A few of you called me out for rushing a little in the last chapter, and I admit I was. Between the infrequency of updates and my excitement to reach things that are now in the very near future, I feel like I've been dragging my feet for a while now. Though to be fair, I also didn't really know how I was supposed to make Blake's time in the Gummiship interesting, but I can see how them suddenly being on Remnant could be jarring. Anywho, I will try harder to keep things at a bit of a more reasonable pace from now on.
Ozpin had dismissed Glynda to go teach a class, but had allowed Qrow to hang around. If pressed, the aged Huntsmen would claim to be running a job for Ozpin soon. Hopefully, as he found a shadow to cling to, he wouldn't even be seen. Ozpin checked his watch, noting Winter was actually coming dangerously close to being late. Given that Ruby's team ran out to meet her as she arrived, Ozpin supposed he could give Winter another minute or two.
At almost precisely a second before she could be considered 'late' the elevator door slid open and out stepped the woman of the hour. Winter stopped at Ozpin's desk and bowed her head, "thank you for meeting with me, headmaster." Winter seemed to hesitate. She cast her gaze toward Qrow's hiding spot. "Am I interrupting something?"
"Not really," Qrow answered, not bothering to try continuing the charade. "Just helpin' with a job. Pretend I'm not here, unless there's something Atlas would rather I didn't hear?"
"I suppose you'll be fine," Winter commented. She turned back to Ozpin, "I'm sure you're well aware why I am here."
"Of course," Ozpin nodded, "but I'm not sure what I can tell you that hasn't already been reported."
"You must see how suspicious it is that everyone in Vale claims they know nothing," Winter pointed out.
"Suspicious it may be, but I don't know what else to tell you," Ozpin insisted, "as far as I'm aware he was around and then he wasn't."
"People don't simply vanish," Winter pressured, "he has to be somewhere. You really have no idea?"
"Why would I be privy to the movements of Atlas's General?" Ozpin pointed out.
Winter narrowed her eyes and crossed her hands behind her back. "There was a reason I decided to undertake this investigation personally, beyond loyalty to my General… tell me, Ozpin, are you playing ignorant because the General's disappearance has something to do with the rogue Maiden?"
You could feel the mood of the room drop. "You shouldn't know about that," Qrow growled.
Winter spun to face him. "In my opinion you're the unworthy one, Qrow."
"It's not a matter of opinion, Winter," Qrow retorted. "The fact that you know anything is another breach of trust on your General's part."
"'Another breach of trust'?" Winter asked.
"Our organization doesn't have many rules, but James agreed to what rules we do have when he joined," Ozpin explained. "Bringing you in should have been a group decision. James did not even deign to inform us he had told you our secrets."
"And the 'another' part?" Winter pressed.
"Jimmy has spent months spitting in the face of our partnership," Qrow answered flatly.
"I wonder of these 'breaches' were offensive enough to want him gone?" Winter goaded unsubtly.
"What's 'offensive' is that accusation," Qrow spat. "He was an idiot, not a monster. We wanted to reason with him, not 'get rid of him'!"
"Peace! Both of you!" Ozpin shouted, gaining control of the room. "Specialist Schnee… The truth, whether you choose to believe it or not, is that we have given James countless chances. And time after time he has betrayed our trust. Our organization is supposed to make decisions together. Yet these past few months James has not only made unilateral decisions, those decisions actively worked against agreements we trusted him to honor. Despite this, we still valued him and did not want him gone."
"If the General was making executive decisions, I assume he had good reason for it," Winter defended.
"That's not how we do things here," Qrow cut in. "You may be used to him laying down the law, but this isn't the Atlas Military. And trust me, he may have had good intentions, but his reasons were incredibly stupid."
"Well, I'll hope you'll forgive me for trusting the opinion of a trained military tactician over a school teacher or a scruffy freelancer," Winter scowled. "Now that we have established what I know, I'll ask again… what happened to the General?"
Ozpin wasn't sure how to respond. Yes, Winter knew about the Maidens, but she gave no indication she knew of Darkness and the Keyblade. After seeing the path Ironwood's knowledge of Darkness led him down, Ozpin could start to respect and understand how tightly Ruby held her own secrets. But how could he make Winter lay off without telling her?
I treated those secrets as though they were yours to tell. Please show me the same respect.
At the end of the day, it wasn't Ozpin's choice anyways. Ruby had trusted him with these secrets. It wasn't his place to tell them.
"I truly don't know what happened to the General," Ozpin offered, not entirely lying. There was much he still didn't understand.
Winter didn't believe him for a second. Sigh. "I had hoped you would have made this easy, but I can see now you intend to oppose my investigation. Very well. I'll just have to see what the General's personal terminal has to say. I assure you I will be back with more questions." The Specialist turned on her heel and made for the elevator, shooting one last remark over her shoulder as she left, "or handcuffs."
