Fipp: So, in light of the awful showing that was the RWBY Volume 2 finale, I decided to rewrite it. This is not the first time I've decided to rewrite something I didn't like, but "The Breach" was just so disappointing that I felt this needed to be done.

Read here to know why I made the changes I did: mrfippstuff . /post /101455484082 /so-the-rwby- volume-2-finale- was-last-night

RWBY Volume 2 Finale Rewrite

The remix buzzed through the air, and sleepily, Juane reached out to grab his scroll, his hand fumbling around as he tried to fight through his sleep-ridden eyes. After several moments, he hand found the hand-sized piece of plastic and brought it to his face, the light on the screen cutting through the darkness of the room. The screen displayed a picture, as well as a name to go with it, matching someone he did not expect to see so soon.

"Ruby?" he answered, wearyingly. However, the only answer he got was static. "Uh, hey, are you there?" After a moment with still no answer, he pressed his thumb against the "CALL END" button, and hung up. Burying his head into his pillow, he tried to sleep, but he found that a sense of unease in the back of his mind made this very difficult.

000

"Ah yes, it is now time for your first mission! You must be excited certainly?" boasted Professor Port as he strolled up to the airship, hands behind his back and his head held high, Team JNPR following closely behind him. "Your next step into becoming fully-fledged Huntsmen and Huntresses! You must be excited for today, I know I certainly was when I went through it. Why, I can remember it like it was yesterday, we had been assigned to defend one of the boarders and-"

Port stepped through the open hatch on the side of the airship, his muffled by enclosed metal, seemingly oblivious to the students who had been falling behind.

Jaune sighed and reached into his pocket, pulling out his scroll and gazed down at the screen. He then turned as a hand was placed on his shoulder, and he saw Pyrrha, offering a reassuring smile. "I'm sure they're fine, Jaune. Try not to worry about it so much, they have their own mission, and he have ours."

"Yeah, I know but..." Jaune glanced back down to the screen, unsure. Weakly, he gave a small shrug. "I know they can handle themselves, but I can't help but think something's not right here."

"Maybe she butt-dialed you again," Nora chirped, skipping by.

Ren walked between them, which caused Nora to jump to halt. "It's not like they haven't gotten into trouble before. I wouldn't be surprised."

"You're so negative," Nora scoffed.

"They'll be fine," Pyrrha said. "I wouldn't worry about it, they'll be perfectly fine."

A deep wailing sounded off in the distance, off towards the city. Team JNPR snapped their attention the siren, just before a similar one began to come to life from the school they had left behind.

"Then again, I've been wrong before," Pyrrha said, bashfully.

"What is this?" Port demanded, sticking his head out the window. "Those are the alarms!"

Hastily, Jaune looked away from the school, to the teacher, and to the skyline of Vale. "Professor!" he said, stepping up to Port, catching the older man's attention. "We need to get to the city, and now! Something gone wrong there."

"Yes, you seem to be right on this matter, there does seem to be something going on, all of it coming from there," Port said, rubbing his chin. "Very well, we must make haste! Come Team JNPR We must fly out now!" Without further word, he ducked back into the airship, Pyrrha and Nora jumping in after him.

Giving a heavy sigh, Ren stepped forward, ready to board the airship as well, however, Jaune lightly grabbed his loose sleeve.

"Sorry Ren, but we're going to have to go that village another time," he said.

For a moment, Ren looked down to the ground, before turning back to Jaune and nodded, and heading to the airship.

Giving one last look to the city, Jaune jumped onto the ship as well.

000

A loud bang pierced the air as Ruby flew backwards and landed on the ground into a backwards slide, the end of Crescent Rose digging into street, but there was barely a moment to recover when a large Beowulf lunged itself at her. She quickly rolled out of the way, leaving to tear apart the street with its claws, giving her the time to turn around and cleave it in half, the part landing on the ground, vanishing into darkness. More came at her however, and she was forced to propel herself backwards and into the air away from them, and land on the top of an upturned truck.

For a brief moment, she found herself not under attack from the swarm of Grimm that surrounded her. From her vantage point, she could see what was happening around her, the sheer amount of Grimm that had invaded the city, forming a thick sea of black and white that covered the streets, loud roars and screeches came from all around her as the monsters tore at the urban environment, tearing apart the street, uprooting streetlights, crashing into window shops and over-turning cars.

A fiery explosion caught her attention, and she could see Yang rolling out of the swipe of an Ursa, before launching an uppercut that smashed into its jaw, sending it falling backwards. It looked as though she was about to fire a blast of fire down at it, but a flock of Nevermores came out of nowhere and crashed into her back, sending her to the ground. She managed to quickly jump back up, but she had to jump to avoid the flurry of piercing feathers that came raining down on her.

She then saw Weiss summon a glyph in front of her to block a Boarbatusk that came rolling at her, the shield blocking it, sending it back, but the moment that it went down, another two came charging at her, each one larger than herself. They swung at her with their tusks scrapping the street as she manages to flip backwards, but she was blind-sighted and sent into a wall. With barely a moment to recover, she quickly dash out of the way just as another one came barreling towards her, slamming head first into the building.

From the corner of her eye she saw Blake cornered by several Deathstalkers, each on the size of a large car. She fired at them, gun in one hand, sword in the other, quickly dodging between their large pincers as they snapped at her and the stingers as they swung at her. Her attacks, however, seemed to have little affect on their thick armor. A stinger came down on her, but she leaped away, her after image taking the fall as she jumped into the air and landed atop one of the Deathstalkers before leaping away from them. She made to turn away from them, but one of them swung their tales at her, striking her in the side and sending her flying into a heap of trashcans. She managed to jump back up, barely avoiding a giant set of claws that was slammed down.

Suddenly the truck shook, and Ruby looked and saw that a pair of Beowolves jump up from the ground and made to claw at her. She managed to fire off a bullet, taking off one of their heads, but the other leaped at her, knocking her to her back. With her down, it made for the last pounce, but she pushed herself back, out of its reach, cleaving it in half in the process, but in doing so launched herself off the truck and to the street, landing on the asphalt with a thick thud.

There was then a scream of terror. It wasn't Weiss, it wasn't Blake, it wasn't Yang, and it wasn't even her. She shot up, jumping to her feet, her heart beating in her chest so loudly she could hear it in her ears, the adrenaline pumping through her veins. Through the crowd of dark monsters, she could see it.

