AN: And here we are. Volume 7! So, I planned out the next two volumes fully like I said I would, and unless things change, I have things planned out until Chapter 168. So, uploads should be fairly steady.

I also have to say, after Volume 9, Episode 9, I'm concerned where the story is going. They are dealing with extremely heavy and sensitive subject matter here, and I feel like they're handling it very clumsily.

Anyway, with that out of the way, onwards!

Chapter 134

Cinder awoke with a groan, using her remaining hand to grip her head in pain. She sat up on the bench she had been laid down on, seeing that she and the others were in the back of the airship Neo had stolen, the petite girl herself in the pilot's seat.

"You're awake," Ash's monotonous voice said, drawing Sora and Sienna's attention to her, too.

"You okay?" Sora asked.

"I think so," Cinder said.

"That's good," Sora said with a sigh of relief.

"The kid used his magic to try to heal you, but you didn't wake up," Sienna said.

"Yeah, it's great for injuries, but I guess you were just tired," Sora said.

"What happened?" Cinder asked.

"We got attacked by that suit of armor with the same weapon as the two of you," Sienna said.

"And then you summoned that cool dragon guy!" Sora said excitedly.

"Oh, right, Bahamut," Cinder said. She glanced at Ash, and the new metal pauldron on her shoulder. "You have a Keyblade now, too, right?"

Ash nodded, and smacked her palm against the pauldron. In a flash of light, she was suddenly wearing the suit of armor, and had a Keyblade in her left hand.

"Still cool," Sora said. "Hey, I just remembered something. Master Yen Sid said something once about older Keybearers with armor being able to turn their Keyblades into gliders. Do you think you could do it?"

"How would I do that?" Ash asked. Sora crossed his arms in thought.

"I dunno," he said. "But most stuff with the Keyblade really just needs a thought, so maybe just think about it?"

"'Just think about it'?" Sienna asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow. "I thought you were supposed to know everything about this weird magic stuff."

"Well, Riku's the Master, not me," Sora said with a pout. "Anyway, give it a try."

"I suppose," Ash said, opening up the door to the airship. She tossed her Keyblade outside, and in a flash, it transformed into a flying vehicle . Ash jumped onto it, and grabbed onto the handlebars.

"Awesome!" Sora cheered as Ash flew several laps around the ship and eventually reentered, dismissing both her Keyblade and armor.

"Yeah, nice," Cinder said.

"This just keeps getting weirder and weirder," Sienna mumbled.

"I imagine this will be useful," Ash said. "So, what's the plan from here?"

"We keep heading to Atlas," Cinder said. "Find somewhere to park the airship and figure out where to go from there."

"I'll have to work on my disguise," Sienna said.

"Good point," Cinder said.

"Why?" Sora asked.

"Sienna was the leader of a terrorist group," Cinder said.

"We were freedom fighters," Sienna insisted.

"Whatever. The point is, the White Fang was practically at war with Atlas, so they definitely know what she looks like."

"Oh. Well, in that case, we might be able to help," Sora said, gesturing between himself, Ash, and Cinder.

"What do you mean?" Cinder asked.

"My friends and I use magic to change our appearances all the time," Sora said. "It helps us blend in."

"Of course you can do that," Sienna said in mild frustration.

"How do we do that?" Cinder asked.

"Here, call out your Keyblades," Sora said, and they all did so. They pointed them in Sienna's general direction.

"If this turns me human, I'm going to kill all of you," Sienna said.

Sora laughed nervously. "Uh, don't worry. It shouldn't. Now, focus."

The three Keybearers closed their eyes, and Sienna was surrounded by a flash of light. After a few seconds, the light disappeared. Her face really hadn't changed, but her hair was now blonde, and the tiger strip markings on her arms had disappeared. In addition, her hair was slightly longer.

It wasn't much, but if you didn't know you were looking at Sienna Khan, you might not realize it was her.

Sienna immediately reached up to her head, and felt that her ears were still there.

"See? Nothing to worry about," Sora said.

"You're lucky," Sienna said, sending a quick glare Sora's way that made the boy flinch.

"Are you going to change your name?" Cinder asked. Sienna put a hand to her chin in thought.

"Selene," she said. "I'll go by Selene."

Riku and the others watched as Manta airships patrolled the skies around Atlas. Well, except Ruby. She was just sitting silently. The sense of unease was so thick, you could cut it with a knife. They knew that General Ironwood was paranoid, but they weren't expecting this.

