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2017-12-22
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2018-02-19
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To Begin Again

Summary:

Natives of the Wasteland invade Beacon Academy. The Courier, still amnesia-ridden, follows them and fights to protect Beacon. She meets Team RWBY, two particular members appearing too familiar for the Courier's liking. In the midst of battle and blood, an unexpected reunion unfolds.

Chapter 1: Battle of Beacon

Chapter Text

Today was, at first glance, just another joyous, merry day at the Vytal Festival.

Student Huntsmen teams were battling it out in the first rounds of the tournament. Victors and losers alike left the stage to explore the various shops and game stands scattered throughout the fairgrounds. Though the competitive air between each Kingdom persisted, tourists formed quick friendships with the locals in their shared enthusiasm of the celebrations.

The summer sun overhead shone with a radiance that only amplified everyone's spirits.

The blue streaks of lightning that sporadically flashed every few seconds were the first signs that today was no longer the festive holiday everyone was hoping to enjoy.

Many assumed the lightning bolts were a preamble for some grand exhibition put up by overly theatric showmen. They also assumed that the hulking metallic figures that appeared after the flashes were also part of the celebration. The lean yellow eye slits and the feral shape of the horns on the helmets should have been telling signs of something more sinister, but too many were too high on adrenaline and battle lust to come to such a conclusion. Civilians and student huntsmen looked on not in doubt and suspicion but with fascination and curiosity.

No one was certain who fired the first shot. Perhaps a drunken huntress or huntsman was being too liberal with their newly purchased Dust rounds, or perhaps the giant human-like tanks were set to instigate a hostile conflict immediately once the cloudless lightning storm ended. Regardless of how exactly the battle began, the battle itself was one all of Remnant would remember for years to come.

Ruby Rose could not hear the blaring screams of panic and pain or the rapid, messy succession of gunshots. The smell of sizzling smoke and burnt cloth and armor eluded her senses. She could barely feel the blood splattered across her face. What captivated Ruby into a never-ending, hypnotic trance was the dry pile of ash before her. A kind old man who had been serving her team a well-earned lunch once stood where the ash lay. A single stream of white, crimson light from one of the metal men had changed that in an instant.

Fortunately, the battle cries of her teammates soon returned many of Ruby's senses. Shoving a flat piece of partially destroyed wood off her leg, Ruby whipped out Crescent Rose and assumed a defensive stance. The endless months and years of training kicked in and took over. Weiss, rapier drawn with the recently modified Dust chamber rotating, took her place beside Ruby. One of Weiss' glyphs formed in front of the partners and shielded them from a volley of lasers. Ruby look through her scope and fired back at the metal men. Faintly, she could hear Blake's rare but ferocious howls of determination and Yang's semblance-fueled shrieks.

Eventually, there came a lull in the fighting. The metal men surrounding Team RWBY were either incapacitated or had chased after the other festival-goers and Huntsmen. The fairgrounds were in a smoky, torn ruin. Bodies upon bodies were lined alongside ash piles. Stragglers were weeping to themselves, looking through the wreckage, or doing both. There was also blood, too. Ruby pretended that the bloodstains were just ketchup stains that got everywhere, like during one of their past food fights. The blood didn't feel or smell like ketchup, obviously, but it still helped Ruby keep her mind on the here and now.

Before Ruby's heavy breathing could relax, Yang pulled the younger girl into her arms. "Are you okay, Ruby? Where are you hurt? Did they hit you? Is your Aura still good? Is that your blood?!"

"She's fine," Weiss cut in, eyelids blinking hastily as she tried to stabilize her own breath. "We're fine. One of those - those monsters just vaporized dozens of people, right in front of us. I don't know who, but…" Weiss' gaze drifted to a mutilated arm, the rest of its body buried under the rubble of a food stand. "What are these things?"

Blake, blackened dirt and ash covering all over her body, was kneeling near an unmoving, un-vaporized stranger. Her fingers were pressed against the body's neck, under the fish gills. Frowning, Blake looked toward the direction of Beacon Academy, of the towering school buildings pass a line of trees. "The fighting's getting closer to the campus. We should go help, regroup with the other students and the professors." Blake was about to say more, but Ruby upchucking her lunch to the side took priority.

