Chapter 14: Revelations Part 1

"There is but one truly unforgivable crime, one whose victims are the very people you care most about in this fragile world. It is not forbidden by law or by honouring agreement, it is not even forbidden by moral compass, for such a thing, if it truly does exist is defined solely by its owner. This crime was one of lies and masquerades, desperation and fear. It may be for the greater good or for unimaginable evil and yet it remains unforgivable. For those who were given a second chance to start clean and speak the truth when the lie was first uncovered instead chose to further dishonour those closest to them, and pull the wool once more over their eyes do not deserve a third chance. Though perhaps they should… you know what they say about the third time, don't you?"

Weiss was sick and tired of everything that had been occurring over the last few months of her time at Beacon, every week there seemed to be a new revelation. First Blake was a Faunus, then Blake loved Ruby, then she hated Blake, then Ruby nearly got killed, then Ruby and Blake loved each other and then Adam and Roman made an appearance. Everything was just too much for her right now. She really could have done without Sun barging in with seemingly urgent news about Blake.

She hadn't even spared a second thought towards her real family back at home, her father was likely worried about her, he may not have been the best father but he always did try, even if it meant he failed. That's why Weiss kept second guessing herself. She was sick, tired, frustrated, stressed and generally worn out. Her emotions were in absolute disarray and had been since that fateful day they all decided to go down to the docks to greet the Vacuo students. Her one last respite from the chaos had just been shattered by Sun, her escape offered by Yang had been blocked, she had stumbled at the last hurdle and now a true end to the madness stood before them

Yang on the other hand was apprehensive, stricken with worry and strangely entirely untrusting of the monkey Faunus. For years she had been the matriarch, the protector: a guardian to those left weak and vulnerable by events beyond their own control. Since arriving at Beacon Ruby had certainly become a lot more independent, responsible and mature and Yang was proud of that, moreover she was overjoyed because it meant her duty could be forgotten for brief, sweet moments and she could just sit and think and cry.

Of course right now we she wasn't doing the latter or the former, all she was doing now was thinking. She was thinking of all the different ways Sun could tell her that Blake was dead, that Blake had been kidnapped or that Blake was in hospital following a brutal assault. She was also racked with fear as to the whereabouts of her younger sibling should her disorganised and unspoken fears be proven reality. For the last few weeks Yang had come to accept that this was her life for the next four years, watching on from the side-lines as the two girls she loved more than anything or anyone else in the world celebrated and lived their new-found romance and yet she was about to lose everything that she held dear, no matter how much it pained her. At least that's what her instincts told her. At least that was ingrained in the darkest corners of her mind.

Sun was fidgeting nervously, uncontrollably. This wasn't his choice, if he could walk away and let the truth he was about to speak die with him then he would, but he couldn't do that, not if he wanted to live as a free man, and he owed Kiera that much. "Well come on then Sun, what is it about Blake that's so important that Yang and I need to starve?" Weiss's voice was cold, venomous and, for reasons lost to even Weiss herself, challenging.

Sun had yet to move since entering the room, Yang had collapsed onto Weiss's bed, something that went either unnoticed or ignored by the usually icy heiress who was still stood arms folded in the centre of the two, her eyes glued on an anxious looking Sun whom despite forcing entrance had suddenly gone shy and quiet. Please don't let me begin this… he thought to himself whilst hoping that Weiss would silence him before he potentially ruined everything these four girls held dear. Even after several minutes of tense silence Weiss said nothing whilst Yang sat absorbed in her worries, her frustration growing with each passing second that Sun withheld the information until it overcame her.

"FOR CRYING OUT LOUD SUN CAN YOU JUST SAY WHAT IT IS YOU HAVE TO SAY AND GET OUT!?" Yang screamed, Sun jumping at the sudden outburst. Weiss had already threw herself at the blonde, she wasn't sure why she did that but now she sat on the same bed with her and embraced her tightly, her skin cold to the touch beating down the fire inside Yang that threatened to erupt in a supernova.

