AN: Hey, everyone! Sorry about the gap. I had other projects that I was working on, including one that I'll be announcing at the end of the chapter.

So, we're officially starting RWBY: Arrowfell's story now, which is a giant pain in the ass and I hate trying to adapt it.

Also, and I can't believe I had to put this warning here, but there will be a real-world ethnic slur used in this story. For context, the story of Hunchback of Notre Dame will be brought up, and that movie used a specfici slur all the damn time, so it's being used here. I'll explain more later.

Anyway, onwards!

Chapter 138

Ruby was very confused.

She desperately looked around the forest she now found herself alone in, with no recollection of how she had gotten there. Hadn't she fallen asleep in her team's dorm at Atlas Academy?

And where was her team?

She cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted.

"Weiss! Blake! Ya-!" She had to stop herself, remembering that her sister was no longer a part of Team RWBY. Not that Team RWBY even existed without her. They were Rubble now. "Tifa!" she amended. "Where is everyone?!"

Rustling from behind her caught her attention. She turned around, and saw a tall figure exiting from the brush, and her eyes widened.

It would have been impossible to forget the bright red hair, or the letters burned into his face, though his gaze was directed downwards. Adam shambled towards her, twin slashes gouged into his chest from where her Keyblades had slashed him, the wounds dripping fresh blood.

Ruby took a fearful step back from him.

"Are you satisfied?" he asked.

"W-What do you mean?" Ruby asked.

"Did it make you happy?"

His gaze suddenly shot up to look Ruby in the eyes, and Ruby was horrified at the blood oozing from his eyes, his nose, his mouth.

"When you KILLED ME?!"

Ruby screamed.

"Salutations!"

Penny's shout mercifully woke Ruby from her nightmare, the gynoid cheerily standing in the middle of the dorm room.

"Good morning, Team RWBL!" Penny said in a singsong voice.

"What time is it?" Tifa asked.

"Time to be Huntresses, of course!" Penny said, completely oblivious to the displeasure of the team, or Ruby's distress. Weiss, Blake, and Tifa groaned, while Ruby took a few deep breaths, hopped out of bed, and left the dorm without saying a word.

"I gotta say, I wasn't expecting Ironwood to actually do this for you," Robyn said as Yang showed her the surprising file she had been sent by the general, containing her Huntress License, along with a message.

Ruby sends her regards.

"I have a feeling my sister asked him to," Yang said, flipping her scroll around so she could see the license for herself. "It's weird. After everything that's happened, I had almost forgotten that this was what I wanted in the first place. It almost feels… kind of unnecessary."

"Well, that's a good thing," Fiona said. "Now we don't have to worry about you doing any work without a license."

"Like we'd let them do anything," Joanna said.

"Regardless, it definitely makes things easier," Robyn said. "Now we can all operate in Mantle and not have to worry about fighting off the military, too. Now, let's get down to business."

"Yeah, speaking of, why did you ask me to come down here?" Yang asked, gesturing to the gym they were standing in. Before Yang had received her license, Robyn had asked her to meet her in a gym exclusively for Huntsmen and Huntresses down in Mantle. Since most of the Huntsmen in the Kingdom worked directly for Ironwood now, and thus used the facilities at Atlas Academy, that meant that this gym was now almost exclusively used by the Happy Huntresses and the Chocobros. The message informing Yang of her sudden licensure had come in while she was walking to the gym, and the Happy Huntresses had all gathered in the center of the facility's boxing ring.

"I'd think that would be obvious," Robyn said. "I wanna fight you."

Yang took another look at the boxing ring. "Yeah, I really should've seen that coming."

"If you're gonna join the Happy Huntresses, I need a good idea of what you're capable of so we can plan accordingly. Best way to do that is by sparring."

"Makes sense," Yang said, putting her scroll away. "We sparred with teammates back at Beacon, too."

"Interesting," Robyn said. "Atlas didn't have us do that."

"Really?" Yang asked. "That's weird. Beacon used it as a team-building exercise."

"Yeah, Atlas doesn't really believe in 'team-building'," May said, using air quotes. "Teams are supposed to keep their relationships strictly professional, especially lately."

"Wow, that's dumb," Yang said.

"Tell me about it," Robyn said. "One of the reasons why I decided to come back home to Mantle instead of becoming a Specialist."

