Warning: This installment includes some Neo-level brutality, though I kept the descriptiveness kind of limited without straying too far from Neo's brutal and psychopathic character. You've been warned.

Kept you waiting, huh? Sorry about that – as I've stated on my profile, I had an accident and couldn't use my dominant hand for quite a while. Had glass cutting deep into my hand, was bandaged for, like, two weeks, and even then I had to rest it for another week before I could use it again. Healed up pretty nicely now, so I can finally write again!

Note – with this update, Dreams Crushed's rating has been bumped up from T to M, mostly just to be safe, considering that we do have strong language, violence, dark topics, and Neo. However, things will mostly stay the same as they have been previous to this.

Chapter 10: The Jupiter Raid, Part 2

Atlesian Soldiers – both Ruby and Yang would've recognized that armor everywhere after the mining site. And it weren't just a few, but a whole squad of them, their leader – easily distinguishable from the rest by his bulky appearance, his silver-white armor that, while encompassing his head, left his face exposed, and the prominent gray beard, actually stubbles that were terribly shaven and mismatched in length, that covered most of his lower face – arguing with the henchman known as Davis, who was still attempting to stop them.

The once already tense atmosphere in the room returned tenfold within the blink of an eye, accompanied by several unique reactions all at once. While every henchmen in the room all but dropped what they were holding to turn to the intruders, it were only the three original members of the club – Junior, Tucker and Deadb3ar – and the twins that remained where they were and didn't react to the soldiers waltzing in.

Cinder was the first to move, twirling on the spot and vanishing behind the taller frame of the club owner, outfit encompassed by energy as it changed into the one Ruby had once seen her infiltrate Beacon in, mere seconds before she – now hidden from view by a few henchmen – slid over the bar onto Tucker's side and ducked down behind it.

Even faster than her were Emerald and Mercury, the female thief grabbing her partner by the arm and pulling him backwards onto two bar stools right next to another, turning away from the entrance and huddling up to him – for anyone who didn't know them, they looked like an inconspicuous couple all lovey-dovey with another, but only from the back. Tucker, still on the other side of the bar, could see their expressions, and while Mercury had quickly grabbed the closest glass and pretended to stare into it as he listened – actually, he was making eye-contact with Cinder behind the bar and waiting for instructions – Emerald was peeking over her shoulder and watching the situation unfold.

Perhaps the most unique reaction, however, was that of Neo.

As Yang and Ruby – both reminded of the mining site, and thinking it was about that, that they had somehow screwed up and been identified – grew uneasy, the assassin, whose smile had grown as the Atlesians had marched in, simply reached for the tall blonde's elbow to get the attention of the two, and then shook her head as Yang's gaze met hers.

It wasn't about the mining site, there was little reason to panic, the message was clear despite the lack of words.

From seemingly nowhere, Neo pulled Yang's mask and handed it to the blonde, who understood and quickly put it on to cover her face, whereas Ruby pulled her hood up – better be safe than sorry. And then, Neo slowly retreated, mysterious smile on her lips growing with each step backwards, until it vanished along with her behind a small group of henchmen closest to them.

She never appeared on the other side of them, and when they moved, she was gone entirely. Disappeared without a trace of ever having been there in the first place. Yang knew why immediately, assured that she had heard the faint sound of glass shattering.

"Ruby, where's Zwei?" muttered the blonde, leaning ever so slightly towards her sister.

"Back in our room." whispered Ruby in response, catching on relatively quick, "Probably for the better..."

Yeah, Yang had to agree with that – it looked like things were about get nasty, and that fast, and neither of them really wanted their small dog to get in the middle of it, especially after having thought they had lost him before, reunited with him only recently.

"Who is the owner of this club?" demanded the leader of the Atlesian squad to know all of a sudden, ignoring Davis' further attempts to stop him, thus turning Yang's attention back to him as well. Through the holes in her mask, she watched as he strode past the henchman usually guarding the door once and for all, straight towards them, and felt a hint of anger rise within her immediately, by now familiar as it slowly tinted the amethyst of her eyes darker and made the blood in her veins boil.

Disgust towards Atlas, their strictly economic and military way of thinking, and their 'better-than-thou' manner, rose up anew. And every time she saw one of them, she swore she was proven right, especially after the mining site incident only recently.

"That would be me, Hei 'Junior' Xiong." called Junior back eventually in hope of taking some of the tension off the others by taking all attention, and as the commander's eyes fell upon him, he felt that he was being judged immediately. But he had learned to deal with it and remain calm, though he knew the same couldn't be said for the younger people in the room with him, and was a risk especially with Yang, essentially a ticking bomb that a wrong move could trigger when she didn't have herself under control.

Which she didn't seem to have, although it was hard to tell with the mask covering her face, leaving him with only her body language to guess.

Taking two steps forward and placing himself in between the masked blonde and the Atlesian commander, he crossed his arms and frowned expectantly through his shades at the other tall man, waiting for him to explain himself.

Rather than that, however, the man in the silver-white armor simply sneered and produced a document from his armor, handing it to the Mistralian man. Momentarily, Junior held the gaze, searching for an answer in the iron gray eyes of the Atlesian, before ultimately glancing down at the sheet of paper in his hands.

"Club's gonna stay closed for now. Police raid." huffed the Atlesian commander with his gruff voice once he was sure that the other man was reading the document – Junior guessed it was the small growl that had escaped him that tipped the soldier off, it couldn't have been the eyes as they were still behind the shades.

Through his shades, Junior carefully read each line of the search warrant – that was what the document was – he'd been handed, both in disbelief and irritation. Mostly because he could see right away that it was an actual official document signed by none other than General James Ironwood himself, and not just a forged one like he had hoped. Titled 'Operation: Jupiter', the search warrant was legitimate – didn't explain it, however, which was why he eventually rose his gaze again and frowned at the bearded soldier.

And shoved the document back into his hands, finally wiping that sneer off his face.

"Atlas has no jurisdiction in Vale."

The squad's leader snarled in response, but handed the search warrant to one of his soldiers to take, challenge in his eyes that he never moved away from the club owner. Even as Yang shifted in her stance behind Junior, her own irritation growing much like that of anyone else, he kept it trained on the Mistralian man in front of him, once again evaluating him. This time as a threat, Junior could easily see it.

"We now have. At least in this case." countered the Atlesian commander finally, the sneer returning as he finally turned away and rose his voice, "We have information that Roman Torchwick has been frequenting this club, and have reason to believe that he either has been meeting with the White Fang here, or that the White Fang uses this club as an undercover base of operation."

From the corner of her eyes, Ruby noticed how Emerald's face scrunched up at the mention of that, and heard the low hiss from behind the bar that she was sure belonged to Cinder. And being confirmed in her suspicion and her worst fear, the young mercenary couldn't help but bite down on her lower lip herself.

"Due to the countless crimes committed by Roman Torchwick and the White Fang against Atlas and the Schnee Dust Company, anything related to them does fall under our jurisdiction. It's been decided by the higher-ups that he's to be extradited to Atlas in the case of capture, and that ages ago, but Vale has unfortunately failed to fulfill their end of that."

With disdain, Junior watched as the other man began to stroll around in an almost casual manner, dragging his feet as he approached one of the tables close to them and picked the small black box on it up to examine it. With an obvious fake interest, as the Mistralian man noted, the commander's eyes staying dull and seeming to stare through the box.

From which he finally picked one of its contents, before letting the box drop onto the table and spill out, further annoying the members of the club – and while the older members managed to hide it well, the younger ones clearly showed it, among which were quite a few mercenaries in black and red.

"Pitiful, considering it took Atlas only one night of chase to capture him. In the end, he was but the thieving vermin that we always figured him to be." chuckled the Atlesian commander, and enjoyed it as shock spread across the faces of the four younger women, and even Junior let out a growl. And to add insult to injury, the man in the silver-white armor showed the card he had just picked from the box to them. "In one of his pockets, we found one of these here – that's how we found you. Handy little thing, eh?"

"So he was inside my club – and that proves what, exactly? One of the guys must've let him in, who knows when. Maybe he didn't check his ID, maybe he didn't know who Roman Torchwick was, maybe Torchwick bribed him. The hell do I know? There's several hundred people partying in here every night, and as long as they don't cause trouble in here, we don't cause trouble for them. Bad for business, you understand?" shot Hei back eventually, shrugged before glancing over to the henchman usually sitting at the front entrance, "Besides, strange and shady people get in here all the time – you bunch got in as well, after all."

Ruby had to bite down on her tongue not to burst into a giggle upon seeing the commander's dumbfounded expression and the confused frowns exchanged by the soldiers behind him – she knew the situation was serious and didn't call for any form of humor, but she just couldn't help it. Not if Junior knew how to dish out like that.

The leader of the Atlesian soldiers didn't find it anywhere as amusing, however, as his expression eventually contorted into one of anger, his right hand balling into a fist dangerously close to his holstered gun.

"Listen, we're not here to play or to hear excuses. We want answers, and you will give them to us – if you want to, or not." hissed the man finally and tossed the card he had showed to them aside without a care as to where it landed. "Torchwick was in here, and he most likely met with members of the White Fang. And you know that, actually, I'd bet on it. And you're in on it, aren't you?"

The youngest mercenary sent a nervous glance towards the owner of the establishment, waiting for his reaction. But the Mistralian man's expression remained perfectly stoic, not even the slightest twitch betraying what he really thought or knew. By now, Ruby was used to it, knowing to to be one of his quirks and – dare she say – abilities, but to see it still unnerved her. To not be able to tell what was going on in his head, not only making it hard to respond correctly, but to anticipate his next action or reaction.

Whether or not it came with his field of work or not, she really didn't know, but whenever it happened, he felt a lot more intimidating. At least in her eyes.

"Now, aren't you getting a bit ahead of yourself?" It was Yang who suddenly cut in after a long moment of silence, voice echoing through the mask on her face as she stepped forward, "Your high and mighty bullshit getting to your head again? Clouding your judgment? Typical Atlesian mental disease, if you ask me, but..."

"Stay out of it."

Stopped by Junior stepping in her path and blocking her way with an outstretched arm, Yang froze up. Stared in disbelief at the back of her boss' head for having stopped her – but didn't say anything, and followed his command. Why, she wasn't really sure herself in that moment, but figured it was the voice of reason that led her to do it. However that managed to reach her, considering her anger was getting the better of her ever since the intruders had entered.

"All of you." added the club owner with a hint of finality, having noticed Melanie's attempt to back Yang up, then took a deep breath to collect himself. And then, glared towards the leader of the intruders, pushing his shades back up with his free hand.

"However, I do have to agree with her in one thing – you are getting ahead of yourself. If Torchwick was in here, then he wasn't here to do business with me. My business is strictly legal, and I'd appreciate it if you weren't to associate or even as little as compare me to him and his work." snarled Hei through bared teeth, "To prove it, I'm going to cooperate with you. I'm going to answer your questions, but that's about it. As I told you before, that search warrant you have doesn't interest me at all. Atlas has no jurisdiction here in Vale, and I'm not going to believe your words just like that. Come back with a valid search warrant issued by Vale, or by someone to back up your little tale."

With a huff, he took off his shades and revealed the glare beneath, his gray eyes narrowed dangerously at the Atlesians.

"If you don't like it – well, you know where the door is. I'd appreciate it if you'd see yourself out, otherwise I'll have my boys show you the way out." he lowered his voice threateningly and took a step forward, the shades still in his right hand coming menacingly close to the commander's exposed face, "Cause believe it or not, with your search warrant meaning nothing, you're trespassing by Vale's law, and I have every right to throw you out."

The youngest of the bunch actually shuddered at this, but stayed quiet. She didn't know anything about laws and rights – neither those of Vale, nor those of Atlas or any other kingdom – or whatever else counted now, and she'd – unlike Yang or any of the others ready to jump back in and back their boss up – rather not attract unnecessary attention. Would probably only make it worse, especially after Junior had clearly told them to stay out of it.

That was, until she saw Junior move ever so slightly, one hand moving to his lower back.

Until then, he had clearly attempted to resolve it with words – perhaps not calm or peaceful, but with words, up to his final threat – in hope of ending it quickly, thus avoiding them from discovering Cinder, and to get to open the club that night after all. And everyone else had supported him in that, the villainess and her group had stayed out of it entirely and kept from attracting attention, and even Yang, despite her short outburst, clearly meant to back him up in it.

But even Junior seemed to have felt the situation escalate, realizing that there was no way to talk his way out of that. There was no other explanation as to why he moved his hand behind his back and gave them a small, inconspicuous gesture. A warning that they had agreed on for situations just like the current one.

From the corner of her eyes, not moving her head as to avoid giving the others away, Ruby watched the reactions of the others. Even Mercury and Emerald did, although most likely simply catching on by what everyone else around them was doing considering that they had their backs turned to Junior.

Yang reacted the quickest, having seen it first, and activated Ember Electrica, exploiting the fact that she was still hidden from the view of the soldiers by Junior's taller frame in front of her. Following suit, Tucker slid a hand beneath the bar – Ruby had once heard him say that he kept his personal weapon hidden there – which Cinder must've spotted, as Ruby, from the corner of her eyes, spotted the villainess summoning her bow while still behind the cover that the bar provided.

In retrospect, that was probably what Emerald saw and considered a sign, stealthily reaching for her weapons while telling Mercury in a hushed whisper that could've easily been mistaken for her placing kisses on his throat to activate his own.

Only Melanie and Miltia didn't act on it, but considering that Melanie's weapons were dangerous even in their inactive state and that Miltia's claws activated the quickest of all, the young mercenary wasn't surprised.

Still, with everyone else ready, she too chose to prepare. Wasn't even going to be hard for her, her weapon luckily still on the bar just in between her and Tucker, she merely had to move slow and coordinated, gently lifting her hand to place it on the sniper rifle. If the situation stayed as it was or calmed down, she'd never have to pull it or attack. It was merely a precaution.

No one was paying attention to her as she, still sitting on the bar stool, rose her right hand from her lap. Facing away from the bar, she had to reach behind herself without looking, thus chose to trace the surface of the bar in search for her weapon.

Her hand traveled up the front of the furniture, cold and smooth, and she kept her breathing and her gaze under control as to not give herself away. Finding the edge of the bar – the round and warm tube that glowed in red, white and yellow with the beat if active – she suppressed a sigh of relief. Her weapon was mere inches away. She simply had to avoid moving too hasty.

Letting her gaze travel to Yang, then Junior, and then back to the soldiers – still, no one was taking notice of the young girl – she dared to lean back just enough for her hand to come in contact with the rifle that she had received from Cinder and Neo. Rested it atop the metal and gently narrowed her eyes at the silence that had spread through the room as Junior and the Atlesian commander stared another down.

And then, Ruby saw the movement in the group of soldiers - one of them, due to the angle he was at, spotting her arm and where it rested. One smaller than most of his comrades, clearly younger, a rookie based by how off his stance was and by how his hands were nervously shaking.

Everything happened incredibly fast after that.

The last thing she remembered was how he pulled his gun, finger on the trigger right away, at which point she abandoned her own weapon to pull her head down. Behind her, Tucker danced to the right just in time, a bottle on the shelf behind him exploding into countless shards, pulling his own weapon from beneath the bar and aiming it at the nervous rookie that had just almost shot them.

Three times he pulled the trigger on what looked like a handgun, each missing the guy by mere inches as he darted backwards and screamed – but it was enough for all hell to break loose. In fact, the first shot fired had been enough.

"NOBODY SHOOTS THE LIL' ONE!" bellowed one of the henchmen in response to the rookie soldier shooting at Ruby, the signal for every other henchman in the room to pull their weapon. Merely Deadb3ar – unarmed as he was – did not follow the example of his colleagues and jumped over the bar to join Cinder in hiding behind it.

Ruby wasted no time to follow him. She whirled around in her seat and used the momentum generated by that to catapult herself forwards onto the bar, rolling over it and grabbing her weapon as she did so.

This was provided with cover from Mercury and Emerald to her right, both finally abandoning their little act – as Ruby whirled away from the action, they turned towards it. Emerald acted first, sliding off the stool with one of her weapons at the ready to fire several shots from her hip into the crowd of white-armored soldiers, but only until it ran out – then, she hopped backwards onto the bar to sit on it and switched to her other weapon, this time aiming for heads.

That was when Mercury joined in. Pulling both legs up – and with that, his activated greaves – he fired them at the same time, not only succeeding in hitting enemies, but also pushing him out of his seat and backwards onto the bar with enough momentum to slide over it. Reaching out, he grabbed Emerald by the shoulder and pulled her along, just like the two of them had planned without the exchange of a single word.

Despite their constant quarreling, Ruby could see why Cinder had made them partners – when it came to it, they complimented another surprisingly well.

A bottle exploded overhead and the shards rained down on the young girl, barely masking her panicked shriek. Because of that, she missed it as Mercury landed on his ass close to her with a growl, and she missed it as Emerald, instead of dropping down just like him, dropped her entire weight backwards at the last second and managed to exploit the momentum she had gained from Mercury's action to fall into an impressive one-handed handstand on the edge of the bar from which she fired a few more shots into the crowd of soldiers they were outnumbered by, before gravity finally pulled her down to join the others behind the bar.

Ruby was just recovering from the last explosion of glass as Melanie and Miltia appeared next to her, having vaulted over the bar to take cover as well, both clearly at disadvantage when it came to range. As Miltia cowered facing the bar, Melanie instead slid down and rested part of her back against it, teeth bared.

"Damn it!" growled the long-haired Malachite twin and hammered a fist down on the floor, barely flinching as more bottles exploded and shards of glass and a rain of alcohol poured down on them, even as intact bottles fell off the shelf and almost hit them. "Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT!"

"Melanie." admonished her sister and reached out to touch her shoulder, gaze alone telling her what she thought, "It's no use getting angry, leave that to Yang. Don't do anything drastic. I know we're in a bad spot, but..."

As if to add to what she said, the twin in red threw an object over her sister to land on the ground in between her and Ruby. Both knew immediately what it was and why Miltiades was showing it to them.

It was Miltia's Scroll, on it four bars of different color – the two at the top filled about half way, the third one in the low green, and the last one in the low yellow, appearing almost orange. The message was clear: All members of MMRY were still weakened from the sparring earlier that day, with Ruby as the winner having the best of it, and Yang the worst.

And still, Yang was the only one of them not behind cover yet.

"As much as I hate it myself – we can't do much, if anything. As we are – weakened, and three of us specialized in close-range combat – we'd only make things worse if we try to get involved. Or, worst case, would not make it out of it at all." Miltia adjured her sister, one hand on her arm, making eye-contact with her. Silent. Although one could hardly consider it 'silence' with the sound of gunshots close-by. "We'll get our chance. For now, we shouldn't get in the way of the others."

A loud crash announced more glass about to rain down on them, this time accompanied by a loud creak as one of the compartments at the top of the closest shelf gave in and slammed down on the one below, causing that and the ones below to break one by one. Bottles crashed to the ground and shattered, but neither of them really paid any attention to it, simply ducking out of the way.

Only Melanie, clearly out of frustration, grabbed one of the broken bottles and rose to her feet to throw it. Whether or not she hit anyone or anything, the other two didn't know, although they heard it shattering – if it did hit, then it had done nothing to calm the irritated twin in white.

Tucker suddenly ducked down next to them to reload, finally giving Ruby a chance to look at his gun – an odd design, really, looking like someone had slapped a palm-sized rectangular box beneath a handgun, along with a small flashlight. Even weirder, when he ejected the clip from grip, the young girl spotted that the empty one had a thin hole in it – and the grip the blade of a knife.

A butterfly knife? Could the thing be opened like a switchblade?

Before she got a closer look at it, the barkeeper had already pulled a new clip out from underneath the bar and reloaded, waited a second, then emerged from cover to fire at the invaders. Still didn't explain what the rectangular box was for, but Ruby figured quickly that whatever it was, it was more situational in use and of no use at that moment.

With her rifle on her lap, Ruby herself considered getting into the action to help the henchmen fighting, but didn't act on it immediately. Both Cinder and Roman, as well as Neo, had praised her for her ability to remain level-headed before, and she was not going to act on a whim and rush into something now.

With a glance towards the twins, the young mercenary slowly rose her head and turned it as to glance over the bar, assessing the situation – and winced. Chaos had spread through the room, Junior's mercenaries locked in battle with the Atlesian soldiers all across the dancefloor, the first casualties of both sides already littering the ground – most of them seemed alive, or at least were still moving, but there was blood. A lot of it.

And in the middle of all that, of the mercenaries in red and black fighting the soldiers in white, of blades and bullets whizzing past, was Yang – hair ablaze, eyes crimson red, hands balled to fists as she punched her way through the chaos, effortlessly knocking aside both Atlesian soldiers and her own allies.

Just to get to that rookie at the back of the group that had almost shot her little sister.

A bolt of energy from an Atlesian rifle missing her by mere inches had Ruby pulling her head back down, gasping. If she was going to help, she had to be fast and move ever so often, stationary she was an easy target for anyone paying attention, and risking to be hit by a stray bullet. Which she rather wouldn't.

"I'm going to provide you cover, if you do the same for me."

The voice had Ruby cringe and bite down on her lower lip in surprise, but turning her head she found exactly who she had expected to see – Cinder, bow in hand, just a bit further down the small aisle behind the bar. Staring expectantly at her, waiting for the only answer that the situation allowed – which Ruby provided with a nod, not knowing how else to react.

"Wait for my command." instructed the villainess, but then surprised the younger female by completely turning away from her. The explanation was provided the very same moment, however, as this momentarily revealed who was positioned on the other side of the woman with the ashen-black hair – Junior. When and how he had managed to retreat there, Ruby didn't know, but she was glad to see that he was okay, considering that he had been in the middle of the chaos when it started, and that unarmed.

"Neo." Cinder called out to no in particular, only then reminding Ruby that the assassin had all but vanished when the intruders had entered – and dreaded what was going to happen next, seeing the seriousness on Cinder's face. The determination in her eyes. She already knew what Cinder's next words were going to be, even before the villainess continued. "Deadly force authori..."

"No, you don't."

Shock spread over Cinder's face upon being interrupted, although it was quick to be replaced by irritation as she turned to Junior and all but threatened him to explain with her stare. He knew that she didn't like it, knew that he had all but pissed off Neo – wherever she was, listening and waiting for her moment – but he was willing to gamble with that, knowing what danger it brought.

"It's bad enough as it is, I'd rather not have to deal with a lake of blood and corpses of either faction, including our own – or whatever it is that remains after Neo's 'play time'." he growled under his breath, "My club, my rules. No carnage for Neo today."

"She could handle that, too." shot Cinder back with sweet venom in her voice, "She's good at cleaning up after herself. The club would look like there never even had been any blood spilled in it."

And probably smell like a vat of bleach was spilled for a few days, although Cinder bit that comment down, knowing it would serve little to persuade the club owner.

"I told you, no." Junior hissed as he propped himself up from the floor in a crouch, glaring to his old acquaintance. And although he couldn't see her anywhere, he knew that Neo was disappointed and displeased – usually leading to 'unpleasant' consequences, although he was sure he'd be spared. A fact he was grateful for.

Glancing the other direction, he let out a low growl, then turned back to Ruby and Cinder to his right – and gestured towards the door leading to the back of the club. Met with confusion, he rose just enough to glance over the bar, then nodded towards the door again after he crouched back down.

"I need to get to that door."

The message was clear, and although he didn't explain any further as to why he had to, Ruby trusted him enough to completely ignore Cinder's reaction and to decide for the two of them, nodding before the older female could as much as make a choice. Taking the lead from the villainess, the young mercenary pulled her rifle up, raising one finger. Then a second. And although Cinder's eyes narrowed at her, she simply narrowed her own right back – and rose the third finger.

In almost perfect synchronization, both her and the bow-wielding woman rose to their feet, whirling around to face the room, neither of them looking back to see if Hei was making a run for the door. There was simply no time to, considering the dire consequence that a single mistake could have at that moment – in the end, she wasn't only looking out for herself, but for Cinder and Junior as well. More so for the other two than herself, considering Cinder was doing the same for her.

Her right eye lined up with the scope as she took aim, but she didn't close her left eye like she usually would – the same thing that was usually a big help was a hindrance this time, greatly limiting her vision of the nearby area, and worse, everyone in it. Instead closing her right eye, she scanned the area for targets, took note that she couldn't find Yang right away, cringed as she saw how one of the soldiers first elbowed a mercenary out of the way and then slammed the butt of his rifle into the face of another mercenary, but also saw her chance in that.

Switching eyes and pulling her rifle up, she took aim and pulled the trigger before the guy had any chance to continue his spree – a dart of electricity flew across the room and buried itself in the back of his neck, right into the thin exposed line between torso armor and helmet. He went down and didn't get back up.

One of Cinder's arrows zoomed by, temporarily drawing Ruby's attention to it, especially as it exploded into a small inferno in between three Atlesians with the sound of a glass vase hitting the floor, fire spreading as the three guys were thrown through the air.

Relief washed over Ruby at the sight of the arrows' effect, realizing that this was covering some of the ground they had lost in numbers and, considering most of the mercenaries were specialized in melee, weaponry.

A quick glance over her shoulder, no more than a second long as she could not waste time, actually not even that second, revealed that Junior was no longer with them – he had made it to the door. All that was left to do when it came to that was to hold position until he was back and could join the fight – although she had yet to see him fight, she guessed that he had experience.

Spotting three of the white-armored men split from a group and turn towards them, the girl reacted as quick as she could and pulled her rifle around. Not wasting any time at aiming and knowing by now that she couldn't fire in rapid succession, she instead pulled the trigger through when she had the middle one's chin in the hairline cross.

It never hit that, but the effect was the same, although a little more cruel than Ruby had intended – the bullet hit the soldier's exposed throat, catching him off guard and sending him backwards into a stumble. Shocked at where she had hit him and how he gasped for air as he fell, she lowered her rifle and stared as he hit both of his fellow soldiers, all three of them hitting the ground – he seemed to be able to breathe after that, but the brunette still winced.

And suddenly, having entirely let down her guard, was pulled down when someone jumped at her.

Hissing, she started to struggle against the taller body atop her own, pulling out her arm from in between them and reaching back for a punch across her attacker's face – and just in time avoided making that mistake, finally recognizing her aggressor to be Cinder, the glowing amber eyes not facing her, but glaring elsewhere.

"DOWN!" she bellowed at someone out of Ruby's immediate field of view, the question as to who answered when she tilted her head back and saw Tucker react – too late, Cinder's behavior being explained when a deep whir rose in volume. The only thing Ruby saw him do was raise his eyebrows in confusion – he never had time for anything else.

Several bullets tore through his torso, sending him backwards into the shelf of liquor, before crumpling down to the floor, leaving a smear of blood along the furniture as he sunk down.

And Ruby, familiar with weaponry of all kind, knew that sound well, and suddenly shared Cinder's fear. The scream of terror remained stuck in her throat, even as she saw Tucker flinch and hiss – at least some sign of life, even though he seemed far from alright. She knew what weapon it was.

Mini-gun.

Glass rained down on them all of a sudden as several hundred bullets tore through the shelf of bottles and snapped one in half, sending it and its contents falling towards them, and Cinder pulled the girl back beneath her, protecting her. Cowering beneath Cinder in fetal position, Ruby could hear the bullets bounce off the bar – the piece of furniture luckily bulletproof thanks to Junior and Tucker's foresight – and clung to her savior's body.

