The group was dreading this all night, none of them could get any proper sleep. Pyrrha and Ruby got some, but only due to the comfort of their friends and all their crying that just drained the rest of their energy, forcing them to go to sleep.
Ruby and Pyrrha were resting against their partners, eyes red as Weiss and Jaune continued to comfort them.
Raider made a bit more room on Jaune and Pyrrha's couch, so the extra three people could sit together all at once. All of Team RWBY were huddled on Weiss and Ruby's couch, Yang squeezing her sister in a tight hug.
The silence was deafening in the room, the only thing heard were small sniffles here and there and the known tear to drop on the floor from all the kids.
(Volume 3 Intro)
From his office, Ozpin is watching the matches play out. He sits down as the randomization begins, taking a sip from his mug.
His eyes widen as he hears that Penny Polendina is going up against Pyrrha Nikos.
"Salutations Pyrrha Nikos, it's an honor to finally meet you," Penny greets happily in the arena. Sadly, Pyrrha doesn't share the same sentiment as she takes a look down at her hands. "This is going to be so much fun!"
Just hearing Penny's excited voice was making everyone tear up and hurt on the inside.
"Mercury, what are you doing? You were hurt! Why? What's going on?" Mercury answered none of these questions, simply standing in Ruby's way with a smirk. "Fine, if you're not going to tell me," Ruby took one step to the right, Mercury followed her. Ruby took another step to the left, Mercury did the same.
"So that's how it's going to be…" Ruby mumbled, her normal cheery voice lost with something more dark.
Outside, Dr. Oobleck asked if the fighters were ready. This now applied to both Pyrrha, Penny, Ruby, and Mercury.
Penny gave an enthusiastic nod, while Pyrrha got into a fighting stance. Dr. Oobleck gave a countdown, and each number showed a different person in the crowd, General Ironwood, the rest of Team JNPR, and Emerald.
The group waited for the countdown to end, just wanting all of this to be over and for both Penny and Pyrrha to come out of this safe and sound.
Sadly, they all knew better than to believe that small hope of wishful thinking. Raider had warned them many times before that this was the volume everything was going to go down the drain, and now they were witnessing how.
Penny was the first to move, taking out her blades from her compartment box on her back, swinging them around until she directed all of them towards Pyrrha. Pyrrha blocked all of them with Akouo, but they changed their direction and began coming right back.
"Showtime…" Mercury murmurs. The boy mimics Ruby's every step, making sure she doesn't get through. Ruby uses what she reckons is her failsafe: her semblance. It proved pointless as Mercury kicks her right in the stomach, leaving her to lay on the ground. She attempts to pull out her scroll but Mercury ruins that as well.
Yang, and everyone else, got the strong feeling that was going to lead to massive panic later on in the future.
Yang curses Mercury with all sorts of names while Ruby curses her inability of hand-to-hand combat.
"Let's just keep this between us friends…"
Ruby's expression changed to disgust, she would never ever plan on being friends with Mercury!
"My word, what a tremendous display by Ms. Polendina!" Professor Port exclaimed in amazement as Penny held off each of Pyrrha's advances.
Pyrrha comes back with just as much fire, using Penny's own swords as leverage to get a higher attack. Coming down Penny blocks Pyrrha's advances, swinging her weapons to land a hit in the air. Pyrrha avoids Penny's attempts, landing right back on her feet.
Penny comes rushing, swinging her blades again and again only for Pyrrha to obstruct each one. Pyrrha looks over at her friends who are cheering her on. Nora shouts her name, but Jaune stares off, worried.
Pyrrha looks back at her weapons, they begin to disfigure themselves before righting their shape.
Pyrrha had a sudden idea of how this battle was going to end, how both parties were going to look, and the image was stuck inside her head, haunting her and forever will.
Mercury lands a kick to Ruby's face, but from that point she was able to avoid the second and third, able to get past him with her semblance and run.
Come on me, your friends are all counting on you… and more than that the entire Amity Colosseum!
Ruby runs through the corridors as the fight between Pyrrha and Penny continues. Pyrrha manages to get in a few attacks, slashing Penny. The girl falls back, positioning her blades and proceeds to shoot green beams at Pyrrha. Pyrrha evades all of them as well as Penny's blades that come at her in equal measure.
In any other context the group would be enjoying this fight, amazed at both Penny and Pyrrha. But they can't, not when they know what's coming in the next few minutes or so.
Pyrrha knocks Penny back, a smile beginning to bloom before falling the next second as Penny comes flying at high speeds, using her blades as boosters to slam her body weight into Pyrrha.
