[hider=Graduation]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ2rOqdD-HU[/youtube]

It was graduation day, Emerald’s first day as an official huntress! Her four years at Beacon felt like a blur now that she had finally made it, this was is, she was a full-fledged huntress. It was the happiest day of her life, at least that’s how it started.

On that very evening, the most massive Grimm attack in recent history struck the city of Vale. No one had been prepared for an attack of this magnitude, they’d overrun the city within hours. Emerald’s team CODE along with the other senior teams were sent into the city to repel the Grimm and rescue any survivors and get them to Beacon, the last place in the city not overrun by the Grimm. The hunter teams fought into the heart of the city valiantly, pushing the Grimm back with all they had, urging what citizens they found to flee towards the school. Even as the city was torn apart the hunters and huntresses pressed on, confident of their victory.
 
That was when the real Grimm attack began. The most powerful creatures of Grimm arose from the shadows, and suddenly the students of Beacon were on the defensive. One by one the hunters and huntresses began to fall. Oswald was the first to fall, using his body as a living shield to protect his team, the stinger of a Perfect Manticore pierced his heart.
 
As more of their numbers began to succumb to the Grimm onslaught, the remaining huntresses and hunters began a slow retreat, attempting to rescue all they could as they struggled to hold the line. What was left of team Code stumbled across a Cellar that had a large group of children hiding within. With the Grimm on their heels, trying to evacuate the children and fight off the Grimm would be nearly impossible. Cobalt volunteered to keep the Grimm busy and rushed into the swarm to give Diamond and Emerald time to evacuate the children.
 
Cobalt’s sacrifice bought them the precious time they needed to get the children towards the sewers. Diamond knew of a way to get down there and head towards the school through its tunnels. They made it to the entrance when the horrific cries of Grimm pierced their ears. Emerald turned to confront the monsters, but Diamond stopped her.
 
“Sorry kitten, but we both know that between the two of us, [i]you’re[/i] gonna to lead the children to safety, not me. I’ll handle this…” Before Emerald could so much as argue, Diamond was heading into the heart of the swarm, becoming the next sacrifice.
 
Diamond, Oswald, Cobalt and countless others had died so that she and those that remained could live. She would not allow that sacrifice to be in vain. As long as she still drew breath she would do all in her power to get the children to Beacon, she owed her team that. With a heavy heart she led the children into the sewers, destroying the entrance with a grenade as soon as they were inside.
 
But even the sewers would prove to be unable to prevent the Grimm from reaching them, soon enough the Grimm broke in, once again on her and the children’s tail.
 
Emerald threw her last grenade at the chasing Grimm. The inferno that erupted would slow down the Grimm greatly, if Emerald had been alone she would have escaped without a problem. The children however could not run fast enough. The oldest among them were carrying those too young to keep up, which only slowed them down further. They would never make it to Beacon alive at this rate.
 
Emerald was keeping the Grimm back, but only barely. Her visor was calculating their numbers to be in the hundreds, with even more creeping in from the tunnels. The endless swarm was slowly but surely wearing her down, it would only be a matter of time before she would grow sloppy and Grimm would get past her.
 
She could not let that happen, should would [i]not[/i] let that happen. No one would die on her watch, not again. She’d failed to save her friends, she’d watched helplessly as the Grimm tore them to pieces.
 
[i]Never again…[/i] The gears in her battle suit whirled as she pointing her weapons to the ceiling above her, with a mighty push of air from her semblance she shoved the children further down the tunnel. “RUN, AND DON’T STOP, KEEP RUNNING UNTIL YOU CAN’T RUN ANYMORE. DON’T LOOK BACK!” Several rockets fired from her makeshift suit as they crashed into the ceiling and collapsed a section of the tunnel, blocking her and the Grimm from passing and reaching the children. Now the bastard Grimm would be forced to deal with her and her alone.
 
