(Should be slotted into Chapter 26, after the line 'hold her off')
Ruby watched as Penny attacked, her back spilling out swords on wires. How the heck did those work, and where can she get some...wait no focus. She's team leader, she has to assess, like Professor Oobleck said, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of fix. So she watched as Penny danced, Jaune holding her off pretty well, as her swords seemed to be less strong when she was close to him, and her focus kept going in and out, like she was fighting something in her mind.
'Okay, Penny is holding her own, but not for long, Jaune is a killer, he's killed...a lot of people who were more skilled than us. We can't hope to win against him, and Penny attacked him, after he was backing off. Penny's a friend, we should defend her...but Blake is a friend too, and while it wasn't a promise, I told her I wouldn't seek out Jaune...which I kind of did, even if I didn't know it,' her thoughts started to spin, in the half second as Penny was fending off attacks from a dozen White Fang.
"Okay, let's go! Penny, we're leaving!" she shouted, her first sentence causing her sister to surge forward, only to nearly fall over as the second sentence left her mouth. Yang skidded to a halt, and spun around on her heels as she faced her little sister.
"Rubes! What are you talking about? Penny's got him pinned. We go in, help her nail his ass to the wall, and we'll be heroes," he complained, but Ruby shook her head. This was what Oobleck and Port meant. This was time to show her leadership, and so she motioned.
"We told Blake we'd avoid this fight, and I'm keeping my word with that. Besides, if Penny can hold him here for even ten minutes, Atlas can bring in the heavy guns, and actually rescue people. We go in, and a lot of them are going to die," she said, and Weiss, without a word, nodded, using her powers to create a glyph on the ground.
"But-," began Yang, as Weiss pushed her back.
"Your team leader gave you an order, now follow it!" shouted the heiress, as she jammed Myrtenaster into the ground, causing the glyph to explode into a cover of fog, the White Fang pointing weapons at them, but they were gone by the time it cleared, rushing away, as Ruby pulled out her scroll, and hoped Penny could hold on until help arrived.
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Jaune found out what she was on accident. The mist, it was water and stuff in the air. It was spreading over the whole of the warehouse, and as it spread, it got on everything. The girl in front of him, with her orange hair, dodged one of his shots, right into the stuff, and then, as he watched, she sparked, and twitched. A robot then, another one of Atlas' little toys, and one he would take pleasure in breaking.
Suddenly unfettered by concern for life, he rushed her, forcing her back thanks to how weak her sword strikes were in the Null Zone, and then blasting her. He had aimed for the leg, but literally blew her foot off instead. Whatever, same effect, as the wind up doll toppled over, and even as she tried to force herself back up, he used his knife to stab her in the eye, getting a nice whine from her, as she tried to say something, and it electronically distorted.
The others in the warehouse, still loading the dust into the bullheads, were shocked to watch as Jaune did his grim work, slowly peeling away her skin to reveal the circuits and wires that dominated her innards. When he was done, when she'd finally stopped twitching and moving, he got up, and wiped his brow, before ordering them to get everything on board, as they needed to go, before those kids called in some more powerful backup.
Redoubling their speed, the White Fang members had most of it done in less than five minutes, one finally breaking away, a racoon man, who looked over Penny's remains, and then turning to Jaune, asking if he wanted to keep her as a trophy, or if he could take her. He knew a few places back in Menagerie that would go bonkers for taking apart some of Atlas' latest tech.
Jaune told him to have at it, and rubbing his hands together over the still body of what had the form of a young woman, in a way that made even Jaune who'd been stabbing her shudder, the racoon started to dig around inside her, tossing out some bits and bobs, claiming them to be not advanced enough, or simply things they didn't need, as he inspected her swords and other construction.
Finally, he took her on board, and the bullhead lifted away, as Roman, Neo, and Jaune vanished, leaving behind a far emptier dock, one that would soon be crawling with Atlas units, guns at the ready, but having missed the party by a good half an hour. Still, they'd made some good will, as they 'rescued' the hostages, and took stock of what had happened, relaying it all back to the airship above.
