Chapter 15: Old Man of the Vale
The Mirage was a nest of chatter and crewmates running to and forth, as always in a flying carrier there was no shortage of parts in need of maintenance, check-ups or replacement. As Team Ruby strode through the tight corridors, they moved out of the way, the Schnee led them that time, and she had the look of someone who'd move across her path unimpeded, and if any one person tried to get in her way she'd be moving through them.
Needless to say, no crewmate with their self-preservation stood in her way.
For the moment being, she'd just led her sister to the medical bay, Penny had insisted on staying with her, if only so Weiss would worry a little less. It worked, of course, but that wasn't the only reason for her frustration.
"So," Ruby dragged out the word, "Are you going to tell us what got you so…"
"Irate?" Blake suggested.
"Pissed the fuck off?" Yang volunteered the more accurate expression.
Weiss scoffed, "Oh I'm sure Ozpin will have a good explanation just ready to go!"
The rest of the team glanced at each other, Yang shrugged. They moved up a set of stairs, finally reaching the hatch door that led to the upper flight deck, a runway for the more traditional aircrafts, like interceptors. Some were taking flight just as they stepped out, the roaring of turbines and engines cut through the deafening winds.
Yang looked at the door, the hand-wheel was marked with indents where Weiss held the handle, she and Blake glanced at each other for a moment before following. Why would Ozpin want to meet them at the landing area, when there was a perfectly functioning hunt room inside? He hadn't even called them anywhere yet…
And yet, at one end of the flight deck they could distantly see him, accompanied by a person… a woman?
"There you are," Weiss whispered to herself, increasing her pace as she walked to meet him, her team following at her elbows.
"How did you know he was here?" Ruby half shouted, so her voice wouldn't be carried by the winds.
"I'll explain later, let's say I learned a trick or two from him," Weiss said, almost shouting.
As they approached, more and more the winds seemed to slow, to a point where it wasn't much more than a silent and gentle breeze by the time the team was face-to-face with the ex-Headmaster. He stood there, stoic, both hands on the walking cane he had planted on the ground, aligned perfectly between his feet.
He still looked the same as he did on his last day in Beacon, the day he renounced his position. The same longish white hair, the black suit and reading glasses, though Weiss could count a few extra wrinkles around his eyes, the beginning of crow's feet. In a way, she sort of expected him to never age, if what she heard in her dream was correct, but perhaps the white hair gave him the air of a man much older than he truly was. Her mother was much the same.
At his side was a brown-skinned brunette, dressed in simple outdoors clothes, the only hint she was a Huntress was the golden pauldron she wore at her right shoulder, simply ornamental given the nature of Aura shields, and if she wasn't a Huntress there were better alternatives for protecting one's body. Her staff… It seemed like much of the same, the crystal on top was purely decorative, not a Dust crystal, and it didn't have any discharge mechanism.
"Whoa," Yang breathed out the word as she passed through the invisible threshold where high-altitude winds became a simple breeze, "You have a wind semblance or something?" She said, pointing at the woman.
"Something like that," the woman said.
"Hello, Team Ruby," Ozin said, "This is Amber, I believe I've mentioned there's something that must be discussed."
Weiss' eyes narrowed, set on Ozpin, "So, we're here, but I'm sure you predicted that, didn't you?"
Ozpin seemed completely unbothered by the comment, "I can't say it was with one hundred percent certainty, but I had an idea. I suppose you got my hint?"
Weiss folded her arms, "If you could call it that. I figured you'd either want some fresh air, since you've been in a bunker, or you would've only made the comment to make me think I should come here. Which one was it?"
Ozpin looked somewhere in the distance before answering, "Some of column A, some of Column B. I was being completely honest, but I also thought you'd want answers as soon as humanly possible."
Ruby took a step forward, turned to Weiss, "Wait a second! What do you mean? He never said anything about a bunker in the message."
"It's a little complicated," Weiss admitted, the moved closer to Ruby, her voice only slightly above a whisper, "But hey, if someone can elucidate us on this whole ordeal it's going to be him," She turned to Ozpin, put both hands on her waist, "Isn't that right?"
