"Pfft, Bla, bah!" Yang's trip sounded more than a little rough, but Ruby felt as though they were all going through the same breathlessness. Pulling herself up off of all fours, Yang shot a displeased glance over at Raven. "A little warning next time, would ya?"
Her birth mother's response came as little more than a huff, and Raven began addressing Ozpin.
"Satisfied?"
"Quite." Being the only non-disheveled one of the bunch, Ruby wondered if the headmaster had been through this type of thing before... What was she thinking? Of course he had. His eyes carried a deep displeasure inside, but it was mellowed out by his calm tone of voice. "With the bomb in place, we no longer need to fret over the whale's endless advance."
"Uh, yeah, about that." Yang's eye twitched, and she whipped right around on the man. "Didn't she figure out the trick? Who's to say she won't just tear it apart, or, you know, throw it away? I mean, yeah, she played it off like nothing, but are we really just going to believe that?"
"We have no choice in the matter regardless." This unsettling exclamation only heightened their collective unease. "The bomb is nothing to her, and you saw how she ordered the others away. She's sending her pawns off to safety, while awaiting detonation."
"Is she really fine with letting it go off?" Blake took herself over to Yang's side, checking on her partner a bit before facing the age-old wizard again. "Even if making Grimm is something she can do with ease, isn't it a bit of a waste to let the whale just die?"
"Looking at it as an ordinary Grimm, it would be. However I suspect its demise may trigger something more foul to come into fruition, which is why it's imperative we begin evacuating the people right away." Ozpin nodded to Raven, grabbing her attention. "Take us to James, and then proceed with the plan. I think it's high time we get the relic and scamper off to greener pastures, before the winds of chance twist away."
Ruby stayed mostly quiet, however that gross feeling in her tummy began to burn as their silence continued to rain down upon them. There was something wrong… something they were missing; it irked her in ways that made little reasonable sense. It bothered her even as Ozpin got his confirmation via nod. Right as Raven raised her blade, ready to make good on her orders, Ruby managed to throw out a thought, perhaps the one bothering her… at least, partially.
"Wait." Raven paused, as did the others, and Ruby asked, "What about JNPR? Shouldn't we bring them along with us?"
Raven twitched for a second, and while Ruby noticed it, her attention was stolen by Weiss, who agreed with her proposal.
"The pows should be in effect by now, meaning the Grimm should be lost in shambles; the soldiers can handle the rest on their own, surely. Bringing them along might make things easier should more pawns of Salem show themselves."
"But didn't Salem send her backup off to the treasury?" Yang brought up with a mildly skeptical face, only for Blake to partially temper her doubts.
"She might have more than just the ones we've seen."
"I guess." Shrugging afterwards, Yang spat a careless sigh. "Meh, it wouldn't hurt, and I'm not one to toss away free help." Twisting around, she brashly snapped her fingers, wearing a teasing look. Their "victory" apparently got to her head, and she was having a bit of fun for once. "Alright, bring in the backup."
"I can't." Raven told, her appearance stiff, with both a plain expression and voice. This dug up some curiosity from Yang, who raised a brow and etched in place a somewhat irritated and addled expression.
"What do you mean you can't?"
"Like I said, I can't." Crossing her arms, Raven huffed. "I don't know what Salem did, but I can't get a hold of V anymore, or any of the others I used to have ties with, like the two chuckle-fucks hunkered down in the treasury. She did something to my semblance, so we're shit out of luck there."
"Really?" Yang's disappointment patted itself all across her body, and her stature became lopsided. "And she cut off access to Jaune and the others too?"
"No." A twitch of what at a glance presented itself as guilt sprinkled her face for a second, and Ruby's dark instincts tripled, along with a strong swelling of trepidation. "Their cut-off is due to... another reason."
"Another reason?" Yang bit her lip, immensely annoyed and mumbling just loud enough to be heard. "Didn't know it was so easy to slip away from your grip."
"It's. Not." Biting with every word, Raven took in a breath and collected herself. "Salem was an unexpected change, nothing more. But losing V and his guard was due to the influence of magic. Your friends are inaccessible for another reason."