A man, equipped with only a lead pipe, trying to fight off a Grimm.

Without even a single moment to think of anything else, Ruby crouched low and jumped forward, speeding through the air and over the Grimm, the air and winds rushing through her clothes and hair. Cocking the scythe back, she swung it down at the Grimm as she flew over it, cutting it off through the chest and landed on the ground, her weapon now on her shoulders. She then spun on her heel and turned to face the man she had just saved.

"Quick! Run!" she shouted, jumping up to him. "You have to get out of here!"

Without even a thank you, the panicked man scrambled to his feet and dashed down the sidewalk before skidding around a corner.

She watched the man leave, her breathing hard, but a loud crackling snapping noise caught her ears. Looking to her side, she saw a large spire of ice in the middle of the street form before shattering into a thousand chucks of ice. Weiss appeared from the mist it had formed, landing backwards next to Ruby. She twirled around, sword-arm weaving in the air as a trail of light followed the tip of the sword, before swing it at the direction of the oncoming Grimm, summoning a light that pierced right through them.

"Ruby!" she called, turning to the younger leader, keeping one eye on the monsters. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, don't worry, I'm fine," she said. "But right now that's not important."

"Not important?" Weiss snapped. "Ruby, there are monsters in the street! They're trying to eat us, tearing apart buildings, attacking people-!"

"Exactly! They're attacking people! We need to get as many of them out of the way as we can." Ruby turned away from Weiss and cupped her hands over her mouth. "YANG! BLAKE!" she shouted. "Rescue as many people as you possible can! That's what we need to do! That's what's important!"

From where they stood in their fights, both Blake and Yang heard her, looked to each other and nodded before they both jumped into action. With both of them having sprung into action, Ruby and Weiss followed them.

000

Yang sprang forward, rocketing forward on jet fumes as she launched herself over the Grimm. From her vantage point she saw several Grimm piling up around a car, as well as a couple of people trapped inside it. She punched forward a fireball, blasting one in the back before landing on the other and crushing it, before jumping up and kicking the other in the neck. When she landed she slammed a hand on top of the car, looking at the drivers through their window. "Quick! Gogogogo!" she shouted, loudly tapping the roof with each go.

Without a second thought, the driver slammed their foot on the gas and the car zoomed down the street, knocking away smaller Grimm as it escaped. She was about to turn back to the hoard when an Ursa attacked her.

000

Blake rolled out of the way of the swing of the tusks of a large Boarbatusk before she shot it in the face, and jumped into the air and swung down her weapon on its ribbon, cleaving it through the back. Landing, she pulled it out and sliced at a smaller one that dived down at her.

"Take your chance!" she called to the small group of civilians behind her. She gestured down the street, giving them time to run around the corner, Blake covering them as best she could. When the last of them had vanished around the other side of the building, a sizable King Taijitu dived down at her.

000

The Deathstalker charged forward towards the groups of people, cowering against the wall, its tail raised highly before it was sent crashing down. Several of the people clutched at each other, fearing the end, but the Deathstalker hissed as its tail hit a black glyph that hung suspended in the air. Before any of them could react to this, Weiss jumped down and in between them and the monster and stabbed her sword forward, sending forth a wave of ice that encased the Grimm.

Weiss then turned around to face the group she had just saved. "I would suggest that you-oh..." The group had already gone, having run down the entire length of the street. "Wow, not even a thank you," she said, placing a hand on her hip, slightly offended.

The ice around the Grimm suddenly exploded off of it as it came right at Weiss.

000

Ruby flipped in the air, fired off her weapon and swung the large blade, slicing in half a small Nevermore before her boots hit the ground, only to spin the weapon in her hand, plunging the spiked end into the skull of an Ursa.

"Help!" cried a voice. She turned to the direction of the voice and saw a man, maybe only a few years older than her teammates, on the run from a line of Beowolves. She spun into action, speeding through the hoard, quickly closing in on him, but a large claw struck at her out of the air, slamming her to the street.

As she hit the ground, she saw the young man dive into an alley, the Grimm hot on his tail.

Grunting in pain as the air was knocked out of her lung, she only had a second to roll out of the way as a Deathstalker slammed a claw down on where she had landed. Crescent Rose was grabbed back into her hand and she pointed the barrel at the Grimm, and a quick fire not only blasted in the face, but it packed enough force to propel her forward, before she kicked it up and flew through the air. Landing in a crouch, she dashed right for the alley's entrance before she skidded to a complete stop right at the mouth.

The alley ended in a wall, a dead end. The Grimm were all there at the back wall, hunched over, facing it. They were growling as their heads bobbed up and down, shaking from side to side as they were lowered, as though they were trying to tear something apart with their teeth.

Then there was the noise, the crunching, loud, thick and wet crunching.

Ruby couldn't move, she couldn't look away from the Grimm, unable to focus on anything else but what was happening, and she soon realized what it was that she was witnessing.

The revelation horrified her.

There was another yell, a pained one, Yang's yell. From the corners of her eyes she could see her teammates, still fighting, but not in ways that filled with her confidence.

Weiss was constantly jumped back from a Deathstalker, which continued to advance on her, her own attempts to fend it off ending fruitlessly.

Blake kept trying to dodge every strike that came from the twin heads of the King Taijitu, unable to launch any sort of counter-attack of her own.

Yang let out another yell as she was thrown into the side of the car, the glass shattering with the impact. Clearly struggling, her pushed herself up and out of the way as a massive Ursa charged at her, demolishing the car as it tried to swipe at her.

A loud and savage roar caught her ears, and Ruby looked back to the-to the feeding to see one of the Beowolves, the largest of them, with large bony spikes and plates covering its body having turned around, and now looking right at her. Its jaws dripping in red.

It then charged at her.

She tried to run, to sprint away as far as she could, but her legs simply wouldn't move. Nothing moved. Her heartbeat was stronger now, but not it no longer came with any sort of rush, but a horrific drumbeat that filled her with a stabbing coldness. Even though it had yet to leave the alleyway as it began to charge at her, she could swear that she could smell what had been on its breath.

It had leaped out of the alley, aiming right for Ruby as it lunged into the air, when its head exploded in a large fireball, sending it flying to the side. The sudden blast was enough to shake Ruby out of her paralyzingly fear, just enough to hear the sound of spinning helicopter blades above them.

