Note: Not much to say. Comin up on our "official" release date, but here's one more chapter for you for this extended preview. Enjoy.

Ozpin Announces Beacon-Atlas Merger.

The reclusive Beacon Headmaster announced on Friday afternoon his plans to transfer Beacon Academy Huntsmen students to the Kingdom of Atlas for the upcoming winter semester. "After a long conversation with General Ironwood and the authorities at Atlas Academy, I am pleased to announce the merging of our student bodies for the next several months," the Headmaster said in a media press conference. "Together, we are dedicated to providing the highest quality training for our future Huntsmen and Huntresses."

The announcement comes on the heels of the latest updates that Beacon Academy's renovations will not be completed until early fall. The prestigious Huntsmen school was significantly damaged in a terrorist attack three weeks ago, an assault that injured over twenty staff and security members. The attack, which occurred while the student body was on vacation, has been widely attributed to the fugitive Glass, who is also widely believed to be responsible for the attack on the City of Vale a week later. Although rumors circulated in the aftermath of Beacon's attack of Atlasian forces being responsible, the Council's Investigative Services have released a report clearing the Atlas military of all wrongdoing. When asked if the recent attacks motivated his decision to move the Beacon classes to Atlas, Ozpin agreed.

"There's been a lot of division lately," the long-serving Beacon Headmaster explained to VNN reporters. "I know that agitators on both sides have been attempting to sow mistrust between our Kingdoms. However, I have known James [Ironwood] for many years, and I know that he is a wonderful man and an even better Headmaster. Atlas Academy was struggling for many years before he took over, and you know, ever since, Atlas has been able to produce some of the finest Huntsmen and Huntresses in the world today. I think that getting our student bodies together, and demonstrating how we can work together despite the differences in our Kingdom—it's going to be a healthy cultural and learning experience for our students. We all need to remember that we are allies in the fight for Humanity's safety. This is a time for unity, not petty politics."

Atlasian Academy's Headmaster, General James Ironwood, has recently come under fire from the international community for reports of controversial training methods, with Huntsmen watchdogs declaring the northern school's techniques to be borderline abusive. Atlasian officials have denied all accounts of wrongdoing.

It remains to be seen how the public will react to the latest development in the recent drama surrounding Beacon Academy. While public opinion toward Atlas has turned sour over the past several years, the Academy's approval rating has skyrocketed in recent weeks due to the actions of Team RWBY, the heroic students who were seen battling against the Grimm during the assault on Vale. The four young Huntresses have not made any statement regarding the merger.

Her fury was limitless. Every muscle in her body tensed, every synapse in her mind fired, every ounce of her dedicated to her passionate hate. Ruby forgot what hatred felt like. She was blessed to have those swirling, terrible feelings soothed over the months, tempered by her friends and family. She thought—perhaps foolishly—that she was past the most unnerving thoughts in her psyche, past the urge toward vengeance against those who screwed her over, away from the all-encompassing doubt and depression that had hung over her life.

God, she was wrong. She was so, so wrong.

It was nearly midnight, hours after Weiss returned home from their date, and yet she hadn't taken off her heels or her dress. Her mind had become frozen. Her hands curled into fists by her sides, and she seethed and ranted to herself as the others watched her. Yang was sitting on the steps leading to the second floor, her arms crossed over her knees, hair falling over her face. Weiss sat on the couch, hesitantly watching her girlfriend stew in resentment as she petted Zwei in her lap. Blake lounged on the couch's other end in the same spot she had stayed in since she read the headline. Her eyes hadn't left her Scroll since then. The other three members of Team RWBY were not moving like their leader, but there was no mistake that they shared her fury.

And it was that fury that Ruby was unleashing into her Scroll, her words laced with venom toward the man who sold them out.

"You lied to us!" Ruby screamed. The man in the Scroll did not seem perturbed. His weathered face was stoic, only showing hints of the pleasure he received from her torment in a shadowy grin. His eyes were thin, tired, and yet his gaze against her was unbreaking. He spoke calmly, plainly, and oh so innocently, as if everything was just fine. He was their Headmaster. Their professor. Ozpin.

He was a giant dick.

"I did no such thing," Ozpin stated.

"Bullshit," Ruby spat. "We had a deal. No more secrets. No more backstabbing. We were supposed to be partners in this. Equals. That was the deal for you getting Weiss's powers. You call this equal? Selling us to Atlas as part of some political move?"

