Everyone was ready for the fight that determines the fate of Beacon. I had thirty minutes before my last Fated Hour went boom. Sumire looked at me. “Today is the day I die.” She told me. Azu held her hand. The Grimm turned human look at us.

“I don't want anything to happen to her.” Azu kissed her.

We all had our mission, weapons, and our Auras were fully charged. One by one we jumped from Amity Colosseum to Vale. Azu transformed into her Queen Lancer form. I was caught by her.

She flew me away from the city and towards Beacon? “Azu what are you doing?”

“Sumire told me that you are needed here, not in Vale. Dan was evacuated with everyone from the school. He was in condition to fight.” The Grimm that became my friend told me.

Twenty minutes left. We landed near Ozpin's office.  There was nobody there. Then a giant Grimm that looks like a Wyvern crashes into the tower. Pyrrha and Cinder were fighting and… Pyrrha dies. My heart stopped beating. I fell to my knees. I saw Jaune upset.

Ruby was standing next to me. I didn't notice she was there. Our eyes glow bright and the Grimms turn to stone.

I fell over. The timer hit zero and I didn't have enough time to react.

The sound of the explosion filled the air, and everything seemed to move in slow motion as I watched the chaos unfold. My heart was still pounding, my body shaking as I tried to process the scene in front of me. Pyrrha, one of the bravest warriors I had known, fell. I couldn’t even move, as if the weight of what I had just witnessed had pinned me to the ground.

But then… Everything went wrong.

The Wyvern Grimm, now turned to stone by Ruby and me, collapsed, sending massive shockwaves through the area. I barely had time to react before the explosion hit. A sudden, deafening burst of energy shattered the air. My Gauntlet, the one I had relied on, exploded violently from the impact. The shockwave threw me backward, pain shooting through my body like fire. My right arm was gone.

I let out a guttural scream, clutching at my dismembered arm, but there was nothing left. The blood that flowed freely felt distant, surreal, as if it wasn’t even my own. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, only felt the searing pain in my side where the remnants of the explosion had sent shards of shrapnel.

And then, something far worse happened.

Through the haze of pain, I saw Sumire’s and Azu’s bodies. They were lying motionless, their forms unmoving, faces pale. It felt like the world had come to an end as I watched my closest friends—people who had fought beside me, who had supported me—just… gone.

“No…” My voice barely managed to escape my lips. I stumbled toward them, but I couldn’t move fast enough. My legs were like jelly, my mind reeling. How could this be happening? They were gone.

Ruby was beside me, her expression a mix of horror and sorrow, but I couldn’t focus on her. I couldn’t focus on anything other than the two people who were no longer there. The ones who had been my lifeline, my team, my family.

Azu had always been there, a guiding force, and Sumire… my twin flame in this chaotic world, the one who understood me like no one else. The thought of losing them felt like I was suffocating, like the very air had been ripped away from me.

But even as I knelt there, broken and torn, I heard a voice.

“Corey…” Ruby’s voice broke through my panic, pulling me back from the edge of despair. “You can’t give up. You’re not alone. You’ve got us.”

But all I could think about was what had been taken from me. My arm. My friends. My family.

A wave of despair tried to overtake me, but something—some spark deep inside me—refused to let it. I wasn’t going to let this be the end. Even if I had to fight without an arm, even if the odds were against me, I was going to keep going.

For Sumire. For Azu. For the people who still believed in me.

I clenched my teeth, fighting back the tears, and looked up. The battle wasn’t over. I was far from finished.

“We’re not done yet,” I whispered to myself, but my voice was steady.

With the last of my strength, I stood, using my remaining arm to steady myself. The timer on the match had run out, but that didn't matter anymore. The world around me might have changed, but I was still here. I would fight until I couldn’t anymore. And if I fell, I would fall with the memory of my team, of Sumire and Azu, still pushing me forward.

“Let’s finish this,” I said, not just to Ruby, but to myself.

There was no time for regret. No time for fear. Only the fight ahead. I was struggling to move. My arm spewed blood as I moved. Cinders escaped. She got whatever she came for. I collapsed and so did Ruby. Whatever we did to the Wyvern, it took a lot out of us.