Disclaimer, I do not own RWBY
Chapter 4: Conspiracy
~6 years ago~
Mercury sat alone at the bar, tossing back shot after shot of whiskey. The other patrons gave him a wide berth, shooting him the occasional furtive glance but otherwise making no move to approach. Even the drunkest of the drunk could sense that messing with him was a monumentally bad idea and steered clear.
"Sir, perhaps you've had enough for the night?" The bartender said.
"Shuddap, I can keeph drinking. I got the liens." Mercury's reply came out slurred. Slamming a stack of lien on the table, he emptied his glass and motioned for the bartender to get him a new one.
"As you say sir." The bartender sighed and did as Mercury asked, shaking his head in disapproval when Mercury downed the entire glass in one go.
"Gotta say, not the place I expected to find you."
Mercury glanced up at the familiar voice, finding Jaune next to him. "What do you want? Leave me alone."
"May I please have a glass of orange juice? Thank you." Jaune handed over the lien and took the seat next to the increasingly irate Mercury.
"Pish off Jauney, I'm not in the mood."
"Yeah, I can see that. I thought you hated booze, yet here you are." Jaune chuckled and Mercury flipped him the bird.
"Going solo not working out for you?"
"Fuck off. Go brag about your business elsewhere, I don't wannah hear it." Mercury slammed his head into the bar top.
"How much have you drunk already? Jeez, that's poison you're putting in your veins you know. I'm ninety percent sure you bleed whiskey now." Jaune said.
"Yeah? Maybeh I have somethin inside I want to kill? Considered that?" Mercury glared at Jaune with bloodshot eyes.
"…You've certainly let yourself go." Jaune took a sip from his drink, ignoring the angry growling from Mercury.
"The old Mercury would have tried to kill me by now."
"You're not worth it. Oi! Barkeep, another!" Mercury shouted, waving his empty glass in the air.
"Sir, I really don't think-" The bartender began.
"Give him what he wants, I'll make sure he doesn't cause any trouble. And here, something for your trouble." Jaune handed over a sizable tip. The bartender stared at the lien with a thin smile for several seconds before accepting it.
"Fine, but this is the last one. Then he's your problem." He grunted, slamming one final glass on the table and shooting Mercury a dirty look.
"Of course, thank you." Jaune nodded politely.
"Why'd youh have to beh a busybody? Leave me alone." Mercury raised his head and stared into the cup, watching his own distorted reflection in the amber liquid.
"And miss the chance to watch you destroy yourself? Forget it." Jaune chuckled.
"Dick." Mercury grumbled, slamming his head into the bar top again and nearly causing his drink to spill.
"Guilty as charged. You know, I always wondered where you disappeared to after the plan went to hell. Turns out, the ass end of nowhere being a two-bit assassin for hire. A real upgrade, I'm impressed." Jaune said sarcastically.
"Tch, I can still kill you for free if you don't shaddap now. You gotta a lotta free time for someone fighting a gang war in Vale." Mercury snapped.
"Oh don't you worry about Vale, they'll fall in line or they'll just… fall." Jaune smirked.
"Tch, show off." Mercury grunted and drank deeply from his final glass of the evening.
"You know what your problem is Mercury?" Jaune asked.
"…"
"You lack purpose, dead thing. Living just to kill." Jaune intoned.
"What?" Mercury blinked in confusion.
"I had time, dug into the past for a bit. Your old man, Marcus Black right?" Jaune smiled coldly as Mercury's angry growl confirmed it.
"He disappeared around the time you joined Cinder, guess you offed him."
"So what if I did? He deserved what he got."
"Mmhmm, he made you into a weapon. Then you became Cinder's pet attack dog-"
"I am nobody's pet!" Mercury snarled.
"Ah, that's more like the old Mercury, still got some fight in you it seems. Good. I have no use for a washed-up loser."
"Oh… keep talking Jauney, you're really pissing me off now."
