Pyrrha and Jaune finally found Sun, Neptune, and Blake, who'd fought off the Grimm only to find more were appearing.

"Where are they coming from?" Blake cried in exasperation.

"I don't know!" Sun said.

"But if we could find it, maybe we could stop them coming in," Jaune mused.

"Well, most of them have been crawling in from behind us," Neptune said. "Which is weird, if they were supposed to be in Kanap's lair."

"Hey, yeah," Jaune said. "They're not coming that way, so...someone followed us, then? Because you're right, none of them seem to be in front of us. Huh, Neptune, I thought you were supposed to be the dumb one."

"Huh?" Neptune said.

"He's kidding," Pyrrha said.

"Kind of," Sun added.

"So we go back the way we came?" Blake said. "Great..."

But they did.

Sure enough, after killing a lot of Grimm along the way, they found one part of the tunnels that was not far from the Vault but took a bit of a turn up a steep hill.

Here, a big hole had been burrowed in the ground by one of the Grimm, leaving room for all of them to come in.

And more were coming.

"Ew." Neptune shone his scroll over it. "There's, like...black goo down there."

"Just like in Atlas." Pyrrha looked at it. "She's spawning more Grimm--as fast as we can kill them."

Even as she spoke, the pond bubbled, and a Grimm began to rise out of it.

"Ah!" Neptune screamed like a girl--and Blake yelped also.

"Yikes!" Sun said.

"We have to stop it." Jaune held out his shield. "There has to be something we can do... Isn't there anything our new authority does?"

"I have no idea." Pyrrha held out her javelin. "Can we just tell it to stop?"

"I don't know..." Jaune said.

The Grimm rose up more.

"We have to try something." Jaune held out his sword. His Aura shimmered over it. "Stop!" he said.

"Just talking to it's not going to do anything!" Neptune said.

"Shh." Blake elbowed him.

Pyrrha echoed Jaune's words. "Stop!"

The Grimm began to snarl at them.

The river bubbled like it was angry almost...like it was alive...

But if it was alive...

Jaune slashed at the Grimm and it turned into smoke...then the goo started smoking also, where he'd sliced it.

"What is that...?" Neptune asked.

"It's like my Aura hurt it..." Jaune glanced at his sword. "Huh..."

"Jaune, I have an idea." Pyrrha pulled a red dust clip out of her belt. "This might sound crazy--"

"What, Pyrrha?" Jaune said.

"This." Pyrrha held up the vial of special water. "If their gifts are effective against Grimm...are opposed to it, that is--then perhaps if we combine our gifts with theirs, we'll have more effect."

"Is that how this works?" Jaune said. "I'm not sure it's scientific."

"Well...if we have faith enough, I think we can find a solution," Pyrrha said. "And it's all we've got."

"I guess it couldn't hurt," Jaune said.

Pyrrha pursed her lips together as she poured a drop of the water on her dust clip... It shimmered on it.

"I thought that only worked on people," Sun said.

"I don't know," Pyrrha said. She nodded at Jaune. "Maybe...try putting Aura around it also."

"Okay." Jaune did so... The Aura stuck, surprisingly, like a shield.

"I've never seen anyone do that..." Neptune said.

"I think we might be saying that lot from now on," Blake said.

Jaune and Pyrrha nodded at each other, and then he threw the clip into the pond.

It exploded.

Black goo went everywhere, and they all ducked.

But the goo dissipated almost as it even hit the ground...and so did the vein of it in the ground.

"It's dried up." Neptune looked in. "That was so freaking cool!"

"Whoa, I love this stuff." Sun hugged Pyrrha and Jaune. "Where can we get more of it?"

"Oh, it's not something you can just buy," Pyrrha said. "It was just...to help us till we learned how to do this ourselves...which makes me wonder if there is some way to do these things here, in our world...if we just knew what it was."

"For now I'll take this," Jaune said. "But just in case Salem tries to start that again, we should fill in this hole."

"That we can do," Blake said. "Rock dust!"

