AN: So, uh, I guess Rooster Teeth is back. Burnie Burns bought the IP back, along with the rights to RvB and Camp Camp, but he explicitly stated that RWBY isn't included since it already got sold off. Not sure exactly what his ownership means in a practical sense, though. We'll have to see. It might just be for the sake of keeping the brand alive.

I wanted to take a chance to shout out my patrons.

Publicist Tier:

CCSecret

Editor Tier:

MegaMann14

If you want to read sneak peeks of upcoming chapters, make sure to subscribe to the P atreon. Sadly, I don't have a new sneek peak ready this time because I had food poisoning this week and couldn't write.

This chapter is a short one just to get through the next plot point from Arrowfell.

Onwards!

Chapter 145

"You wanted to see us, General?" Ruby asked as she and Team RWBL entered his office, the man himself flanked across his desk by Lieutenant Harper and Lightning.

"There you are, team," he said. "Specialist Farron has an update for you on the Fifestone situation."

"We're sorry that we haven't been able to locate him," Ruby said.

"Don't worry about it," Lightning said. "I already arrested him."

"Wait, what?" Tifa asked. "You found him?"

"Well, to be accurate, Robyn Hill's Happy Huntresses are the ones that tracked him down."

"How did they manage to pull that off?" Weiss asked.

"Well, according to Robyn, they were investigating the disappearance of Faunus in Mantle, and it just so happened that he had been kidnapping them to extract their raw fear using his Semblance."

"That's terrible!" Ruby shouted.

"What's even more disturbing is the fact that I hadn't heard about these disappearances," General Ironwood said.

"Robyn suspected that the information was being suppressed somehow," Lightning said.

"Well, it would seem to be consistent with our theory that whoever's the mastermind behind these orbs has help from within the military," Harper said. "If even we hadn't heard about something like this, it's obvious that someone was actively keeping this from us so we wouldn't discover what Fifestone was up to."

"We need to flush this mole out as soon as possible," the general said. "Anyway, Specialist, continue."

"Robyn and her team engaged Fifestone in an abandoned warehouse down in Mantle, and the commotion brought me and a small unit to the area to investigate. When we arrived, they had already subdued him. I would also like to state, for the record, that Yang Xaio Long was also present."

"Yang?" Ruby asked, her ears perking up. "What was she doing there? Is she doing okay?"

"She seems to be fine," Lightning said. "She asked about you. She joined the Happy Huntresses."

"She did?" Ruby asked. "Well, it's a good thing that she has some work."

"Specialist, continue," Ironwood said.

"Right," Lightning said. "As he was apprehended, he insisted that this wasn't what he wanted, and activated some sort of handheld device. We're still not sure what its purpose was, as it didn't seem to be linked to any explosives. Fifestone is currently undergoing interrogation to find out who he works for and what that device was."

"Thank you, Specialist," Ironwood said. "Now, in the meantime, while Fifestone is undergoing interrogation, we need to investigate—" An alarm at his desk caught the general's attention. He quickly stepped behind his desk and pressed a glowing pulsing button. A screen appeared in the air above the desk. He read it for several seconds. "What?!"

"What's happening?" Ruby asked.

"It's an emergency. There's a widespread Grimm attack. Someone or something has unleashed a slew of Grimm throughout Solitas."

"Wait," Blake said. "This must have been what Fifestone did. That remote he activated must have something to do with this."

"It's likely that remote triggered the release of numerous hidden orbs, in turn attracting those Grimm…" Harper said.

"Do we know where they are?" Tifa asked.

Harper stepped behind the general's desk and looked at the display. "The information's a bit hazy, although based on these reports of Grimm activity, we believe there are a total of four hidden orbs."

"Team RWBL, head to Dormir Village," Ironwood said. "According to the reports, that area is the most overrun by Grimm."

"What about the other orbs?" Weiss asked. "We can't be in four places at once."

"Based on reports, it's likely that the others are located in the ruins of Crossed, the Tumak Ruins, and… Mantle."

"Oh, no," Ruby said.

"Team RWBL, your orders stand," Ironwood said. "Go to Dormir and locate that orb. Team JNPR will be assigned to investigate Crossed. I'll send the Ace Ops to Tumak Ruins. Specialist Farron?"

"Yes, sir?" Lightning asked.

