Dutiful Destruction

by Joey245

Three months after the defeat of Makuta and Team RWBY's return to Remnant, a new foe emerges with one goal: to eradicate everything on the island of Mata Nui. With Salem casting her shadow on Vacuo and tensions mounting among the refugees of Atlas, Ruby and her friends may find themselves strained as they fight for the worlds of Man, Matoran, and more. (Sequel to Destiny's Divide.)

28. Heads or Tails

(A/N): Here's the second half of the big Vacuo mission in the Old Oasis! This one features one of my favorite Grimm that we haven't seen in the main show yet, so writing the big setpiece battle at the end was especially fun. I hope you enjoy it!

---

Reese grinned as she zoomed across the battlefield at full speed, weaving between old debris and new Grimm emerging out of the sands. The Gravity Dust engines within Race Queen sang as she carved a path through sand and shadows, using the bladed front of her hoverboard to deliver hit-and-run slashes to unguarded flanks and exposed necks. Smoky mist and clouds of dust followed in her wake. The wind whipped through her mint-green bangs. Sand flew into her mouth. For every Grimm she took out, three more seemed to crawl out of the metal ruins.

In other words, she was having a blast.

She led a pack of Mobulas through a near-collapsed metal archway, shooting a thumbs-up at Azina as soon as she was clear. The Agori nodded and slashed the arch's remaining supports with her built-in knife hands, bringing ancient scrap down on the Grimm and pinning them in place - which gave Blake a chance to swoop in and cut them up with both blades of Gambol Shroud. Then she set her sights on a large group of Grimm closing in on Jaune and Bolin, who were barely keeping them back with rending slashes from Crocea Mors and crushing slams from Nàilì. With the click of a button she turned off her board and used her momentum to power-slide through a dozen Cadejos, coming to a stop between the boys and joining them in their melee for a hot second.

While Race Queen was a bit unconventional of a weapon, especially compared to a sword-and-shield or a collapsible bō staff, in Reese's hands the hoverboard was as sharp and fast as a cleaver. She fought back-to-back first with Bolin, then with Jaune, constantly spinning her board to alternate between slashing and blocking. Jaune was even gentlemanly enough to trigger the Gravity Dust in his own shield, giving her one hell of a springboard to leap up, form-shift her board into a pair of loaded pistols, and aim both guns with an aerial flip. Time seemed to slow for her as she set her sights on the horde of shadows below, as she let her angular momentum and the recoil of each shot guide her aim. She fired as fast as her fingers could pull the triggers, emptying the magazines in less than a few seconds - and when the world finally caught up with her, a death blossom of plasma-like bullets rained down on the Grimm, scattering ash and smoke across the battlefield.

"Thanks, Reese!" called Jaune from below.

Reese flashed him a wink before she form-shifted Race Queen into a hoverboard once again, this time rocketing off to a dusty shop where the rest of her teammates were keeping another horde back. Arslan whipped Tsaivar Zürkh around her like a bull whip and strung up Grimm with the wiry rope, while Nadir was perched on the roof laying down covering fire with Osozaki. She dropped down next to her partner and slammed her board down on a Cadejo sneaking up behind him, instantly beheading it and turning it to smoke.

"How ya doin' over here, partner?" she asked as she slotted new magazines into Race Queen.

"Well, I haven't needed to use my laser eyes yet, so I think we're doing okay." Nadir shifted and fired another burst from his rifle, cutting down a shadowy wolf lunging to bite Arslan's blind side. "We're making good progress to the center of the oasis, got plenty of ammo and Dustfruits, and Auras are all still in the green. I haven't even heard Boss complain!"

"Really?" Reese grinned as she sidled up next to her partner, shifting her board into newly-reloaded pistols and adding her own fire to the mix. "Well, that's new - she's always complaining."

"And do you ever wonder why that is, Reese?" Arslan groaned over the comms.

Her smile barely dipped. "Ah, there's the grouchy lioness we all know and love."

"If you've got breath to chat, you've got energy to fight." The leader of Team ABRN leapt with a flip and drove both palms against the hump of a lumbering Dromedon, making the acid-spitting camel swell up like a balloon and explode in a spray of bone shrapnel and caustic fluid. "Any new Alphas coming in, Blake?"

"There's a really big Thresher Fin who's been circling around for a while now," reported the feline Faunus. "Think it's trying to block our path further in."

"Then I'll go take care of that little roadblock." Reese puffed her chest as she transformed and mounted Race Queen once more. "You guys good here?"

"We've got this, go on Reese."

"You're not gonna tell me not to do anything dangerous or reckless or stupid? I'm hurt, Boss."

"Would you listen to me if I did?"

"Nope!"

With that Reese took off at full speed, racing across the ruins and sailing over the heads of the many, many Grimm below. She dipped and cleaved through a few of them on the way to her real target - a glassy dorsal fin poking through the sand, which raced forward and cleaved a path through the ground. Undaunted, the daredevil swooped down and sped right for the surging shark. Her hand slipped into her knapsack and pulled out a bunch of violet-skinned figs, waiting for the perfect moment to bounce them off Race Queen's underside and launch them with a pulse of force and a burst of Gravity Dust.

That moment came when the dorsal fin slunk under the sand, and a forty-foot-long monstrous shark leapt with a roar and a maw full of jagged teeth.

Reese didn't back down. "Smile, you son of a -!"

VRRRRRRRRRM!

A huge black hole tore into existence right where the streaking Dustfruits struck the Thresher Fin's tooth, ripping through shadowy flesh and ivory bone as if they weren't even there. The Grimm shark practically folded in on itself with a pained roar, its tail and fins flapping uselessly before they were pulled into the vortex - along with the dozens of Grimm nearby who howled in vain. Reese felt herself be pulled into the abyss faster than Race Queen could fly away, but a ribbon wrapped itself around her waist and kept her from crossing the event horizon. She looked back to see that Blake had threaded Gambol Shroud's cord through the handle of her metal disk, and was planting both it and her boots against a patch of rocky soil to anchor the Huntresses.

Eventually, the singularity imploded and crushed everything in its grasp, unleashing a wave of force that leveled the surrounding ruins and sent Reese flying away. She flared the jets of her hoverboard before Gambol Shroud could fully snap back, though - she knew firsthand how painful whiplash could be, especially when it came from Blake's weapon. Instead, she twisted in mid-air and yanked on the taut ribbon, pulling the willing feline Faunus into the sky. Blake landed behind her on the board with all her usual grace and agility, snapping her disk into her hand and leaning into Reese's steering movements.

"Thanks for that, Blake," she said, still grinning madly. "Guess I used more of those fruits than I needed, eh?"

"Resonance is a tricky thing to get right," noted Blake. "Too little Dust, and nothing happens; too much, and the results can easily get away from you. If you need to do that again, make sure you're clear of the blast zone before you fire it off - wouldn't be very good if we got ourselves blown up or sucked into a black hole, after all."

"Yeah, I hear that can be bad for you. Any more Alphas around?"

"Couple of big wolves over to the east," replied the Faunus as her upper ears twitched. "They're rallying the Grimm going after Jaune and Bolin."

Her grin widened as she pulsed her engines. "In that case, how about we go and take care of 'em together? Y'know, the old-fashioned way."

She didn't need to look over her shoulder to know that Blake's grin, while significantly smaller, was just as enthusiastic as her own.

---

BRRRRRRT.

The familiar thunderous droning of her minigun reached Coco's ears, as Gianduja mowed down waves of shadowy monsters at a rate measured in thousands of rounds per minute. Between bursts of gunfire she checked the other fighters from her perch atop a rusty grain silo, making sure everyone was kicking ass and didn't need fire support. Normally she liked being closer to the action - high ground like this was better suited for snipers like Ruby or Nebula - but this let her keep an eye on the entire battlefield at once. It also let her keep an eye on the old enemy "leading" them through the ruins and against the Grimm.

So far, things were going well enough. Fox and Velvet were fighting back-to-back through a pack of Cadejos, punching and slashing the wolves with twin copies of Sharp Retribution and mirrored movements. Yatsuhashi and Tarix were attacking the flanks of an armored Dromedon with their blades, making sure that the ornery camel wasn't making a mess with its acid spit. And Gresh was having the time of his life squashing swarms of Sulfur Fish, using the bladed tonfas of Vinebreaker to hack apart anything that tried to ruin his fun.

But it wasn't the Grimm that worried her.

It was the redhead currently cleaving a path through shadowy monsters all on her own, glittering sai spinning and dancing around her as if it had a mind of its own. Carmine was a capable fighter, but that in and of itself was the problem. Sure, she talked a big game about being all noble and heroic back in Basalt. Sure, she'd only used her telekinetic Semblance and razor-tipped weapon against the Grimm. And sure, with her in charge they were making good progress towards the center of the Old Oasis. But all the facts in the world couldn't make her stomach unclench or her teeth stop grinding together.

You don't have to like her, she reminded herself for what must've been the hundredth time that day. You've just gotta tolerate her until the mission's over. If Velvet can be comfortable enough to play nice with NDGO, then you can handle working with the bitch that tried to bury you alive. Right?

Velvet's voice came through the Scroll before she could answer herself. "Yatsu, Tarix, watch out! Thumper on your six!"

