The door practically flew off it's hinges - despite the fact that it had none. Ironwood rushed in alongside Qrow who briefly glanced at the warped form of the door lodged into a broken pile of tableware.

"A little rough don't you think Jimmy?" Qrow asked, but Ironwood remained silent for a moment as they waited.

"Room appears to be clear."

"I could have told you that." Qrow commented as the man quickly sent a brief glare.

"We don't know how many are enemies are aboard, and we don't know how dangerous they are. We need to take any potential advantage we can get."

"Yeah, but to kick in a door? Isn't this the 'pride of Atlas' you love oh so much?" Qrow questioned as they both lowered their weapons momentarily; all the while their senses remained alert to any potential foes.

"The door can be replaced with ease later on, but if there was anyone on the other side then they would at least have gotten staggered and thrown off guard." Ironwood told as Qrow thought about it and lightly shrugged.

"Fair, but so far we haven't come across anyone on the whole ship yet. It's been nothing but body after body, heck all the bodies have been of your guys, with no White Fang or other other criminals at all."

"That's what worries me." Ironwood hummed as they returned to the hallways. Quickly and quietly the sped along with a new destination in mind. "Either our opponents have high numbers, or we're dealing with a single specialized agent who's infiltrated and taken out the entire ship."

"Just one? Seems like a bit of a stretch. You're guys aren't exactly pushovers." Qrow commented as they trailed up a flight of stairs to the second level. Ironwood had them headed in the direction of central control. If their attackers were anywhere it would be there, and Ironwood was ready to take back his ship by any means necessary.

"Nobody could have predicted something as brazen as this. They can deal with prisoner breakouts, but most tend to keep relaxed on the ship and leave most of the ship's security to the team on cameras. And with our systems compromised well..."

"The cameras are worthless." Qrow stated as he scowled. "Neo could have set footage to re-run and we'd have no idea. Although I guess she'd already did that considering no alarm was raised. The kids also said she was with Roman, giving her extra incentive to break him out." Qrow finished as Ironwood gave a slight nod. They turned into another hallway and was able to see the main doors in the distance.

"Correct, and with half of maiden's powers she's more than capable of taking out the guards. Yet she chose to do it quietly, meaning she didn't want the alarm raised."

"No one to call for help, and no one to send help when shit went down." Qrow scowled as they made it to the door. Both took positions on each side as they nodded, and with a swift movement they broke through with weapons drawn.

"Empty, just like all the others." Qrow spoke as Ironwood paced ahead; guard still raised incase there were any surprises hidden around. With a keen eye Qrow's vision was drawn to the lack of damage towards anything in the room and realized that unlike most of the ship there was no fighting where they were.

Must have gotten rid of everyone beforehand.

"Damnit!" The shout was followed by a slam and Qrow sent his attention back to Ironwood who's hands had crashed down atop the console.

"What's happened?" He questioned, only to stop as he saw Ironwood with his hand to his earpiece.

"Alright, form a guard around the docks. We'll be there when we can." The man let out a growl as Qrow walked up. "Qrow, check you scroll. Make a call to anyone you can."

Without question he brought it out and sent a call to his niece. He knew if his friend was angry enough to blow up then something serious must have happened, and it needed to be big for him to curtly order anyone other than his soldiers around. Yet try as Qrow might the call wouldn't go through.

"I can't seem to get a signal. What's going on Jimmy?"

"I've just got word from Winter that scroll signal is completely gone." He told as Qrow suddenly understood the seriousness of the situation.

"The only way for that is... the tower." His lips twisted into a scowl. "What do you think happened to it?"

"The hack must have been stronger than we expected." Ironwood said as Qrow snarled.

"How do you hack the CCT like that!? It's the best of the best."

"So were our paladins and knights. The only way they could even hope of working around the security systems is if they had a fundamental understanding of both the code and technology itself." Ironwood explained as he went about the console.

"And who would have that knowledge?" Qrow tried as Ironwood held a grave look. A mix of agitation and dread filled his features as he turned to Qrow.

