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Ruby paced back and force in their tiny cell. Her companions just stared wide eyed and their friend's strange behavior. Normally Ruby wasn't one to complain about things, always the glass half-full gal, so her ranting on everything that went wrong since starting school, at the prestigious school for Huntsman, Beacon Academy, just seemed wrong.
"I cannot believe them Yang! Why did they throw us in jail?"
"Like I told you for the hundredth time, sis, They. Are. Being. Jerks," the blond bombshell said.
"Actually they were just doing their job," the collected white haired Weiss corrected. "We stole a ship and invaded their air space. Of course we would be arrested."
"But we saved Argus from a humongous Grimm, defeated a giant robot, and even took down a wanted terrorist! We should get a hero's welcome, not this." Ruby spread her arms wide to show off their humble cell.
The quite Blake finally spoke up from the corner of their cell. "We didn't intend to take him down. It was pure self-defense. And if we didn't he still would have stalked me all the way here, that is, if he didn't kill me right then and there. Right Yang?'
"Dang it, don't pull me back into your drama kitty-cat, but yeah, she has a point Rubes. It was pretty much kill or be killed. Plus we can't really report that we killed the guy, or well be labeled as murderers and thieves."
"I think you have to add property damage, vandalism, and disturbing the peace to those charges Yang," the near emotionless Ren added. "If Cordivan wanted to, she could have all those charges brought against us for fighting her giant robot, which was Atlas government, property and tech."
"But at least we stopped the god dang Leviathan grim!" Ruby stressed.
"Yeah we were so cool, sneaking in to fire the killing blow, while all the army was distracted with the small fry grim. And then BAM‼ We all hit it with all we had and you used your magic eyes to turn it all to stone and then, I came down with my all mighty hammer and SMASHED IT TO SMITHEREENS‼"
Jaune groaned "Nora we didn't do any of that. We helped hold off the small fry and Ruby only petrified the outside of the Leviathan. It was Cordivan and her giant robot, which we damaged, that landed the killing blow. And Ren, I thought correcting Nora was your job?"
"It's not a job, just something I do. I just didn't feel like doing it this time. I rather liked her rendition of our feats this time too."
Jaune groaned into his hand again.
"Okay maybe Argus was a bust, but we still helped a lot of people in Haven, stopping Salem's crew, outing their headmaster as a traitor, and retrieving the relic of knowledge, right." Ruby fought for the rights to keep complaining.
This time it was her drunken uncle that corrected her, while still nursing the hangover from when the confiscated his flask. "Let me get this straight, kido. You went them to treat us like heroes for stopping an enemy that only we knew existed, retrieving an item that is straight out of a fantasy story, and outing a headmaster that had already crippled Mistral's Hunter numbers by killing them all off, and he himself was found dead in his office with NO proof of his actual betrayal?"
"Ah Yeah?" Ruby said a little sheepishly.
"Kido, all that stuff is things we could never explain to others or have them believe it. The only good thing that we could take credit for is stopping the White Fang from tearing that place apart and killing any students there. And really that would mostly be Blake here, for bringing her whole island kingdom with her to get in their way."
"Well, we all fought at the battle for Beacon. Right. That has to count for something," Ruby trailed off. Even she knew that would not help them, or something they should not even want respect for. They lost the battle for Beacon. Their school a complete ruin and the city of Vale devastated. They all lost so much in that battle, even close friends. They all knew it too. None of them spoke a word to that. The silence and hung heads were more than enough for Ruby to retreat in on herself and sit beside her sister.
~~00000~~
No one really knew how long they've been locked up, there were no clocks and their scrolls were confiscated. The silence after Ruby's rant was heavy and full of sorrow.
