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XxX-XxX-XxX

As he got closer to where Emerald had said the radar station was, Mercury slipped into an alleyway and used a combination of the run-down fire-escapes, windowsills, the winding heating conduits that ran up the sides of buildings to get up onto the roof. As he reached the roof he slowed and turned his head to listen for footsteps - whether he expected guards or not, it was always good to keep an ear out.

And there it was… Quiet foot-steps crunching through shallow snow.

Smiling, he reached into his belt and fished out a little metal ball. He bounced it in his palm to get the weight just right and flicked it up and away, across the roof, where it pinged across the concrete.

"W-What was that?" He heard the young woman on the roof murmur as she shuffled towards the sound and away from him.

Smiling thinly, he pulled himself onto the brick that ringed the roof and slid onto the snow littered ground without a sound. A lot of the roof was covered in the annoying, noisome stuff, but his ball had landed on the far edge of the roof, beside the door that let inside. The woman was kneeling beside it, digging through the snow for whatever had made the noise for whatever reason, but between them there was a meandering, clear enough path.

Smirking, he snuck towards her, eyes locked on her back but ears open for movement around him.

She was a young woman, with copper hair tucked into a bun under her tuque and a tight, slim body hidden underneath a padded coat. One arm was a cheap prosthetic, all lumpy and dull grey that would just barely make up for the lost limb. A cigarette burned in its metal fingers, which explained why she was on the roof - a smoke before hiding out to weather the storm or evacuating because she was obviously not military, her clothes and prosthetic told that story for certain.

"Bad luck." He whispered as he stood over her, grinning toothily. She stiffened and shot up, tried to turn, but he pounced before she could. One hand closed over her mouth and nose while the other wrapped around her arm and sternum, and leaving her one-armed and shocked.

"Shh, shh." He whispered in her ear when she screamed reflexively into his palm. She stilled, free hand closed around his wrist and wide, frightened green eyes staring into his, and he smiled, "This will only take a minute, babe."

She screamed again, but he just smiled and squeezed his hand tightly around her mouth and nose and dragged her back, away from the roof while she bucked and kicked. A few feet away he slammed a cybernetically backed foot into the back of her knee hard enough to break it and followed her to the ground, knee pressing into the small of her back to keep her down while he suffocated her.

After a moment, she went still but he held on until she started bucking and thrashing weakly again.

"Faking it!" He laughed, "Clever."

The second time she stilled he believed it and slipped off of her. Kneeling beside her he rolled her over to check her eyes and smiled when they were still and dull. Reaching into a pocket, he fished out his Scroll and a proximity charge. The latter he slid into her jacket for whoever found her. The former he used to snap a picture before he turned to look for the radar dish.

"Damn shame." He whistled, looking at the picture before clicking his Scroll closed. "Let's hope Atlas didn't send any lookers. I'd hate to make it a tragedy!"

It didn't take long to find the radar station, it was little more than a big dish on a roof half a block down with a pre-fabricated communications console beside it. Two drones worked at it, standing over a soldier in armor sitting at the console and working away like a good little bee. So he'd probably only get one more real kill for the next few hours…

But hey.

Beggars couldn't be choosers, right?

XxX-XxX-XxX

True to the Spartan's words, the tundra surrounding the mountain was sparsely populated at best. A handful of weaker Grimm harried them on their approach, but they were little more than dregs. Easily dispersed by bursts of heavy weapons fire from the titanic soldier, or cut down by quick, clean swings of his two blades. Other than that, than the intermittent sounds of their violence, the world was silent.

Almost peaceful.

Almost relaxing, in its white, frigid way…

It was not to last, though, and soon they were past the frost-laden construction surrounding the mountain and at the mouth of the old, silent mine. He stepped into its opened and turned his head - the sound of skittering and groaning steel met his ears and he frowned.

"Grimm." Thel observed quietly, "And an old mine left without care. Treacherous."

"It's only been out of use for a few months." The Spartan grumbled as he stepped forward, into the gloom of the wide entrance to the mine itself.

"Hm…" Thel turned and looked up, eyeing worn supports that looked far more uncared for than the Spartan's words suggested. Something in the mountain shifted and the steel groaned against, sprinkling loose rock across the tunnel as far as his eyes could see. "If you say so, Demon. If you say so."

"You can always wait out here." Jorge grunted, turning to cock his head at the Arbiter, "If you don't like being underground, I mean."

