The Argus Limited rolled into the station with little fanfare, despite the harrowing journey it had just endured. As it rolled to a stop, the passengers began to spill out into the station. Out of one of the cars emerged a member of the train staff to inform the station's management about the loss of one of their hired Huntsmen, as the rail company would have to call in one of their replacements before the train could depart for Mistral in the morning. Many of the passengers reunited with friends, family, and loved ones.

One group marched past all of this and out onto the station steps, with one lagging behind to secure a motorbike from the rear cars.

Summer Rose had shed her distinctive cape and was wearing a bulky, red-and-white patterned sweater. She silently tasted the air. It was cold and bitter, the wind rolling off the sea giving it a salty taste. The storm that had tormented the train had mellowed to softly-falling flakes this far from the center.

Argus had once been a satellite state of Mantle before the Vytal Peace Accords that carved up the Mantle Empire at the end of the Great War, and even now Atlas — as Mantle's successor state — kept a small military base barely offshore. It was this relationship that enabled Argus to have a gargantuan wall to the south for defense, which shaded the buildings in the afternoon and leading into the evenings — just as it was doing now, a diffused sliver of setting sun peeking out between the storm clouds and the wall.

"So," Summer said, turning back to face the group. "We need some place secure to stay. Raven, do you have anywhere around here?"

"The Branwens don't travel this far north," Raven replied, folding her arms. "It'll have to be a hotel."

"Something with a large suite," Summer said, rifling through her bag for money — most of what she found was the vaguely orblike munny used by Moogles and adopted as a common currency on most of the worlds she'd visited, but here on the fringes, only local currency would do. She found a stack of lien cards that Taiyang had provided her and pulled it out with a grimace. "This'll get us a night or two, right?"

"Nowhere five-star, but it should do," Raven said.

"I'm on it," Weiss said, pulling out her Scroll. She winced at its cracked screen but began looking through the city's directory. "I think I've got something."

By the time they'd gotten there, the sun had set below the wall and the snowstorm had fully arrived in town. The hotel itself was a little run down, the front facade in dire need of deep cleaning, but the inside was warm and relatively clean. In the corner, a large fireplace roared, and the low lights — oil rather than electric — gave the lobby a cozy, rustic atmosphere. At this hour, with the snowstorm bearing down on them, it seemed like the guests had retreated to their rooms, as the lobby was unoccupied.

The clerk behind the front desk was a man in his early twenties with dark hair and glasses and a slightly round face. He looked up from a thick novel as the door closed and greeted Summer and the group following her with a bright smile. "Good evening," he said. "Do you have a reservation with us tonight?"

"Not exactly," Summer said. "We're going to need a large suite — if that's not available, anything with conjoined rooms. We're a party of nine." She slid across the stack of lien.

The clerk nodded, sliding the lien the rest of the way across the counter and counting it quickly. Finding the amount satisfactory, he began checking on his computer. "It looks like our largest suite is available," he confirmed. "Name on the room?"

Summer's eyes flicked back to the group for a moment. "Uh, Tifa," she said to the clerk. "Tifa Lockhart."

"You got it," the man said. He pulled a pair of brass keys off the wall and presented them to Summer. "These are your room keys — top floor, elevator's right over there. Room service ends at ten, and we have a breakfast menu from five in the morning until midday."

"Thanks," Summer said. She took the keys and tossed one to Cloud.

"Have a good night," the clerk said, "and thank you for staying with us, Miss Lockhart."

The hotel's sole elevator was old and rickety, so they could only go up in groups. Given the weight of their equipment, Cloud and Tifa hauled a couple of the heavier bags up the stairs. As a result, Oscar deferred the first elevator ride and waited down in the lobby with Weiss and Blake. Weiss looked distinctly tired and had taken to resting her chin on Blake's shoulder, one of her arms wrapped around Blake and holding her hand.

Impressive, isn't it? They were at each other's throats last year. Ozpin sounded distinctly proud.

They deserve to know. All of them, Oscar shot back.

Oscar could feel Ozpin recoil slightly. That is not a decision you should make lightly.

