June 15th
Mistral
3:21 PM
"Oh, hell yeah!" Yang yelled, pumping her fists in the air and jumping off the couch onto her knees, the string-less plastic guitar in her hands. "Super solo!"
She started thrashing about like a madman and kept smacking the buttons while Ruby beat the faux plastic drums wildly and Weiss, beside her, awkwardly tapped on the string-less, plastic bass guitar.
"I love this song!" Nora shrieked, entering the room with Ren and Jaune. "It's –"
"Isn't this the Atlesian 'fuck you world' song?" Jaune asked, glancing to Ren who merely shrugged.
"That would be the one that's chorus screams: Atlas! Fuck yeah!" Yang screamed at him. "This isn't –"
Weiss suddenly paused the game upon a portal opening up at the other end of the room. A nervous moment passed in anticipation and then, first, Raven flew out of the portal. Qrow came into the room upon hearing a crash and glowered at his sister when she landed and shifted back. She was followed no more than thirty seconds later by Emmett and Emmeline (who looked rather disgruntled) and Samara, who was sulking. By now, everyone in the small house had come into the room but they could not determine why the portal did not dissipate. Then, after far too long, Ozpin and Cristal stepped out as well and Annetta let out an excited shriek, relieved more than anything else to see her parents. She and her teammates were the only ones beside Qrow, and Glynda and James (who themselves had only arrived back on the twelfth) though, who were happy to see them. Ruby looked suddenly awkward, Yang took on the appearance of an angry rottweiler, and Weiss merely scowled at her uncle.
"Raven," Qrow said, his voice taking on an increasingly dark edge. "So: you took whatever deal it was that the Atlesians threw your way?"
Raven matched his glare. "I had to make a decision to protect my people. This has nothing to do with doing what you deem the right thing, and it certainly has nothing to do with supporting Ozpin."
As she said this, she turned towards the man and he did not meet her harrowing gaze.
"If you guys don't mind, we have a song to finish," Yang said, breaking the silence and getting odd looks for everyone as she turned off the pause from the game and began to metalcore scream the last several lines of the song they had been playing. "And y'all be sorry you ever messed with the greatest kingdom, 'cause we'll put a boot in your ass! It's the Atlesian way!"
Glynda sighed and shook her head, looking more than a little exasperated while James laughed a little and Emmett nearly fell over. Emmeline caught him, and Cristal rolled her eyes at her brother. Ozpin seemed more than a little confused by everything happening around them, something that was not helped by Yang thrashing about like she were at a metal concert. Samara and Lysithea were merely observing, thoroughly amused. Annetta was speaking softly and rapidly with her parents, which ended quickly upon Cristal tightly embracing her daughter and murmuring things about how she was relieved nothing had happened to her. Matt had gotten in on the action and had taken the drumsticks from Ruby, who was all but hanging off of Weiss.
"What next?" Yang eagerly asked, whipping around to look at everyone else.
"I have to ask," Emmett said, still trying to regain his composure. "What compelled you to want to scream that song?"
Yang grinned like a madman. "Umm…it's fucking awesome?"
"I hate that song," Glynda muttered.
"Guilty!" Emmett exclaimed, playfully swatting his teammate in the arm. "I probably played it so much it almost drove you crazy."
Glynda scowled. "After the attacks in 2001, country music went from the light-hearted drinking songs that you used to scream around campus in a shopping cart to songs about how Atlas will blow the shit out of the rest of the world while wearing flags as capes and flipping everyone off."
Emmett chuckled. "That is pretty accurate, all things considered."
"You're exaggerating a little," Emmeline said, raising an eyebrow off the look James senet her. "What? She definitely is –"
"She actually did sum it up pretty well," He told her. "Glyns has hated country music since the girls were born, and it had nothing to do with them."
"So, I have to ask," Qrow said, taking a long swig from his flask. "Being serious, now that Yang and Schnee are done being dumbasses –"
"Hey!" Yang protested. "I'm nothing like Emmett!"
"Says the girl who was shrieking about Atlas," Qrow snorted. "But, hey, I don't make the rules around here."
Yang, feeling particularly childish, stuck her tongue out at her uncle and tried not to smile when she saw her mother kick him in the back of the knees, causing him to fall over.
"The hell was that for, Raven?" Qrow snapped, still on the floor and looking particularly irritable. "You still on one 'bout Tai or are you just still an insufferable –"
"Just be glad I showed up," She said, storming off down the hall.
