Author's Note: This chapter hit 11k words before any author's notes. Nothing too horrid happened in the Discord recently.
This week was the One Year Anniversary of MoNT's publishing, which means a year and two weeks ago I had an idea for some juicy drama (Jaune being Raven's adopted son, Yang finding out) and then my sister, upon hearing said scenario, begged me to write it.
525,000 words later, and here we are. Here's to the next 520-NO. There will not be another half-million words to this. I hope. One or two thousand...well, that I can't rule out. This current Arc is on pace for, like, 100,000 by itself.
discord (dot) ( the letter gee ) ( the letter gee ) (slash) YzqBkXR
Enjoy. We've earned it.
Chapter 50: "In was in these moments, when Vale faced superior forces deep in its heartland, that a miracle seemed to take place, and one figure displayed such legendary power that the machines of war seemed to fall dead before them." – Excerpt from 'Vale's Finest Moments: a historical take on near-mythological legends in the history of Vale, vol. 2' by Bartholomew Oobleck
Pyrrha's POV
"What is it, Pyrrha?" Ren asked, noticing that I had stopped walking with the group, which put me on the spot. I stared distantly at my scroll, unsure what the significance of the instructions I'd just received were.
"I…" I trailed off, not knowing what to say and needing to buy time to think of an excuse that wouldn't make them worry.
"Something wrong?" Nora asked, being the last of the group to realize we had all stopped and only just now catching back up. We were at Beacon's airfields and any moment now there would be a Bullhead arriving to take us all to Amity for the match.
I latched onto an idea that would work, despite hating that it would put them all on the spot.
"I…can't fight in the match," I admitted, sliding my scroll back into my pocket just in case they were trying to read who the message was from. "I just got a message from my old agent. He said that…that fighting in the Vytal Tournament violates my exclusivity deals with my sponsors, and that if I do it one more time, they've threatened to sue for breach of contract."
It wasn't hard to sound overwhelmed to sell the excuse. Ozpin summoning me and telling me to skip my singles match was…well, I don't know, but it has to be important. Suddenly, Jaune's absence from the group feels a whole lot worse.
"W-What?!" Nora let out, outraged at the lie I had spun. "They can't do that!"
"Yeah, that's not fair. They can't do that!" Ruby echoed, though not without uncertainty in her voice. "Right, Weiss?"
"They probably can," Weiss grumbled, a sour expression taking over her face. Of the five of them, she was by far the one most experienced in these sorts of dealings, and I said a silent thanks to the heiress for helping me out here. "Contract law can be nasty business."
"What are we gonna do then?" Nora asked, looking to me with anger and confusion—neither of which were aimed at me, but both of which made me feel guilty.
"You guys go on ahead. Nora, you take my spot," I offered, the solution being the easiest one, making me hopeful that they'd go for it.
"You're not coming?" Ren asked.
"I need to go to the CCT and call my old agent. There's a chance I can get this sorted out before the next match."
There was a tense moment of silence and I began to worry that they had seen through my lie and were preparing to corner me over what was going on.
"Right. You take care of that, and I'll take care of this match," Nora growled, her normal destructive persona taking a darker, more personal tone as she made it clear that she was going to avenge me.
To my luck, no one else commented on the situation, aside from a few grumbles. It was clear that all of their moods had been dampened by the 'news,' and I was in the clear. I waited to see them off on their Bullhead, wishing Nora well and honestly hoping that she would win the fight. There would be questions if I dropped out and we were eliminated. There will probably be questions no matter what.
My mind wandered as I made my way back through Beacon's halls to the Headmaster's tower. My greatest fear was that Jaune had been caught for what he did to the person who works for Amber's attacker—had they framed him for her murder? Or…he really did kill her, so did they turn him in somehow? Am I an accomplice now, since I knew about it? Was Ozpin going to—
I was broken from my thoughts as I realized there were footsteps behind me in the otherwise empty hallway, but I didn't get to turn my head around before something hit me hard, knocking me through one of the doorways and into a lecture hall. My attacker pushed me down onto one of the tables, pinning me down with a forearm pressed against my throat and forcing me to look up into red eyes and burning hair.
"Yang!?"
"What the hell did you do!?" Yang half-screamed and half-hissed, her eyes burning into me with a fury that was unnerving.
"W-What do you mean?" I asked, choking the words out. She didn't let up any of the pressure on my throat.
"Jaune trusted you, and you just…you just fucking betrayed him!?" Yang screamed at me, sending my eyes wide in shock. I honestly didn't know what she was talking about, but the implication made my stomach flop. Something…something bad had happened.
"I didn't, Yang! I promise that I—AH!"
I let out a yelp as Yang's other fist came down into my stomach, firing a round into my Aura with her gauntlet.
"LIAR!" Yang screamed, the flames on her hair crackling and bursting with a new wave of heat and energy as she attacked me. "How does Ozpin know, then!? Why did he just attack Jaune!?"
My eyes went wide and a pit opened up in my stomach at Yang's words. Ozpin attacking Jaune was bad, especially with what Jaune was hiding. Panic shot through me and I tried to shake my head at Yang, tried to tell her that it wasn't me.
"No, no Yang, I didn't—I destroyed the recorder, I swear!"
Yang's eyes widened at the mention of a recorder, and I realized saying it was a mistake as Yang's eyes recovered from their shock to redouble their rage, glaring at me furiously as she wound up and punched me again. The impact and shell had hurt the first time, but this one really hurt, and I finally spurred into action, more afraid that I couldn't keep taking hits like that than anything.
I kicked Yang off me, locking on to her gauntlets with my Semblance and forcing her up as I did so. With her forearm no longer digging into my throat, I took a deep breath as I pushed myself off the table, bringing Yang and I to even footing on the stairwell isle of Port's empty lecture hall.
"Recorder!?" Yang yelled, still seething at me but holding herself back…barely. Her eyes still glared at me and were still red, and her hair still simmered. "You recorded him!?"
"I destroyed it, Yang! I never even let it out of my sight!" I pleaded with her, desperate for her to believe me and calm down enough to explain what's going on. "Yang, please, I decided to help Jaune! I was going to tell him tonight!"
"Yeah, well, that's not gonna happen now," Yang growled, her eyes trailing down towards my feet. Her hands clenched into fists so tightly that they shook for several seconds before Yang let out her anger in a violent burst that saw her smash her fist through the nearest desk to her. With her outburst over, she panted to stabilize her breathing, before taking one last deep breath to collect herself and return her eyes to mine. "If not you, then how?"
