On the outskirts of Aletheia, the battle between team JNPR-Ruby and the Scarlatti Alliance had begun. As the mob worked to slow team JNPR down, team SOLR-Tyrian went through with Tyrian's plan and tried to pick off the former Beacon students one by one.
Jaune was shown fighting Surya, attempting to knock the fire dust wand out of his hand with multiple sword slashes. As the knight advanced, the sun team leader jumped back a few times before backflipping to avoid the quickest slash so far.
Upon landing, he proclaimed, "Your evil days are over, vile villain!"
"You're the one that's a villain!" Jaune retaliated. He knocked down some of the sword-wielders from the mob with a series of kicks to the gut. The knight resumed his battle with Mr. Arun. "And a pathetic one too, I might add. Your sword is so tiny." Jaune jumped forward and tried to strike his chest, only for his sword to be pressed against Surya's wand. "P-lease. I've seen better weapons from former Beacon students!"
Surya scowled at the knight. "You're one to talk- your weapon doesn't have dust slots!"
"Perhaps I don't need dust to bring you bastards down!"
The leader of team SOLR gave JNPR's leader a dirty look as he stood his ground. "You underestimate me."
He ducked down and released his hold, causing Jaune to stumble over and fall face-first to the ground. He proceeded to fire numerous rounds of fire dust at the leader of team JNPR. The knight, still on the ground, quickly rolled over and lifted his shield to defend himself from all the fire dust waves at him. He barrel-rolled away from the leader as he fired his shots and continued to miss. As he rolled around, he knocked down several mob fighters and knocked out one of the veterans he tripped by banging his shield onto his head.
Jaune smiled. "Man, shields really are good for knocking out people from behind." The knight shifted from rolling, to lifting himself up with one knee and he gave his opponent a smirk. "You talk too much. I just avoided your attack and took out part of your army. How does that feel?"
He felt more people with wooden swords coming at him from the left and quickly side-dashed to dodge them. Immediately thereafter, he was thrown down by a fire dust wave and hurled into a tree.
Jaune frowned as he fell down and glared at Surya, who was now smirking. "You were saying?"
The Arc knight got up and glared at his opponent. "This isn't over, you madman!"
He swung his sword at Surya in attempt to knock the wand out of his right hand, only for it to counter a wooden sword held by his opposite hand. Much to Jaune's frustration, didn't break.
Of course... Aura. he thought.
"You're right." Surya smile shifted to a smirk once again. "This is only the beginning."
As Jaune gave his sword another swing, this one even faster, Nora was shown knocking civilians down with her hammer as Orville was shown standing from the sideline. Nora hit many of her opponents in the gut, sending them flying into nearby trees. One guy was even sent flying high into the air, screaming loudly as he was hurled away and even louder as he crashed landed somewhere in the forest offscreen.
The tracker tried to block out the sounds of combat around him. He looked at his scroll to check his aura, which was in the yellow at 46%.
Damn it... So much aura lost from tracking Pyrrha. he thought to himself before putting his scroll away. I guess that's something we failed to take into consideration when we...
Loud screams of agony were heard, disrupting his thoughts. Three of the staff-wielders had one or both their legs cracked and broken by Nora slamming her hammer down with pink electricity surging through her body. She was shown approaching a man who dropped his staff and was trying to crawl on his hands away from the Valkyrie. She swiftly brought her hammer down and broke his left leg. As he screamed in immense pain, the electric powerhouse looked at her next target; a pre-teen girl, timidly holding her staff.
"Please don't hurt me!" the pre-teen pleaded quickly.
Nora kicked her into the air and swung her hammer down on the girl's legs, causing an audible crack to be heard before she landed on the ground, snapping her already broken bones even further. Her screams were music to the valkyrie's ears.
"You picked the wrong team to mess with!" Nora declared.