Rather than let Yang piss her runaway mother off more than needed, Ruby chose to intervene and ask directly. She didn't know why, but just voicing the question made her heart struggle within her chest, and her core felt as though it were being crushed under the weight of an invisible force. But she managed, and finally addressed the elephant in the room; the one Raven had skirted around for long enough.
"What's the reason? Why can't you reach them?"
Whether it was because her request lacked any overt taunting, or just the simple fact that Yang's mom felt some pity towards her, Raven waved a suitably more empathetic flag while speaking.
"There's one - and only one - reason why my semblance would lose connection with someone... And it's the same reason I could tell the exact hour of which Summer breathed her last." An unrelenting vise clamped itself around each of her lungs, squeezing inconsiderably hard as Raven finally let it out, speaking plainly. "Sorry to say, but your friends aren't coming to help us."
Ten seconds dribbled out; ten seconds of absolute silence, only to be broken with Yang who started in an unbelievably vile and deep tone.
"What are you saying...?" When she got no response, Yang twitched hard, nearly swinging a fist along with her head as it shot out with a growl. "WHAT ARE YOU SAYING!?"
"You know the answer to that. Don't make me spell it out." Raven bore her harsh bravado as always, but every word was rickety and off balance. "Look, we need to move while-"
"DON'T. CHANGE. THE. SUBJECT." Her malicious aura was countered solely by the instability of her legs, which wobbled underneath her, all the while a pale look shadowed any sense of happiness from mere moments ago. "Tell us why you can't reach her."
"Dammit..." Seething, but with hints of remorse, Raven let it out. "Fine. They're dead."
"No..." Hands flying up to cover her mouth, Weiss carried on, expectantly shaken. "No no no, that… that can't be right…"
"What about the pows?" Blake intervened, no better off than the rest of the team. "Weren't those supposed to stun the Grimm? Taking them down should have been easier."
"I don't know what happened." Raven wrestled back the lead again, expression firm and no longer withholding her rising anger. "Maybe they were overwhelmed anyway; who can say? All I know is that midway through fucking around with Salem, their links to me were cut. That's it. I don't know how they died, what exactly killed them, or even how well they held out. I..." She so badly looked like she wanted to scoff, but it fell off into a more considerate face of respectful regret, which did not fit her usual attitude at all. "I just... don't know."
"Why?" Fists balled, cutting through the fabric of her gloves and sparking her semblance to life as her nails dug into her palms. Nobody could read Yang's face, but her voice spelled out her mood perfectly. "Things were going according to plan for once... so why did this happen?"
"Yang?" Blake reached out, trying to comfort her, but the second her limb began to stretch she was scared back by the explosion of dirt below. Yang had reared back her fist before dropping to the ground, hammering it with a punch, and letting off a heavy Dust round, all at the same time.
"EVERY!"
*BANG*
"FREAKING!"
*BANG*
"TIME!"
*BANG*
*BANG*
*BANG*
*Click*
*Click*
*Click*
Yang took a few empty shots before the lacking gunfire tipped her off to the fact her clip was empty. Growling to herself as teardrops fell and watered the shredded mash of earth below, she ceased her assault on the planet's surface, cradling it for a moment as her head came down upon the soft mushy filth.
"F-fuck..." Ragged breaths and haunted whispers floated up into the sky, and Blake cautiously made her way over, taking the worn and tired woman into her arms, comforting her as best she could before pulling them both to their feet.
Out of everyone, Weiss stood out as the most collected, although that wasn't saying much as her only proven act of control was silently holding back any sobs she could. Perhaps this was due to her lack of any real time and connection with the four. Sure, they weren't super close all the time, but Weiss had distanced herself from many people back at Beacon, and only started letting herself connect when Sun showed her that not all Faunus despised her. Weiss was just getting used to friends for the first time in her life since childhood, and to have multiple taken away in such quick succession stung worse than ever.
