General James Ironwood paused, taking a moment to look over the people standing before him. Weiss Schnee and Emerald Sustrai, though important in the coming fight, were both of little to no interest to him. Each of the women looked conflicted, and Weiss in particular seemed just as distraught as she had been not half an hour before in his office. While he knew that she didn't feel fully confident in his plan for Mantle no matter what she said or did, he also knew that she, like her sister, would ultimately see his actions as necessary. Emerald had no choice but to go along with his commands, lest she find herself permanently imprisoned, or, if she pushed too hard, removed from the equation. What interested General Ironwood, and the reason he had even bothered to come down to the cell block personally, was the reaction of Marrow Amin.
The youngest and least experienced of the Ace Ops stood uncharacteristically rigid and stone-faced before his superior. All of his usual enthusiasm was gone, and his fists were balled at his sides. Weiss stood close to him, a hand gently placed upon his upper arm as she looked at him with worry. General Ironwood understood the situation immediately, though even knowing the other man better than almost anyone else in the building, he had no idea what the faunus was about to say. He could only hope that when the conversation was over, they were both still on the same side.
"…I'm going to assume that Weiss told you everything?" General Ironwood asked, keeping his tone friendly.
"She told me the general idea of what's about to happen," Marrow said icily. "And what did happen upstairs."
"Things… did not go as I had planned," the General admitted as he clasped his hands behind his back. "The situation escalated, and it was due to my own inability to keep things under control. I'm… sorry, Marrow. Weiss. I'm doing the best I can, and I can only wish it could possibly be good enough. I'm going to have to settle for trying to be good enough for the two of you to continue following me. That's probably the best I can realistically expect."
Marrow swallowed, not quite meeting the other man's eyes.
"You never call any of us by our first names," the faunus pointed out. "I just want to know… did you specifically send me to escort Emerald so that I would be out of your way, in case things went wrong?"
General Ironwood hesitated. In truth, the thought had never actively crossed his mind.
"No conscious decision was made to do such a thing," the man replied. "Though I can certainly see why you would think that, given your Semblance. As for your names, this is no longer a matter of rank and maintaining appearances. I want to talk to you as people, not subordinates. I… know that the plan of action moving forward isn't something you would be comfortable with, but I cannot stress enough how important it is to get a plan in motion before it's too late. A plan with minimal risk."
"I know. I'm not going to get in your way," Marrow reassured as he finally let his fists unclench. "I'm not going to criticize you, and I'm not going to fight it. I can't, in good faith. We've been backed into a corner, with only one direction we can run."
"…but?" General Ironwood asked, knowing that Marrow wasn't finished.
"But… some of us… aren't going to abandon Mantle when the time is up," Marrow said slowly. "Some of us can't, no matter the odds. All I ask in exchange for compliance with the plan is… to let those people go. Let them stay on the ground and fight. Let them try, without turning it into an issue."
"Marrow…?" Weiss asked uncertainly, squeezing his arm a bit harder.
General Ironwood inhaled deeply and closed his eyes.
"…are you one of those people who would stay behind and die trying to protect the lower city, even knowing that in the end, it would be for nothing?"
Marrow's answer wasn't immediate, much to General Ironwood's surprise. He opened his eyes to look over the faunus and try to determine what exactly was going through his head to no avail. Weiss looked equally concerned and uncertain, while Emerald remained quietly standing near the semi-transparent wall of her cell and continued to listen in. As he waited for Marrow to elaborate, General Ironwood began to move closer.
"…I don't know," the faunus admitted. "I… don't know. I don't have an answer right now, and I might not have one until the ships are starting to take off. I know I should, and I know that I might be needed in the future, but I don't know if I can just… climb aboard and watch the people still on the ground just…"
Marrow paused as General Ironwood laid a heavy hand upon his shoulder.
