RWBY & Project Guardsman

by FLASHFAN123

A crossover parody of RWBY with Red vs Blue. Co-written by mrastounding. He'll post the same chapters on his deviantart account.

61. Chapter 61

Chapter 61

A few hours later, Qrow and Winter were alerted by a second Manta landing on the beach next to theirs. Qrow took out a pair of binoculars and groaned at what he saw. "Is it Green?" Winter asked.

"Nope." Qrow sighed.

"More mercenaries?"

"Uh-uh."

"Don't tell me… RWBY and company?"

"Would you believe me if I said it's twice as bad?"

Winter sighed. "At this point, it wouldn't surprise me. So, what or who are we dealing with now?"

"Your family."

"...I'm sorry, I must have misheard you," Winter said with a blink. "Did you just say that…?"

"That Manata that's approaching: it's marked as part of the SDC." Qrow quickly remarked.

"That's impossible: Weiss and I had that company shut down," Winter declared with a frown.

"Tell that to the ones piloting the plane." Qrow declared before handing her the binoculars.

As Winter peaked through the binoculars, she couldn't help but groan as she discovered that, sure enough, the plane in question did have the brand of the SDC. "Might as well see what they want: hopefully this won't be too much of a problem."

Once they met up with the others, and Yang caught them up on current events, Winter explained their plan. "You shouldn't have come. Qrow and I were going to use our tracking beacons to lure the enemy into a trap."

"Well, that was pretty stupid!" Ivan remarked. "Whenever Guardsmen are confirmed to be on sight, these mercenaries like to nuke from the sky first and ask questions never. You should be grateful that we found you first."

Winter sighed. "I suppose we didn't consider that. Thank you."

"You should come back with us." Ivan offered. "With our combined efforts, we might be able to track the benefactor of whoever's trying to kill us."

Qrow shrugged. "Eh, why not? It's not like we have a whole lot of other options at the moment."

Once the group returned to the mansion, Ivan offered to show Qrow and Winter their rooms while the others prepared for dinner. But as they followed the white-haired man, the duo became increasingly concerned by how far down they descended. At last, they reached a room full of what appeared to be statues of low-tier Guardsmen.

"Ugh." Qrow groaned. "The hell is that smell?"

Winter sniffed the foul stench and realized it was coming from the statues. "Oh my gods… what have you done?"

"I must admit, Winter, I was afraid you'd at least recognize my voice." Ivan smirked. "But then again, you and I never were very close, were we?"

"Actually, I did recognize your voice, even with that scrambler that you're using: I just couldn't resist setting up the opportunity to whip that smug look off of your face sooner or later, with 'sooner' being the more preferable option." Winter retorted. "Oh, and by the way, it'll take more than a little gas to take me down, you little troll."

"...you never could just let me win, could you?" Ivan growled out even as his eye twitched in response.

"Neither could Weiss, and it's likely only the stress that she's been dealing with and that voice scrambler that you've been using around her that's keeping her from truly realizing who she's dealing with," Winter declared with a scoff. "What I don't understand is why you've taken the path that you have. After all, I thought you hated the idea of becoming a huntsman."

"What can I say? I've learned that it has its uses," "Ivan" declared with a dark chuckle. "But I suppose it doesn't matter either way. After all, you'll never get the chance to tell your little friends about all of this."

"Oh, I beg to differ." Whitley merely smirked at his sister's declaration as he pressed a button on a device behind his back. Suddenly, a blanket of white dust fell upon the two Guardsmen, freezing them in place. Qrow and Winter struggled to break free, but they soon realized that they were completely immobilized. "What is this?!"

"Oh, this is something my 'girlfriend' has been working on for quite a while, now." Whitley smugly paced around her frozen sister. "It's a variant of ice dust. It doesn't wear off, and the victims can only be freed by this antidote…" He took a vile out from his pocket and placed it on a shelf. "I'll just leave it here. Out of reach!"

"Gods-dammit, Ice Queen!" Qrow sneered, bitterly. "Is everyone in your family fucked up?"

"Oh, don't fret." Whitley goaded, again, motioning to the frozen corpses of their deceased friends. "I am not too cruel. I will give you something to strive for in your final moments; the record for longest time surviving frozen in place is ten days, fifteen hours, thirty-eight minutes, and seven seconds. I know you've always been the competitive type, Winter. So by all means, try to do better."

"Oh, I'll do better, alright," Winter growled out. "And when I've managed to break free from this trap of yours, I'm going to be coming for you to tear your whole plan apart."