Adam may have become a terrorist, but even he earned her regrets and sadness. In contrast to Adam, JNPR were like them: hunters, and budding heroes, who unlike Adam gave their all to help protect people, rather than orchestrating their own downfall. Blake was in a similar boat, but she had a partner to fret over, which was what directed Ruby's thoughts towards Yang.
Her older sister didn't quite have the strongest relationship with JNPR either, but that wasn't what made their passing so hard on her. Yang considered them good friends, so a decent portion of the sadness she felt was for their sake, yes, but the real coin to tip the scales of mourning into full blown fury was the implication it brought. For the first time in forever, a plan they'd set into motion actually followed through. And not only that, but they'd pulled a fast one over on Salem near the end of it too.
So why were they being punished?
As for Ruby herself, she was... going through something different. Having lost her mother as a child had hurt, but seeing as she was so young, she couldn't quite grasp the tragedy of being forever distanced from someone you care about, with nothing you could do to change that. Even when she came of age and could fully understand what that meant, it only hurt to a certain degree, and soon it became tolerable, oftentimes vanishing outright depending on circumstance. Believing she'd lost V had been the second big blow, but she'd powered through it until his death was later proven a lie, and he came right back to them.
Imagine all of that sorrow, compacted together, and multiplied twenty-fold. Consider the taste of warm water, and the feeling of stagnant air against your skin. Nightmarish pain, but lacking the pain and still retaining the terror. All of her negative emotions had gathered at the door to her heart, but not one dared open the door; they just... waited outside.
Ruby didn't really want to go through the pain that losing family brought, but it just might be better than the unnaturally anxious apathy which now called her body and mind home.
Unsure of how long she remained like this, Ruby was a little shaken awake from the makeshift dream by Weiss's hand, and a quick look around showed everyone having recovered from the news as well as they could. Yang's face was a mess of tears and reddened skin, accentuating the bags around her eyes. But her sister's face showed a stony rage, just waiting to lash out at anything that dared bother her. Blake, in turn, wore a purposefully respectful mask, and while she wasn't as bad as her sister, she still twitched a little at random intervals.
Weiss, unlike Blake, didn't twitch; it seemed experience aided her in this regard, though morbid all the same. Strangely, Ruby figured they'd both be closer in terms of quality, as Adam was Blake's companion once, but that might just be Weiss hiding it better.
"Come on." Weiss led her over to the swirling vortex, of which Ozpin stood beside. Everyone stared at her, but Ruby couldn't find the strength inside to masquerade any form of self-consciousness. Although, this was probably for the best; more lies would hardly help anyone, and even in her pseudo under-the-influence state, she could tell her condition was... unnatural, to say the least.
As of then, though, none of the others looked to catch on - not even Ozpin.
.
.
"I hope you know, this-" Watts lifted his arms, motioning to the cell holding him. From the outside, it would appear as though he'd been boxed in by holographic walls, but unlike those, these planes were far sturdier. "Hardly matters to me. Do you really believe I'll talk just because you've stuffed me in a mere holding cell?"
"Talk?" Ironwood would have scoffed, but it was far more effective to simply speak, as if addressing a common worker. Offense, loathing, rage, and all other displays of emotion beyond the bare minimum implied the individual evoking those held significance in one form or another. Ergo, this haphazard atmosphere - to Watts - was the most insulting of all, which was probably why the man tried, vaguely, to goad something more than simple chatter from him. Still, James wasn't adverse to answering some harmless questions, like this one for instance. "What could you possibly offer that I don't already know?"
"Oh ho ho~" He could practically sense the man rubbing his hands together fiendishly. "A good many things, my old friend. Like, say, how it was that I evaded detection from those bottom feeders you consider security consultants, or maybe even how I tampered with your new toys during the Vytal Festival back in the day."
"Evading detection is as simple as avoiding standard security checks, and the Vytal Festival mystery had been cracked far before I began searching for you here."
James meandered over to the screen, situated behind the glass of an overview, which stared out at the multiple holding cells used usually for punishing students for misbehaving. Normally, these cells would shut off after a few hours, but James had set Watts's particular one to remain indefinitely. This was another jab at the criminal's expense; not even worth his own proper cell. From his place in the overhang he could talk over the speakers of any individual cell, or even the whole room, and each cell itself had a built-in speaker so the ones within could be heard.
