The Last Air Cruiser

3rd Place Winner for Fanfiction - March 2016 RWBY MonCon

Thanks for your support!

Pyrrha Nikos slowly regained consciousness, her perception caught within the sensation of vertigo in confusion. She was aware of laying on the ground, but couldn't feel her skin and flesh pressing on the rocky soil. Darkness surrounded her. Blindness was her awareness. Nothingness was her world.

She tried to pull her world back together, grasping at her last memories. Pain. Fire.

The woman standing over her with fire in her eyes. The bow in her hands. The arrow knocked back, ready to take her life. Her own self sitting there on the floor surrounded by ruins. Lamed by that first and only wound. Her ankle impaled by an arrow's shaft. Bones fractured, tendons severed, aura broken. Looking up into those merciless and heartless eyes that had lost their humanity long ago, even before the fire that inhabited them now. The girl waiting for the end. Awaiting that final blow before she was executed.

The burning sensation spreading out from her torn heart as the second arrow's shaft stabbed inward through her bosom. Its head impaled into her spine. Her lungs struggling to draw in air as muscles failed. Her vision shrinking into blackness. Her body losing sensation as her tunneled vision collapsed. Pain fading away into the void.

Sorrow of leaving behind a goofy boy she loved. Would never see again. The time she had wasted. That time they could have had.

The sound of feet landing on a debris covered floor in recovering from a vaulted jump.

Someone else had come. Her sacrifice hadn't been in vain. She had known that she couldn't win. Couldn't survive. All she could do was buy time and she had. Enough time for someone to take her place, just as she had taken the place of another. And another would take that person's place if they fell, just as she had fallen.

The woman wouldn't win. Not against them all.

Then the sensation of fire sweeping though her as the last of her senses surrendered into the void. Awareness losing cohesion. Fragmenting. Drifting away into the peaceful void.

Then the last sensation. Something immense slamming into her as the very last vestiges of her disjointed soul drifted away. Something irresistible. Like a towering wall of water slamming into a coastal village and pushing everything before it as it swept inland.

Then… this. Whatever this was.

Pyrrha tried to shake her head to clear her thoughts, except she couldn't. She tried to locate her arms to ease the spinning of her head. Except she couldn't. She didn't have arms. She didn't have a head to ease.

She didn't have a fleshly body.

Pyrrha didn't allow herself to panic at the realization. She had known she was going to die and she had.

Pyrrha had died.

The girl hadn't believed in an afterlife. She had believed immortality was something one left behind after their passing. The mark one life left upon the lives of all the others that would live on. That destiny was this mark upon the world that was left behind.

Except here she was. Wherever this was.

She knew she was on the ground, however couldn't see nor feel nor hear.

Pyrrha stilled her inner world and willed herself to open up to the world of vision.

It was night. Something told her it wasn't quiet, but there was no movement in the night sky.

Dark sky, yet she could see clearly.

In fact she could see all around her. The only thing the girl couldn't see was herself. However, this was of little notice as her mind tried to take in this omni-directional vision for the first time. Fighting off significant sensory disorientation as she tried to open up her mind to this new world.

Surrounding her were steep hills and small trees. Apparently a replanted area after a timber harvest judging by the apparent size. In the distance was an Atlesian airship. The vessel had crashed recently, its back broken and a nose section one hundred feet long buried into the deep trench that was carved into the surface of Remnant. The rear of the vessel angled backward and rested on a bed of bent or shattered maneuvering spines that protruded from the main propulsion nacelles. Orange colored fires blazed from exhaust ports along those nacelles as figures labored to pull other figures through personnel hatches. Remains of military androids lay in pieces all around the area.

A rail line ran between herself and the distant scene, disappearing into a deep tunnel that ran into the face of one of the hills. A string of a dozen human figures scurried like ants back and forth toward the tunnel, carrying the wounded away from the fire.

They all were isolated from the rest of Vale during the attack. No one else was around. In fact, they seemed to have been located along the outer edges of the city's mountainous boundary.

How did she end up all the way out here? The last thing Pyrrha remembered was falling before her enemy up in Beacon's tower during the attack.

She needed to get back to Beacon. To her friends and comrades. There were two slight problems with her desire.

Problem one: As a Huntress-in-Training, she couldn't abandon these survivors during a Grimm invasion. If Grimm encountered them, even being soldiers, they wouldn't last long under these conditions. Most seemed either wounded or trying to pull out survivors before the fires coming from the wreck reached something critical and detonated the entire vessel.

Problem two: Miss Nikos was still struggling with being dead.

Then Pyrrha felt it. A common feeling that Huntsmen and Huntresses felt. That feeling that something out there was watching. Waiting. The alarm bell of her aura alerting her to the presence of Grimm.

She tried to swivel her vision around, the sights whirling crazily into blinding blurs of movement. If she had still been alive she would have been vomiting like poor Jaune on a shuttle trip into Vale.

Pyrrha closed off her vision and walled off those wonderful memories of her team and the boy she had kissed goodbye mere minutes before her death. She had to focus on the here and now. After a few more unsuccessful moments she spotted several forms radiating heat deep inside the tree line that ran alongside the train route cutting through the forest.

She could see heat?

Well, it wasn't the strangest thing she had experienced today.

The human figures fighting their own disaster to save their comrades were too preoccupied to have noticed.

Pyrrha tried to call out a warning. However her voice was mute. There was no air in her lungs to give her voice. In fact, she couldn't locate her lungs with which to draw breath.

The girl resigned herself to this fact of her non-existence. She didn't have a fleshly body anymore.

But she had sight. She had the sense that she lay on the ground. Right? She had to be something.

Pyrrha tried again. Again there was nothing. She drew up within herself, calling up her will as a Huntress to warn the innocent of danger. Nothing.

She could see the Grimm start to move, stalking their prey. A pack of Ursa. With a roar they charged out into the open. The figures near the burning vessel stopped and pointed. Some turned to run, carrying wounded comrades to the tunnel. Others drew side arms and rifles and opened fire. Forming a skirmishing line to defend the others as they retreated.

Pyrrha reacted out of pure instinct and years of training. Her multi-form spear: Milos, and shield: Akouo, were gone. Lost in her final battle with the woman who had reaped the Fall Maiden's power for herself. So she reached out with her aura and grabbed hold of a metal object, using her polarity semblance as her hands.

One of the broken spines of the nearby airship rose up fifty feet off of the ground, pivoted in midair, and hurled itself sideways into the tree line. Trunks of trees snapped off at the stump all along the path, everything above their root system carried along by the huge metal spire. Smashing into the bodies of Ursa with titanic force. Wiping out the entire pack in a single blow of blunt force trauma by a metal bat nearly two hundred feet long and shattered timbers from countless trees.

Pyrrha stared at the carnage of ruined forest. Even in her fight in the tower, going all out with her semblance, she could only lift those metal gears massing perhaps a thousand pounds each. It had been a tremendous strain, given that objects still had have force exerted on them and Pyrrha's aura had to generate that force from within an adolescent girl's body. A desperation move to slow down an unstoppable enemy and unconcerned about the toll paid for the feat.

However, she barely felt the effort needed to hurl the massive structure of that spine. The entire construction had once nearly doubled the length of the cruiser. Even if it had been only a fragment it had to be measured in the dozens of tons. Perhaps even a few hundred.

Something to ponder over later. Pyrrha tried to raise her voice again as the small figures in the distance held their ground in confusion. Again, nothing. Other howls reverberated from deeper within the forest valley.

I need to communicate, Pyrrha thought.

She felt something within herself open up. More Grimm appeared within her penetrating vision. More Ursa, perhaps twenty with what appeared to be a Deathstalker behind them. Drawn in by the straining emotions of the shipwrecked survivors.

With her aura, Pyrrha hefted more debris. Girders, fragments of hull plate, smaller pieces of the warship's trailing spines. Objects flung themselves at velocities rendering them almost invisible to the naked eye. Foliage was torn away, branches broken and hurled into the beyond. Heavy trunks impaled by improvised spears. Limbs of Grim shredded from bodies beyond human sight but their enraged shrieks of pain and anger reaching human ears. However the forest blocked any real evidence of the effectiveness of the strike.

"Hello? This is Huntress Pyrrha Nikos. Can anyone near the train tunnel hear me?"

"We read you loud and clear," came the disciplined male voice, seemingly from right next to the disembodied girl.

