Volume II: Episode 10: Routine
In the time since the incident with Team CMSN's dissolution, life had returned to a sort of equilibrium for the people living at Beacon Academy. Even if some of them - like Sun and his fellow Haven students - felt the bitter sting of shame and humiliation cut deeper than their fellows from the other three academies. Team CMSN had been their classmates, each of them one of their own, and they had missed the hidden Beowolves in their midst. Worse yet, Beacon and Atlas had dealt with the traitors, rather than letting Haven handle their own.
It bore the stench of mistrust, that Beacon and Atlas felt they couldn't rely on Haven to do their part. Sun knew better, but he understood the resentment his classmates felt.
Still, these were no simpering ruminants looking for their next meal. These were brave and valorous sheepdogs who had pledged their lives, fortunes, and their sacred honors to the eternal war that had engulfed humanity since they had first drawn breath upon their broken world of Remnant. There were no tears shed for those four who revealed themselves to be Beowolves wearing the skins of friends, only weeping for those they had failed to protect.
It was perhaps a more poetic sentiment than Sun was used to giving, but he was in a poetic mood that day as he sat with his team and Team APRC at the table during lunch. Ciel had probed his teammate Scarlet on the nature of morality and its relation to extrinsic and intrinsic forms of honor. The dark-skinned woman spoke so infrequently that the redhead had of course felt obliged to answer her. He had rather obviously not thought nearly as much about the subject as she had, though, and it wasn't long before the discussion had briefly become an argument. Briefly, because in her moment of triumph, she had seen fit to close up as if she'd just stepped into the verbal equivalent of a mole crab nest and desperately needed to retreat.
It was a shame, in Sun's opinion, as she had just gotten started on the philosophical backing for heroism, which was strangely endearing and exactly the sort of thing that Blake would like to discuss when they next met. Perhaps she felt it struck a little too close to home and sounded like she was attacking them for their Haven affiliation as some others had, even though he knew for certain that none of his team felt that way. Sage, sensing the stoic girl's great distress over something that might exist only in her own head, had changed the subject to something less sophical. Neptune then picked up on this, and the discussion was redone anew on more school-related grounds. It made him think back to that discussion he had gotten into with General Ironwood countless weeks ago…
Sun straightened out his shirt as best he could before entering the office of General Ironwood onboard his flagship, the K.A.S. Tapfer. It was still his usual outfit, and he was torn between a need to change into something far more formal and typical Vacuan sensibilities when it came to standing up for one's own personal style. Eventually, though, he decided that discretion was something better decided before he was standing outside the General's door.
He hit the intercom on the side of the door and spoke into it.
"Uh, Sun Wukong here to see General Ironwood, um, sir." And even as he said those words, he cursed his own nervousness.
Nevertheless, the door opened, and General Ironwood's smiling face greeted him from his seat on the other side of the desk in the small, cramped room. "Hello, Mister Wukong. Please, come in. Take a seat."
Sun obliged, and the door closed automatically behind him as he sat down.
"So, to what do I owe the pleasure?" asked the General.
"Nothing good, I'm afraid," replied Sun seriously. "Tell me, sir, what do you know about Professor Snake Eyes? Generally, I mean."
"A fair amount, I'd say," answered Ironwood, steepling his fingers. "I have his complete service record in the Atlesian military, even the classified bits. I also have many reports about him from those he's served with."
"Do you have… his ninja school record?" asked Sun, his mouth going dry.
Ironwood leaned forward slightly in curiosity. "Why do you ask, Mister Wukong? Don't feel like you need to put on an act for me; student-teacher confidentiality is extremely important to any headmaster."
Sun blinked at that. "But... Ozpin told us about Yang giving him the info to take down Team Crimson."
"An... unusual decision, I'll admit," Ironwood replied. "But I'm sure he had his reasons. Please, continue."
"Well, I ran into one of Professor Snake Eyes' old classmates while looking for Blake the other day. You know, when you guys are fighting Cinder here?" explained Sun.
"I remember," confirmed Ironwood, glancing down briefly. "Who was this old classmate of his? The Arashikage ninja clan has taken some bad hits in recent years."
"I asked on my way out, and he said his name was Storm Shadow," said Sun, and Ironwood's eyes widened slightly. "He says that Snake Eyes murdered the dojo's teacher, his uncle, and warned us against associating with him. lest we be betrayed too. He seemed pretty adamant about that... and killing him."
The headmaster of Atlas Academy sighed and then shook his head. "You know, it's funny. Snake Eyes told me that same story, but with the roles reversed."
Sun blinked in surprise and confusion. "What does that mean, sir?"
"It means, Mister Wukong, that they're both convinced the other killed the Hard Master," summed up Ironwood. "They, of course, want to kill the other for this grave offense. I've tried looking into this before and got nowhere. We don't have any hard evidence one way or the other, which party is right, or if they're both wrong."
"What do we do then, sir?" asked Sun with worry.
"Not a lot we can do, I'm afraid," admitted Ironwood. "I suspect that if the two find each other again, they'll have an ending to things, one way or another, and who was right will be settled by who walks away. These sorts of things are depressingly common in ninja history."
"Sir, uh, shouldn't we stop them?" inquired Sun, not sure how to continue. "I mean, if it turns out it was some third party, and then they go and kill each other, then it's all meaningless."
"Oh, I agree," Ironwood nodded. "Which is why we're not going to breathe a word of this with Snake Eyes around. That information never leaves this room; is that clear?"
"Crystal, sir," replied Sun.
"Hey, buddy, you all-right?" asked Neptune with concern.
"Hmm? Oh, yeah, guess my mind was just elsewhere," replied Sun, his tail flicking about.
"Well, you're back now, aren't you?" inquired Rufus.
"No, I'm just talking to you on autopilot because I have so many lines stored up in my head for just such occasions," shot back Sun sarcastically. "Of course I'm back."
"Most excellent!" said Penny cheerily. "I thought I might take this time to ask you, Sun, if you're taking anyone to the upcoming Beacon Dance."
Blake's face, of one of the rare moments he was able to catch her smiling, floated through his mind. "I do have someone in mind," answered Sun with a small smile.
"Oh, really? Who?" asked Penny with a strange redness coming to her face that Sun thought she should really get checked out by a doctor if it persisted.
Sun decided to take a more circumspect route, and so spoke with a grin. "Oh, it's someone you already know."
At least, he was pretty sure Penny knew Blake. They had met before, after all. Even if Penny was a lot closer to Ruby than the black-haired beauty who haunted much of Sun's thoughts.
"Well, hopefully we'll be able to make it at all," said Aska. "I think we might be getting a mission soon."
"A mission? Why would you be getting one of those?" asked Scarlet. "Has Beacon been rubbing off on your teachers?"
"I think so, but I like it," said Penny with a smile that was somehow brighter than usual. "It feels like we're finally going to get the chance to prove ourselves!"
"Do not be so eager, Bladerider," Ciel said solemnly. "You might not like the form your wish takes when it arrives."
"If it arrives," said Rufus meaningfully. "It's possible we're just being teased as part of some follow-up to our punishment for the double whammy we pulled at the beginning of the semester."
"Hey, it was either what happened or get flogged," pointed out Aska. "Personally, I'd rather be happy with what we got than be subject to a public humiliation like that."
Sage blinked in surprise. "They'd really do that? Your own father would flog you?"