Qrow scowled at everyone left in the room and waved at the kids with his arm, suggesting, rather bluntly based off his look, to get out. They did so to varying degrees of grudgingly. Nora pouted and grabbed Ren by the hand. He was temporarily startled but didn't protest much to her dragging him off with her, presumably to go into town where he would have to dissuade her from shoplifting coffee or candy or any number of things. Jaune awkwardly followed after them, almost getting knocked over by Yang, who tore after them, evidently having enjoyed the last time they had all gone out. Ruby and Weiss shared a look, for just a moment, and then, with almost perfect grace and poise, stepped out of the room with an arm wrapped around the other. Team SAML was the most reluctant, and all four of them stayed exactly where they had been, much to Qrow's annoyance. Matt Ciel was sitting on the top of the couch, his arms crossed, and, near him, Lysithea was calmly staring at the ceiling. Samara was sitting on one of the many bean bags with a look that suggested she was ready to fight anyone who wanted to fight her, and Annetta was all but clinging to her mother, who was stroking her hair affectionately, deeply worried for her younger daughter.
"I said get out," Qrow said angrily.
Cristal pointedly stepped on his foot with her heel, and he howled in pain.
"Bitch," He coughed out.
"Qrow," Ozpin started, a faint warning note to his voice. "If you –"
"Your wife just all but stabbed me in the foot!" Qrow rubbed his throbbing foot, glaring at Cristal. "If anyone's got a problem here, it's her and not me."
Emmeline snorted. "That's rich."
"Oh, I'm sorry General Ciel," Qrow said, rolling his eyes. "I forgot that you have the final say around here…or do you and James have that only in Atlas?"
James and Emmeline both tensed at the remark.
"That isn't how that works," James said calmly, sending Qrow a look that suggested he stop before he said something he regretted. "The Atlesian Council is fundamentally built on a set of checks and balances between the legislature, executive departments, and the courts, which –"
"Tell that to Ronnie Ciel, then," Qrow pushed himself off the ground and pulled out his flask, taking another drink from it. "I don't think he knows that. Morell either."
"What are you talking about?" Ozpin asked, glancing to his wife for a moment and, noticing her tension, gave her a loving squeeze and pressed a soft kiss to her cheek.
"I mean that he did somethin' with the Amity satellite and didn't tell us about it," Qrow gruffly replied, turning to Matt who had been shifting uncomfortably the whole time. "You happen to know something about that because of your mom or does Karissa not let anything slip?"
Matt bit his lip. "She just said they launched it early and that it wasn't a big deal…and dad says she did the right thing supporting that decision since we're preparing to…"
He trailed off and immediately stared down at his hands, fearing he had said too much.
"Does Karissa know?" Qrow said after a moment, looking at James. "Well?"
"After Beacon fell, I needed people I knew I could trust," He said, sighing. "And, with Oz not being in a position to guide us, I had to come up with a new approach to handling Salem."
Qrow turned on Glynda, who had a hand lightly resting over James' shoulder. He barely even met her gaze before he realized that she, too, had been involved.
"I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Emmeline and Emmett are roped in on whatever the hell this is too," Qrow said, scowling at all of them. "So, what's –"
"We're going to tell everyone the truth," Cristal bit off suddenly. "Without people knowing what we're really up against, what is spewing on everything, we can't do a damn thing."
Ozpin looked almost incredulous. "Are you serious?" He said. "Chrissy, this could –"
"If we'd been forthright from the start, it would have been a hell of a lot easier to manage what happened at Beacon," Emmeline cut across him, and Cristal seemed almost relieved for it. "To be honest, it could have even been prevented."
"You're all out of your minds," Qrow said, glaring at everyone in the room except Ozpin. "How is it that you all can turn your backs on Ozpin –"
"They're…right," He said quietly. "After all this time…after so many people have lost their lives…I can't justify it anymore…not without continuing to lie."
Qrow shook his head. "Well," He said, more annoyed with the Ciels and James than anyone else. "What else is new?"
"Cinder's dead," Glynda said, briefly closing her eyes for a moment and activating her powers. "I'm, now, the Fall Maiden."
A heavy silence fell over them and then lightning struck from the storm outside. It startled all of them, but only hurt one. While Annetta slowly sunk into one of the beanbags, feeling slightly dizzy as a psychic moment began to overtake her, the room fell quiet and everything seemed normal for a moment. Emmett had, on impulse, pulled Emmeline tightly into him and was rubbing her back and whispering to her almost incomprehensibly while Glynda took a small step back, fearing for a moment that she had done something, and James gently took her hand. One of the windows was still half-open, and Cristal moved quickly to close it but, as lightning struck twice, something shifted in the energy around them and she slipped. Her heartbeat began to accelerate, her head was throbbing painfully and then, without warning, everything went dark and seemed to be getting further and further away. The last thing she could perceive until late the next morning was Ozpin rushing to her side and barely catching her before she fell to the floor unconscious with the faint blue, tell-tale sparks marring her eyes.