"You're asking me? Yang, I still don't even know what's going on!"
Yang's hair no longer simmered and her eyes had switched back to purple, but she still looked at me with distrust and anger, though she was at least trying to believe me now. She took another deep breath to try to calm herself, pressing her forehead up against her palm as she tried to focus. It did not come easily.
"I got a text from Jaune when he went to meet Ms. Goodwitch. Ozpin knows and run is all it said," Yang let out, frustration and stress heavy in her voice. "I got there just in time to see Jaune get knocked out by Ozpin. I ran from there, and saw you going back in when you should be gone, and…well…
"I can't think of any other way Ozpin would have found out, and when I saw you here when you were supposed to be at Amity, I figured it had to be you." Yang grumbled something under her breath and watched me cautiously. I didn't need to hear what she grumbled to know that she still wasn't convinced it wasn't me.
"It's fine," I replied, figuring that this was as close to an apology as Yang was capable of at the moment. "I got a message from the Headmaster that he needed me to skip my match and meet with him. I think…I think it's safe to say that I know what it's about now…"
"You think it's about Jaune, or about—" Yang's head whipped around nervously, scanning the room to make sure there was no way anyone could overhear, "—the seasons?"
"I…I don't know. It depends on how much he knows, and whether he knows about…" I trailed off, the same nervousness about being overhead hitting me. "…about Jaune's offer. If he does know that, and I go in there…"
Yang's face twisted into a frustrated frown at the implication.
"All that would matter is that you didn't warn Ozpin," Yang added on, thinking through the scenario. "It wouldn't even matter that you never agreed to help. Even considering it is bad enough… and with everyone else at Amity, Ozpin has time to deal with you and Jaune however he wants…" Yang trailed off, her hands clenching back into fists as she abruptly cursed angrily, letting out more steam. "What would you have said?"
"Huh?"
"Don't play dumb with me," Yang shot back angrily, startling me. "If this wasn't happening, what would you have said to Jaune's plea?"
"I…" I stalled for time, aware that Yang might not like what I had decided, but eventually realized that I probably wouldn't be able to lie to her convincingly, and that would anger her more. "I guess it doesn't matter what it was now. I was going to try to help Jaune, but I wasn't going to just run away with the powers or anything," I answered, watching Yang nervously. "I was kinda going to try to split the middle, I guess."
"You realize that would not have worked, like, at all?" Yang asked flatly, making it clear that she thought my plan was really stupid. Maybe it was, but it was the only thing I could bring myself to do. "Why use a recorder then? Were you planning on blackmail being a part of that?" Yang asked. She didn't sound like she believed that and was asking it incredulously, but I still felt like she suspected me, just a little.
"That wasn't my idea, I promise. I did that before I had decided what I was going to do," I tried to explain, making it clear in my voice I was desperate that she believe me. "It's just that Ozpin gave me that recorder when he first asked me to spy on Jaune, and it wasn't until after Jaune talked to me that I—"
"Whoa," Yang cut, giving me a strange look. "Hold on. Who gave you the recorder?"
"Headmaster Ozpin—but it's just a recorder!" I added on quickly, as I could already see the gears turning in Yang's head. "I was supposed to give it to him, but I destroyed it. There's no way he could have recovered anything from its pieces."
Yang took a sudden, sharp breath in and pressed her forehead against her palms in an effort to remain calm, but her hands curled into fists and shook the moment she took them off her forehead.
"Pyrrha. Is there any way that the recorder could have sent data directly to Ozpin?"
"N-No, it was…just a recorder shaped like a pen. It had to be turned in to Ozpin manually," I answered, though my confidence in my words was dropping.
"Are you sure?!" Yang asked, her voice mounting with tension. "You don't think it's odd that, as soon as you record Jaune on the device that Ozpin gave you, Jaune gets captured and you're called to Ozpin's office when none of your friends are anywhere close?"
"I…I…"
Words failed me as Yang's sunk in.
"Oh gods…"
"You idiot!" Yang screamed, her hair exploding into flames once more. "This is all your fault!"
"I…I didn't mean to!" I tried to defend, but both my own sense of dread and a mild fear of what Yang might do if I drew too much attention to myself cowed my words. Yang glared a hole into the ground at my feet and tried several times to unclench her fists despite the shaking in her arms. "What do we do now?"
Yang's head whipped up to me, her ire focused now.
"What do we do? What do we do?!" Yang repeated mockingly, stressing it heavily as her eyes flicked red the second time. She took a step towards me and I flinched. "You think I know how to fucking fix this!? There's a reason Jaune wanted to avoid this at all costs, Pyrrha! There is no'fixing' this! Ozpin knows about Jaune, and god knows what else. Even if we could get Jaune out of this, there's no way he can just go back to being a student like the rest of us. Hell, we probably can't go back either—we know too much. But we don't even know where Jaune is, and if we did, how the hell would we be able to rescue him from Ozpin and all of Beacon's—" Yang cut herself off, staring off into the distance momentarily as something dawned over her. "Fuck."
"What is it?"
"Give me your scroll," Yang demanded, walking over to me. Her eyes and hair were normal now, but to say that she looked anything but furious would be a lie.
"Where's yours?" I asked stupidly, not even sure why I said anything. The words left my mouth more to fill the silence than anything.
"I took the battery out in case they're looking for me—now hand me your scroll."
Somewhat nervous, I pulled my scroll out and handed it to Yang. She took it and turned her back to me, typing some numbers in and dialing, before turning back to face me. She held the scroll out in front of her and waited, with each passing moment creating more and more tension.
The scroll flickered to life, and an image of someone in a Grimm mask flickered to life. Maybe one of Jaune's contacts with Torchwick? I didn't see how that would help, but maybe there was something left up the criminal's sleeve.
"Yang," a female voice acknowledged from behind the mask, "I just gave you this number last night. Did you already change your—"
"Shut up," Yang hissed, eliciting a surprised head-turn from the woman. "I need a portal, now."
There was another tense silence as Yang stared down this woman, before the call was terminated from the other end.
Then a few moments later, a red hole opened up in the space off to our side. I looked at Yang wide-eyed, but she didn't seem surprised by it. She was seething once more, and I couldn't tell where the brunt of her anger was focused anymore.