Orville came out from hiding and got out his weapon to stop her. Just as she was about to do the same thing to a sword wielder, Orville fired a wave of fire dust at her with his broadsword, knocking her to the ground. She released her hold on the electricity she had charged as Orville approached her.
"Don't you dare touch anyone else!" Orville exclaimed.
She got up, her hammer still in her hands. "Who's to stop me? You?" She gave him a wicked grin, which only helped to reinforce his team's evil view of her. "I beat you before and I can do it again!"
He held his firm glare at her. "We'll see about that." She swung her hammer towards him, only for him to block it with his sword, causing their weapons to gridlock. "Why do you not surrender? Are you all just that stubborn? Or does evil not know when to quit?"
Pink lightning surged around her feet, making her firm stance all the more present. "Evil?! Don't you dare talk to me about evil! You're evil!"
Their weapons continued to clash and the two tried to force the other one down as the camera shifted to Pyrrha, ducking and dodging arrows fired at her from nearly every direction.
Arrows? Why did it have to be arrows?!
A brief flashback was shown of Cinder with her weapon, Midnight, about to fire what would have been the fatal blow had it not been for that Griffon.
I can't count on the Grimm to save me again. Especially when there's so many arrows coming in my direction. She looked up to see even more arrows coming towards her and jumped in the air with the grace of a ballerina. I can't keep dodging forever. The masked yet exposed heroine looked at Apollo briefly before she used her sword Froidcoeur to create an ice shield to intercept arrows on both sides of her. Apollo's a lie detector. I have to convince him that I'm innocent and that...
Fire dust arrows were fired in rapid succession at the ice shield, causing it to explode and send Pyrrha flying and screaming through the sky. She soon fell into a tree and tumbled down to the ground. She felt her head spin and she gasped as a few more arrows came her way. The archers continued to fire at her, forcing her to roll out of the way before getting up and creating another ice dust shield to hide behind. Instead of waiting for the shield to break, Pyrrha ran through the woods, forcing the archers to split up to find her. Behind her, the shield broke and she felt her blood turn cold as she ran further into the forest.
I need to get Apollo alone so I can speak with him, but how can I do that?
"Stop running you evil liar!" Apollo directed towards Pyrrha. He turned back to his archers as he joined them in the hunt. "After her, and don't let up on your fire!" Apollo commanded. He launched more fire dust arrows trying to burn the forest and expose Pyrrha's cover. The smell of the smoke almost made Pyrrha cough and gag as she continued her retreat into the woods. "It doesn't matter where you run to, through Orville's Blazing Trail we will always find you!"
She nearly stopped in her tracks, but forced herself to keep going. Blazing Trail... His semblance... Her eyes widened in terror. That's how they found us the first time... Everyone's in danger because of me... I have to make this right. I have to get Apollo alone and make him see the light. She concentrated on her breath. But how long can I run? How long do I need to keep this up? How long can I keep this up?
As Pyrrha was shown running, she found herself at a dead end where the trees were too densely packed to slip through and a big pile of rocks was blocking her path. She turned around to find Apollo standing there, loading his bow with electric and fire dust arrows, ready to fire.
"Look, Apollo, before you shoot me, I'm not...!"
"Save your breath you liar!" He fired several duo rounds of arrows at her, only for her to dodge them all. As she heaved for breath, Apollo added, "You're weak, you're starting to perspire!"
Pyrrha wiped her forehead and felt the dampness of the sweat on her left glove.
He's right...
The other archers caught up to him. "We're ready for orders." a female archer said.
"No holding back- it's time to seize the day!" He started using three arrows at a time, one normal, one with fire dust, and one with electric dust. "My fellow archers, fire away!"
A barrage of normal arrows, fire dust arrows and electric dust arrows came flying at her.