Coco groaned inwardly. The usual breed of Jackalopes were already a pain, what with their powerful hind legs and sharp spear-like antlers; the Alphas, naturally, were even worse. She twisted and aimed her minigun toward the boys just in time to watch a ten-foot-tall horned rabbit crash through a copper shack and soar towards them, bone-like armor covering nearly every inch of its black-furred frame and red eyes gleaming in rage. Yatsuhashi and Tarix just barely managed to leap back before it came crashing back down again, using the half-gutted Dromedon to break its fall - and breaking the monstrous camel's back in the process, releasing a spray of black ichor and greenish acid from the dying Grimm.

Tarix stepped between Yatsuhashi and the splatter of caustic fluid, but that ended up being a mistake. The Glatorian screamed in alarm as the acid ate through his armor and cloak alike, nearly dropping his twin cerulean blades from the shock. While the damage didn't look too bad, it was still obviously painful - and that split-second of agony was all the time the Thumper needed to launch a powerful kick square in the chest. Coco's eyes widened behind her glasses as Tarix went flying back from the force of the blow, crashing against a boulder hard enough to break the stone itself.

"Tarix is down!" Yatsuhashi cried between ducks and weaves, as the Thumper turned its attention on him next. "Need…whoa! Need some help with this thing!"

Coco grit her teeth and fired a quick burst of explosive rounds at the killer bunny, only for the old Grimm to barely even flinch. "Damn, tough little bastard…Yats, fall back and get Tarix back on his feet! Gresh, think you can solo the big guy?"

Gresh's voice, filtered through the dark green faceplate built into his helmet, was full of determination and excitement. "I thought you'd never ask! He's all mine!"

The alien warrior aimed both tonfas down and pulled the triggers, launching himself into the sky on twin bursts of wind and aiming himself at the Alpha Grimm. Armored ears twitched as the Thumper turned to face its new opponent, gnashing its teeth as it sprung up to meet him mid-flight; Gresh just twisted and fired Vinebreaker once again to dodge the flying rabbit, then again to counter its leaping kick with one of his own. Grimm and Glatorian crashed back down to Remnant and landed in a tumble of limbs and armor, rolling and grappling with each other while trading deafening blows.

"Sounds like someone's been taking lessons from Yang," remarked Fox with an audible smirk.

Whatever Gresh wanted to say was cut off by a solid kick to the gut, which he paid back with a headbutt strong enough to fracture the bony plating around its snout. The Thumper screamed like a panicked bunny as the Glatorian stabbed Vinebreaker's bladed tips into its legs, then howled as he grabbed a weakened antler and started pulling with servo-assisted strength. Bone and flesh splintered and crackled and creaked in protest, before Gresh finally ripped the horn clean out of its roots - and then plunged it point-first straight down its screeching maw, finishing it off with a twist of its own appendage.

"And that's why I was Tesara's best Glatorian," panted Gresh as his opponent dissolved into smoke and ash.

"I always thought that was Vastus," said Tarix with a painful-sounding laugh.

"Whatever you say, you old dewback. You okay?"

"Armor's still intact, and the acid didn't go much deeper than my skin. The burns will hurt, but I'll manage. I am going to need my thossarus mended after this mission, though…"

"I'll happily sew them back up once we're done here. Just give me a needle and thread, and I'll - Coco! Get off the silo, now!"

Velvet's cry of alarm was almost drowned out by the sound of a thirty-foot-long Thresher Fin bursting out of the sands, its maw and sword-like snout aimed right at Coco as it sailed into the air. She swore and tried to leap from her perch, but it was already too late - the massive shark's teeth chomped down on the weakened silo roof, clamping onto her ankle before she could get clear.

"COCO!"

Searing pain radiated up her leg as she dangled dangerously off the building's edge, her foot pinned between twisted scrap metal and the razor-sharp jaws of the monstrous, thrashing Grimm. She twisted around to try aiming Gianduja at its eyes, but couldn't get a shot without breaking her own spine - so she opted to shift the minigun back into a purse to whack desperately against its armor, to no effect. Coco kicked and swung, snarled and screamed, even tried pulsing her Aura to activate the weaves of Gravity Dust in her boots. Nothing fazed the Thresher Fin. Nothing made it let her go. Her Aura kept her from losing the foot, or even bleeding, but it was already flickering twice in warning. It wouldn't last a few more crunches, and neither would her limb.

But losing a foot would soon be the least of her worries, as the Thresher Fin finally tore the roof free and began diving back down to the sands below. The sands that it swam through like ocean water, the sands that shredded anything - and anyone - unfortunate enough to be dragged down below. The dark, cold, suffocating, crushing tomb that she'd barely survived once.

Coco's breath froze in her lungs as her worst fear came rushing towards her…

But something else reached her first.

SHNRK! SHNRK! SHNRK SHNRK SHNRK! SHNRK!

A half-dozen jagged metal girders suddenly rammed themselves into the Thresher Fin's mouth before it could touch the sands, all of them hovering in a ring to keep the great black shark suspended in mid-air. Then they twisted and pried the jaws apart like several pairs of pliers opening at once, finally taking the pressure off Coco's leg - and giving her just enough slack to pull herself free and flop down onto the sandy ground. Willing herself to breathe again she scrambled back to her feet and looked around for her savior, who ended up being the first and last person she expected.

"You?" she asked in disbelief. "You saved me?"

"I can't hold this dust guppy up forever," grit Carmine through clenched teeth, both hands quivering and straining with tension. "If you're gonna gut it, do it fast!"

Coco just nodded and furrowed her brow. "Got it! Everyone, target the Thresher Fin with everything you've got! Don't let it slink back into the sand!"

Her teammates and the Glatorians didn't need to be told twice. Velvet formed dual copies of Ember Celica and started blasting with rockets of pure light, while Gresh picked up Yatsuhashi and threw him at the stuck fish. The massive swordsman growled as Fulcrum glowed with a scarlet edge, the blade coming alive in flames as he drove its tip into the Thresher Fin's flank. Wireframe gauntlets shifted into a grappling hook that wrapped around Yatsuhashi's waist, as Velvet reeled in her partner and helped him cut a long burning gash down the length of the beast. Tarix leapt after him with both swords drawn, using the glassy alien blades to slice clean through an armored tail - and stopping the shark from thrashing around in an attempt to escape. Wolves lunged to tackle Carmine. Gresh and Fox were faster in hacking them apart.

Coco shifted Gianduja back into a minigun and fired at full blast, targeting the armor plating around where her taller teammate had cut. With her Semblance boosting the power of each explosive round exiting the barrels, bony plating flaked and shattered like old fish scales, exposing a layer of ink-black flesh that had been hidden for far too long. Once a big enough weak point was exposed, Fox turned and delivered a dual palm strike to the opening, pooling Aura into the blow in a well-practiced technique. The Thresher Fin began to swell up like a balloon seconds after the blow, as pressure mounted and internal organs ruptured. Carmine used her Semblance to fling the girders and the Grimm into the distance, then pulled the former back just in time to shield herself and the team.

The Thresher Fin finally erupted with an impotent roar, releasing a spray of bony shrapnel that tore through any Grimm unlucky enough to be nearby. Most of the monsters fled. A few stayed to fight, only to be swiftly cut down.

Finally, at long last, there was the welcome sound of silence.

"I think that Thresher Fin was the last Alpha in this zone," said Velvet as Anesidora powered back down. "Should be a clear shot from here to that spire in the middle of the Old Oasis."

"Let's hope so," panted Yatsuhashi, leaning against Fulcrum for support. "We're making good time, but it's…draining to fight so hard for so long."

"Not for us Glatorians, it's not!" Gresh hopped on the balls of his metal feet and started jabbing the air. "I could take on a few more of those Alphas, easy!"

"Speak for yourself," laughed Tarix as he clutched his side. "These old bones are feeling each century right now, I'll have you know. Still, give my bio-frame a few minutes to patch up those acid burns, and I'll be ready for the next fight in no time."

"Careful what you guys wish for," quipped Fox with a smirk. "You just might get it, after all."

"Then I wish for a coffee shop and a bathhouse staffed with beautiful women." Coco smirked as she switched her Scroll back from local comms to the main mission channel in a burst of static. "Yang, Jaune, how are you guys doing? We just cleared our last zone, and we're about to head to the meeting point. I'd say we're about…two hundred yards out?"

"Dang, Coco, and here I thought you'd get there before us." A bright grin was plastered across Yang's video feed. "We've already cleared and secured the base of that big rock, even got a little rest station set up in its shade. We'll hold it down until you get here - sounds like you guys ran into more Alphas than we did."

"Them and us both," said a tired, frazzled-looking Jaune. "We're still about four hundred yards out, but we're getting there. The Grimm have tried to get the drop on us almost since we set foot in the ruins, and we've had to fight for every inch. Seems like they've finally stopped for now, though, now that we took out their Alphas…we'll try to use this as a chance to get closer to the meeting point."

"Give us a call if you need some more help," offered Coco. "I can send Gresh over - he's practically chomping at the bit to kill more of the big ones."

"I'll let you know if we need that. Jaune out."

"See ya soon, ladies! Hit me up anytime."

