Chapter 41 – To the Sound of Thunderous Applause

In which Weiss Schnee must do her best to slow down a war she may have accelerated.

"Well, uh," Yang calmly noted, "it was worth a shot."

Weiss' scroll, calling her sister Winter, had rung until it went to voicemail – which Winter hadn't set up, meaning no message could be received.

The fate of the world could literally hinge on Weiss being able to speak with her sister. What had started as an attempt at reconciliation had turned into a rather heated argument on interkingdom politics that had concluded in Winter somehow determining that Menagerie was preparing an invasion of Atlas with the goal of eradicating all humans. It might've sounded absurd if not for the fact that Winter was now fully on board with James Ironwood's insane belief that all Faunus had joined hands and were plotting the downfall of their beloved floating city.

Weiss considered texting her and decided that it was, again, worth a shot. Leaving a series of long-winded messages explaining how there was no secret plot against Atlas, she crossed her fingers and hoped with all her heart that the notification would appear that they had been read.

Two hours later, it still hadn't.

"Maybe she just put down her scroll," offered Ruby.

"I just don't know…"

"Let's give her a chance to read the messages before we do anything drastic," said Blake. "One day won't mean the difference between a good Menagerian defense or not, but it could be enough to make it so the island doesn't need one."

If that didn't work, they would go to someone and tell them what they knew. The Belladonnas, certainly, and perhaps Weiss' father, but Weiss also had another idea about who might be interested in knowing. So far, she'd only ever seen one man consistently reign in the iron general of Solitas, and even if the chances of him being able to do it again were slim, Headmaster Ozpin might just be able to work out another miracle.

Team RWBY marched into the Amity colosseum alongside the other thirty teams (Team Sun had been disqualified after their money Faunus leader had attempted to bribe the judge using a humungous pile of money). With their decision to wait it out being unanimous, there was nothing for them to do save for go about their daily business, and that meant attending the Vytal Festival Tournament opening ceremony, the one they'd practiced for yesterday.

As the headmasters had promised, the stickers were gone this time, and Weiss had to find her spot from memory. To her great surprise, Ruby didn't need any help locating her own, apparently having paid more attention than Weiss expected.

Ruby saw her surprised and opened her mouth to whisper, but Weiss minutely shook her head. The eyes of the world were on them at the moment, and not even a single hair could be out of place. Getting caught passing messages during the ceremony could be ruinous.

…assuming there was still a world by the time the ceremony ended.

"Thank you all for coming!" Ozpin proudly declared from his pronounced podium, with the Beacon professors and a lonely Headmaster Ironwood behind him to his left and right respectively. Winter was noticeably absent from the lineup, making the scene far less balanced than it had yesterday.

Perhaps we won't be here for the full hour and forty-five minutes if my sister is out planning a war instead of delivering her speech.

As Ozpin began his opening remarks, word for word the same material from yesterday's practice run, Weiss began to wonder just how much international unity was being generated by this tournament. If a second Faunus War broke out during it, the kingdoms would probably never be able to see the floating colosseum with the same hope and wonderment as before. It was already consecrated by the blood of the Great War veterans; adding more would forever sully it.

He knows that too, so he might be holding off until the tournament ends, but there's also a decent chance he just doesn't –

"Fuh…F-FIRE!"

The sudden shout came from within the arena, and Weiss' head snapped over to it. Ozpin's speech paused as screams began to ring out from within audience and participant body.

Just as described, the feet of Jaune Arc were somehow on fire, and Weiss had to truly wonder for a moment or two how that oaf had bungled up the opening ceremony so poorly. That worry lasted only for a few seconds, though, as suddenly the shoes and sandals of several other students suddenly caught fire as well.

No – it's not the students. They're stepping away, and the fire's remaining in the same pattern. It's the ground!

She was the leader of Team RWBY, and their safety was her only concern. Pushing Ruby back, Weiss spread out her wings to catch Yang and Blake and usher them away from the flames as well, only to realize that they weren't spreading.

It's…are those shapes?