Penny knocks both of Pyrrha's weapons out of her reach, and when she attempted to use her polarity to bring them back Penny just did the same thing again, leaving Pyrrha with nothing.
Emerald squints her eyes, making Pyrrha hallucinate that there were more blades, in reality it was only a few. Pyrrha stumbled as the numbers grew.
No….
All the blades flew towards Pyrrha as one.
No, no, no….
With a massive display of polarity all the swords turned back, pulling, and wrapping around Penny, her body crinkling like a crushed can.
Everyone watched in horror, their eyes widening, their pupils shrinking to mere pinpricks as they watched the horror show unfold.
Penny's torso was ripped in half, her wires and inner workings shown as electricity zaps.
What have I done… What have I done?!
"Penny…" Ruby slowly raised her hand to the screen, but it fell back down as the tears began to flow freely.
The room was dead silent with the screen paused. No one spoke as the entire room sat in mortal terror at what they just witnessed.
Pyrrha stands frozen, Penny's swords clunk when slowly hitting the ground. Penny lies on the ground, motionless, the crowd goes into a full-blown panic. In Beacon's tower, Ozpin swiftly rises from his seat, eyes frightened.
Penny powers off, and somewhere in Atlas a man watching the screen clutches the armrest of his chair.
No one bothers to put his connection and Penny together as Ruby looks to be on the verge of screaming.
Out of all ways Pyrrha imagined, this was the most horrific; a child being ripped apart from literal limb by limb.
Ruby felt a sudden blindness, dropping to the floor, her friends' cries fading until all went black. Weiss quickly caught her before her head made contact with the ground, but Ruby was now unconscious.
Raider had the ability to wake her up, but that would be damaging to her body both physically and especially mentally, so the group would need to wait until she woke up naturally. The question is; how long will it take?
Weiss gently situated Ruby to allow her to take up the couch, her friends worriedly surrounding the piece of furniture, that was until Yang and Blake told them all to give the resting girl some space.
Pyrrha wasn't faring any better, the sudden fatigue, the feeling of wanting to throw up. Both teams went back and forth between the two girls.
Raider grabbed the TV remote, rewinding the episode 5 seconds back as it would be traumatizing for Ruby to wake up and the first thing she sees is her dismembered friend.
15 minutes pass and Ruby begins to show signs of waking up, albeit groggily. The group's first instinct is to ask if she's alright. Ruby doesn't give an answer to that but gets up anyway, wincing as she does so.
Yang is on her seconds, asking her if she needs anything, blanket, water, pillow, something! To the point Blake and Weiss had to step in as she was acting like an overbearing parent.
It took a few more moments for both Pyrrha and Ruby wanting to continue, but they did so begrudgingly, just wanting this episode to be over already.
Raider chose not to tell them that there's still 6 minutes of the episode left.
All the grievance and negativity gained the attention of all the grimm residing at Mt. Glenn.
The dreading feeling only grew. If grimm were able to come in here, waves would be crashing through the walls.
Ruby made it back to the main area, dropping to her knees, and letting the tears fall, "Penny…" The arena's platform's descent stops and Mercury reaches Ruby, smiling cruelly at the scene in front of him.
"Ugh, that bastard…." Yang cursed under her breath.
"Broadcast, what are you doing? Kill the feed!" Dr. Oobleck shouts through his earpiece. The broadcasters inform the teachers that something's wrong, they don't have control over the cameras and they can't even stop the broadcast. "What, how is that possible?"
His question was answered when another screen appeared behind the two, a red screen with a black queen chess piece.
Cinder…
The name was not said but the word was thought with the most poisonous of venom.
" This is not a tragedy, this was not an accident. This is what happens when you hand over your trust, your safety, your children, to men who claim to be our guardians." Cinder tells the whole colosseum this from atop a roof in Vale, "But are, in reality, nothing more than men. Our academy's headmasters wield more power than most armies and one was audacious enough to control both; they cling to this power in the name of peace, and yet, what do we have here? One nation's attempt at a synthetic army?"
As Cinder speaks, General Ironwood gets up from his seat, enraged, he leaves the colosseum. Pyrrha put two and two together that Penny was robotic.
"Mercilessly torn apart by another star pupil, what need would Atlas have for soldiers disguised as an innocent little girl? I don't think the grimm can tell the difference."
New tears fell when Penny came back onto the screen, a sick reminder.
