grimm hero of remnant

chapter 33

(cinder)pov

In my childhood, i lived in a Mistral orphanage, where i scrubbed floors and was bullied by the other children. A day came where Madame adopted me and took me to the Glass Unicorn hotel in the City of Atlas. 

There, i was put to work cleaning the hotel and delivering food to the rooms. i was heavily mistreated and forced to wear a shock collar disguised as a necklace.

One day, the Madame's daughters angered me, who caused a scene by creating a large cloud with her Semblance and a wet scrub brush. This caught the attention of Rhodes and angered Madame, the latter of whom used the shock collar to torture me in a back room. 

A while later when i was ten years old, i stole one of Rhodes' swords due to being tired of the mistreatment. However, Rhodes found me, convinced me not to hurt Madame and the step sisters, and decided to begin training me to be a Huntress.

A few years went by, with Rhodes coming and going from the hotel and I continued to do my work and endured being electrocuted by Madame for even the smallest of things. Whenever Rhodes was at the hotel, he would train me in hand-to-hand and dual wielding at night.

Eventually, with a few years left until she would turn seventeen and join a Huntsman Academy, Rhodes gave one of his swords to Cinder. Late one night, the step sisters discovered my sword and reported it to Madame. 

Around fifteen minutes later, Rhodes arrived at the hotel, heard a noise in the storage room that served as my bedroom, and discovered that i had murdered the step sisters and was strangling Madame to death. 

Although Madame continuously electrocuted me, i persisted, and upon Madame's death, i turned to Rhodes with a broken smile. Rhodes drew his dual maces, and me, feeling betrayed, fought back, ultimately killing him.

In the present day, I wake up in a bedroom within Monstra and is greeted by Emerald, who has been worried about me. Mercury soon enters the room, tells Emerald that I do not care about her, and announces that he now works for Salem instead of me. He then tells us that Salem has summoned everyone to the bridge.

In the torture chamber, Oscar talks with Ozpin about how they have been presented with an opportunity to sabotage Salem's group from the inside. Hazel enters the room, and Ozpin questions him about why he serves Salem, attempting to talk sense into him. They are interrupted by Salem, who has Hazel bring Oscar to the bridge.

On the bridge, Salem explains that Arthur has contacted Tyrian and told him about how he worked with Ironwood to take control of Penny. She then briefly punishes me for disobeying her and states that she has decided to change her methods to instead lift me up. 

She orders me to recover Watts and have him lead her to Penny while The Hound also searches for Penny. Oscar then attempts to warn Salem's subordinates that they are helping her bring about the end.

Meanwhile, in an airship somewhere, the Ace Operatives and Winter are searching for Penny, when they pick up an open comms broadcast from Jaune about the river of Grimm. However, when they land the ship, Harriet demands the location of Penny instead of being concerned about the "large mass of Grimm". 

Just when she and Jaune begin to argue, a series of earthquakes shake the tundra and Mantle, and soon after, the river of Grimm produces a massive geyser that manages to puncture Atlas' Hard-Light shield. Live video of the geyser is broadcast. 

The Grimm liquid spawns Centinels, which burrow into the earth of the floating city to avoid the military ships' lasers and dislodge two of the shield pylons. With these two pylons gone, the entire shield disappears, allowing Monstra to land on one of Atlas' farmlands. Monstra opens its mouth, vomiting out more Grimm fluid, which spawns a wide variety of Grimm.

(Jaune)pov

The Atlas Military sets up just outside the City of Atlas' walls and begins combatting the Grimm. However, Monstra repeatedly spews more Grimm Liquid from its mouth, spawning an endless supply of various Grimm, and flying Grimm come swarming out of its mouth, headed toward the city. Ironwood begins evacuating the City of Atlas' residents into the underground subways, which were previously closed.

The Ace Operatives' airship arrives at the City of Atlas, with Jaune, Pyrrha, Ren and Yang now handcuffed inside. Upon seeing Monstra, Jaune points out that that is where The Hound took Oscar Pine, but Vine insists that Grimm do not take prisoners. 

