Reach the City in the Sky

Mistral Police Department

May and Drake were both sitting on a bench outside of the main building for the Mistral police. They'd been looking over numerous reports concerning the possible whereabouts of Cinder and Neo, but so far, they'd come up empty. "I know we've checked a good number of these places at least once," said May as she set her stack of files down, "It still bugs the ever-living crap out of me that we couldn't catch them last time."

"We were lucky just to get out alive last time," Drake reminded her as he flipped to another page in the files he'd been reading. In order to keep the other officers of the department from getting potentially nervous, he was wearing a regular pair of shades as opposed to one of his masks while near the station. Well that and the fact that his last mask had been damaged in their fight against Neo and Cinder. "None of us anticipated that she'd find help, at least not in the form of that monochrome girl."

"Yeah I know," said May as she leaned back against the bench, "But the moment you guys got out of my line of sight, there wasn't much I could do except call for help."

"It's very likely that call kept them from coming after us," said Drake, "We've discussed this before, even if you'd been down there with us, the result would've been the same. You and I have both fought Neo before and know how dangerous she is."

"While true, it's still frustrating," said May, "And we haven't been able to find a single trace of them in the last couple of days." Drake was about to respond to that when Ilia came walking out of the station.

"Well I've got okay news and bad news," said Ilia as she held up a report she'd managed to get while in the station. "According to this, Cinder and Neo may have been spotted on the outskirts of the city."

"That's something at least," said Drake as he leaned back against the bench and crossed his arms.

"So what is the bad news exactly," questioned May, hoping the magical psycho hadn't found more help.

"It looks like they managed to get their hands on a small airship," explained Ilia, "The former owners were, well, too dead to care if they took it."

"Outstanding," said May sarcastically as she threw her hands up in the air before falling back again, "So how old is this report?"

"Close to a day," replied Ilia with a frown on her face. She wasn't too fond of this turn of events either.

"I guess we need to figure out where they're going then," said Drake as he put a hand to his chin, "She was looking for Wayne's group while she was wandering around in the black market. That narrows it down to a degree."

"Well we know Wayne, Aegis and their friends were headed for Argus," said May, "And then Atlas after that."

"Then that must be where Cinder's heading," said Drake, "We need to get a message out as soon as possible."

"And hope they haven't left Argus already," said Ilia, "Because I haven't the slightest idea how we can get a quick message to Atlas."

Argus Coastline

Wayne stood atop the mechanical colossus, which was still currently immobile thanks to the mass of ice and earth covering its cannon arm. As it turned out, their victory was rather hollow as they listened to one frantic transmission after another on the airship's radio and Cordovin's mech, all of which said the same thing. A swarm of flying Grimm was attacking Argus, concentrating near a leviathan Grimm, the type of Grimm that the colossus mech was meant to fight. "Our defenses are weakened because of you," exclaimed Cordovin as she made the mech clench its free fist, "All of this is your fault!"

"Oh give it a rest," Wayne called down, "We gave you plenty of chances to avoid an outcome like this! Now all this fighting amongst ourselves has left us open to disaster, but it's too late to play the blame game now." Cordovin's response to that was her raging over the speakers more, which Wayne decided to ignore as he directed his attention to an approaching sound, that of a motorcycle. The former Beacon student couldn't help but smile a bit as he recognized the signature engine noise of his brother's bike before hopping down off the top of the metal colossus and jumping off it's arm back onto the Cliffside.

Aegis came riding out of the trees just as Wayne landed, somehow managing to keep his bike stable despite having Blake, who'd lost her white trench coat somehow, and Yang awkwardly balancing on the back. "Guys, are you all okay," asked Ruby worriedly as the three of them dismounted.

"Well we're fine," said Yang as she hugged her sister, "But please tell me that huge roar we're hearing isn't a giant Grimm."

"I'm afraid so," said Weiss with a serious tone as she turned to them, "And we just disabled the machine designed specifically for taking it down." All other conversation was drowned out then as the stolen airship rose above the trees and flew over to the cliff next to them.

"We might want to consider getting out of here," said Maria as the side doors slid open to admit them. "Worse comes to worst, we can probably slip away with all the chaos happening out there. Our priority is still getting that relic to Atlas." Everyone knew Maria meant well, but for obvious reasons that idea didn't sit so well with most of them.

"We could," said Ruby, "But there are people in danger out there right now, and like you said, huntsman and huntresses are supposed to protect people."

"I did say that didn't I," said Maria, "I suppose you've got an idea then."

