RWBY: MRRN
Volume 6, Chapter 20: Sins of the Elders
Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY. All rights go to Rooster Teeth
The morning arrived much faster than the group anticipated; they wished they could sleep in to rest up from the previous battle with the Furies, but they didn't have the luxury of doing so at the moment. They had to keep moving to Atlas, whatever it took to get there and reunite with their friends.
"Come on, let's go," Forest told the group. "We can rest once we get to Argus."
"Okay," Math yawned as he got up and started eating some of the food Grayson offered to them.
"So, have you considered my offer?" the archer asked.
The group had been so tired that they hadn't though of Grayson's offer to help them. It was obvious that Qrow was against it, considering his scowl expressing his distrust towards the young man.
"I see no reason why not," Ruby suggested. "If he says he knows his way around the Grimm breeding grounds, then then I say we let him tag along."
"He does know about Salem," Math brought up. "And the Silver Eyes, of course. Maybe we can trust him."
"Just because people know stuff doesn't mean they can be trusted," Qrow remarked, bitterly remembering Ozpin.
"Qrow, you saw what happened back at the manor," Oscar reasoned. "We got lucky that time; we could've died because we were too busy being angry at each other."
"Look, we're burning daylight," Luna spoke up. "We've got a ways to go and I'd rather not run into those Furies again. I say he should come with us."
After some discussion among the group, it was agreed that they'd accept Grayson's offer to help. Qrow was still unsure of the young man, but there was no denying the threat the Furies posed. If there were more of them, they had to be avoided as much as possible.
"Okay," Grayson started as he gathered his weapons. "Let's get ready to leave." As he was about to walk away from the fire, Qrow grabbed his arm and looked at him.
"I'm keeping my eye on you," he stated before letting him go.
Everyone packed their belongings along with some supplies and made their way out of the hideout, following Grayson onto the snow.
"Do you think those mercenaries are still out there?" Blake asked.
"The ones who tried to kidnap me?" Weiss remembered with disgust. "I have no doubts they're still trying to find me. My father never was one to tolerate disrespect towards his ego; if he's offended in the slightest, he'll find some way to get back at those who insulted him."
"Wow, what a jackass," Nasser scoffed. "A criminal, an abusive father, a total scumbag…what more is there?"
"I'm almost afraid to know if there is more," Weiss answered. "I knew he was never a good man, but this…" She sighed.
"We'll make sure he pays," Yang assured, putting her hand on Weiss's shoulder. "With that evidence, Jacques is sure to be locked away for a long time."
"I wish I could see the headlines," Saf spoke. "But I can imagine them: 'Jacques Schnee: Corruption Exposed'."
"Man, the people of Mantle would celebrate like no tomorrow," Oren spoke. "No one in Mantle likes him."
"Let's at least focus on getting to Argus first," Ruo replied. "Then we can get to Atlas and turn the evidence over to the Council."
Weiss couldn't wait. She finally had the evidence necessary to remove her father from power, the same man who married into the family, stole the name for himself and destroyed her grandfather's legacy.
The SDC was meant to help get people out of poverty, but her father's leadership, he prioritized profits over his workers, which kept them in poverty. Nicholas Schnee wanted to use the company to help the people of Mantle find hope for a better future, but Jacques had used the same company for his own selfish glory.
Jacques had gone to criminal lengths to get what he wanted. He had killed Adam Taurus's parents simply for speaking out against him, along with Arthur Blanco. He had branded Adam like an animal and beat him to a bloody pulp simply for reminding him that he was not a true Schnee.
"Weiss?" Blake asked, noticing her teammate didn't look focused.
"I'm fine," she assured. "I guess…I guess I'm still getting over the fact of what I saw on that scroll. I knew he was never a saint, but…"
"Now you know," Yang responded. "Now you can do what you set out to do: redeem your family's name."
"Yes…" Weiss replied. "To be honest, I don't know if…I can. What will happen when the world learns of what my father did? He didn't stop at being just a terrible boss and selfish egotist, Yang; he was a monster who destroyed millions of lives. Sooner or later, the world will know…I honestly don't know if I can redeem my family name at this point."