She heard Cinder hiss in pain as the bottles and shards pelted her back, tearing at her aura, saw the woman bare her teeth and grit them, felt both guilty and touched the woman was willing to do that for her. While her body was perfectly still, however, Ruby's mind was racing in the attempt to find a solution to their disadvantage, to find a way to relieve Cinder of the torture.

That was when it rolled around the side of the villainess' head, a single dark streak tearing through the pale canvas that Cinder's skin was, right at the height of her cheek, following along the cheekbone. Confusion took control of the younger girl at that, especially when she noticed that the arms of the woman atop her were shaking, struggling to keep her own weight up.

Just when she was about to ask her, however, she felt it. The droplet, falling off Cinder's cheek and landing on her own. Warm. Scarlet. Blood.

She screamed, realization sinking in. Attempting to struggle out from beneath the ashen-haired woman, however, Cinder shook herself back into focus and stopped her, somehow managing to keep herself up as she moved her arm to pin Ruby to her spot. Even shifted her weight to increase her pressure so that Ruby wouldn't get herself in danger.

Then, just as sudden as the storm of bullets had started, it stopped.

And guessing from the heat she felt even after Cinder, despite her own injuries, carefully rose off her and weakly shook the broken glass off her back, Ruby knew why.

It was dead silent around her as she stared down at the ground to her feet. All the fighting in the room had stopped for the moment, all eyes of those close-by on her, no one daring to move as she wheezed, body shaking with each inhale and exhale, and the air in front of her mouth seemed to do all but ignite with each of her breaths.

Snarling, she let go of the long malformed barrel, still red hot, tossing it onto the broken body of the gunner. It made a loud metal clang as it bounced off another barrel, but remained where it landed, unable to roll with how bent it was after she had beaten the gunner senseless with it and shattered his armor – and most likely, bones.

If not that, then the other barrel she had torn from the mini-gun and impaled him through the torso with, definitely had.

She ignored the squelching sounds as she stepped backwards through the slowly growing puddle of blood, away from the still living, writhing body. Never took her eyes off it, not until she was several feet away from it. Only then did she dare raise her fists, the blood of the soldier she had beaten into unconsciousness on her hands bubbling under the sudden searing heat of her skin, her weapons shifting along with her fingers, but she didn't wince as it sled along the blisters on her right hand. It didn't matter right then.

He had gotten what he had deserved. He had terrified Ruby – she had clearly heard the scream – and put her into danger. No one got to do that and walk away just like that.

Tearing her gaze off the broken body, she turned back into the direction she had originally been heading when the bulky soldier had transformed part of his armor – the arms of it, to be exact – into the mini-gun. Her body was cooling down a bit again now that she had eradicated him and removed the danger he posed for Ruby, but there was still enough anger left for it to remain far hotter than it should.

Movement resumed when she did, and although both enemies and allies initially backed away, she hardly even cared for it. She had a new target, and anyone getting in the way was but an obstacle, anyway. An obstacle between her – or was it her semblance in her stead, 'vengeance' as Miltia had dubbed it? - and the fool that had almost shot her sister. That rookie.

Either way, she was seeing red – in some way, literally, amethyst eyes long no more than a deep hue of crimson. At the latest when she finally, after abandoning the hunt for him in favor of taking down the heavy gunner, spotted him at the back of the group, frozen in fear.

At that moment, nothing made her different to any ruthless Grimm. From a mindless beast.

Her hands balled to fists, her weight shifted forward, and her heavy boots slammed down on the floor more and more rapidly as she fell into a sprint. No, a charge, mind gone and replaced by instinct. By need for revenge and lust for redemption that could only by quenched by the taste of blood.

She barreled into the crowd, caring just enough to avoid backhanding her own allies out of the way with the immense strength infused into her by her semblance – with her semblance active, it was hard to notice pain, only exhaustion could stop her; either exhaustion of her body or the exhaustion of the energy her semblance had gathered. Having not retreated like the others had, instead staying in the middle of the crowd with all the henchmen specialized in close combat much like her, she had taken enough hits to last her for the moment.

However long that was – the big downside of her semblance: she knew when she had energy stored, but never how much until it was all but depleted, and all the pain and exhaustion caught up to her, leaving her winded and defeated. Perhaps the only thing she thought of as scary when it came to going all out in a fight, other than facing an opponent like Neo. One that knew how to avoid triggering her semblance and relied on its agility to slowly chip away at her. That knew how to turn her biggest strength into her own biggest weakness by redirecting it at herself. Cause she didn't know how to deal with that. Who really did?

Her father, probably. He would've been able to help her with that. But he wasn't around anymore.

Without a warning, her straight charge was interrupted, something tackling into her side and sending her stumbling slightly off course with the additional weight suddenly clinging to her torso. It most likely wouldn't even have fazed her, if not for the pain suddenly shooting through her system, a kind of pain that she had become familiar with over the countless hours she and Neo had calibrated Ember Electrica.

"And just what the fuck do you think you are doing?!" she bellowed and thrashed around in the attempt to shake the opponent on her off, consumed in her rage, fought against the slowly spreading numbness in her muscles. Managed, perhaps due to the amount of prior exposure, to overcome the electricity spreading through her muscles, and all but ripped the female Atlesian Soldier – a woman roughly the height of the Malachite twins, but clearly a little older than either of them – that had jumped onto her back off her, fingers curling around the woman's throat.

The stun baton she'd been hit with fell from the woman's hand and clattered over the dancefloor beneath them as the berserker lifted her into the air, vanishing in the crowd after a henchman accidentally kicked it. But neither Yang, nor the woman struggling against her had eyes for that, the brawler instead slowly closing her hand around the cool white armor protecting her attacker's neck.

Until it cracked, and white splinters rained down her arm. The Atlesian woman was yet unscathed, but clearly even more in panic upon the realization that her armor wouldn't protect her, hammering and clawing away at the one arm holding her off the ground.

Beneath the mask, Yang scowled, muscles still contracting uncontrollably after the exposure to the electricity, crimson eyes shifting between her latest aggressor and her original target. She narrowed her eyes, both crimson pools and her limbs twitching ever so often as her muscles contracted, hissed as she felt the remaining electricity course through her arms into her newest piece of equipment, the gauntlets on her wrists – the gold, and the electricity already contained within, attracting the intruder in its owner's system.

Despite everything, there was still one malfunction left with the two-piece weapon – if exposed to external electricity surpassing a certain voltage, they activated on their own if not already active, as they were at that moment, and immediately unleashed their own element.

All the more reason why the brawler abandoned the opponent, swinging her arm and throwing the female Atlesian across the room without any care for where she landed, discarding her like a piece of junk. She never turned to see where the Atlesian ended up, the sounds all around blocking it out as the woman hit the bar with enough force to shatter more of her armor, leaving a dent in the piece of furniture, and sent the few bottles of alcohol left on it falling off it to shatter.

Yang wasn't caring about collateral damage anymore.

Picking up her charge again was proving to be a bit more difficult than she had imagined, however, her body reacting to the fact that her aura was undeniably running low after the sparring earlier that day and the exposure to electricity – once again, it had proven that it was the possibly most efficient thing at tearing through aura.

She stumbled a bit when she began to move again, angrier than before – not only was Ruby in danger, but she herself had sacrificed all defense for offense and paid the price when that female Atlesian had jumped her. And yet, was about to make the same mistake again. And would do it again if it failed, as long as it meant to ultimately reach her goal.

A foolish soldier stepped into her path, unfolding a device he was holding into a short mace with the movement of an arm. He got close enough to swing it, but she was faster, intercepting his wrist as the mace came down on her, and effortlessly swinging him by it, throwing him into one of his fellow soldiers that just attempted to pistol-whip Davis from behind.

For no more than a second, she and the mercenary usually working at the door made eye-contact, the man obviously surprised and caught off guard – and yet, he offered her a grateful nod, which she appreciated. Despite his shortcomings, she didn't mind him. She wasn't without her flaws either, after all, and technically even worse by giving into them.

A movement in the corner of her eye caught her off guard herself, a soldier that had detached itself from the fight and sneaked up on her. Standing right behind her with his sword already raised, the brawler had little time to react.

And if it had not been for an object suddenly zooming by her head and impaling the soldier's forehead through his visor, would probably not have made it in time. But like this, he dropped to the ground just like that, lifeless.

Turning her head to stare into the direction the object had come from, the brawler's mind finally caught up as to what had just happened – seeing Cinder standing upright behind the bar, bow still in her left hand and her right still in the position that it had released the string, was all the explanation she needed. That, and that Cinder's backside was covered in shards and a mixture of her own blood and alcohol.

Seeing the fury in the woman's eyes and the lines of blood on her face, Yang felt for the first time that she had done Cinder wrong. That they had a common goal, in some way, and shared a common ground. Still far from trusting her, but with the blatantly undisguised anger that the villainess radiated at that moment, perhaps there was something they understood each other in.

At least, if the blonde interpreted the other woman's expression right, Cinder was urging her to get that revenge for Ruby at that moment.

Covered by Cinder and, if she was right about who the bullets belonged to that took out an Atlesian to her left by blasting his kneecaps off, Emerald, the brawler jumped over the corpse of the soldier with the arrow in his forehead and stormed towards her original target.

She hardly cared for anyone this time, instead pushing her way through the chaos, through the mercenaries, the soldiers, and the fallen or falling bodies of either side. Stray bullets grazed her body and tore at her already weakened aura not unlike a beast that had sunk its teeth into prey, but she felt like a predator herself at that moment, and a predator didn't go down without a fight.

A mindless beast didn't.

And a mindless beast was, what finally stood over the cowering body of that unfortunate soul who had dared shooting at Ruby. His eyes were wide in fear, but his shaking stopped, paralyzed by the emotion that overcame him at the sight of the Grimm-faced brawler and the deep crimson eyes visible through the mask.

Had he been able to, he'd have begged for mercy – but there was none to be had, not from Yang, not after invading what had become her home after years of searching for one, not after attacking what had become her family after having lost one before. Not after daring to aim and fire at her little sister, maybe the only relative she had. The only one she could be sure about, that was.

A single punch from the raging berserker was all it took to break his nose and send him flying through the dark room to impact with the closest wall, although he had lost consciousness already before the blow actually connected with his face.

Anticlimactic. A sour taste in her mouth. No more.

Watching him fall out of the crater in the wall and hit the ground did little to soothe the brawler's fury. It still wouldn't calm, not at this anticlimactic end to her hunt, not before every last Atlesian was removed from the club – and yet, reason returned. The beast had regained its mind.

And it knew its mistake and understood the weakness of its own body at that moment, and that it wasn't in any state to continue as it had done before.

She had to fall back for the moment, Yang understood that, she was outnumbered and running out of her only means to cross this gap, the energy of her semblance. The disadvantage was blatantly obvious, even to her, with reality catching up to the otherwise headstrong person that she was.

After all, dead she was of no use to anyone, and the least to Ruby, who she meant to protect.

She turned on the spot to face the bar again, the only safe spot she could think of that would allow her to not completely abandon the battle and could potentially still be of use, even if she had no idea as to how just then, but came face to face with the potentially worst foe – the squad's commander, holding a double-barreled pump-action shotgun to her face.

Apparently, she had made herself the top priority target with her actions – it wouldn't be until way later that, just by sheer coincidence, she'd find out that the woman she had just thrown across the room happened to be the squad's second-in-command and enforcer, a woman both cruel and undefeated. Until then. Simply enduring her cruelty with the nonchalance that Yang had walked it off with would have painted a target across anyone's back – but actually defeating her, the commander's protégé, in such a scary display of strength?

A sure sign you wouldn't get to walk away just like that, a contract signed in blood. And Yang didn't intend it to be hers.

Raising her own shotgun-including gauntlets, still charged with electricity, she hoped to intercept whatever he was about to do in some way or another. Stupid attempt, really, considering her aura was running low and that, even armored, her fists would never stop a shotgun's blast at point blank, but it was better than just standing there and accepting her fate.

Halfway through the motion of swinging her right hand forward, she changed her mind and went for a defensive stance instead, raising her hands in front of her face to at least protect that, elbows in front of her torso to protect vital areas. Were she any better at manipulating her own aura – the one thing she sucked at the most, sadly – she'd have gathered it and directed it to her front, as though it wouldn't make it past the first shot, it would at least protect her once. As it was, it would do neither.

Panicked, she saw the furious commander tense the finger on the trigger and narrow his eyes, as much of a warning as she'd get that he had no mercy for her. She was right. He pulled.

Just before he did, gravity-defying shards of reality erupted from midair just behind him, dissolving within the same second. Oblivious to the Atlesians and forgotten by her allies, Neo dropped out of seemingly thin air, fury in her eyes as she landed on the tall man's shoulders with all the force her tiny frame could muster.

More out of surprise than the actual force of the impact, the man stumbled forward, his shotgun jerking upwards – Yang felt it as the pellets brushed her mask at the forehead, eyes wide as fine white dust fell past the holes through which she saw. Little did she know that the mask had just visibly cracked just above her right temple, but she had no time to worry about that, and instead released the breath she hadn't realized she was holding.

In front of her, Neo dug her nails into the man's exposed face in the attempt to do as much damage as possible and find something to hold onto, blind anger in her mismatched eyes. While not finding the hold she'd been looking for, instead leaving deep gashes all across the screaming man's face with her nails, the lunatic did eventually manage to slide her fingers beneath the silver-white metal that encompassed the back of his head, and yanked on it like the madwoman that she was.

As much as he shook and tried, he couldn't throw her off, she wouldn't allow it – not just yet. Yang understood that for the brief moment that her crimson gaze met that of the mentally unstable assassin. Oh, she understood just fine.

Not hesitating a single second to question what would become of Neo, Yang met the Atlesian man with the same lack of mercy that he had approached her with only seconds earlier, pulling both of her fists up again. Although this time, she did not stop her attack, instead taking a fast step forward to add even more power to the punch aimed at the center of his torso.

His armor didn't just dent under the punch and the shotgun blast that went off, it straight-away broke inwards in a large area around her fist, further cracks spreading around the sides to the back of it, although Yang never got to see that. Not with how the force all but tore him off the ground and threw him through the crowd into one of the large glass pillars, the decoration collapsing atop him.

How glad she suddenly was that Miltia's perception of 'just the right amount of force' for firing mechanisms was so vastly off, insisting that what almost crossed the line of being dangerous for the owner was 'perfect'.

"It's a weapon, Yang, not a toy. Meant to hurt, to damage, to incapacitate, to kill! It's a tool... and what use would a tool be that didn't fulfill its purpose?" Miltia's words, not hers, although now she could feel herself agreeing a lot more than she had when the short-haired Malachite had insisted on adding that much power when they had fine-tuned the gauntlets after the mining site incident, with no regards for the recoil.

In the middle of pulling her fist back, most of the work done by the recoil, and turning the electricity off, Yang felt a light weight atop her own shoulders, her insane friend – yes, at this point, she might as well consider Neo a friend, they had a certain chemistry that even she couldn't deny – graciously landing on them after having jumped off the Atlesian man at the last second, dropping down to sit on the berserker's shoulders and to wrap her legs around the taller girl's neck after standing on them for roughly a second.

A lithe hand ran through the brawler's hair, and although Yang considered giving Neo a piece of her mind at first, she decided against it when she felt the hand gently pat her head, like a dog being praised. Had it been anyone but Neo, she probably would've felt degraded, but a gesture like this was the mute's only way at communication.

That, and Yang heard the sound of a pump-action shotgun being cocked just above her head after the hand vanished, answering the question as to where the Atlesian commander's weapon had ended up. Even if you were a tall berserker with the ability to come back stronger after every hit, you did not irritate the madwoman with the shotgun. Even she wasn't that suicidal.

She got the hint that Neo attempted to give her, though. From the concealment that her semblance provided, the smaller woman had watched her, and was aware of the state she was in. That she wouldn't be able to handle more direct confrontations as she was at that moment. So Neo would do that for her, become her weapon, leaving her entirely to concentrate on making her way to their safety.

And people said Neo didn't care for anyone but herself. After that move, Yang felt like she hadn't given the lunatic enough credit – maybe she was serious about them, and not just wanting to mess around.

Melanie still meant more to her. There were feelings there, not just attraction.

With Neo on her shoulders, the brawler fell into motion again, hands holding onto the woman's legs and shifting her weight forwards just enough that the additional – even if light – weight of Neo wouldn't throw her off balance. While a bit slower than before, they were still tearing through the crowd at enough speed to avoid getting caught up in most of the fights.

Any Atlesian else that came too close, or just didn't pay attention to them and had their back turned while in the middle of another fight, Neo unloaded a round of pellets into. Almost indifferent and lazy in how she pulled the slide back to eject the spent cartridge after each shot, not carrying where it ended up when it fell to the ground behind them, and yet always perfectly timed and rhythmic as to not waste any time between shots.

Scary to think about, but she had experience with a weapon like this.

Feeling Neo fidget slightly as they came closer to the bar, the brawler let go of the woman's legs, partially to backhand an inattentive soldier out of the way that backed up into their path from another fight, and allowed the lunatic to move. Reloading for the last time, Neo patted Yang's head appreciatively and climbed back up until she was crouched on the brawler's shoulders, holding on as her ride reached the bar.

As if perfectly planned in advance, Cinder shot out of hiding, arrow already drawn, and fired a volley of burning projectiles into the crowd behind them, providing them with the cover that Yang needed to vault over the bar and sink down into cover, and that allowed her lunatic companion to jump off her shoulders at the last moment and land on the bar. Feet on the edge, a last smirk passed over the lips of the madwoman and she pulled the trigger a final time to shoot a nearby enemy, using the recoil to drop down right next to Yang, who sat with her back against the bar, herself.

The brawler shuddered lightly at the unsettling smile she was being offered by her unstable friend, but accepted it after what they'd just pulled off. On her other side, she heard Melanie huff at something Ruby said, but never turned around to join the conversation.

Neo didn't allow her to, suddenly darting forward and – in a damn gutsy move, as Yang had to admit – stole a short peck from her.

Eyes going wide, Yang stared, flabbergasted, as Neo drew back and simply offered her a short wink – and then, vanished along with the piece of weaponry she had stolen, reality shattering in between Yang and Cinder.

And though surprised, the brute couldn't hold back a smirk on her own and consider that stolen peck some sort of payment for the lunatic for saving her ass. That, and hearing Melanie growl lowly in what was undeniably jealousy – damn, Yang really hoped it was – had her excited despite the situation.

With new vigor, not even bothering to strike up a conversation with anyone, she coordinated her next move with Cinder, jumping onto her feet when the villainess sunk down behind the bar to create more arrows, and swung her fists forward to support the fire-wielding woman, Emerald and Ruby in their endeavor of keeping enemies at bay – her flares weren't as fast or as accurate, but still useful in their own right.

If only she had more left, that was, already running low on them – she had never meant to have many on her, considering that she had only made a few to first test the type of ammunition in the sparring earlier that day.

What she was going to do once she ran out of them, she decided she'd figure out once it came down to that.

Ruby pulled her head down to reload and to catch her breath, momentarily leaving it to Yang, Emerald and Cinder to hold their position and take care of high-priority targets. Ejecting the old clip, she peered over the top of the bar to keep an eye on the situation, the movements required to reload the weapon long practiced and natural by then.

The room was one big chaos, and not in the way that it usually was on a busy night. Worse even. The young girl didn't want to know how many of the people on the ground would never get back up again, attempted to drown out the fallen bodies and the other telltale signs of the situation.

The sight of one of Junior's mercenaries bringing down a machete on an Atlesian soldier's exposed shoulder had her wince and want to shut her eyes, forget the blood she saw splattering across the floor and the white armor of another Atlesian, but she knew that it would be a fatal mistake and mean abandoning her friends and allies. Still, the odd thought that the mercenary's red blade had an even darker tint as it was withdrawn and its victim crumpled to the ground struck her. Just as a bullet struck the mercenary in the back and tore through his torso, and he fell to the ground as well. Whether dead or alive, Ruby was unable to tell, as he vanished in the chaos.

She hadn't known him personally. She didn't know many of the mercenaries that Junior trained or that worked for him as security, most of them no more than slightly familiar faces with no names attached to them. And still, she felt like she'd lost someone important. They all were important. Aside from the belief that the life of every person was of some value, each mercenary working for Junior was, in some way, part of what made the club up in her eyes. What made it what it was.

Seeing parts of the place she had come to love, to feel home at, slowly break away before her eyes – it hit her harder than she had expected, considering these were strangers. Maybe acquaintances. Yang could maybe, somehow, deal with the thought. But Yang was strong, headstrong, had some ounce of optimism even in the darkest times, some positivity when others hadn't that one could cling onto.

But her, Ruby, she struggled at times. Didn't know how Yang did it, or if it was just an act, a mask to be put on to help others – Yang had lost just as much as her and even more, had lost two mothers in her life, had more scars to bear both in body and mind, and still managed. And heck, if that thought wasn't something that motivated to keep on fighting, Ruby didn't know what did.

With a new clip slipped into the corresponding slot, the young sniper waited for her chance to get back into the fight, and saw it only seconds later when one of the soldiers threw a mercenary onto a table and pulled his rifle up to deliver the finishing blow. She shot up and aimed, finger already on the trigger, only to see that the situation was already taken care of – another mercenary had rushed up from behind and shattered a bottle on the soldier's head, kicking the Atlesian aside when he collapsed to check on his buddy.

A weak smile found its way onto her lips, lasted barely more than two seconds, then she pulled her rifle back up and concentrated back on the task at hand, taking out high priority targets and leaving smaller crowds of Atlesians to the less accurate explosions of Cinder's arrows and Yang's flares.

That was, until Yang ducked down and let Cinder take over, and let out a loud guttural growl that Ruby knew was her sister biting back a curse.

"I'm out of flares, and my normal ammo is too inaccurate at this range. And trust me, we don't want to let them come close enough that they are effective." explained the blonde when her sister ducked down and glanced at her, "I knew I didn't have many, but to run out this quickly...!" trailing off into a huff, the blonde rose her right hand and stared down at it, "I've got one left. That's all."

"Better make it count then." interrupted Cinder from the blonde's other side. Wordless, the two half‑sisters watched as the villainess created a new volley of arrows from the shards of bottles that littered the ground, Ruby momentarily attempting to meet the amber eyes of the older woman, but ultimately giving up when Cinder avoided their gaze completely.

Then, in perfect synchronization, Emerald ducked back down and Cinder shot up.

Absentmindedly, the youngest of them let her gaze travel to the mint-haired thief and past her, to where Mercury was sitting, back against the bar. Considering the nature of his weapon, he too was heavily limited in his actions, just like the Malachite twins and Yang – experienced and powerful as they all were, their weapons and fighting styles specialized in close combat. And given the number of enemies – and just as bad, allies, each of their weapons too inaccurate to ensure no friendly individuals were hit in the chaos – and the states they were in, at least Yang and the twins, it was just too much of a risk at the moment. At least until the numbers were thinned out.

He wasn't doing nothing though. Instead of idly sitting around and waiting for his moment to get into the fight, Ruby watched Mercury pull out and hand Emerald clips from the pocket on her belt, greatly reducing the time it took her to reload. Even more than that, as Cinder and Emerald switched places, the man with the silvery-gray hair quickly reached past himself into the bar and pulled out an empty bottle – and smashed it on the ground. And using these shards and the ones already lying around, the fire-wielding villainess quickly created new arrows to use.

Considering that they hadn't spoken at all and simply fallen into this routine, Ruby couldn't help but muse that these three were well attuned to another. Only Neo and Roman seemed to do their own thing when it came to Cinder's group, but then again were attuned to one another.

She glanced over her shoulder to her own teammates other than Yang, the brawler still waiting for her chance to make use of her last flare – Melanie and Miltiades were tending to Tucker's wounds, using what looked suspiciously lot like one of the pockets that Neo usually carried on her. In fact, Ruby was pretty sure it was the same pocket that Neo had used back during the attack on the CCT to patch up Emerald. When or how the assassin had dropped it off, Ruby had no idea, but found herself once more glad that the woman was so paranoid as to be always prepared, even if not on a mission.

"Hey, Blondie! Xiao Long!" Mercury's voice caught both sisters off guard and they whirled around to stare at him, even Ruby although aware she hadn't been called. Knowing that he had their attention, he jerked a thumb over his shoulder, for once surprisingly serious, "Your last flare. There's that huge glass chandelier right over the entrance, pretty sturdy. Catch my drift?"

Yang did, in fact, as did Ruby. The chandelier was in fact pretty sturdy, made to last even the loud beats and the resulting tremors, nothing that a simple bullet or even a weak explosion could knock loose. But Yang's flares weren't weak explosives, as they had established earlier that day, more powerful then even the explosions from Cinder's arrows.

Mercury was right – if they managed to get that to fall, even if it didn't hit anyone, it would block the entrance and cut off backup for the Atlesian force. Which was bound to arrive sooner or later, considering the resistance that the members of the club were offering.

Although not really comfortable with the thought of causing even more collateral damage to the club – essentially her home at this point – Yang knew that, if Mercury's impromptu plan did work as intended, they'd not only be turning at least part of the battle in their favor, it also would make her last flare count by a lot.

It was worth a shot, at least in her eyes. Pun, this time, unintended.

Still, she would've preferred to at least clear this with Junior, it was his club she would be causing (even more, and from the looks, size and weight of that chandelier, quite some costly) damage to, but with him not around – shit, he probably ran into some trouble in the back of the club considering how long he'd been gone already, now that she thought about it – she turned to the next best person available.

Fortunately, Melanie had been listening to them with half an ear, and just gave her partner a grim nod when the blonde turned her way.

"Do it. Junior will be pissed, but he'd say the same. I've known him long enough now to know he puts the lives of everyone in here over any damage to property." spoke Melanie calmly as she bandaged Tucker's upper left arm, which one of the bullets had gone straight through after his aura had been depleted, but then abandoned that in favor of raising a hand to her right ear and tapping it twice – something that made absolutely no sense to her partner.

"Just give me a signal before you do it – the guys working as security got earpieces. We never had a situation like this, but they'll listen if I give them a command." The older Malachite's face was stern when she explained, her green eyes never leaving Yang's crimson ones despite the uncanny feeling they instilled into her, "I'll get them out of the way just in time for the Atlesians not to catch on quick enough, and then you'll drop that thing on them! And then, I'll see if I can coordinate this sorry bunch somehow and turn this thing around in our favor – I'm not head of the security for nothing, I like to believe."

Not sure how to respond, Yang just offered her partner a silent nod to show that she had understood and agreed – no words more than that were necessary anyway. This was a situation that required her preferred method – actions over words. Which was not to say that she didn't enjoy the fire of determination and anger burn in Melanie's green eyes, not quite unlike a fire in the woods.

"And if I can't join this fight like I am, then at least I won't be sitting around doing nothing! I will not allow these bastards to just waltz in, and destroy my home! Our home!"

Fully agreeing with the sentiment, Yang turned back to face the bar and the room beyond it, now crouched just behind the piece of furniture. Extending a hand and placing it on Ruby's shoulder, she held her younger sister down and gestured her to remain like that for the moment as to not get in the way of the flare or the movement preceding it in some way.

Carefully, she glanced over the top of the bar past a few bottles and a glass that had somehow been spared the hail of stray bullets, waiting for her moment to strike – the line of fire had to be unobstructed, she had only one shot and couldn't waste it. But couldn't wait too long either. Was aware that there would be no truly 'perfect moment'.

