{AN} Hey guys, sorry for the super later chapter update. A lot of things have been happening lately in my personal life so I had to take some time off from writing. Everything's cleared up now so we should be back onto our usual schedule of chapter updates, which is probably going to be bi-monthly. Anyways I hope you enjoy this chapter. {END AN}
Jace sat alone in the darkness. He was in a cave not far from downtown Atlas, with the intent on going into the city in the shadow of night. After the events of last night he ran around Vale until morning, then managed to steal an airship which he used to fly to Atlas. Jace was surprised that he made it as far as Atlas because he didn't know how to fly, and the burning wreckage outside the mouth of the cave was a testament to his landing skills.
"Sashi?" He whispered.
"Yeah." Sashimasu whispered back.
"Have our eyes changed back yet?"
"I dunno, let me check. Project me or something."
"You want to be projected? I've only done it once before so I dunno if that's a good idea."
"Do you see a mirror around here anywhere?"
Jace sighed "No."
"Exactly. Now you can either project me or suck it up."
Jace shook his head. "I'm afraid that it's going to kill us. I almost blacked out last time remember?"
"Well don't black out. Problem solved."
"Just forget I ever asked." He stood up "Let's find food, don't want to starve before getting to the city."
"You should check the wreck. Maybe you can find some BBQ in there."
"Oh haha, I get it. 'Cause I crashed it and set it on fire. Real funny."
"I only exist to make your life miserable!"
"Say what you want, I can still read your thoughts." Jace walked out of the cave and into the evening light. The airship was a few yards away from the mouth of the cave and most of the fire had subsided, so Jace began walking towards the wreckage.
"Are you seriously going to look for food in there?" Sashimasu asked.
"Might as well, I don't see any animals around. Do you?"
"I guess you're right. I call first dibs on any food we find."
"We are literally the same person, we both will get first dibs on whatever is left."
Jace reached the wreck and began looking through it. Most of the airship was in pieces scattered around the crash site, but the fuselage of the airship was in one piece. The fuselage was sitting in a small crater at the end of a long trench that was dug by the airship sliding across the ground. Jace approached the open side door of the airship, intent on looking through the many compartments on the walls and floor of the ship that he hoped were there. Jace noticed a logo on the side of the ship that he hadn't seen before. It was partially burned, but he could make out the remains of a white Atlas logo.
"Jace did we…" Sashimasu asked.
"Yeah, we're screwed."
"There's no way we could have stolen a military ship, I thought we were in the civilian port!"
"Wait, this could be good. Maybe there's guns and food on here. We may be screwed but at least we could be screwed on a full stomach!"
"Jace, that phrase sounds really bad. I'm game! Let's go search that airship!"
Jace jumped into the fuselage and began searching every inch of the interior. After thirty minutes of searching, he found nothing.
"There has to be something here!" Jace cried "Food, guns, something!"
"There's plenty of food in prison, which is where you will probably be going for a long time." A feminine voice said behind him.
Jace spun around and saw a small army standing behind him. There was a woman dressed in what appeared to be a slightly modified Atlesian Specialist uniform, and behind her were 30 Atlesian Knight-200's. She had white hair that was up in a bun and she reminded Jace of Weiss.
'That's Winter!' Sashimasu said 'We can talk to her, maybe she'll let us go?'
"So tell me," Winter said "how does one of my ships gets stolen and I find it here, in pieces, and you are standing inside it."
Jace thought for a few seconds "I was hiking along and found the wreck."
"Then why did the pilot say the person who stole it had heterochromatic eyes?"
Jace shrugged "I know a few people who have heterochromatic eyes."
"He said that the left eye was green and the right eye was a pinkish-purple, like yours."
"Guess it's a coincidence."
"Then I guess that it is also a coincidence that your clothes are torn up seemingly from a crash of some sort?"
Jace looked down at himself and noticed that his clothes were torn in several places. "Yeah?
"Are we going to do this the easy way or the hard way?"
"I wonder how I'll stack up against you. Your sister went down without a fight."
Winter's eyes narrowed "What did you do to Weiss?"
"One could say I stole something belonging to her. But I would suggest that you stand down. I would hate for her to live knowing that I met you via a fight."
Winter drew her weapon in her right hand "I don't know what you are playing at, but I would suggest you stop before I make you stop."
"My bad, that was a low blow. I'll play less dirty from now on."
Winter took a step towards him, making a motion with her hand. The robots began to form a circle around Jace.
"That's a dumb move. Spreading your troops thin." Jace taunted, readying his fists.
"One more word from that mouth and I will gladly give them the command to shoot you."
Jace lowered his fists and fell to his knees, changing his appearance to look like Weiss.
"Please Winter, don't do this. Don't hurt your own sister!"
Winter down at him "Weiss…"
"Winter please!"
Winter lowered her sword slightly, but quickly steadied it again. "You're not Weiss! Get out of my head!"
Jace Stood up and returned to his normal appearance. "You've got to give me credit for at least trying right?"
Winter glared at him "Your mind games won't work on me."
Jace closed his eyes "Ready?" he seemingly asked no one in particular.
Winter readied herself for combat. Jace took a step forward and fell to his knees, holding his hands up.
