Chapter Thirty-Five: The Message
Watts had only ten bullets remaining: two iron, three fire Dust, three lightning Dust, two ice Dust. The silver-eyed girl remained pinned to the arena wall under a sheet of ice, but Weiss Schnee may have had a means to release her somewhere in the chamber of her weapon… or an errant shot of superheated Dust from his own revolver may have been enough to free her.
The artificial gravity had been repurposed. He couldn't rob the Schnee of her footing or the colosseum wouldn't have the thrust necessary to reach signal range. Watts could hardly let Ironwood's precious tower crash before he got the general to spread Salem's message of abandonment and despair first...
Still, he had other weapons at the ready… a flick of his fingers and the flooring beneath her feet opened up, revealing one of the many biomes from the Vytal Festival tournament: a patch of arid rock and pale sand. The Schnee girl immediately steadied herself by drawing a glyph under her heels, dilating time so she'd neither fall onto the sand nor lose her footing when she finally landed.
He didn't know how much Aura that hereditary Semblance of hers' would eat up, but the more often she expended energy without him firing a shot…
Watts closed his fist, activating multiple cycles at once. Other panels in the arena opened up as more battlefields rose from the floor: crashed ships partially submerged in water, forests and long grasses, geyers smoldering over blasted rock…
Environmental dangers meant to test student's situational awareness… and every biome armed with a natural hazard that was hardly natural at all: a programmed feature designed to move in erratic, unpredictable sequence… but a sequence he now wielded the ability to manually trigger.
Still, he had to keep the Schnee separate from her friend. The silver-eyed girl was much too fleet of foot for him to take lightly…
He fired a single iron round at the Schnee, knowing she'd dodge or deflect it. A distraction… a necessary sacrifice. When Weiss Schnee hoisted her rapier to cut his bullet in two, Watts waved his free hand, spinning the walls of the arena out of sequence, moving the silver-eyed girl away from her would-be rescuer. "Nine," he mumbled to himself.
Watts watched the Schnee's blue eyes trace after her friend. He saw her raise her right hand to draw glyphs along the ground to guide her footsteps in pursuing her quarry. So Weiss Schnee had armed both her hands as well…
Watts leveled his revolver, wondering which hand would be the greater weapon: her blade or her Semblance?
"I was wondering if anyone would come to defend the champion of the people…" Tyrian mused, stalking back and forth along the street, appraising Blake and Yang. "I thought it'd be some of her little friends in green instead… like the poor little sheep girl who took the hit for her politician friend…"
Yang's fist tightened ever so slightly. Blake's finger edged closer to the trigger of Gambol Shroud.
"I defeated four of your little friends when they tried to get in my way," Tyrian cautioned them. "Are you sure you want to die for her…?"
"Was that the same fight where you lost your tail?" Yang dryly inquired.
Tyrian's eyes flashed purple as poison surged through his body, his fury spiking. He paused his steady walk, fixing his gaze on the blonde and leveling his new mechanical tail towards her. "You've got a wicked tongue, girl… I think I'll rip it out."
Tyrian moved so rapidly Yang had no time to react. Blake fired at him with her submachine gun, peppering the scorpion Faunus with rounds before he reached her, his tail inches from her face, poison dripping from his stinger and leaving smoldering holes in the pavement.
Yang fire concussion rounds from her gauntlet, but Tyrian swiftly moved out of the path of her shot. He could receive Blake's fire well enough, but was cautious enough not to try and tank a hit from Yang's shotgun…
Yang caught Blake's eye. Her partner nodded, and Yang moved to pursue Tyrian, firing behind her back to propel herself towards him. She'd been the one to provoke Tyrian's ire and wanted to keep his attention on her while Blake continued to attack from range.
He wasn't the first violent, angry man they'd been forced to pacify. He wasn't the first adversary strong enough to necessitate their teamwork. They'd buried a few demons already.
Tyrian, however, seemed happy to clash with Yang when she reached him, his wrist-mounted blade scratching the surface of Ember Celica on her left wrist. When Tyrian leaned in to greet her he wore a beaming smile… apparently he was less incensed by her remark and more ecstatic and being granted a new adversary to fight.
Yang quickly tucked her head down when Tyrian's mechanical tail swung at her, another dab of poison falling past her shoulder and corroding the ground in strange, acidic purple molasse. Tyrian tried to strike again with his free hand, but Yang caught the blade in her prosthetic grip, the sharp metal grinding against her fingers.
"So brave of you to charge right into the fray," Tyrian observed. "Didn't work out so well for Ms. Hill, but maybe you'll be special…"
"Damn right I will," Yang firmly replied, opening a port on her right wrist and discharging a concussion burst into Tyrian's neck and shoulder. His Aura disrupted and his grip loosened, Yang pressed her right hand forward to take hold of Tyrian's wrist and fling him overhead, driving him hard into the pavement.
