RWBY /c/ RoosterTeeth
What a Wonderful World...
Chapter 14
"At least the uniforms haven't changed much, right?" Ruby noted, doing a little twirl in the bathroom mirror that morning.
The only real difference between the uniform of their times was the old uniform's skirt was a solid dark maroon, rather than plaid like their time. Her team were uncharacteristically quiet lately their current predicament aside; Weiss since she received that letter from the Schnee Dust Company's CEO, and Blake and Yang since they came back from the city last night.
Of course Ruby had chalked it up to that accident in the city. But even after making sure they were okay when they returned, Ruby still couldn't silence the voice of doubt in the back of her mind. Something was eating at the both of them, and it was putting her anxieties on high alert. Regardless, Ruby put those feelings aside and tried to lift their spirits as much as possible with her jovial attitude.
"Weiss?" Ruby prompted as she walked out of the bathroom, noticing Weiss sitting in the same position she had been for the last twenty minutes in apparent contemplation.
"What is it Ruby?" She asked, her head jerking up as if snapped from a trance.
"Nothing, you just seemed a little out of it, I guess." Ruby plopped herself down by her side on her bed. "Do you wanna talk about it?"
"I'm just… not sure how to go ahead with this." Weiss admitted, scanning the letter again. "My grandfather wants to meet me in person, but…" She trailed off, lips pursed in thought.
Ruby peered at her, her silver eyes bleeding concern. "Weiss?" She prompted gently.
"What if I'm not what he expects? What if he's not what I expect?" Weiss asked, clearly her nerves getting the best of her.
"I think you should." Blake offered from her corner after a moment's quiet, Weiss' ice-coloured gaze met her amber ones. "This isn't a situation most people have experience dealing with, but we're here now. And that means we have a chance to make things better than they were. Maybe for you that can mean making sure the Schnee Dust Company could avoid the mistakes of your father's business practice."
"Yeah!" Ruby cheered enthusiastically. "And think about how much we can fix."
"I'm surprised," Weiss turned to face her faunas teammate, "You said that we shouldn't try to interfere with events, what changed your mind?"
Blake let out a soft sigh. "History has already been changed, we discovered that much when we spoke to Taiyang and Qrow. And it's become increasingly clear to me that the future we know - probably won't exist anymore."
A kind of sorrowful acceptance passed over all four girls as the words struck true. It was a feeling they all had since they'd first woken up in the medical ward, but hearing it out loud made the realisation final.
"But, we can change it… right?" Ruby offered at last, trying to keep her tone hopeful. "I mean, we know all this bad stuff that might happen, and we can help Mum, Dad, Uncle Qrow and Aunt Raven fix things."
"What do you want to do?" Yang addressed Blake, whose brow knitted with determination.
"I want to go back to the White Fang."
"Blake, you know better than anyone what they did." Weiss responded.
"Yes, I do. But I also know that this White Fang isn't the one that fell to corruption." Blake voice with a resolute tone, "This the White Fang that as it was always supposed to be, the symbol of hope and unity for the faunas."
Blake glanced down to the ground, then offered her teammates a rare smile. "I'd always admired what Liliana wanted for us, and how hard she worked until her last day. It's something I want to believe in again, and who knows; maybe this time if we save her life, we can work to give this future some hope?"
God only knows how much they need it. She finished her statement, a pointed look of gratitude directed at Weiss who offered her own smile in return.
"Alrighty. If that's what you want, then give 'em hell." Yang said proudly pumping a fist and cracking the first true grin RWBY had seen in weeks.
Weiss contemplated her teammate's words, her thumb running over the letter again with sadness. "I'm just not sure if I can deal with it." Weiss admitted heavily.
"With what?" Ruby asked innocently.
"With going back to Atlas and knowing Winter won't be there." Weiss looked down at the letter again, disheartened.
Ruby's innocent cheer evaporated, replaced by an empathetic look. "Oh…" she said understandingly, then placed a comforting hand on Weiss' shoulder.
Blake glanced away, unable to think about what to say while Yang remained silent.
The blonde brawler glanced at Ruby and felt a prang of guilt. Unlike Weiss, Yang's sister was right here with her. They were weathering this bizarre storm together, but from how Weiss described her sister and how she acted when the Atlesian Specialist was in Vale, their close bond was clear.
