Volume II: Episode 4: Interrogations
Sun and Neptune both tried not to slouch as they made their way through the Beacon campus after getting off the Atlesian VTOL.
"I can't wait to catch some beauty sleep," stated Neptune.
"I think I got enough of that last night," replied Sun, trying to avoid talking about the fact that he had almost died just a few hours earlier.
He couldn't let it show, but what happened had really freaked him out. He had come just a hair's breadth away from finding out what the afterlife was like. Seconds away from being eaten by a Grimm. That probably wouldn't have been so bad - it was what he'd signed up for, after all - but when you suddenly woke up to find yourself on a battleground and scared out of your mind for no reason? What about that situation wouldn't have an effect on someone?
He wanted to see Blake. No, more than that, he needed to see her. He couldn't explain it - he didn't have the words - but he felt a longing in his heart to see her again and... and... and just be with her. Maybe hug her or something.
Then again, him and Blake weren't actually a couple. Sometimes, it was hard to get her to acknowledge he was there at all, if he was being honest. He'd say he didn't know why he even tried… but there was something there. Maybe it was the way she looked at him, or the way she actually gave him the time of day when she didn't do it for anyone else outside her team, or maybe it was just the fact that she had stopped Miss Goodwitch from tying him up and leaving him back at Beacon during the mission where they found out about the Decepticons.
The Decepticons. That was another reason he had to see her and her team. He had to let them know what he had found out in the dark. The Decepticons had attacked that SDC convoy, he was sure of it. The question was: Why? Why had they done that? Had they turned against each other, or was it some sort of ruse?
He didn't know what the answers were, and that was why he had to tell the others. Many hands made light work, and it was always good to bring your friends along. That had been a phrase that made him want to bring Neptune in on this, but... but Miss Goodwitch had made it clear that Blake's fate was tied to his. Letting Neptune in on the secret would be risking her position on Team Rainbow. He couldn't do that to her.
By unspoken agreement, they made their way to the cafeteria for an early lunch. After they retrieved some food, Sun swept his gaze across the cafeteria and quickly found Teams RWBY and JNPR, offering a wave as he and Neptune approached. Blake quickly gave them a look before turning her attention back to her food, while Yang returned the wave with a warm smile.
His blue-haired teammate nudged him with an elbow. "You sure you don't have your eyes set on the wrong girl, man?" he whispered.
"Huh?" Sun blinked. "What on Remnant are you talking about?"
"Dude, have you seen how Yang looks at you?" inquired Neptune in bewilderment.
"You're dreaming," Sun scoffed as they took their seats next to Team Rainbow. "Hey."
"You guys okay?" Ruby asked, her voice concerned.
"You look worse than usual," Blake observed, this time not even bothering to look up from her food.
Sun tried not to wilt at that. "Well, we just got back from an overnight mission," he said. "Things got pretty hairy out there." He opened his mouth to continue, to fill them in on what he'd seen at the remains of the attacked convoy, but his eyes flicked over to his teammate, then to Blake, then he closed his mouth again.
Oblivious, Neptune picked up the narrative. "Yeah, ran into some new Grimm with one of the Atlesian teams."
"'New Grimm'?" Weiss asked.
"Yeah," Neptune confirmed, his smile turning genuine.
It seemed Sun's friend hadn't given up on befriending Weiss, despite them getting off on the wrong foot. He launched into a retelling of what had happened, for once, not exaggerating his own role in the battle, and Sun took the opportunity to quickly jot a note - "Important info. Can't talk here. Meet?" - on a napkin and slip it to Blake.
The girl looked at him suspiciously as she discreetly checked the note, then scoffed, crumpled it up, and began studiously ignoring him even more thoroughly than she had been before.
His attention focused on the hopeless cause, he didn't notice Yang's frown.
He did, however, see Ren discreetly picking up the note without Blake's notice. A few minutes later, Jaune was tapping him on the shoulder and asking for his help with something. He left, they talked, and when he thanked Jaune for listening to him, the fellow blond had only one thing to say.
"Hey, what are teammates for?"
Teammates… how did these people stand all these secrets without exploding?
Yang silently fumed as the group made their way back to the dorms after lunch. It galled her that Blake had blown off Sun so obviously. What crime had he committed that caused her to be so dismissive of him?
When they were close to Team RWBY's room, she made her move, grabbing Blake's wrist in the process.
"Can you guys give us a bit of privacy for a few minutes?" she asked the group before turning to her captive. "Blake, we need to have a talk."
"Wha-!" the black-haired girl yelped as she was half-dragged into the dorm room by the blonde.
Yang closed the door behind her, leaning against it and glaring at her teammate. "Okay, Blake, what's the deal with you and Sun?"
Amber eyes blinked in a mixture of denial and confusion. "Deal? What deal? There is no deal."
"That's… kinda my point," Yang said with one hand splayed out, palm up. "I mean… look, the guy's clearly head over heels for you, but you barely give him the time of day. And don't lie to me and say you're not interested, because I'm not blind."
Blake looked away, refusing to meet Yang's gaze. "I… look, Yang. It's complicated. And private."
"Fine," Yang accepted. "Then acid wash the names of the people involved and use metaphors for the circumstances. It's not that hard."
"Yang..." Blake trailed off, closing her eyes.
"Come on, Blake, I'm your teammate," the blonde reminded her. "Even if I can't help, I can at least offer an ear to listen."
Blake sighed, her shoulders slumping in resignation. "I suppose… I haven't exactly had a good track record with relationships."
"Bad boyfriend?" It was the obvious conclusion.
"I guess?" Blake shrugged. "Things were... complicated."
Clearly.
"You keep using that word," Yang noted.
"Because it's accurate," the dark-haired girl insisted, looking up at Yang and meeting her gaze. "He was… listen, I've said before that I hung out with people from the wrong side of the tracks, right?"
Yang nodded.
"There was a guy, I thought he was different," Blake said, clearly struggling to get the words out. "He was kind of a mentor to me, taught me how to fight, taught me a lot of things. We grew… close."
"But...?" Yang prodded leadingly.
"But he… changed," Blake's eyes drifted, distant. "Not all at once, but bit by bit, and..." She shook her head. "I left. I had to."
"And you're worried it might happen again," Yang murmured. What Blake didn't say was as telling as what little she did. At least she didn't seem to have any delusions about her ex like Adam had.
Seriously, why couldn't he just accept that his old partner was a bad influence? In fact, now that she thought about it, the White Fang's terrible reputation had set back support for faunus rights in Vale quite a bit before she'd linked up with them; how much of that had been her influence on behalf of the SDC? And that was just what she knew about the woman right then! Who knew what sort of dark secrets had yet to be revealed?
Honestly? It sounded to her like Blake and Adam's exes deserved each other. Let those two abusive jerks have at each other and leave everyone else alone.
"I know it's irrational, Yang," Blake admitted, "but I can't help it. Maybe I'm worried that my luck is really that bad, or that my taste is that terrible, or maybe I'm just a bad influence. I'm not really sure."
