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Chapter 29: Red like Roses
"Err… feeling a little chilly there?" Yang asked, making her cheeks grow redder at the amused tone in the other girl's voice, even as her eyes roamed Blake's naked body.
"Long story short, your cousin is an asshole." Blake countered as she sat down on the couch, making Yang laugh slightly as she sat next to her.
Yang was a… decent friend, she didn't judge and she was great at distracting Blake from her current situation. Being a glorified sex slave for a psychopath was rather frustrating at times after all.
"Uh-uh, that would explain the collar. One day you're gonna tell me what exactly your relationship with Shiro is." Yang deadpanned, making Blake shrug helplessly, how would she explain that she was a terrorist being blackmailed into being a sex toy by a crime lord. "You want to go get changed before the movie starts?"
"...I'd love to, but I'm pretty sure Shiro had cameras in every room of this tower and he told me not to get changed." Blake admitted. She had to text him for permission to speak to Yang, which he granted for some reason, she had no doubt he was using her in another scheme but it wasn't like she was in a position to complain.
"Kinda glad Ruby is getting settled into her room, but I'm definitely not going to complain about the view." Yang said with a cocky smirk, she could certainly see the family resemblance at times like this.
Which was a problem because usually that smirk led to her serving Shiro, and she could feel herself grow wetter in preparation.
"You really think bringing your innocent little sister to Shiro's lair was a good idea?" Blake asked as Yang flicked through the movies on screen. "Shiro will have her eating out of his palm in a week, tops."
"Honestly? It's better than leaving her at home. Gods my family is weird." Yang grumbled with a momentary grimace before she smirked again. "Ruby might be innocent, but she's stronger than people realise. She won't do anything she doesn't want to, and if she does want to? Heh, it'd be pretty hypocritical of me to get angry." Yang admitted.
"Have you and Shiro…"
"No, not yet anyway. Pretty sure that's purely because Shiro is always busy or half the world away, he hasn't exactly tried to hide his interest and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't mutual." Yang admitted shamelessly. "Cousin or not, Shiro is fucking sexy and I do love a confident man."
Confident wasn't quite the word she'd use for him, arrogant or megalomaniacal seemed more fitting.
She'd made a mistake by speaking up in his office, especially after agreeing to be a good girl in exchange for him helping the menagerie, but hearing that her island was being swarmed by Grimm made her act irrationally, and Shiro didn't like backtalk from a girl he only kept around for entertainment.
She should have stayed quiet and heard his plans before jumping to action, Shiro had plans for her home and whether she liked it or not he might just be their only chance of survival. She made a mistake and this humiliation was the price, she'd had to walk through the club during peak hours while wearing nothing but her collar and countless people had seen her naked body, that only a small few had seen before.
No-one tried to touch her, the property of Shiro on her collar kept even the drunkest man from reaching for her naked body, but she heard far too many cameras clicking as she did her walk of shame.
She felt like shit sitting her watching cheesy action movies while her home burned, but her mother was right… The best thing they could do to help the Menagerie now is to keep Shiro happy.
She didn't like him, not even slightly, but her pride meant nothing compared to the safety of her people, and she'd do just about anything to protect them.
She'd always believed that, but when she was younger she didn't realise that anything would include so many incestuous threesomes.
She couldn't even judge Yang for her desire for Shiro, she'd had her own mothers head between her legs while Shiro fucked her not three hours ago.
- Shiro -
Game?
The Game is currently offline for a system update.
Some services will be unavailable until the update is complete.
Well, that's something.
Taking a deep drink of the whiskey on my desk, I groan slightly and rub my head. I don't know what the Game is doing but it hurt like hell
The drink dull the pain slightly, but it looks like I'll be dealing with a throbbing headache until it is done, the price of power I suppose.
A part of me wants to just go to my room and relax instead of actually doing anything and wait this headache out but things are moving faster than I anticipated and I need to make sure everything is in place for the next few stages of my plan.
"Come in." I say as my guest freezes, her hand up to knock on my office door.
My implants are still working, and I have cameras in every single room of this tower.
Entering the room as she steadies herself, Cinder struts towards me with her usual mask of confidence, and her usual lapdog following behind her. Cinder isn't as confident as she used to be, too many failures all building up (and my tech whispering into her ears that she just isn't good enough) but she won't show that vulnerability.
"Shiro, you look…" she trails off, noticing my messier look as I smirk at her slightly.
"A side effect of an experiment. The pain will be worth the gain, of that I can assure you. A little headache is nothing compared to the power boost it will provide me." I drawl, putting my drink down. Immediately I see the hunger in her eyes at the mention of power, but she knows better than to ask for more information. "What can I do for you?"
"I have the information you wanted on the Mistralian Tournament, and I wanted to ask you something." Cinder says quickly, placing a scroll down on my desk.
"And what would that be?" I ask with a smile, making her pause for just a moment.