"Manta 5-1," the air traffic controller said through the radio. "Welcome home. Please continue your approach to docking bay Omega-12. A security team will meet you there. Over."

"What's going on?" Riku asked.

"I don't know," Qrow said.

"But we're here," Jaune said. "We got the Lamp to Atlas, so I guess we land and get some answers."

"I'm not so sure," Weiss said. "I've never seen our forces deployed so aggressively before. If we land in a stolen ship, there's no way the security team will let us anywhere near Ironwood. They'll probably even take me back to my father."

Blake looked sadly at Weiss.

"I don't know about the rest of you, but I really don't want to go back to prison," Tifa said.

"Yes, it would be best if we avoided that," Pyrrha said, gently rocking Achilles.

"So…" Blake said, trying to think of something.

"Winter!" Weiss suddenly exclaimed, pulling out her Scroll. She looked over at Maria, who was piloting the ship. "Put some distance between us and the fleet."

"You don't have to tell me twice," Maria said, steering the ship towards the lower city that Riku assumed must have been Mantle.

"Well, this was the plan anyway," he said, drawing confused looks. "Remember, the plan was to drop me, Ruby, Yang, and Weiss in Mantle?"

Ruby looked up at hearing her name called, but quickly put her head back down when she realized no one was speaking to her. Yang put an arm around her shoulder. "I'm starting to feel even better about that plan," Yang said.

The group could see the city sprawling out underneath the ship, and it didn't paint a pretty picture. The air was visibly unclean, filled with smog and the byproducts of the mining operations all over the place. To add to the depressing atmosphere, the city floating above blocked out part of the sky, plunging sections of the city in total darkness. A voice caught the attention of the group. A man in a pressed white suit with swept back black hair with some gray mixed in and a thick beard was making an announcement on a large screen on the side of a skyscraper. By the way he carried himself, Riku knew that had to be General Ironwood.

"…cannot express our appreciation enough," the announcement said. "Many describe these as uncertain times, and while that may be the case for the rest of the world, I can tell you what is certain. The Kingdom of Atlas will remain strong, and it will remain safe. That is my promise."

"I don't like the looks of this," Riku said.

"He looks tired," Tifa said.

"I'm starting to think that we were right to be wary," Cloud said.

"James, what have you been doing?" Qrow thought out loud.

They saw a group of military robots patrolling the streets, being harassed by several citizens, including children.

"This isn't right," Weiss said, her sister evidently not having answered her calls. "None of this is right."

"Manta 5-1, we've noticed a detour in your route," the air traffic controller said. "You are to make your way to docking bay Omega-12 immediately. Do you copy? Over."

"We're kind of running out of time here, kids," Maria said.

"We need to ditch the ship," Yang said.

"Agreed," Qrow said. "Get lost in Mantle and buy ourselves some time."

"I'm telling you, my sister can take everyone to Ironwood," Weiss said.

"Uh, Weiss?" Blake said, pointing out the window she had been looking through. Weiss walked over, and a different screen showed a woman with white hair the same shade as Weiss, whom Riku assumed must have been her sister, Winter.

"A reminder," Winter's voice said, surprising Weiss. "Failure to cooperate with Atlas military personnel is a punishable offense. If your sector is under lockdown…"

"Winter?" Weiss asked, clearly unable to believe what she was seeing.

"Now I really don't like the looks of this," Riku said.

"No offense, Weiss," Qrow said. "I'm not sure that's a good idea anymore."

"There's obviously something very wrong," Weiss said. "If we can just talk to her, then we—"

"Look, I'm not even sure we should be talking to Ironwood until we know exactly what's going on with Mantle," Qrow argued.

"But—"

"Everyone, calm down," Maria said before sighing. "I know someone who can help with both."

"Manta 5-1, you are to make your way—" the transmission was ended when Maria switched off the radio.

"Geez, lady, take a hint!"

The group quickly made their way through an alley, leaving the airship behind as several soldiers ran towards the landing zone, having just missed them.

"Come on, hurry!" Maria said, leading the group. "It shouldn't be much of a walk."

"Is this many soldiers normal?" Jaune asked.

"No," Weiss said. "At least, I didn't think so."

Yang was distracted by a whirring sound near her. She turned and saw a small drone hovering next to her. The lens of its camera focused on her. She initially tried to shrug it off, but then the drone followed her. She turned back to look at it, and it suddenly took a picture of her with a bright flash. Growling with anger, she kicked the drone away from her, knocking it into the street, where it was hit by a car and destroyed.

