Ryka was laying on a slap of cold steel, staring at the wall on the other side of the hard light barrier, her eyes scanning it's make up, from metallic piping to the concrete wall, and down to the bench, she then turned her gaze back up to the roof and worked her way down again, she had done this more times than she could count, with a buzz the door opened and someone entered, then the door shut again rolling over she noted it was Harriet, rolling her eyes she rolled back
"Yeah, yeah, I get it. You don't like me, but I got a few questions for you."
"Don't I get a lawyer or somethin'?"
"Nope, you got a choice, as a known terrorist thanks to the testimonies of the Ace Ops, Clover asked me to talk to you because I grew up in Mantle, give you someone to relate to." she stated in a matter of fact tone as she walked over and sat down near Rykas' feet, Ryka quickly sat up and faced away again
"So what's my choice?" she questioned attempting to figure out their angle
"Simple, we've taken out your friends. Three of them surrendered and the rest died fighting. So, your choices are A- go to prison with a death sentence, or B- work for us."
"That isn't a choice its an ultimatum."
"Yeah, so make your pick."
"Death or slavery. Good choices." Ryka rolled her eyes and sighed staring at the ground
"No, nothing like that, you'll get paid fairly well, and apart from, you know, obviously heavy surveillance, and a way to keep track of you and keep you in line, you'll get training and education, yadda yadda, but hey If you wanna die at the age of fourteen that's your choice... but hey, you've got a chance to do something better, not good, but better."
"Says one of the people who murdered my friends." Ryka shot back staring down at her hands, she knew for a fact that, Antalor, Shera, and Keelin wouldn't surrender, they were probably dead "Why would I... join Atlas, it's all just... so... fucked."
"Marrow says the same thing, he wanted to talk to you but Clover said that 'us girls should talk', dumbass... he sees some value in you, I'm not so sure, but he asked me to so I figured I might as well give it a shot." she explained earning a look from Ryka, this was the first time she actually looked Harriet in the eyes, she seemed to have some regret in her eyes but also a steely determination
"Marrow... he's the faunus on your team right?"
"Yep, he's a bit of a moron but not a bad dude, if you wanna talk to him he's hangin' out right outside, but he's... he's got some strong opinions on your situation so if you could cut him some slack."
"Oh yeah, I'll keep that in mind." Ryka commented rolling her eyes as Harriet stood and walked out of the cell and then the room
"Marrow, you're up!" she shouted as she walked out leaving the door open for him, said member walked in and he looked her over with a small frown, he then walked into the cell and crossed his arms his eyes scanning over her, studying her for what she could only assume was hostile actions
"I had a few questions, about your situation I mean..." she trailed off as he crossed his arms, he really didn't seem to like her all that much "Why would you choose Atlas over any other kingdom?"
"No real reason, my mom and dad were military folk, so it just made sense to go to the most militant kingdom." he answered earning a frown from Ryka as she crossed her legs and shifted a bit before speaking again "Okay... but it's Atlas, the least accepting kingdom for our kind. It just seems... I don't know, dumb."
"That's what the others tell me, but it all really comes down to General Ironwood, he wants to bring more faunus into the military and use that to spread more equal ideas around the kingdom, I don't really care all too much about that, my family moved around the other three kingdoms a bunch so I never got the chance to see the inequalities that much, so it never really bothered me."
"I guess I get it... not your problem." she commented and lied back with a sigh which quickly became a groan as she rolled over and faced away from him "I don't know what to do! I don't wanna work for atlas and I don't wanna die! Why does life suck?!"
"I... cant really answer that one for you, it's all down on you to make your pick, stick with your ideals or abandon them, just know that General Ironwood is working on getting things in Atlas more equal, but it'll take time, a less radical approach." he explained and took a small step back towards the door and snapped his fingers and pointed at her "Anyways I'll... go get Harriet, 'cause I cant keep walking on egg shells like this." he quickly said opening the door walked to the door "BYEE!" was all he gave along with a wave as he vanished out and Harriet stumbled in and quickly turned to the door as it snapped shut behind her, with a sigh she turned back to Ryka who was now standing at the center of her cell arms crossed and... spinning, she was just staring at the ceiling spinning
"What... are you doing?"
