Chapter 6: The Wheels Keep Turning
(Beacon Academy, Mission Debriefing Room, Saturday Evening)
"So, let's start from the beginning." Qrow asked, "What made you want to defect from the White Fang?"
Qrow could not even begin to explain exactly how much he didn't want to be here, usually it was Ozpin that handled these. Why he thought it was a good idea was beyond Qrow, but whatever.
"Do you want when the seeds of doubt started, or from when I decided to make a run for it?" Ilia asked.
"For my sanity, start from the beginning." Qrow quipped.
Ilia nodded, then began to tell her tale. "It started with the Breach. Before then, we stole dust, sure. But I always saw that as taking back what was rightfully ours from the wicked SDC. The Breach... it had nothing to do with equality. It was simply trying to kill humans for the sake of it, and not caring if any Faunus get caught in the crossfire."
Qrow interjected, "Did you participate in the Breach?"
Ilia shook her head. "No, I didn't. Assaults like that aren't part of my wheelhouse."
"For the record, what is your wheelhouse?" Qrow asked.
"Stealth Reconnaissance, Covert Asset Reallocation, and Strategic Target Removal."
Qrow leaned back. So, she can case a joint, snag objects or data of importance, and eliminate priority targets. If she's a double agent, this could be disastrous. Roman, I'm going to throttle you for dropping this in our lap without vetting her.
Qrow motioned for her to continue, so she did, "After the Breach, Adam started becoming... unhinged. He blamed Blake specifically for what he claimed was his plan going wrong. If someone tried to disagree with him... they would disappear."
Qrow nodded, Adam started ruling from fear, instead of respect. That checked out based on what Blake had told Ozpin about Adam.
"The... Miracle at Beacon only cemented my decision to leave. All it was... was more killing. I signed up to fight for equality, not to get equality by killing anyone that disagrees." Ilia concluded.
Well, based on what Blake had told him about Ilia, that tracked. Qrow wished he had Ozpin's ability to read people, because all he saw was a scared girl that might be a really good actor.
"Alright, let's talk about more recent events. Tell me about the Grimm you saw Adam talking into." Qrow said.
Ilia swallowed. She had been hoping she wouldn't have to remember that. Guess that was too much to hope for. "It was this... sphere that had tentacles with spikes on the end coming out of it, and the sphere looked like it contained pure shadow..."
"Alright, that's enough." Qrow said more forcefully than he meant to, poor girl was probably scared out of her mind about that Grimm. No doubt about it, that was a Seer. That meant only one thing.
Adam Taurus was using his White Fang for Salem's purposes.
"One more thing, Ilia," Qrow said. "Do you think you got away clean? No one knows you've left?"
She nodded, "Yes, because Adam gave me autonomy in the mission he gave me right before I left."
Qrow's eyes narrowed, "What was the mission?"
Ilia winced. This was not going to sound good. "To kill Weiss Schnee."
I see why Ozpin wanted me to do this now. I can look at this objectively, see what that would do to the kids. That would break Ruby, she practically treats Weiss like a sister. Also... it would destroy the Arc kid. He lost Pyrrha, and then he loses Weiss? He'd either break, or go dark. I don't know which would be worse.
Then it hit him.
Salem knew about the kids.
Shit.
(Unknown Location, Five Days Ago)
Watts thought that ordering Tyrian to remain in their hideout for a few days would've been a disaster, but was pleasantly surprised when he was proven wrong. At first Tyrian had kept himself busy with weapon maintenance, which Watts expected to last all of five minutes, with just how Tyrian... was.
The moments that Watts had glimpsed during is infrequent breaks from hacking his way through Beacon were like watching an artist take care of their tools.
After that, Watts quickly learned that Tyrian was good at keeping himself entertained. The scorpion Faunus had begun to work through the library of movies that Watts kept on his personal Scroll, and as it turned out, Tyrian had an affinity for musicals of all things.
Who knew? Not Watts.
What Watts did know however, was significant. For example, he now knew everything of importance about Ozpin's new guardians. Beacon's network was still off-limits to him, mostly because he couldn't hack it undetected. Scrolls on the other hand... were certainly fair game.
Between the new bounty of intel and Tyrian's legwork, they had everything they needed to make an attempt at relocating Ruby Rose to Evernight Castle.
But they needed better than an attempt, they needed a guarantee, Salem wouldn't accept anything less before they attempted.
For that, they would need access to Beacon's network. Which was impossible to hack from the outside without being detected... so...
That meant infiltration.
Adam apparently was working on getting an asset, as he called it, into Beacon. As everything he did however, it was for his purposes and his alone.
Watts winced, Salem would have to cure him of that pride before it was the death of him. Regardless how could he sneak in to get access to the network...
That was laughable. Him, Arthur Watts, stealthy? Hilarious. Tyrian on the other hand, could be incredibly stealthy.
"Tyrian?" Watts asked.
The movie Tyrian was watching paused, some sci-fi movie where some of the good guys had glowing laser swords.
"You rang, doctor?" Tyrian said.