"Somebody who's spent their whole life on it. Meaning it was somebody who's had a part in it's improvement and evolution. In other words our mysterious hacker is most likely somebody from Atlas. More specifically one who has access to our military's tech division."

"Jimmy what are you getting at?" Qrow asked with worry as Ironwood sighed and brought up a screen from the console; one that showed several documents of various catalogued events planned for the festival.

"I'm saying we have a traitor among us, and most likely it's on my end. Neither Vale or the other kingdoms have enough data on our systems to do as much damage as this." Ironwood told as Qrow grit his teeth.

"Great... just perfect." He sighed and let himself fall back into a nearby chair. "So what? They can pull this shit whenever they want now?"

"No." The general began sifting through the files. "They'd need to have a direct connection to a central system to seep deep enough into the network to pull this off. Whoever it was had to have known about such systems, and at the moment there are only three around this year's festival. The CCT main call center, Ozpin's desk in his office, and the central piloting center; the room we're standing in right now."

"So this 'Neo' somehow got into the tech division?" Qrow asked as he tried once again only for Ironwood to shake his head.

"No, they'd never be so stupid as to directly risk exposure. I suspect the real perpetrator was already on the inside, and only gave Neo a means of allowing them to hack the system. If this really is a virus like we suspect then it wouldn't need the creator around to perform it's central function."

"In common please?"

"The hacker isn't here as we'd be able to potentially track them if they tried to make changes, meaning they most likely won't even take the risk to adjust the program. What we see here is the extent of it." Ironwood explained as the monitor shut off.

"So they can't do anything more because the hack is already doing what they want?"

"For the most part. It's a virus, and since we haven't seen anything else go haywire it's fair to assume our attacker has already got what they wanted; there would be no reason to go further. It's not much but it's all we have in terms of good news." Ironwood said as Qrow stood and stretched.

"Okay, and what about the kid? Where's he at?"

"Winter informed me he went off to find Ozpin. It's likely he's already with him as we speak."

"That's one less thing to worry about then." Qrow sighed, only for his eyes to widen as he stared. "Son of a bitch!"

Ironwood turned in a rush to see what Qrow was staring at, only to feel the same rage when he saw Roman waving to them from just outside the window; aboard one of his own transport ships.

The man never stayed long and the airship flew off almost as quickly as it arrived. Once again Ironwood slammed his fists down on the command console and with a crack and crunch the metal was warped. Sparks sprinkled his fists as he growled in rage, doing his best to calm down and think of a plan.

"Should we chase him down right now? He's working with Neo." Qrow asked as Ironwood steadied his breathing.

"Later, we won't catch him at this rate now." He stood and started for the door. Qrow followed along as he took out his flask and handed it to Ironwood who ignored it. With a shake of his head Qrow took a swig and put it away.

"Let me guess: we're meeting with the kids down at Beacon."

"Yes."

"And you've also figured out that Neo and Roman probably know the maiden is down there too."

"They wouldn't have attacked it otherwise."

"So where are we headed? Docking bay was back in the other direction."

"My office is closer. I have a couple escape pods hidden near the back so we'll be taking those." Ironwood explained as Qrow let out a whistle.

"So you expected something like this."

"Not exactly, but I added them incase I needed to get out quickly for whatever reason." Ironwood told as they walked inside. Qrow let out a sigh as the man worked at his desk.

"Let's hope the kids are doing alright."

.

.

"To your left!" Yang shouted as she drove her knuckles into the side of the grunt's face. The man was flung across the ground and knocked out cold. "That'll teach you."

"Is everybody alright?" Ruby called out. A few shouts were returned with mostly standard affirmations from both students and soldier.

The girl let out a breath, overall relieved that they'd managed to clear the dock of any threats. She never expected the White Fang to target Beacon itself; Blake's description of the group made it seem like the group would focus more on the city and major businesses. Yet they were causing chaos to the school, and nobody could understand why.

