"Warning; safety barrier failing." The Amety AI's voice said through the speakers. The Nevermore above circled back around the top of the coliseum, screeching its predatory cry before landing again on the energy shield that kept is from its prey. Most of the civilians and unarmed students were gone, likely trying to force past each other to get on the shuttles and escape. 

     "Pyrrha!" Jaune yelled from the seats. The name broke (Y/N) from his own thoughts of dread and took him back to the reality changing before his eyes. "Pyrrha, that thing's going to break in. You've gotta move!" (Y/N) followed Jaune's words and looked up to the large avian Grimm currently threatening them. It spread wings and jumped high, preparing to dive-bomb. This is when the pilot started moving. 

     As he sprinted to Pyrrha, his eyes caught what was left of Penny, lying motionless on the ground. "Is there anything I can do for her?" He asked Osiris. 

     "There is no time to examine her, pilot. I recommend you focus on assisting those still alive."

     (Y/N) swore under his breath as he reached Pyrrha. Just as he did, a crash was heard above. He knew what that meant. "All right, time to go!" (Y/N) grabbed her arm and yanked her away as the Nevermore came down, evicting the air around it and creating a shockwave that knocked them off their feet. It screeched again, raising its wings before slamming them down, the claws on the front making an audible thud. 

     (Y/N) forced himself onto his feet, deploying the blades on his arms as he analyzed the threat. No chance was given, as before any action could be taken, the Grimm charged. Knowing there was nothing he could do from his current position, (Y/N) turned to grab Pyrrha and move again when a blur of red flew into the Nevermore's chest, shooting it back. That blur appeared to be Ruby, who stood before them wielding one of Penny's swords. 

     "Ruby . . . ?" Pyrrha shakily asked. 

     "Leave them alone!" The fifteen year old yelled, ignoring her friend. The beast, now seemingly angered at the interruption, pushed off the ground and flew around the edge of the arena, eyeing the huntress in training. Ruby adopted a weak stance as the Grimm flew to the far side of the area and dropped, gliding fast and low at the trio. 

     "Don't know what you plan on doing, but it's coming right for us." (Y/N) ran to Ruby's side. She said nothing, giving him only sideways glance before looking back to the Nevermore. Right, he thought, ready to take her and pull her away, knowing full well which was the unstoppable force of this relationship.

     Suddenly, streaks of blue light crashed into the Grimm from above, forcing it to the ground. It only managed to recover in time to be hit with more of what was quickly identified as the student's rocket lockers. The Nevermore struggled and lost before skidding across the metal floor and coming to a stop. The large, shrieking, armored beak sat no more than three meters from its intended target.

     One by one the lockers opened, revealing weapons of all kinds as many students climbed on to the various parts of the Nevermore to claim them. Ruby's eyes widened as each of them flashed knowing smiles and looks of determination at her. (Y/N) watched Ruby's expression before looking at the other huntsmen in training and laughing bitterly. She wouldn't be fighting alone, and now she knew it. 

     It was then the Nevermore recovered, deciding there would be no further heroics. The students were phased for no longer than a second, however, and took their own action to ensure the Grimm would die. Ren had run up its back and stabbed its left eyes before Nora jumped off the head and turned to smack it with her hammer, exposing the neck in time for Yatsuhashi and a foreign student with an equally large sword to fall from above into a spinning decapitation.

     "Well . . ." (Y/N) muttered to himself. "Now I feel useless."

     "Ruby, I-" Pyrrha tried to start before she looked down to a piece of torn fabric that once had been a part of Penny. "I'm so sorry." A tear fell down her cheek, one of the many building up in her eyes. (Y/N) would have to talk to her when this was over. Taking one's first life was never easy, even if the one dead was never technically living. 

     "Me too." Ruby looked down in sadness that she quickly pushed from her mind. "But it wasn't your fault."

     "She's right." Jaune followed up, walking to his partner with her weapons in hand. "Whoever was on the microphone - they're the ones that did this." He raised the spear and shield for her to take. "And we have to make sure they don't take anyone else."

     The two looked to Ruby, who looked to the small crowd of her colleagues, a smirk rising on her lip. The sound of screeching roars filled their ears, drawing their eyes upward. A new kind of Grimm (Y/N) had not yet seen in person landed at the top of the coliseum, but they were not the only interruption. 

     "Pilot, the White Fang have infiltrated Beacon," Osiris informed.

     (Y/N) kept a watchful eye on the new enemies above as he responded through a sneer. "You know the drill. Send them to hell for me. I'm with other students now. Be there when I can."

