Snippet 183

Old Shards Make a New Picture – Cracks in the Mirror 8

Gerne: Angst/Drama/Dark

Pairs: Past one-sided Arkos, Cold Colours (Whitley/Neon), Black Sun (Blake/Sun), Pink Lotus (Ren/Nora), Emerald/Mercury (Jaded)

Parody: RWBY

AU-Type: Canon-esque AU (Post Fall of Beacon)

Tags: Character exploration, TW: Alcoholism, TW: Death, Dealing with Loss, Internal Strife, Deconstruction, Mental Issues, Guilt Eats You Alive, Camp Camp Cameo, Coming to a Close, Adapting Out Maria, In response to V7-V8

Note: Whitley is a bit older in this verse, a bit closer in age to Weiss.

With most of Salem's minions dead to Ruby or gone rogue, Watts was functionally the last of Team WTCH. Salem did not want to admit it, but he knew they were practically screwed. Watts had told her repeatedly that recruiting Cinder was a bad idea or at the least take in more girls more culpable of being corrupted. Not that it matters seeing Watts was being choked to death by Salem…all for pointing out that they were no further position to fight. Watts could feel his aura break as he gasped for air before Salem let him go citing for him to get out of her sight.

BANG!

A gunshot rang out…but Salem felt no bullet. She turned to see Watts had blown his brains out opting to spite Salem for the first and final time leaving her all alone.

O=+=O

It had taken pulling out her inner Rose to smack Cordo around, but here she was with her teammates being flown to Atlas by the Ace-Ops and Winter themselves.

"So…care to explain how's your journey been? I hope Qrow has looked after you all well." Winter said seeing the quiet looks on their faces. "Is something wrong?"

"Plenty of things. I wasn't in a good place mentally…most of us weren't. Right now, I have a simple goal. Expose Salem to the world…and we make very hard for to get people on her side." Ruby said firmly.

"It's the first time since Salem managed a direct hit on the kingdoms like this…it's time to bring the war out of the shadows." Ozpin thought as Oscar twitched.

"Wait a second, this is the first time she's gotten this far. What? Was she lazing around her castle all these years?" Oscar thought.

"I don't even know myself." Ozpin thought back.

"Honestly, as much as I drink, I don't have the feeling to do it. I just feel utterly drained." Qrow admitted. "At least with Salem's goons dead to the wind, we can rest for the moment."

O=+=O

RWBY, JNR, Qrow, and Oscar would make to Atlas. Ironwood was let in on what happened to which he let them in on his plan for the communications tower. Ruby was straight with the general admitting to not exactly being completely mentally well, but still wanting to fight and help anyway she could. Ironwood simply let her stay, and even directed her to the therapist he sees.

Weiss would return home to find her father no longer living there and Whitley having taken over. He had finally amassed enough to oust his father and take the company for himself. He promptly handed over the evidence to his sister. Winter would get quite a shock.

Robyn Hill and her Happy Huntresses would end up arrested. Ruby did not exactly sympathize with her all too much this time around. Whitley would end up taking the councilman seat as his father once dreamed of. Because of the assumption Salem had some grand attack planned, there was a rush to get the communications satellite up and running. Jaune applied his semblance to help form aura batteries to empower and it was live with the kingdoms all having connection once again.

O=+=O

Ruby could not help but feel relived to tell the world of Salem. A month of training with actual huntsmen and some down time did wonders for her and the others. Her, Oscar, and technically Ozpin were up sitting on the rooftops of Mantle.

"I have this feeling that we're waiting for something that won't happen." Ozpin admitted.

"Ozpin thinks Salem may not even attack…" Oscar said to Ruby.

"Good. Let her have second thoughts about even stepping out of the Grimmlands." Ruby said spitefully. "She's nothing but a withered husk of what was a person. Now the whole world knows who you are and how much of a piece of shit you are, Salem."

Ozpin could not help but inwardly sigh.

"Don't hate yourself for this, Oz. This really isn't your fault…mostly. I mean you didn't know she was a monster until it was too late." Oscar thought back.

"The sun's setting." Ruby said getting up. "C'mon, let's get something warm to drink. My treat."

(A/N: A tiny bit rushed, but there's not much left all considering Salem killed her last minion. I actually wanted to end it here, but I needed one more entry to wrap up Jaune, Yang, Blake, and Weiss.)