"Hold up a sec- text from Ilia."

Cinnamon took a deep breath in through her nose and cast her eyes skyward as she slowed, their destination in sight at the end of the block.

"Yes, you do seem to be Mr. Popular, don't you?" the woman asked. "What is it now?"

"She… wants to know the address of this place," Sun explained as he met Cinnamon's eyes. "'Tell me where you two are going. I need an address. Don't argue, our asses are on the line.' That's encouraging."

Cinnamon narrowed her eyes, the message inspiring little confidence in her.

"…that sounds like trouble. Ironwood-scented trouble, specifically. She wouldn't ask unless it was absolutely necessary, especially while she's got an assignment of her own. That girl may be a lot of things, but she certainly isn't stupid or a fan of the frivolous. Give it to her."

Sun nodded and did as he was asked, tapping out the address before sending it off to his friend.

"Agreed. She also just told me that she and Emerald made it to Robyn's office, so… small progress. Hey, not for nothing, but if we do end up totally screwed… do you have a place we could hide out? Or know of one where we could lay low?"

Cinnamon blinked in utter disbelief as she looked Sun over. It was only then that just how young he was truly clicked.

"…you're just now considering that possibility?" the woman deadpanned. "It's incredibly likely at least one of us is going to end up arrested or shot before the night is out. Potentially both. And no, I don't have anywhere we could go, short of staying with the Fang. That being said, I have no idea if Watts has managed to secure his own set of loyalists among them, and the members here are largely ignorant of the fact that I'm not standing with Salem. I had to play it safe and keep them in the dark, outside of one or two."

"Right, right," Sun acknowledged as the pair began to make their way down the block once again. "Things really can't get worse, can they?"

"…I am going to throttle you if you tempt fate like that again," Cinnamon threatened. "Speaking of places to stay- where did my boat end up? We may need it, at this point."

Sun gradually slowed as he wracked his brain, trying to remember what exactly had happened to the vessel. It didn't take long for him to realize that in truth, he had absolutely no idea.

"When we got here, things were a little… chaotic," Sun began to explain as he sped up again. "We ended up getting thrown into a huge fight against grimm that were assaulting Mantle from the sea. Eventually, the Ace Ops joined the brawl, and they found out about the Relic shortly thereafter. We were escorted to Dr. Polendina, and then up to Atlas to see Ironwood, and… well…"

"…you haven't even thought about the vessel ever since," Cinnamon finished.

"…yeah. It's gotta still be in the harbor, right?" Sun asked sheepishly. "Or… at worst, some kind of boat impound lot? With any luck, Ironwood's totally forgotten about it, too. We might be able to use that to our advantage."

"Maybe," Cinnamon considered as the pair approached a tall apartment building standing at the edge of a street corner. "Always nice when an inconvenience can be made into something useful. Stay on guard. We have no idea what we're walking into."

"On guard, sure, but we also can't raise suspicion until we have to," Sun reminded. "Civilians live here too, right?"

"Indeed. At this time of night, though, we should be able to remain relatively unseen until a fight breaks out," Cinnamon replied as she pulled open the main door and stepped inside. "In fact, w-"

Over the two years since starting his career as a huntsman, Sun had become intimately familiar with the smell of blood. Even before he saw the state of the downstairs lobby, he knew that something in the building was very, very wrong. The unmistakable scent of death coupled with a tinge of smoke assaulted his nostrils the second Cinnamon opened the door. Three bodies were present at various locations in the lobby, with one of them missing its lower half almost entirely. A long, curved streak of blood was smeared across the white tile floor, and there were several bullet holes in the walls on either side of the staircase leading upward. The only sound in the room was that of a long, flickering light buzzing and crackling as it dangled precariously from a wire.

"Weapons out," Sun declared, his tone shifting to something far more businesslike as he unslung a pair of nunchaku from his belt with one hand and took up his scroll in the other. "Shit. There's no way he's still here…"

"Even if he isn't… we need to sweep the building," Cinnamon insisted as she readied a bolt in her arm-mounted crossbow. "Any residents need to be evacuated, and we need to at least check for security footage. Watts likely wiped it all, but on the off chance he got lazy…"

The unlikely musing was interrupted by the sound of a loud impact somewhere on one of the upper floors, followed closely by a scream that was cut short. A dragging and scraping noise ended the barrage of noise, leaving the pair standing in relative silence once again as they kept their eyes on the ceiling.

"…this place is huge," Sun said. "We may need backup… but this may also be our only chance…"

"So we seize the opportunity," Cinnamon declared. "We don't have a choice."

"You could say we've rarely ever been given one," Sun muttered as he approached the staircase. "I'm filling in Ilia right now. She can get word to Ironwood that this place is under attack of some sort. I'll take point."

"No," Cinnamon denied immediately. "I know the way to our room, as well as the various paths through this place. Stay behind me and cover our flank. If there's anything to be gained from this other than getting civilians out of here, it'll be found in our old room or the security office. This is a game to Watts. That much is clear already."

