One More Chance
Chapter 7 - Arrival at Mistral
A/N:
If anyone's interested in beta-ing or just seeing my drafts as they gradually change to the final ones you see here right now or if you just want to get early snippets of the chapters, then I have a Discord server for my writing stuff here: zhn7zr7
You should already know what to do with that link if you're interested. Meanwhile, here's the chapter! (sorry for the late chapter btw, got really busy yesterday and I wasn't able to write)
Arthur thought Jacques was an interesting man.
Oh sure, Jacques was a genius by all accounts. Nobody would be sane enough to just suddenly turn into a Schnee without much political background whatsoever. That's why Arthur thought it was unfortunate that Willow had to be who she was, but then, he supposed, Weiss or Bianca wouldn't be here without him, so he can't blame them either.
It was unfortunate that it was also due to Jacques that Atlas actually began to fall. He did his best, he fought valiantly, and, being a smart man all-throughout his life, saw that there was no saving him at that point, so he decided to make his last stand to protect the remnants of RWBYJNPR.
Shame, really, Arthur thought he'd have been a useful ally if handled correctly, but then again. Then again, this was their one last chance after all. Arthur himself still didn't really know how to handle Jacques, neither did Ozpin at the time, so he just chose to get Ironwood, but… that was probably Ozpin's mistake.
Allying with the person who controls the single most important resource of all life in Remnant.
Life that is both good, and bad.
"Are you ready, Arthur?" He heard Bianca ask from his earpiece and smiled.
"You're rather excited for this." Arthur chuckled, finding a gap in between the moving guards and hiding beside the boxes. "I need to set up the fireworks first, you see. Just wait for my signal and we can start the party."
He heard Bianca scoff at that, "Still as eccentric as ever." Oh he was, but he knew that she was smiling at least, so that was good enough for him.
"You love me for it." Arthur grinned, and heard her snort,
"Oh I love you, sure, but not for that." Bianca responded, and he sighed exasperatedly,
"You just never see the genius in my ways." Arthur muttered into the earpiece as he sneaked over to another row of crates and hid behind them. "Also, did you just confess your love to me?" He grinned at the silence. "Well, I love you too, Snow Angel."
"Yeah, of course you do." Bianca responded, though it sounded just a little forced, "… I'll talk to you when you start the signal. Focus on your infiltration for now, please."
"Not like this needs any bit of focus at all…" Arthur muttered as he heard the click on his earpiece.
Truthfully, infiltrating the White Fang, for all that they were full of Faunus who could see in the dark, was a rather easy task. Even when the leadership changed from Sienna to Adam, it was still an incredibly simple task.
Why?
Nobody expects a box.
Okay, well, not a box, more of a shipping crate really, but then again, the slits were small enough that it didn't matter. They wouldn't see him regardless.
Thing is, people are stupid. That's just how it is.
Arthur slowly moved as the crate towards new positions.
Well, until someone noticed how out of place he looked, that is.
"Huh?" The White Fang grunt muttered, scratching his head, "Where'd that crate come from?"
But Arthur expected this to happen. Which was why he moved as fast as he did.
Now he was in the middle of the base.
"Hey, Callie, where'd this crate come from?" The grunt shouted over to one of the other grunts, looking away for a moment.
That was all the time he needed.
Bianca saw a white flash of light from her position up in the roof and smiled. "That's the signal then."
All the other White Fang grunts outside looked towards the inside of the base and started to raise their guns and walk towards the inside of the base.
That is, they would have walked inside, had they not been restrained by Bianca's glyphs.
"Ah… I miss the freedom of having so much range." Bianca muttered to herself, and looked at the amount of grunts outside. There were sixteen. "Sixteen huh… Good enough, I suppose."
Bianca set up her glyphs all around the area and then placed one just in front of her.
She stepped on it, and the screams began.
Traversing over a hundred meters in a moment, she stopped just behind her first target and then hit the grunt with the back of her weapon, breaking their Aura and making them fall unconscious.
