Deceiving Debriefing
For the second time in the past twenty-four hours, Yang watched the numbers of Beacon Tower's elevator tick higher. She yawned. Yeah, she totally expected to be called to the Headmaster's office that morning: even if they had no proof, Headmaster Ozpin was apparently known for always being able to tell just which of his students had been up to no good. What she did not expect, however, was to stroll out of the elevator to find General Ironwood and Professor Goodwitch standing on either side of an empty desk. From the agitated glares at nothing in particular and Goodwitch's reddened face, it looked like there'd been quite the argument before she came in.
"Good, you're on time." Goodwitch sighed and tried to excise the annoyance from her tone. "I apologize for us having to interrupt your weekend on such short notice, especially after Saturday's dance."
General Ironwood shot a pointed look back at Goodwitch and stepped closer to Yang. "That being said, after last night's events, it is imperative that we get as much information as possible." With a faint, but still genuine, smile and laid a hand on Yang's shoulder. "Before we do so, however, I feel that it is appropriate to inform you that your actions were exactly what being a Huntress is all about. You recognized a threat. You took action. You did all that you could."
Yang flashed an uneasy grin and glanced over at Goodwitch, who was busy staring at Ironwood with barely-hidden disdain. "That's, uh, really great to hear, but I have just a couple questions."
The general folded his arms behind his back. "Please, speak your mind."
"Well, I was called up here by the headmaster. Where is he?"
Ironwood's smile faded. "And the second?"
"What happened last night?"
It hadn't been the first time Adam had been in this room, so indiscernible from that of a police interrogation room beyond the single, small window behind him: dingy light, slate-gray walls, the steel table sitting in the dead center of the room. Right now, the early rays of the sun beat down upon his back as he stared at the man standing at the door across from him: Headmaster Ozpin. His hat laid on the table: it was unneeded. Ozpin already knew.
"I must admit, I did not expect to see you here so soon, Mister Taurus." It wasn't the only thing Ozpin had known, either.
Adam's eyes imperceptibly narrowed at the easy use of his true last name. "It looks like we're both surprised, then. Why don't you tell me why I'm really here."
"I think we both know the answer to that." He strolled forward, let his cane lean against the steel table and took a seat, steaming mug of hot chocolate in hand. And so, the two stared one another down, waiting for the other to crack first. Ozpin peered over his glasses and sighed. "Why don't you tell me what you were doing, last night."
"After searching for my date all over Vale, I returned to the dance. I drank punch. Danced. Chatted with my peers. You were there: I don't believe I need to tell you what you could already see," Adam reported.
"I may be wise, but I do not have eyes across the entire school. What I did not see is just where you and Miss Xiao Long were between 11:15 and 11:55, last night."
A sly smirk spread across Adam's face. "Now, Headmaster, I may question your decision in packing a bunch of teenagers meant to be close to one another in tiny, co-ed dormitories for years, but I think you might not exactly be interested in our private life."
"Allow me to get this straight." Yang's supposed ignorance of the CCT attack appeared to had have left General Ironwood in an increasingly sour mood. His smile had slipped into a disappointed frown. Sharp features and dominating height left him feeling all the more imposing. "You don't know what happened at the CCT?"
Yang slowly shook her head. "No~ot a clue, I was probably out with my partner."
Goodwitch and Ironwood traded glances. Though a flicker of amusement crossed Goodwitch's face, General Ironwood narrowed his eyes and turned to Ozpin's desk. A quick tap on it caused the windows to grow opaque, and the light to be strangled out of the room.
He sighed, placed his Scroll onto the desk and turned to Yang. It booted up with the symbol of a black chess piece—Yang guessed the chess obsession wasn't restricted just to Vale's headmaster—and created a large hologram of the CCT tower and the surrounding areas. "Well then, allow me to remind you. At 11:27, Beacon systems recorded the launch of a rocket locker near the tower that was not linked to any student currently attending. At 11:30, your locker was launched to coordinates a mere five feet away." He pointed to a pair of gleaming red dots on the holographic road.
Yang winced.
"And while we may not be able to directly link the first locker to you, Mister Taurus, it would be quite the coincidence that two people leave, two lockers built for rapid response land, two people return to the dance... and, supposedly, only one of you noticed what had happened." Ozpin took a long sip from his mug, letting the information sink in, before continuing. "So, I will ask you again: why don't you tell me where you were, last night?"