"Uh, on that topic…" Yang finally spoke up, snatching Ruby and Weiss' attention from their conversation. Her brow scrunched in concentration while she ran through the flexing and stretching exercising for her hand like the nurse showed her. "Ruby, I think you should… avoid talking to Dad for the time being."
"But it's Dad, Yang! Imagine what he'd be like. I mean, I spoke to Uncle Qrow and Mum - uh, Summer, and they were a really nice. They were really friendly and fun, until…." Her excited expression started to fall slightly when she remembered how that conversation ended on a decidedly sour note.
She felt a weight building in the pit of her stomach.
Yes, it was fun right up to the point her teenaged uncle casually mentioned and dismissed the deaths of some of their classmates, and his laughing hysterically about her claim about the Kingdom being at peace.
Uncle Qrow had always had that distant and aloof thing going for his 'cool uncle' routine. But this wasn't some cool detached persona, it was borderline apathy.
Even if Summer chewed him out afterwards, and tried to handle the explanation in a more tactful manner, the sheer detachment her tone carried while explaining things did little to soothe Ruby's horror at her uncle's cavalier attitude.
Surely Dad had to be a little like his adult self, right? Friendly, warm, compassionate and ready to lend an ear when it was needed.
Figuring she couldn't dissuade her younger sister, Yang exhaled and went to speak, but Blake was the one who cut her off at the pass.
"We found Cinder in the city." She explained bluntly,
"What?" Ruby gasped, memories of the last time she'd seen the crimson-clad woman flashing before her eyes. Along with them, the sad sting of tears. She shook her head of those thoughts quickly, instead focusing on Yang's words.
"What happened, are you alright?" Weiss began hurriedly, her icy eyes shifting between the two.
"It's more accurate to say we found her as a little girl, only four from what Raven said." Blake continued.
Weiss frowned. "It's hard to imagine her as a little girl."
"My mum - Raven asked us about who she was, and when we explained the situation, the first thing dad said…" Yang's voice trailed off, pausing to give Ruby an apologetic look.
"Dad said what?" Ruby demanded, getting to her feet. "Yang?"
"He…'" Yang hesitated, before ultimately settling on a half-truth. "He said he wouldn't get himself or his team involved. That Cinder was our problem, not theirs. And that we had to decide how to deal with her ourselves."
"That's cold. I thought your father was supposed to be a kind and caring man?" Weiss interjected.
"But…" Ruby protested, her face falling. "But I thought he was supposed to be, ya know… Dad?"
And with that, what faint hope Ruby had seemed to diminish by the second. None of her parents were what she expected, and it was slowly breaking her heart.
"Summer said she'd help us." Ruby said. "She said she wanted to be our friends and help us through this."
"I don't know, Ruby." Yang said, shaking her head. "Summer probably does want to help us, but I don't know if Dad or Raven would jump on board with the idea."
"She's your mother isn't she? Shouldn't she want to help you?" Weiss asked.
"Yeeeah." Yang began awkwardly, scratching her cheek. "I may have burned that bridge. With a match. And gasoline. And a broken nose."
"Yang?" Ruby questioned, quizzically tilting her head.
"You did what?!" Blake balked.
"I punched her in the face. Hard." Yang admitted plainly.
Weiss buried her face in her hand. "Oh good lord."
Yang pursed her lips in a thin line. "I saw her, I was angry and… Look, we can talk about why I hit her some other time, but I think we gotta figure something out about Cinder."
"We can talk to Professor Ozpin." Blake suggested at once.
"And do what?" Weiss asked. "Tell him that she's the one who brought Beacon to its knees? That she caused our friends to…" her voice cut off abruptly with a wave of emotion.
"He believed us when we said we came from the future." Ruby supplied helpfully. "We can watch her. Make sure she stays one of the good guys? It couldn't hurt to try, right?"
"No… it couldn't." Blake agreed.
"But Professor Ozpin's out of the kingdom on a mission, and I haven't a clue what kind of person the current headmaster is." Weiss said, glancing out the window.
"Well… until then, we'll keep an eye on her." Ruby suggested brightly. "I mean, she's just a little girl right? Four years old, right? If she's got some super cool friends like us, we'll help keep her with the good guys."