No sooner had the elevator doors closed had Qrow opened his mouth, "She remind you of anyone? We seem to have a mini-Jimmy on our hands."
"What worries me is what is on James's terminal," Ozpin confessed. "We should alert Ruby."
"I knew this wasn't gunna be easy," Qrow lamented.
"Nothing worth doing is," Ozpin reminded him.
Ruby
Ruby's hand shot to her chest. That voice again, and it wasn't alone this time. Accompanying it was a tension in her heart, as if it were being pulled upon…
"Rubes? Are you okay?" Yang asked, bringing Ruby out of her own head and back to the dorm.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Ruby smiled, not wanting to worry her sister before she even understood what was happening.
"Cool, 'cause I think Oz just texted ya," Yang pointed to Ruby's scroll on desk Ruby was sitting at.
Ruby reached over and opened her scroll. Her teammates leaned in, eager to hear the update as well. Ruby decided to simply read the message aloud, "'Winter is aware of the Maidens, but nothing she said suggested she knows about you yet. She's gone to investigate Ironwood's private terminal.'"
"You think Ironwood put what he learned about you on his terminal?" Blake asked.
"I dunno," Ruby shrugged. "He was paranoid, sure… but he also seemed pretty professional."
"I'm sure we'll know before too long if Winter is as subtle as the General was. Which is to say, not very," Yang pointed out.
"So what does that mean for us trusting her?" Weiss asked.
"We still have to be careful," Ruby told her.
The answer clearly made Weiss uneasy.
With the situation updated Blake returned to her book, Yang returned to her scroll, and Weiss returned to her thoughts. Ruby had her own musings to return to. The voice in her head, the tug on her heart. If this really was a Keyblader thing, she could only think of one place to get answers. Her hand raised to her chest once more as she closed her eyes and turned her perception inward.
The dorm faded and a familiar stained glass tower appeared under her feet. If an outside force was interfering with her heart, she should be able to see it from within her dive. Around her she could see faded threads that stretched into the unknown, her connections to the hearts of her friends. One connection seemed brighter and tauter than the others. Was it one of her own connections pulling at her heart? Her eyes traced the line to see a figure out of focus in the distance.
Is that…?
"Ruby!"
Once again, the young wielder was abruptly returned to reality. She looked up to Yang once again.
"Are you sure you're okay, Ruby? You seem a little out of it today," Yang questioned.
"I promise I'm fine, Yang," Ruby assured.
"You're not worried about Winter?" Yang pressed.
"I'm not worried about her finding out about me. She couldn't learn anything more than what Ironwood knew anyways," Ruby elaborated. "I'm worried about her not accepting the truth when it does come out. What happened to Ironwood was entirely his own fault. That could be difficult for someone who doesn't really understand Darkness to accept."
"Maybe we'll get lucky and there'll be nothing about you on his terminal," Yang smiled.
"Yeah, first time for everything, right?" Ruby rolled her eyes.
"Hey! Be a little more optimistic," Yang insisted. "It's weird to see a Keyblade Wielder be all dark and moody."
"You don't know Riku or Terra too well," Ruby smirked.
"Right," Yang nodded. "Which one was the hot one?"
"And that's the end of that conversation," Ruby cut that thought off and stood to walk away.
"C'mon, don't leave a girl hangin'!" Yang called out after her sister. "Ruby!"
Despite her meteoric rise through Atlas ranks, Winter had never thought of herself a woman of ambition. She had always done nothing more or less than giving her duties her all. Still, she had to admit to a certain thrill at the chance to sit in the literal General's seat at his desk. She quickly shook the feeling from her head. Her job wasn't to enjoy the chair, it was to return it to its rightful owner.
She looked toward the officer that had stationed himself by the door. "Don't you have other duties?" Winter asked.
"Ma'am, my duty is to assist you in any way I can."
Winter held back her sigh. If the Rouge Maiden was involved, she couldn't investigate with a random officer shadowing her. "I am the General's second in command, I think you can trust me with his office," she insisted.
The man simply saluted and left, though Winter doubted he was happy about it. Nevermind him. She booted up Ironwood's terminal. As it started up, she took a key from her pocket and opened a locked drawer in the desk. The desk itself held some sensitive documents, bottle of liquor, and a firearm. Things you might expect to find in a locked drawer. All of which were decoys. What Winter wanted from this drawer was a small storage drive taped to the roof of the drawer.
Winter used the now-online terminal to open the drive. It held a single unnamed folder. Selecting the folder prompted a password query, one Winter typed out quickly. Now inside the locked folder, Winter looked over the files secreted within.
