RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth and created by the late and great Monty Oum.
4 Years of Beacon by smstanton: One of the best, most adorable Arkos fics I've ever read but it also has a great dramatic story about both Jaune and Pyrrha's lives.
Overcoming Darkness by dracohalo117: A dark, mysterious fic that has only three chapters so far but I cannot wait to see where it goes.
Read, review, and tell me how I can improve, what you liked and what you didn't. Your feedback is appreciated, thank you! Thanks to all the reviewers, I appreciate all your kind words and thoughts.
RWBY: Destiny of Remnant
Chapter 13: Prelude
There was a feeling of dread in the air inside of the factory's makeshift throne room. Salem stood in front of the throne, glaring down at Giger who was shaking in fear. Around the room Cinder, Emerald, Mercury, Neo, Ziz, Sherizawa, West, and Jude were all waiting in anticipation for what the Mistress of Grimm would do as she remained silent but her normally serene face betrayed her furious emotions.
"What do you mean his body just rejected it?" Salem asked with her voice on edge.
"I... I don't know, it's never happened before. Usually there is some violent, even gory, reaction from the physical body of the subject when Grimm essence mixes with the aura but this was calm, it was just purged from his body as if there was a light warding off the dark. While most of it was rejected, some of it managed to take hold, it was not very much but he should still be able to control Grimm like the others... to be quite honest Mistress I am at a loss for words." Giger said, stumped as to what was happening.
"Arc has a surplus of aura, but even with that much inside of him he shouldn't have been able to withstand your operation, he should be like Ziz and the others." Sherizawa said, more fascinated by the event than anything.
"And yet he is not, any theories as to why that is?" Salem inquired.
"Maybe it has something to do with his Semblance?" West speculated.
"No, Arc was out of it and he looked like he was throwing in the towel when I took him to the lab." Mercury said.
"Dr. Giger, would you describe Arc's surgery as unusual?" Cinder asked.
"Yes, it was calm for someone on such a low concentration of sleeping drugs, he should have woken up with the small doses we gave him. The aura, that feeling and power of that aura was astounding! It was almost like two combined aura signatures in one body." Giger said.
"Two auras in one body... hmm." Cinder muttered as she looked to Emerald, remembering what the thief had reported about Fotia acting odd. She looked back up to her master and spoke up. "Master, I believe I have an idea. Arc has discovered the truth about Fotia Drakos so maybe that has given him determination, a strong will that we have yet to break."
"Not a bad theory, but it would not account for two aura signatures." West pointed out.
Cinder nodded to the doctor and said "I do not know what to make of that, but I do however have another point to bring up. Emerald, if you would."
Emerald walked to the center and spoke up. "Earlier tonight I saw Fotia acting strange, when I approached her she seemed very worried. I don't know what was up with her but it might have something to do with her encounter with Arc."
Salem considered this and said "You are wise to report this to me, Emerald. I expect that he tried to convince her of her true identity."
"He attempted and failed miserably." Cinder said.
"Did he? If she is acting odd then maybe she has considered what he told her." Salem said.
"Neo, did you retrieve Fotia's scroll?" Cinder asked.
Neo nodded and pulled Fotia's scroll out of her pocket. After Fotia had retired for the night Cinder ordered Neo to sneak into her room and take her scroll to see if she had looked up Pyrrha Nikos. Neo handed the scroll to the Fall Maiden who quickly looked into the search history.
"Just as I suspected, the page history shows she visited a video about herself." Cinder said as she glared at the device in her hand. She looked to Neo and asked "You are closer to Fotia than most of us, have you noticed her acting odd?"
Neo nodded in confirmation as she lifted her hand up to her head and made a screw motion at it.
"So she suspects, that much is obvious. I mean she could be having a full blown identity crisis for all we know." Emerald said.
"Indeed... I think I have a way to resolve this." Salem said as a small smile graced her lips. "Give them their swords and let them duel, a fight to the death."
This got varied reactions; Cinder, Giger, and Sherizawa looked intrigued, Emerald and Neo looked shocked, Mercury just smirked while Ziz seemed to be neutral to the idea.
"While I think it would be an entertaining fight, we should consider the outcome of it. What would the consequences be?" Cinder asked.
"There could be many outcomes; he could kill her and the act of doing so would break his will and his mind or it could drive him to darkness. She could kill him and become convinced that she is Fotia Drakos or she could realize who she really is and the action of murdering him could break her into a hollow shell for us to use as we please. Anything could happen, but it will be a way to test both of them." Salem said.
"Very well, when do you want this duel to happen?" Cinder asked.
"Tonight, we must give both of them a chance to prepare but we cannot give either of them enough time to think it over. Come nightfall one will stand and one shall fall and whichever one stands shall be our weapon, one way or another." Salem said firmly.
"What if, by some miracle, Arc is victorious?" Cinder asked.
"As I said, being forced to kill her will break him and it will be up to us to fix him, any way we see fit." Salem said as she opened up a portal to take her back to the palace. "I will allow my guest to observe this fight with us; he deserves to see how events unfold. Alert Steppenwolffe and fly him over here, he helped train Fotia so he should bare witness to it as well."
"What do you think will be the outcome?" Cinder asked.
Salem stopped and said "It makes no difference to me, no matter how this one duel concludes I will be victorious at the end of all things."
Above them in the rafters Raven hopped across the platforms observing them in her bird form. She had already listened in on the baffled reports of Jaune's miraculous rejection of the Grimm essence, even though they said some part had managed to take hold, this hopefully meant she would not have to kill him and invoke the rage of the others.
She paid attention to the Grimm Knights, seeing that while they were similar to the Atlesian Knights their armor was much thicker and they appeared to be well organized. She couldn't judge them by just watching, she needed to know their combat prowess and she didn't see a way to observe that just yet.
For the moment all she needed to know was that the Arc boy still had hope of making it out of here. Now she just needed to check on Ruby. She went into an open airshaft and made her way down the small vent until she came to the area where they had been keeping Ruby. She saw the girl, amusingly, was hanging from the bars of the vent shaft trying to pull it down.
"Oh come on! I'm beginning to wish Weiss was right about gaining weight from all those cookies!" Ruby moaned. She looked up and saw the bird looking down at her. "A bird? How'd you get in there?" she asked.
Raven, unfortunately, could not communicate with humans while in her avian form as it lacked the ability of speech, so she merely cawed as quietly as she could.
"Uhh... okay, this is weird." Ruby said as she sat back down on her bed, seemingly giving up on escaping via the air ducts. "I don't know why I keep trying to open that stupid vent, I guess it's just something to keep me busy." She said as she glanced back up at Raven.
"If you're one of those messenger birds would you mind going to get help?" Ruby joked. Raven cawed down and hopped out of Ruby's sight. Raven had to admit that she liked Ruby, she was very much like Summer.
Raven decided she would take a look at the Arc boy to see just how much the Grimm essence had changed him and then she would observe the Grimm Knights and the scientists in this base to see what they were up to. The more intelligence she had on this place the more of a chance they had of succeeding.
Jaune woke up with a vile taste in his mouth and a burning sensation in his body. He gasped out in pain as he held his stomach and moaned. "Oh..." he moaned as he propped himself up, looking around the darkened cell that served as his room for the time being.
"What... what happened?" he said as he looked at his hands, seeing that while the skin was rather pale it wasn't not milk white like Fotia or Ziz's skin was. He could feel the sweat on his skin and his hair was wringing wet.
"Pyrrha? Please tell me you're there." He whispered as quietly as he could while he tried to wipe away his perspiration..
"I'm here, Jaune. Don't worry, they haven't twisted you into one of those things, not fully anyway. You have some Grimm essence within you but it is very minor compared to what they have done to me." Said the compassionate voice of Pyrrha. Jaune smiled, he knew the voice was in his head and for all he knew it was nothing more than his own mind creating an illusion of his partner to calm his grieving mind, but he didn't care. He just wanted Pyrrha back.
"They tried to inject Grimm essence into your body and your aura, but I was able to use both of our auras to purge most of it from you. I don't know if it has changed your physical appearance or not." Pyrrha told him.
"Thank you, I knew I could depend on you." Jaune said, smiling for the first time in days. He grimaced in pain as he could still feel a slight pain; he was still hurting from the beatings he was subjected to yesterday but his aura was healing him up nicely.
"Pyrrha, what are we going to do?" he whispered, hoping no one was listening in on him.
"I was thinking about what Ruby told you before she was taken away. I think we should remember what Ashe told you about that 'ultimate attack'." Pyrrha said.
"No, I don't even know if I can pull it off, but if I can do it I... I can't use it on your body, Ashe said the ultimate attack can kill someone and no matter what I won't hurt you." He said.
"Jaune, there may never be a way for me to come back. I love you and I am overjoyed that you... return the feeling." She said, sounding genuinely happy, which got a smile out of Jaune. "But... I am not worth it. Now that you've withstood that horrible surgery we don't know what will happen, maybe they'll kill you."
"No, you're worth it Pyrrha. If I could I would have taken that arrow for you, and I know you'd have a way better chance of saving me than I have of helping you. Listen... there's a part of me that wants to go on and fight but there's a part of me that just wants to give up and die..." Jaune said.
"No! Don't you dare say that!" Pyrrha scolded angrily.
"Pyrrha I..."
"Jaune, the reason I fell in love with you was because you never gave up, no matter what. You entered Beacon and survived the Emerald Forest against all odds, you stood up to Cardin Winchester and later you stopped him from bullying Velvet, you tried to court Weiss..." Pyrrha could feel the bitterness and regret from within, "despite her rejections, and you were willing to support my decision and guard me in the vault even though you had no idea what was going on. You still care for me even after I denied you a chance to be a hero and you came all this way to avenge me and you withstood everything Cinder has done to you, and yet you still fought on, so please don't give up. I love you Jaune."
"I love you too, Pyrrha. I'm just sorry I was stupid and didn't realize it until it was too late. I even asked you for advice on Weiss and even then I was so damn stupid I... I'm so sorry I hurt you like that, but you didn't let me finish; despite how much a part of me wants to I won't give up for you, for the others." He said.
"I'm proud of you, Jaune. As long as you do your best and keep moving forward I know you will always be the Jaune Arc I love." Pyrrha said lovingly.
Jaune began thinking about the ultimate attack, but then he remembered what Ruby had asked Ashe about reversing it.
"Pyrrha... I think I have a plan." He said, allowing himself a smile.
Up above in the air vent Raven could do nothing but pity Jaune. There he was talking to himself, or more accurately, talking to someone who was dead. Obviously the death of his partner had been preying upon his mind but take that and combine it with the isolation and the Grimm surgery it obviously had taken a toll on his mental state, but there was still hope for him. She could see that his skin was pale, but not white, and his eyes were no longer a bright blue but they were not blood red, they were a mixture of the two, a light violet. If they were lucky the top surgeons and scientists of Remnant could cure him and find a way to reverse whatever Salem's scientists had been doing.
As she made her way down the ventilation shafts of the complex she wondered how the young Hunters in training would respond to her news, though she knew Yang would be overjoyed to know that Ruby was relatively unharmed. However, she did dread the reactions to Jaune's current fate but she knew there was still a chance to save him.
She went about her mission to gather more info on the enemy base so she could make the proper adjustments to Weiss' layout of the facility, studying the Grimm Knights as she did so.
Ashe ran towards the sounds of the screams and the roars of Beowolves with his shotgun out and ready to fire. He had been in this forest a few hours and had encountered a few Grimm and had easily killed them but this was the first time he had heard someone else, even though he knew there was a village nearby he had not expected to run into someone else.
He ran into a clearing and saw a rather attractive woman about his age standing with a small pistol while several kids stood behind her. "Get back!" the woman yelled at the pack of five Beowolves that had cornered them.
Ashe watched as she fired at one of the Grimm but the beast easily sidestepped the shot. The woman looked nervous as she spoke to the children behind her. "Stay still and try not to be afraid okay, think happy thoughts..." she said as she kept her aim on the Grimm.
"Hey assholes!" Ashe screamed, getting the Grimm's attention. Ashe fired his gun, blasting the head of a Beowulf away. "They always look when you yell." Ashe muttered as he drew out his sword and jumped into the chaos. With some well placed swings he sliced two more Beowolves down.
The largest Beowulf, an alpha most likely, jumped over Ashe and landed on a thick tree branch and roared to the one remaining Grimm to attack. The subordinate rushed at Ashe, roaring the entire time. Ashe whipped out his shotgun again and fired it twice, blasting both arms off. The Beowulf stopped as it howled in pain, but Ashe put it down with a blast to the head.
Ashe turned around to blast the alpha only for it to jump him first and slam into him, forcing him to drop his gun. Ashe cried out in pain as he could feel its claws stab into his shoulder, he looked forward as the Grimm beast looked him right in the eyes. It reared its head back, about to strike a killing blow only for its head to explode. Its body went limp and disintegrated as Ashe looked up to see the woman now holding his shotgun and panting.
