The engines of Bullheads could be heard in the distance, making the pane of glass in the window rattle occasionally. It wasn't loud, but it was enough to make Ruby's eyes crack open and start adjusting to the morning light.

She wished she was still asleep. She'd been having a wonderful dream. And now she was here. Back in her bed, with time just ticking away. She rolled over to the side of the bunk bed and gazed down at the nightstand, looking for the red glow of Weiss's digital clock.

10:07

Not long until things got started, really. She was surprised that no one else had woken up. Penny was still flat on Yang's bed, and Yang was sitting on the floor next to it, her eyes glazed as she stared forward blankly. Not a single muscle moved, she was perfectly still. It was unnerving to see Yang like that, back to the wall, almost like she was dead. Ruby had to remind herself that Yang was dead, something she found herself forgetting often.

She clawed at her covers, making an effort to sit up, before sliding slowly towards the edge of the bed. Yang noticed, saying something that Ruby didn't quite catch, then mumbled some incoherent half-sentence in response.

She managed to lower herself to the floor, and shambled towards the bathroom. A hot shower did her good, and while she took it she could hear others waking up, taking the other stalls in silence. She appreciated the quiet, she supposed, but it made things feel so ominous and heavy. She wanted to say something, but nothing appropriate came to mind. What did you say before a mission like this?

When she was finished with her shower she got dressed, outfitted herself with all the combat gear she could carry, and waited. Penny still hadn't woken up, Yang was checking over her own equipment, and the other two were still in the showers. She looked around the room briefly for Crescent Rose before she remembered that it was out in the courtyard, being "infused with divine power."

She still wasn't sure what exactly that entailed, but it meant she would be able to kill more things, and maybe even protect herself from demons a little better, so it was fine by her. She just hoped it worked. If by some chance she was caught out there with an inferior weapon, she was sure something bad would happen.

She took a deep breath, reassuring herself. "It's fine, it's all fine. Naze knows what he's doing. He's older than dirt!"

Somehow that didn't lay her fears to rest. It was a few more minutes before the others finished bathing and getting dressed. When they did, they came out, and neither one looked particularly well rested. She knew she could relate.

Penny started to stir before anyone could say anything, and she sat up, blinking a few times before smiling at Ruby and starting to speak.

"Good morning Ruby! Did you sleep well?"

Ruby loved Penny, but it was much too early for this.

"No, Penny, I didn't really. I don't think anyone did. What about you? You went out like a light."

Penny nodded and smiled happily. Ruby stared for a few seconds before Weiss spoke up, saying "I think we should go get breakfast."

The others nodded, and made their way to the cafeteria. It was sparsely populated, most kid had probably already gotten their food, or weren't eating. None of team RWBY had much of an appetite, their stomachs felt like lead, but they all knew that they would regret choosing not to eat later. The food was drab, tasteless, but that was more because of the mood than the food itself. Ruby, Weiss, and Blake didn't pay much attention to the normally enjoyable meal, instead preoccupied with their own thoughts.

They finished in silence, and started to make their way back to the courtyard. Many more students were out there, milling around, some with their weapons and some without. A small crowd was circled around the generator, and Ruby could just make out several zombies who were just above the rest, dolling the weapons out to the waiting students.

Team RWBY reached the edges of this group and started to wait. A few muted conversations ghosted through the crowd, but none of them could tell what it was about specifically. It seemed like just a few random questions being passed around, without too much thought behind them. It was just something to do

The groups slowly received their weapons then slid away, allowing others to approach. Yang walked forward whenever she could, coming off as slightly aggressive, making a few others move out of her way. They knew that she didn't mean anything by it, but she did start to get some dirty looks. Ruby spoke up about it first, muttering almost too quietly to hear.

"Yang, don't. There's no hurry."

Yang looked back at Ruby, then gave a small sigh.

"I guess you're right. Nobody seems as excited or pumped as I thought they'd be. I was picturing that they'd be happy about trying to save the world."

Weiss gave a small, sarcastic snort.

