DISCLAIMER: I do not own RWBY. That is Rooster Teeth's pleasure.
(There is an A/N at the end).

Chapter 2: Lies and Secrets

"Lies and secrets…they are like a cancer in the soul. They eat away what is good and leave only destruction behind."
-Cassandra Clare

It was the sound of battle that Weiss awoke to. She tried to move, but couldn't and quickly realized why. Ruby was on top of her. "Ruby." She said.

"Weiss," the other girl answered, her voice quiet and difficult to hear. "You're awake."

"What happened?" There was a large crash and a cloud of dust rolled over them. "What's going on?"

"You were going to get shot." Ruby said. "I pushed you out of the way, and Team CFVY arrived. They told us to stay down."

But Weiss wasn't content to just "stay down" so she tried to push the red-hooded girl off, but found herself pinned beneath her. "Ruby, get off of me."

Ruby didn't budge. "No. Now shut up," the girl yelled uncharacteristically, shocking Weiss into silence. Ruby's head was pounding. The pain in her side was getting worse, and with it came a sense of worry.

Just then Blake, Fox, Goodwitch, and Ironwood arrived, viewing the carnage before them. They saw Velvet on the ground with Ozpin in front of her. Upon seeing the attacker, Ironwood instantly recognized its identity.

"Marron." He whispered to himself, recognizing the android immediately. "Ozpin-" Ironwood shouted.

"No," The man in green interrupted, glancing over his shoulder at the new arrivals. He set his focus back on his enemy. "You'll only get in the way."

Marron immediately straightened up, looking at Ozpin. "The Black Queen commands." It said in a robotic voice. "New target assigned. Professor Ozpin." And with that it charged.

The robot was fast, but nowhere near as fast as his opponent. His attacks came like a hailstorm, but Ozpin moved in time with each one, dodging, blocking, and deflecting the attacks with ease. His movements were fluid. To Ozpin, it was a dance. Batting aside the android's next attack, Ozpin landed a solid kick to his face, causing the robot to stumble backwards.

"Who is the Black Queen?" Questioned Ozpin. Instead of answering, Marron simply roared, charging the professor, sending a another volley of lightning fast blows at him. Blocking each one easily, Ozpin followed up with four even faster cane strikes. One to the knees, three to the chest, finishing it off with another kick to the android's face. The robot toppled back once more.

His fist once again encasing itself in the blue energy, Marron punched the ground as hard as he could, creating cracks in the floor beneath him, sending the shockwave towards his opponent. The headmaster thrust his hand out and the attack parted around him. "I'm afraid that little trick won't work on me." Ozpin stated. Marron's reaction was visible. Fear.

There it was again. That simple spark of intelligence. A flash of primal instinct. Ozpin recognized it instantly. "You don't have to do this." The Headmaster tried. This was no mindless robot. "I've seen your kind before. You have a choice."

Marron laughed. "I have been denied my choice." He shouted. The android charged once more in an attempt to get past the other man's guard. His efforts were, as before, fruitless.

Ozpin blocked every attack Marron threw at him as if it were child's play. His cane moved faster than the eye could see, redirecting and stopping each of the blows. Then, reversing the grip on it, the headmaster slammed the handle of his cane into the side of the robots head. He followed up with a kick straight to Marron's chest, sending the false human flying into the wall. In less than a second, Ozpin was at the android, grabbing it by its throat, holding it up against the wall. The robot struggled beneath his grip, but could not escape.

"I will give you one last chance." Ozpin pleaded. "Who is the Black Queen?" The android merely thrashed more in his grasp. The headmaster sighed. "Very well." He whispered. Raising his cane, he drove the rod deep through the android's head and into the wall. Ozpin could sense something depart from the construct.

"I'm…" Ozpin whispered, "so sorry." Once the machine had stopped moving, he pulled his cane back just as easily as he had pushed it in and let the lifeless metal husk slump to the ground. His gaze immediately shifted to Ironwood.

"Ozpin, I can explain-" Ironwood began before a shout from behind drew both headmaster's attention.

