On the edges of the city as street lights began to turn on and twilight was setting in, battle could be seen even among allies.
"What do you mean, 'We don't have enough room?' I thought Weiss said that this building should fit everyone we need!?" shouted Juane to Pyrrha.
While still pointing civilians in the right direction to escape from the turmoil, Pyrrha answered with frustration in her voice, "I know that, but I do not believe she expected this many people to even escape alive."
"That's good isn't it?" Juane said over the crowd that was forming.
Weiss walked up to a ledge made of rubble in front of the crowd, "Everyone! This building won't hold all of you, there is another one two blocks from here, start heading in that direction, we'll meet you there." As the crowd began to form up into a march, Nora and Ren could be seen slicing falling rubble to pieces and smashing soldiers that got too close, regardless of side.
"I love this job!" Shouted Nora as she took out another ones knees.
"That's seems unhealthy." Ren answered while firing at some of the crumbled building to clear a path for his allies.
Ozpin picked up his cane as a sword-like blade jutted from the inside, he swung it forward and unto his shoulder and then put his hand forward, "Just try." Ozpin said in a way as to antagonize the people he had been pitted against. He stepped closer to the expecting Ruby, "Wait, this is between us two." Roman began to step forward, but the moment of freedom he gave Ozpin was more than enough to make his stance.
Ruby dashed forward using her semblance. She fell to a crouch and slashed upwards toward her enemy.
Ozpin parried the large blade to the side. He had aimed his blade to slice down upon her but Roman used used the girl's shoulder as a springboard to jump toward and above Ozpin, slamming forward with his Melodic Cudgel. Ozpin blocked the incoming blow with an unexpected strength. Ruby took advantage of his position and directed a slash at his legs. Ozpin jumped over the slice and in the fraction of a second as Ozpin hung in the air, he kicked forward, launching himself backward and into a series of handsprings, his final jump being out of a broken window. The group ran to the window and saw that Ozpin had begun sliding down the power lines like they were ziplines, using his cane as a tool.
Roman put his foot on the window sill and alongside his troops began to fire upon the old man. Ozpin dodged the barrage on the way down, swerving and shifting to avoid fire. Roman aimed one final shot and as it leapt toward Ozpin the old man jumped from the line and into the window of the next tower.
"He's not gonna get away." Ruby said as she jumped down and slid across the same area with her own boots, followed by Roman with his cane.
Ozpin continued running as a Bullhead hovered in front of the hall windows and began firing at the old man. Ozpin ducked and weaved from shot to shot, making a fool of the pilots and slowly destroying the structural integrity of the tower itself.
"Ruby! This won't last long! Get ready to jump!" Roman said as the tower began to fall. The building began toppling forward and so Roman tried to steady himself and began to launch flares to make openings in the crumbling building. At the same time as this Ozpin and Ruby jumped out of the building and continued the chase across the outside of the falling building, eventually just falling through the rubble. Ruby used Crescent Rose to slow her descent before launching off of the wall to reach the ground in a tumble.
Before she looked up to scan her surroundings she heard the building crash behind her, the shockwave of collateral and destruction hitting her cape and hood with the kind of force required to coat her outfit in accents and globs of gray and black. She looked up to see Ozpin shielding himself from the dirt, cornered by rubble and the locked doors of his own campus. Her sight then shifted behind her as she realized that Roman didn't escape the fall.
"Roman…" She whispered to herself as a single tear began to form it's way into her eye and then fall onto her blade. She stood up, and swung her scythe over her shoulder and began to walked towards the old headmaster.
"It's all over Miss Rose." Ozpin said as he raised his arms and gave a smug smile.
She dropped her scythe to swinging level, set up her stance and said, "Good, I don't want this lasting any longer." As she launched herself towards Ozpin with alarming speeds fast enough to form wind tunnels, slice after slice each coming from different directions as Ozpin made desperate attempts to deflect each attack before eventually slicing down and catching her in the face.
