RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth and created by the late and great Monty Oum.
Sorry about my rant on Pyrrha's death in the last chapter, it was really unprofessional but I needed to vent my frustrations. I just really let it get to me, it just really made me angry and I hope they undo it but if they don't there will probably be a decent fanfic out there that does. Half of you agree with me and the other half think I'm overreacting, but I think that should prove how controversial her death is in the long run. Bottom line is; if they brought her back, I would never question them again.
Read, review, and tell me how I can improve, what you liked and what you didn't. Your feedback is appreciated, thank you!
RWBY: Destiny of Remnant
Chapter 9: Calm Before the Storm
Ruby considered herself a brave person, or at least braver than most people her age anyway. The fact that she was here now was proof of that. But the person that stood in front of them, this... thing, struck fear in her soul. While it was just a hologram of someone else Ruby still felt a sense of dread, fearing that any moment now the holographic Salem would turn flesh and blood and kill them.
Jaune felt the same way, he thought Cinder was as bad as it could get but this was much worse. He felt fear and rage boil inside of him, fear because of the disturbingly Grimm appearance of this woman and rage because he knew she was responsible for everything he and his friends had suffered through in the past seven months.
Salem looked down at them and gave a smile that could almost pass for gentle if it weren't for the blood red eyes that gave off a sinister aura.
"Do not fear me, I am here to help." She said.
"The only way you can help us is if you kill Cinder and then let us go." Jaune hissed.
Salem glanced at the blonde and gave him a much more genuine smile. "My, my... maybe the Arc family hasn't changed as much as I thought." She said.
"What do you know of my family?" Jaune asked.
"Plenty, I have had some... unpleasant history with the Arc bloodline. They were always excellent Hunters, talented in the ways of waging war on my children." She said.
"Your children?" Ruby asked.
"Why, the Grimm, of course." Salem answered. "I am not the first Mistress of Grimm, just the most recent. I have held my title for nearly three centuries and the millennia worth of planning, mapped out long before I was even born, is finally coming to fruition." She finished.
"What plan?" Ruby asked again, her voice shaking a bit.
"Why, the birth of the new world. The old one was a miserable failure and Remnant is no better, our world, the Grimm world, will be the perfect world." Salem said.
"Like heck it will! A world of fear and hatred is all the Grimm can bring, and they'll starve to death once they've killed all the people. A world like yours is doomed to failure." Jaune said.
"Ah, you have a point, but we have plans. We do not wish to drive human and Faunus to extinction, just the Hunters." Salem said.
"Good luck! Because there will always be Huntsmen and Huntresses! No matter what people like us will stand up to people like you!" Ruby yelled.
Salem chuckled, "Oh I like her. She's just as Ozpin said she was."
Ruby's eyes widened. "Professor Ozpin?! Where is he?! What have you done with him?!" she screamed.
"No worries, I just threw him in my dungeons so he can get reacquainted with an old friend. He is confidant that you will stop me and maybe he is right... but if you had proper training, if you saw the world like we see it." Salem said as she gestured to Cinder.
"The world as you see it? The world you see is dark, cold, and empty! That is a world I want nothing to do with!" Jaune said. "Yeah!" agreed Ruby.
Salem looked at Ruby and Jaune with sympathy. "Oh, poor unfortunate children, so young and yet you are forced to live the lives of warriors. I am told you have recently taken your first human lives." She said.
Ruby felt the horrible feeling of regret and shame spread though her again. The feeling of utter disgust that came naturally with the knowledge that you had taken a life from this world, and Ruby had claimed two.
Jaune also felt guilt, he had only killed in self-defense and he didn't go crazy or enjoy it but he still felt bad. What if those men had families? Families that would suffer because of his actions? He remembered the dream he had where he killed Cinder and he saw the vision of Pyrrha telling him 'don't', had he failed Pyrrha? Had he become a cold blooded murderer just to avenge her? Was his failure as a Huntsman, an Arc, and a hero now complete?
Salem spoke up again, "If it is any consolation I am sorry about the death of your friend."
That got the attention of both teenagers, they looked up to her in disbelief.
"Pyrrha Nikos was not to die that night, I had plans for her. It was her own belief in destiny that doomed her. Cinder could not stop her without taking her life so for that I apologize. She was the rarest flower that ever dared to bloom and I am sorry to say life often picks the most beautiful flowers first. That if often their destiny." Salem finished.
Ruby and Jaune looked at the woman with shock. Her words did not feel hollow or carry a feeling of deceit. She looked genuinely sorry.
"I don't believe in destiny." Jaune said simply.
Salem smirked and said "You will. Pyrrha did not make that choice, Ozpin forced her to. He did the cruelest thing he possibly could and left her with no choice but to fight the true Fall Maiden. With that act Ozpin robbed Pyrrha of a choice and therefore robbing her life of any significance or meaning... well significance as a martyr maybe, which in the end will have no meaning and I am truly sorry about her fate. I had plans for her but destiny took her away."
The two teenagers were silent for a moment as tears began to fall down Jaune's face.
"What do you want with us?" Ruby asked, breaking the silence.
"Why, to recruit you. We are not here to cause harm, I simply want to make my children complete." Salem said.
"Complete?" Jaune asked.
"Haven't you ever wondered why the Grimm have no aura? Why they seem to be the sole creatures of Remnant that lack it?" Cinder asked.
"They're the Grimm, that's why. They're the monsters that need to be killed to protect people. Plain and simple." Ruby said.
Salem shook her head, "Oh Ruby, how I miss that simplistic view of the world. No, it is because they are incomplete. They attack those strong with aura, humans and Faunus, to try and obtain it. They are attracted to the feelings of hate and fear because those negative emotions are when the aura feels best to them. They are incomplete and I intend to make them whole."
Salem's words made Ruby consider the Grimm. What if they were just animals who wanted to be whole? What if she was no better than them because of the blood she now had on her hands. Jaune on the other hand wasn't buying it.
"You'll never pull it off. The Grimm will all die and you along with them." Jaune said defiantly.
"Maybe, maybe not. It is true that one day I will die as our bodies can't last forever but my Grimm will never cease to be. Kill me and there will be another Mistress of the Grimm. That is the way of things." Salem said.
"Maybe it's time for a new way." Jaune said.
"My thoughts exactly. Tomorrow you will begin your training." Salem said.
"Training?" Ruby asked with an uneasy voice.
Cinder smiled and said "Training done right, the type of training those fools at Beacon could never give you. Training for what we will make you. Knights, take them back to their cells, they will need more than a night's rest."
Before Ruby or Jaune could say another word they felt sleep take them, courtesy of tranquilizers the Grimm Knights had.
As the two wheelchairs were unlocked and taken out of the room Cinder turned to her master.
"I shall train the girl; she is our priority as I understand it." She said as Salem nodded, "The others can teach the boy and prepare him for what Giger has in store."
"I have sent Saul Jude to you, he will most likely arrive the day after tomorrow so let him handle your brother. Teach Ruby Rose all that you can without giving her enough knowledge to escape. If Jaune doesn't give in to our 'lessons' than I will be forced to give Norvik a new home." Salem said.
Her hologram deactivated and Cinder took her seat on the throne again.
She was looking forward to tomorrow.
Another, much smaller factory stood some twenty miles away. It was still active to a degree but not legally, as it owned by Damien Ante. Inside the factory Dust containers were stacked up and weapons were being loaded and tested for battle as Ante also served as a weapons supplier for Salem's army.
He stood in his office, with two guards standing outside, as he talked on his phone to a representative of the Schnee Dust Company, which had not been doing to well in Haven, many people saw them as slave drivers, discriminatory, and immoral weapons dealers and felt that the Schnee family had been responsible for uncountable deaths over the years either directly or due to the weapons that they had created or the weapons that got out to the street.
"You see Mr. Meredith, I can't get to old man Schnee or any of the members of the board, but I can get to a local man like you. I don't see any negative repercussions from us working together. You give us a small cut, a mere five percent of the Dust, and simply say you made a deal with CraftTech and in return I make sure the gangs stop targeting all of the Schnee buildings or people who work for you and that your superiors are none the wiser to our transactions. Seems like a good deal to me." Damien said.
The voice of a nervous man who had clearly lived a privileged life responded to Ante. "I don't know Mr. Ante, while it is undeniable that our company has done some questionable things in the past I don't think this will work out for us in the grand scheme of things. I have to consider not only my own interests but the interests of Mr. Schnee and my fellow employees." The man said.
