The students already felt like shit had hit the fan, but they expected, and attempted to mentally prepare, for what was to come.
They took about a thirty to an hour long break, trying to calm themselves down at least somewhat before the next episode. They wanted some semblance of a meal but they knew ultimately it wouldn't go down, and they didn't want to bother Raider or themselves with the mess.
During all of this, Raider felt it would be best for them to all sit on team couches for the rest of the volume. Ruby is sitting with her head on Yang's shoulder as her sister has her arm wrapped around her waist. She's whispering to her little sister that things will be alright, but she doesn't know if she's telling that to Ruby or trying to believe it herself.
Team JNPR and Sun are huddled up together on their couch, Nora and Jaune about squeezing Pyrrha with how close the three are, but she doesn't mind, she actually quite appreciates the close proximity.
Raider gave them a couple moments to settle in and regain their composure for this episode, but it wasn't going to be pretty, same as the last one. When she was given the 'okay' to start, the screen lit up with the next episode.
(Volume 3 Intro)
Now having watched the intro many times, a few began focusing on the lyrics. Their frowns deepened when they realized how negative and depressing they were.
People run and Atlesian Knights begin shooting as grimm start to rampage through the fair grounds, Blake and Weiss stop as they view the mess in its entirety. Weiss doesn't believe what she's seeing.
Blake takes out her scroll and she and Yang are immediately on a call with one another. "Yang, are you okay?"
Yang is running through the dorm halls, Zwei in tow, "I'm fine, is Ruby with you? She's not answering her scroll."
Yang knew Mercury destroying Ruby's scroll was going to lead to this. She tried to rationalize even though Ruby was safe and with her. She's our leader, she can handle grimm, Ruby knows how to take care of herself.
This didn't stop Yang's sisterly instinct from kicking in, her arm around Ruby tightened.
It's a really good thing this room and area was fabricated by an interdimensional being, because if not, there would be as much grimm here as there were on screen.
Blake replies that she isn't, this causing Yang to stop, "Yang, I'm sure she's fine, she; our leader, she can take care of herself."
Ruby heard Blake's words, wanting to keep hold of the warm feeling they created before things go down the drain.
Yang clenches her fist, agreeing with Blake, then continuing her way down the hall.
"This can't be happening. Penny…" Weiss is interrupted by Yang, exclaiming that the White Fang are releasing grimm into the school.
"The White Fang is here?!" Blake shouts into the phone. The sound of grimm attacking on the other line causes Blake to yell in worry. Yang's last words were that she had to go and to tell Blake to be careful.
Blake stares blankly at her scroll as the call ends. Weiss asks the Faunus on what they plan to do. "We're going to the docks and we're doing our job." Clicking a few things on her scroll, Blake's locker appears, opening and allowing access to Gambol Shroud inside.
No, this is exactly what Cinder and them want them to do, to just give up. If they want to prevent this from happening to Beacon then they can't just stand and wallow in sadness of what's being shown.
They need to take action, stop this from becoming a reality. Stopping Penny's…death, the school being destroyed, and everything to come after this.
The only necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Weiss gives Blake a determined nod.
The nevermore continues in trying to break through Amity Colosseum's barrier, and it seems to be succeeding. Ruby remains motionless on the ground, unmoving, frozen.
Pyrrha finally moves, but she stares at what she's done to Penny.
It doesn't hurt any less to see Penny in that state, just a cruel reminder.
"Pyrrha! Pyrrha, that thing's going to break in, you gotta move!" Jaune cries from the stands, desperately trying to get Pyrrha's attention. As the colosseum's defenses flicker, Jaune jumps down, his friends crying out to him.
NO! I was responsible for the loss of a friend, I can't be the reason for another….
"Pyrrha, please, snap out of it!"
The two are blown away by the force of the nevermore, Pyrrha's attention is finally taken elsewhere. Pyrrha doesn't move as the nevermore charges.
Ruby is the one to take action, stabbing the nevermore with one of Penny's swords. The nevermore shrieks.
"Ruby?" Pyrrha sounds confused, whilst Ruby shouts for the nevermore to leave Pyrrha alone. The nevermore lets out a cry, bringing itself into the air. Soaring around the area, it was never able to touch Ruby as everyone's lockers came crashing down on the beast.
A few in the room let out a large sigh of relief, something good that's happened in these last couple episodes. Though small, the group still want to hang on to the little moments they can before the absolute shitstorm that will soon happen.
They don't know when, but they don't want to think of that right now, just the tiny pieces of happiness.
Every student from the Vytal Festival stand atop the grimm's body, weapons in hand and ready.
