Welcome to chapter 35!
The action's gonna be starting soon, which is actually pretty early for an arc, but don't worry, you'll see why :)
Also, it's way too early for this, but now that I've finally decided I'll say it: yes, there will be a sequel to this story, even though this is plenty long by itself. There'll be a small teaser of sorts at the end of this entire story, but for now, let's not get carried away…
Anyway, moving on!
"Ozpin speaking."
"Good mornin'!" an extremely cheerful voice greeted. "Frustratingly Underpaid Civilian Killers at your service! If you want someone brutally murdered, elegantly killed or just simply dead, give us a call! If our name's too long for you, remember us as F.U.C-"
"What can I do for you, Mr. Dynes?" Ozpin asked with an exasperated smile. He had not heard from Patrick Dynes in a long time, and he had certainly not expected a call now.
"Well, y'see, Saph's made me run some errands," Pat replied. "So I had to do a wide-area memory alteration. As a result, they're unconscious all over the place, and-"
"How did you manage that?" Ozpin asked. Last he heard, Patrick's Semblance was currently in a state where excessive usage would either mess his own memories permanently or cost him his life. "Did you use 'Overdrive'?"
Overdrive was a substance the 'mad scientists' – the engineers and chemists who served as support for mercenaries like Sapphire who went into the field – had come up with to amplify the effects of Aura. Even those with poor Aura control could become temporarily invulnerable upon consuming the liquid (which apparently tasted like fermented Ursa pee, whatever that tasted like; the description was courtesy of a certain blue-eyed dual-wielder). Some individuals had been shown to face peculiar side effects, namely death from excessive and continuous Aura discharge, temporary paralysis and even the momentary strengthening of one's Semblance.
Patrick, having fallen into the last category, could use it to increase the range of his Semblance. If he consumed enough of it, it was fully possible to cover the entirety of Vale. However, having abused it to compensate for losing his arm and leg, he ended up in his current state where using his Semblance was dangerous.
"It was just lying there," Pat replied nonchalantly. "I got myself a whole bucket of it. Anyway, as I was saying, they were all unconscious, so I snuck around a bit and tried to find something juicy on the big boss."
"The big boss, huh…" Ozpin mused. The big boss was someone no one had ever seen before, and whose identity was a mystery; he ran the entire mercenary organization, but he had done it all in the shadows. From that alone, it could be said that he was a far more powerful individual than even Ozpin himself. "Well, you called me, so I assume you've found something interesting?"
"I'm still trying to break through your firewall," Pat replied. "Gimme a minute."
"You could just send it to my e-mail," Ozpin suggested.
"Where's the fun in that?" Pat asked. "Okay, it's done. Apparently this was what they did with the data from all those tests."
"This is…" for once, Ozpin looked genuinely surprised.
"Do with it what you will," Pat said. "I'm getting back to my errand."
Without waiting for a reply, he hung up. Ozpin did not move his hand, holding his Scroll by the side of his face silently.
"Alright, is everyone here?" Sapphire asked, scanning the room. Team RWBY was seated on their beds, all members present, while Team JNPR sat on the floor, missing a certain blonde. "Where's Arc?"
"I think he's in the cafeteria," Pyrrha replied. "He may have forgotten about the meeting. Sorry; I should have reminded him."
"So there're times you're not sticking to him," Sapphire muttered, causing Pyrrha to blush furiously. He fished out his Scroll, calling Jaune impatiently. "Hey Arc. If you're not in Team RWBY's room in five minutes I'll do weird things to your girlfriend."
"PYRRHA!" Jaune screamed, jumping through the window and diving into the room, using his shield to cover his landing. His eyes searched the room hastily, and with a panicked expression he pointed his sword at Sapphire. "W-what did you do to her?"
"Right, now that everyone's here, let's get started," Sapphire announced, completely ignoring the blonde and the fact that he had managed to rush from the cafeteria to a room on the upper floor within seconds. He was supposed to be incompetent how? "I'll explain the details of the plan this time."
"Hold on," Ren said. "Are you sure it's safe? What if someone is listening in?"
"Don't worry," Sapphire said, pressing a button on Lifesaver's side. A green light lit up slightly above it, flashing at slow, steady intervals. "All signals are now jammed. That aside, when did you start talking?"
"Ren's just shy!" Nora said, hugging him like a giant plushie. Her right arm was in a cast, but she managed to make do with just the left. "What he just said is enough to last this entire semester!"
"Agreed," Sapphire nodded, as Pyrrha finally managed to make Jaune sit down and sheathe his sword. "Okay, moving on. I'm sure you've all read the news lately, no?"
"Yes," Everyone replied. The only exceptions were Ren (who nodded silently), Nora (who said 'yep~'), Yang (who went 'uh-huh!') and Jaune, who shook his head.