Damien laughed and shook his head. "I don't know Meredith. Maybe I'm just not making myself clear. The people of Mistral don't like or trust Atlas and the people of Haven, my town, don't want an Atlas company like the Schnee's here. I got the connections, the business savvy, and the muscle to wipe every trace of the Schnee Dust Company from this city so fast that you may as well never set foot here. Trust me, if you don't want in I can only say this: look out your window."
Damien waited patiently as Meredith was silent for a few moments before. "I see your gunman."
"Yeah, Merrick is really looking forward to having a good, proper hit. So what do you say? In or out?" Damien asked.
"I'm in." Meredith answered.
"Okay, I tell him to step down. Smart choice Meredith, I look forward to working with you in the future." Damien said, smirking the entire time as he hung up.
Damien looked to his computer and opened up the document that contained the security footage of the battle at the construction site. "Don't know why you want this Cinder, but then again I don't get you most of the time." He muttered.
He got up and decided it was time to get to Cinder's base and deliver the tapes to her, the sooner the better. All of a sudden he heard a quiet squeaking sound and almost instantly felt a gun being jabbed into the back of his head.
"Don't move or I blow your sick ass to hell. Call for help or try to fight I'll shoot your head off." Said a whispery voice.
"Shit, okay who are you? Someone I pissed off? Because if you are, forgive me if I don't remember you, it is a long list." Damien joked as he held his hands up.
"Since you're dead anyway I might as well tell you; I'm Agent 501." The assailant that had dropped from the air vent said.
"Ah, one of Ironwood's boys he put here. I was told one of you would try to make a move on me, just didn't know when or where." Damien said.
He wasn't wrong. Agent 501 was one of Atlas' top soldiers, assigned to infiltrate Haven and find proof of Cinder Fall's presence and the best way to do that was to force the current reigning crime lord of the city to talk. Only a select few people knew about his mission; General Ironwood, Cy, Chamberlain, and the Atlas Council so Ante knowing about it was very unnerving.
"How did you know?" 501 demanded.
"I have my ways. I work alone so if you..."
"I know you work for Cinder Fall, I need proof so if you give in now maybe you'll only get fifty years." 501 said.
"I don't work for that bitch, she's insane and she'd fuck up my arrangements. I don't know anything about her or where she is." Damien lied.
"I can tell your lying. I got it out of one of your thugs that you were working with her, but he didn't know where she was or if she was in town." The agent said.
"Who was it? I'll have to take care of him later." Damien asked with annoyance.
"Sorry, I already beat you to it. Wasn't satisfied with his answer to one of my questions." The agent said threateningly.
"You want to kill me? Go ahead. If I rat out Cinder I'll be worse than dead." Damien said as he turned around and saw that the agent was a pale man in his mid-thirties with short brown hair, armed with a silencer gun. Damien pressed the palm of his left hand against the barrel of the gun and said "Do it 501, you got me point blank."
501 glared at the crime lord and muttered "One less problem the people of this city will have to put up with."
He fired the small but powerful gun, blowing Ante's left hand off. Before Ante could scream, 501 covered his mouth and slammed his head into the wall. He wasn't dead but the type of Dust ammo he had used left wounds open and kept them bleeding. Ante's aura wouldn't be able to heal this much blood loss.
"Nothing personal Ante, you just sided with the wrong people."
"As did you." Said another voice, seemingly from nowhere.
501 turned around and saw Zhan standing in front of him with his heavy caliber bullet aimed right at his head.
"You don't have to do this, your boss is dead. Drop the gun and walk away." 501 said calmly.
"I don't think so." Zhan said.
He pulled the trigger and 501 dodged the bullet. He charged at Zhan and both men fell onto Ante's desk, wrestling for control.
"You fight well; too bad you had to work for Atlas." Zhan said as he kneed 501 in the hip. 501 tried to pull out his combat knife only for Zhan to kick him in the chest and send him stumbling across the room and into the door.
501 was about to recover and get back to fighting when a massive hand smashed through the door and grabbed him by the neck. He and the door were pulled through the door frame and slammed to the ground.
501 looked up to see Little Steve, Trooper, Lao, Tom-Tom, and Fireball, all with their weapons trained on him.
"Go ahead, make a move. I got my ass kicked yesterday so I am looking for a place to vent my anger." Tom-Tom said as he put his finger on his weapon's trigger.
Trooper reached for his cyanide pill, he couldn't let them know about his mission, but when he reached for it he couldn't find it.
"Looking for this?" Zhan asked from inside the office, holding up the small capsule.
"Ha! Coward's way out! Not so tough after all are you?" Tom-Tom mocked.
"Your ass is ours buddy." Trooper said as he pointed his rifle at 501's head.
"No it ain't! Not yet." Said the voice of an alive Damien Ante.
Everyone turned to see Damien inside of the office with his left hand completely intact.
"H-how did you... your illusionist." 501 said, wondering how he had missed the obvious. It was odd, when the blood splattered on his face it felt real enough.
"Nope! Wrong-o! Zhan here has nothing to do with my speedy recovery. That's for us to know and you to never find our. Right now your ass is grass and we are the mower!" Ante said as he gestured to Tom-Tom.
Tom-Tom transformed his weapon back to its mallet form and he used it to hit 501 on the head, knocking him out.
"What do we do with him? Kill him now?" Fireball asked, sounding eager.
"No, we need to get the security recordings to Cinder so let's give her a little bonus. We'll take him to the factory and find out how much Ironwood really knows about the situation here. Cinder will decide what to do with him and we'll be in for one hell of a show." Damien said as he flexed his left fingers.
Yang looked out the airship's window, watching as the swamp below went by. She had never been to Mistral before but it seemed pleasant, except for the occasional swamp and the volcanoes to the east.
"We're nearing the village now, ETA is four minutes." Called Qrow's pilot, a man who worked for the Vale council called Ross.
"You heard him kiddo, better call your friends." Qrow said to his niece. Yang nodded, she took out her scroll and dialed Sun.
"Yo Sunny boy, we're almost to Arnia." She announced.
"Good, we're on the outskirts of the town so try to land in one of these fields, there's no airfield out here since this place is a bit out of the way." Sun said.
"Okay, Sun says to land in one of the fields, its winter so the farmers won't really care." Yang called to Ross who nodded.
"Okay Yang, you sure you want to do this?" Taiyang asked his eldest child.
Yang nodded her head firmly, "Dad, I need to find my friend. Once we get Blake I promise I'll convince the others that we need head over to Haven to help Ruby and the gang out. I'll be fine dad, if we run into any White Fang punks I'll make 'em run screaming." She said with a grin while she clenched her steel fist.
Taiyang nodded and said "Okay, I just wanted to make sure." Yang appreciated her father's concern for her safety, after all she had been through she understood why he was being so protective.
"Be careful out there kid, the White Fang have been laying low since Beacon but their numbers have gotten higher. Don't get in over your head." Qrow said.
"I'll follow your advice when you start following it." Yang said to her uncle as the ship made its final approach. Qrow laughed and hugged her. "Just don't get your other arm cut off; Kimball may not be so generous with the bill next time." Qrow joked.
Yang laughed as she knelt down and pet Zwei. "Wish you could come with us but we're gonna be going through some dangerous stuff... which you are used to by now, but anyway we need to be more quiet than usual and no offense boy but you aren't exactly a quiet dog." She said as her pet whined.
"We're here." Ross said as the ship began to descent on an empty field filled with melting snow. Yang looked out the window and saw Sun, Neptune, Scarlet, and Sage all approaching the field from a dirt road. Yang opened the door and waved to them.
"Hey guys! I'm back and better than ever!" she called.
"Hey Yang! Nice to see you back on your feet!" Neptune said as she got out of the ship, which was still four feet from the ground. "Thanks goggles, it's good to be back." Yang said as she gave Neptune as fist bump with her mechanical appendage, which hurt Neptune's own fist.
"Ow! Uh, nice new arm. It's an Atlesian design, right?" Neptune asked as he shook out his now aching hand.
"Duh, some doctor owed my Uncle Qrow for saving his life a few years ago so viola! New and improved arm." She said as she showed it off.
"Nice! How does it handle in a fight?" Sun asked.
"Not sure yet, but once we run into some White Fang punks we can take my righty out for a test drive." Yang said.
"Be careful Yang, we're heading back to Vale! Call me everyday and let me know how things go!" Taiyang said, earning him a sharp nudge in the ribs from Qrow.
"Dad!" Yang scolded.
