Embrace of Light and Dark

by Knight of Crows

Chapter 57.

Cassiel POV

I love it when my plans work, everyone except Weiss got on the airship through the SR and just took a seat while the pilot was transporting his single passenger. I almost wish I didn't think of this plan just so I could steer this thing into Ironwood's office to really fuck up his already shitty day. The flight was several hours, but it was almost worth the wait. I'm not impressed with Mantle, but Atlas? I think I see why they're so arrogant, it shouldn't come as any surprise considering they have an entire city that looks at least 100 years more advanced than Earth and floating above mountains.

(Mantle)

(Atlas)

I stepped out of the SR to quietly give Weiss the Relic and tell her to try to contact her sister as soon as there's a connection and convince the pilot to land us near the academy if that wasn't already his plan. The sooner we get this done, the better. While we were waiting in the SR, we discussed how we should deal with the meeting after getting Neo to disguise herself. Ironwood is paranoid right now, that much is certain with the embargo and military recall, we have no idea how he's reacting to Salem right now, and how much worse we might make it. One thing we stayed on was whether or not to tell him about Haven, Leonardo, and what Jinn showed is. I wanted to tell him the truth to crush his spirit before telling him I might be able to do the job, but Ruby wanted to withhold the truth until we knew for certain we could trust him, half sided with her while the other half sided with me, so we flipped a coin. I lost, though they weren't against me explaining what I might be able to do.

After we landed, Weiss was greeted by Winter before I opened the SR to let everyone out. As for us? We were greeted by over a dozen rifles aiming at us. I just laughed and calmly walked towards Winter to explain this, but one of the soldiers shot me, I just turned and casted Reflega to make a point as Winter was telling everyone to stand down before getting on me, then Qrow about how reckless this method was. She shut up after I brought up that it was this or we steal an airship and risk getting shot while I attempt to crash land it into Ironwood's office to ruin his day. Lesser of two evils. She looked at Qrow, who basically told her that I would do it. She dropped it and took us to Ironwood, who looked tired to say the least. Shortly before we entered his office though, Ruby was tackled by a certain robot that I thought would've been left behind back at Amity Coliseum.

So after Ruby's reunion with Penny, we stepped into Ironwood's office to talk about the important shit. Turns out Penny, Winter, and whoever these "Ace Ops" are already know about Salem, the Relics, and the Winter Maiden.

"Which is why I'm so glad you're here with that." He gestured towards the Lamp that was still with Ruby. "Until now, I believed it was truly turn the tide against Salem. Oz has pushed her back, kept victory out of her claws, but she will keep returning, stronger and stronger... Unless we destroy her." Ironwood said.

"What about the Staff and the Maiden?" I asked, trying to get information on them.

"The Staff is in the vault, as for the Maiden?"

"She's in stable condition." Winter finished.

"What do you mean by 'stable'?" Yang asked.

"She's uh... Not exactly a spring chicken." Qrow answered before I could.

"I know how this all looks. Recalling my military, the embargo, I probably don't seem the most trustworthy right now. I needed to make sure Salem couldn't infiltrate Atlas, and I want my military here, protecting my people." Ironwood said.

"Not that you'll get the reference, but your military is about as reliable as Storm Troopers and Red Shirts." Tell me I'm wrong!

"I... I'm not even going to ask. Anyway, just as you all have been entrusted with the knowledge of Salem's existence, I need you all to trust me. I have a plan." He said as the windows were covered and the Atlas emblem in the center of the room started rising before spreading out.

"Calling it now, it's going to end about as well as World War Two did for the Axis Forces." Blake put her hand on my shoulder and shook her head.

"Ozpin believed that the best way to fight Salem was to do so in secret, whether that was the right choice or not isn't for me to say. But we find ourselves in the position of needing a new approach."

