Inside, the others heard the crash.
Willow got freaked out by it and ran off to hide in her room, despite Klein's attempt to stop her. She'd dropped a bottle also.
Ren and Nora were startled by it also.
Downstairs, Pyrrha had sat down while Jaune went to check that the windows were all locked, and she'd almost started to doze, she was so tired.
Oscar couldn't sleep because he was so sore, but he'd been lying still, but then he felt a chill.
"I think that's it..." Ozpin muttered.
Pyrrha jumped up. For a second, Beacon flashed before her eyes.
Then she knew where she was.
She clenched her fists together.
"Pyrrha, the Hound, it's here," Oscar said. "We ran out of time."
"Come." Pyrrha hurried over to him and started to pull him up. "You shouldn't be down here--it'll be easier for it to find you..."
The ground broke open outside, and some very ugly bug Grimm crawled out of it... They looked engorged.
Pyrrha saw them out the window, and she almost thought she'd be sick.
"What are those?" Oscar struggled to sit up and gasped.
"Your muscles locked up," Pyrrah realized. "You can't fight like this."
She took his arm. "They won't see us yet--"
One of them turned. [Yes, I made it more than one--because it was stupid before that one of them was such a problem for two people when it was so vulnerable it could just be sliced in half.]
The bug Grimm attacked, and Pyrrha saw Ruby and Blake out there.
So where was the--?
The Hound came crashing through the front window without further warning.
* * *
Weiss got a call from Ruby and Blake warning her there were Grimm here. She was with Whitley in the office.
"Can you handle this?" she said.
"Assuming you can handle that," Whitley said. He apparently had the family gene of sass even if he didn't have the Semblance.
Weiss found it irritating but ignored it. "I've got to go help them." She raced out of the room. "Ren, Jaune? We have to protect the Maiden," she called them.
"On it already." Ren had raced across the hall.
Fria was stirring like she heard the Grimm.
* * *
The Hound threw Ruby and Blake around a couple times before the other Grimm popped up to distract them...so again it apparently called for backup.
It also kept saying, "Take the Girl."
Which freaked them out, since they'd never heard a Grimm speak before.
Shine wasn't as fast as them, but when she caught up, she got a good look at the thing.
It dashed off before she could do anything and rushed into the house.
"Can you two handle those?" She pointed at the bugs.
"Oh, sure," Blake said flatly. "No problem."
"Then I've got to keep that thing away from Fria and the others," Shine said. She ran towards the house.
Ruby and Blake focused on the big, mantis-like thing that had emerged.
* * *
Weiss rush out to help Ruby and Blake but was too late to stop the Hound from getting inside.
At the same time, upstairs, Penny started going haywire even more.
"I must retrieve the Winter Maiden..." she said, sounding weird. She moved towards the room.
"No!" Nora called. "Penny, fight it! This isn't you!"
Penny stopped. "I do not want--but I must!--But I don't want to!" She clutched her head.
She hit Klein aside when he tried to help and moved again.
Nora couldn't get up and stop her, so she yelled, "Careful, Ren!"
Emerald and Hazel heard her.
They ran back down the hall.
Penny moved toward the door.
"I have to retrieve the Winter Maiden," she said.
Hazel got in her path. "And give her to Ironwood? That's not happeing."
"What's going on with her?" Emerald asked Ren.
"Watts put some virus in her," Ren said, "we think."
"Oh, yeah, Tyrian mentioned that," Emerald said. So this was it in progress... Actually this was pretty disturbing. Watts seriously was scary.
They heard the window breaking downstairs.
"Oscar?" Ren said.
"There's more of them down there," Hazel said. "More Grimm too. We don't have enough manpower for this many."
"Can we even take on the Hound?" Emerald asked.
"Salem made it specifically to catch a Maiden. It's unlikely," Hazel said.
Well, that was comforting.
"We're so dead!" Emerald cried.
"Help me!" Penny said. "Hold me back!"
She moved and then stopped.
Hazel grabbed her. "I can't hold her forever. Someone has to fix this."
"Maybe if we tried boosting her Aura," Ren said. "She's been resisting this long somehow. Emerald, go get Jaune. Make yourself useful."
Rather terse coming from the quiet guy, but Emerald didn't care about that at this moment.