"I do not, no." He never had, either - and his experience being dragged through the dark underground by the parasite before he met the Demon hadn't aided with that, either. However, "Fear is a weakness to be conquered, not a shield to hide behind. Even if I am certain we will be buried here."

"She'll be right." The Spartan assured him as Thel paced by him and he thudded along at his heels. "As long as we're careful. Dust is volatile, you understand."

"I understand." He raised his fist and the Bane flickered to life with a roar of plasma and a hiss of burning air. He cocked his head and grinned, "I'm not the one with a weapon purpose made to spray fire across an area vaguely the size of a battleship, however."

"Was that a joke?"

"An attempt." He shrugged, "Yang sets an example, and I am trying to follow."

"Keep working on it." The Spartan grumbled as they descended, "Because that was-"

A sudden, loud crunching and cracking echoed around them and drew their quiet chatter to an end as suddenly as a flame being blown out. The sound repeated, muddied by a subtle scraping sound as the Arbiter turned, watching the walls warily. Thel flicked his new wrist and a second blade extended to life, each held up to either side of his body as much like shields as they were blades.

Overhead, one of the lights flickered as stone fell, clattering across the ground. A Dust crystal, red and barely the size of Ruby's little finger, hit the ground in a shower of smoke and sparks. A black one like it clattered further up the hall and shattered in a spray of razor sharp stone that sparked across the Arbiter's shields and shattered one of the light-bulbs that ran through the passage. Then, finally, the mountain groaned around them and the Arbiter sighed tiredly.

"I do so despise being underground…"

Thel heard the stone above him split and stepped aside as the stone fell around him. The Grimm came down, wormlike and chitter as he turned and brought the Bane up. The stupid creature's jaws closed around the blade as he brought it up, and the hissing plasma split its skull in two. As it fell, trailing smoke, the Arbiter turned and thrust down with his other blade, carving through loose stone and dirt as it wormed its way past him. Smoke hissed from the cracks in the rock and soil as it collapsed, leaving a trench in the ground while the Spartan wrestled with a third.

And then ripped it in two, pitching the twitching, dying pieces aside as he turned and growled, "I'm starting to feel the same way."

The Arbiter only huffed a little laugh and followed him, descending through the mountain as they continued their hunt.

XxX-XxX-XxX

General Ironwood watched the great whale through the shimmer of Atlas' raised shields. It was truly monstrous, larger than even his best ships and surrounded by a seemingly endless horde of Grimm. Some of them couldn't even fly naturally, for the Gods' sake. Beringels were a nightmare at the best of times, able to overpower many Huntsmen and rip through Paladins if they got their hands on them. And now they could fly…

This wasn't a war, it was a desperate fight against a nightmare.

"Roland."

"Yes, General?" The AI answered almost instantly, networking in from the Black Sun and projecting his avatar from the holo-display behind him so that the AI stood over the Kingdom like some sort of smiling titan.

"The Slipspace drive-"

"Fitted onto a transport rig a while ago." Roland answered sharply, "And… In one of your hangars. I informed you of all of this an hour ago, General."

"Do you need it to go through the anomaly?"

"Unknown." Roland answered, his voice carrying an edge of… Confusion, mixed with realization. "You don't want me to stay on standby in orbit. Do you, General?"

"Have you located the anomaly?"

"I have." The AI answered quietly, "A while ago, in fact. But safe transit isn't possible at the moment. We could go through, lose power, and simply crash into an asteroid in the interim. The Master Chief ordered me to find a safer way through before he would report it."

"But you just told me."

"I cleared it." Roland answered, going on almost like he was bragging, but in a way that he was sure teh AI would be able to defend as 'mere;y explaining'. "I'm an AI, General. I'm currently communicating with Sierra-117 on the ground to coordinate potential plasma bombardments or evacuation runs, speaking to you, and navigating my ship."

"I see…"

"Why are you asking, General?"

"Curiosity." He answered simply, evasively, as he sighed. "If this fails, that's our long shot."

"My ship can't carry all of Atlas, general…"

"I know." Ironwood frowned, "Believe me, I'm acutely aware. Regardless, has the Master Chief authorised you for direct support?"

"Still only as an emergency measure, General, I'm-" The AI cut off with a sudden inhale that had Ironwood turning around to face him, brows knitting in concern. Urgently, the AI hissed, "General, I'm detecting a large energy build-up on the perimeter of Atlas."

"Where?!"

