Fandom Shattered Hourglass [IC] [CLOSED]

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

If Yang, Ruby and Blake thought their morning was going weird so far, or that it was shocking when the unconscious form of Glynda Goodwitch was dragged in and tossed in one of the adjacent cells-

There was indeed some surprise on Blake's face as she saw Goodwitch was hucked into a cell like a common criminal, and she turned to face Yang with a frown. "Is she part of Oz-"

"-Nnnope." Yang replied, looking not at all surprised despite the negatory-

"...Is that... Salemsheeee DOESN'T HAVE A FACE!"

"H-huh?!"

"Gnarly."

Blake's reaction was visceral, her face (which for the first time of her life she considered thankful for still being there) going pallor, her pupils dialating, and her stomach roiling, a specific section of Yang's retelling immediately shooting to the forefront of her thoughts.

Yang, again, didn't look surprised, just tired as she studied Salem's face or lack thereof like she was trying to create a new baseline of judgement for those schlocky horror movies she sometimes liked to throw on for team movie night. After a beat she glanced up to whoever the hucksters themselves happened to be to ask a question she had like, zero belief was getting answered she just wanted to say it out loud.

"So are you all still on the 'we're the good guys' train or what? Pretty bad look here."

Blake forced herself to look away in favor of the floor, already rattled enough by everything else this morning as she shook her head.

"This is... really bad guys. I thought- Winter didn't seem to- Is Atlas already turned? Ironwood?"

"Nah." Yang said as she flopped onto her back again.

"Jimmy just loves doing the bad guys work for them apparently."

 

[MidwayLives]

Callows and Vine... he didn't even know what was going on there other than that Vine appeared to be getting the worst of it, to such an extent that Ironwood felt compelled to squeeze off the rest of his magazine from his ebony piece into the faunus' upper back and skull just to get the Ace Op out from under him. The more cowardly of the fugitive group's two illusionists, from what he could surmise, had disappeared with her wounded partner into the shroud of fog and mist that enveloped the room from the joint efforts of Hazel, Arthur, and the Fall Maiden, and Watts himself...

Tyrian was an absolute MENACE.

His tail swung around wildly, smashing into the wall, shattering any windows that happened to be too close.

All while he loomed over Vine, his eyes all aglow, as he continued to lash out like a violent animal. Throwing punch after punch, eroding away at the operative's aura in the process and leaving it like swiss cheese with the areas that Tyrian had wrought with his semblance.

From the minute things kicked off, it became apparent they weren't dealing with run of the mill children who'd balk when the authorities they mocked and defied actually stepped up and did something. They'd fight back and fight back they did. But every time Tyrian fought, there was always the gamble that it'd be for the sheer thrill of it all or because someone had gone and pissed him off. While Vine specifically wasn't to blame for Salem's temporary outage or really anything that'd happened in the last five or so minutes. It didn't matter. He'd made the mistake of getting in Tyrian's way right before things sparked and had made himself a target.

"GRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!"

Tyrian thrashed and fought against whatever aura constructs were pushed against him, his tail reared up to strike...

*BANG BANG*

The faunus was thrown back, dropping down to slam his blades into the floor, ripping up the tiles in the process as he staggered. Those weren't shots from a water gun. They'd hurt and if his aura hadn't been up, they could very well have risked splattering him like it'd been done to Salem. Turning to face Ironwood, Tyrian slammed the length of his tail against the floor and prepared to pounce-

"—if he wings one of you at this distance it might be survivable. It might not be. Frankly, the tech's too new to say. Which is to say, the only person who can guarantee the continued safety of you and your friends is yourselves."

His wrist comm started beeping, the precise tone one Watts recognised as a much more analog piece of tech than anything he could hack into resembling a pager; most often used by Atlesian operatives throughout their history's various wars to communicate simple messages at long range; most commonly, 'it's done'.

"Which you're going to, right now, by tossing your weapons and getting down on your knees. Otherwise—"

He silenced the monotonous chime with the flick of a button, before bringing up a more modern interface and swiping down on a bar until it was lowered to about half.

"—your partner is going to hit the ground in about thirty seconds. And I'm not going to let Penny catch her."

She wasn't going fast enough.

She looked down in shock as her boosters suddenly began to decrease, and her requests for communications became brute force efforts to make them open, to both Ironwood's personal communications and Clover's own, electronic signals forwarded with her voice in simul

"General, my systems are malfunctioning!, Ci- the Maiden is going to, w-we have no confirmation of current thoughts-//Specialist Clover DO NOT ENGAGE FURTHER, IMMEDIATE RESCUE EFFORTS CINDER FALL'S SAFETY IS MEANT TO BE A PRIORITY-"

No one was answering her fast enough, she still wasn't going fast enough. Her blades went out before her, skewering buildings and trees and yanking her forward as impromptu grapples, but it still wasn't enough-

"Cinder...?"

It was as though you'd stuck a pin in him.

All the anger dissipated and transformed into fear and concern. He ran a hand over his head.

'CINDER! CINDER! COME BACK!!! COME BACK!!!!!!'

The sounds of him bashing his head against the tree until blood ran down his face. It all echoed throughout the depths of his mind. A violent and disturbed reaction to Cinder leaving. What kind of one would he have if she were to leave in a more permanent fashion?

He didn't want to find out.

"Cover."

The order was monotone for how furious and scared he felt, as he spun behind Hazel back to back and brought up his rings, trusting his teammates (guest starring Gretchen) to do everything they could while his mind raced. No chance of hacking the device; it went directly through to Penny he imagined, and for all of Arthur's own genius, Pietro Polendina was in a league of his own. Even with the pieces of her schematics that had been the basis for phylactery, there was absolutely no chance of him getting through her system in a day, let alone the ten seconds it'd have to be to matter at all. There was genuinely no way for him to save Cinder by himself.

Unless he didn't have to

Before he could throw his life away in what very likely would have been a suicide attempt to take down Ironwood on his own...

Tyrian heard his team leader's orders and moved to stand beside him. His blades and tail up and at the ready.

He'd take on all comers and fight ANYONE who got too close. He'd always tried to avoid using his stinger unless absolutely necessary. But in a case like this...?

She just ignored him from then on, giving Raven's prone form a kick to send it tumbling further into the manta instead of out the other way. She gripped the handhold above the exit, planting her foot against the metal wall for balance and sending a brief glance Roman and Neo's way as they used her kusarigama to pull the last of the students they'd initially left behind aboard. Hazel's fat fucking ass took a little longer, obviously.

That glance proved costly as Ironwood immediately noticed a flicker in the corner of his eye, and her own pupils dilated as she saw him turn and start striding for the office windows through the dissipating fog. "Shit. Merc, let's jet! Watts, call Cinder and figure out where we're picking her up!"

It was probably a good thing for her concentration that she hadn't been around to witness that whole crisis go down, all things considered. She kept her focus on the illusion as Mercury banked the manta hard to the left, leaned forward on the throttle with a horrifying gurgle that was probably supposed to be some cool line or other, and tore off across the sky.

It was about as frantic and dramatic as escaping from the military was ever going to be.
They could still have been shot down out of the sky, maybe there was somebody with a teleporting semblance that could still mess things up? Wouldn't be a whole lot of room to fight and shoot off weaponry inside there. But it was an escape all the same. Pulling himself onboard, his body awash with sweat and, well, actually there wasn't much blood on him this go around. Either his or anyone else's as he'd been far enough away to avoid being splattered with Salem brain bits and bogs. Wrapping his tail around his waist, Tyrian gripped at both of his knees and exhaled.

In what he saw.

Eventually, his scroll beeped as something whizzed up to their radar and right up to their back shortly after. He stood up and called to whoever had the wheel at this point to slow down, then walked to the back and activated the ramp.

Cinder did enter the manta, but she did it still in Penny's careful arms instead of her own power. The maiden was probably conscious by now, windblasted as they both were en route, but Penny was initially silent to her as she didn't meet anyone's eyes as she instead stared down with a look of deep shame. She hovered in to land and gingerly handed Cinder over to Watts who definitely didn't stumble at first because he didn't lift but definitely did just sort of stand there awkwardly and hoped Cinder was ready to stand sooner rather than later before she took a step back and clasped her hands in front of her.

"...I would understand if you all would like me to leave now."