Oscar looked over his friends. Because of Ozpin, the immortal soul currently residing in his head, or himself, that's what they all were to him, even Jaune, and they were in pain. He saw it written across all their faces. The loss, devastation, and the choices they made during the battle of beacon. It weighed on them all, especially Jaune. He sat in his corner of the cell across from Oscar. His eyes closed and he would occasionally heave a long and labored breath as if trying to repress his sadness and tears. Jaune's pain was a direct result of Ozpin, and by extension his, actions. It was because of Ozpin's attempt to transfer the maiden powers to Pyrrha Nikos that got the girl killed. The girl Jaune once loved. He didn't blame Jaune for hating him over that.
Oscar looked over the rest of the group. Beside Jaune sat Ren and Nora. They seem content as they sat hand in hand. Nora, a usual ball of infinite energy, was solemn and quite resting her head on her love's shoulder. Oscar heard the two of them grew up as orphans together and has faced every hardship together too. He guessed they were so resigned, because, they still had each other and were able to draw strength from one another. A little further down sat Yang and Ruby. Yang looked upset as she stared at the nub of her right arm. The guards confiscated her prosthetic arm since it had a built in shotgun. But at the same time she looked like a sister. The way she cradled a sad and wilted Ruby in her good arm, how she put her anger aside to tend to Ruby. No one would argue that those two were not sisters right now, even if they don't look alike. Across from the glum Ruby sat Qrow, her beloved uncle. He seemed to be broken. An exhausted man that had lost everything he once fought for. Beside Qrow sat Blake and Weiss. The former looked troubled and worn, but the small curl on the corner of her lips gave her an air of relief, as if a large weight was removed from her shoulders. The later seemed sad, and annoyed. Oscar knew Weiss had run away from her home, and Atlas, to pressure her dream of being a huntress. For her to be back in Atlas and locked up, must be really hard on her. Then there was Maria, the only defensive barrier between him and the rest of the group that had a bone to pick with the man in his head. Maria saw him as a kid in over his head. She was sleeping at the moment. He was glad she chose to sit beside him.
With the obvious acceptation of Maria, all of his friends had been at the battle for beacon and now carried the scares of that battle. Oscar was not there himself. He was, surprisingly, safe outside the walls of Vale during the battle. But he had Ozpin's soul within him, and that man's anguish certainly seeps through to himself. Ozpin was there. He was even killed during it, but Ozpin has lived many lives and seen much tragedy. All of the deaths and loss Ozpin has faced had become a jumbled mess of scattered memories and mountains of indistinguishable emotions of pain. It was different for Oscar. He felt their pain. He knew their pain. He almost lived the battle of Beacon with them. But it didn't feel like his. These were not his emotions. They were Ozpin's. In time they would become his. When the soul of Ozpin consumes his own, then those memories would be his and he would no longer exist.
He ran his finger through his hair, frustrated. Ozpin has long since stopped making his presence known within his mind. It seemed that Ozpin was now content with being a passenger. A passenger who was letting their memories and ambitions seep out and wash over him. What were his, own ambitions and emotions? Had he really wanted to be a Hunter, to work with team RWBY, and the others? He knew he wanted that right now, but was that his desire because he got to know them? Or was that part of Ozpin's desire to kill Salem?
He looked up to Ruby, who meant his eyes and tried to put on a kind smile for him, as she had her head buried into her sisters side. And with her soft smile Oscar felt his troubles disappear. Ruby was close to his age, but has been through so much more, yet she always tried to be her best and look to the brighter side of things. It gave him the strength to face his own troubles and ease his worry over mortality. Even if he didn't have a lot of time left, he would make it count.
Oscar's thoughts were interrupted as the door to their cell clanked open. Oscar ducked under the cane of a startled Maria, who swung it in an attempt to hinder the noise that woke her.
"Hey watch it, please," he pleaded
Maria's mechanical eyes, visors, cybernetics, whatever they were, spun and whirled as she tried to focus on the person standing in the open cell doorway. "James is that you my boy?"