Ozpin raised a hand for a brief moment, his palm facing them, "There's no need to worry, I'll do my best to explain. Now, where should we start… Team Ruby, you are lucky your teammate — Miss Schnee — is still standing here to speak with you, because only a few days ago she was the primary victim of a mental attack by a great enemy."
Team Ruby stood silent as Ozpin revealed the attack. Weiss, for her part didn't have to think anymore about the validity of her experience, the hours of wondering if she'd gone mad, or just how worried she should be were mostly just past anguish, but there was an ever greater concern taking over her, and that was the very fact it was no dream, but a very, very real revelation.
There was an intelligence behind the Grimm, and she was merely playing with their lives. Weiss would've felt panic at the confirmation, were it not downplayed by the creeping acceptance of such a dark fact of life, of their whole existence.
Ozpin continued, echoing the explanation he gave Weiss inside the illusion, with the exception that he deliberately avoided details, possibly to avert any further incident.
"...It is something of an information hazard, as people afflicted by it only suffer anything once they identify the information."
Weiss saw their expressions, they were concerned, and if she knew them it was not even aimed at themselves.
"But," Ozpin said, "We do have one way to cleanse the remaining three of you, a way to keep you outside the sight of the one responsible for this, lessen the chance you'll be targeted."
Weiss broke the silence, "Don't you think speaking out in the open like this is a bit counterproductive, given…" she stopped herself, out of instinct, "Given how much 'that person' sees?"
"I've taken some precautions, that can be explained at a better time."
Ruby shifted on her feet, balancing her weight on her right ride, "But If this is affecting the entire continent, we'll need to find a cure for everyone then, or at least a way to nullify it.
"That is true, although… Although I can't say I have a solution for that."
"You don't?" Yang asked, confused, "Then why call us here at all?"
"Because, after you're free I'll be able to give you powerful, important information. This team has proved itself quite capable in the past, I have my reasons to believe you'll continue to prove so in the future as well."
"So what do we have to do?" Blake asked, "What exactly needs to be done here?"
"Follow Amber to the medical bay. We've prepared a procedure. And once that's done, we'll meet again in the hunt room."
"Sure. But only on one condition," Weiss said, her ultimatum given before she could even realize what she was doing.
Ozpin slightly tilted his head forward, looking at her from above his glasses, "And that would be…"
"I want honesty, you have to tell us everything. Everything! I know you hit a lot from us in Beacon-"
"There are things that should be kept a secret."
"Maybe. But even now you're keeping a whole ton of secrets from us, aren't you? There's more to this than just someone behind the Grimm, a civil war and an infohazard," Weiss said, looking Ozpin in the eyes.
Ozpin sighed, "And if there is, you and your team could be swept into something bigger than us all. Bigger than even Beacon, or Atlas. Are the four of you willing to take those chances?"
Weiss looked back at her team, and for a moment wondered: Was this also a part of his plan? Was Ozpin deliberately keeping information to himself to put her in that position? Regardless of the answer, she preferred the open honesty to being a pawn of the council. Ruby was the first to nod, then Blake, and finally Yang. She took a couple of steps to Ozpin, extended a hand.
"Good," Ozpin said as he shook hers.
—❖—
Winter sat down at the side of the hospital bed, stared at her own hand. Could she tell Weiss?
Penny was there with her at The Mirage's medical bay, and she had to admit it was some comfort. She'd barely seen the girl five years ago, and presently getting to know her it was impossible not to admit she was a very pleasant person all around. Winter could get used to it, if she could ever admit it to herself. The fact she was an android barely even made it into her mind those days, it didn't really matter.
There was much to tell, where could she even start? Why not at the basics then, she mostly wanted to stall for time, even though there was no other entity to stall.
There were many theories on why changes happened to the bodies of Huntsmen and Huntresses, many conflicting theories. Some believed the Aura, the powers it granted to be some kind of divine gift, others that it was simply a normal bodily function, expressed stochastically across humanity. There was plenty of information to go through to unpack that.
For one, the most obvious change was that Aura allowed a person to project an invisible field over their body, consciously and subconsciously. It could be extended to handheld items, and sometimes to other people, if one had a semblance that acted in such a way.
