DIVIDE
The scraping sounds of a brush on the floor were mind-numbing to the young black-haired girl that was using it. Her yellow hues focused on the orange stain on the floor while her brush got more aggressive, the scraping sounds of it sounding almost like the sounds of crashing waves to her ears.
"Hey, Cinder!" a boy's voice called out to her as she suddenly stopped, looking over to the source of the voice as a boy pointed outside the window. "The huntsmen are passing through again!"
Cinder couldn't help but smile at this news, as one of her favorite pastimes was watching passing envoys of huntsmen. Peering out the window she'd watch with wide eyes as a group of huntsmen were following behind a car filled with all kinds of boxes. One of the huntsmen wielded a sword that was clipped to her belt, while another had a bow and quiver on his back. The woman waved to the watching children as Cinder was about to wave back, but was soon shoved aside by a larger kid
"HEY, I was still watching!" Cinder shoved the boy's back with a glare.
"Did someone hear something? I thought I heard a bug." the older boy stated while turning around as the other kids with him started laughing.
"That's just an annoying Cici bug!" another boy stated as Cinder narrowed her eyes and threw a punch out at his face, which prompted a brawl between the two, with Cinder tackling him to the ground and the boy tossing her off of him.
The caretaker quickly pulled the two aside and the boy pointed his finger at Cinder for punching him first. She was pulled aside to be reprimanded by the caretaker who sat her down in her office, patting her face down with a warm towel.
"Now Cinder, I know it's hard for you to deal with those boys, but no one's gonna want to adopt you if you keep lashing out like that. Now then, I have a mother and two daughters coming in later, and I know you really want a nice home… I'll let you in on a little secret I haven't told the other kids." the caretaker smiled. "They're from Atlas."
This was something that made Cinder's eyes widen in surprise as she immediately went to go and freshen herself up to look as presentable as possible for this family.
It would only be a couple of hours later that the kids were all sitting by their beds in their big common bedroom as the caretaker led the family of three inside, gesturing her hand to all the kids in the foster home.
The two teenage girls smiled at the kids. "I'm Drucilla!" the one with curly hair spoke.
"And I'm Esmeralda!" the straight-haired girl spoke as Cinder stepped out of the bathroom with her hair fixed into a pair of pigtails on her head.
She was surprised to see that the family was already there and immediately bolted for her bed, narrowly dodging a stuck out leg from another girl and planting herself gently onto her bed, earning the attention of the family.
"S-Sorry I'm late!" Cinder apologized, bowing her head. "I-I didn't think you'd be here already." she admitted.
"There's no need to apologize, sweetie." the older woman that was with the two teenagers assured with a warm smile. "And what might your name be?"
"I-It's Cinder, Madame." Cinder looked up at her while she watched her daughters inspecting the other kids curiously.
"Tell me, how would you feel about living in Atlas?" Madame asked her with a smile as her eyes widened in surprise.
Cinder glanced over at the foster home's Caretaker who smiled in approval. "I'll get the proper documentation ready, if you'd be willing to come with me into my office." With that, Madame left her daughters with the other kids while they smiled at Cinder.
"Cinder?" Drucilla asked. "Like what's left after a fire?"
"Y-Yeah, you could say that." Cinder glanced back toward the boy that she got into a fight with earlier who just looked away from her in shame and smiled. "We're really gonna become sisters?!"
"You know it!" Esmeralda laughed with a grin on her face as their mother soon entered the room again.
"Come now girls… That includes you too, Cinder." Madame insisted as the trio left, Cinder holding onto Madame's hand as they exited the orphanage, never to return.
As the massive Grimm whale moved ever closer to Atlas's position, a group of Atlesian ships approached it, with their weapons primed to fire if it showed immediate aggression.
"Sting 1, reporting in, ready to monitor the creature, are the rest of you in position?!"
"Sting 2, reporting in!"
"Sting 3, nearing its rear!"
"Sting 4, where are you?!" The voice of the first ship called out as the ship notably slipped out of formation and flew even closer to the beast as a few Tempest Grimm emerged from the storm and made claim to their prey.
In the pilot's seat of the ship, Neo glanced back at Cinder who nodded. "We should be fine to enter from those docking platforms on the side, there's no doubt that she has a way to identify us as allies."
Taking a deep breath, Neo landed the ship on the Whale's docking platforms, and sure enough it was as Cinder said, no harm came to them.