Watts nodded, "Indeed. Next week, I will need you to infiltrate Beacon. You will need to plug this into any computer." He handed Tyrian a small black object. "That will give me access without letting their security detect me"
"Well, that's better than nothing..." Tyrian said, an insane smile forming as he continued, "Does this mean you're going to let me off the leash?"
"No, Tyrian. Not yet, anyways." Watts said, rolling his eyes. Sometimes he forgot how insane Tyrian was, fortunately Tyrian never failed to remind him.
(Present Day, Ozpin's Office)
"This is bad, Oz. Salem knows about the kids already." Qrow said.
Ozpin's expression darkened. He had been hoping to spare them of that for a little longer. "How is that possible?"
"I have no idea, and that scares me." Qrow admitted.
The two men sat in silence for a time, the clock ticking away the minutes until sunrise.
"What makes you think this, Qrow?" Ozpin asked.
"We know from Ilia's debriefing that Adam has a Seer Grimm. That means he's working directly with Salem now."
"I don't see how that relates, Qrow." Ozpin said, "It looks like you're trying to connect dots where none exist!"
"Let's assume that Ilia is a double agent, hypothetically." Qrow explained, "If she carries out her final mission, which is to kill Weiss Schnee, what would that do to the kids?"
Ozpin puzzled it out, if Ilia was a double agent, and was successful, it would destroy Ruby. As for Jaune...
Oh, gods...
Qrow could see the light in Ozpin's eyes die. If Ilia was a double agent, it was the perfect trap. Taking advantage of Ozpin's tendency to always see the best in people...
"Of course, that's the worst case scenario." Qrow quickly said.
"Even with all of that, Qrow, how does that lead to Salem knowing about RWBY and JNR being involved?"
"A few nights ago, while I was doing a sweep of the city, I caught a glimpse of someone who looked an awful lot like Arthur Watts..."
Ozpin straightened in his seat. "Well, we weren't going to be able to keep them secret from her forever."
Ozpin sensed Qrow's unasked question, and answered it, "Until Ilia gives us a reason to mistrust her, we will give her the benefit of the doubt."
Did Qrow agree? No, he didn't. But, Ozpin had done the same for him, once upon a time.
Everyone deserved a chance to change themselves for the better, no matter how irredeemable they might seem.
(Junior's Nightclub, After Closing)
I swear... I'm going soft.
"It's after closing, Roman." Junior gently chided.
"Shit, really? I couldn't tell by the utter lack of other people in here." Roman said, sarcasm evident in his voice."
Roman was incredibly interested in a spot on the bar, tapping his finger as he stared it down.
Having spent more time with Roman than the average person, the only other person who spent more time with him was Neo, Junior knew something was on Roman's mind. There was one surefire way to tell, though.
"Can I buy you a drink, Roman?" Junior asked.
Roman only drank when he was troubled about something. The last time had been when a job had gone bad and he had almost died, he had been so worried about what would've happened to Neapolitan...
"Sure, why the hell not." Roman said, "The kids are back home safe, anyways."
Junior, like any good bar owner, knew his regular's preferences. When he drank, Roman was very much a whiskey man. As luck would have it, Junior saved a bottle of the "good stuff" for when he drank with friends.
He deftly placed two glasses on the bar and poured it out. "Single-malt Mantlese Whiskey, on the rocks."
Roman raised his glass, and drank. It felt like hot fire going down, but he needed that when he got like this. It helped focus his mind.
"So, what's on your mind, Roman?" Junior asked.
Roman stared into his glass, trying to find some hidden meaning. Finally, he spoke his mind. "I'm getting sentimental, Junior."
Junior raised an eyebrow. "That's deadly in our line of work, Roman."
A mildly awkward silence descended, and lasted through another glass of whiskey, until Junior broke it. "It's those damned Beacon kids isn't it?"
Roman nodded. "They're so far in over their heads, I don't think they understand what they're really fighting."
"What are you talking about, Roman?" Junior asked, "They're just fighting Grimm, the White Fang, and those jackasses that tried to torch the city, right?"
Roman laughed, "Oh, that's adorable that you think that's it."
Junior frowned. Roman wasn't giving him a straight answer, that only happened when he was genuinely worried.
He was actually worried about the kids.
"Do you really want to know?" Roman asked. "What those kids are up against?"
Junior nodded.
"The Grimm have a master. Her name's Salem."
Junior blinked. Twice. "That's you were working for? When you stealing all that dust?"
"I didn't know it at the time, but yeah." Roman admitted.
Junior regarded Roman, "So, what are you gonna do, Roman?"
Roman sighed, "Do everything I can to keep those kids safe, for one. I think after this is over, if I'm still alive, I'm going to retire. Maybe I'll become a professor at Beacon. Criminology, maybe. Or Huntsman Fashion."
Junior was silent, probably deep in thought. Roman wasn't in the mood for a sullen drinking companion, so he got up to go back to his safehouse. "You know something, Junior? I think I'm actually going to try to learn their names."
