Hans günsche was a prodigal child.
Among his people, no one could defeat him in combat. This was mainly due to a number of reasons.
As a natural werewolf, his senses were far superior to most others. Hell, most would say his senses were the best among his generation.
His sense of smell.
His sense of taste.
His sense of touch.
His hearing.
His sight.
All were far superior to the other werewolves of his generation. There was only one man that hans had never defeated, nor surpassed.
His grandfather, Max Günsche.
That man was born with the same acute senses as him, if not greater. But hans had one trump card.
His reaction speed.
His reaction in speed in combination with his terrifying senses made him a monster in combat.
But Max Günsche made any attack he ever tried pointless.
Comparing his grandfather to this woman, its not even close.
Cinder was a far cry from his 300 year old grandfather. Not even close, even in his decrepit state, he wouldn't lose.
If he could dodge a lightning bolt, he can dodge this womans attacks. And he was, but he was slipping.
Not just his senses, his consciousness.
Hans was awake only through pure will power. But... he couldn't see.
His sight was completely gone.
It's not a problem, he'd already memorised the terrains layout.
Cinder was frustrated. Even just a glance at his eyes, she could tell he wasn't paying attention. A single step to reposition himself and she missed.
Over and over.
"you bastard! I'll burn you to ashes!" The half maidens irritation had peaked.
The ground in front of her had begun to super-heat. Fire blasted out of the ground and the captain could feel the air currents being muddled.
He didn't care.
The mans arm shot through the fire and grabbed her throat, his vice grip almost crushed her throat and her sword dripped to the ground.
So she made a new one.
Cinder slashed at his throat in a last ditch effort, slashed clean through his throat, the fabric of his shirt just restitched itself over the wound.
Hans grabbed her wrist after the blade had tore through. His throat was profusely bleeding, it wasn't healing.
Oh, how he hates magic.
It has been the one thing in this new world able to scar him.
Much like silver.
Max once told him
"Each scar is a mistake. Learn from them, improve upon them. And never let it happen again."
That was the creed of Max Günsche.
And hans tried to stick to that creed, as much as he could.
But, it seemed like willpower alone could no longer keep him alive.
His two hearts slowed, a content smile on his face as he tightened his grip. The cracking of cinders throat was slow.
But she would die regardless of how fast he went.
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Faster.
I needed to go faster.
Right now, we're surrounded. I need to get to hans, I need to make sure he's okay!
"Ruby. Take your friends and get to hans. As fast as you can. I'll give you a chance." No. No. No. No no no!
"I'm not leaving you mom! We'll get out of this together. All of us." Weiss smiled at my sincerity.
Neo's lipped twitched upwards.
Susie... she'd disappeared after telling us about the state hans was in.
"listen, my little cookie. I know you have feelings for him. Call it a mothers intuition. I'll get out of this, don't worry. But, just take care of him. I still owe him for saving me." The tears threatening to fall from my eyes clearly saddened her.
In a second, I found myself up in the air with neo and weiss.
"go. My daughter." I couldn't hold the tears anymore but I used my semblance and grabbed the other two.
We flew through the air, a mix of red, white, pink and brown.
I could see him. His throat was cut. No... no no no!
I need to go faster!
The air screamed around us but my ears heard a loud boom.
I think they're bleeding.
No... I was too late.
Blood was pouring down from his throat, his arm was singed.
A snap rang out. The woman fell limp.
My eyes widened, he did it. He killed her.
A bright white light filled my eyes, so... sleepy...
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Neo was scared. Scared for hans life, but then... a white light shone from Ruby's eyes and the two were turned to stone.
The daughter of torchwick fell to her knees. No... what happened? Weiss caught Ruby as she passed out.
He's gone. Turned to stone. Petrified.
The schnee heiress looked around to see that more grimm were coming.
"Neo! We need to go, now!" She didn't move. Weiss grit her teeth, she grabbed neo by her collar and started to make glyphs in the air.
The thawed princess leapt from platform to platform, an iron grip on her two companions.
"I'm sorry hans. I'm so sorry. But I think that you wouldn't want us to die." The girl pushed forward, the harsh reality setting in.
Weiss could see the helipad in the distance, but summer was nowhere in sight. Her heart dropped, how would she explain this to Ruby?
Weiss launched herself towards the bullheads, one leap.
The dragon roared. Time was up.
Weiss's balance had been disrupted just from its roar. Her grip faltered and the three slammed into the helipad.
"Ruby! Ruby are you ok!? Wait... wheres mom?" Weiss looked down to the ground.
"where is she?!" The branwen matriarchs daughter had activated her semblance, ready to fight however many grimm in order to save the woman who had been more a mother than her own.
"she let us get to hans. We couldn't save him. Summer said that she'd get out of it." Yang lifted weiss up and punched her in the cheek.
Weiss felt a strange emotion, something she hadn't felt for a while.