"Shshshshh, calm down Yang, he'll explain everything." Weiss whispered whilst firing an expectant glance at the now recovered Sun. "I'm sure nothing's wrong, if you're thinking what I think you're thinking then trust me, Blake and Ruby would never let anything happen to one another." No more lying Weiss… at least not to yourself… Weiss swallowed down a lump in her throat, an action that struck both Sun and Yang as odd before finally turning to face Sun, the body of her busty teammate still entrapped within her arms. "Answers… NOW!"

Damnit Weiss… Sun finally nodded his head, his first voluntary action since impulsively forcing his way inside after Yang opened the door. "You won't like this… and I didn't want to be the one to tell you but…" Sun trailed off once more battling his conscience one last time remember why you're doing this Sun, remember the reason why you CAN do this… she wouldn't want you in prison now… "Blake only left the White Fang 17 months ago…"

Weiss visibly shook with rage but otherwise made no attempt to move or speak, her eyes closed and her breathing got heavier but otherwise there was nothing. Yang on the other hand took the opposite route, rather than controlling her emotions until she was sure exactly what she wanted to do with them she exploded in a fit of denial. "No, that's not true, we know Blake. She's innocent, she left the White Fang when they turned evil, there's no way she could have-There's no way…"

Yang's denial cut Sun deeper than the atrocity he just committed. It even cut him deeper than the complete withdrawal of Weiss. "I'm sorry." he muttered as Yang shrugged off the still shaking Weiss, the heiress's hands falling idly to her lap as her stiff posture held her upright whilst the woman she was comforting got to her feet, denial giving way to anger; anger that was being directed towards Sun.

"NO! Don't you even dare!" the blonde shouted at the top of her voice, being careful to avoid mentioning any details in case the walls and floor were thinner than she believed them to be. "What gives you the right to make such accusations, what makes you believe that she would be a part of such a thing?"

The Faunus's evergreen orbs were now cast down on the ground, his teeth nipping at his bottom lip, his entire body refusing to let him look the blonde girl in her furious red eyes as he choked out his response: "Because she told me so herself…"

The female brawler scoffed a very Weiss reaction. "That's preposterous" A very Weiss response. "You're a liar!"

"Why would I lie about this?"

"I don't know! Why should we believe that you, a complete and total stranger to us, are telling the truth? WE DON'T BELIEVE YOU!" Yang turned to face Weiss as if expecting the ivory girl to prove her point. "Tell him Weiss; tell him that you don't believe him!" Weiss said nothing, the girl still shaking involuntary on the bed Yang's gaze faltered her eyes finally returning to her violet colour as every ounce of rage drained from her body at once her hope slowly dying "Weiss? You don't believe this do you?"

Exactly… why WOULD Sun lie about this? Weiss didn't want to believe her ears, didn't want to believe her brain and it's thought processes as the stubborn organ recalled every piece of information Blake had ever told her, selectively emphasising each important detail that told her that this was the truth.

"That was Adam; he was practically my brother for ten years…"

"I as a result was shipped off to a care home."

"The other kids were… insensitive"

"He handed me some papers and promised me he'd tell them he failed, that he would never search for me again, and he never did, today was the first time I'd seen him in over five years."

"Adam was a kind man at heart."

One memory however she could not shake off, one memory she could not deny.

"Adam was like a brother he welcomed me with open arms, showed me around what was White Fang headquarters"

IF Sun is lying then that means Blake left the White Fang age 12 after spending ten years by Adam's side… that would only make her two, how could she possibly have such vivid memories of her first few years with the White Fang? And if she was only two how did the kids of the orphanage unknowingly discriminate against her? It can't be true, I don't want it to be true… but it is… did I know all along?

Weiss couldn't say the words, she wouldn't let herself speak, not to Yang, not to Sun, she had no desire to talk to anyone actually, not after she remembered what happened this morning, Blake's reaction that she unconsciously must have taken note of since she couldn't remember noticing it at the time. Weiss had only one desire as she stood up and bolted out the door, gripping the hilt of Myrtenaster as a white blur crossed the visions of the two blondes and just like that the heiress was gone, Yang had her answer and Weiss already knew the answer to her own question. Why did Blake wince when I mentioned Operation Snowfall?