"Because everything we've heard so far has been so confidence inspiring. Honestly, it's been sounding like we're nothing more than cannon fodder at this point. Just supposed to slow them down, or like we're disposable. Naze has so many troops under his command, why can't he use those?"

Yang felt a pinch of annoyance at this. She was a Schnee, one of the biggest companies out there, and she didn't see the bigger picture?

"There's more to it than that. He isn't some all-knowing protector. And those 'many troops' are maybe a hundred Death Knights. He's got more than that, but they're wizards and zombies, not exactly the kind of things you send to fight head-on."

Both girls started to lean incrementally closer, and seemed increasingly annoyed with each other. Ruby looked between them, trying to decide how to break this up, when Blake added herself into the equation.

"How much more is there to it? If he's got plans about our future, it seems like we should know them. Asking for us to just take his word on something like that is an awful lot of trust to give to someone like that. I don't think he's given us any trouble so far, but that doesn't mean he won't. Maybe it's just part of his plan."

Ruby watched Yang turn to Blake, her expression getting angrier. Even worse, she could see people around them turning and listening, even agreeing with what Weiss and Blake were saying. She knew that turning against Naze was not a smart thing to do, at least not now.

"Guys, stop this! We can talk about it later, but the last thing we need to do right now is make enemies out of each other! Let's just save the world, okay?"

Yang, Weiss, and Blake all looked at Ruby, then around themselves as if they had just remembered they were in the middle of a crowd. They quieted and stopped, looking in different directions and folding their arms. Weiss, however, did say something over her shoulder.

"I didn't… sorry for doubting you."

Yang didn't react for a few seconds, then smiled, and gave Weiss a slap on the back. "It's alright. Naze is pretty uptight about telling people things. I wish I could say more, but I can't."

A soft voice came from over Ruby's shoulder, making her yelp as she realized she'd forgotten Penny's presence entirely.

"Are they alright? Friends shouldn't fight like that."

Ruby responded gently, not wanting to get annoyed with Penny. "Yes, they're fine. Everyone is just a little high-strung today. There's a lot to be nervous about. Don't worry about it."

Penny glanced behind Ruby, then nodded. "If you say so, Ruby!" Her expression shifted into one of concern. "Are you very nervous? You seem tense. Maybe it would help if you calmed down."

Ruby gave a little, somewhat disingenuous laugh before saying "Yeah, maybe. It's just not that easy, Penny."

There was a pause, and Ruby continued. "Anyways, you seem confident. You've seen what these people can do, right? The demons, I mean. I fought one, and he broke my arm and knocked me out. He was the one that almost killed Weiss and Blake, actually. So, yeah, I'm not really looking forward to fighting a bunch of those, and I definitely don't want to run into Cinder. If Naze says to stay away, I will."

Penny nodded in agreement. From what she'd been able to see of news broadcasts, Cinder was a very threatening adversary. More so than anything she'd ever seen before, even the strongest Grimm. She was fast, and had powerful abilities, but her true danger seemed to come from elsewhere. She seemed to have a command over people that Penny just couldn't understand. What was it about her that made otherwise normal people join her?

It was something she would have to ask about later, as it didn't seem like it was the time to be asking about that. She thought about her encounter with Adam. He had been incredibly strong and fast, but she had still been able to stay just out of his clutches. She hadn't done any damage, of course, but now she was going to be giving it her all to do as much damage as she could. She was sure that she would be able to surprise her friends, and even Mr. Ironwood. Ruby had seemed surprised when she'd seen just a fraction of what she could do.

The only one who seemed to have faith in how much destruction she could cause was Naze. He had offered her the opportunity to fight, and even offered to remove her from Mr. Ironwood's care if she wanted. But was she being used as a means to an end? Blake had said something to that effect, which Naze was simply carrying out a plan, but was there anything out of the ordinary about that? Penny had a plan now. It was to go with the others, and help save the world.

People were strange.