"We are equals," Ozpin clarified, "but we are equals in the fight against the Grimm. I told you I would no longer force you to fight them without your knowledge and consent, but I never gave you the right to have a say in what I do with my Academy, Miss Rose. Beacon is mine to do with and mine alone, and it is not the place of students to decide their own best interest."

"Best interest?" Ruby said with disbelief. "How is sending us to Atlas Academy in our best interest?"

"Did you not read my statements to the press?"

"I did. I'm just not gullible anymore."

"Atlas Academy is one of the most prestigious Huntsmen schools in the world," Ozpin explained. "They are hardly the savages you make them out to be. You will be training alongside the student body there under the supervision of both of our schools' staff. Surely, this would benefit all of us."

"Benefit all of us? No. It benefits you," Ruby said bitterly. "You know that being in Atlas will let you get away with screwing with us more. We'll be away from our families, we'll have our media censored, our influence destroyed… everything possible to weaken our hand. I suppose it's just a coincidence that you send us to a fascist state right when we get popular enough to challenge you. In Atlas, you and Ironwood will be able to do whatever you want to shut us down."

Ozpin sighed, though Ruby could see the dishonesty pouring off him like sweat. "Come on now, Miss Rose. It is so immensely selfish to assume that everything bad that happens is all about you. Beacon is unable to be occupied, so we made new arrangements. It's as simple as that. Don't be so conspiratorial."

Ruby opened her mouth to protest, but she heard another voice cut her off. Blake had stood up from the couch, marching over in a tempered fury, and she snatched the Scroll from Ruby's hand so she could rant into the screen herself.

"You dirty fucking gaslighter," Blake seethed. "We aren't dumb. If Beacon wasn't ready to hold students again, you could have moved us anywhere for classes. There are dozens of lower-level academies and Pseudo-Huntsmen schools all over this Kingdom. Hell, you could have canceled classes altogether. You know what Atlas has done to each of us. You know what effect it would have on us being there. This was deliberate. You're doing this to intimidate us."

Blake's words held a deeper meaning than all of them would like to admit. It was true: The Kingdom of Atlas had damaged them each in their own horrific way. For Blake, it was Atlas that ruled over her home country of Menagerie. They had transformed it into a prison colony, forced her to be raised in the slums, and kept the Faunus there in abysmal living conditions while they exploited them for their labor. It was Atlasian Huntsmen and police that framed and murdered her father, Ghira Kataliana, and it was an Atlasian court that acquitted the very men who did it. Atlas represented everything that she hated as a Faunus, as a freedom fighter, and as a champion for civil rights. To be stranded within its Kingdom walls would be to hand over the leash once again to her masters.

And yet, it wasn't only the Faunus who were oppressed by Atlas's tyranny. Even its citizens were victimized and ruined—something Weiss Schnee could deeply attest to. Though raised in wealth, she was constantly subjected to prejudice from her neighbors for being born of two gods, brainwashed into believing her hateful, nationalist propaganda, and told from the moment she was born how fundamentally worthless she was. It was Atlas that ostracized her when she was diagnosed with Soul Lapse: a devastating disease that prevented her from using her Aura and Semblance. It was Atlas that allowed her father to have free reign over her life, to sear metal to her bones to make her a more perfect solider, to threaten to marry her off if she did not comply with his every whim, to take her beloved sister and destroy her mind to make her his perfect slave—and to subject her to Godly horrors that no Human could ever imagine. For Weiss, being welcomed back into that world was a fate worse than death.

And then there was Ruby and Yang. When they were children, Atlas murdered their mother. It didn't get more complicated than that.

Ozpin didn't seem to care about their trauma, or their feelings, or their pain. His expression was unchanging, and he gave a simplistic shrug at Blake's suggested manipulation.

"You have a very active imagination, Miss Belladonna," he said calmly. "If you feel intimidated by merely mentioning Atlas, then that sounds like a problem you have to work out on your own. I, for one, don't get triggered merely by the suggestion of visiting another Kingdom."

Blake growled, her vengeful side becoming bare. "Oh, you smug piece of shit. I should have cut your fucking head off when I had the chance."

"Come now. That's no way to talk to your partner," said Ozpin. "After all, your friends wouldn't be in this situation in the first place if you hadn't blown up my school."