"Arc…" Sapphire sighed heavily. "Just out of curiosity, other than comics and porno mags, is there anything you read at all?"
"He doesn't read those dirty things," Pyrrha denied. "I won't let him."
"Fair enough," Sapphire conceded, pulling out a newspaper and tossing it to the natural blonde. "Read it."
"Um…" Jaune did as he was told, skimming the itty-bitty words that only came with one big picture (not that he complained; it was a photo of Weiss). To his surprise, it was an article about how Weiss was going to take her sister to a private villa for recuperation, with her team as the only ones guarding her. "What's this?"
"It's what it looks like," Sapphire replied. "Team RWBY will be taking a break from school, and we'll be moving Winter to the Schnee villa around… here," he pointed at the map on the wall. It was a location along a cliff, facing a large forest where it was not looking out to sea. "The five of us will be the only ones there, so there'll be no extra security and whatnot. Any questions?"
"Only about fifty," Jaune said.
"Fine," Sapphire heaved another exasperated sigh. "I'll explain. We're saying that the environment is good for her health, and we're using only a team of four girls – her most trusted friends and comrades, so to speak – with no security for fear or enemy spies. The purpose is straightforward and simple: we're insulting the White Fang."
"What?" Jaune asked, clearly confused. Even Pyrrha looked a little puzzled.
"Why would you go so far to provoke them?" Pyrrha asked. "You know they're dangerous, and you're going to make Team RWBY the targets of their fury now? What'll it accomplish?"
"The plan doesn't stop there," Sapphire replied. "But I'll go into that later. I had Weiss emphasize that the attack on the Schnee Company would not be possible for the White Fang to pull off alone, which basically conveyed that we think they're worthless on their own. Furthermore, the only people guarding her are a team of four Huntresses-in-training. That's totally looking down on them. Do you think they'll just sit back and let us say all this?
"The attack on the SDC was led by a Faunus called Adam Taurus," Sapphire went on, deliberately avoiding eye contact with Blake as he said this. "His fearsome ability is topped only by his own pride, and a man like that held back without killing Winter. Someone must be pulling the strings, and with that taunt we'll be making them come to us without relying on them. It decreases the amount of unknown elements we have to face."
Blake nodded, albeit a little hesitantly. The others still looked unconvinced at his words, so the former mercenary took a deep breath and continued.
"Their enemies, as we've proposed, are four girls," he said. "To top it off, they're Weiss Schnee's most trusted friends. If they beat us without external intervention, it'll not only prove their power, albeit a little, and it'll also allow them to rub dirt all over the Schnee heiress's pride. It's a challenge and an opportunity they won't pass up. It's certainly a possibility that Taurus will be sadistic enough to kill all three of them slowly in front of Weiss before gutting her to stroke his own ego too."
"That's nice," Weiss said sarcastically. "What does that do for us?"
"Basically, they'll come to us," Sapphire replied. "They won't rely on this unknown third party, and they'll definitely come without fail. For us, who lack information to do anything, it's our best and possibly only way of striking back. The catch is that other than being able to one-up the Fang somewhat, as well as weakening them, we have no other actual merits."
"So it's personal," Pyrrha summarized. "Not only that, but you're risking your life and Weiss's company's name for this."
"Yes, we are," Ruby replied. The four members of Team JNPR turned to stare at the red-cloaked girl, and at her red and black eye patch. "Weiss was willing to do it, and we won't let her go in alone. So even if we have to risk our lives, we'll go. We'll fight with her all the way."
"No matter how many times I hear it, it's as embarrassing as ever," Sapphire muttered, smirking as he leaned against the wall. "Well, Weiss is willing to toss aside her pride for this little revenge hit, so we've got nothing to complain."
"Wait a minute," Jaune said suddenly. "You said four, right? What're you going to do? And what's with the eye patches?"
"Well, we did say we're moving Winter there for recovery, no?" Sapphire asked. "But I'm not stupid enough to actually bring her there. The White Fang have something detects the Aura readings in the area, and to fool them we just need someone with low Aura to pass off as Winter, who's on the verge of death."
"You don't mean-?"
"Luckily, I'm skinny," Sapphire shrugged. "And now for the eye patches… I'm actually keen on keeping you in the dark and making you suffer that way."
"Hey!" Jaune protested. Ruby had to cover her mouth to hide her grin at that.
"But what about the actual forces?" Pyrrha asked. "You only have five people, and they'll definitely send in far more than just that. What're you going to do?"
"That's why I chose this location," Sapphire answered, rapping his knuckles on the map. "It's on a cliff, so they can't surround us. They won't be stupid enough to send all their troops through the forest and risk traps and hidden reinforcements either, but since they can't use the sea they'll probably end up descending on the villa via helicarriers.