James Ironwood, the Atlas military general and the Headmaster of Atlas academy stood before them. The man known for being heavy handed and stern looked over to Maria and his face lit up like a Christmas tree. "Maria! I had no clue you were in here. God it's been far too long. How have you been?" Ironwood stooped down to embrace Maria in an earnest hug, who had hopped off her seat to stand before him.
Maria returned his embrace for a moment and then stepped back. She chuckled to herself. "Oh James it certainly has, and I've been doing just fine. Well until these brats ruined my trip to Atlas for my eye check. That reminds me." She swiftly swatted Ironwood over the head with the skull handle of her cane. "What took you so long to bail me out of here?! I placed my call over an hour ago. I had to sit though these brats sulking over things that happened more than a year ago. The drunken one is the worst of all of them." She shook her head. "Such wasted energy."
The oppressive, gloomy atmosphere was completely gone now. In its place sheer shock and disbelief. Weiss was the first to voice her confusion.
"Maria, you know General Ironwood?"
Maria glanced over to Weiss "General?" she turned back to Ironwood, "James you didn't tell me you got promoted." She threw a playful punch into the man side.
Ironwood laughed "I've been a general and Headmaster of Atlas Academy for quite some time now, Maria" The smuggest smile to ever appear on ironwoods face left the other occupants a gasp "Perhaps your memory is starting to fail you in your old age."
Maria gave James another whack of her cane. "I may be old, but my memory is just fine. Why, I could recall the time you vomited, all over your date to the school dance." Ironwood flinched, his teeth grit, she had him. "Mhm, poor miss Willow Schnee. She took a chance on you that night. And what she gets for it? Her beautiful white dressed turned a horrible green."
"YOU THOUGH UP ON MY MOTHER‼" Weiss screeched, jumping out of her seat.
"Oh he certainly did Weiss, not only that he also tripped on his own vomit. He knocked them both on the floor, sprawling in it," Maria continued.
"Ohhhhh! Imbeciles! All of them!" Weiss stomped her way to the back of the cell and sat herself between Yang and Ruby, the latter struggling to stifle a fit of giggles.
With Ruby's giggles opening the flood gates, the rest of the gang burst into laughter, Qrow slapping his knee to regain control of himself. "Oh Gods this is gold. Maria I auta kiss you for this. Geez just wait until Winter hears of this! Oh the look she'll make. It'll be just like that!" He pointed across the room to a scowling Weiss.
Maria cringed. "The only way you're kissing me is if I'm a thousand times more drunk than you at your worse, Qrow. Don't make me bring my cane on you too."
The man held his hands up in defeat not wanting to bring on the old woman's wrath.
Ironwood coughed meaningfully into his fist. "Well now that pleasantries are out of the way let's get you all out of here." He gestured for them to follow as he walked out of the cell.
~~00000~~
It was the end of a long and exciting day for Roger, a beat cop for the prestigious Atlas Police Department. He thought it would be a boring day filled with paper work. Oh how wrong he was. He got to watch over the craziest bunch of detainees he's ever seen. I mean who steels a freaking Atlas air ship and then delivers themselves to Atlas. And hey he even got the see the great General Ironwood taken down a few pegs by an old lady. He laughed to himself. All that was left for his great day was the daily inspection of the incoming dust cars.
Everything looked normal to Roger. He threw back one of the tarps to check inside a car, nothing there. A shattering of glass made him whirl around and an umbrella to the temple was the last thing he would ever see.
~00000~~
Neo back flipped out of the mining cart, landing on its rim. Looking around she found about twelve guards, officers, whatever, she didn't care. There were twelve things that she would get to relieve some stress with. She grinned and bowed, the things just stared at her before one shouted intruder.
He was the first to die. Neo leapt to him and plunged the exposed tip of her blade, and tip of her umbrella, deep into the throat of that loud mouth.
"Open Fire," another called.
