Chapter 15

Day 4: Morning

Atlas

"Come on Qrow, slow down." Clover called as he strode after the red-caped man stalking aggressively down the corridor ahead of him.

"He's not going to stop." Robyn said from just behind him. She sounded just as tired as he felt.

Clover sighed, she was right. He had tried getting Qrow to calm down on the flight back to Atlas from where their Manta had crashed, but it had little effect on the scythe-wielder's foul mood. Sighing, Clover put on a burst of speed, stepping in front of Qrow's aggressive stride, bringing both of them to a stop. "Ok let's take a deep breath," he said, the deep look of anger on Qrow's face did not abate in the slightest. "You can't just go into Ironwood's office and start throwing around accusations."

"Why not?" Qrow retorted angrily, "You heard what Tyrian said, Ironwood knows something about Ruby and Weiss, and he's not sharing."

"Qrow, Tyrian is a raving madman," Clover said gently, "he was saying things to throw us off guard, we can't trust anything he says."

Robyn sighed, "In what has to be a first, I agree with lucky charms here. There's no reason to think that anything he says is the truth. He's just trying to us and cause infighting."

"Oh come on!" Qrow said indignantly, throwing his hands up, "Crazy or not, this is the only lead we have right now. And besides, of all people, the two of you would know that James is more than capable of lying and cheating to to get what he wants."

Clover's mouth became a grim line, Qrow's words rang more true than he cared to admit; he and the rest of the Ace Ops had done many unsavory things for the General. Dispersing civilian protests, covering up botched military operations; he even knew that Ironwood had assigned Harriet to some secret assignments that not even his rank as Captain gave him security clearance to know about. All of it done in the name of keeping Atlas safe.

"He's not wrong." Robyn said, breaking clover out of his thoughts, "Ironwood has been lying to all of Atlas and Mantle about Amity for who knows how long, and don't even get me started on the surveillance and facial recognition program he's apparently been running on all of us…"

"All valid points," Clover conceded with a sigh, "But if you go in there shouting accusations at him, you'll never get anywhere. Now that She's here, he's going to be extremely on edge and difficult to talk to." He shook his head, "I know what he's like when he gets like that…It's been a difficult year." Again his mind flashed back to all the missions Ironwood had sent them on. Feeling Qrow and Robyn's eyes on him, he pulled himself back to the present, "We'll bring it up slowly. If we just come out and say it, we'll spook him and never find out what he knows."

Qrow huffed, "Ok fine…we'll do it your way."

Anger still showed on Qrow's face and Clover saw the muscles in his jaw working, "Hey," he said quietly, placing a hand on the scythe weilder's shoulder, "I promise you we'll find Ruby. And Weiss too. I'll help in any way I can."

Qrow nodded, "I know." he began walking down the hall, his stride much less aggressive, "Now let's go see if Jimmy is as willing to help as you are."

They continued through the halls, finally reaching the elevator leading to Ironwood's office. As they stepped off the elevator they heard the General's voice.

"I'm glad to hear the Lamp is safe even if the intruder got away." As they entered the room, Qrow saw that Ironwood was staring out the massive bay windows behind his desk, speaking into his Scroll, the screen displaying images of Yang, Blake and team JNR, "All of you did well," he continued, "now get some rest; but don't get too comfortable, Salem could make a move at any time. Ironwood out." He placed his scroll in his pocket and clasped his hands behind his back, continuing to stare out the window at the massive, black cloud hovering just outside the city. Qrow took in the rest of the room and saw that the rest of the Ace Operatives were waiting off to the side.

Harriet glanced over and saw them standing in the doorway, "Nice to see you in one piece Captain." she said to Clover with a playful smirk, "Heard you hit the snow pretty hard out there."

"It'll take more than a crash landing and a cackling lunatic to get rid of me." He replied with a grin. Harriet opened her mouth to reply with a sarcastic remark when Ironwood cleared his throat loudly.