Next to her, Melanie had started to give instructions and brief details of what was about to happen to the henchmen working as security via radio, leaving the last of Tucker's wounds to her twin, and was just waiting for Yang to give her the sign that she'd put Mercury's plan into action. Any second could be the one.

And then, before she was sure she was really ready and prepared for it, there it was.

Close to them, one of the mercenaries abandoned another fight and brought down his hatchet on an unsuspecting soldier that had his back turned to him. It got him in the shoulder, sending him stumbling back and out of the way, thus giving the brawler clear sight of the target on the far side of the room, high above the entrance.

"Melanie!"

"Alright, you sorry bunch, you get no more than this one warning – immediately get the hell away from the entrance if you value your health and lives! NOW!"

Anything else Melanie said was all but drowned out for the blonde as she shot up, fist already reaching back and eyes trained on the chandelier – her aim couldn't be off, not this time, there was no second attempt and no plan to fall back onto. Her gauntlet felt extra heavy around her wrist, although there was no way it actually could be, considering there was only one last flare in it, the rest no more than empty shells. Wasted, spent – ironical as it sounded, because their purpose had been fulfilled.

With no time to be wasted – her path could be obstructed again any second, the chance to turn the tables in their favor lost – Yang swung her fist and mentally prepared herself for the last flare she had left. She let her aura flicker, priming the flare in her gauntlet and activating the gauntlet's firing mechanism. All that was left was for her to finish the swing to trigger it before anything got in the way.

Her fist was stopped, caught, pale fingers curling around it and preventing her from finishing what she had started.

She had no chance to prepare for it, to have foreseen it, and in the aftermath to even realize where it had come from – it was the female soldier that she had thrown across the room earlier, the enforcer, suddenly appearing from below on the other side of the bar, catching the blonde's fist thanks to her augmented armor absorbing the blow.

Suddenly yanked forward by her fist, the brawler hit the bar stomach first and doubled over as all air was knocked out of her and pain took over. From the corner of her eyes, she spotted Miltia's Scroll on the floor – it was the light that attracted her attention – to her right, and cursed under her breath as she spotted how close to non-existent her own already red bar had become. Her aura was nearly gone.

Pulling back and freeing her hand from the grip of the soldier – however the goddamn primed flare hadn't gone off was beyond her – she stumbled backwards into one of the cabinets and knocked its contents over, new pain momentarily paralyzing her, especially as her head slammed into the wood hard enough for her mask to fall off her face.

The Atlesian woman, ignoring the state of her armor and herself, scowled at her stunned opponent, reached for her spare stun baton – folded up, it was part of her armor's left forearm like the original one had been part of her armor's right forearm – after the other one had gone missing during Yang's earlier attack.

And leaned back just in time to avoid the arrow that had been aimed at her head.

Casting a glare into the direction of Cinder and taking note of the lack of another arrow in the woman's hands, the Atlesian snatched the closest bottle and, before the villainess had a chance to react, chucked it at her.

Cinder barely had the time to pull her arms up to cover her face with them, hissing in pain as the bottle impacted with her forearms and shattered, shards flying into all directions. With her aura already exhausted after having shielding Ruby from earlier shards, and little time for it to recover, the consequences had the villainess stumbling back and howling out.

Sleeves torn and forearms cluttered with bleeding cuts, she stumbled back and into Emerald, the dark-skinned thief holding her own face after some of the shards had cut her cheeks. Her aura, too, was running low, having taken some hits when she had stayed on her feet longer than the others to keep the focus off Cinder and Ruby.

The Atlesian enforcer ignored them as the two women fell and landed on top of Mercury, who had still been crouching on the other side of Emerald, and instead vaulted over the bar to focus on her original target – the blonde brawler that was still in a daze.

Melanie appeared out of nowhere from the left, but the bladed heel didn't have enough strength to penetrate the armor, even though Yang had already damaged it quite a bit, and just sled along the side of the enforcer's helmet, scratching just past the surface.

Alerted and aware of the long-haired Malachite now, the Atlesian almost effortlessly blocked the second kick when Melanie switched feet – years of professional training separated them – just by raising her left arm, the blade harmlessly sliding along the armor.

Until the enforcer turned her hand and caught the twin's ankle when most of the force behind it had been absorbed by he arm, and pulled.

With a gasp, Melanie was pulled towards the woman in the armor, attempting to regain balance and free herself, but had no chance to – the Atlesian twirled her around by her foot, and she had a hard enough time avoiding the furniture on either side of the small aisle behind the bar. Until she was suddenly let go off, and flying – into her twin sister, who had tried to come to her help.

A single glare to the left confirmed that Ruby was in the middle of reloading, and Tucker was out of commission – that left only one person to actually do something, and though she hadn't expected him to have the guts from the quick glance she had got of him, especially because he was unarmed, the surprise was short-lived when he jumped onto her back. Despite him being taller and heavier, she still managed to grab him by the neck throw Deadb3ar over her head into Ruby, taking care of both of them.

All that was left of their little resistance was Yang, the brawler finally coming around.

Revenge never had been as sweet as the armored punch delivered to the blonde's face, knocking her right back into the cabinet, the glass front of it cracking under the impact. Following up with another blow to Yang's stomach, the enforcer closed the space between them.

Ignoring the uncomfortable warmth that suddenly seemed to envelop her, the Atlesian slammed her left forearm into Yang's neck and pinned her to the liquor cabinet, other hand balled to a fist already in the middle of a swing, and hitting the blonde's face with enough force to do quite a bit of damage – somewhere behind her, a Scroll reacted and beeped loudly in warning that someone's aura was on the verge of being depleted.

Although that brought a smirk to her lips, that wasn't enough for the enforcer when it came to revenge. So instead, she pulled her left arm back and allowed Yang to breathe – until the enforcer wrapped both of her hands around the brawler's throat, and applied pressure.

The blonde let out a strangled gasp as the pale fingers curled around her throat, left hand darting up to fight the ones choking her, her other arm trapped behind her in between her ass and the liquor cabinet, the sudden lack of air, the exhaustion that set in with the lack of aura and the headache from hitting the furniture making it harder with every passing second.

Even before the hands began to strangle her, blackness had invaded her vision, and it was spreading faster and faster the longer she was cut off from air. Worse, attempting to fight it only seemed to accelerate the effect, and the armored legs of her foe were making it nigh impossible for her to trip her and gain freedom that way.

Still, being the only thing she could actually move aside from her head – and headbutts were out of question, too, since the enforcer she was facing was still wearing her helmet – she tried. Swung her leg forward, not enough strength in her for it to actually be any threat, and felt it harmlessly bounce off the Atlesian. Tried again, slipped ever so slightly in the attempt, and only achieved that she made it easier for the woman to choke her.

Congratulations, Yang, you played yourself.

And still tried it again, this time hoping to do something by pulling her leg back first. Pain of a different kind shot through her system as the back of her leg hit the bottom of the liquor cabinet, a searing pain that spread all the way up into her lower back.

Pain. Impact. Physical trauma...?

Biting down on her tongue with the last bit of focus she had, forcing herself to stay awake and gather up the bit of strength she had left, she swung her leg back again into the cabinet. And again. And again. Realized it wasn't enough, and slammed her own forehead into the enforcer's helmet, which didn't help the dizziness, but what she meant to do.

The blackness kept spreading through her vision, but there was something else. Slow and hardly noticeable at first, it creeped into her. Like wind blowing into embers that had been about to die, it flickered.

The enforcer, deciding that enough was enough, moved her thumbs to the blonde's larynx. Stroked it once, making sure she had the right spot, then pulled Yang away from the cabinet ever so slightly as she felt a last bit of resistance in the brawler, and slammed her back into the cabinet at full force.

Unknowingly threw a log of wood into the flickering embers.

Her thumbs back on the larynx, she pulled them both back, sneered as she jabbed them forward.

With a loud snap, it broke. Her right wrist, that was, as Yang's arm unexpectedly shot up, the crimson eyes regaining focus the same second. From one instant to another, the blonde whirled them around and slammed the Atlesian woman into the cabinet, this time with enough force for the glass front of it to shatter in its entirety, and for the cabinet to bent around her.

The bottles inside shook and rattled, and now it was Yang's turn to strike back, her semblance having given her the second wind she had needed – although it was far from as powerful as it were the first time it was used, it was enough for the moment. And would definitely come back to bite her in the ass twice as hard as a single use of her semblance did.

But it was her turn, and that was what mattered. Getting the control back. Pinning the enforcer to the cabinet, the Atlesian's left arm trapped against the armor by the brawler's left hand, Yang swung a fist herself, and the woman's visor cracked as the blow hit.

A part of it was gone when the Atlesian turned her head to glare up at her, and just for one little moment, Yang's crimson stare met the most vivid blue eyes that she had ever seen. Then, Yang ducked as the woman swung her free arm with its broken wrist at her, caught it as it came back, and yanked on it just once – the unnatural direction into which Yang moved it did the rest, dislocating it at the shoulder and breaking bones in her upper arm. Removed it from the fight that way.

As it fell down limply, Yang pulled the enforcer back in the same manner she had done to her, and slammed her back into the cabinet, bending it even further. She was well aware that the others had recovered by then and were attempting to find a way to help her in between the roles they had fallen back into – like sniping for Ruby and Cinder – but both Yang and the Atlesian were making it hard for them. Anymore of a reason to finally end that fight and get the enforcer out and away from their only retreat, their only safe spot in the room.

To their feet, Miltia's Scroll lay forgotten next to Yang's cracked Nevermore mask – upon it, Yang's bar flashed scarlet at an alarming rate, a single fingertip enough to cover it up entirely. It was only her semblance that was keeping her on her feet.

With a mighty roar, Yang pulled on the Atlesian woman and – taking a step to the side herself – slammed her into the surface of the bar head first. A growl told her that the enforcer had felt it despite the helmet, and to follow up on it, the brawler twirled them back around and pushed her back into the liquor cabinet again.

Her right hand still numb from the momentary lack in circulation, it was her left fist that she swung as the enforcer bounced off the piece of bent furniture and stumbled back towards her, actually taking a step into her direction in the attempt to put as much force as possible into the punch. It sure worked, the enforcer all but flying back into the cabinet again, which finally yielded under the rough treatment and – as the Atlesian enforcer bounced off it another time – followed her.

It wasn't the only thing, though – the tremor of the impact shook the entire row of cabinets and cupboards, including the one further up that had already taken damage from the mini-gun's barrage of gunfire, and a few of them came falling down as well.

And in the middle of that chaos, of the rain of bottles, shards and alcohol – and whatever else had been stored in them – Yang and her enemy, breathing heavy, coughing.

Broken bottles and shards fell off the Atlesian as she rose to her full height, left arm hanging limply, booze dripping off its limp fingers. Her once pristine white armor in a horrible state – pieces missing, cracked or hanging off, stained in several colorful hues of the spirits she was drenched in – the enforcer stared her opponent down.

Yang herself shook her right arm lightly to shake some of the moisture off her arm – guessing from the rather harsh smell and the broken bottle leaking a clear spirit right in front of the cabinet, just below where she'd been trapped against it, vodka – and wheezed. Her throat hurt. Her eyes burnt. This Atlesian wasn't like any other.

Where was Neo when you needed her?

"Yang, what about the chandelier?! They have backup coming!"

Melanie's loud hiss had the blonde turn her head and glare over her shoulder towards the entrance, the hidden doorway – cursed as she saw the few new soldiers entering, among which was another heavy gunner. Less backup than a few guys that had been stationed outside and had come in looking what was taking their commander so long, as she quickly figured, but that heavy guy was still a major problem.

And he and the few guys with him were just beneath the chandelier, too.

She had no choice, she had to risk it – had to abandon her current fight and take care of them right at that moment. But the enforcer had listened and caught on, darted towards her in the attempt to stop her.

Having seen it coming, the brawler sidestepped the lunge and moved her elbow back, hitting the woman in the face and intercepting her that way. While her opponent was in a daze, the blonde quickly reached back and repeated her steps from earlier, only faster. The flare was still primed – hell, somehow it hadn't gone off during the struggle, and Yang begged that it wasn't a dud – and she just had to goddamn fire it.

But then, there she was again, that enforcer, clinging to the blonde's arm to keep it from moving.

Finally, Miltia stepped in to help, hoping to buy Yang some time. She shot up from her position aside Melanie, claws extended as she rushed towards them, and the Atlesian woman didn't see her coming.

Or so they thought, until she twisted out of the way – and Yang felt a sharp pain spread through her side unlike any other she had ever felt.

For a second lasting an eternity for both Yang and Miltia, all the sound of fighting stopped, and only one repetitive sound existed in this world of silence.

Dripping.

Immediately, Miltia did something she had never thought she'd have to use, and disengaged her claw, pulling her hand out of it. No moment too late, the Atlesian having gained a second wind herself inexplicably, punching the claw-wielding twin out of the way and twisting back to Yang in the next.

But Yang, despite the pain and the inability to feel anything but burning anguish all throughout her right torso, was already in the middle of the swing that would change everything.

The enforcer leaped, her one good arm reaching for Yang in hope to at least throw her off balance and mess the flare up that way. She almost had it, too – until Cinder appeared from behind Yang, arrow already pulled back with the string, and aim already taken. Right at her.

Twisting her body, the Atlesian managed to move her body in such a way that the arrow missed her sternum but instead grazed along her left shoulder. The force behind it was greater than she expected, and as the arrow bounced off it and hit one of the last intact cupboards and exploded inside it, the woman in the white broken armor hit the bar and, carried by the momentum, rolled over it.

Hitting the floor on the other side, she ignored her own pain and pushed herself up right away, roared as she threw herself at Yang, who she was now in front of.

The punch did change everything, just like Mercury had planned – just not in the way he had meant it.

As Ember Electrica clicked and finally released the long overdue flare, there was a loud bang and bright sparks as the flare propelled itself from the golden contraption. But it never got to the chandelier. Instead, Yang's swing unintentionally hit – hit the already damaged torso of the enforcer's armor, which yielded just seconds before Ember Electrica clicked and fired the flare.

Point-blank into the enforcer's chest, in which it embedded itself.

And in the middle of sparks, the explosion and the smoke, the two women.

Thrown backwards, Yang hit the wall above the cupboards, hissing in anguish – not because of the pain that spread through her back as she sled down the wall, but the pain her right arm was in. The right arm, which was brightly ablaze, deep orange flames licking up her limb and the sleeve of her red and black outfit.

Hadn't it been for the sight much more terrifying, the ghastly screams that had most of the room silent and frozen, someone would've come to her aid. Heck, she herself would have acted faster and attempted to put the flames out right at that instance.

One thing for sure, Yang's aim had been, despite the pressure that had been put on her, spot on – but she had never intended for the projectile to fly across the room and hit the chandelier to be a living human. A living human, blazing fiercely, consumed by flames.

The alcohol.

Upon impact with the enforcer, the flare had exploded, fire and sparks flying everywhere. Had ignited the alcohol the woman and Yang's arm had been drenched in. Had ignited part of the bar and the floor.

Had ignited the enforcer in her entirety. A living, breathing human being screaming in absolute agony as her body was slowly being consumed layer by layer by the burning alcohol on her. An enemy, maybe, but still a human, and something that Yang would not wish on anyone.

The words kept repeating themselves in Yang's head as she stared, own arm still in flames, as the enforcer hit the chandelier at an odd angle with such an intensity that the entire thing was knocked into the ceiling with her, ripping itself from that and falling almost straight down.

And inside it, leaving an orange trail clearly visible against the black wall behind it, still the gigantic flame that the Atlesian enforcer was enveloped in.

Images of the night she lost her parents flashed in front of Yang's eyes. The house as it burned. The sight of Taiyang, curled up, lying in front of his own desk in his study on the second floor, the flames taking him – she had seen it briefly as she carried Ruby past the open door to the study, down the corridor and to the flight of stairs leading down.

The pain she had felt as she rushed down the final stretch to the door leading outside. How her feet had ached as she carried the crying Ruby through the night, away from the house. The orange glare of the fire against the night sky as she finally turned back around.

This was just like it.

This time, though, unlike with the fire on the train and the electricity down in the mining site's reactor room, there was no fascination. No trance. Just that horrible feeling.

It was really just like that night.

She barely realized, let alone felt it, as Melanie and Miltia dashed towards her, the twin in white putting out the fire that still enveloped the blonde's arm, the other telling her to not move – she still had Miltia's claw stuck in her side, although she didn't even feel it. Hadn't felt it when it had dug deeper into her as she hit the wall.

It was over.

"Goddammit, Yang, come on!"

Ruby – although knowing better than to do so – winced and turned her head ever so slightly away from the scope on her rifle, just enough that she could see her sister. Melanie and Miltiades had, under great effort, extinguished the flames both on Yang and the ones surrounding her, and then – one of them supporting the crimson claw embedded in the blonde's right side just beneath the ribs – lowered the brawler down from the cupboard she had ended up on to the ground, down into the cover of the bar, having quickly swept aside most of the shards.

And even Ruby had to admit, her sister looked – for the lack of a better comparison – like she'd been through hell and back.

Aside from the blank thousand-yard stare and the unresponsiveness, Yang was out of aura, bleeding from several spots across her entire torso, had that claw stuck in her, and both her hands and her right arm were burnt. And heck, that was only what was visible.

No one other than Yang could've gone through that, the young mercenary was sure of that. And she wasn't proud, either, knowing that it was her own sister, rather than that worried. Because just because Yang could didn't mean she should.

The brawler was the best proof for that herself at that very moment.

Either way, she was out for good.

Down another fighter now – first Tucker, now Yang – it was all the more of a reason that she focused on the matter at hand and protected them. They had managed to thin the numbers a bit, her, Cinder and Emerald acting as support for the mercenaries fighting the soldiers head-on, and the two greatest threats were taken care of now – both the commander and his enforcer were out.

She wasn't sure where the commander had vanished off to after Yang and Neo had dealt with him, but her best guess was that the enforcer wouldn't go anymore. Not any longer.

Swallowing the lump forming in her throat, Ruby turned back to her weapon and bit down on her lip. Although she was worried about Yang, and that greatly, she couldn't abandon her position right now. Too dangerous. Plus, what could she possibly do for her older sister? She had no medical knowledge or equipment, and holding hands and whispering reassuring nothings wouldn't help anyone at that moment. Even she wasn't so childish as to believe that.

She'd have to trust Melanie and Miltiades with her sister's health, that was the only thing she could do at that moment.

As she assessed the situation in front of her, looking for targets she could take out without risking to hit one of her own allies, she unknowingly found the answer to one of Yang's unspoken questions from mere minutes before – in the midst of all the chaos, she spotted strange gravity-defying shards erupt ever so often, right before one ore more soldiers just fell to the ground for seemingly no reason.

That was where Neo was – wherever those shards appeared, she appeared from her semblance, attacked, then fell back into it and moved elsewhere. Rinse and repeat.

A gasp from Yang distracted her after all, meaning that something – more accurately, Melanie bandaging the area around where the claw was still sticking with Miltia's help, as removing it was too much of a risk at that moment and could make the bleeding much worse – had pulled her older sister back into reality. Or at least, enough for her to give any response to interaction.

She watched as Yang's fingertips sled over the ground in the fruitless attempt to bear the pain, scratching the floor but finding no hold. The only results were bloody grazes along her fingers and two nails breaking, and if Melanie didn't surprise them all by all but tearing off her feathered scarf and offering it to Yang to bite down onto, the brawler might as well have screamed the whole club down.

Hell, she was out of aura and had a goddamn claw stuck in her side, possibly piercing quite a few organs, too – Ruby couldn't blame her for anything at that moment.

Who she could blame, however, was herself, as in her moment of distraction, one of the soldiers had abandoned the dancefloor to storm their little stronghold behind the bar, and Ruby only noticed when the guy jumped onto the bar, heavy armored boots landing mere inches from her face.

To her left, Cinder – who hadn't paid attention to the right side of the room, thinking Ruby got it under control – whirled around and created an arrow in her bow, but before she got the chance to finish it and let go, the man had already pulled the trigger and unleashed a burst of bullets her way. Fortunately, Emerald pulled her down before either of them got hit, although it meant that the arrow was fired off to the side instead of at the man.

Too close to point her rifle at him and fire, Ruby instead reacted the only way she could think of and swung the sniper rifle at him – there was no time to separate the curved blade from it to use that, so she tried the long barrel instead, aiming for his ankles in hope to carry him off his feet.

He had seen it coming, simply rose a foot and slammed it down on the barrel, trapping it between his shoe and the bar with so much force that several things beneath the bar – card games, bottles, Tucker's beloved polished glasses – fell down and scattered to her feet. Ruby hissed and tried to free it, but to avail, the armor made him too heavy, and she wasn't strong enough.

And then, he pointed his own rifle down at her.

Ruby let go of her weapon and threw herself to the side, avoiding the burst of bullets that tore through the front of the cupboard where she had been cowering. The soldier, still standing on the bar, simply adjusted his aim and sneered, aware that she couldn't avoid forever. She knew that as well, having ended just next to where Melanie and Miltia were taking care of Yang.

There was no room left to go.

That was when it happened. With a loud click and gaggling, something further down the aisle behind the bar activated, and Ruby only got to see it as it had already hit the soldier's rifle – it were teeth. Not real, human teeth, but a silver metal contraption that looked a lot like a very basic and rectangular version of these wind-up chomping teeth. Those toys. Only like a reptile version of it, teeth sharp and curved.

They dug into the barrel of the rifle, latched into it, and then suddenly were pulled back by the long metal string they were attached to. Both Ruby and the soldier followed them until they found their source. Both opened their mouths wide in surprise.

But the only sound the soldier ever got to make was a choke instead of a gasp, as something thin and sharp hit him in his exposed throat and cut deep into it. Gurgling, he fell backwards off the bar, the rifle he had pinned beneath his foot falling to the ground, and that was the last Ruby ever saw of him – hands at his throat, blood spraying from it. The playing card – the ace of hearts – embedded in it.

"Moron. A downed man isn't a dead man, and shouldn't be disregarded as such. Ever."

Ruby blinked twice even after these words were spoken, still attempting to process what she'd just witnessed, but gave up on it as soon as the man down the aisle attempted to move. In a flash, she was at Tucker's side, trying to get him to stay where he was, but the barkeeper just rose a hand to stop her and sat up against the cupboard he had slumped against earlier.

He looked worse for wear, that for sure, even after Melanie and Miltia had treated his wounds, but it seemed he was at least somewhat okay. As okay as you could be if you were shot with a mini-gun, Ruby supposed.

Still, she was curious as to what she'd just seen, and Tucker seemed to know what was going on in her head, as he rose his left hand and once again showed Ruby the same weapon she had seen earlier – that weird-looking handgun with a rectangular box and a flashlight slapped onto it. Only now, she realized what the rectangular box was, having seen it in action – a grappling 'hook'. The teeth. When fired, the box opened up and continually chomped, thus the sound.

And when not in use, as he revealed then by picking up a handful of the playing cards scattered across the floor, it doubled as the clip from which he could fire cards.

"What can I say?" he chuckled weakly at Ruby's inquisitive stare, and slightly adjusted his position against the cupboard, deactivated his weapon to which it turned into what looked like a harmless case for playing cards, "I'm a rascal, a gambler, and a card player through and through..."

"Don't move." she told him instead of playing along, noticing that he was still in pain. His aura couldn't have recovered much and was quite obviously still working on healing his wounds, which meant he was barely any better off than Yang, the blonde just sitting up herself at that moment. Neither of them was going to rejoin the fight properly anytime soon.

"Where's Junior?" inquired Tucker as Ruby helped him get comfortable and scanned him for any wounds that might have reopened. The young sniper glanced over her shoulder – both to confirm that Cinder and Emerald had everything under control, and to look at the door that Junior had vanished through – and hummed in discomfort.

"He hasn't come back yet. He might have run into trouble." she mused as she slowly back away from him and picked her weapon off the ground, "I'd go check, but we're having enough trouble as it is to keep things under control here. And now Yang is down, too, and Cinder is out of aura as well..."

She couldn't help it, she growled and glanced over to Yang and the twins, still in the middle of patching up the brawler, to Cinder and her two associates, the villainess obviously exhausted and at her own limit, but ignoring her own pain to keep going.

"They're too many, they're trained, and we're just a handful of mercenaries that don't have any experience with a situation like this. Most of don't even have a ranged weapon!" Ruby gave Cinder a sign that she'd be taking the right sight of the room again and moved back into position, "What we'd need is a way to even the odds! They have the numbers and the skill!"

She took out a soldier from across the room – a drop in the bucket, nothing more – and pulled the lever on the side of her rifle back to eject the shell, followed by the empty clip. She was running short on these, too, even though Neo had left some with her. The main problem was, that only the electric ammunition was having any effect due to their enemies being armored – the tranquilizer rounds couldn't penetrate it, meaning she had to be extra accurate with the shots to hit the small exposed areas. Lower face and neck, more specifically, and that was hard enough as it was with all the movement.

"Something... like a weapon with crowd control?"

The way Tucker said it had the young mercenary stop and frown over her shoulder at him, but he didn't reciprocate her gaze – he was staring over to where Deadb3ar was, the same curious expression on his face. Knowing better than to avert her gaze for too long, having learned that the hard way, Ruby turned back to the room, but couldn't help but wonder what those two were up to.

Neither of them really answered, Deadb3ar suddenly moving past Ruby and down the aisle, whereas Tucker – under protest from the twins – pushed himself off the cupboard and towards the bar. However, that seemed to take him everything he had, as he just collapsed again next to Ruby and had to hold onto the bar for support, a deep frustrated growl in the back of his throat.

"I think we have just what we need." he hissed as Ruby glanced his way, giving her a sign that he was fine, "I have something in mind, but it needs time, and it's an absolute last measure. Junior made us promise we never even consider using it unless we have no other choice, but..." He stopped to cough, then took a deep breath before he continued, "This is it, I guess. It'll cause a lot of damage and using it is expensive enough as it is, but it'd ensure we'd win."

"If we're lucky, we won't have to use it." interrupted Deadb3ar from the other direction, catching Ruby off guard, "We do have an alternative, myweapon has crowd control as well. Not nearly as much, but heck, it'd keep the damage and costs minimal. But..." he trailed off and pointed to the left side of the room, to where the DJ booth was, "...I'd need to get over there. And I'm unarmed."

"But it would turn things in our favor?" hissed Cinder from behind Deadb3ar, standing upright and having just fired an arrow into the crowd, unknowingly making it her turn to scare them. She kept glaring at Deadb3ar expectantly, and seeing him nod eventually, nodded back. Turning the other way, she pointed at her two associates with the hand that had just let go of the string, then jerked a thumb into the direction of the DJ booth. They seemed to understand, both confirming the instruction with a nod. "Emerald and Mercury will take you there and provide you with cover. Better make it count."

Deadb3ar nodded again and, knowing better than to irritate Cinder more than she already was, quickly set into motion, rushing down the aisle past the three villains, with Mercury and Emerald leaving their position next to Cinder and following him.

The villainess ducked back down and gathered up a handful of shards with a single movement, using them to create a new arrow, her gaze on Ruby all along – now that it was just the two of them, they'd have to time their movements even better than before, they both knew that.

"What's with the... other possibility?" snarled Yang as soon as silence had returned, speaking up for the first time since the explosion. Her voice was strained, she was obviously still in a lot of pain, but refused to accept her defeat. Melanie's scarf – once white, now stained with saliva and blood – lay on the brawler's lap, one of the blonde's burnt hands curled tightly around it. "You said it needs time. We can prepare it, anyway, just in case they fail. Don't have to use it if they make it, right?"