What is it? Why? The academies had always allowed students of all types both Human and Faunus so why are they doing this?

"Are we ready to go Ruby?" The question pierced through her thoughts and Ruby sent a glance to Blake and saw that she was relatively unharmed; take away a few sections of ruffled and dirty patches across her clothes.

"Yeah." Ruby returned as she let her weapon rest by her side.

"So how are we dealing with this?" Asked Weiss as she approached, taking place at her partner's side as she sent a small look of fatigue.

"We push through." Ruby spoke as she raised her scythe and pointed towards the main building. "There are still people in there along with the Grimm and Fang. If we waste too much time we might not be able to save them."

"Sounds like my kind of plan. Let's give 'em a show they won't soon forget!" Yang bolstered, loading her gauntlets with dust as she approached.

"Don't forget we need to get it on camera." Weiss reminded as Yang rolled her eyes.

"I haven't forgotten, but we need to make it look easy anyway. If everybody sees us kicking ass then they'll feel much safer. After all how are we supposed to claim we're pushing them back if we look dead on our feet?"

"We can't underestimate them." Blake warned as she let out a shaky breath. "Knowing them they'll have their top players here as well, and there's no way they'll risk a defeat so be aware of your surroundings. They're more than willing to play dirty."

"Got it, don't get in over our heads. So we moving in or what?" Yang asked as Weiss sighed and looked to Ruby.

"Shall we start?"

"In a moment, I have to check something." Ruby told as she looked around. She spotted Jaune and Ren over near one of the evacuation ships looking over a couple of wounded students. Quickly she made herself over with Jaune having looked to hear her and turn back.

"How are they holding up?" She asked as he held a tired look.

"Some of the medical staff said there were only a few serious injuries. At worst they'll get some scars, but it's nothing too life threatening. We can't say the same for all of them though." His head trailed over towards the distance where a tent was pitched. Ruby suspected it was to help treat those badly hurt. She saw someone come out and appear to talk with one of the waiting students, who quickly lost composure and dropped to the ground in tears.

"Not all of them make it." Spoke Ren as he stood with a hard look. "The deceased are kept in a separate tent closer to the ships. The other soldiers said the bodies will be moved to the nearest morgue when the situation passes."

It stung more than she liked to admit, but Ruby fully understood just how dire everything was. With so much going on it was impossible to save everybody. Nobody would blame them for those lost in the attacks, but she couldn't help but feel personally guilty for all the death; even if there had been nothing she could do. There was this tiny voice in the back of her mind that chastised her for not being faster, for not being smarter as to predict everything that happened.

It was dumb and childish to push all the blame on herself, but she did so anyway with the hopes that maybe it would drive her to fight harder.

"Have you seen Pyrrha?" Jaune asked to which Ruby shook her head.

"No I haven't, why?"

"She's disappeared since the battle began. I thought that maybe I just couldn't see her with all the fighting that went on, but we still can't find her."

This isn't good... this isn't good at all.

Ruby felt her head grow light as her gut seemed to swirl and sink in on itself. Pyrrha had disappeared, and Ruby had a terrible feeling within that made her want to puke. She stilled herself for a moment, doing her best to hide the screaming of emotion that beat against her head as she tried to stop and think.

Don't panic... she could have just ran on ahead. Pyrrha's strong, stronger than all the White Fang anyway. She's fine, she has to be. Not even the Grimm have stood a chance against her before, not during the breach and not now!

Yet try as she might Ruby couldn't get the sickening feeling off her shoulders.

Why can't I get it to stop? Why do I feel so... afraid?

"We'll go look for her. We were planning to get the video ready anyway, and I wanted to ask if you and your team could stay and protect the docks until we got back." Ruby spoke as she steeled herself. The puke in her gut still sought freedom from it's prison, but she forced it back as she focused.

"Right, yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Pyrrha's probably fine right? I mean she's never had any trouble before, so wherever she is she's good. S-sure thing, we'll hold down the fort until you get back." Jaune looked to do his best, but Ruby could see the stress eating at him with every word. He must have had the same feeling she did.

