Richard sped down the highway, the turbocharged four-cylinder of his Subaru purring as he shifted into fourth gear. His heart pounded furiously within his chest, and his breathing quickened as a mix of terror and excitement once again jolted through his brain.

The orders had come through just a few minutes prior: return to base immediately.

The young man took a deep breath, deftly shifting into fifth gear and revving the engine as he sailed into the left-hand lane and passed a group of cars. Such a sudden shift to such a high level of combat readiness across the board meant that something had gone horribly wrong. He briefly released his left hand from the wheel, wiping the moisture on his palm onto his OCP-patterned uniform before reaching for the car's radio.

"...received several unconfirmed reports of hostile entities engaging Army and Washington National Guard forces throughout the Seattle metropolitan area, with possible catastrophic loss of life reported-"

'Maybe the radio isn't such a good idea,' the man thought, pressing the button again. There wasn't much that the news could tell him at this point that he couldn't figure out himself; the most he'd gathered was that there was some kind of unknown object spitting out "hostile entities," and that there was a pretty good chance that his job would soon be to fight said hostile entities if the guys in Washington couldn't contain them.

'Hopefully they didn't bring any AA,' he thought as he pulled his phone from his breast pocket, a faint metallic ring emanating from his Warrant Officer insignia as the object briefly slid across it.

"Hey Aaron, it's Richard again," he began, speaking into the handset. "I don't know if your phone's dead or what, but I have to head back to base for a bit because of this Seattle thing so I'll be getting home later than usual, so if you're at home right now you'll probably need to fend for yourself for dinner tonight. Again."

The older Carlyle sibling paused for a moment. Aaron hadn't been answering his phone for the last day or so, and he himself had been participating in training exercises for a few days prior to that, so it wasn't the greatest week for family communication so far. "And, uh...pay attention to the news if you haven't been already. I'll see you when I get home."

With that, Richard ended the call and shifted up into sixth gear, his engine's high-pitch whine echoing across the four-lane as he drove toward the setting sun.

"...And why don't we just have Ruby run up and toss it in again?" I asked quietly, my rifle pointed straight ahead as I made my way through yet another row of abandoned cubicles. We had been moving through this particular office building for at least half an hour if not more, mostly due to our attempts to minimize the amount of noise we made when moving at a faster pace. It did seem to be paying off somewhat, though; we hadn't made contact with any Grimm since we began heading back toward the portal, and as a result we were all in relatively healthy condition, for now at least.

"We need someone sniping while you guys move in," Ruby answered, angling the currently-collapsed Crescent Rose downward and looking through the scope.

"...And I think it's pretty obvious who is best equipped for that," Weiss chimed in.

"Plus, I can help thin out their numbers for you once we need to fall back," Ruby added. "It'll be a lot easier to deal with whatever Grimm are left over if we're able to attack from two directions."

"Makes sense, I guess," I said as we came up on the end of the cubicle row. Several identical doors with official-looking placards lined the outer wall of the room, the titles written on each one implying that they belonged to some pretty important people.

Not that any of that mattered now, of course.

I grabbed one of the door handles and braced myself as I gave it a hard tug, hoping to God that there wasn't a Beowolf or a Creep waiting inside to eviscerate me for the third time. Giving a quick look to a combat-readied Yang, I forced my rifle's muzzle into the room and entered, sweeping it cautiously as the blonde entered behind me.

"I guess we're clear," Yang began, reaching for and pulling the cord of the office's mysteriously undamaged blinds. "We should probably-"

"Woah."

My eyes widened as I looked out the cracked glass panel at the plaza in front of the building, my eyes fixed on the massive purple sphere in the middle that now dominated the ravaged downtown landscape. This thing had to be at least thirty or fourty feet in height, judging from its height relative to our current position in the building, and was roughly the same in width from what I could tell. Sparse but still incredibly dangerous packs of Grimm wandered among the piles of debris, aimlessly searching for more humans to kill or more things to destroy. Luckily for us, it didn't seem like they could notice us at this distance, giving us a little more time to survey the area and plan things out.

