Check


"Guys! Guys, something's up!" Yang shouted as she raced across the train cars towards the team.

"Little! Busy! Sis!" Each one of Ruby's words was punctuated by a shot sent down at the encroaching horde of White Fang. Safety had been given up by their enemies now, and more soldiers than they could hope to fit advanced across the train. A few sacrifices were necessary for their grand scheme.

"No, no, it's important!" She stopped only to duck under a spray of gunfire and slid into the middle of her team, ducking behind a lifted hatch for cover. "They're leading Grimm into the city! It's what the bombs are doing: it's drawing them in from above!"

"What? That's insane!" Weiss shouted back. "The Grimm will attack them too!"

She brought up a wall of ice that nearly scraped the walkways zooming by overhead. They needed cover and time to think: even on this more open area, the sheer number of the enemy had turned this into yet another protracted gunfight. At the least, as far up as they were, there no longer seemed to be any bombs.

"Yeah, but they've got one of those weird green Grimm, except it's way bigger. It's a mutated King Taijitu, or something!"

"Surely, they can't expect to be able to garner any 'respect' when they're sending Remnant's greatest foe on Vale—including their own kind!" Weiss said. "What do they get out of this?"

"Weiss has a very good point," Penny agreed. "The primary operational goals of the White Fang have been to garner attention, spread fear and collect resources, usually by targeting humans. The Vale Branch has been the most fanatical, but they're the least oriented towards strategic goals!"

"Unless they want an occupation," Adam interjected, and all eyes were on him. "With the Grimm serving as their front line, they would be able to use their own troops to secure tactical and strategic targets across Vale. Using sleeper cells scattered throughout the metropolis, they could also cripple task force reaction times and emergency systems. The Kingdoms focus on their walls: they wouldn't expect a strike to come from within... and Vale, being more orderly than Mistral yet less militarized than Atlas, would be the perfect target." He'd drawn up the plans himself. Back then, however, an event like this was unthinkable. It had depended on a great disaster beyond them, not one of their own making.

Before anyone else could speak, a ice-blue beam of plasma sliced through the frozen wall, cutting a perfect hole through its center. Beyond, a Praetorian clambered forward, each of its four, spider-like legs denting the roof of the cart. The heavy Dust cannons on its arms and shoulders began to glow again. Adam grimaced: he'd gotten enough of that thing conquering this train, the first time.

Ruby, however, grinned and pulled back her rifle's bolt.

"There's no way we can take that on!" Weiss shouted.

"It's weaker than it looks." Adam rolled his neck and got ready for when the rest of their cover collapsed.

"I mean, we have taken on a full Paladin before," Yang added.

The four ducked as a spray of rockets shattered what remained of the wall, leaving only chunks that barely came up to their chests. The Praetorian was not alone: a Paladin had leaped onto the train behind it and unfolded its guns. It may not have had the heavily armored, insectoid faceplate or smooth armor, but its armaments were certainly the same.

"On second thought," Adam decided, "going back under sounds like a good idea!" A set of four nods later, and under covering fire from Ruby, they all gathered around the hatch.

"I'll stay up here with Penny!" Ruby called. "That Paladin looks like a prototype, we should be able to stand up to it. Right, Penny?" She looked over her shoulder to find Penny blankly staring ahead at the approaching targets, her blades moving on their own to block any incoming bullets, but without Penny herself recognizing anything.

"Penny? Penny, come on!"


"Private Poledina!" General Ironwood shouted, his face visible just barely in the corner of her eye, speaking through her personal communications link. His voice was muffled and face fuzzy, but Penny could hear well enough. "You are to leave the operations zone immediately; your safety is currently the highest priority."

"I... I'm sorry, General, but I'm afraid I can't do that," she responded in her thoughts.

"You are currently in one of the most dangerous locations in the Kingdom of Vale, and I can hear the gunfire even now. Evacuate. Immediately."

"I cannot leave my friends behind!"

"They will be rescued by our task force. This is an order, Private Poledina," General Ironwood stressed, "Abandon the battlefield!"

She thought she could hear someone else calling to her, but her mind was entirely focused on this.

