Author's Note:
1. Slow chapter, this one, because there's really not a lot of action. AOT originally brushed over what happened in the month between Eren's trial and the Recon Corps' expedition, but this time there're going to be a lot more things happening in that month.
2. Expect more modern equipment to show up in the humans' arsenal. Ruby is a weapon's nut (and so am I) so I would expect things made as late as WW2 to show up in here. Though, they will be appearing in a simplified form and in very limited numbers.
3. The next chapter will see the recruits getting their Semblances, so stay tuned!
The stench of decaying bodies and burnt flesh filled Ruby's nose. The street—lined with broken corpses—ran red with blood. A large skeleton lay in front of her, burning away right before her eyes. Her bones creaked as she panted. Her hands were quivering, her grip unsteady. Crescent Rose almost clattered against itself as she struggled to bring it upright. Even with the enhancements of her Aura, the large weapon felt heavy.
How many kills did she have? Ruby let out a long breath. The first step she took almost made her stumble; her legs were trembling as well as her arms. Fatigue took over for a split second when she leaned against the wall of an abandoned house right beside the giant, evaporating corpse. She had cut up more Titans than she could count, but they just kept coming.
And coming.
And coming.
There was no end in sight. She separated from the rest of the team some time ago. There was no time to find them; the Titans were swarming the town as the civilian evacuation was underway. Even the recruits and the Garrison were all fighting on their own. Lone wolves did not survive well out here; she needed support and someone to watch her back. She need to find partners—even the recruits would do.
But she was just so tired. Her entire body screamed for rest. She slid down the exterior wall and rested Crescent Rose on her shoulder. A small rest would be wonderful for her body, but she was in the middle of a slaughterhouse. A never-ending supply of Titans was flooding through the gate. She and the brave men and women of the Garrison were the only ones standing between humanity and total annihilation.
It was no time to rest, she told herself, but her body simply could not listen. Her eyelids felt heavy as lead. She needed a moment of shuteye. A few minutes could not hurt, she thought to herself as she sank further toward the ground until her rear touched something soft and squishy. She turned her head and looked down at that moment, and she immediately wished she had not.
Someone—no, a corpse—was staring at her with wide open eyes. They were light-brown. It had short unkempt blond hair. Its mouth was eternally in the shape of a silent scream. She immediately scampered away from it as if struck by lightning, only to find that the lower half of the corpse was gone. And then she realized at whom she was staring. It was Thomas, frozen at the moment of his expiration, his eyes forever staring accusatively at her.
"No, it wasn't my fault," Ruby croaked. She could not have saved Thomas even if she tried. That Deviant was just too quick. Neither Thomas nor Ruby ever saw it coming.
She tried to stand up. There was almost no strength left in her legs, and she fell down again onto the stone pavement, this time in front of the decomposing Titan. Something crawled out of the stomach, and Ruby once again wished that she did not see it.
It was Mina. Her hair was half dissolved. Her flesh sloughed off of her limbs, leaving bones of bleached white under the painfully bright sun. Her uniform were ripped and torn in multiple places, and blood dripped from her wounds. Her internal organs were… Ruby wanted to retch. The corpse, to her amazement, crawled up and stood in front of her, pointing an accusative finger at the hooded girl.
"Why didn't you save me?" It rasped. Ruby shuffled her body backward, only to hit something soft again. To her amazement, a pair of arms—this time, from another Mina—wrapped around her, their grips tight as steel.
"No! It wasn't my fault!" Ruby screamed in horror and glanced around. The corpses at the side of the street—even Thomas—all had Mina's face, its skin gone and its eyes falling out of their sockets.
"You could have saved me!" They screamed in unison. The cacophony was too much and Ruby tried to shield her ears, only to have her arms held down by two more copies of Mina.
"I couldn't! I was too late! It wasn't—"
"Come with me to hell!" Blood red pain flashed in Ruby's eyes as one corpse sank its teeth into her neck.
And then Ruby woke up with a scream, her pajamas soaked with sweat. She took several quick and shallow breaths before taking a deep one, patting her own chest in a futile attempt to try and slow down her heartbeats. Moonlight spilled into the room through the closed window, casting a long shadow down on the floor. She was sleeping in one of the abandoned buildings in the mining village that still had some useful furniture; namely, a bed, a dresser and maybe even a closet. The entire team made it their temporary home as they dealt with business in the town, finding blacksmiths, chemists, miners and other craftsmen to resupply themselves.
She was fortunate to have dreamless nights for the past couple of days, but it seemed that the peace she enjoyed during her time of rest was over. She lightly lifted her blankets and walked toward the dresser, picking up a thick towel in the process to wipe herself clean of the sweat. The pajamas clung to her because of the moisture they absorbed, so she took them off and changed into her regular clothes—a modest cotton blouse and a plaid skirt—before picking up Crescent Rose and walking out the room.
She needed some fresh air. The building used to be an inn judging from the faded signs outside its main entrance, but the Schmidts—the blacksmiths in town—told her that it used to be a much shadier place. It explained the furnishing and some rather nice bedding they found having been left in one of the closets in her room, and it also explained how well the rooms were proofed against sound: that scream she had did not even wake up anyone even though they all slept on the same floor.
She noticed a cool breeze streaming down the hall toward the open window at the end. Somewhere in the house there was an open access point allowing for the wind. She quietly walked toward the staircase, and noticed that the breeze was getting stronger. The door to the roof seemed to be open, so she quietly walked up the staircase toward the flat rooftop.
