(Author's Note: To reiterate, this is a completely different timeline from the previous chapter, and is simply one more route the story could have taken, if a brave man had decided to go out in one last action to try and save his soul from all his sins, or perhaps just to screw over those who have made the world a bad place.)
(This would properly slot into Null at the point after Chapter 40)
Ironwood felt overdressed. He liked his normal uniform. It hid his arm, so he could hit people unexpectedly with it, if they didn't know him. But this uniform was for dress, and his arm was a 'miracle of science', something Atlas liked to show off, so this uniform had been specifically designed to show it off. It also itched. He hated that, it was distracting, but for the moment, he needed to look his best.
"Alright General, we're about to go live...are you sure you won't let me hear what you have to say first? I can write some responses quickly, a few minutes, and you can see if you'll agree," said Ms. Lavender, looking at the sheet in her hand. It was from VNS headquarters, Ironwood was in charge, they said, let him lead, but this interview was happening tonight, and she was the one they'd picked to give it.
"Don't worry Ms. Lavender...Lisa, I'm sure whatever you come up with off the top of your head will be fine," he told her, smiling, in what he hoped was a warm fashion. So they sat still and quiet, as the last few cameras were put in place, including some from 'independent' news services that the General had insisted be here, streaming onto the net so everyone would hear what he had to say.
"Okay, live in five, four, three," the director said, and then did the last two number silently, as the lights dimmed in just that right way, and they were on, Lisa smiling into the camera for her station, regardless of how it would look to the idiots just using scrolls to transmit it.
"Hello, and welcome, I'm Lisa Lavender, from Vale News Service. VNS, in association with a few of our colleagues, are pleased to present tonight a very special guest, who has requested a moment of your time, as he has an announcement regarding the upcoming Vytal Festival. I have the pleasure of being here with General James Ironwood, a member of the Atlas Armed forces, and one of the people responsible for the Atlas Academy, but is also in charge of security for the Festival itself, isn't that right, General?"
"Ms. Lavender...My name is indeed James Ironwood, and in my capacity as General of the Atlas Military, I have some things to say. As of twenty-four hours ago, Null, the man known as Jaune Arc, killed Matthew Fields in your city of Vale. It was brutal, and done with the assistance of Team RWBY, from Beacon Academy, in order to rescue their team leader, who had been kidnapped from my own ship by agents of Chivalric Arms."
"This action has provided me with the clout to make these statements now, on Live Television. I want everyone watching to know this isn't staged, this isn't a fiction, and no matter what you are told, these are the facts, as I know them. Chivalric Arms, in their capacity as weapons manufactures kidnapped, experimented on, and killed the Arc family, in order to study the Semblance of Jaune Arc, the power of Null, the power to cancel Auras and Semblances."
"I have known of this for some time, as has the Atlas Council, who have made their best efforts to keep this information from the public eye. That ends today. I have already started to release all documentation, not only gained in the investigations of the company beforehand, but those acquired in the recent raid by Team RWBY and Null on their final facility here in Vale, which detail not only what they did to the Arc Family, but many, many others."
"The reasons this was kept from you, the reasons I went along with this, was I love Atlas, I love my homeland, same as anyone else. But it has gone too far, and for too long. Now, I have to make a decision. I am siding with Justice and Truth. I am siding against those who slither around on their bellies in those shadowy places, poisoning not only myself, but our entire world with lies."
"As such, I will also state these truths, as I have no proof, no documentation, I hope you can accept my words as fact, but I hope that you demand the truth, as it is, from Ozpin, and the other staff at Beacon Academy as they are aware of it. You see, they, most especially Ozpin, have sinned in the same way as Chivalric Arms, and I was part of that as well, to my own shame."
"There is a chamber underneath Beacon Academy. For the last year, it has held a young woman, Amber Autumn. She was attacked, approximately one month before she was transferred there, in order to preserve her life, as Amber is a woman with a unique gift, a power that is called the 'Fall Maiden', a power transferred between individuals for generations, and now held solely by her."
"That power, born some time ago, is magic...I can tell some of you won't believe, so I'll just lay it out plainly, and as quickly as I can. The Maidens, one for each season, are the keys to the vaults wherein are kept artifacts, objects of power, that can be used, together, to resummon the gods of our world to it. Gods who cursed a woman, by their negligence, into becoming the host for dark power, the power of Grimm."
He paused, finally, for a breath, and he looked up, Lisa was just staring at him. Like he'd told her, she'd do fine at this. This was not something she could respond to, and the look on her face, horror, hate, and now utter despair, it was probably mirrored on the faces of every single person in the world listening to this, save maybe Ozpin and a few Council Members, all of whom were scrambling.