     "Anyone got a plan of attack?" Neptune asked, aiming his weapon at the Griffons. 

     "Sun!" Ruby yelled, looking to the monkey faunus. "I need your scroll." He wrapped his tail around the small device and flung it at her request. Ruby caught it and tapped the central button, leaving a few seconds of silence before her own rocket locker came down before her. How someone else's scroll was already calibrated for Ruby's locker (Y/N) did not know, but he chose to ignore it for now.

     As Ruby was about to retrieve Crescent Rose, a Griffon landed upon the locker, howling, daring her to come closer. Before anyone could intervene, a deep, booming gunshot rang through their ears. The Griffon was knocked off balance, in clearly enough pain to make it retreat.

     "Students," Port announced, lowering the steaming barrel of his blunderbuss axe. "I think it would be best for you to leave."

     "But we can help-!" Ruby started to protest. 

     "Ms. Rose!" Oobleck cut her off. "This day will surely go down in Remnant's history. I'd prefer it if my students could live to tell about it." 

     Ruby nodded in understanding before grabbing her weapon from the locker next to her. "Let's go!" From its compact form, the sniper scythe unfurled in her hand like it had hundreds of times before. The tipped pommel met the metal floor as Ruby's fellow huntsmen and huntresses ran past her for the exit. Had the situation been different, (Y/N) may have smiled, even laughed at their behavior. But now was not the time for that.

     The air docks were in sight quickly, filled with the last of the civilians and unarmed students and, to much surprise, Ironwood fighting a beowolf. Though they must have shown up toward the end of the fight, (Y/N) figured, as the general killed the damn thing mere seconds after they came into view. As he walked away from the Grimm's dissolving corps, Ruby led the group up to him. 

     "What's going on?!" She asked, now more panicked than before. Ironwood turned, gazing over the now armed teenagers hesitantly. 

     "Grimm are crawling all over the city. The White Fang has invaded Beacon and to make matters worse, some . . ." The General looked out over the city before locking eyes on one of the only capital airships still flying. " . . . vagabond has seized one of my ships. Until we regain command, the skies are out of our control." The sound of sprinting claws caught (Y/N)'s attention, pulling his focus away from the current speaker. He was right to trust his sense of sound, proven by the creep running toward them from a distance a little too close for comfort. 

"So I'm-" Ironwood continued before drawing his rather large revolver and aiming it at the creep as it jumped for the group. Before he could pull the trigger, a friendly pilot soared through the air and cleaved its head from its shoulders. (Y/N) stood up from his landing position and nodded at the General to continue. "-Going to take it back."

     As they watched the General clad in white began to walk to his ship, one among them felt the need to speak up.

     "What should we do?" Jaune asked, addressing the question everyone around him had. 

     Ironwood stopped and turned to them, placing his hands behind his back. "You have two choices. Defend your kingdom and your school . . . or save yourselves." He let the answer linger before offering some sort of solemn comfort. "No one will fault you if you leave. Let's move out!" He left them and walked back to his ship before its door closed behind him and it flew away. 

     The gathering of students turned to look at each other, some with confused indecisiveness, others with resolve. "I mean, come on." Sun started, stating the obvious without saying the words. 

     "We can take a ship to Beacon." Jaune finished, giving an instruction that was quickly followed.

     "(L/N), the White Fang are releasing Grimm into the school. They have also appeared in a much larger number than first anticipated." Osiris's voice stopped (Y/N) from joining the others on the ship. 

     "The shuttle may not be fast enough." The pilot sighed frustratedly, looking down in thought. 

     "The student rocket lockers are designed to travel at an extremely high velocity in order to reach their location. It would be high risk, but you could use one to reach Beacon quickly."

     (Y/N) considered the idea before looking back at the shuttle. He shook his head as he removed the scroll from his pocket. The locker command was quick to find, allowing him to set the drop location to his exact coordinates. Mere seconds later, the large metal storage box slammed into the ground before him. One final glance was spared for the small airship everyone else had piled into and a wish for safe flight was given as (Y/N) tapped in a new position on the locker's keypad. He then raised his left arm and fired the grappling hook mounted on it into the side before deploying the blade on the bracer and stabbing it through the metal. "I did say I felt like Tony Stark."