Half a moon slowly sank toward the horizon. It was rather different from the one in Remnant: for one, it was never broken into a million pieces. Just another reminder that they were not in Remnant anymore; Ruby smiled sadly. The bright light cast her shadow over the exit, and with that light she saw the silhouette of a woman sitting and dangling her legs over the edge.
Taking a few unsubtle steps toward the silhouette, Ruby was rather surprised to find that it was Weiss. It was highly unusual to see her of all people seemingly brooding in the night. Her footsteps suddenly became a lot lighter; she wanted to observe the white-haired princess a bit more before intruding.
"I could hear you coming from the stairs, you know," Weiss remarked sharply, and Ruby's feet relaxed a little. The attempt to hide was, as usual, futile.
"Can't sleep?" She asked quietly, taking her seat beside Weiss. Crescent Rose lay obediently at her side, listening silently to the conversation.
"I-It's not like I had a nightmare or anything," Weiss quickly snapped back, earning a small smile from Ruby, "I heard your scream through the window. You really ought to do something about that obnoxious volume of yours."
"…Sorry."
"So, what'd you see? In that nightmare of yours, I mean. Creepy crawlies in the bathtub?"
"Uh, no, that's not it," Ruby almost chuckled. "No, I was just… I was thinking about Mina."
"Mina? The girl with twin pigtails?"
"Yeah. I was thinking about how I could've saved her but…"
"It's no use blaming yourself for it. She's already dead; doing that wouldn't bring her back to life, would it?"
"No, but… but I'm just wondering. Would it have turned out differently if I killed that Titan before it could grab her? Would she be still with us?" Ruby glanced down at the darkness below them. "And, and if I could just—"
"Nuh-uh, stop right there," Weiss gestured Ruby to hold her words. Then, she took a deep breath and continued: "You're the leader of the team. You have to be sure of your decisions and accept the consequences."
"But this time we have a very good chance of getting killed!"
"You're right, we do. But do you honestly think all of us are going to live through this if you questioned yourself every step of the way?"
"But…"
"We're your teammates. We trust your judgment. You've had crazy ideas before, but we've come out alright," Weiss tilted her head. Ruby could feel her teammate's gaze landing on top of her: "and we'll continue to follow you, no matter what decisions you make."
"Thanks, Weiss. That really means a lot."
"Besides, if you screw up because you don't have the confidence or the resolve in your decisions, I could always take over as the team lead," Weiss snapped, "We clear about that?"
"Yeah," Ruby chuckled. "So, what brought you on the rooftops? Did you have a nightmare too?"
"D-Don't be stupid," Weiss stammered, turning her face away from Ruby, "I'm nowhere as weak mentally as you are, you know!"
"Then…"
"I-I was just thinking about how things turned out, is all!" Weiss scrambled for some words. "You know, about our entire business with the people in this village and with the military of this world."
"It's gone well, hasn't it? The mine owner agreed to use your methods of mining Dust and we've already got our first batch of samples. We've found the steelmakers and the blacksmiths, and told them how to make cartridge casings and rifled barrels. Also, Simon would have the first batch of guncotton and mercury fulminate for us today," Ruby summarized the work they did over the past couple of days.
"I know all that, but something doesn't seem right," Weiss nodded and let out a long breath.
"What do you mean?"
"First off, the Dust mine. I checked the ore and the product coming out of the mine; it was incredible. The quality of the powder-form Dust coming out of there was the highest I've ever seen, bar none. Not even the best mine the Schnee Dust Company had back in Remnant could match it. From what the foreman told me a couple days ago, the mine had been exploding for at least a few years now. Are you telling me that they've sat on that for a few years without even becoming the least bit curious about using Dust?"
Weiss took a breath to let the thought sink in a bit: "And then there's a problem with their gear. You've seen their equipment. The Maneuver Gear is a work of art; I can see that from its construction. The quality of steel it used, the complexity of its mechanism, all of that pointed to sophisticated tooling and quality materials. It really didn't match the level of their firearms."
"Now that you've mentioned it, I've been thinking about the same thing," Ruby leaned back onto the rooftop and stared into the starry night. "All they had were smoothbore muskets and cannons. They could invent and make the Maneuver Gear, yet they couldn't even develop self-contained cartridges and rifling? That doesn't even make any sense at all."
"That's right. I mean, think about it. They have the printing press and schools that give even the moderately well-to-do children education. Given that they're under constant threat of Titan invasions, you'd think that their investment into weapons tech would be pretty significant. But if you look at their tactics, they relied on the Maneuver Gear too much. As well-designed and complex as it is, it's just not enough to stave off the Titan threat."
"Anka told me that for every Titan killed in combat, it costs them on average twenty to thirty soldiers," Ruby recalled the grim statistics. "The attrition rate is not sustainable, even when they have aces like Mikasa."
"That's exactly what I'm saying. The Maneuver Gear system can't be easy to use, so they've got to be trained well. If thirty well-trained guys gets killed for each Titan slain, they'd be running out of soldiers in no time. And I'm sure if I'd thought of it, so would the country's leadership," Weiss became more animated as her train of thought forged forward, "now, there are only a couple of things that could explain this curious lack of innovation in weapons tech. For example, the cannons and muskets could just simply be new inventions just distributed to the military."