Everyone plugged up the hole.

"I have to say, that felt pretty good." Sun high-fived everyone.

"Hey, I hear someone." Blake's ears twitched.

"So...can you hear out of all of those?" Neptune asked.

"Dude!" Sun said.

"Sorry...I was just curious," he said.

"Yes, shut up." Blake strained.

They all did.

"Someone's up there, in the Vault, I think," Blake said.

"We should go," Pyrrha said.

She rushed up the side of the hill.

They followed her.

* * *

Vara had flown all the way to the Vault.

She didn't see anyone else around.

No time to waste.

She typed in the code to the first door, and it slid open, almost silently for all that.

Inside, the magical door of the Vault, more green than you'd expect for Vacuo, with plants around it, met her eyes.

Vara walked in, not slowly but somehow it felt like forever.

She stood in front of it, looking up.

She could feel the power from the Sword already.

What brought it to this? she wondered. All that work...and Salem was already here...so sneakily, you'd almost not know it till it was too late.

She hoped it was not too late to at least foil Salem's plans, even if they couldn't save the kingdom.

The air in here was warm, oddly, but she still shivered, and a tear ran down her face.

"I probably should have accepted Theo's apology," she mused. "We were both wrong (if Vic didn't kill him--I should have checked)...not that it will matter now."

Despite her anger at him, Vara never truly hated Theodore. They had a tempestuous relationship, but that suited her just fine... They had gotten along until they began to disagree about Victoria's methods...and that had only been recently.

12 years of her only real friend being one person--you didn't just forget that. Maybe her anger was more for that than for what he actually did... Who knew?

[Allies or Enemies--The Crane Wives]

https://youtu.be/vWuj5W674M0

Theo had still been in the bunker when the others were dropped out. He'd hidden successfully in a room not over the hole.

He wondered if they'd all died... He thought Vara could handle Grimm, but if they were special, he wasn't sure...and he wasn't sure if the others could.

But to help them, he had to take Vic down.

She wasn't even paying attention to him. The kids had run from her, and now she was frantically trying to find some way to unlock the hole. She seemed to be trying to hotwire it now.

Perfect, she was distracted.

Theo searched his belt.

Unlike most huntsmen, he didn't use any one or two particular weapons. His specially engineered belt could hold a lot more than it looked.

[It's a stretch, but when we designed the belt, it was supposed to be an homage to the basket that Dorothy takes with her on her journey to Oz, because she puts every essential in there. Just like his Semblance is a reference to her following the yellow brick road.]

He pulled out a boomerang🪃. [He would, people.]

He threw it.

Victoria looked up.

"Did someone...?" She looked behind her.

The boomerang came back and smacked her, making her fall off the catwalk and to floor blew.

Amped up on dust the way she was, that hardly hurt her, but she stood up and glared.

"Theo!" she yelled.

Theo caught his boomerang.

"Hey, Vic," he said. "We need to talk."

"Talk?" Vic said. "You invaded my house!"

"You kidnapped 3 Maidens and conspired with Watts," Theo said

"Like you didn't do the same thing."

"I didn't go this far," Theo said. "You've crossed a line, taking those girls, forcing them all to be experimented on like that. It was one thing when it was just Raven, but Schnee? Was it going to be Vara next?"

"Thought you didn't care about Schnee," Vic said.

"Ah, well, she grew on me," Theo said. "Besides, she's Qrow's girl, so I can't go after her. That's not what friends do."

"His sister is so much better?" Vic said.

"I thought he hated her," Theo shrugged. "But all that doesn't matter anymore, because Vara found out about this, and this jig is up. It was madness to try this plan. I should have known she'd find out...and she hates us both now. Even Kip is done with it. I think we've lost enough. Don't destroy the sliver of respect I still have for you by keeping up this game. Let's both admit we're done."

"No!" Vic said. "I will never do that!"

She held up her hands. "I don't want to do this, Theo. You've been like a brother to me, almost. At least, if I never saw my brother and he was mostly a prick."