"Wait!" In fact she got out of them in a hurried rush nearly immediately, and just as quickly fell over, still too out of it to stand totally stable on her own. Yet she was determined and she rushed to scramble back up to her feet as best she could and lunge at Penny in a fierce hug. "Don't go." Her eyes shut again, but this time it wasn't out of a desire to not see something but rather something she didn't want anyone else to see...namely the tears building in her eyes now. "Thank you Penny. I owe you...everything."

Tyrian had never really been much of a people person. He could hold a conversation here and there and obviously enjoyed the company of his peers. But there wasn't much room when it came to dealing with his emotions. He was either on full tilt or a screaming emotional wreck. He would have most certainly been on here if things had just been the slightest bit different. He liked Penny and was ordinarily happy to see her.
But today was different.
He kept his tail where it was and relaxed his blades. As Watts instructed him and Hazel to go find secure trappings to restrain the Manta's original crew, Tyrian turned and skulked off. He was glad Cinder would be okay but he had to move lest he lose whatever delicate hold he had on his temper.
bvc

His eyes were nearly as black as night as they roved over the various skirmishes taking place, able to determine at a glance which way they were likely to go. Harriet had been forced to retreat from the tandem offense of Neopolitan and Torchwick, a level of camaraderie existing between two Mountain Glenn survivors that she had simply never brought enough of herself to her job to develop with any of her comrades that could've helped her, bar maybe Tortuga. He made a mental note to stop delaying the inevitable and finally have that talk with her about her habits ever since the tortoise faunus's death. How she didn't take pride in her work anymore; How she just didn't appear to care.

Ironwood's take was generous and had he been able to read minds, Roman would have felt flattered.
As it stood in reality, Roman was more than just a little relieved that Harriet had moved on rather than settled up with him for a 1x1 brawl. He'd have given it his all and extra but the chances of him taking down an Ace Ops wasn't within his wheelhouse. Unless he just picked up everything in the kitchen sink and buried Harriet under it. Actually, the more he thought about it-

The moment Mercury disappeared, Neo did as well, her form suddenly shattering under the hail of fire instead of assailing Hush's defense. A few seconds later, Roman did as well, a hand over his mouth to cover whatever (extremely manly she'd assure him later) yelps of surprise that brought on, leaving team WTGH alone in the office against the arrayed might of Atlas' best.

"AAAA-mrphm!"

Lots of things were happening very fast.

She just ignored him from then on, giving Raven's prone form a kick to send it tumbling further into the manta instead of out the other way. She gripped the handhold above the exit, planting her foot against the metal wall for balance and sending a brief glance Roman and Neo's way as they used her kusarigama to pull the last of the students they'd initially left behind aboard. Hazel's fat fucking ass took a little longer, obviously.

That glance proved costly as Ironwood immediately noticed a flicker in the corner of his eye, and her own pupils dilated as she saw him turn and start striding for the office windows through the dissipating fog. "Shit. Merc, let's jet! Watts, call Cinder and figure out where we're picking her up!"

It was probably a good thing for her concentration that she hadn't been around to witness that whole crisis go down, all things considered. She kept her focus on the illusion as Mercury banked the manta hard to the left, leaned forward on the throttle with a horrifying gurgle that was probably supposed to be some cool line or other, and tore off across the sky.

Given his current position and the current situation, he probably could have thought up something snappy and catchy like:
'Need a lift?' 'Catching a ride?' 'Buckle up'
But the gravity of the situation seemed a lot more dire so he, perhaps wisely, kept his trap shut.
He also made no note of the vial he'd tucked away in his pocket before Neo had whisked him away.

It had been a hectic few minutes for everyone to get situated after the Manta flew off from the tower. Neo had spent it tearing apart the inside of the ship to find its medical supplies, and was now giving Mercury the hoverhand treatment as she tried to coax him out of the pilot seat without actually touching him, as if she was afraid he was going to pull an illusionary her and shatter on touch. She'd towed Torchwick behind her the entire time, intending for him to take the wheel when Mercury finally relinquished it.

'um, neo, don't I get a say in this, i don't really know how to-'

Well, wasn't like arguing was really gonna change anything and Merc was in pretty rough shape.
Okay, maybe rough wasn't the exact condition.
Fucked the fuck up was probably better, yeah, definitely.
"Hey, um, Merc, I'm just gonna take this so..."

What followed was Mercury, who judging from his moon-sized pupils may or may definitely have injected a hefty dose of the Entropy Ironwood brought with him into the office a few minutes ago as a last ditch mode of pain management, advancing menacingly towards the pilot's chair, carrying out some manner of extraordinarily intricate kata or another as the nunchaku became twin whirlwinds spinning up and down his biceps, over his shoulders, and between his hands. Whether it was his way of demonstrating to Neo that yeah, he was freaking fine, to Roman that A. he hadn't forgotten the sucker punch and B. he still wasn't over him not being dead anymore (nor his seeming desire to just sweep that entire thing under the rug because who does that???), or just the good old-fashioned frenzied delirium of a dude in the throes of an extremely potent and mysterious drug for the first time, it quickly became apparent that it had been an inadvisable decision on his part; he sank low and assumed a horse stance in the center of the cockpit, rooting himself in place, the sound his lungs were making growing more and more akin to a cross between an out-of-tune accordion and a set of bagpipes with a hole in it as the dance of the nunchaku grew more and more complex until he finally just collapsed under the weight of his own wheezing, technically proficient hubris.

"nunchucks...?? you're not gonna REALLY whack me with those are you..???"

"Glaaark, ghluhgonna fuck you all up."

"Mercury!!!" Roman shouted, unable to really do much due to y'know needing both his hands to pilot this thing and not crash and kill everyone onboard.

Mercury needed like medical attention and while keeping his hands firmly on the controls, Roman...tried to drag the nunchucks over to him by pressing his foot on them and dragging them over.

Who knew when they might come in handy down the line?

 

[MyrtenRose]

Eventually, his scroll beeped as something whizzed up to their radar and right up to their back shortly after. He stood up and called to whoever had the wheel at this point to slow down, then walked to the back and activated the ramp.

Cinder did enter the manta, but she did it still in Penny's careful arms instead of her own power. The maiden was probably conscious by now, windblasted as they both were en route, but Penny was initially silent to her as she didn't meet anyone's eyes as she instead stared down with a look of deep shame. She hovered in to land and gingerly handed Cinder over to Watts who definitely didn't stumble at first because he didn't lift but definitely did just sort of stand there awkwardly and hoped Cinder was ready to stand sooner rather than later before she took a step back and clasped her hands in front of her.

"...I would understand if you all would like me to leave now."

he sank low and assumed a horse stance in the center of the cockpit, rooting himself in place, the sound his lungs were making growing more and more akin to a cross between an out-of-tune accordion and a set of bagpipes with a hole in it as the dance of the nunchaku grew more and more complex until he finally just collapsed under the weight of his own wheezing, technically proficient hubris.

"Glaaark, ghluhgonna fuck you all up."

"Kay bye!" Emerald butted her way into the proceedings by force, quite simply muscling Cinder out of Watts' grip with arms that, though wiry, were actually pretty frickin dope and she almost never got a chance to show off. She gave the android an extremely sour look, and while she'd never exactly been as tolerant of Penny's so-called endearing quirkiness as the others to start with there was definitely an entirely different level to the distaste she angled towards her now as she moved to turn for the medical gurney that had been intended for Mercury... right up until she found out what happened to Cinder.

"Told you guys adding freaking RoboCop to this dynamic was never gonna work out—" She began towards Watts—

"Wait!" In fact she got out of them in a hurried rush nearly immediately, and just as quickly fell over, still too out of it to stand totally stable on her own. Yet she was determined and she rushed to scramble back up to her feet as best she could and lunge at Penny in a fierce hug. "Don't go." Her eyes shut again, but this time it wasn't out of a desire to not see something but rather something she didn't want anyone else to see...namely the tears building in her eyes now. "Thank you Penny. I owe you...everything."

She would've liked to think everyone appreciated just how hard she had to fight against her natural impulses to choke herself to death on her own finger just then, but she knew better. "Weeeeaaak."

"Mercury!!!" Roman shouted, unable to really do much due to y'know needing both his hands to pilot this thing and not crash and kill everyone onboard.

Mercury needed like medical attention and while keeping his hands firmly on the controls, Roman...tried to drag the nunchucks over to him by pressing his foot on them and dragging them over.

