Yang waited until Goodwitch was no longer visible before turning to Ruby. "Alright sis, spit it out."

"What?"

"Don't 'what' me. Why'd you accept this op so quickly? What made you decide to wade into the biggest pile of Grimm we've ever seen?"

"Yang, really I just-"

"Don't give me that!" Yang interrupted. "If this is just about killing Grimm we could have taken any other contract on that board. What is it? Gettin' sentimental about Beacon or something?"

Ruby didn't respond right away. She looked down at Crescent Rose gripped tightly in her hands. She wanted to tell Yang what she had seen, or rather, what she thought she had seen on the video, but gauging her sister's reaction was a crapshoot. Telling her the truth had equal chances of calming her down as enraging her.

"Weeellll? I can already tell you want to say something, you know my big sister intuition always-"

"I think I saw Jaune enter the tower." Ruby blurted out. The statement was delivered so quickly, Yang didn't fully process it at first.

"-knows when-Woah wait back up!" Yang sputtered.

"I said-"

"Yeah I heard the words, but that doesn't make any sense! Why would Jaune of all people be here? I haven't seen that tin-can since he busted out of Atlas and-!"

"He was dragging something with him." Ruby hurried on. "I saw it in the video, it was hard to see, but he definitely brought something into the tower with him. I just didn't want to bring it up in front of Goodwitch." She persisted.

"Ruby, look-" Yang raised her hands in exasperation. "-how can you even be sure it was Jaune though? Ok so yeah, he's more robot than human nowadays sure and that makes figuring him out kinda hard to predict, I'll give you that, but that vid quality was garbage. Goodwitch said it herself. How can you be sure it wasn't just another malfunctioning AK bot from before the invasion? Ironwood brought enough of the damn things with him to Beacon back then. One of them might have survived all this time and just been wandering around with its circuits all fried up and stuff."

"It couldn't have been." Ruby countered. "I know the schematics of those things. Their power cores only last for 2 weeks before they have to be plugged into a service station to recharge."

"You spent too much time around Atlas." Yang muttered shook her head. "Besides, someone could have dropped it off recently! What if Atlas is trying out some new tech or something? Goodwitch said an Atlas team was supposedly scouring this place before, good as place as any to try it out!"

"Goodwitch or the other scouts would have noticed it." Ruby replied diffidently. "We've both seen those dropships Atlas uses Yang, they're not exactly subtle."

"That we know of! It's been years since the invasion Ruby, I'm sure that Ironwood is cooking up all sorts of crazy stuff. They built Jaune and Penny, who says they can't come up with some kinda stealthy dropship?"

Ruby frowned slightly. "Why are you so certain it's not him?"

Yang started to point, then stopped and took a deep breath. "Look, I know Jaune was important to you. Hell he was always nice in a dorky sort of way. He's been with us since the beginning right? But people change Ruby. I mean, look what he's been through! Nearly lost his whole damn body, survived two invasions by Grimm..." She lifted her prosthetic arm. "I just lost an arm and it wrecked me for months, what do you think's happened to him?" She clenched her eyes shut for a second, balling her hands into fists. "And you know it too I bet. You bounced back from your injuries faster than me, but don't tell me you didn't have a hard time getting used to them." She jerked a finger down at Ruby's legs.

"What Jaune went through, I can't even begin to imagine. Plus then losing Pyrrha right in front of him? The guy was off the rails when fighting with us Ruby! He half looked like he wanted to die, and probably would have if Ren and Nora hadn't been keeping him in check!" She yanked her scroll from her belt and jerked it towards Ruby.

"And what about that letter we got from Weiss?! Vomit boy shows up out of the blue to the gates of Atlas, demanding to be repaired, then busts out of the containment and vanishes again! Why would he come here? What's waiting for him back at Beacon?"

"I dunno...? Maybe he brought in some high explosive or something? Blew up the Dragon on the video?"

"You really think he dragged his chrome ass all the way back to Beacon to do that?"

"We won't know until we look won't we?" Ruby snapped, then seeing Yang's eyes begin to glow red again, hurried on. "Look, lets just first try to approach the tower ok? One way or another, there's something in there that's somehow pacifying all of those Grimm. That alone is worth looking at don't you think?"

The anger in Yang's eyes faded. Letting out a slow breath, she nodded. "Ok...I admit I'm kinda curious myself. But if we do this, if we are going in there, I make the final call on whether pull back or not, got it?"

