A/N: Hathor and Diana belong to my friend decode9.
Teams COAL and FNKI travelled to the military compound with Hathor and Ganbaatar. It was late in the afternoon, and the sun was starting to go down. When they arrived, they headed toward Ironwood's office to tell him of what had happened at Atlas Academy. But when they approached, they could hear that the General was in an argument with someone.
"General, please!" A female voice begged. "Stop this madness! You can't just abandon half the kingdom! I beg you, start evacuating Mantle again! There are too many innocents down there!"
"Enough, Miss Mirai!" Ironwood yelled back. "If you say one more word against my plan, I swear I will shoot you!" At that point, Team COAL and Hathor rushed into Ironwood's office to find him arguing with a short, blonde girl who had pink eyes. By this time, Team FNKI and Ganbaatar had also arrived in the office.
"Sir, you're the General of the Atlesian military! It's your duty to protect the whole kingdom! Please, don't abandon the people of Mantle!"
"My duty is to look out for Atlas, first and foremost. And you don't see the whole picture. There are certain dynamics to this situation that you couldn't possibly understand." He pulled out his pistol and pointed it at her. "And my duty also includes protecting the city from those who would threaten it. People like you."
As all this happened, the members of Team COAL weighed their options. They could let Ironwood kill this girl, or they could try to get him to stop and risk blowing their cover. They quickly decided that they couldn't just let Ironwood kill her. It wasn't what huntsmen did, and it would make them no better than Ironwood.
"General, wait!" Colby shouted before Ironwood could fire. "Do you really need to kill her? What has she done to deserve that?"
"She's causing division when Atlas needs unity the most," Ironwood replied. "She's a traitor, and I can't let her live."
"How much trouble can one girl cause?" Colby asked.
"It only takes one small spark to cause an explosion," Ironwood answered. "Now step aside, or I will treat you as an enemy too!" He turned to shoot the blonde girl.
Colby just couldn't let Ironwood kill her. As important as it was to sabotage Ironwood's efforts to capture Penny, he just couldn't let Ironwood kill an innocent person. Right as the General fired, he jumped in front of the girl and deflected the bullet with one of his tomahawks. "I won't let you do this!" He shouted.
Ironwood pointed his gun at Colby next. "I should have known!" He shouted furiously. "You all are a bunch of traitors! Team RWBY sent you here, didn't they?!"
"General, this is madness!" Hathor replied. "You've let your fear of Salem cloud your judgment. Please, give Team RWBY's plan a chance! We can save everyone and unite the world against Salem!"
"I gave them plenty of chances!" Ironwood yelled back. "But they lied to me about the Lamp of Knowledge and Ozpin! And Salem was one step ahead of us the whole time!" He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, black queen chess piece. "Cinder Fall managed to sneak this into my office! Do you think I have time to launch a satellite when the enemy can breach our defenses that easily? No, Team RWBY had their chance, and they failed! And now, you have failed! And you, goat girl. I bet you really are the daughter of Helenium Isatari. I should have known."
"Who I am makes no difference," Hathor said. "I won't let you endanger the innocent lives below."
"What about the innocent lives in Atlas? Or the Relic? If Salem gets her hands on that Staff, it's over. She will destroy Atlas, and the rest of Remnant with it!"
"So you're just going to let everyone in Mantle die, huh?" Lily asked angrily. "This is exactly what I'd expect from someone like you. You act tough, but you and I both know that you're nothing but a coward. You have two seats on the Atlesian council, and yet for one reason or another you never lifted a finger to stop the SDC from abusing the faunus in this kingdom or the poor humans. You were either too afraid to take on a company as big and powerful as the SDC, or you were in their pocket the whole time. But either way, you ran away from evil. You ran away from it then, and now you're condemning half the population of this kingdom to death because you're too afraid to take on Salem. You're a coward, and the blood of every man, woman, and child who dies during this invasion is on your hands."
"HOW DARE YOU PUT THE BLAME FOR THIS ON ME?!" Ironwood bellowed. "I've done everything I can to keep this kingdom safe from Salem! It's because of people like you who stab me in the back at every turn that I've been forced to resort to such drastic measures in the first place! You are to blame for the death that's about to take place, not me. The blood of Mantle is on your hands, not mine. But don't worry, you don't have to live with that for long. Commander Ganbaatar, Team FNKI, kill these traitors!"
Ganbaatar drew his sword. "Yes, General!" He replied. The members of Team FNKI drew their own weapons and prepared to fight. Hathor and the members of Team COAL knew that they would have a tough battle ahead.
