Chapter 9

"Er, um, what was your name again?"

Isaac had paused in the middle of rinsing out a kettle to peer owlishly at them through his oversized spectacles. He was almost comically stereotypical, an unshaven late twenties grad student who lived in a filthy apparent and was clearly not used to talking to people. Especially two young, and Blake was fairly certain she could say this objectively, attractive women. His distraction was palpable. He'd already asked their names twice and had dropped that kettle three times while preparing some tea. In other circumstances, Blake would have been torn between amusement and pity.

In these particular circumstances, however, she was having to keep from snapping at him. Isaac Kelper was one of the few people who had worked at Azoth alongside Dr. Daedalus that was still alive. He had survived the bombing of the Azoth offices by not being there; Isaac had been let go a few months prior to the fateful incident. As he dropped the damp coffeepot on his foot yet again, Blake didn't need to guess why. Yang gave Blake a look that screamed 'this is your idea of a reliable source of information?' Blake responded by knocking Yang's feet off the table.

She and Yang had come here to try to grill him for information, but they were playing their cards close to the chest for the moment. If there really was some big secret, outright asking for it might make him clam up. Not that they getting much out of him anyway, other than stammers.

"I'm Blake, this is Yang." Blake gestured to her partner, who was lounging on the couch like she owned it. "We're students at Beacon who were going to a current events report on the recent prison break." She reminded him.

"I wouldn't know anything about that." Isaac said as he bustled with the kettle. "I don't pay much attention to current events. I hadn't even heard about the break out until you told me."

Yes, that's what's making this difficult. "But surely you could tell us a little about the man responsible for the prison break, Dr. Daedalus. I believe you used to work with him?" Blake pressed, reaching for answers. It was one thing to not be to blunt about their aim, but at this rate they'd be there all day.

"Hardly." Isaac scoffed. "We may have worked in the same lab, but I hardly ever saw the man. It was an office of a hundred people and his work was a bit above my pay grade."

"What work was that?" Blake asked, trying to mask her interest. She'd never expected they would get such a natural segue into what they were there for.

Isaac opened his mouth to continue, then jumped as the coffee maker dinged. Mumbling excuse me's he left for the kitchen. Blake's hand involuntarily wringed the air as if it were his neck. Yang sighed as they heard a yelp from the kitchen. "Did we even ask for coffee?"

"I think he was making some for himself." Blake replied, quietly. Sound traveled farther than you'd think, she knew that better than anyone.

"Well, he's got some now." Yang said tartly. Sure enough, when Isaac returned with three coffee mugs there was a noticeable brown stain on his shirt.

"Ah, here you go." He handed them both a mug. Blake noted the lack of cream or sugars and wondered if he was being cheap or just forgot. "Now, where was I?"

"You were talking about Dr. Daedalus' work." Yang said a touch testily. Blake tried to flash her a warning glance without being to noticeable. Fortunately, Isaac didn't seem to notice. "Oh, yeah. Well, it was all very hush-hush and I wasn't exactly in the loop on a lot of it, but what I heard through the grapevine was that we were working on a supplement."

"A supplement?" Blake asked. She'd been expecting something more… dynamic, to be honest. Sure, Azoth had been involved in pharmaceuticals, but they had also sold robotics and engines.

"Yeah. For athletes and such. Well, actually, probably more for soldiers. Athletes aren't really allowed that kind of thing."

Yang folded her arms. "You make it sound like steroids."

"I suppose it kind of was." Isaac conceded. He awkwardly glanced between the two of them, realizing what he was admitting to working on. "But, the idea was a steroid with none of the drawbacks. One that would have no negative side effects."

"Hmm." Blake mulled that over. It would certainly be a valuable product, perhaps valuable enough to pull Azoth out of its financial hole back then. Something worth keeping a secret, at least. "Well, I think we have enough for our report, so we should get going."

Blake stood to leave. Yang poorly masked her delight. Isaac glanced at the still full coffee cups and sighed, clearly realizing what they were here for. He pointedly glanced at the hilt of Gambol Shroud rising up over her shoulder. "Good luck with your… project."

Not for the first time, Argos fumed about their uniforms.

While most major Hunting Academies had some form of official uniform, Umbra was one of the few that required it be worn the majority of the time, and especially when in combat. It was a pretty impressive set of clothing, to be sure. They used microwoven steel fibers or something like that to create armored sections that were lightweight but could take the kind of punishment metal plates could. It gave the protection of a full suit of armor with none of the drawbacks; like extra weight or impaired mobility. The uniform was a marvel of modern technology and physical proof the Nox's civil infrastructure gave perhaps a bit too much funding to Umbra. And every stitch of it was black.