Seeing as it wasn't her turn, Ruby turned her head and glanced towards Tucker, the barkeeper's silence confusing her. He seemed to contemplate what Yang was suggesting, chewing on his lower lip. Eventually, he nodded.

"There's a key somewhere beneath the bar. Small, thin, silver, short blade. Never had to use it, so I don't know where exactly it is, but it's there." he answered, then chuckled uneasily, "I'd look for it myself, but..."

"I'll do it." interrupted, of all people, Yang, and pushed herself closer to the black piece of furniture, picking her mask up along the way. Of course, immediately, Melanie attempted to stop her, but a single glare from the blonde brawler had her stop and allow Yang to.

Yang's gaze said everything – yes, she couldn't rejoin the fight, but the least she could do was this. They weren't in any position to turn down any help, even from those who weren't in any real position to offer any.

"I'll help her." Miltia moved to Yang's side, and together, they started to look through the compartment under the bar closest to them, moving bottles and glasses out of the way. Melanie just watched for a few seconds, then let out a deep sigh and leaned back, one hand going up to her ear to give the mercenaries working as security new instructions before joining her two teammates.

Yang was right – they couldn't fight, not with how low their auras were and with how they specialized in close combat, but they could at least look for that key. With Yang out of ammo and Melanie only ranged attack being ice dust used by her heels, Miltia was the only one with a functional ranged attack – her claws' ability to be fired on a cable – but that was too slow and still had limited range. She had to aim, fire the claws, wait for them to hit something or extend to full range, and then return – and during all that time, she would be exposed.

Outnumbered as they were, really the last thing they wanted.

With a deep growl rolling in the back of his throat, the commander of the Atlesian squad slowly regained consciousness, cursing to himself. Eyes still closed and lying on the ground in a heap of glass, he rose a hand to his head and had to hold back a sharp hiss as wave of pain rolled through him, his fingers coming in touch with something warm and wet at the back of his head. Blood.

Groggy, he blindly groped around in search for his helmet, but wherever it had ended up, it wasn't within reach. Only shards from the pillar of glass he'd been thrown into, cutting into his palms through his gloves. He had told his superiors he wanted more armor, but they had insisted gloves were enough and only the back of a hand had to be covered by armor. Mobility purposes or whatever.

Finally about to push himself up, he growled – and suddenly felt a weight on him. Small, light, but applying it just where it was needed to hold him down. He opened his eyes to see what it was, but just stared into nothingness, a lack of someone or something upon him. Nothing was holding him down, and still he couldn't move.

Until reality shattered, and there suddenly was someone sitting on his torso, knees on his hands to keep him pinned. It was the small woman that had latched onto him before when he had been about to shoot the berserker in red and black, that had stolen his shotgun and turned it on his own squad.

Slowly, she leaned over him, expression perfectly stoic. And although he wanted to say something, to command her to get off her, to shout profanities and promises of killing her agonizingly slow, he found that his voice was failing him. Not a single sound, not even a noise. And he knew why, too.

For the first time in his life, he felt true and genuine fear, and that at the sight of someone half his size and physically much weaker than him.

It was the lunacy in her eyes as she watched him, the way her lips slowly curled up into the most psychopathic smile he'd ever seen in his life, and that in amusement at how his voice betrayed him and how all but fear was drained from him. Lips weren't supposed to curl that far up. Smiles weren't supposed to be this wide.

This wasn't a woman, no human and no Faunus. And not even a Grimm was supposed to be this... whatever it was.

He'd seen gruesome things in his life, things beyond human understanding, and he had fought them. And survived. But this, her – it – was beyond all that. The fact at how she took delight in his fear and panic, how she feasted on it. He was a battle-hardened soldier. Was supposed to be.

Felt like a child confronted by the demon living beneath his bed, the thing in his closet, the monster living in the darkest corners of a room.

The madwoman had stopped leaning forward and rose her hands. There was something almost gentle in how she put them on his cheeks, thumbs following his cheekbones in small circles, further and further up.

Her hands were cold. The was no compassion in her eyes, just madness and joy. She made no sound, but her body seemed to shake in giggling and excitement.

Thumbs sled higher, left the cheekbones, came into vision.

She bit down on her lower lip in glee.

Then blackness, and only excruciating pain as she suddenly plunged her thumbs deep into his eye sockets. While still smiling, enjoying it as he screamed and attempted to shake her off.

She wanted him to pay.

It was over surprisingly fast. He stopped shaking and screaming, falling silent and motionless. He wasn't dead, she knew that as she pulled her thumbs back and slowly rose off him, but he might as well be, thrown into everlasting darkness.

She'd been born without a voice, had adjusted from birth on, well aware how hard it would've been had she lost it later in her life. It wasn't easy to be missing a sense from the very beginning, but it was even less so if you were used to it, and then suddenly robbed of it.

His blood still dripping off her thumbs and her lunacy still fueling her excitement, the lithe assassin slowly reached for the pistol she had taken from one of the fallen Atlesian soldiers and aimed it at the man's head, making sure it was at an odd angle. She would have loved to let him suffer like this for much longer, maybe even until he died from it, but she was better than that. Better than letting personal feelings get in the line of... 'work'.

All it took was a single pull of the trigger, then he was put out of his misery once and for all, gaping hole in between his eyes. One more hole in his head, she mused, somewhat amused by that thought, although the hole the bullet had made was big enough to make it look like it was just one instead of three. Discarded the pistol in the same breath, throwing it off to the side. It had fulfilled its job. It'd look like he had gotten hit by a stray bullet in the crossfire. Investigations would lead to an Atlesian weapon, the weapon in question had no fingerprints on it other than from the soldier who had originally wielded it as she was wearing gloves. Murder covered up, somewhat.

Not her master piece, she had to admit, far from it – it messy and certainly different from her usual work, but she wasn't really willing to waste any more time on that waste of space and flesh. Junior was going to be pissed as it was if he saw that she had decided to have some 'fun' despite the fact that she hadn't been allowed to.

Need for revenge sated, somewhat, she jumped back and activated her semblance to hide her presence anew. She was needed elsewhere.

Moving side by side, acting as a shield for Deadb3ar, Emerald and Mercury closed in on the DJ booth. Making sure to keep her dual revolvers aimed at any Atlesian within range, the thief was on edge – they had kept firing at a minimum since leaving the safety of the bar, hoping to move without attracting too much attention for as long as they were without cover. The only thing really able to protect them from bullets were Mercury's prosthetic legs, and they had a limit, and he needed them to move and to attack.

Spotting a soldier emerging from the crowd, pistol aimed at them, Emerald reacted as fast as she could and shot him, Mercury following up with a projectile he fired with a kick that threw the soldier back into the chaos.

The thief scowled, knowing she had to reload soon, which was a risky thing to do out in the open. Probably one of the few advantages that Mercury had over her. Not that she didn't have her own over him, but it wasn't a race or a competition.

Reaching the booth, Deadb3ar left the cover they provided and made a dash for the steps leading up to it. Remaining at the bottom as he climbed it to keep him covered, the two associates of Cinder exchanged a short glance. Understanding, Mercury moved in front of his partner, allowing Emerald to quickly cower behind him, using the chance he provided her with to reload.

The moment she was done, she emerged from behind him and quickly took out two soldiers in quick succession, before changing one of her weapons into its sickle form and twisting out of the way of a soldier swinging a sword at her, bringing the sickle down on him at the end of that movement, and firing a shot at another that attempted to sneak up on Mercury from the side. It hadn't gone unnoticed that the DJ was climbing the booth, much to her irritation.

"How long will this take?!" she called over her shoulder up to the DJ usually wearing a large bear mask, barely audible over the sound of Mercury firing another projectile. A bullet soared past her head and hit the side of the stairs, causing the thief to flinch and duck down, baring her teeth as she returned the fire.

"A moment, it needs to charge first! Just keep defending! Don't let them get here!"

She snarled at the answer she got, barely holding back the 'what the fuck does it look like we're doing?' by biting down on her own tongue. The things she put up with sometimes. Swinging her sickle, she transformed it back into a revolver and gunned down a guy unfortunate enough to step out of the more crowded part of the room.

It was a mess if she had ever seen one, nameless faces of either faction on the ground, both alive but wounded and dead and gone. It was hard to say how many casualties Junior's mercenaries had, only that it definitely were more Atlesians on first glance – although less trained and wielding mostly melee weapons, the mercenaries had the small advantage that guns and ranged weapons were little more than pointless weight up close, those stupid enough to still attempt it often hitting their own kind by accident.

Finally, it made sense to her as to why quite a few of Junior's goons, as she 'affectionately' called them, were carrying heavy axes and machetes – what she had long thought of as stupid or an oversight on Junior's part was actually kinda smart: Machetes were fast and could hit the often less armored joints of an enemy due to their nature, greatly affecting their movements that way, and the axes were powerful enough to damage armor.

If she had to be honest, she found herself a little impressed as she watched how one of the axes was brought down on a soldier, breaking through the armor on his shoulder, before the goon wielding it pulled his foot up and kicked the Atlesian away from him, freeing his weapon that way. As he rushed off to help one of his buddies, he stepped on the fallen soldier – which actually brought a little smile to Emerald's lips, despite the situation.

"I tell ya, Em, if we get out of this shit alive, I'm adding 'defeated a whole squad of Atlesian military' to my résumé. That ought to get me a job that pays the bills!"

"You mean like the one you have with Cinder, Merc?"

She ignored the frown her partner sent at her – couldn't believe he couldn't tell that this was not the time for their usual, even if enjoyable, banter – and instead fell back to reload anew, her partner once again stepping in front of her to protect her for the moment. And though she wouldn't say it, she was grateful that they got each other's back like that, and were willing to protect the other with their life. And legs, in Mercury's case.

"Also, 'résumé'?" she inquired, before leaving the cover he provided her with to take some off the heat off him, "Don't choke on such big words, kiddo." So maybe it wasn't the time for banter, but it was hard to break habits, and it wasn't that she didn't like it.

He blinked.

"I'm older than you." he muttered, confused, "Also, it's not that complicated of a word! If that is how you react to me saying it, how the hell would you have reacted had I said curriculum vit-"

A bullet tore through his leg unexpectedly and he lost balance as it yielded underneath him, gasping in surprise. Being prosthetic, his legs weren't guarded by aura like the rest of his body and relied on their own armor, usually more than enough by itself thanks to his modifications – for that to fail after taking so little damage was impossible.

He struggled to regain balance and fortunately managed to do so relatively quick, but ignored the shocked and worried glance Emerald sent into his direction. Had no time for that, instead scanning the room for whatever could've been the cause.

And spotted the man across the room, holding what looked like a sniper rifle, only much bulkier. He cursed, catching on to the fact that it was firing high velocity projectiles relatively quick, and threw himself out of the way as he saw the man take aim again.

The new projectile missed him and embedded itself in the wall beneath the stairs up to the DJ booth. Emerald whirled around, caught off guard, but pulled her head down as soon as she saw Mercury lying flat on the ground, waving at her.

Mercury spotted the soldier across the room taking aim again, but before anything else could happen, a bullet much like the kind he fired hit the side of his sniper rifle's barrel and all but ripped it in half – their own sniper had come to their aid, having noticed the situation. It was the first time Mercury was actually glad to have Ruby around, gaining a whole new respect for her.

Unfortunately, the enemy sniper had still achieved something by momentarily breaking their line of defense, succeeding in allowing several soldiers to close in on them. His partner, due to the nature of her weapon, could react a lot quicker, disabling a soldier while getting up by shooting him in the ankles, and another one following that by thrusting a sickle into his leg through the less guarded joint.

A soldier had managed to get past her defense and up in her face before she was on her feet, but Mercury took care of him, charging in from the side and punching the guy into the next millennium. She repaid him by shooting another one in the face, resting her arm on his back to steady her aim.

They both retreated, falling into position. Stood at the bottom of the stairs to the DJ booth, and were surrounded, outnumbered, several rifles pointed at them. Nothing either of them could do would turn the situation around, they were painfully aware of that – it was one thing to fight a powerful enemy, but a completely different to manage holding your ground against a group, even if they were less skilled.

She bared her teeth in a low hiss, turning both of her revolvers into their sickle form – she could cut faster than she could shoot up close and personal, and this was going to be. Aside her, Mercury shifted nervously from one foot to the other, and she could hear his greaves hiss with the power building up in them – although one sounded a little off, the one damaged earlier, even she could tell.

"How much longer?!" she bellowed over her shoulder up to Deadb3ar, flinching as one of the soldiers stepped closer and rose his rifle to line it up with her head. But even before Deadb3ar answered, she knew he wouldn't make it in time. They wouldn't get that weapon working.

"It's still charging!"

Still, it felt like a punch to the gut, getting the confirmation that they not only were failing, but out of time as well. She exchanged a frown with her partner, who seemed to feel the same, yet still stood strong in the face of what could as well be their defeat.

He was who acted first when one of their enemies charged forward, intercepting him and taking him out with his damaged leg. Ready to back him up, she turned one of her sickles back and fired past him, hitting a soldier in the forehead before he even got the chance to move.

It seemed almost pointless, though, another one replacing him quickly, returning fire and forcing her to duck out of the way. Out in the open and outnumbered like they were, skill and hope didn't matter in the slightest, it was mere luck that Emerald held onto as she – from her cowered position - took aim and fired past Mercury's legs at the ankles of the guy that had shot at her, sending him down onto the ground. Her partner did the rest, kicking him in the face, knocking him out.

And that was when their luck ran out already.

She was in the middle of getting up when a bolt of energy from an Atlesian weapon hit her square in the chest – a stray shot that had been meant for Mercury – and wheezed as her muscles contracted, all air forced out of her lungs. She did her best to stay focused even as her body was uncontrollably twitching, baring her teeth and taking aim nonetheless.

The bullet connected and took one of the Atlesians out, but despite her best attempts she couldn't get her body to move from the spot, unresponsive. Even as one of the soldiers took aim at her, and she could see it in the twitch of his lips that he was aware she was running short of aura. But she fought the numbness and got her twitching arm to aim back at him.

He still pulled the trigger first, she was just a second behind.

And still she was the only one who hit her intended target.

Because Mercury took the shot for her.

The thief's eyes went wide at the sight of her partner stumbling to the side after being hit, making way for her bullet to hit her enemy. For a second, it seemed like he'd recover, standing back upright, but that was before another soldier opened fire on him with a handgun.

Without aura, having sacrificed it to take that bullet, he went down in an instant.

"Merc!" she heard herself scream, but I sounded dull and far away. She made an attempt at rushing to his side, but the momentary distraction was all that the soldiers had needed to rush forward and subdue her. Before she had any chance to even realize her own mistake, Emerald found herself getting hit in the face with something and staggering to the side, one of her weapons falling from her hands as her whole world spun.

She felt herself hitting Mercury, falling on top of him, but surprised the same soldier that had just pistol-whipped her by whirling around despite her nausea, first firing off a single shot from the weapon she still had in hand, despite her blurry vision, and then slashing open the side of his leg after the point-blank impact of the bullet had torn most of it off.

Kicking at his face when it hit the floor next to her foot, she let out a growl – and then it was over, another soldier standing above her, pointing the flashlight on his rifle at her face, blinding her. And even if she would have, somehow, taken him out, that still left the six or seven other Atlesians aiming their weapons at her and Mercury.

She wasn't a pessimist, far from it – wasn't really an optimist either – and against giving up, but even she had to admit that they had lost. Disappointed Cinder. Failed her, even. Just like Roman had. Although the idea should've probably disgusted her, usually probably would have, she for once found herself understanding the other thief. At least a bit.

Casting a last glance down at Mercury – she didn't even know whether or not he was alive anymore, he wasn't moving and she didn't have the time to check for pulse – she made a decision.

Slowly, still leaned against Mercury's body, she lowered her remaining sickle and placed it on the ground, pushing it a small distance away before she rose both her hands to show that she would surrender. Not that she liked the idea, but dead she would be of no use to Cinder or anyone – alive and imprisoned, there was at least a future. The possibility to break out of prison and return to Cinder.

The soldier shining his flashlight at her and Mercury began to slowly approach, cautious as if waiting for her to do something that dared him and the others to shoot her after all. If she was being honest with herself, she was tempted to, but she had nothing more than her semblance left – no weapon, no aura, no ace up her sleeve – and that wouldn't help her much.

Of course, there was Neo, but she couldn't really count on the assassin to show up and save their asses. Probably hadn't even noticed their situation yet, or maybe just didn't care enough. With Neo, you never knew, and Emerald was assured that Neo was planning the demise of every person she ever saw, anyway, with the lack of compassion that only that deranged mind could.

But when the sound of glass shattering did resound, after all, and shards rained down on them, it wasn't Neo, and it wasn't Deadb3ar, either. These shards were physical, not an illusion, not just part of a semblance.

It was the soldier standing above her that looked up first, and probably regretted it the most. In the middle of the rain of shards was a tall figure that Emerald – due to her still blurry vision - couldn't quite make out, and it came right at him, landing on top of him and knocking him down – and out.

Dragging its heavy weapon off his skull and across the ground, the tall figure rose to its true height, towering above all of them, the Atlesians backing away a step in caution – all of their weapons were pointed at it now, but it stayed calm in a manner that Emerald couldn't understand.

Faster than anyone had expected it to move, the bear-like figure moved its arm, heavy weapon colliding with the closest soldier with such force that he was thrown across the room, armor shattering at the front. It turned, weapon swinging over its head, and brought it down on another soldier and slammed him down into the ground, ducked as another attempted to pistol-whip it, and batted the soldier into the other Atlesians.

And only then did it stop and growl, turning its head a bit to glance back at the thief and her fallen partner, finally allowing the dazed Emerald to recognize it.

"You alright?" inquired Junior in his husky voice, his tone clearly reflecting his irritation. She watched as he took a deep breath and took off his shades, slightly shifting his weapon – the batzooka – in his hands. "Sorry it took so long, ran into trouble along the way. Some morons really thought they could break in through the entrance leading to the alley and sneak up on us. Showed them who the boss of this club is."

Flabbergasted, the green-haired thief just nodded once she realized he was waiting for an answer, unable to say anything that made sense at that moment. She blamed it on the nausea, slowly turning into a headache, but knew she wasn't really believing the situation either. Not with how sudden it had turned around, not after she had already accepted her and Mercury's defeat.

Suddenly reminded of her partner and the state he was in, she whirled around and reached for his neck – and bit down on her lower lip. Still a pulse, still breathing. She wouldn't admit it, but she was relieved to know that. Allowing herself to relax ever so slightly, she tilted her head back and sighed – and thus caught sight of the window above the DJ booth, the one that separated the main room from Junior's office. Or, at least, the remains of it.

"Grab him and get some cover at the top of the DJ booth with Deadb3ar." instructed the Mistralian man suddenly, obviously referring to Mercury, thus turning her attention back to him. He scanned the crowd and the bar, his glare alone enough to scare some of the soldiers off, before ultimately glancing back to her again. "Will you be okay on your own?"

Had it been anyone else – or at least, one of her own associates – Emerald would've questioned the sincerity behind this inquiry, but it seemed to be genuine concern and the offer to stay and defend them as they moved to their new location. Still, despite the state both she and Mercury were in – him wounded and his aura depleted, and hers almost equally as drained – she nodded, and he nodded back.

He seemed slightly hesitant as he left, looking back one last time before he charged into the crowd while yelling some instructions to his 'goons', but he trusted her decision. Left alone with her own partner, she quickly gathered up her own weapons and then carefully helped him sit up – he was conscious, but quite obviously in pain – and, putting one of his arms around her shoulders, pulled him up onto his feet.

As he leaned onto her for support, she had to bite back a curse, coming to realize only now that she had twisted her ankle during the fall. Still, she encouraged him to hold onto her – he hadn't said anything or hesitated either when he chose to protect her, and she was going to do her goddamn best to repay him for that – and directed him towards the stairs. Climbing them was a small adventure on its own, but luckily, Deadb3ar came to their aid as soon as he saw them, helping them up the last few stairs, and together with him, she placed Mercury against the wall behind the turntable.

Seeing Mercury offer her a weak smile, she reciprocated it, although she didn't really know why they were smiling in the first place – hadn't it been for Junior making it back in time, it would've been over for them right there and then, in one way or another, and that was a fact. She wasn't one for drama.

With a heavy sigh, she reloaded her weapons and turned to Deadb3ar and his turntables – he was leaned over a small screen, hands resting on either side of it, tense as he watched a small bar slowly fill. It was near completion, something that filled Emerald with a bit of relief – but they both knew it wouldn't be the thing to change the battle just like that. Nothing ever did.

"Just a little bit longer." the goon with the oversized bear mask told her, and she glanced his way after having made sure that no one was approaching them. For a second, it was silent in between the two and they just stared at another – then, after some hesitation, Deadb3ar glanced over his shoulder towards Mercury. "Will he be alright?"

She glanced back at Mercury herself, and that stupid idiot had the audacity to give her a thumbs-up like he had been able to hear them. A groan escaped her, which Deadb3ar rewarded with a chuckle on his own, apparently having gotten the answer to his question. Not that she'd have said anything else – Mercury was going to be fine, of that, she was assured. She knew him like no one else, having worked with him for so long, and could tell whether or not he was faking something – yeah, his aura was depleted and he was wounded, but it wasn't grave. A bit more serious than he tried to make them believe, but nothing he wouldn't recover from.

He was probably royally pissed about his prosthetic, though, he didn't take too kindly to them being damaged.

With the bar on the screen slowly creeping along towards completion, the DJ used the moment to reach under the turntables and – surprising Emerald – pulled a Tommy Gun that he kept stashed underneath them. He didn't keep it, however, instead tossing it to her partner. Not that Mercury had ever wielded a Tommy Gun with its spray-and-pray firing, but even she figured it was less about using it to support them rather than using it in case they failed and enemies got on top of the DJ booth.

"Sorry I didn't use it to support the two of you, but I figured I would probably do more harm than good with how inaccurate it is. Didn't feel like explaining to your boss how I accidentally killed'cha." commented the DJ and shrugged, "Wouldn't exactly be saving ya asses if I ended up killin'em, right?"

"Right." agreed the thief awkwardly. Mostly because he was right and she couldn't disagree, and she had been about to yell at him for not using that gun. Made sense now, though, and she did rather value her life.

A loud beep interrupted them, and Deadb3ar quickly turned back towards the turntable he had been leaned over. It was charged, screen flashing brightly, and the DJ wasted no time in making use of it – touching the screen, he confirmed a prompt that Emerald couldn't even hope to read in time, and then reached under the turntable again to hit another switch that had been hidden there.

"You protected me." he spoke as he rose, and Emerald frowned, "Let me return the favor, alright?"

Suddenly, his bear mask let out a a low hum and the mouth of it – through which he usually saw anything – closed. Instead, the bear mask's eyes began to glow, turning white, and the turntables in front of him responded, expanding and unfolding, revealing more screens and lifting the vinyls, on which he put his hands. It wasn't the only thing, though, a low hiss turning Emerald's attention to the speakers hanging on the wall behind her, above Mercury, which opened up and revealed, to her surprise, turrets.

"This?!" she gasped in disbelief, gesturing to the turntables and the speakers, backing away as the sides of the turntable folded back and revealed two more turrets, "This is your weapon?! You play music on your weapon?!"

"Ya bet – this is my weapon, 'Boom-Box'! Took me a long time to convince Junior, but damn, the investment was worth it – you'll see!" chuckled the man with the bear mask, his voice muffled by it, and moved his hands across the device in front of him, "The turntable controls the turrets, and the mask has a screen inside of it on which I can see each of the turrets is aimed at. Ever seen a guy shoot four soldiers at once? No?" He giggled in a sinister way that had both of Cinder's associates question what they knew about the otherwise quiet DJ, "Stick around..."

At the same time, pointing in different directions, the turrets began firing.

Ruby ducked back down and ejected the clip from her rifle, not even flinching this time as a bottle above her exploded, and grabbed a new one from where she had stacked them to her feet. Turned out she had more left than she had thought at first, but if something didn't change soon, she would run out eventually. Not that she was going through them that fast, but they were limited.

Much more of a problem was that, with Emerald and Mercury gone, they were proving to be not anywhere as efficient at holding enemies back from their only means of cover – Emerald had the highest fire rate of the three of them, and without Mercury providing Cinder with new shards to use for arrows right at her feet, the villainess had to use the shards lying around, each time having to go for shards further away from her original position, eventually even forced to move. She wasn't going to run out any time soon, but it did slow her down. And with both of them having a slow fire rate to begin with, only compensated by the ability of Cinder's arrows to hit several enemies at once with her exploding arrows, this was a huge drawback in comparison to how well they had handed it previously, when the associates of the fire-wielding woman were still around.

Sure, they did have Tucker supporting them now – he had moved to a position from which he could shoot over the top of the bar with his pistol, leaned against it due to his impeded mobility – but his fire rate wasn't that much higher than theirs, and lacked the power they had, requiring more precision.

"Yang, what's taking so long?" growled Tucker as he reached for the floor and picked up another handful of cards – Ruby had quickly learned that his pistol could shoot both regular bullets and cards – to use.

Sliding the clip into her rifle, Ruby turned her head to look over to Yang and the twins, just in time to witness her older sister sweeping an arm through the compartment and tearing all boxes, bottles, cans and glasses stored in there all out at once while gritting her teeth. On either side of her, the twins were more careful in pushing things aside, but had sped up noticeably from when they started as well, all three of them very aware of how things were slowly becoming more and more grave with the soldiers closing in on them with every mercenary falling.

"I can't find it! Just where the hell did you put that goddamn thing?!" bellowed the blonde back in frustration, moving to the compartment below the one she had just emptied and digging through it in a similar manner. "Who the fuck keeps something important like this 'somewhere with all the other stuff beneath the bar', instead of isolated where you'd find it when you need it?!"

"We never needed it before, I told you!" shot Tucker back, only to pull his head down when a soldier shot at him. Ruby used this moment to emerge from behind cover, taking out the guy that had just almost shot Tucker's head off with a well-aimed shot, before ducking down herself when she saw another soldier point a pistol her way. Less accurate than her sniper, but also faster. She wasn't going to take that risk.

"That's neither an explanation, nor an excuse, and repeating it won't change a goddamn thing! So stop blaming me for not finding your shit!"

"It's not mine, I..."

"Junior gave it to you to watch, right?"

"Yeah, but..."

"Then it's your goddamn responsibility!"

Melanie let out a loud and dangerous groan, signaling the end of the screaming contest between Yang and Tucker. The blonde, not finding anything in the compartment she was digging through, moved past the twins and repeated her sweeping technique on the other side of them with the next compartment, not even caring anymore as a few of the things she pulled out hit the floor and broke or opened up. Might have been on purpose, too – one of the things she dropped was the can that Tucker kept his coffee in, spilling the dark powder over the already stained floor. Childish move, but just like Yang when she was angry.

"Fuck! Why can't one of us, including me, have a semblance that's somewhat useful in a goddamn situation like this?!"

Everyone around her stopped for a second to frown her way, then exchanged glances. Two of them – Ruby and Cinder, both of them knowing that Yang was right about their respective semblance – quickly turned back to shooting, but the other three hesitated. The twins kept staring at another and Tucker momentarily stared into nothingness.

Ultimately, all three turned back to their tasks, not saying anything.

