Chapter: 9
This wasn't supposed to happen.
It was a standard mission, extermination. A solo mission. What went wrong?
There wasn't supposed to be so many, but the Intel had been wrong. Oh, so wrong. The mission was an extermination mission, but meant for an entire team, not a solo run.
He was overrun.
Team RWBY had heard the news, and Ruby had broken down into tears. He was her first friend, and for a long time, her only friend. Someone she could talk weapons with.
For Yang, he was someone she could talk to about most stuff that interested her. Someone who would listen to her while they had a drink at the bar or lunch at the Café whenever Blake was busy.
For Blake, they weren't as close as say Yang ad himself, but they got along well. They held conversation on topics that interested them both. He had even lead to several Faunus Civil Rights Reforms in places that not even Weiss could reach.
For Weiss, he was also close friend. He would understand finances and stocks when she needed to express her excitement in that area, but no one was willing to listen. He made office life livelier, and was the reason for their joint tower in the middle of Atlas.
Yang was trying to comfort Ruby, until her own emotions overtook her. Blake then took over and tried to calm down the blonde, despite her own tears coming down as well. Weiss tried her best to console Ruby, but the hiccuping was proving to be more difficult to handle. They heard the front door open, and they all looked to see who it was.
Alexis hadn't noticed them in the living room, having just gotten back from a hunt in the remote Vacuo region. She threw her coat in the empty washing machine before walking over to the living room, where she stopped at the sight. Her face turned to one of concern.
The four woman were crying, Ruby looking up from Weiss chest to Alexis.
"Lex" she couldn't even finish before sobs racked her body again. Nothing was out of place. Alexis looked around the living room. Everything was normal, there wasn't anything wrong. Her eyes widened in realization.
Where was he?
She slowly turned to the TV, dreading what would show up after the commercials finished playing. The bottom black news ticker showed "PNA" in red as it had finished scrolling, but she managed to catch the words "Pronounced Dead."
She swayed, and her heart began to slam against her ribcage. She began to shake her head. She looked over to the others.
"Where's Alexander...?"
And the wails grew louder.
Ruby was all but screaming as she clung to Weiss in desperation, shaking and shuddering and sobbing. She was trying to say something, but none of the words were coherent, not when they were fused with heart-shattering cries.
Alexis knew she wouldn't be able to give her an answer. So she looked to Weiss, pleading.
And she shook her head as the tears finally slipped out.
She could see it in Weiss's eyes.
The blonde took a step back as she felt the blood drain from her face. Shaking her head a little faster.
She would accept anything else.
Anything-
Anything but that.
Him cheating on her, leaving her for another Woman-
Anything.
Alexis two word question received an emotionally broken two word response.
"He's dead."
To say that her world was crumbling would be a gross understatement.
Alexis collapsed to her knees and hands, she could feel her tears falling freely. She was hyperventilating.
'No, this can't be happening!'
The sound of Commercials interrupting for the News Anchor got her attention, whipping her head to the TV.
VNN: Breaking News.
"For those of you just joining us, Alexander Rojo, CEO of the PNA Corporation AG, has been declared dead. A hunt gone terribly wrong. The International Hunters Association President Mikhail Valka has reportedly evaded police custody and is now a wanted fugitive. The Federal Investigation Bureau and the AGR6 have official ruled this case a 'Murder' by providing incorrect and misleading intelligence that ultimately led to his death. And 'A Terrorist Act' for attempting to destabilize the Remnant Economy. His body was found after an SOS was received by the Research in Motion Group, and was described as 'Torn apart and unrecognizable and beyond saving' by new acting Reichsführer-SS Rei Azure."
Alexis broke down completely. The IHA had just sent him to his grave!
She'd just seen Alex this morning. She'd just gotten off a call with her a few hours ago about her own mission. He was supposed to come home tonight.
She cried harder as she realized that she was the last person to speak to him Alive.
She wailed as she remembered they were supposed to get married in three weeks. This was their last solo hunt.
She didn't feel her team approach her, arms trying to console her.
With one final, heartbroken cry, she lost consciousness. World fading to Black.
His funeral had been a private affair. In the same cemetery as his parents. They were dressed in all black. Many of their friends showed up. Everyone gave their condolences to her, Team JNPR had tried their best to come to terms and understand what she was going through. But thinking about it brought both Nora and Pyrrha to tears, thinking it could have been Jaune or Ren instead. It could have been any of them.
As his casket was being lowered, the truth hit Alexis again like a ton of bricks. This wasn't some sick joke. He was dead, and nothing was going to bring him back.
She broke down and began to cry again, her agony filled cries being the only sound amongst the silence.
Later, during the night, the PNA logo…One representing technological innovation and a secure future for all, whose Logo shines brightly alongside the SDC logo, was turned off. Something which everyone in the downtown area watched in shock, many saw it as a sign of respect, few understood the true implications that would come of it.
A few months later, Atlas Stock Exchange.
What was going on?