"He's not…" growled Aska before hiding her red face in a hand and going about devouring her food.
Ciel shook her head. "It would be rather arcane, and certainly wouldn't be applied in this case. I suspect that it is merely an imagined threat on Aska's part. They have different punishments for those who step out of line at the academy these days."
"Why any at all though? I mean, we're training to be Huntsmen, not soldiers," reasoned Neptune.
Though she probably didn't notice it, Sun saw Ciel slipping into lecture mode again. "'To whom much is given, much is required.' In this case, we are given tremendous freedom to choose our own missions, our own teams, our own weapons, our own outfits, and even getting to choose our own flags to fight under. No soldiers in history have been given such liberties with their actions. Is it so wrong to be punished when one does wrong while training to become one of those elite warriors? Such punishments are meant to make us better, not destroy us."
"I'd just like to know what know what you three got punished over in the first place," broke in Penny.
"What, you're the one who's remained on the straight and narrow this whole time, not the straightback here?" asked Scarlet with a gesture at Ciel.
"No, I have faltered too," admitted Penny.
"So, what you get slapped with then?" pressed Sage.
Penny looked down and away in shame, blushing heavily. "I got an F on my ninjutsu project."
"Huh, somehow I'm not surprised," observed Sage, prompting Penny's blush to be even greater than it was before.
"Hey, don't worry about it, Penny. I'm sure you'll get it if you keep at it," encouraged Neptune.
"Thank you, Neptune," Penny answered politely.
"Hey, Mad Dog, got any crazy theories on what happened to Cinder?" asked Scarlet.
Rufus put his drink down and replied with a smile. "Man, I have no idea where that murderous snake slithered off to, and frankly, I'd put good money on you figuring it out first. I know how important taking care of her is to you and your fellow Havenites, and I'd be surprised if there's anything left for the rest of us to do when you find her."
"Here here!" cheered Sun, and at that the eight Huntsmen in training raised their glasses and gave a toast to the prospect of Cinder Fall being rewarded as a traitor deserved.
Cinder Fall smirked confidently as she strode through the dark alleyways of Cape Suzie, a coastal city pledged to the Kingdom of Vale that was well-defended by mountains on the land and a bay that only had one small opening between impassable cliffs to the sea. It wasn't the most well-known of cities, but that suited her just fine. Beneath the dazzling corporate heights, there existed a criminal underworld thriving off illicit trade, and that was all she needed.
More specifically, what she needed was a win. It was very hard to find people willing to do what she required of them. These ones would, though; she just knew it.
She came to an innocuous-looking door built into the side of nondescript building in the most grey and unimaginative district of the city, then gave it several short raps with the knuckles of her right hand. Instantly, a part of the wall slid aside to reveal a small speaker and microphone.
"Identify yourself," said a gravelly voice.
"Cinder Fall," she said smoothly. "I have an offer for your boss. One I think he'll be quite interested in."
There was a pause, and then the door slid open.
"Enter at your leisure, Miss Fall," said the voice.
"Thank you," she replied and sauntered through the doorway.
After passing through a short hallway, she found herself looking at another door and stepped on through to find herself… looking at yet another door. Above that door was a hologram protector. That projector soon came alive with the image of a man wearing a blue military-style uniform and a helmet with a featureless and reflective steel mask. Upon his uniform was emblazoned the prominent red symbol of a hissing cobra with its hood flared open.
"Greetings, Cinder Fall," said the man with a voice that made it clear that he was in complete control of the situation, just as the posture he had adopted sitting in his chair conveyed. "My name, to you and the world, is Cobra Commander."
Cinder smiled a polite smile that couldn't help but be laced with menace. "Hello, Cobra Commander. We have much to discuss."
"Yes, I suppose we do," mused the masked man. "Tell me though, what is there to discuss?"
"That is very simple, an alliance," said Cinder. "You, as your name suggests, are the commander of Cobra, an organization of freedom fighters waging a struggle for revolution. A noble goal, but you still have yet to make your mark on the world. Indeed, hardly anyone at all knows you exist. What you need is a way to make a statement, a powerful statement, that everyone will see and recognize. I happen to have just the statement in mind."
"We are young, and recognition will come in time. Why should we rush?" asked Cobra Commander pointedly. "Snakes, as you might know, can be very patient hunters."
"Perhaps," allowed Cinder, "but they are not lax either. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Beacon, an Atlesian fleet, and the Vytal Festival, all in one place. When is the next time you'll be able to make a statement like that?"
"Two years from now, and then two years after that, and two years after that," he replied whimsically, waving one hand in a circle. "Surely there is something more you want, something that's there specifically that you might be afraid of losing."
Cinder's yellow eyes narrowed slightly. "Perhaps it is just sentimentality on my part, but I would like to free my captured comrades. Revenge, if you will."
A lie mixed with a truth. Revenge would taste very good indeed, but she doubted her old minions would be of much use. After all, they had failed to so much as escape from the Atlesians.
"Ah, but why not attack the prison, or the ship where the Atlesians likely have them sealed away?" asked Cobra Commander pointedly with a likewise pointed finger.
"I would need a distraction," she reasoned calmly.
"So you intend to crash the biggest bi-annual party on the planet to use as a mere distraction?" summed up the man as his hand returned to rest. "Preposterous. No, you have unfinished business there, a mission left uncompleted when you were so visibly cast out of Beacon Tower and the oh so vaunted Huntsman Academy system itself. That's what you need, cover to complete your own objectives. So, why? Why should Cobra become involved if we're not interested in infamy at this juncture?"
"Because it will result in a favorable position with my organization," said Cinder. "There is a storm coming, and you can either stand in the eye or be swept out to sea with the councils and the academies."
Cobra Commander chuckled darkly at that. "And now we get to the real meat of the issue, Miss Fall. You're not in command; you are merely the lackey of a higher power, and that higher power seeks the dissolution of the world's governments. In that regard, I approve, but it does raise one important question: what next?"
"What next would be up to you if you join," answered Cinder smoothly.
The man suppressed a snort behind his reflective mask. "You must think me a fool, or perhaps more likely, you don't care what happens to the world. I do. Cobra has a vision for the world, a complete and holistic vision that accounts for every variable. A structure, all laid out and ready to come alive. We want the world order to fall, yes, but fall into the waiting arms of Cobra, not fall into rubble.
"After all, only a fool destroys their own defenders without planning for their replacement."
"What good are plans if you don't have the power to enact them?" asked Cinder pointedly.
"And you have power?" asked Cobra Commander in turn. "Is that why you were run out of the White Fang in Vale on the same day you were cast out of the Huntsman Academies? I hear they have new allies now, new more powerful allies. Perhaps I should be speaking to them if they're so invincible as to replace you."
"Optimus Prime is not invincible," vowed Cinder resolutely.
"No. No, they certainly are not," allowed Cobra Commander. "They are, however, more powerful than you."
Cinder sneered at that, and one eye flared with the fiery wing of magic power while in her right hand, a fireball ignited. "You know nothing about what you speak. Perhaps a demonstration is in order?"
"Oh, yes, do go ahead and blow down this door to access our hidden base," said Cobra Commander in mock agreement. "Just be careful not to set off the packets of nerve gas inside. It is, after all, odorless and tasteless, paralyzes instantly, and kills in seconds. And for what? To raid a base that's already been evacuated since before you walked in?"
