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Atlas wobbled.
There was no other word Weiss could think of that described the sensation adequately. Something was very wrong. During her lonely childhood and schooling in Atlas, she couldn't remember the island noticeably moving. It had always been stable, a reminder of the security it provided to those humans fortunate enough to be allowed to live there. But then... They had once thought that Beacon was safe, too.
Weiss was trying not to panic. Atlas was beginning to list. She had arrived for her scheduled tour of the prime hover station, only to find that it was smoldering. Saboteurs, presumably working for Salem, had damaged the dust flows that provided the right proportions of gravity dust to various stasis stations throughout the raised city. Many thousands were doomed if the engineers couldn't find a way to stop the upper city from from crushing Mantle below.
Weiss's eyes widened as she remembered the events earlier in the day. Ruby and Oscar were trying to discover his semblance, but... Weiss remembered with horror that Blake and Yang had gone down to Mantle. Yang had winked at Nora shortly before insisting that Jaune join them, saying something about needing a non-threatening face. Nora blushed and backed into the room she shared with Ren and Jaune. Weiss couldn't remember ever seeing Nora in a bashful state.
“Miss Schnee, now would be a good time to evacuate. We will remain here. If we cannot stop the fall, we might be able to slow it and allow those below more time to escape the calamity.” The chief engineer was a solemn, no-nonsense professional. “The residual flows will keep us from impacting the ground for three and a half minutes. We estimate that we'll need eight minutes to re-establish the gravity flows. We're working on that, but we're going to need a miracle.”
Weiss couldn't help but think that if more Atlesians had his sense of duty, the city would never have been in danger of falling. She summoned a nevermore and climbed onto its back. “Sir, if there's anyone you can spare who could help at another station, now's the time for them to step forward. I can make it to any one of the spoke stations in less than a minute.”
He quickly ordered a slender man to climb up. “The Northwestern Station is undermanned, good luck.”
A quick flight saw them landing at the station. She dropped off the slim engineer and rounded the corner to fly beneath the city.
Weiss heard an unearthly sound as the city of Mantle descended upon the city of Atlas. Metal and stone tore apart as the city above began to crush the city below. Accompanying this were the screams. Hopeless, terrified screams. The people knew that they had no hope of outrunning the devastation. A lucky few might discover that their semblances were something like Ruby's in a situation like this, but most had no hope. Atlas was to become a mass grave to rival even Mountain Glen. She fought a sense of panic as she began to survey the fleeing crowds for the most visible symbol of her friends, Yang's hair. Seeing no one, Weiss flew deeper into the shadow of Atlas, know she had less than a minute to find her friends and escape the fall of another kingdom.
As she neared the city center, Weiss had to fly lower to keep her Nevermore from colliding with the lowering city. She was beginning to consider turning back when a flare of white light blasted out from small park in the center of Mantle that left behind a gentle golden glow as she blinked away the sunspots from the flare.
That could only be Yang. Weiss had seen Yang's hair glow, but it had never lit such a large area in Weiss's admittedly limited experience. What were they doing at the impact point? Why weren't they running? Jaune is convinced that he has more to prove, yes; and Yang will always be the first to throw herself in front of another to take a hit that they couldn't weather; and Blake wanted to make the world a better place; but, what could they do to stop this?
The boom or knell she was expecting never came. The city simply stopped moving.
There were still creaking sounds as the floating city struggled to stay together in the absence of gravity dust flows, but the tearing and shrieking of twisting and shearing metal and stone had gone silent. Weiss guided her Nevermore to the lowest point and approach the source of that golden glow.
Weiss wasn't ready for what she saw.
Yang was holding the city of Atlas aloft.
Weiss stumbled as she ran towards Yang. Disbelief and confusion battled between her ears and left her without her usual poise.
“How?”
“We don't know.” She turned to see Jaune looking at the city above and then at Yang. “She insisted she could stop this and wouldn't listen to me or Blake. She wasn't wrong, but we don't know how.”