Now that some distance had been placed between Yang and Tyrian, Blake opened fire again, repeatedly striking his upper body where Yang had already damaged his Aura. Tyrian spun around on the ground, finding some momentum to right himself and thrashing out with his legs to absorb Blake's shots and keep Yang from capitalizing on his downed state. Once he'd built enough angular momentum to spring from the ground, Tyrian switched targets, going after Blake with both wrists drawn.
Blake aimed past Tyrian, firing away the blade of Gambol Shroud, attached by a length of black ribbon. Yang reached up and caught her partner's volley out of the air, while Blake retreated from Tyrian's wild swings, moving to her left while Yang dashed to her right…
Tyrian continued the chase, thrashing wildly, cutting through the air with every swing of his arm. At his back, Yang discharged rounds from Ember Celica to heighten her pace, waiting for Blake to pull her along and fling her right in Tyrian's path… only for Tyrian to abruptly shift his own momentum, turning around and crashing into Yang with his forearm, knocking her to the ground from the force of his sudden stop. Her Aura barely flickered, but she was beneath him, surprised, momentarily prone…
Tyrian moved in with his tail. Yang reached up to catch the tip of his stinger between her prosthetic fingers, struggling to hold at bay… even her upper body strength was losing ground in the face of Tyrian's relentless assault.
Poison continued to secrete from the metal tail. Yang saw it dribbling over her metal fingers, rapidly eating through the digits and exposing the wire beneath the coat… burning and twisting as it continued to pour out from the madman's stinger.
Blake tugged on the ribbon of Gambol Shroud, retracting it. Yang released her grip on Tyrian's stinger and followed after Blake's draw, letting Tyrian's tail crash into the ground and eat away more stone. Yang quickly rose to her feet and raised her fists again, pausing to look at her index and middle finger on her prosthetic, each looking thinner, each still smoldering… each moving just a bit behind when she wanted her fingers to clench into a fist.
Tyrian lifted his tail up from the pavement again, still spitting poison from his stinger. His eyes were so purple now the color seemed to be leaking past the white of his sclera and streaming down his cheeks.
"Not so confident now, are you?" Tyrian mocked. "Don't worry: you'll have plenty of time to think on your mistake…" He raised his stinger over his shoulder, alternately leveling it at each of them. "Because I'm going to make this slow…"
Winter continued to keep her saber level. Neo had yet to take her eyes off the Atlseian specialist, her parasol drawn and pointed forward. Leaving only Oscar to try and stand between the two women -and their two blades- and defuse the situation.
Oscar did interpose himself between the two, willingly showing Neo his back as he focused his attention on Winter first. "Wait, please, hear us out: she's not here for-"
"Why she's here is irrelevant," Winter curtly interjected. "Unless you know of another charge that should be added to her list of crimes."
Oscar very quickly muttered "Jaune, I have to call you back," before hanging up his Scroll and returning his attention to Winter. "She's here because Cinder is the one she wants, not Fria."
Winter tightened her grip on the hilt of her blade. "And how would she know that name…?"
"She didn't, I do," Oscar clarified. "She didn't ask me to take her to the Maiden; she has a different one in mind. Cinder is the enemy, for all of us."
"Neopolitan murdered dozens of Atlesian soldiers and helped hijack an airship assigned to protect the kingdom of Vale," Winter argued. "Do you really think I'd ignore that just because we happen to share a common enemy?"
At Oscar's back, Neo had yet to lower her guard. But then, she'd yet to attack…
Oscar wasn't sure how to argue against Winter's point. She was so rigid, so adherent to law and regulation, that she had enough trouble working even with someone like Qrow: dedicated, competent, and effective, but prone to occasionally step out of line. Someone like Neo, who'd never tried to remain within the boundaries…
"I think you need time to secure Fria before Cinder arrives," Oscar suggested. "And that is your mission, not letting yourself be distracted by any other criminals that could be at your doorstep." Oscar gently raised both hands in the air, again demonstrating he was unarmed. "You set your grudge aside when Weiss tried to expose your father. You know there are matters more important than this."
Winter steeled her gaze past him to Neopolitan. Why was he so willing to defend her? Ozpin had made some decisions she found questionable when she met him at Beacon -and had heard secondhand of several General Ironwood disagreed with- but she'd found him measured and thoughtful. Oscar Pine was a bit harder to read.
Weiss spoke highly of this boy. But given how Neopolitan had wronged Weiss, her school, her teammate…
Oscar turned from Winter to the shorter girl. "Neo," he breathed, "Put it down."
Neo glared at him. She didn't care for that particular instruction… but to Winter's surprise, she did comply, lowering her parasol and letting the blade point uselessly at the floor.