"Uh…" Yang said, realizing what she had done. The others stopped to stare at her, and she rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "Maybe we should pick up the pace." Several members of the group shook their heads disapprovingly, and they moved on.

"You have to remember, the Kingdom had just lost the Great War," Maria said. "The people of Mantle needed a sign of a brighter future, and that sign was Atlas. After all, a home in the clouds is as bright as it gets."

"We are here for your safety. Thank you for your cooperation," Winter's broadcast said, the message playing on a loop. The others looked around and saw several trucks carrying miners absolutely covered in soot, most of them Faunus. Nora crossed her arms and looked away from the whole scene in disgust.

"Unless you're the one having to look up at it," she said.

"This whole city, it just seems awful," Blake said, her cat ears flattening against her head.

"Yeah?" a voice suddenly said, causing the group to look behind them to see a drunk man stumbling his way down the steps of a porch. "You don't like it here? There's plenty of space out in the tundra."

Blake gave a tired sigh, clearly used to this kind of treatment and visibly weary of it. "Sorry, I didn't mean—"

"Atlas is the greatest Kingdom in the world, alright?!" the Drunk man shouted, interrupting Blake and stepping forward aggressively.

"Hey!" Cloud said, stepping between the man and Blake. Blake stepped forward and leaned closer to Cloud's ear.

"We can't cause a scene."

"The embargo…" a friend of the drunk man, who was sitting down against the stair spoke up. "The embargo's got us in a rough patch. But it'll blow over, you'll see."

"We try and help the other Kingdoms, and this is what happens?" the drunk man said, his voice getting louder. "I say let 'em rot!"

"I apologize," Blake said, he tone indicating that she really wasn't sorry for anything and just wanted the man to shut up. "I didn't mean to insult you."

"Stupid Faunus like you wouldn't unders—"

The man was interrupted by a black glyph appearing under his feet, before he was launched in the air, and deposited in a dumpster. The others turned and saw Weiss holding her rapier. She smiled and shrugged. "It was worth it."

The group quickly fled the area before the authorities arrived, once again.

Riku had a feeling this was going to become a pattern.

"Hey, I've been thinking," Riku said a few minutes after the group had left the scene with the drunk men. "If we still decide that seeing General Ironwood is the plan, I don't think we should tell him the truth."

"About what?" Oscar asked.

"You know, about Salem."

"Why not?" Yang asked.

"Think about it," Riku said. "Remember how poorly everyone reacted when we learned that Salem can't be killed?" Many of the members of the group sent apologetic glances Oscar's way. "Well, after that, I'm starting to understand why he hid the truth. Besides, look at the state of Mantle. From the looks of it, this is entirely because of General Ironwood. It doesn't really make him look like the most sane or trustworthy person. If we reacted so poorly, how do we think he'll handle it?"

"I don't think we should lie," Yang said, surprising everyone.

"Why not?" Blake asked.

"Because, we gave Ozpin so much shit for lying to us. Wouldn't we just be stooping to his level if we did that?"

"You have a point," Weiss said. "And if the general really is going to be fighting against Salem, I think we all agree that, just like us, he deserves to know what we're truly up against."

"Besides," Yang said. "I kinda just want to see him squirm."

"I don't know," Blake said. "I kind of agree with Riku. If he reacts poorly, who knows what he'll end up doing to Mantle?"

"What do you think, Rubes?" Yang asked. Ruby didn't answer, instead staring blankly down at her feet. "Ruby?" she asked again.

"Huh?" Ruby asked with a start. "Oh, uh, sure. Sounds good." Yang furrowed her brows in confusion.

"Let's put it to a vote," Jaune suggested. "Who wants to tell him the truth?" Most of the hands in the group went up.

"That settles it, then," Yang said. "We tell him the truth."

"Okay," Riku said, deciding to respect the group's opinions.

After a few more minutes of walking, Ruby eventually saw a building with glowing green plus sign above the door. A young Faunus woman with a prosthetic arm exited, waving cheerfully to a young Human girl standing in the entranceway. The Human girl wore a sleeveless black sweater with a hood, and pleated, red-and-black plaid miniskirt, and black combat boots.

"Remember, the doc said no more heavy lifting!" the girl called out to the woman.

"Thanks, Iris!" the woman called back.

