Chapter Text
[Author's Note: I wanted to write a sequel to Animosity for the longest time but was not sure how to go about it. Originally, I wanted to make it a twenty-six-chapter story where it would randomly focus on different characters going through the fallout of the Fall of Atlas leading to the finale of Volume 9 where we see all the ships (and then, once we saw the animatic at RTX, scenes that would lead to those moments).
However, with the release of the full epilogue animatic, I left the idea to brew a bit before I thought of something. Perhaps it's better to write the story picking up in moments ranging from right after Animosity up to the very end of the animatic before that portal opened up and RWBYJR came out of it to flesh out the hypothetical AU where mass panic did ensue in the World of Remnant before the inevitable calm unification that we see at the end of Volume 9.
In a way, I guess the order for these chapters would be going from the most cynical outlook to the most positive outlook, rather than just jumping between dark and light moments. With that, let us plunge into the first place affected by the mass panic]
Location: Argus
Time: Four Minutes After Ruby's Broadcast
Pyrrha Nikos was defined as the Invincible Girl, the strongest huntsmen in the Vytal Festival, even jokingly the mascot for Pumpkin Pete. But what she didn't want was to be put up on a pedestal as the Huntsmen, the center of attention, a celebrity.
Perhaps it was then a blessing in disguise, that shortly after Ruby's message to the world, one of the first things that fell was a bronze statue based off her that was erected once news of her sacrifice reached her hometown of Argus. An idol made in her name that would posthumously place her at a higher status than the others who had lost their lives that night at Beacon was torn down, though the reasons were… malicious. Those who tore down the statue began to smash it apart, even harvest parts of it to sell later.
"She was the one who caused all this!"
"She doesn't deserve to be remembered!"
"I bet she was in on the plot to destroy Beacon, same as Ironwood!"
Among the bickering of these rioters, a mysterious red-haired woman tried her hardest to prevent the statue from falling, but all she got in her efforts was a punch to the face that caused her to land onto the pavement with a sickening crunch. Caught up in their fervor, the rioters couldn't give a care if they had caused any permanent damage. At best, they pretended she had aura on and continued their 'revenge spree' to their next target...
During that night, when Ruby announced that the Fall of Beacon was orchestrated by Salem, among the many truths she revealed was that Ironwood could no longer be trusted. While the context she provided was that his recent actions towards the city of Mantle were the reason for this, there were people who had felt the sting of losing loved ones at Beacon too much not to assume she had also meant his actions at Beacon.
And so…
"Unhand me, you ungrateful brats! Do you not understand what Atlas has done for-"
BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM!
Several bullets were unloaded onto Cordovin. The first few immediately ended her life while the others were either seconds too late to claim her or were just intending to rupture her body or bloody her uniform post-mortem.
Once the smoke cleared and Cordovin's life was claimed, a young adult male walked up to the corpse. He remembered seeing Atlas' robots turning on the fleeing crowd and firing upon innocent Valeans, including his parents. The anger turned into a spiteful spit that drooped down her cooling cheek.
"THAT WAS FOR BEACON, BITCH!" He shouted at her.
"HELL YEAH!" A defiant father, whose daughter was crushed by an Atlesian Paladin, shouted back.
Sirens soon broke apart their moment of triumph, warning them of oncoming Grimm.
On the other side of town, several civilians tossed glass bottles with red Dust stored inside of them at a movie theater. As they struck, the bottles shattered, erupting into flames and set the theater ablaze. As the flames burned, the poster for a documentary made literal months after the Fall of Beacon, aptly titled the same name, was incinerated.
Several of them cheered, as their intent was to destroy a movie that had tossed blame at all parties but Atlas in what was clearly national propaganda.
Though, their cheers didn't last long as the sight of flying Grimm turned those very cheers into screams.
While they were as small as butterflies – and even had wings like one – their heads were the size of fists, with their elongated, skull-like snouts bringing back memories of the Leviathan, a Grimm that had attempted to destroy Argus not too long ago. Due to the military being overrun, they were able to sneak in undetected and, as such, were able to unleash a devastating barrage of beams that erupted from their mouths that, while small, managed to cause more terror the moment it struck a few of the civilians…
As they managed to be reduced to ashes and bone within the matter of seconds.
Panic began to erupt among the masses as this swarm of Grimm, the Ziz, began to expel these smiting beams and cleared away more and more of the crowd. Any survivors would have been picked off by Griffons that had flown in, attracted by the negativity from both the violent mobs that had formed and the fear of death.
Loved ones were torn apart by the claws of the Griffons, which became homing beacons for the Zizes to fire their beams, all becoming a cycle of death and destruction as the crowd was easily slaughtered by the combination of these two swarms of Grimm.
One lone girl managed to find refuge in the ruins of a building that had been destroyed by the Leviathan. There, she heaved several sighs of relief before going over to scrounge for supplies. Dust would be great, a weapon even better.
From what she knew of the place, it used to be where more of the upper crust stayed for their vacation, not too far from Atlas but far enough to relax from all the pressures of the wining and dining. If nothing else, she found some cash that they carelessly left behind when the Leviathan attacked.
As she helped herself to the Lien, she swore she could hear some skittering, but she passed it off as the wind or a stray cat. Besides, now that she's far away from the danger, she can just grab what she can and get the hell out of dodge before she can…
sssshhhhhhh…
The girl's eyes widened as she felt long, spindly fingers on her shoulder. She looked to see that they were bone-like, with the hand connected to an inky black figure. She knew what kind of figure this was, but before she could scream, the skeleton gave a scream of its own.