"So a brother in another country," Theo said.

"There's that mouth of yours," Vic said. "We're like family, aren't we? You shouldn't do this to me."

"Vic..." Theo said, "can we be honest for one second?... Yeah, we're like family, and as your family, I've...turned a blind eye to a lot of things. I was never one to get in people's personal business. For better or worse--Vacuo to the core, there...but maybe that wasn't right. When Derek died, I know you took it hard. But I didn't say anything. Didn't know how to. When Uncle Henry died, you didn't say much... I think we're alike there--we don't handle things like that very adeptly."

"No..." Vic said. "Perhaps not...and I respected your privacy."

"And I yours." Theo fingered his boomerang 🪃 thoughtfully. "But, in all that 'not talking' we did, I had to wonder if, deep down, you didn't think that you could have saved him if you had more time."

"I could have! Why are you bringing this up now? I didn't need another reminder of that today."

"Because that's how I felt about Var," Theo said. "If I had more time, I could have... We both felt that way. It's really easy to feel that way, isn't it? Like we could be less of a screw up if we just had more time and more resources and if people just took us seriously...but at the end of the day, Vara hated what I did to help her. And Kip? He hated this--and I know Derek didn't like some of what you were doing back then... I saw the tension between you two."

"What? That's none of your business," Vic said.

"You slowed down for a while," Theo said. "Backed up, took care of him here in Vacuo...but it was too late, and you always wondered if you should have given up...if Atlas hadn't closed the program...everything, right? I also thought, if I just stopped Henry when I could have...if I'd stopped Summer...then Var wouldn't have been the Maiden... Yeah, we both live to atone for the past, don't we?"

"And your point?" Vic sounded emotional now.

"We can't do it," Theo said. "All this trying is only making the people we're trying to save hate us. I don't like to admit it...but they're free spirits. You can't keep them in cages. Var would, she's made clear, rather die than keep doing the things we've been doing. And your son, he's not that different. Maybe they're too good for us, huh?"

"Stop..." Vic said, in a low voice.

"It's cliché, but the saying goes if you love something, set it free." Theo shook his head. "It's not easy...but then, Uncle always did think that we couldn't make the Maidens' choices for them. That's why he let Vienta go...and she died...but who's to say she'd have been any happier if she didn't...or that she'd have lived that much longer? This isn't something we can control...and in trying, I think we've become something we didn't intend to be."

"Theo," Vic said.

"I helped, so I wasn't laying this all on you." Theo gestured at her. "But I'm telling you, please, just stop. Stop while we can still salvage this. Salem is going to be here. The others are gone already. You've lost...but if you helped us, we might drive her back. Maybe these crazy people can pull this off. I'm not super confident, but I'm done trying to fight with the people on my side over this. It's stupid now. You were always the person who wanted the best for people, Vic...even when they didn't want it for themselves...but maybe you could help them do what they think is right this time... Would that be so bad?"

"Give up on my life's work?" Vic said. "No. I don't just want to help people achieve their best--although that is important--I want to finish what I started. You don't understand what I do for us. It's dangerous now, but in a few years we could have it ready!"

"What if we don't have a few years? What if we only have right now, right here, to do something?" Theo said. "You want to be a part of the problem or part of the solution?"

https://youtu.be/Zv1n2ib569Y

[Literally found this the day after I wrote this chapter. Could not believe my boy Nathan wrote a song called "Victoria" that actually fit her... That's a God thing, right?]

Victoria stared at him for a second, looking upset.

Theo had seen this look on her before--once when he spilled coffee on one of her notebooks and she'd frozen in rage...the look when she was trying to decide whether to go ballistic, or to let it slide... Usually she picked the first one.

Then her eyes hardened. "They turned you against me also then?"

"They didn't do a thing. I've just thought this out--" Theo began, but she blasted him before he could finish.

He fell onto the wall, writhing in pain.

Victoria walked closer to him.

"I can't believe you used all that against me," she said. "Trying to manipulate me like that...you've changed, Theo."