As the arrows came towards a frightened and saddened Pyrrha, Ren fired away at Atum with his guns as the latter fired waves of fire and explosion dust at his opponent. The lotus warrior swiftly dodged every wave of dust thrown at him while maintaining a good distance from his opponent. Seeing as he was getting nowhere fast by firing at his armor, he fired at his hands, forcing him to drop his weapons. Ren rushed forward and tried to take to the weapons so that Atum couldn't use them, but his path was quickly blocked by a man and a woman.
"Oh no you don't!" the police officer duo said in unison.
Ren dodged their gunshots easily. And for the few that he couldn't move out of the way in time for, he formed aura shields to stop their path.
The policewoman looked frightened for a moment, then put up her war face once more. The police officers tried to fire at Ren once again, but without much luck. "Aw crud, out of ammo!"
"Same here!"
He swept their legs, leaving them falling before kicking them both back-first into a tree, knocking them out. The lotus warrior raced to retrieve the weapons, but he was too late. They were already back in Atum's hands and he had to dodge more dust waves. Ren ducked over the first three waves before backflipping to dodge the fourth one, only to be lassoed down by the right arm by one of the veterans.
"We got him!" the second veteran spoke.
The first veteran smirked. "Let's end this right..."
Using the blade of StormFlower with his free arm, Ren quickly cut himself free and jumped back to avoid the gunfire. He shot down some civilians who charged after him, then at the remaining veterans, causing them to suffer from burn injures from the blasts as they were knocked down.
Upon seeing them burned, Ren asked Atum, "You didn't train them to use their aura, did you?"
Atum raised his eyebrows in realization and muttered under his breath, "Damn it, he's right." He groaned loudly as Ren stood with a sly smile on his face. "No matter. You will still meet your downfall!"
"You may have us outnumbered, but we are evenly matched." Ren retaliated, gesturing to himself and his opponent. "You will never win this duel."
He kicked him down, and Atum released another wave of explosion dust as he fell. "Evil never wins, lying Lie Ren."
Ren did not respond, but simply started firing away again at his opponent. Atum easily dodged each gunshot as the battle raged on.
All the while, Ruby dodged Tyrian's arm blades every time he swung at her. She made a run for her weapon, still lodged in the ground. She grabbed her weapon only for the villain to punch her in the arm as she did so. As she went airborne, she spun herself round, her feet landing on the tree and she propelled herself forward. In midair, she fired multiple shots at him with Crescent Rose. He deflected each one with the Queen's Servants. Using her semblance, Ruby dashed forth intending to pummel him to the ground, only for Tyrian to knock her back, sending her flying into a tree.
Upon landing and recovering from her fall, she found her cape stuck on a rose bush. Tyrian quickly came towards her, and she ripped off the tail end of the cape with her hands as it came free. Before he could reach her, she grabbed her scythe and swung it around rapidly, firing more shots at him, only for him to dash out of the way for each shot. He attempted to kick her down, but she dashed backwards to avoid his advance.
"Why are doing this?! Pyrrha's innocent!" Ruby told him.
Tyrian cackled madly. Ruby took the opportunity to insert a fire dust slot into her weapon. "Oh, I know she's innocent, but that doesn't matter to me."
This revelation caused her to falter. "You... you know?"
"Of course I know, little flower. But why spoil the show? If nothing else, it is quite fun to watch." Ruby gave him a scowl. "Well, it looks like the rose has thorns!"
With the newly added fire dust, she shot more rounds at Tyrian, this time even faster. He evaded most of the shots with ease, only for one to actually hit him and send him flying. He crashed into a tree, his coat now singed and burning.
Very sharp thorns. Tyrian thought to himself as he got up.
He took off his burning coat and tossed it aside, giving her a scowl.
She looked at him in surprise, seeing his scorpion tail unfurl. Without warning or explanation, he attacked her further, using his stinger to sweep her leg and send her tumbling to the ground. "What's this about?" Ruby got up and looked at him with a mixture of sadness and confusion. "Roman Torchwick? The White Fang?"
"Plastic soldiers and pawns." He gestured his arms to the sky. "My heart and body belong only to our goddess!"