"Yang come on..." Ruby began before Yang cut her off again.

"Don't 'come on' me! We've lost too damn much at this school to add one of us to the list. If you want my help, this is what I want."

Ruby rolled her eyes in annoyance, but quickly relented, if only to stop the argument from escalating further.

"Fine. We'll do this your way."

Yang nodded curtly. "Finally some sense in all of this." She followed Ruby's gaze around the area surrounding the observation post. "So, what do you think, how do you want to approach it?"

"I thought you said you wanted to do it your way?" Ruby looked up in surprise.

"Yeah we are." Yang turned back and smiled broadly. "Right now, my way is to let you take the lead on approach since you're better at sneaking up on Grimm than I am."

"Yaaang..." Ruby groaned.

"Come on Ruby. Sooner we finish this, the sooner we add another notch to our Hunter record and I can get access to a hot shower and chow." Yang motioned for Ruby to lead off.

The approach towards the tower proved to be a lot more difficult than they had anticipated. The heavy presence of Grimm had already forced them to move slowly to begin with, almost tiptoeing at times past a few scattered Grimm that had wandered away from the larger herd near the tower, but the sheer variety of obstacles brought their overall speed to little more than a snails pace. Collapsed buildings, debris, and even several sinkholes too deep to see the bottom all got in their way, and by the time they were in sight of the large Grimm herd, the sun was approaching the edge of the horizon. After getting to within a hundred yards of the mass of Creepers that formed the outer edge of the horde, they climbed on top of the remains of a 2nd floor class room and trained their eyes out through the shattered windows.

"Holy gods..." Yang whispered. "I knew there were a lot of them but up close like this..."

"Yeah..." Ruby breathed.

'Up close', their situation looked even worse than what they had seen on the video. The Grimm were packed in so tightly, the horde resembled a black, spikey wall of fur and bone. Worse, the way the creatures stood in line, unmoving, rigidly cowed by whatever was in the tower was something so ludicrous to behold Ruby wouldn't have believed it had she not just seen it with her own two eyes.

Ruby blinked. Then shook her head rapidly.

"You ok sis?" Yang shifted closer.

Ruby's heart pounded hard against her chest. "Yang...somethings wrong." Ruby breathed.

"Yeah no shit sis, we're on top of a fuck-ton of Grimm here."

"No, no I mean-My eyes..." Ruby swallowed through a throat that had suddenly become painfully dry. "...my eyes...they're not acting up. Usually when we get so close to Grimm they're like...needles..."

"Yeah you always said it was like pinpricks and stuff after the dragon and all, I get it. You're saying it's not happening anymore?" Yang looked from Ruby to a boarbatusk wandering into the open area between them and the herd.

"Yeah...with large packs of Grimm nearby, it becomes so bad it's hard to keep my eyes open, but now it's stopped. Completely."

"What does that mean?" Yang turned to look at her sister. Her face had gone chalk white, and Crescent Rose trembled in her hands as she stared into the mass of Grimm before them.

"I don't know. I think I'll be ok...just give me a second." She swallowed again, closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, trying to recall the calming techniques her father had taught her during their last visit. After a few minutes of slow rhythmic breathing, she turned to Yang again. "I want to try something. I know it's crazy but-"

"What? What do you want to do?"

Ruby looked back to the Grimm, still facing the tower and as frozen as statues. Pulling Crescent Rose closer, she flicked up its scope and zoomed in on the nearest Creeper. Even zoomed up close, they stood so still she couldn't even see their bodies drawing breath.

"Ruby...what are you doing?" Yang whispered again.

Ruby didn't answer.

"Ruby!" Yang hissed.

Ruby started then pulled back from her scope. "Sorry about that...this is all just too weird for me."

"You and me both, so what did you want to do?"

"Well, I was thinking. The Grimm around the tower seem to be...I dunno frozen. Like more than just standing still, like they're not even breathing." Ruby shouldered Crescent Rose again and sighted in on the lone Boarbatusk that stood away from the main herd.

"So...what if we tested to see how they react?" Ruby moved her supporting hand off Crescent Rose and pointed. "That Boarbatusk. The one away from the herd. If we take it out from here, we can see how the rest of the herd will react."

"Are you crazy?!" Yang nearly shouted before she could stop herself. "That'll draw the whole damn herd over here!"

"I don't think so." Ruby murmured. "I have a feeling the main group won't even notice."

Yang's mouth opened slightly. "You...have a feeling? Ruby are you nuts!? That's not enough distance for us to get away if they charge us!"