"I would say I'm sorry about your Aura, but I'm really not," Yang grumbled as she handed me my scroll back. The counter on my scroll had my Aura in the forties, a testament to how bad of an idea it was to let Yang have two free shots at you while enraged and powered by her Semblance.
"It's fine," I mumbled, not wanting to make things worse. "Wait—!"
Yang stopped feet short of the portal, looking back to me with a flat glare.
"What do I do?"
"You want to help Jaune, right?" Yang asked, her voice low and flat. I let it go that it shouldn't need to be asked and nodded in response. "Go to your meeting with Ozpin. So far, you only seem to make things worse, so why don't you go help the Headmaster for a change?"
Yang's words dripped with venom and she didn't even bother to hear me respond before walking through the portal, which closed behind her immediately.
Ozpin's POV
"Speak," I bade forcefully, not bothering to look up from my desk at Glynda, who had been standing in front of me in silence for a few moments. "You clearly have something on your mind, and I do not have time to waste by indulging your hesitance any longer."
I did not bother looking up at Glynda, eyes remaining fixed on my monitor as I continued to sort through files, but I could feel her surprise at my abruptness. Quite frankly, it had been a long time since I was this frustrated, angered, or stressed.
"I want to speak with him when he wakes up," Glynda answered.
"No."
"Then give me something to do that will help," Glynda tried, her agitation less concealed than usual.
"I have," I answered curtly, still not having looked up from my screen.
"You have me playing administrator when I am more useful in other capacities," Glynda growled, her voice growing louder as her frustration mounted. "I do not understand why I am being sidelined for this."
"You are not being sidelined," I cut back, shifting my eyes from my screen to hers for the moment. "You have simply lost your faith in me."
"And what does that imply?" Glynda asked angrily, missing the point and finally forcing me to set aside what meager work I had been trying to distract my mind with. Her anger and insubordination were problematic, because under the pressure of the current state of affairs, I cannot afford any more misfires or mistakes, and to have subordinates second-guessing commands was to court disaster.
With that in mind, I set to fixing this problem.
"It implies what it states, and nothing more. You are not being separated from this because of your clear lack of implicit trust. You are, in fact, not even being separated from this ordeal at all."
"Then why am I not being utilized—"
"You are being utilized."
"—effectively?"
"I do not have time for this, Glynda. I need to keep this school running, I need to coordinate logistics for the festival with Atlas, I need to hunt down Amber's attacker, I need to keep Amber safe, and I need to squeeze information vital to accomplishing those other tasks out of Mr. Arc." My words were stern, and I let some out some frustration, hoping that it would help sort out this issue Glynda was having. "It is entirely possible that you could accomplish that last one, but that would leave me spending all my time accomplishing the first two. Where you are needed most is running this school, because that allows me the flexibility to deal with the situation at hand. Is that clear?"
Glynda did not answer, and I grew tired of this game. I had not lied when I said that Glynda's clear lack of faith had not motivated my assignment for her, but it would have been a lie to suggest that it would not be a hindrance to assigning her a different task. She could sense that, and bristled under the distinction, although there was currently nothing to be done about it.
She would simply have to get over herself. There were things in motion greater than any one person.
"We are done here."
Glynda still didn't say anything, and I didn't bother looking up to see if she were pouting over it. I had larger problems than an uncooperative assistant to deal with, and my patience had run thin enough that I had no issue letting her know such. Had she not been so confrontational, I might have been willing to inform her of my plans for Ms. Nikos, and that I would be sending the girl to Glynda for safekeeping later. It might have smoothed over ruffled feathers had I shared this, but to do so would have been to reward insubordination, and now of all times, that is not something I can afford.
Glynda walked off, and the elevator she embarked down on had also brought Qrow up.
"Where do things stand now?" I asked Qrow eagerly, minimizing the work I had been distracting myself with from my screen. I had been waiting for his return.
"The bastard's secure downstairs. He's not going anywhere, and we're not going to have to worry about anyone finding him. I had his locker brought down, too; thought he might be hiding something interesting in there, but came up empty. Are we sure that's going to hold him, though?"
"If you're referring to the chance that your sister will show up to take him, it is a risk, but not a large one," I answered. "Those restraints are designed to cage a Maiden. Even if she brought Spring to free him, it would take time to break him loose—enough time for us to get down there. And that is only if she finds out that we have him…"
I trailed off, looking at Qrow expectantly.
"I haven't been able to get a hold of Yang," Qrow admitted. "Her scroll is off, so no tracking, either. I got a hold of Ruby, and she said that Yang had stayed behind with Jaune when they all went to Amity."
"We're going to have to assume she knows and is a flight threat," I announced grimly.
"Oz, this is Yang we're talking about, not some unknown kid who showed up out of the blue," Qrow defended, his voice pleading with me. "Whatever he dragged her into, she's not some unknown enemy we can't predict or understand. This is my niece we're talking about."
"Do not presume that I have lost sight of the situation, Qrow," I cut in sharply, making sure to stunt any hint of doubt or subordination before it cost me my other most trusted lieutenant. "Your niece or not, she's involved with a plot to steal the Fall Maiden's powers. She—"
I cut myself off as the elevator door chimed, revealing Pyrrha Nikos to have finally arrived.
"Find her," I whispered, making sure to soften my features so as to not spook Ms. Nikos. I raised my voice to normal so as to be heard once more. "That is all, Qrow. Do me a favor and try not to lose your month's rent betting on the fights again."
Qrow gave me an uncertain look, but bowed out and played into the angle, grumbling some good-natured insult to try to play into the innocuousness of our actual conversation, before taking the hint and leaving me with Ms. Nikos. It was good to see that some loyalties still remained.
Ms. Nikos, however, looked to not have been fooled by the cover. There was a distant fear in her manner, given away by the nervous tension in her body as she strode forward and the way her eyes were just a little too wide at all times. She never had been good at hiding her thoughts or emotions. A shame, too, as she could have learned a lot from her partner on the matter.
"Please, Ms. Nikos," I announced, watching her carefully and taking equal care not to give away any of my thoughts via my manner, "take a seat."
She did as bade without so much as a word, slouching her shoulders nervously as she settled in, looking rather uncomfortable. She almost looked defeated already, and I began to suspect she knew what she had walked into.