"Vacuo, that wasn't Salem." Cinder says confidently, making me chuckle. "And despite what the news is saying, I doubt it was Ironwood either. It's not his style. I'm sure you know Watts serves Salem so it can't have been himm, and Talon lacks the talent to pull this off… that just leaves you. Why did you destroy a kingdom if you want to rule Remnant?" Cinder asks, making my calm smile grow into a wicked smirk, Emerald flinching at my silent admission. "You've told me your goal, but you haven't told me the plan. Does the Tournament even matter anymore?"
"It does, and I suppose I can let you in on a little more of my master plan. First though, Emerald be a dear and get me another drink. The bottle is in that cabinet." I order, making the dusty skinned girl jump at being addressed.
She hesitates for a moment but a look from Cinder has her moving quickly, grabbing the whiskey bottle from my expensive oak cabinet and moving over to my desk.
My desk is large enough that she has to come around to my side to pour me another drink, and as she does I reach out and grab a handful of her ass, making her yelp as my fingers dig into her white jeans, spilling some of the whiskey onto my desk as she tries to squirm away.
"Stop making such a mess, clean that up." I order, Cinder still giving Emerald a stern look as she looks between us. Emerald adores Cinder, but with a crown in her future Cinder isn't willing to risk it for Emerald, her mistake.
Emerald is a beaten dog, but there's only so much abuse she can take before her loyalty starts to fade, doubly true with them both stuck under my influencing tech. It's so easy to make Cinder see Emerald as a tool more and more while making Emerald feel betrayed and helpless.
"I don't have a cloth and you're…" Emerald says hesitantly, not moving as I grope her firm backside roughly.
"You have a tongue don't you? You made the mess, so lick it up." I order, smirking at the crimson eyed girl as she squirms before she sighs and leans forwards.
As my hand finds its way under her jeans, letting me play with her surprisingly large ass directly, she slowly opens her mouth and laps up the spilt whiskey, shame and embarrassment flooding her.
"Good girl, you don't mind me borrowing your little thief do you?" I ask Cinder, watching Emerald glance at her eyes in hope.
But Emerald hasn't worked out what Mercury did, Cinder cares about one person and one person alone.
"Of course not, but you were talking about why you had Vacuo destroyed?" Cinder prompts as she sits at the smaller chair in front of my desk. She is smiling but it has a dangerous touch to it as she stares Emerald down warningly.
Cinder was self serving before she had the temptation of ruling the world placed in front of her.
"Vacuo was destroyed because it was a shithole. Even with Swain's changes, it was a dying kingdom rotting away in the desert. Besides that, Swain was a threat to my plans and I needed to flush him out so I could deal with him. Plans are already forming to build a new city in Vacuo, a better city… and I'm not only funding it, I'm providing the materials, the labour. When New Vacuo rises from the ashes of Vacuo, I'll be the hero who made it all possible and I'll be in the perfect position to make Vacuo my bitch." I chuckle, a smile on my face as Cinders eyes widen. "Also, I needed to make sure that the other kingdoms would be ready to give up their freedom for safety, showing them the danger certainly helped with that."
"And Swain?" she asks, ignoring Emerald's uncomfortable squirming as I pull the girls jeans down her legs.
"Swain is my weapon, though he doesn't know it yet. He and Ironwood are the last of a dying breed, and exactly the type of people I can't afford to have in a position of power when my plans go further. Soon, those two will make their breed die a little faster, going down in a mutual blaze of embarrassment whether they like it or not." I chuckle, spinning Emerald around to face me as I lift her up and seat her on the edge of my desk, pulling her trousers off completely as she freezes up. I can feel her warring emotions, but she can't bring herself to embarrass Cinder by refusing.
And if she does? I'll use that to drive the wedge between them even deeper, turning Cinder against her only ally.
"How did you make Swain attack Mantle? I thought you didn't have any influence in Vacuo." Cinder asks, catching on quickly.
News of Vacuo's invasion of Mantle has already reached Vale, with the international community denouncing Swain's brutal occupation. Ironwood just wasn't in a position to do anything about it so he pulled all his men back into Atlas itself and moved the city.
"I made a new friend. As for Mistral, do you know what the Tournament really is?" I ask, making her pause, glancing at the scroll.
"A reason for Mistral to boast about their unbeaten champion usually, Nikos is practically a national treasure at this point." Cinder says, watching as I grab Emeralds small green top and pull it up, making her blush as her breasts bounce free, whimpering as I reach forwards and grope one of the light brown tits, playing with her nipple.
"Then you haven't been paying attention, it's a gambling ring. Mistral is practically run by the various criminal organisations, the council have very little power and they just don't have the manpower to deal with the rampant crime, not when they have almost as big a grimm problem as Vacuo did. Only, all the various organisations aren't quite as organised anymore. My… agent has been assassinating key figures in each gang, and the Branwen tribe have been raiding the gangs and looting everything that isn't nailed down." I explain easily, Raven really should have charged more for her services.
She thinks she's coming out on top because of all the stuff her tribe has looted from Mistral, but she's paving me a road to ruling Mistral without even realising it.