The crowd continued to advance, and it wasn't long before Ruby was returned Crescent Rose, Blake was given Gambol Shroud, and Weiss took Myrtenaster. All the weapons appeared unchanged visually, but as the girls took them in their hands, they noted something strange about them. They seemed to hum with their own rhythm now, almost like they had been given aura of their own. It didn't seem as powerful or as prominent as souls were from living creatures, or at quite the same level, but it was a little disconcerting.

Before they could ask what it all really meant, they were waved away so that other people could receive their own weapons. The crowd closed behind them as they stumbled away, then they were back outside.

With nothing else to do, they headed towards the Bullheads. A crowd was gathering in that area slowly and had been building since the morning. They tried to find anyone they knew among the faces, namely team JNPR. As they searched around, Ruby found herself fearing that Jaune had backed out for some reason. It wasn't like him, he would've told her, and besides, he wouldn't back out anyways. He had been looking forward to this. Being able to save people, even if he wasn't doing it by himself. It wasn't possible that he had given up.

Short of tripping down some stairs and breaking his neck, Ruby couldn't think of anything else that would keep him from showing up. She kept glancing around nervously, thinking she might catch a glance of him through the crowd. His blonde hair didn't stand out among the crowd very much, but Pyrrha's long red hair was much more visible, as well as her bronze armor. She started looking for that, but didn't have to search long.

"Hey guys! We're not late, are we? No one started boarding yet?"

Ruby turned to find Jaune, looking slightly red in the face. Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren were all behind him, and all held their weapons at their sides, looking around and trying to tell what time the Bullheads would be leaving.

Ruby smiled and shook her head. "No, you're not late. Nothing's going on yet. So… are you ready? This will be the most dangerous mission we've done, you know? Got yourself all psyched up?"

Jaune smiled awkwardly and reached up to scratch the back of his head, glancing back at Pyrrha.

"Yeah, I got all my panic attacks out last night. Now I'm all ready to go. What about you? You guys as excited as the rest of the people here? Because I have seen a few people who probably don't want to be here."

Ruby had to acknowledge that there were a lot of people who seemed afraid. She had her doubts, but she wasn't outright fearful. She'd even heard someone crying over the sounds of the crowd at one point.

"I think we're doing a little better than that. I'm a little nervous, I think Weiss and Blake are too, but Yang and Penny couldn't be better. They can't wait to get their hands on some demons."

Jaune laughed again, saying "Yeah, Ren and Nora have been itching to get out here. They've really been working hard to get ready for this. I mean, all of us have, but they are really determined to do their best here. Ren really came a long way in a short amount of time. It's been really impressive. You'd never think he was in the hospital a few days ago."

Ruby leaned to the side, looking past Jaune at Ren, who was standing and watching quietly, like he always did. Jaune was right, he seemed to have rebuilt everything he lost laying in that bed and more, he even looked to be standing a little taller.

He smiled and gave Ruby a small wave, giving a quiet "Hey."

She waved back before looking to his left, finding Nora. She didn't look much different, but Ruby could tell that there was something a little off from the last time they'd seen each other. Magnhild was on her back, but Ruby noticed that it didn't seem to have the same white glow that the other weapons did. It made sense, if Nora actually counted as a half demon. Ruby wasn't sure how that all worked, but if she was half demon, it would make sense that she wouldn't get her weapon changed. Yang hadn't for about the same reason.

As usual, Nora seemed to be in a world of her own, paying barely any attention to the conversation at hand and instead was paying more attention to the conversations happening around them. They were very quiet, but Ruby had no doubt that Nora could hear them just fine.

Pyrrha didn't speak much, instead just looking on, withdrawn in thought. Ruby tried not to stare at her eyepatch. It was rude to, but she couldn't help herself. The design on it was intricate, and it was fitted perfectly. When Pyrrha looked and saw Ruby, the younger girl was quick to avert her eyes, and give an apologetic smile. Pyrrha gave her a small giggle in return, and shrugged her shoulders dismissively.

The two teams mingled for several minutes, waiting for something to happen. More students showed up gradually, but the flow slowed down.

