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Cover Art: Serox
Chapter 32
Armed units were in the building, coming from below as well as above – Jaune wasn't sure if he was meant to have not figured that out, but the Bullheads flying above the building made it somewhat obvious. They were surrounded, trapped and now the centre of attention. This would be broadcast across all of Vale, maybe even the world.
He hoped his sisters weren't watching. That was the only wish he'd ask of the uncaring world.
Don't let them see this.
"We're fucked!" Roman shouted shrilly, stomping around like a money and stamping on his own hat. "Is that what this is? Some glorious swan song? You planning to go out and take people with you to show the world how fucking edgy you are!?"
"I hadn't planned on it."
"You haven't planned on shit!"
"I plan on surviving," Jaune said, glaring at the normally pliant man. He couldn't really blame Roman losing his nerve now, if he'd ever really had it. "I can't save Amber if Atlas kills me here. I need you for that, too, along with Cinder. That means neither of you can die. Emerald, come. I need you ready to use your Semblance."
If there is a god out there, please don't let my sisters see what I've become.
/-/
Winter led her unit up the stairs, herself in the lead despite General Ironwood's warnings. Even if her aura might not be any match, her training had to mean something. Leaving her sabre sheathed, she held a submachine gun in one hand, a far more realistic threat against Jaune Arc's Semblance. Her own, normally so versatile, would be meaningless. The tell-tale signs of Schnee glyphs appearing in the air would give him all the time he needed to cut her off, and even if she created her summons from a distance, they would dissipate on coming close. He was a perfect counter to her Semblance, but she was more than just that.
"Stay close and in formation," she told the six soldiers behind her. Jasper and Cardamon weren't present, each leading their own teams on the upper floors. General Ironwood planned to approach from the elevator, scaling the connecting ropes as soon as he could. "Remember, his Semblance is most useful when he can sow chaos and pick us off one by one. Stay together and cover one another, and he won't have a safe moment to activate it."
Nods and the occasional "yes ma'am" were her answers, the men and women flicking safeties off and hunching their shoulders, barrels tipped down in readiness for storming the corridor beyond. The second team, those that infiltrated from the upper floors, remained on the level above, positioned kneeling and sat atop the staircase, weapons aimed down and ready to prevent any escape up or down from the targets.
They would not enter with them. More men didn't mean better odds, especially in close quarters fighting in hotel corridors where manoeuvrability would be limited. Her team was elite enough for the task, and theirs was only to keep Jaune Arc in place and the civilians above protected.
Winter laid a hand on the door and checked them over one last time, before taking a deep breath and bursting through.
The lights were off. They hadn't been on their way up. Winter knelt and covered left while a soldier did the same behind her, calling "clear" before the others filed out. Torches were activated, shining beams of light down the dark corridors thick with musty air and the stench of dust. There'd been a gunfight here. Something there should not have been if Jaune Arc had really targeted civilians as the Council of Atlas would no doubt be claiming.
"Ma'am," a soldier whispered. "Bodies. Two O'clock – fifty, maybe sixty metres down."
Winter could make out nothing but then that was why faunus were so valued in her corps. "Milner, Simons. Cover our rear. Everyone else ahead. Stay together."
The unit of seven paced slowly down the corridor, two moving backwards with their guns trained on the empty corridor behind, ready to lay down pinning fire to prevent Jaune Arc using his Semblance if necessary. Volume of fire meant more than placed shots. If you filled the air with enough dust rounds, he wouldn't feel safe taking anyone's aura down.
They reached the bodies soon enough. Two of them, both in black armour, armed and very much dead. Winter waved her hand ahead, signalling them into a formation around the deceased so that she could holster her SMG on her hip and kneel down. The unease at seeing death was a distant thing by now, and she ran her fingers over their throats. A knowingly hopeless but routine gesture just in case. There were no pulses from either of them.
"Sir." Winter touched and activated her comms. "We have bodies on the first floor, confirmed non-civilians. Military personnel, unknown armour and unmarked weaponry. Positions suggest a gunfight in the corridors."
"Noted, Specialist." General Ironwood replied. "Secure their bodies for extraction. We will have our answers today. Are there any markings that would denote them as Chivalric Arms?"
"None, sir. Blank patches and no discernible tags. Forensics will find more."