June 20th
City of Atlas
Atlas
Downtown
9:37 PM
The music in the truck was so damn loud that it was causing it to shake, which, for Roman Torchwick, was both an annoyance and a welcome reminder that his life was not over. He still did not quite know how he survived the battle of Beacon. The last thing that he consciously recalled was fighting that damn kid with her cape and her scythe and Neo jumping in front of him before the kid could deal a fatal blow. Then, what he had thought to be an eternity later, he found himself, dirtied and exhausted, in a car with Neo, a slightly odd boy with messy green hair and a tattoo on his jaw that read "daddy's little monster," and a young woman he had instantly recognized by her resemblance to her father. Gina May Adel. The youngest child of Atlas' own Blake and Allison Adel, who was scarcely spoken of because she had packed her bags and left at the age of sixteen in protest against some asinine plan of her father's regarding something with in the Atlesian Department of Justice, a department Blake Adel had long since been the director of.
And, now, the four of them were in a truck that had just crossed into the city limits of downtown Atlas. The capital city of the so-called greatest kingdom, and, indisputably by every other kingdom, the capital of the free world. Oh, Atlas was well known for its power, for the freedoms its people had, but it was also known for slimy politics, and, generally, the better looking the senator, the more disgusting they were as human beings. It wasn't just the impossible-to-track five hundred some odd total of representatives and senators in the Atlesian legislature that drove Roman crazy, it was the people in the executive departments, some of them better known than others. He hated the kingdom he had once called home with an unsurpassable fury and, yet, he knew that the plan Neo had explained to them (through Gina, of course) was what they needed to survive. After all, he sure as hell didn't want to have to fight the fucking child again and lose.
"Well, well, if it isn't Little Red!" Roman had taunted when Ruby had forced her way into his ship. Her scythe was unfolded and she was holding it tightly. "Fun fact: I just blew up General Ironwood's ship!"
Ruby had scowled at him. "What's the point of all of this? Are you trying to kill us all –"
"Kill us all?" Roman had burst out into almost uncontrollable laughter. "No, quite the opposite. I'm going to keep doing what I do best: lie, steal, cheat, and –"
Ruby had suddenly cut him off by darting at him with her semblance, and she managed to knock him to the ground with a swift kick and a strike from her scythe. Roman fell over, wheezing with Melodic Cudgel in hand, and he started swearing. He had been beaten up by this fucking child before, but she had never expended the full force of her semblance on him either and it hurt like all hell. He was back on his feet quickly and used the grappling hook on one end of his cane to grab her by the cape. She shrieked and began to flail her limbs wildly, managing to kick him down again when he tried to start taunting her again. Roman shot at her, but he kept missing and her darting about the ship only got faster and faster. It was distorting his vision and making him dizzy but, much to his amusement, an opportunity presented itself when she attempted to tie him up and instead found herself slamming into Neo.
The pink and white haired girl looked at her angrily and kicked her in the stomach with her high heels, an act which temporarily broke open Ruby's aura. It would restore itself soon enough, that was something both Roman and Neo knew all too well, but in the moment it was perfect. Roman sauntered over towards her while Neo pulled her sword out of her umbrella and kept it threateningly under Ruby's chin, pointed right at the center of her neck. He motioned for Neo to step aside once he reached the small girl, and she did so with a sadistic smirk that could have surpassed even the Joker himself. Roman, for his part, bent down and sarcastically patted Ruby's cheek with an otherwise fatherly smile. She tried to punch him, but her own vision was hazy as her aura quickly worked to repair itself and she missed with no chance of ever having smacked him.
"You really are hard to manage, aren't cha?" Roman had laughed and began to smack at her with his cane. "I have to tell ya, I'm impressed. I doubted you could hold out long on your own and you've proved me wrong. Congratulations, kid, turns out you're not as shitty as I thought!"
Ruby had let out a small shriek and tried to pulse her aura at him but it was still too weak to do anything.
"Well, ain't this funny?" Roman had tossed his hair back and adjusted his hat, laughing still. "Well, I guess that means I have no choice but to –"
A sudden, powerful blast of aura finally left Ruby's hands and knocked him backwards. He hit the wall hard, and he slid down looking dead. Neo was torn, for just a moment, between killing Ruby for harming Roman and getting him out of danger and, ultimately, she grabbed him and chose to escape. Ruby herself disappeared shortly after and it wasn't long before she witnessed something that would go on to haunt her for the rest of her life but, in that moment, she was never more relieved to be alive. She had always known that Torchwick was capable, that he was dangerous, but she had never thought she would end up in the danger she had been in just minutes before. Even long after that moment was past, she did not sleep well knowing that he could still be out there and, she was sure, had more than a little bit of intent to kill her.