She raced for the stair and stopped. The Hound was right in the entryway.
It looked up at her and sniffed the air.
Pyrrha and Oscar were both standing next to a stone statue of a two-headed Grimm.
"It's not attacking me..." Oscar said.
"Take the girl," the hound said.
Emerald's skin crawled. Which girl?
"Does it mean the Maiden?" Pyrrha asked.
The Hound looked upstairs suddenly, and its ears went back.
"I think it found her scent..." Oscar said. "We have to stop it!"
He raised his cane.
"Oscar, if you use the rest of that now, we won't have it in a pinch!" Ozpin said.
"This isn't a pinch to you?" Oscar said. His head spun.
"Careful." Pyrrha helped him stand. "You're in no shape to fight this. I can..."
She wasn't sure if she could, but she held up her sword and shield. "Get away from us!"
The Hound turned to look at her.
"No," it said, almost defiant.
Pyrrha found it talking to be more disturbing than she thought she would. She shuddered.
"You go," the Hound added. Suddenly it lunged at them.
Pyrrha pushed Oscar down and then tucked and rolled. The Hound turned to follow her instead, and it lashed out with long claws.
Pyrrha jumped out of the way and ran toward the stairs.
Emerald backed up, terrified.
"Can you distract it?" Pyrrha yelled at her.
Emerald put her hand to her head and tried to fool the Hound's mind.
But its sense of smell must have been too good to buy it. It just looked up at her and growled.
Then it leapt up toward her.
"AHHHH!" Emerald screamed, turning to run. The Hound jerked her back and sent her careening down the stairs into Pyrrha, and they both hit the ground.
Pyrrha, wearing armor, wasn't hurt badly by that.
Emerald, less protected, still had Aura, but it made it shimmer.
Pyrrha scrambled to her feet. Then she threw her sword as it morphed into a javelin instead, and it stuck in the Hound's backside.
The Hound paused, used one hand to pluck it out like it was a porcupine quill, and then threw it back at Pyrrha.
It couldn't aim that well, and the sword flew over her head.
She reached out her hand and used her Semblance to bring it back.
The Hound wasn't hurt at all, from the look of it.
Shine raced in the opening then.
"Hey!" she called. "Undead monster. That's far enough."
The Hound looked at her now, and narrowed its eyes.
"Leave...alone..." it said. "Take the girl."
"Leave the girl," Shine said. "Get out of here. This is not your house."
"Mine!" the Hound argued. "I know it's here!"
"Ah!..." Emerald covered her head. "Make it stop talking!"
"Get a grip." Pyrrha shook her. "This is no time for a panic attack. We cannot let it get to her."
"I didn't sign up for this!" Emerald said, tugging her arm away.
"Don't be afraid of it," Shine said, evenly. "It's just a monster. It has no power over us."
Weiss finally ran back in and used glyphs to launch herself to in front of the Hound before it could get up the stairs.
She summoned a suit of armor to block it, and the Hound clawed it into oblivion.
"I need help!" she called.
Shine ran up the stairs after her.
Pyrrha looked around.
More marble than metal in this mansion...but then she looked up.
There was a chandelier...
"Get it to back up a little!" she called.
The Hound shook its head. "No," it growled.
Shine sliced her sword into its backside while it wasn't looking.
It didn't dissolve that time either, but it did turn and snarl at her, then it reached its claws out and knocked her down the stairs.
She was lucky to have her Aura working, or that would have probably broken something in her; she wasn't built like these Remnant people.
She hit the midway part hard.
Weiss used a glyph to shove the Hound down the stairs also, and it jumped the rest of the way, right over Shine. Then it raised its claws.
Shine snatched her sword up and stabbed upward into its ribcage.
It howled and reared up, then it tore the sword out of its chest and threw it away also.
Shine had two seconds to get out of its way, and she jumped the rest of the way down the stairs, tucking and rolling at the bottom.
"Thank Canary for that move..." she muttered.
"Kill you first." the hound must have been pissed off by all their interference.
It raced after Shine, and Oscar threw a shoe at it--he didn't have a better idea.
It turned.
"Over here!" Shine yelled at it, flashing her sword. It had just reappeared in her hands.
The Hound hissed at the light and turned toward her.
That officially put it in position.
Pyrrha raised her hands and pulled with all her might.
