Edit (1/12/25): Nothing much different to this, just a slight change to the end of the chapter.
The group was intrigued to see how this episode would turn out and what their plan was to steal an Atlas airship. Not only that, the group saw the title of the episode and ironically loved it: Stealing from the Elderly.
They couldn't wait to see what was in store and they were glad to know Oscar was safe and sound with them. The Oscar, sitting with them now, has only known them for a few days, but they can't help but feel like they've known him longer. It must be all the episodes going by as they make it seem like they've all been experiencing those events at the same speed, that they've been friends with Oscar for months.
All of them sit in their seats as Raider plays them the next episode where they sneak a ship out from under the Atlas Military's noses.
(Volume 6 Intro)
"Ah, I was relieved to hear that you came to your senses Ms. Schnee," Cordovin states as Weiss, Saphron and Adrian, and the two guards follow close behind.
Oh boy, with those two guys again. "Still quirky as ever," Yang groans.
"Wait, why is my sister and Adrian with you two?" Jaune asks. That is a good question. They didn't think Terra would have let her wife go through with this, let alone bring Adrian into the mix. They had to play some part in the plan.
"Terra's helping you guys?" Sun asked. "I would have thought she'd discourage your plan, not help."
"Many of us were devastated when we heard you would be attending Beacon Academy."
So I could be as far away from my father's influence as possible and take over the Schnee Dust Company name my own way.
"Knowing that you'll be returning to Atlas just warms my old heart."
"I bet it does," Blake muttered. Her ear flicked in annoyance, still recalling Cordovin's little…comment from two episodes ago.
Weiss states that it was time to get her act together and go back to her roots.
Anyone close to Weiss would know that's the biggest lie they'd ever heard. Even her father wouldn't believe that if he heard it. It's a good thing it's working on Cordovin. "Sorry," Ruby whispers to her girlfriend. She still doesn't like using Weiss this way.
"It's okay, Ruby," Weiss replies, kissing her cheek. The two could hear a fake retch from their left by a certain sister.
"Oh, I can't wait to see you follow in your sister's footsteps." Weiss awkwardly agrees through her teeth.
That was part of the lie they came up with to convince Cordovin? Well, if it works, it works, Weiss thought.
"I'm sending two of my best guards to personally escort you."
"Those two guards better not be the ones behind you, because ma'am, we can assure you you can do so much better," Nora says.
"Make sure General Ironwood hears that part." Cordovin winks and is on her way.
Oh, so it's more for brownie points. Either way, she still better not send those two guards with Weiss, at that point it would be borderline torture.
"Allow me to assist you with your bag," guard one declares, picking up one end while Weiss holds the other. "My, what a heavy bag."
Oh, they get it. One of their friends is inside. The only three they can think of are either Ruby, Nora, or Oscar. They scratch Nora from the list as she might be too restless. Or, it might even be Maria.
Weiss is capable of doing it by herself but both of the guards insist, the three playing tug-of-war for it, Cordovin stops, getting a look of suspicion.
"Can those two let go of the suitcase?" Oscar asks nervously.
"Just like we practiced," Saphron whispered to Adrian.
Huh? Practiced?
Adrian nodded and began to have a crying fit. "Oh no, look at that. He's just going to miss you so much."
Oh, now they were understanding why she was there. Smart. Though, even if it was all an act, seeing Adrian cry broke their hearts.
"You gotta admit, that kid is one hell of a convincing actor," Yang joked. Weiss pouted, despite it being a ploy, she was going to miss Adrian too.
Saphron thinks that Weiss should hurry on out of here. The two guards shout that they need to console the child as Cordovin walks away and Weiss rushes the airship.
What were those gestures? Is that really how those two stop a child from crying? Does it even work?
Ruby, from Weiss's earpiece, asks if everything's okay.
That ruled out Ruby being in the suitcase. So, that just left Maria, Nora, or Oscar.
"Calling me heavy, it's old muscle! I'll show them a thing or two about-"
"We're on board," Weiss assures.
That's definitely Maria. They guessed that made more sense for her to…hold on, does Maria even know how to fly an airship?
"Alright, we'll all watch our scrolls," Ruby tells everyone else, "The second Weiss is out of range at the com tower that'll mean she's out of range of the radar too."
" And that's when Blake steps in, we're almost at the drop-off ," Yang pitches in. Yang and Blake are riding on Bumblebee, heading to the tower while Blake is on a call with Terra.
"Okay, remember, one, the radar box is separate from the rest of the communications equipment, so if you disconnect it properly it won't take out coms from the rest of the city."