Meanwhile, in the tundra…
Yang's group was chasing after the hound-like Grimm it had encountered in Mantle, determined to save Oscar. It was flying through a rocky chasm, and the members of Yang's group raced after it on their hoverbikes. But the creature flew fast, and it was hard to keep up with the thing.
"It's going to lose us in the mountains!" Jaune shouted. "We can't keep up!" To make matters worse, Ren's bike started shaking.
"I don't know how much longer these bikes can stand the cold," he told everyone.
"I'm really wishing one of us could fly right now!" Yang shouted.
"Aww, stop your whining!" Kent said half-jokingly in response. "You all wouldn't last a minute in Argus."
"This really isn't the time for jokes!" Ren snapped back.
"Wait, hold on!" Jaune told Ren. He put his shield on the ground and dragged it next to his hoverbike. "Ren, going to get you up there." Jaune then charged the gravity dust in his shield, which launched Ren up toward the Hound. When Ren was up there, he stabbed one of his weapon's blade cables into the creature's hind leg.
"Nice!" Yang shouted happily as she high-fived Jaune. But then, the Hound started flying erratically and slamming Ren against the cliffs.
"Okay, not as nice!" Yang told Ren over comms.
"He's slowing him down," Jaune observed. "Hang on, Ren!" He told his teammate over comms.
"I don't have much of a choice!" Ren answered. Kent pulled out his pistol and started firing a few rounds at the Hound, but missed.
"We need to get closer!" He said to Yang.
"On it!" Yang replied as she rode toward an incline that put her and Kent on level ground with the Hound. She and Kent then began firing at it again, scoring several hits. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to stop the creature. The Hound flew faster and let out a loud roar, after which several centipede-like Grimm called Centinels appeared.
"Did it just call for backup?!" Yang shouted in disbelief. The Centinels went after Jaune, who used his sword to fight them off. Teryxes also descended toward the group.
"I'll cover you, Jaune!" Kent shouted. "Yang, keep after that flying Grimm thing!" He pulled out his pistol and helped Jaune take down several Centinels, including one that raised its head and prepared to spit acid at Jaune. Yang kept chasing after the Hound as it flew away with Oscar, but before long the teryxes descended upon her, Kent, and Jaune. One of them swooped down toward Kent and Yang, who had to swerve out of the way and down toward where Jaune was in order to avoid being hit. Down there, they encountered swarms of Centinels attacking from below and teryxes attacking from above.
"I'll take care of the Centinels!" Kent told Yang. "You focus on keeping the Teryxes off of us!"
"Roger that, Kent!" Yang fired away at the Teryxes above the group using her shotgun gauntlets, trying her hardest to hit them. Meanwhile, Kent struck at the Centinels that came after him and Yang using his katana to cut down any that came close. He wanted to conserve his ammo in case Yang needed help taking down the Teryxes or in case he got a clear shot at the Hound. They made an effective team fighting off the Grimm, until suddenly a Teryx swooped down toward the group. Yang shot at it with her gauntlets and managed to take it down, but while she was distracted, a Centinel popped up in front of her and Yang's bike. It spat acid at the bike, damaging it and causing it to spin out of control. Yang and Kent screamed as they lost control of the bike, fell off, and tumbled toward the edge of a nearby cliff. Kent fell first, but Yang grabbed his arm with her natural one as she grabbed the edge of the cliff with her robot arm and struggled to pull herself and her friend back up.
"Yang! Kent!" Jaune cried out as he approached on his bike. He got off and approached them. But as he approached, Grimm approached from behind.
"Hang on, guys! I have to deal with these Grimm!" He pulled out his sword and shield to fight off the Grimm so that he could help his friends up. Unfortunately, Yang couldn't hold on for long. She lost her grip, and she and Kent fell off the cliff screaming.
"No!" Jaune cried out in horror.
Just then, one of the cables from Ren's weapon dropped down. Kent and Yang grabbed it, and Ren pulled them up toward safety. Unfortunately, to save his friends, Ren had to let the Hound fly away with Oscar. A Teryx approached the group, but Ren used his semblance to mask everyone's emotions and make the Teryx fly away harmlessly without noticing them. The other Grimm left as well.