"I'm...not the only one..." Theo got to his feet.

Victoria grabbed him by his collar. "Well, out of respect for Henry, I'm not going to kill you," she said. "But this is going to hurt. Anything to say before I fry you?"

"I do have one thing to request," Theo said. "About Vara."

"Yes..." Victoria said a bit more calmly.

"Can you apologize to her for me?" Theo asked.

"For...?" Victoria said.

Theo suddenly gripped her wrist--he'd slipped something out of his belt without her seeing it. It was a quarterstaff.

It expanded suddenly, knocking Victoria so hard she fell on her rear end and rubbed her face.

The stick sizzled, but Theo was free.

He kicked his heels together, and knives protruded from his shoe soles.

"For doing that before she did," he explained, grinning.

"You SOB!" Victoria held up her hands.

Theo sprung over her head agilely and landed on his feet, then wheels snapped out of his heels, and he slid out of her reach, as she shot power at him harmlessly where he'd just been.

Theo whirled around and threw a smoke bomb at her feet. The air became obscured.

Victoria coughed, and he threw his boomerang again and hit her.

She threw a dust vial at him, and ice and rock exploded everywhere, almost pinning him in one place.

Theo stuck one knifed toe into the ice and swung himself over it, landing on his hands and then rolling into an upright position. He stayed one step ahead of Victoria for a few minutes... She hit a lot of her own equipment in the process, only making her more angry.

It was like an infinite stalemate, until suddenly something hit the wall of the bunker hard--something that sounded Grimm-sized.

"What...?" Victoria said.

Suddenly the mole came tearing through the walls with its claws, like they were made of paper mache.

"How did that find us?" she cried.

"Nevermind that, get away from it!" Theo yelled.

He raced toward the exit. The mole didn't even try to stop him. It was snuffling, and then it went to the shards of the tanks...then for the back rooms.

"No, stop!" Victoria fired at it.

"Are you mad!" Theo pulled out a grapple and caught her by her feet, tripping her.

"Let me go!" She kicked at it, firing at part of it.

Theo had to let go before it happened to him.

The mole began to slice up the back rooms, destroying everything, no doubt.

Vic screamed at it.

"Vic!" Theo said. "Let it go!"

She looked back at him furiously. "This is all your fault! You brought them here!"

"Who had Watts here?" Theo was not the kind of man to just take that to make her feel better.

"Take years to replace all that..." Victoria hit the ground. "You've killed us all."

"Vic, we have to run. Once it's done with your stuff, I doubt it's just going to let us go," Theo said.

"Don't touch me!" She stood and held up her hands. "I'm warning you, Theo..."

"You know what? Screw it. If you wanna stay here and die, then I'm not gonna waste my time." Theo ran out the door.

Victoria ran to a box in the wall and blasted the cover off of it. Inside was a red button.

"Turn about, Salem." She pressed it.

The entire ceiling of the bunker exploded into fire and rock.

Victoria stepped back into the tunnel as the mole was buried by it all and then blown up.

* * *

The whole place began to cave in...and cracks spread, snaking after the others, who hadn't gotten that far away.

"What is that?" Qrow looked back.

"Is that an earthquake?" Tai said.

"Maybe that Grimm is bringing the whole tunnel down," Raven said. "One of these walls has to be load bearing."

"That was a joke, right?" Tai said.

"Does it matter?" She gestured behind them.

"We can't stay here. Come on." Qrow started to move faster, wincing even so.

Tai tugged Raven faster, and Wally then started to help Winter and Qrow more.

The tunnel began to fall in behind them, as the reverb from the explosion probably had shaken up the plates around the fault line.

"I think she might have caused a real earthquake," Wally said. "I have to get the kids out of here... Can you guys get to the exit alone?"

"Go." Qrow didn't know if they could, but he didn't want the kids caught down here.

Wally ran off, taking Kip.

"We're dead," Raven said.

"You're not going to like this, but you're too slow." Tai picked her up onto his back. "You can't turn into a bird to make this easier?"

