NOTE:

For everyone’s reference and to better understand how team RWBY fights, here’s an explanation of each of their semblances and weapons (source: RWBY wikia and the show itself)

Ruby Rose

Weapon: Crescent Rose – a high caliber sniper scythe (technically, a big- scythe that can transform into a sniper rifle)

Semblance: speed (and she leaves rose petals behind for some reason)

Weiss Schnee

Weapon: Myrtenaster – multi action dust rapier (dust is technically an elemental powdered substance that comes out of Myrtenaster’s hilt and can be combined with Weiss’s attacks or her semblance; the rapier’s hilt is like a revolver but instead of bullets, it’s loaded with vials filled with different kinds of dust)

Semblance: glyphs (the literal definition is “a symbol or pictograph” BUT the effect when used is either to push or pull objects that come into contact with the flat glyphs that she creates)

Blake Belladona

Weapon: Gamboul Shroud – variant ballistic chain scythe (but it doesn’t look like a scythe at first glance; it has a thick sheath that has a cutting edge so it can somewhat cut through objects; when unsheathed, it’s a black katana; it transforms into a pistol; when in pistol form, it becomes L-shaped and can be used as a grappling hook)

Semblance: shadow (she can create a copy of her herself; appears as a solid silhouette that takes the hit for her)

Yang Xiao Long

Weapon: Ember Celica – a pair of dual ranged shot gauntlets (they appear as bracelets at first but they can extend and cover her hands up to her forearms; the bullets are fired when she throws punches.

Semblance: draws strength from hits (technically, when she gets beat up she gets angry and hulks out with increased strength)

Chapter 31

They folded their blankets and fluffed their pillows before settling them against the headboards of the joined beds. The left the curtains drawn and let what little light from outside make its home inside their dorm room, thinking that it would still be here when they come back. They looked at one another and smiled with their weapons at their side, save for Yuri who only had her hand wraps wound around her wrists for support.

“Ready?” Jessica asked. Her two teammates nodded. She let them walk out of the room first then closed the door after she followed, not bothering to lock it.

Then they walked down the hallway and didn’t look back.

+

The landing bay had been busy all morning with spare airships from Atlas flying in and out of the available ports to help with the deployment of students.

Taeyeon, Tiffany and Seohyun were already about to embark when Sooyoung called them over to the back of the queue. There they met Hyoyeon and Krystal who waved at them, trying not to look too nervous.

“Professor BoA told us to wait for her,” Sooyoung informed them.

“Did she say why?” Taeyeon asked as she looked around for any sign of the said professor.

Sooyoung shook her head. She was about to speak when three familiar faces came into view. She waved at them instead of yelling a greeting like she usually does. This wasn’t the right time for that and she had to conserve her energy anyway.

“You’re all here,” Yoona said, turning to each of their friends until her eyes settled on Seohyun who gave her a slight smile.

“Professor BoA asked us to wait for her, apparently. I’m guessing we’re being sent to the same area,” said Seohyun. She walked up to Yoona and held her hand, no longer minding that their friends – especially her Taeyeon unnie – were watching. “I guess that’ll be a good thing.”

Yoona nodded before looking at Yuri and Jessica who smiled approvingly, their hands similarly joined. Sooyoung, Hyoyeon and Krystal each gave her a thumbs-up while Tiffany flashed an eye-smile and Taeyeon nodded back.

Their time under the stars seemed so long ago even though there was only one day in between that evening and this moment. They figured they had made the most out of their lives in Beacon Academy, doing what huntresses are supposed to do. They defended their school well and now it was time for a new challenge.

It was time to save the world.

+

BoA ushered her nine students toward the airship that was docked farthest from the Atlesian ones. Her limp was gone but an inexplicable pain remained, creeping under her skin and drawing out the exhaustion she tried so hard to conceal.

She looked at her students after they seated themselves and buckled up. She held both the pride and the worry of every mother when it came to her children, but she knew that these young ladies have grown up enough to leave her care. As their professor, she at least wanted to see them off with a smile.

“I trust that everyone has prepared well,” she started to say even though she knew that no amount of preparation would ease her mind regarding this mission.

There was no response except for Yuri slowly standing up from her seat.

“Professor, before we leave, I think we have to explain the mission to our friends,” she said.

BoA nodded. She gathered them here for that exact reason after all.

“What’s going on, Yul?” Hyoyeon asked with furrowed brows. Sooyoung mirrored the expression. They only got a sigh from Yuri in response.