Who knew when they might come in handy down the line?

The direct kick to her body sending her further into the ship seemed to have provoked no reaction at all from the very drunk woman, with her hardly moving from where she'd landed. It looked like she either really couldn't handle her liquor, or that whole bottle had been some really, really strong stuff, or...she would've rather not returned to the land of consciousness anytime soon. Perhaps a combination of all three, even. If that was the case, she didn't get her wish. Despite the lack of movement, that kick had roused her from her drunken slumber, and the rest...well the rest of whatever the hell was going on around her just sealed it. Raven groggily rose up, rubbing lazily at her eyes before they fully opened, exposing her to...

"..............................................................................."

Raven stared blankly, gaze unfocused on anyone in particular. This had not been where she passed out, where Qrow had...

She flipped her gloved hands over, looking down at her palms and the tips of her fingers. In her current state, she wasn't sure if that was dirt or dust or...what was left of him after that. She slowly, silently, turned her hands back around. She didn't want to see that right now. She didn't want to think about that right now. She wanted...she didn't know what yet. But something had to have gone down. This is an airship, not Oz--ugh, Salem's office. Raven rubbed her forehead with the back of her hand, already feeling the headache emerging.

"Whahappened?" She asked with the words slurring together into one, not looking specifically at anybody for answer, but rather just at them in general.​

 

[Indolent]

She just ignored him from then on, giving Raven's prone form a kick to send it tumbling further into the manta instead of out the other way. She gripped the handhold above the exit, planting her foot against the metal wall for balance and sending a brief glance Roman and Neo's way as they used her kusarigama to pull the last of the students they'd initially left behind aboard. Hazel's fat fucking ass took a little longer, obviously.

Discrimination towards height advantaged people aside...

Hazel moved quickly at Watts's direction and bound the captured personnel aboard the ship, leveraging any detaining accoutrements they may have had in storage aboard and if not, leverage simple items like rappelling rope for binding the limbs. It was a somber expression he bore on his face, Hazel taking stock of the entirety of the situation and the insanity that underpinned goddamn near everything that transpired since he woke up.

He didn't even get to eat breakfast.

The fight with Ren, the squirreling into Salem's office with Emerald to assist the others, the sheer downward slippery slope that Ironwood was keen to perform masterful slaloms on to justify his decision making and actions in Salem's office. The haze of the memories that felt like another person yet, in a contradictory way, weren't actually another person but his own. Souls were both stupid and intriguing like that. It all compounded together to make for a more than complicated affair.

Not to say the least of which, one of his closest friends almost died. And somehow, somewhere along the line, he remembered his anger over the brief appearance of Pyrrha in the hallway before he fought Ren, about the fact Cinder'd lost her eye. But she hadn't. Yet? Was that predetermined? That was something that unhelpfully gelled everything together, logically yes but emotionally, it was... a mess to say the least.

That said, there was a moment where his stoic facade gave way to gratefulness when Penny brought Cinder back to them, his eyes gaining a fleeting luster that more than conveyed the lack of any hard feelings towards Penny. He understood, after all, she thought she was doing what was right under the direction of Ironwood.

And he would've said as much if Mercury hadn't been a pain-ridden delirious jackass making a show of the fact he was okay when he clearly wasn't, the mountain man moving to extricate the Johnny Yen fanboy and placed him atop a cot, or anything that provided a flat surface for him, to rest. "Neo, help him. I'll restrain him if he gets feisty."

Hazel's thoughts did wander for but a moment. Could he have affected the same air while under the same amount of pain and injury as Mercury without his semblance? Perhaps. Perhaps not.

"Mercury!!!" Roman shouted, unable to really do much due to y'know needing both his hands to pilot this thing and not crash and kill everyone onboard.

Mercury needed like medical attention and while keeping his hands firmly on the controls, Roman...tried to drag the nunchucks over to him by pressing his foot on them and dragging them over.

Who knew when they might come in handy down the line?

"Really??? You're gonna go for the stupid nunchuks while piloting a flying coffin?" Gretchen interjected, words harshly delivered as was entirely her intent, her brows furrowed to convey her incredulity of the sight unfolding before her.

Before Roman could've said anything, Gretchen slammed her hands over his own to ensure he actually had control of the airship. "Keep it level-- that means don't roll the plane-- and if we have to pitch, I'd rather up than down and into a building. Smooth movements, we can't give ourselves away. Not until we're way and... we're gonna have to figure out where we're going."

...

"Hey, big brain! Any ideas where?" Gretch called out towards literally the only person suitable for the descriptor.

Meanwhile, the nunchucks clattered suddenly next to Roman's position and the stoat standing by them actually gave off a huff that matched his singular friend's incredulity before moving in a blur and disappearing into her scarf, relocating before popping out by the right side of her head as he stared out the cockpit window ahead, beady eyes focused.

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"Really??? You're gonna go for the stupid nunchuks while piloting a flying coffin?" Gretchen interjected, words harshly delivered as was entirely her intent, her brows furrowed to convey her incredulity of the sight unfolding before her.

Gretchen got a roll of bandages whipped at the back of her head for snapping at her so recently dead partner, a withering glare cutting whatever other emotional state Neo happened to be in in regards to everything else going on

 

[Gus Gungus]

After a beat she glanced up to whoever the hucksters themselves happened to be to ask a question she had like, zero belief was getting answered she just wanted to say it out loud.

"So are you all still on the 'we're the good guys' train or what? Pretty bad look here."​

"Says the one in jail. What are you, dumb and evil?" Shot back a guard she'd personally witnessed get damned for all eternity for being a bigoted prick once, letting out a derisive guffaw as he reactivated the hardlight fields on the two Beacon witches' cells and made his way back over to his buddy for—in their minds—a well deserved high-five.

"Gotta quit letting the military slam dunk you like that, sis." Ruby muttered, not enough bite in the sentence for it to be an outright jab but lacking in the heart and mirth required for the deadpan delivery to really be funny, either.

Instead what it mostly conveyed was a deep, simmering malcontent; a sense of reforged dread and unease that had slowly been crystallizing over her face from the moment Penny struck them down without a second thought, the type of jaded cynicism that looked out of place in the features of one so young and could only come from having to live through some bastardization or another of their teenage innocence for the third freaking time. Seemingly with less ability to affect the outcome than ever.

It was a face Yang had come to know well both in her time since manifesting on Remnant 2 and before, and one Blake had known all her life. They were just used to seeing it reflected in the mirror, not on a team leader who always made remaining a paragon of hope and purity in dark times so effortless; it was the face of someone beginning to question what the point of it all was.

While Blake followed her instincts to avert her eyes from the more mangled of the prisoners and preserve her lunch, it may have been of mild concern to the others when Ruby, following her initial, visceral reaction, did pretty much the exact opposite. She just sat down, right next to the hardlight where Salem's body had been tossed, legs crossed beneath her and cloak spilling out all around in almost a distorted reflection of the pool of spreading crimson gathering around the headmistress, and took to staring at the crevice where her smile should've been, idly plucking hangnails from her own digits with a lot more viciousness than was due for such an act while she waited for whatever she was waiting for.

"Ironwood is where you got that arm you keep ruining, Yang. He danced with Goodwitch at our prom. The one we know might've struggled keeping it together after the Fall, but it'd take... a lot to push him to something like this. This is before." The faint snapping, creaking and crackling of the skull knitting itself back together at a rate of about a square centimeter per minute proved an oddly fitting accompaniment to her tone, dour and brooding as it was. "And I know you hate his guts after the last timeline, but there were just... so many things wrong with that version of Atlas. Everyone lied, everyone cheated, everyone stabbed each other in the back for what they told themselves was the 'greater good', and at the tail end of it all one of the only people in that freaking kingdom who just wanted to try their best and be a huntress died the type of death I wouldn't wish on a Grimm. I mean, can you blame me for getting all weird and quiet? Let's just say I was never as charmed by that version of Weiss as you seemed to be."

She snorted, verging on a bonafide sneer as she shook her head.

