Mercury's side of the final action.

Chapter Forty Six

Boot, Meet Throat (II)

Lynae's Teryx screeched as she pushed it to fly faster towards Beacon. Slate groaned behind her, but she paid him no mind. She had a mission to complete.

"Slate, how is your aura?"

"Oh, just peachy," Slate murmured as he pushed himself into a proper seated position with his handless arms. "You realize I can't keep up this rock thing forever?"

He wiggled an arm in front of her, still solid rock, for emphasis. She batted it away.

"Everything will work out as it should," Lynae said with a grin.

They continued on in silence.

Around him were the remnants of Grimm and Atlesian tech alike. Blood, both red and green, splattered the grey tile of Beacon grounds.

Mercury's chest heaved as his delicate condition paired with the rigorous and nonstop fighting took its toll. If he hadn't ripped any stitches, he'd call it a gift from the Gods. Weiss looked near collapse, her dress covered in soot, grime, and blood. None of it hers.

Neptune was the most untattered thanks to the versatility of his weapon. He conserved his energy by switching to the rifle form of Tri-Hard, but his appearance was less than pristine. Sun was relatively fine, but Mercury could tell his entire body protested as he continued to twirl his gun-chucks.

"Jaune, Ruby's on her way. Hang on." Weiss wheezed as she spoke into her scroll and leant heavily against her rapier. Her light blue aura struggled to cover her body. As far as Mercury could tell, Arc called Weiss in a frenzy about Pyrrha.

"Where is he?" Mercury asked.

"Up there, with Pyrrha!" Weiss pocketed her scroll. "Gods, they might not make it..."

Just then, the Wyvern screeched yet again. Mercury grit his teeth and pressed his hands over his ears. Weiss, breathlessly, ran to him, but her eyes were glued upwards. She pointed with one arm in the direction she was looking as she reached out to him with another. "Mercury, look. Look!"

Mercury glanced up and to his right. A sleek, black ship with gold trim and purple tinted windows roared forward and swerved so the open hatch pointed towards the tower. A horde of Grimm followed after and hurled themselves toward the ship. The Wyvern descended upon it with an open maw, screeching. And a familiar figure (clad in Roman's peacoat?) jumped from the ship.

Mercury felt Weiss stumble into him and grab his arm as the beat of the Wyvern's wings knocked them off-balance. Ruby, with her scythe pointed behind her and her body contorted into perfect form, soared towards the Wyvern, her expression indistinguishable from this far away. His breath vanished from his lungs as she grew closer and closer, and for a crazy, unbelieving moment, he thought he was about to witness the girl he loved be swallowed whole.

A sudden thick string of purple appeared between the Wyvern's upper and lower mouth. It's screech was cut off into a muffled whine as the purple string forcefully snapped the Wyvern's jaw shut. Ruby's boot made contact with the bone of the Wyvern's nose, and she skittered along the body of the Wyvern before she fired her scythe once more, right between the Wyvern's wings, and arched through the air towards Beacon Tower.

"She made it!" Sun cheered. "Wait a second, the Grimm-"

Mercury and Weiss lost grip on each other as a blast of wind knocked them all around. The Wyvern must have felt the same blast, since it reared off course, in their direction, and black globs of… something fell from its mouth, and spattered across the walkways. The Wyvern flew over them, and Mercury rolled to the right to avoid one of the globs from landing right on him. Neptune and Sun, luckily, were knocked back in a direction the Wyvern didn't fly over, and Weiss was-

Weiss was screaming.

"Weiss!"

Mercury turned to see Sun pulling the heiress away from one of the globs. The black gunk covered her right leg from thigh to foot, and the more Sun pulled her away, the more the liquid rolled off her skin. Mercury stutter stepped towards them as Weiss's previously unblemished skin bubbled with angry blisters, and some parts of her leg the skin was just… completely removed to reveal muscle tissue. It ate right through her feeble aura store, and she was still screaming.

"Her shoe! In her shoe!"

Neptune hurried to wrench Weiss's heel off her right after he shouted, but the gunk began to eat through her shoe. Mercury dropped to his knees beside her and without any care for his own wellbeing, Mercury gripped the liquifying shoe and peeled it from Weiss's foot. Somehow, the liquid didn't burn him.

"Oh Gods, I'm gonna be sick." Neptune lurched to the side and held a fist to his mouth. Weiss's foot… parts of it were just gone, and blood gushed from the wound.

