As Ruby ran down the corridors of the Amity Colosseum leading a assortment of Huntsmen and Huntresses, she couldn't help, but ponder what was going on. The sting of Penny's… death was still fresh followed by a broadcast with a familiar voice yet could not remember whose it was foretelling war was concerning. She didn't believe that the kingdoms would go to war, but all of the negative emotions that followed had attracted a giant Nevermore that could have easily killed Phyrria if she or one of the others hadn't intervened because of what happened to Penny.

Even now, Phyrria still looked conflicted despite Jaune's reassurances that there was another person responsible for this. Ruby knew it wasn't her fault and pinned the blame on whoever it was.

The panicked screams of people and distant roars of Grimm, however, didn't allow Ruby to dwell on it. After all, they had to protect people.

As they got closer to the exit, the muffled rattle of gunfire and dwindling screams grew louder. Ruby guessed that General Ironwood was attempting to evac anyone he could before the airborne Grimm could overrun the Colosseum. There was also a dull headache growing, but Ruby just chalked it up to stress like how Ironwood had mentioned… til a voice began speaking cryptically.

The pieces are set and the plan shall be carried out even though an unexpected move was made it works in our favor. Commance.

The tone it had was confident and assertive like a wise leader yet contain a undertone of tiredness.

Whatever was going to happen didn't sound good.

Ruby and the others reached the landing platforms to see Ironwood walking towards a ramp to a airship full of Atlesian Knights,, gripping a pistol. Ironwood turned to face them, a stern and serious expression adorned his face as usual, as they stopped.

"What's going on?" Ruby asked.

"Grimm are crawling all over the city, the White Fang have invaded Beacon, and to make matters worse some," Ironwood looked to his right," vagabond has seized one of my ships. Until we regain command the skies are out of our control. So I'm."

He suddenly whipped his pistol up and fired a single round into a Ursa trying to sneak up on them. It let out a growl as it was thrown onto the ground and began to evaporate like how all Grimm did when they died.

"Taking it back," he said coolly as if a big black bear of murderous nature didn't just try to maul them. He turned and began walking up the ramp when Jaune asked what they should do. Ironwood turned again, a solemn look on his face and placed his hands behind his back.

"You have two choices, defend your Kingdom and your school or save yourselves. No one will fault you if you leave."

The Huntsmen and Huntresses looked at each other conflicted. Ruby, though, had already made up her mind.

"Let's move out!" Ironwood raised his voice for the Knights to hear and climbed the ramp. However, a terrible, piercing shriek like that of a Nevermore, but only deeper and more menacing rumbled through the air causing the General and the students to stumble before stabilizing.

"Oww," Ruby rubbed the inside of her ears to get rid of the horrid ringing. The headache was growing worse with each passing second especially since the shriek.

"What was that?" One of the students asked.

Then another shriek came and yet. It seemed it was emanating from one of the city's nearby mountains. A few moments passed as everything, even the Grimm, halted to see what would happen.

Another shriek came to pass causing Ruby's headache to grow worse and worse. Whatever those shrieks were, they seemed to be connected with Mr. Head Voice as well as the stupid pain.

Finally, another shriek came to pass, but this time Ruby's vision shook and people staggered while trying to regain their balance. Shortly after, she say beyond Ironwood's ship a green dot far too small to be seen by most others, but it was there and it was growing rapidly.

"There's a gro-" Ruby started to say, but was cut off and the dot suddenly expended growing into a deep purple, meaning hole that had patches constantly fluctuating between shades of the color.

Before anyone could recover from the unexpected development, a giant ship crawled out followed by a heavy and steady stream of frisbee-shaped disks that zoomed by. The nearby Nevermores and Griffons attacked recklessly, rushing the UFOs.

Oddly, instead of engaging, they flew on despite taking hits heading out in all directions. However, the biggest ship simply stay put making Ruby wonder why.

Then a deep, resonant boom echoed across all of Vale as dozens upon dozens of green blobs were launched from ontop of the ship all heading for the city. She also noticed much smaller yet faster ships heading straight for the Colosseum. They were hard to make out their shape because of their black plating that protected them from the smaller Grimm, but the red streaks glowed ominously.