Ruby nervously asked, "Cinder?"
Tyrian dismissed the thought. "Hmph, only in her wildest dreams."
The scorpion tailed faunus swung at her with his weapons and tail, the latter wrapping around Crescent Rose and ripping it out of her hands. He quickly tossed it aside, lodging it in a nearby tree.
Even without her weapon, Ruby refused to give in. She shot a glare at her opponent. "So why are doing this? You know Pyrrha's innocent, and you're obviously not after her. What do you want?!"
"Mostly to watch the world burn." He laughed insanely. Ruby looked at him, saddened and confused. He gestured to the Scarlatti Alliance far from them, the sounds of their battle heard in the silence. "They can take the gold for all I care. All I'm interested in is silver."
Ruby gasped. Tyrian smirked as he slashed towards her again.
Meanwhile, back at Beacon, a tired Glydna Goodwitch roamed through the grounds of Beacon Academy.
Alright, we've completed the wall, and with it, we have prevented new Grimm from getting into the academy. Now it's just a matter of getting rid of the other Grimm, hopefully before they mate, fixing the other buildings, and then we can figure out a way to get that thrice-damned dragon off the CCT tower and then get the technicians to repair said tower.
She gave a long, heavy sigh. Easier said than done. She yawned. Not to mention I'm getting wearier by the minute. I should probably stop.
As she walked through the ruins of Beacon, she came across the cafeteria. Okay, just this one room, and I'm done for the day.
The new headmistress entered the building and started to repair the windows on the left side. A brief smile came across her face as she remembered the beginning of the second semester. How she had found the mess hall an actual real mess.
It's funny. It feels like yesterday I was scolding teams JNPR and RWBY for their food fight. She sighed. Oh, what I wouldn't give to be back in those days.
As she roamed around and examined the room and looked at the broken tables and other debris, she saw something yellow in the corner of her eye.
Is that... She approached the mass of the object. Ember Celica?
Glydna then looked closer at the strange object and attached to the missing piece of Ember Celica was the decaying flesh on Yang's severed arm. The professor turned headmistress felt a wave of nausea wash over her and covered her mouth with her left hand. She frantically looked around, trying to find a bucket. Not finding one in the first few seconds, she made her way to the broken window and proceeded to hurl. She coughed after throwing up, feeling her glasses fall off.
"Headmistress! Are you alright?"
She looked up her coworker- a man with pale skin, red hair and eyes and a business suit with a red and black neck tie. The headmistress knew him anywhere; Brick Bond, who transferred from Sanctum Academy to help Beacon.
"Not really..." she faintly answered.
He handed her a bucket. "Here, take this bucket."
"Thanks."
"You're obviously not well. You need to rest."
Glydna sighed and admitted, "You're right, but before I go lie down, there's something I must tell you. There's an important item in there I need you to decontaminate."
She pointed to where Yang's arm and part of Ember Celica were. "Oh good gods! What happened there?"
"Yang somehow lost her weapon, and most of her right arm, during this madness." At the thought of that, her stomach revolted and she threw up again, this time into the bucket Mr. Bond had given her.
"We'll send a group of cleaners to clear away the wreckage. You need to get rest and recover. I'll handle sanitizing the weapon."
She weakly smiled. "Thank you, Mr. Bond. You're a godsend."
"Oh, I wouldn't go that far."
Holding her by her left side, he escorted her away from the cafeteria.
As the fight between the Scarlatti Trojan Alliance and team JNPR-Ruby continued, Jaune had finally managed to knock out Surya's wand and have it impaled into a tree. Surya's wooden sword clashed against Jaune's metal one. As they exchanged a series of strikes, they tried to get the other one to back down.
"Just... give... up!" Jaune exclaimed.
"Never!" his opponent retaliated. "We Scarlatti Trojan Alliance members will never give up!"
