None of the students had a good feeling about this episode. Leaving it off with Ruby on Roman's airship, Blake being left alone to deal with her ex-mentor, oh, and let's not forget the large Wyvern that broke out of Vale's mountains!
It felt like nothing was going to get better. And they were just about to figure out how right they are…
(Volume 3 Intro)
Ruby watches the Wyvern soar by with wide eyes, the enormous beast screeching all the while it makes its way to Beacon. Trailing behind it was a hoard of griffons with one landing in front of Ruby. Through colors of black and red, Ruby swings Crescent Rose at the creature, huffing as it falls to the ground.
Neo is revealed when the griffin falls to its side.
The group remembered that Roman had sent Neo to see what the commotion was on his ship. They all tensed, knowing a fight would break out between the two.
Ruby turns around as Neo takes a picture, forgoing her previous disguise as she changes back into her regular clothes, sending the picture with a small text 'guess who?' Roman groans in irritation upon seeing the cause of the disturbance, "Oh you can not be serious." Snatching his scroll, he makes his way outside.
At Beacon, Blake takes a couple steps back, terror apparent all over her. "Running away again? Is that what you've become my love, a coward?"
Upon hearing the name again, Blake shivered. But, she knew nothing was going to change if she became what he thinks she is, a coward.
Willing herself to stop her shaking, she stood with a straighter back. She wasn't going to run.
"Why are you doing this?"
"You and I were going to change the world, remember? We were destined to light the fires of revolution!" Adam roughly steps on a man's stomach, causing him to let out a grunt, "Consider this…the spark."
Blake stands frozen for a moment while Adam raises his sword. Before he could finish the innocent civilian, Blake rushes in with Gambol Shroud.
She. Wasn't. Running.
A few of her friends let out hollers, telling her to beat his ass!
"I'm. Not. Running," Blake tells him firmly. Adams responds that she will, adding more pressure to have his sword bring her down. With a kick, Blake is sent to the ground, a creep rushing towards her that Adam quickly takes care of.
"Blake!" Yang shouts, her bravado from a few moments ago now completely gone.
Blake cares for the concern, but she lets Yang know that she's right here.
"But not…before you suffer for your betrayal, my love," Adams says darkly, slowly walking over to the other Faunus.
Velvet lies on the ground, Coco following after as they're rammed into the other. All the students run around, taking down the grimm, Atlesian Knights, and struggling with the paladins.
Neptune yells for Weiss as she's thrown back by one of the paladins.
Ruby does the same thing, worry etched all across her face.
Yatsuhashi attempts to hold one of the paladins back but fails. Nora knocks Ren out of the way right as he was about to be punched.
Besides the fighting, Ren made a small note of why he was simply just standing there.
Nora gets hit instead, and when Ren tries to come to her aid, the paladin keeps him from doing so.
As every student shoots at the paladin, they take note that it wasn't doing anything. "Well, I guess now is a better time than any," Coco says, turning to her partner, "Velvet!" The Faunus shoots up immediately at the opportunity.
"What is she thinking, she's going to get hurt!" Weiss yells at the screen. The others were not faring any better.
"Just make them count," Coco finishes. Velvet nods with determination, stepping forward. Weiss yells at Coco, telling the woman that Velvet is going to get hurt. Coco responds that Weiss should just watch.
Out of thin air is a blue holographic model of Ruby's scythe. Velvet brings herself into the air, and comes crashing down, slashing through the paladin. The scythe dissipates, creating itself in the form of Weiss's rapier and stopping the paladin's attack with a single lift of the weapon.
"Is it just me, or is anyone else feeling like we've seen this before?" Jaune asked with eyes full of wonder.
"Yeah, we've seen these from the trailers," Ruby responds as if it was common knowledge.
The paladin takes multiple jabs from the rapier, now taking the form of gauntlets.
Yang wasn't completely there at the moment. She was seeing all of this, and she knew what was happening, but her mind was more focused on Blake and how she was with Adam last as well as her sister now having to deal with both Roman and Neo by herself.
Firing from the gauntlets, she's now swinging from its arm with the gauntlets having been turned into Gambol Shroud. That paladin falls to the ground as it was wrapped.
Another paladin comes charging, but Velvet cuts one of its arms off with the blade, then repeatedly rapid fires using Coco's machine gun.
All the students cheer as Velvet creates all of their weapons, single handedly taking out the paladins.
As Velvet smashes the current paladin with Nora's hammer, the other seems to be getting back up.
Penny's blades come out of their compartment, and Velvet uses them to sever both the paladin's legs, and the girl finishes it off with a large beam of energy.
"Whoooo, go Velvet!" Ruby shouts with a bounce in her seat.
Velvet gets knocked aside by the other paladin, leaving Coco to cry out the girl's name. As the rest of the students fight together, Weiss gains a look of anger and determination as she's had enough. She rushes over to Velvet, but behind her, a large glyph starts to form.