"Nice shot." He said as he got a better look at the woman; she was about his height with long black hair and sapphire eyes, she was somewhat thin but her face was gorgeous.
"Are you alright sir?" she asked as she dropped his gun and went to help him up.
"I'll be fine, my aura's far from being depleted so it'll take care of my wounds." He said as his aura went to work healing his body. "What were you and those kids doing out here? It's been a while since I've seen a forest this full of Grimm, so what's going on?" he asked.
"The Huntsman assigned to protect our village was killed last week in a Death Stalker rampage and the Mistral council has yet to assign us a new one. These children were playing in the forest against the curfew rules the mayor established." The woman said, eyeing the children with disapproval.
"And you ran after them without getting anyone else?" Ashe asked as he placed a hand over his wound and pressed down.
"I... didn't exactly have time. Another child told me first and I told her to run and get help. I just kind of ran into it to save these kids. Wait, here comes Deno and the others. Oh, I'm Mila." She said.
"I'm Ashe, nice to meet you."
Ashe was woken up by the sound of the doors of the warehouse opening up. He looked over the edge of the catwalk, which he was sleeping on again so his younger allies would have room to sleep. Team CFVY, Flynt and Neon had gone with Team ABRN to Reese's house so they could have a proper rest while Violet, Indigo, and Sienna had returned to the hotel the Arc sisters were staying at. Everyone else had elected to remain at the warehouse with Team SSSN, the three present members of Team RWBY, and Penny would sleep in the ships, while Ren, Nora, and the two remaining Arc sisters and Ashe slept in the warehouse.
Ashe rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he saw that Bianca, the Arc sister who had nearly shot him out of an emotional fit of rage, had woken up and was taking one his spare guns out of his backpack and was walking outside.
Ashe wondered what she was up to so he got up and walked down the stairs and quietly followed her outside. As he strolled out his thoughts wandered to his dream, the first time he had ever met Mila. He smiled as he remembered what followed that encounter. They were led back to the town by Deno, the holy man who's robe Ashe now wore, with the villagers praising both he and Mila for their heroics. He was tended to by a healer and spoke with the mayor of the town before he agreed to stay for as long as he could as he had been wandering the world for three years at that point ever since he returned to the life of hunting and left an attempt at a normal life behind with that train and he had been going wherever fate took him.
He could not stay at the town's inn because it had been destroyed in the Death Stalker rampage Mila had told him about but Mila agreed to allow him to stay at her home which also served as her book shop. He had to sleep on the couch, of course, but as time went on his relationship with Mila went from tenant to genuine friendship as she allowed him to spend his downtime reading the books, as his life prior had denied him a chance to ever get some proper reading done. His job as the village's residential Huntsman, he had lied to the mayor and told him that he was one of the many wandering Hunters in Remnant, was to patrol the village and to remain vigilant to keep any signs of Grimm or bandits away, to basically protect those who could not protect themselves, but in-between his patrols he would rest at Mila's home and chat with her when she wasn't working.
As time went on their relationship went further from friendship to romance. It had been one night when he had to defend a nearby farmer from some Boarbatusks but he had been overwhelmed and resorted to using the Haakskeekah to defeat them. The doctor in the village was unavailable so Mila and a young healer used their limited medical knowledge to help keep his wounds closed as his aura recovered and went to work.
He remembered waking up in her bed and seeing her sitting in a chair resting on her arms on the edge of the bed next to him, he had been touched by the sight of her watching over him. He had fallen back to sleep and was later woken up by her signing. He'd never forget the blush she had on her face when he announced that he was awake by saying "You have a beautiful singing voice." She had been blushing for two reasons: one was he had heard her sing, something she was rather shy about, the second was that he was topless and she couldn't help but stare at his body.
Soon afterwards they hit it off and entered into an official relationship and decided to make his stay at her home permanent even after the inn was rebuilt. After two months of sleeping on her couch they decided that she was comfortable with sharing her bed with her boyfriend.
After four months of knowing each other and three months of being romantically involved they made love and Ashe had never expected her to be so amorous. He once teased her by saying her sex drive would be the death of him. He would have greatly preferred that to how his life ended up.
He shook his head, smiling, as he walked out of the warehouse and was greeted with the sight of Bianca aiming his shotgun at a few old soda cans that she had stacked up on a crate. She fired and missed.
"Crap, let's try that again..." she muttered.
"You're holding it wrong." Ashe said, announcing his presence and startling her.
"Oh shit! Uh... morning Ashe." She said awkwardly.
"Morning yourself, it's six thirty. You've probably waken the others up by now with that blast. I said you're holding the gun wrong, you need to prop the butt of the gun against your shoulder, don't keep your finger on the trigger, you need to do it like this." He said as he took the firearm from her and showed her how to properly hold it.
"Okay, I can do that." Bianca said as he gave her the gun back. She held it properly this time, aimed and fired, nailing the can.
"Good, but if you're going to be fighting with us you'll need to be really careful and pick your targets, which will be moving ones." Ashe said.
"What the hell's going on out here?!" Sun yelled from the hijacked White Fang ship, with Neptune and Sage looking out to them was well. Ashe noticed Sun had his Bo-Staff out
"Bianca's just learning how to aim, go back to sleep guys." Ashe called.
"Gladly." Sage muttered as he went back into the ship with his teammates.
"I noticed you have a lot of guns in the backpack of yours, what the hell have you been up against?" Bianca asked.
"In twenty years I've probably killed over a thousand Grimm or more and I don't want to even think about how many people I've been forced to kill." Ashe said, his eyes darkening.
"If it's any consolation Ren and Nora told me about your past. I have lost the man I was engaged to years ago so I know how you feel." Bianca said, remembering the call she got from Tobias' parents to tell her about his death.
"I'm sorry, how'd you lose him?" Ashe asked.
"Tobias died in a car crash; I never really got over him." She said.
"There was a tradition in my family, when your significant other dies an unnatural death like murder or an accident or something like that, you make a promise that you will never fall in love with anyone else. It is a vow that is incredibly important, as it binds your souls together; promising that after they have left this world you will never stop loving them or replace them. I decided to make that vow after Mila was killed." He said.
"That's... at very sweet and romantic, yet at the same time rather depressing." Bianca observed.
"Jaune told me he made a similar vow with Pyrrha, that it's a tradition in your family. Did you ever try to have another relationship?" Ashe asked.
"I tried a few times but none of them ever really worked out. Maybe it was a subconscious guilt or something but it never felt right. I know how some people can recover from death of the ones they love but I guess you are I aren't those kind of people." Bianca said.
"No, we're not." Ashe said as he smiled at her.
"So you forgive me for the... incident yesterday?" she asked.
"Eh, wouldn't be the first time someone's held a gun to my head." Ashe said as he cracked a smile, which Bianca returned.
"Look at you two, all buddy-buddy now." Said the cheerful voice of Nora. The two adults turned around to see the ginger Huntress and Shani both watching them from the doorway of the warehouse.
"Yes, I think we've patched things up." Bianca said.
"You know what Ashe? I think I finally remember where I saw you before." Shani said.
"Where?" Ashe asked.
"Nora mentioned that you used to work as a guard on a train and then it came to me, eight years ago you were that train guard who fought off an entire back of Beowolves that attacked the train, when the conductor was killed you had the other guards lead the passengers to the front of the train while you held off the Grimm. I saw it on the news like eight years ago." Shani said.
"I remember that night, ruined a perfectly good job and life as a 'normal' person." Ashe said making air quotes.
"They said you were injured in the fight and needed to be rushed to a hospital, what happened?" Shani asked.
"There was a murder on the train but me and the other guards managed to apprehend the killer... but the fear and panic it created among the passengers attracted a pack of Beowolves, I don't know how many, thirty, maybe thirty-five. Anyway an entire pack was attacking the train. The conductor and the head guard were both killed but I decided to take charge. I grabbed my trusty old shotgun out from under my bunk and I began shooting them down, I had the others usher the passengers up ahead to the front of the train while I lured the Grimm to the rear and before you ask Nora I couldn't use the Haakskeekah because I was in a train and I didn't want to wreck the place too badly. It took a while but I beat them all, got some pretty nasty scars from it too." He said as he lifted up his shirt, showing them the three long scars on his chest.
"Oh crap..." said Shani.
"Cool." Nora stated with a smile.
"Do they hurt?" asked a new voice from behind them. The quartet looked over to see Blake.
"Morning Blake, what are you doing up so early?" Nora asked.
"I made it a priority to wake up early while I was on the run in Vale to avoid being spotted. So do they hurt Ashe?" Blake repeated.
"Every now and then when I get messed up or when I'm low on aura but they don't for the most part. How'd you sleep?" Ashe asked.
"I slept fine, it's easy to sleep now that I'm with good company again." The cat Faunus said.
"How long do you think it will take for Professor Goodwitch and the others to get here?" Nora asked.
"I think they'll be here soon enough, any sign of Yang's mother?" Blake asked.
"Not to my knowledge." Ashe said.
"I wish she'd hurry up and get here; I need to know if Jaune is okay." Bianca said.
"He's stronger than he realizes, I know he'll be okay." Ashe said reassuringly.
Blake glanced away, she honestly didn't know if Jaune would make it out of this. She honestly didn't think very much of his fighting prowess or combat skills but she did appreciate his kind personality and the way he treated everyone equally. It was terrible that good people like he and Ruby were victims of this terrible mess. None of them deserved to be caught up in it but they had no choice. Fate had assigned them these roles and whatever would be would be. She just hoped that in the end her friends would come back safe and unharmed, no matter how improbable it was.
"I remember how much he wanted to be a Huntsman when he was a little boy." Bianca said, "How he would look up videos of Hunters fighting Grimm no matter how much trouble he got into it with mom. He always wanted to be the hero no matter how much people told him he'd just be an ordinary guy who'd never matter in the long run, he'd always try." Bianca said.
Shani smiled sadly and said "I remember dad tried to give that cruddy old rifle/staff thing and the night before he went off to Beacon mom and dad caught him red handed with the Crocea Mors even though they weren't going to let him take it. They told me how he ranted on for like five minutes about how important it was for an Arc to wield that sword before they said they'd let him take it."
Ashe smiled at the thought and said "He never gives up, does he? Never backs down from anything?"
"Never." Said Nora, feeling proud of her team-leader.
"I was there when he was born; I can still remember holding him for the first time. I remember that horrified look on mom and dad's faces and the feeling of just pure heartbreak when the doctors said he probably wouldn't live through the week and yet... he did." Bianca said with a tear in her eye.
"Oh don't start that crap Bi! You're gonna make me cry too." Shani said playfully.
Ashe looked towards the early morning sky and quietly said "I promise I'll get him back, no matter what."
Qrow looked down the ship, seeing the kids sleeping soundly as the ship soared through the sky over the ocean. They had been going slow so as not to attract attention and it was getting on Qrow's nerves, they needed to get to Haven as soon as they could and this stealth crap was driving him nuts.
He thought about his beloved nieces, how they may be in danger and the faster he'd get there the sooner they'd be safe. He remembered back to Yang's birth and how he had been so worried over his sister giving birth and when he first saw baby Yang with a little tuft of blonde hair and innocent lilac eyes, it had been the first time his heart had melted in a long time. He could still remember that rough period for their weird little family when his sister decided to leave, not telling anyone why until he forced her to years later after Yang had wandered off into the forest with a little Ruby in tow to try and find her and even so she had made him swear not to tell Taiyang the truth about her departure.
He could still remember the sweet and somewhat awkward romance between his brother-in-law and their former team leader, with how kind and caring she was he knew she couldn't leave Taiyang alone and soon enough little Ruby was born and he remembered the insane waiting period in the hospital on Patch Island, the face that he was trying his damn best to come up with a good explanation, other than the official one, as to where babies come from to the toddler Yang as she sat on his lap in the waiting room. He remembered holding the newborn Ruby for the first time and his heart just being obliterated by those big ole' silver eyes. He had been filled with worry and concern at first because this meant she would have the same powers and, inevitably, the same responsibilities as her mother.
After Summer's death Qrow knew he needed to help Taiyang as much as he could, despite the missions he was put on, but he always made time for his nieces. He remembered one particular mission when he was wounded and bleeding badly as he hid in a large drainpipe, while enemy soldiers were hunting for him in the surrounding area. He had nearly given up but the thought of those kids kept him going, the thought of his family forced him to get up and fight. He lived because he loved those kids too much to die.
Right now they needed his help and he wasn't going to let that insane bitch Salem take Ruby from him.
"Can't sleep?" asked the hushed voice of Glynda Goodwitch. He looked to see her sitting towards the back and shook his head.
