A loud thump echoed down the hall, disturbing Atin and his friend, a good book. "Max, they broke something again, go see what it was!" He remained on the couch, confident the more personable individual could handle the situation better.
Max's bedroom door slammed open, the TA unusually irritated. Poking his head through the bead curtains, he shouted, "It's past eleven at night and I haven't had a training-free Saturday in months, what the hell are you brats doing out here?! I just got comfortable and sleeping!"
"Yikes, now you kids have done it. You've poked the sleeping bear. So what did you break now, and who's fault is it? Yang, be honest, it was you, wasn't it?" Atin slipped past Max into the hallway. "Oh wait, none of you are Yang. Force of habit. But Emerald, Mercury, Cinder, what are you three doing here?"
Meanwhile, Max had just finished checking Cinder into the exchange list. "I know for a fact we showed Emerald and Mercury where the exchange student dorms are at. And you, Miss Fall, forgot to notify a member of staff that you had arrived," Max groused. "Ruby, no running in the halls and no more loud sounds. I'm short on sleep this week."
"Also reminder that Taco day is in… six hours. Feel free to show up. Also, make sure the other exchange kids know for me would you? Max, you still doing the cookie thing?" Atin turned to his surly friend.
"Long as no one wakes me up before eight, sure, why not?" Max stomped back to his bedroom, slamming the door shut behind him.
"Wooow, I haven't actually seen him mad in a while. I'm impressed guys. I have to really work at it to make him mad. Great job. Now get back to your rooms before he comes back out here." Atin made a shooing gesture with his hands.
"Apologies, sir," Cinder said, while Emerald helped Ruby up off the floor. "We didn't mean to cause a disturbance. I was just so insistent that my teammates show me around the school before we retired to our own room."
"Oh nooo, we made him mad! Mr. Winchester what can I do to make sure I still get cookies tomorrow? I mean, let him know we're sorry." Ruby shot a worried look at Atin.
"Offhand? Don't wake him up again, but uhhhh, I got no idea. Really can't help you much here kid." Atin shrugged and started heading back to his room.
"Wait a minute, don't you live with the guy? And you have no idea how to make it up to him?" Mercury had a puzzled look on his face.
"Oh no, I know what to do. It's just that none of the stuff you can do is here. Anything that would cheer him up is back home. Both of us are long way from home after all. Doesn't even show up on the map." Atin left the hunters in training in the hallway, heading to his own room. Looking over his shoulder, he made a parting comment, "See if you can find a really complex model kit, that might help."
"Look Ozpin, all I'm asking is what we are gonna do about the fact that there is a media circus going on because four of our students and two exchange students were fighting Roman fucking Torchwick, who was piloting a stolen Atlas doombot, on the highway! The school hasn't issued any kind of press release, which I could understand if we were handling this 'In house' so to speak, but you haven't done anything to them! Last time I saw them they were all super excited 'cause they got to be the big damn heroes!" Atin stood in front of Ozpin's desk instead of leaning casually on the wall.
"It's only been a couple hours since the incident, Atin," Ozpin calmly replied, meeting Atin's eyes easily. "It's also past midnight. We can handle discipline later in the morning, after Glynda and myself have had some time to figure out an approach to this problem."
"Okay, so we leave discipline for when coffee isn't the only thing keeping most of us awake, fine. But we gotta spin this to press, and quick. I mean, look at this!" Atin pulled his scroll out and turned on the news.
"We are still live at the scene on the I-23 overpass, just one of the many stretches of highway damaged by the infamous Roman Torchwick on his rampage in a prototype weapon. The paramedics are working around the clock, and we still do not have confirmation on the number of injured persons, but it has climbed to above thirty, of which seventeen are in critical condition currently. We have confirmed the rampage began in the industrial district when students of Beacon Academy attempted to apprehend him. Where and how Torchwick got his on hands on this prototype is still unclear. Back to you-" Atin put the scroll back in his pocket.
"That, with tiny variations, is on every news channel right now. They know they came from here, and people are already starting to ask questions like 'what were students doing in the industrial district?' 'Did headmaster Ozpin order this?' And they aren't gonna stop. We have to say something. Back me up here Glynda, we can't just hope this goes away on it's own." Atin looked beseechingly to Glynda for support.
