Holy crap, we're so close to the end.

I do plan on making an epilogue, just because this is so long.

Somebody asked me over PM about what I think Jarryd's theme song would be. Ruby has "Red Like Roses", Yang has "I Burn", what would Jarryd's be? Well since there aren't many songs that fit with Jarryd's character and are like the other member's of RWBY's, I would say "The Downeaster Alexa" By Billy Joel would most likely be his theme. The song itself doesn't get you in the mood for battle, but I think the style of the song and the lyrics just fit his character. I definitely recommend giving it a listen.

Just a little heads up before you jump into things, this chapter will contain at least 1 or 2 character deaths….Idk why I felt the need to point that out but I did. (I ain't telling who right now, but to the people that PM'd me, they know one person that won't die ;) )

But before we get right into the last full chapter of Volume 1...of course the DAMN disclaimer.

I do NOT own RWBY or it's characters in anyway shape or form, I only own the characters that I myself have created, 5waydragon owns his two characters, and the person who created Irene (We'll just call her Irene since she has no fanfiction account yet…) obviously owns Irene. All characters, names, and settings created by RoosterTeeth belong to them.

There! Now they can't sue me!

And now for the last real chapter.

LET'S GET ON WITH- Damn me saying that every time is stupid, just read!

Team RWBY's dorm

Jarryd opened his eyes reluctantly, looking at the bare ceiling of the room his team slept in. He felt no excitement in getting up, he was more anxious than anything for two reasons.

The first reason: The Vytal Tournament championship round was today, and he had to fight.

Reason number two?

Today, all hell would break loose, and he didn't know when.

All of last night while Jarryd was waiting for his team to fall asleep, he remembered the words the hooded stranger, who kept informing him of future events like he knew they would happen said to him yesterday .

"Tomorrow is the day that everything will change" These words kept ringing in Jarryd's head like those were the only words he had ever heard. Today, if he didn't act quick enough, everyone he knows and loves could die. And now he had been given an article of clothing that could save at least one friend, maybe others, he just needed to get Pyrrha to wear it.

Jarryd was eventually able to get himself to climb out of bed. He saw that all of the girls were still asleep, something he had grown accustomed to seeing in the morning, he took this opportunity to relax with a shower. He grabbed his clothes entered the bathroom and locked the door, a rule that the entire team had created since Jarryd was the only male on the team.

After his shower, Jarryd changed into his regular clothing, and exited the room to see everyone still sleeping. He then remembered that Pyrrha would often go to the weight rooms in the morning to work out alone, he knew this because this same scenario happened often. Jarryd wrote a note telling his team on his whereabouts once they woke up as he grabbed the shirt and headed down to the weight room.

After a few minutes of walking Jarryd reached his destination as he entered the weight room and saw Pyrrha doing warm up stretches. He took a deep breath as he walked over to the red-haired warrior.

"Hey, Pyrrha!" Jarryd called out, making Pyrrha look up from her stretches and smile.

"Did you wake up early again, Jarryd?" Pyrrha asked, Jarryd simply nodded as he stood in front of her.

"Yeah, also I needed to...work out for the match tonight." Jarryd said, Pyrrha could tell that he was nervous by the quivering sound of his voice.

"You want to talk to me about something, don't you?" Pyrrha asked with the smile still on her face and a cocked eyebrow.

"Is it really that obvious?" Jarryd said with a small nervous smile.

"You didn't do a good job of hiding it." Pyrrha's answer caused them both to slightly laugh before moving on. "Well, what is it?"

Jarryd was conflicted now, could he tell Pyrrha the whole truth, or just quickly state what he needed her to do. He decided that it would be better for Pyrrha to have a little bit of background as to why she needed to put the shirt on.

"Ok Pyrrha, recently, I've been getting these...visions of events, and one of those visions had you near death, and you were going to die…" Jarryd glanced over to Pyrrha and saw that she was genuinely confused and surprised at the same time.

"But those are just visions, right?"

"That's what I thought a first, but I've been told that what I saw will happen, and it's going to happen today…" Jarryd told her with the most serious of looks in his eyes as he looked into hers.

"Jarryd, Ozpin told me that you were one of these 'orbital guardians' and you're supposed to protect me, but I think you're being paranoid…" Pyrrha put a hand on Jarryd's shoulders as he continued to talk.

"I might be paranoid, but I can't take any chances on this…" Once Pyrrha realized that Jarryd wouldn't let this go, she sighed and gave in.

"Fine, so what do we have to do to prevent this?" Pyrrha asked, Jarryd then grabbed the shirt and held it out in front of the girl.

"Wear this under your armor." Pyrrha looked at the article of clothing and was extremely confused.

"A shirt?"

"This shirt is fused with dust so that any damage you take will be reduced, so you won't feel as much pain, and your body won't be hurt as much." Jarryd explained as Pyrrha looked at the shirt. After a few moments of consideration, Pyrrha nodded.

"Ok, I'll wear this." Pyrrha said as she gave Jarryd a small smile, which he returned.

"Good…" Jarryd got up and began to walk over to one of the workout machines. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a match to train for." He said with a smile as he began to use the machine, Pyrrha laughed as she went to do her own workout.

After a good thirty minute workout session, Jarryd received a message from Ruby.

"We're in the cafeteria for breakfast, a lot of people are wondering where you are…" Ruby had typed, Jarryd raised an eyebrow as he formed his response.

"Weird, I'll be there in a minute 3" He replied as he left the room, Pyrrha had left a few minutes before. Jarryd reached the door to the cafeteria within a minute and opened the door. The reaction he got once he entered the room was shocking.

Every student in the room had turned to look at him, and once they had realized it was him, the room erupted in cheers and applause. Jarryd looked extremely confused as to why he was being cheered on, he then remembered the fact that he made it to the championship round of the tournament. Jarryd meekly waved at everyone as he walked over to get his breakfast, which consisted of toast, eggs, and yogurt. The girls of Team RWBY and JNPR saw the pirate's confusion and had been chuckling the whole time.

"This better not be something I'll regularly wake up to…" Jarryd said as he sat down next to his chuckling teammates. "You may think this is funny, but it isn't to me."

"Oh come on, you have to be enjoying this attention a little bit, right?" Nora asked with her usual smile.

"I came to this school hoping not to draw attention to myself, it only paints a larger target on my back." Jarryd spoke from experience, knowing how The Red Band's plundering would always bring the crew even more notoriety from the authorities.

"Dude, you started drawing attention to yourself when you whooped Cardin's ass on your first day." Yang said, making everyone remember the day when the pirate had first arrived at the school, Ruby and Jarryd especially remembered when the first met at the Beacon firing range and the two bonded over Jarryd's weapons.

"It was amusing to watch though, you have to admit." Pyrrha had added on, Jarryd had looked at her attire and noticed she was wearing the shirt he had given her. Jarryd smiled as he knew Pyrrha had trusted him, or she had just went along with it because he wouldn't have shut up about it if she didn't.

"Oh it felt even better to be the one to beat him, Weiss knows what I'm talking about." Jarryd continued to eat his eggs as he gestured to the heiress.

"He's right, it's surprisingly fun to defeat that brute at his own game."

"Either way, like it or not, you've become popular, Jarryd." Blake said before going back to eating her breakfast.

"I know, but that doesn't mean I have to like it…" Jarryd said putting his head down in disappointment, the group then heard footsteps coming their way

"Hey guys." Everyone had looked up from their meals to see Coco and Velvet standing in front of them. "You giving Mr. Famous over here the special treatment?" Coco joked as she pointed towards Jarryd, who sighed at the nickname.

"Not you guys too…" Jarryd said, clearly wanting to bang his head on the table repeatedly.

"Yep, though he isn't a fan of it, if you couldn't tell already." Ruby answered Coco's question with her traditional smile.

"Obviously." Velvet said with a giggle, finding amusement from the antics of the younger students.

"Anyway, will you guys be at the stadium to watch his fight?" Yang asked the two upperclassmen, Coco sharply inhaled.

"That's actually what we came over here to tell you…"

"Professor Peach asked our team to help him with some of his research, so we'll be staying here, but we'll be done in time to watch it on TV." Velvet had finished Coco's thought.

"We do not mind." Ren had replied for the group in his traditional tone.

"Yeah, as long as you watch, it's ok." Ruby told the upperclassmen. Velvet gave a bow of respect to the group.

"Thank you, loves."

"And good luck to you, buddy." Coco said, giving Jarryd a pat on the back.

"Thanks, Coco. I'll do what I can." Jarryd gave the two girls a smile before they walked off back to their own teammates.

"Speaking of the match, does anybody know a way to counter that Irene girl's semblance?" Jaune had asked out of the blue, everyone's eyes widened, realizing they hadn't thought about it at all. Blake had been the one to speak up next.

"Well...once Pyrrha had located her, she reappeared after Pyrrha was able to hit her, the hard part is finding her…" While Blake said this, Yang had gotten up to return her food tray, before an audible splash was heard. The whole group had turned around to see that Yang had stepped in a puddle of someone's spilled water.

"Damn it!" Yang yelled out, Jarryd noticed how when Yang's foot had risen, an imprint from where her foot had been formed for a second before taking it's normal shape. A plan then started to formulate in his head, a smile coming to his face.

"I think I've got an idea…"

An Hour Later - Vale Docks

Jarryd had felt that he should spend some of his free time before the big match with his crew and his father. When he looked upon the Crimson Raider, he remembered Ruby's words from nights before.

"Change them." When Ruby had initially said this, Jarryd thought that the idea was impossible at first, the men aboard the crew had joined the gang to get away from the government's strict laws, they wanted to live life as they pleased, they group of pirates would most likely throw up at the thought of working with the government. But if Jarryd had learned anything from his time at Beacon Academy, he's been able to see situations from other people's perspectives. Jarryd had seen that the group he thought of as his family had stolen from the innocent, sunk thousands of Navy ships just for the hell of it, and many other things that his new friends would have looked down upon.

Jarryd sighed over the situation as he walked onto the deck of the boat, looking around at all of the pirates on board, many of them busy with cleaning the ship. Anyone who saw him as he walked to his father's quarters would give him words of encouragement and a pat on the back. He saw a familiar face over by the sword grinder, it was Max, who was finishing up some blades.

