Coco's entire body felt like it was on fire despite the freezing twilight air. Her lungs and muscles burned as she ran through the forest, hefting her weighty gatling gun as she went and holding the giant instrument in place as she fired off controlled bursts. Her head was pounding from stress, lack of sleep, and the high-pitched screams and low growls of grimm bearing down all around her. Her heart was hammering with fear and adrenaline, and the thought that she was making her last stand simply wouldn't leave her mind. Had she not had Taiyang fighting alongside her as the voice of reason and to keep her moving forward, Coco was fairly convinced that she would have simply stood still and begun firing wildly until she ran out of ammunition.

Between volleys of lead, Coco strained her ears to listen for other gunshots out in the woods. Several times, she and Taiyang had had to adjust their course to more closely follow what they thought to be Qrow's weapon going off in the distance. Just as many, they found themselves rerouted by a swarm of grimm the likes of which they couldn't contend with. Minute by minute, their options were narrowing, and the circle of unlife closed in tighter and tighter.

"Can't even see the fucking sky…" Coco spat as the barrel of her weapon glowed a bright orange. "Entire thing is just grimm and leaves. I'm overheating!"

"Got your back!" Taiyang called as three golden spikes attached to high-tension cables flew over Coco's shoulder, spearing a beowulf through the throat and dissolving it into ash. "Can you see any way out!?"

Coco already knew the answer before she looked. She whipped the barrel of her gun into the faceplate of a charging ursa, cracking the beast's skull and sending it down to the snow in a heap as she spun around.

"Nothing! We're totally screwed!"

A leonine grimm appeared between the trees just ahead of Coco, its mane made up of bony plates. Black slime dripped from its snarling jaws as it sized the young huntress up and flexed its bony claws down into the snow. Just as its shoulders tensed and it prepared to leap at her, a shadowy figure descended from above and landed atop the beast. A triangular blade drove straight down through its spine, earning a frenzied roar of pain as several heavy gunshots tore the grimm open. Qrow fell through the resulting ash and landed upright as the lion dissolved before quickly turning to fire more shots into the woods behind himself.

"Hurry it up, kid!"

"Qrow!" Taiyang called happily as he drove his trident through another beowulf's leg before throwing a haymaker into its jaw. He wrenched the weapon out and into the beast's exposed throat as it fell to the snow. "Just in time for all of us to die together!"

"Sounds about right," Qrow replied, not taking his eyes off the trees from which he had descended. Heavy footfalls echoed in the underbrush, suggesting that something massive was approaching. "Neo's hurt pretty bad! I hope one of you has a plan!"

Neopolitan limped into sight from between two trees, nearly falling over as she struggled to keep her eyes open. Both she and her huntsman protector were covered in ash and blood, though Neopolitan was looking far worse. Her entire arm was bloody and kept close to her chest as she limped toward Coco, who quickly noticed the girl's missing fingers.

"Whoa, whoa!" Coco called as Neopolitan fell toward her. The taller huntress barely managed to catch Neopolitan with her shoulder and quickly wrapped the girl in a side hug before putting her hand back on one of the handles of her gun. "What the hell happened out there!?"

"No time to explain!" Qrow called as he backpedaled toward Coco. "We need to move, now!"

Several trees groaned and toppled as the gargantuan footsteps drew closer. It was only then that Coco noticed the swarm of grimm backing off and keeping their distance in a ring around them, as though they were clearing a path for something far more threatening.

"To where?" Taiyang dared to ask. "Everything behind and beside us is crawling with grimm, a-"

His words were cut off by an odd, reverberating noise as the forest was bathed in crimson light. A glowing portal ripped through the air with a satisfying crackle before it expanded into an ovular door. Raven Branwen rushed through just in time to see a goliath emerge from the tree line, using its tusks to uproot and throw another tree off to the side.

"Never been happier to see you," Qrow said as he leveled his sword at the approaching behemoth and snapped back the blade. He fired off two quick shots to get the giant grimm's attention and peel it away from the others as he circled to one side. "All of you, get in there, now! Raven and I will find Blake!"

"Don't have to tell me twice!" Coco called as she began to drag Neopolitan toward the portal. "This goes to Atlas?"

"It does, and it's a good thing I thought to check on you all while we had some downtime!" Raven answered as she skirted around the charging goliath and toward Qrow. "The two of us can fly to safety and kite this thing out of the woods! Get going!"

"There's nothing we can do for Argus…" Taiyang reasoned as he followed Coco, keeping his trident leveled at the grimm watching him from between the trees. "This is the right call…"

"It is, so get moving!" Raven commanded as she drove her blade into one of the towering goliath's legs. The beast turned to face her and swept down with its barbed tusks only for Raven to gracefully leap over the twisted bones. "Stop bothering to justify it to yourself, and just do what needs to be done! I'll get Qrow back to Atlas safely!"

Taiyang hesitated at the threshold of the portal as Raven landed and they made eye contact.

"Make sure you stay safe, too!"