Yang bit her lip. Blake had obviously had a hard life before coming to Beacon. She could only imagine what her childhood must have been like, probably growing up on the streets, unsure when her next meal would be, without a home or loving family. Her hands twitched, but she had a feeling pulling Blake into a hug right now would not be well-received.
"Have you told Sun any of this?" she prodded finally. Honestly, this had just cemented her decision. As much as Yang wanted Sun, Blake needed someone like him, and she wasn't going to take that ray of sunshine away from her. Or her away from him.
Blake's head whipped back around, her eyes focused on Yang in a panic. "No! How could I?"
"Because communication is important," Yang lied. More truthfully, she continued, "Because you can't let your ex control your life forever."
There was a long silence, the two of them staring at each other, eyes locked.
Blake lowered her gaze and sighed. "I guess you're right. I'll- I'll talk to Sun."
"Only if you want to. This is your life, Blake," Yang said softly, and then she grinned. "After all, you could always make a play for Jaune instead. That'll just leave Sun for me!"
Blake closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. "Yang, please."
"All right, all right," relented the blonde brawler. "Although I do have one suggestion."
Blake looked up curiously. "What?"
The elder Xiao Long sister brought one of her hands up in a fist. "If you see your ex again, punch him in the face."
An involuntary smile crossed Blake's counternace, and soon, it morphed into a giggle. "I'll be sure to do that," she laughed.
Yang joined in the laughter, glad she could help her teammate out of her funk, and gave into the urge to pull a startled Blake into a hug. "Seriously, though," she said joyously, "Sun's basically the perfect man. If you don't want him, the next time he's opening his mouth, my lips are his."
Amber eyes widened in alarm.
Blake did not know how to feel about that last sentence. She supposed, on some level, she should take that as encouragement to take Yang's advice. After all, if she didn't take Yang's advice, Yang would take Yang's advice.
She had to seize the day, literally and figuratively. Carpe diem! Mmm, carp...
"Oh!" said Yang suddenly, breaking the hug. "I just remembered that I have something I need to take care of."
The blonde opened the door to leave, but turned around and looked back at her with a concerned expression. "You good for the rest of the day?"
"Yes, Yang, and… thank you," answered Blake with a matching smile.
"Any time," the blonde declared with her own heroic grin.
She left, and Ruby, Nora, and Weiss popped their heads out.
Weiss, perceptive and empathetic as ever, raised an important question: "Is it just me, or is Yang acting kind of... strange?"
Blake shook her head softly, unable to deny it at all. "Not just you. Her behavior has been nothing short of bizarre lately."
After all, what other words could be used to describe her giving them relationship advice? Listening to their woes? Hugging them?! Yang was a loner, more at home with machines than people, and ridiculously defensive of the few relations she had, which didn't include Weiss, Blake, or indeed anyone on Team RRANNBWW besides Ruby... and apparently Sun. The first semester had made that all very clear. What had happened to her over the break?
Ruby balked at their words. "This isn't Strange Yang! This is Normal Yang!"
Nora, for her part, just shrugged. "It is pretty weird, but I'm not going to complain as long as she stays out of our plans."
The dark-haired leader of the group bristled. "You guys… You know what? I'm going to go see what she's doing."
Ruby stomped away in a manner that was, for once, very much her age. Was that a good thing or a bad thing? She had adopted quite the serious attitude since this journey had begun, and her closest friends these days seemed to be people like Glynda who were three times her age.
"So," Weiss began, "what is it that teenage girls usually do when left to their own devices?"
"No idea," answered Nora honestly. "Want to grab Pyrrha and find out?"
Ruby awoke with a sudden gasp and a pain in her neck.
"See, I told you this was the right dose."
She blinked and looked up, finding herself tied rather securely to a chair in the middle of a pillar of light surrounded by darkness.
"Who's there?" she asked blindly.
"We're asking the questions, Miss Rose," came a cold and robotic voice that somehow Ruby pegged as belonging to a woman.
"First off, what were you doing at the hangar yesterday evening?" asked a heavily-accented voice.
"Pfft! What? I wasn't at any hangar last night!" Ruby denied outright, really hoping that…
A gloved hand came out of the shadows with a scroll that came alive to display a picture of Thundercracker handing over a gigantic stack of paperwork in a comically oversized folder.
"Oh," said Ruby simply in realization and defeat. "You guys haven't switched to paperless yet?"
"Too traceable," came the emotionless reply. "What did you discuss with Penny?"
"Penny?" asked Ruby right back, her mind whirling on the proper response. If Penny got hurt because of her…. She couldn't let that happen. "Don't you dare hurt Penny! It's me you've got a problem with, not her!"
There was a pause, and then the emotionless voice replied, "Perhaps we have misjudged you, Ruby."
"Don't let her Valish tricks fool you," a male voice stated. "She's trying to lead us off the trail. She's too well-trained to do otherwise."
"'Well-trained'?" Ruby repeated incredulously. "I'm a first-year student at Beacon."
"A clever ruse," that male voice replied. "You're a sleeper agent for the Valish government, trained since birth by one of their top enforcers, Qrow Branwen, to infiltrate our defenses to bring them down from the inside. Naturally, you've enlisted the aid of your Vacuan allies in this venture, giving them the pitch to remember the bonds of the Great War instead of dwelling on the pillaging of their homeland by your ancestors. Your allies, naturally, provided a valuable distraction while you slipped in and used your already established connections with Penny Polendina, taking advantage of her naivete, to try and steal Atlesian secrets. You would have gotten away with it too, but you bit off more than you can chew. Now, here you are, getting ready to spill all the secrets your little spy ring has."
"We don't have any, because there is no spy ring!" she insisted, silently hoping that definitionally that might be the case, so that it would hopefully hold up under a lie detector test. Her team, after all, was a tad on the clandestine side.
"Oh, really?" asked the accented female again in a curious and somewhat sarcastic tone before cracking her knuckles. "Well, there's one way to make sure of that."
"We can't mark her," insisted the emotionless voice.
"There's plenty of ways to hurt someone without marking them," said that accented voice matter-of-factly.
Ruby felt a twinge of nervousness flood into her system at that. "Really? You don't say. Would you believe that Weiss said the same thing the other day?"
"Yes," said the emotionless voice. "Circumstantial evidence says that she has a great deal of experience with such methods."
Before Ruby could find out exactly what was going on, the door opened, and light poured into the room. She saw now then the figures of her captors, three of them, fitting what she had seen before of Penny's teammates. She would have to apologize to the ginger girl later, because clearly, she had been right: her teammates were insane. Behind them, framed by the light, was…
"Oh, hello, Professor Snake Eyes!" she called out with a smile, trying to wave one of her shackled hands as best she could. "It's good to see you again!"
The black-suited ninja gave her a single wave and stepped aside to reveal the towering form of General James Ironwood.
"Sir!" barked all three students in unison, snapping to attention as the lights came on in full to illuminate the whole room.