000

"T-That's a lot of Grimm down there," Jaune said, looking down at the massive hoard below them. He felt his throat become dry.

"Yes, this is certainly troubling," Port said lowly, bracing one hand against the open door of the aircraft, and holding his smoking weapon in the other.

"But, I though the city had defenses," Nora asked, looking up to the boundaries of the city. "I thought they were built so this kind of thing wouldn't happen!"

"Apparently they didn't work," Ren replied flatly.

"I don't think I've ever seen that many Grimm before, and there are a number of larger ones as well," Pyrrha said,worryingly. "Can we even deal with this?"

"We have to," Port responded loudly, grabbing his weapon and slinging it over his shoulder. "We are Hunters, this is what we each decided to do with our lives, and here is the perfect time to put what has been learned to use." The helicopter began to lower its altitude, soon descending until it was hovering just above the creatures. "I have been at this for all my life, but you are still first year students, so this might be above what you are capable. In fact, even for someone like me, it will certainly be a difficult task. If you wish to stand by, that is fully understandable."

The members of Team JNPR looked to one another, each one, to some degree, unsure about what they wanted to do. They looked to roaring, growling hoard, a sliver of hopelessness crept into each of them. However, the closer they looked, the more they saw, and amongst the chaos, they saw a shade of red, a shade of white, a shade of black, and a shade of yellow.

"That's Ruby and the others," Jaune said, leaning forward to get a better view. "They're down there too!" He turned back to his teammates and saw that any doubt was now gone from their expressions, now replaced with determination. Seeing this, Jaune looked back to Port and gave a nod of his own.

"Hahaha!" Port laughed. "I was hoping to hear something like that! You and Team RWBY down there, I have high hopes!" He let go of the door and grabbed his weapon in both hands. "Now, follow me!" He jumped. "TALLY HOOOOO!" he bellowed, raising the blade of his weapon above his head, and crashing it down onto the street as he landed, sending a fiery wave to cascade around him, creating a circle clear of Grimm.

One Grimm managed to recover and launched itself at him, only to have an axe blade cleave through its skull. More charged at him, but Port swung his weapon in wide swings, beating them off with ease, and blasting them apart if fireballs launched from the gun.

"HAHAHA!" he laughed loudly, swinging at another Grimm. "I haven't had this much fun since last year's finals!"

From above, JNPR looked down at him, amazed.

"Wow," Nora said, amazed. "And here I thought he was filled with hot air."

"Guess not then," Ren replied.

"Jaune, should we go now?" Pyrrha asked, leaning slightly towards the leader.

Taking a deep breath, Jaune looked back from the Grimm below and to his teammates. "Right, let's go. Help Team RWBY and beat the Grimm."

They then jumped.

Nora was the first to land, and the first into action, launching herself into the air on her weapon and sailing over the hoard before she flipping it over and slamming it down onto the skull of a Deathstalker. Landing behind it, she shifted it to its grenade launcher and fired at it several times, creating large explosions that sent it falling to its side. Several more Grimm came at her from all side, but she switched her weapon back to its hammer-form and held it to the side, like a bat, and fired, sending her to spin on one foot as the hammer end crushed through the oncoming monsters, taking them out from above the shoulders.

Ren came in with a kick to a Boarbatusk's side, knocking it over to the ground. He jumped off of it and flipped in the air, firing down on it akimbo. Landing, he was quickly to cartwheel out of the way as two more Boarbatusks came at him, only to crash into each other, getting their tusks interlocked, unable to separate from one another. Running up to them, Ren raised his guns into the air and plunged them down right into their skulls, and pulled them back out to roll out of the way as another came at him, only to be shot in the gut.

Pyrrha's spear plunged right forward into a Beowolve's jaw, going right through the back of the skull. She pulled it out just in time to block another that had tried to struck her from behind, giving her time to shift her spear to a sword and stab it through the torso and push it over. Her shield was then thrown right at an oncoming Grimm, knocking it off its feet, then it was directed right into another one. This one managed to knock it out of the way, but was left open to being shot with enough force to send it flying back.

Lowering her rifle, Pyrrha reached out and willed her shield back to her hand, and looked across the square, disheartened at the sight of Grimm. Despite her team and Port coming, she still could not see and end to the creatures, who seemed to arrive as quickly as they fell. There didn't seem to be any end to it.

Her eyes then caught sight of Jaune, standing before a massive Ursa.

000

"Okay, Juane, you've done this before," Juane said to himself, unconvinced. The Ursa in front of him roared. Letting out a slightly panicked yell, he ran forward towards the Grimm.

It heaved its massive arm at him, but he dodged it by rolling beneath the swing and landing in front of the Grimm, untucking himself and stabbing right into its gut. The Ursa roared again and made to swing at him with both arms, but Jaune jumped back, avoiding the first one, then blocked the other one with his shield. He gave a push, a hard and forceful one, shoving the claw away, causing the Grimm to stumble, and swung his sword down, cutting the head from its body.

He stood breathing hard, looking down at the dissolving corpse. Another roar caught his attention and he looked up to see several more Grimm approaching him. Standing up straight, he raised his shield and charged forward.

000

Pyrrha allowed herself to smile, just before she turned around to block an attacking Grimm. It was nice to see that all that hard work was paying off.

000

Another group of Grimm fell as Port cut them in half.

"You lot certainly seem to be more determined than usual," he said, catching the jaw of a Grimm on the barrel of his gun. "Where did you even come from?" He fired, blasting its head off.

A large Grimm suddenly appeared behind him, about to strike him down. He noticed, turned to cut it down, before he was able to, it suddenly burst into fire and fell to the ground.

The man covered his eyes from the flames and tried to look beyond them, and as they faded he was able to make out a tall and lanky figure.

"Bartholomew?" he asked aloud. "Is that you? Where did you come from?"

Oobleck lowered his flamethrower and began to approach him. "Well good day there Peter, you seem to be in well shape right now, you also seem to be enjoying yourself rather well despite the current chaos at hand, though I somehow expect that you probably find it all the more thrilling," he quickly shot off.

"I am enjoying myself, thank you for asking," Port said, thumping a first to his chest, before looking down at Oobleck's arm. "Is that a dog?"

