RWBY: Team CRML
Chapter 43
Minutes earlier
Chrome/Nicci
Hearing a loud crash, Chrome, Nicci and Blake jumped onto the rooftop of a nearby building. Rushing to the edge of the roof, they came to a stop as they saw a small group of White Fang, along with Adam, looking at Hazel who had been knocked through the wall by Nora.
"Who's the big guy?" Nicci asked.
"He doesn't look like a Faunus." Chrome said softly.
Seeing Adam, Blake's eyes narrowed at her ex. "ADAM!" she shouted, getting his attention along with the other Fang members.
Looking from Blake to Nicci and finally Chrome, Adam's lips curled in disgust at the Schnee. "Chrome!" he growled.
"Stand down!" Blake shouted.
The White Fang members aimed their firearms at the three ex Fang members. "Wait!" Adam put his hands up as the White Fang members stood down. "I'm a bit surprised to see you come here of your own free will, Schnee! After what I did to you at Beacon, I would've figured you'd keep your distance!"
As Adam mentioned Beacon, Chrome gently placed a hand over his missing eye. "This isn't what's right for the Faunus! Stop what you're doing and we can end this peacefully." Blake shouted.
Now turning his attention to Blake, Adam shook his head. "You're wrong, Blake, and you can't stop us."
"That's why she didn't come alone!" Sun said as he emerged from the darkness with half of the Faunus that came with them.
"What?!"
"Who's there?"
"Your brothers and sisters." Ghira said as he and the other half of the Faunus joined them on the opposite side of Adam and his group.
As the White Fang group began to doubt what they were doing as they saw family and friends amongst the Faunus, Adam quickly took notice. "Make no mistake, brothers! These are our enemies! And we will not let them ruin-"
Suddenly, Adam is interrupted when a Mistral airship shines its searchlight down on Adam and his group. The Mistral police captain can be seen on the airship along with Kali.
"Adam Taurus, this is the Mistral Police Force! Lower your weapons and surrender peacefully."
"How?! How did you do this?!" Adam shouted.
"It's over." Chrome told him.
Adam looked around as the crowds of Menagerie Faunus got closer to him and his group. He suddenly pulled out a detonator.
"Then it's over for all of us."
"Hey wait!"
Adam pressed the button, but nothing happened.
"Huh?"
He pressed the detonator button a few more times, nothing happened.
"What are you doing? Trying to get us all killed?!" one of the Fang members yelled at Adam.
Suddenly, Adam grabbed his collar. "I am making humanity pay for WHAT THEY'VE DONE!"
Adam let go and pushed the White Fang soldier back. "We sent someone over to confirm your explosives, and once we did, she disarmed them." Blake told him.
Ilia walked out from around the tower, dropping her black camouflage as she held the wires in her hand that disabled the bombs. Adam seethed, realizing that the situation was no longer in his favor.
"What do we do?!" he asked as he looked back at Hazel.
"This... is your business. Not mine. Fix it." Hazel replied as he cracked his knuckles.
Adam just glared back at him before turning to Blake. "I told you, Adam. It's over." Chrome said.
Adam, not having any of it, yelled out in frustration and charged toward Chrome. As he got near, Adam swung at Chrome only for Blake to jump in the way and block his strike with her weapon. As Adam locked with Blake, Nicci swung her axe at Adam knocking him a few feet away and to the ground on his knees. "KILL THEM!"
The two Faunus groups suddenly clashed. The White Fang soldiers draw their weapons and attempt to fire at the Mistral airships. As the battle went on, a stinger suddenly impaled Hazel's side. He was then pulled back inside the building. Noticing this, Nicci, Blake and Chrome walked towards the building, standing in the hole in the wall.
Looking around, the three were shocked to see the members of their respective teams. Upon seeing her illegitimate half-brother, Weiss gasped. "Chrome?"
"Yang, go!" Ruby suddenly said, causing her sister to snap back to reality. Turning around, she rushed to the entrance of the vault. Emerald and Mercury tried to stop her, Emerald failing and Mercury grabbing her robot arm, Yang didn't care as she simply detached the mechanical arm and jumped down to the vault.