"In the last four days I've gotten thirteen hours of sleep, fourteen tops." Qrow said as he lay back in his seat, trying to rest.
"We'll be there in a few hours Qrow, don't worry." Glynda said, keeping up a mask of confidence.
"Can't help it, Glynda, they've been my life for nearly eighteen years now and I feel like their second father some of the time." He said.
"The way Ruby handles that weapon of hers I sometimes swear that she was your child and not Taiyang's." Glynda observed.
"Oh please, I just trained the little reaper, she's a hundred percent combo of Summer and Tai, trust me on that one. I remember when she decided what her weapon was going to be and Tai freaked the hell out... I remember him vowing that if she got so much as a cut he'd throttle me, and let's just say that Yang doesn't get her attitude wholly from Raven." Qrow said with a smirk.
"You trained her Qrow, it's no wonder she was the best scythe wielder and, just between you and me, probably the best weapons specialists we had in Beacon this year. I think it's safe to say that Ozpin was right about her." Glynda said, noticing the scowl on Qrow's face.
"And wrong about a lot of other things." He muttered.
"You know once Ozpin made a decision it was final, none of us could have talked him out of it, try as we might." Glynda admitted.
"I know, sometimes it felt like you were trying to force logic into his head." Qrow said with a smirk before he realized that he never really told Goodwitch about Ironwood nor had he asked about Schnee. Now that he felt like an asshole he decided he needed to rectify that.
"Goodwitch, any word about Schnee?" he asked.
"So you do care." Glynda said with a smirk of her own.
"I'm not a total dick, just tell me what they're doing with her." He said.
"They thrown her into the stockade for the time being with a trial scheduled for next week, but hopefully by then we can expose Cinder and find some way to convince the Atlas council of Winter's good intentions." She answered.
"Yeah... I don't think that'll be easy with an arrest warrant out for me in most of the civilized world." Qrow said as he rubbed the back of his head.
"We'll sort it all out, I mean once we get them to see how foolish James' plans for Penny were we can..." Glynda began before she noticed the look on Qrow's face, "...what's wrong?"
"See... might've forgotten a little something major and incredibly bad for us..." Qrow said.
"What? Qrow what haven't you told me?" Glynda demanded.
"Now listen, don't get mad..."
"I cannot promise that, Qrow, because whatever you are going to tell me will obviously invoke a reaction out of me and I cannot promise not to get mad if I don't know what you're going to say so just say it." Glynda said, scolding Qrow like he was a tardy student.
"Someone is controlling the cybernetic portion of Ironwood's brain and is using him." Qrow said.
Glynda was too stunned by this revelation to cry out in shock, but someone else did.
"What?!" cried Cardin Winchester, who had eavesdropping on the conversation. Naturally his outburst had woken some of the others up.
"Ugh... are we there yet?" Dew asked.
"No one, not even a nocturnal Faunus, was meant to be woken up this early." Complained Roy Stallion.
"Cardin? Cardin, dude, what's wrong?" asked Dove.
"We're still in the sky, what's going on?" questioned Gwen.
"What's all the commotion?" Oobleck asked as he looked up, seemingly used to waking up in such conditions.
Qrow and Glynda looked at each other for a few seconds before the professor's face turned into one of fury.
"What are you saying? Why didn't you tell me this back at Vale?!" she demanded to know.
"I thought you might hesitate to go, that's you'd rush on to Atlas and try to figure out what's going on with Jimmy and try to help him. Trust me Goodwitch, the only way to help him right now is to focus on stopping whatever's going down in Haven." Qrow tried to reason.
"Care to fill us in?" Brawnz asked, totally stumped.
"I gotta agree with the kid, what the hell did you wake us up for kid?" Taiyang asked Cardin.
"It appears that Mr. Winchester was listening in on a conversation between Qrow and I and I must admit if he did not cry out in shock I would have." Glynda said as she glared at Qrow.
"Why?" Nebula asked in complete confusion.
"Qrow said that General Ironwood is being controlled by someone." Cardin answered.
"WHAT?!" was the collective response to this.
"Listen, I know it sounds like just the paranoid ramblings of a drunken wash-up like me but Ironwood is being controlled, I saw his hand and face twitching, it's a side effect of someone hacking their way into a person with cybernetic implants and controlling their actions, saw it on a mission about two years ago." Qrow elaborated.
The ship was now silent aside from the sounds of the engine.
"Well, this just keeps getting more interesting by the minute." Muttered Nebula as she buried her head in her hands.
"Any theories as to who is behind this?" Oobleck queried.
"Just two: Salem or Cinder and most likely both." Qrow said.
"You really think this Salem is capable of that?" May asked.
"We know she is." Qrow confirmed to the young sniper.
Glynda sighed; at least they had taken this better than the truth about Salem, the Grimm hybrids, and what may happen to Jaune. She had told them all the other day after they left Vale and she could still remember the shocked reactions...
10 Hours Ago
Everyone had shocked faces as Glynda finished revealing what she had been told.
"Well... I suppose that after the Maidens anything is possible, even the fabled Mistress of Grimm." Port said as he covered his mouth with a shaking hand.
"Okay, so let me get this straight: the crazy lady who royally wrecked us at Vale is only a second banana? There's somebody much, much worse?" Russel Thrush summarized.
"Correct." Glynda confirmed.
"Okay, just wanted to make sure." Russel said before he took out his backpack, smashed his head into it and screamed.
"I'm with the dude with the bad haircut, this is all kinds of messed up." May chimed, getting a bark from Zwei in agreement.
"And sadly it appears we have no choice but to press onwards to Haven and fight. We seem to be out of options for the moment unless we can negotiate with General Ironwood." Oobleck observed.
"Not a good idea, Ironwood's out of it and I think Salem has someone working right next to him, trust me on this one Barty, we are on our own." Qrow said, not wanting to tell them about Ironwood's corrupted mind yet.
"Can't we do something to convince the Atlas council of what's going on? We need to tell somebody high-up about this." Nebula said, getting words of agreement from some of the others.
"I think that would most unwise. If Salem has managed to get one of her servants into, most likely, the upper hierarchy of the Atlas Military then I wouldn't be surprised if she had a spy on all of the councils." Glynda said.
"What makes you think it's someone high up in the military? The traitor with Atlas could be a janitor for all we know." Sky Lark said.
"Don't be an idiot." Cardin muttered in annoyance.
"Too late." Snarked Gwen and Octavia at once.
Glynda addressed them once again. "I have already informed you of Jaune Arc and Ruby Rose's capture and that Penny Polendina's rescue team, Team SSSN, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long have all arrived in Haven to join us in the fight against Cinder but there is more to it than that. A spy we have in Haven has..."
"My sister snuck into their factory and saw that Ruby's fine but Arc is going to be transformed into a human-Grimm hybrid tonight." Qrow said, far too bluntly for Glynda's taste.
There was yet another stunned silence in response to this.
"So this is why we needed to leave in such a hurry." Oobleck muttered.
Glynda looked at the twelve teenagers, some looking unsure, even frightened. "If any of you do not wish to partake in this mission we shall drop you off at the first village we come to once we reach Mistral." She said.
The three teams whispered amongst themselves before their leaders spoke up.
"We're in, all the way." Brawnz said with determination.
"It's risky, but if we pull it off we could save a lot of innocent people. We won't back down." Nebula agreed.
"I... my team isn't really sure what to do but me personally? I was an asshole earlier this year... in hindsight I'm pretty ashamed of myself for how I acted. This is my chance for redemption, to make it up to Jauney for every dick move I pulled on him. I'm with you all the way." Cardin said, noticing the subtle proud look on Glynda's face.
"Eh, why not?" muttered Dove.
"Yeah, could be fun." Sky said.
"No one's gonna call me a coward." Russel added.
Glynda shook her head as she was brought back to the present by a conversation between the four Huntsmen. Some of the students were drifting back off to sleep while some stayed awake to listen.
"Any idea who the mole could be? Ironwood has a pretty big staff, it could be anyone." Taiyang said.
"Until we start looking into it we must assume that everyone with the Atlas Military is hostile. It sounds paranoid, but paranoia does tend to pay off a times." Oobleck said.
"Tell that to Ozpin." Qrow snaked as he rolled his eyes, receiving glares from Glynda and the other adults.
"When did Ironwood come under their control and how did it happen? How do we even know the traitor is among them? They could be doing it from afar." Port suggested.
"To answer the first question, Pete, whatever's doing this to his mind would have been put into place months ago when he was operated on and upgraded after the battle of Beacon and they only let the top smart guys do that kind of work so one of them was either bribed or is a traitor as well. To answer your second question; no, for this kind of control to remain in effect and a tight grip placed over the victim the traitor would have to be close to Ironwood, someone near him everyday." Qrow said.
"This gives us a bit of a list of suspects, but we don't have time to go through it right now, if we're going to stand a chance of saving Miss Rose and Mr. Arc I suggest we should all try to get some more sleep." Oobleck suggested.
"Very well, now try and get some more rest. Mr. Ross, how long until we reach Haven?" Glynda asked.
"ETA is one hour and fifteen minutes." Their pilot called from the cockpit.
"Alright, you have over an hour to rest, take advantage of it." Port said to the young Hunters. While most of them were tired enough to fall right back asleep some of them were too unnerved what they had just been told, but soon enough sleep took them.
Glynda noticed that Port had fallen back to sleep quickly and it appeared that Qrow was drifting off as well. "Sorry Glynda but... I'm out." He said as he closed his eyes quickly began snoring.
"You've earned it, Branwen." Glynda whispered as she looked to Oolbeck and Taiyang who were still awake.
"Professor Goodwitch, do you really think we can come out of this victorious?" Oobleck asked.
Glynda didn't know how to properly answer his question.
Ironwood sighed as he listened to Commander Creed's report. Apparently Glynda Goodwitch along with two of her fellow teachers at Beacon, two teams from Shade Academy, one from Beacon, and Taiyang Xiao Long had all departed the base at Vale in ship under the guise of going to answer a distress call which had never been made. This was very... disappointing. He figured that if there was anyone in Vale he could trust it would be Glynda Goodwitch, but after Winter betrayed him he should have expected something like this.
He glanced up at Chamberlain who had been trying to find a way to track Penny but it appeared that Polendina had removed the tracking chip he had installed in her along with making sure there was no way to follow her.
He looked up as the door opened to reveal Ulysses Cy who was seemed to be a bit exhausted. Ironwood had assigned him with attempting to track the ship down after the Eagles were reported destroyed and Cy had attempted to find any sign of the fugitives for over twenty hours with no luck.
Ironwood didn't have to say anything to express the frustration with this situation.
"Anything at all?" he asked.
"I'm sorry sir, nothing whatsoever. For all we know they could be in anywhere; Cadia, Mistral City, Gola, hell they could have just went on to Haven for all I know." Cy said as he sat down.
"I doubt it. Maybe they went to the Mistral council, eager to start a war they think they're preventing." Ironwood said as his metal hand twitched, a small action that Chamberlain had noticed.
"Sir, are you alright? Your hand." Chamberlain said as he gestured to Ironwood's metal limb.
"What this? It's been happening every now and then, probably just a slight glitch in the nerve structure of the prosthetic. I'll have it checked out soon. Cy, any word from 501?"
"I looked up his daily report before I came here, sir. He says nothing at all. He says he continues to search the slums and the rich criminal element of the city but has nothing of note as of yet." Cy said.
Ironwood sighed and muttered "Typical. You're both dismissed; you may go about your duties."
The two men left the room but did not part ways.
"Cy, I need to speak with you in private." Chamberlain whispered as they walked down the hallway. They made their way to the elevator and once they were alone Chamberlain pushed the stop button so they could be left that way.
"Jackson, what's wrong?" Cy asked.
"I spoke to Specialist Schnee the other day and she's convinced that General Ironwood is being controlled by one of our enemies." Chamberlain said.
"That's absurd and is exactly what a traitor like her would say to buy herself time." Cy said doubtfully.
"I'm not so sure, I saw his hand twitching and I'm not convinced by the 'faulty nervous system' bit he tried to sell us." Chamberlain whispered.
"I think it's just a routine glitch, I mean it isn't the first time his body has acted up and they never really got the bugs completely out of the system." Cy pointed out.
"Yes, I know, but whenever his body acted up before Beacon he'd always have it checked out right away, but now he's just ignoring it." Chamberlain said, beginning to see how valid Winter's warning was.
"I admit that is rather odd, maybe he just has a lot on his mind? He's been though a lot of stress recently." Cy said.
"I know that, but it's this whole disaster with Penny Polendina, it... it just never sat right with me, Cy."
"I know, sometimes we have to go to dark places to keep the flame lit." Cy said as he pressed a button to open a door. "Right now all we need to do is follow orders, if Ironwood is ever removed from his power then we can question him."