"Continue on, then, but be careful-"
One of her men shouted suddenly. The fierce crack of automatic gunfire sent Winter diving down over the bodies, scrabbling for her weapon as someone cried out in pain and slammed back into a wall. Cries and orders were shouted, followed by another short crack and a grunt, then deafening silence as the ringing in her ears died out.
"Weapon down!" someone ordered, stepping over her and planting his gun against the breastplate of another soldier. "Drop your weapon, private!"
Said private was leaning against a wall, bleeding from a wound in his left arm and holding his gun barrel down. It was smoking badly. Winter tracked the angle back and swore, noticing another of her own soldiers slumped against the other wall riddled with bullets and very, very dead.
"He was a traitor-" the wounded soldier tried.
"Drop. Your. Weapon!"
He did so, laying it down and stepping away, kneeling back against the wall as another rushed forward to take and drag it away. Someone helped Winter up and she approached, face drawn with anger.
"Explain yourself, soldier! You opened fire on a friendly-"
"He was about to shoot you!" the young man said, gripping his arm. "Specialist, ma'am, he turned and aimed his gun right at your back!"
Another traitor, and among her own troops? They'd gone through all their records, though. The Ace-Ops had personally vetted each and every one of them. How had Chivalric Arms infiltrated her own units so easily?
"Bullshit." Another soldier grunted angrily. "Lieutenant Wyte had his weapon trained on the corridor ahead. He didn't even see his death coming. You lying piece of shit!"
Winter looked around. More of her men were nodding than not, and those that weren't obviously hadn't seen what was going on. The consensus was clear; Lieutenant Wyte hadn't tried to shoot her and had instead been gunned down by a private.
"W-What?" said private whimpered. "B-But he tried to kill you! I swear! I saw him turn. I saw him level his gun at your back!"
"Cuff him." Winter said forcefully. "Treat his wound while you're at it. I don't want-"
"Look out!"
Milner tackled Simons suddenly, knocking the surprised and entirely unprepared man back into the wall and then wrenching him to the floor. The startled Simons tried to fight his aggressor off, but Milner had the better strength and position, wrestling his gun away and planting his arm over the other man's throat. Simons began to choke and flail his arms.
"What the fuck, Milner!" another soldier said, rushing over to haul him off. "What are you doing?"
"He pulled a sidearm and aimed it at Winter!" Milner cried. "Didn't you see?"
"I-I didn't!" Simons said, rubbing his neck.
This time, Winter could confirm. "He didn't. Calm down, Milner. Baker, release him. Everyone stand still – don't move." Once she was sure they were, Simons pushing himself to the closest wall to massage his neck, she spoke again. "Milner. Tell me clearly. What did you see?"
"M-Ma'am." He saluted nervously. "I was keeping my eyes back as instructed when I saw Simons turn away. He rounded on the lot of you, pulled out his handgun and aimed it at your back. I was close enough to incapacitate and acted immediately."
"Private," Winter said softly. "Simons' sidearm is still in its holster."
Milner looked down his squad mate's leg and staggered back, eyes wide behind his visor and mouth opening wide. "N-No. But I saw – I saw…"
"Hostile Semblance Protocols!" Winter barked. Her men swore and closed ranks quickly, weapons pointed in every direction. "Vision-based illusionary Semblance. Uncuff the private; this was no murder attempt. Someone is making us see things that don't exist. Do not trust your eyes."
"This isn't Null…" someone whispered nervously.
"Consider that a good thing, private. If this is targeting us, then it means our auras are secure."
"If that's the case then why didn't Wyte protect himself?"
Because Null had activated in time to rob him of aura, and while it had undoubtedly cancelled whatever Semblance was affecting them, it had been switched on and off quickly enough not to make it obvious. Which means Null was close enough to be within its fifteen metre radius, close enough to time his Semblance perfectly, and close enough to hear when the first shot was fired.
"Scatter!" Winter shouted.
The adjoining wall beside them exploded outward in a ball of explosive fire, blasting over Winter's body and launching her back. Her aura flickered and died, ripped away from her, and she could only cover her face with both arms and hope for the best. Her back struck the opposite wall. Her head cracked back. Stars danced and her vision went black, but she rolled left and threw herself down either way, trusting training over anything else. Gunshots echoed – where, she couldn't tell – the explosion had robbed her of any sense of balance and her ears and brain were ringing.