What happens when they find out you've lied to them? Oscar inhaled. You think Salem cannot be defeated, not by anything on Remnant.

I know it.

You don't know everything. You only think you do.

Oscar opened his eyes as the quiet bell of the elevator rang to signify its return. Blake stepped forward before he could, dragging Weiss by the hand, and opened the grating. They piled into the elevator, pressed the button, and it trundled upwards to the top floor.

The suite's double doors opened as the last of the party walked into the room. The suite itself was fairly lavish, but at least a decade or two out of date. There were two separate bedrooms, a small kitchenette, and a sitting room with plush armchairs and a couch.

"I'd almost forgotten how much I hate stairs," Cloud grumbled, setting the Buster Sword against the wall.

"All the rooms are clear," Raven said, emerging from the smaller bedroom. "No bugs, recording devices, or peepholes."

"Then we can get started," Summer said from her spot in the sitting room. She removed the Lamp of Knowledge from her bag and set it on the table in the sitting room. Oscar sat down opposite her as Blake and Weiss settled into the couch to accompany their teammates. "So what exactly is this?"

Oscar's eyes closed gently and reopened with a small flash of light. "The Relics are the last traces of the Gods," Ozpin began, speaking through Oscar's mouth. He pinched the bridge of his nose. "No, no, that's not the beginning. This is the beginning: There was once a girl who had been locked away in a tower by her father."

Raven scoffed. "Cut the fairy tale bullshit."

"Let him go on," Summer said.

"I know this one," Ruby said. "The Girl in the Tower, right? Every Valean knows this."

"Miss Rose, I'm sure you can tell it better than I," Ozpin said wryly.

Ruby closed her eyes and inhaled. Her face was serious — not the grim determination of a fighter, but something more solemn. She opened silver eyes to regard the room.

"When the world was young, there was a man, cunning and strong, and gifted with magic," Ruby began. "He was a fearless slayer of beasts who ascended the Great Mountain and fought the dragon for the hand of the princess, and upon her rescue the king rewarded him with a demesne and the princess herself. But his new wife took ill upon giving birth and perished, and so the man locked the child in the tallest tower of the grandest castle.

"And so the child grew, first into a girl and then into a young woman, her father showering her in all the splendors of the world save for the one she craved the most — freedom. Below, in the castle that grew colder each year, her father grew crueler, forbidding her of even speaking of the world outside her tower.

"The young woman, who had inherited her father's cunning, devised a means to escape her imprisonment. She persuaded her father to give her, rather than the jewels and riches he had brought before her, simple ink and paper with which to draw. Instead, she wrote her own tale, promising all the riches of the castle to whomever should free her from the tower. She let copies blow from the tower's window to all corners of the land.

"Word spread and many fought and died by her father's hand when they came to challenge him until the day a hero from a distant land rose, using his own cunning and magic equal to the castle's master to defeat him and free the woman. And so he rescued the girl in the tower, and they lived happily ever after."

"Were it so easy," Ozpin said quietly. He cleared his throat. "Well told, Miss Rose. You have the gift of a storyteller."

"Oh! Thank you," Ruby said.

"But who can tell me what the Girl in the Tower is about?" Ozpin asked.

Blake cleared her throat. "It's metafiction. A fairy tale about fairy tales. The story is told from the perspective of the captive, and she writes her own ending," she explained. "You, Professor Ozpin, said as much in the postscript for it in the fairy tale compilation that's in Beacon's library."

Ozpin smiled and pushed up a pair of glasses that weren't there. "Luckily, some of my students still do the required reading. Stories are sometimes all we have of ancient history — and the Girl in the Tower is a better example than most, for my own telling of the story would be colored by my own hand in the narrative."

The room was quiet for a long moment,

"You're the hero that saves her," Yang said finally. "But — how? You've been, what, reincarnating that long?"

"I have," Ozpin replied. "But that was my first life. Once, I was named Ozma — and I saved a girl trapped in a tower, and that girl's name was Salem."