Much of the same happened for the others, and it was a rather simple affair for her to deal with all of the grunts outside.
When she got to the last one, she saw three people running out of the base and she sighed. With a gesture, a number of glyphs in front of them appeared, white glowing Beowolves coming out of them.
The grunts screamed and tried to shoot them but were surprised to find their weapons jammed.
"You know, you weren't exactly allowed to leave the party…" Bianca muttered, appearing behind them and making them scream in fear, but they were only able to turn their heads as their legs were held down in between black glyphs, making them unable to move. "I'll make this quick."
They fell unconscious.
"Well then. That was certainly quick." Arthur said from behind her and she raised her brow,
"We can't have other people raid our party after all." Bianca smiled, and looked around them, seeing all the unconscious White Fang grunts. "A fair warning, I suppose."
"Yeah, well, that should alert Cinder and the others to us soon." Arthur said, looking to the side for a moment, "Well, that, and a bunch of other people. A certain tribe in Mistral…"
Bianca looked at where he was looking and saw what he was staring at. "Ah… Quoth the Raven,"
"Nevermore." Someone scoffed behind them and they looked to see who it was.
"Ah, a pleasure to meet you, Qrow Branwen. Didn't really expect to meet you out in a place like this." Arthur said with a smile. "Especially not seeing both Branwen twins here at once."
"Oh, she's just here to watch." Qrow said, narrowing his eyes at both Arthur and Bianca, seeing the uniforms they were, which looked like specialist suits that had the Schnee and Arc symbol beside each. "Arc and Schnee… The hell is this, The Great War?"
Bianca laughed at that, "With what's coming up soon, it wouldn't be too surprising to consider that."
"Who the hell are you two?" Qrow narrowed his eyes at them, and the two of them just smiled.
"Arthur Arc—" Arthur started,
"—and Bianca Schnee—" Bianca continued,
"—the Schnee Dust Company's very own Dust Guard at your service." Arthur smiled, "At least, that's what they like to call us. Really we're basically their Specialists." He said with a shrug and Qrow raised a brow.
"Huh? Jacques starting to hire Huntsmen now?" Qrow asked, and Arthur shrugged.
"Not really. We're the only two people hired and I doubt there's going to be anyone else soon. We don't work full time anyways and we're more like glorified mercenaries so… yeah." Arthur smiled at Qrow who just scoffed.
"You two get anything good out of it?" Qrow asked,
"That's confidential." Bianca answered with a smile.
Suddenly they heard something coming from the air and they looked up to see a bullhead. More precisely, the SDC's bullhead that was only used by Jacques. That and another, larger aircraft following behind it.
Arthur smiled and looked back to Qrow, "Well, the boss has arrived it seems."
"And he brought the General in for the mix…" Qrow muttered, "Why the fuck are you two here anyways?"
Arthur and Bianca shrugged, before Arthur grinned. "Well, we're here to change the past of course." He chuckled, before turning to face where Raven was, only to find the said bird gone.
"Well. There she goes, I suppose." Arthur frowned, "Shame, she really could have benefitted from this."
"Oh please, we all know that ravens are known to be anti-social." Bianca scoffed, before sighing. "Although more seriously though, we were actually hoping that you would have arrived here, Qrow."
"Why's that?" Qrow narrowed his eyes at Bianca who just smiled wryly,
"We were going to ask how to apply as Professors at Beacon." Bianca said,
"Yeah, Professor Arc does have a nice ring to it." Arthur smiled, "Don't you think, Qrow?"
Qrow just frowned at them.
These guys can't be serious, right?
Arthur frowned as he looked down at the arenas below him.
Currently the Mistral Regional Tournament was happening and they happened to just be in time to watch the semi-finals. But… if he had to be honest with himself, he really wondered what Bianca ever found interesting about this whole event that she managed to watch it for four consecutive years.
