Let's get to it.

Summer stared unflinchingly at the man in front of her. She remained compliant to a fault, no thrashing, cursing, or even a hint of jitters. She noted that the man chosen for her processing was, very likely, unprepared for a woman to remain statue still whilst boring a hole into his very being.

Unprofessional considering he had a rifle at his side and she was confined bodily to a metal slate by her wrists, waist, neck, thighs, ankles, underneath her ribs, and biceps. Not to mention that, as if by some measure it'd be an issue, she also had a caged muzzle on. Frankly though, she didn't blame him for his fear. She probably looked like a massive psychopath right now.

"Uh," he cleared his throat as his voice broke slightly, "Summer Rose?"

"Yes."

He wrote something down on the sheet in front of him.

"Huntress from Vale, twenty years?"

"Yes."

Again he scribbles the information quickly.

"Married? Erm, divorced—"

"Separated."

"Separated..." he mumbled, crossing something out and writing in the new line.

"Female?"

"Really?"

He scrambles and fills in another box. She sighs, realizing this would take some time before she even made it to the cell.

"Mother of one?"

"... Yes."

He frowned at the information but didn't seem too sympathetic as he wrote it down in the same breath.

Bureaucrats.

He continued answering away at whatever else was left, evidently not needing to ask her anymore questions. This was surprisingly uneventful. Summer hadn't ever been arrested, always on the better end of the law when she could help it. She always assumed being arrested would be more... Intense.

Instead she got the distinct feeling the man processing her was more nervous than she.

The sound of a door behind her sliding open could be heard, but considering her position, she couldn't really check to see who. Luckily, or perhaps not, their voice made it obvious.

"Summer Rose."

"James."

Once upon a time, they'd been friends. She knew the guy who made him now and knowing it now made their friendship a little awkward. Watts was a dick, so it was kinda like hating someone's rude dad a lot.

Also the fact that he had her chained up like a nutcase and tried to kill her family. Couldn't forget that.

"You may leave, Officer Mullen."

The man, Mullen, she now knew, scrambled out of the room like a mouse when the lights went on.

When the door closed, James walked around her forcibly prone form and the desk, he remained standing when he was opposite of her.

"... How have you been?"

Summer sighed. James never was known for his stellar conversation skills.

"James, do you not recall that the last time anyone from my family ran into you, you nearly killed them on the spot, and you open with 'how are you'?"

"When have Raven and I not tried to kill each other?"

Point to James. As violent as their last encounter was, he wasn't wrong. The two got along about as well as one would expect an ex-bandit who sidled the line between legality and unlawful behavior and the general to the world's strongest superpower would.

That didn't change the fact that Raven very nearly didn't come back home from that fight.

"James, I know you're better than this."

His face remained impassive. Not a twitch of the eye or muscle.

"You know no such thing."

"James, do you really think—"

"I will be doing the questioning here."

Oh he was in one of his moods, too.

She rolled her eyes, settling as best she could in her restraints. Once she was as comfortable as she could be, she stared at him.

"Go on then."

She was familiar with James and his methods. He was, quite literally, a machine. Remaining defiant would only serve to drag this out. He recognized this too, simply nodding before continuing.

"Ozpin would have me arrest you."

"Just arrest me?"

His eyes narrowed ever so slightly you'd miss it if you weren't watching. Summer knew this man well, though. He was keeping something from her. Not that she was in the position to ask what.

"Right, right. You're the question guy. Go on. But for the record, that wasn't a question."

"... I am inclined to believe that you and your company have sided with Salem."

"James. I have literally seen your processor. Again, that wasn't a question."

He leaned in.

"Are you and your company working with Salem?"

Ruby tilted her head as much as she could, as if mulling it over.

"Probably."

He stared unblinking into her eyes.

"... Probably?"

"Yeah. As in, we likely are?"

And everyone who met Ruby thought she inherited her natural talent at annoying people from her dad.

"I don't suppose you'll take this seriously?"

"Unlikely."

"Even if faced with torture?"

Summer scoffed. "James, are you really gonna torture me?"

He pulled out his hand cannon and shot her in the shin. Aura be damned, with the range he was from her, she could feel that her leg had fractured. On a weaker person, they would've been screaming, and certainly would've been maimed by such an attack.