Weiss and Blake sit at shopkeeps stand, eating dinner as they listen, "And what I ask you is Ozpin teaching his students? First a dismemberment, and now this? Huntsmen and huntresses should carry themselves with honor and mercy, yet I have witnessed neither." Blake and Weiss give each other a look, and from Team RWBY's dorm, Yang stares at the window with distraught. "Perhaps Ozpin felt as though defeating Atlas in the tournament would help people forget his colossal failure to protect Vale when the grimm invaded its streets."
Not only was the beginning of each episode an intro, it was a warning, a caution of what was to happen later in the volume.
That moment was now. If this was to be the rest of the volume, what was to come during it all?
A bark from Zwei grabs Yang's attention. "Or perhaps, this was his message to the tyrannical dictator that has occupied an unsuspecting kingdom with armed forces. Honestly, I haven't the slightest clue to who is right and who is wrong, but I know that the existence of peace is fragile, and the leaders of our kingdoms conduct their business with iron gloves."
Ozpin averts his gaze from the screen, whilst Atlas airships fly past his window. In the Amity Colosseum, Emerald slowly makes her way out of the public's eye.
Whilst this was all being shown, there was one thought flowing through everyone's heads as the episode played on screen.
We will stop this from happening.
The whole point Raider brought them here was for this to change, for them to rewrite the story, make things better for all of Remnant.
No amount of gratitude would be great enough to give to Raider for allowing them this opportunity.
"As someone who hails from Mistral, I can assure you, the situation there is…equally undesirable." From outside of Vale, two Atlesian guards listen to Cinder's broadcast with their tablet in hand, "Our kingdoms are at the brink of war, yet we the citizens are left in the dark."
Grimm growls grab the guards attention to which they swiftly turn and fire to a massive wave. "So I ask you, when the first shots are fired, who do you think you can trust?" The screens return to their natural color, signaling the end of Cinder's message.
Dr. Oobleck informs Professor Port that all the feeds are jammed and that they can't get a message through. "Will somebody tell me what in the world is happening?!" Port cries out. His answer is the sound of sirens, alerting everyone that the threat level is a 9.
The group froze as all the sirens went off in their heads. It might be on screen, but it's a terrifying reality to be in nonetheless.
Forget the calm, every person in the colosseum makes their way to the exits, wanting to get out of the Brothers forsaken building. General Ironwood steps up to the colosseum's microphone, "Ladies and gentleman, please, there is no need for panic."
"No need for panic, General this is a Level 9 grimm invasion! This is not the time for no panicking!" Sun shouts, getting the urge to stand up from his seat.
"General Ironwood is probably telling them this so it doesn't become a Level 10," Weiss explains, a slight tinge of aggravation in her voice. But no one cares.
Landing on top of Amity Colosseum is a nevermore, doing its damndest to break in. Sun rises from his seat, not fully believing what he was seeing.
"How did it get past the kingdom's defenses?" Coco wonders, following Sun's actions. Ren adds that the grimm wasn't alone.
From his office, Ozpin stares out in horror. Qrow and Glynda run towards the man, he wastes no time in telling the two to get to the city. Qrow attempts to object but Ozpin holds no room for it.
All the pain and agony from Vale begins to bring a bigger storm of grimm out from Mt. Glenn.
The feeling of dread just got even bigger at the sight of all the new grimm racing in.
The group didn't have any words to speak as they simply watched the chaos and disaster unfold right in front of them. And it would more than likely be like that for a while.
No funny quips or jokes, no way to lighten the mood, nothing.
The nevermore continues to try and break in but fails to. General Ironwood tries to explain his reasoning for Penny, but Ozpin doesn't want to hear any of it. "You brought your army to my kingdom James, use it."
More Nevermore come flying as the Atlas military work inside the ships. The officer asks what his soldiers' positions they're in, but once he gets to Blue 2, all the guards in the ship remain on the ground.
This just continued to get worse and worse.
The kids wonder when this nightmare will end!
The officer tries to get a read, but the reason for all the damage, Neo, breezes past the fallen soldier, opening up Roman's cell. "Well, it's about time."
Changing the ship's direction, Roman proceeds to shoot at the nearby calvary. The other ship explodes from the impact of the first. Roman laughs manically, commenting that it's good to be back.
To make things worse three ships full of White Fang members appear.
"The White Fang are here too?!" Blake shouts. How much worse can things get. Roman and Cinder are in control, Penny's…gone, Grimm is attacking Vale and soon to be Beacon, and now the White Fang is here!
What could possibly add on to this whole mess that they're seeing.
Adam orders his men to bring everyone to their knees, releasing an ursa from one of the three ships.
It lets out a cry, the red markings on its head are accented as the screen goes black.
This might just be the worst episode they have watched yet, and it's only going to get worse as the volume comes to a close.