Volume III: Episode 6: Esprit de Corps, Part I
Ozma's tiny legs pounded across the ground as fast as he could go. His chest felt like it was going to collapse, his breath was ragged, his muscles screamed at him to stop, he could barely see straight. Despite everything, though, he kept running, he kept running and never looked back.
He could hear them even louder now, the thick panting and the awful howls. He was being pursued by a pack of Beowolves. They were getting close now, too close.
Oh why oh why had he tried to prove himself? No one was asking him to prove himself. He was seven! He was just looking to prove that he was as big and strong as everyone else, and now, he was going to die.
There was a sudden bright light, a sound like nothing he could even begin to describe, and a flash of pressure and heat.
Ozma stumbled and rolled along the ground. He had to get up! He had to live! He...
The little boy looked behind him and saw that the monsters were no longer there. In fact, a big part of the forest wasn't there anymore, dark wisps of smoke curling up from broken and burned logs. He was alone again.
The sudden eerie quiet of the night air was broken by the sounds of incredibly heavy steps through the bush. Ozma tried to hide himself and froze. He closed his eyes, hoping whatever was there wouldn't see him, and the stomping stopped.
"Are you all right?" asked an incredibly warm, kind, and strong voice that reminded the boy of his father.
He looked, shaking all over, and didn't know how to react. It was… it was a giant! It was a giant covered head to toe in gleaming metal armor that seemed to shift with his movements.
The covering on his mouth receded, and Ozma saw a big, soft smile on a face made of metal.
"Do not worry. The creatures that pursued you have been slain," declared the giant, kneeling down. "Are you hurt?"
"N-no," said Ozma in a jittery voice. "My name is Ozma. Who are you?"
"My name is Optimus Prime."
"What did you just say?" hissed Qrow.
The red and blue bot looked up at Qrow and answered, "When I told Ozma I had to return to stasis due to the lack of energon on this world, he was setting out to rescue a princess, Salem, from imprisonment by her father. I am asking how it went."
Ozpin felt the gazes of most of those present, the ones he'd brought into his confidence: Qrow, Taiyang, Glynda... even young Ruby. Only Yang seemed genuinely confused.
"It went… well," he said, forcing the words from his mouth. He shook his head bitterly, the joy at seeing his old friend alive overshadowed by the rising self-loathing. "Too well, perhaps," he admitted. He looked up at Optimus. "I suspect it would have been better for everyone if I had failed."
Those kindly blue eyes stared into his own for a long moment before closing as Optimus nodded.
"I understand, old friend," the Autobot leader said sympathetically.
"Do you?" Ozpin couldn't help snapping, his voice ragged as the guilt and hurt and betrayal came pouring out of him. "Do you really understand what it's like, Optimus? To have made such a mistake? To have someone you love turn on you? Betray everything? How could you possibly understand?"
Optimus looked at him silently for another long moment, weighing his next words, and in the silence, Ozpin felt the fury drain out of him again.
"Let me tell you about a gladiator from the pits of Kaon who took the name Megatronus."
Taiyang was surprised to feel his oldest daughter shift in his arm and turn around to look at the Bullhead that had brought them to that mountainside parking lot.
"Hey, Dad, are there any chairs or something in the airship?" she whispered.
"I don't think so," he whispered back.
"Then we better sit down on the ground, because this is going to take a while," muttered Yang as she proceeded to drop out of his grasp and onto the gravel with her legs crosswise.
"This is a story I should have told you long ago," lamented Optimus as he sat down himself.
With a glance at her, and then each other, Taiyang and Ruby followed suit.
"Long ago," Optimus began, "during the Rust Plague, Cybertron had resorted to a caste system in order to conserve resources to survive."
Taiyang felt his older daughter tense under his arm. "The Rust Plague was bad," she murmured quietly. "I've seen pictures. It was... bad." she repeated.
"What was supposed to have been temporary... lingered," Optimus continued. "As a young bot named Orion Pax, I was lucky. The caste I was in allowed me the freedom to explore my passions as a simple file clerk at the Library of Iacon."
"He loves books," Yang whispered. "You two'd get along great, Rubes."
"It was there, deep within the archives, that I learned how things were during the Golden Age, when freedom and liberty reigned." Optimus's voice sounded wistful, melancholy. "I began to publish articles criticizing our way of life, the injustices of our society, and the Council of Primes who ruled Cybertron."
"Bold." When had James come out of the Bullhead?
The big bot shook his head. "It is easy to be brave behind the anonymity of a false name, General."
Tai only briefly wondered how Optimus recognized James. After all, James was a public figure, and it was silly to assume these Autobots were isolated from the media, especially given what James himself had warned them about with the Decepticons.
"No, the brave one was Megatronus," Optimus continued. "He was a miner once, before he became a gladiator, but he made a name for himself fighting in the pits of Kaon. It was there that he spoke out against the Primes, challenging them openly. I sought him out, seeking to form a political alliance, to bring reform to Cybertron. We organized rallies, protest marches. We called ourselves... Decepticons."
Someone gasped. Tai wasn't sure who.
"Your leaders couldn't have been happy about that," Glynda observed astutely.
"No." Optimus shook his head. "They were not. Sentinel Major broke up one of the protests and arrested Megatronus, for which he was elevated to the Council of Primes as Sentinel Prime. As the apparent ringleader, Megatronus was sent to the mines of Tarn as a penal laborer." He paused. "But his message had been heard, and he found allies and followers in the mines, the seed of revolution. I smuggled them supplies and weapons. Megatronus shortened his name to Megatron, and under his leadership, they overthrew the overseers and took over the mines... and thus began the war."
