Ruby was fast. It was kind of her thing. She thought fast, talked faster, and ran even faster. And as she rocketed down the hall and into the arena, hopping in and out of her semblance and skidding as she dodged between arena seats and food vendors and random junk people had left out in the aisles, she felt like she was standing still.

Every time she slowed down for a heartbeat because she couldn't just run through people with her semblance, she felt every precious fraction of a second dragging by like sandpaper. Because Yang and Blake were fighting a very armed and very dangerous creep with a grudge, and Weiss was off who knew where trying to find the girl who'd already hurt her once before, and here Ruby was running away, and what if she didn't get back in time?

But that wasn't going to make her any faster, so she shoved the thought away.

It was easy to find Professor Ozpin, at least. He was still mid-speech in the center of the arena, standing between Ironwood and Lionheart. Ruby flung herself over the railing and rematerialized in front of him with a panicked explanation already spilling out of her mouth.

"Professor-the-White-Fang-are-here-and-my-team-are-outside-and-there's-this-guy-with-a-sword—!"

Ozpin reached down and turned off his microphone. "Good afternoon, Miss Rose," he said calmly. "Could you repeat all that for me, please? Slowly?"

She did her best, tumbling through her explanation of the weird text, and the weird empty shuttle landing area, and the weird creepy guy with the sword. "Yang and Blake don't have their weapons! We have to go help them! And Weiss, she went looking for Ilia and I don't know where she went but if she finds her—!

"James," Ozpin said, his expression darkening. "Contact security. Have them lock down the building, I don't want anyone getting in or out until we've dealt with this. Peter and Barty can look for Miss Schnee and the other intruder, and tell Glynda to follow me to landing port B."

Ironwood nodded. He took the microphone from Ozpin and handed it to Theodore. "Keep the crowd calm. I'll try to explain what's going on as soon as we know more."

By this point Ruby was already bouncing up and down on her heels. "I have to go," she said.

Ozpin's eyes widened. "Miss Rose, I am going to the shuttle port with you, but you need to wait—!"

But Ruby had already waited way too long. She burst apart and shot up and out of the arena, barely noticing the impossible jump she'd just made. There was another maze of confused spectators wandering out of their seats, and she caught snatches of anxious conversations in between bursts of her semblance. Soon she was in the final stretch, shooting across the open ring around the coliseum and skidding to a halt so she could turn between the shuttles—

Blake was on the ground, a hand clutched against her chest as she struggled to breathe. Yang crouched over her, shielding her with her body, looking up as the man's sword arm swept down. There was a bloody gash on her forehead, proof that her aura was already gone.

Ruby didn't scream. She didn't have time. She launched herself into her semblance, thinking that if she could just move a little faster, a little further, she could get in between them and stop it. But it was already happening as she moved, and she knew even as she crashed back into solid form and threw herself at her sister that it wasn't enough.

The sword came down in a vicious arc, just in time for another blade to appear out of thin air and slam it aside.

It was way too late to stop. Ruby plowed into Yang's side and they both went tumbling on top of Blake, landing in a tangled heap on the pavement. She caught a glimpse of black boots stepping over them. Then a woman in red and black, standing with their back to them, so that all Ruby could see of her was her hair. It was a waist-length tumble that would have looked just like Yang's if it had been blonde instead of black.

The man took a startled step back. "Who the hell are you?"

Instead of answering, she stepped forward and slashed at his face.

The fight didn't last long. He blocked a series of blows, his sword and hair glowing blood red. Then he lashed out, drawing his sword and slamming it into the stranger's so hard it shattered. She barely seemed to notice—just slipped it back into its sheath and brought it out with a fresh blade, this one glowing pale blue with ice Dust.

Her first strike stuck his foot to the ground. Her second shattered the ice blade on his stomach, and his aura flickered. Her third was with a blade that glowed a dim purple, delivered straight across his chest. It sent him flying backwards into one of the shuttles with enough force to cave in the wall. His aura shattered and he slumped to the ground, stirring weakly. She kicked him in the head, and he went still.

Ruby sagged with relief.

The woman raised her sword, pausing just long enough to aim the tip of the blade at the unconscious man's throat.

"Wait!"

