Chapter 12 — Blood

There's no way up. She's on her own.

Ilia sighed, giving the elevator one last look before leaving the tower. There were too many Grimm, too many people fighting for their lives, for Ilia to focus on one girl.

She ran forward, intent on returning to the city, when a Nevermore descended in front of her. Ilia covered her face from the wind, so it took her a moment to notice the green tips on its wings. With a scowl, she prepared her whip.

"I wouldn't, if I were you."

Ilia froze at the voice, coming from the Nevermore's talon. She narrowed her eyes, spotting the speaker on it.

"Merlot," Ilia said with a frown.

"I'm one lab short because of you," he said, and the Nevermore lunged forward. Ilia barely threw herself out of the way, landing hard on her side. She rose with a wince. "Maybe I should let my experiment run free. Controlling it isn't easy, you know. Especially with all my equipment ruined."

"I can handle a single Nevermore." Ilia punctuated the words by lashing her whip forward. It bounced off the Nevermore's stomach like steel, making Ilia nearly lose her grip. The Nevermore made an ear piercing noise, and began to lunge forward before abruptly stopping. How much control did Merlot have?

"In time, you could," Dr. Merlot admitted. "But believe it or not, I didn't come here to fight you. I'm here to thank you."

He loves to hear his own voice, Ilia thought. But the words still made her frown. "Thank me?"

"Yes. It was the White Fang's incompetence that destroyed my lab, not my own. And since your presence created a greater rush, many of my experiments still made it out here. Their work has been so devastating, I'm sure to get a seat among her eliete."

Her? Ilia almost asked, before shaking her head. There wasn't any time for this. Especially with the Nevermore squirming, eager to tear Ilia apart.

"So you'll let me pass," she said, already stepping forward. The question barely left her mouth, when a dragon passed over her head and started to circle the tower. Beacon needed her help, now.

"Sending my experiment on an unsuspecting Huntsman will be far more effective in impressing the Queen."

Again with the vague terms. Not that it mattered, since one part of what he had said stuck out.

"You just wanted to gloat," Ilia said. "Now you want to let me by so your Nevermore can kill more people."

She could hear the smile in Merlot's voice when he spoke. "Will you let that happen?"

He made no sense. What were his ambitions? Who was this Queen? And why play these games?

Did Ilia care?

She wrapped her whip around the Nevermore's talon, then planted her feet into the ground. When she pulled, the Nevermore took a step forward. Its beak fell to swallow Ilia whole, but she leaped away before it could.

A dragon overhead, a Nevermore to face, and a thousand Grimm to fight afterward.

Ilia was ready.

Weiss, please stay safe. I'll be waiting for you when this is all over.

Silence followed her words. In the distance, there was fighting and carnage, the echoes of which reached Weiss' ears. In that room, it was all far away. There was only the four of them: Blake and Yang crouched behind Weiss, Adam before her with his weapon ready, and Weiss herself, glyph still spinning below her.

The moment seemed to last for an eternity, before Adam broke it with a chuckle.

"So," he said, " the Schnee finally shows her true colors."

"You have no ground to stand on!" Weiss snapped. "My family may have oppressed your kind, but you have slaughtered hundreds of innocents. You would sacrifice both species to the Grimm!"

"Enough!" Adam barked. "It's time I finished what was started the day of the Breach. Your blood will stain this room."

Weiss narrowed her eyes. "Try it."

She activated the time dilation glyph below her, just as Adam threw himself forward. His sword slashed for her stomach, a move that would have taken a heavy chunk of her aura. Weiss twisted out of the way, then stabbed forward with Myrtenaster.

The weapon struck skin, making Adam's aura crinkle. He spun around, seemingly faster now that the time dilation had ended.

Weiss' eyes widened as the pommel of his blade shot toward her, released from its sheath. She slid to the side thanks to her glyph, but the pommel still struck her left cheek, snapping her head back.

Adam moved. Weiss straightened her head, and he was on her, sword swiping for her legs. She let him trip her, catching herself with a glyph which launched her into the air. Up or down didn't seem to matter to Adam, who jumped after her.

He was above her in an instant, foot falling to kick her down. Weiss parried with her blade, but the force still increased her velocity. With a flip forward, she landed on her feet. When Adam landed, it was directly in front of her. They were too close to use their weapons.

Not that they needed them. They both kicked out, legs connecting in mid-air. Rather than stop, Weiss flipped over Adam's leg, getting close enough to elbow him. Adam grunted when Weiss connected with his stomach.

A blur of motion, then stars filled Weiss' vision, her cheek stinging. Adam had backhanded her, then jumped away. And now—

Weiss' sword practically flew in her attempts to block Adam's strike. Pushing his sword back, she thrust forward, only to be blocked herself. This lasted for a few moments, both attempting to strike the other to only be met with steel, until Adam turned. Weiss followed his gaze, just in time to see Yang charging in.

Adam's blade was red, and he was swinging forward. Weiss didn't even think before forming the glyph before them. An Ursa crawled out of it just in time to take the Semblance fused slice meant for Yang.

"Stay back!" Weiss ordered.

"But—" Blake started, picking herself up while clutching her stomach.

"Do it!" Weiss struck Adam, forcing him to keep his attention on her. She jumped back from another slice. "I'll be fine!"

I'm more used to fighting exhausted than you two. And they were exhausted. Maybe not as much as Weiss, but their minds would be frazzled from their friend dying. From Beacon being destroyed. They hadn't been able to prepare.

Neither of them could have had much aura left. Weiss refused to come all this way just to lose them.