"Don't mind if I do. You got away from Cinder and what do you do? Go right back to being a weapon for hire. Always just following orders, do you have any thoughts of your own inside that empty skull of yours?" Jaune continued chipping away at Mercury's rapidly diminishing patience.
"Right now, I'm thinking I'll empty yours with a bullet. How's that sound?" Mercury growled, clicking off the safeties on his boots.
"See? That's exactly what I mean, when you're not following orders, you're thinking of killing. You're dead inside and all the booze in the world won't fill that empty hole you call a heart. You're rusting away and you know it." Jaune said.
"…So? What's your point? Come to mock me in your free time? Kick a man when he's down?" Mercury sighed, anger evaporating. Grabbing the half-empty glass, he drained it completely and debated demanding one more before simply setting it down with another sigh.
"Tempting but no. I'm here to make you an offer." Jaune replied.
"So in the end, you're just another jackass wanting me to deal with their problems. Figures. Who do you need dead?" Mercury smiled bitterly.
"You're not listening Mercury. I don't need an assassin… not right now at least. I need a bodyguard for some people." Jaune said and Mercury fixed him with a blank stare.
"You're taking the piss, right?"
"Hahahaha… no. Look, you don't like me and I sure as hell don't like you. But I can respect your skills at least. So I'm making you this offer, bodyguard duty until I settle things in Vale. In exchange, you get paid way above market rate and you get a break from death." Jaune laid out his terms.
"Most likely, nothing's going to happen at all and you're just there for insurance. Take the time to sort out your life and find a worthy purpose, or don't. It's up to you really."
"And if something does happen?" Mercury raised an eyebrow.
"Then you do what you do best. Interested?"
Mercury didn't immediately respond. Picking up the empty glass and staring into it again, he saw his own reflection staring back at him at the bottom. A dishevelled wreck of a man. And how he despised it.
"Ah fuck it, not like I have anything better to do. So, who needs guarding?"
"Excellent." Jaune smiled.
"Maybe I should go on vacation." Mercury backflipped over one of Malachite's grunts. Ramming a boot into the man's back, he promptly kicked the poor sob over the rails and sent him plummeting several floors to his death.
More gunfire erupted, sending bullets whizzing over Mercury's head. Ducking around a corner and leaving the hit squad behind, he all but skipped his way past the grunts trying to kill him.
"You know, the contract never specified I had to bring the entire train in. It was just to take out the giant bug and keep at least some of the idiots alive." Mercury called out and received only another hail of gunfire as his response.
"Eh, worth a shot." Vaulting over the railings, Mercury landed on a lower floor and sidestepped the spiders trying to rush him. When the mess of bodies became too much to easily wade through, Mercury sighed and started lashing out with kicks, snapping several necks and clearing a path.
So, Lil Miss Malachite hadn't been pleased someone swiped the entire train from right under his nose. Instead of rightly blaming her men for that failure, she wanted his head on a pike instead.
Figures.
"Ah what the hell, got half the money upfront at least. Enough to kickback and relax for a bit." Mercury shrugged, roundhouse kicking a thug hard enough to bowl over the men behind him.
Personally, he found it hilarious. Someone knew they were jacking the train and decided to steal the entire thing from under them, after they did all the hard work neutralising SDC security.
The Spiders of course disagreed. Especially after they tracked down the missing ninety percent of the train and found the slowly rotting corpses of their fellows. Now Lil Miss really, really wanted him dead.
"I should probably leave Mistral for a bit. Atlas? Nah, too cold." Mercury mused, snatching a knife out of a thug's hands and introducing it to his buddy's face, burying it right down to the hilt.
"Vacuo? Hahahahah… no. So, pay Jauney a visit? Mmm…" Mercury trailed off in thought. As far as employers went, Jaune paid on time and never tried double crossing him. Going to Vale now might net him a new gig and nice little payday.
But that meant dealing with Jaune. They weren't friends seven years ago and they definitely weren't friends now. Jaune Arc was an enigma and it irked Mercury from the very moment they met, he was like Cinder in a way, both of them had some kind of hidden agenda, but unlike Cinder, he couldn't tell what Jaune's angle was.