"I don't know, the Schmidts seemed rather familiar with the parts of a musket. I've had no trouble describing to them what I wanted. Besides, the quality of the steel and brass alloys they have is great; laws of physics won't give us trouble with the materials we have."
"Still, inventions and innovation takes time. It would be great if we can find a history book or something."
"Or, we could just ask Anka or one of the recruits. What about the other theories you have?"
"Given the average level of intelligence in the recruits, I would think that the people of this world aren't that smart. Well, except for that Armin boy. He seemed awfully bright for a dumb grunt."
"Yeah, I have a sense that he belongs more behind a map and charting tools than on the front fighting for his life. But when their numbers are being depleted this quickly, I guess there's really no other choice," Ruby mused with a light melancholic sigh. "Maybe another explanation could be that they've sent their best and their brightest to the battlefield instead of holding them back and letting them do what they're best at doing."
"I doubt the higher-ups are this stupid. To have survived against the Titans under this kind of pressure, they have to be competent. Assuming that…" Weiss paused, as if she were hesitating to speak.
"Assuming that, what?" Ruby pursued.
"No, it's just… no, that doesn't make sense at all. Never mind."
Ruby glanced at her stammering teammate with some concern. The sudden change of demeanor was certainly unsettling: "What makes you say that? C'mon, spill it!"
There was a long pause as Weiss carefully considered her words: "Assuming that the leadership knows what they're doing, they could be actively suppressing the development of technology."
"What? But why?"
"That's why I said it doesn't make a shred of sense! It's in their best interest—and humanity's—to push military tech forward to kill the Titans. If their people don't survive, neither would they and they know that!" Weiss snapped back at Ruby. Ruby never understood why she sounded both frustrated and desperate at the same time: "Like I said, whatever the reasons are, if they chose to actively suppress technological advancements, they must either be completely insane, or they have something that we can't even begin to imagine."
"…Do you think that they have the tech that caused us to be dropped in this world in the first place?" Ruby made the connections. If this somewhat preposterous hypothesis Weiss had was indeed true, then it would not at all be ridiculous for them to have technology that allows them to tunnel through space, time, or whatever it was that the studded sphered did.
"Maybe. If they do, they're hiding it awfully well," Weiss stretched. A milky white was bleeding over the horizon.
"Or they could just have no idea what it is and stashed it somewhere in the money vault." Or destroyed it, Ruby thought before she shuddered. The morning chill was getting to her; she was surprised that she forgot it was rather cold at dawn.
"I can kind of understand why they'd want to hide it. This kind of stuff could upset the balance of the world pretty badly," Weiss added. "Anyway, without evidence all we're doing here is speculating. I wouldn't put too much hope on things going as we thought they would, because they haven't been so far."
"I guess. We should probably talk it over breakfast or something," Ruby pulled her dangling feet back to the rooftop with a spin on her bum and stood up before stretching lazily. "I can't wait for Mrs. Schreiber's omelet! It's like she's got a magic wand or something that she waves over the food. Who knew that an omelet can taste so good with just vegetables, mushroom, and cheese?"
"You're going to grow fat if you eat that much, you know."
"I'm a growing girl!"
"No, you're just a glutton!"
"Hey, aren't you the one drinking all the milk that you can get your hands on? Are you envious of my sister?"
"Shut up!"
Simon's home was also his laboratory. Yang was surprised that someone as unkempt as he could even find a woman that could deal with his antics, but there Mrs. Paula Schreiber was, humming happily in the kitchen as she whipped batches of flour and milk together with her magical whisk.
The time just ticked past noon. Ruby and Yang had a rather large lunch at the smithy with the people working there. Certainly there was little animal protein, but there was a lot of food: beans, grains, cheese and a few eggs here and there. The Schmidts even managed to whip out large jugs of brew that they chugged down like water, which made Ruby wonder how inebriated they had to be when they worked. Still, she was not in a position to question their craftsmanship: the first batch of 20mm shell casings she received for Crescent Rose was as close to the specifications as manual labor could create. She designed her beloved weapon with some tolerances for reliability, so a millimeter off here or there should not be a problem.
The fragrance from the hot oven Mrs. Schreiber just opened in the kitchen was intoxicating. The sweet aroma of baked oats and sugar wafted into Ruby's nose as Mrs. Schreiber pulled a tray of freshly-baked oatmeal cookies. It was such that Ruby almost involuntarily stood up and unconsciously strolled toward the "Workshop of Wonders" as she referred to it with her eyes closed until she ran into the stubby wall that sat obnoxiously between her and heaven.
Yang had to chuckle. She knew well her sister's love for cookies, and if she were perfectly honest even she was tempted. They had a couple of meals at the Schreibers' place, but nothing really smelled quite as inviting as the cookies. Even the 4-year-old Max squirmed; he used to be content lying on Yang's lap, but the scent was simply irresistible.
"Here you are, sweetie!" Paula picked up a smaller cookie from the hot oven tray with a smile and handed it to Ruby, who had to juggle it a little like a hot potato before gobbling it down with a single bite.
"Cookies! Cookies!" Max stretched his little chubby hands forward. Yang smiled at the sight before standing up and hoisting the child up to her shoulder. Even though she was pretty satisfied with lunch, she got the munchies again after she smelled the delicious aroma. Walking to the kitchen, she picked up one such heavenly treat, still piping hot, and—having cooled it off by blowing air across it—broke off a piece and handed it to the boy sitting on her shoulder.