"General..." She didn't move.

The general took a deep breath and, for a moment, his expression took on a peculiar emotion that her databanks could not identify. "So be it. As Priority Administrator One, General James Ironwood, I order you to evacuate and return to Vale, by yourself, immediately."

[Keyword "Priority Administrator" recognized]

[Searching administrator list. . .]

[Searching. . .]

[Error: no prioritized personnel found. No priority administrators found. Administrator list empty. Deleting. . .]

Something waved across her sight, and Penny realized she was sitting down, now. Someone was waving a hand in front of her. Penny looked over to find Ruby ducking low beneath the shattered remnants of their cover, calling out to her with the emotion identified as worry on her face. Weiss was beside her, holding up her weapon and forced to her knee as a glyph tried its hardest to hold back a Praetorian trying to kick its way past. Her friends. Her friends were worried about her.

Penny got an idea. Inside her systems, she mentally reached out for the switches managing her connection to Ironwood.


On the bridge of an aerial command cruiser, Ironwood raised an eyebrow as Penny's connection, having been perfectly stable—if fuzzy—until now, started to flicker on and off.

"Sorry... can't hear... Ironwood... going through... tunnel... call back!"

Click. The call disconnected, leaving Ironwood staring in growing concern and shock both.


"I'm with you one hundred percent, Ruby!" Penny suddenly leaped up to her feet quick enough to have Ruby squeak and duck down. She fired her blades out hard enough to send the Praetorian skidding away and turned to Weiss. "I am capable of dismantling any Atlesian machine to-date! Ruby and I can handle this!"

Weiss nodded. "Stay safe, Penny."

"You too, friend!"

Weiss let the glyph fall and leaped down into the train, her last sight of her friends being Penny and Ruby both brandishing their weapons. She hoped it wouldn't be the last time she saw them.

Yang and Adam waited beneath. They looked between one another then, without a word, rushed forward. Without being loaded for the most potent explosions possible, these carts were quite spacious, now: there were crates of Dust and weaponry around, of course, but now all three of them had more than enough room to move around. They felt empty.

And considering how there wasn't even a soul in the cars they ran through, that emptiness paired with the stomping of feet and gunfire above left the air thick with tension. When the next door opened to reveal a familiar, short, mute girl waiting for them on the other side, they were almost relieved. That relief, of course, quickly gave way to rage.

Neopolitan bowed, twirling her parasol on her shoulder. The three dropped into combat stances immediately and, with a smirk and roll of her eyes, she snapped her parasol shut, pointed to herself, then to Yang.

Yang spat and popped her neck. "What stops us from just beating the crap out of you, three to one?"

She tapped her chin as if in thought, then shrugged and turned to stroll towards the door.

"How cowardly: either you pick one of us apart, or you run away?" Weiss questioned her.

Neo merely shrugged as she reached the door.

Adam narrowed his eyes. "No. She's saying there's more ahead. More that she can call in."

Neo turned and clapped for him. He'd figured it out!

"Fine." Yang rolled her shoulders. "You two go. We've got unfinished business, anyway: I heard you were messing with my sister back on the docks!" Yang shouted as Adam and Weiss warily made their way around Neo on each side, hands on their weapons.

Neo made no attempt to stop them. All she did was turn towards Weiss and, with a smile all too wide, pressed her finger to her neck, just like her stiletto once was to Weiss' own. Any further teasing was cut short by a blast from Ember Celica that forced Neo to flip aside.

The door shut behind the two, and Yang was left alone with Neo.


The cars ahead began to show signs of life: White Fang soldiers waiting to climb above or relaying orders to others above and around. However, no longer restrained by the tight interiors, the dangers of fighting around multitudes of explosives and Dust, or even needing to throw unconscious goons further ahead and out of the bomb's reaches, Weiss and Adam were free to move and strike with impunity. They didn't stand a chance.

Until, at last, they came upon a room with ten White Fang soldiers waiting for them. That, however, was not what drew Adam up short. What did was the one standing at the rear of the car: standing at seven feet tall and clad in rippling, ivory armor reminding one of the waves of the sea and with a mask that covered his entire head, was a mass of strength and muscle greater than even Tacet's. Captain Almond. In one hand, he held a pale, tower shield styled in the same way as his own mask.

