RWBY: A Thorn in My Heart

CH 34: Doomsday

The next morning…

"Down with Ironwood! Down with Ironwood!" chanted a large group of angry Atlas citizens. Ironwood grimaced as he noticed them brandish their picket signs, some even bashing a couple of droids that approached them to cease and desist.

The screen on his recently restored security system rang rapidly as many androids alerted the Atlas security tower he oversaw.

Units 67, 83, 44, and 55 in spike street down…

Insurgents numbering 6 on the attack in district 5!

Reporting fire in Atlas dust store! Alerting fire department!

But the only report that rang through Ironwoods mind and ears constantly brought chills down his spine.

Error! Error! Error! Error! The fallen droids repeated.

Ironwood clenched his good hand around his robot hand behind his back. At times the battle hardened general wondered if he was more machine than man. It was a dangerous thought that made him internally grateful he was in the city, lest he himself threaten it with invasion from Grimm. It was the whole reason he enacted martial law, the citizens would be indoors while he found the former Schnee president and could use her to bring hope to them.

He soon saw on the screens the protestors, some even Faunus, holding images of the SDC logo, though to his surprise they didn't crossed out but was instead followed with more chants.

"Winter Schnee! Winter Schnee!" they chanted. It was really ironic to the General, having seen for years the companies attitude towards Faunus kind, an attitude the people often mimicked, and now some Faunus were standing amongst the crowd showing support for a Schnee from that companies family. It was both an inspiring turn of events and one that a deadly premonition for the General.

He shook his head disappointingly as they called for his "replacement" to be sworn in. After all the years she had served him without complaint, he still kicked himself for not seeing his captain would start a coup.

Had he treated her poorly? Was she just lashing out for her sisters sake? Or was she just a selfish power hungry monster like Cinder?

These questions threatened to rip apart his mind as he shook his head, struggling to keep himself calm around his men, fearful to look weak around his soldiers and give them the same ideas as Winter.

He had seen what internal strife had done to many teams during his days at Beacon, romance and disagreement over battle formations leading to dissolvent at best or death and destruction at worst. Beacon, the most powerful school in remnant after his own cities, in the span of a day it had been attacked from within by Grimm and Cinder's forces and was almost reduced to rubble.

He gritted his teeth as the image of the witch Cinder creped into his mind. He still saw her cocky smile from her earlier attack, and knew if she was still alive she would be laughing at him while she received a power up from the chaos like she did during Beacon. What was more frustrating for him, however, was he couldn't ask Qrow how she looked when he attacked her in the Dark Continent.

"First Winter, and now you too my old friend?" Ironwood said to himself.

He had heard the reports from the now decimated forces in the east. How Qrow and his sister had sided with Team RWBY and Winter against his forces. Had they simply complied with the martial law he would have released the Branwen siblings, at worst he suspected a punch to the face for the ordeal. Now he was going to have to face them down as well. It was a terrifying realization even for the battle hardened General, those two hated each other but were a deadly combo for any Grimm or hunter no matter how powerful. The mere notion was almost suicide. Fortunately, Ironwood had a solution to keep them and the rest of Team RWBY in line. He pressed a button on the panel and brought up a directory. He scrolled through many different departments ranging from the armory, the high council office, and finally to the SDC Science center. As much as he distrusted the company, Ironwood did acknowledge their scientific minds as genius. He rubbed his robot arm tenderly at the thought, it had been them that supplied it to him after he lost his arm. He trusted they had what he needed, the monitor showcased a young man with brown hair wearing the company logo on a blue and white vest, the natural colors of the Schnee.

"This is the SDC Science sector… OH! Hello General Ironwood how may I… uh… be of service to you today?" the young man asked, panic fueling him as he struggled to stiffen himself and saluted the man, who silently shook his head unimpressed.

"Since you offered so kindly... I am enacting protocol 99 get the device ready and ship it to my quarters." Ironwood declared to the shock of his men in the room who hung their mouths open.

Protocol 99, the nuke deployment. It was an absolute last resort to use a dust bomb against an army of Grimm or a giant Grimm if the shields ever fell. They were confused as to why the General would want the bomb during martial law.

