Planting the Seed


"Well? Have I convinced you?" Adam asked, staring down at Yang with no small amount of disdain. The flames enveloping her hair had died to embers, and her now-normal eyes focused on his. He could practically see the thoughts racing through her mind, trying to think of anything except his implication.

Her grip loosened, and her gaze soon fell on anything besides him. "W-what are you talking about, 'did what she had to do'? What did she..."

Adam scowled. "Don't play stupid." He shoved her away from him. "You know exactly what she did."

Yang didn't respond to his push, instead turning away and running her hands through her hair. The temperature had begun to drop steadily, and soon, all that could be heard was her quickening breath.

"That was Ruby? Rubes? No... no, that doesn't make any sense, Weiss said—"

"Weiss was behind me. She wouldn't have had a clear line of sight."

"How do I know you're not just making this up!" Yang spun around to face him, but rather than anger, confusion and desperation marred her face. The room remained cold, her eyes a desaturated lavender. "I know Ruby, she'd probably take the fall if she knew it'd get a friend of hers out of trouble, b-but... but I'd know if she's lying!"

"Do you really believe that?" Adam walked past Yang without even glancing at her as he passed, leaving her to rack her mind for any excuse she could come up with to explain this. He was almost at the doorway when the temperature spiked.

"You did this." Her voice hissed like steam in the boiling heat.

Adam stopped.

"You made her kill him!"

He scowled and his grip tightened around Wilt. The temperature flared. Yang was just lashing out, Adam told himself. She didn't intend to—

"This was your fault, wasn't it!"

"I know that, damnit!" Adam whipped around to face Yang with eyes burning red. Trembling with wrath, the two stared each other down: Yang once more ablaze, and Adam's glow just as bright. Yet, it was not fury at each other the two saw in each other's eyes, but pain. Slowly, quietly, and with only the sound between them being that of their breaths, their anger fizzled.

"Ruby was never meant to get involved in that fight," he tried to explain. "None of you were. I..." Grimacing, Adam rubbed his temples. "Yes, I had no intentions of actually letting Tacet live past that night. When you all interfered, I had to think fast. I fooled Tacet into thinking there was an opening, but when he lunged, Ruby was faster. Worse, she'd..."

Crescent Rose was glowing a bright-red. How many of her rose petals were from her semblance and how many were peeling away from her scythe, Adam didn't know. What he did know was that Ruby had managed to gather enough killing intent to turn his lessons on defending against aura penetration into using it. Once, it would've been potential he would've been proud of. But that was the past.

Adam fell silent and turned his gaze away from Yang. Her eyes only screamed of her want to know what happened. To help her innocent little sister. It was just a mistake, right now: too much force, too much speed, too much adrenaline. Were she to know that, at least in that moment, Ruby was fully ready to kill in some misguided attempt to help him...

"It was already halfway through him. All I did was make it cleaner. I believed that if I struck fast enough, she wouldn't know that it was her blow that ended it all. I was wrong. So, yes. This was my fault. I'd tricked her into it, and by the time I realized Ruby was already moving, it was too late." He expected the heat to rise again, for Yang to shout and roar, anything at all.

The hiss and crackle of falling plaster and dust brought Adam's attention back to Yang: instead of lashing out, she'd slid down a wall, sitting with her legs splayed and her head against the wall. "She still could've come to me about it..."

"Could she really have?"

"I'm her sister!" Yang protested in vain.

"So your view of her hasn't changed at all? Even though she stained her hands with blood?"

Now, that got a rise out of her: the temperature climbed higher. "What? Of course it hasn't! I... she's still..." Only to pathetically collapse back into cold.

"If you knew every thought that went through her mind, would she still be your cute, innocent little sister who could do no wrong? Is she even that, right now?" Adam walked towards Yang, every step as soft as his words. No wrath slipped into his tone, now: there was nothing for Yang to feed her own frustration with. "If she said she regretted it, but she decided that his life wasn't worth as much as one of ours, what would you have said? What if she said she couldn't bare to live with herself over the guilt? What then? Would you have told her everything is alright if she said she didn't care at all? Would you have stayed by her side if she said she'd have done it all over again?"

