We've finally made it to the Battle of Beacon. I am so very excited to start writing this event. Actually, I was already hyped up during the last chapter when I got to have Drake and Mercury duke it out. That was planned for a while as well, as are some of the other events that will occur in the battle of Beacon. It's time for you to start holding on to your seat again, because things are going to go from crazy to the absolute extreme. And lastly, I figured it made a lot of sense for Drake to have "Alpha" type Grimm blood running through him. It just made sense seeing as the Taijitu was rubbing against him and not attacking him. But who's this person who's supposedly stronger than him? I'm sure you can take a wild guess at that. Enjoy!

-Point of View: Drake-

The entire stadium was silent. No one could believe what they were witnessing. Pyrrha had struck down Penny and had torn her to pieces. But Pyrrha did not know, so there was no way I could blame her for doing this. I walked up to Ruby who was still on her knees, crying at the loss of our friend. I crouched next to her and held her in my arms. "It... It... It'll be.... okay, Ruby." I said, trying my best not to cry too. But as we sat there, trying to come back to our senses, the horrifying feelings kept pouring in. The screens around the colosseum turned red in colour and appearing on them was a black chess piece. And shortly after they changed, a person began to speak through them. "This is not a tragedy." A woman said with a familiar sounding voice. I couldn't pinpoint who it was though. "This was not an accident. This is what happens when you hand over your trust. Your safety. Your children. To men who claim to be our guardians. But are, in reality... nothing more than men. Our academies' headmasters wield more power than most armies and one was audacious enough to control both. They cling to this power in the name of peace, and yet, what do we have here? One nations attempt at a synthetic army, mercilessly torn apart by another's star pupil. What need would Atlas have for a soldier disguised as an innocent little girl? I don't think the Grimm can tell the difference. And what, I ask you, is Ozpin teaching his students? First a dismemberment, now this? Huntsmen and Huntresses should carry themselves with honor and mercy. Yet I have witnessed neither. Perhaps Ozpin felt as though defeating Atlas in the tournament would help people forget his colossal failure to protect Vale when the Grimm invaded its streets. Or perhaps, this was his message to the tyrannical dictator that has occupied an unsuspecting kingdom with armed forces. Honestly? I haven't the slightest clue as to who is right and who is wrong. But I know that the existence of peace is fragile. And the leaders of our kingdoms conduct our business with iron gloves. As someone who hails from Mistral, I can assure you; the situation there is... equally undesirable. Our kingdoms are at the brink of war. Yet we, the citizens, are left in the dark. So I ask you... When the first shots are fired... Who do you think you can trust?" The woman said as the screens changed to static. Her transmission cut out and everyone began to scream in fear. 

But then... the Grimm alert sirens began to go off. "No... there's no way... How could Grimm get into the kingdom?" I said as Ruby gave me my answer. "They had help." She said as we both stood up. The people in the colosseum began to run for the exits, taking all of the airships that were docked there. "Alert! Incoming Grimm attack! Threat level: Extreme. People of Vale are ordered to evacuate and find safe shelter." An automated voice said as the screaming got even louder. "Oh shit! If it's extreme then there's gotta be thousands of them!" I thought to myself as Ruby made a dash for the arena. Pyrrha was still there and she had fallen to her knees, crying at the sight of Penny's torn up body. I ran after her but as I started to run down the stairs, a giant Nevermore landed on top of the colosseum. Luckily, there was a force field blocking it from getting in... for now anyway. "Warning! Safety barriers failing!" The automated voice said as I tried to pick up the pace and get Pyrrha out of there. I looked near the side of the arena and I saw Jaune jump down from the stands. He was heading over to Pyrrha too. But as he neared her, the Nevermore smashed its way into the colosseum by dive bombing it. It broke the force field and swooped down to the arena floor. It's landing sent Pyrrha and Jaune flying backwards. Jaune got back to his feet and made it to Pyrrha. He was trying to do everything to get her to move but she wasn't budging. She was just there, staring horrified at the sight of Penny. "Drake! I'm gonna hold off that Nevermore! You get Jaune and Pyrrha out of here!" Ruby said as she ran into the arena. "How're you gonna take it on!? You don't have a weapon on you!" I said as I watched her pick up one of Penny's swords which was on the ground. Ruby then used her semblance to rocket herself over to the Nevermore and impale it with the sword. The Nevermore screeched in pain but it quickly shook off Ruby. I was able to make it to Jaune and Pyrrha and I was now trying to get them to run away. Ruby stood in front of us with her blade ready, and the Nevermore let out a deafening screech at her. "Ruby?" Pyrrha said out of surprise. "Leave her alone!" Ruby yelled to the Nevermore as it took off into the air, coming right at us. But as it flew at us, it suddenly started to get bombarded by something falling out of the sky. And after getting a closer look, I saw it was a bunch of student lockers which held our weapons. The Nevermore was struck by over a dozen of them and it crashed into the ground and laid there motionless. All the lockers then opened up, revealing all the weapons for the students to take them. Temair and Amber, Ren and Nora, team SSSN, ABRN, CFVY, Flynt and Neon, team NDGO, BRNZ, and even team RZOR were all here. 

