RISK
The dining hall of the Schnee manor was silent, eyes were looking in Ruby's direction and Ruby's silver eyes were avoiding contact with the others.
Gathered in the room was RWBY, Ren, Emerald, Oscar, Willow, and Whitley.
"You have a plan, don't you sis?" Yang asked hopefully as Ruby just shook her head.
"What can we do, Yang? If we try anything, Mantle's gone!"
Yang's eyes widened when Ruby snapped at her. "I'm not going to argue with you again, Ruby." she shook her head.
"Well, I'd say we're pretty screwed if little miss hero is out of options." Emerald scoffed as Yang's eyes turned red and glared in her direction. "Okay, okay I'll step off. Yeesh..."
"Ruby, come on, I'm sure we can pool together and-" before Yang could try to bolster her sister up again, Ruby was gone in a blur of petals. "I'll talk to her." She gave the others in the room an assuring nod before running after her sister.
"I'll go get Jaune, he's good with plans too." Ren reasoned before running off to get his team's leader.
"I'm gonna just get some fresh air." Emerald stated. "I won't leave the grounds, so you don't gotta worry about me giving you guys the slip." She kicked herself off the wall and started towards the door.
"Hey, can I join you?" Oscar asked her, earning a shrug in response, leaving Blake alone with the Schnees.
Between the attacks that had gone on around the command center and all the fighting going on outside, Atlas Academy's halls had become sparsely populated, with the Ace Operatives being one of the few remaining groups.
"He's not serious about what he said is he?" Elm asked, hoping for confirmation from the others.
"I would hope not." Vine agreed while looking away. "Destroying Mantle could potentially result in the reverse outcome than what the General wants. It could easily incentivize Penny to not-"
"Would you stop doubting the general?!" Harriet interjected, sounding rather angry. "What's with you Vine?! You've always seen the logic in General Ironwood's orders!"
"Logic? Would you mind telling me where the logic is in destroying our only leverage in getting Penny's aid for our cause?" Vine pointed out now as the doors at the end of the hall opened and they all fell silent now.
Ironwood and Winter both emerged, approaching the group. "Operatives, I'd like you to ensure that the drones that will drop the bomb are ready in case anything happens."
"Are you actually serious, General?!" Marrow finally spoke up, earning a glance from the man. "I'm sorry I just… I can't follow through with this. Do you even realize what it is you're doing with this?! You're doing Salem's work for her!" he pointed at the ground.
"Marrow, shut the hell up-" Harriet was about to take a step forward but shut up the moment a glare was shot her direction from Marrow.
"How about you shut up! Do any of you guys believe what we're being asked to do? I didn't sign up to this job for genocide. I took this job to save lives!" he looked Vine in the eyes. "Come on, Vine, you see the logic in not following these commands, don't you?!"
Vine remained silent now, taking a step back out of actual fear when he saw Ironwood's hand resting on one of his Due Process pistols.
Marrow glared Ironwood down now. "I wore this title you gave me as a badge of honor. But now I realize what it really is. A collar." he tore off the Atlas badge he was given and threw it at Ironwood's foot. "I'm going to do my real job."
He started to walk away and came to a halt the moment he heard the sound of Ironwood's pistol clicking.
Before anything else could happen, he was punched right in the face by Winter who rested her knee on his back and began to restrain him with gravity bolas. "You want a collar?! fine!" She took his weapon and attached it to the magnet on her back before pulling him to his feet.
"I'll take this traitor where he belongs." she harshly shoved him forward.
Ironwood nodded before putting his pistol away and glancing at the remaining Ace Operatives who all immediately set off to begin following their orders for him.
"Let's get that payload ready." Harriet affirmed the general's orders.
"Sorry, I did all I could." Jaune shook his head as Nora's scars weren't going away, no matter how much he focused his semblance on her.
"It's fine." Nora glanced back towards the window. "I'll be able to move again at least." she sighed as Ren entered the room.
"Hey, Jaune? The others are kinda stuck in terms of coming up with a plan, think you could help them out?" he asked.
"I'll see what I can do." Jaune nodded before leaving the room now.
Ren glanced over at Nora who frowned while staring at the fog-filled skies of Atlas. "So, he really did all he could?"
"I must look ugly to you now, huh?"
"What?! Never!" Ren took hold of her hand, much to her own surprise. She stared right at him now.
She saw the sincere look in his eyes and took a deep breath. "It only makes sense I'm stuck with these. Just another reminder of how stupid I am for being ditsy Nora…" she let Ren lift her hand up.