The Maidens – status and identities
The Maidens – analysis of powers
Dossier – Ozpin
Dossier – Glynda Goodwitch
Dossier – Qrow Brawnwen
Dossier – Ruby Rose
The last line caught Winter's eye. She recognized the name of her sister's team leader. That's new. Why does Ironwood have a Dossier on Ruby? Is she involved with the Maidens? She clicked into the file and began to read. And with each line her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. Ruby was magical. She was magical, but she wasn't a Maiden. Something about a 'Keyblade', about 'Light' and 'Darkness'. It all seemed too unreal… but so had the Maidens when Winter was first told of them.
Attached video files showed Winter just what the young girl was capable of. Footage of a fight at the docks showed many feats impossible even for semblances. Next was footage from the CCT tower when Ruby fought a massive beast alongside the General. Then the day that train plowed through downtown Vale Ruby seemed to summon the very wrath of the heavens, heavy lightning bolts decimating the flood of Grimm.
Every time, this one little girl turned the tide of battle. She was undeniably powerful, but according to the General's notes, Ozpin refused to see how that made her dangerous. Did Ruby and her magic have something to do with the General's disappearance? That would explain why Ozpin and Qrow refused to cooperate, in order to protect her. And she couldn't be too forward either, apparently Ironwood already tried that and Ruby casually walked out of the brig. "I wonder if it's too soon to follow through on tea with Weiss…"
Being invited to tea with her sister the next morning should have made Weiss ecstatic. Instead, the heiress was only filled with nerves. Even if there was information on Ruby in the General's terminal, certainly Winter wouldn't use their teatime to probe for answers? Weiss was ashamed to admit that she wasn't sure. So she did her best to put on a happy face, but beneath it all she was still on guard.
Thankfully, her time with her sister was off to a wonderful start. They were currently laughing over the image of their father's fury that Weiss had yet to fail so much as a single A and give him an excuse to yank the heiress back to Atlas. "I wish I could have seen his face the day you left," Winter chuckled.
"Oh, his smile was so forced I thought his entire face was about fall off," Weiss informed her. "He tried to spin something about a 'love of the world and not any one kingdom', but I think everyone knew I wanted to leave Atlas."
"And leave you have…" Winter nodded. "You've done very well for yourself here."
Weiss smiled. "Thank you, Winter. That means a lot coming from you."
They took a quiet sip of their tea. "So, dear sister, tell me about your team."
Weiss hoped her sudden anxiety spike went unnoticed. "Well… Yang is our heavy hitter. She's also a bit loud, but she's very caring to the people she cares about, and she has a lot of care to give."
"The 'mom-friend'?" Winter asked.
Weiss actually laughed. "God, no! More like the 'wild-aunt-friend'."
"I see," Winter nodded. "And the faunus? Do you two get along?"
Weiss wasn't entirely surprised, though she did spare a silent look to her sister to try and gauge her feelings. "It was rough at first, and that was before I knew. Then it was really rough for a few days. But ultimately I have her to thank for my beginning to come around to the faunus. So yes, we do get along. She's quiet and keeps to herself, which translates into battle where she employs a lot of stealth tactics."
"Hm," Winter nodded thoughfully. "And… your leader?"
"Ruby?" Weiss tried her best to find the right words that wouldn't give too much away. "Once I got past my own pettiness I could see why she was picked as leader. She's got a good head on her shoulders, a strong moral code, and she's skilled for someone a few years older than her, let alone someone her age." Winter was about to open her mouth again when Weiss quickly added, "I trust her."
The sudden statement gave Winter pause. "… you do?"
"Why wouldn't I?" Weiss challenged.
"You don't think she's hiding things from you?" Winter pressed.
The question made it clear Winter knew something. Now the ball was in Weiss's court. Did she play dumb, or defend her leader? How honest can she even be without betraying Ruby? "I know there are things she's hiding from me," Weiss eventually voiced, "and I've also seen the things she's done. Actions speak louder than words, don't they? Well, Ruby has only ever saved lives and stopped monsters. She's a hero. Whatever she's keeping hidden, I still trust her with my life."
"Ruby is dangerous, Weiss," Winter cut, dropping all pretenses.
"Not to me," Weiss countered, "or anyone else here."
"Really?" Winter crossed her arms. "Weiss, I think Ruby may be responsible for the General's disappearance."
"The only person responsible for what happened to Ironwood is Ironwood himself," Weiss argued. She covered her mouth with her hand when she realized her slip-up.
Winter stared. "Do you know what happened to the General?"
Weiss felt trapped. She wanted to trust her sister, but she didn't want to betray Ruby, and it sounded like Winter had already chosen her perpetrator. Anything else Weiss could say would lack context and only damn Ruby further as a result. So instead, Weiss stood. "I have to go."
"Weiss!" Winter shot to her feet and grabbed her sister's arm, "If you know what happened to the General, you have to tell me!"