To Tai's eyes, it seemed the big bot's gaze grew distant as he thought back to the past.
"We had much success early on, often without firing a shot," said Optimus. "The Council of Primes had ruled with a heavy hand, and people chafed under their authority. Eventually, the Primes sued for peace. Megatron and I were like brothers, and he entrusted me with the negotiations. I went to Iacon; I spoke before the Council about our beliefs, that freedom is the right of all sentient beings, that we were all individual autonomous robots. Autobots."
"How did they take it?" Tai found himself asking.
"Not well, unless I miss my guess," James said. "Politicians in power don't like uncomfortable truths that threaten that power." It was a stark reminder to Tai of the tangled mess James had found himself embroiled in.
"Just so," agreed Optimus with a nod of his head. "But the people believed. The Council implemented some of the reforms and even offered me a seat on the Council of Primes. I... declined. I felt that, if anyone, it should be Megatron who took that place." He looked up at the night sky. "Perhaps it was a mistake. Megatron broke the ceasefire. I tried to talk to him, put a stop to the fighting, but he declared me a traitor, refusing to believe I had declined to sit on the Council, and declared no quarter. Worse, in refusing to accept their offer, I had broken what little faith remained in the Council. What had been a struggle for freedom turned into anarchy as the government collapsed. Uprisings and massacres spread across Cybertron."
His head bowed in shame, Optimus continued, "Seeing what I had wrought, I retreated to the Library of Iacon. I had thought... I had thought I had caused enough harm with my mistakes, that it would be better if I stayed out of it."
"The Library," Ruby murmured longingly. "All those books. Did- did anyone try to take them?"
"Early on, some came for the knowledge, and they left with copies, freely given, but after a while… no one cared," was the sad reply. "While I sequestered myself, I searched for answers, delving even deeper into the archives. Outside, the war raged. My old friend fell deeper into darkness, growing cruel and tyrannical, becoming what we had fought against, and Sentinel Prime began to rally people to his banner under the Autobot philosophy he had once disdained."
"What did you find?" James asked. "In the archives?"
"A threat to Cybertron," Optimus answered. "A prophecy. I delved deep into the heart of Cybertron to deal with it and emerged as Optimus Prime, and when I returned, I found Sentinel Prime had fallen, leaving the Autobots leaderless. They turned to me."
"You kind of summed it up there at the end. When you told me that story, you went into a lot more detail," observed Yang. "I thought we'd be here for at least an hour."
"I did not feel that many of the details were relevant to the subject at hand," explained Optimus, briefly crossing his big metal arms.
"But you completely cut out the warlord era, or how you met Primus and were granted the Matrix of Leadership. It's the big emotional climax of the story that brings it all together," complained Yang.
"Ozma already heard that years ago, Sunfire," revealed Optimus. "I doubt that he needs to have the same story repeated ad nauseum."
Ozpin quirked a strange sort of smile. "Yes, but Miss Sunfire is right. It really is a climactic moment that now, seeing it in the greater context, really does wrap everything up in a neat little bow. Besides, it's been so many lifetimes since I heard it. What's one more telling for old time's sake?"
"Very well, I shall tell it at a later time," relented Optimus good-naturedly. "Though now I would like to sate my own curiosity. Tell me, Ozma, how did you manage to reformat yourself? All I've learned so far is that it is exceptionally difficult for such a thing to happen with the people of your world. Then again, so is the longevity you've displayed. I'm sure it's a very interesting story."
"Not very, I'm afraid," replied Ozpin with a snort. "After I freed Salem from her father's clutches, we spent a great deal of time traveling together, though we often came back to check in on the Ark. But I was too focused on adventure and grew reckless, and in my arrogance, I left myself vulnerable to a deadly disease."
Optimus shook his head. "Disease plays no favorites, old friend."
"Perhaps," Ozpin admitted. "I died. Salem... did not take it well. She… the humanity that was, the humanity of our time, is gone. The Brother Gods left Remnant, cursing us both with immortality, but while my soul reincarnates, she regenerates." He hung his head. "When I... when I first reincarnated, I looked for you, but... something happened. I could not find the Ark."
"Yes." Optimus nodded. "Much of the terrain has changed since I entered stasis. I thought it merely the passage of time. How long has it been, Ozma?"
"I must confess... I've lost track over the years," admitted Ozpin with a despondent chuckle. "As for the terrain: a relic left behind by the gods when they left Remnant was a lantern that can answer any three questions under certain restrictions every one hundred years. I asked it what happened in my absence, and among the many things shown was Salem… dropping a mountain on top of the Ark."
Yang let out a low whistle at that. "Ozpin's crazy ex has some moves."
"Yang!" chided Taiyang. "Don't make assumptions about that, especially about Salem. You never joke about her. Ever."
"It isn't a joke," said Ozpin, his words making them all very quiet. He slowly turned to look back at them. "I'm sorry, I… in a past life, I… we had children. Four wonderful little girls. They…"
Without prompting, Optimus kneeled down and put a gigantic hand on Ozpin's back. "You did everything you could to save them, old friend."
"If I had just left them alone, they would have survived," countered Ozpin. "I was too wrapped up in my own attack of conscience over Salem's dreams of conquest to really do what was right by them."
"Ozma, you did not slay your children," insisted Optimus.
"I don't think we should be here," whispered Yang. "This is a private moment. It feels wrong to be here."
"He was Salem's husband," muttered Taiyang, disbelieving.
"So what?" hissed Yang, bringing her father's gaze onto her. "Whoever she was, she turned evil, and by the time he noticed what was going on, it was too late. He's just like Optmius, only he's still hurting. Lay off him."
The blonde suddenly looked around and saw that all eyes were on her.