"Just one," said Ruby, "It's time to put that training of yours to good use."

"That might not be the best idea," said Calavera, "We've only had a couple of training sessions, so this will basically be-."

"I know, a trial by fire," said Ruby, "But that's the only chance we have of stopping that leviathan now."

"Well we still need a way to get close," said Jaune, "I can augment Ren's aura so we can cloak the ship from the other Grimm, but there's still a lot of chaos to get through out there."

"You forgot one other problem," said Wayne as he pointed to Ruby's hip, "The Grimm are attracted to the relic. Even if you augment Ren's semblance, they'll still be drawn to the ship."

"Well we can't just stash it somewhere and hope it's still there when we get back," Said Yang.

"You won't have too," said Wayne, "I'll take it, and then I'll amplify the attraction from nearby. That way you can slip in with Ren's semblance and you'll have fewer Grimm to deal with, making it easier to focus on the leviathan."

"You're not seriously suggesting using the Aura Shadow," said Weiss, "Even if you weren't trying to avoid overusing it right now, there's a small army of Grimm out there. If you fight them alone, it'll be suicide!"

"I won't need to fight them the whole time," said Wayne, "Just long enough for you guys to stop that leviathan. Then swing on by and pick me up, no problem."

"And he won't be alone," said Aegis as he stepped forward, "Aerial and long range ain't really my game, so I'll go with him and make sure he doesn't do anything extra stupid."

"Funny, that's usually what I'm doing for you," said Wayne, unable to resist making a quip about the irony.

"Well then maybe some more of us should-," Nora started to say before Aegis stopped her midsentence.

"I appreciate the thought," said Aegis, "But we can't divide ourselves too much. Once Ren and Jaune's auras run out, someone's gonna need to keep the airship and Ruby covered, and stopping that leviathan is way more important than fighting a skirmish in the woods." No one liked the idea of leaving the two brothers behind, but they also couldn't argue with the logic of the situation. Eventually, Ruby relented and pulled the relic off where it was hanging on her waist.

"Just so you know, I'm still not onboard with this approach," said Ruby, only half-joking.

"Says the girl about to literally stare down a leviathan," remarked Wayne as he accepted the relic before patting Ruby on the head, "Compared to that, this'll be a cakewalk." The silver-eyed girl smiled in spite of herself as she, and surprisingly Weiss, wrapped the older Ursario in a hug.

"You'd better stay alive out there," said Yang as she and Nora gave Aegis a hug, "You promised to teach me a whole lot more pranks when we got to Atlas."

"I've already got a lesson plan lined up," said Aegis as he and Wayne stepped back and watched their friends board the airship. They continued to watch for another minute as the damaged ship flew off into the distance before Wayne joined his weapons together and started focusing his semblance through the weapon.

"Hey Wayne, what in the world are you doing?" Questioned Aegis as his brother walked to the edge of the cliff.

"Giving this Atlas commander one last chance to actually do her job," said Wayne as the air around him grew heavy with energy. The elder Ursario then took a stance and swung his weapon, releasing a massive but thin slash of energy at the damaged joint of the colossus mech's cannon arm.

"W-what," said Cordovin over the mech's speakers as it moved and tore free from the limb that had been holding it down. "What is the meaning of this?"

"In case you haven't been listening," said Wayne as he broke down his blade staff and returned the weapons to his coat, "Your troops need you right now, and even if you don't have the cannon you should still be able to do something with a giant mech against the Grimm."

"And for this I should just forget your transgressions?" Questioned Cordovin.

"If you want to fight it out again that's fine with me," said Wayne, "But after we're done saving Argus, so if you'll excuse us." Wayne and Aegis turned around then and headed for their bikes, leaving a still angered, but now more thoughtful Cordovin. The two brothers had to ride slower than either of them wanted as they bobbed and weaved through the trees around the coastline until finally coming within sight of the city, and the threat that it faced.

Rising from the ocean was a massive Grimm, even larger than the wyvern at Beacon, with a reptilian-like body and fins on its back and tail. Topping it all off, the creature stood on its hind legs, batting at airships with its webbed hands or snapping at them with a giant, four-eyed faced covered in a Grimm mask. The leviathan's arrival had also brought with it a large number of manticore and griffon Grimm, who were currently swarming around the area just outside of the city. The Atlas base had launched all of its air force to deal with the Grimm, but none of them could even lay a scratch on the leviathan.

"You ready," asked Aegis as they dismounted their bikes and approached the Cliffside.

