AN: A crossover idea I just couldn't get out of my head. Now that I'm taking a break from Lancaster at Arms for a little bit, I thought I'd work on another long fic. Put my world-building and Idea skills to use you know? I hope you all enjoy it.
Ozpin had never been so angry with one of his subordinates or allies. He sighed for the umpteenth time through his nose to calm himself and quickly took a fortifying sip of his coffee. He was lucky Glynda was busy receiving students for the Vytal Festival, otherwise, he'd be dealing with her own anger instead of managing his…
Standing before him in front of his desk were four armored individuals, helmets on, standing at perfect attention, and they had just told him something that he wanted to dismiss outright.
Sadly, with how well he knew James, he couldn't.
That only infuriated him more.
"You're claiming to be part of a project of… super soldiers, abducted at a young age, experimented on, trained and indoctrinated by Atlas, under the orders of James Ironwood?"
The leader, adorned in red armor nodded her head. "Yes, Sir." her voice sounded familiar to him, but he dismissed that for now.
"I hope you brought proof of such a bold claim…"
"Yes, sir." she intoned once more and Ozpin, a man of mental fortitude and patience found his patience wearing thin at the military protocol before him.
He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "At ease, and please, remove your helmets." He glanced at all of them, "Not being able to look someone in the eye while having a conversation with them is…disconcerting."
They all seemed uncertain at first, glancing at each other and then finally their leader for confirmation, when she nodded, albeit minutely, they all reached up in unison and pulled their helmets off with a snap and a hiss as the suits decompressed.
The moment he saw their faces he felt his heart stop, and he almost jumped to stand in shock, but he restrained himself.
Three of them mattered little to him, the two in the back, one in green armor with black hair with pink highlights and the other in pink with orange hair, were of no consequence to him. The one in white armor he recognized as an Arc, though he didn't know which one.
It was the one in front, the leader that made him react, she was the spitting image of her mother…
Standing before him was a girl that had been thought dead for nearly ten years, Ruby Rose.
James had a lot to answer for it seemed.
Sipping his coffee once again to calm his nerves, he sighed and whispered out a quiet "James…why?" Before standing up and walking to the nearby window, looking out upon Beacon and Vale proper before turning back to them.
"Start from the beginning, Miss Rose."
When none of them responded to his order, he felt his heart break even more. She didn't even know her own last name? Her mother's name? 'James, what have you done?' he thought. He gripped his cane and tried again.
"Ruby." This time she looked at him and he nodded "Rose is your last name, though you probably don't remember it." He glanced at the other three before continuing "Why don't you tell me your names, so a mistake like that doesn't happen again?" he encouraged.
They didn't even look at each other for confirmation, snapping back into attention they began reciting their names, like machines… Ozpin could barely contain his anger.
"Spartan-100, Ranger 1, Ruby." Ruby intoned dutifully the young blond man next to her continued.
"Spartan-003, Ranger 2, Jaune." Next came the orange-haired girl, much more bubbly than the other two thankfully.
"Spartan-002, Ranger 3, Nora!" Finally the other young man, stoically this time.
"Spartan-001, Ranger 4, Lie-Ren."
Nodding he asked again, "Tell me your story then, Ruby, how did you end up here as…" he gestured to the four of them "This? The last time anyone had seen you were back on Patch wandering the forest with your sister, we assumed the Grimm had killed you but it appears we were wrong."
The orange one, Nora snorted, the first unprofessional sounding noise any of them had made and It actually made Ozpin internally sigh in relief, Jame's hadn't completely crushed their individuality then.
"Boss? Hurt by some Grimm? No way!" she flinched when Lie-Ren slapped her on the back of the head, another unprofessional gesture that made Ozpin relax, though his voice was just as deadpan as it had been when he introduced himself.
"Nora, Stop breaking rank."
Nora just pouted though "Is he really our CO? Isn't Boss our CO?"
Lie-Ren sighed through his nose and Ruby cracked a smile, the first one Ozpin had seen on her since she had taken her helmet off.