Still, she hardly made a sound beyond a slight grunt of exertion. She knew that, James knew it too. It was a warning, more than anything.

"Fine. I'll cooperate. And for future reference, the warning shit isn't supposed to actually make contact with the person you're warning."

Nodding, he holstered his gun again. "Duly noted. Now, let us try this again. Are you colluding with Salem now?"

Summer shrugged as best she could. "I am."

"And the others?"

"They are too."

He grunted. "And you would betray all of humanity to join her cause?"

"You know as well as I do that Oz is running the world towards its end."

James narrowed his eyes. "How much do you know?"

Summer's eyes softened. "I know that whatever he showed you is what made you this way."

"You're wrong. What Ozpin has opened my eyes to and what I have done in response are not his choices. They are mine."

"James, where's your humanity?"

"You know damn well I am no human."

Summer scowled. "You're more human than some actual humans are. Is there really no way you'll even hear us out?"

"Atlas does not negotiate with terrorists."

No, she supposed, it didn't. It never tried with the White Fang, what would make their group, which James had been led to believe up until now yearned for the end of the world, any better?

Perhaps she was a fool for trying to change his mind, but there had been a time where she and her team had been happy, or at the very least, fine with calling him a friend. Was it so bad that she wanted to avoid as many fights as she could? She already lost Tai, almost lost her daughter, and in front of her was the man who nearly killed someone Summer saw as a sister.

But Summer was never a spiteful soul. She truly did want peace, and she always tried to talk someone down if she could. But she knew before coming here that James wasn't one of those rare cases where people threw down their arms and were willing to listen.

Oz had broken him. Slowly and methodically, to the point where James didn't even know it had happened. Scared into trying to solve something he never could. Her heart went out to him, even as he stared coldly down at her.

"We will continue with this once you have been secured."

She rustled in her confines. "More secure than this?"

He said nothing, simply walking back the way he'd come from.

"Please relocate the captive to sector three, block H, cell thirty-one."

She could only assume from the placement in the alphabet and double digit number that she was going into something akin to solitary confinement. Fine by her, she'd been through worse in the field.

The transport was slow, giving Summer time to observe the facility around her. Sterile, monotone, and cold. If that wasn't Atlas in its entirety, she didn't know what was. She'd be surprised if even a cockroach could manage to survive here.

After entirely too long, she was carted up in front of the cell they'd be putting her in. As she expected, it was a tiny space, probably only enough room for her to stretch each arm out from the center. The interior was solid concrete all around, minus the doorframe, which was instead constructed of steel. A single fluorescent bulb embedded in the ceiling cast the cell in a dim, sickly light. There was a flat bench at the far wall that was likely supposed to be some postmodern rendition of a bed but looked more like a metal shelf.

The slab she was confined to was slotted perfectly into the doorway. She heard a series of clicks and a pneumatic hiss before the shackles around her abruptly released her, leaving her to catch herself lest she tumble face first into metal.

Once again there was a hiss behind her, followed by a ker-chunk as metal teeth locked into place, connecting the metal to frame with no light peeking through from the outside.

The first thing she did was stretch. The pins and needles were bad. After she managed to regain the feeling in her limbs, she took a seat. Some would question why, after being unable to move for so long, she would immediately go sedentary again, to which Summer would gladly ask what anyone else would do in a roughly five by five stone closet other than sit down.

So yeah. Just as comfortable as it looked.

Sighing, she allowed her aura to expand for a trick that few could pull off. While most hunters could push their aura out, the amount that could push their aura far beyond their own body was very limited. For one, unless you had a massive reserve of the stuff, it just wouldn't work without exhausting yourself. Likewise the concentration for such a tactic was monumental. If you succeeded though, you could feel other life around you.

It worked in situations where one's senses were limited or hindered in some way, as everyone had an aura, even if it was yet to be unlocked. For that same reason, it didn't work on Grimm but the creatures of the night generally made themselves known before it was needed.

Considering the space she was in, concentration wouldn't be difficult to achieve. Summer didn't have gargantuan aura reserves to pull from, but she did have something else.

Relaxing her body, allowed her eyes to glow as she used the latent magic contained within her to crawl ever so slowly beyond the confines of the room.