Chamberlain nodded, seeing as how that was sadly the way most military operations seemed to go. Then a thought crossed Chamberlain's head; he didn't know what Cy had been doing when Penny's rescue had happened.
"Cy, I just realized that I never found out where you were during the breakout." He said.
Cy eyed his comrade before he explained "I was close to the main gate so I took command in shutting it down, sorry you had to get knocked out in the vault and miss the bulk of the action."
Chamberlain nodded, finding that answer acceptable. "Sorry, it's just that all this insanity with Schnee and Polendina and all... just has me a little paranoid." He apologized.
"It's okay, with everything that's been going on recently you need to be on your toes, after all these days you never know who you can trust." Cy said with a mocking grin. Chamberlain nodded with a smile and walked away, not noticing the irritated look on his comrade's face as he did so.
Ashe smiled as Yatsuhashi finished tell the group assembled in the warehouse the story of how he got a medium sized scar on his leg. After Nora had told the others about Ashe's various scars the younger Hunters prodded him until he agreed to repeat the tale of his fight with the pack of Beowolves on the train. After that Coco decided it was only fair that anyone with a scar of their own should share the story of how they got it. Team ABRN were the only ones absent, as they needed to return to Haven Academy for the time being so as not to arouse the suspicion of the headmaster. Penny stood in the corner, standing as still as a statue, but no one noticed her for the time being.
"Okay, you see this on my wrist?" Sage asked as he spoke up. Everyone squinted and they could just barely see a small scar.
"Yeah, what happened there?" Flynt asked.
"Okay, so it's last day before break at Haven Academy right? We're having this 'friendly' arm wrestling competition just for fun. I enter for Team SSSN and I make it into the semi-semi-finals, or whatever it's called, and I'm going up against this little guy, now I hadn't really been paying attention but I knew he had to be good if he made it this far. The match begins and this guy uses his Semblance, hidden strength I think, and he pulls me right over the table." Sage finished, getting some laughs out of the others.
"I can't forget that look on your face when Arslan beat him in the final round. You were outright enjoying his defeat." Sun said.
"Hey, sometimes I take things personally." Sage said with a shrug.
"Okay, okay, my turn." Fox said as he pulled up his left pant leg to reveal an old, round scar.
"Ouch, and I thought you were gonna say what was up with your arms, what happened there?" Neptune asked.
"It was back in beginner's school, about second or third grade." Fox began, briefly making nearly everyone in the warehouse nostalgic for the old simple days before they were given the choice of going to an advanced school for civilians or a combat academy where they would begin their training as Hunters.
"Okay, so I'm on the playground, right? Just walking along, minding my own business... when this girl starts showing off to her friends and does a cartwheel on a balance beam, but when she makes her grand jump off of it she crashes right into me and knocks me right onto the woodchips and one of 'em stabs me right in the kneecap!"
"Oh god!" cried Neptune.
"Whoa, did you end up in the hospital for that?" Yang asked.
"No, the school nurse was a trained aura healer so she was able to close it up before any major damage could set in. I was really disappointed I didn't get to go home early." Fox joked, eliciting laughs out of Coco, Velvet, Yang, Team SSSN, Flynt, and Neon.
"Seriously? They didn't send you home after that? Now I'm glad I was homeschooled." Ashe said.
"Ugh, that story still makes me cringe every time." Velvet said.
"Why?" Yang asked.
"It's like how you get all squirmy when you think about someone slitting your throat or your wrists or when you think about someone trying to attack your eyes, you just shudder at it, you know? I guess since I have some rabbit in me I just get all nervous about not being able to run." Velvet explained.
"Wow, you're wise beyond your 'ears!" Yang joked, getting groans out of everyone but Ashe who laughed.
"Wait, you found that funny?" Weiss asked, dumbstruck.
"Yeah, but I've learned to take any laugh when I can get it, after a while a bad pun starts sounding really funny." Ashe justified.
"Okay, so speaking of going for the eyes what about your scar, Weiss?" asked Nora, getting a look from Weiss.
"Uh, Weiss doesn't really like to talk about that, Ruby had to order her to tell us." Blake said before Weiss raised her hands up.
"No, it's okay, I'll tell them." Weiss said, getting shocked reactions from her teammates. "What? I've decided to be a bit more open." She added before she turned to address the small crowd. "As it turns out the story of how I got my scar is also how my father agreed to let me enroll at Beacon. You see, the Atlas Military was looking for a replacement for the Atlesian Knight 100 model and my father assumed that naturally the Atlesian Knight 200 would be the successor but someone approached General Ironwood with an alternative model call the Atlas Armor. My father was furious that the General would consider doing business with someone else and at that time I was practically demanding to go to Beacon. Eventually my father managed to make an arrangement with the rival company and with General Ironwood; I would battle against the Atlas Armor while the Atlesian Knight 200 would fight one of Atlas' top soldiers. If I would win I would be allowed to go to Beacon and if the Atlesian Knight won as well General Ironwood would choose my family's company over the competitions."
"So you obviously won." Yatsuhashi stated.
"Yes, but at a cost." Weiss said as she rubbed the pale scar over her eye. "I defeated the armor, but I received this scar as a reminder of what my victory meant."
"If it's any consolation it's not really that noticeable." Neon said.
"Thank you, at first I tried to cover it up with makeup but after a while I decided to ware it to show the world that I was not pampered little princess." Weiss said.
"I think it worked just fine." Flynt said with a smile.
Weiss smiled back but it soon turned into a troubled frown. "What's wrong?" Blake asked.
"I just now remembered who developed the Atlas Armor, a man named Tomo Sherizawa, one of the head scientists for CraftTech." Weiss said.
"What?!" cried Yang.
"That doesn't make sense, why would CraftTech, a company working for Salem, try to supply Atlas with robotic soldiers?" Scarlet asked.
"Remember how the Knights turned on us? Maybe that was always supposed to happen but not with the Knights, with the Atlas Armor. Cinder somehow found a way to take control of the Knights but I think we can all guess that if the Armor was used it would have turned on us much quicker, as it would have been under their control the entire time." Weiss explained.
"This is all coming together now." Ashe muttered as he stood up.
"So the deeper we dig into this, the more it's obvious that this Salem witch has her hands in pretty much everything." Coco said.
Ashe nodded as he took out two pictures from his coat pocket and looked at them with a sad sigh.
"What's the other picture of? I know one is of you and Mila, but what's the other one?" Nora asked.
"This other one was taken when I was about nine years old, it's of my family." Ashe said sadly as he turned the photo around so they could all see it. The photo contained a much younger Ashe in the arms of his mother who looked, surreally, like a kind and gentle version of Cinder with the only difference being in hair style and seemed to be a bit taller. Behind them was a bearded man with a hard face but there seemed to be an air of strength and experience about him, the look in his eyes was one of pride. Finally, leaning against her mother, was a fourteen year old Cinder Fall. Cinder's hair was done up in a ponytail and she had a smirk on her face that wasn't the sinister and self-assured smirk one would expect from her, but a young and cocky, looking like she was ready to take on the world.
"I can't believe that girl is Cinder." Blake muttered.
"Hey, even Adam must have been a cute kid at some point." Yang said slyly, getting a glare in return from her partner.
"Your mom looks just like Cinder." Muttered Bianca as she looked at the photo.
"I used to look at this picture to remind me that my sister was still out there and that if I found her we could be a family again, but I guess that's all kaput now. Now it's just another reminder of how much I've lost." Ashe said sadly.
"I'm sorry Ashe, it must be hard having your own sister turn out to be evil." Yang said, secretly dreading the possibility of Ruby being turned to evil under Salem's control.
Ashe could see this and he said "Don't worry Yang, we'll get her back, I promise. Tomorrow morning you guys will be together again."
Yang smiled and nodded.
"Hey Ashe, I've been wondering about those Guerrilla Hunter schools..." began Blake.
"If you want me to turn them in I'm sorry to say 'no way in hell'. Even if I knew where they were now I wouldn't turn my back on 'em. They helped me out a lot." Ashe said.
"Did they help you with your Semblance?" Ren inquired.
"Hell no, I only found out about my Semblance after the pit." Ashe said, making some of the group shudder. He had told them about his traumatizing event in the pit full of Grimm and most of them were flat out terrified of the mere idea of being stuck in a situation like that.
"Then who helped you train?" asked Velvet.
"For the most part I was self-trained. I found some old books and read up about it to gain knowledge about it and I was forced to use trial and error with it on whatever I went up against; Grimm, thieves, gangs, bandits, really I took on anything, not just the Grimm. I did meet with one man who had my Semblance; he did help me out a bit but not much as he was kinda old and withered." Ashe said.
"So your fighting with your Semblance is self-taught and the rest of it comes from the Guerrilla school?" Ren said.
"Yeah, they don't teach you as much as Beacon or Haven, but it's enough to get you by." Ashe said.
"Obviously." Violet stated.
"How much did they..." Blake began when a loud crashing sound interrupted her. Everyone turned around to see Penny on the floor with Ashe's scroll in her hand.
"Penny!" most of them cried. They ran over to her and Yang and Yatsuhashi helped the robot girl up.
"What happened?" asked Velvet.
"No idea, looks like she fainted. Can robots faint?" asked Shani.
"They probably can when they have a soul and emotions." Ashe said as he reclaimed his scroll from Penny's hand. He looked at what Penny had been watching and muttered "Oh crap."
"What is it?" asked Coco.
"Penny asked me if she could use my scroll to look something up, something she needed to see... I didn't see any harm in it." Ashe said before he turned his scroll around to show them that Penny had been watching a video of her fight with Pyrrha.
"Oh god, Dr. Polendina said that if she recalled her own death it may damage her mind!" Weiss cried.
"Man we could use him here right about now." Flynt muttered as he helped Yang and Yatsuhashi get Penny onto the couch.
"What's going to happen?" Neon asked.
"I don't really know, I've never met anybody who died and came back to life before, let alone someone like... oh lord, this is confusing." Weiss moaned as they sat Penny onto the couch, sitting her up right. Penny didn't respond to anything that was going on, she just stared forward as if she was sleeping with her eyes open.
""Uh... what now?" Neptune asked.
"I don't really know, I guess we just wait until she comes out of it." Weiss said.
"How long will that take?" Sienna asked.
"No idea." Weiss admitted.
"Ashe, could we use that Aura Crystal thing? It's a crystal of aura, right? So maybe it has some healing abilities." Velvet suggested.
Ashe sighed and said "I don't think that'll work Velvet, the according to the legends and the books I read back at home the crystal does have some healing abilities but only in the most dire of times, like a last minute resuscitation. It tends only to help out when a person is on the verge of death, but I've read that it can make one stronger if used correctly and help replenish aura, but I don't think it'll work on Penny."
"Well what are we going to do? We can't just stand around like a bunch of..." Sun began to say before a cry from Penny cut him off.
Penny was crying out, almost screaming as her body began to shake as if she was having a seizure.
"Oh crap, what now?!" cried Neptune.
"Hold her down!" Coco ordered. Yang, Yatsuhashi, Sage, Sun, Ashe, and Flynt all did so as they grabbed Penny and held her down as hard as they could, struggling to keep her steady as she let out a series of incomprehensible babbles and half-words.
"Stronger than she looks!" Ashe cried as she lifted up the arm he was holding onto, which managed to lift him off the ground.
Yang grabbed Penny's face and said "Penny! Penny, calm down! Now!"
Penny's shaking calmed slightly as she looked directly at Yang. "I... I... I... I..."
"Penny, look at me and listen to me. You're okay, you're safe, you're among friends, and no one will hurt you. Calm down, just relax, think about your dad, think about Ruby and just relax." Yang said as calmly as she could.
Penny stopped shaking and after the others released her she sat back down, looking at her hands. Yang kneeled down to look Penny in the eye as she gently took hold of Penny's hands. "You okay?" she asked.
"Not really." Penny said quietly.
"Why did you look up that video? Why did you want to watch it?" Yang asked, sounding calm the entire time she spoke so as not to upset Penny.
"I... I deserve to see it. I had to see it. I had to know what Cinder did to me, what she tricked Pyrrha into doing." Penny said as Yang held Penny's hands tightly. "I knew most of you would be suspicious, but Ashe is trusting and he has issues of his own so I knew he would have no reservations about lending me his scroll. I'm sorry for tricking you."
"It's okay." Ashe said quietly.
Penny looked at Yang directly, and then she scanned everyone else. "I'm a puppet. That's all I am. Atlas was going to use me as some experiment and Ironwood was going to use me to get to Cinder. Cinder used me to hurt Pyrrha and create panic that would start the Grimm attack. That's all I am, a puppet pretending to be real. I'm just... tangled in strings... I don't even know what I really am anymore."
