Ironwood slammed his fist on his desk in frustration.

Two months. Two months since Atlas was attacked by Salem's forces and Qrow suddenly disappeared without a word. He praised whatever being was out there that they managed to survive Salem's onslaught and even if the Relic of Creation was gone and Fria was dead, his best general Winter was also gone without a trace.

It took the Atlas forces all of those two months to find and tear through the wreckage of the Monstra and discover most of Salem's cabal with the exception of one completely dead and buried, including the seemingly immortal witch herself.

Ironwood was both glad and confused. Mostly confused and in disbelief that Salem was seemingly and by all means dead and decapitated at that. Ozpin had always told him she was immortal, unkillable. Yet the proof was right there in front of him, in front of all his soldiers.

Salem was dead.

But he did not celebrate it. He was relieved at best, but as soon as that feeling passed another dreadful thought entered his already worn out mind.

If something or somebody could kill Salem….then they'd have an even bigger threat on their hands. And without Qrow or Winter to potentially explain or help out, Ironwood was well and truly left to his own devices and meant to pick up the pieces after this revelation. Salem was gone…but what kind of creature or being could have snuffed out her life. And was it hiding out there somewhere on Remnant, concealed by darkness and shadows.

"Damnit Qrow where are you!" Ironwood yelled in frustration.

"Right here James."

Ironwood narrowed his vision forward, out of nowhere Qrow stood in the middle of his office. Accompanied by three others he didn't know. A tall blindfolded man with striking white hair and an arrogant grin on his face, a younger gloomy looking man with dark spiky hair and his arm around…a young girl with red horns coming out of her head.

"Qrow! What in the world is going on here! Who are those people!" Ironwood yelled out, both in frustration and confusion.

Qrow was the only one that stepped forward "calm down James I promise I can explain it all!"

"Explain what! That you have been gone for months! Without a single word about your whereabouts only for you to suddenly show up here out of the clear blue sky like nothing happened! Are you going to explain how we found Salem and her cabal dead on the outskirts of Atlas!"

"Wait what? Salem dead?" Qrow inquired in surprise.

Ironwood's annoyed expression only became more heated "you didn't know! well I don't know what happened either. She was supposed be immortal wasn't she?"

Qrow turned his head towards Gojo "this can only mean one thing" and Gojo nodded in agreement before Qrow turned back to Ironwood.

"James I promise you I will tell you everything you need to know. But you need to explain to me what's happened in the time I've been gone."

It took a while to convince the battle worn general to calm down and they all sat down in which Qrow introduced Ironwood to his allies. He explained everything the best he could. He told him about the Collective, about the different worlds beyond Remnant, the current whereabouts of Team RWBY and Team JNPR, how and why Qrow joined Gojo's cause and the Collective's attack on Atlas that ran similar with Salem's attack.

In turn Ironwood, after taking in all that information explained what happened. How they discovered Salem and her Cabal all dead, with the exception of one. The disappearance of the Relic of Creation and Fria's death.

"Yeah we know about that. We know who killed her too" Megumi said.

"And you didn't think to share this information with me!" Ironwood yelled out aggravated.

"Well we where in the middle of a fight with them so we did not think about that," Qrow said as he took a sip of his canteen and turned to Gojo "but this confirms what we already suspected. He was after the Relic."

Gojo nodded silently.

"Okay then who killed her? And what would this 'Thanos' need with the Relic anyway?" Ironwood inquired.

"That we are still trying to figure it out. As for who killed her. Let's just say it was Thanos his adoptive daughter. He send her in order to claim the Winter Maiden's powers so he could unlock the fault. And it appears he has succeeded."

"That means she survived that fall" Megumi said.

"Can someone please fill me on what happened when Fria died!" Ironwood yelled slamming his fist on the table.

Gojo raised his hand and proceeded to stand up from the couch he was sitting on.

"If I may general?" he said politely. Ironwood took in a breath and nodded, giving his approval for him to speak.

"I wasn't there when it all went down but from the rapports both Qrow and Megumi have given, as well as detailed accounts of the members of Team RWBY as well as General Schnee, what occurred was that she was ambushed by Thanos' daughter who proceeded to kill the Winter Maiden and steal her power to open the vault. They got into a fight with Team RWBY upon which young Ruby Rose threw her through a window and we thought that was the end of it but evidently not."

Ironwood sat down and sighed. This was a lot to take in and it had already been a long two months. A sudden thought came to mind.

The prisoner they got snooping around here a few weeks ago. The odd looking half cyborg man who refused to talk.

"You're saying this Collective has agents all across many different worlds…" Ironwood said.

"That's correct" Gojo responded.

Ironwood grabbed the communication device of his desk and said "Ace-OPS bring in the prisoner to my office this instant" he said before turning his attention back on the group "then maybe you can shed some light on this."

They waited for ten minutes until the door to Ironwood's office opened up and two Ace-OPS agents came in holding a portly man who seemed from his appearance to be half cyborg, with his eye, right arm and leg being made of mechanical parts. He had an old fashioned pirate head on and while he was being tightly restrained he did not make a sound.

