Weiss ran as fast as her legs would carry her through the streets of Mantle, pausing only to engage in small skirmishes with grimm fodder as the beasts began appearing from the sewers and overhead. Between her and Marrow, they made short work of the small clusters of invading enemies in their path. It wasn't long before the former heiress and her faunus companion had a procession of civilians following them toward their designated evacuation zone. Though she was happy to see that she was making an effective contribution, Weiss couldn't help but notice just how exposed and obvious they all were out in the streets.

She also noticed that Marrow had shortened his strides, allowing her to keep pace with him despite their difference in height. The contrast was exacerbated by Weiss' exhaustion, both mental and physical. Weiss knew that Marrow knew she was starting to waver, and she knew that he knew she would never admit to it.

"How much farther?" Weiss dared to ask as Marrow kept his eyes trained on the scroll held out in front of him, a map pulled up on its screen. "We need to get these people in the air…"

"ETA five minutes," Marrow answered. "We're making okay time, but with all of the radio chatter and people shuffling around and getting injured… it sounds like it might just be you and me holding the line along with a bunch of academy students. We'll make it work, but it's not ideal."

"Is any of this?" Weiss asked rhetorically. "I'll admit, with all of the messages going back and forth, I've completely forgotten who is going where and if anyone is still available to assist us. Do you think it's a bad idea to ask? We're not in any present danger, and I don't want to seem incompetent…"

"You're far from it," Marrow reassured. "I'll make the call, if you'd rather not. We can't afford to second-guess ourselves, and it's better to play it safe."

"Thank you…" Weiss offered with a tired sigh as Marrow pocketed his scroll and touched his earpiece.

"This is Marrow, heading to the unoccupied evac site. Is anyone still available to back us up? Cinnamon and Daisuke are now otherwise occupied, covering for Ruby and Emerald. We're encountering minimal resistance on our way over, but that might not last once the ships touch down."

"I'm the only one currently unassigned," Harriet answered. "I'll meet you there and keep the skies clear. It'll draw attention to us, but that was always going to happen setting up an evac zone so late…"

"Right. She can fly, now…" Weiss mused as she gave Marrow an uncertain look. "Are you as worried about her as I am?"

"Probably more so," Marrow answered. "Once we're topside, I need to thoroughly examine her and do a whole psychological profile. Unexpectedly coming into Maiden powers isn't something I would wish on anyone, let alone a friend."

"If I'm being entirely honest, I'm somewhat selfishly happy that it didn't work out for Winter," Weiss admitted. "I know she's trained all her life for this, but the burden of expectation and the physical toll it must take…"

"It also allows Winter to rethink her path forward and refocus on your family," Marrow added. "I don't think it's too terrible to admit that. Silver linings, and all. Though… it would be nice if you could try to help Harriet along, when we have the chance. I'll definitely need the help."

"I will. It's the least I can do," Weiss reassured. "The Aces are becoming more like family as time goes on. Some of you more so than others."

"I have no idea who you could be talking about," Marrow replied with a smirk as the pair rounded a corner. As soon as they emerged onto a new street, the faunus threw out a hand to hold Weiss back and signal to the people behind them. "Hold up! Eyes on the sky!"

A brilliant trail of orange and black cut across the morning purples and deep blues, leaving fluffy plumes of smoke behind it. Less than a second later, another streak- this one an icy blue with purple arcs of lightning- gave chase over the tops of the buildings. Just as both trails disappeared from sight, an explosion in the sky ferocious enough to shake the nearby buildings and blow out some of their windows echoed throughout the area. Weiss stumbled slightly only to be caught by Marrow, whose face paled as he looked in the direction of the ensuing fight.

"The two of you- reroute and find a new place for the ships to land!" came Harriet's order. The woman was breathless over the comm line, her words pocked with crackling electricity. "Cinder Fall is here! I'll hold her off!"

"We're coming in to support you!" Marrow replied immediately, only for another explosion behind the buildings to rock the very streets of Mantle.

"Negative! We can't kill her, I can handle her, and we don't have eyes on Salem! Academy students are already here and providing cover fire! Leave me and get your job done, Amin!"

Weiss reached up and settled a hand on the faunus' shoulder. She was keenly aware of the multitude of nervous eyes upon them, waiting for any kind of direction.

"We can't deviate," Weiss said solemnly. "Who knows how many hundreds- thousands- may be following this group? We have a duty to rescue them, and Harriet is trusting you with getting it done. This isn't the time to worry for her. Put it out of your mind, because if you don't, you'll go crazy. Where can we go?"

Marrow took several deep breaths and closed his eyes as he tried to refocus.

"…the city wall isn't far," the huntsman said slowly. "We're opposite the docks facing Argus, so we're near the farthest point from the main strike force. The wall would obscure visibility from that angle, at least for a while… and there's an open field of snow all around Rust that could fit several ships. If we go now, we can probably take them all up in one shot before the majority of the fighting even begins. Grab anyone we see along the way…"

"…and then go back for Harriet and the students," Weiss finished. "They'll be pinned down and unable to escape on their own once we change the landing site."

"Yeah," Marrow agreed as he opened his eyes to stare down at Weiss. "We have to go back, as soon as we can."

"Gods, I wish I was taller…"

Marrow hiked a brow as he scooped Weiss into a quick squeeze.

"And why's that? I like you just the way you are."

Weiss let out a sigh of content as she felt a kiss land atop her head.

"All of this running sucks when your legs are short."

"…I can fix that. I'll make a call on the way to Rust."

"What are you people doing!?"