Or seemed to, anyway. Given how she'd convincingly pretended to be Nora Valkyrie, Neopolitan could easily be casting another illusion…
Oscar turned back to face Winter. "Do whatever you have to do. We'll wait for you. We'll cover you if we need to. But if you insist on waiting any longer we might lose the element of surprise and the chance for you to transfer her powers." He lowered his hands to his sides, speaking plainly. "Please."
Winter fixated her gaze on Neopolitan, ruefully crossing her arms behind Oscar. Assuming she wasn't casting an elaborate facsimile, Winter could move in and attack before the girl could raise her blade to parry…
She'd feel far more comfortable if Neopolitan -apparently willing to cooperate- waited for her to return from within a holding cell. But given time was of the essence…
Back to the hazel-eyed boy. Weiss had faith in him. General Ironwood had deferred to him more than once. And while Winter still hadn't discerned why he'd vouch for someone like Neopolitan, she knew it was all too rare for someone to put their trust in a person others had written off and dismissed.
Winter lowered her saber, turning her eye to Fria's door. "Do not make me regret this."
Oscar nodded. "Hurry."
Winter pressed her palm to an entry pad -sliding open the door to Fria's room- and she stepped inside. Oscar turned his attention back to Neo, still looking quite rueful. He quickly tried to ease the tension he was sure would still be simmering. "Sorry I had to put it like that. I think she was-"
He paused upon noticing how… steady Neo appeared to be. She was so… still.
Oscar reached for her shoulder. 'Neo' shattered into dozens of shards of glass, leaving him alone in the hall.
Oscar glanced back at the door Winter had stepped through, frantically reaching for it, only to brush his fingers against the door frame as it locked behind Winter… and perhaps, an unintended guest.
"Neo…" Oscar mumbled, running his palm over the cool gray.
"He hung up," Jaune mused. "But it sounds like he was okay; he was talking to Winter."
"She wasn't the only one there," Nora pointed out. "Something's happening up there, and I'll bet she's involved."
"Maybe," Jaune conceded. "But what do you want me to do, Nora? Call him back?"
"No," Nora replied, reaching down with her unsteady arms and pushing up from the ground. Jaune immediately reached down, tightening his grip, even as his Semblance continued to repair her Aura.
"Whoa, hey, slow down for a second," Jaune insisted. "You took plenty of hits from the Grimm. You need to rest."
"What I need is not to lie around and wait for more bad news," Nora snapped, shrugging off Jaune's grip and reaching for Magnhild. She was unsteady on her feet, she felt nauseous just trying to stand… but she wasn't about to let any of that impede her.
Jaune relented, drawing his hand away. Nora quickly tried to reassure him. "...I know you want to help. I just… I'm not good at sitting still. I'm not sure I know how to wait when people need me."
"I do."
Both Jaune and Nora turned to Ren, still concentrating, still keeping his arms outstretched as he continued to mask their Aura -and the light of the Mantle citizens hunkered down with them- under his concealing gray. His eyes remained closed as he focused on his work, but he continued to speak. "I know exactly how hard it is to stand by and wait for someone else to solve their own problems… and I know exactly how necessary it is too."
"Ren…" Jaune murmured.
"I haven't always had faith in us," Ren admitted. "I've been happy -eager- to place myself under someone else's command and not try to take on any challenges that seemed larger than me. But now that we're here, cut off from the general, or Oscar, or Ruby, or anyone else we might turn to… now we have to trust the others to look after themselves, because we have to protect the ones down here."
He finally opened his eyes, turning his attention to Nora. "We all have people we care about in danger, all the time. We will always want to save them, but sometimes we need to trust they can save themselves. It doesn't get any easier, no matter how many times we've seen them do it."
Nora paused. He had, hadn't he? He had spent so much time on the sidelines, waiting for an order to render aid, or staying behind to conceal the civilians from the Grimm… or attacking from range, preserving his Aura while Nora dove into the fray. Always afraid for her…
The hammer felt heavier in her hand than she remembered. Her already unsteady legs felt particularly rubbery.
Nora sat down again, letting the hammer fall to the ground. She glanced over at Jaune. He didn't make her ask; he just resumed recharging her Aura with his Semblance.
Nora watched Ren close his eyes and focus on maintaining their cloak. She remembered a familiar spark of feeling, one that briefly cropped up when she spoke of Ren to Oscar…
He was right. It didn't get any easier.
Penny drove her blades into the beast's eyes, sailing past its swinging trunk and pulling with all her might. The Megoliath roared behind her, but Penny didn't turn and look. She increased the thrust from her boots, trying to continue her ascent even while she tried to lug the massive Grimm's weight.
To a point: she'd already known she couldn't hope to lift it off the ground… but her blades would continue to dig through the softer parts as she continued her push.
The Megoliath tried to shake its head and jostle her loose. Penny held on even as she was wracked about, stifling her momentum… she only continued to try and ascend, continue to dig her swords into the beast's eyes.