As Blake looked to her leader, Ruby nodded and Blake rushed back outside to help. Chrome and Nicci stood still, unsure of what to do. As the fights inside resumed, Nicci saw Marek was having trouble holding his own against Shadow. "I'll help outside." Chrome told Nicci. "You help in here."
"Got it!" rushing Shadow with her weapon ready, Nicci swung it into Shadow's side as he focused on Marek. Knocking him a few feet away, Nicci turned to her downed teammate and held her hand out to him. Accepting the help up, the two looked to Shadow and took their stances.
Outside, Chrome found Sun and Blake fighting Adam. Rushing over, Adam heard Chrome's footsteps and jumped back as Chrome swung his twin swords at him. As Blake, Sun and Chrome stood side by side, Adam began to grit his teeth in anger.
"Think you can take all three of us on?" Sun taunted.
Adam growled as he rushed them. Swinging his blade at Sun, he jumped back to dodge it as Blake slashed Adam across the chest with her sword. As Adam stumbled, Chrome slashed both of his swords at Adam, knocking him back.
Seeing the three of them take their stances, Adam knew he wouldn't win. Turning around, he retreated into the forest. Sun went to give chase but Blake stopped him. "Sun, wait!"
"But he's getting away! We could take him!"
Blake sheathed her weapon. "No, we can't. He wants to lure us away so he can pick us off. We need to protect the school and the people here. Besides... now he can see what it feels like to run away." she smiled at Sun. "Thank you."
"Eh, we all need help sometimes."
Sun's attention is then drawn to Haven's Great Hall where he, Chrome and Blake see their old friends and allies fighting off their enemies.
"I think there's a few people who could use yours."
"Be careful." Blake said to Sun before he ran off.
Sun smirked. "No promises."
"Let's go." Chrome said as he rushed over to the building with Blake close behind him.
Inside, Nicci slashed at Shadow, forcing him to jump back to dodge the attack. As Shadow's feet touched the ground, Marek rushed in and thrust his spear into his chest, knocking Shadow down. "Nice one." Nicci said.
"Keep your focus!" Marek told her.
"Y'know, two on one is hardly a fair fight." Shadow said as he got to his feet.
"Yet you and Mist teamed up on me." Marek shot back.
Shadow shrugged. "Well, whadd'ya say we make this a bit more even, yeah?" closing his eyes, his shadow began to grow as three exact copies of himself clawed their way out of the ground. As Shadow's clones stood beside him, Nicci prepared herself. "Be careful." Marek told her. "His clones aren't like Liam's. They are taken out by a single hit, but they can hit back."
"Noted."
Shadow and his clones rushed Marek and Nicci. As one of the clones went to strike Nicci, she ducked under its attack and swung her axe right through it. Aiming at the next one, she shot a shotgun round into it, causing it to disappear as well.
As for the last clone, Marek thrust his spear into it, leaving just Shadow. As Marek turned to his brother, Shadow threw a fireball at him, hitting his chest and causing him to fall back. Not giving him a chance to recover, Shadow broke Marek's aura by bringing his sword down onto him.
Taking a step back, Shadow turned to Nicci. "You really think you can match me?" he asked her.
Looking from Marek to Shadow, Nicci took her stance. Without another word, Nicci went to rush Shadow only for Chrome to suddenly dash in, swinging both of his swords at Shadow and forcing him to back up.
Blocking and dodging Chrome's attacks, Shadow was knocked down as Nicci fired off a shotgun shell into his side. His aura flashed, showing it was close to breaking.
"Heh, thanks for the assist." Nicci said.
"Don't mention it."
Getting to his feet, Shadow was now beyond annoyed. "That's enough!" Ruby suddenly shouted. She, Qrow, and pretty much everyone else was exhausted. "Just give up."
Mercury snarled and yelled in frustration, slamming his fist into the ground.
"It's not over!" Emerald shouted. "Cinder will come back, she'll have the Relic, and she'll stop all of you! She won't let us down."