Adam loomed over her, now. "Would she still be your sister if she said she enjoyed it?" The mere thought had Yang leaping to wrap her hands around Adam's neck in an instant, yet Adam did not budge. His hair didn't glow. His eyes were a cold emerald. He only stared down at her, waiting as she feebly tried to force her hands to squeeze.

"I've heard all these things, Yang. Not from her, but from others. This is something I am... unfortunately, but uniquely equipped for. It's the best I can do... it's all I can do." He'd done it more times than he could count: a soldier sick and confused, begging for new orders, another in a bar after a mission was completed, yet another refusing to carry a weapon in fear they would lose themselves, Ilia putting on a fake smile and acting as if nothing had happened.

Blake sitting in a tree as far from camp as possible, staring into the dark of the night with empty eyes.

He'd done the same thing each time: he handed them their mask, pulled his own away and told them with the utmost sincerity that 'you did what you had to do'. They believed it. They all did, because they could see in his eyes just how much he believed those very words. They'd believe that if someone else could be so secure that what they were doing was right, everything would be fine, if at least for a moment.

Yet, as he watched Ruby curl up and cry beside their destroyed dorm just after the White Fang assault had finally ended, there was no mask to give her so she could hide her emotions and no mask to remove to show how those emotions still did not effect him. When he told her that she'd did what was necessary, his words held no effect, for he knew they were hollow. The only thing he could do, then, was sit beside her and wait. He was a shoulder to cry on, nothing more.

And for the first time in years, Adam had felt helpless. It was the same helplessness he could see in Yang's eyes as she tried to glare up at him, irises barely even magenta and, now, fading to gray. It was also the same helplessness that he held close to him to ensure he would help Ruby as much as possible.

Yang trembled, and her hands fell to his shoulders. "I'm her sister..." she repeated. "This is when I should've been there for her."

"I'm sorry." It was all he could offer. The apology he had never given before. It wasn't enough: Yang let her head hang low as if he'd said nothing at all.

Knowing the clock was ticking before Ruby finally came back, Adam placed a hand on her shoulder. "We can't tell her about this. She will mention it on her own terms. Until then, let me handle this. Please"

Yang said nothing.

"She doesn't think you won't understand. She thinks you'd see her differently. Ruby is just afraid, Yang. It is important that she doesn't come to believe that you know until she's ready... and it goes without saying that we cannot inform Weiss of that."

"Tiny issue with that last part..." Weiss mumbled as she moved out into the doorway leading to the stairs up to their temporary base. "You two weren't exactly quiet, down here." She did well at keeping herself composed: had Adam not known her for this long he may not have noticed the lack of light in her eyes, or just how much softer and more controlled her voice was.

He pursed his lips and did not answer, though a brief panic sparked in Yang's eyes.

"Well, then," Adam started, "you should know why we cannot speak a word of what has happened here. Ruby should be here shortly; we must make sure we don't look distracted."

"How can you just stand there and talk like none of this is happening?" Weiss shot back.

Walking away from Yang, he brushed past the heiress on the way to the stairs. "Because as far as you two are concerned, it never did."

Sleep didn't come easy to any of the three, that night.


"Alright, students, it's time for a new day!" shouted Doctor Oobleck as he darted into their combined 'campsite'. He seemingly made no notice of the haggard look of the team, where only Ruby was curled up in her sleeping bag.

Yang groaned from a ratty couch dragged closer to her sister and patted around herself for her Scroll. "Ugh, it's..." The light of its screen turning on was the only one in the room. Not a ray of sunlight. "Five in the morning! Can't we get another hour?" The only sign it was close to dawn was a faintly orange tint in the air.

"Nonsense! I've calculated this schedule for maximum efficiency and can assure you that by the time you are all fully awake and prepared for the day we will have just enough sunlight to continue our searches unabated! Now, eat and hurry along, I'll be back in exactly sixty-two minutes!" He casually flung a number of rations to them, the last bouncing off of Ruby's head and pulling her from her sleep with a grumble. "Be ready." And then he was gone.

