Florence slipped them around town, avoiding the protests and hoopla, sliding them into the Vaucanson Center unnoticed.
"...whether or not you choose to present yourself is up to you, but do know that the people have expected you here." She opened a boardroom, stocked with food and drink, with a one way window over the auditorium. "But..." She projected a headline of the Legion's recent activities. "Sanus is now swimming with Grimm again. We're...at a loss. If you can spare the time, please help us." She looked at Qrow through the veil, his hood ringed with short feathers, a blush enriching her dark skin, slipping out of the door without a word.
Oz blew out the circuits with a few taps.
"...she likes you." Glynda teased.
"She's infatuated." Qrow finished his flask. "I'm not- not indulging this line of conversation." The auditorium filled behind his head, the Mistrali and Atlesian war banner on the stage. "What's the plan?"
"There's no plan, we're just here to watch, and hopefully diffuse war." Ironwood blew the steam off his coffee, the veil tucked aside, dark bags under his eyes.
"You don't look well." Weiss waved, the bangles on her wrist clattering on the table as her hand fell. "And you're been very quiet since you've been here."
"I live my life to try and prevent Atlesian interests from dominating all of Remnant. Now, it's High General Clementine's power vacuum causing problems. Not to mention...that problem."
"She's not dead." Raven finished picking through the snack bags, tossing Qrow the other sachet of granola. "She's probably gallivanting around in the prison system, sucking dick and biding her time until someone lets her out."
"...why do you- okay Qrow, I know why you hate her," Taiyang crossed his arms. "why do you hate her?"
"She was coming to kill you and Yang, and then would have probably spun around and killed Summer out of spite."
"...that doesn't make any sense, you said she was in the military." Nora re-braided Ren's hair, the mass woven and tied to fall at hip length. "How does one woman do so much damage?"
"She was a mole for the Atlesian Military into Black Claw." Ironwood added cream to his cup. "Mantle became Atlas, Atlas became the government, the military and the academy within a generation. Atlas also became the most racist place to live in all of Remnant, since it's too expensive for most Geina to afford the Gravity Dust tax necessary on even the cheapest houses. The Council elected her 'High General', a meaningless title, just to show everyone how much ass they're kissing. I was in Vale as they fought over how next to disenfranchise people, so I got chosen as the scapegoat. Then, I woke up to a bullet in my chest." He finished the coffee. "And she fucked and killed most everyone else into submission from there."
"...why did she shoot you?" Yang threw Adam and Oscar dried carrots from the snack stash. Thuds fell up and down the hall.
"Me." Oz was on his third cup of joe. "I don't scream on the top of my lungs I'm Faunus, and its easy enough to hide, but the emergency surgery outed me, earning Jimmy the ire of everyone loyal to her. Which is everyone."
"...as Faunus, right?" Blake was on the bookshelf. It jostled.
"Oh. Right, that. Yes, that in particular." The communal pharmacy made its rounds. The auditorium was half full, the hour striking in fifteen minutes. Something fell.
"The proceedings are starting." Ironwood pointed to the stage lights brightening alongside the television in the corner of the room, Ozma opening a bag of no name cereal in the other corner, Weiss running to hug him, chocolate eyes gone wide.
A thin woman with lavender hair and tanned skin opened the Council, the Mistrali seat filled by Ciel and the Atlesian seat filled by someone unfamiliar, a orange headband in her hair.
Ciel sat up in her chair. "Mistral maintains its position that peace should reign between Human and Faunus, their equality has been previously established and continued aggression will lead to another revolution when the same time and energy could be spent fighting the Grimm."
The crowd murmured. The Mistress of Ceremonies asked the Atlesian if she was okay.
"The Atlesian government has found evidence that Mistral is working with Vacuo in order to invade Mantle, with aid from the White Fang, as revenge for the raids using Hard Light Dust. Extrication processes were in place to prevent hate crimes."
"Then the city fell apart a month after it was built. The gods took pity and put it out." Nora and Ironwood fist bumped. "How is that okay? How does the city plan to cover this act of oversight and neglect?"
"We will pay all claimants 500 lien."
"...per month? per head? What? WHAT?" Ciel's eyes were reddened, tears at the edges..
"Per family. One time." The crowd turned into a riot. The Mistress of Ceremonies banged the gavel to no avail. Ghira, who was in the audience, vaulted into the stage, went backstage, got himself a chair and sat down next to Ciel, the whitecoat dragging the floor. A man in a cowboy hat and jeans was next, sitting down right on the stage floor, cocking back his hat to reveal himself as Emmett. Florence walked on stage, the button up shirt concealing her scales.