“Unnie, what’s going on?” Krystal asked Jessica, worried that the matter was grave enough to be kept secret until now. Her sister squeezed her hand and said there was a good reason for not telling her so soon.

Taeyeon and Tiffany turned to Seohyun who had been silent the entire time. “You knew about this, didn’t you?” Taeyeon asked. When Seohyun responded to the question with a nod she felt the need to hit the arm rest of her chair, a bit frustrated that Seohyun kept something important from her. She felt Tiffany her back and she bit down on her teeth instead while waiting for Yuri to explain.

“Everyone, please calm down,” Yuri said in an attempt to call for order. “We had no intention of keeping this from you guys for so long but we also had to deal with the fact that our teammate—former teammate is involved in the Grimm invasion. She’s out there right now with the enemy. She is the enemy.” She turned to Sooyoung and Hyoyeon with a heavy heart. “I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you guys sooner. I should have but I wasn’t ready to accept it. I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to.” She faced the rest of their friends and saw Jessica nod at her, urging her to go on. “You knew her too. She was our friend. One way or another, all of us are affected by this. But I hope that we won’t let this cloud our judgment. We all came to Beacon to become huntresses and I’m sure that all of you know the duty that comes with that. Let’s make sure not to forget it.”

BoA was the one who quickly went through the details of the Possession Type Grimm and how dangerous their enemies were because of it.She also apologized for keeping the details from them but justified it by saying that she had the best of intentions for her students.

“We don’t have time to argue about this in case any of you have any violent reactions but you are still free to leave should you feel that Sunny’s involvement is too much of a distraction. Like I said before, no one will take that decision against you.”

“We’re going, professor,” said Sooyoung with an arm around Hyoyeon’s neck. “You’ll need all the help you can get when it comes to that shorty.”

“I’m going too,” Krystal said. She turned to her sister with pleading eyes. “I can help, okay?”

“I know,” Jessica replied with a soft smile.

Tiffany was waiting for Taeyeon to say something when Seohyun spoke: “Unnie, it wasn’t my place to tell because Yoona only told me so I wouldn’t worry. Please understand.”

“I do,” Taeyeon said as she glanced at Yoona who was sitting beside Seohyun. They exchanged curt nods and there was no need to further discuss things between them. “I’m still going anyway. I still have to look after you and all,” she told Seohyun.

Tiffany let out a giggle. “You big softy~”

“And you. I need to look after you too since your parents said so.”

“Lucky me,” Tiffany said with a wide smile.

Seeing as everyone was ready to go, BoA gave the order for lift-off. She stared at her scroll all throughout the trip, waiting for a message from Jongkook. It had been a while since she received any word from him and the last one wasn’t particularly cheery.

“I still don’t see an end to this fight. Make sure you’re ready.”

+

They looked out the window as the airship slowed down and started to descend. A small, orange camp fire flickered in the middle of the dark stretch of land. Even the trees were a shade of darker, deeper green that they appeared rotten. Vines clung to them and extended to the barren ground as if crawling toward it. Never had they seen such emptiness. When the hangar door opened and they took their first steps forward, even the air reeked of a heaviness that they couldn’t put into words. It was suffocating.

When they got near the camp fire, they reached for their weapons and got ready to strike—

“Hold it.”

BoA stood in between her students and the members of the White Fang that were gathered before them. “They’re not the enemy,” she told her students. They didn’t budge and she couldn’t blame them. She knew that they had fought the likes of the White Fang before and that those battles didn’t hold any good memories. “They’re not the enemy,” she repeated. “Look at them. They’re not armed. They’re here because they surrendered.”

“They surrendered?” Yuri said as she lowered her fists. She looked at the group of faunus and they stared back with sunken eyes and heavy shoulders.

“Yeah, you dumb-dumb,” went a voice from behind the group.

Yuri squinted as the figure approached and then rushed forward with open arms. “Yang!! You’re here!”

Yang welcomed Yuri’s tackle then side stepped with an extended arm before trapping Yuri in a headlock. “Yup. You definitely missed me, huh?” she said with a laugh that drowned out the sound of Yuri choking.

“Yang! Stop it!” Jessica demanded as she approached. “Now!”

Yang complied immediately but not before poking Yuri’s forehead with another laugh. “Sheesh, Jessica. It was just a joke,” she said with a wink. “It’s good to see you guys!”

“Finally, some new faces. ”Another figure approached, this time from inside one of the tents. She bowed when she saw Professor BoA then turned to the group of friends. “It’s been a while, everyone.”

“Weiss, where are Ruby and Blake?” BoA asked.

“They should be back soon, professor. Their last message came an hour ago.”