"Shut up!" Raven said.

The tunnel began to shake even more.

"Get out of the way." Tai ran.

They all ran.

Winter looked back... Her Aura wasn't back that much yet, but...

She focused, and ice rose out of the ground and supported some of the dirt briefly.

Then she lowered her hand and gasped.

"Come on." Qrow grabbed her arm and yanked her forward.

They had to find a different exit, since the ones behind them were now, of course, useless.

Many smaller tunnels jutted off from this one. Tai turned down one.

The ground began to shake more, so much that they could feel it even as they ran.

Suddenly the tunnel tilted upwards into a rise... Good sign, right? There must be an exit...

Except that rocks were tumbling down this because of the shaking.

"Great..." Tai said.

"I'll fly up there and then pull the rest of you," Qrow said, sounding a bit wan.

"Are you doing all right?" Tai said. "Did you get injured earlier?"

"Nothing to worry about," Qrow said. "Aura, remember? I've got this."

He flew up.

"He does not have this. I know his bluffing voice," Raven groaned.

"Can you not say unhelpful stuff right now?" Tai said.

The tunnel behind them was falling in not that far away.

"How is this whole thing so weak?" Winter looked.

"I can't say exactly," Raven said, "but my guess is it was designed that way so that if Salem ever did find this place, they could trap her forces in it and keep her from using it... It's one big death trap... Big shock, right?"

"Where was that analysis earlier?" Tai said.

"Eat me!" Raven said.

"Will you guys shut up?" Qrow called. "This isn't that high, all right? Raven, just fly up here."

"I can't!" Raven screamed almost.

Winter hugged her sides. "After all that Victoria did, I'm not sure if we have full control of our power right now," she explained. "But if even for a second, Raven, you might get far enough."

Raven seemed to be on the verge of tears. "I can't do it..."

"Two seconds," Tai said. "That's it, come on... You're not gonna let her win."

Raven looked upward, and then she turned to a bird and flew toward Qrow--she turned human about 5 feet from the top of the rise and screamed.

Qrow managed to catch her and pulled her the rest of the way.

"She fricked you up," he noted, not meanly, but Raven still slugged him.

"Nevermind, just get back," Qrow said.

The shaking got worse.

"Perhaps I can carry us." Winter attempted to rise into the air and take Tai by the arm.

She started to fly up--then she felt heavy all at once, like the magic was just not there. They fell and hit the dirt.

"Ow." Tai used his weapon to stick into the side.

Winter started to slide.

"Hang on," Tai said, grabbing her arm but not very well.

More of the tunnel fell in.

Winter pursed her lips.

"We don't have time for this," she said.

"What are you doing?" Qrow asked.

Winter yanked out of Tai's grasp and then made a glyph that shot him up the rest of the way--almost into Raven, who jumped back.

Winter attempted to do the same for herself, but her Aura was low, and she didn't think she could manage one that strong.

She only kept herself from falling the rest of the way down. Cracks were appearing in the walls just below the bottom.

"We have to go," Tai said. "Schnee, come on!"

"Just run," Winter said. "Don't wait, I'll catch up."

She wouldn't catch up...she thought faintly. Unless something miraculous occurred right now.

"We can't help her," Raven said to Tai. "If we get caught also, it's only more people to rescue. We should find the exit."

Tai nodded reluctantly, and they ran.

Qrow wasn't going anywhere.

"One more try, Ice Queen," he called.

"I'm not sure I can..." Winter was losing her grip.

"Well, Plan B..." Qrow didn't like this idea, but...

He used his scythe to drag along the dirt, sliding down, grabbing Winter before she could say this was crazy.

Then he sort of swung her back up over the top--which hurt a lot. He realized this injury might be worse than he thought.

"Unfortunate..." he muttered.

"Qrow!" Winter was looking back at him.

Qrow turned into a bird and flew the rest of the way up.

 Winter moved back.

Qrow resumed human form only a few feet later and promptly fell over.