Then there was the healing. Aura could heal many things, such as injuries, oxygen deprivation, disease, poisons, acids, so on, so forth. It even extended to their blood, a difficult substance to analyze, given how it coagulated so quickly it but a mere fine dust within minutes. The same extended to their bodies after death, they'd decompose within hours, only clothing and weaponry left behind.
There were other obvious changes too, enhanced strength, speed and stamina being only a few of them. Then there were the more abstract advantages. The ability to feel incoming danger being one of them. They didn't even need much sleep, only a few hours a day.
There were theories as to why such things were the way they were. One Winter liked to believe that they existed as responses to Grimm, in a way. Every single characteristic intrinsic to Huntsmen and Huntresses were perfect to Hunt down Grimm. Their blood worked the way it did to leave no trail behind, no way to be tracked by Grimm. They had the precognition as a countermeasure to ambush predators, and the strength to match strength, speed to match speed, stamina to hunt them to the last, for days if need be.
It made sense, but some things that made sense were wrong. There was no real way to tell how much of it was correct, the only truth to it was that they were the way they were.
Which brought Winter to her affliction. She wasn't like them anymore. Somewhere along the way, someone had been allowed to tamper — meddle with her body and tried to turn her into a weapon, a thing. Some of the things she could do could be considered a blessing in disguise, she begged to differ.
She was stronger than before, down to her very core, no surgery or needle scars would tell her how it had been done, only that it had been done. She hadn't tested it to its full extent, but it was as if some kind of limit had been loosened, broken. She didn't even feel pain when adrenaline started pumping in the middle of a battle.
There were other inhibitions she didn't have anymore. Thoughts invaded her mind from time to time, when she didn't hunt Grimm. Thoughts of violence, even during completely mundane moments, even in moments where her little sister was present. She had complete control of herself, Winter would never harm Weiss, but…
But what if it ground her down? What if she ceased to be her and became whatever that Grimm dragon was? Outbursts of violence had never been a part of her identity before, would something else creep in? IF she lost herself completely, there was a good chance Weiss would be there to take her down.
She'd found solace in sleep, even if she didn't need it, at first believing she was simply… Shaken from the experience of waking from a coma. It wasn't much help.
The food she ate had no taste anymore. She could barely differentiate rotten from edible food by taste alone, she'd relied entirely on sight and smell to avoid an accident there, and some of the sense of smell was fading too.
And of course, there was the elephant in the room: her ability to summon a Grimm armor around herself.
It was either a twist of fate or a sick joke, she couldn't tell which, but she knew it was anything but a gift. Sometimes in battle, Grimm would attack her relentlessly when she used it, they'd find her even through obstacles, and even drift from completely different trajectories, all to try and put an end to her life. Though it protected her body, simply using the armor seemed to attract Grimm. She had no way to test it but she could see the signs.
It was hard not to use it though. An additional player of protection atop her Aura, one that didn't rely on her Semblance or her concentration, it was simply better, in the same way that Grimm were like animals but better.
She'd mentioned it to Penny and made the woman swear she'd never bring it up to Weiss, thinking perhaps she would find a way to fix it.
And she had.
Penny was technically one of Pietro's creations, though she was more comfortable calling her his daughter. She said he was something of an expert on the field of Aura, so there could be a chance he'd be able to fix her.
And when the answer came months ago, Winter could've been overjoyed if it didn't put her at an impasse.
It would be completely experimental, only done with her complete consent, but there was something he could try: Beacon still had access to the Aura transfer machine, and although she wasn't necessarily well versed in what forgemaster and tinkerers made, she could understand the basics of it. Retrofit it from a transfer machine to something more suitable for the task, something that could modify her Aura. It all hung on the assumption that her aura had been changed before, so it could be changed back. And if did, perhaps she'd return to normal. It made sense but…
Not all things that made sense were correct.
Whatever was done to her could be irreversible. Or it could be reversed, but a mistake, or maybe random chance could leave her comatose again. It could even leave her better than before! There was no way to tell what would happen, even if they could minimize the harm, There was always a chance things would go from bad to worse.
It felt selfish, there was a chance she would leave her own sister behind, and she hadn't discussed it before, mostly to spare her own feelings.
Penny touched her shoulder, "It's just about ready. Are you sure you want to do this?"
Winter took a deep breath. She was as prepared as she could be, which was to say not at all.
"Yes."