"Shield-unit number-"

A bright flash lit up Ironwood's office and cut the AI off. General Ironwood spun on a heel and watched, wide-eyed, as the great shield - the pinnacle of Atlas' defences, and it's last layer - sputtered and sparked in a shockwave of roiling colors that exploded across the sky like ink on water. Shield-unit number five, the source of the rolling, colorful explosions, shuddered and sparked as fire broke along its edges. The installation sagged into the ground, listed in, and then…

Sloughed free, sliding away with a chunk of ground around it as more explosions ripped the ground open around it.

"General!" Roland shouted, "Your shield is about to fall! You need to issue orders to your men!"

Ironwood heard him, but didn't respond. Couldn't respond. He just watched the shield, the last safeguard for his Kingdom, sputter and die in a shower of overloading generators. Units four and one overloaded as they tried to recontain the energy and failed spectacularly. With them gone, the shield shattered and failed completely and totally, sending waves of rolling brownouts through the city around him.

"Damn it, General!" Ironwood staggered back and fell into his seat as the titanic Grimm turned for Atlas and moved forward. He felt the tremors from here in his bones when it landed at the edge of the agricultural zone. "General Ironwood!"

He turned in his chair, frowned, and ordered, simply, "All forces, withdraw to Atlas and prepare for emergency defensive procedures. Fleet, into emergency defensive formation. Wall reserve, to the agricultural district - buy time for primary forces to deploy."

"General…" Roland said as Ironwood ended the call, "Mantle is barely thirty percent evacuated. If you pull out now-"

"We held as long as we could." Ironwood murmured quietly, "That was the deal. I expect your Spartans back on Atlas to defend it."

"That wasn't-" Roland cut himself off, "I can't command them. I-I'll pass the message along, but that's all I can do."

"Not true." Ironwood assured him as he stood and paced over to the window to watch the defenders on the wall moving out to engage the Grimm swarming around the leviathan and landing to charge for Atlas itself.

They were being massacred, but the Ardent Resolve descended from the sky to bombard the grounds with its point-defence cannons and expel every last combat ship and drone-transport it had. A gargantuan creature emerged suddenly from the smoke behind the great whale, like a great, glass-bodied jellyfish. It slammed into the Ardent Resolve and nearly bore it down into the city itself, before the ship's thrusters pushed to full power and pulled the ship away where it vanished over the edge.

"General…"

"You can leave, Roland." He sighed, clasping his hands behind his back, "That would be helpful."

"But Operation : Uppercut-"

"Is canceled." He cut the AI off simply and sighed, "The whale- Salem, rather, is on Atlas. The explosion would destroy my Kingdom - it cannot be allowed.

He heard the line die and frowned as he watched the battle unfold. Atlas…

No.

Atlas wouldn't fall, not now or ever. Not so long as he had breath in his body and blood in his veins. No matter what he had to do.

XxX-XxX-XxX

The Beringel fell back as the anti-material round simply erased its head and he leapt onto it, riding it down and raising his assault rifle to put long bursts of fire into its trailing, snarling kin. They fell to either side and he sank to a knee, putting more long bursts into the coming Grimm as his partner fell into formation beside him. A Creep leapt over a Sabyr as it fell and John stood, fist carving up and shattering its head as it bore down on him.

Kelly followed, slamming a burst of shot into a Sabyr as it swung around to try and pass them. It jerked to the side and rolled as it died.

"Time to fall back." Kelly murmured, "We're a block up."

John nodded and stood, backing away carefully as they'd done a dozen times over the last two and a half hours of fighting. As they did, he pinged Roland, "Roland, we need an ammo drop on coordinates-"

"Atlas is under assault, Master Chief." The AI cut him off and the Spartan flinched and sank to a knee, Kelly at his side as they both fought off another wave of Grimm and listened intently. "Several shield dispersion units fell and the leviathan landed on Atlas - General Ironwood is withdrawing his forces."

"What?" Qrow hissed over the connection - apparently the AI had tied him in. "Damn it- How much of Mantle has been evacuated?"

"Significantly less than half."

"Fucking… Fuck!" The Hunter hissed over the line as Atlesian gunships descended behind the barricade. "Pull back, would ya? I'll let Robyn know- She's gonna be pissed."

The line went silent and the Spartans stood, pacing backwards and intermittently gunning down Grimm as they came. They made it halfway before Kelly spoke up, "John…"

"I know." He grunted, slamming his last magazine home and massacring a quartet of Sabyrs as they rushed him, desperate to take advantage of the opening. "What do you want to do?"