The fire in Cinder's hand died out. "I think we're done here."
"Yes, yes, I think we are," agreed Cobra Commander.
Cinder turned around, left the building, and continued on down the alleyway. Mere seconds later, after she had turned onto the busy street, tracing her steps into the alley from the other end emerged a squad of black-armored, gas masked soldiers. They each sported a flag on their shoulders featuring a sword, an iron face, and the word "DESTRO." They came up to the door with weapons drawn and gave a sharp, perfunctory knock.
"This is the Iron Grenadiers. Open up, Cinder Fall," ordered their leader.
The panel slid aside again, and once more, the speaker came to life. "Cinder isn't here. You just missed her."
A holographic screen appeared above the panel and showed accelerated security footage of Cinder entering the hideout and the meeting going south before slowing down to show her leaving the alley just before the Iron Grenadiers came in.
"We can still get her," realized the leader, and he made to move out. Before he did, though, he reached into his coat and drew out a business card that he placed inside the panel. "Don't think we're through, though. After all, MARS is a completely apolitical weapons supplier. Unlike our competitors, we don't play favorites, and we offer conditional free shipping on orders of a hundred million lien or more."
"Thank you for the offer," came a different voice, the voice of Cobra Commander. "Inform your employer that Cobra will be in contact."
What a day, what a day, mused Counterpunch as he walked down the hall, careful to keep his thoughts circumspect in case Soundwave was listening in somehow.
He had no idea whether or not it was actually physically possible for Soundwave to hear his thoughts, especially since he was in Sanus and the intelligence expert was back on the Nemesis, but it didn't take much time among the Decepticons to develop that sort of paranoia. Soundwave had pulled off one too many coups - and prevented just as many directed at Megatron - for it to be mere coincidence. Whether it was telepathy, freakish hearing, precognition, or a dark science predictive modeling algorithm, all had come to suspect that there was something going on.
He was doing a checkup on some of the other Decepticons and had decided to check in with Barricade specifically. He hit the control for the door to the room where the security officer spent his free time and prepared himself for the argument. He was left completely unprepared by what he found inside.
"Sweet Primus," breathed Counterpunch as he looked at the tangled mess of papers, posters, pictures, and far more that covered almost every free space of wall in the room.
"Oh, hello, Counterpunch," greeted Barricade as he carefully moved one of the tacks holding the string down to the chart. "How are you doing?"
"Just... checking in," Counterpunch managed to get out. He shook his head. "What is all this?"
"My analysis of the Autobots' extensive machinations on Remnant," Barricade declared proudly.
Counterpunch stared at Barricade, then took another look at the string crisscrossing the walls. On one wall, under the string, he could make out a map of Remnant, but the rest was dominated by snapshot still images of various individuals - some native to this world, some well-known Autobots - and various clippings from intel reports and local media.
He made the mistake of letting his gaze linger on a trio of images grouped together and circled.
"That is Sunfire," Barricade said, pointing at two of the images. "Her two different uniforms. Her real name is Yang Xiao Long." He pointed at the third image, a human female with an impressively large mass of blond hair. "She's a student at Beacon Academy and currently working with both the White Fang and the Autobots, but that's not the end of it."
"It isn't?"
"No, because she's obviously serving as a go-between for the White Fang, the Autobots, and the independent strike squad of student soldiers. All using the headmaster's dual identity to make it possible."
"'Dual identity'?" Counterpunch had a feeling this was going to be a long meeting.
Barricade turned to him and began enunciating while gesticulating at an image pinned to the wall of Optimus Prime next to a picture of the Beacon Academy headmaster. "Ozpin. Oz. Pin. O-P. Optimus Prime. Ozpin is the secret identity of Optimus Prime."
"Wait, so you're suggesting that Optimus Prime has been a transtector this whole time?" asked Counterpunch, totally floored. "Those are supposed to be just bad science fiction, though."
"It would explain all the times he's 'died' only to show up later though, wouldn't it?" replied Barricade before going back to looking at the chart. "Godmaster is a possibility, though."
"A what-master?!" Counterpunch blinked.
"But probably not, because that would mean some organic has figured out how to interface with the Matrix of Leadership, which means hacking artifacts of the Thirteen Primes," mused Barricade aloud. "Most likely, it's just a holographic projection or drone construct that he's been using to secretly interact with this world over the megacycles. No need to get overly complicated here."
"Oh no, we certainly wouldn't want that now, would we?" Counterpunch agreed dryly.
"No," said Barricade, possibly missing the subtext, "especially not when dealing with a conspiracy this vast and long lasting."
"What conspiracy?" asked Counterpunch, mildly worried about the answer he would get.
"Optimus Prime's conspiracy, of course! Weren't you paying attention? Ozpin wasn't the first secret identity Optimus has taken; there had to have been others. Looking through the old texts, I found many." He paused, rifling through some documents on his desk, and held up between his thumb and forefinger an aged hardcopy book, which he began flipping through. "One of the most prominent was the Last King of Vale." He held up the book again, this time open to a picture of a human male with flowing, shoulder-length hair wearing a cloak and wielding a sword in one hand and a scepter in the other. "This mug was wading through opponents left and right while outnumbered a hundred to one. No human can do that; indeed no transformer can either, but you know who can?"
"Optimus Prime," realized Counterpunch, the blocks somehow falling into place for him.
"Exactly. And this council system he sets up after the war, so very much like what we had back on Cybertron before the war, isn't it? He would have slipped it by everyone too, had we not woken up when we did. Odds are, the headmasters of the other academies are also Autobot proxies, though I've yet to pin down who is who. There are others too, important figures throughout the history of this world who all bear an eerie likeness to Prime." He swapped the book for another, thinner one, waving it in Counterpunch's faceplate. "Even this old forgotten fairy tale about this old powerful wizard who tells people that freedom is the right of every sentient being."
"Does it really say that?" Counterpunch asked, genuinely surprised.
"Well, not exactly - it's been translated a few times over the centuries - but the thought is there!" admitted Barricade before moving on and tapping the cluster of pictures this bizarre conversation had started with. "Anyway, Sunfire - or Yang - serves as Prime's cover for relaying information between his identities so his allies who aren't aware of the dual identity don't get suspicious."
"Allies like who?" Counterpunch couldn't resist asking.
Barricade began tracing strings - the blue ones - from the Sunfire cluster to other pictures. "Obviously, organizations like the kingdom governments and extralegal groups like the White Fang, groups that couldn't be allowed to be seen working together. Her official teammates serve as an additional layer of obfuscation."
"So... what? They're just there to serve as distractions?" Counterpunch found himself having trouble following along... which was saying something, considering his own function.
"Nonononono," repeated Barricade. "They're too valuable for that. That's why they're used as a second commando group to go around disrupting our efforts."
Counterpunch searched his memory banks for the intel reports coming out of Beacon and what they said. "You're talking about those secret missions that Teams Ruby and Juniper apparently engage in. I thought the timing didn't work out for any of it?"
Well, those we officially know about, anyway, thought Counterpunch as his mind drifted back to those faces in the vent he had seen that day. He hoped what he left for them turned out to be useful. They seemed like good sparklings.
He got his thoughts under control and snuffed out in time for Barricade's answer.
