Hello everyone, I owe you all an apology and an explanation for being late. Four typhoons decided to pass through my country in a matter of one week. It left us reeling and forced me and my family to evacuate. It was one of the reasons why I wasn't able to write as of late.

The other reason is that my son has been born! Baby Light decided to say hello to the world days earlier than his due date! Sleep has been elusive and we still need to stay in the hospital for a few more days because of him and that means a change in schedule.

Updates will now come weekly with me focusing exclusive on Pineapple Jam for now until the end of this arc. After that, will be Thy Rusted Knight and so and so forth.

Anyways, that's it for me! Hope you like this chapter.

Location: Beacon Academy

Time: 3:08 AM

Cinder scowled as she stomped furiously across Beacon's halls.

Not only were they rudely awakened during an ungodly hour by people pounding on her door but she and her team couldn't even discuss any meaningful plans to take advantage of the chaos because they were also currently being forced to deploy!

This would have been the perfect time to sneak around and look for an access route towards the Maiden's location if not for one thing.

"Alright students!" A rotund professor called out as he led the group of transfer students Cinder and her team were with to the Beacon Docks. "Stick with your teams and prioritize keeping the civilians safe. Do not! And I repeat this with superlative importance. Do not try to be a hero! No last stands or heroic charges! Keep yourself alive! Understood?!"

Mumbles sounded out from the group of students beside her yet that was not enough for the elderly professor even as Cinder stayed silent.

"I SAID IS THAT UNDERSTOOD?!" Peter Port boomed with fire in his eyes and Cinder could only glare as the other students from Haven yelled out nervously.

"""S-SIR YES SIR!"""

As much as this would have been the perfect time to look for an access route towards the Maiden's location, it also wasn't time to try and slip past Beacon's faculty. Not when every single one of them seemed to be gearing up for war.

Which was a shame really as Cinder could still feel the pull of the Maiden's power urging her underground. If only she wasn't surrounded by close to a hundred people and counting.

She could already see Glynda Goodwitch coming in with another group of students. Her eyes lit up as she spied Jaune just behind the blonde professor.

Perhaps she could still get something out of this even if it wasn't related to the Maiden?

Before Cinder could even catch Jaune's attention however, a faint boom silences every single one of them there. Students and teachers alike looked towards Vale's direction but in the darkness of the early morning they really couldn't see much other than smoke in the distance.

Though when there was smoke, there was fire. And from the distance they were at? It would have to have been a big fire for them to even notice it.

The silence was broken however by the sound of Glynda Goodwitch's riding crop.

Whip!

It snapped everyone to attention as she pointed towards the waiting bullheads.

"Get to the bullheads! We have no time to waste! Your professors will brief you on the way!" Goodwitch finished as she gave a nod at Port who led his own group towards their bullheads.

"Go! Go! Go! Vale calls for aid and we are here to answer!" He roared and Cinder had no choice to follow as the other students around them roared their own battlecries.

She pursed her lips as her eyes met Jaune's briefly before she was being shoved inside a bullhead. While it doesn't seem like they would be taken to the same area, the chaos in Vale should provide her ample opportunity to link up with him.

What to do after that though was still up in the air because the fact of the matter is that Cinder Fall had no idea just what the hell was happening in Vale.

That begs the question.

Who the fuck was responsible for this chaos?

Location: Southern Agricultural District, Vale.

Time: 3:16 AM

Perry blearily woke up to smoke and muffled screams around him.

He was laying down on his back as his ears rang while he blinked himself awake inside the darkness of his Paladin.

Memories slowly started to form as he groaned in pain. He remembers climbing the debris into Vale just as the city's automatic defenses activated the turrets above the remaining walls. He heard the whir of machines and the growls and roars of Grimm right before the world drowned itself out in the sound of thunder. He remembers Reyna and Clayton shouting something through the radio just as Perry felt the world upend itself. He remembers light, smoke, and the starry sky just before darkness filled eyes.

And then…..he was here.

He winced however when he felt blood flow down into his eyes. It seems in the chaos of things, his head managed to smash the controls in front of him. Broken monitors and dented metal greeted him as Perry opened his eyes.

Static crackled into existence as his radio hissed into life.

"...ry! Co-...in! Perry! A…you there?!"

That…..that was Reyna!

He stretched his sore hand out to grab the device just as his monitor blinked into life. He blinked his own eyes in shock as his mind registered what he saw.