"At the very least, we should talk to Ozpin when he gets back. Maybe there's some kind of… adoption program or civil service." Blake suggested.
"Meanwhile; we can ask Summer to help keep an eye on her." Ruby voiced, smiling brightly. "Even if Dad or Aunt Raven don't want to help, I'm sure she will."
At least, Ruby hoped she would.
"What were you thinking?" Summer demanded, a quiet anger etched in her features.
Across the table, Taiyang groaned face planted on the table with his hands folded on the back of his head. Raven sat besides him in perfect silence, content to focus on her breakfast rather than react to her leader's criticisms.
They were in the Cafeteria, in full school uniform and enjoying a nice hot breakfast before the tests this week. Quite a welcome one too, given the freak storm cell that cropped up in the last hour. Random and freak weather seemed to be the general theme nature was going for this month and it was starting to vex quite a few people.
Raven helped herself to rations of bacon, eggs and toast, while Taiyang had a bowl of honey and oats porridge. Summer seemed more in favour of grilling her teammates, rather than paying attention to her stack of syrup-drenched pancakes.
Summer's anger then turned on Raven, "And what were you thinking? You gave me your word that you wouldn't antagonise Yang or her team."
"I agreed to put my grudge on the back burner until we could settle it properly," Raven reminded her. "I didn't agree to abide all of these stupid twists and turns they keep pulling out of their collective asses. My patience can only go so far."
My patience with you can only go so far. Summer's eyes slid closed and she groaned in frustration burying her face in her hands. "Raven…" She grumbled.
Tai hoisted himself off the cafeteria table with a hefty sigh and straightened his blazer.
"I'm sorry. Old habits. It won't happen again." He promised with an apologetic tone. "But I didn't say what I did to be actively malicious or to hurt them. I said it because the sooner they got slapped with a reality check, the sooner they can adapt to being here now. Or… more likely, figure a way back to their world."
"Assuming that's possible. We still don't know how they got here in the first place. The only clue we have is that white light and the crater." Raven chimed in, buttering some toast and taking a bite. "But it's possible that's a mystery we may never solve."
Summer exhaled, shaking her head slowly in disappointment. "Still, you could have been gentler about it…"
"You were callous, Taiyang." Raven agreed, staring at her partner's profile. "To an extraordinarily jarring degree, to be honest. You're usually more sensitive than that."
"Old habits." He insisted. "Yeah, I know it wasn't a kind and, yes I could have worded it better."
Taiyang answered, then his features became downcast and continued as if uninterrupted. "Mea very culpa, but in my defense, it's not like there's an easy way of saying 'gosh the world you know probably doesn't exist anymore'. Sad truth is if they find a way back to the future, it wouldn't be 'their' future. It'd be ours."
"Just how different are things exactly?" Summer asked, her head tilting quizzically. "I know bits and pieces, but I don't think I've got the whole picture yet; I do know they don't know about ten years ago." She tried to suppress the shudder sent up her spine or the flash of memories in the front of her mind, and barely succeeded.
Raven idling nudged her breakfast around the plate, exchanging a look with Taiyang who stroked his chin in thought before updating their team leader on the key points. That they knew of so far, anyway.
"I had no idea that - they didn't know anything about the Civil war, at all?" Summer muttered, her mind reeling from the story.
"Nope." Taiyang shook his head, scooping up a mouthful of porridge. He swallowed then continued. "I was thinking they should sit down with you and Qrow, cause you two are the history buffs. We can figure out exactly how far back all the discrepancies go."
"Actually. now that you mention him, where is Qrow anyway?" Summer interrupted, leaning back to peer down the cafeteria's main corridor towards the front door. Her attention to her teammates. "He left pretty early this morning. Was he trying to cram in some extra revision or something like that?"
Taiyang and Summer looked expectantly at Raven who merely shrugged in response.
"He said he wanted to go for a walk. I think he was getting anxious and needed some fresh air." From her expression, she wasn't entirely convinced.
"Fresh air? He's a bird for cryin' out loud. How much fresh air does he need?" Taiyang joked. Summer sighed in fond exasperation while Raven simply rolled her eyes with an indulgent smile, then resumed her point with a look of concentration.