"You're surprisingly defensive about this," observed Ozpin in awe, having clearly overheard. "I doubt that you would be thinking that if you knew who Salem was."
"She sounds like another Megatron, and that's bad enough. So what?" countered Yang with a shrug. "She's not you, and I bet you've spent the rest of your life trying to stop her. Haven't you earned at least a little benefit of the doubt?"
"I think we all have earned an explanation though," countered James before looking at Ozpin very intently. "After all our long years of service, we have more than a few questions."
"As do we, General Ironwood," declared Optimus Prime, looking at him in turn. "Perhaps chief among them is why there are those in Atlas, especially the SDC, who have seen fit to ally with the Decepticons."
"It's actually a rather simple explanation," answered James shamefully. "The Decepticons came to us about a year and a half ago and offered us an alliance that would provide for a number of advances. The council voted in favor of it. I was the only vote against it."
"So for a few trinkets, you let SDC get fat selling people into slavery, throwing them into a meat grinder for a few bottles of energon," presumed Yang, her voice roiling with disgust.
James scowled. "What exactly was I supposed to do, Miss Xiao Long? Launch a coup and seize power? Declare martial law because I had suspicions that the Decepticons were up to no good?"
"Resign and refuse to knowingly send civilians to die," growled Yang, a touch of red coming to her eyes.
"He didn't know about those until we told him," said Glynda defensively, glaring at Yang through her spectacles.
Optimus spoke up. "We have intelligence that suggests that Winter Schnee is liaising with the Decepticons and has knowledge of their energon fabrication operations and the slave labor involved, and has been for some time. It is well-accepted that she is one of your closest confidants and most trusted subordinates, General. Given that, it seems unlikely that you were unaware," - and here, the big red bot paused for a noticeable moment - "unless, of course, she has gone rogue."
Surprising all save James, Ruby was the one to reply. "It's not like that! Winter's not… there's more going on here than meets the eye."
"And how do you know what's going on?" asked Yang with aggressive curiosity.
"I… I can't say," explained Ruby weakly, her head falling. "I've been sworn to secrecy."
"Oh." Yang's face was inscrutable for a moment, and then she smiled faintly. "Okay. Well, let me know if that changes, all right?"
"Of course," Ruby agreed, nodding fervently.
"On the subject of there being more than meets the eye going on, there is one question that has been bugging me," said Glynda suddenly, turning back to Optimus and Ozpin. "Sir, you clearly trust Optimus and trust him implicitly at that, something you don't do for anyone else. You knew about the transformers for eons now, so why didn't you say anything months ago? For that matter, Mister Prime, why do you allow such a careless, destructive, and aggressive fanatic as we've encountered among your followers?"
"I see you've met Cliffjumper." Optimus's eyes seemed to close. "He is eager and more suited to the open battlefield. Normally, his partner would... restrain his impulsiveness, but after a battle in Vacuo, he chose to strike out on his own. I was unaware he had returned to Vale."
"So the whole business about a state of war between the Autobots and the Huntsmen is…"
"Simple bluster," finished Optimus. "Cliffjumper has a tendency to act and talk without thinking. It is a tendency that has saved many lives from ambush and infiltrators over the course of the war and, thus, one he is disinclined to correct."
"You have no idea how much of a relief it is to hear that," said Ozpin with a deep sigh. "When we received the report from Team Coffee about their encounter with Cliffjumper, I had to believe that it was a confirmation of what I had feared for so long: that I had failed to protect you in your slumber so thoroughly that you had perished." He turned to look at Glynda. "That's why I kept silent about what I knew. What difference would it have made, save perhaps to snuff out hope for you all as my own hope was snuffed out?"
Optimus seemed to have become rather cross at that. "I will have to have a very forthright discussion with Cliffjumper about the effects his words and deeds have on others when he inevitably returns."
"Perhaps you should have had that talk long ago," Glynda said snippily, crossing her arms.
"I have," admitted Optimus. "But this time, I shall drive the point home far more forcefully. The consequences we have narrowly avoided are far more dire than he has ever risked before."
Glynda paused, and then nodded. "Understatement, I see. Very well, an additional question then. Have you seen the Vytal Festival Tournament broadcast earlier today? The messages sent out detailing Decepticon crimes and SDC complicity? What retaliation will the Decepticons mete out?"
"That will depend," Optimus replied. "Do you know who commands the Decepticons on Remnant?"
"Soundwave," James answered instantly.
Optimus nodded grimly. "I see. Given his predilections and Miss Weiss's decision not to name the Decepticons explicitly, if he has access to the CCT-"
"He does," James confirmed.
Optimus nodded again. "Then he will likely make an effort to suppress the information and redirect the investigation to scapegoats. Conspiracy theories and alternate speculation will already be cropping up from convincing but false users to distort the truth in the hopes of allowing the SDC to weather the storm."
James looked troubled, shaking his head. "Nothing like that's happened yet."
Optimus's expression seemed to darken. "That is most unlike Soundwave. Unless... unless he has determined the SDC is no longer of use to him. He tends to prefer subtlety, however. He may choose to do nothing except end his agreement with the SDC, perhaps even engineering their downfall in order to maintain secrecy. Or he may begin preparing to act openly, if he believes he would have a favorable advantage in open conflict."
"You mean war," Ozpin said softly.
Optimus nodded. "Yes, old friend, war, but even so, Soundwave is unlikely to launch an attack any time soon. Instead, he will likely try to engineer a conflict between their potential enemies."
"Between us, in other words?" asked Ruby with a hopeful smirk.