It was Blake. "I found Weiss," she shouted as she ran over to Ruby and Weiss. The heiress had just succeeded in pushing Ruby off of her and was now getting up when Blake gasped.

"Weiss," she shouted in a panic, reaching towards her teammate.

"Stop touching me." The white haired girl snapped back, still dazed from being unconscious. Brushing off Blake's help, the heiress began to get up, neither girl noticing Ruby was still on the ground.

"But, Weiss, you're covered in blood." Weiss looked down briefly, confused, feeling for a wound. It was true, the entire left side of her white dress was ruined, soaked crimson by the red ichor.

"What?" She whispered, barely audible. Rubbing her face, she tried to shake away the fog clouding her mind when she realized her hands were covered in blood as well. There was just one issue. Weiss wasn't bleeding.

A cough from Ruby at their feet caught their attention. They quickly realized, it wasn't Weiss' blood covering the heiress, it was Ruby's. "No," Weiss cried, bending down next to her partner, Ruby's black dress was soaked with blood as well, the deep red almost invisible against the dark fabric. "No... no… no… no." Her words came out barely a whisper.

Ozpin was at their side pushing Weiss and Blake away from Ruby. "Glynda," he commanded, "call the medics."

"They're already on their way." She knelt down and pulled out her collapsed riding crop, flicking it out to it's full length. She looked Ozpin in the eyes. He nodded.

Meanwhile, behind them, Weiss sat on her knees, unable to drag her eyes away from her bloody hands. The same blood that covered her side and was now all over her face. Blake stood a short distance away, unable to tear her shocked gaze away from her young leader.

Weiss was still trying to piece together what happened. The information swirling in her mind began to fall into place steadily. Everything going on around her felt distant. She heard Ozpin say something about medical equipment and the Atlas ship, but it didn't fully register. It wasn't until she heard the words, "take Ruby to the ship," that she finally snapped back to reality. She saw Glynda pointing her riding crop at Ruby's side and panicked.

"What are you doing?" She screamed as she tried to stop the combat teacher. Ozpin barred her way.

"She is buying us time. By directing the blood flow back through the veins, she reduces the amount leaving the body." The headmaster said. He looked Weiss in the eyes, finding only fear and the anger raging beneath. "Weiss, if she doesn't do this, Ruby will die."

Her eyes widened. "Then why are you sending her with him?" She shouted angrily, pointing at the general.

"Weiss. With us she's in-" Ironwood began.

"That thing was an android and it was in a Atlas uniform." She responded, not letting him end his sentence.

"Weiss, you're in shock, you're not thinking rationally." Ironwood tried to reason.

The air around the heiress became much colder. There was a flicker of energy around her as whatever the android did to her and her teammates began to wear off.

"Will you all just shut up." Bellowed Professor Goodwitch, sweat began to break on her forehead. What she was trying to do took an extreme amount of focus and precision which was hard enough without the arguing.

Weiss turned her anger back at the general when Ozpin placed his hand on her shoulder. "Ms. Schnee," he said calmly, looking the heiress in the eyes, "We do not have the medical equipment here to save Ruby, nor do we have time to get her to a hospital in Vale. The Atlas flagship is our only option."

Weiss began to panic. She didn't know why exactly she was blaming the general. In reality, Ironwood was right, Weiss couldn't think straight. But that didn't mean she was gonna give up.

"How about this," Ozpin said before the white haired girl could do anything. "Why doesn't Weiss go up with Ruby to the ship."

But Ironwood was already shaking his head. "Access to those ships is for Atlas military personnel only, I can't-"

"I'm her partner." Weiss shouted angrily.

Ironwood had had enough. "That isn't relevant. The answer's still-"

"What did I say?" Glynda interrupted.

Ironwood and Weiss stopped, both muttering under their breath. Ozpin let out a sigh. "You are taking Ruby up to your ship, but because she was injured in the line of duty, academy code dictates that the partner of the injured trainee is allowed full access. So, I'm afraid, General Ironwood," he said, stressing his title, "you don't have a choice."