Meanwhile, near Amity…
Andromeda Lumiere flew her stolen airship toward Amity Colosseum as fast as she could. She didn't know how much time she had, but she hoped she would be able to get Penny to go back to the compound with her peacefully before Watts could do anything to hurt her. As she approached the stadium, she steeled herself to face her friend once more. Penny was an exceptional fighter even before acquiring the Winter Maiden powers, and Anne knew that she would have an extremely difficult fight on her hands if she could not convince Penny to come peacefully. When the airship was over the roof of the colosseum, she jumped out and entered the building through a door on the roof. She then made her way down to the stadium area to look around for Penny. When she got there, she saw Penny preparing to launch the colosseum along with her father Pietro and an old huntress named Maria Calavera. She hid behind a chair and listened in on them.
"Alright, Penny," Pietro told his daughter. "Go make sure the thruster in Section C is ready for liftoff. We have to make sure everything is ready to fly."
"Okay, dad," Penny replied as she left the arena and went toward that section of the colosseum. Anne went toward the stairs and headed that way as well. She had been in Vale during the Vytal Tournament, so she knew her way around the colosseum. As she made her way down to the engine room in Section C, she couldn't help but feel regret that things had come to this. She was Penny's friend, and she never wanted or expected to fight her teammate. She wished Penny had stayed on Ironwood's side, and felt a little hurt that Penny had chosen to side with Ruby over her. But she also knew that Penny was a kind and optimistic person to the point of being annoying, and this was probably why she decided to go with Ruby's plan over Ironwood's. That, and she was also the Protector of Mantle. Penny wouldn't be a very good Protector of Mantle if she supported a plan that involved abandoning Mantle.
After going through the hallways of Amity for long enough, Anne found her way into the engine room of Section C. It was a dimly lit room with lots of machinery around it, There, she saw Penny working on the engine. She drew her swords and walked in.
"Penny," she called out to her former teammate sadly.
"Anne," Penny replied as she turned around to face her friend.
"Penny, please," Anne begged. "Come back to Atlas. I understand how you feel about Mantle and your friends on Team RWBY, but it's for the good of the whole kingdom, and indeed all of Remnant for you to come with me."
"I'm sorry, Anne," the robot girl answered. "I can't abandon my friends or my city. I am the Protector of Mantle, and more than that, I am a huntress. And as a huntress, I have a duty to protect everyone. Once we get our message out, the other kingdoms will come to our aid. Just give it a chance, please."
"Even if you do get this arena launched, do you really think the world will come to our aid?" Anne asked. "Even if they wanted to help, do you think they're even able? Vale lost its huntsman school, Mistral lost a huge chunk of its huntsman population, and Vacuo is…well, Vacuo. We can't count on the other kingdoms to help us."
"We'll never know unless we try. It's my duty to try."
Anne sighed. "You always were an annoyingly optimistic girl."
"You were too," Penny replied. "Despite your parent's criticisms, you pushed on and became a huntress."
"That was before the Fall," Anne replied. "It opened up my eyes to the cruel realities of Remnant. You can't save everyone, Penny. But if you help Ironwood, you'll be able to keep the Relic out of Salem's hands forever."
"And abandon Mantle? No, I can't go with you. I'm sorry, but I won't go back to Ironwood without a fight!" She drew her swords, which floated around her in her usual fashion.
"This doesn't have to end in violence, Penny!" Anne begged. "It'll go so much better for you if you come peacefully. Ironwood didn't order me to come after you. I came after you because Ironwood is using Dr. Watts to get you back. It has something to do with that sword Harriet stole from you."
"Even if that is true, my duty is to stay here and protect this place."
"Penny, he'll hack you. We can't let him do that."
"I'll have my father upgrade my antivirus after we launch the colosseum. Which will happen faster if you help us get it ready. Our success is far from assured, but we'll have a better chance of success if you help."
"I'm sorry, Penny. I can't risk letting Salem destroy Atlas and get her hands on the Staff for a plan that's far from certain to succeed." She raised her swords. "I'm going to have to bring you in by force."
"You can try," Penny replied grimly. "They don't call me the Protector of Mantle for nothing."
Meanwhile, at the military compound…
"I'm sorry about this," Flynt said as he raised his fists. The office was too enclosed of a space for him to be able to use his saxophone without hitting his own teammates, but he had already proven himself more than capable in a fistfight. "I'll make this quick."
"Flynt, open your eyes!" Lily begged. "Ironwood is a coward. He's throwing Mantle away for his own survival, and don't think he won't do the same to you too!"
"If that's the case," Kobalt replied, "then I'll gladly lay my life down for Atlas."
"Enough!" Ironwood shouted in fury. "Let's end this!" He fired a shot at Lily, who jumped out of the way just in time to avoid it and have it hit Ivori instead. Ivori fell over, and Ouranos raised his axe to take advantage of the opportunity to strike, but Ganbaatar charged in and pushed him over before he could do so. Then, the blonde girl rushed forward and pulled out her weapon, a glaive, and struck at the cyborg with it. The man raised his sword in time to block the incoming attack.