Surya successfully pushed back the knight. He attempted to strike the knight in the head, only for the wooden sword to meet his shield. Jaune successfully pushed back the 'red gem god' and kicked him down, stealing his wooden sword as he was knocked into a tree. Jaune quickly crushed the wooden sword under his left foot, forcing team SOLR's leader to make a run for his original weapon.
"Why do not surrender?" Jaune asked as he ran. "It would be easier for you to admit defeat now!"
The red gem huntsman pulled out his weapon from the tree. "We will not rest until Pyrrha's good and dead!"
Without any warning, Surya punched him in the face, and the next thing he knew, Jaune was sent flying back-first into one tree, then another, and yet another before finally falling face down on the ground. He weakly got up, ready to face Surya again.
Nora felt angry as civilians came across her left and right as Orville tried to bring down his broadsword upon her. She jumped up into the air and propelled herself upward, charging electricity to her arms. A few moments before landing, she struck her hammer into the ground, creating a shockwave sending her opponents and Orville back.
Back at the archery field, Pyrrha was still dodging arrows. The arrows were shown to make an X on the trees as she climbed up, easing the arrows as steps to dodge more arrow. As she continued to jump and dodge, she cried out, "Please stop! I'm not a murderer! I never meant to hurt anyone!"
The 'truth god' widened his eyebrows in realization. Soon after, he ordered, "Halt! Cease fire! My senses are telling me that she is not a liar!"
As the last few arrows were released, Pyrrha formed an aura shield to block them. After the arrows stopped, she heaved for breath, feeling weak and woozy from being on the run from who knows how many arrows that could have killed her.
"Apollo, what's wrong?" the female archer asked.
"I can sense truth in her voice. So now I must make a choice. To listen to her words or to ignore them and slay. Before we do something we regret, let's hear what she has to say."
Pyrrha exhaled and began, "Alright, here's what happened."
As she spoke to Apollo and the archers, Ren was fighting against Atum. He approached the lotus warrior, gradually closing the gap between them. With each wave fired from his crook and flail, Ren either dodged it or formed an aura shield to avoid being hit.
He's trying to get close and personal, forcing me to dodge or put up aura shields. This isn't working... Eventually, I'll...
The dust waves were faster than his thoughts, as a combined wave of fire and explosive dust shattered the aura shield he had brought up. The lotus warrior was sent flying into a tree and his aura began to break. From behind the tree, multiple civilians grabbed his arms and dragged him forward.
"We got him!" a female voice cried out.
Ren tried to escape but it was no use, for their grip on him was very tight and they weren't going to let go.
"Your days are soon to be over!" a man told him.
"Nicely done guys." the huntsman congratulated them.
Atum pulled out some rope and quickly tied up Ren, tightly securing his wrists and continuing to bind him upwards from the arms while still keeping some the rope loose to hold onto him.
Aw crud. Ren thought.
All the while, Apollo and the archers mused in silence as they took in Pyrrha's words. The heroine, who still had her mask on, looked sadly at the lead archer.
"She has spoken words true and pure under the sun." Pyrrha sighed in relief as Apollo widened his eyes in realization. "Oh no, good gods, what have we done?!"
"We have to get back and tell the others right away!" the female archer exclaimed.
They quickly made their way back to the main battlefield, only to see that Jaune and Ren were tied up, and Nora was making her last stand against the Scarlatti Army. As Orville swung his sword towards her, she backflipped away from him and the civilians.
"It's over, Little Valkyrie! Just give up now!" Orville told her.
Her glare intensified as she stood her ground. "Never! You look at us like we're villains, accusing us of crimes we never did! None of us did, not even Pyrrha!" With her own raw strength, she pushed Orville back. "That's it! No more mercy!"
She started to create and channel electricity all around herself to try and keep everyone at bay. As pink lightning was shown dancing across her entire body, Pyrrha silently noticed her struggling to keep the electricity flowing as civilians were shocked and Orville stabbed his sword into the ground and tried to force her down with his bare hands.