Weiss stared at Winter's grip on her arm in disbelief. The last time someone grabbed her like that was her father. She wrenched herself out of Winter's grasp. "I don't have to do anything. How do I know you won't just twist it to condemn someone innocent?"
"Is Ruby innocent?" Winter pointed out.
"I just told you she is!" Weiss reminded her. "But you've already decided she's guilty, haven't you? You don't trust me."
"Of course I trust you," Winter assured. "I don't trust Ruby, and whatever she told you-"
"You really think I only have her word to go off of?" Weiss cut her off. "She provided context, but only after I had already seen the impossible with my own eyes!"
"You what?" Winter was taken aback in surprise.
"How is that even unbelievable?" Weiss questioned. "Just because it ruins the narrative you were trying to build?"
"I… I…" Winter didn't know how to respond.
"You want to know what happened to the General?" Weiss continued. "Did his terminal mention the power of Darkness? He was so suspicious of Ruby, so paranoid about everything, that when he found the power of Darkness within himself, he ignored her advice to suppress it. No one can control Darkness, Winter, not even the General. When he tried, he turned into monster."
"A 'monster'? Is that what Ruby called him?" Winter accused, clawing for ground in the argument.
"I'm not saying his personality shifted, that he turned aggressive or cruel," Weiss explained. "I mean he literally transformed into a giant beast!"
"What…?" Again, Winter was at a loss for words.
"I saw it happen," Weiss made sure to say. "And he nearly killed me."
"Weiss… I… I'm so sorry…" Winter reached out.
Weiss backed away from her sister's touch. "Do you know why I looked up to you? I thought you got out. I thought you escaped, that you were free. But you're not free. You didn't escape father as much as you replaced him with Ironwood. It's just another person telling you how to think." Weiss turned and left, leaving Winter behind.
The heiress found the rest of her team as they were walking across the courtyard. Blake was the first to notice Weiss's sour mood. "I'm guessing tea went badly?"
Weiss huffed. "I thought I understood the phrase 'never meet your heroes'. I never imagined it would apply within my own family."
"What happened?" Ruby asked.
"I think I've changed more since leaving our family than she has," Weiss explained. "By the way, she absolutely knows about you. Or at least whatever biases Ironwood cooked up for his files."
"Thanks for the heads up," Ruby nodded.
"So, what are you lot doing out of the dorm?" Weiss asked, eager to put her conversation with her sister behind her.
"We were heading into Vale," Yang answered. "Try to take a breather before the next bout of insanity rears its ugly head. Wanna come with?"
"I could use a distraction," Weiss agreed.
"Then let's go," Yang motioned for everyone to follow her and resumed their walk.
"Uh, Yang?" Blake interrupted. Yang turned to see Blake pointing at their leader, who had fallen several feet behind and was staring into space.
"Again…?" Yang sighed, walking to her sister and shaking her shoulder. "Remnant to Rubes!"
"Huh?" Ruby blinked awake. "Sorry, did you need something?"
"Yeah, I need to know what's up with you," Yang insisted. "That's like the fifth time I've caught you with your head in the clouds. I don't just say 'I'm fine', there have too many surprises the past week and I don't think I can handle another one."
Ruby flinched. She supposed she had been keeping this one a little too long. "I don't quite know what's happening," she confessed. "I keep hearing someone call for me, and I think I can see someone else in my dive."
"In your what?" Blake asked.
"It's a way for me to visit my heart," Ruby elaborated.
"So there's another person inside your heart?" Weiss questioned.
"Or just outside of it, looking… looking in… uungh…" Ruby suddenly gripped her chest.
"Ruby!" Blake cried.
Yang hung her head backward and groaned. "Just one afternoon, that was all I asked for…"
"Really?" Blake glared.
"Sorry! Rubes, how can we help?" Yang asked.
"I don't know…" Ruby grunted, "it feels like someone is… pulling on my heart…"
"What happens if Ruby loses her heart, again?" Weiss questioned, "have we covered that yet?"
"I don't even know anymore…" Yang admitted.
"I don't think it's someone trying to steal my heart…" Ruby told them. "I think… I think I'm…" Once again, Ruby peered into her dive. The figure seemed closer and more in focus. "I'm an anchor."
"An anchor? For what, or who?" Weiss pressed.
Before Ruby could answer, a light burst from her chest. The young wielder was flung backward with a cry. The light settled nearby, growing and solidifying into the form of a person with red hair and a pink mini-dress. Both now lay on the ground, breathing, but unconscious.
"That's Kairi!" Yang shouted.
Blake did a double take. "You mean Ruby's Master, Kairi?"
The group looked between the two wielders. It was surreal to think Ruby's Master suddenly appeared, and in such a spectacular way. The only sure thought any of them had was Blake's feeling that things were about to change more than they already had. If not for them, then certainly for Ruby.