February 3rd
City Of Atlas
Atlas
Downtown
1:35 PM
"I told my dad to spill hot coffee on Jacques," Genevieve Sieben said, leaning backwards over the couch in one of the many sitting rooms in the Katt-Ciel's expansive mansion. "He told me that, since he's the Schnee family butler, he can't do shit like that. Which is too bad, because it would have been hilarious."
Ivy raised an eyebrow upon her teammate reaching over, rather precariously, to pull a fried chicken wing out of the small bucket she had put on the floor. She, Devin, and Grace all grimaced upon Genevieve nonchalantly starting to eat as if she had never seen food before in her life.
"You're so tiny," Genevieve remarked, poking Ivy with her chicken leg. "You're pregnant, too. Come on, aren't you worried about the kiddo?"
Grace socked her in the arm. "Don't be insensitive."
"It's fine," Ivy said, chewing at the inside of her cheek. "I probably should eat more than I do, I just can't bring myself to, some days."
"Because of your sister?" Grace said gently.
Ivy sighed. "In part."
"I don't understand her," Devin Katt admitted, rubbing his neck. "She's always had a black-and-white world view, but…"
"Well, we haven't had any good conversations since the Fall," Ivy said bitterly. "Which is funny, considering that Samara and her might as well be the Joker and –"
Ivy cut herself off upon the double doors opening at the other end of the room and Ronnie Ciel stepping in, an eyebrow raised. A nervous silence befell them and the tension did not abate even when Rosella appeared behind him and set a gentle hand to his shoulder.
"Ivory," Ronnie said shortly. "What are you doing here?"
"Spending time with my teammates," She said, her voice almost cold. "But –"
"Of course," Ronnie said, matching her coolness. "How are you doing?"
"Ronnie," Rosella started, a warning note to her voice.
"Ella," He said, turning towards her with his voice low. "She may very well have committed –"
"Treason?" Rosella hissed, drawing him out into the hallway. "Are you out of your damn –"
The doors slammed shut behind them and Ivy flinched, staring at her hands.
"Sorry," Devin said, embracing her awkwardly for a moment. "My dad's a bit –"
"Of a self-righteous bitch?" Genevieve suggested, biting into another leg of fried chicken.
Devin shrugged. "It's kind of a Ciel family trait. Dad's not all bad, but, at the same time…"
Ivy felt her heart sink when she noticed that his tail had dropped and was flicking sadly.
"He's got his own ideas of justice," Devin finally said. "And he wants there to be unbending law. No room for debate. If you broke the law, in his mind, you deserve to rot in prison. I doubt he realizes that you never broke the law or even bent it, but…"
"I get it," Ivy said numbly. "I've been getting a lot of that the last few months."
"And Emmett can suck it," Devin bitterly put in. "Dad's justified since he's supposed to be semi-impartial because he's the fucking Atlesian president, but Emmett definitely isn't."
Genevieve laughed. "What'd your uncle do to piss ya off so much?"
"He took dad's side," Devin replied. "And, in this case, dad's side is the wrong side. I'm on uncle Spencer's side. He gave you a job, after all."
Ivy smiled weakly. "I'm just glad I'll be able to bring my baby with me to work."
"Speaking of which," Grace Wile said playfully. "Do you know if you're having a little girl or a little boy?"
Ivy scowled. "I'm not telling you!"
"Oh, come on…" She protested. "We're your teammates! You can tell us anything!"
Ivy eyed them all for a moment and then rolled her eyes.
"Okay, fine," She said, giving in. "I'm having a daughter."
"Ooooo…" Grace grinned. "Got a name for her yet?"
"Actually, yes," Ivy tiredly rubbed her neck. "Hope Mary Ironwood-Goodwitch."
"I bet Glynda and James are still in shock about the notion of being grandparents in May," Genevieve remarked, then grimacing and thinking better of it. "Sorry."
"It's…okay," Ivy said. "I know it's weird for them…and I know they're having a hard time reconciling their own feelings about it when my brother is just excited and my sister is pissed."
"When isn't she pissed?" Genevieve shrugged. "She'll probably get over it and, if she doesn't, then she'll have to remember that you're her sister and you're stuck with each other."
