Remnant of a Shinobi

by AuraofChakra

During the final battle between Naruto and Sasuke, things don't go so smoothly. Sent off to another world, Naruto is ready for a new adventure. What awaits him in this new world where people not only have to deal with each other, but a race of creatures that solely exist to destroy humanity?

17. Chapter 17 - The Day of Disaster

Chapter 17 – The Day of Disaster

It is the morning for the singles round of the Vital Festival Tournament. Naruto is waking up and is luckily not feeling any aftereffects from his fight with Pyrrha yesterday. He yawns as he says, "Today should be pretty fun."

"The festival will be ending in a few days, so you better enjoy this respite" Kurama tells Naruto. "I have a feeling the teachers are going to throw loads of work at all of you once classes start up again."

"Yeah, you're probably right…" Naruto admits. He then cleans himself up before heading to Team RWBY's room and knocking on the door.

Ruby opens the door and greets Naruto saying, "Hey Naruto! How are you this morning?"

"Pretty good!" Naruto answers. He then looks over and sees Yang doing warm up stretches before he says, "Looks like you guys picked Yang you be your singles representative, ya know."

"You know it!" Yang exclaims in response. "I can't wait for my fight to start."

"Weiss and Yang's discussion of who to pick was surprisingly fast" Blake informs Naruto.

"At the moment, I still get overwhelmed easier in a battle than Yang does" Weiss reluctantly admits.

"With the way we've been having to fight those Super Grimm that'll probably change soon" Yang tells her.

"So, do you know who you're facing?" Naruto asks Yang.

"I think it's that Mercury guy" Yang answers.

"Possibly the worst opponent for you" Blake comments.

"It isn't like she's that bad at dealing with kicks, ya know" Naruto points out.

"Besides, all that practice helped with that" Yang further comments as she finishes her stretches.

"What are your plans after you win?" Naruto further asked Yang.

Yang thinks for a second before responding, "Not really sure. Why'd ya ask? Did you wanna go on a date or something?" Yang asked half-jokingly.

Naruto rubs the back of his head as he says, "Yeah actually."

This makes Yang smile as she asks, "So, what's your plan for the date?"

Naruto looks down slightly as he answers, "That's the hard part. The fairgrounds have so much to do it's hard to narrow down."

"True, but as long as it's just the two of us it still counts" Yang answers.

Upon hearing Yang and Naruto's plans, Ruby looks at Blake and Weiss before asking, "What are you guys gonna do?"

"Just watching the fights and that was about it" Weiss answers.

"Same for me" Blake also answers.

Since Ruby's plans are the same as Weiss and Blake's, she asks, "Are we lame?"

"You're not lame" Yang answers. "You're just not dating anyone at the moment."

"Not for lack of people trying" Naruto comments. This makes Weiss roll her eyes as she knows he is referring to Jaune. Blake on the other hand is unsure of where things stand between her and Sun. Ruby is already bored of this topic. Noticing how quiet it got, Naruto asks, "You guys ready to head out?"

"We wanted to stop by Team JNPR's room first" Ruby answers.

"Sounds good to me" Naruto answers. With them all in agreement, the group of five heads to Team JNPR's room and knocks on the door.

Nora opens the door and says, "Hey everybody!"

"Hey Nora!" Ruby says, greeting Nora in turn.

"How are you guys this morning?" Blake asks Nora.

"We're all doing pretty good" Nora says as she lets them in.

"Will you be JNPR's singles representative?" Weiss asks Nora.

"Oh no, that's gonna be Pyrrha" Nora answers. This takes Naruto and Team RWBY by surprise.

Seeing the looks on their faces, Ren asks, "Why are you all surprised? Pyrrha should be the obvious choice."

"Well yeah, normally…" Naruto says with hesitation.

Ren gets confused and asks, "What do you mean?"

The visiting group of five all look at each other before Blake decides to point out, "Pyrrha had a grueling all out fight with Naruto yesterday."

"And Pyrrha needed help getting back to the dorm room" Yang adds.

"You all make a good point, but Pyrrha insisted" Jaune informs them.

Ruby has a concerned look on her face as she says, "I hope she isn't pushing herself too hard…" This all makes Jaune start getting a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach, but he tries to ignore it.

Pyrrha is in the bathroom looking at herself in the mirror. She is in better condition than she was yesterday, but some of her injuries are still lingering. In particular the ones she received after her Aura was shattered. She clutches her chest where Naruto hit her with the finishing blow. She then looks at her mirrored reflection in the eyes and says to it, "Come on Pyrrha, suck it up. This may be the last tournament you ever get to participate in." She then finishes putting her armor on as she exits the bathroom to see all her friends waiting on her.

"There's the uncrowned champ!" Nora exclaims.

"Oh, we'll see about that!" Yang says in defiance.

"Are you your team's representative?" Pyrrha asks.

"That's right" Yang confirms with a confident expression.

"Then I look forward to the chance to face you" Pyrrha says with her own confident expression.

"We should try to get there a little early to get front row seats" Jaune suggests.

"That's a good call" Naruto responds. They all then head to the arena, but all the front row seats are already taken. Upon seeing this, Naruto says, "So much for that…"

"We'll just have to settle for second row" Ruby comments.

Owen of Team AERO notices them and says to his teammates, "Think we should offer them our seats?"

"What do you guys think?" Allen asks Erin and Danni.

"I'm up for it" Erin answers.

"We kinda owe them" Danni answers as well.

Allen then stands up and yells, "Over here!" to Naruto, RWBY, and JNPR.

"Oh hey, it's Team AERO" Naruto points out. The group of nine walk over as Naruto asks, "What's going on?"

"We heard you guys were looking for front row seats" Erin answers.

"Yes, but clearly we're too late" Weiss states.

"You guys can have our seats, although it's only four" Allen tells them.

"We'd appreciate that!" Jaune states. "But why?"

"Consider it a thank you for putting Faldin in his place" Allen tells them.

"Oh, it was our pleasure!" Nora exclaims, wishing she could do it again. Team AERO smile as they go get new spots in the second row.

"Now, how are we going to decide who gets the front seats?" Blake asks.

After some thought, Naruto suggests, "How about Team RWBY take the front seats right now. Yang's fight will be before Pyrrha's and after Yang's fight you guys can switch.

"That works" Ren states.

"So, then what about you?" Jaune asks Naruto.

"I'll just sit in the second row with you guys 'till after Yang's match" Naruto answers.

"Then what?" Jaune continues to ask.

"Then me and Yang got a date" Naruto further answers with a smile. Jaune asks nothing further as they all sit down. After a little while longer of the fans pouring in, Oobleck and Port announce the start of the round.

---

After a few of the singles matches have concluded, Port announces, "This next match should be quite interesting. The fleet-of-foot kicking master Mercury Black vs the Golden-haired fiery brawler Yang Xaio Long!" Yang gets up and is ready to go. As her and Mercury approach each other, Ruby, Weiss, and Blake can be heard cheering her on.

"You better not go easy on me" Yang tells him.

"You wish" Mercury answers in turn.

Yang and Mercury enter their battle stances and slowly approach each other as Port counts down, "3…2…1…fight!"

Yang pulls back her fist and throws a straight right as Mercury meets the punch with a leaping spinning back kick. After the collision, Mercury then runs at Yang and throws another kick only for Yang to jump over him. Upon landing, she launches one of her projectiles point blank which Mercury manages to weave out of the way of. Yang then does a spinning back fist which Mercury blocks with own. They have a small hand-to-hand exchange which Yang gets the better of as she knocks Mercury back with an Ember Celica enhance blow. Mercury manages to backflip back onto his feet. Yang launches more projectiles from her position and Mercury jumps around the battlefield to avoid being hit before taking to the air and coming down with an axe kick. Yang manages to block it and then tries to hit Mercury with her own kick. However, Mercury launches himself up and backflips away from the kick before Yang attempts to hit Mercury upon his landing. What happens instead is he hits her with a bicycle kick knocking Yang backwards. Yang manages to recover midair and lands on her feet before boosting herself back towards Mercury with her Ember Celica. She throws a flurry of punches with Mercury blocks and then they collide reverse high kicks before Mercury kicks out Yang's knee making her fall over. He attempts a flipping axe kick, but Yang rolls away in time.

"That seems like a dumb move…" Naruto points out.

"He's probably just trying to be flashy" Weiss comments.

"He's about to regret it!" Ruby exclaims.

While Mercury is still low to the ground, Yang hits the ground causing a small localized shockwave, but Mercury was prepared as he keeps kicking at Yang from his lowered position. Yang blocks them as they both go back to a standing position, but Mercury keeps up the assault. However, Yang blocks all the kicks and then manages to land an uppercut to his jaw and then lands an elbow strike that knocks him back. Yang once again fires more projectiles making Mercury keep backflipping to avoid them. This makes him fall out of the ring. However, he uses a shot from his boots to boost himself back into the ring before he touches the floor. Upon landing, he continues his kicking assault which Yang is able to block until Mercury lands a kick to her back. Luckily Yang is able to keep her balance retaliate and with her own blows. Mercury manages to knock her back with another leaping back kick and follows up with a projectile from his boot. Yang rolls out of the way only for Mercury to start launching multiple shots. Yang manages to weave out of the way of a few of them and close the distance to get into another close quarters exchange which Mercury. He gets the better of it as he kicks her out of the air and into the ground. Then all of the shots Mercury fired converge onto the downed Yang.

"Oh no! Yang!" Blake shouts in concern.

"She's fine" Naruto states.

"Now it's her turn" Ruby states.

Mercury is dusting himself off with an unconcerned look on his face before a fiery burst occurs behind him as Yang is standing there with red eyes slamming her fists together. She rushes in as Mercury's eyes go wide and she dodges all of Mercury's attacks before she lands punch after punch before landing a nice hook to Mercury's jaw ending the match. Yang takes a breath before raising her fist in victory.

"That was awesome!" Naruto shouts.

"I knew she'd win!" Ruby shouts as well. Weiss and Blake just smile.

"Better luck next time" Yang tells Mercury as she starts walking away.

As Mercury is on his knee he mutters, "There won't be a next time, blondie!" He then goes to attack Yang and Yang retaliates seemingly breaking Mercury's leg. However, all anyone saw was Yang ruthlessly attack Mercury out of nowhere as he is now yelling in pain.

Seeing this Port yells out, "Cut the cameras!" The cameras then stop the broadcast.

Multiple Atlas soldiers now run in with guns drawn telling Yang, "Stand down!"

"Wha? But I didn't—" Yang tries to protest but the guards will not hear her out.

"The hell's going on?!" Naruto shouts as he hops over the rails to go back up Yang.

An Atlas soldier gets in his way and tells Naruto, "Stand down or I will open fire!"

Naruto speaks in a no-nonsense tone as he says, "Move…"

Oobleck spots the altercation and shouts over the loudspeaker, "Mr. Uzumaki stand down right now!"

Seeing this whole situation Yang says, "Wait, this can't be…" She then runs out of the arena.

"Yang wait!" Ruby shouts as she and the rest of her team run after Yang. Naruto sees this and follows suit.

---

RWBY, Naruto, and Ironwood are all in Team RWBY's room with two Atlesian Knight 200's guarding the door. Ironwood speaks up first saying, "I'm sorry, but you've left us with no choice."

Yang, who is sitting on her bed shouts, "But he attacked me!"

Ironwood starts pacing as he responds, "Video footage and millions of viewers say otherwise."

"But Yang would never do that!" Weiss states, defending her teammate.

"Yeah!" Ruby states in agreement.

"Something really screwy's going on" Naruto says leaning against the door with his arms crossed.

Ironwood glances over at Naruto and says, "You shouldn't even be in here."

"Like hell I shouldn't!" Naruto indignantly responds. "You and everyone else out there are accusing Yang of something she'd never do!"

Seeing the anger in Naruto's eyes and the sorrow in Team RWBY's, he tries to defuse the situation as he says, "You all seem like good students, and the staff here at Beacon are fully aware that you would never lash out the way you did...under normal circumstances." This doesn't sit well with the others in the room, but they want to hear him finish. "What I believe and hope this to be is nothing more than the result of stress and adrenaline. When you're out on the battlefield, your judgment can become clouded in an instant. Sometimes you see things that simply aren't there. Even after the fight has past..."

Knowing she's innocent, Yang starts to speak up again saying, "But I wasn't—"

Ironwood gets angry and shouts, "That's ENOUGH!"

This quiets most of the room down, but Naruto starts marching over ready to get in Ironwood's face. However, Yang grabs his hand. When he looks in Yang's eyes, he can see she does not want him to do anything, so he stops.

Seeing Naruto has stopped his advance, Ironwood speaks again saying, "The sad truth is, whether it was an accident or an assault, it doesn't matter. The world saw you attack an innocent student. They've already drawn their own conclusions. And it's my job to inform you that...you are disqualified." This shocks the entire room and Yang looks down now realizing her position. Ironwood then leaves the room.

Yang then looks up and asks, "You guys believe me, right?

"I know you'd never do that" Naruto answers.

"Duh!" Ruby answers simply.

Weiss shakes her head and says, "You're hotheaded, but not ruthless."

Yang is about to cheer up a little, but then she notices Blake didn't say anything as she asks, "Blake?" Blake turns her gaze away from everyone, shocking the entire room.

"Don't tell me…" Naruto says in disbelief.

"I want to believe you..." Blake says hesitantly.

"Huh!?" Ruby shouts in shock.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Weiss asks with disapproval in her voice.

"Seriously? After everything you've been through as a team?!" Naruto shouts in justified anger.

"Blake?" Yang again asks. This time in a voice that shows how hurt she is as tears start to form.