"I'm a master Miss Rose, not just some punk student." He said before jumping forward to slice at her, a flurry of blows so quick and so deadly as to have sliced through her aura like butter. Dodging every one of them just barely, Ruby escaped with a new energy, jamming the scythe into the ground and kicking Ozpin in the cheek. The kick sent Ozpin reeling long enough for Ruby to get back into her pattern and appear before him with anger in tow. Slashes, stabs, bullets and kicks all flew his way with the kind of speed that would seem positively blinding to anyone else.
Finally the hits he took began to have staying power as his aura visibly shattered into pieces and the final shot, an attack with the handle of the scythe blasted him across the nose.
Ozpin fell to the ground and with his body, so to did his pride fall, he reached to his sword arm flipped a switch on his outfit, allowing in to use it's newly added abilities. His attributes now sharply enhanced, the headmaster began to match blow for blow with the girl. Their speed alone creating vortexes in the battlefield and the blows landed causing craters to form in the ground as they bounce around the area, bullet shells embedding themselves into walls around them, skid tracks left from blocks and parries leaving unruly marks on the landscape. Neither fighter was making it to a vantage point, both of them found themselves in a standstill.
From the skies appeared a sudden burning sensation, lights from every direction glared as the streets were torched and the woodlands were burnt to the ground, the women and children never saved as robots swarmed the city and hell's fire emptied the air of all moisture. The angels of death flew over the population of Vale with a single logo over it, this logo was that of Atlus. And like Atlus they intend to guide them to the stars, by any means necessary.
"What's going on!?" Shouted Nora as she defended a family from the soldiers that were walking through their stayed in a state of concentration as he backed from the danger in front of him, securing an area of safety for the few making their way into shelters still.
Juane and Phyrra looked around in raw confusion as Ironwood walked past them and toward a very angry Weiss.
"This is not my idea of saving my people!" Weiss screamed at the general before slapping him.
The man hardly flinched before stating, "Desperate times call for desperate measures, we are keeping the peace in Vale, indefinitely." He then began to walk further past her to the communication tower, "And why don't you do me a favor Miss Schnee and tell your father I said hello." Before walking inside the building to gain command over his troops.
Meanwhile, the White Fang troops move onto the battlefield on one side while their Captain walked through the rubble of the tower to get a closer look. She eventually saw a crippled Roman Torchwick, laying his back against a wall and aiming his Melodic Cudgel on a piece of brickwork.
"Not this time!" she said as she shot his cane, launching it out of his hand.
"What do you think you're doing! I'm helping little Red!" Roman said as he looked at the woman and finally make the connection, "Kitty Cat?...Shit…"
"I know exactly what I'm doing Roman, I don't care how much you've helped us, I refuse to let a pig like you be leader when this is all said and done.
Gunshots were heard and the blood of White Fang poured into the rubble. Atlus robots surrounded the two, and a hologram of Ironwood displayed in front of them, "Looks like he won't have too." Was said by the image.
Ruby's eyes were drawn to the sound of Roman's cane being shot and saw that he was alive.
"Roman!"
Ruby said as she was caught off guard long enough to allow Ozpin to knock her into a wall.
As she slid down the wall Ozpin lifted Ruby by the throat into the air, "You see? This is the end for you Miss Rose, look around, the final step is complete, Atlas has shrugged, and the city is now safe from outsiders forever, I will protect it in perfect lawfulness."
Ruby began to feel her throat close as she was lifted further into the air, "Is that what this was about?" she thought as the air escaped from her lungs. Things were beginning to go black as the hold around her throat was made stronger, her fingers began to slip from her weapon as it fell to the floor.
At the same time, an unarmed Yang sat behind enemy lines inside a beacon airship, finally waking up in time to see the White Fang troops run from place to place, completely lost and obviously running from something. Crashing and whining is heard from one end of the hallway, the troops running from whatever was causing it just in time for it to fire lasers through the halls, melting the troops and bring the bars to a red hot consistency. Yang backed up to the bars and used their temperature to melt through her own handcuffs only before bashing the gate open and punching through the robot with her bare fist.
As she ran down the halls she found herself at the mercy of decision, just trying to think of the fastest way to the command center. After blasting through all manner of enemy she got to the room in time to see Ruby displayed on the monitor, being choked to death by Ozpin.
