Here we are at Chapter 137. Time for the first part of the final battle for Atlas. I do not own RWBY. They belong to roosterteeth. I only own my OCs. Here's chapter 137. Enjoy.
Chapter 137: Creation
Atlas military airships continue to fight with the straggler Grimm that have been left behind since the destruction of the Monstra. As the fighting continues, a lone airship flies through the middle of it, making it's way to Atlas academy. Inside the airship, Jaune, Ren, Nora, Edom, and Lloyd, await the hallowed moment, nervous expression on their faces.
"Alright, here goes nothing... Or everything," Edom mutters, while Lloyd nods and the others focus in.
At the front entrance of Atlas academy, Winter Schnee and Ironwood await. They earlier received a message from Ruby saying that Penny will come to them alone, conceding to their terms. However, Ironwood has his pistols together with a large cannon, and Winter has her sword, as a precaution.
"Sir, this course of action-," Winter begins.
"I hope you're not going to try to talk me out of it," Ironwood shuts her down.
Winter looks him in the eye, "No sir... I believe that's impossible at this point,"
Just then, Penny flies in, alone, and lands in front of them.
Ironwood aims his cannon at her, "I didn't think you'd actually come alone," and then hands a pair of handcuffs to Winter. "I expected at least some resistance from your friends,"
Winter walks forth towards Penny, "I just don't want anyone else to get hurt... I must open the vault," she says as Winter puts her in handcuffs and then steps back with her sword out.
Ironwood eventually sighs and lowers his weapons before walking up to Penny and putting a hand on her shoulder.
"You've... done the right thing," Ironwood says.
Penny smirks, "I have..." only for her to disappear and Emerald reappear in her place, with Team JNR, Edom, Lloyd, and Oscar standing behind her in front of an airship thanks to her semblance. "Feels weird,"
Ironwood is shocked, only for Emerald to deal him a backflip kick to the chin, causing him to release his weapon. Emerald lands and catches his cannon before using her semblance on him to disappear. The others charge in to attack, with Jaune making the first move as he swings his sword at Ironwood. Ironwood dodges the first two swings and catches the third before throwing a punch, only to get blocked by Jaune's shield that knocks him back. Oscar comes in and makes a few swings with his cane, only for Ironwood to counter with an uppercut to the chest and then a punch to the face. However, the second Oscar goes back is the second that Lloyd moves up. Ironwood throws another punch, but Lloyd catches it, and then a second punch in his claws.
"I've been waiting for this, you son of a bitch!" Lloyd then throws a steel head-butt to Ironwood's face, followed by a right claw strike and then a kick to his chest.
Lloyd throws a punch, but Ironwood catches it and throws Lloyd behind him. Just then, Edom wraps one of his knives around Ironwood's waist and swings him around to be thrown at Ren. Ren fires off his pistols, but Ironwood collects himself to block them with his arms and then throws a downward punch at Ren. Ren steps back and tries to attack with his pistol blades, but Ironwood catches his wrists and kicks him away. He looks back to see Nora in mid-air, behind a glyph made by Winter that gives her an electric boost. Ironwood is too stunned by this apparent betrayal that he leaves himself wide open for Nora to slam her hammer in his face, sending him rolling back along the ground. Lloyd jumps in the air and smashes his steel fists into the ground, sending out steel spikes towards Ironwood. Ironwood jumps out of the way, only to run as Edom fires off his scythe guns at him. Ironwood races around to get close, but then Lloyd gets in his way again and the two throw fists at each other. Lloyd's semblance protects him from the blow, while Ironwood stumbles back. Winter appears behind him and makes a glyph that sends a few ice shards that nail him from behind. Oscar runs at him, swinging his cane at him. Ironwood catches it and punches Oscar back. But, he then sees Edom in the air. Edom swings spins around downwards and swings Lloyd, wrapped in his knives and body encased in steel, straight down on him. Ironwood tries to flee, but a black glyph from Winter keeps him pinned to the ground. Lloyd smashes down on top of him, and when the dust settles, Lloyd is standing while Ironwood's aura gives out and he falls to the ground, unconscious.
"You don't know how long I've wanted to do that, Jimmy," Lloyd taunts his unconscious opponent.
With the fight over and Ironwood incapacitated, they holster their weapons. Emerald reappears and Winter takes the cuffs off of her and takes Ironwood's weapon.
"Go. Move to phase 2. I'll take care of Ironwood," Winter says, and the group move into the academy.
"While this plan is definitely crazy, just getting to stick it Ironwood like this makes it worthwhile," Lloyd smirks, while Edom smirks.
"At least, we were able to convince Khazhak not to try and kill him. Though, it wasn't easy," Edom notes.
...Flashback begins...
"Guys, she's has to go to the vault," Nora says as she holds Penny.