Privacy in a spoken sense didn't exist down there; anything said would be recorded and heard, unless the files stored for the cell were deleted manually, which was a process usually performed at the end of the week.
Watts crooked an eye, maintaining his arrogant smile, but with the little hum which revealed how annoyed he truly was.
"Do you expect me to believe that?" Sighing, the traitor shook his head. "My my, it's clear to me you've been disregarding practice when it comes to bluffing."
"If it makes things any easier, you are correct. I've sadly not had much practice as of late; too busy funding and overlooking Pietro's projects." James noted the small snarl which sprung up for just a second, but it was enough for him. He didn't need to mention Dr. Polendina, but competition supposedly bred creativity, or in this case, jealousy - no matter how much the man might deny it.
Seldom were the times he could recall Watts reacting anything less than irked when someone outperformed him in anything, so James knew that just his capture alone upset the scientist. Truthfully, he didn't care how grandiose or mundane his capture of Watts was, for merely having the man meant Salem's weed had been rooted out. Could she have more agents out and about? Perhaps, but few would be as determined as Watts, and even fewer as dangerous.
Buzzing filled the air behind him, and Ironwood shut off his side of the coms to the room below, before turning around to see Ozpin and his group.
He'd been about to congratulate them when he spied, right as Ruby Rose stepped through, the unsettling appearance she exuded. The others followed after, significantly dreary and distressed. From the lot who crowded the observation deck of the detention cells, Ozpin stepped forth to deliver the update on their mission.
"We got the bomb in, so that part of the task, at least, is complete."
James immediately noted the lack of one particular individual, and thus inquired about it.
"And V?"
Ozpin shook his head, humming, before looking him in the eyes.
"Salem sent him off under the guidance, and presumably protection, of two of her agents." Ironwood grit his teeth hard, fighting to keep his disappointment to a minimum as Ozpin delivered even more bad news. "And, as luck would have it, she somehow tampered with Raven's semblance, erasing her ability to create a portal to him, or any others in her service."
"Damn..." Restoring a chunk of his composure, James resided to let his anger go. Their loss of V was a great handicap, but it wasn't the end of things; they could find him again later. "I suppose that cannot be helped. The boy is strong though, so I doubt he'll fold before we get him back."
"That is true..." Ozpin sounded unsure, albeit seemingly not towards the statement he'd made. A bit abnormal for their current predicament, but not entirely shocking; this was the same tone he used when sitting on some particularly dark news. Understanding this, Ironwood chose to act.
"What else happened?" Rather than let the man dwell for however long it would take, James decided it best to just request the answers himself. Losing V was the worst case scenario in their mission due to his utility and power alone, so whatever else happened couldn't be much worse.
"We've also come across some particularly unfortunate news. Team JNPR, who were holding the line, have apparently fallen."
"Excuse me?" A chill ran up Ironwood's spine, and he scarcely believed what he'd heard, doubting it rather blatantly. "I must have heard you wrong, but did you just say JNPR has fallen?"
Ozpin nodded, and immediately the questions flooded in.
"How! No, that can't be possible! We had the pows-"
"We don't know." That only made things worse, especially so since Raven had been the one to speak up. "All I know is they died. When someone linked to my semblance dies, I can feel it, and midway through our job I felt all four of them pass at the exact same time."
"That... that can't..." Impossible, it couldn't be true, because if it was, then all those soldiers... all the men and women he'd sent out, both hunters and soldiers alike... they...
"I'm sorry, James, I truly am. I know you had friends and such on the front lines, just as we have, however we do not have time to mourn our losses. Salem knows what the bomb is, and while I strongly believe she'll do nothing to stop it, we shouldn't rely on it; our expectations have been shattered multiple times before, so thinking it would hold this time is a fool's decision. We must get the evacuation underway so we may destroy the whale without worry for the citizens. I'm sorry, but the city is lost. We'll have to reclaim it at a later date."
