Neo stood for a moment in front of the unconscious boy before shrugging. She didn't know what Ozpin was on about, but she was pretty sure Oscar could get out on his own just fine, considering he was in friendly territory. Without a second look, Neo left the room and turned left, changing her current disguise into being Oscar. She could do this much in exchange for getting the lamp without a fight.
Oscar woke up. His vision was blurry but he could make out a woman in an Atlesian outfit – Neo's disguise – walking out of the room with the Relic in hand. He was about to call out, when he saw the woman change, and become the splitting image of himself. Still weakened from his earlier fight with the mechs, it took Oscar some time to get himself out of the room to follow her.
However, by the time he had managed to get to the door, the woman – or rather himself – was nowhere to be seen. Taking his chances, Oscar ran to the right.
At the same time, coming from the corridor in front of the room, Jaune, Ren and Nora were making their way to where they thought Oscar was, and were surprised to find that not only Oscar was missing, but also that a fight had just happened there.
Jaune grabbed his scroll and sent an urgent message to Ruby.
"Its Jaune ! We've got a serious problem !" he said.
A moment later, Ruby's face appeared on his screen.
"Ironwood's declaring martial law and abandoning Mantle! Salem is coming, and he's going to use the Staff to move Atlas. If we don't stop him, then Mantle's going to be des..." she managed to shout before the communication was cut off.
The same message had appeared on both Neo's and Oscar's scroll. Neo smiled, as she now understood why Ozpin had been worried about Oscar's safety, while Oscar ran faster, realizing it was more important than ever to stop the Atlesian soldier that had taken his appearance. He wasn't going the right way, but unknowingly he was going all the way around to where Neo currently was.
Neo sent Ruby a text, telling her she had gotten what she had wanted and was now going to make her way towards where Cinder was, and she also sent Ruby a picture of the building's plans where she had noted Cinder's current location, one she knew of because she had bugged the very scroll she had given her in the first place.
Then she heard someone call Oscar's name while running towards her. Neo smiled, but in reality she was already cursing her bad luck. She really needed to get to where Cinder was as soon as possible, or she might be too late.
As Nora approached, Neo wondered what would be the best option to get rid of them quickly. The three of them were barely above level 11, just like the rest of RWBY were, so she had no doubt that she could win a fight against them, but it still meant it would take her some time, time she didn't have.
Before she could decide, however, a scream came from down the hall.
"No !"
Oscar had gone the long way round, but he had caught up with Neo. Without a second of hesitation, he ran up to her and punched.
Focused on Nora and her two friends while lost in her own thoughts, Neo completely missed Oscar's interruption, and the punch hit her square in the jaw, making her illusion shatter.
- 7 AP
The fight was unavoidable now, although Neo would still rather run.
Dispatching the four of them wasn't really a problem, but the Relic was proving itself to be slippery, almost as if it was consciously trying to get back into their hands. Moreover, the Hunters were tenacious, and had too much aura for her to deal with them quickly. She still had tricks up her sleeves, mainly her Dust, but that was a card she didn't want to play until the very end. She hadn't gone all the way to grab the Relic in the off-chance things went wrong for her to reveal her hand to avoid things going wrong.
She used everything else she could though to leave as quickly as possible, impersonating one of them temporarily to make them hesitate.
Grabbing Oscar so he wouldn't get himself caught by an Atlesian soldier, before going for the neck so he wouldn't think she was helping him.
Until she finally managed to get them to flee using those same Atlesian soldiers that had gathered to pursue them.
With them running for their own lives now, Neo skipped her way towards the place the Winter maiden was likely to be in, the one where her scroll was telling her Cinder had been earlier.
She just hoped she wasn't going to be too late.
Ruby was running with Weiss down the hallways, towards where the Winter maiden was being held.
She couldn't believe Ironwood would abandon all of Mantle ! Humanity was supposed to stand together ! They were supposed to protect people !
She didn't understand why the Ace Ops had fought them, why Ironwood was fighting them.
Salem was here, he knew that much, they all knew that much, so why couldn't they all work together to fight her ?
Why were none of them ready to give everything they could to protect Mantle ?
Wasn't Mantle a part of Atlas too ? Weren't they people they had sworn to protect ?
Or was the floating city of Atlas the only thing that mattered to them ?
Everything was going wrong. After they had defeated the Ace Ops, Maria and Pietro had found them and bypassed Ironwood's lockdown on their scroll, and as soon as they did Ruby had seen the message Neo had sent her.
And the one Jaune had sent her as well.
So the insurance Neo wanted was the Relic... And she had gotten it...
Ruby promised herself to make it up to her friends as soon as everything was over, but for now she needed to stop Cinder.
Neo had sent her Cinder's location, but it wasn't really necessary. Weiss knew already where it was, thanks to Winter showing it to her a while back, so they were both running to protect the Winter maiden.