"Nah, Rubes, between the kingdoms," offered Qrow as he fingered his pocket for his flask of alcohol. "Salem's been at it for centuries. So why shouldn't the giant alien robot have a go of it?" He brought out his flask, unscrewed it, and looked deeply into the container with a melancholy expression. "It'll work too. Nothing the kingdoms love more than a good war. We'll all start killing each other over this, and the bad guys will come in to sweep us all away."
Qrow took a swig while others frowned at the display.
"He seems inebriated," observed Optimus with obvious concern. "Do you often bring him on missions in such a state?"
"He's always drunk," answered Glynda bitterly.
"James," Ozpin said quietly, "I would like some time to catch up with my old friend. I believe I'm in safe hands right now."
"Understood," the general agreed reluctantly with a slight but firm nod.
"Optimus?" Yang spoke up. "I, uh, about that family issue...?"
"Of course," the big bot replied. "Bumblebee?"
After a moment, headlights flared to life in the brush at the edge of the parking lot, and a canary yellow Folkcar drove out onto the parking lot. Yang's face split into a grin as she ran up to the car, whose doors popped open on their own. "Hey, Bee!" she cried cheerfully. She paused and looked back at Taiyang, Qrow, and Ruby, waving them to follow. "C'mon!"
Tai exchanged a look with his brother-in-law, but Ruby was already rushing to follow. Suddenly apprehensive again, the two men followed the sisters and climbed in.
"So," a voice emerged from the dash as the car started up, "my name's Bumblebee. Pleased to meet you."
It was dark when Thundercracker came in to land again. Unlike the previous times he had landed, he did not immediately taxi to be rearmed but instead returned to his hangar. The door was opened, and he taxied inside to find in addition to the ground crew the rest of Team APRC(T).
"Penny!" he greeted in surprise, the canopy of his Skystriker alt-mode flashing with his words. "Shadow! Mad Dog! Farsight! What are you guys doing here?"
The crew chief was shouting orders as the ground crew filled a gigantic mug with "Atlas Akademie" plastered on it up with energon.
"Thundercracker, recent events have raised several questions," began Aska in that accented voice of hers.
The blue and gray Decepticon transformed into his robot mode, and by his expression, he was obviously trying to keep it cool. It was something that Penny would have found charming once. Now she just wanted to wipe that stupid grin off his face.
"Oh, and what were those?" he asked calmly.
"Did you know?!"
Oh, Penny. It had to be Penny.
"No," he said honestly. "I did not know."
"Yet you appear unsurprised," Farsight interjected. "Has this happened before?"
He bowed his head, his optics dimming as he considered his response. "Many times," he admitted, looking up at them. "I'd hoped..." He trailed off and shook his head. "I suppose it doesn't matter now."
"How could you?!" demanded his Targetmaster partner as she stomped toward him, tears spilling from her optics.
"I'm just a soldier, a Seeker," he answered defensively. "I fly. I fight. I follow orders. That's it. This? This was a decision made way above my pay grade, enacted outside my purview."
That didn't seem to placate the coppertopped girl, as she backed away from him. Floating Array emerged from her backpack. For a moment, he thought - hoped, even - that she was going to attack him. That... that he could deal with a lot better than the hurt he saw on her face. Instead, she spun away and leapt into the air as the collection of swords combined into its hoverboard configuration and slid under her feet.
"Penny!" Farsight called, taking a couple of instinctual steps as the artificial human disappeared into the night.
"You are not just a machine, Thundercracker," Aska murmured. "You would do well to remember that."
No, he wasn't. Contrary to what organics tended to think, that wasn't something a transformer could forget. He knew full well he wasn't just a machine.
He was also a coward.
Kali Belladonna showed no outward expression as Professor Goodwitch finished her tale. It was well that she didn't, for the others in the room spoke well enough for her. Captain Brad J. Armbruster, the pilot who would fly back to warn Menagerie, looked as if his whole world had been turned upside down. And not in the manner which a pilot such as himself was used to.
"I hope it's not too late to accept Herc's offer to join the Survey Corps," he muttered, shaking his head ruefully. "Wonder if Wendall knows about this."
Kali, however, turned her focus to the other Huntsman Academy professor in the room. "This is quite a tale, General," she said, "much of it involving Atlas, yet you've been silent this entire time."
"I cannot legally confirm or deny any of what Glynda has said," he answered carefully. "Nor can I legally divulge any additional information I may or may not have. In the spirit of cooperation, however, I would recommend the Menagerie Defense Force be placed on high alert. Given the specific nature of today's events, the possibility exists that a... punitive expedition may be mounted against Menagerie."
"I see." Kali pressed her lips tight at that and nodded slowly. The general was clearly doing the best he could from a difficult position, and it sounded like these "Decepticons" were the spiteful type. She was all too aware of how far beyond reason and sense spite could drive a person. It was why she and her husband had left the White Fang, after all; they'd tried to guide them onto a different path, but one could not lead those who would not follow.
"If that's all, ma'am, me and my WSO can go get our Night Raven to fly within the hour. We'll be back in Menagerie with the rising sun," Armbruster declared.
Kali nodded. "Do it. I'll include a message for my husband to back up your report."
"As will I," announced Professor Goodwitch. "I've been preparing a blanket report, and hopefully, this will help Menagerie be prepared for the situation."
Ironwood cocked an eyebrow at her. "Did you happen to also include what we learned tonight?"
"No, but since Optimus sees no reason to hide anymore…" Goodwitch trailed off as she refocused on Kali.
"Let me guess, there's a Decepticon who defected," guessed Kali, based off the name, the previous topic, and the subtleties of their expressions.
"That is… rather more accurate than one might think," confirmed Goodwitch, arching an eyebrow.