"I can't leave you again!" Blake protested. "I won't run!"

"Yang." Weiss met Yang's gaze. No time to convince Blake on her own. "Please."

She had to turn quickly to parry an attack from Adam. She leaped into the air, catching herself on a glyph. That glyph then sent her plummeting down. Adam pulled back, but not before her sword grazed him.

It hadn't been for long, but whatever Yang had seen in Weiss' eyes was enough. When Weiss turned, she was carrying Blake to the entrance, safe but ready to rush back in.

Thank you, Weiss thought.

"Being brave won't help you, Schnee," Adam growled. He had gained distance between them, and was now pointing his sheath at Weiss.

"Look out!" Blake called, just as a bullet shot out of Adam's gun. Weiss cried out as it struck her left arm. Her instinct was to clutch the wound, but instead she switched her sword to her other hand, creating a glyph behind her in the process.

Thank you, Eagle, Weiss thought. The Dust from the ship had been perfect for restocking after she had lost all hers in the explosion. Now, it let her shoot fireballs at Adam to slow him down.

Or not. He sprinted forward, swinging at the fireball to dissipate it. He did the same with the second , then he was in range.

With no time to block, Weiss slammed her sword into the ground. The ice Dust clicked into place just in time, creating a wall of ice between them.

Adam cut through it in an instant. Even behind his mask, Weiss could make out his glower.

Glyphs formed in the air around them. Rather than jump to any of them, Weiss ran toward Adam. She flipped over him, slicing down in the process. As expected, Adam blocked, then spun to slam his sword down on Weiss.

Weiss twirled out of the way, and it instead struck the ground. The force was enough to send ice chunks from the wall flying into the glyphs.

Weiss grinned.

Ice flew from all direction straight for Adam. He ducked, raising his sword over his head to avoid most of it. Some pieces still struck him, though, and the shout he made was music to Weiss' ears.

Can't let up. Weiss flew forward, intent on running Adam through, or block his blade if needed.

She did neither, because Adam didn't swing for her. He swung the ground beneath them, sending shards of stone into Weiss' face. She covered her eyes with her arm, while forming a glyph beneath her.

Weiss couldn't see, but she still knew what Adam was planning. As she launched herself up with the glyph, she felt his sword brush the air below her.

Adam shot her again, before she could create another glyph. Weiss screamed before hitting the ground with enough force to make her body rattle. Through her blurred vision, she saw Adam holding his sword above her, ready to stab down.

Someone shouted her name. That was enough for Weiss to snap back into clarity. She rolled away from the strike, making a glyph raise Adam into the air.

He jumped off of it, trying to stab down again. This time, Weiss countered with her arm, knocking Adam's sword out of the way. It struck next to her, and the position left Adam open. That cost him when Weiss thrusted forward, stabbing his stomach.

"Die!" Adam bellowed. His sheath lashed forward, smacking Weiss in the face. He followed up with a sword slice that knocked her back to the ground.

Another strike would have ended the fight. With that in mind, Weiss rolled backward as she fell, landing on her hands and feet. She wasn't as acrobatic as Blake, but she was still able to jump back from Adam's follow up attack, straightening in the process.

Weiss stopped for one second to gasp for air. It was all Adam needed to get close to her again, foot lashing out. Blocking in that moment would have let him overpower her. Luckily, Weiss didn't have to block.

Adam's leg stopped mid motion, encased in ice. His weapon was still raised to stop Weiss, or slice down at the ice if he saw an opportunity. Even as he was, Adam would be ready for her.

Weiss didn't go after him. Instead, she jumped over him with another glyph, flying with enough force to land in front of Yang and Blake. When she landed, Adam was already free and running at them.

"Fire at him with everything you've got," Weiss hissed. "You just need to slow him down."

Blake and Yang didn't hesitate to unload on Adam. Gunfire surrounded Weiss, as did the sound of bullets striking steel, and Adam's sprint forward. It only stopped briefly when he had to jump away from one of the gunshots.

Weiss closed her eyes, draining the last of her aura into the glyph behind her. It grew larger and larger, while Adam kept drawing closer.

Finally, he was on all three of them. He grinned, already making the motion to use his Semblance and cut them all in half.

The slice rushed to them, only to fall apart when it struck a giant, white blade.

"What is this?!" Adam shouted. It was the last thing he said before the blade swung down, cutting him down the middle. Aura cracked, then fell apart. The rest of his body followed a moment later, hitting the floor with two separate thumps. A puddle of blood was quick to form around his remains.

Weiss' summon, the giant sword from her knight, dissolved a moment later. And with that, Weiss was free to fall unconscious.

A/N: I haven't done one of these recently, so I want to say a few things. Mainly, I want to thank all of you for your support. Your reviews have been so kind, and I look forward to posting each chapter and getting to read them. It means the world to me that you all took the time to not only read, but also give your thoughts on the story. Of course, I equally appreciate those of you who silently read. Thank you so much for reading!

This story is nearing its conclusion, but there's a lot to wrap up here. I know many of you want to see more Ilia and Weiss relationship stuff, and I promise you'll get it. We just have to do reunions and fallout from the Fall of Beacon first. There should be one or two more chapters before the epilogues. Plural, because I have two epilogues planned. One focused on team RWBY, and one on Weiss and Ilia.

I hope you'll all stick with me to the end, because I'm very excited for it.

Oh, and if you want to support my writing, I've published two books. The 46K word novella I wrote is the favorite of my stories, and the E-book is only $2.99. Please check it out on Amazon, even if it's just to read the free preview. Just search "Servants of the Shines by Brian Krewson."