She's going to burn out... Pyrrha fearfully thought.
"We have to stop this fight now!" the female archer cried out.
"But how do we get their attention?" Pyrrha asked.
The 'archery god' ran back his team's cart and started frantically searching for an item. "Come on, where is it? Where? Where? This entire situation just isn't fair! A-ha!" He pulled out a wooden, golden painted flute, took a deep breath and played a loud tritone on the instrument, splitting everyone's eardrums. Everyone who was unconscious was woken up.
As everyone covered their ears, a woman shouted in pain, "Ah! My ears!"
"What the hell?!" the policeman exclaimed upon waking up.
Orville let go and Nora stood still, keeping electricity flowing through her as she tried to hold back the storm. The mob backed away.
Soon after Apollo caught everyone's attention, Surya glared at his teammate. "Apollo, what is the meaning of this?!"
"The floor is yours Ms. Nikos." He bowed and extended his right arm as he cleared the way, showing a very nervous Pyrrha. "Speak, and tell us why you're not the one we should hate the most."
Pyrrha looked nervously at team SOLR and the other Scarlatti Alliance members. "Look, I know this may sound crazy, but I'm not a murderer. I was framed, and I was tricked into tearing apart an innocent girl. During the duel I was tricked by Emerald Sustrai, a member of team CMSN, into thinking that Penny could replicate her sword into hundreds of copies and perhaps even sought to kill me. This is because Emerald has the semblance to create individual hallucinations. Scared for my life, I used my semblance to scatter those swords, unknowingly freezing Penny in place and causing the strings of those swords to wrap around her and destroy her. And I have reason to suspect that Yang Xiao-Long, who is believed to have attacked Mercury Black in cold-blooded spite, was tricked by that same power, believing that Mercury was going to hurt her. Neither of us could see what was really happened, and I had no idea that Penny was a robot with a soul.
"If I could go back in time to stop myself, I would. But I can't. I can't turn back the clock. But I can move forward. That's why I'm here, why my friends are here, risking our necks not only against the Grimm, but against people like you, who have condemned Pyrrha Nikos, and have forced her to hide behind this mask. I vowed to make things right by going to Mistral, putting an end to Cinder Fall and defeating her subordinates Mercury and Emerald. I had never forgotten my goal for one second. But in the process of trying to survive the Trojan Alliance and losing my sanity along the way, I had forgotten why I was seeking to slay Cinder in the first place- to fulfill my promise to her, or die trying. And if you kill me, then Penny Polendina will never be avenged."
The Scarlatti Alliance stood in shocked silence for quite a while. After a long moment of silence, Surya hesitantly asked, "Apollo... Is this really true?"
Apollo nodded in affirmation. "She has spoken the truth twice. Does she need to repeat it thrice?"
The leader of team SOLR gasped and looked around in regret. "What... what have we done?"
Nora released her hold on the electricity and breathed to ease herself.
"I... I don't understand." Atum stated. "If Scarlatti said that Pyrrha was guilty, and Apollo believed her, then, how could she have lied to us?"
"She didn't." Ren stated. "She spoke what she believed to be true. You only heard one side of the story- the prosecution's side in the form of Garnet Scarlatti. Because she believed that Pyrrha was guilty, Apollo detected a so-called 'truth'. But you didn't hear the defendant's side of the story. And now that you know Pyrrha's innocent, you should stand down before anyone else gets hurt and then think about what you have done."
The Scarlatti Alliance members looked down in shame, with visible looks of regret on team SOLR's faces.
"You guys should be ashamed of yourselves!" Jaune scolded.
"Shame on you! Shame on your whole family!" Nora scolded. "Make a note of this!" She pointed towards the mob, then the horses. "Shame on you! Shame on...!"
"Stop!" Surya sighed. "They're right. Atum, release the lotus warrior."
Atum untied Ren as Surya released Jaune.