"What," Summer said flatly. "You—and her—"

"Lived happily ever after? Not exactly," Ozpin said. "We lived for many years together and it was quite nice, but…then I died. It was a plague. Salem survived. She sought the power of the Gods to revive me, but in the process she became overwhelmed with darkness—"

"Darkness," Summer said, with a start. "Wait, were you alive during this?"

"No. This is—well, this is from her own words, what she told me about the time after I died."

Summer slumped back down into her chair but pulled her journal from her bag and began to take notes.

"Qrow told us about this," Ruby said. "The Brother Gods made humanity and then left behind the Relics. Is that what she did back then?"

"No, I don't think so," Ozpin said. "She was reluctant to discuss it — when I saw her next, her skin and hair were pale as bone, and her eyes had turned black and red. When I returned to life, humanity had begun to reemerge from an apocalypse — one that had left them without the magics of the past, save for our own and the Relics."

"The Relics," Ruby said. "Uncle Qrow said whoever has them all could change the world. Is that true?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes," Ozpin said. "Each is intensely powerful on its own, but limited in their own ways. Bringing them together, however, will call the power of the Gods to judge humanity. If we are united, living in harmony, then the world will enter an age of harmony and magic, like our prehistory. If not, we will be destroyed."

Summer looked up from her notes. "So Salem's gunning for destroying all of us. But why? Wouldn't that just kill her?"

"That may be her aim," Ozpin said wearily. "Out of anyone, I know the dangers of an immortal life."

"She's set this entire thing up to kill herself?" Cloud said.

"She's…invincible," Ozpin said, visibly reluctant. "Whatever power she gained, she can't be killed by mundane weapons, or Dust, or even my own magic." He inhaled. "And I learned from the Relic of Knowledge that I can't kill her."

The tension in the air rose sharply. Yang rose to her feet first, fists clenched. "What?"

"Yang, sit down," Summer barked. Yang flicked her glance over to Summer and carefully sat back down. Summer looked back at Ozpin, eyes steely. "Were those the exact words?"

"I asked how I could destroy Salem," Ozpin said, "and she said, 'You can't.'"

"She said you can't," Summer said. "How does the Lamp work?"

Ozpin shut his eyes for a long moment and shook his head. He exhaled and opened them and Summer could tell it was Oscar once more, his shoulders slumping slightly. "You call her name," Oscar said. "There should be two questions left. That's as many as we get for a hundred years."

"And Ozpin?" Ruby asked.

"Oz needs a minute alone — well, as alone as he can be," Oscar said. "I don't think he wants to see whatever the Lamp says."

"We won't do it tonight," Summer declared. "We're all tired and we still need to figure out how we're getting to Atlas. This doesn't change that."

Summer woke in the early morning — well before the sun would even think about rising. Beside her in the plush bed, Raven stirred slightly as Summer leaned up into a sitting position. Summer sighed and quietly slipped out from under the covers. She peered out the window at Argus. The snowfall had slowed significantly, lazy flakes falling in the dark of the night. A few scattered lights were visible in the distance through the snowstorm.

She emerged into the main area — though no lights were on, the Relic softly illuminated the room from where they had left it on the table. Cloud was waiting in the dark kitchenette, his eyes faintly glowing green in the dark. "Morning," he whispered.

"Should have figured," Summer said, stepping up to the bar. "Making coffee?"

"Yeah."

"I'll take a cup."

The cheap plastic coffee maker warmed up, the plastic audibly creaking as the Fire Dust heated the water pumping through the tubes within.

"They were worse tonight," Summer said. "The dreams. Worse than they ever were. I kept dreaming of darkness and Salem's face."

"I think we can tackle it," Cloud replied. He pulled a pair of paper cups off a short stack and set them beside the coffee maker.

"Wish I had your optimism," Summer groused. "Regretting coming with me at all?"

Cloud shook his head. He pulled the coffee maker's carafe out and poured coffee into the two cups. "They don't have sugar or real cream," he said, setting a canister of powdered artificial creamer before Summer. "Just this."

Summer poured some in her coffee and stirred it with a thin wooden stick.