"You can," Math assured. "It'll take time, but I'm sure you'll be able to make people trust the SDC again."
"Stop," Grayson told everyone. "We need to go left here."
"Why here?" Qrow questioned, still keeping his eye on the masked archer.
"Another place inhabited by Furies is two miles in that direction," Grayson informed, acting to ignore Qrow's distrust towards him. "We go left now, we get rid of any chance of them sensing us." Grayson led the group to the left, away from the Fury's lair.
"Why do you wear that mask?" Ruo asked Grayson.
"I've been to several places," the archer answered. "I've made friends….and enemies. So I prefer to keep my identity a secret."
Saf's mind went away from the conversation as her visions activated once more. She saw a blue projection of Qrow walking further until he was pinned to the ground and killed by an unknown assailant. When the vision ended, she noticed that the scythe user was walking to that direct spot, not bothering to see where he was going.
"Look out!" Saf cried out as she leapt forward and pushed Qrow down, avoiding a shotgun blast from the trees.
"What was that?" Math gasped, drawing his weapons. When the shooter came out, Weiss immediately recognized him.
"You…you're one of the mercenaries working for my father. That means…"
"There's more," Ruo stated, hearing movement of several more people in the area thanks to his tiger ears.
"You didn't think you'd get away so easily, did you?" the leader questioned. "Why don't you be a good little girl and come back to Atlas with us?" Weiss raised Myrtenaster at the Huntsman, her other sword held in her right hand.
"No," she refused. "I will not be his 'perfect little angel'. I have a right to live my own life."
"A right?" the mercenary scoffed. "The only reason you were born is because of him. You owe him everything; you have no rights. How ungrateful you turned out to be." Weiss frowned angrily at the mercenary, feeling the urge to run him through.
"Or maybe you don't care about your mother too?" one of the mercs brought up. Weiss's frown dropped into one of worry as she looked over to the mercenary who just said that.
"What do you mean?" she questioned. "What about my mother?"
"She was devastated when you left," the same mercenary informed. "She drank herself into such a stupor that she had to be taken to the hospital for alcohol poisoning. If you ask me, she was trying to kill herself."
"Mom?" Weiss whispered, lowering her gaze in immense regret. Did her mother really drink herself so bad that she needed to be hospitalized? Was she to blame?
"Shut up," Yang spoke out angrily. "Her mom wouldn't have become an alcoholic in the first place if Jacques hadn't robbed her life of happiness. He's to blame, not Weiss."
"Jacques has done nothing but good for Atlas and Remnant," the leader dismissed. "She turned to alcoholism because she was ungrateful, just like his daughters."
Weiss's regretful expression slowly changed to determination and controlled anger. Yang's words rung far too true: Willow Schnee turned to alcohol because of her father's cruel mistreatment and disregard for her happiness. Jacques was to blame for her mother's condition, not her. She found it in herself to look back up and glare at the mercenaries.
"I'm not going anywhere with you," Weiss refused.
"That's not up to you," the leader spoke. "You can come back willingly or kicking and screaming. It's your choice, but either way, you are coming with us." Everyone primed their weapons for combat, non verbally declaring their intention to stand between them and Weiss Schnee.
"Okay," the leader responded. "Take the girl!" Thirty mercenaries rushed out of the trees; while the close combatants charged the group, the ranged fighters stayed away to get hits on the warriors.
"I'll take care of the ranged fighters," Grayson spoke, leaping onto a tree and taking a firing position on a branch.
"You are NOT taking Weiss!" Ruby firmly stated as she attacked, slashing at one of the mercenaries with Crescent Rose's high frequency blade, dealing immense damage to his Aura. Before the Huntsman could recover, Ruby used her Semblance to launch a barrage of fast attacks on him, doing quick and powerful damage to his Aura.
"You honestly think you can beat us?" one of the Huntsmen questioned, twirling a hooked staff. "We're professional Huntsmen; we can't be beaten by a bunch of kids."
"No," Forest denied. "You're nothing more than mercenaries. That's why you'll be beaten by a 'bunch of kids'."