Adam ground his teeth. Caught red-handed. Even if he could come up with an adequate reason for him not being there, it would throw Yang under the bus at best.
"Adam. I have trusted you with the lives of my students and—for the most part—you have done your part quite nicely. However, I would be lying if I said I was not worried about reports saying that there were three attackers: a pair of mere foot soldiers in the White Fang and a potentially Hunstman-level assailant who is still at large. You wouldn't happen to know anything about this, would you?" There was accusation, yes, but no hostility in Ozpin's tone, yet from the piercing, cold stares both men gave each other, it was clear that there was no love lost between them. Not now. Not while they were potentially threats to one another.
He snorted in derision.
"We're jumping to conclusions pretty fast here, aren't we?" Yang let out a nervous laugh.
"I wouldn't say so. A White Fang assailant—an officer—was here, inside of Beacon. This assailant knew of the dance, the codes of a locker, and made it through the entirety of Beacon without alerting anyone else. It is clear that there is an infiltrator within our ranks, or even a sympathizer. If you were to know of who that might be—"
"James," Professor Goodwitch growled, glaring daggers at Ironwood's back, "that is enough."
Reluctantly, Ironwood stepped away from Yang and retrieved his Scroll, dissipating the hologram as Goodwitch moved up to take his place as the 'lead' speaker. "We cannot stress enough just how dangerous this man or woman could be. You are not in trouble, Miss Xiao Long. All we ask of you is to help us keep our students safe."
"The very same thing I asked you to do when you were debriefed on the White Fang's attack at the docks, Adam: Keep my students safe. Whatever you are keeping hidden right now is doing quite the opposite, and whether or not you were directly involved, I refuse to allow any threat towards my students to remain here. If you want me to help you with your second chance at life, then you must trust me."
Adam remained silent for a few moments, then let out a deep sigh, leaned forward and propped up his head on steepled hands. Ozpin was smart: he'd left him with no other choice, now.
"Alright, if you want to know the truth, then here it is."
Yang shrugged. "Alright, if you want to know the truth, then here it is."
They'd have to use the second stage of their cover story.
"Adam and I were walking back to the dorms when we saw one of those rocket lockers go flying over our heads. Now sure, it might be a nice and safe dance and all, but that's still never a good sign."
"I made nothing of it, however, Yang was insistent that we check out whatever was going on. She brought her own locker down, we saw someone—presumably your infiltrator—moving towards the CCT, and Yang rushed off to pursue."
"I got up to the front door, and everyone was already... gone. Knocked out. I don't know, but they weren't moving. Even the White Fang guys. But I saw the elevator going up, and whoever this guy was, he clearly didn't want anything good, right? Either he was going for the CCT or maybe even this office right here."
"By the time I'd caught up to Yang, she had reached an elevator of her own. At this point, I had no choice: I had to support my teammate. Unfortunately, by the time either elevator would allow me up, I heard someone else approaching from outside. I slipped away and returned outside as he entered. I wasn't able to join Yang before she reached her destination."
"And after a~all the waiting on that elevator, I get to the top floor and there was only one person there! Someone in black I only saw for a quick second before they jumped out of the window. It looked like they wrecked up the place real bad, too."
"I had just stepped outside when I saw someone hit the ground and go running off past me. Before I could question or pursue, Yang dropped down and accidentally knocked me over. The infiltrator was gone before we could rise."
"Yeah, maybe jumping after whoever it was wasn't too good of an idea, but it could've been worse. After all that excitement, we just dusted ourselves off and decided we should probably just go relax at the party before too many people ask questions."
"Which brings us to 11:55, when we entered. Are you pleased, 'Headmaster'?"
Despite Adam's agitation, Ozpin smiled. "Quite so, Mister Taurus. That being said, I do still have some questions for you: just how did this infiltrator manage to pass you without you recognizing even a single thing about them?"
"The infiltrator was in a hurry, and Yang's landing drew my attention to her rather than the assailant. I'm afraid I could not make out too many of her features."
Ozpin's brow rose. "Her features? So it was a woman, then?" He narrowed his eyes slightly as Adam took a sharp breath: his student was hiding something. Ozpin took a leisurely drink as Adam tried to form an answer—or, more likely, another formulated lie.
"... It is a distinct possibility. She was saying something as she had run off: something about returning to the southeast."
