The REDS of war

Volume Seven Chapter Four

As the sun begins setting over the mountains around the abandoned Dust mine, four trucks drive up the road to the mine entrance, a single pilot ship lands just next to the mine, and Amity Colosseum floats toward the mine. Two people are lying with binoculars somewhere in the area, one of whom is wearing a pin that resembles the one on Robyn Hill's scarf. Their binoculars bear the same symbol as the pin. They both gaze up at the colosseum, before the one on the right resumes looking through his binoculars.

Soon after the trucks arrive at the mine entrance, Team RWBY, Team JNPR, Qrow Branwen and the Ace Operatives walk outside. Smiling, Marrow Amin looks at Clover Ebi and then attempts to put on a more serious demeanor. Ruby Rose, Jaune Arc and Nora Valkyrie come together to gaze in dramatic admiration of the Ace-Ops, while Lie Ren, Blake Belladonna, Weiss Schnee and Yang Xiao Long watch the three with wide eyes.

Jaune rushes over to Clover's side. "You guys were incredible!" He switches to being in front of Clover and begins energetically gesturing as he talks. "Oh, the way you took down that Geist without needing to plan your tactics out, you just knew exactly what to do!"

Clover smiles. "Well, Ace-Ops are hand-picked to perfectly compliment one another. So we can focus on our assets and leave our liabilities behind."

Marrow walks over with a confident smile. "Some of us are all asset, zero liability." He poses with a salute and a grin, looking at Jaune. Elm Ederne scoffs, catching Marrow's attention. He moves over to her, leaning in to confront her. "Wha-- Yeah? Think I've got some liabilities, Elm?"

Elm rolls her eyes. "Your brains, for one."

Clover, Elm and Harriet Bree laugh, and Marrow groans and pouts. The former three walk away.

"You did ask.. Vine walks away, and Nora approaches Elm with wide eyes and a smile. Elm looks at her.

"Hi. Do you need a new best friend?" Nora asks moving closer. "Our pair name can be..." Nora's eyes spark with pink electricity, and she lifts her hammer into the air with both hands. She is suddenly standing on an empty plane with a green tinted sky, with Elm standing nearby. Pink lightning strikes, while green and pink gradient text appears. "THUNDER THIGHS!!!"

Harriet watches this with a sigh, and Ruby runs over to her. "Perfect complementary teamwork. Oh, yeah, I want to have my friends' backs just like that."

Harriet raises an eyebrow. "Friends?"

Elm laughs. "This isn't the schoolyard, kid."

Behind Elm, Nora is still posed with her hammer in the air. Ren walks over, lifts the currently stiff Nora under his arm, and walks away. Ruby's teammates join her.

"But, I mean, when you go through so much with someone, it kind of changes things, doesn't it?" Yang asks.

"We get along well enough, sure. I count on them to keep me alive. They do the same. But that's the job. We don't confuse the two." Harriet says. She turns and walks away, leaving Team RWBY to look on sadly.

"This is the difference between Atlas Academy and all of the others." Rei says with a sigh.

"It is?" Ruby asks.

"Atlas Academy teaches loyalty to Atlas first, everything else is second." Rei watches the Ace-Ops with no hidden disdain. "Truthfully, id much rather not be an Atlesian Military Special Division Captain, but I need to to keep doing the jobs the way I do."

"Speaking of the job..." Clover says frowning at Rei.

Further down the way, James Ironwood is talking on a communicator. He gives a brief order to a soldier, who walks away. Dusk Kai stands with him.