The chandelier broke from the ceiling and fell down, crashing onto the Hound and sending shards everywhere.
Emerald ducked one, and Oscar had to dodge another.
Shine deflected a piece.
The Hound didn't die even now, it just began to struggle against the chandelier, then it began to writhe, and its wings reappeared... It was going to fly off.
"Why isn't it going down?" Emerald asked.
"Why isn't it afraid of you?" Pyrrha asked Shine.
Shine ran up to it and stuck her sword into its neck.
"Go away!" she said.
"No!" the hound argued, swatting at her and knocking her off her feet. Then it caught hold of the chandelier and flew upward, then it dropped the rest of it toward them and flew down the hallway.
They all had to duck as shards flew everywhere.
"Weiss?" Willow was on the scroll with her now. "It's going towards the office!"
"But why?" Weiss said. "I thought it wanted the Maiden."
"The office is on the way," Willow said. "Will it ignore him?"
"I don't know..." Weiss said.
"Did any of you touch the Maiden?" Shine sat up. "Maybe her scent is on us. That's why it's attacking all of us."
"I think we all have helped her," Pyrrha got up.
"Have to head it off." Shine opened a portal.
Pyrrha dove in before her, and she followed.
Weiss turned to run down the hall after it. "Whitley!" she started yelling.
Emerald stood there for a moment, looking at Oscar, before he nodded, and she pelted up the stairs in time to try to head Penny off.
Yang and Jaune had finally heard the commotion and circled back, and now Ruby and Blake came racing in. They'd finished off the Grimm outside.
"Stop Penny!" Ren was trying to hold her down with his weapon while Hazel held her by her feet.
Blake hooked her weapon around her, and she and Ruby and Yang all grabbed on.
Emerald resolutely shot hers out too and tugged.
Their combined strength did seem to be getting Penny down.
"Jaune!" Ruby called. "Boost her Aura."
"Yeah, that could help," Ren said.
Jaune ran up. "Where'd everyone else go?" he asked, reaching out and boosting Penny.
"After the dog thing!" Emerald said through gritted teeth.
"Guys, they need more help," Oscar called from downstairs. "Two people can't stop that Hound."
"Two?" Jaune said.
Penny suddenly stopped fighting. "It worked... I am okay now," she said. Then winced. "But it's still there."
"Nevermind that, stop the Hound!" Emerald shouted.
"Yeah, I think that's the bigger problem," Yang agreed, running down the hall. Ruby and Blake followed.
Jaune did too.
* * *
Shine and Pyrrha had gotten into Fria's room, no issue. The Hound was already at the end of the hall, but it turned toward the office first.
It might be smarter than most Grimm, but apparently it wasn't smart enough to reason that the scent wasn't strong enough coming from the office to be Fria.
"Whitley." Pyrrha was looking around the door.
"Stand back." Shine pulled her back and carved a line with her sword in the door way and then over the whole room. "Don't go past this line," she said, then she ran over it.
Weiss was going to be too late to get to Whitley, though, and so was she.
Pyrrha wasn't sure whether to follow her orders or not to, but then Fria sat up.
"What's here?" she said, oddly lucid sounding. "Is it my time?"
Pyrrha turned and held up her hands. "No, not yet," she said. "It's just a...Grimm."
"A Grimm? Then I should fight it." Fria strained to stand up.
"No, no!" Pyrrha rushed to hold her down. "It's under control."
Of course, that wasn't really true, but she hoped it would be. "You should stay here..." she tried to speak calmly.
At the worst possible moment, her scroll beeped. Winter again.
"Uh...just a moment," she said. She answered it. "Winter? This is really not a good time--"
"Did you all see that broadcast?" Winter cut her off.
"Yes, we saw it," Pyrrha said. "What do you want?"
"Are you going to do it?" Winter said.
"I know that voice." Fria sat up again. "Why do I know that voice?"
"Is that her?" Winter sounded stressed. "You're with her right now?"
"Winter, we have a Grimm here that's unlike anything I've ever seen. I really can't talk right now," Pyrrha said. "Unless you're calling to tell us the General is not really going to go through with blowing up Mantle--"
"I assume it's a bluff," Winter said. "But if Penny believes it..."
"Why are you telling me that, if you think it's a bluff?" Pyrrha said.