"Nora, I know I was the one holding our whole team back, even when we were at Beacon still." Ren confessed. "If I was just honest about how I was feeling then-"
"Don't kid yourself, Ren. All I've ever done is just hit stuff with my hammer till the problem would go away." she scoffed.
"That's not true! Nora, you put everything you have into whatever you do. You support everyone without any concern for how it might hurt yourself. That's what I love about…" Ren stopped himself, but then looked her in the eyes. "That's why I love you…"
She couldn't help but smile when he said those words that she'd been longing to hear for so long. "The day my Mom ran and left me behind, you found me. Ever since then, we've been Ren and Nora… But this time apart we've had recently, it's made me think about who Nora is by herself." a single tear fell down her cheek.
"I've always loved you, Lie Ren, but I need to find out who Nora Valkyrie is by herself. To do that I need to be alone. You look very much like you've figured yourself out." she pulled herself free of his hand. "I need to find out who I am so I can be the partner you need. That's okay, right?"
Ren couldn't help but smile at this show of maturity from her. "Of course, it's okay." he cupped her cheek before removing his hand and poking her on the nose. "Boop."
She giggled slightly before Ren leaned against her now.
Whitley was pacing around the room frantically. "So any attempts to use SDC resources are likely out," he began.
"Ironwood said if anyone tries anything against what he threatened that he'll destroy Mantle." Blake confirmed.
"Maybe we can do something about the bomb?" Weiss asked. "No, it'll probably be too heavily guarded." she immediately dismissed her own plan.
Willow glanced over at her kids interacting with Blake and couldn't help but smile a little.
"Have anything helpful to share, Mother?" Whitley asked in a condescending tone towards her, noticing her reaction.
"It's nothing, I just saw you and your sister working together with a faunus and thought that was nice is all." she confessed.
This flustered Whitley immensely as Blake crossed her arms. "Is there a problem with that or something?"
"N-Not at all!" Whitley refuted. "I do think it's nice too, and I promise that if our family and company makes it out of Atlas alright, that we'll start adopting some new practices regarding our treatment of faunus workers!" he affirmed with a nod as Weiss just patted his head.
"One issue at a time, little brother."
"Right." he took his scroll out to begin studying any potential resources that might be able to help in this situation as the door opened, revealing Jaune. "Hey, I heard someone might need help brainstorming?!"
Marrow was harshly shoved into the elevator by Winter. "So, you're actually fine with this?!" he struggled in his restraints.
"Hold still." Winter stated as she pulled Marrow's arms towards her.
"What're you-" he was surprised when the Gravity Bolas were removed from his arms. "You're helping me?!"
Winter was now starting to use her scroll, browsing through her contact list. "Yes, I agree with everything you said about the general."
He was about to speak up against her previous actions, but she glared in his direction. "Before you ask about what I did back there, I did that to save your life. If I didn't, the general would have shot you dead on the spot."
Marrow immediately shut up and pouted, looking away from her while she casually took his weapon off of her back and tossed it over to him. "What's your plan now anyways?"
"I'm going to do something I should have done ages ago, and reach out to my sister." she explained.
"Have you got the cameras looping yet?" Qrow asked as he finally found Harbinger and Robyn's weapon in a locker, tossing Robyn's to her.
"Yeah, I have, but… I honestly can't believe James is serious about his threat." Robyn was looking at a camera feed of the ship that had the bomb on it now.
"That's why we need to stop him." Qrow insisted as he stepped over some of the beaten soldiers in the room.
Robyn checked the ammunition in her weapon and glanced up at Qrow. "Do you really think attacking the General is where you could help out the most? I don't know about you, but I intend to stop that bomb before it can leave." she insisted as Qrow was already making his way out of the room.
"Qrow, where are you going?" she demanded as he leaned against a wall, tightening his grip on harbinger as some soldiers ran by.
"I already told you, doing what needs to be done-" he was surprised when she slapped him across the face.
"Do you even hear yourself now, Branwen? You sound exactly like him." she looked him in the eyes. "Don't pretend like you're doing that for the greater good when it's just for yourself."
Qrow lowered his weapon and then took out Clover's badge, tightening his grip on it. "You're right. I need to focus on the bigger picture."
He followed her towards an elevator that she was planning on taking down when the door opened.
On the other side of the door, they were a bit surprised to see Marrow and Winter standing on the other side.
"Well… Here's some unexpected help." Winter smiled while Marrow awkwardly waved.
