A/N: Sorry this took so long. This was originally supposed to be a little longer, but I sacrificed some length so I could at least get something out.

When James Ironwood first heard the motion alarms go off on his airship, he naturally assumed that it was a few rogue Grimm wandering the forest. It wasn't uncommon in this sector, but it still wasn't a threat to take lightly.

He pulled out his gun, nodding to Winter to take out her rapier as well. Penny stayed to the side, obedient as always. Despite her claims to be 'combat ready', Ironwood never took any chances, especially with the most expensive piece of equipment in the entire Atlas armada.

His ten-man escort, rarely needed for a man with Ironwood's skills, all grabbed their weapons from the rack and got into their positions without a single word exchanged between them. Three rows of three were in front of Ironwood almost immediately, with the soldier of the highest rank stood beside him. Winter was on his other side, while Penny had retreated to the back.

When the soldiers had all stopped moving, signaling they were ready, Ironwood gestured to Penny to open the door. She did so, and the large cargo door slowly descended until it met the snowy forest ground.

For a few moments, it was completely silent, with the Atlas soldiers only able to hear and see the forest, until everything went off.

Three gunshots could be heard from a distance, far enough away that Ironwood almost thought they were unrelated to them. Until the three soldiers at the front of the formation started to freeze solid, at least.

His three point men all grabbed at their chests in pain as ice started to spread from sudden bullet holes, eventually covering their entire chests and backs before it spread to their arms, with the soldiers screaming the whole time. One turned around to show the look of pure terror on his face as they all finally froze completely.

The entire ordeal lasted only a few seconds. The rest of the soldiers didn't even have time to properly react before there were two men rapidly approaching their airship. Even if he had never seen them in person, it was easy to recognize the two most famous thieves in Remnant.

Roman Torchwick and the man that could only be the Arkham Knight.

Even if there was not a lot of time, Ironwood was still able to realize what the shots had been for. After all, if this Arkham Knight could kill all of his men with one shot each, why hadn't he done it already?

The only answer was fear. He wanted to scare them, not kill them.

It wasn't going to work. Ironwood had been General far too long to let an average thief frighten him.

Torchwick came in front, firing two shots from his cane. In the tight space, only one soldier was able to dive out of the way of the blast, and the other two were blasted into opposite walls. The last soldier got up and was ready to fire, but a shot to the kneecap blasted his aura and brought him to the ground.

The Knight and Torchwick ran up the ramp to the three remaining soldiers, who didn't hesitate to begin firing. Unfortunately, with the scare tactic of the frozen soldiers, they were terrified, and that, plus the arrogance that their bullets would be enough to stop the thieves, was enough to leave them completely unprepared when they made contact.

Torchwick ducked to avoid the bullets before smashing his cane into the soldier on his right, briefly bringing him down. The soldier was stronger than expected, though, and soon he and Ironwood's personal guard teamed up to take him down.

The Knight, meanwhile, ran through the remaining two soldiers. Literally.

With a combination of pure strength and demonic energy, the Knight reached the soldiers and shoved his arms straight through their chests. The soldiers both gave one final shuddering breath before they went limp and the Knight dropped them to the floor.

When the Knight looked up, Ironwood couldn't stop the small shudder of fear that ran through him, but Ozpin had already warned him that this would happen. The demonic energy flowing through the demon in front of him had many passive effects, and fear was one of them, so with the warning, Ironwood was able to calm himself. He didn't have enough time to check on Winter, but he hoped she could do the same.

"James Ironwood." The voice was clearly electronically modified, so the voice was completely unrecognizable. "For too long, you and your army have been on your high horse of arrogance and intolerance. It's time for you to learn your proper place."

Ironwood chuckled. He simply couldn't believe that a thief from Vale believed that he could take on the General of the Atlas military. However, despite the clear arrogance, he was still wary: anyone worthy enough in Salem's eyes to receive demonic energy was a threat regardless of their status.

Ironwood kept his stance with both hands behind his back to act relaxed while stealthily grabbing his hand cannon. He gave a chuckle to keep up the image. "Go ahead, thief. This is apparently personal, after all."