The general stepped into the room and took in the situation. He then spoke a clear, cold command: "Untie her, students."
"Sir, yes, sir!" they replied, and immediately, they went about unbinding their erstwhile captive.
Ruby rubbed her wrists down when they were free and took stock of the situation. The students' faces were all masks. Professor Snake Eyes was as stoic as ever, even leaving aside how his outfit covered every part of his body. General Ironwood looked… disappointed, not just in his students, but in himself.
"Miss Roku, explain yourself," he ordered.
It was the woman with the accented voice who replied, and there was an odd sense of familiarity to her tone, like she had been there before and thought to be there again. "After returning from the joint mission with half of Team Sun from Haven…"
"The unauthorized mission," Ironwood corrected sternly.
"...after we came back from the mission," Roku continued, and Ruby made the connection then that this was probably Aska, given her familiarity with rule-breaking, "we were contacted by Thundercracker and informed of Ruby Rose infiltrating his hangar. After retrieving his report and handing it over to you, I felt it best to act to secure her before she could escape. Once we had subdued and sedated her, we brought her back here for interrogation."
Ironwood shook his head. "You should have contacted myself or one of your teachers first. She's already been cleared for everything. Go with Snake Eyes for now. We'll discuss this later."
"Sir, yes, sir," the trio replied stiffly before walking out of the room with Snake Eyes following close behind.
Ironwood stayed, made sure the door was locked, and then pulled up a chair so that he could sit in front of her.
"I apologize for the actions of my students, Miss Rose. As their headmaster, their deeds reflect on me. This is doubly so, given the personal nature of my relationship with Team Apricot's leader. I am responsible for what they did to you," he said sincerely, and Ruby absolutely believed him.
"General Ironwood, it's okay. I'm fine, just confused," she replied comfortingly.
Ironwood nodded before replying, "I'm guessing you're referring to Team Apricot. Who are they? Why did they kidnap you? Most importantly, why do they have a Decepticon on their team?"
Ruby nodded. "The Decepticon part is what worries me the most. Thundercracker… Have you told Ozpin about him?"
"I have," replied Ironwood somberly. "He wasn't happy, and neither was Glynda."
"Did she hurt you again?" asked Ruby with worry.
"No," he responded. "No. She would have had every right to, but she didn't. Granted, Ozpin was the one who actually briefed her. I'm sorry. You should have been let in on this too. Maybe if you had, then today's events wouldn't have happened."
"They did though," she said self-evidently. "There's no sense beating yourself up about stuff that you can't change."
"You, Miss Rose, are wise beyond your years," he observed, and Ruby merely smiled and shrugged. "Still, about Thundercracker… it started not long after the Decepticons came to the Atlesian Council. They offered a technological exchange, and the council approved it. Agents of the other council members then went to Doctor Polendina. He didn't want his daughter being worked on by them, but when they made the pitch about 'peace and harmony,' Penny volunteered herself. That's when Starscream got ahold of her."
"Penny said that it was pretty painful," remembered Ruby.
"It was," observed Ironwood with his right hand clenching. "I was too late to stop them, and the scientists present… I saw the recordings afterward. They just stood by and watched while Penny screamed; they both screamed. Starscream actually used the point where she and Thundercracker started screaming in unison as a milestone for the progress of the surgery. All for the sake of this 'Targetmaster' technology, this 'binary bonding' which is supposed to be oh-so-great a force multiplier."
"And Starscream just let them go after that?" asked Ruby in slight disbelief.
"He seemed to lose interest in them as soon as the surgery was over and they didn't explode. He's a bit of a mad scientist that way," Ironwood said scornfully. "The other Decepticons would have to be fools not to take notice though, and they're not fools. I have managed to gain one political victory in all this, though, and that's that all of Thundercracker's reports go through me first."
"'Through,'" quoted Ruby. "Does that mean the Decepticons know who I am now?"
And here, Ironwood smiled. "Believe it or not, Thundercracker personally requested that I scrub the report from record."
"Really?!" Ruby practically jumped in surprise.
"Really," repeated Ironwood. "He says he doesn't want any of Penny's friends hurt because of him. I think she's starting to rub off on him, personally. I worry, though, about how much the reverse might be true."
"You don't trust Penny," Ruby realized aloud.
"Miss Rose, it's not Penny I don't trust. It's whatever Starscream did to her," explained Ironwood. "You can't go through an experience like what she did unchanged, and we don't know what kind of subliminal messages or kill switches he could have implanted in her during the procedure. Her father checked her over thoroughly to make sure there wasn't anything of the sort, but this… 'binary bonding' with a Decepticon? Would you trust something like that?"
"No, but I know Penny, and…" Ruby trailed off, realization and grief seeping into her. "I don't know. Which, I suppose, answers the question, doesn't it?"
Ironwood nodded. "Hence the formation of Team Apricot. They're a group of trusted specialists who have compartmentalized knowledge of what is going on, and unique orders."
"Should you be telling me this?" asked Ruby seriously.
"I think so," replied Ironwood. "Penny told you a lot, more than she's told anyone else, I suspect. That puts you in a unique position, a position that I admit is sorely needed. The position of being the sole person who knows everything that's going on."
That answer, combined with the previous comment about 'compartmentalized knowledge,' made something click in Ruby mind. "What doesn't the rest of Team Apricot know?"
Ironwood inhaled deeply, as if preparing for a great speech.
"Aska Roku is the leader, and she's like a daughter to me. I took her in after… well, it's a long story. She's the leader of the group, and she doesn't know that Penny is a gynoid. Her mission is to monitor Penny for any signs of disloyalty."
Ruby tried to parse that in her mind. Monitor her for disloyalty? But she didn't know Penny was a robot?
"Ciel Soleil is a sniper, and she entered the academy a year late due to recovering from injuries sustained holding the line almost single-handedly against the Grimm swarm that overran several villages near the inner sea of Solitas. Her loyalty and patriotism is beyond reproach, and she's been tasked with monitoring the Decepticons. She's not cleared on Penny's nature either, but I suspect she knows more than she's letting on."
Maybe she's a gynoid herself, but a less advanced version? mused Ruby as she thought about how Penny described her and how she acted.
"Rufus Madison is the team's technical expert," he continued. "He's the only human member who's been briefed on what Penny is, and he handles most of her maintenance. He is not, however, read in on the... security issues regarding Atlas's new 'allies.'"
Ruby felt herself going cross-eyed as she fit all the new information together. "But... why keep everything secret like that?"
"I know Aska. She would be distracted and second-guessing herself, wondering if anything suspicious she sees is disloyalty or Penny being, well, a robot. Ciel, similarly, isn't the best suited to dealing with questionable loyalties, and having her watch Penny would likely only result in alienating her. As for Rufus... he's a good kid, but he's too close to remain objective. All he sees when he looks at the Decepticons is new technology to play with, new envelopes to push."
She wasn't going cross-eyed; she was getting a headache. "Aren't you worried I might tell anyone about this?"