"It's nice to have goals, I suppose. Me? I'm having waffles after you and your friends are dead." Whitely declared with a dark chuckle before exiting the room.

Meanwhile, Ruby and Sapphire were back in the garage. Sapphire was still tinkering with the device her team needed while Ruby kept her company. "So, I appreciate how you said this machine can help me, and I hate to ask, but you wouldn't happen to have a couple of triple A batteries would you? I can't move Freckles out of Rose Thorn until I can turn it back on."

"Nope. Sorry." Sapphire shrugged. "Most of our stuff runs on vegetable oil. But I can get some next time we go on a supply run."

"Knock-knock?" Ivan greeted, warmly, as he entered the garage. "Sorry, Ruby, but would you mind giving me and Sapphire some alone time? We need to talk."

"Oh, sure. I can go check on Uncle Qrow in the meantime." Ruby shrugged as she made her way out the door. She was half-way towards the dining hall when she bumped into the duo reporters. "Oh, sorry, guys! Have you seen my uncle?"

"Uh, no. Sorry." Nebula replied. "Come to think of it, we haven't seen him or Winter since they came to this mansion."

"Oh, he's probably just in the liquor cellar then." Ruby chuckled to herself. "By the way, don't go in the workshop right now, Ivan and Sapphire are having a conversation."

As Ruby skipped off to find her missing uncle, the two reporters eyed the door to the workshop.

"I wish I knew what they were doing in there," Dew admitted. "Might make for an interesting plot point later on in my film."

"Well, I can always go check it out." Nebula said with a shrug.

Dew simply blinked in response. "Are you sure? We could get into trouble if you get caught."

"I'm sure: just keep an eye on the door for the others while I check this out." Nebula instructed with a nod.

"Alright, just be quick, please." Dew begged. "This place gives me the creeps."

Nebula quietly tip-toed through the dark hallway towards the computer room. On her way, she overheard Ivan and Sapphire having a discussion in the workshop. "What do you mean you need more parts?!" Ivan shouted, irritably.

"Well, the gyrosphere is finally stable, and the laser drill is finally able to drill." Sapphire explained. "But I need more uranium rods to compensate for the gravo-metric interference from the temporal anomalies-"

"UGH! Enough with the gods-damned techno-babble!" Ivan growled. "Why couldn't you have just built me a giant fucking bomb like I asked?!"

"But this is so much better!" Sapphire pouted. "Plus, those uranium rods will be easier to get than the gyrosphere we stole from those people! Fang and Russet are on a mission right now! Just call them and tell them to pick it up at the location! Oh, but tell them to use lead so the uranium in the uranium rods don't poison them."

"Uuuuuggggghhhh… fine." Ivan relented. "But this had better work."

"It will," Sapphire said with a shrug. "But I still don't fully understand why you need me to build you anything for something like this. I mean, aren't two of the folks you designated as targets supposed to be your family or something?"

"They are, and as such, I can understand your misgivings," Ivan declared with a nod. "After all, the strength of the wolf is the pack. One thing you need to understand, though, is that my 'pack' did me a great grievance, and as such, I want them to understand that they aren't as untouchable as they believe themselves to be."

Sapphire gave him a flat look. "You wanted me to build a bomb to teach them a lesson in humility: doesn't that sound like overkill to you?"

"Said the girl who built a dimensional rift generator instead," Ivan shot back, "but yeah, in hindsight, it does seem a bit over the top, but trust me when I say that it'll be the only way the message sticks."

Sapphire just sighed in reply. "I don't know if I like it, but I'll keep working on the device in the meantime. Actually, before I forget, what are we going to do about Nebula and Dew? They weren't originally a part of the plan were they?"

"No, but if there's one thing I've learned since this whole thing started it's how to adapt," Ivan remarked before turning towards the door with a smug look. "As for your other question, well, what do you think we should do with you, Miss Violette?"

Nebula simply froze in place upon hearing that, barely registering when multiple guns popped out of the walls and pointed at her and her companion. "...just out of curiosity, what gave me away?" Nebula couldn't help but ask as she and Dew reluctantly raised their hands in surrender.

"Please, I was hounded by folks wanting to grab dirt on me long before I started to put this plan into effect," Ivan declared with a scoff. "And the presence you and your friend give off is just similar enough to when I had to dodge the paparazzi that I would have been able to sense your approach from a mile away even without the hunter level training that I've undergone."