The Knight gave a chuckle of his own before very noticeably grabbing his own guns. "We both know your minion here would never stay out of it."

Ironwood dropped the facade and pulled his gun out at the mention of Winter, who was now fuming as she aimed her rapier. "It's been a long time since I've encountered someone with your level of arrogance."

The Knight chuckled again, a sound that was quickly becoming infuriating, before pulling out his guns and taking aim. "It's not arrogance. It's skill."

The General and the thief ran at each other as the fight began.

Yang hung up the scroll and handed it back to Nora. She didn't even have enough energy to take it, so Ren had to take it for her.

She could understand why. It wasn't every day you were told that you either had to die or have a madman go on a rampage in your name. She couldn't imagine the way it felt.

However, she knew the decision that had to be made. "You can't go to the docks."

PRN looked up at her, surprised by the strength behind her voice. Pyrrha and Nora were still crying, so Ren became their spokesman. "Why not? If there's even a small chance that this could end, we have to take it."

This time, Ruby came to her sister's aid. "Do you really think he'll stop just because you're dead? After CRDL, after the docks, do you really think you're all he's after?"

Ren sighed. "It doesn't matter. It's a chance we have to take."

Sun and Neptune looked at each other, unnoticed by anyone. It was a look of resignation, but it had to be done.

"I agree with him."

Everyone stared at Sun, some incredulously (RWBY), some understanding. Blake recovered quickly, though, as she realized what he was implying. "Are you saying they should die?"

He sighed, wishing he could say 'no'. "I don't want it to go like that, but yes. If that's what it takes to get rid of the Arkham Knight, they should do it."

If RWBY hadn't been blinded by stress and anger, they might have noticed how low his voice was with resignation and sadness. They might have noticed that he was disgusted with every word. PRN noticed, as they felt the same way Sun did, but RWBY did not.

"How can you possibly say that, Sun?" Blake wasn't even trying to disguise her anger. "Are you hearing yourself right now?!"

Sun couldn't even give a sad chuckle in response. "I'm disgusted with every word, but have you seen this guy? If what you're saying about the docks is true, he took out you and Yang without breaking a sweat. He can't be hurt, he can copy semblances, and his attacks go through our auras. Do you honestly think we stand a chance against him? Even Ozpin is nervous!"

"That doesn't mean that we should be willing to let our friends die! What gives you the right to decide who lives and who dies?!"

"I'm not their leader!"

That gave Blake pause. Taking a second to calm her head, she began to think over his words. Weiss, on the other hand, didn't take that pause and instead took Blake's place. "You're truly despicable if you're willing to sacrifice your friends without remorse like this."

"Do you really think I have no remorse?!" Now, Sun was angry. He'd tried to keep his emotions in check, but implying that he didn't care if his friends died was the last straw. "I'm not saying this because I want anyone to die. I'm saying this because I have a team to look out for. They have to come first no matter what."

He knew he was no longer welcome in the room, so he looked at Ren to make his final point. "I'm sorry. I'm sure you don't believe me, but I am. But I have a team. It's my job to make sure they're safe. If you dying is what that'll take, then I'm sorry, but I have no choice but to agree."

With his final piece said, he opened the door and walked out. Neptune stayed for only a second longer before looking at Weiss and walking out as well. Weiss, stunned by all that had happened, didn't call out or follow.

If they had stayed for only a second longer, they would have seen Ren bow his head. In resignation or respect, even he didn't know.

PRN couldn't stand to be in there any longer as well. Not even bothering to mumble an excuse, they left, going across the hall to their own room and locking the door behind them. Ruby made to follow, but Yang held her back and shook her head. There was nothing they could do at the moment.

The silence in their room was palpable. So much had happened in only a few short minutes; it was a lot to take in all at once. Finally, though, Yang spoke up again, repeating what she'd said earlier.

"We can't let them go to the docks."

Roman had Huntsman level training: the fact that those two average soldiers had thought they could hold him back at all was laughable.