Ironwood blinked in surprise at the question. "Should I be? You haven't revealed any of our secrets yet."
She considered it, and the promises she had made to Penny. "No," she replied. "No, I won't tell a soul. And because of that, and how I happen to know about everything that's going on, you want me to… what? Become a double agent?"
"Not really, no," answered Ironwood easily. "This would only be if you accept, mind you, but… but I would like you to just keep an eye on them, make sure they're all right. Be their friend, and let me know if anything is going wrong and what can be done to correct it, or not. A lot of times, just being there for people is all that's needed."
Ruby was silent for a long moment, her thoughts whirling, but eventually, she realized that there was only one answer she could give. "I'll do it."
"Good!" said Ironwood in relief, slapping his palms against his knees. "Thank you. I suspect I've just cleared you to do something you were probably going to try and do anyway. Now I just have to discipline Aska, Ciel, and Rufus, and convince them to let you into their little group. Did you have any plans for the day? I feel I should make up for their delay."
Ruby shook her head. "No. Blake had the idea of interrogating Roman Torchwick, and we put in a request with the VPD to go do that, but that will take a while to go through."
Ironwood blinked. "Roman Torchwick? The man who shot you? I still can't believe someone like you was so reckless."
Ruby flinched at the familiar chastisement.
"Still, I think I have some clout with the Vale Police. I'll call them up and see what they can do to fasttrack your request," he offered. "In the meantime, enjoy the rest of your Saturday, Miss Rose."
"Thank you, General Ironwood," she said, getting up.
"And Ruby," he said, catching her off-guard with the use of her first name. "Ozpin and Glynda already know everything. If you want to talk, or vent, or argue, we're all free to do so."
"Thank… thank you, sir," she allowed. A thought occurred to her. "Actually, General, I think there's something you should know..."
The view from the observation deck overlooking the Emerald Forest was incredible, in Ozpin's opinion. Of course, that had been the point when it was originally constructed. It was a room that had been set aside so that teachers could use it to watch for Grimm as well as monitor the progress of any student activities in the forest, such as the little exercise Peter was doing with some of the second-year teams at that moment. However, the advent of miniaturized camera technology and the extensive use of it in the Emerald Forest itself meant that the room had become redundant, and so it was only used in modern times as a teacher's lounge for those teachers who could be bothered to go so far out of their way.
Glynda, as it turned out, had some free time that day, thanks to James bringing over so much of his teaching staff. They were able to cover for her Saturday responsibilities… at least for a little while. That left a gap in her schedule in which they could have a meeting. Ozpin, though he loved his office dearly, felt it was time to stretch his legs, and so had chosen the old observation lounge for their gathering.
He was glad he did so, as it felt once more like they were old friends instead of the beleaguered leaders they were. Sitting around a small table, drinking their preferred drinks, the light of the day about them. It brought to mind happier times.
"Where's Qrow?" James asked.
"He's still out of contact," Ozpin informed him. He brought up his scroll. "This is the last message I received from him."
It read: 'QUEEN HAS PAWNS'
"Well, that's singularly unhelpful," James muttered. "We already suspected that much."
"I suspect Qrow may be concerned with communication security," Ozpin defended the absent Huntsman. "You've expressed similar concerns regarding CCT communications."
"Yes," the Atlesian general confirmed. "As part of our... 'arrangement' with the Decepticons, Soundwave was given basic user-level access to the CCT network. However, given the nature of what he is, I suspect he's likely fully compromised the network. I'm not about to bet on even our best computer security experts against a being with a literal computer for a brain that's been around many times longer than civilization as we know it."
"And you allowed that?" Glynda questioned, arching an eyebrow.
James spread his hands helplessly. "How could I argue against it? One of the things the rest of the Council wants is that communications satellite network they're offering, and I think even they realize how compromised that would be."
"Expecting it to be made of back doors?" asked Ozpin.
"Yes," replied James immediately. "In anticipation, I've had Atlas and Mantle switch to more complex, rotating encryptions and deployed one-time pads to all critical commands. I've been quietly having all Atlesian military hardware modified with manual network cutoffs that will physically force a disconnect and updated training accordingly. Even the Atlesian Knights are being downchecked to increase their autonomy and respond only to verbal commands. I've even insisted that all our source code be completely overhauled from the ground up and randomly updated. I've also issued a warning to all personnel, including students, not to use the CCT unless it is absolutely necessary. Even with all that, though, I don't think it will be enough."
"You have become remarkably paranoid since you last visited," observed Glynda with a melancholic twinge. "Sadly, I think you're right to be that way. If the Decepticons are fighting a war, and if they have a concept of mass telecommunications, then they must have hackers on their payroll."
"How do you think all this will affect Amber?" asked Ozpin delicately.
"All data related to the aura transfer technology has been classified at the highest level," James assured him. "It's been scrubbed from any system that isn't air gapped. I can't do anything about the various component technologies or the shipping schedules, but unless they already have that kind of technology, they're as unlikely to put it together as I can make them."
"The first Dingus was already stolen by MECH," pointed out Ozpin. "Then, apparently, they had it stolen from them. Whether it's true or not, we still have to accept the fact that there have been some security leaks on the project, and components are falling through."
"MECH has been a thorn in our side for years now," admitted James. "They've likely got at least one spy of their own somewhere in Atlas, but so far, we haven't been able to track them down. I'd like to say we've been lucky in that they've mostly just been targeting the SDC, but that would not be entirely accurate. We've lost whole squadrons of Skygraspers, vital components, and most recently, a train carrying prototypes of our new Paladins, which were in turn used at the docks battle that Miss Rose stepped into the middle of. This is all within the last year too, which can't mean anything good."
"The Decepticon emergence, the uptick in MECH operations, the attack on Amber, the new Grimm... all likely unrelated, but it feels like things are racing toward a breaking point," summed up Ozpin succinctly.
"Do you think we'll be able to weather it?" asked James seriously. "Do you think we have a chance? Do you have your guardian?"
"I do." Ozpin nodded. "At least, I think I do. She's a member of Team Rainbow."
"Ozpin," Glynda interjected, "are you seriously intending to bring them into a second shadow war?"
"Who else can we trust?" Ozpin asked, shrugging helplessly. "They've proven themselves, in ways no one else has, in this fight against the Decepticons. Indeed, Glynda, in a very real way, although this is our world too, this is their war."
"Rainbow…" James repeated. "Who are they? I mean, who are they really?. It's not exactly normal for two teams of student Huntsmen to be fused into one and then given such grand responsibilities."
"They were not given these responsibilities; they had already taken them upon themselves when they chose to allow us into their circle of confidence," explained Ozpin, leaning back in his chair and bringing his mug of hot chocolate to his lips. "I wasn't joking when I said that this was their war, James. We give them missions, yes, on occasion. However, time and time again, it was them choosing the objectives, setting the time table, making the plans, and fighting the battles. They'll usually tell us about it before they do it these days, but they hardly need to."