"What do we do?!"

Mercury went into overdrive. He grabbed hold of Weiss's shoulders and took Sun's place. He leant the heiress against him. "We bind her leg!"

Sun was already halfway out of his shirt. "Jeez, where?!"

"Hell if I know, just pick a spot!" He looked behind him. Grimm clawed out of the liquid pools, and he grit his teeth. "Shit, Neptune, focus on the Grimm! Sun, join him once you're done with that! I'll, I'll try to aura heal with whatever I have left."

"Dammit dammit dammit!" Sun roared as he ran off, shirtless, with fury in his eyes to tear down the Grimm. Neptune stepped in front of Mercury and Weiss as a shield and brandished his rifle.

"Ice, Ice you with me?" Mercury tapped her cheek with one hand as he pressed his other hand over her heart. "Ice, I'm gonna enter your soul, okay? You gotta let me in. You trust me?"

Weiss coughed, delirious with pain. "Un… U-Unfortunately."

Despite himself, he huffed a laugh. "Sassy when mortally wounded? We're more alike than I thought."

Weiss shuddered and fell unconscious.

Centering himself and finding a way to enter Weiss's soul in the battlefield was not an easy task. He could hear his heartbeat in his ears and kept one eye trained on the battlefield. In the distance, some of the professors fought on (he thought he could see Oobleck zooming around like a maniac with Ruby's crazy dog nipping at his heels), and while it helped, the new spawns of Grimm threw themselves at Sun and Neptune.

Just as Neptune speared a creep through its skull plate and used its decaying body as a projectile to throw at a trio of beowolves, Mercury's vision faded to blues and whites. He felt some pokes and prods from Weiss's weak soul barriers, but he reached a hand out and pushed away white curtains to reveal…

The Schnee Manor. Atlas glistened, full of sleek edges and sparkling skyscrapers, and the sky was clear of smog. The Schnee snowflake symbol glared down at him from the little statue right behind him.

Mercury whistled. "Huh. Never been to Atlas."

Determined, he marched to the large double doors that were way too large, and pushed his way into the foyer. The pristine appearance of the main room was downgraded by the smoky mist that rolled around the edges of the room, and the chandelier flickered.

He ventured up the grandiose staircase. Around him, he could hear whispers. He could hear Weiss's voice at varying stages of youth, but also… others.

"You're leaving?"

"Yes."

"...Why Beacon?"

"Why not?"

A young boy with a downtrodden face passed by him.

"Mother…? I thought we were going for tea with Mister Vasilias today."

"Rain check, darling, rain check. Mommy is...tired."

"Oh. Is that bottle helping?"

Mercury sneered. A white-haired woman with a vodka bottle clasped in hand passed.

"I won't always be there to save you, Weiss."

"I'm sorry. I'll get better."

"You'll have to if you ever want to leave."

A regal figure he assumed to be Winter.

As he walked further down the halls, a figure in a suit and a horribly maintained mustache was in the process of straightening his tie and walking into an office.

"A Huntress? Don't be absurd, Weiss."

"This is far from an absurd request, Father."

"And what exactly will you do as a huntress, Weiss? The future of the company should be your priority!"

"This decision is based on behalf of the company!"

Cautiously, Mercury followed him. The office was darker than the rest of the Manor, the clouds of smog thicker. The mist that edged around the other rooms overtook the entirety of the floor.

"Mercury? What… what are you doing in Atlas?"

He looked to his left. Weiss stared back at him, clad in her combat skirt and free of grime, but she looked noticeably tired. Her ponytail wasn't in it's signature side-do, but straight back. She was tinted a dusty blue.

"Ice, listen." Mercury held out one hand in a halting gesture as she tried to speak again. "We aren't in Atlas. This is your soul. I need you to lead me to the core, okay?"

Weiss furrowed her brows. "I… I don't understand."

Mercury growled lowly. There wasn't time to explain. He thought hard. There might be one way to make this work. The center of the soul was the most powerful, so… if he just worded it right.

"Weiss, you look tired," Mercury observed. Weiss shuffled on her feet. "Why don't you go to the place that makes you feel better?"

The heiress furrowed her brows, then brightened. "Okay."

Weiss maneuvered past him and exited the office. Mercury followed, and he turned down the long winding hall with her. More figures passed by her, and she responded differently to each one. The younger boy she acknowledged with a slight nod, and with Winter she waved and smiled. Weiss averted her eyes as the older woman passed by while muttering a half-hearted 'hello, mother.'

