Music choices: white dove by Koda
Eclipse
Chapter 40
Touchstones Part III
Things were going poorly.
By this point, she shouldn't be surprised. Regalia was, in fact, growing more and more suspicious that she was in some way being set up to fail by her chain of command, but had no real evidence of such. She could admit that this suspicion was perhaps her own rather bruised ego pulling at straws, but things weren't adding up.
She had suggested they snatch STRQ and Joan up the moment they entered Valish airspace. Brunoz had tracked them all the way back to Burhhurst from their little farce of a Wurdalak hunt; he never lost sight of them save when they slept in the inn, and when they boarded the airship to return to Vale. He'd trailed the airship all the way back to Vale. They easily could have bagged them at the strip in Vale and not the one at Beacon, or forced the ship to land at one of the military's private facilities to perform a more thorough interrogation there.
But Verdant had denied her request. His excuse had been that it would incite Ozpin to start another war of bureaucratic attrition, and with their current losses and lack of concrete evidence, he insisted it would bite them square in the ass.
Which, maybe it would; but in her opinion, they had lost too much already to worry about what bloody Ozpin might do . They needed to stop holding back and react appropriately to a threat that was genuinely threatening the Kingdom as a whole.
So yes, Regalia almost rebelled and at this point, wished she actually had. Things were bad. They were on the enemy's home turf. Even though the teammates had been sequestered into separate rooms, they weren't exactly isolated from one another; they kept having ridiculous sing-offs, and yelling bad jokes back and forth, and knew that the Service was on a time limit.
Now, they'd managed to put Raven and Arc a little further away from the others, so they could put pressure on them; but neither seemed worried by the distance and with Raven's Semblance, the girl wasn't cut off from her teammates.
Raven knew her bloody teammates weren't talking, because her connection gave her some kind of empathetic link with them; and Regalia was not allowed to use her own Semblance on her here under Ozpin's watchful eye, and neither was Verdant. Which, again, if they had gotten them earlier, wouldn't have been an issue.
She sighed in profound frustration.
Something is wrong here.
She stared through the one way mirror at the young man who had his feet kicked up, looking completely disinterested in what was happening as he flipped a large coin into the air, over and over again. She looked at his file once more, something niggling at her attention.
Verdant kept coming back to this one, just like Raven. However, they hadn't tried to interview him yet together, or with just Regalia. Meanwhile, the other Service members present were here almost solely to help with Arc, who had honestly received the majority of the attention overall; but Regalia was beginning to accept this was a mistake.
They had not succeeded in truly isolating the teammates, and had instead split their own forces. STRQ was still completely unified, and far from demoralized; and throwing all their energy at Arc was so far about as effective as trying to erode the face of a mountain with fist-fuls of glitter.
Joan was never going to budge at this rate, and neither was Raven. Meanwhile, anything they threw at Taiyang just seemed to rebound or roll off of him, as he turned everything into a game and trashed his room over and over for sport; and Summer was apparently far more devious minded than Regalia had originally given her credit for, her insight being genuinely unnerving.
That left Qrow, who seemed mostly bemused and contemptuous of this whole affair; but Regalia felt that was partially a façade. Verdant kept coming back here doggedly, and after that little comment Summer had made….
What if...Verdant knows the twins? What if he has been keeping that a secret and I have simply been too tunnel-visioned to take notice until now?
The thought made her sick to her stomach, but if that was the case, his actions would make much more sense. Because ever since the Branwen twins had popped up on their radar, it was like he was almost a different person.
He's been acting so irrationally, as if he's been emotionally compromised . What if that's because he genuinely is?
She'd known Verdant her entire adult life. He had practically helped raise her, and the idea that he would lie to her and the others, to the King, about this…
Well, he hasn't lied per se. I haven't asked him if he knows them. And who he was before he came to Vale well...we all knew he wasn't an angel. He told us that much.
She knew she was making excuses, but she still didn't think he had betrayed the Service, or was providing the Branwen with information or sabotaging them intentionally. He hated Nwyfre, the Branwen, everything they stood for; and the facility had been his baby, his pet project. His distress at its destruction and the loss of their personnel had been genuine.
The man was driven to expand the King's Service and eliminate banditry on a scale that was far too intricate and dedicated to be a farce. Verdant believed that the outlaw tribes gave rise to Grimm and needed to be expunged or rehabilitated for the greater good.
Fewer criminals, fewer Grimm. Considering what they did know about magic and its correlation to Grimm, Regalia knew this to be the truth. What they were doing was not only good for their own Kingdom, but humanity as a whole. He believed that more than any of them.
She watched the coin fall into the boy's open palm, remembering what Verdant had said about what he saw when he looked at them; the faces of those he had been too wretched to save.
And then it clicked.
Regalia froze momentarily, staring at the boy's folder, before her jaw set firmly. She closed the folder and opened the door.
Flip. Smack.
Qrow looked at the silver face in his palm.
Heads again. 265 times.
The woman standing across from him had yet to say anything, and was instead watching him flip the coin, golden eyes intently studying him. Qrow had yet to acknowledge her presence and was content to ignore her.
