Arthur Watts narrowed his eyes as he continued to drive his snowmobile forward at high speed, kicking up twin trails of white powder in his wake. The main door to Amity was closing, and he suspected that James had something to do with it even at such a distance behind him. Revving the throttle as hard as he could, Arthur flew forward, up the long , elevated ramp to the entrance, and underneath the door just in time to enter the arena. Oddly enough, the ground was covered with snow inside, and his vehicle carried him forward- too far forward to an unexpected cliff, beyond which a strange, out of place warmth was rising. Fearing he had somehow been lured into a trap, Arthur abandoned his snowmobile and dived into a series of rolls, ending up right near the edge of the precipice. Arthur craned his neck to look over the edge while trying to catch his breath, and what he saw caused him to freeze up momentarily.

Far below, his vehicle was falling toward what appeared to be bubbling lava. The built-in pit in the arena's lower section had been converted into a deathtrap, and more and more panels around the center combat ring quickly began to recede. Arthur wasted no time in getting to his feet and raising his overly complicated gun to sweep the area and check for James. The combatant he found waiting for him instead was a diminutive old woman wearing a set of high-tech goggles and wielding a pair of short scythes. Despite her stature and age, she seemed supremely confident as she stared the man down from across the arena.

"Don't even try it," Maria asserted as Arthur raised his ringed hand. "These goggles were made by your contemporary. They're tamper-proof, even for someone like you."

"Then I'll simply cut out the middleman," Arthur suggested.

Two bullets flew across the arena faster than either combatant could track, and yet, Maria managed to dodge both with the smallest possible adjustments to her stance. All Arthur could do was stare in disbelief as she began to walk forward, spinning her scythes in both hands simultaneously and letting the blades clash to create small sparks. Arthur engaged the wide energy shield from his rings once again and pressed down onto the floor of the arena, lifting a section of the ground several feet into the air and carrying himself upwards. Maria slowed to a stop just before the chunk of floating rock and watched as several others began to rise in kind all around her.

"Even if your sight cannot be stolen, and you have someone operating the traps here… I can manipulate the arena itself just fine," Arthur boasted. "See if you can stop me before I reach the control box."

"I don't have to," Maria offered, sounding almost bored. "I'm just the bait, and I've already bought enough time."

Before Arthur could do anything to stop him, James Ironwood dropped onto the platform just to the right of his own. Arthur let out another two shots for the man, only for James to raise a collapsible shield from his metal arm to absorb the bullets and return fire. With a quick roll, Arthur touched his rings down to the floating section of floor and guided it off to the side, floating quickly out of harm's way. It wasn't long before Maria's platform also rose into the air unprompted to carry her back to the fight, and Arthur let out a growl of frustration.

"Three of you?" the man questioned.

"That's right," Pietro Polendina's voice answered over the speakers surrounding the arena as several sections of ground retracted to the edges of the floor, leaving a wide drop to the lava below at the center of the arena below the floating platforms. "And one of you isn't walking away from this."

"Bold words," Arthur pointed out as he stopped maneuvering his platform in the dead center of the space. "But counteracting my control won't be so easy!"

Quite suddenly at the behest of Arthur's hand flicking downward, the platform upon which James stood began to rapidly fall. James leapt from the unstable ground and fired his gravity pistol to propel himself upward to another chunk of floating rock before aiming his other gun and firing a few rounds. Arthur raised his energy shield to catch the bullets, letting them rotate slowly within the blue field.

"Maria! Get to the stands on the side and provide covering fire! It's too dangerous for you to be out here without a way to save yourself!"

Before the woman could protest, her platform began to float away at Pietro's guidance, and James returned his attention to Arthur as the man tried to fight his rival's influence over the patch of ground. Seeing an opening, James launched himself forward across a long stretch of open air, firing behind himself all the way. Arthur brought his shield up in response, firing back the caught bullets as James holstered one of his pistols in midair. The bullets tore into the man's jacket, one of them finding flesh as James arrived at the platform. Paying no mind to the blood oozing from his shoulder, James threw a powerful cross for Arthur's stomach, causing the man to double over and stumble backward as his aura burst immediately. A follow up steel elbow strike caught Arthur in the face and blood flew from his mouth as he raised his revolver to fire at point blank.

Arthur's weapon came up a fraction of a second too slow as James seized his wrist and twisted it downward. Three shots went off into the air by James' side as he brought the smaller man to the ground, and an incredibly precise fourth shot from somewhere in the stands caught Arthur's pistol and sent it flying off the platform. Arthur was quickly pinned and opened his mouth, only to feel a set of knuckles slam into it before he had the chance to speak. The man's head whipped to the side as he let out a gurgling, blood-choked wheeze and began to panic. With no other option, he slapped his palm to the snow-covered tile beside him and the rings upon his fingers began to glow. The platform tilted 90 degrees at Arthur's command, causing both men to drop and separate in midair as they fell.

A flyby platform quickly caught James, and he took the opportunity to draw and aim his pistol as Arthur, too, called a platform toward himself. The mustachioed man began to guide himself toward the control booth only for several other platforms to rise up and form a makeshift wall in front of it, blocking his path. Before he could begin removing them one by one, James was on him yet again and leaping from section to section as quickly as he could. It was then that Arthur realized he had no option but to turn and fight, and one final chance to stop his opponent.

