RWBY V8 C13

## Plot

The penultimate chapter before the finale starts with… another warning about flashing lights for photosensitive viewers, although I personally don't remember anything like that. It's when Jaune goes through the portal at the beginning of the episode. A portal opens up at the CCT center, where team JNPR and Emerald are. The plan is still the same, they just have to enter the portals and tell everyone that it's safe, but on foot instead of using the CCT. Jaune and Nora will do that while the others stick to their roles. Also, Jaune, please stop tempting fate by telling them that no matter what happens, the evacuation is priority one. Team RWBY and Penny enter the central location. Weiss thought there would be more people by now, but Ruby says they need to trust the others. She's sure they can handle it. Their job is getting Penny and the staff to Vacuo. They should exit just outside the city limits, which is enough space for refugees, but still within range of communications. Ren will mask emotions for as long as he can when people start arriving, and they'll call for help as soon as they cross over. Unfortunately, when Oscar, Ren, and Emerald exit, they see that there's a sandstorm going on. They don't know which way the city is, and the storm is also interfering with kingdom wide communications. As the first refugees arrive and wonder where they are, Ren tells them that they're in Vacuo. A bunch of civilians fall off one of the platforms and into the void when Cinder attacks. Everyone starts panicking and running. The girls tell Penny to keep going while they handle this. Cinder sees team RWBY and fights them on one of the platforms. She quotes something that Oscar said in the previous episode back to them, which surprises them. We cut away from the fight to what happened when Cinder and Watts met with Neo. Cinder actually apologized to Neo about not holding up her end of the bargain, but in order to get her what she wanted, she needed to use the lamp. She asked Jinn the final question. It seems clear from her facial animation that Jinn didn't want to answer a question for the bad guys, but she has no choice. Cinder asked what Ruby and her teammates had planned, and Jinn showed them everyone formulating their plan during the previous episode, including the part we didn't see or hear about them using the CCT. But, if time freezes when someone uses a relic, and Jinn can't tell them of future events, then I guess this means this was when they were actually executing the first phase of the plan? That doesn't seem like a lot of time for the bad guys to execute their own counter plan/sabotage, but whatever. Cinder looks shocked and angry when she sees Emerald with the heroes. The bad guys attacked the main Atlesian military compound and killed everyone there, or at least severely injured them, since we see Neo hit a guy on the head with her parasol. Watts stayed behind and killed communications, and before Cinder left with Neo, she told him that he "deserves this" in what sounds like a sincerely nice tone, and that they'd be back. After that, he looked at live camera footage, which still worked after he killed the CCT, and saw Marrow, Qrow, Robyn, and the Ace Ops. Robyn told a handcuffed Elm that a kingdom is its people, not the land they live on. Qrow told them that it doesn't matter anymore, because Ironwood is down. Before they can cuff Vine and Harriet, Watts sends a drone their way to explode and kill them all. Marrow takes the hit for them, which depletes his Aura and knocks him out. As Atlas continues to fall, it starts shifting. Harriet and Vine get on the airship with the bomb before it falls and fly away. Ironwood wakes up in his cell. Jacques tells him that Atlas is falling under his watch, the others have the staff, and they've both lost. However, the hard light barrier of Ironwood's cell starts flickering, and then turns off completely, freeing him and allowing him to get his super gun back, which is just lying on the floor. Either the barrier turned off because Atlas is falling, or Watts let him out on purpose. In the end, we never find out, and in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter. When Jacques asks Ironwood if he's going to open his cell too, the general blasts it with his giant laser gun, and all we see afterwards is green fire. So, yeah, Ironwood just killed Jacques for no real reason. We go back to team RWBY fighting Cinder. Before Ruby can use her silver eyes, Yang sees Neo approach her from behind, disguised as a civilian, but her eyes are her normal colors. She activates her Semblance and takes the hit for her little sister… which breaks her Aura and sends her over the edge of the platform. Even Neo seems angry at this, since she was trying to kill Ruby. Blake throws Gambol Shroud to Yang… but it's too short to reach her. She continues to fall and then disappears into the void. No, she's not dead, even if everyone in-universe thinks she is. When Blake yells her name, Penny hears her and activates her maiden powers. Blake is devastated and starts crying. Ruby has almost no time to process what happened, as she's forced to fight off Neo immediately afterwards. Blake attacks Neo in a fury, leaving Weiss to fight Cinder by herself… until Penny shows up. However, she forgets that now that she's human, she no longer has her swords, Floating Array, so she uses her maiden powers to make new ones, which is also how she flies now. When Weiss tries to use a gravity glyph on Cinder, she retaliates with glass shards. Weiss blocks most of them with the sword of her knight summon, but some of them make it through the portals that lead to Atlas and Mantle, which Jaune sees from the other side. The shards that landed near Weiss blow up and send her flying. She saves herself with a gravity glyph, but it's clear that she's getting tired. While fighting Neo, Blake hears Penny scream, and sees her fighting Cinder above the large crowd of civilians waiting to go to Vacuo. Now she has an impossible choice: Help Ruby fight Neo to avenge Yang and make sure her sacrifice wasn't in vain, or help Penny and Weiss fight Cinder. Also, Penny still has the staff. Seriously Penny? You were right by the Vacuo portal. Either chuck that puppy through to the other side or drop it into the void! Meanwhile, Harriet engages the autopilot and sees that Vine made it onboard. Before she can arm the bomb, he tells her that there's no point now that the general is no longer in charge. Atlas is falling, but its people will be safe, unless they use the bomb. Hare tries to tell him that it's about the principle of loyalty, and this is what Clover would've done. Vine says that if that's true, then maybe he was wrong too. Clover was important to them both. Hare finally starts to let her sadness show, but then Robyn rams into their airship with one that she's piloting. Hare arms the bomb, opens the cargo bay doors to kick Vine out, and goes back to piloting the ship. Vine is able to hang on with his Semblance, and Robyn saves him. Qrow uses his bird form to attack Hare through the windshield. Watts engages the autopilot on the ship. Winter is in the vault. She can't contact anyone, and has to fight Ironwood again, who sheds a single tear when she calls him an enemy of the kingdom. Seriously though, can we talk about the fact that Ironwood's weapon has *a laser pointer?* Why? That's the exact opposite of stealthy and inconspicuous. It alerted Winter to his presence, who was able to defend herself in time with a glyph. If it hadn't been for that, he might've caught her off guard and killed her in a single shot, like her dad. I wouldn't be surprised if he brings that up during their fight to shake her up emotionally. He does not. She reveals a second sword hidden in her first one. Oh, so she did get it back after her fight with Cinder in volume 7! Nice! In Vacuo, Ren loses his Aura again from masking so many people without Jaune's help. I personally would've had him use his new tracking ability to try and find the city and bring back help on foot, but whatever. Which is why I also think Oscar should've escorted people instead while Jaune went to Vacuo to boost Ren's Aura. Then again, out of their group, only Nora and Jaune have flight/glide capabilities in their weapons. Emerald asks if Penny could deal with the sandstorm, which makes Oscar realize that she should've come through by now. Something must be wrong. However, when he tries to go back through the portal, he can't. He and Ozpin realize that the girls made one fatal mistake when describing the portals to Ambrosius: Weiss used the phrase "one way ticket" when talking about the portal to Vacuo, which made it only work one way, so no one can get back to the central location. See Weiss, this is why you should've used the phrase "first class ticket," especially since you're a former member of high society. To make matters worse, bat-like Grimm called Ravagers that previously appeared in the CFVY books and the mobile game Amity Arena show up, and only Oscar, Emerald, and a vulnerable Ren are there to defend hundreds of refugees.