"The reason they haven't cancelled the Tournament is because they can't. The Mistral Council claims they don't want to show weakness, but there's just too much money involved in the tournament for them to cancel it, especially now that they need the funds more than ever to recover their losses. Pyrrha won't be winning this year, she's the one all the nationalistic Mistralians and dumb tourists will be betting on, the gangs will be betting on someone else and making sure they win. They have a newcomer with very long odds set to win, his name? Mercury." I drawl, watching her eyes widen.
"That's why he's in Mistral." Cinder growls, making me chuckle as I spin Emerald back around, spanking her ass lightly as I bend her over the desk.
"Councillor Le Blanc had a similar plan to take advantage of the chaos in Mistral, but I'm taking matters into my own hands. When the gangs lose their bet, they won't have the Lien to pay their lost bets and it will be a death knell to most of them, and while that happens? A… Shiro-sponsored gang will be moving in, and while they are at their weakest they will be either absorbed or exterminated." I chuckle, Ashe is currently sitting in my playroom, and I'm sure she'll come around to bring my pet crime lord. "Then all I will need is Beacon to fall under my influence for the final touch of my control of Vale." I say, running my finger along Emeralds panty-covered slit, enjoying her squirming.
"And after that? Atlas has all but fallen, Mistral will be mine, Vacuo will praise the ground I walk on and the only obstacles between me and my undisputed rule of Remnant will be Ozpin and the Menagerie, and I've already made plans for the Menagerie."
"And Salem." Cinder says, making me chuckle to myself.
"You know how easy it is for history to become legends? Or for legends to become myths… and fairy tales. Salem won't be a problem, quite the contrary… Salem is going to help me, willingly and happily." I drawl, supreme confidence in my tone.
Down in the very depths of my tower, there are four pods with some of my latest experiments. Ozma really should be more careful where he leaves his stuff, but I suppose that all-too-human emotion of shame and guilt stopped him from checking the graves too often.
My drones are spreading across the world, and there isn't much that can avoid my ever growing intelligence network. I was curious why Ozpin decided to remain in Vale, through history he had this strange habit of lingering around Vale or at least the area where Vale is situated.
The answer? This is where it all started, long before he had his tower in Beacon, there was another tower in its place, with a princess trapped inside it.
There was also a castle later on, where a foolish husband tried to run away with his daughters, and an equally foolish wife tried to stop him. The greatest and longest lasting marriage spat in history, started in the blood of four little girls.
Ozpin is pathetically nostalgic, and his lingering gave me more information than he could ever know, and now I have four magically preserved bodies in my lab, stolen away while their parents squabbled.
"She might disagree with that." Cinder warns, confusion on her face.
"Perhaps, but I doubt it. As for Ozpin? He's been trying and failing to unite humanity for a long, long time. He's a failure, and I will succeed where he couldn't." I say, undoing my trousers as Emerald whimpers, staring at Cinder as she prepares herself for the unwanted penetration coming her way.
"Besides, this world needs conquering. It needs someone to finally step up and lead it away from the path to destruction it's been on thanks to a pair of squabbling spouses and a couple of childish and irresponsible gods. Remnant will thrive under me, united and flourishing. Just look at Vale, life here is better than ever and all it took was someone willing to break the rules."
I'm going to leave out one single fact. I have no intention of settling for just being a king. I'm going to be a god, an eternal living God-King. Cinder can call herself Queen if she makes herself useful enough, but this world is mine.
It needs me, how could such a pathetic world survive without someone like me holding the reins?
"Still, it's easy to say things like that. It's considerably harder to actually follow through, plans have a bad habit of going awry." Cinder says after a moment, watching as I slowly peel Emerald's panties down, the tip of my cock pressing against her mostly dry cunt.
"That's why you have backup plans, and back up plans for if your backup plans don't work. Only a fool would put all the eggs in one basket." I deadpan as I run my tip along her slit, spreading her lower lips slightly.
Emerald quivers and squirms slightly, but Cinder is still staring her into obedience and she's just… too loyal. It's almost sad, but I have no pity for someone so easily manipulated and as I grip her two long green locks she has running down her back, using them as handholds, I thrust forwards.
Emerald lets out an uncomfortable groan as she is penetrated, tightening down as she tries to push my invading cock out of her, only making it more enjoyable as I start to move, pumping into her unresisting body.
Unfortunately for Emerald, her obsessive loyalty to Cinder is actually a bit of a problem for my plans. Cinder still relies on her, it makes her feel more comfortable and powerful to have her obedient lackey by her side.
Emerald is going to betray Cinder, I just need to find her breaking point. Emerald is one of Cinders cornerstones, and breaking her is going to send Cinder crumbling to pieces.
Cinder saw a desperate thief and turned her into her pet assassin, I saw a loyal pet assassin and I'm going to turn her into the weapon I'll use to destroy Cinder from the inside.
There's only room for one power hungry megalomaniac in this tower, and Cinders crown is going to come with a collar.
Accessing the chip inside Emerald, I make a few small adjustments and chuckle as she slowly becomes wetter, my passage becoming smoother as she moans reluctantly. Cinder's eyebrow raises in amusement at the lewd sounds coming from Emerald, a smirk growing on her face as she watches the show.