The group had to admit that the scene was awesome, and the music accompanies it perfectly. Everyone was ready for war.
The students wobble as the nevermore proceeds to get back up. It doesn't deter them as they all proceed to attack as one. Nora slams it to the ground and Yatsuhashi and Sage slice the creature's head off.
Ruby turns and looks at everyone as the nevermore dissipates, her eyes land on Pyrrha who is on her knees, tears in her eyes. "Ruby, I'm…" Pyrrha stops, softly caressing a piece of what was Penny's clothing, "I'm so sorry."
"Pyrrha, you have nothing to be sorry about, it wasn't your fault," Ruby starts, turning to face Pyrrha up above, "This is all because of Emerald, Mercury, and Cinder. They planned this long before the Vytal Festival. No one is holding this against you, we know you would never do that, whether you knew Penny was a robot or not."
Overwhelmed with emotion, the tears began to fall. Pyrrha held her fists close to her chest, body shaking.
"Ruby…" Pyrrha felt like she didn't deserve this. But the others thought otherwise. "T-Thank you."
Ruby apologizes as well, firmly reminding Pyrrha that it wasn't her fault. "She's right," Jaune speaks, making his way towards Pyrrha, "Whoever was on the microphone, they're the ones who did this, and we have to make sure they don't take anyone else." Being given her weapons, Pyrrha is filled with determination.
The group heard what seemed to resemble a sob from the back of the room, but when they turned their heads Raider looked fine. They knew better than that.
It chilled them to the bone when she responded that way after Jaune said that.
Ruby, viewing the team they have, stands proudly. The shouts of grimm grab their attention at the top of the colosseum. The students look up to find a horde of griffons. Ren states the obvious of what kind of grimm they are, and Neptune asks what their plan of attack is, pointing Tri-hard at the beasts.
Ruby asks for Sun's scroll, which he happily complies with a flick of his tail. Ruby's locker crashes into the colosseum, opening to reveal Crescent Rose. A griffon shrieks, standing in Ruby's way, but a single bullet has it flying off. "Students," Professor Port calls to the group.
The students let out small noises of excitement at the sight of their teachers.
"I think it would be best for you to leave."
"What?! But we can handle them!" Sun yells, crossing his arms with a pout.
Ruby attempts to refute but Dr. Oobleck doesn't allow it, "Ms. Rose! This day will surely go down in Remnant's history. I'd prefer if my students could live to tell about it." Ruby agrees without another word, gesturing to the others to head to the exit. They do so, and while Ruby was in a pose, Velvet simply had to get a picture.
The group found it funny, but also wondered if it was truly necessary.
"One final match Marty, place your bets!" Professor Port shouts with a laugh as all the griffons circle them.
No students heeded General Ironwood's words as they all panicked, rushing towards the airships.
If this was placed in any other context, Yang would have made some kind of joke about it. But it wasn't that context, nor was it appropriate.
Students ran around screaming, trying to get onto the ships as the White Fang brought grimm up to them, releasing them on the grounds. Atlesian Knights were doing their best to hold off the creatures, but it wasn't enough.
A large beowulf's attention shifted to a glaring General Ironwood after ripping an Atlesian Knight in half. The two held a staredown but was then broken by the two making their way towards each other, picking up speed. Ironwood let out a cry, taking out his weapon from his coat, and sliding under the beast, shooting him twice.
"Go General!" Sun shouted from his seat, having the strong urge to jump up from his seat, but settled in licking his feet out instead, nearly missing Ruby's head.
All three girls turned, giving the boy a death glare, as Ruby stared cutely, and oblivious, to what just happened.
Sun slowly put his feet down, chuckling nervously as facing all three of them was the last thing he wanted to do.
"Sorry Ruby." Though he apologized, Ruby was still confused as to the why.
The large beowulf gave out a large roar, advancing with his claws out, swiping in hoping to hit the general. When a claw comes down, General Ironwood stops it with just his arm.
"Man, I want to know what his routine is," Yang whistled, trying to keep the light atmosphere running, following Sun's, ahem, transgression.
General Ironwood shot at its hindlegs, sending it into the air, to swing it back down. The creature groans as Ironwood pulls it upwards to where his gun is directly under its skull. Shooting it once the beast drops, dissolving into dust.
It was then all the students from inside rushed out, Ruby being the one to run up to General Ironwood and ask what was even going on. "Grimm are crawling all over the city, the White Fang has invaded Beacon, and to make matters worse some…vagabond has seized one of my ships."
A couple students snorted at the General's pause, his attempt to keep his language intact. If he did swear, no one would have blamed him.