A trap. The bodies had been a trap, Jaune Arc waiting in the nearest hotel room where he could activate his Semblance through the thin walls. They hadn't even realised. They'd been stopping to talk while he'd been listening in through the wall.
Winter landed between two dead bodies and was grateful to find they were Chivalric's when her vision cleared. Ignoring the connotations and rolling onto her back, she brought the SMG up and scanned her immediate surroundings. The sounds of gunfire were continuing the opposite direction to the way they came, and that might well mean Null was chasing her team down. His Semblance required proximity, so he wouldn't let up on the aggression. He couldn't afford to.
You're not killing my team, Jaune Arc!
Staggering up, Winter was about to chase after them when she heard a scream from the end of the corridor. It was followed with gunfire and a soldier calling out, "Ma'am! Contact!"
A hostage. That was Jaune Arc's way out. He wanted a hostage.
Cursing again, Winter brought her SMG up and hurried to the top of the corridor, slowing down by the corner to creep her way around, barrel trained on the corner in preparation to fire. Corners were dangerous at the best of times, but when a cancellation of your Semblance could be waiting around it, they got a whole lot worse. The sound of scuffling and fighting increased around it, now two people on the floor by the noise. If he wanted to take someone alive, he couldn't shoot them. This could be her opportunity to catch him where he couldn't activate his Semblance.
Have the rest of the team already been killed? Please no. I can't have led them to their deaths.
Taking a deep breath, Winter slammed a foot down and pulled around the corner, gun aimed down and at… nothing? An empty corridor, dark and foreboding with curtains fluttering. The noise of scuffling and wrestling continued but did so what could only be a few feet in front of her, where nothing existed.
"Nice work, kid." a voice behind her said. "Guess you're not as useless as you look."
Winter's world exploded into pain as a metal pipe impacted her skull, driving her down onto one knee and tipping the gun from her hands. Legs buckling, she looked back, catching the brief sight of Roman Torchwick and some hooded and masked figure half his height stood in the corridor, stood where no one had been, at a point where she must have walked inches by them. Torchwick had his signature weapon in hand, raised up high and already swinging in.
"Nighty-night."
/-/
Blake bit her fingernails as she watched the live report on her scroll, volume low so that Ruby wouldn't be woken up. Her team leader was exhausted after a day of trying to keep her spirits up in the face of her paralysis, no easy task. The last thing she needed was to hear or see what Jaune was doing now, but Blake couldn't look away.
Could she have stopped this? Had she caused this?
Jaune would have come to Vale anyway for his mother, but this kind of escalation was far too violent for the hurting boy she'd known. Even if Jaune had been angry and vengeful at the time, he wouldn't have done something like this.
Did we break him? Did I break him…?
Or had he been broken long ago when Chivalric Arms took him prisoner and stripped away his humanity? It was impossible to know for sure but taking over an entire hotel was so out of character for him. They weren't going to have any of his sisters there. Come to think of it, there should only be one sister left now. Amber Arc. All the others were accounted for.
Amber must be in Vale. There's no other reason why Jaune would stay here. Revenge on them was all well and good, but she didn't think he'd prioritise that over his youngest sister. He could always save her and then come back for revenge. Vengeance could wait; Amber Arc could not. He must have an idea where she is. I really doubt it's a hotel, though.
Yang and Weiss weren't interested in knowing more. It was inevitable that in the telling of her story and how she met Jaune, talk of the horrific experimentation done on him would come to light, along with the existence of Chivalric Arms, but neither of them cared for sympathy. To be fair, it was too late for Jaune to ask it after what he'd done. Ruby would never walk or move again, Yang's hand was split in two and Weiss was visibly scarred for life. While they agreed Chivalric Arms were bad, they considered Jaune worse. Blake couldn't say she blamed them.
Right now, they were doing shifts, looking after Ruby in a pattern because Miss Goodwitch wanted Yang and Weiss to get out in the fresh air and sunlight where they could recover. If Yang had her way, she'd be handcuffed to Ruby and sleeping in the same bed, but that wouldn't help Ruby feel any better about the situation.