Seeing Adam freeze in place brought Weiss up short, as well. She raised her weapon, then noticed not a soul had moved. The grunts were trembling, their weapons raised, but whereas their comrades in the cars before were ready to shoot on sight, not a single one here had fired. There was something familiar about some of them, however. Young faces fit to blurry memories. Her eyes widened a little when she saw the black armbands they wore, standing out against their bare arms: they were Adam's former students.

Adam forced himself to break the silence. "I heard you made captain, Edward," he said. "Good for you."

"Is that what you have to say, after all of this time?" He slammed his shield down. "Pathetic."

"I know that whatever I have to say, it won't change what is going to happen next. You!" He pointed towards the grunts. "Leave now. You'll only get in our way." It spoke to his ability to command that, while some looked up to their true leader, most already began backing for the door.

"He speaks the truth." Captain Almond didn't take his eyes off of the duo. "I cannot guarantee your safety, fellow members. Go."

The soldiers didn't spare a glance back as they rushed for the door. All except for one, who peered back a last time. Cheetah ears that poked through her hood flicked nervously, and she ran off. The door shut.

"I should thank you, Adam. Maybe if I try hard enough, I can believe you finally listened to me and brought me a Schnee. I've been waiting to kill one of you for so long..." A low chuckle rumbled through him, and he retrieved his signature weapon from his back: the weaponized chainsaw that had treated him well since Altebrucke. He let his shield stand alone for just long enough to yank its cord and fill the room with its cry. Black smoke coiled from it: signs of its reliance on old petroleum.

Adam grabbed onto Wilt. "Weiss, go. I'll handle him."

"No." Captain Almond grabbed his shield and stomped closer. "She will die by my hand... but you, Adam, I give the chance to live. Return to me. Return to us. Don't let my last memory of you be your carcass next to the one we despise."

Adam clenched his fist and grimaced. Weiss found herself instinctively standing in front of him.

Behind his all-encompassing mask, Almond sighed. "I need to know, Adam: was it your heart, in the end? Did that traitorous Belladonna get to you?" He looked down upon Weiss. "Or have you sullied yourself with something even more disgusting?"

Scowling, Weiss lit a pathway of glyphs to Almond and shot forward, passing under his guard and digging her rapier under a gap in his armor before he could so much as move his shield. Only grunting from the blow, he forced her back with his tower shield until the report of gunfire drew his attention. Without even looking, he swung his chainsaw high, barely missing Adam and his blade as he soared above. With his back open, Almond could prevent Weiss from slipping another blow in, but not Adam from drawing his blade across his back. Sparks flew from the impact, and his aura flashed a ruddy red.

"You've made your choice!" He swung his chainsaw for Adam and backed up, forced on a constant defensive from the rain of piercing blows and searing slashes from Weiss and Adam alike on either side.

Weiss stepped back, brought Myrtenaster up and charged it with fire Dust while Adam kept the captain busy. Right when she lunged, however, he roared in defiance, twisted to fully face Adam and slammed his tower shield down hard to dent the steel floor of the train. Weiss didn't see the chainsaw coming on the backswing until it was too late, and she was flung back from the impact into crates lining the sides of the car.

Captain Almond advanced on Adam, lightning-fast flicks of Wilt and rapid shots from Blush both bouncing off of his tower shield. When he had gotten far enough to get in range, he threw himself into a mighty swing of his chainsaw that forced Adam to flip over it. An easy task. Especially, Adam realized, when it wasn't aimed for him: Almond finished his twirl by spearing Weiss against the crate she was against. Only quick thinking and a shield of energy summoned from her rapier kept her aura from being shredded. Her grunts of effort were muffled by the roar of Almond's weapon.

Once again, he'd left his back open. Adam darted out of Almond's sight and, when he'd returned, it was as a black blur swinging its foot for his head. It barely even nudged him. Still, it was enough for Weiss to roll out from under the assault as Adam landed. Almond growled and tried to move towards her once more, only for his body to refuse to move. Weiss, standing with Myrtenaster raised, smirked and looked down at his feet. Almond followed her gaze down, and found a glyph black as night locking him in place.