"Less than ninety minutes?" Weiss whined. "How exactly are we going to manage to bathe in that time?" A jug of water, lit lantern, towels and a bar of soap were tossed from the door Oobleck left from. The heiress stared at the meager supplies, absolutely appalled. Almost as appalled as she was that the other members of her team just accepted these horrors with only Yang looking displeased at best.

"You're joking, right?"

No answer from Oobleck.

"Right?!"

No answer from anyone. Weiss turned to the others: Yang brushing her hair, Adam tearing through his ration and Ruby having tossed hers at Yang and instead zipping about grabbing their things. "None of you have any problems with this?"

"Welcome to urban camping," Adam said. "You get shelter and nothing else. Food and water are scarce. Water to waste on a full bath, let alone more than one?" He snorted. "Good luck with that."

"Shouldn't there be some kind of White Fang convoy, then? To get them water and food?" Ruby piped up with an armful of folded sheets that Weiss had thrown down the previous night.

Adam shook his head. "Considering the Dust thefts, it's more likely that they stockpiled heavily beforehand to prevent this exact thing once they were found out. And with all of this"—he waved around to the deep shadows that surrounded them at all times—"stopping us from seeing any campfires until we're right on top of them, it makes their base difficult to find. Ingenious, really."

"That doesn't mean we can't hear them... and they have Paladins too which are really noisy! I bet by the end of tonight we should at least be able to hear those. Well, maybe you could," Ruby went on.

Weiss looked between Ruby and Adam talking like this wasn't a problem at all, like there never were any, with growing disbelief and agitation. Finally, with a frustrated huff, she threw her hands up, snatched one of her cases and stormed off deeper into the building. The three looked after her in confusion.

That confusion grew when steam began to seep out from beneath one of the doors a couple minutes later.

"... Hey, Rubes, that was her Dust case, wasn't it?" Yang asked.

"The Dust case with every kind under the sun, yeah."

"Including water and fire?"

Ruby gasped. "She wouldn't."

"Are you saying a heiress wouldn't spend hundreds if not thousands of lien using high-quality Dust to take a bath while we 'suffer'?" Adam peered over at the two with a smirk.

"... Weiss!" The two sisters shouted while they bolted over and banged their fists on the door. "Weiss, you better let us get our turn!"


Penny was not an arrogant girl: she expected to be captured one day. Her father might not have, and General Ironwood definitely never considered the thought, but Penny knew just after spending a few days in the Academy that there were weaknesses in her tactics that could allow her to fall to a reasonable threat. Sure enough, it had happened. A swarm of soldiers, Ciel disabled, audio sensors unable to clue her in on the nuances of their movements, and then nothing.

She expected imprisonment to be dark and dull: standard military protocol had told her what to do and what to expect when being interrogated. Harsh questions, low lights, scowls and noise and anger, meager rations if they didn't figure out what she was. And if they did? Dirty labs, harsh breaks into her code, threats, to be treated like a machine. Awful, terrible things.

Penny blankly stared from her table at Torchwick lighting up yet another cigar near the entrance to the bright, open chamber while Doctor Merlot typed away at a terminal linked to her back by numerous wires. Her aura-enhanced senses easily picked up signs of Merlot's own aura flowing around him and to the terminal. She could feel Merlot searching through her code, but it was strangely... soft. It was more like being back in her home lab, where her father and other creators already knew her code and had no need for painful shortcuts or callous overwriting, with the strange addition of it being difficult to track just what code Merlot was looking at.

She didn't have her restraints. It was a false freedom, knowing Torchwick had the remote that could jolt her systems, but it was still some sort of freedom. This wasn't what Penny expected at all.

"Another cigarette, Torchwick? I told you: no more of those in the lab! You're getting ash everywhere!" Merlot chastised him without even throwing a glance in his direction.

"What? I gotta do something while I'm waiting for you to stop reading and actually get things done."

Merlot snorted. "I've gotten much more done than you think. Wouldn't you agree, Penny?"

Penny blinked. "Yes, Grandfather?"

"Please, just call me Grandpa, I don't mind."

The robotic girl looked unsure, but after looking between the two for a couple seconds, shrugged. "Okay, Grandpa."