The big girls and the small boy looked exactly the same as they munched on the magical pastry. The entire kitchen radiated so much happiness that it seemed to simply burst open; that is, until the head of the household barged into this heavenly bubble along with a veritable cloud of soot around him.
"Ruby! Ruby! I got it!" Simon waved and yelled maniacally with a piece of half-charred paper in his hand. He had a full head of disheveled dirty blond hair, and his working clothes—a set of dress shirts and suspenders with many a patch covering holes all over the place—were basically caked with sweat and black dust. His glasses were thick like the bottom of beer bottles; they had chips around the edges, a couple of which could almost develop into a large crack across the lenses.
"Simon, dear! How many times have I told you not to charge into the kitchen while I'm cooking?" His wife chided sternly: "What if Max ate something that had your chemicals in it!?"
"I got it! I got it! I finally got it!" His wife's words fell on deaf ears, for Simon was dancing in the middle of the kitchen like a boy who got the present he wanted on Christmas morning. "The formula you said worked!"
"Wha—?" Ruby was apparently blindsided when Simon shook her shoulders: she instinctively reached for Crescent Rose on her back as she almost backed herself into the stove. "Simon! Would you calm down for a moment and wash your hands? You got tar all over my dress!"
"Oh! Sorry! Sorry!" The chemist rubbed his hair with his tar-soaked hand before heading off to the bathroom. Moments later, he emerged from it, his hands not much cleaner than before.
"Simon, what'd you get? Remember you promised me guncotton and mercury fulminate today?" Ruby mumbled with a cheek full of delightful pastry.
"I made a breakthrough! I know how to produce that thingamajig you told me!" The chemist's face was brimming with excitement. It lit up the room, too, but in a different manner.
"That thinga—wait, what did you get?"
"You know, how to produce that trinity—uh, trini—um, that thing! You know, from coal tar and nitric acid and stuff!"
"Wait a second," Ruby held a piece of cookie in mid-air. She was going to send that straight into her mouth, but the news was a bit shocking. "You're telling me you figured out how to make TNT in four days after I told you what it's made of?"
"Yeah!" Simon was hopping in place with the largest silly grin she had ever seen. Ruby quickly chewed down the cookies in her mouth and ate the bit in her hand as well before dashing out of the kitchen with Simon to his lab at the side of the house.
"Energetic, aren't they?" Paula chuckled lightly as she put another tray of unbaked cookies into the oven.
"Yeah. Ruby's like that. Once she gets excited or when she gets into something, there's no pulling her out of it," Yang said with a small fond smile, "well… maybe with a plate full of cookies and a glass of milk."
"She's so much like my husband. He forgets to eat and sometimes to sleep when he's 'in the zone', as he puts it," Paula answered with a similar smile.
"I feel sorry about having him produce such dangerous stuff for us," Yang leaned against the side of a cabinet in the small kitchen. "The chemicals he's making…"
"Dear, he's not doing anything more dangerous than he has been for the past twenty something years. I still remember the time when he spilled acid on the shelf and it ate through the entire thing before leaving a big fizzling puddle on the floor."
"But this time, things could explode. It wouldn't be just a shelf of stuff; it could be your entire home!"
"You're going on the front to fight Titans, right?" The lady in her late 30s gave Yang her signature gentle smile as she adjusted the fire in the baking oven: "The job you're doing for us is no less dangerous than what Simon is doing here. Besides, if the Titans breach the Wall, it really wouldn't matter if his lab explodes."
Yang gave a small sigh and smiled back sadly: "I guess."
"Meanwhile, all I can do is to make sure you girls and my husband are well-fed and energetic—" Paula wanted to continue, but she was interrupted by a sudden flurry of knocks on her door: "Yes? Who is it?"
"This is Anka," the voice outside the door said. Yang let Max slide off of her into Paula's arms before sprinting to the door and opening it. Two tall male soldiers with uniforms bearing the Garrison's crest flanked Anka. Behind them, five horses stood obediently with their leashes in the soldiers' hands.
"Anka, what's going on? I thought you were back in Trost," Yang was rather surprised. Anka returned to Trost a couple of days earlier after introducing the girls to the tradesmen in the small village. She had other responsibilities within the Garrison and—perhaps more importantly—she could not leave the Commander alone for too long. He needed someone to take care of him, she said.
"Yeah, I was back, but now we need you guys back to Trost as well." Anka did not bother to enter the house. Paula came out of the kitchen with Max's hand in hers, looking somewhat concerned over the commotion. "Get on the horse, and we'll go. Is Ruby with you?"
"She's with me," Yang glanced back. Ruby disappeared into Simon's lab and had not emerged since. "What's going on? Why the rush?"
"Time's short, so I'll give you the short version. The Garrison just finished taking back Trost. Eren sealed the breach in his Titan form with a huge rock but in the process he lost control for a while and almost killed a few soldiers. It wasn't until the Recon Corps returned that we got the situation under control," Anka spoke quickly without taking much of a breath in the middle. "He's in Military Police custody now. The Military Police's also curious about you four, and they want to bring you in for questioning."
"They want to interrogate us? In the middle of a war that these cowards aren't even fighting? A war that we're helping them fight?"
"Their actions carry the authority of the King. The Commander thinks that if we get you guys back early, we could have some time to talk about it with the leaders in the Recon Corps before we hand you over to the MPs. Weiss and Blake are already on their way to Trost."