Weiss had woken up to several voicemails, panic within each one. She had to leave Ruby early in the morning and drove to the PNSDC Infinitower.
News outlets were waiting for her outside the building, mics pointed in her direction.
The CEO walked passed them without answering, and Blake was at her side instantly.
"What's going on?" She asked the Faunus.
"PNA is going under, and it's dragging the SDC with it."
They kept walking, Weiss trying to absorb the situation. But it didn't make any sense.
The PNA was the single largest company the world has ever seen, having market share in Everything.
"How? When?" Weiss asked. She took hold of the PNA the day after his death was confirmed.
"We don't exactly know how, but this all started when the Authorities officially ruled his death as "An act of Terrorism.""
Weiss reached her destination, monitors with charts filled the room. Several people typing away on their keyboards and speaking, clearly with panic.
Blake was handed a piece of paper, and forwarded it to Weiss.
"Weiss, you might want to have a read."
Taking the piece of paper, she began to read it.
It was a sort of doomsday later. His company had begun to destroy itself from within. How had this passed Weiss? How had she not noticed something like this?
Every single one of the companies under the PNA umbrella was showing record losses. More than the worth of the company. Weiss didn't know what to do, she wasn't taught to deal with something of this caliber.
As time passed, it got worse. The PNA total value the day before had just passed ¤ 1 Trillion in total value.
Several companies had already declared bankruptcy before Weiss had woken up. Apple and HTC, the largest companies under the PNA, had already hemorrhaged money to the point that the HTC and Apple Brand were deemed 'Worthless' by outside investors and had lost so much in such a short time that the Atlesian stock exchange had to remove the companies from trading the very next hour.
One by one, the PNA lost company after company, each one having the paper work for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing.
By lunch, Weiss had no choice but to dissolve the PNSDC initiative.
Weiss could only watch in horror as the PNA sank. Since the PNSDC was dissolved, there was no CEO. Rei had stepped down half an hour later after being named CEO.
The world was in a state of shock at the events. News outlets reported on the event's with a state of urgency. By 3:00, the company's total assets surpassed the value of the company brand itself. Officially that meant that the PNA Brand/logo was deemed "Worthless".
Minute by minute, thousands of people lost their jobs, without warning. Families who relied on the company as their sole source of income had, in the blink of an eye, become unemployed.
By 4:00, the last of the companies under the PNA had gone under. IMD had just announced bankruptcy.
A few moments later, the unthinkable happened.
The PNA itself had finished itself off. The Company itself officially declaring bankruptcy.
Millions had just lost their jobs.
By 4:30, the dust had settled and the extent of the damage was revealed.
Over ¤500 Billion of its market value was wiped out.
RIM was the last to go, it's patents for most its weapons having expired a few days ago, but no public blueprints had been released.
Weiss and Blake went home, and the mood at home wasn't much better. Team JNPR was there, having seen the events on the news. The mood was grim, as everyone knew the cost of this wasn't measured in Lien lost, but in lives affected.
The Next Day.
Weiss arrived to the scene of Infinitower evacuated. No one was in either of the buildings. There was a bomb threat in the PNA side of the building.
Weiss immediately noticed an explosion, followed by several more running alongside the building.. She and Blake made their way to her car. They closed the door, and closed the air vents before grabbing the Hazmat suits. People on the street were unfortunately unlucky as they would have to inhale the harmful asbestos.
As the cloud of smoke slowly cleared, the building was no longer there, Instead a pile of rubble in its place.
No one was killed, but that was the final nail in the coffin for the Company. The three lettered logo fell to the streets, joining the pile of rubble that once represented the largest company in the world.
The image that was posted on the internet a few hours later gave a sense of finality, of confirmation of what had happened. On the left was the PNA side of the Infintower, its logo shining brightly, providing a beacon of hope for most as a company that worked for the people.
On the right was the state of the building now, laying in ruin and rubble. The logo on the ground, shattered. Like the heart of the now deceased Alexis Blau, having killed herself a few days after her fiancés funeral. Not being able to live a life without him. He was all that she had left after her brother, Atticus, was killed in the plane crash a year ago.
The picture of the building now was the closing chapter for the PNA. For though Alexander may have given them all a future with that company, he was stabbed in the back. And he retaliated from beyond the grave. He left Remnant economically ruined. He had built a bright future, before pulling the curtain on it. And that set off a chain reaction.
Millions would be left without a job. Entire Governments that relied on his technology, or his private military, collapsed.
Banks began to panic, causing the housing bubble to burst again. Bank of Atlas and Lehman Bros. went under
The Second Dot Com Bubble burst. Companies like Netflix, Amazon, and eBay went under
The second video game crash happened. Nintendo went under as Microsoft pulled the plug on the Xbox. Sony also pulled the plug on the PlayStation.
He left this as his calling card for those who had masterminded his death. Millions of innocent people would be unfortunate victims. He had a plan, one for Peace for the entire world. But it never came to be. This was the future now, and it was a future without him in it.
