With Volume 8 just around the corner, I decided I'll do something special. I'll post my predictions for how the Volume will go down, or at least how it will start, in the form of a single-chapter story. The show is clearly heading in a certain direction and I think I have a good idea of what the story will be from now on, so I might as well share it.
With how accurate my predictions are, I fear there might be some spoilers for the next few episodes of RWBY. I apologize for that. And only that.
Enjoy.
The four of them gathered on the snows of Mantle, under a sky darkened by a horde of airborne Grimm that covered the sun. Atlas was far away now, with its army and its dictator on board, having left its sister city to the encroaching darkness.
One person stepped forwards. The shortest of them all, donned in a red cloak, with a weapon at her side. That last one wasn't all that notable, of course - they all brought their horribly impractical weapons, in case they got attacked before they could even finish their meeting.
"Friends, sisters, and Weiss," The leader spoke, earning an eyeroll from one of her teammates. "We gathered here to figure out what to do during this dark time, caused by the treachery of our former ally. Because of Ironwood's decisions, Salem is just about to arrive and honestly... we can do little to fight her."
These words hurt to utter, but they were true. After losing the Relic of Truth and all support from outside their group, the best they have been able to manage was getting the injured Winter and all too valuable Penny out of the fray, hoping to reunite after the Grimm horde passed and maybe take fight to Salem somehow. But there was a small problem with that...
"Yeah, we've been through it before," Yang sighed. "She is immortal, so there is no possible way we can stop her. You're not spouting any news, sis."
"Well it's even worse now!" Ruby argued. "At least then we had time to whine... I mean to plan. Now we might be eaten by some giant Grimm any minute."
"And then there are guys from Atlas," Blake added. "For all we know, the Ace Ops are tracking us down as we speak."
"Actually, that one won't be a problem," Weiss said, looking at her scroll. "Just got a text from mom. Apparently, a bunch of flying Grimm got to Atlas and killed whoever couldn't find cover or defend themselves. The Ace Ops guys were bound and mostly unconscious. They didn't stand a chance."
"That's horrible!" Ruby exclaimed. "I can't believe Ironwood didn't come to check on them after we beat them up and left them disarmed."
"Damn you, Ironwood!" Yang shouted, shaking her metal arm at the sky. "Why can't you ever be useful for anything?!"
"Frankly, that's just one more reason to formulate a plan shortly," Weiss brought the subject back. "Without its strongest huntsmen, Atlas will be in an even worse position when Ironwood's stupid plan fails and Salem gets through. Also, just because that little unit is out of the game doesn't mean we won't be interrupted any..."
Before Weiss could express her fears, something landed on the snow nearby, with all the grace of a giant gorilla with rather small wings. It was a flying Beringel, a fearsome sight on its own, but what truly terrified.
"Salem!" Ruby exclaimed at the sight of a pale woman in a black dress, riding the Grimm like it was her personal steed. Her red eyes observed Ruby with interest as the girl unfolded her weapon, ready for a fight.
"It is me, indeed." Salem smiled as she jumped from the ape's back, only to then levitate a few inches above snow. "I'm sorry, have I startled you?"
"Well yeah," Ruby replied. "But, um, only because I'm surprised you dared to show up!"
"Why?" Salem look surprised. "You thought I would be scared of you?"
"I think she was most surprised you stood up from your throne," Yang joined in.
"It is somewhat ridiculous how long you were just sitting there," Weiss agreed. "I mean, it took us seven quarters of a year from the start of Beacon just to talk to you."
"Well that too, but you better be scared of us!" Ruby shouted. "We are all professional huntresses and with my Silver Eyes we can defeat even..."
"No no darling, I think you misunderstood me," Salem said, using oddly friendly language, as Ruby noted. "I didn't think to be afraid of you because I believed we are at the same side."
It took Ruby a moment to process these words. Once she did, all her fear of the powerful woman disappeared, replaced with bewilderment and anger. "What!? Why would you ever think that!?"
