RWBY: MRRN

Volume 6, Chapter 37: Destination: Atlas

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY. All rights go to Rooster Teeth.

"So, is everyone ready?" Qrow asked after everyone had gathered their belongings and were ready to leave the Nikos household where Pyrrha's family had gathered to see them off.

"We're ready," Ruby assured. "I still can't believe we're going to Atlas in a flagship! This is so cool!"

"Do we have to leave now?" Nora asked. "I mean, we just fought a major battle, didn't we? We're tired."

"You'll have time to rest on the ship," Qrow answered. "It's a long way to Atlas, so we'll have plenty of time to catch some shut eye."

"Good," Blake sighed. "I definitely need some rest after what happened. Even with my Aura restored, my back's still killing me."

"You sure you don't want help with your bag?" Yang asked her teammate, gesturing to the sack that was held up by the strap on Blake's shoulder.

"I'll be fine," she assured. Before it was time to walk out the door, Pyrrha took Math's hand and walked over to her family, who greeted him warmly.

"Thank you for letting us stay here," Math spoke. "How are you feeling, Kokkinos?"

"I'm feeling fine," he responded. "I just wished I could've been fighting along with you, but Commander Brownwood insisted that I stay in the safe zones in case anything got it. I heard you went toe to toe with Nachtfel."

"I did," Math confirmed. "Well, technically, my sister, cousin and I did."

"Still, that's impressive," Kokkinos admitted. "I can certainly see what Pyrrha fell for you." Pyrrha blushed and turned her head away from her beloved. Seeing his little sister's face turn red, Kokkinos smirked.

"I always did like the idea of having a brother-in-law," he spoke again, much to Pyrrha's embarrassment. Kokkinos laughed at his little sister, earning a playful punch from her.

"Alright, enough, Kokkinos," Thetis told her son before looking at her younger daughter. "Are you sure you wish to go to Atlas, Pyrrha?"

"I'm sure," she answered. "We won against our enemy today. Their numbers in Anima are crippled now, but Atlas may be the next target. We must get there as soon as possible."

"Well, whoever you go up against, stay safe," Thetis told Pyrrha. "I wish you all the best of luck." Pyrrha then hugged her mother, sister and brother, bidding them all farewell.

"You stay safe, sis," Kokkinos told Pyrrha before looking over at Math. "Do you like the idea of being an in-law to the Nikos family?"

"Kokkinos!" Pyrrha barked, pushing him aside and getting a laugh out of him. Math blushed heavily at Kokkinos's words before Pyrrha pulled him away and back to the group as they were getting ready to leave.

Marriage. It seemed that path with Pyrrha was inevitable for him. They had loved each other, supported each other through thick and thin and couldn't imagine being with anyone else. They had even given their love to each other back in Mistral, something that solidified the affection and desire for each other.

That dream seemed far off with everything that was happening: the Fall of Beacon, the attack on Haven, the Battle of Argus…the war with Salem was escalating and she and her allies would stop at nothing to get what they want. For Salem, she wanted to divide the world, driving humanity to fight amongst themselves for they could never be redeemed in the eyes of the Brother Gods.

Cinder desired power and would cut down anyone in her way, bringing nothing but pain and hatred as they were the only things she ever knew. Nachtfel wanted the complete annihilation of the current society so a new one could be born from the ashes, a new society built on corpses. Before any of them could contemplate their futures together, they must first win the war against Salem.

"How will you be getting to Vacuo, Forest?" Grayson asked the eagle.

"We already spoke to a Mistral pilot," Forest answered. "He's agreed to take us there."

"Be careful," Math told Forest.

"Same to the rest of you," the eagle swordsman replied. "We better head off soon."

-0-

"You're sure about going to Atlas?" Silvio asked Luna. "We may need you here in Anima."

"Salem will go after the Relic and we're taking the Relic to Atlas," Luna replied. "Plus…I really need to connect with my dad. I need this for my own sake."