"Team RWBY have had a faunas war which spawned the White Fang, and they do know the current leadership is Liliana Reece. So that can possibly be a preliminary reference point." Raven supplied, then her tone shifted with a seldom heard passion. "We need to protect Liliana. There's a real possibility she could be in danger."
"Outside her being a prominent political figure, right?" Summer asked, leaning forward.
"Did something happen to her in their timeline?" She paused, then pursed her lip, her brows furrowing in contemplation. "No I take that back. Something had to happen; the gap is over twenty years, right? And Team RWBY said the White Fang was responsible for Beacon's fall, didn't they?"
"That's what I've heard." Raven nodded in agreement, then glanced at her partner for confirmation. "But you have a better grasp of the of their story than I do."
"Yeah, in part." Taiyang continued with a firm nod. His eyes taking on a distant look as he organised his thoughts. "The White Fang turned terrorists a few years before their Beacon fell, and they used a mix of the Grimm, some fear mongering and some kind of accident to spark a level 9 invasion."
"Don't forget about the dragon Grimm, too." Raven interjected.
"What kind of accident?" Summer wasn't sure she wanted to know.
Taiyang shook his head. "No freakin' idea. They're pretty tight-lipped. My Lien's on some foul play or something."
"That doesn't answer how did they manage that in such a short time?" Summer wondered with morbid curiosity, looking more sullen as her teammate went on.
"They did it during the Vytal Festival. All that crap in rapid succession was broadcast to the world." Taiyang explained. "Whatever RWBY did during the tourney got people riled up, and some fear mongering speech was just the straw that broke the camel's back."
Raven frowned. "So the negativity of the entire world was fueling the Grimm's rampage… spectacular."
"That's absolutely terrible!" Summer was astonished at first, then her eyes closed in silent fury as her next words came out as if laced with arsenic. "What kind of person would do that? It's beyond horrible!"
"And that would bring us to the rather sizable elephant in the room." Raven supplied after a moment's hesitation.
"I beg your pardon?" Summer asked calming herself.
"That little girl we told you about, right? The one we rescued on the weekend." Taiyang began, chewing his lip. "As it turns out, it was her adult self that orchestrated the entire fall."
Summer gave a perplexed frown for a second, which faded instantly after the implications sunk in. "Oh…"
"What's 'oh'?" Qrow questioned curiously, approaching his teammates with his fists in his pockets as he sat next to Summer. "What's going on? I get the feel I missed something important."
Taiyang made a hesitant sound before explaining. "Long story short? We found the kid who caused the fall of Team RWBY's Beacon."
Qrow raised a dark eyebrow, eyes shifting between his teammates and confused at their dour expressions. "That's good. We can chuck her in a dark pit somewhere or flat take her out; stop the same crap happening to us."
Taiyang stared at the table, drumming a beat before replying. "Look, I'd agree with you mate, but frankly, I'd rather not hold the kid responsible for stuff that hasn't happened yet."
Qrow shot him a disbelieving look. "Are you friggin' kidding me? C'mon guys. Hasn't Vale suffered enough cataclysms? If we can prevent one or two more, then I'm all for it."
"Qrow." Summer sighed, shaking her head.
Raven almost felt guilty for breaking his hype. Almost. "Sounds wonderful in theory, but at this point in time she's just a four year old child."
"Oh, god nevermind; statement withdrawn." Qrow visibly deflated. "That's a moral dilemma I ain't touching with a ten foot pole."
"And I maybe bluntly told the girls we weren't going to get involved in that particular problem." Taiyang offered uneasily.
Qrow started at him blankly. "And asshole of the hour goes to..."
"Brother, please, we do have bigger issues to deal with." Raven insisted, fixing him with a dark look.
"Yeah, don't I know it." Qrow muttered, tossing a look over his shoulder.
Summer exhaled a heavy breath, idly stabbing her breakfast with a fork. "Listen; what if we told Ozpin about little Cinder when he gets back? If we can make sure she's taken care of, and someone keeps an eye on her. Maybe we can prevent that scenario from happening."
"Assuming the scenario's triggers are in place to begin with." Raven responded.
