"You arrested and pursued the heroes of Vale?"

The police captain standing before his two C.O.'s, Ironwood and Slate, could only stutter at this point, trying to find the right words without sounding foolish. "Sirs, if I may, one of them was a Faun-"

"Captain, don't even dare finish that sentence." Ironwood glared. "That girl was one who saved my life during Cinder Fall's attempt to destroy Vale. If more word gets out than it already has she was arrested, it could damage relations with our most trusted allied kingdom."

"With all due respect, General, we had to arrest her. Mister Schnee ordered my officers to do so after her team attacked his daughter, Winter." the captain spoke up again, trying to salvage what little defense he had left.

"Your officers take orders from you! Not a civilian, not even one that runs the world's largest corporation!" Slate bellowed from behind Ironwood's office desk.

"May I ask why they were even attacking her in the first place?" Ironwood asked.

"Um...According to the witness statement from Miss Schnee..." the captain paused to flip through a folder in his hand. "Her sister, Weiss, believed she was a double agent for the Fall Family."

Ironwood furrowed his brow, pondering what this meant. Was this what Ozpin's numerous voicemail messages on his office answering machine were about? "I see. That will be all then, Captain." he nodded, getting up from his chair.

"Sir?" the police captain asked, confused on what to do next.

"He's saying you can go. I suggest you do." Slate ordered, eyes narrowed at his officer. Deciding not to take up any more time of his superiors, the police officer made his leave. Once the doors closed behind him, Slate turned to the general. "James, what was that about?" he asked, just as confused as the officer they were questioning.

"Roark, from this moment on, I'll take care of the situation involving Team RWBY." Ironwood spoke, surprising Atlas' police commissioner.

"If this is because of my officers, James, let me assure you-"

"Don't worry. It isn't." Ironwood explained as he stood up, leading him over towards the door. "You've got your hands full already with the Mercury Black trial and these White Fang insurgents starting to cause trouble in our city. Take the rest of the night off and get some rest." he suggested.

"Well, that's rather generous of you, Ironwood." Slate shrugged. "I'll contact you in the morning, old friend." he said as he left for home. Once he was sure he was alone, James returned to his office's desk to place a phone call to another old friend of his. After selecting the contact he was looking for and a moment to make the connection through the CCT routers, the image of Ozpin appeared on screen in front of him.

"I just heard about your team, Ozpin." he said without a hello. "Let me be the first to apologize for the actions of the law enforcement officers involved as well as my men."

"James, these are men simply doing their jobs. As much as a critic I am about Atlas' stance on Faunus livelihood in the kingdom, these men were following orders." Ozpin replied.

"Orders that came from Weiss' father of all people..." James muttered. "I'm going to do what I can to pardon them, but another issue concerning them has arose."

"Would it be the fact they're in the tundra outside the city barriers now?' Ozpin asked.

"What?" James gasped, taken aback on how Ozpin knew about this without Ironwood telling him. "How did-"

"I have another Beacon team contracted in clearing out a large concentration of Grimm north of the prison." Ozpin began to explain. "The Huntsman supervising them is Qrow."

"Of course..." James sighed with a roll of his eyes. It also explained who the sixth person was in the report of the chase from earlier. "Do you think he's heading where I think he's heading?"

"I can only infer from their heading, but I suggest checking there if that's the case." Ozpin nodded.

"Of course, old friend." Ironwood agreed. "I'll keep you updated." With that said, Ozpin gave a nod in return as the screen went black, indicating the call was ended by the caller from Vale. This week was just getting more busy and complicated by the minute. He didn't have the time to travel outside of the kingdom, however, he did have an agent who did. He had another phone call to make.


"Brrrr..." Ruby shivered as the group continued traveling through the snow-covered tundra between Atlas and the maximum security prison. "W-We probably s-s-should've stocked up o-on w-w-warmer clothes..." she thought through the chattering of her teeth.

"Come on, Rubes. A couple winters ago, you went out in less to practice slaying Grimm." Yang reminded, looking at the more padded clothing her younger sister was wearing, as well as keeping her cape wrapped around her to trap her body heat more so. The pyro herself was wearing her usual outfit with a body glove underneath so even she could keep warm.

"W-well winter's a-a-aren't this c-cold in V-Vale!" Ruby fought back.

"How are you holding up, Weiss?" Marron asked, wrapping a scarf around her face for warmth.

"I grew up in these conditions all my life." the duelist answered. "Most people from Atlas learn to tolerate it. Why else do you see people walking around in casual clothes in temperatures below forty degrees?"

"Good point." Blake shrugged as she walked along with the gang, using a cloak she brought along for warmth. "What about you, Qrow?" she spoke up, noticing the grizzled veteran out of the bunch not doing much to keep himself warm...that is, until they noticed him bring the mouth of his flask to his lips.

"Oh, I'm doing just fine, little kitty..." Qrow smirked.

"Qrow, she's less than half your age, you drunk sicko." Yang growled, not amused by her uncle's drinking habits.