The pair were quick to exit the ship and step outside, toward the halls of the whale… Cinder held the lamp up in front of a seer Grimm that arrived to greet them, the creature turning away from Cinder and starting to lead her in a single direction.
The shorter woman following behind her steeled herself as they continued into the halls of the whale where she saw an open chamber with bony hooks hanging from the ceiling to her left, and a Beowolf's head staring down at her from the ceiling above her.
A familiar pair emerged from another corridor, it was Emerald and Mercury, they were both dressed in a new attire. "Cinder!" Emerald called out to her, but was stopped when Cinder held a hand up.
"Silence." she demanded of her underling as she followed the Seer.
"Nice to see you again, Shorty." Mercury remarked, only to be threatened with the tip of Hush's blade pointed at his face as she kept following behind Cinder, simply earning a shrug from the boy.
The seer came to a stop in front of a larger fleshy door that Tyrian was leaning beside. "Well, well, well! Look who's returned to atone for her failures!" he laughed as Cinder stopped now.
"I have the lamp." she affirmed. "I need to present her with it."
"Of course, you should! But you do know this won't get you in her good graces, right? You're only just fixing a past mistake." Tyrian glanced over at Neo. "And who might this be?"
"This is Neopolitan, her abilities have proved essential in my conquest to retrieve the lamp back. She's a valuable asset that we can make use of." Cinder explained, earning a glare from Neo in her direction. It was clear she didn't like being called what she was.
"Ah yes… You do have the tendency to adopt strays. Let's just hope this one has her head together more than that other pair of yours." Tyrian laughed.
"I also played a major role in Ironwood's destruction." She stated. "All it took was a simple black chess piece to send him tumbling down."
"Ah yes, that. Mind you, that's something that Arthur and I did most of the legwork for." Tyrian shook his head. "I really enjoyed my part in it all!"
"Speaking of Arthur, where is he?" Cinder crossed her arms.
"A necessary sacrifice of war, I'm afraid." Tyrian admitted, with a sarcastic hint of disappointment as the door behind him opened. "Ah, I'm afraid I've kept your meeting with our queen on hold for too long! Allow me to dismiss myself!" he bowed his head and saw himself off as Cinder and Neo entered Salem's throne room inside of the creature.
Cinder knelt down in respect in front of her queen, holding the lamp of creation up.
"You've certainly done well, in retrieving this for our cause, Cinder." Salem took hold of the lamp and looked at it quizzically before setting it down onto her lap, glancing over at Neo. "Another one, hm?"
"This is Neopolitan." Cinder introduced her to the witch as Neo wasn't quite sure what to do at this point other than bow her head and tip her hat.
"I see, well then, let's hope she proves as useful as the others have been." Salem smiled.
"Y-Your grace… I-If I may make a request to you now. It's the Winter Maiden, I nearly obtained her power, but Ironwood's creation-" Cinder hushed the moment Salem raised her hand up.
"I gave you no such orders to pursue that power." Salem stated as Cinder felt a tinge of pain from her Grimm arm, causing it to tremble slightly. "You may be a greater piece than a pawn in this game, Cinder… But that doesn't make you a player."
The wall in front of the throne suddenly cleared up to reveal the skies and mountains of Solitas around them. "You are to stay within the walls of my creation until it is time for you to act, are we understood?"
Cinder bowed her head down again and placed her Grimm arm over her heart. "Yes. Without you, I am nothing." she affirmed before Salem dismissed her and Neo with the wave of a hand.
Salem held the lamp up and smiled. "I wonder if that lust for power is a hindrance or a strength." a slight chuckle escaped the witch's mouth. "I suppose I will find out soon enough."
A drone that was patrolling around Mantle was quickly shot down by a crossbow bolt fired by Joanna Greenleaf who was scanning around the area for any other signs of Atlas activity or encroaching Grimm from a rooftop.
Just inside the very building she was standing guard of, Teams RWBY, JNR, Penny, Pietro, and Maria were gathered, sitting in tense silence while staring at each other.
May was just running some basic maintenance on her weapon and restocking her supply of ammunition.
"Okay, that does it!" Maria spoke up loudly. "Will someone say something, or do anything?!" the elderly woman demanded.
"Do what?" Ren asked as he turned away from Nora, who was trying to get his attention.
"More than just sit around here, I agree." Weiss stood up. "We need some course of action to take."
"Well then, I'm eager to hear it." Yang crossed her arms and hopped off the pool table she was sitting atop.
"Like you're one to talk, Yang… You told Robyn about Amity… You went behind Ironwood's back, and our back!-" Ruby spoke up but was cut off.