Ruby wasn't sure which of them had said it, but the woman halted. She turned to look at them. Her face was hidden behind a bone helmet shaped like a Nevermore's mask, its four red eyes glaring down at them with cold, predatory intent. Ruby's voice dried up in her throat.

And then, softly, "Mom?"

"I saved you once," said Yang's birth mother. "From now on, you live or die on your own merit."

Yang struggled to sit up. "What?"

The woman—Raven—slashed her sword through the air, cutting a dark gap in space and stepping through without another word. It closed with a sound like ringing crystal, and she was gone as suddenly as she'd appeared. The look on Yang's face made Ruby's chest hurt—but at least they'd be alive to deal with it later, now that the man in red was down.

"Where's Weiss?"

Blake winced as she lifted her arm to point. There was a livid bruise on her stomach, and she had to struggle for the breath to speak. "She went that way."

Ruby followed the gesture and spotted Headmaster Ozpin across the outer ring, running with his cane in hand. Relief flooded her. As soon as he got here they could go find Weiss, and—

The loudspeakers crackled and hissed. "Over two hundred thousand people gathered here today," said a harsh, unfamiliar voice, "to celebrate an era of peace."

"Ilia!" Blake's eyes flew open wide. "The engines!"

They bolted for the nearest shuttle, with Ozpin right behind them. Yang had to sling Blake's arm over her shoulder so that she could keep up. And all the while, Ilia kept talking. "Four speeches, and none of them about how the united Remnant's first act of peace was to send my people to a Grimm infested island to die. No mention of the war we fought for the right to stay in Mistral. Of all the faunus being used up in Mantle's mines until their bodies give out."

They darted through the shuttle doors. Grim-faced, Ozpin pressed a button on the console and the voice came back, this time over a set of speakers. "Headmaster Theodore. I might have felt bad for you, if you'd ever done anything besides spew useless platitudes about fairness. I guess Vacuo is still sticking to its favorite strategy—wait around on the sidelines while other kingdoms brutalize their own people, and maybe intervene right at the end so you can call yourselves heroes."

Blake's face paled. "Please," she muttered, "Ilia..."

"Leonardo Lionheart. My mother used to think you were going to save the world. At least she never had to watch you sit on Mistral's council and compromise away every single thing Ghira Belladonna ever managed to accomplish. You are a liar, a coward, and a traitor."

Yang gripped Blake's shoulder, and Ruby leaned in on her other side to take her hand.

"James Ironwood. You and your two council seats have some fucking nerve talking about complacency. Unless you seriously expect us to believe you're spending billions of lien on Flagships and Paladins instead of fixing Mantle's walls because you're worried about the Grimm."

Ruby winced, realizing a second before it started what was coming next.

"Headmaster Ozpin. You've always been an advocate for change. As long as it's slow, careful change, right? It wouldn't do to upset people. What if the Grimm came?" Ilia scoffed. "The only difference between Jacques Schnee and a King Taijitu is the honesty of purpose. You have failed us."

The only sign that he'd heard her were the way his hands clenched around the controls as he landed the shuttle on the lower ring. They piled out, their boots scuffing on the pavement as they rushed towards an open door. There was a guard propping it open, lying very still. Ruby's throat tightened—but he was breathing. Just out cold.

"I'm tired of listening to humans and their pets pontificate about how wonderful the world is today," said Ilia, her voice acid and bitter. "I'm sick of hearing about the era of peace that took my parents from me. I am done watching this unearned celebration of a victory that never would have happened if faunus slaves revolts hadn't shamed Vacuo into actually doing something. The Vytal Festival is over."

The speakers went silent as Ruby sprinted down the hall, restrained from darting ahead with her semblance only by Yang's hand on around her wrist and the fact that she didn't know where to find Weiss.

The terrible quiet swelled, the seconds ticking by, and then burst with a sound like rolling thunder. Ruby lurched sideways and slammed headfirst into the wall. The hallway jerked and shuddered with the force of the explosion, and Yang and Blake toppled over one another. Only Headmaster Ozpin managed to keep his feet, though he stumbled and had to lean heavily on his cane for balance.

"The engines," Blake whispered, her voice thick with dread.

The threat of falling out of the sky seemed distant and unimportant to Ruby. She was free of Yang's grip now that she'd fallen over. So she burst apart and went hurtling down the corridor, darting in and out of her semblance to skid around a corner—and saw her partner lying in a crumpled heap against the wall.

