Three days have passed since Carlisle's encounters with both Weiss and Blake.
He hadn't expected to be put in such a sticky situation. He didn't think much of the young heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. Just another simple spoiled brat who had everything handed to her in life, or at least expected to gain whatever she wanted. Turns out his calculations where a bit off, digging a little deeper he discovered Weiss' strained relationship with her family, particularly her absent mother and her controlling father, the current head of the company. Weiss had the comfort of a privileged life but left it to pursue a path her own. To the young professor this seemed a far cry from the spoiled rich girl he had seen from where he came from. Surely the heiress was still on a high horse and aggressively flirting with him but he could tolerate her at least.
On the other hand the curious case of Blake Belladonna, the Faunus girl hiding in plain sight. She had certainly got his eye in a way no one else in this place had. She was unique, she was passionate, scared to be herself for fear of rejection. While Carlisle himself didn't really care about human or Faunus status, he had to admit Blake had an attraction that he couldn't ignore, where she stood in life was certainly divisive.
Both girls may peek the young professor's interest, although he wish they didn't.
Weiss Schnee was a means to an end, only to get what he needed from her; the Eliphas Code, a device to find anyone or anything with a single strand of DNA. As much as he disliked catering to her feelings, what needed to be done needed to be done. Using her for her family name and status was exactly what she hated in the men that pursued her, but somehow with him she let it slip? Was she that much smitten with him? He'd rather not hurt her feelings if he could help it, but the situation was becoming desperate for him and time and options where running out. And who knows how long she still had out there?
I'm sorry about this Miss Weiss, but I have no other choice, Milena is worth everything he thought.
He was currently involved in watching Team RWBY and Team JPNR train in the arena, a session Weiss had invited him too. Many people came around to watch teams train, including the monkey Faunus sitting next to him.
"You're the new professor right, my name is Sun Wukong" the blonde haired teen with the monkey tail had said to him.
"Professor Firen Carlisle, a pleasure to meet you my boy" he said ever as politely as he shook the young Faunus' hand.
Watching the team was an interesting experience. The professor thought to decline the invitation but late reconsidered after Vadim's bantering about how it could help him get closer to Weiss, even though the girl was pretty much already putty in his hands. But upon seeing Blake fight he very much stayed.
Blake Belladonna had really gotten to him, so much so that he didn't understand his own feelings right now. He could tell the young Faunus girl was in love with him, that much was clear. The daring photo, the unexpected hug, the kisses and talks they had shared. She was certainly more reserved about her feelings then Weiss but the young professor could tell she was head over heels for him. Because he accepted her, where as everyone was on edge the moment she told who she really was, he hadn't reacted in any way, he had just accepted her regardless, not caring about her heritage.
Carlisle couldn't care less about someone's status in life, especially not here in Remnant. He only came here for one priority. One goal; to find what he had lost.
Falling in love or being the object of someone's affections wasn't in the planning.
But then why? Why was he staring at Blake as she moved onto the battlefield. She had a graceful style of fighting, most of the team kind of shared that. Yang was definitely the most aggressive, Weiss was more analytical and Ruby felt like she mostly went on instinct. Blake was graceful like a dancer. His eyes where almost glued to her.
Sun was sitting next to him and observed him as he look, trying to determine where his eyes where. Carlisle was often difficult to read due to his continued stoic and neutral impression plastered on his face.
"So what brings you here prof?" Sun asked leaning back into a relaxing pose.
"Curiosity Mr. Wukong, I have never seen huntsmen fight before and I was wondering how it works" Carlisle said not looking away from the fight.
He saw Blake and Weiss looking at him at some point during the training match. It was obvious that Weiss didn't know about what happened a few nights ago after he found Blake had been spying on them. A good sign considering he didn't need to cause any more of a scene.
"Alright training session over, I think that's enough" someone said.
The two teams dispersed from each other and went their own separate ways, presumably to change after such an intense fight. Carlisle looked and saw Weiss walking past winking at him, he gave a soft smile in response as acknowledgement that he had seen her.
Blake didn't give any sign, just giving him a normal look, though a slight blush appeared around her cheeks.
Team JPNR hadn't given him much notice, their leader who had previously followed him looked away as soon as the young professor looked at him, only the armor clad Pyrrha looked at him, a look of odd suspicion it seemed. Nora was once again tightly holding Ren's arm as per usual.
A few minutes passed as Carlisle remained seated, his mind in full spin of wondering what to do.
"Dude are you okay?" Sun asked him.
The young professor looked up at the monkey Faunus who was still sitting there, ever as relaxed as ever.