James nodded. "I met Ruby Rose earlier after an altercation with some of my students. She said that they were going to interview Roman Torchwick as soon as the Vale PD approved their request, and I ended up calling them up in order to try and get them to fasttrack it. They're probably on their way right now."
"Ruby..." Glynda murmured. "That girl has a lot of weight on her shoulders right now. I'm worried about her, especially if we add one more."
"I noticed," agreed James. "She's strong, so very strong for one her age, and she's got a mind like a steel trap. She picked up on a slip of wording Thundercracker made that pretty much confirms the Decepticons' intentions. Very impressive, but… still so young."
"Things are trying enough for us, and we have experience that she simply lacks," observed Glynda. "We shouldn't forget that at the end of the day, she's still a young girl who misses her mother."
The last bit was said with a meaningful glance in Ozpin's direction that he quickly took notice of.
"You disapprove of my informing her of what Leo found," he stated more than asked.
"Raven Branwen might have been one of us once, but now, she's a murderer," pointed out Glynda. "Not just of people, but of entire villages. The list of crimes she has committed or been party to are almost beyond count. Whatever her intentions are towards Ruby, they are guaranteed to be neither pure nor innocent."
"We've all made mistakes, Glynda," Ozpin said quietly. "We've all failed people. What would you do if you saw an opportunity to correct one of those mistakes, save one of those people you'd failed?"
"I'd seize it with both hands," James answered, his thoughts... elsewhere.
The room fell into silence for a moment.
"Ozpin, you mentioned new Grimm," Glynda said. "What new Grimm?"
"Team Apricot went on an unauthorized mission last night with a pair of Haven students," James answered for him. "I've only just read the report myself, but they encountered two entirely new types of Grimm. Including one capable of breeding."
"Breeding? How?" asked Glynda, aghast.
"By some form of budding," explained James. "They eat metal, and when they reach a critical mass, they split the excess mass off into a copy of themselves. Because of that behavior, Team Apricot proposed the name 'Recycler' in their report. Fortunately, these 'Recyclers' aren't much of a threat and easily dispatched, even by village militia."
"And the other?" Glynda asked.
"Some sort of large, tentacled burrowing creature, heavily armored on the main body, with an ability to drain batteries or aura by touch," James answered. "Apricot's proposed name for it is 'Sapper.'"
Glynda put a slender hand to her forehead. "Dare I ask who the Haven students who accompanied Team Apricot are?"
"Sun Wukong and Neptune Vasilias, why?" James answered and asked curiously.
"I was afraid of that," she said. "Sun is a member of Team Rainbow. He stowed away on a mission, but Miss Belladonna vouched for him. I don't know whether they plan to involve him in the future, but he knows as much as any of them. Which, of course, means that they likely know as much as he does now."
"...at some point, I'm going to want a full roster of who's actually on Team Rainbow," James requested. Shifting tracks, he asked, "So, do we have any leads on Amber's attacker?"
"Not yet," replied Ozpin, "but I'm sure one will turn up soon."
"I still can't believe they're storing the blasted thing in their room," whispered Yang as she looked through her binoculars at the dorm where Cinder's team - Team CMSN - was staying and cycled through the various vision modes on the device. All under the cover of an active camouflage cloak from some distance away, of course. Ratchet still wasn't sure about the long-term effects of cloaking device use on humans, but the Autobots had collected a lot of options in terms of technological defenses over the years.
"Was that a pun?" asked Bumblebee over the comlink in her ear.
"You've known me for nearly half a solar cycle by now; you should be able to tell," she replied. Then she added, "Yes."
"Just checking," said the yellow Autobot. "So, any chance we could just walk in and snag the thing while they're out bossing the White Fang around?"
"Don't remind me that's happening," lamented Yang. "They deserve better than that. Better than to be under Cinder's heel."
"You know, if I didn't know better, I'd say that you'd actually gone and signed up," pointed out Bumblebee. "I mean, it's not like that's actually possible, after all. High Leader Sienna Khan made that 'no humans allowed' rule pretty ironclad. In fact, wasn't the last human who tried to join the White Fang executed for espionage?"
"In Mistral, they thought he was a cop. Yeah, I remember," answered Yang in disappointment. "I don't like their methods, Bee, and Khan is definitely not someone I'd want to be my sister's best friend, if you catch my drift... Still, I admit that I might have some personal biases that make me more amenable to their goals, or what they used to be. Besides, I've come to know them on a personal level, even if I hadn't already liked faunus generally."
"Faunus like Sun?" asked Bumblebee leadingly.
"You could say that," Yang muttered, blushing. Her heart ached as she thought back to the conversation she'd had with Blake earlier. As much as she wanted Sun, he didn't want her. He wanted Blake, and she needed him in a way that Yang didn't.
It was strange to ponder what her mom would have done. Either of them. Raven had swooped in and snagged her father, but Summer had stepped in when Raven had walked out and left him hurting. She wasn't 100% sure they would do any different from each other.
Even if both of them would have taken advantage of Blake's inability to let herself reciprocate his feelings... those were footsteps Yang refused to follow, not after she'd realized how much they needed each other.
"Still, doesn't exactly answer my question," said Bumblebee, dragging the topic back to the business at hand. "Do you think we'd be able to steal that bomb? Maybe replace it with a forgery?"
"No," replied the blonde simply. "They were fiddling around with the door before they left. Best case scenario, they set up a stronger wireless lock. Most likely scenario, they set up a security system that will go off when we try to break in. Worst case scenario, opening the door sets off the bomb. Guess which one we're not taking a chance on?"
"Wild stab in the dark? It's the option that risks your sister being hit in the head with flying shrapnel," Bumblebee answered.
"Yeah, it's that one," Yang replied bluntly. "Do we even know how powerful this bomb is?"
"Not really," Bumblebee replied. "Probably pretty powerful, assuming it works, but MARS has pretty good data security when it comes to their experimental tech, and they've had everything related to this project locked down even tighter since the prototype got stolen."
"Right," Yang sighed. "Any solutions for how to disarm it?"
"We've got good bots working on that," her partner assured her.
"And ideas on containing it?"
"Two, actually," replied Bumblebee. "First, we let Ironhide at the problem. He's already scoped out their place, after all, and I'm sure he could set up some shielding system to get the thing to explode without too much collateral damage. Might be a bit intrusive, though, and definitely not subtle. That leaves the second option: We get Wheeljack."
"Wheeljack?" she asked. "Isn't he the guy with all the wacky mad science inventions? Bee, we want to save Beacon, not destroy it more thoroughly than the bomb will."
"He can do that too," Bumblebee replied, and Yang had to raise an eyebrow at how he said "too" and not any sort of denial. "Or, you know, just let Adam know where they're storing that thing so he can include it in his report to Ozpin."
"Right, I'll get right on that," said Yang, reaching for her burner scroll.
"Already done."
Yang paused, her hand inches away from her device. "Wait, what?"
"I texted Adam," the yellow Autobot replied simply. "He can't exactly blow his cover by getting into an argument with you right now."