Glynda looked up from her own screen she'd been typing on. "I'm working on a statement, but right now, we have the small saving grace of this occurring in the middle of the night. That gives us just a bit of time, in regards to public relation," she said. "The rest of this morning will certainly be a busy one."
"Alright, what's our spin here? And I suppose, more importantly, how can I help?" Atin began pacing back and forth in front of the desk, eager to do something.
"There will be no 'spin' as you put it. We will simply tell people what happened when we have that information." Ozpin calmy sipped his coffee, having remained unperturbed throughout the evening.
"What do you mean, there isn't going to be a spin? The wizard of Beacon, who everyone in this room knows is in fact, head of a secret cabal guiding the fight against evil, isn't going to spin this? Did you guys never get Machiavelli here? Hell I wouldn't be surprised if it at some point you were this world's Machiavelli. You can't just tell people that you were unaware that four of the first year students were hunting a renowned criminal in their off-hours. Most of them won't believe you, and the ones that do will just assume massive incompetence!" A look of shock was plastered on Atin's face.
"Sadly, there is only so much that we can do. Part of the issue is that we're still waiting on word from James, as part of this incident involves stolen Atlas equipment that was never publicized. As frustrating as this is, we will be handling this as a 'play by ear' scenario. We still have some hours yet, but we don't have all the facts lined up at this point in time." Ozpin leaned back in his chair, squeezing the bridge of his nose. "More than likely, we will be doing a joint statement with Atlas, but until then, panicking, pacing, and ranting will only get us so far. If there is any help to be had, it would be in figuring out the best way to discipline the students for this incredibly reckless behavior."
"I think Max already has that handled. Honestly, half the reason I came up here was because he was cursing up a storm. It was spooky. As for the joint statement, that will help, but we need to have a chat with the good general about full disclosure in the future." Atin cracked his knuckles before remembering that he could not in fact, threaten a foreign general and accomplished Huntsman.
Max looked at the door to the classroom. It had been an okay week up until last night's robot fiasco, something that he was pretty sure was about to get a statement over the next hour. That situation was always something that had bothered him in the show. The lack of consequences, nothing actually showing any kind of aftermath. Things just moved forward. He, sadly, now knew that there was an aftermath. He opened the door and walked in, the members of RWBY, as well as Sun and Neptune, turning their attention to him. He closed the door, then moved to stand behind the table set up at the front. "So," he started, setting a heavy bag down on the table with a dull thud. "Anyone have a guess as to why you were called into this classroom at nine in the morning?"
"Uhhh… What's in the bag there, Max?" Yang looked uneasily at the square duffel bag, which appeared to be full almost to bursting.
"That wasn't an answer, Miss Xiao-Long."
"The bag is full of cookies because you wanted to congratulate us for stopping a dangerous criminal and saving the city. Right?" Ruby asked hesitantly, Max's brusque manner making her, along with the other five uneasy.
"No. Anyone else?" Max looked around, his index finger slowly tapping the table he stood behind. "Very well, then. Last night, Atin and myself were woken up by a call from Headmaster Ozpin, at roughly eleven-thirty or thereabouts. He informed us that six of our students, two of which are exchange students, had apparently been in a chase and subsequent fight with a missing Atlas combat mech. Atin then pulled up a news stream and...well. News was made last night. A statement will be made to the public in the next hour or two. In the meantime, however, I want to know what exactly went through the heads of you kids at the time. What your thoughts at the time were."
"We thought that we were stopping a dangerous criminal who was working with the White Fang to rob literally every Dust shop Vale, that's what we thought we were doing. Sir." Blake gave Max an icy glare, clearly upset.
Max leveled his stare at Blake now. "Okay. Mind walking me through the logic of this plan? The little details, maybe?" Max was doing a decent job keeping his voice level throughout all of this, but his tone was kept low.
"It's not like we planned to fight Roman! We were just sneaking into a White Fang rally to get information! Then Torchwick spotted us, hopped in the giant robot and started trying to crush us! And we stopped him from destroying the city!" Sun shouted at Max.