Ruby sat on the staircase in the Schnee Manor's entrance hall, staring towards the armor that rested over the remains of what used to be the Hound.
"Ruby, I know it's a tight spot we're in, but if there was anyone who'd be able to come up with something crazy enough to work, it'd be you." Yang scratched the back of her head while walking over and noticing where Ruby was looking.
"Did the others tell you what that thing was?" Ruby asked flatly.
"Yeah…" Yang rested a leg atop the rubble. "That Hound was really giving us trouble, but I guess you just had to go one-up your big sister again hu-"
"It's what happened to Mom." Ruby stated flatly while resting her forehead against the stair railing.
Yang immediately broke down into tears at Ruby's declaration. "H-How-"
"It's eyes. Yang, I saw his eyes. They were like mine. That was always one thing that seemed strange to me, whenever I thought of it. Salem used to kill silver-eyed warriors, but she's always wanted me alive. Why's that the case? The only conclusion that comes to my mind is that her encounter with Mom led to her learning she could do something else to us." Ruby curled up now while Yang walked over to her and pulled her in for a hug.
Ruby was fast to shove her sister off, pulling herself to her feet. "My plan was stupid, I went through with it and help didn't come at all. The only thing that happened was that Amity fell."
The blonde's hands balled up into fists as she steeled herself again. "You were being optimistic, Ruby. Blind optimism can be bad, but no optimism at all just means you're giving into despair. We need hope, we have to take risks."
Ruby kicked a pebble on the ground and scoffed. "Mine did nothing to help us."
"But your warning was still able to get out to the rest of Remnant. Look, Ruby… They aren't called sure things. They're called risks for a reason. I mean if you didn't notice, my plan to help out Mantle didn't work out at all. You did more for Mantle than we ever hoped to." Yang couldn't help but laugh a little darkly at that. "And I mean hey, we still were able to help out in the end too. We at least bought ourselves extra time without Salem's forces breathing down our throats." she sat up on the railing next to Ruby.
"Mom took a risk, the day she left home that day, and it didn't work out the way she wanted. But she's still my hero." Yang wrapped an arm around her sister and Ruby leaned on her now.
Emerald leaned herself against the door frame just outside of the Schnee manor's entrance and stared back towards Ruby and Yang who were still discussing among themselves.
"You know, they won't ever warm up to you if you're always off on your own." Oscar reasoned from where he was sitting next to her.
"Maybe I don't deserve to let them warm up to me though, not after all I've done." she shook her head.
"This again?" Oscar let out a sigh. "You can't keep beating yourself up over what's already happened. Believe me, I've done that plenty. All you can do is just keep going forward."
Emerald held her head and sat herself down now. "That cliche advice won't do you any good with me. Hazel deserves to be here more than I do."
Leaning on his cane, Oscar stood up again and started walking out into the courtyard. "Perhaps. But he's not, so now you should continue in his stead, if you're not continuing things for your own sake."
The woman couldn't help but laugh at that notion. "Are you kidding me? He wouldn't want me doing things because he would have done them, he'd probably want me to act for myself." her eyes followed him.
"Exactly, so how about you start living for yourself for a change-" Oscar stopped when the front door opened now.
"I can be delayed no longer." Penny declared in a hollow tone as she began walking outside.
Ruby sped out in a blur of petals behind her and started pushing her backwards. "No, I won't let you!"
Penny's eyes flickered green again. "R-Ruby please stop me!" she held her head now while Ruby wrapped her arms around Penny's waist.
"I will!" She firmly let herself anchor Penny down before her eyes turned red and she swatted Ruby aside, knocking her back several feet, only to get tackled by the girl again.
"I must open the vault and self-terminate." she declared again as Yang held the door open for the others.
Penny was now starting to take off, with Ruby still holding onto her. "Guys, help!"
"I've got her!" Weiss insisted now, forming a gravity well glyph below Penny that started to pull her down, and managed to pull Ruby off of her.
Penny simply increased the thrust of her legs, destroying the glyph before Blake's Gambol Shroud wrapped itself around her arm, with Yang helping hold it down. "Not on our watch!"
Ren fired out both of his Stormflower Guns's grapple wires, which wrapped around one of Penny's ankles.
Penny started to turn herself, which was resulting in more strain from everyone trying to hold her down as Nora joined Ren in holding Penny down.
Gritting her teeth, Emerald took her weapons out, firing the chain scythes out and wrapping them around Penny's waist, pulling her down as hard as she could, before another Gravity Well Glyph formed above her this time, slamming Penny harshly into the ground, this one was boosted by Jaune's semblance.