Using magic wasn't something she could say she was proficient at, especially not compared to Ozpin, Salem, or even Cinder from what she'd seen. The silver eyes were something of a hat trick in comparison to what the maidens or ancients could do, but it still had a whole lot of power.

Issue was, magic worked a little differently than semblances or aura. Key difference being that many auras and semblances could be trained to become nearly unidentifiable, invisible, or even impossible to detect or predict. Magic was unpredictable too, but you could feel it.

Like electricity on your skin, magic was something so much more tangible than the aura based style everyone knew. So when magic was used, it was obvious to anyone that something was going on. It almost felt unnatural. Funny to her now, knowing that once upon a time anyone could feasibly learn or use magic.

She had to be slow. If she was just using aura, nobody would be any the wiser to her little trick. Too fast though and it'd be hard to write off multiple guards getting a tingle or an itch in the neck at the exact same time.

So for the next two hours she did this. It was exhausting, and she felt a headache throbbing behind her eyes but she could now feel everyone in the general vicinity.

She had to wait until night. Whenever that was. She had been held in the windowless, clockless, interrogation room for who knows how long, and been here, also without windows or clocks, for a couple hours to boot. She was going off of guesswork.

That wasn't entirely true, however. Since she could sense the guards coming and going on their patrols of the block, she could get a vague sense of when it was a nighttime rotation. As it stood, the amount of guards had stated the same, but the way they were moving had changed over her little stay.

Where as before, every life she felt was stationary, the current movements suggested the guards were going cell to cell. Checking to see if everything was where it had to be, almost. Of course, this could just be a standard part of Atlas routine, but Summer couldn't keep this up unless she wanted to live with this headache for a week.

She waited to see how long it took the guards to do a single pass before she finally pressed the device in her mouth.

She waited only a moment before a portal opened and Raven stepped through. She turned back and shouted into it.

"Just wait a damn second you bastards! I need to see if it's safe first!"

Summer shook her head and watched as Raven closed the portal and realized where she was standing. The two of them would basically be chest to chest in the cell if not for Summer being seated.

"Cozy in here, huh?"

Summer snorted and kicked her shin. Raven handed her ax over and Summer clipped it to its holster.

"Are there guards?"

Summer gave her an unimpressed look. "What kind of question is that?"

Raven scoffed. "You could've just said yes."

Another kick to the shin. "Yes. Easily over fifty in the entire block."

Raven hummed and regarded the door. She gave it a tap with the hilt of Omen and it clanged a dull sound. She whistled and turned back.

"Man, Jimmy's got you locked up like a rabid animal, huh?"

"Guess he wasn't taking any chances."

Raven tapped her ear and kept staring at the door. "Doctor Shithead, we gotta door problem here."

There was garbled complaining from the other end before Raven looked back. "He said he'd work on it from the outside."

"If he could do it from the outside, why'd we need you to come in? Couldn't Watts just follow me on cams?"

Raven opened her mouth to answer, then froze and brought a hand to her chin. Her brow furrowed and Summer watched as the gears turned. Raven reached for her ear again.

"Hey Quack."

More grumbling on the other end.

"Why didn't we just follow Summer on cams and do this whole door unlocking thing?"

More muttering and Raven looked at Summer as it became obvious the doctor was ranting about something or the other.

"Uh huh. Access. Sure. And?"

This time it sounded like telling and Summer decided then and there that this was easily the worst escape she'd ever been a part of.

Raven kept listening before turning and opening a portal back, likely to one of the kids. She reached through and when she pulled her hand back, she had a bomb. She called back through the portal.

"When you said you were working on it, I thought you meant you were hacking it!"

"I just told you, woman, I don't have access or I would've simply done all of this on my own!" Summer heard him called back.

Raven stared down at it and looked back up. "How am I supposed to use this?"

A moment later, a crumpled up sticky note was tossed through as well. Raven picked it up, unfurled it, and scanned it quickly.

Rolling her eyes, she slapped the sticky note to the door and the portal closed again.

"So apparently this won't kill us."

Summer stared at the bomb in her hand unamused. "That was the least comforting way you could've said that."

Raven huffed. "What's got your cape in a twist?"

Summer crossed her arms. "Other than being strapped to a moving wall for half the day and spending the other half in Remnants least comfortable tomb?"