"Hey Max!" Jarryd yelled, grabbing the attention of the crewmate. Max looked up and saw the captain's son, a smile growing onto his face.

"Jarryd!" Max exclaimed, dropping whatever he was doing and rushing over to Jarryd. "What are you doing here, don't you have to get ready for your match!?"

"The match isn't until tonight, I had some time to kill so I thought I'd drop by." Jarryd then picked up one of the swords Max had been working on and looked it over, and he was impressed with his work. "Seems that you took my advice to heart."

"Yeah, ever since you told me what to improve on, I've focused on those aspects and I think they've turned out nicely." Max replied.

"Well I can see you've worked your tail off, though there is still one thing to improve on here…" Jarryd then brought the side of the blade close to Max's face so he could see, small lines along the blade. "These cracks may be little, but can be dangerous to use in battle." Max's head hung low for a second, showing that he was disappointed in himself.

"How can I fix that?" Max said, bringing his head back up and listening intently.

"What I would do is just braze over the area that has the cracks, and they should be fixed right away." Jarryd handed the sword back to Max, who looked at the cracks closely. "By the way, how is Audrey doing?" Jarryd's question made Max smile and look over to his left.

"Why doesn't she tell you herself…" When Max said this, a small squeal was heard coming from the direction Max had been looking at. Jarryd looked that direction and saw Audrey's head poking out from behind the mast of the ship, her cheeks had turned a light shade of red. Jarryd smiled when he saw her.

"Hey Audrey, how've you been?" Jarryd asked the girl whose face turned a darker shade of red.

"Um...I-I've been..F-fine…Thank you for a-asking." Audrey managed to say in between stutters, Max had been snickering at his sister as Jarryd was just confused.

"Are you ok?"

"Y-yeah! I'm d-doing just fine!" Audrey said with less stuttering. Jarryd shrugged off Audrey's reaction towards him.

"Well, it was nice catching up with you guys, I've gotta talk with my dad." Jarryd had said before walking off, the two young pirates looked at the captain's son wander away. Audrey then sighed.

"There he goes again…" Audrey said with a downcast expression. A small smile grew on Max's face, ready to tease his sister.

"You've really got it bad, don't you sis?"

"Yeah…" Audrey felt her brother hug her from behind.

"You know he has a girlfriend, right?" Max had asked the question that they both knew the answers to, even then, Audrey still managed to form a crush for Jarryd.

"I know…" Audrey then got out of her depressed state and looked at her brother with a smile. "But a girl can dream, can't she?"

Crimson Raider's Captain's Quarters

Jarryd quietly opened the door to his father's quarters and looked around the room. He saw his father sitting at his desk, he appeared to be writing something down. Jarryd entered the room and shut the door, the noise of the closing door caused his father to look up and see his adoptive son standing in front of him. John Stark's smile lit up like a holiday tree.

"My boy!" John had run over and gave his son a crushing bear hug before releasing him. "What brings you aboard again? Especially before the big match."

"I had some time to kill, so I thought I'd spend some of it here." Jarryd sat down in one of his dad's chairs while John went to grab something from his cabinet, Jarryd was confused when his father pulled out a bottle of whiskey and two shot glasses. John walked back to his desk and began to pour the beverages into the small glasses. The pirate captain pushed one of the filled glasses towards Jarryd's direction, Jarryd just looked confused and shot a look towards his dad.

"What are you waiting for? Drink!" John exclaimed with a beaming smile as he held his own glass.

"Dad, I turn 18 in the summer, I can't drink yet!" Jarryd yelled at his father.

"Jarryd, nobody is even in the room except you and me, you aren't going to get arrested for taking a shot." John retorted while pushing the glass further in his son's direction. Jarryd looked at the glass for a few more seconds before giving a sigh.

"Ah what the hell…" Jarryd picked up the small glass and looked towards his father, who was holding his hand out, ready for the traditional toast The Red Band would always do before drinking.

"To the black flag, and the lawless seas!" Both father and son yelled at the same time as they clanked their glasses together, the pirates then quickly downed their shots of alcohol. Jarryd was able to swallow the liquid that left a burning feeling in his throat, he began to cough in order to stop the burning. John had been laughing at his son's reaction to the liquor.

"We need to take you drinking more often, you need to get used to the feeling!" The captain managed to say while laughing. Jarryd gave his father a stern look as he finished his coughing fit.

"If it feels like that every time I drink, I'll pass…" Jarryd gave the shot glass back to his father, who had poured himself another shot.

"So your first year of school ends in about a month, what's your plan for the summer anyway?" John had asked, downing his whiskey. Jarryd hadn't really thought about his summer plans, especially since he had learned that the world would change today. Jarryd knew it depended on what would happen today, but he formulated a plan in his head.

"I honestly don't know, most likely I'll come back aboard for the summer. Ruby has talked about inviting me over to her place on Patch before, but we haven't talked about it much." The last part of Jarryd's statement had been true, Ruby has wanted Jarryd to visit her island home for quite a while, but the couple had never made actual plans to have that happen.

"Aye, that's good to hear! We'll be back to the old days before we know it!" The captain said with a lot of enthusiasm. Jarryd looked down at the floor, remembering what he had been thinking these past few days. He took a deep breath and decided to bring it up to his father.

"Actually, Dad...that's something I've wanted to talk to you about." Jarryd only had to look at John's face for a brief second to see that he was confused.

"What do ya mean by that?"

Jarryd took a deep breath as he realized he shouldn't have opened his mouth.

"Well...Dad, I'm sure you've noticed the changes in me since I started attending Beacon…" John had to agree with his son, before he attended the academy, his son would always stay silent on board the Crimson Raider unless he was talking to Jack Daw, may he rest in peace. The pirate captain loved how Jarryd had come out of his shell in this past year, he even managed to get himself a girlfriend.

"Yes...I feel like there is a lot more to this."

"There is, Dad." Jarryd took a few seconds to think of what he wanted to say and exactly how to word it. "What I've learned at Beacon is more than just combat techniques, I've learned what being a huntsman is all about. We protect the innocent from Grimm and other threats, when what we've done as pirates is rob from the innocent and pillage." Jarryd stopped for a moment to look at his father, who was listening intently with a hand covering his mouth, he continued. "Father, we've hurt people who have done nothing to harm us, while the White Fang are out terrorising innocent people even more than we have! The White Fang are the enemy of everyone, and we need to join in the fight against them!"

After Jarryd's yelling, John had been sitting in his seat, still staring at his son with his hand over his mouth. Jarryd had been breathing heavily while waiting for his father's response.

"So are you proposing that we fight alongside that bastard Ironwood in this fight against an activist group…?" Captain John Starks spoke in a deeper tone of voice that he reserved for when he was trying to hold in anger.

"No, Dad! We don't have to work with General Ironwood in any way, and the White Fang may say they are activists, but they are terrorists!" The young pirate's ranting caused his father to look away for a few moments before his son continued. "All I'm saying is that the White Fang are more dangerous than the Navy is to us right now, they need to be dealt with, and we can help with that!"

John had heard enough, he raised a hand to keep his son from talking even more. "Jarryd Alexander Starks…" Jarryd flinched as he heard his father call out his full name, which he knew meant that his father was mad. "You may be my son, but I won't tolerate you telling me what 'needs to be done'. I am the captain, what I say goes...and until given a reason to fight the White Fang, I will take no action against them."

"But Dad-"

"No buts! I can see Ozpin and everyone else at Beacon Academy has turned you soft, especially Ms. Rose…" Jarryd felt his anger rise and his hands balled up into fists at his father's accusation of his girlfriend.

"Don't you dare talk about Ruby like that!" Jarryd had yelled out, loud enough for anyone outside of the captain's quarters to hear. John had turned around to look at his adoptive son, staring him down with eyes full of anger, but John wasn't afraid and didn't back down, and he wouldn't change his mind.

"You'll be lucky if you are even allowed off this boat after the semester ends…This conversation is over, Jarryd."

"Dad-"

"I said 'over!'" The captain's yell made them both go silent for a few seconds, Jarryd turned away and headed for the door, he then turned back to his father.

"Maybe it's best if you didn't come to the match tonight…" John didn't even have time to reply as Jarryd opened the door without another word said. Once Jarryd had exited the room, every person that had heard the argument between the captain and his son had their eyes on him. He paid them little attention and made his way off of the Crimson Raider. Jarryd walked through the streets of downtown Vale, his eyes locked on the ground as he moved along.

Jarryd was stopped in his tracks after running into someone, he stumbled back a little bit before looking up at the person who he ran into, it was Andrew.

"Second time we've run into each other like this, Jarryd. We gotta stop doing that." Andrew laughed while dusting off his vest and fixing up his hair.

"Sorry Andrew, didn't see you there…" Jarryd said, still in his own head.

"It's fine, but what are you doing down here? You got a match to prepare for." Jarryd nodded at the Atlas student.

"I just needed to talk to my dad and take my mind off of some things…" Jarryd decided not to tell Andrew the whole truth, Andrew raised an eyebrow at this.

"What 'things'?" Andrew's question made Jarryd sigh, he tried to think of a way to get out of telling Andrew about the biggest thing that had been bugging him.

"You shouldn't worry about it." Jarryd said, trying to dodge the question, but Andrew was having none of it.

"Usually when someone tells me 'not to worry about it', I should worry about it…" Andrew had a look in his eye that told Jarryd 'I'm not gonna stop asking until you tell me.' "So, what is it?"

"I would tell you, but I think it's also something Jackson should hear as well." Jarryd was now resorting to stalling, trying to find any way to avoid telling Andrew what the stranger has been telling him.

"Well here I am." A voice called out to them, Andrew and Jarryd looked to their right and saw Jackson standing there with a soda cup in his hand from a nearby fast food joint. "So, what's the deal?" Jarryd knew that he couldn't weasel his way out of this, he had to tell them what was going to happen.

