Chess moved on to the next car, just in time to see the White Fang Lieutenant send Weiss flying to the next car. He went to follow, but had to raise his... chainsaw? Sword? Chainsword? Whatever it was, he had to raise it to block a sudden barrage of cards headed for his face. Turning, he faced the new girl and frowned. Something about her seemed vaguely familiar...

It wasn't until Chess smiled her signature grin that he realised... He was fighting Lady Luck. Frowning, he turned fully to her, and grunted in annoyance. He opened his mouth to make a snarky remark, but before he could even utter a word there was a wave of cards flying at him. Acting quickly, he deflected most of them with his weapon, and lunged at Lady Luck. As the Lieutenant was about to hit her, she vanished in a puff of mist. Turning from side to side, he couldn't see her, but obeyed some internal instinct and dove backwards. Seeing the cards impact the floor where he had been a moment before, he knew he had made the right choice. The White Fang Lieutenant was about to charge forward when suddenly he jerked, and slumped to the ground.

Chess stared at Blake with a slightly disapproving expression.

"You ruined my fun!" She exclaimed loudly, only to hear Blake's urgent response.

"Get up here, we have to get topside. The controls are destroyed, we can't stop the train!" Seeing the urgency, Chess grabbed Blake and evaporated to the top of the train just in time to see Weiss join them. Ruby arrived a few seconds later with Doctor Oobleck and Zwei in tow, and Blake proceeded to fill them in. Chess, meanwhile, glanced up and her eyes widened.

"GET DOWN!" She screamed as she formed a barrier of cards, each glowing a bright blue. Weiss saw this and quickly added one of her glyphs to the barrier, reinforcing it.

Then, the train hit the end of the track.

"...Chess...? We... you! Get...! Come... PLEASE!" Words faded in and out of Chessur's hearing as she lay stunned and half-conscious. She vaguely recognised the voice as Ruby's, and shakily stood, still not able to properly hear.

"Chess! Are you okay?!" Ruby was panicking, so Chess went to calm her down. Unfortunately, her body chose this moment to stagger, and she suddenly dropped to all fours. Before she could say anything, she went into a coughing fit. It was only once Chess heard Ruby's shocked gasp that she realised she had coughed up blood.

Fuck, I guess that barrier took a lot out of me...

She didn't have time to think any further, as she immediately noticed Grimm attacking the other 3 members of their team, who had come out of the crash unharmed. Spotting a Beowolf behind Ruby, Chess quickly lunged forward and buried her knife into its head, watching with satisfaction as it ceased struggling and went limp. Stumbling off the Grimm's decaying corpse, Chess spotted a dead White Fang member but a few metres away from the couple.

Grabbing the gun off the dead grunt, she struggled her way over to a wall next to a store, where she fell into a sitting position. All the while, Ruby was fighting another couple of Beowolves that had come to attack. As Ruby reached her, Chess waved her girlfriend off.

"Go, I'll try and cover you. Just make sure you kick some ass." At this Ruby looked worried, so Chess lightly shoved her back towards the battle. With one more look at her girlfriend, Ruby ran to fight the Grimm incursion.

Sitting against the wall, Chess did her best to cover Ruby. Unfortunately, Chess had never once fired a gun in her life, and so her aim was understandably horrendous. She started to aim away from Ruby when most of the shots missed the Grimm and almost hit the petite redhead.

After a short while, Chess smiled as she saw JNPR and CFVY drop in, along with Sun and Neptune. She also happened to notice Ironwood's massive ship bringing in reinforcements as well.

It was kinda hard to miss.

...Holy shit, did the guy in red just explode an Ursa Major?

Wow. That is some serious firepower. Chess smiled. I wanna fight him.

After CFVY finished utterly destroying most of the Grimm in the plaza, the teachers arrived, and Chess was stunned. Both by the fact that Professor Goodwitch's semblance was stupidly powerful... and the fact that Port was actually somewhat capable.

That last part was especially shocking.

Soon the Breach was finished, and everyone stood around relishing their victory. Chess still lay against the wall, and found herself alone outside the circle. That was okay, Chess was tired anyway.

So, very... tired.

She just needed...

a little

nap

Author's Note:

Soooo I know this is short, but quite frankly I really, really suck at writing fight scenes. I've tried, and no matter what I do I'm not happy with it. So honestly, most of the time the fight scenes will either be short, put in the background, or -if I have to do them- very shitty.

Sorry.

(BTW: A reader by the name of 'Ultimatrix Bearer' didn't realise this, so I'll clarify for anyone who didn't get it. In chapter 16, I specifically stated that Alys -AKA Neo- was the one to cause Chess to escape from the facility she was in. The 'dream' was a memory.

"One turning to leave, subtly leaving a razor blade. The other grinning, knowing they can finally escape."

For context, at that point Chess was quite literally strapped to a table and hooked up to some machines that were doing... things. Things that are spoiler-y things. She used the razor blade to cut the straps and escape during at the most opportune time.

FYI, just in case some people still don't get it, all of the 'dreams' -the entire sections in italics- in Act IV are in fact memories. They are Chess' memories.)

Still, hope you liked the chapter! This is probably the end of this Act, sorry to cut it short but over the last couple months I've sort of lost my motivation for writing. Like I have said before, I do plan to finish this, but it might take quite a while, so I hope you can be patient with me. In the meantime, if someone wants to do fanart or write their own stories about Chess, feel free! If there's something you're not sure on about her appearance, or her backstory, or her abilities, then feel free to ask. As long as it's already been revealed in this fic, I'll clarify anything you like!

Anyway, I need to go and sleep. I don't know why I always write these at ungodly hours, but hey, it's when I feel motivated I guess. Well, I'm gonna finish up.

Hope you enjoyed, feel free to leave a review, and/or PM any questions.

Sm0key out.