It seems James had failed more than he had realized.
"Sir," he flinched when Ruby addressed him, her voice so much like Summer's it hurt. "Can Jaune take these two," she thumbed over her shoulders "To get some rest? We've been traveling for a couple of days and haven't really had a chance to get out of our armor and take care of ourselves."
It was then that Ozpin realized his error, and he nodded. "My apologies, I was…" he sighed through his nose again and pinched it "You must understand Ruby… What James has done…" he gripped his cane so hard that it hurt "It's unacceptable. I let my anger at him cause me to forget that you still require rest after a debrief." He walked over to his desk and pressed a button on it "Will miss Pyrrha Niko's come to the Headmaster's office, I have a task for you." He looked back up to the four before him "One of my students will show you to your rooms, after you've rested for the day I'll come to collect you for an actual debrief."
Ruby nodded and motioned for the other three to make their way to the elevator, they all did so without complaint, each of them placing their helmets back on as they walked. Ozpin held back a chuckle when he heard Nora whisper something about "Liking this new CO a lot better than the last one." Though he frowned when he realized who the "last one" was.
It surprised him to see Ruby stay though.
"Are you not going with your friends?"
She shook her head "They needed the rest, I don't." she reached into her helmet and pulled out a chip from the back of it, before continuing. "Semblance and enhancements make me harder to tire, even for a Spartan." she motioned to Ozpin's terminal silently asking permission to place the chip inside.
Ozpin raised an eyebrow, "What will that chip do? You have my permission but I would still like to know before you put it inside my terminal."
Ruby shrugged, "it'll give you answers a lot better than I can, I'll stay to provide further context on what I can, but I didn't have the means to record everything like she did."
"She?"
That was as far as he got when his normal holographic terminal was replaced and overtaken by the form of a small green girl, with code streaming down her clothing and skin. She smiled up at Ruby and then turned and curtseyed to Ozpin. "Salutations! I am P.E.N.N.Y, you can call me Penny! It's a pleasure to meet you Professor Ozpin, my father spoke highly of you."
Ozpin sat down, shocked to see a working A.I, one that didn't seem to have any of the errors or issues of some of the older projects Atlas had been working on. "Your father? James?" He questioned though he regretted it when the A.I… Penny's face twisted in disgust.
"Negative, Pietro Polendina," when Ozpin's eyes lit up in recognition she smiled "I was given orders by him to record everything regarding Project Orion II, or as it became known later, the Spartan Program, So that I could regal it to you. Would you like me to begin?"
Looking from Penny to Ruby he nodded and steepled his hands in front of him, ready to see the sins his subordinate had done in his name.
James Ironwood had much to answer for.
James Ironwood was called many…derogatory things by his fellow council members and even subordinates when they thought he wasn't listening.
Automaton, Tin-Man, Steel Heart, any term you can think of to describe someone who didn't feel, and he was called it.
Right now though he wished those insults for him were true, as he stared down at the report on his desk. One hundred men and Women, all dead evacuating yet another town. Both Atlas and Mantle were feeling the strain of so many refugees, and James was feeling the strain of losing so many excellent soldiers…
Under normal circumstances, he could handle a situation like this. Focus on the fact that his men had died doing what they were trained to do, protecting the citizens of Atlas valiantly and without fear. Then the report that Summer Rose had died reached him, and he felt his heart freeze.
She had been sent on a mission near Salem's domain, nothing out of the ordinary, just a scouting mission. Somehow Salem had caught wind and killed her, one of the best huntresses in the world, snuffed out like it was nothing.
James gripped the pencil in his hand so hard that it snapped. He had always admired Summer Rose, he wouldn't tell Qrow, but he admired almost everyone in Team STQR except for Raven Branwen. But where Taiyang and Qrow were fantastic huntsmen, Summer was exceptional. She took any mission she could without complaint; she was hyper-lethal in her dispensing of death, be it to the creatures of Grimm or bandits in the countryside. She wore her heart on her sleeve and brought hope to any village that saw her.