"Ok, fine, I'll tell you…" Jarryd looked around and noticed how crowded the downtown area was. "But not here." Jarryd then lead the two brothers to an alley that had nobody there. Jarryd tried to think of the words he wanted to say, how do you describe the possible end of the world. "Alright, do you want the long version or short version of the story?"

"Let's go with the long version." Jackson answered for him and his brother.

"Ok, so recently I've been getting these...visions." Andrew and Jackson were listening intently as Jarryd spoke, seeming like they wanted to ask questions but they wanted Jarryd to continue. "And as you can probably guess, these visions showed me nothing good…"

"Like what?"

"People dying, it seemed like everything was falling apart. I've talked to...someone about this, and they said that those aren't just visions, and that the events in my visions would happen...today." Jarryd's story shocked the two brothers, they looked towards each other and back to Jarryd.

"Wait, who told you that those visions were real?" Jarryd knew he'd done it now, not only had he let the two know the secret that he had been sworn to keep, now he was under pressure to tell them about the stranger who had been visiting him. But just as he was about to explain, a voice called out from the rooftops.

"I did."

The 3 teens looked towards the roof where the voice had come from, the man in the purple cloak had been looking down at them, with his hood still covering the upper half of his face. The stranger jumped down and landed before the 3 boys, Jarryd just stood still as he watched the person who had been following him the past few months, Andrew and Jackson stepped back with looks of confusion and amazement.

"Ok...First thing, that was cool!" Jackson yelled out with excitement, Andrew facepalmed at his brother's reaction. "Second, who in the blue hell are you!?" The cloaked stranger just kept standing still and looking forward.

"You will know my identity in due time, but right now, besides Jarryd, you two are the only ones who knows what will transpire today." The stranger said, leaving Andrew and Jackson still very confused.

"So what Jarryd saw in his visions is going to actually happen?" Andrew asked, trying to find anyway to grasp the situation. The stranger only nodded. "Well you're the one who told him, so how did you know in it would happen in the first place!?"

"Because I was there when it happened."

This reply wasn't what anyone had been expecting, up until that point, Jarryd didn't even know how he knew about the events in his visions.

"So you're from the future?! You're a time traveler?!" Andrew was yelling out, trying to wrap his head around the situation. "How is that even possible?!"

"The right semblance can accomplish anything, even the things we used to think impossible…" Andrew and Jackson seemed to be wonderstruck at this idea of the stranger coming from the apparently-doomed future.

"Jarryd said that the world seemed like it was falling apart...Is the world going to end today?!" Jackson kept yelling his questions, now freaking out.

"No, the world doesn't 'end', if it ended, I wouldn't be here..." This made the boys all take a sigh of relief, and Jackson sweat drop at his own stupid question. "But I know countless lives will be taken, including most of Jarryd's friends…" Jarryd started to connect what the stranger was saying to his visions, Cinder standing over a defeated Pyrrha, Yang getting her arm cut off by that masked man who had stabbed Blake, it was all making sense.

"So those visions I saw of Yang, Blake and Pyrrha, they all die?" Jarryd asked with his voice softening, Jarryd swore he saw Jackson blush a tiny bit at the mention of Yang's name.

"That is correct." The stranger said before continuing. "But like I've told you, Jarryd. You have the power to change these events because many of these events are connected to you, you've already made a step towards through Pyrrha trusting you." Jarryd nodded, Andrew and Jackson looked towards each other.

"Sir?" Andrew said, gaining the attention of the cloaked stranger. "If you don't mind me asking, do Jackson and I...die today?" The stranger looked at both brothers with dead silence for a few seconds.

"No, neither of you die." The brothers took another sigh of relief, but the stranger wasn't done. "But there are fates worse than death…" Andrew and Jackson gave each other a scared look, as the cloaked man started to think. "Maybe you two can actually help…"

"How?!" Andrew and Jackson yelled at the same time, obviously wanting to help now.

"Attend the championship round tonight, but bring your weapons, and get ready to fight at the first sign of trouble." The stranger told them. Andrew nodded in agreement while Jackson seemed to be thinking.

"Wait a minute…" Jackson started to speak, making the others look towards him. "You're telling us to change the future, if that theory about the space-time continuum is correct you should be disappearing!" Jackson yelled.

"I admit, I thought the same thing at first, but technically that won't go into effect until the outcome of the future has actually changed, which as you can see hasn't happened yet." The stranger said, giving the boys time to wrap their heads around the situation.

"So you're saying that you won't disappear until we stop the world from having this apocalyptic fate?" Jarryd asked the man.

"Not just me, my entire timeline. Meaning that the future you saw in your visions will no longer exist." The 3 students looked towards each other as if they were plotting their next move in their head.

"Another quick question, why can this be known between only us?" Andrew questioned. "If other people knew about this, maybe we could have more help in preventing that future…" Andrew had a point, why did he have to keep this whole situation a secret when his whole team could help him out.

"I thought about that as well, but besides you two and Jarryd, anyone else who had knowledge of this information wouldn't do anything different that would prevent their fates." Jarryd walked towards Andrew and Jackson with a determined look in his eyes.

"I know I'm going to do what has to be done to change the future, are you guys in?" Jarryd asked the two brothers, Andrew seemed to be contemplating the question, but Jackson just gave a wide smile.

"I think you already know my answer…" Jackson walked up to Jarryd and shook his hand. "Let's do this thing!" Jarryd smiled at the willingness of Jackson, they both turned back to Andrew who was now looking at them and shaking his head with a smile.

"Well, someone has to look after Jackson and makes sure he doesn't end up getting himself killed. I'm in as well." Andrew joined the other two, Jackson gave him a playful punch in the arm as a sign of approval, Jarryd put a hand on Andrew's shoulder and smiled at him.

"Excellent." The man in the cloak said, causing the 3 to turn back and face him. "You know what you have to do, I'm leaving this up to you now." The stranger said before beginning to jump off of the building walls and disappear from the rooftops. The 3 boys just stood, looking at where the time traveler had vanished from view.

"Well guys…" Jarryd turned to look at the two brothers. "You ready to change the future?" The students all smiled and nodded at the same time. Jackson then seemed to have a lightbulb go off in his head.

"Hey Jarryd, I've been meaning to ask you something…"

"What is it?" Jarryd and Andrew saw Jackson look to the ground and saw a slight blush appear on his face.

"Your blonde teammate...Is she single?"

Stadium Entrance-6:45 PM

Team RWBY had just gotten off of an airship as they walked towards the place where the final round of the Vytal Tournament was about to take place. Right before they entered the building, the girls stopped and turned to face Jarryd.

"Since we got here a little later then we should have, I should go get ready for the match…" Jarryd told the girls.

"That's fine, Mom and Dad are probably waiting for us in the stands anyways. Go knock 'em dead bro!" Yang said, giving the lone male a fist pound.

"Good luck." Blake said softly with a small smile, Jarryd smiled back at the female faunus.

"I swear if you came all this way just to lose in the final round, you will receive the scorning of a lifetime!" Weiss yelled out and giving Jarryd a threatening look, he simply rolled his eyes as Ruby walked up to him next.

"She's right you know, you promised that you would win…"

"And I will, that's a promise that I don't intend to break…" Jarryd replied before leaning in and giving Ruby a quick kiss. The couple looked into each other's eyes for a few more seconds before parting.

"Good luck…" Ruby whispered before leaving with the rest of the team. Jarryd sighed before walking off towards the entrance tunnel.

While walking to his spot, he felt someone bump into his side purposefully with their chest, Jarryd turned to see who this person was and saw his upcoming opponent, Irene Chamelian. The girl gave Jarryd her trademark smirk.

"Oh, that's my bad...though I'm not sure you minded…" Irene said while puffing out her chest a little, Jarryd just rolled his eyes at her flirting attempts.

"Sorry, I'm taken."

"I know, you're with that girl I knocked out 2 matches ago. She's what, 15? I didn't know you were into younger women…" Irene said, walking towards the pirate while swaying her hips attractively. "Hopefully you will be a much tougher opponent…"

"Well I promised that girl that I would win today…" Jarryd said looking directly into Irene's eyes, giving her an identical smirk. "And I don't break promises." The two fighters stared at each other for a few more seconds before Irene broke the silence.

"I guess we'll find out if that's true…" Irene started to walk towards her designated tunnel before she turned around. "I'll see you out there soon, pirate boy." The nickname she gave Jarryd shocked him a bit, she knew about his origins.

"How did you-"

"I did a little bit of digging, and eventually all I had to do was connect the dots." Irene replied before finally walking off, leaving Jarryd in a stupor, suddenly Jarryd felt a hand on his shoulder.

"You okay man? you've still gotta fight out there…" Jackson said, looking at the pirate's dumbfounded expression, Andrew was right behind his brother.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Jarryd brushed Jackson's hand off his shoulder. "Your teammate just seems to weird me out everytime I encounter her."

"Irene will be like that a lot, and I mean a lot." Andrew said, putting emphasis on the last part of his sentence. Jarryd saw that both brothers had been carrying their weapons with them, Andrew had Black Cardinal strapped on his back and Jackson had Truth's Fang sheathed on his waist.

"Alright, just remember guys, at the first sign of trouble, be ready to fight…" Jarryd told the two, trying to get them ready.

"You don't have to tell us, this is possibly the fate of the world we are talking about here, we're completely focused." Andrew responded, but both Jarryd and Jackson could tell that he was nervous.

"Drew, we've got this, as long as we have anything to say about it, whatever is about to attack us is gonna get a harsh reminder not to mess with the Blink Brothers!" Jackson said while putting both hands on his brother's shoulders.

"By the way Jackson, you sure your illness won't come up if things get hectic?" Jarryd asked him.

"I should be good to go for a while, but I can't make any promises. But with Andrew around, I'll be ok." Jackson replied with a small smile. Jarryd couldn't help but be reminded of his time with Jack aboard the Crimson Raider, the two always had each other's backs and looked out for each other.

"Alright guys, you get to the stands…" Jarryd said before turning towards the tunnel. "I've got a fight to win first." Jarryd began to walk into the tunnel leaving Andrew and Jackson behind, Jackson yelled back at him.