The girl, evidently named "Iris" finally noticed the group approaching. "Hi, there! That's a large group you've got there! Can I help you?"

"We're here to see the doctor," Maria said. "It's urgent."

"Sure thing!" Iris said, ushering them inside. "Doc! You have visitors!"

An older man with dark skin and white hair was sitting in a mechanized chair with six spider legs. He was organizing some files when the girl called out to him, catching his attention.

"Ah, it's good to see you again, old friend," Maria said.

"Ah, yes, yes," the doctor said, pushing some papers aside. "Have we met?"

"This is off to a fantastic start," Ren said as the rest of the group filed into the office.

"Cybernetic optical implants," Maria said, pointing to her eyes. "You adjust them. Every ten years or so?"

The doctor stared at her for several seconds, before he suddenly threw his hands in the air. "Maria! Yes, with the cybernetic optical implants! I adjust them every ten years or so." He walked his mechanical chair out from behind the desk, offered his hand, and guided Maria to an examination table. "Oh wow, has it been that long already?"

"Ah, I know. I age like a fine wine," Maria said. "Would've been here sooner if I hadn't run into these jokers. At the time, I thought they might need my guidance while fighting a little old Sphinx."

"Oh, did they?" the doctor asked.

"No, no. They had much more complicated issues."

Uncle Qrow cleared his throat. "And this is?"

"So impatient," Maria said. "I didn't think I'd need to introduce one of Atlas' finest minds."

"Working in a place like this?" Yang asked.

"He likes to keep a low profile," Maria explained. "Something I've come to realize none of you know anything about."

"You can call me Pietro," the doctor said. "You've already met my assistant, Iris."

"Nice to meet you!" Iris said.

"Finest heart, too," Maria said. "This pharmacy is just where he volunteers when he's not building the future of Atlas alongside Ironwood, up in the clouds."

"Oh, it's stuffy up there," Pietro said. "Down here, I get to help the locals and have a little fun. I'm currently on shoes that make you dance. Wanna try 'em on?"

"YES!" Nora yelled excitedly, before Yang stepped in front of her.

"Before we get to that, we were wondering if you could help us," she said. "We came to Atlas hoping to talk to General Ironwood, but um…"

"What exactly has been happening here?" Blake asked.

"Well, the Fall of Beacon took a toll on all of us," Pietro explained. "James was no different. I couldn't tell you exactly what he saw there, but it changed him. He's…"

"He's scared," Uncle Qrow finished his sentence for him.

"Paranoid would be the more appropriate term. You have to understand, it wasn't just the Grimm. Someone completely dismantled the Atlas security code, made it their plaything, and made us look like traitors and buffoons to everyone else. Whoever managed to do that is either a genius or one of our own. I fear the answer may be both, and so does the general."

"Maybe Atlas isn't as safe as we thought," Ren said.

"After we came all this way, we can't just leave, can we?" Oscar asked.

"How does the Council feel about this?" Weiss asked, stepping forward. "Or Winter Schnee? Do you know anything about her?"

"Well, Councilman Caelum is doing his best to intervene, but the general already has two seats on the Council, and Councilwoman Camilla is so scared, she'll agree to whatever the general wants, outvoting Councilman Caelum. Though, some representatives from Mantle…" he stopped talking, getting a good look at Weiss's face. "Wait, you're… You're Weiss Schnee!"

"The missing heiress?" Iris asked. Weiss gasped and took a step back, the rest of the group suddenly becoming very nervous. Yang stepped in front of Weiss, her prosthetic arm outstretched.

"Wait, what was it that you were trying to say about Mantle?" Yang asked, but Pietro instead focused his attention on her arm.

"You painted it," he said.

"What?"

"Is everything okay?" Ruby asked.

"You're Team RWBY!" Pietro said happily. The members of the team in question looked at each other in confusion.

"You know us?"

"Oh, my girl, I do. I most certainly do. And I feel like such a dunce for not recognizing you sooner. My daughter's told me so much about you."

"Your…daughter?" Ruby asked. Before Pietro could answer, an alarm suddenly blared from outside, and people could be heard screaming.

"Trouble," Jaune said, and the group ran outside, ignoring Pietro's attempts to get them to wait.

"I guess the city defenses aren't doing much," Oscar said.