"Because it may not be one," Winter said. "If Mantle is gone...there is no reason for you all to keep this up."
"You...he.... Are you going to allow that?" Penny said.
"Miss Nikos, right at this moment, I can't stop it," Winter said. "I tried calling Weiss, but she was busy. I need to talk to more than just you."
"Weiss is--" Pyrrha glanced toward the door.
She heard the Hound talking again.
* * *
Whitley had rushed to hide behind his desk, but the Hound had come in anyway.
"I know...you're...here," it leered.
Somehow that was the creepiest thing it had said yet.
Whitley had just been about to finish the command on the computer, too. What wretched timing!
That, and he was about to get eaten!
Then suddenly a summoned animal crashed into it.
"Run!" Willow yelled from the doorway.
Whitley sprang up and ran, but paused to press the last key.
The Hound knocked the summoned thing off in no time at all and ran after him.
Willow grabbed his arm and yanked him after her, but they were too slow.
Then a wall of ice formed in front of it.
"Got it," Weiss said.
"Weiss?" they heard Shine yell from the other side of the ice.
"You left her?" Willow said.
"I didn't see her!" Weiss said.
"No, don't," Shine said. "Leave it. It's going to attack me now...but also the Maiden. Get back around here from the other side."
"That'll take too long!" Weiss cried.
"It'll chase us if you don't," Whitley said.
"I'll just refreeze it." Weiss pulled out some fire dust. "You two run."
"Weiss!" Yang and Blake and Ruby were caught up finally. "Wait for us."
"Wait for me," Jaune called.
* * *
The Hound had turned back to Shine once its path was blocked.
"You won't...win," it said.
"Wanna bet?" Shine was trying not to show fear.
"Smell your fear," the Hound leered, rearing up at her.
It clawed at her, with those odd, humanoid hands.
Shine backed up, sword out. "You can't kill me," she said. "Go back to hell, you mangy monstrosity."
"No!" The Hound jumped at her.
It broke the floor by doing that, and Shine lost her footing and fell back, then it glanced at her, and she had to roll out of the way.
Why was this thing so hard to scare?!
It caught her by the foot and picked her up, then slammed her into the ground. Her Aura appeared again, like a shield, or she'd have broken her bones that time too.
"Shine!" Pyrrha was in the doorway.
"Don't!" Shine called. "It's too much for one person."
"I can't just let you die!" Pyrrha said.
"I won't die," Shine said.
The Hound reached for her, and she rolled aside and stuck her sword right into its paw, then she sliced it off.
It began to howl and sizzle.
Then it held up the paw...and there was...bone...sticking out of it.
Shine stared at it in horror.
"What is that?" Pyrrha stared at it.
"Miss Nikos?" Winter was still on the scroll.
Fria picked it up. Pyrrha had dropped it onto the bed.
"Hello?" she said, confused.
"Fria?" Winter said oddly.
"Oh, hello, dear," Fria said. "Is it time for tea?"
"No..." Winter swallowed. "It's not...tea time..."
She was currently in the hall waiting for the General to come back from putting things in motion, and the Ace Ops were at the other end of the hall, out of earshot.
She could tell Marrow wasn't happy with all this, however.
"I'm confused," Fria said blankly. "What time is it? Is it time yet?"
What would happen if she said yes?
Then she heard yelling again.
"The Grimm," Fria said. "I should kill the Grimm..."
"No, no, don't do that," Winter said. "That's what it wants."
She frantically looked around. She felt so helpless right now. "Fria, listen to me. Trust me. Let the others handle it."
Was she telling her that just to keep the powers safe?
But they certainly couldn't let the Grimm take her either!
"Are you sure?" Fria said uncertainly.
"Yes, yes, I'm sure," Winter sighed. "They're your friends..." She leaned on the wall wearily. "At least they tried to be... They wanted to protect you."
"Like you, dear?" Fria said, then, "But I remember now... Yes...the General...and you... You were his chosen one, right?"
"That doesn't matter anymore." Winter said this without thinking about whether it was wise or not. "You have to survive. Don't engage the Hound...get as far away as possible. Forget about who was chosen. We can't let her have this one...even if it means a slight change of plans."
She'd get in so much trouble later if the General heard her say that, but the situation surely called for some flexibility, didn't it?