It was good information, but what mattered more was how it was presented: an attempt to get him off of the trail of the attacker themselves. Bait. Though he had his suspicions, there was no hard proof that Adam was even in contact with the White Fang any longer. With it being unlikely to be cooperation, the other option in Ozpin's mind was coercion, but what could they levy against Adam to force him to comply? He believed his attempt at integrating him with humans was working quite nicely, but not nicely enough for someone who had potentially caused the deaths of over a hundred to care for his human team's well-being over his own... and without even flinching, no less.
Ah, that left one person.
Ozpin took a long drink from his mug. "Thank you for that. We will be sure to keep it in mind for our searches. Things are getting rather tense, so why don't we move on to more casual topics." He put on a convincing, warm smile. "I'd heard that Miss Belladonna has finally arrived. I hope you two are getting along."
And there it was: Adam suddenly tensed and his gaze hardened until they were like daggers pointed at Ozpin's own heart. It lasted for nary a second, his eyes barely even turning amber—let alone red—but it was still there.
"Famously." It was clear that would be the end of that conversation.
"I see. Well, I believe that should cover this debriefing. You are free to go." Ozpin hoped that Adam was not entirely compromised, but he was too important of a piece to throw away on mere suspicions. He gathered his cane and stood tall, giving a last nod to Adam before walking to the door. He stopped with his hand on the handle, just as Adam began to rise.
"And Adam, I assure you that whatever threat that she is holding above you is nothing compared to the tragedies that will occur if you allow her to succeed," Ozpin solemnly warned him.
"With all due respect, Headmaster, as far as I am concerned, those tragedies are nothing to me compared to her threat."
The headmaster shook his head as he walked away. "That is exactly what I feared."
"Can you describe the infiltrator?" Both Goodwitch and Ironwood were leaning forward: they cared more for the information than picking apart the story. Awesome.
"I..." Yang sighed. "Not really: they wore all black, so they blended in pretty well with the sky. I think they had black hair, though. That's all I know." The two authorities mulled over this information to themselves.
"The glass slipper." General Ironwood turned to Goodwitch. "When I came in, there was some sort of black, glass slipper left behind by the intruder. The size was hard to make out, but it was a woman's, without a doubt."
Yang tried her best not to grin as Professor Goodwitch's eyes gleamed with recognition. "A black-haired woman with glass slippers sounds a lot like a woman I'd fought just before the school year began. The choice in footwear was not particularly common by any means."
"The one who attacked my sister?" That was her? Yang bit back her wrath. Just stick to the plan... "You think she was one of Torchwick's goons?"
Ironwood scowled. "It would explain how the White Fang managed to get the resources to steal one of our Paladins. Nonetheless, thank you for your time, Miss Xiao Long. You are free to go... and I believe it goes without saying that this matter is highly classified."
With a pleasant smile and nod, Yang quickly made her way back to the elevator before the two had any ideas on questioning her further. Once the doors closed, she pumped her arms and laughed in triumphant victory. She might've been a fun-loving blonde, but she wasn't stupid: Yang knew that if they slipped tiny clues, the faculty would probably come to the right conclusion themselves without making it obvious that they were the ones that snitched. Couple it up with lying at first to make it sound like they were just afraid of getting in trouble, and they wouldn't prod. She looked down at the buttons, where one that headed to the communications room pasted over with a simple note claiming it was 'under renovations'.
Especially since they were trying to cover up the incident.
It was by pure coincidence that both Adam and Yang stepped out from their respective elevators at the same time. While Yang was strolling along with her hands in her pockets and a wild grin on her face, Adam was silent and contemplative. They waited until they were outside Beacon Tower and no doubt the prying eyes within before speaking to one another.
"You doin' alright there, Adam? It looks like the headmaster killed your dog, or something." Yang's voice snapped Adam back to reality. Though her smile was just as bright as ever, her worries were clear in her lilac eyes.
"I'm fine," Adam reassured her. "It was just that he was a little more observant than I had anticipated. Nothing that should interfere with the plan. Speaking of which, he knows exactly what he should: that she 'just so happened' to mention a base to the southeast. Unfortunately, a slip of the tongue let him in that it was also a woman. Sorry for stepping in on your side of things."
"Oh-ho-ho, don't worry about that," Yang said with a wild grin. "General Ironwood said he found a glass slipper in the room, and guess what Professor Goodwitch found out? Someone with weird shoes like that was already spotted with Torchwick once, so they've already got her pinned as being with Torches and the White Fang just like that, and only with the evidence she screwed up and left."
"How did they manage to remember something that minor?"