Seeing that her friends are now against her, Blake starts to explain, "I had someone very dear to me change. It wasn't in an instant, it was gradual; little choices that began to pile up. He told me not to worry. At first, they were accidents. Then it was self-defense. Before long, even I began to think he was right." She then pauses and says, "This is all just...very familiar." Yang now has full on tears falling down as she thinks her partner does not believe in her. Seeing this, Blake says, "But you're not him. And you've never done anything like this before. So...I want to trust you. I will trust you. But first, I need you to look me in the eyes and tell me that he attacked you. I need you to promise me that you regret having to do what you did."

As Yang wipes the tears from her eyes, she says, "I saw him attack me, so I attacked back."

Blake lets out a sigh of relief before she smiles and says, "Okay. Thank you."

After that emotional roller coaster, Yang says, "I think I'm gonna rest up."

"We'll get out of your hair" Blake says as she, Weiss, and Ruby leave the room. However, Naruto stays.

Confused, Yang asks, "What are you doing?"

"There's no way you're gonna be able to rest with everything going on in your mind right now" Naruto tells her. "Trust me, I know." He then remembers he was unable to sleep after being unable to convince the Raikage to forgive Sasuke.

"Ever think that maybe I just want to be alone?" Yang asks.

"Do you?" Naruto asks in turn.

Yang pauses before she sighs and admits, "No…"

Naruto then sits next to Yang and says, "We did say we'd spend the day together, ya know."

"Yeah, but I can't leave the room" Yang reminds him.

"All that means is I'll be sticking around here" Naruto tells her.

"You'll miss the fights" Yang says, not wanting to make Naruto have to stick around just for her.

"Eh, they'll probably be boring anyway" Naruto replies, implying to Yang that no excuse she comes up with is going to get him to leave.

Yang simply smiles and says, "I'm glad I'm not alone right now." She then grabs his hand again.

Naruto then looks at Yang and keeps a serious look as he tells her, "I don't know how, but we're gonna figure out what happened."

"I don't know, the whole world seems like it's against me right now…" Yang says with sadness in her voice.

Naruto, full of confidence says, "Us versus the world? Sounds like fun, ya know!" He then dawns his signature grin.

Yang just laughs at his response. She then says, "I can never seem to stay sad around you."

"Well, that's good" Naruto replies. "When you're happy so am I."

Yang looks at Naruto in the eyes before she leans in, and they share their first kiss. This time, Naruto is not caught by surprise. After the kiss, Yang leans on his shoulder and says, "I'm glad you're here."

Still keeping a bright smile on his face, Naruto says, "I wouldn't wanna be anywhere else."

Just outside the window, Qrow is standing there having overheard everything. He thought he might have to try and cheer up Yang, but he sees Naruto more than has it covered. He has a smirk on his face as he hops down while thinking, "She'll be just fine."

---

Back to Ruby, Blake, and Weiss who had just exited into the hallway. Weiss speaks up first saying, "This is a mess."

"I hope she'll be okay" Blake says as she is afraid her hesitation only made Yang feel worse.

Ruby is looking around and asks, "Where's Naruto?"

Blake and Weiss now notice he is not there with them and Blake says, "There's no way we missed him walking off, right?"

Weiss looks back at the door and then puts her ear up against it allowing her to hear Naruto and Yang talking. She then says, "He's still in there." She then pulls her ear away from the door and says, "Hope he can do something."

"I know he will!" Ruby answers.

Jaune and his team peak their heads out of their room and he asks, "She doing okay?"

Blake looks back the door and now that she knows Naruto is with her she says, "She'll be okay."

"Glad to hear that" Ren responds. "We were all wondering if there was anything we could do."

"Oh, that's easy" Ruby starts to answer.

"It is?" Nora asks confused.

"Yup!" Ruby says before looking at Pyrrha. "You be sure to win one for Beacon, okay?"

"It's what Yang would want" Weiss says following up.

Pyrrha, who is still feeling the stress of what she learned yesterday, looks up and answers, "I'll…do my best."

Full of excitement, Ruby says, "I'll be sure to watch tonight in case you're picked!" Pyrrha tries to keep up her appearance of confidence. Ruby then heads off.

"I know I said I planned on watching the fights, but I think I've had enough for the day…" Blake states with a hint of exhaustion.

Weiss nods and responds, "Ditto." She then looks at Blake and asks, "Coffee?"

Blake smiles and says, "Tea." She and Weiss then walk off.

Now that Ruby, Weiss, and Blake are gone, Nora gets in Pyrrha's face and says, "You heard the lady! No more moping around! We gotta get your butt in shape for the big fight!" She then starts doing random exercises, much to everyone's confusion. "It could be today, it could be tomorrow, it could be the most important fight of your entire life!"

Ren with an apron on says, "Nora's right. You can't let your concern for Yang hold you back. You need to focus. Since Naruto cannot fight, You'll be the one defending the honor of Beacon Academy."

Pyrrha nods and starts to say, "Of course. I—"

Ren holds a glass filled with a green liquid making bubbling noises in front of her face making Pyrrha speechless. He then says, "This blend of herbs and vegetables is filled with nutrients vital to your body's well-being."

"Oh, that's—" Pyrrha starts to say.

"Please, there's no need to thank me" Ren says presumptively.

Nora makes a grossed-out face and says, "Thank you? Ugh, that looks like slime from a lakebed!"

Ren feigns being offended as he starts to say, "Algae contains numerous spectacular properties—"

"Uh, guys?" Jaune tries to speak up. "She just had a really big fight yesterday. Maybe she could just use some more rest?"

"Pfft, that's ridiculous!" Nora responds. "She needs to keep that body from going soft!"

Pyrrha looks at her arms and questions, "Soft?"

"Which my drink will more than help with" Ren interjects.

"All that'll do is make her puke!" Nora argues.

Seeing this is going nowhere, Jaune says to Pyrrha, "Hey, how about we all get some fresh air?" Pyrrha smiles at him as they sneak away from their arguing teammates. Pyrrha is now waiting outside waiting for Jaune to come back. She cannot stop thinking about yesterday's revelations. Luckily, these thoughts are broken up as Jaune comes back with some cotton candy. "Hey. It's no green goop, but I think it still might do some good."

Pyrrha, caught somewhere between reality and her own mind, slowly takes the treat and says, "Um, right. Thank you, Jaune."

Jaune can still see Pyrrha is bothered by something, which only adds to the ill feeling he has had since this morning. He takes a seat next to Pyrrha and says, "You were the first person to ever believe in me, you know that?" He then gives a slight laugh and continues, "Even when I told my parents I was going to Beacon, they told me not to worry if I ended up having to move back home. How depressing is that?"

"I'm sure they didn't mean—" Pyrrha starts to say before she gets surprised by Jaune placing his hand on hers.

"I guess...I'm just trying to say that...you've always been there for me even when I didn't deserve it" Jaune tells her. "And I can tell there's something on your mind, so...I don't know. How can I help?"

Pyrrha, stunned and also happy, places her hand on Jaune's shoulder and says, "You're already doing it." As the two continue to look at each other, Pyrrha sees an autumn leaf fall which makes her immediately recall the cause of her stress. She gets up and starts to say, "Jaune…"

"Hmm?" Jaune reacts in confusion.

Pyrrha takes her hand away and says, "I don't know what to do…"

"W-What do you mean?" Jaune asks, ever more confused.

Pyrrha looks back at Jaune and asks, "Do you believe in destiny?"

Not sure how to answer, Jaune says, "Um...I-I don't know. I guess that depends on how you view it."

"When I think of destiny, I don't think of a predetermined fate you can't escape" Pyrrha starts to explain. "But rather...some sort of final goal, something you work towards your entire life."

"Okay. Uh, yeah. I can see that, sure" Jaune responds.

Pyrrha tries to find the right words before continuing, "Well...what would you do if something came along that you...never expected? Something that had the potential to stand between you and your destiny?"

"Like what?" Jaune asks, wondering where this is coming from.

"Or what if you could suddenly fulfill your destiny in an instant, but at the cost of who you were?" Pyrrha continues on.

Getting more confused, Jaune goes to grab Pyrrha's shoulder as he says, "Pyrrha, you're not making any sense."

Pyrrha then stands further away as she holds herself and becomes more hysterical as she says, "None of it makes sense! This isn't how things were supposed to happen!"

Jaune starts walking after Pyrrha saying, "I'm sorry! Please, I-I'm just trying to understand what's wrong." He then thought to himself, "I wish Naruto was here right now. He always seems to know what to say in times like this…"

"I've always felt as though I was destined to become a Huntress; to protect the world..." Pyrrha starts to say. She then sighs and continues, "and it's become increasingly clear to me that my feelings were right. But..." She then looks at Jaune. "I don't know if I can do it."

"Of course you can" Jaune tells Pyrrha. "The Pyrrha Nikos I know would never back down from a challenge. And if you really believe it's your destiny to save the world..." He then continues to move closer to her. "You can't let anything stand in your way." Jaune, not knowing what Pyrrha was talking about, unintentionally made things worse as Pyrrha looks devastated and she starts to sob. Now seeing his answer made things worse, Jaune asks, "Pyrrha?"

Pyrrha turns away from him and tells him, "Stop…"

Jaune further approaches and asks, "Did I say something wrong?"

"STOP!" Pyrrha shouts. She also unintentionally activated her Semblance and makes Jaune fly back and makes his armor cling to the metal beam. This obviously takes Jaune by surprise and gathers the attention of spectators. Pyrrha looks at what she did and in concern says, "Jaune!" She releases Jaune and the tears stream down as she says, "I'm sorry…" She then runs off.

"Pyrrha wait!" Jaune shouts out desperately. Absolutely confused at what just happened, Jaune can't help but ask, "What did I say?"

---

Ruby is walking around not sure what to make of all that has happened. She decides to enter the arena and seeing the crowd cheers her up a little. However, she sees what looks like Emerald glaring down. Ruby then mutters, "Emerald's…here?" This confuses her because both Emerald and Mercury were supposed to have left Vale. Emerald then stares back at Ruby. Now worried, Ruby then runs to get out of her sight. She ends up by another entrance to the coliseum when she hears the announcement for the randomization selection. However, Ruby then sees Mercury step out into view. She squints as if to make sure and asks, "Mercury?"

Port then announces, "It looks like our first contender is...Penny Polendina from Atlas."

Ruby asks Mercury, "What are you doing?"

"And her opponent will be…Pyrrha Nikkos of Beacon!" Port announces.

Hearing this matchup, Ruby realizes the problem and mutters, "No…"

Mercury makes a contemplating stance and in his usual cocky tone says, "Ooh, polarity versus metal. That could be bad." Ruby reaches back for Crescent Rose, only to realize she doesn't have it on her.

In the coliseum the two competitors could not have more opposite mindset. Penny is excited and confident while Pyrrha's mind is a mess. Penny speaks up saying, "Sal-u-tations, Pyrrha Nikos! It's an honor to finally meet you!" Pyrrha does not respond and is simply trying to keep her mind together. Penny then says, "This is going to be so much fun!"

Oobleck then counts down, "3…2…1…BEGIN!"

Penny begins by making her floating swords flow into a circle before pointing them all at Pyrrha and launching them. Pyrrha does a leaping roll to avoid them before running at Penny. The swords then rush back to Penny as Pyrrha configures her weapon into spear mode and is defecting the attacks from Penny's swords until they overwhelm her and Pyrrha backflips to get out of the exchange. Pyrrha then leaps at Penny while deflecting the first few swords and clashing with the ones close to Penny. Penny backflips away and her swords follow her before she rushes back in and commands her swords to strike Pyrrha twice. Pyrrha manages to block them, but she does get grazed, and she backs off.

Ruby is trying to get past Mercury to stop the match, but Mercury overwhelms Ruby every time she tries to get past. Ruby then thinks, "Hold on, Yang and Naruto trained you for this…" Mercury gets closer, overconfident as always. Ruby starts to run, but Mercury cuts her off. However, Ruby was counting on this and lands a clean punch to Mercury's jaw. Mercury isn't hurt, but he is shocked that it happened. This allows Ruby to get away.

Jaune looks on concerned as Pyrrha is staring at her weapons which bend awkwardly seeming because of her Semblance even though Pyrrha has not activated it. What no one looking on realizes is that this is Emerald's visual manipulation.

Pyrrha shakes herself of these thoughts and runs at Penny. Penny launches her swords again, but Pyrrha has gotten used to them which allows her to deflect them with her spear and land 3 slashes on Penny before she gets behind Penny and lands another slash knocking Penny into the air. Pyrrha follows her into the air and they get into a small exchange with Pyrrha getting the better of it as she knocks Penny back to the ground. Penny lands on her feet and gathers her swords around her again before she makes them get into a formation of three each that fire green energy blasts at Pyrrha. Pyrrha manages to avoid the blasts and block the swords that come at her from the side. She then lands a dashing thrust that makes Penny go flying back. Pyrrha takes a breath only for Penny to come rushing back in and land an impactful hit on Pyrrha. Pyrrha rolls onto her feet, but one of the swords knocks her weapons away. Pyrrha tries to use her Semblance to reclaim her blade, but Penny's sword knocks it away again. Penny then aims her swords at Pyrrha. Pyrrha is worried, but not overwhelmed.

Emerald then activates her ability and makes Pyrrha see countless of Penny's blades instead of eight.

Thinking she will die otherwise, Pyrrha uses her Semblance to send what she thinks are countless blades flying away. What she did not know is that Penny's blades are connected to her by wires, and the force of Pyrrha's Semblance makes the blades wrap around Penny and shred her apart, taking her life. Pyrrha is absolutely horrified about was just happened as is everyone in the audience.