Without another word, Taiyang stepped through the dimensional door. The portal closed as Raven wrenched her katana from the grimm's leg and slammed it into her sheath. A small black bird flew just over her head and up into the canopy, and she leapt up to join her brother in slaloming through the trees as Argus burned behind them.

"Medic… please…" Coco said breathlessly as she stumbled through the portal and into the unfamiliar circular chamber that was General Ironwood's office. Despite Neopolitan's small frame, she pressed heavily into Coco's side with her full body weight. Coco looked down to find the girl unconscious and dropped her massive gun to the floor with a clatter as she used her other hand to prop up the unconscious vigilante. "I've got wounded…"

"Holy shit…" Harriet cursed as she approached the pair. "Clover, get over here!"

Clover Ebi rose from General Ironwood's seat just as Taiyang came through the closing portal. In seconds, he had reached Coco and crouched down to look over Neopolitan as Harriet did the same from the girl's opposite side.

"She's lost a lot of blood," Clover observed before turning to Harriet. "Call Marrow- they've got their hands full down in the med bay already, and we need the best of the best for something like this. I can get her stable in the meantime."

"On it," Harriet replied as she stood up straight and took out her scroll. "Raven's still out there?"

"She and Qrow are going after Blake and her crew," Taiyang explained. "The Branwens are the best fit to reach her quickly, and then they can get back here immediately via a portal to me or Yang."

"Good thinking. The sooner we have all the key players in Atlas, the better," Clover praised as his aura glowed a gentle blue. Quite suddenly, the shimmering energy left his body in a line that snapped straight to Neopolitan's hand. Within seconds, she was surrounded in a protective bubble, and the stumps of her missing fingers began to glow with subtle light. "You're Taiyang Xiao Long…"

"I am, yeah," Taiyang answered as he swept back his sweaty hair. "I guess the 'legend' of STRQ is talked about even up here?"

"That it is," Clover confirmed as he began to check Neopolitan over for any other injuries. He looked over to the other huntress as she finally let go and transferred the smaller girl into his grasp. "And you are?"

"Coco Adel," the young woman answered as she fell backward onto her rear and splayed her hands out atop the floor, leaving smears of blood on the tile. "You're Clover Ebi, and I feel like I'm going to fucking die from an adrenaline surge. What did you just do to her?"

"I can split and share my aura. Hers is blown," Clover answered. "I can't exactly grow fingers back, but this should help to at least disinfect the wounds. How much of that blood is yours?"

"I…" Coco began, suddenly feeling incredibly weak. She could still feel the cold of the Solitas countryside on her skin, though other parts of her were oddly warm in what she could only assume to be some sort of sensory overload. Blood both dried and fresh pocked Coco's uniform and face, and she hurt in so many places that she couldn't tell just how many open wounds she had. "…I don't know…"

"Marrow's on his way," Harriet announced as she snapped her scroll shut and pocketed it. "I can help get you cleaned up if you're not seriously injured."

"No, I…" Coco started, her eyes fluttering. "Where's Ozpin…?"

Clover and Harriet exchanged a look before the man answered while helping guide Neopolitan down to the floor.

"He's with Elm and Dr. Polendina, working on restoring communications throughout Remnant as per General Ironwood's orders. We may have it up and running as early as tomorrow night."

"That would be great…" Coco said as she transitioned to lying prone on her back and staring up at the ceiling. After a moment of the overhead lights boring into her vision, she closed her eyes. "Just… give me a minute. It's been a long day dealing with Salem and being swarmed by grimm out in the cold."

Despite Coco's protests, Harriet knelt down next to the huntress and began to gently check her over.

"What exactly happened out in Argus? We know it's under attack, but we don't really have details. Did you all go down into the city?"

"No, it's… there were too many grimm," Taiyang said sullenly. "It looks like half the city's on fire, there's some kind of gigantic floating grimm high above it, and there's only so much four of us could do. We were focused on just surviving the night until Qrow and Neo went out to unscramble the radio tower. They somehow managed to get communications back up in the surrounding area, but it drew in an entire horde of grimm. Coco and I don't know specifics."

"…but she does," Clover said quietly. He gingerly placed his fingers around Neopolitan's wrist, checking for a pulse and finding it to be somewhat slow. With a series of snaps before her face, Clover leaned in closer. "Hey, can you wake up for us?"

Neopolitan slowly blinked awake, her vision blurry and eyes unfocused. She hissed in pain and raised her injured hand before her face to watch the foreign aura tingling around the wound.

"She's mute, if you didn't know," Coco informed as she took out her scroll and slid it across the floor to Neopolitan. "Tell us what you and Qrow ran into out there."

Neopolitan turned her attention to Coco before picking up the device with her good hand and slowly tapping at the onscreen keyboard. Clover, Harriet, Taiyang, and Coco all watched her motions with interest until the device was held aloft. Clover took it from her and began to read aloud.

"…Cinder Fall's alive… and no longer human."

Author's Note:

Next time- a moment you've all been waiting years for.

-RD