"Well given that we're about to be summoning a mass of Grimm to try and kill us," said Wayne, "I guess I'm as ready as I'm gonna be." The older Ursario then proceeded to hold the relic up as he concentrated on his negative emotions and memories. The familiar feeling of the aura shadow started to come over him as his body once again produced black mist.

"About time," said the inner voice of the aura shadow, "I was wondering when you'd run into yet another situation that was a bit too much for all of you. But aren't you risking your health a little using this?"

"I'm only producing what's needed to draw in Grimm, like at the bandit camp," Wayne thought back, "I still can't use this technique for sustained combat without more potential damage to my body."

"I still wonder if you actually believe that, given all you've learned about Ozpin recently," the aura shadow said, "He might've been lying to you about your condition, you could be more than fit to use the technique at full strength right now."

"You'd know better than me," thought Wayne as he spotted a number of Grimm flying towards them.

"I know you'll hold out as long as you can," said the aura shadow, "So this time I can wait. The situation will become overwhelming for the both of you soon enough." Wayne didn't respond to his darker half's assessment as he tossed the relic to Aegis and drew his weapons.

"Looks like it worked," said Aegis as he hung the relic from his hip and drew his own weapon and watched as a fair number of Grimm flew towards them.

"Remember we're just buying time," said Wayne as he switched to fire dust ammunition, "So if we turn this into a game of keep away instead of a fight, that'll work just as well."

"Then we'd best put up a good fight," said Aegis, "You know I hate runnin' off." Wayne smirked under his helmet as the first Grimm came within firing distance. Aegis was quick to spin his fire dust on his weapon and create a number of flaming spikes which he sent flying into the first couple of Manticores while Wayne fired both of his weapons at a few more. Small explosions resulted from the impacts as the Grimm fell out of the sky, only to be immediately replaced by the ones behind them.

Wayne and Aegis fired off even more projectiles and dust charged rounds before going back to back as the ones they didn't hit started landing around them. Aegis quickly spun his dust cylinder and formed an electrified halberd while Wayne shifted his weapons to sickle form with white hot glowing blades. As the first couple of Grimm leapt at them, the two brothers moved simultaneously, slicing straight down the middle of the manticore's faces. Even more leapt at them only to meet a similar fate as the two brothers began moving and circling to meet each one that tried to attack them, slicing through the heads or limbs of any Grimm that was foolish enough to come within their range.

At one point, the Grimm tried to come at them from all sides, only for Wayne to respond with a number of energy rings in multiple directions while Aegis spun the cylinder on his weapon again and created several flaming glass blades which he sent flying through the air to drive off or impale the Manticores on his side. All was going well until even more Grimm arrived, and this time they opened up by shooting fireballs at the two brothers. "Scatter," said Wayne as the two of them were forced apart, with Wayne rolling and dodging the fireballs while Aegis formed an earth shield above his head with earth dust and glass to deflect the worst of the barrage. More manticores came crashing through the trees then, snapping their jaws at Wayne as he managed to evade the first attack, but wasn't fast enough to completely avoid the next attack by the creature's horns, forcing him to block the blow with both of his weapons.

'Crap, not now,' thought Wayne as he felt pain lance through his left shoulder. The huntsman in training quickly channeled a bit of energy to his feet before kicking the manticore in the face with an energized blast. 'My shoulder managed to hold up on the train,' he surmised as he jumped over another manticore and wrapped his weapons around its throat with his semblance charged wires and pulled, decapitating it, 'But I must've overused it a little when I was going crazy against the Apathy without realizing, and there weren't near this many Grimm on the train.' Aegis was having a similar problem as he managed to redirect a Griffon into a nearby tree only to just barely block a charge from yet another manticore.

The younger Ursario was able to force its head up with his weapon to create an opening before spinning around and slashing the monster's throat. Moving back together, Wayne jumped off of Aegis's back to slice through the head of another griffon while his brother shifted his weapon to an ice spear and stabbed a manticore in the mouth that was about to use a fireball. This served to only agitate the ever increasing number of monsters as another volley of fireballs came their way. The two brothers leapt out of the line of fire, retreating further back into the trees, but not before witnessing both of their motorcycles going up in smoke from the barrage.

"Oh that is it!" snarled Aegis as his eyes glowed the familiar blood red of the rage mode while he formed a flaming ax. 'May as well,' thought Wayne as he increased the power of the aura shadow to the point he'd normally use in a fight. The pain was noticeable in his body, but it wasn't slowing him down for the moment as the two brothers charged into the fray. Aegis slammed into the nearest Grimm and sent it barreling into a number of others while Wayne unleashed four javelin bolts that tore through four Grimm and anything unlucky enough to be behind them.