Blake nearly crushed the Scroll in her hand, and Ruby had to take it back before Blake smashed it to smithereens. As she turned away, she saw Blake cower in shame out of the corner of her eye. Ruby did not blame Blake for any of this. She knew that Blake was trying her best to become a better person. She knew that Weiss and Yang agreed with her. She only wished that Blake would understand that as well.

She turned back to Ozpin, glowering. "If you think we are going to take this lying down—"

"Oh, I think you will take this however I want you to take this," Ozpin said with sudden conviction. "You don't seem to appreciate the power of the public spotlight, Miss Rose. The world is finally coming together after decades on the brink of war. This merger with Atlas is an opportunity to build bridges, and we are certainly going to need bridges to face whatever Glass has next. If you refuse to attend, if you go against the narrative, if you so much as say a naughty word… what do you think will happen to all that peace? Do you think Atlas will tolerate influential people like you speaking out against it? I sincerely doubt that. No, this merger has to go as planned, or else all of that goodwill you've earned will be washed away, and in the eyes of Remnant, you will be nothing more than petulant, whining children who cost Vale its allies when it needed them the most."

Ruby felt her stomach turn into knots. He… he didn't have a point, did he? They didn't really have that much power, right? Ruby never understood politics. Combat was her field of expertise, not public relations. She felt like she had only just gotten a foot in the door, and already she was being outmaneuvered by a man who had been in the game for several of her lifetimes. She tried thinking it through. What would happen if they refused to attend Atlas? Would Beacon simply kick them out? No. They had to continue their Huntsmen training. They were the most prominent team at Beacon. The major factor that protected them from Ozpin's manipulations was their popularity, and if word got out that Team RWBY was boycotting its school, the results would be disastrous for their reputation. Could they force him to take Beacon's students and go somewhere else? Mistral and Vacuo were options, right? But would Atlas take a sudden change of plans without offense? They wouldn't go to war over something so petty. Right? Certainly not. But what if…

Dammit, she didn't know. She didn't know anything. Too many variables. Too many possibilities. She needed time to think it through, and time was the one thing being denied to her. They were planning on stealing her away in just a few days. Her team was counting on her. She had to do something.

"You… you will not get away with this," Ruby swore. Ozpin remained unperturbed, his smile turning dark.

"I look forward to seeing you at the start of the semester, Miss Rose. Enjoy your weekend."

"Wait—"

But just like that, it was over. The call ended, and Ruby was left staring at her own reflection in her Scroll. The room became deathly quiet, quiet enough to hear the light patter of snow that had once again started falling outside. Ruby thought the snow had cleared for tomorrow's forecast. She supposed she was wrong about that. The silence lasted for a few minutes until it was interrupted by a howl of curses as Blake angrily threw herself onto the couch.

"Goddammit!" she screamed, grabbing a pillow and throwing it halfway across the room. "That fucking piece of… what a lying asshole! I knew he was going to try to screw with us, but Atlas? Seriously? He wants us dead. He literally wants us fucking dead."

Ruby tried her best to remain calm, though her words came out shakily and she failed to meet Blake's eyes. "Blake. C-Calm down. I'm sure he doesn't want us dead."

"Yes, he does."

Blake was not the one who answered. Ruby turned toward the chair where Weiss had sat unmoving. She was curled up onto the cushions, her dress crinkled and folded in on itself, and her heels digging into the arms of the chair. Her face was sullen. Ruby's heart broke. She recognized the look of defeat on her face. She knew the dangers of that mentality, and yet there was nothing she could do to stop it aside from empty words.

"Weiss… it's going to be okay."

Weiss let out a dry, almost pathetic laugh. Her eyes stared at a single, plain spot on the floor. "You really think so? I lived in Atlas my whole life, Ruby. I'm the only one who knows that it's not going to be okay. You have no idea what it's like."

Blake crossed her arms in protest. "I got some idea."

"No, you don't," Weiss said bluntly. She didn't mean for the words to come across as offensive, so she clarified before Blake had a chance to chastise her for it. "Menagerie was a colony. Everything that happened there was a secondary concern. You could count on some people being lazy, or the military being willing to turn a blind eye. You don't get that luxury inside Atlas. They are watching you. Constantly. Every second, they are trying to force themselves onto you, suffocating you until you just can't breathe anymore. And even if you do fight back, they can just take it all from you anyway. Everything we have, everything we are… once they have a chance to ruin it, they will. Trust me on this. There isn't any way out."