Contrary to what popular depictions of ninjas would tell you, black was a terrible color for people trying to be stealthy. Black stood out against everything except more black, and pure black surfaces were in short supply in any sort of environment. Gray was better in an urban environment, greens and browns out in the wilderness. The only situations where wearing black wouldn't give you away were when it was completely dark, and at that point any color would work fine.

But no, they had to wear black. Because Woden took the whole Nox-night Umbra-shadow thing so damn seriously. Argos glanced at the alley Dom was waiting in. The Nox native would probably provide some explanation at how the patriotic display was so important to Noxians, but Argos drew the line at said patriotism influencing the design of their combat gear.

Granted, if we were really concerned about stealth now, we wouldn't be doing a break-in at three in the afternoon.

Speaking of which, he might as well get the ball rolling. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes and letting his Aura pool in his face. Unlike blink checking a person's Aura levels, active, long term scanning through a barrier like brick walls required a hefty sum of power. He opened his eyes and slipped the lock off his Aura, letting it flood his retinas. The world swam into focus. He could see the cracks in the bricks of the wall across the street, some no thicker than hairs. And while he couldn't physically see through the walls, the glow of a living being's Aura would still shine through the obstruction.

He'd never needed them, but Argos assumed it was like putting on a pair of glasses. You didn't notice how bad your vision was until you finally saw clearly. If it weren't for the dual drawbacks of his Semblance, he'd never stop using it. He quickly scanned the target building, checking floor by floor for the distinctive glow of Auras, his eyes prickling and itching as he went. Just as itching was turning into burning he finished his scan and stopped the flow of energy.

Argos rubbed the pain out of his eyes. In addition to eating up his stamina, increasing his vision to that extent started to burn out his retinas fairly quickly. If he used that power for too long, he'd probably go blind. Of course, it's far more likely he'd collapse from the strain before getting that far. Oh well.

He slipped away from his post, down the fire escape and across the street, moving as inconspicuously as a man carrying an eight foot long spear could. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted Will slipping away from his post where he had been watching the occupied front office. Dom looked up from the lock as Argos joined him, Will having fallen in behind the spearman.

"We're clear." Argos didn't include the caveat that there could still be robotic or automated defenses inside. After three years, they didn't need the reminder anymore. "We'll have to be quiet to keep the offices on the first floor from hearing but other than that, nothing. Dom?"

"Easy. This place is practically falling apart, you could get the door open with a pocket knife." To emphasize his point, he pushed the door open.

Argos eyed the open door. "Any alarms?"

"There were." Dom said.

"Right." Argos waved them forward. "Go."

Will was the first up the stairs, eager as always. Argos went next and Dom brought up the rear. They quickly scaled a crumbling staircase to the third floor where Dom made quick work of another derelict lock. And then they were in.

One look inside told Argos this was a wasted trip. The workspace was abandoned; no one had been in here for months. The dust on the floor and the cobwebs everywhere established that plainly. The lights were grungy and more than half of them were burned out. So much for the idea that Daedalus would visit his workshop.

Dom had found this place in some old public record somewhere. While Daedalus' laboratory at Azoth had been turned into a smoldering crater by the man himself, he had owned this little space for his private use. Thanks to the economic crunch Vale had been going through, the place was still empty even after eight months. The landlord hadn't even bothered to put the space on the market. Dom had guessed that while Daedalus was willing to burn down what he had done at Azoth, there may be something here he had wanted to preserve and then reclaim once he had gained his freedom. Apparently not.

Argos glanced back at Dom, who shrugged. Still, if they were here they might as well look around. Dom made a beeline for the computer desk while Argos and Will surveyed the scene. Dr. Daedalus apparently operated on the cleanliness principle of 'if it's off the floor, it's clean.' The tables and shelves were covered in piles of assorted junk. There were books, parts to machines Argos couldn't identify, and plates and cups spotted with things he wasn't at all keen to examine.

While Will shifted through some of the piles, Argos stepped over to the one area that appeared orderly, the filing cabinet. He pulled it open with a screech of rusting metal and flipped open a few of the folders. Again, nothing of interest. Just some blueprints and designs and case files for some experiments and studies. He dropped a folder on a table next to him. Hopefully Dom could find something on the computer. He idly flipped through a few more folders. "You find anything?"

"I'm in his files now." Dom's eyes were glued to the screen. "This is incredible."

"How so?" Argos asked, pausing his idle reading of a technical readout. Dom looked up at him for second before going right back to browsing. "I knew this guy was involved in all sorts of stuff, but not anything as advanced as what I'm seeing here. He's got work in here that's groundbreaking in everything from robotics to genetics mapping. It's unbelievable; the man is some kind of super genius."