The fires continued to burn, but only on select patches of ground. Within seconds, Weiss realized that this was no random conflagration. A pattern had been formed in some sort of combustible fluid or powder, and it had been set to go off only when the students were present – when the eyes of the world were on Amity.

"Call the fire department!" cried Ozpin, speaking to his deputies and professors even though his microphone was still on. "We have a division inside the colosseum – get them, NOW!"

All students had finally run out of the path of the flames, and the remaining few whose articles of clothing had been set ablaze by the fire were now in the process of putting themselves out with the aid of their teams. However, the burning pattern was starting to become clearer.

Weiss recognized letters, and she absolutely recognized the White Fang crest that was burning.

It would be best viewed from above (which the world could probably see with the aid of the camera set about throughout the stadium for maximum coverage of the upcoming games), but Weiss could still read the message.

HUMANITY WILL

NEVER BE EXTINGUISHED

Weiss had heeded Adam's warnings when he'd given them, but she hadn't realized just how right he'd been about this up and coming terrorist group being dangerous. For them to infiltrate this place, which boasted the world's best security and was literally crawling with huntsmen and huntresses, and to set this up…

Anthrosurgent truly is professional.

She looked down at the word 'Extinguished' written in flames.

And quite poetic, too.

"That's enough of that," Weiss said to no one in particular.

Unhooking Myrtenaster from her belt, Weiss took a few flaps to get some altitude and then send out a blustering gale using with Wind Dust stored withing to blow out as many of the flames as she could. Several of the letters went out, including the entire second and fourth word in the line, but all of them immediately came back up when her stream of air ended.

I'm not giving up just yet. It's my people they're targeting; it's my kind they want to remove from Remnant. I refuse to let them project their platform on this platform.

Switching to Ice Dust, she sent a glacial wave of frost down onto the area. That didn't cover up as much of the message, as the wind attack had had a wider range, but the effects of the frost seemed to be more permanent and decisively cancel out whatever source of combustion was creating the otherwise unending flames (for this was no ordinary Fire Dust).

Taking care to not start with the word 'Never,' Weiss tilted her sword and began individually erasing the letters from the ground with sustained blasts of frost. She didn't have enough crystals in her rapier to remove the White Fang logo that was scorched into the ground, but since that symbol was originally her own and had only been stolen by the enemy, she felt comfortable leaving it to the fire department, who'd finally arrived when she was just about running on empty.

The world may be watching, but you don't get to choose what they get to see. That's the downside of working out of the shadows like cowards, you terrorist scum.

Her work completed, Weiss descended out of the air from which she'd been hovering about to see that her team, as well as several familiars from Beacon (JNPR and CRDL among them), were clapping for her. She was used to the limelight, but realizing that her little act of defiance had quite literally placed every pair of eyes on the planet onto her for that moment made her blush slightly.

The cheering was augmented by several transfer teams, and Weiss noticed the four Vacuoan women from before were probably the second loudest. The knowledge of their support made her a little bit more comfortable. Of course, the most noisy applause came from none other than Adam Taurus and the Menagerian athletes, who were whistling and going absolutely wild.

It was noteworthy that none of the Atlesians seemed to be cheering.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the team from two days ago had a hand in this. They seemed to despise me and all Faunus for being on the wrong side of their own made-up divide, and they were willing to take action.

But that was for the authorities to determine. For now, Weiss just rejoined her team, did her best to ignore the many pats on the back from well-meaning friends (now wasn't the time to insist on being asked first), and smiled for the cameras.

For, even though the world was watching, so was Father.

"May we?"

Weiss nodded, pleased that her teammates hadn't forgotten her wishes in the heat of the moment.

Ruby tackled her with a broad hug, while Yang slammed her on the back so hard that she nearly toppled over. Blake just gave Weiss a little kiss on the cheek, smirking at her.

"Good show, chicken wings."

"Thanks, kitty cat."

Out of curiosity, Weiss glanced up to the podium where Ozpin and Ironwood had been, curious to see their reactions.