"Just be safe Yang. You four take care of her or else!" Taiyang called to Team SSSN.
"We probably won't need to sir, more likely she'll need to take care of us." Neptune said with no shame whatsoever.
"Or try to hold her back if half of what I know of her is true." Sage remarked.
"It is! Good luck with finding your friend!" Qrow called as the ship began to rise up again. "I love you honey!" Taiyang called as Qrow shut the door.
Yang and Team SSSN watched as the ship flew up and followed the sun towards Vale.
"Okay, so did I miss anything while I was gone?" Yang asked.
"Plenty, but I think we'll fill you in on the way." Sun said as he began walking down the road.
"So what have you got on Blake or the Fang?" Yang asked.
"Nothing on Blake, sadly. Wherever she is, she's staying hidden, but I think you and I know her well enough that she's most likely trying to find some White Fang bases. She could never really give in or rest when she needed to." Sun said.
"Tell me about it." Yang muttered, remembering that time she had to confront Blake outright and tell her about the time she had almost gotten herself and Ruby killed by Grimm because of her obsession with finding her mother.
"While we were in town we heard rumors about a White Fang base near the mountains, not too far from here. Some place call Uisco." Said Scarlet.
"If we keep going we'll make it there by tomorrow morning." Sage added.
"I don't mind walking all night; I need it, after all my Hand-icap has kept me down for so long." Yang joked, receiving groans from Sun and Sage but some laughs from Neptune and Scarlet.
"In all seriousness we need to find out where this Adam guy is, once we take him down the White Fang may fall apart." Sage said.
"I don't know, they got a lot of members and a lot of them are convinced that humanity needs to be taken down a peg. It's gonna take something really big in order to convince those guys to give up." Sun pointed out.
"I think I have an idea." Yang said, getting the boys' attention.
"What is it?" Neptune asked, curiously.
"That bastard Adam cut my hand off because of my friendship with Blake. He knew guys, he freaking knew about Blake's teammates so there's a good chance he knows about your relationship with her, Sun." Yang warned.
"Let him try to take me on. I'll make him pay and I'll make it slow." Sun said angrily.
"Get in line, I call first dibs. Anyway he hurt me because I was friends with Blake. He hates the friendships Blake has made since she left the White Fang because they are proof that he's wrong, that the whole White Fang way of life is wrong. I say we prove to all of those assholes that they were wrong, that there can be equality between humans and Faunus." Yang said.
"There's been a lot of race crimes and injustice against Faunus Yang, trust me I suffered through some of it myself back in Vacuo, and even though most of it is over and most of us are seen as equal a lot of Faunus refuse to forgive humanity for what happened in the past. But if we can prove that people like Adam are no better than the humans who mistreated them." Sun said.
"If they've followed this Adam guy this long do you really think they'll see reason?" Sage asked.
"That Calico girl we fought back in Haven seemed alright, maybe there will be White Fang members like her. Ones who just want to be treated as equal and they've been fooled into thinking that joining with the White Fang is the best way to obtain it." Scarlet said.
Yang nodded and said "Then we'll just have to prove them wrong." The group walked along the chilly countryside of Mistral, knowing full well of the danger ahead and Yang and Sun couldn't wait to take it head on.
Taiyang watched as the fields of Mistral vanished into the distance as they flew over dense forests. He had watched his daughter, getting every glimpse of her he could until she was totally out of sight.
"Relax Tai, she'll be fine." Qrow assured him.
"I hope so. I... I just don't want Yang to be hurt again. I don't think I could forgive myself if she..."
"Hey, my sister knows she'll be fine, I know she'll be fine, so you should too. She's not a little girl anymore; she's not that kid I had to save from the Grimm. She's grown up Taiyang, and whether you like it or not you have to accept that fact." Qrow said.
Taiyang let out a bemused laugh and said "You know, for a drunk you're pretty smart."
"Who's to say being a drunk doesn't make you smart?" Qrow snarked as his scroll began to ring. He took it out and looked at the I.D. "Schnee? What does she want?" he muttered to himself.
"Is it that Weiss girl?" Taiyang asked.
"No, her sister, doesn't care for me at all so I wonder why she's calling me." Qrow said as he answered the call. "Hello Specialist Schnee, what can I do for you?" Qrow asked with his cocky tone of voice. Taiyang observed that his brother-in-law was silent for a moment before yelling out "HE WHAT?!"
Winter drew her head away from the scroll, taken aback by Qrow's outburst. She knew Branwen didn't really approve of General Ironwood's tactics and would most likely not be pleased with the truth about Penny but she didn't expect an outburst like this. She had already gotten the plans for the supposed facility that had been turned into Cinder's base of operations, which was easy enough but Weiss had said she wouldn't sent it to Nora and Ren out of fear that they would run in and get themselves killed.
"As insane as it sounds Branwen it's true, Ironwood has decided to turn the rebuilt Penny Polendina into a suicide bomber, hoping that it will kill Cinder Fall." Winter said.
"I know Jimmy's head ain't exactly the clearest it's ever been right now but this is royally fucked up! Does the Atlas council even know about this?" he asked.
"No, they've put their full trust in Ironwood for all military and security operation concerning Atlas as well as its relationship with the other three kingdoms. General Ironwood has total control and it seems he may have let it go to his head."
"May have?! No, may have gone to his head means he's only thinking about pulling this extremely stupid stunt, you're telling me he's going to do it regardless of how bad it could go?!" Qrow cried.
"I tried to talk him out of it this morning to no avail. He has become obsessed with protecting the world to the point where I doubt he can even tell the difference between protecting Atlas and damning it. He is determined to land a severe blow against Cinder and her master and will not listen to reason." Winter said.
There was silence for a bit before Qrow said "So you know about Salem."
"Yes, he let is slip out during our meeting." Winter said, mentally debating whether she should tell Qrow about Ruby's situation.
"I can be there in a few hours..." Qrow said.
"Where are you right now?" Winter asked.
"Leaving Mistral, I got Taiyang with me; we were dropping off my niece Yang, who got herself a new arm and now she's off to find the Belladonna girl." Qrow explained.
"Okay, listen, Weiss has formulated a plan to stop Ironwood and help your other niece Ruby Rose, but she needs help. There is a team in Vale, CFVY consisting of Coco Adel, Fox Alistair, Velvet Scarlatina, and Yatsuhashi Daichi and she needs you to collect them and bring them here." Winter said.
"Why? What's your little sister got planned?" Qrow asked.
Winter sighed, she didn't totally trust Branwen but right now she needed someone with enough intelligence, power, and guts to go up against General Ironwood and tell him what he had in mind for Penny was wrong. And sadly Qrow was one of the few people she knew could pull it off.
"She plans to ambush Penny's escort with the help of Team CFVY and two others she has recruited. If necessary they will fight their way to an airship I have purchased that, while armed, is not owned by the Atlesian Military. They will take off and hopefully succeed in escaping from Atlas and make their way to Haven where they will join up with your niece and her friends." She explained.
"Sounds good to me, what do you want me to do?" Qrow asked.
"I need you to help me distract Ironwood. I can't do it alone Branwen but you have his respect, as much as he hates to admit it. This entire thing may be unnecessary if you can talk the General out of this." Winter said.
"I don't know Ice Queen, I've seen Jimmy desperate before, this isn't desperation, this is something else. The James Ironwood I know would never even try to pull this crap, let alone think about it. I'll be there by tomorrow morning with the kids. Just give me time." Qrow said.
"Thank you." Winter said with a sigh of relief.
She ended the call and looked back at Weiss who had explained the situation to Flynt and Neon who were now fully on board with the dangerous mission.
"I'm in, I don't know robo-girl that well but machine or not this ain't right." Flynt said.
"I'm with you too, but do you really think we can pull this off? What if Ruby's uncle..." Neon said before Winter interrupted her.
"Qrow has agreed to help us. I have informed him of the situation and he finds General Ironwood's behavior very suspicious. He will arrive tomorrow morning with Team CFVY and will try to reason with General Ironwood." The older Schnee said.
"Winter, you have tried reasoning with the General and you are one of the top military specialists, not just in Atlas but in all of Remnant. If you couldn't persuade Ironwood to abandon this course of action I doubt a drunken rapscallion like Ruby's uncle could." Weiss said doubtfully.
"I think the General trusts Branwen more than either of us know. They were both in on the Maiden conspiracy so they must have some trust between each other." Winter pointed out.
Flynt and Neon nodded in agreement but Weiss wasn't so sure. "What about Team CFVY?" she asked.