Having just put a new clip into her weapon, Ruby rose enough to point her weapon over the bar and take aim. Spotting a soldier who had the back turned to her – an easy target – she pulled the trigger through and watched as the projectile flew through the air and, thanks to its sharp tip, embedded itself in the man's back, the electricity affecting and messing with his mechanical armor, causing a short-circuit and power down, removing augmented strength and mobility, as well as other benefits it would give.

One would think that Atlas would install safety measures for something like that, but apparently, they'd been assured that 'nothing would break through the armor and get to the circuits'. Then again, it might just have been an older model, cause Ruby was pretty sure she had seen more modern looking ones in her weapon magazines.

She would've probably thought more about it, hadn't she immediately after pulling the trigger through, felt that something was off. About the weapon in her hands. Instead of immediately returning to its original position when she let go of it, the trigger took unnaturally long, almost like it got stuck several times along the way.

Not thinking too much of it, even if reminded that the weapon had already jammed once that day, she took aim again, lowering her face to the side of the rifle to look through the scope. The neck of a soldier was already lined up with the crosshair when she felt it, how strangely warm the weapon felt against her cheek. Far from the barrel as it was, this shouldn't be the case. Still, she pulled the trigger – and felt it jam.

Immediately, she pulled her head down and lowered the weapon in front of her. Making sure not to point the barrel at anyone in case the rifle went off after all, she stared at it. Was in disbelief as she saw that the trigger was stuck halfway, refusing to move at all.

"It jammed again!" she shouted, mostly to inform Cinder that she wouldn't be able to back her up at the moment, and set the weapon down. Putting a hand on it, she fumbled with the trigger, hoping to get it free – earlier, it hadn't jammed like that, and had eventually worked just fine after a few seconds. This time, it had been stuck for more than a minute already, and wasn't moving at all. Neither forwards, nor backwards. And hell would freeze over before she'd be stupid enough to look down the barrel.

Still, she quickly removed the clip, and although hoping that it would be fixed that way, it was mostly to avoid making it more dangerous than it already was. The curved blade followed next, making access to the part causing problems easier for her.

"Let me have a look at that." spoke Tucker as he suddenly appeared to her right. Ruby, too occupied with her weapon, hadn't even noticed that Cinder had instructed him to help her, that she'd be fine handling the situation alone for the moment. Quickly, Ruby grabbed her weapon to hand it to him – and let go off it with a shriek.

"It's... It's really hot! Not the barrel, I mean! The whole gun!"

They both knew something was really wrong about that, Tucker's eyes going as wide as Ruby's were at that moment. What really told them that something was wrong, however, was the sound of glass shattering close by – the sound of Neo arriving.

Indeed, the madwoman was on the bar right above them on all fours, and wasted no time to reach down past them to grab the weapon and the clip Ruby had ejected. Both the mercenary and the barkeeper had to back away to avoid being hit by it as Neo yanked it up without regard for anyone's safety, but what the woman did next surprised both them even more than her sudden appearance – putting the clip back in, she whirled around and threw it into the crowd with all her might.

The sniper rifle that Neo had crafted for the young mercenary hit the ground and sled over it, past several feet, and only came to a stop when a mercenary stepped onto it and almost fell. Frowning, he stared down at the weapon that, by that point, was glowing red-hot, as did the soldier he'd been fighting with.

Neither of them, nor anyone close to them, was spared as the weapon blew up.

Behind the bar, Ruby stared in disbelief at the explosion. The purplish smoke that bristled with electricity as result of the clip blowing up along with the rifle. The shards of metal flying everywhere. The lump in her throat was back at the thought that it could've been them, and not soldiers and a few poor mercenaries who happened to be too close, had Neo not shown up.

"That's the end of that weapon."

Ruby flinched and stared at Tucker, still needing a few seconds before she realized that Neo had dropped down in between her and the barkeeper, and that he had just translated for her.

"She's sorry about that." he added as Neo kept moving her hands, signing a message for Ruby, "It was never meant to be used for that long amount of time, you both knew that, but even she had not foreseen that it would do that."

The tricolored lunatic nodded, an unusual amount of compassion – an emotion most believed to be non-existent in her range of emotions – in her eyes. Almost apologetically, the small woman reached for the curved blade that – along with a few clips, more tranquilizer than electric rounds – were the only remains of the weapon, and gently handed it to Ruby. Almost as if to say 'keep it, I want you to have it'.

It wasn't that she had really grown attached to that weapon, it hadn't really been in her possession long enough for that, but Ruby still felt kind of sad to see it gone. A light tug at her heart as she accepted the blade from Neo and saw the creator of the weapon nod. The lunatic knew what she felt at that moment, and that the weapon – although not the perfect one for her that she'd been looking for – would always hold a special place in her heart.

You don't forget your first weapon, the first 'friend' that accompanied you into battle and, unconditionally, had your back at all times. At least, that was what a mechanic and weapon fanatic – and Ruby considered herself both of them – felt.

Offering Ruby a last bit of sympathy, Neo reached out and placed a hand on the girl's shoulder, a weak smile on her lips – and then, burst into shards of glass, vanishing entirely. No doubt to rejoin the chaos at the very heart of which she belonged.

A sigh escaped the young mercenary and she lowered the curved blade to the ground – as it was, it wouldn't be much use of her, but she still appreciated the gesture from Neo. It would at least make somewhat of a memento, if not a useful weapon in the future.

Sharing a short glance with the barkeeper, who offered her the same reassuring smile, the young mercenary glanced towards her teammates, who were still searching for that key. For a few seconds, she just watched them, then decided that she might as well help them now, as to not be useless.

Still, now it was up to Cinder and Tucker alone to hold their enemies back. At least just until they found that key.

She had just started and made it through half a compartment when Junior suddenly rolled over the bar and landed nearby, cursing as he ducked down and attempted to catch his breath. Of course, she hadn't missed it when he had suddenly burst through that window to join the fight himself, saving Mercury and Emerald in the process, nor had she missed it when DJ Deadb3ar had activated his weapon – which, of course, she had been absolutely fascinated by. His reappearance had changed things a bit, and even though it hadn't been enough to ensure victory, it was a big help.

Seeing Junior fight sure was something else. Until that moment, Ruby hadn't neither seen him fight, nor had she seen his weapon, but the way he moved and tore through the lines of enemies, taking punishment without even flinching – it was like a moving fortress. He had experience on his side, she had figured that relatively quickly upon seeing him move through the battlefield, and his instincts were sharper than she had thought, as proven when he anticipated his enemy's movements and the way he seemed to be aware of everything going on around him, going as far as intercepting attacks from behind him.

He wasn't fast or anything, his heavy weapon slowing him down even further, and most of his movements were kind of predictable, his only real shortcoming, but he didn't even attempt to mask them or to go faster. It didn't fit the role he had or fighting style, anyway, being more like Yang in that regard – he was a slow, but heavy-hitting fighter, able to take a beating.

Unlike Yang, though, he seemed to be more focused on breaking enemy formations and removing enemies from the fight by throwing them across the room with his bat, whereas Yang would focus on taking them down with a severe and ruthless beating. Also, he was much calmer in what he did, focused - Yang let herself be controlled by her anger, allowing it to grow inside her at the smallest irritation.

Silently, Ruby wished her older sister would learn a bit from him. Not to change, but to grow on it.

"You took quite a beating out there, boss." noted Tucker as he eventually ducked to reload his pistol, glancing towards Junior. "You alright?"

The only answer he got out of the club owner was a low and displeased growl, Hei leaning his head back to rest against the cupboard his back was already resting against. With his weapon resting on his lap, the Mistralian man rubbed his eyes in irritation using index finger and thumb, which eventually turned into him massaging the bridge of his nose.

Ruby was sure she had never seen him that frustrated, and she was used to him generally being a bit grumpy and serious. Which was just how he was, and it generally wasn't that bad to the point one couldn't stand it. And he wasn't like that all the time, either.

Tucker didn't seem to like the reaction of his boss, either, as the weak smile he had forced vanished all to quickly as well. Almost nervously, he glanced over the bar to the center of the room, then gestured to Cinder that she'd have to take over for a moment, before approaching Junior carefully. Spoke with a seriousness that was so unlike him that Ruby wouldn't have wondered at all if it was a completely different person than the jolly mischievous barkeeper.

"Hei, I've been thinking... We both know I don't like using it, and we agreed that I don't make use of it unless absolutely necessary, but... this is such a kind of situation, isn't it? And it would spare us the use of the defense system and all the costs that brings with it." he began, knew he had Junior's full attention the moment he spoke his boss's first name, "Should I use that?"

For a moment, Junior was quiet. Was contemplating to accept Tucker's offer, Ruby could see it when she glanced back at them, even though she really didn't know whatever 'that' was. But whatever it was, it sounded serious and, if she was being honest with herself, kind of dangerous, too.

"No." replied Junior eventually and pushed himself up, made eye-contact with the barkeeper, for once not wearing his shades, which they both usually did, and Tucker did at that moment, "No, keep your semblance for when things go real awry. You've built that charge up for a long time, it's better if you don't waste it – it'll remove you from the fight either way, and the risk that you run out of energy too early because you're weak is too great. We need you in this fight."

As if to add to how serious he was about that, he transformed his bat into the rocket launcher that was its secondary mode, approaching the bar without ever rising up to his feet.

"With Ruby out of the picture, I'm going to help you two for the moment. I might not have the greatest accuracy with this thing, but it's better than nothing, right?" he grunted, more to Cinder than to anyone else, before a wave of disbelief over the current situation hit him unexpectedly, "Shit – if I tell Sarah this, she's never going to believe me."

Cinder sent him a stare at this that practically told him that he'd have to explain whatever he meant with that one later – she knew that name, too, after all, but hadn't heard about him getting in touch with his former team leader again – but remained otherwise silent, only acknowledging the fact that she had heard that he'd support her with that very stare.

"It's about time we turn this situation around, isn't it? Ruby and Yang got removed from the fight already, the twins can't do much at the moment, I'm wounded as well, and I haven't seen the thief and her partner in a while, either. We're pretty much already outnumbered, and if this keeps on, we're done for." mused Tucker as he rejoined Cinder and his boss again, "Ya think Deadb3ar's weapon is finally charged?"

Ruby pulled her head out of the compartment she'd been searching through and sent the barkeeper a confused frown.

"Uh... isn't it already? I mean, it's shooting and stuff, I thought it was."

"It should be any moment." answered Hei the question that Tucker had asked, before turning to Ruby to answer her question, "It charges up twice, the second one takes longer. First to power turrets, which protect him for the time being, and then..."

He ducked out of the way when something came flying into his direction, Ruby flinching when the object hit one of the cabinets behind them and embedded itself in its door – it seemed they weren't the only ones getting desperate, considering that the young mercenary identified the mysterious flying projectile to be an Atlesian sword.

Junior cursed under his breath, whereas Cinder took the initiative and send a volley of exploding arrows towards the owner of the sword, taking him out and driving the other Atlesians close by back. Ruby watched as the Mistralian man counted to six under his breath, something she'd later learn he had learned in his younger days when he was part of his own team, before standing up and unleashing a barrage of rockets towards the crowd in the middle of the room, making sure to aim only where he could be sure he wouldn't hit his own men.

From the corner of her eye, Ruby saw Melanie pull her head out from under the bar and reaching for her earpiece. Whatever she heard, it seemed to alert her just as much as it seemed to excite her. Still, she waited until Hei pulled his head back down and let Cinder take over before she shared the news.

"Deadb3ar's weapon is ready. He's setting things up now, and is going to activate it as soon as that's done. He wants to know if you have instructions for him."

"Tell him to use the moment of surprise wisely, and then to cover me, Yang and the twins." growled Junior, before turning to the others, "Yang, Melanie, Miltia – I know you're all weak, but I want you to move with me as soon as Deadb3ar is ready. Ruby, Tucker – you keep looking for that damn key. Deadb3ar will be able to change a lot, but it won't be a secure victory unless we drive those bastards out of our home once and for all. Dread the costs and the damage already, but we have no choice."

He turned again, making eye-contact with his old acquaintance, "Cinder, I won't tell you what to do, and you know that – the old rule still goes, I trust you with whatever the hell you decide to do. Just know that Emerald and Mercury will be without protection once Deadb3ar starts – they're still up on the DJ booth. Will be fine when we find that key, as long as they don't move from there. Don't know where your crazy assassin is, but I figure she will do what she's best at, anyway, and get involved in the chaos."

"Junior, Deadb3ar is starting!" interrupted Melanie, and Junior growled, gaze still locked with that of Cinder – until the villainess nodded. No sooner than that, he pointed at Yang and the twins and gestured them to get ready, somewhat relieved to see them nod to confirm that they'd be at his side. At the same time, Ruby and Tucker shared a glance, silently dividing the remaining compartments that they'd been looking through for the key between them.

Across the room, Deadb3ar looked back to the two associates of Cinder, watching Mercury give him a thumbs-up to confirm that they were ready, and responded in likeness upon seeing it on the display inside the bear mask. He faced his turntables again – the turrets had retreated already with the second charge completed – and, taking a last deep breath, closed his eyes and spread his arms wide.

And surprised the two associates of Cinder behind him by letting himself fall on top of the machine.

Curiously, it responded, the top of it sliding aside so that he could fall into it, and no sooner than he had done so, it closed back up, swallowing his torso. Then, it began to shift, expanding in a different way than it had done before, spreading down the man's body.

Emerald had half a mind to repeat her earlier words of shock, but was interrupted before she got the chance by the sound of something breaking and the whole DJ booth shaking beneath them. When the floor suddenly ripped open and cables flung out, she actually let out a shriek in sheer surprise, which only increased in pitch as the cables burst out of the walls eventually, followed by the two speakers to her left – the things the cables were connected to – were pulled off the wall and hit the ground right next to her, the same thing happening with the other two speakers closer to Mercury. And as if that hadn't been enough, they were actually pulled on the cables towards the turntable that had swallowed the DJ, opened up, and surrounded his legs and arms.

At this point, she had caught on, and still couldn't believe it – not even as Deadb3ar stood up, enveloped his new blocky armor. He looked hilariously stupid with his oversized round bear mask and the chunky armor, speakers on arms, legs and chest, but she figured that the thing was less about aesthetics and more about functionality. And looked equally parts terrifying than it looked awkward. Could be the glowing eyes of the mask, though.

She was about to comment on it, but the DJ wasn't sticking around – instead, he suddenly pushed off the ground and jumped over the glass fence, far higher and further than he normally would have, was in free fall for only about two seconds as the heavy weight of the armor, his fully transformed weapon, kicked in.

And as he hit the ground, it was as if the whole building shook not only under the impact, but the deep and deafening boom that was released, a shockwave rolling over the floor. It was a sound-based weapon, less about damage and taking out single targets than it was about protecting its owner and, just like Deadb3ar had said, controlling crowds. Immensely so.

Sitting at the top of the now destroyed DJ booth with an equally dumbfounded Mercury, gaze wandering along the holes in the wall where the speakers had been, and the long furrows that the cables had made, to the location the turntable had been at – now only hinted at by a few cables left behind that it was once connected to, which the thief assumed to be for the whole color-changing lighting - Emerald swore to herself not to ever look down on that DJ, or any of Junior's goons for that matter, again. You never knew what they had in store.

It kinda made her fear ever finding out what Deadb3ar's semblance was.

"Now."

Following Junior's command only seconds after a deafening boom had resounded throughout the room, Yang - Miltiades' claw still in her side, although fixed as good as possible - and the two twins shot up and jumped over the bar right after their boss, covered by a volley of rockets from Junior's weapon. In midair, Yang reactivated her gauntlets and wasted no time in adding the electricity, hearing the familiar hum as Miltia initiated her own weaponry – she knew Melanie would be not far behind activating the ice Dust in her shoes – and the low whir she would soon know to be the sound of Junior's batzooka changing between modes, in this case back to a club.

And that was when she spotted the mechanical giant charging into the soldiers, each of his steps shaking the dancefloor, and each of his punches creating the same deafening boom and a smaller variation of the shockwave his initial jump had caused. It took her a moment before she recognized it as Deadb3ar, and although that fact did catch her off guard, she understood a lot about what the other members of the club had been talking about. And, admittedly, gained a lot of respect for the otherwise so unremarkable DJ.

And even though she couldn't see it, she knew that Ruby was amazed by this thing and probably losing it at that moment about the fact that she had been playing music on a weapon every Monday.

If she didn't have other problems at that moment – namely that she was charging headlong into a fight, with her aura down in the red, from which it had yet to recover – she'd probably been kind of amazed as well at the giant. At least more than she was at that moment.

It felt a bit odd to get back into the battle after resting a bit, knowing that she had kind of fled it earlier, but the first punch across a soldier's face corrected that a little bit. She was the last to reach the fight, followed only by Junior – true to her prediction, Melanie was using the ice Dust in her heels to freeze the ground beneath her and skate. She didn't have that much left after their sparring earlier that day, having not found the time yet to stock up on it, Yang knew that, but was assured it would suffice for this. Melanie wouldn't be using it, otherwise.

One of Miltiades' claws flew past Yang, crackling with electricity, and cut deep into the armor of an Atlesian, not only knocking him out as the electricity tore through him, but swinging his unconscious body into his allies when she pulled the cable back. A quick glance over her shoulder revealed to Yang how the Malachite twin with the short hair ducked another enemy's attack, unable to fend it off without her other claw, which would have probably made for a hilarious sight under any other circumstances.

And a slightly scary one, the retracting claw suddenly whizzing past the brawler again and hitting the soldier that Miltia was evading over the head from the side, leaving a deep crack in the side of his helmet.

Whirling back around at the sound of several heavy footsteps coming towards her, it was less surprise than irritation that struck the brawler at the sight of several soldiers abandoning all safety to charge at her – probably thought there was safety in numbers after what she had done to their commander and enforcer.

One of them quickly got taken out when one of the mercenaries – Davis, Yang recognized him by the small scar on the left side of his chin, which she had never really given any thought about and had missed for a long time due to how unimposing it was, just a small line in his stubbly beard – tackled into him from the side, but the rest kept rushing towards her.

Not the smartest bunch, considering their 'formation' – one of them leading and the rest following behind.

She literally only needed to take one step back to avoid the sword coming at her, and then take a step back forwards to punch him into the face – not even hard, although her attack did crack the armor of the guy as her semblance was still semi-active – to send him falling backwards into his backup, stopping them all momentarily.

An odd feeling overcame Yang that moment, a small premonition of sorts, and she leaned forwards as fast as she could – it turned out to be the right thing to do, as she felt a pair of feet on her back in the next second, someone catapulting themselves over her.

It turned out to be Neo, using Yang as a catapult to throw herself into the soldier that the blonde had just punched, one of her pointy heels digging itself into the guy's throat, before she pushed herself off his shoulder with the other foot and backflipped off him – and put him out of his misery with the shotgun she had stolen from the commander, his limp body collapsing after the pellets had torn through him and those unfortunate enough to be in the spread.

A pair of hands was suddenly on Yang's back – the brawler hadn't risen to her full height again yet – and Melanie appeared in Yang's vision, repeating Neo's attack, only that she aimed for the chest of the next soldier, pushing him back and freezing the front of his armor with the ice her heels could create.

Acting fast, Yang caught both of her allies, grabbing Melanie by the arms and pulling her towards her, and moving forward a step in doing so for Neo to land on her shoulders – even if only for a second, using the brawler as a stepping stone to push herself into the air again and fire another shot into the group of soldiers, vanishing thanks to her semblance at the highest point of her jump.

Yang didn't hesitate any second and made a full rotation on the spot, swinging Melanie like a weapon, the twin's heels cutting one of their enemies across the face. Another rotation, then she let go of the Malachite twin once she was assured they had enough momentum, again throwing her into the crowd.

As she pushed off a soldier's chest this time, Melanie imitated Neo and backflipped high into the air, allowing her partner to move in and punish the same guy the twin had just cut with a punch. Yang took a step back, reached up to grab Melanie's ankles and pulled her down, again throwing her forward at their enemies.

Neo reappeared from behind the brawler, landing on her shoulders out of nowhere and catapulting herself forward, shotgun in hand. In midair, she pushed off Melanie when the twin had bounced off another soldier, twirled, and unloaded a rain of pellets onto the soldiers from above, before vanishing again during her fall.

And then, with a deafening boom, Deadb3ar fell out of the sky after a long jump towards them, his impact creating a powerful shockwave that sent all the remaining soldiers flying, and pushed Melanie backwards for Yang to catch and set down on the ground.

"Thanks, big guy!" the brawler called out to the DJ in his armor, and chuckled when he gave her a thumbs-up in return. Didn't seem to mind the new nickname, pushing off the ground and jumping away to help Junior with the situation he had gotten into.

Exchanging a glance with Melanie, the waist of who she was still holding, the blonde smiled widely – the thought that they had just pulled that off with Neo, with no communication at all, both amazed her and assured her once and for all that they had chemistry. Both her and Melanie, as well as her and Neo. And maybe the two of them with another as well.

Either way, holding Melanie like this and smiling at another – although Melanie probably wouldn't be able to tell because of the blonde's mask – she felt surprisingly good despite her low aura and wounds.

But like every great moment in her life, this one had to end, and they had to break apart and rejoin the fight.

Once this was over, though, Yang swore that to herself, she'd finally follow Miltia's advice and be honest with Melanie about her feelings.

Using her semblance, Ruby rushed from one compartment to the next after she was sure the key wasn't in that one, and dug through the next one, pushing the miscellaneous stuff inside it aside in search for the small object.

Further down the aisle, Tucker was still doing the same as well, and though they were only covered by Cinder now, things were going surprisingly well with their strongest melee fighters now able to strike, covered by Deadb3ar and his armor. They had the situation under control, finally, if not turned to their advantage.

Like Junior had predicted, it wasn't enough to win just like that, but they had turned the situation around, and that was a big step. With both the commander and his second-in-command taken care of by Yang – neither of them knew about what Neo had done yet – and now their shortcomings gone as well, they finally had a chance.

All that was missing now was that key.

She moved on to the next compartment, pushing everything out of the way and shoving her head in, scanning the inside for the small silver object. Genuinely hoped to find it, and that they hadn't missed it somewhere in the rush or that Yang had accidentally swept it out and that it was somewhere in between all the shards and the playing cards on the floor.

And then, she spotted it. Small, silver and thin, a short blade, just like Tucker had described it. It lay at the back of the compartment, beneath a bottle of water, she only spotted it because it reflected some light through the clear liquid. With a gasp of surprise, she made a jump for it, knocking everything in her path over – including the bottle that they key was beneath – and almost hitting the back wall.

"I have it!" she yelled while pulling her head out so fast that she fell on her ass, turning the attention of Tucker and Cinder to her. Wasting no time, she tossed the key to the barkeeper, who caught it and immediately rushed for the middle of the bar, barely managing to avoid falling over his own feet at the end when he crouched down due to his momentum.

"Ruby!" he hissed into her direction and she flinched at his sharp tone, in the middle of getting up when he turned her way, "Use your semblance, tell Junior and Melanie! Everyone needs to be ready for this! You'll probably be fine out there, but the others aren't!"

Although not exactly sure what he meant with the last part, she followed his instruction and vaulted over the bar and out into the open. An arrow passing her told her that Cinder had her back, which she was glad about, allowing her to immediately activate her semblance without having to fear that she'd be attacked.

Finding Junior was easy, he was taller than most fighters, and the only person who sent soldiers flying other than Yang and the armored giant that Deadb3ar had become. Getting to him, however, wouldn't be nearly as easy - he was almost on the other side of the room, meaning she had to get through all the chaos, the battle, in between them.

To do so, she first had to push through two mercenaries that were fighting back to back, forcing her to momentarily drop out of her semblance. Her small stature actually proved useful for this, she didn't even disturb them as she turned sideways and and gently placed a hand on either of their backs to assure she wouldn't get caught in between them.

A bit more complicated was the situation she ended up in right after that, right in between a soldier and a mercenary. Luckily, her height proved to be in her favor again, all she had to do was duck while she kept moving, thus escaping it as the machete of her ally came down on the soldier and chipped into the armor of the Atlesian.

Speeding up again, activating her semblance anew, she slipped through in between two Atlesians, dropped her weight backwards and fell into a slide that – while temporarily interrupting her semblance – allowed her to get through a small gap between some legs and back out into the open. And from there, it was no more than a straight line to get to Junior, something she crossed in no more than a second thanks to her semblance.

"We have the key!" she all but shouted at the tall Mistralian man as she deactivated her semblance and came to a sudden stop right next to him. If she did surprise him with her sudden appearance, he didn't show it other than by flinching ever so slightly. Still, hearing this did seem to fill him with relief, as he sighed rather audibly, ending in an awkward chuckle.

"Melanie!"

Hearing him bellow out like that right next to her all of a sudden, Ruby cringed and shied away from him, the man whirling around to the direction that the head of security of his club was in - he immediately had the girl's attention, the girl taking a step back and allowing Yang to take over.

"We've got the key! Pass the information!" he instructed, watched as Melanie's eyes widened in surprise, followed by the girl reaching for her earpiece to activate communication. Junior didn't wait for that, instead addressed the blonde brawler currently protecting the Malachite twin, "Blondie, get the hell back behind the bar!"

"Wha...?!" Yang stopped and stared at him, "But...!"

"Now!"

Seeing her sister actually shrink away was an odd sight for Ruby, completely unusual, but somewhat of a welcome sight considering the circumstances. Watching Yang back down and grab Melanie to carry her – perhaps unnecessary, as Melanie didn't seem to be in a state that didn't allow her to walk on her own – with Miltia following them, Ruby was not prepared for when she was suddenly picked up by Junior herself. She meant to ask what it was for, but it already explained itself when he made a dash for the bar as well.

In the tall man's arms, she used her chance to look around, watching the reaction of everyone else to the key being found – whatever that meant for them. She didn't even know herself, after all, and only the three oldest members of the club really seemed to know what it meant, everyone else simply seemed to be aware that it was something dangerous and how to react to the, apparently, very unlikely situation of it ever being used.

Their behavior was strange, to say the least. While they were running to safety, every mercenary but the twins and them had simply abandoned their fight and put distance in between them and the enemies. Most of them actually rushed towards Deadb3ar, who had cleared a part of the room for them, but that was about it – none of them were running towards the bar, to safety, like they were at that moment.

She meant to ask Junior why, but they reached the bar that moment and he climbed over it, setting her down on the ground only when he was sure they were safe. Yang appeared only seconds later, still carrying Melanie princess-style, Miltia hot on their heels, as was – to pretty much everyone's surprise, as no one had expected her – Neo. Even Cinder pulled her head down and glared their way, waiting for whatever was supposed to happen next.

No sooner than Yang and Melanie had vaulted over the bar, Tucker sled a small piece of the bar aside, thus revealing a small hidden keyhole – being golden and round, nothing really seemed to point towards the silver key to belong to it, but Ruby figured that was the intent – that he didn't hesitate to put the key into. It took three full turns of the key, something that struck the youngest mercenary of the group as odd, before it clicked audibly and the key seemed to come to a stop.

The effect of that action was immediate, and the two sisters finally learned just what it was that Tucker had hesitated to use, but knew would be a secure victory. In a way, it also explained the behavior of the mercenaries in the room.

It started with several panels in the ceiling, sliding away to reveal more turrets, these aiming by themselves – how they completely ignored the mercenaries, neither she nor Yang knew, but she had a feeling it was connected to what Tucker had said to her about her being safe, and to how Junior had reacted to Yang's unwillingness to get behind the bar. Either way, to make room for these turrets, the overhead light fixture was pulled up to the ceiling, lights turning off and plunging the room into darkness.

