need to."

"Get her out of here." Ironwood ignores Weiss' threat and stares down Link

"If they touch her..." Link fights with himself internally to not let loose

"They won't, she is still Atlas royalty after all. The more you two fight the worse it will look on you, surely you don't want your friend caught in the crossfire?"

The last words of Ironwood's sentence strike directly to Link's heart as he remembers the last time one of his friends was caught in a crossfire, it was Ruby at the hands of the general himself.

"Shut up already and get her out of here okay?"

"Finally you are reasonable." Ironwood nods towards his soldier

"You can't do this!" Weiss stomps the ground and refuses to budge

"Weiss." Link calls out to her "Look at me."

Weiss listens instantaneously but her eyes are full of worry

"It will be okay, I will be okay. I'll see you later alright? How about tomorrow morning or later tonight when I inevitably slip past these brainwashed soldiers and these toasters."

"Are you sure?" Weiss' does not break eye contact with Link as they now show off signs of fear

"Yes I am very sure, go be with your team and make sure to watch tonight's matches, whether you choose to attend live or stay at Beacon. And thank you once again for last night, you really have changed a lot." Link winks at her as Weiss allows herself at last to be escorted out

The one man team of Beacon waves at his team RWBY friend and gives her a smile that just barely lasts as Weiss exists his room, who is also waving and mouthing out her goodbyes

"I do not want to hear you anymore." Link shakes his head at Ironwood, "I get it, I have to stay in my dorm all day, no leaving my dorm or attempted escaping just sit in my dorm all day until I'm no longer deemed a threat."

"Yes." Ironwood steps towards Link's desk, "I am going to need these too, you are a danger so there is no need-!"

"Out of the question." Link weakly swings his sword towards Ironwood's left hand

"You don't have a cho-!"

"I absolutely do, if you want to take any of my weapons I am going to hurt all of you."

"Very well then." Ironwood turns his back on Link and begins to walk away, "We don't have time for this, you will be warned however that if you try anything you will be dealt with, understood?"

"I understand, now leave my room at once please."

The soon to be huntsman shrugs off Ironwood's threat and once everyone leaves his door, he grabs his scroll and instantly gets back in bed, unsure of what to do next

"Now I wish I kept Weiss around if I'm just going to be stuck here all day, at least then I would have company, really amazing company at that plus her team is already out of the tournament too so she really only has Pyrrha to root for today. But it is okay, after all she doesn't deserve to be brought into all of this when the problem Atlas military have is with me, may as well add on most of Vale alongside Atlas." Link shrugs but laughs too, "What a joke. Everything is really, all I did was give and give and give, open up about myself when I never thought I would tell anybody about my past... more specifically about Ray, her family and her village. For what as well? I didn't even get a chance, if I at least got to speak and pour my heart out once again that would have made all the difference, I think so anyway. For people who I really considered close friends it really does make me wonder if I am terrible at picking friends."

Hatred and resentment begin to take over Link again, outweighing and drowning out the sadness and concern as he opens his scroll and stares at the screen, waiting for some message of sort from anyone, his last call was from Ruby shortly before his date with Velvet.

"Staring at the scroll all day sure won't make the messages or calls come in faster, they either will happen or won't." Link shrugs it off and tosses the scroll off to the side before his mind goes back to earlier thoughts, "It is the fact that they did not even give me the benefit of the doubt or a chance to speak and hear me out, that has to be the most infuriating part. Because I know good and well if the roles were reversed and the same thing happened to Ruby, Blake, Coco, Ren, or anybody for that matter I would have given them a chance, multiple chances even."

Link shuts his eyes and lets out a really loud and exaggerated exhale

"I know as much as I do about Cinder, Emerald and Mercury from my past and while I am not exactly sure on what they will do next, I know enough to see that they are being devious and are up to something really evil, but almost all my 'friends' saw Emerald and Mercury as 'poor kids' who are traumatized by the events that have unfolded in the tournament, and who could forget that they got 'vilified' by big bad me. I mean look at me I'm talking to myself like a crazy person and just keep repeating the same points over and over again."