Neo quickly spun, pivoting around the corpse at the end of her umbrella. She used the unfortunate deceased man as a meat shield. Sure her perfect weapon, Hush, could have easily deflected all of their puny dust shells, but this way was more fun.
They paused to reload. She peak her head out from behind the side of her dead thing with a murderous grin, both eyes a pale cream. She got the reaction she wanted. Many of them paled and fumbled with their clips, others backed away.
She shoved the body off her blade and let it fall to the tracks below with a horrible mushy splat, then vanished behind her semblance. The murmurs of the play-things were wonderful and filled with fear. She snuck into the center of a large batch of them, about six, that thought it was safe to put themselves all in one area.
She dispelled her semblance scaring the daylight out of them as they all turned to her. She greeted them with her cocky smile and waited for one of them to make a move.
One fool, a woman, pulled out a long knife and thrust it towards her. Neo leapt up onto the woman's arm and kicked her across the face as she back flipped over the head of the man opposite the woman and kicked him forward. The man stumbled and embedded himself on the woman's knife.
The man groaned and backed away, the woman shocked. She had stabbed her comrade in the thigh. He was bleeding badly. Neo tried to watch these lovely events unfold but the other four rushed her, swinging batons and blades at her. Armatures, that's all they were. She expertly danced between the myriad of objects swinging at her, even landed a few good kicks. All the while she never took her eyes of the woman and her stabbed friend.
The blood, pooled around the man's feet. He staggered back and collapsed, and the woman knelt beside him. Oh god, was this turning into one of those water works soap opera deaths? No this wouldn't do.
Neo opened her umbrella and parried a blade heading for her ribs and redirected it into the ribs of the man in front of her. Then in one smooth motion, she removed the hidden blade from the umbrella, kicked the third attacker in the knee and then slashed the throat of the fourth.
She then danced between them faster than they could react and plunged or swiped the glistening blade of Hush across each of their throats. They all fell at once, with Neo daintily wiping the blood off her blade with a handkerchief she carried.
She looked back to the woman that stabbed her partner. The man was still in the woman's arms, and his blood encircled both of them. Damn it she missed his death. Oh well, she still had the blubbering woman to take care of.
She causally walked over to the sobbing woman, twirling her blade in one hand and holding her umbrella in the other. The woman did not move, did not look at her, she just knelt there sobbing, holding the dead body close to her chest.
This. . .this was unusual. Neo paused right in front of them and examined the two. How could they not notice the tiny terror, not that she was tiny, just fun sized. But still she had a reputation, so why wasn't the woman even bothering with her?
Looking over them, a gleam of light caught her eyes. The woman was holding the dead man's hand, their fingers intertwined and they wore matching rings. Huh, so that explains it. She had made this woman kill her hubby. She obviously cared for the meat sack more than her own life. Why else would she not even get into a defensive stance with Neo so close.
He must have been her whole world. And now Neo had shattered that world. Neo clicked her tongue. This woman would forever be in pain. Not physical pain, maybe emotional pain, but definitely the pain of having an empty void within you.
Neo stepped behind the woman placed the pint of the blade at the base of the woman's neck just above her nape. The woman stiffened for a moment, but seemed to let go with her last breath relaxing ever so slightly.
Neo plunged the blade swiftly through the woman's neck. She instantly severed the woman spinal cord and punctured out through her wind pipe. She died instantly, with the slightest of a smile on her face.
Neo pulled her blade out of the woman and then took the time to lay the woman beside her man. She made sure that the woman's hand never left the man's.
~~00000~~
Neo stood tall and stretched out her back. She put Hush away and straightened her beloved bowler hat. Looking a little down the way she caught a glimpse of Cinder wrapping up her spat with the remaining people. She hurled a fire ball at them burning them to a crisp. One foolish man slashed at her with a long sword. Somehow he managed to connect and tore a chunk of . . .Black flesh from Cinder's bandaged arm.
