Chapter 27


Eric van Genus' Audio Journal #29: The Power of One

The power of one is a very inspiring philosophy. And I am not referring to an old film from the 1992 but it does have some merit. I saw some sort of film back on Earth many years ago that had clips from Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and many other from various films that talk how a single person or thing can lead to great things, both good and terrible. I forgotten most of it, but I do remember a lot of things about how a single person or object can influence the world or worlds they live in. Yet I do remember some other stuff. Such as in Metal Gear Solid 2 when GW tells that an individual has the power to destroy the world. But that can be the same with the opposite when an individual have the power to save it. One individual can do amazing things such as inspiring the masses, create great works of art with their hands, make great discoveries, lead armies, and so much more. Throughout history, a single person can change the fate of the world and can alter the course of history. Such as with Odysseus when he manage to come up with the idea of building a wooden horse to bring down the mightiest city throughout Greece. Another such individual is, and I really hate to say it, Adolf Hitler, who brought Germany back up from the mess it suffered in World War I and turned it into a leading superpower. Yet it is the same single individual that brought its downfall after losing his mind.

A single individual can do amazing things in the world under the right circumstances. One person can destroy, save or bring forth a new era in the world. Here in Remnant, Ozma, as the King of Vale, brought an end to a war and individual oppression as he uses the artifacts. Now there are four players still left in this game of chance and strategy. There is me, obviously; then there's Ozpin, also known as Ozma; Salem, leader of the Grimm and some pawns; and Raven Branwen, leader of a bandit tribe. Yet there might be a few wild cards still in play. Such as Acai, who wanted to create a despotic autocrat empire of his uncontrollable ego. Then there is the council of the four kingdoms that might survive, the people of Vacuo, and many more. After all, one person can shape history and the world. If a person is place in position of power and is incompetent: the nation, or the world, would be doomed.

End of recording.


Taggart's Flying Mansion

The Schnees, General Ironwood, Fiona, Robyn and Clover ran away from all the horrors as they make their way somewhere where they can escape. They ran until they make their way towards the engine room at the very bottom of the flying mansion. Aerial Airheart, or rather The Mask, is chasing after them. She orders the gargoyles to stay put as she handles them herself. The Mask approaches slowly with her hunting rifle and dressed as Elmer Fudd from Looney Tunes.

"SSshhhh!" she shushes to anyone reading this. Wait, what? "Be vewy vewy quiet. I'm hunting morons." and does the trademark Elmer Fudd laugh.

She tiptoes through the steel corridors full of machinery that keeps the mansion afloat as well as maintain all the functions. Steam shoots out of some of the pipes as she tries to find the other seven as she steps on by and avoid much of the pipes. The seven are hiding behind a water boiler as they see her tiptoeing by.

"Where should we go?" Robyn asks in a whisper.

Ironwood replies, "For something like this, they must have escape pods or something when this place falls down."

Whitley says, "I did see a sign that says 'Emergency Escape Pods' not too far from here. If we can manage to get to them, we can break out of here."

"Excellent work, Whitley." Winter is proud of her brother, "Once she's out of view, you can lead us to the pods."

Willow takes a peek around the corners to check to see if the coast is clear. She looks right, then left and right again.

She whispers, "All clear."

As they try to sneak out, they hear popcorn being munched on as they turn around and sees The Mask eating popcorn and dressed as a nerdy movie goer.

The Mask stops and looks at everyone before whispering, "Is this the scary part?"

Whitley screams, "RUN!"

Ironwood pulls out his gun and fires. Yet every shot that has been fired, she dodges by squishing her body around like a gummy bear being squished. Everyone run towards where Whitley found the sign that leads to the escape pods. Winter unleashes a Beowolf alongside her mother but The Mask shot them down. Willow then unleashes a Sphinx onto The Mask.

Yet The Mask is now wearing a lion tamer's outfit with a whip and chair. "Back!" she says as she cracks her whip, "Back, Kimba! Back!" She cracks her whip again.

The Sphinx then sits and meows.

"Good Kimba."

The seven continue to head down the corridors as Fiona uses her semblance to cause some damage to slow The Mask down as the other Schnees catch up. The made it to the first pod where Robyn, Fiona, Ironwood and Clover head inside one of the escape pods. The pods they enter can only seat four at once. The Schnees locked the doors and enter into the second pod. Clover and Winter try to find out how to eject their pods. While doing so, The Mask tries to break through the doors with an axe. Impossible in reality, but thanks to the artifact, Aerial has cartoon powers so the laws of physics don't apply.