But as happy as it was seeing everyone alright, the Nevermore began to move again. Yatsuhashi and Sage from team SSSN went to strike it before it attacked again. They both jumped into the air and prepared their enormous swords. Simultaneously, they both swung down and decapitated the monstrous Grimm. The Nevermore then disappeared and we could all breath for a moment. "Ruby, I... I... I'm so sorry." Pyrrha said as she broke down into tears again. "Me too... but it wasn't your fault." Ruby said as Jaune walked back over to Pyrrha. "She's right." He said as I saw he was carrying Pyrrha's weapons in his hands. He also had his weapon at his side. "Whoever was on the microphone, they're the ones that did this. And we have to make sure they don't take anyone else." Jaune said confidently as he gave Pyrrha her weapons. She wiped away the tears on her face and gave us all a face full of determination. But our happiness was cut short when we heard roaring from the top of the colosseum. We all looked up and saw nearly a dozen Griffon type Grimm standing on the top of the colosseum. "Anybody got a plan of attack?" Neptune asked as he took aim at the Griffons. "Sun, I need your scroll." Ruby asked him as he threw it over to her. I watched her call in her weapon and I did the same with my own scroll. When our lockers arrived, we grabbed our weapons and took aim at the Griffons. "Students..." Someone said as we all quickly turned to see who it was. It was Professor Port and beside him was Doctor Oobleck. They both had their weapons in their hands. "I think it would be best for you to leave." Port said to us. "But we can fi-" Ruby tried to say but Oobleck cut her off. "Ms. Rose, that's enough! This day will surely go down in Remnant's history. I'd prefer it if my students could live to tell about it." Oobleck said as we all went silent. "Alright, Doctor. We wish the two of you luck. Now let's go everyone! Make for the docks!" I said as everyone started to follow me. I then looked back and saw Oobleck and Port starting to fire at the Griffons. They had began to swoop down on them. "They're our teachers.... they should be able to handle something like this." I thought to myself as we all ran down the corridors of the colosseum. "Just like old times." Nolan from team BRNZ said to me as I just looked at him confused. "I don't know what you remember from our days in Vacuo, but I certainly don't remember anything as dangerous as this." I said as he started to chuckle. "Oh come on, Drake. You know how much of a joker he likes to be." Nebula from team NDGO said as I nodded with her. 