Ivy managed a half laugh. "I suppose that's fair."
"You'll be okay," Grace told her. "You still have your teammates, you know. If you need babysitters –"
"Hey, I don't know a damn thing about kids!" Devin protested. "What if I gave the kid the wrong snack?"
"Fine, you can watch," Grace sent him a semi-patronizing look. "But, really, Devin, how dumb are you?"
"Very," He replied. "That's why I drink carrot water."
Genevieve shuddered. "And that's why I think you're sacrilegious."
Ivy smirked. "Don't you mean that's why we think he's a weirdo?"
Devin glared at her for a moment but then burst out into laughter, glad his teammates were all happy for the first time since Beacon Academy had fallen months before.
March 9th
Schnee Family Manor
City Of Atlas
Atlas
Downtown
7:37 PM
"You can't be serious!" Jacques said, glaring at the James and Emmeline who both sighed in varied degrees of exasperation. "You and Elizabeth have gone mad if you think that this is a good idea!"
"Even the DFACR is in favor of this motion," James replied as calmly as he could manage. "Which you know full well is the single most -"
Jacques pursed his lips. "If Elizabeth hadn't had the support of Kiara Davis, then I would still have the favour of that department -"
"You were lucky to have gotten acquitted in your trial because there wasn't enough solid evidence to link you to the corrupt members of the DFACR," Emmeline haughtily reminded him and Jacques only glared at his sister in law. "And, this time, the DFACR is of the same opinion on the current matter as the DFAMA and the DLNLE."
"Which rarely happens," Jacques snobbily pointed out. "Seems to me like Elizabeth might have more influence than we all thought she did. It's a shame, she's rather biased against my company because she has a personal vendetta against me. For some reason…"
"I can't speak for Elizabeth Morell, but, if I had to take a wild guess, I can imagine that she has a quote un quote personal vendetta against you because she doesn't like the way you treat your wife, daughters, and son," James told him irritably. "And you know that I agree with that assessment. I don't know how true this is, but, according to Emmett, you removed Weiss's status as heiress because you were angry at her for -"
"She almost killed that woman -" Jacques began to protest though the younger man quickly cut him off.
"No, she didn't," James said, attempting to remain as level as possible. "And what happened was an accident. She didn't intend to summon that grimm and -"
"You act as if I've forgotten that not only my company has suffered but my family!" Jacques snapped and James sighed as the man broke a glass against the wall in anger. "All you've done is -"
"You need to control yourself!" James told him, his voice rising.
"You're talking to me about control?" Jacques demanded. "Do you even hear what you're saying?"
"I am basing everything on my reports from your daughter," James replied, hoping to snap some sense into him even though it wasn't entirely true.
While he had several reports from Winter that were concerning, there were others that confirmed them and, not only had they been jarring to the DFAMA and DLNLE, they had also turned heads internationally as well - specifically in regards to Valerian President Cerise and even Rosalinde Varna. With the threat of war still looming darkly over all of the kingdoms, no one was willing to take any unnecessary risks and Elizabeth was growing more and more distrustful of the Government Council Of The Republic Of Mistral with each passing day. Despite not trusting that council to take action to remove Leonardo, something she fiercely believed was necessary due to his connexions to 'the enemy' as she had put it, the Mistrali Council had not taken her seriously due to her struggle to properly explain what she meant by that without revealing the troubling information that she had shared with President Ciel about Leonardo's questionable loyalties.
"A daughter you stole!" Jacques shouted, removing him from James thoughts and, irritably, he responded.
"Oh, we are not getting into that again!"
"Oh, yes," Jacques began, his anger at his continued slip of control showing through despite knowing that neither James, Emmeline, or Elizabeth had ever held stock with his insinuations and pushes in the kingdom's laws. "We have far more pressing matters to discuss, starting with your apparent lunacy!"
"Jacques!" James started sharply, shaking his head and sighing heavily. "Winter is one of my best. If she's telling me there's a threat in Mistral, then I am not going to take that news lightly. She's been there for weeks, people are mobilizing, sudden spikes in weapons and Dust trades. Someone is about to make a play, and I do not trust Leo to stop them."
The older man scoffed. "You've never trusted anyone other than yourself!"
