Hey guys. Dust here to tell you all this fic isn't dead; I've just been busy. Like I said in my last one-shot that I posted last week, "Hall of Success", I went back to college recently, and because I don't want to fail classes again because I was working too hard on getting Stolen Innocence finished instead of actually giving a damn about my classes. So to avoid that, it may mean updates will come alot slower than normal. Also, I sort of wrote myself into a corner with the original draft of this chapter and had to scrap the entire thing and restart it, as well as rework part of the storyline because of it. Either way, here's where things start to get ready to pick up, so to tide you all over until the action really begins, let's get through this one, and I'll see you lads and lasses next time!
Weiss stood awake in her own room, the one she spent most of her young life in with only her own thoughts, for the first time in over a year. Even with her absence, the help had kept it spotless. Not even a speck of dust or grime had accumulated under her queen-sized bed or carved-marble chifferobe. Her friends had gone to sleep in their own beds in the guest rooms down the hall a long time ago, but she was still awake.
Ruby made the comment that her family's actually nicer than the heiress had made them out to be. Sure she had her traumatic experience from last year used against Blake in an argument, but it wasn't as if he was blatantly verbally abusive or even disappointed in his daughter at all. Weiss knew though. Winter was always the focus of his attention. He threw her a celebratory soiree when she was accepted into Beacon. Weiss barely got a word of congratulations. Winter was praised by their father when she discovered her semblance in the ability to control glyphs. Weiss didn't even have an eye batted towards her when she first showed her ability to her father. She knew her dad never really gave much of a care to what she had accomplished. He couldn't even see the glimmer of interest in his eye when she explained how her first year at Beacon went compared to when Winter recalled her experience to him.
The weight of those thoughts gave the room an overly stuffy feeling. She changed back into her combat skirt and blouse, taking a moment to check outside. The midnight guard change was occurring soon, so she had time to sneak out as she normally did whenever she needed some time away from her family. Flicking open the latch of the window, she carefully crawled out her window and out into the cold side yard of her massive mansion, using a glyph to cushion her fall as the landed on the iced-over ground before moving to crawl over the wall before the guard change began between the two security towers visible from her window. What she wasn't expecting as she crawled onto the wall walk was somebody waiting for her as she leaned against the tower to her right.
"I was wondering when you'd start to leave." Blake commented as she stepped into the light above the door leading to the tower's compact interior.
Weiss nearly jumped at her sudden appearance. "How'd you know I was leaving?" Weiss asked.
"I could sense your Aura since we landed earlier today. You've been pushing down alot of negative emotion to the point some of us were able to sense it without even needing to find a sign you were exhibiting." the hidden Faunus explained. "You're family's much nicer than you told me they were."
"You've seen them when we have company." Weiss interjected. "Wait until it's just us three. Then the claws come out...metaphorically speaking."
"I saw a glimpse of it." Blake nodded. "Using Ruby as an example to win our argument during dinner was way out of line."
"I agree. You know I would've defended you, but there's no arguing with him." Weiss confessed.
"I know, Weiss. It's something I can keep calm about for now." Blake reassured her teammate. "Now, where do you usually run off to when you sneak out at this hour?"
The walk into Atlas City took a long while before they came across the downtown district. Even so late into the night, the streets and sidewalks were plentiful with cars driving around and pedestrians walking in and out of bars and 24-hour stores. They finally came to a stop outside the ground level entrance to a multistory structure, the albino duelist leading her hidden friend to a staircase that descended into a basement level doorway.
"This is where you used to go?" Blake asked, her nose wrinkling at the scent of urban filth from the overflowing wastebasket with rotten food and cigarette butts adjacent to the entrance.
"You were expecting something along the lines of a five-star resort, weren't you?" Weiss asked, not even waiting for an answer. "I couldn't with my father's business partners owning just about every lodging in the city. Luckily, there was one day I found this place, and the owner let me spend as much time as I wanted here."
Blake looked at the sign just above the door before they walked in. "Grump Bros. Deli and Convenience?" she muttered as they were welcomed into the brightly lit mini-mart with the ringing of a door chime, which didn't seem to do much for the burly hairy man slumped at the counter as he was in a deep slumber.
"Jon! Wake up, you dolt; you've got customers!" Weiss snapped as the man awoke with a snort and a startle.
"Whassa whosat...Oh, hey! Little Weiss-y came back to visit!" the awoken deli owner smiled cheerfully as he came around the counter between the cashiering table and the deli display counter, Weiss pulling the short stout man into a hug before shouting into the back room with a thick northeastern accent. "HEY, ARIN! WAKE UP AND LOOK WHO CAME TO VISIT!"
