I wasn't knocked out by the impact, but the pain was nearly unbearable. I found myself lying on the pavement after being thrown out of the ground upon breaching. The locomotive came crashing out of the tunnels, as did several other train cars before piling up near the square. It was like the train crash in Call of Duty World War II but without massive explosions and endless momentum behind it.

I was barely able to see one of the passenger cars I'd cushioned up with springs fashioned out of my Dust tumble without any real damage against a tree, before being laid to rest against it. I really hope everyone inside was still alive. And that went for the other cars as well, there were a lot of people I wanted to help.

Kind of redundant in a situation like this, I suppose. Sitting up, I winced and groaned at some of the worst pain I'd ever felt in my arm. Turning with double vision in my eyes, I could see that it was bloodied and bent at an awkward angle. Parts of my head also felt warm and it didn't take a genius to figure out that I was bleeding from the head.

Wait a damn second. Where was Yang? Liya? Weiss? Were the others OK? What if my appearance and intervention did something worse in the end? I couldn't stop thinking, I can't stop thinking about it, I can't stop thinking about it. Intense fear instantly gripped my heart as I attempted to try and get up on my feet.

Sitting up as my head pounded in agony, I saw parts of my clothes were also bloody, and that my leg was injured but not broken. Stumbling to my feet, I was able to discern the ringing in my ears from the other chaotic noises around. My vision was barely beginning to clear up too, limping towards the train car.

Looking around, I'd expected to see the same thing from the Breach in the show, chaos and devastation everywhere, RWBY fighting off Grimm as civilians ran or were cut down. But I saw differently.

I saw several Atlesian soldiers in fireteams of three or four, picking off Grimm a few dozen at a time. An Atlesian airship was hovering right above us, and several dropships were being deployed from its broadside hangars. Many of the Grimm pouring out of the tunnels were boxed in as troops continued to deploy firing lines.

However, there were still many slipping through gaps in the breach, close to running rampant in the streets if it weren't for strafing dropships and more troops at the ends of blocks or the second or third story windows. I'd forgotten that I warned Ironwood and Atlas of this, as well as the plan I'd told them much earlier.

More importantly, I saw Ruby, Yang, Weiss, Liya, and Blake being treated at an Atlesian armored vehicle deployed at the end of the block. "Guess they made it out alright..." I said quietly before reaching the train car. The springs I formed disintegrated and flew back to my belt as I unlatched the door with my good arm.

The door fell open, and several White Fang goons tumbled out. Many more crawled out, most with injuries of some sort. Deery was one of them, nursing an injured leg as she stumbled to her feet. "W-what-" she said.

I formed a sling for my broken arm with my Dust, groaning as I slowly lifted it into place, before creating a blade for my good hand. "Train crashed. Did everyone survive?" I coughed, holding up my Dust made weapon as I used my arm to cover my mouth while coughing.

"I-I think so," Deery said, helping one of the injured Faunus up. "Why did you do that? A-are you a brother to the cause?"

"No," I croaked weakly. "I'm just...trying to save some lives." I thought back to those that fought while the train was moving, as well as those left behind in the tunnels back in Mountain Glenn. "Too many on both sides would've died..."

Deery seemed deep in thought before she gasped and drew a pistol, which I hadn't even seen on her side. However, she fired several shots past me and a Creep snarled before turning away, deciding to go after the soldiers instead.

"Uhh, thanks," I said before turning to see Deery and the other White Fang members weren't paying attention to me, simply grabbing their wounded and quickly moving away towards an unchecked alleyway.

If they wanted to leave, that was fine, I guess. I didn't know if I was in the right state of mind when thinking this, but I was glad they would be alive. I mean, Deery would survive nonetheless, but I'd potentially saved many more.

I collapsed near the train car, before turning over and lying on my back against the fallen door. My arm was resting nicely, even if it was still hurting like a bitch. My leg was hurting only a little, and my vision was starting to get a little hazy again. Maybe closing my eyes would be nice.

Yeah...sleep sounded like something I could use. I barely registered the sound of shouting as something picked me up and carried me somewhere.

"Harriet, grab a medic!" I was barely able to hear.