Raven quirked an eyebrow and started securing the bomb to the door. "It's not that bad in here. You've got a bench."

Summer knocked on the bench twice and it clanged both times.

Raven hummed in mock appreciation. "Oh, stainless steel too, nice touch."

Summer shook her head and let Raven prep the bomb. When it was done they both pressed themselves as far as they could in such a cramped space. Raven opened the portal and told everyone to jump through on her mark, to which Summer heard scattered agreement.

The bomb beeped then an electric thump could be heard before the door frame short-circuited and the giant slab that had been acting as a door promptly cascaded to the ground with the loudest possible slam it could.

Summer was shaking her head and Raven stared blankly.

"Well," Raven finally said as the sound of rushing guards grew louder and an alarm was tripped, "The door's open."

Summer's head fell into her hands.

Nora ducked as a hail of bullets followed their group down the hallway. They rounded the corner, bullets whizzing narrowly by.

"Remind me why everyone in the Atlas military knows we're here right now!?"

Cinder snarled. "Blame the doctor for not considering the weight of the door!"

Speaking of doors, the one they'd just been about to pass through slammed shut as the emergency bulkhead blocked off their route, forcing them to go the other way, once again barely avoiding bullets as they did.

Jayne just sighed. "Honestly, this isn't that much different than what me and Adam were doing! Seriously, we nearly brought a building down on ourselves!"

"Jaune," Pyrrha shot him a look, "I could've gone my whole life not knowing that!"

Ruby was at the front of the group, faster than everyone else. "Left!"

They all followed her lead, Jaune sticking at the back and blocking as much as he could. Watts's voice came in through their ears.

"More guards coming from hall J!"

Ren yelped and duck narrowly under a hail of gunfire from the hall. "Just say left or right!"

Things were going about as expected, if not that the military caught on to their presence far sooner due to the initial escape. Watts was currently doing his best to keep up with them on whatever cameras he could manage to hack while simultaneously trying to to bypass the security systems to keep doors open and throw soldiers off their trail.

"I have one of the doors under my control! Turn down hall L!"

Ruby looked at the two hallways head, neither one marked.

"The right one!"

Turning right, they all poured it on and cleared the threshold just as the door slammed down, the sound of the nearest soldier on their tail rebounding off of it.

They all caught their breath, staying alert and looking around. Everything here looked the same, all white, metal hallways that were devoid of even the slightest directory.

"Watts, how do we get to the vault?"

"I'm figuring that out. For now you're safe to continue down that hall. There should be a door leading to outside the compound."

Following his advice they fled the scene and pushed ahead into the cold biting air of Atlas. There was a snowfall that was obstructing vision, a dense, white screen of snow hid anything beyond a few meters.

"You're currently in the open training grounds in the center of the compound. If you turn thirty degrees right and walk about a hundred meters forward you should reach another section of the compound. There's no explicit location marked for the relic, but that particular section has a large bulkhead and a chute that abruptly stops."

AKA, a secured stairwell or elevator that led to an underground bunker. And if it was the only thing not marked, that was likely for a reason.

They began their walk forward slowly, with Raven and Summer taking point and cinder right behind them. They made sure to keep an eye to the walls for any cameras that could give away their positions. The limited visibility made it hard to tell if they were even getting any closer. There was only the sound of howling wind and the crush of snow.

They kept each other in their sights the whole time, not willing to risk someone going missing. The silence was growing to be too much however, and so finally, Summer spoke.

"This storm is crazy. Was it bad in Mantle, too?"

Raven kept pressing forward. "What do you mean?"

Summer huffed. "I mean was it snowing like this down there too?"

At this Raven stopped. Her stopping caused everyone else to stop too.

"Cinder."

"What?"

"Was it snowing when you guys came through the portal?"

Cinder stared at her. "No. Why do you—"

She halted mid sentence, eyes wide and haunted.

"Shit! Everyone! On your guard!"

They all tore their weapons free and formed a tight circle. When they had closed up, Cinder raised her arms, light coming to her eyes as the powers of the Fall Maiden activated and flames coiled around her arms.

She shot them up at an angle, as if trying to clear the clouds with fire.

Imagine everyone's shock when the storm fought back, meeting her blast with one of its own.