"Then what does the 'General' have in mind? Personally, I'd unite the world against her as I rip out her heart, and if my methods of killing her don't work,-" I opened the SR. "I can always lock her away in an alternate dimension." I said as he used his scroll to have the table make a projection of Amity Coliseum. "I'm missing something here and I don't like it."

"When Beacon fell and everyone on Remnant lost contact with one another, I knew our current systems were outdated. Amity was built to bring the nations together, and it will serve that purpose once again." He used his scroll again and what looks like a communications tower appeared on top of Amity.

"Isn't it great??!! We're not just going to replace Beacon Tower, building a new tower on top of Amity Coliseum will reestablish global communications!" Penny said.

"By launching the tower high into the atmosphere, our scientists believe we could create a sort of satellite. Out of reach of the Grimm, and capable of maintaining global communications even if we were to lose another tower." Winter explained.

"I'm liking this so far... Are you finally going along with my plans?" If he is, I'm celebrating by stealing the most expensive wine I can find and drinking until I drop!

"I am... I'm finally going to tell the people about Salem." He answered.

"mmmhhhmmmhhaahahahahahahahahahahahaahhaaahhhaaaHAAHHAAHAAAHHAAAHHAHHAA!!!" How could I not laugh at this? Finally someone with power is fucking listening to me! I'm almost happy enough to... I don't know!!! Something no one would expect I'm sure!!! "And after you deal with the inevitable panic here, you spread the news and assist the rest of the world, right?"

"If it weren't for your complete and utter disrespect for almost everyone, I'd promote you to Officer rank right off the bat if you enlisted, but yes. Trying to hide the truth will eventually kill us all." He answered. I walked around as he reset the room and patted his shoulder.

"You should cherish this moment. That will most likely be the single most intelligent thing you say for the rest of your time alive." And considering what happened to Ozpin and Leonardo, I'm not expecting that to be for very long.

"Can you go one day without insulting someone?" Nora asked me.

"At this point, it's a reflex." I answered. "So what brought this on?" I asked Ironwood.

"Things changed after Beacon. Without Ozpin to guide us, all I can do is use my best judgement." He said as he walked towards his desk before turning around. "What is it?"

"Actually, Ozpin isn't completely gone." Oscar spoke up.

"Uuhh Oscar here is, well, he's the next Ozpin." Qrow clarified.

"Oz?" Ironwood started moving towards Oscar and lowering himself to eye level with him. "I'm so glad you're here, I didn't think you-"

"Not quite. He's kind of gone at the moment." Oscar told him, he shook his head.

"That's not normal, how did he-"

"We don't know." Ruby interrupted. "We were in a train crash and ever since, well, suddenly Ozpin wasn't there anymore." She lied.

"*sigh* The worse things get. Did you learn anything about the Relics before...?"

"We learned the Lamp can answer three questions every century, but they were used up already. We also learned that not only do they attract Grimm, but I found out the hard way that they override my ability to tame Grimm." I answered.

"They what?" He nearly shouted.

"Yeah, shocker, I know. Moving on, I have matters to discuss with you after everyone is settled in. Let's just say, you'll be granting amnesty to a lot of people." He raised a brow.

"What are you-"

"We'll go over the details later. You had my attention, now, at least for the time being, you have my cooperation instead my desire to really fuck up your day! Just ask Winter for clarification." He looked at Winter and she just shook her head.

"Moving on. If you're all on board?"

"Tell us how we can help?" Ruby answered. Ironwood smiled.

"Good, because getting the Amity Tower ready to launch won't be easy. But first, I think we need to get those weapons of yours to our standards." I could still kick your ass with just Lionheart!

"Remember, this is Atlas. While assisting the military, we will provide you with the best equipment our scientists can devise." Winter informed us. Not much happened afterward, I eventually just stopped paying attention and thought of how I would destroy Atlas with the same resources Salem has. With the state this country is in right now, it wouldn't be too hard to manipulate a political rival of Ironwood's, have the one who hacked the military at Beacon do the same to the defenses here, have someone else kill a few people against Ironwood to villainize him, and maybe cause a bit of chaos. Penny is probably safe from the hacker though, otherwise they would've done so at Beacon. It wouldn't be too hard.

