Cinnamon watched as Sun's crew exited the office. Several of the teens had their hands upon each other- some in gestures of support, others simply checking in or holding hands. Even without being privy to all of the social dynamics at play, she could tell everyone leaving the room had someone else to lean on. As she returned her attention back to the crowd that remained- herself, General Ironwood, Clover Ebi, Harriet Bree, Elm Ederne, Raven Branwen, Winter Schnee, and Oscar Pine- Cinnamon realized that despite their numbers, she was very much alone.

"You seem to have a lot of faith in him, General," the faunus observed. "Faith enough to entrust him with a Relic that could put us at a severe disadvantage if he uses it."

"…'us'?" General Ironwood asked.

"Us," Cinnamon confirmed. "Think what you want about me, but I have every reason to fight against Salem. That's exclusively what I came here for, and with so much of Mantle being made up of faunus… I fully intend to be on the front lines for the evacuation."

"You assume that you'll be keeping your freedom," Winter pointed out as she gave the other woman a cold look. "Though, at this point… things are desperate enough that you're probably correct."

"She is," General Ironwood confirmed. "For exactly that reason, I am willing to work alongside you… just as I am willing to work alongside Sun. Once this is all over, conversations will need to be had about the future of the White Fang and their place in Solitas, but for now… that's the least of my worries. The past can't be allowed to hold us back."

"Then what about Emerald?" Harriet dared to ask. "Salem saw something in her. We could use her talents too, if we're going all-in."

"She's not wrong," Raven added. "After all- I'm here, as well."

"Weiss… made a good point, on the way here," Cinnamon began as Winter gave her a curious look. "While we were in the air, she pointed out that everyone aboard has done terrible things at some point in their lives… and I believe that also applies to everyone in the room right now. Releasing Emerald rather than dealing with her personally, as you said before, is the better tactical move. You said the plan could change if someone had a better suggestion, General. Let this be Step One."

General Ironwood rubbed at his beard, his expression one of doubt.

"Very well… but you will be responsible for her, and her actions. If she turns on us or wavers, it's on you to put her down immediately. Failing to do so will put you in the firing line as well. Fair?"

"Fair," Cinnamon answered. "And I will."

"I have no doubt about that," Winter agreed. "After all, you seemingly had no qualms about trying to kill Weiss."

"…we can talk about that later," Cinnamon said dismissively. "What else needs discussing?"

"Well… the current plan, step-by-step," Elm offered. "Who goes where, which squads take which sections of Mantle… the details, really."

"Right," General Ironwood agreed as he eyed Oscar for a moment before walking back behind his desk. "First, we need to form squads. We'll work in groups of four- two to reach out and evacuate each quadrant of the city, and two to defend their assigned transport in each of those four zones. Winter, Clover, and Elm- you're with me."

"What?" Oscar asked immediately. "You're going down to the frontlines…?"

"I am," General Ironwood answered. "I plan to lead by example. I'm not content to simply sit on the sidelines, safe in Atlas, while everyone else here is risking their lives for the cause. I'm not going to let things simply play out in front of me like you do."

"I was on the frontlines against Salem herself earlier today!" Oscar protested. "Don't let your personal grudge cloud your judgment of me. We've worked together for years…"

"Once, we did," General Ironwood said icily. "But recently, you've left both me and the entirety of Solitas to fend for ourselves."

"Yes, in accordance with Sun's plan," Oscar said, doing his best to keep his voice even. "I agreed to follow along w-"

"It's always someone else, isn't it?" Raven interrupted. "Back when I was in school, it was STRQ. You 'let us' do as we saw fit, and it wasn't until too late that we found out why. You're just letting that poor, trusting faunus try to keep everything held together because you can't bear another failure on your shoulders, and if someone else makes a mess of things, you can just wash your hands of the situation. After all- you washed your hands of us pretty quickly, even if Qrow refuses to see it. Now that we know Salem can't be killed directly- knowledge that you had when you allowed Sun to split up his party… I guess we all know why you've behaved the way you have, all this time."

"Don't bother threatening to just walk away, either," Harriet said flippantly. "If you do, nothing really changes for us."

"Unless, of course, you're holding back more information," Elm probed. "Are you?"

Oscar took a deep breath, resting his hands atop the head of his cane as General Ironwood pulled up a holographic map of Mantle.

"…nothing that is of any concern or relevance to the operation at hand."