"So he likes to do a bunch of different stuff. I'm not seeing the point." Argos said, trying to get Dom to focus. Dom shook his head behind the computer screen. "It's not like these sorts of things stack on each other, you know. Each of those fields requires immense amounts of knowledge to be effective in. Doing that for just one is impressive, being able to do that for multiple ones is incredible." Said the expert hacker, engineer, and explosives designer without a hint of irony, Argos noted. And if you told that to him, he'd find a way to excuse it, Argos knew.

"But you have nothing useful for us?" Argos asked pointedly.

"Not as such, no." Dom said apologetically. Argos sighed and leaned back against a table. Something was jumping up and down in the back of his mind, clamoring for attention. His brow furrowed as he tried to figure out what it was. It had something to do with the files… He glanced back into the cabinet and it clicked. Each folder had a number at the top and they all were filed in order. 225, 226, 227, 229? There was one missing. "Hey Dom, can you find anything in there about a file 228?"

"Hmm, no." He continued scanning. "Interesting, that's the only missing number in the list. He must have deleted it."

"And gotten rid of the physical copy too." This was important, Argos could sense it. "He was hiding something. Probably something important." If that was the only thing he felt the need to erase, it followed that whatever it was was more critical than the rest of his work. Wait… the bombing. Had he been working on whatever this was for Azoth? And then destroyed the Azoth facilities so no one else who knew about it would be alive? That's a rather extreme length to go to. Argos chided himself for getting ahead of himself. It all fit, sure, but that didn't mean it was true. Just as likely 228 was something stupid he got rid of on a whim.

"Here." Dom and Argos turned at the sound of Will's voice. He held up an empty folder at them. On the flap at the top there were the numbers 228. "Alright, so that's the folder. But where are the actual files?" Argos asked. Will kicked something next him. "Shredder."

Dom tched. "Maybe we can put it back together?" Argos grimaced. Hours of long, thankless work loomed over him. It was almost a relief when Will stuck a hand into the bin and pulled out a pile of black powder. "Only ashes left."

Daedalus really didn't want anyone getting their hands on that file. More support for his off the cuff theory, Argos supposed. "So, to summarize, the only thing we've found here is that there's something that isn't here?"

"Unfortunately, yeah." Dom rose from the computer desk. Will shook his hand clean of the ash. "What that tells us is the doctor had something to hide." He said in one of his rare complete sentences.

"And nothing else." Argos grumbled. "Let's get out of here. There's nothing for us here."

"Remember, let me do the talking." Weiss reminded her partner as they walked up the steps to the CCT. They (really just Weiss) had worked out a plan to get the data they were after, but it could easily fall apart around their ears with the wrong comment.

"I know, I know." Ruby said languidly. The younger girl wasn't exactly thrilled Weiss was treating her like a child, but it wasn't something she willing to fight over. Weiss seemed unusually on edge today and it didn't seem like a good idea to prod her too much. They entered the expansive foyer and Weiss made straight for the elevators, Ruby bobbing along in her wake.

"Communications room, please." Weiss said once they were inside, before the automated system had time to ask. She cut off the request for identification by waving her scroll in front of the reader. Perhaps a little too forcefully; Ruby had been giving her odd looks for a while now. Weiss forced herself to take a deep breath and compose herself. She needed to don her heiress face for this. She made a pleasant and hopefully not too forced smile just before the doors opened.

Weiss strode out of the elevator, old mannerisms resurfacing. Purposeful stride, head held high, acting like you own the place because you just might. Not swaggering, because you're too dignified to swagger, but everyone who sees you knows you're in charge. She'd already done this trick before when they were tracking the White Fang, so for it to work again she needed to be on point with her actions.

"Welcome to the Beacon Cross-Continental Transmit Center. How can I help you?" The cheery holographic receptionist greeted them. Something about the artificial mannerisms and feigned emotions always unsettled her. They weren't close enough to human to match but neither were they distinctly inhuman either.

"We'd like to make a call to the Schnee Company World Headquarters." Weiss said resolutely but pleasantly. It was always good to get a little practice in ahead of time.

"Absolutely." The holo-interfaces tended to repeat words, it saved on production values. "If you can head on over to terminal five I can patch you through."

Weiss strode away without looking back, Ruby stammering a pointless 'thanks' to the hologram as she hurried to keep up. The Communications Room was no more crowded than usual, mainly with students making calls to absent relatives. Weiss settled onto terminal five's stool while Ruby stood behind her. Might as well get this over with. Weiss hit the call button. The screen flickered to the face of a redheaded woman.

"Thank you for call- Miss Schnee?"

"Hello." Weiss spoke up fast, to prevent the same sort of offers this secretary, she wanted to say her name was Amber, had made the last time she made this call. "I was hoping you could transmit some files to me." She inserted her scroll, transferring the files request from her scroll to the terminal and on across the channel.

