Chapter 41
The entertainment system was covered by brilliant lights, decorated with flashing LED's. Hastily set up, numerous wires crawled to it across the tiled floor like mechanical vines, connecting the main projector to several cabinets worth of computers and game systems.
A couch was oddly positioned - a sign of it's recent move - so as to stare upon the electronic monolith.
The couch and the entertainment system were in the center of the airy villa. Glass windows lined two of the walls, offering tantalizing views of the snowy inner garden. Yet, despite the conditions outside, the air was warm and comforting, and soothing music played across all the speakers.
A small army of trusted servants had been gathered to attend to the guests, and Farbe, one of the few chosen for the task, had the distinct pleasure of watching over Weiss Schnee.
"Would you like anything, Ms. Schnee?" Farbe asked, smiling sweetly at the girl, a towel hanging on her folded arm.
"No." Weiss scowled and spoke with such venom that Farbe, as well as the rest of the attending servants, were quickly repulsed from the couch.
Weiss crossed her arms and hunched deeper into her seat, sparing betrayed looks at her apathetic friends.
Ruby sat to her immediate left, jostling Weiss whenever her character looked to be on the verge of falling and the girl threw out the controller as if the action would help the war-god on the screen jump any further.
Ren and Nora were to her immediate right, cuddling.
They annoyed her for some reason, especially since Ruby - not so good at this game and not any better at remembering that the buttons were what mattered - again dug a hard elbow into Weiss's side.
Blake was nowhere to be seen, and that made Weiss resent Ren and Nora all the more.
Jaune was on the far side of the room, playing with a holo-strat of some sort. And Pyrrha was on the far opposite corner from Jaune, sulking alone at a table; or, she would have been alone if it weren't for Winter shadowing her, and sitting on the chair just beside her's, casually flipping through a pocketbook.
Weiss turned away from the sulking maiden and looked back at the entertainment system.
Ruby had started the game five hours ago, and was still on the tutorial. Weiss, despite the fact that she didn't care, had even tried to give advice to the lost girl, only to be rudely denied with a: "Shhh! I wanna figure it out for myself," as Ruby fixed a determined grin onto the machine and flexed her fingers in preparation.
"...so arise, great hero, and defend Avalon from the dark lord." The melodic voice of the angelic woman reverberated through the room, and Weiss felt Ruby hunch forward beside her.
Weiss was subjected to another rendition of the four minute long opening sequence before Ruby was once again loosed into the open world.
Once there, Ruby mounted her horse and rode to the broken bridge, where she stopped at the precipice, turned the camera to look down at the great fall and- taking a deep breath- rode back several lengths to get a running start, and, finally, like clockwork, hit the invisible wall and failed to make the jump.
Again, the failure was highlighted with a painful jolt of Ruby's elbow into Weiss's side.
"Aghh!" Weiss jumped up to a stand, yelling in frustration.
"Ahh!" Ruby cowered away from the girl, dropping the controller and lifting an arm to cover herself as she looked up at her teammate with worry.
"What is wrong with all of you!" Weiss yelled, directing the statement everywhere. "We should be escaping!"
"Never gonna happen, sweetheart!" Sky said, not looking away from her scroll as she reclined on a distant couch.
Weiss, happy for the opportunity, jumped over the couch she and Ruby had been sitting on, landing on the other side with a hard click, and walked purposefully over to Sky.
Sky still hadn't bothered to look up from her scroll by the time Weiss arrived. "And you think you can stop us, if we wanted to escape?" Weiss asked, speaking slowly and interrupting herself with occasional gestures of her head.
"Natch," sky answered, flicking a thumb over her scroll screen.
"There are six of us!" Weiss yelled.
"And how much did that help you the last four times?" Sky barbed good naturedly.
Weiss straightened in annoyance. "That was only due to that… teleporting fiend getting in our way."
"Yeah, ok, look," Sky said, finally looking away from whatever captured her attention on her scroll, "Pinks is still here, first of all. She's in the second room taking a break," Sky gestured with a thumb at the tall wooden doors. "And, two, none of you are getting away while any one of us is here. Maybe try again once you graduate high-school."
Sky returned to her scroll, and Weiss left off seething.
Her more recent attempts to galvanize her teammates had been met with… less than complete success.