"Would the lamp say the same?" General Ironwood asked.

Oscar cast his eyes upward, meeting the taller man's gaze unblinkingly.

"She would," Oscar reassured. "Though I hope you have a different question in mind for her. Do you really distrust me enough to waste it?"

Ruby had been just a bit too slow to follow Yang as the crowd split up and went their separate ways. Though she knew that there was no maliciousness behind it, she couldn't help but feel momentary panic as she looked down several hallways to try to determine which way her sister had gone with two others in tow. Fortunately for her, she guessed correctly the first time and began to follow the trio.

"Yang!" Ruby called out, jogging behind her sister as the blonde walked down the hall, her hand clasped firmly around Jaune's. "Wait, I need to talk to you alone!"

Yang gave Jaune an apologetic look as she dragged him to a stop. With a simple kiss on the cheek, she whispered something into the boy's ear. Jaune nodded and gave Ruby a friendly wave before he walked away, Corsac at his side.

"We'll catch up later, Ruby!"

"Sorry!" Ruby acknowledged, returning the awkward gesture with a guilty grin.

"Yeah… we probably should talk…" Yang said wearily as she folded her arms across her chest. "C'mon. Let's head to my room. Ilia and Weiss definitely won't be headed there, so we'll be alone."

Ruby couldn't help but blush as she watched the two men walk away in the opposite direction that Yang was leading her.

"Uh… so, are you and Jaune like…"

"Fuck buddies?" Yang filled in. "Yeah. We started up a little while ago, and it's been nice. Really nice. We're not exclusive or anything, but as far as I know, we're not seeing other people, either. So… who knows what might happen?"

"Gross," Ruby accused as she followed along, sticking her tongue out in disgust. "And now I absolutely regret asking."

"Hey, don't knock it 'til you've tried it," Yang said with a shrug. "Any romantic developments on your end? Maybe… Sage? Tall, dark, handsome, and brooding? Muscular, too…"

"I…" Ruby began, getting flustered immediately. She reached up a hand to busy herself with fixing her hair, doing her best not to look at her sister. "I'm just not thinking about that stuff right now, at all! Ren and Nora, though… they finally made it official at some point on the road. I must've missed it, but it's definitely a thing…"

"Really?" Yang asked, her surprise evident in her voice as she swiped into the girls' suite. "Good for them! And about damned time…"

"Yeah, it's nice to see," Ruby agreed. "But at this point… does it even really ma-"

"Yes," Yang answered before Ruby could finish. "Yes, it does, because feeling like you have someone that really understands you and what you need in the moment is important for staying sane. Jaune needed someone who could take care of his needs- and I'm talking about emotional needs, Ruby. Sex is just a part of it. We spend a lot of nights just talking, cuddling, taking care of each other… and it's been good for both of us. I think I needed a relationship like that and didn't even know it. Speaking of…"

Ruby squeaked as her big sister pulled her into a tight hug. Yang cradled her natural hand behind the smaller girl's head, and soon had Ruby's face pressed into the side of her neck.

"Thanks," Ruby said softly. "I'm… really not doing well right now…"

"I can tell," Yang agreed. "I've always been able to tell. Hell, I practically raised you, in some ways."

"I know," Ruby replied. "You've always been there for me, and I get what you're saying about relationships and mental health and all that, but… I still want to find Mom. I need to find her."

Yang kept Ruby in the embrace, though she gently guided her sister backward a bit so that they could establish eye contact.

"You're sure that Mom's alive?" Yang asked. "Because if she is… I want to find her, too."

"I'm sure," Ruby said, though she made the mistake of looking away for a moment.

"…Ruby."

"I'm sure!" Ruby insisted, getting upset as she tried unsuccessfully to wriggle out of Yang's grip. "I can feel it. Even if it came from Salem, I just know she's alive…"

"You're not sure," Yang said flatly before letting out a weary sigh. "It could easily be bullshit…"

"But we could be sure," Ruby emphasized. "Jinn could tell us outright, and even tell us where she is. All we would need to do is use the lamp. Ozpin told us that she was assigned to guard the Summer Maiden, and the two of them disappeared somewhere outside of the Emerald Forest. Mom probably is the Maiden, now, and went into hiding to prevent Ozpin from… from doing whatever it is he's doing! He's been acting shady, a-"

"And using the lamp for our own purposes would be just as shady, if not more so," Yang scolded. "Ironwood… as much as he's acting extreme and pissing us off… at least he's taking action and has a plan to save a million lives or more. We can't use the lamp to locate one person if he needs it to save Mantle…"

"But Yang…" Ruby started as her sister finally released her. "We can… we can find a way! We can come up with something better than just running away and taking as many as we can with us!"