The evacuation... of course.
Sucking up and accepting the failure they were faced with, James shoved the guilt weighing on his mind deep down inside. As Ozpin said, they didn't have time to lament.
"Yes... I know." Letting his semblance overtake his personal faults and failings, the mission became the only thing of mind worth considering. "I'll take you all to the vault." Turning to Raven, he gave her the order. "Once we have the relic, take us to the ships and begin the evacuation in the tunnels; everyone once here in the academy has already finished their final tasks and are long gone, so only we remain."
Nodding, Raven tossed him a quick question.
"So you've got Watts locked up somewhere in the city? Are we really sure we can't just leave him to die." Ironwood would have said no a moment before, but now...
His old friend had suddenly become a risk to the evacuation: a loose end that needed to be cut.
"No." Firm in his resolve, he spoke plainly. "Watts will remain here."
This got some scrutiny from Yang, who spat toxins his way.
"We're just leaving Salem's pawn here for her, after everything they've done?"
"Yes." James made his way over to the console and quickly cut power to the cells. Watts surely found this surprising down below, and said as much aloud, which came through the speaker before him.
"Ah... So it seems you finally understand your situation." Some chuckling followed. "Well then, to what do I owe this sudden act of diplomacy?"
Right after the comment fell from his lips, James ran a certain protocol.
While the cells themselves were mainly for disciplinary action, the room was also used for advanced training scenarios. More specifically: espionage. Quite the simple drill, really: students undergoing the advanced classes in this high-level course were each locked into cells, and expected to use a subset of tools provided to cut the power to their cells and escape. Doing so would immediately trigger a security response, where numerous Atlesian Knights would enter and open fire. The assault would continue until the opposition was either felled, or the aura readings of any one of them dropped to a predetermined level.
And James had just disabled the aura detection feature entirely.
Before being thrown into his cell, Ironwood made sure to lock a pair of aura-disabling shackles around Watts's wrists; the same type used when apprehending criminals. Seeing the criminal's cocky expression turn to terror as every machine opened fire on him provided a tiny bit of satisfaction, although the event was partially marred by the bloody mess it left behind. His pristine academy, stained with the filthy fluids of a traitor... it reminded him of just how dangerous it was to hand out that little medal they called trust.
And how easily it was to lose one's self to wrath, if the unsettled low gasps of the girls was anything to go by.
Turning back, he saw Ozpin merely shut his eyes, no doubt not agreeing with his method of cleaning house. Weiss and Blake looked suitably horrified, and he wouldn't blame them for harboring distrust in him from here on out. Yang just scoffed, although she muttered something along the lines of, "they get what they deserve," under her breath. Ruby went unaffected by it. At best, Ruby blinked, but she didn't react beyond a glance. Something was certainly wrong here, but he wasn't in the headspace to undertake the task of discerning that.
What he was ready for would be the job at hand.
"There. Now that we've dealt with that small issue, we can move on." They could berate him later when all was said and done, but they had people to save, and a relic to secure.
Nobody spoke up, presumably having come to the same understanding, and so James took the lead and began trudging his way towards the door, knowing they were following by the footsteps echoing behind.
It was time to open the vault, and take from Atlas the source of its power: the staff of destruction.
Author's note
…
Not all that extreme a chapter, but it gets the job done.
Raven's opened up on JNPR's fate, and let's be real, it was bound to happen eventually, however this certain event was provoked by Ruby in particular. Technically, the 'how' and 'why' for this occurrence is available to you, if you recall certain things in regards to both Ruby and Pyrrha, as well as some information regarding souls. But I'll say no more on that front.
Ironwood and Watts had their final moment, which was more of a one-sided affair, before the general just sacked a firing squad on him. Not exactly the most exciting end, but it hopefully beats burning alive at the hands of betrayal - albeit less dramatic. Now both Cinder and Watts are gone.
We're close now, so very close. Things will fall in place soon… give or take another probably twenty chapters - hopefully not, but who knows with this plot.
Anyway, that's it for now. See you next time.