What had was her uncle, Mr Qrow, coming to visit her and keep her entertained with funny stories and jokes. He, at least, seemed to understand that Ruby didn't need to be cried over, that pity would only make her feel worse. He kept her laughing and giggling for all of the four hours he'd spent at her side, with only Blake able to see how much the sight of Ruby in a medical bed pained him. Her father had come, too, but been a lot less calm about it, alternating between crying as he held onto her and promising to hunt down the one responsible.
Ruby nearly had a full-blown panic attack at that. It took Mr Taiyang promising to go nowhere near Jaune Arc to make her calm down. Blake knew why, even if Ruby's father didn't. Ruby was terrified that anyone who went near Jaune would die.
Ironically, it was Ruby who took the most from her stories of Jaune, listening intently and never once responding with anger or worse, satisfaction, at the tale of his torturous treatment. That wasn't to say she forgave him – Ruby was sweet, but no saint or idiot – but she seemed to glean some understanding from why he was so violent, even if she knew he had to be stopped. Ruby had also been the only one to smile and tell Blake that this wasn't her fault.
Blake still felt guilty for how much of a relief that was.
The door to the infirmary opened and a man in a white doctor's suit entered. Youngish, but not too young, he looked like an intern or junior doctor and his nametag suggested as such. He came over and set a small silver briefcase down on the table by Ruby's bedside, opening it to reveal a chilled interior in a puff of white frost. The cold air woke Ruby up, making her shiver and yawn.
"W-What's going on…?"
"We need to take a little of your blood, Miss Rose. Just for testing."
Blake muted her scroll and set it face-down on the side, turning to look the doctor's way. He had a syringe out, the needle absent, but there was a sterilised packet with a needle inside that she could see in the container.
"Is this for her treatment?" Blake asked.
"It is. General Ironwood's orders." The man opened the packet and secured the needle in place.
Ruby shuddered. "I don't like needles…"
"I'd be surprised if you can even feel the needle."
Blake scowled, indignant beyond belief. How could he just throw a reminder of Ruby's condition in her face like that? Yes, she was paralysed and couldn't feel her limbs, but a doctor shouldn't take such a blunt approach with a patient.
"Yeah, I guess I can't…" Ruby said miserably.
The needle slid into her arm without problem and any reaction from Ruby. Blake looked away, uncomfortable with the sight of blood being drawn even if that made no sense given her profession. There was always something about blood tests that made it worse than a wound, strange as that sounded. Her eyes remained on Ruby's face instead, taking in the similar discomfort there as Ruby turned her head away, laid back so small and pale among the overly large white cushions.
The drawing didn't take long. The man withdrew the needle, removed it and then capped out the glass vial, setting it down in the cooler case alongside the disassembled syringe. He dabbed her arm, laid it back down atop her sheets and clipped the case shut.
"Will we find out if there's anything that can be done for her?" Blake asked.
"The chief medical officer will let you know." he replied. "I'm only an assistant."
"What are you looking for in the blood?" Ruby asked tiredly.
"Abnormalities that might have caused your current condition. Again, I'm just doing as I'm told – you'll need to ask the chief medical officer for more information." He moved to the head of Ruby's bed, undoing the clippings to the wall. "I'm also to take her for an X-ray. The skeletal damage she sustained may give answers. Prosthetics have come a long way. There is hope she might walk yet."
"T-There is?" Ruby stammered.
"Of course. General Ironwood was able to recover the loss of an arm and half his torso."
Imagining Ruby as half cyborg was honestly a little painful, but it was a pain she'd put up with if it made her team leader happy. "Are there plans for that in place?"
"You would really need to ask the chief medical officer. It's her decision and she doesn't share patient information with junior doctors." Confidentiality. Blake nodded understandingly. The man pushed Ruby's bed from the wall and stepped behind it. "You can ask her now if you like," he told Blake. "I'm fairly certain she's in her office."
"That's Doctor Snow?" Blake asked, remembering the sharp woman Ironwood had taken her to meet.
"Doctor Alexandra Snow, yes."
Ruby looked so hopeful that Blake didn't hesitate to nod and stand. Anything that Ruby might grasp onto for a chance to move again was worth the small amount of effort it would take to ask the woman in person.
"Alright. Will you be okay, Ruby?"
"Mm. I'll be fine."
"I shall have her to an X-ray machine and back within half an hour," the doctor promised.