“I see.” Now reminded of their communication restrictions, BoA turned to Yuri and the others to explain. “As you know, we have been unable to put up towers beyond the four kingdoms due to the constant threat of the Grimm. But the Atlesian army lent us a portable version. It’s a prototype but it’s all we have for now. Your scrolls will still be functional as communication devices but only within a limited range because the roving tower is moved from place to place to avoid being attacked. We do not have accurate maps of the entire area so make sure to call or send a message before you venture out too far.”

Just then, Yuri’s scroll beeped continuously, signaling the receipt of multiple files.

“Just testing it out,” Krystal said before she pocketed her scroll. She wiggled her eyebrows at Yuri, hoping the latter understood what she meant.

Yuri saw an adorably plump baby on her scroll’s screen when she opened one of the files and she threw Krystal the widest smile she could manage. The caption on the picture read: “When you feel like giving up, think of your Sica baby~”

Before anyone could ask Yuri about what she found so amusing, two more familiar faces emerged from beyond the camp.

“That’s the pipsqueak you told me about, right?” Tiffany mumbled to Taeyeon, pertaining to the girl wearing a red cloak who had just arrived.

“Yup. I told you that her outfit is less of an eyesore than yours,” Taeyeon mumbled back while Professor BoA wasn’t looking in their direction.

“I can actually imagine wearing it. Red and black would look totally hot on me, don’tcha think?”

Taeyeon immediately saw the image in her mind and she couldn’t supply an answer. It was a good thing that BoA’s announcement came when it did.

“Now that everyone’s here, we can assign areas to each team.”

It was decided that Blake would go with Sooyoung, Hyoyeon and Krystal while Ruby would go with Taeyeon, Tiffany and Seohyun.

“And since you three are going after Sunny, take Yang and Weiss with you.”

Yang, Yuri and Yoona bumped fists while Jessica and Weiss exchanged smiles and rolled their eyes, already expecting their teammates to monkey around during the mission like they usually did back in Beacon before the Grimm invasion.

“The enemy does not stay at one place for too long,” BoA warned. “We cannot give you coordinates of their exact location at any given time but since the Grimm follow their leader closely, we will send you coordinates of the areas where the Grimm population is thicker. This, of course, entails more danger but it is our best chance of finding them. Based on my own experience, Sunny is also heavily guarded by the Grimm. So it’s either the trail leads you to her—”

“Or it leads us to the master,” Blake said, causing everyone to look at her in forced silence. She gripped Gambol Shroud before sheathing it with a sigh. “We should get a move on, professor.”

BoA nodded and sent them on their way after reminding them to send messages often and to look after one another because she wouldn’t be around to do so this time.

+

Blake led the way eastward where she and Ruby came from earlier to rescue more faunus refugees. She could feel three pairs of eyes burning through the back of her head as she walked and she stopped to address the issue.

“What is it, guys?”

Sooyoung, Hyoyeon and Krystal exchanged glances. No one spoke until Hyoyeon nudged Sooyoung’s side.

“Ow! Why do I have to ask if she’s okay?”

Blake raised an eyebrow. “I’m okay. Let’s just go.”

“It’s been a while, Blake,” Sooyoung said as she peered into the faunus girl’s eyes, which were clouded by obvious exhaustion. “Where have you guys been? After we watched you guys at the Vytal tournament, you just—”

“It’s been a year, Sooyoung. I don’t think we have time to talk about it now.”

Sooyoung was about to argue when she heard Krystal loose an arrow from behind her. She looked ahead and saw a beowolf groaning from the hit. Its pack wasn’t far behind. She drew her axe and sighed. “You owe us a story after this fight, Blake!”

Without a word, Blake charged ahead.

“Well, she hasn’t changed,” Hyoyeon commented as she joined her blades into a claw and held it by the chain to fit her forearm. She didn’t wait for either Sooyoung or Krystal to reply and followed Blake toward the growing swarm of Grimm.

“Unnie, let’s go!” Krystal told Sooyoung who seemed to be thinking of how to attack. “And no summoning! Blake will freak!”

“I know, I know,” Sooyoung replied. She broke into a sprint and dragged her axe by her feet until she was close enough to lift it against a beowolf. She brought the axe up and sliced through it before moving to the next one, putting her well-developed arm muscles to good use. Krystal’s arrows came from behind her and served as extra hits to her targets, making it unnecessary for her to attack a second time.

