ULTIMATUM

Ruby Weiss and Blake all stood waiting by the front door of the Schnee manor anxiously, they hadn't heard from Yang's group since they entered the tunnels and it was clear the anxiety was starting to set in for them.

"Oh I can't wait anymore!" Ruby admitted while rushing over to the door.

"Ruby, just wait!" Weiss insisted. "You've done this like 5 times already-"

She shut up the second she got a glimpse of Yang's group approaching from across the courtyard.

Night and day have waited

For the moment when I'd see your face

And feel you near

Ruby ran up to Yang and hugged her tightly, crying into her shoulder. "I'm sorry…"

Yang felt tears well up in her eyes too, hugging her sister back now. "I'm sorry too…"

All alone in crowded rooms

I'm incomplete; my life is paused

When you're not here

Blake stood by the doorway, with her arms crossed, awkwardly avoiding eye contact with Yang while giving a wave to the others.

Yang smiled and approached her partner now. "I'm okay, there's no need to worry. I missed you too..." She held Blake's face and the two rested their foreheads against each other.

Weiss couldn't help but smile at the sight for once, at least she wasn't an awkward third wheel here. She noticed Jaune and Ren approaching. "Can we go see Nora?"

"Right this way." Weiss led them back to her room.

Emerald was among the last to approach the front entrance and Ruby immediately drew out Crescent Rose from her hip. "What's she doing here?!"

Emerald had one hand hovering over her weapons and another held up in front of her.

"Ruby, wait!" Oscar placed himself between them. "She's with us now. She's on our side."

Ruby stopped and took a deep breath. "Fine, but you're keeping watch of her."

Emerald huffed. "Not like I need a sitter like you, runt."

"What was that?!" Ruby glared in her direction again as Emerald waved her arms in front of her.

"I was kidding, I was kidding!" she insisted now while Ruby rolled her eyes and decided to walk back inside.

Cinder grunted as her scroll wasn't able to hear back from anyone that was on Monstra, Hazel wasn't answering, nor was Emerald or Neo. "Dammit…"

"I'd give James credit for this, but I have a feeling he wasn't behind it." Watts mused, looking at the large hole that had been torn in a distant skyscraper.

Grimm were still scattered about the skyline as well as Atlesian ships that were focused on clearing them out.

"Salem told me you had Penny under control. So what are you waiting for? Bring her here so I can claim what's mine." she brandished her Grimm arm now as the man broke out into hysterics.

"That's what she told you? Oh I'm certain you must have misheard her then. Because I clearly said she was UNDER control, not under my control. Or were you so obsessed with the words you wanted to hear that you just didn't even bother?" Watts rested his hands on his knees now.

"What did you do with her then?!" Cinder demanded to know while walking over to him.

Watts stood himself upright and adjusted his tie. "I simply implanted the virus that James wanted me to, to his exact specifications. A real simple one that would make her open the vault up, and then self-terminate-" before Watts could continue anymore Cinder's Grimm arm shot forward and latched onto his throat, holding him off the edge of the skyscraper now.

The fall maiden snarled while holding him over the edge. "I'll tell you what's going to happen, Arthur.I'm going to let you fall to a very unremarkable death, then I'm going to wait in the vault for that puppet, and then I'm going to rip my power out of her and get the staff!-" she stopped suddenly when Watts started laughing and oddly enough released his grip on Cinder's arm, letting himself dangle freely.

"Oh because of COURSE you are, because that's all you know!" Watts looked her in the eyes now. "And how well has that worked out for you in the past? I saw both of your attempts to get this specific power during my time under Ironwood's thumb. Ironwood's top war machine was there to stop you each time!" he laughed more. "That's not even your first failure, is it? I know I would have LOVED to be there for your first failure at Haven. I would have warned you that pursuing revenge was a terrible idea, but then again I'm sure you wouldn't have listened."

"You don't know what you're talking about! I succeeded at taking down Beacon-"

She was cut off again by Watts. "And because of who's clever work with that virus you needed? Oh right, MINE! It was my hard work!" he pointed to himself now. "You think just because you suffered a little that you deserve the world?!" he ranted as her angered expression now started to falter.

"You can't just be strong, you have to be SMART, and you can't just be deserving of power, you have to be WORTHY! But all you've ever been is a bloody migraine!"

Cinder screamed as loud as she could now before her grip on Watts released… But not before she pulled him back to her feet.

Watts was surprised to be alive to say the least as he glanced back over at Cinder who walked off to the edge of the rooftop they were on and sat herself down. A tear fell down her face now while she held her head.

Her plan was simple, all Cinder needed to do was break into this place and kill the leader of the Spiders.

Of course, opposition was all but expected for this, as was retribution. But she'd be damned if she wouldn't be taking back all that was rightfully her's, as well as some bonus for the service she was providing.

She finished weaving the newest tool in her arsenal, a simple brown scarf that had some red patterns inlaid into it. She put it around her neck and was brandishing her weapons now. She also set fire to the stall she had spent so much of her time working behind.

She was done being a lowly servant.

