Episode 5: Left to Fray
Int. Ozpin's Office – Day
We see a gathering of hooded and masked individuals standing around the center of the office in circle formations. One of the individuals stands at the head of the central circle, his robes much more ornately decorated than the rest. He bears a stave in his hand, intricately carved and decorated. He speaks up, his voice familiar.
CIRCLE LEADER
"I declare this meeting, commenced."
The mystery man bangs the stave against the floor, the sound filling the cavernous office.
CIRCLE LEADER
"Our first order of business, the maiden project. Vale has multiple candidates for the title of fall maiden. How goes the search in the other city states?"
Another man answers in deep and even toned speech.
MASKED MAN 1
"Atlas has a candidate under close watch; She shows promise, and we believe she will be more than willing to take the mantle."
CIRCLE LEADER
"Heard and understood, brother. Any others?"
The various members of the group mumble to each other and shuffle awkwardly.
The leader sighs.
CIRCLE LEADER
"We will return to that point at a later date; And I expect to hear more than one answer when we do. Second point of business, the robberies. I'm told our representative from the company has some questions about the investigation process."
Another voice comes from the crowd, this one is higher pitched than the man from before and is colored with an articulate accent.
MASKED MAN 2
(snidely)
"Indeed I do, when will the task force stop sitting on their hands and actually take action against the scoundrels that have spat in the face of my company?"
There's an unsure murmur around the room as the question hangs in the air for a moment.
We see the Leader's eyes narrow through his mask.
CIRCLE LEADER
"I can assure you that the task force is not simply standing by and allowing these robberies to happen. We are simply taking every precaution necessary for the operation to move ahead smoothly and without incident, the first step of which is assuring that our operatives have an established cover. These things take time, brother."
MASKED MAN 2
"Every day that your task force remains idle is a day the trail grows colder. I could have hired my own investigators and handled this problem days ago had I known that Vale would act so sluggishly."
MASKED MAN 1
"By all means, brother, handle the problem at your own expense; Or would that be too great a loss to the company coffers when compared to Vale's generous bailout which you were so eager to accept when our leader graciously extended the offer?"
The higher voiced man sputters for a moment before lashing out.
MASKED MAN 2
"I beg your pardon!?"
MASKED MAN 1
"Then beg."
CIRCLE LEADER
"Brothers, please, there is no need for this to escalate any further. The task force is fully capable, and will have the situation taken care of if we give them the proper time to do so. Until then it is out of our hands, and bickering about it will only cause further problems."
The two men sigh in response, the tension in the room easing somewhat.
CIRCLE LEADER
"Moving on; This upcoming summer is the Vytal festival, which is to be held in Vale this year. I am told that the representative from Atlas has security concerns."
MASKED MAN 1
"I do; The rising trends of unrest and crime in the city states speaks for itself, I believe that Vale is not capable of properly securing such an event without assistance from the Atlesian military."
CIRCLE LEADER
"You believe an appearance from the strongest military in Remnant is an appropriate response to a protest?"
MASKED MAN 1
"I believe a show of force will ease the minds of the law abiding citizens who wish to observe the holiday in peace, with the added benefit of deterring any provocateurs who might attempt to escalate the situation to violence."
CIRCLE LEADER
"Don't you think that some of our law abiding citizens on the other side of the picket line might draw the wrong conclusions from an armed militia guarding the event? This is as much of a public relations issue as it is a matter of security."
MASKED MAN 1
"I am willing to shoulder any negative press the event might receive as a result of my men's presence, if that is what's necessary to ensure that the people may have their festival in peace."
The Leader thoughtfully rubs the chin of his mask, mulling it over.
CIRCLE LEADER
"Very well, if it will ease your mind."
There is a nervous murmur around the room once more.
CIRCLE LEADER
"If no-one else wishes to bring any pressing matters forward, I declare this meeting adjourned."
The Leader bangs the stave on the floor once more, the sound echoing out. The crowd begins to disperse.
We see a glint of light in the corner of the ceiling. It's the reflection of a spy camera's lens.
Int. Warehouse – Same.
We see the feed of the aforementioned camera displayed on Torchwick's laptop screen, which he sits watching reclined in his desk chair, his feet on the desk and a grin plastered on his face.
The doors on the other side of the room burst open. In walks ADAM, 20, a tall red-haired Faunus with short spiky horns on his forehead. His eyes are obscured by a half-mask, and he carries a sword at his belt.
Torchwick stands and shuts the laptop.
ADAM
"This better be important."
TORCHWICK
"Adam my boy! I'm so happy you answered my summons."
ADAM
"Hold the pleasantries, Roman, you have five minutes of my very limited time to tell me what you want; Starting now."
TORCHWICK
"That's all the time I need. I summoned you here because I require a loan."