Nudging her own chip I slowly increase her arousal as she watches her pet get fucked, her cheeks heating up slightly as she rubs her legs together, her red dress riding up slightly, showing a hint of black lace. She cares too much about appearances to actually start playing with herself but that doesn't lessen her enjoyment.
Which only makes Emerald feel worse, her beloved Cinder getting off to the sight of her getting fucked, after making her let it happen? Just another nail in the coffin.
Speeding up my thrusts, the sounds of my hips slapping against her fills the room, quiet moans slipping out from Emerald as she tries to suppress them, tries and fails to be exact.
I don't alter her implant enough to be noticeable, but slowly increasing her sensitivity is easy enough and it goes under the radar for an inexperienced girl like Emerald, she isn't a virgin but she isn't used to sex either.
Not that it really matters, she'll get used to it sooner rather than later.
It doesn't take long before I feel her clench down around my cock, a low scream leaving her as she shudders, coming around my length, and I decide to move things onto the next phase.
Slamming my hips forwards, Emerald realises what is coming just a second too late as she turns to look at me in horror, just as she starts to feel my cum flooding her cunt.
She didn't honestly think I'd pull it or want her, did she?
"Your pet thief is well trained." I compliment, spanking Emerald slightly as I pull out, a trail of sticky white cum leaking from her stretched pussy and sliding down her leg. "You don't mind if I borrow her from time to time do you?"
"Of course not, Emerald will be happy to assist you whenever you please, wouldn't you Emerald?" Cinder asks, a dangerous look in her eyes as she stares down the creampied girl.
"I- if that is what you want, Cinder."
Hmm, not breaking just yet? Oh well, I'll find her limit before long.
- Willow -
"My home is burning and you have the gall to sit there and say we should do nothing?!" Robyn shouts, smashing her hand against the table as Ironwood sighs, exhaustion obvious on his face. "You pulled back the few defenders you were willing to give Mantle before the fighting even started, too focused on protecting your precious Atlas, even if it means letting Mantle fall into the hands of a tyrant."
"I pulled them back because they would have been beaten and Swain wouldn't have taken prisoners, pulling my hunters and specialist back meant that the occupation was mostly peaceful, avoiding unnecessary collateral." Ironwood said, his tone defeated as he stared her down. "While our machines are offline and compromised, by terrorists with a connection to Vacuo no less, we can't afford to fight Swain. Any attempt would just result in countless losses on both sides."
"And yet you've spent years talking about making sure Atlas appeared strong, do you think we look strong now that our territory has been stolen without so much as a finger lifted to protect it?" Katya countered, smirking slightly. "I've spent years arguing that your overreliance on unthinking machines was a mistake, now I have all the proof I'll ever need that I was right."
"This isn't about who was right or wrong!" Robyn growled, glaring at the other councillor.
"Our machines would have been fine if Shiro hadn't thrown a temper tantrum and gone back to Vale because he didn't like my time." Ironwood countered, ignoring Robyn completely making Willow's eyes narrow.
"You forgot that my son isn't one of your soldiers, James. Did you really expect to bark orders at a genius like him and actually he listened to? He doesn't take orders from his lessers." Willow said with an icy tone, glaring at the General. "Besides, he left for Vale because his personal lab is better than what we had and he didn't like working with such… subpar equipment."
"Subpar?! He had the best lab in Atlas!" Ironwood argued, making her raise an eyebrow in amusement as he paused.
"Which he deemed subpar, his lab was designed by the greatest mind in Remnant after all. If you want him to fix your precious tin soldiers so much, I suggest you change your approach." Willow said, shrugging even as Winter looked between them awkwardly.
"He isn't answering his scroll, and he disabled the teleportation device… which only he knows how to reactivate. I'm sending Winter to Vale to convince him to go back to working on fixing our machines so we can reclaim Mantle with overwhelming firepower." Ironwood said confidently, mollifying Robyn slightly even as Winter flinched slightly.
Winter was a smart girl, and she knew there was no real way to get Shiro to do anything he didn't want to do.
"Regardless, this has shown a glaring issue within Atlas… simply put James, you are overworked. It can't be easy being both General and Headmaster and you are failing to handle the responsibilities of both roles, so the three of us have come to a decision that it's time for you to focus your efforts more directly." Katya said, smugness in her tone as Ironwood glared at her, looking around the room.
Robyn was far too emotional, and it was easy to put the failure to protect her home directly at Ironwood's feet.
"I see. You realise your scheming is only hurting Atlas?" He said, seeing no support and realising he had little choice. As General and Headmaster, he gained two of the five votes in the council, taking one away all but halved his political power.
"I disagree, we are simply doing what is best for Atlas, you can remain the General, you are good at your job after all, but it is the decision of the council that you must step down from your position as headmaster." Willow said calmly, as she waited for him to act as Shiro predicted.