"Cassiel!" Weiss shook me.

"Sorry, I was thinking. What's going on?"

"We're going now." Blake answered.

"Alright." I followed them out of the office and we came across five people at the intersection.

(Ace Ops)

These are Ironwood's "Ace Ops"? Unless they have some bullshit trick up their sleeves, I could easily take on all of them. After they introduced themselves and said we would be working together, Penny volunteered to show everyone around the academy. I stayed behind since I can easily get around thanks to the SR and needed to know who was their best weapons developer or who I should talk to about weaponizing Dust. When they asked if it was for my weapon, I showed them Light Dust. They took me straight to their lab, but no one was there this late at night, so I guess I'm doing that tomorrow. They pointed me in the direction of the dorms before I left, when I arrived, there were only four beds, bunkbeds actually. Before I could see about getting that fixed, Blake stopped me.

"We can worry about that tomorrow, you're still not sleeping on the floor." She said.

"I was going to see-"

"No. One night isn't going to hurt anyone, or have you forgotten the first night at Beacon? Or when everyone had to share blankets at Brunswick?" No I haven't.

"Will you two love birds just go to sleep already? We're all too tired for this!" Yang said.

"On that, we can agree!"
"What she said!" Weiss and Ruby said at thd same time.

"..."

"..."

"Screw it!" There was just enough room for two in these beds, after climbing under the covers, I wrapped an arm around Blake. "You're all too good to me."

"Do we have reason to be otherwise?" Blake asked.

I guess not.

Author's Note:

Cassiel is not going to be pulling his punches, both figuratively and literally. After season 7, the RWBY arc will technically be over. I'll leave it to your imagination as to why I say "technically".

Comments

[The First DemonFox]

I am now legitimately questioning if this fic is even mlp, and don't get me wrong I loved the idea of our mc training throughout the entire thing from 'rising of the shield hero' to the now 'RWBY', but I have recently started to reread a large amount of old stories (including this one) and I am now questioning on when is the mc going to go back to Equestria. (This does not mean I hate the story, it's just that I believe that it is becoming something else entirely.)

[Mitril]

10342010
He will probably come back to Equestria after RWBY S7 or maybe sometime after it

I don't think that he has to, because he already was there for this story to qualify here
There are many stories here who have even less connection with MLP , like one character and the rest is a crossover,so...

[The First DemonFox]

10342100
True, true. I remember reading a story (cannot remember for the life of me) where a pony oc was in a completely different series, trying to find a way back to Equestria, but I felt that this has become a tad too long. I will still read this as I enjoy both RWBY and Kingdom hearts, however, I am wondering how long it will take before it goes back to Equestria.

[zachary12]

nice work.

[taelonso]

hehehe i can see ironwoods day getting fucked up some what and his view on oz shattered

[Knight of Crows]

10342010
When the RWBY arc ends after S7, he'll be back in Equestria for some time, and not for the reasons anyone's expecting.

[Knight of Crows]

10342767
Trust me, the confrontation with Cinder is going to really fuck up her day. I'm talking more than Ironwood's if Cassiel stole the Staff and threw it in the SR.

[taelonso]

10342850
HehehhehehehehehehgehehHAHAHA me like

[SunnyDragoon]

How many more world tore is he going or this is the last one?

[Knight of Crows]

10344703
2-3 more, depending on how the votes work out, though he won't be staying in them until the end. RWBY is actually going on longer than I was originally planning, I was originally planning to end it after S3, but it didn't feel right having him leave so soon when he has a few very good reasons to stay.
Overlord.
Avatar TLAB.
Black Clover.
Last I saw, Overlord had 4 votes, TLAB had 3, and surprisingly, Black Clover had none.

[SunnyDragoon]

10345171
sounds like a close vote. can't wait.