It didn't stay dark for long, however – the five remaining glass pillars, two by the hidden doorway and three on the corners of the dancefloor, began to glow rather ominously in the dark, orange light shining and spreading through the glass. At first, Ruby thought it was shining from below and upwards – until waves of orange energy rolled down the pillars into their sockets.

And spread in a powerful shockwave outwards from there, carrying everyone too close – none of which were mercenaries, as the younger sister noted, explaining why they had moved away from these – off their feet, throwing them several meters through the air.

The one glass pillar that Yang had destroyed by throwing the Atlesian commander into it didn't remain unresponsive – unable to act as the shockwave generator, its primary function, due to the missing glass pillar atop it, it executed what seemed to be a backup by revealing what initially looked like another turret. Until it aimed at the closest group of soldiers that thought they were safe near the broken pillar, and released an initially colorless spray of an acrid smell, hissing loudly. That, especially to Yang's surprise, with the sound of an explosion, burst into a jet of flames barely one second later.

With just a turn of a key, they had suddenly conquered the situation, taking control of the room back. At what prize, however, was a question that at least Ruby didn't dare to ask just then. Not after Tucker's hesitation earlier.

What exactly happened with the club's defense system at work, the young mercenary didn't really know – as the true havoc began, she closed her eyes and covered her ears, not wanting to see or hear how the last resistance of the invaders fell apart, their fate now in the hands of the club – the building – itself. Yang, however, did watch over the top of the bar, tense and in shock.

The resistance didn't last long, although, to their credit, they did try. Their initial reaction was to get as much distance between them and the most deadly thing that the defense system was throwing at them – the flamethrower – and then shoot it down from afar, but it proved to be surprisingly sturdy and last a lot. And, even worse for them, a few of them did get caught in one of the shockwaves and ended up being thrown back into the range of that hellish contraption.

When destroying it didn't work, they turned to the other machines trying to take them down, but it only ended up backfiring on them when the destruction of a glass pillar spawned another flamethrower, driving them back even further – all while the turrets above, out of their reach, were still firing into the crowd of Atlesians. And when a stray bullet of those took down another glass pillar and created a third flame-spewing turret, most of them already made a dash for the hidden doorway.

Those few who remained followed their example when – with most of the chaos removed – the horribly mutilated corpse of their commander turned up, lying at the foot of the first flamethrower.

For a few seconds past the escape of the last standing soldier, Tucker kept the defense system running – and then, with a click that seemed to echo through the now eerily quiet hall, turned the key the other way and shut it off.

Yang was the first who dared to move after seconds of absolute lack of motion in the room. She wasn't sure what either of them was waiting for – the building to calm down and remove its defense system, for any of the bodies littering the floor to move, or if any of the Atlesians would return – but she could relate to them. Any of them.

Vaulting over the bar, never taking her eyes of the sight in front of her, she felt sick in the stomach. Felt it churn. It didn't look anything like the place she'd come to call home. Not anymore.

Why the barkeeper hadn't wanted to use this was apparent, visible through the bodies of both their allies and enemies, most of which Yang couldn't even tell if they were alive or dead, and the spent cartridges that had rained down from the turrets before and now formed a sea of brass.

Holes from where bullets had impacted and burn marks from Atlesian energy weapons had left gray marks on the walls and the floor, and most of the panels of the dancefloor had shattered. A lonely heap of glass, far away from all the other shards, showed where the bottle that Melanie had thrown early into the fight had landed, stained with the blood of whoever it had hit. There was more blood, way more all over the room, most of it however around the still twitching body of the gunner that Yang had pinned to the ground with a barrel from its broken weapon, but the blonde preferred not to think of both that particular sight and the blood. Couldn't really decide which Atlesian was worse off, anyway, that gunner or the enforcer that probably was buried beneath the chandelier, burnt to death.

The room smelled of blood and the acrid liquid that the flamethrowers had used, accompanied by what Yang figured was burnt flesh, whatever Atlesian armor was made of, and the club's floor – long trenches in it made it easy to see in which directions the jets of fire had been sent, the floor hadn't been able to stand the immense heat, had molten and warped.

Most of the glass furniture was destroyed, three of the glass pillars were, some of the stairs leading up to the entrance had collapsed. Turning around to face the bar, the blonde cringed as she saw the damages the front of it had received – among what were mostly scratches and holes where bullets had bounced off the bulletproof piece of furniture was a large dent where the enforcer had impacted after she'd been thrown – although that paled in comparison to what the area above it looked like, the broken and fallen cupboards, the destroyed cabinets, and all of it covered in shards and alcohol, the stench of which she had ignored so far, but now lingered in her nose quite clearly.

Across the room, the mercenaries slowly began to move – it was now that Yang noticed most had their back turned to the room or taken cover behind Deadb3ar – and were taking in what she had already seen with the same somber reaction.

Carefully, now aware of a stinging pain at the right side of her head, the brawler removed the mask from her own face and let out a low growl. Felt a mixture of emotions seething inside her – anger at the Atlesians, sadness as to what had happened to their home, a general irritation that had her shaking her fists in anger and empowered her semblance. There was no denying it now, no more doubt about it, Miltia had been right all along. The burning desire in her confirmed that.

Her semblance was 'vengeance'. Revenge.

A hand on her shoulder, cool and comforting, calming, made all that go away. Leaving her empty, but under control. She turned her head and stared at Melanie with eyes that might as well have been dead, but was grateful for the gesture. For the other girl to be there. Alive.

"You're bleeding, Yang." spoke Melanie quietly and, as gentle and careful as she could, reached for the brawler's forehead, near the right temple. Shied away a bit when Yang winced at the contact, but carefully inspected the wound from which a thin stream of blood had made its way down the side of the blonde's face, something that she hadn't been able to take care off earlier before the brawler had put the mask back on.

The blonde mercenary didn't resist when she was directed back towards the bar, but curled her fingers tighter around her damaged mask. There was no doubt where the wound on her forehead was from, not with the large crack in the Nevermore mask she was holding, right near the right temple. It was from when the commander's shotgun had narrowly missed her, the blast scraping along the hard material. Her fingers tightened their hold of the object. Had it not been for Neo, the mask would now be without an owner.

"Blondie..." began Junior as she was led back towards him and the others, but Yang rose a hand to stop him, not wanting to hear anything he had to say at that moment. On Melanie's gesture, she sat down on a small stool that the Malachite twin pulled out from beneath the bar, allowing her partner to get easier access the wound on her forehead. Didn't complain, no matter what she felt at that moment. The pain. The emptiness. The nausea.

"I'll take care of her wound." informed Melanie the others and leaned closer to the brawler to get a better look at the lesion in question, but glared the way of the Mistralian man – not in anger or blame, but because of how she felt, not too different from Yang for once, "I think you have other things you should be concerned about."

He nodded, knowing she didn't mean anything hostile by it, and with a glance towards Cinder – the villainess just getting up after having used the moment to recover a bit – left their retreat to check on the others, the damage and the casualties.

Deadb3ar approached them at that moment, announced by his heavy steps in his weapon-armor hybrid, and Yang turned her eyes just enough to stare past Melanie's hands on her forehead to their large guardian.

"Boss." he called for Junior and observed the Mistralian leave the area behind the bar, "If you're okay with it, I'd like to use the remaining charge of my armor to help cleaning up. Doesn't make any sense returning it to the charging station, anyway, I'll need to repair it once it is out of juice, and I can only do that in the workshop... If Blondie doesn't mind sharing it for a day or two. Probably need her help carrying the thing there once it is back in standby mode, too."

Knowing the last bit was addressed to her and that he was referring to the warehouse that she kept Bumblebee in and used as a garage and workshop, she meant to nod, but realized that it would make it more complicated for Melanie just in time, and instead mouthed a short confirmation. She didn't mind. Still felt like she had no right to claim the workshop as hers, as it was Junior's and he was simply letting her use it.

"Deadb3ar can't use his armor outside the club, it doesn't last long." began Miltia to explain as the two men left them at the bar, "It runs on the energy it builds up before use, takes it straight from the electrical grid of the club. Only way to charge it is up in the DJ booth. Expensive, but the defense system costs more to use in the damage it does and the ammo it uses."

"It costs several thousand Lien to keep the defense system running for twelve seconds because of the energy, ammo and the Dust it consumes, and the damage it causes..." sighed the barkeeper from the side, and as if to blame it, stared down at the key he had removed from the keyhole, "That's what we estimate, at least, based on calculations we've made when installing it. Will have to see what we're really dealing with now... We don't like using it unless strictly necessary because of that."

The blonde let out a huff to confirm it, wincing again as Melanie actually touched the lesion on her forehead and used a handkerchief to wipe some of the blood away.

"Don't move now, Yang. There's something stuck in there. Not deep or anything, if I had some tweezers, I could probably..." The long-haired Malachite twin trailed off when the tool in question was handed to her all of a sudden, almost poking one of her eyes out. And though she shot the tricolored assassin holding them a glare, she still accepted them and the unwanted help from the lunatic. "Hold still now, Yang, this might hurt a bit..."

Melanie barely had any time to finish that sentence before Yang howled out in pain and forced the twin in white to take a step away from her. She scowled at the pointy object she held with the tweezers, just a little less than half of it coated in scarlet, covering the white material.

"Just like I thought, it's shards from your mask, not pellets from the shotgun or anything. Must be from the force the mask shattered with, that was... hey!" Neo had snatched the tweezers from her hands before she could finish, now glaring at her like she had done something horrible. The maniac ignored the twin's anger and quickly began to continue where Melanie had left off, pulling out another shard from the blonde's wound, although in a surprisingly tender way that, and while it had Yang wincing and hiss, didn't seem to hurt as bad.

Meanwhile, Ruby had emerged from behind the bar after making sure that everything was over, and though the blonde would've usually jumped to comfort her sister and make sure she was alright, wasn't in any state to at that moment. Instead, she for once allowed Cinder – although she still didn't like the fire-wielding woman any more than before, she at least trusted her, especially now with how much she had had their backs during the fight – to fill that role, the villainess taking Ruby along as she left to check on her own associates still up on the DJ booth.

Plus, there was no way that Neo or Melanie would've allowed her to move from her spot, anyway.

That left them with Miltiades and Tucker, the other Malachite twin tending to the barkeeper's wounds again after they had opened up anew – although he had essentially played a major role in their victory, he still shouldn't have moved again so soon. Yang could relate, she too had overdone it, and now felt the consequences of that.

"Looks like it'll require some stitches, to be honest. Although I can't really say that until it's been cleaned." mused Melanie a few seconds later, having until then silently observed Neo's work. She did cringe herself out of pure sympathy, however, as she saw Yang bare her teeth as Neo removed an especially pointy shard. "Hurts, huh? Think you'll need something for that? I bet Neo has something to numb the pain. Probably something strong you can't get anywhere legally."

"Hurts like a bitch, to be honest." scowled the blonde, glaring towards Neo with her left eye, having closed the right because Neo was working on her forehead above it, "But I'll live – it only hurts if you let it. And the mining site was worse. Even the burns on my hands aren't as worse as those I had from that stupid WPS thing, and they recovered just fine as well. Just wait 'til my aura has recovered and kicks in, then I'll be fine..." She winced again as Neo, maybe out of protest, wasn't as careful with the next shard, "...in a few days, at least."

"If you say so, and are sure about it. You might have a minor concussion, though. You did mention nausea earlier."

"Still have that, feel like I'm about to throw up in a minute. Will be fine as well once my aura is back."

Melanie nodded hesitantly, disagreeing a bit, but knew that there was no point in arguing with Yang on this. Instead, having calmed down a bit again, she shared a glance with Neo to hear – or rather, tell by the mute woman's expression – her opinion about the blonde's injuries. Despite not always getting along or being on terms with another, the two had learned to communicate that way, as had most of those who were somewhat close to the madwoman and had known her for a while. It was just like Yang had already noticed, Neo was rather capable to expressing herself through facial expressions and gestures, even if you didn't understand sign language.

As they silently conversed, Hei, Cinder and Ruby returned, Emerald and a hobbling Mercury, who leaned onto his partner, in tow. The former two had grim expressions on their faces that spoke volumes of how great the damage and the casualties actually were, whereas Ruby looked rather lost in all the mess and seemed to want to be somewhere – anywhere – else. But, and Yang knew that, her younger sister wouldn't leave no matter her feelings, not if she could help make things right again.

From the looks of it, they'd need all the help they could get, too.

"Junior?" she began, but never actually spoke the question aloud. There was just no need to, the questions had been up in the air all along, even before their victory, before they could be answered. Still, she turned her head ever so slightly, moving slow as to not impede Neo treating her wound, gaze trailing over to where every mercenary capable of doing so roamed the dancefloor and checking on the bodies on the ground.

"Doesn't look good." replied the Mistralian man after a few seconds of silence, growling lowly as he followed Yang's gaze, "The damages are enormous, it'll take weeks before everything is taken care of and we can open the club again. But that isn't even that important."

He took a few steps towards them under the inquisitive stare of his old acquaintance, her burning amber eyes watching his every move with the utmost care. Slowly, he approached the bar and leaned onto it, staring at nowhere in particular beyond it. Into emptiness.

"We don't have any concrete numbers just now, I'm basing this entirely on what we just saw... We've have a lot of wounded mercenaries, quite a few casualties too. Most mercenaries are fine, and there are more wounded than dead, which is a bit of relief – not much, though. Any casualty today was one too many." He stopped to glance over at Cinder, took in the villainess and the bad state she was in, "Cinder literally only has Neo making it out unscathed, but I don't need to explain why, right? This was her territory."

Yang felt Neo chuckle weakly against her at that, although the madwoman remained the only one amused at that. The only one who could get any amusement out of a situation like that, to be accurate. It was crazy, even for her.

"We're gonna pay them back, right? We're not just letting them get away with this, do we?!" growled the blonde, scowling the way of her boss – and flinched when she felt Neo pull out a particularly big shard, the last of its kind, biting down on her lower lip in an attempt to fight the pain.

"This might leave a scar, Yang – even though it isn't too bad, a few shards did cut rather deep. Just so you know." interrupted Melanie in a somber tone, momentarily reminding the blonde that the blonde, too, was one of the victims that Junior had spoken about, "Neo agrees on that, and sadly, she knows a thing or two about the seriousness of wounds."

As if to add to Melanie's last few words, the mute reached into her jacket and pulled out a curved surgical needle and some thread, smiling as Yang grumbled upon spotting that. Just like they had threatened, her wound needed stitches. And of course, the sadist was the one to take care of them.

Leaving Neo to do her work, figuring it would be over a lot faster if she just let her do whatever she needed to do, the blonde turned back to her boss and the villainess, who had been quiet ever since she had asked her question. Waited, let silence reign, in hope to get an answer out of them. Only flinched once when the mute pushed the needle through her skin for the first time – sucked without anesthesia, sure, but it seemed that this was the one thing that the assassin didn't carry on her when not on a mission.

When a full minute passed and there was still no reaction, she opened her mouth to ask again, but Junior did beat her to it after all, almost as if he had seen her despite having his back turned to them. And what he said surprised her most of them all.

"We will have our revenge."

No sooner than he had said that, he turned around to face them, searching for and making eye contact with Cinder. Whatever it was he meant to deliver with that action, the villainess understood it, acting surprisingly calm considering the situation as she simply took a step back and crossed her arms beneath her chest, humming in irritation.

"I'll contact someone to take of it, starting with the rest of that squad and any investigations towards you and the club. With them called off, we can..." Cinder stopped when she saw Hei lift a hand, the tall man shaking his head once.

"Don't waste any favors on that – I know someone in the Atlesian military that owes me a favor, anyway..." he growled, then reached for the breast pocket of his black west and pulled his red-tinted shades from them to put them on, "...and now, an explanation."

Raising a hand, he waved at one of the mercenaries checking the bodies. The guy quickly understood what was being asked of him and stole the Scroll off a nearby soldier that was resting against a broken table for support after one of Deadb3ar's attacks had broken his legs, ignoring the soldier's protest to deliver the device to his boss.

Junior took it, mouthed a quick 'thanks', and wasted no time in turning the Atlesian Scroll – special model not available for public, probably created specifically for the Atlesian military – on. Wasn't even surprised when the lock-screen showed up and denied him access. Just a minor obstacle for them, he knew that, all it took was to glance up at Cinder to let her know.

"Neo." sighed the villainess, her voice a rasp as exhaustion and her own injuries caught up to her. The assassin in question perked up slightly and, having just finished the stitches on Yang's wound, rolled her eyes and stepped away from her 'patient' even though she would've rather finished her job – the right side of the blonde's face was still coated in the brawler's own congealing blood, the uncomfortable sticky sensation causing her to scowl. Fortunately for her, the tricolored madwoman handed the necessary equipment to Melanie as she passed her, leaving it to Yang's partner to clean the blood up and bandage the brawler's head.

All but dancing over to her boss' acquaintance, she snatched the Scroll from his hands and began to type on it with both of her thumbs in the same fast way that she usually handled her own Scroll, ignoring them all and just waltzing off as if she owned the thing and was just playing some mildly entertaining game on it. That she had just restarted the thing and pulled up the boot menu, altering some code to remove the maximum attempts at entering the security code – a security loophole that had been around for a while and still hadn't been fixed in the new Atlesian model – and was now going through the possible four digit codes at an incredible rate, was something they could only hope to guess.

With the mute assassin walking off to do her thing, meaning that this topic had come to a momentary halt, Yang turned her head a bit to gauge Junior's reaction and to address something else that deeply interested her, connected to the key that Tucker was still holding onto at that moment.

"Now, can someone tell me what the hell is up with all the hidden weaponry we have in here? How the hell did no one tell us yet? How did you keep all of that, well, hidden?"

"Very eloquent, Yang."

"Oh, shut the hell up, Miltia, I'm not in the mood for that right now. I should be knocked the hell out by some anesthetic right now, which I'm not, and I need most of my concentration to block the pain out."

"You know that's not a thing, right? It won't become one if you keep repeating that."

"Miltia, I swear to whatever..."

"Keep it down, you two, there's people who need some rest here. Including you two." interrupted Junior the two at that point, irritation written across his face so blatantly that you didn't even have to see his eyes. "To answer your question, Blondie, the whole thing was Tucker's idea and design, and as you saw even he realized he went too far with it. I was against it for the longest time as you can probably guess, but I am happy now that he eventually convinced me to install it. Never intended I'd ever use it when I did, but I am glad to have it now."

"Told'cha that 'If all those hunters and huntresses can have some object that's also a weapon, some of which is some real crazy stuff, why not have a building that's also a weapon?'... Yeah, that seemed like such a great idea at that time..." sighed the barkeeper from where he sat and was patched up by the other Malachite twin.

Comparing between him and herself, Yang was sure that he was actually worse off. Sure, she had burns and that wound on her forehead, Miltia's claw still in her side, maybe a light concussion, but at least she hadn't been almost torn apart by a mini-gun. Kinda. He had been far away and only a handful of them had actually hit him, and his aura had stopped most of them, but still – you didn't just get up from that and walked away. Tucker hadn't either, although it was catching up to him only now. She could relate to that.

"Literally turned the club into a fortress..." mused the Mistralian man quietly, overcome with the odd sensation of familiarity at the thought. Raven had called it that, too, in her letter to Yang, the 'fortress that the fallen monarch has retreated into'.

There was no way she knew, was there? Not then. She couldn't have.

"Still, is there anything in here that doesn't turn into a weapon when you activate that? Turrets, shockwave generators, flamethrowers, any more of that? Cause I don't think it would shock me anymore after THAT."

"Well..." began Tucker in response to Yang's question, actually managing a dry chuckle and a nervous hum, "Junior was against bottles turning into weapons, but that's about it?" He wasn't going to tell her that about half of the things installed had malfunctioned and just hadn't activated, not directly, at least. Seeing her raise an eyebrow at him and mouth 'Wha-?!' was already enough of a reaction, they didn't need anymore than that at the moment.

"I do have a question about that too, actually. About the defense system, I mean." spoke Ruby up, meekly as though she was afraid that she would interrupt anything important, "How did it only target the soldiers, and not at any mercenary? It completely ignored them. And what did you mean when you told me that 'I would probably be fine out in the open'?"

"As would Miltiades and Cinder have been, as well as Hei. And your sister, too, if it wouldn't be for her hair." clarified the barkeeper, shrugging, almost as if that was enough of an explanation.

"My... hair?"

"Yeah. Too bright." He leaned back so far that he almost fell off the stool he was on and reached through the broken front of one of the liquor cabinets that the brawler had broken during her struggle with the enforcer, pulling out a bottle that survived the mayhem and removing the cork with his teeth. Couldn't do it with his hands, as he was already holding it with one, and Miltia was currently in the middle of putting a sling on his other arm, the one that had taken the most bullets.

Spitting the cork off to the side – it didn't make anything worse, really, barely even noticeable in the mess on the floor – he surprised most of them by taking a long swig right from the bottle, before just turning the bottle on the way down to pour a bit onto his own left leg, not directly onto the large wound there but close to it, hissing as Miltia nodded and began to clean the wound with the spirit.

"Never pour vodka directly onto a wound, kills exposed tissue as well as germs." he chuckled lowly, trying his best to stay focused as Miltia continued, "Before you ask, we don't have anywhere near as much as disinfectant as we need, and there is people who need it more than me. And I've done this shit before. So unless your lil' friend with benefits carries more of the stuff she used on your wound, bombshell, like a keg or something, this'll have to do for the moment until we can establish sufficient medical care for everyone here that needs it."

"I'm not friends with benefits with Neo." scowled the brawler, deadpan.

"Whatever you say." Tucker took another swig from the bottle, then suddenly held it towards her and snickered as she frowned, "Here, take some. Will make it easier to endure." She rose her eyebrow higher. "Go on, take it."

"For me, or for my wound?"

"Both, either, neither – your choice, really."

She hesitated momentarily, alternating between staring at his face and the bottle of the clear liquid he was holding out to her – and, with a huff, accepted it and rose it to her lips to drink from it as well. Screw Miltia, concentrating did make it easier to endure the pain, but a little help couldn't hurt. She was about to reach the legal drinking age, anyway.

"Back to your question, Ruby... Yeah, the defense system doesn't target our own mercenaries." He trailed off when Yang let out a loud hiss upon lowering the bottle, unable to hold back a snicker when she eventually began to cough violently. Had underestimated how strong the stuff was. "What, did you think they're just wearing black to look intimidating? It aims at anything that's brightly colored and has aura. Stops shooting at it when it is out of aura – it's bad enough as it is, want to avoid more casualties than already strictly necessary."

"Funny." growled the brawler between coughs, "Would've probably worked better if you knew where that goddamn key was. I swear, Tucker, if we ever need that thing again and you tell me that you don't know where the hell it is, then...!"

"Calm down, Blondie, you're going to burn down my club. More than it already is..." Junior glanced over his shoulder at the destruction, but quickly turned back to them and shuddered, "Whatever, he learned his lesson. We all did. We'll be better prepared if it ever happens again." He turned his head upon spotting Neo letting out a mute frustrated huff in the distance, grimacing at the device in her hands, "I think we all don't want it to, though..."

Seeing as how he didn't turn back to them, the others followed his gaze to where the mute assassin was staring down at the screen, no longer typing on it. For a second, Yang actually thought that the lunatic had cracked the code and found something she didn't like, but the frustrated stare sent their way told her that she hadn't really made progress – the code wasn't among the highest and lowest combinations, and it wasn't something simple or easy to memorize. It was a random number, most likely generated and given to the owner of the Scroll, rather than something the soldier had come up with himself.

Of course, she could easily have continued until she found the right one, which was entirely possible thanks to her little alteration to exploit the security loophole, but she didn't look like she was willing to go through any more codes. Who could blame her, it were ten thousand possible combinations.

It seemed she had a better idea, though, as she abandoned her pursuit of cracking the Scroll's security as she'd been told to, and instead turned on her heels to just leave. Or, what looked like leaving at first, at least until she reached the soldier that the mercenary had stolen the Scroll from.

Smiling dangerously sweet, she kneeled down in front of him and held the Scroll up, almost as if to ask 'Would you kindly give me the code?' - only that the threat reinforcing it was also looming overhead. And all without a single vocalization.

He didn't react to it at all, staring straight at her. He hadn't seen what she was capable of.

Without a warning, Neo lashed out and curled her hand around his throat, taking him by surprise with both the sudden action and the physical strength her lithe body possessed. She pushed him to the side with her hand, forcing him from his sitting position onto all fours, ignoring it as he screamed out as strain was put onto his broken leg.

Calm as on a stroll through along a forest path, the mute followed him and, ignoring his resistance and pain, grabbed him by the back of the neck, pulling him along like he was an unruly animal. Immediately, he attempted to fight it, to struggle, but ceased as soon as he realized that it only put more strain on his broken leg – all the way to the bar, a bit further down from the rest of the group, he hurried to follow her quick pace on three limbs, and by the time she let go of him and he fell onto his side, he looked ready to scream out and cry. Especially when she stepped onto his hand and broke his fingers.

A second later, he did, as Neo had only let go of him to hop onto the bar and pull out a particular drawer from which she snatched a handful of objects, just for him, after she had set the Scroll down. The first of which was a regular knife that she pulled from the bunch of objects in her right hand, twirling and twisting it in an almost mesmerizing way with her otherwise free hand – before finally catching it upside down, and bringing it down on the soldier's broken leg, stabbing it right through one of the less guarded joints of his armor.

She chuckled mutely as he almost jumped up, screaming his lungs out, but held him down with no more than a finger against his forehead. Number one.

Twisting the knife a bit and watching him bare his teeth, she used her chance to tear at his armor, slowly revealing more of his leg – it had been bleeding before from when it had been broken, his aura depleted, but the stab with the knife had only made it worse. Tilting her head a little, she examined the exposed area on his upper leg. And stabbed it with a second knife, but still required no more than one finger to hold him in place. Such a simple trick. Number two.

Now, she rose her gaze and an eyebrow, staring at his face, Waiting. But he was only sobbing quietly, biting into his lower lip so hard that he had drawn blood. Had she had any voice, she would have huffed at this, he was tougher than she had given him credit for, most of her victims she had done this to would have already spilled the beans at this point – more because they were afraid of what she would still do, rather than because of the pain. And heck, this guy had a broken leg she was doing it to.

A third knife was added to the two already sticking in his leg, more out of morbid curiosity this time than to get any information. Part of her really wanted to see how many knifes she could decorate his leg with before he broke, but she doubted that Cinder was willing to give her as much time as she needed, and figured that Junior could change his mind any second now that he witnessed how she was going to achieve things. She had to step her game up a bit.

Although curious as to what would happen if she were to create a circuit with one of the knifes as an entry and another the exit for electricity – and it was hard for her not to give into curiosity with how limitless her creativity was, offering so many questions – she looked down at the objects she was holding.

It was somewhat sated by seeing his reaction – screaming much louder and dragging his fingers across the smooth floor so hard that, had he not been wearing gloves, he would've definitely broken a nail or two – as she added a fork to the collection of cutlery in his leg. Definitely the reaction she had been hoping for.

Lazily, she pulled another fork from the collection of cutlery in her right hand, smile growing a bit as he twitched noticeably at her action. However, instead of actually using it on him, she simply played with it a bit, twirling it in her hand as she stared at the bar above him, almost as if she was contemplating something. He watched as she scratched her jaw with the blunt side, blinked once and allowed her mismatched eye colors to trade places.

And then brought it down on his leg so hard that he screamed out yet again.