Yang grabbed Penny's face again and said "I know what you are. You are Penny Polendina, my little sister's friend who happens to be a robot. Just because you're not flesh and blood doesn't make you any less of a real person than any of us. Look at me, look at my arm, its metal just like you. Does that make me any less of a person?"
Penny looked at Yang's metal limb and stared at it, her thoughts masked by the clouded look on her face.
Blake spoke up next. "For years people used to say that just because the Faunus were a little different, just because we had one trait of an animal that we weren't real people, that we were sub-species... but now most people have gotten over their prejudice, times changed. Just because of Sun or Neon's tails or mine and Velvet's ears it doesn't makes us any less normal. We're all people Penny, and you are too."
Penny looked around at the people that surrounded her. "What will happen after this? Atlas will want me back, they see me as their property." She said.
"If Ironwood comes for you we'll stand by you. He won't take you away from us without a fight." Yang said with a grin.
"We're with you Pen, through thick and thin." Coco said.
Penny looked down to her hands again, flexing her fingers a bit. "I want to be real." She said.
Weiss sighed and gestured for Yang to move. Yang nodded and let the Schnee heiress take her place. Weiss used her hand to lift Penny's chin up and made Penny look her right in the eyes.
"You're real to Ruby, so you're real to me." Weiss said.
Penny's face looked like it was about to burst out crying if it could. Penny launched herself forward and crashed into Weiss, hugging her tightly. "Thank you, thank you." Penny said over and over again.
"Yes, Penny... I'm happy you're happy but you're hugging me rather tightly!" Weiss gasped out.
"Don't care." Penny muttered, which got a laugh out of the group surrounding them.
"So, you're going to be okay? Your mind ain't breaking down on us or something like that?" Flynt asked.
"No, I'm okay, thanks to all of you." Penny said cheerfully.
"Well, I seem to have walked in on a heartwarming moment." Said the sarcastic voice of Raven, who had appeared out of nowhere.
"Mom? How did you get in here? The doors didn't open." Yang pointed out.
"I've learned how to sneak in and out of places much more fortified than this." Raven said as she approached the group.
"What did you find out?" Shani asked.
"Is Jaune okay?" Bianca prodded.
"That is... complicated. I'm honestly not sure." Raven answered.
"What?" was the response from most of those present.
"It appears that something helped Jaune during the operation; something helped him to purge a majority of the Grimm essence from his body, but not all of it as a small portion was able to take hold. His physical appearance has changed somewhat with pale skin and violet eyes, but there is still hope for him." Raven said.
"Oh thank Oum." Muttered Bianca.
"I don't care if he's a little whiter with some purple eyes, I just want him back." Indigo said.
Ashe glared at Raven and said "There's more, isn't there?"
Everyone looked to Raven who nodded. "I'm afraid there is. I think the operation may have damaged his mind as when I saw him in his cell he was talking to something that wasn't there and he called it 'Pyrrha'. I think you all know what that means."
Everyone was silent for a minute as it sank in. Jaune may have been driven insane and was now delusional, talking to someone who was dead. Nora grabbed Ren and hugged him "Ren, what are we gonna do?" she asked.
"I... I don't know." Ren admitted as he rubbed her back comfortingly.
"Poor Jaune." Velvet said with teary eyes.
"I don't even know him that well, but we gotta help him out. If we get him out tonight there's still hope, right? I mean we got therapists for a reason, he'll come out okay... right?" Sun said
No one could really answer him, except for Blake who simply said "Let's just hope we can."
"There's more. Salem has ordered him to engage in a sword fight to the death with another Grimm Commander named Fotia Drakos, tonight. Apparently she is having issues of her own and Salem wants to kill two birds with one stone. Whoever wins will be her tool, her Grimm Commander." Raven said darkly.
"Fucking great!" Ashe yelled as he kicked a support beam in frustration.
"So there are more Grimm Commanders?" asked Blake.
Raven nodded, "At least three: Drakos, the one I have already seen, and another called Steppenwolffe, but there may be more."
"We have to get there before that duel happens; if Jaune loses he's done for." Coco said.
"Well you're in luck, because before I came in I sensed that my brother is nearby, he should be arriving any moment now." Raven said.
"Finally." Weiss said as she managed to pry Penny off of her body.
"What about Ruby?" asked Yang.
"I saw your sister, she is fine and isn't giving up... and I have to say that close up she looks like a miniature version of Summer." Raven said, allowing herself a small smile.
"You saw her up close? Did you talk to her?" Yang inquired.
"No, I have a way of going unnoticed, a way I do not care to reveal." Raven said, noticing the curious looks from the teens.
Before anyone could say anything else the sound of an airship hovering overhead got everyone's attention. "They're here." Stated Yatsuhashi. Most of the group made for the door with Yang pushing it open to reveal a third airship setting down in front of the warehouse.
"We're gonna have to find a better place to park." Neon said as the ship finished landing and the door slid open to reveal Qrow Branwen and Glynda Goodwitch.
"We come in peace!" Qrow joked as he hopped of the ship and held his arms wide open as Yang ran into him.
"Uncle Qrow! What took you so damn long?!" she asked as she pounced on him.
"Blame Ironwood, took me a hell of a lot longer to back to Vale after he shot me." Qrow said as he hugged his niece back.
"Hello there, Raven." Glynda said, sounding a bit hesitant.
"Hello Glynda, been a while." Raven said dryly.
Glynda said no more to the female Branwen and looked to Blake. "It is good to see that you are okay Miss Belladonna, I'm glad that once this is all done we can officially take you off the MIA list." She said.
"Professor Goodwitch, I know you're probably disappointed in me, I ran away when I didn't know what else to do and I abandoned my duty as a Huntress, but..." Blake said before Glynda stopped her.
"While you did abandon both your friends and your duty you had your own, personal reasons for doing so. I do not know what your life was like prior to enrolling at Beacon and therefore I will not judge you. I do admit your choice is a disappointing one but you have redeemed yourself by choosing to come here and help your friends. There is nothing to punish you for in my eyes." Glynda said as Dr. Oobleck, Professor Port, and the three other teams disembarked from the airship.
Blake smiled and said "Thank you, Professor."
"There's my girl!" Taiyang said as he hugged Yang.
"Hey dad, nice of you to join us." Yang said as she hugged her father, with Zwei running her circles around them, yipping happily.
Taiyang smiled as he hugged her back, then he took notice of Blake. "Is that her?" he asked.
"Gee dad, the girl with cat ears who looks exactly like the girl in the pictures I showed you. I don't know, maybe it's her long lost twin." Yang snarked as she rolled her eyes.
"Don't get smart with me." Taiyang said as he approached the cat Faunus. "So you're Blake. I've heard a lot about you, from the looks of it and from Yang did to get you back you must be worth it." He said
"Thank you Mr. Xiao Long, Yang has told me a lot about you as well, and I can only hope that I am worth her troubles." Blake said with a smile.
"Hey, she agreed to be operated on in her own room, you have to be worth it." Taiyang assured her. Then he noticed his ex-wife.
"Hello Taiyang, nice to see your gauntlets again." Raven said.
"Yeah, the gold knuckles could use a work out." He said with a small grin.
Blake and Yang looked to each other, both sensing that there was still tension between Yang's parents.
Meanwhile Sun approached Octavia Ember and said "Hey, remember me? We fought in the..." he began before the redhead stopped him.
"Yes, I remember you. I don't think I could forget a kick to the face like that." Octavia said.
"Yeah, sorry about that." Sun apologized.
"Don't be, it was a good fight. Besides it didn't hurt that much." She said.
"Oh please 'tavi, you were whining for the rest of the day." Gwen teased, earning a glare from her partner.
As this happened Team BRNZ approached Ren and Nora with its leader offering his hand out and saying "Hey, nice to see you again."
Ren accepted the hand and shook it. "It is good to see you again, but I wish it could be under better circumstances."
"Tell me about it, feels like we're trying to prevent the end of the world." Nolan said.
"We're basically are." Nora said, getting wide eyes from the team.
"We'll explain later, it's just good to know you agreed to help us." Ren said.
"After the fight you gave us? We're happy to be here." Branwz said before his face turned serious. "I never got a chance to say this but I'm sorry about Pyrrha. She was a damn good fighter and she didn't deserve what happened to her."
"Few people do." Ren said sadly.
May put her hand on Ren's shoulder and said "Hey, cheer up man. With all of us here we'll get your leader back and take that witch down before midnight."
As the groups mingled with one another Glynda, Port, and Oobleck approached Ashe. "So... I take it you guys know about me." He said.
"My colleagues only know what I have told them and I only know what Weiss has told me. She told me that you are Cinder's brother and that we can trust you as long as Cinder is our enemy." Glynda said.
"She's right, all I want to do for the moment is help get Ruby and Jaune out of that factory, kill someone I thought I killed years ago, and stop my sister before she makes some more stupid and dangerous mistakes." Ashe said.
"Well we have two things in common, young man but I can tell that there is more to you than meets the eye; the way you carry yourself matches a similar body language to that of someone what has been under Guerrilla training and your attire seems most odd, something to do with your past, I assume?" Port said.
Ashe eyed Port and grinned, "Okay, I didn't expect you to be that observant."
"For the moment we will not bother with the moral or legal debate over the profession of being an unofficial Hunter, but for the moment I believe we can trust you, as you have had ample opportunities to turn these teenagers and this 'Aura Crystal' over to Cinder and Salem and yet you have not. It could be that you are waiting for the right moment to strike but it highly unlikely. If you were going to betray them you would have done it by now because at the moment any potential future betrayal you could make would be a foolish move as with all of us here we could destroy you with little to no effort. So after taking most of the probabilities into account I think we can trust you for the time being, but we will still be watching you." Oobleck said, getting a weirded out look from Ashe.
"He always like that?" Ashe asked.
"Oh yes." Port confirmed.
"Has Raven brought any news of Jaune's status?" Glynda asked.
"Yeah and it's... mixed. Somehow his aura, or something inside of him, managed to purge most of the Grimm essence from his body but he still has some within him. Raven also told us that he may be mentally damaged as she saw him talking to an imaginary Pyrrha Nikos." Ashe said, getting shocked and saddened looks from the three teachers.
"What are they doing to him?" Port asked quietly.
"Every dirty trick in the book from the sound of it and that's not all, Raven told us that Salem is going to force Jaune to fight another Grimm Commander named Drakos to the death tonight. I don't even want to think about what'll happen if that comes to pass." Ashe said.
"Agreed. Raven, did you fulfill your mission?" Glynda asked.
"Of course I did, I updated Schnee's schematics as best I could. So are going to plan this out or what?" Raven asked.
"Yes we are. Ashe, is anyone else coming?" Glynda asked.
"Yeah, Team ABRN had to go to the academy and when the day's out they'll be coming with Dr. Maia Chloris in tow, she's agreed to be the medic for the assault. Also Coco brought one of the bombs Ironwood had placed inside of Penny, could you lighten the Dust payload? I think I have an idea." Ashe said.
Glynda nodded, she looked over to Taiyang and Qrow. "Alright, get over here you two. We need to finish planning this out as soon as we can" she said.
Fotia giggled as the warm breath of the Wyvern washed over her. "Thank you, I like it when you do that." She said to the beast as it gently rubbed its muzzle against her.
Ziz and Emerald observed from the side, both impressed by how Fotia had this ability to charm the gigantic Grimm.
"None of my fliers are ever that loving." Ziz muttered.
"I didn't think Grimm could have any kind of positive emotions." Emerald said.
"Because all they know is hate and fear, I want Wyvern to see the world better than that." Fotia said as she pet her dragon.
"Not really sure what the point of that is, I mean all it will do is attack and destroy." Emerald pointed out.
"Hey, give me points for doing something different." Fotia said with a small smile.
"You okay kid? That fight begins in six hours; you still got time for some last minute training." Ziz said, sounding concerned for her fellow Commander.
Fotia sighed and said "Yes, I know. I just wanted to spend some time with the Wyvern, just in case."
"In case of what? In case that Arc kid beats you? Please! I've seen the kid, I doubt he could handle a shot of whisky, let alone you." Ziz said with a smirk as she patted Fotia on the back.
"Thank you, it truly means a lot to me. I... I just want to make sure. If Mistress Salem says I must fight to the death I will accept my fate either way." The younger commander said.
"Don't be like that, you're gonna mop the floor with him. Once you kill him Salem will never doubt you again." Ziz said, which got Fotia's attention.
"Doubt me? Why would Mistress Salem doubt me?" she asked.
"I told her how you were acting the other day, we found out you were looking at a video of Pyrrha Nikos. Are you curious? Do you believe Arc?" Emerald asked.
"No! No, he's a pathetic, delusional fool. I honestly don't know how my scroll got to that video. I can assure Mistress Salem that I am completely loyal to her." Fotia swore.
"If that's so, how about one last chat with Arc?" Emerald asked.