Just then, Amethyst and Ecru appeared behind the reporters, latching them in chains and leading them down to the dungeon. Once they were locked in separate cages, Whitely revealed his plan to them.

"So, if you don't mind my asking, why are you doing this?"

Whitley blinked. "Excuse me?"

Dew simply shrugged. "Hey, I interviewed your sisters, so I figured, 'Why not complete the set?' Besides, Sapphire said it herself: Nebula and I weren't a part of your original plan, so there's no harm in letting us know what exactly we've gotten ourselves involved in."

Whitley nodded. "I suppose you do deserve to know why exactly I've locked you and your friend up here, but just so you know, getting me to spill my guts isn't going to get you out of this cell."

"Fair enough. So, let's hear it."

"Well, before I begin, let me make myself clear." Whitley announced. "We are not doing this for glory. We are not doing this for-"

"Hang on, can I record this?" Nebula interrupted, taking out her tape recorder.

"What? No! Gimme that!" Whitley snatched the recording device and threw it across the room before clearing his throat. "Anyway, we are not doing this for glory. We are not doing this for money-"

"Can I use my camera?" Dew asked.

"No! Stop stepping on my lines!" Whitley snapped and handed the camera over to Amethyst. The purple warrior crushed the device with her bare hands, intimidating Dew and giving Whitley the chance to continue. "Let me explain this in a way you'll understand. You're an aspiring director, right? You appreciate the written word. I have rehearsed this. Many times, in fact. So now that I have an audience, I would like to test it out."

"Oh, well why didn't you just say so?" Dew happily rested her chin on her fists as she leaned in, now even more eager to listen. "Please continue."

"Thank you." Whitley cleared his throat once more. "Ahem, as I was saying, we are not doing this for glory. And we are not doing this for money. We are doing this for justice. Like all Schnee stories, this all started in Atlas…"

Whitley woke up in his dorm room at six o'clock on the dot. His father decided to twist the story of his daughters' betrayals by forcing him to join a huntsman academy to make it look like Jaqcues ordered all of his children to do so to prove their worth to the SDC. When Whitley graduated, he would be the one to inherit the SDC and run it in any way he saw fit. Or at least, that's what Jaques claimed. But Whitley had other plans. After informing his team of his family ties, he convinced the other huntresses-in-training to help him take over the SDC.

With Sapphire's tech-savviness and Fang and Russet's brute strength, it was only a matter of time before Whitley came into possession of all the blackmail they needed to usurp Jaques Schnee. But four hunters weren't enough to take down Jaques; thankfully, Whitley had a long-time childhood friend on an opposing hunting team who could sway a few other student's to their side.

As the sun began to rise, Whitley placed his headphones over his ears and happily danced along to "Where Evil Grows." However, his bliss was interrupted as a blue-hooded huntress appeared right behind him. "AAAH!" Whitley nearly jumped out of his skin, knocking his headphones off and bringing his pre-victory dance to a screeching halt.

"I thought you might like a latte with steamed Vacuan goat milk!" Sapphire beamed, warmly, holding up four to-go cups of caffeinated beverages.

"What do you take me for; an imbecile?" Whitley snatched one of the cups from her and glared in annoyance. "Of course, I want a latte! I LOVE THE WAY YOU MAKE THEM!"

"Aw, I love you, too!" Sapphire giggled and skipped off to give Fang and Russet their coffees.

"I still don't quite understand how a girl who was raised by wolves learned how to make such a good cup of coffee." Fang remarked. "And no, that was not a slur against wolf Faunus, Russet."

"I hadn't thought that it was, but I appreciate you thinking of me," the aforementioned Faunus replied with a smile.

A few hours later, Whitley begrudgingly joined the rest of his team for their practice fight against an opposing team. Said opposing team happened to have the unfair advantage of being Sgt. Cardinal Smith's favorite, so she was joining them this time. To make matters worse, the team they were competing against included his childhood friend.

By the time Whitley's team arrived at their enemies' base to capture the flag, the other team had stopped firing. Ecru Bronze ran inside to tell Cardinal the bad news. "Sgt. Smith!"

"Bronze! Has the enemy been defeated, yet?"

"No, ma'am, we-"

"Then get back out there and don't come back until you've beaten them!" She ordered, sternly.

"But, ma'am, we don't-"

"'But' nothing!" Cardinal snapped. "A soldier follows orders! Now, get out there and carry out the mission!"

"Y-yes, ma'am!" Ecru fearfully retreated back outside to duck in cover with the rest of his teammates. "Smith says we need to keep firing!"