It was a complete wash. Penny was missing, though the news reports the next day, watched closely by Team RWBY, would fail to report on that, at all. Their questions to the police would be turned aside, and Ruby herself would wonder just what was going on, that everyone ignored it, while on the docks, life would quickly get back to normal, the need for business overcoming any reluctance about the site having been attacked.
At exactly 11:06 AM the next day, less than twenty-four hours after the White Fang had stolen several containers of Dust, the entire dockyard would go up in a blaze, the explosion tearing through not only the building, but detonating a fresh shipment of Dust, causing even more damage to the yards around them. The news would show images of people, lit aflame by the blast, and it would scar those who saw it for life.
Instantly Atlas blamed the White Fang, claiming this to be some kind of terroristic threat, but the White Fang would counter easily, pointing out, through their channels, that if they had access to such explosive, then Atlas itself would be in flames already. However, one man ignored all of this, and ordered his people to bring him the one responsible for this, as he waited in a room deep inside his ship, and almost wept at the idiocy of it all.
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Pietro Polendina objected, as he was wheeled into the room, his personal chair, with all its nice, safety options, having been swapped out for a wheelchair from the sickbay. Why? Well, he claimed to have no idea, and demanded that Specialist Schnee explain her actions. However, his objects died in his throat, as he was finally brought into one of those out of the way rooms on the battleship, and inside, James Ironwood sat on the other side of a small table.
"As ordered sir, the prisoner has been brought to you," she said, and Pietro turned.
"Prisoner?! Now see here, both of you, I demand you stop the charade at once, and allow me to return to my work! I have to find Penny! The White Fang cannot be allowed to study her," he said, sounding, almost, sincere in his tone, but Ironwood wasn't fooled as he turned to Winter, and nodded.
"Good, please obtain the item I requested. I'll inform you of when I need it," he ordered, and Winter saluted, before leaving the room, shutting the door with a heavy, deafening clang of metal, the lock sliding automatically into place, and sealing the two inside. And there they would sit, in silence, with James Ironwood glaring at the inventor, his eyes never wavering, never taking on the steely tint of Mettle, but instead just watching.
Pietro rode through that silence for what felt like hours, as James just sat, saying nothing. It was a heavy silence, one that just kept going, the kind of silence that weighs on a man, and soon Pietro was sweating, despite the slight chill in the room. His eyes darted around, not looking for the way out, so much as anything to think about, other than those eyes boring down into his soul, unblinking.
"What are you doing, James?" he asked at last, hoping to break the silence, and James said nothing, simply folding his arms across his chest in answer, Pietro scoffing at the tactic, but the silence broken, would not return. No, this vacuum needed filling.
"If this is about the dock, the White Fang were behind that, surely. We have to go after them, after Penny. We can't just leave them to have at her. Her systems, the design of her blades, even just the metal that makes up her inner frame. If they can figure out how I designed aura conductive metals we'll be in trouble, and you damn well know it," he accused, and Ironwood nodded, as he reached beneath the table, and pulled out a folder that had apparently been stuck to the underside of it.
"That explosive charge was a type 3-R detonation charge. The same kind, I might add, you have in your chair as a hold out charge. The one they call the 'Dead Man's Last Laugh', because it will kill you, and anyone else in the room with you, without fail," he said, pushing the pictures and analysis of the explosive across the table, spreading it out, along with pictures of various people.
"And it lived up to that name today. Four-hundred-twenty-seven people went into work. Laborers, clerks, and simple staff. It should have been safe. I didn't even assign any of my own forces to the job, given it was broad daylight hours, and they would have gotten in the way. I was discussing with the Vale police force assigning a few tonight, but…," he let that hang in the air, especially given they both knew how the news cycle was taking this.
Atlas had to have known, as they didn't have any of their people caught in the blast. It didn't hurt that the dust on the docks was stuff emergency shipped, overnight, from Atlas itself, for a good fee by the Schnee Dust Company. The SDC was, because they were just that stupid, already claiming poverty over the loss of almost twenty containers of Dust, as if they couldn't replace that in an hour from any of their mines by overworking their faunus labor.