When the man appeared, she clasped her hands and ducked her head down and quickened her pace. Immediately, a bad taste was left in Mercury's mouth.

It wasn't long before Mercury realized Weiss was leading him back the way he came. Soon enough, they stepped outside of the manor. "Uh, Weiss?"

"This way," Weiss said with an airy tone. She hurried down the walkway, and the farther they went from the manor, the brighter the world around them became. Mercury squinted as he realized they were approaching the entrance gate. "Here."

The large metal gate opened before them. Weiss's noticeably younger appearance morphed into her current day appearance, side-pony and all, as she stepped outside the gate. Three figures appeared before them.

"Weiss!" The red figure of Ruby called. A happy grin graced her face. "Come on!"

"For someone all about punctuality, ya sure are late, Weiss-y," Yang joked with a lazy smile.

Blake lifted her eyes from her book and smiled. She raised one arm in invitation.

"Huh. Whaddaya know." Mercury hummed.

Mercury watched as Weiss's stoic expression morphed into giddy happiness, and she raced toward them. The three girls engulfed Weiss in a group hug, and their colors mingled together. Above them, a light blue flame appeared.

"There you are."

He reached out, and the flame latched to him.

"To your left, Nep!"

Neptune ducked under the claw of a beowulf and arched his trident up to slice its head clean from its shoulders. Not a moment later Sun tackled a creep inches away and buried a bullet in its skull.

"Sun, there's too many, we gotta go."

Sun whacked a boarbatusk mid-roll with his staff and sent it spiraling back through a horde of Grimm like a bowling ball. With a frustrated growl, he retreated back with Neptune, eyed the tower, and said, "We can't just leave Rose up there! And that dragon thing wrecked the last airship!"

With gritted teeth, Neptune swung around and reverted his trident into rifle form. He backed toward Mercury and Weiss and fired off his rifle at any Grimm he could see. "What about the ship Ruby jumped out of? We can flag it down! But uh… not quite sure how to do that!"

"Well, shooting at it will get their attention!" Sun suggested as he broke his staff into nunchucks. "Think you can shoot around them without actually hitting them?"

Neptune looked down at his weapon, then up at the black ship. He shrugged. "Screw it, we're gonna die anyway if it doesn't work!"

He let Sun cover him as he fired off wind rounds with a noticeable trail right in front of the open hatch where he saw two people. One person, who looked like a woman with curly blonde hair with purple highlights, snapped her head around to stare them down. With a sheepish grin, he waved his hand at her, only to recoil when she jumped from the ship and flew towards them.

"Sun Sun Sun we're gonna die!"

"Wait, why- oh, SHIT!"

Sun and Neptune scrambled back as the woman with blue fire streaming from her eyes dodged around the massive dragon Grimm that tried to snap her up in its jaws to continue her course toward them. Purple lightning gathered around her as she bent her knees and readied herself to land. Sun ran behind him to throw himself over Mercury and Weiss as a makeshift shield, and Neptune brought an arm to his face as a sudden wind made his eyes water.

The woman clad in white and purple made a thunderous landing in the middle of the horde of Grimm. Purple lightning burst from the pavement and jumped between Grimm as ice and fire raced around in every direction. Through the disintegrating bodies of Grimm, the woman slowly stood to full height as she heaved large breaths that wracked her form. Her panda ears twitched in faint amusement, no doubt at the look on his face.

"U-Uh… hi, Miss, um, Lightning?" Neptune waved. "When I shot at you I just wanted to flag you down so, uh, don't kill us?"

The woman rolled her eyes and strode toward them with a hard stare. "Relax, Vasilias, I'm with Ruby. I'm here to get you out."

All tension fell away from him, and he lowered his rifle completely. "With Ruby? So - so she has backup? And you're going to help Pyrrha and Jaune too, right?"

A slight smile graced her face. "I am. Amethyst Rai Grendel, at your service. And let me preface: the man you'll find on my ship is under my protection."

The Wyvern cried as the sleek black ship ducked low underneath its flight path, and a maniacal male laugh rang from the ship as twinkling red shots flew out to hit the Wyvern's hide. Amethyst groaned at the display, but turned in surprise as Professor Port and Doctor Oobleck ran up with Ruby and Yang's cute little corgi in toe.

"Ah, Aime! It's good to see you!" Port exclaimed with his jovial tone.