"A corgi to be precise." The small dog tucked underneath Oobleck's arm gave a bark. "Its a rather long story about how I came to have this wonderful canine, but I feel that is one that we can save for another day given the pressing situation we now find ourselves in." He then leaned down, gently placing the dog on the ground. "Now Zwei, you must listen carefully now. Things are rather dangerous right now, so I need you to run and find somewhere to hide, at least until we have this whole thing sorted out."

Zwei's ears pressed against his skull and his gave a small whine.

Oobleck reached over to gently pet the corgi's head. "I know you have a desire to help, but sadly I think this may be above not only you, but maybe myself." He then tilted his head slightly to look over his glasses. "Now quickly, find somewhere safe."

Giving another whine, Zwei reluctantly turned and ran down the street, and soon out of sight.

"Why, have more faith Bartholomew," Port said as Oobleck stood up straight. "Why with the two of us working together, I'm certain that we will make quick work of these beasts!"

The green-haired man allowed himself a grin as he spun around to torch the approaching Grimm.

000

Zwie ran down the street, dodging around the Grimm and other wreckage, running as fast as his short legs could take him. However he was forced to skid to a stop when a large Beowulf stood in his way, looking down at him, growling.

The corgi responded in kind by barking, standing his ground.

The Grimm was dived down, its jaws open to eat him whole when a shoe collided with its face, causing it to stumble back.

Sun Wukong landed on the ground next to Zwie before launching himself again at the Grimm, slamming his staff right into the side of its head, sending it to the ground. He flipped over it, landing into a roll, jumping back up to spin around and hit the surrounding Grimm with his weapon, knocking them all to the ground. Several Grimm managed to get past the initial strikes and came right at him. He then separated his staff into two nunchucks and spun them around himself, hitting the Grimm, each strike exploding a gun blast, tearing parts out of them as he continued.

An Ursa then lunged at him, but a blue blast zapped past Sun and hit it right in the throat.

Neptune then jumped into the air, his trident poised to strike and threw it down, sending it through its skull and to the ground. He landed on the ground, pulled it out, changing it to its guandao form, and swung it to the side, cutting down a Grimm that had tried to get at from behind. Taking the weapon in both hands, he spun it around slicing apart whatever came near him, all around him before shifting it back to its gun form, and blasting apart the final one.

Standing up, he reached into his jacket and pulled out a badge.

"Nobody move! Official Junior Detectives on the scene!" he ordered.

The Grimm kept moving.

"I don't think they care too much," Sun said.

"Yeah, I can see that," Neptune responded, despondent. "I still think it's cool though."

"I never said they weren't." Sun shrugged, pulling out his own badge. "Seriously, just look at this thing, how awesome is it?"

"You guys really need to keep your priorities straight."

"The city is under attack and all you can worry about is how cool your badges are?"

Sun groaned and turned around to face the remaining members of his team. "You guys are just mad that you didn't get to fight the giant robot."

The redhead, Scarlet, gave a deep, and lethargic breath. "From what I heard, neither did you two."

"What are you talking about? We helped ton!"

"Really?" said the greenette, Sage, with a bit of a chuckle. "How is getting thrown off the highway and eating noodles helping?"

Sun shrugged. "We were replenishing our energy for round two?"

Scarlet took a palm to his face. Sage was about quip back when the Grimm roared.

"Oh, right! Grimm!" Sun said and looked to the monsters. "Better get ready guys!" With that, he then launched himself at the Grimm, nun-chucks spinning.

Zwie barked, causing Neptune to look down at him. "Um," he said, as said dog tilted its head. Carefully, he then picked up a trashcan and stuck it over the dog. "Good dog, uh, don't move?"

A bark echoed through the metal bin.

Shrugging it off, Neptune charged into battle as well.

"Well, I guess we better get this over with then, shall we?" Scarlet said, sounding tired and annoyed. "And here I was hoping for an easy-going mission."

Sage lightly elbowed him on the shoulder. "Honestly I'm a bit happy about this, things were getting a bit boring anyway!" With a laugh, he charged forward.

He drew out his weapon, a large, black and green, mechanical-looking bat, and immediately used it to smash the the skull of a Grimm. He rolled out of the way as it tried to swipe back at him and bashed the end of it to its skull. Sage then pressed a button on the side, and parts of the part began to unfold, increasing the size of the bat to almost as large as him, and a red light could be seen glowing through the gaps in the panels. Upon hitting a Grimm, a fiery explosion erupted from the bat, sending it back. Another press of the button and the glow changed to blue, and the next hit resulted in a blast of ice crystals and covered where the bat made contact. Sage heaved the bat into the air as a swarm came at him, the light shifted again, to white, and slammed it down on the street, sending forward a wave of electricity that shot through them.

Scarlet raised a sizable, red and white assault rifle and fired, a spray of bullet bursting to life, taking out a number of Grimm as they came at him. One lunged at him, but he rolled out of the way and the gun shifted in form, changing into a shotgun with a thick blade underneath the end, and used it to bash the lower jaw of the Grimm before blasting its head off with a single shot. Another one came after him, but with another pump he took it out as well, and he slowly made his way back, each shot taking out one of the hoard, and then quickly jumped onto the top of an upturned car to get a better vantage point of the surroundings. The loud caw of several Nevermores alerted him, and her shifted then gun again, this time extending it into a sniper rifle. Taking careful aim, he focusedon the center of their masks and fired, hitting them them dead on, taking them out. He then shifted back to the shotgun, and with a blast, brought the thick blade down on a Grimm that tried to come up from behind.

000

Yang skidded to a halt and pulled her fist back, launching it forward just in time to strike an Ursa in the throat, sending it back. She quickly looked around for the next Grimm that would attack her, but instead her attention was pulled away to behind a post box, a small figure sitting next to it, knees drawn to their chest.

"Ruby?" she asked aloud. "Ruby!" she then yelled and ran towards her sisters, dodging all the monster strikes just to get to the young girl. She called her name again when she reached her, bending down and grabbing her shoulder. "Ruby? Are you alright?"

Ruby did not respond, she merely stared blankly ahead.

"Ruby? C'mon," Yang said, a desperate and anxious tone to her voice now. "We can't just sit around, there's too much going on right now, so we need to get up and fight, okay?"

Instead of getting up, all Yang heard was a mumble.

"What?"

"I-I saw saw someone..." Ruby stuttered.

"Huh?"

"I saw someone die Yang," she blurted out, her voice high and on the edge.