Time was of the essence, given the situation. "You have Grimm coming in from up the valley. First wave is dead, however there is more behind them. I can't see them all. I count at least twenty Ursa and a Deathstalker. You need to get into the tunnel and form a rearguard, now."

The tunnel would provide shelter from any Nevermores and Griffins in the sky attracted to the commotion, as well as channel terrestrial Grimm into a nearly needle thin line of advance which the people on the ground could defend as they retreated from the area.

From the tone of the voice, Pyrrha could almost see the shaking of a head. "Huntress, we have a downed air cruiser about to suffer a meltdown of its Dust reactor. We can't get past the fires to scram the core. We're talking about a sixty-plus kiloton explosion. The other cruiser's is crippled so we can't evacuate. The central operating server was destroyed and the backup suffered a wipe from the power surge when the auxiliary power generator was hit. Both captains are dead."

There was the briefest of pauses as another roar resonated from the forest's depths. "The tunnel is too close to ground zero as well. We were going rally at the tunnel's mouth and hike up the hill. Shelter ourselves below the peak from the blast. However, we are all wounded to some degree. None of the crew can make quick time with Grimm on our tail as well. I suppose it's a moot point unless you can come with us."

The last sentence carried an unspoken question. Huntsmen and Huntresses were the experts out beyond the city boundaries. There was a tremendous difference between a soldier and a Huntress, even a Huntress-in-Training, when it came to dealing with the creatures of Grimm.

Pyrrha desired to shake her head sadly, if she could figure out how to create such a gesture. "I'm afraid I unable to move myself. But I believe I can seal the tunnel behind you if you can get your men inside."

The man on the other side of the disembodied conversation spoke again, but Pyrrha interrupted. "Sir, I cannot be saved. Not anymore. Don't endanger yourselves for my sake. Just get yourselves inside that tunnel and let me do my duty."

"Yes, Ma'am," the soldier on the other end exclaimed respectfully. Honoring the sacrifice he believed was about to be made on behalf of his people.

Pyrrha used her semblance to hurl another section of broken hull plate into the trees. Then another girder. She waited for the Grimm to charge into the clear zone her earlier attack had made. A path cluttered with broken tree stumps and forming a wall of debris at the other side of the forest remains.

Most Grimm were young and mindless. They would charge straight into the wreck site following the shortest path available. Not angling to the side where the forest provided cover to a much closer range with which to charge from. Nor circling in the other direction to the unimpeded trail made by the rail line for a clear sprint without obstructions.

They would come straight into the unplanned kill zone she had made when that section of forest had been swept away dealing with the first pack of Ursa.

Not that the Grimm mattered. Not with a ticking bomb nearby that would incinerate the entire valley.

Pyrrha thought quickly. Even disembodied she still had her aura. Her semblance over magnetism. Calculations ran through her mind faster than she could contemplate.

The train tunnel was close, with the entrance located a few hundred yards south of the wreck site. On the other hand that distance put that opening at a steep angle. With the massive attack on Vale underway, all traffic including freight trains would have been halted until the city's defenses had given the all clear. So sealing the tunnel would not pose a hazard. Especially given that the rail line in question was about to become a giant crater regardless of what she did.

Another volley of debris went flying and the roars of Grimm were getting closer. The people around the broken halves of the air cruiser were retreating into the tunnel.

Grimm came out into the open, bounding over broken stumps and shattered trees. Torn hull members, fragments of armor plate and other spilled debris met them. Much of the metal ordnance buried themselves into the corpses of trees. The ones that didn't were simply devastating, plastering into three or four of the heavily armored and muscled Ursa before spending its remaining kinetic energy into yet another wooden trunk.

The enormous Deathstalker came out into the shrapnel barraged clearing, taking a beating but able to deflect the smaller pieces of hull. It was quickly met with a spear nearly one hundred feet long, pinning the beast into the ground.

That one… that had felt good. So much like wielding Milo and Akouo again.

Then the Grimm she hadn't seen earlier came out. Boarbatusk. Smaller species of Grimm but fast, light on their feet, and known to travel in packs larger than any other species.

Several were smote down, yet not enough considering their numbers and speed. Pyrrha concluded that they were her new nemesis among Grimm. Hurling multi-ton spears and shields didn't do anyone any good if she couldn't hit the monsters hurling themselves at the crash site.

Pyrrha swiveled her point of view back at the tunnel. Most everyone was now inside. The walking wounded no longer as cautious about carrying their maimed comrades.

The girl tuned her semblance, gathering her inner strength. Unaffected with her earlier displays of magnetic supremacy. She reached out and pushed. The girl felt a slight give though her aura, but it wasn't enough. Aura wasn't magic. Everything needed energy to accomplish anything. Even something as simple as breathing or as small as an eye blink required energy.

I need energy.

There was another shift within Pyrrha's world and she felt the flow of power building up. It was only a tap, but immense compared to what she had experienced in the most severe sugar rush Ruby had induced while shopping for reward treats behind Weiss' back.

Pyrrha pushed again. This time with movement. It was slight, but noticeable. The broken bow of the air cruiser shivered, then slowly lifted. Its nose dragging along the ground and severed end swinging around, landing on the railroad line. The section of hull aligned itself along the path of rails and Pyrrha pushed again with her semblance.

The bow section skidded along the rail line, sparks showering from the heavy friction of steel grinding on steel. Pyrrha could feel her aura strain under the effort. It gained speed and slammed into the tunnel, its edges on one side catching the walls of the subterranean passage. Perhaps twenty or thirty feet of the hull managed to mangle its way into the wide freight tunnel as it collapsed around the steel plug.

The girl eyed her handiwork, feeling exhausted deep within her soul. The bow section was still mostly outside of the tunnel entrance by a large margin. However, with its densely armored mass and the small landslide that had sealed the shelter around it, the plug should be able to prevent the coming multi-kiloton fireball from incinerating the people escaping inside the cavern. Not that the experience wouldn't be terrifying or potentially lethal. But it would give them a chance at survival.

The remaining Grim entered the clearing around the rail line, greedily searching for living souls to snuff out. Some scowering the wreckage, others pawing at the collapsed earth burying the tunnel. None seemed to sense her presence.

Pyrrha felt both relief and heartache at this. She pushed it away, focusing on other things. Grief could wait for another day. She may have been killed, but she was still here and people still in danger. Whatever she was- ghost, phantom, spirit- she was still a Huntress-in-Training. A defender of the people.

One near a Dust reactor that was in the process of melting down. She may be dead, but she wasn't in the mood to discover if her current form could be killed again.

Pyrrha willed herself to leave. To pick herself up off the ground. Nothing. It was so frustrating!

She calmed her mind, thinking backward. She had needed to talk, and she had gained the ability however strange that had been. She had needed energy, and it was supplied.

I need to move.

Nothing.

Pyrrha ground her non-existent teeth. Naturally it just couldn't be that simple. Again she calmed her mental processes and willed her mind outward. As if locating her arms and legs back when she had a body. Her sense of orientation within her inner ears that she couldn't find.

Why couldn't she learn to use a phantom body without a small city-buster bomb ticking away next to her? She wasn't even dead twenty minutes yet!

Perhaps she was going about this all wrong. She still was present. She could see, but not with a set of eyes like before. She could see in nearly all directions, but could shift them about. She could see heat signatures as well as color. She had superb night vision apparently. She could speak and hear in communication with another, but not in person. She could use her semblance and feed her aura energy she needed to maintain its functioning, just as she had when she was able to occasionally indulge in celebratory food comas with Nora. Just far more so. She had felt it when moving such large masses of metals, just as she had in the past. Only completely different.

Most importantly, Pyrrha needed to leave. She needed to get back to Beacon. Back to her friends who might still be fighting for their lives. It didn't matter if she was a ghost or phantom. They were her friends and in danger.

Jaune. She needed to get back to Jaune. Even if she couldn't be with him anymore she could still watch over him.

It was all very confusing. All these strange pieces that didn't seem to belong together.

Beacon was also on a bearing of zero-one-three point seven-one true north. Distance to the city perimeter was a twelve point nine-two miles. Just over the range of hills behind her.

How do I know that? She asked herself.

Pyrrha reached out with her mind once more. This time, not with words, but with concepts. She needed her arms to push herself up and steady her balance. She needed her legs to move her forward.

She… felt something. The sense of balance. The growing ability to lift herself up off the ground. The capability to propel herself forward or backward. To turn her direction. She felt power course through herself.