As it the last of the volunteers showed up, a familiar voice echoed out across the campus. It wasn't Ozpin, and it wasn't Naze. All of team RWBY's and JNPR's faces lit up when they recognized Amber, standing on a large stage with her pearly white robes coving most of her body. The gold accents shined in the sun, and her eyes swept over the students with a soft glint.

She spoke into a microphone gently, hesitant at first, not sure how her voice would sound. It took a few moments to make herself comfortable with it, but when she was, she started explaining what she was doing.

"Hello! I'm glad to see so many of you willing to do what is needed. My name is Amber, and I'm sure some of you already know my order. I'm a part of the Order of the Holy Light, and we are going to be going with you, lending assistance where we can. Please, if you have any concerns, my brothers and sisters will be happy to talk to you. It is only natural to be wary in a time like this. If you're injured or start to feel the demons' corruption starting to grip you, I beg of you, come to me. I'll do whatever I can to help you."

Murmurings started to move through the crowd again as people spoke to each other about what they had heard about the Order, and Ruby could tell that most of it was positive. Amber continued to speak, getting a little more animated as she did so.

"Before everyone sets off, I would like to do something for you. The demons will try to twist your mind in ways you cannot possibly imagine, and I must do anything I can to prevent that. So, I would like to offer a blessing to you all that will strengthen your bodies and resolve for the coming battle. Please, be quiet, and listen closely."

She took a step away from the microphone and removed the large book from her side, opening it to a particular page and holding it still. As she started to read, she didn't get any closer to the microphone. Instead, she stepped past the microphone, her voice starting to roll out over the crowd.

The words she spoke were smooth, and she said them as fluently as though she was a natural born speaker. She looked up as she preached, and her voice picked up in volume, not from her own speaking louder, but from some otherworldly source. Every word became easily audible, drowning out every other sound despite not being loud. It was like Amber was speaking directly into the ears of every person, and despite not being able to understand her words, everyone could tell that they were encouraging words.

A golden halo started to appear around Amber, flowing around her and weaving through the crowd. Ruby felt her body loosen, her fears starting to drain away. Her spirit looked up, and for the first time in recent memory, she felt confident that she and her friends could stand up to anything.

She looked down, and saw the light soaking into her body, giving even her skin a golden glow. Everyone else seemed to be receiving a similar effect, everyone except for Yang. Ruby turned, looking around for her sister, but she was nowhere to be seen. Ruby remembered how Yang reacted to the Paladins before, and dismissed it. Yang would be back before too long.

Amber continued to chant for several minutes before she gently closed the book, and looked back up as if she were just remembering she had an audience. Everyone stared back at her, awed expressions on their faces.

Amber looked around for some kind of responsiveness, and started to fidget uncomfortably. Ruby could see that she was having a little bit of trouble holding herself together, but she stepped back to the microphone, speaking again.

"Thank you. I think you're some of the best hopes that we have, and you're all heroes for showing up today. I hope I see you all again soon."

With that, she made her way off the stage where her paladin companions were waiting for her. She started to speak with them quietly, and the stage was empty for a few moments before Professor Ozpin stepped back up, looking in Amber's direction before turning back to the crowd. He started to speak, reminding everyone of his speech yesterday.

"I'm sure we all appreciate your visit. I know I do, as well as your presence in the coming battle. Now, the time for delay is over. Students, you will board the Bullheads in an orderly fashion, two teams to a vehicle. Once you arrive…

.

Ozpin's explanation was fairly longwinded, but unlike normal for Ruby, she was able to focus much better on the thorough details of the process than normal. Yang returned at some point while Ozpin spoke, when exactly Ruby wasn't sure. She looked over and winked at her little sister, whispering "I'm fine, just had to duck out for a while. You know, with the whole 'holy' thing. How's that feel, by the way? I noticed everyone's kind of glowing now."

Ruby gave Yang a smile and said "I think it's pretty great. I'm not really afraid anymore. I think we can do this, we just need to be confident."

Yang took a step back, and had a look of sarcastic surprise on her face. "Wow, whatever Amber gave you guys, can I have some? Must be pretty good."