Ruby finally sees what happened and drops to her knees uttering, "Penny…" Tears start welling up in her eyes.

Oobleck puts his hand up to his ear and says, "Broadcast, what are you doing? Kill the feed!"

"Something's wrong!" The Broadcast operator responds. "We don't have control of the cameras! We can't even stop the broadcast!"

Oobleck is stunned as he responds, "What!? How is that possible!?"

The voice of Cinder can then be heard speaking to all those in Vale as well as everyone watching the broadcast. "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, but are, in reality, nothing more than men. Our Academies' Headmasters wield more power than most armies, and one was audacious enough to control both." Ironwood's eyes widen as she is clearly talking about him.

As Cinder continues to address everyone, Mercury casually walks towards Ruby and says, "Gotta say, wasn't expecting that. Your sister must have been giving you lessons when we weren't watching." He then looks at the Nevermore Grimm looking down from the roof and smirks. "And now I don't have to play stupid games anymore. It's time to get the fight that I want." He then squats down in front of the sobbing Ruby and says, "So, where's Naruto?"

With tears still in her eyes, Ruby simply responds, "What?"

"I'm asking where your dumb blonde friend is" Mercury asks impatiently.

"So you can hurt another one of my friends?!" Ruby hysterically responds.

Mercury just rolls his eyes and says, "I'll just find him on my own then."

---

Naruto and Yang are back in Team RWBY's room leaning out the window as they are listening to Cinder speak. Naruto simply asks, "What's happening?"

"I don't know…" Yang says completely confused. They then hear screaming as Grimm start pouring into the school.

One of the guards at the door says to the other, "Change of orders." The two guards then run off to deal with the Grimm invasion.

Hearing that the guards are gone, Naruto says, "We got work to do."

"Good, I got some stress to work out" Yang says as she's ready to fight.

Naruto opens the door, but then hesitates and says to Yang, "I'll be right back." He then closes the door. This leaves Yang standing there confused. About a minute later Naruto opens the door holding his Leaf Headband.

"Why'd you grab your headband?" Yang asks.

As Naruto puts on the headband, he says, "Because I have a bad feeling about all this."

Recalling Naruto tell her the headband gives him confidence, Yang nods in understanding. They then both hop out the window and both take out a Beowolf upon landing. They look towards where the Grimm are coming from and see a Goliath approaching.

"We should take that thing out before we move on" Naruto states.

"Didn't Oobleck say those things were too much for us?" Yang asks.

"That was before he found out about the Super Grimm" Naruto reminds her.

Another Beowolf approaches them and Yang punches it out as she says, "Good point."

Naruto then runs at the Goliath as he dodges an incoming Boarbatusk. He runs into an Ursa and jumps up from its claw attack. He lands on top of the Ursa before jumping to the Goliath. As the Ursa is distracted by the airborne Naruto, Yang takes out the Ursa with a five punch combo. As Naruto is approaching the Goliath in the air, the Goliath swings its trunk and knocks Naruto out of the air. Naruto guarded up reducing the damage and lands on his feet. He then takes out Orange Spark and puts it in spear mode as Yang boosts herself at the Goliath with Ember Celica. She then punches the Goliath right between the eyes only for the Goliath to barely react and it send Yang flying back with its trunk. She then looks up to see Naruto jump on top of the Goliath and pierce its back with his spear. The Goliath starts trying to shake Naruto off, so he pulls his spear out and jumps off. The Goliath then stands up on its hind legs and slams its front legs down unleashing a tremor that knocks down the unprepared Naruto and Yang.

"This thing really is on another level from the other Grimm…" Yang comments. When Naruto and Yang are starting to get up, the lesser Grimm start to pounce on them.

Naruto kicks a Beowolf jumping at him and says, "So are we!"

Yang smiles as she kicks one of the Beowolves into another one and punches an incoming Boarbatusk. She now has sight of the Goliath again and starts firing her projectiles at it. Naruto changes Orange Spark into dual staff mode and starts attacking the Goliath. Naruto's hits are not doing much as the Goliath swings its trunk at Yang. She manages to duck the incoming trunk and then counterpunch. It is more effective than it was against the Super Ursa, but it still isn't doing much.

"Okay, let's see how you like this!" Naruto shouts as he coats his staffs in Chakra. It was easier for him this time than it was against the Paladin, showing it's not as much of a burden as before. He manages to land four Chakra enhanced hits on the Goliath and this time it reels in pain.

"How is he…?" Yang starts to question as she sees the Goliath is clearly affected by his attacks now. She makes herself stay focused as she punches the trunk, upsetting the Goliath. Naruto then starts getting swarmed by the lesser Grimm which leaves him unable to back up Yang as the Goliath knocks her down and stomps on her. She manages to guard up and keep her Aura, but it took a major blow.

As The Goliath is about to stomp on Yang again, Naruto sees this and shouts, "Yang!" He busts through the horde of lesser Grimm just in time to push Yang out of the way and take the stomp instead. The Grimm continue to pour in.

Yang sees Naruto stuck there and shouts, "NO!" Her Semblance explodes as she starts busting through the horde of Grimm to try and get to Naruto before he is hit again. The Grimm then start getting shot allowing Yang to punch the Goliath and get it off of Naruto.

"That was close…" Naruto says as he holds his back which is now in a lot of pain. He and Yang then look to see that what is shooting the Grimm are the Atlesian Knights. With them distracting the lesser Grimm, Naruto says, "Now we can finish the Goliath."

Yang helps Naruto back to his feet before she shouts, "I'll go first!" She then runs in and lands two punches. Since those two punches are boosted by her Semblance, she manages to stagger the Goliath. Naruto puts Orange Spark back into spear mode and coats it in Chakra before running the Goliath through from below. The Goliath reels in even more pain than before as Naruto gets out from under the Goliath and back next to Yang. They then both punch the Goliath and finish it off.

Yang starts catching her breath before she says, "We gotta find the others."

Naruto retrieves Orange Spark and says, "You're right."

"I'll check around here, you go check around the stadium" Yang tells him.

Naruto pauses before he says, "I don't like us splitting up, ya know."

"I'll be fine" Yang tells him. "Besides, I'm kinda worried about Ruby. I don't know if she has her weapon on her."

Naruto does not have a counter and says, "Fine, I'll try to find you later." He and Yang then head off in opposite directions.

---

Back in the Coliseum, Pyrrha is still staring horrified at what she did to Penny. The Nevermore is attacking the force field and is starting to crack it. Jaune looks at this and then back at Pyrrha who is directly under the Nevermore. Jaune shouts, "Pyrrha! Pyrrha, that thing's going to break in! You've gotta move!" Seeing that Pyrrha is not responding, Jaune jumps out of the stands and runs to Pyrrha.

"Jaune!" Nora shouts in concern.

"Pyrrha, please snap out of it!" Jaune pleads as he draws close. The Nevermore then breaks through and upon landing knocks everything away. As it lets out a cry, it targets Pyrrha. However, it is stopped by a blur of rose petals as now Ruby is standing there with one of Penny's swords.

"Ruby?" Pyrrha says in surprise.

Ruby has an expression that conveys her anger as she yells at the Nevermore, "Leave her alone!"

The Nevermore flies up and begins to circle around only for it to get pinned down by incoming rocket lockers. The lockers open up as Ren, Nora, Jaune, Scarlet, Sage, Neptune, Sun, Team CFVY, Team AERO, and all the other remaining students who are in the colosseum go retrieve their weapons. The Nevermore starts to get back up as Ren runs up and slashes the Nevermore's eye. Arslan uses her rope to swing down and grab Yatsuhashi to send him into the air with Sage following suit. Not to be outdone, Nora runs up to the Nevermore's head and clobbers it with her hammer. This leaves it too stunned to defend from the incoming Yatsuhashi and Sage who decapitate it.

Now that they are out of danger for the moment, Pyrrha looks at Ruby with tears in her eyes and says "Ruby, I...I'm so sorry…"

Ruby has a sad expression as she says, "Me too. But it wasn't your fault."

"She's right" Jaune says in agreement. He has Pyrrha's weapons in his hands. "Whoever was on that microphone...they're the ones that did this. And we have to make sure they don't take anyone else."

Pyrrha takes her weapons back from Jaune and gains a more determined expression. They all then look over to Ruby who looks at all her fellow students ready to fight. Then Griffon Grimm start to assemble around them.

"Griffons" Ren points out.

"Anybody got a plan of attack?" Neptune asks.

"Sun! I need your Scroll!" Ruby requests. Sun gives it to her and she uses it to summon her locker and it opens up revealing Crescent Rose. A Griffon then cuts her off, but then a gunshot from Port takes it out.

"Students! I think it would be best for you to leave" Port tells them.

"But we did a—" Ruby starts to say.

"Miss Rose!" Oobleck says cutting her off. "This day will surely go down in Remnant's history. I'd prefer it if my students could live to tell about it."

Ruby nods before grabbing her scythe and telling her fellow students, "Let's go!" Her and her fellow students then start leaving the stadium.

Naruto has just gotten to the stadium, and he sees the students starting to flow out. He spots Ruby and starts to call out to her saying, "Ruby? Hey, Rub—" He is cut off by someone coming in with a flying kick which he just managed to dodge.

Ruby starts to turn around thinking she heard her name, but Jaune says to Ruby, "Hey, come on!"

"R-right!" Ruby then keeps going.

Naruto looks at the assailant and sees that it is Mercury as he asks, "Mercury? What are you doing here?"

Mercury smirks and says, "Getting what I want."

"I thought that sounded like Cinder on the loudspeaker, so I guess you being here adds up" Naruto comments.

"Whatever" Mercury says dismissively. "I'm done pulling stunts! It's time I finally get the fight I've been wanting…"

"What do you mean by stunts?" Naruto questions. Mercury deviously smirks as he does the 'surrender gesture' he did in his spar with Pyrrha. Naruto's eyes widen as he now realizes that was a set up for all of this. He then asks, "Was what happened with Yang a stunt too?"

Mercury clutches his leg and then in a mocking fashion says, "Why would you do that?"

Naruto clenches his fists and teeth in anger. He tries to stay calm as he tells Mercury, "You don't want this fight."

"Oh, you're damn right I want this fight!" Mercury shouts in return. "And afterwards, Roman will never live it down."

Naruto becomes completely floored by Mercury's reasoning for wanting to fight him. Naruto simply says, "I knew I didn't like you…"

Mercury shrugs before sending a shot from his boot right at Naruto. Naruto dodges it almost effortlessly. Mercury then closes the distance before doing a leaping roundhouse kick and upon landing he does a reverse roundhouse kick and then two more quick kicks off of the same leg. Naruto ducks the leaping roundhouse but is almost caught by the follow up reverse roundhouse. He ducks in time but is then hit by the two quick kicks from Mercury. Mercury follows up by doing a rising front kick into an axe kick with the same leg. Naruto gets hit by the front kick, but he manages to block the axe kick. This surprises Mercury as he expected Naruto to be a little more stunned after getting hit by three of his kicks. Naruto then kicks out the leg Mercury is standing on, but Mercury spins in midair to stop Naruto from grabbing him as he then backflips away.

Naruto feels his chin and says, "Not bad, but my girlfriend hits a lot harder." He then takes out Orange Spark and puts it into spear mode.

"Come on, I wanna see that power that scared off Neo" Mercury tells him.

"You're not worth it" Naruto said, taunting Mercury.

Mercury gets annoyed and says, "Then I'll force it out of you!" He does a step-in kick that fires off one of his shots. Naruto side steps it and then takes the fight to Mercury with two wide sweeping slashes followed by a thrust. Mercury ducks under the first slash and flips over the second. He goes to try and attack, but then has to back up from Naruto's thrust. Naruto then does a reverse roundhouse kick of his own. Mercury ducks it at the last second and then leaps over a follow up spear swing before he attempts to dropkick Naruto. Naruto drops the spear in order to dodge the dropkick. He then tried to hit Mercury with a lariat, but Mercury manages to back away from it. However, without a second wasted, Naruto kicks his spear into the air before grabbing it and throwing it at Mercury. Mercury's eyes widen as he just barely manages to dodge the spear. He then turns back to face Naruto, only to receive a punch to the jaw from Naruto's metal arm that sends him skidding across the ground. Naruto then jumps up and is about to slam down on Mercury.

Mercury manages to roll out of the way in time and get back to his feet. However, he has lost his cocky attitude. He thinks to himself, "Okay…I guess the hype around this guy wasn't exaggerated…" He is then shocked when one of his teeth falls out.

"It's not too late, ya know" Naruto tells Mercury. "You can walk away right now and I won't chase you." Mercury takes this as an insult and runs right at Naruto. He sees this and says, "Fine, this is on you!" Naruto rushes Mercury as well, but has unconsciously increased his speed. This catches Mercury off guard and he is unable to guard against the two straight punches to his gut from Naruto. Naruto then sends Mercury flying with a kick. Not just speed, but Naruto's hits now seem to have more impact.

Kurama is surprised at Naruto's sudden increase in speed and strength as he thinks, "Is he amping himself with Chakra?" He then checks Naruto's Chakra supply and is shocked by what he sees.

As Mercury is getting up, he yells, "I'm not done yet!" He then starts recklessly trying to kick Naruto.

Naruto is dodging each one as he says, "You're nowhere near good enough to justify that cocky attitude." He then catches Mercury's leg. Mercury's eyes widen as he tries to kick Naruto with his other leg. Naruto ducks that kick, but then Mercury does a flip kick to get out of Naruto's grasp. However, as Mercury gets up, Naruto is already in his face and punches Mercury so hard that he slams into the stadium and is knocked out cold. Seeing what he just did to Mercury, Naruto looks at his hands finally noticing his increased strength and speed and says, "What's going on?"