"So..." Ghira watched his claws.
"I am not obligated to speak to you, beast."
Everyone got up from the chairs, ready to fly down to chop her in half seventeen times. Ozma held the door shut. "Hold your temper. She's looking him to get angry."
Ghira sighed. "I have been called many more ignoble things than that. Can we have a conversation or are you going to simply commit genocide?"
"What is there to say? We are giving them the means to extricate themselves-"
"I can't feed and clothe a family of four on that much money, nevermind move halfway across Remnant? What if my spouse is ill or pregnant? I need diapers? Basic necessities of life?!"
"Then they should have thought of that before moving to Mani."
Ghira put everyone else in front of him. Emmett waved Ghira for the mic. "Now listen here, General Chestnut. What are you doing is called genocide. Dictionary says," he looked at his Scroll. "it is 'the deliberate, intentional, killing of a group of people.' You rounded up the Faunus, in a city made of paper towels and chewing gum and let it burn for FOUR HOURS! That is a deliberate, intentional killing of a group of people!"
"You cannot prove that it was solely Faunus."
"Mistress of Ceremonies, please bring up the city's registrar." Emmett had to catch his runaway r's. The projector flickered on, a summary of the city's population came up. Fifty four percent Faunus. Twenty nine percent mixed. Seventeen percent Human. "That town was eighty three percent Faunus and Faunus mixed people-
"Please say heritage." Ghira grumbled.
"Eighty three percent Faunus and those of Faunus heritage! You let them burn! The gods saved that city when it should have fallen on Atlas' shoulders and still to this very day, you can't scrounge up the money to give to them to GET OUT?"
"They came with their money."
"No, they didn't." Schwarz hopped on stage. "I do not insert myself as allied with Atlas. I simply present new information. Mistress, if you would." He handed her a drive, the projector flickered to a presentation of the bank loans related to new arrivals and the new mines on the other side of the city. "The Schnee Dust Company financed that city. Where did the most of that money end up?" The slide changed to a mind boggling list of offshore accounts. "Who authorized the raids on Vacuo?" Forty slides of forged documents scrolled by. "The former general Clementine who was in prison until she coughed too hard and is now at large. Who authorized executive orders that would lead to the discrimination of the Faunus? Clementine. When did this all start happening?"
A photo of Ironwood's funeral came up. A spilt image of the formal Atlesian parade and the Manti send off, a empty casket on a flaming longboat.
"You've got problems." Schwarz threw the white and grey coat at Atlas' feet. "General Ciel?"
"Welcome aboard, Schwarz."
"Allow me to remind all parties that we are here to settle this conflict without need for combat." The MC checked her watch. "Does Atlas have anything to say to these points?"
"Not to a filthy turncoat."
'Does Atlas have anything to say at all?"
"Atlas requests a twenty minute intermission."
"So be it."
The still of Ironwood's funeral remained on the projector.
The crowd nearly broke into fisticuffs. A black bow and a green jacket disappeared. Ghira and his allies shifted backstage one way, up the stairs, and into the boardroom next to the Cal-
"What the hell is all this on the floor?" Ghira stopped. "Did someone die? Or get themselves with a stapler? I have enough to worry about- " The generals pressed into the room and- "Who are you...? You look familiar...were you on a cereal box back in the day?" The door shut.
"Ironwood, now would be the time to pull off the stunt of your life." Pyrrha huffed, a ear pressed against the wall.
"I don't like- You know what I'm going to say." Oz pulled the third cup of coffee out of Ironwood's hands, putting it safely into his stomach. "Birdy, stop."
"Scare Atlas shitless." Glynda looked at him. "Winter was a warning-"
"Nora, bring it down." Ironwood pulled off the cloak, Ren and Oz right behind. "I did not come this far to turn tail and run."
Ozma opened another bag of cheap cereal, a soft smile on his face.
The Council reconvened.
The Mistress of Ceremonies retook the podium. "I apologize for leaving this morbid scene on display." Ghira and friends retook the stage, a man with flaming red hair standing nearby, hair catching on a dark wool coat. General Chestnut stood with four others.
"I..can't take it down?" She frantically tapped at the controls.
Thunder rolled over ahead.
"...um. Okay." She tried again. It fizzled and fractured before returning in greyscale, then color.