The dead weren't even all accounted for completely yet, at least not according to the news. They were though. It was just a matter of getting the information to the families first, then letting the list out when it came time. Regardless, a lot of people weren't going home tonight, or ever again, and he sat there, allowing Pietro to just drink in that thought, the doctor's eyes going very empty for what felt like ages, before he finally turned to him.
"I...there's no proof. No evidence that links any of this back to us. The White Fang could have easily stolen such a charge, even if it is experimental. They've been raiding Chivalric Arms facilities after all. If they grabbed one there, and left it in the docks, just to frame us, it would turn public opinion against them," he said, laying it out, exactly as the Council would do to him later, both men knew it.
"There's proof," was all he said, as he gently pushed a button on his arm, and a small piece popped out of it. The thumbdrive was then plugged into the wall behind him, both men waiting in silence as what was on it was processed, and then slowly but surely, resolved into a data stream. Raw numbers that meant nothing at first, then into an image of the Docks on the screen built into the wall.
That image showed data receivers, throughout the docks, and then a wash of them, as a new signal came in, one that...oh gods, one that zoomed out to show the point of origin had to be the airship, simply from the way it was received.. The Atlas airship in the sky above. It wasn't proof, not airtight, but in the face of what had happened, people wouldn't be looking for perfect proof. They'd be looking for someone to blame, and Atlas was now on top of that list, two times over.
"This proves nothing. We can say it was a-" he was cut off, as Jame slammed his large iron fist into the table between them, breaking it in two, and then standing up, tossing the pieces that had fallen onto one of his legs aside, and letting the other clatter to the floor loudly, as he simply loomed above Pietro, obviously not buying any of this, but what else could the doctor do in this situation?
"WE can SAY whatever we want. I no longer care to lie, however. I want the truth, and you are going to give it to me, right now. Otherwise, I will have to take more drastic action," he informed him darkly, and Pietro simply sat there, as Ironwood finally moved back to the wall, banishing the image of the dock, and then bringing up...Penny.
"This is the unit that was lost in the docks, her schematics have the exact kind of explosive unit that set off this dire circumstance," he began, and Pietro seemed about to object, only to be silenced with a look.
"This unit, according to the reports of the team of Huntresses from Beacon went rogue when faced with Jaune Arc. She did not obey an order to retreat, and instead continued to fight, long after the point when she should have. There are even reports of her referring to him as Subject 000, a moniker that has only one source," he explained coldly, sitting back in his seat in such a way that her floating, slowly rotating image was between them.
"How much of her was Chivalric Arms made? Did you know she had any kind of backdoor programs in her system? Or was this something they snuck into her basic design? Something you could remove, if given a chance?" he asked, taking each question with a deep breath, drawing them out, and Pietro remained silent for what felt like ages, as his eye flickered up to Penny, silently promising her it would be alright.
"I'm waiting, Pietro," he said at last, and the man stubbornly refused to say anything, so Ironwood rose from his seat, and pushed something else on the wall...and suddenly Pietro was looking at himself, in his lab...oh gods, the transmission was clear. Chivalric Arms Chief Executive Officer, Matthew Fields, easily visible on the screen before him.
"I have the audio of this conversation logged and filed, but I don't think we need to hear it, not now. So, are you going to tell me what you thought would happen when you tried to blow up your daughter? Did it even occur to you that the White Fang might identify the explosive you planted in her, and simply abandoned it where they were?" he asked, and then nodded, as another video showed in the air, one that, had he seen it, Pietro would have stormed into Ironwood's quarters to demand they chase the Bullheads down.
It was some grubby, dirty, filthy faunus, with his clumsy hands, literally tearing about Penny. His claws were scratching at her body, ripping into the skin he'd spent so long designed, literally chucking out motivators and other pieces. He was desecrating her like she was...like some piece of equipment! She was a person. She was his daughter! She was...that last piece...that was the explosive! He saw it clearly, kicked by the raccoon into a corner, out of sight of the security cameras.