Ruby laughed quietly, and turned back to the stage as Ozpin started to dismiss the students to the Bullheads. The crowd milled around for a few moments before starting to move towards their destination. Ruby made sure to keep her team and Penny tightly together, and close to JNPR, so that they could take the same Bullhead together. She'd try to keep them as together as she could through the battle, but knew that they would probably have to separate at some point.

Boarding the Bullhead was easy, and she buckled herself in tightly before leaning back and watching the others do the same. Out the open hull she could see others piling in, teams CFVY, CRDL, and a whole host of others getting ready. She didn't know any of them too well, but it was good to see that there would be so many familiar faces in the fight with her. She hoped they all made it through okay.

There were a few more minutes of waiting for everyone to finish loading up, including the Paladins, and Ruby spent the time trying to focus her thoughts. The blessing Amber gave her certainly helped to take the edge off of things, but now she had plenty of other things to go over in her head. How would she make sure that she was doing as much damage as possible as fast as possible? It would depend a lot on the area she was in, and on the other people who were there. If she could come up with some teamwork attacks on the fly, that would be fantastic.

Her thoughts were interrupted as the pilot's voice came over the intercom in the cabin, and informed them they would be taking off shortly. A few moments later, the craft gave a rather unceremonious jerk before lifting up into the air, bulkhead doors sliding shut as it did so.

The nine looked around at each other, shuffling in their seats and starting to look over their weapons. Ruby would've liked to get Crescent Rose out to check over, but knew that opening it in a confined areas like this was not a good idea. The last thing they needed was to crash land before even making it to the battle.

Everyone else's weapons look good, at least. Myrtenaster was looking as sharp and deadly as ever, cartridges full of Dust loaded, and its golden glow emitting from the sharpest parts of the blade. Gambol Shroud had a similar light coming from it, with part of the focus on the barrel of the pistol. Akoúo̱ and Miló also shared the glow, a little brighter than either of the other two weapons. Pyrrha held them slightly away from her like she was trying to see if anything was different about it. Ren's StormFlower also glowed, but a little dimmer than the others.

By far, the weapon with the strongest glow was Crocea Mors. It was almost difficult to look at, given the brightness it gave off. Why it was like that, she didn't know. Maybe there was something special about the blade, maybe there was something special about Jaune, or maybe it was just a random effect. She didn't know.

Crescent Rose gave off its own glow, but in its folded form it didn't seem like much was able to be seen. She could imagine that the long scythe blade looked good lit up by the golden glow.

Yang and Nora's weapons lacked the glow, but Ruby was sure that wouldn't hamper their ability too much. Nora was a destructive powerhouse, and Yang had the stamina of a undead, or lack thereof, so nothing would be able to bring her down. And Penny...

Ruby didn't know how Penny would do, but she had no doubt that she was going to do more than enough damage. What worried her was how Penny would be affected by the demons. She wouldn't think that Penny would be too vulnerable to their control, but if she was, Ruby didn't want to think about what would happen.

The ride lasted for what felt like hours. The nine of them talked some, but mostly kept to themselves, going through whatever mental preparation they needed to. Nora imagined herself smashing demons left and right, ripping through them like tissue paper. She felt her muscles start to fill with energy, and she fidget in her seat. She hated waiting.

Ren was silent almost the whole time, the only times he spoke were to tell Nora that she needed to calm down. Her fingers dug into the side of her seat, bending the metal of the ship into her hands.

Pyrrha sat with her shoulder against Jaune's, speaking in a slightly hushed voice with him, discussing what they would do when they got out into the battle. They made a general battle plan, but specifics continued to be ironed out. Jaune tried to be involved in every conversation, but his focus was clearly on the one with Pyrrha. It was good, though, and Ruby listened in, catching the gist of what he was going to do.

Yang talked about the kinds of things that she would do to Cinder if she caught her. Ruby heard many enthusiastic descriptions of graphic bodily harm her sister hoped that she'd have the opportunity to inflict. Weiss and Blake occasionally made contributions to her, suggesting ideas or correcting things that Yang had overlooked. Penny also made a few contributions, though it was nothing about the gore Yang was jokingly focusing on. Penny mostly made tactical suggestions, pointing out that Yang would be well advised to keep as far a distance from Cinder as possible until a substantial opening presented itself.