Ozpin himself wasn't looking her way, instead turned to face Glynda and focused on coordinating the emergency response efforts together. However, Ironwood was staring directly at Weiss. And to her great surprise, he wasn't glaring.

He looked confused.

The opening ceremony and speeches were delayed for the day, and all of the students who'd been affected by the first were sent to Beacon's nurse in order to have them checked for wellness. Although Weiss had put it out, she hadn't actually been bitten by any of the flames, so there was no need for her or any member of Team RWBY to go.

Instead, they'd return to their dorm rooms to figure out exactly what was going on.

"Was that Atlas?" Yang asked, for once being the innocently naïve one instead of Ruby.

"No," Weiss said with all the authority she could muster. "It was not Atlas."

"There are people out there, people who don't like…us." Blake shifted in her chair. "Faunus us, that is."

"We know about that, you guys. But who are these people?"

"It's that evil villain group, isn't it?" Ruby asked. "Anthro-sturgeon, was it? I think you two talked about it once."

"Anthrosurgent?" Yang repeated. "The one Adam mentioned."

"They're the only anti-Faunus hate group with the skills and means to pull off such a stunt."

"But you foiled them all easy-like…and Adam said they were good!"

"Good enough to get undetected access to the Amity Colosseum and carve their message onto it for the entire world to see," Blake pointed out. "Weiss may have stopped them, but it's impossible to make a fire that can't be put out by something. The fact that it resisted her Wind Dust is already impressive. But the bigger problem is that they're either the stealthiest motherfuckers to ever live, or they have an inside man who's giving them access to the colosseum."

"A spy?" Ruby asked. "I bet it's Ironwood."

Weiss shook her head. She was letting Blake do the talking because she was so deep in thought, but that didn't change the fact that it wasn't Ironwood.

"It may not have been him, but he probably agrees with their cause," said Yang, frowning at the thought of the man.

Again, Weiss shook her head for no.

Ironwood had been surprised. Not surprised that it had happened…well, probably surprised by that…but the thing that had truly enraptured him was probably the fact that his little invasion was out of line.

He and Winter truly bought their own propaganda and thought that things were hunky-dory for the Faunus, and since everyone was nice to Faunus, the fact that the White Fang was out there preaching to and fighting on behalf of the everyfaunus made them think something was awry. After all, if no one was out to get them, why would a pro-Faunus activist group not just disband?

But now Ironwood had seen with his own two eyes definitive proof that there was out to get them. Weiss wagered that he had been entirely sure in his convictions – sure enough, according to Winter, to schedule an upcoming war over it.

Was this to be the change they needed? Would Winter finally pull her head out of Ironwood's ass and smell the roses? Would Atlas actually change because of this?

I'm getting my hopes up over a facial expression. I need to calm down.

Weiss quickly pulled out her scroll and checked for new messages from winter.

There weren't any, but her lengthy speeches about Faunus rights and their ongoing need for protection had been marked as read. Weiss doubted that they'd been fully read from start to stop, but it was proof that Winter had seen them and knew they were there.

A new message had arrived, however. It was from the Beacon school account, which was used for professional notifications – scholarship and enrollment approvals, school closure due to inclement weather, that sort of thing. Weiss had been summoned to the headmaster's office at her earliest convenience.

The timestamp on the note said 10:27am, and it was currently 11:02am. Thus, Weiss rose to her feet. Then, she immediately sat back down.

I can't just rush in. This is big; it's the kind of thing where I'd kick myself in the future for not preparing right now.

Ozpin would be there, and Ironwood too, almost assuredly. Presumably, they were interested in her because she had put out the fires, and they would wish to know if she'd seen any details that could point them in the direction of the perpetrators.

Nothing springs to mind. The handwriting was too broad to recognize, and the fire looked like normal fire if not for the fact that it simply didn't go out at first. Just because I extinguished the flames doesn't mean I caught something that the millions of other eyes didn't.

"Ladies," Weiss said at last, rising up once again.

Blake had been explaining the history of Atlas and its disregard for the Faunus at that point, but this was probably more important, or at least a higher priority in terms of what needed to be done first.