Amethyst smiled thinly. "Peter. Bartholomew. Are the rest of the students and staff evacuated?"

"Aside from this group and Miss Nikos and Mister Arc, I do believe so," Oobleck said as he fixed his glasses upon his nose. "I suggest we act as backup for the students, as the White Fang and Cinder Fall have regrouped in their attempt to… get what they came for."

Amethyst crossed her arms. "Hm."

"Aime, you look… unwell." Port broached. "Are you well enough to continue?"

"I'll be fine, Peter," Amethyst said with a tired but fond look.

Neptune turned his attention to the ship that dipped low and slowed to a landing right beside the group. With another burst of power, Amethyst flung an arch of fire at the griffon's that pecked at the hull of her ship, the Quietus. As the open hatch came into view, Neptune stepped forward to see…

Roman freaking Torchwick, sans his peacoat but full of his regular bravado as he stared down his former enemies.

"Well, looks like I finally got full custody over one." Roman joked as he caught sight of Mercury. He tapped his cane on the ground. "Kiddos, if you would be so kind not to try and stab and/or bludgeon me, it would be much appreciated."

"I… um…" Neptune stopped, cocked his head, and gripped his rifle.

"Roman… Torchwick," Sun said slowly. "What. What the fuck."

"Ask Red." Roman drawled without care. "And, hm. I don't have adoption papers. Then again, hah, criminal."

Sun reassembled his staff and held it with a scowl. "What the hell did you say to Ruby to convince her to help you?"

Neptune clamped a hand on Sun's shoulder. "Dude, chill. Remember Ruby's deal."

"Technically it's mine." Roman's green eye latched onto Mercury's still form. "Your welcome, by the way."

Mercury, predictably, didn't respond.

"Don't antagonize them, Roman," Amethyst sighed. "Peter and Bartholomew, go 'round on foot. I'm sure untrained White Fang grunts won't be any problem for you. Vasilias and Wukong," Amethyst whirled and pointed at Sun and Neptune. "Get Schnee and… Black." Her lip curled in distaste at Mercury's last name. "Onto the Quietus and lay low."

"How do you even know our names?" Sun mumbled.

"But… what about that thing?" Neptune gestured to the Wyvern, which sunk its talons into Beacon Tower yet again and crawled its way to the top, where Ruby was. "That… Pyrrha and the others can't take on that!"

"No… but I can hold it off," Amethyst said with a determined scowl. Neptune arched a brow in disbelief, but then again, whatever the hell Amethyst just did to all the Grimm was a show of power if he ever saw it. She hurried over to Mercury and Weiss then, her ice-blue eyes critical and cold. "Boa, get your medical protocol ready. Tend to Neopolitan first, then to Schnee."

A robotic, male voice rang from the ship. "Yes, Lady Laverna."

"Alright, roles assigned. Now-"

"Can you explain why your eyes are on fire?" Sun butted in as he stood, pressed his palms together, and used many of his Via Sun clones to carry Weiss and Mercury onto the Quietus.

Amethyst stared him down with a hesitant expression. "That depends. How much has Ruby told you?"

He narrowed his eyes. "As much as Professor Ozpin let her, I'm guessing."

She sighed, and her eyes streamed blue yet again. "If I'm not around, then Black or Roman can fill you in. Now get moving, we don't have time for jibber-jabber."

Sun let out a large exhale as his clones set Mercury and Weiss on the Quietus, and not a moment too soon. Sun's aura broke in a mist of sunny yellow, and Neptune hooked a hand under Sun's arm to support him. Neptune winced as the Wyvern shrieked yet again. His ocean blue eyes widened as the Wyvern nosedived right toward them. Amethyst growled before that same purple lightning churned around her, and she rocketed into the air towards the beast.

"Board Aime's ship, students! I believe her autobot is more than equipped to pilot the ship to safety." Peter turned on his heel and beckoned Dr. Oobleck. "Come now, Barty, for one last hurrah!"

Oobleck bent down to pat Zwei's fluffy head. "It is here we part ways. It was an honor to fight with you again."

Zwei barked before happily trotting to the ship.

As Oobleck and Port ran off, Roman arched a brow at the happy corgi that hopped up and plopped his furry butt next to his dress shoe. "Right. Hurry up and get on, kiddos."