With three knives and two forks in his broken leg, his only vocalizations had been reduced to sobbing and whimpering, and by the time he finally rose his gaze she had already prepared the next fork and was holding it towards him like a sword, but had put all the other cutlery down on the bar, out of his reach. Instead, her own Scroll had replaced the silverware, with her just staring at him as she typed a short message.

When she revealed it to him, it wasn't what he had expected at all. Watching her shake the fork threateningly and the smile vanishing from her lips when he stayed quiet and attempted to read, he understood what she wanted him to do, and swallowed heavily.

"T-this... This is a fork." he forced himself to read aloud, witnessing as the smile returned to her lips, "This fork is... pointy." She wriggled her eyebrows and nodded down to the cutlery embedded in his leg, almost as if to reinforce that statement, "Tell me the code for your Scroll and... everything I want to know... or it'll be up your... aorta in a sec." Her thumb scrolled the message down a bit, "Or do you prefer your carotid?"

Slowly, she tilted her head a bit to the side, that creepy smile growing slightly as the rest of her expression remained the same – happy. Until he shook his head and denied her the cooperation once more. Then, her smile slowly fell. Turned into a frown, disbelief. He chuckled, assured he was the first to have the balls to not give in.

Adding the fork to the ones already in his leg, she reminded him who was in control of the situation, who called the shots. And by the time the pain had subsided enough that he could open his eyes again, the corners of which had become wet, she had already typed out the next message, and was threatening him with... a spoon?

Jabbing him painfully in the chin with the piece of silverware, she nodded to her Scroll, again urging him to read aloud.

"You think you're the first one stupid enough not to cooperate? Think you're brave, and that this would impress me enough to change my mind. Well, where do you think all those guys are now, eh? Pushing up the daisies in some place that no one will ever find what I've left of them, that's right." He glanced towards her face for confirmation, and was rewarded with a terrifying scowl and another nod to the device in her hands, "So here's a thing for ya, smartass. I was going to have mercy and make it fast, but I don't like smartasses. They're 'replaceable'. Bet I can find someone more willing to cooperate among those half-dead bodies of your friends. Someone who is more reasonable, afraid of death. So here's a question for ya." She scrolled further down.

"This is a spoon. This spoon is blunt." At this point, he hesitated, realizing just where she was going with those lines. Dreaded that he was right. Found that he was when he read the last line. "Aorta or... carotid?"

He blanched. Actually attempted to lean out of the way when she jabbed him with the silverware again after putting her Scroll away, which finally returned the smile to her lips. She tried again, actually hitting his jaw this time, and as he leaned to the side, turned the spoon and – a little harder than necessary – let it brush along the side of his neck. Along his carotid.

Instantly, he froze up in his entirety, all muscles – and probably his heart, for just a second – failing him afterward. She had to hand it to him, though, he wasn't some absolute pansy – most of her victims would have wet themselves at this point. Or were dead.

So, she gave it one last try, and with that, him a last chance – she stood up and reached over his head for the bar and grabbed his Scroll, handing him the device calmly. Would she have been able to, she would've added a little 'please', but alas, the mere smile had to suffice.

No surprise, it did, the man – now shaking violently in sheer terror – nodding furiously.

"F-five. Eight. T-t-two. S-seven."

Nodding to herself, she typed along, silently noting to herself that, should the login fail just once, she'd just shove the whole device up his carotid and find someone actually more cooperative. She didn't fail to deliver the threat, lifting one leg to scratch the ankle of the other with it, the sound of the tip of her boot meeting the ground a few times revealing their secret – they were steel-capped. Her smile grew a bit as she saw how he almost fainted at the realization of just how deadly the small woman actually was.

Fortunately for him, it worked just fine on the first try, and she grinned to herself at the success. Done with the terrified and wounded Atlesian, she just tossed the spoon onto him and turned away from him, not caring that he fainted as soon as the danger was over. He wasn't useful anymore, anyway.

On her way back to Yang and Melanie, she passed Junior and tossed the soldier's Scroll back to the Mistralian man, not even meeting his disapproving glare. She had done her job, what did he care how she did it? It only mattered that she got the job done and that he had what he wanted, right?

The end justified the means – both she and Roman lived by that.

Lucky for him, Junior chose to remain silent about it for once – he had already pissed her off once that day when he had denied her her fun, and she had decided that a second time would be bad for him – and left her actions without comment. So as she returned to the older Malachite twin and the older of the half-sisters to see if Melanie was doing her job well, he focused entirely on the soldier's Scroll.

With the lock-screen out of the way now, he could finally do what he had originally meant to – call the first number on speed dial. Didn't take a genius to figure out who'd be the first on speed dial on every Scroll in the Atlesian military, followed by the respective commander and second-in-command. This squad, however, would never have to worry about the second and third numbers anymore.

Unsurprisingly, the call was answered on the second dial tone, the screen changing to show a man roughly the age of Hei, just a tad older, although time had left more of a mark on him than on the Mistralian man, hair starting to turn a silvery-gray on the sides and his face, currently averted to stare at something to the right of the camera, battle-scarred.

Taking a deep breath, Junior glanced up at the villainess and her associates to confirm that they were aware of what was going on, then sent a warning glare the way of Yang and the Malachite twins.

"This better be important." grunted a voice that only Junior's own could surpass in how husky it was from the Scroll's speakers, the owner of which was still not facing the screen, "I'm in the middle of..."

"Pleasure seeing you again as well, James." interrupted Junior, surprising everyone but Cinder as he addressed the general of the Atlesian military by his first name just like that. Even the man on the other end had stopped whatever he had been doing to glance at his own Scroll with a deep inquisitive frown. It was apparent in his eyes just how confused he was, and Hei – although he had neither the time nor the patience after what they'd just been through – knew that he'd have to jog the Atlesian's memory. That, although he would've loved to react like Yang for once – just raising his voice and listing all that had just taken place – it wouldn't get him very far.

"You probably won't remember me as well as I remember you, given it's been a few years. To jog your memory, I was the guy that..."

"...I faced during the Vytal Festival roughly two decades ago, during the 4 on 4 team round. Team SPHR, from Beacon." completed Ironwood to his surprise, although the confusion remained on his part, "It's been almost twenty years now, and although I'm afraid that your name has currently slipped my mind, you'll remember the face of a man with a semblance like yours. The kind of ability that is the very fear of every soldier, and even that of the general of the Atlesian army."

Although he felt the questioning stares from a lot of people in the room, Junior ignored them and simply let out a huff that wasn't meant to signify anything in particular. He was aware that, once this call would be over, he would be bombarded with questions – especially from Yang, who wasn't afraid to say what was on her mind – but he had no intentions of answering them. Not just then. Not when there were more important matters at hand. Story time would have to wait.

"My semblance is hardly special and pales in comparison to nearly every other one out there." he replied after a short while, voice flat. Wasn't even modest or anything – his semblance truly wasn't that out of the ordinary. It wasn't powerful, it wasn't flashy, it had no range at all and he had yet to see one that was simpler than his in its effect.

Back in Beacon, Sarah had often teased him about it, finding new and creative ways to mock it, Roman and others joining in ever so often. Heck, even he himself had done so on occasions, it was just that simple of a semblance that there was no way to blandish it. In the end, they still had relied on it often enough, and although they joked about it ever so often, in battle, they had respect for it.

It wasn't as useful as Cinder's control of fire and had no application in the offense, it didn't help him with everyday occurrences and activities, no use when it came to mobility like Ruby's speed, didn't help with stealth or misdirection like Neo's mirages, and did not affect anyone but himself. It so situational, it might as well really have been a joke.

And yet, it was an ability that could make a difference. The very same that even Ironwood was wary about facing.

It really sounded like a joke. Or perhaps that old riddle about the thing that men love more than life and fear more than death, that the poor had and the rich sought to acquire, the content men desired, misers spent and wastrels saved, and every men carried to his grave – the answer of which was 'nothing'.

His semblance was the next best thing to 'nothing'.

"That may be the case, but it is the inconspicuous abilities that catch you off guard and the sight of which frightens you more than the storm closing in on the horizon." commented the other man finally, then rose his eyebrow a bit higher, "Especially if the effect is that of yours."

"If my ability is all that you remember me by..."

"No, trust me, I remember your face perfectly well, even if it's aged a bit." Ironwood let out a dry chuckle and sank back into his chair, whatever he had been doing abandoned now in favor of the conversation he hadn't been prepared for, "Then again, we all have."

"Time doesn't stop for anyone." agreed the member of what had once been SPHR, taking a step back to rest his lower back against the bar. Although repulsed by the idea of having an almost casual conversation about the past with a man he wouldn't call any more than an acquaintance – not the same kind that Cinder was, he knew her well compared to the Atlesian man – he needed to ease Ironwood into the topic if he wanted to have any success. Hostility would get him nowhere. He wouldn't, however, let Ironwood control the conversation for much longer, either, though. While he was patient – usually way more than in that situation they were in at that moment – Cinder wasn't, and her glare, urging him to get on with it, was unnerving. "I've learned that in the most painful way."

A brief moment of silence overcame the two, Junior waiting for any kind of response, whereas the Atlesian general kept quiet out of concern.

"I do remember that as well." he spoke finally, so evidently full of sympathy that – just like when Ozpin had shown it – it irritated the owner of the club, "And while I didn't get to say it back then, you have my deepest and most sincere condolences for your loss."

"I'm not calling to talk about that." hissed the Mistralian man the same second that Ironwood finished his sentence, huffed in annoyance and shook his head as he continued in a less friendly tone, "Keep your dishonest words for someone who cares. Don't pretend to feel sympathy for a man who you barely know."

"I figured you weren't calling about that." sighed the Atlesian man, sounding tired and calm despite the way he had just been spoken to. Reflected that in his actions as well, leaning his head back and rubbing his eyes. For a second, it looked like he wanted to reach for the strip of metal on his temple, but never actually went through with it. "Given that you somehow gained access to one of my men's Scrolls."

Hei used the chance to glance up to the fire-wielding woman. Both she and her two associates had moved since the last time he had looked up, now sitting at one of the few tables still intact that some mercenaries had carried over for them, having salvaged it and some chairs from the mess that the room was in. With Yang treated, Neo was now working on patching up her boss – more so by Emerald's request than by choice – and Melanie was assisting her. They didn't have much of a choice right then, everyone still able to had to lend a hand, especially cause Cinder's faction couldn't just go to the next hospital or anything.

"That guy is fine, though I can't say that about everyone in that squad. Still, I'd prefer it if someone were to come to pick them up so they stop bleeding all across the floor of my club, where they are currently lying. Bad for business, y'know?" he growled as he turned back to the device in his hands. Meant to leave it at that, but seeing Ironwood's expression, took a deep breath continued, "Questionable methods of your men have led to a bit of an..."

Pausing, he glanced up to where the fallen men of either faction lay all across the room, tended to by anyone with remote medical knowledge. At the damage all around, spent cartridges and shards, and the acrid smell still lingering weakly in the air.

"...'escalation' with my employees." he finished the sentence, directing his attention back to the Scroll, "You should perhaps consider training them better, unless you want to tell me that threatening a harmless teenager with a gun is one of Atlas' new and improved methods of acquiring information. And with 'threatening', I mean shooting at her and only narrowly missing. She's fifteen, if you need to know."

The surprise and shock written across Ironwood's face spoke volumes about how he felt about that bit of information, but Junior wasn't done voicing his disdain. He wouldn't start screaming or anything of the like, he was too in control of himself for such a thing, but he had limits. And while they didn't reflect in actions, they did so in his voice.

That, and the realization that Ruby had barely avoided being hurt that he registered fully only then – suddenly, he could relate to Yang's outburst early into the fight much more – served to make his mood only much worse.

"My employees attempted to protect her, but apparently, your men considered that enough of a provocation or threat to start shooting and laying waste to my club. Not the greatest thing for Atlas' reputation, wouldn't you say? Could say it proved the things people say about you lot on the streets."

Cursing under his breath, the Atlesian general turned away from the screen and Junior watched as the man's head sunk down onto his hands. This wasn't what the general had wanted when he had issued the command for the raid on the club, Hei could tell by that reaction alone, but that didn't change anything. Didn't make all that – the damages, the injured and dead mercenaries and soldiers, the days he wouldn't be able to open his club – go away.

"...Shit." cursed the Atlesian man finally, but still remained turned away, continued to speak to himself, "I know I shouldn't have sent that squad, that's what you get for thinking that androids weren't personal enough for the job. That trigger-happy moron of a commander always..." He stopped, rose his head, silent for a few seconds before he frowned towards the screen, "Wait – you are 'Junior'?"

The owner of the club let out a short grunt of confirmation, shrugging. What else should he do, not feeling up for any long explanations? He just wanted to get this sorted out, the damages and costs he was stuck with, all the soldiers still around, heck, some of the mercenaries that had died had goddamn families that he had to explain this to sooner or later! Had to start somewhere, and this was the best chance to.

"A nickname I go by since my days at Beacon." he sighed, "It was given to me by..."

He cut himself off right there, the name refusing to pass his lips. Couldn't bring himself to say her name. Luckily, Ironwood understood just fine and nodded slowly, although the hostility between them hadn't faded with it. Merely delayed.

"I see. I'm sorry for bringing it back up. Old wounds, while healed, easily open up again, if..."

"I don't need your pity, I told you already."

"It is not pity as much as it is the solidarity of a man who has suffered equal loss."

Junior couldn't help it, he barked in laughter after hearing those words. Those empty words, hollow from the moment that they had left the Atlesian general's mouth. 'Suffered equal loss'? What did he lose that he thought was equal to what Hei and the rest of SPHR had gone through, what had torn them apart in mere days and left them scarred for years?

When Raven said that she could relate, he could believe it. When Cinder said it, he could as well. Heck, even if Qrow – should they ever cross paths again – would tell him that, he would believe it without a second thought. They, too, had experienced the loss of having someone taken from the center of their world, torn from their heart, left with a gaping hole that could never be filled again. Summer Rose, dear to all, forever gone. Taiyang, lover to Raven and like a brother to Qrow, gone with her.

As for Ironwood? As if.

"You're spending too much time hanging around that old man Ozpin, Ironwood." accused the Mistralian man with the growl that his laughter ended in. Ignored it as the stares of the others once more turned to him, most confused, but that of Cinder questioning. He hadn't told her he'd been in contact with Beacon's headmaster again after all those years. Would have to change that now, there was no way she would let that comment go without questioning it.

"And apparently, you with Roman Torchwick." shot Ironwood back, but still remained surprisingly civil. He had leaned back towards his desk and interlaced his fingers, resting his lower face against them and hiding his mouth, but Hei didn't need to see it to know that the other man was now interrogating him, no longer 'talking to an old acquaintance'. The general's stern stare gave it away.

Junior had him right where he wanted him now.

"I have no connections to him anymore, other than that he's been seen close to my club. And if I recall right, that rat has been seen all over Vale, stealing Dust from under everyone's nose." he answered, knowing that Ironwood could be reasoned with unlike the Atlesian squad's commander – and lied to. Reasonable people were so much more gullible.

Just try and lie to Neo – there was no bullshitting her. The lunatic, paranoid and unreasonable as she was, believed the truth as much as she believed any blatant lie. Not at all, that was. Not until she had assured herself of what she'd been told. Until then, she'd remain wary.

He wouldn't say that reasonable people were stupid or anything of the like. At least they were mostly trustworthy and reliable. Neo, on the other hand? Her profession aside, he still wouldn't trust her an inch or turn his back to her without precautions. Couldn't blame Yang if she did, wouldn't tell her he told her so if Neo ended up stabbing her in the back – maybe literally – one day, but wouldn't be surprised either. If he was wrong, he'd gladly accept it, however.

"Look, I don't know what Roman has been doing close to, or maybe even inside, my club, and I honestly don't give a shit as long as it doesn't involve me and doesn't get me into trouble. Which, quite obviously, it now has." Lifting his Scroll and turning it around – making sure that neither Cinder's faction, nor the two pairs of sisters ever showed up on screen, covering up the camera for that time – he showed the general the state that his club was now in, the men scattered across the floor, then turned it back to face him.

"He's screwed us both over now, are you happy? Cause I'm not, and I don't take too kindly to this. I just try to to live a normal life nowadays and try to run a legal business. I'm done being a hunter and I'm done with my past. I don't give a shit about Roman anymore, not that I ever have." he stopped momentarily to glance around, making sure that his expression didn't give away that he was lying for the most part, "To show you that I mean it, I fully cooperate with you from now on. I give you full insight on my business and all my contacts – just make sure not to send some trigger-happy morons again. Also, let's keep this civil, there's no need for another raid."

During the silence that followed, Ironwood no doubt contemplating this offer, Junior reciprocated Ruby's gaze. He saw the uncertainty in it, no doubt she was wondering if he meant what he was saying, but he couldn't tell her at that moment. Not with Ironwood still listening.

Hearing the general move in his chair, Junior turned back to the Scroll and rose an eyebrow, finding that Ironwood was doing the same. Justified. Just because he was more reasonable didn't mean that he was stupid or trusting just about anything and anyone. It was just easier to convince him of something if approached correctly. Talked into something.

"Alright." agreed the general finally, but continued immediately in a stern tone, "But I'll expect you to answer some questions. Keep the Scroll you have right now, I'll call you back later. Expect someone to show up later tonight to assess the damages and retrieve the remains of the squad still at your location. Don't worry, it'll be a squad I trust fully and who has yet to disappoint me. As long as you cooperate, they will fully cooperate with you as well. If you see it to be necessary, you may ask them to leave their weaponry at the entrance." Ironwood leaned back into his chair and closed his eyes, "Think of it as my way to express my sincere apologies for what has happened."

"Apologies won't bring my men back, and they won't explain their deaths to their families."

"Of course." growled the Atlesian man, nodding, "We will be taking care of that, too – this is fully my fault. I should have never sent that squad in particular. Should've disbanded them when they first stepped out of line, when they first went rogue. I'm sorry that it had to be a shootout with your men that ended this."

Junior didn't say anything, he just huffed. There was nothing left to say, not then. Ironwood seemed to feel that as well, merely nodding when Hei stayed silent, and turned to someone off screen that Junior couldn't see. He mouthed something to that person – Junior didn't bother trying to read his lips – and ultimately let out a deep sigh.

"They will leave immediately. Rest assured, I'll take full responsibility of what has happened today."

"You better." snarled Junior in a way that Ruby had never heard from him before, "I'll expect your call. There is nothing left to say for now."

Junior didn't bother waiting for the Atlesian general's reaction, he ended the call on his terms, just like he had started it. He closed the Scroll and slipped the device into his pocket after removing the batteries – just to make sure that they wouldn't be disturbed or, worse, listened to, which wasn't completely out of question with a device made by Atlas – then wasted no time in turning to the Malachite twins.

"Melanie, have someone go to my office immediately and remove any documents connecting us to the White Fang, Cinder and our mercenary business. This includes any and all traces of Ruby and Yang, including their contracts. Gather all of these and bring them here." Junior turned his head and glanced Cinder's way, "I'm sure Cinder won't mind hiding these until this is over, right?"

The villainess nodded, and although she originally meant to comment on it, decided against it and just kept quiet for the moment to listen and see what her old acquaintance had in mind. Although momentarily distracted by Melanie when the Malachite in white began to pass the instructions via radio, she ultimately didn't pay her too much mind.

"Yang, Ruby, it would be for the better if you stay elsewhere tonight. At least until Ironwood's guys are gone again. Go with Cinder, she'll have a place for you to stay for now – has to brief you on that mission she has, anyway."

"Of course." agreed Cinder, her voice having recovered somewhat by then after it had failed her earlier, "I was planning on something like this, anyway, even before all of this happened. Grab what you need for tonight, we'll come back tomorrow to retrieve whatever you need for the mission."

Both Ruby and – after a few seconds of hesitation – Yang agreed with a nod, the blonde meaning to get up from her stool immediately to do so, but was interrupted by Melanie pushing her back down, shaking her head as she was still giving the mercenaries instructions, which she returned to after she was assured that her partner had understood.

Neo, by then done with Cinder's wounds and having moved on to Mercury – again, on Emerald's command, the thief assuring her that she didn't need medical attention as bad as others – watched them as she pulled a bullet out of her associate's arm with the tweezers she had cleaned and disinfected, not even caring that she wasn't exactly gentle and he in pain. Screams were just proof that someone was still alive, and it either meant she was doing her job right or wrong. Generally never because she was doing it wrong.

Not that she could do much for him to begin with, not with his biggest problem being his prosthetic legs, which she could do nothing about. While she did tinker a lot, she wasn't exactly versed in how prosthetic limbs worked, especially if they were actually in use and connected to their user's neural system. Damage could be permanent if one just tinkered on it.

Modify them? Add augments? Yeah, she could do that. But that was about it. She didn't have any of the necessary tools with her, anyway. Mercury would have to fix his legs himself. He probably had whatever he needed on him.

Her gaze traveling from one to the other, she pondered what this all would end in, and whether or not it was good or bad for her – could either mean more or less jobs. Wasn't sure with which she was actually hoping for. More jobs meant more payment and fun, less jobs on the other hand meant that she had more time to spend on her own projects, which they were in dire need of. It wasn't like her boss wouldn't profit from it, either, she was still working on that thing to use against Paladins, and the way things were turning out, it looked like they would need it soon. Very soon.

"Does this mean we're not actually going to cooperate with Atlas?" asked Ruby finally when she figured that no one was going to say anything else, the question that Junior had been waiting for ever since he had seen her reaction to his conversation with Ironwood, "What about Roman?"

"We won't actually work with them, we just have them think we do to turn the attention away from us. Maybe they'll even think they have found allies in us and would tell them if we ever saw White Fang or anything. What we obviously won't, either." he trailed off to shrug, showing just how little he cared what Atlas thought they had found in them, "About Roman, I don't know, but I'm sure that Cinder already has a plan, and that it might just be what she came here to hire you for."

Of course it was, neither of them even felt like there was any need to confirm it. And although she knew that it was also a hint for her to tell them what she had planned, Cinder instead kept quiet – how tense Hei was at that moment was worrying her. He had never been a talkative one and rarely ever spoke about what he felt at the moment, but this kind of behavior was off, even for him. He didn't even acknowledge it as Neo walked past him, having finished treating Mercury's wounds and ignored Emerald – after she had denied needing help twice, Neo figured she could bear her injuries another minute or two – for the moment, instead kept staring at the damage done to his club.

A curse suddenly escaped the Mistralian man, one he didn't even bother biting back or hiding. Then, unexpectedly, he glared the way of the head of his security, Melanie flinching noticeably at the intensity of it.

"You just had to jinx it, did'cha Melanie? Eventful of a night enough for you?" he barked, and although she knew he didn't mean it, she sighed and blushed, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable and awkward. This was, in fact, not what she had been hoping for. "Tonight's party is canceled, it seems. Everyone who is still able to, please help cleaning up the mess here – I'll take care of the official side, going to be messy as well. Going to join ya once that is done."

With that, he left them standing there, growling under his breath as he waltzed towards the bar, each of his heavy steps accompanied by the crunching sound of shards beneath his boots. He did stop one last time, however, turning back to the room.

"Prioritize tending to the wounded over cleaning up – no matter which side they're on. Move everyone who is still able to over to a clean area, preferably our own men separate from the soldiers to avoid further conflicts." He paused expression contorting in such a way that he might as well have a horribly sour taste in his mouth, "Atlas better pays for the shit they've caused here."

"They will." assured Cinder him, standing up and leaving her place at the table behind. Finally changing her outfit back into the red dress – Ruby always found herself amazed at the power of Dust woven into cloth – she quickly approached Junior on her side of the bar, which once again stopped him from leaving, his hand already on the handle when he frowned through his tinted shades at her. "I know some people who'll help you with the insurance." His eyebrow rose higher, and she rolled her eyes. "Of course they're shady – do I look like I'm friends with some lawful pricks?"

Whatever Junior's reaction was past a grunt of acceptance and opening the door, Ruby didn't know, although she did hear the door close behind him and Cinder, as Neo made her return that moment, continuing to ignore Emerald and her wounds even when the thief called for her. What surprised Ruby the most was that the assassin approached her in particular, rather than going back to Yang or the other members of MMRY, who she seemed to be closer to.

When she saw what the woman was carrying in her hands, however, she quickly caught on, especially when she saw Neo's look of sympathy. Wordlessly, she accepted the broken and mangled remains of the weapon she had grown to like, the lower half of it missing entirely after it had exploded and taken the last clip along. She was extra careful as she turned it to examine the damage, avoiding to touch the sharp edges of where the weapon bent all around the large hole in the bottom.

Feeling Neo's gaze still on her, she looked up and met the mismatched eyes of the weapon's creator – and sighed when she saw Neo shake her head. Busted for good, even the lunatic wouldn't be able to fix it now. Considering it had been a small surprise that the weapon had even lasted this long, having been built with resources of medium quality – whatever Neo had been able to gather in one night – and a single mission in mind, Ruby wasn't even that surprised to hear that it was even beyond the creator's capability to repair it.

All she was left with was that curved sword that had once been part of it, which Neo once again confirmed the young mercenary should keep. Whatever she would do with it, Ruby didn't know, not then – and whatever weapon she would use on the mission Cinder was about to send them on, she didn't either. A long mission, too, and all she had left was a regular curved blade with too short of a handle for using it alone all the time.

"Guess our job is done here."

Hearing Emerald say that all of a sudden, the young mercenary lifted her gaze and frowned over at the two associates of Cinder that had been left at that table. With a groan of pain, Emerald – who, by then, had persuaded Melanie to have a look at her wounds – pushed herself up and rounded the table to help Mercury onto his feet, and then simply started hobbling off with him.

"Hey, what the hell?" called Yang after them, jumping out of her own seat – perhaps a bit too fast, considering her reaction to the movement – to make a step into their direction. She stopped when Emerald and Mercury did, the thief and her partner just glancing over their shoulders at her, and scowled. "You're going to leave, just like this? How about moving your lazy asses to help, huh? Mercury may not be able to walk, sure, but you, Em, do look like...!"

"What do we look like, huh?" interrupted the thief and rose an eyebrow at the brawler and her team, then chuckled and shared a glance with her partner, "Garbage collectors? Hell, no, this is your mess, clean it up yourself – I'm going to move my 'lazy bum' and get Mercury back to the hideout so that he can fix his legs. As much as I don't like saying it, but we need him and his heavy slippers. Maybe we'll come back and help when he's done, I've rested and Cinder tells us to."

"But...!" Whatever Yang wanted to say, she backed down and groaned when the two just ignored her and started hobbling off again – even she realized there was no point in trying any further. Which didn't stop her from giving Emerald and Mercury the finger all the way to the door behind the bar – leaving through the blockaded hidden doorway would've been too much of a problem with Mercury's damaged legs and Emerald's own injuries - behind their backs, lowering her hand only when the door had closed behind them.

With a heavy sigh of defeat, Yang slumped her shoulders and leaned her head to the side, glancing Neo's way pleadingly – and the lunatic pretty much reflected her reaction, slumping her shoulders herself and sighing mutely. And yet – giving Ruby a last sympathetic smile – set into motion towards a group of wounded mercenaries to make use of her medical knowledge to help.

Had anyone of Cinder's faction seen it, they would've actually been shocked at the power that the blonde had over the assassin.

Without saying any word, now left alone at the bar with Tucker, the members of MMRY turned towards another, exchanging their opinions and concerned questions about each other's states in silence. Couldn't say which of them was in the best state, but agreed unanimously that Yang was off the worst. And that neither of them had made it out unscathed, either.