It was exhausting staying on guard for a knife in the back that never materialised.
"Ugh, maybe later. I don't need the cash now." Mercury muttered with a shrug. He was set for the near future and there were other places to be.
In any case, that all came later. For now, he could hear the sound of sirens approaching, the cops finally catching on to the ruckus. "Eh, time to leave."
"What you're asking is insane, do you have any idea how much that will cost!?" The Marigold representative shouted.
Weiss took a deep breath, resisting the urge to start screaming in frustration. Fixing him with an icy glare, she smiled coldly. "You've been underpaying your workers, especially the faunus. You will pay them the wages owed to them."
"Girl, you have no idea what yo-" The man began.
"I am Weiss Schnee, CEO of the Schnee Dust Company and councilwoman. I am asking nicely. Do not push me Marigold. You won't like it when I get angry. I am warning you one last time, pay your workers what they are owed and we can forget this. Or don't, and become an example of what happens to people who break the laws of this kingdom." Weiss spat out through gritted teeth.
"This is preposterous! You can't do this! It's an abuse of power!" The representative shouted.
"I can and I will. Your family has been flouting Atlas's labour laws for decades now. You are criminals the previous councils never saw fit to prosecute. I am not them. You will get no special treatment, and if you refuse to set things right, I do hope you're ready to rot in prison for the rest of your life." Weiss delivered her ultimatum.
"I-it's… there are others who-"
"I know. And they will be made the same offer as you. You all think just because you're rich, you have the power to pick and choose what laws apply to you? I'm afraid that's not the case." Weiss shook her head slowly, steely gaze unwavering.
"W-we'll leave! We'll take our business to the other kingdoms then! You can't afford to lose us." The representative put on a smarmy grin as sweat dripped down his face.
"Actually, we can. You try and leave, try and move your assets elsewhere and Atlas will seize everything you own. You are a criminal Marigold, I'm only offering you this opportunity because I believe in second chances. If you run, then I'll see that my goodwill has been spurned and you will be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law. So, by all means run, then Atlas can nationalise your business for free." Weiss waved her hand dismissively at him.
"A… ah… you… y-you… and what about you? The SDC isn't clean either!"
"I know. And I've taken the steps to remedy the SDC's wrongs. If you have nothing else to say, then I suggest you start thinking about which is the right choice to make. I know which one I'd prefer." Weiss smiled coldly.
"You have to the end of the month to fix things. And please, feel free to try something funny. I will definitely enjoy it."
"Your father would never stand for this." The representative's shoulders slumped in defeat.
"Yes, but my father is dead and I am not him."
Weiss slumped into her chair and massaged her temples. The office was still too big in her opinion. A large desk facing the door dominated the centre of the room, anyone stepping inside would be immediately greeted with it. Behind it sat her, framed against the Atlesian skyline courtesy of the windows that made up the back of the office.
Prior to Jacques Schnee's untimely demise, this was his office. Then for a time, it was her mother's, not that she used it much. Willow only kept the seat warm for the few months it took to complete the transition to Weiss and ever since then the place was hers.
She'd long ago thrown out everything that reminded her of Jacques, had it all burnt to ashes. But even then, his ghost still lingered in the way the office was set up. Everything larger than it needed to be, more grandiose than was prudent. All designed to intimidate anyone stepping foot inside.
Weiss rested her head on the cool marble tabletop. She'd considered doing a complete overhaul on the office, tear it apart and rebuild it from the foundations. But those plans never went anywhere, feeding Jacques's ego aside, whoever he hired to design and set things up had done an amazing job.
Things worked and she just didn't have the energy to shift everything out while renovations were done. It probably wasn't healthy to be cooped up in a place where she was haunted by spectres of the past, but…
Weiss sighed and sat back up, pulling another stack of papers over. Issue after issue after issue, there was no end to it. Duty called and she had a responsibility to see things done right, no matter how exhausting it was.