"Great..." he muttered.

"What are you doing? Get up!" Winter said.

"Just go," Qrow said.

"What? No," Winter said. "What happened?"

The dirt began to slide downward more...going to give way before them at any second also.

Winter looked back...

"If there is a God..." she muttered, "now would be a great time for some help..."

Suddenly...she felt less tired.

She held out her hand.

A summoned beast crawled out of the floor.

"Come on." Winter pulled Qrow upward--he attempted to at least help--and onto the summoning. It started to run literally seconds before the ground crumbled... At least it was fast.

Tai and Raven, ahead, had finally seen some natural light, but it was a grate.

"Of course," Tai said.

He used his weapon to start hitting it.

"Hurry up!" Raven said.

"Your nagging isn't helping!" Tai said. He hit harder. Finally the grate began to loosen, and then it popped off.

"Where's Qrow and Schnee?" Tai looked back.

"I don't know..." Raven said.

"Ugh...fine, get out." Tai boosted her up.

The sudden light was blinding.

Raven blinked... She was in some street in Vacuo from the look of it... How far had they run?

Tai didn't see Qrow or Winter still.

Then he thought he saw a summoning.

The ground around them began to crumble suddenly.

"Tai!" Raven said. "Move."

"No, they're still in there--" Tai cried.

Raven jerked him upward anyway. The ground fell in.

They winded up on top of some of it, but not buried.

"Oh no!" Tai cried. "Qrow!?"

"Winter?" Raven said.

* * *

Winter had seen it falling in and knew they'd never make it out.

The beast had just run past it, and it fell in behind them.

Qrow was having a hard time staying on.

"Just hang on," Winter said. "There has to be another exit..."

There better be. She was not dying in this place!

"Hang on to what?" Qrow didn't see a handle on this thing.

"To me--what did you think?"

Qrow supposed now was not the time to think about this being awkward... He grabbed onto her shoulder.

The beast was holding up a long time. It kept going.

Then it came up to a huge hole in the ground... It looked like an old mine shaft that was blasted out a long time ago.

The beast vanished at this point.

Winter looked back... They couldn't stop.

She summoned one with wings.

"I thought you were tired..." Qrow commented.

"I was..." Winter had no idea how she was doing it.

The beast flew... Winter tried not to think about losing energy right over the middle of the chasm and plummeting to her death.

But it only took about 3 seconds to fly over it.

Finally, the crumbling stopped. All the excess dirt and rocks fell into the chasm, but it didn't appear to be strong enough to reach their side.

One problem solved...

But Winter's summoning only took them maybe another 100 yards before it vanished, and she no longer felt like she could make another one.

Qrow promptly collapsed again.

"What is wrong with you?" Winter demanded.

"Earlier Kanap shoved me into some railing..." Qrow muttered. "Didn't think it was that bad... Unfortunately my Aura was down at the time... Clearly it didn't heal it fast enough when it came back on... Need Arc for that, probably."

"Railing?" Winter said. "Let me see."

"And do what?" Qrow said.

"I'm an operative, Qrow, do you really think we're not taught some field aid? Don't act like a child. Do you want to bleed out right here?"

"All right, fine," Qrow said sullenly.

Winter took a look... The wound was a lot deeper than you'd think... Victoria had hit hard.

Winter hated medical drama, come to think of it.

But, suppressing her distaste for this kind of thing, she ripped part of her uniform, that was long enough to sever off, and tied up the wound.

It wasn't going to do much, but...

"Just my luck," Qrow sighed. "Who knew Aura was that important?"

Winter leaned on the wall of the tunnel. "Having it dragged out of me several times really brought home how reliant we are on it," she muttered. "Miss Likstar seemed to bear it better. I thought all she kept saying about their Aura not being the source of their powers was just symbolic, not literally a physiological difference. But it must be."

"Yeah, maybe that's why they don't like relying on violence so much," Qrow muttered. "If you can't take extra hits, you're going to be more careful."