"You got it Chief!" Jackson yelled to Jarryd before being dragged off by Andrew up to their seats. Jarryd got into the tunnel and saw the bright lights of the arena outside, he was amazed of how many people came to watch this fight, just from his small viewing point. Jarryd saw the outline of a female being silhouetted in front of him due to the bright lights, he got closer and was able to identify the person.

"Penny?"

The girl turned around to reveal the same red-headed girl that he and Ruby had made friends with while trying to find Blake during her crisis. Penny seemed surprised to find Jarryd down there right next to her.

"Oh, Jarryd! I forgot that you were one of the two fighting today." Penny said in her usual monotone voice.

"Yeah, what are you doing down here anyway? I thought everyone had to watch from the stands." Jarryd asked Penny, who seemed to turn red at the pirate's question.

"I…um…" Penny began to stutter. "I snuck down here because I wanted to watch the fight up close, please don't tell anyone!" Penny replied quickly, Jarryd couldn't tell if she was nervous or embarrassed in some way if she didn't want him to tell anyone.

"Sure." Jarryd's short response caused Penny to look at him in surprise.

"Really?"

"Of course, what sort of friend would I be if I did?" Jarryd's words made Penny take a step back and take in what he said, the word 'friend' seemed to have the biggest effect on her. Penny rushed up and crushed Jarryd in a bear hug. Jarryd eventually pried Penny off of him as a booming voice came over the loudspeaker.

"WELCOME EVERYONE TO THE FINALE OF THE VYTAL FESTIVAL TOURNAMENT!" Doctor Oobleck yelled over the loudspeaker.

"Does your teacher always yell like that?"

"Sadly, yes."

"Yes, that's right Bartholomew. In a few short minutes we will see the impressive academy students, Irene Chamelian and Jarryd Starks face off to see who will take home the Vytal Tournament crown!" Professor Port said after Dr. Oobleck. "Both Mr. Starks and Ms. Chamelian's battle to reach this moment are true underdog stories. Irene Chamelian went into this tournament as someone who seemed forgotten in the lineup, and yet she has managed to get here by going through the toughest of competition, while Jarryd Starks wasn't even a student at Beacon Academy until a few weeks into the semester, yet his strategic mind and powerful semblance have yet to meet a match."

Jarryd was biding his time and waiting for the professor to finish his speech, until he had to introduce the fighters, which would be his cue to enter the arena. Penny had been listening to Port and Oobleck's praise of the young pirate intently.

"Your instructors seem to think highly of you."

"I guess I must have impressed them somehow…" Jarryd said softly as Professor Port kept speaking.

"But enough chatter, it's time to introduce our combatants!" Port announced, the crowds response was a loud roar of cheers and applause. Jarryd inched towards the tunnel's exit and looked back towards Penny.

"Wish me luck."

"Good luck!" Penny said to him with a smile and her eyes closed.

"Hailing from Atlas Academy, please welcome Irene Chamelian!" Realizing that was her cue, Jarryd saw Irene come out of the tunnel on the opposite side of his, she was looking at the crowd with a sense of pride, eating up the applause. Jarryd still had a funny feeling in his gut, Irene had that overly confident look on her face, it seemed like she was planning something, she thinks she has already won. It was then Jarryd's turn to be introduced.

"From Vale's own Beacon Academy, please welcome Jarryd Starks!" The crowd roared again, most likely cheering for their hometown representative. Jarryd took a quick breath as he walked out onto the field, he began to slightly wave to the audience as he looked through the crowd. He found Ruby and the rest of the team, but there was one notable person missing, his father who he had told it would be best if he didn't show up. He had heeded his son's advice. After a few moments of staring into the crowd his own blue eyes met Irene's. Just by looking at each other they could feel the tension between them. Irene gave the pirate a cocky grin and spoke up.

"It's the final match, Handsome. Hopefully you don't bore me like any of my other fight's…"

"You won your battles through trickery…" Jarryd unsheathed his sword and got into a running stance. "What happens when you face someone who know's your tricks?"

"I don't know, I'll tell you if that ever happens…" Irene said before readying her staff and getting into a running position like Jarryd was in. Professor Oobleck's voice came over the loudspeaker again.

"Are both combatants ready?" Jarryd and Irene didn't say anything, but gave a nod of approval. Both students were looking at each other with a look that would scare even a beowolf.

"Then let the Vytal Tournament Championship begin in 3…"

Irene tilted her head to both sides in order to crack her neck.

"2…"

Jarryd poured out water from one of his canisters and allowed the water to form a gauntlet around his hand.

"1…"

Both fighters sat in wait, anxious for Professor Port to say the word, so they could finally face each other. Then it finally came.

"Go!"

Like a bullet, both Jarryd and Irene raced straight forward, approaching each other with weapons ready. Jarryd raised his sword and swung downwards with all of his might, Irene took a defensive position with her staff and blocked the strike. The two kept swinging at each other in the same position, after a strike that caused the two to step back and recover, Jarryd punched Irene with his sword hand and while Irene gave his face a roundhouse kick, both strikes made them spin around. When the both recovered, Jarryd shot his hand which held the water gauntlet towards Irene stomach, while Irene placed her staff in the same spot on Jarryd. Irene hit Jarryd with an explosion from her staff while Jarryd sent forward a stream of high-pressure water, making the two fly backwards.

Jarryd quickly got back up and drew one of his revolvers, with the gauntlet of water still on his other hand. He rushed forward again and began to shoot at the female fighter, who seemed to dodge the attacks by elegantly spinning, like some sort of exotic dancer. Jarryd sent out some more water in the form of a whip and swung it at Irene, who simply jumped over the attack and moved towards Jarryd, who realized he had to method in which he could block with. Irene swung the end of her staff into Jarryd's side, and the proceeded to whack Jarryd in the face multiple times. Jarryd quickly reached for Crimson Fury and brought it up, interlocking the blade and staff. Jarryd and Irene's eyes met once again, Irene's face held a cocky grin, while Jarryd's held a scowl.

"You and I could've been something special, y'know?" Irene said in a sultry tone.

"Sorry, but I don't date crazy people!" Jarryd replied. Irene's eyes shifted into a fake expression of hurt.

"Oh, is that so…?" Irene quickly pushed against Jarryd's cutlass and performed a backflip kick which connected with Jarryd's chin, causing him to perform a backflip as well, but unlike Irene who landed gracefully on both feet, Jarryd crashed into the ground back-first. As Jarryd tried to get up, he saw Irene ready to bring her staff down into his back, Jarryd quickly rolled out of the way as the staff landed on the ground where he was a second ago. Jarryd quickly got to his knees and slashed at Irene's arm which held her staff, Irene recoiled a bit from the pain that engulfed her arm, giving Jarryd enough time to load a explosive bullet into his revolver and fire, sending Irene backwards and creating distance between them.

Jarryd rose to his feet as he compared his and Irene's aura levels, Jarryd's aura was about a sliver lower than Irene's as both of their aura's were into the yellow phase. He then looked towards Irene who had then activated her semblance and disappeared from Jarryd's vision. Jarryd quickly dumped out another canister onto the ground and spread the water throughout the entire field of battle, as the water flooded the area, suddenly he could see splashes coming from the right side of his vision, he had found out where she was. Jarryd aimed his revolver and shot right above the splashes.

The rubber bullets seemed to hit their mark as Irene reappeared right in front of him, Jarryd quickly thought of an idea and used the water underneath the two to disappear and then fly up from underneath Irene, giving her a hard uppercut as he came up. Both fighters went soaring through the air, except Jarryd had control over where he was going while Irene was like a ragdoll in midair. Jarryd saw another chance to attack as he brought up a spout of water and sent it towards Irene, sending her forcefully into the ground. Jarryd landed on his feet as Irene stumbled to get up. The expressions of both students were opposite of what they usually were, Jarryd had a smirk on his face while Irene had a grimace of pain on hers.

"I thought you said I didn't know your tricks?" Jarryd asked the girl, whose clothes were starting to tear a bit from the fight. Irene smiled again as she regained balance.

"Oh, you thought that was all…?" Irene replied, causing Jarryd to raise an eyebrow. Irene reached for her staff and seemed to turn a dial on it. "I've got another trick up my sleeve!" Irene yelled as she launched another blast at Jarryd, except unlike what he had seen before this rocket heading towards him was a lot larger, his eyes grew wide as he realized he needed to move. He jumped out of the way just as the shot arrived to where he was standing before, a large explosion occurred, which blew Jarryd off course and he painfully slid on his side. Jarryd looked close at both of their auras again, Irene was nearing red, but Jarryd wasn't too far behind her, he knew he couldn't be hit by an explosion like that or the fight would be over. Irene fired another shot, which Jarryd ran out of the way of, this time the explosion didn't touch him as he ran towards the girl. Jarryd dodged the explosive shots coming from every direction until he was finally within distance to attack, he swung his sword over his head and brought it down, which Irene sidestepped away from. The Atlas student swung at Jarryd's back with all of her might and connected, she then grabbed his shoulder and pulled him backwards and throwing him over her shoulder causing him to come crashing to the ground with a large thud. Jarryd tried to quickly get back up, but was met with a full-force drop kick from Irene, sending him about 20 yards backwards.

Jarryd took a second to recover and he struggled to get up, when he looked up, he saw another shot from Irene's staff coming his way, but he didn't have enough time to move away in time, he quickly put his arms in front of him and braced for impact, then the shot reached it's target.

A big cloud of dust rose from the explosion, covering the area Jarryd was in, many members of the audience held their breath, waiting to see if Jarryd was ok, but the dust cloud seemed to refuse to go away. Team RWBY sat in shock, trying to find their teammate in the cloud.

"He's ok, he has to be ok! Right!?" Yang yelled out, worried that her 'brother' was seriously hurt and lost the match.

"I don't know, you how powerful those explosions were, and he took one on full force…" Weiss replied, she had been biting her nails the entire time, also worried about her male teammate.

"And his aura was already fairly low...He might be near death for all we know…" Blake also answered, her face surprisingly away from her book. The three girls looked over to their team leader, who had tears starting to come out of her eyes.