"With what?!" Sara spluttered, indignantly. "We're out of ammo!"

"Hey, guys?" Midori Ben called out. "If you had to get shot in a body part, which part would you choose?"

"Well, that one blond chick from Beacon makes it clear that robot arms are awesome, so I wouldn't mind being hit there." Fang mused.

"Personally, I'd probably go for the leg, though that might just be my love of pirates talking." Ecru added.

"I vote the stomach." Sara decided.

"Why?" Ben arched an eyebrow.

"Because I want to know what it's like to literally eat lead."

"That's not how that...oh, never mind."

At last, Cardinal came outside. "What the hell is going on?!"

"We're out of ammo you crazy, old bitch!" Ben snapped, only to have a sword pointed at his face. "... y'know, people always think being called a 'bitch' is so negative. But, frankly, I think it just says that you're strong, and confident, and absolutely fucking terrifying, please don't kill me."

Cardinal rolled her eyes and attached a handkerchief to the tip of her blade. She waved it in view of the enemy to signal a truce, and stepped out once she heard the gunfire stop. "Attention! We are out of ammunition! You currently have the advantage! Shall we negotiate a trade?" Cardinal smiled, coyly.

"Uh-uh. No way." Whitley shook his head, irritably. "My last peace talk with you ended in literal backstabbing!"

"Don't pretend that you wouldn't have done the same," Cardinal snarled.

"NO ONE WAS TRYING TO KILL YOU! THAT'S WHY IT'S CALLED A 'PEACE TALK!'" Whitley shouted before groaning. "Okay, what if we send in one man each?"

"Hmmm…" Cardinal smirked as she eyed the green-clad student under her command.

When the two "combatants" were out of earshot of their respective teams, Ben asked Whitley the same question he had asked his teammates. "So what do you think?"

"Uh… I don't know." Whitley shrugged, uncomfortably. "I guess… the leg?"

"No way! That's where most of the arteries are!" Ben shook his head. "I wanna get shot, not bleed to death!"

"Okay, um, the foot?"

"Yeah, except I need those to walk!"

"Uh, ear?"

"Huh? What's that? Sorry, I couldn't hear you because some asshole shot my fucking ear off!"

"Ben!" Cardinal shouted from a distance. "Ab-Stay! Im-Hay! In the ack-bay! Mm-kay?!"

"...it's nearly time, isn't it?" Ben couldn't help but ask.

"Yes it is," Whitely replied with a nod. "But don't worry: I won't keep you hidden for too long. I still have need of your unique skill set, after all. Once my dad kicks the bucket, you and I can-"

"Uh, since we're talking about this, I was wondering if we could include Zadie in on this?" Ben asked.

"Your girlfriend?" Whitley arched an eyebrow. "Why?"

"I need to make sure she stays safe, man!" Ben explained. "I know I should've told you this sooner, but… she's expecting."

"... expecting what?"

Ben facepalmed at his friend's incompetence. "Ben Jr." He reluctantly elaborated.

"Whoa! Are you serious?!"

"Shhh!" Ben pushed Whitley into a room and checked to make sure no one was watching them. "Yeah, I'm serious! That's why I agreed to this crazy master plan of yours. I'm gonna be a father and maybe a husband if things go that way, and I need a way to support them."

"Oh… okay. I'll make sure she's safe." Whitley promised. "Don't worry." The Schnee heir exited the room, only to be stopped by a familiar girl in blue.

"HI, WHITLEY!" She shouted, happily. "What're you doing?"

"Uh, I'm just… out strolling."

"No, you're not!" Sapphire rested her hands on her hips as she pouted. "You're talking to your best friend!"

"W-what!" Whitley stammered, fearful that she may have been on to him and Ben's plan.

"ME!" Sapphire beamed.

"Oh, ha ha! Yes! Right!" Whitley said with a nervous chuckle. "Speaking of which, though, how goes our latest project?"

"Should be coming along nicely, actually, but it'll take some time for some of the parts I need to get here." Sapphire declared with a grin.

"Good to know."

"I still don't understand why you hired her." Ben admitted sometime later. "She doesn't seem like the type of person who'd be a good fit for this type of set up."

Whitley shrugged, knowing that his friend was referring to Sapphire. "I'll admit that there are one or two details that I've failed to share with her, but trust me when I say that without her expertise, we wouldn't have had nearly as much equipment as we do now."

"So in other words, she has her uses."

"Exactly."