"Something unexpected has happened" Kurama answers. "Your Aura and Chakra have started to…merge."

"Did you say merge?!" Naruto internally responds to the fox.

"Yes…" Kurama answers as he looks at Naruto's Aura and Chakra pools and a small portion has merged into something new.

Naruto walks towards Mercury as he tries to process this new development. Upon inspecting Mercury, he finds a vial of the strange blue Dust. He picks it up and says, "So here's the stuff we've been after."

Now that the Dust is in Naruto's hands, Kurama is able to inspect it. His eyes widen as he says, "Naruto…that Dust. It…it's Chakra."

Naruto almost drops the vial from hearing this revelation. He asks, "What?! How?!"

Kurama is racking his mind trying to come up with an answer. He then theorizes, "I'm guessing that it happened when your Chakra left your body. That massive reservoir of Chakra had to go somewhere, and like excess Chakra often does it went into the planet. Then that Chakra became the planet's own power and it manifested that energy the same way it does everything else here, through Dust."

Naruto starts freaking out as he says, "This is all my fault…everything that's happened it my fault!"

"Naruto calm down!" Kurama yells. "You're spouting nonsense. You may have accidently brought Chakra here, but the Grimm have been terrorizing humanity for countless lifetimes before you got here."

While Naruto still feels horrible, he knows Kurama is right. He says, "Thanks Kurama…" Naruto then comes to a realization saying, "Wait…"

"What is on your mind now?" Kurama asks.

"Do you remember those blue streams then went into my friends after beating the Super Grimm?" Naruto internally asks Kurama.

"Yes. Why do—" Kurama starts to say until he comes to the same realization Naruto did.

"Team RWBY all have Chakra now" Naruto points out.

"This changes things…" Kurama comments. "Some of your other friends likely have it too now."

Naruto knows he is referring to Team JNPR. He is not sure what to do with this new information. He then hears screaming and says, "This can all wait for now." He then runs off to help where he can. Off in the distance, Mountain Glenn starts to come apart as a giant Wyvern Grimm comes out. With a cry it takes flight and heads toward Beacon. As this Wyvern is flying by, black ooze drips from its wings. Upon this ooze hitting the ground, more Grimm spawn.

---

Ruby and her fellow students have come upon Ironwood fighting off the Grimm. Ruby shouts out to him, "What's going on!?"

"Grimm are crawling all over the city. The White Fang's invaded Beacon, and to make matters worse, some... vagabond has seized one of my ships" Ironwood answers while trying to fight off the Grimm. "Until we regain command, the skies are out of our control. So I'm...going to take it back." He starts to move but stops when asked…

"What should we do?" Jaune asks.

Ironwood turns around to face the students and says, "You have two choices. Defend your Kingdom and your school...or save yourselves. No one will fault you if you leave." Ironwood then climbs onto one of the dropships. "Let's move out!"

As the students discuss amongst themselves, Sun says, "I mean...come on!"

"We can take a ship to Beacon!" Jaune suggests. They then start entering ships to join the battles.

As this is happening, Torchwick has been freed thanks to the infiltration of Neo. He then enters the Black Queen virus into the command ship and says, "Oh-ho-ho! Now this one, this one's gonna be fun!" This makes all the Atlesian robots follow the commands of the enemy and attack the Huntsmen and citizens. The dropship Ironwood boarded starts going down, leaving the Command Ship untargeted. Seeing this, Ruby runs out of the air bus as it is taking off.

"Ruby, what are you doing?!" Sun asks.

Ruby does not answer as she lands on the runway and then heads to the Stadium. She finds one of the rocket lockers and punches in a code that sends it flying. She latches onto it with her scythe and goes flying as well. By a stroke of luck, she manages to land on top of the Command ship.

Roman hears this and tells Neo, "Ugh, go see what it is…" Neo goes to check it out. When she sees it is Ruby, she snaps a picture and send it to Roman with the caption, "Guess who." When Roman sees this he says, "Oh you can not be serious!" He sighs and then says, "At least she didn't bring the blonde kid with her…" He then goes to help deal with Ruby.

Ruby has engaged in combat with Neo starting with a low swing which Neo flips over and then she ducks Ruby's follow up swing. Ruby twirls Crecent Rose and swings again, but Neo easily back flips over it. Ruby says, "And here I was hoping the others were exaggerating about you…" Neo simply dawns her cocky smile at these words. Roman then fires a shot from the side which Ruby manages to duck down from.

"Little Red, little Red, you are just determined to be the hero of Vale, aren't ya?" Roman taunts.

"What are you doing!?" Ruby exclaims. "Without these ships, the Grimm will destroy everything!"

"That's the plan!" Roman gleefully explains. He then fires another shot which Ruby dashes to avoid only for Neo to kick her and make her almost fly off the ship. Neo then grabs Crescent Rose leaving Ruby unarmed. Roman strolls up and says, "I can't believe you were stupid enough to come here by yourself! I mean, you usually bring along your team or that blonde twit you like to hang around with."

Ruby looks at Roman approach and then back at Neo. She then thinks, "Roman can fight, but nowhere near as good as she can. But she seems to follow him everywhere, so if I can knock Roman off the ship…"

Roman squats down and says, "You know Red, I don't get people like you. You think you're going to change the world, but all you ever end up doing is—"

Ruby cuts him off by punching Roman right in the jaw making him slip and fall off the ship. Neo gets concerned and drops Crescent Rose before jumping after him. Once they're gone, Ruby pulls herself up and remembers her sister saying, "Sometimes a punch is the quickest way to quiet things down!" Ruby then enjoys that fact that no one is talking before she says, "Looks like you were right sis."

---

The students that boarded the air bus arrive at Beacon where Weiss and Blake are doing their best to fight off the Grimm, White Fang, and Atlas robots. The students quickly exit the vehicle starting with those who are capable opening fire. Team JNPR run over to check on Weiss and Blake with Nora asking, "You two okay?"

"We're fine" Weiss answers.

"Luckily nothing big has shown up yet" Blake further answers. Then An Atlesian Paladin 290 approaches. Blake sighs and says, "That's not my fault." Then a second Paladin approaches and the others look back at Blake. She looks back and asks, "What?"

"You know what they say about crossing a black cat's path!" Nora teases. This makes Blake groan.

Allen of Team AERO says, "As much as this whole thing sucks, we're glad we finally get to fight alongside you guys."

"Suck ups" Sun comments.

"Oh who asked you?" Danni says.

Pyrrha is smiling at the slight levity in the situation, but that smile turns to despair as she sees Ozpin standing in the school building doorway. She starts to approach him.

"Where is she going?" Nora questions.

"I'll go find out. You stay here and keep fighting!" Jaune tells his teammates as he follows Pyrrha.

"Guys! Focus!" Weiss shouts as the Knights and Paladins open fire. The students scatter as some decide to hold off the Grimm while others deal with the knights.

Blake looks off in another direction and sees White Fang members concentrated around there. She looks to her teammate as she does not know what to do. Weiss sees the White Fang and tells Blake, "Be safe." Blake nods as she heads over there and what she sees brings horror to her eyes. She sees a tall bull Faunus with dark red hair and a mask. He wears all black attire with red trim and wields a red long sword. This is Blake's old partner and lover, Adam Taurus. All she can mutter is, "No, Adam?"

Adam spots her and says, "Hello, my darling."

Back on the other side of the battle, one of the Paladins opens fire on Team CFVY and Coco starts to unload her minigun on it. The armor prevents the Paladin from sustaining heavy damage. Coco grits her teeth in annoyance and smacks an approaching Beowolf down. As more approach, Fox manages to cut them down. He says, "I don't usually see you this frustrated."

"Yeah well, it's been a rough couple of days" Coco responds. As the Paladin approaches, Yatsuhachi swings his Fulcrum at it and gets into a contest of strength. They are seemingly even until Nora comes from the side and knocks it off balance with her hammer. This allows Yatsuhaci to knock the Paladin onto its back. He turns to Nora and gives her a thankful nod.

Ren starts running towards the other Paladin as he tells team CFVY, "You'll need to do more than that." He opens fire before further closing the distance. The gunfire simply bounces off of the Paladin's armor as it opens fire on Ren. Ren slides under the heavy rounds of the Paladin and lands a rising kick and two slashes from his blades. Unfortunately for Ren it hardly scratches the Paladin's armor. He keeps composed though as Nora jumps up from behind him and staggers it with her hammer. They then have to scatter when more Knights start opening fire on them. Team's SSSN and AERO are holding off the Grimm, but they get distracted by a horrifying roar coming from somewhere in the distance.

"What the hell was that?" Owen asks.

"Dunno, I've never heard it before" Allen states. He then looks at Scarlet and asks, "What about you guys?"

"I mean, I can only assume a Grimm. But no Grimm I've heard before" Scarlet states. He looks over to Sage who is just as confused. He then looks over to Sun and Neptune who look panicked. "What's wrong with you two?"

"We're in serious trouble…" Sun states with a cold sweat beading down his neck, for he knows what kind of Grimm unleashes that roar. Scarlet looks at Sage confused as does the whole of Team AERO.

"Uh, it's not just those two" Danni points out. She motions to the worried faces of Team CFVY, Weiss, Ren, and Nora. Although Nora's is a mix of horror and excitement.

Coco turns to Velvet and says, "Velvet, do it now."

"Are you sure? Why not wait until—" Velvet starts to respond.

Coco cuts her off and says, "We need to take those Paladins out before those things show up!" Velvet nods and starts walking towards the Paladins.

"What are you doing? She's going to get hurt!" Weiss cries out in concern.

"Save your concern for later!" the normally calm and cool Coco tells her. "You know what's coming, save your strength and let her handle this."

As the Paladins focus on Velvet, she brings out a hard light copy of Crescent Rose. The Paladin opens fire and Velvet leaps into the air with the scythe behind her, straight out of Ruby's playbook. She slashes one of the Paladin's on the way down and upon landing deconstructs the Crescent Rose copy for a copy of Weiss' rapier, Myrtenaster. She parries the swing from the Paladin and then backflips to get some distance before doing a dashing thrust and then leaping doing multiple thrusts to the Paladin in the air. Then while still in the air, she changes out her copy of Myrtenaster for a copy of Yang's Ember Celica gauntlets. She lands a punch before landing and then rolling backwards before getting back up and launching hard light versions of the Ember Celica's projectiles. The Paladin retaliates with a swing of its arm but Velvet ducks and trades in her Ember Celica for a copy of Blake's Gambol Shroud sword and variable sheathe. She then catches the Paladin's arm on its return swing with the sword and wraps the Paladin's legs up in a hard light ribbon. This causes the Paladin to fall over. Weiss is absolutely stunned. Now she knew to never underestimate Velvet.

As the other Paladin approached Velvet, they went to attack each other when a Super Alpha Beowolf tears through the Paladin like it was made of paper. It strikes Velvet as well sending her flying back, but she is caught by Yatsuhachi. She looks up at him and says, "Thanks Yatsu…"

Yatsuhachi puts her down and says, "No problem." All the students then look to see two Super Alpha Beowolves have arrived on the scene.

"I should have known these things would show up tonight…" Weiss states with a sense of both annoyance and fear which only drew more Grimm in.

"What kind of Beowolves are those?! They're huge!" Erin exclaimed at the sight of her first Super Grimm.

"Think we can handle them?" Ren asked. "The other Super Beowolves we fought were normal, but these are alphas."

"You ask that question like there's actually a choice" Coco tells him. Ren nods acknowledging she's right.

Sage looks at Sun sweat and Neptune audibly gulp at the sight of these Beowolves. He asks, "So you gonna explain?"

"Those things are enhanced super versions of Grimm" Sun tells him. "They're even stronger than they look…and faster…and meaner."

"Those things almost killed everybody a few weeks ago, including the teachers" Neptune further commented.

Overhearing all this, Allen looks over at Weiss, Ren, and Nora who are ready to fight instead of panicking. He says, "Looks like those three have faced them before. No wonder they're so good." He and his team head over to the gathered Team CFVY, Weiss, Ren, and Nora.

"Got any tips for fighting these things?" Danni asks with clear nervousness in her voice.

"If at all possible, don't ever get isolated against one of them" Ren answers.

"These things will always be able to hit harder than you, so don't get into a strength battle with them" Nora speaks, recalling how poorly that went for before.

"Don't overuse the same tactics" Weiss further explained. "Unlike regular Grimm these things are able to learn during the fight."

"Okay…" Allen said, readying for them to attack as were the others.

"Come on guys" Sun said as he ran over to the other and his team followed. The gathered students stood across from the two Super Alpha Grimm. The roar of the Wyvern Grimm in the distance signaled the Alpha Grimm to attack. The group split in half as one of the Alpha Grimm ran up the middle at them. Owen swung his shuriken axe at the Alpha Grimm from behind, but the Alpha Grimm dashes out of the way and strikes back before Owen has time to recover. Luckily for him, Danni was able to intercept with her shield. However, the force from the enhanced Alpha Grimm sent them both off their feet. Erin got in front of them to face off with The Alpha Grimm.

As its attention was focused on Erin, Allen caught the alpha's arms with his chain axes as yelled, "Get him now!" Erin, Owen, and Danni then each get a shot in on the Alpha. It does not do much and the Alpha yanks its arms forward sending Allen flying towards him. The Alpha is about to strike Allen when Fox snatches him out of the air and Yatsuhachi slashes at the Alpha from behind. The Alpha blocks the blade with its claws and Yatsuhachi backs up.

Allen wipes the sweat from his head as he instinctually knew his life could have been over there. He looks at his senior and says, "Thanks, I owe you big time."