"Yes, that's correct. The Grimm have a source. Her name is Salem, and she wants us dead, because of what the Gods did to her. She and Ozpin, who has a true name I don't know, have been waging a war in the shadows of our societies for...thousands of years I think. It's hard to remember the specifics, I'm sorry. Regardless, they are immortals, she being truly without death, and he coming back, possessing hosts if his current is slain."
"Now, Amber Arc, Jaune Arc's sister, is held underneath Beacon Academy, along with Amber Autumn. Heh, not nearly enough colors for everyone to be named differently I suppose. Regardless, she is, like Jaune Arc, in possession of the Semblance, Null. It is so strong in her, that Ozpin is holding her, and wishes to use her as a weapon against Salem. To which I wish him luck, though, if he's not already on the way here, I'd be disappointed."
There was the sound of an explosion nearby, and Lisa placed her hand against her ear, listening to voices on a speaker in it. Ironwood listened in on his own earpiece. His report were saying the battleship was now firing into the city, as some 'mass of green energy' was tearing through the street to the studio. Ozpin was indeed on his way. It would take him time, however, to get here, and so Ironwood decided to play his last card.
"Jaune Arc, Null, is innocent of any crimes save those of self defense and protection of his loved ones. I am guilty of covering it up, as is the entirety of the Atlas Council. Ozpin is guilty of...I don't have time, but suffice it to say, he is a monster in human guise, and deserves only your scorn. I am going to die now, for my crimes, but I want everyone in the world to know the truth."
"This world is not the plaything of the powerful, the gods, or anyone else. We are humanity, we are those who choose our own path. I have finally, at long last, made the right decision. I hope everyone out there can understand why I made this choice. And I hope you all are prepared as I am to face the consequences of it. My final order then, is to Glynda Goodwitch, Ozpin's confidant who knew most of this herself."
"Evacuate Beacon, give Amber Arc to her family, and let Autumn die at last. It is not the death she would want, I know, but we cannot ask her to live for us anymore. Ozpin is not going to allow this easily, but I've gotten him moving to me, to try and stop this. If he were smart, he'd never have come out, but it's too late now for him. He has to kill me, to make this all some 'fantasy' dreamed up by a madman."
"My name is James Ironwood. I am Mettle. I am a killer. I am a soldier. And I order all my troops to stand down. This is how a man who is trying to be good, for the first time in too long, faces death," as he said this, he walked out of the room, rising from his chair, and then walking into the hallway. Outside, a few of his soldiers, against orders, were firing at a figure wreathed in green fire.
Ironwood told them to leave, and when they finally did, the green figure stared at him, looking...hurt? Confused maybe? He flipped him off. That was it, as the green fire came towards him, and burned him away. He killed him quickly, and then, simply left, his fire sighted running through the streets, back up to Beacon, only to be faced with a hundred students, waiting for him.
The man, as his fires died, looked into their faces, and he knew he'd lost them. This was too much, too fast. They were hurt, and pained, and his secrets, kept for so damn long, were out. He wanted to scream, wanted to do something, but then Glynda, beautiful Glynda, stepped forward. At first, he thought she would come to him, instead, she held up a hand, and had the crowd part, Amber Arc was sitting behind them on a stretcher, awake, and staring at him.
He fell to his knees, he wailed, and he curled into a ball. He was crying as they carried him off. In Atlas, there were riots going on. Chivalric Arms' sins had been laid bare. The Dust Mines of Schnee had been exposed too. People had known about these things, it was impossible for them not to, but now, with all this, it had become something they couldn't turn a blind eye to, and worse, Ironwood had had one last card to play.
Over the whole of the Kingdom, in every armory, and every bay. The robotic soldiers, the backbone of Schnee's 'Labor Management Crews', and Atlas Police's 'Order Enforcement Divisions', used to force others back to work in unsafe conditions. All of them suddenly shorted out, the most delicate and important bits literally burning away, sometimes exploding if they'd been left with ordnance in them.
Without those, the riots began to burn. Without those, Schnee's manor was broken into, the man himself dragged into the streets, and he was tried, not by a court of law, but by men, women, and children, with his company's logo burned into their skin. He screamed for a long time. Animals though they were, they would not grant that one a quick death. They gave him one measured in inches instead.
This world was exposed, and as it burned away those who dwelt in darkness, it did not shy away from the monsters. When the Grimm came, they were met with force, with Amber Arc leading a charge not only for her family, but for all the world, and for the memory of a fallen soul, who had looked to find a light just once in his life so he could get even a tiny mote of redemption out of it.
The war, and it was a war, was long, hard, and bloody, but in the end, her fortress cracked open, her armies naught but Dust, Salem would look up into the swirling eyes of a young woman, a woman covered in blood, and would cry out about the world's unfairness. She would be met with a bullet to the head, an end to her miserable life, and the dawning of a new era for a world once called Remnant.