Winter contacts Ironwood, who informs her of a plan for her and the Ace Ops to carry a bomb into Monstra to blow it up from the inside. This sparks concern from Jaune, Pyrrha, Ren and Yang, who fear this would endanger Oscar, and they insist on rescuing him first.

Inside Monstra, Emerald secretly watches Salem control and directs the flow of Grimm Liquid out of the whale's mouth to create more Grimm. She then sneaks over to the torture chamber and eavesdrops on Hazel and Ozpin. There, she hears Ozpin state that, once Salem obtains all four Relics, the world will be destroyed so that Salem can finally die.

In the Schnee Manor, Ruby and Blake bring hot drinks to Weiss bedroom while Weiss cares for the still unconscious Nora and y/n look out through the window to see Monstra make more of the grimm. 

Weiss states that there is not much they can do for Nora and that they need a doctor to care for her. The three begin to wonder if they should help fight the Grimm, just before May enters the room and tells them that Fiona has not heard from Yang's Group. 

May wants the group to go back to the crater in Mantle, which is also under attack, but Weiss wants to stay in Atlas. Weiss asks about May's family, and May tells her that the Marigolds do not consider her their "son" anymore, comparing Weiss' situation with Whitley Schnee to her own situation with Henry. 

The conversation starts to become heated, and Ruby steps in to calm everyone down. Just outside the door, Whitley is listening in, and he thinks to himself.

Ozpin tells Hazel the truth about Salem and the curse of immortality placed on her by The Gods. Hazel is hesitant to believe Ozpin, so Oscar takes back control, tells Hazel how to use the Relic of Knowledge and tempts him to use the last question to find out for himself if Ozpin is telling the truth. Having heard enough, Emerald walks away.

While Mercury packs a bag, Emerald tells him everything she overheard from the torture chamber, but Mercury is hesitant to believe Ozpin and Oscar. Just as the two walk out into the hallway, Tyrian arrives and injects himself into the conversation, claiming that Salem is, indeed, going to destroy the world.

 This seems to cause Mercury to stop and think, but Tyrian soon nudges him along to the docks and pushes him into an airship. Just as the ship readies for takeoff, Mercury looks out at Emerald, who had followed them. The ship then flies away to take Mercury and Tyrian to Vacuo.

On the Ace Ops' ship, Winter listens to the Ace Ops and Yang's Group debate, silently conflicted. I attempt to convince Winter to let them rescue Oscar by saying the Ace Ops could use them as a scouting team, but the Ace Ops feel it is foolish to risk four lives to save one ally. 

Ren stands and argues that no one is replaceable, and he soon notices that his Semblance has a new ability - reading emotions. With this ability, he realizes that the Ace Ops have been fighting how they truly feel about each other, and he even looks down at himself, seeing his own true emotions. 

Harriet and Elm are angered by Ren verbalizing how they truly feel, and Winter steps in to prevent a fight and states that they will go through with Jaune's plan. Harriet objects, but Winter pulls rank to silence her and tells Yang's Group that they have a time limit. 

The Ace Ops drop off Yang's Group, and just before Ren exits the ship, he states that Marrow and Winter no longer want to be part of any of this. 

In the entrance room of the Schnee Manor, Ruby tries to suggest finding and rescuing Qrow and Robyn, but May tells her that Qrow and Robyn cannot save them and they need to choose for themselves whether to fight for Mantle or the City of Atlas. 

They are interrupted by Klein knocking on the front door. After Weiss lets him in, he reveals that Whitley called him to care for Nora. Touched by this, Weiss hugs Whitley, who hugs back after a second. The moment is ruined by a loud rumbling sound, followed by a crash. 

Ruby, y/n, Weiss and Blake run over to a smoking crater in front of the manor, to find Penny, who reaches out and apologizes before losing consciousness.