"I see. I'll grab Ruby," Yang nodded and strode toward the second floor where Simon's study—and lab—was. Even through the door, she could hear the two chatting excitedly. Under these circumstances, every minute counted; there was no telling how much time they would have to prepare, because she had no idea how the Military Police would behave. The only knowledge she had of them was that they were responsible for the security of territories inside Wall Shina, and that they were completely useless in the war.
She did not knock; instead, she turned the doorknob and pushed it open. In contrast with the kitchen, the lab was filled with the pungent smell of hydrocarbons. The room was surrounded with shelves, some filled with unorganized books and paper and others lined with haphazardly placed jars and flasks of chemicals. Two large jars of black viscous liquid sat at the corner of Simon's workbench, which itself sat in the center of the room with a large, messy assortment of equipment lying around it.
"No, no, no, you have to wash the final product with sodium sulfite," Yang heard Ruby say as she opened the door. The two were sitting beside the lab bench. Simon was the one manipulating the equipment, and Ruby was looking over his shoulder. "Oh, hey sis! We're just about to produce the first batch of solid TNT! Now we can actually stuff shells full of it and blow those Titan suckers sky high!"
"Ruby, we have to leave. There's really no time for explanation; we have to get to Trost."
"What? But why?"
"Come with me," Yang grabbed her sister on the wrist and dragged her along the floor.
"We need to grab the guncotton and mercury fulminate!" Ruby protested. Yang saw the boxes with the appropriate labels and swooped them up with some absent-minded care under her arm while continuing to drag her sister out of the laboratory.
"Hey! Ruby! Wait a sec! I still got questions!" Simon was chasing behind her, but Yang was faster.
They quickly descended the stairs to find Paula having packed a parcel full of pastries that smelled like cookies: "Take these, dear. You'll come back and visit soon, right?"
"Yeah. Thank you, Mrs. Schreiber," Yang nodded with a smile, her sister's wrist still firmly in her iron grip.
"Hey! Yang! At least give me an explanation!?"
"There's no time. Here. I'll fill you in on the horse," Anka offered the horse's leash to Ruby before leaping onto the back of one herself. "Let's go!"
The situation was complicated, to say the least. The gist of it was that old man Pixie sacrificed another hundred soldiers to escort Eren, who sealed the breached gate to the District of Trost with a giant boulder that was half buried near the gate. The Garrison, with its remaining numbers, was mopping up the remaining Titans within the district without much trouble. It was the first victory humanity ever had against the Titans, the first piece of territory that humanity reclaimed, and indeed all hoped that it would be the first of many.
That was the good news. The bad news was, apparently there were some complications during the recovery of the District. Weiss had no idea what went down, except that Eren was then regarded openly with hostility and was then incarcerated in the brig. Furthermore, since the fight against the Titans was over, the Military Police could once again rear its ugly authority over the population and they wanted information the RWBY team had.
"I didn't think the situation could get this bad over a couple of days," Ruby leaned back against the chair by the table. The light in the room was rather dim; those inside—the RWBY team, Gustav, and Armin—were certain that nobody was going to eavesdrop on their conversation. After all, the rooms to either side were cleared, and two Garrison soldiers stood guard outside the room.
"We knew the battle to retake the district was in the making when we left for the village," Weiss took a sip of the tea in front of her, frowned, and then promptly dumped three full teaspoons of sugar into it, "and it is only to be expected that the Military Police would want a piece of the pie. From what I understand, the power balance within the military is somewhat delicate."
"You could say that," Gustav took the small cup of sugar and scooped some into his drink as well. "The Military Police is the smallest but the most influential branch. They've got the King's ears, after all. We keep the peace around the towns on the outer rings of the Wall, and we resolve domestic disputes outside Shina. The Recon Corp does a lot of the heavy lifting through their expeditions, but they've got the weakest connection in the government. Only the ones seeking death or the ones who's got a personal bone to pick with the Titans join them."
"I can see a lot of the young recruits this time joining up, then. They've seen a lot of friends die," Yang took a large gulp of water from her glass.
"Normally that kind of situation could break a soldier. If they come back, they'll come back stronger. But let's not get off topic. The Military Police could be making their move soon. They'll likely be detaining you four first and confiscating your weapons."
"No one's touching Crescent Rose."
"Yeah, I think it's in our best interest to keep our weapons with us," Blake chimed in, adding sugar into her tea until it would no longer dissolve, "and to keep our freedom, of course. What do you think the old man's going to do?"
"And speaking of which, why isn't he with us? Where's Anya?"
"Ruby, he isn't with us because he's too conspicuous a guy. Anya's not with us because the sight of the old man without at least one of his aides is just too strange. We don't want to rouse suspicion."
"…I guess you're right, Weiss."
"I'm also concerned about Eren," Armin's voice was quiet as a whisper, "the Military Police just grabbed him. We didn't even have a moment to talk to each other. He was unconscious when he came out of the transformation. I wonder if he's all right…"
"He'll be fine. You noticed how he got both his arms and legs, right? I'm guessing whatever freakish regenerative properties the Titans have must also apply to him in his human form. A rather convenient trait, too, if you ask me."
"Yeah, but I wouldn't jump to conclusions too quickly, Weiss. We don't know how he feels about his ability. Maybe to him it's a curse."
"Ladies, I think we're getting off topic again here," Gustav reminded Blake and the others once again by tapping his finger on the table with a bit less patience, "I'm assuming that you don't want to see the inside of a dungeon, so let's get back on track."
