Editorial Note:
The Battle of Beacon remains a significant and infamous event in modern history, and its consequences are still felt to this day. It is one such event that I personally was able to witness with my very own eyes. It especially had an effect on Jaune and it remains one of the darkest moments of his life.
As shown by the end of the previous chapter, Jaune was captured and spent the first half of the event unconscious. So to continue the proceedings in a manner that cannot be provided with Jaune's writing alone, we will begin this chapter with an excerpt from Ruby's old diary followed by two other extracts relating to the incident. These accounts offer a fuller understanding of the harrowing events that occurred during that fateful night.
The Red Rose Diaries: Sudden Chaos
I thought that what Yang did would be the worst thing that could happen this week. That gave us so much trouble that I didn't want to think that something worse was going to happen.
We didn't want to keep worrying about Yang and how much she kinda put us in trouble, and neither did she. So we tried to move on with our lives and think about other things. To be honest, I don't even care about being disqualified, I just want Yang to be okay, and that she would eventually be able to prove her innocence if she's telling the truth.
Even after what happened, the tournament kept on going. So I went with Team JNPR for the next match. Blake and Weiss felt like they'd seen enough action and decided to stay at Beacon. A lot of people in the arena looked pretty angry at me for being Yang's sister, but at least Jaune and his team were there to watch my back. I know going there wasn't exactly the best idea at the time, but I still wanted to show some support to Pyrrha, Penny, and Sun during the finals. It was the least I could do as their friend.
That was when I realized that Penny and Pyrrha might get matched. Because Penny was a robot trying to keep her secret safe, she wouldn't go well against Pyrrha's semblance. So a few minutes before the round could start, I told Pyrrha not to use her semblance in case she and Penny get picked together. Thankfully, she told me that she already knew and that I shouldn't worry about it. Not sure how she knew about it, but whatever the reason is, it was a good call since Pyrrha and Penny really did get matched together. Pyrrha told me that I'll eventually understand how she knew about it.
The fight was pretty fun to watch. Those two put on quite a show by challenging each other's skill and speed and it was amazing. But just when I thought that I didn't have to worry anymore, Penny suddenly became more aggressive, using techniques that were too dangerous for a friendly match. I looked at one of the screens and saw that her eyes were glowing red like Yang with her semblance activated, which was something I never saw her do before. I knew there was something wrong but I didn't know what to do. I wasn't sure if Penny was just trying too hard to beat Pyrrha or if something was making her more violent than she should be.
Penny kept using her floating array of swords [1] faster and harder at Pyrrha. I was scared because that would be enough to force Pyrrha into using her semblance on her. Thankfully, Pyrrha was fast enough to dodge and block every single one of them. It didn't look like Penny was giving up. She made a circle with her swords that were bigger than the ones she used last time. She was already going too far but this was when things got worse and worse. I remember that they were strong enough to cut through Bullheads and this one would have been strong enough to kill Pyrrha even with her aura.
When Penny started firing large lasers with her swords, Pyrrha did her best to dodge them. The lasers were so powerful that they left big scrapes on the floor. I knew she wasn't supposed to use it like this, it had gotten so bad that the professors didn't know what was happening anymore. General Ironwood even came down with some soldiers and he tried telling Penny to stop and that she was going too far.
It became obvious that this wasn't a normal match anymore. When Penny finally stopped shooting, we hoped that all of this would be over. Soldiers went into the stage and surrounded her while she kept standing there with her eyes still glowing red.
Suddenly, all the screens around the coliseum started glowing red as well while it showed a logo of a black chess piece. And then we all heard a woman's voice talking over the speakers.
Not only that, but she also sounded familiar…
=o=
1. Floating Array is actually the name of Penny's swords. I presumed that Ruby must have asked Penny about her blades at some point.
Archived Audio Transcript: Cinder's Fall Speech at the 40th Biennal Vytal Tournament
This feed was broadcasted to every device connected to the CCTs in the midst of an escalating match between Pyrrha Nikos and Penny Polendina during the final round of the 40th Biennal Vytal Tournament in the Amity Coliseum. A woman who was later identified as a terrorist by the name of Cinder Fall transmitted a message that would infamously incite one of the most catastrophic Grimm outbreaks in modern history.
