EDIT: I am aware that this is a reupload of this chapter. And I know this is the weakest out from the entire story. But truth be told, I want Ash to meet Salem in another time but not during that scene in Volume 7. I know all of you are so disappointed with this decision I made, but it is my choice. Sheesh, I sound like that one infamous game developer of Yandere Simulator and also Vivziepop when it comes to criticism.
I have to admit this isn't exactly perfect. But truth be told, I wanted this story to be much different than others. Yet, there are some areas that I do not enjoy. Sure, the criticism is harsh, and I felt every decision I made to be very disastrous.
Now. Onto the chapter we go!
Dark Souls: Embers of Remnant Volume II
Twenty-Seven
Sudden Schism
Silence filled the atmosphere as Teams RWBY and JNR, and Ash were on board a Mantra going back to the academy along with the Ace Ops. The non-Military Personal could already tell that something wasn't exactly right. "I don't understand." The former Heiress finally spoke, breaking the silence within the aircraft. "Why would the general call us back without giving a reason?"
"Especially with evacuations still going on in Mantle." Ren added.
"You don't have to understand orders, kids. You just have to follow them." Elm assured them while sitting in the co-pilot seat.
"Civvy transports won't be stopping anytime soon. If the general says he needs us now, he needs us now." Harriet added while she piloted the Mantra.
She seemed to bring up a valid point. Although it didn't suit well for the two young teams, they knew the General wasn't exactly a patient man. Now that they thought about it, Jaune knew he had to say something. "You all get to the general and find out what's happening. We'll bring Oscar and see you soon. That also includes bringing your Firekeeper, Ash." He did hear anyone and looked to see where he sat, who seemed to be stressed out by shaking his right foot and his elbows were on his knees. Naturally, this caused everyone to be concerned. "Ash?"
"Hm?" The Unkindled looked up to their facial expression. "Ah, apologize. I was caught in my own thought."
Blake had a feeling she knew what he was thinking about. "Is it because of those humanoid Grimm you call "Dark Wraiths"?"
He nodded back. "Yes. It's been ages since I last thought them. It makes me feel, well…I was taken off guard by it. Never would have thought I'd have difficulties beaten by them," That wasn't the entire truth. Underneath that stoicism he displayed lies a unnerving fear he held from within. All these thoughts on the Abyss and the Darkwraiths, something was definitely not right. And how General Ironwood simply ignored his warning about the Abyss due to, in his own words, not wanting to waste materials to blow up a mine.
Nora can already put up his tone. "You're spooked on seeing more of them, aren't you?" Her voice was that of worry.
The Unkindled chuckled at the orange-haired girl. Normally, she would be the bubbly and eccentric girl when he first met her back in Mistral. But, to hear her serious tone again…he couldn't deflect on her question as he nodded. "You mustn't worry about them, Miss Nora. I can handle them own my own."
The two teams weren't so sure about that. "Are you certain about it?" Ren asked.
The Unkindled nodded in confirmation. "I am. Just worry about what's in front of you. I'll meet you all up once I get the Firekeeper." All of them nodded and soon they were on the landing pads within Atlas Academy.
-Scene Change-
Once they had landed, each went their separate ways. With Ash and Team JNR going to get their friend, Team RWBY went with the Ace Operatives to Ironwood's Office. Upon entering, they saw him sitting behind his desk with his back turned to them as he gazed at the ships through the window. There was a bag on his left side. "General Ironwood," Harrier called out to her Commanding Officer.
A few seconds later, he turned around to face them, and they noticed that his entire left arm was bandaged and slung, with a demoralised look. "We have made a critical error."
