Ironwood stepped off the Nautilus, getting out of the way of everyone else who was unloading. He waited until he spotted Robyn and called her over, beckoning her to follow him into the briefing room in the Nautilus' docks. It had been a long and exhausting time underwater, for all of them, but they were finally back. He needed to have a quick talk with Robyn. Once they were both in and the door was sealed, he began.

"I don't think I have to tell you that loose lips sink ships. In this case, literally."

She sighed, nodding. "I'll make sure the girls understand."

"Good. They'll listen to you a lot better than they will me." He leaned forward, putting his hands on the table calmly, giving her a glimpse of him being a bit more relaxed. "I don't expect you to agree with my every decision. Don't get me wrong, it'd make things a lot easier for me if everyone just did whatever I wanted, but only until I make a big mistake. That's when I really need someone there to check me. I'd rather that come from someone who has humanity's best interests at heart, because if Salem does it then it's all over."

"You think Salem has agents in Mantle?" She asked simply.

Ironwood lowered his head, then nodded. "Yes. Almost certainly."

"Okay, let me ask you something." She held out her hand to him. "There have been a string of murders recently in Mantle. The victims are all supporters of mine and outspoken critics of yours. Tell me that you don't have anything to do with that. That it's either coincidence, someone acting on their own, or someone trying to frame you."

Ironwood looked at her hand. She wanted to be sure, using her Semblance. That made sense. "Of course." He took her hand. "I am convinced that someone is trying to frame me, to make it impossible for us to work together."

She looked down at their hands, then back up to Ironwood. "An agent of Salem?"

He looked away, his eyes searching around as if he was reading through his thoughts. "Salem... why didn't I think of that?"

"Sounds like you do need me." She quipped.

He took his hand back and stepped away, deep in thought. "Someone is trying to put a wedge between us. If they're an agent of Salem then what's their end game? Tensions between Mantle and Atlas are growing, and if Mantle thinks I'm targeting your supporters, it could ignite full scale riots, even civil war."

"We can't let that happen."

"I won't." He stopped and turned to Robyn. "If you wanted to make sure there was no way for Mantle and Atlas to get along again, at least in the short term, what would you do?"

"...As me? Start shooting rockets at Atlas."

"Okay. Thank you for not doing that, by the way."

"I'm not trying to start a war."

"Good. But right now, what is a unique situation that offers a chance to ruin relations between Mantle and Atlas? Think about it."

Robyn thought about it, and it didn't take long. "The election?"

"So what better way to use the election to pull us apart than to make it look like I meddled in the election... in Jacques Schnee's favor." He mulled it over for a bit. "People should already be aware that I don't get along with Jacques. There has to be another angle."

"As close as the election is, if there are any more stunts to be pulled, they'll have been pulled by now. We should get back to the city and see what's happening."

"Yes. We'll be in touch." The general started heading for the door. "Please do keep in mind, Robyn. Just because you can trust someone doesn't mean you can trust everyone they trust. That's what classified means."

"I'm not stupid." There was a pause as he stood at the door, looking at her. She sighed. "My performance in the submersible notwithstanding."

"I appreciate your cooperation." He left the room, and she followed shortly.

There was a transport waiting to take them all back to Atlas. In the elevator ride back up, many of the party found themselves stretching their limbs and backs in spite of the Nautilus having more than enough room to do all of those things. Being out of the submarine made everyone feel less cramped, and in only a few short moments they would all be able to finally see the sun in the sky again. The elevator doors opened, and Ruby and Yang ran for the great outdoors. They were immediately met with the disappointment of the cloudy night sky. Their disappointment was quickly banished by a series of loud sounds coming from nearby. Ruby and Yang ran over to see the source of the noise, squealing excitedly at the sight.

The installation's floodlights lit up the shoreline of the whole area, and so the sisters got a good long look at a big blubbery crowd. Weiss grabbed Ruby's collar, feeling like her teammate would climb over the guardrails if she wasn't restrained. Not only would it be a diversion wasting the time of everyone who wanted to get back to Atlas, but Ruby clearly hadn't yet learned that walruses were seriously dangerous. She didn't drag Ruby away, at least to start, because she was just looking harmlessly, but Weiss was not going to let Ruby jump the fence.

Blake walked past and grabbed Yang, pulling her away. "Let's go. You can go to the zoo on your own time."

"Aw, you're no fun." Yang just let herself get dragged to the transport. "The zoo has like three of them, and they're nowhere near as big."

The ramp opened up for everyone to board the transport, with Clover walking out to meet them. He stopped in front of Ironwood. "Good to have you back sir. Was the mission a success?"

Ironwood glanced back at Elm, who was carrying a sealed container, then back to Clover. "Well enough. The Relic has been secured, and we suffered no losses."

"That's good to hear. If you don't mind, I'll take that from here." The Ace Ops leader reached out his hands towards Elm. When she gave him a puzzled look, he explained. "I have something else I want you to take care of."

She shrugged and handed the container over. "Be very careful with it. You'll need Jinn supervising anyone interacting with it."

"Got it." Holding the container a little more nonchalantly than Elm would have liked, under one arm, Clover looked over to where Ruby and Weiss were standing looking out over the shoreline. "How did they do?"