"So to what do we attribute your recklessness in this case?" Winter said. "Relying on Aura, or just your usual attitude?"

"Oh sure, lecture me," Qrow said. "It wasn't my plan."

"That was more of a jest," Winter said.

"You make jokes now?" Qrow said.

"Occasionally...if the situation calls for it."

"And this is the one that called for it? So do you do stand up if there's an apocalypse?" Qrow said.

"Shut up!" Winter snapped.

"You started it..." Qrow muttered.

"We could not argue for 5 minutes," Winter said. "I believe after some rest I might be able to get out of here... Surely there is another exit--there seems to be an endless amount of them. For now, I could look ahead."

"Yeah..." Qrow said. "Probably a good idea..."

Awkward pause.

Winter got to her feet--and felt a little dizzy.

So she wasn't recovered as much...or the adrenaline of the last several minutes had just gone and now she was back to being drained.

She sank back down.

"I could wait a bit to do that..."

"Well, this takes me back." Qrow leaned on the wall and winced. "Just like Kuroyuri all over again...not that I remember most of it...injured, bleeding out..."

Winter made no answer. She was feeling the effects of the last 24 hours.

Qrow felt lightheaded and wondered how long he was going to stay conscious at this rate...

"Funny, being stuck here with you," he said. "I'd have thought that would be a skirmish for sure..."

"I don't feel like a fight," Winter said.

"Yeah, it's probably better to hold off on that..." Qrow said.

A long pause.

"I didn't thank you for...earlier," Winter finally said.

"For what?"

"For...all of it, I suppose." Winter felt self conscious thanking someone for anything.

"Doesn't matter." Qrow didn't even know what she was talking about.

"Weren't you concerned about...getting close to Kanap? With her magic obsession?" Winter asked, for lack of a better topic.

"Not as concerned as I was about all of you being there," Qrow said roundly.

"Raven might be surprised to hear that." Winter was surprised to hear it--other than for Ruby.

"Hey, differences aside, no one leaves anyone to that fate," Qrow said. "Except maybe Fall..."

"Miss Likstar wouldn't even leave her," Winter mused.

"Yeah, I should have known she wouldn't," Qrow said. "I can fight it all I want, but she's going to do what she does... Might as well accept it."

"How unusually mature," Winter said. "Are you concussed?"

"Very funny," Qrow mumbled.

"No, I'm not that surprised actually," Winter said. "Miss Likstar has been growing on you, obviously...on all of us perhaps. At least she was never conquered by Victoria... I feel ashamed that I didn't even try to escape."

"What were your supposed to do? You thought she had Weiss," Qrow said. "No one would have."

"No...perhaps not that, but even after I thought that was over...I was too concerned about her harming the others also," Winter said. "I thought she was unbeatable. But that was foolish, to give up. Not befitting of a soldier or a huntress."

"I think anyone would have a hard time under the circumstances..." Qrow said.

"Why are you making excuses?" Winter said. "It's not as if this reflects poorly on you. I am speaking of myself."

"And speaking for yourself, you're being ridiculous," Qrow said. "Winter Schnee does not give up... The situation had to be pretty bleak, that's all I'm saying. So don't make a crisis of identity out of one messed up woman's tricks."

From him? Really?

"Why are you being nice to me?" Winter asked.

"I'm not," Qrow said. "Just being logical... There, I used one of your words."

"Logical..." Winter didn't buy it. "Well, if I didn't know better, I'd say there was a note of admiration in that last part."

"Don't read into it. With the blood loss, I'm not even sure what I'm saying anymore."

"I'll overlook it then," Winter said dryly.

But somehow this made her feel slightly better--there is something comforting about familiar banter in a highly stressful situation.

But moments later Qrow slumped--he'd passed out.

This was not good.

"Qrow!" Winter said, shaking him.

Qrow stirred but didn't come to.

Oh no!

Winter got to her feet.

Ignoring how tired she was, and leaning on the wall, she stumbled along the passage.

Not like this...they could not lose another teammate like this...

[Yikes.]