Sun's heart raced as the transport continued to climb through the skies, surrounded by the screams of grimm and echoing aircraft fire. There were no windows within the belly of the large craft, leaving everyone to simply guess at what was going on around them based on the noises outside. An explosion sounded off followed by a long, whistling screech suggesting that some sort of flying vehicle had been shot down. Sun's heart skipped a beat as he strained to hear any details other than the murmurs of the tightly packed citizens and persistent hum of the vehicle he was trapped in.

"…gods, I hope that wasn't Neptune…" Blake said as she gripped Sun's hand a bit tighter. "I don't like this at all. Not knowing what's going on is torture…"

"Don't even suggest that," Sun warned. "I feel like I'm gonna throw up. We… all of our friends need to meet up as soon as we get topside to figure out our next move without Ironwood. We've got one chance to get out. One chance to leave Atlas before the whole damned city takes off…"

"What are you thinking?" Blake asked. "He's not going to just let us leave. He's going to want all hands on deck with smoothing the transition of Mantle citizens up to Atlas. Besides… where would we even go?"

"Vacuo," Sun answered immediately as his writhing tail rubbed up against the steel wall of the cargo hold. "If not everyone, then some of us need to head to Vacuo. It's the only Relic that will still be in play after Atlas takes off, and we can't let Salem get to it first. As for convincing him… leave it to me."

The transport suddenly shifted its momentum, rising with a violent jerk before arresting its motion and beginning a slow descent. Sun's stomach lurched at the change and he stumbled forward slightly, almost feeling as though he was going to pass out. Fortunately, Blake kept a hand on his chest to keep him steady. It was only then that Sun realized just how compromised he was- his head was pounding, he was sweating profusely, and his lightly-bandaged wounds from the explosion at the hotel were itchy and raw from being stretched and warped by his movements in combat. Sun wanted to throw up, have a complete breakdown, and slip into unconsciousness in that order, but he knew that all three options were off the table.

As the hatches on either side of the aircraft opened, people began immediately flooding out onto the landing pad and down the short steps to the open area in front of Atlas Academy. Several students and military officials stood waiting to direct the flow of traffic, and things quickly slowed to a crawl while Sun and Blake shuffled along with the crowd. It didn't take them long to notice Qrow standing between the semicircular arrangement of landing pads, surrounded by military robots carrying automatic rifles. Sun pulled Blake along as he jogged toward the man, a terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"Qrow!"

The seasoned huntsman looked over toward the faunus couple and let out an uncharacteristic sigh of relief.

"Good to see you both, especially hearing that Salem was there with you. How did you get out alive…?"

Sun and Blake exchanged a look before he clenched a fist and tried to keep his voice neutral.

"…Ironwood helped us out remotely. We'll leave it at that, for now. We're… it's not just us, right? It can't just be us that made it back to Atlas…"

"Tai and Elm got here via Raven a few minutes ago, and several other ships have landed before and after," Qrow explained. "They had Oscar and rushed him inside before things started to get crazy with the civilians. Ozpin being unconscious right now isn't ideal, and they're working to revive him. Other than that, though…"

"What?" Blake asked, raising her voice over the sounds of aircraft artillery keeping grimm from reaching Atlas. "None of… no one else from RWBY is here yet?"

"No one," Qrow confirmed. "All communications just went down, right after James told me he's working on raising Amity up to land outside the city on the unoccupied ground. Get ready for a lot of gunfire, a lot of grimm… and probably Salem herself trying to stop that arena from landing. We all know what it means to get global communications back up. In some ways, that's almost more important than the transports."

"Nothing's more important than the transports," Neptune denied as he jogged up, out of breath. "Hey, you two. Where is everyone…?"

"It's… we don't know," Sun answered. "Part of me wants to go back down and help everyone get topside, but I know we can't…"

"Neopolitan went down into the city," Qrow replied as more ships transitioned to land on some of the pads around them. "I don't know what's gotten into her, but she seems almost fanatically committed to the cause, now. Speaking of… Ilia's down in the infirmary, if you want to go and see her."