"Yes! First on the docket we have Ruby Rose, or should I say Summer Rose 2.0?" he declared before pointing dramatically at one part of the chart where the pictures of two redheads were. "Summer Rose was one of Optimus Prime's top agents and so important to his operations that he decided to clone her. The biological daughter she had naturally with fellow agent Taiyang Xiao Long" - and here his finger drifted back to the nearby Sunfire cluster - "just wasn't enough. She didn't have the eyes."
"'The eyes'?"
"The silver eyes," Barricade elaborated, tracing a white string from the two Roses to a cluster of clippings from news articles and mythology texts. "Legends say there were once silver-eyed warriors able to make Grimm freeze with fear. I don't know what that means, but it's got to be important. Best guess is we're looking at some genetic quirk that allows them to channel their structural integrity fields offensively through their optics. That's bad, but not as bad as the clone army likely waiting in stasis and being flash-trained using the prime clone's memories."
Counterpunch did have to admit that the idea of such an army was both adorable, and terrifying. It was adorafying.
Barricade's finger began to move again, following a blue string until it hit an interconnected web of pictures of Weiss Schnee, Jacques Schnee, the SDC emblem, and the logos of several SDC subsidiaries, with strings linking them in a snowflake pattern. "Then we have this Weiss Schnee character and how she appeared at the meeting spot at Park Place."
"I remember that," Counterpunch mused, noticing that the sister wasn't on the wall. "Wasn't the official conclusion that Winter was prepping for a coup d'etat against her father, intent on using Weiss as a puppet CEO to occupy the throne? Or chairman's office, I suppose."
"No, no, no," Barricade said again, shaking his head. "That's ridiculous. Winter would never do that. She's one of those honorable warrior archetypes who never stabs a 'bot in the back. When she takes her father down - and she will - she'll do it from where he can see it coming; and she won't take over the company either. She gave up her position as heiress years ago, remember? That's why Weiss is the heiress. The most likely scenario is that Winter is, as always, a patsy. That same sense of honor that makes it so that she's compelled to take her father down means she also shot down her sister when Weiss asked her to spy on us for the Autobots."
"And how did she find out about the meeting place to begin with?"
"By thinking like me," Barricade enunciated, his voice low and dangerous.
Counterpunch put a hand to his forehead and shook his head. "Primus help us if the Autobots have a version of you running around."
"They have for millions of solar cycles, if you'll remember," Barricade pointed out. "No doubt he's on this planet and training Weiss to replace him if anything goes wrong."
"So Winter isn't a threat?" probed Counterpunch. "Is that why she's not on this chart?"
"Oh, she's on the chart, all right," said Barricade before hitting a button on a nearby remote, and when he did, a three-dimentional representation of more strings and pictures came alive to fill the room with their holographic glory.
"Oh my, there's more," observed Counterpunch.
"Of course there's more. This goes all the way to the top, after all," replied Barricade. "Now, back to Winter: she's just a patsy, and that revelation broke Weiss, which is why intel from Beacon says that with the new semester, she's turned into a walking corpse."
"I remember that too." Counterpunch nodded. "The report that came with it suggested that it was possibly because Blake Belladonna died, but the timing doesn't quite line up."
"No, especially not since Blake Belladonna faked her death," Barricade explained, tapping an image of the aforementioned cat faunus.
"She did?"
"Of course!" Barricade confirmed, turning to look at Counterpunch. "There are a few reasons she would have done this. The first is that it allows her to disappear, as ninja like her are wont to do."
"Oh, I hate fighting ninja," cursed Counterpunch.
"We all do," agreed Barricade. "The second, though, is that it increases tension between Vale and Menagerie, which increases the profit margins of MARS. MARS is of course headed up by Laird Destro the Twenty-Fourth who is married to this woman," - he zoomed the hologram in on a dark-haired human woman - "known only as Baroness to the public. Baroness used to be a member of the White Fang, but after the ideological split five years ago, she left... along with Ghira and Kali Belladonna. They're clearly all fellow travelers, so it isn't that unreasonable to presume that some of MARS's anonymous investors are…"
"Blake's parents," finished Counterpunch.
"Bingo," said Barricade with a grin and a snap of his fingers.
"But why would Ozpin - I mean Optimus - go along with all this?" asked Counterpunch, trying to make sense of things against his better judgement.
Barricade's hands began to dance across the hologram and wall. "Because that increased tension also provides a pretext for increasing Vale's defense spending, hence the fake cover-up to ratchet the tension up even higher. Just imagine the reactions in Menagerie if it came out that Beacon Academy was covering up Blake Belladonna's death. That's why they had to fake it; they couldn't risk a real cover-up succeeding. And of course, before it can go to a shooting war, she steps back into public view."
"Okay, so he's using this as an excuse to militarize Vale..." Counterpunch said slowly, then shook his head. "Why?"
"To prepare them to fight us," Barricade, thumbing his chest.
Counterpunch took a moment to process just how scary it was that it was all making sense.
"Okay, so that covers Team Ruby, but they're not the only ones in on this, are they?" asked the intel specialist.
"You're learning," said Barricade as he started to point out other parts of the multi-dimensional chart. "The people known as Team Juniper are in on this too. Luckily, their story is a lot simpler. Pyrrha Nikos is a combat specialist trained from birth as a killing machine, complete with spending time in Mistral's gladiatorial circuit to help justify how good she is. Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie are both ninjas, with the female being deep undercover as someone who is not a ninja, thus luring people into a false sense of security before she takes them out with a kunai to the back."
"What about that Jaune Arc guy?" pressed Counterpunch. "You know, the one intel says is madly in love with the clone of Summer Rose."
Barricade smiled at him as he moved to Jaune Arc's picture. "You know, I'm just glad someone besides me is reading those intel reports."
"It's my job," offered Counterpunch humbly.
"Right," acknowledged Barricade jovially. "Anyways, Jaune Arc is a special case, a sleeper agent living for years among the civilian populace until he got the recall order and applied for Beacon. There, he showed his true combat capabilities and his brilliant tactical genius. Of course, him being paired with the clone is no accident. It's all part of a eugenics project to breed a new silver-eyed warrior that has the tactical acumen of Jaune Arc, which will in turn become the template for a new batch of clone soldiers."
"I can see where this is going," observed Counterpunch, thinking himself mad for actually being honest.
"Of course, just like the original clone, she'll be trained by Raven Branwen; she won't allow for anything else," mused Barricade.
That sent Counterpunch through another loop. "'Raven Branwen'? Isn't she a criminal... on another continent?"
"Yes, but once she was one of Optimus Prime's best agents, right alongside Summer Rose," a blue line was traced from the Roses to an older photograph of a young woman with volummous black hair. "Something happened years ago, though, and she went too far. Optimus couldn't have that, so he cast her out. Of course, she's still loyal to the Autobot cause, so she tries to help from the shadows. That's why she formed her temporary alliance with Starscream in order to steal Decepticon secrets and trained her son to be a sleeper agent, infiltrate the White Fang, and then when the time was right, flip one of their major cells to fall under the Autobots' direct control."
"Okay, remind me, who's her son again?" asked Counterpunch as he tried to follow the mess of lines.
"Come on," said Barricade in exasperation as he pointed to a picture of a figure with red hair, horns, and a Grimm mask covering much of his face. "Just look at the color schemes!"
"I... don't think that's how it works," Counterpunch thought aloud.