"Well, I got the word that you sabotaged General Ironwood while he prepared to combat me, which might have helped me quite a bit. Had he been informed that I am immortal, perhaps he would have figured out a way to incapacitate me in some other way than killing me. And while you can correct me if wrong, Ozpin is not with you, which means you parted ways with him at some point?"
"Well, it sounds kind of like we're on your side when you put it like that..." Rub admitted, before shaking her head vigorously. "But it doesn't mean anything! We just dislike the same people, that's all."
"While disdain for Ozpin and hatred for Ironwood burns bright in our hearts, we are not your minions." Blake agreed. "An enemy of our enemy is not always our friend."
"Oh." Salem looked legitimately disappointed. "Would you like to join, perhaps? I see no reason why you wouldn't."
"There's plenty!" Ruby protested. "We are huntresses after all. We are brave and heroic, and we strive to defend people and..."
Suddenly, Salem laughed. It wasn't evil cackling or anything like that, but rather a genuine, amused, light-hearted laughter. Everyone was taken aback by this, so they just stood there for a good minute before Salem could recover."
"Ha ha... heroic... that was a good one. Wait." Salem's smile fell a little when she saw the other women's expressions. "You were serious?"
"Well yeah," Ruby replied, feeling even more confused now. "You want to kill lots of people, we want to stop you. A big difference."
"I figured you were no strangers to killing," Salem replied. "Not after you threw a bunch of White Fang recruits off a speeding train."
"They were bad guys, and we had no choice," Ruby countered.
"And after the Schnee heiress sent a boar after a random woman at a party..."
"She deserved that!" Weiss protested. "People who say stuff I don't like should suffer the consequences of their actions."
"And after the blond one started a mass shooting in the club for seemingly no reason..."
"Well the owner called me a sweetheart," Yang countered, but without much conviction. "That has to be a crime or something, right?"
"Not to mention you actually enabled a Grimm attack on Argus, one which could have resulted in more casualties than I have inflicted for the past millennium."
"Well, we came back to save this stupid city!" Ruby argued. "I mean we protected the people because we're heroes and that's what heroes do."
"I can appreciate this kind of heroism." Salem nodded approvingly. "Why, back in the day I saved many settlements from the Grimm with my magical powers."
"That's not the same!" Blake protested. "Just because you saved some people when it was convenient doesn't mean you're excused from all the deaths you caused and... I think I notice the similarity here."
"See my point?" Salem asked. "You don't really care about human life, so why would you fight me over it? I'm fairly sure every person in Mantle has called some faunus stupid at one point, and for you, that's reason enough to throw them around with telekinesis. If you want, I can order my Grimm to kill people exclusively by slamming them into walls and leaving them in garbage containers."
"Alright, point taken." Ruby sighed. "But just because we both kill people here and there doesn't mean we will join you. There are many other differences between us."
"Like what?" Salem kept asking. "What is it that you believe in and I don't?"
"Well, you believe Grimm are cool, while I believe they suck." Ruby crossed her arms and looked at Salem smugly. "See? Easy."
"I don't think that's what she meant, Ruby," Weiss, annoyingly, had to correct her team leader. "There is another kind of beliefs, the philosophical, religious, or ideological views we all hold. For example, I believe that... um... I can't think of anything, actually. Can you?"
Another moment of silence followed, during which everyone was scratching their heads.
"Quick question, does our world even has ideologies and stuff like that?" Yang asked.
"Nothing fleshed out." Weiss shrugged. "I mean, everyone in the kingdoms seems to follow this liberal democratic system, except there is no gun control and it's legal to organize tournaments where children beat each other up. I don't think there was much thought put into this world by Ozpin when he ended the Great War. Menagerie might be the only exception since they have a Chieftain, but I'm not that sure."
"I'm not sure either, actually," Blake said. "I used to think Menagerie was for faunus who wanted peace and equality, but then I went and told a crowd of faunus that their race makes them responsible for me burning down my house and that they should drop everything and start killing other faunus in order to convince humans that we are the good ones."