It was only too easy to duck one of them, trip him with his cane, and hit the other one in the side in the same motion. When that soldier flinched momentarily, he grabbed his gun and bashed the soldier's head with it. He went down immediately. With a single swish of the cane's head, the soldier on the ground was also knocked out.

If this was Atlas's finest, Ironwood really needed to step up his training procedures.

The Arkham Knight did not disappoint with his planning. Looking up from the two soldiers, he could see he'd stalled just long enough for him to join the fight while Ironwood was distracted. He knew that sneaking a hit on the General was impossible, so he did the next best thing. He got a running start and slid on the floor between them, heading straight for the Schnee.

Ironwood glanced down at the sliding thief, preparing to shoot him, but the Knight took advantage of the brief distraction and roundhouse kicked him in the chest. Ironwood took a step back from the unexpected hit, but recovered quickly and stood his ground.

Roman swung his cane upwards as Winter swung her rapier down, making their weapons clash between them. Using the single second with their weapons together to stand up, Roman glared at Winter before releasing the clash and swinging again.

Ironwood fired three shots in quick succession from his hand cannon, and watched as the Arkham Knight simply took the hits without reacting. If anything, it seemed to give him what looked like a fire.

That was because, as the General realized almost immediately, there was a literal black fire surrounding his body. It didn't take long to realize what was happening.

Xiao Long. He really can copy semblances.

Now knowing that the hand cannon would only hinder his chances, he holstered it and prepared himself for hand to hand combat. Channeling his aura, he rushed the Knight.

Roman and Winter were moving at speeds that too fast for the average person to see, his cane clashing with her rapier with every movement. Winter couldn't help but feel uneasy; not because of the fight itself, but because of Roman's behavior. He didn't seem to be putting in all his energy, and it allowed her to get hits that she shouldn't have. It didn't make sense.

The Knight and Ironwood, likewise, were moving far too fast for any civilian to comprehend as their fists and legs flew as fast as possible. Unfortunately, both were on equal footing: for every punch or kick, the other would dodge and retaliate immediately.

Luckily for the thieves, the fight didn't have to last long.

With a cry of pain from the cockpit of the airship, one that both Winter and Ironwood recognized and dreaded hearing, both Atlas officials were distracted for just long enough for the thieves to get the upper hand.

Ironwood may have only been distracted for a single second, but in that single second, the Knight tripped him to the floor. Just before he hit the ground though, he grabbed the General's prosthetic arm, planted his foot against his back, and kicked hard enough to rip the arm out of the socket for the second time.

Ironwood screamed as he flew towards the cockpit, slamming into the wall - right next to Penny, who'd been stabbed through and through by a previously unseen Neo.

In a single second, the Knight caught up to Ironwood and kicked him again, a loud crack emanating from his back as he felt his ribs break. Even with his aura trying to heal them, the Knight was relentless, kicking him on the floor until he felt his aura finally break.

With his aura broken, he took stock of his injuries. Mentally counting multiple broken ribs, a broken arm, a broken nose, and a possible concussion, he didn't get to do anything else before the Knight flipped him over and leaned close to him.

Merely standing over him for a few seconds, the Knight suddenly stood up and fired a single shot out of the airship before crouching back down and saying "First you, then Vale."

Ironwood only had a single second to comprehend that before he was finally knocked out.

Roman, meanwhile, took advantage of the brief distraction by tripping Winter with his cane, but the Schnee was quick, planting a glyph under Roman as she fell. He was sent flying out of the airship before he could even move a muscle.

Barely recovering on the snowy ground outside, Roman stood up and held his cane up as Winter shot out faster than a bullet, trying to stab him with her rapier but only managing to clash weapons with him once more.

Not bothering to wait this time, Winter immediately started slashing at the thief, who took all the hits without even trying to block. At this point, she was too determined to win to realize how odd that was: she only thought about how badly to punish this man for his crimes against Atlas.

When Roman finally seemed to collapse from the pain, Winter started to walk forward, only to feel a sharp pain in her stomach that gave her pause. Looking down, she saw a wound that could only be caused by a gunshot. Looking back at the airship, she saw where it came from: the Arkham Knight wasn't as distracted as she thought, and had shot at her.