"He will bring them here, if Qrow cannot stop the General it will be up to all of you to get Penny out of here and get to Haven." Winter said.
"Very well, but what abut Yang? And why didn't you tell him about Ruby?" Weiss asked.
"First of all; Yang is doing fine, she has a new mechanical arm and is with Team SSSN looking for your other teammate Blake. Now as for Ruby I did not tell him because I think something like that needs to be said in person, besides if he knew about Ruby's current situation he wouldn't come to aid us. What of your plan? Do you have a way to contact the students of Shade Academy?" Winter asked.
"Yeah, I became friends with Nebula, Team NDGO's leader; I even got her number on my scroll. I can call her and tell her about this and if I can convince her to help us out maybe she can get Team BRNZ to join in too." Neon said.
"Excellent, so all we need is to convince them to go along with it and pick them up once we're out of Atlas." Weiss said, seeing her plan coming together rather well.
"What about those CRDL guys?" Flynt asked.
"Oh please, I honestly don't know why Jaune would want them of all people to help us out. Their leader, Cardin Winchester, was a horrible bully to Jaune." Weiss said.
"Maybe Cardin apologized and made amends." Flynt suggested.
"Possibly, but its unlikely." Weiss said to herself as her mind went back to her plan. Right now she couldn't ponder the current relationship between Jaune and Cardin, she needed to make sure her plan would work. Mentally however she was overcome with joy that Yang was now back on her feet. Maybe this wasn't so hopeless after all...
Mercury sat on a chair, content with just lazing about as he watched Fotia utterly demolish some training robots with her new weapons.
Mercury grimaced in pain slightly, while Dr. Sherizawa and Dr. West had mended his leg it still hurt. He thought about Nora and how he would repay her next time they met as he watched the attractive redhead Grimm Commander slice the robots apart, trying to get a good look at her shapely...
"You doing okay?" asked the voice of Emerald. Mercury turned his head to see his partner entering the training room, looking well rested.
"I'm fine, the docs told me to just take it easy for a few days and my leg will be fine. My legs may be made of strong-ass metal but because they're biofused to my thighs but it still hurt like hell and I cannot wait to make that Valkyrie bitch suffer for it." Mercury said.
"You'll get your chance soon enough, Cinder says it won't be long until her brother and the others make a move against us." Emerald said as she sat down next to him.
"I still can't believe that guy was Cinder's brother. I mean she never even mentioned him like at all." Mercury said.
"She never talks about her life, it's none of our business. But you are right, it was pretty shocking." Emerald admitted.
"Why did you want to know how I was doing anyway? I thought you didn't care about me." Mercury asked his partner.
"Like it or not Black, we're partners. The last time I felt any positive emotion towards you was when I first met you, saw how horrible your life had been and for the first time in a while I thought 'Wow, glad I don't live their lives' but that was before what a prick you were." Emerald said.
Mercury snickered and shook his head and looked to his illusionist cohort. "Admit it, you felt sorry for me."
"I did, but you lost my sympathy within two weeks after you tried to..."
"Hey! I keep telling you it was a mistake! I didn't mean to..."
"Let's stop talking about it!" Emerald said, blushing a bit.
They went back to watching the newest Grimm Commander as she trained with her newest weapons.
Fotia moved with precision and grace as she cut the robots down or blocked their attacks with her sword and her shield. She moved quickly, parrying her sword and using her shield to block two blows at once.
She twirled around and decapitated both robots expertly. As one metal body fell Fotia jumped on top of it and launched herself into the air and stabbed her sword through the torso of another robot and she used the shield on her back to cover herself from the stun blasts of the other robots.
Fotia stayed down, using Akouo and her body armor to protect her from the blasts. She took out her other, unnamed weapon and transformed it into its rifle form. She flung Akouo into the air, grabbed it, and threw it in front of her to block the stun blasts.
She quickly fired the rifle, managing to blast away the legs of some of the training robots. She ran forward as her weapon transformed into spear mode and she impaled the robot in the head. She whipped out the Lepida Tou Aimatos again and slashed another one's head clean off.
This left only one remaining. Fotia looked on, she was sweating a bit but knew she could defeat this robot without much trouble. She watched as a long, sharp blade came out of its wrist and it stood in a battle stance.
Fotia breathed in and out. The pains in her chest and back were gone, except for the occasional phantom pain that still lingered, but it didn't bother her. She smiled as she gently placed Akouo and her three-mode weapon down, she held her blade up quickly loaded a small Dust load into its hilt. The sword began to glow blood red, living up to its name and Fotia charge forward.
She clashed blades with the robot once, twice, three ties before she sliced its hand off, severing the sword from it. With two more quick and powerful strikes the robot's head was severed and its torso was cut clean off the waist. Fotia watched in satisfaction as the metal body, now in several pieces, fell to the ground with a few loud clangs. She returned her sword to it sheath and she picked up her other two weapons, but she laid her original three-form one to the side as she spoke out to a computer.
"Computer, please send in the engineers to repair these training robots and have them send in more, I still need to train with my blade and shield."
"Affirmative Commander Drakos." Said the monotone voice.
Fotia turned, expecting to see Emerald and Mercury, but saw that they had left.
'Oh well.' She thought. She began practicing sword poses and stances, trying to be as good as she could. She didn't know why but all of this just came naturally to her, as if it was pure instinct.
Then Fotia heard something, something that was barely even a whisper. Fotia's head snapped up and she looked around, expecting to see Neo somewhere but saw no one. She was completely alone in the training room.
She heard the whisper again, hearing something that ended with an 'eee' sound. She didn't know why but she felt something, as if someone else was in the room with her.
"Emerald? You aren't using your illusions to play a trick on me are you?"
No response.
"Neo? Are you there?"
Still nothing.
Fotia shook her head, "I must have trained too hard, one or two more sessions and I'll take a rest." She said to herself as the engineers arrived with a new batch of training robots.
Cinder stood calmly as the main door to the factory opened up, Cinder had been having a good day so far; Arc and Rose were out of it and tomorrow their real training would begin, Giger had assured her that the Chimera was ready to be shown to Salem and not five minutes ago Damien Ante had called her and said that he was bringing a little something extra with the security recordings.
Cinder didn't mind a little surprise, and if Ante tried anything she would gladly incinerate him to a charred skeleton in a matter of seconds, but she doubted he would. However she had called Emerald and Mercury down just to be safe.
Ante's car drove in followed by a large van that usually contained Ante's enforcers and the big, heavy doors closed behind them. Ante, Zhan, and Douglas got out of the car and Ante smiled at Cinder.
"Oh boy, you are gonna love this!" he said as the van's rear doors opened up, allowing Little Steve to toss out Agent 501 who was now bound by strong cables and his mouth sealed with duct-tape. His body was badly bruised but he was still conscious, his eyes glaring at his captors and filled with hatred.
"This man wares the emblem of Atlas on his uniform, who is he?" Cinder demanded.
Damien grinned, "This sack of crap calls himself Agent 501, one of Atlas' top men. Apparently Jimmy Ironwood is curious about what we got going here in Haven." He answered as Tom-Tom ripped the duct-tape off of the Atlesian man's mouth.
"Hm, excellent work Damien, we were told this might happen soon. So tell me agent, what is your mission here?" Cinder asked as she used the powers of the Fall Maiden to lift the man up.
"I don't answer to you." 501 spat out.
"Wrong answer. Damien, if you would be so kind..." Cinder said as she let the bound man down.
"My pleasure." Ante said as he took out his non-exploding dagger and walked towards 501.
"Now let's get the point..." Damien joked as he poked 501 in the forehead with the sharp blade.
Cinder looked as Mercury and Emerald arrived. "What's going on?" Mercury asked.
"Damien and his men have captured a spy from Ironwood, he has refused to speak so Damien may interrogate him anyway he sees fit." Cinder said as Damien slowly sliced his blade across 501's cheek, creating a shallow cut that was not lethal but let enough blood out to be sure.
"Hear that agent? Anyway I want! Tom-Tom, knees." Damien ordered.
501 watched in growing horror as Tom-Tom used his mallet and smashed him in his kneecaps.
501 held back a scream of absolute pain, using every bit of training he had went through. Remembering every technique to withstand pain he knew.
"From what I have observed you are here to find Cinder. Are you an assassin or a scout? Answer!" Damien yelled as he made another cut on 501's cheek.
"Do your worst, I won't speak." The agent said firmly.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk! Fireball!" Damien yelled.