"There're only so many helicarriers you can bring along without alerting the opponent," Sapphire went on. "So we only have to fight those who come into the villa via the air. The ones in the forest will… let's just say my former colleagues will mistake them for enemies and help us out."
"What do you mean?" Yang asked apprehensively. "What did you do?"
"I have very… persuasive friends," Sapphire said evasively. "Don't worry; their combined strength should be more than enough to take on the White Fang; it's not as if they'll send every single soldier available in to combat just four girls anyway."
"You're bringing in external help?" Pyrrha asked. "After all you said and did to get them to not bring in theirs?"
"I never said this was playing fair," Sapphire replied. "I hope you don't misunderstand; this is payback for what they did. I've no intention of competing on equal ground. They struck first, and we're not fighting for cheap pride, so we'll be as dirty as we need to be. They hurt someone important, and you can bet your life that we'll do whatever it takes to kick their ass."
A momentary silence followed those words. No one really knew what to say, especially when Sapphire's tone had become increasingly hostile with every word.
"No matter how many times I hear it, it's still as embarrassing as ever," Blake jabbed. Sapphire looked at her, clearly thinking of a rebuttal, but was ultimately unable to think of one so he picked up Zwei and flung him at her instead.
"Anyway, JNPR," he said triumphantly, turning to them as Blake screeched and jumped onto an upper bunk. "I need you guys to guard Winter in that time. Since her condition has stabilized, we've made arrangements for her to be temporarily moved to Beacon's infirmary; if we have guards outside her ward when she's supposedly at the villa, it'll be suspicious after all. But that being said, we can't just leave her vulnerable, so that's why we're doing this. Any questions, kids?"
"When are you moving her?" Nora asked, tilting her head. "Everyone's gathered here, so who's looking after her now?"
"We moved her yesterday," Sapphire replied. Everyone other than Weiss looked surprised at that. "And a certain busty blonde is looking after her right now. No, the other one," he added with a facepalm as all eyes turned to Yang. "That's all from me. Can you do it?"
"It's not a problem for us," Jaune replied. "You can hardly expect us to back down after something like that. We'll do it."
"That's right," Pyrrha agreed, putting a hand on her boyfriend's shoulder. "Don't look down on Team JNPR, Sapphire."
"You mean don't look down on your husband," Sapphire muttered. "Alright, dismissed! Blo- Xiao Long, I need to talk to you for a bit."
Yang looked startled, but did not say anything in protest. This surprising lack of objection made Ruby all hyped up for some reason – a reaction backed up by the suggestive whistling from Nora.
"Yang, I thought you already had Blake," Ruby said.
"Well, you know…" Yang suddenly caught on to what her sister was implying. "Wait a minute; Ruby!"
But everyone had already fled from her impending fury.
"How're you holding up?" Sapphire asked reluctantly.
"What on Remnant do you mean?" Yang asked, holding Zwei by the front legs and making him tap-dance across the carpet.
"You seemed distracted," Sapphire pointed out. "Are you sure you're up for this?"
"Are you kidding?" Yang asked. "You're asking my sister to risk her life, but you expect me to sit around?"
"I never said anything about leaving you behind," Sapphire replied. "I'm asking if you're up for this. If you're going to be like this on the day itself, you'll die, Xiao Long."
"Y'know, everyone just calls me Yang," Yang said. "So just call me Yang. Besides, it's not as if I hate my surname, but when I get called that way, it just forcefully reminds me that Ruby and I are not… you know…"
"… Noted," Sapphire conceded. "But you're not getting out of answering my question."
"Girls don't like guys who're this pushy, you know," Yang complained, lifting Zwei and using his face to substitute for a puppy-dog eyed expression. When that failed, she gave in with a sigh. "Fine, fine… I'm alright. I really am; I'm a seasoned brawler, in case you didn't know.
"Besides," she said, standing up and turning to leave, but not before flashing him a wide, toothy grin. "I'm a big sis, y'know? Little siblings leave it to me and we'll settle this with a Yang!"
With that, Yang left the room. Sapphire, now alone (with Zwei), sighed and pressed the button on Lifesaver, disabling the jamming.
He was not a fan of butting into other people's problems, but he was hardly enthusiastic about leaving her alone. He knew that she was lying, but her personality was a bad match with his; there was pretty much no way he could convince her or make her open up to him, at least not without a fight.
"It's up to Blake, then…" he said heavily, possibly to Zwei. "The blonde's going to get herself killed."
A heavy silence descended, preceded by Zwei's frightened whine.
Er… too much OC stuff involved. Didn't want that; it's information overload… You can feel free to ignore the first part; I'll remind you again when the time comes. Besides, it won't really come into play much in this arc.
Sorry I'm not good with puns; Yang's art is too sophisticated for the likes of moi…