With that Coco closed her Scroll and led her group through empty ruins, hand never straying too far from the form-shift lever on Gianduja. Gresh and Carmine took up positions next to her during the trip, their own heads on swivels as they kept watch for Grimm that might surprise them. Velvet's ears twitched even as her hands loaded new crystalline berries into Anesidora. Yatsuhashi never took his eyes off the rear even as he pulled out an aqua-skinned gourd and slurped down its watery juices, quenching his thirst and replenishing his Aura as he walked. Tarix's steps became stronger and more certain as leathery flesh grew under his armor in real time, healing the acid burns with fresh skin. And Fox stayed close behind his partner with clenched fists, putting all his focus into his four working senses.

Well…most of his focus.

Looks like Carmine saved you back there, huh?

The fashionista huffed a sigh as her partner's voice rang in her mind, and she could tell her thoughts would reach only him. His Semblance was selective like that.

Yeah…I guess she did.

Are you gonna thank her, or…?

Another huffed sigh. Should I thank her for not killing us while we were fighting the Crown, too?

So that's a no on thanking her, then. Fox almost sounded disappointed. Alright, long as you're sure about it.

I am sure. Completely…utterly…like, ninety percent sure.

Ninety percent. Huh.

What?

I've never known you to be ninety percent anything, boss. Which means I think you know, deep down, that she might be honest about that whole "being a better person" thing. She could've just let you die if she really wanted you gone, or she could've abandoned all of us when the fight got too tough…but she didn't, did she? That has to count for something, I think.

She groaned inwardly. Was she really going to try and make nice with this bitch? Could she really swallow her pride and move on, let the past be the past and let go of an old grudge? Every justification, every excuse she could come up with to rationalize how it was all just an act on Carmine's part, felt more hollow and even pettier than the last one.

Her thoughts went back to Yang, sunny little Yang, who'd found the strength to forgive and befriend two of the people that had brought her the most pain in her life. Then they went to Ruby, the adorable flower who'd blossomed and brought enough hope to unite two Kingdoms with bitter history. Finally she remembered Blake and Weiss, once on opposite sides of a race war, now sisters in all but blood. If Team RWBY, a team that once looked up to her own with the admiration and awe of underclassmen, could do something so difficult…what the hell was her excuse?

…you know, I really hate it when you're right, Coco shot back across Fox's telepathy.

Oh, I'm well aware. Fox's grin burned a hole in the back of her neck. Not as much as I revel in it, though. Want me to connect your minds? Might be easier to think it than it is to say it.

No. This…should probably be handled with my words.

Floor's all yours, boss.

…right. Right. Time to actually say the words. Say them. With her lips. And her tongue. And her extremely dry throat.

Why'd the high road have to be so damn hard, anyway?

"Hey, uh…Carmine?" she whispered before she could second guess herself.

"Hmm? What's up, Shades?" The Huntress's eyes bore into her suddenly, swirling with emotions she couldn't quite name. "Is there a problem?"

"No, not really. It's just…um…" Coco's breath hitched for a moment, before she finally let out a sigh and lowered her glasses to meet that piercing gaze. "Thanks…for the save back there. With the Thresher Fin. I appreciate it. Really."

Carmine just nodded and gave a small genuine smile, making heat race to the tips of Coco's ears. It was a good thing she was a good guy now, because that was a very pretty smile…and nice hair…and gorgeous legs…

Are you blushing, boss? I can hear your heart racing from back here.

She pushed her shades back into place with a pout. Shut. Up.

Fox, naturally, did the exact opposite. Y'know, with the CCT network back online, long-distance relationships might be back on the table. You could call her every week -

The teasing was cut off by the sound of her Scroll pinging, which she answered. Thank the gods, a distraction. But when Jaune's worried face showed up, Coco almost began to regret being grateful for an out.

Yang picked up on the vibes of her friend quickly, too. "Jaune? What's going on? Are you guys alright?"

"I should be asking you that," answered the young knight. "Azina found a good vantage point that let her get a better look at that giant rock in the middle of the oasis. She says that Yang's team needs to get away from it, now."

Coco furrowed a brow behind her glasses. "Why? What's wrong with the rock?"

The entire ground seemed to suddenly shudder and shake, nearly drowning out Jaune's harrowing words.

"It…might not be a rock at all."

---

Nebula had never seen a giant Grimm burst from a pillar of stone before today. Needless to say, that was no longer the case.

She scrambled back alongside her teammates as the spire of black obsidian started to crack and crumble, filling the air with heavy crunching noises and low rumbles. A leg that dwarfed any Grimm she'd fought today pushed through a decaying layer of stone, slamming a building-sized ivory hoof into the ground and leaving a crater where the girls had been moments earlier. Three more spindly limbs broke free and took one unsteady step after another, scattering clouds of dust and rubble with each booming thump.

More loose stones fell to reveal a massive central torso with huge hips and layers of bone armor, which almost completely hid away the blood-red pulsating spots and ink-black flesh underneath. The central column within the rock tower twisted and cracked before splitting apart, forming into three bony trunks that slowly uncoiled themselves and shook off centuries of stone and dust. The bony heads capping each neck, each with twin curved horns and a long snout and three piercing yellow eyes, towered a hundred feet over the Huntresses as they released deafening, discordant bellows.

Fortunately, they didn't have much time to look at it before those clouds of dust swept over them like a suffocating blanket.

Yang pulled a scarf over her mouth and nose as she and Emerald ran blindly alongside NDGO. "What the hell do you call that thing?!"

"That's a Ziraph!" gasped Gwen, nearly choking on her own breath and the flying sand. "A really, really, really big Ziraph! It must've moved into the Old Oasis after -!" Her explanation was cut off by a coughing fit that made her stumble forward, but Octavia was quick enough to catch her before she could completely fall.

Dew gasped as she whipped Dawngrass around her, trying and failing to create a bubble of air within the sudden storm. "If that thing doesn't crush us, it'll choke us with the dust it's kicking up! We need an out!"

"We're just a few dozen yards away from you!" said Coco through sandy Scroll speakers. "Velv, send up a flare for them to follow!"

"On it, Coco!"

A moment later a bright blinding light shone from somewhere on Nebula's right, shining like a star even through the haze of beige. Kiina saw it an instant later, at which point she scooped up all six Huntresses and tucked them under her arms as she sprinted with all her might. Even through her fading consciousness Nebula could hear servos straining and whining in protest, cries to stop that went ignored by the Glatorian carrying them all out of the storm.

Finally, just when it felt like it would be too painful to take another breath, Kiina broke through the cloud and tumbled into the open air.

"Get a breath and get down!" shouted a voice. Carmine, Nebula hazily remembered. "Over here, hurry, before it comes back!"

The Huntresses gasped and panted before complying as quickly as they could, more or less tumbling into a half-collapsed house that at least gave some shelter from the rushing winds kicked up by the Ziraph's hoofsteps. Nebula slammed her back against a metal wall, then slumped down while accepting Yatsuhashi's offer for water. Gwen spat out mouthfuls of sand and grit, which Velvet helped her cough up with encouraging pats on the back. Fox caught Octavia as she stumbled forward, thankfully blind to how red her face suddenly grew (along with everything else). And Kiina practically fell over with dimmed optics and ragged breaths, and it was only Gresh launching himself at her that stopped her from hitting the ground.

"Did…did I get the humans out of there?" rasped the guardian Glatorian.

"You did, you got all of them." Gresh reached around the back of her helmet and dug his fingers into a magnetic switch, pulling the fish-shaped metal off her head and exposing her cobalt bob-cut and jade green face. "Now we're gonna need you to breathe for a few minutes, alright? Get the sand outta your lungs - all four of 'em. Deep breaths, in and out, no talking. You understand?"

Kiina nodded numbly and rested her now-bare head against Gresh's chest, concentrating on doing just that. For some reason, there was a darker green color rising to her exposed cheeks. Nebula would have to ask what that meant in Glatorian biology later.

After making sure she could breathe easily enough herself, she pulled herself up and joined Coco and Carmine at the edge of the wall, peering out into the storm they'd just escaped. The Ziraph itself towered over the clouds it was kicking up, unconcerned (if not pleased) with the waves of grit and sand that flew with each step. But its nine eyes and three heads weren't facing them. Not anymore.

Instead, it had turned away from them, trundling along through old buildings and leaving a trail of rubble and scrap metal in its wake.

Coco aimed the camera in her Scroll at the massive beast. "You guys are seeing this…right?"

"Seeing, yeah," mumbled Jaune. "Believing?…I'll get back to you on that."

"Spirits Above…" breathed Azina.

"It looks like it's walking away from you guys," noted Arslan. "Where's it going?"

"A Grimm that big?" Reese laughed humorlessly. "I'd say it goes anywhere it damn well likes."

"It's so loud…" whimpered Gwen as she clutched her head, seemingly deaf to Velvet's whispered words of comfort. "So many vibrations…so much noise…it's like thunder, right next to my ears. I can't make it stop…I want it to stop…it hurts…"

Nebula reached over and gave her partner's hand a tight squeeze, rubbing her thumb along trembling knuckles that shook slightly less at her touch. She kept her eyes on the massive, monstrous, three-headed giraffe for a moment longer, waiting with bated breath to see if it would turn around and come toward them again. All their emotions…all their fear…surely it knew where they were, right? They were hardly hidden very well, huddling in ruins like scared little children.

But it never came closer. Never looked their way. Never even so much as chuffed in their direction.