Yang found herself stunned at the confession, unable to properly respond, but Ruby continued nonetheless.

"I tried to save them Yang, I really really did, but I couldn't get to them because of all the Grimm, and when I finally did all the Grimm were just around him, and and it looked like they were eating-"

The roar of a Beowulf was what stopped Ruby. From the corner of her eye, Yang saw both Weiss and Blake enter the fray, fighting off the Grimm as they made their way to the sisters. To her surprise, she also saw Team JNPR, as well as Sun and Neptune, along with two other boys she did not recognize. She then looked back to Ruby, who looked like she was on the verge of tears.

"Ruby, I-" she tried, but nothing was able to come out. Around her, her friends were fighting against an unstoppable force, she herself had suffered a few too many bruises, she was beginning to get tired, and her little sister was crying. Normally, she would be able to handle any of these by themselves, but with everything piling on top of one another, she was beginning to find it difficult to focus.

She took a deep breath, and tried again. "Ruby," she said, steeling herself. "I know this is hard, but right now we don't have the time to talk about that. We're being attacked by Grimm, and everyone is fighting for their lives at the moment. Weiss, Blake, even Jaune, Sun and their teams are here too. We have to deal with these things now before we can try to fix anything."

"But Yang-!" Ruby pleaded.

"What would Mom think right now?" Yang said, causing Ruby to be still. "What would Mom want us to do right now?" She felt like an awful person for this. "She'd want us to do the right thing, wouldn't she?"

"Ruby! Yang! Help us!" Weiss screamed.

000

The yell cut through Ruby's mind like a knife through paper. Her friends needed her help. That's what Mom would have wanted, she would have wanted her to help her friends and protect them with everything she had.

Suddenly finding it within her, she gripped Crescent Rose and stood up, before launching herself right towards her teammates, Yang running up to catch up with her. She landed between Weiss and Blake, cutting the Beowulf that stood before them in half.

"You two okay?" she asked, spinning around to meet them.

"You can say that," Weiss responded, looking down to her weapon. "I'm running out of Dust, but other than that, I'm fine."

"There just doesn't seem to be an end to them," Blake growled, firing off into the hoard. "They just seem to keep coming."

"Yeah, seriously, just what did you guys do?" Jaune asked, his shield raised in front of him.

"Excuse me?" Weiss said, turning to the blonde. "What makes you think this is our fault?"

Sun hit a Grimm with his staff. "Well, when we last saw you guys, you were going out to fight a whole bunch of Grimm. Now you're in the city, fighting a whole bunch of Grimm."

"We take no blame for this, in fact, we tried to stop it," Blake added.

Nora butted in. "Yeah, good job with that, you guys should get medals or something."

"What about that big hole in the wall?" Neptune asked.

"Okay, so we had some problems," Yang admitted. "Still not our fault then."

"Then who?" Scarlet asked.

"Who are you two anyway?" Blake asked, looking to the two newcomers.

"Oh, this is Sage and Scarlet," Sun said, pointing to them. "I meant to introduce them earlier, but-"

"Everyone shut up!" Ruby shouted, shooting another Grimm. "Everyone get ready and fight!"

The twelve students looked before them and readied themselves before the hoard of monsters, each one holding their weapons up in defense, to attack.

"We can do this," Ruby said, more to herself than to the others. "This is the day that we've been waiting for." She then took a deep breath, one more time. "Charge!"

And so they did.

An Ursa Major came at them, threatening to simply bulldoze them over with its great size, coming at Ren, who charged at it, firing straight at it in a constant stream. It swiped at him, but he jumped over its head, it following him as it went over, leaving it blind to Neptune dashing up from behind to stab it in the back of its leg with his trident. It roared and tried to turn around to tear him apart, but he shifted to his guandao and tore through the leg, forcing it down on all fours. Despite the injuries, it tried to attack again, only to meet Yang, who had jumped at it, and a fiery fist meeting its skull.

A Boarbatusk rolled right at them, but Sage swung his bat down to the street, causing it to crack, and large slabs of concrete to jut up, forming a rough barrier, which caused the Boarbatusk to grind to a halt upon contact. It unrolled itself and tried to break through the barrier with its tusks, but Blake appeared before it and stabbed both sword into its snout, causing it to uncontrollably grunt and shake its head. It reared itself onto its hind legs to try and throw her off, but Pyrrha ran forward and sliced it horizontally across the middle before shoving the spear up into its chest.

The King Taijitu hissed and dived both of its heads down at Weiss, who quickly back-flipped out of the way and upon landing, created a glyph that sent her jumping high into the air and leaped at them, using her sword to gracefully cut away at them before using another to escape as quickly as she came. When she vanished, Nora came in from above and nailed both heads in a single blow with her hammer, sending them both to the ground before being fired at by a launched grenade. Growling, they slowly raised their heads from the debris, only to be fired upon by a burst of bullets by Scarlet; one head dived at him, but he rolled out of the way, only for the blade of the shotgun to come down on its skull, while the other one tried to swallow him whole, only to have a charged up sniper round go through the back of its skull.

Sun jumped and kicked the Alpha Beowulf in the face before landing on the ground. It made to snap at him with its jaws but he rolled out of the way and struck at it with his staff before collapsing it into nun-chucks and unleashed a flurry of strikes to its arms. With a snarl it tried to claw at him, but Jaune jumped in front of him and blocked the blow before pushing it back, before giving several heavy swings that pushed it back slightly before finishing it off with a thrust. Before it could have an chance to react it was shot in the face and Ruby jumped to the ground before it; with a press of the trigger, she spun around in a full circle, cutting its legs out from underneath it, and upon another full spin, managed to cut off the head from its body.

As the body vanished Ruby looked up and saw the rest of her team, JNPR and SSSN all fighting against the Grimm, and actually pushing them back. She felt alighted at this, they were actually winning!

There was a deep hissing behind her, almost like a deep-throated growl. Turning to it, she saw one of the lizard-like Grimm that stood on two legs that had entered through the tunnels. She'd never seen them in person before, but she knew from her glasses that Professor Port called the "Creepers". With her weapon pulled back, she made herself ready to strike at it, but it pulled its head back and let out not only a screeching roar, but also a giant plume and black fire that forced her to jump away from the wide-spread fire. Looking around, she saw more Creepers stalking around, surrounding them, each one firing a large blast of fire, forcing them to retreat from the unexpected dark flames. Soon, the fires formed a large wall that almost cut them off the Grimm entirely.