But the General had a plan. The nuke, when not fully charged, was strong enough to obliterate half of the flying city. He could pin it on Team RWBY, the Branwen siblings and Winter easily simply by stationing half his remaining droids there. He could tell the people absolutely hated those machines now and with them gone, it would be easy to finger his adversaries and regain control over the masses as he rebuilt Atlas and keep the Grimm threat, and hopefully Cinder if she was still alive, away.

"Uh sir… you may not have heard but –" the young man said before Ironwood raised his voice to interrupt startling the younger man into shrinking into a quivering mess.

"I believe I gave you an order! I am the highest ranked authority during martial law and I order you to bring it here NOW!" Ironwood roared, shaking the man and his officers further.

"It's not that I won't, I can't its been stolen by Grimm!" he said while waving his hands fearfully.

Ironwood and the officers in the room went pale as they gave thousand yards stares.

The bomb is gone? Stolen?! It was a nightmare beyond recognition and it only affirmed Ironwood's worst fears. Cinder was indeed alive. A Grimm was a mindless monster and couldn't possess any desire other than to kill. It would never steal a bomb, just lives. If that witch had access to his Nuke and a portal she could detonate it at any time and wipe out all of Atlas or any kingdom in Remnant, it was simply a matter of her choosing. In his panic, Ironwood slammed his fist onto the button and cut the transmission and grabbed an officer closed by, shaking him out of his shock.

"Soldier, contact the Ace Ops, have them meet me here asap I need them to find Qrow and Raven Branwen now!" he hollered. His one brief hope was that by convincing Raven, he may be able to somehow get her to open a portal to the dark continent. Her semblance let her open portals to places she been too and it might help her best soldiers either retrieve the bomb, or kill Cinder at last.

His hopes began to dash as he received no reply from any of the Ace Ops scrolls, just static which signified the devices were destroyed or the ace ops were choosing to cut the signal. Ironwood felt his body tremble as a nasty thought ran through his head.

"Did the Ace Ops side with Winter as well now?" he thought to himself. He was careful to not voice these concerns to his men, knowing the reputation of his executive officers inspired many of them to enlist. Any defiance from them would certainly inspire further dissonance amongst his corp.

Suddenly the door to the communications center slammed open, the sound jolting up the officers and Ironwood as they immediately reached their holsters for their guns and pointed at the door.

Despite seeing the guns, the officer who actually ran through the door was too sweaty and exhausted to get scared. He merely knelt over as everyone realized by his uniform his identity and sheaved their guns, allowing him to catch his breath. The man raised his head towards Ironwood who stared at him attentively, knowing the soldier had something important to say, why else would he be in such a rush?

"Sir.. *huff* east street… has been torched. It's hell down there!"

The exhausted officer said. Ironwood merely shook his head disappointingly, another office backing away from the General, fearful of his reaction as he remembered the last guy who got thrown out the window for brining bad news.

"Is that all?" Ironwood coldly asked, the officer gave a confused look from the General's seemingly uncaring tone.

"If the Ace Ops were down there they could handle any chaos like that. Start looking for Team Rw-" Ironwood began stating before noticing the officer clenched his fist tightly while still collapsed on the floor. His hand was beginning to bleed from the pressure.

Sorry to interrupt sir but… I found this on the streets." The soldier groaned as he hesitantly opened his palm and revealed Clovers bloody four leaf clover pin.

"SON OF A BITCH!" was screamed so loud it could be heard throughout the entire building as Ironwood slammed his fist into the control panel. He realized what this meant, he had lost his best officers because of Qrow and Raven, his city was turning on him, and Cinder was definitely alive and snickering at him while planning to destroy his kingdom with the bomb.

"Enough trying to get communications back online! Everyone get out there and find Raven Branwen Go Go Go!" he roared, as his officers fearfully complied and exited the room, Ironwood felt every vain press up against his forehead. He was going to get to the dark continent and when he did, he was enjoy blasting that witch with a canon and then Team RWBY. He knew Qrow and Raven only turned on him for their sakes, so he was going to make them suffer in their place,

"A fitting punishment if I do say so myself… old friends" he venomously said to himself.

Pietro's Lab

Outside the facility at the far end of Atlas, Blake was enjoying a nice hot cup of coffee with her team and Qrow. As much as she wanted to keep resting, she felt her aura recharge with each sip of that hot drink. Weiss had thankfully brought with her special edition Atlas brand dust coffee with special properties that restored both vigor and aura. It was certainly working for Blake right now… that and the 4 sugar cubes and heavy cream she added to her black coffee.