"And for good reason!" James shouted, slamming his fist onto the desk. "If Oz had just listened to me from the start…"
Jacques rolled his eyes. "You need...to get a grip."
"That's exactly what I'm doing," James informed him, still irritable. "Our people need protection. By this time next week, the kingdom of Atlas will be officially closing its borders. No one in, no one out. Not without the council's permission."
Leaning forward, Jacques lowered his voice to an otherwise intimidating whisper. "You mean without your permission."
James narrowed his eyes and met the older man's gaze. "And if that becomes the case, I would think you'd want to be on my good side."
"You sound pettier than Emmett," Jacques commented and Emmeline groaned. "I really didn't think that the United Kingdom Of Atlas could grow anymore...well, it doesn't matter. I suppose that I was wrong. The removal of those seventeen council members in the DFACR -"
"Was done because you were paying them off," Emmeline reminded him darkly. "Which, even though there was not enough evidence to convict, would have made you guilty of a high crime and/or misdemeanor."
"I did nothing of the sort," Jacques said, although both generals saw past his front. "I have more self-restraint than that and, I assure you, anything Emmett has said about my self-control is completely false and slanderous."
"On the contrary," Emmeline said with a glare. "Emmett and I have come close to obtaining custody of your children more than once because of evidence we were able to provide the court system of abuse. If I'm not mistaken, you've been denied the right to taking custody of our kids before as a result of these proven allegations. I hope you know that the countersuit from ten years ago was a bad decision on your part."
"You and Emmett doesn't know how to raise a child," Jacques replied. "Neither do James and that Valerian woman -"
"Glynda," James hissed, angered by the man's words. "And, frankly, neither of us have ever touched our children in anger or put them down so harshly that -"
"Isn't your eldest suicidal?" Jacques said with his gaze narrowing, scoffing when he saw the look on James's face at the comment. "Pity, such a weakling, I suppose. A good slap or two would have shocked some sense into her -"
"She was stronger than that," James told him, restraining himself from shouting. "She struggled, but she is learning to move forward. She alone has kept herself alive."
"And now she's more unstable than before," Jacques rolled his eyes and turned on Emmeline once again. "But, more to the point, if you and Emmett think that –"
"Shut up!" Emmeline snapped, her patience worn thin. "I don't condone everything my husband does or has done, but he at least recognizes when he's done wrong. You are utterly convinced that you are always correct and -"
"And you should know that he damn near broke my nose the other day!" Jacques shouted. "And he only did so because he was angered about Weiss losing her status as heiress. The Schnee Dust Company and its affairs are none of his concern and never have been. If Nicholas had wanted it to be, he would have given the company to him -"
"I thought that you spent years manipulating Nicholas," James said, cutting across him. "You kept trying to convince him that you were the best person to run the company in his absence as he grew more and more ill towards the end of his life. Didn't you force him to write the inheritance of the company to you into his will when he was just out of surgery for the tumors in his lungs?"
"I never did such a thing!" Jacques insisted though he was lying. "And for you to suggest that -"
The door swung open and Elizabeth Morell stormed in, her face dark and her heels clicking as she approached Jacques and set down a large file in front of him.
"Care to explain this?" She hissed.
Glancing at the file, Jacques's eyes went wide in genuine fear. "Where did you -"
"I had the DFACR and the DLNLE...look into some of your business deals over the years," Elizabeth informed him, flipping to one of the more incriminating pages. "And I would like an explanation for the taxes and payouts - hush money, perhaps? - that you've paid to several questionable groups in, not only the minor kingdoms, Vale, Vacuo, and Mistral."
Jacques let out a low growl of irritation. "I have no idea what you are talking about."
"Do you?" Elizabeth said with a raised eyebrow. "Because these are all directly linked to the bribes you paid to the DFACR members who -"
"Would you care to explain all of this, Madame Morell?" Jacques replied angrily. "Because I doubt you legally obtained this information."
"Ha," Elizabeth said mirthlessly. "I can assure you that I've been working on finding this information for months and followed complete due process of law when making my requests. Now I'd like to remind you of something," Elizabeth narrowed her gaze and leaned towards him, her hands tightly on the edge of his desk. "No one, not me, not James, not Emmett, not Emmeline, not even you - no one is above the law. So, if I were you, I would recommend hiring a good lawyer, because this is not going to disappear for you any time soon."