Neptune carted Sun towards the ship, but his eyes lingered on the battle between Amethyst and the Wyvern. Despite how exhausted Amethyst looked, she thrust her right hand up and a large gust of wind tipped the Wyvern up and caused it to lose its stability. The Grimm tried to correct course, and in doing so, smashed into the archway on the right. It hardly looked injured, but Amethyst pursued as ice shards began to form around her.

As Neptune and Sun stepped fully onto the airship, Neptune turned to the crime boss, pushed down the really weird feeling that Roman Torchwick was his ally now, and asked, "How is she…?"

"Does it look like we have time to get into that?" Roman said with an equally urgent and sarcastic tone. "Get Monkey Boy settled on the other couch and-"

"Neo?!" Sun gasped out, completely ignoring Roman's 'Monkey Boy' comment. Neptune's head snapped around to the couches, and sure enough, there was Neo, looking at them with half-lidded eyes and Ruby's cloak wrapped around her abdomen. The airship began to make a low whir as it readied for liftoff.

Neo grinned and lazily signed.

:Finally. The unobstructed gun show:

Sun burst out laughing as he stumbled over to Neo and knelt down to hug her. She winced but pat the back of his head with a gloved hand. "You okay?"

"Uh?" Roman looked completely lost.

"Snickers!" Neptune looped around the couch and bumped his knuckles against hers. "I wondered where you bounced off to."

:Can't get rid of me that easily:

A genuine smile crept at his lips. "Wouldn't dream of it, Neo."

Her pink and brown eyes sparkled at that, and Sun nodded in affirmative with a wave of his tail right in front of Neo's nose. She wriggled her nose and pouted playfully before she batted Sun's tail away.

"Neo…?" Roman walked to the end of the couch.

Despite her injury, Neo grinned, shrugged, and signed out a response.

:These are two of my SSSN-y boys:

Roman's eyes rolled so hard Neptune thought they would pop from his head. "Good to see you're lucid, at least. I'll get the damn bot to actually give you medical attention. Maybe that thing knows how to get the necklace off you."

At that, Roman disappeared into the cockpit, and with a furrowed brow, Neptune brushed his fingers against the tight necklace on Neo's neck. "Is that a lightning crystal?"

Neo, helplessly, shrugged, and any reply she could have added was forgotten as Amethyst's autobot floated from the cockpit to assess her injury.

By the time Mercury healed Weiss to the best of his ability, his form was splintered from hand to shoulder and his torso was damn close to falling apart.

He felt… empty, as the now swirling siphon of blue extended to cocoon the four girls in a protective swirl of blue fire and ice. The soul-depictions of Ruby, Blake and Yang didn't react, but Weiss turned back to him with heavy eyes, the most aware she looked when within her own soul.

"Thank you."

Mercury didn't have the energy to say anything in reply. He felt his soul-body fly back, past the soul barriers, past all the mess, and slam back into his actual body. He had to stop himself from slumping forward and crushing Weiss, who still leaned against him. His aura… it was completely gone, the last dregs greedily siphoned in by Weiss's soul, which he expected would happen. Still, it was draining. He hadn't drained his aura healing someone since-

No. Don't think about it.

His pure white aura swarmed around Weiss's foot, but a few patches tackled the gap in her calf. He could only hope they could rush her to some proper medical care. The world around him sounded so muted, but at this point, he was certain he had just turned his hyperawareness off. He had too little energy as it was.

Neptune stammered, "Uh, hey Merc?"

Mercury looked up. Instead of the dark, Grimm filled sky, the interior of an airship greeted him. Neptune stood before him with an apprehensive look and his rifle cradled in his arms.

"She'll be okay." Mercury assumed Neptune was worried about Weiss. "She… she'll probably need a prosthetic though. And some skin grafts, though I have no clue how that works."

"Good. Neo should be okay too!"

Mercury blinked. "What?"

Before Neptune could give a response, something soft but solid bonked against the back of his head. Mercury whipped around, careful to not hurt Weiss, to see Neo supine on the couch and Roman shaking his head with a fond eye roll towards the girl. What bounced off him was a roll of gauze.

"Even when injured you find ways to whack me in the head, huh?" Mercury quipped as he hefted Weiss into his arms and moved to lay her on the opposite couch. He then turned to see Neo smirking still while Roman stared blatantly at him, like Mercury was a specimen Roman couldn't figure out. Mercury rolled his eyes as Neo waved her hand in a beckoning gesture, and he relented by walking over and kneeling down so Neo could hug him. "Alright, you hyperactive midget."

Neo, predictably, smacked the back of his head at the comment.