"It's enough." Ruby replied with unusual calm despite the iron grip she maintained on her weapon. "Besides, if we're going to get through that tower, we're going to have pass through those Grimm one way or another. This'll at least give us an idea of what they'll do."

"Ruby..." Yang began, then backed away from the edge and shifted to a kneeling position "...This is too much. Seriously, I'm calling it here, there's no way we can get through that pack. This was stupid and Goodwitch is stupider for even thinking we could do this in the first place."

"You can leave if you want." Ruby replied in the same calm tone that was having the opposite effect on Yang. "But I'm going to at least try this first. I'm not giving up on Beacon this easily." She finally pulled her eyes from the scope and glared up at her sister.

Yang sighed angrily through her nose matching Ruby's glare for only a few seconds before looking away. She'd never leave her sister alone on a mission like this and Ruby knew it. "Is this really about saving Beacon Ruby? Be honest with me, I deserve that much if I'm we're going to do this."

"It is about Beacon!" Ruby shot back obstinately. "But it's more than that! Jaune, what's controlling the Grimm, whatever happened to the Dragon...take your pick any one of those are enough for me. I know you're worried-"

Yang's eyes flared open. "Who said I was worried!?" She nearly shrieked. "Ok fine fine, sue for me for having second thoughts about taking on a mountain of Grimm! Can we at least pull back another hundred yards or something? Please?"

Ruby smiled but had to agree the idea had merit. Folding Crescent Rose back down and securing it to her waist, they spent several minutes slowly pulling back from their perch, eventually selecting the crumbled remains of what appeared to be some kind of pumping station. Reaching the ceiling and making their way around a large hole revealing the shattered remains of power transformers and pumps, Ruby braced the rifle on a large chunk of plascrete and sighted in on the Boarbatusk she had been observing earlier. It had changed positions from their earlier spot, but was now focused on rooting out some tasty morsel that had buried itself in the dirt.

Enjoy your last meal I guess...Ruby thought to herself, letting the curiosity of what exactly Grimm ate enter her thoughts for the briefest of moments before shrugging it off and adjusting her scope for the increased range. Turning to Yang she nodded.

"Alright sis, lets do this. Ready when you are." Yang had her binoculars fixed towards the horde in anticipation.

Ruby let out a low breath and rested her finger on the trigger. No breeze and a mild day. She couldn't have asked for more ideal conditions for a shot. Resting the crosshairs just above the Boarbatusk's head, she let the last of her breath leave her lungs and gently squeezed the last few ounces of pressure on the two stage trigger.

Crescent Rose bucked into her shoulder, causing her to momentarily lose sight of her target. Rapidly racking another round into the chamber, she reacquired her target only to see the last remains of the Boarbatusk dissolving into the air. The last echoes of the shot faded into the distance as the two sisters held their collective breath, waiting to see what would happen next.

"I don't believe it..." Yang whispered.

"What is it Yang? Anything?" Ruby adjusted her sight picture just as Yang replied.

"You were right Sis...they didn't even budge. Not even turn around or anything. Glad I didn't put money on that bet..."

"Yeah... I've never seen them do this before, it just doesn't make any sense!"

"None of this job makes any sense Ruby, at this point it couldn't get any damn weirder than if you walked up to them and just asked them to let us in!"

Ruby pulled her eyes from the scope and looked at Yang.

"Oh don't even think about it!"

"I'm just saying considering they haven't moved yet they probably aren't going to-"

"NO RUBY! This is not up for discussion! That's even dumber than your idea of trying to make a cake stuffed pie, it's not happening ok?!"

Ruby muttered something about not understanding her vision then went back to her scope. The herd still hadn't budged an inch. All that had changed was the furrow that her round had dug into the dirt and traveled up to the feet of one of the creepers standing out at the outer edges of the group.

"Hey Yang..." Ruby began.

"Ruby don't even start with me-"

"No no, it's not that it's just...what about trying to shoot one of the herd then? They didn't pay attention to the one standing outside of their group, what about one of the ones inside then? That would give us a better idea right? And we're far enough away we could out run them..."

Yang lowered the binoculars, pinching her nose. "Ruby you are certifiably nuts. You poke the hive that badly you are going to get stung you know that right?"

"Wont' know until we-"

"-Yeah yeah, try I get it." Yang let out a long sigh. "Look, you got lucky with that shot, but shooting the herd like that? That's just plain suicide. Even you can't seriously think you can shoot down enough Grimm before they're on top of us-"

Ruby started to protest but Yang waved her hand.