     The pilot braced hard as the personal engine blasted off from the coliseum. As soon as it was high enough, it had turned to be almost completely horizontal, making the flight somewhat easier. Unfortunately, with the efficiency came the view. The city was a mess, and despite the Grimm being too far away to see, the fires were not. Neither was the smaller airship Ironwood flew within as it burned, falling to the ground. (Y/N) watched intensely, knowing full well there was nothing he could do. He had felt that feeling a few too many times now. 

     "(L/N), the Atlesian Knights appear to be malfunctioning. They have disengaged the Grimm and are now attacking students and military personnel." 

     "They're what?!" (Y/N) yelled at his titan. "You really had this whole thing planned out, didn't you? Damn you, Cinder." The rocket locker entered the campus grounds for the school and began to angle down to come in for a landing. As he passed over the school, the pilot could see flashes and explosions. Upon closer inspection, he also noticed a familiar white uniform. He looked at the building the locker was set to return to before looking back to the fighting below. "Fuck it." He jumped, already having targeted one such white uniform on the grounds. 

     (Y/N) felt the wind rush past him as he descended, putting who was clearly a White Fang grunt between his feet. He counted down the seconds in his mind until contact was made. Three . . . two . . . one . . .

     Thud

     The faunus walking in front turned at the sound of a canon just in time to see something land on the rear guard, crushing him, shooting dark crimson waves of blood, gore, and bone chunks out in all directions. The grunt directly in front of the spectacle shrieked in surprise and terror, inviting the blade that emerged from the storm of bodily fluids into his mouth. It killed him instantly. Two terrorists remained. The closer was unable to react in time to the spinning slash that cut his head off. The second, though he retained the will to raise his gun, did not think to aim. The few bullets he was able to fire were predictable and, in accordance, blocked by the bracers. The gun was then knocked away. The faunus's breath hitched as his eyes followed the discarded weapon before a hand wrapped around his throat, choking him as the blade that had killed three of his brothers in mere seconds was plunged through his heart. 

     "I'm really, really tired of you assholes showing up where you don't belong." (Y/N) twisted the blade inside of his victim, watching as the life drained from his eyes before dropping him. "I'm here, Osiris. Let's meet up."

     "I am assisting students with Atlesians and will be with you shortly."

     The familiar sounds of war drowned (Y/N)'s ears as he sprinted through the campus, filling his mind with unwanted memories. Each explosion and gunshot a painful reminder of the life he had less than a year ago. And every remainder became a fear of what might become of his temporary home. He refused to allow those fears an inch of ground. 

     Another group of White Fang came into view, this one larger than the previous. A fast hand and fragmentation grenade were quick to even the odds. Especially when (Y/N) noticed the almost fatal error he made at the stadium, evident when he went for his Wingman only to remember leaving it in the maintenance tunnel.

     "Shit." He muttered, unable to kill the two machine gunners kneeling some twenty meters away. A shaky battle cry rang out to the right, leading (Y/N)'s eyes to a faunus armed with a scimitar charging him. An improvising thought came to him at that moment. When the grunt lunged with his sword, the pilot sidestepped, grabbed his wrist, and twisted to disarm him. (Y/N) had just enough time to pull the faunus in front of him to save himself from the next volley of machinegun rounds. 

     Now using the bullet-riddled terrorist as a shield, (Y/N) charged the gunners in a sprint. The one on the left sensed the danger and rolled away while the one directly in front continued to fire, wasting his precious ammunition on killing his dead comrade further. When finally in range, (Y/N) threw the dead faunus into his ally, staggering the second long enough to stab him through the first. "Get on my meat kebab!" Was yelled aggressively. 

     The mercenary turned to the last White Fang of the Group, slowly approaching her as she struggled to reload. She finally managed to rack the bolt when a boot came down, kicking the gun down. She started to scream as a knee flew at her chin. Less than a second before it made contact, (Y/N)'s peripheral vision caught sight of something and he instinctively raised his (thankfully) armored arms to defend. In the milliseconds of time given, he analyzed the bright red blade as cut at him with such force that it pushed him back. Before any conclusion was reached, a swift foot planted itself in the pilot's stomach, kicking him away completely. 

     (Y/N) landed on his feet, skidding across the asphalt. But his eyes never strayed from the one who interjected himself into the fight. 

     "That's far enough," Adam said, steadying his blade and dropping into a stance. (Y/N) was silent as he did the same, the blade of his left bracer joining the right in deployment. The soon to be opponents' eyes moved over each other, both looking for any possible flaws to exploit, and both finding some measure of satisfaction.   

     Nothing more was said as the crack of a distant sniper rifle shattered the brief tension that formed between them before they raised their weapons and charged.