"It's…ignoring us," realized Octavia after a solid minute of watching and waiting, her tone both relieved and confused. "Why's it ignoring us?"

"Same reason older Grimm don't blindly rush into every fight," answered Emerald as she and Yang sidled up next to Nebula. "This clearly isn't a younger Ziraph we're dealing with - it's old enough to know that it has all the time in the world to crush us, and big enough to do so when it feels like it."

"Just like those old Goliaths Ruby saw back in Mountain Glenn," mused Blake. "The ones that didn't attack until the Vytal Festival. Huge Grimm like these are always lurking outside the Kingdom walls, claiming uncharted territory for themselves and keeping would-be settlers out."

"And as long as this thing's here, the Old Oasis won't ever be completely safe." Fox frowned. "Azina, is it too late to pick a new venue for that conference thing?"

"I don't think that's the issue here anymore." The Agori sighed over the Scroll speakers. "I've read that your Grimm, when they grow to such an old age, can spend centuries in slumber. They wait and grow in strength and size, until exposure to nearby human emotions awakens them…and when they do awaken, they cut a swath of destruction and chaos through anything in their way once they get their bearings. Now that this 'Ziraph' is no longer dormant, it could choose to march on Basalt at any moment. Or worse, it could make its way to the city of Vacuo itself, and I doubt even an entire city and academy full of Hunters could slow it down."

"So in other words, we gotta kill this thing while it's still groggy, before it tramples the folks we work for." Carmine groaned. "Great. Thanks for making my job harder, kids. Really appreciate it."

"Welcome to being a Huntress, there's always a big monster somewhere around the corner." Coco smirked mirthlessly. "You get used to it in this line of work. Wait until you have to write a report about the encounter, it's such a pain in the ass."

"It goes faster if you make a template," quipped Yang.

The beret-clad fashionista leveled a deadpan stare at the brawler. "…I think your team fights too many giant monsters."

"Pfft. No such thing." She looked over at the alien warriors who were staring at the massive multi-headed giraffe as it trundled away. "Do you guys have any thoughts? Bet you didn't see anything like this back on Bara Magna."

"Nothing of this scale, certainly." Tarix's breaths hissed through the tube connected to his chin. "This one is…a lot bigger than the ones we've seen so far."

"A lot uglier, too," noted Gresh with a rare frown. "No wonder we'd need the Drive Core to settle in the mountains, if more things like this are out there."

Kiina just grinned as she slammed her helmet back onto her head, securing it with a magnetic thunk. "I know, right? Finally, a worthy opponent. What are we doing sitting around here for, while this thing just goes for a stroll? Let's kill it!"

Carmine balked at the eager Glatorian. "And how do you plan to do that, stab it in the hooves until it dies? These things trample their way through entire towns, and leave new craters with each step. What the hell do you think it'll do to us?"

"It won't do anything to us if we fight smart." Yang pumped her gauntlets. "Carmine's got a point there - we're not winning this with brute force, which means we need a plan. Ideas, anyone?"

"Our best bet would be to take out its legs, then go for the heads," grunted Coco as she fired a useless salvo at the armored Ziraph. "That's how we took out the one attacking Feldspar a few months back."

"It's how we took ours down, too, back during our Initiation." Gwen hummed as she rubbed her temples. "I…don't think we'll be able to cut through this one's neck armor, though. Not with swords and knives, at least."

"And it'll take more than a minigun to break its knees," agreed Fox. "More firepower than we have, even."

"Maybe we could string it up?" Reese offered. "Let folks with chain or rope weapons tie its legs together?"

"Against that thing?" Arslan huffed. "Tsaivar Zürkh might be strong, but she'd snap in an instant."

"So would Gambol Shroud or Thief's Respite," confirmed Emerald. "We'll need something strong enough to do some real damage…but we'll go through every scrap of fruit and Dust we've got before that thing breaks."

"We could feed it until it goes back to sleep?" offered Gresh. "That's how we tamed dune stompers back on Bara Magna, by letting them gorge themselves on old roots and weeds and eat themselves into a stupor. We've still got plenty of Dustfruits, don't we?"

"Grimm don't eat," deadpanned Carmine.

"They don't?" The Jungle Tribe Glatorian blinked in shock. "Wow…no wonder they're evil! They can't taste all the awesome food that humans make!"

Emerald rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I'm sure that's Salem's actual motivation for wanting to destroy Remnant. Her little pets can't have rib-eye steak and cherry pie."

"I'd sympathize with that more than her actual excuse of 'history's messiest divorce proceedings.'"

"Hah! Nice one, Blondie."

Something clicked in Nebula's mind as the people around her bantered and bickered, as she thought back to a less-boring-than-usual lecture with a practical application. "Wait. The Dustfruits. That's it!"

She reached into her pouch and pulled out a handful of pitch-black cherries. "These things grow into entire trees of Dust when we touch them with Aura, right? And their roots stick fast into anything we plant them in, soil or no soil. So if we can get these planted inside the Ziraph's armor, and then hit those trees with a matching kind of Dust -"

"- we can detonate the entire tree at once using Resonance, blowing up the legs and heads!" finished Velvet with a gleam in her eyes. "Nebula, that's brilliant!"

"Only if it works," cautioned Carmine. "And how exactly do you plan to get up there and plant these magic seeds of yours? Last I checked, nobody here can fly except for the punk."

"Maybe not, but you and I do have Semblances that can give other people a push." Nebula grinned. "And we've got a Huntsman who can boost other people's Auras to make 'em stronger. We've got all the pieces we need to take this bastard down - we can do it if we work together. All of us."

Gwen's eyes sparkled. Velvet beamed. Coco smirked. Dew and Octavia shared a look, then nodded in determination. Emerald rolled her eyes, but unhooked her throwing disk all the same. Kiina flashed a dangerous grin. Tarix and Gresh re-engaged the battle masks in their helmets. Fox cracked his knuckles. Yatsuhashi's sword burned with imbued flames.

"Couldn't have said it better myself, Nebs," said Yang with a warm smile as she slammed her fists together. "Jaune, you hear all that?"

"Loud and clear, Yang. We're on the opposite side of the Ziraph from where you are now, and we're just as ready to do this. Circle around to intercept its path, and we'll meet you halfway - it's time to make this giant fall."

---

A few minutes later found Blake squatting in an old business district, narrowed eyes watching the massive Ziraph slowly come towards her. The sack on her hip shifted with the weight of all its fruits, which had gone mostly untouched by her during the mission so far - and that meant she had plenty of Dust for the risky plan. Fox crouched low next to her with a sack of his own, checking one more time to make sure both it and his combat earpiece were fully secured for the coming fight. Jaune stood behind them with his shield drawn just in case, while on either side of him Carmine and Nebula scarfed down a few dried Dustfruits. The air was thick with silence and dust, both of which were broken only by the thunderous thumping of the distant Grimm's footsteps.

She took another moment to study their ambush site for the fifth time in the last two minutes. Her group was hiding behind the corner of a dusty, empty bank, which was just a few steps away from the widest road in the dead city. On either side of that road were boxy little buildings all tucked together in various states of disrepair, boasting collapsed roofs or caved-in walls or shattered windows. Across the street and down a ways was the largest and sturdiest structure to remain standing - a three-story office building of metal and stone, all identifying markings of the company that owned it long sandblasted off. A half-dozen Hunters lay flat beneath the parapets of that building's roof, while six more took cover on the now-empty ground floor. And overlooking all of them was a massive water tower that had long dried up, one that the Bara Magnans hid behind with a small pile of fruits and those strange two-pronged launchers.

Not the best battlefield for taking down something as big as a Ziraph, but it'll have to do. Blake's ears twitched with each rumbling step the massive giraffe took. We don't have many other options, after all.

"Hmm…this is almost nostalgic, wouldn't you say Blake?"

Her ears nearly spun right out of their sockets as they turned to face the blonde behind her, followed by the rest of her head. "There's a lot of things I'd call this, Jaune, but I don't know if I'd use that word."

"Why not? Abandoned ruins, huge monsters in our way, different teams coming together to execute some crazy plan…" Jaune gave her a small, goofy smirk. "Feels just like the good old days, huh?"

"I guess it is kind of like Initiation…but we had to deal with two giant Grimm back then, not one." Blake shot back a sly grin of her own. "Since someone woke up a giant Deathstalker and lured it out of its burrow."

The young knight cringed. "Yeah…again, really sorry about that one."

"It's fine," she said with reassurance and mirth in her eyes. "Everyone's mistaken a glowing stinger in a dark cave for a relic at some point in their lives. Happens to the best of us."

"Happened to me last week," added Fox with a glib grin.

Jaune chuckled, Carmine rolled her eyes, while Nebula failed to suppress her snort. It was just a moment of banter, a moment of quiet, but Blake was grateful for the distraction all the same. Grateful for a reminder of where they'd all started, how far they'd come, and what they were fighting for. All of that made the sensation of watching (and feeling) house-sized hooves stomping the desert ground a little easier to bear.

"Alright, I'd say the big guy's about…a hundred yards out from us. Everyone ready?"

Blake's heart jumped out of her chest at the sound of Yang's voice on the Scroll, for multiple reasons. "We're in position and ready to launch the first assault."

