A few things happened when I started moving.

First, the Hunters prepped their weapons and were on me in a second. Guess I spooked them a little, but I would be afraid of a giant metal robot frantically moving towards me.

Next, the Atlas soldiers that were escorting the survivors and Clem split off. Some stayed to help the Hunters while the rest continued to get the civilians to safety.

Also was it me, or did more and more Grimm seem to be coming out of nowhere?

Regardless, none of them were going to deter me from my goal. As battered as this body may be, the Hunters still didn't want to be crushed beneath a twenty foot wall of scrap metal and heated electricity. Removing themselves at first I thought I was in the clear until they noticed that they weren't my intended target.

The Schnee girl tattled on me and now I had to deal with more young hormonal teenagers with honest to Monty ridiculous weapons. I mean that bunny girl was wielding a camera!

Swords I can accept. Guns I can accept. Hell, gun-swords I can accept, but a fucking camera?!

'Out of my way!' They couldn't hear me, but some lost their nerve while others simply avoided me to only attack me from behind. My momentum didn't slow down either, but rather increased as Clem grew closer and closer.

So why was I slowing down again?

Looking beneath me I saw large, overly designed snowflakes forming beneath me. They turned dark a second and I could feel gravity sitting its fat-rump on my back. I looked around and spotted the Schnee girl concentrating on keeping me in place, and spotting the blond and goggles catching up along with a few others I knew I didn't have much time.

So I did the one thing that no one ever thought I was good at.

I used my noodle.

The first idea that came to mind was to try and break the snowflakes, but when I tried to lift my arms they would move barely a few feet, and my hold was weak enough as it was on this body.

Idea numero dos came to me quicker than I thought it would, and lucky for me it was one that allowed me to become a super-badass. Pushing myself up as far as my battered arms would allow me I flopped over onto my side facing towards the Schnee.

Then I played dead.

I ceased moving until I observed that she thought that I was done for, and I could feel the weight of gravity lifting just a tiny bit. It was all I needed though as I quickly blind-fired the coil in her general direction.

Unleashing its righteous thunder the white-clad girl ceased trying to hold me in favor of getting the hell out of the way. Electricity shot across the open ground causing small arcs of energy to connect with the ground and leave nasty singed cracks.

I didn't stay to watch the rest of the fireworks however as I pushed the Paladin to its limits to get itself up. The multiple groans and pops that I heard afterwards confirmed that I wouldn't be getting up again from that girl's gravity warping snowflake attack again.

She shouldn't try anything else, and the same should go for her friends as well as I fire the coil behind me to ward them off. I couldn't- no didn't care if they lived or died. They were Hunters and should be able to dodge a simple shot from a completely unstable, highly unpredictable generator coil that left the ground electrified.

Running wouldn't be the term I would use for how I was half running half galloping towards the retreating soldiers. They tried to run, but even in my state I was still able to catch up to them. Most pointed their guns at me, but any bullets fired wouldn't stop me.

I scooped up the soldier carrying Clem in a heartbeat while keeping the momentum of my half-run. The man panicked in my hand while Clem remained unconscious.

This guy was a total wuss.

The sound of bullets striking metal assaulted my ears as I held both the soldier and Clem close to my chest. They were shooting us?!

They were going to hit her! They were going to hit her! They were going to hit her!

Even the soldier started calling for a cease fire from his fellows, but I don't think they would hear them. They wouldn't hear his shouts of warning either as, without thinking, I fired the coil behind me sending lethal arcs of energy into both soldier and civilian alike.

… …

Silence so deep that even the static that ran through my head was barely a whisper as I looked upon the death I had just dealt.

Black charred bodies lay smoldering on the ground while others still twitched in odd spasms as some remaining electricity remained. But despite that, I knew that I had killed those people. They didn't deserve to die, but one stray bullet was all it would have took to end the life of the little girl in my hand.

"You bastard! How could you do something like this?!" I had forgotten about the soldier that still held onto Clem in my hand. He shielded her as best he could, and for that I commended this man, but at the same time I now knew that he wouldn't give her to me.

Setting him down gently, more for her sake than his, I pointed to the grunt and opened up my head. I heard him gasp when he realized that I was all self-piloted, but when I didn't feel him putting her inside the cockpit I looked back up.

"You think I'm going to let you take her? After the death that those people, my friends, just suffered do you really think I'm just going to hand you this little girl?" He was more perceptive than I, but that didn't help his situation at all.

Pointing at Clem and then to the inside of my head again the soldier began to back away. One last time I did this, and he did not comply with my demands.

Just as he was about to run as fast as he could away with Clem my hand shot out and crushed his legs. His screams went ignored as they were filtered into the static inside my head, and I let him live only since he tried protecting Clem.

A small voice in my head whispered, "Look at the monster that you have become…"

It didn't matter, not in the slightest.