Barricade waved him off. "Anyway, that brings us to Sun Wukong, Optimus's current top agent and master spy. It was him that tracked down Cinder Fall and exposed her crimes so that Optimus could have the justification to bring the hammer down on one of his biggest enemies. Her crimes, of course, all coming back to the fact that she is an agent of the Grimm."
Counterpunch was utterly flabbergasted. "Excuse me?"
Barricade continued on. "The Grimm are clearly a secret faction of faunus that learned long ago how to reformat themselves. That's why we have new Grimm popping up that look like scraplets."
"And why can't the normal faunus we see reformat themselves?" countered Counterpunch.
"Isn't it obvious? Millions of years ago, their civilization split between those who embraced transformation and those who rejected it. The evidence of this planet-shattering war is all around us. Just look at the moon, Counterpunch!"
At that, Barricade gestured towards the ceiling.
"I don't know, Barricade. It still seems a little far-fetched."
"Oh yeah? And what's your explanation for the Grimm scraplets, these things they've started calling Recyclers?" challenged Barricade.
"I don't know," admitted Counterpunch with a shrug. "Maybe the Grimm have some sort of hierarchy, like their own version of Megatron, and one of their EW guys is scanning our brainwaves or something."
"...Counterpunch, that's brilliant!" Barricade declared as he began rearranging pictures and strings, both real and holographic. "Oh yeah, it's all coming together. Quickly, we have to devise a way of stopping our thoughts from being read, or the whole operation will be blown! You'll have to forget everything you've seen here today until then."
"Already on it," Counterpunch assured him as he beat a hasty retreat from the room.
He had known Barricade had been part of a reprogramming project way back in the beginning of the war. What he hadn't known was that the side effects were so... severe.
Ruby was on cloud nine. In the months since that disastrous mission to Starscream's lab, things had gone pretty well. Sure, Cinder was still out there, and they'd still made no headway in accessing the flash drive or dealing with the Decepticons and SDC, but...
Well, she thought, leaning into Jaune as they walked through the streets of Vale, some things are definitely working out well.
"Where are we going?" she asked.
"You'll see," he assured her, his arm around her shoulders.
A small part of Ruby felt a little bad at bullying him into those first few dates, but she really couldn't argue with the results.
Asking "What would Raven do?" was turning out to be one of the best decisions she'd ever made.
Still, she was feeling wonderful and basking in the joy of her new relationship. She and Jaune were getting along great. They'd gone on quite a few dates. Yang even approved! Okay, so... maybe things would be better if the missing member of her team - both of them - was back, but she was getting special training. And Weiss might be looking a little mopey sometimes, but she was getting better!
So she could be forgiven for not paying attention to where they were going.
"Ruby?" Jaune's voice prodded through her euphoric haze. "Is... um, did I screw up?"
She blinked and took stock of where they were. The gigantic banner above them proclaimed to the world that this was the Annual Vale City Gun Show. She looked over at Jaune, who looked back at her anxiously.
She tackled him into a hug, and her squeal of delight could be heard from Beacon.
Pyrrha was down in the dumps. In the months since that disastrous mission to Starscream's lab, things had gone pretty steadily downhill. Sure, preparations for the Vytal Tournament were going well, and Jaune was improving dramatically, but...
Well, she thought, sighing and gazing into the glass in front of her and the clear liquid inside that tempted her, I guess you really can't win 'em all.
A giggle drew her attention, and she spotted Lavi and Velvet in a corner booth. The second-year couple looked so happy, laughing over... well, she didn't know what, but she guessed it was probably something fairly inconsequential. She noted Velvet seemed to like her steak extremely rare... and she frowned at the can of Ol' King Cold Lavi was drinking from; she didn't have anything against cola, but it seemed wrong for a faunus to favor an SDC product, even if the inclusion of a tiny bit of ice dust in the can itself to chill it when it was opened was a fantastic marketing ploy.
Tearing her eyes away from the lovey-dovey pair, she reached for the glass, only for another hand to snatch it off the table. She looked up and saw her old friend, Arslan, sniffing at the liquid inside. The Haven student gave her an arched eyebrow.
"Water, Pyr? Really?"
"What?" she asked defensively.
Arslan slid into the booth across from her. "With the way you've been moping around lately, you're going to need something a bit stronger than this to drown your sorrows."
"I'm not giving her anything stronger," called out Tex, the blonde bartender and owner of O'Malley's. "The water's almost too strong as it is."
Pyrrha glanced at the bartender before she turned back to Arslan, her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "You wouldn't be trying to sabotage me for the tournament, would you?"
"Why would I do that?" Arslan snorted. "You're doing a good enough job of that yourself."
Pyrrha reclaimed the glass and leaned back, pressing it to her forehead. "I will admit, the extra training sessions have been putting a bit of a strain on me."
"'Extra training sessions'?"
"Yes." Pyrrha nodded. "For Jaune and Ruby."
Arslan opened her mouth, working her jaw for a moment, then let her head fall onto the table with a thunk. After a moment, she looked up again and asked, "You're seriously training them? Together?"
"Not together," Pyrrha corrected. "I've been helping Jaune in the evenings for quite some time now, and I started training Ruby in the mornings after she got shot at the docks."
"Right, rushed headlong into a firefight, heard about that," Arslan acknowledged. "But seriously, Pyr, this is what I mean about you being too nice. You're training her so she doesn't get herself killed, and she repays you by stealing your man!" She pounded the table for emphasis.
"Jaune is not my man," Pyrrha denied in righteous indignation. "I don't own him. He's not some piece of livestock. He's his own person. He can make his own decisions."
"He can't do that if you keep him from learning what some of his options are."
Pyrrha looked away. "It's fine, Arslan. At the end of the day, he comes home to... us. To Team Juniper."
Arslan brought a hand to her forehead, as if to forestall a headache. "Did you- did you seriously just say that, Pyr?"
Pyrrha blinked and looked back at her friend. "Wh-what?"
"You sound like a woman whose husband is having an affair," Arslan declared bluntly.
"What?!" shrieked Pyrrha. "No! That- I-"
"Let me ask you something, Pyr," interrupted Arslan. "You. Don't. Lose. You said it yourself: you don't know when to quit. So why are you quitting now?"
"They're happy together," was Pyrrha's quiet response. "Ruby... was in a bad place. I couldn't take that from her. And besides, it was just one date. And then one became two, and two became three, and... if I try something now, I'll just hurt them both."
"So you're willing to sacrifice your happiness for theirs," Arslan summed up. "Very noble. Also, very stupid."
The Haven student reached over the table and grabbed Pyrrha by the shirt, hauling her forward to look her in the eye. "You are Pyrrha Nikos, the Invincible Girl. You are not a quitter, and as happy as they seem together, are you really telling me you don't think you could make him happier? Is Ruby Rose so fragile that one break up will ruin her life forever? Because this? Not trying will ruin yours. My folks always told me you regret the least of the things you didn't do more than the worst of the things you did." She shook her head. "Try and maybe you'll fail, maybe some people will get hurt along the way, but they'll get over it. Don't, and you'll regret it forever. You said Jaune was his own man, that he can make his own choices. So let him choose."
"Arslan, I-"
"Or let him spend the rest of his life wondering if he ever had a chance with you. Because I can guarantee you, there's a part of him that's asking himself that question, but he cares too much for you, for your friendship, to ever risk driving you away."
Arslan let go of Pyrrha's shirt, and the two tournament fighters sank back into their seats.