It seems his Paladin crashed right through a building right before having a roof fall on top of it. Concrete blocks and metal frames greeted his eyes and honestly speaking, he was lucky to be alive.

Try as he might however, he couldn't move the Paladin by virtue of it being half-buried and being crushed by a metal beam from the waist down.

Hope comes however from his radio still crackling in his hand.

"Perry! Where are you?!" Reyna's voice shouted as he heard metal groans near his location.

"R-Reyna." His hoarse voice called out, earning a gasp from the woman on the other side of the radio.

"Perry! Thank the gods, you're alive!"

"I-I'm here under the rubble. Buried, I think. What happened anyway? Where's Clayton?" He asked as he tried to open the Paladin's hatch.

"Perry…..there was an explosion…..Clayton didn't make it. I saw his Paladin tumble into the river." Reyna replied, causing Perry to freeze as he saw her Paladin move into view above him.

Clayton…dead? Damn it!

Another name to the list of the lost.

Sparks flew into the air as Perry saw Reyna's Paladin missing an arm.

"River?" He asked with a frown on his face as he forced himself to move on and to try and remember a map of Vale.

As much as Clayton's loss hurt him, that still didn't answer where they were and more importantly, just where was Deery and the rest?

Reyna however was already answering his unasked question.

"Yeah, whatever that explosion was, it launched us all across the agricultural district right near its boundary with the residential one."

His eyes widened at that. A whole district! They were lucky to be alive! No wonder he got so buried and Reyna's Paladin was losing an arm.

"Do you have any idea where the rest are? The support teams should have been able to enter the city first if the front part of the train managed to punch through under the walls." He asked as Reyna pulled the rubble away from him.

Try as he might however, his Paladin still refuses to move. Metal limbs only groaned before falling back into the ground even as Reyna answered.

"I have no idea where they are or if they even made it-"

Static interrupted Reyna as another voice came through.

"...us! Can anyone hear us?!"

"DEERY!" He called out with wide eyes just as Reyna grabbed his Paladin's cockpit.

"Perry?! Thank the gods, you're alive!" Deery's sobbing voice makes him tear up on his own even as Reyna pried his cockpit open.

"Yeah, I'm okay." He says with a smile on his face as open air greeted him. The fact that they could hear each other meant that she was near and it was only a matter of time before they found each other again. "Listen, I'm near a river connected to the Residential District. Where are you?"

"The Residential District?! How did you get there so fast?! Richard just has us headed there right now!"

He laughed at that as he slowly climbed out of his broken Paladin, pulling the radio with him as far as it could go. "Long story short, we got caught in the explosion and got launched here. Anyways, we should probably meet up if you keep heading towards the Residential District."

He knelt on the Paladin's chest as the cord connecting the radio inside the Paladin pulled tight.

"We saw some Paladin's flying over our heads earlier, was that you?!" Deery gasped and Perry absently nodded as he looked down mournfully at the Paladin below him. It might have only been a short while but the Paladin saved his life not to mention helped him get here.

Who knows where he would be if they didn't find these babies? Probably still at Mountain Glenn, scrambling to escape from the Grimm, and headed straight towards Point Bravo.

He jolts however when Reyna interrupts his thoughts.

"Sorry, I didn't want to interrupt you two lovebirds. The name's Reyna and yeah, me and Perry along with one other were the Paladin's you probably saw flying into the air."

"Reyna?" He heard the surprise in Deery's voice and Perry was already moving to reply.

"Yeah, we got into some of the Paladins from the base back in Mountain Glenn to follow the train."

"I knew we were forgetting something! Thank the gods for Richard actually forgetting to load those things!"

Perry blinked at that. Richard, their resident strategist should have a hold of their communications. The fact that he wasn't replying despite Deery's signal becoming clearer and clearer was worrying.

"Deery, do you know where Richard is? I need to thank him for the Paladins, I think."

"He's looking for Ad-"

Before Deery's answer could come through completely however, Perry's eyes widened as he saw a shell headed towards their location.

In an instant, Reyna's Paladin was moving to cover him.

"GET DOWN!" Reyna's voice roared through the radio before it got cut off by an explosion.

Smoke filled his view as a loud voice echoed around them.

"THIS IS THE ATLAS SECURITY FORCE! PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR AND SURRENDER PEACEFULLY!"

Winter Schnee glared down at them from the open doors of a bullhead.

Location: Southern Agricultural District, Vale.