The burned man activated his flame thrower on a low setting, aiming at 501.
"How about we have ourselves a barbecue?" Damien announced.
"No, we cannot kill him until we know for sure what his mission is." Cinder said firmly, her glare enforcing her will.
"Okay then, I know these guys, they're pretty resistant to physical pain unless... something scares them." Trooper said.
"Well we're pretty damn scary all things considered." Tom-Tom said.
"We are, you're not." Lao said while he rolled his eyes.
"Fear... you think fear will work, Trooper?" Cinder asked the enforcer.
He nodded, "Pain won't do it alone, we need something to scare him."
Cinder looked at the wounded agent and allowed a small smile on her lips.
"I think I have a solution to this problem." She took out her scroll and called someone, "Dr. Giger, you told me earlier your Chimera was ready, I think we have the perfect test subject for it." She said as she reveled in the agent's growing fear.
"Chimera? What the hell is going on?" he asked.
"I don't know myself 501, but one thing's for sure, you ain't gonna like it." Damien said as he gestured to Trooper. Trooper nodded and bashed 501 in the back of the head.
Meanwhile at the Atlas Military Headquarters, James Ironwood sat at his desk, looking over reports from Glynda Goodwitch about the reconstruction of Vale. Things had been going well so far, with little to no civilians in the city most Grimm were going back to the woods that surrounded the town. Glynda and her fellow teachers led a few students in slaughtering the Grimm and driving them away from the city, allowing for Glynda and clean up and constructions crews to go about repairing the damage. According to Glynda's report if they kept this pace up Vale might be up and running again in two months, if they were lucky and kept up their efforts.
Ironwood had asked Glynda where Qrow was, but she answered him by simply telling him that Yang Xiao Long needed him. Ironwood wished Branwen and his niece the best, he had lost half of his body once, including his hand and he wouldn't wish a similar pain on anyone, especially a girl as young and as promising as Yang.
His attention was taken away from Qrow and his niece with a knock on the door.
"Enter." Ironwood said, the door opened and the solemn and somewhat nervous looking Chamberlain and Cy entered the room. Ironwood had been around long enough to tell by the looks on their faces something was wrong.
"What has happened now?" he asked without any hesitance at all.
"Sir, our base in upper Vacuo has been attacked but..." Chamberlain began before he looked like he was going to be sick.
"There are some complications sir." Cy said.
Ironwood glared at his the two men. "What sort of complications?" he asked.
"Sir, none of our troops were there, they were gone but all of the Vacuo troops have been found dead, utterly slaughtered." Cy reported as gently as he could.
"What do you mean our troops are gone?" Ironwood asked angrily.
"They just vanished. Several hours ago Vacuo command lost contact with our join operations base. They sent a scout team to investigate but the scouts only found their fellow soldiers shot or mauled to death and no sign of our soldiers and any Atlesian Knight still there had been destroyed sir." Cy continued.
"There were signs of a Grimm attack, Grimm of all kinds, even Goliaths of all things." Chamberlain added.
"A Grimm attack? Our soldiers must have been devoured." Ironwood said mournfully.
"Sir, that's just it. There were no bodies of any Atlas soldiers left behind, all of our operatives in that base left nothing behind, Grimm don't discriminate between one human and the next, you know that." Chamberlain pointed out as Cy handed the report to Ironwood.
"Yes, the only way to explain the Grimm eating our soldiers and not the Vacuo troops is if something was controlling the Grimm." Cy suggested.
There was a clam, tense silence between the three men as Ironwood looked at the report and the photos of the massacre.
"Could it be Cinder Fall?" Chamberlain asked.
"I doubt it, she wouldn't be making a move this brutal this quickly, she's more about subtlety and manipulation. This is simply not her style but I'll have our newest consultant take a look at it just to be sure." Ironwood said.
The two other men nodded, "Uh, sir, speaking of the Schnee girl... Specialist Schnee spoke to me sir; she has strong reservations about what you have decided to do with Penny Polendina and quite frankly sir as do I." Chamberlain admitted.
"While it may be a hard thing to do and one that I might lose sleep over, it may be the best chance we have at taking out Cinder Fall." Cy argued.
"Agreed." Ironwood muttered as he looked at the photos of the devastated Vacuo base. A young woman with a terrible wound in her chest, soldiers mauled to death or shot execution style.
This made him sick and angry.
Sick of the sight of death and angry that he had failed to do anything about it.
Ironwood got an idea.
"Penny Polendina's mission will begin tomorrow instead, the sooner we take Fall down the better." He said.
His two underlings glanced at each other and Chamberlain sighed and said "Very well. Sir, the situation in Vacuo isn't good; a member of the Vacuo council has even made the wild accusation that our troops turned on them."
"Ridiculous." Ironwood snorted.
"That's what the other council members said sir, but the people of Vacuo are beginning to lose patience with our presence there. Tensions between the kingdoms is getting worse." Chamberlain said, hoping the General would try to do something.
"If things go south we can always use the old underground bases that were used during the Faunus revolution, we still have access to them and the government of Vacuo wouldn't suspect us hiding underground." Ironwood decided.
"Sir, why..."
"Because Chamberlain, we WILL protect the people of Remnant, whether they like it or not!" Ironwood barked.
Chamberlain looked at his leader, a man he had trusted with his life on several occasions and now saw just how utterly broken he had been by the fall of Beacon.
"Very well sir, the matter is dropped." He relented.
"Good. Now, what of Agent 501? Has he reported in yet?" Ironwood asked.
"Only this morning sir, he said he will infiltrate Damien Ante's base of operations and see what he knows. He will contact us tomorrow and report his findings." Cy said.
"Very good, 501 is a strong, smart man. If Cinder is there he will find her." Ironwood said confidently.
501 was woken up by water dropping on his face. He weakly opened his eyes and saw Zhan pouring a cup of water on him to wake him up, but what was really surprising was that he was able to move, he was no longer bound by the thick cables.
He tried to get up, his left kneecap was still broken but he put most of his weight on his right leg and leaned against the wall. He looked around and saw that he was in some kind of pit, surrounded by a force-field, but what really surprised him was a fully loaded Atlesian rifle lying on the ground.
He looked around at the people watching him; Cinder Fall and her two accomplices, Ante and his enforcers, several darker versions of Atlesian Knights, and several men who appeared to be scientists.
"Where the hell am I?" 501 demanded as he grabbed the rifle.
"You are in my throne room, Agent 501, or more specifically the arena. Consider yourself lucky, you are about to serve a wonderful purpose." Cinder said as she gestured to her throne.
501's eyes widened in horror at what, or rather who he was seeing; Salem, the greatest threat to all life in Remnant was sitting upon the seat and looking down at him with judging eyes.
"Tell me, Agent Jacob Pryce, what is your mission here?" Salem asked with a pleasant voice.
While Pryce was a bit unnerved by the fact that they knew his real name he didn't react right away. If Salem herself was here then he could try to take her out.
"It was to find Cinder Fall, prove she was here, and if possible to assassinate her, but now that the Mistress of Grimm herself is here..." he said as he reached for a small compartment on his belt, but found that his explosives had been removed.
"Looking for these?" Lao called as he held up the pack of explosives.
"Good luck trying to get out!" Damien mocked.
"Son of a bitch." Muttered Pryce as he looked for a way out, maybe he could shoot something to deactivate the force-field or...
"Now, Mistress, if you will divert your attention to the ceiling..." said Dr. Giger, sounding very excited. Everyone looked above and saw a large crate with a door on one side suspended in the air by a small gantry crane. "Lower it down." Giger said to West, who was manning the controls.
The crate was lowered down to the ground gently, despite the sounds of the machine some could hear a rough, raspy breathing coming from inside the cage.
"Mistress Salem, Lady Cinder, everyone else, I give to you... the Grimm Chimera!" Giger announced proudly as West pushed another button.
The door of the cage slid upwards and something horrible stepped out.
It was like nothing anyone in the room had ever seen; a sick, twisted, mishmash of different Grimm-body types and there was something so wrong about it that some of those present turned away.
It was eight and a half feet long from head to tail, seven feet from head to rear, and about four feet high as it slowly crawled out of the cage on all fours. Its rear legs were that of a Creep with sharp razor-claws from some other creature, its forelegs belonged to a Beowulf, its tail was that of a Death Stalker, its body was a mixture of an Ursa and other creatures that weren't even Grimm, but what was the most disturbing sight was without a doubt the fact that the head resembled that of a deformed human, with razor sharp teeth with two pincers that came from a type of Grimm Ant known as the Colonist. Its eyes were the usual pure blood red that was associated with the creatures of Grimm and its human-looking head was covered by the bony faceplate, and bone-spikes were jutting out of its back. It crawled out of the cage and snarled at Agent 501, sensing his fear.