"Do you know why you are here?" I asked simply, watching as the girl before me sheepishly kept her eyes on her lap.
"I…have an idea, yes," she answered quietly.
"You are here because of an offer," I stated, choosing the words carefully, causing her to flinch in on herself. "As I understand it, you have been fielding a lot of offers recently, have you not?"
I stared at the girl flatly, and she looked up at me out of surprise, though it was more muted than I would have expected if my knowledge of her conversation with her partner was news to her.
With a click of a mouse, I played aloud a rather damning soundbite I had prepared.
"I'm asking you to become Ozpin's Maiden, to accept my help to take back the rest of Fall's power, to pretend to be Ozpin's loyal servant, and then when we're ready, to help us all leave his control."
She seemed to shrink further into her chair with each word, her eyes never daring to leave her lap.
"There are people who would call what they just heard treason, Ms. Nikos, if not of a nation then of humanity. I would certainly be among them, though I would go so far as to suggest that anyone complicit in such activity is also guilty. What are your thoughts on the matter, Ms. Nikos?"
Wisely, the girl did not respond, although whether intimidated by the growing ire in my voice or the fear of where I was going to take this, I know not.
"The pen…?"
"A device of my own making, and one that streams to my computer, yes, but I believe we were talking about how you were going to enable Jaune Arc to steal the Fall Maiden, were we not?" I asked loudly, pausing to let her answer. "I said, were we not?"
"We were," she answered limply, her voice hardly anything louder than a whisper.
"I'll ask you this once, Ms. Nikos: is there anything that you wish to tell me? Anything, perhaps, that will provide a new perspective on this recording?"
Her eyes remained on her lap and her posture continued to slouch, but she didn't have anything to say.
With a few keystrokes, I switched tactics to a much more heavy-handed approach than I normally prefer. The projection monitor on my desk grew larger and played over footage from our arrest of Mr. Arc not long ago, with the soft glow of the screen attracting Ms. Nikos' eyes away from her lap. Her eyes were wide as she watched the clip until it ended with Mr. Arc being knocked unconscious, and she looked up at me nervously to see what I wanted to say over it. I motioned for her to wait and that there was one more thing to see, before switching to the live feed.
Ms. Nikos gasped quietly as the screen displayed the security camera from the Vault, showing Jaune's still-unconscious form secured in a metal restraining chair designed for Remnant's four most powerful mortal beings. His arms all the way up to his elbows were encased in metal clamps, his chest was restrained to the chair-back in a similar manner, as were his legs. The entire system worked on an analog mechanism, meaning that there was no way to hack it to release the prisoner; the only way he would be getting out is if my cane was inserted into the mechanism to let him out.
"Is there anything you'd like me to know, Ms. Nikos?" I asked again with an edge to my voice, letting the security feed stay up to unnerve the girl. Frankly, there was a voice in my head that said I was being too lenient with the girl, that I had been wrong to be so lenient with her and Mr. Arc so far and that it had backfired once. I am inclined to agree that my mishandling of the situation was a failure of my own volition so far, and no options are off the table now. The stakes have grown too high for anything less.
"I…I wasn't going to steal the powers and run like he wanted to," she answered finally, her voice sounding scared enough to pass as honest. "I-I was going to try to help him, but I was going to try to pass along what he knew to you."
"Well, that is certainly comforting to hear, even if I find myself struggling for any reason to believe you," I answered, taking her by surprise if her widened eyes were any indication. "I said that you have been fielding a lot of offers recently—namely, my offer of the Fall Maidenhood and Mr. Arc's offer to steal said Maidenhood. Neither of these offers are why you are here, though."
"Why…am I here, then?"
"You are here because I have one more offer, one that you will accept," I answered harshly, cowing Ms. Nikos with a glare. "You are going to work for me, Ms. Nikos. Together, we are going to protect Vale and all of its innocent lives. You are going to be my Fall Maiden, and you are going to do it because it is the right thing to do.
"And, if for some reason that is not enough for you, then you will also do it because of what will happen with your partner if you do not."
"You…you're going to…to blackmail me?" she stuttered out, fear and confusion wracking her as my harsh glare persisted.
"Such an ugly word, 'blackmail.' I am going to protect hundreds of thousands of innocent lives from the Grimm and those who would see them murdered, and I am going to do this by empowering a young Huntress capable of using said power to keep those innocent lives safe. Unfortunately, to do this, I will have to keep alive, or even release, a subversive agent who was caught trying to make off with those same powers that are in place to protect humanity. Call it what you will, Ms. Nikos, but do not dare try to tell me that I am the one with misplaced priorities. I am not the criminal here, nor am I the thief, nor the murderer, nor the coward."
The girl was speechless, stunned by both shame and fear. I would have liked to make her stew in that, to give her time to really reflect on whether she really thought resisting was of anyone's benefit, but my patience was already worn thin, and I had a sneaking suspicion I would want it saved for when Mr. Arc woke up.
"I am going to need your answer immediately, Ms. Nikos."
"When…" she trailed off, staring down at her lap once more, before finally looking up with a defeated, cowed look. "When do we do the transfer?"
With the press of a key, the elevator dinged and the doors swung open, and I made to stand.
"Right now."
Jaune's POV
I awoke to a headache and a feeling of pressure all over my body. I kept my eyes closed and focused on nursing my headache, until my most recent memories came flooding back to me. My eyes shot opened to reveal me to be in a dark, musty place with high ceilings, and upon glancing down I discovered the reason for the pressure across my body: I was strapped down to a chair with more braces and chains than was strictly necessary. They weren't taking any chances on me.
But there was no one here yet. No sounds around me, no voices or footfalls telling me that there was someone else nearby. There was a small camera on a camera-stand, thrown up hastily and pointed at me as a makeshift security camera, and there was my rocket locker, leaning against the side wall with its contents strewn about a wooden table. Crocea Mors lay there too, the sword and shield already separated out.
So I sat there and waited, stewing in my emotions, letting my anger and disappointment simmer.
Failure.
The word echoed in my head, taunting me. I had always told myself that I expected to fail. After all, I was trying to break free from a controlling Maiden and a controlling Wizard at the same time, all the while trying to outplay them both so that they would let me walk. I had known from the start that I was betting on bad odds, and I always had told myself that I needed to be prepared for things to go badly. I had accepted that I would fail.