"I'm thinking that most of the attention would be on Eren. The government has to figure out what to do with him now that his existence is pretty much public knowledge," Weiss leaned forward, placed her elbows on the table and folded her hands together. "What are they saying about the Battle on the streets?"
"There's been words about how a Titan helped seal the breach. It's hard to gauge the mood of the public because the whole population is separated into towns at the edge of the Wall and information doesn't flow quickly, but from what we've seen around here, people are mostly happy to get their homes and their belongings back. A few of them were saying that the Titan was God's gift for humanity and that it's our only hope, but other than that…"
"That's interesting. How do people treat religion around here? It may be something we can exploit."
"There's the Wall Cult that basically believes that the Walls were gifts from God and we humans shouldn't set up anything on top of it, but we put cannons and stuff on it anyway," Gustav stroked his chin, "they're the most dominant religion inside the Walls and they've been gaining a lot of political clout recently."
"I think at this point what we need to do is to divert attention from us and to Eren, harsh as it may be to him," Weiss took in a deep breath. "If the MP knows what they're doing—and it seems that they do, even though they appear to be a bunch of cowards hiding behind the safety of the Walls—they would want to know what we know and if we threaten their position of power. Like it or not, we are disruptive and we're an unknown element unaccounted for in their plans."
"Nobody likes a wrench thrown between their cogs."
"Exactly my point. Now, if we can cause them a bigger problem than our mere existence, they'll prioritize that—" There was a knock on the door, and then it creaked open. The RWBY team had their hands on their weapons. Blake almost jumped out of her seat. Gustav, though, remained seated, and simply eyed the figure that appeared in the door. He was an imposing man, having to lower his head when he entered through the doorway. He was shrouded in a hooded dark green cloak with the emblem of the Recon Corps—a pair of crossed wings over a shield—on the back.
"Apologies for my tardiness. There were some errands to which I needed to attend," he said, pulling back his hood. He had a head of blond hair and a pair of piercing, brown eyes. Ruby instantly knew that this man was a deadly warrior: the smell of blood and smoke from his cloak confirmed that along with his steely gaze.
"Everyone, this is Eld Jinn of the Recon Corps. The Captain sent him as a trusted representative of the Recon Corp. They've just returned from the expedition when the Battle was taking place. Their involvement was instrumental in ensuring our success," Gustav soothed the tension further. "Eld, these are the outsiders I was talking about on that note I sent the Captain."
"I am familiar. Where are we in the discussion?"
Weiss cleared her throat: "As I've said before, the goal here is to cause a bigger problem for the MPs to deal with than our existence. Naturally, they'll go and deal with that first, leaving us free to achieve our own goals in the meantime."
"Those goals being?" Eld folded his hands in front of his chest.
"Well, updating your military hardware, for one. You know how antique your firearms look compared to ours? I could help your smiths and steelworkers build large-caliber guns like the ones you see on battleships that simply blow Titans to pieces! Plus if you could just have precision machining and dedicated resources I could fabricate assault rifles and automatic cannons and then the Titans would just all die in a withering storm of gunfire and then—"
"Ruby!" Yang had to raise her voice.
"Sorry."
"The other goal would be to spread knowledge and the use of Dust among at least the military," Blake picked up where Ruby left off, "As I understand it, it often takes multiple soldiers to kill one Titan."
"That is correct. Even on our most recent expedition, we have had a 30% casualty rate."
"Dead or wounded?"
"Dead. With Titans you usually don't get many wounded. Only the best of the best survive."
"The knowledge we have regarding Dust, Semblance and Aura can change all that, provided that you are well-trained and prepared for it."
"It sounds too good to be true."
"Sir, with your permission…" Surprisingly, it was Armin who spoke up. He continued after Eld gave him a nod: "I was there with them during the Battle of Trost. I saw what they could do, and I… I agree with what Blake said. Mastering both Aura and Semblance for our troops could give us a definite edge in fighting Titans."
Eld simply grunted before scanning the room. His eyes locked with Gustav's for a couple of seconds, after which he left out a long and heavy sigh: "Very well. As long as you are interested in helping us fight the Titans, we can work out some mutually beneficial arrangements."
"My idea is, we make Eren the prime target. Make him popular among the people outside Wall Rose. Publicize the role he played in reclaiming Trost. Make him someone that the MP and the government have to demonstrate that they could control."
"What if they want to eliminate him? Mikasa would never stand for it," Armin turned toward Weiss, "and neither would I."
"Of course they would want to eliminate him. They want to discredit the message and cast him as a monster, which technically would be the first reaction these dim-witted peasants would have," Weiss countered quickly with a confident smirk, "but the leadership of humanity could see farther than that. 'Wanting to eliminate' and 'eliminating' are two different things. He holds too much strategic, tactical and academic value to simply be killed. He wouldn't be in danger, no; any attempt to execute him would surely fail unless there's no attempt to fight against it in public."
"So, you're saying…"
"All we're doing is putting on a show; the real issue here is a give and take," Weiss gave a curt nod of acknowledgement. "We can't give Eren to the MP to control; they'd want to imprison him and study him, if they're as competent as I think they are. That means a loss of an incredible asset for us in the war against the Titans, and a lot of suffering for Eren himself. The problem would be what the leadership and the MP want.