"Watts!" Cinder screamed.

"Shit! James you absolute bastard!" There was furious typing on the other end. "Just hang in there! I'll call for support immediately!"

They all stared in shock as the fire and ice met one another, neither budging an inch. As a dense steam coated the area and made it even harder to see, they all prepared for the worst.

Cinder let out a roar. "Enough!"

A hurricane whipped to life around her, shooing away all the snow, fog, and steam. As it receded it revealed a terrifying sight.

"Fuck." Jaune cursed, subtly moving his shield to cover Pyrrha more.

Soldiers. Hundreds of them, completely surrounding them. Above them, bullheads hovered, floodlights aimed directly at them and poised to start firing. And as the last of the cold mist cleared, several figures stalked out of it, revealing that if they'd gone any further, they would've walked right into them.

One of them was expected.

"On behalf of the Atlas military," James Ironwood marched forward, "I place you all under arrest for treason against Remnant."

Another figure stepped forward, their calmness betraying the situation. Or perhaps they had all the reason to be calm considering the odds.

"I do wish it didn't have to come to this."

Raven snarled.

"Oz..."

Indeed, Ozpin himself ambled forward, Ironwood on one side and Glynda stalking his other.

A trap. Of course it was all a trap. In hindsight it wasn't hard to guess. Summer being caught when they knew Raven was still out there and they knew her semblance? This whole thing had been a ploy to get all of them in one spot. They had the maiden, too. Cinder didn't look any happier when she realized this as well.

Summer lowered in her stance slightly. "Then this storm..."

Ozpin smiled slightly but shook his head. "Don't give me too much credit."

Another beam of ice almost took them all out if not for Cinder meeting it with more fire. They followed it back to its source to find the last thing they wanted.

Whitley gasped and stumbled forward.

"Weiss!?"

Indeed, Weiss Schnee flew overhead, eyes swirling with power as frost built at her fingers. She didn't look happy to be here, nor did she seem nearly as calm as Ozpin or resolute as Ironwood. If anything, she looked stricken.

She met his eyes and Whitley choked trying to find something, anything, to say.

Ironwood didn't give him the chance. "Any resistance will be met with lethal force. Drop your weapons and submit yourselves for arrest."

Nobody moved. Ironwood didn't look surprised, but his eyes slightly drifted to Raven, Summer, and their daughters. He had it in his memory files that he was present for both their weddings and children's births. He'd been there for Taiyang's funeral, as well.

"You would really do this?"

His response was an ax and sword pointed his way.

Face set, he raised a hand up straight.

"This is your last chance!"

Besides him, Ozpin still waited languidly. Glynda had a wicked smile on her face, power already welling around her. Above, Weiss slowly raised her hands towards them. The soldiers all took aim and the bullheads whirred as they got into firing positions.

Adam growled lowly. "Any last minute solutions?"

Nora's eyes darted around frantically. "If we surrender we might be able to buy some time."

Mercury scoffed. "Or they'll just kill us. Or separate us. Or separate and then kill us."

So no, there weren't really any options. Not unless one fell from the—

"WWWWYYYYYOOOOOOUUUU!"

Everyone stumbled as a sound louder than a thunder crack blasted through the area. Some soldiers even lost their footing.

Ironwood glared and looked around for whatever had done such a thing. "What the hell was that!?"

Ozpin's eyes narrowed. "I swear I know that sound. I've heard it bef—" He shot upright. "Oh dear."

"RRRRRROOOOOOOUUUUUUUMMMMM!"

Everyone present looked up this time, and all present started screaming when they did. Why? Simple really.

What could only be described as tower sized whale was about to bodyslam where they all stood.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?"

"IS THAT A WHALE!?"

Ren gasped, the biggest smile possible on his face.

"SIR FLUFFYKINS!"

"MMMMMEEEEEEEYOOOOUUUUU!"

As if hearing Ren, the massive cloud whale began falling faster, the sound of the air around it displacing audible to everyone. Soldiers fled the scene quickly and the bullheads cleared the way. Weiss flew wide as well hovering just outside the compound, leaving only Ozpin, Glynda, Ironwood and them in the clearing.

And then, just before it would've flattened everyone, it stopped. The air around it, however, did not.