Yang noticed a certain hint of bitterness in the older woman's tone.

Robyn shook her head. "Anyway, we didn't come here to talk about my history with Atlas. Before we get to our spar, I have a gift for you."

"A gift?" Yang asked, raising an eyebrow.

"A little something to welcome you to the Happy Huntresses," Robyn said with a smile. "It's in the locker room. Go ahead and get it while we get everything set up."

"Uh, okay," Yang said, stepping out of the ring and headed to the locker room.

She kind of hoped that the gift was a new jacket.

Even with her naturally-elevated body temperature, it turned out that just wearing a tube top was really freaking cold in the tundra.

Ruby watched Jaune walk into the briefing room, a mug of hot coffee in his hand. His presence at this meeting meant that it was likely his turn to go out and work, and Pyrrha was staying behind with Achilles. He took a seat, and was about to take a sip from his coffee, but then noticed Marrow staring longingly at the mug, his tail wagging behind him.

Ruby found herself genuinely surprised at how dog-like Marrow acted, considering that Blake didn't really act like a cat, her love of tuna notwithstanding.

Jaune sighed and handed the mug to Marrow. "Sure, take it." Marrow happily gulped it down, leaving Jaune to sulk.

"Eyes up, Huntsmen," Clover said, entering the room with Lightning and walking to the front of the group. "Time to get used to the new normal in Atlas. Your top priority is Amity Tower. That means protecting supply runs from Grimm and bandits. And protecting the site itself." The group nodded their heads in understanding. Regardless of how they felt about Ironwood, restoring global communications was definitely a net positive, and worth swallowing their dislike of the general.

"Diverting all construction resources to Amity Tower means there are going to be gaps in Mantle's defenses against Grimm," Clover said, his words now making everyone very concerned. "They'll need help on the perimeter."

"Wait, hold on," Riku said. "What do you mean all construction resources are being diverted to Amity Tower?"

"Exactly what he said," Lightning said, scowling at him.

"Amity is a major undertaking," Clover said, holding a placating hand up to Lightning. "We need all hands on deck to finish it as soon as possible."

"But isn't there a giant hole in Mantle's wall?" Tifa asked. "Wouldn't those resources be better spent fixing it first, and then finishing Amity?"

"It would take too much time," Clover said. "The general deemed it an acceptable risk, and we're simply increasing the Huntsmen presence down in the city to compensate."

"An 'acceptable risk'?" Nora asked.

"My sister is in Mantle," Ruby said. "And Cloud. I don't want to make things harder for them."

"If they're half as good as you seem to think they are, then they can handle themselves," Harriet said.

"And if you do your job right, they won't have to," Lightning said, prompting everyone to glare at her.

"Look, the longer Amity takes to finish, the more difficult it will be to keep the Kingdom defended in the long haul," Clover said. "With global communications down, and Salem's agents everywhere if Lionheart's betrayal is any indication, the top priority is getting Amity finished. Then, we can devote resources to repairing Mantle when we're actually able to coordinate with the other Kingdoms in real-time again. In the meantime, the burden is on all of us Huntsmen and Huntresses to do our jobs and keep the people safe while we weather the storm. I know it'll be difficult, but if it's there's one thing that's true about us Atelsians, we're resilient."

There was a long silence.

Finally, Ruby spoke up.

"…Fine," she said. "As long as it doesn't take too long."

"The general gave me his word," Clover said, prompting Weiss to scoff. "I know that doesn't mean much to you, but it does to me. I trust him. I understand you can't, and it's unfortunate."

Ruby noticed Lightning clench her fists and step forward, though Clover put his arm in front of her. He shook his head at her, and she backed down.

"Now, back to the matter at hand," he said. "You all have the assignments that you signed up for. All you need to do is the best you can, and we'll make it through. Ace Ops, Team JNPRR, you're dismissed. Go kick some ass."

"What about us?" Blake asked. Clover turned to Lightning, and gestured broadly to the remaining Huntresses as the others filed out of the room.

"As for you, Team RWBL, the general has a special assignment for you," she said. "…Out in the tundra."

Yang was surprised to find that she had actually been correct. Robyn's gift for her was a new jacket.