Once she'd fiddled with the idea of letting Whitley take over as CEO instead so she could focus on her duties as a councilwoman. That idea had died a flaming death when her brother came to visit one day, saw the unholy stack of papers on her desk, started laughing and walked right out.
"Politics, how tiresome." Weiss grumbled and flipped through the sheets. The first were several petitions from the people of Mantle to improve the aging infrastructure, she filed it away to be looked into at the next council meeting.
Then came several reports about increased Grimm activity near the kingdom's borders. Fortunately, there weren't any settlements nearby to worry about and most of the Grimm were keeping to the Grimmlands. Still, it was probably prudent to step up patrols in that area and keep a quick reaction force on standby, something to run by her sister later.
A few other miscellaneous documents of varying import made up the rest of the pile. Some were pretty trivial like a request to give Atlas's public buildings a new paintjob, put some colour into the city. Perhaps when they had the budget and manpower, it might help lift the people's spirits and keep negativity at bay.
The Atlesian 'elite' had also snuck in some of their own requests. Most would go into the discard pile, but as councilwoman, Weiss still had the responsibility to give them a fair shot, just in case they brought up valid points of concern.
Most were what she expected, attempts to wheedle out of paying restitution and changing the way they did things. But a few were stranger, requests for additional security to be deployed around their holdings after witnessing 'things' in the area.
Also, something about people being 'off'? Weiss couldn't make sense of it, one more thing to run by Winter the next time they met.
"Haaah… they better not be referring to faunus as things again or we're going to have problems." Weiss muttered, wondering what to do with the request. All of the petitioners had their own security detail, why come asking the council for more men all of a sudden? Especially when they wanted to stay as far away from the council's reach as possible.
"Could be nothing, probably is nothing, but still…" Weiss pursed her lips and set the documents off to the side, she'd come back to them later.
For now, her more pressing concern was the train robbery. Sighing explosively, she stared at the report and the follow up investigation details with a dead expression. She'd gotten the proof she needed someone was using the SDC supply lines to smuggle Chronos and mech parts of all things.
Initially, she thought it was just a few individuals trying to make a quick profit by slipping under the radar. But the conspiracy ran deeper than she expected, by the time Atlas moved to bring the suspects in for questioning, all of them had already perished.
Some were found hanging in their homes, others had 'accidents' involving high places or sudden brake failures. Now, all she was confirmation that something was definitely afoot and they were quite possibly worse off than before she started, with all potential leads dead.
"Hmm… no there is still one more angle to look into." Weiss frowned in contemplation. Atlas was a dead end for now, but there was still the Mistral connection to look into. Whoever was responsible was working with Lil Miss Malachite.
If they could get her to enlighten them, they might actually make some headway in the case. But for obvious reasons, a Mistralian crime lord was way out of her reach.
"Haaah… I need to make a few calls. Maybe Ren and Nora will have something from that Chronos lab they hit that's useful."
Argus was bustling with life and the streets were packed. Streamers hung from the rooftops and firecrackers going off could be heard over the cacophony. Emerald tuned out the sound of celebration as she made her way through the crowd.
Whatever festival the people of Argus were celebrating interested her none, her trip here was purely business. A simple wig and a pair of sunglasses were enough to mask her features from prying eyes. Careful application of her semblance on anyone she had to interact with meant they wouldn't even remember that.
Passing by a park, she paused and glanced towards a large statue on a pedestal. A memorial to those lost during the chaos of the Vytal Festival seven years ago. Pyrrha Nikos, the pride of Sanctum and Argus forever immortalised in bronze. Beneath the statue was a plaque that listed the names of the fallen.
Emerald remembered the day the statue was unveiled, having drifted to Argus just in time for it. Back then she'd snorted at the sight of it, Pyrrha Nikos had been a huntress after all, one of Cinder's enemies and she'd done her level best to interfere… until Jaune put a permanent stop to that anyways.
She could recall the bitterness lingering in the air that day, so many cursing Jaune's name for his treachery and demanding justice. Back then she had to fight hard not to laugh, delighting in other's misery to numb her own.