Weiss brings up Myrtenaster to protect Velvet in a blocking motion, but is surprised when the blow doesn't come. Opening her eyes, she sees a large sword.
I…I did it… I did it. I did it!
"You did it Weiss, you summoned!" Ruby yells to her partner. In the worst circumstance, Weiss had never felt more proud of herself.
The sword is swung and the paladin is cut in half. Weiss blinked as Velvet took a picture of the momentous occasion.
The students hear the ground thumping and they all look to see that another paladin has rushed into the fight. "You have got to be kidding me…" Sun says, seriously annoyed by these things.
Ruby is doing her best in fighting both Neo and Roman, swinging Crescent Rose around to land a hit on Neo as well as shooting at her. But, when she does hit, it's a fake and Roman's right behind the crumbling copy, already blasting at Ruby.
"Ruby!" Yang shouts as she sees her sister try to hold on.
Landing a hit, Ruby is sent back and she holds onto Crescent Rose's handle for dear life as Roman walks next to her. "Little Red, Little Red. You are just determined to be the hero of Vale, arentcha'?"
"What are you doing?! Without these ships the grimm will destroy everything!" To Ruby's yell, the man simply tells her that that's the plan.
Before Roman can shoot, Ruby moves his cane, making him miss his fire, but Neo isn't far behind, kicking Ruby to the end of the wing. "But why!" Ruby attempts to reason with him, "What do you get out of it?!"
"You're asking the wrong questions red! It's not what I have to gain, it's that I can't afford to lose!" With Roman finishing, Ruby rushes the two, but unfortunately, Neo takes care of her. Beating her hit after hit, she is sent flying Roman's way. His actions lead to Ruby hanging over the edge of the airship's wing, her grip on Crescent Rose.
"RUBY!" All her friends yell, horrified that a single move could…None of them want to even finish the thought.
Ruby didn't want to jump to conclusions, she seriously hoped her future self had some kind of plan to get out of this. Anything!
Please no, I can't lose Ruby…Not my little sister, Gods please!
Yang pleaded to those above that her sister would come back to her alive!
Below Ruby is a rushing swarm of griffon. "I may be a gambling man, but even I know there's some bets you just don't take," Roman states as he looks down at Ruby.
Please, brothers…. Yang's heart was pounding, her state hanging together by a single thread. Tears streaming down her cheeks as she watches with bated breath. Yang knew she was going to murder these two when she gets back. MURDER THEM!
The others were in the same boat. Tears flowing, murder plans already being plotted.
Neo slowly made her way to Ruby, the blade from her parasol scraping against the metal of the wing, and pointing the blade at the defenseless girl. "Like it or not, the people that hired me are going to change the world. You can't stop them, I can't stop them," As Roman continued the talk, Ruby took notice of the switch on Neo's parasol.
They saw what she was planning and the room was filled with an enormous amount of hope.
"You know the old saying, 'if you can't beat em',-" Roman wasn't able to finish as Ruby opened the parasol, leading Neo to fly off the wing with a gasp. Roman called after his partner but there was nothing he could do.
"Yes! That's one down!" Yang shouted, but she knew it wasn't over yet. She wouldn't feel any full sense of comfort until her best friend and little sister were safe.
"I don't care what you say! We will stop them, and I'll stop you! Bet on that!" With a cry, Ruby uses her semblance, speeding toward Roman's spot. He lets out a blast from his cane and with the energy from it he launches Ruby back. Ruby lets out a grunt as Roman beats her back more.
"You got spirit red, but this is the real world!"
Whack!
"The real world is cold!"
Whack!
"The real world doesn't care about spirit!" Before he could land another hit, Ruby kicks him in the knee, giving her some time to get up. "You wanna be a hero? Then play the part and die like every other huntsman in history!" Roman lands another hit. "As for me, I'll do what I do best: lie, steal, cheat, and survive!"
Those were his last words as he was swallowed whole by a griffin.
The whole room gasped, trying to do their best to not throw up.
The griffin lets out a roar before flying towards Ruby. Though, she isn't dealing with it as she uses its head to knock into the airship, killing the beast and causing the ship to catch fire.
Yang really hoped her sister had some kind of plan.
Ruby spotted her Crescent Rose and began running. Parts of the ship burst, creating a hole with fire. Grabbing it, she safely brings herself to land by using its gun power, She watches the ship descend.
Well, that's one good thing in the episode, but it wasn't over yet.
In Vale, Glynda, Qrow, Cardin deal with the grimm in the city.
"Finally, about time he was being useful for something!" Nora shouts with an exaggerated eye roll.
Cardin's eyes widen as General Ironwood comes out of the smoke, his robotic body parts showing.
The others had the same expression. Because oh my Gods, what?!