Yang's irises briefly shined a vibrant magenta, even though she kept on smiling. Perhaps it was the similarity to his own, but Adam had found it increasingly easy to read Yang: she was hiding her anger. At least while they were out in the open. "Cinder was the one who attacked Ruby when she went after Torchwick the first time, and Professor Goodwitch was there to stop her."
Adam smirked mirthlessly as he looked over at Yang. "She has an awful tendency to go after family, doesn't she? Just try to leave something left for me."
With a rough bark of a laugh, Yang playfully punched Adam's arm. "No deal! But hey, that plan worked out absolutely great, didn't it?" She held her hand out. "Come on, up top!"
Rolling his eyes, Adam high-fived her.
Their walk back to the dormitories would find itself cut short by a growing crowd of cheering people not too far from the visitor's housing. While Yang was instinctively drawn towards the commotion, Adam was fine with ignoring it... right up until the sharp reports of gunfire rang out. The cheering grew louder. If there was anything good about being well-known faces, it was that their influence let them quickly wade through the shouting crowd, people gladly stepping aside for the two.
One student was thrown onto his back from an errant shot just as they arrived at the source, half-laughing and half-groaning as his aura shielded him. Standing in the center of a ring of students, slowly pacing along the edges of their makeshift arena, was Pyrrha and Mercury. The spartan fighter had a fire in her eyes that the two could not recall ever seeing before, yet with his pleasant smirk and lazy demeanor, Mercury looked like he could care less. As the two suddenly lunged at one another once more, trading kicks and sword blows evenly, Adam spotted Blake worming her way up to the front of the crowd. Nodding to Yang to follow him, the two forced their way around.
The cheers rose to a feverish pitch as, with a whirling set of kicks in mid-air, Mercury struck down Pyrrha's blade and left it buried halfway into the concrete beneath them. Through the gaps between people, the two could see flickers of tan skin and green hair across from them: Blake wasn't the only member of Mercury's team here.
"I was expecting a little more from Jaune's babysitter. Come on, aren't you fighting for your princess' honor?" Mercury jeered. Adam and Yang finally got to the other side of the battle while Mercury placed himself between Pyrrha and her weapon, leaving her with only her shield to fend him off.
"Blake, what's going on? Why are they fighting?" Yang asked the moment that Blake was in earshot.
She sighed and shook her head. "Mercury and some blonde kid got into an argument—something about a rumor of him having faked his records. He tried to fight Mercury to prove himself, but..." Blake motioned back to the fight, where Pyrrha had just deflected one of Mercury's kicks, throwing it aside with her bare hand. While Mercury stumbled away from her sword, he recovered before the 'invincible girl' could strike back. "If he can stand up to Pyrrha Nikos, you can imagine how that went. She broke it up and fought in his place."
Adam snorted. "A real piece of work."
"An asshole," Yang added.
"Smart." Blake's disinterested reply earned a glare from Yang and a curious look from Adam. "He's gathering information on how she fights for the tournament."
"Mercury." Before their discussion could turn into a full argument, a silky voice came from the crowd that carried itself even above the shouting. Cinder, in the uniform of Haven, sauntered through the students, an aura of command and mystery having people who had never even seen her face already leaving room for her entrance. Mercury put his hands up and stepped away from Pyrrha, his back to his team leader, hiding his triumphant smirk. "Enough is enough. Picking a fight with the students of your host? Do not be so despicable."
He shrugged. "Sorry, boss. I guess I got a little too carried away."
"A 'little' is an understatement. She is a world-renowned fighter, Mercury: you are leagues apart." There was a playful hint in her tone that Pyrrha looked suspicious of. As if recognizing her agitation, Cinder turned to Pyrrha. "My apologies for my teammate's actions. I assure you, Miss Nikos, that he will be... reprimanded appropriately." Sensing the fight was over, the crowd had already begun to disperse.
"Are you friends with Pyrrha?" Blake suddenly asked.
Adam realized that both he and Yang were glaring beside themselves at Cinder, the target of all their hatred.
"Oh, yeah, why do you ask?" Yang did not seem to notice that fact, bouncing back into a cheery smile for Blake.
"You two just looked... very upset at my teammates. They might seem a little off, but they're good people." Blake smiled, but it faded in the wake of the silence that followed. Adam and Yang briefly glanced between one another.
"Hey, you know what, I'm starving!" Yang abruptly changed the conversation. "Why don't we grab something to eat? I'll call up Ruby and Weiss!"