"Why?" Fotia asked, confused.
"Cinder thinks that since Arc is convinced that you're Nikos you should be the one to tell him about the duel. The sight of who he thinks is his partner telling him that he'll fight her to the death will make him desperate, it'll break him and he won't stand a chance against you." Emerald explained, following Cinder's orders.
Fotia considered this. "I suppose it may give me a slight winning edge... very well."
"Then let's go see him." Emerald said as she led the group away. Before she left the underground cavern Fotia saw a squad of guards and technicians walking down to the lower levels.
"Are they still working on that ship?" she asked.
"Oh yeah, they got it ready so if we ever need to make a quick getaway we'll have one." Ziz said.
Fotia nodded, she knew that underneath the cavern was a giant man-made river that led into the cave system under Haven which led straight into the sea. A giant ship large enough to fit the Wyvern inside sat underneath them. She knew it was odd that they needed it, but it was nice to know that Mistress Salem had a backup plan.
As they made their way to the cell block Fotia spoke to Ziz.
"Do you really think I can win this duel?" she asked.
"I know you can. Just picture this guy is one of your family members, those assholes who abused you when they should have cared for you. That always works for me; when I'm going up against a tough opponent I just think about my team, the ones who left me for dead. It's really fucking easy then." Ziz muttered.
"You once told me that you found out your team died a bit after Mistress Salem found you, what happened to them?" Fotia asked.
Ziz snorted and said "They're nothing to me now because I can't have my revenge on them. I... I cared about them, they were the first thing I could call a family in years and they left me behind."
"Who were they?" Fotia asked.
"We were Team BLTZ. Our leader and my partner was Jack Boulder and I gotta admit I had a crush on him... until he left me. Then there was Lana Goldenrod, the typical nice girl who was a bit of a ditz, and of course ole Tom Burner, the put upon, reliable Burner, the type of guy who'd do anything for you. Doesn't matter now anyway, they're all dead." Ziz said.
"How did they die?" Fotia asked.
"All I know is they were killed by a ton of Grimm in the middle of nowhere, I just wish I could've been there." Ziz said.
"Maybe you should look at the report of their deaths, I mean things like that are supposed to be put on display in the records for public knowledge, correct? With our computers you could look at the reports." Fotia said.
"Yeah, but I never really bothered to look at the report." Ziz admitted.
"Maybe you should, it may give you closure." Fotia said as they arrived at the cellblock.
"You'll need someone to make sure he doesn't try anything, it okay if I go in?" Emerald asked.
"Oh, of course." Fotia said as Ziz leaned up against the wall.
"Good luck, kid." Ziz said as the two younger women entered Jaune's cellblock.
Emerald opened the thick steel door to Jaune's cell but kept the laser grid up so he and Fotia couldn't physically touch, if Arc tried anything he'd get a painful sting from it.
Jaune looked up as the door opened, revealing Fotia and Emerald. "Hello again, Arc." Fotia said with an emotionless voice.
"Pyrrha, Emerald," Jaune said, spitting out the illusionists name with venom, "what do you want?"
"We have come to inform you that tonight you and I will engage in a sword duel. Whoever loses will die and whoever wins shall gain Mistress Salem's favor." Fotia said.
"She can take her favor and choke on it. Pyrrha, don't you see? This is what that monster wants, to turn us against each other!" Jaune said.
"I keep telling you, Arc, that I am Fotia Drakos and yet you keep insisting that I am your dead partner, it is rather pathetic." Fotia said, secretly not liking what she was saying to him.
"They've done something to you and they tried to do it to me. They tried turning me into a Grimm Commander! Look at me!" Jaune cried as he stepped into the light, showing his unnaturally pale skin and his violet eyes, a mixture of his natural blue ones and the red eyes of a Grimm.
"What happened to you?" Fotia asked, actually shocked at his appearance.
"They tried to make me like you, I don't how I resisted it but I'm not what Salem wants me to be. Pyrrha, why do you think they're making you fight me? It's to break either one of us. You have to try and remember who you really are." Jaune said desperately, lying a bit so as not to tell Emerald about the small part of Pyrrha he had inside of him.
Emerald shook her head; secretly she couldn't help but pity Arc. His life was hell and tonight it was either going to end or get much worse.
Fotia looked Jaune straight in the eye, seeing no sign of deceit or lying. He was convinced he was telling the truth.
"I'm sorry, Arc. I don't know you at all... and I don't even know myself anymore. I thought I did but the events of the last few days have... made me confused." She said.
"There's hope, you are not Fotia Drakos, you are Pyrrha Nikos. You aren't just some Grimm Commander for that witch's plans, you're my partner, my best friend, you're... I love you." Jaune said, hoping to awaken something, anything of Pyrrha that had to be within her somewhere.
Fotia sighed and said "You truly are a sad man, Jaune Arc, an you have my pity. I will see you tonight, may the best warrior win." And with that she walked away.
"Pyrrha! No! Don't just leave me! You have to remember!" Jaune screamed.
Emerald gave Jaune one last sympathetic look before she followed Fotia out of the cellblock.
Jaune sat down and buried his face in his hands.
'You can win, Jaune. If we try hard enough we can both survive this.' Pyrrha's soothing voice told him.
"How? If I'm to fight you there's no way I can win." He said.
'You won't be alone, I will help you. You will win and we will be together, I promise.'
As Fotia walked out of the cellblock she stopped and clutched at her chest, feeling a phantom pain. "Are you okay?" Emerald asked.
"Yes, blasted chest pains again. I'm going to get in some last minute sword training." Fotia said as she walked away. She didn't really know what to make of Arc, but she was confident that she would win and gain Mistress Salem's favor and Arc would be nothing more than an odd memory in a few weeks.
Ziz departed on her own, her mind plagued by what Fotia had suggested about her team's fate.
Ruby glared at Cinder as the door opened up and the laser grid deactivated once again, allowing the Fall Maiden to enter.
"What's happened to Jaune? Is he okay?!" Ruby yelled.
"Hello to you too, Ruby. Don't worry I'll tell you about Jaune in due time but for now I trust you'll be happy to know that there will be no training session today." Cinder said.
Ruby allowed herself a smile. "What? Afraid I'll beat you this time?"
Cinder smiled back and said "No, I just decided you deserved a rest. We have something very special planned for tonight."
"What?"
"If I told you it wouldn't be a surprise. While we cannot have our usual physical training I have decided to teach you about the legend of the Silver Eyed people. What have you been told?" Cinder asked.
"Not much really." Ruby admitted, "My Uncle Qrow told me that certain people were born with silver eyes, people destined for greatness and that the Grimm were afraid of these warriors. I honestly don't know if I believe it."
"Believe it Ruby, it is true. Silver eyes are a representation of aura at its truest and purest form, channeled into the eyes of those destined to be great warriors. Silver eyes are a light in the dark, a beacon of hope. Their aura is so pure and great that the Grimm fear the mere glance of those eyes." Cinder said.
Ruby looked a Cinder doubtfully. "I've killed over a hundred Grimm since I became a Huntress-in-training and the Grimm were never afraid of my eyes before that night on the tower. The dragon thing wasn't even afraid I just froze it and none of the Grimm I've seen since have been afraid of me either. It doesn't add up." She said.
"You see Ruby, one version of the legend says that the power of the silver eyes can only be awoken by a great sadness. When you saw me 'kill' Pyrrha your grief was so overwhelming that the power within you was activated." Cinder explained.
"But why didn't my eyes shine when you tricked Pyrrha into killing Penny?" Ruby asked.
"Maybe it's because you hoped she could be rebuilt... or maybe it's because she's just a robot. I mean, she wasn't real." Cinder said.
Ruby glared at her and snarled out "She was real to me."
"How precious, you thought that machine was a person." Cinder mocked.
"What happened to you Cinder? If you're Ashe's sister I want to know how you became what you are now." Ruby demanded.
"Hmm, why not? It would be a rather interesting story. I was born into the Kasai family, the guardians of the Aura Crystal, a powerful relic from the dawn of Remnant's existence. We had it within our family for little over a few decades or so when I was born and five years later my little brother, Ashe came to be. I was the stronger of the two children so father chose me to be the main guardian while Ashe would be the oracle. You see the crystal requires two guardians; one to fight for it and one to communicate with it spiritually. I was meant to be the former and Ashe was to be the latter, and as a result of that I had to train under my father, which was... not the best experience. For years my parents filled my head with the idea that I was destined to guard that relic and nothing more but I wanted more Ruby, I knew I was destined for so much more. But for fifteen years I lived out my dreary little life with my parents and my brother until on a rainy day, when my father and I were out training, she came to me." Cinder said and Ruby knew who she was referring to.
"Salem." Ruby stated.
"Correct, she told me about my potential for greatness, she told me the tale of the Four Maidens and how I was destined not to be Cinder Kasai the guardian of the Aura Crystal, but Cinder Fall the Fall Maiden. She showed me her awesome power, her complete and total control of the Grimm, she showed me what I could be if I transformed my destiny... and then my father intervened. He attacked Salem and drove her away. He was angry with me but he was more scared. He got in contact with Ozpin, who came to see us. I think he knew some of what happened afterwards but not all of it. Salem spoke to me, through whispers in my mind and through my dreams and I knew what I wanted. I no longer wanted to be the guardian of the crystal, I wanted power." Cinder said.
"And joining with Salem was the best way to get that power?" Ruby asked.
"It's worked out so far." Cinder said.
"What happened the night you killed your family?" Ruby asked.
"That night... that night my mother discovered via meditation with the crystal that had been in contact with Salem. My parents were furious... we yelled and screamed at each other while Ashe lay in bed. Father went to contact Ozpin and left me with mother. I could hear Salem's voice in my head, pushing me to do it, to kill my own mother and I did. I strangled the life out of her and watched as her eyes dulled over. Later I killed our father and I let Ashe go, leaving both he and the crystal behind for a better life." Cinder finished.
"Was it worth it?" Ruby asked.
"It will be in the end." Cinder answered.
"Why didn't you take the crystal with you?" Ruby inquired.
"At the time Salem had told me it was nothing more than a meaningless relic of an era long dead, but she has recently told me the truth. The crystal is not necessary for our plans but it will speed things along. Ashe is the only thing that stands in our way."
"Why didn't you kill Ashe? After all, you murdered your mother and father; your little brother wouldn't have made that much of a difference." Ruby pointed out.
Cinder hesitated before she answered "At the time I saw no harm in letting him live, I... I honestly couldn't bring myself to do it, but I will soon make up for that failure if Ashe tries to stop us."
"He will stop you; my friends will never let you get away with this. Now I want to know what happened to Jaune." Ruby demanded.
"He's, despite all odds, not fully transformed into a hybrid. While he has taken on some Grimm traits he is still mostly human." Cinder answered, noticing the relieved look on Ruby's face.
"I must take my leave of you now, in a few hours Mercury and Emerald will come and escort you to the throne room. Tonight Jaune's destiny will be decided." Cinder said as she walked out.
"What do you mean by that?" Ruby asked.
As the door began to close Cinder simply smiled and said "You'll see."
It was about half past four and inside of the ship from Vale Ashe sat with the surviving members of Team STRQ and the three teachers from Beacon, finishing up the plan of attack. Team ABRN had returned from the academy with Dr. Chloris and they were relieved to see how much backup they had gotten. Everyone else was currently inside of the warehouse as the seven Hunters devised the plan.
"You sure we can pull this off?" Ashe asked.
"I've done crazier. Much crazier, so trust me when I say we have a pretty good chance of coming out of this okay." Qrow said.
"We may lose a few, I don't know if I'm ready to lead these students into a battle like this." Port said doubtfully.
"What choice do we have? The police are controlled by Ante, the Atlas military are not only looking for Qrow, Weiss, and anyone involved with the breakout but will probably take Penny right back to Ironwood. I know the Headmaster of Haven, he will not see eye to eye with us on this, he will want to get Atlas and the police involved no matter how dangerous either may be in the end. We are on our own." Glynda said.
"What are we gonna tell those kids?" Ashe asked.
"Tell them the truth." Raven said, getting everyone to look at her. "Tell them that they may die, but they will die as heroes, they will die for a noble cause."
"Many people have died for 'noble causes', Raven. In the end noble causes usually aren't worth it." Taiyang said.
"This is. If we do this we will not only save your daughter but strike a severe blow to Salem's plans. We need to go through with it." Raven said to her former husband.
"She's right. As insane as this entire mess is we are the only hope those two have and we need to leave soon if Mr. Arc is to have any chance of surviving." Oobleck agreed.
Ashe nodded, "Okay, let's fill everyone in on the plan and get this shit over with."
"Ashe, I feel like you have not been entirely truthful with us." Glynda said.
"What makes you say that?" Ashe asked.
Glynda gave him a smirk and said "I have been a teacher for twenty years. I am able to tell when someone is hiding something."