Time: 3:18 AM

Winter frowned as she looked down at the mess below her.

General Ironwood was right. This was an attack.

Why else would stolen Paladins be here?

"FOR THE WHITE FANG!" The Paladin's pilot roared out through its speakers as it turned around to face them.

It moved to spit out bullets from the gun attached to its one remaining arm but Winter was faster. A white Nevermore was already crashing towards it. Ice formed in its arm and the Paladin stumbled backward into the rubble behind it.

Winter will admit however that it was impressive how the pilot kept the thing standing. Perhaps if it was undamaged then Winter would have reservations facing it alone but it was not. So it was with full confidence that Winter leapt down from the bullhead to face it herself.

"Are you sure about this, Ma'am?" The bullhead's pilot asked worriedly through the earpiece connected to Winter's ear but she only shakes her head.

"I'm sure. I'll interrogate the pilot myself. In the meantime, evacuate the civilians still in the Agricultural District and have the drones secure the roads leading out of it. We'll keep the Grimm contained here until reinforcements arrive."

"Roger that, Ma'am." The pilot nodded, relaying her orders across the open channel before flying away to look for civilians.

It didn't really solve the problem of having a gap in Vale's walls but it was the best thing she could do with the resources she had.

In the meantime however, Winter was going to get to the bottom of things.

She brandished her sword as the Paladin in front of her swung the ice off of its own arm. She narrowed her eyes as she saw the man behind the Paladin start to run away but considering he wasn't inside a Paladin, Winter was content to leave him be.

The pilot however, must surely be someone important in the White Fang for them to be trusted with a Paladin. Whatever that damnable group was planning now, they would at least know something about it.

"I give you one last chance to surrender peacefully." She said calmly but she already knew how far the White Fang's fighters wanted to go.

"Suck a Faunus dick, Schnee." The pilot growls as Winter's eye twitches.

And thus happens, the next unfortunate series of events.

Winter charged, sigils glowing into life as her Semblance summoned a Boarbatusk in front of her. Winter will give them credit, the pilot was skilled enough to brace themselves and uppercut the false Grimm at just the right time to launch it off its feet and expose its belly.

Before the Paladin could even capitalize on it however, Winter was already sliding below it as her sword cut through its knee. The Paladin stumbled as it tried to regain balance but it was futile.

It fell in a cloud of dust behind her.

"Tell me, what is your mission? Why have you attacked Vale?" She asked as she turned around only to freeze at the sight that greeted her.

The Paladin reached down to its abdomen and pierced its own body with its one remaining hand.

"My mission? To live and die for the cause." A breathless voice called out through its speaker as the Paladin crushed its own power source.

BOOM!

Fire and flame rushed toward her and Winter's eyes widened as she waved glyphs into existence in front of her. She still felt the heat reach her however even as a Giant Nevermore with its wings outstretched formed in front of her to shield her.

The Grimm died instantaneously yet it still did its job as the explosion washed over it and passed above Winter's head harmlessly.

She breathed a sigh of relief as it ended but pursed her lips at the charred husk in front of her.

What a waste.

She was just about to head for the Residential District to link up with the local forces when her foot hit something metallic.

Looking down at it, she sees…..another Paladin. Or the edge of its foot at least and it was attached to something. Her gaze followed it to see the rest of its body half-buried in rubble from a collapsed roof.

No wonder she didn't recognize it.

It seems the man who ran away was a pilot after all.

Perhaps he would have some answers?

Location: Southern Agricultural District, Vale.

Time: 3:19 AM

Deery hugged Perry tightly as they huddled inside an alley with the rest of their comrades. It was a miracle they found each so soon after losing contact. Yet despite their reunion, the fact that Perry came alone and without a companion was worrying.

She heard Perry choke a sob by her ear and she knew then Reyna was dead. Still, her heart was full of gratefulness as Perry came back to her safe.

"Perry….I'm so glad you're okay." She whispered softly into his ear and she got a broken laugh in return.

"Why wouldn't I be? I promised, didn't I?" He pulled back, hiding his sniffles with a cough for the benefit of their comrades around them.

Deery knew as much as Perry did then that morale was everything and so she smiled brightly, showing everyone watching that despite how the night was going, good things still came to them.

Old men and women alike looked at them worriedly as some looked out into the street warily.

"You did promise, didn't you? Thank you for keeping your word." She says with a bright smile on her face.

