As they board the ship, Ruby's legs feel like rubber and all she wants to do is let herself collapse to the floor and sleep for at least a week. But there's no time for that right now. Not with everything that's happened in the past few hours.

It's almost unbelievable how quickly things went wrong. Just hours ago, they were fighting side by side with Ironwood and the Ace Ops, and she and Oscar had been basking in the relief of finally telling Ironwood the truth about Salem. Now, their former allies are prepared to take them down and abandon everyone in Mantle in favor of protecting Atlas at all costs.

No time to dwell on that right now, though. Not when they still need to find Penny and Winter and stop them from taking the power of the Winter Maiden. Ruby swallows hard around the sudden lump in her throat. Hopefully they'll listen to reason—the last thing Ruby wants to have to do is fight with people she cares about. After all, Penny is her friend and Winter is Weiss' sister. Surely the two of them will be willing to hear them out.

Because if she's being completely honest, Ruby's not sure if she's really up for fighting right now. Whatever she'd managed to do earlier with her semblance really took it out of her.

"What happened?" Maria asks once they're all on board, her wrinkled face pinched with worry. "We got your message, but it'd be nice to get some details about what's going on."

"Is Penny okay?" Pietro asks urgently, his face creased with concern. "Where is she?"

The questions jolt Ruby out of her jumbled thoughts. She swallows again, clearing her throat carefully before she speaks. "We'll explain later. Right now, we need to find the Winter Maiden and stop her from transferring her power before it's too late." She's still the leader, after all, so it's still her job to help come up with a plan, even if all she wants to do is close her eyes and rest for a while.

There's no time for taking a time-out, from her duties, not when everything is such a mess.

Maria's frown deepens as Ruby talks. "That's no small task, you know. I have no doubt that Ironwood will have her as well-secured as possible. We might not even be able to tell if the place that she's being kept even exists even if we were standing right on top of it."

Yeah, Ruby was afraid of that. Still, surely if they work together they can at least come up with a place to start—

"Actually, I know where she is," Weiss announces tentatively, taking a step back when everyone's eyes turn to her.

"Since when do you know that?" Blake asks, her tone sharp with surprise.

Weiss sighs. "Winter showed me a few weeks ago, shortly after we arrived in Atlas. She asked me not to tell anyone that she told me, so I kept it to myself." She shrugs, looking uncomfortable. "I mean, they might have moved her somewhere else by now, but at least it's somewhere to start, right?"

"That's perfect, Weiss!" Ruby exclaims, pushing aside her exhaustion as she beams at her partner. Clearly, Weiss feels a bit uneasy about telling them what her sister said, and could use some encouragement. "Let's head that way right away!"

As they make their way to the location that Weiss had rattled off, Ruby makes her way over to Pietro. Penny is with Winter, after all, and she feels like it's only fair that Pietro, as Penny's father, deserves to know what they're headed into. "Mr. Polendina," she begins hesitantly.

"Please, Ruby, it's Pietro."

"Right, Pietro." She bites her lip. "I just wanted to tell you that Ironwood sent Penny with Winter to retrieve the Winter Maiden. So hopefully, she's safe, and she can come with us once we've cleared things up."

Pietro is silent for a long moment, before letting out a brief sigh. "Thank you, Ruby. I trust that my daughter will make the right decision once she realizes what's going on."

Before she can find the words to reply, she's interrupted by Maria's announcement. "We're here!"

Ruby immediately snaps to attention. "Well, that doesn't look good," she hears her sister say as she rushes to join Weiss and Maria at the front of the ship.

It's not hard to guess what she's talking about. In front of them lies an enormous snowstorm, like a tall white pillar of ice and snow and wind towering towards the sky. She exchanges a worried glance with Weiss. Clearly, something has gone wrong here.

Despite how shaky and exhausted she still feels, Ruby is still the first one off the ship once they land, with Weiss close on her heels. They quickly find that there's no way to break through the walls of the storm—at least not without ending up with frostbite—but Weiss isn't willing to give up that easily. With a low growl, she summons a series of fire glyphs, blasting a nice-sized hole in the storm.

As the smoke clears, Ruby's heart drops at the sight in front of her. Penny is crouched next to an elderly woman, her green eyes wide and worried. Ruby follows her gaze to see Cinder, who has turned face them, alerted by their rather dramatic entrance. She's standing over Weiss' sister, who is clearly in bad shape.

Ruby isn't going to let Cinder hurt anyone else. And she definitely isn't about to let Cinder kill Penny again. Before she can even make a decision about what to do, her vision is suddenly filled with a blinding silver light.


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