Junior was taken aback, Roman was legendarily bad at learning people's names, so he only really put in the effort to remember someone's name when...
He was willing to die for them.
(Beacon Academy, Common Room, Night)
It had been a week since the last bit of excitement, the mission to retrieve Ilia. Much to Jaune's dismay, their brawl with the White Fang had hit the news, but not the normal news.
It hit the celebrity gossip shows, like Remnant Tonight. They hadn't cared about the circumstances, or goodness forbid, asking why the White Fang had been there in force, oh no. They had only cared about gushing over how adorable him and Weiss protecting each other was.
Jaune received no less than four phone calls from various members of his family as a result, as it turned out, the women of the Arc family watched those kind of shows religiously, if only to heckle.
Weiss on the other hand, had received only a single text and one phone call as a result of the parts of the mission that had been made public, the text was from Coleur Arc, Jaune's mother.
"Thank you for keeping Jaune safe, Weiss."
The phone call had been a painfully brief call with Winter, who had hinted that her duties with the Atlas military would bring her to Vale, and that she was looking forward to meeting Jaune.
In the meantime, as Ilia had been exposed to the secret of who Salem was, Ozpin filled her in on the rest of... everything. As a result, she spent most of her time with RWBY and JNR.
Tonight, teams RWBY and JNR had taken over the common room to initiate Ilia in a time honored team RWBY tradition.
Remnant: The Game.
As the game only supported four players, they had split up into four two person teams. Jaune and Weiss, Ren and Nora, Ruby and Yang, and finally, Blake and Ilia.
While the times that team RWBY had played were the stuff of legends, this was shaping up to be the most cutthroat game of Remnant that anyone present had ever seen.
Jaune and Weiss were turning out to quite literally be a power couple, with Jaune's strategic skill and Weiss's business acumen coming together to allow Atlas to terrorize the game board.
Ren and Nora had learned quickly, and it had become apparent that they had found their groove. With Ren handling resource management, and Nora handling combat, they had made Mistral a serious threat.
Blake and Ilia had fallen back into the rhythm of their friendship over the past week, and that was evident in how they played, both with smiles on their faces. Things like sitting around a table playing a board game were non-existent in the White Fang, but Ilia had taken to it like a fish to water, as they used Vacuo to harass the final team.
Ruby and Yang brought years of experience at this game to bear as they fought off attacks against Vale from all sides, their sisterly bond evident as they hammed it up with overdramatic embellishments of declarations of attack and defense.
Unbeknownst to them, they had an audience, a certain scorpion Faunus, and the voice in his ear.
"Tyrian, enough. Proceed to the target." Watts said, his exasperation evident.
"Not yet, doctor." Tyrian whispered, peering through the window he was perched on. "I'm learning."
Watts was now proceeding from exasperated to annoyed. "I've already found out everything there is to now about them, Tyrian. Move to the target!"
"Check your screens, dear doctor." Tyrian teased, "Already done."
Watts blinked. Tyrian had already completed his mission, he had complete undectable access to Beacon's mainframe.
So, what the hell was he still doing there?
Tyrian was talking, he should probably listen, Watts thought.
"Ruby and the blonde are obviously sisters, we can use that." Tyrian observed. "Threaten the bimbo, and Ruby might even come with us willingly!"
Watts was once again surprised. He hadn't told Tyrian that yet. His powers of observation were astounding.
"What of the others?" Watts asked, "What weaknesses can you see?"
Tyrian scratched his chin, "Well, the other blond and the heiress are obviously an item. Threaten one and the other will bend over backwards to protect the other."
Tyrian turned his attention to Ren and Nora. "Those two... the redhead wants to be with that guy romantically really bad. He feels the same way, but something is holding him back. Threaten her, hurt her, and he'll break."
"You must be talking about Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie." Watts provided.
Watts's commentary went ignored as Tyrian turned his attention to Blake and Ilia. "That must be the asset Adam told us about." Tyrian started, "Well, I hate to break it to Adam, but former asset would be more apt."
Watts sat up straight. That wasn't good, Adam was supposed to send his best infiltrator in, so why...
She had planned on defecting. That was the only explanation, Ilia Amitola had planned on defecting, and Adam had practically handed her a way to get away clean.
Tyrian continued, "Oh, this is delightful! So, it appears, from the meaningful looks that the cat Faunus is sending to the blonde, there's something there."
"Wonderful, Tyrian." Watts rolled his eyes, "You're doing a marvelous job playing matchmaker. Please return before you're spotted."
Tyrian finally acquiesced to Watts's orders, keeping his final observation to himself.
Ilia had been sending those same meaningful looks at Blake, and she had no idea.
Tyrian cackled once he was out of earshot of anyone that mattered. Oh, twisting this lot around to dance to his tune would be so much fun!
A/N: Not much to say here. Now that I have all the preliminaries out of the way, the plot is going to happen much faster now.
Please don't forget to leave reviews! I'm still rather new to writing, so any feedback you have is helpful.
Next Chapter: Jaune meets Winter, and Tyrian makes his grand entrance.