"The prisoner as you requested general" one of the guards said.

"Excellent job sol…"

"Feel free to put him down, he won't do anything while I'm here" Gojo interrupted. The two Ace-OPS looked up in confusion until Ironwood gestured them to just go along with it. They dropped the man to the ground and turned back out of the office, closing the door behind them.

The man looked up as Gojo walked towards him.

"Do you know who I am?" Gojo asked him rhetorically. The man simply nodded without speaking a single word. Gojo smiled widely "good because we already know who you are. I assume you didn't give the general a name so let us help you out."

He turned to Ironwood "general may I introduce you to Long John Silver, one of the Collective's inner circle members and from what my sources tell me, a culinary genius."

Ironwood stood there with a numb expression, unsure whether or not this man was acting or just a full on drama queen.

"So John. Can we call you John, why are you here so by yourself so far from home?" Gojo asked. No response came.

"We discovered this man a few weeks ago snooping around the building, particularly the medical bay. It seemed he was looking for something but he has been silent about everything. Nothing we have done can make him speak."

"That's because you didn't have me yet!" Gojo said boastfully "I can easily make him talk just one moment."

Gojo removed his blindfold, making Ironwood see his shining blue eyes, making him wonder why he had to use a blindfold if his vision was working just fine. Gojo turned to Silver, holding up his hand which began to glow slightly red.

Megumi grabbed Power's hand and pulled her back as Qrow said "you better take a few steps back James" but before Ironwood could say anything the red glow in Gojo's hand grew even bigger, almost enveloping his own hand.

"I assume your best have told you about what I'm capable of. And I'd be happy to tell you that the reports aren't exaggerated one bit. So unless you want to be completely wiped out of existence you will tell me? What where you doing here and why did Thanos need the Relic?"

From a distance Ironwood could see the fear in Silver's one working eye. The man was petrified and completely at the mercy of what Gojo would do.

"If the Lord Titan discovers I have talked he will…"

"There will be nothing left of you for him to deal with once I'm done with you. He cannot even do half the things I'm capable of so make your choice now Silver. Talk or death."

Ironwood couldn't move, he was completely in awe. This power. This raw power….he didn't even feel close to it when he was around Ozpin or his regenerations. It wasn't even close to it.

As red enveloped the room, Silver finally caved.

"Alright I'll speak lad just…just stop with that…" Silver said defeated. Gojo grinned and the red disappeared from his palm, the entire room just as ordinary as it was before.

"See that was easy wasn't it?" Gojo said gleefully with a big grin, making Ironwood completely unsure as he had just seen a threatening near god-like figure standing there instead of this….this goofy man-child.

"So," Gojo turned to Silver "first things first. Why are you here? Did he send you here?"

Silver nodded "ay, that he did."

"What for? I know he already has the Relic of Creation. What more could he need here…"

Silver chuckled "do you really think that white haired lass that is his daughter could convince the lady to give her the powers. No she needed a bit of help for that. She needed one of the Stones."

The heads in the group all turned up, Power scratching her head said "uhm what is the weird robot talking about…"

Qrow and Megumi exchanged a glance "so that's how she did. She used an Infinity Stone to trick Fria into giving the powers to her" Qrow told.

"A what?" Ironwood exclaimed confused.

"Long story James we will explain later!" Qrow said.

"So it was the Mind Stone huh?" Gojo inquired. Silver nodded "ay that one, a nasty little thing. Well apparently it got lost in the following kerfuffle and I was tasked with retrieving it. But I can't fight it anywhere."

"So that means Thanos is one stone short. And somebody must have taken it" Gojo said as he stood up and walked over to Ironwood.

"General do you by any chance have any footage of that day?"

"Don't you think I would have already shown you if I had. No there is nothing there!" Ironwood told.

Gojo retreated back in thought, pacing around the room for a good two minutes before appearing to have a "eureka" moment.

"Someone took it!" he exclaimed proudly.

"Yeah no shit sherlock!" Power said loudly.

"The question is who? And the follow up question is…what do we do with you," Gojo said pointing to Silver "since you cannot go back empty handed and basically revealed a big flaw in your leaders plan to me so…what to do with you…"

Megumi felt Power tap his shoulder repeatedly "what is it dear?" he asked calmly. Power pointed up towards the open window "look!" she said as Megumi saw nothing unfamiliar about the sky and open window.

"Power I don't see anything!"

"Look at that bird!" Power yelled so loudly that everyone looked up at it. Seeing an inconspicuous black bird on top of the overhead window.

"Power it's just a normal bird" Megumi tried to explain.

"Really because it's been looking at us for the last twenty minutes straight!" she yelled out.

Qrow and Megumi exchanged glances, he saw the older man's face completely change. At that moment the bird spread it's wings and flew off and Qrow immediately bolted for the door.

"Qrow where are you going!" Megumi yelled after him.

"To deal with some family business! The Collective is here! Sound all the alarms" Qrow yelled back as he bolted straight through the door and out of the office.