Specifically, the knee-length coat of the Happy Huntresses, this one in yellow. She smiled at seeing it, and quickly pulled it on. She rolled up the sleeves so they wouldn't get in the way of Ember Celica on her left wrist, or the firing mechanism built into her metallic right arm, and threw a few experimental punches and kicks to see how it felt to move around in.

The answer to that question was "good".

She ended her test punches in a standard boxing pose, and was about to head back out into the gym when a sudden flash of light caught her attention. She quickly turned around with her fists raised and saw a young blond man happily holding up a camera.

Like, a physical, old-fashioned camera, not the camera function on his Scroll. She finally realized that she had seen this boy before, when they first arrived in Mantle.

"Oh, sorry about that," he said. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"You're…one of the Chocobros, right?" Yang asked, lowering her fists. "Pr…Prom-something."

"Prompto," he said. "I'm Robyn's brother. And I remember you. You're Yang, Weiss's friend, right?"

"Yeah," she said, growing a little more wary. "What are you doing in here?"

"Oh, uh, I heard that my sister inducted a new member into the Happy Huntresses, and I just really wanted to meet you. Anyone that could get her to like them so quickly has gotta be pretty impressive."

"Um, thanks," Yang said. "So, what's with the camera?"

"Oh, this?" he asked, holding it up to show her. "I'm a photographer."

"Yeah, I got that. Why'd you take a picture of me?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at him and putting a hand on her hip.

"Well, you looked so cool!" he said with a big smile.

His earnestness surprised Yang, but she still frowned at him. "Any particular reason why you didn't ask me first?"

"Well, I got so inspired that I just went for it, you know?" Prompto said. "And if I had stopped to ask, the moment would have been gone."

She sighed. "You know, you really should ask a girl for permission before taking photos of her," she said. "Especially this girl. I had a… really bad experience once."

"What do you…?" Prompto started to ask, before his eyes widened in recognition. Yang's gaze lowered. "Oh. Right. I remember. The Vytal Tournament."

"…Yeah."

"I'm sorry," Prompto said. "I didn't realize. I'll delete the photo."

"Thanks," Yang said.

"Um, before I do… did you at least want to see it?"

Yang sighed. "…Go ahead. Show me."

Prompto smiled and flipped the camera around so that she could see the screen on the back. Huh. He was right. The pose that she had struck, with her long coat flowing behind her, did actually look pretty badass. "Hey, that's pretty good."

"Thanks," he said with a smile. He reach over to the buttons on the side. "I'll just delete it, like you asked."

"Hold on," Yang said. "You, uh, actually don't have to do that."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I wasn't expecting it to look that cool."

"Well, it was kind of hard for the photo to not come out looking cool," he said. "After all, it's all about the subject."

"Flattery will get you nowhere," Yang said.

"Not flattery. I just capture the world as I see it."

Yang found herself slightly taken aback by the honesty in his voice. "Well, like I said, you can keep the photo. Just ask me next time you want to take a picture of me."

"Sure thing, Yang!" he said. "By the way, is it okay with you if I take pictures of your spar with Robyn?"

Yang chuckled. "Sure. I'll make sure to give you a good show."

Ruby flared up her Aura around her, rubbing her arms for warmth in the freezing mountain air. They had been dropped off by airship about halfway up, and had finally made it near the top.

"Alright, everyone," she said. "This is our first official mission as licensed Huntresses, and it starts right here on this summit." Despite… well, everything that was going on, Ruby still found it in herself to be excited about their first mission.

"Not the most glamorous place for an assignment," Weiss said.

"It's still important," Tifa said.

"What's so special about this location again?" Blake asked.

"Ironwood reported there was a possible Grimm sighting somewhere around here," Ruby said.

"So?" Tifa asked. "There are Grimm everywhere out here."

"It seems he's concerned Grimm this close to Amity's construction site could compromise the initiative," Weiss said.

"I feel like our skills could be put to better use, but whatever," Blake said.

"Let's just go," Ruby said.

The reports were accurate. The summit had definitely been crawling with Grimm. Honestly, Ruby felt like the reports had kind of undersold the amount of Grimm on the mountain. They still were no match for Team RWBL, but fighting Grimm was always annoying.

After several minutes of hiking and fighting Grimm, the four girls eventually stumbled on some kind of weird device. It looked like some kind of mechanical orb.