And instantly the man paid for it as he ignited into an inferno of flames. But the horrifying dying screams of the man did not catch Neo's attention. It was the black tendrils that shot out of Cinder's wound and tried to crawl and whither their way, up her arm. Some reached her shoulder and seemed to embed themselves into her flesh there. They stop when she cauterized the wound though.
Neo walked over to Cinder and gave a "what now" shrug.
Cinder slashed her bandaged hand across the wall creating three parallel angled lines. "We hide the evidence and blame another. Find the computers and wipe all information of us being here."
Neo nodded and headed off to the little watchmen booth. Luckily the computer was left on, so only a little bit if hacking was needed to open up some sealed files and delete video images. While doing this she noticed a report that was being filed, left on the desk. She picked it up and glanced through it. She was thrilled to see little red with a mug shot. Oh how the mighty have fallen.
Once she finished deleting all traces of her and Cinder she skipped over to eye patch and waved the file in the air with the biggest grin ever.
Cinder snatched it out of her hands and read through it. "It seems we are not too far behind. This may be easier than I anticipated."
She flipped a few pages glancing over the files. Then she froze. "HOW! How is she still alive? I killed her myself."
Neo danced over and peered around Cinder's arms. The page on the left show a wonderful mug shot of the former S.D.C. heiress. The one on the right showed a straggly blond guy, so it had to have been the heiress Cinder killed.
"Neo. Show me the security footage. Now!" Cindered commanded.
Neo backed away from Cinder. Geez, why has the heiress got Cinder's panties in knots? Hiding a scowl, Neo beckoned Cinder to follow her to the watchman booth. Once there Neo plopped herself down in the office chair and spun it around a full circle before she went hacking into the security feed. Honestly she already had access but if Cinder wanted to be a pain in her butt then she'll take all the sweet time she wanted.
Once the feed was up, she played the snip it from when little red and her gang were brought in. Cinder peered over the top of her chair. The creepy bandaged hand holding firm on the arm rest.
"This cannot be! I killed her. She was there on the ground, a gaping hole in her gut, barely breathing. So why is she still standing?" Cinder bit her lip pondering over how Weiss' survival was even possible.
Cinder watched the footage, trying to pick up on any sign of the heiress's fatal injury, labored breathing, clutching her side, or even a change in her stride, but there was nothing. The heiress moved as if she had never received an injury at all. Her brain whirled, none of this made since, none of it should be possible. Then a boy came on the screen.
Cinder reached over Neo and pause the footage. She stared at tall blond boy. Arc was his name. An annoying little brat that thought sacrificing himself to her would save his friends. He's the reason she even bothered to hurt the heiress. Just to shove it in his face that he was powerless against her.
Last she saw him he was hunched over the heiress pointlessly trying to stop the bleeding of a wound which could not be –
Wait could it be that he had healed her wound? She looked into him during her time at beacon. He was completely useless back then, even Ozpin made note that he didn't have his semblance unlocked, but that the boy was unusually durable with a high recovery rate. Perhaps it was not that his semblance was still locked, just never in a situation to use it on another before. A semblance to heal would be nearly useless mid battle if it required physical contact.
Cinder looked to her bandaged arm. At the threads of blackened Grimm flesh that has been slowly eating away at what remain of her. Each day it spread a little further, consuming her. Every day she fought to ignore the agony it caused her. Salem's power had kept the Apathy like grim arm in check. But if this boy could heal a wound as grieves as the one the heiress had, then her arm and even her eye. She can be whole once more, and finally free from Salem.
"Neo, there's been a slight change in plans." Cinder's smile was cruel and viscous. "We may need to . . . 'make contact' with this Arc boy."
A.N. Thank you all for reading my new story A Silent Connection. The idea and concept for this story was originally that of my Beta readers EnderFire1, and JourneysEnd1. I would like to thank them for offering me a chance to bring their ideas to life in this story.
I would also like to than Miasushi, and Pikminfan for helping me come up with such a perfect name for this story.