"My god..." Pryce said quietly as it came out to the light.
Up above the reactions were varied; Emerald, Tom-Tom. and Little Steve were utterly horrified by the abomination they were looking at while Zhan, Douglas, Lao, Trooper, Mercury, Fireball, Merrick, and Lao looked on with a bit of fear but were too fascinated by what they were seeing to turn away, and Damien and Cinder looked on, eager awaiting what was undeniably going to happen.
What happened next shocked everyone except Giger and West who had worked on the Chimera for the past two years so they were not surprised when it stood up on its hind legs like, becoming a biped instead of a quadruped. It stood tall, showing a thin, but strong looking body that stood at a full height of eight feet tall.
Cinder's eyes were wide with surprise; she honestly hadn't expected it to do that. She looked up at her master who was grinning with satisfaction.
Pryce aimed his gun at the Chimera, certain he was going to die, but he would try to fight this monster.
"General Ironwood will know if I'm killed! I'm supposed to contact him everyday; if I go silent he'll enter the city and find you." Pryce yelled as the Chimera dug its claws into the dirt and kicked back like a bull about to charge.
"We already have that covered; we were told you were coming so we have a plan to make sure your death goes unnoticed." Cinder said, enjoying the feeling of hopelessness emanating from the spy.
Pryce began to realize he would die in this put and his death may never even go noticed. He'd never get to see his family again, never go home. The least he could do was put up one last fight.
The Chimera let out a terrifying roar and it charged at the Atlesian man with all its weight. Pryce screamed as he opened a barrage of fire on the Grimm-abomination, and while it did slow the beast down a bit it still slammed him into the wall, stabbing its claws into his chest.
Agent 501 let out a scream of pain as the Chimera tore its sharp claws out of his chest. 501 used his strength to smash his rifle against the beast's disturbing face, but it used it pincers to grab the gun. It took the weapon and tore it apart, as if it had done so before.
Pryce took advantage of its temporary distraction and quickly crawled away as quickly as he could only for the Chimera to run over to him and stomp on his back. Pryce screamed out in pain as the Chimera used one arm to slash him across the back and the other to stab the claws into his back. It removed its leg from him and then grabbed him with its Beowulf arm and threw him into the chains attached to the cage.
The agent fell to the ground, bleeding bad as he tried to crawl away again but was stopped by the creature. It took him by the arm and hoisted him off the ground and slammed its hand into the Pryce's body, punching through the rib cage.
Jacob Pryce screamed out in pain as blood flew out of his mouth. The Chimera tossed the broken man into the cage and jumped in after him. The cage began to shake violently as Pryce screamed in pain and terror, ending with a loud, long, high pitched scream as he died.
West shut the door behind the creature and Giger looked around to see everyone's reaction. They ranged from utterly shocked, to impressed if a bit disturbed, to outright delight.
Salem applauded the display, "Well done doctor, your Chimera is most impressive. What are its limitations?" she asked.
"It can run about forty miles an hour on all fours, half of that on its hind-legs and it has astonishing jumping capabilities and the ability to use its claws to scale the walls like an insect, we have determined that its jaws can apply over forty pounds of pressure to a bite, and its strength, as you have just witnessed, is remarkable. Although I think we should wait a while, as it is still a bit uncontrollable and very hostile so it could use some more obedience training." Giger admitted.
"I am none the less intrigued, you have made quite a magnificent creature Victor, it shall do wonders for me." Salem said.
Giger bowed humbly and gestured to West who began operating the gantry again, lifting the once again sealed crate back up.
Salem turned her attention to Cinder. "Now then, Cinder I want you to be on the lookout, our spy in General Ironwood's inner circle has told me that the rebuilt Penny has been loaded with a bomb that will sense your power. Ante, I want you and your gangs to look out for her and make sure she goes off early, in a very public, very crowded place." Salem said casually.
"You got it, the life-sized doll, we gotcha. Tomorrow Haven will hear a nice big bang." Damien said obediently.
"Good, our agent will leak out the details of Penny's mission to the Mistral council, this will be seen as an act of terrorism on Atlas' part. Soon they'll be too busy fighting each other to notice us." Salem said, looking very pleased with how life was treating her right now.
"Things are going according to plan, just as you said they would. What of the attack on the Vacuo base?" Cinder inquired.
"A resounding victory, Ziz has already transmitted the location of the Winter Maiden and because of the lack of Atlesian bodies soon the people of Vacuo will be just as untrusting of Atlas as Mistral is. Vale is in chaos so for the moment they are not a threat but if they recover sooner than expected have the White Fang launch an attack on the capital, but only if Vale recovers too quickly, after all we need not rush." Salem said.
"When will we take the Winter Maiden?" Cinder asked.
"Soon, you and Kaa will strike and bring her to me; soon I shall claim what is rightfully mine." Salem said as she opened up a portal to her palace. She stopped and looked to the Cinder's thief. "Emerald, look up videos of Pyrrha Nikos, tomorrow you are going to torment Jaune Arc with a phantom vision of her so it needs to be perfect."
Emerald nodded, "Yes Mistress, what shall I do to him?"
"Break him with words. Regret and sorrow can do more damage in an hour than a dagger can do in a day." Salem said with a smirk.
"What of Ruby Rose? Her eyes could be a problem." Cinder pointed out.
"Make sure her aura is weak enough; keep the Arc boy under threat of execution if she does not do what you wish. Tread carefully my Maiden, the silver eyes are not to be taken lightly." Salem warned as she departed.
Unbeknownst to everyone in the throne room, Neo watched from the shadows.
Half an hour later Damien and his men had departed, Mercury and Emerald had gone back to their business, and the doctors had returned to tending to the Chimera and the Grimm Knights, Cinder sat on her throne, watching the security recordings.
She watched the fight between Ashe and Damien, watched as Ashe slaughtered Damien's thugs without any hesitation. There was darkness within him, she sensed it. As much as she wanted to deny it, she did love her brother. She was no monster, no more than Ozpin was or any Hunter who had made sacrifices for the greater good.
"You care for these children Ashe, that weakness has cost you greatly. You will join me... or I will have to end you." She said to herself, refusing to shed the tears in her eyes.
Qrow, Taiyang, and Zwei departed from the airship, greeted by Glynda, Dr. Oobleck, and Professor Port.
"Hello Qrow, did it go well? Is Yang...?"
"She's back on her feet Goodwitch, she's in Mistral with Team SSSN trying to find Belladonna." Qrow said.
Glynda raised an eyebrow. "What makes them think Blake Belladonna is in Mistral?" she asked.
"That's where most of the White Fang scurried off to after Beacon fell, the girl has history with them and a grudge to boot. I know her type, she'll go and try to fight them." Qrow said as he walked back to the large building that served as a base of operations for the defense and rebuilding operations of Vale.
"What about Ruby? She and Jaune Arc were spotted in Haven and James is not able to do anything about it because of the opposition from the Mistral council and the locals of the city." Glynda said.
"We've already got it covered, besides once Yang finds Blake she promises they'll head over to Haven and try to find out what's going on." Taiyang said to the Huntress.
"Speaking of our students, Team CFVY arrived a few hours ago, we thought they had returned to help but they want to speak with you, Qrow." Port said.
"I thought as much, I think we all need to have a talk in my office, Oobleck go get the kids." Qrow said.
Oobleck nodded and left the group, running ahead of them, not before he nodded to Zwei in acknowledgement.
"What's this all about?" Glynda asked.
"Ironwood, he's about to do something really damn stupid and Winter Schnee and her sister wants us to help them stop it." Taiyang said.
Glynda's eyes widened, looking confused. "What has happened?" she asked.
"We can't talk out in the open, wait until we get into my office." Qrow said quickly, making sure the Atlas soldiers brought in to safeguard the city weren't listening.
Glynda and Port glanced at each other, unsure about the situation at hand.
In one of the few vacant rooms at the base Team CFVY sat on the cots that served as beds.
"Hope we won't have to stay here long, I don't think this thing can hold me." Yatsuhashi said as he inspected the minuscule bed.
"Relax big Y; I don't think it'll take long for Branwen to get here. Big Schnee called him and filled him in, remember? He'll be back soon enough." Coco assured her large teammate as she relaxed on a cot.