"But I was around that version of the general a lot more than you were. He screwed up, but... he had his trust in everything and everyone around him destroyed. He gave up. And in the end, no matter how wrong he got it, he was still trying to make the decisions he thought would save the most lives in Atlas and Mantle. Losing Winter broke him, but... I get it. Now? This?" She threw her hands up, starting with a morbid gesture at Salem and Goodwitch but eventually just sweeping them around at their immediate surroundings. "...It's like he's starting out that way. He's already broken, and the attack on Beacon hasn't even happened yet. And some of that stuff Winter was saying? 'The fish won't spawn'? 'Nothing will grow'? Some... DRUG epidemic?! I mean, what the hell even is any of that? Our Remnant isn't exactly peaches and cream, Blake, but trust me when I say the one Yang and I just spent the last however long getting our butts kicked up and down was just... worse. And I don't remember hearing about any of that stuff."

She stood up, suddenly abandoning her apparent intent of just staring at Salem creepily until enough of her grew back to answer whatever pointless, dumb questions they may have had that were just gonna get brushed off with more typical folksy bullcrap anyway in favor of pacing frenetically across her cell as she put the finishing touches on what at this point was very much turning out to be a tirade.

"Oh, OH, and here's a fun one to run back while we're talking about all this big, important stuff I mysteriously don't remember, here's something that's just NEAT, how come the frickin' BROTHERS OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS have apparently started manifesting to everyone and their mom EXCEPT ME?! Like, hello??? What, I don't even have to exclude myself anymore, I'm just... just EXCLUDED???? Am I not good enough for you guys or something?! Did I do something WRONG? Just... just rrrrgggh!"

She spun and gave the hardlight such a vicious, full-tilt kick it was a small miracle her big toe didn't get embedded in the field and end up like the other timeline's Winter, which was about when the guard ambled back up with an emphatically nonplussed expression poking out from under his helmet as he rapped on the hardlight with his knuckle.

"Hey could you like, shut up?"​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"Kay bye!" Emerald butted her way into the proceedings by force, quite simply muscling Cinder out of Watts' grip with arms that, though wiry, were actually pretty frickin dope and she almost never got a chance to show off. She gave the android an extremely sour look, and while she'd never exactly been as tolerant of Penny's so-called endearing quirkiness as the others to start with there was definitely an entirely different level to the distaste she angled towards her now as she moved to turn for the medical gurney that had been intended for Mercury... right up until she found out what happened to Cinder.

"Told you guys adding freaking RoboCop to this dynamic was never gonna work out—" She began towards Watts—

Watts grunted as Cinder was snagged, but he didn't exactly protest outside of straightening his jacket sleeves as he cleared his throat and lied "I had that"

Penny seemed to wilt even further under Emerald's words, but she didn't look up. After all, she-

"Wait!" In fact she got out of them in a hurried rush nearly immediately, and just as quickly fell over, still too out of it to stand totally stable on her own. Yet she was determined and she rushed to scramble back up to her feet as best she could and lunge at Penny in a fierce hug. "Don't go." Her eyes shut again, but this time it wasn't out of a desire to not see something but rather something she didn't want anyone else to see...namely the tears building in her eyes now. "Thank you Penny. I owe you...everything."

"No!"

Cinder didn't manage to make that hug, despite her best efforts. Penny's hand caught her at the elbow on one arm, careful to avoid the opposite arm as her other hand instead planted firmly on Cinder's stomach to prevent her from advancing forward.

"You do not owe me anything, Cinder. This..." She looked over at the burn marks marring Cinder's shoulder, her voice weak. "...This was as much my fault as anyone else. I just..."

"-thought you were doing the right thing. Just like Ironwood did" Arthur finished for her as she trailed off, a statement Penny didn't contest in favor of returning to her staring contest with the floor. Despite their camraderie a few minutes ago for the sake of saving Cinder, Watts own voice was guarded, if far from overtly hostile. He pulled Cinder back before it devolved into some panicked hug and anti hug grappling that she was in no condition to partake in, his tone firm as he said "At least sit while we talk."

"...nnnnh... hnnnnnhhhhh..."

What followed was Mercury, who judging from his moon-sized pupils may or may definitely have injected a hefty dose of the Entropy Ironwood brought with him into the office a few minutes ago as a last ditch mode of pain management, advancing menacingly towards the pilot's chair, carrying out some manner of extraordinarily intricate kata or another as the nunchaku became twin whirlwinds spinning up and down his biceps, over his shoulders, and between his hands. Whether it was his way of demonstrating to Neo that yeah, he was freaking fine, to Roman that A. he hadn't forgotten the sucker punch and B. he still wasn't over him not being dead anymore (nor his seeming desire to just sweep that entire thing under the rug because who does that???), or just the good old-fashioned frenzied delirium of a dude in the throes of an extremely potent and mysterious drug for the first time, it quickly became apparent that it had been an inadvisable decision on his part; he sank low and assumed a horse stance in the center of the cockpit, rooting himself in place, the sound his lungs were making growing more and more akin to a cross between an out-of-tune accordion and a set of bagpipes with a hole in it as the dance of the nunchaku grew more and more complex until he finally just collapsed under the weight of his own wheezing, technically proficient hubris.

"Glaaark, ghluhgonna fuck you all up."

By the time Mercury's rampage was winding down into a bonafide, textbook drug crash, Neo was standing behind him with Hush raised, her face locked into deep distress as she warred with giving him the same treatment she'd given Vine, not out of any real fear that Mercury was gonna actually hurt Roman, but simply because she wasn't sure how else to throw his off switch and let her give him some basic medical treatment.

Thankfully for everyone involved he ran out of gas before she actually had to find the resolve to make that decision, and she caught him on collapse to slow his descent out a hypocritical worry he was gonna bang his head and opened the case to get to work once she'd straightened him out.

this is why her desire to help people didn't translate to medical school

 

[MidwayLives]

"Really??? You're gonna go for the stupid nunchuks while piloting a flying coffin?" Gretchen interjected, words harshly delivered as was entirely her intent, her brows furrowed to convey her incredulity of the sight unfolding before her.

"I can do both!" Roman exclaimed.

Okay, the truth was that he couldn't do either but he'd sure try his best.

Before Roman could've said anything, Gretchen slammed her hands over his own to ensure he actually had control of the airship. "Keep it level-- that means don't roll the plane-- and if we have to pitch, I'd rather up than down and into a building. Smooth movements, we can't give ourselves away. Not until we're way and... we're gonna have to figure out where we're going."

...

"R-Right!"

Man, Hazel's sister really knew her stuff about planes. What was her semblance even? Maybe she could try piloting and take off the undue stress that was threatening to crush and fold him inwards like an empty can of soda-

Meanwhile, the nunchucks clattered suddenly next to Roman's position and the stoat standing by them actually gave off a huff that matched his singular friend's incredulity before moving in a blur and disappearing into her scarf, relocating before popping out by the right side of her head as he stared out the cockpit window ahead, beady eyes focused.

Roman stared for a brief moment...and then quickly nabbed them up, the nunchucks vanishing within, well...

He wasn't SURE exactly where his stuff went. He'd just unlocked his semblance in the heat of the moment after all.

Could he put HIMSELF in there?

The thought rattled around in his head for an uncomfortable amount of time.

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"Says the one in jail. What are you, dumb and evil?" Shot back a guard she'd personally witnessed get damned for all eternity for being a bigoted prick once, letting out a derisive guffaw as he reactivated the hardlight fields on the two Beacon witches' cells and made his way back over to his buddy for—in their minds—a well deserved high-five.

"Gotta quit letting the military slam dunk you like that, sis." Ruby muttered, not enough bite in the sentence for it to be an outright jab but lacking in the heart and mirth required for the deadpan delivery to really be funny, either.

Whatever witty retort Yang was already loading up for got strangled as she shook her head and glanced over to Ruby with a look that could only be read as 'dude'. She didn't even get an assist from Blake, too lost in her own thoughts to point out how loaded of a statement that was for a faunus in an atlesian jail cell.

Instead what it mostly conveyed was a deep, simmering malcontent; a sense of reforged dread and unease that had slowly been crystallizing over her face from the moment Penny struck them down without a second thought, the type of jaded cynicism that looked out of place in the features of one so young and could only come from having to live through some bastardization or another of their teenage innocence for the third freaking time. Seemingly with less ability to affect the outcome than ever.

It was a face Yang had come to know well both in her time since manifesting on Remnant 2 and before, and one Blake had known all her life. They were just used to seeing it reflected in the mirror, not on a team leader who always made remaining a paragon of hope and purity in dark times so effortless; it was the face of someone beginning to question what the point of it all was.