She was the perfect huntress, the huntress everyone across the world should strive to be, and now she was dead.
James felt his mind spiral, how powerful was the enemy that men and women trained to combat the Grimm, even exceptional ones like Summer Rose, a woman who could freeze Grimm with a glare, couldn't handle them? Looking at the notes sent to him by Pietro for Project P.E.N.N.Y he felt his resolve strengthen, in one world this caused James to harden his resolve and begin working closely with the man and his team, making not only Penny but updated Atlesean Knights, robots capable of being mass produced to replace losses, as well as supplement huntsmen and soldiers.
This was not that world, instead, Ironwood brought up notes from a previously failed endeavor, one that Arthur Watts, one of Pietro's disgraced scientists, had been adamant would work. Orion. Super Soldiers capable of defending humanity.
Reading through Watts' extensive notes, Ironwood could see why the project had been shut down by the council before it ever reached his desk. It was expensive, for one, and for two the fatality rate was insane. Of the volunteers taken from the civilian population, all but one had died during the augmentation phase of the project, while it left the one survivor crippled with a litany of mental issues.
Watts would note, though, that if he had been allowed to use Orphan volunteers, those around the age of ten or younger, instead of adults, the results would have been different.
Doing some math in his head, he realized he could afford to run this project, as long as he cut funding to other areas. Typing a few things into his keyboard he began making preparations.
James slipped away as his semblance took hold of him and his focus pinpointed toward the direction of Orion, it needed a new name of course… something more Atlesean, perhaps Spartan, like the heroes of old.
"After all," he muttered as he called for his more… covert soldiers and specialists. "They will be the heroes humanity needs."
After a few moments, five men and four women stepped forward into his office. Each of them snapped to attention immediately upon stopping before his desk.
"At ease," Once they did, so he stood and paced. "As you all no doubt have heard, We lost one hundred men and women recently defending our borders and evacuating our settlements from the creatures of Grimm." he gave them a moment to process this before continuing, "This is unacceptable, with that in mind I am reauthorizing the start of a project that should help bolster our forces," he held up a hand to stop the questions "Sadly, the information of this project is above your pay grade, I simply need your teams to go out, discreetly." He emphasized the last word "And find me orphaned children, children whose families have been taken by the Grimm, children who want revenge, and offer them a place here, in Atlas."
All the soldiers before him glanced at each other before nodding silently, he had chosen these teams well, specifically because they had all been orphans, brought to Atlas to serve and become something more. They probably assumed the project he was speaking of was the same one that they were once a part of, Project Rejuvenation, they'd be wrong.
This project would be so much more.
"Are we allowed to get any type of child? Or just Humans?" one of them, a Faunus, asked, and he shook his head.
"With how things have grown the past few years, with the White Fang and all, No." He frowned in contemplation "I am not against it, but I'd prefer humans, they're more common and less likely to be sympathetic to the organization." He clenched his fist "If Schnee had listened to me and actually reformed his business practices, I'd be all for more Faunus in our ranks, but right now we can't risk it, we need soldiers whose loyalty would be to Atlas first, not their grudge against the SDC."
The soldier nodded and when no one asked any further questions; he gave each of them their marching orders.
"I will give each of you a kingdom to go to, search as many towns as you must, and be discrete." He looked them each in the eyes "You will not take any Atlas' military apparel with you, only supplies an average Huntsman or Huntress would have on them," He paused and thought for a moment before continuing "Correction, you'll take an extraction beacon with you, once you've found the candidates you're looking for, activate it and wait for exfil, but other than that you will take nothing else." He frowned at them "For all intents and purposes, until you have returned to me, you are not members of the Military, just rogue huntsmen, looking for apprentices. Understood?"
When they all responded with a short "Yes, Sir." he dismissed them and turned to look out upon his city.
If the city wanted a Tinman, he'd become it, and the Spartans would become his Men of Iron.