"I'm about to report you for abuse."

A hum was her reply, and he pulled back to frown at her heavily bandaged torso. Ruby's cloak was squished between Neo's side and the couch cushion, and he raised a brow at her. Neo pouted, then craned her head up to the left to look at Roman.

Mercury sighed, but he found some satisfaction at the dumbstruck expression on Roman's face. "How did she get herself injured this time?"

In the corner of his eye, Neo mouthed rude. Roman narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

"Lynae shot her. But-" Roman shook his head. "Hold on, since when were you two friendly with each other?"

The unlikely duo shared a look and small smiles. Though the genuine, fond looks morphed to a warning look from Neo and a devious one from Mercury. "Well, just like a wart, Neo grows on you- ah! I swear, you're going to be the reason I get brain damage one day."

Neo arched one brow to convey a wordless response: like you don't already.

Mercury shook away the lightheartedness of the banter and stood to his full height. "That's an explanation for later, Torch-y." Roman cringed at the nickname. "I'm assuming we're clear of Beacon?"

"Well. For the most part." Neptune pointed out the open hatch.

Mercury turned to view what Neptune was pointing at. The Wyvern, in the distance, writhed under a thick sheet of ice on the ground amidst the rubble of the columns. Mercury blinked and marched to join Neptune to watch the spectacle.

"How did you do that?"

"I appreciate the vote of confidence but I wouldn't know where to start with that thing."

"Well… who did that?" Mercury looked around. "Hold on, where's Sun?"

"He's trying to fly this thing while Amethyst's bot does its thing. It should be… oh, there it is. It's helping Weiss now. And Amethyst did that before she flew off to the other side of the tower."

Mercury turned to see a sleek, black autobot with soft lilac lights hovering over Weiss. He hummed, but then his brain hooked onto another part of Neptune's sentence.

"Hold on. Amethyst?"

"That's what she said her name was."

"She… doesn't happen to have purple hair, does she?"

"Half purple and half blonde."

"And her eyes?"

"Uh…" Neptune squinted hard through the scope as he surveyed the area. "They were weird. They're pale blue, but like, there were flames coming out of them."

A long, droning sigh escaped Mercury before he could taper it down. Roman snorted behind him.

Neptune side-eyed him. "Uh oh. You know her?"

Of course he wouldn't be able to catch a break. Now instead of a murder by Qrow, a murder by an angry and greiving Maiden might be in his near future. It didn't matter if Ruby said she was ordered to not touch him, there's no telling she would listen to the order. He sighed. "...Unfortunately."

Neptune raised a brow. "Ex?"

He was certain his face crunched into a near unrecognizable ball of revulsion. "No."

"Then who is she to you?" Neptune asked with an amused grin.

Mercury leveled him with a blank stare. "Potential murderer."

The grin vanished. "Oh."

"Great, Leg-o-less turned into a drama queen," Roman muttered before he raised his voice. "Would you relax? Red seems to have Little Miss Lightning wrapped around her finger just like… well, you, so I doubt you have anything to worry about."

Mercury pivoted on his heel and stared down Roman, who had that familiar cocky glint in his green eye. He sauntered back over and ignored the warning look from Neo (again). Mercury crossed his arms and smirked. "Wouldn't that apply to you too? Ruby told me about your little meeting. So, thank you for bending over backwards to appease 'Little Red,' the 'thorn in your side' that you couldn't stand and wanted dead."

His lazy appearance sharpened into a glare and a looming lean forward. "Shut it, punk. You try dealing with a bite-sized huntress bawling in front of you."

"Kind of already have."

"Oh. Good to know that our resident Red heroine is a clean-cut basket case."

The cockpit door burst open so Sun could roar, "What did you just call her?!"

"Woah woah, Sun, no- would you pilot the damn ship?!"

He didn't have to turn to know Neptune was holding Sun back. Mercury paid them no mind. A blazing inferno lit in Mercury's chest and all joking nature was dropped from his expression. He crowded in close to Roman and growled, "She's the reason you're still breathing right now so watch your mouth."

Neo covered her face in her hands and heaved a silent groan. While Roman's smirk stayed firmly in place, Mercury didn't like the way Roman's eyes changed to show something else within. Like the older man could see right through him, and what he saw surprised him. It took all of Mercury's willpower not to brush Neptune aside and kick the ginger right off Roman as the blue-haired teen got between them and pointed a finger in Roman's face.