Merlot turned to look back at Torchwick with an expectant gleam in his eye and a smug grin.

Torchwick wasn't impressed. "Congratulations. You, what, changed what your name is in her system?" he asked and idly blew a puff of smoke over the scientist's head.

With a sigh, Merlot rubbed his temples and turned back to Penny. "Penny Poledina, WMBB-01, password: ashes-to-ashes."

Nothing appeared to change. Penny only looked at them both.

He waved to the android. "Go on, ask her one of your silly questions."

Torchwick raised an eyebrow. "Alright, kid, how's this: what do you actually want to do with your life?"

Penny blinked and looked to Merlot, who nodded. "I want to become a student at Beacon Academy."

"No, you don't," said Merlot.

Penny looked surprised and leaned forward. "Why not? I have friends at Beacon Academy, even if it... isn't such a safe place, anymore." She sighed, then pursed her lips. "T-then again... Weiss came from Atlas. Maybe I could convince her to come back home with me. I don't want to leave my friends here in Vale at all. They could come with, right?"

Merlot nodded, and her eyes lit up.

"Penny. What do you want to do with your life?" Merlot asked.

"I'll ask Weiss and Ruby if they can join me in Atlas! Then everyone will be happy!"

Merlot turned to Torchwick again. The crime lord shifted in place, took a long drag from his cigar and shook his head. "So, you don't want to go to Beacon?"

"Not if my friends aren't safe there."

"You changed her code, right?" Torchwick asked, blowing out a ring of smoke and tapping out his ashes as Merlot nodded and grit his teeth at his lab growing dirtier. "I thought it'd be a lot more... ya know, 'yes and no' than that? She wants to go to Beacon, you say she doesn't, bam: now she doesn't want to go to Beacon!"

"Tsk tsk, you don't really think someone built on my code would be so inadequate, do you? No, when receiving direct orders, they become thoughts that she takes into consideration. Inevitably, she will follow them, yes, but she will still think logically. She'll rationalize and potentially even question them before doing so. Just like a 'real girl'."

"I can still hear you two," Penny grumpily brought up, annoyed that she was being talked about like she wasn't even in the room.

"Disregard and continue disregarding everything I and Torchwick have said after the code was entered until exit password is used."

The robotic girl huffed and turned her head away from the two. "I don't negotiate with enemy combatants!"

Torchwick rolled the cigar between his fingers, smirking. "Yeah, sure. She's definitely listening to those orders of yours. Right, Penny?"

The girl was silent.

He arched an eyebrow. "Penny?"

"Not. Negotiating." She remained stock-still.

"And coincidentally, she'll just happen to forget what we said once we're done." The scientist grinned like the cat that caught the canary. "It's a brilliant illusion of free will, is it not? Pietro did such a wonderful job making that android it almost brings a tear to my eye." Merlot pretended to wipe at his only 'real' eye, not noticing the growing sneer Torchwick was throwing Penny's way.

"So, as far as she knows," Torchwick muttered, "she didn't even get orders—"

"Unless the person who instructed her desired them to be seen as orders, that's right. All the easier for her artificial intelligence to rationalize."

Torchwick grimaced. He felt like he'd swallowed the rest of his cigar. "Switch her back."

Merlot looked back at him with amusement.

"Switch her back. This is getting a little too creepy for my tastes."

"So prudish..." Merlot muttered under his breath, then waved off towards Penny. "Penny, accept password: dust-to-dust. WMBB-01. End and delete changes."

Penny's shoulders slumped slightly and her eyes began to occasionally flick over to the two criminals.

Torchwick sucked down more of his cigar, experience being the only thing stopping him from heaving. He huffed out the acrid smoke and looked back over to Merlot. "Here's my question: why?"

"Ah, that is what we are here to find out! 'Why' does she exist? For what purpose would anyone want to desecrate the sanctity of life by theorizing how to create this false girl, let alone actually go through with it! I held a love for science when I began my research into this and wanted to test my limits, but I hold grave doubt they had such innocent reasons," Merlot went on as if Penny simply wasn't there.

The girl turned a glare down at the scientist and tightly gripped her arms, but said nothing.