Ruby wanted to comfort Weiss. She knew it was the right thing to do. A good girlfriend was supposed to be a rock, someone their other could rely on in times of trouble. And yet, Ruby was filled with the same doubts and insecurities amplified by a thousand. There was something brutally honest about Weiss's words that terrified her. She thought of her sister, Winter. Winter was, by all accounts, a loving and caring sister—and by the time Ruby met her when Atlas was finally through with her, she was more than content trying to murder Weiss. They had reprogrammed her, literally burying themselves into her mind to make her complacent in their atrocities. It was the same Kingdom that took Weiss and strapped her to an operating table, tearing her open from skin to sinew and screwing machinery onto her bones to make her a warrior. It was the same Kingdom that made the Weiss Schnee she used to know: cold, cruel, and efficient, a blithering racist and idealogue who hated herself just as much as she hated everyone else. It took months to chisel Weiss's heart out from beneath its icy fortress—and the terrifying thought hit her that her relationship with Weiss was one of the first things Atlas would try to destroy.

And that… that wasn't something she would just let die.

"Not unless we make one."

Weiss's eyes lit up. She turned toward Ruby and was stunned to see her demeanor had changed. The slight tremor in her knees was gone, her posture had straightened, and her frown, once resigned to doom, had turned fierce with determination.

"Ruby, you don't get it."

"No, actually. I think I do," Ruby stated.

"What are you—"

"Let's stop and think about this," Ruby said, her mind starting to work its wonders. "What exactly are we worried about?"

Weiss and Blake exchanged awkward glances. What were they worried about? Well, for starters…

"Getting murdered."

"Getting thrown in prison."

"Getting lobotomized."

"Getting separated."

Ruby nodded, closing her eyes and pressing her hands together in front of her face. "Right, right, right, but think about it. What was it you said Ozpin's plan was, Blake?"

Blake shrugged. "Uh, intimidation?"

Ruby snapped her fingers. "Exactly. I may not understand Atlas, but I do understand Ozpin. This despair we're feeling right now over what will happen next? That's not a concern—that's the point. Seriously think about it. The entire reason we are here right now and not in prison is because we have something Ozpin wants. We have Weiss, which means we have Fable powers. We have everything he wants, and he can't risk that. He was willing to give us so many concessions because he needs us more than we need him. Has any of that actually changed in the past three weeks?"

Weiss answered slowly, starting to come around to Ruby's optimism. "No. I guess not…"

"No, we know not," Ruby said forcibly. Weiss could only nod. "Nothing has changed. Atlas can't kill us. They can't force us apart, harm us, or really do anything to us. Ozpin knows that, right? He knows they can't do any permanent harm to us, because we are far too important for that. All of this is just what Blake said. It's intimidation. He wants us to question ourselves, to force ourselves into submission out of fear, to be silent in the face of overwhelming odds. If he can do that, Atlas won't even have to lift a finger, which is really convenient because they can't. They face the same pressure as the rest of us. I mean, what are they going to do if we misbehave? Throw four international heroes into prison? What kind of good would that do for their reputation?"

Weiss followed along with Ruby's reasoning, and it wasn't very long before she reached a similar conclusion. Maybe she was biased toward her girlfriend's way of thinking, but her familiarity with Atlas raised a similar point. Ever since she was little, she recognized her culture's obsession with optics. She always had to wear the finest dresses, say the finest things, and show all the most proper manner at all times. She had to be above the rest, and if there were any inhumanities or imperfections, it was custom to handle them privately. Atlas bore more scars than any other Kingdom, but they had become exceptionally well at hiding them. They had to show everyone they were the strongest, the bravest, the most glorious, and she was living proof of that ideology, a seemingly prim, proper fighter who was powered not by a Soul but by cold, unfeeling metal. Look strong, but don't be strong. If her Kingdom had a mantra, that would be it. Would they really be willing to publicly torment the world's most famous Huntresses? Could they handle that scrutiny in a time of unprecedented cooperation? The truth was that she wasn't sure. Maybe their fame had reduced Atlas's bite to a mere bark—or maybe they were just about to spit in the face of God.

Although, she had done worse to gods already…

While Weiss was coming around, Blake remained thoroughly unconvinced. "Come on, guys. It's Atlas. I think you are putting way too much stock in their image. Of course, they'd be willing to do that to us? Ruby, they literally killed your mom, and I know the details of that are still sketchy, but like… come on. Don't you think you are putting a little too much stock in our importance here?"