She stepped up to the window. It faced out toward the ocean, although you could barely see it from where the hotel was. Cloud sat on the couch beside her. They watched the sunrise in silence.

By mid-morning, Summer had brought up a veritable buffet from the breakfast downstairs and cajoled everyone back into the sitting room for a strategy meeting. Team RWBY was perched atop the stools at the kitchenette's bar — save for Yang, who was standing beside the counter. Everyone else but Summer was sitting on the armchairs or couch.

"Okay, let's work the problem," Summer said. "Problem one, we have to get to Atlas and we're quickly running out of money."

"Not the biggest problem," Raven said, "given Atlas shut its borders weeks ago."

Summer nodded. "That's problem two, then."

Blake looked over. "Weiss, how did you get out of Atlas? Maybe we could use the same way to get in."

"I hired a smuggler," Weiss replied, taking a cup of coffee from the kitchen into the sitting area and sitting beside Tifa on the couch. "Unfortunately, we ran into Lancers on the flight into Mistral. He…didn't make it."

Ruby gasped quietly.

Summer nodded gravely but gave Weiss a thumbs-up. "Smugglers are definitely an option."

"Doesn't solve the money problem," Cloud said.

Weiss nodded. "It's true. I used all of what I had set aside for getting here, and I've almost certainly been fully cut off now."

Oscar cleared his throat. "Oz did say we should contact General Ironwood. There's the Atlesian military base just off the coast, we could probably have them relay it."

"That's an option, but it means we would be stuck here for who-knows-how-long," Summer said.

Raven nudged Summer. "There is my idea."

"No stealing military airships," Summer said. "Not until we've exhausted our other options, at least."

"I hate to say it," Blake offered, "but we do have Weiss Schnee — heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. We could use the pretense of getting her back to Atlas as a means to get there."

"Ex-heiress," Weiss corrected. "But it's possible."

"Well, there's no time like the present," Summer said. "Finish eating and pack up. We're gonna get the Atlas military to give us a ride."

The Argus Outpost was just offshore, but it was accessible by a massive bridge that connected the city to the island. Summer led the group as they approached the gate — the massive rock the base's central building was constructed out of shadowing the space beyond the steel gate and concrete walls.

A pair of guards in uniforms and peaked caps snapped to attention as Summer stepped up to the gate.

"Good morning," Summer said in greeting. "I'm—"

"This is a restricted area," the guard on the right barked. "This is property of the Atlas military. Civilians are not permitted."

"Not a civilian," Summer said, fishing her card from her pocket. She held it aloft for them to see. "I'm a licensed Huntress. I'm trying to get to Atlas; I need to speak to your base commander."

"The Mistral-Atlas border is closed," one guard said.

"Have a good day," the other punctuated.

Raven huffed. "The two of you seem to be sharing half a brain — anyone in there with more than that?"

The two guards bristled slightly; Summer raised her hands up placatingly. "Listen," she explained, "We've got Weiss Schnee here. I'm trying to deliver her home safely to Atlas. Civil flights are halted, so I was hoping we could arrange something. I'd like to speak to your base commander."

The two guards looked at each other.

"Go fetch the commander," one said to the other.

"You fetch her," the other said.

"No. I will remain here and watch the gate. They could climb the fence."

"Fine. I will fetch the commander." The guard turned and retreated into the central building.

Behind her, Summer could hear Raven grumbling.

Several minutes passed.

"They're not going for it," Raven said quietly. "Still time to pivot."

"Not yet," Summer said as the guard reemerged — with the commander following behind.

Summer was not, by any means, a tall woman. Even in comparison to her, however, the base's commander was diminutive — yet carried herself with the self-assurance of someone with all the power in the room. "I am Commander Caroline Cordovin," she said. "What appears to be the situation, Huntress?"

Summer cleared her throat and prepared her license. "I'm a Huntress registered with the Vale Huntsmen Guild. These are my credentials. I've been contracted by Miss Schnee here, who is trying to return to Atlas." She stepped up to the gate and passed her license through.