Eventually, she heard a snapping sound at her back. She didn't turn around… she only heard the wires retract as her swords returned to her, shards of white bone scattering to the wind as her blades cut through the beast's skull.
Penny caught each sword in either hand and whirled around, watching the Megoliath stagger and fall, before evaporating in black wisps: a massive cloud of smoke obscuring the ground, but the Grimm could no longer threaten the people down there with it.
Those same people looked out at the Grimm vanishing before their eyes. They continued to stare, even as Harriet continued to wave them into the tunnels, insisting they go underground and get to safety.
One of the civilians raised his arm and called out: "The Protector of Mantle!"
Penny had told herself to believe it. It was much easier when someone else -someone she didn't know- said it for her.
The tide was starting to turn…
Watts glanced back at the terminal. Still a few minutes from altitude; still a few minutes to hold out, and only nine bullets left in the chamber. But many more weapons at the ready…
Weiss Schnee raced towards him, using her glyphs to accelerate her pace. Watts sneered, waving his free hand and initiating an environmental hazard in the desert biome, creating a small sandstorm for the Schnee to race right into.
Her visibility would be limited and her pace would be staggered… and Watts would seize the opportunity to move from a flat, level platform over to the geysers and blasted rock. Water pressure would be very easy for him to manipulate…
The Schnee spat the sand from her mouth and scanned the arena for him. When she saw Watts running over cracked gray stone, she cut across the empty center to close the distance to him… exactly as Watts hoped she would.
She was already drawing closer, but he had to lure her to the correct position. He had to offer some form of enticement.
Watts fire a lightning round, the spark just narrowly avoiding hitting the Schnee at her shoulder and -more importantly- leaving a clear trail for her to follow right to his position. A trail that would lead her right in the path of a geyser.
Weiss Schnee took his bait. The girl's combat style was so angular… so predictable.
Watts waved his left hand, activating the ring on his middle finger. Water mains burst beneath their feet as multiple sources were pressurized at once to erupt in the same spot. When Weiss Schnee passed over the cracked rock, water erupted from beneath her feet in a devastating spout, breaking right through the mechanical levees underneath the crafted biome… obscuring the area in the towering burst and a heavy steam.
"Weiss!" Ruby Rose cried out, still strapped to the panel wall.
Watts sneered. His first trap was enough to snare her father, so perhaps the daughter took after him…
But as the steam began to dissipate, he saw blue shards of Dust resting over the cracked rock. Ice… slowly melting from the heat of the water blast, but not melting quickly enough to damage the woman who'd summoned them to defend herself.
As the Dust melted away from the heat, Weiss Schnee emerged from it, her rapier dug into the rock where she'd presumably released the Dust from her weapon. "I fought in this arena during the Vytal Festival, Doctor Watts," Weiss advised him. "You'll have to do better than that."
"Apparently," Watts conceded. "Unfortunately for you… I can."
He drew back to the forest biome. The natural cover of the grass wouldn't have a hazard, but the Schnee would be cautious in following him… giving him time to set it ablaze with his remaining fire rounds.
"So can I," Weiss firmly replied, surprisingly not pursuing him, keeping her blade dug into the ground… drawing another white glyph around herself, pushing her Aura down onto the blasted rock.
Watts paused, curiosity getting the best of him. She was devoting quite a lot of Aura to this… to…
A summoning!
A massive arm lifted from the ground, encased in white armor. A second followed it, dragging a heavy broadsword. An armored helm lifted up after, the massive warrior taking shape.
An Armor Gigas… an animated suit, powered by a small, parasitic Grimm. A defeated enemy turned servant and guardian by the Schnee's hereditary Semblance.
He was careless. Watts leveled his revolver and fired two Dust rounds -fire and ice- at the towering armor. The Schnee moved to intercept, fending off the shots with her rapier, even though that meant her Aura would have to absorb the shrapnel of each…
Why? Why continue to bleed Aura when she'd already spent so much to summon her warrior?
Watts glanced at his chamber. He'd have to spend plenty of ammunition to destroy that thing if Weiss Schnee completed her summon. And he only had: "Six."
Watts waved his left hand, cycling the biomes. He could put more distance between them, at least… or bury the Armor Gigas under so many platforms he could defeat its master and drain her Aura before she reached him. He just had to continue firing on it and let her bleed away more of her defense…
But Weiss Schnee seemed intent to do that anyway, continuing to draw glyphs with her left hand on the Gigas's broadsword. A way to accelerate its motion… perhaps to fling its sword right at him and cleave through the trees and long grass he meant to use as cover.
Watts fired two more: one lightning, his last iron. Again the Schnee deflected them, even though it caused her Aura to visibly flicker as she was hit by the electrical discharge. The shock of the burst caused her to drop her rapier.
Watts affixed his gaze on her once he saw she was unarmed. It seemed the silver-eyed girl needed ten, but Weiss Schnee would only cost him seven… it seemed the weapon in her left hand would be the first she lost. And -ultimately- the last. Watts waited to count until the girl fell, quickly calculating his angle of attack.