"If you're wondering what I found entertaining about this whole tournament before was just how Pyrrha Nikos always defeated her opponents." Bianca said as she walked up beside him, "There's always something about watching the Invincible Girl live up to her name."
Arthur grimaced at that slightly, yeah, invincible indeed. He shook his head though, and continued to watch as Pyrrha Nikos battled against one of the members of what would eventually become team NDGO, Dew Gayl.
"Yeah, well, it's kind of predictable though with what we know of her Semblance though. Even withholding her actual fighting skills." Arthur sighed, shaking his head,
"Semblance?" Weiss, who was in between Bianca and Arthur, asked, looking up at Arthur, "What's Pyrrha's Semblance?"
Arthur just smiled down at Weiss, and Bianca grimaced slightly, rolling her eyes at the girl.
What she hadn't told Arthur was that she had already known Pyrrha's Semblance way before she went to Beacon. Which was why she was slightly annoyed by how her younger self, Weiss, seemed to crave Arthur's attention.
Not that she could do much about it though. It would raise too much suspicion.
Or would it?
"Well, Weiss, observe how Pyrrha fights." Arthur said, pointing down to the arena as Pyrrha was engaged in a sword fight with Dew, "Particularly, how she fights up close." Weiss blinked and did as Arthur said.
Pyrrha raised her shield slightly as she deflected Dew's spear, then she moved forward to attack Dew's guard and ducked down to avoid the spear that harmlessly passed above her head.
Pyrrha landed an attack forcing Dew back slightly. Dew grit her teeth and rushed forward again, thrusting her spear faster, which Pyrrha was able to block and deflect most attacks easily, then—
"Watch closely." Arthur said and Weiss narrowed her eyes, knowing that Pyrrha was about to use her Semblance due to what Arthur said, but even though she already knew what Pyrrha's semblance was—which was polarity—she was still surprised by what happened next.
Pyrrha put down her shield slightly and raised her hand to use her Semblance against the weapon to move it just slightly away from her face.
Weiss knew that Pyrrha had polarity, but… to see it very closely and to see just how she used it made her eyes widen.
"Polarity…" Weiss muttered,
"Exactly." Arthur smiled, not knowing that Weiss already knew it before, "You really are a smart girl." He chuckled, making Weiss blush and Bianca grit her teeth.
Bianca just sighed and shook her head, looking back down at the fight as it just ended. She looked to Weiss, then back to Pyrrha, then back to Weiss and raised her brow. She then looked to Arthur.
"Arthur, don't you think this is a good opportunity for Weiss?" Bianca asked, smiling as she thought of a plan.
"Hm?" Arthur said as both he and Weiss looked at her, "Oh, you mean that? Well…" He looked to the other people with them, Jacques and Winter, and smiled, "Well, that would depend on what they say."
"Well… I believe that it would be good for Weiss." Bianca said, smiling at Winter, "I don't believe Weiss has sparred with someone her own age yet."
Winter blinked. "I… Yes. I believe that would be a good idea." She then looked to her father and he shrugged.
"I suppose. The two of you would know what would be best after all. I will allow it." Jacques said, looking at Arthur.
Arthur then looked at Weiss, "Weiss, would you like to have a spar with Pyrrha Nikos?"
Weiss blinked, blushing slightly at the smile he was giving her. "I… yes. I would."
"Good." Arthur then looked to Winter, "Winter? If you will."
Winter nodded, "I shall make the preparations." She then walked out of their seats and went to go talk with Pyrrha's handler.
Arthur looked at Bianca with an amused smile, and she just smirked at him.
Oh her plan was coming along alright.
"And, as always, you find the best of opportunities." Arthur said to Bianca who just chuckled.
"Of course. It would be a shame to let this pass after all." Bianca said and Arthur chuckled, shaking his head.
Bianca's plan was laid out, all she had to do now was to wait and look for more opportunities.
This was the first step, she thought, and she had much more to go through before she can actually have the outcome she desires.
Her only problem now was, of course, Winter.