"Rest of us 'ankle biters' are good to go once we see if the tree bomb thing works," confirmed Reese.

"I still hate that name," groaned Emerald.

"Your objection is noted and ignored," said Dew with a smug smirk.

"Demo team is ready to crack some skulls when the chance comes," reported Arslan.

"And all our Dustfruit launchers are loaded with both Combustion and Hard-Light projectiles," finished Azina. "We're ready to fire on your order."

"Sounds good! Blake, you're the one on ground level - give the green flag any time now."

Blake's eyes narrowed as she locked her gaze on the ancient Ziraph once more, mentally counting down the distance with each passing second. The Glatorians and the Agori squatting on an abandoned water tower would only have one shot to stun and blind a Grimm like this, to give everyone else a chance to get the drop on the beast. So they needed to wait until it was close enough to shoot, but not so close that it could flatten them if things went wrong.

When a massive armored hoof crushed a building three doors away, that was as close as Blake dared.

"Now!"

Salvos of glowing projectiles soared as soon as the word left Blake's mouth, racing across the sky and striking the behemoth. The Ziraph's heads instinctively twisted and flexed to let their armored necks take the shots, but a lucky few still hit their eyes - all nine of them, in fact - and all the fruits exploded in flashes of blinding light, making the beast roar and sway slightly, too unsteady to dare take another step.

"Looks like it's stunned!" Jaune stowed his shield and clasped both Carmine and Nebula on the shoulders, hands glowing with yellow light that faded to violet and gold. "Blake and Fox, time for some high-stakes agriculture!"

Fox smirked. "Don't you mean arboriculture?"

"Just plant the trees, smart-ass!"

Nebula's remark was punctuated by a pulse of power, one that made Blake and her friend float like balloons. A push from Carmine sent them both flying and racing through the air, wind whipping past them as a towering limb of black and white came closer. Blake flipped and dug both swords into the bony knee armor to anchor herself, while Fox did the same with the blades of Sharp Retribution. The Ziraph barely even noticed them hanging off its kneecap…but something else did.

Blake swore as dozens of gleaming yellow eyes stared out through cracks in the armor. "Ravagers! They're nesting inside the Ziraph's armor!"

Sure enough, a swarm of man-sized black bats with leathery red wings took flight around them with discordant screeching. One lunged at Fox, which he twisted around to kick away. Another dove towards Blake, who form-shifted Gambol Shroud to shoot down with fiery bullets. Salvos of gunfire and projectiles rose up from down below, as the still-grounded Hunters added their own fire support as best they could. But the Ravagers outnumbered them. Outnumbered their bullets.

Fox groaned as he dug Sharp Retribution into the Ziraph leg, sliding until the blade found purchase. "Okay, this…complicates things! Gardening's hard enough without giant winged rats trying to chew you up!"

The feline Faunus narrowed her eyes as she vaulted off the head of an incoming Ravager, propelling herself high enough to scan the area. To find a solution. To find somewhere to -

There. A crack in the armor, left behind by a bat crawling out of its bone-walled cave.

"Fox, the Ravager nests!" she called out as she sliced a wing off mid-fall. "Throw and plant the Dustfruits in there! I'll keep them off your back while you work!"

The Vacuan Huntsman nodded as he shimmed over to a newly-vacated gap, tossing a handful of peppers into the nest and reaching inside with a glowing palm. An orange light resonated from deep inside the hollowed-out bone, followed by a flash of silver - and a flaming tree that instantly shot from its new home, using its branches to clothesline three incoming bats at once.

"Good call, Blake!" Fox yelled back with a grin. "Ankle biters, follow our lead - one of you plug up the empty nests with trees, while the other covers their asses! Unless we die horribly up here. In which case, don't do that!"

The feline Faunus rolled her eyes and heaved a sigh, before lashing out with Gambol Shroud and hooking her grapple line on a patch of armor. She swung around on the ribbon and used the cleaver-sheath to slash through flying Ravagers, clipping their wings and using their falling bodies as springboards to propel herself higher. As scarlet-barked trees emerged in flashes of light, she perched on their horizontal trunks and spun while letting her weapons fly, creating whirlwinds of blades that tore through the bat-like Grimm. Once the air was clear she yanked herself into the sky yet again, keeping up her momentum and keeping the attention on her.

They managed to plant about five instant trees before a trio of low, droning calls boomed in her ears. Howls and shrieks and distant roars were quick to answer - and even quicker to get louder as their sources came closer.

"Heads up, it looks like the Ziraph just called for backup!" warned Jaune. "We've got all kinds of Grimm incoming on our six! Big ones, too!"

"Stick to the plan, Hunters!" Gresh's voice almost sounded eager. "Keep your focus on the big one - we'll deal with everything else!"

Blake caught a glimpse of the Glatorians leaping from their perch, dropping down into the swarms of black closing in. Part of her was worried for them. The rest of her almost felt sorry for the Grimm, especially when the alien warriors got to work. Kiina's trident was a blur as she lunged and stabbed. Tarix's twin cerulean blades flowed like water as they carved through flanks and cut through heads. Gresh's jabs and bashes were punctuated by bladed tonfas and blasts of wind. Shadows turned to smoke and mist around them, as monsters fell with howls and roars.

"I'll stay up here and prepare more flash bombs!" called Azina. "Just in case the Ziraph needs to be stunned again."

"Make sure you actually hit the eyes!"

"Don't worry, Gresh. Unlike you, I can actually aim."

She tuned out the banter as she grappled and swung once more, perching herself on another horizontal trunk as it shot through layers of bone - and nearly lost her balance when the entire tree began to shake and rustle. It didn't take a genius to guess why, but Coco's call over the Scroll confirmed her worst fear.

"The Ziraph's starting to move again! Better hustle with those trees, Fox!"

"I'm hustling, Coco, I'm hustling!" The brawler threw one more clump of fruit into a natural armor crack, then made it grow with a pulse of his Aura. "There, that should be plenty! Light it up, Blake!"

"On it!"

After giving Fox a chance to drop to safety, she jumped into the air and twisted around, aiming down the iron sights of Gambol Shroud and taking a steadying breath. Setting her sights on a collection of peppers clumped like banana bunches, she feathered the trigger and fired every flaming bullet still in her magazine. At least a few of them struck the surface of the fruits, making their reddish skins glow like newborn stars for one brief moment - and a second later they burst into balls of fire, setting off a chain reaction that turned every tree, every seed, every ounce of Dust into a deafening explosion.

KA-BOOOOOM!

The Ziraph roared in pain as it swayed and lurched, the burnt remains of its knee collapsing with the crunch of withered bones.

"It worked!" Blake grinned as she hooked Gambol Shroud onto a passing Ravager, dangling off the unaware monster and trying not to lose her lunch as she was flung around. "Ankle biters, get the other legs!"

"You heard her, ladies - let's fly!"

More pulses of gravity and telekinesis sent the remaining teams into the air, launching them onto the other three legs to repeat the process. Emerald tucked into a ball as she flew before hooking Thief's Respite into the unbroken front knee, laying down an icy-looking tree just in time for Gwen to touch down like a soaring ballerina. Dew and Octavia practically glided on the winds that caught and carried them to a back leg, where they immediately got to work growing a small forest of scarlet saplings. And Reese didn't even need a boost from Nebula or Carmine; her hoverboard carried her and Coco all the way up to their target, giving the fashionista a platform to do strafing runs on the Ravagers emerging to meet them.

But the three towering heads, having shaken themselves out of their daze, snarled as they stretched down to the irritating humans attacking its knees. Long, tentacle-like prehensile tongues slithered out of their elongated snouts, slimy appendages covered in barbs and thorns instead of taste buds. Those tongues just grew longer, and longer, and longer, until they were at least as long as the necks they came from - if not longer. It was a disgusting, horrific sight, one that made Blake feel queasy just by looking at it. Or maybe that was the constant tumbling through the air as she held tight onto the Ravager.

"…oh." Gwen's face was obviously pale even without seeing it. "That is…extremely gross."

"Not as gross as Tav's search history."

"Seriously, Dewdrop?! Let me take at least some secrets to the grave! Watch your head, don't get grabbed!"

"Pretty sure it knows what we're trying to do now!" Emerald groused as she narrowly shimmied to avoid a lashing tongue. "Demo team, any chance you guys can come in early and take out the heads?"

"Not while the heads are still that far away!" countered Velvet as she fired a wireframe copy of Gianduja, splattering a pack of Sulfur Fish before they could combine. "Even with Jaune boosting them, Nebs and Carmine can't launch us that far! We need a way to keep them busy while the others plant their trees!"

"Reese and I can take one of the heads and buy the other ankle biters time to break its knees," called Coco over her own roaring minigun. "We should still be able to plant our trees, too, if my pilot's up for a little danger."

"Damn right I am! Hey, you with the squid mouth! I'll give ya something to chew on!"

"I can aggro another one down here if Arslan and Nadir back me up!" A growl undercut Bolin's words as he spoke, a clear sign he was pulsing his Semblance. "It's gonna draw in other Grimm, too, so be ready for that!"

"Just focus on the Ziraph head," intoned Yatsuhashi with a grunt. "Velvet and I can more than take care of ourselves."

"Osozaki is locked and loaded and ready to rumble!" declared Nadir. "Come and get us, you oversized leaf-nibbler!'