"The headmaster has summoned me to his office."

"K, Schnee." Yang turned her back and began to rummage through her bag. "Lemme just grab my ascot first."

"You…uh…you weren't ordered to come," Weiss said, not entirely sure if that was what Yang was implying. "Just me."

"Yeah, don't care."

"We're coming with, Weiss," said Blake. "Wouldn't miss it for the world."

Weiss briefly considered putting up more of a fight, but the truth was that she could use the support, and she probably needed to save her energy in case the real fight began in Ozpin's office.

For the first time in who knew how long, Weiss entered into a room with James Ironwood in it and wasn't greeted by vicious, frothing-at-the-mouth rage.

"Ah, Miss Schnee. Thank you for joining us…in a timely fashion."

"Yang needed to find her ascot." Weiss nodded. "I'm sure you understand."

The huntress in question shot Weiss a scandalized look at being thrown under the bus, but if she insisted on coming when she wasn't invited, she could expect to be used as cannon fodder.

"Your team's presence isn't truly –"

"Let them stay, James," said Ozpin, waving a hand from his desk. He was standing at the front of it, perched over it and peering through some rustled papers on the top. "It's not as though their presence will be any impediment."

"Oz…"

"James, you're the one about to eat crow, and I'm not talking about Ruby's uncle. I'll be deciding who stays and who goes." Ozpin straightened up in front of his desk. "This is my office, after all."

The fact that Ironwood then immediately conceded without any argument was a good sign, as was the fact that Ozpin had suggested he was about to be apologizing. Honestly, if it weren't for a healthy fear of getting her hopes up, Weiss might be tempted to be feeling optimistic about this meeting.

"I presume this is for my testimony?" Weiss asked. "Regarding the attack?"

"I'd hesitate to call it an…" Ironwood stopped midsentence. A hand went to his face, and his rubbed both eyes at the same time. "Yes. It is about the attack."

"We'd specifically like to know if you, in your capacity as a huntress of Beacon, heiress of the SDC, or member of the White Fang, have any clues you'd be willing or able to share regarding the identity of the perpetrators, Miss Schnee."

Weiss nodded. "I believe it was Anthrosurgent."

"There is no…there can't be!" Ironwood exasperatedly exclaimed, but there was a difference in his shout this time. Weiss had always known him to be a force of nature, entirely convinced of what he knew he knew. However, now there was a certain lethargy to his shouting – he sounded like he lacked the energy to truly argue his case.

"There is, General," said Blake. "The White Fang has been combatting them for months now, or perhaps longer."

They were discussing privileged information here, stuff that Adam and Ghira had told them in private, but Weiss presumed that convincing the general who could call in or off an invasion force with a single word took precedence over breaches of trust.

"But there can't be!" Ironwood shouted. "Atlas has looked for them! This isn't like my usual arguments with your fathers, Misses Schnee and Belladonna – I don't treat threats with levity. I ordered investigations. I put my best men and women on the case. I had them scour the globe for any trace of terrorist activity, and they found nothing! Not one scrap! Anthrosurgent is a boogeyman – online forums and scattered whispers that will never amount to any real action!"

Mirroring Ozpin from before, Ironwood bent over the desk in anguish.

"It felt like real action when they burned their message into the colosseum, James."

"I…it's not…"

It was the age old problem of someone who was entirely sure in their beliefs being confronted by direct proof to the contrary. Ironwood believed that discrimination was over, just as many racists had believed that Faunus couldn't be intelligent. And like a debate with the Belladonnas had disproved the theories of the latter, the attack on the Vytal Tournament was contradicting the belief on which Ironwood had justified a war.

"Sir, if I may be frank."

Ironwood let out a breath and nodded for Weiss to continue.

"Sir, I've heard that Atlas believes the White Fang only exists as a front for an upcoming attack on Atlas."

Ironwood's head up and turned towards Weiss in alarm, while Ozpin's turned to watch his fellow headmaster closely.

"How did you…"

"And I'm also led to believe that Atlas is on the verge of conducting a pre-emptive strike in order to quell this hypothesized aggression before it can begin."