Math imbued his weapon with two Aura Swords and slashed twice with ferocity at the nearest mercenary, dealing tremendous damage to their Aura. He bashed them with Torrach and threw it again at the mercenary to deplete more of his Aura, leaving him with very little left. The wolf swordsman finished him with an upward slash of his sword.
Qrow tried to keep his distance from his teammates, not wanting his misfortune to negatively affect them in any way as he fought against the mercenary Huntsmen. He activated his weapon's scythe form, twirling it to keep the Huntsman at bay as he closed in on different foes.
These were exactly the kinds of Huntsmen Qrow absolutely despised: those who indeed sold themselves to the highest bidder, even if they were morally corrupt or selfish. It was definitely both in this case, considering what he knew about Jacques Schnee.
He despised the way they shamelessly brought up Weiss's mother, especially how she landed herself in the hospital for alcohol poisoning. He despised that they knew how much of a corrupt man Jacques was, but was willingly blind to it simply because he waved enough Lien in their faces.
"You're not bad for a dusty, old man," one of the younger Huntsmen mocked, wielding a mace infused with Dust.
Qrow didn't even bother responding, knowing full well that he would easily take down the mercenary. He used Harbinger's scythe blade to trip the merc and then dealt several twirling blows to his Aura, quickly depleting it in a matter of moments.
"How are we losing?" one of the Huntsmen questioned as she fired at Blake, but instead hit a Shadow Clone. "We're-"
"NOT professional Huntsmen," Ruby interrupted as she shot several rounds at one of the ranged fighters. "I've seen professional Huntsmen…and you certainly don't count among them!"
"I'll make you eat those-" She was silenced by an explosive arrow, fired from Grayson's position in the tree. Sadly, his position was compromised as the ranged fighters fired at him, forcing him to leap from the tree and turn his bow into a pair of scythes.
"Why is everyone copying me?" Luna questioned as she slashed at a Huntsman. "First Math copies my emblem, and now-"
"Get your head in the game, Luna!" Oren called out as he deflected a mace from one of the Huntsman. Unfortunately, the moment he saw a blade coming close to him, Oren's defense slowly dropped as he started to hyperventilate. The Huntsman was about to run him through, but Blake deflected the attack and kicked the Huntsman back before putting her hand on Oren's shoulder.
"Snap out of it!" she shouted as she shook the Lynx Faunus. "What is wrong with you?"
"Huh?" Oren gasped. "What?"
"Oren!" Math called out as he threw Torrach at one of the Huntsmen. "Like you told Luna, keep your head in the game!"
Even though Oren's head was cleared, he hated how his PTSD always triggered during battles with human and Faunus opponents. It was always made him somewhat of a hindrance in combat, always having to be knocked back to his senses whenever he saw a bladed weapon.
Yang dodged a merc's hammer before countering with a barrage of punches to their torso. When she dodged their next attack, Yang noticed that their left leg was cybernetic, the metal seen through a small opening in their clothing. After dodging yet another swing, Yang punched the prosthetic leg; this caused the mercenary to stumble and give the sun dragon an opportunity to punch them square in the jaw.
"Nice one!" Ruo called out to his beloved. The White Tiger slid underneath a dual wielding Huntsman, then latched his chained claws to their arms. Before the Huntsman could react, Nasser used his Semblance to send the fighter back as Ruo detached his chains and kicked them in the head.
"This is not happening!" one of the mercenaries denied. "We cannot seriously be losing!"
"Guess what?" Nasser responded. "You are!"
Grayson twirled one of his scythes around to deflect incoming bullets before swinging his other weapon to deflect a Huntsman's chain. The masked warrior leapt over the Huntsman and then dug both of his scythes into the ground, causing a powerful shockwave to blast the ground and send the mercenary flying.
"What was that?" Ruby asked curiously, intrigued by the fellow scythe user.
"My Semblance," he answered. "I can send shockwaves through solid objects, but at the cost of my Aura."
"Wait," Ruo gasped, his tiger ears flicking back and forth. "Do I hear…an engine?"