She looked in disgust at how quickly they'd capitulated, and at how easily they'd taken to all the new toys he'd showered them with. Gods, he wasn't even trying to be subtle! She looked once again at the entire corner of the room that had been filled with haphazardly placed arcade fixtures, one of which was quite literally encased with gold wire.
The imagery frightened her. And it wasn't her detainment that caused this feeling, but rather how easily she'd come to… trust the man. This new and sudden betrayal had actually hurt her in a way Mr. Schnee hadn't managed since she was child, since the last time she'd opened her heart to him without guardedness... gods! she couldn't believe it: he'd treated her like dirt for seventeen years! Was she really so desperate that - after one act of kindness - she'd been willing to blind herself to his faults. He spends decades trapping her at the manor, and she has the gall to act surprised when he does it again! She shook herself as she walked back to the couch, lost for nothing else to do.
Weiss had grown adept at suppressing her emotions. She'd lost this faculty at beacon, but quickly found herself remembering why she'd developed it in the first place. Weiss had… become emotional, of late, and made irrational decisions, and hurt her friends because of it. And, no matter how little she showed it, the feeling burned inside her at all the times. And she was determined she wouldn't allow herself to fall prey to her weaknesses again. She wouldn't allow father to harm her friends.
It was obvious to her now, that he only allowed her friends to stay so he could trap her here. He'd guessed, probably, that he could drive her back under his thumb despite their presence; that he could control all of them. Well, Weiss was content to let him try! She would remain vigilant to everything from now on, and, no matter what, she would never allow herself to let her guard around him again! That was a promise.
Weiss comforted herself with one thought as she headed back to the couch. She knew the procedure as well as anyone, and she knew that her father would be forced to report their detainment within 24 hours. At which point, Weiss knew, the police would become involved.
Weiss, with a discomforting rationality, admitted to herself that she would be staying at the manor either way. No matter how much she hated her father, it was still too dangerous to leave. Still, she knew how powerful a bargaining chip the admission of their detainment would be: and she knew, no matter how much he resented it, father would be coming to speak with them before the 24th hour was up.
And, looking at the clock, and at the moonlight which reflected off the snowbanks outside, Weiss counted that they were running on their twelfth hour.
Weiss wasn't one to fall to emotional impatience. She knew with a cool certainty that her father was in the weaker bargaining position, and that the longer things went on, the more desperate he was sure to be.
And then the door opened, and Mr. S, flanked by Pinkamena one one side and Beryl on the other, with Schwarz taking the lead in front of him, entered with a neutral expression.
Mr. S, who at this point trusted Schwarz more than he trusted himself, readily agreed to allow her to handle the important negotiations. So it was that he stayed by the doors while Schwarz traveled on, heading towards Pyrrha. She arrived at the desk and, after a quick exchange with the pair of maidens seated at the table, led them both towards another set of private doorways, flanked on either side by a wall of bookshelves.
They were stopped before they could reach it, however.
"Wait!" Weiss spoke up, rushing between Schwarz and Pyrrha. "If she goes, we go with her!"
Without speaking, Ruby, Nora, and Ren seemed to agree, showing their solidarity by standing up with the girl.
Schwarz, having been given full autonomy, only deliberated a moment before she nodded. "Very well; this way, Miss Schnee."
The door closed behind them, and Mr. S was left alone in the room with his guards.
Alone with his guards and, notably, Jaune: the blond haired boy who sat entranced by the holo-projector at the desk nearest to Mr. S.
There were two desks in the entire room, placed in opposite corners, without thought or consideration, as the staff hurried to make comfortable surroundings for the newest set of captives. And so, the distance between the desks highlighted a memory for Mr. S, of his first encountered with the fall maiden, and the nervous boy who seemed lost in his game. Mr. S walked over to the desk Jaune sat at. He'd left the important work to Schwarz, so he felt comfortable in talking of unimportant things. Besides, something about the whole situation seemed very off to him.
"How long are the rounds?" Mr. S peeked over the boy's shoulder when he rounded the table, finally close enough to make out the details of the game he was playing.
The question startled Jaune who, though perfectly aware of the recent goings on, seemed weary of the approaching man - who he'd hoped would ignore him.
"Uh, what?" Jaune croaked, looking up at Mr. S.
"The rounds," Mr. S gestured again at the hexagonal plane that stretched out over the desk, and over which various tank units and robotic soldiers marched against enemy counterparts.