“Alright fuckers…” She aimed a gatling gun at the swarm that surrounded her. “…who wants to die first?” She didn’t wait for an answer as the guns on her shoulders began to spin, firing an endless barrage of bullets as she fired her shotguns at any Grimm that was stupid enough to get close.
 
The Grimm were lining up to die, all Emerald had to do was point and shoot. Piece of cake! “Come on you bastards! Is that really all you got!? I could do this all day!” She laughed as she continued her slaughter, she didn’t know if Grimm truly felt pain, but one could hope.
 
Her visor flared red, she grimaced the horde of Grimm retreated to make way for something far more dangerous. Perfect Manticores…and not just a single Manticore, there were at least a dozen before her.
 
“Finally taking me seriously huh? Flattered.” Her Gatling weapons would do nothing but irritate these elite Grimm. So she tore them off, tossing them at the beasts as she charged and screamed at the Grimm. “YOU’RE GONNA WISH HADN’T KILLED MY FRIENDS! YOU HERE ME!?”
 
The Manticores swipe their claws at Emerald, instantly piercing the battle suit. The explosion that followed was spectacular to behold as half the Grimm’s number was blasted straight into hell along with it.
 
The remaining Grimm were greeted by a series a series of earth shattering booms. A blooded and battered Emerald fired away with her shotguns, screaming in rage as she did. “That armor was only slowing me down! Now you’re screwed!”

A Manticore roared, its tail flying towards the cat Faunus’ chest. Emerald sidestepped the attack, following with a shotgun blast into the stem of the tail. The Manticore roared in pain, but Emerald wasn’t finished. Moving under the belly of the beast, Emerald pointed her guns straight up and fired. The Manticore fell, only to be replaced by two more that trampled over its corpse to get to Emerald.
 
Emerald dodged a series of claw swipes, but was unable to avoid the second one’s tail strike. She cried out as she was send flying towards the cave wall, crashing into with a sicken crunch. Her blood stained body slid down the wall until she on the floor.
 
Her visor flashed, warning her that her aura was deep into the red. Her weapons were shattered, the pieces scattered all around her. Not that it would have done any good to have them, her arms hung limply on her body, appearing to be more blood than flesh. Emerald gasped loudly, desperately trying to keep herself from coughing blood. The Manticores turned away from her, apparently satisfied that she was no longer a threat. They turned their sites to the blockage.
 
Emerald’s eyes flashed as she let out a blood curling scream, a powerful wave of air crashing into the Manticore, pushing them back from debris. “You…aren’t…getting past me…UNDERSTAND!?” Emerald gagged on her own blood as it forced its way out her mouth. “YOU WON’T HARM A SINGLE ONE OF THOSE KIDS YOU BASTA-“. A blood curling scream engulfed the sewers as a Manticore bit into her left arm with its jaws, lifting her up and shaking her violently, until her arm could take no more and separated from her body. She landed with a sickening wet thud, a pool of blood forming around her as she sobbed and screamed in agony.
 
She waited for the Grimm to end it, for the beasts to step on what was left of her and put her out of her misery. But it didn’t come, the Grimm had left, clearly having no interest in the dead or dying. She lay there alone, waiting for the end that wouldn’t come soon enough. 
But she wouldn’t spend her last moments simply waiting for death, no. By some miracle her Scroll had fallen out of her shredded clothing, just in reach of her remaining arm. It took everything she had, but she forced the device on, blood staining the screen as she turned on the audio recording.
 
“Please don’t….please don’t hate me…for leaving you like this…I…I know I promised I’d come back…don’t…” She grimaced, a painful gasp coming from her throat. “…don’t hate yourself either…nothing you could have said would have changed anything…this was something I had to do…” She could feel her vision growing darker, the outside world slowly fading. It wouldn’t be long now.
 
“I just want you to know…that I love you sis…more than anything…do me a favor…and survive…live on for both of us…A-Am…” And with her last breath, the kitten went to sleep. 

[/hider]

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