Ruby then smiles, "That's actually a risk... we hadn't considered,"
"I can see it in your eyes. You're thinking one of those crazy ideas of yours again, aren't ya," Khazhak then smirks. "What do you have in mind, little rose?"
"Wait, I think she has a point. We've been so focused on trying to keep the vault closed that... we never once thought about using what was inside," Jaune says.
"The Staff of Creation," Oscar realizes.
"Maybe we can use it to save Penny, and get everyone in Atlas and Mantle to safety," Ruby adds.
Just then, Weiss gets a message on her scroll. She pulls it out and sees who sent it.
Weiss then smiles, "Well, you'll never guess who just contacted me,"
"Let me guess... Your sister," Edom figures it out with a smirk.
"Hey, how'd you figure it out?!" Weiss retorts.
"Because who else could make you smile so big if not her... Almost makes me jealous," Edom notes, the last part more to himself than to anyone else.
"Wait, Winter contacted you? For what?" Porphyrius asks.
"I think it would be best to continue this talk inside. Let's go," Khazhak says and the group move back inside, with Ruby and Nora helping Penny inside.
Everyone returns to the dining hall to figure out the finer details of the plan.
"Okay so we got people trapped in the tunnels beneath Atlas, and Ironwood practically has a gun aimed at all the heads of those down in Mnatle, and the only way to get them all out is the Staff of Creation, which is inside the vault beneath the academy. As soon as we open the vault, the virus will kill Penny. And if Ironwood so much as sniffs wind of something off, he blows up Mantle," Khazhak begins, as everyone else is seated at the dining table.
Meanwhile, Jaune helps penny be amplifying her aura when she needs it.
"There's also something else to consider," Oscar takes over. "The Staff of Creation can only be used for one purpose at a time. Once we use it for anything else, Atlas will fall onto Mantle. Atlas has enough gravity Dust to keep it from plummeting immediately, but as soon as it runs out, no one will want to be here when it hits the surface,"
"Okay, so what if we use the staff itself to make a way to get everyone to safety? Like to another kingdom perhaps?" Edom proposes.
Oscar waves his hand, "We can't just wave it like a magic wand and make our problems go away. And we haven't even told you about... him,"
"About him who?" Yang leans in.
Oscar gives Ozpin control, "The spirit in the staff, like Jinn. His name is Ambrosius, and he's, well... a character. He can build anything you want, but only if you can explain to him how. Like any craftsman, he'll need blueprints, some kind of reference to help him with his creations. One way to help would be to have real world examples that we can show him,"
"I've already gone through the city layouts for the SDC evacuation. Maybe I can help," Whitley offers.
The group smile at him, "I can't believe that Whitley isn't as big of an ass as his old man is," Lloyd whispers to Edom, who just sighs and shakes his head.
However, Ozpin gets serious again, "There's still James and his bomb go consider,"
"Khazhak," Ruby turns to him. "I know you want to kill him. I know why you hat him so much. I know I can't change your attitude towards him, either. But please, I need you to spare him," she pleads.
"Ruby, you seriously want me to spare him after everything he did, everything he's trying to do?" Khazhak asks.
"If we kill him, then the Atlas military will go nuts, and more people will be in danger than they already are. Ironwood will kill anyone that gets in his way. You're trying to do the same thing. Please... don't be like him," Ruby holds his dragon hand. "Ironwood's forgotten what's important. Don't you go forgetting it too,"
Khazhak stares into her eyes and eventually sighs, "As you wish. But, just in case, it would be best to put me somewhere away from him so I don't lose it. We still need to take him down, but we just don't know how yet,"
Weiss smirks, "Luckily, I think I have just the plan for that," and then looks at Emerald.
...Flashback ends...
In another airship that flies directly beneath Atlas, Team RWBY, Penny, Khazhak, Porphyrius, and Voshkie'ahk along with the Schnees, Klein, Azula, and Onyx, come up under the giant hole that Oscar made when he feel through the kingdom.
"Okay, with phase one out of the way, that leads us to phase 2: getting the real Penny to the vault with some help," Blake says.
"I blasted a hole through the bottom of Atlas that leads right into the vault, and I doubt they've had the time to repair it. It should still be there. Of course, that's the easy part," Oscar notes.
The airship door opens up, and the group move. Ruby uses her semblance on all of them and flies into the hole, bring them all up into the vault. Once there, the group approach the vault doors.
"As soon as Penny opens the door, we move in, get the staff, and save her from self-termination," Khazhak says.
At the door, Weiss, Khazhak, and Porphyrius stand guard while the others tend to Penny to help her open the door. Penny engages her Maiden powers and puts her hand on the door. Just then, the door lights up before segments fall straight down, opening the way for them. The second it does, Ruby uses her semblance on all of them except for Penny, who remains at the door entrance, and flies straight into the dimension that the relic is kept. Unlike the last one, which looked like a desert, this realm is a lush grassy landscape with a few colorful flowers. Ruby grabs the staff, and everything outside the vault freezes in place. Blue mist springs forth from the head of the staff and soon enough, a muscular man with gold chains around his body, and long, light blue hair tied back in a ponytail appears before them. The Spirit in the staff, Ambrosius.