Yang laughed, saying "Yeah, probably a good idea. At least until Naze gets involved, that is. That's when things will get really interesting."

No one quite knew how to respond to that. It was Naze's plan, they supposed, to confront Cinder eventually. He hadn't given any inclination of how he would do this though, so it was up to their imagination as to how he was going to go about this. It was difficult to imagine the withered old corpse moving fast enough to keep up with her, but Ruby felt it wasn't wise to doubt the person who could bring back the dead. He had to have some tricks up his sleeves, right? Yang seemed to have faith in him, so that did alleviate some of her stress, but she was still definitely worried.

The rest of the ride was mostly uneventful, and it was a while before the pilot's voice came over the speakers again, saying "Alright, we're coming down to the landing zone. Good luck kids, give 'em one for me, would you?"

As the doors slid open again Yang hit the closed cockpit door in acknowledgement, saying "Will do! Thanks for the ride!"

As they stepped out, they were surprised to find that there was an actual camp, at least partially. There were tents set up, with various stations, medical cots, grindstones, and a variety of other things that would be useful in making sure they fought to the best of their potential. Each one was manned by several undead, who slouched over as they watched the students disembark from their rides. Ruby was slightly shocked by the advanced states of decomposition some were in, skin and hair hanging off their bodies loosely or gone altogether, and thin ropey muscles worked over stained bone frames.

The group was called towards another tent, the interior of which they couldn't see. A robed zombie stood near the entrance of it, and Ruby could see something in its arms. As they got closer, she could make out that they were inscribed pieces of thick parchment.

The zombie started to speak as they got close, but Yang held up a hand, cutting it off. "Don't worry, I'll tell them how it works."

She took five scrolls in a fistful, and motioned for the others to get their own. After taking a few steps away, she stopped and turned to her friends, saying "Alright, so this stuff is pretty simple-" she handed the scrolls out to Blake, Ruby, and Weiss before continuing. "-all you have to do is focus your aura on it, and it will basically teleport you to that platform over there." She pointed out a slightly elevated circular platform made of some kind of cloudy dark metal. The series of grooves in its surface appeared to correlate to the designs on the scrolls.

The others looked down at the scrolls before tucking them away wherever they were sure they'd stay. "And remember, you don't have to have it in your hands, so the second you get in trouble, use it. Don't try to be cool, it's not worth dying."

Everyone nodded, and Blake spoke up. "What about you? Are you going to be as careful?"

Yang laughed and shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. I don't really have to worry about a lot of this stuff like corruption or dying, but it'd suck to get sliced apart."

Minutes passed as they waited, more Bullheads arriving and letting students off, who were ushered to the scroll tent and received a significantly longer explanation of what they were and how to use them.

After the bulk of the students arrived, students started to be dispatched. Cinder's path had already been determined, and ambush spots along the way were picked. Teams with a heavier focus on ranged combat were sorted out and given different posts. Several teams were dispatched ahead of RWBY, but their time came soon. They, along with JNPR, were the third team Cinder would encounter. Penny was pulled to the side, and given a different assignment. Ruby wanted to say something, but just a second before Penny was led through the crowd, she smiled, and said "Don't worry, Ruby!"

A second, short briefing was given during which their tasks were reinforced. They couldn't target Cinder, and they couldn't stay in extended combat. More than ten seconds of exposure to the demons, even with the blessing from Amber, was too much.

Then they were sent off, sprinting through the forest as quickly as they could. When they reached the spot, they found that it was a rocky area, with a large archway over a slightly overgrown path. The trees on one side were thick, and jagged rock on the other meant that Cinder would likely pass right under it. Ruby looked to Jaune, and knew they were both thinking the same thing.

"If we drop down from above, it'll-"

"-give us more time to get out!"