"...So, uh, it looks like they're more thinned out over there," I began, pointing to my 3 o'clock. A few stray Beowolves circled the area in seemingly random patterns, black masses weaving their way through a line of abandoned vehicles on the edge of the plaza. "We could go through the cars to get a little closer to the portal before we rush it."

"Nah, they'd probably sense us before we could get close," Yang said. "And we'd be in a pretty bad spot if we get ganged up on while we're still in there."

"Yang's right," Ruby said. "And the faster we get in there and close the portal, the less risk we have of another horde coming through right on top of us."

"That's fair," I said as I pulled the BIS from my back, inspecting the cylinder once again for any damage. "But...we're seriously just gonna run in and hope for the best? There's gotta be a safer way to go about this, Ruby. I'm gonna get fucked the second we get past-"

"I know that you're scared, Aaron," Ruby replied, pulling her bolt back and chambering a Fire Dust round. "But I'm asking you to trust me. To trust us."

She was right. I was scared. I had been nothing but scared for the last several hours, and I had every right to be fucking terrified. But the fact of the matter was that the time for turning back had long since passed; the only options left were to hole up in this building and wait for rescue while RWBY put their lives at risk, or to do what I came here to do and follow them in.

I took a breath.

"...Alright," I said, gripping my rifle tightly as I returned to my ready position. "I trust you."

"Good," Ruby said. "Now, let's talk about what we do once we get there."

The faint electronic beep of a laser rangefinder cut through the dead silence of an adjacent building, accompanied by the distinct crinkle of map paper and the brief *click* of an activated long-range radio.

"Sledgehammer, this is Cujo 2-1. We're in position overlooking the objective. How copy, over?"

A few tense seconds followed, the two hidden forward observers within the room exchanging glances as they looked out at the wormhole-like object a few hundred meters ahead.

"Cujo, you're coming in weak. Switch to backup frequency and try again, over."

The lead observer nodded to his partner, who immediately adjusted the radio before returning the mic.

"Sledgehammer, this is Cujo. Can you read me now, over?"

"Sledgehammer reads loud and clear. Go ahead, over."

"Standby, checking grid."

The observers stared down at their map, unaffected by the almost-impenetrable lattice of messy notes penciled all over the surface.

"Sledgehammer, fire mission. Grid: echo, tango, five one one, six seven three. Ten guns, two rounds, HE delayed in effect," the observer said tersely, reading off the script as if it were second nature. "Target number: Hotel, November, Bravo, two six zero two, over."

"Sledgehammer copies all," the radio crackled. "Message to observer: echo, tango, five one one, six seven three. Ten guns, two rounds, HE delayed effect. Target number: Hotel, November, Bravo, two six zero two."

The two observers exchanged a glance, the first nodding along slightly as they read his message back.

"Splash in twelve seconds. Standby."

After descending several flights of stairs and traversing a harrowing maze of caved-in corridors, the three of us finally reached the ground floor. Ruby had remained in position directly above us to provide support as planned, the dull percussion of her rifle still audible even at street level.

"Everyone ready?" Yang asked, looking over her shoulder from her position by the blown-out front windows.

"L-let's just get this over with," I replied, pants-shitting fear finally breaking through to the surface. I looked down at my leg and grimaced; I wouldn't get a do-over if I fucked up out there this time. I took a step towards the door but froze immediately, taking notice of a faint whistling sound coming from outside.

"You guys hear that?" Blake asked. I began to look back out across the plaza right as a massive shockwave blew through the room, knocking us all back in a blizzard of dust and bits of glass.

"I heard that!" Yang yelled, the sound only increasing in intensity as large plumes of pulverized rock and Grimm pieces shot up across the horde.

My eyes widened.

Artillery.

"Looks like the Army's giving us a hand!" I shouted, watching in awe as mine and millions of other taxpayers' dollars gouged massive holes in the Grimm horde. We wouldn't get a chance like this again; we had to move, soon.

"Hopefully this softens them up for us!" the blonde bruiser responded, a gap in the fire serving as the only encouragement she needed. "Let's go!"