Blake smiles, she's knows how to disable the coms, it isn't her first rodeo. However, she had a feeling she was about to say that and Terra wouldn't appreciate the fact. Yang frowned beside Blake, she got this weird feeling that something was going to interfere, or rather…someone. It was just a sudden feeling, but it was the same hunch she got from the farm.
"Two, this conversation never happened." Blake rolls her eyes, telling Terra not to worry as it's not the first time she's disabled Atlas security.
"I don't think she's gonna like hearing that information," Yang chuckled.
"I don't think that's news anyone would like hearing," Sun joined. The two blonds laughed while Blake sighed in the middle.
Terra looked at her with a deadpan expression and repeated the same words. Yang stops her bike and Blake hops off. Yang asks if Blake is sure she shouldn't come with her.
Yang's gut tugs, getting the sense that her counterpart shouldn't stay too far. Blake's face flushes as she watches herself ride with Yang. "Hey, are you okay?" Blake asks.
Yang shakes her head, "Something feels wrong, it's the same feeling I got back with the house." Blake then feels her heart drop.
"More intruders means we're more likely to be seen. Besides, stealth isn't exactly your um…" Yang has her arms crossed.
Yang smirks, "You want to finish that sentence?" Blake giggles, red dusting her cheeks as she looks away.
"I mean, you're great! And I'll hurry back."
"Nice save, Blake," Nora teases.
Yang, with a smile, urges Blake to go and so she runs off. On the earpiece, Blake tells the group she's heading out on foot and it won't be long. Jaune pumps his fists, "Yes, it's all going to plan!"
"Well, you were always the strategist," Ren says. Jaune hums with pride.
Jaune composes himself with a cough as his teammates are watching him.
"Too late for that," Pyrrha says.
The two roll their eyes fondly while Ruby eyes an agitated Qrow leaning up against a tree. Oscar reassures her that this is gonna work as the two look in the direction of the base.
Yeah, they all have a plan! What could go wrong?
Famous last words , Raider thought, Famous last words .
On the airship, Weiss observes her scroll as all her friends are offline. She gets up from her seat and deals with the pilot as he tries to tell her to sit back down.
They almost feel sorry for the man as he's only trying to do his job. But, they're all on a mission and they can't have anything in their way.
One of the guards calls her a traitor and the next thing the two guards know is that they're tied together with one of Weiss's glyphs on a parachute, floating down as Weiss flies off.
Despite the group finding those two guards immensely annoying, they hoped they wouldn't get hurt.
One of the guards shouts that the parachute won't excuse her treachery.
Weiss shrugged, she could live with that. Now, back to their plan.
"And you're sure you can fly this?" Weiss asked as the two sat down.
"Yeah, we've been wondering about that," Ruby says, scratching her chin. Does Maria truly know how to fly the airship? She better, Ruby thought to herself, Weiss was on that ship.
"Missy, I was the Grimm Reaper," Maria adjusted her seat, "What part of 'best huntress of her generation' don't you understand?" Weiss doesn't look convinced as she mentions her eyes.
Maria had told them that her eyes needed repair. Why did they let Maria do this?!
Maria sees a chip and puts them into her goggles.
Sure, that might help her see while flying the ship, but what about her eyes in general? That doesn't make them magically fixed!
Maria smugly asked Weiss to repeat herself. "That you said your eyes were in desperate need of repair." Maria stops her from saying anything further, twice, when Weiss tries to get a word. Weiss puts on her seatbelt.
Yeah, they would too after knowing these circumstances.
Ruby sees that Weiss is out of signal so she goes to Blake, telling her that she's up but she doesn't answer. Ruby tries again but still nothing.
All the students grew worried and that feeling in Yang became so much that it hurt. What was keeping Blake?
Ruby goes to Yang, who's sitting up against Bumblebee, and asks what's going on. Yang stands up, saying she doesn't know, and looks at her scroll. Weiss has a signal again.
No! No, no, no! What was going on with Blake? Something's interfering as they know she would have had everything disabled at that point. There was a voice in the back of Yang's head, but she didn't want to be right.
Adam… Adam… Adam… GO HELP HER!
Yang gasped as the last one sounded like it was a shout right in her ears. "Yang?" Blake looked worried. There were glimpses of seeing them, and Yang just thought those were flashes of trauma for them both, but were they hints of actually seeing him this volume? "Yang?" Blake tried again, but Yang was too caught up in her own head.
HELP HER…HELP HER…HELP HER!
"My counterpart needs to go after you. Now!" Yang shouted, catching everyone off guard.