"Ruby!" Yang shouted, hugging her sister protectively. Yang tried to wipe the blood off Ruby's face, leaving reddish smudges across the girl's cheeks and forehead. "Talk to me, Ruby. Are you okay? Do we need to get you to a medic?" Ruby couldn't form any words. She just buried her head into Yang's shoulder.

Straightening her back, Weiss consulted her scroll. "Whoever these metal men are, they seem to be jamming our communications. I have no signal."

"Neither do I," Blake added.

"Don't know where my scroll is," Yang said. Gently, she pulled out Ruby's scroll, only for it to explode in fiery sparks.

Another one of the metal men had his odd, intricate energy rifle poised to fire. Tossing it aside, he pulled out his sidearm and began firing. Yang dove to the ground in an attempt to shield Ruby. Blake and Weiss, through a combination of speed and dexterity, closed in on the man and disarmed him. Now on his knees, Blake held her gun to his head. Weiss's sword was an inch away from his throat. The armor of the metal men were hardly plastic costumes, but enough force with their Dust-infused weapons at this range would be enough to knock him out.

"Why are you attacking Beacon?" Blake growled. "Why are you killing so many innocent people?"

The metal man was silent. His vacant stare conveyed nothing.

Weiss glanced at the sisters of Team RWBY. If they could, Yang's raging red eyes would have killed the man on the spot. As it was, Yang was more concerned with taking care of Ruby. "Tell us who you are," Weiss demanded from their prisoner.

Somewhat unexpectedly, the man answered, in a gravelly, echoing voice. "We are the only salvation for a tortured world and its people. Without us, humanity is sure to perish."

"Salvation?" Weiss repeated in disbelief. She waved her arm to gesture at the battlefield. "What kind of slaughter like this constitutes as salvation?"

Before an answer could be had, another flash of lightning blinked before them.

The new figure that suddenly appeared was easily twice the size as one of the metal men. Its muscles were enormous, rudimentary armaments placed over rough green skin. In its hands was a giant mallet, not too unlike Nora's signature weapon. The beast gave a guttural yell as he swung the hammer. Weiss dodged the blow, but Blake was scent flying off into the distance.

Yang and Weiss stood at the ready. Ruby, though still feeling sick and exhausted, stood with her teammates. The green giant looked at the three with a curious expression before turning to the metal man.

"Why you use codeword?" the giant asked. "Codeword only for Phase 3. Phase 3 not happen until Commander gives signal. Commander give no signal."

"It was an emergency," the metal man said, retrieving his fallen weapons.

"Emergency? Ha! Four puny humans mean emergency?"

"It's not just them. The other Huntsmen, even the younger ones. They're stronger and faster than the eggheads predicted. Look around us." The plethora of metal men bodies was very evident, but it still hardly compared to the non-metal bodies or the ash piles.

"Bah! Power armor weak. Super Mutant strong! Little girls not so tough. Already tossed one far away."

"Hey!" Yang shouted to the bickering duo. "If you're done talking, we still need to finish this!" She readied her gauntlets and prepared to launch herself at them.

While the metal man took a hesitant step back, the green giant barked a laugh. "Golden human talks tough. Can golden human beat Super Mutant? I don't think so." The giant stepped forward, but the metal man caught him by his oversized wrist.

"Wait a second. Where's the rest of your team? They were supposed to teleport with you."

The confidence the giant portrayed was now replaced by nervousness. "Uhhhh, about that. Phases 4 and 5 might not happen until very, very later. Home base attacked by strong humans. Rest of squad went to stop them."

"The base is under attack? Is the teleporter secure?"

"Uhhhh..."

With another blue flash of lightning, a new human-looking figure appeared.

A flurry of movement followed that Weiss and Yang could barely keep track of. The new arrival had some sort of long rifle with a scope attached to it. He fired point blank at the green giant. Blood-drenched skin and brain matter burst into the air. The metal man fired at the new stranger hopelessly. Dodging the green orbs of energy, the stranger pulled out a revolver and shot the back of the metal man's knee. The metal man gave a cry of pain as he fell forward onto his stomach. He could do nothing as his rifled was taken from him. More green orbs were unloaded onto his face, his entire head melting into a green goop similar to that of the ash piles.

The helmet on the new figure wasn't like the metal men's. This helmet had a dented dome covering the back and top of his head. The visor glowed a distinct red color. Over his mouth was what appeared to be a gas filter. Instead of donning a completely metal body, he wore a brown trench coat and blue jeans along with bandoleers and various pieces of metal and leather armor attached all over him. A hood seemed to be hanging over his collar and lay suspended over the back of his neck.