"Everyone seems to be in an awful jokey mood considering what's going on." He said severely, still gazing out the window. "And especially considering that 'cackling lunatic' managed to defeat a graduate of my academy and two of the best Huntsmen I have." He shook his head, "Apparently I expected too much of you. What happened?"

Qrow glared at Ironwood's back, there were very few things he hated more than being talked to like he was a child.

"We had the cuffs on him and were flying back," Clover said with a frown, "then somehow he managed to get the restraints off of his legs and suddenly he was bouncing all over the cabin. In the scuffle Tyrian sent the bird into a dive the pilot was unable to recover from. Robyn and the pilot were injured in the crash but Qrow and I fought him to a standstill." Clover sighed, "When Salem's forces came over the mountains, we were…a little stunned to put it mildly and he used the opportunity to escape from us, running straight towards the cloud."

"Disappointing." Ironwood said, still facing the window.

"Sir…" Clover continued, "Tyrian…said things both times we fought him." He sighed, rubbing the back of his head nervously, "He implied he knew what happened to Rose and Schnee, sir."

Clover saw the General's back stiffen, "Oh?" He asked, turning his head slightly towards them, "What did he say?"

"During the first fight…" Clover paused a moment to try to remember exact wording, his face grim, "he was fighting Qrow and he said something like, 'Your poor little flower is so cold out there-' he got cut off when Qrow took another swing at him." Clover sighed again, "he said something else right before he escaped from the crash site, taunting the both of us: " 'Your little rose and snowflake aren't long for this world…' "

Ironwood grunted, "I doubt he really knew anything about them, it sounds like he was trying to distract you, throw you off to get the upper hand in the fight."

"Finish the quote…" Qrow growled to clover, glaring daggers at Ironwood's back.

Clover sighed, so much for bringing it up slowly." '-Aren't long for this world, thanks to your General.' " He finished heavily. Qrow glared at the General as he finally turned to face them.

"It sounds like the rantings of someone who should be institutionalized," Ironwood said, "Tyrian Callows is a known insane person, why would you trust anything that comes out of his mouth?"

"Don't bullshit me James!" Qrow snarled, "What do you know?" He yelled, shrugging off the claiming hand Clover placed on his shoulder.

"Qrow," the General replied calmly, "I've been sending out flights looking for Ruby and Weiss for the past two days; and once Salem is dealt with, I'll keep sending them until we find them."

Qrow rolled his eyes, "Oh come on James-"

Ironwood cut him off with a gesture, "Do you really think I'd put two of our best Huntresses in deliberate danger?" He said, his voice quiet but firm, "They're practically my family, Qrow. All of you are." Qrow sighed, his aggressive posture slowly relaxing. "I promise we'll find them. You have my word."

After a moment, Qrow nodded, accepting him at his word. For now.

Ironwood turned back to clover, "We'll keep a close watch for Tyrian and recapture him at the first opportunity."

"Yes sir." Clover replied, nodding.

"On to more pressing business then," the General said, placing his hands on his desk, and addressing everyone including the rest of the Ace Ops who had been silent during the whole exchange, "Clover I've already informed the rest of your team, but we will be implementing Martial Law in Atlas as soon as we have troops in the right positions." Clover saw Qrow twitch in surprise beside him and heard a sharp intake of breath from Robyn. "The rank and file soldiers will be handling most of the crowd control should any…protests about Mantle pop up; all of you will be on standby to assist should it become necessary to-"

"Woah, woah, woah…" Robyn said, her voice full of disbelief and anger, "What's going on with Mantle?"

Ironwood closed his eyes and sighed, "I'll be blunt." He said after a moment, "We're stopping rescue operations in Mantle." His voice held almost no inflection, "We need the airpower to fight Salem's forces once she decides to attack."