"I feel bad leaving them..." Fria said.
Winter heard more yelling.
* * *
Pyrrha chose to dismiss what Shine said and charged out of the room after all, when the Hound had hit Shine into the ground again.
Her Aura still hadn't broken, but she was getting out of breath from being knocked around like this.
Pyrrha charged at the Hound and sliced into its side.
Weiss just got the wall melted enough, with some help from Yang, for them all to get through right then.
The Hound turned to Pyrrha and grabbed her sword in its bare hand, then bared its fangs at her.
Pyrrha got a sinking feeling.
"Let go!" Shine yelled at her.
Pyrrha instead tried to yank her sword out of its grasp using her Semblance and her strength combined.
Well, it sort of worked. The Hound did lose its grip--but that pissed it off.
It snapped right for her throat instead.
"Pyrrha!" Jaune and Ruby yelled at the same time.
Pyrrha's Aura flashed into view just in time to keep her throat from being crushed by the Hound, but it did yank her up by it and fling her into the wall like she was a chew toy...only it looked way more grotesque than that.
Her Aura flickered and faded.
Seeing that she wasn't getting up again, the Hound turned to the door and charged for Fria.
But it seemed to hit an invisible wall at the door line.
It stopped and started clawing at it, and snarling.
It was really scary even to see this.
"Pyrrha!" Jaune ran over to her.
"Shine, are you okay?" Blake called.
Shine pushed herself up. "Less okay than before, but I'm functional," she said. "That thing is hard to put down. We have to weaken it first. But I have an idea. Ruby, take Fria out the window, get her somewhere else, anywhere. The rest of you, try to slow it down for a few minutes. I'll be right back. I need Whitley for this, though."
"Are you sure?" Yang might not have liked Shine, but this was a fate worse than death if the Hound got her. She didn't hate her that much.
"It'll be fine," Shine said. "It doesn't want me, it wants Fria."
The Hound clawed some more.
Ruby burst into rose petals and managed to go right under it. The invisible wall didn't stop her.
She snatched Fria up, scroll and all, and yanked the window opened, then sped out of it.
The Hound, seeing her get away, turned and took off down the hall instead of bothering to try to get inside the room.
Yang, Blake, and Weiss all ran after it.
Shine ran after them, but she was looking for Whitley.
Jaune helped Pyrrha sit up. "Are you okay?" he said, freaking out.
He started to boost her Aura.
Pyrrha put a hand on his arm. "I'm fine," she said, rubbing her throat. "It didn't break my Aura till after I hit the floor, so I'm just a little jarred, that's all... I have to thank them for this new power boost. That could have been bad." She laughed weakly.
"Maybe you should stay down," Jaune said.
"No, we have to help." Pyrrha struggled to get to her feet, still a little shaky. "They can't fight that thing alone, come on."
"But--" Jaune said.
"It'll be fine, Jaune," Pyrrha said. "Shine has a plan. We just need to stall it. We can do that."
Jaune didn't like it, but he didn't want to leave the others hanging either, so they both ran after them.
* * *
"The sound system?" Whitley said to Shine. "Why?"
"Trust me, if I know Grimm, this will work," Shine said. "And even if it doesn't, it'll boost me."
"Well, this port should work." Whitley had hooked up the CD player to the wall intercom system. "We never use this, even at parties, but it should be in every part of the house as long as the power is on. How loud?"
"We have to be able to hear each other, but loud enough to scare this thing." Shine pulled a case of CDs out of her bag. "Let's see...what will put the fear of God into that monster?... I don't have time to pick the perfect song. This will have to do." She popped a disc in that was labeled "Worship Favs".
This loud music began blaring over the intercom system, startling everyone.
The girls had just cornered the Hound back in the foyer, while Ruby, having taken Fria as far as the living room, was blocking it.
She tried to use her eyes to blast it out of the window behind the stairs.
It did go out.
They all thought it was over for a moment, but then it clawed its way back in... Part of its head was hanging loose...
And inside...
They all gasped in horror...because they saw a human--or faunus--head inside it, with silver eyes.
"Take the girl," it said, over and over.
Whitley had run out to see what was going on, and he and Willow were behind the big suit of armor statue--might have been the same one Weiss had to fight while it was possessed.
The music got louder then, and Shine came racing down the hall too, to see what was going on.