Reloading the giant sniper rifle – an anti-material rifle by the looks of it, if Ruby's mind was clear enough to make the distinction – the trench coated man regarded the junior Huntresses with a tilted head, expressing intrigue.

"And who are you supposed to be?" Weiss questioned him. Her tone was oozing with distrust.

"Not an enemy," the slightly muffled and surprisingly feminine voice responded. After taking a gander of the surroundings, the trench coated woman gently set down her rifle and her pistol. She held her hands up, stretching her gloved fingers. "I come in peace. Mostly."

"Those weapons say otherwise," Weiss pointed out, remarkably cool-headed given the situation. The need to fight and survive trumped the need to think too closely about the macabre scene and the dead bodies, it seemed. "And you just killed a man." The armored fellow was probably a man. The grotesque giant was another story.

"Yes. Yes, I did. Hence, mostly in peace." The stranger lightly kicked the green mutant's side. "Not them, though. They came here to fight. I came here to stop them."

"So you're supposed to be on our side or something?" Yang asked, still ready to launch forward. "Who even are you, anyway?"

It took a long pause for an answer to formulate. "They call me the Courier."

"Yeah, we're gonna need more than that."

Ruby spat out some excess vomit and gulped. She eyed the Courier warily. Even without weapons, whatever semblance she might have would still make her dangerous. Despite that, the Courier setting down her weapons just had to be a good sign. It wasn't a taunting gesture, like something Roman Torchwick might have done. The Courier appeared honest in her actions and words.

"Who are these metal people?" Ruby asked. Her voice felt strained, probably from all the vomiting and screaming. "They're just... killing so many. Why?"

The Courier's shoulders slumped slightly. She looked to the ground, almost shamefully so. "It's a long story. The short version: everything you have, they want for themselves." The Courier nodded to her weapons. "Can I, or...?"

"Don't move!" Weiss commanded, positioning her sword to thrust forward if need be. "You can't honestly expect us to take some stranger's words and –" Weiss shut her mouth. Behind the Courier, pass all the carnage and waddling survivors, was the absolute last thing any of them needed.

A legion of Atlesian Knights General Ironwood had brought to Beacon were meant to keep any potentially lingering Grimm from the nearby Emerald Forest at bay. Either the metal men had taken out the Knights or the collective negative energy generated from the on-going battle was too much for the Grimm to ignore.

Blake was hopping over Beowolf after Beowolf with the odd Ursa mixed in, slashing each one's backside as she made her way toward her team. "Run!" she yelled to the civilians. "Get out of here! Run, now!" Some were already on the run, and some were already caught by Grimm claws and jaws. Blake shouted to her team, "A little help?!"

The Courier forewent the attempts at conciliatory negotiations and dashed for her weapons. Yang and Weiss were too busy taking on the Grimm to stop her.

One Beowolf lunged for the Courier as she picked up her magnum. She shot at the Beowolf's thigh, staggering the beast, but the Grimm managed to pin the Courier to the ground with its heavier body. The Beowolf lifted its claw to cut into the Courier's insides. Fortunately, Ruby's scythe dismembered its arm before it could hit flesh. Ruby sliced off its head for good measure. The Grimm fell to its side, allowing the Courier to sit up and stare at the rapidly deteriorating wolf.

"Are you... okay?" Ruby tentatively asked. The Courier shook her head, muttering to herself.

"Déjà vu," the Courier murmured. She looked over her anti-material rifle and glanced at Ruby's own scoped weapon. "Is that a gun?"

"Uh, yeah."

A howl louder and stronger than all the others attracted the Courier's and Ruby's gazes. Standing with a hunched back atop a ginormous pile of ash was an Alpha Beowolf, its eyes set on the two snipers.

Ruby and the Courier cocked their rifles, looked through their scopes, and fired.

X

Professor Ozpin of Beacon Academy had been preparing to prevent all-out war that would consume all of Remnant for the longest time.

If the defenses of the Academy and the resolve of its students and staff were to be tested to their limits, he had expected it to be against an onslaught of Grimm and an assortment of that woman's lieutenants and servants.

Instead, it was an entirely new, unknown enemy that was threatening to destroy everything Ozpin and his friends and allies had fought so hard to build together.