Ashe smiled to her and said "The crystal told me a lot of stuff that I've been hiding. It told me how our world truly began, why Salem wants Jaune, it told me... a lot."
"Why does the Mistress of Grimm want Mr. Arc?" Port asked.
"I'll tell you once I tell the others. All those kids in there deserve to know what's really going on." Ashe said.
"Fair enough. Is everyone satisfied with our strategy?" Glynda asked, to which everyone answered with a nod. "Very well then, let's tell the students everything."
Inside the warehouse Yang, Blake, Weiss, Ren, and Nora stood side by side, waiting for the adults to exit the ship.
"What's taking them so long?" whined Nora.
"The plan they're trying to make may decided the fate of Ruby, Jaune, and even this entire city. They'll need time." Ren said.
"They've taken enough time, if they're not out of there in half an hour I say we take those ships and save 'em ourselves." Yang said.
"Yang, remember what we said about rushing into things?" Weiss scolded.
Yang sighed and said "Yeah, sorry."
Blake, however, was not paying attention to her friends, as her curiosity was being taken up by the presence of Team CRDL. She had tried to stay away from them, but she had to wonder why they were here. From what she knew Jaune and Cardin were not on good terms nor did Ruby like him. Add to that Winchester's history of bullying Faunus and Blake just had to wonder why he was there? What really got her attention was the sight of Cardin talking to Velvet and the amazed look on Velvet's face just tore it; she needed to find out what was up with him.
She walked over to where Team CRDL sat as their leader stood to talk with the rabbit Faunus. As she got closer she saw Velvet take Cardin's hand and say "Apology accepted."
"Just like that? After everything I did to you?" Cardin asked.
"You said sorry, while your bullying did hurt, it's in the past. I'm not one to hold grudges." Velvet said kindly.
"Thank you." Cardin said quietly.
"What's going on here?" Blake asked, announcing her presence and causing Velvet and Team CRDL to look at her.
"Hello Blake, Cardin was just apologizing for how he treated me last year." Velvet explained.
"H-he is?" Blake asked, astounded.
"Yeah. I was a real piece of shit, that's why I'm here, Belladonna, I want to help save Jauney and make up for what I put him through." Cardin explained.
Blake nodded, impressed that someone like Cardin wanted to redeem himself for past sins and satisfied with the answer. She looked to the other members of his team.
"Don't look at us, he made us come." Dove said.
"Yeah, we aren't really into this hero crap, I mean I'm pretty sure everyone but me will die." Russel said as he put his hands behind his head and leaned back.
"Don't start that crap again." Cardin muttered as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
"What does he mean by that?" Velvet asked as she checked her camera, as she had been taking pictures of everyone's weapons to arm herself for the coming battle.
"Russel said he made a deal with some guy claiming to be a wizard that'd he'd outlive his entire team." Cardin explained.
"Well... that's morbid." Velvet muttered.
"Hey, I don't regret it." Russel said.
"Be careful what you wish for, because you may get it and you will regret it." Blake warned him.
Russel raised an eyebrow and asked "What do you mean by that?"
Before Blake could answer him the doors opened and the seven adults entered the warehouse. "Okay, find a place to stand or sit and pay attention, we have a plan to brief you all on and something to tell you." Glynda announced.
Soon enough Glynda, Port, Oobleck, Qrow, Raven, Taiyang, and Ashe stood in Team SSSN's living area in front of the TV as Raven plugged her scroll into it. The present members of Teams RWBY, JNPR sat on the couch and chairs before them, while Zwei sat on Yang's lap, with Penny, Teams CFVY, SSSN, CRDL, ABRN, BRNZ, NDGO, half of Team FNKI, Dr. Chloris, the five Arc sisters, and Ross either standing or sitting where ever they pleased, even up on the catwalks.
"Okay, so let's begin. Just in case any of you are still in the dark; I'm Ashe and I am Cinder's brother." Ashe introduced, getting some weirded out looks from the newer arrivals. "Okay, so it's history lesson time. Now, you see, at the beginning of time there was magic, but it was persecuted by those who believed in strict religions. These zealots went so far to purge anyone who had unusual powers that they broke their own codes and went from persecution to murder. Because of this those gifted with magic were forced to shun their abilities or go into hiding. As the years went on magic was forced to stay hidden as technology grew and the logical way of thinking replaced religion but if magic was discovered everything the world knew would be thrown into question so it stayed hidden. So fast forward a thousand years, give or take a few centuries, something woke up, something bad. That something was pure evil, it was darkness, it was the source of all Grimm."
Everyone was now paying attention to Ashe, trying to see where he was going with this story.
"So those few thousand or so who could still use magic were forced to reveal themselves to the world, only to face persecution once again. Soon enough a war between magic and technology broke out, this war was a good enough distraction for the darkness so it secretly manipulated those on both sides and the end result was an incredibly powerful nuclear missile being launched at the moon. The moon was shattered and the result of this catastrophe was half over the world's continents were swallowed by the sea because of the tides the moon controlled and what was left standing was moved around by earthquakes and shaped beyond recognition. By all rights the entire human race should have been wiped out and replaced by whatever the darkness deemed fit to rule the world... but life found a way." Ashe said, noticing some of his little 'class' now had wide eyes.
"We survived, we fought, we worked together to live. From the fallout of the shattering of the moon came the Dust and with that Aura, something most people thought to be nothing more than a myth. Some of the Dust and aura combined and created this, the Aura Crystal." Ashe said as he opened up the case and revealed the powerful relic.
"Wow." Muttered Nolan.
"It's beautiful." Dew whispered to Nebula.
"I'm getting a bad feeling from that thing." Sky said.
"I have just found something out, something that I kept from the ones here who know me." Ashe said as he gestured to Nora, Ren, Teams CFVY and ABRN.
"What?" asked Blake.
"The crystal isn't just aura and Dust; it is the collective aura of all those people who died in the Shattering. Roughly five billion people." Ashe answered.
No one spoke up, everyone remained silent after that.
"So yeah, if Salem gets her hands on this we're screwed. It's not a vital part of her plan but she'd be pretty much unstoppable if it falls under her control. Anyway, after the Shattering the Grimm appeared, created by the darkness to rule over the world but they needed a queen, like some insects do. The darkness chose a young woman named Yuri who survived the Shattering, one overcome by anger and hatred, so the darkness took her and transformed her into the first Mistress of Grimm. Faunus were also created by the fallout of the Shattering but the crystal wasn't exactly clear on what created them... anyway the years go on, the Grimm hunt the humans and the Faunus because the darkness declares them the enemy, that's why Grimm leave animals alone. Time goes on the profession of Hunting comes into play and Huntsmen and Huntresses band together to fight the Grimm. So fast forward about a millennium later, during which the story of the Four Maidens occur and the Mistress of Grimm is killed by the combined power of the four Maidens who use their power to destroy her, but it didn't end there obviously. The Mistress of Grimm passed on her powers to her apprentice, Christina, but the Four Maidens were dying as well, all the power they used to kill Yuri took its toll on their bodies so they were forced to pass on their powers to four Huntresses who survived the war against the Grimm. Over time things that were seen as real like the Mistress of Grimm and the Maidens turned into myths and legends, just simple fairy tails." Ashe said, taking a deep breath before he took a sip of water from a bottle.
"And now we know it's all true." Yang said.
"Yep, it's true, all of it." Qrow confirmed as Glynda nodded.
"Well... that's rather a bit much to take in." Port said.
"It's... not impossible, given what we've been putting up with." Blake admitted.
"How did you find all of this out?" Gwen asked Ashe.
"The crystal told me." Ashe answered.
"The... crystal told you." Gwen repeated.
"Yeah."
The girls of Team NDGO looked to each other before Nebula asked "Is it talking now?"
"No, it only talks to me... damn, I do sound crazy. Look, I'm not making this shit up, I'm kinda sad that I lack the talent to make it up, but it's the truth." Ashe said.
"One thing I still don't get..." Shani began.
"Only one thing?" Coco deadpanned.
"Well... what does Salem want with Jaune?" Shani asked.
"I'm getting to that. You see, the last time the Mistress of Grimm faced death was about three hundred years ago, just before the first Faunus revolution, the Four Maidens and a group of extremely talented Hunters fought the Mistress of Grimm and won, the Hunters were led by a man named Luc Arc, your ancestor. You see, your ancestor was friends with the Winter Maiden at the time, a powerful girl named Salem." Ashe said.
"What?!" was the response from most people in the room.
Glynda nodded and took over for Ashe as he rested his throat. "It is true, Salem was once one of the Maidens, but the fact that she'd one day have to give up her power never set right with her. When she and the other three went to fight Christina they were not told that they would most likely perish. They were victorious in their sacrifice, but Salem refused to die. Her anger and bitterness at the people such as Luc Arc, people she had trusted, the people that gave her these powers and forced her into that battle kept her alive long enough for the darkness of the Grimm to transform her into the third and current Mistress of Grimm. She did not act right away, instead she hid in the deepest parts of Remnants until she made her self known a century later to the heads of the four Kingdoms. We have been engaged in a secret war with her ever since." She finished.
"And knowing is half the battle." Qrow joked.
The crowd of people remained silent as they absorbed these revelations in.
"Okay, so now that we know the history and what really happened and all that... what are we going to do to save vomit boy and my little sister?" Yang asked with a confident look on her face.
"Quite right, Yang, we need to get to the plan, but we should let Ashe finish first." Glynda said as she nodded to Ashe.
"Okay, so let's wrap this up so we can go be big damn heroes. My family is only the most recent guardians of the Aura Crystal, what tends to happen is some nut, usually not even associated with the Grimm, tries to get their hands of the crystal and sometimes it's quite the impasse, both sides end up being wiped out and an ally of the guardians' must take up the mantle. My family just happened to be in line and a few generations later Cinder gets seduced to evil by the Mistress of Grimm, who's making her move and soon. The game she's been playing is coming to an end and another Shattering will occur if we don't stop her." Ashe said.
"And like you said yesterday; if we don't stop her everyone will die." Weiss finished.
"Correct. Okay Qrow, spell out the plan for 'em." Ashe said as Qrow took the stage.
"Okay, here's the plan: me and the others up here are going to walk right up to the door and start killing guards." Qrow said, rather bluntly.
"Wait, killing them? That's pretty extreme, isn't it?" asked Neon.
"Miss Katt, we're not talking about widows and orphans here, these people are hardened criminals and terrorists, the dregs of society. If we're going to win this we must be as quick and as brutal as we can be, but we will not take pleasure in it." Port explained.
"Right, leave the blood shedding up to the grownups, kids, you can take your first lives whenever you want." Qrow said, grinning a bit as he heard the sounds of Glynda, Taiyang, and Oobleck all facepalming. "Anyway, we're going to plant the bomb that Ironwood wanted to use with Penny in front of the factory's main gate, it has a smaller payload thanks to Glynda but we'll still have to get clear when it goes boom." Qrow said as he held up the bomb.
"You got a timer on it?" Flynt asked.
"Nope, one of you needs to shoot it. You up there, sniper girl!" Qrow said, pointing the only female of Team BRNZ.
"May." She said with an annoyed voice.
"Whatever, you're going to keep your eye on this thing and once we get clear you shoot it and BOOM! They'll know we're there for sure. Then me, Raven, and Ashe will lead a group of you into the factory to rescue Ruby and Jaune while Glynda leads everyone else outside to battle the bulk of their forces, most of which are robotic. Chances are me and Raven will have to battle Cinder to keep her busy so we're going to need some volunteers for this mission." Qrow finished.
"Team RWBY is in." said Weiss as she and the rest of the team stood up.
"As are we." Ren said as he and Nora stood as well.
"Already knew that, who else wants in?" Qrow asked.
"Me." Said Penny bravely, "Ruby is my best friend and I will be there for her."
"Count Team CFVY in too." Coco said as she and her team stood up.
"We're not letting you go in without us." Velvet added.
"What she said." Fox said while Yatsuhashi simply nodded.
"Okay, that's about enough, but we could use one more, who else wants in?" Qrow asked.
Sun stood up but before he could speak Cardin said "Me. I'll go in."
"You? Why you?" Yang asked incredulously.
"Redemption. I need to make up for what a bastard I was to Arc, I told him that I'd help him if he needed help taking these assholes and I intend to make good on that promise." Cardin said.
"You've got to be freaking crazy! Cardin, man, I know you feel bad about Arc but that doesn't mean you should go in and get yourself killed." Russel said.
"Okay then, I'll just stay out and get killed with you... oh right, you're the one who wants to outlive his team." Cardin shot back at Russel, who shrank back.
Blake and Sun looked to each other with the latter giving the former an inquisitive look, one she knew was asking if she was okay with him staying with the others outside. Blake nodded with a smile and he returned it.