"Jarryd...please...please be ok!" Ruby yelled out, even louder than Yang had yelled. After about 30 seconds, the dust cloud still remained, and Jarryd hadn't emerged. The entire audience had been silent. Irene smirked, put away her staff, and turned away triumphantly.

"Sorry, pirate boy...but I warned you…" Irene said as she started to walk away and wave to the crowd, but she didn't see a few waves of water creeping up behind her. Suddenly the waves shot out and started to flow around Irene and condense together, trapping her in a large bubble. Irene started to flail about, but she wasn't able to move an inch as the bubble held her in place. Suddenly, Jarryd ran out of the dust cloud, sword at the ready, something was different about Crimson Fury, as the crimson sword seemed to have a light blue outline, along with Jarryd's own eyes.

Jarryd gave out a loud battle cry as he slashed at the bubble that held Irene trapped within. The bubble seemed to have a delayed reaction as it exploded and Irene let out a cry of pain as she fell to the ground. Jarryd turned around and saw that Irene's aura was in the red, while his own was a deep yellow. The blue glow that surrounded Jarryd's eyes and his sword disappeared as he started to breath heavily. Then Jarryd spoke.

"A good rule of combat...never turn your back on an opponent…" Jarryd said softly, after a few moments of shock, Professor Port came over the loudspeaker again.

"It's over! Jarryd Starks is your Vytal Tournament champion!"

The crowd erupted to a deafening level of volume, Jarryd fell to his knee in exhaustion, sword still in hand. Jarryd looked out into the crowd and saw people jumping up and down in excitement over his victory, his eyes landed on his team, who had been celebrating amongst themselves as well. Jarryd rose a hand above his head and pumped his fist in triumph before rising to his feet. Jarryd was able to make eye contact with Ruby, who seemed to be on the verge of tears of joy, he nodded his head in a way that told her that he fulfilled his promise. The crowd began to chant his name.

As he waved to the crowd, he failed to see Irene get up from where she had landed, she quickly reached for her staff and turned the dial again to an even higher level of intensity, but Jarryd didn't see as she gave another grin and fired a shot at his back. Jarryd heard the noise and turned backwards to see the shot heading straight for him, once again, he didn't have time to dodge, all he could do was turn his shoulder, trying to soften the blow.

He heard an explosion, but didn't feel any pain…

Jarryd opened his eyes and saw what endured the full force of the blast, except it wasn't what, it was who. The first sign as to who was their bright orange hair and gray outfit…his eyes widened in horror.

"PENNY!"

As Jarryd saw Penny's body hit the ground, her body seemed to fly apart in a heap of what seemed like wires and machinery. A gasp filled the arena as Jarryd ran over to the fallen red-head, he knelt down and saw Penny's literally broken state as her body had been blown apart, he saw that her insides were all mechanics and electric equipment.

'She's an...Android!?'

While in the midst of his stupor, he didn't realize that Penny was still conscious and was looking at Jarryd. She smiled at the pirate.

"Jarryd...are you ok?" Penny asked him in her usual monotone voice.

"Penny...I'm ok...but why? Why did you do that!?" Jarryd yelled, his eyes starting to water, wondering why in the world Penny would sacrifice herself for him.

"That's simple. You're my friend, and I'll protect my friends even at the cost of my life…" Penny replied, a tear ran down Jarryd's cheek as he watched a friend give their life for him again.

"I'm s-so sorry, Penny…"

"Don't be sorry Jarryd, you and Ruby gave me a purpose in life...and I've fulfilled my purpose." Jarryd looked out of the corner of his eye and saw Ruby with her face buried into her hands, tears streaming down her face. She looked as if she was ready to scream. "Jarryd...thank you, for everything." Penny said as she lowered her head, her face shifting to a blank expression. Penny was gone. Jarryd wanted to say something, but no words were coming to mind. Irene was the one who ended up breaking the silence.

"Oops, did I break your doll...how sad." Irene said, with obvious sarcasm in her voice. Jarryd felt the anger fill up inside of him as he stood up and pointed one of his pistols towards Irene's head, finger ready to pull the trigger. Irene pointed her staff at him in response

"Why…?" Jarryd asked Penny's killer. "The match was over! What are you trying to pull!?"

"Oh, you'll see…" Irene replied, still with a wide grin on her face.

"Just what the hell are you-" Jarryd was interrupted when the jumbotron inside the stadium switched its view to a white screen, with a black chess piece in the middle. Jarryd's eyes widened as he recognized the symbol, it was the same one he and Ruby saw the night of the school dance. Suddenly, a voice boomed over the stadium speakers, and it wasn't Professor Port or Oobleck.

"This is not a tragedy. This is not an accident…" A female voice said, Jarryd was able to recognize the voice quickly.

'Cinder!' He thought, sweat now rolling down the side of his face.

"This is what happens when you hand over your trust, your safety, your children, to men who claim to be our guardians, but are in reality, nothing more than men…"

Jarryd looked back at the crowd, noticing Andrew and Jackson standing up, with hands already gripping the handles of their respective weapons, Ruby had been staring at the heap of metal that used to be their friend Penny while the rest of their team was trying to wrap their heads around what this person was going on about.

"Our academies' headmasters wield more power than most armies, and one was audacious enough to control both…" Cinder said, referring to General Ironwood. "They cling to this power in the name of peace, and yet, what do we have here? One nation's attempt at a synthetic army mercilessly torn apart. What need would Atlas have for a soldier disguised as an innocent little girl? I don't think the Grimm can tell the difference."

The mention of Penny by Cinder started to make Jarryd shake with anger, knowing that Penny just gave her life for his.

"And also our beloved champion, Jarryd Starks, gets an invite to Beacon Academy without any previous credentials. How did Ozpin find such a talent you may ask? What if I told you that Mr. Starks here was the byproduct of everyone's favorite band of thieves and murderers, The Red Band…" An audible gasp could be heard from the crowd after the civilians heard this information, that the one they had been cheering for was a member of the infamous pirate band. Jarryd looked around again, noticing that many onlookers seemed to look at him with fear in their eyes instead of pride. He cringed, knowing his biggest secret was revealed to all.

"A synthetic girl that Ironwood deems as disposable, and a boy who grew up learning from proven criminals...what were our headmasters trying to accomplish? Perhaps Ozpin hoped that victory in this tournament would help people forget his colossal failure to protect Vale when Grimm invaded it's streets. Or perhaps this was a message to the tyrannical dictator that has occupied an unsuspecting kingdom with armed forces…" Cinder's words seemed to do what she wanted them to, as some people in the crowd seemed to be giving looks of slight agreement with her words. "Honestly, I haven't the slightest clue as to who is right and who is wrong, but I know that the existence of peace is fragile, and the leaders of our kingdoms conduct their business with iron gloves. As someone who hails from Mistral, I can assure you the situation there is equally desirable." Jarryd's eyes focused on the screen again, staring at the symbol showing, his nightmares were trying to become reality.

"Our kingdoms are at the brink of war, yet we, the citizens, are left in the dark. So, I ask you, when the first shots are fired, who do you think you can trust?" Cinder finished her speech, Jarryd looked down to try and find Irene again, but she seemingly disappeared during the speech. Just then, a loud alarm started to ring.

"ALERT: Incoming Grimm attack. Threat Level: 9. Please seek shelter in a calm and orderly manner." At the mention of a Grimm attack, civilians started rushing from the stands and making their way out of the stadium, most of the students stayed behind. Suddenly, General Ironwood's voice came over the loudspeaker.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please, there is no need for panic!" Ironwood said, trying to calm the people down. Then a loud roar and a crash could be heard from above, everyone looked to see a Nevermore perched upon the barrier of the stadium, trying to break through. Jarryd looked at the Nevermore in horror.

"How did that get through the kingdom's defenses!?" He heard Jackson yell out.

"If that was able to get through...then it can't be alone…" Andrew answered his brother. The Nevermore then flew up and started to dive bomb towards the barrier, shattering it and landing in front of Jarryd, he flew back a few feet by managed to stay upright. The Nevermore charged at Jarryd, who readied his sword as he had nowhere else to move, then a shadow lashed out from behind Jarryd and blasted the giant beast backwards. The Nevermore took flight and began to hover in the same place. Jarryd saw Andrew and Jackson run up beside him.

"That was close, next time make sure that I don't have to save you." Andrew said as the shadow he was controlling disappeared.

"Yeah, thanks Andrew." Jarryd responded as he saw both brothers had their weapons out, Andrew with his halberd and Jackson with his saber. The pirate realized that the ground they were standing on was still covered with water, a plan came to his head. "Guys, I have an idea!"

"Well speak now, or we'll forever be resting in peace!" Jackson yelled at Jarryd, who was taking note of the Nevermore's position.

"Andrew, I need you to draw it into the middle and then keep it there…" Jarryd said while looking towards the older brother, Andrew nodded in response.

"Can do."

"Jackson, when I say the word, I want you to rush in and finish the thing off!"

"Sweet! I get the fun part!"

"Alright, let's do this." As if on cue, the Nevermore flew low towards the 3 boys, but Andrew countered by forming a solid wall of shadows in front of them. The Nevermore took evasive maneuvers and flew back up into the air, Andrew commanded the shadow to follow the beast as it formed a cylinder around it, trapping it inside.

Jarryd then sent much of the water that was inside the arena hovering over the cylinder, and sent in down on top of the Nevermore, sending it crashing to the ground. Andrew let go of his shadow as the trap disappeared, revealing the grounded creature.

"Jackson. Now!" Jarryd yelled out, and Jackson took off running towards the Grimm.

"You're done for!" Jackson yelled out as he jumped in the air and came down on top of the Nevermore's skull, piercing it with his saber. With one last roar of pain, the beast went limp and died. Jarryd and Andrew relaxed their bodies as Jackson pulled out his blade from the creature's corpse and throw his hand up and cheer triumphantly.

"Yeah! That was awesome!" Jackson yelled out, Jarryd and Andrew shared a look of triumph and pride, knowing already that they worked well as a team. Suddenly, the Nevermore's corpse was impaled by multiple objects falling out of the sky. After the onslaught stopped, Jarryd saw that they were the lockers from the academy, which opened up to reveal the weapons of every student who stayed in the arena. As Jarryd saw the remaining students rush to grab their weapons, Ruby ran up and hugged him as tight as she possibly could.