Jaune found himself uncomfortably engaged in conversation with Mr. Schnee. He hadn't heard good things about the man since… ever, and it felt like a crime to be talking to him. Still, he was already in jail, Jaune supposed.
"Well, about forty moves, at this difficulty," Jaune answered.
"Ah, it's turn based," Mr. S was already observing the rapidly changing numbers displayed over each unit, trying not to get distracted by the otherworldly graphics. He wasn't much of a gamer, but he still knew a thing or two. And so he fell silent, and Jaune kept playing, and, very quickly, Mr. S picked up that the boy was losing; quite badly, too. And the game continued, and the boy met the challange until, at last, the red siren of defeat played, and bold words spelling out as such hovered over the disintegrating battlefield.
Jaune looked to be on the verge of collapsing face first onto the desk.
Mr. S almost laughed. "I take it that wasn't your first loss?"
"It wasn't my twentieth," Jaune admitted dejectedly.
"Want some advice?"
"You have advice?" Jaune looked skeptically up at the man behind him.
"Well, I have noticed that Atlesian reinforcement rates cool-down faster when your infantry units take damage," Mr. S offered, letting the boy run with the implications of the statement.
Jaune blinked at the prescient bit of advice and immediately restarted the game, sending several of the robotic humanoids into the center valley, and hiding his tanks behind the hill shadow, this time keeping a close eye on the cool down bar.
And, as the game continued, Jaune paused ever so slightly at the beginning of each move. He was actually keeping his unit in tact!
"So, mind if I ask you a question, now?" Mr. S asked.
"Shoot," Jaune answered, too ensnared by the sudden turn of fortune to let his inhibitions lead.
"Why does that Pyrrha girl seem to dislike you so much?"
This was asked just as several of his units blew up under the new pressure, and Jaune, to tell by his look, didn't seem to be doing much better.
"Well, I wouldn't say she dislikes me, per se," Jaune trailed off, looking disappointed at the expectant look that held Mr. S's expression. "It's just she's been like… that, ever since the attack."
"Why?"
"Well, she had a lot of responsibility… or she felt she had it, and she blames herself, because someone we cared about was hurt."
"Who?"
"Penny."
"The robot?" Mr. S said, looking confused at the prospect.
"She wasn't just a robot," Jaune answered, some real sadness in his pain. "She-"
"Was an artificial intelligence," Mr. S finished for him, mind rattling with implications.
"She was human," Jaune finished, looking down before focusing back on his game, trying to drown his thoughts out in the tactics.
"Then, why does Pyrrha seem to dislike you, then? More than everyone else?" Mr. S shook his head, trying to stay on track, and doing a poor job of cushioning his words, so abruptly the derailment induced itself upon him. He gestured notably to the side door, through which everyone but him had followed the maiden.
"Well… she was fighting with Cinder, and it looked like the fight was coming to an end..." Jaune trailed.
"Ok?"
"Well, I was worried about how it would end, exactly," Jaune answered. "Pyrrha was stronger, bus she'd just gotten her Maiden powers, and Cinder had already gotten used to them!' Jaune spoke more energetically now, hitting the keys on the game pad with more sudden violence, directing the words as if he were trying to justify himself and convince Mr. S of his proposition.
"Hold on, what are you saying?" Mr. S asked, reigning him in with a raised hand.
"I… well, I thought she'd be safer if she didn't fight?"
"What did you do?"
"I... uh, shoved her in a locker," Jaune answered, looking almost abashed.
"I get the feeling a locker couldn't really have held her."
"It was a flying locker," Jaune clarified.
"...ok." Mr. S said, not really seeing the clarification.
"And, well, it didn't hold her, but it did allow time for Cinder to get away," Jaune finished, sounding almost ashamed at the prospect..
"Well," Mr. S spoke suddenly, directing his words to the quieting boy, "if it's any consolation, I think you showed great care for your friend, in that act."
"Yeah," Jaune chuckled nervously.
And, strange as it was to say, Mr. S noticed in the boy a sudden investment towards the outcome of the game. For the level was in it's closing stages, now, and Jaune seemed barely capable of winning. It was as if the sudden revelations had imbued the level with a special emotional piquancy, and Jaune just really needed a victory from the whole ordeal, even if it was in a stupidly frustrating game.
And, stranger to say, Mr. S felt a sudden need to achieve victory as well. Unable to help himself, he started throwing out pointers, as Jaune reached the end game - though the boy was fully ignoring him now, invested in the potential outcome.