"Oh, no you don't." She said before running to the wheel and aiming the ship down and into the battlefield. Crashing it into the ground with the most damage possible, making the mast of the ship splinter under it's own weight and leaving metal shards everywhere she leaped from the ship with eyes red and burning.
"You monster!" was the only thing heard from her mouth before Ozpin grabbed her incoming fist, to which she replied by kicking him into the ground hard enough to launch him and leave a meteor like trail, effectively snapping his neck.
Ruby fell to the ground next to her, "Sis?"
At this point Roman had crawled away from the fight as it took place, "I've got to end this the right way, but first I have to get there." Holding his side, bleeding out and limping at best, he made his way to one of the lockers in the school building. After grabbing a pistol from the lockers and finding a map he could still read, he made his way up through rubble and staircase, his leg eventually going limp and and his left arm eventually losing it's effectiveness. He tried barely to get through the changes in his blood flow before reaching Ozpin's office. "I know, that he has, something of use here." He said, koffing intermittently.
Yang began to walk slowly to the just barely waking body of Ruby. "This will be quick, I'm sorry sister."
Ruby on the other hand in her half dazed state, let her gun formed Crescent Rose lean on the rubble as she turned it towards her sibling. Yang kept walking and as she stood in front of the body started crying as she pulled one arm back to ready Ember Celica to fire.
Weiss wrestled with the beast of a man Ironwood over the controls of the communications center. "I will not let you kill my friends!" She said as she stabbed the computer itself.
"What are you doing? Were you not the one who asked me for back-up?" He said with little thought in his response.
"Not this way!" She answered infuriated.
"I'm bringing order to this city, and through it, this Kingdom." Ironwood said with sureness in his voice.
"No, what you're bringing is unnecessary war." Weiss said while pointing out the windows at the destruction.
Ironwood pulled out a pistol and aimed it at Weiss, "Listen, little girl, if you didn't want war, you shouldn't have asked for help from General."
"You can say that twice." Juane said as he walked up behind the General.
"You expect us to let you just set fire to everything and get away with it?" Ren said as he led up next to Juane.
"You're outnumbered Ironwood." Weiss said as she aimed her rapier at Ironwood.
"That, children, is where you're wrong. Even if you kill me now, the rest of Atlus will rain down upon you with the fury of one-thousand of the hottest suns beating upon a beached fish, slowly killing it with it's sheer scale, no escape in sight." Ironwood said with the kind of venom in his voice only known by those who speak with purpose.
Roman then leaned over the desk and pressed the button, "I can't let Atlus call for reinforcements, Vale will never win." The computer screen started counting down the time, "5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0"
An explosion landed that took out the entire communications building and much around it, a large mushroom cloud forming over the center of the city. As Roman looked out the window for his friend he began, "Ruby, we can still win, we just need too…" And he stopped as he saw the cold bodies of Ruby and Yang on the floor below.
Roman fell onto his back and started laughing uncontrollably, insanely and maniacally. "Haha Haha… HAHa, ha ha haha, hehe!" Tears streamed down his face as he held one hand over his eye and the room began to fade, the blood pooling in the back of his throat and choking him into coughing fits. "I knew it, I'm just not allowed to win. Curse them, curse everything, and everyone, I knew it! Damn it to hell! She was the closest thing I had to family, the only thing I would sell my soul to save!" But as he cried out in rage and in hope for death to cut him a deal, a certain character seemed to appear to him. The character began to speak, and at first, Roman couldn't hear, but eventually it clicked as he saw the pink lace parasol, "Tis a shame you're the one who set this all in motion."
Romans eyes ceased to see, his ears ceased to hear and all of his senses took to torch and burnt out the last of their wick.
To possibly be continued…
AN: This is the time when I ask you, if you want to see a sequel or another story from me, talk to me about about it in a review or PM. I'm not opposed to anything, so give me your feedback as you wish.
P.S. I give my greatest condolences to the loved ones of Monty, whom have lost someone even more important than he is to us. And may I mourn the man that I had looked up to for his craft for a long time, all the way back to finding that first post of Haloid over six years ago. Rest in peace, Monty Oum, your creative genius and drive to accomplish new goals and poetic view on life and it's conflicts inspired us all.