"An engine?" Luna asked before her wolf ears started flickering as well. "That's…that's an aircraft!"
A Mistral airship flew over the field, which had the group afraid that it was mercenaries at first. Luckily, their fear was proven wrong when the ship turned around and descended near them; as soon as the ship doors opened, it revealed Silvio, Cole, and Aria, along with several Steel Elite soldiers that aimed their rifles at the Huntsmen.
"By order of General Steel, stand down!" one of them demanded. "Stand down or we will open fire!" None of the Huntsmen complied, refusing to drop their weapons.
"Open fire!" The Steel Elites fired upon the mercenaries, who had made the terrible mistake of underestimating them. As they kept up the attack, the group quickly made their way on board the ship, Forest and Qrow going last after making sure everyone was safely aboard.
"They're getting away!" one of the mercenaries shouted angrily. One of them took aim and fired; the bullet hit Grayson in the face, causing his gray Aura to shimmer…and his mask to break apart.
"Grayson!" Ruby called out. "Are you okay?"
"Everyone, back on board!" Silvio told the Steel Elites. With the Huntsmen mostly defeated, the soldiers halted their attacks and hurried back on board. The mercenaries tried to attack, but were quickly beaten down by the Steel Elites.
"How'd you find us?" Luna asked Silvio.
"I saw you guys under attack by those mercenaries," Aria explained. "Were those the same ones who tried to kidnap Weiss?"
"The same," Weiss confirmed. "We need to get to Argus."
"Well, that's where we're heading," the pilot explained. "What happened to the Argus Limited? We were told that strange warriors wearing cloaks and Grimm masks attacked."
"That's true," Math confirmed. "But I think we'd like to explain later. We need to rest."
"But Grayson's hurt," Ruby pointed out. "He was hit by…" When Grayson removed his hand from his eyes, all Ruby could do was freeze in shock. It became perfectly clear why he had worn that mask.
"Ruby?" Qrow asked, noticing his niece's silence. The moment he saw Grayson's eyes, it all made sense.
"You have Silver Eyes," Ruby gasped.
"Yes," Grayson admitted.
-0-
"Here we are," Pyrrha told everyone after arriving at her spacious home in Argus.
"Wow, Pyrrha," Nora gasped. "Your family must be rich or something."
"We're well off," the Amazon responded before knocking on the door. Barking was heard from inside for several moments before being hushed by a mature woman's demand. When the door opened, it revealed a woman shorter than Pyrrha with short red hair, green eyes and glasses and looked completely shocked to see the redheaded Amazon.
"Pyrrha?" she gasped.
"Hello, Mother," Pyrrha greeted. The older woman's shocked expression quickly changed to a smile with a tear forming in her eye, leading to the two young women hugging tightly.
"I've missed you, Pyrrha," Thetis Nikos gently told her daughter.
"I've missed you too," Pyrrha responded. When the two women broke from each other, Thetis looked past her to the group with her daughter.
"Are these people with you?" she asked.
"They are," Pyrrha confirmed. "Can they stay here please?"
"Of course," Thetis replied with a smile inviting everyone in. As soon as Pyrrha walked in, she saw a Golden Retriever racing towards her with excited panting.
"Chrysos!" Pyrrha cheered as she kneeled and rubbed her dog's ears. The dog moved its face close to Pyrrha and started licking her cheek, making her giggle. Without warning, Chrysos leapt onto Pyrrha and continued his wet assault on her face, making her laugh.
"I've missed you too," she chuckled before eventually pushing the dog off of her.
"I didn't know you had a dog," Jaune stated.
"He's very friendly," Thetis told the Arc. "I'm Thetis Nikos. I take it you three are Pyrrha's teammates?"
"We are," Jaune replied. "I'm Jaune Arc. This is Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren."
"I'm Glaucus Viisaus," Glaucus introduced. "The rest of us are Sterling Silver, Ruadh Davis and Robin Kendrick."
"It's nice to meet all of you," Thetis greeted. "Is Math not with you?"
"Math?" Robin asked. "Pyrrha told you about my cousin?"