"Don't give me that, Ruby! You know that you're complicit in what happened there too!" Yang pointed at her sister.
"Well if I hadn't done or said anything, Penny's name would have never been cleared up with her, and she would have just kept attacking the convoys and Ironwood would have been forced to do worse!" Ruby brought up as she stood up from the stool she was sitting on.
"We had to give her more to have her trust." Blake interjected. "She wouldn't have worked with us otherwise."
"She appreciated that by the way." May added.
"Look, I know things look bad, but I'm sure if we put our heads together we can come up with an effective plan of action." Jaune suggested.
It's then that Penny raised her hand, and everyone had their attention on her. "W-Well… Salem and Ironwood both want the staff, right? What if I just gave the staff over to Salem? She'd have no choice but to leave us alone."
"Penny… If you did that, then… Atlas would-" Jaune was cut off.
"You're right. I feel like I'm just the heart of the problem." she confessed.
"You can be the solution we all need, Penny." Ruby put a hand on her shoulder. "You're our friend, and we trust you."
"What about Winter then? Or the General?" Penny asked her.
Pietro took a deep breath and moved toward his daughter, holding her hand to try and ease her tension.
"The general…" Ruby paused in thought for a moment. "That's it! What if we went through with Ironwood's old plan to get Amity live! We could send a broadcast out for help!"
"No offense Ruby, but the General used that as bait for Watts, I doubt it's even close to ready." Yang stated dismissively of her sister's plan.
"Well actually…" Pietro spoke up. "It's really close to finished. With a few hours of work we could get it up and running long enough to send an emergency message for help. Oh but there's a problem… We need the general's approval for the launch."
"There's no way he's going to agree to that." Blake shook her head, her ears folding down.
"Well what if we used his terminal?" Penny suggested and projected a map of Atlas out from her bow.. "He has two terminals. One in his office in Atlas Academy, and another in the command center at the base of Atlas."
"The command center is probably our best bet." Weiss approached it.
"Are you guys actually serious, right now?" Yang asked, earning a surprised look from her teammates. "You do realize that even if you can somehow get this message out there, there's no guarantee ANY help will come for us, right?"
"Well it's worth a shot." Ruby stood her ground firmly on this.
"It's a waste of our time when we can be doing something right now, down here for the people of Mantle." Yang argued. "Look, we lost the lamp and Oscar back up there, if you go back up there, there's a chance you'll be lost too."
"Well, that's obviously why we'll go together." Nora added. "Bigger numbers, means a better chance of success, right Ren?"
Ren remained silent, looking down at the ground. "Yang… Might have a point. Ruby's plan is incredibly reckless and runs off the assumption that help will come for us before it's too late. You saw what was out there in the distance. We don't have weeks to wait for help to arrive, we have a couple of days at best." Ren stood himself up now. "I think it's the right call to help get what people that we can to safety. May, you said the crater's our safest bet for everyone down here, right?"
"I did." A smile formed on May's face. "You kids can meet with Fiona at our base there if you're serious about helping."
"Stop." Ruby now spoke up again. "If we split up… Then we're giving Salem the exact thing she wants. Our division."
"Oh, this again." Yang rolled her eyes. "Ruby, I don't know if you've stepped outside recently, but Mantle is freezing over, Ironwood's freaking out, and Salem's getting closer! Divided or not, we should do our part to help the people of Mantle, who are less prepared than those up in Atlas."
"But-" Ruby was cut off.
"I've trusted your leadership decisions up till now. And this is where they landed us. I'm done taking orders from you." Yang turned away from her sister. "If any of you guys wanna go with me, you know where I'm headed."
"Wait, before you go!" Pietro reached into his pocket and threw something at Yang that she caught. "I left you something at the pharmacy. They might help you kids out."
"Thanks, Doc." Yang stepped outside.
"Ren, are you really sure?" Nora asked, but got no response from him as he followed Yang out.
Gritting his teeth, Jaune also started to follow after Ren and Yang. "Ruby, I'll… I'll make sure that they're okay." he assured. "W-We'll still be together, I promise."
Soon enough he was out the door with them as Ruby looked down at the floor. "Yang…" a few tears started to fall down Ruby's cheeks, as her remaining teammates moved to comfort her, but she quickly steeled herself and wiped her eyes, calming herself with a few deep breaths. "Are you guys with me on my plan?" she asked who was left.
"Of course." Weiss smiled reassuringly.
"As long as I'm your friend!" Penny saluted her.