"Very well… I will step down, peacefully, on the condition that I get to choose my successor." Ironwood said, making Willow hide her smile. Shiro could have written a script, with Ironwood unknowingly following it word for word. "Winter, consider this my last order for you. Once you have convinced Shiro to return and get our forces up and functioning, I want you to take my place as Headmistress of the Atlas Academy."
And there it was, Ironwood handing Atlas to Shiro on a silver platter.
"Sir?!" Winter gasped, her composure breaking slightly.
Ironwood wanted one of his lackeys in his old position so he could continue running it from behind the scenes, and he trusted Winter above all the others.
James was a strange combination of entirely too trusting and incredibly paranoid, but his blind spot would serve her beloved son well.
"Two Schnees on the council?" Katya asked, making Ironwood nod.
"Winter has my utmost faith, she won't put family above country." Ironwood declared, Winter straightening up proudly.
"I don't care who becomes Headmaster, Mantle should be our priority." Robyn said heatedly. "I'll go with Winter to try and convince Eis to return."
Perhaps she wouldn't, but she'd learn to put Shiro above everything.
- Ruby -
As she finished putting her clothes away, she sighed to herself. It wasn't that she wasn't excited to come to Vale, to finally meet Shiro ( and see his robots).
She still wasn't sure what exactly her relationship with him even was, he was Yang's cousin and Uncle Qrow's son but she wasn't technically related to Qrow by blood so that meant she wasn't technically Shiro's cousin, but that didn't really matter. She was Yang's sister and that meant Yang's family was her family.
But she wasn't as naive as some people thought, and she could tell something happened between Yang and Qrow, something that really annoyed Yang and it probably involved her.
She'd also heard Qrow and her dad talking, and knew that Qrow had a pair of… personal companionship bot as a gift from Shiro. It sounded better than sexbot, and the fact that Qrow had mentioned he could change his bots appearance gave her an idea of just what Yang had seen when she went to visit Qrow that had pissed her off so much, Yang had never been one for subtlety.
The idea that her uncle had made his bots look like her and Yang was pretty disturbing, but she still thought Yang was overreacting by dragging her away from Patch, it would take Yang some time to calm down so she probably wouldn't see Qrow or her father for a while.
This place was already… strange, and if Yang was hoping to get her away from perverts she probably should have picked somewhere other than a strip club, with barely dressed women everywhere. I guess when you are as wealthy and successful as Shiro you can do whatever you want, it would explain the naked cat faunus she saw sneaking around earlier.
Still, she felt out of place here and Yang's quick disappearance to hang out with her friend left her feeling lonely, even in a tower packed with people.
As someone knocked on the door, she jumped slightly but before she could answer the door opened and a familiar face walked in, smirking slightly in a white suit that was probably worth more than half of Patch.
She didn't need an introduction, even if Yang hadn't shown her pictures of Shiro his face was on half the recent magazines and gossip sites, he seemed to like the attention.
She'd hate it, all the eyes on her, but Shiro clearly thrived in the spotlight. Maybe it was a Branwen thing, he and Yang shared quite a few traits.
"I see you've settled in quickly." Shiro said easily, a confident smile on his face as she fidgeted slightly. She didn't really know how to handle extroverts that weren't Yang. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Ruby Rose. Your sister talks about you… a lot." he deadpanned slightly, making her blush in embarrassment.
Gods dammit Yang, what had she said this time?
All she had to do was not embarrass herself in front of her maybe-cousin, then find Yang and kick her in the shin for running off.
"Uh, right! Hi! I'm Ruby Rose, it's a pleasure to meet you!" Ruby yelped quickly. "Wait, um… you know I'm Ruby, I didn't need to say that. It's nice to finally meet Yang's cousin! Are we cousins? I know we aren't blood related but you're Drunkle Qrow's son and my sister's cousin so that means you're my cousin as well right?! What should I call you? Shiro? Are we on first name basis? Mr Eis sounds too distant, Cousin?"
Trailing off at the slowly increasing smirk on Shiro's face, she felt herself grow a deeper shade of red as he let out a low chuckle.
"Thank you for agreeing to take me on as an assistant! Wait, Yang did actually ask you and not just decide by herself, right? She does that a lot, but she really means well and-"
"Slow down Ruby, deep breaths. I'm starting to see what Yang meant by… socially challenged." Shiro chuckled, reaching out and ruffling her hair (almost identically to how Yang liked to do), making her pause as she took his advice. "I know I'm amazing, but there's no need to be so starstruck, we are family after all. For simplicity's sake, I think it's best to call us cousins and not worry too much about our… somewhat confusing family tree." Shiro said calmly, making her smile despite her embarrassment. "You can just call me Shiro for now, and Yang did ask… she was even fairly polite for her."
...what did 'for now' mean? Still, it was nice to have a confirmation that they were actually cousins.
"Anyway, I wanted to come down and give you this." Shiro said, taking a small black card from his pocket and handing it over. "It's an access card, so you can actually move around the tower, and more importantly get into the lab on the floor below. Where the magic happens, so to speak." he said, making her eyes widen in excitement as she practically snatched the key away from him.
"Someone's excited, I have some… personal matters to deal with soon but perhaps you'd like a little tour first?" Shiro offered as she snapped her gaze from the sleek card to him.
