When they touched down successfully before General James Ironwood and Special Operative Winter Schnee under the cloaking Emerald's semblance provided them, Ren jumped out of the bullhead and took his position, readying himself for the upcoming scrimmage and focusing his eyes on their target. Those eyes widened, and he found himself lowering StormFlower a fraction soon after at the sight his own semblance afforded him. He was still getting used to it, but he would have liked to say he generally knew what to expect when looking to glean the emotional state of others. However, he could instinctively tell that the scene before him could be described as an anomaly.

There was no one pattern of flower petals to be found drifting around Ironwood, much like Winter's. That much was within reason, as sometimes a whirlwind of emotions can bombard a person with none in particular taking dominance. In other cases one can be so strong that it overpowers the others, silencing them. Unlike Winter's, the flower petals all over Ironwood flurried with the passion of a storm limited to set confines, much like the waves of the sea that crashed against the shore but didn't rise higher than a given place. They nearly obscured the person at the center of it all whose emotions they depicted. Another distinct difference was that despite the differing patterns, they were all the same color- black.

No, he thought, realization making his jaw drop of its own accord. It's not just black. If he looked closely he could see the faintest red, green, orange, and who knows what other colors that were covered in the black shroud. He only stared at it puzzled for a second before he digested the implications, lips setting into a grim frown.

He knew what the world thought of Ironwood; they saw him as a man with no heart. One capable of no emotions. What he had seen was a man willing to put aside what others thought of him and push down his own feelings to relentlessly pursue what he thought to be the best path for Remnant. Ren could respect that. His own semblance allows him to part ways with negative emotions to become untraceable to Grimm, but it also helps to clear his mind of any clouds affecting his decisions. He could understand that. What he saw before him lent itself in support of what the world had to say, but it was so much deeper.

The man had not ripped out his heart; nor had he, more accurately, tampered with the parts of his brain associated with emotions; nor had he been born with those parts malfunctioning if what he was bearing witness to was any indication. His emotions were suppressed on a more complex level than the Ace Ops and Winter. Where they put aside their sentiments by conscious choice to follow orders and had emotions lingering in the background it was as though Ironwood didn't even possess the ability to choose to put it there. A barrier had erected itself between Ironwood and any pathos that might have otherwise been resting in his conscience. He had emotions- he was just utterly disconnected with them.

The general was now resting his hand on Emerald's shoulder, so he readied himself again, crouching and raising StormFlower. He could clearly see the relief oozing from Ironwood as well as just how tired he was. Something changed, and in that moment Ren could identify the colors of the petals more easily. He saw blue, yellow, and brown, alongside ones that seemed to simply be black. One more detail caught his eye as the turbulent petal dance slowed: the petals were wilted and deformed, almost as though someone had lit a fire to them, crushed them underfoot to put out the flames and then doused them in water in hopes to revive them. Did it mean that the emotions were dying? Was it a permanent thing or something that could be undone?

Ren didn't know, and he didn't know if he wanted to know. What mattered right now was the fight, and he could only hope that the exhaustion would make it a little easier to fight the general of the only official military currently recognized on Remnant. So when Emerald dropped the illusion he charged with the rest of them, playing his role in their grand efforts to save the people of Atlas and Mantle.

Shock value from both their sudden appearance and then Winter's betrayal helped them in putting down Ironwood, whose emotional storm had doubled in intensity from what it originally had been when they had landed before fading away with his aura, and Ren had but a moment to look upon his prone form before moving onto the next phase of the plan. He saw a man willing to do what needed to be done in even desperate times to ensure that humanity could live on. He saw a man focused on the bigger picture rather than what lied before him. He saw a man that could have potentially been his future self if he lived to see that day. Most of all, he saw the man that he would not allow himself to be. While the path Ironwood was walking was indeed almost worthy of admiration, it was not the path that Ren would walk. He was sure of it, but he knew he'd also have his partner there to keep him in line. He could count on Nora- whether they were together together or not.

As he turned to run, one last thought came unbidden to him. If only Ironwood had someone to check him like Nora. Though, he thought with a sigh, that person most likely had been Ozpin.