Blake's bow twitched in annoyance at hearing that Schnee's name. "I think I'll pass." She started to walk over to her team leader when Yang casually threw an arm around her shoulder. Blake tensed up and glared at Yang, only getting a grin from her in return.
"How about just the three of us, then?" Blake continued to glare at Yang for a moment, but her eyes began to soften. A pang of guilt struck her as she realized that she probably just wanted to know her a little better. Knowing full well what getting close to someone else could entail, Blake sighed and put on a smile.
"Fine. Go ahead and call your teammates, too." As the three departed with the last remnants of the watching students, they did not notice the eyes of Blake's teammates following them closely.
Cinder smiled slyly and strolled back to their dorm, nodding for Mercury and Emerald to follow.
"It's polarity," Mercury told Cinder the moment the three were in their room. "But she's clever about it. The moment she touched my boots she was able to move them around however she wanted. She only made slight adjustments." He wasted no time in drawing out a comic book from their shelf and sitting down on his bed.
"Just enough so that she looks untouchable." Emerald took a seat on the foot of Mercury's bed. "Her opponents don't know her Semblance, which puts them at a disadvantage."
"Hm... people assume she is fated for victory, when she's really taken fate into her own hands. Interesting and admirable..." Cinder smirked.
Her apprentice gazed up at her. "And familiar," Emerald added.
Their leader nodded as she drew out her Scroll. "Add her to the list." As Cinder scanned through her own Scroll, Emerald added Pyrrha on her own.
"If she can fight that well with only light uses of her Semblance, who knows how threatening she can be with it in full force. I'm sure you could take her, though," Mercury assured Cinder.
"Oh, Mercury..." Cinder sighed with a smile, pitying their lack of knowledge. "It is not about overpowering the enemy, it's about taking away what power they have." Her eyes amber eyes flared brightly and flickered from Mercury to Emerald: both would need to recognize this lesson before they met their true leader. "There shall be no victory in strength. But we will succeed. In time."
Groaning, he flopped back onto his bed and let the comic drop onto his face. "I hate waiting..."
"Well, we may not have to wait much longer." Without the ability to directly interfere, Cinder had taken to memorizing and reading as much on Beacon's security systems and their Scrolls alike as she could. When the time was right, she wanted to have her plans set without any wasted time. Imagine her surprise when a new access point was gained: General Ironwood's personal Scroll. And oh, the wealth of information she found...
A downright malicious smile crept across Cinder's visage as she stumbled upon one file in particular. A redheaded little girl named Penny—no, P.E.N.N.Y. An android.
"We have our way into the system... Emerald, contact our faunus friends. Tell him I have a target. Tonight."
"Do you think he'll be able to gather the resources in time?"
Cinder tutted and handed her Scroll over to Emerald. The girl's eyes widened, and she jabbed Mercury's shoulder to get his attention, too.
"He has no choice," Cinder said. "After that terrible embarrassment yesterday, they'll be dying for retribution."
"Enough for a suicide mission?"
"You overestimate him, you really do." Cinder strolled to the window, looking down upon the students from her perch. Her eyes fell onto two in particular: their faunus 'teammate', and the red-haired ex-officer she tried her hardest to abandon. "All I need to do is give him another target he can't refuse..."
The only reason she didn't execute her plans for Blake immediately was that she still needed her hostage. No matter what threat they posed, it was nothing compared to if Ozpin became personally involved. Even so, two could play at this game: if RWAY believed they could strike at her plans and go unpunished simply because there was no definite proof they were targeting her in particular... well, then there would just have to be a punishment with no definite proof it was because of her. All they'd need is a little birdie to tell Almond where the leader he was once so loyal to was.
Or a little cheetah, in this case...
After spending enough time where every night could herald a killer coming for your head, one learned to train their instincts to the point where even if they did not know the cause, they knew they were in danger. That night, as Adam's eyes suddenly snapped open, it was that instinct that screamed at him. The room was completely silent as he looked around, wind felt but not heard as it left the curtains fluttering in the cracked window. His hand reached for his weapon of its own accord. Something was wrong, terribly wrong. Adam quietly called for Weiss.
No sound left his lips.
That instinct flared to new heights, and without thinking Adam flung himself from his bed and slammed into the ground just in time to see his pillow—along with half of the bed—explode in a silent flash of fire, light and force. His eyes turned to the window, now shattered.
They were under attack.
A/N: And here we go.