Another barrage of thunder. The crowd grew uneasy. Ghira slid metal tips over his claws. The Atlesian representatives said nothing.
"Okay, as to not waste time, does Atlas have anything to say?"
"Atlas will not apologize for its actions for Mani, Vacuo or Mistral. We hold our position that-"
Thunder shook the building, the projector frizzled out.
A war chant started up in Old Manti. The rhythmic stomp of feet reduced the mistress of ceremonies to a whisper.
"What are they doing?!" Ghira curled his fists. Schwarz was pounding along.
A lightning strike brought Chestnut to her knees.
A figure in a dark suit stood in center stage, the hood of a blinding white coat falling over its face, the fabric shining as it reached the hem, lightning arcing over its arms.
"...I could nothing as a man. Now? Justice as I see fit." Thunder rolled. It disappeared.
The floors shook with the stomp of feet, General Chestnut and her supporters unable to move as they were thrown into the center by Schwarz, the crowd running them out into the falling hail, leaving the auditorium empty.
"I..." Ghira swallowed. "Really want to know what just transpired, but at this point, I'm going to take four pain killers and-" A bullet whizzed by his ear. A scorpion's tail fell from the ceiling, followed by its owner with three bullets in his head, petals clinging to the red blood. "...I've seen tho-" A man came from backstage, a carved ebony mask over his face, a hood over his head, black rose petals fell like rain as he passed.
"IZZY?" Ghira's jaw clattered and slid off stage. "You're supposed to be dead!"
"I'm bad at that."
"What the fuck?"
"Not currently. Have you seen my eldest?"
"...have you seen my daughter?"
Izzy walked offstage, the back of the overcoat embroidered with a blossoming rose in black thread. "Come on, Gigi, before we lose the smell of weird in the morning."
"Are you coming, Agamemnon?" Ghira looked down.
"I wish I could say I wasn't."
Upstairs, Ironwood finished off his bottle of mead. "I am never-"
"I said that. Don't make any statements, Jimmy, it's not worth it." Qrow peeled himself out of the corner. "Let's get out of h-"
"Speaking of weird happenings-" Ghira came thudding down the hall. "Izzy, look at this!"
"That's a lot of blood for a stapler, Fuzzy." Adam's eyes went wide, Yang leaning to look at him, Qrow grabbing Harbinger. "And you're sure it goes nowhere? It's been seven years, not seventy years, I'm not senile. I smell coffee." Blake blurred out the door. Ozma checked out, leaving Weiss with his scarf, emerald green and edged in gold.
"The blood is dried." A third man with a thick accent came through. "And with gods descending, they're not far. Let's go."
"Are you sure that you want to investigate what gods are doing?" A new voice, with the countrysides of Mistral stuck in. Ren turned to look at the door next.
"Who are you?"
"A stranger in a familiar land. Offering help for the thing you're looking for."
"...hmm." Footsteps just outside when the door once was. "...I don't like this. There was a door here."
"Kick it in?"
Ren grabbed Jaune. The door went flying in, the illusion shattered. There was nothing in the room but chairs, spent snack bags and steaming coffee.
"That's suspicious." Agamemnon twirled his sword. A shelf broke in the bookcase. The man with the bow stood in the hall, keeping watch, the hood pulled down.
"That's unfortunate." Izzy sighed visibly "Oh gods, Feathers is in here somewhere."
"He isn't that bad." Ghira left. "Let's go."
"Who is Feathers?" Agamemnon still stood in the door. "Does he make traditional arrows?"
"No, you cinnamon roll- he's a crow." Izzy dragged him by his hair, marching further down the hall. The rest followed, the archer laughing lightly as Aggie muttered insults.
"What the fuck? WHAT THE FUCK?" Ren's wrist crackled.
"Who is that? He looks just like you." Nora's nail polish caught the light. "He's not dead? HOW!?"
"Okay. We've got to move, where to?" Weiss let the scarf hang free under the cloak.
"...we'll talk about this later." Raven checked either side of the hall, waving the rest out of the room. Florence was at the end of the hall, screeching at Emmett, her S's dragging a little longer than they should.
"Oh, hello. Did y'all'll need something?" Emmett tipped his hat at Raven. He got a squawk in return.
"Secrets to be kept." Qrow stepped forward, she stepped back. "Got anywhere covert?"
Brother.
I see what they're doing. They're cute.
Brother...
I know. This happens every so often. Leave them.
Brother!
You are right. It's time to bring this experiment to a close.