While Blake followed her instincts to avert her eyes from the more mangled of the prisoners and preserve her lunch, it may have been of mild concern to the others when Ruby, following her initial, visceral reaction, did pretty much the exact opposite. She just sat down, right next to the hardlight where Salem's body had been tossed, legs crossed beneath her and cloak spilling out all around in almost a distorted reflection of the pool of spreading crimson gathering around the headmistress, and took to staring at the crevice where her smile should've been, idly plucking hangnails from her own digits with a lot more viciousness than was due for such an act while she waited for whatever she was waiting for.

"Ironwood is where you got that arm you keep ruining, Yang. He danced with Goodwitch at our prom. The one we know might've struggled keeping it together after the Fall, but it'd take... a lot to push him to something like this. This is before."

The bit of sibling tier betrayal Yang was stinging over faded from her face as Ruby knelt down in favor of concern as she sat back up. Blake, as well, turned back to face her as she saw Ruby shift down, her own concern flicking over to Yang briefly in a glance that wasn't returned for once.

Yang knew her sister wasn't perfect. She was as much responsible for raising her as their dad was, she seen Ruby at lows before. She could be brat sometimes, even these days, and she had an overconfidence streak that really stressed Yang out sometimes (No idea where she got it from honestly), but paradoxically felt like she had to try way, way too hard to prove herself to others.



But what she did think was that her sister was... well, strong. Not in the same way Yang was, putting innocent faunus through walls, but in the ways that really mattered. Her genuine, excited desire to help people was part of why Yang had let herself drift towards Signal and Beacon in the first place rather than some other outlet for her thrillseeking and mom hunting. The fact that she kept going, still so bright after... everything that happened at their own Beacon, what she saw happen in the arena, at the top of the school, what she had to do herself... It was still a point of shame that got stuck in Yang's throat, that it took her so long to catch up with everyone else, but she didn't think she would've even tried if it wasn't her little sister out there pulling her forward. Everything that happened after, how determined Ruby was, how willing she was to make hard calls with the lamp, finally mastering her power in Argus, not just laying all their cards out immediately to Ironwood when they got to Atlas, it had all really cemented that. Ruby was...

Yang knew she had her own strength like that too. Even now, she wasn't just some total humble flop. But so much of that came from Ruby. She might've been her little sister, but Yang'd never be afraid to admit; She really was Yang's hero. In a way Summer or Qrow were never gonna reach. She'd always be here to lean on if Ruby ever needed it of course, but it had really started seem like she'd just... outgrown that. That she wasn't ever gonna need Yang the big sister anymore, so much as she needed Yang the reliable teammate.

That thought sat at the bottom of her stomach like a seed of lead right now. She knew Ruby had been... off, ever since Haven it felt like. But they were separated for so long, and when they finally weren't, everything had been moving so fast, and her focus had been....

her voice came out as soft and careful as it ever did.

"... I know, Ruby. I didn't mean..."

"But I was around that version of the general a lot more than you were. He screwed up, but... he had his trust in everything and everyone around him destroyed. He gave up. And in the end, no matter how wrong he got it, he was still trying to make the decisions he thought would save the most lives in Atlas and Mantle. Losing Winter broke him, but... I get it. Now? This?" She threw her hands up, starting with a morbid gesture at Salem and Goodwitch but eventually just sweeping them around at their immediate surroundings. "...It's like he's starting out that way. He's already broken, and the attack on Beacon hasn't even happened yet. And some of that stuff Winter was saying? 'The fish won't spawn'? 'Nothing will grow'? Some... DRUG epidemic?! I mean, what the hell even is any of that? Our Remnant isn't exactly peaches and cream, Blake, but trust me when I say the one Yang and I just spent the last however long getting our butts kicked up and down was just... worse. And I don't remember hearing about any of that stuff."

She stood up, suddenly abandoning her apparent intent of just staring at Salem creepily until enough of her grew back to answer whatever pointless, dumb questions they may have had that were just gonna get brushed off with more typical folksy bullcrap anyway in favor of pacing frenetically across her cell as she put the finishing touches on what at this point was very much turning out to be a tirade.

"Oh, OH, and here's a fun one to run back while we're talking about all this big, important stuff I mysteriously don't remember, here's something that's just NEAT, how come the frickin' BROTHERS OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS have apparently started manifesting to everyone and their mom EXCEPT ME?! Like, hello??? What, I don't even have to exclude myself anymore, I'm just... just EXCLUDED???? Am I not good enough for you guys or something?! Did I do something WRONG? Just... just rrrrgggh!"

She spun and gave the hardlight such a vicious, full-tilt kick it was a small miracle her big toe didn't get embedded in the field and end up like the other timeline's Winter, which was about when the guard ambled back up with an emphatically nonplussed expression poking out from under his helmet as he rapped on the hardlight with his knuckle.

She couldn't help it; for a moment her expression broke into a guarded, defensive frown, ready to point out how Weiss playing double agent from the word go was so different than just selling out the other three kingdoms, but it died in her throat as Ruby kept going. By the time she got to the end, Yang had stood up, and started to walk over to her side of the wall-

She spun and gave the hardlight such a vicious, full-tilt kick it was a small miracle her big toe didn't get embedded in the field and end up like the other timeline's Winter, which was about when the guard ambled back up with an emphatically nonplussed expression poking out from under his helmet as he rapped on the hardlight with his knuckle.

"Hey could you like, shut up?"​

*WHAM*

The guard's door knocking got one in response, Yang's fist slamming so hard into the shielding in front of the guard's that it rippled, even with the cell's inhibitors. A couple cuts leftover on her hand from this morning's fight reopened, but she ignored that in favor of very slowly moving her hand back to her lips to put up one finger.

"Shh."

Then she finished her walk over to Ruby's side of the cell wall

"Nobody thinks that, Ruby. Anyone that matters, anyway. I don't." She said softly, incongruous with the red that was still fading back to lilac in her eyes. "I don't know whats wrong with these dudes, but the brothers made this Remnant this way. If they didn't want it to be this kind of mess, thats on them, not us. You didn't do anything wrong." She put her hand up against the hardlight.

"You just... did what you could. Same as the rest of us."

 

[MyrtenRose]

"No!"

Cinder didn't manage to make that hug, despite her best efforts. Penny's hand caught her at the elbow on one harm, careful to avoid the opposite arm as her other hand instead planted firmly on Cinder's stomach to prevent her from advancing forward.

"You do not owe me anything, Cinder. This..." She looked over at the burn marks marring Cinder's shoulder, her voice weak. "...This was as much my fault as anyone else. I just..."

"-thought you were doing the right thing. Just like Ironwood did" Arthur finished for her as she trailed off, a statement Penny didn't contest in favor of returning to her staring contest with the floor. Despite their camraderie a few minutes ago for the sake of saving Cinder, Watts own voice was guarded, if far from overtly hostile. He pulled Cinder back before it devolved into some panicked hug and anti hug grappling that she was in no condition to partake in, his tone firm as he said "At least sit while we talk."

So it just so happened that Cinder ended up accidentally proving Emerald right as she struggled and squirmed against Penny's iron grip, trying to actually get that hug through...to little success. She was indeed, quite weak, at present. "Penny, dang it, just freaking let me--" She wasn't able to make any further headway in her attempts before she got pulled back by Arthur, which she was also likewise unable to resist. Though she wanted to continue struggling in vain, even she knew that he was right. She needed to take some time. So she listened to him, dropping down to sit, albeit with a petty "hmph" and a crossing of her arms. He might have been right but that didn't mean she liked admitting it.

The look on her face changed to something more sheepish and awkward, even rubbing the back of her neck nervously as she spoke more softly. "I mean, if we're gonna assign fault...majority should be on me....I kinda....flew in a straight line..." Even if anyone hadn't heard that, her expression said it all. Cinder was quick to move on from that, though. "Besides, Penny...do you think you're the only person to make a mistake? Cause you're not. I..." She hesitated, looking with guilt towards everyone else in this transport(except for Raven), though her glance towards Roman was the longest by several seconds. "I sure made mine." Cinder let that sit in the air for a while before swinging her head back towards her robo-friend.