"So," Arslan concluded, "what are you going to do now?"
Pyrrha stared at the table for a long moment, then looked up, a fire in her eyes and her lips curled into a fiercely competitive grin that Arslan was painfully familiar with.
"Challenge. Accepted."
Yang smiled as she walked through the White Fang's new headquarters in Vale. There were signs that they were still ready to go at a moment's notice, but things had calmed down significantly in the last few months. Cinder seemed to have disappeared, but they were still on the lookout for her; everyone in Vale was, since she had been declared public enemy number one, with her face plastered on wanted posters all throughout the city and probably the kingdom. Add in a few victories against both the Decepticons and their SDC allies, and things were looking up.
Unfortunately, as Yang was learning, strange bedfellows had a way of remembering just how strange they were once normalcy returned.
"Hey, guys!" greeted the blonde as she strode up to a group of White Fang troopers preparing to play what looked like a game of angleball inside one of the emptier warehouses.
The group turned to her. They were still wearing their masks, but most had changed out their normal uniforms for sports clothing. Yang was wearing her Autobot jumpsuit, wraparound sunglasses, a new braid, and a million megawatt grin.
"What do you want, Sunfire?" asked the lead, a man with facial tattoos, a beard, and a rack of reindeer antlers that Yang remembered was named Vix.
"I noticed you guys were short a player, so I thought I would join in," she answered.
"No, we're not missing a player," insisted Vix.
Yang looked at the group again, who were all looking at her in turn.
"But there's an odd number of people," she pointed out.
Vix turned his torso and looked at the group. "I enjoy the challenge."
"Are you sure?" asked Yang. "I'm not involved in anything right now, so I'm free to-"
"Okay, you know what?" interrupted Vix. "The simple fact of the matter is we don't like playing with someone who isn't a team player."
Yang bristled at that. "Hey, we're all in this together, right?"
"Are we?" asked Vix somewhat sarcastically. "'Cause it seems to me like you're passin'. The rest of us take off the mask, and we still have to deal with stupid humans giving us the once over. You step out on the street, and you can just reformat yourself into whatever you want. So why don't you just take your leader's advice and roll out?"
She thought about how to respond and decided that a slow approach was best. "I-"
Pow!
Vix's fist hit her aura, and she was able to tank it, but it was still a heavy blow that forced her to readjust her footing. The second blow came in, and she was able to absorb it. She made to absorb a third before retaliating, but it never came.
"What is going on here?!" thundered Adam as he strode towards them, hand on the grip of his sword.
The smile was back on, and she turned to face him in full. "Oh, me and Vix here were just having a little pre-game spar. He wasn't interested at first, but I was able to convince him."
"Really?" asked Adam incredulously. "You tried to get him into a fight?"
"Spar," corrected Yang. "That's just a normal training thing, not anything to get worked up over."
Adam looked at her, and then looked at Vix. "Is that what happened?"
"Y-yes, sir. That's what happened," confirmed Vix with deadpan seriousness.
"I see," said Adam thoughtfully before pointing at Yang. "Sunfire, I need you, now."
The blonde nodded. "You got it, Adam."
She followed along as he exited the warehouse and walked into a small abandoned office that might have been a security station at one point. The blinds were drawn, and no one could see out or in. If anything happened in there... but nothing would, would it?
Adam turned to face her, and he was clearly not happy. "Do you think I'm an idiot, or blind? I saw you get punched. He started it, not you."
"No, of course not!" was her automatic reply. "I just…"
"Just what? Why did you let them do that?" asked the White Fang leader pointedly.
"I just don't want to rock the boat," answered Yang with a fair bit too much honesty. "You know, 'cause causing diplomatic incidents is bad."
"Oh yeah, because I'm definitely going to break off this alliance with the most powerful force in the galaxy because you laid Vix out flat," he countered with a slight roll of his head, and then he looked at her more thoughtfully. "Which you were going to do before I intervened. What was with that?"
She sighed. "I was going to use my semblance."
"Your semblance?" asked Adam. "Why didn't you block with your shot-gauntlets then?"
Yang shook her head. As similar as their semblances were, it was obvious Adam didn't understand the nuances. "I need to take the hit before I can turn it back on them."
Adam's head tilted back, as if in realization. "You never learned to channel your semblance through your weapon."
Yang blinked. "Wait. That's something you learned?"
"Yep." He nodded. "When I was young, I had to take the hits too. My mother taught me how to channel my semblance through my weapon, as she does with hers. To let my blade take the blow instead. I can teach you."
"You sure?" Yang asked hesitantly. "This isn't some... secret Taurus technique or something, is it?"
Adam scoffed. "Don't be silly, Sunfire. It may not be a commonly known skill, but it's hardly a secret."
"Still, thanks," acknowledged Yang. "You got any more family secrets that could help me out?"
"Maybe," answered Adam cryptically. "A question though. Remember when we were doing that hand-off with that intel about Cinder? You know, before my old partner attacked?"
"Yeah," replied Yang easily, her mind drifting back to that night.
"Back then, you said you wanted to be a faunus because it would make things easier," paraphrased Adam. "Were you talking about stuff like this?"
"No, I…" began Yang before a light blush came to her cheeks, and Sun's smiling face came to her mind. The face of a man who was in love with another woman. A woman who had run off and left him open…
Stop it, Yang! cried out a voice in her mind. You are not your mother!
Technically, Summer Rose isn't my mother… mused another voice that sounded like Yang doing a Menagerian accent.
Not helping, brain! declared the first voice. I will not follow my mother's footsteps!
Then a third voice came in, soft like freshly fallen snow. But venting a little won't hurt…
"There's this guy," admitted Yang suddenly, her voice getting quicker. "And he's funny, and cute, and a great fighter, and a total hunk, and punny, and kind, and loyal - so loyal - and he just pushes all of my buttons in just the right way, and sometimes, I think I want to spend the rest of my life with him and make a family together, and he's a faunus with this gorgeous tail that's so soft to the touch, but… but that's just my imagination getting away from me. After all, he doesn't notice me. He's in love with another woman."
Adam crossed his arms in thought. "And this other woman, is she a faunus like him?"
"No," said Yang with a shake of her head. "She's human. Moody, broody, edgy girl... a lot like you, actually, but definitely human."
"'A lot like me'?" balked Adam. "Never mind. I'd make a comment about him having good taste, but honestly, that's hitting a bit too close to my old partner for comfort."
"I'm pretty sure she's not secretly an SDC agent, or mercenary, or whatever she actually was," Yang thought aloud.
"Such arrogance," sniped Adam in faux wonder, and at Yang's frown, he smiled. "Honestly, just using what I know, I'd say you shouldn't have to worry about needing to be a faunus to get his attention. I mean, he's pining for a human, so it's clear his standards are already subterranean, so it should be easy to waltz in as… well, whatever you are."
"Gee, thanks, I feel better already," replied Yang with her own brand of sarcasm.
"You're welcome," said Adam with no shame whatsoever. "Seriously though, I think I do have another Taurus family secret that might help you here."
"You do?" asked Yang in surprise. "What is it?"
"Just a little piece of advice I got given when I started getting interested in girls," answered Adam as he looked like he was preparing himself for a great speech. "Now, the first thing you've got to know is that this analogy uses a lot of battle terms. You good with that?"