The entrance wasn't heavily guarded at all,likely reflecting the owner's lax attitude towards how things functioned down here, but it didn't matter to Cinder if there were 2 or 200 guards. She made her very silent approach, cloaked in the shadows of the nearby shrubbery. The first guard was pulled into that.

"H-Huh?!" The other guard was taken aback by their partner's disappearance, but that was soon put to rest when he was knocked out by the blunt end of one of Cinder's swords.

Pushing the door open, she was surprised to see a rather well kept club building inside. And on the central stage sat a man, this man looked of a similar complexion as her. It seemed that he was fiddling with a piano. He wore a suit with a red tie, had black hair, slicked back with a longer bit tied into a ponytail, and red-tinted glasses obscuring his eyes.

What didn't help was the fact that this club was filled to the brim with more spiders that all quickly armed themselves up at the sight of the woman brandishing two swords.

The man cleared his throat, breaking the silence in the room after the last thug had finished preparing his weapon. "Now now, let's not start with the violence in here, why don't we just set all our weapons aside first and listen to me play?" he asked.

"You're Charles Cavatica?" Cinder wasn't quite sure how to take the sight of the man as he turned his back towards her and pulled down the back of his shirt a little, showing the spider tattoo on the back of his neck.

"Of course, my Spiders need to show class about themselves in how they act. Now then, what's this about?" he asked.

"I'm here to kill you." Cinder stated flatly. "I'm tired of living under your gang's web. I've lived my life as a slave already, and I've finally decided after months of your 'protection' that I've had enough of this."

Charles rightfully didn't seem shaken by Cinder's threat. "So you have. I can assume you've suffered a lot all of your life then, girl?"

"All of it." Cinder tightened the grip on her swords as many of the eyes looking at her were also ready to fight for their leader.

"Well then, who am I to deny your request?" he nodded.

"You're just gonna let me kill you?!" Cinder was confused as he raised a finger up.

"I'll let you make that decision, none of my people will do anything until you make your decision." he glared around the room now. "No one is to act until the little lady has made her mind up."

Cinder took a step forward, but was halted again when the man switched the one finger to his whole hand.

"I didn't say you could act yet. I want you to really think, so to give you the proper time. I'm going to play you a song. One my song is finished, you can do whatever it is you want." Charles promised her.

"That's it? A song?" Cinder scoffed and crossed her arms.

"Of course. It's not that hard of a thing for you to allow, is it? It's only fair that a dying man gets to play a final song." He prepared the piano and cracked his fingers. "Ready?"

He began playing a gentle melody as Cinder's eyes scanned around the room, every other spider in there was packing some kind of weapon or looked tough as nails, she knew there'd be no reasonable way she could take them all on at once…

But all she knew for certain was that if she killed Charles Cavatica, the current leader of the Spiders, that they'd be leaderless, and they might even 'eat' themselves trying to fill that power vacuum.

A vacuum that she could fill? No, not as the person who killed their leader. She had to escape, to live through this like she had back in the Glass Unicorn. Her eyes scanned around frantically for any potential exits that she could utilize.

It all spiraled in her head, the search for an exit, the thugs surrounding her, and the music.

Gritting her teeth, she finally felt the perfect decision reach her mind as the piano playing climaxed.

She started running towards the stage, the other spiders now moved to try and intercept her, but she slipped past them, jumping up onto the stage.

"I've made up my mind." she whispered into the man's ear as she watched him play his last note before driving her sword through his chest from behind,

He coughed up blood and sputtered out a slight laugh. "You think I'm the leader of the spiders? Girl... You're more foolish than you look. I'm sure Lil' Miss will look forward to meeting you..."

Cinder pulled her sword free and glanced around the room with wide eyes. She'd been deceived this whole time into thinking this man was the leader of the Spiders. She had to escape...

Every single weapon in the room was trained on her, and the first action she took was diving over the piano and kicking it forward. It was wheeled onto stage, which gave her the perfect cover against the initial assault as several thugs dove to the side to avoid it.

With this distraction providing her cover, she vaulted over the tipped piano and kicked one thug in the face, her scarf starting to glow now as one thug brandishing a club attempted to slam it into her with it's spiked end, but she caught it with a burning orange hand, kicking the thug's knee out from under him.

She turned around and quickly deflected bullets fired her way from a thug wielding two revolvers while running towards her, the same one that had been constantly extorting her.

A dagger wielding dog-eared faunus moved in her path and she quickly cut them down with ease before leaping over the tipped down table and bringing her sword down on the woman behind it.

Glancing up, she knew she couldn't do this forever as the crowd was starting to get more aggressive. She deflected a heavy sword swing and slashed out the knee of another spider thug before hopping onto a chair and kicking off of another grunt.

She was now swinging from a light fixture in the room and quickly landed herself on an upper balcony where a man was still preparing his poorly put-together automatic rifle.

She wouldn't give him the chance and kicked him down while dodging a tomahawk thrown her way.

She used a chair to block the door to this balcony room while looking around for anywhere to go. The only option for an exit she had was one of the upper windows.

Gritting her teeth, she went out the only way she could think.