"Uh, guys, something's happening, and I don't think that it's a good something either," Sapphire called out with a nervous expression. Whitley watched in horror as the fleet of Mantas arrived at the academy.

"Get our equipment ready for departure!" He ordered before rushing off to secure Ben and a means of escape. But just as he reached the other dorm rooms, a missile bombarded the facility.

"BEN!" Whitley gasped in horror. The missile had blown off his friend's legs and left arm, and his stomach was split open for all to see as his blood painted the surrounding area. The Schnee heir cradled his dying companion in his arms. "Ben! Can you hear me?!"

"H-how bad is it…?" Ben asked, weakly.

"Uh…" Whitley turned bright green as he looked back down at all the spilled blood and organs. "Probably as bad as it feels."

"I'm… I'm imagining crushed raspberries."

"Yeah…" Whitley gulped. "Yeah, that's pretty accurate."

"I-I'm… going… home…"

Whitley shuddered as the final breath slipped through Ben's lips. He continued to hug his best friend's dismembered body as he watched with a wrathful glare towards the Guardsmen who continued to storm the facility.

"After that, I collected Ben's team, my team, and Cardinal, went off the grid, changed my name, and relocated here to plot my revenge against all of Project Guardsmen!" Whitley concluded. "As you can imagine, they were pretty eager to get back at those who tried to kill us."

"Yeah, I can understand that, more than you might know," Dew replied, thinking back to her late friend. "Still, there's one thing I don't get: from what I understand, all of that happened because of your father's orders, and your sisters helped to take him out, so why…?"

"Why am I trying to have them killed?" Whitley interrupted with a bitter chuckle. "It's quite simple, really: they robbed me of the chance to kill my father myself...and I don't like having things stolen from me."

"So you're going to kill your own family for revenge?" Nebula sniffed in disgust.

"Don't you dare talk to me like that!" Whitley snapped. "Ben was the greatest person I ever knew! He was bright and courageous and… and decent! Just… just a decent person! He didn't deserve what happened to him! No one at that academy did! And Atlas just swept it all under the rug! Now, they'll know what it's like to be helpless. And if you two play your cards right, I'll let you be the ones to tell the story."

With that, Whitley and his associates left the reporters in their cages.

Meanwhile, Jaune and Pyrrha received a call from Yang to meet her in private. The duo spent the next twenty minutes looking for Nora to bring her along, only to find her asleep on the couch in one of the lounges.

"Nora, wake up! Where's Nebula and Dew?" Jaune asked, shaking his teammate.

"Psh, I dunno…" Nora yawned as she rubbed the sand from her eyes. "They wandered off a while ago."

"What?!" Jaune spluttered, irritably. "I told you to look after them!"

"Well, maybe I was feeling tired!" Nora snapped back.

Jaune and Pyrrha could only stare in shocked silence after the words slipped from her lips. At last, Jaune found his voice again. "Are… are you… are you Ren-ing me, right now?"

"DON'T SAY HIS NAME!" Nora growled out. "He betrayed us! He left us! I want absolutely nothing to do with him!"

Pyrrha looked to her partner, who nodded. "Okay, then: I guess you won't mind if I take this picture of him and tear it into little pieces," she declared before taking out a picture of Ren from back when they were at Beacon.

"NO!" Nora cried out, quickly snatching the photo up and cradling it in her arms. "It's okay, Mommy's here. Nora won't let the mean lady hurt you. We're gonna be together forever, and be happy, and have lots of babies." Suddenly, Nora threw the picture to the ground and started angrily beating it with her hammer. "You bastard! How could you just leave me like that?! I trusted you! I loved you! I hunted grimm with you!" Then just as quickly, she fell to her knees, cradled the picture and started crying. "OH, MY GODS, I'M SO SORRY! PLEASE DON'T EVER LEAVE ME, AGAIN!"

"'Absolutely nothing', eh?" Jaune teasingly called out.

Nora simply blushed in reply. "Sh...shut up!"

Pyrrha simply shook her head in response. "Look, we might not understand everything that you're going through right now - not entirely at any rate - but remember: Ren was our teammate as well, so we do understand that he hurt you by saying that he didn't want to come along with us. With that said, though, you can't just ignore everything around us just because you're upset with him...or have you already forgotten our suspicions that this might all be a trap?"

Nora just sighed in reply. "You're right, I'm sorry."

Pyrrha nodded. "It's alright: I miss Ren too, after all."