"Jarryd, are you ok!?" Ruby screamed as she hugged her boyfriend.

"Ruby, I'm fine. It's just…" Jarryd stopped himself as he looked over and saw Penny's body still lying in pieces.

"Penny…" Ruby said softly, remembering every event that had just happened. Jarryd held Ruby close as he comforted her.

"She shouldn't have had take that shot for me...I should've seen it coming…" Jarryd said trying to avoid Ruby's eyesight, but she pulled his face back to look at her.

"Hey, don't blame yourself, there was no way you could have known that girl would attack again." Ruby said with her hands on Jarryd's cheeks. Jarryd then realized what she just said and recalled previous events. Irene must have been working with Cinder. Jarryd turned towards Jackson and Andrew again.

"Speaking of which, did either of you two know that your teammate was working with these people!?" Jarryd asked with anger seething through him.

"We had no idea! Sure she acted weird most of the time that we've known her, but we didn't expect anything like this!"

"Though now that I see it, it explains a lot of her behavior…"

"But dude, you never told us that you were a pirate, much less from The Red Band!" Jackson yelled out at Jarryd. "Those guys are some of the biggest criminals around!"

"Just from talking to me, you should be able to see that I'm not a criminal…" Jarryd responded slowly as he got in Jackson's face. Yang had to pull the two apart.

"Guys, stop it! Right now that isn't important!"

"Yang's right you two, there are people out there who need our help, we can't sit by and bicker while they suffer!" said Blake, also trying to calm the two down. After a few seconds of silence, Jackson took a big sigh.

"She's right, I'm sorry man, I didn't mean to snap at you…"

"It's ok, I just hope I can prove that not all pirates are thieves and killers." Jarryd said holding out his hand to Jackson, which he grabbed and shook.

"Now that you guys have had your little pow-wow, we should get moving, we have work to do." A female voice said, everyone turned to see the rest of the students, all with their weapons in hand, looking ready and eager to fight.

"Yeah, let's go…" Jarryd replied, everyone now moving towards the arena's exit. The group approached the ships that were loading people trying to evacuate, when they were approached by General Ironwood.

"General, what's going on!?" Ruby asked the Atlas headmaster, a stern look heavy on his face.

"Grimm are crawling all over the city, the White Fang has invaded Beacon, and to make matters worse some...vagabond has seized one of my ships." Ironwood looked at the cloudy sky behind him and sighed. "Until we regain command, the skies are out of our control… So I'm-" The general stopped and pointed a pistol at something behind the students, he fired and a thud was heard, the group turned to see a dead Beowolf at their feet. "Going to take it back…"

"But General, what should we do?" Sun asked, Ironwood turned back to them and put his hands behind his back.

"You have two choices...defend your kingdom and your school, or save yourselves…" Ironwood turned again and walked into an Atlas ship. "No one will fault you if you leave." He said before the ship doors closed behind him and the ship took off. The students all looked around at each other, wondering what their next move would be. Jaune spotted a ship out of the corner of his eye.

"We can take that ship to Beacon!"

"Great! Everyone, let's go!" Neptune yelled as they all ran towards the ship and boarded. Neon, the girl Jarryd fought earlier in the tournament ran up and told the pilot where they were going and in a matter of seconds, the ship took off. Jarryd stood by a window, looking out at the destruction the Grimm were causing.

"Damn...this is what that stranger was talking about, wasn't it…" Jarryd said softly to himself, Jackson and Andrew quickly approached.

"That guy was right, things went to hell pretty quick…" Jackson said, looking out the same window Jarryd was.

"Well, at least we know how to prevent this from doing even more damage, right?" Andrew responded, trying to bring back a hopeful mood.

"Yeah…" Jackson said quietly as he started to nibble at his nails.

"Something bothering you, Jackson?" Jarryd asked the younger brother, Jackson turned to him, not with his usual happy look, but one of confusion and anger.

"I just don't get it...why would Irene betray us?! Was she working with them the whole time?!" Jackson yelled, looking towards Jarryd and his brother for any possible answer.

"I don't know, brother...but I can assure you that she won't get away with it!" Andrew told his brother while placing a hand on Jackson's shoulder. Just then, Jarryd felt a vibration in his pocket, which he knew was his scroll. He pulled it out and saw the caller ID.

"Dad?"

The name across the croll's screen confused Jarryd a little bit, but he remembered that his father was still in the Vale docks. He hurriedly answered the call as his dad's voice came through the speakers.

"Hello? Jarryd, are you there!?" Jarryd's father asked, a faint sound of gunshots and explosions could be heard in the background.

"I'm here, Dad. What's going on? Are you ok!?"

"Yeah, I'm ok at the moment, don't know how long that will last though." the pirate captain answered, but he wasn't finished talking. "You, were right about the White Fang, they've boarded the ship and our attacking our men!"

"Can you hold them off?"

"I'm not sure. But here's the kicker, they're being led by that Irene girl you just fought…"

A silence swept the room, the rest of the students onboard could hear the call and were staring at Jarryd. Jackson and Andrew looked to each other at the mention of their traitorous teammate.

"Son, listen...If I don't make it out of this alive, I just want to say that I'm sorry I ever doubted you, and I will always love you, no matter what."

"Dad, don't talk like that!" Jarryd yelled back at his father.

"I'm sorry Jarryd, it's just-Oh shi-" The call cut out there after a loud explosion was heard through the speaker.

"Dad!" Jarryd stood in disbelief and looked around the ship, everyone's eyes were looking directly into his. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw some parachute, most likely in case the ship were to crash. Jarryd shoved his scroll in his pocket and ran over to the parachutes, grabbed one and headed straight for a door to the outside of the ship.

"Jarryd, what're you doing?!" Sun yelled at him. Jarryd stopped just outside of the door and looked towards the monkey faunus.

"I'm saving my dad…" He said before opening the door and running out. Andrew and Jackson gave each other a brief look and did the same as Jarryd, grabbing two other parachutes. Jarryd looked down at the city of Vale, witnessing all of the destruction that the Grimm and the White Fang were causing. He then laid his eyes upon the Vale docks and saw the Crimson Raider taking heavy damage. Jarryd closed his eyes and took a breath, and he jumped off of the ship, not seeing Andrew and Jackson right behind him.

As the three boys fell towards the docks, Jarryd looked back and saw the two brothers falling next to him.

"You guys didn't have to follow me, you know!" He yelled back at them so they could hear.

"The hell we don't! We're changing the future together!" Jackson yelled back, giving Jarryd two thumbs up.

"Besides, your dad said Irene is down there...I think we settle the score here and now!" said Andrew. Jarryd smiled at the brothers.

"Glad to know I can count on you guys!"

"Of course, we aren't about to just abando-Holy crap, look out!" Jackson yelled, pointing towards a Nevermore flying straight towards them. Each of the boys took their own evasive maneuvers, making the Nevermore fly right past them.

"Jeez! The general wasn't kidding about the skies!"

"Well the city doesn't look much better!" Andrew pointed to the destruction below, the three could see the Grimm ravaging the buildings and storefronts, while cutting down any civilian in their way. Jarryd saw how close they had gotten to the ground and reached for the cord on the parachute.

"Ok guys, get ready to pull!" Jarryd told the brothers, who grabbed the cords on their own chutes. They waited a few more seconds before Jarryd gave the cue. "Pull!" They all pulled on their cord at the same time, and 3 chutes came out from the pack, the force made their bodies recoil a bit. After recovering from the sudden movement, Jarryd quickly emptied his pistols of rubber bullets and loaded real ones into the cylinder. The three floated down and landed together, throwing off their packs and quickly running to the Crimson Raider which wasn't too far from their landing zone.

Some grimm who were wrecking nearby buildings turned their attention to the three and chased after them. Andrew quickly acted by walling off the grimm with a wall made from shadows, he then formed a full box around them and closed the walls around them, crushing the grimm. Finally reaching the docks, the boys saw the White Fang spread all over the place, with a few members of the Red Band trying to combat them, including Max and Audrey King. Jarryd ran up grabbed one of the White Fang goons in a chokehold, then body-slammed him into the deck head first, knocking the gang member out cold. Andrew found his own target and gave him a swift chop to the neck, rendering them unconscious, while Jackson took a less subtle approach by running straight at a soldier and drop kicking him into the water beneath them. Jarryd looked and saw Max get shoved to the ground by a White Fang goon, while Audrey hung onto the thugs back before being forcefully thrown off. The thug then aimed the rifle in his hand at Audrey's head, Jarryd charged straight at the masked criminal and rammed into his with his shoulder, knocking the man into the wooden deck. Jarryd ran up again and kicked the downed man in the chin, and he quickly was knocked out.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Jarryd quickly ran back over to Max and Audrey and helped them up, Max quickly gave Jarryd his thanks.

"Oh my god, thanks Jarryd! I thought I had him but nearly got us both killed."

"Hey, it's fine, you both are ok, that's what matters." Jarryd told the younger pirate, he turned around and was met with a hug from Audrey.

"I'm so glad you're safe!" Audrey yelled, refusing to let Jarryd go. Jarryd just raised his eyebrows and half hugged her back.

"We heard about the Nevermore breaking through the stadium barrier and Audrey started freaking out, but before we knew it, these White Fang jerkbags were all over us!" Max told their captain's son. Andrew and Jackson had taken down the rest of the White Fang soldiers on the dock and joined the group.

"Yeah, I'm ok, but where's my dad?" Jarryd asked the brother and sister, Max's eyes widened at the question.

"Oh crap! I forgot! The captain was in his quarters last I saw him, and that's where the girl who was leading them ran towards!" Max answered, referring to Irene.

"I've gotta get to him!" Jarryd yelled, running up the ramp and onto the ship, everyone else not far behind. Everyone looked out onto the deck and saw even more fighting between the pirates and White Fang thugs. Jarryd turned to look at Andrew and Jackson. "You two help the others fight the White Fang off, I'll deal with Irene!" Jarryd yelled before running towards his father's quarters, the two brothers didn't question his orders and ran out to join the brawl.