The energy shield at Arthur's wrist began to crackle and condense as its entire field turned an aggressive shade of dark red. Within seconds, the shield had compressed itself into a long, deadly energy javelin, its surface pulsing with unstable power. As James made the final, dust-propelled jump toward him, Arthur aimed for the center of the man's chest and let loose the javelin. Just as the deadly implement was loosed, a flying chunk of ground impacted Arthur's back, knocking him from his own platform. The man stumbled forward, squinting through the stars in his vision to try to find something, anything to grab onto. As he reached a hand out in midair, another bullet from the stands pierced through his forearm, sending waves of pain up through the limb and rendering it entirely useless. All that was left to do was to look up and see if his final effort had hit its mark.

James, too, was falling, albeit in a more controlled fashion. The energy javelin had torn straight through the right side of his chest, its trajectory knocked off center by the platform Pietro had collided into Arthur's back. Dark fluid spilled from the wound and spread across James' jacket, and his metallic arm hung limply at his side. He fired another dust-infused bullet to move himself toward Arthur in midair, only for a barely audible click to ring out as he pulled the trigger once again. A mere ten feet above the bubbling lava, a new platform zoomed down to catch the two men. Arthur was on his back and bleeding from the mouth and arm. James landed on his feet, the mechanical side of his chest sparking dangerously as he loomed over his fallen foe. He dropped his spent gravity pistol and drew the other from its holster with a menacing look in his eyes.

"I… can be useful…" Arthur began, his chest rising and falling rapidly. "I can… if you kill me here… then every single member o-"

Arthur's words were interrupted by a gunshot as a plume of blood rose from the center of his chest. Another was soon to follow as James kept his aim steady, widening the wound and tearing apart Arthur's flesh. Again he squeezed the trigger, and again as the man went completely limp. More and more deafening blasts echoed around the arena as he continued to fire, unblinking. When all that left the weapon anymore was a series of clicks, James closed the distance to the corpse of Arthur Watts and put a bootheel against the other man's side. Without a word, he pushed forward to send the body rolling over the side of the platform and down to the molten slag below.

James watched as the other man impacted the viscous surface, his body burning as it began to sink. Nothing was said. He didn't even blink.

"That's one problem taken care of," Maria's voice offered over James' earpiece. "What did that coward try to say to you to save himself?"

"I don't know," James answered as he stared at the spot where Arthur had disappeared below the surface only moments before. "He tried to tell me he would be useful to keep alive, and after that… I don't know. I didn't let him finish."

"He was a schemer," Pietro offered. "Whatever he was trying to sell you, it was laced with half-truths and deceit. You did the right thing, James."

"Don't call me 'James' after what you did going behind my back with Hope," James said coldly. "It's 'General.' And I know. No more games. No mercy. It's time to get Amity up to Atlas… and then it's time to make sure everyone is safely out of Mantle before we pull away."

James turned away from the pit and began to walk along the platform as it slowly rose into the air. He felt nothing inside, as though his heart had been emptied along with his weapons. All that was left in his mind was the next steps.

Cinnamon knew that she was at a distinct disadvantage against a grimm opponent, let alone an unfamiliar grimm opponent allied with a former friend. Though staving off Yuma was a painful process and she was doing everything she could to avoid killing the man, it was getting more and more difficult to keep herself alive with the unhinged beast constantly getting in the way of her efforts. Eventually, she would have to just run to keep both herself and Yuma alive. The only thing stopping her from running immediately was the knowledge that the second she removed herself from the fight, he would be off to command the grimm to kill innocents who had nothing to do with the conflict. It was a reality she didn't want to face, but one that was growing closer with every passing second.

Everything about the encounter had been a blur. Arcs of lightning from the spines of the grimm that she could barely dodge in time, countless crossbow bolts wedged into the lizard's face and chest, and minor wounds inflicted upon herself and Yuma as things wore on. The grimm and its master were remarkably coordinated for such new allies, and Cinnamon barely had room to breathe within their tandem onslaught. It took all of her focus just to stay alive, and eventually, her every movement was propelled only by adrenaline without any accompanying thought. It took her quite a while to notice that something was wrong as she held off the grimm, trading blows and dodging its deadly swipes. Eventually, Cinnamon realized that she was only fighting the grimm itself, and Yuma had stopped attacking.

The reptilian grimm leapt back to begin stalking a wide circle around Cinnamon after an exchange of slashes, and that was when she finally saw it. Yuma was lying in the street, his eyes glassy and a gaping wound torn into his neck and upper chest from where the collar had exploded. Cinnamon knew that she hadn't been responsible- not a single bolt or blow had come to the device, but that didn't make the sight any easier to process. It might have happened only seconds prior, or minutes ago in one of the more frenzied exchanges, but it didn't matter. There were no signs of life in the man. It was clearly too late to do anything for him- her former friend was dead, and Cinnamon knew that his collar wasn't likely to be the only one that had been remotely detonated apropos of nothing at Watts' command. All she could think about was how many other faunus may have just met the same fate.

Were any of her people in Mantle left alive?

Cinnamon clenched a fist behind her bladed crossbow, her arms shaking in a combination of rage and heartbreak. The lizard seemed completely unaware or uncaring that its master had fallen as it flicked its long tongue out in a rapid flurry. It sank a bit lower in its stance, getting ready to pounce as Cinnamon let out an impassioned yell and charged forward.

Evacuation was the furthest thing from her mind. It no longer mattered that Sun had pulled away without her, or that she was very much alone in the streets, midway between the few evacuation ships that remained.

She was going to kill everyone responsible for the deaths of her people, or die trying.

Author's Note:

At least 3 or 4 more chapters before the full evacuation to Altas, and they're… a lot.

Shoutout to Gravity as being the last truly good episode of RWBY. Hopefully Volume 9 is at least watchable to anyone who dares, but I won't be participating.

-RD