Torchwick snorted. "I'm gonna go ahead and guess that if I asked you, Penny, you'd tell me that it's classified, wouldn't you?"

Penny pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes. Torchwick could almost see the desire to prove him wrong, borne from pettiness alone. And yet...

"I'm sorry, but that information is classi—" Penny's eyes widened and went dark. Without warning, she toppled over onto the lab table like a puppet with its strings cut.

The crime lord's cigar nearly fell from his mouth as he looked over at Merlot in a mix of shock and agitation. "What did you do?! We can't break her, you lug nut!" To his surprise, however, even Merlot appeared taken aback by it, holding his hands off of the terminal as if even touching it would make matters worse. His eye scanned over the code: all he'd done was open up another file...

"Oho? What have we here..." His cybernetic eye brightened. Slowly, he reached back down and began to scroll through, ignoring Roman. "The file placed her in hibernation when looked at. Now, what reason would they have to do that?" Merlot pointed to the screen. He was asking a rhetorical question, of course, as he knew exactly why.

Roman grinned. "Looks like we found why they keep her around. Lazy, lazy, Ironwood..."

It was an inactive set of protocols for if a set of conditions designated 'Maiden' were true.


"Something's not right, here," Adam muttered atop a ten story building, one of the last standing this high in the area and just tall enough for him and his team to get a good line of sight on the surrounding region. With the sun high in the skies on a cloudless afternoon, the shadows only made it slightly difficult to see at long distances.

"The fact that Yang and Weiss suddenly won't let me go three seconds in combat without trying to come 'help'?" Ruby grumbled as she watched the roads ahead with her scope.

Adam grimaced. While he was hoping that the two would indeed act as if their little conversation had not occurred until Ruby was ready, he was still dealing with teenagers. The two had proceeded to barely leave Ruby alone for more than a couple minutes at a time, and one would always be conveniently close by in combat.

"Yes, that too." He looked down to the street below them where Yang was jumping up beside Weiss and Oobleck to get their attention.

She shook her head and waved her hand. Nothing.

"But I'm referring to the fact that even though we are more than halfway to the camp of a small army, we haven't seen signs of any activity. No tracks from convoys, no casings from encounters with Grimm, no patrols, not even trash."

Ruby waved back to Yang and swung Crescent Rose to rest at her back. "Think we're going into a trap?"

"Probably." Adam turned and walked towards the rooftop entrance with a pleased smirk. "It'll be a hard battle, but they'd be giving the location of their base to us on a silver platter by doing that."

"It could be worse, though, right? You said they already lost one of their best assassins." Ruby winced as the words left her lips.

Adam stopped at the door. He wasn't sure whether to be distressed or proud that she could at least find some sort of silver lining in this situation.

"A fair point," he replied simply, and descended to the ground floor. Ruby followed close behind, pausing only once at the door and looking around. She felt like someone was watching her...


Mercury Black froze in the window of a precariously-leaning skyscraper far behind the group, binoculars held up to his eyes in one hand, a potato chip an inch away from his mouth in the other.

Ruby squinted in his general direction, shrugged, and jogged out of sight.

He let out a quick sigh of relief and tossed the chip into his mouth. The bright sun and clear sky made it all too easy for RWAY and Oobleck to scout out the region for irregularities, for it only left the city covered in shadow as if a cloud perpetually blocked the sunlight. Coincidentally, this also made him, clad in grays and blacks, perfect for scouting of his own.

He flicked another chip behind him to be snapped up by the glowing, sea-green maw of one of Doctor Merlot's twisted Beowolves. Mercury, frankly, hated the things, but better obeying him than trying to eat him, right?

"Looks like they don't even have a clue. 'Cinder give me the go-ahead?"

The Beowolf growled in affirmation.

"Sweet. Hey Merlot, if you can hear me in there, go ahead and tell her there's no doubt that they aren't trying to stop us. She's a~all free to go have some fun with our catgirl friend."

He zoomed in closer to the group, namely the redheaded, silver-eyed girl springing out from the front door, already grinning and waving them along.

"And, meanwhile, I'm gonna have a lot of fun with that one."