"You really did that?" Weiss took a small step back. "I said my share of insensitive stuff back in the day but that's... how do I put it..."
"You don't have to explain yourselves, my dears." Salem came to reassure them. "I already have one crazy faunus in my ranks, I can make room for another, as well as for some similarly inclined humans."
"That's right!" Ruby shouted triumphantly, having found another argument. "You didn't do much to us personally, but your servants have fought and killed our friends. Penny and Pyrrha died at Beacon, remember?"
"I do." Salem nodded. "And I'm surprised you did, given how little it matters."
"Huh?" Ruby was confused once again.
"Well, aside from those crimes having been committed by Cinder, who is largely irrelevant at this point and probably doesn't even work for me anymore, they really don't seem like something for you to be salty about," Salem explained. "The robot was rebuilt with no effort and with no memories lost, making her death utterly irrelevant. As for the young champion... did you really care about her?"
"Of course!" Ruby replied. "Pyrrha and I were friends and you killed her!"
"Oh really?" Salem crossed her arms. "Name me one time the two of you interacted in any meaningful way."
"Well... um..." Ruby desperately tried to recall any relevant memories. "She explained how her semblance works and... I said her name once during the festival and... shoots."
"My point stands proven," Salem stated. "Are there any other arguments?"
"Well... you killed my mum." Ruby gripped the last straw, which wasn't even a very good straw because...
"Have you ever acknowledged her existence before I mentioned her yesterday?" Salem asked. "Asked about her? Inquired about that gift you inherited from her? Based any of your actions on something related to her?"
"Well there was this time Raven came to yell at me about how Summer was lame and I cried and..."
"Ruby, we don't talk about this," Yang scolded her sister. "This officially did not happen."
"Right. Sorry." Ruby sighed. "I don't think I have anything else though. Even visiting my mum's grave was more of an afterthought than anything else."
"It is fun talking to you," Salem said, raising her voice slightly. "But I have a city to destroy, maybe even two. If you just agree to stand back for now, I will add you to my official employee list and prepare whatever payment you think would be best suited. Paying for the first month in advance."
Ruby looked at her teammates, none of whom looked particularly certain. But judging from the kind of silence that followed, they had all made their choice and were simply to embarrassed to say it out loud. It fell to the leader to officially make the call.
Ruby sighed. She then turned to Salem, the Queen of the Grimm, and the greatest threat the world has ever seen.
"What exactly can you offer us?"
/-/
"So... we work for Salem now?" Ren didn't seem to have expected the news, nor was he happy about them. The whole Team JNPR, or ORNJ, or whatever the hell they were called now, was looking at Ruby with skepticism, their impressions similarly negative.
It was easy to see why. While they were gathered in a small house on the outskirts of Mantle, the rest of the city was being slaughtered by the Grimm, and Atlas itself was being pursued by Salem's fleet. It all must have looked horrible to people who haven't realized the truth yet.
"Look, I know it sounds weird and like a betrayal and all," Ruby admitted. "But we just had a chat with Salem and we realized we pretty much agree on anything, so we might as well join the winning side."
"Doesn't she want to, like, destroy the world or something?" Nora asked. "Do we really want to help her with that?"
"She isn't going to destroy the entire world," Weiss came to explain. "There will be some humans left by the end of the war so that she can rebuild. She also promised us we will have a privileged position in this new world, with plenty of hair products for me, weapon parts for Ruby, drinks for Yang, and smut magazines for Blake."
"I didn't ask for that!" Blake protested. "I asked Salem to spare the adult novel writers because I'm concerned about their lives, that's all."
"So selfless." Yang rolled her eyes. "But yeah, we got a pretty sweet deal out of this."
"Dunno, that doesn't seem right..." Nora was unconvinced.
"Also we asked her to spare some cooks and tell them to make pancakes all the time, with you in mind," Weiss added. "We will also kidnap some hairdresser to improve Jaune's banana hair somewhat."