Not too far away from where Krystal and Sooyoung were, Hyoyeon and Blake juggled the newly-arrived ursai.With the black ribbon tied to her arm attached to Gambol Shroud’s trigger, Blake threw it in pistol form for it to carry the ribbon and wind around an ursa then pulled the creature toward Hyoyeon for the latter to punch back the way it came where it met the fatal slash of an unsheathed black katana.

“Nice,” Hyoyeon heard Blake say before she dashed toward the next ursa with Gambol Shroud now in its blade form. Hyoyeon followed with an extended form of her claw. She hurled herself at the ursa and punched it in the neck, letting the sharp, curved fangs of her claw sink into the skin until it tore right through and the head separated from the torso. She was about to catch a breath when more of them came at her, agile with their strikes despite their large size.

“Move, unnie!” Krystal caught the ursa’s heavy paw with one end of her swallow before it landed on Hyoyeon’s head from behind. The ursa stumbled backward from the unexpected attack and blindly swept the space before it with the other paw. Krystal ducked then slashed once through the exposed torso, leaving Hyoyeon to finish the job with a hard punch that caused the claw to pierce through the skin.With a pull of the chain, Hyoyeon got the claw to break into two blades while it was still lodged in the ursa, splitting its torso in half horizontally.

“Tired already?” Sooyoung yelled at her partner as she ran past with her axe over her shoulder.

“Not even close!” Hyoyeon yelled back but it seemed Sooyoung didn’t notice because she was about to go against the largest ursa in the group.

Sooyoung let out a breath and rolled her shoulder back to bring her axe down. She knew that there was no way she could take this ursa down by herself but she also knew that summoning her hounds was out of the question due to Blake’s reservations regarding dogs.

“What’re you standing around for?!”

Blake was suddenly in front of Sooyoung and before she could do anything else, she saw the ursa’s claw go through the figure, which disappeared after the impact. She almost screamed but heaved a sigh instead when she realized that it was only Blake’s shadow and it took the heavy hit for her. Then she heard a round of gunshots and the bullets landed on the ursa’s back, causing it to quickly turn around to retaliate. She took this chance to swing her axe hard at the ursa’s leg and it fell over. She quickly aimed for its head and, right when her axe’s blade sank past the bony mask on its face and into an eye socket, a gunshot went through the other socket. She turned to her side and found Blake smiling slightly at her while holding Gambol Shroud in its pistol form.

“You were about to summon your mutts, weren’t you?”

Sooyoung shrugged. “I might need to at one point, you know?”

Blake didn’t bother to hide a groan. “Fine. But just let me climb up a tree first before you do, okay?”

“You do know that my dogs can be bigger than trees, right?”

“Then don’t make them that big!”

A chilly breeze suddenly rushed past them, making Blake’s ears twitch underneath the bow she wore on top of her head. “There are more of them over here!” they heard Krystal say from meters ahead.

Blake lifted Gambol Shroud’s sheath to her chest while the she held the blade with the other hand. “Geez. I thought Weiss was here.”

“We have far too many ice princesses,” Sooyoung said with a cluck of her tongue. “Anyway, let’s go kick some more!”

But when she turned to her side, Blake was already gone. Typical, she thought to herself.

+

The large scythe’s blade arched over the small girl’s head as she walked and Tiffany couldn’t help but ask: “Aren’t you tired, Ruby?”

“Hm?” Ruby paused and turned to face Tiffany with those bright silver eyes.“We haven’t even run into anything yet. Why would I be tired?”

“Well, for one, you’re carrying a huge- scythe.”

Taeyeon let out a laugh, interrupting the two. “She can handle it, Ti-ppany. Don’t worry too much.”

“But she’s just a little kid! Poor thing...”

“Trust me. That’s just for appearances. This little kid is actually a killing machine.”

“Uh, I’m standing right here,” Ruby said, waving her free hand.

“It’s a compliment, Ruby,” Taeyeon replied. “Don’t even deny—”

“Grimm ahead!” Seohyun blurted out after sensing the movement through the scout she sent to the north. “Nevermores… Boarbatusks… A lot of griffons… And a—What is that?!” She sent a bolt of energy toward the unknown Grimm through the scout but the attack barely scratched the surface of its skin.

“I’m on it!” Ruby announced before speeding on ahead, leaving a handful of rose petals where she was standing a second ago.

“TaeTae—”

Tiffany didn’t even have a chance to tell Taeyeon to be careful before the latter disappeared just as quickly as Ruby did. That left her with Seohyun who was focusing on retrieving another scout that she deployed before they left camp.

“I lost sight of Yoona,,” she mumbled to herself. Tiffany seemed to have heard it because she felt a hand on her shoulder and saw an encouraging smile.