"Don't thank me yet" Fox tells him.

Coco walks up beside Fox and says, "Save the thanks for if we make it out of this…"

Dealing with the other Alpha is Ren, Nora, Weiss, and Team SSSN. Sage slashes the Alpha with his great sword but the Alpha catches it and stares at him. Sage tries to keep up a brave face, but he is panicking. Scarlet fires and wraps his grappling hook around Sage before pulling him away as Neptune shoots the Alpha from the side and Sun attacks it from the front. The Alpha blocks all of Sun's attacks, but the point was to get Sage out of the Alpha's grasp, so it was worth it. Weiss then makes multiple glyphs and starts hitting the Alpha with a series of dash thrusts. During that series, the Alpha catches her leg and makes Weiss stumble. She manages to land on her feet and keeps running. This allows Nora to jump up and slam her hammer directly into the Alpha's head. The Alpha staggers for a second allowing everyone to get some distance.

"Thanks guys…" Sage says to his fellow students. The fact that he could have been killed right there weighs heavy on him.

"This sucks!" Sun exclaims. "These things already fight better than that Ursa did and that took me out with one hit!" His teammates turn to him a little shocked that one hit from one of these things was enough.

"I want to go home now…" Scarlet complains.

Weiss walks up to Neptune and tells him, "Hey, we got a plan."

Neptune hears the plan and says, "That's your plan?!"

"Oh, quit whining over there!" Nora shouts, still full of fight. She looks back to Ren who nods in return. They run at the Alpha Beowolf and then they jump to different sides of it. Nora jumps at it from the air, but lands just out of the Alpha's reach. It assumes Ren is the main attacker and turns to face him only to see Ren running away. It turns back to see Neptune look like he stabbed Nora from behind.

Sun's eyes widen as he shouts, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

"This was their idea!" Neptune shouts back as his weapon shocks Nora.

Nora has a satisfied grin as her Semblance converts the electricity from Neptune's weapon into her own power as she slams her hammer into the Alpha and sends it into the air. Ren is already in the air to meet it as he sends it back down with an axe kick. As it is about to land, Weiss hits it with a dashing thrust which sends it back.

Sun notices an opportunity and yells, "Scarlet, wrap it up!"

Scarlet nods and locks up the Alpha's legs with his grappling hook. Sun lands 4 hits on the Alpha before backing away. Neptune lands some shots from a distance before Sage knocks the Grimm off its feet with a swing from his sword. The Alpha goes tumbling back. This frustrates the Alpha and it lets out a very loud roar.

As the other Alpha that is dealing with CFVY and AERO hears this, it roars in unison, and they send out shockwaves knocking away all the students.

"Watch out! This is when it gets worse!" Weiss yelled out. It was to no avail as she could not be heard over the roars. The Alphas claws glow a fierce blue as one of the Alphas launches two flying slashes from its claws at Teams AERO and CFVY. Yatsuhachi throws Coco and Velvet away and ends up getting hit. His Aura shatters and blood starts flying as he gets a really bad gash.

"Yatsu!" Velvet shouts in concern.

Coco is livid and opens fire on the Alpha, but her bullets just bounce off and she shouts, "Dammit! This can't be happening!" She then looks over at Team AERO as she hears cries for help.

"Someone help! Please!" Allen cries out. Danni is laying in a beaten mess as she tried to block the flying slash with her shield, but part of her shield was destroyed, and the slash landed on her.

The other Alpha is attacking Team SSSN and slashes Scarlet in the leg. Scarlet screams in pain and Sage tries to defend him. As the Alpha's claw is coming down, Nora tries to hit the Alpha to stop the attack. However, the Alpha simply redirects the slash at Nora who gets pierced through her shoulder.

"Nora!" Ren shouts as he runs over in a panic. The Alpha throws the injured Nora at Ren knocking them both off their feet. It then approaches them ready to take them both out.

Weiss is running towards them with fear in her eyes as she is remembering the words her sister spoke to her. "What is going to happen when one of your friends gets injured and you are the only one who might be able to save them?" As Weiss gets closer, a glyph appears above her as she slides in front of Ren and Nora. She remembers her response to Winter and repeats them again, "I'll save them and that's all there is too it!" A white armored arm wielding a giant white sword comes out of the glyph and blocks the Alpha's slash. Weiss sees the arm and is shocked but knows she can't lose focus now. She tries getting the arm to push the Alpha back, but even the summon's strength cannot accomplish this.

Nora then gets up and grabs her hammer with the arm that can still move. She yells at the top of her lungs as a blue energy stream travels through her and lights up her eyes before she hits the Alpha in the chest with all she's got and manages to knock it back. She then says, "Thanks Weiss. Sorry we made you have to fight alone."

"We won't let it happen again" Ren says as he stands up.

As the Alpha is about to attack again, Neptune jumps up and thrusts with his trident. The Alpha forgot about them, so it was caught off guard and got hit. It was not affected much but it was distracted long enough for both Sun and Sage to land solid hits. They then head over the Weiss, Ren, and Nora as Sun says, "Don't forget about us."

Weiss smiles as she believes together, they can do this. She is then surprised when Nora grabs her shoulder. She asks Nora, "What's wrong?"

Nora motions over to Team's AERO and CFVY who only have Allen, Erin, Coco, and Velvet left standing. Nora tells Weiss, "They need your help. I promise you we got this!"

Weiss looks back to those with her who all smile back at her as she nods and runs over to the remnants of Team's CFVY and AERO. She makes her partial summon strike at the other Alpha in the back and it shutters in pain before looking back at her with anger.

A beaten and tired Coco who is missing her sunglasses looks at Velvet and asks, "How much you got left?"

"Just a few constructs" Velvet answers. She looks back at Yatsuhachi and a wounded Fox who is guarding him and she says, "But it'll be enough."

"What about you guys?" Coco asks Allen and Erin.

Allen has a gut would and is breathing heavy as he says, "We'll go low if you can go high…"

"Just what I was thinking" Coco said in agreement. She looked back to Weiss who is yelling and doing her best to fend off the Alpha with her partial summons, but she won't last much longer. If they were going to do this, it had to be now. "GO!"

"Come on Erin!" Allen yells as he runs to the Alpha. He wraps his chain axe around one of the legs of the Alpha and starts pulling as hard as he can.

The Alpha turns to deal with him when it almost gets decapitated by the summon as Weiss yells, "Don't you dare look away from me!" Now that it is once again distracted, Erin hits the back of the Alpha's leg with her tonfas. This makes the alpha's balance worse as Velvet jumps up and comes down with a hard light copy of Yatsuhachi's Fulcrum. She stabs it into the Alpha's back making it roar in pain. It is about to shake her off when Allen puts every last ounce of his strength into pulling the Alpha' leg out from under him. Weiss then has her summon thrust its blade into the Alpha and it manages to pierce through, and the Alpha falls down.

Weiss loses her summon and drops to her knees. Erin and Allen collapse as Velvet goes tumbling away. The Alpha starts to stir but Velvet raises her head and says, "You're done…"

Coco jumps onto the alpha and jams the barrel of her minigun into the Alphas mouth as she says, "Your hide's too tough for my bullets, but how about your insides?" She then opens fire and shreds the insides of the Super Alpha, finally taking it out. The blue energy stream is floating into the air. Weiss wonders if it is going to go into someone, but she is too tired to keep track of it.

Nora hits the other alpha in the jaw with her hammer while Sage slashes at its legs. Sun and Ren both land on its chest to succeed in knocking it down, but then it swipes them both away.

"You sure we can't boost you up with my Tri-hard again?" Neptune asks Nora.

Panting, Nora answers, "I'm out of Aura so it won't work…"

Getting up Sun asks, "Then how are we gonna finish this thing? Our two biggest weapons are out of gas." Referring to Weiss and Nora.

"Then we're just going to have to overwhelm it with small weapons" Ren replies.

"Dude, I'm sure that sounded way better in your head" Sun told him.

Ren slumped over and admitted, "Yeah…"

"If only there were a way to nail when it couldn't feel us coming" Sage commented.

This gave Ren an idea. He looked to Sun, Sage, and Neptune and told them, "Hold it off as best you can." He then grabbed Nora and got some distance.

"Seriously?!" Neptune cried out as the Alpha attacked. He dove out of the way and thrusts his weapon. The Alpha parried the blow and was about to land a killing blow when Sage tried to parry it. His weapon went flying and both he and Neptune got hit. Luckily it was not directly so they're relatively okay.

Sun then got in front of them and said, "Listen up mutt! I helped take down one a lot bigger than you so you don't scare me!" Sun stood there defiant, but he was bluffing. How could he not be? Yes, he helped take down the Super Giant Nevermore, but that did not change the fact that one on one, he stood no chance against this Grimm. But thankfully, it's not one on one.

Nora slammed her hammer into the side of the Alpha's head completely unguarded. This left the Alpha slightly disoriented as Ren shouted, "NOW!"

Neptune jammed his trident into the midsection of the Alpha and Sage ran off the grab his sword. Sun tripped up the Alpha with his staff as Ren stabbed its eyes out with his blades. He then started pulling back and lifting the head to expose its neck as Sage came running and yelling as he took off the Alpha's head with his sword. Standing above the corpse as it dissolved, Ren absorbed the rising stream of blue energy. They all then collapsed trying to catch their breath.

Neptune, while panting asked, "What happened there?"

Ren, also panting explained, "Sage gave me the idea. ""If only there were a way to nail when it couldn't feel us coming." My Semblance allows me and someone or something I'm touching to mask our emotions, like fear."

"And that let you and Nora be able to hide from the Grimm as long as it didn't directly see you?" Sage asked. Ren nodded on clarification.

Weiss has a smile on her face seeing that the others managed to take down the other Alpha. She then looked up to the sky and thought of her friends and said, "Please be okay…"

---

The Beacon vault elevator opens and Ozpin, Jaune, and Pyrrha exit. Looking around, Jaune asks, "What is this place?"

"It's...a type of vault" Pyrrha hesitates to answer.

"You've... been here before?" Jaune asks surprised. Pyrrha turns away from him not wanting to answer. "What would this school need to... hide?" Jaune said thinking out loud. He then gets his answer as he sees the Aura transfer machine and the girl inside. He cannot help but ask, "What? Who?"

"Jaune..." Pyrrha hesitantly says, wanting to try and explain things to him.

"Pyrrha! Get to the pods!" Ozpin tells her with urgency in his voice. Pyrrha looks at Jaune before she runs to the other pod. Ozpin then addresses his other student and says, "Mister Arc, if you'd like to help, you can stand guard here." Jaune looks confused but he turns around and takes a stance facing the elevator.

"What do we do now?" Pyrrha asks.

Ozpin is getting the machine ready as he says, "We, do nothing." The pod then opens and he says, "You, Miss Nikos... have a choice to make." Pyrrha looks at Jaune wishing she had more time before she climbs into the pod. As the pod closes, Ozpin looks at her and asks, "Are you ready?" Pyrrha gives a nod to which Ozpin says, "I…I need to hear you say it."

"Yes" Pyrrha says, having made her choice.

"Thank you, Miss Nikos" Ozpin said, wishing he did not have to do this. He activates the machine and an orange glow goes from Amber's pod to Pyrrha causing her to scream in pain.

Hearing this makes Jaune turn around and shout in concern, "Pyrrha!" He then runs over trying to check on her, not at all understanding why this is happening.

Seeing this all unfold, Ozpin simply says, "I'm...so sorry." Right after that an arrow pierced Amber's pod and pierces her chest. Her eyes open as she gasps, and her eyes slowly shut again. The young Maiden who was just barely clinging to life was now dead. Ozpin and Jaune turn around to see the culprit, Cinder. She smirked as the orange glow that was going into Pyrrha rushed over to Cinder, completing the Fall Maiden's power. She starts floating as trails of flame float around her eyes. Pyrrha starts hitting the glass in concern as Jaune points his sword at Cinder.

"Stay back!" Ozpin shouted. Cinder shot a fireball at Jaune and he guarded with his shield, but he was blasted back.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha shouted in concern. She then uses her Semblance to make the metal door of the pod fly off its hinges and right towards Cinder. Cinder smacks it away and starts to land. Pyrrha brings her weapons to her with her Semblance and charges at Cinder, only for Ozpin to put his hand in the way.

"Take Jaune and get out of here!" Ozpin tells her. "Find Glynda! Ironwood! Qrow! Bring them here right away! The tower cannot fall!"

"But I can help" Pyrrha tells him.

Ozpin turns his head and calmly says, "You'll only get in the way." Pyrrha hesitates but she does as requested and leaves with Jaune. He then turns his attention back to Cinder.

"This whole time...right beneath our feet" Cinder starts to taunt. "She was right about you. Such arrogance."

"If we're going to discuss her then I might as well ask some questions while I have the chance" Ozpin retorts. "This Dust she's been using, where did she get it? Where did it come from? I find it hard to believe she was able to create it."

"Oh, the professor asking questions of a student?" Cinder said continuing to mock. "That ruins the dynamic, doesn't it?"

"Like you were ever a student" Ozpin shot back. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Of course she wouldn't give someone like you that information." Ozpin was now the one trying to manipulate her.

"Watch your mouth!" Cinder shouted back. Clearly Ozpin knew which button to push. "It's not a grand secret, it just grows like all Dust does. It's just that she is the only one who could see what it was really capable of." And with that Ozpin had got what he wanted before a battle that he knew he would lose began.

---

After the crash, Ironwood joined Qrow and Glynda on the streets fighting off the Grimm and Atlas Robots. Much of Ironwood's wardrobe has been destroyed revealing his cybernetic parts. Qrow cuts down an another Beowolf with his scythe and says, "You know, this was hard enough without your toys running amuck."