"I surrender."
Winter gave him a confused look, but remained vigilant "Don't try anything, I'll have them shoot you if you do."
"I won't. You are clearly leagues better than me, so what's the point in even trying."
Winter sheathed her sword and began walking towards him slowly. She produced a pair of handcuffs and held them in her left hand.
"Put your hands on your head, and don't make any sudden movements."
Jace complied, and as Winter approached him he remained motionless. She reached her right hand out and grabbed Jace's left wrist, but as soon as she touched his wrist he began speaking.
"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death I project her upon you, allowing her to walk this world once again."
Winter froze. Jace fell face first onto the ground and began to twitch violently for a few seconds. Once the twitching stopped, he laid silently on the ground. Winter stood up straight and moved towards Jace, standing above his seemingly lifeless body. She knelt down beside him and whispered to him.
"Stand down." she called out to the robotic soldiers who immediately obeyed. "You'd better get going before she thinks twice about letting you go." Winter grabbed Jace's arm and lifted him to his feet, supporting his weight on her.
"Are you...going to...come back?" Jace wheezed.
"Of course I will, I'm just getting us away from here. I know so much now about Atlas that we could probably have enough blackmail for years. If I can remember it all."
"Don't worry...about that. Just get...us out...of here."
Winter laughed "Calm down, we only need to go a little further."
Winter and Jace made their way out of the circle of robots and to the edge of the crash site. Winter sat Jace down next to a tree and looked over her shoulder at the robots behind her. They were still nearby, but they had thankfully not followed her.
"OK, so her ship is about fifty yards straight behind you in a clearing. We can take that and get into town quicker, or we could run past it and be in town by nightfall. Your choice I guess. I'll come back now."
Winter placed both of her hands at the base of Jace's neck. She took a deep breath and began to speak. "In failing we gain nothing but knowledge. We use this knowledge to bind our souls into one, allowing us to be reunited once again." Upon speaking the final word Winter fell backwards. Jace sprung up with a newfound energy and began running through the forest. He passed a clearing with a few ships landed in it with no intent to steal a second ship in one day.
"OK, so no ship. Where are we going to go now?" Sashimasu asked Jace.
"You know exactly where I was thinking. Why ask?" he replied.
"You aren't seriously going back to her are you?"
"Yes Sashi. I am going back to them."
Sashimasu growled at him "You know I hate that fox."
"You're just jealous that's all."
"Shut up and keep running."
~~Earlier that day~~
Weiss unlocked the door to the foyer of the penthouse, the rest of her team standing eagerly behind her. After several hours of waiting everyone on the team was ready to finally arrive at their destination. Weiss swung the door open and Ruby practically flew inside, closely followed by Yang. Blake hesitated before entering, and Weiss was the last to enter, closing the door behind her.
The penthouse was on the 51st floor of a business tower. The foyer lead directly into a combined kitchen and dining area. There were two doors on either side of the kitchen, one that lead to a laundry room and another that opened into a long hallway. There was a door on either side of the hallway, and a door at the end of the hall lead to a terrace outside. Each of the doors on either side of the hall lead to identical bedrooms. The dining room connected to a large living room with several sliding glass doors. A door in the living room lead to a small hallway that connected to the master bedroom.
The penthouse was lavishly furnished and had cutting edge appliances and technology. Hardwood floors extended throughout the whole penthouse, and rugs were used to add color and texture contrast to the space. The penthouse was painted varying shades of blue, ranging from dark blue in the kitchen to sky blue in the bedrooms.
"This place is amazing Weiss!" Ruby said in awe as she ran around exploring every room.
"Yeah." Yang agreed, following Ruby's lead.
"It's nice, but I don't like the thought of staying here." Blake said flatly.
Weiss grabbed Blake's shoulder "I know you may not like it, and if you'd like I could rent you a hotel room nearby."
Blake shook her head "I think I'll manage for a week. Your father won't stop by will he?"
"I seriously doubt it, he hates it here for some reason."
"That's good." Blake began to explore the penthouse as well. After several minutes, Weiss managed to regroup her teammates in the livingroom.
"I sent a key to each of your scrolls that will allow you to use the elevator to reach up here and get into the penthouse." Weiss said "Unless you guys have any questions I should get going. My father hates it when I'm late once I set a deadline for him."
Ruby raised her hand "How will we get food?"
"Well you could buy it yourself, or there is a book next to the phone that has numbers for people that can do it for you."
"You mean servants?" Blake asked.
"Not really." Weiss replied "They get paid appropriately for their work."
"Are they Faunus?"
"No. Well at least last time I was here I didn't notice any."
"Let's hope not."
There was a moment of silence "Any more questions?" No one made a noise "Alright, if you think of anything you have my number so feel free to call me." She exited the penthouse after waving goodbye to her friends. She was about to reboard the airship when her phone vibrated. She pulled it out of her pocket and saw she had a message from Winter.
"An unexpected event came up. Tell father that I will be late for dinner."
Weiss groaned 'Great. I have to be the first one to receive his anger. This is going to be a fun night.' She replaced her scroll in her pocket and boarded the airship once again.