As he responded, Weiss saw a number of stone Blakes appear around Yang, making it look as though Yang were posing in the middle of a strange art installation, where a number of stone cat faunus bridged the land below with the floating isle above. Weiss quickly threw the one magazine she carried of Earth dust toward the pair, knowing Blake would have noticed her presence.
“The engineers can restore the gravity dust flows in another three or four minutes. If she can hold out that long...” Weiss exhaled, “If she can hold it up for that long, it should stabilize or even reascend.”
Jaune brightened. “That's a relief. I was waiting until Yang falters. The idea was to boost her so that more can escape the crush. I... Its good to know we might not be sacrificing ourselves for this.”
Weiss stared before summoning an Arma Gigas. She wasn't sure what to make of Jaune's fatalism or Yang's willingness to sacrifice herself, but she'd do her part. If they were not to be crushed, there would be time to unravel this later.
After the icy Grimm took up a position near Yang, bracing its back against Atlas above, She turned back to Jaune, who she finally realized held his scroll toward Yang, recording the entire thing.
He spoke quietly, “I was thinking of recording a sort of last thought, something that might someday reach my family, but Blake told me that people need to see this. This could inspire people to stand against Salem, seeing what one person can do if they're determined.”
Weiss started recording as well, propping up her scroll to face Yang as she moved closer.
“About two minutes now, you say?” Yang's voice was strained as she answered something Blake had said.
Weiss hadn't really understood how art was supposed to be inspiring before this moment. She thought that a statue of Yang holding up Atlas, with the many Blakes flanking her, would inspire the Atlesian engineers more than the bland, inoffensive, corporate-approved art that dominated Atlas.
“Yeah, she said the engineers are working on it, but don't waste your strength on talking now. Later, we'll have time.” Blake looked a little wide-eyed, but her tone was soft and soothing. She turned to Weiss. “Do you have any plant dust? It's not as strong as the stone, but will help.”
Weiss handed over two vials. “Take it, and the ice dust. It won't melt for a few hours in this kingdom.”
Two more rings of Faunus statues encircled Yang. The wooden Blakes just behind the stone ones looked similar, but the Ice statues looked strange. Blake had to strain to bridge the gap at that distance from the center, so the ice statues showed Blake bracing the reforged Gambol Shroud against the city above.
Yang's breathing grew heavier, and the glow of her hair began to diminish. The strain of bearing Atlas was getting to her.
“Anytime now, Jaune,” Blake said. “It has to be before her aura breaks.”
He stepped forward and put a hand on Yang's shoulder. There was a soft white glow under his hand that was quickly drowned out as Yang's golden hair began to blaze again.
The four of them stood together, waiting for something to change, hoping that their efforts would be rewarded, when they heard a soothing sound: the rush of gravity dust coursing through the flows. As the trickle became a torrent, a spiderweb of dark light began to relight below the city of Atlas.
“Thirty seconds, Yang. Once the flows have a sufficient volume, the weight should lift.” Weiss couldn't help but feel she was reassuring herself as much as she was Yang.
Every second was an eternity. She felt her summoning break as she ran out of energy to maintain her knight. At the same time, Jaune fell to his knees, having drained himself to help Yang. A few of the crystalline, icy Blakes crumbled from an increase in pressure on their blades, but Yang stood strong as the rush of dark dust rose into a roar.
It was only when Atlas began to lift that she collapsed into Blake's arms, sending them both tumbling to the ground. “That w-was a think... thing. Don't wake m-me up until...” Yang was already out.
Blake started laughing. There was none of her usual restraint to it as she laughed and laughed until tears began to fall down her face.
Weiss trudged to where she'd propped up her scroll, ending the recording as Jaune did the same. It wasn't until she turned back to Blake and Yang that she realized that there were tears of relief coming from her eyes, too. When she wiped her eyes, she took in the sight before her with more calm.
The myriad of Blakes surrounding the latter half of RWBY made for an interesting and telling sight. They were not, as one might imagine, staring at city they briefly held aloft. They were all staring at the space where Yang had stood, with expressions of mixed determination and adoration.
Blake looked up at her surrounding clones and seemed to make a decision. She tightened her grasp on Yang, pressed her lips to the crown of Yang's head, and smiled.