"Weiss!" She dropped out of her semblance and landed on her knees next to Weiss. Her hands hovered uselessly for several seconds, her eyes flicking back and forth. There was a long gash on Weiss' arm, and she couldn't tell which of the red stains on her dress were from that, or—

A pained groan brought tears of relief to Ruby's eyes. "Can you hear me?" she asked, and gently rolled Weiss onto her side. She blinked a few times, and then let out a triumphant little, "ha!" that made absolutely no sense at all.

"What?" Ruby blurted.

"We're not falling."

Ruby heard running footsteps. She looked up to see Yang and Blake and Headmaster Ozpin rounding the corner behind her. "I'm fine," Weiss insisted, as they rushed over and started checking her for injuries. "Just bruised, that's all." Then she remembered her arm and winced. "And this, but it's not very deep."

"We need to get to the engines," Blake said, her eyes darting feverishly back and forth. "If they haven't failed yet, there has to be something we can do to stay in the air!"

"We should," Weiss agreed—but she seemed eerily calm. She started to stand, wobbled, and made an indignant noise when Ruby scooped her off the ground. They sprinted to the heart of the coliseum, where the massive engines used tons of gravity Dust to suspend the whole coliseum thousands of feet in the air.

Other than a few cracks in the ceiling, there was no sign that anything had happened. The engines were completely unharmed.

One floor up, on the other hand... the delicate inner machinery that created and deployed the arena segments, and probably a lot of the equipment that did the audio broadcasting and stuff, had been melted into so much slag. The room itself was blown open, revealing the central arena sloping downward into the rubble.

Through the hole, they could see Theodore and Lionheart struggling to their feet. Both were covered in dust and bits of rubble. Lionheart's aura must have broken, because he was cradling his arm against his chest. Theodore didn't look much better off, but he was shouting into his microphone, struggling to calm the crowd that had erupted into complete pandemonium.

Seconds passed. It finally started to sink in, what had just happened—Ilia had made it impossible for them to hold the Vytal Festival, but she hadn't knocked them out of the sky. They weren't going to fall. Her team was okay.

Even after the initial danger had passed, there was so much left to do. Reassuring the crowd, officially arresting Adam, assessing the damage done to the arena, piecing together what the plan had been, trying to find where Ilia had gone...

Ozpin told them firmly that he would handle it. Team RWBY were sent straight to the on-site medics to get their collection of cuts and bruises tended to. Soon they were all huddled together on a bench in Amity's infirmary, hiding from a small throng of reporters and waiting for the shuttle service to start up again so that they could go home.

Ruby was the first to break the stunned silence. "Did... did we win?"

"A bomb went off in Amity Coliseum," Weiss pointed out. "Although I suppose no one was badly injured, so I'd say capturing Taurus was still a victory."

Blake flinched. "We didn't," she said softly. "Capture him, I mean. We lost."

"Oh." Weiss started picking at her sleeve. "Ruby got help in time, then?"

Mutely, Ruby shook her head.

"Then what happened?"

"My mom showed up," said Yang, and Weiss' eyes went wide.

"But... I thought she was..."

"Not Summer. My bio mom." Yang clenched her fists in her lap. "Seventeen years of radio silence and she literally popped out of thin air to save my life, say something cryptic about how I'm on my own now, and disappear again."

Weiss cringed. She worked her jaw for a moment, like she was trying to figure out what to say, but nothing came out.

Ruby leaned into her sister's side. "Are you okay?" she asked, which was dumb. She obviously wasn't.

"I..." Yang took a deep breath, shut her eyes, and sighed. "I'll be fine."

Blake frowned. "Yang, are you—"

"We're alive," she insisted. "That's the important thing. It's just... a lot to process."

Ruby nodded solemnly. She was still buzzing with adrenaline, as if her body hadn't gotten the message that the fight was over. "Everything happened so fast."

"Yeah," Yang said bitterly. "Probably because we didn't actually do anything."

Weiss humphed. "I don't know about that. I think my confrontation with Ilia went rather well, all things considered."

"Didn't you get knocked out?" Ruby asked tentatively.

"Not the fight, you dunce." She flashed a smug little grin. "I'm talking about diplomacy."

Blake stared at her incredulously. "You talked her out of it? How?"