"I'm still waiting," he told the chair bound man as the recording finally ended, leaving them here, in this room, just the two of them. Pietro took a deep breath, trying to find something, some vestige of the courage he had once had, the courage he'd had when he'd taken an oath, so damn long ago. When he'd unlocked his aura, with the promise to himself that he would make this world better, even if it cost him everything.
He searched for that courage now, he plumbed the depths of his own soul, and found…nothing. That courage was gone now. Taken by a life that had left him in this damn chair. The life that had taken his daughter from him last night. The life that had seen him bowing his head to a man a thousand kilometers away. The life that he now had to change, as he sighed, and looked James in the eyes.
"I will ask for legal counsel now. I have a lawyer on retainer back in Atlas. I will need to contact him, before we go any farther with this," he said, and James' face looked…ashamed of him, honestly. He had obviously thought him a better man than this, but Pietro knew what James was about to go up against, and knew that if he tried, Penny would stay dead. No, he had to continue to work with them, if he wanted his daughter back, in some fashion if not the original.
"Is that your final answer to all this?" asked the General, and Pietro said nothing, as Ironwood stared at him, then nodded in acknowledgement of that silence. He got up, and for a moment, Pietro thought he would walk out of the room as he went to the door, but instead he stood there, and then took a step to the side, going to the wall where the interface for the ship was, and quickly using it to call on the intraship intercom.
"Logistics, this is General Ironwood, do you copy?" he asked, and Pietro's eyebrow raised, wondering what the hell Ironwood was playing at, calling his department at this time.
"We copy, General. Everything is ready, are we a-go?" said the voice of one of Pietro's assistants…he honestly couldn't tell which one, though he figured he only had five of them, and this one sounded female. Xen maybe? Or was her name Xanna? He never could keep straight with names like that. Regardless, the General seemed about to answer, before taking a moment to look at Pietro.
"This is your last chance, my old friend. I can end this, all of this, with your help, far more easily than without. But either way, this will end," he said, and Pietro gawked at his audacity. Thinking he could stand in the way of all this? Gods that man's ego was as big as the battleship. Finally though, Pietro stared back at him, stone faced, and James nodded again, before returning to the comm.
"By my order as Commander-In-The-Field and Commander-In-Chief of all Atlasian forces, I am hereby revoking the commission of one Pietro Polendina. Wipe his servers clean, and initiate the firebreak protocols," he said, and Pietro's face went white. He knew James was in a mood, but to go that far…it was unthinkable. It went beyond just erasing his personal drive, it was burning his life's work. Pietro didn't blink after that first moment, however. The backups would hold against his boarish attempts to undo them. They were designed for it.
"Firebreak engaged, General. Starting system point attack software now. Initiation of backups in 5, 4, 3…" the woman's voice trailed off…or maybe it didn't. Either way, Pietro's mind tuned it out as he listened to her words, parsed them, and realized what Ironwood was doing. He was simulating an attack on the main servers of all of Atlas. It was going to cut them all off in a moment…and when they came back, it would be all gone.
Oh, it wouldn't affect his files directly, but anything 'backing up' the files without a direct connection would resample them, and it would need to dump local memory once it was safe to make a new copy when it was deemed so. But his files would be 'Broken' when they did. That was why it was called Firebreak, after all. He'd be left with almost nothing…but enough that he could continue. It would take months, but Penny would be…there was a knock at the door.
The General rose from his seat, and then strode very purposefully to the door. He did not look at Pietro again, instead opening it up, and then allowing Specialist Schnee into the room once more. In her hands was a simple looking object, a small award, Pietro's FIRST award, won decades ago in a school fair of sorts. It made him start to frantically push on the arm of his chair, only to start as he realized that this wasn't HIS chair.
"General, as requested, I searched his quarters once Firebreak was deemed necessary. This object is the only one receiving," she explained, and James nodded, as Winter looked at the table, seemingly passive, but Pietro had been around her long enough to see the subtle tilt to her head, as she obviously wondered what had happened. Pietro tried to be as passive, maybe…maybe there was still a way out of this.
