Hollowed Martyr - Naruto X RWBY

Standing In The Fall: Part One

Fire.

Fire, destruction, and screams.

Those were the three main sensations in Amber's ears as she watched Madara blast off from the arena and leap off of the colosseum, going to challenge and hopefully defeat... whatever world ending threat he had sensed. But she had faith in her leader, he was invincible. What she was really worried about was their job.

"Shit, what do we do?" Adam whispered, drawing his blade and looking around the arena. People were trying to evacuate into the bullheads, but grimm were swarming the arena and making it hard for the airships to fly. Screams and explosions rocked the entire floating colosseum, gunfire and the roars of grimm like a symphony of despair in their ears.

"I- I don't..." Amber mumbled, trying to think of a plan of action. Madara had told her to protect Ruby and the others and to stop this madness, but from the looks of it, Beacon would be under attack. So their first order of business would be eliminating these grimm and bringing the students back to Beacon so they could fight.

The idea of sending children off to halt a terrorist attack was one that made guilt plague the fall maiden's mind, but she knew that they had no other choice. The students would be needed to stop the destruction, and they didn't have the time to send them somewhere else while also getting to Beacon themselves.

This would have to do.

"We need to get to Ruby and eliminate these grimm, then we'll all head to Beacon and put a stop to this." The second in command of the Akatsuki ordered, amassing all of the strength and determination that she had. Adam and Kuro nodded, the three of them leading down from the bleachers and making their way through the panicking crown ad down to Team RWBY and JNPR who were all huddled around Ruby in the middle of the arena, trying to get a handle on the crimsonette.

"Ruby, Ruby! You need to get up, come on!" The two akatsuki members could hear Yang's voice over the crowd, the blonde's hand wrapped around her sister's wrist as she tried to pull her up. But the silver eyed girl was thrashing around, trying to lunge at Penny's body as tears streamed down her face. The others were in a similar panic, shouting to each other as they tried to formulate a plan.

But these were children, they were scared and confused. A rush of protectiveness surged through Amber's mind, her eyes narrowing in determination. She'd keep these kids safe, even if it killed her.

"Ruby!" She called out as loud as she could, her voice strong and like a warm stone as she broke through the crowd of students. Hell was breaking loose around her, the cries of the defeated and screeches of grimm booming through the night sky as she put both her hands on Ruby's shoulder.

"Sky, what are you-"

"We need to go, now." Amber responded to her fake name, ignoring Yang's question as she ripped Ruby from the older girl's grip. The fall maiden then let her magic flow forth into her muscles, holding Ruby still as she stared the girl down.

"Ruby, listen to me. I need you to listen... None of this is your fault, you are not to blame for this. Very bad people made this happen. They killed Penny, not you. I need you to calm down, there isn't time to grieve right now. Right now, we need to fight. I need you and the rest of the students to head towards the bullheads, Ad- Ash and I will take out the grimm and allow the bullheads to take off. Kuro will go with you guys, okay. We need to go back to Beacon and take these people down, do you got me?" The brown haired girl kept her voice steady and filled with resolve, her expression filled with an emotional strength that made Ruby immediately calm down.

"O....o....okay... I...- okay. I'll- we...." Ruby's voice was extremely racked with fear and guilt, but a look at her friend's dead body and then up to the blackened sky above gave rise to a new emotion that flooded the teen's system.