She hadn't been by this way since that day, and now, now she wasn't laughing. She wasn't the same Emerald that had wandered into Argus with nothing but the clothes on her back and her weapons. She was… well a work in progress, but time and experience had given her the perspective she lacked back then.
"I'm not who I used to be, and… you aren't either. I wonder what everyone would think if they found out you were still alive." Emerald whispered before shaking her head to clear her mind. No time ruminating on the past or what ifs, she had a job to do.
(break)
Sanctum was taking advantage of the festival to hold an open house, drawing in visitors from all around the city and beyond in an effort to bolster enrolment. They were even hosting guided tours of the facilities, showing off as much as they could to draw the best and brightest away from other academies.
That suited Emerald perfectly. Introducing herself as the big sister of a prospective student here to check out the place, she easily secured herself a spot on one of the tours. After that, it was a simple matter of slipping away.
Keeping an eye on the various cameras, she made sure to stay out of their vision as she moved through the campus. Making her way to the headmaster's office, she checked her scroll, on it was a live feed from the festival outside. Sanctum's headmaster was present among the attendees and wasn't leaving anytime soon.
A quick check of the door knob revealed it was locked. Excellent, that meant no one was inside and no one should be coming either. The headmaster was off at the festival and if the cleaning schedule she was supplies was correct, no one would be coming to clean up until tonight, plenty of time for her to get in, get the data and get out.
Picking the lock with practiced ease, she let herself in. No cameras around and no alarm sounded, her intel was correct again. Still, there was always the possibility someone else had bugged the room so the disguise stayed on.
Taking the headmaster's seat, she booted up his computer and logged in with the password she'd been supplied. Once more, no issues there.
Emerald scanned through the files, most of them were about the school's operations, potential plans for the future, that sort of mundane stuff. Exactly what she was looking for.
After several minutes of searching, she found the two documents she was searching for. The first an incident report about a serious case of vandalism. Someone had broken into the school a few months back and smashed up every monitor they could get their hands on, weirdly enough the actual computers were completely untouched.
Could have been someone being stupid enough to think monitor equalled computer, but the destruction was too absolute, too thorough for it to be a mistake. Someone wanted those monitors gone with extreme prejudice.
The next was a document to Sanctum's insurance provider rejecting replacements. This one had Emerald confused, the monitors that had been destroyed were newish, just over a year old and part of the Sanctum's upgrading plan. They were many things, cheap was not one of them.
For the headmaster to reject replacing any of the destroyed monitors, ostensibly to prevent a repeat incident since the culprit had yet to be caught, had warning bells ringing. The headmaster had instead replaced the monitors with positively ancient ones out of his own pockets, if the lack of an official receipt was anything to go by.
Even the monitor she was using was one of those clunkers from two decades ago. Looked like a giant brick and weighed as much as one, the colour was garbage and the screen flickered constantly. She hadn't even realised old CRT monitors still existed, let alone enough to fill a school's needs.
If nothing else, she'd put good money on the headmaster being the one responsible for destroying the monitors. But the why escaped her.
Copying the two data files to her scroll, she shut off the computer and made to leave before anyone could catch her. Intel secure, she'd hand it off later. Whatever was going on in the school was beyond her and she'd leave it to the others to figure out the mystery.
Slipping out the door and locking it, she dodged the cameras again and rejoined the tour group she ditched, no one the wiser to her little excursion.
"Yeah, it's done, I've sent them both over." Emerald spoke into her scroll.
"…"
"Define weird. He was acting normal at the festival, but yeah, he's definitely up to something."
"…"
"Insurance scam maybe? I don't know, conspiracy theories aren't my strong suit."
"…"
"Yeah, I'll leave it to you."
"…"
"You want me to what!?"
"…"
"Haaah… fine, I'll try, but he's not going to like this." Emerald sighed and stared into the blue sky as the call ended.
"No rest for the wicked."
Author's notes: Right, forgot to mention this last chapter. Dr Schale and Stein are references to Mary Shelley and Frankenstein.