"Yes, yes," Cordovin said, taking Summer's license and examining it. She tilted it lightly to examine the reflective markings. She glanced over at Summer. "You're remarkably young-looking for forty."

"Good genes," Summer said.

"Everything does seem to be in order," Cordovin said, eyes narrowed. "I do believe her father has been making a fuss in the media about her abduction — trying to play the sympathy card, naturally — so I will allow her and her alone through, on an express flight back to Atlas."

Summer turned to Raven for a moment, leaning in close. "Take the group back."

"You have a plan?"

"I'm improvising." Summer turned back around. "Ma'am, as per the International Huntsman Contract Bylaws, Section 36b, I will be accompanying her," she said. "She did pay up front — though I could just leave her to your men, I'd rather see her safely to Atlas."

"Mercenaries," Cordovin all but spat. "I'll secure you — just you — a one-week Huntsman's visa. That should be enough for you." She pulled a walkie-talkie from her belt and held it to her mouth. "Open the gate."

Summer gave her a jaunty salute as the gate opened before her.

"Captain," Cordovin barked out to a nearby officer, typing something on her Scroll. "Take these two to the airfield. We have a flight departing for Atlas today, and they'll be aboard."

The Captain saluted and then gestured for Summer and Weiss to follow.

Summer turned to the rest of the group. "Raven! Cloud! Take care of them. We'll figure something out."

Raven and Cloud nodded. Summer turned back around and followed the Captain through the base.

"I'm impressed," Weiss said quietly, keeping pace with Summer. "I was expecting…"

"Expecting what?"

"Well, given Ruby and Yang's track record, something a little more explosive," Weiss admitted.

"I'd rather not meet Ironwood in handcuffs," Summer said.

"Are there actually bylaws like that?" Weiss asked.

"Kinda," Summer replied. "Not really, though. I was banking on her not having read them. Besides, we never had a contract."

Out on the airfield, a single transport was being prepared. A crewman unscrewed the fuel line from it and hauled it away as the group approached. He saluted the Captain.

"One flight to Atlas," the Captain said. "Get comfy — it's not scheduled to take off for another couple hours."

"Great," Summer said.

Weiss sat ramrod straight in the airship's cabin. She'd nervously checked her Scroll at least a dozen times, despite it being in communication-disabling flight mode since they'd taken off. She'd eventually just taken to sitting and staring out the window as the sun set. There was little to see but the ocean on either side, but when she left Atlas had been in a cargo hold. The view alone was worth it.

Across from her, Summer had pulled a pouch of small cheese crackers out of her bag and was nonchalantly eating them. "Hungry?" she asked.

"No," Weiss said reflexively. She reconsidered after a moment. "Yes. Maybe?"

"Here," Summer said, passing the bag over.

Weiss accepted it and had a handful. It felt like she could barely taste them. She diligently chewed and swallowed, however. "I don't know what's going to happen with my father," she admitted.

"Mhm," Summer acknowledged, taking the bag of crackers back when Weiss held them out. "Not a good relationship?"

Weiss almost laughed. "No. I don't even know if he loved any of us or not. He married Mother for the company, and when she found out, it broke her." She sighed. "When I met Ruby and Yang, I was jealous that their dad actually wrote letters back."

"He's a great guy. I didn't know what I'd do without Tai those first couple years," Summer said. "Or have done, I mean. He was always the responsible one." Her own gaze flicked out the window. "I'm not exactly a role model when it comes to parenting."

"Ruby and Yang always said you were fantastic," Weiss consoled her.

"That's because you don't speak ill of the dead," Summer said flatly. "I was home a lot less than I should have been." Her gaze flicked back out the window; on the horizon, she could see the faint glow of massive lights in the dark sky. "Do you want to go back to your father?"

"No," Weiss said almost immediately.

"Then you won't have to," Summer said. "We'll pull whatever strings we need to. There's no way in the nine Hells he'll be able to take you by force, and we're going to go talk to the head of the Atlesian military. If there's any loopholes to sneak you through, he'll know 'em." She flashed a grin. "So relax."