"Marrow, watch our flank!"

"He's losing it! Hurry up with that medic!"

"Stay with me, kid!"

I didn't see or hear any more than that. I slowly let myself slip into unconsciousness, the cold feeling of death slowly turning into a warm and tight embrace.

I saved lives. That was a nice feeling.

"Indeed it is."

I shot up, fully awake. Or...not awake. The God of Light was before me. "I see you've decided to take certain responsibilities into your own hands," he said.

"Yeah...your brother said that I was too focused on stopping Salem ahead of time," I said, rubbing my head before realizing that my arm wasn't hurting anymore, nor in my makeshift Dust sling. "So...why not try and do some good off the record?"

"A noble and short sighted goal," the God of Light said. "Perhaps this task may be a bit too troubling for you."

"Wait, what?" I said. "What do you mean, I'm doing fine. I saved some of the White Fang guys, and they'll get arrested. But not dead."

"Perhaps. But for all you attempted to count for, you forgot about the most important piece," the God of Light said. I struggled to comprehend what he meant, spending way too long trying to piece together his words. What could he mean? I successfully stopped any civilian casualties in the Breach, and I managed to save a bunch of Faunus in the process, even if they were terrorists. But...

"I'm dead, aren't I?" I said.

"Close. You would be dead if it weren't for one action you did on your end," the God of Light said. "You brought in the Ace-Ops."

"Why would that..." I remembered the voice calling for Harriet to grab a medic. Specifically, Clover Ebi's voice. "Ohh..."

"Yes. His good fortune ensured you would survive the immense internal bleeding you were suffering," the God of Light said. I winced at that. I definitely didn't feel a lot of internal bleeding and pain when I woke up.

Still, it occurred to me just how much of a close call it was. I'd almost blindly died because I tried to bite off more than I could chew, and the only reason I'd be alive is because the leader of the Ace-Ops had a powerful semblance.

"Wow," I said. "Uhh...wow."

"So take this as a warning, boy," the God of Light said in a stern voice, like a parent scolding a child for breaking the window with a badly aimed baseball shot. "Think about how much your actions affect you other than this timeline. This reality."

I didn't know why he felt the need to add the last part, but I absentmindedly nodded. And with that, I was awake. No send-off, no good luck, nothing. It was like I blinked and I changed places in an instant.

I was in Beacon's infirmary, my arm in a proper sling and several bandages wrapped around my side, leg, and on my head. I winced at the feeling of internal pain when I breathed too hard, but the injury wasn't as painful as I thought it would be. I was likely on aura boosters and other forms of medication as well.

"You're awake."

I turned to see Harriet Bree standing at the doorway. From the way she was turned, I was fairly certain that she was guarding it. "How are you feeling, kid?"

"Uhh, good. I think," I said as I looked over at myself under the blankets. I was only wearing a hospital gown with Beacon's logo in the middle of it. "Well, nothing too bad at least. You're...one of the Ace-Ops, right?"

The side of Harriet's lip curled up in a half smirk. "So you heard of us," she said. "I shouldn't be surprised - you're the one who convinced the general to have us posted here."

Wait, General Ironwood told them? I suppose it wasn't exactly a bad thing - the Ace-Ops were loyal to General Ironwood, after all. "Y-yeah..." I said awkwardly.

"Gotta say, ballsy move with the White Fang," Harriet continued. "We would've had you arrested for letting them go if it weren't for the fact you were likely delirious when you opened that car. Plus your friends kept advocating your willingness to save lives."

"I know, I know...I wasn't thinking straight," I muttered. "Did you catch them?"

"Most of them. Only a handful managed to slip away," Harriet said. "I suppose that's a better outcome than much else, but still: stupid move on your end."

"I believe Mister Onissa here understands the consequences of his actions," a voice said. I blinked as General Ironwood walked by, calmly returning Harriet's hastily thrown up salute before nodding to the elite speedster. "You're dismissed, Bree."

Harriet nodded and walked away. General Ironwood closed the door behind him and walked over to sit at a chair next to my bed. "How are you feeling?" he asked.

"I'm feeling...OK," I said. "Did anyone die?"