"Wait, what the fuck!?" I asked. "They're probably not done shooting yet!"

"Remember what I just said about trusting me?"

"God dammit!" I yelled, falling in behind the team and breaking out into a sprint. A Beowolf immediately came at me from my left before dropping just short of my legs, a Crescent Rose round embedded in the smoking hole in its skull. I swung my rifle around, picking off one or two Grimm with shaky, imprecise bursts as Yang literally punched a nearby Ursa's head in, seamlessly transitioning to the next enemy without so much as a passing glance at her kill.

The battle continued, my legs turning into jelly from all the exertion. Dead and dissolving Grimm littered the area as even more reinforcements arrived to replace them, crashing hopelessly against the Huntresses in wave after wave of all-out assaults. We were doing pretty good so far, if I could say so myself; the portal was getting closer, much closer, and I wasn't dead yet.

"You're doing great, Aaron!" Yang encouraged, apparently noticing my fatigue as she blew apart yet another Creep.

"...Y-yep!" I sputtered, huffing like an asthmatic as the fear and exhaustion synergized with one another.

"We've only got to go a little farther!"

I flinched and jumped to the side, my reflexes saving me from a Creep's charge. My finger curled across my trigger, several rounds finding their mark on the creature with spurts of black-and-red blood.

'Easier said than done.'

The two observers sat in silence, utterly absorbed in the spectacle. Command had mentioned something about this earlier, but… well, it didn't live up to the real thing.

"...Uh, Sledgehammer, we've got four...no, five unknowns in the combat zone," the first said, straightening the camera on his bump helmet and levelling it on the...yellow one. "You getting this?"

"Affirmative, Cujo," Sledgehammer replied, "We're confirming the situation. Standby."

A few more seconds passed, the two controllers utterly engrossed in the battle. Incredibly flashy stuff, even from this distance; 2-1 was very impressed.

"Cujo, be advised: individuals have been identified as… uh, RWBY. You are to shift your attention outward and assist however possible until reinforcements arrive, over."

The second soldier nodded, unfolding the map once more.

"...Huh," the first said, surprised at this change. He wasn't one to question it, though; seeing was believing, and he'd believe whatever they told him after a day like this. "Cujo 2-1 copies all. Standby for additional grids."

"Watch your sides, Blake!"

A spray of luminous shotgun pellets flew across my vision and into the ninja's vicinity before finally colliding with a striking Ursa, shredding the creature's center mass with brutal efficiency. Blake turned, seemingly to thank her partner, but opened fire with her weapon's pistol form on a straggling Beowolf closing in from behind before she got the chance.

"You watch yours," she said with a coy grin, earning a brief chuckle from Yang. That was just the most recent thing I didn't understand: how they could keep up the banter even with their lives on the line. I welded my cheek to the stock of my rifle and squeezed off a handful of shots in Weiss's direction, downing a Creep at our twelve o'clock as she took out six or seven more in the same period. Not that I was going to protest, of course; the herd was looking significantly thinner already, with the exception of the occasional group that fell in on the sides or rear.

I huffed, a quick sweep around the area providing all the peace of mind I needed. The Grimm still interested in us were all either running straight into -WBY and getting obliterated, or trying to set up for sneak attacks, only to share the exact same fate. The portal was close, probably within a hundred or so meters, and much larger face-to-face.

"Alright, guys," I said, pulling the interference system from my back and muddling through the arming sequence. "We get this thing in that hole, and we finally go home."

I paused at that last line. After all that had happened, the idea of home was almost foreign.

"Right," Weiss nodded, skewering what seemed to be the last remaining Beowolf on her sword. "Better hurry up, then."

I sighed, my fingers still on the screen. I looked up at the heiress and was about to reply when something caught my eye.

A shadow, large and black, closing fast on our position.

Before I had a chance to react, a razor-sharp talon wrapped around my entire torso and yanked me skyward, my rifle dangling precariously out of reach on its sling. I screamed in shock, flailing my arms uselessly in midair as my eyes sized up what was possibly the largest Nevermore I had seen the entire battle.