"Yeah, he could be a pain at times, but I truly did mean it when I said that I had admired his courage," Jaune admitted. "It's just a shame that he chose now to question his resolve, as I would have been there for him if he just came forward beforehand."

"Hey!" Yang suddenly peeked into the room. "What the fuck are you guys doing standing around?! Let's go!"

As the group headed down the halls, Jaune pulled Yang aside.

"Hey, Yang, do you know why Pyrrha's being so paranoid about Amethyst?" Jaune admitted as he followed the group towards the rendezvous.

"Probably because of her crush on you." Yang replied.

"What?" Jaune scoffed. "Pyrrha doesn't have a crush on me."

"Seriously? Dude, she wasn't even subtle about it. Why do you think she cornered you after I activated the Temple of Procreation?"

"But we were locked in the closet with Ren and Nora!" Jaune spluttered. "That doesn't mean anything… right? I mean, why would someone like her be interested in a nobody like me?"

Yang rolled her eyes and placed both hands on Jaune's shoulders. "You really need to work on your self-esteem, pal." She told him. "Lemme put it this way; if I were straight… well, I'd probably only settle for guys like Yatsuhashi, or Fox, or even Ren. But you look decent enough that I'd at least give you a pity fuck every now and then."

"Thanks." Jaune deadpanned, sarcastically. "I feel much better."

"Good!" Yang smiled, giving her friend a pat on the cheek. "Now, c'mon! Let's go catch up with the others."

A few minutes later, Teams RWBY and JNP met in one of the secluded rooms of the mansion without security cameras. "What's this all about?" Ruby asked.

"I'm beginning to think that Blake might have been onto something earlier about this all being part of a trap," Pyrrha declared with a frown, "and I'm not just saying that because Amethyst won't stop flirting with Jaune, either."

"Guys, I think Pyrrha's right." Yang agreed. "I haven't seen Winter or Qrow since they got here, and I found a room full of pictures of us. As if these guys are spying on us. And I haven't seen Nebula or Dew in a while. Something's sketchy about these guys. And we need to find out."

"And how do you propose we do that?" Weiss asked with her arms crossed.

"With subtlety, my dear future sister-in-law!" Yang replied with a wink. "Subtlety…"

A few hours later, Ivan and his teammates agreed to meet Teams RWBY and JNPR in the dining room. It was then that Yang initiated her brilliant plan. "So… are you bad guys?"

"WHAT?!" Weiss spluttered.

"Weeeeell…" Ivan stroked his chin, innocently. "That's really a matter of perspective, don't you think?"

"AH-HA!" Yang bellowed, triumphantly. "That is totally a bad guy response! See, Weiss?! That's how it's done! Wait… oh, shit. You really are bad guys, aren't you?"

"No, Yang." Ivan denied. "We are revolutionaries! When Jacques and Project Guardsmen fell, it left a power vacuum! I tried to gather as many Guardsmen as I could, but before I could buy their loyalty, those bureaucrats in Atlas stole all the SDC's shares! All that money… all that power… stolen from me!"

"Wait a minute…" Weiss' eyes widened in horror. "WHITLEY?!"

Whitley chuckled. "Yes, Weiss. I guess you're not as smart as Winter is. Or, should I say, was?"

"What did you do to her?!" Weiss snarled, arming herself with Myrtenaster.

"Nothing she and the other Guardsmen didn't fully deserve." Whitley retorted. "Do you know what everyone in this room has in common? They were all affected by Project Guardsman! They used us for whatever experiments or training they needed at the time, and threw us aside when they were done with us! Now's our chance to get something back! We've got a plan to take down Atlas once and for all! And with us Schnees - being the benevolent saviors we are - will be there to take charge! So what do you say?"

"What do we say?" Yang remarked, sarcastically. "We probably say something along the lines of 'you're fucking nuts, dude!' We are not helping you take on the government!"

"Then I'm afraid we're going to have to contain you until our mission is complete." Whitley sighed, disappointed.

"Oh, yeah?!" Yang scoffed. "You and what army?!"

"So glad you asked." Whitley smugly turned to the military woman. "Cardinal? Will you do the honors?"

"SMITH BATTALION ASSEMBLE!" Cardinal shouted before she took out a bugle and played reveille.

Suddenly, dozens of mercenaries flooded into the room, aiming their weapons at Teams RWBY and JNP. "Gods dammit!" Blake rested her head in her hands. "Every time we ask that, they always have an army!"

"Yeah, I feel like a bit of an idiot for asking that," Yang admitted. "Still, it's a good thing I anticipated that this might happen."