Most of the civilians and tourists who were fortunate enough to avoid ground zero were quickly evacuated thanks to James' quick coordination of his airships. That left the professors, the students, and Atlas' army to combat the "metal men," as the reports were calling them. Ozpin took some gratification in that these metallic warriors' movements implied that they held no intention of assaulting Beacon Tower. Amber did not seem to be their primary objective. Instead, on a more negative note, an indiscriminate high body count was what they seemed to be trying to achieve.

The laser and energy-based weaponry of the metal men had made easy work of most of the Atlesian Knights. On Ozpin and Gylnda's recommendations, James repositioned his forces to help fortify their safeguards against the Grimm. Student and professional Huntsmen and Huntresses from all Kingdoms battled the metal men throughout the campus grounds. The fighting was messy, to say the least. The lasers burnt through Aura-generated shields faster than most Dust-based munitions, but the agility, ferocity, and ingenuity of the Huntsmen teams proved to be a great challenge for the invaders.

Glynda and the other professors were on the ground, assisting with the fighting directly. Ozpin and James had opted to remain in their respective command centers, Ozpin in his office and James in his lead airship, to coordinate their people with the larger battlefield in mind. Their coordination was hindered by the signal jammers put against everyone's scrolls, but they had their tech-savy people already on the case.

From his elevated tower, Ozpin watched on as explosions went off, unmoving bodies and collections of ash piled up, and the sound of weapon discharge reverberated from the distant ground to even his own ears.

Still, Winter Schnee's reinforcements were due to arrive within the hour, and assuming Taiyang, Qrow, and the other veteran Huntsmen currently in the field received his messages, Ozpin was confident his forces would end the day in triumph.

Then, more of that mysterious blue lightning flashed before his eyes.

Instead of strictly striking the area around the fairgrounds, the lightning sporadically appeared across the entire Academy. It took Ozpin a moment to realize the flashes coincided with the placement of metal men troops spread about the campus. After the flashes, human-like behemoths with olive-colored skin began to fight alongside the metal men.

In minutes, the tide of the battle turned for the worst. These boisterous and self-proclaiming "Super Mutants" were pushing the Huntsmen back.

The metal men were the vanguard. Now that Beacon's forces were more or less scattered, the Super Mutants were meant to overwhelm them.

Ozpin, setting down his mug and picking up his cane, sauntered to the elevator. Though friendly reinforcements would surely arrive soon, and Ozpin was fairly confident in his Huntsmen's ability, there was too high a chance that woman's agents will take advantage of this ever-growing chaos to pursue their goals. Further preparations had to be made should the vault be attacked, either by these strange invaders, Grimm, or them.

Ozpin and the others will need to accelerate their plans for Pyrrha Nikos and Ruby Rose, assuming that they survive the battle.

X

Ruby can't remember the last time she's felt so dead inside.

She's fought Grimm. Grimm are inhuman, nightmarish monsters. Grimm are the things that took away her mother. Grimm easy to fight and cut up and kill.

She's fought criminals. White Fang and thieving thugs deserved a good kick to the head for their racism and breaking the law. They usually had just enough residual Aura to take a direct shot from Crescent Rose and feel it in the morning. It was a delight to play superhero, fighting like a real Huntress for the sake of the innocent, just like in her old storybooks.

She's fought other Hunters, during classes and the tournament. Those were always fun adventures in their own right. All the cool, customized weapons to admire, the unique semblances to overcome, the satisfaction of beating them in a fair fight...

These "Paladins" and "Mutants," as the Courier called them, weren't things Ruby would have ever imagined having to fight as a Huntress.

"What's wrong with their Auras?" Ruby whispered to herself. Her blade and bullets immediately drew blood from the Mutants' thick hides. Armor was generally supposed to subtly augment one's Aura, reinforcing both the outer and inner layers of the armor, yet whenever Ruby managed to cut through the Paladins' metal plating, there was always more blood that stained her scythe. If these people were supposed to be expert, elite soldiers like the Courier said they were, why weren't they taking more advantage of their Aura and semblances?

"What's an Aura?" the Courier asked Ruby.

"You don't know what Aura is?"

"Sounds like I should, but I don't, no."

"You're... not from around here, are you?"

"Maybe, maybe not. I'm not really sure."

More of Atlas' robots and soldiers had come to the fairgrounds to handle the Grimm. The soldiers told Team RWBY to help with the fighting near their dorm rooms, and the Courier ended up tagging along. The Courier hadn't turned on the Huntress team and was doing nothing but helping fight the monsters and Grimm, so Ruby decided she was trustworthy enough to keep with them.