Blake watched Ruby go and hid a small sigh into her hand. Doctors had been coming and going for the last few days over her, though most were just to replenish her drip and check on her. This was the first time anyone had suggested further testing, and it was a relief to see them taking it so seriously. Blake made her way out the ward and down the corridor, over to Doctor Snow's office and pushed the button on the door. It beeped on the inside and Blake tried to see through the slatted window. A shadow could be made out at the desk. The intercom buzzed.
"What is it?" a waspish voice demanded. "I'm busy."
"It's Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose's teammate? I'm here to ask about her condition."
There was no answer and for a moment Blake felt her temper rise, thinking the woman had decided to lock her out. The door buzzed and opened a few seconds later, however. Blake let her anger go and stepped in, quickly noticing the woman swamped in paperwork.
"Well?" she snapped. "Sit down or stand there and speak your piece. I don't have all day."
A very busy medical officer responsible for the lives of many, Blake reminded herself. Not a rude or mean woman lashing out because she wanted to. "It's about my teammate, Doctor Snow. I was hoping to talk to you about her."
"Ruby Rose, yes? The other two are already up and about. I have Jacques Schnee threatening us with a lawsuit for medical malpractice, so I know for a fact that girl is fine."
"Weiss wouldn't-"
"What she would do matters little if the lawyers are banging on our door. It's not for you to worry about either way. Speak. I don't mean to sound harsh, but I have to prep for what is undoubtedly going to be a bloody night. I'm sure you've seen the news."
The hotel. Right. Doctor Snow would be getting more patients soon enough.
"It's about Ruby's paralysis."
"Her inability to walk," Doctor Snow said without looking up. "Yes, it was a possibility. I did warn you. The damage to her lower body may have robbed her of it, though it's still too early to know if that will be permanent or not. I've already given Beacon a recommendation for physiotherapy courses, but even then, it's unlikely she will regain mobility fast enough to be a huntress-"
Walking. Was that all Doctor Snow thought it was? Tears burned at Blake's eyes and her temper rolled back up, overcoming her mouth before she could hold it back. The words tumbled out, bitter and angry.
"Her full body paralysis! It's not just her legs!"
Doctor Snow's head snapped up. Her eyes were thin slits. "Excuse me?"
"Ruby is completely paralysed!" Blake sobbed. "Do you not even care to look at your patients? It's not just her legs. She can't move her arms or upper body; she can't feel anything, and she isn't going to be able to move again-"
"That. Isn't. Possible."
Blake's tirade came to a slow, stumbling halt. "What…?"
"There was no damage to her spinal column that would have caused paralysis – that could have caused it. I said as much, did I not? Extensive loss of blood that could have been fatal had she not been brought to us so quickly, the chance of infection that we immediately treated and the possibility that when she wakes up, she may be unable to walk. Where in that diagnosis I gave to both you and General Ironwood was mention of paralysis?"
Nowhere. Blake wracked her memory and kept trying to speak, but her mind brought nothing up. Through the haze of grief and pain, she could remember what Doctor Snow said. How Jaune might only have spared Ruby because he was too much an amateur to know how to kill her effectively. Two clumsy shots that, through sheer luck, spared her life.
Neither one hit her spine.
"B-But she can't move…"
"Then something is wrong," Doctor Snow said, voice clipped. Her chair scraped back, and she planted her hands down, pushing herself up. "Why was this not brought to my or General Ironwood's attention? You were responsible for her, girl!"
"I-I thought you would have been told!"
"General Ironwood is busy chasing a killer across the city. I am busy picking up the pieces."
"But your assistant!" Blake yelled. "He's been taking blood samples-"
"What blood samples? Why would I need blood samples? We know what happened to her already. I gave her a blood transplant the day she came in gushing lifeblood all over my floor. The last thing I need from her is more blood."
It felt like her own had drained from her body. Blake stepped back, eyes wide. "T-Then you didn't order her to have an X-ray?"
Doctor Snow looked confused. "Why would I? You know as well as I do that the bullets didn't touch her spine. There's nothing to see. Miss Belladonna, I have no idea what you're talking about."
Blake screamed and smashed her way through the door, eyes bloodshot.