"-No listen to me. I'm not saying we give up now. This stuff's weird enough that I want to find out more, but we're going to do it my way." Yang reached down and picked up the binoculars from the roof.

"What do you have in mind?" Ruby looked up to see Yang scanning the upper portions of the tower.

"We do an aerial insertion." Yang pointed to the crumbling remains of Ozpin's office tower that adjoined the comm tower. "Ozpin's tower is probably big enough we can land the Bullhead on top of it. We have those grapple launchers in storage..." She traced a line between the two towers. "...we deploy them and just zipline into the comm tower. We get a headstart inside and avoid the uglies outside." She lowered the binoculars. "What do you think?"

Ruby looked towards the tower. The hole where the dragon had been certainly was large enough...and Ozpin's tower certainly looked stout enough...

"Wait! Didn't Professor Goodwitch's drones all get knocked out when they got close to the tower?" Ruby looked back to Yang. "That means Nevermores! We can't-!"

"-The Bullhead has guns remember?" Yang grinned wickedly. "And I topped off the ammo drums with some extra special stuff from the last job. Besides..." She tucked the Binoculars in her side pack and started climbing down the generator building. "...I'd feel much better diving into that mess surrounded by metal and ammo wouldn't you?"

"Well yeah but..." Ruby trailed off. She couldn't find a convincing argument to Yang's idea. She was a great shot sure, but even she had to submit to the reality that there were more Grimm than she had bullets, and Yang had more than enough experience fighting Nevermores in their Bullhead.

"Come on lets hustle, I don't want to make this approach at night!" Yang landed with a heavy thud, while Ruby followed a second later. Traversing the same path they had taken towards the tower, they sprinted as quickly and as cautiously as they could manage. Despite the initial contact on their approach, their return yielded no encounters with any wandering packs of Grimm, a boon they were supremely thankful for as the sun was dipping into the horizon by the time they reached their Gunship.

"Yang, we'd better let Professor Goodwitch know what we're doing. We don't want to get mistaken for some kind of intruder." Ruby hurried up the descending ramp and strapped into the copilot seat up front.

"You take care of it sis. Gotta get this hulk off the ground." Yang muttered as she rapidly flicked switches and buttons.

Ruby donned an old headset and dialed the radio to the frequency Goodwitch had provided earlier. "Professor Goodwitch! This is Ruby! Can you hear me?"

Harsh static blasted through her headset. Ruby winced and reduced the volume. It sounded like someone had come through but-"Professor Goodwitch, do you copy?"

"-at you? C*** he*** yo-" The transmission was too garbled to make any sense of before a louder surge of static washed through her speakers. She tried boosting the signal power to get through, repeating her attempts at contact before sighing in irritation and flicking the radio off.

"Anything?" Yang looked over as the engines screamed to life.

Ruby shook her head. "No luck, I thought I got through at first, but then the static just got worse the longer I tried."

"Got worse?"

"Yeah, don't know how to describe it. I thought I heard something, then the signal just died out completely. I hope nothing's wrong..." Ruby muttered, looking at the radio receiver in front of her.

"Well..." Yang pushed the throttle upwards. "...not much we can do about it now. We've probably got only one shot at this before we lose all light for the day. If we run into too many Nevermores or can't find a spot, I'll bring us back here and try again in the morning."

Ruby nodded then leaned back into the flight seat. The bullhead gained altitude, then rotated sharply, pressing Ruby into her seat as the Bullhead clawed its way through the roiled air over the campus. The harsh takeoff earned Yang a sideway's glance from her sister but nothing more. Still, Ruby rationalized they were on a short timetable and the less time spent fighting Nevermores in their playground the better, regardless of what Yang thought of the twin heavy machine guns bolted to their ship.

The Bullhead closed the distance between the two spires shortly and began circling. Ruby's eyes flicked nervously back and forth from the window to their radar screen, trying to stay alert to any possible sign of Nevermores or whatever other flying nightmare could possibly come their way. The Bullhead drifted almost lazily in the evening air as Yang adjusted the controls and started bringing the aircraft closer in.

"Alright, starting final approach." Yang leaned forward, peering out of the windows towards the remains of Ozpin's tower. "I'll try to park it right in his office. Most of the walls look like they were blown out. Plenty of space." Yang grinned almost sheepishly turning to Ruby. "Hopefully Oz won't mind us making an even bigger mess of the place than it already is?"