Ironwood shoots down a few Boarbatusk and punches out a Beowolf as he says, "I've apologized several times. How much longer are you going to make those comments?"

"As long as it still bothers you" Qrow answers as he cuts the legs off several Grimm and decapitates an Ursa. He then ducks as several Grimm get sent flying at him.

"Will you two focus!" Glynda shouts, reprimanding them both. They then see several Knights get sent flying out of an alley. "What's going on over there?"

Naruto then comes sliding out of the alley on a Knight before stomping the head. As he approaches the teachers he says, "Ya know, aside from Penny I've only had negative experiences with robots."

Ironwood looks at Naruto, who had nearly gotten into a fight with him earlier and says, "I'm relieved to see you're okay…"

"No thanks to you…" Naruto says with a little venom on his voice.

"Naruto!" Glynda shouts at her student. "Now is not the time to—" Ironwood puts his hand up to stop her. After everything that has happened, he does not blame anyone for being angry with him.

Seeing Naruto, Qrow asks, "Where's Yang? Weren't you two together?"

"After we beat the Goliath, she wanted to split up so we could find the others" Naruto answers. He sees the stunned look of the adult's faces and asks, "What?"

"You…beat a Goliath?" Ironwood questioned.

"Me and Yang, yeah" Naruto clarified. "It was tough but compared to those Super Grimm it wasn't impossible."

"Wow, the new generations just keep getting stronger, don't they?" Qrow said, clearly impressed. Naruto then reached into his pocket and pulled out the sample of Chakra Dust and handed it to Qrow. He sees it and goes wide-eyed before asking, "Where'd you get it?"

"I found it on Mercury after kicking his ass" Naruto answered.

"Wait, he's still here?" Ironwood questioned. He then realizes they've been getting played since the start.

"I told you Yang would never do that!" Naruto shouted angrily. He then starts walking off as he says, "I thought you guys should be the ones to hold onto that. I'm off to go find Yang."

Ironwood is now in his own head about how much he screwed up. He looks out into the distance trying to think of a way to fix things. That is when he notices the command ship go down and the Atlas robots shut down. He simply says, "Maybe there's still a chance…"

---

Jaune and Pyrrha have now exited the tower and Jaune is going through his scroll as he says, "Okay, I think I have Glynda's number. Oh, where is it?" Pyrrha cannot stop staring out at Beacon tower. She stops when Jaune asks her, "Pyrrha? What was all of that?

"I…" Pyrrha starts to say as she looks at him. They then see a fiery explosion and then Cinder flying up through the elevator shaft.

"But...Ozpin..." Jaune says in disbelief.

"There's no time" Pyrrha says shaking her head. She then looks at Jaune and tells him, "Go. Get to Vale and call for help."

Jaune looks at her surprised and says, "Huh? What are you gonna do?" Pyrrha then looks towards Cinder and Jaune realizes what she wants to do making him say, "No...no, Pyrrha, you can't. You saw how powerful she is! Pyrrha, I won't let you do—" Pyrrha then cuts him off as she places her hands on his face and initiates a long kiss. Once he understands what is happening, Jaune gently pulls her in returning the kiss.

Pyrrha then starts pulling away and with sadness in her voice says, "I'm sorry." She then uses her Semblance to magnetically push him into rocket locker and shuts it on him.

Panicked about what she is about to try and do, Jaune starts yelling, "Hey! Wait! Stop! Stop! Pyrrha, please don't do this!" Pyrrha then types in coordinates before looking him in the eye and backing away as the locket flies off. She gains a determined look in her eye as she heads for Cinder.

After landing, Jaune is in a complete panic. What should he do? Who should he call? He does not know where everyone is. So, he decides he's going to try and call multiple people. He is going to start with the one guy they have all counted on since meeting him. As he dials the number he keeps saying over and over, "Please pick up…please pick up…"

Having just got back to Beacon, Naruto hears his scroll go off. He looks and sees it is Jaune so he answers, "Jaune? Are you okay? I can't believe these things are still work—"

Jaune then cuts him off saying, "Naruto! Are you near Beacon?!"

"I'm at Beacon now, why—" Naruto started to ask.

"You gotta listen! Pyrrha went off to fight Cinder by herself and I think she knows she can't win!" Jaune starts to explain. "I'm begging you ple—"

This time it was Naruto who cut off Jaune as he said, "I'm on it." He then hung up the phone.

Jaune is in hysterical tears but is a little relieved knowing Naruto was going to try. That being said he didn't want to just rely on Naruto, so next he called his fellow leader, Ruby.

Ruby answers, "Jaune?"

"Ruby! You gotta stop her!" Jaune exclaimed.

"Slow down!" Ruby shouted back. "What are you talking about?"

"Pyrrha went after Cinder and she can't win by herself! She sent me off in a rocket and I can't get to her!" Jaune explained in his panic.

Ruby's eyes widen as she looks at the tower in the distance. She narrows her eyes in determination and says, "I'm on my way."

Hearing that Ruby is going now too, Jaune drops to his knees overcome with emotion.

Naruto is running through Beacon thinking to himself, "Damn, what do I do? Go after Yang or Pyrrha?"

"This is quite the predicament" Kurama commented. "What are you doing to do?"

Naruto stops running and starts to remember back during the 4th Great Ninja War that there were several battles going on at once and how he dealt with that. But could he pull it off now with his current Chakra situation? He had to try. He extended the index and middle fingers of each hand before forming a cross with them. He then kept saying to himself, "I just need one…I just need one…" He then put every ounce of concentration he has into this as he exclaimed, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

---

Cinder is overlooking all the destruction brought about this night from Ozpin's office. She keeps watching as the Wyvern Grimm's face comes up blocking her view. She smiles at it and says, "This is your home now." She takes a few steps back and readies her fire, seemingly to destroy the office. She then hears the elevator rising behind her and steps out of the way as Miló comes flying out of the elevator. Miló is quickly followed by the shield Akoúo̱ which Cinder guards against. Then Pyrrha finally comes through and dropkicks the shield further at Cinder making her step back. Pyrrha then recalls her weapons with her Semblance and enters her fighting stance.

Cinder then starts floating with a smile and starts shooting streams of fire at Pyrrha. Pyrrha dodge rolls away from the first two, weaves away from the third, and then brings her shield up to block the fourth. She runs through the stream of flame with her shield up and then tries to strike with her spear, but Cinder catches it bare handed; much to Pyrrha's shock. Cinder then makes a small fire ball and explodes it on Pyrrha's armored torso which sends her flying back and hitting the wall causing her to lose her weapons. Cinder then rockets towards Pyrrha, but Pyrrha manages to hook Cinder's arm and throw her back. Cinder backflips onto her feet but is caught off guard by Pyrrha who was able to reclaim her spear and thrusts it right into Cinder. She then follows up with a spinning slash, but Cinder blocks with some kind of impacts coming from her palms. As Pyrrha attempts another slash, Cinder counters with a flame clad bicycle kick that overwhelms Pyrrha's strike and sends her flying back. Pyrrha is able to recover in midair and toss her spear at Cinder. Cinder knocks the spear away and does the same with the shield that was also thrown. She is starting to get annoyed as Pyrrha then tackles her.

After the collision, Cinder is holding back Pyrrha's blade as Pyrrha has her arm wrapped around Cinder's neck and is trying to bring the blade closer. Cinder does not feel in the least bit threatened. However, the Wyvern outside does not feel the same as it takes flight and is coming at the window. Cinder is starting to melt Pyrrha's weapon as Pyrrha looks out at the approaching Wyvern. Cinder completely breaks Pyrrha's weapon and then hits her with a back elbow that had enough impact to shatter all the windows. That impact in conjunction with the passing Wyvern completely collapses the roof.

Pyrrha is sitting up against one of the broken pillars when she comes to. She starts crawling towards her shield as Cinder stares at her menacingly from the air. Pyrrha then looks at some of the metal debris around them and uses her Semblance to send a piece of the clocktower at Cinder. Cinder is unable to destroy the metal in time so she gets hit and gives Pyrrha enough time to reclaim her shield. Cinder then starts sending more streams of fire and Pyrrha does her best to keep diving away. As the fire rises, Pyrrha obscures her view and throws her shield through the flames. Cinder smacks it away while smirking. The smirk fades when she sees Pyrrha using her Semblance on all the large clock gears. She trips Cinder up with her shield before using one of the gears to knock Cinder into the ground and then making them all converge. However, Cinder makes a fiery explosion that sends all the gears flying and makes Pyrrha slam against the pillar and breaks her Aura.

Cinder manifests her obsidian bow and aims it at Pyrrha. Pyrrha, not willing to give in yet, throws her shield at the arrow which comes apart and reforms on the other side of the shield before hitting Pyrrha in her right ankle. Pyrrha falls to her knees and is not able to get up while the arrow is still in. Cinder starts walking towards in front of Pyrrha as she says, "It's unfortunate you were promised a power that was never truly yours." She then raises Pyrrha's chin with her hand as she says, "But take comfort in knowing I will use it in ways you could never have imagined."

Pyrrha simply looks up at Cinder and asks, "Do you believe in destiny?"

Cinder gains a serious face as she replies, "Yes." She then reforms her bow and takes aim. As she is about to fire, someone blindsides her from her left side and sends her flying back with a shoulder tackle. She looks up to see Naruto standing there. Annoyed, Cinder asks, "Just what are you doing here?"

Naruto looks down at Pyrrha who is still having trouble getting up. He kneels down and pulls out the arrow as he says with a smile, "Backing up a friend." He then stands back up and looks at Cinder with a disgusted face as he says, "And don't even get me started on destiny!" Pyrrha continues to look at Naruto in shock. She had just resigned herself to death, how could she still be alive? He looks back to her and shouts, "Pyrrha, get on your feet! You're not dying today!" Now partially shaken from her stupefied state, she manages to get to her feet.

"Clearly Mercury couldn't handle you, no matter how much he insisted on it" Cinder comments. "Is he dead?"

"I didn't kill him" Naruto answered. "The worst he'll have to deal with is a shattered ego."

"I see…that might be a good lesson for him" Cinder said as she has fire manifest in her hands.

Naruto sees the fire and says, "That's not good…"

"She has the Fall Maiden's power…" Pyrrha tries to inform him.

"The what?" Naruto responded as he has no context to know what that means. Cinder then launches a fireball at him which he has to roll to avoid. "Yeah, I'm gonna need it for sure." He then activates his Semblance and enters Aura Sage Mode. He then runs at Cinder as she makes two obsidian blades. This surprises Naruto as she already used fire and he assumed that was her Semblance. Yet she clearly has another ability.

Cinder strikes with one of her blades and then spins before striking with the other. He weaves past the first strike and blocks the second, but then Cinder tries to kick him. Naruto has to hop back to avoid the kick and Cinder peruses him. As she does, Pyrrha comes in and slashes at Cinder with a jagged piece of metal from the surrounding debris. She also follows up with another slash and then a shield bash. Cinder blocks the first slash and dodges the second before hopping away from the shield bash.

Naruto sees the piece of metal and asks, "What happened to your blade?"

"She…melted it…" Pyrrha answers.

"…Oh." Naruto responds in surprise.

Cinder looks at Pyrrha and asks, "Are you really still trying to fight me?"

Pyrrha looks at her wounded ankle and then at her hands that are shaking from fear. She takes a deep breath and says, "If I was alone, I might have given in. But I won't do that with one of my friends here."

"You're gonna answer for what you've done, ya know!" Naruto shouts at Cinder.

Cinder dawns another smirk as she looks behind Naruto and says, "We'll just see about that." As she finishes her sentence, the Wyvern strikes at Naruto with a bite. He manages to dodge the bite but then has to dodge Cinder's incoming obsidian arrow. He does so by flipping over it, but then the Wyvern knocks Naruto out of the air and lets out a roar.

Down at the bottom of the tower, Ruby looks up as she hears the roar. "Just hold on a little longer Pyrrha." She then starts ascending the tower.

Naruto has gotten up as his Aura reduced most of the impact. As Cinder goes to fire another arrow at him, Pyrrha knocks Cinder back with a flying shield tackle. Unfortunately, it did not have that much impact thanks to her ankle injury. As Cinder was getting knocked back, Naruto jumps up from the Wyvern's incoming strike and then punched it right between the eyes making it flail and almost fall off the tower. With the Wyvern trying to rebalance itself, Naruto runs back over to deal with Cinder. She is easily overwhelming Pyrrha since Pyrrha is injured and exhausted. As Cinder lands a slash on Pyrrha's shoulder, Naruto comes in with a flying kick making Cinder back up and unable to follow up on Pyrrha. Naruto does a backfist and straight punch combo which Cinder dodges. He then manages to follow up with a sweep kick and uppercut combo. Cinder continues to hop back, but she gets slashed in the back twice by Pyrrha. It does no real damage, but Cinder is now losing her patience. Naruto starts running at Cinder and she shouts, "Enough!" She surrounds herself in a wind barrier that knocks Naruto back.

"What's going on? She's got wind too?" Naruto questions.

"Once I get him out of the way, getting rid of Ozpin's chosen one will be simple" Cinder thinks to herself. She starts firing arrows at him and Naruto takes out his staff to start deflecting them before he runs at her. Cinder changes her bow back into blades and pretends like she is about to attack with them, but she then launches a fire ball and Naruto just barely dodges it. Pyrrha tries to go help him, but the Wyvern reenters the fight and pins her down.