Adam cocks his head.
ADAM
"You, Roman Torchwick, need money?"
TORCHWICK
"Oh no, I don't need money, I need bodies."
ADAM
"What happened to the deal you had with that bowler-hat thug?"
As if on queue, the doors burst open once more. In walks JUNIOR, 30, an exceptionally tall man with a neatly trimmed beard in a suit. He's accompanied by two bowler hat goons. Torchwick grins.
JUNIOR
"Roman, you son of a bitch!"
TORCHWICK
(to Adam)
"You're about to find out."
Junior and his goons cross the room in a huff, stopping a few meters from Adam and Torchwick.
JUNIOR
"Do you have any idea how long I've been chasing you down? You still owe me 600,000 Lien!"
TORCHWICK
"Excuse me, Junior was it? I'm a little busy right now as you can see. So be a good lad and scram, we can talk about this later."
JUNIOR
"You're not getting rid of me that easy, Roman! That bitch of an errand girl you had managing my boys left them to rot, and it was up to me to pay their bail! I'm not leaving until you foot the bill!"
Adam turns to face Junior.
ADAM
"We're in the middle of a business discussion, old man. You're free to wait your turn outside."
JUNIOR
(to Torchwick)
"Is this bull-headed brat your secretary now!?"
ADAM
"Excuse me?"
Torchwick widens his eyes and shakes his head at Junior, who doesn't notice; He engages Adam further.
JUNIOR
"Get out of here kid, your boss and I have business to discuss, and we don't need you here butting in every other sentence."
Adam crosses his arms and remains standing, a brick wall between Junior and Torchwick.
ADAM
"Do you have any idea who you're talking to?"
TORCHWICK
(under his breath)
"Oh here we go."
JUNIOR
"I said get out of here!"
Junior grabs Adam's lapels, yanking him aside. The sound of a swinging blade rings through the air.
A spray of blood stains the front of Junior's coat.
We see a red-bladed katana has appeared in Adam's hands.
Shock is plastered on Junior's face as he takes a step back.
Both of Junior's hands are lying severed on the floor.
The room is silent as the two goons behind Junior fumble for their weapons.
We see Adam swing twice more, brief flashes of light illuminating the space as he does so.
The two goons freeze in place.
Junior falls to his knees crying out.
Adam walks calmly to the side, flicking the blood from his katana's blade
ADAM
"My name is Adam Taurus, leader of the White fang. I am no-man's secretary."
He sheaths the blade.
We see the two goons collapse, the wounds from Adam's strikes appearing in a burst of red.
JUNIOR
"Roman what the fuck! What's this psycho's deal!?"
Roman steps forward, grabbing his cane by the crook.
TORCHWICK
"That is on a need to know basis, old friend."
Torchwick points the tip of his cane at Junior's head.
Junior gasps.
TORCHWICK
"And where you're going, you don't need to know."
A gunshot cracks out from the tip of Roman's cane, and we see Junior slump over in a lifeless pile.
Roman nonchalantly spins on his heel to face Adam.
TORCHWICK
"So, about that loan."
ADAM
"If the alternative is hiring disloyal thugs like these, I'll allow it."
Adam begins walking away.
TORCHWICK
"Would you mind sending some now? I'm going to need some help cleaning up this little massacre."
ADAM
"Your five minutes of my time are up, I'll send them when I can. For now, get your protegees to do it."
Adam leaves.
Torchwick crumples slightly and sighs, reaching into his breast pocket for his scroll. He dials a number a brings it to his ear.
TORCHWICK
"Mercury my boy! Tell me, you wouldn't happen to have any bleach in that apartment would you?"
Ext. Emerald Forest – Afternoon.
We see Nero and Xander leading their students out of the emerald forest, the whole group chatting idly on their walk back to the campus.
XANDER
"And so I suplexed her into the trash can."
Nero wipes a tear from his eye, laughing hysterically.
NERO
(out of breath)
"I still can't believe you did that to the poor girl."
XANDER
"How was I supposed to know girl liked me? She just kept following me around being all quiet and weird. Leaving notes in my locker and shit. Made me uncomfortable."
JAUNE
(perplexed)
"So you suplexed her into a trashcan!?"
XANDER
"That's what trashcan is for!"
Nero wheezes.
XANDER
"Why you always laugh so hard when I tell this story?"
NERO
"Because I'm the one who told her you liked her."
XANDER
"You what!?"
Nero wheezes again, harder this time, and breaks into a fit of laughter.
We see the students collectively roll their eyes.
XANDER
"Why do you do this!?"
Nero does his best to put himself back together before answering.
NERO
"I figured if I set you up with someone you might relax a bit; And also I though you might start bugging me less, but mostly I wanted to help you chill out."