With one head pursuing the hoverboard and another drawn unnaturally to the rooftop, Blake narrowed her eyes as she looked up at the Ravager she dangled from. "Then I'll fly up and distract the last one. Yang, get ready for a pickup - I'll need you up here with me."

"Oh? Are we going on a date in the middle of a fight?"

"Something like that. Be there in two!"

With that Blake tugged hard on Gambol Shroud while pumping her legs, swinging around the Ravager and landing firmly on its back. The bat Grimm, finally aware of the Huntress hitching a ride in its blind spot, started shrieking and writhing in the air to buck her off. But she just held on tighter and wrapped her ribbon around its fanged maw, pulling the line tighter and tighter until its jaws were shut so tight it couldn't even send out sonic pulses to "see" where it was going.

"Just keep flying," she mumbled, giving the ebony line an experimental yank to the left. "Let me worry about where and how fast. We don't have Weiss or Winter here to give us wings, so I need to improvise - which means you need to cooperate."

To her surprise (and delight) the Ravager banked left after just a second of coercion, even drifting to the right instantly when she pulled the other way. It seemed to have given up trying to fight back for now - which, considering its most potent weapons and its sense of direction were wrapped up in strong wire, was probably the wisest choice it could have made. Confident it would heed her commands, at least until it got a chance to escape, Blake guided her unlikely mount to dive back to the ground, pulling up forty feet away from the ground with a lurch in her stomach.

As she came closer to the old office, she clearly saw a half-dozen Hunters holding their own against the Grimm crawling up the building walls to meet them. Yang was waist-deep in black flesh alongside Velvet and Yatsuhashi, kicking and punching as twin greatswords slammed down around her. Bolin's Aura glowed with an unusual shade of red as he ducked under a lunging Ziraph tongue, burying his scythe blades into the prehensile tendril while his teammates attacked the face it was attached to. After knocking a Cadejo into next week with a flaming fist, Yang looked up at her partner swooping in with a grin, firing a few more rockets before leaping off the roof and landing right behind Blake as the Ravager rushed by.

"I didn't know you were a Grimm wrangler, kitty," quipped the brawler with a smirk.

"There's a lot about me you don't know, firestar." She looked back just long enough to shoot her partner a wink. "You'd better grab tight onto something -"

A pair of warm arms wrapped around her waist.

"Something besides me, Yang. This flight is gonna be bumpy."

Yang relented and grabbed the back of the Ravager's spine. "Cool, those are my favorite kinds of flights."

Digging her own heels into the Ravager's back, Blake turned the flying Grimm around and guided it toward the Ziraph head trying to snatch up Emerald and Gwen. Salvos of rockets and bullets rang out from the Huntresses, which predictably barely scratched the armored face - but it was enough to make the giant giraffe shift focus from one annoyance to another. It roared as it swung its neck towards them like a massive flail, which the girls banked to avoid. The Ziraph snapped its head back to gore them with house-sized horns, narrowly missing them but tearing off an entire Ravager wing with a grazing blow. A tentacle-like tongue lashed out and wrapped around the bat's body, squeezing hard enough to make its prey scream into its muzzle.

"We're snagged!" Blake frowned as she slashed the tongue with Krahkava, only to make a tiny little paper cut in the Grimm flesh. "Think we should bail and let it have this one?"

"Lemme just leave a little present first…" Yang quickly punched the Ravager with a series of jabs, leaving behind a dozen red bombs before looking up with a grin. "Okay, now we can bail!"

Blake nodded in understanding before grabbing her girlfriend and jumping off the doomed Grimm, unwrapping Gambol Shroud from its jaws and flinging it around a Ziraph horn to swing to safety. Well, "safety" was a strong word - swinging around to land on the ivory crown of a monstrous giraffe wouldn't be her first choice of sanctuary, especially when it snorted smoke in irritation and swiveled three pale yellow eyes to glare up at them. But it was safer than still being on the Ravager as the tongue pulled it back into a waiting mouth, and healthier than splattering against the ground far below, which was all she could ask for at the moment.

Yang grunted as she and her partner dug their disks into ancient bone plating to anchor themselves. "Y'know what? Wow. You're even uglier from this angle."

The Ziraph chomped down on its unlucky lunch and growled in response.

"Enjoy your snack, big guy! I seasoned it only with the finest of explosives."

She pumped her arms and detonated the bombs, creating a burst of flames within the Ziraph's maw…only for the gargantuan giraffe to barely even flinch, as fires washed harmlessly over its thick armor and hide.

"…huh. That usually works."

Blake rolled her eyes and tightened her grip on Krahkava. "Ankle biters, please tell me you're almost done down there."

KA-BOOOOM!

A deafening explosion from down below deafened her in all four ears, nearly drowning out the Ziraph's pained roars and Yang's whooping cheer. Blake looked down and saw Dew and Octavia sliding down a half-shattered leg, dragging Dawngrass and Obsidian through ancient flesh to slow their descent. A moment later an entire glacier burst from another knee, its icy spikes narrowly missing Emerald as she and Gwen swung to safety. The air hummed as a black hole tore through reality and the final leg, pulling in the tongue that stretched to ensnare Coco and Reese as they flew away - and ripping it out of the mouth entirely in a river-sized spray of black ichor.

The Ziraph bellowed in pain as its legs finally gave out, lurching back and forth before slowly falling forward. Its belly hit the ground with a thunderous crash, but its heads remained upright and alert and pissed - which, considering Yang and Blake were still using one as a perch, was a small silver lining in the world's grayest cloud.

"That answer your question, Blake?" panted Emerald with a grunt.

Jaune sounded similarly winded, but still forced a smile. "Nice work, the heads should be in throwing range now! Emerald, help Yang and Blake with the middle one! ABRN, CFVY, you each take another one! NDGO and Carmine, once we launch the others we need to back up the Glatorians and keep the area clear! Let's finish this!"

As if it could sense that its death was near, the Ziraph head underneath Blake and Yang started thrashing and whipping around with a frenzied roar. The pair held onto their disks and each other for dear life, trying to ride out the tantrum without getting flung like ragdolls. The other two heads both pulled back and coiled their necks around the middle throat, red veins beneath the armor pulsing with building tension.

"Forget that order and hit the deck!" shouted Nebula. "It's winding up for a big sweep!"

"Not on my watch, it isn't!"

Another ball of glowing light shot from behind the old water tower, striking the highest point where all three necks were wrapped together. While the center head was far enough away from the blinding blast to remain unstunned, the other two weren't so lucky - the Dustfruit exploded like a massive signal flare right in front of their eyes, blinding all six yellow orbs with a single shot. Better still, in their confusion and clumsy attempts to unwrap themselves, the heads knocked together with enough force to lock horns, keeping them from pulling away from each other.

"Nice shot, Azina!" Jaune called. "This is our best chance - go get 'em!"

The Hunters still on the rooftop timed their leaps for a wave of combined force to launch them up, soaring towards the heads that fruitlessly tried to pull themselves apart. Arslan hooked her rope onto the leftmost head and pulled herself and her teammates onto its snout, while Velvet and Yatsuhashi slammed identical Fulcrums down on the right bridge. Reese flew overhead and dropped Coco off alongside her team before returning to her own, shifting Race Queen into a pair of pistols in mid-air and shooting down incoming Ravagers while her partner fired bursts from Osozaki. Fox soared back into the sky to join the rest of Team CFVY, announcing his presence by delivering a spinning axe-kick onto weakened bone - with enough force to shatter it completely.

Of course, none of that helped Blake and Yang's current predicament. The main head just kept snapping back and forth, harder and faster than before as desperation and rage fueled its movements. But just when it felt like their grip would fail, a third protosteel disk cut through the air and struck the center eye, splitting it open as it oozed ink-black ichor and yellow pus. Another pained roar escaped the Ziraph as it finally stopped its flailing; Emerald arced through the air and caught Madumehi as it bounced back to her, landing on the nasal bridge of the blinded head with practiced poise and grace.

Once she was sure the world was done spinning, Blake dared to look up and unclench her stomach. "Whew…that was close. Thanks, Em."

The mint-haired Huntress just nodded and extended the chain of Thief's Respite, hooking the sickle on the edge of a smoking nostril. "It shouldn't try to buck you off, but the other eyes won't stay blind for long - and we've still got that tongue and other Grimm to worry about. Whatever we do, we'd better do it fast."

Yang let out the breath she'd been holding and unlocked the servos in her arm. "Well, you did give us a nice big hole right in the middle eye…be a shame to let it go to waste. You plant the seeds, Blake, and I'll spring 'em! Em, can you keep that thing distracted?"

"That's why I'm here," groused Emerald as she turned to face the appendage slowly encroaching, tossing Madumehi with enough force to make it reel back. "I can buy you a minute, maybe, so make it count!"

Blake nodded as she finally pulled Krahkava free and pitched herself forward, sliding down the length of the Ziraph's forehead and circling around a ruptured eye that was longer than she was tall. Ancient ichor oozed in a thick river of molasses, tinging the air with the smell of rot and miasma and pure concentrated evil. She ignored the putrid smell and pulled out a handful of figs from the pouch at her side, then thought the better of it - choosing instead to untie the bag and dump in everything at once. No point in being gentle, after all. A dozen fruits of all shapes, colors, and elements tumbled and splashed into the river of shadowy fluids, which began to glow ominously when Yang reached her non-metal hand inside and started pooling Aura into the waiting seeds.