"What is it?" Ruby asked.
"My brain, it's screaming at me that it's Adam." All of them froze. But, how? "Those two moments of hallucinating him, I think they were hints of seeing him." If that was true, Yang needed to get to Blake. NOW.
"Ma'am, we've got something on radar," One of Argus's guards reports.
NO! Now was not the time for everything to be falling apart! Blake was alone at the tower and Weiss was up in the air!
Cordovin asked who'd be foolish enough to enter their airspace unannounced. The guard tells her, them apparently. "Manta 51, this is Argus base. We see you've circled back, what's your status, over ."
"What are we supposed to say? None of those who are on board are men and I doubt Weiss would be able to pull off that kind of voice imitation," Yang said in a panic. Weiss sent a look Yang's way, but she had a point.
"Not to mention I don't think you guys know their jargon," Sun added.
Weiss asked why they could see them. "Somebody dropped the ball," Maria whispers, "Don't worry, I've worked with Atlas Forces before, I know their jargon."
She did? Now they want to learn more about Maria and her past.
Maria picks up the radio and clears her throat, "Argus base this Manta 51, feel free gaff off. Thought we were going to scrub due to FOD, but we're back out and green across the board, over." Maria laughs as she turns off her connection.
"Sounds legit to me," Sun mumbled.
"Manta 51, return to base immediately or you will be treated as hostile, over." Maria winced.
"I thought she said she knew their jargon!" Weiss shouted.
"I thought you said you knew their jargon!" Weiss yelled.
" Jargon was fine, but our pilot's not elderly woman."
"What did I say about the voice imitation?" Yang yelled.
"Not the time, Yang," Weiss told her.
Maria tells Weiss that they had her there. "Whoof, my mind really is going, why would you kids let me fly this thing?"
All of them share the same expression as Weiss. Maria, are you kidding with them right now? Mm, yes, what did make them think it was a good idea to let you fly?
"Calavera! You and those insolent children are up to something, aren't you?!" Cordovin screamed.
It wasn't exactly rocket science. Cordovin knows where they want to head and they just stole an airship to do it.
"You thought you could undermine my authority? If you don't return my ship this instant, I will make an example out of you!" Cordovin slams her finger on the hard surface of the screens, startling the Argus guard next to her. "I will show you the true might of Atlas!"
Cordovin can hear crunching on the other line, and Maria is eating from a bag of cashews. "You hear that Cordo? That's the sound of me not caring! Hahahaha!"
The students were sitting in disbelief while behind them, Raider seemed to have the time of her lie, laughing. "This is why I love Maria."
"Ruby, we're in trouble. Cordo's onto us and Maria isn't helping!" Weiss shouts, directing the final words to the woman next to her. " Why is the radar still up?"
Ruby doesn't know, Blake isn't responding. Behind Ruby, Oscar asks what they do.
They don't they most certainly didn't plan for any of these things to happen! Note to self to all of them, come up with a backup plan!
Yang tells them to keep the ship in one piece, she revs up Bumblebee and goes after Blake.
That brought them a little peace of mind, but not enough. Hurry, Yang.
Nora suggests that maybe they should fly over to help Yang and Blake first. "Damn it!" Qrow curses, "Cordo's gonna scramble our fighters."
"The fight isn't over yet! There's still a chance can we get the ship and leave!" Ruby shouts. Her uncle is giving up too quickly, it's only the beginning.
"We've got maybe 90 seconds before they're in the air and all over Weiss and Maria. This is all my fault."
None of this is his fault and if he's referring to his semblance then that's not true either!
"What are you talking about, you're semblance?" Jaune asks.
"Every choice I've ever made has led me here, I dragged you all along with me. Oz, myself, the others, we're responsible for the mess the world's in now."
That isn't true, he's putting too much blame onto his shoulders. The world has always been a mess, that doesn't make it his fault.
Qrow thinks he shouldn't have come, shouldn't have let any of them, he wonders what he was thinking. There was a moment of silence before Ruby spoke. "We're all in this together and we're all going to do the best we can. That's all anyone can do and I know it's what you've always aimed for. We would have come whether or not you let us so stop talking like we're your responsibility."
"Yeah, whether told us not to or not, we would have been doing this anyone. If you didn't like the plan we would do it, if you thought you were the one dragging us into this, we'd still be doing it. So, as my other self said, stop treating us we're your responsibility, and that you're to blame for all of this!" Ruby declared.
"We're not. But we could still use Qrow Branwen on our side." Qrow chuckles, asking Ruby how she grew up so fast. "I had good role models."