"What they want is simple. They want to continue to hold the position of the dominant political force within the Walls and the military. The way I see it, the best case scenario is to have the Recon Corps take control of him, and go on an expedition outside the Walls to attempt and recover Wall Maria. That way, the Recon Corps wouldn't be around to leverage the prestige they got for being the key to recovering Trost, the leadership can claim that it was their decision that was the root cause of these victories, and the Military Police could still sit around on their asses convinced that the other two branches are simply following their orders. Then, we can tag along the Recon Corps on the expedition and get out from the city."
"… Weiss, you're scary, you know that?" Ruby was the first to break the silence that reigned the room for nearly a minute and a half.
"Seriously. Did the people at your Company teach you all that?" Blake had a small smirk on her lips, "You've really taken after them well."
"… Is that supposed to be a compliment?" Weiss was stiff.
"It makes sense, and it is similar to what the Commander has assessed," Eld broke into the awkward moment, turning the attention of the entire table to him, "we should talk about this further and consolidate our plans."
"The Garrison could be responsible for spreading the news. I'll have horses dispatched to the other towns and to inside Wall Shina for that purpose. The Recon Corps should be the ones making the stand when Eren's fate is to be decided."
"And meanwhile, we'll lay low and organize our thoughts around training people. If the Recon corps could buy us a month's time, we could at least train a couple dozen people with the skills we have," Blake added to Gustav's comment.
"Very well. I will convey this to the Commander and the Captain. We have a castle inside Wall Rose; you could stay there and remain hidden from the public view."
When Eld mentioned that the Recon Corps had a castle within Wall Rose, Ruby did not think that he was talking about a real castle. She was surprised when the drawbridge lowered over the moat around it to allow them entry. The castle itself was well-maintained even though the stern grey stones spoke of at least a hundred years of history. The walls itself was built from large stone slabs with sturdy mortar in between, designed to withstand sieges. The watchtowers on top of the walls were not manned, of course, but they did have cannons and ammunition stocked in the place in case there would be a Titan invasion. This place would be a spiky thorn at the sides of any enemy, including those inhuman monstrosities.
They were not given a tour of the place, but instead led directly to their quarters. The castle itself could accommodate at least a hundred men comfortably, and the dungeon—long fallen into disuse—could probably house more if the situation called for it. The furnishing inside were Spartan: bunk beds with hay bedding, and no privacy of any kind for those who lived in the same room. It was what a barracks should look like, but it was a far cry from what they had in the mining village.
Speaking of the village, the castle was remarkably close to it. Ruby noticed that it was reachable from the castle by horse within two hours. If they wanted to move all the equipment and people from the village to the castle, they could, though the ores from the mine would have to travel further. Of course, the considerations of being inconspicuous made that impossible, but she would certainly have liked to have a chemical lab in the castle.
The majority of the Recon Corp was housed here. To blend in, the RWBY team was issued the appropriate uniforms instead of their own flashy clothing to blend in better. She liked how the uniform looked: the dark green cloak was hand-sewn and it was soft to the touch yet resilient against the wind. Her own cloak was superior, of course, having been treated with chemicals that made it fireproof, waterproof, and resistant to the kind of damages she took in a regular scuffle, but there was simply something that drew her to the one she was issued.
The downside of blending in, of course, was that they were not able to display their weapons. Ruby had to fashion a makeshift waist strap for Crescent Rose as she carried it to her side. She decided that it was a bad idea after a bump against a dinner table extended the weapon and almost sliced said table in half. Now, she carried it on the small of her back like she did before, only inside the cloak and not outside. Blake—who stood beside her—carried Gambol Shroud like a regular sword on the side of her hip instead of on her back.
For the moment, she stood in front of a group of soldiers. All of them were a good head taller than she was, and all of them were relaxed instead of being at attention. The only one she was familiar with was Eld, who she met two days ago. There was Gunther Schultz, who had a well-maintained head of short black hair and black eyes. He listened with a small smile to the older man of the group, a rather talkative guy named Oluo Bozado who sported a ridiculously aristocratic haircut. He even had a cravat on his neck. Petra Ral was the only woman in the group; Ruby thought she had a beautiful smile to go with her ginger-colored hair and amber eyes.
Still, she had to steer this gathering into the right direction. Eld was here as a representative from his bosses to verify her abilities and to assess whether or not their investment in the team was worth the returns: "Uh, guys? Can I have your attention here for a moment?"
"You know, did you see those girls staring at me during our return to Trost? They just can't resist six feet of manliness packaged into a lean, mean, Titan-killing machine!"
"You're so full of yourself again. Six feet? More like six seconds!" Petra giggled.
"Six se—what!? Where did you—" Oluo sputtered like a dying engine. "That's not true!"
"Ahem, guys?" The conversation was making Ruby uncomfortable. "Over here, please!"
"Not from what I'm hearing!"
"Petra, that's enough! Stop teasing him. You're embarrassing me too."
"What do you mean by that, Gunther!? Aren't you proud that one such as I am your teammate!?"
"Not really!"
"Uh, guys?" Ruby sighed. It may take more effort than just verbal requests to make them take note. After she and Blake glanced at each other, she unhooked Crescent Rose from her back; noisily the weapon extended into its glorious full form of a reaper's scythe. With a flourish, she planted it firmly in front of Oluo between Petra and Gunther. The hooked blade was a couple millimeters from impaling Oluo's tongue, which was in the unfortunate position of between his clenched teeth at the moment: "May I have your attention please?"