"You'll go to Mantle with Specialist Schnee, Penny, and Riku."

"Yes, sir!" she said, saluting him.

"Everyone, move out! Find those orbs and destroy them before the situation gets any worse."


Ruby launched herself into the air and used her Keyblades to slice a Lancer in half. As expected, Dormir Village was in a state of complete chaos when Team RWBL got there. The town had been completely overrun by Grimm, forcing the survivors to seek shelter at a settlement in the outskirts.

"This is terrible!" Weiss shouted as she launched ice shards at a pair of small Beowolves.

"I just don't get what anyone would have to gain from launching Grimm attacks like this!" Blake said, slashing a Sabyr in half with her katana.

"Forget what they have to gain," Tifa said as she punched a hole through an Ursa Minor. "No matter what they'd gain, it can't be worth all this death and destruction!"

"Petalga!" Ruby shouted, launching a wave of razor-sharp rose petals at a small horde of tiny, imp-like Grimm that she recognized as Swindlen. They were swept up in the wave of petals and cut apart, disappearing in the tell-tale puff of smoke from when they die.

"We need to find that orb!" Blake shouted.

"Look!" Tifa said, pointing at a group of Grimm that were quickly moving away from them. "They aren't paying attention to us!"

"Where are they going?" Ruby asked. They watched the Grimm and saw that they were running into a nearby cave. "Is that where the orb?"

"Should we follow them?" Tifa asked.

"It might be too dangerous to go in there," Blake said. "If the orb really is in there, it'll be teeming with Grimm."

"I think I have an idea," Weiss said with a smirk. "Mushu!" she shouted, summoning her little dragon companion.

"Oh, yeah!" he shouted. "What did you need, girl?"

"I need you to go in that cave, look for a metal orb, and bring it back out here."

"Oh, so now I'm running errands for you, is that it?" Mushu asked, crossing his arms indignantly.

"Oh, don't be like that," Weiss said. "The cave is teeming with Grimm, but since you're so small you can slip past them unnoticed."

"Well, when you put it that way…" he said, running into the cave.

"…Is he gonna be okay?" Ruby asked.

"I'm sure he'll be fine," Weiss said.

After several seconds, they heard a high-pitched screaming noise coming from the cave, and saw Mushu running out with the orb held above his head.

"Ah, see? There he is," Weiss said, only to freeze when she saw the horde of Grimm chasing after him.

"I'm starting to think that having him bring the orb that attracts Grimm to us wasn't a great idea," Tifa said.

Weiss sighed. "Agreed. Mushu, throw it!"

Mushu tossed the orb into the air, and Ruby pointed Crescent Rose at it. "Fira!" she shouted, launching a fireball at the orb, destroying it.

"Mission accomplished," Blake said.

"Yeah, but we still have all those Grimm to deal with!" Tifa said, getting into a combat stance.

"You know what to do, girls!" Ruby shouted as the team charged.


"So, remind me again what Ruby and the girls have been up to lately," Nora said as Team JNPR approached the ruins of Crossed Village. "And why we had to come out here to the middle of nowhere."

"According to Lightning, they've been tracking down some kind of conspiracy involving someone using orbs filled with extracted emotions to attract Grimm," Jaune said.

"And they have reason to believe that one of them was used somewhere around here," Pyrrha said. Achilles had been left at the day-care in Atlas Academy, allowing both Jaune and Pyrrha to partake in this mission since Ironwood had indicated that this was an emergency, all-hands-on-deck situation.

"Yeah, okay, I get that," Nora said. "But why would anyone attract Grimm here? Like I said, middle of nowhere. This town was already overrun by Grimm recently, wasn't it? So why what reason could anyone have for attracting them back here? And why have we been left out so far?!"

"Don't know, don't know, and don't know," Jaune said. "While it would've been nice to be included earlier, better late than never I guess. Besides, it was Ironwood that didn't tell us about it, right?"

"Can we focus, please?" Ren asked. "We have a job to do. We need to locate that orb."

The team crossed what was left of the gate to the village, being met with the half-destroyed buildings that had become a very familiar sight for three of them.

"It's just like all those villages we passed in Mistral," Jaune said.

"It's horrible," Pyrrha said.

"We saw this so many times when we were travelling," Nora said. "So why does this seem so much worse?"