It became a scene of ever increasing chaos as the fight continued with more Grimm flying down or breaking through the trees. Thrashing claws and gnashing teeth met heated blades, numerous glass weapons and destructive energy projections while fireballs began to fall without any pattern around the entire area. Despite their ferocity and skill, an occasional claw strike would get around their guard, or a nearby blast from a fireball would fling one or both of them into a tree. 'Any time now would be great,' Wayne couldn't help but think to himself as he fired off scattering moonlight before barely dodging a fireball that singed his pant leg a bit.

As another round of Grimm came flying in, it finally happened. In the distance, an enormously bright flash of light near the leviathan could be seen, attracting the attention of the other Grimm as well. A moment later, the light faded as the two brothers looked out through a hole in the trees created from their fight. "Did they do it," asked Aegis as the leviathan stood motionless in the distance.

"Well it ain't movin'," observed Wayne, "They did something by the looks of it." The growling of the Grimm above them reminded them that they were still fighting for their lives as they readied themselves for another wave of Grimm. But as their foes were descending upon them, a massive metal hand swept across the tree line, knocking aside the beasts and most of the trees in the small area.

"Are you boys still alive," said Cordovin over the colossus mech's speakers as it withdrew its arm.

"We've been worse," answered Aegis as he ended his rage mode. Wayne did likewise with the aura shadow, feeling his exhaustion catching up with him.

"While I don't appreciate the damage to my colossus," said Cordovin, "Your efforts in protecting Argus are surprisingly admirable. But now it is time for Atlas to take the reins, so watch how we handle business." The mech then turned and charged off towards the petrified leviathan, which had somehow managed to free its head from the stone. Wayne and Aegis looked on as the colossus mech produced a drill on its remaining arm and rushed towards the still struggling leviathan. The giant Grimm struggled with all of its might but couldn't free itself in time as the drill slammed into its side and dug through its ribs, creating a fantastic mess in the water below as the weapon tore into its heart.

With a final deafening roar, the life left the leviathan's eyes as its body began dissolving into nothingness. Wayne and Aegis waited another moment before collapsing against a couple of tree stumps, fairly certain the worst of the battle was over now. "Well," said Aegis as he panted a bit, "That makes another fight we barely survived."

"Yeah," said Wayne, "But Argus is safe, at least as soon as they finish mopping up the remaining Grimm. But Mom and Dad are still probably gonna kill us for letting the bikes get fried."

"Ouch, not looking forward to that talk," said Aegis as he replaced his weapon on his back. "So, do you think the others can actually find us over here?"

"We basically deforested this part of the Cliffside," said Wayne as he looked up to see the stolen airship approaching, "I don't think they'll have any issues finding us."

A Few Hours Later: Near Atlas Air Space

As it turned out, Cordovin had been somewhat grateful for their assistance in stopping the leviathan, or at least grateful enough that she'd fail to mention the disappearance of one of their ships in her next lengthy report. So after quickly picking up the two Ursario brothers, they immediately departed Argus and made their way to Atlas. Needless to say, Wayne and Aegis got a number of hugs, and a quick lecture about trying to tone down the number of suicidal ideas they'd been coming up with recently. Once all was said and done, Aegis passed the relic back to Ruby, while Wayne lent Blake one of his spare coats he'd managed to dig out of the wreckage of their bikes and they settled in for the long ride.

They passed the time mostly with idle conversation, with Weiss fussing over Wayne's shoulder again while Ren and Nora were content to just sit next to each other and sleep, though not for long in Nora's case. Ruby kept moving back and forth between the cockpit and the passenger section every so often to check and see how much progress they were making. Aegis, being surprisingly clever in his thinking this time around, had pulled out a deck of cards and had gotten a game going with Jaune, Blake, Yang, Oscar and whoever else felt like playing. Before they knew it, the sun had pretty much set.

"Good news," said Calavera, "Despite all the crazy flying earlier, this little bird still has just enough fuel to get us to Atlas."

"Thank you again Miss Calavera," said Ruby as she turned to head back to where the others were.

"You did good today kid," said Qrow, causing Ruby to look back for a moment. "Just try not to give me another series of heart attacks next time." The veteran huntsman was about to take his usual customary drink from his flask before deciding against it. This small action still earned him a hug from his niece and a quick word of 'I love you too,' before she turned and headed back to sit with everyone else, leaving her Uncle and Maria to keep on chatting in the cockpit.