"Oh? And how, pray tell, did you come into the information about this rally? When were your plans made? How thorough were you in making them?" No one spoke for a moment, but when it looked like Weiss or perhaps Neptune was about to open their mouth, Max slammed a fist on the table. He took a breath before unfurling his hand. "The answer, I'm sure, is a contact Blake still had in the White Fang. Your plans were made on the spot. And you spent minimal effort in crafting them. Now, why didn't anyone bring this kind of information to the attention of a professional? Huntsman, Huntress, police officers, anything like that?" Another moment of silence. "Nothing at all? Miss Schnee, have you any inkling to why this information wasn't made known to those better suited for such things?"
"Well, sir," Weiss began strong, but she wasn't able to say anything past that. Several times, she opened her mouth, but just as quickly closed it.
"As I thought. So, tell me, between the high of winning and the thrill of being 'big damn heroes,' have you put thought into everything that happened last night?" By this point, the gathered students had decided remaining silent for now was their best bet. "So. Anyone recognize the name 'Ciane Vera?' Anyone at all?" Yet another moment of silence. "I want an answer. Do any of you recognize that name?"
Ruby hesitantly spoke up. "N-no, sir. Should we?" she asked, her voice quiet.
Max finally unzipped the square duffel, pulling out a folder. "Nineteen years old, grew up in Vale, right here in this city. A young lady with a dream of becoming a pianist. Was damn good at it. Arms, from her fingertips up to her elbows, are now mangled, crushed under a car. She'll live, but the doctors aren't looking optimistic about anything resembling even twenty percent of her abilities. Family doesn't have the income needed for prosthetics, either, if they wanted to go the route of amputate and replace." He set it down on the table, then pulled out another one. "Desiree Fleur, age twenty-two. Was well on her way to becoming a neuro-surgeon. Was in the same car as Ciane, in fact. Her entire right arm has to be amputated, her left hand might have a chance of recovery." Another folder set down, another one pulled out. "Jim Mello. Forty-six years of age. Was on his way to night classes after finishing work at his office. Whiplash. Slammed into the barriers on the side after slipping on a freak patch of ice that appeared out of nowhere." Weiss paled at this, her hand covering her mouth. Another folder down, another folder out. "Bron Slate. Age thirty-two. Was on the way to a graduation party for his nephew. Died after his car was thrown over the barriers by the hijacked combat mech." Setting this one down, Max stopped pulling folders out. He looked at each student in turn.
"We… we didn't know. But none of it's our fault! We weren't the ones smashing up the highway with a giant robot! We didn't throw that car over the side! That was all Roman, and we had to stop him before he hurt more people!" Ruby protested loudly.
"Six, actually. At least six confirmed, before I decided that going through twenty-two or so folders was enough of a statement. Six people injured as a direct result of the actions of some of Beacon's students, and I didn't finish going through every folder. I just mentioned the car that slipped on ice. Reports of a motorcycle driver recklessly speeding down the highway, spooking other drivers into the barrier. A girl with black hair and a Faunus with blonde hair and monkey tail jumping vehicle to vehicle and spooking those drivers into other drivers. Most of the major injuries may be an indirect result of your sheer stupidity last night, but right now, Ruby Rose is the only person who wasn't reported on that highway and didn't have a chance to add to the casualty count with her own hands." Max dug around the square duffel, bringing out a red folder. "This folder is a list of damages. Do you kids realize that in your fight, you busted two load bearing structures that were right beside each other? It's a miracle the highway didn't collapse at that spot. And that's not including the houses and businesses that Roman was essentially led through before he ended up on the highway. I'm still waiting for those numbers." Max gestured at the square duffel on the table. "This here, kids, is every single fuck up that happened last night, the important ones, compressed down into an easy to read format, with pictures and numbers to accompany them. This is the result of your 'thought,' Miss Belladonna, of stopping a dangerous criminal. A dangerous criminal that wouldn't have needed to be stopped if you kids had anything even remotely resembling a good plan." Max stared at the students, who were all in varying degrees of shame and silence.
Blake slammed her hands down, yelling, "Then what were we supposed to do?!" She glared at Max, her face no longer showing shame, but instead anger. "No one else was doing anything to try and stop him! How long has it been since he started robbing every dust shop in the city? Almost a year now? The police have supposedly been looking everywhere, but we found him in just weeks! I didn't see anyone else doing anything, who understood the threat he posed, so I did what a Huntress is supposed to when people are in danger. I acted. It turns out it's a good thing we did, too. What would have happened if Roman had been able to unleash that robot when he was ready to? No one else was doing anything."