"Just be careful," Oren replied, putting his hand on her shoulder. "General Ironwood may not be in a stable state of mind, judging from the actions he's been making lately."

"We'll discuss what we tell him on our way there," Luna replied. "We'll be careful and come up with a plan once we get there. I mean, the next course of action that is; we already have a plan to defeat Salem."

"Well, Mistral's still going to need help considering everything that's happened," Silvio brought up. "So I'll be going back there along with the others."

"To pursue the Iron Knights?" Cole questioned. "We need to take the fight to them."

"Slow down, Cole," Aria insisted. "We've won this battle, but we are in no position to go recklessly hunting them down. We need to be cautious about how we approach this."

"No, we need to hunt them down!" Cole stated again. "We need…we need…"

"Cole," Oren spoke. "We'll find him."

"Him?" Silvio asked, confused. "What are you talking about?"

"Ebon," Cole answered. "He was alive."

"What!?" Luna gasped. "Are you serious? Where was he?"

"He's…he's with them," Cole growled. "He calls himself Renegade now."

"Wait," Silvio stopped. "Your brother…is with the Iron Knights? You cannot be serious."

"I saw him," Oren confirmed. "He led the strike on the force field generator during the battle."

"Oh, my…" Aria gasped, showing shock. "Ebon…I'm so sorry, Cole."

"I don't need your apologies," he rebuked. "I need to find my brother. I need to bring him home."

"We will find him," Silvio assured. "But our focus needs to be on protecting Mistral's borders. I'm sorry, Cole, but I'm not sacrificing good men just to hunt down one man."

"Silvio-"

"That's enough, Cole," Oren silenced. "We will find him when we can. But Silvio's right; we need to focus on protecting Mistral's borders first."

Cole sighed heavily. This was a cruel twist of fate for him; he had spent so long hoping that his older brother was still alive, only to find out that he had become an Iron Knight and had clearly bought into their propaganda. He didn't know the details surrounding how his brother was brought into their order, but he needed to find out. He needed to know if there was some way he could save his brother.

"I'll see you guys later," Luna told them. She hugged each of her teammates before hugging and kissing Silvio, then left the room to meet up at the Argus Airfield.

As she walked away, she couldn't help but feel sorry for her team leader. To see him learn such a horrible truth about his relative that was long thought to be dead…it was heartbreaking. In the future, they'd have to fight again and possibly end with one of them dead.

"I'm sorry, Cole," she apologized, feeling sympathy for her team leader.

-0-

"Whoa!" Nasser gasped as he looked at the Odysseus, which was currently in the Argus Airfield. "We're going to Atlas in that!?"

"You are," a voice spoke, belonging to a dark-skinned male in red armor at the entrance to the ship. "I understand that Glaucus Viisaus wouldn't be with you."

"He won't," Math confirmed. "He's chosen to stay in Argus for now until things are back to normal. But we're still carrying the lamp."

"So you are," another voice spoke, belonging to what appeared to be a commanding officer. "You must be Glaucus's companions, correct?"

"We are," Qrow replied. "Who are you?"

"This is Colonel Geom-Eun Holang-I," Andre introduced. "He's the captain of the ship you're about to embark on."

"This is my Top Specialist, Andre Carnelian," Geom introduced as well. "Is this everyone coming with you?"

"Yes, Colonel," Math confirmed.

"Very well," Geom-Eun replied. "And please, just call me Geom." He then turned to Andre.

"Please our guests to the resting quarters on the ship," he ordered. "I'm sure they must be tired after a long battle. I'm sorry that you have to leave right away, but General Ironwood's ordered me to bring you to Atlas as soon as possible."

"We understand," Ruo replied. "And thanks."

"If you'll follow me," Andre offered, gesturing for the group to follow him. As they were getting onboard, Math saw Commander Brownwood passing by, issuing orders to the troops…who was also his biological uncle.