"Where'd you get that?" Lily asked as she dodged a punch from Flynt. "Are you a huntress?"
"My mother taught me how to fight. You know, in case I ever need to defend myself. Like right now!"
"Fair enough! Let's keep fighting!"
Meanwhile, Hathor was facing Neon. Although the office was too cramped for the catgirl to make effective use of her roller skates, she was still quick on her feet and hit hard with her nunchaku.
"You can't beat me, goat girl!" She taunted Hathor. "Can't you see? I'm all of the things that you'll never be! I'm cool like the rain and I'm hot like the sun! I'm a neon rainbow, and you're! No! Fun!"
"Someone's been listening to too much Casey Lee Williams!" Autumn commented as she locked blades with Ganbaatar.
"And someone underestimated my semblance!" Hathor replied with a grin before activating her semblance, greatly increasing her speed and allowing her to overwhelm Neon's defenses. She knocked Neon to the floor, but then stopped attacking. Her goal was to escape Ironwood and his allies, not kill them. As such, she ran over to help Autumn overrun Ganbaatar's defenses before knocking the cyborg to the ground as well. With all the enemies blocking the exit down, the members of Team COAL and the other two girls ran through the hallway in an attempt to escape the compound.
"After them!" Ironwood shouted before pulling out his scroll and broadcasting his voice throughout the entire compound. "Attention, all personnel! We have six fugitives fleeing the compound! Shoot them on sight!" The six hunters kept fleeing, but their pursuers were close behind. Enemy troops came at them from the other hallways and around the corner. Autumn and Hathor ran in front, taking down the enemies in front of the group with gunfire and sonic attacks, while Colby and Lily remained behind to deal with the pursuers. Colby and Lily loaded their weapons with ice dust infused bullets and arrows, and managed to slow their pursuers down by freezing them in place.
"How are we going to get out of here?" Ouranos asked.
"I know how to fly an airship!" the blonde girl told him. "Part of travelling between Atlas and Mantle."
"What? Where'd you learn that?" Lily asked.
"There's no time to explain! Let's go to the hangar!" They all ran toward the hangar, gunning down any Atlesian soldiers who stood in their way. After clearing out all resistance in the hangar, they boarded an airship.
"Alright, let's see…" The girl said while looking at the controls. "Okay, I think this starts the engines…" She pressed a button, and the engines came on. "And this will take us off the ground." She reached for what looked like a joystick, and the airship took off the ground. Just then, however, Ironwood, Ganbaatar, and Team FNKI arrived in the hangar with a new squad of Atlesian soldiers, who opened fire.
"Hurry up!" Colby shouted. "We're taking fire!"
"On it!" The girl said as she put the airship in full throttle, taking it outside the hangar and into the sky. Once everyone was sure they were out of harm's way, Lily turned to the girl.
"Who are you?" She asked.
"My name is Diana Mirai. I'm the daughter of Alice Rosetta Tesla-Mirai, the CEO of Mirai International."
"What were you doing, taking on Ironwood like that? It was brave of you, but why risk your life?"
"I couldn't just sit back and let all those people in Mantle die," Diana explained. "First, I tried to convince my mom to go to Ironwood's compound to talk to him since he'd be more likely to listen to the CEO of one of Atlas's largest dust manufacturers than that CEO's teenage daughter. But my mom was more concerned about protecting herself and her assets here in Atlas, and so I had to go myself. You saw how that went."
"Ironwood is beyond saving," Lily said grimly. "He's gone off the deep end. If he ever had any humanity before, it's gone now."
"Well, I can see now that you're right. But I had to try. If I could get him to help the people of Mantle and keep trying to save everyone, that would be the best thing that could possibly happen."
"That was very noble of you," Lily told her. "You could have stayed up here, where you would have been safe, but instead you chose to confront Ironwood and try to get him to do the right thing. Not too many people would have done it."
"I was only doing what was best for the people down in Mantle."
"Well, where will we go now?" Autumn asked.
"I'll take you all to the Mirai family estate," Diana answered. "You'll all be safe there, at least for the time being. My mother may be upset about me confronting Ironwood, but she'll get over it eventually."
"Sounds good," Colby replied. "Let's go." With that, Diana turned the ship toward the Mirai family estate.