Both blinked, taking a moment to process that they'd finished each other's sentence before shaking their heads and getting set up. Luckily enough, a thin lip on the side opposite Cinder's approach would let them stay hidden as long as they needed to, if they stayed crouched down. They managed to get everyone up, and with the exception of a few harrowing foot slips or chunks of rock falling away, they were able to find positions that would allow them to drop easily without being terribly uncomfortable.

They waited, time grinding on all their brains in a painful manner. Waiting was not something that none of them were keen to do, not with so much tension built up. Nevertheless, they had to. Nora kept a watch over the path, as her senses were undoubtedly the strongest of the group, and she would be able to sense the demons anyways. She was practically bouncing with anticipation, which given the rather precarious position, was making the others nervous.

Eventually Nora gasped, peered intently into the distance, and whispered "They're coming!"

Ruby took a deep breath as she readied herself to drop, knowing that every millisecond had to count. Her ears strained as she tried to pick out any sign of Cinder coming. Nora would tell them when to jump, but if she could have her own input, she was sure that it would help.

She could barely make out the distant sound of pounding feet, but she could tell that it was getting closer at an alarming pace. The others heard it too, and got themselves ready, leaning over the edge as much as they could without losing their balance. Time seemed to stand still for a moment as they waited a few final seconds, then Nora shouted "Go!"

Crescent Rose unfurled as Ruby dropped, and she turned desperately to find a target. She could make out a few figures, but they were moving so fast that making an accurate assessment of where to strike would be nearly impossible. She felt her chest tighten, squeezing the air from her lungs, and her brain grabbed at every strand of information it could. There was one figure at the front who she recognized, and was thankfully going too fast to be caught under Ruby's blade. Her eyes burned like fire though, and even at such a great distance, Ruby could tell she was being stared at.

For a moment she felt outmatched, alone, and doomed. There was so much power behind those eyes, what could she do against it? She was just one little girl, not comparable in the least.

Then her gaze flicked up, just fast enough that she wasn't sure they'd really moved, and she saw her friends. Weiss, Blake, Yang, Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren. They all shone like heroes, not because of some Priestess's blessing, but because they were heroes. And Ruby was one of them.

Her eyes returned to the demons, and one several hundred feet behind Cinder. It would be under them about the time they hit the ground. Resolute in her choice, she let herself fall, pulling Crescent Rose close.

It seemed like only a single heartbeat later that her finger twitched, and sent her into a tight, controlled spin. The others hit the ground, Weiss and Blake firing what they could of Dust infused rounds and glyphs at their targets before striking out at anything that got close enough. Nearly all of their melee strikes were dodged or parried, and a few swipes by passing demons resulted in deep gouges that left both girls reeling. Nora came down hammer-first, Magnhild driving hard into the back of a demon that had almost passed her. The weapon hit at the base of the demon's wings, causing them to bend forwards as the demon was knocked to the ground. Ren landed behind Nora, almost back-to-back, firing at oncoming enemies in an attempt to keep them away. Nora wasted no time in pouncing on her downed opponent, moving nearly as quickly as the demons themselves. The two grappled with each other, vying for the kill.

Jaune and Pyrrha missed their initial drop attacks, but were quick to turn and raise their shields. They made swings when they thought they would hit, but mostly focused on guarding. They kept shoulder to shoulder, working their way as fast as they could to Blake and Weiss. Yang hit the ground hard, raising her fists and bouncing on her feet nimbly as she threw punches, spewing flaming Dust over the demons as they passed, dodging and deflecting claws as she did so. She wasn't fast enough to stop every hit, but she was able to keep them from disabling her.

Ruby brought Crescent Rose down hard, hitting the ground only a half-second after everyone else. She hit perfectly on her mark. A demon screeched as she impaled it through the chest, and pinned it to the ground. She could see the glow coming from her scythe practically disintegrated the demon's flesh around the blade.

Ruby's eyes widened as she saw the demon squirm. It still had a human-like appearance with soft, even somewhat attractive features. She watched as it tried to escape and keep going, enthralled.

Then the world around her returned, and she shook her head. It was a trick, they were trying to control her. She couldn't let it work.