Pure unadulterated rage.
Weiss got back up and gripped yang's collar.
"don't you dare throw a tantrum with me! You haven't seen her corpse! She could still be alive! I saw hans turned to stone after his throat had been slit! Don't act like you've got it the worst, xiao long." Weiss shoved her teammate back, her eyes filled with shock at the usually calm heiress's outburst.
"weiss i-im..." a harsh glare cut off any train of thought she had.
"save it. Let's just get out of here." Neo was unresponsive, as if in a state of shock. Weiss grabbed neo and Ruby before stepping into one of several bullheads.
She strapped the two into them before sitting down herself, raising her knees to her face and wrapping her arms around them.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I couldn't do anything. I couldn't save him. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Weiss began to mumble the same words of 'I'm sorry' over and over.
Yang could only watch and come to a realisation.
She's powerless.
In all this chaos, she couldn't do anything. She couldn't save Blake, she couldn't save her sisters love interest.
She couldn't even save summer.
Yang picked up Blake and walked into the bullhead, despair filled her eyes.
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Deep in the basement of beacon, the fall maiden resides. Amber. The fall maiden who had been attacked by cinder and her underlings.
Ozpin had kept her in a form of stasis developed by atlas. It was all he could do.
But now, she'd woken up! He needed to get her out of here.
"glynda! Watch the elevator while I free Amber!" Beacons headmaster sprinted over to the panel, speedily inputting the code to free his pupil.
The pod opened, letting out cold air and amber stumbled out.
"what's... going on?" Her speech was slow, like she'd just woken up. Ozpin was happy. He never wants to see any of his pupils in such a state again.
"beacon is under attack. I can't go into detail as there's not time, but we need to get out of here." Amber tried to walk but tripped up.
"its fine. I'll carry you." Ozpin pulled her into a princess carry.
The ceiling shattered, dropping debris right onto the machine. Ozpin broke into a run.
"damn it! Why did I design this room with such a long hallway?!" The ceiling kept collapsing, dust being knocked everywhere.
The man was meters away from the elevator.
"glynda! Hit the button!" His assistant did as asked and he barely made it with Amber.
"are you two alright?"
"I'm fine sir." Amber weakly nodded. The grey haired man gently stood Amber up and threw her arm over his shoulder.
"how are we going to escape?" Ozpin had no response.
"I've no clue. I didn't expect a dragon grimm to be sleeping under mount Glenn. If need be, I'll use my cane." Amber didn't understand, but glynda did.
Over the many years ozpin has been reincarnating, he had a cane. A cane that could store kinetic energy. If he released it all, there would be nothing left of beacon or the dragon.
"glynda. Once the elevator opens, make a platform out of the rubble and fly it as far away from here as fast as possible. I can sense the students are safe. They're all in bullheads."
Ding
The trio made their way out of the lobby and glynda made a circular platform, about five meters wide.
A purple aura engulfed the platform as ozpin lay Amber down.
"with a grimm that large, summer would be the only silver eyed warrior in history able to petrify such a grimm. And I don't know where she is currently."
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Atop the very precipice of beacon tower, the strongest silver eyed warrior stood. Her clothes were cut up, but her skin was noticeably uninjured.
"Well. This is gonna be difficult." Summer took deep breaths, the blasts of wind from the dragons wings didn't move her.
The dragon flew closer, a minor earthquake just from its landing.
"deep breaths. Focus." Summer closed her eyes.
Before a bright light engulfed everything. The pure white coated all, every single grimm within the area had been petrified.
The dragon was now a mere statue. Summer fell backwards, pure exhaustion overwhelmed her.
But as she was about to hit the ground, summer saved herself with one last use of her semblance.
Summer was lay flat on the ground and using the last of her strength, she set her eyes upon the statue of hans günsche.
"so Ruby... used her silver... eyes... why... affect... him...?"
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Screaming. A common way to experience terror, fear and even shock or joy.
Joy was not what this scream was filled with. No, this scream was filled with fear and terror.
Kali was surprised. What could've caused this? The faunus mother entered the girls room, only for a little girl to slam into her leg.
Puffy eyes and shaking.
"oh dear. What's wrong lina?" Kali lifted the child up, gently caressing her hair and humming.
"I had a nightmare. I-i saw big brother die! He promised he'd stay with me... forever." The tears began to pour, like a dam that had broken.
"calm down. It was just a dream. You don't need to worry about him leaving you. I'm sure he's thinking about you right now." The youngest child of the günsche lineage wiped her tears away.
"I wanna see big brother again!" Kali could only chuckle at the attempt to be serious.
"be patient. You'll see him again. I bet he's searching for you right now. That's how good of a brother he is." Ghira silently watched the interaction, happy at the girls optimism.
'such an innocent child. Its people like that who give me hope for equality.' He thought about all the possibilities of peace.
A content smile on his face.
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