"I do, but… I feel like I need to be here," Sun resolved. "Until I know everyone's safe…"

"…I'll go," Blake offered as she looked at her scroll. "I've got signal up here again, so I can keep you updated while you watch for the others. Some structure must have gone down in Mantle to kill all signals at once…"

"Not exactly a surprise," Qrow pointed out. "We knew some of the comm towers were compromised already. Get down to the infirmary and bring whoever's able to stand back up here with you, Blake. We're going to need to stand united… especially when we start discussing next moves."

"You've got that right," Sun agreed. "We can't all just isolate ourselves in the sky and hope that Salem goes away on her own. Some of us are going to have to head to V-"

Sun's words were interrupted by a massive portal ripping open in the space in front him, and he hurriedly scrambled out of the way while dragging Blake with him on instinct. Neptune dived to the side, landing in the thin layer of the snow on the concrete while Qrow simply took a few steps to his left as though he was used to the sudden phenomenon. In stark contrast to Raven simply walking through, though, three aircraft sped through the wide opening in rapid succession, soaring over the crowd and swerving to avoid a head-on collision with the Academy itself. The transports slowed to a hover off to the sides before beginning to drift back toward the landing pads as several figures on foot finally did manage to exit the portal.

Daisuke was first, looking relatively unharmed but sweaty with exertion as he slipped on the snow and used his massive tail as a counterbalance to keep himself upright. Corsac came through next, his robe slightly torn with fabric hanging about his chest and shoulders. Jaune brought up the rear, working to pull Raven through the portal with him as the two appeared to struggle to reach the other side. Sun saw bright orange embers filtering through the connecting tunnel before it suddenly snapped closed and Raven stumbled through, missing an arm. She and Jaune went down to the pavement together as Raven's weapon fell away from her, clattering along the ground.

"Raven!" Qrow yelled as he ran to approach his sister. "What the hell… your arm!"

"Yeah, I know!" Raven spat, breathing heavily as she rolled off of Jaune and onto her back, only for the boy to immediately move to her side and place his freezing gauntlets up against the wound. The Spring Maiden clenched her teeth and closed her eyes, speaking in a hiss as she felt a flood of aura working to cauterize the bleeding stump. "No choice… had to stop Cinder… get through…"

"Save your strength," Qrow ordered. "Jaune, get her downstairs, now!"

"On it!" the boy acknowledged as Blake ran up to Raven's other side.

"I'm headed there anyway, let me help!"

Raven allowed herself to be dragged up to her feet, though she immediately twisted her torso to force the teens off of her. The Maiden's ragged breaths became visible in the crisp midmorning air as she hunched over, glaring daggers at Qrow.

"No. Yang… she's still down there. Stem the bleeding completely, and then I have to make one more trip to Mantle…"

"We can't just keep relying on your Semblance to pull everyone's asses out of the fire!" Qrow snapped. "Eventually, Salem's going to be ready and waiting for you!"

"I'm not abandoning Yang again!" Raven shot back as she reached out her arm, her whirring scabbard flying into her grip. "And I won't let you stop me from retrieving her. I'm done running!"

"Let her go," Sun suggested as he finally got to his feet and rested a hand on Qrow's shoulder. "I'll… head down with her, make sure she gets back safely. A fighter has to go with her if she's in that state…"

Blake's ears flattened as she narrowed her eyes at her partner.

"Sun, don't you make me stop you fr-"

"You won't have to. I'm going."

The assembled hunters turned to find Taiyang standing a short distance away, his trident in hand. Elm was supporting a shaky-looking Oscar near the front door of the Academy, but the pair didn't choose to approach alongside the older huntsman.

"My family, my fight," Taiyang asserted as he walked up and gave Qrow a nod.