"Somehow, that doesn't surprise me," Nora said. Down the road, they could see an Atlesian Knight get thrown against a lamp post. Several more came into view, backing up while firing their rifles, and they were destroyed one by one by smaller, agile Grimm that looked like tigers with long sharp teeth. Ruby recognized them as Sabyrs.

"Well, we didn't come this far to fail now!" Ruby yelled, summoning her Keyblades. The others followed suit, and charged at the Grimm. Jaune and Pyrrha played "Rock, Paper, Scissors". Jaune got rock, and Pyrrha got paper, so Pyrrha handed Achilles to him and drew her weapons.

A sword flew through the air, whizzing past Ruby's ear, forcing her to stop in confusion. The sword imbedded itself in one of the Grimm, and in a flash of blue, a young man with black hair appeared, grabbed the sword, and used it to finish off the creature. Another Grimm leaped up at him, and a large man with slicked-back hair jumped in front, raising a shield while his other hand held a massive greatsword.

"I don't think so!" the big man yelled, blocking the attack before slamming his sword down and cleaving the Sabyr in two.

"Nice one, Gladio!" the young man that teleported said. "Ignis, you're up!"

"Of course!" a refined voice said, and a tall man with glasses conjured up several daggers, throwing one each at a group of sabyrs. "Now, Noct!" The young black-haired man started teleporting from knife to knife, killing Grimm as he went.

"Prompto!" The black-haired man, the apparent leader, called out. A blond-haired young man ran up to one of the Grimm with a pistol in one hand, and a… camera?... in the other. He ran up to one of the Grimm, smiled, and turned his back on it for some reason to take a picture. Afterwards, he pressed his pistol against its skull and fired, killing it instantly. "That's not what I meant!" the leader shouted, pointing to a group of Grimm that was running towards them. The blond, Prompto apparently, smirked and spun his gun on his finger.

"Oh, hi there, opening!" he said excitedly, firing three shots in quick succession. Each one bounced off either a wall or ceiling, and killed a Grimm in one shot. "Dun dun dun dun, dun, dun, duh-duh-dun!" he sang to himself in celebration.

Ruby and the others looked at these young men in confusion.

"What's going on?" Cloud asked.

"Beats me," Riku said. Weiss made some kind of a squeaking noise. Ruby looked and saw that she had a blush on her face.

More Grimm could be seen running towards them, but a green laser suddenly fired from the sky, obliterating them. Everyone looked up, and saw a girl with long hair, with green jets coming from her feet. She slowly descended, and Ruby and Pyrrha gasped at seeing her. She had long, ginger hair, and wore a poofy green skirt with a grey blouse.

She looked different, but there was no mistaking her.

"Penny!" Ruby said in surprise.

"Darling, why don't you say hello to your friends," Pietro said, having stepped out of his pharmacy. Penny turned and saw the group, and she gasped happily. Ruby smiled and dismissed her Keyblades. Penny leaned forward, and began charging her rocket boots.

"Sal…U…Tations!" She shouted, propelling herself at Ruby so she could tackle her in a hug. After several seconds, Penny stands up, pulling Ruby to her feet.

"It is such a pleasure to see you all again!" Penny said as Ruby started to tear up.

"Penny…" Ruby said. "I…I-I thought you…"

"Died?" Pietro asked. "I guess, in a manner of speaking, she did. But we were able to recover her core from Amity Arena once it had made its way back to Atlas. It took me some time, but…"

"I'm as good as new!" Penny said. "Better, even! And now I'm the official protector of the city!"

"That's my girl," Pietro said. "We're not going to let a little ripping to shreds stop us, are we?"

"No, sir!"

The sound of a sob caught everyone's attention. Pyrrha had fallen to her knees, her hand covering her mouth as tears flowed down her face.

"Penny…" Pyrrha said between sobs. "I'm so…so sorry. I-I didn't mean to."

Penny walked towards Pyrrha, knelt down, and wrapped her arms around her. "It's okay. I forgive you."

"How?" Pyrrha asked.

"It was an accident, right?" Penny asked. Pyrrha nodded. "Then it's okay. Besides, I didn't feel a thing." Pyrrha continued sobbing, but this time, it was clearly in relief. Jaune walked forward, and present Achilles to her.

"This is our son, Achilles."

Penny gasped happily. "Oh, congratulations!" Penny said happily.

"You know, I missed Penny," Yang said.

"You know, I really wasn't expecting to see you here again so soon, Weiss," the black-haired young man said, catching everyone's attention. Weiss cleared her throat.