It wasn't the worst of his problems.

That would be the crimson blade immediately stabbing up between the plates of his armor. Crimson aura geysered from the strike like blood, yet it stood strong. Roaring once more, this time in betrayal, Almond forced his body to take one step, then broke into a full dash through the glyph at Weiss, saw bared. A flash of black and red parried the blade, and Adam stood beside her one more, sheathing his blade. A lull fell in their combat.

"What's wrong?" Edward asked, panting. "Surprised? Go on, give it your best shot..." He laughed, wisps of crimson escaping from beneath his mask and dissipating in the air.

Weiss and Adam looked between each other. She raised an eyebrow and glanced towards the White Fang leader, then back to him. Did he know he was this powerful?

Adam shook his head and fell back into his combat stance. "Check," he muttered to Weiss, then drew his blade and leaped into a flurry of slashes. He had no reason to hold back here, throwing every ounce of speed into his blows until the sweep of his blade seemed to leave two slashes in its wake. Each time Almond tried to search for Weiss, a rifle shot to the helmet would force his attention back down onto him and away from the glyphs forming, one by one, around him.

Soon, Adam's strikes were joined by Weiss' own: whereas he was an endless storm of strikes in front of his former comrade, Weiss leaped from glyph to glyph, striking down at unorthodox angles and vanishing just as quickly. Almond could barely manage to hold Adam back with his shield, and every attempt to bring his chainsaw down would leave him parried and Adam glowing with more power. Trying to deflect every blow from Weiss was an impossibility.

Almond stumbled back towards the stairs leading up to the door, legs trembling from the weight of the blows. No matter where he turned, no matter where he moved or focused his defense, there would be some part of him open to assault. He was trapped. It was—

"Checkmate!" Weiss called from above Almond as she charged her rapier with fire Dust once more. Adam glowed with the power of his Semblance and, from two directions, the two bolted down towards him. Neither believed he would even be able to move.

Let alone bring his shield in and, with a shout, force a wave of aura out from it massive enough to blast both of them backwards. As Adam and Weiss rolled back up to their feet, the air stayed tinged with crimson and tasted of iron, even as the aura faded. Panting, Almond stood just before the door. All three caught their breath.

"We've had him on the defensive since we began," Adam said in hushed tones. "Go to Torchwick, I can handle him myself."

"Something's not right about him, Adam..." Weiss looked over their foe. He'd taken strikes that would have put down one of their peers in a single blow with little more than grunts and growls. Even after an expenditure of aura of that caliber, his aura barely even flickered. They'd barely dented him.

"I'll be fine, Weiss. Go!"

Almond began to stomp towards them, each heavy breath drawing in hints of bloody-red aura into his mask. Adam and Weiss glared at one another, their silent contest of wills cut short only from the approaching captain.

Finally, Weiss sighed. "Fine... Catch!" She flung something at Adam just as Almond broke into a sprint. He snatched it from the air without thinking and glanced at it only once it was in his grasp. The two Dust magazines sat in his hand. Weiss was already running towards Almond before anything could be done and, as much as he held disdain for it, he wasn't petty enough to try to throw it back at a time like this.

Weiss flipped over Almond towards the door. "You aren't going anywhere, Schnee!" In a total betrayal of his former sluggishness, he twisted backwards and turned to swat her from the sky.

"I beg to differ!" In the blink of an eye, Adam was in front of him, blade halfway out of its sheath. The world was drowned in red. Surrounding crates burst into wilted petals, their contents lost to the wind. When Adam sheathed his blade and color returned to the world, Weiss had escaped. Now, it was only the former commander of the White Fang and the current one, ducking behind his shield that slowly wilted away from the gash in its center. For a moment, only the rumble of Captain Almond's chainsaw filled the air.

The shield ground against the steel floor as he moved it aside. They stood only a yard away, eyes boring into one another.

"It doesn't have to be this way, Almond," Adam spoke.