"You told me about her, remember?" Weiss looked away, fiddling with the cuffs of her sleeves. "She and I do have a bit in common, though it took some convincing before she believed me on that front." She didn't say what convinced her, probably because they were still in the infirmary where one of the EMTs might walk in, but Ruby could guess.

"Oh." Blake's ears twitched. "I didn't think you were listening to me."

"Of course I was listening. Even if I mostly disagree with you about that, you were right about some things. About shame. Once I thought about it, I could... sort of see where she was coming from."

Ruby completely lost control over her own body at that point, and wrapped her arms around Weiss. There was an instant of panic, because that had been way too sudden and Weiss didn't always like hugs! But her partner soon relaxed into her hold, and it was all she could do not to make some happy high-pitched noise and maybe overwhelm her.

Blake leaned closer in her seat. "Hey," she said softly. And then, when Weiss looked at her, "I'm proud of you."

She spluttered a bit, then turned bright red and hid her face in Ruby's shoulder.

"Look at you, saving the day," Yang teased.

Weiss groaned. "Stop."

"You're gonna have to get used to compliments if you keep being awesome!" Yang slung her arms around all three of them and pulled them into a sloppy and slightly cramped mega-hug. "Seriously, though. You did good."

Ruby kinda wanted to pile on the congratulations, too—but Weiss was starting to shake, so instead she gently untangled them and gave her a smile instead. She could tell her later, when she was feeling a little less overwhelmed. And then again the next time she did something cool, because she acted like she barely knew what compliments even were, and that would not stand!

The lull that followed was nice while it lasted. Ruby's eyelids were starting to droop a little, which was weird because it wasn't even four in the afternoon yet, when she heard the door click open and startled upright.

"Hello girls," said Professor Oobleck, poking his head inside. "The police would like statements from you as soon as you can." They stood as one and shuffled out of the room, all dreading having to explain everything that had just happened. "Oh, and Miss Schnee? Your father wants to speak with you. Your scroll is still evidence at the moment, but you can borrow mine if you like."

Weiss tensed up. "Can I do that first?"

"Of course, of course!" Oobleck ushered her off to the side. "I'm sure he's quite worried."

Soon all they could see of Weiss was her retreating back. Ruby made a face. "I hope she doesn't come back upset again..."

"She better not," Yang muttered. Her eyes flashed red. "I'm getting really sick of this crap, and I'm pretty sure JNPR would help hide his body."

Blake flinched. "Can we not joke about that?"

"I know, I know. I'm just sick of having to stand around and watch this." Yang kicked her foot against the wall she was leaning against, hard enough to leave little scuff marks. "We all know what's going on, right? It's not subtle. The asshole's a sorry excuse for a parent."

"I never said he wasn't."

Ruby tucked her arms around her stomach. She didn't like the strange tension in the air, or the reminder of what Weiss was facing right this second. But this wasn't a fight—Weiss' dad wasn't some Grimm they could team up and take down. Mostly because Ruby was pretty sure she'd be sad if he died. Fairly sure? It was hard to imagine either option, really. Either way, this wasn't a threat they could help her with, except by trying to calm her down after the fact.

So Ruby stood in the hallway, her fingers twitching with restless dread she couldn't pin down to a source, waiting for her partner to come back. She steeled herself for tears, or smashing things—but when Weiss came back around the corner it was like the lights had gone out behind her eyes, and left her body behind.

"Let's go," she said, ignoring their concerned looks and anxious questions. "We have to give our statements."

It didn't take long. Mostly because there was hardly anything to tell—most of them hadn't managed to do very much. What little there was, they sort of... skirted around.

They didn't exactly lie, at first. Yang said the fight had been interrupted at the last second, right after Ruby talked about running to get Ozpin, and the police just sort of... assumed. Blake said they knew the man—she said the man, not his name, her leg juddering up and down under the table—was one of the White Fang because of his mask.

Then they asked Weiss how she'd managed to keep a highly trained White Fang operative from planting a bomb in Amity's engine room, and she shrugged. "I'm not really sure," she said, her eyes fixed on her hands. "My family can summon defeated foes, but I've never been able to do it before. I tried, and then I hit my head, and I don't remember what happened after that."

Two hours later, they were on the news as the heroes who'd saved Amity.