"Fuckfuckfuck- FUCK!" I screeched, the middle talon stabbing into my midsection hard enough to noticeably stress my Aura. Burning pain began to sear the area as Blake and Yang opened fire, the former just barely missing my leg with her kusarigama's grappling hook form. The three warriors quickly turned into rapidly-shrinking, color-coded ants as the height intensified my panic; I had a good idea of how this was going to end, and it wasn't pretty.

With all of my strength, I grabbed on, leg in one hand and BIS in the other. The monster shrieked, apparently realizing what I was up to, and promptly slashed at me with the opposite talon. Razor-sharp edges raked across my back and cut into my Aura.

"Agh, shit!" I screamed in pain, holding on for dear life as the claw popped open and shook erratically. My hands and arms ached, barely keeping up with the strain; it was essentially adrenaline keeping me going at this point, and it wouldn't last much longer.

"Take…this!" a familiar, high-pitched voice shouted, punctuating the line with a spurt of blackish-red ichor.

Ruby had returned.

"Hanging in there, Aaron?" she asked, climbing on top of the beast as it banked abruptly to the left. I wasn't sure if the pun was intended, nor did I care. I was just happy to possibly have a chance at surviving.

"Just kill this thing already!" I cried, still hanging on for dear life as the beast's flight pattern grew even more erratic. My stomach leapt into my throat as the beast suddenly took a nosedive, apparently beginning to succumb to Ruby's assault. The redhead's scythe cleaved through the Grimm easily, sending the leg opposite me plummeting to the ground with a mere two or three hits.

I looked up, making eye contact with the obviously pissed Huntress right as she plunged the scythe into the back of the Nevermore's neck. The beast continued to scream, but it was weakening with every spurt of blood from its innumerable wounds Long story short, we were at the end of the line, and Ruby clearly realized it.

"Get ready to tuck and roll!" she yelled, suddenly looking a lot more anxious.

"What!? No!" I screamed. I honestly wasn't sure how much Aura I had lost during this mess, and I wasn't looking forward to rolling the dice on the amount I had left. There was also the problem of me being generally afraid of falling, so that didn't help either.

"You don't have a choice!" she yelled, angling her scythe and levelling the bird out a good twenty feet above the ground. "Let go!"

I looked around one last time, weighing my options. She was right, unfortunately; those convenient color-coded ants were getting farther and farther away by the second.

"Oh God!" I shrieked, forcing myself to let go. I, predictably, fell like a brick, landing roughly on my leg and depleting my Aura entirely. Pain surged through my mind as I tried and failed to not look down, ultimately transforming into yet another wave of panic. It was bent, horribly so, and entirely numb. I couldn't see all of it well under the remnants of my pant legs, but, well… I didn't exactly need to.

"Fucking hell!" I cried, rolling back in pain. I had landed pretty close to the group, luckily; it was hard to focus on anything but the pain, but I could see them coming my way.

"Oh shit," Yang said. "Not again…"

I couldn't help but grunt in protest. It wasn't meant to be malicious judging by her tone, but I didn't need another reminder of how many times I'd fucked up.

"Here, Yang! Help me lift him!" Ruby yelled, zipping into view behind me and grabbing my shoulders as Weiss picked up the BIS from beside me. I immediately flinched as still more pain shot through the limb, but that didn't deter Yang, who proceeded to follow her sister's order anyway.

"Fuck! Stop! Stop!" I yelled, my protest falling on deaf ears as the ever-closer portal came back into view. The sounds of another Grimm wave, then another volley of artillery met my ears, both intensifying my fear. I couldn't tell if they were planning to drag me through, but I was essentially fucked either way.

"What're we gonna do, Ruby?" Weiss asked, clearly noticing the sounds at the same time I did. "We don't know how long it'll take a Bullhead to get to Mountain Glenn, and we don't even know if there's a secure landing spot to begin with!"

"We'll have to stay here..." the leader responded. "We can't just leave him here… and we still have to wait for the others."