"OH GOD!" Pyrrha screamed as chunks of earth were torn and flung, she herself digging her javelin into the ground and gripping Jaune, who was also hunkered down and struggling not to go flying.

The rushing winds slowed, but the damage was done. The area around them was a mess, ruptured and upturned, and as the air settled, a figure drifted down, floating with magic, if the sparkles coming off of them were any indication.

"OZMA!"

Ozpin looked only vaguely annoyed.

"Salem," he stepped forward to meet her as she landed, "It's been some time. How many years?"

"By this point?" Salem scoffed, "Not long enough."

"You wound me, my eternal star. You still haven't seen what I'm trying to do?"

Salem stomped forward and stabbed a finger into his chest. "Oh I know what you're trying to do you colossal ass!" She poked again. "You're trying to get everyone killed!"

Ironwood was incensed.

"Who the hell is this!?"

Raven tilted onto one foot and cupped a hand as she called over. "That's Salem! Ozpin's ex-wife!"

Ironwood stared at her, mouth agape.

Casually, as if there weren't two immortals arguing, or rather, one immortal arguing at another, Watts hovered up next to all of them.

"I apologize for this. There was really only one person I could think of being able to help."

They all stared at him and he shrugged.

"How?" Whitley muttered, having gone through an emotional rollercoaster in the last few minutes. "How did she get here so fast?"

Watts cleared his throat. "The fastest man-made machine has a maximum speed of around mach ten. No human can actually survive this speed, as the g-force would kill them."

They all blinked. "... Okay?"

Watts continued. "So I asked Salem some questions about him once to gauge some things and discovered that he frequently flies to and from space in order to breach, as he apparently cannot breathe oxygen and instead needs the cosmic waves in space."

More blank stares. "... Right."

"So I did some math and found that for Sir Fluffykins to travel to and from our atmosphere on the regular basis that he does, he would have a maximum speed of about mach thirty-one."

They were all quiet.

"And Salem... Rode him here?"

"Yes."

They all turned back to where Salem had apparently reached the point where Ozpin was now also yelling, looking for all intents and purposes like an old married couple arguing about their lawn.

Raven finally threw her arms up and scoffed. "Why are we even a part of this?"

The rest agreed. Watching them argue only reminded them all just how little they meant in the grand scheme of this war between immortals.

"—AND DON'T FORGET WHEN YOU FORGOT OUR OLDEST DAUGHTER'S BIRTHDAY"

"OH IT ALWAYS COMES BACK TO THE BIRTHDAY! I ALREADY TOLD YOU, I WAS PLOTTING WORLD ENDING SCHEMES ALREADY!"

"DON'T USE THAT EXCUSE WITH ME! YOU STILL COULD'VE GIVEN HER A CARD!"

"WELL IT'S NOT LIKE YOU EVER GAVE ME CUSTODY AFTER THE DIVORCE!"

"YOU RAN AWAY AND STARTED A SCHOOL IN A DIFFERENT COUNTRY!"

"Enough!" Ironwood seethed and stomped over to the two ancient wizards, "I demand to know what in the flying fuck is going on here right no—"

Salem didn't even notice him, throwing one arm wide and accidentally clipping Ironwood with her nail.

He flew like a baseball, crashing into the ground and dredging up more earth as he slid to a halt before them. When he finally stopped, he was sparking slightly and had a dent in his shoulder, the rest of the arm hanging limply.

They all stared down at him, barely registering Weiss as she floated down to stand with them as well. They did hear her response though.

"... What the fuck?"

Whitley, despite his still confused feelings on her standing against them, pat her on the back.

"Preaching to the choir, sister."

Okay so real talk, this chapter had a lot of different drafts and I wasn't happy with any of them. In the very original script for this story, I had this slated to be a massive end-all-be-all fight scene that would culminate in the finale. But that just didn't really feel like this fic.

Sure, maybe someone like Coeur can end stories with spectacle warfare but if you're a long-time reader of this story or More Than You Can Chew, then you probably know that I have a knack for left turns.

If I'm going to finish this story, I'm doing it the way that's going to make me happy: by taking as many jabs at modern conflict writing as possible.

Who says we can't solve our problems in roundabout ways?

We've still got another two chapters or there abouts, I promise. Stay tuned.

Stay safe out there and have a wonderful time!