Captain Armbruster let out a whistle. "Yikes, Missus B, remind me never to play poker against you."
"I would rather you didn't play poker at all," replied Kali with a sidelong glance before shifting focus back to the professors. "You said 'more accurate,' so it's not the full story. Explain."
"We don't have the full story ourselves-"
"It apparently goes on for hours," interjected Ironwood.
"-but the short of it is that one of the original co-founders of the Decepticons left the faction and, following a long series of convoluted events, eventually rose to become leader of the main opposing faction to them: the Autobots," answered Goodwitch. "A ship full of these Autobots crash-landed on Remnant thousands of years ago and has now woken up. They are led by that defector: Optimus Prime. We met with him just tonight, and he's now formed an alliance with Headmaster Ozpin."
"So now there's two warring robot factions?" asked Kali.
"Yes," confirmed Professor Goodwitch with a nod.
"Their war, our world," Kali mused. "And are these Autobots really any better?"
"Ozpin has reason to trust them," Ironwood answered cryptically.
That raised the hairs on the back of Kali's neck. Headmaster Ozpin was a well-respected and influential figure, certainly, but to defer so much to his judgment...
There must be something more going on here. She filed that thought away for later.
"Thank you," she said instead.
Just as she rose to leave, Ironwood's scroll buzzed. He glanced at it and frowned. "Excuse me," he said. "I have to take this."
Kali watched as he stepped into a corner and spoke hurriedly into his scroll, his expression darkening. Even with her secondary ears, she couldn't quite make out what he was saying, save for the general mentioning a name: Asuka.
But his actions spoke louder than words when he bolted from the room without so much as a by-your-leave.
Silas observed his quarry on the screen. He was aboard one of MECH's Whispers; the stealth airship, equipped with a complement of surveillance drones and the most advanced electronics they could get their hands on, was built to serve as a mobile observation and command center. It was hardly defenseless, of course, but it wasn't intended to fight.
They had other assets for that.
He glanced at another screen, which showed a top-down digital reconstruction of the area and the transponder tags of his men. They were in position.
"Alpha, Bravo," he spoke into the comm, "Target Papa is moving into position. Execute in your own time."
"Yes, sir," the two team leaders chorused.
Silas watched as the icons representing his men adjusted their position to account for the target's actual position and heading, the icon representing the target flying blissfully unaware into the ambush.
"Target Papa in sight," Bravo Lead reported. "Engaging."
Bravo had the hard part. They had to engage the target and draw its attention. Playing bait was always a risky mission, one for which they would be earning a bonus tonight.
He couldn't hear the staccato of gunfire or see the flash of lasers, not from here, but he could well imagine what was happening down there.
"Target Tango is on the move." That was Delta, observing the airfield.
"Alpha, Bravo, now," he ordered.
With that, Alpha engaged from behind. The electro-nets had proven useful before, and he was banking on that working here as well. Target Papa's icon seized up and then plummeted to the ground. He hoped the fall wouldn't damage it too much. He shifted his attention to Target Tango as it screamed through the air toward Alpha and Bravo's position.
"Charlie, moving to intercept."
Charlie was an unfortunate necessity. They had the firepower needed for Target Tango, but they were loud. Once they engaged, they would have to trade stealth for speed.
Target Tango, fortunately, was quite predictable. Charlie moved into position with their Skygraspers and deployed EMP warheads, supported by further electro-nets from Alpha and Bravo.
"Targets Papa and Tango subdued and secure, sir," Alpha Lead said. "Moving to extraction."
Silas breathed a sigh of relief and smiled.
A most successful mission.
"Uh, Bee, we just passed the infirmary," Yang pointed out. She, her sister, her father, and her Uncle Qrow were currently riding the Autobot through the Ark's hallways.
"Ratchet had him moved to a private room," Bumblebee explained. "It's just up ahead."
"So," Ruby said, her neck craning as she tried to take everything in, "Yang, you said there was a big family thing here. What's this all about?"
Yang looked over her shoulder at their father who sat in the back with Uncle Qrow. "You didn't tell her?"
"I figured it would be better to wait until we were about to meet him," he explained. "You know how she gets."
Yang chuckled and nodded. "I sure do. It- ah... Rubes. We have a brother."
The younger girl froze, silver eyes wide and staring at her before narrowing in annoyance.
"Okay," she said, "I know I kind of got carried away with the whole 'brother' thing a while back, but don't you think this is a bit much, Yang?"
"'Strue," Qrow interjected, sipping from his flask. "Raven had him before we came to Beacon."
Ruby didn't respond.
"Rubes?" Yang asked worriedly. Wait. What was that whining sound?
"...eeeeeEEEEE!" Ruby shrieked. "A brother? Seriously? Best! Birthday gift! EVER! What are we waiting for?!"
She exploded into a cloud of rose petals and flitted out of Bumblebee. She rematerialized next to a door up ahead and began bouncing on the balls of her feet. "In here?" she asked excitedly. "Is this the right door?"
"Yeah, it is," Bumblebee confirmed as he pulled up next to the door.
"Settle down, Ruby," her father said as Bumblebee popped open his doors. "He's not going anywhere." He paused and glanced at his older daughter. "Is he, Yang?"
"He'd better not," the blonde growled as she and the two men climbed out of Bumblebee.
The Autobot transformed into bot mode and reached up to a panel next to the door. "I'll stay out here, give you guys some privacy," he said as the door slid open.
"So, why didn't we know about him earlier?" Ruby asked as they walked in.
Qrow shook his head. "Raven said he was dead."
"She thought I was."