"Until we regain command the skies are out of our control, so I'm-" General Ironwood stopped, pulling out his gun to kill off an incoming grimm from behind them, only to continue like nothing happened, "Going to take it back."
Ironwood turns around to head into his ship, that was before Jaune made him stop. "What should we do?" He asked.
Ironwood stops, turning around to address Jaune's question. "You have two choices: defend your kingdom and your school, or save yourselves. No one would fault you if you leave."
"That's not even an optional question. Of course we're gonna defend our school!" Nora shouts, her eyes hardened with determination as she looks at the screen.
The others feel the same. They came to Beacon to train to protect the people, and when actual trouble rises for the school they're going to turn their backs on it? Hell no!
This is their school, and they're going to protect it.
"Let's move out!" Ironwood doesn't say another word, entering his ship, and taking off.
All students watch as it leaves, looking at one another. Sun was the first one to speak, Jaune followed soon after, telling the others they can take a ship to Beacon.
Ruby was the only one who stays behind, silent as General Ironwood's ship became smaller and smaller.
On Roman's ship, he's curious as to what all the buttons in front of him do. "Hmm, let's see…what doessss this button do." Upon pressing it a large explosion comes after, "Oh, fun! How about this one?" Roman hears nothing, but it does a lot more than he thinks, releasing all the waiting Atlesian Knights in the ship as the door below them opens.
"He's acting like a kid in a candy store," Yang mutters grimly.
"Hm, alright, nothing." Neo grabs Roman's attention to give him a scroll. Excited, he connects it to the ship, its screen changing to the queen chess piece. "This one's gonna be fun." All screens in the ship turn red as all the devices sync to the scroll.
In Vale, Glynda, the Atlesian Knights, and Qrow do their best to take care of the grimm problem. Qrow and Glynda freeze, the Atlesian Knight's screens turn red, recalculating their target.
"They took control over the Atlesian Knights?! What's next, the paladins too?" Sun shouts as the rest of the students stare at the screen with wide, horrified eyes.
Cinder is taking everything and turning it against them!
The same thing repeats with the knights in front of Weiss and Blake. "Look out!" Taking Weiss, she brings the both of them out of their fire.
Yang and Ruby knew they should be worried, but they couldn't help the feeling that this is giving them stormtrooper vibes as they keep missing Blake and Weiss.
Blake and Weiss stand, pulling out their weapons as the knights surround them. In Ironwood's ship the same thing happens, causing his ship to catch fire.
Everyone remains frozen in their seat, hoping to the Gods that Ironwood survives the crash.
All students simply stare as they watch General Ironwood's airship fall. Ruby is the only one to move, sprinting out of the flying airship. Sun yells after her, "Ruby, what are you doing?!"
"That's my question, what the hell are you doing?!" Yang shouts, horrified at seeing her sister jump off the airship while it's still hundreds of feet in the air.
Yang grabs hold onto her sister, basically squeezing the life out of her. Blake and Weiss do the same, much to Ruby's dismay.
Ruby lands on Amity's platform by using her semblance.
Yang lets out a massive breath of relief, but that doesn't mean she's letting her sister off the hook for nearly giving her a heart attack.
Running into Amity's arena, she searches for her locker. Upon finding it she types in some coordinates, and to herself steady she uses Crescent Rose as the locker blasts into the air.
She lands onto the airship's wing with a thud, leading Roman to groan, and ask for Neo to take care of the situation. He cracks his neck as Neo runs out of the room with a nod.
Back at the front of Beacon, Weiss is handling the Atlesians Knights while Blake is taking care of all the White Fang members. It wasn't until Blake was put into a tight corner that Weiss came to her aid.
Weiss straightens her posture, a smile plastered on her face as she's more than proud of her tv counterpart. Blake held the same sentiment, the two looking at one another with pride.
Their friends only seemed to reaffirm their feelings as they shouted their encouragement for "kicking their asses" as Yang so happily put it.
"Man, where am I? I wanna join you guys!" Yang says disappointed, but that also made her really wonder, where the hell was she? Last time she was seen she was running through the dorm halls calling Blake and asking for Ruby with Zwei behind her.
Yang hoped she would show up soon enough. She's getting the feeling she shows up at the last moment kind of thing when something is going horribly wrong. She sincerely hopes it's a false feeling.
All White Fang members crash onto the ground as Weiss and Blake stand back to back from one another.
Man, they look so cool! Ruby thought, squirming in her seat.
The Atlas guards were having trouble with the paladins, and they were going to help but a descending airship grabbed their attention.
"Why in all of Remnant did I have to be right?!" Sun shouts with disbelief.