"The Breach was contained, and your plan worked in protecting the populace of the city. No civilian casualties. However, a handful of my men were injured, three of which succumbed to their wounds," Ironwood said. At my painful wince, he spoke up again. "I'm not upset at you, you helped prevent much more catastrophic results with your intel and planning."

"I know...but those deaths are on me. I know people say 'you don't get over having someone dying on your conscience' or 'you move on', but I don't think it'd be that simple," I mumbled.

General Ironwood sighed. "This is also about the Faunus in the tunnels, is it?" he asked. When I looked up in surprise, he explained. "One of the Faunus we caught said you tried to save as many Faunus as possible by locking them up in the train cars. Said, and I quote 'you threw her at her brothers and sisters like dead weight' after telling her the plan."

Deery. She's OK.

"Y-yeah. But there were still so many left behind," I mumbled.

"I won't try to say that it's a good thing for the White Fang to take so many hits, but that's how I feel," the general said. I shouldn't be so surprised at him being so callous - he's a military general with plenty of battles under his belt, after all. Plus that semblance likely had a sort of influence over his words. Still, he also proved he wasn't entirely unfeeling. Well, most of the time anyway.

"Yeah, I get it. Terrorists and whatnot," I muttered. "I won't try to argue the point, I see the advantage of terrorists being knocked down a few pegs. Just hate the idea of killing to do that stuff."

I wondered how RWBY handled fighting those White Fang goons knowing they'd die anyway.

"How is she?" I asked.

"She'll be receiving a few months of jail time and community service for cooperating, as well as saving your life from that Grimm creep before running," Ironwood said. "But I won't be able to prevent the public's treatment of her."

"Well, some of that is good, at least," I said. "She was at the rally before the first year missions came up, so I know she and a bunch of others didn't do anything between the Breach and that rally."

"Why are you so concerned for this Faunus? Is she important to future events?" Ironwood asked.

I looked down. "No. I'm just sick of...prioritizing lives over others. Impractical, I know..."

"Not entirely. Many students in Atlas wish to save all lives, not just the good. Believe it or not, there's plenty of debates on things like this-" Ironwood said before a knock on the door caught our attention.

The door opened to reveal Yang and Liya, rushing in as they nearly barreled over the general if it weren't for him standing out of the way with the reflexes of a well trained soldier. "Markus, are you alright?!" Yang asked in worry.

"The doctors said you were nearly dead!" Liya cried. I had to look away at the heartbreaking fear and concern in their eyes.

"Headmaster," Ironwood said as he exited the door. Ozpin had apparently entered with Liya and Yang as well. After several minutes of answering frantic questions, Liya and Yang finally backed off to give me room to breathe.

"I'm glad you're alright," Ozpin said. "How is your recovery going?"

"It's...doing alright," I said. "Why?"

"Because I'm afraid you have been called to Atlas. James was to tell you that you would accompany him back to Atlas for a few months, until the Vytal Festival," Ozpin explained.

"What?!" Yang cried. I was surprised as well. Since between RWBY Volume 2 and Volume 3 was the whole plot of the RWBY Grimm Eclipse video game, I thought I'd be able to be a part of that. Guess not.

"Headmaster-" Liya said before Ozpin held up a hand to stop them. "I'm afraid I agree with Ironwood on this matter. The intel you have, as well as your involvement in stopping a much larger catastrophe is vital to stopping White Fang operations as a whole."

"What about us?" Yang asked, still dumbstruck. I couldn't blame her, it must suck to lose her boyfriend right after getting him back. "We were there too!"

"You and your team have classes. Ironwood has specifically requested Mister Onissa and waived any future assignments and attendance on Mister Onissa's behalf. His partner may come as well, if she wishes," Ozpin said. "Miss Eyla?"

"I...I'm not sure," Liya said.

"If not, you may be assigned to team RWBY until Mister Onissa returns," Ozpin said before turning to face me. "Mister Onissa, you are to pack your things and prepare to leave once you are discharged from the infirmary tomorrow. You will be leaving in three days."

"I...OK," I sighed before turning to Yang and hugging her tightly. "I wish we had more time."

