Caenis enters Sienna's tent and asks where Achilles is. She answers that she had him moved. They are meeting Winter's team soon, so it would be bad if they saw a captive human. Once they meet Winter's team, she will see for herself if they are actually telling the truth about wanting to help them. They hear a crash and step outside to see five Paladin mechs slaughtering White Fang members. At first, Caenis thinks Winter's team has betrayed them, but Sienna notices these mechs are from the White Fang bases that were raided. This means the Paladins are controlled by the White Fang Killer.
They see Sheba trying to lead children to safety. A Paladin threatens them, but Sienna gets their attention and yells she is the leader of the White Fang, causing them to chase her instead. Caenis stabs one in the cockpit with her spear, but finds it was empty, likely operated by remote control. She takes on three of them. Sienna fights the last one and blows it up by sticking some Dust arrows up its exhaust port. The Paladin that Caenis stabbed gets up and attacks her, but Sheba summons her three jackalopes and they smack it around until it blows up. After confirming the children are safe, Sienna signals Caenis, who has a flashback of when she was a child and wanted to join the birds in the sky. Her body erupts into flames just in time to stop the Paladins' bullets. The flames form the shape of a phoenix as she declares her Noble Phantasm, "Lapithai Caeneus!" She rams all three of the remaining Paladins and blows them up.
As they recover, Sheba remembers with dread that multiple bases were attacked at the same time, so the group Atalante was escorting is likely in danger. Sienna tells Caenis to help her. As Sheba and Sienna attempt to call Winter's group, someone emerges from the Paladins' flaming rubble and thrusts a spear at Sienna. Sheba knocks her out of the way but is impaled herself. The man wears a heavy suit of armor that completely conceals his body. He laughs and flicks Sheba off his spear. An enraged Sienna says he is dead.
Shocked that the man she is facing is not Adam, Blake asks who he is. He introduces himself as Hijikata Toshizou, but that won't matter when she is a corpse. Atalante attacks him with her claws, but he blocks with his sword. He asks if she is from Apocrypha, but she echoes his boast of it not mattering when he is a corpse and fires a flaming arrow. He dodges and opens fire with his rifle forcing her to run. Blake gasps as she remembers Ilia's last recording; the gunfire sounds exactly the same. He tries to shoot her, but she evades. She gets confused because she remembers the report from Junior's USB drive saying the White Fang Killer had red hair, but Hijikata has black hair. He tells her to pay attention and slashes at her. She blocks with her cleaver, but he shoots and shatters the blade. He knocks her down and tries to stab her, but she replaces herself with a water clone. The water turns the ground into mud and he gets stuck. She creates an electric and wind clone and they charge at him, but he throws his coat at them to make them detonate prematurely. She shoots him with Ice Dust and he freezes over, but he starts to break free. She regretfully throws her entire clip at him and shoots it, causing a huge explosion.
Hijikata emerges from the smoke with his clothes damaged but otherwise fine. Blake starts to panic, but Atalante blindsides him in her Boarbatusk form and rams him into a tree. He coughs up blood, but he is enraged and shoots her front leg off. He grabs and lifts her head before trying to stab her. At the last second, she returns to her normal form to escape, then declares her Noble Phantasm, "Tauropolos Skia Thermokrasia!" Her body erupts with flames and she rams him, causing another huge explosion.
Atalante emerges from the crater and sees Blake, who is injured from the shockwave. She blames Blake for distracting her, saying if Blake hadn't shown up, she would have been able to stop Hijikata before he killed so many White Fang members. Now, she will kill Blake. Blake picks up her gun and says she's not dying today as Team RWBY promised they would go on an adventure together. Before Atalante can attack, she gets shot in the torso, making her fall over. They look up to see Hijikata, who boasts that his body will never quit. Atalante charges him, but he shoots her in the leg. She keeps charging, but he slashes her arm off and impales her. She screams that she will kill him, but he shoots her in the head and she falls limp. He rounds on Blake, who panics and tries to shoot him, but he easily deflects the bullets with his sword. He gets within point-blank range and she aims her gun at his head, but her courage fails her. He stabs her through the heart, then walks away as she falls over with tears in her eyes.