XANDER
"You bitch!"
RUBY
"Professors?"
Nero takes the opportunity to sidestep Xander and looks to Ruby, who has eagerly raised her hand.
NERO
"Yes?"
RUBY
"How long ago did this happen?"
Xander looks to Nero, who mulls it over for a moment.
NERO
"Well, the last time either of us were here was about two years ago, and we were freshmen at the time of the story, so five or six years now."
XANDER
"I don't remember dates."
NERO
"That is true, he doesn't."
The students all process this information at different speeds, some of them counting on their fingers. Pyrrha and Weiss are the first to catch on.
PYRRHA AND WEISS
(in unison)
"You guys are only twenty four!?"
Nero and Xander blink at them.
NERO
"Yes, and?"
WEISS
"Isn't that a little young to hold a professor position at somewhere as prestigious as Beacon?"
PYRRHA
"What makes you qualified to teach us if you only just graduated two years ago?"
REN
"Can Professor Blackburn even read?"
Nero and Xander both perk up, their gazes focusing on a point beyond where the students stand. They look at each other, and Nero nods the affirmative to Xander.
Xander grins and cracks his knuckles, walking forward toward the group of students.
XANDER
"First of all, pipsqueaks, you hurt my feelings."
He walks past the girls in question, making his way a few meters past the back of the group, then turning to face them again before continuing.
XANDER
"Second of all, you want to see my qualifications? Well…"
A roar echoes out through the forest, followed by the underbrush behind Xander exploding with motion. A large dark form appears, towering over Xander from behind, an Ursai grimm.
All the students are frozen in place.
Jaune screams an impressive soprano note out of sheer fear.
The creature roars once more, swinging it's great bear-like claws down at the seemingly off-guard Xander.
The massive man's grin broadens as he spins to face the creature unnaturally quickly. He takes a stance, and throws a fist straight into the grimm's abdomen.
A cacophonous boom erupts from the point of impact, accompanied by a blast of wind that forces all the bystanders but Nero to brace themselves.
The wind dies down, and the grimm lets out a small groan before its upper half explodes into a shower of black ooze. Its bottom half falls backward, and the remains begin to steam and dissolve before the group's very eyes.
Xander, covered in the steaming giblets of the beast, turns back and locks eyes with the students.
XANDER
"Any questions?"
The students all collectively shake their heads, stunned at the display. Nero crosses his arms.
NERO
"What you kids have just witnessed is the combination of four years training at Beacon and two years experience in the field; Professor Blackburn here didn't even have to use his semblance to take down that Ursai, but it would have easily chewed the eight of you to pieces if he wasn't here today. Now tell me, how many of you even saw that creature coming?"
The students respond with uncomfortable silence.
NERO
"I rest my case."
Nero looks down to his suit, which is splattered with dissolving grimm gore, and sighs.
NERO
"That being said, did you have to let it get so close before you gibbed it?"
Yang turns to look at Nero.
YANG
"It's just a suit, professor."
NERO
(brushing himself off)
"This suit cost more than your tuition, Uppercut."
Xander steps back to the front of the group.
XANDER
"Let's go get some food already, we stopped for too long."
Everyone falls in line.
Int. Safehouse – Afternoon.
We see Mercury, Neo, and Emerald enter the front door of their apartment exhausted and carrying cleaning equipment. Shortly behind them is Torchwick spinning his cane and whistling, closing the door behind them.
TORCHWICK
"Alright team, who's ready for a new assignment!?"
The trio of underlings simultaneously collapse on various pieces of furniture, groaning in unison.
TORCHWICK
"Excellent!"
He walks to the center of the room, facing his exhausted protegees.
EMERALD
"Please tell me we don't have to clean up any more crime scenes, my hands hurt from scrubbing."
TORCHWICK
"Of course not my girl. At least not yet. I need you three to pack up and move to the warehouse, we're blowing this town!"
Neo looks up from her face-down position on the couch, a pout on her face.
MERCURY
"I thought that we still had targets to meet."
TORCHWICK
"Oh we do, but we're going to meet them from our secondary location. Our little operation has drawn the attention of the Circle."
The three underlings immediately spring to their feet, but Torchwick raises a hand.
TORCHWICK
"We mustn't panic, that's what they want from us. I just need the three of you to cover the warehouse while the grunts move all of our product out, then we can finish what we started without fear of losing everything."
EMERALD
"So we're on guard duty in case the cops show up?"
TORCHWICK
"Even better, huntsmen."
Mercury sputters.
MERCURY
"How is that better?"
Torchwick laughs.