Ruby laughs, "What's this past tense wording? I still have my good role models."
The moment is broken by Weiss telling the group Cordovin isn't sending fighters.
If she's not sending fighters, then what is she sending?
The stone under the Argus base opens up to reveal an enormous robot, the Colossus.
"What the actual fuck!" Yang shouts.
"Doesn't that seem a tad overkill?" Sun asks.
"Apparently not to her!" Nora yells.
"Clearly the people have forgotten that they live in peace thanks to the awesome of Atlas!" Weiss asks if Cordovin is piloting the robot. "Consider this, a reminder!" One of the robot's already raised arms releases a blast of electricity, hitting the airship.
"Weiss!" All of her friends yell.
"Is Cordovin insane?!" Jaune shouts.
"Considering she's doing this, I think it's safe to assume she lost a few screws as she grew older!" Yang yelled.
They could question Cordovin's stability later, at the moment they needed to focus on Weiss and Maria!
Weiss asks if Maria is okay. "I am, but she's clearly lost her mind!"
Does Cordovin not understand that this could attract Grimm? How seeing this giant thing will make the citizens frightened?
Cordovin calls that a merely warning shot.
Warning shot?!
"All Atlas personnel stand by and watch how your leader maintains order!" Ruby glares down the direction of the stomping as Maria comes flying with Cordovin following close behind. "It's time you ask yourselves, children: do you truly wish to defy me?!"
Yes, they do. They're not gonna let a giant tin can get in the way of getting to Atlas.
Ruby tells Weiss to hurry back, she needs her on the ground if they're going to take it down.
They also don't know how many hits the airship can take either.
Weiss asks why the radar is still up, her voice glitching from Blake's scroll. Ruby's voice is the same, responding that she doesn't know.
What's going on at the tower? Yang, please hurry to help Blake
Blake's foot crushes her scroll as she gasps, ducking behind part of the pillar. She jumps away in horror upon seeing the dead Atlas guard.
"What happened to that poor man?" Pyrrha asked, frowning.
A gunshot startles Blake, causing her to run. She looks down to find Adam sheathing his weapon.
Everyone chokes on their breath. Adam. Where the fuck am I ?! Yang demands. "I swear to the Gods Adam if you do anything to her!" Her eyes were blazing with fury. Blake felt a spike of fear mixed with agitation. Why can't he just leave me alone?!
"It's nice to finally have time to ourselves, don't you think?" Adam asks.
"Leave me alone!" Blake screams.
Blake yells for him to leave her alone, shooting at him, but his sword catches the bullets.
Come one, come on! Where the fuck are you already?! Yang yells in her head.
"But I've waited so long for you to be away from them." Blake attempts to escape by swinging down a pole, but Adam breaks it with the energy in his sword. Blake falls back onto the tower and raises Gambol Shroud, blocking his attacks and kicking him back. "Why did you have to come into my life and ruin everything?!"
I've ruined his life?! He's still choosing to be here and haunting mine!
"You stalked me across Anima, I don't want anything to do with your life!" Blake retorts.
She's made this perfectly clear on many occasions. He needs to just let go and move on!
Adam causes her to retreat off the tower and she uses her semblance to get her to the level just below the top of the tower. She aims Gambol Shroud as Wilt and Blush's hilt slams into her head. Adam catches it and Blake uses the tower to swing toward him. The blades clash and Blake grasps the end of his handle as their weapons are connected.
They were cheering for Blake, but it was all internal as they feared if a single thing were said, something wrong would happen to Blake. Yang tries to be a calming presence to Blake as the girl is tense in her seat, but inside Yang's head is a warzone.
Blake jumps onto the railing and uses her semblance to propel herself to the top. Adam appears and grips her neck, pushing her against the railing.
"Blake!" All of them shout. Blake felt like she could feel the pressure on her neck, suffocating her.
"That bastard!" Yang yells.
Blake stamps on Adam's foot and the two fall, crashing into tree branches until they reach the ground.
All of them held their breath, terrified, but some of it was released when Blake's aura didn't break.
Blake huffs as she and him get back up.
More of their breath was let go.
"Let go of the past Adam, do it for yourself."
"Just forget it all? Is that what you did to me? You just threw our memories away?!"
"Adam!"
"Adam!" Both she and her counterpart screamed.
"I let you go once already Blake," Adam places his hand on Wilt and Blush, "I'm never making that mistake again." The two stood before one another, hands on their weapons as everything went black.
Blake felt her heart beating rapidly in her chest, terrified of the fight ahead between her and Adam. Whatever happens, she knows it will forever remain with her.