"That's just an old knick-knack I keep from home. It has no value but to me," he said, trying to sound convincing, but James ignored him, instead he looked at the award in his hand, as Pietro began to sweat, his breathing coming in small gasps, as Ironwood ran his finger over the award. And then, without preamble, without a single wasted motion, he took it in both his hands, and snapped it in two.
Pietro's mind snapped as he watched, as the thing inside the cheap plastic mold was broken. The most advanced wireless backup drive in all of Atlas, designed by himself, designed to be completely undetectable…and it was gone. All his files…Penny's files. Her memories, her schematics. It was gone, and even if he lived another two decades, a thing he doubted, he would never be able to replicate them.
Schnee, who had known Pietro Polendina for several years now, was saddened as the man leaned back in the chair, and began to cry. He made no noise, no whimper, he just…cried. She knew why too, and she had to admit, somewhere deep inside herself, she would miss Penny, but then, the Penny she'd known had died the night before, becoming nothing but a tool for those who wanted to corrupt her nation.
Ironwood said nothing, instead grinding the two pieces in his hand to nothing but chunks, and then discarding them. They were worthless now, and as he turned to leave, he nodded at those outside, one of the medics on the ship, and two guards. They would take Pietro to a cell, and keep him there, as Ironwood himself walked to the bridge. This would be far more difficult, as he'd told Pietro, but it was the path he had chosen.
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Forty-Eight hours after the death of Penny Polendina, the world changed. General James Ironwood transmitted not only the Dock footage, but also his recording of the conversation between Penny's 'father' and Matthew Fields to the Vale News Network, who, against the explicit requests of the Vale Council, went live with the story, pointing fingers at what had happened at Atlas directly, but also at the arms manufacturer.
Less than an hour later, Atlas' Combat school officially withdrew from the Vytal Combat Festival, citing that their Headmaster had business to attend to in the homeland, and they were withdrawing all forces as well, much to the shock of many, who had expected Atlas to somehow 'strongarm' everyone into just accepting what had happened. Instead, by morning, there were no Atlas ships in the sky, all on their way home.
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It had taken 3 days, approximately one-hundred-twenty hours since Penny's death, for the Atlasian fleet to make its port, as the General had run the engines extremely hot. Even then, they did not outrace the news, which had Atlas, and most specifically, Chivalric Arms in a panic, with many claiming General Ironwood had doctored the footage somehow, given his public tiff with CA in the past month.
And yet, everyone in power knew it was a lie. The conspiracy…well, it was far reaching, far enough that only those who were willfully ignorant could claim to not know of it at all. Ironwood had been like that once, allowing such things to go on, simply because it was easier than confronting them head on. He was done with that though, and as he passed into the deepest recesses of the Atlasian Council Hall, he nodded once to Winter, who nodded back as she broke off from him.
Within the hall, a dimly lit room with walls thicker than his battleship, the other members of the Council were already assembled, with their little hangers on passing them papers. Sol was in his seat, alone, a cup of something in his hand. He'd been drinking again. Schnee…Jacques was literally trying to do business with a dozen scrolls at once open before him, likely all on a dozen different calls.
Atlas' Fortunes were in peril, dire, dire peril at that. Vale had cut off trade with them, and Mistral was likely to do the same. Vauco…well they'd never been big on buying help anyway, so he wasn't sure. Regardless, the price of Dust the world over was going to go up…except in Atlas itself where it was going to crash and hard, so he was trying to regulate the flow, without looking like he was simply creating artificially a shortage.
Expectedly, despite not being a Council member, Fields was in attendance, standing there alone, smiling that oily smile. He looked smug, like he was about to be the beowulf that ate the cattle. Ironwood paid him no mind as he walked up to his own seat, and then stood behind it, letting his eyes scan the room, and causing all the various conversations to slowly pause, with them all staring at him.
"James, you made good time getting back. I would hope the government's airship is not damaged by you pushing it too far," said Sol, and Ironwood gave him a glance, as the standing man theatrically pulled out his chair, and then sat in it with a heavy thud, like the pounding of a gavel to open a session.