Math was tempted to tell him, but couldn't bring himself to do so. He deserved to know the truth, to know that he had a nephew that he never knew about. He wished he could just go over and tell him, but considering his lack of evidence and the time strain they were on, he couldn't do so at the moment and turned his attention back to the ship that would take them to Atlas.

"You okay, Math?" Robin asked, his echolocation showing his cousin's hesitance.

"It's nothing," he claimed. Robin could easily tell that Math was lying, but sensing the solemnness in his voice, he decided not to push it as Andre led them to the resting quarters.

"Here we are," he spoke, opening the doors to show two different rooms with six sets of bunk beds each. They didn't care about which rooms they ended up; they just strolled over to the beds, placed their bags down and laid on the bunks. Teams MRRN and JNPR, along with Saf, rested in one room while Grayson, Luna, Oscar, Qrow and Team RWBY rested in the other.

"Let us know if you need anything," Andre told them, closing the doors behind him.

"Let's get some rest," Grayson suggested.

"Actually, before we get too comfortable, I feel we should talk about something first," Qrow suggested, activating his scroll and putting on a group chat so everyone was in on the conversation.

"Yeah?" Math asked over his scroll since he was in a different room than Qrow. "What is it?"

"I felt we should talk things over before we get to Atlas," Qrow spoke. "About what we'll tell Ironwood."

"Why not tell him everything?" Ren suggested. "I mean, we have a solid plan to defeat Salem, don't we?"

"I'm not sure if that's the best plan to just spill everything," Math replied. "I mean, we barely know anything about our Dark Herald abilities. We can't give him concrete evidence on something we barely know anything about. All Jinn told us was that we have these powers, but not how to use them."

"Can we trust General Ironwood right now?" Pyrrha asked. "The Dust Embargo, the closing of borders…the Maiden situation. Qrow, was Ironwood on board with forcing the powers on me?" Qrow sighed.

"He was. He agreed with Ozpin that forcing the powers may be necessary."

"Not to mention he stabbed Ozpin in the back when he was in Vale," Robin added. "If Ironwood was willing to betray Ozpin, then what will stop him from doing the same to us?"

"Well, considering what happened after our missions, it could've meant that Ironwood thought that Ozpin wasn't taking the necessary precautions," Ruby insisted. "I mean…now that I think about it, maybe he shouldn't have let us go to Mountain Glenn."

"He wouldn't have if you hadn't kept that information from him." Robin pointed out. "If you said something earlier, then Vale being breached may not have happened. Ozpin's to blame for some things, but you going to Mt. Glenn…that's on you."

"Okay, don't do that," Weiss protested. "You don't need to be harsh towards Ruby for-"

"No, he's right," Ruby confessed. "We've seen what happens when we think we're the only ones who can do things right. But I don't know if we should tell Ironwood everything immediately. We should at least make sure he can be trusted first."

"So you're suggesting that we keep important information from him?" Ren asked. "If we do that, how are we any different from Ozpin? May I remind everyone what we criticized him for especially?"

"We're perfectly aware, Ren," Ruo spoke. "Ozpin only trusted himself with the whole truth. Even when others proved they could be trusted, he still wouldn't tell them; more often than not, that got people killed. We're not suggesting that we not tell Ironwood at all; what we're suggesting is making sure he can be trusted first before we tell him everything. He may not be in a stable state of mind."

"It's easy for us to say," Blake replied. "We weren't betrayed countless times like Ozpin was. Many of you heard what he said: even his most trusted friends turned on him."

"Even if that's true, that's not an excuse," Yang insisted. "Ozpin kept secrets even when it was getting people killed. Professor Kura, Mom…people died because of him keeping secrets to himself. Did we need to know every little detail about his past with Salem? No. Did we need to know that he and Salem were lovers? No. I wouldn't hold it against him for not saying those things, but we needed to know about the Relics, about his plan, about the real stakes involved…he wouldn't have had to relive those memories from Jinn if he had just been honest with us."