Raven looked her former husband up and down, finding him to be in fairly good shape outside of a few scratches and one bandaged wound along his left upper arm. The woman took a few deep breaths to center herself before giving him a nod. It took Taiyang a moment to notice her missing arm, though once he did, he merely knelt down and reached out a hesitant hand to lightly touch the side of her shoulder.

"…our family," Raven tried as she took note of the sadness in Taiyang's eyes. "I fucked up, Tai…"

"It's war," Taiyang said softly as he met Raven's eyes. "Whoever did this to you, it isn't your f-"

"I'm not talking about my arm," Raven interrupted.

Taiyang gave the woman a slow nod as he stood up and Raven mirrored his movements.

"Our family," Taiyang agreed. "We can worry about the past later. For now… let's go and protect our daughter."

Harriet blinked awake, her vision fuzzy as tiny snowflakes lazily drifted down onto her face. All around her, she could smell fire, steel, and blood. Based on the fact that most of her body was numb, she assumed that a lot of it was her own. The temptation to close her eyes again and sleep was overpowering, but she refused to allow herself the luxury. She was gone and on the loose in Mantle due to Harriet's personal failure, though the crunching of combat boots on snow signaled that someone else had arrived on the scene.

With a pained gasp, Harriet tried to force her body up from the wreckage to no avail. Steel beams from the radio tower she had been unceremoniously thrown into had pinned her legs and torso, and another was firmly planted atop her arm. Ahead of her was a maze of twisted cables and steel, through which a figure was approaching. If it was an enemy, Harriet knew that there would be little she could do to fight back. Fortunately for her, the blurry figure began shifting beams off of Harriet's body as they approached amid the wreckage.

"Maiden," the voice said as its owner got close enough for Harriet to see some detail through her blurred vision. There were odd protrusions from the speaker's upper arms, and their camouflage uniform was covered in ash and blood. "Hold still. People are counting on you."

Harriet looked down to find a spiraled piece of rebar impaled through the side of her abdomen. She knew what was about to happen, and sucked in a breath while taking the dark hand offered to her. With a few more sharp inhales, Harriet allowed herself to be pulled up as the rebar slipped down and through her. The pain was unbearable, and she fell forward into her savior's arms with hissing gasps while black spots danced in her vision.

"F-fuck…"

"Yeah. You've got that right. I've got some bandages, and your aura can do the rest until we get back up top. We've got to get to Rust as quickly as possible. Last call back to Atlas… and we've both got people relying on us."

"Yeah…" Harriet agreed. "But what are you doing here? I thought… backup… you were headed to Sun's crew…?"

"…things got complicated," the woman answered as she brushed her blood-soaked dreads from her face and Harriet finally pieced together exactly who she was looking at. "Hold still."

Harriet closed her eyes as Cinnamon worked to bandage her. Surprisingly enough, perhaps on account of her newfound power, aura began to flood back through her body as she was tended to. Running would be a stretch… but keeping the grimm away from them with bursts of raw magical power was back on the table. In minutes, flight likely would be as well.

"Did they ever," Harriet acknowledged. "I'll… get us to Rust, as soon as I can get back on my feet. Are you alright?"

Cinnamon didn't look up as she worked to wrap Harriet's torso in cloth.

"…all of my people down here are dead. It's going to be a long time until I'm alright again. I… almost decided to just die down here and take as many as I could with me on the way out."

"What stopped you?" Harriet dared to ask.

"…for whatever unfathomable reason… people seem to care about me," Cinnamon said as she pulled the bandage tight. "I owe them more than going out in a futile blaze of glory. That's enough to keep me going for now."

"I know that feeling," Harriet acknowledged. "Even if… the one who cared about me is dead."

"…there are others," Cinnamon offered. "Even if you don't know it yet. Come with me and find out. Besides… we've both got scores to settle, too."

Harriet said nothing as she braced against Cinnamon's shoulder. A second wind was coming, and she intended to ride it forward to wherever Cinder was headed.

Author's Note:

Next time- Yang tries to make her way to Ruby and May before it's too late…

-RD