"That's why this hurts me so much, traitor." Almond threw his shield aside. It decayed into blackened rose petals the moment it touched the ground.


They were wasting precious time against their foes. It was for that reason and that reason only that Weiss was able to put her hate for the White Fang aside and avoid their soldiers rather than combat them. She emerged back into the warzone: open cars were lined with dormant Paladins and Praetorians both. The roar of gunfire was ever-present among the rumble of the train. Roars and screeches of Grimm came interspersed with the blasts of lost carts that left her ears ringing even this far up. The air was thick with the scent of Dust.

Weiss weaved between dormant Paladins on their open carts, laying swift stabs and immobilizing rays of energy Dust into anyone who raised firearms at her. She realized she had an issue: the cars ahead were undoubtedly the barracks and effective source of the White Fang soldiers. If Penny's calculations were correct, they hadn't even seen a fraction of their full forces... which left the majority of the White Fang standing between her and Torchwick. So, when she reached the end of the platform, Weiss did the unthinkable: she jumped.

A black glyph anchored her to the side of the train for just a step before her speed and a pathway of snow-white glyphs let Weiss dash across the train unseen and unbidden. Though it was certainly draining, Weiss thought, it was far less draining than having to fight hundreds. She leaped off of the corner of the penultimate cart to roll into the front car. Roman Torchwick remained in his chair, facing the coming darkness of the tunnel with his weaponized cane hanging carelessly off of one arm.

The door locked behind her.

"Why hello there, Little Red!" Torchwick spun in his chair to face her. He raised his brow. "Oh! Oh, now isn't this a pleasant surprise! Really, Ice Queen, we 'ought to stop meeting like this. People will say we're in love..." Torchwick propped his head up on his fist.

"Enough games, Torchwick." Weiss leveled her rapier at the crime lord. "Halt this train immediately and you might manage to escape the death penalty once this is all over."

Torchwick snorted. "Seriously, you really need to work on your negotiations, Princess."

Weiss felt her lip curl in disdain, but forced her expression back to neutrality. She had the advantage here: he'd recently lost a leg, so any prosthetic he had would not yet be as efficient as his natural limb, and while his clothes were well-kept, he looked a mess. Dull hair. Sullen cheeks. Darkness under the eyes visible even though he clearly tried to hide it under makeup. He must've just recovered.

"And you need to work on that dreadful mascara job of yours."

That wiped the smirk off of Torchwick's face. His orange aura flickered around him before he used his cane to force himself to his feet.

"Well, well, kitty's got claws... though, I guess 'has a bite with that bark' is more fitting for you."

Weiss narrowed her eyes, then it clicked. "Wha—how dare you!"

"Ha! You wouldn't have stood a chance against Mercury. Frankly, I'm surprised he didn't decide to shove his boot in your face before you got here."

The heiress had begun cycling through her Dust cylinders, knowing Torchwick was stalling. She paused. "Mercury is here?"

Torchwick raised an eyebrow. "You didn't know?" He cackled. "Oh, man, one of you is about to get fuc—"

Weiss lunged.


To say that the battle atop the train was going well was a grave understatement. Between Penny's downright terrifying power and Ruby's speed, the Praetorian was rapidly dismantled and only the upgrades to their firepower let the prototype Paladin survive any longer. The fact that the massive machines made it more difficult for their own infantry to get a good shot or even avoid the crossfire was even easier. All they had to do now was get to where the Paladins were coming from and they'd be home free!

Ruby and Penny's rush was brought to an abrupt stop as another prototype Paladin managed to get itself working and crashed down onto the train car, weapons unfolding. Penny took the lead and brought her blades to bear. Ruby spun her scythe behind the hatch at the train's center and got ready to snipe the machine's sensors.

She heard a loud crash just in front of her, saw metal advance, and the next thing she knew she was tumbling and flipping her way down the train. Ruby heard Penny shouting for her as she shakily pushed her way up to her knees and looked around. A mangled hatch, the thing that must've struck her, laid on one side. Ruby stumbled to her feet as she looked to her other side.

" 'Sup, Red." Mercury strolled forward, smirking. "Ready for round two?"