Strong emotions rage inside of Link as if an ocean were in his head until suddenly all he hears is white noise. He opts to keep his eyes shut whilst he channels the hatred and anger building up; he thinks about all the possible words and emotions he wants to spill to every person who shunned him. However, as it all intensifies in his head to a boiling point, he is oblivious and misses all the signs of him falling asleep, until eventually he does fall into a deep sleep with hate and vitriol being the main emotions at the top of his head.


Later on in the day, at the Vytal Festival fairgrounds, Weiss and Blake walk side by side with coffee in their hands

"I'm so glad to be taking a break from watching fights." Weiss speaks first as the two had been in silence beforehand

"No kidding, everything has been weird lately and I wish I could describe it better. I feel sick and uneasy, almost like I can feel something bad coming." Blake sighs

"Something bad? Bad has been happening this entire week."

"I meant even worse than what has happened already. I hope tonight is just okay at worst." Blake looks towards the colosseum

"In all honesty I don't blame you for feeling that way but I hope your senses are wrong, I seriously don't want to see another friend get hurt or be involved in controversy."

Weiss hurriedly drinks her coffee as she says the last part, but nonetheless it still draws a reaction from Blake

"Speaking of friends, we're friends right?"

"Of course! Does that even need to be questioned? Besides being thrown in a team with you I feel like I've gotten to know everyone a lot better this semester and last semester too." Weiss finishes her coffee and licks her lips afterward

"Then can you tell me where you were last night?" Blake turns to her teammate and makes eye contact with her, "We were waiting for you to get back but Yang and Ruby fell asleep, I worried about you so I found myself falling in and out of sleep because I could not get to sleep properly."

"I'm sorry Blake." Weiss drops her head

"Don't worry about it, just tell me where you were so I know you were safe. You didn't call to tell us you were staying out so my guess is you were busy."

"Oh well you're right I was out all night and busy too." Weiss nervously mumbles before thinking to herself, "You didn't call? That's ironic considering she never called Link."

"Considering you don't want to tell me outright I'm guessing this has to do with Link."

"H-how-!"

"Because Weiss, out of the four of us, the people most likely to speak their mind without any fear or filter is either you or Yang. And unfortunately, Yang is not in a position to really speak her mind and understandably so... tell me what happened, and how is he?" Blake rubs her left arm with her right hand, showing nervousness as she asks her question

"You could ask him yourself, that's what he really would want right now." Weiss frowns

"Excuse me? But how could I after what he-!"

"No!" Weiss stomps her foot in the grass, "It took you about a minute of doubting Yang and speaking of the person you used to know before you believed her. I'm actually disappointed to be associated with team RWBY because of how we treated a friend. The same friend who was much closer to you, Yang, and Ruby than he ever was to me."

"Maybe you're right and I should have been fairer, it's just difficult to do that when we know nothing about Mercury's condition and his entire team went home with him already. Jaune and Pyrrha needed medical attention and recovery time."

"I understand what you're saying, when you see what is happening from the outside looking in, it doesn't look good for him. And you're right we are friends so I will tell you, last night I followed Link." Weiss lets out an exhale as she continues with her summary of everything that happened, "He was not in a good headspace at all and found himself in a bar on the brink of fighting the establishments security but I was there to stop him before anything fight occurred."

"Was he... you know?"

"Drunk? Yes." Weiss shakes her head, "But he didn't hurt anybody, I lead him out of here, lead him back to Beacon and to his dorm and then I took all the time I needed trying to make him feel better. As for how is he? He is hurting really badly Blake and that is because he trusted us all."

The usually most brash member of team RWBY sighs deeply and speaks calmly but her frown remains

"And I consider it a major problem when you can literally count the number of people who believed him on one hand. Link is really angry at all of you but I believe if this can be resolved in the next couple of days, it will all be okay or so I hope, the last thing I want is for things to get worse with all of my friends."

"You really care about him, it's almost ironic but also very heartwarming." Blake lips slightly curve into a tiny smile

"Thanks, I spent the night at Link's dorm I am sure you can put two and two together and figure it out on your own but I may as well say it myself. It was not as awkward as I thought it was going to be, in fact I'm glad I was there."