When we arrived at the docks, there weren't many airships left. I quickly met back up with Amber and Temair when I got the chance. "Were either of you able to contact Leena?" I asked them as they both shook their heads. "Something's jamming the signal! We can't contact her or Yang!" Amber explained. "What about Weiss or Blake? Where'd they go?" I asked. "They both ran with everyone else and tried to help the evacuation. And i'm sure they'll go for Leena and Yang when they get back to Beacon." Temair said as I agreed with him. We all started to head for one of the last airships and when we arrived at it, general Ironwood was also getting on. "What's going on?" Ruby asked him. "Grimm are crawling all over the city. The White Fang has invaded Beacon and to make matters worse, some... Vagabond has seized one of my cruisers. Until we regain command, the skies are out of our control. So i'm-" Ironwood began to explain as he quickly pulled out a large pistol from its holster. He shot over our heads and killed a Grimm that was running out us. "...I'm going to take it back." Ironwood said as he went to get onto the airship. "What should we do then?" Jaune asked him. Ironwood turned around to face us and said "You have two choices: Defend your kingdom and your school... Or save yourselves. No one will fault you if you leave." Ironwood said to us as he closed the ramp to his airship. He then took off and headed for his cruiser. "I mean... come on, guys! The answer's obvious!" Sun said as I looked at him. "We can take a ship to Beacon. Let's go!" Jaune said as we all started to follow him. Ruby stayed in place though and I went back to see what was wrong. "Drake, come on! Don't get left behind here!" Temair said to me. "It's fine! I'm just gonna get Ruby! I'll catch up in a sec!" I said as he gave me a nod. He then left with everyone else and I ran over to Ruby. "Ruby, come on. We've gotta go and defend Beacon." I said to her but she didn't give me an answer. All she was doing was watching Ironwood's airship head for the cruiser. I started to watch too and we saw the airship nearing the cruiser. But as it got close, one of the engines on Ironwood's airship exploded and the whole thing began to fall from the sky. We watched it crash into the ground and explode upon impact. We were both horrified and didn't say any words. But Ruby took action from this sight. She began to walk back into the arena in the colosseum and I followed her. The whole time, she carried as fierce and determined expression on her face. "I know that look in your eyes, and I know what you're gonna do! And i'm not letting you do it alone!" I said as she gave me a nod. I then pulled out my scroll and tried to message Temair. The signal was very weak so my message was probably full of static. "We're gonna try and get to the cruiser! Ironwood's down! If we can't take control of it, then none of us will be making it out of this!" I said as I finished the message and sent it to him. I just had to hope he could make it out. 

We both entered the arena and found Port and Oobleck were gone, along with all the Griffons. We ran over to the nearest locker and climbed onto it. We reprogrammed it so it would take off again into the sky. Soon enough, it launched back into the air with us riding it. We could see the air cruiser and we tried our best to control our flight. We soared right over it and we both decided to jump even though it was a pretty long fall. We fell from the sky and managed to land on the cruiser. But it was windy up here and I nearly slid off the edge of the cruiser. Ruby reached out and grabbed my hand though and pulled me to safety. "Thanks. Now let's try and fix this thing." I said as we began to look for a way inside. But as we searched, a loud crumbling sound could be heard way in the distance. It was coming from the Mountain Glenn area. And the crumbling sound was coming from the mountain itself. Within mere seconds, a gigantic Grimm broke out of the mountain. It was a colossal sized wyvern. It took off into the skies and flew towards Beacon. It flew by us along the way and when it did, a painful feeling emerged in my right arm. I fell to my knees and I began to wail in pain. "Drake, what's wrong!?" Ruby asked me as she ran over to me. "Stay back, Ruby! It's happening again!" I said as the scars on my right arm began to turn black. "You're turning..." Ruby said as she punched me in the face. I fell to my back and then she stomped on my right arm. I don't know how but the pain went away, and so did the black on my scars. "What the hell? How'd you do that?" I asked as she helped me back up. "Don't know, but we don't have the time to find out. We need to find a way inside." She said as we began to search again. My best guess as to what happened was the wyvern Grimm trying to take control of my Grimm side. But as long as I have a friend with me, I shouldn't turn. No... I won't turn.

While still looking for an entrance, a few unwanted guests joined us. Landing on the cruiser was a bunch of Griffons. "We'll have to take care of them first, otherwise they'll break into the ship and destroy it from the inside." I said as Ruby agreed with me. We both took aim and began to fire at the Griffons. We both landed several headshots and killed a few but others were tougher to take down. They flew at us so we decided to change up our tactics. I changed my weapon into its melee form and we both charged the griffons. Ruby jumped up and cut one clean in half with her scythe. I came face to face with a Griffon and it roared in my face. I shut it up by ramming my weapon into its head, embedding the blade into its skull. I then jumped over it and onto its back. I pulled the grip of my weapon back and I ripped off the head of the Griffon. It then disappeared and I landed back on the cruiser. "That looks like all of them for n-" Ruby began to say as something caught her attention. There was someone else up here with us. They were wearing an Atlas air uniform so at first, we both thought they could help. But after getting a closer look, we saw a familiar sight of pink and brown hair, with eyes to match. The person then changed clothes, making the Atlas uniform disappear and reveal their actual clothing. The person standing before us... was Neo. She took a picture of us with a scroll and then took out her umbrella. And then, a few seconds after, another familiar sight appeared. "Why must you two always come to try and ruin my plans, huh!?" Torchwick asked us as we took aim at them both. With him free, and Neo by his side, things just got a whole lot more difficult. But we've gotta break through both of them if we wanna take back the skies and save Vale.