Later investigations would reveal Fall was able to gain access and seize control of the Beacon Tower's system a couple of months prior to the tournament. During the transmission, The Atlesian Security Command Vessel was concurrently hijacked by the White Fang's Valish cell collaborating with Fall after they seized control of the AMV Polaris using the same technology that was used to take over the CCT Tower.
During the broadcast, Fall's identity was concealed as the feed displayed a symbol of a black queen chess piece against a bright red background.
The message is what followed.
Cinder Fall: "Citizens of Remnant. You may feel confused by this sudden interruption, but rest assured that I am here to enlighten you. I am here to tell you the truth about the kingdoms and the academies that claim to safeguard your way of life. As we all know, we live in a world filled with conflict and constant threat, and as such, the kingdoms are regarded to be the beacon of hope and civilization with the Huntsmen as their sword and shield. The academies that train them even hold more power than many armies, with one particular academy having the ability to control both.
But what if I told you that you can't even trust your supposed protectors? What if I revealed that they have been hiding a multitude of secrets from you? What if I said that the heroes you look up to are nothing more than tools for the kingdoms to maintain their power over the common people?
Let me show you one such example. If prior signs saw haven't alarmed you yet, then this will certainly will."
(Video feed cuts to a camera showing Penny Polendina in Amity Arena. Her eyes were glowing red as her body proceeded to burn with green energy. Her silicone skin and clothing disintegrate, revealing her metallic body, and shocking the crowd. She began speaking in a synthetic voice while being controlled by the hijacked Atlesian Security Control.)
Penny Polendina: "Salutations. I am an Advanced Synthetic Humanoid designated as PN-1 under the codename 'Penny', created by Pietro Polendina under the commission of the Atlesian Armed Forces. My mission is to secure the interests of the Kingdom of Atlas above all else."
(Following this, her voice became deeper and slightly distorted)
Penny Polendina: "I purely exist to serve Atlas. I am not a real girl. I never was and I will never be one."
(Penny Polendina's red eyes glowed brighter while the blades behind her multiplied. The feed then returned to displaying the Black Symbol in the red background.)
Cinder Fall: Atlas Academy's star athlete turned out to be nothing more than a machine posing as a young girl. Who would have thought? And what other kingdom is known for creating this sort of technology? I'm sure that you have guessed it by now. It begs to question why would they need a machine replicating a young Huntress that possesses aura when it would barely make a difference to the Grimm? Are the numerous Huntsmen they train and treat like soldiers, or the other machines they use to defend Vale, not enough for them? Whatever the reason may be, this is what happens when you blindly trust and give too much power to those who claim to be your guardians, but are nothing more than mere men who believe they are above you.
It's not only Atlas, I might even say that Headmaster Ozpin is worse than you realize. On the surface, he seems like a simple headmaster, but little did all of you know that he has more sovereignty over Vale than its council ever did. This is a man who callously sends students on dangerous missions that can cost them their lives; a man who exploits the system for his own gain; and a man who expects everyone to do his bidding with little regard for the consequences.
You have just recently witnessed one of his students recently dismember a downed opponent. What's peculiar about this student is that she also happened to be one to be part of a particular event involving a stolen Paladin on Vale's highway that cost innocent lives not too long ago. I could go on, but I'm sure you know what would follow. Ask yourselves, are these the kind of guardians you want protecting you, protecting Remnant?
Neither Vacuo nor Mistral are any better in this regard. Anyone who lives there knows why. Their outdated traditions have caused their own people to suffer for far too long. They are nothing more than products of a bygone era waiting for their inevitable collapse. And soon enough, they will get what's coming to them.
You can try holding out for your heroes, but you can't always count on them. In the end, they are just people, and that makes them just as fragile as you.
It has been eighty years since The Great War ended and this is the fourteenth festival in which we celebrate that peace. And you have been celebrating it for too long that you forgot how easily it could be tarnished. Tensions between the kingdoms are ever-increasing and The White Fang is going rampant on the streets because their own people are still being mistreated even after their emancipation following the war. And the kingdoms think we can forget about all the problems they've caused for years? I'd say they have gone too far enough. Let me show them the consequences of their actions."