General Ironwood was shooting Atlesian Knights left and right. "This area is secure, we need to-" He was cut off as Qrow gave him a furious look, his sword transforming into a scythe.
"Uncle Qrow, he isn't one of them!" Ruby shouts, not understanding what her uncle was doing.
"Qrow, this isn't my doing!" Ironwood shouts, thinking Qrow was charging him but realizes he was protecting him from a griffin that was coming from behind.
He slices the beast in half, giving a huff once his feet touch the ground. "You idiot, I know you didn't do this. So what now general?" Qrow asks the man.
"Someone has done the impossible and has gained control of my machines. And that enormous grimm seems fixated on the school. Glynda, form all the local huntsmen and establish a safe zone here in Vale, we need to evacuate Beacon. Qrow, I'm leaving that to you and my men, I still need to get to my ship." Ironwood looks in the air in shock as his ship comes crashing down.
"Soooo, bad news, your ship is a bit damaged," Yang says to the screen.
"Sorry," Ruby apologizes as she's partially the reason for the ship being in such a matter.
"'A bit' is an understatement," Blake mutters to the blonde.
"Well it won't be much of a walk," Qrow tells the man.
Back at Beacon, the incoming paladin charges at the group of kids, but it begins to fizz out, falling to the ground before it could do anything. Sun comments that that was easier than he thought it was going to be.
"Weiss!" Yang shouts, running up to the girl.
"Now where the hell have I been all this?! Have I seriously been trying to get out of the dormitories while all this shit was going down?!" Yang shouts, hoping that wasn't the case because man she would be giving her future self an earful.
"Have you heard from Ruby?" Weiss didn't have enough energy to speak as she used Myrtenaster for support. She shook her head, "What about Blake?" Weiss gave her answer to that, telling the girl she saw her go after an alpha as well as some members of the White Fang.
Yang knew where this was going, and she was ready to beat Adam's ass!
Blake knew how this was going to go and she was absolutely terrified of what Adam was going to do to her.
Yang tells her to look for Ruby while she was going to meet up with Blake, Weiss' only reply was a weak thumbs up.
Rushing through the basement of Beacon after exiting the elevator was Professor Ozpin, Pyrrha, and Jaune. With the blonde boy asking where they even were. "It's…a type of vault," Pyrrha answers, only making Jaune more confused, questioning the girl about her being here before.
Pyrrha doesn't answer his second question. "What would this school need to…hide…" Jaune's voice trails off, pausing as he sees Amber. "Who….? What…?" Pyrrha was never given time to explain as Professor Ozpin told her to get to the pods with urgency.
"Mr. Arc, if you'd like to help you can stand guard here." Jaune does so without a second thought. Before Pyrrha gets in the pod, she asks what they're going to do now. "We do nothing. You, Ms. Nikos," The door to the pod lifts, "Have a choice to make."
Pyrrha knew, even without all of this, would have chosen to go inside that pod to protect the school and her friends.
The others knew what her choice was, she already made her mind up episodes ago. Why would it suddenly change now when the world needed her most?
Pyrrha made her choice, getting inside the pod and letting the lid close over her body.
"This could have been our day, can't you see that!" Adam yells to Blake who still rests on the floor.
"I never wanted this! I wanted equality, I wanted peace!" Blake shouts back, firing two bullets from Gambol Shroud that Adam just absorbs with his sword.
Come on me, where are you… Yang hopes she comes in at the right time kind of moment.
"What you want is impossible!" Adam puts the sword in his sheath, then proceeds to slap Blake across the face.
Just hearing it, Blake almost felt that one, causing her to wince. She then took notice that the room was dead silent as they stared at the screen.
She felt the area next to her bubbling to a boil before bursting into an aggressive heatwave. "I am going to kill that motherfucker!" Yang's eyes were blazing a deep crimson, her teeth feeling they would give and crack from how hard they're clenching together.
"We'll break his legs!" Nora yells, raising her fist high in the air. The others were doing the same as they all fully agreed.
First things first, Blake had to calm Yang down. Well as much as she could so she could watch, that's not to say she was going to completely drain her rage. That also wouldn't be possible.
Then the next thing to do was to attempt to settle down the rest of her friends. All of them, still fired up, were a bit more reluctant, but still all in all furious.
"But I understand, cause all I want is you, Blake," Blake attempts to use Gambol Shroud but the man just kicks it out of her hands, "And as I set out upon this world and deliver the justice mankind so rightfully deserves, I will make it my mission to destroy everything you love."
On cue, outside, Yang shouts for Blake as she takes down another white Fang member, grabbing the attention of both of them.
"No, no, please…" Blake pleaded in a mumble, to where she was the only one who heard. Yang raised an eyebrow as she turned to the girl.
Yang calls for her again, crying out for Blake to give her something. Adam looks down at Blake to see her horrified expression as she stares at Yang. "Starting with her."