“Yoona will be fine. We both know that she’s strong enough,” Tiffany said as she brought her whip out and had it transform into a longsword. “Stay close to me, okay? Let’s go!”

They ran straight ahead with Tiffany slashing through thicks vines to get to where Taeyeon and Ruby ended up having their killing spree. They could barely make out their teammates’ images as they zipped from one point to another, taking down griffon after griffon in a blink of an eye.

“Where’s that thing that you saw?” Tiffany asked Seohyun who could only shrug, clueless as to where the large creature disappeared to. “Never mind then. Let’s get rid of these things, shall we?”

Seohyun didn’t need to be told twice. She deployed three scouts at once and had them match the altitude of the nevermores gathered overhead before launching a barrage of bolts that went in every direction, tearing through everything in their path including a few griffons that were unfortunate enough to be within range. She signaled for Tiffany to help thin out the ground forces while she continued to clear the skies.

Tiffany nodded in agreement then went off toward a herd of adult boarbatusks, activating her semblance as she ran. They charged right at her only to be weakened once they felt the effect of the dome she conjured, enabling her to aim her blade at their most vulnerable parts. ing into their bellies became repetitive and she was only distracted from the chore when a large shadow appeared beneath her feet, cast by something above—

“Taeyeon, it’s back!” went Ruby’s warning.

Taeyeon spun around as quickly as she could in order to intercept the creature as it swooped down. She thought that she and Ruby already did a number on it when they first encountered it but it seemed that it only retreated to wait for them to be worn out before coming back to attack them again. It was then that she was convinced that someone was indeed controlling these Grimm.

“TaeTae! What is that?!”

She heard Tiffany scream just as she grabbed hold of the creature’s scaly tail. She plunged a dagger into it as a handhold and pulled herself up, trying her best to keep her balance while it tried to shake her off.

“It looks like a dragon!!” she screamed back even though she doubted that Tiffany could hear her at this height. She thought of teleporting to its back by throwing her other dagger toward it but her aim was spotty and the creature was still trying to throw her off. She didn’t have much choice but to focus on sending lightning through its body… at the risk of falling off after the attack.

She did it anyway.

The dragon growled in pain and started to spiral downward but it caught its rhythm once more and flapped its wings until it was steadily airborne once again. Taeyeon’s attack only singed part of its tail and it spun around repeatedly as if to cool it.

“Taeyeon, are you okay??” Ruby managed to intercept Taeyeon’s fall before she hit the ground but both of them still had a rough landing far from where Tiffany and Seohyun were. She looked up and found that the dragon had left again. She shook Taeyeon’s shoulder but there was no response and the Grimm were starting to surround them. Ruby spun toward the griffons with Crescent Rose, cutting through their wings as she went. Then she had the scythe collapse into its rifle form to ward off the approaching ones with consecutive shots.“Taeyeon, get up!!” She repeated the phrase louder each time while she shot at everything that tried to get close to her unconscious teammate. “Get up—”

A streak of light came from above and then quickly fell to where the griffons gathered before zigzagging through them like lightning. Ruby turned around to check if the attack was Taeyeon’s doing but to her dismay, the latter was still out cold. Free from enemies for the time being, she rushed to Taeyeon’s side and tried to wake her up again, this time pulling her into a sitting position.

A weak cough.

“Oh thank goodness!”

“Taeyeon unnie!!”

“TaeTae!!”

Ruby stepped aside to let Seohyun and Tiffany tend to Taeyeon while she keyed in a quick message to send BoA: “Professor, I think we pissed a dragon off.”

“Unnie, are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere? Say something!” Seohyun was distraught. She was glad she deployed a scout in time to go after Taeyeon and Ruby after they started falling fast while the dragon retreated a second time. When she saw Taeyeon unconscious, she didn’t care if her aura was next to nothing. She focused as much as she could on sending that bolt of energy fast to do away with the rest of the Grimm that started to surround Taeyeon and Ruby.

“I’m okay, Seohyun.” Taeyeon let out another cough. Something on the right side of her torso throbbed when she did but she didn’t want Seohyun to know that so she bit down hard on her teeth and kept it to herself. “I just didn’t expect it to be that strong. I mean…” She turned to Ruby and saw that she was just as worn out as any of them, which was a surprise if what she knew about the girl was true. “Ruby, why didn’t you finish it like you did before?”

“Before?” Ruby’s brows met, seemingly clueless about what Taeyeon was talking about.