She saw her team covering themselves from the fires, Ruby tried call out to her, to give an order, but something suddenly burst from the flames, something that made her heart stop.

It was a Beowulf, but so much larger than any she had ever seen before, easily bigger than the Deathstalker that they fought in the start of the year. The beast charged at her team and swung, going through their attempts to defend themselves and flung them all away with ease

More creatures came through the flames, more Grimm, but larger beasts than they had been fighting; Beowulves, Ursa, Boarbatusk, Taijiu, Nevermores, and Deathstalkers. They were fewer in numbers than their small counterparts, but they were certainly larger, and more powerful and more resilient. She saw her team continue to fight the Beowulf, only for their attacks to mean nothing as they bounced off its hide. JNPR was fighting the Deathstalker, which didn't even seem to register Nora's heaviest grenades and only advanced quickly on them. SSSN found themselves retreating to back away from a Boarbatusk swings, which were enough to send a care halfway down the block.

And more were coming.

Another Creeper hissed behind, but this sound much deeper and louder than the others. Looking behind her, she saw the Creeper and felt a deep terror. It was massive, easily the largest Grimm of the lot, maybe nearly fifty feet tall, and wisps of dark fires leaking from its jaws. It stood over her, and she had never felt smaller in her life.

The Inferno Creeper roared and a dark sea of fire fell upon her, but she fired down and launched herself high into the high as the rolled over the street below her. Looking, she found herself on eye-level with the Inferno Creeper, just as it lunged right at her. She tried to defend herself, she fired off Crescent Rose and struck it right in the snout, but did not even scratch the armor-like hide. The creature continued forward, and Ruby felt like she had been hit with a truck.

The force of the blow sent her flying through the air, downwards, and she hit a wall. Everything went black.

000

Ruby stood in blackness, but she was not alone. In front of her, a figure stood, with their back turned to them. They were completely draped in a white hood and cloak.

"M-Mom?" Ruby said, her voice heavy. She tried to approach her, but no matter how many steps she took, it only seemed to further the distance between them. Suddenly the void around them began to fill with yellow eyes, and deep roars and growls. A dark shape appeared in the blackness, towering over the figure.

The towering shape then the slashed downwards, and the figure in what was torn apart.

"MOM!" Ruby screamed out in horror as the white cloak scattered, to be eaten by darkness.

All the monsters in the dark than pounced on her as well.

000

She felt as though her entire body had been strung up, and all she could hear were the muffled sounds of gunfire. Ruby found it difficult to even open her eye, but when she did, she wished she had seen something else. All around her, she could see the Grimm, but as well as her friends, but more closely grouped together than before, all with their backs to her. Stifling a groan, she managed to push herself up to sit up against the wall behind her. Looking up, she saw a crack just above her, most likely where she had been thrown, and rather roughly too. She got a better look around her, and the situation was even worse than before.

The eleven of her friends stood before her and the Grimm, but not advancing into their numbers to kill them off, but now reduced to just trying to prevent the Grimm from advancing onto them. No one dared to go out and attack the Grimm, not wanting to put any space between them and a friend. The monsters were being deflected by shields and swords and gunfire, but for every attack they made, they still managed to gain inches at a time. Nothing really, but in the long run, it was all that stood between them and...

The Inferno Creeper roared as it loomed over them, as well as all the larger Grimm, each one slowly approaching.

Ruby scrambled to her feet and picked up Crescent Rose and pointed it forward, aiming right at a Beowulf that was beginning to overtake Weiss.

She didn't pull the trigger. Her mouth felt dry, the gun shook in her hands, and she didn't think she could pull the trigger. Around her, she heard her friends yell and grunt as the Grimm began to break through their defenses, leaving them vulnerable, they managed to recover in time before anything could happen, but it was only a matter of time before they couldn't..

Ruby Rose froze.

000

Bartholomew Oobleck and Peter Port stood back-to-back, surrounded by giant Grimm.

"It would seem that things have gotten out of hand slightly," Oobleck said, blowing a burst of fire in an attempt to ward off the Grimm. "The Grimm are simply too many, and we are not anyway near prepared to deal with them." He then quickly looked around. "I do not think I can even see the students anymore!"

Port huffed. "Yes, my friend, this does seem to be the mother of all pickles. I would hate to say it, but I'm afraid that this is a fight that we may not make it out of."

"Then this is Mountain Glenn all over again," Oobleck solemnly said. "History has been repeated."

000

Ruby Rose froze, and nothing she could do could stop the fear from taking over. She saw the countless Grimm, their dwindling ammo, strength, stamina and aura, the lost ground and now she began to see the hopelessness of the situation.

They were fighting a losing battle, and they were going to die.

She didn't want to die.

Her weapon fell from her hand with a thick clunk and she backed up against the way, pressing herself against it so tightly that she wanted nothing more than to melt into it, yet nothing happened.

She wanted to live, and she would give anything to make sure that happened.

There were then small explosions in the hoards of Grimm, and a loud roaring noise from above.

Ruby looked up, and saw that dozens of Altas military airships were littering the sky. All at once, turrets lowered from their hulls and then all fired down at the Grimm. The sound of rapid fire exploded into the air as the Grimm were all cut down, whole scores of them all falling down at once, clearing the streets. Several airships lowered themselves closer to the ground as the doors on the sides opened and out jumped the androids that Ruby had seen at the exhibition the other day, the AK-200s. They dropped from the airships in dozens, landing on the ground in a crouch before standing straight up with no effort, before each drawing their rifles from their backs and began to fire on the still-recovering Grimm, mowing them down with ease.

Then the Paladins dropped, five or so of them, landing just behind the androids, cracking the streets underneath the force of their landings, and wasted no time in unleashing their own gunfire on the Grimm, taking out the much larger versions that lurked about.

And still more dropped, soldiers, human soldiers, each one landing in front of Ruby and her friends, each one quick to fire upon the remaining Grimm. What caught Ruby's eye however, was the small, orange-haired girl that came with them.

"Are you ready, Penny?" the red soldier asked. "This isn't some sort of test anymore, this is the real thing."

"Affirmative," Penny said, looking towards the vanishing hoard. "I am eager to finally put everything that I was built for to actual practice. I only hope that I do not disappoint."