"Can we?" Yang asked. "Trust me, Ruby- Sun, Ilia, and I have been extremely vocal whenever Ironwood has suggested something questionable, and you saw what just happened the same as I did. All that being said… as much as I hate to admit it, this might be the only way. I don't like it, but I also don't trust us to come up with something better. Like it or not… we're barely even adults. You're still not an adult…"

"I just faced down Salem," Ruby hissed. "I'm as much of an adult as any of you."

"If you were an adult, you wouldn't even be suggesting we use the lamp to find Summer," Yang retorted as she put her hands up and shrugged. "We can't be that selfish. I hear you, and I want it, too, but we just…"

"And what if this is our only chance?" Ruby asked. "What if it's now or never? Having another Maiden on our side…"

"What if we find out she's in Vacuo?" Yang shot back. "Or Sanus? How is that going to help us now?"

"We could…"

"We can't!" Yang emphasized. "And we never have! We couldn't save Beacon, we couldn't stop Salem in Sanus, we couldn't prevent Mantle from being compromised… all that we've done that's actually been successful was save Haven from being blown up, and honestly, that wasn't even us. What good have we actually done, other than keeping people more capable than us in check?"

"…we got Neopolitan on our side," Ruby said in a small voice. "We got reinforcements down in Sanus, and we found out about Argus. You guys are working on the White Fang, apparently, and Penny's back. That's all something, isn't it?"

"In the grand scheme of things?" Yang asked. "Is it? Is any of that going to save us? Not even your eyes have managed to harm Salem or slow her down. You said it yourself."

"Yeah, so maybe Mom's could, with her powers as a Maiden!" Ruby insisted.

"If she's a Maiden!" Yang reminded. "If she's alive! If Salem can be slowed down at all! You really want to roll the dice with those odds, when we could be fucking up the entire evacuation!?"

"What do we need the lamp for with the evacuation!?" Ruby yelled. "You really trust Ironwood after what he just did to Sun?"

"I trust him to handle this better than I trust myself!" Yang admitted, her tone furious. "And I hate that, but I know it's the right call! I know that… I know that you and me and Sun and the others just aren't enough. We're not good enough, Ruby. No one can handle a situation like this by taking charge and trying to fix it all on their own, and a party of three or four isn't enough, either. This isn't our big moment. This isn't a problem for us to step up and solve. We're not the main characters of Mantle, Ruby, and we never will be. I can't back you up on this, and I'm sorry."

"…it doesn't have to be one way or the other," Ruby said in a small voice. "We could… ask Ironwood if…"

"After what we just saw happen?" Yang asked. "Sun almost got shot. That almost just escalated into a brawl, and I don't know if you know this, but we cannot take the Ace Ops if any of them turn on us. There's no fucking way, even if Harriet wasn't the Winter Maiden. We need to keep our heads down and just go with the flow, offering criticism only when it's absolutely warranted. I know it feels bad, and I know this entire situation sucks… but we need to just… deal with it."

"What happened to you?" Ruby asked as she arched a brow. "You sound nothing like yourself right now…"

"And you think you do?" Yang countered.

Ruby could think of nothing else to say, and so, she simply turned to face the door.

"I love you, Ruby," Yang reassured. "We'll… find a way to find Summer, if it's true. I promise."

"You just said we couldn't do anything," Ruby reminded. "That we don't get the job done, and that our track record sucks."

"That's not what I s-"

"I heard you," Ruby interrupted. "I should go…"

"Ruby!" Yang called as her sister walked toward the door.

"I want to be alone right now," Ruby explained as she stepped out into the hall. "We'll talk later."

Yang stopped moving as the door slid shut in front of her face. She held her breath for a moment before reeling back her mechanical fist and slamming it into the wall. A dent formed in the steel, and Yang followed up by adding another one beside it.

"Fuck!"

Yang was quick to take out her scroll, tapping away as she hurriedly sent a text to Sun.

"Come on, you'd better reply…"

Author's Note:

There's no meta commentary in this chapter at all.

At all.

-RD