Yang pouted. "We don't do that every time."
"You kind of do," was Bumblebee's rather succinct response. "Now, let's talk about something else, like how you're going to win Sun over from Blake."
The blonde groaned. "Bee, I kind of already told Blake to get to it this morning, and even if I didn't, it's her race to lose. What could she possibly do to drive Sun away?"
The accommodations in prison were actually pretty cushy. Perhaps better than the warehouse he'd holed up in before he got captured, Roman reflected as he was led through the hallways. It was only common sense. After all, prison inmates tended to be a resentful and rowdy lot to begin with, and no one wanted to light a Grimm homing signal by cranking those negative emotions up with any discomforts beyond those necessary for security.
Still, orange was so not his color, even if it did match his hair.
That luxury, however, clearly did not extend to the interrogation rooms. Obviously. One needed a different atmosphere for that, after all. The room he was led to was bare concrete, with one wall mirrored - obviously a one-way mirror - and a simple steel table bolted to the floor, flanked by a pair of steel chairs. Seated in one was a black-haired young lady with a bow on top of her head and a look of determination on her face.
Roman's escorts manhandled him into the other chair, manacled his legs to the chair's legs, and handcuffed his wrists to a ring in the center of the table. They left him alone with the girl after that.
"State your name for the record," she ordered.
"Roman Torchwick." No harm in that. He studied her for a moment, then commented, "Well, this is a surprise."
"Really?" she asked. "After all you've done, you're surprised at being questioned?"
"Oh, that?" He shook his head dismissively. "No, I expected that. But I certainly didn't expect to get the kiddy gloves."
He saw her twitch at that. Inexperienced. Amateur. Probably here for personal reasons. He gave her an insouciant smile, the better to annoy her with.
"Enough," she snapped. "Tell me about the White Fang leadership."
"And why should I?" he asked, making to stifle a feigned yawn.
"Why not?" she fired back. "They beat you up and left you there. I can't imagine there's any love lost between you."
He offered a casual shrug. "Risk of the business," he said, waving it off. "Sometimes, these joint ventures don't pay off quite according to plan. You know how it goes."
"I don't," she said. "Enlighten me."
His smile broadened to a full-on grin. She'd asked for it. "Well, the thing is, in this line of work, there aren't any contracts to bind you, and if you want to lawyer it up, well, let me tell you, you'd better hire some of the more heavily armed lawyers from Mistral. In this business, the only two currencies you've got are strength and rep, and you need both if you want to survive. Why, I remember a time when-"
"Enough!" she snapped, slapping a hand down on the table, leaning over it to glare at him. "Tell me about Adam!"
That was when it clicked. This girl already knew about the White Fang. His gaze flicked up to the bow on her head. Ahhh...
"What'd he do?" he asked conspiratorially. "He kill your daddy or something, little girl?"
"I'm asking the questions here," she hissed, rage seeping into her words.
Oh, that struck a nerve. I was sure, but now I've got options, and each one is better than the last, Roman thought. "Fine, fine," he said insincerely, "but you asked me about the White Fang leadership and about Adam. Which one do you want first?"
She backed off, taking a deep breath, and said, "Our latest reports indicate Adam Taurus is in charge of the Vale White Fang."
He guffawed. "Oh, man, now I feel embarrassed at getting caught if you're that out of date." He shook his head, letting the laugh die down to a chuckle. "Adam, that boy, he's totally whipped. Like - wha-pish! - if you know what I mean. Got a lady on the side who's calling all the shots."
Her hands clenched into fists briefly. Oh, yeah, direct hit, he thought, smirking.
"And so what does that make you, then?" she retorted. "Another good little boy, following orders?"
"Yes," he admitted gleefully. "Have you met her? She's terrifying. Ever see a woman burn someone alive? I have. It's not pleasant, and Sunfire isn't the sort of person I want to cross."
After all, Little Miss Huntress - what else could she be? - did have at least one thing right: Sunfire had beaten the crap out of him and left him for the cops. If messing around with his captors like this let him screw her over... well, that was just a bonus. After all, while he probably would have done this anyway just to spite the so-called "good guys," Cinder had been very clear on what he was to do if he ever got captured. As he'd just told the little lady here... he was just following orders.
"'Sunfire,' huh?" the little Huntress said.
"Yeah," Roman confirmed with a lazy nod. "I guess our boy Adam likes 'em hot."
The one-way mirror seemed to shake a little, as if someone had just hit their head against it. Oh, come on! He was still allowed some pleasures, wasn't he? And anyway, that was a great pun.
His interrogator seemed about ready to kill him for a second, and then she calmed down almost forcefully, very clearly being talked down by someone in her ear and trying to get a handle on the situation. "Was she the one who told you to rob dust stores?"
He snorted. "What do you think?"
"So why leave the lien?" she pressed.
"Listen, Little Miss Daddy Issues, when the scary lady tells you to take the dust and leave the cash, you know what you do?" he asked before narrowing his eyes slightly in a dramatic fashion. "You take the dust, you leave the cash, and you don't ask questions."
"And the regular White Fang?" she asked with clearly forced evenness.
Roman shrugged. "The animals and me didn't agree on much, but we agreed on that."
That comment seemed like it set her off again. Then she blinked in surprise and seemed to flinch away from her own ear. She then focused back on him, and she seemed to have regained her center a bit.
"Is Sunfire an employee of the Schnee Dust Company?"
Roman blinked at that. "...okay, you lost me."
The admission seemed to have given the girl some confidence. "Stealing dust makes sense," she explained. "Leaving the lien does not. Whatever their reasons for the dust - terrorist bombings, equipping an army, selling on the black market - the White Fang has operating expenses. Even if you really needed nothing but dust, the stolen lien could be used to buy more dust. Leaving the lien only makes sense if whoever you're working for is assured they already own the money you're leaving behind. Like if they controlled the supply of the very thing you're stealing from them."
Roman pursed his lips at that. The logic did pan out. Personally, he thought Cinder might just be an idiot, but that was a theory he kept locked in a very tiny box in the back corner of his mind, just in case she could somehow read his thoughts; he wasn't about to underestimate her, of all people. Still...
"So, let me get this straight," he said, a note of disbelief in his voice. "You think our little venture is all about... corporate insurance fraud?"
"Or something else," she said with a shrug. "The SDC has a lot of black projects, after all, and an off-the-books dust supply to feed them would be... useful, to say the least."
"Kid, you're suggesting that the SDC and the White Fang are in cahoots to control the illicit dust trade to do... what? Take over the world?" Roman deadpanned.
"Of course," the black-haired girl replied as if it was the most obvious thing there was.
Roman felt his jaw unhinge. What she was talking about was… insane. It was utterly and completely insane, and yet... what had happened to his life that this lunacy actually made more sense than reality?
Because, really, giant alien robots? Who would believe that nonsense? No, she was the crazy one here, not him. He was not going to get drawn into being sent to the happy house just because the coppers sent in a girl with a wild imagination.