"That's good, I am glad to hear that and for what it's worth, I hope things get better too." Blake's smile grows more, "Yang, Ruby, you, Pyrrha, Jaune, Nora, Ren, Sun, Neptune, Scarlet, Sage, Coco, Velvet, Fox, Yatsuhashi, Penny and Link are all special to me and I have had a lot of bad luck in my past with forming and keeping special connections, so I don't want anything to permanently get in between us."

Weiss smiles back at Blake and nod gently at her as she and Blake continue to walk around the fairgrounds, intending to stay there for the day as the tournament continues.


Back at Beacon Academy: Link's dorm many hours later

"What the!" Link sits up and looks around angrily, he struggles to open his eyes and it being nighttime does not help his sight either, "Damn how long have I been asleep? When did I fall asleep as well!?"

Link tosses the covers off to the side aggressively and sits at the edge of his bed, quickly putting on his boots before standing up to briefly stretch. However, he only gets to do his back and neck before loud growls and screeches catch his attention.

"What the hell was that?" Link looks through his window and sees Grimm running around campus, specifically beowolves, ursa, and nevermores but when squinting his eyes for a better look he sees deathstalkers, creeps and griffons a fair distance away, "Grimm!? How are they all the way here?"

Link grabs his sword and shield, straps them to his back and then carefully walks back to his bed to grab the scroll he avoided most of the day. He opens the scroll and clicks on the live feed for the tournament, but what he sees next is a horrific sight. The live shot is Pyrrha standing across a destroyed Penny in four pieces: her legs, torso with an arm, her other arm on its own and lastly her head. But that was not even the worst part, the worst part was Cinder's voice being transmitted as well.

"...And what, I ask you, is Ozpin teaching his students? First a dismemberment, now this? Huntsmen and Huntresses should carry themselves with honor and mercy, yet I have witnessed neither"

"Grrrr." Link balls up his fists and shakes his head and Penny's senseless death, "So that's why Pyrrha never got her opponent yesterday. It was not a malfunction. It was all a part of a plan, a damn setup to matchup polarity versus metal knowing the result was going to be an absolute disaster."

Determined to spring into action in any way he can, Link runs to the door and slams on it to catch the soldier's attention

"Hey let me out of here in peace we have Grimm at the school!"

"Grimm? What are you talking about kid Grimm could never get close to an academy." One of the soldiers scoffs

"Yeah your games won't work on us, stay in there until General Ironwood gets back and clears you."

CRASH!

The sound came from Link's window as a ginormous Ursa smashes through and roars loudly, seeking havoc and destruction

"You chose the wrong dorm to attack." Link plants his feet in the ground and stares down the Ursa

"What are you doing in there kid?"

"Just because we're supposed to keep you here doesn't mean you should be dramatic about it."

The voices of the soldiers come through but are easily overpowered by Cinder's as she gives her closing statement

"So, I ask you now, when the first shots are fired... who do you think you can trust?"

"It's not dramatics!" Link shouts as he sprints towards the Ursa who also sprints at him

The fight however does not last very long as Link blocks a clobbering straight forward attack from the Ursa with his shield and then slices through it with one clean, slow but very powerful swing of his sword

"Hey what's going on-!" One of the soldiers opens the door and gasps in shock, "Oh my goodness, he wasn't lying."

"INCOMING!" The other soldier standing guard shouts as a beowolf sprints down the hall

The Atlesian knights have enough time as they lock onto the beowolf and shoot it with their rifles, managing to take it down just as the beowolf was ready to decapitate the Atlas robots

"Nice." Link sighs as the human soldiers let him step out of his dorm

Something was clearly not right as suddenly the Atlesian knights turn and aim their guns at Link and the two soldiers

"HEY SAME TEAM!"

"DON'T SHOOT!"

"They're robots for goodness sake!" Link shouts at the pair and charges at the Atlesian knights himself, the sights of the robots gone rogue lock onto just him and luckily for Link had his shield ready to block every incoming bullet, he gets in the between the robots and slashes them both with a spinning attack, going so fast that the soldiers human watch in awe

"Whoa... this kid is something else."

"Yeah no kidding."

"Toasters are down." Link says as his attack is over and all that's around him is metallic parts, "Why did your own military technology almost attack us?"