Within minutes, the small ships began exploding unlike the disk-shaped ones due to the larger Grimm that tore through their armor and yet through a series of maneuvers that Ruby compared to a clever cat outwitting a dog, most managed made it through the onslaught.

Ruby felt her headache subsided, but Head Voice didn't go away.

Now.

That didn't sound good.

"This is certainly unexpected, but none the less I still have to get the ship back," Ironwood said, keeping his gaze trained on the stationary ship as he walked up the rump.

"General, I don't know how to explain this, but… there's a voice in my head that seems to know what's going on," Ruby said.

Ironwood stopped and looked at Ruby. Before he could say anything, however, a soldier began yelling over his earpiece, panic struck and the sounds of chaos, gunfire, Grimm, and some other thing that sounded like a rumbling tummy Ruby occasionally got. Just a lot more beast-like.

"Sir! We're under attack by some new hostile! It's not Grimm!"

Ironwood held a finger to his right ear still maintaining a calm posture.

"What is it then?"

"I- No. No! NO!" The soldier shouted as the comms went static.

"Soldier? Anyone there? Shit," Ironwood cursed as he tried calling upon any of his of them responded.

"What just happened?" One of the Huntsmen ased and the general shot a look that seemed to say really?

Shortly after, a shrill sliced through the air and everyone turned to see the ships from earlier hovering at the edge of the landing platforms. Ruby could then see the design. It looked like a box with a face and the side of it slid open revealing a trio of dark clad troops that looked human.

They looked like colored swapped Atlas soldiers with slightly more armor and one even had a red cape. Their dark weapons were also boxed design with a vertical slit at the end of the barrel making Ruby wonder what kind of gun it was. It also appeared like a rifle made from Atlas.

The black Atlas soldier cosplayers jumped down, their boots making a dim clang, and they raised their weapons towards, but they all dropped dead as Ironwood scored three consecutive headshots. Sprays of liquid orange flew and splattered the ground. It almost appeared as though it was blood.

Ruby was shocked upon seeing their deaths. She had seen people get hurt, but never before someone killed. Grimm were different as they were nothing more than balls of fury and kill, kill, kill. Yet again they did lift up their weapons as if to shot them.

She then heard Ironwood going back up the ramp and into the ship not commenting on what just happened or instructing them what to do. So they have to decide what to do.

"I don't know what's going on, but now we have two places to go to. We need to separate into two groups, one at Beacon and the other here," Jaune said.

Some of the Hunters looked at each other quizzingly questioning the logic behind splitting up.

"Jaune's right, whoever these… people are they're here to hurt others and I am sure you have friends and family here. If we split up we can handle two problems at once," Ruby said trying to support Jaune's plan.

Then the sound of a ship shrieking caused her to turn to see Ironwood's dropship free falling out of view, but there weren't any baddies near it. Ruby looked back at the others to see a mixture of emotions. Doubt, fear, anger, and hatred all went in a matter of seconds.

Somebody needed to get that ship back so she figured it might as well be her and without warning, Ruby used her semblance to blast over the group. She heard Jaune yelling for her, but went on heading straight for the Arena.

When she arrived the Griffons and the two teachers were gone, replaced by a small group of the black armored people surrounding Penny's torn up body. There was another man, dark skinned and in a lab coat, kneeling over looking over the body.

Ruby also overheard one of the baddies.

"Tygan, how long must we tarry as our forces are running distraction, but are suffering heavy casualties."

"Looking for and removing the data chip stored within this synthetic will prove to be difficult as this machine is unlike anything that ADVENT has ever produced. Even with the proper equipment it would take hours to extract what we are looking for," the dark, bald man said as he turned Penny's head over and took out some kind of oval-shaped device.

No, they were going ruin Penny further!

"Get away from her!" Ruby yelled as she transformed Crescent Rose into its scythe form and rocketed off towards them.

They turned, one even raising the typical stop hand sign, and started to fire. Most of the bullets either missed or were dodged, but a few struck Ruby's aura. The projectiles shrugged off yet somehow it drained her aura faster than normal bullets would.

However, they couldn't land most hits and as soon as she was close enough, Ruby used the blunt end of her weapon to strike the closest one's head. It let out a pained howl as it flew across the Arena skidding to a halt.