"I have serious doubts about this, there are way too many things that could go wrong, some of these kids may die." Dr. Chloris said. Ashe sighed, he knew this point was going to be brought up eventually.
"Listen up!" Ashe yelled, getting everyone's attention. "If you're afraid of dying you shouldn't be in this line of work. We need to do this, if we don't Jaune will die and god knows what will happen to Ruby. We have to fight, we owe Salem one. If we fight her now not only will we mess up her plans but you can all get even."
"What are you talking about?" asked Octavia.
"Am I correct in assuming that each and everyone of you has lost someone you loved to the Grimm before?" Ashe asked.
No one could say no. Everyone present had lost at least one person to the Grimm; Reese lost her father and with that Dr. Chloris her husband, Ren and Nora had both lost their parents, Dew had lost her little sister years ago in an attack, Fox's grandfather, etc...
Everyone had lost someone because of the Grimm.
"That's what I thought. This is your chance to pay Salem back, she's in control of the Grimm so this is your time to get even and make her pay. Hell... everything in my life can be drawn back to her: she twisted Cinder into what she is now and made her kill my parents, I once fell into a pit of Grimm and was once of the few to come out, you see this gun I have? I took it from my friend's dead body after a Grimm ripped his face off. I... I do owe her one good thing, the love of my life. If it hadn't been for some Grimm I wouldn't have met her, but it turns out the man who took her away from me isn't dead because Salem saved him. I intend to make her pay for that. It's true we may die doing this, hell if the reaper comes for me I'll ask him 'what the hell took you so long?' It's okay to be afraid, but you need to face those fears." Ashe said.
"Easier said than done." Brawnz muttered.
"If you don't want to help us stop this then the only thing I can tell you is to go home, gather up your loved ones and run far away, run to the end of Remnant and hope that you can live a full life before Salem gets to you. She'll kill you without even knowing you existed if she gets powerful enough and she doesn't give a damn about a single person that's dead because of her and her monsters. The truth is we're all going to die, maybe today, maybe tomorrow, maybe fifty or sixty years from now. Maybe you'll die old and frail surrounded by your children and grandchildren. Maybe you'll die in an epic last stand in which you take a thousand Grimm with you before you leave this world. We will all die someday; the only thing that matters is how you do it. How will you die? Fighting for what's right? Running away? Saving the ones you love? Begging for mercy? I don't care for begging, everything I've ever had has been taken away from me because of Salem and the Grimm; my parents, my friends, my... my sister... so I say fuck her. I'm going to fight, alone if I have to. Who will fight with me?" Ashe asked.
"I will." Said Ren.
"And me." Nora said as she lifted up Magnhild.
"This is the beginning of the end for Salem, don't want to miss that." Yang said.
"We're going to survive this and we will win." Weiss said as she gripped Mrytenaster.
"I'm not running from this." Blake added as she whipped out Gambol Shroud.
"We're going to kick their asses." Sun said cockily.
"Damn right we are, Sunny boy." Coco agreed.
"I am combat ready." Said Penny.
"We're in." said Arslan as her team readied their weapons.
"Anything for our brother." Bianca said as her sisters all stood up.
"I don't think Neon and I will just sit here while you guys fight for your lives." Flynt said as he placed his hat on top of his head.
"For our families." Nebula said for Team NDGO.
"Let's go for it!" cheered Brawnz.
"I know what we're doing tonight." Cardin chimed in.
Glynda smiled at the younger people before her and said "I am proud of each and every one of you. Not all of you are my students, but in my opinion you are all worthy of being official Hunters today."
"Without a doubt." Port agreed.
"Indeed." Said Oobleck, hiding proud eyes behind his glasses.
"Okay, since Miss Sienna Arc is a pilot she will pilot the White Fang ship liberated by Miss Belladonna, Miss Xiao Long, and Team SSSN, while Ross operated the ship we came in. Miss Schnee would you fly the ship you used to escape Atlas?" Glynda asked.
"Of course." Weiss said.
"Good, we shall land our ships behind some of the slum buildings for cover and once Ruby and Jaune are rescued we shall make our escape and go to Haven Academy, the headmaster cannot deny us aid at that point. Sienna, would you be so kind as to keep the White Fang ship in the air to give our ground forces some covering fire?" Glynda asked.
"It would be my pleasure. Shani, Indigo, you two are my gunners." Sienna said.
"Right." Shani said with a nod.
"What about the cops or the Atlas forces that are in the city? If the battle gets crazy enough it'll draw attention and they might try to arrest Qrow or anyone who helped out in the raid on the Military HQ." Ross pointed out.
"Let 'em come, by that point they'll be more worried about Cinder and her cronies to worry about us, plus if the cops spot the battle I don't think they'll be able to cover it up, no matter how much this Damien punk tried to bribe 'em." Qrow said.
"What are we waiting for? The longer we take the more danger Jaune is in, so let's move it!" Ashe yelled.
Everyone began exiting the warehouse and boarding the three ships. Before he left Ashe opened the case with the Aura Crystal and placed his hand on the relic. "I might need this." He muttered as he chanted out a spell that he had read about when he was studying under his mother. "Su Sol Zah Tih lm Ac Nol Yod Utt Amaj Va Sen!" as he said those words he felt a tremendous power surge through him.
Ozpin could feel his aura getting stronger, he needed just a little more time. He could break these bonds now if he wanted to, but he needed to conserve energy if he was to escape. One more day and he could break out. He looked across the cell to his inhuman roommate who leaned against the wall, asleep.
It was tempting to walk across the room and wrap his hands around the older man's throat and squeeze. It wouldn't be that hard to do and he would have no guilt if he did murder Norvik, he'd be totally justified, but he couldn't do it yet, not if he wanted to avoid Salem's wrath for the time being.
He knew that if he ever returned to Vale his career would be over, he may even be forced to spend the rest of his life in a cell like this for his miserable failures, for the deaths that happened because he didn't do enough. He remembered Amber, a kind and gentle girl who was talented, graceful, and powerful... she was dead because of him. Glynda and Ironwood had both pressed for more guards but he refused, saying the less people who knew of her the better. He was to be her guard, the only one she needed, and he had failed spectacularly.
Now Amber was dead because of him.
Just then he heard a voice from within the room.
"William, kill him, free us." said a voice that came from Norvik's body but was the voice of someone Ozpin dearly loved.
"Rouge?" he asked.
Not just her Will, I'm in this hellhole with her." said the voice of Zachery Shimmer from within Norvik.
"How is this possible?" Ozpin asked.
"Remember when you heard my voice coming from this monster? We have all been within him for years, when he killed us he did something to us all. His Semblance is to absorb aura, aura is a reflection of our soul William." Rouge's voice said.
"So he has been keeping a part of his victims' souls within him."
"Correct, you can only free us if you kill him, once his body is dead our aura will be free." Zachery said.
"I wish I could end him right now, but I cannot. I must wait until the time is right before I can act. I am so, so sorry my friends." Ozpin said mournfully.
"You will have to act soon, William. Time is running out for all of us..." said the fading voice of Rouge.
"I know." Ozpin said as the doors began to open. Several guards stepped in and the leader said "Mistress Salem wants you both to attend tonight's entertainment." as another guard woke Norvik up.
"Entertainment? What does that witch have planned?" Ozpin asked.
"You will see." the guard said as he undid Ozpin's wall chains and forced Ozpin to swallow a small, bitter tasting pill. "She has commanded that you be kept silent, this pill will disable your vocal cords for a half-hour, more than enough time."
Ozpin tried to ask what was happening but he found that the pill worked quick and he couldn't speak.
"Silence suits you, Ozpin." Norvik taunted. Ozpin glared back, having no way to retort.
They soon arrived at Salem's open throne room and the Mistress of Grimm smiled down at them. "Wonderful to see you both, tonight's entertainment will be a once in a lifetime event: Jaune Arc vs. Fotia Drakos, but you may know her as Pyrrha Nikos." she announced.
Ozpin's eyes widened in horror and confusion, which was a very amusing sight to Salem.
"Oh Ozpin, you idiot! Do you honestly think I'd be stupid enough to allow her to die? If Cinder did kill her I would have severely punished her, maybe even crippled her, but I have her in my hands now. She doesn't even know who she really is or what her life was really like, she is now my tool for destruction and tonight she will either force Jaune Arc to kill her, in which case I will twist him to be my servant, or she will kill him to prove her everlasting loyalty to me. However tonight's duel ends I will win." Salem said as her eyes shone blood red. She stepped off her throne and opened up a portal to the factory. "Come, let's not keep them waiting."
Fotia sat on her bed, contemplating her predicament. She knew Arc could not be that talented of a fighter, not after every thing Emerald and Mercury had told her about him. This was going to be an easy task, one last test to prove her loyalty to Mistress Salem. After tonight everything would be normal and she would go on to achieve greatness.
So why did this feel so wrong? Why was she hesitating? Why was there this strange urge to go to the cellblocks, free Arc and Rose, and just run as fast they can away from this place? Why was she feeling so nervous?
She grasped Lepida Tou Aimatos, the Blood Blade, and her fingers tensed around its hilt. This sword felt... wrong somehow.
"Stop. Run. Kill her." Said the mysterious voice. Fotia groaned in frustration, she had had enough of this phantom voice that was plaguing her.
"Enough!" yelled Fotia, "I demand to know who you are and why you torment me!"
"Look in the mirror and you will have your answer." The voice said.
Fotia sighed and turned to face the mirror behind her sink and her heart skipped a beat when she saw someone identical to herself standing behind her in the reflection; Pyrrha Nikos.
"Let me out, give me back my body." The phantasm said.
"No! You aren't real! This is all an illusion... I... I'm going mad!"
"Not yet, I am your true self, I am who you really are. Let me out and we shall be one once again and we can free Jaune and Ruby." Pyrrha's mirror-self said.
"No! I am going to kill Arc tonight and you will vanish like the ghost that you are!" Fotia said.
"If you harm Jaune... if you take him from this world I will destroy us. At least I will be with him in the afterlife." The vision of Pyrrha said sadly.
"Why do you care? Arc is a pathetic fool. Even if this is real I fail to see how he could be worth so much." Fotia said.
"Jaune is worth more than Salem and all her followers put together. You'll learn that." Pyrrha said as her voice began fading away.
Fotia stood in silence, wondering what was going on. Was she really Nikos? Was she losing her mind? Had Arc done something to her? No, she had heard the voice before her encounter with Arc. What was happening to her?
Just then the door to her room opened to reveal Steppenwolffe and a melancholy looking Ziz. "Hey kid, you alright? Sounded like you were having a screaming contest with yourself." The latter said.
"No, I'm fine. Hello Steppenwolffe, it is good to see you in person again." Fotia said as she respectfully bowed to the Faunus who helped train her months ago. He had arrived two hours ago and his Beowulf pack were with Ziz's flock of Griffons in the tunnels below.
He bowed back "I'm proud of you Drakos, you truly are one of us." He said, despite his hatred of humanity he did not count Fotia or Ziz as humans, seeing as now they were hybrids like him, but he did work with humans such as Cinder without voicing any grievances as he did not want to entice Mistress Salem's wrath.
She nodded and said "Let's get going. I have a Huntsman to kill."
On the other side of the factory Jaune stood up as the door to his cell opened again, for the final time. Ante and some of his enforcers stood outside, ready to escort him to the throne room.
"It's showtime!" Ante said.
Jaune glared at the crime lord. "I have nothing to say to you."
"Too bad, kid, 'cause I'm gonna record you getting slaughtered by your girlfriend, maybe your cries for help will be good enough last words." Damien said.
Jaune just sighed in annoyance as the criminals escorted him out of the cell. He could feel Pyrrha's presence within him; they now had a plan to restore her.
One way or another, this would end tonight.
To Be Continued...
Finally! Now I can begin work on the next three chapters, the ones I've wanted to write for over a month. Not really sure about this chapter, I just wanted to get it over with so I could move on to the big three part battle, but I think some scenes of this chapter work while others don't. It merely exists to get us from one point to another while explaining some things, so I wouldn't call it filler but it feels a bit lacking. It does give us a better look at Ashe and Mila and a big explanation for Remnant's past and what's up with Salem, so there's that.
Some notes here, originally there was going to be a scene where Raven interrogated and killed a guard working at the factory, but I didn't want her to know the truth about Pyrrha.
If I didn't make it clear enough Pyrrha's aura inside of Jaune managed to keep most of the Grimm essence out of him, but not all of it, as his appearance had changed a bit and he may be able to control Grimm.
On a personal note, Fox's playground story is based on something that happened to me back in the second or third grade. And I honestly don't remember if I got sent home or not.
Cardin's promise to help Jaune occurred in my previous RWBY fic, 'I Never Even Told You'.
Next chapter: Jaune vs. Fotia. Who will win?