Ruby flew forward in a spiral of deep red, her longsword whirling as she made her way toward the White Fang rebels occupying the steps of the election hall. With a sweeping strike, she cleaved straight through the assault rifles of three grunts at once. As she landed, she braced the blade of her sword up and over her shoulder and whirled into a spinning kick to send the man at the head of the pack down to the concrete. Hope was close behind, her swirling blades disabling the weaponry of the faunus before she turned her attention to the nearby swarms of grimm and took off to corral them.

"Nice work!" Clover called as he arrived last on the scene, giving his swords a spin. "Prioritize getting the White Fang away from the civilians!"

Ruby dematerialized as a hail of bullets flew for her, resulting in a torrent of friendly fire impacting some of the White Fang guards. As Ruby landed, a beowulf jumped at her from behind, its claws barely missing her torso as she spun to the side and thrust out her borrowed sidearm toward the beast's face. With a quick squeeze of the trigger, the magnum unleashed a high caliber round into the grimm, blowing its head clean off its shoulders. The crunching, visceral noise was to be expected, and yet, an entirely different noise that accompanied the death of the beast rattled Ruby to her core.

A human sounding scream had been cut short by the nasty, guttural noise of someone choking on fluid. Ruby turned around just in time to see one of the White Fang militants falling to his knees, his hands reaching up for his torn open neck. Where the bulky collar had once been was a smoking, twisted ring of metal fused into the man's flesh on either side of an open wound that was gushing blood. The man managed only an accusatory look before falling forward and tumbling down the steps to Ruby's left. She could sense the panic behind the masks of the man's squad mates, even without seeing their eyes. Before she could say anything else, the collar of another man exploded with enough force to blow him backward as his aura shattered and a spray of blood flew into the air.

The scene quickly turned to total chaos with civilians and White Fang alike beginning to yell out for each other over the noise of explosions and grimm. Ruby looked toward Hope to see the android impale a grimm through the chest with one of her swords. As the grimm turned to ash, another collar exploded within the huntress' peripheral vision.

"Penny, stop!"

The android did as she was told and took off to hover a few feet above the remaining grimm.

"Ruby…?"

"The collars and grimm are linked!" Ruby explained. "Don't kill any more of them!"

While Ruby's back was turned, another of the White Fang closed in with their sword drawn. The aggressor went for a cowardly strike to the huntress' blind side, only for the blow to be redirected by a buffed, light blue aura that suddenly appeared over the girl's own. Ruby stumbled from the impact only to turn around and smash the hilt of her sword into the man's face, sending him down to the floor of the landing.

"Thanks for the save!" Ruby said to Clover as he gave her a two-fingered salute. "We need to… everyone, stop fighting! Salem is our common enemy!"

"If we stop fighting, we die!" one of the faunus replied as he took aim at Ruby.

Clover got there in time, slicing through the man's rifle before shoving a sword through his stomach and kicking him backward.

"We've got to get eyes on Arthur Watts!" Clover called as he deflected another oncoming attacker. "He's got to be the one behind this!"

"He promised us Mantle!" the man returned as he threw out another strike for Clover.

"And now look at you!" Ruby accused, zipping across the landing with her Semblance to join Clover's side. She did a quick visual sweep of the area to try to estimate the number of attackers and came to the conclusion that there were at least 20, with just as many grimm occupying the area below the platform. Some were being held off by Hope, while others were rapidly approaching the steps. "What triggers the explosion, other than killing your grimm!?"

Ruby received another spray of gunfire for her efforts, which Clover deflected by rerouting his aura to protect her once again. Wasting no time, Ruby flew over to the attacker and cut him down, her heart pounding in her chest as she realized just how often she was getting blindsided.

"Stop! We don't want to have to do this! We can… we can save you!"

Again, suppressing fire came Ruby's way, but she was finally ready. Flittering from side to side with her Semblance, she avoided the hail of bullets while looking for an opening. Despite her best efforts, she couldn't cover every side at once, nor could Hope. Between one of her blinks to a new location, a stray collared ursa managed to escape Hope's zone of control and pin Ruby down from behind, snuffing out her aura as it took her to the ground.

"Ruby!"

The young huntress squirmed onto her back too late to get her sword up, but Clover's gifted aura absorbed the heavy claw to the face that would have otherwise surely killed her. Ruby struggled and slashed at the beast's arm before a series of three green and black swords erupted from the beast's chest, eliciting a dying roar and the sound of another exploding collar from the steps. The cloud of ash that appeared atop Ruby was punctuated by concentrated gunfire and a masculine cry of pain.

Clover had been hit by a coordinated assault, and the front of his uniform was torn with several bullet holes and splashes of red. The man stumbled backward toward one of the railings along the elevated landing, and Ruby watched the scene play out as though it was occurring in slow motion. Though it took only seconds for Clover to fall backward over the banister and hit the ground in a heap, Ruby felt as though she watched the spectacle for a lifetime. She struggled to get back to her feet and fly to him with her Semblance, only to find that her aura was still down and she was totally powerless to save him.

Powerless once again to make a difference, the moment things had gotten out of control.

Ruby began to run, uncaring that she was in mortal danger heading straight for the crowd of White Fang. As she raised her sword with an angered yell and tears in her eyes, a chain of exploding collars gave her pause as the entire area was bathed in intense green light. Hope's swords swirled faster than Ruby's eyes could track, a massive laser exploding from their center to sweep and carve through all of the grimm in the area. Another domino effect of exploding collars went off in rapid succession, and by the time Hope was done, the ground, steps, and part of the election hall were burning. Not a single one of the White Fang guards was left alive, their burning bodies littering the platform and steps.

Author's Note:

Next week will be a direct continuation from here, before branching out to the last scene that needs to be set up in Mantle…

-RD