"It seems we've lost our minds in the war." Apollo told his teammates. "And quite honestly, what is it good for?"
"Nothing." Orville answered. "Absolutely nothing."
"Guess we should tell Ruby that the fight's off." Jaune scanned the area. "Wait a second." The knight looked around worryingly. "Where's Ruby?"
"And where's Tyrian?" Surya followed.
Not even a second later, a girl's scream was heard, and everyone was chilled to the bone in terror.
Pyrrha felt her blood turn cold. "Oh no..."
The two teams quickly ran in the direction of Ruby's scream, and when they got to the site of Tyrian and Ruby's battle, they all gasped in horror. Ruby was shown, her hands and ankles tied with rope, hunched over Tyrian's shoulder. They noticed how the tail end of her cape had been torn off in the fight.
The camera turned to show Ruby's scythe was embedded in a tree and a piece of Ruby's cape on the ground before turning back to the smirking scorpion faunus.
"He's... a faunus?" Ren asked in disbelief.
Surya glared at him. "Tyrian! What do you think you're doing?!"
The madman frowned at the heroes. "Aren't you guys supposed to be killing each other?"
"We realized that Pyrrha's innocent." Orville answered. "Now let her go!"
He laughed. "You don't get it, do you? I was never interested in defeating Pyrrha." Team SOLR appeared shocked. "I knew she was innocent this whole time, and the only reason I joined you was to find Ruby. You fell right into my hands and lead me right to her. Tell me this, huntsmen- how does it feel, knowing that while you tried to do what you thought was right, you only helped me to achieve my own goal? It hurts doesn't it?"
Tyrian laughed evilly. Jaune ordered, "Get him!"
Pyrrha, Ren, Surya, and Atum all fired at the traitor, but he threw a smoke bomb, covering the area (and the screen) in black smoke. Teams SOLR and JNPR coughed as Ruby screamed, "Help me!"
"Where did he go?!" the leaders exclaimed simultaneously.
"Damn it!" Pyrrha exclaimed.
They were heard coughing until the smoke cleared up. "Guys, what do we do? That madman has Ruby!" Nora exclaimed. "We have to find her!"
"But what about the horribly injured 'staff gang?'" Atum asked.
The electric powerhouse put her arms behind her back as Surya raised his eyebrows in realization. "We can't leave them..."
"Yet it's our fault their friend was kidnapped." Orville reminded them. "First we have broken legs, then a betrayal... Ugh! Could this day get any worse?!"
Sounds of destruction were heard in the distance. The eight looked to see Aletheia ablaze, smoke billowing from the village below. To make matters worse, several Grimm, including Nevermores, Ursi, Beowolves, Death Stalkers, Creeps and Griffons were invading the village.
Nora glared at Orville. "You had to say something!"
"Guys, stop! We have bigger problems!" Jaune reminded everyone.
The remaining members of the Scarlatti Alliance, save for the injured victims, ran up to the octet. Among them were the police officers and the three veterans. But the first veteran was the one to ask, "Surya, what's going on? Where's Tyrian?"
Surya tried to keep himself together, but he was failing miserably. "He... he betrayed us! And took Ruby!"
The civilians gasped upon seeing Aletheia, watching it burn in sorrow. A nevermore screeched in the distance, sending waves to terror to shake them to the bone.
"No..." the policeman whispered in fear.
"We need go!" the policewoman stated. "It's not safe for us here!"
Without hesitation, the uninjured Scarlatti members fled.
"Guys, wait!" Surya called out, but to no avail. He groaned.
Orville lamented. "This is all our fault... Especially mine."
"No, I'm at fault, blame me. I was suspicious of Tyrian, but his true intentions I failed to see." Apollo lamented.
Pyrrha strained to hold back tears. "Stop!" Everyone looked at her as she began to break down. "Stop blaming yourselves... I'm the one to blame." A tear fell from her face. "Pyrrha... and Rouge... have failed."