Or so I told myself. From how much it hurt me to sit here, a captive with no power left in this fight, I came to realize that deep down, I had never truly believed I was destined to lose. I had always, always held out that spark of hope, a flicker of belief that I could be free.
I still do believe that I could have been free, that the odds were not impossible. I just… failed. I hadn't been strong enough, or maybe it was that I wasn't clever enough, or that I wasn't ruthless enough. Maybe I was too trusting. Dust knows that trusting Pyrrha put me in this situation, so maybe that was my greatest flaw, that I trusted my 'friends' too closely.
In the end, though, all that matters is that I lost, and that I am a lamb awaiting slaughter. Crocea Mors and Angau Glas lay on a table not ten feet from me, but they might as well be a world away.
Failure.
No one to blame but myself, right? That's what they always say. "You have no one to blame but yourself." But that…that's not right, is it? No, that's a naïve way to look at the world. Everything has consequences, and just because you do something, that doesn't make you responsible if someone does something in response. Blame is to be assigned, not assumed.
So who is to blame?
Pyrrha, obviously. My fists clenched at the thought, or they would, were they not confined to this infernal shackle that leaves no room for movement for anything below my elbow. I had been so certain that she wouldn't turn on me, and I have been even more certain that she hadn't turned on me; we had just had dinner as a group, and there were no tells! Some of the blame falls to me for being played, but more of it goes to that backstabbing bitch. She had looked me in the eyes and didn't flinch! I had thought she was different than all the women I had ever known growing up, kind and gentle and non-backstabbing. Even Yang has a few of those tendencies, not that they could really be held against her given who her mother is, but Pyrrha?
Of all the ways for this to come crashing down around me, failing to sniff out betrayal from someone as obvious as Pyrrha Nikos was just embarrassing. It was an insult to injury, a kick to the face of a man already kicked in the groin. How had she fooled me?
My arms started cramping from trying to curl up into fists so hard for so long, and I forced myself to put the thoughts out of my mind, burying in there some sort of vague promise to myself that I would get even when I get out of this. If, my mind reminded helpfully. If I get out of this.
Raven, then. Oh, yes, she certainly deserves blame for this. Everything that she'd ever done to raise me put me on this path. Were it not for her keeping me hostage for years, I wouldn't be so damn desperate to be free. If Yang was right, if Raven really was willing to let me leave, then she deserves blame for waiting so fucking long to tell me that I went and got tangled up in this mess. She gets no credit for releasing me once it was clear that she wouldn't be the one holding my chains. Yang may not have seen through it, but I do. Any offer of hers is an illusion.
But that's not what angers me about Raven. It should be, because it's the most grievous thing, it's the thing that deserves my anger and hatred for, but it's not what bothers me.
What bothers me is the vision I have in my head of her staring down at me, a failure wrapped in chains. She's not even here and I can feel her damn smug grin, and the hint of pity in her eyes she would try to hide, shaking her head softly before turning away to leave me to my fate. I can almost hear her mumble some sort of excuse about a lack of strength and unworthiness when asked why she won't help. Mother of the fucking year, ladies and gentlemen.
Imagining her finally giving up on me after all these years hurt so much more than it has any right to.
This all fell on Raven's head too, just not as much as it did on Pyrrha's, or even mine. The reason Raven's philosophy on strength is so annoying is that it leaves no one to blame but yourself for your lot in life. Either you are strong or you lose what you care about; looking around right now, it wasn't hard to pick which of those fits me.
And that just leaves blame for Ozpin, although if the distant sound of footfalls on the marble floor is any indication, I might get the chance to say it to his face. Ozpin was frustrating beyond belief, since he was the force that toppled my house of cards, but it was hard to assign blame to him. Can you blame your enemies for their actions taken against you, or can you only blame yourself for letting them succeed?
No, I can't give Ozpin my blame. Anger, hatred, resentment, scorn, rage… those I can give him, though. That will have to suffice.
And so I waited. The footfalls grew closer, until eventually, I realized that there were two people, not one. I couldn't see anything of the main hallway, my chair being placed just behind a corner, and they were still too far away to pick out any words spoken. They were speaking, keeping their voices quiet, but I couldn't recognize anything said yet, or their voices.
They kept getting closer, though, until eventually, I could hear one of them.
"This process is sure to be uncomfortable, though it may help you to imagine that you are receiving the better end of the deal here."
Ozpin.
Whoever he spoke to still responded too softly for my ears to pick out any words, only picking up that it was a soft, female voice.
Ozpin's words were more than enough to reveal what was going on. They were transferring the Maidenhood.
That has to make the other voice Pyrrha. My blood ran cold at the thought.
So, this was her play? Turn me over to Ozpin and then become his Maiden? It didn't feel like something she'd do, but then again, neither did stabbing me in the back, and we saw how that worked out. Clearly, she wasn't in it for the power, right? I had offered her that same power, and I had offered it to her free of Ozpin's control. If she was after power, then she should have accepted my offer. The only other difference was the motives behind who was offering it to her.
Had it really come down to whether or not she wanted to help me be free? Had that really been the tipping point, that she didn't want to help me, or didn't think I deserved it?
The very thought hurt too much to focus on. Instead, I shut my eyes and focused on the confrontation I had once had with Raven in the Emerald Forest, or the confrontation I had recently had with Cinder. The two times that I had nearly killed a Maiden.
And then I let my imagination take that a step further.
The second voice—Pyrrha's voice—was gone now. There had been startled cries as their soul-transferring machine had ripped the Aura from Amber and given it to Pyrrha, but she was gone now. Ozpin had sent her away, before making his way over to where he had me hidden away. She may not have even known that her handiwork was sitting right around the corner.
Ozpin's footsteps stopped a few feet to my side, standing before that table with the contents of my locker, remaining there for a few moments.
"You're not fooling anyone, you know," his voice called out evenly, feigning disinterest. "I saw you wake up on the footage earlier."
I didn't give him the satisfaction of a reply. I didn't even give him the satisfaction of opening my eyes.
"Have it your way," he dismissed nonchalantly, using the words in an attempt to get under my skin. It would take more than that.
From the sound of it, he was going through the possessions of my locker, as meager as they were. Two swords, sheathes and belts for them both, a dagger, some spare dust rounds for Angau's handle, a back-up scroll. Nothing incriminating was stored within the encrypted app on my scroll, it instead accessing the data from a secured server each time. Besides, this scroll was a burner scroll, and one that hadn't yet been used; I hadn't even bothered to download my hidden app to it.