"This isn't helping! Look, Torchwick, if Ruby says you're with us, then you're with us. Just don't make us regret it." Neptune swung around to point at Mercury. "Merc, just stay calm, okay man? Ruby'll be okay, and once she comes back with Pyrrha and Jaune, we'll be good to go."

"Well, lets go help her out!" Sun exclaimed. He bounced on his toes. "No use sitting around here twiddling our thumbs."

Neptune spun towards his team leader and sliced his hand through the air. "Sun. You have no aura, that's a suicidal idea. Also, pilot the ship."

"Oh, right!" Sun disappeared back into the ship.

Roman shouldered past Neptune and Mercury and walked towards the open hatch while he gestured. "That's what I've been trying to do, but whenever the ship gets anywhere close to the tower the Grimm try to ram us, and there's only so much our dearest Summer Maiden can do."

Neptune blinked. "Summer Maid-"

"So we just sit here and do nothing?" Mercury barreled over Neptune's question. Opening up the Maiden discussion wasn't an option right now.

Roman, with all the sass he could manage, kept eye contact while he aimed Melodic Cudgel and blindly fired it once. A second later, a stray griffon screeched in pain. Roman spread his arms with a faux-shocked expression. "Ah! Look at that! I did something without even looking!" He abruptly lowered his arms and folded his hands atop his cane as he finally paid some mind to Weiss as the autobot lifted her with gravity dust and floated her down the corridor opposite the cockpit. "What happened to the Ice Queen?"

"That thing happened," Neptune marched forward and brandished his rifle in the direction of the Wyvern. "Whatever gunk is dripping from that thing's mouth is acidic or something."

Annoyance festered in Mercury like an infected wound. Or, that might have been his actual wound, since there was no doubt he had torn stitches. "That's not our priority right now, what matters is-"

THUD!

"What was that?!" Neptune barked as the ship rocked.

Before Mercury could react, the airship was hit on two fronts. The strong beak of a nevermore pierced the hull above the couch Neo was laid out on, and from the open hatch, Lynae flew forward and threw Tyrian Slate, sans hands and arms solidified into rock, towards Neptune. Slate used his hardened arms to take him by surprise with a series of hard punches that caused pebbles to fly from Slate's arms. Lynae flew in a moment after and swung her glaive in Roman's direction. Roman parried with his cane and his aura held, but Neptune went down hard from a solid swing by Slate to his temple.

Mercury spared a split second to look at Neo, who urged him to go with her eyes as she tried to push herself up. He leapt over Neo and the couch, ran towards Slate, and swung his leg around to catch Slate straight in the throat with the toe of his boot. Neptune's aura splintered in a mist of pure ocean blue just as Mercury sent Slate flying away from him and into the wall. He surged forward as Slate tried to right his footing and ducked under a sloppy swing by Slate to ram his shoulder into the purple-haired man's stomach.

Behind him, Neptune coughed and spit out what was likely blood. "Brawlers… ugh…"

Slate managed to score a hit right in the center of Mercury's chest, where the wound Lynae made was stitched. Mercury choked and tried desperately to catch his breath as he pressed a hand over the wound, but Slate gave him little time to recover. Without aura, Slate's punches stung like hell and Mercury found himself responding slower than usual. Eventually, Mercury hit the insides of Slate's arms with his forearms, reared his head back, and slammed his forehead right into Slate's nose. Slate's face shifted from skin to rock.

Behind Slate, he saw Lynae knock Roman down with a hard hit to the temple from her glove and dart further into the ship. Roman hit the ground hard, unconscious, but the cockpit opened yet again from behind him and he heard Sun run in with a war cry. Mercury advanced on Slate, seized his collar, and heaved him around and towards the wall right by the cockpit door. With a sudden thrill in his bones and a liveliness that thrummed through his blood, Mercury stepped forward once more and-

"Neo, don't!"

Sun's plea was enough to get him to turn, and Slate took advantage of it. His rock arms wrapped around Mercury's neck and he grit his teeth as Slate kept him in a lock. His grey eyes widened as Lynae kept the blade of her glaive pressed against Sun's neck. Mercury tried to break free of Slate's hold, but it was hard enough to gasp in air. If Lynae swung at Sun…

Neo managed to sway to her feet, but was noticeably hunched with her injury. Her hands were out with palms offered. She made small, miniscule steps toward Lynae, an offering. Mercury fought harder as he realized what Neo was about to do.