With so many dead she knew just how scared he was, and if it was anything like hers it showed his strength of will to not collapse then and there; he was closer to Pyrrha then she was, and it amazed her that the bumbling boy who bumped into her with cheesy pickup lines had grown so much from when they first met.

"Right, I promise we'll bring her back." Ruby meant it more than anything else, and she was willing to do anything to keep that promise.

With that she left, sending a nod to the others as she continued on into the destruction just beyond the docks. Wordlessly the others followed after, set to fight back against any and all threats.

.

.

"Should we move in?" Magenta asked as Gold stiffly shook his head.

"No, you remember what Adam said: Blake is his."

"And what about the others? There's a Schnee among them." The woman questioned as he held a distant stare.

"No, not yet. They're not worth the hassle." Gold said as he started away.

"Okay what's up with you?" Magenta called louder as the man stopped his motion. "We have the perfect chance to deal with them and you're saying no? What happened to that energy from before, that drive to fight through everything?" She stopped for a moment with an off look. "You've been acting weird since the train."

Gold flinched slightly, the only indicator she even made a dent in him.

"What's weirder is you practically bug Adam all the time and he doesn't seem to even care. And what about that weirdo!?" Magenta pointed to the spastic looking man attending to some of the students near the ships off in the distance from their hiding place. "He was the one with them on the train. You've been giving him a death glare every time you've seen him!"

"Enough!" The grow was ragged and Magenta stilled. She held her ground regardless as Gold took a few deep breaths.

"I'm worried about you." Her voice was quiet and the man simply sighed.

"Let's just say all of us have some history and leave it at that. Now come on, we've got to move."

"Where are we going? The battle's still going on." Magenta asked as Gold faced her.

"And are you going to join in on it like the others?" The girl's silence was enough for him. "You chastise me for not acting and you yourself won't even fight. All you've wanted to do was kill the Schnee, but I'm starting to feel like that's bullshit. I saw what happened at the train: You had the perfect chance, and yet when your blade drew blood you stilled for a second; just enough time for her to deal with you. So why, if you're so set on her death, do you hold back?"

"It's... it's wrong, alright. It's all just so wrong." Magenta looked to deflate as she continued. "When we joined up they told us we'd be fighting against our oppressors; against those who chained us up and treated us as nothing more that tools. But look at this... they're just kids. How do you justify murdering a bunch of kids."

"They're hunters-"

"It's a school for dust's sake!" Magenta practically screamed, yet it was drowned in the flames and destruction. "There are even Faunus among them, and we've been ordered to kill them too! Where's the justice in that?! I mean I hate the Humans for keeping our kind as slaves but look at this!" Magenta fell to her knees as her voice continued.

"I just... I can't take part in something like this. It's pure evil and nothing else. Even the Schnee... everything's so wrong with her. Blake and her get along so much from what we've seen, and she hasn't scoffed or turned nose at any other Faunus she passes; she even helped a few over to the medics. What sense does that make?! I... I don't even know what's real anymore."

"Then come on." Gold sighed as he turned away. "We can report back later when it's all over. They won't know we left within all this; it's our only chance to escape all the bloodshed."

Silently the broken woman stood and trailed after her partner; desperation and guilt eating at every step she took, all the while the storm of change continued to rage around them.

...

Author's note

...

Surprise, I got you again, all... three of you maybe. Then again I'm almost certain you knew we wouldn't see the battle with Cinder right yet.

As you can see I wanted to give some time to the rest of the crew, who're dealing with their own things. Ironwood and Qrow are on their way with the former taking shots in the dark about what's happening; Roman's got a ship; and Ruby has a horrible feeling which she isn't used to. Is this an omen of things to come? I mean the answer is obvious, but will it be what you're expecting?

Who knows with all the chaos. Anything can happen after all... maybe.

Anyway that's all for now, so tell me what you think.

See you next time.