"I hate that you had to go through a nightmare like that again," said Weiss as she sat next to Blake and Yang, "But I'm happy that Yang got there to help you in time."

"We helped each other out," said Yang as she put a hand on Blake's, and then one on Aegis's, "All of us."

"Couldn't have said it better myself," said Nora with a grin as she sat next to the rest of her team. Everyone then proceeded to turn their eyes to Ruby.

"Okay, cut it out guys," said Ruby, knowing where the conversation was going.

"You dove straight down the barrel of a cannon and then petrified a leviathan almost immediately afterward," said Ren.

"Oh come on, you've all done crazy stuff too," said Ruby, trying to shift the conversation, "Wayne and Aegis fought off who knows how many manticores and Griffons, not to mention Oscar made his first crash landing, which is pretty impressive if you remember that he's a fourteen year old farm boy."

"When you put it like that, yeah it does sound impressive," agreed Jaune.

"If he hadn't kept the ship intact we'd definitely have been stranded," added Blake.

"Actually, I've been meaning to talk to you guys about that," said Oscar, "I didn't necessarily land the ship on my own. Ozpin helped me land it."

"As in he took control of you from out of nowhere again," questioned Nora.

"No, it was more like he was guiding me, showing me what I needed to do and then he disappeared from my mind again," replied Oscar.

"So does that mean he's still watching us, even now?" Asked Yang, not sounding all that comfortable with the idea.

"I'm not really sure," said Oscar, "But I guess it does mean he's still looking out for us, in his own way." Everybody had something they wanted to say about this, but it was Qrow who spoke first.

"For anyone who's never seen Atlas before, you best get a load of this," said Qrow from the passenger seat. Everyone got up and approached the cockpit to look out the window.

"Anyone else feeling a bit nervous right now," asked Ruby.

"It'd be weirder if you weren't," said Yang, "At this point, I'll only believe we've made it once I've seen it."

"Then take a good look," said Weiss, "Because this site is unbelievable enough on its own." And she was right as they broke through the clouds to finally see the city of Atlas, which was more breathtaking in person than any of them could've imagined. An entire array of lights lit up the snowy mountains below, but what made it amazing was the chains leading up to an enormous floating land mass. On that land mass was the true city of Atlas, a silvery city lit up with numerous blue lights that stretched for miles in any direction. Nora summed up everyone's thoughts in a single word upon seeing the city, "Wow."

"Even after years of making the same trip to Atlas, you still can't get used to the sight of it all," said Calavera before her mechanical eyes started acting up, "Oh for Pete's sake." The elder woman hit her goggles a few times in an attempt to get them working again. Wayne was finding the sight enjoyable himself, given that the last time he'd been here he and Weiss had been fleeing it. His attention was suddenly drawn away, however, when said heiress suddenly put her arm through his while also lacing her fingers around his hand.

"Uh, Weiss," said Wayne, noticing the girl's odd behavior, "Is something wrong."

"I knew the military had called back all of the air fleet," said Weiss as she indicated a space in the sky above the city, "But the way they're positioned."

"They're in a defensive formation," observed Qrow, "Like they're expecting someone to attack them at any time." 'And they don't look like they'd be taking prisoners,' thought Wayne as he and everyone else looked at the mass of capital ships and fighters that were floating above Atlas, with every cruiser pointed in a single direction, waiting for someone foolish enough to give them an excuse to rain laser fire down on them. Weiss moved closer to Wayne as the elder Ursario wrapped a protective arm around her waist. At that moment, the same thought was on everyone's mind.

They had finally made it to Atlas. But that didn't mean they were home free yet. Now, they had to find a way to get the relic to Ironwood, without angering the rest of the Atlas military in the process.

End of Volume 6

And before we knew it, here we are once again at the end of another volume of RWBY and team WA. Sorry to those who wanted to have the flying gorillas mentioned, but in all honesty it probably would've wound up as a joke about 'when beringels fly,' or something like that. But I hope you all enjoyed this final chapter of the volume and a big thank you to everyone who gave their input in the form of criticism, ideas, or simply saying they liked the story in general, it really does help keep me going. And of course fear not, team WA shall return with the next volume of RWBY. Until then, feel free to check out my other two stories which will still update more or less weekly. Be sure to come back next volume as our heroes face the challenges of navigating the great, and likely very arrogant, streets of Atlas while facing a horde of flying beringels. 'Til next time.