"No…" I coughed. "You guys should go on ahead. Seriously."

"What…? Why!?" she asked. "The rest of the Grimm in the city are probably on their way back here right now!"

"Yeah, but so are they," I answered, gesturing at the explosions on the far edge of the courtyard. "They probably have an observer or a drone or something watching right now."

She nodded, but evidently wasn't convinced.

"... Besides, you guys need to go through and nab whoever set this up," I suggested. "I'll shut the door behind you."

"But what about JNPR and CFVY?" Yang chimed in, still holding the lower half of my body up.

"I'm sure they'll be repatriated or whatever as soon as Ozpin and the Doc make the… second contact," I responded. "You don't have anything to worry about. I think you'll see that we're… a lot alike."

I glanced at Ruby. I couldn't tell if this was going anywhere.

"I think he's right," Blake said. "We need to get some answers, and that starts with finding the people behind all this."

The leader turned her head to Blake, nodded, and looked to the other two. Yang hesitated but eventually nodded herself; Weiss seemed to have a similar answer.

"...Okay," Ruby conceded, glancing at Yang before quickening her pace. Our group closed the distance to the portal's immediate vicinity with surprising speed; the strength and stamina of these girls was downright startling.

"We'll trust you."

The two observers watched intently, their strikes still keeping most of the Grimm at bay.

"Sledgehammer, looks like we've got one injured here. You getting this?"

2-2 reached for his camera, straightening his helmet in the process for a better shot.

"Affirmative, we see it. Nearest unit is two minutes out, Cujo," the radio replied. "Maintain visual and shift targeting north."

"Cujo 2-1 copies all," 2-1 answered, nudging his partner as he released the transmit button.

"I think we're about to witness history."

After a few agonizingly long moments, Yang and Ruby sat me down. I dragged myself over to a piece of protruding concrete and propped myself against it, gun in hand. The massive, purple form of the portal loomed over me, darkening the late evening colors of my surroundings.

"Well, it's been fun, guys," I coughed. The sound of prop wash had joined the metaphorical orchestra and was growing increasingly louder by the second, announcing the impending approach of what would hopefully be my ticket out.

"Yeah," Ruby agreed, her face clearly communicating her still-present conflict over the plan. "We'll… we'll have to hang out once we all make it back!"

"It's been… enlightening, Aaron," Blake said. "Good luck from here."

I nodded, keying in the last of the commands into the BIS. "Hopefully I won't need it."

"I've enjoyed it, Aaron," Weiss said before looking around, pausing as she did. "...As much as possible, anyway.

"Well, thanks," I said, smirking. "Yang? It was a real blast. Great pizza place pick and all that."

"Heh," she chuckled. "I aim to please."

The cylinder in my hands beeped, signifying a ready and armed State. The timer started; only a few seconds left to go.

"That's your cue," I said. "Better get going before more come through."

"Alright, then," Ruby said. "Team?"

With that, the four disappeared into the portal. I looked out across the courtyard and breathed a sigh of relief as a UH-60 crested the skyline unopposed, then another, and another…

I looked down at the device once more before tossing it in after them, using the last of my strength to fling it as hard as possible. In an instant, a loud, low rumble filled the air, and the portal suddenly began to shrink like a deflating balloon.

"Guess it worked," I remarked, the dull throbbing in my leg intensifying as my body began to feel immensely heavy. It seemed that all the fighting had finally caught up to me.

I coughed and slumped backward, my rifle clattering to the asphalt. I attempted to drag myself forward but failed immediately; the broken leg and hours of trauma made all movement near-impossible at this point.

"This is fine…" I sighed. I stared up at the murky evening sky, bright patches of searchlight and operating lights mingling with the smoke as at least a dozen helicopters whizzed overhead.

At long last, it was over.

AN: Jumping Jesus on a pogo stick, this took too long.

I honestly don't have an airtight excuse for why this took so long. It's a mix of demotivation and having other stuff to do, probably. Regardless, I'm sorry it's been such a long dry spell in regards to updates.

Epilogue and closing stuff coming soon. For real this time, I promise.