It… it was all wrong. She didn't feel anything. Disassociated from physical senses she had known all her life. But it was there. Like knowing the feeling without feeling the feeling.

Pyrrha let herself a mental sigh. Being a phantom was going to take some getting used to. So many things she was going to miss.

Then she gave herself a slight mental slap in the face. Focus, Pyrrha. She told herself. For all she knew, she had an eternity to figure all this out. Vale and her friends didn't have that luxury.

Pyrrha gave herself a push and saw the ground below her give way to distance. The dust of dry soil swirling away underneath her. She felt herself rise and rise into the night sky.

At first there was the slight sense of fear as the distance kept climbing. Then wonderment. She could fly!

The girl gave herself a slight spin to the left. Then willed herself forward.

She was flying!

In her excitement she tried a bit of a roll with a slight pitch upward, which flooded her mind with warnings and cautions.

Pyrrha floated in the air and mentally shook her head clear. Okay. Nothing fancy.

She again collected herself. Focusing during this period of metamorphosis was a real problem. Her thoughts were so fast. The girl wondered if that was why Ruby was a prodigy Huntress when facing impossible numbers but was liable to trip over her own shoelaces when facing off against a single opponent. The world was too slow for the innocent girl's brain to keep in step with.

Again, focus Pyrrha! she scolded herself. Beacon. I have to get to Beacon.

As she rose over the surrounding hillsides, Pyrrha pushed forward. As if she was swimming through the watering hole next to the home she had grown up in. It seemed to help.

However it was also a bit disconcerting. As a ghost, spirit, whatever-she-was, Pyrrha was now as slow as molasses and turned almost as nimbly. Very confusing, given that she didn't seem to have a physical body. Not one she could bend, fold, touch, see, smell or much of anything. Yet she also had sensations unconnected from physical sense.

It seemed to take forever but Vale was in sight. To her horror the entire city in the distance seemed to be under attack. Not a single cruiser or gunship guarded the city's airspace. Nevermores and Griffins swarmed the skies. Gratefully, no civilian airships were making an attempt to escape the city either. Grounding themselves instead. Such an attempt would have been suicide.

Whole sections of the city was blacked out from a lack of power. Muzzle flashes of Vale's perimeter defenses stretched as far as she could peer. Small arms fire and heavier artillery. From the coastline on the west clear to the mountain ranges surrounding Beacon Academy on the far east. The Air Defense batteries on the ground seemed to be silent.

The Grimm had complete control of the skies. The aerial species could attack anywhere and everywhere with rapid speed. The Vale Huntsmen and Atlesian army were trapped on the ground. Any Air-Defense Battery that opened up would be like sending up a giant sign to the extremely dangerous airborne swarm that read 'Ready-to-Eat People, Down Here!'

However there was hope. Spotlights around sections of the city still with power flashed outward as if ancient lighthouses guiding people to safe zones. However Beacon Academy, since time forgotten a literal beacon of hope against the creatures of Grimm, was deathly silent.

Where her comrades, her mentors, her friends must still be was only darkness. The woman at the top of the tower that had killed her. The one who had come after her to stop that woman.

It came back to her. The memory. The sound of someone vaulting over debris and landing as quietly as possible. Newly formed gravel slightly crunching underfoot. Yet the elevator Pyrrha had forced up to the top of the tower had been stuck there. Jammed into place so tightly that power tools would probably be needed to dislodge the contraption.

Someone had climbed the outside of the tower. No. Someone had gotten there fast enough to take her place as she died. They hadn't climbed the tower. They had to have rushed up the sheer vertical face without any hand or footholds of a natural cliffside.

Only one person at Beacon had managed a similar feat against a powerful foe. Back during initiation Ruby had run up a cliff fast enough to decapitate a Giant Nevermore.

Ruby. Ruby was the one who took her place. Whom would be the next to fall.

NO!

Pyrrha refused the fate of the universe that would snuff out the girl in the same way she herself had been lost. She looked across the horizon toward Beacon Academy, a speck sitting on a distant and dark cliff. She looked at the night sky flooded with aerial Grimm.

She needed to fight. It wasn't thought or a decision. It wasn't exactly conscious will. It was primal instinct. The years of conditioning and training of a champion gladiatrix accepted into the most advanced Huntress schooling in the entire world of Remnant. The instincts of combat, the drive to surge forward and protect, the faster-than-thought reflexes and awareness that flowed too fast for conscious decision making. The mental process that instantly sent the human body and mind into a fighting survival condition.

Pyrrha stretched out her very soul in all directions, carrying the force of human will. Melding with her surroundings. Searching for adrenal glands, muscles, a faster heart rate, arms and legs, eyes and ears. Finding something else but functioned similarly.

Combat condition one protocols engaged.

Weapons. She needed weapons.

As status updates flooded into her, a new, horrible wonderment filled her as she readied for battle. Pyrrha had weapons. She had lots of weapons. Far too many for a human.

Hellbore Cannon 1 and 2 charging…

Flak Batteries 1 through 18 cycling…

Close-In Defense Guns 1 through 20 cycling…

Ground Support Mortars 1 through 10 cycling…

Gunports 1 through 50 opening…

Missile cells 1 through 20 cycling… Ready.

Pyrrha turned her vision around, something that hadn't occurred to her since it wasn't anatomically possible for a human. She saw her body for the first time since her death. A body of steel armor, trailing spines and an arrow-like bow. Propulsion nacelles glowing brightly with burning thrust urging the thousands of tons of metal forward. A wound on her left side, molten metal slag and black soot scaring frame one thirty six.

Master arm released. Magazines at 100%. LiDAR active. RADAR active. Fire Control online. Damage Control online. Military Datalink online. Local Communications Node standing by. Reactor Core 1 and 2 standing by. Primary capacitors at 100%.

All systems combat ready.

The last line traveling into her mind at seemingly light speed caused the quickening consciousness of Pyrrha Nikos to virtually tear up. Ruby's friend Penny, whom she had fought at the tournament, had exclaimed something very similar. Penny, the girl who had turned out to be a robot. A person within a machine; manifesting the soul of a real person with her powerful aura during the tournament.

The person she had killed. Had torn apart in her terrible confusion and panic as the world had warped around her.

The man she had spoken with at the crash site had said a second ship had suffered a wipe in its central operating system. The guiding mechanism controlling the ship extinguished. When she had died, something had pushed her soul away and into a vacant place.

Pyrrha emotionally let the tear go. It felt right. It was just. Eye for eye. Tooth for tooth. Soul for soul. Karma was fair to put her here. There was only one person who should fill the shoes Penny had left behind in this world. The soul within a mechanical body. A Huntress of metal, circuits and gears built to protect the people. That person was now Pyrrha Nikos.

The disembodied girl steeled her will and gazed forward, sending her mind and soul into the corners of her new home and plunged forward. As she crossed the besieged Vale Defense Perimeter, targeting solutions flittered across her vision. A Giant Nevermore.

Pyrrha Nikos, the last Air Cruiser defending Vale, fired her first Hellbore of the night. The monstrous raven like abomination nearly evaporated in a scattering of scorched feathers.

She closed in on the outer edge of the aerial swarm of Grimm. The second Hellbore fired, this time sweeping through the air in a deadly red beam of plasma for a split second. Feathers and scorched fur floated down to the ground. Flak batteries opened fire all around her, dust shells arcing away from the dark armored hull and bursting in midair to saturate the sky with heavy shrapnel. Tearing at wings and tails. Ripping out feathers essential for flight. Grimm spinning downward, out of control and unable to stop their plummet.

Grimm on the ground were assaulting Vale's Defenses along the city wall she flew over. Ground Support Mortars along Pyrrha's keel burped explosive Dust shells at packs of Beowolves, Ursa, Creeps and onto individual King Taijitu. Armaments switching to Armor Piercing Rocket Assisted Artillery rounds and blasted at heavily armored Death Stalkers and massive Goliaths. Men and women on the ground holding the defenses cheering and waving as she passed overhead, sweeping away Grimm along her path in a blaze of cannon fire.

Griffin turned toward her, the greatest threat in the sky. Diving down upon her. She didn't pause. Close-in Chain Guns opened up their torrent of impact activated Dust rounds. Fire, Ice, and Earth Dust, each leaving a brilliantly colored trail in the night sky in between the invisible standard bullets. Red, Gold and Blue bolts racing out in all directions through the night. Covering feathers with instant heavy stone film and dragging their owners down into a fatal spin toward the surface of Remnant. Limbs and eyes flash frozen. Fur and feathers burning. Armor piercing supersonic metal ripping into thick bodies twisted by darkness.