It had to be a mad scientist in an insane laboratory didn't it? They would have him to interrogate. At least he seems willing to hand over information… provided Beacon can find the coin that is. Pyrrha shook herself from her thoughts; Dr Mei had offered them answers after all; five questions now, his choice of which to answer and a full interrogation once he was paid in full. Now's not the time to get lost in thought, we need get this over and done with quickly, the White Fang are still here, even if he isn't technically one of them he could have alerted them…

"First question Dr. Boswell: Why is the password "Chimera"?" Pyrrha decided to start off easy, Mei had to know she already knew the answer, but he may be uneasy about actually confirming her suspicions and would tell her exactly how worth it questioning him would actually be.

Dr. Boswell smiled, his gaze catching Pyrrha's, the girl actively searching the man's form for any signs that he wasn't being truthful. "Isn't it obvious? They are the imperfect children of our little project, the rejected specimens in our search for the ultimate creature of Grimm which the White Fang, our contractors would be allowed to release upon the world as they have been doing with our test subjects."

"Why would you release these monstrosities?"

"Why not? All science is predicated in curiosity, we were curious as to the origin of the world and our being and so we searched and found Dust, our creator. We were curious as to whether or not semblance was hereditary and so we forced separation of twins and compared their powers. To answer your question though: We allowed the White Fang to break ethical protocol because we were curious… they weren't."

Jaune could hear the researcher in the background; he was doing his best to not concentrate on the interrogation and was actually trying to focus on keeping watch. Still small, important pieces of information pricked up his ears, every single shred of it eliciting chills and shivers. The world really is a cold and brutal place… How are we as hunters making it better? Without us the White Fang wouldn't even be funding this research.

"What were you curious about? What were the White Fang expecting?" Pyrrha had been entirely business-like the entire time, paying no mind to Jaune who was playing guard duty whilst consuming herself with her role as interrogator. Her body never relaxed, the girl just waiting for the subject to try something, anything, and yet nothing came. He was entirely compliant, entirely confident and entirely calm.

"We were curious as to how the surrounding wildlife and creatures of Grimm would react to an alien, apex predator being introduced to their food chain. The White Fang were not expecting anything. WE were expecting the Grimm to exhibit defensive mentality, to form alliances with their fellow prey to boost their chances of survival against the new, more dangerous predator. The White Fang WANTED our assumptions to prove partially right, they WANTED defensive behaviour; more specifically they WANTED the native creatures of Grimm to flee from their natural habitat to escape the Chimera."

Pyrrha's next question would decide just how much Dr. Mei Boswell was willing to give to Team JNPR and to Beacon Academy and yet it was the simplest question of all, consisting of a single word. "Why?"

The doctor laughed silently, his own professional façade waning as he amused himself with the red-haired teen's attempt at playing the one in control, this was the simplest question, and also the easiest to answer. "Because IF the Grimm did display characteristics of territorial defense then we would demonstrate an often unspoken of taboo: A generalised Grimm cognitive functionality." Pyrrha's forehead scrunched, a wrinkle appearing as her eye brows closed together, the young girl perplexed as the man continued. "Not instincts, not bloodlust: genuine intelligence, just like all other known sentient beings, though perhaps not to the same degree…" he paused for a minute, giving a hearty chuckle, clearly amused at his own thoughts. "Who knows, maybe this time next year you could have your very own beowolf pup as a pet."

Pyrrha shivered much to the amusement of the doctor. Pyrrha concentrated, pulling her mind away from the interesting concept to attend to the matter at hand: he had successfully avoided the obvious meaning to her question. "That's not what I meant and you know it." She stated her question once more, making sure that there were no secondary interpretations for the doctor to exploit this time around: "What was the end result the White Fang were working towards provided the creatures of Grimm did retreat from their environment?"