His unexpected comment caught all by surprise. Before one could even ask, he placed a solid Black Queen Piece on his desk. "The Black Queen was the symbol Salem showed us before we lost everything. Her way of telling us she was inside. That it was too late." He began to explain. "We stopped Watts. We stopped Callows, but someone was there. They put this in my office to tell me, "Realisation hit him like an oncoming truck and started to panic. "What if Mantle was just a distraction? What if it was just to draw us away from the academy to, to—"
"Sir. I-it's going to be okay." Weiss tried to assure him. "We've got Mantle on our side now, and—"
"How do we know that wasn't part of their plan?" He interrupted as he slammed his remaining hand onto his desk, causing Weiss to be taken by this. She and Ruby looked at him with concern while Blake and Yang tensely stared at him. "How do we know they didn't want us to bring people into Atlas by the thousands?"
" In trying to save everyone, we left ourselves most vulnerable," Vine said in Realisation.
"Salem has been one step ahead of us this entire time!" In this moment of paranoid-fuelled anger, he slams his fist down on his desk, denting it. Due to the impact, the bag and the chess piece lightly bounced, and the latter fell over and rolled across the desk, emitting the characteristic noises of glass. This caught Ruby's full attention. She walks forward and realises what it is. "It's… glass." Now, the Ace Ops looks at the younger leader with uncertainty about her meaning. "Black glass. This was Cinder."
The rest of her team were surprised to hear this. Yang certainly voiced her thoughts out. "She's alive? And she's here?!"
The General sighs at this sudden revelation. "If Cinder's here, then, for all we know, Hazel's here, too! Not to mention another factor in the mines Ash mentioned!"
The look on Ironwood's face and mental state causes Blake to step forward with a few steps. "Sir, this isn't over yet. We're with you." She places a hand on her chest and gives him an encouraging look.
Upon hearing what she declared, the General caused him to look at her before he straightened up. "Are you with me?" Now, he questioned the Faunus with an ominously serious tone.
The Faunus's cat ears fold over at his tone, and the General walks around to stand beside his desk where Watts' bag is. All the while, Vine and Marrow look at him confusedly, with the former calling out to him. "Sir?"
Blake walks backwards to her teammates as they see Ironwood looking at them suspiciously. "How do Robyn and Patches know about the Global Communications Project?"
Tension was rising between him and Team RWBY while the rest of the Ace Operatives watched on the sidelines. Not a single word came from the youngsters. That was until the blonde took a few steps forward and responded while looking at her partner. "We told her," Ironwood knew he had suspicion towards them, making him raise an eyebrow to allow her to continue. "The night of the ambush."
"You did what?!" Elm couldn't believe what she heard. These Huntresses had breached protocol, and she wasn't proud of this revelation.
Yang looks back at her. "We were trying to help." She countered. As this became more of an argument, something moved within the bag.
"By going behind our back?" Marrow spoke, dumbfounded by this revelation.
It popped into Harriet's mind why they failed to capture Robyn in the first place. She walks over to the blonde and lets out a glaring dagger, causing Blake's cat ears to stand up again in the alert. "Wait. Does that mean you let her escape?"
Yang glared at her, not intimidated by her. "Robyn is on our side! She always has been. The same can be said for Ash's friend." Blake's cat's ears folded again as she watched her friend being confronted.
Ironwood wasn't so sure of her words. "We didn't know that for sure. As for Patches, Ash never informed us about him." He started to get suspicious about that strange, infuriating Man who seemed to deflect anything. After all that private talk before Election Day, he'd begun to lose faith in him.
Weiss grip both sides of her head, getting sick of all this commotion. "None of this matters right now!"
"Loyalty always matters!" The General raised his voice, angry that these girls went against his orders.
In a sudden twist of fate, red tentacles spring forth beside Ironwood, who lets out a yelp and quickly moves away. He instantly drew off the pair of Due Process as he aimed at a Seer that somehow emerged from the bag. Everyone else in the room steps backwards with widened eyes. Ruby gasps, Yang raises her fists, and Blake's cat ears prick in alarm. The Seer rises high before the desk, and a familiar female voice emerges.