"We just found out Grimm were in the academy kid; we know as much as you."

"I cannot get in contact with General Ironwood."

"So, what do we do now?" Link looks around, expecting more Grimm to emerge any second

"We fight will fight and fend off this evil. You are a student so if you decide to abandon ship and save yourself nobody will blame you." The soldier firmly nods

Link shakes his head and instead grans the handle of his sword and gives a confident yet devious smirk, letting the soldiers know he is ready to fight as well

"Then I wish you luck and truthfully I'm glad to hear that especially if you can destroy our knights like that."

"And one more thing kid."

"Yeah?" Link was in the process of entering his dorm again but stops to face the soldier

"...Thanks." The soldier begrudgingly says as he and his partner sprint off.

A few minutes pass as Link waits for more Grimm but when no more crash through the already smashed window or sprint down the hall, he shuts his dorm.

"Very well then." Link makes quick work of putting the rest of his gear on and then makes the decision to open his closet and pull out the steel mask from his days as a member of the Black Hawks, "By now there is no mystery over who is behind this mask. But then again, I know what will happen if I go out there and fight, there is no avoiding them so they don't get to see my face."

Link leaves his dorm and takes one more look at the inside of it, for some reason his stomach aches slightly

"Why does this feel like goodbye?" He sighs but knows what he has to do, "No matter, I have to protect Beacon."


Nearby Beacon Courtyard, directly in front of the entrance of the academy approximately ten minutes later

SLASH!

CHOP!

"Is that all you monsters got!?" Link shouts as he's surrounded with multiple dead beowolves, two creeps, a couple of ursa and a small nevermore too, he shouts intensely and made sure to kill the Grimm as brutally as possible with vicious sword slashes, piercing right through grimm to lure more in towards him and away from others

He runs towards the main part of the courtyard, glancing in the direction of the Academy he's attended for almost a year but seeing the windows and walls of the building get destroyed and smashed by Grimm makes him sick. Link looks away from the rough scene and nearly makes it to where he wants to go until he stops sprinting, skids in the grass to a to a full stop and at last he sees his friends. The same friends he knew there was no avoiding. Impressively it's Velvet doing the heavy lifting against two Atlesian Paladins going rogue just as the Atlesian knights did earlier and attacking those defending Beacon as opposed to destroying Grimm

"Hmph!" Velvet intensely lets out a grunt as she leaps off an Atlesian Paladin and slices apart its legs with Penny's weapons

She lets out a deep breath and knows what she wants to do next as Penny's weapons disappear. That is to finish off the Paladin with the last set of weapons that form in her hands being Link's sword and shield.

(So that's what her camera was for all this time.) Link smirks, almost satisfied and carefully watches Velvet mimic his exact moments from the moment she opened her eyes after summoning his weapons. In an instant she was right in front of the Paladin and wastes no time in relentlessly slashing it to bits with a variety of slashes: Two handed, one handed, spinning, moving in slick fashion around the Paladin as she lands the powerful strikes, all with precise power and impressive speed that could easily go toe to toe with Link's version. The final blow completely cuts the Atlesian Paladin in half, sending crumbled and destroyed metal crashing to the floor. Velvet lands perfectly on both feet as the weapons from her friend soon vanish.

"AWESOME!" Coco cheers despite her discomfort over Velvet using Link's weapons

Unfortunately, Velvet has no time to reflect on everything she just did as the other Paladin she was fighting earlier runs at her full speed and sucker punches Velvet, sending her crashing hard against the cold concrete

"Velvet!" Coco shouts and angrily aims her minigun at the Atlesian Paladin, unloading as much as she can

Coco's bullets despite how fast and powerful they are usually are seem to bounce off the Paladin as it takes no damage. Neptune accompanied by Reese and Nadir from team ABRN join Coco's effort and shoot at the Paladin

"Grrrr!" Weiss from a short distance grits her teeth together and despite being fatigued, she knows she must do something to help

Weiss immediately rushes past the four of them by sprinting around, instinctively summoning a glyph, but the size of the glyph confuses her because this one was about three times the size as the ones she usually summons. She recklessly gets in between Velvet and the Paladin with no fear of the Atlas military weapon being seconds away from striking. Weiss raises her sword defensively, closes her eyes and hopes for the best.