"Ironwood, you have a lot to answer to this Cou-," began…James wasn't even sure, he was now in the light, making it harder to see the others, but he silenced them with a slamming of his fist on the table, letting the impact, and the very visible indent, be his opening salvo in what was about to be a very bloody fight.
"This Council will now vote on the extradition of one Matthew Fields to Vale, at the request of their Council. Given the International incident it represents, that piece of business supersedes all others by the rules of this body. He is to be removed from this room, and we are to seal this chamber until such time as our decision has been reached," he declared in a tone that brooked no discussion.
The others, having for some reason expected him to be cowed by his recent experiences in Vale, quickly were standing alone, as their associates and the like saw themselves out, one even retrieving the scrolls from in front of Schnee, signing them out, before he rushed for the door. Fields, however, made no move to leave, and as the door was shut by the soldiers standing outside, he instead took a seat at the same table.
"I'm afraid, CITIZEN Ironwood, you no longer have the authority to make that declaration," he said in a voice that was just this side of sleaze. At least he wasn't hiding it, James thought to himself as he puffed out his chest.
"This body does not, in any capacity, have the ability to remove me as General and Commander and Chief without the support of at least three ranking officers, all of which were deployed to Vale until three days ago due to the Vytal Festival and the Null situation. Any orders to the contrary are treasonous in nature. I repeat my demand that he be removed, and we vote on the extradition," he told them, and the Council seemed to be at a loss on what to do.
Sol finally rose from his seat, and walked over to where Ironwood was sitting. He could see by the look on his face, he was trying to let him down gently. Ironwood wanted to sigh at this, but he kept his face straight, as James leaned down, and whispered to him.
"James, listen. We can't have you stirring this pot any farther. You have created a shitstorm that could cover half of Remnant. Now, I'm prepared to defend you from the worst of this, but you had to know there would be consequences for what you did," he said this just loud enough that the others could hear him trying to get Ironwood to go along with it, peacefully, as he always did, as a good soldier would.
"I say again, to this body, and I want this to be put to a vote. Do ANY of you feel the need to extradite this traitor to our fellow kingdom? Or is each and every one of you willing to risk Atlas, all of Atlas, to defend him?" he told them, looking around the table, letting them linger, as Sol sighed himself, standing there beside him. Ironwood had known it would indeed be unanimous, but he had to try, and to be fair, he had just a spark of hope it might not be the case.
And yet, it was exactly that. Each and every member of the Council sat there, staring at him. Oh there were a few darting eyes, a few grim faces, but they stood together. He took one last look at each and every one of them, before looking up at the recording devices that were taking in every part of this room for posterity and culpability, devices that hadn't been turned on in some time before today.
"Very well then, as it stands, this chamber is against me, and against Atlas," he said, rising, using his metal shoulder to clock Sol in the jaw because he kept standing over him. The man stumbled backwards, as General James Ironwood walked to the podium, so that every camera slowly followed him. A few of the others looked up in time to see the things twitch, making them wonder who was operating them, but then turned back to Ironwood as he got to it.
"In my position as General, it has become clear that each and every member of this Council is a traitor. For what has happened now…and for what has happened in the past. I myself allowed this to continue for far too long. The crimes of Matthew Fields are just the final straw, the last stain I will allow to fall on my Beloved Atlas…gentleman, may the underworld have mercy on your souls, because I have none left for you, or myself," he said, and then there was a sound.
It was low, almost imperceptible, but it was there. A sort of pop, followed by a hiss. James Ironwood, standing at the podium, stared out at the group of twelve other figures. Eleven Councilors, and Fields, as they sat at that table, where they'd condemned the innocent, the guilty, and this whole kingdom for the longest time. All those votes he'd 'gone along' with what was best for Atlas.
Well, it was over now. He felt his ears pop. The others began to notice what was going on, and he saw some eyes go wide, as they realized. The first one to get up out of his seat tried to say something, but it came out as a wheezing gasp, as he tried to draw in air that simply wasn't there. The other members soon did likewise, rising out of their seats, but they had aura to sustain them.