(During this period, the virus that the White Fang planted on Atlesian Central Control took effect on the Atlesian Androids, making them shift allegiances as symbolized by their lights turning red.)
Cinder Fall: For all their corruption; for all their deceit; and for all those who suffered because of their actions. This is my message to them. Only Chaos will set you free. Open your eyes, or I will have to open them for you.
(The footage flickered then a symbol depicting a wheel with eight arrows can be seen in a brief flash. Afterward, all television broadcasts in Vale were put to an immediate halt.)
The White Fang Reports: The Day We're Waiting For
Finally, after months of planning and preparing for this moment, the time has finally come. This was the day when we cut a major string from the marionette of the human-dominated powers of this world, and bring the faunus people closer to what they deserve while exposing the world to the dangers of Atlesian imperialism.
Well, that's what Adam told us. I wasn't allowed to question it. Not that I had any reason to.
The operation began once the human rogues who we were forced to call our allies had successfully manufactured an incident that caused enough hysteria among the population. It caused the Atlesian Security Forces to further tighten their already-prevalent security force.
The next step took place before and during the singles match between Pyrrha Nikos and Penny Polendina, the Atlesians' top-secret war machine disguised as a human girl. The assault on the AMV Polaris was led by Adam Taurus, accompanied by his elite team of White Fang veterans, consisting of Ilia Amitola, Trifa Riahi, and Yuma Hito.
Meanwhile, our human allies will be in Amity Coliseum to perform their respective tasks, which include capturing the Valish Defanger. One of our skilled bullhead pilots, Rory Baron was assigned to transport our allies from the coliseum and into Beacon after they subdued the Defanger. Neopolitan was then taken to the AMV Polaris to aid Adam's team and reunite with Torchwick.
Despite strict security and being well-manned with troopers, Adam's team was able to successfully dispatch the ship's personnel and hijack the AMV Polaris with the assistance of spies and sleeper agents that were infiltrating the ship before the operation began. They planted the virus provided to us by our human associates to seize the ship's system and take control of it.
We freed our brothers and the other faunus prisoners imprisoned in the ship, along with Torchwick whose legs were still crippled. Thankfully we had a wheelchair prepared. The other human we released was Dr. Merlot of Merlot Industries himself as requested by our associates.
All the other human prisoners remained in their cells, they could have died in the crash as far as we're concerned. Baron arrived shortly with Neopolitan, assuring us that she fulfilled her task of disposing of the Defanger for the time being. She put herself in charge of pushing Torchwick's wheelchair as she reunited with him. The faunus prisoners were recruited on spot and later escaped via bullhead along with their imprisoned members.
Once the Vytal Tournament Finals resumed with a match between Pyrrha Nikos and the Atlesian War Machine they dubbed as "Penny", the virus was able to infect the War Machine during the match, making it more aggressive and utilizing forbidden attacks. Pyrrha Nikos, however, kept on fighting. Nonetheless, the android's aggression was enough to alert the audience that the fascist general of Atlas called the Polaris and asked what about the situation.
We then used the system to broadcast our allies' message on every CCT Channel. When we got the cue, we made the War Machine show her true nature to the world and got the Atlas's robots to throw the Atlesian Military code out the window while making them defect to our cause.
After the message, Grimm Threat level spontaneously increased as they were able to overwhelm the Kingdom's defenses and began attacking the city of Vale and the Amity Coliseum. Taking advantage of the circumstance, we were able to dispatch the other ships at the fleet while avoiding the Grimm that was indirectly aiding us. The hacked Atlesian Knights made it easier to clear out the Atlesians from the fleet.
The Beta Team was then deployed in Beacon to help our human allies in their objective to destroy the academy. They have already released the contained Grimm in the Academy using the same virus that hacked the CCT with their restrainers deactivated. Shortly after, Adam left the Polaris to accompany the Beta Team, saying that he had to deal with some personal matters in Beacon while telling us to continue helping our allies in crippling two kingdoms at once.