"Actually, it doesn't sound too bad." Nora changed her mind. "Let's win this war in the name of the Queen of the Grimm!"
"I'm not so sure about that..." Jaune touched the base of his neck. "We fought Salem and her agents for a while now. We lost people. Like, did you forget about Pyrrha already?"
"We had a talk about that too." Ruby waved her hand at that. "Salem didn't really kill Pyrrha, Cinder did, and she has gone more or less renegade recently. Besides, we all know it was really Ironwood's fault."
"Was it?" Jaune doubted. Of course, he wasn't there when the general shamelessly betrayed Team RWBY and tried to kill them for no reason, so he didn't see his villainy quite as clearly.
"Look, the whole 'Fall of Beacon' thing wouldn't have happened if Ironwood didn't bring his army of easily hackable robots into Vale. Therefore, he is at fault." Ruby explained. "He should have left the city alone and kept his army in Atlas."
"You mean like he is doing right now, refusing to defend Mantle?" Ren asked.
"Well yeah. I mean no! I mean..." Ruby tried to find the right words, then just groaned. "Look, it's all really simple. Everything Ironwood does is wrong because he's a meanie, and everything we do is justified because we're the good guys!"
"Speaking of good guys and bad guys..." Another person joined in, a young boy dwarfed by everyone else in the group. Oscar was really easy to overlook, especially when he didn't contribute much. "I still have Ozpin sitting in my head. He even gave me a speech after Ironwood shot me for no reason. Will Salem try to murder me now or..."
"We got that covered too!" Ruby cheerfully announced. "Salem will wait until Ozpin fully absorbs your soul and body, killing you for all intents and purposes, and only then tear you apart with plenty of evil utensils. It won't make any difference to you, will it?"
"I guess it won't," Oscar admitted, though still looked mighty uncomfortable. "Heck, when you put it like that the whole 'soul mending' stuff sounds pretty horrific. It's a wonder we weren't all more disturb by that."
"Well it's not the most disturbing thing Ozpin has done," Yang said, her face darkening. "He turned my mom and uncle into birds for gods' sake!"
"Don't worry, Yang." Blake put a hand on the blonde's shoulder. "Allied with the forces of Grimm and murderous psychopaths, we will defeat Ozpin and his remaining allies, in the name of righteousness and..."
"Wait, I just realized something," Nora cut in. "Will Qrow be alright with all that? Assuming we can break him out of whatever prison Ironwood put him in. Heard he got captured right as we left Atlas."
"That was actually the first thing we talked about," Ruby replied. "Salem couldn't be bothered herself, but she sent Tyrian to break Qrow out of custody."
"Tyrian?" Ren raised an eyebrow. "That can be a problem. I saw the two of them fight and they probably won't get along very well."
"Well..." Ruby jiggled her foot. "There is a problem, but it's kind of the opposite thing..."
"The opposite of them not getting along very well?" Jaune asked, still blissfully unaware of the issue. "You won't say they're being too friendly, right?"
Before Ruby could explain, two more people entered the room. One they knew as Qrow Branwen, in his regular outfit, with a weapon on his back and that eternal stubble of his. The other person was less familiar, but they could easily recognize him as Tyrian Callows, mostly by his long scorpion tail and the creepy grin on his face. The fact that the two of them were walking in unison was strange enough in itself, but something else drew everyone's attention.
They were holding hands.
"Hey kiddos," Qrow said, in an unusually relaxed tone and a smile on his face. "This is Tyrian, my new boyfriend. You met before, not sure if you still remember."
"I do recall meeting him, yes." Ren nodded. "Which is what makes this sight so completely and utterly absurd I would sooner theorize that someone slipped some hard drugs into my sandwich than accept that this is really happening."
"Tell me about that." Ruby rolled her eyes. "He tried to kill me the moment he first saw me!"