One of those little known facts about aura, it could keep you from drowning, or running out of air. It was unpleasant to be sure, but it was there. Of course, some had aura that shouldn't. Fields for one, and his rock fist semblance would have been noted as well. A few other executives. Even if they weren't going to die, they would be questioned on this…but they weren't going to survive long enough, so he decided to just stand at the podium, watching them flail about.
Schnee rose from his seat and charged the door, his semblance, glyphs like his daughters. Not that he should have had his aura unlocked either. Still, he began to pound at the door, then the walls. As if that old trope wouldn't have been thought of. This chamber was the most secure in all Atlas, able to withstand attacks that would devastate the city outside, and the Council was finding out how much that was.
Oddly, he watched Fields pull out a second semblance, a lightning thing, that he drilled against the wall with, then something that looked like a water one, trying to cut it with pressure. Idly, Ironwood wondered if he could combine the two. That would make oxygen…not enough, at least not with the fans still sucking the air out, but it might let them live a little longer. Or saved their colleagues, gasping on the floor.
Luckily for those, it was over in a few minutes, their flailing limbs reaching for their throats, trying to force air to stay in them. But slowly, the others were running out too. Fields first, the idiot had burned through his aura, and literally fell over, dead. A few others…Schnee lasted the longest, pounding on the wall, mouthing his daughter's name…Winter knew what was happening though, and she would not save him.
Finally, the only two in the room were himself, and Sol. The latter had fallen into Ironwood's own seat, and was looking at him. The gaze held questions for him, but he answered none, standing at the podium as his own aura began to wane, as the sheer emptiness of the room began to close up around him. He gave the other man a smile, showing the same contempt for his old friend as he'd shown everyone else in the chamber.
Then, slowly, his aura winked out, and he felt the weight of his life leave him. His vision quickly turned into a tunnel, the dark spots growing larger…and yet, he felt so light, and he was still smiling as he gently laid himself down onto the floor, and then back, looking right into the cameras. It was far too late to make this all right, to make Atlas a fair and just Kingdom as he had once hoped. But still, it was going to be better than he found it. That was the last thought to cross his mind, before he was gone.
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The effects were immediate. The images of the Councilmen of Atlas. Business leaders, former soldiers, and the powerful. Dying like animals, dying in the most horrid way imaginable. It reverberated through the world, and even the worst of those calling for blood for the fallen in Vale had to admit…if not too much, then this was enough, and soon, the other Kingdoms joined with Atlas to try and sort this whole mess out.
The Vytal Festival was canceled, Amity Colosseum moved to a parking area, cleared for the occasion, just up the coast from Vale. During the commotion from the move, there was some small scuffle at Beacon, but when it was done, nothing seemed to have changed, though it was said that Ozpin's perpetual smile was a little more forced, and that Glynda Goodwitch was a bit less tolerant of his antics than ever before.
For Menagerie though, it was a new dawn. Atlas, at long last, listened to their complaints, and investigations into the business practices of Schnee and others discovered…well what everyone had known, and soon, the businesses found themselves paying restitution, or just trying to operate at a profit, as their practices caught up with them, and executives who'd abused their positions for decades were forced to step down, or face penalties far, far worse.
It was, a year after the incident, that the first Academy in Menagerie was opened, along with a Combat School or two. Not quite so large as others, but still, with an influx of new people to the Kingdom, those who could no longer live in Atlas or elsewhere, it was soon awash with candidates, young and old, and the instructors may have a mark or two on their faces, from where masks were once used to hide them.
In the midst of all this, a small family, seemingly without being noticed, moved into the busiest district of Menagerie. Here, a brother, his sisters, and their mother would live, and when it came time, when called on by a former king, they would answer.
The Dark Queen would find a world far, far more united than she expected, and at the heads of the armies of man, a dark soul dragged into the light, and his sister, would stand up, and tear through her forces. It would not be an easy war, or a short one, but with Null at their side, the Men and Women would not stop, until they had put to the sword every nightmare, and their Queen. This was a world with a bright future ahead of it.