Blake stared at the fallen beam for a few seconds before bolting to it. "Please be alive. Please be alive." She chanted in her head lifting pieces of metal.

Sun, meanwhile, locked his angry gaze on Roman. "You bastard." He said heading towards the criminal only stop short when an 'armored dead man' phased into existence behind Roman.

Roman felt himself bump into something, fearing for his life he looked behind his back to see one of the 'armored dead men' glaring at him with its cold and dead eyes. It grabbed him by the neck. "What are you?"(1) the ginger-haired criminal asked fearfully.

The 'dead man' brought him close. "We are the borg." It began. "You've injured Ruby Rose; therefore your life is forfeit to assimilation." Without another word, the drone pierced roman's neck with two small tubes.

Blake, who'd paused in her frantic digging when she heard roman's struggles. Her eyes widened as black veins spread out from the tubes' location and the skin paled slightly. Then both the 'borg' and roman phased out of existence.

Pushing what she saw aside, she resumed to dig away at the metal until she uncovered ruby's upper torso.

"Ruby, look at me. please wake up." Blake said, unaware two drones phased into existence behind her. Meanwhile Yang, 6 of 8, and Weiss arrived.

"More of him?" Weiss said pointing at the command drone. "Well, yeah. Wait, why's Blake- RUBY!" Yang yelled rushing towards Blake, the two drones, and fallen Ruby were.

6 of 8 closed his eye in shame he as well as the collective had failed again. This time they failed to keep a promise. He and the drones approached the grieving yang cautiously.

"who did this." The command drone transmitted through the collective. "Roman Torchwick." Came the response. "he has been dealt with and is currently undergoing assimilation."

"Blake," Yang asked as calmly as she could. "Who did this?" Blake trembled in both anger and fear. "Roman Torchwick." She said

Before yang or Weiss could respond, 6 of 8 spoke up. "We have already dealt with him." The command drone said before a weak voice spoke up.

"Yang?" came Ruby's voice. "Ruby!" the blonde said almost pleading. "Please stay awake." Ruby felt weak but fought off the urge to close her eyes. She looked to the men in black armor. "thank you for protecting my friend."

6 of 8 nodded before looking at Yang. "Your sister has suffered multiple lacerations to her body from the beam. We shall lift it while you carefully pull her out. A medical drone is on standby." The command drone said before he, and 5 of 7 approached the beam Ruby was trapped under. A medical drone phased into existence spooking Weiss, making her shriek in fright.

The drone, however, ignored her and approached Yang before waiting. "Yang, the hell's going on?" Blake said eyeing the drone that was next to her partner. The blonde glanced at the medical drone.

It had a cylindrical module on its back with what appeared to be a blue substance. The drone's left eye was replaced by a microscope lens. It also appeared to have tubes and metal plated on its head.

"Yang Xiao Long," 6 of 8 said gaining the blonde's attention. She turned to the drone. "Get ready." Yang nodded. "Blake, give me a hand." The cat faunas, without hesitation, rushed to Ruby's side.

Seeing them in position, 6 of 8 gave 5 of 7 a nod and the both lifted the beam whilst Yang and Blake pulled Ruby out from underneath.

Both girls couldn't help but flinch at the sight of the multiple wounds. The sound of footsteps caught their attention. Turning, they saw the 'medical' drone kneel down next to ruby before gently poking her neck with a needle.

"What's he doing?" Blake demanded. she would've attacked the drone had yang not held her back. "Medical unit 9 of 12 is injecting Ruby Rose with medical nanites designed to heal wounds that aura can't. While still experimental, the simulations show a 70 percent success rate." 6 of 8 said stoically "the nanites will dissipate after two hours."

Yang sighed with relief. Her sister would be alright. "6 of 8, we have an issue." 9 of 12 said catching their attention. "What is it?" Yang asked.

"this Unit has scanned Ruby Rose to see if the nanites are working." 9 of 12 said. "Are they?" Weiss asked as she and Sun joined the group.

"They are, but… when this unit scanned her body it discovered a flaw in the nanites." The medical drone said.

"Flaw? What kind of flaw?!" Blake said almost hissing in anger. "they don't fix internal damage, only act as a temporary bandage.."

Blake and yang's eyes widened in shock and fear. The color from Yang's face faded. "how bad?" Weiss asked, her pale face now ghost white. 9 of 12 looked at the heiress. "An artery was nicked. The bleeding is slow, but steady."

"I can't lose her, not like summer." Yang cried hunched over her sister's prone form. "Yang," Ruby said weakly. "it's okay when I go, I'll tell mom you said hi and that you love her."

Blake's heart nearly stopped hearing her team leader and possible crush talk like that. Ruby was talking like she'd accepted her fate. She looked at 6 of 8 pleadingly.

"There's got to be something you can do!" the faunas begged. 6 of 8 turned away. There WAS a way, but he didn't know how Ruby Rose's sister and their colleagues would take it.

"There is a way, but Yang Xiao Long, Blake Belladonna, neither of you will like it." The command drone said. "Well," Blake asked.

"Assimilation." 6 of 8 said deathly serious making the healthy members of team RWBY gasp silently. Yang made to open her mouth in protest, but Ruby beat her to it. "Will I be like Roman?" she asked

The command drone looked at her. "No, we've been running simulations on a different kind of assimilation that we haven't tried yet." Ruby nodded.

"What kind of assimilation?" Blake asked. "The ability to retain one's humanity whilst still being a borg." 9 of 12 said.

What's success rate?" Sun asked "15… percent." 6 of 8 said shocking the group whilst yang cradled her sister crying silently

A/N: Again with the cliffhangers. Next chapter will have the borg revealing themselves to Ozpin as well as a little reunion between a drone and two birds. As always please read and review. That being said, peace.

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guest- I am writing RWBY Chronicles chapter 9 in tandem with chapters of other stories, it will be up when it is complete. Please do not spam requests for updates in the review section. Use the PM instead.