She navigated the trashed pieces of chair and table, which had all disintegrated rapidly in the presence of his amped up Semblance and need for more musical instruments. She stared at her reflection in the one way mirror, or perhaps was trying to detect anyone watching her in the hallway.
"So...Qrow is it? Rather coincidental name, that."
Caw caw, bitch.
He flipped the coin again.
Heads, 266 times.
"Or perhaps just unusually probable?"
You don't sound as smart as you think you do, sweetie...
The stuck up jackboot looked his way again, her face still calm. Which, for this one, was a bit unusual. The Lieutenant wasn't a calm type. She used force and aggression to get what she wanted: a promotion, recognition, a slave army, you name it.
Regalia understood 'no' as merely an obstacle to what she wanted, and a cudgel to cow her enemies with. Regalia understood morality and justice as 'things that benefit me and the people I want in power' and not universal principles that benefit all beings. The moment the rules and laws of a society did not benefit her, specifically? Regalia would break them, or change them, to suit her needs in the moment and see no contradiction in doing so, while trying to punish others she deemed enemies for doing the same.
Qrow hated people like Regalia.
"How do you know Verdant, Qrow?"
Qrow flipped his coin again without reaction. The one way mirror, however, cracked in the corner once again. It had been fracturing slowly during his 'incarceration'.
Why don't you go ask him yourself?
Heads, 267.
Boots clicking his way as he ignored her studiously. She was trying to look down on him, but she didn't understand that he could see how small she already was and always had been.
"Are you related?" she pried again, her voice taught. "Were...you family? A part of the same tribe?"
Somebody's upseeeet. We've all got daddy issues in this Pepper's tonight, baby.
Flip. Smack.
268.
Crouching in front of him on the tile, fiery eyes trying to meet his own. Qrow smirked after a moment and met her gaze, unintimidated. He took in her facial features, her body language; her clothes, the pristine hair, the make-up touched circles under her eyes - everything she did to convince other people that she was in control, desperately in control.
She wasn't even that much older than he was, realistically. He felt a blossom of pity in his chest suddenly as he studied her right back, and saw far more than she probably realized. He tipped his head after a moment.
"...Who are you related to, Regalia?" he asked after a moment. His voice was more hoarse than normal due to thirst.
Her mouth parted slightly in anger as the muscles in her neck tightened.
"Where is your family?" he prompted quietly.
She inhaled slowly, the glare in her eyes practically molten, but for a second he could see a spark of doubt; a flash of pain through the cracks.
Dust….this is fuckin awful.
"The King's Service is my family," she intoned, her voice nearly robotic as she stood again, clasping her hands behind her back as she started pacing. He watched her, torn between pity and his earlier contempt.
Because as fuckin annoying and terrible as Regalia was, and whether he wanted to admit it or not, she was technically a victim of Verdant and the Service, too. It wasn't really an excuse for what she was doing, no; but they had knowingly handcrafted super-birdcop here from scratch. From childhood, apparently. They'd stolen her, and turned her into a fucking monster to unleash on her people and perpetuate their own genocide.
And that...that was all, truly, fuckin despicable.
"Yea….sure."
Flip. Smack.
She glanced at him, trying to be condescending, imperious, but coming across as cracked as that mirror. He could see a million different questions pushing to get their chance in the limelight.
"When he tracked the two of you down, in Vale the other night-"
Flip. Smack.
"-what was he actually trying to accomplish?" Regalia asked. "Was he giving you information? Was he trying to bring you in? Or was he just trying to kill you?"
The mirror cracked a little more. Regalia turned to study the cracks with mild fascination.
Flip. Smack.
He stared at the coin.
Tails….
"I will find out," Regalia promised. "I already suspect which one it was, but you know? I'm really not too concerned. He's honestly more committed to the Service's mission than I am, he's proven that countless times; so his character isn't something I'm genuinely questioning."
Qrow resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Everyone loves a captive audience.
"But I do wonder what it will be like for you? Having to work for him in the future?"
Cute idea. Good thing we're never gonna find out.
"You will, you know? Hopefully choose to end up working for us, that is; considering what the alternative will be."
She tapped the fractured glass, causing a small piece to fall away. He continued to play with his coin.
"Because even if we don't succeed here?" Regalia roved back into view again, pacing slowly around the destroyed table. "And you all manage to get off scot free for now? We're not going to actually stop . You do know that right? We're never going away. You're stuck with us, I'm afraid."
Mmmhmm. This is all a normal reaction that normal people have.
"For as long as you are in Vale or one of our Settlements? We'll be right there. Waiting."
Qrow met her gaze again. Regalia was smiling coldly.
"And the moment you and your friends get careless again?" she continued, her voice softening. "It'll all be over."
He narrowed his eyes at her defiantly, sneering slowly.
"I hope you're good at running," she hummed pleasantly, pausing for a moment. "Or, ha, flying rather! Are crows very good flyers? I've never actually noticed. Ah well, I guess we'll find out."
She opened the door, glancing back with a cutting smile on her face.
"Best of luck, Qrow. You're going to need it."
It swung shut behind her, the sound of her boots clicking away cutting off. Qrow inhaled slowly, cracked his neck, and exhaled, leaning heavily against the cool wall. The mirror continued to crack, ominously. He knew he was still being watched.
"Yea. You too."