Targets flashed through Pyrrha's awareness. Dozens flashing in and out of her attention faster than she had ever experienced. Two hundred and fifty eight targets being tracked simultaneously and effortlessly by the secondary control systems that hadn't been impacted by the damage taken before she had… moved in.

Pyrrha plowed forward through the swarm, holding her course for Beacon Academy. Flak shells burst outward and she reached out with her semblance, gathering them up in magnetic hands and sweeping the cloud of metallic shards along an arc. Shredding though a flock of Griffin and then turning it back around, swinging the guided rain of razor sharp fragments as she would with Milo when she had been human.

Hellbore cannon fired every four seconds. Vaporizing far more resilient Giant Nevermore at ranges upward of two miles. Flak Batteries pumped out a continuous rain of shrapnel which tore deep into Grimm flesh in one direction and then came whizzing back again and again. No single wound being able to bring down one of the monsters, but scores of them adding up. Negating their ability to remain aloft or land in a less-than-lethal fashion. Dozens of black bodies falling from the sky bellowing their hatred of man and his creation.

Chain Gun mounts chewing through abominable flesh and limbs in short bursts of hail when anything got close enough to tear at the hull with their destructive claws and beaks. Support Mortars raining shells down upon Grimm racing upon the ground in the search for more victims. Debris lifting up off the ground in magnetic hands. Construction girders swinging though the air and pulverizing wing bones. Abandoned cars flying up and crashing into Grimm as they bolted through the sky in mindless rage toward the Steel Angel of War.

But Pyrrha wasn't invulnerable either. Her hull was slightly scarred from Giant Nevermore crashing beak first into her upper deck plates at suicidal diving speeds, trying to penetrate the armor's soft spots. Gun ports, hatches and other access points. Limbs were pulled into intakes, blocking them or damaging turbine blades. Microscopic fractures that added up over time and detected by x-ray scanners peering at them. Scanners which could also be ripped away. Optical sensors scratched and torn out, blinding Pyrrha in sectors before backup cameras kicked in. LiDAR and RADAR emitters cracking under the strain of a multitude of impacts.

The breach on her left side was vulnerable with three different Close-In Defense Guns covering that section lest Grimm climb through the hole. Allowing it to tear with impunity at equipment, pipes, and cables that now carried Pyrrha's lifeblood. Power, coolant, and information.

Griffin smashing at shock-resistant window panes around the bridge to climb inside before hails of bullets ripped into them.

Through it all Pyrrha didn't have time to be a person. To reminisce or reflect. There was only the mission and Grimm. So many Grimm and her ammunition was vanishing rapidly.

Then Beacon was up ahead. Three civilian air shuttles were sitting on the landing pads, unable to take off due to the Griffins moving in and Nevermore circling high above. Huntsmen and students alike fending them off with small arms fire and others with melee styled weapons holding a perimeter against Ursa and Beowolves. Figures of injured comrades laying before the landing pads.

A Hellbore burst lanced through the air and smashed a Giant Nevermore out of the sky, causing many of those preoccupied figures to turn and look behind them. Pyrrha could see them wave and cheer as her floating hull bullied its way through the sky, tracers stitching the sky in all directions as flashes of midair detonations surrounded her airspace. A rain of flying Grimm falling to the distant ground below as relief came to besieged Beacon Academy. Twin Hellbore beams slicing open two miles of night sky and above their heads every few seconds as Grimm overhead simply vanished.

Pyrrha saw the fallen ruins of the decapitated CCTS tower at the center of Beacon. Communication had been banished citywide. Perhaps the entire global system was down as well. She sighted in on the largest Grim of all. The Dragon Grimm clutching the side of the tower near the top. Nevermore and Griffin circling around it.

Pyrrha felt anger. Stay away from Ruby! Try fighting someone your own size, you bully!

Hellbore cannon adjusted their aim along her spinal mounts. Missile hatches flipped open, flight computers cycling and safeties switching off.

The girl within the air cruiser felt an unfimiliar ping. The range was two point two-one miles to the CCTS tower. She had time to investigate this.

It took three whole seconds to locate this new sensation. It wasn't instinctive nor inborn talent honed with years of training like combat was. The pinging was coming from a communications node. A call coming in using her node as a local communications hotspot for military Scrolls. Pyrrha sent a virtual finger and 'touched' the pulse.

"Inbound Air Cruiser. This is General Ironwood. Do not target the Dragon. Repeat. Do NOT engage the Dragon Grimm. Target is inert and drawing Grimm away from the city. Provide air cover and evacuation support. Over."

Pyrrha nearly wept at hearing his voice. She had failed them. Professor Ozpin, General Ironwood, Miss Goodwich and Huntsman Qrow. Failed Vale. Failed to accept the Fall Maiden's power when they had time. Failed to hold the tower long enough for real help to arrive and deal with that woman.

Ruby.

Pyrrha spoke in return, closing her missile hatches. "General Ironwood, this is Pyrrha Nikos. I understand. No time to explain. Fall Maiden is dead. New Fall Maiden is now an enemy, last seen at the top of the CCTS tower. Professor Ozpin is gone. Ruby Rose is probably there trying to stop her now. Access from the ground destroyed."

There was a moment's pause, but this was no time for questions or to digest the losses. That would come later.

"Acknowledged, Air Cruiser. Tell the Captain to prepare to receive the refugees and standby to cover an air rescue once we are under way. Landing zone is east of our perimeter. Over."

Pyrrha eyed the area with her vision, willing herself to zoom in as other inhuman sights now available to her continued to track and engage Grimm. Her landing point would be the long wide pathway stretching between the landing pads and the Beacon campus.

Slowly she approached, weapons sweeping away Grimm all around her. Some of the black monsters now turning away from the steel dragon of mankind and hovering around their own that was clinging to that broken tower. Pyrrha turned her attention downward as she slowed to a crawl above the crowded landing pads. Ground Support Mortars belched in rapid succession. A line of explosions rolling along the once manicured grass and walkway before the students holding the perimeter around the landing pads, sweeping outward and driving the surviving Ursa, Beowolves and Boarbatusk away.

Pyrrha hovered, using her magnetic semblance on herself to steady her hull a few inches above the ground once the students and faculty were safely behind her. She hadn't been able to get used to her new environment in so many areas beyond what her conditioned reflexes, intuition and instincts had prepared her for in becoming a Huntress. It took time, even accelerated as her thoughts could be, to search for something as simple as how to land without breaking off the maneuvering spines that projected out from her propulsion nacelles. Or blowing her friends and comrades off of the cliff with the gusting wind of her enormous thrusters.

However, she now only had to focus on the Grimm above. Vastly simplifying the tasks necessary to protect the area around herself. She sent a keyword search outward and the needed result came back almost instantly. Another impulse went out, and the large door leading into her empty troop bay folded down and toward the ground to form a loading ramp.

Pyrrha, now able to catch a mental breath in the sudden lull of fighting, cast her vision out through the crowd starting to move toward her. Scanning for her team and friends.

She found them, lying prostrate on the ground among the most severely injured. Ren and Nora trying to get up on their own to help others, but nearly collapsing and holding their sides.

Blake laying close to an unmoving Yang, clutching her partner's left hand in a flood of tears and holding her middle with another in her own ignored agony. Bawling out her sorrow and grief, blaming herself. Yang's dominant right arm… was just gone. A bloody bandage covering the stump above where an elbow had once been.

Two dozen students stormed aboard and quickly ripped first aid kits and medical stretchers from the troop bay's bulkheads. Her four closest friends were brought aboard and disappeared from her external optics. Within three and a half minutes nearly every student was packed into her troop bay. Three people however were still unaccounted for. Professor Ozpin, Weiss Schnee, and Ruby Rose.

Pyrrha hovered over the decapitated CCTS tower, blazing through ammunition as Grimm tried to drive her away from the still Dragon glued to the side of the once grand construction. Metal debris swinging around her hull within her magnetic grip and crashing into any Grimm that managed to get through the torrent of defensive fire. The three civilian shuttles underneath her protective umbrella directed spotlights down to where Professor Ozpin's office was now open to the night sky.