"So you made a mistake, Penny. You thought you were doing right...I thought the same thing when I made my own mistake. But you didn't shoot me with that weapon." She looked at her shoulder, how it stung still, even now...but, well......pain was an old friend from her childhood. "And you're the only reason I'm still alive." Cinder wanted to reach out, guide Penny's chin over until they were both looking at each other, but she also did not want to prove Emerald correct again. Trying to move Penny if she didn't want to be moved, while she herself was in her current state, was as close to impossible as it gets.

"So, y'know, thank you for that."​

 

[Gus Gungus]

And he would've said as much if Mercury hadn't been a pain-ridden delirious jackass making a show of the fact he was okay when he clearly wasn't, the mountain man moving to extricate the Johnny Yen fanboy and placed him atop a cot, or anything that provided a flat surface for him, to rest. "Neo, help him. I'll restrain him if he gets feisty."

Hazel's thoughts did wander for but a moment. Could he have affected the same air while under the same amount of pain and injury as Mercury without his semblance? Perhaps. Perhaps not.​

By the time Mercury's rampage was winding down into a bonafide, textbook drug crash, Neo was standing behind him with Hush raised, her face locked into deep distress as she warred with giving him the same treatment she'd given Vine, not out of any real fear that Mercury was gonna actually hurt Roman, but simply because she wasn't sure how else to throw his off switch and let her give him some basic medical treatment.

Thankfully for everyone involved he ran out of gas before she actually had to find the resolve to make that decision, and she caught him on collapse to slow his descent out a hypocritical worry he was gonna bang his head and opened the case to get to work once she'd straightened him out.

this is why her desire to help people didn't translate to medical school​

There were few things more emasculating than getting scooped up in the arms of Hazel Rainart and placed somewhere like an object on a shelf, so if absolutely nothing else Mercury seemed appreciative of Neo's influence on the situation if the way he stopped ferociously struggling and started reenacting movie scenes was any indication. "...'e's just a kid... no older than m'shon..."
​

The operative difference, naturally, being that Spider-Man was never jacked up on a mix of everything drug and testosterone in that movie. "...hey don' let 'er make that face at me... HEY YOU BETTER NOT MAKE THAT FACE!"

​

"-thought you were doing the right thing. Just like Ironwood did" Arthur finished for her as she trailed off, a statement Penny didn't contest in favor of returning to her staring contest with the floor. Despite their camraderie a few minutes ago for the sake of saving Cinder, Watts own voice was guarded, if far from overtly hostile. He pulled Cinder back before it devolved into some panicked hug and anti hug grappling that she was in no condition to partake in, his tone firm as he said "At least sit while we talk."​

"So, y'know, thank you for that."​

"Yo! Sap squad!"

Spoiler

Emerald, having broken off from the group at the back of the manta out of necessity once it became apparent getting Mercury under control was gonna be a three-person job, stalked back into view beside the vaguely familiar lady banging pots and pans together she whipped up to get everyone's focus back, arms folded and the various components of her face arranging themselves in an accusatory glower.
​

"Whahappened?" She asked with the words slurring together into one, not looking specifically at anybody for answer, but rather just at them in general.

"Hey, big brain! Any ideas where?" Gretch called out towards literally the only person suitable for the descriptor.

"Figure out if you're kicking the tin can out or throwing it a party so you can get back up here and deal with some of the important stuff," she demanded, an impatient flick of the wrist towards Raven and Gretch adequately conveying her disbelief that the shotcallers of team WTCH were all in the back doing emotional catharsis stuff at a time like this. "I'm too pretty for this crap."

She about-turned and marched all the way up to the co-pilot's seat then, giving Raven little more than a disdainful sniff as she passed by and frankly not trusting any of these idiots to fly the plane right at this point.​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"So you made a mistake, Penny. You thought you were doing right...I thought the same thing when I made my own mistake. But you didn't shoot me with that weapon." She looked at her shoulder, how it stung still, even now...but, well......pain was an old friend from her childhood. "And you're the only reason I'm still alive." Cinder wanted to reach out, guide Penny's chin over until they were both looking at each other, but she also did not want to prove Emerald correct again. Trying to move Penny if she didn't want to be moved, while she herself was in her current state, was as close to impossible as it gets.

"So, y'know, thank you for that."

Penny took another deep breath

"...No, I did not shoot you, and I did catch you. But I'm... not the only reason you didn't fall" She said with a sideways glance to Watts, who met the stare with a cough of his own as he glanced to the side. "And I am the reason you were in Clover's sights in the first place. I should not have helped the general, or at least I should have tried harder to convince you that you all just need help-"

Watts eyes narrowed. "Need. Present tense. Penny, you don't still think..."

Penny already wasn't meeting their gaze, not wanting to say anything that might scare out a hiccup. Watts groaned, all of the tension replaced by frustration as he dragged his hands down his face. "Penny we were not on drugs-"

The operative difference, naturally, being that Spider-Man was never jacked up on a mix of everything drug and testosterone in that movie. "...hey don' let 'er make that face at me... HEY YOU BETTER NOT MAKE THAT FACE!"

For fucks sake.

"For the most part, barring one exception, very recently, for very immediate combat purposes, under duress." He shook his head and turned back towards Penny. "How would we even know all of those things? Why would we all have had the same psychosis?"

"I-I believe that you all truly believe what you said!" Penny clarified, seemingly mortified and ashamed to even still be on this line of thought; but she truly believed that it made far more sense than what they had said. "Entropy has powerful affects on auras, and can super charge semblances. If... someone with a semblance that had hallucinatory properties on groups took it..."

"Yo! Sap squad!"

Emerald, having broken off from the group at the back of the manta out of necessity once it became apparent getting Mercury under control was gonna be a three-person job, stalked back into view beside the vaguely familiar lady banging pots and pans together she whipped up to get everyone's focus back, arms folded and the various components of her face arranging themselves in an accusatory glower.

She gave Emerald a pointed glance, and Watts let out an even longer sigh.

"we don't have time for-"

"Figure out if you're kicking the tin can out or throwing it a party so you can get back up here and deal with some of the important stuff," she demanded, an impatient flick of the wrist towards Raven and Gretch adequately conveying her disbelief that the shotcallers of team WTCH were all in the back doing emotional catharsis stuff at a time like this. "I'm too pretty for this crap."

She about-turned and marched all the way up to the co-pilot's seat then, giving Raven little more than a disdainful sniff as she passed by and frankly not trusting any of these idiots to fly the plane right at this point.​

"I KNooww" Watts hissed, whirling on his heel. "Fine, whatever, Cinder's call, she's the one who almost had a hole put in her shoulder."

Penny winced, well aware of how... unresolved that left things feeing, but she glanced over to Cinder with a worried frown. "...If I am allowed to stay, please lay down so I can wheel you to where Neopolitan is assisting Mercury. I believe you may be concussed."

"Hey, big brain! Any ideas where?" Gretch called out towards literally the only person suitable for the descriptor.

"I don't, not specifically at least. We need to ascertain whether the attack is still happening today. Best case scenario we find somewhere safe on the ground So we can unload Mercury and Cinder." He said, curt and professional to Hazel's twin as he flicked his hardlight screen into existence and started a few checks to ensure their new manta wasn't being traced now or in the future. He let pathing take him over to Raven, where he squatted in front of her with a level stare through his translucent work. 'Which one are you' was going to get a stupid answer, he could just feel it, so he went for a more fact finding approach .

"Is your daughter a former beacon student?"

 

[Gus Gungus]

"Nobody thinks that, Ruby. Anyone that matters, anyway. I don't." She said softly, incongruous with the red that was still fading back to lilac in her eyes. "I don't know whats wrong with these dudes, but the brothers made this Remnant this way. If they didn't want it to be this kind of mess, thats on them, not us. You didn't do anything wrong." She put her hand up against the hardlight.

"You just... did what you could. Same as the rest of us."​

As much as Yang Xiao Long might have grown to think of Ruby Rose as her hero—something Ruby had been aware of for some time, if on some nebulous, implicit level that wasn't terribly likely to ever get brought up between them purely for how awkward a time someone like her was liable to have navigating that conversation—there were entire dictionaries that couldn't properly explain the words for what Ruby felt towards Yang.

Most of the ones that came to mind were of the sort so embarrassing they made her want to disappear into her cloak and hood and never come back out for air or sunlight again, in all honesty. For as important a figure as their mom had become in her memory, for as much as everyone loved telling her how much they were alike, and as much as she existed as this impossible yardstick Ruby felt she could never truly measure up to no matter how hard she tried, the truth was Ruby barely remembered Summer Rose. There were some fleeting impressions and glimpses, sure, but at the end of the day she had just been too young.