And soon, the girl could no longer care if she survived this ordeal…
Not that she will under its thrall.
Those who tried to escape Argus using the streetcars weren't so lucky, as large, bull-like Grimm rushed in to destroy the tracks. Some even went as far as to derail the streetcar altogether, as if they zeroed in on their desired escape. Though, given that the next thing that these Behemoths did with the car after crushing their hopes was use it to crush them, it seemed almost merciful if not cruel.
"HELP US! SAVE US!" The people of Argus shouted out for help. One of which even had the nerve to turn to a Nubuck guard…
Only to meet his cold glare as he stared at the gun that the citizen stole from their supplies… The gun that killed their commander. The civilian looked at his gun too, his jaw dropping as if he accidentally shot one of his legs.
Slowly, the realization that they had just destroyed their only protection dawned upon the civilians, and with it, more negative emotions.
The signal was so strong that it almost felt as though the Relic of Knowledge never left. Sphinxes flew from the snowy terrains between Mistral and Argus. As soon as the civilians felt despair, they began to feel Apathy. Lancers swarmed in, carrying dust on their legs like pollen, and kamikazed into buildings, erupting into a splendid array of flames.
Civilians who chose to flee at this were suddenly picked off. Those who chose to hide were blasted or crushed. And the few who chose to fight? They were the first to fall.
Some of the civilians thought to double back to the base and pilot Mantas. They managed to overpower the remaining militia and begin to take the few intact Mantas into the sky…
However, as soon as they got to the controls, their eyes just glanced at all the shiny buttons. Unsure of what to press, at least one of them pressed a big red button, which caused the ship to explode right into the hangar, taking out several more Mantas and dozens of people in the process.
Only two Mantas managed to make it out of the hangar in one piece, but another tried to move up, only to realize too late that the controls are inverted. They crashed right into a crowd of Behemoths, of which only one was damaged enough to evaporate into black smoke.
This left the final one, piloted by the one competent person: a teen who spent a lot of his time playing video games. For as much as the game barely translated the controls into the game, he managed to carefully examine each button and utilize the Manta to the best of its ability.
And for a good little while, it managed to shoot out missiles that took out clusters of Zizes and Lancers. Another missile took out a few more Behemoths. There were joyous cheers from the public… Well, as joyous as a crowd that is slowly having their life force being drained from them by spooky scary skeletons.
That is until a Manticore flew in and smashed a wing off of the Manta, causing it to spiral out of control. To make matters worse, as the pilot tried to make a crash landing, all he heard was a screech. He turned around to see a few skeletons bathed in an inky black flesh with a glowing red light that came out of their mouths. A few of the civilians that heard its scream began to lie down and soon, the pilot as well.
Saphron tried desperately to keep Adrian calm. Rocking him, singing to him, even petting his head… None worked. Even she was beginning to cry seeing the destruction going on both outside and on the local news.
Terra remained strong and held the two tight. She needed to console her, give her something to hope for.
"Saphron, don't worry. I'm sure Jaune and his friends are going to pull through, then come back to stop this invasion and save us from-" Terra stopped as she saw Saphron's eyes widened. She turned around just as she heard Saphron give a blood curdling scream in time to Adrian giving a loud cry. As she saw what Saphron saw, she wept…
Knowing those were the last things she would hear from the people she would love…
BLAM!
The Manta smashed into a building and exploded, taking the lives of the Cotta-Arc family as well as the closest thing Argus had to heroes in this time of need…
The red-haired woman regained consciousness and steadily got back up. As she approached the fractured remains of bronze, she began to shed tears at the torn down statue of Pyrrha.
"How could they do this to you?!" She cried, unable to say anything else as her words turned to sobs.
The few remaining civilians of Argus who chose to continue their rampage approached her. They wore the Atlesian armor that gave them an almost skeletal appearance and their faces were dirtied from the smoke and ash that they had rushed through. Their leader took out a clawed weapon that glowed with red dust as he glared with yellow-orange eyes.
"Hey! You! I keep seeing your face around these parts!" He growled as the red-haired woman turned to see him. "You look a lot like her…" His eyes darted to the broken face of Pyrrha, then back to the woman's green eyes that were covered with broken glasses. Just who are you, exactly?"
There was a pause. Without the screams, crackling of fire, or roaring of Grimm, it was all silence. The red-haired woman looked to the statue, peering into the sole intact eye that was the invincible girl. With a defeated sigh, she turned to the leader and approached him.
"I'm nobody." She smiled and shed as many tears as she could, stretching her arms out as if the man in front of her was her long-lost son.
But just as he was about to strike, a Nevermore swooped by and devoured him, causing the others to run off in panic, which only allowed them to be easy prey for the oncoming swarm. The red-haired woman looked up to see that a whole murder of Nevermore had been circling the area this entire time…
As the Nevermore passed her, she wondered why exactly they ignored her when she was at her lowest point, when she had practically nothing left to lose now…
All while the giant shield that resembled Akouo rested by her feet, having just a small shimmer of red, rippling light before fading away.
Slowly and surely, Argus' numbers dwindled, and dwindled, and dwindled…
Until finally, it became empty and desolate, filled only by Grimm roaming around as though they were people. Though one of the most protected cities, it had ironically became just one of the hundreds of independent villages made across Anima.
To some, hope can inspire others to do great things, to fight even when it's very likely they're doomed…
To others, it can't be created, but found in the bleakest of moments…
But in some situations, hope can be an insidious, infectious disease…
This is the story of how it can be spread like a plague.