"I read a lot of war stories," said Yang. "I think I am."
Adam nodded, and then at length explained. "The first thing you must establish is if they're stronger or weaker than you. If they're weaker, then it's obvious what you should do: charge forward and take what is yours. People are wired so they will bend to your will. If they are stronger, then you're going to have to skirmish instead; whittle them down by striking at the outskirts of their psyche until they are weak enough that you can move in. Now, I know what you're thinking, what happens if I make a mistake, and they get roiling mad instead of liking me? Well, in that case, your best bet is to lie, and lie confidently. In fact, if you play it right and speak with enough assurance about the lie, then people will actually find it more believable than the truth. Failing that, then you'll have to pull on whatever emotional and psychological binds they have to bring them around. Do that, and this faunus guy you like so much will be eating out of the palm of your hand. After all, love is a battlefield, and all war is deception."
By the time he had finished, Yang could feel that her mouth was imitating a flytrap in shock.
"Any questions?" offered Adam.
Yang raised a fist with two fingers extended. "One, is this your advice or your partner's advice?"
Adam bristled defensively at that. "I am aware of the profound irony, yes. I thought I had conquered her when in reality I was just a puppet on her strings."
"Two," continued the blonde, still partially in shock. "Where did that advice come from, exactly?"
"My mother," Adam explained gruffly. "I never knew my father. You're the first person I've shared it with."
"You should have shared it sooner!" objected Yang. "Adam, that advice is… I want to say it's monstrous, but it's just so stereotypically terrible. It's the sort of advice you give someone when you're either setting them up for failure or you're just a terrible person in general. Which, I know, sounds harsh. I mean, there's probably something here I'm missing, and-"
"Oh no," interrupted Adam. "It was definitely the second one."
Yang blinked, utterly floored. "I'm sorry, I don't understand."
"You can't, and you shouldn't have to," replied Adam resolutely. "You lucked out, from the sounds of it. Every time you've mentioned your mother, it sounds like she raised you up right. I like to think my mother did the same sometimes, but she was not a good person, and I try not to have any illusions about that. There's a reason I left home to join the White Fang, after all."
"If… if you know she was like that, though, why continue to use her advice?" asked Yang as she tried to parse what had been said in her head.
"Let me ask you something, Sunfire," began Adam, focusing her attention. "You're an Autobot, that's where you started off, but what if you weren't? What if you started off as a Decepticon? What if you fought the Autobots for years before you ended up joining them? Would you just suddenly abandon everything you've ever known, even if you know it didn't come from a good place?"
Yang was quiet for a moment before replying. "You've been talking to Ironhide again, haven't you?"
Adam shrugged. "He's a good guy. You didn't answer my question though."
Yang let out a sigh as she thought about it. "Okay, I think I can get it. You can't just throw out everything, and that stuff leaves marks even if you do toss it."
"Yes," he confirmed. "Besides, Mother made it quite clear that she would not stand for me to fail in anything, let alone romance, and she is not someone you want to cross."
"But now?" Yang asked. "What's changed?"
"Now... now, I'm not afraid anymore," he answered honestly. He shook his head. "Aside from that, it's also become clear that, advice or none, I'm terrible at romance." A cheeky smile crossed his face. "Though, if he's not rendered unconscious by the impact, I still think you should just charge ahead with this guy."
"What? No! I can't do that!" objected Yang, scandalized.
"Why not? Are you afraid?" mocked Adam.
"No. I just... I just know when I'm going to lose," insisted Yang, crossing her arms.
Adam looked at her strangely. "You never know until you try."
Those words hit Yang like a hammer blow, and she was left without any argument against it.
"Come on," said Adam, interrupting her blank thoughts, "we're wasting time. Deploy your shot-gauntlets, and go into a guard."
Yang did so, deploying Ember Celica and bringing the dual ranged shot-gauntlets up in a classic boxer defense while Adam got himself ready to swing a punch.
"Alright, now the key to channeling your semblance into your weapon is…"
"Raaaaaaaaagh!" cried Ruby as a flood of silver light filled the underground firing range.
Taiyang raised his polarized goggles as the light faded away. All was quiet once more, and the captured Beowolf they had gotten from Professor Port and put on the other end of the range was nothing but whips of smoke fading into the aether. Ruby was breathing heavily with a look of frustration on her face.
"What went wrong?" asked Taiyang kindly.
"I couldn't do it without the memetic," admitted Ruby, "without thinking about all the people who depend on me and what could happen to them. It's still not instinctual, after all these months. I still can't do it without the crutch."
Taiyang could understand her frustration. After all, while thinking about what she was fighting for wasn't exactly hard, thinking about the consequences of failure tended to conjure the very same dark emotions that tended to attract Grimm. It was one of the struggles Summer had confided in him when she explained to him how her eyes worked. She'd wanted him to know, so he could teach Ruby how to harness her power, just in case...
Well, just in case what happened happened.
He walked over and put one hand on her shoulder. "Ruby, you've still made incredible progress in not a lot of time. Take that victory for what it is and don't sweat the grind."
Ruby looked up at him with those big silver eyes that held such Grimm-annihilating potential. "Months, Dad. Months."
"Hours, Ruby. Hours," he corrected her. "It's not like we're doing this for very long, or very often. We've both got too much going on for that."
He clapped his hand against her back. "Come on, let's take a break."
As they headed over to where they had set up a couple of chairs, Ruby spoke up quietly. "Are you going to ask?"
Tai looked over at her curiously. "Ask what?"
"What I've got going on," she clarified. "What I've been doing."
"You mean... why Ozpin told you about your silver eyes."
Mutely, she nodded.
"Nope." He shook his head. "You're a Huntress now, Ruby. Well, in training, technically, I suppose, but you've earned Glynda's respect. That's not easy. As far as I'm concerned, you're an adult now, and free to live your own life and make your own decisions."
"Thanks, Dad," she said quietly as they each took a seat and cracked open a sports drink; Tai had gone for a lemon-lime, while Ruby had chosen strawberry flavor. It reminded him of quite a few other times they had done the same while the girls were growing up.
"So, what have you been up to, Dad?" she asked, breaking the silence..
"Not much," he said. "Got a new car. It's a Ferdinand."
Ruby froze guiltily, then stared at him. "A sports car, Dad? Is this that whole 'mid-life crisis' thing people talk about?"
Tai was offended at that. "Hey!"
"Gonna set up a profile on 'Lonely Huntsman' next?" Ruby teased.
"Maybe I will!" he fired back. "Maybe I'll find someone, and maybe we'll hit it off! Maybe give you a little brother or sister!"
Ruby looked taken aback by that, then she looked thoughtful.
"Maybe a brother," she mused aloud. "You know, since I already have a sister."
Tai had not been expecting that response. "Really?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow.
"Yeah," she said softly. "A new mom, a brother... I think that'd be nice."
Tai found himself returning the smile. "Y'know, it sounds pretty nice from here too."
As Weiss entered Team RWBY's dorm, her gaze darted around the room. Nothing had changed, of course, but she couldn't help but note once again how empty and lonely it felt lately. She had packed up most of her things - her father's things - into storage after her return from Atlas, and it had been admittedly her rather extensive personal belongings that had made the room once seem so cramped. And of course, with Blake off on her training trip, Yang back to disappearing into the city for long periods of time, and Ruby dating Jaune, Weiss often found herself alone in the room.