"Thinking... hard... hate... humans... radical... conservative... unfair..." she trailed off with each word she made a rotation and quickly began to massage her temples
"Man you really are a kid."
"I... am... a teen..." she responded before coming to a stop facing away from Harriet and let her shoulders sag, Harriet sighed and walked over to the cell door and entered
"Okay... time to try things Clovers way." she muttered to herself and took a few steps closer resting a hand on Rykas' shoulder "Look, I get that things can be a scary, especially as they are right now... but look at it this way, you can be living proof that things in the world can get better." she said turning the girl towards her and forced a smile
(o)
Thrums of pain shot through her mind as she felt herself roll over and over and over the darkness around her, attempting to discern something through the darkness she couldn't make anything out her vision couldn't pierce the boundless darkness surrounding her, after a few moments the darkness gave way to light, the pale blue light of hard-light, looking around she found her hands and feet locked in hard-light dust, looking towards the entrance of the room as it slipped open General Ironwood entered and appeared extremely cautious about it
"Gen- general?..." she muttered as a sudden and powerful headache began to pound it's way through her mind
"Specialist Schnee... you've got quite a bit to answer for." he said as he stood in front of her and frowned, she herself wasn't used to this kind of situation, the last thing she remembered clearly was being put under to begin the experiment with that strange liquid they had been testing for quite a while
"Sir... I don't know what you're talking about."
"That... makes sense, I had our scientist look into your cellular make up while you were out, apart from your muscle structure growing more dense and your skin hardening, other strange mutations has begun to occur, currently we're getting back brain scans, once I have that information I can move forward on explaining to you what is going on... or finding a replacement." he explained in a cold and calculated manner, that caused Winter no measure of comfort
"I brought food!" Pennys' voice came as she happily entered the room with a large smile on her face and froze when she saw the general "Oh! Sorry general Ironwood, if I had known you'd be here I would have brought you something to eat as well." she quickly said seeming genuinely sorry about her lack of extra food
"Don't worry, I already ate, just make sure Schnee is comfortable." he ordered, he then turned and walked past Penny who waved as he left before moving to Winters' side "Good evening Specialist Schnee! It seems that only minor side effects remain from our 'soldier augmentation project' or as my father calls it 'inject our people with random stuff we found in the ground and see what happens... project.' he didn't add the project but I feel that it was implied." she happily explained as she began to spoon feed Winter gruel, she was used to the bland taste after her time at Atlas so it wasn't too much of a bother
"I'm so confused Penny." she muttered earning a hum from the girl
"Having another person control your body can have that effect." the girl responded neutrally as she moved onto a tall glass of water causing the older woman to gag on it and speak
"What?"
"Your mental make-up, it wasn't yours when I was fighting you in the vault, it was much closer in association with Sephiroth, or what I could gather from my brief meeting with him allowed." she explained earning a more contorted look from the specialist
"Oh yes, I should explain what you were doing while not being you. Quite simply you entered General Ironwoods office in search of information you would already have, then proceeded to enter the wing of the school that housed the winter maiden, upon questioning you killed everyone between yourself and , after claiming the maidens' power you made a beeline for the vault and were quickly subdued by the general and myself, though you were fighting more like an after thought, as if whoever was controlling you was paying much more attention to something else, even still you were stronger that me at the time, a worrying prospect, but not wholly unpleasant." the girl divulged quickly as Winter attempted to understand everything that she just heard
"Why... would you tell me this?"
"Simple, I've scanned your brain two-thousand-three-hundred-sixty-six times and have found no evidence that you are still under someone elses control, besides, we're friends we should be able to trust each other completely, right?" Penny answered her smiling face remaining untarnished, Winter could help but feel her confusion fade if for a few moments
"Of course..." she agreed her tone of voice was a little shaky due to the unexpected kindness "Thank you Penny."