"Yes please!" Ruby started, before stopping herself from talking so she didn't start rambling again. Yang said it was cute but she knew a lot of her classmates found it annoying. She didn't want to make Shiro not want her around so quickly.
"I thought you'd say that, come on. I'll show you where the magic happens." Shiro said with a chuckle, taking her hand with his and setting off out of room as she blushed, she really didn't know how to deal with extroverts like him.
Heading into the elevator, Shiro swiped the card he gave her and smiled as the elevator moved without needing any actual buttons pressed.
"That card is one of the only ways to get into the lab, the elevator buttons can't come here normally." Shiro explained as the doors opened, leading her into a pure white lab, like something out for a movie or a comic book as silver robots moved around silently, not reacting to her presence.
Unable to stop herself, she rushed forwards and spun around, her eyes moving between the dozens of wonders Shiro had just laid around on random tables.
Moving to the closest one, she looked down at a sleek white pistol with black inlays. Resisting the urge to pick it up, she looked over it from every angle she coulbas she tried to work out how it worked.
It didn't seem to have any way to reload it or a magazine, instead having a small slot to plug something into it.
"Ahh, that one. I decided I wanted a personal defence weapon, and the over the top nature of most Hunter weapons annoyed me." Shiro said, picking it up and spinning it with around his finger for a moment. "I wanted something powerful, but able to be concealed." Shiro explained as he took aim at one of his robots, pulling the trigger.
The pistol seemed small, far smaller than any hunter weapon she'd ever seen, but she was evidence that small didn't mean weak and as a flash of blue light filled the room, the chest of the robot simply… disintegrated, most of its upper body missing as it fell to the floor.
She hadn't seen the projectile, it was too fast for her eyes, but she knew a laser pistol when she saw one and as Shiro tossed it back down without a care, she was sure her eyes were sparkling.
"Regular dust ammunition is inefficient, I've found much better success using laser weaponry. Still, it's not ready yet… I need to work on the energy consumption a bit more. It eats through its energy supply too quickly to be viable at the moment." Shiro explained, gesturing to a wall where a series of similarly designed weapons waited, a sniper, an assault rifle and a shotgun from their appearance. "Also, I need to make a power limiter since it tears through most people's aura and then their bodies at the moment. I'll get around to it later, I'm making these for an Atlesian Councilwoman, and I need to finish the power armour for her first anyway, besides keeping Councillors waiting is always funny."
It was surreal to hear him talk about the people who ran the world so casually, but that was the difference between a girl from Patch and someone who seemed to have the world in his hands.
"Is that the power armour?" Ruby asked, rushing over to a pod, looking at the white armour inside it. It was much smaller than she'd expect power armour to look like, seeming almost skin tight.
Layered plates of thin white metal covered it, with a featureless face mask staring down at her creepily. He did like the colour white.
"Ahh, no. That's my personal armour, the money I'm making for Atlas is more… bulky, but they couldn't afford to put all their troops in my best armour anyway. Again, it's not close to ready yet. Only the best for me, and I've got a dozen more features I want to add before I'm ready to use it." Shiro explained, giving the armour a look before he shrugged.
"Okay… what about that one! What's this?" Ruby asked, using her semblance to cross the room as she came to a stop in front of another robot, completely different from the creepy silver ones.
She felt her cheeks turn red as she noticed that the robot lying still on the table was… anatomically correct, and completely naked.
A pair of emerald green eyes stared up at the ceiling blankly, the robot clearly deactivated at the moment. She thought for a moment that it was another one of the… companionship bots like the one her father had, but they looked completely human and this one had obvious seams in her synthetic skin.
Glancing at the robot's breasts, she felt a moment of annoyance when she realised it had bigger boobs than her, before she shook her head, growing up around Yang and her massive boobs hadn't helped her self-esteem.
Yang already had double Ds when she was Ruby's age, sometimes life just wasn't fair.
"Ahh, that is Penny." Shiro said as he approached, flicking the robot on the cheek. "She was made in Atlas, by an overrated fool who went and died, and with him gone and her shit down, I decided to bring her here for upgrading. Her creator made the mistake of treating her like a daughter and since she has a fairly advanced AI his death was rather hard on her. Thankfully, machines can be reprogrammed and I can deal with that fuck up." Shiro explained making her frown slightly.
That… didn't sound right, to wipe away its memories of it's 'father', but he was trying to stop her from suffering right?
Shiro's crass mockery of her creator made her uncomfortable, it didn't seem right to insult the dead, but she didn't call him out on it though she clearly showed it on her face as he narrowed his eyes slightly before his gaze softened.
"My apologies, let's move on, there's a dozen more projects sitting around here that are more interesting than this thing." Shiro said, patting her head with a slight smile as she blushed.
Shiro - Later -
Sitting at my lab computer, I sigh tiredly.
Normally when I show off my tech I can just go 'look how amazing it is, praise me you monkey'' and it works, but as Ruby got more complicated she started to ask questions.
