"I have the payout that you were looking for," Dr. Arthur Watts said, tossing several stacks of cash onto the desk of Vacuo's very own Rosalinde Varna. "I'm keeping my sum. You aren't going to see a single penny of it."
The woman scowled at him. "You aren't particularly helpful, are you?"
"I don't work to be helpful, I work to get a good cut," He haughtily replied. "And I risked my neck going back into Atlas. You could show a little more gratitude."
She sent him a dark look. "Are you sure you want to be saying something like that to me?"
"Unlike my feelings towards Annabella Sassler, I am not afraid of you," He said, crossing his arms. "You are merely a puppet in a much larger scheme, and I would go so far as to say that you've known it all this time, too."
Rosalinde Varna pursed her lips and felt her violet eyes narrow. She took in his appearance for a moment, checking for weapons he may have been trying to conceal, and then tossed her hair back over her shoulder.
"You severely underestimate who I am," She said, pronouncing every syllable with menacing precision. "I could kill you right now, if I so wanted. All I would have to do would be to call my guards up and…pop! Your head would be nothing more than a token on my wall."
He took a small step back. "Was that a threat?"
"You and I both know it is," She said, slowly standing up and leaning ever so slightly forward against her desk. "You see, you are nothing more or less than a disgraced Atlesian scientist with a less than reputable history when it comes to following ethics or the law. You are disposable simply because, like most people, you are replaceable. Nobody gives a damn who you are."
"That's where you're wrong," Watts evenly replied, despite every nerve in his body wanting to run. "I am far more valuable than you realize to the Queen, for instance."
Varna's eyes widened briefly and she had hoped (if in vain) that he wouldn't notice.
"Ah," He said, smirking and clicking his tongue. "So, you did forget about her power."
"No one is more capable than I am," She hissed. "I'll be just fine."
"I wouldn't push my luck, if I were you," He laughed dryly. "Why, I wouldn't even act as if I have any semblance of luck at all."
Varna took in a sharp breath. "Is that so?"
"It is," He replied, enjoying every second of her discomfort and fear. "I am, in many ways, a...backdoor into the Atlesian government. I designed Mantle's security system back in the 80s, you know. I could just as easily hack it...I just need to get a person or two in my pocket. That won't be easy, but I figure it's possible. You, on the other hand, are the effective ruler of a disjointed kingdom that is constantly at war within itself and with other parts of the world. Believe me when I say that we don't need nor care about the chaos you manipulate control over."
She frowned. "You're being short sighted, Arthur."
"And you are being intentionally blind," He said, drawing out the words like he would draw blood. "Rosalinde."
She flinched. "I have a reason to kill you now. If you get in my way, I swear that I will cut you up limb by limb and hang your head from the city gates."
"Graphic, if I were to asses," He smirked. "You really are as psychotic as they say, now aren't you?"
"Psychotic is the wrong word," She angrily informed him. "Dangerous and cunning, on the other hand, would be far more accurate."
Watts scoffed. "Then why, pray tell, did you need me to get you some of the Ciel family's wealth? You aren't trapping them."
"I agree," She said, her voice low. "But I am trapping you. There is no way out of this for you, because you have now shown your face in a kingdom that wants to lock you behind bars until eternity."
Watts glowered. "You play quite the dangerous game, don't you, Varna?"
She laughed. "Yes, I do," She said with a smile. "But, at the end of the day, it's what I have to do in order to be the queen that I have always been destined to be."
"Here he is," The guard said, shoving the former Torchwick patriarch into the chair opposite the primly suited Annabella Sassler, who eyed him critically and kept her hands folded in her lap. "He never has been particularly cooperative, so we'll handle him as necessary for your protection, Madame President."
"Thank you, Carson," She said shortly.
She watched them tie the man down and slap an aura cuff onto his wrist before they stepped back into the corner of the room. Behind her were three of her personal bodyguards, all of whom were ready to kill if the man before them made an attempt on the president's life. Sassler took in her surroundings, feeling less and less comfortable by the second. The room was bright, almost disturbingly so, and it almost made her sick. She hated what it was doing to her. She was becoming less focused on what she had come to do and, instead, felt preoccupied by fear. It was something she had not felt in a long time, and the security that she had always known was slipping between her fingers. As time went by, she was all the more certain that - while she would and could never publicly admit it - they had already lost their grip on the solitude and peace so many of them had always known.
"These last few days have been quite damning for you," She finally said, addressing the man before her. He only scowled in reply, and so she went on without delay. "What was discovered in your own home is rather disturbing, and there is evidence to suggest that you engaged in such experiments on your own daughter, Colonel Schnee."