Yang remembered. Yang made sure Summer's values lingered in the house even after she was gone, in the times their dad just couldn't do it. Yang kept baking cookies with her—to mixed and sometimes hazardous results, admittedly, but she did. Yang kept reading to her every single night before bed, inspiring her with all the same stories of heroes and valor Summer did. Yang was the bridge between Ruby and her memories of their mother, and she'd been so good at that there were times when Ruby wasn't even sure if what vague recollections she had of spending time with Summer even were that. That she hadn't just... looked at old pictures, and imagined the times she spent with Yang with a different coat of paint.

They were the type of feelings that had warranted active repression from almost the moment they started together at Beacon, being frank, when it became apparent that mysterious old Ozpin planned on making the big sister follow Ruby's lead. It became a necessary step of her development, in her mind. Of stepping up and meeting the ginormous expectations everyone seemed to have of her all of a sudden.

She knew she was Yang's hero, just as much as Yang was hers. She knew Yang loved her, and cared for her, and would never have said anything to hurt her.

Yet as rare as it was, more than just about anything in the world...
​

She knew Ruby had been... off, ever since Haven it felt like.

Ruby knew when she was lying.

"...Well it's good to know you think your opinion counts for more than the freaking gods who created everything, Yang. Believe me, I think that's soooo great for you." Her head lifted slightly when Yang's hand fizzled gently against the hardlight barrier; but she didn't turn. Just continued staring at Salem's limp, partially decollated body where it was slumped up against the field into the next cell over, keeping her back to the other two where she had sank back down despondently and drawn her knees close to her chest.

"But maybe it's time you outgrew that. And maybe it's time I outgrew letting you tell me whatever it is I wanna hear."

The doors slid back open just then, and whether it came as some mild relief to the other two or not that Winter came marching back in at that point to disrupt the ever-mounting awkwardness developing in the cells was for them to know as she broke pace only to level the guard who'd been aggravating the prisoners with a lengthy, withering stare. Primarily for the overwhelming aura of revenge-plotting she felt emanating from his being.

"Get out."

"You act like I wasn't standing right there when general Ironwood ordered you not to—"

Wherever he intended to go with that was lost to the ages as a black glyph propelled him from the room like a bullet from the muzzle of a gun, and her head turned with painstaking slowness and severity towards the other guard present. It was extremely fortunate for him that he snapped into a salute and filed out before that head finished turning; he secretly thought that other guy was kind of a douche anyway.

The specialist resumed her stride, stopping just short of the three RWBY member's cells to instead pivot towards the two containing the Beacon faculty members; clenching her jaw, shutting her eyes, and suppressing deep, inward sigh when she identified the figures within as if in disbelief of what she had come to confirm for herself.

When her eyes snapped back open, their refined frigidness was instead angled like a hail of icicles towards the cells with the more conscious occupants, the frown they hung above as sullen as it was vexed. "If you're about to start wittering on as if this in any way renders your preposterous shaggydog story even minutely more credible, forget it. But I will admit some concern at the rate this seems to be escalating."​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"I KNooww" Watts hissed, whirling on his heel.​

"You know I'm too pretty for this crap?"

Vanity healed all wounds, apparently.​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"You know I'm too pretty for this crap?"

Vanity healed all wounds, apparently.​

"I'll follow your instagram finally if we get through today with a fully intact CCT network"

 

[Gus Gungus]

"I'll follow your instagram finally if we get through today with a fully intact CCT network"

"Already catfished you like three different times!" a voice echoed faintly from the other side of the aircraft, though if questioned later she'd deny it. Prolly all those drugs he'd been doing.

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"...Well it's good to know you think your opinion counts for more than the freaking gods who created everything, Yang. Believe me, I think that's soooo great for you." Her head lifted slightly when Yang's hand fizzled gently against the hardlight barrier; but she didn't turn. Just continued staring at Salem's limp, partially decollated body where it was slumped up against the field into the next cell over, keeping her back to the other two where she had sank back down despondently and drawn her knees close to her chest.

"But maybe it's time you outgrew that. And maybe it's time I outgrew letting you tell me whatever it is I wanna hear."

Suddenly everything else mattered a whole lot less.

Remnant two, Ozpin, the attack on Beacon, even Blake suddenly being here again, all of that went to the back of her mind. Still dire, still incredibly important to her, but the rest of the world was gonna have to take a back seat for a moment so that Yang could focus on where the hell she'd gone so wrong, and how many signs she must've missed that Ruby was hurting this bad. She slid down to one knee, not caring that Ruby wasn't looking at her as she tried to firm up her voice.

"...That isn't what I'm doin-"

The doors slid back open just then, and whether it came as some mild relief to the other two or not that Winter came marching back in at that point to disrupt the ever-mounting awkwardness developing in the cells was for them to know as she broke pace only to level the guard who'd been aggravating the prisoners with a lengthy, withering stare. Primarily for the overwhelming aura of revenge-plotting she felt emanating from his being.

"Get out."

"You act like I wasn't standing right there when general Ironwood ordered you not to—"

Wherever he intended to go with that was lost to the ages as a black glyph propelled him from the room like a bullet from the muzzle of a gun, and her head turned with painstaking slowness and severity towards the other guard present. It was extremely fortunate for him that he snapped into a salute and filed out before that head finished turning; he secretly thought that other guy was kind of a douche anyway.

The specialist resumed her stride, stopping just short of the three RWBY member's cells to instead pivot towards the two containing the Beacon faculty members; clenching her jaw, shutting her eyes, and suppressing deep, inward sigh when she identified the figures within as if in disbelief of what she had come to confirm for herself.

When her eyes snapped back open, their refined frigidness was instead angled like a hail of icicles towards the cells with the more conscious occupants, the frown they hung above as sullen as it was vexed. "If you're about to start wittering on as if this in any way renders your preposterous shaggydog story even minutely more credible, forget it. But I will admit some concern at the rate this seems to be escalating."

Unfortunately, back of her mind didn't mean that the rest of the world was gonna just let it stay there without jamming its stupid mess into their lives again. Winter managed for the first time in both timelines to find Yang Xiao Long at an actual lost for words, staring up at her like a deer caught in the headlights from where she was knelt next to her sister's huddled form, with no idea how to handle one problem so dear and another so massive at the same time.

"...I-I..."

"We don't think Ironwood's already working for Ozpin or anything like that" Blake cut in, her own voice shaky but comparatively much more level than the other two as she gestured towards Salem and Goodwitch. "Even with this. But whether you believe it or not, if Yang's right about... some part of you remembering what happened last time, then I'm guessing what Ironwood's dreams are showing him are pushing him to extremes. He can feel whats coming, except he doesn't know how to stop it"

She glanced over to Yang and Ruby, their team leader especially. She'd been close, a few times in Atlas, to telling Ruby how much she meant to her. How lost and jaded she had been when she first got to Beacon, and how seeing how Ruby, even when she didn't know what to do, always did something, showed her that Blake could try to be that kind of person again herself. It just never seemed like the right time.

And now it seemed like those words may have almost done more harm than good. More pressure on her shoulders that they'd almost unwittingly been leaving for her to carry alone. So instead she was going to try and take some of that pressure off, even if she was the one here with the absolute least clue what was going on.

"But we've already told you everything we know, or however you want to spin us being here. So I guess what I'm asking is... what do you want us to do to help?"

 

[MyrtenRose]

The operative difference, naturally, being that Spider-Man was never jacked up on a mix of everything drug and testosterone in that movie. "...hey don' let 'er make that face at me... HEY YOU BETTER NOT MAKE THAT FACE!"

What the hell...?​

"Figure out if you're kicking the tin can out or throwing it a party so you can get back up here and deal with some of the important stuff," she demanded, an impatient flick of the wrist towards Raven and Gretch adequately conveying her disbelief that the shotcallers of team WTCH were all in the back doing emotional catharsis stuff at a time like this. "I'm too pretty for this crap."

She about-turned and marched all the way up to the co-pilot's seat then, giving Raven little more than a disdainful sniff as she passed by and frankly not trusting any of these idiots to fly the plane right at this point.

