The Party – Drexel's Point of View – 11PM

"I thought you're a criminal, how could Ironwood ever take you on as a reputable engineer?"

In asking for a twofold honesty pack between myself and team RWBY, I had also indirectly ensured some method of transparency as well. However, Ruby's prods into a part of my past that I would have preferred Penny to be ignorant of had began to become a nuisance. Attempting to ignore Ruby's consistent prods into a reality which I had tried my hardest to keep Penny from had proven to only worsen matters altogether where secrecy was concerned. Ruby herself definitely did not need to know my influences on the militaries withing Remnant.

With something alike fervor, Penny answered the question for me. "Drexel has always been a good person and a great student of engineering, why would you ever make such a horrible accusation?"

Resignedly, I took on the reply. "Fake identification becomes more simplistic as it becomes more complicated. Sure, cracking the initial static security that prevents false replications may be difficult, but when it's actually down? The General was looking for civilian input anyways, so naturally he raised no further questions against a seemingly solid file."

With a mix of curiosity and disappointment, Penny asked one more question. "Did you hurt anybody?"

Taking a direct look into Ruby and her young eyes with a hard, knowing gaze I simply answered: "Yes. More than you know."

The Party – Ruby's Point of View – 11PM

That look... Has he figured out that I had been trying to dig into his past? No, he always knew, its as if he found out the instant I began searching. I expected something like this, he probably used some form of virtual tripwire throughout Vale's databases; its what I would have done.

But it seemed as if there was also pain mixed in with that hardened glance as well. So much for a hidden ace up my sleeve of being able to call up the murder of Weiss's mother, it seems he knew my hand before it was even dealt. I'll have to ask the others later if they got any information out of him later. What was the purpose of this party? Of course I appreciated the gesture, but what could the Lore-Master mean by it?

Is this some way of him saying 'I'm not a threat', or something along these lines? The fact that he gave me a death ray almost proves that he doesn't see me as a threat. He upgraded the Myrenaster, so that proves that he means no harm to Weiss and even had tolerated Yang's teasing which few manage to have the foresight to ignore.

"Ladies, please don't pry. Sometimes ignorance really is bliss to a tormenting past. I have my regrets. I would prefer to take them to the grave in favor of a fire-storm which would take their place should they be relieved. Penny, I ended many lives and lost those close. I will never make that mistake again, and am happy to end mine in favor of another should even conscious insist that the second be inferior."

With almost an infectious sadness, the teenager drew a tobacco pipe and tin box, fitting the pipe into his mouth.

"I am going to die soon. It is inevitable and doubly necessary. It will be ironic, which is suitable to the way I have cruelly lived in time previous to now. Penny, the following must never be repeated in any method to any person: particularly your father. Ruby, if you repeat this to anybody prematurely I will kill you. There is no defense to how I truly form my fighting style and methods in warfare, simply because of what I am so do not force me to even higher stack my tower of regret."

Inserting some tobacco from the tin box into the pipe, he put the box away as the pipe lit itself. Rather than the usual strong smell which I had expected, the scent was both odorless and sweet, dispersing without issue.

"You're a traitor, Drexel, nothing like the way you took Weiss despite the fact that you didn't leave her to Torchwick. Don't easily say that you can kill me, everyone will know that you had tried and how I killed you in the attempt."

"Indeed Ruby you are correct. I betrayed the last of the Lore-Masters, refusing to become the weapon they intended me to become. Rather than returning to my trainers after the death of my parents as I was instructed should such thing occur, but I violated every major law that applies to those who study Lore within the hidden country of the Lore-Masters. Yes, a tiny city and civilization of Lore-Masters. Neither of you should believe though, that you can survive me."

At this very moment, exactly when Drexel had finished talking it felt as if my aura was being drained from me and my soul along with it. Penny too, had shown signs of weakness as she began to have difficulty in remaining upright in her seat.

"Drexel..." Gathering my strength which remained to me, I continued my phrase. "... You bastard..."

As easily and quickly as I could feel the strength I could once swear was only mine slip from my reach, it came back again with almost seemingly a little extra.

"Ruby... I was supposed to be the Honor Guard to the high council. Instead I abandoned the post that had been assigned to me shortly after birth, and took arms with a major criminal, killing as ordered to simply preserve the weak and pitiful creature that is my little sister. Yes, a real sister, I also had a big brother. A real one. But my family is dead, and my Commanding Officers could have prevented it. Even stopped it."

Puffing a ring of smoke, the saddened dishonored solider continued to speak with his voice gradually becoming darker. Graver. Nearly sadistic.

"Why am I telling you this here? Now? Only you two will remember most of the night's events. Everyone else is either high or smashed beyond sentience and coherence busied with their shenanigans. I only wish I was so oblivious and freed from the truth I had learned and the crushing twist made to what once was I: a bitter and angered boy armed with the basic knowledge and weaponry needed to embody my anger through violence. I found this place from the summer memories of my earliest life and the library concealed within. And learned. It was the day I killed Weiss's mother that I had abandoned the ice which I used as self-pitying respite when I had not been taking mothers, fathers, sons and daughters from the families of others. Rather than using a Hardened Thermite Anti-Personnel bullet which I always used when playing sniper (since the round would shatter into lit thermite on impact, the invention being a trade secret), designed to slowly and painfully kill without allowing any chance of survival, I used a special round I always carried. I rarely use dust weapons for high accuracy tasks, simply due to their impersonal touch on a situation. This bullet was coated with two chemicals: the first chemical was designed to disintegrate after firing, protecting the powerful pain-killer underneath from being burnt off."

Setting the pipe aside, the killer buried his face in his hands to mask the tear drops which began to form in his eyes.

"The difference in choice allowed Weiss and her family to be with their mother and wife in the last moments of honesty and good-byes, rather than torture. I watched as the family was for the first and only time united if but briefly through the lens of my scope. In that same day it was shattered by the same action which gathered them. I watched the creation of the persona called the 'Ice Queen' and what also began the isolation of Weiss from the remainder of the family."

The boy which had clearly tortured himself mentally over the years from the event in question sunk his head even lower, allowing his hands to tightly grip his long messy black hair.

"For the next few months I spent my life silently, secretly camped in front of place wherever Weiss slept in my first stage of penance for ever other soul I had separated from it'd body, but as payment for participating in a tragedy that was not even mine to create or observe. The shooting had destabilized the Schnee Dust Company and it's overall security for some time. Brigands and other seasoned killers like myself had come hearing rumors of the great weakness in such a profitable target. My body is scared from the combat I pursued in protecting them from then onwards: both on that day, and the four months that would follow."

Silence. I expected a shallow killer, not... This. If I was to expose any of this, one third of those who would hear this story would release him. The other third would have him chained to the Schnee Dust Company for last repayments of his crimes, and the last third would would leave him at the feet of Weiss to await her decision. I would rather forget that I had heard this tale.

"Why I have no qualms in killing her friends, even though my personal war is in her defense and therefore, the protection of her friends? I can see elements of the future, through something called Scrying. I do this through meditation, and over time I can bring together truths of not only the future but the past. Partially though this method I became the warrior I am now, alongside my early training which had been engrained into my soul and my books. Theoretical knowledge that those before me who had the same energy semblance discovered, that's what Lore-Masters are: Humans and Faunus who have some type of energy semblance. The future is not a fixed path, but a highway with many exits. By controlling events accordingly, I can trigger the desired outcome. For Weiss to live, I must die."

That instant, he stopped crying and wiped his tears. Composing himself, he escaped the mask made from his fingers.

"And that is how I can be happy."