Mr. S fell silent too, after a time, paying close attention to the bars and numbers as they ran through his memory.
And, as the game drew to a close, and Jaune's forces collapsed, it soon became clear that this was far from a winning strategy. It wasn't even close! And Mr. S felt unduly affronted, that the strategy he'd offered jaune was completely unworkable, and only seemed to lead to a humiliating defeat in a drawn out endgame.
Mr. S swallowed his disappointment, quickly forgetting the game when Schwarz exited the room and made her way to him.
Mr. S stepped away from the table, and found himself guided to a quiet corner where Schwarz briefed him on the matter.
"I've come to an understanding with them, sir" Schwarz said. "They won't speak of this to anyone, and they've agreed to allow us to keep their scrolls until the end of the week. I hope those are terms you can be satisfied with, sir. I felt trying to ask for much more would damage our relations."
Mr. S blinked. That was- a complete victory. Seriously, he needed to give this girl a raise sometimes.
"Uh, no," he said, "that's perfect. What are they asking for in return?"
"They wish for you to allow Thetis to examine Penny's body. Pyrrha is convinced her mother will be able to help repair the damaged portions."
"Hmm, is there any danger in allowing this?"
"Not to us, sir. Besides which, the damaged portions are inaccessible to Thetis's semblance."
"So, she won't be able to repair the girl?" Mr. S asked, a sudden sadness biting into his tone. Having just learned of the robot's nature, he became unsettled by her death.
"It's doubtful, sir," Schwarz admitted.
Mr. S sighed.
"Let her try," he said.
Mr. S had gone by the time Penny arrived, her charred corpse carted in through the doors by a pair of nervously attending nests.
Weiss, Pyrrha, Blake, Nora, Jaune, Ren, and Ruby stood in a wide semi-circle around the center of the room, which had been cleared of everything, and to which Penny had been displaced.
"Don't trust him," Weiss murmured.
The rest of them, held in stark quiet, heard the words crisply and looked over to her.
Weiss was angry at her earlier foolishness, and carried with great dedication her earlier conviction to protect her teammates, and to never trust him.
Most of all, though, she was angry that Blake, who had been avoiding her for the past several days, was now, on this important occasion, refusing to stand beside her, hiding on the other side of Pyrrha as if that were a perfectly natural place for her to be on this occasion. Still, despite this, Weiss felt the carnage of the words as she spoke them.
"He hasn't gotten to where he has because he's unsociable. He'll do a million nice things for you: and it's fine if you take advantage of it, but don't think for a moment he cares about anything except himself. He's a snake."
"Weiss," Pyrrha smiled nervously down at the girl, trying to reconcile her as she stared, every so often, nervously over at Penny's cloth-covered body, "may it not be better to-"
"He'll do it whether I say nice things about him or not," Weiss snapped, "so stop your worried looks." Weiss waved a hand dismissively over her shoulder. "If it helps you feel better, that's the last I have to say on the topic."
Pyrrha seemed satisfied with that, and nearly jumped for joy when Thetis arrived, appearing next to the triage bed with Pinkamena's hand on her shoulder.
"Leave us," she commanded, and Pinkamena saluted and left, and the surrounding maids backed carefully away until they were beyond the line that Weiss and her compatriots formed in the distance.
Here Thetis closed her eyes and raised her arms, lifting her blinded gaze into the air.
And then, a slight felt of static mulled it's way into the air before, a second later, disappearing back into the atmosphere.
Thetis opened her eyes, sighed. "It's no good."
"What!?" Pyrrha demanded, nearly collapsing.
"I can't fix her," Thetis said, with unusual certainty.
"You have to!" Pyrrha stepped forward several feet, breaking beyond the curved line of her teammates.
Thetis, for the first time, seemed hesitant about her words. "Perhaps it is best, Pyrrha," she began, looking earnestly into her daughter's eyes, "that you take heart in this, as a lesson of loss."
The following period was a violent one, to tell by the desk that had been thrown halfway across the room.
And Pyrrha had said many cruel words to her mother, expressing a rage that left everyone flattened against the far walls.
Thetis, despite being the direct recipient, however, was as calm as ever.
"You didn't even try!" Pyrrha gestured, drawing a deep breath to replenish those she'd run out of long ago. "Are you an idiot!? You hold up some static for a second and say you've done everything you can? Did you just come here to steal her blueprints! Are you really so unwilling to actually help someone that isn't yourself for once!"