"Me too," Yang whispered, kissing my cheek. "You still owe me a day."

"Of being a cat maid..." I sighed quietly. "I promise. Don't get into too many crazy adventures while I'm gone."

Yang grinned. "No promises," she said.

I pulled away from Yang reluctantly and looked to Liya. "So...you're staying here?" I asked nervously.

"Nope," Liya said briefly. "I decided, I'm going with you."

"Oh," I said, kinda relieved at this decision. No offense to Ironwood, but the Atlesian as a whole, but they were stiff. And I could really use a good friend to go with me on this trip. "Not that I don't want you to come with but...why?"

"Well, we haven't really done any real school partner stuff for a while. And you need someone to keep your butt out of trouble," Liya said. "Heh, the Gods know you'd probably need it after earlier..."

I chuckled. "Heh..." I mumbled. "Thanks."

"So it's settled. I'll leave you to recover. Don't strain yourself," Ozpin said as he left. Yang kissed me passionately before she too left, albeit reluctantly. Liya didn't stick around for very long, just telling me she'd pack and look up stuff about Atlas to prepare for the trip.

When I was left alone in bed, I just wondered to myself what General Ironwood wanted to talk about, and why he wanted to bring me to Atlas.

When the day came, I was fully recovered and in my combat outfit again, fully cleaned and repaired. My belt also got some upgrades, with some framing to further secure it.

Apparently, Ruby had taken the liberty to research neural Dust and actually got Weiss to buy canisters of more Dust: electric, fire, wind, ice, rock, and hardlight Dust. The addition to my outfit involved two canisters of each, with one in each of two thigh belts. Each smaller belt carried six canisters, one of each type of Dust Weiss had purchased.

When I asked, Ruby said that she read that many forms of Dust are compatible with neural Dust, and that she and Weiss helped with mixing elements and components of my Dust with the new Dust I now had. She didn't go into specifics, but I was now able to solidly wield other forms of Dust and their capabilities by themselves or together with the Dust I originally had.

The only issue I saw with this is that Ruby didn't ask if I wanted this. Lucky for her, I wasn't about to complain so I let her pet my ears for a minute. Liya had also gotten some upgrades, mainly to her combat outfit. She was now sporting sleek blue boots and black thigh high stockings. When I asked, she said "I always wanted boots".

After several goodbyes and a particularly long hug and butt squeeze from Yang - yes, she really did that - Liya and I were taken aboard a ship much like Winter or Jacques Schnee's ship seen in Volume 3 and Volume 7 respectively: a large sleek and utilitarian airframe with four nacelles set up like an X-Wing from Star Wars or a Starfury from Babylon V.

Unlike Winter's ship, it was a bit bulked up, and lacked the banners hanging from the ends of the nacelles. There were also two gun turrets, one on the ventral aft and one on the dorsal hull behind the cockpit.

"This is the personal transport of the Ace-Ops," Ironwood said upon arriving. He had a somewhat jovial tone - or as jovial as a man like him could be. "I will be heading back to Atlas a day after you arrive. I took the liberty of setting up an itinerary for the first two days of your stay. It mostly involves interrogation for the events of the Breach."

"Interrogation?" Liya asked, immediately concerned. I'd be lying if I wasn't a little bit worried about that word myself.

"Don't worry, it's mostly about planning. The Paladins, what you heard at the rally, the numbers of the enemy, etcetera. The rest of your stay will be mostly run by...someone else," Ironwood said, his tone falling.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I'll let you see for yourself upon arrival. Don't worry, it isn't bad. Mister Onissa, Miss Eyla," he said before leaving. The Ace-Ops's transport door opened up and the ramp slid out. The two of us entered the relatively large door before walking up the staircase to the next level.

The interior of the Atlesian ship was sort of like a miniature mansion on wings. Much of the walls were smooth metal, but the seats were 100% luxurious. It definitely felt like a private jet but much larger and more extravagant.

The first thing we saw upon entering the next deck from the staircase was a sort of living room, with eight luxurious plane chairs with cupholders, buttons for reclining or even lying down, and scroll charging stations. At the middle was a large table with drinks, snacks, and more.