General Ironwood- his uniform torn and… robotic parts now visible- and Qrow were speaking to themselves as they checked over the unconscious Ruby Rose. She lay where she had collapsed. Her legs tucked beneath the rest of her small body. Ms. Goodwich was sadly picking up bronze colored armor from where they had fallen before the feet of the evil Fall Maiden.

The malicious Fall Maiden stood at the center of the open room. Arms frozen where they had risen up in reflex before the woman's face. Expression a terrible mixture of rage, alarm and disbelief. Her form solidified into a nearly stone statue. Much like the Dragon outside. Shadows burned into the remaining walls and flooring, radiating outward in all directions. All pointing to the epicenter where Ruby lay without a scratch on her.

However, this was no time for questions or the search for answers. Nor even for emotions. She could see General Ironwood down below look at where Ms. Goodwich was picking up singed pieces of a famous girl's far too recognizable armor, and then up at the damaged Air Cruiser floating above them holding off waves of flying Grimm. Gun ports lighting up with muzzle flashes in all directions. Telling him through his military Scroll in a fallen girl's voice that her magazines were down to nine percent.

Qrow picked up Ruby delicately and with the care only a family member could display. Ironwood signaled one of the air shuttles with a hand and it repositioned itself so its rear loading ramp nearly touched the ravaged office. The other two, fielding Beacon's more aggressive facility and a recovered Weiss Schnee, continued to add their charges personal small arms fire from the open passenger compartment to the thunderous booming above them.

With everyone recovered, the three shuttles and the Air Cruiser dwarfing them turned away from Beacon and the Grimm. Sailing into the night sky and toward sanctuary within Vale.

Pyrrha took a brief moment to look back through her optics as the airships left the scene. That woman had been helpless. Inert. Maybe alive, maybe not. That woman had killed her. Murdered in cold blood. Pyrrha had killed also, but never like that. It had been an accident and she would have avoided Penny's death if she could have. She grieved that she couldn't take it all back. That woman had taken pleasure in finishing her off.

Pyrrha wasn't like that evil Fall Maiden. Not in the least. She had the power to crush the frozen dragon. Or at least hurt it quite badly. That woman was the size of a bug compared to her now. A single Hellbore pulse would have vaporized that statue along with the remains of the rest of Professor Ozpin's office. But Pyrrha wasn't that person. She had killed, but she wasn't a killer. Wasn't a monster.

So she was satisfied with leaving the Fall Maiden as she was. Frozen in place. Preferably for all eternity.

Jaune trudged on for another block. Daylight had finally risen over the horizon and brought something back into the air. Not hope exactly. Nor optimism or confidence. Merely the possibility that they could get through this disaster somehow.

Yet all he felt was fear. Fear for another. His best friend. His sparing buddy. His tutor. His… a spectacularly amazing girl that had been waiting at his side for his moronic self to see her waiting for him.

Communications were down and it looked like Scrolls would be next to useless for a long time. He hadn't heard from anyone for the rest of the night. He hadn't even seen another person for hours.

But to be honest, he hadn't wanted to see another person. He wanted to see Pyrrha. Alive and whole and not charging off into impossible danger like the heroic idiot she had been. He was also angry with her. Angry that she hadn't explained everything she had known despite the fact that there had been no time. Angry that she was courageous and brave and put other people first in her life.

Angry at himself too. For being an idiot. For not being good enough to stand with her against impossible odds. To not be good enough to take that stand in her place. For being more selfish than she.

He was tired and hungry and exhausted. But all he wanted was to know that Pyrrha was alright. That help had arrived. He could accept Pyrrha being hurt. He could accept Pyrrha being crippled even. He'd stand with her just as she had stood with him and take care of her forever if that's what it took. He just wanted her to come back.

Jaune wandered further along the debris filled street. There was a safe zone up ahead. Without communications it was difficult to broadcast where safety lay during the day. But there was one obvious place in Vale. A beacon of hope floating in the sky.

A single remaining Atlesian Air Cruiser was holding a position above central Vale. Unlike the erratic android units earlier, even examining the view from a safe distance, the vessel was clearly stable and secure. Under control and alert. Guardian of a safe zone underneath its protective shadow.

Eventually the struggling Huntsman-in-Training found himself among other people. Professional Huntsmen patrolling a wide perimeter on the streets. Soldiers and even skilled civilians who had appropriated rifles from lifeless android knights were in overlooking windows. Dozens of snipers at every intersection waiting at the ready. Waiting to strike back at Grimm or automaton should the opportunity present itself.

Jaune's eyes swept through the people as he walked further along deeper into the safe zone. Looking only for a green set of eyes. Afraid to hope he would ever find them.

It was perhaps an hour later when he finally stepped into the park at the center of the safe zone. The wide expanse of green grass now occupied with tents. Makeshift field hospitals and wounded lying on cots. Doctors and nurses scurrying about with the tools of their trade. Exhausted but not stopping to salvage what they could of the grievous injuries.

Jaune slowly made his way from tent to tent. Hoping he would find Pyrrha and afraid he would. Others were doing the same but went unnoticed as they were equally unnoticing his presence. So many people and not one was familiar yet.

Then felt a shadow loom over him. Probably a cloud or something.

"Jaune?"

That painfully familiar voice echoed across the park. Bouncing off of surrounding buildings. He swung his head back and forth as Pyrrha's voice resounded through some loudspeaker.

"Pyrrha?" he called out, jumping up and down to get a view over people's heads. Trying to find where that voice as coming from.

"Jaune!" the cry sounded across the field.

Suddenly Jaune felt himself being grabbed by an invisible yet familiar grip and hauled bodily up into the air. Far, far up into the air. Far too high to not feel grave concern along with the mindless confusion that coursed through his being.

However, that did not last long as he impacted a rather large metal object and was held there. New concern entered his confused mind about the state of his liver. And his kidneys. And anything else that might still be inside his body.

Then the swinging started. Back and forth. Back and forth. Quick, slight, joyful motions by something very heavy and very large. Large enough for slight swinging to be something not-so-slight for Jaune.

"Jaune, I am so glad you made it!" Pyrrha's voice sang out, more quietly this time but still echoing through his ears. "I've been watching out for you for hours!"

"Pyrrha. A… little…help… here." Jaune gasped out.

"Pyrrha!" Another voice on a loudspeaker down below boomed out. "Just because I am letting you watch over your friends in sickbay does not mean you can broadcast your lovey-dovey reunion across the entire city! Not to mention you are perfectly capable of waiting for your friend to take the next shuttle. I think we've all seen enough this past day. Don't you, Miss Nikos?"

"Sorry, Sir!" Pyrrha called back out. "I was just so excited I forgot myself. It won't happen again."

Jaune was very confused now. But Pyrrha was okay! Wait. Their friends were hurt?

Pyrrha's voice toned down to an attempted whisper. If one could whisper through a loudspeaker without the whole world knowing about it. "I'm sorry about that, Jaune. You know sometimes I forget my own strength with the polarity. I'll being you inside."

Jaune closed his eyes and tried very hard not to think about the ground right now.

With his hands he felt hull plate slide along until there was a stop. Then a sharp hiss and the hydraulic whine and whirl of a door opening. He felt and heard his boots find deck plating as a door hissed closed behind him. Jaune tapped his boots a few times to make sure he wasn't simply wishing not to be suspended several hundred feet in the air.

He opened his eyes to find himself inside a narrow corridor. White walls with black trim. Multi-colored pipes ran along the ceiling of the intersecting passageway. The lighting subdued.

A shy voice spoke out through the halls over the intercom system. A creepy, disembodied voice echoing through the halls that he was so painfully familiar with.

"Jaune? Ren, Nora, Ruby, Yang and Blake are recovering in the medical… well I don't want to insult the General, but it's not much more than our dorm was." Jaune could almost hear Pyrrha back pedal herself into a corner. "But we're very grateful for everything. They are getting the best of care." There crept a twinge of guilt into her voice. "Well. The best protected care I should say. Right now there is not much more that can be done. There just aren't enough doctors and nurses at the moment."

There was an awkward pause. Very awkward and downright bizarre and confusing.

"Jaune," Pyrrha spoke carefully. "I really do want to talk to you. About… things. Just… I thought I was prepared, but I'm not. Can you give me a few minutes? Take care of our team. There are some things I… can't do anymore. Take a right, follow the corridor seven intersections, go down the stairs and take a left."