"Fine," was all he said. The medics arrived seconds later and began prepping Ruby for transport. Glynda stopped her channeling, collapsing backwards. Ozpin caught her, helping her sit down. He stood and set a hand on Blake's shoulder. The faunus' gaze snapped to the headmaster, and the gray-haired man could see the resolution in her eyes. He quickly set her to the task of checking on the other students before turning his attention back to the matter at hand.

The paramedics picked up Ruby and started taking her to the ambulance outside where Weiss had already been sent. Ironwood went to move past Ozpin when he felt the other man grab his arm, stopping him. "Do not think this is over James."

"Ozpin-"

"If she dies." Ozpin continued, ignoring the general. "There will be hell to pay." He let go and walked off.

Ironwood let out a deep sigh. He began jogging towards the outside of the building, getting there just in time to see Weiss strap Myrtenaster to her hip.

"You're not bringing a weapon onto my ship." He said as he sat down in the ambulance next to the heiress.

The white-haired girl simply ignored him, she didn't care what he had to say.

In reality, he had no right to deny her a weapon. But Ironwood could tell she was angry, and he didn't want her doing something she would regret.

"Weiss." He started as the ship took off. "This isn't my fault."

"Will you just shut up," Weiss screamed at Ironwood. Both paramedics looked up at the sudden outburst before turning back to stabilizing Ruby. Weiss looked back at her partner while the EMTs did their jobs. The heiress' breath was uneven and her hands shook uncontrollably. Not only was she covered in blood, Ruby's blood, but she probably had a concussion. She was confused, overwhelmed. She knew she was thinking irrationally, but she was in shock.

For the rest of the trip, both the heiress and the general were silent. Not once did Weiss' hand leave her weapon.

Ozpin sat at his desk, thinking. Luckily, the rest of the student's injuries were not as severe as Ruby's, although Velvet was more than a little bruised. He made sure all the students made it to the infirmary heading back to his office to plan his next action. It had been several hours since then.

There were many things on the headmaster's mind. At the top of the list: who or what was the "Black Queen?" He had spent most of his time searching for the answer, and had come up with several possibilities. Immediately, Qrow's original message had come to mind, but the grey haired professor doubted that the "Queen" Qrow had referred to was behind the attack, as he had no indication that Salem even knew of Ruby's existence, let alone have reason to kill her. That left some other entity, and attacker being an android signified a possibility that technology, and in turn, the network, was involved. His desk beeped, notifying him that someone had arrived in the elevator. "Come in." He said.

The lift's door opened and out came a student, Logan Amboss, a first year at Beacon and a member of Team OPAL. He was a medium sized boy, only five foot nine. He had dark brown, almost black hair, sharp features, and fair skin. He could have been called handsome if it wasn't for his crooked nose and a long, jagged scar that ran down one side of his face. He wore basic grey plate armor, and on his right shoulder was emblazoned the image of a simple anvil.

"Mr. Amboss," Ozpin began, putting a smile on his face, "Why don't you sit down." Shuffling over, Logan nervously took a seat. Despite the circumstances, Ozpin always found the way students acted around him amusing. "Now, Mr. Amboss, it has come to my attention that you have some experience breaching the school's security network."

Logan stiffened. This was exactly what he was afraid this was about. "I wouldn't say… experience." He said, avoiding eye contact and mumbling the last word.

Ozpin raised an eyebrow. "Really? I believe last month's incident with the lunch schedules proves otherwise." Logan shrunk in his seat, not trusting himself to speak. "Of course, having only pizza in the cafeteria for a week is hardly reason for expulsion." The headmaster said. Logan brightened. The headmaster donned a knowing smile, "Although, locking Cardin Winchester out of his own room certainly caused some grief." Logan should've known he was wrong.

Ozpin's face grew serious. "But none of that's important at the moment. I require your assistance." he continued, activating his computer, opening a command prompt, and gesturing for Logan to come over.

"Assistance?" The first year questioned cautiously, getting up and standing next to Ozpin. "With what?"