“Your silver eyes,” Taeyeon said immediately. “They say the Grimm are afraid of silver eyes. And that dragon from a year ago… weren’t you the one that petrified it?”

Ruby shook her head, her small figure hunching forward in either exhaustion or disappointment. It became clear which one after she continued: “I… I can’t do that. Not anymore, anyway. I tried though! For the past year, I’ve been trying my hardest to figure out how I did what you think I did. But I guess I’m not good enough. Maybe I was just lucky. I’m so sorry, Taeyeon. If I was stronger then I could’ve helped.”

“Don’t feel bad, Ruby,” Tiffany said, genuinely feeling sorry for the sixteen-year-old. “What’s important is that we’re all okay and we can still fight after we rest up a bit. And TaeTae…”

Taeyeon looked up from her seated position, still a bit numb from the waist down. “Hm? What is it?”

“You’re supposed to be looking after me, remember? So enough with the suicidal attacks! Next time that thing shows its ugly face I’m keeping you by my side so don’t you dare run off again!”

Seohyun and Ruby looked at Taeyeon and Tiffany then turned to each other with silent snickers.

“I think you should listen to Tiffany unnie,” Seohyun said while she rubbed Taeyeon’s back, knowing that it must hurt after she used her lightning attack. “Please be more reasonable when you’re fighting.”

“Yeah, Taeyeon.” Ruby said with a giggle. “When you jumped in out of nowhere and started attacking everything it was like you were playing whack-a-mole or something. You almost cut though me at one point, you know? Which is totally cool by the way ‘cause you’re awesome with those daggers! But totally not cool that you almost killed me. But it’s still cool! You were so fast! Like when you threw your daggers around and you were like poof I’m gone! And then you were poof I’m here again! Teleporting is so cool! You’re awesome! Your weapons are so awesome! And that lightning! Bzzzt! That dragon didn’t see it coming and—Uh, and I’m rambling. Sorry! I get overly excited like this when I see people fight and I…” Ruby had to take a deep breath to stop herself.

Taeyeon, Tiffany and Seohyun could only laugh. They set up camp moments later and sent BoA another message saying they had to stop for a while to recover.

There was no reply.

+

Why they agreed to go south was starting to bother them. The first twenty minutes without any encounters was fine. The next thirty was still understandable. But past the first hour, they started to ask themselves whether they should change directions.

“We can go back,” Yoona suggested with a shrug.

“Meh. That would be a waste,” Yang said with a hand on her hip, shifting her weight from one foot to the other to show her uneasiness.

“I say we go west from here!” Yuri raised her hand and called for a vote.

“Why west though? There’s east too,” Yoona pointed out.

“Or we can just keep going south!” Yang insisted.

“There isn’t anything here!” Yuri argued.

“Well, duh. We have to keep walking!”

“It’s a waste of time to keep going nowhere!”

“We’re not going nowhere! We’re going south! Just standing here is the waste of time!”

The exchange between Yuri and Yang seemed never-ending even with Yoona trying to in. Jessica and Weiss sat by a curtain of vines a few feet away and sighed to themselves.

“I’m so glad that you’re here, Jessica,” Weiss said with a hand on Jessica’s knee. “At least there’s one decently rational person in the team to help me deal with these…”

“Reckless idiots?” Jessica continued. She laughed when Weiss nodded. “I admit that Yuri can be, uh, too dedicated when it comes to fights. She just doesn’t bother to think at times.”

Weiss raised an eyebrow. “You say that but all I heard was ‘Yuri can be an idiot.’”

“Well, fine. But isn’t that how all leaders are? Ours, at least.”

“Oh definitely! Ruby can be such a dolt that sometimes I can’t even—Ugh! And Yang! Goodness, they really are sisters for a reason! They’re both impulsive and pigheaded and—The list can go on forever so I’ll stop at that. It’s a good thing that Blake is around to balance things out, you know? She’s mellow and calm and she keeps me sane. She just has this bad habit of always running away and I get worried.”

“I heard. I can relate though. While she has her issues, I had mine too. It was hard for me to get along with my teammates. I didn’t really want anything to do with them at first but they were pretty persistent. Especially Yuri. And now…”

Weiss waited for Jessica continue but she didn’t need to hear the rest to know what it was about. That smile on Jessica’s face was explanation enough. “I’m glad you have someone like that, Jessica… Even if that person can be an idiot.”

Jessica let out a laugh. She glanced at Yuri and it looked like she was still arguing with Yang and Yoona. “She might be an idiot at times and even more of a dork but I can’t imagine life without her now. I want us to have a future to look forward to. That’s why we have to find Sunny fast and get to the bottom of this nonsense.”

