Aftermath
It had been easier than anticipated to convince Salem to aid the city, Ozma mused, even if her parting shot had been more than he expected. But when it came to Salem, if he was lucky he could keep convincing her to do so until it became a habit. Just so long as she didn't discover-
"You lied to me!"
"Do I need to have the elevator fixed?"
It wasn't his best response, but given the abuse it must have been taking over the past few days it was a valid concern.
"You claimed that Huntsmen couldn't interfere in crimes without other Huntsmen involved."
"You must have misheard," he lied in a smooth manner. "It is strongly discouraged for Huntsmen to get involved in active cases without invitation, as many would interfere without even realising."
"Should I be here for this?"
The questioner was a familiar looking man wearing a bowler hat. Torchwicks cane wasn't in his hands for once, which was a reassuring indicator that he had been taken prisoner rather than been led to his office for a more nefarious act.
"We'll get to you later," Salem dismissed him with the wave of a hand. "As for you, if you hadn't claimed it was completely forbidden I would have gone to other members of staff rather than students."
This wasn't something Ozma wanted to hear.
"You took students to fight terrorists?"
She dismissed his concerns with the wave of a hand. "There were already students fighting them. What I want to make clear here, is that there will be consequences should you lie to me again. Consequences beyond those to your kidnapping attempt."
"Ozpin kidnapped someone?"
"Message received," Ozma ground out, "but I would hardly call it 'kidnapping'. Now, why is Torchwick in my office?"
"He told me something quite interesting."
Torchwick took the cue.
"You will have noticed my switch from stealing from the rich," he began, "and no doubt wondered why it might be."
"Not really," Ozma admitted. "You didn't make it onto my radar. The closest was when you brought a future student to my attention."
Torchwick winced. "Low blow. Anyway, yes I have always been a thief. I am not ashamed of it, growing up on the streets didn't give me much choice after all. But taking money is one thing and targeting Dust another. I guess not making it onto your radar demonstrates my reasons. Huntsmen didn't pay me much attention."
"And you can deal with the police."
"Yeah, you have no idea how corrupt they are. Now the question you are no doubt asking yourself is why I switched to stealing Dust, am I right?"
"Stop dancing around it," Salem snapped, clearly at the end of her patience.
"I'm giving it the background it needs," Torchwick responded, clearly less than at ease around Salem. "I know that it delays you getting to bed-"
"Never mind," she interrupted, eyes glinting. "Go into all the detail you need."
"Right. So, why did I switch from the nice and safe monetary crime to Dust? I wasn't given much of a choice."
This wasn't exactly a surprise. There wasn't much else he could have been building up to.
"Someone like Fall, you don't have much chance to say no to her and survive."
Certain details aligned in Ozpins head. A female, quite possibly of the age to be a maiden, taking charge of a criminal mastermind soon after the attack on the Fall Maiden. And for her to be known as 'Fall'...
"This 'Fall', tall woman, black hair, cut short?"
"It grew out after our first meeting, but yes. How did you know?"
"I heard about an attack involving someone that fits that description from an associate, and it followed that it could be her. I believed you were involved," he looked to Salem as he finished.
She shrugged. "I sent her to talk with Amber. After Amber attacked she defended herself."
"I would question if your associate can be trusted. I'd consider her gold eyes more significant than black hair," Torchwick commented, seemingly leaving his mouth on autopilot while trying to understand what they were talking about.
"She had an illusionist with her," Ozma felt he had to defend Qrow. "In any case," he turned back to Salem, "you were involved with 'Fall'?"
"Once I learned the truth about the Relics I needed to ensure you could never unite them," she told him. "Sending Cinder to convince the Maidens to help seemed most efficient, as should it reach a fight she could claim their power. And then I could secure two of the relics in a safe place, each."
"And how did you connect the Maidens and Relics?"
"Where could the Maidens have come from but you, o mighty knight? And once I learned of the Relic of Creation, nice job hiding that by the way," he would have preferred if she'd forgotten the concept of sarcasm, "it was easy to find the connection. Four Relics, four Maidens, four Kingdoms... did you really think it was a good idea to keep the Maiden in the Kingdom with her vault?"
"It saves time when the Relic is needed."
"And how often do you use any of the Relics? Like Creation?"
"Sorry, Relics? Maidens? What are you talking about?"
Ozma had nearly forgotten about Torchwick being in the room. "The Maidens have power stronger than regular Huntresses, and serve as the keys for the Relics. Each Relic has a unique power, and if they are brought together the world will pretty much be destroyed," he summarised, leaving aside the reason the Maidens came to exist in the first place. Salem was hardly going to be happy about that.
"Right, so Fall gave me the task to collect Dust, working with the White Fang. She mentioned something about Mountain Glenn, but I'm not involved in that plan yet."
"I gave orders for her to step back and reconsider her approach when Tyrian came up with his idea," Salem told them. "While her being able to use the Maidens power to claim one of the Relics would be useful, there were too many risks with the 'plan' she proposed."
"You mean she's gone rogue?"
"If you say so, after all, you are the expert."
Ozma had to admit she had a point. This was the first of her agents he'd heard of going rogue, while Raven was hardly the first person that had betrayed his trust.
"So you'll be dealing with her then?"
Ozma sighed. "Unfortunately we need proof, and the word of a thief isn't enough."
"And I can hardly give evidence," Salem accepted. "Of course there would be consequences from Torchwick here being found by Cinder. Which is why I offered him your protection."
"Of course," Ozma sighed. "Now, let me see..."