"Oh?" Lynae arched a brow. "If you try to fight, I'll slash his neck open."

Neo nodded slowly. Mercury could only see her back.

"N-Neo-" Mercury gasped out. He felt his eyes burn.

Mercury wrenched his shoulders back and forth as Lynae grabbed at Neo and kicked Sun in the face with her boot.

"Consider yourself lucky, boy. That monkey tail is the only reason I'm not killing you anyway," Lynae growled to the staggered Sun.

Mercury magnetized his boots to the ground and tried to buck Slate off him as Lynae dragged Neo to the hatch, and the reassurance in Neo's eyes only made him fight harder. Just as Neptune regained some semblance of consciousness and lunged forward to grab at Lynae, three things happened.

Lynae willingly swung her weapon into Neptune's palms, let it go, and let the force of it stagger Neptune. Neo produced the handle of her parasol, blade out, and plunged it through Lynae's aura, right into her side as an instinctive pivot by Lynae saved her from a full on skewer through the stomach. Finally, horrifyingly, Lynae clenched her other hand and Neo began to convulse, which made it pitifully easy for Lynae to force Neo to mount a Teryx just outside the ship with her.

And then he heard a familiar growl.

"Ey, what the-" Slate's grip loosened as Zwei slammed into Slate's back like a corgi cannonball. Mercury reached his arms back and threw Slate over his shoulder. Slate slammed into the ground at his feet, and before Mercury could really think through it, he lifted his boot and, with a shout of rage, smashed his heel so hard into Slate's face without looking. He blindly grabbed for Neptune's rifle and ran for the hatch.

"NEO!" Mercury roared as he began firing blindly at the retreating Teryx. His shots were wild, but some hit the Teryx and disrupted its flight. "Gods, this isn't happening!"

Neptune joined Mercury with Lynae's weapon in sniper form, blinked hard, and looked down the scope. After a second of aiming, Neptune squeezed the trigger, and the round sailed right into the Teryx's head and the Grimm began to spiral. Lynae tried to flap her wings and carry Neo away, but Neptune growled and shot thrice more. One shot hit the square of her back, but the other two hit her wings and displaced her feathers. She went from a solid flight to an unstable glide.

Neptune lowered the rifle and threw it aside in disgust. "She won't make it out of Vale."

Mercury eyed the murderous glint in his eyes. Behind him, Sun stumbled to his feet, and sounded equally as dark. "She's dead. That bitch is dead."

The silver haired teen stared hard at Lynae and Neo's descent. He narrowed his eyes. "They want Neo alive."

"Yeah," Neptune agreed slowly. "Sun, can you try and steer this thing towards where she landed?"

He was going to scream, he swore to the Gods he was going to scream. Before Sun could reply, before Mercury could even form another thought, the nevermore that speared the hull earlier smashed into the ship in retaliation and sent them into a tailspin.

"What was that?"

"Oh jeez, we're spinning-"

Neptune slammed his hand down on the button to close the hatch before he dove to enter the cockpit. Sun lost all sense of balance and just started sliding along the floor, and Mercury magnetized his metallic feet to the floor beneath him. Zwei yipped and leapt into Mercury's very unwilling ones. Roman groaned from his spot on the floor as he began to rock with the ship.

Mercury bent his knees, hunched his torso, and folded Zwei close to him as he braced for impact. Zwei yipped and licked at Mercury's jaw, which caused him to grimace.

The ship crashed with such force Mercury's boots couldn't hold to the floor.

His vision went black.

Throat, face... same area, really. And hmm, Weiss never made it to the evac site... Atlas may not be in her future.

Astray-Tech: Glad you enjoyed! And the situation Blake found herself in will be given some more substance in a future chapter. You're right, Atlas wouldn't have jurisdiction, but her situation is a lot more complicated.

The Archivist of Nyx: Hah, I couldn't resist! It was my last chance to bring it back since Slate's pebbles now.

The Night Whisperer: Even when half-delirious, Yang will go all in for her friends!

Dragon Lord Draco: Slate was the 'lucky' winner XD

Shadowstorm-Vash: Glad you liked it! You'll see soon that Blake's situation is a little more delicate than first thought...

Servos New Head: Oh, aura healing isn't in the show. It was created before Jaune's semblance was revealed so Jaune's semblance is also a little different to accommodate for that. Not drastically, but different.

FairyQueen314: Ah thank you! I'm so glad you like it!

Next chapter: Watch Me Burn

Lonessa out.