"Fred?"

"Yeah?"

"You can connect to Menagerie, right?" Kelly asked, "Through the Black Sun?"

"Yeah, Roland integrated a Scroll for them as part of our agreement-" The Spartan cut himself off with a sharp, exhausted sounding, "Why? What are you going to do, John?"

"Roland, ping a message to Menagerie to expect refugees." He ordered as he stepped up onto the barricade and turned to the livid Robyn Hill and said, out loud, "I'm bringing the Black Sun into the crater. We're taking as many people as we can carry to Menagerie. Robyn, will you coordinate the evacuation?"

"F-Fuck- What?" Robyn blinked confusedly, flickering from rage to confusion to relief and then stammering, "I- You're going to- Evacuate? What about Atlas."

"We're going to defend it." He answered, stepping around her as Qrow and Fiona came up, each as stormy-faced as the other. "Branwen, stay with Hill. Help her evacuate. Fiona, your Semblance stores things."

"Yeeeees?"

"How large?"

"Small… Cars?" She blinked, flicking a confused look between the Spartan and the woman beside him. "I'm confused, I came over here to stop Robyn from trying to kill you but she's- Grinning? Why are you grinning?"

"Fight's not over babe." Robyn smiled, turning as the soldiers began to peel away from the barricades and withdraw, loading onto transports while other soldiers kept confused civilians at bay. She raised her voice to add, "Even if Atlas is too cowardly to fight, I'm not leaving until every citizen of Mantle is safe!"

The fighters roared as they leaned into their positions and Robyn turned back to the fight. "We don't have enough airpower to hold the perimeter. Branwen, can you coordinate with Joana? Organize the retreat?"

"Uh, sure, yeah."

"I'll help-"

"We need you on Atlas." John cut her off, laying a hand on Fiona's shoulder when she turned to follow Robyn. Both paused and turned to him, obviously waiting for an explanation. So he sighed and explained, "I need you to help me remove an ancient threat to Humanity with a Slipspace bomb."

"I- Okay, I guess?"

"Good." The Spartan turned as the Pelican came around and its hatch lowered and tok two steps before a hand landed on his shoulder. He turned to Qrow and cocked his head, "Branwen?"

"What about the people here?" He asked, waving a hand at the confused crowd as the first Atlesian ship lifted up and turned away. "And what about everyone else? You don't have enough space. Even if you do this, Atlas will fall- Everyone will die!"

He stared the Huntsman down for a long time and then finally said, "I'm sorry. I can't help everyone."

Without another word, he turned and watched the Pelican come in to land. He strode up it and turned, cocking his head, "Fiona?"

"I can't just… Leave." She squawked, "Robyn is my- My team is my- Mantle is everything! I can't just leave them all!"

"No," Qrow growled, turning and stalking away, "You can't."

John watched him stalk up to one of the transports and grab the officer that raised a hand to stop him by the helmet. They wrestled for a moment until he managed to drag the man's helmet off and then he shoved the soldier into a couple of his fellows and stalked back to shove it into the Spartan's chest.

"Connect that to my Scroll and have your AI hack Atlas' CCT." He growled, "Get me a line to Winter Schnee Jimmy can't control or listen to."

"Specialist Schnee?"

"I'm going to try and convince her to help us. She owes me for Iarnam, so she'll at least listen to what I have to say." Qrow explained roughly, waving him off when he turned and snapping, "Just do it, alright? And be quick. We got people to save and a witch to… I don't know what that bomb will actually do, but- You get the point."

"Roland?"

"On it." The AI responded, echoing loudly out of his helmet's speakers, "Move, Master Chief. I just doctored a command from Ironwood to move the Slipspace Drive. Coordinates are on their way, but we need to hurry. Before the General realizes our plans."

"But-"

"Fiona, you're the only one that can do this part." Qrow said, turning to her and taking her by both shoulders. "I'll hold the line here, see if I can… Get some help. But while I do that, I need you to save the world for me, alright?"

"T-The world?"

"Yeah." He grinned and winked, "It's got all the best bars, and the cutest Faunus, so I'm kinda attached. You know?"

The woman blinked, nodded, and turned to stalk stiffly up the ramp while the Spartan watched. Then, with a shrug, he followed her. As the Pelican lifted up and turned away, he watched the fighters on the barricade continue their stand. Now, with half the fighters, no Spartans, and no air support.