There was a silence in the room now that everyone had laid out what they knew. Weiss was beginning to wonder if Yang and Ruby weren't regretting their choice to come along, given how high stakes this had become.

"James," Ozpin breathed. "You cannot do this."

"It was only a series of drills and some accelerated productions schedules, Oz." Ironwood tore himself away from the desk and aggressively paced towards the window overlooking Vale, using looking out of it as an excuse to not face the room. "No pre-emptive strikes."

"Drills on how to what? Invade Menagerie? Invade the kingdoms to exterminate their Faunus population?"

That made Ironwood turn back around. "No! Of course not! How could you even accuse me of that?"

"How could I ever accuse you of building up a fleet for the express purpose of war? And not against the Grimm, but against civilian targets?!"

The uniformed generals scoffed. "They're hardly civilians."

Blake cleared her throat. "85% of the White Fang's membership is civilian volunteers."

"And of the remaining 15% career members, only a quarter have their aura unlocked," Weiss added. "We aren't military."

Ironwood waved a hand dismissively. "Falsified statistics. No military would ever present their strength."

"Aaaaaand I assume that was determined by the same Atlesian analysts who also were sure the Anthrosurgent isn't real and Faunus aren't marginalized?" Weiss asked.

That shut the general up.

"Sir, with all due respect, it sounds like a lot of your analysis is conjecture based on deductive reasoning. How many of these statements, which, might I remind you, determine policy for your kingdom, are based in definitive proof?"

"Miss Schnee, it's well known that every pre-war kingdom in history has exaggerated its numbers in total and among aura-users by between 30-50%. All four kingdoms before the Great War, Mantle before the Faunus Wars –"

"So you're still just sure, then." Weiss bit her lip. "As you were sure Torchwick was innocent and I his murderer."

Weiss was now playing a dangerous game, bringing that up when technically speaking a Schnee had ordered it, but there was no going back now. She had the full attention of Ironwood, and she would never get a chance like this to change his mind again.

Ironwood ran a hand through his hair. Combined with his desperate voice, it made him a picture of madness. "The investigation uncovered some…alarming revelations, true, but that's entirely different!"

"James," Ozpin said again. "You saw the video from the attack, as did I. You have to know this isn't right."

"It's inconclusive, headmaster," he said, now sounding irate. "And it wasn't an attack."

Ozpin angrily turned his computer monitor around and tapped his mouse, playing the video that was already pulled up. Presumably, that meant he and Ironwood had been reviewing it before Team RWBY had arrived.

"Ozpin, you can't be thinking of showing it in front of –"

"I've half a mind to broadcast it across the entire damn world if that's what it takes to get these ideas of war out of your head!"

The video showed…

Weiss might've gasped if it weren't so predictable.

The video was of the responses of Atlesian teams to the arson from earlier today. Weiss had been in the air, and she only had one pair of eyes, so she hadn't been able to catch it in person, but the thousands of cameras catching every angle of the stadium in preparation for the upcoming fight had.

Uniformed students, sometimes even full teams, were scowling or sometimes even booing at Weiss as she had descended from the skies following her extinguishing of the flames. The noise of the applause drowned out any sound from these teams, but Weiss could clearly tell from their expressions just how they had felt about her actions.

"As I said, we can't draw conclusions from it without interviewing the teams first. Perhaps they were expressing disapproval of the message."

"James."

"They could have misinterpreted Miss Schnee's actions as some anti-human sentiment – a desire to extinguish humanity, as the perpetrators fears."

"James."

"Or perhaps they merely dislike Miss Schnee for personal reasons, or because of her father, or due to her ties with the White Fang –"

"James." Ozpin removed his glasses. "They were booing. They were very clearly booing at Miss Schnee for the express purpose of disapproving of her actions, and I don't want to have to rewind the video to see what their responses were when the message in the flames became clear."

Because they were cheering when they saw the White Fang logo. Ironwood's own students were cheering for terrorism.

"And you know it," she said softly.