"What is that?" Tifa asked.

"I'm not sure," Weiss said.

Ruby took a cautious step forward, and the orb suddenly sprang to life, opening up and releasing a red miasma. They heard the roaring of Grimm in the distance, and Blake quickly looked over the side of the cliff, and saw an army of the creatures approaching them. "Uh, I think that thing's attracting them somehow," Blake said.

"How?" Weiss asked.

"Who cares? Just destroy it!" Tifa yelled. Ruby summoned her Keyblades, and slashed at the orb, shattering the red light glowing on the side and deactivating it. As soon as the device was destroyed, the Grimm quickly scattered.

"What was that?" Tifa asked.

"The Grimm seemed to disperse, so you were definitely right, Blake," Weiss said. "It was attracting them somehow."

"But how is that possible?" Blake asked. "And who would do something like that? Do you think it might be Merlot again?"

"Who knows?" Ruby asked, bending down to pick up what was left of the destroyed device. "But we should probably bring it to Dr. Polendina down in Mantle. He'll probably know what it is, or what to do with it."

Prompto took his seat in the bleachers with his team and the Happy Huntresses, waiting patiently for the sparring match between Yang and his sister to begin. He always enjoyed watching Robyn fight. She had such a unique weapon. And he was really looking forward to seeing what Yang could do.

He had been excited when Robyn had first started the Happy Huntresses, and had made it a point to personally greet each member as they joined. Hell, he had been the one that suggested that Fiona join after they graduated from Atlas Academy together. Her relationship with Gladio meant that she had already met and grown to admire Robyn before that, so it didn't take much convincing. Speaking of Gladio and Fiona, the two of them were all over each other, as always, with Fiona sitting comfortably in her much larger husband's lap. Not that Prompto was jealous of him or anything. Nope.

Anyway, Prompto was going to go out of his way to welcome Yang anyway, but he wasn't expecting her to be drop-dead gorgeous. When he first laid eyes on her, he couldn't help himself but take her photo. It was only later that he started kicking himself for not recognizing her from the Vytal Tournament. If he had remembered that her boyfriend had shared a sex tape of them with the entire world, he wouldn't have done that. He just had to go and make her uncomfortable, didn't he?

"So, who do you think's gonna win?" Noct asked from his seat next to Prompto.

"Well, duh, Robyn," Prompto said.

"Well, yes, Miss Hill is quite formidable, especially given that her Semblance is non-combative," Iggy said from Prompto's other side. "However, we can't discount Miss Xiao Long's potential prowess. We still have yet to see her in action, and she was supposedly trained by Mrs. Branwen."

"That's true," Prompto said. "Maybe Yang will surprise us."

Down below, Robyn and Yang got into their combat stances and deployed their weapons. Robyn's was a bladed crossbow attached to her left wrist, while Yang extended the golden gauntlet on her left wrist.

"Does Yang only have one weapon?" Prompto asked.

"Presumably, her prosthetic has whatever mechanism is built into that gauntlet," Iggy said.

Joanna stood up. "We'll go with tournament rules. Stop when your Aura hits the red or you fall out of the ring. Ready?" Robyn and Yang both nodded. "Begin!"

Robyn immediately aimed her crossbow and fired a bolt at Yang, who fired a shotgun blast from her prosthetic arm to quickly jump to the side, and then fired behind her to launch herself forward.

"Oh, cool!" Prompto exclaimed, raising his camera to get some action shots.

Yang closed the distance, clearly expecting to have Robyn at a disadvantage at close range, but Robyn extended the blades on her crossbow to engage. The two women delivered a flurry of blows at each other. Robyn swung her blade at Yang, but instead of dodging it, she raised her metal arm to block it. She threw a punch with her left fist at Robyn, but the older woman caught it and pulled Yang forwards, driving her knee into her stomach and tossing her across the ring. Yang quickly recovered, and Robyn charged at her with a series of attacks, most of them being blocked by Yang. Yang ducked under a punch, only to get kicked in the jaw, causing her to stumble backwards. Robyn fired a bolt point-blank into Yang's chest. It bounced off her Aura, of course, but still knocked her backwards. Robyn smirked at her.

"Is that all you got?" she asked.