The man snorted. "Is that not what I was convicted for in the first place?"
"You were convicted and sentenced to life in prison for multiple counts of murder and conspiracy," A guard informed him. "President Sassler is referring to the discovery of your...forays into human experimentation."
He raised an eyebrow and nastily turned to Sassler.
"I have to ask," He said. "How did you all manage to discover such a thing? I was quite discreet about it from the very beginning."
"Your old home was investigated," Sassler said shortly. "And in the attic were the remains of a young woman that appeared to have been one of your victims."
He grinned. "Ah. I see. Yes, my wife and I were heavily involved in that...alongside Arthur Watts, actually. He was a great help. Is he still alive?"
"Watts is dead," Another guard told him. "He died very recently outside of the kingdom. We received that confirmation from the Valerian government, which is certain that he died in their borders, about halfway to Vacuo."
"Hmmph," He said, moving to cross his arms and swearing when he recalled that they were still tied down. "God damn it, what the fuck is wrong with you people? You are keeping an old man in jail simply because he was trying to create his Lusus Naturae -"
"Alongside Merlot, too," Sassler said disdainfully. "I came to speak to you, Torchwick, because you are the former patriarch of a highly influential family. The DOJ is going to commence its own investigations, but I wanted to hear some of the information myself."
"And you are about to be sorely disappointed," He replied. "Because I have no intention of telling you my secrets. That is the point of having secrets, you know. To keep them quiet and to take them to the grave."
"No one actually keeps a secret," Sassler snapped. "Two people can only keep a secret if both of them are dead. You are under the jurisdiction of your kingdom's government, and you are going to answer our questions."
"And if I don't?" Torchwick began to laugh almost uncontrollably, wheezing slightly with his greyed hair flying about. "What more can you do? I'm never leaving prison, and, frankly, you all can't execute me. I don't have to do a damn thing, not unless I want to. Brace yourselves for what is to come, because you are all going to be praying, soon enough, for mercy that you will never see."
"If you have enough money and know where someone lives, there is plenty you can do about them," Ronnie Ciel said, pouring his sister another glass of wine. "Although I understand why you wouldn't want to take positive action against her."
"She is my step-daughter, regardless of whatever I feel about it," Emmeline said, sighing heavily and reaching for the glass. "Honestly, I don't know how I feel about her. I wouldn't say I wish her ill, but I certainly don't care much for her. The timing is just too damn perfect."
"There's no denying that," Spencer muttered. "I can't help but wonder about what she could possibly be after."
"Money," Ronnie said immediately. "That's what everyone, ultimately, wants. Money will give her connections, which will give her power, and, given enough time, all of the influence that a person could ever want in life."
Emmeline sent him a dark look. "Most of us aren't power-hungry assholes, Ronnie."
Spencer laughed. "She's right," He told him, despite the glare his brother was giving him. "The rest of us have families and little kids to take care of."
Ronnie buried his face in his hands. "We all know that it's more important to have power. If the Ciel family doesn't continue to amass power, we'll all -"
"For God's sake, Ronnie, the rest of us don't want that at all," Emmeline snapped. "To be perfectly honest, I want things to be more normal. When Emmett and I didn't have to deal with a kid he didn't even know he had, when Alice wasn't batshit insane, when you weren't breaking the law to keep Cate, Karissa, and Cristal out of jail."
Ronnie looked up in abject horror at her words, and he felt his stomach sink when he realized that Karissa had tiredly stepped into the room and was staring at him in utter disbelief. Ronnie said nothing while Spencer motioned for his wife to sit down and loosely took her hand. Ronnie still didn't say anything when he realized that Emmeline was still scowling at him.
"I did what needed to be done," He finally said. "And destroying the records wasn't that bad -"
"Wasn't that bad?" Karissa exclaimed, then pausing, not wanting to wake the kids. "You destroyed permanent government records because of the PENNY Project?"
"If things go awry, it's a failsafe," Ronnie said calmly, although even he knew that he was struggling to keep his temper. "I took a precaution so that none of you end up culpable for -"
"Do you have any idea just how many federal mandates that steps over?" Karissa adjusted her glasses, looking more exhausted than ever. "Well, do you? Because, by the sound of it, you have absolutely no idea what you have done or why it's completely -"
"Protecting family isn't wrong," Ronnie said, trying not to yell. "What would be wrong would be if Polendina gets away with her bullshit, if she gets away with fucking -"
"You're out of your mind," Spencer said disdainfully. "Honestly, I thought you were the most uptight about the law of all of us."