Meanwhile, at Amity…
Anne struck first, putting her two swords in their gun forms, which were a couple of semiautomatic pistols, and firing a couple of shots at the Winter Maiden. Penny easily deflected the shots and retaliated by charging in with her floating array of swords. Anne jumped out of the way, then quickly put her weapons back in sword mode and swung at her former teammate with each of them. Penny raised her own swords and struck back before the two would begin parrying, blocking, and dodging each other's strikes. Anne was an excellent swordswoman, but she was only wielding two swords. Penny, on the other hand, had several more. The Winter Maiden landed a hit on Anne, who was knocked several feet back. Realizing that she could not compete with Penny in a straight-up swordfight, Anne quickly put her weapons back in gun mode and fired a few more shots at the robot girl. Penny deflected every shot that Anne fired, rose into the air, and then shot back at the dark-haired girl with her lasers. Anne rolled over to the right and kept firing, switching to ice dust and hoping to freeze her opponent in place so that she could be bound and taken back to Ironwood's compound.
But as Anne shot at Penny, the robot girl's eyes lit up with Maiden fire once again. She shot out a stream of fire that melted Anne's ice dust infused bullets before they could hit her, then retaliated with a gust of wind that knocked Anne to the floor. When Penny flew in and raised her swords to follow up on her initial attacks, Anne fired a couple more shots and finally managed to land some hits on her opponent. But her momentum wouldn't last long. The robot girl unleashed another barrage of lasers against Anne, who had to jump to the left and dodge them. Despite her solid skill, Anne knew that she was far outclassed in terms of weaponry. She had always struggled against Penny in combat class at Atlas Academy, and that was before her teammate had gained the Winter Maiden powers. She knew that if she were to defeat Penny, she would need to use unconventional tactics.
In that moment, Penny began to feel overwhelming fear. She felt as though she were not only about to die, but was also going to lose everyone and everything she knew and loved. It was a horrible feeling of dread and impending loss, and it almost made Penny lose her will to fight. But she knew exactly what this feeling meant and where it was really coming from.
"You're afraid," Penny told Anne. "I know your semblance. You can make everyone around you feel whatever emotion you happen to be feeling. You're afraid of losing everyone and everything you care about, and that's why you're helping Ironwood. And I bet that's why Ironwood is acting the way he is in the first place."
"How could we not be?!" Anne replied. "The largest horde of Grimm in the history of our world is closing in on Atlas, and the only person who can save our city has decided to risk everything on the mere chance that if we put all our resources into launching a gods-damned satellite, someone might come to help us. Come to your senses, Penny!"
"Sorry, Anne. I'm not about to let fear stop me from doing the right thing."
"You know I can't let you stay here," Anne replied. "Last chance. Come with me peacefully, or I'll have to bring you in by force."
"I told you, I'm not going anywhere."
"Fine, then! Here we go!" Anne charged at Penny one more time, swinging her swords as hard and fast as she could in order to whittle away at Penny's defenses as well as she could. But Penny was far more skilled than her and had much better weapons, and finally managed to knock Anne to the ground with one of her attacks.
"Anne," Penny said in a compassionate but firm voice. "I know you're afraid, and that's okay. I'm afraid too. And so are Team RWBY and all my other friends. But we aren't letting that stop us. Please, don't let it stop you either. We're huntresses, and we have to face our fears if we want to protect the world."
Anne thought about Penny's words, and then sighed. "You…you're right, Penny. I've become blinded by my fears, and so has Ironwood. I've let it stop me from fulfilling my duty as a huntress. I'll help you get this colosseum airborne. And whatever Ironwood and Salem throw at us, I'll be ready."
Penny smiled. "I knew you'd do the right thing in the end!" She grabbed Anne's hand and helped her up.
"Now listen, Penny," Anne told Penny in a stern voice. "We need to upgrade your antivirus. Ironwood has one of your swords, and I can only assume he's going to have Watts use it to hack you somehow. That's the only explanation I can think of as to why he told us to take the sword and run away instead of continuing to pursue you."
"But Anne, we are so close to launching the colosseum," Penny replied. "We don't know how long we have until Salem's forces invade Atlas, and an antivirus upgrade will take time. We need everyone aboard this stadium to work on getting this thing launched as soon as possible."
"Penny, your life is in danger."
"The world is in danger. Help me get this place in the air, and I promise I'll ask my father to upgrade my firewall. And besides, we'll probably get this thing launched before Watts will be able to break into my system. My antivirus is pretty advanced as it is."
Knowing it was pointless to argue with Penny further, Anne went with her to begin the final launch preparations. She just hoped she could get the stadium launched quickly before Watts or Salem tried anything funny…