The air around Argus was biting cold under the broken moon. Qrow's feathers felt stiff and fragile within the atmosphere, and the night breeze chilled him to the bone. Far below on his right, the city was burning, and it wasn't until he took to the sky that he could truly see the extent of the invasion. Nearly half of Argus had fallen- less than he had assumed, but he knew that the city could only last a few more days at best. He made a note to himself of the relative locations of gunfire popping off into the night, as well as the sectors of city blocks that had already been razed. Somehow, the sight gave him a small spark of hope. There were people down there that could still be saved, and there was the possibility that Caroline Cordovin was still alive. It was a matter that would be investigated in time, once his work was complete and the others were safe.

Qrow gently banked into a midair turn, soaring over the trees and the packs of grimm hidden between them out in the fields of snow. The man circled in place, scanning the ground for any sort of activity to indicate that Neopolitan was keeping up with him. He didn't have to wait long to see a lone beowulf's head wrenched to the side by some sort of invisible force. With a startled yelp, the beast began gushing black goo from an impalement wound on the side of its torso. The beast was thrown down into the snow and exploded into a cloud of ash as it hit the ground, drawing the attention of a nearby pack of its brothers. Qrow could barely see the footprints in the snow near the scene of the crime before they faded away, hidden by his companion's Semblance.

"Doin' good down there, kid," Qrow mused to himself as he did another short turn in midair before course correcting toward the waiting signal tower. "If you're even a kid. Kinda hard to tell, to be totally honest…"

As Qrow drew closer to the radio tower, his suspicions were confirmed- an entire throng of grimm were patrolling the area, albeit mindlessly. The snow below him was almost totally obscured by a carpet of writhing black, white, and traces of red and yellow. Even the skies were awash with blackness as other, genuine gryphons, chimeras, and sphinxes swarmed over the cliffside forest. To be found out would be a death sentence with so many of the beasts in the area. As he flicked his eyes to the ground once again, Qrow could no longer see Neopolitan's movements below. He was, for all intents and purposes, entirely alone amongst the horde. It was a situation that was quite familiar to the old huntsman, and one that, while nerve-wracking, made him feel alive.

With a banking turn to swerve around another airborne grimm, Qrow began to do a visual sweep of the tower. Several other grimm were clinging to its sides or stalking about the various platforms on the way up the structure while still more patrolled around the base. Qrow followed suit, shifting back to his human form as he landed atop a railing on the top platform. The man remained perched on the edge of the steel rod as he looked over the situation presented before him and prayed that his disguise would hold. While the top of the tower was mercifully devoid of grimm, something in the air felt off. It was a sensation as though he was being watched, or as if there was something lying in wait for him. Qrow made doubly sure to adjust his posture to be more convincing as he remained balanced.

There was a control panel mounted against the opposite rail, and atop it was a blinking device that quite clearly didn't belong. Qrow was tempted to simply remain perched and let his Semblance try to disable the jammer, but he knew that such a thing was no guarantee. With a silent inhale, he hopped down from the rail and began to stalk toward the panel on all fours. Qrow barely made it halfway across the platform before another grimm touched down atop it, landing on two legs. The veteran huntsman paused as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing, and once he did, he couldn't help but let his jaw drop.

Cinder Fall stood before him, barely recognizable as she held a scroll out in front of herself in a clawed hand. Her curved, bony nails were nearly half a foot long, providing a stark contrast to the dead-looking humanoid flesh upon her other hand. A set of fleshy, membranous wings spiderwebbed with veins sprouted from her back, each standing as tall as her and tipped with yet more deadly looking talons. The flesh of her lower jaw was rotted away entirely and lined with black, giving way to a pair of split, bony mandibles and giving her an almost insectoid appearance. Her hair was uneven, matted, and fused down into the black tendrils of grimm material that wrapped around her body in a sort of biological suit, with torn swathes of her signature dress tangled and plastered within them. She spoke with an unnatural resonance to her voice as she addressed the person on the other end of the scroll, sounding displeased and as though she was in the middle of an argument.

"Yes, I'm well aware that the time to strike is now," Cinder acknowledged in an annoyed voice as she began to make her way toward the panel. "But you sincerely think we can get away with this without alerting Ironwood to our presence? He isn't stupid."

"I think that resting on our laurels while we have a clear advantage would be foolish," a male voice unfamiliar to Qrow replied. "Especially with Salem's arrival."

Qrow stealthily moved around the edge of the railing, keeping his distance as he listened in.

"This is premature," Cinder warned, her voice carrying with it a raspy gurgle as her mandibles clicked. "Her chrysalis is still forming to bring her in from Sanus. She wants to lead the charge… and regardless of how strong our forces are, I'm not going to risk defying her again."