"Can we really fault Ironwood for not trusting Ozpin?" Oscar asked. "I mean, he was with him for a long time; he must've known that Ozpin's tendency to keep secrets was causing much more harm than good."

"Ironwood doesn't trust anyone," Qrow pointed out. "He's just as guilty of trust issues as Ozpin; they both wanted people to trust them, but they wouldn't trust others. Trust is a two way street and Ironwood doesn't get that."

"You worked with Ironwood a lot," Pyrrha spoke. "What more can you tell us about him? Do you think he can be trusted?"

"To be honest, I'm not sure," Qrow replied. "Ironwood's got a good heart, but he's got a thick head. He thinks everything can be solved with military force; you all saw that at the Vytal Festival. He thinks that the only way to keep people safe is with armies, with lots and lots of soldiers and firepower."

"It sounds like you can't give a definite answer," Oscar replied. "Before he disappeared, Ozpin told me pretty much what you said about General Ironwood. His heart's in the right place, but his…tendencies can make him unpredictable sometimes. He's always struggled to trust others and he could be challenging to work with."

"Ozpin's just being nice," Qrow replied. "Ironwood's real difficult to work with if he's not in charge. He was already paranoid before, but now…I don't know."

"I agree that keeping the Dark Herald abilities from him for now would be for the best," Saf agreed. "At least, until we gain a better understanding of them."

"But what if Ironwood could help you guys?" Ren suggested. "Atlas is sure to have resources that can help."

"How can he help us when he doesn't know what this is either?" Math asked. "Like we said, we're practically learning by ourselves here. We need time to learn more about our powers before we tell Ironwood."

"I'm on board," Ruby agreed.

"Well, what about what Jinn told us about Salem?" Grayson asked. "About she can be destroyed?"

"The Silver Eyes and the Dark Heralds," Luna brought up. "Well, we can't tell Ironwood about the Dark Heralds yet, but what about the Silver Eyes?"

"That was something Ozpin discussed sometimes," Qrow brought up. "Ironwood knows about them, but I doubt he knew about Ozpin's plan to use them."

"So what will we tell him?" Nasser asked. "Keeping important information came back to bite Ozpin and…well, Ozpin in the ass. What's to stop the same from happening to us?"

"As we said, Nasser, Ozpin only trusted himself with the whole truth," Ruo repeated. "We're not valuing secrets over the lives of innocent people. But considering everything we've seen and heard, it'd be wise to make sure Ironwood is in a stable state of mind before we tell him everything."

"But we can't keep everything from him," Oscar insisted. "We'd need to tell him that all the questions are used up, which they are. Also, with everything that's going on, perhaps we should tell him about the Silver Eyes being essential to defeating Salem. He may need some hope; he may need to know that there is a solid way to stop her."

"Either way is risky," Weiss spoke. "If Ironwood finds out about what we're keeping from him some other way, it could damage his trust in us. But if we do tell him everything at once, we don't know how he'll react. His paranoia and extremist tendencies make him unpredictable. That and…" Weiss was suddenly silent.

"Your father?" Jaune asked. "You're afraid of what he may try to do?"

"He's proven that he will do anything to get what he wants," Weiss replied. "But that's not the hot issue right now; right now, we need to determine what we tell Ironwood before we get to Atlas."

"Should we tell him about what the Relics really are?" Grayson questioned. "Shouldn't he deserve to know what's really at stake?"

"Maybe," Robin responded. "The big issue is that Ironwood is unpredictable sometimes. He's paranoid and an extremist; he may not know when enough is enough."

"That's true, but if he doesn't know the true danger of letting Salem win, then he may be underprepared," Ruby insisted. "I think we should tell him about the Relics. We don't have to tell him about Ozma and Salem's history together, but we should at least let him know the real stakes. This war with Salem will determine the fate of Remnant; if Salem gets all four Relics and summons the Gods back now, then we'll be wiped from existence."