Jarryd weaved his way towards the captain's cabin, trying to dodge the gang members that were blocking his path. One thug jumped in front of him and swung his rifle at Jarryd's ahead. Jarryd ducked, grabbed the guy's head and slammed it against his knee. He didn't check to see if they were unconscious before he kept moving.

Once he reached the door to his father's room, Jarryd swung the door open with a pistol at the ready, and saw Irene pointing her staff at Jarryd's father, who was laying against the wall, blood pouring down the side of his face. Jarryd aimed and fired without thinking, knocking the staff out of Irene's hands. Jarryd ran up with his sword drawn and tried to swing at Irene, who jumped away and landed next to her staff. Jarryd looked down to his father and looked him over.

"You ok, Dad?!" Jarryd asked, John Starks just laughed and hoisted himself onto his feet.

"I'm fine, but damn can this lass hit hard!" John said while dusting himself off, Jarryd gave his father the revolver he held in his hand.

"Take this and go help the others, I'll handle her…" Jarryd told his father, John took the gun and patted his adopted son on the shoulder.

"You took her down once, take her down again!" The pirate captain said before running out of the room and immediately firing rounds into multiple White Fang troops. Jarryd didn't look back, he was too focused on Irene, who picked up her staff and look Jarryd in the eyes.

"I was wondering when you'd show up. You just can't seem to leave me alone, can you?" Irene said flirtatiously, Jarryd furrowed his eyebrows and pointed his sword at her.

"Well now that I know you run with a group of terrorists, and I heard you were trying to kill my dad, so I couldn't help myself." Jarryd yelled out, anger swelling up as he remembered that the girl in front of him was the one who killed his friend, Penny.

"Terrorists? You still don't understand what we fight for…"

"I know exactly what the White Fang fights for!" Jarryd's reply seemed to confuse Irene, though Jarryd could tell she was amused.

"The White Fang? The White Fang is merely one piece of a greater puzzle…" Irene said, Jarryd didn't understand at first, but then he remembered the image of a chess piece that appeared on the screen in the stadium. Irene saw Jarryd's facial expression once he figured it out, she laughed at the widening of his eyes. "I think you understand now…" Jarryd decided he had heard enough and charged straight towards Irene. Jarryd swung his blade towards Irene's head, but she bent her torso backwards and avoided the attack. Irene repositioned her body and threw her shoulder into Jarryd's stomach.

Jarryd stumbled back and looked back at his opponent, who was standing straight with a hand on her hip and her staff in the other hand.

"You huntsmen and huntresses claim to fight for peace, and yet you still manage to start wars…" Irene said, giving her trademark annoying smirk. Jarryd charged forward again and swung at Irene's left side, which she blocked with her staff, making Jarryd's sword bounce off, giving Irene another opening as she thrusted the end of her staff into Jarryd's torso, knocking him to the ground. "But if the world is all united under one order, there will be no opposing governments to start wars against one another…"

Jarryd pushed himself up and gave one final charge, Irene swung her staff at his head, Jarryd quickly ducked and slashed Crimson Fury at her torso, slashing her across the chest and ripping her clothing. Jarryd kicked Irene in the stomach and sent her stumbling back.

"What you're talking about is creating peace through oppression, that isn't true peace!" Jarryd yelled as he swung overhead again, Irene held up her staff and blocked the attack, blade and staff now locked, their wielders trying to overpower the other.

"Then what is "True Peace", huh? Does anyone truly know?!" Irene pushed Jarryd's sword away as she fired an explosive round at Jarryd, sending him flying back out of the door and onto the deck of the ship. Jarryd tried to get up, but his body felt exhausted, and he fell right back onto the floor of the ship, his back feeling the wooden floorboards. He looked up and saw Irene walking towards him before she got lower and started to straddle him.

"Oh Jarryd...If only you knew the truth, we could have been so good together…" Irene said as she placed her staff against his forehead. "But sadly, you're still naive…" Jarryd felt blood rushing to every part of his body, his fight or flight instincts trying to kick in. "This is goodbye, Jarryd…" Before Irene could fire off a shot, Jarryd felt feeling return to his body, he quickly knocked the staff away and punched Irene in the side of the head with the handguard on his sword, knocking her off of him. Jarryd pushed himself up and quickly blocked and incoming staff swing with his blade.

"If naive means that I don't spill innocent blood, I'm perfectly fine with that!" Jarryd yelled as she swung his blade, locking itself in a struggle with her staff again. As both Jarryd and Irene pushed on each other's weapon Jarryd knew this had to end quickly, and his brain told him to do the first thing he thought of.

Jarryd grabbed his spare pistol and pointed the barrel directly into Irene's stomach, and pulled the trigger.

A loud 'bang' sounded off, Irene's typical cocky smirk replaced with a grimace of pain as she fell backwards onto the deck of the ship. Jarryd only realized now that both of their auras had been significantly low, due to their previous match, and he had just used real ammo. A pool of blood had been forming underneath Irene as she begun to cough. The fighting all around them had stopped as soon as Irene fell, Andrew and Jackson rushed over to them.

"Clever move, Starks...Didn't think you had it in you…" Irene said, struggling to get the word out, the three boys stood over her and were all looking at each other. "What are you waiting for? Finish me…" This command shocked the three, but they quickly shook it off.

"No! What you deserve is a long jail sentence!" Jackson yelled at his former teammate.

"Jail…? Oh Jackson, always the funny one…"

"What are you talking about?" Andrew asked, anger still seething through him from Irene's betrayal.

"If I go to prison, who says I won't just break out...and this cycle will have repeat itself…" Irene look Jarryd directly in the eyes, a painful smile forming on her face. "If you want to stop me...you have to kill me, now."

"No! Absolutely no! There's no way that we're just going to kill you, right guys!?" Jackson looked over to Jarryd and Andrew who only shared a look with each other and looked back at Jackson. Jackson's smile dropped. "You can't seriously be thinking about doing that!?"

"Jackson, it's ok...When I signed up to fight, I knew I was willing to fight and die for my cause...and I still stand by that, I still believe I did the right thing…I need you all to do the same…" Irene told the younger boy. Jackson tried to search for any alternative, but ultimately he found none.

"Are you...sure this is what you want?"

"Yes, I'm positive…"

Jarryd took a deep breath as he walked next to Irene, gun still in his hand, Irene quickly fished something out of her pocket, it was an envelope.

"I knew it would come to this...please, deliver this to my sister after this is all over...she needs to know the truth…" Jarryd took the envelope from Irene's hand and saw that there was an address on it. Jarryd passed the letter back to Andrew who took it and put his arm around Jackson.

"We'll make sure she gets it…" Jarryd told her.

"Thank you, Jarryd…"

"I'm sorry…"

Jarryd slowly pointed the barrel of his gun at Irene's head as he closed his eyes.

"Maybe...you can figure out what true peace really is…"

Jarryd took one last breath and held it, as he squeezed the trigger, resulting in an immediate loud noise, but it quickly faded into silence...Jarryd opened his eyes and saw a peaceful look on Irene's face, but there was no life in her eyes. He turned back around and saw Andrew and Jackson, who only gave him a nod.

The silence was broken when Jarryd felt his scroll vibrating in his pocket. He quickly pulled it out and noticed Weiss was calling him, Jarryd quickly tapped the button to accept the call.

"Hey, Weiss."

"Jarryd! Where are you? We need you back at Beacon, Grimm are tearing the place apart!"

"Crap! I'll be right there, Weiss!"

"Is Ruby there with you?" This question through Jarryd off, he remembered Ruby was on the ship when he had jumped off.

"No, why do you ask?"

"She jumped off the airship shortly after you and those other 2 did, we thought she went after you!" This wasn't good, first he learns that Beacon is in the process of being destroyed, then he finds out his girlfriend is heaven knows where.

"I'm...I'm sure she's fine, she can take care of herself. But I'll be at Beacon shortly." Jarryd responded, Weiss just gave up and ended the call. Jarryd put his scroll away and turned to his father. "Dad…"

"Don't worry about us boy, go teach those Grimm a lesson!" John Starks then looked towards Irene's body. "We'll make sure to give her a proper burial…" Jarryd nodded at his dad's actions and he turned back to Andrew and Jackson.

"How exactly are we gonna get back to Beacon? All of the ships are already in the sky…" Andrew asked, looking around for any answer to that problem. Jarryd thought for a moment and thought of an idea. He poured out one of his water canisters and formed a large puddle.

"Grab on to me…" Jarryd said, standing in the middle of the puddle. The two brothers nodded and grabbed his shoulder. Jarryd put his hand over theirs and the three sank into the water, disappearing from the ship.

"I still have no idea how he figured that out…" John said silently to himself.

Beacon Academy Courtyard

A loud splash was heard as Jarryd, Andrew, and Jackson all flew out of the courtyard fountains and landed on the pavement. Jackson and Andrew looked back at the fountain with shock.

"So THAT'S what happens when you do that!?" Jackson yelled towards Jarryd, pointing at the fountain. Jarryd was actually amused and chuckled a little bit.

"It takes a bit to get used to, I know."

"Hey you two, this conversation is riveting and all, but I think that should be our main focus…" Andrew said, as he pointed at the main building of Beacon, which was under attack by Grimm and was currently set ablaze.

"Dammit! Let's move!" Jarryd yelled out, running towards Beacon, Jackson and Andrew not far behind. The group was able to make it to the front door of the academy with very little trouble, but saw many of the students fighting Grimm in the same location. Jarryd turned back to the two brothers and gave them an order.

"Split up, help whoever you can!" Jarryd yelled to the two, who ran in opposite directions to help combat the Grimm, Jarryd saw Weiss out of the corner of his eye and ran over to her. "Weiss!" He called to her.

"There you are, you dolt!" Weiss yelled back to him. Jarryd looked around and noticed there was a certain lack of a blonde and dark-haired teammates.

"Where are Blake and Yang?"

"They ran into the building to help evacuate people, they've been in there for a while though…"

Jarryd suddenly remembered one of his visions, Blake had been stabbed by some guy with red hair, Yang then tried to fight him and ended up with her arm cut off, and it happened at Beacon.