"Physics-wise, probably not. But-" Taiyang's words stopped mid sentence, frowning before his blue eyes widened to the size of saucers in frightful realization.
"Tai?" Qrow prompted, noticing his expression shift.
"Are you alright?" Summer voiced her concern.
Taiyang shook his head, as if snapping out of a daze. "Wha-nah, nothing. Don't worry about it. Just a stupid idea."
"Did it hurt?" Qrow smirked disguising his concern with snark.
"Bite me, birdbrain." Taiyang shot back. Qrow rested his fists on the table, meeting Taiyang's gaze then pointedly looking at his right fist. Taiyang raised an eyebrow, and gave an imperceptible nod in return.
Glancing at one of the clocks lining the cafeteria's walls, Qrow noted that breakfast time was nearly over. He turned to his partner.
"Ready to roll?" His and Summer's first test was this morning, set after breakfast.
"Yeah." Summer replied as they both got up from their seat. "We'll finish this talk later." She told her other two teammates.
"Break a leg. See you at lunch." Taiyang offered a hand out, which Qrow clapped and shook with a tiny nod.
Summer and Raven both noticed with curious looks how Taiyang's fingers closed into a fist immediately after pulling away.
"Good luck." Raven sent after them, then her eyes settled on Taiyang's tightly clenched fist. He flashed her a charming smile.
"Feel up to doing a bit of revision?" He asked rhetorically, moving to leave the cafeteria.
It wasn't until they were well on the path to the dorms did Raven dare ask what was going on. Taiyang fortunately beat her to the punch.
"Sneaky little bird, your brother." He commented simply opening two fingers slightly to reveal a small black portable data drive pressed to his palm. He closed his fist again and shoved it in his pocket. "Kinda curious why he's acting all cloak and dagger."
"I may have a theory. Needless to say, if he's going to this trouble it has to be big." Raven supplied.
It took them no time at all to reach their dorm room, but instead of scrambling for a terminal like Raven expected, Taiyang went to his bed instead, kneeling down and reaching for something under it. He slid out one of his travel bags and pulled out a laptop from a hidden compartment in the case then sat it on his bed.
"Do all teenagers keep their laptops in hidden bag compartments or is that just you?" Raven mused rhetorically.
"My baby cousins are very nosy." He dismissed casually, resting the laptop on his thighs and plugging in the data drive.
"Its protected by a password." Taiyang muttered, scanning the screen. "Hint's something about... immortal soldiers and end times."
Raven spied the text over his shoulder. "Try 'Einherjar'." Taiyang gave her a strange look before shrugging.
"Isn't that the character Zane always picks when we're playing Total Annihilation?" Taiyang typed away and the password was accepted.
To their surprise, the picture of their classmate Zane Lesbarg popped up on the monitor in what was clearly a hastily recorded message. "And that explains why."
"He must have encrypted it in a way only his close friends or team would figure it out." Raven reasoned.
"Why all the secrecy then?"
"Clay told me that whatever ZPYR found on their last mission, they were threatened with criminal prosecution upon their return if they tried to look into the matter." Raven explained, "Which is probably why Qrow acted as he did."
"Great!" He answered sarcastically, panning down to press play.
"Hey guys. If you're watching this, then it's pretty safe to say I managed to slip this to one of you. Look, I know this is highly unorthodox, but I have a lot to say and it will be difficult to hear, so bare with me and listen carefully." Zane began in hurried tones, completely unlike his usual unflappable demeanor.
"Professor Carmine didn't die of some kind of heart attack like the memorial claimed. He was killed by some accelerated version of the Black Vein Virus. When we came back, Diggs took me aside, promised criminal charges if I tried to investigate."
"Well that's fuckin' ominous." Taiyang grumbled and Raven shushed him.
"Despite that; I managed to do some discrete checking off campus. And the more I looked into records, the worse the whole situation stunk." Zane closed his visible eye and inhaled. "Diggs is watching me, watching ZPYR. We can't make a move without retribution, but you guys can. I know I'm asking you to risk a lot; but I'm asking you to please help me save lives. And if you get caught, ZPYR is fully prepared to go down with you."
"What in the hell has he gotten himself into…?" Raven muttered.