Pyrrha and Jaune stared at the Hound in horror.
Even Hazel and Emerald were staring at it, and Penny too.
The Hound came towards Ruby--but then it slowed and began to shake its head, and then it put its gross hands up over its ears.
"Stop...stop..." it began to say over and over.
Ruby blinked at it, still too stunned to do anything.
"Hit it!" Yang finally found her focus and shot at it.
Everyone began to shoot at it with dust at once, and it backed up a little, disoriented.
"Pyrrha--" Shine threw her sword to Pyrrha. "--use this."
Pyrrha nodded at her, then she took aim using her hand and the sword like a javelin.
It stuck into the Hound's neck, and it fell to the ground. Still not dead.
"Now." Whitley nodded at Willow.
They shoved the statue, and Hazel rushed to help them. With a final effort, they got it to move, and it fell on top of the Hound before it could get up.
Black smoke began to rise up.
But it was still writhing.
Shine raced down the stairs past the others, so fast they were surprised, and came up to it. Then she put her hand on her sword.
"I release your soul," she said, taking the hilt in her hand.
Light flashed out of it again.
Suddenly the rest of the Grimm burst into black dust...and then withered away...leaving...a skeleton...though they only saw one hand of it.
"It was...a person..." Ruby said wanly.
"Oh..." Pyrrha covered her mouth and looked ill.
"What?" Oscar was leaning on the railing and watching.
"Is it dead?" Emerald said shakily.
"It took a lot to kill that thing," Hazel said.
Ruby sank to her knees.
"Ah..." Penny winced. "I'm still...weak..."
"Weiss?" they heard Winter calling over the scroll--Ruby had it in her pocket. "Weiss?! Somebody? Anybody?"
"Winter?" Weiss rushed up to Ruby and took the scroll away. "How long have you been there?"
"Shine..." Pyrrha looked down at her. "That was a human...in a Grimm."
Shine nodded, looking dark.
"How?" Jaune asked nervously.
"I don't know how," Shine said. "But it's black magic, I can promise you that. Salem has...finally gone off the deep end, even more so than before... Oh, how far you've fallen, woman."
"You pity her?" Hazel didn't care for Shine's tone there. "Did you see that monstrosity?"
"Weren't you working for her earlier today?" Yang asked him. "Get off your high horse. We're the ones who should be horrified... Ruby, are you okay?"
"I...uh..." Ruby said blankly.
"So did we just kill someone?" Jaune asked.
"No." Shine put her sword away. "He was dead already... Just a little bit of his mind was tied to the Grimm body. I released it, so I suppose he'll go where you all go when you die. That was the most I could do for him. At this stage...it's hard to fully reverse damage. The worst of dark magic is when it actually does permanent harm."
"And it can?" Pyrrha didn't know the slightest thing about magic in general, so it was news to her to hear this.
"Perhaps now is not the best time to discuss it," Shine said, nodding at Ruby.
"Ruby..." Oscar tried to put a hand on her arm.
"Don't." Ruby got up suddenly and ran out of the room.
"Ruby..." Yang said.
"I hate to be the one to say this," Hazel said, "but we should be making a plan...or you should be, at least. You don't have long to stop Ironwood--or before Salem returns."
"Can you give us a break? We just killed that thing," Weiss snapped. "Nice work by the way, Mom, Whitley..."
"That was terrifying." Willow hugged her sides.
"I never want to do that again," Whitley said. "How do you all sign up for a lifetime of this?" he shuddered.
"It gets inane fast," Shine told him. "Well, best leave it. In all likelihood, we won't be coming back to this house again. Jaune, help me with Fria. That shock can't have been good."
Jaune nodded and followed her to the living room.
Weiss came too, still on the scroll.
"Yes, we're all right now," she said slowly.
* * *
Winter had finally just stepped out of the hall altogether to finish this conversation, without being overheard. The Ace Ops assumed it was work related.
She let out a sigh of relief. "Weiss...about the Maiden--"
"Yes, we know--we have less than an hour!" Weiss said. "Did you call just to see if we'd give it up? I thought this kind of manipulation was a little beneath you, Winter."
Winter felt stung.
"No," she said. "I..." She looked around and lowered her voice. "I called to tell you that if you don't have an alternative plan, then there's no more time to stall."