"This is either gonna be the prettiest tree ever, or the ugliest," said Yang. "Gimme a sec to make sure all of them sprout - then we can all blow it up together, Toa style!"

She gave another nod and drew Gambol Shroud to fire a few rounds at a Ravager diving towards Emerald, earning a quick nod of thanks from the former thief. More bats rose up from beneath the edge of the Ziraph's snout, which she leapt forward to engage while standing back-to-back with Emerald. As the pair slashed and hacked and shot down incoming flyers, she took a moment to survey the rest of the battlefield, just to make sure things were going well for everyone else.

As it turned out, Blake needn't have worried. To the left, she saw Arslan leap and hook Tsaivar Zürkh onto the tongue of her team's Ziraph head, swinging around and wrapping the rope around a horn and pulling with all her might. Bolin kept pummeling the blunt end of Nàilì's staff mode against weakened faceplate segments, giving Reese and Nadir plenty of gaps to stuff with indigo plums that grew into a forest of pale white willows. On her right, Coco unleashed Gianduja's full explosive power right on the middle eye, drowning the yellow orb in minigun rounds as her teammates planted and grew a small forest of scarlet and violet trees.

Far down below, the battle was no less intense. Jaune led the charge through a horde of black while flanked by Dew and Octavia, who unleashed torrents of wind and flame to clear a path to the Glatorians. Gwen flung her razor-sharp copies of Shimmer into soft targets near and far, which Carmine messily ripped free and returned to their thrower with flicks of her wrist. Nebula form-shifted Shooting Star into a sword and leapt to land next to Jaune, who nodded and stood back-to-back with her as their blades tore through Cadejos and Mobulas. Tarix's twin blades carved through shadowy flesh. Gresh blocked heavy hitters with Vinebreaker in shield form, giving Kiina a chance to plunge Vaporstrike into their unaware backs.

It was a sight that warmed her heart - the sight of so many warriors, from so many different walks of life, fighting like one unified force.

If only Ruby was here to see it for herself, to see what her message of hope had started.

A crackle of bark and a flash of silver snapped her out of her mid-battle musings, making her look over at her partner. Yang leapt back as a huge tree, easily fifteen feet tall and ten feet thick, sprouted from the Ziraph's center eye, digging sharp roots into its eye socket and punching through ancient armor as it grew. The leaves and bark were a chimeric mish-mash of a dozen different colors and species, and its fruits looked more like six-pointed stars than anything edible. For a moment she was almost sorry to destroy something so strange and ethereal…but then the Ziraph roared and howled in pain, and Blake's focus returned.

"Tree's ready!" called Yang with a smirk, orange threads on her armband already glowing with scarlet flames. "Let's light it up, ladies!"

Emerald's jacket billowed as the pale green stitching within the lining came alive with waiting gales. "Y'know, we probably shouldn't be on this thing's head when it blows."

"Then let's jump on three!" Blake pulsed her Aura and activated her own Dust Weave, feeling gravel form in her palms as the Kanohi shapes on her sash began to light up. "One…two…three!"

The trio leapt off and fired their elemental attacks in perfect unison, striking the strange tree with a combined blast of compacted earth, piercing wind, and roaring fire. Instantly its fruits and bark all began to glow like an imminent supernova, humming and crackling with sparks of pure energy and chaos. Tendrils of that very power even jumped from one Ziraph head to the other two like stray bolts of lightning, lancing the other trees and triggering the elemental energy within. Blake and Emerald scooped up Yang and swung safely back down, hitting the ground running and tucking themselves behind a cracked boulder. She caught a glimpse of ABRN and CFVY diving into the abandoned office building, scrambling away from the windows as the droning hums of the trees grew into high-pitched whines.

"Everyone brace yourselves!" called Jaune as he slammed the shield of Crocea Mors into the dirt. "Middle tree's gonna blow, and it's gonna blow big!"

NDGO and the Glatorians barely managed to heed his directions in time. Two of the Ziraph heads suddenly erupted into showers of flame and frost, blowing apart the ancient giraffe-like skulls and scattering dark mist across the battlefield. The remaining head just roared impotently into the sky as its crown of Dust and leaves grew brighter and brighter, burned hotter and hotter, screamed louder and louder.

After lighting up the dimming sky for a moment, the Dust within the giant tree finally detonated, unleashing a blast of power so potent it was seen and felt for miles around.

KRA-BOOOOOOOOOOM.

A blinding mushroom-shaped explosion of light and color erupted from the Ziraph head, nearly outshining the sinking sun as it lingered for a solid minute. Rushing winds and trembling earth and billowing sand tore through everything in their path - the remaining Grimm, the ruined buildings, even the Hunters and Magnans. Azina jumped desperately just as her water tower finally collapsed in on itself. The old office building creaked and lurched as it nearly folded in half. Blake's ears rang loud enough to drown out all other sounds. Yang's metal hand nearly crushed her own. Emerald buried her face into her knees as her hands clamped the sides of her head. Jaune and Gresh grit their teeth as their shields ate the impact of the shock waves, protecting the people behind them as they huddled together.

By the time the dust finally settled and the smoke finally cleared, the headless Ziraph body was halfway to withering away into ash and mist.

Blake pushed herself out of cover and gripped both Gambol Shroud and Krahkava tightly, shaking the deafness out of her feline ears and turning them in every direction. She was expecting to hear a chorus of enraged monsters, a second wave of darkness coming to avenge their old god. Instead, she heard…nothing. No howling Cadejos. No screeching Ravagers. Not even the chittering of Sulfur Fish. Nothing but the sound of wind whistling through old ruins, and the panting of her teammates as they dared to breathe once more.

For the first time in hundreds of years, the Old Oasis was free of Grimm.

Coco was the first to break the silence, her panting filtered through the sand-filled Scroll speakers. "Erm…Blake? How much Dust did you guys use on your head to make that big of a light show?"

"I just threw my whole bag in there," she rasped. "So I'd say…all of it?"

"Yeah, that's what I figured." Coco huffed. "Gonna need to ask you to never do that again…at least not anywhere near other trees. Wouldn't want to blow all of Vacuo sky-high now, would we?"

"I bet it'd look sick as hell, though!"

"Of course you'd think that, Reese."

"At least it worked quite well in the end." Azina crawled up the side of the office building like a spider, perching on the edge and extending the lenses in her helmet. "Maybe even better than we expected…seems that the shock wave from the explosion took out most of the Grimm the Ziraph called, and the rest are scattering to the four winds. I believe that our work here is done."

"Then let's go ahead and call it in, so Raanu can send his Agori here to start building." Blake hummed as she surveyed the aftermath of their battle, which had flattened almost the entire remains of the business district. "They're gonna have their work cut out for them, turning this mess into a place big enough to hold the New Atero conference."

A proud laugh came from the Jungle Tribe Agori. "We built a spaceship out of desert scraps, Blake. Compared to that, a stage is no trouble at all."

She didn't have the energy to argue with that, opting instead to flop tiredly into Yang's waiting arms.

---

Hey, we're gonna be heading back to Shade soon, typed Emerald into her Scroll as she perched on the warm hood of a tired dune runner. Gotta drop off the local Huntress first, we kinda borrowed her from a town close to the op zone. There's a saloon here, want me to bring you back anything? Dunno if I'll be able to bring alcohol back to the city…

She double-checked that the coast was clear before adding three green heart emojis, then hit send. While she waited for Ilia's reply, she took a moment to roll her head back and soak in the fading sunlight before evening stole it away. A crisp, chilly blanket was already settling across the town of Basalt, urging the folks living here to slink back into their homes or slip into the lively saloon. There was a sense of peace that wasn't here before, a kind of relief that only came from knowing that the coming night won't be quite as dark as the ones before it.

Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the biggest source of terror, the Old Oasis, was clear of Grimm for the first time in centuries. Or maybe it was the sight of a caravan truck fleet that passed through not too long ago, hauling all kinds of tools and materials and Agori workers eager to build. Or maybe it was the sense of relief in seeing the local Huntress come back not just alive and well, but with all the students that'd visited earlier in good health and better spirits. Probably some combination of all that, if Emerald had to guess. Not that she needed to.

The other warriors who'd been part of the job were all celebrating and mingling and unwinding in their favorite ways. Reese was showing off some sick kickflip tricks for an eager audience consisting of a few local kids, Gresh, Gwen, and Azina. Jaune was chatting with Nebula and Arslan at a table with half-empty sodas in hand, both of whom were taking notes from the more experienced team leader. Fox and Yatsuhashi boasted about the fight to anyone who would listen, the latter holding onto a very-sleepy-looking Velvet that snuggled into his shoulder.

Yang was schooling anyone who dared challenge her in an arm-wrestling match, racking up a list of defeated opponents that included several burly farmers, Bolin and Nadir, Dew, and even Tarix (though in truth the Glatorian was polite enough to let her think she'd won). Kiina watched in fascination as Octavia scooped up a handful of sand from the dusty ground and heated it into molten glass with her Semblance, carefully blowing and sculpting with bare burning hands to mold a beautiful bottle. Coco was having a one-on-one conversation with Carmine too far away from the others to hear, but judging by how the auburn-haired Huntress was laughing and smiling, and how she was looking at the charismatic young lady…Emerald suspected that the blushing fashionista's "dry spell" was about to come to an end.