The second she touched down onto the pavement her aura shattered from tanking the impact, "Dammit…" she started to make her retreat, when a gunshot rang out from behind her and her eyes widened.

"Missed." a man cursed as he started to reload his handgun now while other thugs started gathering around the wounded Cinder who was now clutching her heavily bleeding arm.

They would start laying into her mercilessly now, one, hitting a bat against her head, while another woman punched her with a pair of knuckle dusters. She was disarmed of her weapons by another thug's swords and fell over, starting to get stomped on.

As Cinder's consciousness began to fade, a large imposing shadow loomed overhead and she could make it out in her vision.

The thugs had also taken note of this and turned their attention away from Cinder for that moment.

The Grimm mouse that had spotted Cinder earlier, crawled over towards Salem. "Such a pity…"

"Well now that we're back together, what's the plan now?" Yang asked with a frown while walking over to her sister.

"Oh well Whitley and I were able to get some evacuation for the people of Mantle. We just gotta work on something for Atlas." Weiss explained as Ruby got a call on her scroll from May.

"Hey, those ships you ordered to get us are coming… But they're not alone." her eyes widened in shock. "Everyone into the mines!" she ordered as a distant explosion made Blake walk over as well before an emergency broadcast directly from Atlas started.

On the screens was footage of Atlesian ships blowing up the SDC freighters.

"What the hell is he doing?!" Blake seemed outraged.

"Those ships were supposed to help people." Ruby's eyes looked away now as Ironwood appeared on screen in his dimly lit office.

Yang and Weiss held hateful glares at his appearance on the screen.

"I have always made it my promise to defend this kingdom… This kingdom, it's technology, and it's people from those who would see it all burned away." Ironwood began. "Our enemy is crippled, but one person still keeps Atlas from it's salvation." the screen switched to an image of Penny now

"Penny Polendina, the protector of Mantle."

Jaune stopped healing Nora for a moment as he, Ren, and her all glanced up from the scroll they were looking at to turn their attention towards the still unconscious Penny.

"Penny, wherever you and your friends may be hiding, you have to listen to me. I know how much Mantle means to you. You can bring yourself into Atlas Academy and help me save Atlas. I promise, Mantle will be left to fend for itself." he then held up one finger as he stepped out of the shadows in his room and into a spotlight. "Or watch as I destroy it all."

"Oh God…" May fell to her knees in complete shock at the General's threat from where she was with the others inside the mines.

Fiona broke out into hysterics as Joanna held her close.

"I have 1 bomb, and that's all it will take."

Cinder and Watts shared a look of shock from how brash this declaration of Ironwood's was.

"If there's no Mantle, then there's no reason for you to not work with me. None of us wants it to come to this, but one of us is willing to do what's necessary." Ironwood's eyes narrowed at the camera. "If anyone tries anything other than what I've ordered, Mantle is gone. You have 1 hour to respond." With that declaration, the broadcast ended.

"I'm surprised James would make a declaration so brash." Watts turned his attention towards Cinder, who was glaring at her scroll now and gritting her teeth.

She had received a message from Neo.

[N: Your boss won't stay dead, but you will without this.]

Attached was a picture of Neo holding the Lamp of Knowledge and looking rather smug, feigning shock.

[N: Fulfill your end of the bargain and I might even give you the password to this thing…]

Cinder closed her scroll and took a deep breath, glancing over at Watts. "Who is it?" the man asked. "Did someone survive?"

"Yes. We'll need to meet with them." she stood up and smiled in Watts's direction after regaining her composure better. "Thanks for the words, Arthur, now let's move." she extended her hand in his direction.

Commentary: Here we are on this chapter, the chapter where you can kind of see how far over the edge Ironwood's gone. Also this chapter was written at the height of me getting sick with the big virus, and there was a bit of clarity I had in the midst of writing it. The original stuff I planned for Cinder was absolutely terrible in quality.

Since this is about the last major Cinder flashback chapter(the final bit of flashback will be brief), I'll just briefly go over what I was originally planning for this arc. Originally Cinder was going to learn how to use the bow from an archer at the range, who was going to in turn betray her and get into a big fight after Cinder won an archery tournament. It just did not work at all for me, also Cinder's supposed to be older here and not a little girl anymore.

I instead went for something a little different in tone, Cinder's first real instance of going out and using violence to solve all of her problems, this time far more intentionally. I also wanted to use the Spiders a little more, so I did kind of create a new character, this one being a suave man who's a reference to Charlotte from Charlotte's web. He was only ever a minor leader in the gang, not the actual leader... Too bad Cinder didn't quite get the memo on that...

Cinder's flashback aside, I loved Watts's rant on her, although I did have to adjust it slightly to make up for the fact that I never had Watts go with Cinder in Volume 5.(Yep I actually do pay attention to my continuity).

The stuff with Ruby's group and Ironwood's threat is mostly vanilla, although I made sure to give Ruby and Yang a clear moment here where they finally make up for their argument all the way back from chapter 1. Next time we're gonna try to keep it together and come up with some sort of plan.