“I agree. This has gotten way out of hand. Other than being a huntress in training, I’m a Schnee and my family’s company was responsible for the machine plans that the psycho got his hands on. I have to make things right.”

The two of them contemplated the situation in silence, each with a personal stake in winning this war. They only broke out of their trance when they noticed that their teammates were no longer screaming their heads off in an argument. Instead, they heard hurried steps and the loud, reverberating sound of shots fired.

“That was Yang for sure!” Weiss told Jessica as they ran toward the sounds that followed.

Jessica unsheathed her kotatsu and saw Weiss already holding Myrtenaster as well. She scanned the area for Yuri first and started to worry when she wasn’t where she was arguing with Yang and Yoona just moments ago. A few yards more and they finally found the three going against—

“Uh, is that what I think it is?” Weiss said with a tightened grip on her rapier, her head tilting upward to follow the movement of the creature before them.

“It’s a dragon, Weiss,” Jessica replied with a huff. She had a bad feeling about this fight. Just watching Yuri, Yoona and Yang attacking it at once and barely making a scratch was already tiring her out. “So… should we freeze this thing or what?”

“Totally.”

Jessica rushed forward and so did Weiss. Yuri, Yoona and Yang saw them approaching and kept their distance while still trying to hit the dragon from afar.

What little moisture that surrounded them slowly came together in compact crystals as Jessica focused her attack on the dragon. Weiss followed Jessica’s lead and conjured a glyph beneath her feet that propelled her upward. Then she pulled the trigger along Myrtenaster’s handle to exhaust the vial of blue dust in the revolving chamber of the hilt, sending forth a cold mist that clung to the dragon’s skin. When she landed, she bumped into Yoona who was getting ready to launch a follow-up attack.

“Whoops! Sorry Weiss!”

“Yoona! Point that thing somewhere else!” Weiss drew her head back, barely avoiding the naginata’s blade.

“Sorry. Hey, you think you can give me a boost?” Yoona held her index finger up and pointed to the dragon still flying in circles above them. “It doesn’t look frozen so…”

Weiss saw what Yoona meant. Her attack combined with Jessica’s didn’t work as well as they hoped. “Okay! Get ready!” she told Yoona, hoping this would have a better outcome.

Yoona already compressed the space below her feet and kept the pressure strong until Weiss created a repelling glyph underneath it. Then she released the pressure, and with the glyph’s effect, she sprang straight up toward the airborne dragon. She felt the cold air cling instantly to her cheeks courtesy of Jessica and Weiss but it wasn’t enough to encase the dragon in a frozen shell. It was far too large and its skin too hot from the flames it stored in its very being.

“Take this!!” She managed to land a few slashes on a wing before she started losing altitude. She used her semblance to gather a spiral of wind beneath her feet but the flapping of the dragon’s wings countered the steady flow.

And just when she thought she was going to fall face-first, one of Weiss’s glyphs appeared near her and she was pulled toward it like a magnet. Then it disappeared and she landed on another that appeared a few feet below it, already close to the ground. She wanted to thank Weiss but the latter was already busy conjuring glyphs left and right to push and pull the others out of danger. She rushed forward instead and tried to distract the dragon like Jessica did with her frozen projectiles while Yuri and Yang took turns attacking it.

“Hit harder, Yuri!!” Yang yelled with a growl.

“I’m doing my best!” Yuri was already out of range to throw punches and could only send waves of force toward the dragon’s wings to disturb its flight while Yang tried to shoot it down.

“It’s not working! We have to get closer!”

Then, as if on cue, a glyph appeared near Yang and she jumped on it, causing her to shoot right up toward the dragon’s head. She threw a heavy punch with Ember Celica covering her left hand, unleashing a burning bullet in time with the impact. The right hand followed and then the left, alternating until she used up all twelve bullets in each gauntlet. But despite the twenty-four consecutive shots that made the dragon flinch and swerve in flight, it recovered quickly and knocked Yang down with a flap of its wing.

“Yang! You okay?” Yuri ran to the crater that formed on the ground where Yang fell.

A ring of flame emerged and out came Yang with similarly burning eyes, her strength now alarmingly heightened because of the damage she took. She winked at Yuri in response. “’Course I’m okay! It’s like you forgot what my semblance is! Let’s go kick !”

A pair of glyphs appeared before them and they jumped on one each. They were in mid-air a second later and within decent range to throw as many punches as they could. Yang aimed for the side of the head and with each jab came an exploding bullet from Ember Celica’s newly reloaded barrels. The dragon’s head slithered back as it tried to make its body follow its evasive maneuver but it wasn’t fast enough and one of the bullets managed to sear its eye. It howled in both pain and anger, panicking due to its darkened vision.