"I don't know," Jaune said. "Maybe it's because all of Ironwood and Cordovin's bragging about the superiority of Atlas made it seem like this shouldn't happen here."

"We need to stop this from happening again," Nora said.

"Agreed," Pyrrha said.

The sound of several roars caught their attention. They looked down the street and saw a large group of Grimm gathering.

"Enough talk," Ren said, drawing his weapons. "It looks like we're close to finding the orb."


"How could they?" Winter asked, slashing through a Sabyr as the Grimm alarm blared all around her. As expected, the slum in Mantle that they had been sent to was already in chaos, the streets absolutely teeming with Grimm.

"Why would anyone want to lure Grimm here on purpose?" Riku asked as he launched a fireball at a Beowolf. "They're just getting innocent people hurt."

"We need to find that orb as soon as possible," Penny said as she used her laser to blast a hole through an Ursa Major.

"Obviously," Lightning said as she shot three Creeps. "Hey, Schnee, that makes fifteen."

"Grow up, Farron," Winter said. "Protecting people isn't a competition."

"You're just mad that you're losing," Lightning said.

"…I've killed twenty," Winter said.

"Damn it!"


"Sir, our orb in Mantle has been located and destroyed," Winter reported through James's communicator on his desk.

"Good work, Winter," James said. "When Team RWBL returns to the Academy, I want you to tell them and Lightning to report to my office. There's been a new development."

"Yes, sir," Winter said before ending the transmission.

Before James had an opportunity to relax, the doors to his office suddenly opened, and Jacques Schnee hobbled in, leaning heavily on his cane. James pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Jacques," James said. "I'm not sure how you were allowed in here, but I really don't have time for this."

"You'll make time, you bastard," Jacques said as he walked up to James's desk.

"What do you want?"

"I've heard that my… daughter… has come back to Atlas," Jacques said. "I demand that you return her to me this instant."

"I can't do that."

"You can and you will!"

"In that case, I won't," James said, standing up so he towered over the Schnee patriarch.

"You owe it to me for what we did to that Branwen bitch!" Jacques roared.

"I owe you nothing," James said. "Even if I was inclined to return Weiss to you, which I'm not, I have no legal basis for doing so, as she has made it abundantly clear that she wasn't kidnapped. Even beyond that, she is currently dispatched on an important mission that is a matter of national security."

"Surely you can assign someone to replace her," Jacques argued.

"That's not the only assignment she's on. I need her to be here to keep her teammate under control."

"What do you mean?"

"Her team leader is Aqua's daughter," James said, causing Jacques's face to contort in rage. "I need to keep Ruby under my thumb, and handing Weiss over to you would be detrimental to that. She knows how much you mistreat Weiss."

"I have the right to treat my daughter however I want to!" Jacques yelled. "If she wasn't such a waste of space, I would have treated her better. And if Aqua's daughter is here, why aren't you using her to bring Aqua to justice for what she did to me?!"

"Because Aqua is dead," James said, shocking Jacques. "I made mistakes with how we handled Aqua. Mistakes that Atlas can't afford to make again. Your revenge is out of reach, and I won't have you jeopardize Atlas's safety over your vendetta."

Jacques took several deep breaths. "…I can see that there's no convincing you, as usual. I'll back off… for now. But when I win the council seat, you will return her to me."

"That remains to be seen," James said. "Now, if you wouldn't mind, get out of my office.

Without another word, Jacques turned and hobbled out of the office.

James let out a frustrated breath. Jacques really knew how to be a thorn in his side.

It didn't matter how much power Jacques thought he might have.

He wasn't about to let anything get in his way.

AN: I decided not to really show the other teams besides RWBL actually destroying their orbs because I felt it would have been redundant and my patrons agreed.

The last scene was originally very different. It was originally going to be Weiss being invited to Noctis's place with her team to explain working with Ironwood, but decided not to since he already heard from Yang why. It would have then led to a confrontation between Weiss and Jacques when he stormed in demanding she come back, but I decided to instead have what you see here since I felt like the original scene I had planned didn't really belong as a whole. Which is also what caused this chapter to be so short.

If you want to read sneak peeks of new chapters as I write them, and read finished chapters a week early, join the P atreon at p atreon dot com slash TPoynt.

I wanted to remind everyone that this story has a TvTropes page!

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