He grit his teeth and gave Branwen one last, long look, burning his face into his memory.

He deserved that much.

XxX-XxX-XxX

Winter pressed a hand to her comm-piece the moment it chimed, "General, I'm on my way to the Maiden. What are-"

"Winter."

"Qrow?" She staggered to a stop and turned, staring at the floor confusedly, "This is a private line. How did you-"

"Listen, I know, I'm breaking a thousand and one rules talking to you right now. I promise, I will sit down and let you lecture me as long as you want. Only, later." Qrow rasped quietly, "For now, please, I need your help."

"Qrow Branwen, asking me for help…" She murmured, confusion rolling through her like a storm over the sea. "With what?"

"Saving everyone in this Kingdom." He answered gravely, "I need you to get Jacques' fleet mobilised, and cram every man, woman and child you can onto it. Atlas, Mantle, everyone you can. Head off towards Vacuo and around towards Menagerie, they should be expecting you. The Black Sun will help. We're taking as many as we can."

"But why?" She asked, flicking her Scroll open and bringing the call onto a regular display. Qrow's icon filled her screen, and she could hear the battle raging near him echo through the connection and out, into the hallway around her, "Surely, evacuating them to Atlas is more than enough to buy time until we push Salem back."

"We're not pushing her back." He said, "We're using the Slipspace Drive."

"But that will-"

"Atlas is going to fall, Winter." Qrow said, "It's already fallen, as good as. But if you'll help me, we can save the world."

"But-"

"Please!" He snapped loudly, making her flinch, "All my life, I've been searching for… A purpose. A-A thing to put my life down for. I thought Ozpin gave it to me, but he-he didn't. I had to find it. And I did. My- Ruby, she showed me the way. Right beside your sister, and her team."

"I'm going to die down here, Winter." He rasped warmly, voice radiating with pride, "I'm going to give my life for your people. Your Kingdom. The whole thing, not just Atlas. So, please, do me a favor…"

"Save the people living in it. As many as you can." He laughed, "And save those kids, too. they're - Fuck, I gotta go, Goliath."

The line died and Winter gasped, mouth opening to say… Something, though she didn't know what before it closed. Finally, she turned and punched her code into the door that let into the secure hallway and murmured, "Fine, Qrow. Have it your way, damn it a- Hrk."

She blinked and looked down at the thin, narrow blade protruding from her sternum. After a second it withdrew and she stumbled to the side, into the doorframe, before collapsing beside it. The nurse behind her shimmered as her and the doctor behind her's clothes vanished, revealing two women who smiled devilishly down at her.

"Apologies," the raven-haired woman smirked, "but that won't be happening. It was touching, though."

Winter gasped as the woman stalked by but grabbed the other's leg as she made to follow. Neapolitan snarled and knelt to pry her hand off her boot, and Winter grabbed it in her hands, pressing her Scroll into it.

"K-Know you." She rasped, feeling the blood filling her lungs like a damn had been shattered in her chest, "File forty-t-two. P-Pass-code, SCH-02. S-Saved it for a special-"

Winter snapped to the side and into the wall and looked down at the arrow sticking out of her chest. Then she looked up as Cinder drew her bow back and shook her head, "Oh, do die already, won't you?"

A flash of black was all she had left.

XxX-XxX-XxX

"Come." Cinder growled, turning as the body slumped and the door closed on the hallway. "We've work to do. Then, I can finally have my revenge, and even Salem will have to acknowledge my power."

Neo watched her for a moment before she followed, but her curiosity had always been her weakness. Growling, she flicked open Winter's Scroll as she went. Connecting her ear-piece to it, she navigated to the file the woman had mentioned and opened it. It was footage from a helmet camera, fish-eyed and a bit rough at the edges. But she could recognize the familiar mop of orange.

She could never have missed that...

"You're a mad-man and an anarchist!" Winter's sharp voice screamed out as the file played - one of Roman's many escapes from Atlas over the years. "But no matter what you do, you will never destroy Atlas, or bring any of the Kingdoms down, Torchwick!"

"Destroy it?" She heard her precious person's familiar voice say before he laughed that familiar laugh of his. "I just wanna get by, Schnee. I don't wanna destroy anything about this world."

"What you do begs to differ!" Schnee screamed back, "You crippled a battleship! You put every man, woman- Every child in Atlas in danger! Is that not what you want? To destroy my Kingdom?"