Trying not to think too hard about the carnage surrounding her, Ruby took up a sniping position at on the roof of their dormitory, where Jaune and Pyrrha often held their training spars. Ruby made a mental note to look for Team JNPR if they don't run into each other once the fighting dies down. Weiss was currently helping Team CRDL and CFVY deal with the Paladins who were moving inside the dorm building itself. Blake, Yang, and other Huntsmen teams were on the ground floor keeping the Super Mutants occupied.

Hunters from the other Kingdoms who were also designated snipers joined Ruby on the rooftop. The Courier had also accompanied Ruby. They picked their targets and pulled their triggers with very little chatter or banter in between.

The Courier was a strange one. In almost any other situation, Ruby would be more suspicious of the Courier's unusual arms, attire, and her appearance through that blue lightning happening at the same time as Beacon's invaders. Ruby would also probably be gushing over her anti-material rifle and cool-looking helmet with a barrage of questions and requests to examine them. Unfortunately, the sights, smells, and sounds of the invaders' handiwork numbed Ruby to a point of not really caring who exactly the Courier was, just so long as she helped in defending Beacon.

The Courier slapped her hand against a device attached to her left forearm. It had a screen that was almost the size of a tablet's. "Arcade?" the Courier spoke into the object. "Arcade! Marcus? ED-E? Hello? Anyone still alive on the other side?!"

"Is that your scroll?" Ruby asked. "Do you have a signal?"

"What do you mean 'scroll'? This is my Pip-Boy." The expressionless eyes of the Courier's helmet looked at Ruby. The Courier pressed a finger against her temple, the red visor lighting up. "Have we met? You look familiar."

"I don't... think so?" Ruby was pretty sure she'd recognize someone with the Courier's look and gear. "I'm out of rounds. Do you have any spares, or..." Ruby trailed off, slowly realizing that if the Courier didn't know what Aura or scrolls were, then she probably didn't know much about Dust either.

The Courier didn't answer. She was too preoccupied with staring intently at Ruby's face.

"Um... why are you looking at me like that?"

"I swear that I've seen someone like you before." The Courier slapped the back of her head, as if to reorient herself from a dizzy spell, before resuming her stare. "You have silver eyes."

"I guess so..." Were silver eyes really that uncommon of a thing?

"What's your name?"

"Ruby Rose. What's yours?"

Before the Courier had a chance to respond, Yang suddenly appeared and shoved her away from Ruby. "Hey! Too close! Why the hell are you eyeing up my little sister like that?"

The Courier retained her disquieting stare and directed it at Yang's face. "You have red eyes," the Courier observed. "What's your name?"

"I'm Yang Xiao-Long, the badass Huntress who's going to be kicking your ass if you don't stay away from my sister." Yang turned to said sister. "Come on, Rubes. We're not done fighting."

Ruby nodded absently. "I'm out of Dust rounds," Ruby said.

"That's fine. You've got an oversized scythe in your hands. We'll take these freaks head-to-head."

"You really shouldn't," the Courier interjected. She reached into her dusty duster and pulled out another rifle. By Ruby's estimate, it was a compact variation of a 40mm grenade rifle. "It's better to take them out from a distance. Super Mutants will cripple your legs if you get too close, and then they'll probably try to eat you while you're down." Ruby watched as the Courier launched a grenade to the ever-growing conglomerate of Mutants and Paladins assaulting the dormitories. With Ruby's eagle eyes, through the smoke, she could see three blood-splattered Mutants rolling on the ground with one or two Paladin's crawling, detached from their lower bodies.

"Hey!" one of the other sniping Huntsman called out to the Courier. "Do you have any more of those grenades?"

"I've got plenty. "

"There's a bunch of those green guys gathering on the west and north sides. Help us out, will you?"

"On it." The Courier pulled out another grenade rifle from the innards of her coat. She held up to the Ruby. "You know how to use one of these?"

"Uh, yes?" Ruby's was a gun nut. Of course she knew how to operate a wide assortment of stock weapons. She took the rifle and tried to get a feel for its weight.