"Wow. Uhh...overkill," Liya said as I nodded in agreement. "Not sure what to expect."

"Just relax."

We turned to see the Ace-Ops walking up the stairs behind us. "Trips are some of the smoothest and enjoyable around," Marrow said, having been the one to tell us to relax seconds earlier.

"Heh," I muttered quietly before speaking a bit louder. "Relax with what? Not sure what the ship has, to be honest."

"This is the lounge," Clover said, stepping up and sitting at one of the luxury plane chairs on the left. "The room next door is the simulation room if you wanna keep your skills sharp. The quarters are up the staircase between the lounge and simulation room."

"Quarters is a big room with eight beds, two double bunks on each side," Marrow said. "But they're comfortable. Restroom and showers are in the quarters."

"And there's the dining room on the other side of the bunk room. In fact, you could head there now," Clover offered as he set his scroll aside and sighed. "No doubt you're starving. And the trip won't exactly be short, it'll be a day and a half's worth of travels."

My stomach growled in response to food, and Liya snorted under her mask. "Yeah...sounds like a solid idea," I said. The two of us headed up to the quarters, walking through it to get to the dining room. As we walked past the admittedly comfortable looking bunks, the ship lurched, and I stumbled against the bunks, while Liya stayed on her feet. I could hear the engines whir and a slightly less violent lurch as we started moving forward.

I didn't know what I'd expect from the dining room, it was a silver table with built in chairs, three on each long side and one at each end of the table. There were three large circles and one small circle at each of the eight spots of the table, for which purpose, I had no idea.

Liya sat at the end of the table while I took a seat next to her. As we sat down, a holographic screen lit up, one in front of each of us. I realized it was a menu with five categories: soups, salads, main courses, desserts, and beverages. I sort of expected Atlesian food to be entire fourteen course meals to fit the stupidly rich stereotype, but I was glad there was something simpler.

The soups were simple enough, with there being many different kinds I recognized. There was cream of mushroom, clam chowder, beef stew, chicken noodle soup, chicken tortilla soup, three different kinds of chili, minestrone, lobster bisque, and cream of tomato. Liya said she'd go with beef stew while I picked clam chowder.

After our choices, salads were next. I was not much of a salad guy, so I ended up going with lettuce, chicken, cherry tomatoes, and diced onions with a thousand island dressing. Next was the main course, which was a bit more complex. The entire main course came with three sides and one main item. The sides were difficult choices as they all looked and sounded good: buttered rolls, creamed spinach, fried green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy (there were four kinds of gravy to pick from), lobster breaded macaroni and cheese, lemon parmesan chicken bites, crab cakes, and salmon cakes. The main items were mostly different cuts of steaks with options for how they were cooked.

After I finished selecting my main course selection, I was faced with dessert and beverages. To keep things simple, I chose a caramel and chocolate cake slice covered in hot fudge, with my beverage being warm milk. The wait itself wasn't too unbearable. Liya and I talked about what we were to expect from Atlas, as well as how similar this was to some sort of futuristic restaurant.

The doors to the kitchen opened to reveal two Atlesian Knights wearing suits like butlers. The hands were carrying a large tray with each of our meals in them. They came over and set the plates down on the circles in the table, and I saw the edges of those circular rings light up with purple. Apparently, the table had gravity dust to keep the plate and food from falling due to turbulence. Smart.

My meal looked pretty good, the salad and clam chowder overshadowed by my choice of main course: a ribeye cooked medium rare with crab cakes, creamed spinach, and lobster breaded macaroni and cheese. My beverage sat in the smaller circle near the center of the table. Liya got cream of mushroom for her choice of soup, a much fancier looking salad, and a main course consisting of a sirloin cooked at medium well done, coated in gravy, accompanied by fried green beans, buttered rolls, and lobster breaded macaroni and cheese like myself. Her beverage was Coke. Or Remnant's equivalent of that soda.

I didn't bother calling Liya a heretic for choosing her steak medium well done, the grin she had on her mouth as she ate told me that she knew. All in all, the food was great and we were stuffed.