Max took a breath, shaking his head. "Tell me, Miss Belladonna, are you aware of how much influence Headmaster Ozpin actually has in the Kingdom of Vale? Did you stop to consider how much quicker investigations into Roman Torchwick and the White Fang could have gone if you'd given them this kind of information?" Max crossed his arms, looking Blake in the eyes and holding the stare. "And it's well known, surely, that Headmaster Ozpin and General Ironwood are fast friends. I can only being to imagine what General Ironwood could have done with that information."
"It wasn't as if we went in there planning to fight him! We were just there to gather information, we got spotted, and then he attacked us with a giant robot! We didn't want any of this to happen! Why can't you understand that!" Yang was standing by her partner now, both literally and metaphorically.
"No, I understand that you didn't want any of last night to happen. I understand that you might have believed you were doing the right thing. I even understand how frustrated you are with me, right now, standing here and asking the same question over and over. But I want you, yourselves, to understand the reasons behind your own actions. And the lack thereof." Max now started leaning back against the table, doing his best to keep his voice steady. "I was seventeen only a few years ago myself. I made stupid decisions and after the fact, questioned what in the hell lead me to do them. Even now, I still don't understand some of my decisions over the course of my life." He sighed, closing his eyes, tired from a sleepless night. "I want you kids...sorry. You young adults. I want you to understand your own actions. I want you to think about what you're doing, what you did, what you plan to do. You all are training to be Hunstmen and Huntresses. You're going to have a shit ton of responsibility heaped on you in this job. I want you to be ready for it and I want you to start by realizing and thinking back to what you could have done differently, what you could have done better. Don't let hindsight blind you to the present, but don't let your delusions of heroism and grandeur blind you from the future." He opened his eyes again. "Do you understand now, Yang, Blake? Why I'm trying to hammer these numbers and names into you? Why I kept asking what you were thinking, looking for answers that were actually answers and not deflections?" Max stood up, uncrossing his arms and walking over to the door. "You're to remain in here for the next two hours, the first of a handful of detentions. This one will be unsupervised, save for the cameras in the hall. I'll come pick the files up later or, if you want to try and get some brownie points from the asshole TA, you can put them back in mine and Atin's room when your detention period is done." He then walked out, quietly closing the door behind him.
Half an hour later, the sound of fabric rustling and papers and folders being shuffled around drew everyone's attention to Neptune, who was stood at the table with the duffel bag. "What are you doing? Looking to suck up to the TA?" Blake asked, her tone venomous.
Neptune turned to look at everyone, holding an open folder in his hands now. "Well, no, I just...he left these here. The bag's open. I guess I just…" He took a deep breath, trying to find the words. "What he said at the end, about what he wanted us to be. I want to see what our mission last night actually caused. I...want to understand, both the good things we did and the bad things we may have caused."
"Boy, some of these files are kinda thick… Hey, I think he left his scroll in here, it was in between these pages here." Sun pulled a scroll out of one of the folders. At some point, he had joined Neptune down at the table. He put it off to the side of the table, looking at the folder it had come out of. "Police statements and...interviews?" It was a bundle of papers, typed out in a script like format. He shrugged, setting it down beside the scroll.
Weiss began flipping through the folders, searching for something. "What are you looking for Weiss?" Ruby asked, peering over her shoulder.
"Any mention of my ice. I'll see to it that they're taken care of, it's the least I can do." She put the folder down, making some quick notes on her scroll.
Yang walked over to the table, while Blake simply stayed at her own seat. Yang picked up the scroll Sun had found, accidentally opening it. She was notably confused when she wasn't greeted with a locked screen. "Hey, Max and Atin both keep their scrolls locked, don't they?" she asked.
"Why do you know that? That's kinda creepy Yang," Ruby piped up.
Yang rolled her eyes. "You don't keep yours locked, then, Ruby?"
"No, why would I? There isn't really anything interesting on there. If someone wants to see that I call Dad every week, let them."
"Okay, well you're the odd one out, back me up here Sun." Yang looked over at the Monkey Faunus.
"I mean, technically I do lock it, but the password is just 1111, so if someone really wanted to look at it, they could. I don't really care." Sun shrugged his shoulders before going back to leafing through the file in front of him.