"Now all we have to do is convince general ironwood that you're not insane, then you can set about on finding your sister and clearing your name." Penny said with a bright smile now shining on her face
"What do you mean? Is Weiss not here?"
"No from what I could learn through security footage, she left around two weeks ago around the same time you vanished from medical care." Penny answered happily placing her hands behind her back even if what she said was a frightening to the older sibling Penny seemed to have everything under control
"Thank you, for telling me what you can, I'll cooperate as best I can, and hopefully I'll be able to keep that... mind control thing under... control." she commented earning a happy nod from the girl who quickly turned on her heel
"I've been called by the general he wants me to help train a new member of the Ace Ops. See you later Winter." she said then walked out of the room before leaning back in and gave her a happy wave then vanished again leaving the woman alone with her thoughts, slouching low she stared at the ground she had no idea what was going on in her life anymore, everything seemed to change so massively and she had no idea as to how, her whole life turned upside down for her in a matter of seconds.
(o)
Ryka rolled to a stop and let out a growl, barely lifting her arms she was tossed across the ground where she slid to a stop when she banged her head on someones boots
"Ow fuck!" she quickly shouted sitting up and rubbing the back of her head "What are your feet made of pure metal?!"
"Correct! Most people don't notice." a very happy voice came from behind her, quickly twisting around she looked over the ginger haired girl she was smiling massively as she looked her over as well
"I... huh... never thought I'd ever see you up close, you're a lot less scary that I imagined." the red haired faunus commented as she was lifted off the ground without any effort and placed back on her feet
"Not to worry, as you're now designated as an ally the only thing you have to fear (as Specialist Bree has informed me) are my hugs!" she said with a smile and a pat on the head leaving Ryka looking furious, she quickly spun around and swung a fist at the ginger who casually stepped back avoiding the strike then grabbed the girls wrist and flipped her over and slammed her into the ground leaving Ryka staring blankly at the ceiling as the android re-entered her vision a smile still plastered on her face "That was an excellent attack!" she said in a cheery voice
"Yeah, I don't recommend fighting Penny here one on one, she's got more power backing her then most huntsman and has AI thinking... whatever that means." Harriet said walking off the battlefield
"Specialist Bree, I've told you dozens of times already, AI thinking, or having an artificial brain means that I can process information many hundred times faster than a human being, meaning that while time moves at a natural speed for you it moves at one one-hundredth the speed as it does for you."
"Oh, so you can pretty much stop time but you're still restricted by your movement speed." Ryka commented causing Penny to quickly spin back to the grounded girl with a smile
"That is correct."
"Cool, I used to tinker with robotics back home, but I think you're a bit out of my skill range." she said earning a gasp from Penny who quickly picked her up and set her down
"You should meet my father! You could learn so much from him! Oh it would be wonderful to have a friend of mine meet my father, I would introduce Specialist Schnee or Specialist Bree, but Specialist Schnee has already met him, and Specialist Bree is rather crass when she's not at work, that and she isn't a big fan of mixing work and life as she said."
"And I stand by that!"
"She is a very angry person."
"Am not!"
"Riveting... truly." Ryka commented looking between each of them, Harriet steaming with rage while Penny remained unchanged still smiling "I'm just gonna, go punch a bag. You two have fun." she waved and walked off to another part of the gym and began to strike a bag, she frowned and felt that sinking feeling again, it was obviously guilt, she hated that she took this offer but if she didn't have much of a choice, and she hated that she knew that Harriet was right about that, and with how things were she just had to keep her head down and work with the Ace Ops until her sentence ends then move on, the White Fang wont take her back given the fact that she wasn't able to keep a secret, maybe she'd go to Menagerie, it seemed like a faunus paradise.
A/N Alright, yeah this one was quite a bit shorter but I have a few ideas for the next chapter which'll be about both the end of Atlas' stuff, and some stuff going on in Vale. That's what I got cooking... probably.