After he dismissed his men and gave them his orders, he walked with purpose toward his next destinations. There was much work to be done before the first candidates arrived, and he had to set everyone straight and have them fall in before this happened. The machine needed to function as one, or the heroes the world needed would never be completed efficiently.
His first, and the most important stop was the offices of Pietro and his team, he hated hurting his friend like this, but it had to be done, and luckily the council had been harping on him enough to where he could easily spin this around in his favor.
He stopped at the man's door and sighed, steeling his resolve, before politely knocking.
He owed the man that much courtesy at least. After a few moments, the door opened to reveal Pietro Polendina, standing with a smile on his face.
James hated that he had to remove that smile.
"James! My friend!" Pietro clasped him on the back and guided him inside "Come in! I was just about to call you!."
James plastered on a smile and followed "Were you? What for did you make a breakthrough?"
"We did! I sent everyone home to celebrate but we're one step closer!" Pietro motioned towards his desk where a small projector disk sat, it quickly flickered to life and a small green orb floated above it.
"Salutations! I am P.E.N.N.Y, You can call me Penny!" The orb seemed to bob up and down for a second before becoming stationary once more "I am not combat ready, but I hope to be someday soon!"
James looked at Pietro with a raised eyebrow "I thought you said the AI would be the last thing your team would work on?" he didn't sound displeased though, merely curious and Pietro chuckled as he sat down.
"Well, that was originally the plan yes, work on her body before her mind, but when Arthur left after Orion…" he looked away and frowned "We decided the Council would want more concrete results."
James placed a hand behind his back and sighed, causing Pietro to stiffen and the ball that was Penny to shift slightly. "Speaking… of the Council." he hated being the bearer of bad news, even if that bad news benefited him, "But they've decided to cut funding again…"
It was a testament to Pietro's strength of will that he didn't even flinch upon hearing the news. He merely took his glasses off and pinched the bridge of his nose. "How much." He quietly asked.
"Nearly sixty percent of it," James sat down in one of the office chairs and looked Pietro in the eyes with a frown. "I could probably get some more of it back, with this breakthrough," he gestured to Penny "but It won't be enough, we just lost one hundred good men and women evacuating the countryside, and the council wants something more… concrete than a possibility."
Pietro leaned back in his chair tiredly and Penny piped up worriedly.
"Father, are you alright?" her green light dimmed and James couldn't help but be surprised at how lifelike she sounded already… how much progress had his friend made?
Pietro waved her off "I am alright, shut down, for now, conserve your battery." Once she had done so he looked over at Ironwood with a frown. "There is really nothing I can do to change the council's mind?"
James once more sighed and shook his head "Not without cutting corners, and we both know how much you hate that." they chuckled but James sobered up quickly "We both also saw how well that went for Watts." He growled.
Two hundred hopeful candidates, all dead, for nothing. He stood and began pacing, preparing himself to make his sales pitch when Pietro spoke up.
"You have something concocted don't you?" When he looked down at him surprised Pietro just laughed "You have your thinking face on, and you only pace when you have a plan."
James nodded, hesitantly but firmly he spoke "I… may have an idea, but I know you won't like it." when Pietro motioned for him to continue he did so. "I want to resurrect Project Orion," he held up a hand "Before you object, we know why it failed, we can prevent it and have working soldiers for the council, soldiers that are ready to defend the kingdom in less time than it would take to get Penny or the Knights up and running."
The Knights were still being worked on, with most of them only really being used for border patrol and peacekeeping they weren't nearly advanced enough for what James needed them to be.
After seeing that James was done Pietro voiced his concerns "You know why Watts wasn't allowed to continue that project James, he cut corners yes, and lined money into his own pockets with funds that were supposed to be used to find alternatives to what he suggested." Pietro glared at him "He wanted to us children, not adults, James, children no younger than five! No older than eight!" Pietro stood his chair clattering back "And you want to bring that back!?"