Which was why dessert felt like so much extra. We ended up having our sweets stored in the refrigerator till later, we were so full. I was just glad they had a refrigerator for completed meals on the ship. As soon as that was done, we ended up going straight to the lounge to see if the Ace-Ops were still there, relaxing or chatting.

We found Marrow napping, and Vine playing against Elm in a game of Atlesian chess, which I learned was normal chess but more fancy. It looked like Elm was losing, since she was more than happy to greet Liya and me upon us entering the room.

"How was lunch? No doubt some of the best food you've ever tasted, huh?" Elm asked with her trademark enthusiasm as she pat - no - pounded us on the back. Liya was actually close to vomiting as seen by her covering her mouth with both hands, and I turned a little green.

"Portions were...very big,"I coughed. "Please don't hit us."

"Ah, uhh, sorry," Elm said sheepishly. "Anyways, feel free to sit down, relax."

"Well, we were hoping to ask to use the simulation rooms. To burn off all this food," Liya requested.

"I wouldn't recommend that," Vine said as he looked up to us, having reset the chessboard either for another game or to be put away. "The food needs to settle before any sort of exercise can be done. It's best that you wait two or three hours until then."

"Plus, Harriet is using the room. Her workout routine is more or less speed training," Elm said as she sat back down. "And Clover is in the office filling out mission reports."

"There's an office?" I asked.

"Anyways, it's quite the trip to Atlas," Vine said as he sat back in his seat, disregarding my words as he sighed. Even when he was relaxing, he looked formal. "We were hoping to pass the time by talking."

"About what?" I asked.

"About your plan," Vine said. "Specifically what you were hoping to achieve dwindling your Dust supply by saving the lives of criminals."

While he said it much more calmly without any accusation, unlike Harriet in the infirmary a few days back, I could tell he didn't exactly approve of my choices down in the tunnels. And I couldn't blame him - what I did was basically fly by the seat of my pants. A gut feeling.

So that's what I told him.

"I understand wanting to save lives, as well as following gut feelings," Vine said as he thought over my answer. "But next time, please think through a thought in your head, rather than acting immediately upon impulse."

"That isn't always a bad thing," Liya said, poking her way into the conversation. "Yang told me that when Torchwick was trashing the road chasing Blake and Sun and Markus, Markus risked his life to save all the cars that the mech threw around."

"We saw as well," Vine said. "Testimonies, dashboard cameras, the few street and highway cameras able to keep up with the incident. He is no doubt impressive. However, it's also like you said - he risked his life. No matter how drastic a situation is, you must always keep cool and maintain awareness of your surroundings and your state of affairs," Vine continued.

"It's always a good thing that you're saving lives. But they shouldn't come at the cost of your own," Elm said. This kind of talk was really surprising to me. Weren't these the people that would follow any order nilly willy without thought?

...

Then again, these people also had complete if not blind faith in the general, who would never risk assets in a plan that he knew would get them killed. I suppose it wasn't black and white with these soldiers as well.

Harriet walked out of the simulation room and into the lounge. She wasn't wearing her incredibly complex uniform of boots, chaps, shorts, shirt, bow, and vest. She was wearing gym shorts and a tight T-shirt. A tight T-shirt soaked in sweat. A sweaty and tight T-shirt that was clinging to her-

I looked away and coughed awkwardly. "H-hello," I said as I blushed. Liya gave me a knowing and amused look. Goddamn her.

"Hey, kid," Harriet said as she flopped down on an empty chair and pressed a button. The way she began to vibrate made me realize there was a back massage option for the seats. "So, what've you been talking about?"

"His mistakes in the tunnels, as well as his feelings on the matter," Vine explained. "While he is very short-sighted, it's easy to tell that his heart is in the right place."

"And he's also an incredible fighter!" Elm said with a gleam in her eye, which confused me quite a bit. Why would she say that? It had nothing to do with the conversation-

"He could probably beat you in terms of strength!" Elm added. My dumb brain slowly began to slap pieces together like a baby learning shapes.

"Really?" Harriet asked, an even more sinister gleam in her eyes. "Well, how about me and the kid go a few rounds in the room? We'll see if he's incredible or not."

Ohh...that's why. Safe to say, Harriet's competitiveness doomed me more than Harriet herself.