It works because she saw how some of their comrades straightened and smiled at the sight. Things still weren't good but at least this way they didn't look so bad either. Still, that left them with a problem.

"What do we do now?" Deery asked, as Adam's unofficial disciple, Perry was the one everyone looked to.

Yet unofficial disciple or not, Perry was just as lost as her.

"Where's Adam? LT? Or Richard? They should have been on the train while we tried to buy time for all of you back in Mountain Glenn." He asked, looking around them for a figure of authority much like Deery did earlier when they crashed through Vale.

She only shook her head at that. "I last saw Adam and LT go towards the Engine Room of the train and Richard's trying to look for them. He had us sneak around through Vale to run away from the Grimm."

She saw Perry frown at that.

"They left you alone?" He whispers quietly, holding her tight towards him as she nodded.

She knew how bad it looked with them being left with no command staff at all but she understood why Richard left them. Adam and LT both held the White Fang together in Vale. If both of them were lost then there's a high chance that their whole cell would dissolve altogether, not to mention the blow Adam's death or capture would do for the White Fang at large.

So she certainly understood why Richard would do what he did. Having her lead the rest of their group to safety while he searched for their leaders was the only right thing to do in their situation.

"It's fine Richard did the right thing but you need to take the mask off." She says kindly, pulling back and putting a hand on Perry's face. "Anything that says you're White Fang, take it off. Richard said that it's better we blend in with the locals and slip past the defenses than get eaten by the Grimm."

Perry looked reluctant at that but nonetheless nodded as he took his mask off. "Sounds fair."

It only took a moment after that before they were all running together back towards the Residential District hand in hand. With Perry by her side and no longer making her panic for his safety, it was perhaps the first time Deery truly had the time to take in the chaos around them.

Fire and smoke rose into the dark sky around them even as screams and roars sounded out from the streets behind them.

Grimm. Grimm were swarming into Vale.

She gulped at that. Gods, what would Vale look like in the morning? Would it fall like Mountain Glenn? Was this their final plan in the first place? Wild thoughts ran through her head until she heard a buzzing sound.

Atlas drones whirred above them but their comrades' screams of distress were either genuine or convincing enough that they registered as civilians in need of rescuing. Eventually however, they were joined by humans panickedly running away from the Grimm the same as them. Normally, Deery would have loathed running side by side with humans and yet every single one of their group knew that survival was much more important than hatred. At least in this case, they had some human shield. She just hopes all of her comrades had the sense not to attack the humans besides them senselessly.

She looked nervously at her comrades beside her even as she kept a wary eye on the humans. There were one or two she feared acting out despite the desperate times they were in, and she cannot believe she will say this, but luckily for them, Atlas drones continued to hover above them.

That killed any intent of violence from any errant member of their group.

Yet she felt the tension as she saw a flash of white and felt Perry stiffen when Winter Schnee herself dashed towards the road in front of them. Robotic soldiers lined up beside her side by side and Deery feared for a moment that it was the end of the road.

"It's Atlas! Come on! We're safe!" A human voice called out from behind them and jolted Deery out of her thoughts.

Hopefully, the fact that they were running with humans and had Atlas drones escorting them would let them slip past her effortlessly. Yet Winter Schnee, narrowing her eyes at the large number of Faunus in their group, had Deery doubting that.

Before they could do anything however, roars from behind them sounded out.

Grimm from the back and Schnee from the front, what a life it was and yet in this case, the Grimm were a blessing.

It allowed Winter Schnee to ignore the Faunus slipping past her in favor of pointing her sword toward the Grimm.

Grimm formed beneath her and it wasn't long before Winter Schnee was flying over their heads to meet the Grimm behind them.

"Get behind me and run to safety!"

Well she didn't need to tell them twice. Deery just passed by her and the line of robots walking towards the Grimm when she heard a rumbling noise above her.

She couldn't help but look up and there she sees, high up in the air, tens of bullheads flying towards them. Her eyes widened then as she saw people start to jump out from some of them even as others continued flying towards the breach.

It wasn't long before streaks of light crashed into the street however and her body grows cold when she hears a voice from one of them.

"HAHAHA! DO NOT FEAR! THE HUNTSMEN ARE HERE!" A rotund man laughed loudly from inside a crater before waving a blunderbuss as he smiled at their direction.

Fear pierced her heart even as the humans called out excitedly beside her.

"It's Beacon! Beacon has come!"