A short time ago, Achilles wakes up to find himself gagged with a bag over his head. He hears two male guards standing over him bored and waiting for more instructions. One leaves to take a potty break. After a few minutes, the other wonders what is taking so long, then stammers in fear. Achilles hears another man come in and say he killed the first guard. The second guard fearfully says he is covered with blood as the man calls himself the Faunus Slayer, but they know him as the White Fang Killer. The second guard is decapitated. Achilles gets scared and struggles to get out of his enchanted chains, but the man says it is no fun to kill someone who is helpless and walks away saying he has bigger prey to kill. Achilles keeps struggling and gets tired, then gets a flashback of his mentor Chiron telling him to break past his limits. With renewed determination, he flares up his Aura and struggles despite the chains shocking him. Eventually, they break. He removes the hood and gag while thanking Chiron. He's taken a lot of damage from the enchanted chains. He tries to summon his chariot but cannot, though he manages to summon his spear. While wondering where the White Fang Killer went, he sees the explosion from Lapithai Caeneus and runs in that direction.
Sienna angrily fires arrows at the armored man, but they have no effect on his armor. He charges her, but the jackalopes attack him. They knock him down and knock his helmet off. He is revealed to have red hair and orange-yellow eyes. Sienna asks who he is and he introduces himself as Mori Nagayoshi, whose mission is to make worthless fools know their place. She angrily asks how many Faunus he killed. He says he made a game of it. Basic grunts are three points, higher members are ten points, people like Sheba are 25 points, and Sienna is 100 points. He normally gets 50 points per base he visits, but now he wants the high score. He charges her while she tries to shoot him in the head, but he deflects the arrows with his spear. She manages to hit him in the chest with an exploding arrow that knocks him back, then freezes him with Ice Dust. As he breaks free, the jackalopes hit him with energy blasts, leaving him face down and motionless.
Sienna turns to Sheba, who is standing, but is shocked to see she is still bleeding out. She runs to Sheba and uses her cape to try to staunch the bleeding, telling her to hold on. Suddenly, a man with messy black hair wearing a black cloak over a grey gi and an orange scarf carrying a katana walks up. He says no help is coming because he's killed everybody else, including the children. Enraged, Sheba orders her jackalopes to attack, but he easily slices them to pieces. She cries while calling out their names: Ehad, Shtayim, and Shalosh. The man introduces himself as Okada Izou, the Faunus Slayer, then tells them to die. He and Sienna clash, but Nagayoshi gets up and tries to stab her in the back. At the last second, Achilles arrives and tackles him away. Sienna is wary of him before realizing he is on her side as he faces the White Fang Killers. Nagayoshi is furious at Achilles' interference while Okada gets excited. They then see an Atlas airship approaching. Okada says they have to retreat. Nagayoshi says he wants his high score, but Okada says they can get Sienna later and it will give Nagayoshi a chance to try his new armor. Nagayoshi says next time, he will kill her. Sienna tries to shoot them with a Fire Dust arrow, but it is deflected and they escape in the smoke. Sienna rushes to Sheba, who has lost consciousness, while Achilles looks at the airship which is about to land.
Atalante, whose body is slowly disintegrating, crawls to Blake, declaring that she will not die until she kills the White Fang Killer. She finds Blake is barely alive and says they have one chance. She rips her own heart out of her chest and inserts it into Blake's body. As she disintegrates, she tells Nikushimi to be reborn. Blake's eyes open and she creates a pillar of dark energy. Caenis, who had been running towards them, sees the pillar and keeps running. She finds nothing but scorch marks, blood, and a slightly damaged photo of Team RWBY.