"If we weren't important, you wouldn't be here right now," Ruby reminded her. "It's not what Atlas thinks of us. It's what Ozpin thinks of us. As long as we are special to him, they can't touch us. All of this maneuvering is just him trying to make us forget that. Fundamentally, the math hasn't changed. We matter too much to be taken down. Weiss is the most important person in Remnant, and he isn't going to risk hurting her. I think it's all a bluff."

"Or, alternatively," Blake suggested, "he's sending us to Atlas specifically because the math changed. Maybe he found a way to make Weiss work for him, or he doesn't need her anymore, and this is all a fancy way to get rid of us. Like, I don't mean to be cynical—"

"Bullshit," Weiss said bluntly. "You love being cynical."

Blake rolled her eyes. "Okay, sure, but you know what I love even more? Not getting murdered by Atlas. Everything is just moving too fast, and I'm just saying that based on how much lying and scheming he's done in the past, maybe we shouldn't be so quick to act like he doesn't have some grand, nefarious scheme. Just because you called his bluff last time doesn't mean he isn't prepared now."

Ruby, much to Blake's shock, was undeterred. "I know that. I'm not saying we shouldn't be cautious. I'm saying that we shouldn't be in despair. As far as we know, we still have leverage. If he's really trying to weaken our hand, then let's use what we have to get one over on him."

"Great. How do we do that?"

The question was an earnest one, a sharp cry from Blake's usual sarcasm. It was rare seeing the woman in such a genuine state. Blake had spent months lying to her, perhaps even more than Ozpin, infiltrating Beacon as part of her terroristic plans. Blake Belladonna wasn't even her true identity, and even now as Ruby had chosen to refer to her by that name, there was still a doubt in the back of her mind that something was being hidden from her. She knew that wasn't the case, but the suspicion could not help but linger. It was strange then, to see her honest fear and feel almost a strange relief because of it. It reminded her that she was who she claimed to be, and right now, that person needed to know that she had a plan.

What else was a surprise was when Yang suddenly stood up from her place on the step and re-entered the conversation. "By making ourselves impossible to ignore."

The three other members of Team RWBY were taken aback by Yang's statement. They had almost forgotten she existed with how deathly quiet she had been. Speaking of different identities, the fact that Yang seemed so calm was fundamentally bizarre to her half-sister. The same girl that used to explode at someone touching her hair was now being threatened with the ideas of death and imprisonment and she was barely batting a multi-colored eye. Ruby decided not to press the issue, soothing her questions by extrapolating more relevant information.

"You mean we make ourselves big to the press, right?"

"I mean, yeah. Pretty obvious right," Yang said with a shrug. "I'm sure Atlas has disappeared a ton of random civilians. You know who they can't disappear? Famous people. Ozpin thinks he can make us do what he wants by playing with our image. Well, that's a two-way street. If we can't contradict Ozpin, then that also means he can't contradict us."

Ruby nodded along, already two steps ahead. "Exactly. For example, if we happened to put out a video saying that we would give live updates during our training on our socials… say, every week…"

"Then people would expect to see videos of us each week alive and not abused."

"Which would make it hard for them to do anything to us we don't want them to."

Yang smirked. "Actually, I can push that even further. I can craft all sorts of posts that put Ozpin and Ironwood in uncomfortable positions."

"I'm counting on it," Ruby said proudly. While Yang seemed thoroughly convinced of her own abilities, Blake remained unconvinced.

"Okay, sure. But what if Ozpin decides he stops caring about what other people think of him?" she asked.

"He won't be able to," Ruby said, a slightly mischievous tone elevated on her tongue. "As long as we threaten to destroy his reputation so completely that he would never recover. How many secrets do you think Ozpin really has? There are probably a ton of student deaths, settled lawsuits, Fable knowledge, and more we can't think of."

"And you want to blackmail him with it?" Blake said with disbelief. She couldn't understand what she was hearing. Ruby Rose, of all people, considering manipulating one of the most powerful men in the entire world? It was insanely stupid and dangerous, to say the least. And yet… it probably wasn't as stupid and dangerous as trying to murder him, and she had already crossed that off her bucket list. She sat on the idea for a long moment. Gaining true leverage over Ozpin was maybe their best shot at saving their lives. At the moment, there was no guarantee that Weiss's usefulness would last, and with the vast unknowns of Atlas lurking, having some aces off their sleeves wouldn't hurt. Plus… wouldn't it be really satisfying to see the look on his face when they told him they knew about the skeletons in his closet?