A doctor and engineer were monitoring it closely as the new arm was being finished. "Sir, try moving it." the doctor insisted.
Glaring at the black arm, General Ironwood managed to bend it by the elbow while the engineer watched intently. "Everything seems to be functioning well with it."
"How does it feel?" the doctor asked.
"Powerful enough." Ironwood assured the pair as he stood up.
"W-Wait we need to run more tests to make sure everything's-"the door was closed behind Ironwood as he walked out.
"It will work fine for him." the engineer assured the doctor. "You forget who we're dealing with."
As Ironwood walked through his command center, soldiers and technicians made sure to salute him as he passed them, while he still was getting a feel for his new arm by opening and closing its palm. He came to a stop in front of a pair of rooms, to his left, the injured Winter Schnee was given a brace for her heavily injured arm from her previous bout with Cinder Fall, and on his right, the Ace Operatives stood in the morgue.
They all stood over Clover's body with varying reactions. Vine calmly took a prayer stance and closed his eyes. Elm closed her eyes, trying to hide her tears from her allies. Marrow bit his lip as tears fell freely from his eyes, and Harriet just remained silent, gritting her teeth, seemingly in frustration.
Winter grunted as the doctor poked her hand "Do you still have feeling in your hand?"
"Y-Yes, I do. I know I can still move it." she assured.
"Just let your aura do the rest-" the doctor saw Ironwood and nodded, moving herself out of the way as he approached Winter.
"So, Polendina took the power, you're sure of it?" Ironwood asked Winter.
"Y-Yes." Winter glanced away. "It was in the heat of the moment, I had no aura and Fria created a storm that I couldn't pass through. It was either that or risk it falling into Cinder's hands."
"I see." General Ironwood looked at the footage of the fight from the previous night. "Then Penny ran off with her fugitive friends."
Winter looked him in the eyes. "I was… Too injured to pursue."
The General nodded. "You did all you could, Winter, and I couldn't ask for more."
"M-My mission has always been to protect Atlas from its enemies." Winter sat up from her bed. "I promise I'll be ready to help you as soon as possible."
"Excellent." Ironwood smiled at his specialist. "I have a plan that will ensure our way of life endures. But in order to follow through with it, I need the staff, and by extension, Penny."
The door to the room opened as a female operator approached Ironwood. "Sir, all the preparations are done for your broadcast out to the academy. We just need you back at your office!"
"Understood." Ironwood affirmed before turning toward Winter. "I promise you Winter, I'll do whatever it takes to save Atlas." with that he left the room, being saluted by all of the Ace Operatives who were now outside of the morgue.
Ironwood stood alone in his office as the broadcast went live, to every scroll and screen on Atlas Academy's campus, as well as in his command center.
"Students of Atlas Academy. After last night's broadcast, you're now aware of the common enemy we all face together." he began. "Our way of life is in danger as Salem grows closer to our Kingdom's border." the footage switched to the approaching whale now. "Now, while I have a plan that will ensure our survival. I ask all of you that you be ready to stand by me and fight for Atlas until the bitter end should it come to that."
Various students in the halls were talking among themselves now, unsure of how to take this command. "I'm not asking this as your headmaster, I'm asking this as the General and Protector of our way of life. I will not let our way of life die, and I ask that you be willing to fight with me." he continued.
Winter's eyes narrowed at her scroll as the footage switched back over to Ironwood. "This is why I'm now making it mandatory that all students of our prestigious academy be prepared to go into battle."
The specialist could only gasp now. "He's not serious, is he?"
"Any student of my academy caught going against this command will be branded a traitor to our Kingdom and I trust that my military will be more than fit to judge the kind of punishment befitting to a traitor. The same will apply to anyone caught assisting these fugitives." the screen switched over to show Team RWBY, JNR, Pietro, Maria, and Penny.
In the Academy's halls, the members of Team FNKI looked among each other in worry, while Erika and Cyrus from Team FCSA shared a knowing glance with each other, Erika's eyes looking notably red like she had cried a lot prior.
"Students of Atlas Academy, I order that you fight with me against our true enemy." the general concluded his speech.
Winter tightened her grip on the blanket that was draped over her as a familiar memory played in her mind.
"You will do as you are told Winter or you will lose your inheritance!" the familiar voice of Jacques commanded.
"Yes, father." the voice of a younger Winter responded.
The Ace Operatives were watching the broadcast from the armory.
"He's not serious, is he?" Marrow asked. "Commanding the kids to fight?"