"What kind of crazy conspiracy theories are they teaching you kids in the Huntsman academies these days?" he asked with the exact tone of disbelief this situation called for.
She cocked her head and looked at him in pity. Pity? Why was she looking at him with pity?! ...Oh yeah, that was right. She was insane.
She shook her head. "You really don't have a clue what you've gotten yourself wrapped up in, do you, Mister Torchwick?"
"I mean, I thought I did, but clearly, somewhere along the line, I stepped through the looking glass and didn't know about it," he observed dryly.
She waved her hand, and soon after, the door opened to reveal his escorts once more.
"I'm sorry, Mister Torchwick," she said with sincerity that had to be faked. "It appears there's been a mistake. You're just a low-level flunky, not the mastermind we've been looking for."
"Yeah, yeah, heard it all before," he replied.
He really hoped Neo would be able to arrange a breakout for him soon. He didn't know how much more of this he could take. What was next? Faunus royalty?
"'Animals'!" fumed Weiss as she stomped into Team RWBY's dorm room. "He called them animals! Of all the hogwash he was spewing, that had to have been the most vile!"
"I've heard much worse," Blake noted, following behind.
"That doesn't make it any more acceptable!" Weiss declared.
Behind the pair, Ruby leaned toward Ren and asked, "I thought you said you used your semblance to calm her down?"
"I did!" he insisted.
"Weiss, he was a criminal trying to get under our skins, and throwing everything at the wall to do it," echoed Blake, repeating something that Weiss had said to her during the interrogation before the snowcapped girl had flown into her own rage at Roman's racist quips.
"I know that!" Weiss snapped. "More than anything, this just underscores that the White Fang are working under duress. How else could they stand someone like him?"
"Money?" offered Ruby, to which Weiss raised an incredulous eyebrow, and the dark-haired girl flinched back from it. "Okay, yeah, that would probably be a lot more plausible if they were, well, actually stealing any money or selling any of the things they stole."
"Indeed," agreed Blake. "This has 'nefarious scheme' written all over it, which makes their motivations pretty obvious. They're willing to work with a reprobate like Torchwick now in exchange for the promise of killing a much larger number of humans later. This 'Sunfire' woman must have promised them quite the slaughter."
"I don't believe that," Weiss retorted. "If they really were that bloodthirsty, I can't imagine they wouldn't have started with him already."
"You'd be surprised what people will compromise in pursuit of their goals," Blake said softly, a note of melancholy in her voice.
Weiss turned and walked over to her bed before throwing herself into a seat upon it. "I don't think I'd be that surprised. I saw it all the time growing up."
"Then you should know what I'm talking about," insisted Blake, sitting down on her own bed.
"I mean, it makes sense, but I think it's missing a few steps," offered Ruby. "I mean, it's a long way to go before you make the transition from stealing dust from stores to genocide."
"Thank you, Ruby," replied Weiss with a nod as she began to rock her feet back and forth. "See? Ruby agrees with me."
"Well, that's…" Ruby began before a knock at the door drew her over to it. She opened it up to reveal… "Friend Sun! You're not dead on your feet anymore."
Sun stood alone in the hallway and offered her a friendly wave. "Hey, Friend Ruby. Doing much better now that I've gotten some rack time."
"'Rack time'?" asked Ruby curiously.
Sun rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, it's what Team Apricot call sleeping. Guess they rubbed off on me a bit."
"Hope it wasn't too much; you're nuts enough as it is," Ruby joked.
The blond brightened at that. "Oh! You've already met them, huh? Hey, mind if I come in? I need to talk with you about what I told Jaune earlier."
"Sure, come on in," offered Ruby, stepping aside and letting him pass. "Just be careful now. Weiss and Blake are having a moment."
"We are not having a 'moment,'" protested Weiss before focusing back on her opposite. "Anyway, I know you seem to have a problem with the White Fang, Blake, but... anyone who upsets Father as much as they do can't be all bad."
Sun's eyes widened, and he leaned in to whisper into Ren and Ruby's ears. "You guys weren't kidding. This is one heck of a moment."
"Do you have something to add?" asked Weiss of Sun somewhat curiously. "You're the only faunus here, after all."
"Oh no!" the blonde objected. "I am not getting in the middle of this."
"'The enemy of my enemy is not my friend,'" Blake quoted with a frown, wincing slightly as the back of Weiss's feet hit a stack of books in a bag under her bed. Then Blake's eyes seemed to catch something, something she appeared to find wrong, as far as Ren could tell.
"Weiss, what did you say you did yesterday?" the black-haired girl asked suspiciously.
"Yang took me out into town, and then we saw Maple after Ruby destroyed her family's car," explained Weiss steadily.
"Yeah, let's just skip over that," muttered Ruby.
"Oh?" asked Blake with a raised eyebrow. "Then how do you explain this?!"
With a sudden and surprising spring, Blake shot out like a bullet to dive under Weiss's bed. The snowcapped girl squawked in disapproval and tried to stop her with a well-placed foot. It hit only shadow though, and soon, her black-haired friend was up and away with a bag of books in her hands.
"Blake!" complained Weiss, standing up in fury. "Give those back! They're mine!"
"Founded in Principle? Mantleite, Not Menagerite? On the Necessity of Racial Reconciliation?!" Blake read off the titles as she pulled them out of the bag and put them back in, stopping at the third book and holding it up. "Do you know who wrote this?"
"Quinze Quarante, founder of the White Fang," Weiss answered proudly. "I don't understand why this is causing such a problem!"
"That is the problem!" Blake declared, holding the book as if it was a live grenade, a poisonous tome wreathed in fire. "Do you know how many people died because of this book?"
"So some of the White Fang have... strayed," Weiss allowed with a shrug and a deep blush. "That doesn't make their cause any less worthy."
"You realize you are defending an organization that hates humanity, don't you?" reminded Blake hotly through narrowed, disbelieving eyes, dropping the book and bag on her bed beside her. "That almost certainly wants you - you, personally - dead?"
"Why do you think they hate humanity so much?" Weiss shrieked, sweeping and gesturing with her hand. "It's because of people like my father, people like me, that force the White Fang to take such drastic measures!"
Blake rocked back at that, utterly stunned. "People like you?!"
"You know what I was like!" the Atlesian girl said, tacitly reminding them of her imperious attitude when she had first come to Beacon Academy. "You know what my father is like, my mother, my sister, my brother! I'm a symbol of all their suffering!"
"You're a victim, Weiss!" Blake argued passionately, her hands balling into fists. "How many people have they killed? People you knew? And how did your family react? They may not have directly targeted you yet, but that doesn't change what we did to you! Your childhood was made into a living nightmare by the White Fang!"
"I won't have you blaming them for my family's actions!" Weiss retorted.
Ruby tried to go and calm them down. Ren felt he had to do so too, he had the power, but… but they needed to work this out. Blake and Weiss both needed to vent everything out now rather than letting it simmer. It was only then that they would get over their disagreement regarding the White Fang, and maybe… in the future, he would be able to actually bring them some peace for once.