"A ceramic dagger? I hope you realize that owning such a weapon is illegal…"
Oh, so that's how he wants to play this, then. Drag it out, act like nothing bad happened, and annoy me into begging him to take things seriously. There's nothing I can do about him doing things to piss me off, but if he thinks I'm going to take this lying down…
"In that case, why don't you turn me over to the police?"
I opened my eyes to give Ozpin a flat glare, and his eyes met mine as he weighed my reaction.
"You know, it's been a long time since I've seen one of these," Ozpin announced, shifting gears and changing the subject as he picked up Crocea Mors and its shield, collapsing and expanding the shield a few times for effect. "Do you even know what this is?"
"A sword," I answered flatly. "A shield. An heirloom."
"Maybe now," Ozpin commented with a soft chuckle. "I remember when I had these commissioned. These were officers' swords, of a sort; weapons made of such expensive materials that they were almost never used, only displayed. Quite the vanity piece, wouldn't you say?" He looked to me curiously, but I said nothing. Ozpin dismissed that with a shrug and flowed his Aura into the sword, causing it to glow a soft green color. "The paint job is new to me, as is the reworked pommel, but other than that, it appears to be all original."
"Of course you would be related to me somehow," I groaned, noting his admission that he had commissioned my heirloom, presumably in a previous life long ago. "Fucking fantastic."
Ozpin pulled his Aura out of Crocea Mors, before the sword burst into flames, powered by whatever magic Ozpin had. I flinched in surprise, which Ozpin apparently found funny.
"What, you didn't think I would commission something so expensive unless it had some fun tricks, now, did you?" I didn't reply, and Ozpin sheathed Crocea Mors and laid it back on the table, before turning back to me. "As to your comment, if it helps, you're not directly related to this particular version of me. I have, however, been incarnated into your family before. Twice."
"Twice?" I echoed, unable to stop myself from expressing my surprise.
"I suppose it is inevitable that it would happen eventually, but statistically, it is remarkable that it happened so soon," Ozpin quipped, giving me a smug, coy look. "Yes, several hundred years ago, I spawned into the body of a boy training to be a militiaman under the command of some small-time knight, protecting a village from Grimm. By the time of my next reincarnation, I had united half of Vale under one banner and established the Arc family as the most prominent defender of those banners. The great Charles Arc, not that there's anything surviving of his name other than scattered legends. Your sword was one of several that I had commissioned and gifted to various lieutenants at the time."
He walked back over and examined the weapon once more.
"Honestly, I had thought them all destroyed or lost. It appears they managed to hide one from me…"
"They?" I asked, taking his bait before I could realize that he had begged the question.
"Your family. Around, say, one hundred and fifty years ago, we had a falling out over, well, a great many things, not the least of them my willingness to draft every generation of Arcs into my war. They all went to ground, becoming spies and keeping tabs on the various tribes and fiefdoms of Remnant to their own ends. It was this that originally inspired me to seek out those who were willing to fight the Grimm, instead of drafting people I knew held potential."
"Are you accusing my family of being the reason Huntsman academies exist?"
"Not yet," Ozpin answered cheekily. "Not until I reincarnated into Julius Arc. Despite leaving my service, the Arcs decided to continue a pursuit of the four scattered Relics. I had no idea if they were getting close until I woke up a member of the family and found them with two, Destruction and Choice."
Ozpin looked smug as ever, pausing to see if he could get me to ask any more questions. I realized then that he was trying to soften me up, and I resolved not to let it work anymore.
"The King of Vale's name isn't 'lost to history,' as we're often told. The Great War was only eighty years ago, after all; that's far too short a time for the name Julius Arc to fade from existence." Ozpin waited to watch my reaction, but I caught myself and showed no surprise this time. "In fact, I was quite busy at the time, founding Huntsman Academies and creating Vaults for the Relics, but I was able to set up embargoes in all four Kingdoms: it would be illegal to print the name 'Arc.' Those embargoes hold to this day, though they were not worded strongly enough to prevent the name from being spoken on television. Not even I foresaw our current technology."
"What's your point?" I growled, getting tired of being toyed with. I was in no position to do anything, but lashing out still felt good.
"I was under the impression that you've been hunting for information on your family, Mr. Arc," Ozpin answered coyly. "Here I thought I was doing you a favor."
"I don't care about ancient relatives," I spat out at him. "I wanted to know about my parents. About my sisters."
"Oh?"
"Forget it," I growled, realizing from his smug reaction that he was pushing me to ask him about it. I refused to give him the satisfaction. "I know what I need to."
"I honestly doubt that you do, Mr. Arc, but if you wish to speak of other topics, I'm more than willing to oblige. Who stole Amber's powers?"
"That was subtle."
"And that was a deflection," Ozpin countered. Gone was his smug smirk or any sense of humor in his eyes, replaced with a harshness and an anger. His voice was agitated, indicating that his patience had run thin, and he did not care if I knew just how fed up with me he was. "See, I can state the obvious as well as you can, and I am not nearly as hostile when I do it. Now, about that Maiden…"
"And exactly why would I give that up so freely?" I asked pointedly, making it clear that there was no pretense of friendliness or cooperation between us.
"How about the thousands of innocent lives put in danger should this person succeed?" Ozpin asked redundantly, or at least he thought it was redundant. I was prepared not to grant him an inch.
"As I recall, my own plans involved taking this person out, too," I answered evasively, taking care not to let on how much I was watching for a reaction from Ozpin. He did not seem surprised by the information, which is consistent with my running theory that Pyrrha sold me out. Either she had recorded me—had she worn a wire, of all things?—or recounted my plans to Ozpin. That he was not surprised was only more evidence against her. "So it's your action of taking me out of play that allows her to still be a threat. Don't try to guilt me, Ozpin. I know how you operate."
Ozpin's lips pulled together into a thin frown, no doubt disappointed that it was clear I would not allow him to use his typical 'greater good' rationale. We both knew that his other motivating factors were less than compelling.
"By withholding the information, you're still putting them in danger," Ozpin tried again, not willing to give up on his best angle.
"Indirectly," I admitted, before pivoting against him. "But you stopping me directly puts them in danger."
Ozpin watched me with that same frown on his face for a few moments, weighing his options. I made sure to glare back at him the entire time.