"But what about the Silver Eyes?" Yang asked. "Shouldn't we tell him about them?"

"Well, Ironwood knows that they're effective against Grimm," Qrow brought up. "So we may not be able to just ignore bringing them up."

"What about Ozpin's disappearance?" Oscar asked. "I think Ironwood would want to know why Ozpin's not here."

"Yeah," Math agreed hesitantly. "That's one big thing. Should we just tell Ironwood that after we used the Relic, Ozpin retreated into Oscar's head?"

"He'll want to know why," Weiss insisted. "What should we tell him?"

"Maybe we tell him we don't know," Ruby suggested. "I mean, we could say that after we used one of the questions, he disappeared and we don't know why."

"That honestly sounds like a half-baked lie," Nasser spoke. "I doubt Ironwood will buy that Ozpin just disappeared for no reason."

"Maybe Ruby's right," Pyrrha suggested. "Perhaps for now, we don't tell Ironwood how Ozpin disappeared, only that he did."

The discussion lasted much longer than expected, valid points being brought up all over the place concerning what to tell and what not to tell General Ironwood. Eventually, it was decided that the group would tell him about the Relics, all questions being used up, Ozpin's plan and that they didn't know why Ozpin had disappeared.

"I guess we're all in agreement," Blake spoke. "But…are we really any different from Ozpin for doing this? For keeping secrets from Ironwood?"

"To be honest, we may not," Pyrrha admitted. "Maybe we were too hard on Ozpin if we're about to do what he did."

"We are NOT like Ozpin," Math insisted. "Ozpin kept secrets, even when it was getting people killed. Once we've gotten a better understanding of our powers, we'll tell Ironwood the truth, provided that we know if we can trust him or not."

"But if we can't trust him?" Grayson asked. "Do we just stay in Atlas?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there," Qrow replied. "For now, let's get some rest." No one argued with that as they laid down on their bunks and rested, tired from the long battle of Argus.

-0-

"What is this?" Nachtfel wondered, looking at his diamond arm. "It tore through his Aura like nothing. What…is this?"

All he could do was now stare in at his new limb, completely in shock as to what caused it. Had Salem's new weapon done something to his body that he didn't foresee? He had many questions, but nowhere to find answers.

"Nachtfel," Salem's voice addressed, coming from a Seer Grimm. "I heard of your failure at Argus. How bad were your losses?"

"Crippling," Nachtfel admitted. "The Atlesian Fleet arrived much sooner than we expected. They must've learned about the force field generator?"

"Why didn't you just reactivate it?" Salem questioned.

"Because that bastard, Mercury, damaged the controls," Nachtfel answered angrily. "We don't have enough resources to launch another attack on the city. Even if we-" One of the Seer's tentacles lashed out and grabbed Nachtfel's arm; the devil warrior couldn't see it, but Salem had a look of shock and fear on her scowl.

"It can't be," she whispered so Nachtfel couldn't hear her. "It can't be."

"Let go!" Nachtfel barked, freeing his arm from the Seer.

For once in a long time, Salem was scared. There was no doubt that Nachtfel was possibly a Dark Herald, one of those capable of killing her. Unless…

Nachtfel clearly had no knowledge on the Dark Heralds, so he didn't know that he possessed the power to destroy her. This could be used to her advantage.

"Return to the castle," she requested. "I must speak with you in person."

"Do you want Emerald and Mercury back?" Nachtfel questioned. "I'd happily give them to you after what they did."

"Just come back," Salem demanded.

Nachtfel couldn't help but be suspicious. Why would she suddenly request him back to the castle when he was needed in the field? He was supposed to be her field commander since they lost Adam Taurus.

It had to do with his new arm, which had surprisingly gained her attention. Perhaps she had the answers he was looking for.

-0-

There was a knock at the door of the two rooms. Math and Qrow both woke up and opened the doors to their rooms, yawning as they did.