"No…" That one was much louder, one that Yang and Ruby heard. The two girls turn their heads as they find that Blake is on the verge of tears.
Yang began to slowly redirect her emotions for a second and also began to focus on what Adam was saying. Surprised registered in her mind, but coming from Blake she knew it was just friendly love.
Right?
Yang continued to look around for Blake.
Underground, Professor Ozpin furiously types away, asking if Pyrrha was ready. She gives him a nod, but Ozpin didn't want actions, he wanted true confirmation for what he was about to do.
"Yes," Pyrrha said to him, even though it was just a screen.
Professor Ozpin is given a muffled 'yes' and the man thanks her, proceeding with the operation. The tubes connecting the two pods fill with orange as Amber glows in that color. As the power is filling Pyrrha's pod, the girl lets out cries of pain and agony as the power is transferred to her.
"Pyrrha!" All of her team shout as they hear their partner.
Pyrrha seeing this only strengthened her resolve. She was just going to have to push through it.
"Pyrrha!" Jaune shouts, rushing to his partner's side, but looking around as he has no idea what to do. Ozpin apologies one last time.
In Amber's pod, the power continues to go to Pyrrha, but the process is disrupted as an arrow breaches her glass.
The two look behind them to see Cinder.
"That son of a bitch!" The group was shocked to hear that it was Jaune who yelled that. Turning their heads to find gritted teeth and tears streaming down his face.
"Jaune…" Pyrrha places a hand on his shoulder as the others couldn't blame him though, they feel the exact same way.
Adam raises his sword, stabbing Blake just right above her hip. She lets out a shriek of pain that makes Yang whip her head around.
"That bitch!" Yang was ready to kick his ass.
"Get away from her!" Adam doesn't say a word as Yang cries out, sheathing his sword.
"No, please…" Blake begged from the ground, but it sadly went unheard.
Yang lets out a scream with nothing but uncontained rage. Bounding herself into the air she goes for a punch, but Adam swings his sword once and Yang flies through the air. Motionless as her right arm is separated from the rest of her body.
The room is still, frozen as they try to fully process what they just witnessed. Blake is beyond the point of no return as tears stream down her face like rivers.
Yang has the hardest time comprehending what she just watched. I… I lose…my arm,? Her face holds no emotion as she brings up her right arm with a devoid expression. She knew sooner than later this knowledge was going to hit her like a freight train, but that moment was not now.
The rest of her friends weren't doing any better. Yang was snapped out of her state of mind as Blake profusely apologizes to her.
"Yang, I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry…" Yang has no idea what for, this wasn't Blake's fault, none of this was her fault,
Amber tries to gasp for air but all fails as she finally perishes. The whole vault goes black.
Yang's aura is continuing to heal the wound as Yang roughly makes contact with the ground, unmoving.
Pyrrha bangs against the glass. Amber's breaks and the rest of the maiden's powers goes to Cinder.
Everything is just going all wrong.
Jaune makes an attempt to fight her but it was pointless. Ozpin yells for the boy to get back but he was already blown onto the ground. "Jaune!" Pyrrha shouts, breaking the pod door that Cinder deflects.
Before Pyrrha can fight, Ozpin holds her back, demanding that she tell Glynda, Ironwood, and Qrow to come here. That she and Jaune must get away, Beacon's tower cannot fall.
"But, I can help," Pyrrha tries but Ozpin tells her she'll only get in the way. Without any more arguing, Pyrrha grabs Jaune and they run out of there.
"Those three are in Vale, he's gonna be fighting her all by himself!" Sun yells.
Adam walks to Yang, intent on finishing her, but Blake blocks his path, determined from letting him harm her any further. "Why must you hurt me Blake?"
I'm sorry, but you just cut off her best friend's arm and you're saying she hurt you? Raider looked at the screen with disgust.
Adam raises his sword, and cuts off Blake's head.
"NO!!" Every one of them shouts in the room.
But the body fades as it was a shadow copy.
That about gave them a heart attack.
Adam turns to see that Blake is getting away with Yang in her arms, looking back in case he tries to do something. With his emotions a creep comes rushing at him but it's killed in less than a second.
"All this time, right beneath our feet. She was right about you: Such arrogance," Were Cinder's final words as Ozpin switches his cane around, ready for the fight.
Before the fight could start, the screen goes black and the end credits begin.
It hit Yang. "I lose my arm!" She yells, looking at Yang who gives her a solemn nod.
Others were not pleased to know that that's how the episode would end. What's going to happen to Professor Ozpin? Will Pyrrha and Jaune make it to Ms. Glynda, General Ironwood, and Qrow?
What's going to happen next?
But, what they can answer is that Raider is going to give them some time to process and calm down from everything that has happened in this episode, and they are more than thankful for it.