Weiss pursed her lips. "Talking to you is strange. I almost feel like I'm talking to Ruby, but then I get jarred when you're so…adult."

Summer laughed. "Trust me, Ruby's more like me when I was her age than I'd like." She sighed.

On the horizon, Atlas began to peek out over the horizon. The landmass, torn from the ground and lifted into the sky, shimmered in the night, covered in pinpricks of light. Around it, swarms of military airships patrolled in a massive defensive perimeter. The city of Mantle glowed faintly underneath, a massive scar of a crater indicating where the now-floating city had once been.

"Was it like this when you left?" Summer asked, peering through the window.

"I don't know," Weiss replied. "I was stuffed between a couple cargo containers at the time."

Summer stepped off the transport. It was cold — at the height that Atlas tended to hover at, it was much colder than Argus's sea level. She began fishing her cloak out of her bag and wrapped it around herself.

The airport was deserted of civilians — a wing of it, however, had become an ad hoc refueling station for military airships. Summer and Weiss strode across the tarmac at a fair clip, Weiss having to rush to keep up with Summer's quick walking pace. They entered the airport structure properly through a crew access staircase; a guard waved them in and held the door open as Weiss dragged her rolling suitcase over the threshold.

There, standing in the terminal, was Jacques Schnee, in a white silk suit that had been immaculately pressed. He was flanked on either side by well-built guards in dark blue suits and black sunglasses.

"Oh no," Weiss quietly muttered.

"Someone must have let him know we were coming. Let me handle this." Summer dropped her duffel bag and strode out in front, glancing quickly around at the various military policemen in the terminal. "Mister Schnee," she greeted loud enough to echo.

"My wayward daughter," Schnee said, ignoring Summer. "I do hope you're over whatever pique caused you to run from the manor. Your — mother — she was devastated when you departed so suddenly."

Weiss grit her teeth together slightly.

"Mister Schnee, please stand aside," Summer said flatly before he could continue.

"Huntress," Schnee said, finally deigning to acknowledge her. "Turn my daughter over to me and I can assure you, you will be compensated for the time and effort it took to bring her back — well compensated."

Summer cleared her throat. "Weiss, do you want to go with him?" she asked loudly.

"Not really, no," Weiss replied, just as loud.

"Weiss is above the age of legal majority under Atlesian law," Summer said. She adjusted her cape, reaching behind her back with her right hand and pulling the bottom half of the cape away. "You cannot coerce her to accompany you. You cannot bribe me to turn her over to you, as per the Hunter's Code of Ethics and Conduct." She tucked the cape behind the holsters on her gun belts and rested her off hand on her hip — pointedly just below the grip of her revolver. "You don't want a confrontation here."

Jacuqes Schnee looked around finally, realizing just how many military personnel were within earshot and how many were looking at the scene — including a trio of MPs that were striding towards them all. He glared at Weiss and Summer before storming off, beckoning his own guards to follow with a quick gesture.

Summer softly exhaled; Weiss followed a moment later. "That could have gone a lot worse," Summer said.

"Any problems, Miss?" the lead MP said. He had a helmet and a pair of opaque snow goggles on, large and reflective enough that Summer could see her own face.

"No," Summer said. Her teeth clacked together once. "How was that man allowed in? Isn't this a military airport now?"

The MP looked at some of his crew for a second. None of them offered any answers. "It's possible he came in through a less-guarded entrance," the MP replied as he turned back to Summer.

"It's possible?" Summer repeated pointedly.

"I'll have to consult—uh, just a moment, Miss." The man pressed the left side of his helmet closer to his head, clearly listening to something. "Copy that, sir. Understood. Right away." His attention went back to Summer and Weiss. "Hope you're not busy. I've been informed that you're being requested, Huntress."

"By whom?"

"The highest level of authority," the MP replied. "Follow me. Your car is waiting."

Summer stared out the tinted window of the black staff car. Their driver was a terse man with a scar on his chin who had driven them out of the airport and onto the raised expressway that cut through the heart of Atlas. After some time, they took an exit and passed into an underground tunnel, orange lights illuminating concrete walls.

