Chapter Text
Ruby looked at James as he cut the feed to the scroll network.
The room was quiet as the moment of no return settled into the room.
"I'm sorry it's come to this," James said as he turned away to leave his office. "But until Atlas and the relics are safe, you are all under arrest."
"We won't just let you take us," a determined Ruby said.
The Ace Ops fall in formation behind James as he neared the door, ready to apprehend team RWBY.
"I know." James said. But then...a single grunt sounds from behind him. Yang fires a charged Ember Silica round at James and it lodges onto his back. In the sudden burst of movement and utter surprise, Ironwood grunts in pain as the bomb sticks to him penetrating his skin and then....a large explosion rings out. The front of Ironwood's office is completely destroyed. The Ace Ops are blown back into the nearby walls. Yang drops her right gauntlet ejecting the spent round as it clatters to the floor. Her teammates look to her in horror and disgust. As the smoke clears, the remains of James' body are seared, his eyes blank as he lay down the hall on his chest. The mix of blood and burning made Blake's nose sting and she recoils from it.
Ruby runs up to Yang as she stares at his body. Completely numb to her act by this point.
"WHAT DID YOU DO YANG?!" Ruby yells. She couldn't believe Yang had snapped like that.
"We're saving Mantle and everyone else aren't we?", Yang said coldly.
Weiss, Ruby and Blake back away from Yang as she rolls her neck in annoyance. "What?" Yang says eyeing her team. Yang's eye flickered between lilac and red as she stares. She was tired of these games. Tired of being controlled by a person willing to let so many die in the name of protection. She was tired of it all at this point.
Marrow, Harriet, Elm, and Vine stand up from their positions. Their aura had protected them from the blast luckily. Harriet recovers the fastest and rushes to James' lifeless body. Marrow and the rest look on in horror as their superior lay dead on the cold steel floor. They then turn their attention squarely to Yang. Yang regards them as she balls up her fists.
Harriet stands from James' body in tears. Frantic. She buzzes with electricity and she faces Yang. She dashes wildly in a fit of anger and loss, but Yang predicts her rush at her. Yang catches Harriet square in the gut and launches her into the ceiling. Yang pelts Harriet's dangling body with multiple rounds from her gauntlets. After the smoke clears, Yang's eye burned a dark red, something that Ruby hadn't seen before. Harriet's body went limp as blood and charred fleshed dripped onto the floor.
"YANG STOP WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!", Blake said running to Yang. Yang smiles an devilish grin.
"I'm saving us, you idiot," Yang says as she steps toward Elm, Vine and Marrow. Blake recoils from her words. A brief flash of PTSD from Adam sends waves of fear over her. Adam had said something similar once to her. When Blake was trying to be a hero at the time. Blake drops to her knees in fear and tears. Ruby rushes to her side. Weiss conjures a glyph behind Yang and shoots her out of the office into the nearest wide space.
"We'll handle this. Get Ironwood's remains somewhere safe," Weiss said with a tear rolling down her face.
Elm and Vine rush to Ironwood's body and collect him and leave the area. Marrow was too traumatized to do anything. He just stood there, looking up at Harriet's lifeless form as it hung from the ceiling. Ruby darts out of the office with Petal Burst to go after Yang.