Watts circled the biomes again to put distance between himself and the Gigas, just in case the summon attempted to fling its sword at him. He'd now account for bullet dropoff in attacking the Schnee from a greater distance, but her knight wouldn't ever have the chance to counterattack…
That was, until the knight instead slashed the panel wall around the arena, hitting a target Watts had put in its path: a snare of ice Dust that shattered instantly when the Gigas was put close enough to slash. The silver-eyed girl in the red hood fell from the wall, landing on the surface of the broadsword.
"Ruby!" Weiss called from the ground. The girl in red seemed to understand, racing along the flat surface of the summoned weapon, her every footstep accelerated by the glyphs Watts had drawn. Watts tried to turn his revolver, but he'd been facing a different direction, adjusting for a different target…
The girl in the red hood moved so quickly without the aid of the glyphs. With them, Watts only saw a red blur before he felt the impact of both her feet into his chest, disrupting his Aura again and knocking all the wind from him. When he slammed into the ground on the forested floor, her scythe came down on the chamber of his revolver, igniting the fire Dust with the spark of clashing metal, burning his hand and causing Watts to recoil.
"The sky's not the only thing falling around here," the silver-eyed girl dryly observed.
Watts had a suitable insult prepared but didn't get the chance to offer his counter before she struck him with the heel of her shoe. He faintly saw the Schnee move to her position as his vision became groggy.
They were close to altitude. They were still distracted.
Just a few seconds longer… and it wouldn't matter they'd caught him off guard. Their victory would turn to ash in their mouths…
Half a grin formed on Watts' lips as he fell back in the grass.
Tyrian focused his efforts on Yang. Her prosthetic was already damaged, her reaction time already staggered: she'd never be able to keep pace with him. Yang tried to rely on her left hand, discharging one concussion burst after another, but every time Tyrian closed the distance Yang had to raise her right hand and see more of the metal warp under the acidic drawl of Tyrian's toxin.
"You know, one of your little friends cut off my tail," Tyrian informed her. "I was hoping to return the favor by taking one of her pretty little silver eyes… but maybe I'll take your other hand instead; make sure you match."
"Silver eyes…?" Yang repeated.
"The brat in the red hood," Tyrian replied. "I don't suppose you know where she is, do you…?" More purple secreted from his stinger. "Her or maybe Branwen, since he lived when I promised my queen he'd die…"
Ruby and Qrow both in Tyrian's sights… Yang had every intention in putting a stop to him before, but knowing who this madman would pursue if she and Blake failed to hold him here…
Yang balled up her left fist and reared it back, driving it into Tyrian's smug grin. He howled, finally drawing away from her and holding his nose.
"Blake!" Yang called. "Get Robyn out of here; get her to her friends!"
"I'm not leaving you!" Blake immediately protested.
"You're not," Yang corrected. "You're getting her to safety and if the other Happy Huntresses are fit you're bringing them back and we're taking this guy down! Do it!"
Blake was in no hurry to leave Yang facing an enemy who'd already proven quite adept at facing them. She grimaced, raising Gambol Shroud and drawing a bead on the scorpion Faunus.
"They're not far," Robyn insisted from the ground. "Fiona, May, Joanna- they can help your friend."
Blake had once recognized the need to retreat, carrying another wounded girl out from a battlefield. Only the last time she'd made that decision, it had been Yang, after she lost her arm to Adam's rampage. Leaving her to face another madman promising to sever her arm…
She wanted nothing more than to be Yang's steady protection; her constant reliable partner. But if they weren't able to defeat Tyrian, her presence and her loyalty wouldn't make a difference. Reluctantly, Blake reached down to anchor under Robyn's arm, pulling the older woman up and starting to lead her away.
Yang focused her gaze on Tyrian, reorienting himself and leveling his wrist blades. "You really do keep begging me for death, don't you…?"
"Better than listening to you ramble," Yang observed.
Tyrian rushed in and clashed with her again. Blake tried to ignore the steady dripping of poison she heard at her back, ushering Robyn away from the fight.
Weiss glanced down at Watts in the grass. Ruby nudged him with her boot a few times, and when he didn't stir she quickly returned to her partner's side, reaching to Weiss's shoulder. "Are you alright?"
Weiss had further depleted her already limited Aura by summoning the Gigas -and letting Watts take his potshots at her- but wouldn't allow herself time to dwell on that. Instead Weiss turned her attention to the central terminal, outside the arena, further burning up some of her limited Aura to draw her glyphs and run to the computer. Ruby quickly caught up using her Semblance, arriving at Weiss's back with a flurry of rose petals. "Hey, what are you doing?"
"Doctor Watts was raising this arena for a reason," Weiss replied, frantically typing on the machine. "He wanted to move the communications tower into signal range before he dropped it back down… I'm guessing he wanted to send a message to someone."