"Diagnosis." Ozpin stood up, allowing Logan to take his place. Walking to the window, the professor continued. "I believe something has embedded itself in the CCT tower. Something… malignant."

"And you want me to find it." Logan said, more of a statement than a question.

"Indeed, I believe your semblance makes you uniquely qualified for this task."

Logan was dumbfounded. "How did you-"

Ozpin turned to him. "Do you really think I believed you broke through one of the most secure firewalls in Remnant without some form of help?"

"No, I…I guess not." He said turning back to the desk. "Here we go." He took off his left gauntlet, placing his now bare hand on the cool glass. He let out a sharp gasp as his semblance began to work.

Ozpin gazed out of the window and laid eyes on the Kalypso, Flagship of Atlesian Fleet, Pride of their Military, and General Ironwood's personal command ship. Nearly one and half times as big as the already massive Atlas assault cruisers, the Kalypso was uniquely qualified as more of a mobile fortress and base of operations than an attack ship. That was where Ruby and Weiss were taken, and Ozpin was worried. In reality, there was no proof that the android had come from the Kalypso, let alone the Atlesian military. However, something told Ozpin that, although the general was most likely not behind the attack, he was the reason the robot was in Vale. And if that was the case, than the Kalypso was where it was kept.

A yelp from behind him drew his attention. He turned around just in time to see Logan's eyes snap open and his hand fly off the console. The look on the first year's face was one of sheer terror.

"Logan," Ozpin said, crossing over to the boy. "Logan," he repeated, this time placing his hand on the boys shoulder. The first year snapped around, shaken from his momentary panic. "Did you find something?" Logan simply nodded his head, a look of shock on his face. Ozpin raised an eyebrow in a question.

"Okay." Logan said, taking a deep breath and regaining his composure. "Check this out." Making sure to put his gauntlet back on first, Logan turned back to the desk. Initiating the command prompt, he began typing lines of code. His fingers moved like lightning. Eventually he stopped, pressed enter, and then proceeded to type a much smaller line of code. This time when he initiated it, it activated the holo projectors in the room.

Suddenly the office was filled with blue lines of data going everywhere, forming a massive grid. It was thickest in the middle of the room. "This is the CCT mainframe here at Beacon." Typing another command, the display zoomed in on the large cluster at the center. It kept zooming until it had reached the heart of the mainframe.

Ozpin couldn't believe his eyes. "What in the world is that?"

Whereas, farther out the strands of code all went in straight lines either vertically or horizontally, here, at the heart of it all, everything was twisted and knotted. Lines of code formed what could only be described as tendrils and growths, all coming off of a single massive queen chess piece at the center. Almost everything flowed through it, all except what looked like a single line of code going from one side of the room to the other, passing only briefly through one of the flowing tendrils.

"When you said something had embedded itself in the system," Logan began, "you weren't wrong. But, it's not just a virus, not anymore."

"What do you mean not anymore." Ozpin said.

"It's rooted itself so fully in the tower's programming, it's more like a tumor. It's part of the system now."

Ozpin spotted the single straight line of code. "What's that?" He asked.

"Oh. That?" Logan said. "That's us. I disconnected your terminal from the main cluster of data, but still gave us an access point, so we can monitor them but they won't know it." He continued, gesturing to the tendril their line of code went through. "That's not the half of it, though. That giant queen, it's feeding all the information it gathers to a single place and then controlling our system with any commands it gets in return."

Ozpin stayed silent for a brief moment before continuing. "The question then, is how did it get into our systems without our detection."

"That's the thing that is a bit odd," Logan began. There was a lot about the structure of the virus that the boy didn't understand, but what he did recognize he was hesitant to share with Ozpin. The professor could see he was holding back and gestured for the first year to continue. Logan took a deep breath. "Okay, so in programming there can be hundreds of different ways to write a single command, and they all produce the same result. Well, this leads to different people having different, as you would call them, styles or languages, in the code. This includes anyone from third party programmers to hackers, and even governments. This… thing," he gestured to the giant queen piece. "This virus, it is written in Atlesian Military code. I recognize it from when their army dudes first got here."