"I like this song," Monster (as Roman called him) remarked in his deep, almost emotionless voice. "Sucka for pain. Yep, sounds 'bout right."
Roman rolled his eyes. "You really are a dumbass."
Monster turned towards him and activated his semblance to send a rather sharp electrical pulse right between Roman's eyebrows.
"God damn it!" He yelled upon it making contact. He immediately put his hand up to his head and began to rub it to try, in vain, to alleviate the burning sensation there. "The fuck is wrong with you?"
"You annoy me to no end, you know that?" Monster blew on his bangs irritably. "You better not fuck this up for us. If Lizzie Morell and Kari Mar wanna throw your ass in jail, then so fucking be it because better you than the rest of us."
Neo smacked him upside the head with her umbrella as she, rather recklessly, pulled the car into one of the many empty parking spots in the lot just outside the public building to the DFAMA. They had a meeting, or at least Gina did, with the chair of the Atlesian National Security Council and the head of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Military Action. Roman had been dreading this since Gina had told them the plan. He didn't want to have to deal with anyone who would recognize him from his past, and he knew full well that Elizabeth Morell had no sympathy for him at all and would gladly be the one to sign, what he viewed to be, his death warrant. The purpose of the meeting was simple, and there was a strong chance it would work out in their favor, but it wasn't pretty.
They were demanding clemency in exchange for mercenary services to the Atlesian Council. All four of them were aware that they would have to capture and/or kill top terrorists and follow Atlesian law to the nth degree but, then again, it was a much better option than spending the rest of their lives in prison. They had taken a major risk by stepping onto Atlesian soil again, after everything all four of them had individually (and in Roman and Neo's case, together) done yet they knew it was what could be their saving grace. All of them had always worked for the highest bidder, after all, and, for as restrained as the Atlesian Council could be when it came to apportioning funds, Atlas could provide them quite a bit of wealth and luxury. There was nothing that Roman loved more than fine cigars, designer clothes, and brand new cars and, with the money he imagined they could gain from a deal with Atlas' government, it was just beneath his fingertips.
He couldn't help but pray, as they all finally stepped into the elevator up to the office of Elizabeth Morell (escorted by guards who were armed to the teeth and ready to kill any of them in the blink of an eye), that things worked out in their favor. He was vowing vengeance if it didn't and that vengeance would, of course, be in the form of blood. Roman relished in the idea of sticking it to the Schnees and, by extension, the Ciels but he was a man of reason and caution above all else. If it would not keep him alive, it had to be secondary. His care for his own life was far greater than any other force, and it dictated everything he did from where he went, how he acted, to even his beloved weapon. Nothing could get in the way of that and, still, when they stepped into the room, he couldn't help but flip off Karissa Mar who, when she was sure no one else would see, flipped him off herself with her hands clasped behind her back.
"This is…under unusual circumstances," Elizabeth finally said, her voice extremely clipped. "However, I understand the pretext for it and, given everything that has happened since the Fall of Beacon, I will consider that the four of you could be…useful under the proper pretense."
Gina snorted. "My dad get mad that I came home without saying hi?"
"That would be a separate issue," Elizabeth replied, raising an eyebrow upon Neo miming slitting Monster's throat. "Is she threatening us or him?"
"Him," Roman said shortly. "None of us particularly like him. We call him Monster, 'cause of his tattoo."
Elizabeth and Karissa shared a noticeably concerned look at the remark, feeling rather uncomfortable with the people they had begrudgingly agreed to meet with in the first place.
"My real name is Marshall," He growled, pushing Neo aside who looked rather disgruntled. "They're just assholes, all things considered."
"It says here that the four of you have requested clemency," Elizabeth went on, ignoring everything they had just said. "In exchange for providing…mercenary skills to the Atlesian Council?"
"Yes," Gina said with a charming smile. "If y'all pay us enough, then we'll kill whoever you want us to."
Karissa raised an eyebrow and nervously adjusted her glasses.
"Is that what you think we want you to do?" She pressed. "Or is that what you want us to use your skill sets for?"
"Both," Roman said, shrugging but then wincing from the pain in his shoulders. "We got a deal or not? We'll take whatever –"
Gina stomped harshly on his foot and Neo scowled at her while Marshall-Monster started laughing.
"We will draw up contracts today," Karissa finally said, clicking her pen shut. "And we will have another meeting tomorrow afternoon to officially decide how we will ultimately handle this situation."
Elizabeth nodded, sending all four of the criminals a pointed look.
"Watch your step," She sharply warned them. "And don't let the door smack any of you on the ass on the way out."