"Aaaah that really hits the spot!" she cheered.

"Ruby really is a bad influence on you. I'm just surprised you haven't gotten fat from sweets like that blasphemous coffee right now." Weiss mockingly stated, but in a sweet kidding tone as she formed a teasing smile at Blake as she tugged at her own waist before blushing.

"Shut the hell up!" she embarrassingly yelled as she gave a playful shove to the Schnee, threatening to spill her drink on her dress.

"You ruin my dress you buy me a new one!" Weiss bitterly said.

"Come on! Your rich girlfriend you can buy a millio-" Blake said before she paused mid sentence as Weiss hung her head somberly. This had been a regular teasing for each other in Beacon, back when the two couldn't even stand each other due to their different positions on faunus and the SDC. Regardless, Blake never liked the thought of hurting her friend and that slip of the tongue made Blake remember instantly Weiss's financial and social predicament now that her brother stole her company. The look on her friends sad face brought shame to Blake, she shuddered as she struggled to think about what to say to cheer her up.

Seeing her partners plight, Yang instantly chugged her coffee despite its heat, actually she enjoyed the burn as it boosted her aura even more due to being a fire user. She slung her arm around Weiss's neck and gave a forced smile.

"Hey don't worry about it Weiss! Soon your big sisters gonna get you back your company and you can buy us all a big steak dinner, hell the whole restaurant for a night knowing you hahaha!" Yang chuckled, earning a slight grin from Weiss, but she really didn't feel it was genuine happiness as she eyed Blake giving a tearful smile from her friends intervention. She honestly felt a hint of jealousy arise within her.

"You know, ever since grandpa died my family has always been at each other's throats, trying to one up each other, steal from each other or worse others. Even if I get my company back, my brother will just keep hating my guts. I still hate my own dads guts, but when I see you two, Ruby as well have such a good relationship with your parents… it makes me wish my family could have had that too." Weiss said somberly, tears welling up in her eyes.

Yang and Blake both sighed, family conflicts were a tricky subject for them and they honestly had trouble thinking of what to say to Weiss.

Yang took her arm off Weiss, giving a look of brief apprehension, not towards Weiss but at the sight of her mother drinking her coffee across the room. She never really let it go that she was abandoned and at times wished she never came back. She also bitterly remembered the few times she and Ruby fought and had some nasty arguments over trivial things that became so heated. Those "I hate you's" she rarely received always stung more than any slap to the face her father would give her for drinking late or breaking a bar and giving him a bill to pay.

Blake let her cat ears down and silently sipped her coffee slowly. She had many problems with her own family as she still vividly recalled Khan's corpse that day. Despite all that she still had a loving father to support her and her brother Adam always tought her to keep her loved ones close to her heart as a source of strength. What hurt Blake more right now was a sense of helplessness she hadn't felt since learning Adam died while she was away with Ruby. She never had a bad relationship with her Father and did reconcile with her own brother, even after he slashed her neck, but they had been the ones to seek forgiveness, not her.

Soon she got the right idea of what to say to Weiss and clutched her hands, nearly shocking her into dropping her drink. Blake soon coughed a bit and got rid of her brief smile of excitement, wanting to appear more sympathetic than proud.

"You know, my brother nearly cut my neck off but I forgave him." Blake said softly, Weiss and Yang gave a wide eyed look of confusion as their friend who was seemingly fond of recalling that horrific event.

"It really is only impossible to reconcile if both are unwilling to try." Blake asserted, earning a scoff from Weiss.

"Well how do you suggest I reconcile with my family? Maybe I don't want to reconcile, maybe I want to keep hating them instead of being a happy family, maybe for once I want to flaunt my wealth in their faces after all the misery they put me through, maybe…maybe… Maybe I just want to smack them like mom did!" Weiss yelled, choking on her words as she threw her coffee on the ground and covered her eyes, now a sobbing mess.

Blake shrank as she processed these harsh words while Yang gave Weiss some distance and walked over to her partner and put her arm around her shoulders. Even as dense as she could be she could tell this wasn't the time to talk, only to listen.

Weiss, for her part, loved her mother as much as she could, trying to force herself to remember sweet times with her. But she could only remember a painful scar worse than the one on her face. The day mom learned Jacquees married her for her money. Willow was never the same since then, she had drowned her misery in alcohol and neglected Weiss since then until her death by alcohol poisoning.