Sun seemed to silently agree, knowing that this was a battle he couldn't fight.
The crimson-themed Huntress reached out a hand to her teammate's shoulder. "Blake, I-"
"No!" she shouted, shrugging away from Ruby's hand and redirecting her gaze to Weiss. "You want to know why I despise the White Fang? It's because they're a bunch of liars, thieves, and murderers!"
Weiss stood up as best she could at that, face red with anger, back straight. "Well, maybe they're just tired of being pushed around!"
Blake exhaled angrily, barely controlling her breathing, and she seemed to calm down somewhat. "...I know what I'm talking about, Weiss."
"How?" Weiss demanded in a rage. "How could you possibly know when you're trying to censor what they have to say?"
"Because I was one of them!" Blake declared, hooking a thumb back at herself. "My father is Ghira Belladonna, High Leader of the White Fang until just five years ago!"
"...What?" The anger and rage had died in Weiss, clearly replaced by stunned confusion. The other three members of the room were just shocked.
Blake, for her part, seemed confused at her friend's confusion. "You… you really didn't know?"
Weiss shook her head vigorously. "No! How was I supposed to know?"
"Oh, come on!" belted out Blake in frustration, the anger coming back. "I didn't even change my name! How could you not know?"
"I never studied that period of White Fang history. I've only just begun to learn," Weiss admitted shamefully. "And even if I did, it's not like you're walking around wearing your family's crest like I did."
The black-haired girl twisted around such that the side of her leg was toward Weiss, and she pointed at her stocking, or more precisely, the symbol on it. "...have you seriously never looked at my stockings?"
Now that Ren noticed it, he had to admit that it did kind of look like a stylized belladonna flower… or a grey flame. Or a paw print? Actually, really examining the symbol in detail made him wonder exactly what went into the thought processes of Blake's ancestors when they created the symbol.
"Oh." Weiss blinked in curiosity and embarrassment. "Well, to be fair, it's not like I knew what your family crest was. Even if I did, it would have been a bit out there for the old me to think that the High Leader of the White Fang had a human daughter, and that she somehow wound up on my team."
Those words, said with the best of intentions, set Blake off again, such that when next she spoke, her voice was filled with frustration renewed and fury reignited. "'Human'? You think I'm human?!"
She pivoted, and came to stand with her feet apart as if at attention. Her hand shot up with a sudden quickness and undid the ribbon upon the top of her head with forceful abandon. As the strip of cloth came off and fluttered to the floor, revealed in their full glory then were two black, triangular, furry ears much like a cat's.
Blake Belladonna was a faunus.
"How could you miss these? They're just like my mother's!" she asked with her rage unabated.
Weiss looked up at the ears briefly, and then her gaze dropped to focus on Blake's face once more, as if the new information was deemed only tangentially relevant. "Well, I've never seen them before, so you can't blame me for not making the connection there."
"That's it?!" asked Blake with the frustration greater than ever before. "You don't even seem to care that I'm a faunus."
"No, why would I?" asked Weiss with what Ren quickly realized was fear.
"Because you're a Schnee!"
The moment, indeed, the precise picosecond the words entered the air and registered in Blake's mind, her expression changed. The rage and frustration were washed away to be instantly replaced by a thick mixture of horror, shock, revulsion, and most of all... shame. Not since the elder days when the warriors of legend walked the land and the light and the dark were joined in union had anyone been so thoroughly and completely repelled by their own words and actions.
The expression that spread on Weiss's countenance was much simpler, much more familiar. It was a mien Blake knew all too well, for the guise the snowcapped girl adopted was an exacting mirror to that she had worn mere weeks prior when the true depths of her family's treachery had been laid bare. It was like a light in her eyes had just gone out.
"Is… is…?" stammered Weiss, tears flowing now as her voiced struggled for purchase.
Blake backed away, shaking her head in disgust at herself as she found only two words she could choke out in despair: "I'm sorry."
With that, she bolted from the room, and after a few seconds, Sun followed. He had been shaken from his shock by her departure, and he called out then for her to stop. No one could find the strength to join him in chasing her down.
Weiss collapsed to her knees, her voice finally finding itself in a heartbroken sob. "Is that all you really think of me?"
Sun never did find Blake that night. She was gone. All trace of her swallowed up in the darkness that had overcome them all.
Author's Note 1 (Cyclone):
Oh, what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practice to deceive,
And at the center, in silent pose,
Waits its mistress... Ruby Rose?
Here, we see... just how crazy Team APRC is. And Rufus lets his inner paranoid come out just a little bit. Too bad he's paranoid about the wrong things.
So, should it still be called "dramatic irony" when we keep using it for comedy instead of drama? Wouldn't "comedic irony" make more sense?
Anyway, this last scene here is the culmination of a lot of edits, rewrites, and repositioning. Parts of this were originally planned for as far back as "Aftermath" but was cut for length and time (ironic, we know) and the fact that we hadn't firmly established a White Fang connection for Team RRANNBW yet. It's also one of the clearest examples of one of the other things I really like to do in fanfiction: invert canon while trying to remain plausible. And if we also got out of it another chance to highlight the absurdity of Blake actually keeping her faunus nature a secret for so long from her roommates, so much the better. Seriously, Team RWBY must be the most incurious group of teenagers I've ever seen.
Author's Note 2 (Cody MacArthur Fett):
OK, show of hands here, who was caught off guard by the revelation of Blake's true nature? We have readers who aren't familiar with RWBY canon, so I know there will be at least some of you. Come on now, don't be shy.
Also, I have said before that an author's favorite characters will die a thousand deaths, each more painful than the last. When I said that I had this scene in mind, especially in relation to "Cold." Though this time it's a murder/suicide thanks to Blake.
A bit more of specifics for this scene though. Originally, Blake was supposed to tell them she was a member of the White Fang after they left Ozpin's office in what ended up becoming "Aftermath," and after a brief argument they would have reconciled and gotten on with it without her running away. The problem at first was actually one of time, as that chapter was running quite long as it was, and we were looking for stuff to cut, so we cut it even though we thought it would be a really cool subversion of canon. (The initial kernel for the conversation was jotted out on June 19th, but it wasn't until the 22nd of that same month that we started expanding it into an actual back and forth.) It worked out wonderfully though, as it was allowed to mature and develop, being rewritten multiple times, until it got to this near perfect state which not only is emotionally involving, but also ties into the greater plot in… well, that's classified, but you'll see in a few weeks. Though, yes, Blake is acting a bit like a teenager, isn't she?
And Yang? Oh yes, Yang, Adam totally isn't responsible for White Fang's bad reputation, it was all his wicked SDC spy of a partner. I totally bet that you'd be able to keep that opinion for five minutes if you were standing right next to Adam too. Oh wait, we already timed that and proved that you can't even last half that time before you start bickering with him and calling him the worst thing since reality television.