"General Ironwood." The Seer's tentacles tense and curl up. It eventually trembles and emits a high-pitched screech as its head cracks. Ironwood watches in fear, backing up against a nearby wall with his gun still aimed at the Grimm. It withdraws its tentacles against itself, turns over, and drops to the floor, the red smoke inside of its head fading away. It bounces down the steps, stopping in front of Team RWBY, and black smoke pours from the crack, swirling into the air and forming an apparition of Her. Her voice echoes out from the apparition as it speaks. "The brave Huntsmen and Huntresses bested Arthur Watts. Congratulations."
Almost all were in the state of panic. Ruby remained unfazed and walked forward. "We stopped Tyrian, too. And we'll stop Cinder, and anyone else you try to send here."
Salem looked at the group, not surprised by this revelation. "Dear girl, their goal was never victory. It was merely to set the stage."
Ironwood caught wind of this. He can't help but confusingly utter. "For what?"
Salem's apparition turns its attention at the general. "For me." That made him widened his eyes in terror as she turned towards the others. "The people of Atlas have suffered enough. Surrender the Staff and the Lamp to me, and they needn't suffer any further."
Despite this fear she instilled onto the general, he lowers his gun. Not long after, his eyes were devoid of emotions and his voice hardens. "That's… not going to happen."
The apparition leaned closer to look directly at his eyes. "Simply accept the futility of your situation…And this can all be over." She let out a soft and gentle-looking smile.
"We've seen what you're capable of. The lamp showed us." The smile disappeared from Salem's face. She straightens up and turned her head to look at Ruby, who stared confidently at her. " It showed us everything. We've seen that you can't be killed. But we've also seen you fail." The Grimm Queen stared at her with narrowed eyes before hovering towards the young leader. "We don't have to kill you to stop you. And we will stop you."
Salem felt utterly flattered by those words. Oh, how young and wilfully wise she's gotten. Still, there is one thought that came to mind. "Your mother said those words to me."
This single reveal caused Ruby to lose her confidence. All of a sudden, an image of her mother appeared in her mind. on the cliffside on the island of Patch. A forlorn look is presented on her face. The gloomy setting didn't help. "My… mother?" That us all she could utter as the image of her mother appears further away than before and closes her eyes, her hands clasped together.
"She was wrong, too." Tahe Grimm Queen revealed to her.
This revelation caused the younger leader to cry and quickly lowers her head before pressing her hands to her eyes. In the image within her mind, her own mother standing even farther away, turning her back to Ruby, with the wind howling even harder. Ruby frantically wipes her tears away. Her silver eyes flicker a couple of times before letting out as her eyes emit a brief flash. She let out a whimper while she gripped her head and swaying. Salem watches as Ruby drops to her knees, sobbing and whimpering with her head in her hands. Yang hurries to her sister's side and drops to her knees beside her, and she leans over to rest her head on the brawler's lap. Yang rests her hands on Ruby, looking distraught. Blake kneels down beside her with the tips of her cat ears folded. All the while, Weiss watches her leader breaking down with wide eyes.
As everyone was distracted, Salem then sensed that same feeling as before. "I must say…" She uttered, looking at the scene before her. "It was a perfect opportunity to meet that new acquaintance of yours. Pity. He's not here to see me. Oh well, perhaps I get to meet him another time." With a small smile curled on the left side of her lip, the then fades away, awaiting for what's to time.
Right after she left, the Ace-Ops had let their thoughts come out of their mouths. "That's Salem?! That's who we're up against?!" Marrow couldn't believe what he had just seen.
"And she's apparently on her way." The Speedster added, feeling the same shock as her teammates.
"But we'd be alerted if any forces had approached the Kingdom. We have long-range proximity alarms all along the coast, and—" Elm reminded them…
Before the stoic Operative brought his scroll out to check on something. "They're offline. With all of the chaos, we didn't notice."
The Faunus Operative then realised what had been done. "They're offline. With all of the chaos, we didn't notice.
Ironwood heard what his top soldiers were speaking, and it was his time to speak with his tone being serious. "Or they've already been destroyed." He walks over to the window and stared outside, seeing the ships in the sky and the city below.