"Huh?" Weiss said.
The others could hear Winter, since she was on speaker. All the kids' scrolls were usually set to that because they ran and talked so often.
"I mean I think we're at the breaking point," Winter said. "Delaying the bomb was already pushing our luck. If we delay again, the General is going to lose his patience. If he goes through with this, it's over. For Mantle, anyway... I can't stop him alone. I'd need backup, and the only people close enough to us are...in jail, so..."
"Wait...you're on our side?" Weiss said.
Winter was quiet for a moment, then she said, "I'm on the side of saving the people... This...has finally reached the point where we're sacrificing lives for no reason, just to secure a little power--that won't even save us, probably... I see no other thing to do."
"I knew she'd come around," Shine said quietly.
"That made one of us," Jaune said, boosting Fria's Aura again.
She stirred.
"She doesn't have long, does she?" Pyrrha had followed them. "She's weaker again."
"She's losing Aura almost as fast as I can boost it," Jaune said. "We don't have much time at all."
"If the power goes to one of you--" Winter heard this. "--the dilemma is going to be the same... He's coming back."
"Winter, can you keep us on line?" Shine asked. "Let me hear this for myself, then maybe I can plan."
"If you think it will help." Winter shoved the scroll into her jacket pocket while it was still on.
She couldn't hear them, since Shine motioned them all to be silent, but they heard all the following.
The General came back in, looking grave.
"Good, you're here," he said to them all. "I need a squad of drones on standby, in order to drop the payload."
Winter had still hoped, against hope, that this had been a bluff...even if deep down she knew better.
But she couldn't resist asking, "Sir? What for?"
Please say it's just a bluff...
Ironwood glanced at her over his shoulder, and the worst of it was--he was so calm. "I believe I was clear in the broadcast: If they give me a reason, I'm gonna remove Mantle from the equation."
On the other end of the line, Pyrrha covered her mouth and Weiss looked horrified...so all that...he was really serious? Even they had wondered if it was a bluff.
Ironwood looked back at the Ace Ops. "This is how we save Atlas."
But it won't save anyone, Winter thought frantically. We're just doing Salem's job for her at this point. Like she can't just finish us off at her leisure...
How could he not see that?
She saw the look in Marrow's eye. She wanted to will him not to do anything, wait till the General was out of earshot--
But of course he did anyway.
"You call this saving Atlas?" he burst out, making the other Ace Ops wince. "Doing Salem's job for her."
Took the words right out of my mouth, Winter thought. But there's no pleasure in being right at such a time--and no wisdom in giving this trouble to the man who shot Sleet not 12 hours ago for less than this.
"I believed in you," Marrow went on anyway. "I thought we could work towards something better. But now you're throwing it all away."
Marrow himself could only remember Pyrrha's conversation with him just two days ago and how she'd asked what he would do.
Well, this was it. He couldn't keep doing this anymore. It was now or never for deciding for himself.
Harriet grabbed Marrow and turned him toward her roughly. "If you don't shut your mouth, I'm going to do it for you," she said harshly.
Of course she was trying to save him--she'd seen what happened to Sleet earlier--but as usual, her approach was all wrong. This wouldn't shut him up, Winter thought.
"If this is what gets the children to cooperate, then it's worth it," Vine also attempted to appease them.
Winter thought to herself, At what point did threatening children who were trying to save people become what we consider worth it?
"I don't like this either," Elm tried, "but the top priority is--"
Marrow had had enough. "Do you even believe what you're saying anymore?" he asked Ironwood, then all of them. "Do any of you believe in anything?! I used to wear this rank with pride, but now I see for what it really is--a cage." [Yes, I changed it. Collar was stupid...and kind of racist sounding, I thought.]
Ironwood reached for his gun.
Winter was out of time to try anything else, so she jumped in front of him and punched Marrow just before he could pull the trigger.
She knocked Marrow to the ground and pulled his arms behind him.
"You want a cage? Fine," she said.
Then she looked at Ironwood. "I'll throw this traitor in the brig, where he belongs."
Perhaps Ironwood didn't really want to shoot him, because he nodded.
Winter doubted anyone but her could have gotten away with that move and not been suspect, but her relief was going to be short lived if they didn't have a plan.
She dragged Marrow away to the elevator.