The others didn't even stop their barrage and because she was so close now, more of the bullets smashed into her. Ruby still whacked them alongside the head or landed a blow to the gut injuring them, but not killing.

Surprisingly though, the ones that weren't knocked out simply got back up to fire again. Ruby dodged, somersaulted, and occasionally used her scythe to cut their rifle in a attempt to subdue them. There was no need for further deaths, not after all that has happened.

Eventually, the last one with a shoulder cape was knocked out. With no one to guard Tygan, Ruby mustered a look of anger and directed it at him. He simply shot a strange look as he rose up.

"If you're trying to look angry, you should take lessons," he deadpanned completely ignoring the fact Ruby raised Crescent Rose to her side ready to strike.

"Why? Why are you attacking us?" She asked.

"The Elders wanted it."

Ruby was confused. Weren't elderly people supposed to be wise? And not go around wanting to harm people?

"Well, your elders are… are stupid!" Ruby yelled. She expected him to say something in their defense, but he didn't.

"Do you have a emotional attachment to this synthetic?" He asked curiously.

"Her name is Penny!"

"Hmm, I wonder what that means?" Tygan raised a hand to his chin and started rattling off words Ruby didn't even knew existed nor their meaning.

"Quit treating her like some kind of thing! Penny's a living thing with a soul!"

Ruby really wanted to smack him because of his insistent treatment of Penny, but she needed information.

"It has… a soul?" Tygan raised a eyebrow with a genuine expression of confusion.

"Yes!"

"Well, I say this was a interesting endeavor. I think your assistance is greatly appreciated. Now."

"What?" Ruby asked. As soon as she finished, she felt something akin a burning ball of fire smash into her back practically depleting all of her remaining aura as she fell face flat on the floor.

"Ouch," she moaned. Ruby turned her body to its side and watched as her vision blurred back into clarity. She saw Tygan kneeling down again, but a black boot slammed down in front. Looking up, Ruby saw a person in a dark, almost black, purple trench coat with armor strapped beneath it. Unlike the others, this one didn't have a helmet showing his pale white skin and insane indigo eyes brimming with happiness? He tilted his head and smiled sinisterly before raising a boot and thrusting it into Ruby's face.

Everything went black.

ADVENT WORLD NEWS

"Loyal citizens, for the last hundred years we have enjoyed peace and prosperity because of the enduring patience and generosity of the Elders even despite the attempts at war by Earth's corrupted political bodies! It still continues to this day even when there are those few who would repeat the same mistakes of the Old World, but these trivial matters shall never sever the bonds we have forged between us.

Yet, as I speak, our loyal and courageous soldiers attempt to thwart a plot that would have seen that bond broken! Not from here, on Earth, but from another planet called Remnant. When the Elders reached out to them, they commited the same mistake as the Old World governments did and causally murdered our peaceful diplomats. And now, our hands forced, we strike in self-defense!"

A clip of ADVENT troops and officers backed up by MECs patrol the streets of a burning city. They are attacked by soldiers wearing gray and orange armor from the buildings, but the ADVENT soldiers quickly defeat them.

"And the Elders, ever patient and kind, seek to forgive once those who ordered the deaths are brought to justice!"

Another clip shows a medic tending to a wounded civilian that appears human. She is bleeding from a head injury that would have otherwise been fatal. Shortly after, the clip cuts to a squad of officers forcing down a man in a pristine white suit and cuffing him.

"As well as to remove their horrid system of using children as soldiers!"

A new clip shows a group of children wielding unusual weapons attacking ADVENT officers who attempted to use stun rounds to pacify them. All attempts failed and the camera shakes as a Sectopod strides into view and rose on its two legs. It then opened its front and the clip is cut off.

"So, as we near the hundredth anniversary of Unification, let us never forget the same mistakes that Remnant is making as the Old World did. Let us rejoice in the total eradication of corruption and the insurgency known as-"

The feed suddenly becomes static before it was replaced by a man concealed by the shadows.

"XCOM lives."

A/N: Well, I've been out of the loop for a while, but I've returned with a few new ideas. Hopefully I can actually complete this one unlike the last story.

Anyways, with XCOM now a underground resistance and all hell breaking loose in the RWBYvrse I decided to throw it into a blender. Wonder what will come out?