"I'm leaving these files with you because I know you guys will know what to do." Zane's log was winding down, they could see it in his eyes. "But I want you to keep on question in mind while reading what you've got here."
Zane's image paused, then stared up at the camera with a bitter scowl. "If the Black Vein disease originated in Umber Village, why was the first case reported in Mountain Glenn?"
Marcus Black stared out the window that spanned the wall of his tiny one-bed apartment. He was dressed in a simple singlet and loose shorts, but not by choice. His last job ended a little more… messily than he anticipated. Not that he minded, his contracts were always more fun when the target fought back. And kill contracts were already so few and far in between.
A crooked smirk aimed at the tumbler of distilled Vacuo scotch in his hand, Marcus sipped the alcohol and savoured the familiar burn down his throat. After a job well done, and with that six digit paycheck? He definitely deserved this. Raising his glass in a toast, he gave a lopsided smirk to his reflection in the glass.
"Bon voyage, dickbag." And he downed the glass. That's what happens when you try to scam the Syndicate, they send someone to set you straight - and if they resist? They bury you.
Marcus surveyed the neon-lit streets below and his spare hand rubbing his thighs where the metal joints of his legs joined his flesh. There was a storm on the horizon, he could feel it in his aching stumps, which was frankly irritating as hell.
It was a sparse location, his dwelling. The only creature comforts inside were a desk lined with bottles of various alcohols and a half-used medkit, a bed with plain threadbear sheets and a simple worn wooden chair.
The walls and ceiling however told a different story, lined as they were with steel racks.
Hanging from the ceiling were various styles and types of prosthetic legs, each and every one of them had the same basic model, but each had different minor features built in. Some were purely guns, others contained dust canisters, and more contained different kinds of blades; either protruding from the shin or the heel, or even from the ankle joint to form a spur-like spike.
Stacked on the walls were dust canisters of various shapes and sides, spare parts for the internal mechanics, ammunitions of all dust types, raw scrap metal waiting to be forged into shape and maintenance or wielding tools of all varieties.
In any other part of town; in any other build in fact, the sheer amount of weaponry alone would probably have the authorities baring down on him, underaged drinking not withstanding.
But the landlord was in the employ of Malchior Mossman, a Syndicate Executive that operated in the high-class regions of Vale City. The same executive who happened to be Marcus' boss. Not only that, but police rarely came to this section of the city willingly, leaving it a relative safe haven for many less savour types to conduct their business.
In addition, the windows are one-sided, meaning Marcus could peer out, but no one could spy on him. And that was without all the stringent traps set up whenever Marcus left for a job.
As part of the 'employment' agreement, this entire floor was reserved for Syndicate agents, operatives or in some cases, less-than-willing prisoners.
Marcus had personal experience being in the latter category.
"Somehow I expected a syndicate assassin to have more… extravagant quarters?"
The tumbler shattered on the ground, and Marcus kicked out his left leg. The bullet impacting his front door, vaporising the peephole. Switched to combat mode, Marcus had his arms up and his dark eyes scanning the dark room for any signs of the intruder.
"From what Malchior tells me about your skill level, you can certainly afford something better than this." The voice purred seductively in his ear.
Marcus replied with a roundhouse kick, but a pale hand caught his prosthetic before it could get any near his guest's head. Her fingers resting daintily on the limb and a soft, almost maternal smile on her masked face.
"Wanna knock that off? Its creepy, ya old hag." Marcus complained dully, his other leg came up for a kick but the masked woman vanished from sight, leaving Marcus stumbling as he landed awkwardly on his feet, the tumbler's shattered remains crunching under his feets and his hand against the window as a means to regain balance.
That wasn't a semblance. That was pure speed. He concluded, glancing around the dark apartment for his 'visitor'.
"Your instincts are impressive. But your manners are quite lacking young man. Is that any way to greet a prospect client?" The woman reappeared by the front door, her hands folded at her stomach standing in a regal posture.
"Perhaps I should find your former colleague instead? As I understand it, he was a far better contributor to the Syndicate's success than you..." She mused, her finger pressed to her lip in mock contemplation.
Marcus grit his teeth in a surge of anger and fired off another shot with a roundhouse kick.