But then again… it was Atlas. They were legitimately talking about stealing from one of the most powerful men in the world in a Kingdom that was known to do terrible things to dissidents. They were going to charge a fascist empire headfirst and pray that the sea would part for them. She thought of the police bursting into her home as a child, assaulting and murdering her father in front of her eyes, and framing him for a crime he didn't commit. He was powerful, too. He was important. Look where that got him?

"Are you okay with that?" Ruby asked carefully. "It's not like he doesn't deserve it. He is threatening us, after all."

Blake stuttered, realizing how foolish she must have looked lost within her own thoughts. "I know that. It's just… just because some people deserve something bad doesn't mean we should do it."

"But we should do it."

"I don't know," Blake admitted. "Look, I agree. We can't just let Ozpin bully us around again. Yes, we need more leverage on him. But you don't know Atlas like I do, Ruby. Neither do you, Yang. It's one thing to watch atrocities on your television. It's another thing to live through them. Just… if we do something like this, we need to be careful. Extra, extremely careful. Because if we slip, we are fucked. So, no distractions, no emotions, no nothing. Right?"

Ruby was surprised by Blake's earnestness. How a woman so distant had come to care about the fate of her team was something almost miraculous. It reconfigured her and put her back in her proper headspace. Perhaps it was all too easy to slip under the thrall of pure teenage rebellion. The idea of striking back at Ozpin and Atlas was so tantalizing that she nearly lost sight of the dangers she had to cross to reach it. Her mother was executed on public television by those same demons she was attempting to double-cross. She had allies that she had to take care of. Family. If she wanted to protect them, they had to plan for every contingency. They couldn't just smile and taunt their enemies like cocky punks. They had to be ready for the worst because knowing their luck, the worst would come.

"Blake, I promise. We're going to be smart about this," Ruby said with conviction. "If we don't do this, we will never get out from under Ozpin's thumb. So, we can do this. We have to."

Blake took the answer for whatever it was. The lone Faunus among them had the most reason to be cautious, but in the end, she carefully nodded and agreed with Ruby's assessment. "Well then, guess I'm going to have to learn how to crack into Ozpin's laptop."

Yang grinned, throwing herself over the back of the couch to give Blake a loving smirk. "That's my girl."

Meanwhile, Weiss stood up from the chair, her thoughts not too far removed from the others. "If we are going to do something so risky, we need backup, or at the very least, some confidants. If something happens to us, we need to know that we have people willing to fight back in our stead. Ruby, you said you were going to talk to Team JNPR and Team CFVY. Have you done so, yet?"

"I just sent a few texts, but I can call them tomorrow," said the team leader. "I'm sure they aren't too happy about Ozpin messing with their semester either."

"Okay, so we are doing this?" Weiss asked nervously. The four girls looked at each other. At one point in time, they despised one another. They used to represent everything the others hated. The thought of teaming up made them sick to their stomachs. But time and struggle had changed them. They weren't fighting each other anymore. They were fighting Atlas, the Grimm, Mrs. Glass, Ozpin—hell, they were fighting all of Remnant itself. They were going to have to scratch and claw to gain every inch of ground they could, and that meant pushing every boundary they could think of. It meant, yes, openly defying their Headmaster's wishes, playing with the media's perception of them, and even quite possibly, stealing from and blackmailing one of the most powerful men in Remnant. It was insanely dangerous, but what else was new? They almost died multiple times last semester. This time, they had a secret weapon. They had each other. If they thought they were nuisances apart, then Ozpin would soon find out just how much trouble they could be when they finally worked together.

"Yeah," said Ruby. "I think we're doing this."

Yang, Weiss, and Blake all nodded approvingly. Ozpin intended to break them. Instead, he just made them more determined than ever. They didn't know what the next semester would hold, but they refused to be passive observers anymore. They would take charge of their own lives or die trying. Maybe it would all end in spectacular failure, but there was no more righteous fate for a Huntress than dying in a blaze of rebellious glory. Atlas had lied to Ruby's mother, manipulated her, and tossed her aside when they no longer had a use for her. She wasn't going to be their toy. And Ozpin? The man who thought he was so clever, so immortal? If he pushed them, they would push back four times as hard.

If he wanted to silence them, then they would scream.

If he demanded respect, then they would spit in his face.

If he burned the world down around them, then they would just dance in the flames.