Well, Ruby was running to protect her from Cinder, while Weiss was running to protect her from Ironwood.
Finally, they make it to where the Winter maiden is.
"Winter !" shouted Weiss.
Weiss's sister was in a bad shape, the room was frozen all over, Cinder was there. And Penny was the new Winter maiden.
No ! That meant Cinder was going to try to kill her !
The idea she might lose one of her friends, that she might lose Penny again, caused Ruby's silver eyes to flare.
When the light subsided, Cinder was gone, steam and melted metal the only proof that she had once been there, along with a hole in the ceiling.
To the opposite of the corridor Ruby and Weiss was in, a disguised Neo cursed in her mind.
She was too late.
Neo had no trouble finding Cinder again. The woman hadn't gone far.
It was still troubling that Cinder had managed to run away from that situation. How did she have the time to drill a hole in a sealed room before Ruby's silver eyes could burn her ?
That question would have to be answered another day. For now, Neo gave Cinder the Relic with a bow, although she let herself frown as soon as Cinder wasn't looking at her face – or gave her a reason to.
Such a great opportunity wasted. This farce would have to go on a bit longer.
But she still promised herself to get Cinder stabbed before Atlas could fall.
Ironwood stood alone, down before the Vault that held the Relic of Creation. To his dismay, it wasn't Winter that joined him, but Oscar. Or was it Ozpin ?
"Still just me." said Oscar.
Looking at the young boy, Ironwood noticed he hadn't brought the Relic of Knowledge with him. A smart decision, he wouldn't even trust himself when Mettle was activated.
"Trust is what I'm hoping to fix." said Oscar, "I know we can still figure this out, all of it, together. Please."
Ironwood almost snorted. He knew the kid would never agree with his decision, although he had hoped they would stand together.
"No." objected Oscar, "That's exactly what she wants."
Ironwood inwardly shuddered at the mention of Salem. The monster was threatening them, and it was because she couldn't be killed that leaving was the only option in the first place.
"I guess it's because of Oz, but... holding it helps me calm down when I'm afraid." said Oscar.
"You still think I'm afraid?" growled Ironwood.
"We all are. It's what we do in our fear that reveals..." started Oscar.
Ironwood seethed. That was easy for him to say, look where his actions got him. Ozpin had failed to protect Vale, he had failed to protect Beacon, he had failed at everything. He had let his guard down and Salem had used that to her advantage, and now when Ironwood's guard had dropped just a tiny bit she had once again swooped in to take it all.
"If you abandon Mantle, you abandon our best chance at reuniting the world. You abandon Remnant, leaving millions to fend to themselves so a few can survive. What kind of..." tried to argue Oscar.
Ironwood rolled his eyes. Salem had all the time in the world at her side, what was the point of trying to stop what couldn't be stopped ? Who cared about the rest of Remnant if it meant Humanity would at least survive ?
"Listen to me!" shouted Oscar.
NO ! He was done trying to talk some sense into some idealist kid that can't see the truth even when its in front of him ! He was done trying to deal with people that thought of themselves first and foremost ! He was done trying to win a war that couldn't be won !
"Then you're as dangerous as she is, James." said Oscar.
Ironwood looked straight into Oscar's eyes. He didn't need people that couldn't be trusted. He didn't need people that couldn't see what was right. He didn't need people that couldn't trust him. He needed friends, friends that would fight with him and not against him. Friends that wouldn't try to go against his will. Without even noticing, he took out his gun.
"James is what my friends call me." said Ironwood just before shooting, "To you... It's General."
That last bit is best read when comparing with what happened in the show. I purposefully made it so most of Ironwood's lines weren't there, although I'll let you all try to guess why ;p
Also a few chapters back, I mentionned 'Military law'. That was a mistake, the correct term would be 'Raison d'Etat'. It should be fixed soon.
To be continued on October 23rd
Name : Neo Politan
Age : 18
Level : 18 (83%)
Class : Illusionist [You add both your Intelligence and Dexterity modifiers to your AC and to Dexterity or Intelligence based attacks as long as you can still cast illusions]
Path : Me, myself and I [You live for yourself first and foremost, no matter what pain you might cause others]
Title : The Gamer
HP : 10/10
AP : 80/95
STR : 11
CON : 10
DEX : 19
INT : 22
WIS : 12
CHA : 16
Semblance : The Gamer
Status effects :
Gamer's body [Your body follows game-like mechanics. You can restore 1/4th of your total HP (rounded down) by resting 15 minutes. You can only die if your HP reach 0 and you fail your last breath]
Child of Remnant [You are from Remnant and follow different rules than other worlds. Your HP is always equal to your constitution and any bonuses that would normally improve it are transferred to your aura]
Words that shouldn't be said [Your last words almost caused you to lose your life. You cannot talk until you overcome your trauma]
Defenses :
AC : 27(31)
For : 20
Ref : 26
Will : 24