The woman simply raised her hand uncaringly, the bullet harmlessly absorbed into her hand. Wiggling her fingers elegantly, she folded her hands together in the same regal pose as before. "A sore spot it seems. How quaint."
Marcus observed her for a silent minute, ready to attack should she make a move. Although odds were any confrontation would end in his ass bleeding on the floor, and most definitely end up with a cascading elemental explosion as the dust canisters would undoubtedly be breached in the crossfire.
That slow smile on the woman's face seemed to grow as the realization crossed Marcus' face, any battle would result in his death. The assassin's battle stance slowly dropped, allowing himself to slouch lazily against the wall-window and folding his arms.
"Fuck you're creepy." He muttered.
"I have a business proposition for you." The woman said in a quiet, almost dissonant serene voice, clearly ready to get down to business and now paying his comment mind.
Marcus' lip twitched down. "Well, that seems to be the only logical reason why you'd bother sneakin' into a fuckin' criminal safehouse in the first place…"
"How would you like to earn more money that you've seen in your life?" The masked lady offered pleasantly, taking a step forward.
"I'm pretty satisfied with my gig right now, lady. Why don't you try again?" Marcus replied blandly, but instead of being discouraged, the masked woman continued to smile serenely.
"Are you sure?" She asked quietly.
Marcus raised a thin eyebrow to prompt a response.
The masked woman took another step forward, "As handsomely as the Syndicate does surely pay, they also require you to submit to a code of honour do they not? One that I can tell by your demeanor you're entirely unhappy in keeping."
"So, what?" Marcus spat bitterly, but he was curious to know where she was going with her point.
"What if I said that my objectives aren't… shall we say, restricted by such minutiae." The masked woman explained, "My objectives will present you with certain opportunities, and provide you with more than enough opponents to test your mettle against."
Marcus groaned, and rolled his eyes dramatically with a sigh. "Lemme guess; ya got ambitions and dreams of world domination, but need someone for the grunt work."
The woman shook her head with an entertained little chortle. "That is the idea."
"God, lady, you should speak to your agent about selling the mellow drama." Marcus groaned, his head thudding against the window as he stared up the prosthetic-lined ceiling.
He kicked off the window and shoved his fists in his pockets. "Listen Miss Whatever the hell your name is, I've heard soooo many people sayin' the same damn thing. They want to change the world, they wanna control the world, they wanna do this, that whatever. Problem is it's all talk."
"I can assure you; my 'talk' is no idle boast."
"Yeah - heard that too." Marcus dismissed bluntly. "Gonna need a little quid pro quo. So far, you're talkin' big game, but nothing to benefit yours truly."
"You know I pride myself on being able to read people. You're a man of simple needs; the most base of all, is the desire to quell boredom. I can offer exactly that." The masked Lady explained, then finally moved. She raised a supple hand to gesture behind him. "If you don't believe me, then perhaps you should examine this current Vale more closely."
At first, Marcus didn't process the full implications of what she'd just said until a moment later. A slow look of dawning realisation spreading across his features.
"'cuse you?" He questioned. "You talking about the Civil War crap?"
The woman shook her head leisurely. "Not just the war, young man."
Marcus couldn't control the creeping grin spreading on his face, the offer growing more tantalising at the moment. "Just who in the hell are you?"
"My name is Lady Ashen. And I could have chosen anyone for help, but I chose you." Lady Ashen took another step forward. "So young man, does that sound like a proposal worth considering?"
Marcus retrieved his scroll from his pocket and pressed it to his ear, then glanced at Lady Ashen. It rang for a few seconds before the line connected.
"Hey Mossman. I quit."
Author's note:
Gasp! There's conspiracies afoot!
For the record, to clarify. No Qrow is NOT Ruby's Father in this fic. YES Taiyang IS Ruby's father. Its just WaWW!Taiyang had a different father himself. Secondly: In the theme of RWBY V4's promo. I've decided to assign two flowers to Team STRQ of WaWW (hint, hint :D ). They are as follows:
Summer - Snowcap and Rosemary
Taiyang - Thorn-Apple and Hydrangea.
Raven - Cypress and Star of Bethlehem
Qrow - Rue and Heliotrope
Feel free to look them up on Wiki's plant symbolism.
Please Review and Comment. I welcome Criticism (and theories~!). :)