Ruby turned to the new voice, ignoring the hiss of the door sliding shut behind them. Reclining in the cot was a young man with dark red hair - perhaps a few shades lighter than her own - and blue eyes. An ugly scar marred his face over one eye, in the shape of a rectangle around the letters "SDC." He looked distinctly unamused.
"So," he said to Ruby, "you're actually real."
"Huh," Qrow said, peering at Adam critically. "Haven't seen you since you were a baby."
"Is that something that just runs in the family, Uncle Qrow?" Yang growled.
Adam ignored them, instead studying the younger girl as she stared at him, those silver eyes wide. Silver eyes, just like Summer Rose. Mother had mentioned them more than once - the tribe had sung songs about them - and in person, there was no mistaking them.
The bloodcrowned girl walked slowly towards the bed where Adam lay, her face impassive. The rest of her family followed in her wake, and eventually, she came to a stop right next to him. Her expression was still unreadable.
Adam raised an eyebrow at her. "If you're going to judge me, then at least-"
He was cut off by Ruby snapping out to embrace him, the softness of her face's skin standing in sharp contrast to his unshaven stubble, and in contrast to both were the tears that were slipping between them. "I love you, Big Brother. Don't you ever forget that."
"You just met me," he protested, old suspicions flaring, the hair on the back of his neck rising.
But then... this was the daughter of the fabled Summer Rose, with courage and kindness in equal measure, someone who was somehow, impossibly, strong enough... to be gentle.
"Doesn't matter," she mumbled, hugging him tighter.
Another pair of arms wrapped around them. "It really doesn't, Son. Welcome home."
He looked up at the blond man. "You are not my father." Adam didn't know who his father was, but given his mother was human, his father had to be a faunus, and this man certainly wasn't.
"No, I am your stepfather," the man countered. "Taiyang Xiao Long, Raven's husband."
"I didn't think he was the hugging type," commented Sunfire with obvious amusement.
"I'm not!" protested Adam as he began to squirm, struggling to escape the group hug.
"Eeyup, that confirms it. Branwen men are prickly like that," said a scraggly black-haired man who waved at him. "Since we're introducing ourselves, I'm your Uncle Qrow."
Adam could feel his eyes narrow slightly at that, because he certainly recognized the name. "How do I know you're the real Qrow and not just some random drunk taken off the streets?"
"You say that as though those two are mutually exclusive," Taiyang stated mirthfully.
Qrow glared at the blond man before shifting his focus back to Adam. "Your mom ever show you her... special gift?"
Adam's eyes narrowed. "There are a lot of things that might refer to," he observed noncommittally. "You might need to be more specific."
"I mean this," the man said before he vanished, replaced with a red-eyed crow perched on the end of his bed.
That... that was hard to fake. Few enough knew of Raven's-
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold the scroll!" Sunfire's - Yang's - voice interrupted his thoughts. "Since when did you have an alt-mode, Uncle Qrow?!"
The man, Qrow - Uncle Qrow, Adam supposed - popped back into his human form. "Since before you were born, kiddo."
"What?!" gasped the blonde woman. "You managed to hide the fact that you were an alien from us this whole time?"
Qrow sputtered and looked at her like she was crazy... a natural reaction to any of Sunfire's antics. "What?! I'm not an alien."
"But you have an alt-mode," pointed out the blond with wild gesticulations. "Neither humans nor faunus have alt-modes."
"It's magic," interrupted Adam, drawing the squabblers' eyes to him. "Mother has the same ability; she explained it was a terrible curse placed on her and her brother by some crazy old wizard on a damned fool idealistic crusade."
"Typically uncharitable of Raven," commented Qrow before taking a swig from his flask.
"Not entirely an inaccurate description of Ozpin, though," said an amused Taiyang, thankfully backing away. "From a certain point of view, anyway."
"Yeah, a terrible point of view," declared Yang with clear derision. "To chaos with the idea of insulting him. Ozpin is no different from Optimus, and he needs our support, not the condemnations of a coward and a thief."
Adam could feel the arms Ruby had wrapped around him constricting ever so slightly tighter, probably in response to what was being said.
"You can let go now," he told her bluntly.
"No, you've clearly been suffering from a hug shortage."
Not bluntly enough, clearly.
"Just like Weiss!"
Adam felt his brand new eye twitching. Urge. To kill. Rising.
"Where have you been all this time?" murmured Ruby. "You said Raven thought you were dead?"
"Yeah, kid, what's the story?" probed Qrow.
Adam's expression darkened as he looked at Qrow. "While you were away, someone in the tribe sold me off. When she came back, they told her I died. And when she found out otherwise, she came for me."
"And she never told me," Qrow muttered. "I thought we were family."
"To her, the tribe is family," Adam pointed out. "I don't think she sees family the way you do. Like how she always told me she gave each family member one save, and that was it. She never did say whether getting me out of the mines counted. But I guess leaving the tribe solved that issue."
"So why'd you do it?" Ruby asked curiously. "Why did you leave?"
"I was a faunus in a tribe of humans, a tribe that had already sold me into slavery once," Adam reminded her. "I'd seen what happened to faunus in the mines; I'd lived it. Mother may have saved me, but… I couldn't stop thinking about the ones she - we - left behind. And I wanted revenge. Probably more the latter than the former, and I think Mother understood better than I did what I wanted. She told me to make them hurt and not to expect any help from her."
"Yeah, that sounds like her," grumbled Qrow.
"What changed?" asked Ruby, and still, there wasn't any judgment in her voice, just a constant outpouring of familial love.
Adam looked up and met Yang's eyes, a calm and loving lilac that he never thought he would see expressed in a face like that. "I met Sunfire, we teamed up to stop the bad guys, and she stuck around. Her and the Autobots. If it hadn't been for them, I don't think I ever would have gotten into this situation."