"What? All of them?" Elm asked her General in a surprised tone, which he didn't respond.
"You said in your speech that Amity Tower was ready to launch. Was that true?" Blake asked to which he didn't respond and silently stared out the window. This causes her and Weiss to look at one another with uncertainty.
"No. You just said that... to lure out Watts." Yang spoke up as she stood on her feet and looks at the Atlesian General. Like before, he didn't respond.
"General Ironwood?" The Former Heiress spoke, hoping to respond to any of their questions. Unlike before, he finally responded to her after a moment of silence, but…
"I sent your sister to claim the power of the Winter Maiden."
Weiss's eyes widened before letting out a gasp. "What?"
"When I realized we'd been compromised, I knew we couldn't wait any longer." The General responded, coming to the revelation of the current situation they're in. "The Staff and the Lamp have to be locked away." This caused him to tighten his grip around his revolver.
Ruby, having calmed down from before, sat up while rubbing her eyes to remove any tears that remained. " I thought… you said we could keep it."
"Well, that was before you lied to me about the Lamp." Ironwood reminded her, his voice slowly morphing into anger. "Before you lied to us about Robyn, before Salem was right on our doorstep." As he spoke, he turns around to face them before walking forwards to the side of his desk. "Before Mantle was nearly destroyed, and myself and my army were left exhausted. Not to mention, how Ash kept his own secrets from us, including his Firekeeper!" He then lashes out before hitting Watts' bag off of his desk. He takes a moment to calm down and sets his gun on it. "The timeline has changed. And so we must change accordingly." With that he picked the queen chess piece and held within his hands.
Harriet immediately stands up, her loyalty unwavering. "What are our orders, sir?"
"We are going to take our plan for Amity Tower and apply it to the city of Atlas." He revealed his orders before crushing the chess piece with his robotic hand.
-Scene Change-
Footsteps echoed within the long hallway as Ash ran as fast as he could, feeling bad about all this. First were the destroyed Atlesian Knights that lay on the ground, leading to his quarters. Then, it was the atmosphere. He felt a sense of suspense all throughout the academy. He didn't know why, but he'd thought this Safe Heaven would eventually be no more. Despite this, all that mattered was the safety of his close friend, and he would not let history repeat itself.
Approaching the door that led to his quarters, it slid up, and he entered the room. There, he saw that his room was…surprisingly as it was before. Neat and tidy. He realises the Firekeeper isn't here and already knows she is still with Patches. Needed to find the two right now.
Before he could think of where she was, his scroll suddenly blasted. Getting the device out of his pocket, he saw Miss Rose on his screen. Right as he could respond… "Ironwood's declaring Martial Law and abandoning Mantle! Salem is coming, and he will use the Staff to move Atlas. If we don't stop him, then Mantle's going to be dead—" Before she could continue, the call was eventually cut off. The Unkindled then notices that the communication symbol has turned red with a white slash, and the screen displays the word "LOCKED".
Hearing this statement, a sigh escaped through his mouth, feeling both annoyed and dread. That's what he needed; the General had snapped, and now he had declared martial law. The timing surprised him. The enemies were waiting for the right opportunity to strike and cause discord among the group. Damn, just damn! He should have gone with Ruby and her team to reason with him. But he was all too focused on the safety of the Firekeeper. Guess this is the cost of being too dismissive.
"Freeze!"
The Unkindled heard a soldier's voice calling out to him. Turning his head to the left side, he saw two Atlesian Soldiers drawing their guns towards him. "Don't move! You are under arrest for conspiracy against the General and the whole of Atlas! Put your hands up where I can see 'em!" One of the soldiers barked at him.
Ash glances at their side and notices something. His ignoring their command made them tense as the two soldiers had their guns aimed at his head. "Didn't you hear what I said!? I said put your hands up where I can—"
*SWOOSH*
*SLICE*
*THUD*
The heads of the two soldiers fell from their necks right before their bodies dropped onto the ground. The blade from a long-hilted spear with winged lugs sliced through their aura and onto their necks like butter as it coated in blood. Ash eventually saw who had saved him. Needless to say, he wasn't impressed. "Was that really necessary, Patches?"