At this Ozpin sighed and turned towards the window, casting a glance at the Kalypso. "Can you find where it is feeding?" Ozpin questioned after a moment of silence, his eyes ever fixed on the Atlas flagship.

"I might be able to." Logan said. After a few moments of typing, a red window popped up on the screen. "That wasn't me," Logan shouted, hands flying away from the keyboard.

Ozpin turned back towards the boy. "What is happening?" He questioned.

After a brief pause Logan spoke up, excited. "We are receiving the data being sent through the virus." He read the message the computer was giving him. "Whoever is controlling it, they're sending a message to someone else." He spent the next minute typing lines of code into the command prompt. Finally, there was a ping, and a new box appeared.

"There." Logan said, satisfied with himself. "I not only intercepted the message, I traced it back to an administration scroll. It appears to be owned by," he read the name, "someone named Cinder Fall. Why does that sound familiar?"

"They fought in the tournament." Ozpin said. He was glad that it had not led back to Ironwood, though he did wish to know why the virus had been created in Atlas.

"Uh, sir." Logan said, drawing Ozpin's attention back to the console. "I think you need to read the message." The boy got up, allowing his headmaster to sit down. Ozpin's eyes widened when he read what it said.

The message was a report to someone labeled "the Queen." It detailed the event that had happened earlier, when the android had attacked Team RWBY. It was alerting whoever it was addressed to about some kind of change in "plans." It then contained a new list of 2v2 rounds, the very rounds that were supposed to have been randomly generated at the beginning of each section of the tournament.

"It seems that the culprit has been rigging the fights." Ozpin said aloud. Logan was about to say something when the headmaster deactivated the holo display. "Thank you Mr. Amboss," Ozpin stated, gesturing towards the elevator. "I think I am capable of navigating the computer from here."

Logan stuttered. "Uh...yeah...anytime." He began walking away.

"Oh, and, Mr. Amboss," Ozpin called after him, "Please be discreet about this matter."

"Yes, sir," Logan said as he entered the elevator and left the office, a little shell shocked.

Ozpin sat down at his desk with even more questions than before. Who was this Cinder Fall, and if Qrow was right and this was the person responsible for Amber's condition, what would be her next move? He was drawn from his thoughts by a notification. It came up in a warning window, activity from the virus, except this time, it came from an outside force. It was a message for Ozpin from an unknown sender. Ozpin's eyes widened.

Be careful who you trust
-As was the beginning…

A/N: So yeah, finally introduced my first OC. I am following the color naming rule. Also, to make my OC's more unique and to avoid pointless self inserts, with each character I introduce, like the actual show does, I will allude to a fairy tale, classical, mythological, historical etc. character. If you're interested in guessing which ones are who, please do so by PMing me and not by posting in the comments/reviews.

For Logan I tried to make his appear a lot through looks. I'm a little sad that I only got to showcase a small part of his semblance, and that in the grand scheme of things he doesn't play a bigger role. He is fairly interesting to me, as is the character he alludes to, and I'd love to share him with all of you. Maybe I will one day. But his semblance definitely isn't just communicating with computers, I'll say that. Let me know what you think of him in the reviews or PM me your thoughts.

Also, if you have noticed, I am basing chapter names off of quotes. If anyone is interested in sending me quotes, you can PM me anytime. Again, please avoid posting them in the reviews. They can be from books, speeches, great philosophers. Anything like that works. If people could keep their eyes out for a somewhat foreboding quote about mirrors or reflections or shattering, please send it my way. I can't have it be too inspirational though. It won't come up for a while, but I find it's good to be prepared.

Well, forgive me for the ranting in this Author's Note. I'll try not to make it a regular thing.

UPDATE: Oh, and shout out to anyone who reviewed so far. I really appreciate it. And again thanks to Fireflame789 for betaing this last chapter. From here on out you're flying blind.

Till next time.

-Cindermane

Next Chapter: Something Wicked Chapter 3 - The Shortest Passion of Our Souls

Release Date: 07/15/2017