She pulled Crescent Rose's trigger, and the blade jolted towards her and out of the ground, slicing the into two pieces, connected only above the shoulders. Its face continued to move and its body twitched, but a large pile of once human organs spilled out. They caught Ruby's eye, and she felt inclined to keep looking, but forced herself to look away.

The rest of the team wasn't doing very well. Blake and Weiss were both bleeding, though Jaune and Pyrrha had made it to them, and were helping defend. Nora had managed to kill the demon she'd landed on, and was swinging Magnhild wildly, while Ren tried to follow without being smashed. Yang had been able to make a few solid hits, but was also visibly damaged.

"Pull out!"

Ruby's voice was barely audible aver the din around her, but the others caught it. The choice was clear to her. They'd been around the demons too long, and were starting to be affected. The element of surprise was gone, and they'd taken too much damage in so few seconds.

She hesitated, though. She couldn't let anyone get left behind.

The first to activate their runes were Weiss and Blake, disappearing almost simultaneously in bright flashes of light. Nora and Ren were next, leaving a passing demon swiping at thin air. As soon as they realized Weiss and Blake were gone, Jaune and Pyrrha vanished. Yang was the only one left, but Ruby knew she didn't have to worry about her too much.

She started to go for her own scroll, but cried out when long spindly fingers wrapped around her neck, pulling her off the ground. A haze seemed to overcome Ruby, and she forgot how exactly she was supposed to activate it.

She was drawn up to the face of the demon that held her and felt a long, slimy tongue gliding across her cheek. She wanted to scream, or fight, or do anything to get away, but conflicting feelings from her body paralyzed her. All she could do was stare into its longing eyes.

Suddenly an enraged shout rang through the surrounding air, and a bright yellow gauntlet planted itself firmly between the demon's eyes. Ruby was tossed back like a ragdoll, dazed, and could barely hear Yang shout "Ruby, go! Now!"

It took a moment to process, but when she did, she lashed out at the scroll as best she could with her aura. The next thing she felt was an unpleasantly hard jerk, then the battle was gone.

She sat up, feeling the cold metal beneath her, trying to get her bearings. A moment ago she'd been in battle, and now…

Rough hands took hold of her arm, yanking her off the platform. Voices started to chatter all around, making it hard to focus on anything. From what she could gather, the rest of her friends made it back and were worried about her. All she could think about was how funny she felt. It wasn't a bad feeling really, but it was very distracting.

The Shade watched as Ruby was cleansed of demonic magic by the Priestess. Their strategy of attack had been clever, but they lingered too long. A mistake they were lucky to survive. Yang arrived seconds later, bearing serious damage, but it was nothing that couldn't be fixed. The teams would be allowed some time to recover and be healed, then be dispatched again. They would be more efficient with consecutive attempts, provided Cinder didn't alter her plan.

Far away, Cinder was entering into another ambush, this one more focused on ranged damage. As demons came into range, shots began to go off, and Naze was not at all surprised to see that most of the bullets were dodged, and what few weren't only resulted in superficial damage.

Magic would be able to catch them if targeted correctly. He would have no issue with that. Cinder, however, would pose quite another problem. She seemed to ignore the students in her way, leaving them for the others who would pass. None of them stopped to fight, opting instead to take passing strikes. He had the inclination that they would stop for the Paladins, though. They represented some real threat to her. It would be worth her time to stop for them.

And in the Black Morass, he would be able to give her plenty of reasons to stop. Not for long, but she could be held up, and her minions could be killed without much issue there. They just needed to be softened up first.

The students from the ranged trap returned to the camp, looking dismayed at their lack of any significant impact. They wouldn't need any help from Amber, so they weren't too much trouble.

Teams RWBY and JNPR started to recover, and Yang urged them to go get another assignment. They'd managed to get two kills, more than the traps before them. There was plenty of combat ahead of them, that much was certain. What they'd seen so far was only the beginning.

Author's Note:

I know y'all love the fights. Always remember; leave some reviews. Plz.