"Her memory drives are covered in lightning dust, Pyrrha. I can not read her memory, I can only alter it. And any machine devised would cause a destructive reaction with her. I will not tell you this again."
Despite her calm and her words, Thetis felt every blow the accusations, even the false ones, hit upon her. She was not a woman to care about the thought of others- except of course for her beloved daughter, who her burning eyes could look upon with naught but tender care and hurt love, as she tried to justify herself to her.
Pyrrha let out a frustrated cry, and turned away, immediately stomping off to the nearest window.
Opening it violently by the hinge, Pyrrha walked out through the twelve foot tall opening created, letting it a soft breeze that carried the coldness of the semi-temperate Atlas night.
Pyrrha walked several feet out onto the inner courtyard. It was surrounded on all sides by the Schnee manor, as it was carved out from the center of the building. Above, a dome of energy hummed with soft power, protecting it from the elements and the rain. Pyrrha paid this little attention as she walked out onto the snow, feeling the cool substance chilling the lower portion of her shin guards, near the ankles, and seeping in against her skin. And, even through the snow it was notable how easily and confidently Pyrrha walked in her sinking heels, how completely she expressed her contempt for the world and everything about her with the ease with which she mastered her body into motion. And it was equally amazing, in how shot an instant all of that was lost to her. For suddenly she changed figure completely, wilting against gravity and walking unsteadily to the side as she burst into tears. The invincible girl now looked as helpless as a child who, having just learned to walk, seemed to take every step with careful and inexperienced anxiety.
As she walked, she punctuated her cries with a sudden, hard strike of her closed fist against that point on her chest, just beneath her neck, which she'd just this morning pointed out to Ruby as the main source of her shame.
It was Nora who came first after her, the rest of them huddling against the window entrance and looking on.
"Pyrrha!" Nora called after the crying girl, sudden emotion rising in her own voice.
Pyrrha ignored her, leaning heavily against a column.
"It's not your fault, Pyrrha," Nora said.
"Shut up!" Pyrrha said, a sudden danger taking her voice.
"No!" Nora denied, drawing closer. "I won't. We won't! We're your friends, and we're telling you that you have to stop blaming yourself!"
"I said shut up!" Pyrrha clutched her head, wind howling and kicking up a flurry of dry snow around her. An aura of a different color, tormented and roaring rose above her form. And Nora only vaguely noticed the difference between this and the nature of Pyrrha's original.
"Pyrrha!" Nora implored, her voice pitching to its natural, child-like tones. She was forced to yell, now, struggling to be heard over the noise. "We're hunters! You remember you told me that! You said this was the pain that was our own. That even if we lose each other we wouldn't forget-!"
"You've never killed anyone, Nora!" Pyrrha's voice was a tortured scream that rose over the wind, as if enhanced by the element, and carried to spectator ears. "You've never killed a friend! And you'll go your whole life not knowing what I know! So stop pretending to understand!"
"You didn't kill her!" Nora insisted, and, without thinking, reverted to her old habits - the one she'd developed with her old friend - and grabbed the maiden by the arm. "It's not your fault!" she yelled, as she made contact.
"I said shut up!" Pyrrha, anger flashing to unrealistic heights at the unauthorized contact, turned, and she thought lightning may have flashed.
Pyrrha didn't remember hitting Nora, she couldn't answer to where she'd hit her… Nevertheless, Nora was sent flying. Nora hit a pillar and landed with a hard thud.
She didn't get up.
Immediately the wind stopped, and the snow froze in mid air, and Pyrrha felt her heart deaden. Pyrrha froze, looking shocked, with wide eyes, at the scene.
Ren was first there, looking down at the girl with worry. Nora, uncoordinated, coughed, lightning sparking across her form. Jaune arrived not soon after, taking her other arm and helping to lift her up. They all turned, without a word or a look at Pyrrha, and began walking inside.
Ruby and Weiss, and especially Blake stepped aside for them, to let them through, and sent sympathetic looks, but in their turn went after her as well. Pyrrha watched thorough the back-lit window as they lay Nora on a couch. She stood with a hand extended outward. And she felt something rising up inside of her. Pyrrha, that aspect of her rising inside again, felt her eyes dim.
"I'm sorry," she whispered quietly to herself, holding on to the words as memories of a better past.