Today, though, that solitude was a boon. It gave her the freedom to do something she'd been meaning to do for some time now. She sat down at one of the desks and picked up a pen. She had a letter to write.
Two hours and several drafts later, she was finally satisfied with the contents of the letter.
Sincerely yours, Weiss... Her thoughts trailed off as her pen froze, hovering over the paper, moments before habitual instinct added "Schnee" to her name. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply through her nose, then opened her eyes again. Sincerely yours, Weiss, Student of Beacon Academy.
She scanned the letter once more, and with a nod to herself, she folded it up, then sealed it in an envelope. Then all she had to do was write the information that would get it to its destination. Of course, it was far too risky to send through normal channels, and so she had to go over to Team JNPR's dorm to lean on some of her other friends.
Her other friends, now that was a thought, wasn't it? Before starting the school year, she didn't have any, and now she had five... and Ruby. She almost considered listing Neptune among the others - Pyrrha, Ren, Sun, Nora, and most importantly, Blake - but she felt that he was more of an encouraging influence, like he was always trying to be the coolest guy in the room just to make sure she didn't fall into some dark pit. Jaune, of course, was the boy she was now willing to admit she was infatuated with… who was infatuated with Ruby. Like, it was shocking how well they worked together.
Yang was… Yang. She didn't really make an impression. Sometimes, she was there; sometimes, she wasn't. She moved to the beat of her own drum and always seemed to be on the ball. The only time Yang really seemed interested was once when Weiss had broached the topic of faunus rights, and the blonde had been enthusiastically supportive. Things might have developed into something more then... but fear had blocked the way. Yang had offered to take her to a soup kitchen where she sometimes volunteered, and it probably would have made her feel good, but... no. She couldn't do it. Firstly, her own happiness should never be a concern above others. Secondly, a Schnee working in a soup kitchen? The press would have a field day, and everyone would see it as a photo op, ruining the days of everyone she was trying to help. As much as she might not like it, she would just have to accept the fact that actually working directly with people would be a form of charity that would be forever denied to her.
Just another reason to hate her name, on top of all the others.
The others… the others that motivated people like Sienna Khan. Reading her book had actually made Weiss sick, physically ill. She had never read anything like that. What the current High Leader was pushing for was madness, and yet, Weiss could see where she was coming from. She could also understand now very clearly why Blake left: it wasn't her parents' dream anymore; it was a nightmare.
Glynda had helped her come to terms with that. She still sympathized with so much of the White Fang and their history, but she had come to realize that things really had changed. Her father had helped a lot in that regard, but that wasn't her fault. It had taken months of her teacher counseling her, but what Blake had said to her many times had finally sunk in.
She had been such a fool, and she had been such a drain on the team and her friends. That was in the past though. She only had one more thing to do before her journey was complete, and all she had to do was send that letter.
Weiss gave a sharp rap on the door to Team JNPR's dorm room, and was swiftly met by Ren opening the door.
"Oh, hello, Weiss," greeted the long-haired Mistrali with warm surprise. "To what do we owe the pleasure?"
"Is Pyrrha here?" asked the snowcapped girl hopefully. "I need to ask her for a favor."
"Coming!" sing-songed the champion, and Ren pulled aside to grant Weiss access to the room. She entered, and soon, so did Pyrrha.
Weiss boggled as Pyrrha came in from the bathroom. She seemed to have put an excessive amount of love and care into her hair then, far and above what was normal. Was that some new jewelry? Extra makeup? And a new perfume?
"Is something going on, Pyrrha?" asked Weiss.
The redhead looked back down at herself and then spread her arms out. "I don't know."
Nora let out a wail of pain at that, and Ren was quick to leap to her rescue. "You knew this would happen. Suck it up."
"Curse you! Curse you!" she declared.
Weiss chuckled at the exchange. Over the last few months, the dorm of Team JNPR had become like a second home, and she was used to the antics. It was a lively place and never lacked for excitement.
"Are you sending a letter?" asked Pyrrha thoughtfully.
"Oh, yes!" said Weiss, handing the envelope over to the redhead. "I thought you might be able to use some of your contacts to get it to its destination unnoticed."
Pyrrha looked down at the envelope, and her eyes widened. "Menagerie?"
"Yes. I needed to ask something of someone important there," answered Weiss.
Pyrrha looked at the name on the destination and nodded. "Very important indeed. Do you think this will get her back?"
"I hope so," lamented Weiss, but before she could continue, her scroll went off, and she answered. "Hello?... Sir?... Yes, sir... I think I understand, sir... Good luck, sir."
The scroll clicked with the end of the audio only message, and Weiss slowly repocketed it.
"Who was that, Weiss?" asked Nora curiously.
"That was General Ironwood," she answered, her mouth going dry again. "It was about my sister."
It was a race at that point between the three others in the room to respond, and Ren won out. "What did he say?"
Weiss looked at them in shock, not knowing how to process it.
"Winter is coming."
Author's Note 1 (Cyclone):
Make a note of this chapter and come back to it later. Things will be much more... interesting in retrospect.
I didn't do all that much for this chapter, aside from general plotting, brainstorming for Barricade's crazy theories, the scenes with Ruby's date and Pyrrha moping, and the post-training chat between Ruby and Tai.
One other thing of interest is how different certain things can be. For example, organizations like the Iron Grenadiers are immediately suspicious on Earth, because why would an arms manufacturer - or any company - need their own private army? On Remnant, however, of course they need their own private army, because Grimm are a thing.
Also, what does it say about that conversation between Cinder and Cobra Commander when Cobra Commander is being the voice of reason?
Author's Note 2 (Cody MacArthur Fett):
You might notice that we had a lot of fun writing the scene with Barricade, a lot of fun. In fact, that was the big reason why it was created: we thought that it would be fun to write. Though it also serves the purpose of explaining what's going on with some of the Decepticons and what they're doing.
Not entirely sold on first scene, honestly. I wrote it, and it works, but it just doesn't feel quite right. Hopefully you guys will like it more than I did. (Though, in case you're wondering why Ciel started a talk on philosophy… she'll never say, but it was because she was romantically interested in Scarlet and wanted to probe his morality and philosophy to see if they were compatible. She realized that they weren't though and was embarrassed she stuck her neck out that far instead of realizing it sooner. Which means that unless she finds someone else, or they find her, she's going to the dance stag, and I'm not sure Penny is willing to do the same.) However, it does provide some interesting tension between the various student bodies going into the tournament, doesn't it?
Ruby and Yang are both picking up new skills as time goes on, and that's certainly going to help them. They aren't the only ones though. All of the heroes have been getting swole, far morso than they ever got in canon. Taken on the face of it things seem to be working out for them swimmingly.
Adam is… a bit of a character still. He is being mostly genuine when he says he's not afraid anymore though. Why mostly genuine? Well, it's related to why the '86 Transformers movie would be classified under "horror" in his DVD collection.
Oh yeah, and Cobra showed up here. This was the appearance we had in mind for them for months actually, that after being cast out of Beacon and the White Fang Cinder would search for new allies. One of those new allies she would court though would be "Cobra when they're still a garage band," a terrorist organization just getting started and unwilling to work with her. It wasn't until I started writing though that I realized that Cobra Commander was actually being pretty charismatic, and I like that. He may just be a one scene wonder, but I feel he's led a revolution of our hearts.