[]
Beacons library was usually empty at night, as even the most studious of students tried to avoid spending time in the library if they didn't need to.
Tonight, however, there was a table in use.
The reason wasn't anything to do with studying, but rather the fact that there wasn't space in the dorm rooms for the teams who needed a group meeting.
Blake and Russel, of team URBN, were the main subject of discussion, or at least the way they went to the docks alone.
Pyrrha was, of course, the most upset with them, seeing as she was their teammate and left behind, without them having even left a note.
Weiss had brought team RWBY in, but was somewhat on their side, as it was only through Blakes actions that the raid was discovered in time.
Team WLDS had joined in, having been present at the docks to back up their intended teammate, Russel. And with the other Grimm teams, team ANVL had been called in to avoid them feeling left out.
The discussion had started with the obvious opening; Blakes Faunus status, made clear by the way she had not yet had an opportunity to retie her bow.
"Why did you feel the need to hide who you are," Ruby had felt the need to ask.
Blakes response had been to look around the group, particularly Cardin and Weiss.
Weiss bristled somewhat in response, having come to defend the pairs actions.
"You have seen people mistreating Faunus," Ren commented.
Cardin shifted uncomfortably. "I... had my reasons," he tried to defend his actions.
"Oh, right, I kinda forgot about it after everything was sorted out," Ruby admitted.
"People don't always notice," Blake responded.
"No matter what you think, it is something I have never been involved with," Weiss claimed. "I'll admit I have problems with the White Fang, but that is due to their actions rather than their race. In any case, we have something more important to talk about than a Faunus student."
"Yes, this idiot," and Cardin indicated Russel, "heading into a fight with terrorists without backup."
"Hey-"
"One person is not backup when you're dealing with terrorists!"
"Would you rather nobody had done anything?"
"I'd prefer you had called in the police rather than risk half my team, Blake."
The way Pyrrha maintained her composure rather than shouted was enough to make Blake back down.
"I do not believe the police would have been able to do much, even if they arrived in time," Weiss contributed, "so if they had done nothing Torchwick would have got away. However," she interrupted the premature celebrations of the pair, "I agree that just two people is not enough to face the entire Vale sect of the White Fang."
"It wasn't-"
"And did you know that when you went in?"
"We didn't go in planning to fight," Russel tried to defend them.
"Then why did you?"
His eyes flicked to Blake.
"It doesn't matter whose fault it is, what matters is what happens next time."
"I think the question is more whether it should happen again."
"Not so Pyrrha. There is nothing we will be able to do to convince them not to investigate should something similar come up again, is there? And if they had not investigated we would not have Torchwick in custody."
"There is that," Ruby chipped in happily.
"But things only went so well because other people got involved. That is what I feel we should take from this. We are in teams for a reason, and I feel confident in saying that all of us here would be willing to stand up and help each other if we are needed."
The group agreed, reluctantly in some cases, and Weiss settled back.
"There is still a question that needs answering. Why would the White Fang work with Torchwick?"
"With Torchwick in custody we'll find out soon enough," was Yangs response to Blakes question. "In any case, it's late, there's the chance of being discovered here and I don't think any of us need to get in trouble for being out at night. What do you say we agree that none of us head out to deal with things without telling the rest and go to bed already?"
The discussion reached a conclusion and they split up to return to their rooms.
Soon after one of the academies janitors checked the library, and locked the door after making certain nobody was present.
[]
A group of travellers in the desert of Vacuo had retreated from one of the sandstorms that swept across the continent on a regular basis.
At first the nearby ruins had seemed fortunate, a safe place to rest out of the sandstorm.
It was only when the sandstorm died down that they realised their mistake.
A Nuckelavee, the particular Grimm known to the people of Vacuo as the lord of the sands, had emerged, luckily from a different section of the ruins, leaving the travellers trapped and hoping that a strong team of Huntsmen would find them before the Nuckelavee realised where they were.
What they definitely did not expect was a swarm of other Grimm, mainly Deathstalkers and Nevermore but other Grimm were present as well, to appear out of the desert haze.
Their surprise was only compounded when the Grimm, rather than joining the Nuckelavees efforts to hunt them, swarmed the Nuckelavee itself.
While Nuckelavee were well known as some of the most dangerous Grimm, with their ability to breathe out poisonous gas to kill anyone able to avoid their reach, it turned out they were much less capable of fending off other Grimm.
The travellers could only watch, disbelieving, as the powerful Grimm was overwhelmed by countless of its smaller cousins, all completely immune to its breath.
It didn't take long before the Nuckelavees smoke joined that of the Grimm it had managed to kill as it too began to dissolve.
And to their greater disbelief the Grimm then dispersed, ignoring their terror and panic.
Even if they could have accepted Grimm turning on each other, them then proceeding to ignore a trapped group of people was beyond what they could accept.
AN: Sorry about the lack of a Grimm-themed chapter name. I just couldn't think of one.
As a side, you may notice Ozpin isn't being shown as an all-knowing wiseman, but rather as fallible, which does follow canon. It is hard to argue that he isn't the reason for Salem playing the role of enemy of humanity, something that will come up in-story.
As for him being referred to as 'mighty knight', I have recently got around to trying Hollow Knight, and that is a reference to Zote (so nearly a fitting name for one of his reincarnations). I had thought of mentioning the possible similarities between Oz and Zote in last chapters notes, but forgot. In any case, there are questions about Ozma that my story will likely answer differently than in canon, such as why Oscar was such a match for his soul...