"Mommy! Why weren't you at my piano recital?! I asked my mom when I was a little girl." Weiss told her friends.

"But all she cared about after all my dad did to her was her next drink." She bitterly said, causing Raven and Yang to give a stink eye to Qrow who rubbed his head awkwardly. He could really use a drink after all these fiascos over the years, but promised himself not to drink for Ruby and Thorn's sake. A part of him wanted to say this to Weiss, but he resisted that urge, knowing it wasn't his place to comfort her right now. She needed to vent and he wasn't her family or friend so he just excused himself quietly and left the room.

"While I was crying because mom, whom I thought would always support me would be at some stupid piano recital for me, she just slapped me in the face hard and said "shut up you brat"' and glared at me like I was a roach." Weiss said, fighting the urge to hurl as she saw that glare in her mom's eyes.

"I still feel, the burn on my face when she hit me. How scared I felt whenever she yelled at me or dad. But I don't remember much of anything other than that. I just want a good memory of my family for once and I can't do that because I don't think I ever had one!" she yelled.

"What are you talking about Weiss!" A familiar voice yelled across the room that made Weiss raise her head. It was Winter who bore a stern glare in her eyes that made Weiss wince. It was almost like mom's. Weiss slowly retreated into her seat, almost about to slide off it as she gained an extreme urge to run from that icy glare, but Winter grabbed her shoulders tightly, refusing to yield her grip till Weiss would come to her senses. Yang, assuming the worse, almost shot out of her chair seeing her friends fearful reaction before she was yanked aside by Blake. Before she could open her mouth to protest it was covered by Blake's hand, which shushed her.

"Winter's not angry, lets leave Weiss in her hands. It's family business after all" she whispered to Yang, who sighed into Blake's hand, making it uncomfortably moist as she pulled it away from her partners mouth and wiped it on her sweat pants.

"You say you have no fond memories of your family, we'll what about me? Wasn't I the one who got you to Beacon, didn't I tell you not to give up!" Winter yelled at Weiss's face as she admonished her. Weiss soon felt a twing of anger arise.

"Yeah! But you weren't exactly a lovey dovey sister either! "Your performance was below average Weiss, Grandpa would have aced this twice as fast as you did!"' Weiss said as she mockingly mimicked her sister's voice, earning a shake from her Sister before she released her grip to reach into her pocket.

"Then tell me, who do you see right here!?" she yelled as she handed Weiss her scroll. Weiss tenderly grabbed it to see an image that brought shock and a warm sense of comfort to her heart.

Winter was hugging her with one hand while she slept in her bed while cradling Nala as a newborn infant in her blue blanket in the other.

"Wait, is this when Nala…" Weiss asked confused.

"Yes Weiss, it was the day we got a new member of the family. One that I… that we loved so much I couldn't resist taking that photo." Winter said as she fought the tears forming in her eyes and nearly choked on a gasp. She was being overwhelmed by her emotions right now, but she had to stay strong for Weiss's sake.

"And didn't you try so hard to spend as much time playing with your daughter as you could?" Winter asked, but this time with no aggression in her tone.

In that moment, Weiss finally formed a smile that she meant. Despite all the turmoil that's happened this week… no all her life, this was the happiest she had been in years as the days she spent pushing Nala on a swingset, struggling to learn from Klein how to change her, and reading to her Ruby's favorite huntress fairy tales, all wonderful times she kicked herself for forgetting even a moment in her misery. And each and every step she had Klein for guide her and Winter who helped keep it a secret and secretly supplied her medicines so the public would leave them alone and have these blissful times.

"Your right sis, our brother and parents may have sucked, but we made a great family for ourselves without them. We never needed them. I just needed my new family, you, Nala, Klein, and you girls. God I love you all so much!" Weiss tearfully said as she glanced at her friends, also forming tears of joy as she held her arms out for a hug for them all to warmly embrace her with glee.

Raven soon walked towards the doors to give the group some privacy.

"Come on mom, don't run away just join the fun!" Yang called out to her mom, making her turn around slowly as she struggled to think about this request. She could always sense Yang's bitterness even when not vocal about it, which was rare, and honestly never expected her to want to hug her after all these years she abandoned her.

"I.. uh.." Raven nervously said, but before she could force out anything to say she heard the doors behind her open and felt someone push against her back so she instinctively grabbed that person and swung her body around to pin them on the floor like an acrobat.