"Relax, Yang. I may be drunk, but I don't do that kind of thing." he said, waiving off his niece's concern for her teammate.

"Do you at least know which direction you're taking us in?" Marron asked.

"Course I do. I've been through the eastern pass before..." Qrow shrugged.

"Qrow, we're traveling northwest." Weiss deadpanned.

"...Uh oh." he mumbled, not setting anyone at ease with those words.

"Seriously?" Marron asked. "Even non-local Huntsmen know this is a Grimm breeding ground!"

"Maybe we came while they weren't home?" Ruby asked as they scanned their surroundings. They had yet to find any of those creatures, even if they looked hard enough through the snow whipping through the arctic wind.

"I wish that were the case..." Blake spoke up, her cat ears twitching as they picked up sound ahead of them, placing a hand on the hilt of Gambol Shroud. The rest, minus Qrow as he tucked his flask in his pocket. Just as Marron and Ruby took point, Crescent Rose and Aurum Wing aimed ahead of them, blurs of black came running at them. As they got into range, Ruby took note of their appearance. They were quite obviously Beowolves, but these ones were much more bony and had bushier fur, probably to counter the harsh cold of the icy mountains.

"We got more behind us!" Yang announced as she looked behind her to see more Beowolves coming at them, fangs gnashing and howls echoing through the pass to call more Grimm to the bountiful feed in front of them. Blake and Yang moved to cover their rear, ready to intercept them as they got closer. Just before they got too close, Ruby and Marron opened fire, the sniper blowing the brains out of any Grimm in her line of sight as Marron simply blew them apart with her mortars. Behind them, Yang and Blake peppered the incoming Grimm, but with Blake's small arms fire, and the slugs in Yang's gauntlets not effective until the beasts were right on top of them, they were going to need assistance. Weiss joined them as she summoned a plethora of ice glyphs to shower the incoming enemies in icicle spears. As more and more Grimm continued to pour in, Qrow joined his younger niece and her team chaperone as he pulled his greatsword out, parts of the older model of mechashifting weaponry clicking and whirring into place as it unfolded to a blade whose length matched Ruby's height. Another click on the lever on the hilt, and the blade began to curve and the hilt extend to a scythe that dwarfed Crescent Rose as he jumped into the break between them and started carving through multiple Beowolves with each swipe. As both Ruby and Marron's ammunition began to run low, Ruby and Marron joined him as they began to cut through them with their own scythe and halberd. The remainder of Team RWBY had to join in as they all went back to back as the rear almost became overrun.

Things were looking very bleak at the moment, as the volume of Grimm was much heavier than those that broke through during the breach of Vale after their mission to Mountain Glenn. They were tired from constantly being on the move since leaving Atlas, and the horde of Grimm surrounding them was ebbing away at each of their individual aura pools.

"Anybody got any bright ideas?" Yang asked.

"I'm low on dust and Aura..." Weiss said, checking the levels in Myrtenaster's chamber.

"At this point..." Qrow sighed, looking around them. "Just hope for the best."

Just as the Grimm lept at them for another attack, the crack of a pistol blew the face off of one ready to pounce on top of Yang. A duo of explosions blew a large chunk of them apart to their left as the sound and blue flash of a pulse rifle could be seen on the group to their right along with the sound of a blade slicing through screaming Grimm.

"Who the hell is that?" Marron asked.

"Probably the team I came along with." Qrow thought. "Keep up the intensity! We can beat them!"

"Right! We got this, girls!" Ruby agreed as she separated a Beowolf's head from its body. The group began methodically finishing off the beasts as they got ever closer to fighting their way out of the crowd to the point any weaker or smarter Grimm got the message that this was an uphill battle fot them now that the humans had reinforcements and their numbers were now thinned out severely. As they ran, Team RWBY looked at their saviors, trying to recognize them as they were told it was another team from Beacon, but the cloaks and scarves wrapped around their faces made it hard to recognize, that and only two of them had their weapons in plain view: a massive sword being held by the tallest out of them, and a cutlass and flintlock pistol in the hands of one jumping down from a cliff overhead of them. The answer was pretty obvious when one turned around to reveal a familiar pair of goggles and a pulse rifle.

"Neptune?" Blake asked, the blue-haired intellectual pulling his hood and balacava down to reveal his face.

"Fancy meeting you here, Snow Angel." he smirked.

"Nep, save it for when we're all back home." Sun joked as he revealed himself as well, the final two pulling their scarves off to identify themselves as Scarlet and Sage and make up the rest of Team SSSN.

"What're you lot doing out here?" Scarlet asked, holstering his weapons.

"Well...It's a long story." Ruby began.


And that'll do it for this chapter. I've been wanting to get another one done for at least one of my ongoing fics before I head out to Austin for my first RTX. I don't have much to say other than this this time around, so leave a favorite or a comment if you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you lads and lasses next time!

Note: This chapter is dedicated to my Uncle Thomas, who suddenly and tragically passed away during the writing of this chapter. Rest easy, Uncle.