"Take the north side." The Courier also handed Ruby an ammo box. It was attached to a sling that Ruby was able to slide her arm and shoulder under. "Extra ammo." Raising her voice, the Courier spoke to the other Huntsmen. "Aim for the Super Mutants! They like to cluster together in packs of fours or fives, to make it easier to rush someone. Make them spread out, divide them, and your people on the ground will have an easier time taking them out."

"Noted!" replied a petite Huntress with her beanie pulled down to cover one of her eyes. "And who are you again?"

"You can call me Courier Six!" was the loud and stalwart declaration. "I'm the woman who's going to save you, your friends, and your families from certain damnation. You do what I say, and the Legion's gonna pray to their dead god that they'd never stepped into your home and pissed all over the place."

The Courier's words seemed to inspire confidence among the student Huntsmen and Huntresses. Their bodies lost their slack, their eyes narrowed, and their rate of fire increased. Taking her position on the western edge of the rooftop, the Courier launched another grenade into the frenzy below.

Ruby felt her feet bring her to the northern corner, but a hand on her shoulder halted her tracks. Yang cupped Ruby's cheeks in her hands. All of Yang's rage had faded. What was left were only her concerned, earnest violet pupils that stared directly into Ruby's soul.

"I'm fine, sis," Ruby reassured, despite the persistent numbness She could feel grenade launcher in her hands, see the wood and metal texture, but she was unable to feel it slide and scrape against her hands and fingers. Ruby couldn't even feel the warmth Yang's hug was supposed to give. "I'm fine enough to fight, I mean."

"Are you sure, Ruby? This fight isn't anything like the ones we've been in before. Are you absolutely sure that you can handle it?"

"I have to, don't I? I'm team leader. I'm a Huntress-in-training. I –" Ruby gulped again, pushing down another threatening wave of puke. "These monsters – the Legion." The green giants and metal men finally had an overall official name, too. "They – they killed all those people in the fairgrounds. They're trying to kill us now, and then they're going to kill more people. We have to stop them before that happens, don't we?"

That was how Ruby's fatigued and nauseous mind rationalized the situation, at least. Huntresses protected people. The Legion were hurting people, so the answer was obvious.

Yang didn't move away from Ruby. "Are you sure?" she repeated.

"We have to fight, Yang. I'll... I'll fight from up here. You need to go help fight, too."

Finally, Yang stepped back. "If you're sure. Just call for me, and I'll be there in a flash." Moving to jump off the roof, Yang gave Ruby one last worried look at her. Exchanging encouraging nods, Yang blasted off, and Ruby returned fire at the Legion.

"I'm serious. I know you from somewhere, don't I?"

The shy and socially awkward Ruby would have jumped and yelped at the Courier's sudden appearance beside her. As Ruby was now, she only shuddered and blinked. "I don't – I mean, you're wearing a helmet. Maybe if you take it off, then I'll recognize you?"

More grenades were fired by the Courier while she maintained her stare. She seemed to be able to automatically target bands of Mutants without directly looking at them. "You said your name is Rose, and that other girl's name is Xiao-Long."

"Yeah. Those are our names." Ruby fired a grenade. Smoke enveloped a band of Mutants while she reloaded. "Is it important?"

"It's... familiar. It sounds very familiar." The Courier turned back to the edge of the roof. "I've been having pretty bad memory problems for as long as I can remember. That's why I keep asking questions. I can't be too sure of what I actually know if I don't ask."

It sounded like there was a story to that, a story that Ruby didn't have much interest in at the moment. As Ruby fired again, she asked, "Who exactly are these 'Legion' people?"

"Well, I know the answer to that, at least." Courier Six sighed, as if relieved to talk about something with familiarity. "I have no idea where we are right now, but in my neck of the woods, the world's already been through certain damnation. Folks are trying to pick up the pieces now, put the world back into something worth living in. The Legion tried to stomp down on those folks. The Legion failed, so they ran. Their leaders have been trying to reform and rebuild ever since, assimilating and brainwashing whatever schmucks they can get their scummy hands on. Some might say that the Legion's changed for the better, but at the end of the day, they're still just out to take over the world." The Courier paused in her speech. "I guess they're trying to take over this world now. Doesn't make much of a difference. So long as I'm still breathing, I'll be there to stop it."

So, the Courier was supposed to be a hero from wherever she came from. "You're like a Huntress, then, protecting the weak and fighting for what's right."

"I try. Considering that some people like to call me the 'Messiah,' I think I've been doing a pretty good job so far." The Courier tapped against her Pip-Boy device again and twisted some knobs on it. "Is your, uh, scroll working? Mine's still a dud."