The occupants of the headmaster's office didn't know her thoughts prior to that accusation, but they were all smart enough to tell what she meant.

"Yes," Ironwood said at last, slumping his shoulders downward. "Yes. I do."

They also do say accepting the problem is the first step to recovery.

"Ladies, I think our testimony has been given," Weiss said to her team. "Headmasters…is there anything else you need from us?"

Ozpin opened up a cabinet from the side of the room and removed two cups and a dark glass bottle. "No, Miss Schnee, and we didn't explicitly need your team here in the first place."

That was true. He'd needed her here, to serve as a vessel to convey disbelief at Ironwood's refusal to accept logic, a purpose she'd gladly served.

"There is one thing," Ironwood said as he defeatedly took a seat.

Weiss paused in her tracks. "Yes?"

"Just…Winter, she will be apologizing. Please try to at least consider it."

"An apology that's been ordered from her superi–"

"Not like that," he said. "I just know she will. All I ask is you give her a chance."

Would Weiss give her a chance? On the one hand, the horrid business with Whitley had taught her the importance of forgiving family. On the other, Winter had been preparing for war with innocent people solely on assumptions.

"I will consider it, provided it is earnest," Weiss decided on.

With that final word, she joined her teammates in the elevator. The last sight she got as the door closed was of Ironwood's head shaking slowly while Ozpin poured him a drink.

"So they aren't going to war?"

Weiss shook her head. "Probably not. Nothing's ever for sure, but you saw the way Ironwood was acting in there."

"Do we tell Mom and Dad?" Blake asked.

"Only if you're willing to explain the full sequence of events to them," Weiss said. "If they're to know, they need to know that disaster has, hopefully, been averted."

Blake took out her scroll and opened their dormitory's door. "I'll handle it."

Weiss really did hope this would be the end of this nasty interaction with Atlas. She'd had more than enough of their superiority complex for an entire lifetime, and if she never had to deal with another Atlesian soldier (save for the one to whom she was related), she'd shed no tears.

But unfortunately, with the end of one problem came the inception of a new one.

Anthrosurgent has a way into Amity Colosseum, and they're confident enough to announce it to the entire world and get security shored up. Something tells me that their grand plan wasn't some minor arson that I easily put out after a minor kerfuffle. Something's coming, something big. I can feel it in my wings.

That was a problem for later, though. Stopping terrorists wasn't Weiss' job. Being a leader to her team, however?

"Ruby, how do you feel about some more tutoring? It's been a while since we've had our last session?"

Ruby threw back her head and grunted in relief. "Oh, thank the gods, because I have not been getting what the heck Oobleck has been saying about Mistral and the whole noble houses thing."

It felt like ages since Ruby's impassioned declaration to quit from Beacon, but that didn't mean that it wasn't something Weiss needed to keep addressing. While world-ending disasters like second Faunus Wars and tournament sabotage might have seemed important, there were others to take care of that, but no one else had a responsibility to see to her team's well-being like Weiss did.

Next Chapter: Team Effort

In which Weiss Schnee refunds Ruby Rose for an ill-thought-out equine acquisition.

Author's Notes

About time Anthrosurgent did something, given that we've been waiting for the entire fic to actually get a taste of them. To be fair, Yang and drama itself was the antagonist of V1, and Roman spent most of V2 being a bother, so it's sort of like the final boss getting a little extra buildup rather than not appearing until the end.

Before people rush to throw me under the bus as a V8 apologist, let the fic progress and you might actually see that Ironwood won't be some raging alcoholic. He does possess a sense of reason and can see when to back down. Just like how Jacques is a villain protagonist, Ironwood is a hero antagonist - he opposes Weiss and her team, but only because he genuinely didn't believe in the threat that was faced. When shown proof otherwise, he changes his mind and his policy (begrudgingly, but given his semblance which actually is canon in this fic, that's significant). What more could you ask for from a leader?

We will eventually get some measure of closure on some of the earlier issues like Ruby's mental health and trouble fitting into Beacon. It's just going to be sprinkled in every now and again, with a crescendo at the end.

Happy rats, and don't do crime!