Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.
Salem knew the moment the final blow happened. She could feel the reverberations pass through her. She shook uncontrollably at the fact that one of her generals could have fallen to any of the insects of this pathetic dustball.
"Mistress, is something wrong?"
Before Salem even registered who spoke, she had sent a shadowy whip towards the speaker whom she heard give an 'eep.' A dark smile of satisfaction slipped onto her face.
She could definitely tell the person was still listening. "Cinder..." The air was practically oppressive with the darkness that permeated the air. "I want you to find out who Ozpin sent to battle my children, and when you find out, kill them."
Once Cinder had her mission, she didn't stay long enough to be on the receiving end of her master's rage.
Ruby stretched as Team RWBY made their ways down to the Bullheads to head into Vale. Classes were over for the day and her team wanted to do some team bonding. The question marks that had appeared over Ruby when the others mentioned team bonding probably furthered their drive for it.
If she could guess they probably all talked about it before deciding to drag her along. She knew that she should have been annoyed, what with the undermining the team leader's 'authority' and all, but they were clearly just worried from her starting to seperate herself from them.
Then again she hadn't exactly been teamates with them for the past 10 years and they didn't exactly know this fact. Team RWBY was definitely in a strange state in Ruby's mind, and she was extremely hestitant to tell them or explain to them that she is in fact not the same 15 year old girl they knew but the 25 year huntress they didn't know.
She smiled as Yang roped her into the gang's conversation about the Vytal Festival Tournament. "With the hand to hand being added into our repetiore, Beacon is probably going to have some sort of advantage with the element of surprise especially in the early rounds."
Simple. She knew she probably made some lick of sense to them...
"Yes, but it wouldn't do for you lot to start getting cocky, now would it?"
She was glad that she could say that she barely twitched when her Uncle Qrow entered the conversation. Though she couldn't say the same with the others.
"When did you get here Uncle Qrow?" Yang spluttered out, which caused Ruby to giggle.
Qrow shared a grin with Jeremie. "We just got back a few minutes ago, we are going to meet up with the headmaster to let him know the trip went smoothly."
Ruby understood that they had left on a mission, but she could only speculate on the purpose. She felt it reasonable to assume that they were going after one of the Grimm Generals.
The grin that spread on Jeremie's face looked as if it was splitting his face. Though Ruby wouldn't mention it if the other's on the team didn't, but the grin on his face looked almost unhinged. "You four have fun, while we go have a boring debriefing in a giant tower with a breathtaking view."
At that dismissal Team RWBY finished getting on the bullhead for their trip into Vale.
Ozpin sat there listening on as the council talked more and more about whatever inane matters that were frankly unimportant to him seeing as he had sent Qrow and Jeremie to kill one of the Grimm Generals. He was worried about what was going to happen seeing as no one has lived past an encounter with one of the 4 generals.
Ozpin knew he was lucky enough to survive an encounter. Well, he silently chuckled to him self, not that the general would have been able to kill him.
"Is something funny, Headmaster Ozpin."
Ozpin sat up a little straighter as he looked over to Ironwood and back to the council. "No. It is nothing. You can go on."
As the council settled into whatever it was they were talking about, Ozpin started to think and realized that for the first time in centuries humanity is finally pushing the Grimm back again. It was an exuberant thought, to finally be free from the darkness. The circumstances surrounding this change, one Miss Rose, dampens the positivity, but he knows that he was to hestitant to make a decisive move before.
*DING*
Ozpin and Ironwood both sharply turned towards the elevator and saw Qrow and Jeremie enter the room. Ozpin was both relieved and exasperated at the duo's arrival.
He placed a pleasant smile on his face as he greeted the two. "Qrow, Jeremie. It is good to see you two. I see the mission went well."
Jeremie smirks at Qrow before looking around the room at Ironwood and the feed of the council members. "Quite well, so when do think those Atlas boys will finally execute that one dude." Everyone looks at Jeremie confused.
"What was his name? Lighter? Candle? Candlebara? No, was it Britain? No Britain was not technically ever an empire... Mongolia?..."
Ozpin rolls his eyes at the man's display. "Do you mean Roman Torchwick, per chance?"
Jeremie nodded gratefully. "Why yes, Roman Torchwick! Tell me Tin man, why is it that you have a master criminal on your command ship?"
This caused everyone to look at Ironwood to see his reaction, only to see his face look carefully blank. "I mean unless MASTER CRIMINAL means something different to you guys, but I would like to think that a master criminal never works alone and will always have a plan! I actually heard through the grapevine that Torchy surrendered himself to you."
Ozpin was curious on where he was going with this as he watched Ironwood's eye twitch. "Then again.. You don't seem that bright Tin Man. I mean a tin army that is controlled from a central point." The look on Jeremie's face was purely preditorial, and it unnerved Ozpin more than he cared to admit.
Ironwood seemed to open his mouth to say something when he was cut off. "Oh trust me, you are an easy man to read. You're only what, into your third? Maybe fourth decade? Yet that metal arm of yours seems to have taught you nothing of how to deal with terrorists."
"Who. Do. You... Think you are?"
'Ironwood definitely lost his cool,' Ozpin thought amused.
Jeremie just bows, still looking like a beast on the prowl. "Names Jeremie, I'm the hand-to-hand combat professor here, and I do believe I'm the man telling you that you should execute a big name criminal."