We have never accomplished something this big, and it was only the beginning. The Revolution has arrived.
Red Rose Diaries: Sudden Chaos (cont)
I couldn't forget how chilling it was hearing that woman go on a tirade about the Huntsmen and the Kingdoms even if I didn't believe her. That was all I could say about it. After she finished talking, a loud alarm emitted saying that there was a high-level Grimm attack coming.
The robots from Atlas glowing red and started shooting everyone. Penny also attacked all the soldiers near her while everyone was panicking. And as if things weren't bad enough, a Nevermore was trying to break the safety barrier above the arena. General Ironwood went as far as to shoot Penny but his shots were blocked by one of the blades. Penny tried to hit the general with a laser but he was able to avoid it.
It was terrible. People were getting killed left and right and a good friend of mine was out of control. I thought I needed to do something so I zoomed in front of her. I admit that I didn't think this through, I thought that making her see a good friend might get her to calm down but I guess that it didn't work that way. When she saw me she started shooting her lasers from the tip of her blades. She kept firing at me as I kept dodging while trying to tell her that this wasn't her.
I didn't want to give up. I wanted her to stop, but I didn't want to fight her either. She hurled all of her blades when I was running out of aura to keep using my speed. Pyrrha jumped to my front and blew the blades away with her magnetism. The wires attached to her blades curled up to her body and they were strong enough to rip her apart when they pulled her away. The only thing I could say after that is that her red eyes faded to grey while her torn body lay on the ground. She was… gone.
It hurts me to write this. I didn't want to believe it when I saw it and I never cried this much since Mom died. Penny was one of the closest friends I had along with my Team and Team JNPR. I was too busy mourning Penny to notice that people were calling my name and that the Nevermore finally broke in.
Pyrrha grabbed me before we both were pushed away by the Nevermore's impact after it landed and that was when I snapped out of it. After Pyrrha let go of me, she used her weapon's rifle mode to shoot at the Nevermore. It tried to fly up but the rocket lockers landed on the Nevermore and pinned it down. Everyone went and grabbed their weapons and finished off the Nevermore.
After that, I took this moment to breathe and fathom everything that just happened. I looked around and saw all of the robots were destroyed but there were also many dead bodies of innocent people on the ground. Pyrrha looked upset at the fact that she just killed Penny and was very sorry. I don't blame her, I knew she didn't want this either and she didn't know what else she could have done. I just wished things happened differently.
We realize that the woman behind all of this was still out there so we had to focus on making sure no more innocents get hurt. It's what the Penny I knew would have wanted, her death would have been all for nothing if we didn't get to the bottom of this.
I also noticed that Jaune was gone. The last time I saw him, he was sitting with me when the match was on. Nora and Ren don't know where he is either and Pyrrha was getting worried. No one else knew either, not even the teachers. We figured that he must be out there somewhere, after all, he always does act ahead of us. But when we tried to call him, he wasn't answering. For all we knew, he could be in trouble, and we had to find and help him.
Grimm were still trying to attack the arena, so I borrowed Sun's scroll to get my locker that was storing my Crescent Rose. When we were about to hold the stage and fight, the Professors stepped in and told us that we should go and that they'll take care of things there.
We fought our way to the Coliseum's docks. There were a few soldiers fighting robots on the way so we helped them. It didn't take much sweat since there were plenty of us. The soldiers thanked us and led us to the docks where we met General Ironwood helping some civilians evacuate.
The General said that the Grimm were attacking Vale and Beacon and the White Fang had taken over half of the Atlesian Fleet. He told us we can help defend the kingdom and the academy but he also said that it was okay if we choose to leave. Nora kinda caused a scene by yelling at the General and demanding answers about Penny and the robots, but Ren told her to calm down and that they'll have to discuss it later.
Naturally, because Beacon was like a second home to us, many of us took a ship to Beacon so we could help clear the Grimm out from there. When we looked outside the ship's window, we saw jets and ships fighting in the sky. They were mostly Atlesian models so I couldn't imagine how hard it was to tell which was which.
The other thing I couldn't stop thinking about on the way was Jaune. I hoped he was alright wherever he might be.