Naruto sees this and says, "Wait, no!" He goes to try and help Pyrrha, but Cinder cuts him off. Naruto swings four times with Orange Spark and Cinder blocks each attack before making a fiery explosion knocking Naruto towards the edge of the broken tower. As he is getting up, Cinder hits him in the chest with an arrow.

Pyrrha sees this and desperately shouts, "NO!" Ruby hears Pyrrha scream as she gets to the top of the tower. She sees Naruto with an arrow with an arrow in his chest…before his body vanishes into smoke. Thinking Naruto just died before her eyes, she is overcome with sorrow.

"Finally…" Cinder says before she notices Ruby's arrival.

"Naruto!" Ruby shouts in an emotional outburst as her eyes then erupt with a blinding light.

"What?!" Cinder shouts as the light managed to cause her great harm and she falls off the tower.

As the light dissipates, Pyrrha looks up to see the Wyvern trapping her is now petrified. She then looks over at Ruby who has collapsed. She manages to pull herself free and look at the spot where Naruto was. Tears start streaming down her face as she thinks her friend that came to save her just died right before her eyes. However, she wipes her tears as she knows she cannot afford to stay where she is. She grabs the unconscious Ruby and starts descending the tower.

---

Some time earlier, Naruto is searching around for Yang. He keeps calling her name but is not getting an answer. He heads up one of the buildings to get a better view. He sees what looks like Blake having a hard time against a guy dressed in all black whom we know to be Adam. He says, "Must be someone high up in the White Fang…" He then sees Yang approaching from the other side. She must be trying to help, so he goes down to help as well.

As Yang arrives to see what is going on, she sees Adam pulling his sword out of Blake. Yang is outraged and yells, "Get away from her!" Adam smirks as this is all part of his plan to make Blake suffer.

Blake reaches out and says, "No...please..." She is asking Adam to leave Yang alone, but to Yang it looks like Blake is pleading for her life and she rushes in. Adam sheathes his sword and then draws his blade as Yang attacks. Yang has been fighting tough battles all night so her Aura could not take it and he cleaved her arm off.

Naruto sees this and runs in saying, "No no no no no!" He and Blake are both checking on Yang, and it is not good.

Adam is surprised by Naruto's arrival as he says, "Blake, just how many or your friends am I going to maim today?"

Paying no attention to Adam, Naruto pleads with Yang, "Yang come on! Say something! Anything!" Tears well up in his eyes. Blake is about to speak up and tell Naruto to get out of here so Adam does not do the same to him, but then she sees Naruto's eyes have once again dawned a red bestial appearance.

As Adam starts walking towards them, Naruto shouts, "You're gonna pay for this!" He then rushes Adam.

Blake, thinking she is about to witness what happened to Yang happen to Naruto, shouts out, "Naruto don't do it!"

"You should listen to her to her" Adam mockingly tells him. Naruto punches at Adam and he blocks the punch, but his eyes widen from the impact as he goes sliding back. Naruto then takes out Orange Spark and rushes Adam at blinding speed. He strikes three times at Adam, all of which Adam blocks. He makes sure to brace during each block now that he knows the force of Naruto's strikes. Naruto then switches to doing dashing strikes and now Adam is struggling to block even while bracing himself. One of the strikes knocks Adam off balance allowing Naruto to hit Adam with Orange Spark hard enough to send him through the wall.

Absolutely reeling from the hit, Adam says, "I didn't expect to run into anyone like him…but I can still handle this." As Naruto strikes again, Adam uses his Semblance to unleash the force his blade has collected from Naruto and overpowers his strike. This causes Naruto to be knocked off balance and lets Adam land a slash on Naruto's chest. His enhanced Aura blunts most of it, but he still bleeds a little.

"Naruto, are you okay?!" Blake yells out in concern, much to Adam's delight. Naruto then swings at Adam again and he did not have much time to react causing him to get grazed on the head. This causes him to get disoriented a little bit, so he jumps back.

Naruto goes after him while saying, "It's gonna take more than that!" He and Adam begin clashing strikes again and Adam is at a clear disadvantage. Despite Naruto being in a rage, he is still focused enough to deal with Adam's attacks. Adam is starting to sweat and wonder how he is going to get a good shot in. He thought this would be easy like it was against Yang, but he did not know that Naruto has the battle experience someone five times his age would respect. Naruto knocks Adam back and goes to follow up. However, his eyes widen when he receives the memories from his destroyed shadow clone. He now knows Pyrrha is in danger which causes him to worry and get distracted. Adam sees Naruto's loss of focus and takes the opportunity to land a dashing slash across his abdomen. Adam smirks and turns around only to receive a punch from Naruto who unleashes a rage filled scream as he shatters Adam's mask and sends him flying.

Naruto is now clutching his head as he is overcome with stress. In order to go help Pyrrha, he would have to abandon Yang when she needed him the most. Kurama yells to him, "Naruto, you need to calm down!" Kurama is concerned that Naruto might pass out like the last time he felt this overwhelmed.

As a consequence of Naruto's increased emotional state, the Grimm are becoming attracted to him. He takes out an approaching Boarbatusk on one swing of his fist. As more and more Grimm start to attack him, he yells out to Blake, "Get Yang out of here!"

"But what about you?" Blake asks with concern in her voice.

"Just go! PLEASE!" Naruto shouts. Seeing the strained look on his face, Blake grabs Yang and heads toward a safer area. Once Blake is gone with Yang, Naruto has become surrounded by thick walls of Grimm. His Aura and Chakra converge even further and erupt as he is now clad in his classic fiery red Chakra, but it gains an orange hue. He rushes in and starts tearing through the Grimm as he shouts in frustration, "DAMN IT!"

---

Jaune has made it to the safe zone where he spots a bandaged-up Ren and Nora as well as what could be rounded up of the remaining students. He runs over to them.

"Jaune!" Nora shouts as he approaches. She hugs him and asks, "Are you okay? Where's Pyrrha?"

Still distraught, Jaune tells them, "She went off the fight Cinder by herself…she locked me away in a rocket locker so I couldn't follow her…" This causes Ren and Nora to become very worried.

Weiss is also worried but then she sees an approaching Blake and calls out, "Blake! Over here!" As Blake approaches, she sets Yang down and they are all mortified to see her missing an arm. "Blake, what happened?"

"It's all my fault…" Blake responded.

"What? That can't possibly be true" Weiss states upon hearing Blake's response.

As the medics come over to further treat Yang, Blake tells Weiss, "But it's true! And Naruto stayed behind to keep the Grimm off us while we got away…"

"Wait, he's still out there?" Ren asks. Blake nods which further increases all of their worry.

"We're still missing Ruby too" Weiss points out.

"When Pyrrha sent me away, I called Ruby and Naruto to try and help her" Jaune informs them.

Weiss sighs and said, "And I'm sure she agreed without a second thought…" They all sit there worrying for another ten minutes until they see someone coming in the distance.

"I think that's Naruto!" Nora exclaims. The rest of them look and see Naruto is pretty scratched up. What is also notable is that the whites of his eyes are a shade of red and he has marks on his face that shows signs of tears.

As he gets closer, he drops to his knees over by Yang and says, "I'm sorry…I'm so, so sorry…"

"What are you apologizing for?" Weiss asks.

In a very weakened voice Naruto responds, "I couldn't save Yang…and I couldn't save Pyrrha…"

Jaune's eyes widen and he asks, "What do you mean?" Naruto does not respond so he grabs Naruto by the shirt and shouts at him, "What do you mean you couldn't save her?!"

Blake sees the growing tension and starts to panic. Her partner is missing an arm, Naruto seems like an empty shell, and Jaune is losing his mind. Everything is just…wrong. She cannot take it and starts to run away.

Weiss sees her and shouts, "Where are you going?!" As Blake gets further away, Weiss holds her head and says, "This can't be happening…"

Jaune is still in Naruto's face and he struggles to look Jaune in the eye. Jaune shouts, "Answer me!"

Pyrrha finally arrives carrying an unconscious Ruby. She looks over to hear Jaune yelling as she calls out, "Jaune?"

Jaune hears her and lets Naruto go. Naruto's eyes widen at the sight of the clearly alive Pyrrha. Pyrrha sets Ruby down as Jaune runs up and embraces her. Seeing this causes both Ren and Nora to be almost overcome with emotion.

Weiss ran over to Ruby and started checking on her. Pyrrha looks and sees Naruto. She's completely shocked as she asks, "You're alive?!"

Confused, Jaune asks, "Why wouldn't he be alive?"

"I seen him get shot with an arrow and vanish…" Pyrrha explained.

"Oh, uh, I fell off and woke up away from the tower" Naruto said, telling a blatant lie.

"Is that what you meant about not being able to save Pyrrha?" Jaune asked.

"The last I saw of her was her getting pinned by that giant Grimm" Naruto tells them. He then looks at Pyrrha, "I'm sorry…"

Pyrrha is stunned at his apology and says, "No! Naruto, you absolutely did save me. I was a second away from death before you stopped Cinder." She then limps closer and gets down on her knees to look Naruto in the eyes as she says, "Naruto, thank you."

Jaune then gets on his knees next to Pyrrha and tells Naruto, "Thanks Naruto. And I'm sorry for yelling at you…"

"Don't mention it" was all Naruto could say.

"Naruto" Kurama called for his attention.

"What is it?" Naruto internally responded.

"I want you to look at them and try telling me again how you being brought here ruined their lives" Kurama tells. He wants to jam into Naruto's head that him being here is a good thing.

As Naruto watches Ren, Nora, and Jaune embracing Pyrrha and them all being brought to tears, he tells Kurama, "I can't. You were right, like usual." He then smiles. He then looks over at the unconscious Ruby and asks Pyrrha, "What happened to her?"

"Well…after you fell off the tower, Ruby arrived and thought you died" Pyrrha explained. "She was in emotional distress and unleashed some kind of light that petrified the Grimm and knocked Cinder away."

Naruto looks at Ruby and wonders if that was her Chakra. Kurama tells him, "There's no Chakra ability like that. That kid has to be special somehow."

With all this new commotion, Yang starts to wake up. Naruto immediately runs over to her before grabbing her hand and saying, "Hey, I'm here."

She looks up at him and looks relieved. She then looks next to her to see Weiss sitting by an unconscious Ruby. She reaches out for Ruby and sees her stump of an arm and now remembers what happened. She quickly asks, "Where's Blake?!"

Naruto looks around and calls out, "Blake?! Where are you?!"

"She…she left" Weiss informs them.

"What?! Now of all times?!" Naruto shouts in complete befuddlement. Upon hearing Blake left, Yang starts tearing up. Naruto sees this and tells Yang, "Everything's gonna be okay."

Soon after more evacuation ships arrive to take them away to a makeshift refugee camp. They all start boarding the ships, but Weiss gets stopped by some Atlas soldiers. She asks, "What are you doing?"

"You're to return to Atlas. Your father is waiting" One of the soldiers told her.

"What? No, I refuse!" Weiss tells them. Naruto and Team JNPR overhear and are about to put up a fight.

Qrow jumps off one of the ships and walks over to Weiss before telling her, "Look, I get it. But there's no place else to go right now. And after all this, the best place to be is with family."

Weiss looks back to her friends who are ready to back her up. However, she does not want to make them have to fight anymore so she says, "Okay…I'll go back to Atlas." She gets on the ship heading to Atlas and looks over at Naruto and tells him, "Watch out for them." Naruto just gives her a nod as the ships take off.

---

Emerald is standing over the still unconscious Mercury. She kneels down and slaps him awake.

Mercury sits up and asks, "What happened?"

"You got your butt kicked, that's what happened" Emerald informs him.

"What? No, t-there's no way…" Mercury says, trying to deny it.

"Try again, I watched it happen" Emerald informs him.

Now embarrassed, Mercury asks, "Well why didn't you help?"

"Hey, I was nice enough to make sure the Grimm didn't get you during your beauty sleep" Emerald retorted. "Besides, you wouldn't shut up for months about how much you wanted that fight." This makes Mercury hang his head in shame, but then he starts thinking about something. She sees his "thinking face" and asks, "Okay, what's on your mind?"

"Naruto…he seemed to be getting stronger throughout the fight" Mercury informs her.

"What do you mean?" Emerald asked for clarification.

"Out of nowhere he got faster and started hitting harder" Mercury clarified.

"I did notice something like that, but I just assumed that was his Semblance" Emerald states.

"I don't think so" Mercury told her. "He made it clear he wouldn't use his Semblance on me."

Emerald smiles and then laughs before she says, "So you got beat that bad and he didn't even use his Semblance?"

"Oh shut up!" Mercury indignantly responds.

Emerald stops laughing and admits, "His sudden boost is perplexing."

"Got any clues?" Mercury asks.

"No, but Cinder might" Emerald tells him.

Mercury then gets up and asks, "Do we need to go find her?"

"Of course we do" Emerald responds. They then search around the destroyed campus before they find Cinder at the bottom of the tower unconscious, missing an eye, and one of her arms mangled. Emerald freaks out and runs over to her. "Cinder, Cinder wake up!" Cinder is startled awake, much to Emerald's relief as she hugs Cinder.

Cinder pushes Emerald back and exclaims in a weakened voice, "Where is that brat?!"

"Who are you talking about?" Emerald asks.

"The one with the silver eyes!" Cinder informs her.

"Anyone that's still alive was evacuated. It's just us and the Grimm now" Emerald tells Cinder.

Adam then starts approaching with his hand covering his face as he says, "As it should be."

"Holy crap, what happened to you?" Mercury asked.

Adam grits his teeth and has a scowl as he says, "The next time I see that blonde kid I'll cut his throat…"

"Wow, you too?" Mercury responded in his usual smarmy way.