"Someone?" Ruby repeated. "Do you think he was trying to contact Salem?"
Weiss conceded that sounded plausible… until she found the data she'd been seeking already preloaded: two video files to be transmitted. One for the Atlesian communication systems Watts had kept blocked out, and one for the emergency broadcast on the kingdom-wide network.
"Worse," Weiss grumbled. She saw two separate videos of General Ironwood speaking… and though she didn't have time to review them both, she could hazard a guess they wouldn't be flattering. They may have even been meant to incite.
"What do we do?" Ruby asked, quickly deferring to her.
"We have to stop the messages," Weiss firmly replied, still typing… quickly realizing she was getting nowhere. Watts had programmed the device to play his doctored footage, and Weiss couldn't find a command in the system to halt the broadcast. They were seconds from airing and she had no way of turning them off…
She drew Myrtenaster and glanced up at the steel beams of the tower. If she and Ruby worked quickly, they may have been able to do some damage, maybe prevent the emergency broadcast from being sent… but they'd have no way to halt the internal Atlas communications once Watts reactivated them and sent the message he'd crafted.
Weiss turned her gaze from her sword to the interior of her coat, where her mother had gifted her a Scroll with another film reel…
General Ironwood had commanded her to wait and properly enter the footage into Atlesian military evidence. He'd instructed her to do things by the book. But would he still feel that way knowing the lies and misinformation about to be spread instead?
Oscar once advised her that she could speak out about her father: remind Atlas that not all the Schnees were like him. That their service to their kingdom was not driven by money, or power or… whatever petty revenge Doctor Watts had intended to use Jacques Schnee to facilitate. She wished she could be the one to present the footage herself and provide context… but she had no need of recognition. She didn't need the glory of holding him to account so long as the rest of the world saw clearly the man he was.
Weiss connected the Scroll to the larger terminal. She may not have been able to cancel Watts' broadcast, but she could lower the volume on his video file and play another at the same time, obscuring one piece of doctored footage with something much more… exposing.
As for the message being sent to all of Remnant… Weiss glanced over at Ruby, meeting her partner's eye.
"Ruby, get ready," Weiss advised, getting her own Scroll and connecting it to the terminal too. "I think this may be our only chance to get a message out to the rest of Remnant… we'll only be at altitude for a few seconds. You'll have to make it good."
"Wait, what?!" Ruby interjected. "You want me to- what do you want me to do?!"
"Tell them about the attack, the Grimm; about Salem!" Weiss advised, starting the recording from her Scroll. "Just… just tell them what's happening! Tell them we need help!"
"Weiss…" Ruby muttered.
"Please," Weiss requested, trying to overlay both new sources of footage and block Watts' videos. "Tell them… just tell them the truth of what's happening here."
"...right," Ruby mumbled. "Because we've been so good at that lately…"
"No time like the present," Weiss advised, watching the system start up, the support beams rocking as the air grew thinner, as the device surged with energy, preparing to broadcast…
At the Schnee manor, the councilors continued to argue with the staff they could still reach. Reports were scattered, inconsistent, contradictory… until all their devices abruptly lit up, the council's access restored as comms started up again, immediately receiving a video message sent out to Atlas and Mantle.
"...costing me more money every day with this embargo," came a familiar voice from the recording. "I'd lay off every employee in Mantle if I wasn't trying to win their damn votes for this council seat…"
Jacques Schnee froze in place. Camilla and Sleet recognized the footage immediately, though they'd only seen a still frame before…
Ironwood grimaced. Had Weiss circumvented his orders somehow? Or had it been submitted to evidence and the tech boys played it for her?
"What if I said you can have your cake and eat it too?" inquired the familiar voice of Arthur Watts, the wispy man taking a seat beside Jacques in his study.
The Jacques Schnee at his dining room table turned increasingly white. Ironwood, Sleet, and Camilla all turned their gaze his way before returning their eyes to the footage.
"What do you have in mind?" the recorded Jacques asked his… houseguest.
"James Ironwood never recognized my genius," Watts rued. "After everything I gave him, he still disgraced me… I simply wish to return the favor."
"...what's in it for me?" Jacques wondered.
"A seat on the council," Watts promised. "All I need is your login credentials for the Atlas network. You promise to make Ironwood's life a waking nightmare, and I will guarantee you victory at the polls by giving the voters down in Mantle a little… "digital push" if you will."
Ironwood bit his bottom lip. Still only circumstantial.
That was, until Jacques mused: "I always knew you were a good scientist, Arthur… but I never knew you were such a good salesman."
The two men laughed at Jacques' little joke. In the present, Camilla and Sleet turned their gaze to Jacques still frozen in his seat.
"That- that is… I…" Jacques stammered. "I can explain; that isn't real…"
"Something Arthur Watts doctored, I suppose?" Ironwood dryly inquired.