"And so is the fact that there are grimm in the building," Sun countered. "Your semblance is useless against them."

"So I'll grab you and use yours," Cinnamon retorted. "Enough. Come."

Sun muttered a string of curses as he followed his companion up the stairs. The stench of death grew stronger with every step as he ascended.

"Their security is piss-weak," Emerald said confidently as she placed a prying tool back into one of her belt pockets. The young woman slowly raised a window on the bottom floor of Robyn's tavern and poked her head inside. "Place is dead. Looks like they're too cheap for night guards, and the map you got from your friend shows a gap in the cameras right here. Come on."

Ilia didn't move. The faunus girl's eyes were fixated on her scroll as Emerald vaulted through the small opening and into the main floor of the bar. Though the message on her screen was short, it was just enough to spark a sense of dread.

Place is full of corpses. Send backup if you can. We're going in.

"…Ilia?"

Ilia looked up to see Emerald staring back at her through the window with an annoyed look upon her face.

"Sun's in trouble," Ilia said quickly as she composed another message. "Your apartment building is full of bodies."

"…that's… not good. Ironwood said he was sending backup, didn't he?" Emerald asked. "Do you trust him to do it?"

Ilia sent a simple message out to the Ace Ops before pocketing her scroll and approaching the window.

"I don't know," the girl admitted. "I don't know if I've ever been able to trust him completely… but Sun has faith in him. That's going to have to be enough. I just need to convince myself that those two can handle it and put it out of my mind, I guess. Are any of your friends in danger?"

"…one," Emerald answered in a low voice as she stepped to the side to make room for Ilia to enter. "We didn't part on the best terms, but I still think about him. He was sent to Sanus with Hazel and Tyrian."

"I'm going to pretend to know who those people are," Ilia replied as she landed in a crouched stance. "I mean, I've heard the names, but… yeah. Hopefully he's alright."

"…you're really good at that whole empathy thing," Emerald said with a roll of her eyes. "You sure you can focus enough to do this?"

"Don't have a choice, do we?" Ilia asked as she closed the window behind herself and crept toward the hallway leading to the back of the establishment.

"Never did," Emerald answered as she hung back a bit and watched Ilia's skin coloration shift to blend in with the color of the wooden floor. "Neat party trick…"

"It comes in handy," Ilia replied as she slinked along the wall, her skin shifting to blend in once again. "Give me a second to disable this camera, and we're good."

Emerald lingered just out of sight while Ilia maneuvered her way beneath the camera mounted up in the corner of the ceiling. The faunus drew her weapon and triggered the baton to extend ever so slowly and carefully upward before wrapping the tip around the wire on the back of the security monitor. With a single yank, the device was disconnected and tilted forward, aiming directly at the floor below it as its power indicator flickered off.

"…could've used you back in the days when I was just a simple thief," Emerald said as she approached, looking impressed. "You might be able to give Watts a run for his money when it comes to getting past security."

"I might have to, depending on how things go," Ilia replied. "We can get to Robyn's office and the basement without issue, now. The question is just which one do we hit first?"

As if to answer, a long, low noise echoed up from the basement, like something massive was being moved along the floor. The two women simply looked at each other before moving straight for the door.

"Shit's locked," Emerald growled as she tried the handle and leaned in to inspect the crack of the door. "And from the looks of it, deadbolted, too. Guess we're going to have to lift the key from somewhere. This just got more complicated…"

"Did it?" Ilia asked rhetorically as she raised her gloved hand, the fingertips inlaid with dust crystals of varying colors. "You want a party trick? Check this out."

With a simple folding of a finger down to touch the inside of her palm, Ilia liquified and splashed down to the floor in a puddle of water. The stream of liquid quickly began to seep under the door as though it had a mind of its own and disappeared entirely to the other side. Seconds later, the door swung open from the inside to reveal Ilia standing off to one side just inside the staircase.

"…yeah, alright," Emerald whispered, unable to fight back a grin. "I like your style…"

"You're not so bad yourself," Ilia complimented.

"I'll take point," Emerald offered as she slipped past Ilia in the darkness. "If someone's down there, I can take their attention off of us. Stay close."

Ilia did as she was asked, closing the door and letting Emerald move ahead and down the stairs. The two moved quickly and quietly into the basement, where several lights were on and a chorus of hushed voices in peculiar accents could be heard. Upon emerging into the room, the pair took cover behind a pile of crates to remain unseen. Ilia was the first to poke her head out from behind the stack to take in the scene, where an unfamiliar woman was giving orders to two men.

"…who the hell is that?" Ilia whispered as she leaned back in to cover. "One of Salem's?"

Emerald stole a glance at the assembled group, taking in what details she could in the low light of the basement.

"No. I've never seen them in my life… but that bulkhead door is open, and none of them are paying attention…"

Author's Note:

Direct continuation of both scenes next week, before shifting back to Ruby.

-RD