Jaune, ever so bewildered, followed the directions. He came to a steel hatch and knocked on the door. An exited female's voice told him to come in.

He opened the hatch revealing a very cramped space considering all the people apparently crammed into it. The young leader walked in, waving to his teammates. "Hey guys!"

Ren and Nora were both clothed in white garments and wrapped in equally white blankets. The partners sitting in close proximity to each other on the lower bunk bed on the left side of the compartment, their legs hanging down over the side and onto the floor. Above them on the top bunk was Ruby. Sleeping peacefully. Unnaturally peacefully. On the other side of the room were Yang and Blake, both whom were also sleeping. Someone had disassembled their bunk and placed them side by side. Then surrounded them in a mountain of blankets tucked tightly under the mattress to wrap them securely inside. Only one end of the frame tilted up against the wall and the bottom braced in position by a line of empty first aid cases reaching over to Ren and Nora's bunk. The contraption seemingly to defy the laws of physics, but allowing some breathing space in the compartment. Intravenous lines running from hung plastic bags and down to exposed arms of the unconscious girls. Monitoring equipment quietly beeping in the background.

"Come on, Ren!" Nora ignored Jaune in favor of their ongoing conversation and waving her arms for emphasis. "It's not like I'm talking about more than once."

Ren sighed as he turned the page of the medical dictionary he was reading. "Nora. You are talking about hitting me with Magnhild."

"But it's not like I'm talking about hurting you."

Her partner and keeper did not look up from his reading material. "Breaking another rib so we have a matching set is, by definition, hurting me."

"But we'd be twins!"

"No, Nora. Just no."

The two partners looked at Jaune after finishing their dialogue. "Hey, Jaune," they both said simultaneously and in precisely the same tone.

Jaune scratched his head. "So, how is everyone?"

Ren and Nora just looked at each other. "We will be alright," Ren stated calmly. "Team Ruby… they've been through a lot. Both Yang and Blake needed emergency surgery. Yang lost her good arm and Blake was run through with a nasty blade. She nearly killed herself carrying Yang back to us."

He motioned toward the partners tilted up on the other side of the small room. "She was practically in a nervous breakdown over her partner, Jaune. Terrified out of her mind. Even sedated she starts to freak if she's not holding Yang's remaining hand. Let's just say it is a good thing they both are being kept sedated after their surgeries. Physically they will recover. On the inside… it's just going to take time and I don't know if any of them will allow themselves that."

Ren pointed a thumb at Ruby sleeping above them. "That up there is the real mystery. Nothing wrong with her. No injuries or anything. She's just not waking up. The doctor said it might be a while with her aura drained like it was. But it doesn't explain why she's nearly in a coma."

Nora saw the worried 'nothing-makes-sense-today' look on Jaune's face. "Jaune. We're kept up here because of Ruby. No one is saying why, but Miss Goodwich and the General don't want anything happening to her. Something secret-secret. We're supposed to look after Ruby from now on, so no one knows anyone is serious about looking after her. We're… all confused." Her tone brightened up. "But don't worry! Soon you will find that feeling is soooo liberating!"

Ren sighed. "It should only be for a few days until arrangements can be made to send Yang and Ruby home. Nora and I will mend in a few days as well."

"What about Pyrrha?"

Ren and Nora looked at each other with worried expressions. Then both sets of eyes returned to their team leader.

Ren spoke first. "Jaune. We don't know. She won't visit at all and barely speaks to us through the intercom. When we ask to visit her, she says we're on a military vessel and aren't allowed to wander about freely."

Nora elbowed her partner in the ribs, concern on her face. "Ren, you have to show him."

Ren seemed to hesitate. Unusual for him.

Nora sadly leaned her head against her partner's shoulder. "Ren. If it was you I'd want to know."

Ren nodded. He set his book down and reach out under his bunk, holding his ribs with the other hand. The young man pulled out a cardboard box. Not very deep, but an arm length long. He set it down between himself and Nora.

From the way they were holding it and looking at it, Jaune felt there was something very wrong inside that box.

Nora unfolded the top as Ren gently, reverently, held it steady. Inside was Pyrrha's armor. At least the metal portions. Her headband, greaves, cuisses and bracer carefully placed inside. The surfaces nicked and slightly scored indicating an all-out fight. Bronze coloring warped from exposure to intense heat.

"Miss Goodwich found these when they recovered Ruby," Ren was saying quietly. "She said she cleaned them up as best she could."

Nora was looking at her paralyzed leader with sad eyes.

Jaune somehow found his voice. "P-Pyrrha said she wanted to talk with me. That- that she needed a few more minutes so I should look after our team. Th-that there were things she couldn't do any more."

Ren closed the box. "Jaune. We don't know anything. You just need to realize that you should prepare yourself. But Pyrrha wanting to see you is a good sign. You mean a lot to her and that must show how much she trusts you to reach out like that. Whatever you are feeling, try to imagine what she is going through. Or would go through if you couldn't handle whatever she is facing."

There was silence except for the beeping of monitors for nearly a full minute. During which Ren placed the box back out of sight.

Jaune spoke up. "When I was wandering the city all I could think of was that I wanted Pyrrha to come back. Didn't matter what condition. Even crippled for life. I'd have taken care of her, you know. She stood by me all this time, even being the blind idiot I am. How could I not stand by her in return? Especially after- She- uh. Yeah."

Nora peered at him with a knowing smile. "Does that mean Pyrrha finally shared her feelings about a certain brick wall with blonde hair?"

Jaune blushed and turned his face. "If you mean she kissed me, shoved me in a locker, sent me hurling to who-knows-where and charged off on a suicide mission alone? Then yeah. She did." The young man hunched over, staring at the deck underneath them. "Best and absolutely the worst moments of my life-. Wait a minute. You knew?"

Nora rolled her eyes. "Well, duh. I don't know when it started but Pyrrha's been holding her feelings in for months. I told her she should follow her own advice, but I think she loved you enough to keep it to herself while you pursued a certain girl you would never have a chance with in a million billion trillion years. I mean did you see what it did to Pyrrha to give you advice on pursuing someone else? How much it delighted her that you spent your time with her during the dance instead, even as her best friend? Not to mention that you wore that dress and made a complete laughingstock of yourself just to make her feel better. I mean I think that image is scarred into the entire student body's brain for like forever!"

"Thanks guys. Now I feel even worse."

Ren closed his book. "Jaune. Just do us, and most of all Pyrrha, a favor. Don't let guilt or grief for her sake drag you into something you may not be able to live up to. Or give her false hope. Whatever you decide, do it for the right reasons and because you are willing to see it through all the way."

Jaune looked down at the flooring again. "You guys think it's bad, too. Don't you?"

Ren and Nora looked at each other briefly. The habitually quiet young man spoke again, this time in a quieter tone. "I don't think she'd be hiding from us if she wasn't worried about how well we would take it."

Jaune followed the last directions to the command deck. His stomach felt queasy with nervousness. Trying not to picture how horribly Pyrrha had been wounded. What severe burns looked like. Broken bodies lying in traction.

Look on the bright side. Pyrrha's talking and doesn't sound like she is in any pain.

The bridge was vacant. In fact, the entire ship was eerily quiet of any human made noise. The large display screens along the wall looked normal for what a ship would display. Not that he knew what abnormal would look like.

"Hey, Jaune," Pyrrha's voice called out timidly over the intercom speakers within the room. "Thank you for coming up here. There aren't many places inside where there is video, and I wanted to see you when we talked. Maybe you should sit down? The Captain's seat may be taboo, but it doesn't have any buttons near it."

"Sure, Pyr," he replied sourly as he took the comfortable chair in the center of the dimly lit control room. "Like anything good ever started with 'Maybe you should sit down.'"

"I know, Jaune. I'm sorry."

"Where are you anyway? You are kind of freaking us out, you know."

"Again, I know. I've been listening in. And they are right. It means a lot that you would be willing to take that kind of care of me. More than you probably know."

An image of Pyrrha flicked on the central display in front of Jaune. An old Scroll photo for her friends' caller ID. Pyrrha's voice floated through the still air. "I hope you don't mind. Nora let me download this off of her Scroll earlier. I know it's not much, but it helps to have a face to go with my voice."

"Pyr?" Jaune's voice shook with trepidation. "Where are you? This is crazy. No matter how bad you're hurt or may look, it doesn't matter. You're alive. You made it out."