Considering the kind of number of enemies they had been up against, the disadvantage they had been at from the very beginning, neither of them was surprised or mad. Yang, for her part, would've been mad had this been their first mission as a team and it would've ended this way against an enemy less at advantage than the Atlesian military, and she knew that Melanie pretty much felt the same. Couldn't say the same about Miltia or Ruby, but the Malachite was hard to read anyway, and her own half-sister less pessimistic than either of them.

The team's little moment was interrupted when the door on the other side of the bar opened again and Cinder emerged without either her associates or Hei. If she was still feeling her wounds, she didn't show it, but considering that no one could recover in such a short time, not from all of this, she was merely good at keeping up an act. Real good, even Yang had to admit that.

The villainess, leaving the area behind the bar behind, didn't seem as upset as before anymore, although far from content as well. What exactly she was feeling at that moment was hard to say for anyone but herself, and she didn't exactly look eager to share either, which kept even Ruby from asking as their ashen-haired client approached.

"Don't worry about your home, Junior is on it right now, and I'll call in a few favors to help out as well. I would hate it to lose this place and its services, it's too valuable for me. We should have it running again in no time." began the woman as she drew close, "As for now, we need you to focus on that mission ahead, however – Junior and I have agreed that it's for the best."

"Oh, have you?" huffed Yang and stepped forward, "Cuz I don't see it helping the club if we go on a long mission for you now. In fact, I don't see it helping anyone but you. As far as I remember, we're getting your ass out of some trouble, and I'd much rather stay and help rebuilding my own home."

"I assure you, this is in your interest. I won't deny that it would help me greatly and save me and my associates primarily, and while I am one of your greatest clients and this problem I am in does threaten you as well as you've just witnessed...!" Cinder stopped to gesture to the rest of the room, actually shutting Yang up effectively that way, "...there is more to this than you can see right now. Far more than you can, Yang, things behind the scenes that you just don't know about yet. One day, you will, and then you will understand why I am acting like this. Why Junior agrees on me with this. But right now, you're not ready, and trust me, I absolutely hate that I have to ask you to go on this mission for us, when I would rather prepare you slowly."

When Yang stayed quiet this time, the ashen-haired villainess took a deep breath to calm herself and closed her eyes momentarily. Just for a moment, the act had been broken, the mask removed, she had lost control of herself for the moment.

'This is not Raven that you are talking with, Cinder, stop treating her like she is.' she had to tell herself in her mind, biting back a curse. It was so easy to forget when the blonde brawler got angry and her eyes turned the same shade of red as those of her mother, they were so alike in how unreasonable they were when angry, how stubborn they got and how they lashed out both verbally and physically.

"Look, I know we've had our differences, Yang, and I very well aware that I am at fault for most of those, if not all. If you'd allow me to, I'd reconcile with you and we start over – I know you have little trust me, but I trust you. A lot." spoke Cinder slow and calm, "But now is not the time for that either, I suppose. So let me give you a new motivation for this mission."

"And what would that be?" inquired Melanie in Yang's stead, revealing that she was almost as skeptical about going on a mission at such a time. To her surprise, Cinder nodded slowly and took a step back, her gaze moving to the Malachite in white for only a second before returning to the brawler. Almost as if this was primarily directed at her.

"Revenge."

"Explain."

Yang had responded faster than anyone else, barely waiting for Cinder to finish the one word. The villainess seemed to have anticipated this, nodding again, before reaching for her Scroll and turning it on.

"Let me be direct about this – as you've just learned, Roman was hunted down and captured last night. This is how they found you, this is how they'll eventually find me and how we're connected, this is how they'll possibly even find the White Fang." Cinder stopped and typed something on her Scroll, and only a second later, all four of MMRY's Scrolls rang, "What I want you to do is gather intel for me – where they keep him, who and what is guarding him, how we get to him, if stealth is an option, escape routes, everything. The ultimate goal of the mission is to get Roman out of there safely..." she hesitated, "...or – and please believe when I say I don't really consider this an option – 'ensure' that they will never get the information from him."

She closed her eyes and rose a hand to rub her temples, taking a deep breath.

"Roman might not look like it, but he's tough and can endure a lot, even torture or the prospect of death would not make him talk. He considers treason and tattling to be the absolutely worst things one can do, and I trust that he would never willingly betray anyone to save his own hide. But he's also still human, and a human can only take so much. And with all that's been happening behind the scenes, even I don't know what Atlas – or anyone, for that matter – would be capable of. How far they'd go."

Silence fell over them as Cinder stopped talking, only the sounds of the mercenaries cleaning up and treating the wounded could be heard. In all of this, Neo took the moment to look up from the man whose side she was bandaging, frowning over to the four girls and her boss, mismatched eyes shifting from one side to the other in wonder.

"We'll talk about this in detail later, when we're at my place and things have calmed down a bit." The villainess met her associate's gaze for a moment, then took a deep breath and frowned at MMRY, "But there is only one way to find out where exactly Roman is held."

She gestured towards Ruby's Scroll and the four understood, each taking out their Scroll and unlocking it to have a look at the message that the ashen-haired woman had sent them. It was a simple picture, what it depicted familiar to all four of them, although not from this angle and not at the time that picture had been taken.

Almost twenty years, that was how old that picture was. Cinder's final words seemed to be spoken from so far away all of a sudden.

"I need you to infiltrate Beacon Academy for me."

And there we have it, the end of arc 2 of Dreams Crushed!

I got to admit, arc 2 was an interesting thing for me to write, to explore a few scenarios, and arc 3 isn't going to change that – but at the same time, will change a few things, to explore new scenarios and new experiences. That this story is rated M now has nothing to do with it, I haven't changed anything about the plot since deciding to bump this up to M.

On to some notes?

Something I'd like to talk about is Yang, and more specifically, her fighting style. So Yang's combat in DC AU is currently slower than the last time we've seen her in canon – much like it was earlier in canon, Yang is still relying a lot on her semblance and is obsessed with actually dealing as much damage as possible in one blow. So for anyone wondering: I had the same intention as canon did, apparently, starting off slow and slowly having her learn. Arslan was one step in this, but there will be more to come, especially in the coming arc. So will others, by the way.

One of Yang's biggest problems in this AU is the lack of self-control that she has – she never learned how to handle her semblance and the problems that come with it, and it continually gets the better of her whenever she gets angry. That's not to say that it'll remain like that, but like I said – without Taiyang, and due to different influences, she grows a lot slower and into something different. My ultimate goal is for her to learn how to better handle herself – but how she'll do that will for now remain a secret.

Speaking of secrets – I don't want to make a secret out of it: Arc 3 will have shorter chapters than before (I estimate 20k – 30k, instead of 30k – 50k as it was now) with more plot-focused content and more interaction, and less fights (still staying true to the style so far, however). That's not to say that it won't contain any longer chapters or action scenes, however, so worry not.

And since we're touching on worries already – no, this is about it when it comes to notes, there is so much in this chapter, and so much speaks for itself or was explained by the chapter itself or earlier chapters, I don't think I need to talk about anything really.

Maybe mention that I tried not to focus only on the fight, but also get some characterization done. Lots of thoughts from the characters about their actions and the situation, lot of reflection in between, some interaction during the fight. Did anyone notice there was a lot of people working together or supporting another? Emerald and Mercury, Yang and Melanie, Yang and Neo, Yang and Melanie and Neo, Ruby and Cinder, and so on?

Well, I do suppose that there are a few things I could talk about, and I bet that it is the same things you'd still like to know and do have questions about, but really, not gonna tell. That's something for the future. Like, next arc, maybe? *wink* Wonder which characters I'll introduce that we've still been missing from a certain team.

Anyone else feel this 'cold' chill just now?

So thank you for anyone who's followed to this point, not just Jupitermonkey4 (although I think he deserves a special mention), and I really hope you'll stick around for more when we continue with arc 3 – there's so much I've got planned for that and what's beyond it, and we're still so early into the bigger picture that'll paint itself later into the story.

Now, to anyone who read this far or actually noticed the scroll bar still had a good chunk left – here's Dreams Crushed's version of a "post-credits scene"... I mean, an arc here is like a volume, eh? And I figured I'd leave something special for anyone who's attentive enough... Hehehe.

Suppressing her non-vocal version of a sigh, Neo rose a hand to her right temple and shook her head, relaxing at the sound of the hidden doorway closing behind her. She knew Yang would be mad once she figured out that the lunatic had broken her promise and sneaked off when nobody had been looking – really, though, the blonde should know better than to make a promise with a criminal and a mute (she had never actually actively said that she promised she'd stick around and help, and hadn't written it down anywhere, so there was technically no promise to hold her by...), and think it would be kept.

Besides, although she was technically their little organization's 'cleaner', it didn't mean she had to like doing it. It was just as irritating, disgusting and headache-inducing as it was for anyone else. Yes, when in the rush of things, she rather enjoyed the mess, but once she calmed down, she'd rather not be anywhere close to stuff like that. She simply did the whole 'cleaner' job because of three things: First, she knew how to do it and what to look for when getting rid of evidence, and to set up things to look like an accident. Second, most of the time, it were her messes, her consequences. And third, she was getting paid for it. Extra.

And, well, this time, it was neither of the latter two. So what really had Yang been expecting? From a criminal, a notorious liar, a lunatic who fully embraced her insanity and bloodlust? Who cheated, deceived and manipulated for her own benefit and advantages at every corner, jumped at every possible opportunity for those?

Yeah, as mature as she looked and acted, and maybe was – a pleasant shiver went down Neo's spine at the implications of that, and the direction her thoughts took her – Yang's naivety was that of a child at times. 'Promises are made to be kept'? Ha! Promises are made to be broken, like rules were, and people – welcome to the real world.

She supposed that they did have that in common, though, Yang and her, that they had been forced to grow up way too quickly – although in different, and yet so similar ways. But, where Yang had kept some, even if by itself relatively little, trust for the world, Neo had learned to never fully trust anyone. Not even yourself. Especially not your own initial judgment.

Sleep with one eye open, even if you are by yourself – especially then. Paranoia distances you even further from the 'normal person', but it also kept you safe, always on your toes and prepared for even the unlikeliest scenarios. There's never any 'too detailed' or 'unnecessary information', especially against someone who might potentially not be a 'friend'. If you want to have anything done, do it yourself. If you fail then, you have no one to blame but yourself. You never have anyone to blame but yourself, anyway, because otherwise, it meant that you trusted someone, and trust is something foolish to give.

Yeah, rules overlapped, but they made sense by doing it. At least in Neo's eyes.

Some awkward cross between a smile and a frown found its way onto the assassin's face at the weird direction her train of thoughts was taking, and she decided to dismiss it altogether while pulling up her newest 'trophy' to lazily rest it against her shoulder.

Cold metal rested against her cheek, which had her – silently, as everything else she did – admit that she already missed the warmth and the smell that had made her fall in love with this thing. Soon enough, however, she'd get to use it again, and then this pleasantly unbearable heat would once more seethe beneath her fingers, and the stench of burnt gunpowder would once again fill the air and her nostrils.

Besides, not like that poor moron would miss it, right? She had heard that the dead mourn after things they left back in life, but it wasn't like she believed any of that. Plus, she'd like to see him try and get this beautiful piece of weaponry that she had way more use for than him, that she appreciated more than he ever did in the short time since she had ripped it from his hands, back. Had to be hard when you're missing both eyes, have several broken ribs, a cracked spine, and a hole the size of her hand through your head.

She could always add one more, too. With this thing she now had, two barrels and a pump-action mechanism full of destruction, that ought to stop even an undead. Not that such a thing existed, anyway. And this was coming from a paranoiac who considered even the most unlikely of events.

The part of her expression that resembled a frown slowly left, the awkward expression shifting until only the mad smile was left, her lunacy and sadistic glee apparent in her mismatched eyes. Yang was a fool for making promises with her, a dishonest woman. But these Atlesians – really, anyone who crossed her – they were morons, braindead, for taking bets with her, the sanguinary madwoman with the lack of mercy and compassion.

Oh, she could spend hours laughing at their stupidity, at the idiocy! At how it always ended the same – people dead, her laughing, another trophy to call her own.

Those few who survived an encounter with her when she was fully giving into her madness – big surprise, nearly all of them were allies – and didn't find some morbid fascination with how adept she was at killing, they started to call her names. Grimm wearing the skin of a human. Demon. Even devil.

And maybe they weren't so wrong either – whoever was stupid enough to make a deal with her was going to be pulled over the barrel one way or another. If not then, there was no guarantee someone else didn't want them dead by dawn, and Neo was more than willing to offer her services.

Cause although she never talked about past clients or jobs – first rule of an assassin, kept you sane if you had any sanity left to lose, and avoided awkwardness or danger with following clients – it didn't mean that she had any remorse when a former client became a target. Actually, it sometimes helped, if such a client was stupid enough to trust her past an assignment.

Cinder Fall – and by extension, Roman Torchwick – was the first person who she ever came across who was no such fool. Any danger for herself, she ruled out in the contract, including that the assassin took any other jobs while working for her – a bit of a gamble that Neo had accepted these terms, she was well aware of that, as she had never before worked for one client exclusively and over such a long time. That, and she usually set the terms for a contract, not the other way around. Too dangerous, too exploitable.

Why exactly she had accepted, she was still unsure – maybe it was Cinder's ability to persuade anyone, sweet-talking people into something. Maybe it was her slight addiction with gambling and taking risks. The rush of it.

Any employment before that had been different – meeting the client and getting info on her target (or, quite uncommon, targets), monitoring her target for a few days to find out their daily routine and habits as to know when to strike and how to make it look like an accident or how to turn the blame away from her and her employer, then the infiltration if necessary, the assassination, cleaning up after herself, the short period until her client got the confirmation that the target was dead, then payment. And then, it was over. No one wanted her around any longer than necessary. Being employed twice by one person was rare.

But Cinder wanted her longer than that. Cinder wanted her around, wanted her to be always ready, and that for more than just assassinations, which were Neo's forte. The villainess wanted to make use of all her skills, and she wanted to ensure that Neo would not turn on her and would not be distracted by another job.

And heck, Cinder even made sure that Neo knew that she was ready to pay quite a sum to keep Neo's services exclusive for herself.

And though aware of the risk, the lunatic accepted, and stuck to the terms of the contract – as long as Cinder would, which she loved to remind the fire-wielding woman of. As long as Cinder would keep her end of the deal, and that nice amount of money ended up on her untraceable account by the end of each month – with extra pay for additional jobs that Cinder sent her on, including the one or other 'cleaner' job – everything was fine, and Neo would keep working for her, and her alone, and Cinder would be safe. From Neo, at least.

Neo didn't do bodyguard jobs, they were obnoxious and required keeping someone alive rather than the opposite. So she didn't do them. Not unless she was being paid quite the extra sum.

She was an assassin, not a common mercenary.

The waft of a strange and gross smell, nauseating, pulled her back into reality. Repulsed by it, she felt her face scrunch up and rose her hand up to cover her nose – considering what she had worked with in the past, corpses and crime scenes being the least disgusting of them, she found even herself surprised and glanced into the direction the intrusive stench came from. Immediately explained everything.

Only one smell could disgust her like this, and it was exactly that.

There, crumpled up against the wall, lay the burnt remains of the Atlesian woman that Yang had set ablaze by accident. Now, with the alcohol all burnt away, only the orange glow of the last dying embers upon it, the true consequences were revealed. Skin charred-black, helmet missing and hair reduced to dried up strings, left leg and right wrist bent at an inhumanly odd angle, and pristine white armor broken and covered in ash and soot – 'remains' really was the perfect way to put it.

Uncomfortable with the sight of the incinerated corpse, Neo turned her gaze away, shuddered, both at another waft and at the sight of the helmet the woman must've torn off and discarded only a few feet away. Burnt flesh – really the only smell, or rather stench, that could break through her reserve. There were worse out there, sure, but that one always got to her on a personal level.

Having half a mind to just leave the body for someone else to clean up – hell, this one was Yang's mess – the lunatic set into motion again. Just a step, then found herself unable to make another at the thought that Yang had, unwillingly and unknowingly, killed again. Back there, in the main room, there were too many bodies – both alive and dead – to tell who had done what to whom, especially with how similar some of the effects of the weapons were. For all she knew, Yang might've – even if unlikely in all that chaos – not killed anyone, and even if, couldn't tell. Her conscience would be far from clean, but had nothing concrete to go by when it came to committed murder.

This one, though, was definitely Yang's work. They all had seen it, the burning body flying through the room, above the heads of everyone, before it – along with the chandelier – had come crashing down. Discovering the corpse would be clear evidence of what Yang had really done.

If there was a body to discover, that was, although what this meant for herself had Neo gag. The things she did for Yang, to ensure that the brawler was eased into this darker side of the world, and not thrown into it like she had been.

At least covering this up would be easy – if there was no body to be found, and this one stood out like a sore thumb thanks to how its cause of death was vastly different from any other, one would at least question if she actually died. And if no news of a charred body found in the streets close to the club would show up in a few days, it would lead to the assumption that the woman survived being burnt alive. Somehow. And if that still wasn't enough, she surely could manipulate Yang into believing it.

The things she did.

Cursing mentally – not that she could do so aloud – the assassin took a step back and turned to the burnt corpse once more, one hand already going for a hidden pocket on the inside of her jacket that she always kept some equipment for cleaning after herself in, just to be sure. It wasn't really any of that which she needed at the moment, but the surgical mask she kept in there as well – not that it would help much, but it would at least somewhat stop the stench and thus make it easier for her.

Yet, as she closed in on the body and kneeled down in front of it, putting her new trophy down on the ground next to her, she still had to suppress a gag the moment that the stench of burnt flesh got unbearable even through the mask.

A quick glance to the hidden doorway confirmed that she was still alone, which was essential at that moment – while not too long since it was only one body, she needed a few minutes. Alone. Luckily, the club was still quite a bit away from opening, something it definitely wouldn't do that night anyway, meaning she didn't have anything to worry about from the other direction.

With her mind now on getting rid of the evidence, the small assassin quickly assessed what she was working with – one body, whatever she had dropped – the helmet, splinters from the broken armor, some puddles of molten pieces of it, stuff like that – and a faint track of blood and soot leading from the hidden doorway to the remains of what had once been that female soldier.

After she had stumbled through the doorway in panic while trying to put out the fire, she must've fallen over and, in the excruciating pain of being burnt alive, have dragged herself to the foot of the wall with her last bit of strength – Neo could see it quite vividly in front of her inner eye.

Drenched in alcohol, the famous 'stop, drop and roll' had little effect, other than spreading the fire a bit over the floor with the alcohol on you.

Turning back to the remains of the woman, Neo winced – up close, it looked even worse. Didn't have to have medical knowledge to see that the burns were second, third, and, some places, even of the less known fourth degree – going as deep as muscle, tendons and even bone. Explained why the stench was that bad.

Made cleaning up a bit harder than she initially thought, but still far from impossible as long as she had enough time.

Reaching into her jacket again, she mentally went through what equipment she had with her – it wasn't much compared to what she usually took with her on missions, but it would work. Least complicated about this would be getting rid of the body thanks to her semblance – she'd literally pick it up and carry it somewhere she could get rid of it through the busy streets, remaining unseen – and if she managed to get her hands on some water, she could dilute the small amount of detergents she had on her enough to clean the whole mess before anyone noticed.

All she had to do was move the body first and carefully put it somewhere that it wouldn't leave stains – luckily, she carried a small blanket, folded up neatly and hidden with the rest of her equipment in her jacket, on her for that. Only downside – and admittedly, she was just as finicky as Roman with that – her white jacket would get dirty.

She'd have to carry that body for an unknown and definitely not short amount of time through the streets in that downpour, anyway. Plus, it didn't really matter, she'd have to clean her jacket one way or another, as it was stained with the blood of that commander. And possibly more, she didn't stop to check.

Pulling her hand back out of the hidden pocket without removing anything from it just yet, she mentally braced for the worst part of this – well, save for when she would have to carry the remains of what had once been a fully grown woman through Vale. That was going to be hard enough considering her small body size and physical strength, even worse with the smell and the gross feeling of that burnt flesh under her fingers. Made her glad she was wearing gloves, although they'd require being cleaned as well afterward.

Again, the things she'd do.

She gave the limp body a once-over, assessing its height and mass, based on which she'd place her hands to pick it up – if you didn't have the necessary strength, you had to rely on small tricks, and this was one of it. Scowling, she moved her hands forward, one going for the woman's waist, the other one slowly hovering in as Neo figured out the ideal spot.

She narrowed her eyes and held back the urge to gag again as a particularly strong waft of the stench made it through the mask.

That was when she noticed the vivid sky blue eyes looking directly at her.

Before she had a chance to react – and that meant something, considering she was a paranoiac and that she and Roman had reflexes that verged on inhuman – a hand curled around her wrist and pulled her towards the charred corpse.

A corpse, now staring at her from sunken eyes, through disfigured and molten eyelids, surrounded by deformed flesh and skin that was black with soot and scarlet with blood.

Corpses didn't stare.

Yanking her hand back – surprisingly easy for what she had just dealt with – Neo darted backwards to put some distance between her and what was definitely not a corpse. How it – she, that Atlesian soldier – wasn't, the assassin didn't know, and hell, this defied the very thing the lunatic stood for. She had worked with corpses so much, with death and murder, she thought she knew everything about them. Should have.

And yet, there she was, that Atlesian soldier, looking more like a corpse than most of her targets had done before she cleaned her messes up, and she was alive. Ninety percent of her body burnt, maybe a bit more or less, but definitely so much that, by now, she should've been dead – her aura was used up, the burns made that very apparent, and with so much skin burnt, the body lost water at an alarming rate. A rate, lethal in minutes.

Still, she was alive, even if the only thing about her that looked like it were the eyes. These blindingly white eyes with their sky blue irises that seemed to pierce the lunatic.

But the life was leaving, there was barely any left in that woman. Grabbing Neo's wrist and pulling her closer had taken everything still left, hence why it had been so easy to pull free. Not to mention the incredible pain that woman had to be in, every touch – heck, even the little weight of her clothes and armor – pure torture, hell on earth.

Being eaten alive by a pack of Beowolves was merciful compared to this.

Panic fading as realization set in, Neo frowned at the woman that so desperately clung to life and fought death with each shallow breath that she managed to force despite the pain it brought, but seemed to desire nothing more than for it to be over at the same time.

As she attempted to rise to her full height, Neo's hand brushed the cold barrel of her newest trophy.

Well, at least she could fulfill one of those wishes, and then continue on as planned.

Under the pained gaze of the dying woman, Neo grabbed the Atlesian shotgun, finger curling around its trigger, and stood up. Walked over, almost casually – not like someone planning to murder in the next few seconds. Not like the antagonist of a horror movie, which – for her targets, her victims – she often matched in intimidation despite being only 1.47m in heels. Of course, carrying weapons helped.

Gently, her finger stroked the trigger of her newest trophy, never stressing it too much. Not the most humane way to go out, a shotgun to the head, but it was faster than slowly withering away because of the burns. Plus, she had to clean up the mess anyway, some more blood, bone and brain wouldn't make that much of a difference. Not to her.

Then again, that Neo – being who and what she was – had any mercy to spare to begin with was about as unusual as it got.

Mercy – that was what it was, right? Unusual form of it, yeah, but putting that Atlesian out of her misery was better than to let her suffer until her burn wounds consumed her in the absolute agony she was in.

Also, it was easier to get rid of a dead body, at least for the small assassin.

The heavy shotgun clicked audibly as the tricolored maniac rose and pointed it at the scarred woman's face, mismatched eyes dull and free of all emotion – this one was boring to her, uninteresting. Killing was part of her life, a big one, and eventually, as with everything you did day in and day out, you grew numb to it. Bored. Had to spice things up again if you wanted to retain interest in them!

For Neo, this was by changing the causes of death, different weapons and circumstances every time, different places. Sometimes, she liked to see the panic and the fear in the eyes of her victims. Other times, the fun was in her staying unnoticed. Chased them, hunted them, stabbed or gunned them down, then another time stayed at a distance and took them out with a sniper. Or just set up a trap if she felt particularly adventurous. Sometimes, at a target's workplace, sometimes in public, other times at their home where they felt particularly safe.

This one, this kill, was boring. Too simple. There was no big setup for it, no fun involved – it was purely by chance and almost casual. Her victim couldn't even fight back, was already gone to the point where it didn't even move.

Just the pull of a trigger, how boring – even if it was with a shotgun like the one in her hands.

Had she had her umbrella on it, with the estoc in it – unfortunately, that still lay in the other room behind the bar, where she had left it when she had tended to Yang's hands, and she had no intention of retrieving it now due to the risk of being discovered, aside from the fact that it would only be in the way when she carried the corpse through Vale – she could have maybe made it a bit more interesting. Maybe have that Atlesian stab herself – weak as she was, there was no way she'd find the strength to turn the blade against Neo – or something.

Mercy and all considered, she was still a cruel assassin and sadist, even if she didn't look the part.

She didn't have it on her at that moment, though, so the shotgun would have to suffice. Served as a bit of irony, too, considering it was both Atlesian technology and had belonged to that woman's commander. Would be loud, but she had her ways to mask it, and she had dealt with louder methods in the past and gotten away with them.

Taking her eyes off the pitiful remains of what had once been a human, the lunatic glanced towards the hidden doorway one last time to ensure she was still alone – and then, turned back to stare at the Atlesian over the barrels of her newest trophy. Aligned the iron sight with the head of the dying woman.

And her eyes met those vivid sky blue ones of the Atlesian.

A sharp pain shot through the lunatic's head, brief and no more than a single flash of lightning in front of her eyes. That one kind of pain she was very familiar with, that wasn't physical but only existed in that deranged psyche of hers. Lunacy was no stranger to her, she had been consumed with madness since very early in her life, and had fully embraced it long before reaching her teens. She had those... 'episodes'. She was aware of that. Triggers for them were few and far between, but ever so often, she stumbled across one.

And she knew what it was this time, what triggered the episode and the memory connected to it.

The stench. The burnt skin. The scarred flesh. That pitiful amount of life left in that woman's eyes. That immense pain that tortured you every moment you were awake, the agony of which kept you awake at night, until your body can take no more and you just simply collapsed for a few hours. Then, it all started anew.

The shotgun sunk, Neo's eyes regained life. She closed them and took a deep breath, feeling how tight her chest suddenly felt and how a lump formed in her throat.

Had she been able to, she would've sighed and groaned.

She sent a last glance towards the hidden doorway.

And then pulled her foot back, swung it, and kicked the already broken body in the side of the head, staining her steel-capped boot with the soot and the blood on the Atlesian's skin. The sickening crunch as the female soldier fell over and hit the ground hard enough for something to drop off her lap – those pesky sky blue eyes finally closed and no longer staring at her with the plead to do something already – served to finally pull the assassin back into reality, although the disgusting aftertaste lingered.

But she had no time to mope, the room didn't clean itself and evidence didn't vanish just like that either.

Oh, the things she'd do.

Once again leaning the shotgun onto her shoulder, the cold barrels resting against her cheek, Neo stepped over the fallen body and kneeled down in front of it.

And as she reached out and grabbed the item that had just fallen from the body, a greatly modified stun baton, she turned her eyes to the scorched remains of what had once been a female Atlesian.

Playing with her newest trophy, twirling it back and forth in between her fingers careful enough to never activate its electricity, the lunatic watched as the charred torso weakly heaved...