"What choice do I have?! This!" he gestured to Penny and the surrounding workshop "Is too slow, too unsure! Too untested! But even with how horrible of a person Watts was he knew what he was doing! Children have a higher chance of surviving the augmentations, a higher chance to come out okay!" He took a calming breath and turned away from his friend.
After a moment he looked back and continued "How long would it take, in a perfect world to get Penny up and ready? How long would it take to update the Knights firmware to match her?" when Pietro didn't answer he pressed "How long."
"Ten… maybe eight years, if we had a few breakthroughs…"
"Members of Orion could be combat ready in five if what Watts wrote in his notes is to be believed." He held up a hand to stop the interruption he knew was coming. "I am not a barbarian, Pietro, I am looking for orphans, kids with nowhere to go, they will be asked to join, and if they accept they will be brought into Orion, if they refuse we will take care of them as wards of the state."
When Pietro still looked hesitant, he nodded towards Penny's module "You can still work on her in your spare time, Hell, we still have that armor Watts had made, upgrade it and change it for Orion and make it so she can interface with it, sure it won't be a body but she can still help humanity that way."
Pietro looked from Penny's module to his friend's outstretched hand and nodded, shaking it. "Very well," he frowned "What exactly would I be doing in this project of yours?"
Not letting his relief show he explained "Mainly educating the children, I have someone in mind for dealing with their military training, but we need them to be more than just soldiers." He began pacing once more as Pietro sat down. "They are going to be the hope for Atlas, no." He corrected himself quickly "The new hope for Humanity, they need to handle any situation we can think of, so we need them to be brilliant, to be educated, to learn from the past mistakes we've made."
"You want them to be better than us?"
"I need them to be better than us." He looked up at the ceiling with a frown, "You and your team will look into these augmentations, make them as safe as possible, I know Watts pushed them to about an eighty percent survival rate with children and his horrible experiments," he shook his head "I need that to be higher."
The two worked through the night coming up with ideas, with plans, and once it was done James left, satisfied that one more part of his plan was coming to fruition.
Jeremiah and his team rushed towards the sound of gunfire. They had been in Mistral for nearly a week and had not run into any orphaned kids. Apparently, the local Branwen tribe had a habit of taking any promising young kids in, same with Haven Academy…
It was troublesome, but they had caught a break mere moments ago, hopefully, this fight would lead to some orphaned kids just raring to kick some Grimm in the teeth.
Now he and his team just had to get to them.
"Double time it, those kids aren't gonna save themselves!" if anyone had heard him say that outside of his team they would have thought he was being altruistic…
His team knew better though.
"Why the hell do we gotta double time it? How do you even know the kids'll be alive when we get there!"
Jeremiah shrugged "Kids are slippery like that,"
"How the hell would you know that?!" One of his teammates, Anthony, yelled out.
Before he could dodge that can of worms, an ear-piercing scream shut the team up. Jeremiah raised a finger to his ear and muttered a whispered "Daniel what the hell was that?" to his team sniper, who was perched on a hill closer to the settlement.
"That would be a Nuckelavee."
"A fucking what?" One of the other members of the team, Skylar, Jeremiah thought, hissed.
"Big horse, with a man-shaped thing on its back, it seems pissed." he paused "You need to get there quickly, or it's gonna kill everyone in the town."
"How many kids do you see?" Jeremiah hissed out, the two team members looked at him like he had gone crazy.
"Five, two are hiding under a house the others are hiding in City hall but you need to hurry the Nuckelavee has their scent."
The team picked up the pace, no kids were dying on their watch…
A few minutes later, the fight was over. It was long, hard, and Jeremiah was pretty sure Anthony was dead.
Oh well, he shrugged as he helped a little kid with orange hair and another with black and pink out from under the house.
"Hey kids," he started softly, traumatized kids loved soft voices right? "What are your names?"
The two looked at each other, holding hands and trying desperately not to cry, it was almost cute. "Lie-Ren…" the black-haired boy said first.
"N...Nora."