There was a terrible pause that sent a chill up Jaune's back.

"Jaune?" Pyrrha's voice sounded like it would almost break. "Can you forgive me? I didn't want to go into that tower. I would have given anything to stay with you. I just couldn't, Jaune. We couldn't have gotten back with help in time. I know you don't understand. I don't understand much of it myself. But I knew the stakes, Jaune. I knew I couldn't win. I knew I wouldn't be coming back out at all. All I could hope for was that I could buy enough time. Keep that woman occupied long enough for someone to come and stop her before she turned her attention elsewhere after she destroyed Beacon.

"It worked, Jaune. It was the best performance of my life. But you only saw a fraction of the power she had. After just a few minutes I was beaten. Crippled. All I could do was stand on my knees and talk. That's all I could do to keep her focus on me. The girl that tried to accept what she coveted. You didn't see the cruelty and maliciousness in her eyes. But it worked. Someone came with the ability to stop her. To stop the disaster from becoming infinitely worse."

Jaune shook his head. "But I only managed to call Weiss. All I could do was beg her to save you."

"And Weiss got Ruby up the tower. Jaune, you probably saved me from being lost completely."

"I don't understand. All I've been since last night is confused and terrified."

"Ruby was the key. We don't understand how, but as powerful as that woman and dragon combined were they didn't hold a candle to Ruby. Whatever happened, she stopped them in their tracks. Froze them into virtual statues."

There was a lengthy pause. "Jaune. I- I didn't make it out of that tower. I'm sorry. I don't know if any of you can accept me like this, but I'd understand. I was dying when Ruby showed up. That woman shot me through the heart when I knelt helpless before her. I remember gasping for air. My body failing. I remember that someone had arrived to take my place. That the woman would be stopped. That my sacrifice had been something I could accept in my passing. I remember fading away into nothingness. Then an irresistible wave of something pushing me out. Then I woke up here. Alone and confused, surrounded by darkness."

"Pyrrha, I know people have had near-death exp-"

"No, Jaune," Pyrrha's voice spoke out. This time with firm sadness. "I died. But I believe my soul was pushed away into a new body. I still have all my memories, my thoughts and desires. I still have my aura and semblance. I know it's too much, so if you can't accept me, Jaune, please give Ruby my thanks. Whatever she did is the only reason I still exist and I am grateful."

"Pyrrha. Where are you? Seriously now," Jaune asked, completely spooked.

"Look around. This is me."

Jaune looked around at the steel bulkheads and display screens adoring the walls. "You can't be in the ship," he spoke incredulously and swallowing the spooky feelings running up his spine.

There was a soft but sad laugh. "No. I'm like Penny now. A soul within a machine. I am the ship. If you call me a ghost or spirit haunting this vessel, it's okay. That is what I thought at first as well. If you believe that Pyrrha is gone and I'm just some fake imprint and not really here, well, I guess I can accept that too."

Pyrrha could see in the video pickup that the poor boy was speechless. "Jaune. Do you remember when we met at the balcony during the dance? Just you and me? I told you no one had asked me to go with them. I talked about being placed on a pedestal and that it separated me from other people. That you were the kind of guy I wished I had come to the dance with. Because you saw me as me. Is it possible you can do that again?"

Jaune stared at the display screen before his eyes. He had felt that magnetic grip that only Pyrrha had when he was hauled up here. The voice, the tone, the way of speaking. There had been no doubt in his mind a few minutes ago. Neither in the minds of Ren and Nora. Pyrrha was here.

"P-Pyrrha?" he managed to get out, staring at the image of someone very important to him in a way he hadn't figured out yet.

The image of the red headed girl on the screen grew a black, crude, child-like stick figure arm. It waved back and forth on the screen.

"Hello again," that wonderful voice sang out in a uniquely recognizable fashion. Easily imitated but impossible to duplicate. Everything about it unique to one person. One personality. One soul that could give those two simple words that uniqueness.

Pyrrha sat on the couch looking out of the command deck's side windows and toward the sunrise. Quiet in her reminiscence. That had been twenty years ago. A muscular arm snaked around her shoulder, tripping pressure sensors, as the man lounging next to her reached around her android form, grasped her left hand into his own and pulled her into a comfortable half-embrace.

"You're doing it again," Jaune softly told her without taking his own eyes off of the natural display on the horizon. "Good times or bad?"

Pyrrha leaned her head to carefully rest it against her husband's, careful not to choke him with her flowing red hair. Looking down at their entwined fingers. Their twin rings that decorated them, and with her multi-tasking vision, outside her hull at the golden stripe that was painted around her number two maneuvering spine.

"A little of both," she replied quietly. "My second birthday."

"Ah," was the only response. None more was needed. It had been difficult times for everybody.

In fact, it had been the beginning of some very dark times. Weeks of constant Grim attacks as her armored bulk had hovered alone over Vale's safe zone while the Atlesian Navy worked furiously, cannibalizing their wrecked gunships to cobble together working ones capable of performing Combat Search and Rescue sorties. Escorting civilian ships to gather food stores from the agricultural zones while the last remaining Air Cruiser floated over the population as a guardian angel.

The dark times when she had needed Jaune the most after repelling their enemies. Times when Pyrrha had felt like she was losing herself to the darkness. Visions of Bullheads flown by the White Fang shattering, raining down burning debris over the harbor and wilderness as they attempted to escape the city after a raid. Her missiles finding their marks. Rarer times of her magnetic 'hands' reaching out and tearing their wings off. Her semblance over polarity anchored by her 20,000 tons and powered with her artificial metabolism of twin 350 megawatt dust reactors. Trying and failing to find less-than-lethal alternatives of dealing with manned enemy aircraft.

Blake's finger on the fire control button that had sent a Hellbore burst into the fleeing form of Adam Taurus' Bullhead. Pyrrha finding herself unable to pull the trigger and add to the growing number of souls she had killed.

The angry expressions and sneers of Atlesian officers as they supervised resupply and repair crews. Wanting their Air Cruiser back but unable to risk completely eliminating Vale's only air defense platform and unable to contact Atlas for reinforcements. Or of having said Cruiser defend itself should they try. Saying she would eventually be deleted once the situation stabilized when they didn't think she could hear them.

Of her phantom self, crying at Jaune because she didn't have the legal right to exist. Crying more because she couldn't cry into his shoulder. Only at him. That she couldn't feel him trying to offer comfort when he patted her bulkhead with is hand.

Of missing the feel of wind blowing through her hair; across her skin. Of only being able to share that one kiss with the young man she loved. Eating with the friends she was often separated from since she had to remain over Vale while Ruby went on her quest and now lacked a digestive system to process food.

But there had been many good times too.

Nora being jealous of Pyrrha and telling Ren that being a warship was so awesome.

Miss Goodwich and General Ironwood in a heated argument on her command deck. The General trying not to take any side but explaining the situation they faced. That a seventeen year old girl just could not remain in possession of 1.5 billion lien worth of Atlesian state property and equipped with classified military technology, not to mention the slight issue of the firepower capable of devastating a small kingdom. Miss Goodwich reminding him that they had asked Pyrrha to accept the Fall Maiden's powers and lose the person she was in the process. That it was far easier to remove a soul from a certain General than it was to even locate one somewhere within a 20,000 ton warship.

Weiss' letters saying that the Schnee Dust Company had world class lawyers eager for fame that would go down in the history books. That since the Atlesian Navy had clearly abandoned the vessel, it meant Pyrrha had simply salvaged it in an effort to turn the tide in the Battle of Vale. That Atlas had no legal claim, nor jurisdiction within another kingdom. A kingdom which was not particularly feeling very cooperative, given the devastation the Atlas Military had contributed to and could not guarantee would never happen again. That the kingdom of Vale would, in its desperation, financially back Pyrrha's enormous operating costs during the crisis in return for her continued cooperation toward Vale's defense.

That the Atlesian military had also lost even more international credibility where cybernetic intelligence capable of free will was concerned. The entire world had seen Penny's destruction during the Vytal tournament and heard Cinder's speech. Since no one believed the military had been developing the technology to grant a manufactured race their independence as free moral agents, the word 'slaves' was thrown at Atlas quite a bit.

That Atlas council had quickly rejected of the further development of any such technology. They had enough problems with the White Fang, Faunus Civil Rights, and the three other Kingdoms witnessing their military committing an act of war against a civilian population under attack by Grimm on worldwide television in the middle of the Vytal Festival. They really didn't need their own army becoming intelligent, reasoning, and heavily armed machines deciding they deserved equal rights too.