Mei laughed again this game has already ended girl… "That would be question number six princess. You seem to have forgotten the rules. You ask me five questions and I decide which ones I answer. I answered all five of your questions, I apologise if you didn't get the answers you seek, but perhaps Ozpin will be smart enough to ask me himself…" Pyrrha groaned at him in frustration, her teeth scraping together as a low growl escaped her throat which further amused the doctor. "There is ONE question that you really SHOULD have asked though since Ozpin has no reason to."

Wait what? "What are you talking about?"

Mei's showed his own set of gritted teeth as he took in a breath between them, his face contorted in feign shock and condescending disbelief as if Pyrrha had asked a question with an obvious answer. "And that's question number 7… I'll tell you what, because I like you, and you're a little bit slow… and you'll be dead pretty soon anyways, I'll answer one more question, that one of course."

Jaune spared a worried glance back towards his teammate, Pyrrha herself now entirely tensed, her eyes frantically scanning the room for any tool that would bring about the demise Mei foretold of. "You see, in all of the excitement of getting to speak to a real scientist you forgot the most important question of all:" he closed the gap between himself and the girl who was just minutes the dominant one, at least by all appearances with a single stride and leaned forward, his lips mere centimetres away from the amazoness's ear, Pyrrha being sickened at the feel of his breath on her neck, cheek and ear. "You should have said: "Tell me Doctor Mei Boswell, are what is contained in those reinforced glass pods going to kill me." To which I would have said: "Of course they are dear, my sincerest apologies.""

Pyrrha's face snapped to the left, gaze homing in on the one visible specimen as it finally moved, it's one wing shaking before bursting outwards as if an eagle was about to take flight, the tough feathers smashed through the glass effortlessly as it attempted to take to the air, launching itself at Pyrrha. In a fraction of a second Jaune was by Pyrrha's side, his blade piercing the stitched flesh of its wing stump and slicing into its heart killing it. "Give my apologies to Professor Ozpin, the deal is off." the doctor announced with a chuckle before disappearing out the same door Jaune was once watching over.

"Quick we have to-" before Jaune could finish his next sentence the rest of the glass pods began to crack and fracture, small slivers of structural weakness soon evolving into a break as glass shattered all around them, creatures of Grimm: mutated; operated on; and yet untouched bursting free and surrounding the duo. "Uh Pyrrha…" began Jaune, the girl in question giving a small hum as the duo took a back-to-back formation and readied themselves for the onslaught to come. "If we don't make it out of this alive, I just wanted let you know that-"

"No clichés Jaune." Pyrrha replied, cutting off her blonde leader mid-sentence.

"Right, I'm sorry." Jaune said apologetically, or at least as apologetically as one could sound when facing down a horde of spliced, normal and incomplete Grimm specimens. Pyrrha herself cracked a smile, Jaune's sweet but terrible romantic gesture cheering her up slightly and freeing her mind enough to shake away the fear. Not like this, not by these…

"And that's my line…" the redhead continued, further teasing Jaune as if this conversation was happening anywhere else, and the idea worked, Pyrrha distracted her mind from the matter at hand and it cleared, here she was staring down over a dozen unique specimens of Grimm, natural or artificial and yet she knew that she could win, that she could survive, her mind reminding her just who was there at her back, the same boy who had always been there for her since the Initiation. We can do this, we WILL do this.

Jaune himself was perplexed, here they were surrounding by Grimm and Pyrrha was being more playful and whimsical now than she ever was, let alone whilst in a life-threatening situation. Somehow the reminder that Pyrrha could still be that girl he had fallen for so many months ago even in a situation like this soothed his fretting and told him that everything was going to be all right. "Right" he said, playing along with whatever odd game the duo were playing to keep themselves brave "I'm sorry…"

Pyrrha giggled, it was an almost schoolgirl style giggle and it was for but a brief moment before the Grimm she was staring at growled and brought her back to reality one last time, the girl remembering two small, missing details. Where are Ren and Nora?"

Author's Note: Fun fact: I never actually intended for The Calm Before Part 2, Revelations Part 2 or (what I have a feeling will be) The Storm Part 2 to be things, but I guess I really suck at sticking to my plans…