How does it work, why did I make it, stuff like that, and while she isn't a scientist herself she knows a fair amount about tech, just enough that the more I explain the more questions she has.
If it was anyone else, I'd have put her motormouth to better use after the twentieth question about how my laser weaponry works, but there's a couple of things holding me back.
Two wide silver eyes, to start with. Silver eyes are special, and a rarity in this world… which makes Ruby a valuable commodity.
Pictures of Summer Rose tells me that the Silver Eyes are inherited, which means if I have Ruby I have a way to get more Silver eyed warriors.
Ruby has had a long day, and with a little technical help she has decided to go to sleep, a very deep sleep that wasn't interrupted by a little blood extraction.
First question, can cloning produce more Silver Eyed Warriors? My cloning tech is almost ready, with my new found lab help, and Ruby seems like a good place to start (at least until I can retrieve Summer Rose's corpse. My recon drones have located its general vicinity , but invading Salem's castle seems a little… hasty), and if that doesn't work?
Well, that's when I move onto the next plan and just breed the silver eyed warrior I have already.
A part of me wonders why Ozpin didn't have Summer Rose bred instead of letting her become a Huntress, it seems the logical decision with this rare breed of warrior on the brink of extinction.
Either he should have bred her himself, or had the strongest hunters of her generation do it, but he's obviously not the smartest. Everything I've learnt about Silver Eyed Warriors says they were the ultimate weapon against Grimm, so why let them die out?
With Ruby's personality I might just be able to convince her to go along with a breeding program willingly, for the good of the world.
Hmm, I should look into a method to speed up pregnancies and child growth. I hate kids, and babies are even worse. I haven't fucked around with time yet, but it should be possible.
Should be.
Maybe I'll test it in a more… remote lab, instead of risking my tower.
As my computer beeps, I let out a deep chuckle and smile to myself, my theory proven correct.
Qrow uses Summer Rose as the setting for his sex bot more than any other (closely followed by Raven, and then Yang), and that plus the resemblance between Ruby and Qrow got me thinking.
49.5% MATCH BETWEEN SHIRO EIS AND RUBY ROSE - CONCLUSION: SUBJECTS SHARE A PARENT
Qrow's a horny bastard, so I'm not that surprised. It amuses me that I am closer on the family tree to Ruby than Yang is, but ultimately it changes nothing.
If nothing else, I can use this to keep Qrow in line. I'm not sure he even knows, though I imagine he at least suspects.
With the Summer Bot constantly near Taiyang, I've built quite the profile on him and everything I have seen tells me the man is barely hanging on to his sanity.
I suspect that finding out that his wife cheated on him with his best friend would push him over the edge, which might be useful in the future.
For now, it goes to my ever growing blackmail folder.
- Bonus Scene - Ana -
"This is the place?" Ashe asked, looking at the nondescript building across the street. It looked like any other abandoned warehouse in the more… rundown side of Vale, boarded up windows and graffiti covering the walls.
"It is, I've been staking it out for a while, lots of people go in, very few come out. I've seen dozens of vans drive into the garage, more than could fit, and they never come back out." Jack said, glaring at the building from behind his visor. "Vans that match the description of the ones seen lingering near the last known location of the missing women."
"And you haven't gone and rushed in by yourself? You're growing cautious in your old age." Ana said with a small smile, making him scoff as he pulled out his gun.
"I'm getting slow, can't move like I used to." Jack admitted, setting off across the street. Knowing her sniper wouldn't be much use in a building, she grabbed her pistol and followed behind.
Two stubborn fools past their prime heading into the unknown, this was bound to go well.
As Jack reached the door, he simply reached forwards and twisted the handle, the door opening easily.
"It wasn't locked? That seems a little too good to be true…" Ana said calmly, looking into the seemingly empty building.
"I know, none of the men who came here used a key either, but keep on your guard." he said, aiming down the sights of his weapon as he moved in, checking his corners as he did.
Jack had always been a stubborn man, even before the S.E.P had turned him into Soldier 76, one of its only successful subjects. Jack and Gabriel, the only success to come out of that project before Ironwood stopped it.
...not that she'd call Gabriel a 'success', all things considered.
Moving behind Jack, she immediately recognised that Jack was right, this place wasn't anywhere near as abandoned as it was supposed to look, and as they searched it didn't take them long to find just where the vans had been going.
In the back of the garage, there was the start of a tunnel going underground and with a nod to each other, they headed down it.
She wouldn't be able to convince him to stop so after a moment she sent a message to Ozpin telling him where they were.
Just in case.
The tunnel was bafflingly long, and she was sure they were waking for hours, several side passageways likely leading to other hidden entrances but they stayed on the main path, heading deeper into the city.
Reaching an underground parking lot, she looked over the dozen or so vans parked up, with no-one in sight as Jack marched onwards.
This was too quiet, far too quiet for this an operation of this size. It was bigger than they realised to have made tunnels all other Vale like this.
Following behind Jack, her weapon ready, she couldn't shake off the feeling of dread as they pushed forwards, finding an unguarded staircase.
