diff --git a/megatron/core/pipeline_parallel/schedules.py b/megatron/core/pipeline_parallel/schedules.py
index b2c23807bea..2a6820b280a 100644
--- a/megatron/core/pipeline_parallel/schedules.py
+++ b/megatron/core/pipeline_parallel/schedules.py
@@ -45,7 +45,11 @@
 Shape = Union[List[int], torch.Size]
 
 
-def get_forward_backward_func(pp_size: Optional[int] = None, vp_size: Optional[int] = None):
+def get_forward_backward_func(
+    pp_size: Optional[int] = None,
+    vp_size: Optional[int] = None,
+    schedule_pg_collection: Optional[MultiModuleProcessGroupCollection] = None,
+):
     """Retrieves the appropriate forward_backward function given the
     configuration of parallel_state.
 
@@ -138,8 +142,13 @@ def forward_step(data_iterator, model):
         vp_size (Optional[int]): Virtual pipeline model parallel size to use.
             If both pp_size and vp_size are None, both values fall back to parallel_state.
             Otherwise, provided values are used as-is and None is treated as an explicit input.
+        schedule_pg_collection (Optional[MultiModuleProcessGroupCollection]): When a
+            multi-module (cross-grid) collection is passed, select the bridge schedule.
 
     """
+    if isinstance(schedule_pg_collection, MultiModuleProcessGroupCollection):
+        return forward_backward_pipelining_without_interleaving
+
     if pp_size is None and vp_size is None:
         pp_size = parallel_state.get_pipeline_model_parallel_world_size()
         vp_size = parallel_state.get_virtual_pipeline_model_parallel_world_size()
diff --git a/megatron/training/training.py b/megatron/training/training.py
index a7af8071f22..c347dd7df5c 100644
--- a/megatron/training/training.py
+++ b/megatron/training/training.py
@@ -2234,8 +2234,8 @@ def train_step(forward_step_func, data_iterator, model, optimizer, opt_param_sch
             model_chunk.force_all_reduce = save_wgrads_in_this_iteration
         optimizer.zero_grad()
 
-        if has_nvidia_modelopt:
-            # [ModelOpt]: Pipeline-parallel Distillation stacks student and teacher tensors
+        if has_nvidia_modelopt and getattr(args, "modelopt_enabled", False):
+            # Distillation shape-adjust reads parallel_state; only for modelopt-enabled runs.
             adjust_tensor_shapes_fn = get_tensor_shapes_adjust_fn_for_distillation(
                 model,
                 seq_length=args.seq_length,
@@ -2388,8 +2388,9 @@ def _save_state_dict(attr_name, label):
     if args.empty_unused_memory_level >= 2:
         torch.cuda.empty_cache()
 
-    if is_last_stage:
+    if is_last_stage and losses_reduced:
         # Average loss across microbatches.
+        # Last stage may have no loss (e.g. MIMO encoder-grid ranks).
         loss_reduced = {}
         for key in losses_reduced[0].keys():
             val = [x[key].view(-1) for x in losses_reduced]
@@ -3352,7 +3353,9 @@ def train(
     eval_duration = 0.0
     eval_iterations = 0
     # Wrap forward_backward_func for Full iteration CUDA graph
-    forward_backward_func = get_forward_backward_func()
+    forward_backward_func = get_forward_backward_func(
+        schedule_pg_collection=schedule_pg_collection
+    )
     if args.cuda_graph_impl == "full_iteration":
         forward_backward_func = FullCudaGraphWrapper(
             forward_backward_func,