"Ahh, it seems someone has come to engage in my creative wiles!" Ambrosius exclaims, and then shows a look of minor annoyance. "All I'll say is that it had better be worth it after my last project. A floating city? How pedestrian," he notes about how Atlas was really formed.
"Ozpin wasn't lying when he said this one was a character," Tiamat notes.
"Indeed," Bahamut agrees.
"I prefer "extraordinary artist", thank you very much. Besides, you two are ones to talk, my scaly friends, when you don't even have physical forms of your own," Ambrosius floats down and inspects Khazhak's arm after hearing the dragons. "Though I must admit, while your creations lack any sense of style or finesse, they are remarkable in their own way. To think that dragons still existed, even after all this time," he then looks between the two Ryu siblings.
"I'm just going to assume from this point on that all spirits of relics can see our dragons," Khazhak notes.
"Hello, Mr. Ambrosius, sir. Listen, it's about our friend. She's... she's dying," Ruby gets her attention as she looks between him and Penny.
Ambrosius floats upside down, "I'm going to assume that you already know it's against the rules for me to bring someone back from the dead, so..."
"That's not what we want," Ruby says.
"Let's just say that Penny isn't exactly your... usual girl," Voshkie'ahk says.
Piquing his curiosity, Ambrosius flies over to Penny and brings out a monoscope to get a look at her, and what's inside her body.
Ambrosius is very interested now, "So she isn't! Oh, I'd love to meet whoever did this! Ah, I see," he then floats back to them. "There's something eating away at her. Now, I'm guessing you think you have some sort of clever plan to save her. Just know that I will give you exactly what you asked for, and I don't want any whining or complaints when it's not what you wanted,"
Ruby nods to Weiss who uses her scroll to show Ambrosius Penny's schematics.
"We brought you her schematics," Ruby says, causing Ambrosius to look like a kid in a candy store as he looks over them. "We want you to make a new version of her, using the exact same robot parts,"
"That was... curiously worded girl," Ambrosius notes.
"An exact copy of her would also have the virus that is threatening to kill her. An exact copy of her without the virus would no longer be the moment you make something else. And we don't want to lose her again," Khazhak explains.
Ambrosius is liking this, "You've certainly done your homework,"
"We didn't have much of a choice," Bahamut notes.
"We want you to create a new version of her by using her current, existing robot parts. And have them take the virus with them," Porphyrius adds.
Ambrosius thinks, "Hmmm... Okay, but if I take the robot parts out of her, that would leave..." he works his fingers, making magical strings in his hands.
"Penny," Blake gets his attention. "The girl who's always been there, beneath the robot parts," she says, causing him to hum again as he scratches his chin and thinks more.
"We know that you can't destroy. It's against the rules you live by. But, you wouldn't be destroying her. Her soul is who she is," Ruby smiles.
Yang flexes her right arm, "The mechanical parts are just... extra. That's all they are," she says as Ambrosius looks at her arm for a moment.
"But... A soul without a complete body. What would be left?" Ambrosius wonders.
Ruby smiles, "I don't know. I guess you'll just have to... get creative,"
"And I don't think there's anyone as creative as the spirit who inhabits the Staff of Creation. Or am I wrong?" Khazhak smirks challengingly.
Ambrosius laughs at their attitude, "Hahaha, well I supposed I could do... and then add a touch of... But if I do that, then how much of the old Penny would be my work, and how much would be... her," he wonders as he makes more magical lines in the air with his hands. "Just coming up to the surface," he then turns back to them. "This is all very exciting... and very dangerous. Uh, I don't know what the results are going to be,"
"We don't have any other choice. What we do have is the united belief in her. In Penny," Weiss says.
With that, Ambrosius smiles, "Then prepare yourselves... to witness my artistry!" he exclaims.
Ambrosius waves his hands in the air before sending out a few flying projectiles of mist that fly and encircle Penny. Penny slowly floats into the air, her eyes turning green, and her body begins to glow. Her body lights up, temporarily blinding the others. When it dims, they see not one, but two Pennys standing before them. The key difference is that one has robot body while the other... has a real, human body. They saved Penny by turning her into a real girl.
Ambrosius snaps his fingers, "It's done," he then disappears with a wink.
Outside, the kingdom of Atlas begins to move, and that works as the signal for the others. In one room, Team JNR along with Oscar, Emerald, Lloyd and Edom are working on one terminal.
"Okay, I guess that's the signal that everything went well down in the vault," Jaune starts typing away on a computer.