"AIEE!" Ruby had to try hard not to chuckle because she had to maintain her steely expression. Oluo was clutching his face like something had just bit off his nose. Fortunately, it was not a deep bite; if he clenched his teeth any harder, he would be holding a piece of his own tongue while watering the lawn with his own blood. Both Petra and Gunther were surprised. Their eyes widened for a moment, and immediately they turned toward Ruby.
"Okay, uh, now that you all noticed me, let's begin," Ruby retracted Crescent Rose just as noisily as it extended. "From what Blake and I heard, you three are the best of the best within the Recon Corp. So, yeah, we're going to start with you."
"Start what?"
"We're going to train you in how we fight," Ruby gave Blake a gesture, "Blake here is going to explain to you some concepts. Please pay attention, because, uh, this is very important, and because you'll be applying these concepts on the battlefield later."
And Blake stepped forward, having had attention directed to her: "As you know, we fight with two things with which you are not familiar: Aura, and Semblance. 'Aura' is the term given to the innate power that creatures with souls possess. Creatures such as humans can use their Aura to enhance strength, dexterity, agility, and constitution. With the proper application of Aura, you can shrug off all but the most powerful of attacks, and you can similarly strike back with great ferocity."
"Hold off on the explanations a bit, would you? I still can't believe little girls like you could fight off Titans." Oluo's words were mingled, but they came across to Blake somewhat clearly. "How do we even know that you aren't just bullshitting us with some terms that you made up?"
"You'll see. Now, Semblance, this is the special application of an Aura. As I have said before, any creature with a soul has an Aura, and Semblance is the reflection of said soul onto the environment. Each person's Semblance will have a different effect; even those who have similar Semblances will have differences. Sometimes those are subtle, and other times not. Ruby there can move faster than the eye can see, creating an illusion that she's teleporting, and I…" Blake took a deep breath, "I can create copies of myself to disorient others. Both her Semblance and mine can and will leave afterimages, but they work differently."
"So, what, you're telling us that you can make it so that we see doubles—holy shit!" For a brief moment, Oluo was seeing doubles, except that he was seeing at least four copies of Blake in addition to the real one, all in different poses and moving differently.
"And, you're saying that we too could do it?" Gunther stroked his bearded chin.
"With rigorous training and careful development, yes. But first, you will need to understand and use Aura. It's the basis of everything, and only through mastering it will you be able to discover and practice your Semblance," Blake turned toward Petra with a small smile before placing her hand on the ginger-haired girl's shoulder: "Now, observe…"
"Huh...? What's this?" There was a faint violet glow around Blake's body. Then, said glow flowed toward Petra and turned amber. Then, she tried hopping in place for a bit before punching the air a couple times: "I feel… so much lighter and…!"
"I have just unlocked your Aura. Remember this feeling, and drill it into your head," Blake let go and stepped back. The glow around Petra subsided after a brief second. She balled her hands into fists and grunted; the glow returned around her until she let her fist loosen.
"So she glowed for a brief second. What good is that going to even do besides looking pretty?" Oluo, ever the skeptic, crossed his arms in front of his chests. A smidge of blood was still visible at the corner of his lips.
"You can try punching me," Blake looked up at the man 20 years her senior. "Don't worry; I'm not going to bite."
"And my policy is not to punch girls."
"Then would you mind if I punched you?"
"Hey, you may be a girl, but I'd rather nobody punches anyone—!" Oluo could have finished his sentence if Blake's palm did not meet his face. With a grunt, he spun in mid-air a couple of times before dropping to the ground. Blood streamed out of his nose; Petra was almost certain that she saw a tooth fly out of his mouth, too.
All of this, from an Aura-powered slap. The handprint on his face was luminescent.
"You'll heal up in time just fine with Aura's help, since it also enhances your body's natural healing rates," Blake patted her hands. "Never thought a woman could hit that hard, now, have you?"
"Hey! What'd you do that for? You could've demonstrated with some rocks or something!"
"Yeah, but I'm tired of him questioning me all the time. I'm pretty sure he's going to remember that slap the next time he wanted to tell me I'm bullshitting. For the rest of the day, we'll practice the activation and maintenance of Aura…"
"Ouch. That's going to leave a mark."
"Those three are tough. They'll be fine. I'm surprised she didn't kick him in the nuts."
"That isn't how women usually treated you, now is it, Levi?"
"Hmph."
"That aside, it seems that our investment in those four was well worth the returns."
"I don't need their tricks to slaughter those monstrosities."
"But these tricks can increase the overall effectiveness of the Corps. In addition, they have been working with local craftsmen to produce new equipment. We could soon take back Wall Maria, if we are allowed enough time to prepare."
"How much time do you think you can buy?"
"A month, maybe. That's not enough time to train everyone in the Recon Corp even if all four of them were dedicated to training and teaching. Perhaps then we can have those three teach others, and so on. Some more significant investments may be necessary…"
"Are you sure about that, Erwin?"
"You mean, am I trusting them too much? Perhaps. But I also know not to look a gift horse in the mouth. It doesn't matter what their intentions are; as long as we can use them to our benefit, I don't mind providing them with things that further their goals."
"What if they're working for the Titans?"
"I highly doubt that, given what they're trying to do with the resources given to them. Besides, if they do betray us, you can still cut them down, right?"
"Don't say I never warned you."
"Fair enough. For the moment, we have bigger things to worry about. The Court-Martial is slated for this afternoon, isn't it?"
"Good cop, bad cop?"
"Pretty much. Make sure you don't rough him up too much."
"No promises."