March 16th
Washington City
United Kingdom of Atlas
Downtown
8:29 PM
"I don't like this, Oz," Cristal Schnee said, pacing across their bedroom, her dark hair in complete disarray. "I know we're in danger, but we can't hide from her forever. What if we lose all of our leads or, worse, what if Ashlynn finds us all and pulls us into –"
"It's going to be fine," He assured her, running a hand through his own disheveled grey hair. "Chrissy," He said gently, embracing her. "It's going to be okay. Nothing is going to happen to us or the kids and, more to the point –"
"She's never going to stop, Oz," Cristal said softly. "Not unless we actually manage to seal her."
"And we will," Ozpin murmured, tucking a stray strand of her dark brown curls behind her ear. "I promise, everything will be okay. She's not going to hurt you or the kids."
"Either way, I'm stuck as the Winter Maiden," Cristal brushed tears away from her soft grey eyes behind her glasses. "And that is always going to make me a target, especially if people find out about…"
She trailed off, thinking she may have seen something move in one of the wall panels that connected their room to the small library next to it, but dismissed it as her anxiety. What the career prosecutor didn't know (and neither did her husband) was that their daughter, two of their nieces, and one of their nephews were eavesdropping from their perfectly concealed positions. Samara was comfortably seated in one of the bookshelves with a pillow under her head and a blanket wrapped tightly around herself while, below her, Lysithea was also curled up and flipping through a rather large volume, per usual. Matt was sitting near the bottom of the sliding ladder, and, finally, Annetta had crammed herself against the doorway to listen and watch every word and movement her parents made. Carleigh had taught her all the tricks of their house years ago, when they had all still been young kids.
Carleigh had been ten when they had finally moved out of the city of Atlas and into Washington city, which was just thirty-five miles south of the Atlesian capital. Their mother took the train into work every day at a time much earlier than she had before, but they were able to live in a much bigger house and with far more luxury than they would have been able to otherwise. It had been a small sacrifice they had been more than willing to make. The house had been an older one, hence all of its passages and secret rooms that the kids had discovered within the first few years of living there. Carleigh had taught Annetta, Nathan, and Oliver all of the tricks in the book (and, yes, she actually had kept a book of all of the rooms she had found in the house) which meant they knew the place better than either of their parents did.
When the kids had been young, both Cristal and Ozpin had been simply relieved that the kids were easily entertained and weren't constantly begging to watch TV or play on their parents' scrolls. What they hadn't realized until it was too late to stop them (or figure out how they were sneaking around) was that the kids were preoccupied with becoming what Carleigh went on to call "bad little bitches." It was too late to stop them when they figured out how the kids were getting around, or hiding sweets, or pranking each other and, so, they let things be. It had never crossed their minds that the kids would become masters of subterfuge (mainly in eavesdropping) and that they had known the truth about the world they lived in well before their parents had decided it was the right time to tell them.
"They won't," Ozpin assured her. "We're not going to tell the world about this. It would cause mass panic, and it would…"
"Aren't we already in panic?" She weakly countered. "I don't think either of us have so much as left the house more than once in a month since the Fall. We've been hiding. How are we not already in panic?"
Silence fell over them for a moment and, then, they began to speak so softly that Annetta gave up on trying to listen to her parents and sighed heavily, turning towards her cousins.
"This is fun," Samara said dryly, biting off the end of a red vine. "Daddy was right. Shit really has gotten that bad. Terrible, actually."
"You're understating," Matt told her. "Bad was when Yang and that Mercury guy got in a fight. We passed both bad and terrible a long time ago."
"Ain't that the truth…" Annetta muttered.
Lysithea let out a small yelp and then clasped her hand over her mouth, hoping that her aunt and uncle hadn't heard, when Annetta threw a pillow at her head.
"Hey!" She protested quietly. "What the hell was that for?"
"Got anything to say?" Annetta asked with a smirk.
Lysithea shook her head. "Just that I hope we'll all be okay."
Samara sighed. "Isn't that what we're all hoping for, at this point?"