/-/
General James Ironwood knew something was wrong when he finally reached the bottom of the elevator and pushed up into it. The dead body within, a young man in hotel garb, wasn't even the start of it. James' eyes took in his injuries quickly and instantly decided it wasn't Jaune Arc who caused them. The spread of bullets, along with the blood splatter going backward, suggested someone had shot back into the elevator with an automatic weapon. It didn't match anything about their quarry, and instead corroborated Winter's report on an ambush.
More worryingly was the lack of any reports since, except that Winter's team had arrived back at the staircase lacking two of its members and with three more wounded, some by friendly fire. He'd picked up the mention of an illusion-based Semblance, which seemed to fit slightly with the one Team RWBY had detailed at the docks.
His senses could not be trusted. A truly terrifying thought.
He didn't have to look far either way. A seat had been set up down the corridor some thirty metres – well out of range of the Null Semblance, but also far beyond what Ironwood could cover in the time it would have taken for Jaune Arc to shoot Winter Schnee, the latter sat on the chair, hands tied behind her and head resting forward, chin on her chest.
James sucked in a deep and dangerous breath through his nostrils, aiming his weapon over her head at the unsmiling face of Jaune Arc.
"General Ironwood." Jaune, or Null, greeted him. "I wouldn't shoot if I were you."
"How do I know Winter isn't an illusion?"
Jaune Arc's eyes flashed a hew of colours for a brief second, too short a timeframe for him to have taken the shot, but enough to have broken any illusion Winter might have been. It was her alright. Still alive, too. He could see her chest rising and falling.
"For a man who has maintained his innocence, this isn't doing a good job of proving it." James said warily.
"Does it matter? Anything I do is twisted into me being a monster by you. Might as well let the stories be right for once."
"Not by me. By the Council, by politics, by Chivalric." Slowly, James lowered his weapon. It was a mostly meaningless gesture. The distance was great enough that he had his aura, so any shot taken on him wouldn't punch through. "I have been working to clear your name. Or I had been. I dare say that will be impossible after tonight. You've crossed a line, Arc. Not even I can fix this now. You've gone too far…"
The boy – more a man now, twisted beyond what a child should be – chuckled. He didn't look amused, more tired and worn, like someone who hadn't had enough sleep. Desperate. That made him more dangerous. He wasn't insane, not yet, but James felt certain it was only a matter of time until he cracked.
"I was too far the moment my father was murdered. I could have come out a saint, helping people across the world and saving the Kingdoms. It wouldn't have mattered. You want my Semblance. I'd have been labelled a terrorist either way. What's one family in the face of Atlas' reputation? What does the law matter in the face of that?"
"Atlas is corrupt. I admit that. That fact does not justify what you are doing now."
"I don't care." Jaune Arc placed a hand on Winter's shoulder. "All I care about is saving my family."
"What happens after, Jaune? Do you think you can go and live peacefully with them? You can't think that will happen, not after what you've done."
"And what's your suggestion, General? Surrender? Be executed? What is the alternative you want to offer me?"
James wanted to swear. He had nothing. Nothing at all. If Jaune Arc surrendered now, he'd be marched through a Kangaroo court before being executed or locked away, then mysteriously committing suicide before ending up back in a lab. The world would gloss over him, forgetting in an instant he existed while Chivalric Arms continued their experimentation. Thanks to both Ozpin and the Council of Atlas siding against him, he couldn't even offer the safety of working for him.
There was nothing he could offer. Jaune Arc might as well fight and die because that would at least be a better fate than what else lay in store. They both knew that, which meant that for all his words and all his reasoning, there could be no peace.
"I'm the last person who wanted to fight you, Jaune Arc. I saw the evidence of what happened to you. I despised it. I've dedicated my efforts to trying to bring Chivalric Arms to justice. You may not believe me, but I wanted to prove your innocence. I wanted to do the right thing."
"You're right." Jaune said softly. "I don't believe you."
Ironwood closed his eyes.
"But," Jaune said. "in the small chance you're telling the truth." He sighed. "Thank you."
It shouldn't have been like this, James reflected. He'd hoped to face the boy and calm him down, win him over and use his connections with Ozpin to prove his innocence and expose Chivalric Arms. Instead, he was here with only two options. Kill him now or capture him alive and kill him later. Either way, Chivalric Arms would go free. The same corruption he so despised would fester in Atlas. In fact, they'd even managed to orchestrate it so that he had to be the one to put the boy down.