"I hope so; the thought of General Ironwood actually going through with that plan... it's just..." Velvet couldn't finish. She had been unfortunate enough to witness Penny's death once, the fact that she had been reborn, only to be sent unwittingly off to her death was very sickening.
"Calm down Velv, she'll be fine. Ironwood won't ship her out until the day after tomorrow so we got plenty of time." Coco said.
"There is still the matter of the plan, we're taking a big risk on this and if Weiss' plan fails we could be in a lot of trouble." Fox pointed out.
"Hey, I know, okay? All we gotta do is fight, grab the girl, get to a ship, and fly away as fast as we can. All in all; it doesn't sound too hard to me." Coco said confidently.
"Uh Coco I think you're forgetting about Atlas' army, which we will be right in the center of, but also the Atlesian Knights." Velvet said, remembering how they had fought of the robots when they were turned during the fall of Beacon.
"Hey, we managed to take care of the clankers pretty good last time, didn't we? We'll probably handle the Knights while Schnee and those other two handle the troopers." Coco said, not at all worried about the situation.
"It may not be that simple Coco, there is still the issue of out-flying the Atlesian air-force and making it to Haven safely, and trying to help Ruby and Team JNPR... oh... I'm sorry." Fox said to Velvet, who nodded sadly to her dark-skinned companion.
"It's okay Fox, I've shed my tears for Pyrrha, that's part of the reason I wanted to do this so badly." Velvet said. She had become good friends with Teams RWBY and JNPR after Jaune had gotten Cardin to stop bullying her... well Jaune's words and one look at Yatsuhashi, as her large friend had been glaring at Cardin and his team the entire time Jaune told them to back off
Jaune's act of kindness had caused the second year team to become friends with the first-years, although it was mostly just Velvet but the rest of the team had good enough relations with their younger peers. The rabbit Faunus had good relationships with the younger students; she had become good friends with Blake, both sharing the traits of animals convinced them to have a bond with one another, her friendship with Weiss was because she no longer wanted to be part of her family's legacy of racism, with Jaune because of his standing up to Cardin, with Ruby because she found the younger girl's personality very adorable, and with Pyrrha because she felt Pyrrha could help her out since Velvet's Semblance was mimicry, but soon became good friends with her, finding that they enjoyed the same things. She had been devastated when Glynda was forced to reveal to the students about the death of Pyrrha and the disappearance of Professor Ozpin. She had sought comfort in Yatsuhashi's arms and had even attended Pyrrha's funeral with the rest of her team, despite how terrible of an experience it was for her.
"Hell, I didn't know the girl that well, but she seemed like a good person to me. Feel sorry about that Jaune guy too, you see how broken up he was at her funeral? Last time I saw someone that broken up was my uncle after my aunt died." Coco said.
"I think, towards the end their relationship became a bit more... well I don't really know, I mean it's really none of my business but Pyrrha was..." Velvet said as she began stuttering.
"We could all see that she had feelings for Jaune, it is obvious that he began to reciprocate them before she was killed but she was taken away before they could enter an official relationship. I am glad I am not so oblivious as he is." Yatsuhashi said.
Coco and Fox looked at their large teammate, then to Velvet, and finally to each other. Coco burst out laughing and Fox snickered. Velvet blushed wildly as Yatsuhashi looked on in confusion. "What is so amusing?" he asked, clueless.
When Weiss had called them it was a very lucky break; Coco and Velvet lived in the same town in Vale, a middle sized place known as Tuvan and it was easy to get their male partners there for a long visit. They had been secretly going into the surrounding forests and slaughtering all the Grimm they could, anything to help out with the resistance against the Grimm and Cinder's plots. While they wouldn't be winning medals anytime soon they were at least cutting the Grimm population down at bit.
A knock at the door stole the team's attention.
"Come on in." Coco said, the door then opened to reveal their former, and hopefully would-be-again, teacher Dr. Oobleck.
"Hello doctor." Said Velvet, Yatsuhashi and Fox simply nodded, but Coco went up and shook his hand.
"How's life been in Vale fighting off those Grimm chumps everyday?" she asked.
"It has been about as good as one could expect, given the circumstances, it is good to see all of you again." Oobleck said with a small smile. "Mr. Branwen has returned and is expecting you; he wishes to speak to all of you, as well as Professors Goodwitch and Port, as well as myself, so let's not keep him waiting."
The Team quickly got up and followed the caffeinated man out of the room and down the hallway.
They soon arrived to Qrow's office and they found Taiyang and Qrow talking to Glynda while Professor Port stood to the side, preferring not to ask questions until the time was right, while Glynda was demanding to know what was General Ironwood was up to.
"You have to tell us Qrow. If James is about to do something dangerous then you must tell us what. Maybe he'll listen to me, outside of Ozpin I'm the one he trusts most." The blonde teacher argued.
"You're not wrong Glynda, but from what Schnee told me Ironwood refuses to listen to reason." Qrow said.
"We're up a raging river without any oars Glynda, its best to take Specialist Schnee's plan into consideration." Taiyang said.
"Ahem, Team CFVY as you requested, Qrow." Oobleck announced to the other four Hunters.
"Hello Miss Adel, Miss Scarlatina, Mr Alistair, and Mr. Daichi, it is good to see all of you again." Glynda said politely, trying to appear professional in front of her students.
The four teenagers all greeted their other teachers and looked to Qrow.
"I remember you kids from the tournament. If I had paid just a little more attention I would have been able to figure out that Sustrai and Black were part of the team that attacked the previous Fall Maiden. Heh, maybe if I had noticed them a bit more I could have prevented this whole damn mess." Qrow said bitterly as he took a drink from his flask.
The four members of Team CFVY exchanged glances with each other before looking back to the new head of Beacon.
"So I assume Schnee called you and informed you of the situation and the plan to deal with it?" Qrow asked.
"Yes sir, well Weiss did anyway." Coco reported.
"Plan? What is going on?" Glynda demanded.
"Yes, I am quite curious as to what is going on as well." Said Oobleck.
"Fill us in already." Port chimed in.
Qrow sighed and said "Remember Penny Polendina of Atlas? Girl who turned out to be a robot in case you somehow forgot that. Anyway Ironwood had her rebuilt shortly after the fall of Beacon by her creator Dr. Joseph Polendina. She only came online two months ago, and aside from the original memory chip, she's pretty much the same girl just with new weapons and abilities. Earlier today Specialist Winter Schnee informed me that Ironwood has become so desperate to stop Cinder Fall that he has decided to put a bomb inside of her and send her to the city where Fall has been spotted the most, Haven." Qrow said, watching the shocked and horrified looks on the faces of the three teachers.
"Has he lost all common sense?!" Glynda cried.
"Seems that way." Taiyang muttered.
"This is very bad, if word of this gets out or if something goes wrong and the council of Mistral discover Atlas is responsible for a bombing it could lead to war between the two kingdoms, we must try to reason with Ironwood before he does something we will all regret." Oobleck said, his glasses hiding his worried eyes.
"Winter has tried to talk him out of it, so has Dr. Polendina and even one of Ironwood's right hand men tried to get him to see how stupid a move this was but he ain't opening his eyes to see the light on this one." Qrow said bitterly.
"Very well, what is the plan?" Glynda asked.
"The plan is for me to take these kids to Atlas with me and get them to Weiss Schnee and the other kids she's recruited into this little crusade of hers, Winter and I will distract Ironwood while the kids hijack Penny, get the bomb out of her, and then make a break for it and get the hell out of Atlas and head to Haven." Qrow said.
"Haven? Why go to Haven?" Port asked, curious.
"Because of Ruby, we have to help save her!" Velvet said.
"Save her?! What do you mean by that?" Taiyang asked.
Velvet looked at Taiyang and gasped, "Oh! I didn't recognize you for a minute, your Ruby and Yang's dad... oh dear." She muttered.
"What are you...?" Qrow began to ask before...
Taiyang grabbed Qrow and flung him into the wall. "What's going on Qrow?! What's happening to my daughter?!" Taiyang demanded, his eyes glowing similar to how Yang's would before Glynda used her powers to lift the enraged father off of Qrow.
"Taiyang, I know this is a stressful time for you but you must remain calm." She said to him firmly.
"You don't have children! You don't know what it's like!" Taiyang yelled.