"Exactly!" Jacques pounced on the offer. "That bastard's trying to set me up; divide us after he hacked the system and attacked our kingdom!"
"Using your login credentials?" Camilla appended.
That… Jacques had no answer for. He quickly fell silent.
Ironwood turned off the video. "We'll address this matter very soon, Jacques. I'd prepare a better defense than that when law enforcement has time to come and collect you."
"...law enforcement…?" Jacques repeated, somehow turning even paler.
Ironwood quickly shifted gears, trying to contact his soldiers. "I have to coordinate with my forces and try to rally kingdom defenses now that comms are back online. We need-"
"James," Sleet interjected, holding up his own Scroll. "There's another message being sent out: on the kingdom-wide CCT."
"...what?"
Ironwood changed channels, searching for the message being simulcast from his communications tower… the familiar red face of Ruby Rose and the stark white of the Amity arena floor…
"Um… uh, hi… my name is Ruby Rose."
To the rest of the world, the first broadcast from an out-of-kingdom CCT hit airwaves under the banner of 'Atlas Emergency Broadcast System'. A young girl with dark hair, clad in a red hood and gray sleeves, nervously scratched the back of her head as she tried to deliver the most important message of her life, completely off the cuff.
"I'm a Huntress," she paused after saying it, as though she herself couldn't quite believe she'd said the word. "If the signal's going out then… I guess I'm talking to all of Remnant right now. We only have a short time while the signal is high enough in the atmosphere to get all this out, so -uh- forgive me if this is… kinda vague, because I don't have the time to say everything…"
She trailed off a bit, but quickly composed herself. "Right now, what you need to know is that the kingdom of Atlas is under attack. Things are… things are bad, and a lot of people still aren't safe. We're being hit by the Grimm, our communications were taken down… and I, I know that's not the sort of thing that anyone hears and wants to run towards, but right now, that is what I'm asking you to do.
"The Grimm are working in coordination with some bad people, just like what happened to Beacon and to Vale," Ruby continued, gaining more confidence. "The Grimm, the Atlesian drones, the White Fang… they've all been manipulated and controlled by someone working in the shadows; she's behind it all, she is the enemy…"
"Her name is Salem, and she is the one who tore us apart," Ruby continued. "The kingdom of Atlas is her target -just like Beacon was, just like Haven was when the White Fang tried to bomb it- and she's been causing death and destruction a lot longer than anyone in the world may really know. But we- she is afraid of facing us, united, together, even with all her Grimm and all the people she's brought on her side. If we work together, we can finally-"
Static. The girl's mouth continued to move but the video produced no sound. The image became increasingly grainier before cutting out completely, displaying only the words SIGNAL LOST.
Across the word, old friends, allies, family… watched a familiar silver-eyed girl deliver a plea, if only because it was the first time any kingdom's CCT reached outside its borders…
At Shade Academy, Sun Wukong and Coco Adel watched their old friend call for help. In Menagerie, Chieftain and High Leader Ghira Belladonna contacted what friends he could in range of Mistral's CCT tower. In Argus, Saphron and Terra Cotta-Arc tried to reach out to the local Atlesian presence, whose commanding officer once generously allowed Ruby Rose and her friends to slip through Ironwood's closed borders…
In Patch, a distraught Taiyang Xiao Long desperately reached towards the screen, mumbling: "No! No, come back-!"
He continued to stare at the now empty screen, taking only the briefest moment to despair. His faithful dog, Zwei, whimpered upon hearing the girls were in the thick of danger once again.
Tai didn't allow himself to wait. He didn't know if the message meant there would be improved avenues of communication, but he frantically reached for his Scroll to try and make contact with someone who might've been able to help his daughter -and his other daughter, and his best friend, and all the other friends and allies they'd collected- and get to Atlas before he could.
Much as he wanted to rush upstairs, dig out his old combat gear and catch the next ship to Atlas, Taiyang knew his help would arrive too late. He'd have to try something much harder: asking for someone else to help in his stead.
He'd ask for reinforcements to go to the second person he thought of… and the first person she'd think of, if the request came from him.
Oscar futilely pounded on the door first. Then he tried to open its reader with his own palm, only to be immediately rejected by the device.
"Neo!" he called again. "Neo, we need their help! Don't do this!"
Oscar.
"Not now!" Oscar grumbled, still pounding on the locked door. "Neo!"
Oscar, it's too late. Try to contact the others and tell them to send warning to Winter.
It was sound advice. That made it all the harder for Oscar to hear, coming from Ozpin.
Ozpin who counseled him against trusting Neo… Ozpin who flooded his thoughts with memories, reminding him of his bias… how his belief in her had been driven -at least in part- by affection. His lust for her had blinded him to the obvious.