"We're at war, Marrow." Harriet shook her head. "We need all ready hands on deck."
"I'm sure if we're going with the general's plan it won't come to that at all." Elm tried to assure Marrow. "Right, Vine?"
Vine closed his scroll and looked up at the others. "There's an air of uneasiness I feel about this course of action."
"Not, you too Vine." Harriet glared at him now. "It's because of those kids that Clover's dead! Branwen's weapon was covered in his blood!"
"Yes, but answer me this, when we're on the front lines. Would you really be willing to have a child fight at your side?" Vine asked.
"We took these jobs so it didn't have to come to that, or at least… I did." Marrow spoke up. "Look, let's just do our part to ensure that General Ironwood doesn't have to go that far."
In the general's office he sat at his desk, monitoring the encroaching whale before pressing a button to make a call. "Has my requested prisoner been moved to the interrogation cell, yet?" he asked.
"We're moving him as we speak sir." the voice on the other end responded.
"Excellent." he hung up that call before taking his scroll out and dialing for Penny now.
Ruby took a deep breath as she finished recording the message that she hoped would be broadcast throughout all of Remnant when the sound of a scroll ringing startled her.
Blake and Weiss glanced over at Penny who looked at her scroll. "It's from Ironwood."
Blake's ears folded down nervously, while Nora clenched her fists in anger as Ruby approached Penny now. "Answer it."
She did pick up that call. "Penny." The general's voice came through the other end. "Are you well?" he asked.
"G-General." she spoke up.
"Atlas needs you, Penny. You can save a lot of lives by coming here and granting me access to the staff." he explained.
"And doom Mantle to die?" Ruby's voice spoke up now.
"Ruby, you're there too…" he sounded annoyed to hear her voice. "You know this is about far more than Mantle. Everyone is going to die if you don't let Penny give herself up! I can save Atlas still-"
"So you're saying Mantle's a lost cause then?" Penny asked.
"Penny… Please, this is for the greater good-"
"No, it isn't." she spoke up with more fire in her voice. "You gave me the title 'Protector of Mantle'. And now you're asking that I doom it to a certain death. That's something I cannot comply with, General."
"Penny… Any blood spilled because of your selfishness will be on the hands of you and your friends, are you really that adamant on dooming us all?" Ironwood asked her.
This just made Blake grit her teeth. "You're already adamant on Mantle's fate, so why should we listen to you?!"
With that statement from Blake, Penny hung up her call and Ruby offered her a smile that she returned with confidence.
"So, now what?" Weiss asked.
"We set off." Ruby affirmed before walking out the door ahead of the others.
The giant flesh-made door to Salem's throne room opened as something started moving itself closer to Salem before stopping in front of her throne.
"I seek answers, but first, I need to learn from the one who will show me how." Salem held the lamp forward as the Hound sniffed it. "Bring him to me." she commanded.
The beast snarled while she pulled the lamp back closer to herself.
Commentary: Well, here we are... Volume 8 Chapter 1. You probably noticed right off the bat that I'm not following the show's script exactly here, with that whole flashback segment being extended in this chapter. Where do I even begin on this? Well, for starters. Welcome to Volume 8! It's not gonna be sunshine and rainbows in the slightest... Something I imagine you'll know all too well if you've seen Volume 8...
There are 20 chapters in total that I have planned out, and as of the time of me writing this commentary, I've only just finished up writing Chapter 4. This volume has been a beast to tackle thus far, and well this isn't even the longest chapter I've written currently.
One major change is the fact that Ironwood hasn't murdered anyone in this chapter... I mean you COULD argue he got those scouting ships killed, but they probably knew what they were flying into when they followed those orders. I've decided to take a more gradual approach to his downfall... Essentially, the closer Salem gets, the worse he's gonna get. Demanding his students fight for him or be branded traitors is just the beginning.
Ruby and Yang's argument this chapter definitely isn't completely like how the original went down, in the original it seemed more like a civil disagreement, but everyone was acting like it was the most aggressive fight they'd ever see the two sisters have when Yang was the only one who really had any aggression. Here, both sisters have plenty to be mad about with each other and Yang even just storms off in anger along with the still emotionally conflicted Ren, with Jaune volunteering himself to be that anchor for them to not get themselves killed.
Oscar's also notably missing, why's that? Well pretty obviously, it felt like a really big cop out to have them find him right away after they made a big deal about losing him at the end of Volume 7. But more on that next chapter where we see how well Yang's group is doing.