"I'm sorry if you hold that against me, little rose," Tyrian said, sounding genuinely sad. "But I cannot help that I feel what I believe is true love towards your foster relative."
"As much as I'm creeped out, I'm also fascinated," Nora said. "How did that happen?"
"Well, after he broke me out of a jail cell, Tyrian and I had a long talk," Qrow explained. "It started out pretty hostile until he mentioned that his semblance can negate aura. I figured it would be a good way to keep my semblance in check, as long as I kept him close. And if we are about to spend a lot of time together... well, might as well get something more out of it."
"I can already feel all the fun we'll have together!" Tyrian added. "You don't have anything against two adults agreeing to be together, do you?"
"While I'm most certainly not against that on a gender basis," Blake was the first to reply. "I have to take Ruby's side here. Why would you ever trust Tyrian like that?"
"Look who's talking," Qrow rolled his eyes. "Didn't you allow an evil terrorist lizard into your friend group?"
"Ilia is trustworthy!" Blake protested. "She had a crush on me since I was, like, twelve. No way she would betray me."
"Well, I trust Tyrian too." Qrow countered. "He and I fought side by side when Ironwood jumped on our airship, crashed it down, and then killed Clover."
"Are you sure that's how it went?" Ren asked with disbelief.
"Ren, don't question it," Yang commanded. "If the scorpion dude fought ironwood, that means he's our ally."
"Yeah, I..." Ren touched the base of his neck. "I don't think I like this reasoning. And I certainly don't think allying with Salem is a good idea."
Everyone frowned. Nora in particular looked devastated, as she approached her partner.
"Does that mean we have to fight?" She asked pitifully, with a matching expression. The 'puppy eyes' kind. "I don't want us to fight, do you?"
Ren withstood Nora's gaze for a moment. He then averted his eyes. He then sighed. "Alright, let's make friends with our mortal enemies. Why not."
"Yay!" Ruby raised her fist into the air. "The power of friendship triumphs over our disagreements again!"
"Can you imagine how annoying it would be if there were actual conflicts between us?" Weiss said. "We would have ditched Blake several times over already."
"Yeah, and we would have to spend time discussing our difference and viewpoints, instead of punching evil things until they die," Yang added, cringing at the mere thought. "And man, that would really suck."
"No, it's not supposed to be like that." Surprisingly, Jaune stepped forwards. He didn't look confident in the slightest, but his voice had this weirdly defiant tone that made it a little easier to take him seriously. "We are supposed to be heroes, and we have the strength to be ones. We can't just... walk around the world and do whatever we feel like, and then talk ourselves into believing we're in the right. We need to meet some moral standard, have some self-awareness and stuff, so that we can..."
"Look!" Suddenly, Tyrian gasped as he pointed his finger forwards. "It's General Ironwood!"
Everyone turned to see an empty and generally unremarkable corner.
"I don't see him," Oscar said, coming a little closer. "But I'm not sure if that means he's not there. Can he go invisible somehow?"
"Nah, I'm pretty sure his semblance is making tough decisions or something," Yang said. "Which is lame. When does it ever come in handy?"
"I know!" Blake abruptly exclaimed. "He must have captured that May girl... not May Zedong but the other one... and he's forcing her to use her semblance to make him invisible!"
"You're using hostages now?" Ruby asked the invisible general. "That's low even for you, Ironwood!"
"Come out and fight us, you coward!" Yang yelled. "Face our completely natural ability to defeat anyone we want for no logical reason!"
"Me and my boyfriend will tear you a new one, Jimmy!" Qrow joined in. Afterwards the others started to throw in their own threats, which got more and more aggressive the more their enemy refused to come out.
As the entire populace of Mantle got gradually slaughtered and Atlas was forced down from the sky, Team RWBY and other heroes kept screaming about how much they hated Ironwood. Eventually, they got bored and decided to burn some abandoned buildings instead and maybe let Ruby set the fire this time.
And they lived happily ever after, cause they were the good guys.
THE END.