"Still not much of a party person, huh Em?"

She nearly fell off her perch as a familiar feline Faunus climbed onto the dune runner roof to join her. Gods, how did Blake keep sneaking up on her like that? And why didn't she mind it that much?

"Nope, I'm content right here in the introvert corner," replied Emerald with a smirk.

"You're in good company," said Blake, giving her own smile as her ears twitched. "Some of my best friends are introverts."

"I'm so sorry to hear that," she deadpanned just as her Scroll pinged. Her hand swiped up to expand it - very calmly and not at all eagerly, of course.

Dw about bringing me anything - seeing you back and safe is more than enough for me ^3^ (Tho I won't complain if u bring back some club soda, we can split it under the stars if u want)

Her heart thumped in her chest as she sighed wistfully, damn near swooning on the spot. "Gods…she's perfect. I just…I, hah…y'know?"

Blake just nodded with an understanding smile. "I'm glad that you and Ilia are happy together. Really, I mean that. It's nice to see her have a reason to smile again…and it's good to see you open your heart to more than just us. You bring out the best in each other, without even realizing it. It's something you've both needed for a long time, and I'm glad you finally have it."

Emerald came down from her lovestruck high to shoot a somewhat skeptical glance at her friend. "Sure you're not just happy to take credit for playing matchmaker?"

"Hey, all I did was tell you about her back on Mata Nui," said the Faunus, lips twisting into a smirk. "Courting her, making a good impression, falling in love? That was all you, Emerald. You're better at this than you think you are. You're a good person, and she's lucky to have you in her life. We all are."

"Yeah, yeah…" She gave a teasing smile of her own. "Careful, keep telling me nice things and I just might turn into a grinning, goofy idiot like your girlfriend. We wouldn't want that now, would we?"

"Oh no, the horror," Blake replied in the flattest tone possible. "Please, no, oh gods, anything but that."

Both girls burst into fits of giggles as their gazes swept over their gathered friends, content to let silence fill the space between them before Blake spoke again.

"I actually just got off a call with Raanu a few minutes ago. He said that the caravans he sent to the Old Oasis are already breaking ground for the New Atero stadium. They should have it ready and set up by the end of the week."

That made Emerald look back at her with raised eyebrows. "Already? But it's only been a couple hours since we cleared it out. They work that fast?"

"Apparently." The Faunus girl shrugged. "Raanu says that his people, the Agori…they were construction workers before the Core Wars, diligent little builders that worked and walked alongside their pledged Great Beings. Under the guidance of their masters, they filled their world with marvels and wonders. Cities of metal and glass that outclassed any Kingdom that Remnant has ever seen, roads that linked one end of the world to another, and towers so tall they practically touched the sky. The Great Beings had created them to love the act of building, to find joy in putting things together with their own two hands…and that love, that drive, turned to intelligence, innovation, and creativity. As the Agori got better at building on their own, the Great Beings became less interested in working alongside them. Less interested in walking with them. Less interested in leading them."

"Sounds like they got lazy and complacent," noted Emerald. "Relying on their little workers to do everything while they kicked back in their thrones, sipping wine and getting fed grapes by gorgeous attendants."

"I don't think they were quite that bad," chuckled Blake. "The way Raanu described it, what happened with the Great Beings sounded less like neglect and more like…discontentment. Disillusionment. Like they were getting bored of their own existence. They were beings who could create anything they dreamed up, with a snap of their fingers. Now that they had perfected their idea of what life should look like, to the point that their creations could make their own creations…what was even left for them to create?"

At the confused look on the former thief's face, she looked over with a frown. "Imagine if every single Grimm on Remnant disappeared tomorrow."

"Gods, don't tempt me -"

"Now imagine what you, as a Huntress dedicated to fighting them, would do next."

That made the Lien chit drop in Emerald's mind. "…ah."

"Exactly." Blake let out a sigh as she stared back at the horizon. "Maybe that's why they started the Core Wars…just to have something, anything, to validate their own existence. Of course, we all know what happened after that - and after the Shattering, the Agori didn't really have the luxury of building like they used to. Why waste resources on one monolithic tower, when that same metal could be used to fortify the walls or make more houses? Their greatest monuments were buried in sand and ruined by decay. Pockets of their old creations were ripped apart and repurposed into villages for themselves and arenas for their Glatorians. Bone Hunters, Vorox, and all kinds of wild animals were constantly raiding their settlements for bits of scrap and food. Even their grand spaceship barely survived the trip to Remnant, and it's anyone's guess if it even would have made it to Bota Magna if the Skrall hadn't stowed away. Every time the Agori have built in the last hundred thousand years, it's never been for the glory or pride they were created to feel. It's always just been for survival, without room to feel much else."

She gave a smile that Emerald found entirely too contagious. "But right now? Right now is the first time, in a very long time, that the Agori get to build something they want to build. Something they've dreamed of making for as long as they've been alive, a cultural landmark they can show a new world to prove what they can do. Something that they can be proud of."

"Then I guess it's no surprise they're that eager to get started," mused Emerald with a pensive hum. "Hopefully, if this New Atero thing pans out, this really is just the first big project of theirs. It'll prove that they still can make those cities they used to love putting together. Give them a chance to start living instead of just surviving, right alongside the rest of us."

"That's the dream right there," affirmed Blake with an even wider smile. "The whole reason we're doing this. To promise a place where everyone's welcome, safe, and free to live their lives. A place with plenty of introvert corners for folks like you."

"There you go, making it about me again," Emerald huffed as she rolled her eyes.

"Admit it, you like it. You like us."

"Not even if you paid me," she said, giving her friend a well-honed smirk. "Although…"

"Although?"

Crimson eyes blinked a few times to banish the sudden wetness. When had she started tearing up? It was probably just sand and dust. Yeah, definitely just sand and dust getting where it wasn't supposed to.

"I'll just say this to get you off my back. Do you remember that little talk we had back on Mata Nui? The one we had after freeing Lewa…you asked me what I wanted in life. What I really wanted. And I didn't have an answer for you back then. Remember that?"

Blake nodded, a proud gleam rising within her eyes. Emerald pretended not to notice as she settled deeper into the hood of the dune runner, taking stock of her surroundings one more time before the sun fully sank. In her hands, the waiting words of a woman she felt safe enough to love. Ahead of her, a group of warriors celebrating a job well done. And somewhere out there, just a few miles away, the new foundations of a better future, promising a world where people like her would have a better chance at life without throwing their souls away for monsters.

A promise that didn't seem like such a fantasy anymore.

"…I think I finally found my answer," declared Emerald, and that was all she needed to say.

---

(A/N): Awww, isn't that sweet? We're all so proud of Em, she's come so far since the fic started. :D

Anyway, time for some useless trivia only I care about - the names of Team ABRN's weapons! They never got named in the show or in any supplemental materials, but unlike the names I came up with for NDGO's weapons I decided to be a little more abstract and creative. And by that I mean I consulted Google Translate like a common peasant, but that's what counts as in-depth linguistic research around these parts.

Arslan's rope-dart thingy is called Tsaivar Zürkh, which is Mongolian for "Pale Heart". Given how her first name means "Lion" and her last name means "Golden" in Mongolian, it only makes sense to me that her weapon name shares the same language. A similar theme applies to Bolin's staff Nàilì (Chinese for "endurance") and Nadir's rifle Osozaki (Japanese for "late bloomer"), signifying Bolin's toughness and ability to "taunt" foes for the former and Nadir's (relative) lack of combat prowess compared to his peers for the latter. Lastly, I decided to call Reese's hoverboard-pistol set Race Queen, because let's face it this kid is a speed demon and totally grew up watching the Remnant equivalents of NASCAR and the X-Games and Oobleck is right she really should be wearing a helmet.

Also, credit where it's due - the idea for Bolin's Semblance mentioned last chapter (the ability to draw aggro for Grimm) originally came from DrAmishMD's depiction of Team ABRN in Remnant Unknown…although I realized halfway through writing this chapter that he'd given that Semblance to Nadir in his story, while Bolin had some kind of Spidey-sense thing. Whoops. Oh well, at least now I don't have to worry about plagiarism accusations! (Arslan's Semblance. meanwhile, is basically just Clark Kent/Superman's Semblance from the first RWBYxJL movie, minus the actual Superman stuff…gotta make it fair for everyone, y'know?)

All that aside, thanks for reading! I'm going to take a double-length break between this chapter and the next one - which is to say that instead of putting up the next chapter in two weeks, I'm gonna put it up in a MONTH instead. Sorry, but the last few weeks have been…less productive than I'd hoped, thanks to an uptick in work stress and my own body trying to suffocate me. (Spring allergies SUCK.) But I promise there's some great stuff in the works, including a trip back down to Metru Nui, a cooldown chapter with lots of character beats and introspection, and our first REAL two-chapter event (TM). Yes, the (TM) is necessary. No, I won't learn how to do the actual trademark thing on these websites.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed yourselves! Stay safe, stay sane, tell Viz Media that we want more RWBY, and keep being awesome! See you all in a month!