Sheesh, can't even give us five minutes to talk after getting shot out of the freaking sky. So impatient...​

Penny took another deep breath

"...No, I did not shoot you, and I did catch you. But I'm... not the only reason you didn't fall" She said with a sideways glance to Watts, who met the stare with a cough of his own as he glanced to the side. "And I am the reason you were in Clover's sights in the first place. I should not have helped the general, or at least I should have tried harder to convince you that you all just need help-"

Watts eyes narrowed. "Need. Present tense. Penny, you don't still think..."

Penny already wasn't meeting their gaze, not wanting to say anything that might scare out a hiccup. Watts groaned, all of the tension replaced by frustration as he dragged his hands down his face.

"Wait, Arthur you did something too?" She raised an eyebrow as she asked. "Thanks a lot too, then." She added and left it at that. Emerald had annoyed her but she still decided to throw the older girl a bone and make this as quick as possible.​

"I-I believe that you all truly believe what you said!" Penny clarified, seemingly mortified and ashamed to even still be on this line of thought; but she truly believed that it made far more sense than what they had said. "Entropy has powerful affects on auras, and can super charge semblances. If... someone with a semblance that had hallucinatory properties on groups took it..."

"Penny I swear I didn't, trust me you would know if I had taken this entropy. You really would." She couldn't help but cringe, recalling her own behavior not too long ago.​

"I KNooww" Watts hissed, whirling on his heel. "Fine, whatever, Cinder's call, she's the one who almost had a hole put in her shoulder."

"Then she stays!" She immediately declared, more than appreciative of having the final word on this instead of either of the two team leaders--​

Penny winced, well aware of how... unresolved that left things feeing, but she glanced over to Cinder with a worried frown. "...If I am allowed to stay, please lay down so I can wheel you to where Neopolitan is assisting Mercury. I believe you may be concussed."

"Ughhhhhhh, fine, mom..." She replied with some sass, not keen to start arguing with Penny more. Especially if health'o'vision was something Atlas had installed in there too. There's a thought."Hey, so like...can you monitor someone's blood pressure and stuff?" Cinder idly questioned as she obliged and laid down.​

He let pathing take him over to Raven, where he squatted in front of her with a level stare through his translucent work. 'Which one are you' was going to get a stupid answer, he could just feel it, so he went for a more fact finding approach .

"Is your daughter a former beacon student?"

"That's not an answer to what I asked."​

"You know I'm too pretty for this crap?"

Vanity healed all wounds, apparently.

"I'll follow your instagram finally if we get through today with a fully intact CCT network"

"Already catfished you like three different times!" a voice echoed faintly from the other side of the aircraft, though if questioned later she'd deny it. Prolly all those drugs he'd been doing.

Quite frankly, she thought she had shown the patience of a saint, just sitting there, listening to all the absolute nonsense going on around her that didn't answer her question in the slightest and not even saying a word about it...but she'd apparently reached her limit. "Ugh. I need another drink." ​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"That's not an answer to what I asked."

Quite frankly, she thought she had shown the patience of a saint, just sitting there, listening to all the absolute nonsense going on around her that didn't answer her question in the slightest and not even saying a word about it...but she'd apparently reached her limit. "Ugh. I need another drink." ​

He clapped in her face. Loudly.

"Focus. We don't have time for the runaround from self important bandits, former or otherwise. Be useful and you get your answers. Do you know what I mean when I say there's two Remnants? I need to know who your semblance links to"

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"Ughhhhhhh, fine, mom..." She replied with some sass, not keen to start arguing with Penny more. Especially if health'o'vision was something Atlas had installed in there too. There's a thought."Hey, so like...can you monitor someone's blood pressure and stuff?" Cinder idly questioned as she obliged and laid down.​

The compliance finally got a pleased, if small smile out of Penny as she wheeled her over to where Neo was doing her best to remember Beacon's first aid classes. "I just know you hit your head, friend Cinder. But to a degree, yes. I am far from equipped from a full medical suite of functions, but my father wanted me to be able to help people in addition to simply being combat ready. I have studied first aid very extensively, and have- oh"

She got that far into that sentence before Neo gripped her arm and literally dragged her over to Mercury, because for all the tomfoolery going on Neo was still REALLY GENUINELY STRESSED THAT MERCURY MIGHT BE DYING so right now her own opinion on Atlas' Adorable Annihilation Automon didn't matter outside of her ability to help her teammate. Penny initially didn't move, her feet squarely planted as she gave Neo a slightly distressed frown at the idea of leaving Cinder for second, but eventually she relented and allowed herself to be pulled over to the shelf that had become Mercury's haven, and her eyes glowed.

"...You have fractured ribs. One of them has created a small laceration on your left lung, and if left untreated, it could worsen."

...

She bit down on the borderline automatic repeating of her apology, well aware of how that would go over even if Mercury was not tripping balls <error; incorrect vocabulary usage> suffering from the crash period of mild entropy use, and instead offered aloud.

" I could set them, but it would require some incision work."

That made Neo's expression way more leery, her feelings about Penny essentially forced up to the forefront, and she glanced over to Merc-

Right.

She glanced over to Emerald for a second opinion.

 

[MyrtenRose]

He clapped in her face. Loudly.

"Focus. We don't have time for the runaround from self important bandits, former or otherwise. Be useful and you get your answers. Do you know what I mean when I say there's two Remnants? I need to know who your semblance links to"

She couldn't help but grimace from the loudness of the clap hitting her especially hard, but she still did not answer his questions.

"Try that again, one more time. I dare you. Or be smart and answer me first." ​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

She couldn't help but grimace from the loudness of the clap hitting her especially hard, but she still did not answer his questions.

"Try that again, one more time. I dare you. Or be smart and answer me first." ​

He threw his hands out in exasperation

"Well you see you argumenative twit, until I know which Raven you are, WHATS going on is going to be a pretty fucking nebulous explanation until you GIVE ME A BASELINE TO WORK FROM YOU IDIOT."

 

[MyrtenRose]

He threw his hands out in exasperation

"Well you see you argumenative twit, until I know which Raven you are, WHATS going on is going to be a pretty fucking nebulous explanation until you GIVE ME A BASELINE TO WORK FROM YOU IDIOT."

"I'm the Raven who just drank herself into unconsciousness after seeing her brother just turn to dust in front of her eyes and float away in the breeze, who woke up in a different place from where she'd been drinking this morning, in an airship with no clue how much time has passed, who asked a question but stayed remarkably patient and silent up until she was tired of being ignored in favor of talking about instagram and getting catfished, so believe me when I say this: my capacity for tolerance has reached its limit. I don't care how nebulous you think it is. I won't ask again. Explain. NOW." ​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"I'm the Raven who just drank herself into unconsciousness after seeing her brother just turn to dust in front of her eyes and float away in the breeze, who woke up in a different place from where she'd been drinking this morning, in an airship with no clue how much time has passed, who asked a question but stayed remarkably patient and silent up until she was tired of being ignored in favor of talking about instagram and getting catfished, so believe me when I say this: my capacity for tolerance has reached its limit. I don't care how nebulous you think it is. I won't ask again. Explain. NOW." ​

He blinked at exactly one of those statements, but by the end he took a deep breath and gripped the bridge of his nose for a moment.

"Sure. Fine. Salem had her head blown off in that office ten minutes ago by Ironwood, and while he tried to arrest us we escaped and dragged your drunken corpse on board so you didn't end up in a cell. Feeling less lost now? Or more? Almost like I NEED CONTEXT TO GIVE YOU CONTEXT!"

 

[MyrtenRose]

He blinked at exactly one of those statements, but by the end he took a deep breath and gripped the bridge of his nose for a moment.

"Sure. Fine. Salem had her head blown off in that office ten minutes ago by Ironwood, and while he tried to arrest us we escaped and dragged your drunken corpse on board so you didn't end up in a cell. Feeling less lost now? Or more? Almost like I NEED CONTEXT TO GIVE YOU CONTEXT!"

".....................Right. Okay, I'm really going to need another drink now." She took a deep breath, though she didn't give him the satisfaction of saying he was right. More context was needed. She just skipped past bothering to answer his questions verbally. Instead her eyes flared red and she sent him back a few inches with a sudden but relatively light gust of wind compared to the stuff Cinder had tried earlier. "There. That tell you enough? Your big brain able to put together which one I am?" She sighed, rubbing at her head as the hangover headache intensified. "James shot Salem. Right. I'm going to have to ask you to take that from the top." ​