I will do anything to protect this innocent girl who saved me from the darkness of my own mind. She provided a distraction for me so that I couldn't really focus on the nightmares that plagued me.

Parents who didn't want anything to do with me, and shunned me for being a disappointment. No friends to help me through my dark times in need of a shoulder to cry on. A terrorist group that only wanted me to fill up their ranks before I would be sent off to slaughter in the name of 'equality.'

I did die in fact, and through something that I will never be able to comprehend, I was brought back to life in the very tool that had killed me. Was that all I was? Yet another soul to fill up the ranks of some higher power to kill and kill?

Hell no.

I only killed to protect the one person who actually gave a damn. I only killed to keep her safe and be the friend to her that I never got to have. I only killed because those that wanted to take my friend away from me needed to die.

Even now she had distracted me from the darkness that surrounded us.

Grimm covered all sides as they had been attracted to the sure feast that was my dark mind and soul. Well I say let them feast on me, but may they go hungry as to not even get a lick of Clementine.

Picking her up from the screaming soldier I gently placed the light of my world into my head before closing up. The Grimm rushed in like a black flood before they covered my entire body with their own.

The scratches, the howls, the screams, even the soft breathing of the young life that I protected dearly. They all faded into the static.

And so too did I.

…

Bright lights filled her vision as her eyes slowly began to open up.

Clementine awoke a second later in a panic as all she could remember were the Bullhead shaking, people screaming, and a man having his neck torn open. They were all things that she wanted to get out of her head, but no matter how hard she tried they wouldn't go away.

She nearly jumped out from her skin as the door to the hospital room that she layed in opened up.

To her immense relief she saw that it was Dr. Polendina. Her excitement died however when she saw the fake smile the man put up for her. Clem looked into his eyes and could only see sadness, and even a flicker of hatred.

Somehow she felt that it wasn't directed at her however.

"What happened?" Before he could even utter a word Clem asked the question.

"Vale was attacked. It started at Amity, and from there the chaos and negativity spread like wildfire." Amity had been where the fights had been held and- what about Penny?!

Seeming to read her thoughts Dr. Polendina sat on her bedside and it was the tears that welled up in his eyes that told her what had happened before he even said anything. "Penny… she had been the first one killed at Amity. Her death sparked the negativity that had brought the Grimm down upon us."

It was unreal to think of, and it hurt to do so as she had now lost a friend. One she had saw as a big sister to her when she had no siblings.

"What about Scrap?" To her surprise the anger that she had seen had surfaced first before the tears ran down his face. The sadness returned when he looked at her, and his only words were, "Come Clementine. I think it would be best that you see him for yourself."

Taking her hand Dr. Polendina led her out from the infirmary that so many others had been housed in. It didn't take her long to realize that they were in Beacon academy, but it had taken quite a beating it seemed.

Many students and civilians alike filled the grounds trying to help out wherever they could. Buildings lay in rubble while the signs of battle could be seen everywhere, but it wasn't until they reached the center of the courtyard that Clem's heart stopped.

His body lay broken and discarded. Black dust and scratches covered his entire body letting sparks, wires, and torn metal distort how he had once looked. A giant machine of some kind lay atop his back and even replaced his left arm as it still sparked with life.

No one dared approached it now, but Clem rushed towards him without hesitation. Dr. Polendina had called after her, but she ignored him entirely as some sparks of energy lashed out at her. Some miracle, or just some dumb luck, saved her from being killed.

The heat of each arc singed her just a bit, but she ignored the pain as she reached his head. "Hey there idiot. Stop sleeping and get up. You're not going to just leave me like that are you? Hey! Wake up. Wake up!" Dread crept up in her like a snake around its prey, and its coils tightened harder and harder each second he didn't get up.

"Wake up you idiot! You're not supposed to leave me!" Friends don't abandon each other, and she wasn't about to let his lazy ass turn on her. Her small fists hit the large metal bulk of his head over and over and over and over and…

A hand grabbed her shoulder, and she cried when it was one of flesh and not of metal. One of the Hunters she presumed turned her around, and it was only sadness that embraced her rather than the warm presence of a friend as the Hunter carried her away from the empty husk that was her friend.

Today she lost two siblings; both made machine, but more human than any she'll ever meet. Tears silently fell down her cheeks as Clementine whispered, "Good-bye big brother. Good-bye big sister."

The tiny piece of scrap that she clutched in her hand would be all that she had to remember him by.

I'll admit that it was hard thinking of a way to end this series. To be honest I've just been so caught up with my main fic and work that I kind of lost interest in writing this one. While it was short it still got more reception than I thought it would, and I'm glad that you all enjoyed it.

I'm a little disappointed with this ending though, and I apologize if it leaves some of you unsatisfied, but I just didn't want to drag this one out any longer. I'm most likely going to keep to one fic at a time so that I don't have to worry about more than one for right now. Thank you all again for taking your time to read my story, and I hope you all enjoyed it regardless.