He smiled, trying desperately not to make it turn into a grimace, smiling was annoying… "Nora and Lie-Ren, great names…" he looked as Daniel placed the exfiltration beacon and Skylar helped the other three kids out of the ruined city hall, before addressing them again, "How would you like to make sure something like this doesn't happen again?"
Jaune Arc was a fool.
That normally came with the territory of being a seven-year-old boy but he was still a fool. He had just had yet another argument with his parents about his future. Kids his age had started basic huntsmen training by now, yet no matter how much he pleaded with his father, the training he wanted would be denied to him.
It was like his family intended for him to never achieve his dreams, which made little sense in the seven-year-old's mind because they supported everyone else's dreams. Saphron was allowed to study dust and learn how to make explosives, Sage could look into becoming a botanist… but for whatever reason, they forbid Jaune from being a huntsman.
So he ran, during the family's weekly trip to Argus, he wandered off like he normally would. His family, ironically trusted him enough to let him wander the city on his own, but not enough to train, it was just one more nail in the coffin in the little boy's eyes. In another universe, he'd wander around for hours, be found by his father, and later scolded for not contacting any of his sisters or his parents on his scroll.
In this universe, he would bump into the squad searching for Orion candidates, and overhear one of them talking. "How the hell have we not found a single orphan in this city? Don't they get refugees pretty regularly?"
"Yea, but a lot of them end up leaving Argus to go to either Haven down south or up to us in Atlas, so we may have just missed a few or something…"
"How are we supposed to…" The man paused when he noticed Jaune staring at him as if he was considering his words before continuing "Find apprentices if there aren't any kids?"
Keep in mind, Jaune is seven-years-old, Kids are dumb, like really dumb.
So when he sees two people, both of them obviously huntsmen, talking about looking for orphaned kids to become apprentices? Jaune doesn't think 'this is some shady shit, I should go find my dad,' No he thinks 'well, I mean, I don't know what an orphan is, but I want in!'
So mustering up his courage he ran up to the two strange huntsmen and smiled up at them.
"Hello! I'm an orphan!"
Now Normally, the two would do some background checks, ask around town to verify, and then go from there. Sadly, this wasn't a normal situation, they were on the clock and had yet to bring in anyone for the general's project. So of course, they immediately believed him, picked him up, and beelined it out of Argus for pick up.
If they had wasted a few more moments waiting, they would have seen a panicked Nicholas Arc run past, looking for his wayward son.
It had nearly been a week since James had sent his operatives out to collect the candidates he needed for Orion, Everything on his end was ready for them when the last candidates were found. They had built a secret training facility outside of Atlas, with all the amenities the trainees and staff would need. It had a hard-light training facility similar to what was used in the academy, a fully functioning kitchen, barracks, and a medical wing. He marked it down as a forward operating and training base just in case anyone asked questions, but it was ready.
His huntsmen had already brought back ninety-nine willing candidates, and he gave them leave to return to their normal assignments while he looked for the last. Normally he wouldn't bother doing something like this, but he felt he needed to do this, he was signing these kids up for a life of service to humanity, to Atlas, the least he could do was go out and find the last of his Spartans.
First, though, he had a slightly more important stop to make. Stepping off his bullhead and motioned for his Pilot to power the engine down and keep watch. He took a deep breath of the island air and frowned as he made his way to where Qrow had said they placed Summer's tombstone.
He held the flowers in his hands and tried desperately not to crush them as he made his way toward her tombstone. They had never met, not really, and he had heard of her in passing from Ozpin and Qrow, but based on what he had been told and read through her mission reports showed James that Summer Rose was exceptional. Once he made it to her memorial, he placed his bouquet of Atleasean Lillies on the floor next to the stone and snapped a salute. After a few moments of silence, he turned to leave, not before muttering a quiet "You deserved better than this, Missus Rose."