"I regret to inform you that you'll never get that chance" Cinder tells them all. "Naruto Uzumaki is dead, I killed him myself." This shocks Mercury and he decides that now there is no point in asking about Naruto's boost.

"That…is a shame" Adam said before he started walking off.

"Where are you going" Emerald asked.

Adam ignored her, but Cinder answered saying, "Beacon is only one of four targets." She tries to get up, but she cannot on her own and that is when she notices her mangled mess of an arm. This causes her fury to rise even further. Emerald then helps her up and they look to the side to see Neo supporting an injured Roman.

Roman, who's left leg and arm are broken says, "I don't feel like we won."

"Take a look at Vale. We haven't won yet, but they definitely lost" Cinder tells him.

Too messed up and tired to argue, Roman asks, "So now what?"

"We go see HER" Cinder answers.

"Do I finally get to meet the big boss this time?" Roman asked.

"We'll see" was Cinders answer.

---

Naruto, Yang, Ruby, Qrow, Team JNPR, and the other evacuees are being dropped off at a Forward Operating Base acting as a refugee camp. Naruto helps Yang off the ship as Qrow carries Ruby. Qrow then asks, "What happened to her?" Naruto sits Yang down and is about to tell Qrow when he spots Taiyang full sprint towards them. Naruto does not know who Taiyang is, so he gets in front of them ready to attack.

Taiyang sees him and yells, "Get out of the way!"

"Not a chance…" Naruto responds with aggression in his voice.

Qrow can tell Naruto is still on edge and is afraid of anything else happening to Yang or Ruby. He sets Ruby down before putting a hand on Naruto's shoulder and informing him, "That's Taiyang, their dad."

Naruto's eyes widen as he steps to the side and says, "I-I'm sorry…"

Taiyang steps forward to see Yang and Ruby. Seeing the state of them he freaks out asking, "What happened to my girls?!"

Naruto chokes up a bit before answering, "Yang lost her arm trying to save one of our friends…" Taiyang tries to make Yang look at him, but she is out of it.

"So, what about Ruby?" Qrow asked.

"Well, according to Pyrrha, when Ruby saw what she thought was my death, she had an emotional breakdown and unleashed some kind of light" Naruto answers. Qrow's eyes widened upon hearing this causing Naruto to say, "Looks like you know what it is."

"I do, but I didn't think she would use it now" Qrow admits.

Yang starts coming to again and finally notices Taiyang as she calls out, "Dad?"

Taiyang quickly hugs her and says, "I was so worried…"

"Where are we?" Yang questions.

"We're at a refugee camp right now, but I'm here to take you and Ruby home" Taiyang informs her.

Yang starts looking around and spots the unconscious Ruby with Naruto and Qrow talking next to her. Yang calls out, "Naruto!"

Naruto quickly runs over and asks her, "Hey, how ya feeling?"

"I'm…I'm not sure" Yang answered. "I'm having trouble thinking straight…"

"That's probably the meds, but everything's fine" Naruto tells her.

Confused by their interaction, Taiyang asks, "Okay, who is this guy?"

"His name's Naruto" Yang informed her father. There was a pause before she admitted, "My boyfriend…"

"BOYFRIEND?!" Taiyang yelled out, grabbing a lot of people's attention.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head as he recalled Yang and Ruby telling him how much their dad would freak out about them talking to a boy. He whispered to Yang, "Jeez, you weren't kidding."

Yang is now embarrassed and whisper yells, "Dad!"

"What?" Taiyang questioned before he noticed all the people staring at him. "Okay, okay, nothing to see here!" He then turned his attention back on Naruto. "You, what makes you think you're good enough for her?"

"I…I…um…" Naruto uttered, completely blindsided by the question.

Yang is about to tell her dad to stop, but before she can Qrow grabs Taiyang's shoulder and tells him, "Tai, now's not the time. Look at him, these kids have been through hell."

Taiyang looks at Naruto and sees he is cut up, beaten, and tired. He gives Naruto a break and says, "I'm gonna go get things ready to take them home." He then walks off.

Qrow looks at Naruto and then back at Taiyang before he says to Yang, "Ya know, parents are usually kidding when they say to find a guy just like your dad."

Yang looks at her uncle and says, "I don't get it."

Qrow smirks before saying, "They're both blonde, blue-eyed, slightly tanned, and loud goofballs."

Yang's eyes widen as she says with some panic in her voice, "This can't be happening…" Naruto has no idea what to say which causes Kurama to laugh.

After a little while, Taiyang starts taking Ruby and Yang home. Yang looks back at Naruto one more time. Naruto yells to her, "I'll come find you!" Yang puts on a false smile as she keeps walking.

"You got a place to go?" Qrow asked Naruto.

"No" Naruto matter-of-factly answered. "I'm thinking of heading back to Vale tomorrow."

"Wha? Are you insane?" Qrow asked.

"I might be, but there's someone I have to check on" Naruto answered.

---

The Land of Darkness. Also known as Evernight, is as the name implies, a part of the world where the light of the sun somehow never reaches. The sky is an eternal dark shade of red and the land is nothing but jagged rocks and cliffs. Standing out is a dark castle. Overlooking this landscape is a woman of mysterious origin. Her skin is a deathly white which contrasts with her eyes which are steeped in black and show her red gaze. Her hair is tied back in a bun with black ornaments. Purple veins can be shown through her face and arms. She wears a long black gown adding to her eary regal appearance. Her name is Salem. The one whose machinations Ozpin and his cohorts tried and failed to defend the world from.

She seems to be addressing her foes as she says, "How does it feel, knowing that all of your time and effort has been for nothing? That your guardians have failed you? That everything you've built will be torn down before your very eyes? Your faith in mankind was not misplaced. When banded together, unified by a common enemy, they are a noticeable threat. But divide them, place doubt into their minds, and any semblance of power they once had will wash away."

She then turns and starts descending from her view. She comes down to see three men waiting for her. One is a tall thin man in a dark gray suit with dark hair and a mustache. This was Arthur Watts, a former Atlas scientist and creator of the Black Queen virus. The other is a scorpion Faunus with a crazed look in his eye. He wielded two wrist blades adding to his scorpion theme. His devotion to Salem was devout as he worshipped her like a goddess. This was Tyrian Callows. Finally, there was the large man who stood stoically among them. He seemed like the most calm among them, but a hidden rage could burst out during the right circumstances. This was Hazel Rainart.

After giving a slight bow to Salem, Watts says, "I'm curious why you summoned us."

"First, tell me. Have you completed the research you needed on the Dust?" Salem asked.

"I have" Watts answered.

"Good. Then you won't need any more supply than I already planned on giving you" Salem told him. She then turned her gaze to Hazel and asked, "How is your body reacting to the Dust now?"

"It took a while, but my body has acclimated to injecting the new Dust" Hazel answered in a deep gravely voice.

Salem finally turns her gaze to Tyrian and asks, "Are you ready for your blessing?"

"I would be honored, my goddess…" Tyrian said, practically groveling at her feet. Salem then made her way to a small bowl where there were a few vials of Chakra Dust. She opened one and was able to keep the escaping Chakra in her hand as she walked back over to Tyrian. Tyrian bowed to a knee, ready to receive the gift. Salem pushed the Chakra energy into his chest. Tyrian's eyes widened as the Chakra and Aura collided in his body. He was is agony, but he seemed to revel in it. He began laughing maniacally as he looked back up to her and said, "My thanks is eternal, my goddess…"

"Good. Now follow me" Salem said as she started heading outside the castle. Watts, Hazel, and a struggling Tyrian followed as she made her way towards a black pool that frequently spawns Grimm. As her three subordinates look around, they see Grimm carrying large chunks of Chakra Dust and dumping it into the pool.

Overwhelmed by curiosity, Watts says, "That's the bulk of our Super Grimm Dust supply. What exactly are you doing that requires so much?"

"I am building my ultimate weapon" Salem responded as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Watts was now even more curious as he asked, "What could someone like you ever need a weapon for?"

Salem simply ignores him as she approaches the pool. She then starts to think out loud as she says, "In all my years in this world there has only been one thing that stands above me. For countless generations, I thought the only way forward was to incur their wrath enough to destroy us all." She then stood right before the pool before looking down and saying, "But this Dust has changed things." She reaches her hands into the pool and at first things are calm. Then a few minutes later, a tremor is felt throughout the whole area.

"What in the world is she making?" Hazel asked with his own curiosity now peaked.

"I haven't the faintest idea" Watts answered.

Tyrian was giddy with excitement as he said, "We're witnessing our goddess' power of creation!" The tremors continued for another couple minutes until two colossal black clawed arms burst out of the ground around the pool. The spectators are stunned by their sheer size.

"Whatever this is will be the largest Grimm since the Monstra…" Watts muttered.

Hazel looks at the claws which glow blue and says, "Except this thing will be able to fight for itself."

The arms of the creature then grab the ground and start pulling itself out of the ground. This causes earthquakes that shake the nearby castle's foundation. The creature finishes coming out of the ground and now the pool is completely submerged in rock. The creature is sitting and yet is almost one hundred meters tall. It shows slender canine features like those of a fox. It has a Grimm mask that covers the eyes, snout, and part of the ears. The eyes glow an intense blue, but unlike the other Grimm made from the Dust, a notable red pupil can be seen. Finally, nine tails, which are longer than the rest of its body can be seen flailing about. One of these tails smashes all the cliffs around them to bits.

Watts could not believe his eyes. Hazel is just as dumbstruck as he stands there with his mouth agape. Tyrian on the other hand is cackling as he shouts, "It is magnificent!"

The massive Grimm then lets out a loud and horrifying roar that none of them have heard before. This roar unleashes a shockwave that knocks them all off their feet, Salem included. As she gets back to her feet, she raises her hand. Seeing this, the Grimm calms down and brings its snout closer to her as she places her hand on it. She looks at her new creation, inspecting the unexpected features of a fox and says, "You are…beautiful. And your power is beyond what I imagined."

Watts gets back to his feet and clears his chest before saying, "I certainly hope so considering the amount of Dust it took to make it. We have almost nothing left to make more Super Grimm."

"That is a valid concern, but it will be worth it" Salem says with her eyes still fixated on her new creation. Upon hearing this, the new Nine Tails Grimm seemingly reacts to Salem's "concern" as it brings one of its tails down by them.

"What is it doing?" Hazel asked as he has no clue what this thing is capable of.

"I'm not quite sure…" Salem responded. The Grimm Nine Tails' tails started producing black smoke before black liquid dropped off.

"Hmm…that is like what the Monstra does" Watts stated. "It seems this thing can make more Grimm as well."

"That would be helpful" Hazel commented. A hand then reached out of the black puddle and out came a Beowolf. However, this Beowolf was much larger than normal with glowing blue eyes and claws.

Watts' eyes widened in shock as he exclaimed, "It can't be…"

Salem walks over to the newly spawned Beowolf and places her hand under its jaw. Wishing to see how this Beowolf compared to the ones that were mutated, she tells it, "Destroy that boulder." Then with great speed, the Beowolf shatters the boulder in a single swipe. Something a normal Beowolf is not capable of doing.

Tyrian laughs as he shouts, "It can make Super Grimm! A feat worthy of our Goddess' Masterpiece!"

Salem looks up at her new Nine Tails and tells it, "I need more." The Grimm Nine Tails then brings all nine of its tails down and spawns nine more Super Beowolves. Wishing to further see what her Masterpiece was capable of, she told it, "Try to spawn something different." The new Nine Tails then spawns some Super Borabatusk and Ursa.

"This is incredible…" Watts said in amazement. "Just what are its limits?" As the new Nine Tails continues spawning Super Grimm, it made one of its tails smash through the debris and dip into the black pool.

Salem sees this and says, "It's good to see the pool isn't lost to us."

"Yes, but what is it doing with it?" Hazel asked as this new Grimm's abilities have become impossible for him to predict. The Grimm Nine Tails then takes its tail out of the pool, now drenched in Grimm sludge, and places it on the ground.

"It's almost like a pen that was dipped in ink" Tyrian commented in amusement.

"Hmm…you might be onto something" Salem said about her subordinate's comment. Then from the Grimm Nine Tails sludge dripped tail rises a Super Death Stalker followed by a Super Goliath.

Watts, once gain completely amazed says, "I see, with aid from the pool it can create large Super Grimm on the spot."

Salem is delighted at this sight. She beckons her new masterpiece to lower its head again. When it does, she looks at the start of her Super Grimm army and then back to her new Nine Tails before exclaiming, "The time where I fear the rule of the gods has come to an end."

Chapter End

---

AN: We've finally reached the big turning point in the series. I know I don't have to explain my decisions, but I wanted to anyway. Starting with RWBY and JNPR getting Chakra, we know Hagaromo gave people Chakra, so it has already been established that you don't have to be born with it.

Moving on, we have Naruto merging his Chakra and Aura into something new. It will not seem that different, but I promise there will be some differences. I have a name for it, but that will not be revealed until later, as one of the characters comes up with a name for it.

Now of course, there's the obvious controversy; Pyrrha lived. I know it will "mess up" the story and development of the characters, but Naruto being there already did that. And with the odds that I just established; nothing is off the table. As for Yang, I'm sure some of you picked up that she did not seem nearly as bitter about what happened as in the original timeline. Don't get me wrong, she is still hurt by Blake leaving. However, she still had Naruto right by her side. So while her partner did leave her, the person she cares about more in this timeline did not and that will make her recovery easier.

Now I know there was a lot this chapter, especially with the craziness I set up at the end. But next chapter is an aftermath chapter. There has to be one. I know I'm going to get lots of hate for some of these choices, but that's just how it goes. For those of you who have been enjoying this story, thanks for reading and see you next time.