She was a murderer, a thief, a criminal. She'd come to Atlas intending to murder Ruby, and once she knew there was a power that could put her on par with Cinder Fall, she'd simply expanded her list of targets rather than renounced any of her ways. He must have been able to see that.
Oscar frantically shook his head, still pounding on the door. She wasn't so far gone as that. He didn't need Ozpin whispering in his ear, he already knew that he could persuade others to set their grudges aside and do better. It worked with Raven Branwen, when she-
When she declined to see her daughter, despite all of Oscar's urgings, and refused to make amends. When she tried to seduce him and tested the strength of his devotion… only to vanish without anyone else realizing she'd been there at all.
When he offered Neo compassion, acceptance, she'd seemed accepting of it… but only to the point of sparing his life and using him to sate her own appetites, not in suddenly abandoning her revenge. She'd simply allowed him to believe that and let him lead her to a greater prize.
The hallway was feeling increasingly heated. Oscar virulently shook his head as he tried to knock once again, begging for his own suspicions to be wrong, hoping that -even if he'd been wrong about Neo- he hadn't led her right to the Winter Maiden and been the one to cost his friends again.
Oscar…
"Not. Now!" Oscar snapped, continuing to pound on the door, his shadow thrashing violently on the surface of the cool metal.
Now, Oscar, Ozpin insisted. We're not alone.
Oscar finally paused, his fist hovering in the air before the door. He faintly saw an orange glow illuminating the hall, widening his shadow along the gray hall…
He finally turned, watching a sleek, dark figure approach. He heard her heels clinking on the ground, wisps of flame falling from a concentrated sphere drawn in her right hand.
She wore red at Haven. Now she was clad all in black, save for a red trim on the thin cape at her back. Her left arm had been unclasped, revealed to the world… sinister black flesh with four long, clawed fingers… no longer merely branded by Salem's parasite, but fully integrated with it, eating away her shoulder but granting her new power.
Cinder Fall… the woman who killed Ozpin.
"The Relic of Knowledge and the Winter Maiden in the same place…" Cinder mused. "Neo really outdid herself."
Or perhaps Oscar had been more wrong than he realized. Neo may have lied more than once.
Either way…
"Give it to me, little boy," Cinder demanded, drawing up the flame, illuminating her remaining amber eye. "Or it will be the only thing left of you when I'm done…"
Yang continued to draw back, trying to keep distance between herself and Tyrian. She didn't know how much she'd have to throw at the mad Faunus, but given how many times she'd disrupted his Aura with her shots and he still kept coming at her, fighting through the pain, rushing headlong into the path of a shotgun round, she could only guess where he found the willpower.
Blake still had yet to return. And Yang was starting to think Tyrian's poison would eat through her defense before she managed to put him down…
Ember Celica discharged its last shot. Yang had to reload and keep up offensive pressure… time that Tyrian would exploit to continue his relentless offensive.
Yang used to fight the same way, with the same reckless abandon. She'd been the one to land the final blow, to tank all the damage for her team… now she was trying to think strategically, and while her patience may have worked against a less zealous opponent, this one simply would not stop… fighting smart did little to deter or counter a madman.
Yang reached for her belt to unfurl a new string of shells. She reached with her prosthetic, only to hear her metal fingers whir and seize up, halting her motion… giving Tyrian the opening to attack her while she stood so uselessly still.
Tyrian's stinger dribbled his toxin, corroding and eating away her Aura. He struck her face with the flat of his blade, sending Yang crashing to the ground. Her thick hair cushioned the impact ever so slightly… but she was still in a daze when Tyrian approached her, pinning her wrists with either of his boots.
"You were certainly… aggravating," Tyrian appraised. "But the thrill of the hunt is only earned with struggle… and blood, wouldn't you agree?"
Tyrian's metal stinger throbbed against his left shoulder. He was eager to poison her now that her Aura had been withered away… eager to make her death slow, agonizing… and certain.
Yang faintly saw red and black behind him. The Grimm too… finally drawn to this madman's anger and bloodlust…
Just one more thing to go wrong today…
"No need to say it," Tyrian assured her. "I'll make the point for you."
Yang saw his stinger descend. Time slowed down as the metal drew closer, purple molasse dribbling from the prosthetic…
...a red blade sliced through the air, bisecting Tyrian's tail at a metal hinge. The stinger rolled in the air, sailing just over Yang's head and imbedding in the pavement above her, its poison eating through the stone.
Tyrian howled in agony, thrashing about, tumbling and falling on his hands and knees. He continued to cry from the pain before whirling around, turning his anger towards: "You! Why are you here?!"
Yang craned her head up to get a clearer picture, as a tall figure emerged from a swirling vortex of red and black, holding a long red blade in her right hand.
She knew her black hair. She knew her red eyes.
Raven Branwen leveled the sword at the mad Faunus, her portal closing at her back. "Yang," she greeted. "It looks like you get more than one."