The airship crashes and a high vantage point is made, showing the large grim that are fighting to get into the school. Weiss tells Blake to be safe as they both part.
Blake takes a pause from running, an alpha latching onto the building above her. A man's pained scream grabs her attention, but her expression then changes to horror. She sees Adam toss a dead guard across the room, that's when their eyes meet and an evil smile grows.
"No… Adam…"
No…No… No No No No No No! Please no!
The high from earlier was completely forgotten the moment Blake saw Adam. And, unbeknownst to her, she was shaking, violently.
Yang attempted to first get Blake out of her own head, which took much trial, and for Blake to flinch away from Yang. That small movement stung, but Yang could dwell on that later. What was important was to help Blake calm down.
"blake…" heard a voice, but it was distant, too in her own mind to care or take notice. It came again, louder, and Blake recognized it was Yang's.
Finally taking a moment to process, Blake looked around, seeing all her friends with worrisome faces. "Blake…" She heard it a final time, looking over at Yang. Blake then felt something moist on her cheeks, havingn't even realized she had been crying throughout that episode. "Blake, it's okay, you're safe, he isn't here, you're okay." Yang reminded her gently, the rest of them repeating the same words.
A fresh wave of tears came, and Blake's first instinct overcame her; to feel safe herself. Yang let out a short 'uff' as Blake buried herself in Yang, shocking everyone.
They all understand Blake had vulnerable moments before, but this one was the most. Without wasting any more time, Yang wrapped her arms around her, cradling the back of her head while being mindful of her ears, reassuring her that Adam wasn't here, and Yang knows that he never will be thanks to Raider.
It was a few more minutes until Blake told them she was ready to continue, as well as lightly apologize. They asked if she was sure and that she had nothing to apologize for.
"Hello my darling."
That name brought horrible memories, making Blake shudder.
While all the students take care of the grim down below, Cinder, Mercury, and Emerald watch from a building roof, enjoying the show. Cinder comments that what she's looking at is beautiful. "It's almost sad," Emerald follows.
"It's horrendous. Focus on the Atlesian Knights," Cinder tells Mercury who has a scroll in his hand, recording everything. Mercury happily tells Cinder that he's getting everything. "Good, continue the broadcast until the end."
"It's being broadcasted…" Pyrrha starts.
"So the whole world can see that Atlas is the enemy," Weiss finishes, eyes widening.
The rumbles, shaking the three of them on the roof. "And do not miss what happens next," Cinder states with a smile, walking away as Mercury follows her with the camera.
In the tower of Beacon, Ozpin watches the chaos unfold on each screen, looking at everything. Taking his cane, he heads to the elevator, but is stopped by large reverberations, as if there were enormous steps, or banging.
In Vale, Glynda's attack is disrupted, and knowing exactly what it's coming from by the darkness of her voice.
All stop to look up at the mountain. Inside, a creature cracks its surface, wanting to break free.
With a burst of power, a Wyvern ascends into the sky.
The students sit frozen with horror, silent as they sit and watch the massive beast soar into the air.
"a wyvern…." All of them whisper. They wanted to look on the brightside, but how are they supposed to keep back all the rest of the grim and then the wyvern? It was simply impossible.
"It's the end of our school…" It was the outcome everyone decided, knowing there wasn't a way.
"Unless every huntsman and huntress fought together, but that would still leave the incoming grim and White Fang," Jaune tried to think of a small possibility of winning, but it was quickly shot down.
"There's no way…" Ruby said grimly.
No one saw it, but Raider focused her gaze on Ruby as she stared blankly at the screen.
Soaring across Vale, it drops pieces of its body, leaving grim to be created in their wake. All students stand their ground, ready to fight. But Pyrrha's stance falters as she notices Professor Ozpin. Walking towards him, her teammates, Nora, wonders what she's doing. Jaune tells the others he'll find out, and he follows after Pyrrha.
Pyrrha knew when she saw Professor Ozpin that it was time.
From a faraway building, Cinder stands. Focusing on her pupils, they narrow, glowing a deep gold.
The screen goes black and the end credits play.
The students silently look at the screen with little to no emotion. Raider figured it was time for a break, deciding that after each of these last episodes they would get a longer break as the episodes get worse and worse.
When it's the volume finale, they're gonna be getting a whole day or so from watching, just get their minds off what they'll see as well as to process everything before beginning volume 4.
A/N: Hope you enjoyed the chapter and I appreciate you being patient. Sorry for the wait a little bit, just been busy. Anyways, thanks for sticking around this long and I won't say much else because it will sound like the same song and dance. Other than that, thank you for reading and have a good day/night!