They were drawing closer into the nerve center of Atlas — the underground military fortress beneath Atlas Academy. Eventually, they were stopped at a security checkpoint for a moment before the officer manning it looked at the driver's orders, blanched slightly, and waved them through to a loading dock with a massive steel door guarded by a trio of MPs. As Summer got out of the car and unloaded her and Weiss's bags, the door began to open slowly with the hiss of pneumatics. It hinged open to reveal a quartet of soldiers, assault rifles slung around their midsections.

"The welcoming committee?" Summer asked, jogging up the steps.

"This way, please," one of the soldiers said gruffly.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Weiss muttered as she stepped up beside Summer.

Two of the soldiers lead the way while the other two watched Summer and Weiss from behind. They passed out of the cargo loading dock and up into the clean, well lit corridors of the base itself — Summer was certain that the soldiers were leading them in a roundabout path through the base, avoiding major thoroughfares and intentionally confusing the two.

"Your weapon's in your suitcase, right?" Summer asked Weiss, her voice a whisper.

"Yes," Weiss replied, equally quiet.

"What can you do without it?"

"Not a lot. Some glyphs. I can summon."

Summer nodded.

Finally, they used an elevator to ascend up into Atlas Academy's central compound, and transferred into another that took them up the tower.

It deposited them into an octagonal antechamber. The two soldiers in front parted and let Summer and Weiss pass into the center.

Standing in the far doorway was General James Ironwood. He emerged out of shadow and Summer could see he was dressed in a uniform and overcoat with the subtle bulge of a sidearm in a holster at his hip. His expression was grave.

"It's good to see you, Miss Schnee," he said.

"General Ironwood," Weiss said, walking forward. She stopped — his expression hadn't softened. "What's wrong?"

Ironwood stepped past Weiss; he drew his sidearm — a large-caliber revolver with intricate engraving — and pointed it at Summer. "Summer Rose disappeared over a decade ago. This woman you've been traveling with must have obtained her Huntsman's License to impersonate her — as a spy."

Behind her, Summer heard the soft clicking of safeties being disengaged as the soldiers shouldered their rifles.

"General!" Weiss cried out. "What are you doing?!"

Summer engaged her Semblance, Aura burning in her muscles and her reaction time shortening. Time expanded before her, seconds lengthening as she stared down the barrel of a gun.

She flicked a glance to Weiss, who had pulled her suitcase closer, ready to draw her sword from it. Summer gave her a tiny nod.

Ironwood's finger squeezed the trigger.

Summer dropped to a crouch as the bullet lanced through where her shoulder had been. Her right hand came up, throwing her cloak up and forward at Ironwood as she spun to face the soldiers behind her.

Their rifles would be maximally effective at range. The solution was obvious: she charged right at them empty-handed.

Shots ricocheted off of her Aura as she stepped into range, slamming her elbow into one of the soldiers with a speed-enhanced blow. As he reeled she tore the rifle from his grip, flinging it at the next in the line. It hit him on the head as Summer advanced, shoving him forward into the next soldier. They fell into a tangle of limbs as Summer whirled around to confront the last soldier.

The soldier had thrown his gun aside and pulled a knife from his belt; Summer dodged backwards at his first swipe. As he came in for a stab at her midsection she grabbed his wrist with her opposite hand, her other hand shooting up to capture his an instant later. The man rotated the blade upwards to slice into Summer's wrists and her Aura sparked and flared into visibility as she smacked the blade out of his hand and slammed him into the ground. She kneeled down on top of him to pin him in place, sliding her revolver out of her holster to aim at Ironwood.

Her cloak fluttered to the ground, revealing Ironwood pointing his own revolver at her.

The tip of Weiss's rapier came up to Ironwood's neck. "Drop it," she said, voice cold.

Ironwood carefully lowered the gun.

"I have the package from Haven Academy," Summer said. "It was attacked. Oz and I retrieved it and I've brought it here for safekeeping."

Ironwood narrowed his eyes. "Show me," he said.