"She did," Thetis confirmed. "I don't see him anywhere; I was really hoping to meet him."
"Our train was attacked," Jaune informed. "Math and several of our friends stayed behind to help get the Grimm away from the passengers."
"Oh," Thetis gasped. "I hope they're okay."
Pyrrha hoped that as well. She wished she had gone with Math when they took the Relic of Knowledge to attract the Grimm away, but with the passengers still in possible danger, she was needed with her team. Even though he was with Forest and his own team, her heart couldn't help but ache.
"Thank you for letting us stay here," Glaucus told Thetis. "I'll be leaving shortly, though."
"What for?" Thetis asked the Gray Wanderer.
"We need to get to Atlas," Glaucus informed. "Is David Brownwood still in charge of the garrison here at Argus?"
"He is," Thetis confirmed. "But there's been no travel between Anima and Solitas ever since Ironwood closed Atlas's borders. The people here are getting angry at Atlas; the soldiers have already had to put down several riots near their base."
"Riots?" Pyrrha gasped, rising to her feet. Thetis nodded her head solemnly.
"Ever since Ironwood closed Atlas's borders, many Dust businesses have been terribly affected. The withdrawal of so many soldiers back to Atlas, and with so many of Mistral's Huntsmen dead, have made everyone feel unsafe. At first, it was just protests demanding that the borders be reopened, but Ironwood refused to hear them and remains adamant of no one being allowed in or out of Atlas without the Council's permission."
"By that, I assume you mean his permission," Glaucus assumed. "Holding two seats on the Atlas Council gives Ironwood more power than an average Council member."
"A few weeks ago, several Dust workers attacked the base with Fire Dust crystals and they were arrested for attempted vandalism. After that, at least three more have occurred. Brownwood's been trying hard to keep the peace, but with everything going on, it's becoming harder for him to do so."
"Oh, no," Jaune spoke after looking outside. To everyone's horror, a mob was forming on the streets and heading to the military base, armed with weapons and preparing for a fight.
"If that riot gets worse, it'll attract Grimm," Robin pointed out, his Semblance allowing him to sense the mob making its way to the base. "We have to stop it."
"I'm sorry, Mother," Pyrrha apologized as she prepared her weapons. "We'll need to catch up later." The two women hugged each other tenderly before Pyrrha hurried off with her friends to aid against the riot and stop it before it could attract Grimm.
-0-
"Are we prepared?" Nachtfel asked the single Oni present.
"We are," the Oni confirmed. "It's a risky move. If even one ship makes it to Argus, we'll lose our element of surprise."
"I'm perfectly aware of what'll happen," Nachtfel replied. "That is precisely why we must strike quickly and without warning. Is our spy inside ready?"
"Yes, sir," the Oni confirmed. "Just say the word and we'll begin our assault on the outpost."
"We strike tonight," Nachtfel ordered. "Make sure our spy knows. I'll oversee the positioning of our troops for battle." The Oni nodded his head and walked off to inform their spy in the outpost.
"Well done," a different voice spoke to Nachtfel. Instead of his father, the man had gray hair, a beard, and amber eyes; despite his old age, he was in very great shape, shown by his toned body.
"Master," Nachtfel addressed.
"You have indeed become powerful. Not only that, you've gathered enough followers to overthrow the Kingdoms. I'm so proud of you."
Nachtfel didn't respond this time as he started making his way towards the soldiers.
"Do you remember what I told you? Never forget what they did to us, to your family, to you. The Kingdoms are corrupt and Huntsmen are their enforcers. You are the true savior of this world. You must never fail, do you understand?"
"Yes, Master," Nachtfel replied. "You taught me everything I knew after I lost my second family."
"Never forget those gruesome images. Never forget what they did to you; your burned hands will always be a reminder of the cruelty this world suffers under. If you falter, then the mission I bestowed upon you fails. Do not let all my teachings be for nothing."
"I won't," Nachtfel responded. "I will never forget."
"Good. Otherwise everything you've done will all be for nothing." After that, the old man walked off and disappeared.