"Yes Mr. Wukong just deep in thought" he answered.
"I do not blame you, seeing the beautiful woman over there fight, well who wouldn't like that" he said nudging the professor in the shoulder.
Smooth, journey to the west, smooth, Carlisle thought.
Before he could find a response he heard the pinging sound of his scroll. Grabbing the device from his pocket he opened it up to a message from Vadim reading:
"Boss we need to discuss something."
"You will have to excuse me" he told Sun as he stood up to leave the arena to the location he expected to see Vadim.
Every time he had received a message from him it was usually about the progress in finding the benefactor who possessed the Eliphas Code. Vadim may not be talented but he was certainly good at finding information where nobody could get too. As he continued to walk through the halls out of the arena he received another message on his scroll. Coming to a stop to take a look he saw a message from Weiss. Attached was a photo he didn't expect.
It was of her, her white long hair wet from the shower, her pale skin was glistering and she was wearing nothing but a white sports bra as she was smiling in the photo.
Why do I always get these photos for goodness sake, Carlisle thought annoyed.
Normally any man would rejoice at getting such a treat, but in the young professor's case it meant that she was so infested and attracted to him that his time had to be spent on accompanying the heiress to whatever her heart desired. An offer any other man in his position would have grabbed hook line and sinker.
But Carlisle wasn't that kind of man, his mission was his priority. Still though, he had to play along.
"You look beautiful Miss Weiss."
"Would you like to meet up tonight professor, I might have some new info to share" she typed.
Carlisle sighed audibly, if she had such important info why not share it now. She clearly wanted something from him in return. Definitely the daughter of someone who knows business he thought.
"I am currently in a meeting. I will message you later."
He put his scroll on silent and proceeded to walk the long way out of the arena to reach his meeting point.
Outside the Arena:
Pyrrha Nikos was the first person out of the locker room as she waited outside for her friends and team.
During the training she had looked at the seats to see professor Carlisle looking at the fights. Normally she found that the new professor was quite reserved. Despite being social and polite in class outside he was very much mostly too himself and didn't interact much with others.
While she hadn't admired the professor as much as the other girls did, she found him a brilliant young mind. But recent thoughts had turned a lot of gears in her head. Especially considering she slightly suspected him of being responsible of Cardin's current condition. But she had no proof, nothing that could point to him as the culprit.
And speak of the devil she just saw him walk past.
As if on instinct she decided to follow him as silently as possible. His expression was focused and mildly annoyed, a contrast to his usual stoic demeanor. She watched him turn corners and waited a few seconds before following a silently as she could manage, noting the irony of reprimanding Jaune for this earlier as she was now doing the same. She saw him ultimately walk into a deserted hallway as he entered a door to the right. His own office he had been temporarily given.
Pyrrha sneaked towards the door and peered through the window in it, hoping the professor didn't look at it. Sure enough there he stood alongside the short man she occasionally saw him with.
"What do you have Vadim" the professor asked demandingly.
"Well sir I have tried hacking into the Schnee Company's database to find out who has the device. But there is almost nothing, finding the correct person would take weeks. I have tried finding a specific point but the mainframe is so deeply encrypted even the best hacker would have his work cut out for him" Vadim told him.
The professor's immediate response was too slam his hand on the desk behind him and angrily throw the papers on it to the ground.
"Do you always have to invent new ways to be useless!" he shouted angrily to Vadim, causing Pyrrha to back down from the class and against the wall next to the door, the outburst surprising her.
"But, but Boss…." She heard Vadim stutter.
"But what Vadim! I ask you for one thing, ONE THING! And all you come up with are excuse after excuse. Now I have to dance to the whims of that ice queen just to get the information you are somehow unable to get. For days she has been messaging me and I have to sit there and pretend I care about her bloody daddy issues. All because you can't hack into one system!"
"But boss…."
The voice died down as Pyrrha heard a loud thud inside of the office.
"NO MORE EXCUSES VADIM! TIME IS RUNNING OUT, GET INTO THAT SYSTEM NOW!"
Pyrrha saw the door beside her open and recoiled in fear. She saw the short man Vadim run out of it in and run into the opposite direction, not even noticing her. Placing her hands over her mouth to control her breathing as to not give away her presence. The professor stomped out of the office walking in the same direction as Vadim did earlier. He didn't notice her either.
She watched him turn the corner and out of sight before turning to the opened door of his office.
I shouldn't, Pyrrha thought.
Her better judgment won out. Considering what she had just experienced she now had to know more. So she got up and slowly got into the office.