The Bullhead crept closer. Yang gently twitched the flight sticks, continuing the Bullhead's slow lateral drift as the remains of Ozpin's top floor office began to fill their windows.

"This'll be tight..." Yang gritted her teeth. "...be ready for anything sis, I want you on those guns if something jumps us." Yang focused harder on the wrecked tile floor of the office while Ruby tightly gripped the trigger sticks at her console. Her eyes were already beginning to prickle. Perfect timing... She grumped, hoping they wouldn't get any worse. That train of thought was suddenly derailed when their craft jerked to a halt, nearly ejecting them from their seats.

"SHIT!" Yang screamed. "Did we hit something?!" She yanked the yoke in the opposite direction, certain she must have smacked into some exposed beam or piece of structure. The Bullhead moved a few feet in the air than slammed to a halt again, the fuselage groaning in protest as it dangled helplessly in the air above the tower.

"What the fuck!?" Yang screamed as she fought with the controls. "Ruby you ok?"

Ruby had gone pale, her eyes wide in shock as she looked back and forth from Yang to the building just in front of them. "Y-Yang! Are we stuck? What happened?" Her knuckles were gripping the firing handles so hard Yang was worried she might accidentally hit the firing studs. She shoved that thought aside and turned back to her controls.

"Not sure! Hang on, I'm going to get us out of here!" Despite moving the yoke in every direction, the Bullhead merely jerked and bucked like a chained Ursa, sending sounds of screeching metal throughout the hull.

"Oh fuck this shit!" Yang raged. She reached for the throttle and jammed the lever into the redline, pulling the yoke away from the tower and hoping the extra power would break them free of...whatever it was that holding them here. The firewalled engines howled in protest as Burn Dust was dumped directly into their oxidizers, sending alerts and alarms flaring all over the control panel.

"AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Yang's concentration was shattered as the sound of her sister's voice momentarily drowned out the blaring alerts in front of her.

"RUBY! What's wrong!?" Yang yelled. She saw Ruby writhing in the co-pilot seat, hands clutched to her eyes.

Ruby could only manage a gurgle to Yang's question as the sensation of daggers being driven into her eyeballs overwhelmed her senses. She was everywhere and nowhere, her mind slipping in and out of consciousness as her body struggled to deal with the tidal wave of pain surging through her. She felt herself vomit up the remains of the ration bar she had eaten on their way to Beacon, but it might have been someone else's body for all she could tell. The nausea flared again, hitting her hard along with the pain. Her body flopped limply into the seat, held up only by the crash harness she had strapped herself into.

"Ruby! Talk to me! What's going on?" Yang called as more warnings and alerts blipped into life. Everything from Coolant Pump failures to Hull Breaches splashed across her console, dividing her attention between keeping the craft in the air, and trying to figure out what was going on with her sister.

The ship was shaking so violently it felt like being on the inside of a cocktail shaker held by an angry giant. Sections of interior paneling and wires tore loose, sending sparks and fragments ricocheting all over the cabin. A particularly brutal lurch towards the tower smacked Yang's head against a bulkhead, filling her vision with stars as she desperately fumbled with the control yoke. Trying one last time to free them, she pulled back on the yoke so hard the plastic coating on the handles cracked under the strain. The Bullhead savagely lurched again in response, nearly slamming her face into the control console had it not been for her grip on the controls. She felt the port side engine sputter and die, then the starboard one followed suit, erupting in a shower of sparks and flame that illuminated the evening sky. In a singular second of clarity amidst the chaos, Yang knew they were doomed. Alarms were screaming from every direction, acrid smoke poured into the cabin from the burning engines and electronics, and right next to her, Ruby sat crying in agony, tears and what looked like blood leaking from her eyes. Yang reached for Ruby's closest hand and pried it away from her face, revealing a bloodshot eye that twitched and rolled, seeing nothing but chaos.

"Y-Yang!" Ruby cried piteously, the agony overwhelming what little sanity she had left. "Yang I'm scared! It hurts so much! I can't see anything! HELP ME!"

Yang's stomach lurched up into her throat as the craft abruptly began to lose altitude. Tearing her eyes away from her injured sister, Yang looked out the cracked windshield to see the Comm tower hurtling them toward them.

They were going too fast.

They were going to hit.

The last conscious thought that tore through Yang's mind before the wall filled her vision was this had all been her fault.