The giant whale grimm slowly got closer to the city. Everywhere, people panicked. Grimm alarms went off all over the city.  

"Get everyone inside!" A soldier yelled. Robyn and Qrow were roughly shoved through the academy doors. 

"Where do I take them sir?" A soldier asked his commanding officer.

"Where the hell do you think? Take them to Ironwood! That was our orders, it doesn't matter what that thing is, just do your job!" 

The soldier grabbed Qrow and Robyn and marched them through the academy, towards Ironwood's office.

When they were passing through the atrium right outside of his office, Qrow noticed that the walls and floors had been destroyed. 

"What happened here?"

"Team RWBY attacked the Ace Ops. Those kids did a lot of damage," the soldier answered.

"A few kids did this?" Robyn was shocked.

They were led into the General's office, which was equally damaged to the room right outside. The room was empty, and Qrow and Robyn were forced to just stand there.

Suddenly, James Ironwood slammed the door open. He stopped when he saw Qrow and Robyn.

"At least we have two of them. Where's Clover?" He asked the soldier.

"Clover's dead." Qrow spoke up. "Tyrian killed him." Qrow took a minute to gather himself, making sure that he didn't lose his cool, even though he really wanted to yell at Ironwood, or cry again. "He died, blindly trusting you, even when it cost him his life."

Ironwood went stone faced. "He gave his life, for a cause. There is no greater honor than dying for Atlas." 

"Do you even hear yourself?" Robyn yelled. "That was a person, a living breathing person with emotions and friends and family, who will never be able to smile again or breath again because you refuse to look at the military as the individuals that they are! Sure, they are a unit, a team working together, but they are still people! You treat them like they are your little robots, or just numbers on a spreadsheet. It's sickening."

"You know nothing about war! You are a huntress, you had a very different training than I did at the military school! Do not tell me how to run my army!" Ironwood slammed his fist on his desk.

"James, you need to look around. Your Ace Ops are out of commission, the best huntresses I have ever seen are leaving, and Salem is riding towards us on a giant whale grimm." You cannot think that what you are doing is good. You're just causing more problems, for everyone." Qrow took a step towards Ironwood, trying to reason with him.

Ironwood went and looked out the window and sighed. "That's not it. Winter Schnee is badly injured, and we lost the Winter Maiden. And now Oz is gone." 

"What do you mean that Oz is gone? Where's Oscar?" Qrow was filled with panic, he had assumed that Oscar had gone with Ruby and her friends.

"Oscar, he's gone. Probably dead. We won't have another Oz for a while."

"You can't just tell me that Oscar's dead? What happened to him?"

"It doesn't matter Qrow! What matters is the situation at hand. Without the Winter Maiden, I can't move Atlas, because I can't reach the relic. Everything is falling apart. We'll just have to fight Salem."

"You can't fight Salem!" Robyn argued. "You said so yourself, she can't die. Most of our huntsmen and soldiers haven't even heard of her until a few hours ago, and now you want to take on her entire fleet of grimm, plus her? You have to be insane."

"I'm making the hard decisions so that we can defeat her! We have to fight, now. If she has the Winter Maiden, which I suspect she does, then we need to keep her away from the vault. This is my call, not yours!" 

"Then let us fight. Get us out of these bolas, untie us, and let us help. We are skilled huntsmen and you need us." Qrow said, holding up his bound hands.

"I can't do that. You're a risk. You have made it clear that you don't believe in what I am doing, so how do I know that you won't commit treason, like your niece and her friends did, and cause more problems for me. I'm sorry Qrow, but you have to understand. I'm a military man, I have to do this." 

"Listen to yourself!" Robyn practically screamed.

"Take them away and lock them in a cell. Don't let them out," Ironwood commanded the soldier.

The poor soldier had to practically carry Robyn out of the office, kicking and screaming. Qrow just sighed and followed. 

He felt like everything was lost. He was giving up hope. He had no idea how anything could get better. The Winter Maiden had died, and Qrow had no idea who had inherited her powers, Ruby and her friends were gone, Oz and Oscar were gone, and Ironwood had lost his mind. Qrow felt useless, powerless. It felt like this was a hole that he couldn't get himself out of, despite having done so many times before. Qrow was trapped. 

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A/N: What did you guys think? I struggled with the idea that I was sort of painting Ironwood as the bad guy, but at this point in the series, he is sort of setting himself up to fail. He's lost his cool, his mental stability, and that makes him a reckless and terrible military leader. I hope he gets a redemption arch of some sort in volume 8. 

Let me know what you think in the comments below! And please don't forget to vote!