"Really, now?" Whitley called out with a smug grin. "Because from where I'm standing, there's nothing you can do to get out of this situation."

"Heh, and you called Weiss dumb," Yang shot back with an equally smug expression, as she pulled out a handheld radio and turned it on. "After all, you haven't seemed to realize that there's someone missing here. Mom, NOW!"

Whitley didn't even have time to blink as a portal opened up right underneath the group and transported them elsewhere, causing him to growl in response as the portal closed as quickly as it opened up. "Clever, but not clever enough. Search the place: Raven Branwen and the others couldn't have gotten far."

However, Whitley and his men found themselves instantly teleported next to the would-be escapees. "What the-? MOM!" Yang stammered. "What're you doing?!"

"Yang, think sensibly." Raven tried to reason. "This Schnee kid has a point. The Atlas government has been a huge source of our problems. And if you ask me, getting a few medals and a couple cabins on Menagerie doesn't really sound like a fair compensation for all our troubles."

Whitley smiled. "So glad to hear that, Ms. Branwen. Now, what do you say we lock up your daughter and her friends and give them some time to re-think my offer."

"Yes, sir."

"C'mon, let's go!" Yang grabbed the pink-clad girl by the arm, only to be swatted away.

"I don't think so!"

"Oh, gods-dammit! I thought you were Nora."

"I am Nora!" She replied, aiming her grenade-launcher directly at Yang's face. "And you're going to the dungeon!"

"What?!" Yang gasped in utter disbelief. "Nora, didn't you hear what they said?!"

"All I heard was the truth!" Nora nudged Yang in the stomach, motioning for her to head to the dungeon. "A war is coming, and I wanna be on the winning team!"

A few minutes later, both Raven and Nora followed Cardinal and Ecru in taking the teams to their cells. As they reached the lower floor, the group stopped so Cardinal could enter the door's security code. While they were waiting, Nora leaned close to Yang. "Psst, hey, Yang." She whispered.

"'Psst,' yourself, you traitor!" Yang snapped.

"No, no, no!" Nora shook her head. "It's okay, your mom and I weren't serious. We're just pretending to be bad."

"What? Really?" Yang blinked and whispered back.

"Yeah, you were right; these guys are evil as fuck!" Nora nodded. "We just need you to wait until I can find a laptop and call for help."

"Wait, for real?" Yang asked, doubtfully. "Or did my mom just tell you that so you'd help her?"

"No, actually this was my idea." Nora corrected. "Your mom wanted to go in guns blazing, but I convinced her that we probably have a better chance of making it out of this alive if a few of us play along."

"Ooooh, good idea!" Yang declared.

"Yeah, I agree, though I'm sure you won't have anything to worry about."

"I don't know about that, Sapphire: we should probably still exercise some...wait, Sapphire?!"

"Uh, hi guys," Ruby's look-alike called out, having shown up not too long ago, before holding up her hands to show that she had no ill-intentions in store for you. "Look, I know how this all looks, but I know my husbando: he's not a bad guy. I...I'm sure there's a reason that he's acting this way."

"Look, no offense, Sapphire, as I can tell that you're not like the others, but your 'husbando' isn't the man you think he is," Weiss remarked. "He'll just toss you aside when it's most convenient."

"Then why did he save my life all of those times in the past?" Sapphire couldn't help but ask with a frown. "Not to mention that he couldn't have faked all of those loving moments that we shared, right?"

Weiss couldn't help but give a sad smile in reply. "You truly are just like Ruby: always wanting to see the best in people even if it ends up getting you hurt in the end."

"...look, I can get you out of here so that you can deliver a message to your other friends, but I'm telling you: there's nothing you need to worry about." Sapphire declared.

"I appreciate it, Sapphire," Yang remarked, "Though I hope you're right to think that...for your sake, if nothing else."

"OH, GOOD IDEA!" Ruby cheered. "So while Nora's pretending to be bad until she sends the message, you can give us the signal to run!"

A long silence loomed over the room. "What did she just say?!" Cardinal growled.

"UGH, Ruby!" Nora groaned.

Soon enough, the group was running as fast as they could from the mercenaries in search of a communication hub.

"The central coms network should be just through here," Sapphire directed at the group sometime later. "We should be fine as long as we don't run into anyone else."

"Hey, wait a minute!"

"You mean like her?" Pyrrha couldn't help but ask as her doppelganger suddenly showed up.

"Sapphire, what are you doing?!" Amethyst growled out.