TORCHWICK
"Listen kid, I've been doing this for a long time, and that experience has taught me that this means a few things. First is their little counter-operations are taking place entirely off the books, because they wouldn't want the public to panic knowing that crime is so bad that they have to break out the big guns to control it. Second is that they're shaken up, since they're resorting to hiring huntsmen off the books to track us down. And third, we have an opportunity to take down some huntsman; And if we wack a couple huntsmen during this operation, people are gonna be forced to start taking us seriously."
Torchwick moves back toward the door, twirling his cane once more.
TORCHWICK
"I'll be expecting you kids at the warehouse by Monday, so start packing."
He leaves.
Int. Beacon Dormitories – Sunset
WEISS
"Plaid!?"
We see Weiss, Blake, Ruby, and Yang in their new dorm room; It's a small, open floor apartment with four beds. Weiss holds up the subject of her outburst, a school uniform that was previously lying folded on her bed.
RUBY
"What's wrong with plaid?"
BLAKE
"Didn't you see the uniforms in the application packet?"
WEISS
"I thought that was propaganda!"
YANG
"You thought what?"
WEISS
"I thought that the uniforms shown in the packet were faked; You know, to make Vale look poor."
A confused silence falls over the room for a few seconds.
RUBY
"Weiss, why would you think that the packet was propaganda?"
WEISS
"Have you been to Atlas?"
RUBY
"Well…"
WEISS
"That was a rhetorical question."
BLAKE
"A fair point, but can we talk about something else? Something less…disturbing."
RUBY
"Right! We should be celebrating; We passed our initiation!"
YANG
"Yeah! Fuck what Ozpin said before, this is an accomplishment in my book!"
The girls begin to cheer, Yang turns on a radio, pop-punk music fills the space.
We hear the commotion from the hallway, which slowly fades as we travel down the hall toward a window. We see a crow perched on a branch outside, the cheers and music pouring out from the window causing it to cock it's head to one side. The crow listens for a moment before flying off.
We return to the dormitory to see the door opening. Nora, Ren, Jaune, and, reluctantly, Pyrrah all enter. The eight teens dance and sing together, celebrating the occasion.
Int. Faculty and Staff Dorms – Moments Later.
We see Winter lounging on a couch in a shared upstairs den. She's reading a novel with a steaming cup of tea nearby. A crow caws in the distance, the sound of it's flapping wings rapidly approaching. The sound draws close before falling silent.
WINTER
"Must you turn every entrance into a dramatic moment, Qrow?"
We see Qrow standing next to the open window that Winter faces, leaning against the wall with his hands tucked in his pockets.
QROW
"If you didn't want a dramatic entrance, you wouldn't keep leaving a window open, Ice Queen."
Winter snaps her book shut, looking up to Qrow with a cool glare.
WINTER
"You never did answer my question, Qrow. Why are you here?"
QROW
"None of you business."
He starts to walk past her to leave, but she swings a leg in front of him, barring his path.
WINTER
"If we're going to be working on this task force together, with all the danger that entails, then it very much is my business. So answer the question."
Qrow takes in a deep breath, then lets it out in a sigh.
QROW
"Ozpin offered to waive the girls' tuition if I took the job."
Winter raises an eyebrow.
WINTER
"That's all, paying your wards' tuition?"
QROW
"They're my nieces."
WINTER
"One of them is, sure."
QROW
"Careful, Winter. If you want this operation to go smoothly, then you should recognize the thin ice you're treading on."
There's a tense silence as the two keep eye contact for several seconds.
WINTER
"So you expect me to believe that you, Qrow Branwen, who swore to never take up the mantle of huntsman again, came out of early retirement just to pay for the tuition of two young huntresses; The very same girls you swore to steer away from the family business for their own well being?"
QROW
"Yes."
WINTER
"Just like that?"
QROW
"Just like that."
WINTER
"Why?"
Qrow keeps his stone cold stare fixed on Winter.
QROW
"Try raising a kid sometime, you might get it then."
Winter shifts her leg out of his path with a sigh.
WINTER
"Fine, don't tell me."
Qrow begins to leave.
WINTER
"They aren't your responsibility you know; Just because they were your team."
Qrow stops.
QROW
"They wouldn't be if you were there. If your Atlesian drop-ships were as fast as you'd have us think they are then maybe then those girls would still have a family."
He resumes his exit, Winter's face turning ash gray from the shock. A moment later we hear a door slam in the distance.
Int. Qrow's Room – Same
We see Qrow sitting on a bed, running his hands through his hair, deep in thought. He retrieves a photo from his breast pocket.
The photo is of his younger self in the Beacon academy uniform, as well as three other Beacon students. Under each person in the photo, their autograph is written.
Qrow, Taiyang, Raven, Summer.
Qrow looks up from the photo to the desk across the room, on which sits a lone bottle of bourbon.
He sighs, puts away the photo, steps across the room, and uncorks the bottle.
End of Episode 5