Yang slowly got to her feet. "You wish." She punched her fists together, and then something miraculous happened. Her eyes turned bright red, and her hair lit on fire. She was surrounded by a fiery aura, and had a giant grin on her face.

The only word Prompto could think of to describe her in that moment was "radiant."

He immediately raised his camera and snapped a picture of her.

With a roar, Yang charged forward, raising her fist. Robyn managed to dive out of the way, and Yang slammed her fist into the floor of the arena, leaving a crater behind. Unfortunately for her, she was standing very close to the edge, allowing Robyn to kick her and send her flying. As she fell out of bounds, Prompto could swear that he saw a bit of fire appear on her hands and feet, but then it vanished. Even still, he kept snapping pictures.

Finally, Yang landed outside of the now-wrecked arena, Robyn standing victoriously above her.

"And the winner is Robyn Hill!" Joanna declared.

Prompto cheered.

"Ah, Team RWBL!" Dr. Polendina greeted as the four Huntresses as they walked into his pharmacy. Miss Calavera was seated near the reception desk. "My daughter said you're full-fledged Huntresses now. Congratulations!"

"Oh! Penny told you, huh?" Ruby asked.

"About time if you ask me!" Miss Calavera said. "You've certainly proven your combat skills."

"Well… thanks," Ruby said sheepishly.

"Now tell me, what brings you back to Mantle?" Dr. Polendina asked.

"We were investigating Grimm activity on that summit near Atlas when we found something… unusual," Tifa said.

"Is that so? Let me take a look." Ruby handed the broken orb over the doctor. He examined it carefully. "Oh! This is an unusual technology indeed!"

"Could it be valuable?" Ruby asked.

"Can't say for sure. I've never seen anything quite like it."

"If Pietro here doesn't know what it is, you must have found something pretty strange!" Miss Calavera said.

"I wonder what it's for…" Ruby said.

"If we could activate it, perhaps we could find out," Dr. Polendina said. "But… it seems to be in rough shape. I could maybe reconstruct it…" He looked at the scrap of metal contemplatively for a few seconds. "Tell you what. I'll hold onto this thing and see if I can fix it up. While I'm doing that, if it's Grimm you're looking for, there was an incident at the settlement east a ways."

"An incident?" Ruby asked. "What happened?"

"Well now, it doesn't sound too serious. But… word is, the local guardian, Russet, had a nasty run in with Grimm. The name of the place is Essen Town. Here. I'll mark it on your map." Ruby pulled out her Scroll, and opened up a holographic map of the continent of Solitas. Dr. Polendina pressed a few buttons on his own Scroll, and a marker appeared east of Mantle. "Check in with Russet, and he might be able to tell you about his recent Grimm encounter."

"On our way," Ruby said. "Thank you, Dr. Polendina!"

Yang looked on in embarrassment at the damage she had done to the arena when she activated her Semblance.

Whoops.

More importantly, after she had been thrown out of the arena, she had almost activated her Maiden powers to save herself, but remembered to not use them at the last second.

"I gotta admit, you're pretty strong," Robyn said as she pulled Yang up to her feet. "I assume the whole 'flaming hair thing' was your Semblance."

"Yeah, it was," Yang said. "I can absorb and store damage I've taken, and then release it later to power myself up."

"Pretty impressive," Robyn said. "Kind of like Gladio's."

"What's yours?" Yang asked. "I don't think you used it when we fought."

"My Semblance isn't really useful for fighting. I can tell when you're lying if you hold my hand. I had to get real good on my own, since I can't rely on my Semblance in combat."

"That was so cool!" Prompto suddenly yelled, running up to the two women. "I got so many cool photos! Here, check it out!" He handed Yang the camera, and she saw the photo he took when her Semblance activated.

Yang was taken slightly aback. She hadn't realized how vibrant and radiant she looked when she was using it.

Prompto really had made her look beautiful. She remembered what he had said earlier. He captures the world as he sees it.

She smiled.

"Sleep," Cinder said, casting a spell that made the approaching soldiers fall unconscious. She, Ash, Sora, Neo, and Sienna stepped out of their stolen airship into the cold night air of Mantle. Neo's disguise held up enough for them to get into the city, but she didn't have enough Aura left to disguise all of them, so Cinder had to get them in the old-fashioned way. It didn't take her group long to become extremely unsettled by what they saw of the Atlesian Undercity.