"Are you insane?!" She yelled incredulously, "How is Mantle supposed to survive? It relies on Atlas for protec-"

"Mantle will be on its own no matter what once Atlas rises out of Salem's reach." Ironwood said, cutting her off, "It's easier to withdraw now, it gives us time to re-arm and fuel our ships and give the populace more time to find shelter."

"Rises? You're…you're abandoning them." She said quietly, "You're leaving them to Salem…" she said wide eyed. Clover could see her thoughts racing, calculations swirling in her head. "There aren't enough shelters for everyone that's left," she said, "and only enough food for a few days for those that there IS room for. Thousands will die…"

"Yes." He replied impassively, "But thousands more on Atlas will live. It's the lesser-"

Faster than anyone could react, Robyn vaulted the desk and slammed her fist into Ironwood's jaw, knocking him to the ground; expletives and curses of all kinds poured from her mouth as she stood over him, pulling her fist back to strike again.

Out of the corner of his eye, Qrow saw the Ace Ops going for their weapons. He quickly lunged forward and wrapped his arm around Robyn's torso and roughly hauled her off the General, desperately hoping that he wasn't about to get riddled with bullets. Thankfully, they held their fire and he continued to drag her back back, even as Robyn strained against his grip.

"Thank you." Ironwood murmured, rubbing his jaw and rising back to his feet.

"I should have let her hit you again." Qrow snarled, glaring at the General while keeping a struggling Robyn secured, "You've lost your damn mind."

After a moment, Robyn stopped struggling, becoming still in Qrow's grip. She fixed Ironwood with a glare containing more hatred than Clover thought was possible. Not that he blamed her, Ironwood was condemning her home to slaughter. He was fairly certain he'd have reacted the same way in her shoes.

"I'm protecting Atlas, Qrow." Ironwood said, "If we stay, then everyone dies. This way we live to fight again. Surely you can see the logic in that." He held out his hand, "Work with us on this Qrow, I need all the help I can get, old friend."

Qrow released Robyn, shaking his head slowly, "If you think I'm going to help you condemn thousands of people to their deaths, then you don't know me very well 'Old Friend'…"

Ironwood gave a humorless laugh, "I do know you. I know you well enough to realize that if you're not with me on this, you'll be actively working against me." Qrow opened his mouth to retort but Ironwood held up a hand cutting him off, "I'd be very careful what you say next Qrow, I nearly had Yang and her partner arrested for the same thing." He paused, fixing Qrow with a deadly serious stare, "I'll ask you one more time, are you against me Qrow?"

"Damn right I'm against you." Qrow said, meeting the General's gaze with equal intensity, "I won't be a part of any plan that results in the wholesale slaughter of an entire city."

"Fine." Ironwood growled, his hands curling into fists, "Then I'll lock you up until you can be court martialed." He tapped a button on his desk, "Both of you."

"Oh what charges?" Qrow asked, "You can't do this James!"

"On the contrary, under martial law, I can do whatever will best protect Atlas." Ironwood said coolly, "And right now, the two of you are threatening the security of my city."

"Clover, you can't seriously be going along with this lunacy!" Qrow said, turning to his friend.

The muscles in Clover's jaw worked for several moments before he shook his head, "I'm sorry, but the General has a point. This is for the greater good." As Robyn turned her hate-filled gaze on him, Clover had to force himself not to flinch or look away from her.

Clover pulled two sets of gravity cuffs from his belt and bound their arms. "I'll take them down to holding myself, Sir." He said.

Ironwood nodded, "I'll fully debrief you when you get back." Clover gave them both a gentle push and followed them out of the room and into the elevator.

The second the doors closed, and the elevator had begun its descent, Qrow rounded on Clover, "What the hell man? You KNOW this is wrong!"

"Thousands of people's blood will be on your hands!" Robyn yelled, her voice breaking with emotion, looking like she was on the verge of tears.

Clover made a placating gesture to the both of them, pulled out his scroll and pressed a button on it. "I've looped the security cameras, we can talk freely. And Qrow, I thought you knew me better than that, What Ironwood is doing is monstrous."