Before she could begin to heal herself, Roman seemed to immediately recover and smacked the wound with his cane, causing pain like she'd never felt before to flare through her entire body. She fell to the ground, but before she could collapse as her body demanded, Roman caught her, lifted her head, and stared directly into her eyes.

"Do you want to hurt your father's business?"

Her rational mind would have thought about how weird that question was when asked by a man she'd been trying to arrest ten seconds prior, but now...

His eyes seemed so strong...

All she could do was think "of course".

She never realized that she'd said that out loud, as she finally collapsed immediately afterwards.

Sun couldn't help but feel conflicted, sitting on his bed nursing a glass of the whiskey he stole from Ozpin. Despite the fact that he had no issues with his decision, he still wished it could have gone any other way.

"Nep, I gotta ask you something." The bluenette, sitting next to him with his own glass, didn't even have to look up or hear the question to know what to say, slowly and methodically to get his point across.

"Blake's gonna hate you, but I think you made the right decision. There's nothing else to do. Believe me, I'm not happy with how things went with Weiss, but we have ourselves to think about too."

Sun nodded, not feeling any better but at least knowing his friend had his back after everything that had gone wrong not four hours earlier.

"I mean, I don't want it to be this way", he began, seemingly forgetting that Neptune agreed. "The fact is that they have to be willing to take this chance for all of us. It's not just their lives being threatened here."

Neptune finished off his glass before speaking again. "Yeah, well, if the looks on their faces were any suggestion they agreed with us. They didn't want to, but they did."

Sun put his head in his hands as the reality of the situation set in all at once. "Christ, this is so fucked!" Even though there were no tears, his shoulders still shuddered. "We're asking our friends to commit suicide, aren't we? And they agree with us. I'm asking them to do something that I could never do."

Neptune gave another humorless chuckle. "Yeah, well, that's one of the many reasons why they're better than us." Sun lifted his head to clink his glass with Neptune's at that.

Any remark he was going to say was cut off by a knock at the door. Sun was closer to the door, so he got up to grab it. He looked through the peephole, getting an expression of surprise at who was on the other side before throwing the door open.

"Blake?"

With Ironwood, Penny, and Winter out of commission, Roman, Neo, and the Knight met up outside the airship. The Knight gave one glance at the Specialist unconscious in the snow before looking back at Roman. "What did you use as your question?"

Roman gave a smirk that was even more Neo-like than normal. "I asked her if she wanted to hurt her father's company."

The Knight gave one more chuckle. "Clever. She and her sister are alike that way."

With that, the final part of their plan went into action.

Neo ran towards Winter's unconscious body as the Knight ran toward's Penny's. Roman stayed where he was to stand guard. As both of the thieves reached their positions, they both disappeared with the bodies, Neo and Winter breaking apart as Penny and the Knight disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Within the Safe House, the thieves quickly grabbed a chair from their kitchen, with Neo throwing Winter's body on it as the Knight wrapped duct tape around her unconscious body (it wouldn't be enough for when she woke up and got her bearings, but for now it was just a precaution). Neo confirmed that Penny's power source was destroyed before they teleported back to the forest.

Roman was standing in the exact same spot as before, not fazed at how quickly they returned. With no words exchanged between them, they began the run to the base proper. The Atlesian army had no doubt heard about the attack on the General; they were sending all of their available units to stop them.

There was not a doubt in their minds that even if it was difficult, they would prevail over the entirety of Remnant if they had to.

A/N: Yeah, I ended on another cliffhanger, but hopefully this time I shouldn't take too long to get something else out.

We see the beginning of Jaune's plan, as well as two major characters being kidnapped, fractures among the Beacon ranks, and the first glimpse of Roman's semblance (it's only my attempt at it, it's not like I'll ever be proven wrong, right? *single tear*)

I love reviews, especially constructive criticism, so please review, but if you're gonna flame, please go somewhere else. Thanks for reading!