Which in turn lead to Penny's father remaining in Vale even after conditions had stabilized. Seeking out the ridiculous rumors of an airship with a soul. The unsolicited offer to help try and rebuild Penny bringing tears to the elderly man. The pain of Penny Polendina's artificial soul being unrecoverable mingling with later exultation as the fragments of original Penny's code and aura generation was pieced back together in Pyrrha's machine shop and through her datalink. Those green eyes opening. Pyrrha realizing that someone was now calling her 'Mother.'

Jaune asking Pyrrha to marry him, since it seemed they had a kid and it didn't seem right not to. Pyrrha smacking her love into a bulkhead with her semblance and telling him in definite terms that if he was going to ask that, Jaune had better have a much more meaningful reason for asking. Jaune asking her again a week later, this time with more thought put into the question and not wearing his armor.

Ruby climbing throughout her mechanical guts in excited glee after she decided to stay with them while not on missions. Wearing grease covered overalls and worming her way around like a mole through dirt as she worked on Pyrrha's weapon systems. Replacing the missile cells with larger versions of the swords Penny Polendina had been equipped with. Well, not so much replacing the missiles as turning them into 'Penny Swords with rockets.'

The letters between herself and Yang, helping each other to heal from something the others could only sympathize with. Yang had lost an arm and the eventual prosthesis, when it finally happened, could never replace it. Pyrrha had ended up with a prosthesis for her entire body. An occasional reality check Yang sorely needed from time to time and someone who could relate for Pyrrha. Both knowing what it was like to never feel that feeling of grasping someone's hand with a limb that was now only a memory. Yet the mind or soul insisting was still present.

The sight of Pyrrha's mother waving to her from an airship's window as her steel daughter escorted the vessel into Vale. Waving back at the figure with one of her maneuvering spines. Her mother wiping tears from her eyes.

Pyrrha stumbling down the aisle within her troop bay in her new android avatar; given to her by Penny Nikos' grandfather. Wearing white and not having gotten used to the remote control datalink yet. Her eyes wanting to fill with tears at seeing her own face in the mirror once again. Seeing handsome Jaune waiting for her up ahead with eyes that, while not the same as her original ones, was far more human than watching him from the usual disembodied vision of her optical sensors. Both sad and grateful for Jaune giving up the things they couldn't have for the ones they could share as husband and wife.

Weiss brushing her off when she confided about Jaune coming from a big family and his trying to hide the hurt that he wouldn't have one of his own. That science only needed a few strands of DNA from a hairbrush these days.

Ruby stumbling into the dining room, covered in grease while Jaune and Pyrrha were discussing options. Mostly about how they could ask a complete stranger to, in Jaune's words, 'rent a womb.' Ruby offhandedly commenting that she'd do it. Her eternal innocence, even as an adult, protecting her from any embarrassment or awkwardness because she was just helping out her friends. Jaune's face turning bright red and Pyrrha's heat exchangers working a wee bit extra.

Auntie Ruby giving birth in the med bay to Jaune and Pyrrha's biological child. And then another and another. Quadruplets from the implantation process. A boy with tufts of red hair and three blonde girls. Jaune crying as he held them and Pyrrha afraid to over her avatar's datalink connection to her larger self. Their big sister Penny Jr. singing 'Welcome to the World.'

Pyrrha's second cybernetic child rolling his four wheeled chassis along the decks. Repeatedly telling his parents and Auntie Ruby that he didn't want an android body. He wanted to be a ship. Just like mommy.

Her troop bay filling up on Reunion Day. Ren and Nora, still not disclosing if they were 'together-together,' towing their three very energetic and uncooperative children along. Then holding them back when a four-wheel-drive chassis drove up and loudly proclaimed they could never catch him in a game of tag. Blake and Yang docking at one of the airlocks and offloading their cargo of nearly out-of-control bodies in a flood of yelling and not-touchings.

It had taken some time, but they had finally patched things between them and finally healed the inner wound they both shared. The two had eventually started an interspecies orphanage after Blake began bringing surviving children from devastated villages home with her. Not that they ever adopted any of their kids out. It was rumored, according to Ren and Nora who lived nearly and helped out, it was because no sane agency would allow them to go through with adopting thirty children so they started their own.

Yang and Pyrrha talking about motherhood being the most rewarding adventure. Being mother figure to a zoo being the only adventure that could keep up with Yang. Neither one speaking what they had learned early on. That 'adventures' people talked about and imagined living were the worst days of someone else's life. Elsewhere Blake calmly smacking a random kid with a magazine she was reading. A playful reminder about keeping the noise down indoors. Teasingly batting an incoming ball away without looking up from the journal. After an adolescence of violence, destruction and hate, Blake's satisfied days were now full of life and love. Plus insanity.

Weiss complaining to Ruby about her father reminding her about the need to produce a Body Heir. Ruby saying she'd be happy to help and Weiss spitting out her drink in a spray. Calling her a dolt and walking away. Ruby pointing at four kids running around in the growing swarm of Human, Faunus and Cybernetic bodies and saying "Hey, I gave birth to a warship's kids. It's not like having yours is the weirdest thing I've ever done!"

Ruby giving birth to her own child while holding her scythe in a death grip as if it were a security blanket. Weiss trying to coach her through something Ruby had already experienced using notes she had written down from a medical textbook. Auntie Ruby freaking out about becoming a mom. That this was actually their baby. Weiss saying she was an idiot if it was only now occurring to her. Yang reassuring her sister from the doorway that she'd be fine before security dragged her back to the waiting room. That, like Summer, she'd be a super-mom.

Pyrrha's avatar hearing the commotion all the way from the waiting room. Her larger ship-self hovering over the Atlas hospital on full alert and ready to vaporize anything that appeared threatening. Other Atlesian Air Cruisers watching her but unable to do more since she was under contract to secure the hospital's airspace for the Schnee Dust Company.

The graduating ceremony of Penny Nikos and the simultaneous commissioning of a Medical Frigate bearing the same name. The Pyrrha Nikos holding proud attention as the small vessel rose out of the construction slip.

Pyrrha gazed at the sun rising through the window. Listening through her intercom system at all the life within her decks not wanting to greet the new day. She had been born a human girl and that had been taken from her in the prime of her life. But she had found a new life in a body of heavy metal. She was a wife, mother, friend, activist, creator and guardian. Both a weapon and a shield of the people. A huntress of steel and a provider of shelter. A warship and a home.

She reached over with her avatar's other hand and touched her human husband's cheek. A pulse of her main LiDAR array on her outer hull went out. Visual optics swirled in all directions, giving her a view of her outside surroundings.

Pyrrha's long hull loomed high over her customary place over Vale as the sun rose. Surrounding her imposing form were five other smaller airships. Similar in configuration to their flagship, and in some cases, mother. No Grimm. No enemies. Another peaceful day of soaking up the sun with her hull.

Back on the couch watching the sunset Juane lazily spoke up. "Graduation is today, isn't it? Gods, they grow up so fast."

Pyrrha nodded her avatar's head. The couple long having gotten used to her dual existence but not forgetting where Pyrrha truly resided. The avatar allowed them to be close and have a more human relationship, but she was always the ship that surrounded them.

Another Air Security Destroyer was being commissioned today. Her second cybernetic son was excited to be plugged into the ship he had been holding out for. However Vale had no need, nor desire, to project military power like Atlas. Pyrrha Nikos was, and always would be, Vale's last Air Cruiser.

Pyrrha snuggled deeper into the man sitting next to her. Enjoying the tripping of the pressure sensors of their closeness. Nothing like the human sensation, but she learned long ago to treasure the miracle of her existence.

"It's been a good life," she stated warmly. "I wouldn't have changed a thing."

Atlas Council,

You ask why we of Vale would allow Cybernetic Persons to exist. To become free and independent Huntsmen as androids if they choose. If it is their desire, to serve by inhabiting our ships in the place of computer intelligence algorithms being directed by Human controllers. To essentially grant a vessel a soul and free will.

We ask you this.

Do you really want a warship incapable of valuing life? Incapable of loyalty? Of honor? Of self-sacrifice?

Or of Love?

The Pyrrha Nikos

Air Cruiser, Vale Home Fleet

Cybernetic Persons Rights Activist.

4237