Blake watched with slight amusement and confusion as a taller, more slim man with a mix of long brown and blonde hair, sluggishly stumbled out of the back of the store room, only to trip over a mop bucket and fall flat on his face. "OW FUCK!" he exclaimed as he got up, two streams of blood starting to flow from his nose before he forgot about the pain at the sight of one of his favorite customers. "Oh, Weiss came back to us!"
"At least clean yourself up before you come say hello." Weiss smiled as she gestured to his nose, which he seemed to only realize was bleeding as she pointed it out.
"Yeah, just shove some napkins up ya nostrils before you come over here." Jon suggested as Arin grabbed a couple napkins and did just that while the shorter of the two men turned to the other girl accompanying their old regular. "Oh, by the way, who's your friend here, Weiss? She's kinda just standing around here awkwardly."
Blake almost gasped as she realized she hadn't introduced herself yet as Weiss was caught up in the moment. "Oh, right! This is my teammate from Beacon Academy, Blake." the heiress motioned to the brunette, who gave a small wave hello to the two men. "Blake, this is Jon and Arin. They run this place."
"It's nice to meet you both." Blake said as she bowed hello to them.
"Hey, a friend of our little friend here's a friend of ours!" Jon said enthusiastically as he tugged her into a forced handshake with the grip of a Deathstalker's claw on her hand before letting go, leaving the stoic's hand slightly sore. He then turned back to his old customer. "So, what brings ya back up to Atlas? Mission or somethin'?"
"Yeah, and then my dad let us stay with him before the usual happened." Weiss said as her face fell. Jon and Arin's smiled faded a tad before the thinner of the two spoke up.
"Hey, you're outta there for the time being. How bout we make you the usual ta get your mind off it?" Arin asked as he started pulling on some latex gloves to start handling food.
"That'd be nice, thanks." Weiss nodded, her smile returning as she took a seat at one of the few tables set up between the counters and shelves of snacks and drinks from the convenience side of the store.
"And anything for you, Blake?" Arin asked as he started preparing a sandwich.
"I'll just grab some tea, thank you." Blake replied as she walked down one of the aisles to a cooler stocked with drinks, taking out a bottle of iced tea for herself before reaching into her pocket for the Lien it cost. A clearing of someone's throat caused her to pause from doing that though as she brought her attention to Jon.
"Hey, don't worry about that. Consider it on the house." he smiled softly, Blake giving a nod of thanks as she sat down with Weiss, who was giving her thanks to Arin as he walked out from behind the counter with a small sandwich consisting of simply ham and cheese on a miniature baguette.
"I have to ask, how did you even find this place, Weiss?" Blake asked as she popped the top off her iced tea.
"It's actually them who found me." Weiss explained. "The first time I ever tried running away from home, I got lost and ended up on this street, huddling under the stairway cold and afraid."
"Yeah, you could imagine our surprise when we found this little girl in nothin' but a nightgown and fur coat squatting in our entrance at eleven o'clock at night." Arin added.
"Or our surprise when she told us she was a Schnee. They usually don't go fer places like this." Jon nodded. " 'Specially since your old man's new store down the block's been taking all our business."
Weiss gulped down the bite of sandwich in her mouth as she was ready to reply. "New store?"
"Yeah, this new Schnee Mart opened a few weeks ago, our very few late night customers are our only business. The staff from there comes in sometimes, but that's only cuz we sell smokes and they don't." Jon explained. "At this rate, we'll be outta business pretty soon."
"That's terrible." Weiss gasped, shaking her head.
"Is their any place your dad's company hasn't run out of business yet?" Blake asked.
"Just the shops in Little Menagerie." Arin shrugged.
"Little Menagerie?" Blake asked, not enjoying the name of what she assumed was a district of the city.
"It got established a few decades ago as a Faunus cultural center after the war ended, but the kingdom decided to just turn it into an internment camp for the Faunus around these parts that they ain't deporting or jailing." Jon explained again, sounding disgusted. "You best keep those hidden, Blake."
Blake almost did a double-take as she looked at the shopowner. "How did you know?" she asked as she let her bow down for the first time since arriving in Atlas, letting her cat ears for everyone to see.
"I grew up around 'em. Nicer folks than all the propaganda against 'em makes 'em out to be. I know one when I see one, even if they hide it." Jon shrugged with a smile, Blake returning it with a genuine one of her own. This was the first person in Atlas she was comfortable being around. Even Weiss looked as though she were more at home here than in her mansion, and with how the brothers were treating them, it was little surprise why.
"But, hey enough about all that. How's life over in Vale been treatin' ya, Weiss?" Arin asked. The heiress was ready to start talking about her experience at Beacon so far before the chime on the door went off again. All eyes turned to see a behemoth of a man walk inside. Nobody could make out any facial features, as he kept his face hidden by a hood on his grey coat and a balacava to shield it from the cold night air.