The blue soldier shugged. "Whatever, give them hell."

"Yes sir," she said, and the compartment in her back opened, letting out the cluster of swords. With her weapons deployed she flew into battle, the swords spinning around, cutting through the Grimm with ease.

Above them all, the Inferno Creeper roared and turned its attention down to her. It growled as Penny stood her ground, her swords spinning in front of her, and fire began to boil from inside its throat when suddenly several missiles hit its side, exploding and causing it to fall sideways and into a building. It roared in fury and let loose the fire, trying to hit the passing airship that flew over its head, missing. Below it, soldiers, Paladins and AK-200s arrived and began to fire upon it, letting loose all their firepower on it.

Through the rain of bullets, the Inferno Creeper managed to look down to Penny and saw that the swords had been spinning faster, forming a sort of tube, and that a bright green energy was building within it.

"Fire main cannon," Penny said, before the firing the powerful beam that tore through the Grimm's thick chest and neck, leaving it unable to stand and crash to the ground, crushing the cars beneath it.

000

The soldiers ran through the streets, taking down the Grimm as they saw them but stopped in the center of the plaza.

"We've found the reported breach," said one soldier into the headset. "The Grimm are coming out fast, we need to seal it, and now."

"Yes sir!" replied a voice. Suddenly several Paladins came up behind them and one grabbed a large bus to the side. It then raised the bus over its head and threw it.

The bus crashed right into the breach, crushing the Grimm who were about to go through it. This was followed by several more vehicles that were thrown into it as well, clogging it up, and soon no more Grimm were able to go through the passage, but they could still be heard from the other side.

"We've stopped the breach sir," the soldier said. "We just need to make sure that it stays sealed and eliminate any other Grimm in the area. After that we need to-"

Suddenly a piece of rubble turned over, and Roman Torchwich stood up.

"Geez," he said, brushing off his coat. "That could not have gone any worse even if I had wanted it to." He deeply sighed. "I swear, when I get back to those idiots I'm going to-"

Turning around, he found himself facing a dozen rifles, each one aimed at him.

He stared at them blankly for a moment before groaning and holding his hands in front of him.

"I know the procedure, officers," he said, rolling his eyes.

000

Ruby looked around the street, which was now devoid of Grimm of any sort. The memories of their losing battles were still fresh in her mind, yet at the same time they seemed so far away.

"Is that the military?" Sun asked, looking between the soldiers and aircraft. "Where did they come from?"

"They're Atlas ships," Weiss said, putting her sword away. "I believe the headmaster of the Altas academy came for the tournament, and brought along his army with him."

"Really? Doesn't that seem a bit excessive?" Juane asked as a line of soldiers marched down the street.

"Are you complaining about the sudden help then?" Pyrrha asked.

"What? No! They just saved our butts!"

"Yes, they did," Blake said, looking around. "We're lucky that we lasted as long as we did. If they had come any later, we might have-"

"But we didn't," Yang interrupted. "Nothing happened, we beat the Grimm, and won the day. Everything turned out fine."

"Really?" Sage asked. "Because if you asked me, this doesn't look fine." He gestured to the wrecked city. "I'd hate to see what you'd consider a loss then."

"I didn't say it was perfect." Yang looked to her boots, and kicked at the ground.

"What a tiresome day if you ask me," Scarlet said, rubbing a hand over his face.

"I think we should just be glad to be alive," Nora said, happily trying, though the usual perk wavered.

"I agree," Ren said, "I think we should get out of here."

"What about these guys?" Neptune pointed a thumb over his shoulder to the soldiers who were approaching them. "I have a kind of feeling that they're going to want to talk to us."

"We tell them the truth then," Yang said, before turning to her sister. "Isn't that right, Ruby?"

"Huh, oh, yeah..." Ruby dully responded, not moving from her spot against the wall.

The trashcan next to her tipped over, and Zwie popped out. He rushed over to Ruby and began to lick at her hand. Slowly, Ruby picked him up and hugged him tightly to her chest.

000

Ozpin tapped his table, watching the screen in front of him, his eyes never leaving, never blinking.

"But council," he said, trying to argue, but a distorted voice interrupted him.

"We're sorry Ozpin," said one of the three shadowy figures in one of the conference windows. "Despite your assurance that your Hunters could handle any situation that involved a breach of this size, your students, along with two seasoned Huntsmen, were unable to hold them off in any capacity. Had General Ironwood's army not only contained the threat before it could spread to the rest of the city, but also exterminate what had already shown up as well as seal the breach back up, things could have taken a much more dire turn for the worse." The middle figure leaned forward. "There is also the matter of some of the reports Ironwood has been sending in, they seem to heavily imply that you've had opportunities to possible prevent this, but took no action, in apparently an effort to wait the perpetrators out."

"Sir, I can explain," Ozpin tried. "I've-"

"We're sorry Ozpin," the voice said sternly. "But I'm afraid that we cannot intrust you the safety of this city during the tournament. Until everything is sorted out, we are placing General Ironwood in charge of security details until further notice. That is the final word on this subject." The window went dark, leaving only one left.

"I'm sorry Ozpin," said Ironwood, sound regretfully. "But you can trust me on this." His screen then when dark, leaving only Ozpin's desktop.

The headmaster took a deep and heavy sigh and spun around in his chair to face the large open window, directly his stare to the large airship hovering in the distance.

000

From he airship, Ironwood looked out from the large window and to the highest Beacon tower, where Ozpin's office sat.

"I am truly sorry my dear friend," he said, shaking his lowered head. "But you have brought this upon yourself." He continued to look for a short time before he turned around to face several of his officers. "Show me the prisoner."

The soldiers saluted, and directed him to one of the many celled domes that lined the room. One of them was opened, and Ironwood directed the soldiers to be dismissed, leaving him alone with the prisoner.

"So, what brings you here?" Roman asked, leaning against the back of his cell causally, without a care in the world. "Here for a nice chit-chat, because I'm not in too much of a talkative mood right now, unless you found my hat." He waved a hand over his hatless head. "Kind of lost it in the whole train-wreck, it'd be nice to have it back."

Ironwood stared hard at the man. "You know what I want."

"Do I?" Roman also leaned forward.

"Who is the ringleader of this whole operation, and what are their plans?" he said coldly.

"Oh, is that all?" Roman question. "Well, I thought it was obvious."