The other undead chuckled in response as he glanced at the decapitated soldiers before looking back at him. "Eh, they were gonna shoot you, and I might as well save you. Can't leave an acquaintance of mine be cornered. Ironic, isn't it?" He flicked his weapon to remove the blood, though some dried up coating it.
"Yes." The Unkindled, having acknowledged Patches's past actions, noticed how different he had become since their last interaction over who knows how long. Speaking of which, he needed some answers from this trickster in his friend's whereabouts. "Where is Olivia? Wasn't it your responsibility to look after her?"
"I am here, Ashen One. Thou shouldn't be worried." And the voice of his dear Firekeeper came along as she approached the two behind the trickster.
A smile beamed underneath the Faraam helmet. It didn't show his facial expression, but he was glad she was safe. "It's good to see you in good health, my friend. As much as I want to discuss, there isn't much time to do such a thing."
Patches already knew what his Unkindled acquaintance was implying. "Yeah. Seems like General Ironwood finally snapped and decided to enact rather irrationally with his plans." He felt that the three of them were already wanted for their affiliation with Ruby and her cohorts, who opposed his plan.
It was pretty stupid now that he thought about it; then again, those little huntresses and huntsmen wanted to play heroes, so he allowed them to play as one, and now they are all paying the price. At least he knocked some sense into Ash back in that Ringed City.
"I am aware, Patches." Ash nodded before he glanced out of the doorway. "We need to focus on getting out of there and find somewhere safe where the military can find us."
"What about Lady Ruby and her friends, Ashen One?" The Firekeeper interjected her concern to his companions.
The Unkindled looked at her. "They can handle themselves, Olivia. Knowing the training we've been through and the sparring, they can put themselves against the Ace Operatives. But that isn't important right now. What is important is to get you into safety. I fear that Ironwood would only use you as a bargaining chip. Once you are captured by his forces."
"That… isn't what I heard from thee, Ashen One. Thank you for thine concern." Olivia couldn't believe what he was saying. She felt grateful he was worried about her safety.
"I know. Despite our short reunion, I don't want anything happening to you." Ash pointed out his concern, knowing how selfish he sounded.
Patches couldn't help but chuckle at this lovely sight. Ash didn't quite display it, but he showed affection to this blind, fair lady. Perhaps it was his time to barge into their conversation. "If you two don't mind, I know a place where she can go. But only you agree that I should accompany her for now."
The Unkindled was suspicious of what he suggested. Then again, he looked after her when he was with the others fighting the Grimm back in Mantle. As much as he doubted him, there wasn't enough time to dwell upon that, and there weren't more choices he could pick. A silent sigh escaped through his lips as he looked back at him. "Fine. You get to look after her. Just tell me where this hiding spot is before we head to where your ship is docked?"
So, there wasn't any difference aside I made an extension of it to at least make up the reason why Ash didn't go with Ruby and the others. Damnit, I blame myself because I didn't want to have him follow the main cast everywhere. He is his own person, and he should really do his own thing. Guess that is the cost of this decision? Can't really impress everyone.
That aside, I do hope you've enjoyed this newly "reworked" chapter. I'm sorry I couldn't complete volume 2 this year. At least, there is only just two chapters left before moving to the third volume.
It would be better if I have properly planned it out to make it as an Alternative Universe with the suggestions you have. For this reason, I must apologise for being a big disappointment to all of you.
Shouldn't have focused too much on A Hunter's Guide for Running a Hotel and Caboose's Guide to make Friends in Hell. Seems as though I neglected this popular story.
Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed the chapter so far and please GIVE me constructive criticism so I can improve on next time. Other than that, I will see you all in the next update…
I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Let's see what 2025 has in stock for this Dark Souls x RWBY story.