"Ow! Sorry I didn't mean to bump into you but it's important right now!" The person, revealing to be Marrow, said with an annoyed tone but one she could sense the urgency from and immediately release him, though declined to help him up.

"Marrow, what's happened now." Winter asked her former subordinate, who gave her a look of fear that made her frustrated. Things kept getting worse, but she supposed she shouldn't have been hopeful for better times even though the people were rallying behind her.

"I had Pietro hack into the communications and found out from Ironwood's forces what Ironwood plans to do next!" he said, alerting everyone as they gave him their undivided attention.

"That bomb he lost to the Grimm, he's planning to capture you to force you to go to the dark continent and get it back. He's going to use that bomb to frame you guys and get the people and city back under his control!" Marrow yelled with a nervous tone, his revelation making everyone but Raven wince.

"That's assuming by he can even catch me." Raven said, refusing to show any fear or respect, especially around her daughter, despite acknowledging deep down it was a good plan. Make your enemies look like bad guys by causing a disaster you'll fix yourself thus gaining the crowd's favor and more power. After explaining this to the girls Marrow showed his scroll to Raven and the gang.

"He's put a bounty of 50 million lien on you now, that means we'll have more nuisances after us." Marrow said, he knew the people, despite their support for them may get greedy and betray them by joining ironwoods hunt. Money was the root of evil after all.

"Now we definitely can't go to Mantle to hide, they'd sacrifice us for a mere loaf of bread." Winter grunted earning a glare from Blake.

"Maybe if Atlas didn't starve them while getting fat they'd be more loyal." Blake said bitterly, earning a stink eye from Winter before Raven raised her arms up to alert everyone to the biggest issue she noticed.

"All this politics and civil war crap means nothing when you remember this, Cinder has the bomb!" Raven yelled, making everyone give thousand yard stares as they pondered this good point.

"That's right, she could teleport here and blow up half or maybe all of Atlas to hell." Raven mused.

Soon the ground began to rumble as a huge shockwave threw everyone off balanced and they collapsed on the floor, hugging it as their nails dug into the tile floors. They were afraid for their lives as they struggled to stay in place as the ground made their bodies shake and feel like being caught in a stormy wave in the ocean. As the rumbling stopped after a few short moments, ones that felt like eternity due to the stress, everyone wobbled as they meekly stood back up, fighting with all their might a hint of nausea and loss of balance.

"How the hell can there be an earthquake in the fucking sky!?" Yang yelled.

"Could it be Grimm?" Weiss asked, remembering vaguely causing a tremor before when she attacked them as a Grimm from underground. At her notion, everyone rushed to grab their weapons, Yang and Blake grabbing a beaker and coffee pot and smashing it to have pointy sharp glass to arm themselves, Yang especially mad right now since her and Blake's weapons were still being repaired, she could really use them right now.

But soon Blake's cat ears heard a clanging sound she was all too familiar with. She rolled her eyes and groaned as she realized the true cause of the quake.

"It's not a Grimm, lets go outside and you'll see what I mean girls… and doggy boy." Blake said, the last part teasingly as she gave a victorious smirk at the blushed and annoyed Marrow as they all ran outside.

To their astonishment, they saw a massive fissure in the ground outside the facility that cut all around them making a waterless moat.

"The cause of this damage, why none other than my "wonderful" wife Ruby Rose." Blake said sarcastically as she eyed her wife awkwardly grinning at her with her scythe, whose blade was glowing white, behind her back.

"Sorry, Sorry, was just trying to test the quake dust and it was just a little more powerful than I thought." She sheepishly admitted.

"A LITTLE!? You might have cut Atlas in half!" Weiss screamed, making Ruby blush even more.

Winter groaned as she closed her eyes and shook her head disappointingly, forget the bomb or Ironwood, this girl herself may spell doom for Atlas and her plans.

Short chapter I know, but I have been busy playing the new dlc in Pokemon. Now, next time we will have Cinder and Emerald planning the final soul for Monstra's revival and Winter will enact her own plan as she tries to take Ironwood down. Will Ironwood be the one to fall, will it be Winter, or will Ruby just cut Atlas to shreds like Whitebeard did to Marineford in one piece hahaha! Next time on CH 35: Sacrifices Must Be Made!