That, somehow, got her to finally let go, and she rushed over to hug her sister. "Thank you, Yang."
The blonde returned the hug. "Anytime, Sis."
Silver eyes blinked, as if in realization. "Hey, wait a second, if you're Sunfire, does that mean that you're the one who saved me at the docks that night?"
Adam blanched in surprise, pointing a finger at Ruby. "That was you?! You're the one who I heard rushed into the middle of a three-way firefight? I've got to agree with my White Fang brothers who were there: you have got to stop running in like that. You could have been killed!"
The bloodcrowned girl slumped like a puppet with its strings cut. "Why is that what everyone in the world remembers about me?"
Sunfire clapped a hand onto Ruby's back. "Hey, don't worry about it, Rubes. As long as I'm around, you'll always have backup… apparently. I actually don't remember much about that night."
"Well, you were wielding a red sword, for one," mused Ruby aloud.
"You used my sword? You used Wilt?!" asked Adam pointedly. "Come on, Sunfire, you're killing me!"
"Hey, I didn't use it for anything you wouldn't have. Probably," Yang declared defensively as her eyes started to shift suspiciously.
There was a soft gasp from Ruby. "You use a sword? Can I see?! Please!"
"Sure, why not? Just as long as it's only looking," allowed Adam, to which the bloodcrowned girl let out a high-pitched squeal of delight.
"Oh, thank you, Big Brother! You're the best!" declared Ruby with a movie poster worthy smile.
"You are never this accomodating to me," whined Yang.
"I've been plenty accomodating with ignoring all the times you've punched me in the face," shot back Adam. "Besides, I want to find out what happened to my sword."
Yang coughed into her fist. "Well, Ironhide was able to pick up most of the pieces, and Ratchet was able to find more inside you, and, well, after sterilization, they put them all in… this!"
The blonde had walked over to a large, shining steel container in the room, only Adam saw that it wasn't a container at all but rather a comically-oversized surgical dish that had an equally large shrink wrap cover. The rest of her family seemed rather taken aback by it. He had a bad feeling about this.
When Sunfire finished dragging the tray over, Ruby lurched over to look inside and let out a gasp of despair. "Oh no, it's all in tiny little pieces."
Adam made to get up out of the bed but found himself wobbling. Without prompting, Taiyang reached out and grabbed hold of him. His voice was calm as he spoke.
"Easy there, Son. I got you," the blond assured him as Adam stood up with his bare feet on the floor.
"I can stand on my own," insisted the redhead hotly.
"Not with me around, you can't," said Qrow suddenly, prompting the others to look at him, and then he shrugged shamefully. "Sorry."
Taiyang snorted and rolled his eyes as they started to walk over to the oversized dish that was more of a kidney-shaped tub. "In case your mother didn't explain this to you, your uncle's semblance is bad luck, and he just can't keep it to himself."
"Oh, haha, very funny," complained the black-haired man. "You know, if that's the thanks I get, maybe next time, I won't save us all from Cobra."
"Who?" asked Yang in confusion, an expression mirrored by everyone else.
Uncle Qrow seemed rather defeated by that. "They're a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world."
"Oh, like MECH," answered Ruby and Yang in unison, which made them look at each other.
Before Adam could add his two cents about the White Fang, he reached the bin and looked down through the transparent covering to see that Wilt… was gone. The sword was destroyed utterly, shattered into a million and more different pieces. The most intact part of it happened to be the handle, which was still split such that it looked like a crushed log. Blush had fared somewhat better, but it was bent beyond use, likely a casualty of the artillery barrage that had ended the battle.
He laughed. Bitterly, hysterically, he laughed.
"You all right, Son?" asked Taiyang in concern.
"It's funny," he answered. "In a way, that sword was a symbol of my hatred, my vengeance, and I always had a feeling that it would come back to bite me in the end. Now it has."
"Actually," began Sunfire, ruining the moment in that typical way of hers, "if this sword hadn't taken the shot from Cinder's ridiculously overclocked nucleon charge rifle, you would be dead right now. Not to mention that you never would have gotten the DNA test that proved we were siblings if you hadn't been filled with so much shrapnel, and if that hadn't happened, I don't know how I ever would have been able to go back to Beacon."
Ruby gasped joyously. "Then this sword brought our family back together again! It should be reforged and remade into a new weapon!"
Taiyang patted Adam on the back. "Summer always used to say that there was a plan for us all, and though we couldn't always see it, things would work out in the end. Looks like she was right."
"I name it Kinfinder!" continued Ruby unabated.
"Summer… Summer Rose. I think... I think Mother regretted not bringing me to live with you while she was still alive," mused Adam, remembering pieces of a day so long ago when he had helped his mother bury a body.
"It's going to be a laser-sword. No! A sword-laser," the bloodcrowned girl prattled on.
"She would have adored you," said Taiyang with a wistful air.
"Hey, Big Brother," interrupted Ruby excitedly, drawing the attention of the menfolk. "Which do you like the sound of more: wind dust to create a giant tornado when you swing your sword or hard light dust to make a double sword, or would you want to try and find a way to do both? I have this friend who's a ninja from Atlas, and she has this sword that she uses that can switch between various kinds of dust, but she usually just sticks to fire and lightning dust, and neither of those are very elegant."
Adam looked from Ruby to the blonde smiling like an idiot next to her. "Your sister is very strange."
"You mean 'our sister is very strange,'" corrected Sunfire.
"Yaaang!" whined Ruby.
The rest of the family couldn't help but laugh at the display, and Adam found himself smiling for reasons he couldn't quite explain, feeling for the first time in a long time... content.