"Yes, well, returning wasn't exactly my first choice," she said. "There were…extenuating circumstances."

"I can imagine," the boy said.

"So, uh, Weiss, you gonna introduce us to your handsome friends over here?" Yang asked, playfully wrapping and arm around Weiss's shoulder. "I'm Yang, by the way."

The black-haired boy chuckled. "I'm Nocits Lucis Caelum." He pointed to each of his teammates, first the big guy, then the man with glasses, and finally the blond. "This is Gladiolus Amicitia, but you can call him 'Gladio', Ignis Scientia, and Prompto Argentum."

"And together, we're the Chocobros!" Prompto said proudly.

"Like the chocobos from King's Knight?" Ruby asked, tilting her head in confusion.

"Exactly!"

"Salutations, fellow protectors!" Penny greeted, having stopped fawning over Achilles.

"Uh, yeah," Nocits said, visibly uncomfortable, which confused Ruby. "Anyway, who are your friends?"

Weiss gestured to each of her teammates. "Yang already introduced herself. That over there is her sister, Ruby, and this is my partner Blake. We're Team RWBY. Over there is Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren. They're Team JNPR. The scraggily-looking man is Ruby and Yang's uncle Qrow, the blond man is Cloud, the other woman is Tifa, the kid is Oscar, and the silver-haired boy is Riku."

"Quite the motley crew you've gathered," Ignis said. "I notice that Aqua is absent, though, given what happened, it doesn't surprise me." Everyone suddenly became much more quiet.

"What happened?" Penny asked. Before anyone had the chance to answer, the alarm blared again. "We will have to catch up later." Penny charged up her rocket boots and took off into the sky. "It was so good seeing everyone again!"

"Okay, I have, like, a million questions," Nora said.

"And thankfully, I have about a thousand answers," Pietro said, turning to head back to the pharmacy. "But let's get out of this weather first."

"I have absolutely no idea who that child was," Maria said. "Is she important somehow?"

"That was unexpected," Jaune said.

"Never a dull moment," Ren said.

"But I wouldn't say unwelcome," Uncle Qrow said. "I was honestly expecting things to go a lot rougher."

Riku's brow suddenly furrowed, and he quickly summoned his Keyblade and raised it to the sky. A large barrier was suddenly conjured up around the group, stopping a large number of Gravity Dust bolas from hitting them.

"What the hell?!" Cloud exclaimed, drawing his sword.

Suddenly, five people wearing white uniforms dropped down from the rooftops, weapons drawn.

"Nobody move!" the leader of the group, a man with swept-back red hair demanded, his weapon appearing to be a fishing pole. "You're all under arrest."

"Hey, what's the big idea?!" Uncle Qrow shouted, drawing his own sword. "I'm a licensed Huntsman!"

"You can plead your case later."

"What is the meaning of this?!" Pietro demanded. "What are the Ace Ops even doing down here in Mantle?"

"Ace Ops?" Ruby asked.

"Doctor, good to see you," the leader said. "Well, we heard a report of an unauthorized ship making an unauthorized landing, followed by an unauthorized use of weapons by unlicensed Huntsmen."

"Wait, what was that last one?" Yang asked. "Using weapons is a crime here?"

"If you aren't a Huntsman, yes," Noctis said. "Speaking of which, Clover, I'm going to have to ask you and your little band of lapdogs to hand over your weapons."

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" one of the group, a short woman with a blond mohawk, demanded.

"Exactly what he said," Gladio said. "You just said Huntsmen can't carry weapons, and none of you are real Huntsmen. So hand 'em over."

"Mantle doesn't need sell-outs like you," Prompto said.

"Do you want us to run you jokers in for obstruction of justice?" the short woman asked.

"I want you to try," Noctis said. Suddenly, Clover's Scroll rang. He picked it up, revealing General Ironwood's face on the other line.

"General, sir!" Clover greeted.

"Specialist, I saw the situation," General Ironwood said. "I know that man. He's a friend."

"Sir?"

"You are to escort them to my office, but not as prisoners.

"We have a lot to catch up on."

AN: Penny's back! Yay! One of the reasons why I wanted to have Pyrrha survive was so that Penny could forgive her. And Riku with the clutch.

So, the Chocobros have come back, and Pietro's new assistant, Iris, is Galdio's younger sister.

While you're here, go check out my other fanfic, Final Fantasy VII: Chronicles of Remnant. It doesn't get enough love.

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

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