Another one formed below her now to hold her in place while Ruby ran over. "Penny, what can we do to help you?!"
Penny looked up at Ruby with green eyes. "Kill me."
This response made Ruby freeze.
"Kill me, and I can ensure the power goes to you." she glanced over at everyone around them now, who also looked just as shocked as Ruby. "Please…" her eyes started flickering red. "PLEASE! I can't fight it anymore!"
"Yes you can." Nora spoke in a more affirmative tone than before. "If you were really just a machine you wouldn't be able to resist this much you know."
"She's right." Ruby fell to her knees right next to Penny now, from just stepping into Weiss's gravity well glyph, but she still held onto one of her arms. "Jaune, can you boost her aura?!"
"On it!" he let up his boost on Weiss and held his hands out in Penny's direction, giving her aura a boost that almost immediately helped strengthen her control over that of the virus. Her eyes slowly turned back to green and she moved her hands around, looking Ruby and Nora's way.
"Did it work?" Jaune asked hopefully, but Penny shook her head.
"It's still there."
Ruby couldn't help but crack a smile in her friend's direction. "But you've got an aura, your own soul. You're more than the sum of your parts. You're our friend."
As everyone released their weapons from Penny, Emerald spoke up. "I think you're wrong about your progress by the way. You're not at all where you started." she was looking in Ruby's direction as the others were now turning their attention towards her.
"I mean yeah, you guys have been getting your asses kicked, some of that my fault. But I mean, it's war… You're bound to take some hits. ``She felt a little lost now for what else to say to them. "Look, I'm just gonna be super pissed if you all just give up the second I switch sides!"
"Switch sides?" Oscar remarked, leaning on his cane as the others all shared slight chuckles among each other.
"Aww, goin' soft on us now, Em?!" Yang mocked as Blake elbowed her in the gut.
"Like hell I am! Look, I'm as much of an enemy to Salem as you guys are now… I think we'd stand a better chance together, is all." Emerald turned away, her face red from the embarrassment of swallowing her own pride.
"I'm willing to give her a chance, so what do you guys say? Have your answer yet?" Oscar offered her a hand that she took. "Also Ozpin would like to say something, if you all would be willing to hear him out."
"Go ahead." Ruby nodded as Oscar let Ozpin take over.
"I recently have been reminded of a fairy tale, one of Oscar's favorites…" Ozpin began while walking over to the destroyed rubble of the large fountain just outside the Schnee Manor's front door. "In this story a young girl flees the consequences of a choice she made, to a magical place. But because she never learned from her initial failure, she only ever succeeded at spreading it across this new world." Ozpin continued, staring at the fountain. "I failed you all by running away the moment you learned the truth from me."
"I think I get why though." Yang confessed. "I mean we were all mad. But at the same time I think I get why you hid it..."
"Trust is a risk." Blake affirmed.
"One of the biggest risks we can take is trusting someone who's burned us in the past." Weiss glanced back over at the Schnee manor's entrance, where Whitley was browsing through company files on his scroll still.
"I hope it's something you're willing to take the chance on with me again." Ozpin bowed his head.
Ruby nodded before she heard Penny grunt in pain slightly.
"I can still feel it fighting for control over me."
Jaune shook his head and started amping her again. "I can't keep amping her forever."
"We can't keep Ironwood waiting anymore either." Ren added. "Our time is almost up."
"We can't keep her from the vault forever." Nora remarked with her arms crossed.
Everyone was lost in thought before Ruby broke the silence. "That's actually a risk we haven't thought of." A smile formed on her face as she gestured for the others to huddle up.
Commentary: I'd like to jokingly call this chapter the "talk no-jutsu" chapter, but it just doesn't have quite the same ring to it as "Risk". This chapter's a bit turning point for our protags as they finally come to the realization that "hey, maybe we should use that thing we're too scared to use".
The bits with the Ace Ops, Winter, Qrow, and Robyn were more or less sped up slightly this chapter from the next one because the formatting of it in the normal show did throw me off slightly, although I couldn't quite avoid it. But more on that next chapter. The discussions I had between everyone I liked writing, my favorite ones being the Ruby and Yang one, and the Emerald and Oscar one.
I really wanted to make Emerald's decision to join up with the good guys very much her own decision to want to do the right thing and not just, "I'm sticking with you guys out of necessity" even if that's how she would probably say it.
Not my longest commentary segment, but honestly there isn't too much I wanted to talk about for this chapter in particular.
Next chapter things are very much ramping up as we really build to the finale.