"Don't you dare say that to me! Of course I know what it feels like!" Glynda yelled back, sounding hurt and angry at Taiyang's words. "I have taught thousands of students since I first became a teacher and I dare not count how many of them lay dead now by the hands of the Grimm or the scum of this world. Each one of them I wonder if I taught them well enough, if I could have helped them, if I could have done something more... I should have talked Ozpin out of choosing Pyrrha for the new Fall Maiden, convinced him to give Amber more recovery time but he wouldn't listen. In my eyes I am just as much to blame for her death as Cinder or Ozpin are." She finished.
Everyone was silent, no one had suspected such an emotional outburst, even Port and Oobleck, who had known Glynda for years had never seen her so shaken up.
She took a deep breath and straightened herself up. "I am sorry. Qrow, answer Taiyang." She said.
Qrow smirked and said "Ever the school teacher, huh Goodwitch? Truth is I don't know what the hell happened to Ruby any more than you do. Girl, Velvet is it? Maybe you can fill us in on some details Winter decided to leave out." Qrow said.
Velvet was incredibly uncomfortable, but her team had her back.
"Back off man, we just know what Little Miss Schnee told us." Coco snapped defensively.
Just then, as if on cue, Qrow's scroll rang. He took it out of his pocket and smirked when he saw who it was. "Well I'll be damned." He muttered as he answered it, putting it on speaker.
"Qrow, its Winter, I need you to get here as soon as possible, Ironwood has..."
"Before you tell me anything about Ironwood Ice Queen, can you please tell me what happened to my nice, what Team CFVY here knows and I don't?" He asked angrily.
"Oh god... Qrow listen, I felt that it..." Winter tried to say before...
"I don't give a damn what you felt! Tell me what has happened to my niece now!" Qrow demanded.
"Please, just tell me if my little girl is in danger or not." Taiyang begged.
"... from what we have been told, Ruby Rose and Jaune Arc were taken prisoner by Cinder Fall last night." Winter said.
Taiyang collapsed to the ground, tears beginning to fall from his eyes. "No, no, no, no, no, NO!" he screamed.
Velvet ran to the man and tried to comfort him but he pushed her away. He began muttering to himself "Summer, I'm so, so sorry... I couldn't protect our little girls... please forgive me..."
"From what we understand they are still alive, just being held prisoner." Winter said loudly to get everyone's attention.
"That doesn't make sense, why would Cinder want Ruby alive after what happened on top of the tower? Why would she want Jaune of all people?" Fox asked.
Qrow and Glynda looked at one another and they both nodded.
"It may be shocking to you, but Cinder is not the mastermind of her crimes, she works for someone much, much worse. An evil that has been here since Remnant was born from the shattering of the moon, the Mistress of Grimm, or to be specific Salem." Glynda said, getting shocked reactions out of Team CFVY, Taiyang, Oobleck, and Port.
"Wait a minute, I don't understand... the silver-eyed warriors are supposed to be the ultimate defense against the Grimm, why is she keeping Ruby alive?" Taiyang asked, now fearing what these psychopaths had in store for his youngest daughter.
"I don't know but whatever they've got planned it's not good." said Qrow.
"And what of Jaune Arc?" Port asked, concerned for his students' safety.
"The Arc bloodline has produced a lot of legendary heroes throughout the centuries, maybe Salem is hoping to turn him around to her side. The Mistresses of Grimm have done that several times in the past." Qrow speculated.
"Ha! Good luck with that, I know the boy can be a bit... goofy at times but he will not give in to whatever these evildoers have in store for him, neither will Miss Rose for that matter." Port said.
"I don't understand, Pyrrha was so much more powerful than Jaune. Why didn't Cinder..." Fox began to ask before Velvet stopped him.
"Wait... Jaune is at a very difficult stage in his life, he is grieving someone he cared for dearly, maybe even loved... oh god!" she cried in horror.
Everyone's eyes widened, they knew what the Faunus girl meant. Salem may not have been able to get her hands on Pyrrha, but she could use Jaune's feelings for Pyrrha to drive him insane, and drive him to the darkness.
"We have to get to Haven as soon as possible and stop them, Atlas may not be able to get in but they'll have no problem with a few Hunters." Glynda said as she gripped her wand.
"Listen, I need help here and soon! Chamberlain has just informed me that Penny's mission has been rescheduled to tomorrow. If you don't hurry and get here soon Qrow it will be too late, I can't distract Ironwood on my own, I need help for this to work and Weiss needs help if she is going to rescue Penny." Winter said over the phone.
"Okay, okay, okay, a plan is formulating in my drunk mind..." Qrow said as he thought as hard as he could about the insane crisis they were going through.
"Listen up; I'll leave right away with the kids and help you and your sister our, even if we save Ruby she'll kill me for not taking a chance to save her friend. After the rescue mission is pulled off I'll escape back to Vale and get you four." he said, gesturing to Taiyang and the three teachers
"No, my students need me. I will not abandon them." Glynda said firmly.
"But you can't abandon Vale either Goodwitch, you need to make plans. While we're gone I want you three to pick your replacements, those among the staff or the Vale Guard that are capable of upholding your duties here. Glynda's in charge until I get back and once I'm back we're shipping off for Haven and try to put an end to this insanity once and for all." Qrow said.
"Sounds good to me, I'll inform Weiss of the updated plan, but we needs some help, can you arrange for Team CRDL to join you before you depart for Haven?" Winter asked.
"Of course we can." Glynda said.
"Very well, I must be off now. Thanks to all of you for this, you will help me prevent Atlas making a monumental mistake." Winter said gratefully before she cut the call.
Qrow looked at the eight other people in his office.
"Any other questions?" he asked.
"Qrow, promise me two things; that you will do your best to see all of these children unharmed, and that you will go easy on James when you fight him." Glynda said.
"Fight him... oh hell, who am I kidding? It's been a long time coming anyway." Qrow said with a smirk.
"What about me?" Taiyang asked.
"You stay here, you're what they call 'emotionally compromised' Tai old buddy. Besides, Raven will be in Haven by midnight, I think she'll be able to do something against Cinder." Qrow said, noticing Glynda's eyes widening.
"Raven?! She's... I am not going to ask right now, I think it can wait until later." she said with a stressed out sigh.
"This is getting stranger and stranger." Yatsuhashi said, getting nods of agreement from his teammates.
Qrow grabbed Reaper and said "Okay kids, go get your stuff and meet me at the landing platforms, we're shipping out ASAP." he said with a smirk.
Twenty minutes later, Glynda, Taiyang, Oobleck, and Port watched as Qrow's airship took off for Atlas, with Team CFVY trying to get some rest inside.
"Think the can pull it off?" Port asked.
"We can only hope. And try not to calculate the odds." Oobleck said.
Glynda turned to Taiyang and said "Okay, now please tell me what has been going on in your family." she said.
Taiyang sighed and said "Come on, you'll want to be sitting down for it."
This was originally going to be longer, but I decided that I had written enough for a full chapter so the last third of this chapter will be combined with chapter 10 so it will all be one, big epic chapter that will be long as hell and hopefully leave you wanting more. Be patient as Chapter 10 may not be out until late next week, maybe even next Monday, but I'll try to get it out as soon as I can while making it as good as I can.
I hoped you liked Glynda in this chapter, as I was surprised by how engaging she was to wright for.
I feel bad about 501 (and yes his number is a reference to Star Wars), because I created him just so he could get killed by the Chimera and hint about the traitor working with Ironwood. Makes me a bit of a hypocrite, huh?
Cinder doesn't want to kill Ashe, as I wanted to make her more than the vague villain we've gotten so far in the show. She loved her brother and now she may have to kill him. Even evil has something it loves.
I hope you guys are okay with me tightening Team CFVY's relationship to the core cast, as I wanted their to be a better reason for their involvement that just revenge, also it seems to be a common thing in fanfics that Velvet became good friends with the main eight after one of them got Cardin to back off.
Trivia: Giger's name is a reference to two things: Victor is a reference to Victor Frankenstein and Giger is a homage to the late H.R. Giger aka the guy who designed the Aliens in the Alien Franchise.
The Chimera is a big hodgepodge of a ton of Stan Winston movie monsters: the raptors from Jurassic Park, the Kathoga from The Relic, Pumkinhead from... well Pumpkinhead, and the Aliens from the Alien movies, as well as many of the Grimm we've seen so far, hoped you liked it.
Anyway; next time it's the big breakout and escape from Atlas chapter so get ready for a lot of action and a lot of running. Thank you to all my reviewers and followers and everyone who reads this story. Leave your thoughts, what you liked and what you didn't and tell me how I can improve.