He didn't have time to move very far, the moment he started to leave the sound of birds fleeing in the distance made him turn back to the cliff face. He was about to dismiss it as nothing when he faintly made out the sound of two humans screaming. Pinpointing where the scream had come from, he made the executive decision to go save them; it was his duty after all. He quickly ran past Summer Rose's memorial and lept off the side of the mountain, using his right side to slow his fall by grabbing onto the side of the mountain and dragging a deep trench through it.
He started running towards the direction the screaming had come from. He blinked and activated something very few outside of Atlas knew existed but was necessary for search and rescue work for Atleasean Huntsman, HUD Contacts.
The HUD flared to life in his eyes, working in tandem with another piece of equipment, his neural implants, to take the information he was hearing and key it into visual data. Everyone in Atlas past the age of ten was equipped with a Neural Interface, James was more advanced to work with his prosthetics, but it wasn't uncommon for Atleasean citizens to have them. They were required for work, registration, and importantly for the military, interfacing with technology like vehicles and certain weaponry.
His HUD showed him that the two, and they were two based on their distinct screams, girls weren't too far from him, he hoped he could make it in time as he pulled out Due Process.
He rounded a thicket of trees just in time to see a beowulf slam a little blond girl into a tree, her aura breaking on impact. He surveyed the area and was surprised to see only three wolves, normally they run in packs much larger than this… the blond had an aura, did she somehow take a few out? Questions he was probably not going to get the answer to as he immediately opened fire on the wolf closest to him, killing it instantly with a clean shot to the head.
The other two turned in his direction and immediately rushed him but they were put down easily enough. He was about to run to check on the blond when fearful whimpering reached his ears and he turned his head to the source of the noise. He put Due Process away and quickly made his way over to a tipped-over wagon; it was covered in scratch marks from the Grimm and dented, but it was obvious someone was hiding under it.
He knocked on it once and spoke softly "It's safe, the Grimm are gone." And watched as the wagon lifted a little, revealing a face he hadn't expected to see outside of memorials and past mission photos. It was like the ghost of Summer Rose stared back at him, and he felt his heart momentarily stop. He glanced at the other girl who lay unmoving on the ground, connecting a few dots and frowning.
"Are you okay?" He asked, immediately regretting it when she started sniffling again.
"Y… Yang?" the girl whispered and James felt his frown get even bigger as he moved to block her sister's body from view. He looked at the girl, deep in thought as he wiped her tears and calmed her down.
Her mother was an exceptional huntress… could she be an exceptional part of Orion? Could she be the soldier he was looking for?
Thinking back to Qrow and what he had said Taiyang had become because of the loss of his wife, James felt his resolve tighten as he finished drying her tears.
"She's… Gone, kid. Let's get you somewhere safe." He picked her up, not bothering to ask her name since Qrow had bragged about young Ruby Rose once or twice in their communications with each other.
Her past and past name honestly didn't matter, if Taiyang was so lost in grief that he let his two little girls wander into the wilds, well, James had to make the executive decision to revoke those parental rights.
Maybe losing both children would teach him a lesson that losing both of his wives did not.
As he made his way back toward the cliff, he didn't notice or care to check if Yang was still alive; he had his objective. He needed to get Ruby Rose to Atlas, everything else was secondary.
Ruby didn't notice Yang shifting slightly as she was taken away by the strange man, maybe if she had she would have tried to put up a fight, instead of falling asleep in the nice man's arms.
It would be five minutes later when James was long gone that Qrow would arrive, finding Yang injured, knocked unconscious, and in need of medical attention. He did a quick search for Ruby but was heartbroken to not find any trace of her, save the damaged wagon and pieces of her cloak… He picked Yang up and moved as fast as he could back towards the cottage she shared with her father. If he had the time to do a proper search of the area, he would have noticed the clues keying him into where Ruby might have been, the pair of adult footprints in the ground, the shell casings from a revolver.
Sadly, he was too busy focusing on getting his one remaining niece medical attention, and by the time he would return two days later with a proper investigative team, a heavy rainfall the night before would wash away any evidence of wrongdoing.