"Weiss, they're crazy right? You have to lock yours right, miss important heiress?"
"Of course I keep my scroll locked, it contains proprietary information for the Schnee Dust company, as well as personal numbers for my family members." Weiss put down a folder after answering, rubbing her forehead. "Ruby, maybe you shouldn't look through these…"
"I have to, Weiss. For the same reason everyone does. We have to be better. What's the point of saving people if you just end up causing more harm than good?" Ruby reluctantly began picking up a folder.
Yang was about to stop Ruby, but stopped herself short. A brief inner struggle and she let her younger sister continue to look through the folders. In the meantime, Yang fiddled with the scroll, pulling up a number of audio files. She tapped one at random and the file began playing.
"This is Officer Harvey Dodger, in the process of collecting a statement from the parents and younger sister of Ciane Vera. Please state your names and relations to Ciane, for the record."
"Levi Vera, father."
"Dia Vera, mother."
"S-Sienna Vera, little sister." The fourth voice, a young child, sounded confused and distraught. Everyone stopped looking through folders, while Yang put down the scroll.
"Last night, at around ten you received a call from Ciane, letting you know that she was on her way to a late night rehearsal, yes?"
"Yes, officer," Levi answered, the sound of a chair scraping against the floor being heard in the background.
"And the next time you heard from her was around eleven thirty?"
"Yes. We received a call from Vale General and...Ciane was…" There was a choked sound from the father at this point, a stifled sob perhaps.
"A doctor contacted us before holding the phone up to Ciane's ear," Dia took over for her husband. "She was a bit out of it, something to do with painkillers. We tried making our way there as quickly as we could, but, well...the highway was, of course, closed. And then you and your partner came to our house and escorted us here, to get a statement."
"Mommy...where's Cici?" Sienna finally spoke up. "Why isn't she here?"
"Ciane is at the hospital, sweetie," Dia said, trying to soothe her youngest. "We'll be able to see her in just a little while, okay?"
"Really?" Sienna sounded like she had perked up. "Will she play my favorite song? Can we still go to her concert tomorrow?"
"Not tomorrow honey, she's… she's not feeling well, she'll need a little time before she can play a concert, or your favorite song." Dia's voice had slight tremble to it.
"Dia, we have to tell her. She deserves to know the truth." It was impossible to miss the sadness in Levi's deep voice.
"Tell me what, daddy? What should I know?" Sienna sounded curious more than anything.
"Levi, we talked about this. This is not the time for this conversation. We agreed on this." Dia was clearly on the verge of tears, trying to be strong.
"Then when is going to be the right time? There won't ever be a right time, better we tell her than making Ciane do it!" Levi was practically shouting in the recording.
"Mommy… Daddy… what's wrong? What's wrong with Cici? Please tell me." Sienna's voice cracked on the last word.
Officer Harvey cleared his throat loudly, but was ignored by the upset family. A chair scrape could be heard, followed by the soft click of a door.
"Sienna, your sister is… she won't… can't play in the concert tomorrow. Or any concert, ever. She got very hurt in the accident. She can't use her fingers." A different chair scrapped, as it sounded like Levi moved towards his daughter, facing away from the recording device.
"What do you mean she can't play, Daddy? But what about our song? She promised she would always play it for me, no matter what, so I didn't have to be sad anymore…" Sienna began crying, and the recording kept going for several minutes, the sounds of the family's crying filling the room. The recording eventually ended, the scroll moving back to the files, leaving the room in silence.
"Guys, we have to make sure something like this never happens again. Even if we didn't mean for this to happen, it did, and all we can do is learn from it. So what are we gonna do differently next time, as a team, to keep something like this from happening again?" Ruby looked at her teammates assembled around her room.
"Well we clearly need to be more careful about where we fight. We should have done more to get Roman out of such a populated area. And some of us need to be more mindful of what we do, and who else it could affect when we do it. Having a backup plan other than 'hit them' would probably be a good idea as well," Weiss said.
"I suppose we should probably be more willing to try talking to the faculty at least, rather than just going off on our own," Blake admitted grudgingly.
"And so that someone at least knows where we are," Yang added on.
"Right! Let's work on lowering the collateral damage we do from now on. Maybe we can ask for some suggestions from other teams and some of the teachers, too!" Ruby said, wrapping up this impromptu meeting.