"Here's to hoping that Penny is alright," Edom says.
"If Atlas is moving, then we need to get the word out to everyone both here and in Mantle, preferrably before they start panicking," Oscar says.
"Meaning, we need to hurry this up," Lloyd gets a little concerned.
"I know, I know!" Jaune flips a little and types a few more buttons before the screen suddenly shows a live feed. "Um, well, that did, uh... something?"
"You're live. Everyone can see and hear you now," Ren notes.
"Oh," Jaune collects himself. "Citizens of Atlas and Mantle. Listen closely, because what we have to tell you is very important: Atlas is falling, but-," but then the signal cuts out suddenly. "Wait, what happened?"
"It's dead. The entire CCT system is down across Atlas and Mantle. But, we didn't get the message out yet. What the Hell is going on?" Edom types on the computer, but comes up short.
"The more important question is: What do we do now?" Oscar gets worried.
Back down in the vault, the group walk up to the two Pennys. While one looks exactly like the original, the other has her hands and legs exposed due to no robot parts there.
"...Penny," Ruby mutters.
Penny opens her eyes. Seeing the others, she raises her hands and inspects them, her human hands. She then looks over when the other Penny, the robotic one, starts fidgeting and sparks start flying as the virus does its job. The robot Penny short-circuits and falls onto the ground before finally shutting down, much to the real Penny's slight horror.
Ruby gets a hand on her shoulder to get her attention, "Are you... okay?"
Penny looks between the robot and her friend, smiles, and then hugs Ruby, "Do hugs always make you feel this warm inside?"
Ruby returns the hug, "Yes. Yes, they do,"
"Wow," Penny then goes to hug Weiss. "More!"
"We should probably make sure our theory worked... And start the evacuation," Weiss says as Penny releases her, only to go on a hugging spree as she hugs the others.
Weiss twirls the staff around before summoning Ambrosius again, "Free to create and... oh, it's you guys again," he seems less than pleased to see them so soon.
"Oh, we're just getting started with you," Khazhak crosses his arms.
Ambrosius crosses his own, "Ugh, fine," he replies, annoyed.
"We'll just give you the quick version. Can you make a bunch of doorways in Atlas that open up to a single spot in Vacuo?" Yang asks.
"Sure, I'll just need coordinates and schematics for each door, an explanation for bending space and time to account for the much greater traffic on one side and, a single point of exit on the other side," Ambrosius explains.
Weiss holds her head, "Okay, that's about what we expected,"
"Okay, so the plan is to funnel everyone through a central location first. A place to act as the middle ground between the two kingdoms," Porphyrius says.
"Okay, but you're going to have to give me some more details on this central location, for starters. Such as... where is it?" Ambrosius asks.
"Right here," Voshkie'ahk gets his attention. "The central location is just like these vaults. Where they are, they exist outside of Remnant, in a space all on their own. You can only reach them if you know the right way to do so. Seems like the safest route for thousands of refugees,"
Ambrosius smirks, "You kids are either smarter... or more foolish than you realize. *Sigh* Okay, I'm going to need a reference. I can assume that you have one,"
"Will these work?" Weiss uses her scroll to show Ambrosius schematics of Atlas itself.
Smirking, Ambrosius starts working his magic and creates an ovular portal behind the group. In another space entirely, he also creates circular platforms that have portals of their own and different walkways that connect those platforms, all leading to one larger platform with a single large portal. In Atlas and Mantle, portals pop out all over in front of the people. Joana is the first down in Mantle to walk through one of the portals, and eventually smiles when she sees that a path to safety has opened up for her and her people.
"People enter from Atlas and Mantle on one side... and leave on the other side with a one-way ticket to Vacuo," Weiss says.
"Well, everything appears to be in order. You were quite thorough. Disappointingly so," Ambrosius lounges about in mid-air.
"So, it's done then?" Khazhak asks.
"Yeah..." Ambrosius waves them off. The group nod and turn to leave, with Penny noticing her robot body dissipating into dust. "Oh, and one last point of clarification about this... central location of yours... Do not FALL," he warns them ominously.
"Of course. As if we didn't have enough to worry about already," Tiamat replies dryly.
"Okay, and with that dire warning..." he then disappears.
The group approach their portal, "We did it," Weiss says as she hands Penny the staff.
"What do we do now?" Penny asks.
Ruby steps up, "We go to Vacuo. All of us... and hope that we've thought of everything," she says, not knowing that within one crowd of civilians, Cinder and Kamir'ahk are hidden in cloaks, smiling evilly as they eye the portal.
And that's the chapter. Khazhak and the gang take down Ironwood, the Ace Ops, save Penny, and create a way to save everyone in Atlas and Mantle by making a path for them straight to Vacuo. However, their enemies are not quite out of the fight just yet. Will things really go as they planned? Until then, please Read and Review.