"The poor little Maiden is scared, is she?" the man asked, his voice carrying a cocky tone. Qrow craned his neck to peek at the screen, seeing a man with a well-kempt mustache staring up at Cinder. "You were punished because you failed to provide results. It's as simple as that. I, on the other hand, never fail to deliver, and Salem will appreciate my initiative upon seeing that all of Atlas' communications- both local and otherwise- are completely disabled. Enough towers are compromised now to achieve such a thing remotely. You would be a fool not to agree that such a thing gives us a massive advantage in the coming assault. The city is asleep, and our invasion begins tomorrow. They won't have time to fix their network, and with the election postponed out of necessity, tensions will be at an all-time high."

"Then come here and do it yourself," Cinder spat, turning to face Qrow as she began to pace across the platform. "I have nothing to gain from this. Why does it need to be done from here anyway?"

"It's the first link in the chain with the most reliable jammer, and the hardest to disable if Ironwood realizes what's going on," the man explained. "Salem's victory is the only gain any of us need. Stop asking questions and do as you're told."

"And if I don't?" Cinder asked, turning to face the panel again as she splayed her wings to let the membranes stretch. "I'm following orders. You're not. We've received no new communication, a-"

"Oh, you insufferable… I'll claim responsibility if it falls through, which it won't," the voice from the scroll snapped. "But once we see each other again, don't expect a warm welcome."

An odd shimmer in the air caught Qrow's eye from near the ladder to the upper platform. He narrowed his eyes to look more closely and managed to see the faintest outline of what looked like a humanoid form within the air. The huntsman clenched his jaw as his eyes darted across the space, taking note of what few details he could. Short stature. Long hair. Heeled boots. Neopolitan.

"As if I care," Cinder remarked as she leaned back against the control panel, putting her rotting hand down upon her hip. "Perhaps I'll make the modifications in a few hours. Perhaps not. Your ego trip doesn't supersede my orders. Your efforts in Atlas will win you enough praise already, and I don't trust your word."

"I'll see that you're as inconvenienced as possible the moment you arrive in Atlas," the voice threatened. "I have ways of making your life harder, you little brat."

"I'm shaking in my heels," Cinder mocked as she pushed off the control panel and began to look over the various lights and buttons once again. "You know, for all your fiddling with buttons and the collars you're providing to the White Fang… none of that would be enough to topple Atlas without the grimm. This is Salem's victory. Not yours."

Qrow watched in horror as the veil around Neopolitan fell away. She had her short sword clutched in a reverse grip as she crouched low, her eyes fixated upon Cinder's back. The blade was tarnished with black grimm essence, and ashes fell away as she held it in a shaking grip. Her mismatched eyes flicked to Qrow as the bickering over the scroll continued. Qrow opened his mouth, speaking as lowly as he could manage while still being audible across the platform.

"Don't."

Cinder stiffened as the man she was talking to launched into an angry rant. By the time she looked over her shoulder, it was already too late. Neopolitan had sprinted across the platform, her sword raised high and a furious expression upon her face. Cinder whirled to put out her clawed hand, dropping the scroll just as the blade pierced down into the side of her neck, near to the shoulder. Qrow stood up and began to run toward the confrontation as Neopolitan drove the weapon deeper into Cinder's flesh, twisting the handle as the defiled Maiden let out a blood-curdling scream and clawed at the implement.

"Neo!" Qrow yelled, the illusion around him falling away as Neopolitan was elbowed hard in the face.

Neopolitan pushed herself forward once again, keeping a grip on the handle of the sword as Cinder's scroll was kicked across the platform and over the edge. She tore her blade from inside of her enemy's body and scored a sideways slash across Cinder's outstretched arm as flames began to manifest around the limb. Qrow raised Harbinger and snapped down the blade, exposing the shotgun behind the sword and firing several rounds into the signal jammer as he made his approach. Neopolitan just barely dipped her head to the side in time to avoid a stream of flames from Cinder's palm, but saw that the Maiden had something else brewing. A swirling glyph of shimmering orange had manifested around the fingers of her other hand, and Neopolitan could feel the air around herself heating up. With a scowl, she did the only thing she could think to do to stop the attack.

A massive explosion of flames was sent off into the sky as Neopolitan launched herself into Cinder with all her might, crashing the taller woman's back into the metal railing. Qrow arrived a moment too late as the pair of women tumbled over the edge of the tower, drawing the attention of every grimm gathered around the structure. Without a moment's hesitation, Qrow continued his sprint and stepped up onto the railing, launching himself up and over the edge before transitioning into a dive. Neopolitan and Cinder were still falling as he leapt only a second or two behind them, the trio chasing the ground as burning embers rained down around them.

"Neo, I'm coming!"

Author's Note:

An opportunity for a slight victory…

…or a total disaster.

-RD