"Are you trying to call someone?"

"I'm not the only one who's trying to fight the good fight. My companions and I were tracking the Legion's movements. Traveled all the way from the Vegas to Chicago. We got caught up in a firefight, and I ended up here." In obvious frustration, the Courier slammed her fist against the screen of her Pip-Boy. "But no one's answering. Either they're unconscious, dead, or Arcade was right all along, and I owe him a drink."

"I don't think my scroll would help."

"I can't contact my team, but we could at least contact whoever's in charge of this place. You mentioned this was an academy? Is there a... Headmaster, or any professors you can get in touch with?"

Ruby moved to pull out her scroll before remembering that it was destroyed back at the fairgrounds. One of the other snipers called out to the Courier. "Our scrolls still got no signal. The professors are probably already fighting out there, somewhere."

"I'm not in the mood for a war of attrition," the Courier affirmed. "If we want to end this fight sooner rather than later, then I need to have a talk with the big man in charge."

"You got a plan for getting these Legion guys off our campus?" another Huntress chimed in.

"Sort of. I just need to talk with your Headmaster. I've... got a way with words."

One student Huntsman dressed in regal-looking robes scoffed. "There is no need. Atlas reinforcements should be arriving soon. Once they are here, the battle will all but be won."

The Courier vehemently shook her head. "No. If you get reinforcements, then they'll call for reinforcements. If you call for more, then they will, too, and it'll go on like that until things go nuclear. This has to end before things escalate further."

"And how do you suggest we do that?"

"Like I said, I need to talk with your Head –"

For the second time that day, a wave of dark red blood splashed against Ruby's face.

A thick, heavy blade stabbed its way through the Courier's shoulder blade. Pieces of her accompanying armor broke and flew apart. Her grenade launcher fell as she was raised up into the air by the sword. The agonizing cries of pain sounded awful coming through her muffled voice filter. Ruby could see abnormal shivering in the space below the Courier, and a Mutant with blue skin and a red cloak materialized.

"Antler knew you were a traitor!" the Mutant yelled. "Antler said to wait for the right time to kill you. That time is now!"

More blue-skinned Super Mutants spawned throughout the rooftop with their own giant swords. While the other Huntsmen turned to confront them, the Courier was thrashed around like a ragdoll before being dropped unceremoniously onto the floor. Streaks of blood spread everywhere.

Grimm blood wasn't at all like human blood. Grimm blood was so lifeless, so cold, with no soul. Human blood was fresh, warm, and unnatural to be pulled outside of the body.

Fighting through the numbness and fear, Ruby swung her scythe and caught the Mutant's blade before it could strike the Courier a second time.

The Mutant's contorted frown and yellow teeth were disgusting, but it was his scrunched-up eyes that attracted Ruby's attention. "So, Antler's suspicions were correct," the monster leered. "The Courier raises an army of her own kin to challenge my kin! The Courier will not succeed!" He swung his blade again. Ruby ducked under it and slashed Crescent Rose horizontally across the Mutant's stomach.

That was a mistake. Even though the Mutant dropped his blade and fell back in defeat, Ruby had cut open a series of bandages strewn along the Mutant's gut and sides. Foul-smelling blood and organs pooled out, causing Ruby to throw up yet again.

Ruby quickly recomposed herself. The Courier lay prone, her upper arm and shoulder a mangled mess. Ruby kneeled beside her. Thoughts of first aid and healing injuries via Aura ran through Ruby's head, but she could only stare at the horrifying injury. Ruby's hands were shaking uncontrollably, and her breathing was starting to spike up.

"Oh my god. Oh my god! What do I do? Are you – where – how much does it hurt? How can I help? What can I..."

The hand on the Courier's relatively uninjured hand clenched into a fist. She muttered something, but it could hardly be heard with the helmet muffling her voice. The Courier spoke again, still indiscernible, so Ruby tried to gently take off the helmet.

Unfastening the various latches and locks attaching the helmet to the Courier's collar, Ruby removed it and finally got a good look at her face.

For the briefest of moments, all of Ruby's stress and anxiety ceased to be. For one small millisecond, Ruby felt safe and content.

In the immediate millisecond after that, rampant shock and confusion completely paralyzed Ruby's mind and body.

Dark hair, a pale complexion, and silver eyes graced the Courier's face.

"Mom?"