As she chops open a hole, she peeks inside and goes, "HEEEEREEE'S MASKY!"

Clover manages to get the pod working and manage to launch it to Atlas. Winter did manage to get her working yet a portal appears below that the pod falls into. Robyn, Fiona, Ironwood and Clover are safe yet they see something on the holoscreen as the pod falls. They see the city of Atlas on fire yet the flames are only at the academy, the headquarters of the military, military facilities, the CCT Tower and the Schnee Manor. Much of the Atlesian air force is in disarray as many of the airships are on fire as they fall to the ground. The entire city of Mantle is protected by a huge energy dome thanks to the Emotional Spectrum Generator that keep not only the debris out, but also any Grimm in the area. The people of Mantle themselves watch from the ground, rooftops or windows as they see Atlas in flames.

The pod then lands at the courtyard of Atlas Academy before everyone gets out. Ironwood then runs to one place where he is needed.

"Ironwood!" Robyn shouts, "Where are you going?! Ironwood?! Ironwood!"


Ironwood went to the vault where the Staff of Creation is kept safe. He went down the elevator at the academy and rides it to the bottom level. Yet once there, he notices that the door to the vault is open. He runs inside the dimension where everything resembles a lush green open meadow with yellow, blue and white flowers, as well as three stone circles leading from the door. He look at the center of the dimension and the staff is gone. In its place, there is an object made from blue ice in the form of DNA strands.

"No..." Ironwood is horrified by the revelation as the Staff is gone and the Evolutionaries now has three of the relics.

He exits out of the dimension and tries to call anyone that is still alive in the military. But no one answers any of his calls as he gets frustrated. He press the elevator button, but the elevator won't come. He then smash his fist on it, but no response.

"Nothing works if time has stopped." says a mysterious figure behind Ironwood.

Ironwood pulls out his Due Process as he turns around. But no one is there. Frightened, he takes a few steps away from the elevator and keep his weapon aimed. A hand grabs Due Process and tosses it aside. Ironwood falls onto the ground. His eyes widen as he stares at the face of...John Gulch.

"Hello, Jimmy." John says to the general with a grin.

"Who are you?" Ironwood asks while still scared.

"I have many names in this life. But I think you know me as; John Gulch, in this form."

"Y-...you're the one who took the scientists, engineers and artists alike."

"True. I'm not finished introducing myself." He changes into his Hank Steelden disguise, "I think you know this face."

"Hank Steelden?" Ironwood is surprised, "You're Hank Steelden as well?"

"Also known as," he changes into Nyan Dran, "Nyan Dran, the novelists and writer who wrote about how Atlas monopolizing all the scientific developments and you shot down." Then he changes into his Andrew Raiden disguise, "And this is Andrew Raiden; the man who advocated against Atlas' control and its military as well as against the Schnee Dust Company." Again, he changes form, into his Erica persona, "Alongside Erica van Genus," then into Eric, "and Eric van Genus. But I think you knew me as, Cobel Stone, or something lame like that if you did your homework."

"It's you!" Ironwood stands up and is highly upset, "You're the leader of the Evolutionaries!"

"You're correct!"

Ironwood tries to punch him, but he disappears. Ironwood is baffled by what happened as Eric appeared behind him.

"Riddle me this: What is evolution?"

Ironwood tries punching again but Eric disappears and reappears at the door to the vault.

"Evolution is the process of change. Change in order to adapt and survive. To advance and progress into the future." Eric then appears on the ceiling, "I and my fellow compatriots, are gonna change Remnant. Bring in a new age. An end to the stagnancy that the people, both humans and Faunus alike, have endured. But in order to do so, we have to remove many obstacles that stand in our way."

Ironwood rolls over to grab Due Process and takes aim, but Eric disappears.

Eric's voice echoes in the chamber, "And there are many. The White Fang, the Schnee Dust Company, Ozma, Salem and the Grimm, and one of the biggest; Atlas. Atlas is the only nation with a military even though all military should've been dismantled. The only nation that create new technologies as other nations had to rely on Atlas for progression. To me, not letting other nations conduct their own research is tyranny." He appears in a reflection on one of the blue crystals, "Even worse when they have a military that ensures their control. Even having their scientist refusing to find alternate energy solutions in an event all the Dust is gone. Worse still when working alongside the Schnee Dust Company's dirty dealings."