While Yang went with the downward pull of gravity to avoid the dragon’s floundering movement, Yuri refused to let go of the hard scale on the dragon’s neck that she had been using as a handhold since earlier while she struck hard with consecutive right hooks. “Yuri! You’re crazy!” she heard Yang say. She knew her mentor didn’t mean it as an insult. She did feel crazy though. The adrenaline coursed through her with every punch but it wasn’t enough, she figured. The dragon was still struggling to remain in flight despite blindness in one eye but it was far from dead.

“Let’s see how you like this one!!”

Yuri pressed a palm to its neck and focused all of her aura into the spot as well as every ounce of energy that lied dormant in every living cell in her body until now. The fusion escaped through the pores in her palm and seeped past the dragon’s hard scales toward its tender flesh. The affected spot started growing crimson and Yuri felt her skin starting to burn with it. She screamed in agony, no longer able to defend against the consuming heat because she was already out of aura.

“YURI-YAH! LET GO!!”

She barely heard Jessica’s voice. She tried to move but couldn’t. The numbness spread throughout her body except for where her palm and the dragon’s inflamed skin had melded together from intense heat. She couldn’t even scream anymore as all of her senses tried to comprehend the ever-growing pain.

“YURI-YAAAAAH!!”

Jessica plunged a frozen copy of her kotatsu into the dragon’s neck where the skin appeared most tender as if grilled and it melted almost immediately after impact. The dragon felt the sudden pressure and squirmed more than it already was, choking on its own growls and losing control of its wings. Jessica grabbed Yuri’s wrist to pull her off of the creature and screamed as soon as she made contact. Yuri’s skin was scorching hot and Jessica kept screaming to distract herself from the searing pain. With throbbing hands, she didn’t know how she did it but she managed to pull Yuri’s hand off of the dragon’s disfigured neck.

Then they started to fall.

Jessica held Yuri’s hand tightly despite the burns on hers and tried to use her free hand to focus her aura on creating frozen platforms to break their fall. She tried as hard as she could but failed, now too weak to use her semblance. She and Yuri bounced on and off of Weiss’s hurriedly conjured glyphs instead until Yoona managed to make the air around them spiral slowly toward the ground.

“I’ll be right back, unnies!”

“Yoona, don’t—” The rest of Jessica’s sentence turned into coughs. Even though part of her knew that she had something else to worry about, all she could comprehend at the moment was that she was holding Yuri’s injured hand. “Yuri, can you hear me?”

A toothy grin.

“Of course,” went a weak reply. Yuri did her best to stay conscious even though all she wanted to do at this point was sleep in Jessica’s arms. The exhaustion reminded her that she was already out of aura and that she was in this pathetic state because she did something stupid. “Did… did I kill it, Sica?”

Jessica blinked away some tears to clear her vision and saw Yoona slashing away at the dragon with visible frustration while Weiss followed through with s from all directions as she ricocheted from one glyph toward the dragon and then to another glyph which propelled her to another part of the creature.

The dragon tried to flap its wings but one appeared broken and its movement was limited to dragging itself a few feet from its assailants. Still drawing strength from the beating she took and beyond pissed that the enemy was still alive after everything they had done, Yang grabbed the broken wing by its webbing and tore it right off. She ignored the resounding roar that shook the very ground they stood on as she dragged the dismembered limb to the dragon’s mouth. A pool of saliva had already accumulated on the ground from which the dragon struggled to lift its head. Yang ignored that too and fired every bullet she had in her left gauntlet at the pinkish insides of the dragon’s mouth before stuffing the wing down its throat with a final punch and the loudest scream she could manage.

“Yang finished it off, huh?” Yuri asked even though she already knew the answer judging from that scream that far outdid the dragon’s dying cry.

“You’re really hurt. Rest a bit,” Jessica said, purposely ignoring Yuri’s question. She could care less about who killed what because Yuri had to come first. She would always put Yuri first.

“I know, I know,” Yuri replied with a weak nod. She still couldn’t feel parts of her body but having Jessica’s hand against hers was more than comforting. “Rest with me?”

Jessica laid Yuri down slowly on the ground then curled up against Yuri’s side, their hands never parting throughout the entire motion. She could hear Yoona calling out to them with footsteps following closely behind but she was too tired to look up and check.

Then she felt warm lips on her forehead and that was all that mattered.