She knew he meant the three trainees, but the others were worth talking about too. "They held up quite well." She shrugged. "Ruby handled the manual pressurization on the platform pretty well. I think she's basically ready already, and Blake isn't far behind." She looked back again, noticing Blake dragging Yang up the ramp. "The rest are all solid, reliable. Just about the best you could ask for. Amaranth could use more field experience, though."

Clover nodded, like he already knew all of that, his gaze wandering off to some others who were taking the brief moment of respite to watch the walruses as well. They seemed rather popular for some reason he couldn't quite fathom. "The Happy Huntresses?"

Elm sighed. "Joanna is pretty reliable, she catches on quick and is a pretty sturdy person. I'd feel confident going into battle beside her. Fiona and May, I'm not so sure about in a fight, but they're smart. Fiona comes off a bit timid, but she's very even keeled. May can be sour, but she's quick on her feet, a little overly suspicious but I can see that being useful. We know Robyn is a good fighter, and she's very clever, but she knows what she knows and doesn't seem to have a clue about some of the things she doesn't know. I would not trust her at the controls of a submersible."

That last bit caught Clover's attention. He arched an eyebrow, interested, as it sounded like there was a story behind it. "Only her?"

Ironwood, who had been standing off to the side and looking out over the shore, cut in. "Fiona handled the submersible controls well. Robyn floundered like a bird trying to fly with a broken wing. She's pretty embarrassed by it, so I don't think she'll have nearly as much trouble if she finds herself in that situation again." He looked over to the two Ace Ops, eyeing Clover. "How's my city?"

"Intact, for now." Clover answered. "Winter's team got back yesterday. Jacques has been expressing his concern that you won't be back before his party."

"I should have thought of that. Oh no, I was busy saving the world, I couldn't attend." Ironwood sighed, shaking his head. "Too late to turn back now." If only he had another nice relaxing mission waiting in the wings, but alas there was nothing to take him away from that dreadful function.

"Well, hey, it's not all negatives." Clover piped up cheerfully. "Jacques and Qrow interacted even more this time, so Jacques is... very annoyed. You should make Qrow your official envoy to the SDC."

"I'll consider it." Ironwood said, turning to head into the transport. "Alright, everyone, time to go home!"

The next few days were a hassle for everyone, it seemed. The election was a whirlwind, and preparations for it were, Robyn was sure, a driver for headache relief medication sales. Grimm incursions into the city were increasing, but a little more help in the forms of Raven and Pelka made things a bit easier on her and Mantle in general. Pietro Polendina was helping shore up cyber security, and while the economic issues were pressing people on every side, at least physical safety was no longer at the forefront of the minds of the voters.

And the night of the election came upon them without much further serious problems. Grimm were handled with relative ease, Amity was on schedule, and Ironwood was keeping in constant contact with Robyn. As such, when she looked over to see her Happy Huntresses getting ready for the party to begin at the venue they'd rented, she saw Marrow enjoying a nearly normal conversation with May and Joanna. Tensions still existed between her team and the Ace Ops, but they'd cooled down quite a bit. The inherent suspicion was nearly gone. They still didn't seem to like Harriet or Clover much, and she was pretty sure her entire team had always been completely neutral towards Vine, but spending nearly a week on a submarine with Marrow and Elm had given them enough time to soften on that front. She was glad it was Marrow that had been sent to provide security.

It wasn't like her team needed protecting, and Marrow wasn't the only one here they could rely on in a fight. Raven was present, as was Pelka, and both were quietly watching the crowd. Ruby and Penny were doing the kind of security she would expect of them; effective, but very weird and a bit silly. Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie were milling about, or arguing, or whatever.

So occupied with making sure everything looked ready for the party, Robyn almost jumped when Raven suddenly appeared at her side and spoke. "So how's things going between you and my brother?"

Robyn looked over at Raven, her eyes wide. "What? What's that supposed to mean?"

Raven shrugged, like it was obvious what she was talking about. "You two obviously have a thing going."

She looked over Raven, realized the woman was possibly serious, then tried her best to relax her stance. "Nothing is going on. We've been in the same room together three, maybe four times."

Raven nodded, like that made any sense to her. "Wow... he must really like you."

"You're kidding, right?"

"No, he doesn't spend any time with people who either he doesn't respect a great deal, or who aren't attractive women. Even for an attractive woman, you're breaking records at three or four."

Robyn was starting to think she didn't have any interest in this conversation. "Doesn't he have a thing for Weiss' sister?"

"Oh, you have competition. Good luck." Raven patted her back and walked away, heading for the door.

Everything about that interaction annoyed Robyn. She was about to turn away and head backstage to do another final check on the systems they'd put together to track the election results, when something caught her eye at the front door. It looked like Raven was harassing someone trying to enter the building. She groaned, heading over to see what the issue was. There was a man wearing a long brown coat, which was pulled up over his head to protect from the cold. She went to step between them.

"Raven, seriously, can you-"

Raven shoved Robyn out of the way, knocking her to the ground and drawing her weapon. In a flash, the blade was at the throat of the man. Robyn's election night party was about to turn into the worst case scenario.