Slowly but surely, teams of Huntsmen and Huntresses stood up in the streets to meet them as Deery felt Perry freeze beside her.

She already knew what he was thinking.

One Hunstman almost decimated their group, a whole team led by a veteran drove them out of Mountain Glenn and crashed the train into Vale. What could multiple teams of them do?

So even as the humans were filled with hope, Deery dreaded about the future of the White Fang because the fact of the matter was, their leadership was still out there and it was only a matter of time before the Huntsmen ran into them.

Location: Southern Agricultural District, Vale.

Time: 3:20 AM

Adam will give her this but Blake really knew how to run. Perhaps that's the reason why she had such firm, toned, and flexible legs-

No.

He shook his head at that. This was not the time for such distracting thoughts.

Still, trying to chase Blake and the Schnee proved to be harder than expected. What started as a mad scramble to get out of the train ended up being a frantic chase across the streets of Vale with errant Grimm hounding them.

It took some time but the chase eventually ended up in the middle of a plaza just before they reached the Residential District.

He saw Blake stumble as she struggled to carry the Schnee and before he could even think about it, Blush was already spitting out bullets to catch a Beowulf leaping towards them.

Grimm turned towards them but it was no problem. Wilt was already moving to decapitate them while Roman and Neopolitan covered his back.

He was loathed to trust the humans with his back but he had no choice because the fact of the matter was, if they didn't stick together then the Grimm might just overwhelm them.

It was also the same reason why Roman Torchwick was willingly limping to catch up to him with his partner. With Roman injured from the crash earlier, Adam was their only chance at survival. He knew it and they knew it.

So even if he preferred to leave, Roman had no choice but to follow as Adam chased Blake and the Schnee.

"Will you hurry this up?!" Roman asked but Adam only ignored him, preferring to look at Blake who just turned towards him.

His lone eye locked with her amber eyes and words failed him as he saw the fear in them. For a moment, Adam wavered before Weiss Schnee trying to scurry away got his attention once again. With her Aura broken and fatigue finally settling in, Weiss Schnee eventually fails and falls kneeling into the concrete.

"End of the line, Blake!" He called out stoically, keeping his eye on the Schnee even as he addressed his former lover. "Surrender the Schnee and all will be forgiven!"

He stayed still as Blake's eyes narrowed at him while the Schnee glared.

Come on, Blake. Make the right choice. He pleaded internally but alas, she does not.

"NEVER!"

His hands clenched tight on Blush and Wilt when Blake stood up and brandished Gambol Shroud towards his direction.

"Last chance! Walk away and leave the Schnee with us!" He shouted as he took one step forward.

There! One last chance of compromise! It hurt Adam deeply to do this but she didn't have to join them….just…..if only….if she leaves the Schnee then perhaps…..perhaps she never abandoned their cause…..just him.

His heart broke at that but Blake shatters it with her reply.

"I will never abandon my friends." She glared straight at him.

Adam…..froze.

He didn't feel anger, not really. What he felt this time however was…..pain. Grief. Rejection.

His chest tightened as tears pricked his one healthy eye. He wanted to shout. He wanted to rage. He could already hear the Grimm howling towards their direction, attracted by his own negative emotions as he kept silent and looked at Blake with all the pain in his eyes.

He saw her falter a bit at that before shaking her head and resolutely raising Gambol Shroud at him.

Pain pierced through his heart as Grimm began pouring in from behind him. He then closed his one good eye even as he heard gunshots from both Roman and Neo.

Damn it!

Why?! Why would she do this?!

All she needed to do was to look away and run!

And yet….why does she stand before him now?

For a Schnee? For mistaken bonds of friendship?

What? Was he not her friend too?! Her lover even?!

"You…." He starts but as he open his eye, he sees the resolve in hers. There was no swaying her. Not this time, at least, so he doesn't even try. "Don't forget. Everything about this is your fault." He finished with a glare, making her stumble backward in fear even as the Schnee behind her gasped.

He was just about to step forward however when he heard screaming from above. Looking up, his lone eye widened as he saw a streak of light crash in front of him.

Smoke and dust flew upward and Adam had to cover his eye to protect it before loud coughing from beyond the smoke freezes him.

Adam blinked. Blake blinked. He was sure everyone there blinked as the smoke cleared to show a blonde man just standing there.

Blue eyes stared at his before two words came out of the interloper's mouth.

"Cool scar."

What the fuck?

Next chapter: Jaune, meet Adam Taurus.

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