"…if there was someone I could trust to lead in my stead and handle the multitude of issues that are going to arise from taking hundreds of thousands of people up to Atlas… I would be one of those people. But I can't allow that to happen. I'm not giving up by taking us out of range- I'm buying time. Time in which those who remain can work to find something, anything that could give us hope at stopping her. Time for the rest of Remnant to rally together and make a concerted effort to choose life as a collective over rolling over and letting her win."
"Yeah," Marrow agreed as he hung his head. "And… all of us- the Aces, the people Sun brought here, Ruby, Raven, Ozpin- we've got the best shot at finding a way…"
"You're the ones with experience when it comes to the Relics, Salem, and her subordinates," General Ironwood agreed. "I need you as many of you here in Atlas as I can get, as much as it's going to hurt us all to do this. Stand with me. Please."
"I will," Marrow finally conceded. "If you give all of the others an opportunity to choose, when the time comes. Those who want to stay behind, stay behind. Give them the freedom to choose their own paths, and I'll stay in Atlas. That's all I ask."
General Ironwood let out a heavy sigh and shook his head.
"Fine. But I'm still going to make an attempt to convince them all to remain in Atlas… and Harriet will have no choice. We cannot risk the Winter Maiden falling into Salem's hands."
"…fine," Marrow agreed as the hand slipped from his shoulder. "That's… understandable. I also want to talk more about what we could possibly do to save more people…"
"And we shall, at dawn," General Ironwood insisted. "I'm open to suggestion. What I am not open to is wildly changing the plan in its entirety. The only scenario in which such a thing would occur is if Salem makes no move against us during the evacuation… but that seems like a pipe dream."
"It does," Weiss agreed, finally daring to speak up. "I think it's best to assume that no matter what happens, the majority of Mantle will be under siege by the time we send Atlas up. I do have one question, though, General- you mentioned upstairs that the way we're going to get Amity up and running has changed…"
"Indeed it has," General Ironwood began. "With the heights we'll be going to, we no longer need to use our stockpiled gravity dust to launch Amity higher than Atlas- we can simply park it on the edge of the landmass and take it with us."
"Meaning we have a massive surplus of gravity dust at our disposal," Weiss replied. "Perhaps something could be done with it that could help us fight off Salem's forces… or at least buy us more time?"
"…or failing that…" Marrow began, only to hesitate and look up at General Ironwood. "What parts of Amity do we actually need in order to restore signal to the rest of Remnant? If Atlas is going up high enough that it could broadcast the signal… do we even need to bring the arena itself at all?"
"Technically… we do not," General Ironwood considered. "There's broadcast equipment and an entire studio dedicated to signal transfer housed within the arena that would make re-establishing communications to the rest of Remnant immediate, but we could get something similar up and running here. Or… extract those systems in a matter of hours if the arena could be used for something else. Do you have something in mind?"
"Yeah," Marrow said with a nod. "I think I might have a way to hit Salem where it hurts, even if we ultimately have to retreat from Mantle. If she's going to end up taking a lot of civilian lives… I say we take at least one of her subordinates in exchange."
Blake thundered down the steps, lacking all of her usual grace and subtlety as she made her way to the bottom floor of the farmhouse. A light was still on in the downstairs room where she had spoken to Miss Malachite mere hours before, and it seemed as though almost nothing had changed. The woman was still looking over a map on the table as her subordinates spoke in panicked whispers, while Daisuke stood leaning against the doorway leading into the room.
"We're leaving?" the tired looking faunus asked as Blake reached the landing.
"We're leaving," Blake confirmed. "They're in trouble, a-"
"Just what is the gods' names is going on?" Miss Malachite interrupted, her shrill voice carrying throughout the house. "It's only hours to dawn, and all three of y'all are stompin' around the house like you own the place!"
"And you're not asleep, so what does it matter?" Blake said flippantly. "We just got a call. Signal's been reestablished, at least temporarily, and our friends are in trouble. Argus is under siege. We need to go, now."
Miss Malachite turned her attention to a member of her hired muscle and nodded toward a computer terminal set up in the corner of the room.