Military patrols everywhere. Starving civilians, angry protestors being arrested in the streets. And presiding over all of it was the face of General Ironwood, looming over the city like depictions of the tyrannical Last King of Mantle.

"This is bad," Cinder said.

"Atlas doing their best to oppress those beneath them is nothing new," Sienna said, brushing her magical-altered hair out of her face. "The only difference is that he's doing to humans, now, too."

"Wasn't General Ironwood supposed to be a trusted ally of Ruby and the others?" Ash asked.

"He is," Cinder said. "He was always intense from what Salem told me, but this seems extreme, even for him."

"This actually reminds me a lot of a guy I met once," Sora said, intriguing the rest of the group. "A guy named Frollo ruled over a city called Paris. He oppressed the people there, just like here. He was trying to wipe out a group of people called the Gypsies."

Sienna scoffed. "The powerful are exactly the same, no matter where you are."

"What happened to Frollo?" Ash asked.

Sora shook his head. "It's a little fuzzy. I think I remember a riot, and the town burning. I confronted him on the roof of a church, and he fell down into the fire." The others had stopped walking, and were giving him funny looks. "What?"

"Are you telling us that you threw a tyrannical dictator off a building?" Cinder asked incredulously.

"And you said I was the extreme one," Sienna said.

"I-I didn't throw him!" Sora insisted. "He fell!"

"Uh-huh," Sienna said, clearly not buying it.

"Had this 'Frollo' fallen to Darkness?" Ash asked.

"Yeah, I think so," Sora said. "He was obsessed with this one Gypsy woman named Esmeralda. She refused to be with him, and he took it out on the whole city and all her people."

"So, do you think it's possible that darkness has taken Ironwood, as well?" Cinder asked.

"Yeah, it's possible," Sora said. "The only question is: if Ruby and the others came here, then what happened to them if that's the case."

"We'll just have to find out," Cinder said before walking further into the city.

Sienna smirked at the younger Keybearer. "And since you already have some experience with toppling dictators, we'll let you know if we need you to throw anyone off a rooftop."

"Hey! I already said it wasn't like that!" Sora defended himself, but Sienna simply laughed and ignored him.

The group kept walking down the streets of Mantle, when a poster caught Cinder's eye. It was a campaign flyer for someone named Robyn Hill, "Mantle's Hometown Hero". She was running for Council against Jacques Schnee, and… oh, that was interesting.

She seemed to be a staunch critic of Ironwood's tactics.

Cinder snagged the flyer off the lamp post it had been stapled to, and slipped it onto her pocket.

It might be worth it to speak to this "Robyn."

AN: All of the major players are now in Mantle with the arrival of Cinder's group. Arrowfell's story allows me to help build Yang's relationship with the Chocobros and the Happy Huntresses without having to rush it, since I can do this while Team RWBL are dealing with Arrowfell's story. And jsut to make it easier to visualize, Yang's current outfit is the outfit she wore in Mistral, just with a Happy Huntress jacket instead of her original biker jacket.

Also, Yang is absolutely Prompto's type, in case you're wondering why he's suddenly head-over-heels for her. In FFXV, Prompto is in love with a woman named Cindy, who, like Yang, is a really attractive buxom blonde woman that likes to wear revealing outfits.

As for the whole "Slur" thing, I was referring to the word "gypsy". In the real world, that word is an ethnic slur used to refer to the Romani people, which a lot of people don't realize is actually a slur. I'd prefer to not use it for obvious reasons, but it's the only word Sora had ever heard be used to refer to them, and even still, Disney didn't realize that it was a slur when they made the movie, so he still says it here.

And now for the announcement that took up some of the time I had to write this: I'm going to be reviving and rewriting my old Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Fanfic, A Jewel Without a Crown! I actually have the entire story outlined now, so I just need to make the finishing touches on deciding character skills and abilities, and then I can get writing. I'm probably going to rewrite the entire thing from scratch instead of updating the original story, so I'll probably make an announcement on this story once it gets going, since this one is easily the most popular story on my profile.

I want to remind eveyone that this story has a Tv Tropes page!

As always, thank you very much for reading, and I'll see you all next time!