"I'm going in!" Jarryd yelled out as he took off through the doors.

"Jarryd, what in Monty's name are you doing!?" Weiss cried out, Jarryd didn't listen as he took off towards his other two teammates.

As Jarryd ran, he paid no attention to any of the flames roaring around him, he just kept running towards that same spot he saw in his vision. A few students ran in terror past him as a Beowulf turned the corner and stared Jarryd directly in his eyes and it rushed at him. Jarryd grabbed his sword as the Beowulf swung at him, Jarryd jumped over the beast's arm and sliced at the grimm's neck, cutting the head clean off. Jarryd paid no attention to the creature's remains and kept running.

Jarryd stopped at a hole in a wall as he saw the same masked, red-haired person from his vision, he was standing over Blake, who was keeled over in pain. This man had already stabbed Blake. Jarryd turned to his right to see Yang, who had witnessed the same thing he did. Jarryd saw the rage boil up within Yang, and he saw her path of travel, Jarryd did the only thing he could think to do and ran forwards. Yang had activated her semblance and charged at the masked man, but Jarryd dived forward and pushed Yang out of the way. They both rolled to the side, Yang must have thought Jarryd was an attacker, because she did whatever she could to knock him off of her.

"Yang! Calm down, it's me, Jarryd!" Jarryd yelled as he avoided a punch from Yang, she opened her eyes and saw her male teammate, her hair and eyes started to shift back to their normal color.

"Jarryd?" Yang asked, Jarryd nodded and helped Yang to her feet. "Why did you stop me!?"

"Because if I didn't, you could have been killed!" Jarryd yelled back at her, her expression immediately softened. "But that doesn't matter right now…" Jarryd said as he turned back to where the masked person stood over Blake. Jarryd poured out one of his water canisters and unholstered a pistol. "Yang, when I say go, grab Blake and get her out of here...I'll deal with this guy."

"What!? I'm not leaving you here!"

"Blake's hurt! She needs to get to safety…" Jarryd said, aiming his pistol at the red headed boy.

Jarryd walked towards the man and began to fire his revolver, the man blocked every bullet with a swing of his sword. As Jarryd fired, a trail of water snuck of next to the man. After a few more shots, Jarryd swung his arm forward and created a wall of water in between the man and Blake.

"Yang, go!" Once the cue was given, Yang sprinted forward and scooped up Blake in her arms. The water wall disappeared as the masked man appeared from behind, crimson katana still in hand. Blake was able to speak.

"Jarryd...don't fight him…" Blake said in her weakened state, Jarryd turned back to her and gave her a smile.

"Don't worry Blake, I'll be fine...Yang, get her out of here!" Jarryd yelled at the blonde, who didn't hesitate anymore and ran towards the academy's exit. Jarryd put away his pistol and grabbed his sword again as he tried to stare this man down, but he couldn't tell if the man was looking at him from behind his mask.

"So, before we get this started, who are you? I'm Jarryd, last name Starks, if you didn't know that already…" Jarryd asked the man, who's expression never changed, after a few seconds of silence, he spoke up.

"Call me 'Adam...'"

"Adam, huh?" Jarryd asked. "Well Adam, it's time you learn something…" Jarryd raised his sword and pointed it at Adam. "Nobody hurts my friends and gets away with it!"

"Then make me pay for it…"

Once given the invitation, Jarryd ran straight towards Adam, blade at their sides. Jarryd swung overhead, which was quickly matched with a block from Adam. Jarryd kept swinging, but Adam seemed to block every strike with inhuman speed. Adam swung sideways as Jarryd's neck, but he was able to put up his sword and kept himself from getting decapitated. Jarryd pushed the blades in front of them as the two crimson blades were interlocked. Adam spoke up while they struggled.

"Cinder told me about you...she thought you would be one of the biggest thorns in her side…I have yet to see why…"

"Well you can tell Cinder that she has no chance of winning this war!" Jarryd yelled in Adam's face.

Adam quickly pushed on Jarryd's blade, sending his sword arm up over his head. Adam swung his blade upwards while Jarryd wasn't able to block. Jarryd felt something run across his face, followed by the worst pain he had ever felt.

He let out a wail of pain as he landed on the ground, holding the area where the blade struck his face. He opened his eyes to see his hand, but something wasn't quite right, he could only see out of his right eye, and he saw blood all over his hand that was covering what Adam hit: his left eye.

Jarryd turned and saw Adam slowly walking towards him, ready to finish him off, but Jarryd saw that there was a puddle from his earlier wall of water that he used to separate Adam and Blake. Jarryd threw his arm forward, sending a wave of water at Adam, who disappeared under it.

When the water had cleared, Adam was nowhere to be found. Jarryd looked around to see if he was waiting for Jarryd to let his guard down, but saw nothing. He pulled himself to his feet, hand once again covering his eye as he knew he needed to get out of the building. Jarryd put his sword in his sheathe and ran back towards the courtyard.

Dodging the flames, Jarryd was able to sneak past any more Grimm that were hiding in the building. He took his hand off of his left eye and felt nothing but blood running down his face and on his hand. He tried opening his left eye again and closing his right, this time, the world went dark. He opened his right eye again and kept running towards the exit.

Beacon Courtyard

"Has everyone been evacuated?!"

"Not yet, Jarryd's still in there!" Yang yelled out, as the students outside all grouped up. A gust of wind picked up, and suddenly Ruby was hugging her sister.

"Yang! Is everyone ok?!"

"Ruby! Everyone is fine, some White Fang guy in there stabbed Blake though…" Yang said, pointing to the cat faunus, who was being held close by Sun.

"What!? Where is that guy now!?" Ruby asked her sister, anxiety flowing through her.

"Jarryd's inside dealing with him, he told me just to get Blake to safety."

"He's still in there? I have to go!"

"Ruby wait-" But before Ruby could even run off, the doors to the academy swung open, revealing Jarryd, who was holding his hand over his eye. Everyone turned to look as Jarryd saw everyone. Ruby walked towards him, something was wrong.

"Jarryd…"

Jarryd turned and looked at Ruby, he took his hand away from his face to reveal the damage Adam had done to him.

A big gash, running through his left eye, or more like where it used to be…

Ruby stood in shock, her hands now covering her mouth.

"Ruby…" Jarryd said as he tried to walk towards her, but he stumbled and started to fall. Ruby quickly ran over and caught him before he hit the ground. Yang ran up and grabbed Jarryd's other side, the two sisters carried Jarryd over to where Blake had been lying. They sat him down, Blake looking on in horror at what Adam had done.

"Jarryd...Adam, he…"

"He's tough, got me good…" Jarryd told Blake, who felt guilty about Jarryd's wound, along with Yang. Jarryd felt a hand hit him in the back of the head.

"You dolt! You're missing an eye and all you say is 'he got you good!?' What were you thinking!?" It was Weiss who had slapped him, Jarryd felt around the area of the wound and Weiss was right, his left eye was completely gone, cut out of the socket.

"I couldn't let anyone else get hurt…"

"Yet you ended up getting hurt instead!" As Weiss continued to belittle him, Ruby knelt down beside him and wrapped Jarryd into a hug. Jarryd took a second to recognize what was going on before he hugged his girlfriend back. Andrew and Jackson ran up beside him. Jackson turned away at the sight of the wound.

"Oh god! Dude you need a doctor or something!

"I'll be fine…" Jarryd waved him off, Andrew knelt down and examined his eye.

"A semblance is able to regenerate minor injuries, but a missing eye...You may be out of luck, Jarryd…" Andrew told the pirate, who just squinted as he held Ruby close. A thought came to him. He saw both Nora and Ren, but not the other two members of JNPR.

"Wait, where's Pyrrha and Jaune?" Jarryd asked, everyone looked around. Suddenly Weiss's scroll started to ring.

"Speak of the devil, it's Jaune!" She quickly answered the call. "Where are you?"

"Weiss, please! You have to stop her!"

"What? Jaune what's going on?" Weiss replied.

"It's Pyrrha! She's going after that woman, at the top of the tower! She doesn't stand a chance!" Jaune yelled through the scroll, everyone looked at the top of the tower, they all saw a few explosions coming from the top, where Ozpin's office was.

"Jaune where are y-"

"Don't worry about me, please...you have to save Pyrrha…"

"Jaune are you ok?" Weiss asked, then a scream of rage was heard from the other side of the line and static replace Jaune's voice.

"Jeez...He's got a bit of a temper…" Jackson said, but was quickly interrupted when a large Grimm landed nearby on a part of the academy and it started to climb the tower, it was the largest grimm any of them had ever seen.

"Uh...What the hell is that!?"

"Whatever it is, it doesn't matter right now, we need to get to Pyrrha!" Jarryd yelled up at Andrew helped him to his feet. He glanced around, looking for anyway to get to the top of the tower. He then looked to Ruby and had an idea. "Ruby, use your semblance and run up the side of the tower!" Everyone looked at Jarryd, thinking over his plan. Ruby didn't know if she should.

"I'm not sure I can…"

"Ruby, you're the only one able to get up there fast enough at this moment, I know you can do this. I believe in you Ruby, we all do…" Jarryd said, hand covering his gash. Everyone nodded, agreeing with Jarryd. Ruby took a few seconds before agreeing. She took off like a lightning bolt, and ran straight up the side of the building.

Jarryd looked on with pride, then he felt really weak as his leg came out from under him, landing on the ground. His vision got blurry as he kept staring at the top of the tower. After a few seconds of quiet. A blinding white light came from the top of the tower, enveloping all of Beacon.

It was at that moment, Jarryd blacked out…

AND HOLY CRAP I'M FINALLY DONE.

I know I keep saying this, but I'm sorry I churn these out so late, this chapter took a lot longer than expected. I intended it to be the final chapter, but that would have taken even longer, as I have a plan.

School problems, me being in the theatre program, relationships, you name it and it's gotten in the way of me writing.

I hope I didn't disappoint with the wait, I guess that's up for everyone else to decide.

I'm gonna get right to work on writing the Epilogue and get that out ASAP.

Until next time!