The platform leading to the vault came back up. Everyone stared as Yang came back up with the Relic of Knowledge in her hand. All of Yang's friends look up to her and smile.
"Yang..."
Hazel seethes while tears stream from Emerald's eyes. Yang smiled back down to her friends and shared a brief glance with Chrome, who looked down for a bit before looking back up to her. Emerald fell to her knees and began to sob as Mercury and Hazel slowly back away.
"Emerald, get up, we need to go." Mercury said. Emerald shook her head and remained stationary. "Emerald!"
Emerald looked around as her breathing became frantic. She suddenly held her head and let out a loud scream, activating her Semblance. Suddenly, the room turns dark as black smoke rose from the ground nearby. From it, a giant effigy of Salem, limbs bent and deformed, towered above everyone in the room. Salem opened her eyes, and let out an ear-piercing scream before swooping down over everyone. Afterwards, everything returned to normal, Ruby shaking in fear as she comes to terms with what she had just witnessed. Everyone else was just as scared, giving Hazel, Mercury, Emerald, Mist and Shadow time to escape.
"Wha- what was that?" Blake asked.
"An illusion. But an accurate one. That... was Salem." Ozpin said as he temporarily took control of Oscar.
Minutes later
Team CRML
Once everyone had calmed down, Ghira and Kali entered the building to let everyone know the situation outside. "The police rounded up the remaining White Fang members. Haven is safe." Kali said.
"Unfortunately, it appears that Adam escaped." Ghira told Chrome, Blake and Sun who were standing nearby.
"It's okay." Ilia said as she walked into the building. "He was the only one to escape tonight. Those in the White Fang that followed him? Won't support a leader that abandons his people. He won't have their help after this. He'll have no one at all. And the White Fang will be left divided."
"We've been fighting amongst ourselves for too long. Perhaps it's time for a new brotherhood. A new family for Faunus truly working towards a better world." Ghira said.
"And they'll need a new leader." Kali added.
Ghira nodded in acknowledgement.
On the other side of the room, Qrow, Yang and Liam talked. "What happened?" Qrow asked.
"I don't know exactly." Yang replied. "When I got down there, Cinder was gone, and Vernal was dead."
"Vernal's dead?" Liam asked.
Looking to her cousin, Yang's expression fell. "I'm sorry, Liam."
Hearing this, Liam looked down, a tear rolling down his cheek. "And Raven?" Qrow asked.
"Gone."
"Well, we're all glad you're still here, firecracker." Qrow placed a hand on her shoulder.
Looking over, Chrome, Nicci and Marek walked over to Liam. "Man, is it good to see you!" Chrome said as he and Liam shared a quick hug. Pulling away, Chrome noticed Liam's robot arm. "Got a new upgrade?"
"Huh?" Liam looked to his arm. "Oh. I lost my arm back in Beacon." he told them. "Got this rather recently."
"Looks good on ya. Same with the cloak." Chrome said.
"Thanks."
Suddenly, Nicci hugged Liam. Returning it, the two broke away. Nicci looked up to Liam to see the tear streak down his face. "You're crying."
"You're that happy to see us?" Chrome teased.
Liam looked down. "A close friend died during this fight." he told them. "She's...down in the vault."
"Oh. Shit. I'm sorry, man." Chrome said as he placed a hand on Liam's shoulder.
"I'm going to go get Lionheart's key to the vault and give her a proper burial." Liam told them.
"I'll give ya a hand." Chrome said.
"Me, too." Marek and Nicci said at the same time.
"Thanks guys."
An hour later
Standing over Vernal's grave, Liam looked down at it in silence. "Take all the time you need." Marek told him.
"She taught me how to fight without my arm." Liam said. "She was always there when I had nightmares about Beacon. She was...the best. And if Cinder somehow got away, I'm going to make sure I'm the one who kills the bitch!" turning around to head back to the house, Chrome, Nicci and Marek shared a brief glance before following.
As they walked, Liam stopped, letting the others pass him. Glancing back at Vernal's grave, another tear rolled down his face. "Rest in peace, Vernal."
End of chapter 43