Arin and Jon shared a quick glance before the slimmer one shrugged and went to assist him. "What can I do ya for, bud?" he asked the new arrival, unsure if he was a customer or about to rob him.
"Just need a pack of smokes." he said in a deep voice as he fished a thick callused hand into his pocket and produced a few lien to pay for the cigarettes.
The tone seemed to calm down between the brothers as he turned out to be only buying something. "Yeah, sure." Arin nodded as he picked a pack off the shelf behind him and traded them for the cash. "You have a good one now." he nodded as the man grunted a thank you before leaving. "Well, that guy was shady."
"He sounded awfully familiar though..." Blake thought aloud, trying to remember where she caught that scent before. It seemed familiar to her. "Didn't he...Weiss?"
The look of mortification on Weiss' face was nothing like the brunette had ever seen. She recognized the voice from the train during Roman's attempt to breach Vale, then again in the first chamber of the tomb of the Alpha Grimm under the city. "Blake...That was him." she spoke. "I;m sure of it."
"That guy was who?" Blake asked before it clicked a second later. "Wait, him? A-are you sure?"
"Positive. That was just Chad Aens who walked through the door." Weiss said as she shot up from her seat and made a bee-line out the door, Blake not far behind, leaving the two brothers somewhat confused as they stood in their mini-mart.
"So, uh, you think we should call the cops or somethin'?" Arin asked as the door slammed shut upon Blake's leaving.
"It's already been done." read the text as he sent it to his informant, before pocketing the mobile device as he looked over his shoulder. He had only left the market a few minutes ago, but couldn't help but feel like he was being watched. There was no mistaking it that those two recognized him. How could they not? He had tried to kill both of them. That Schnee bitch and her traitor of a friend could probably pick him out of a million doppelgangers of himself if they tried.
Getting back to Violet's compound was going to be difficult now. It was hard enough sneaking into the city; getting back out was going to be the issue. It was times like this he wished he was born a penguin Faunus. That way, he could just jump into the icy waters of the harbor and swim his way back without freezing to death before he was even a quarter mile away from the city. His method of getting inside was a one-way trip thanks to the one on the inside, but other than that, he would have a much harder time trying to get out without help. Quickly, he reached back into his coat pocket, sending another message for an emergency extraction. Violet responded not even moments later with a confirmation that a Bullhead was on its way to pick him up at a certain location.
Before he could even replace the phone into his pocket, a shot blasted it to bits of plastic and microchip shards right out of his hand. He turned to see the smoking barrel of Gambol Shroud aimed for a killshot at him, with a familiar gleaming rapier pointed menacingly at him by the white-haired heiress.
"Hmph, so you did recognize me after all..." Chains grumbled as he turned to face them.
"Whatever you came here to do, you're not getting away with it." Weiss threatened as she revolved the barrel of her weapon to ice Dust.
"You're a bit late on the draw there, Schnee." he sneered. "I already have." he grinned as he lowered his balacava, revealing a sharp pair of fangs that matched that of a panther's, that chomped straight down on the end of a cigarette he stuck into his mouth before lighting. As he did this, the two girls suddenly heard the sound of alarms going off somewhere around the corner as two firetrucks sped past them to a slowly rising billow of smoke a few blocks away from them. As the two watched the first responders fly by them, they were caught off guard by the sound of multiple chainsaws revving up. The two Huntresses turned back to the White Fang operative, who now held in his hand a weapon that dwarfed Crescent Rose's length by a longshot. It was two chainsaws of the same build as his old weapon, now joined together by a heavy duty handle connecting them both together. "Now, they say three's a charm. Let's see if I can kill you on the third try, Weiss." he grinned wickedly as he lunged forward.
"Hey, Yang... Yang...YANG!" Ruby yelped as she tried her hardest to wake her heavily snoring sister up, finally succeeding as the blonde awoke with a startle.
"Huuh? What the...Ruby, do you know what time it is?" Yang groaned as she looked over to the nightstand of her side of the king-sized bed the two sisters shared in their guest room. It wasn't even close to the time for the sunrise.
"Yeah, but I couldn't sleep so I started playing on my Scroll when a notification came up that had Weiss and Blake's aura readings, and it pointed to the fact they're getting lower!" Ruby said as she shoved her phone into her sister's face. Sure enough, on the page of the app Ruby had installed to monitor her team's aura levels were two images of Weiss and Blake's heads with a slowly decreasing aura level on each of their details.
"They might just be doing some late night sparring or something, Rubes." Yang hypothesized. "What's so weird about that?"
"The fact that they're sparring in the middle of the commercial district?" Ruby added as she tapped both their faces on her Scroll. Immediately, it became a map of the city with the sister's icons and Marron's at the Schnee Estate in the northeast, and the other two smack dab in the center of the metropolis.