"Check for communication. See if we can reach her."
"Who?" Daisuke asked as he pushed off the doorframe. "Cordovin? What, is the Atlesian military in bed with your organization?"
"Not quite," Miss Malachite denied. "Someone else."
"Out of range," the man answered as his fingers flew across the keyboard. "But there are more contact points in range. The story checks out. I'll message some of our contacts in Argus."
"You do that," Miss Malachite ordered. "The three of you are leaving right this second?"
"We are," Blake confirmed. "Our friends are in trouble, and they're right near the city. Our only way into Mantle is also through them, so we can't miss this opportunity. Come with us. Help us. With everyone here, we might stand a chance at saving the ci-"
"It's bad," Miss Malachite's subordinate interrupted. "Contact is sending video."
The man stepped aside to reveal the screen, where choppy, intermittent footage streamed from a scroll began to play. Most of the audio was unintelligible and the signal cut in and out, but it was clear to all present that the majority of what was being projected was flames. Black, indistinguishable shapes flew overhead as the cameraman panned upward, though they were soon blotted out by a singular flying grimm moving into frame that was big enough to obscure the entirety of the sky. Whoever was filming had begun to run through an alleyway as they tilted their scroll back downward, buildings burning on every side around them before the signal died entirely.
"…every minute counts…" Daisuke said ominously. "It may already be too late, but even still, we're obligated to do what we can."
Miss Malachite turned to face the pair of faunus, her expression stony.
"You are obligated. We have nothing to do with this. The Draglines have no obligation t-"
"Are you that selfish!?" Blake cut in, her expression furious. "This could be the end of Remnant. We told you more than almost anyone else in Mistral knows, and you're going to just sit on the sidelines?"
"It's better than charging into a lost cause and finding that out too late!" Miss Malachite countered, snapping her fan open and fluttering it rapidly beneath her chin. "If you want to go, then go, but we'll make our move if, and only if I know that we can come away from the situation alive."
"And that's the difference between you and the White Fang," Daisuke accused. "You've always only been in it for profit. We, for all our faults, were in it for a cause… and there is no cause greater than the survival of our entire planet. When you comb through the dregs of Argus, pilfering whatever valuables you can find amongst the ash and corpses, remember that each and every one of them could potentially have been saved by you."
Daisuke exited the house without another word, and Blake watched him head out to the snowmobiles through the window before turning back to Miss Malachite. The woman was furious, though Blake could tell there was something else going on beneath the surface.
"…there's another way into Mantle," the woman said slowly as she snapped her fan shut. "Give me your scroll."
"Why?" Blake asked as she hesitantly approached. "And why should I trust you?"
"Because I have a contact who can smuggle anything- or anyone into the city," Miss Malachite explained as she held out a hand. "And because no matter what you might think, I'm trying to save your life. You want to get in- or out of Mantle without being seen, my contact can get it done."
Blake took a deep breath before taking her scroll out and handing it over to the woman.
"…we're still going to Argus… but someone like that could be useful, especially if Mantle is already being attacked."
"Do what you want with the information," Miss Malachite said as she waved her free hand and entered some information into the device with the other. "Consider this my contribution, and I don't wanna hear a word about us being selfish or refusing to do our part in the future. You want help from her? Call Rose and tell her you want to go through the lookin' glass."
"…through the looking glass?" Blake asked, sounding skeptical as the scroll was handed back to her.
"That's right. She's out of range, but if you go down to the coast away from Argus… or, if by some miracle, you make it to Mantle without her… you might be able to reach her."
"Thanks," Blake offered as she slid her scroll back into her pocket. "I'll take what I can get… but if you change your mind, we could use the help. It's never too late to do the right thing, Miss."
"…get out," Miss Malachite ordered as she flicked the fan back open threateningly.
Blake gave the woman and nod and hurried out the door, jogging to the waiting snowmobiles.
Author's Note:
Next week… Qrow & Neo vs Cinder, followed by the meeting at dawn.
-RD