Papers were scattered over the floor from his earlier outburst. She bend over and looked through them, most of them where just graded papers of the students. Pyrrha proceeded towards the desk and found a stack of papers there weren't thrown around.
Looking through them she found one that seemed to be older than the rest. A note was written about it. Carefully she began reading it:
It has been three months of working on this in secret, hidden from their eyes.
The first test was a success, but at what cost? My dear Milena is now trapped, lost and alone on a completely unfamiliar world. I was a fool to allow her to take the first step into it. It should've been me..
But I got it to work again, nobody knows that it does, they demand a report but I cannot allow them to know the project has succeeded until I do what needs to be done? The Conduit be damned! She was all I had.
Milena…
I promise I will find you, no matter what I have to do or where I have to go, I will find you and bring you home again.
Pyrrha's head was spinning with thoughts. What did this note mean? What did it imply? And who was Milena?
The questions toyed with her mind until she heard the door close behind her.
"Anything I can help you with Miss Nikos?"
Pyrrha turned around in shock to see professor Firen Carlisle looking at her with his usual neutral stoic expression.
She couldn't get a word out. She just stared at the professor in shock, the note still clutched in her hands.
"Professor…I was just…" Pyrrha stammered out.
"Spare me the excuses Miss Nikos," he said in an angry tone "what are you doing here in my office."
Pyrrha gulped, it was no point in trying to hide what she was doing, he could see right through her, he had caught her red headed.
"What does this mean professor? What is this all about? Who is Milena?" she asked demandingly. At the mention of that name the professor's face turned into a scowl "how do you know that name?" he demanded as he grabbed the note from her hands and walked past her, slamming it back onto the desk.
"You dare to walk into my office and read into my private files, you! You!" he turned angrily towards her but Pyrrha remained standing, no fear in her face.
"I know it was you that put Cardin into that state" she shouted.
The professor's expression turned again into a curious look, almost of disbelief. "That's quite the accusation Pyrrha," he said referring to her by her first name for the first time "I do hope for your sake you have some proof of your claim."
Pyrrha's mind went through the scenario's she need to go through to escape this situation. Could she run to Ozpin or Goodwitch and tell them what she had read? Would they even believe her?
"Well?" Carlisle said crossing his arms "I am waiting for your answer."
"After he saw you he suddenly became a drooling catatonic mess, could be a coincidence but suddenly you show up and a student becomes like this" Pyrrha said.
Carlisle scoffed "that is circumstantial evidence at best Pyrrha, and I thought you were better than this" he said in a belittling tone.
Pyrrha turned her head towards the door. Could she run and get out before he caught up to her, could she use her semblance to beat him a fight if it came down to it? She hadn't seen what his semblance is all about.
"Why are you here Carlisle?," she asked "where did you come from. And what do you want from Weiss' company."
Carlisle's face turned into one of repressed anger, as if he was holding himself back.
"My business with that girl is none of your concern Pyrrha Nikos, nor is what my business here is. You come and sneak into my office, look through my personal files and then dare to accuse me of something you have no evidence for. who do you think you are!" he said as he stepped towards her with an intense look on his face.
Pyrrha was never afraid of much, but this man's face was something different. Scary in a different way.
Clenching her fist, she stood her ground and looked up at Carlisle.
Without a word she raised her fist and it connected with the professor's face as he fell back against his desk with a loud thud. She moved in for another hit but a sudden red flash inhabited her and she fell to the ground, breathing heavily. Feeling like a giant void had taken away most of her strength.
She saw the professor stand up, a grey circle like device with a red gem in his hand.
"This Miss Nikos is a Semblance Inhibitor, an item of my creation that shuts off your semblance for as long as you're in its vicinity" he said as he placed the device on his desk.
Bending down to the powerless woman she saw his right arm transform. Grey metallic forms began to attach around it, turning Carlisle's right hand into a metal claw hand with giant sharp fingers at the tip. With his left hand he grabbed Pyrrha by the throat and lifted her off the ground.
The clawed hand was open and a bright red light was emitting from the center.
"If it helps, you were correct I am responsible for Mr. Winchester's condition" he told her, clenching his left hand tightly around the warrior's throat.
"W…why?" she asked stammering.
"Because he was an arrogant prick who needed to be put in his place," he said moving his clawed hand towards her "I made a promise when I came to this place, nothing would stop me from my mission, not an arrogant meathead like Cardin Winchester, not the faculty here, not the Grimm and most definitely not you!" he spat angrily.
The claw's sharp fingers pressed softly around her face as Pyrrha was forced to look into the red light emitting from the center.
"Have fun in your own head Miss Nikos" was the last thing she heard before her body lost consciousness.