Penny felt her mind drifting out of a thick fog as her brain module rebooted and her optics began to refocus. It felt odd thinking about herself in such a way, as she always preferred using organic terms, even if they weren't the most accurate. Perhaps it was something coming back through her bond with Thundercracker? Or perhaps she had just been spending too much time around Farsight, since the blue-haired girl was a stickler for accuracy to an extent that Penny just found to be ridiculous.
Her thoughts came to a screeching halt as she realized that she was laying on a table in the middle of a large room with a bright surgical light overhead making it impossible for her to see outside its light. That alone would have been terrifying enough, but she could start to feel panic setting in when she realized that she had been tied down by metal bands to the table and that all her clothes had been stripped away. That panic reached a crescendo when she saw the masked men around her.
Suddenly, it all came crashing back. She'd been angry and gone out with her swords in hoverboard mode to do something, anything. She had been attacked by the forces of MECH, and she had used her scroll to call her team, and then… and then she was on this table, captured.
Penny tried not to panic, tried not to give into those oh-so-human-like instincts. Instead, she had the presence of mind to think back to her ninjutsu training. It was her worst subject, but she had learned several important things in there, like how to escape from individualized confinement. The first thing she needed to do was distract the guards, and once she was able to dislocate her wrist…
"Well, it seems our prisoner is awake," came the calm suave voice of an adult male.
Out into Penny's field of view stepped a man with fair skin marred by numerous scars on his visible face, with close shaved hair and dressed in a dark green jumpsuit much like the others in MECH. His expression seemed polite but disinterested. She found it to be profoundly unsettling, not like the unsettling she had overheard some of her fellow Atlas Academy students complain about where men and boys would be looking at them and trying to snatch glimpses of their reproductive organs like they were pieces of meat, however that comparison was supposed to make sense. This was much more clinical.
"What do you want with me?" asked Penny on instinct, dreading the answer.
The man shrugged. "A full body scan, copies of the technologies inside you, a lot of different things. Frankly, we've already done most of that, so we just need you to stay alive and be a good little hostage to hold over the Seeker."
A hostage? A hostage? Was that all she was worth now?
She was vaguely offended by that. She was the most advanced piece of Atlesian technology in existence, containing multiple breakthroughs that had never been seen before, a fusion of human knowhow with a complex alien technology, a testament to her father's genius... and this guy wanted to use her as a hostage?
He must have noticed her feelings somehow, because his next words made her energon blood run cold. "If it makes you feel any better, I can have you deactivated and taken apart after we're done with your friend."
"Don't you dare hurt Thundercracker!" hissed Penny, lurching up in her bonds.
"No, no, I think there's another use for you," continued the man, ignoring her outburst. "A little remodeling, a little reprogramming, and we'd have the perfect agent to infiltrate the Joes. Yes, that will work."
Penny felt her mind flatlining and fear flooding her anew. "'Reprogramming'?"
The man was utterly unmoved. "Don't worry. We'll give you a memory wipe when that happens. That way you won't feel conflicted about killing General Flagg and anyone who gets in your way."
Unconsciously, Penny began to feel tears welling up in her eyes. Father, Sun, Ciel, Ruby, Aska, Rufus, Father, Thundercracker, General Ironwood, Father, all her classmates, Neptune, Professor Snake Eyes, upperclassmen like Rainbow, Father, Teams ABRN and JNPR, children like Molly, everyday people who she'd interacted with, so many faces were falling past her eyes. So many friends, compatriots, family, fans, the events she'd participated in, the places she'd seen, the traumas she had endured, the promises made, the secrets shared, all gone like… tears in the rain.
Father… I never even got to say goodbye, Penny wept in her mind. I never even got to tell you that I loved you one last time.
"That's for the future, though. For now, we have a message to send to your Decepticon friend, to prove we're serious," said the man with wicked casualness before making a gesture. Into the light was wheeled, of all things, a giant industrial buzzsaw. The table she was on split apart, moving her left leg out on its own, and the buzzsaw was positioned over her leg, just proximal to her kneecap. The man spoke again then. "Scream. Or don't. No one cares either way."
The buzzsaw started up, and as the whirling of the blade filled the air, so too did Penny's screams.
Author's Note 1 (Cyclone):
This chapter was turning into a gigantic monster of a chapter, hence we're splitting it up into more manageable chunks. Also, this way, we get at least some content out to you faster. And a cliffhanger.
Author's Note 2 (Cody MacArthur Fett):
So the bit about the Rust Plague was written months before this pandemic business or the lockdowns or the backlash against the lockdowns were even dreamt to be possible. We came up with this backstory by cannibalizing the comics. This is not a commentary on current events. You hear me, Tropers? It is not a commentary on current events.
The conversation between Optimus and Ozpin at the beginning was originally part of the conversation at the end of the last chapter, interestingly enough. Except that originally there was a line in it that said "chapter break." It worked too well as a cliffhanger to do otherwise. If we hadn't gone with that cliffhanger we probably would have folded up this chapter into the previous one, with the possible exception of that conversation between Adam and his family.
Speaking of that conversation, that was another one that was partially written ahead of time. It's one of those things that we've been holding onto for a year and just couldn't wait to get out there. There's just so much catharsis there, and Ruby's interactions with Adam are just a joy to see. I personally must have read over that scene half a dozen times while writing this chapter. I just couldn't help myself.
The bit with Penny, by the way, was originally part of the same event alongside "Winter's Soldiers." However, we ended up splitting those two events up in order to serve different purposes. One of those purposes wasn't originally having Silas quote/paraphrase Beria, but it worked out in the end.