"Uh, isn't it obvious? I'm helping these guys out...and I think you should too. I mean, you were the one who promised that you wouldn't let anything happen to Jaune and his friends, and I'd like to think that having them trapped in a jail cell counts as letting something happen to them," Sapphire declared.

"...crap: I can't really think of a way to argue with that statement." Amethyst couldn't help but remark with a light blush.

"I can." ...and that was all the warning anyone got before Sapphire was shot in the knee.

Sapphire could only gasp as she took in the source of that gunshot, tears streaming from her eyes as she did. "Wh...why?"

"Simple: you disobeyed me," Whitely replied. "And I don't take kindly to insubordination."

Yang scooped up Sapphire in her arms and sprinted away from the crazed Schnee. Whitley aimed his weapon at the purple warrior beside him. "You even think about letting them get away, I'll blow your brains out." He threatened.

"Y...yes sir," Amethyst called out, though the frown on her face showed that she wasn't entirely okay with this.

Meanwhile, Raven had taken Ruby, Jaune, and Blake into the holding cells, forced to continue playing along. "Sorry, kids. Just try to hold on. And pray that Yang can get Nora to a laptop in time."

Meanwhile, Sapphire had finally led the group into the communication's hub of the building and Yang set her down to shut and lock the door just as Cardinal and Sara caught up to them. "Barricade the door!" Pyrrha suggested as she shoved her spear into the handles. She and Yang pushed against the door as their pursuers nearly broke it down with one shot of Sara's grenades.

"Hurry up and send the message!" Yang ordered as she and Pyrrha struggled to keep the door shut.

"Open this door right now!" Cardinal yelled from the other side. "That's an order!"

"You don't get to give orders if you're on the bad guy side!" Pyrrha shouted back.

"Damn. I hadn't considered that."

"Sapphire, you open this door this instant!" Whitely growled out. "Don't you dare disobey me!"

"Sorry, ex-husbando," Sapphire snarled back in return. "I'm afraid I can't do that, seeing how it's kind of hard to walk after you shot me in the knee!"

At last, Nora managed to send out the distress signal just as Whitley and his followers broke down the door. Team RWBY and JNPR held up their arms in surrender while Ecru pulled Sapphire to her feet. "What should we do with her, boss?"

"As much as I hate to admit it, we still need her to operate the machine." Whitley sighed. "Alright, put her in a cell with the others while I… get the amnesia gun warmed up."

Sapphire shuddered at those words as she was hauled away with the others. Pyrrha turned to Nora and Jaune. "I'm sorry. I couldn't hold it shut anymore."

"It's okay." Nora replied. "I just hope that our message made it through."

Meanwhile, after failing to recruit Svetlana and Jean, Team CFVY headed to Atlas to inform Ciel of Penny's supposed resurrection. Unfortunately, the new general of the Atlesian army refused to listen to them until she had finished giving a lecture on the huntress code to her new cadets. Team CFVY tried their best to sit through it, but soon found themselves falling asleep.

"And what's particularly interesting about this paragraph is the transitive verb which brings up all sorts of questions about…" Ciel cut herself off and moved towards one of her students sitting in the front row. "Rosana? I'm not entirely convinced that you're paying attention."

"Huh?" The pink-haired girl suddenly bolted upright. "Oh, sorry, general! I just - uh - thought I saw some graffiti on my desk! Yeah, some really tiny graffiti! 'General Ciel Soleil is an O.C.D. control freak who uses learning to hurt people.' But it's fine. It was just a speck of dirt."

"DIRT?!" Ciel aggressively slammed both hands on the desk, scanning for any foreign contaminant.

"Uh, it's okay, ma'am!" Rosana stammered, terrified. "It's gone. It can't hurt you, now."

Fox casually turned to Velvet with a light blush. "Isn't she hot when she's hot?"

Just then, Ciel's scroll vibrated, prompting her to address the class. "Excuse me, cadets, I need to take this. Silent study until I return." The French woman paced into her office, looked at her scroll, and gasped in shock. "Sacre bleu…" She muttered. She burst out of the office and sprinted towards the communications tower. Once she had dismissed the other officers, she plugged her scroll into the secure channel and made a call to a pair of associates she had been keeping on standby. "Hello. It's me. Are you two ready to earn that pardon?"

On the other side of the world, a familiar gentleman criminal in a bowler hat smirked as his ice cream-colored wife stood beside him. "I thought you'd never ask, general." Torchwick replied.

To Be Continued