"Evidently, I'm not," Ronnie said, seething. "I did what was right -"
"That would have been for the rest of us to judge," Karissa said darkly. "It was never in your jurisdiction."
"Does anyone else know about this, too?" Emmeline put in, never more angry with her brother. "Eliza, for instance?"
Ronnie hesitated. "Well, Elizabeth -"
"Oh my God," Emmeline said, horrified and knowing that the look on his face said it all. "She was involved in all of this from the start, wasn't she?"
Ronnie nodded. "Yes."
"You roped in the chair of the security council?" Spencer was in shock, and could barely process everything happening around them. "What were you thinking?"
"I was thinking of the future," Ronnie said, standing up angrily and gesturing to their surroundings. "Do you all really think we'll be able to manipulate this time of peace forever? More than likely, shit is about to hit the fan and the Vytal Festival in March is going to be the start. By September, I can almost guarantee you all that things will not be the same and we all need to be prepared for the worst. I took action to handle what's to come...and it is beyond me that the rest of you are being so willfully ignorant to the danger that we face."
"I fucking killed her," Alice Schnee said, curled up on the couch in her and Caitlin's apartment, looking half-dead. Glynda tensed and shared a nervous look with James, who set a hand protectively over her knee while Emmett stood up and pulled a bottle of liquor out of the cabinet. He knew that, when his sister got home late that night from work, she wouldn't care about him having some of her booze. "Or, more accurately, I paid off my dickwad brother alongside Ronnie and Madeline so he would kill her. He hid under her car...killed her with his bare hands, practically. Framed it perfectly, too."
An awful silence fell over them and was only highlighted by Emmett staring at the bottle of wine in his hands and taking a short swig from it.
"You were involved in an assassination?" Glynda finally said, completely incredulous. "That's ridiculous, Alice, you have to be -"
"I'm not joking," She said shortly. "Scarlatina was out to get me and ruined my career...she deserved what she got, although I'm not going to lie and say this is easy for me. It's not a fun realization, knowing that you have blood on your hands just like your parents."
"I wouldn't compare you to your parents," James said. "But, to implicate yourself in something like this is...well, it's shocking, to say the very least."
"I just have to ask," Emmett put in, eyeing his sister-in-law critically. "Since when did you decide you wanted to be like Ashlynn?"
Alice turned to him in surprise. "What?"
"My sister, Ashlynn," Emmett reminded her. "The only member of the family to go completely insane and disappear as a result."
Alice sighed. "I don't think I'm quite like her."
"That's good to know," Emmett said, setting the wine aside and sitting down on the arm of one of the chairs across from her and next to Glynda and James. "I'd hate to see you go that way. It'd be a damn waste of your abilities."
"Of my abilities?" Alice scowled. "I swear, if you are talking about my powers as the Summer Maiden -"
"I promise I'm not," Emmett said, putting his hands up in surrender. "I'm just saying that you're being reinstated soon and it'd be a pity if you threw that all away because you want to tell the whole world that you were involved in a conspiracy."
"He's right," James agreed, albeit somewhat reluctantly. "And, whatever the case, evidence has surfaced in the last few weeks that Scarlatina may have been involved with handing certain information to the White Fang, something that Cristal pointed out is treason."
Alice bit her lip. "I know that."
"Then why are you dwelling on it?" Glynda gently pressed. "You aren't going to be able to change what happened or your involvement in it. The best thing you can do is try to move on."
"Move on?" Alice repeated, completely incredulous at the thought. "You think that I am capable of moving on from anything in life?"
Glynda raised an eyebrow. "You've done everything you possibly could -"
"I have not," Alice snapped, starting to cry against her will. "I am perpetually stuck because of what I've been through. All of those experiments my own fucking parents did on me, and then, of course, how pissed my wife is at me for what I did. How can I move on when I know that my wife is still upset and can't even bring herself to come to terms with knowing about what I did?"
"Because you're still here," Glynda told her, if somewhat irritably. "You've survived so much: are you really going to throw all of that away?"
Alice fell silent and glanced to Emmett, who sighed, twisting his hair in his hands.
"I don't think any of us are okay with what you did," He finally said. "And none of us think it was right but we love you enough to protect you. I know my sister will defend you to the bitter end...no matter how upset she is with you because of this."
Alice swallowed hard. "And if this all goes to hell?"
"Things are getting better," He replied, then chuckling for a moment. "Give it seven, eight years and everything will be normal again. Hell, they'll probably be better."
The time that stood between them, in that moment, took the lightheartedness that had entered the air as a challenge: a challenge to prove them all wrong.