Summer gently opened her bag and pulled the Relic out barely enough for him to see. "Will this suffice?"

"For now." Ironwood holstered his revolver, and Weiss slipped her rapier back into its sheath and clipped it to her belt. "You definitely have an uncanny resemblance — and your Semblance is the same as what's on Rose's file. You've got a lot to explain, but not in the open. My office is secure." He pulled his Scroll out. "Follow me. I'll have a medical team up here for these men."

"I wasn't too rough," Summer said.

One of the fallen soldiers groaned.

Ironwood led them into his office — darkly colored, and with a massive bay window with a panoramic view of Atlas. It was fully nighttime now, and the city glimmered with light, with a handful of military airships visible by their running lights.

"Oz can confirm I am who I say I am," Summer began. "He's back in Argus, with the rest of Weiss's team and my new one."

"He found you quickly, then," Ironwood said. "That's good."

"What's going on in the city?" Weiss asked.

"It looks worse than it is," Ironwood replied, sitting in his seat. "Which is its own problem. Did you notice all the campaign posters in the city?"

Summer laughed. "Wasn't a lot of time to sightsee."

Weiss thought for a moment. "It's the entire wrong time of year for an election. Why campaign posters?"

"Until a month and a half ago, we were under martial law," Ironwood explained, "which precluded the normal transition of power. At the urging of the council, I was persuaded to relax the restrictions, meaning that one of the council seats would go up. The incumbent declined to run for reelection and Jacques Schnee took the opportunity — I think he's been trying to plot my downfall since the closure of Atlesian importing and exporting. Robyn Hill from Mantle is opposing him; most of the other parties' candidates have dropped out, but she's keeping up with him in the polls."

Weiss scoffed. "My father as councilman? That won't end well."

"Oh, it will not," Ironwood said. He gave a small smile, nearly invisible under his beard. "Just between you and me."

"So how's the race?" Summer asked.

"It's bad," Ironwood said. "Schnee's put himself on a populist platform; he's promising economic growth by reopening the ports fully. I guess people think that having a businessman do that sort of thing makes sense, but we're far past the SDC's most profitable years with all the reforms and bans on paying Faunus laborers in company scrip. Hill's running on a platform to prevent further martial law from being enacted and dismantle some of our military institutions in favor of smaller, independent defense cells. She started ahead in the polls, but now it's neck-and-neck." He clenched his flesh-and-blood fist. "It's ironic. Both see me as the enemy — and so do the people. Whichever one wins will strip me of my rank and my position as Headmaster."

"Assuming we all live that long," Summer said flatly.

"Exactly," Ironwood replied. He turned to face the window. "I'm not going to pretend that you bringing the Lamp of Knowledge here doesn't paint a target on Atlas's back. It's entirely likely Salem already has agents moving against us, and any overt action on my part will exacerbate the questions about my own judgement. Which is why we'll need to move up the timetable."

"Timetable?" Summer repeated.

"The one thing I can do with the rest of my time in office is reestablish global communications," Ironwood said. "As you know, Vale's CCT tower fell with Beacon, and since it was centrally located, it was the hub for communications between ourselves, Mistral, and Vacuo. I've been pouring what resources I can into retrofitting Amity Arena into an ad hoc replacement — perhaps better than ad hoc. If my engineers are correct, we should be able to replace Vale's centrally located CCT with a more powerful one in the upper atmosphere."

"I get it," Summer said. "Almost like an artificial moon."

"I'd like to hire you and your teams," Ironwood said, standing up and striding across the room to face Summer directly. "We'll need all the manpower we can get for this project, and there's a rather thorny complication we've run into that a group of Huntsmen — and Huntsmen-in-training — would be perfect for."

Summer clicked her tongue. "Two conditions."

"Name them."

"We don't work for the military," Summer stated. "We're independent contractors. We answer directly to you, and we need total disclosure at all times."

"Done and done."

"We also need the rest of the group here," Summer said.

"I'll draft the orders right now." Ironwood extended his hand for a handshake.

Summer accepted it. "Then it's a deal."