"What do you want?" James demanded. "You wouldn't have set Winter up like that without demands."
"I want Amber."
"Amber Arc?" he questioned. "I don't have her. I have Sable and Saphron, and they're safe. Amber Arc is the last remaining and still in the possession of Chivalric-"
"She isn't."
James frowned. "Isn't what?"
"Chivalric Arms doesn't have her. They lost her. The Bullhead that fled from Atlas was brought down over Vale and crashed down. Someone else found Amber and took her away, and that same someone is keeping her locked away. Chivalric are looking for her even now."
Was that true? There was no way to confirm it here, but Ironwood made a note to look into it. "If that's the case then you know I don't have her. Why bother asking something I can't deliver?"
"Because you know the person who does have her."
"Then why aren't you targeting them instead of a hotel like this!?" Ironwood barked. "Who has her? Depending on your information, I might be able to investigate, but I'm not letting you leave with Winter. I'll kill you myself before then."
"Ozpin. Ozpin has my sister."
On the chest of the dead body of a nearby Chivalric Arms soldier, an intercom switched off.
/-/
"Mr Fields, sir." The new clerk bowed his head and placed a hand over his chest. "We've located the missing subject. She is being kept in Beacon Academy, Vale."
"Really now? So, it was Ozpin who had her all along. I suspected as such. Well, that doesn't come as much of a surprise." Matthew Fields silenced the news report playing on the large screen and swivelled in his seat to the clerk at the door. Outside the windows, clouds rushed by as the private jet carried them onward. "In fact, it's quite exciting. I can't imagine anyone would keep the girl prisoner unless they saw some potential in her. My, oh my, I wonder if she has unlocked the Null Semblance herself. Two specimens of opposite gender provide some possibilities. We may be able to interbreed the gene and refine it."
"That will depend on whether it can be retrieved from the Headmaster of Beacon, sir. If she has unlocked her Semblance, he might not be prepared to give her up."
"Perhaps not. Perhaps." Matthew Fields chuckled. "But then, we have something he seems rather interested in as well, don't we?"
"Yes sir. The target, one Ruby Rose, is being delivered to a testing facility as we speak."
"Ruby Rose, hm. That's quite the name to have to remember. No, it just won't do. Let's call her Subject-S instead. Have the departments decided yet who will have her?"
"There's quite a scuffle for it, sir. Several have made requests. I've had proposals to harvest her eyes and split them between two departments as well. That may cause irreversible harm, however. I have told them they will have to wait for your decision."
"Acceptable. Let's see what dear Ozpin says first, why don't we? Null is much more interesting to our studies than some ocular mutation, and we have all the blood we would need from her. Tell the doctors they can harvest eggs if they wish. Even if we do hand her back, there's no reason we can't fertile an embryo and grow more."
The clerk bowed his head. "Yes sir. I'll get on that now."
Matthew Fields watched him go before turning back to the TV in his private room, leaning back and watching with a smile a replay of the moment one of his men was launched from the window and sent splattering down. The news crews had blurred out the damage, but he'd personally seen what an impact of that velocity could do to a body. It wasn't pretty.
Those men were well trained and equipped, and Subject 000 was ripping through them with ease. He could only imagine what trained soldiers of Atlas would do with that kind of firepower. They could take over Remnant, claim the world, bring peace and usher in a new age for humanity. An age where brave men and women could fight back against powerful huntsmen, bring about equality and focus their efforts on the real threat, the Grimm.
"You hold the power to reshape the world inside you, Jaune Arc," he said, saluting the screen with a glass of wine. "The next step in the evolution of man, our ascension to a new age. Hold on just a little longer, and soon I will be there to personally show you the way."
"Mr Fields, sir. This is your pilot speaking. We are approaching Valean airspace and will land in fifteen minutes. Please ensure you are seated and secured."
Finally. Matthew Fields leaned back with a smile.
It was time to put affairs in order.
The big bad comes to Vale, Jaune reveals the truth of Ozpin and Ruby gets kidnapped.
Meanwhile, Salem in the Grimmlands with a curious frown on her face as she wonders if she even needs to do anything to bring about the end of the world. "Wow, these humans are really good at screwing themselves over. I should take lessons…"
Next Chapter: 28th September
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