"Then help us!" Qrow yelled, "Siding with James accomplishes nothing!"

"Nothing except keeping me on his good side. I can't stop him from inside a jail cell." he said rubbing his forehead. Qrow nodded, acquiescing his point. Clover sighed, "I hate to admit it, but I think Tyrian might have been right about Ironwood. Something is very off and things just aren't adding up."

"Glad you finally came around." Qrow said, his face softening, "Now how about getting these cuffs off of us and we can find out what's really going on."

"Yeah that won't be suspicious at all…" Robyn scoffed, "We just happened to escape while he was bringing us down to the cells? That'll draw immediate attention to him."

"She's right." Clover agreed, "unfortunately I can't let you guys go right now. We'd all end up in jail in no time."

"I don't like you, lucky charms." Robyn said with a frown, "but I believe that we're on the same side here. You got some kind of plan?"

Clover thought for a moment, then turned to Qrow, "Who else can we bring into this that you trust implicitly?" He asked, "I think I can arrange a meeting where you can pass your information to someone else and they can act in your stead."

"Yang and Blake." Qrow said without hesitation.

Clover nodded, "I'll bring them to you, hopefully the three of us will be able to work on the outside until we can get you free."

"Hey," Robyn said, fixing him with a withering glare, "If you're messing with us, if you help him slaughter my people, I'm going to break out of this place and I'll come for you." Qrow could see that she meant every word.

Clover looked her dead in the eyes, "If I don't do my best to try and stop him, I'll let you kill me." Clover tapped his scroll, letting the security cameras resume their normal operation, and a moment later, the elevator dinged and the doors opened.

Clover led them down the corridors to the holding cells. He released their cuffs and deactivated the forcefields on the two unoccupied cells.

After placing Robyn in her cell, he came up to Qrow. "I'll get to the bottom of this." The Ace operative said quietly into his ear, "James is hiding something and I intend to find out what."

"I know." Qrow whispered back, "I trust you. Keep Yang and Blake safe if you can."

Clover nodded and reactivated the forcefields, looked at the two of them with a sad expression, then left with a determined stride.

Qrow tiredly sat down on his cot and put his head in his hands.

"Oh joy…" drawled a voice with an Atlesian accent, "New roommates." Qrow looked up and saw a mustachioed man cooly regarding them from the first cell in their row. "You're Robyn Hill," he said with a smirk, " so sorry about your loss in the election, computers can be… quite fickle."

Robyn gave him a smirk right back, "You must be Arthur Watts," she said snarkily, "the 'super genius' that got lured into an obvious trap and captured. Nice shiner by the way." She pointed at his eye. A momentary look of rage passed across his face before returning to the controlled expression of before.

"Hey asshole!" Qrow snarled, "You're working with Tyrian, so where the hell is Ruby? What did that psychopath do to my niece?"

Watts stared at him for a moment, then a knowing grin crawled across his face, "I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about." He replied before laying down on his cot, deliberately facing away from them.

Qrow looked at Robyn, who shook her head, frustration and anger evident on her face. She began pacing in circles around her tiny cell, not looking at either of the men to her left and right.

Qrow was left alone on his cot, with nothing but his endless worries of his niece and Mantle to keep him company.

I know you all are waiting to see what happens to Ruby and Weiss, so I swear they will be back in the next chapter! As for this chapter, the official RWBY material doesn't give military ranks for anyone but Ironwood, so I thought I'd take the liberty adding ranks to our military members thanks to a Reddit thread I found on the topic. Not sure if it'll ever come up, but I think that Winter is a Major and the rest of the ace ops are probably lieutenants. And yes, Clover survives in this version, though this isn't a criticism of how CRWBY does things, just how I think it would go under the circumstances in my story. As always, thanks to V for being my Beta and of course thanks to YOU for reading! Leave a review letting me know what you thought!