"Of course." 'Amber' said, before frowning as she read what exactly Weiss was asking her for. "Er- is there a reason you're interested in internal corporate files, ma'am?"

"I'm doing a report and needed some sources." The lie came smoothly and easily. One thing the heiress did well was lie believably.

"It's a report on different kinds of Dust based weaponry." Ruby chimed in over Weiss' shoulder. Amber looked up from the list, confusion evident.

Weiss resisted the urge to face palm. Precious little on her list had anything to do with weapons, probably. And if it did, they would have no way of knowing that now. To be fair, it had been a good plan before it involved Ruby being subtle. She could still salvage this. "Ruby you dunce, we're doing a report on corporate uses of Dust, not weapons grade usage. I've told you five times now."

Thankfully, Ruby caught on quickly. "Oh, right. My bad." She managed a passable sheepish look.

Amber still didn't look entirely convinced. "And who is this, ma'am?"

Weiss gestured to her partner. "This is my team leader at Beacon."

"She seems awfully young." Amber said hesitantly. A hardness crept into Weiss' face. "Which is a testament to her skills."

"Of course." Amber said diplomatically. "I'll have those files for you in a second." An electronic pinging signified their arrival. "Would you like me to patch you on through to your father? I'm sure he would be happy to hear from you."

Weiss' smile didn't as much as twitch. "No thank you. I wouldn't want to bother him. Have a nice day."

"You as well." Amber closed the channel. Weiss let out a long, slow breath. In the reflection of the blank screen she could see Ruby giving her a concerned look. Weiss ignored it and opened up Azoth's corporate files. Hundreds of names stared back at her. "You might as well pull up a seat, we might be here a while."

As Ruby grabbed one from another terminal, Weiss delved in. She had never been as interested in these kinds of thick, corporatesque walls of words as Winter was, but she knew her way around them. She pulled up a list of budget lists for various areas of Azoth's former corporate structure. She scanned the list while Ruby shifted on her pilfered stool. "What are you looking for?"

"Whatever Daedalus was working on, I bet it wasn't for free. They had to be paying him and his coworkers, which means there should be a paper trail somewhere in here. Something taking in money, but not generating anything." Weiss fell silent as she kept searching.

"Why don't we just look up the guy himself?" Ruby asked, tilting her head quizzically. Weiss sighed at her leader's naivety. "Ruby, there's no way a secret project would just be listed under his name or anything." She pulled up Daedalus' profile. "See?"

"What's Project Icarus?" Ruby leaned in to peer at the screen. She reached past Weiss to hit the keys.

"Quit-" Weiss began to protest before something caught her eye. There was next to nothing in the file, just what appeared to be some blueprints. None of the pertinent information, like who else was working on the project or what it was supposed to be, was in there. Just some images of machinery she couldn't identify. Weiss' eyes narrowed. A complete dearth of information like this was pretty suspicious. The complexity of the devices added to that, they were like nothing she had ever seen before.

"Oh, so that's what it is." Ruby said, sounding satisfied. Weiss looked over at her. "Do you know what this is supposed to do?"

"Nope." Ruby replied simply. "This is all a bit beyond me really. Yang's the one who's really good with machine parts and stuff."

"Yang is good with engines." Weiss deadpanned. "Not… whatever this is."

"Well, might as well get her to take a look at this anyway." Ruby reasoned. "But in the meantime, we should look for something more concrete if we can find it."

Weiss nodded her agreement and moved to close the Icarus folder. Just as she was doing so, she noticed the small number in the corner of the page. A little '228'. Huh, wonder what that means. She thought idly as she closed the folder.

AN: Hello everybody! I know I haven't updated in forever, so I'll beg your apologies for that. I'd like to thank Lord Jaric for the review and the praise, although I do have a confession.

Way back, back when this story was still Monsters and Shadows, I sketched out the rough plotline for the story. I then spent five minutes trying to find anything Team RWBY did that I actually needed to have in the story, with no success. So I sympathize with other OC stories that don't really pay attention to the official cast, it's just so much easier to use your own guys and not have to worry about staying true to the character. Even now, I found the middle scene with just the members of Shadow far easier to get down than the other two. But, it's a poor RWBY fanfic with no RWBY, so you have to push yourself a little.

As for the yuri, there's not going to be much at all in the way of romance between whichever genders during this story. I admit, I've dropped some hints here and there but only the variety that are indistinguishable from solid friendships. Phantom and Cinder are operating in the shadows (heh) a lot, but it'd be boring if you get all the delicious secrets right away right?

Thanks for reading, I'll see you next chapter.