"A more comfortable chair, perhaps?" Ozpin suggested mockingly. "I can't release you until we've come to a fuller understanding of each other—" he said, meaning he can't release me until he's certain that I'm his, "—but if I felt you to be cooperative and invested in preventing a calamity, I would not find such…restrictions against you necessary."
"Creature comforts?" I asked incredulously, not bothering to stifle a laugh at just how poor of an angle Ozpin was taking here. "You think that being chained up in the annals under Beacon is what bothers me? I was raised by Raven Branwen; this is really unimaginative as far as punishments go. Comfort," I scoffed again, still finding it hard to believe that he would even try the angle. "What I hate is being captive. How I am held captive isn't the point."
"Easy words to say, Mr. Arc, but given the choice between Atlas torture or house arrest, I'm sure you would have a preference, wouldn't you?"
"Is this hypothetical or not?" I answered.
"If you give me the name, I'll see to it that you're released into the custody of your team. Consider all of Beacon to be your 'house,' if you will," Ozpin offered, trying to put on his smug look. It honestly looked as if it was cracking, and though I was unsure if that was because he didn't put any faith into the idea that I might want to accept this offer, I had the suspicion that he was holding out on me.
"Skip to the end, Ozpin," I growled out lowly.
"Hmm?"
"I said skip to the end," I repeated in the same tone. "House arrest? You wouldn't settle for that, not when you have leverage left. You're trying to wear me down, continuously offering new things to sweeten the pot until, finally, I give in. Frankly, it's pissing me off, both that you think it will work and that you think you've actually offered anything I want. So why don't you just save us both the time and skip to your final offer, huh?"
Ozpin's features drew into a tighter frown, if for nothing else than disliking having the wind torn from his sails. After so many years of controlling people, I doubt he enjoys having someone resist. I'm not doing this because I enjoy seeing him frustrated, but it would be a lie to say that it wasn't a bonus.
"I understand that you are in a precarious situation with the Branwen Tribe…" Ozpin trailed off, looking to me expectantly for my affirmation.
I remained silent, giving him a flat glare, but otherwise didn't deny it. I did make a note that it seemed even more than everything he knew about me overlapped with what I told Pyrrha.
"I also understand that you are in a precarious position in general," Ozpin continued, gesturing with his cane to the chair I was restrained in. "I can alleviate both of those concerns."
"What, and risk letting me out? Do you think you can control me?"
"I think I can incentivize you," Ozpin corrected. "I do not believe my read of you was entirely inaccurate, Mr. Arc. I believe there yet exists overlap in our interests that is significant enough to justify intervening between you and Raven Branwen. Certainly, your team and your friends would be interested in what I have to offer them, and I have a suspicion that you're aware that they'll be offered similar roles in time."
"No," I growled, not at his words but at what he was building towards.
"A man of your training, skills, and instincts would be invaluable to the world, Mr. Arc. Like it or not, this is the life that all of your friends signed up for. Would you really abandon them to that fate without your hand there to protect them?"
"Dammit, I said no, Ozpin," I growled, not buying a fucking word he was saying. I knew this pitch. I knew what this was, what this really was. "You aren't offering to give me a 'role,' you're offering to use me in your war. You're trying to blackmail me into it. I'm not some naïve, seventeen-year-old with a hero complex who thinks they can save the world. I don't want to be sacrificed for a world that I've never even been able to be a part of."
"And whose fault would that be?"
"The same woman with the leash around my throat. You know what, though? A leash is better than a noose," I spat out, glaring Ozpin down. "For all the terrible things Raven is, she wouldn't sacrifice me on some suicide mission all because my eyes were special. Yeah, that's right, I'm talking about Summer, asshole, and all the other Huntsmen and Huntresses you've doomed, fighting your impossible war. At least Raven will tell me what she intends to use me for, and doesn't pretend to have some moral authority that no one granted her.
"Leave me out of your crusade," I spat out, out of breath after my outburst. I continued to seethe, glaring at the man before me the whole time.
"You seem to have taken after your adoptive mother well," Ozpin noted idly, downplaying my outburst and letting it pass by as if it had no effect.
"Petty insults? Is that all you have left?" I mocked exasperatedly. "Don't get your feelings hurt. You should have known that I was never going to accept your offer."
Ozpin didn't respond, remaining cryptically stoic. Something… something felt off.
"…you did know I wasn't going to accept your offer, didn't you?"
A tiny, barely perceptible smirk accompanied a soft chuckle from the old man.
"You have something else," I growled as I recognized what that chuckle meant. He had let me say my piece and get my shouting over with so that he could play his ace once I had nothing left up my sleeve. "You were holding out on me. Dammit."
"Yes, I was. Would you like to hear it?"
"Not at all."
"As I said, I do not believe that my impression of you was completely wrong. You value your friends and their protection. I can…" he trailed off, frowned, then resumed. "I won't mince words, not under the current circumstances. I can use that against you."
"You already tried," I pointed out. "I turned that offer down."
"Perhaps, but I hold faith that, given more time around your friends, you will eventually come to accept my terms if it means remaining with them or keeping them safe." He paused, giving me a coy look. He may very well be right, but he was leading this somewhere else. "However, there is a more immediate concern, and a more immediate circumstance accompanying that."
"So, we're back to the Fall Maiden, then…"
"Indeed. You will give me the identity of Amber's attacker, because as of tonight, your partner contains the rest of Amber's power. If you do not cooperate, you are inviting the blame for whatever may befall her."
Ozpin's expression was smug, but in a much more vicious way than his normal, coy smirk. He grinned like a man who had just won a chess match by using his opponent's own pieces against him, reveling in smug satisfaction.
I laughed in his face, and that grin twisted in confusion.
"That is your lynchpin?!" I scoffed indignantly, almost not even believing it. "You fucking fool, do you think I care if the woman who betrayed me is put in danger? If I had any way of getting back at her for this, what on Remnant makes you think that I wouldn't want to do it?"
Ozpin's smug grin soured quickly as concern and shock flashed across his face.
"I can assure you that Ms. Nikos played no active role in your incarceration, Mr. Arc."
"Yeah, I'm sure you could," I spat back. "What sort of idiot would I have to be to believe anything you say anymore? You have nothing. I have no reason to help you, trust you, or talk to you."