Ironwood takes fire and destroys the crystal.

Eric's voice echoes, "But the worst of it all is that it will be under the control of a cornered animal that will not listen to others, kill those in his way and destroy everything around him."

Due Process is snatched again by Eric's sudden disappearance but this time he crushes it. Ironwood falls to the ground with a look of panic in his eyes. Eric looks down on the frightened leader of the Atlas Military.

"Still confused?" Eric is about to poke Ironwood's forehead, "Allow me to show you what was supposed to happen."

He taps Ironwood's forehead with the general having a flood of events that should've happen on Remnant and what he did and about to do in RWBY Volume 8. Everything. Including using a bomb to destroy all of Mantle while the citizens are still down there and much more. Ironwood collapse onto the ground with a splitting headache as he cries for what happened. He mutters under his breath about how sorry he is and what he would've done.

"Now you see." Eric pulls out a replica of Due Process, "To be honest; you're no better than she is. Nor am I in some regard."

BANG!


Outside the city continues to hang in the air as people of Mantle continue to watch as one ship leaves from the chaos. From the crater where the slums used to be, a large crystalline pillar of green coloration is shot up from the ground and pierce through the city and keep it from crashing. The Grimm continue to watch from outside as they see the destruction of the flying pearl as well as sense the negativity of the people.


Enlighten Valley, Go-Board Room...

Eric is back at the Go Board room with the board of Atlas in front of him. He takes the pieces of the Ace Ops, Happy Huntresses, Ironwood and many others into his hand and crush them into dust.

"Onto the next phase."


Enlighten Valley, Mitsuhide Residence, One Hour Later...

Two human soldiers headed over to Acai Mitsuhide's house.

"What is this guy under arrest for?" one of them asks.

"For treason." the other guy sounds serious as they approach the front door, "This guy is planning on bringing everything we fought for down just so he can place it in an iron grip. Going against the philosophy of van Genus about a free and unrestrained world."

"Which one? There's two of them."

"Both... I think?"

"Glad we can think freely."

The first soldier knocks on the door but the entire house exploded from the inside that knocked the soldiers back a few feet away and set it all a blaze.

"FUCK!" says one of the soldiers getting up, "MY EARS ARE RINGING!"

The other gets up, "At least this armor provided some protection!"

They both got up and see the entire house is destroyed.

"Shit, this does not look good."


Vale, Hours Later, Agricultural District...

Whitley, Willow and Winter are fine after their pod landed them onto the side of a road as the sun rises. Whitley raises his thumb in order to get someone to give them a lift. Willow managed to repair Winter's pants with some of the chairs fabrics and her semblance as they wait next to the pod.

"So Atlas is finished." Winter is upset that the kingdom has fallen.

"On the contrary." Willow says, "Only the city is destroyed. Mantle itself is still intact."

"Truck coming!" Whitley says as a white truck is coming down the road.

Willow and Winter stand next to Whitley as the white truck pull over. Yet the driver comes out of the truck to reveal himself.

"Hello, my name is Schwarz Lamb-Schnee. It is a pleasure to meet you, despite the unexpected circumstances. Just what happened?"

The remaining Schnee family members are shock and confused to see the illegitimate child of Jacques Schnee right in front of them.

"So it is true!" Winter says, "You're our father's illegitimate child!"

"Holy crap!" Whitley says, "You're my brother?!"

"Half-brother, to be technical." says Schwarz. "But what happened? How did you guys get here?" Schwarz feign ignorance about what happened to everything at Atlas.

Willow gives Schwarz a hug, which is a surprise for him.

"Dear child." she says, "I'm so sorry for everything you went through."

And so, the Schnee family drive off to a cabin located between Vale and Beacon as both sides explain their ordeal. Schwarz told a lie about his life and the trials he had to endure as his family explained on what happened to them at a party. Schwarz, at last, got to have his little fairy tale ending as he spends some quality time with his family in a cabin he had built.


AN: Sorry for taking so long. I had a medical problem that I had to deal with and boy does it hurt. Word of advice: Don't sit around too long or you might get something that you need to pop in a painful manner.

And STARBUCKS, I would like to make a webcomic, but my art is...well...terrible. Plus I don't have the necessary programs to make a webcomic nor do I have a Deviant Art account. If you want to make it, go for it.

Till then, stay safe everyone.