Reaching the top of the staircase, and heading down another corridor (that wasn't nearly as long thankfully, her legs couldn't take it) she froze as they walked into a large room… packed with rows of glass tubes, each holding a naked woman.
To say there were a lot would be an understatement, and just from a preliminary glance she'd say there were already hundreds imprisoned here.
"Jack, we need to go." Ana said quickly, her scroll not getting any signal due to how deep below ground they were. "We need to tell Ozpin, he needs to know what's happening in his backyard."
Her growing dread was realised when the door they came through slammed shut, a solid metal shutter coming down over it.
"Beginning combat trail." A unfortunately familiar voice said over a loudspeaker making them both look at each other. Moira was a friend once, as antisocial as she was, but the limits put on her research infuriated her.
And Moira always saw the advancement of science as more important than feelings or loyalty.
Heading quiet footsteps rapidly approaching, she spun around and fired her pistol towards the approaching figure, her eyes widening as a cloaked figure simply jumped, spinning as she flipped over the bullet.
Her biotic syringes were slower than normal bullets, but the kind of reaction time needed to simply flip over it was still baffling and as the figure landed she continued to charge towards them, a black blade extending out of her long sleeve.
Jack reacted quickly, firing his own rifle at the figure, his eyes widening behind their visor as a shimmering shield formed around it, allowing the figure to close in enough to simply slice his gun in two, the sleeve pulling up enough to reveal that the blade had extended out of the figures arm, it's flesh on the lower arm opening up to let the metal blade slide out, metal and circuitry exposed.
As Jack went for his own pistol, the figure simply cartwheeled towards him, bringing its foot down on his skull with unnatural speed, knocking him to the ground with a painful thud.
She fired again, but their opponent was prepared, and once again simply dodged out of the way, ducking as it charged her, the syringe going over her as she closed the distance.
She shouldn't have let Jack try to do this without more reinforcements, not that she'd have been able to stop him, and as the figure kicked her in the stomach, she groaned in pain and before she could be knocked away, the figure grabbed her arm and pulled her closer, using the momentum to knee her in the stomach a second time.
Spinning her around, the figure placed its arm blade against her throat and forced her to her knees, it's strength far greater than its small figure would suggest, and as Jack got back up from the ground, he paused as he looked at them, and the blade at her throat.
She could see the indecision in his eyes, but after a moment one of the pods opened up, the naked woman jumping out of it, her arms opening up as two long black blades slid out, both their eyes widening as more pods started to open.
"I expected more, Commander Morrison." Moira said idly over the speaker as several of the women approached him, their bodies moving with unnatural grace as they surrounded him.
As he dropped his pistol, the one holding her calmly hit her in the back of the head and she knew nothing more.
As her vision cleared, the first thing she noticed was how cold she was, and the second was the way her arms and legs were bound to the raised slab she was laid in, the platform angled at a 75 degree angle, so she was almost standing as she looked around the room with narrowed eyes.
She told Ozpin where she was, she just had to hope for a rescue at this point, even if she didn't suit the role of damsel in distress.
She was naked, and so was Jack as she looked over to her side, seeing him still unconscious from whatever they did to him, strapped down to his own metal slab.
"A super soldier program? Can't say I saw that in the files I borrowed from Atlas." A smooth voice said, drawing her attention to the white haired man looking at something on the computer, Moira standing behind him.
Shiro Eis, Ozpin definitely needed to know what was happening here.
"It was almost a complete failure, out of the one hundred subjects only two survived, and the gains were far lower than projected. Ironwood cancelled the program, claiming it was too risky. If I had more time, and resources I could have gotten it working far better. Having Morrison here will speed up the recreation process immensely." Moira explained making Shiro chuckle.
Widowmaker stood obediently at the door of the room, staring at Ana intensely, almost challenging as she held her weapon in its assault mode. Talon and Shiro were working together, with a powerful presence in Vale.
"Ironwood is short sighted, I'll see that you have the test subjects you need. And the other one? Any reason you had her captured alive?" Shiro asked casually, looking over at her.
"She'll be a perfect test subject for our new Project. Besides, she works for Ozpin." Moira said uncaringly as she looked over the completed herself.
"I know, she tried to message him before they started their little reconnaissance." Shiro replied, making her eyes widen. "Fine, use them. I'll make sure nobody is going to come looking for them." Shiro said as he rose, giving Moira a nod.
Tried to message Ozpin. Oh that was very much not good.
"Excellent, I'll see to things down here. I must say, the new cyborgs performed better than expected." Moira remarked making Shiro chuckle.
"Adding aura to my machines was easier than expected, once I realised I was missing the obvious. Everyone has aura after all, and so many people don't even use it… it's a shame to let it go to waste." Shiro said proudly. "Now I just need to find a way to duplicate semblances and my new toys will be ready to be put to work. Once Sombra has finished her current job, have her come to me. The upgraded implant is ready, now it just needs to be installed."
Author's Note: Sorry about the delay, this chapter fought me a little bit and I'm easily distracted anyway.
Next Update: Sorcerers Ambition.