"You're condemning thousands to die if Salem's Maiden wins," Ozpin growled angrily, his patience having run out and desperation creeping into his voice. He was going back to his best point, his so-called moral authority, but it would get him nowhere with me.
"Am I? I've already killed one of her agents. Tell me, how much have you done to stop her?" I paused, giving Ozpin a shit-eating grin. "By my count, all you've done is capture the man who killed one of her operatives. How does that make me the guilty party here?"
Ozpin's grip tightened around his cane, and I prepared my Aura to resist any strike he wanted to throw, if only to frustrate him more that he wouldn't be able to make me hurt.
The blow never came, as Ozpin's scroll buzzed at his side. He seemed surprised by this, as if he had made himself unreachable except in the case of an emergency.
"Qrow?"
"Get up here, now! They're trying to bring the entire Arena down!"
"Qrow, what's going on?"
"White Fang. Dozens of them. I don't know how, but they've got full access to all of Atlas' and Amity's systems, and they set off bombs. Atlas airships are dropping out of the sky and they're trying to bring this entire thing down on Vale. We need everything we can get, Oz!"
Ozpin's eyes shot up to me, glaring at me hard to see if I had known about this. I hadn't, but I cursed the gods that my arms were chained down, or else I would be doing my best imitation of Raven's cocky shrug.
"I'm on my way."
Alone with my thoughts once again, though with the added distraction of picturing what was going on up above. If Cinder was already striking, then it is a good thing that I'm no longer betting everything on getting to Ozpin's Maiden before her. That said, it would be preferable to being a prisoner, trapped down here while who knows what was going on out there.
The sound of shattering glass from just down the corridor caught my attention, coming from the same direction that Ozpin had left, and from the same direction that the transfer had taken place earlier. The shattered glass was followed by a female voice, grumbling some word too softly to be understood, though it did convey frustration.
Then footsteps slowly grew louder.
And Cinder Fall walked around the corner, her eyes roving over me with a smugness to them that was echoed by a small smirk.
She walked over to where the security camera stood, before pulling out the power cable and letting it fall to the ground.
"They're going to notice the feed going dead," I called out flatly, hoping that she would be worried about being caught.
"I doubt it," she said, holding up a scroll to show that it was playing that same security feed still, despite the fact the camera was dead. She's looped the feedback. "As of right now, I own every camera, scroll, and computer in this school, as well as all those belonging to Atlas' military. Even if I didn't, they'd be too busy anyways."
"The White Fang?"
"That's what the news will report, I'm sure," she answered back coyly, grinning at her handiwork. "A Faunus supremacist who hacked his way into Atlas' command servers. It'd be a miracle if Amity itself doesn't crash into downtown Vale."
She caught the grimace on my face with a curious expression on her own.
"Oh, that's right, your whole thing was limiting collateral casualties, wasn't it?" she cooed, reveling in the implicit insult there: she had never intended to allow me to limit her anyways. "Perhaps it will help if I tell you that nothing you could have done could have stopped me."
"I could have killed you."
"Then you were a fool not to," she replied, silently admitting that I could have done something to prevent this. "I find it hard to believe that you learned mercy from your mentor…"
"You knew—?" I began to ask, confusion and surprise showing on my face.
"I learned at the same time as Ozpin," Cinder answered, holding her scroll up as explanation. "I know of her by reputation, and some fun stories I've heard in Mistral. Nothing about her having a Maiden, though; that is certainly interesting."
My blood ran cold. Cinder works for Salem, or has implied as much. If—when—Raven finds out that I am the reason that Salem knows about Spring, I'm a dead man.
I'm already a dead man, what with how I was utterly defenseless against a woman I had ambushed and humiliated once before, but somehow, I feared Raven more.
"Get on with it," I growled at Cinder, tired of being toyed around with.
"Oh, believe me, I'd love nothing more than to slit your throat and watch the life drain from your eyes, but I have a more…pragmatic use for you. How would you like to get out of that chair?"
I stared Cinder down, studying her to find out what her angle was. From what I could tell, she was smug and coy, but there didn't seem to be any deceit. I would have to be a fool to trust that, but that didn't change the fact that she appeared genuine.
"I'm listening."
"The fact that you're even in this situation means that you didn't give me up to Ozpin. Honestly, I struggle to think of any good reason why you wouldn't do that. We left on hostile terms, after all. Why wouldn't you given up your enemy to save yourself some trouble?" she asked, her voice making clear that she had an answer to it. "The only reason I can think of is spite. Spite towards Ozpin, in particular, and now that I know who trained you, that makes a lot of sense."
"What's your point?" I growled.
"That I can trust you to be spiteful. That if I release you, you're not going to oppose me by joining Ozpin. That I can safely trade your freedom for what I need."
"And what is that?"
"I've been a little busy this past hour, and Ozpin changed his Maiden. I need to know who."
I laughed bitterly.
This was too perfect.
"If you can figure out how to get me out of this, I'll do you one better than just finding her." I met Cinder's eyes, letting her see the rage that had been building up in mine. "I'll kill her myself."
Closing Thoughts: Have I mentioned before that I've been waiting to write this arc since I started creating an outline for this story?
The Battle of Beacon begins.
Cinder has implied that Adam made his move on against Amity.
It sure sounds like Roman is having fun with Atlas' airfleet.
Pyrrha was made Ozpin's Maiden(!), but now she has both Jaune and Cinder gunning for her.
Jaune's Aura is likely still low from his beating earlier, but Pyrrha's isn't going to be much better.
Cinder still has to get Jaune out of his restraints.
Yang has run off to Raven for help.
And then there's all the fighting that's going on outside.
Oh, yes. This is going to be fun.
Also, Ozpin's Arc-xposition here has been planned for a long while now. That line Oz mentions about having measures in place to stop the name Arc from being printed was added as proof of just how long. Should you happen to ever reread the story, maybe keep an eye out for that...
Comment of the Week: by a guest
"Shit's gotten real. Looking forward to next week's chapter.
In times like this, we gotta appreciate the fact that Ike has a frequent, consistent update schedule."
Why would you tempt fate like that? Do you want me to miss an upload or something?
Also, I'm pretty sure that the Discord would hunt me down and execute me if I missed a chapter now. We even found out that one of the guys lives, like, 15 mins up the road from me.
Guess we'll see...
Also, ZHsteven, I see you there, pumping up those review numbers. Atta boy.