"Let me get this straight for you, and do pay attention, Schnee." Roman snapped, that hard, dangerous edge to his voice that told Neo he meant his words. "My little girl is down there. I would never put her in danger. We have to get by, sure, but one day she'll have a better life than this. And when she looks up, I want her to see that big damn wall, see those big damn ships, and know shes's safe."

"So," he laughed, "you just learn what I have to teach. That way no puckish rogue types can cause chaos for my little girl's family!"

The video ended there, and for a moment, all she could do was stare at the man, frozen as he leapt off the roof. She remembered that night - she'd been young, and sick, and he'd come back with a broken ankle he waved off. Years later, he explained that he'd jumped off a battleship as it came down and landed on a roof a hundred feet down. Aura or not, that wasn't a fall you just shrugged off.

"Neo." Her head jerked up and she met Cinder's unamused expression as she bobbed her head at the door at the end of the hall, "Come along. We've work to do."

Cinder was right, they did have work to do.

She flicked open Winter's messenger and sent a message to her sister as she walked, 'Find a way up here. Hurt bad. Need help. Hospital. Secure zone. Maiden.'

Then she pitched the Scroll over her shoulder and slipped by the woman into the medical room. Cinder followed her in and smiled as the old, frail woman sat up, "H-Hello, dears. Is one of you here for… Well, you know what, I suppose."

"I do." Cinder purred as she approached the woman, completely ignoring Neo - as always. The old woman smiled, right up until the sword buried itself in her stomach and Cinder's clawed hands wrapped around her throat. "You have something that's mine. I hope you don't mind my taking it back?"

As the old woman flopped, dead, back onto the bed Cinder backed away and sighed, "I thought not. Neo- Hrk!"

For the second time, Neo yanked her bloodied sword free of a woman's back and watched her stagger away. Neo followed, thrusting again into her other lung and then a third time into her heart, to guarantee the kill, before she leapt back to dodge the stumbling woman's fire-wreathed claw. Cinder staggered around, glaring hate, but Neo only smiled.

It was only a matter of time, now…

Neo just had to survive.

XxX-XxX-XxX

Okay, so, to reiterate -

One must consciously raise their Aura to protect themselves. For the trained, in a fight, its ingrained to do this when you see an attack coming your way. But stabbing women in the back isn't 'in a fight' and so no one would be ready.

Also, I know they'd have had to be shouting over the fight in the Spartan's scene. I wanted the scene and couldn't find a way to have the entire group walk thirty feet away to talk. Sue me, lol.

Also, yeah, Cinder's death is kinda lacing here. But this ain't her story! She gets cool deaths all the time, and stabbing her in the back while she's high on getting the Maiden powers? That's such a Neo move.

Also, also, remember when I said Irondaddy here is the same as canon, but events would play out differently? Please remember that going forward. Ironwood may be a massive fascist in this, too, but events will still play out differently. So let's all save each other the headache of whinging about him here? Kay, thanks.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed~!

Oh, and P.S.

As always, this was planned way ahead of time. Just stating, in case people wanna accuse me of changing things to 'spite someone'. Got a DM about that last week, YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE. .

I change details, sometimes, as people offer ideas. But the beginnings and endings of stories are largely planned, and sometimes outright written, before I post chapter one.

XxX-XxX-XxX

Nantono :

That prequel idea ain't terrible… Will have to have a think on it.

COBRS DARKNISS and Blaisingfire :

Uh, yeah, about Mercury- *sips tea quietly*

Smokey Panda :

Remember V3 when he was grinning and filming the carnage as Beacon was overrun, students were killed, and everyone generally suffered? Yeeeeeah. .

Kpmh 2001 :

Romantic gestures happen on battlefields - ESPECIALLY in fiction. It's normal, and not really a thing to criticize unless, like, they're breaking out stages in firefights so they can read each other poetry or something equally ridiculous, lol.

Joe Cola :

Merc sabotaged the transport. Also, yeah, playing with Fiona and Qrow of all people is weird. Lol.

But, uh, about A, the plan, and B, Cinder and her diet of lead…. .

Space Commander 09 :

OUCH, my dude. Hope it feels better!

Cliffy Silver :

Such would, ultimately, not have been a problem at the range the whale was at. And besides, the damage would have been minimal compared to a Grimm apocalypse heralded by an immortal demi-goddess.

However, as shown above, I've had that all planned out for five chapters or so, in depth. XD