"Glad to see you're awake," Andre greeted them. "Colonel Holang-I wants to meet with all you in his captain's quarters immediately."

"Okay," they replied groggily before waking everyone up from their sleep and following Andre out of their rooms.

"How long were we asleep?" Nasser asked, rubbing the back of his head.

"All day," Andre answered. "We'll be arriving in Atlas soon, but Colonel Holang-I wanted to speak with you first."

"Sure," Qrow replied. In a few minutes, Andre led them to a room that looked like a large, spacious office with a big window on each side. Colonel Holang-I sat at his desk, reading a book about Atlesian history.

"Thank you all for coming," Geom greeted. When all of them entered and sat down, Andre closed the door behind them.

"So what'd you want to talk about?" Ruby asked.

"To talk to you about the Relic," Geom asked. "Are all the questions used up?"

Everyone looked at Geom with shock and surprise, not expecting him to know about the Relic. They were at a complete loss of words to respond with.

"General Ironwood told us everything," Carnelian explained, speaking up. "The Relics, Salem, Ozpin, this secret war…everything he knew, he told us."

"Us?" Qrow asked. "Who else did he tell?"

"You'll see when we arrive in Atlas," Geom informed. "Were all the questions used up?"

"They were," Ren spoke up, recollecting himself from the shock.

"Oh," Geom replied. "General Ironwood was really hoping that there'd be at least one question left."

"Okay, hold on!" Math spoke. "Who did General Ironwood tell about this?"

"He told a few of his most elite soldiers and commanders," Andre replied. "Colonel Holang-I, Colonel Sonceto, a few Specialists, including Winter Schnee-"

"Ironwood told my sister about Salem?" Weiss gasped.

"Yes," Geom informed. "After the Fall of Beacon, he felt he needed a circle of those he could trust. That included myself, Colonel Sonceto, his Ace Operatives and several Specialists and Commandos. There's more to tell, but he'd prefer to tell you in person when you arrive." There was suddenly a knock at the door of the office.

"Come in," he answered, then an Atlas soldier walked inside.

"Colonel, we're entering Atlesian airspace," the soldier informed. "We'll be arriving in Atlas in less than twenty minutes."

"Alright," Geom responded. "Thank you for letting me know. Is there anything else?"

"Yes, sir," the soldier informed. "We've already secured a landing bay for the ship near the Main Airfield. We'll be landing in Docking Bay 37."

"Thank you," Geom responded. "Dismissed." The soldier saluted the Colonel and walked out of the office.

"So, what exactly has Ironwood been up to?" Qrow questioned the Colonel. "The Dust Embargo, the closing of borders, refusing to send help to Mistral until after the attack on Haven…"

"I'm not a big fan of some of his choices either," Geom admitted. "Once we arrive in Atlas, he'll explain everything to you. What I can tell you is that he has plans that'll benefit all of Remnant."

"Is that so?" Math asked, not bothering to hide his suspicion. "Well, from what I've seen, I'd say the opposite."

"In some ways, yes," Geom agreed. "As I said, I don't agree with some of his recent actions, but once you know everything, you'll see what we're trying to do."

"Whoa," Blake gasped as she looked out the window, prompting everyone to do the same.

On the ground was a city that was faintly lit with smoke rising from the buildings. It appeared old, outdated and rather desolate, unlike the floating land mass above it. The floating city above was beautifully lit and had Atlesian ships surrounding it in all directions.

"Is that what I think it is?" Math asked, his mouth agape in awe.

"It is," Weiss replied with a rather sour tone. "Down there is Mantle. The city above it…is the Kingdom of Atlas."

"We made it," Ruby spoke with hope.

Author's Notes: Thus ends Volume 6!

Six RWBY Volumes. SIX RWBY VOLUMES! Who ever knew I'd write this many? Thank you all for your support and ideas that have really helped me! I'll post a notice when I start Volume 7! Until then, keep reading and writing!