CLASH!

An earthquake loud thud is heard, Weiss she looks up and discovers she summoned the arm and sword of a familiar foe she has fought before, which blocks the Paladin's attack with ease and then within two to three seconds it is the arm of the familiar foe that raises its sword and chops the Atlesian Paladin in half. Weiss takes a brief look at part of her amazing summoning before being surprised by a camera flash, courtesy of a smiling Velvet.

"S-sorry can't resist but thank you Weiss that was really incredible."

Before Weiss can respond, everyone's spirits are almost crushed because another Paladin rushes in from around the corner and begins to charge at them

"COME ON!" Sun throws up his arms in defeat, "You have got to be kidding me!"

The Atlesian Paladin charges towards the students protecting Beacon at full speed when suddenly it a smoke bomb lands right in front of it.

BOOM!

The smoke lasts momentarily but long enough to interrupt the Paladin's intended target off course and when it dissipates, Link stands right in front of the Atlesian Paladin with his shield on his back and sword in his right hand and his left hand aimed right at the Paladin, with the back of his hand conveniently pointed at the killer robot too. A tiny beam of light shoots out of the back of his hand and suddenly two large triforces trap the Paladin with Link having to exert more aura to adjust the size of the triforces to the size of the Paladin. But instead of the triforce slash that Velvet just mimicked, Link charges at the Paladin, springs up in the air and comes down crashing hard on the paladin's head holding his sword with both hands.

"Rahhhhhhhhhhh!" Link mimics the battle cry of an old friend and with his sword perched over his head, he takes what feels like the strongest swing he has ever produced with only his sheer raw strength. Fortunately, there is no concern and is it is more than enough to completely shred through the Paladin, cutting it in half before it could get close to hurting his friends and destroying the triforces he used to keep it trapped and stationary

"Whoa..." Neon from FNKI speaks, "Where has he been this entire time? We could've used his help a long time ago if he's just taking out some of our most powerful robots with one shot."

"I cannot believe it." Flynt shakes his head, his glasses are broken from the fighting but his widened eyes say it all

"L-link." Weiss struggles to catch her breath but seeing that Link has joined and fight as is unharmed makes her smile

(Here goes nothing.) Link frowns, puts his sword away and turns to face his friends. He receives gasps as the mask was definitely something unexpected but nevertheless he walks towards them all, his eyes fixated only on a very exhausted Weiss who needs her sword to help her stay upright.

"Link! Thank goodness!" Velvet smiles and sprints towards him but stops when she notices Link himself stop about ten feet away with an intense frown on his face that has no intentions on disappearing; the furious look makes his blue eyes pop out more than ever as the intensity seethes out of him

"No." Link shakes his head, "Just... no."

"L-link?" Velvet's eyes tear up not by his words but by his tone, the rabbit faunus can sense coldness

"Why no? You were flawless." Ren blinks in confusion

"Yeah what gives?" Sun asks

"..." Link says nothing as his frown transitions into a much nastier and angrier expression

The more Link hears their voices and how casual they sound considering how little they interacted with him before, the angrier he gets. His mind continues to think about how they are talking to him now so easily despite not uttering a single word, putting in a call or typing a message in days.

"We're speakinnnnng to youuuuu or did that attack affect your hearing?" Nora says with a goofy tone

"S-stop... not right now." Weiss weakly mumbles but nobody hears her

"You did it man now smile!" Neptune says cheerfully

"Hey come on, lighten up you did great." Coco gently speaks with a weak smile

"I said NO!" Link without hesitation draws his sword and shield on his friends and stares everyone down

Anger is dying to burst out of the lone student of Beacon, who sees red when he eyes his friends, thinking about everything that has happened to him and what his friends did or better yet did not do over the last few days. Meanwhile those standing across from him have two reactions when he pulls out his weapons: that of pure shock and fear.


(Heyo back again with another update :) I tried getting this one out as soon as possible and I'm having a lot of fun writing these so I hope you all enjoy and I hope to be back soon with another chapter.)