Ironwood narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

Roman leaned back and spread his arms out, smiling proudly in an irritatingly smug manner. "It's me! How could it be anyone else?"

Ironwood said nothing as he backed away from Roman and slammed the cell shut. As he walked away, Roman laughed away within his prison.

000

Ruby stood in the center of the street, holding Zwie closely to her chest. Around her were the civilians that had been evacuated, ambulances treating the injured, and soldiers preventing anyone from entering the part of the city that had been invaded.

"This was a disaster," Blake said, the first voice that she had registered in some while. "None of this should have happened in the first place. We don't even know why it happened!"

"It could have been worse," Yang said, stepping up to Yang. "Torchwick was caught, and we managed to stop the Grimm from getting into the rest of the city."

"We didn't do anything though!" Weiss objected. "The military came in and saved us!"

"And that still doesn't explain exactly what Torchwick was trying to accomplish here anyway."

"I know, I know," Yang said, doubtfully. "But, like I said, things could have turned out a lot worse than they actually did."

"People are dead Yang, and it's going to be a long while before anyone is allowed back into that district of the city," Blake said sharply.

"Well, at least the military is keeping watch," Weiss said. "Hopefully as long as they're around, things might be safer."

"Really? Because I don't feel too safe with them like this," Blake said, gesturing to the soldiers lining the street. "It feels more like a police state than anything else!"

Weiss folded her arms over her chest. "It's better than the alternative, isn't it? Right now the city's defenses are shot, and right now anything could send it right into a panic. If the remedy to this is letting the army into the city, then I for one have no objections to it."

"So, you're saying it's perfectly fine to let another kingdom's military have free run of Vale?" Blake asked, narrowing her eyes, directing it to the white-haired girl. "I'm sorry Weiss, but that doesn't just sound right. The city needs better defenses, but we can't just can't hand over the city's safety to this General Ironwood."

The two of them glared at each other, before turning around. "Yang!" they both snapped at once, causing the blonde to slightly step back in surprise.

"Well," she replied, looking down. "Um, well, I think you both have good points that the city needs some buffed up security, and that everything is a bit messed up right now, as for the army and stuff..." Nervously, she scratched the back of her head. "Hey, Ruby!" she said, turning around to her sister, and away from Weiss and Blake. "What do you think about this whole thing?"

Ruby did not look to her sister, nor did she look to her other two teammates. Instead, she turned her view to the entire street, taking in everything there was to see.

On one side, she saw Sun, Scarlet, Sage and Neptune, sitting against a corner. There bandages and dark bruises on them, Sun seemed to be holding and ice pack against the side of his head, Scarlet was picking at a a large cut along the side of his head, Sage seemed to be favoring one leg over the other, and Neptune just sat, resting the back of his head against the wall.

She than saw Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren, sitting on a bench, looking no better than SSSN. Half of Jaune's face was bruised, Nora was picking at the bandages wrapped around her hand, Pyrrha rubbing a hand along her bruised arm, and Ren dusting off his tattered hair and clothes.

She then saw Professors Goodwitch, Oobleck and Port, the woman arguing with the red and blue soldiers, with Penny standing behind them, standing straight and saying nothing.

She saw a man arguing with a soldier that was preventing him from entering the quarantine area.

"What do you mean you can't let anybody in there?! My business is in there! My home is in there!"

"I'm sorry sir, but until we can be sure it's safe, we can't let anybody back in."

"And when is that?"

"Unfortunately, we don't know."

There were more people like him; all around the area. People who were tired, and afraid, hurt with nowhere to go.

When she finally looked to her team, she saw they were no different than the the other; dirty, hurt, and bandaged up.

From the corner of her eye, she saw a crying woman with her child, a pair of medics loading a stretcher into the back of an ambulance. It was covered in a sheet, with a figure underneath it. It wasn't moving.

"Ruby?" Yang's voice called, snapping Ruby's attention.

"I'm going to bed," she finally replied, her voice far off.

"Ruby?" Yang asked back, unsure.

The young leader hugged Zwie tighter to herself. "I-I'm just tired. I think I'll go back to the dorm and go to bed or something."

She then stepped away from her friends, ignoring their confused and worried protests. As she walked away, she kept looking around her, to the ruined buildings, to despaired people, and everything felt just so wrong.

"Did we even help anyone today?"

000

Cinder looked over the closed-off section of the city from her position on the rooftop, carefully studying the scene before her.

"Well, this has been a complete mess if you ask me," she heard Mercury from behind her. "This shouldn't have happened for at least a few more days, what exactly happened there?"

"Torchwick screwed up is what happened," Emerald quipped. "From what I heard a group of students and a teacher came across them back in Mountain Glenn, went along with the plan a few days early, let the entire world know something was up, and got himself caught." She paused. "Cinder, what do you think we should do? Should we just scrap the whole-"

"No, no," Cinder replied, waving her off her shoulder. "These events do seem to have put us back a few steps, but I don't think it's enough for us to abandon the plan. We can still make things work to our advantage, we just need to rethink a few things."

"A lot of things really," Mercury said, sounding annoyed. "With that guy in jail, we're not going to have a lot of trouble getting the things we need like Dust and and manpower." He began to turn around. "The only good thing about this is that we won't have to see the creepy mute-AGH!" Behind him, he saw Neo, happily smiling, parasol spinning in over her shoulder. Ignoring him and Emerald, she walked past them to glare at the back of Cinder's head.

"Where did she come from?" he whispered to Emerald, who only gave a nervous shrug in response.

Cinder ignored her in favor of turning back to Mercury and Emerald. "As for Roman, I hired him for a reason, so I doubt we'll have to worry too much about him. It won't be too long before he turns the situation to his advantage, and as being as close to Ironwood as he is at the moment, it might be beneficial to us in the long run."

Neo gave a sharp nod.

"What about the White Fang?" Emerald asked. "A lot of them didn't make it out of those tunnels, so I really don't think they're going to want to help us after that."

"I wouldn't worry about that either," Cinder replied. "I've managed to gain a close ally in the White Fang's numbers, one who sees that if we accomplish our goals, it would make theirs easier to realize. We both, afterall, wish to establish a new order to the new, and should sacrifices be made, than so be it."

"And who would that be?" Mercury asked.

"A higher up in the White Fang's numbers," Cinder replied. "His name is Adam Taurus."

000

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