General James Ironwood was furious. He walked down the street, his anger radiating off him, with a younger woman following closely behind him. What had started as a regular day had turned into one of the most frustrating of his entire career. Winter Schnee, the woman behind him, had told him that her recent investigation had uncovered an underground branch of the Atlesian military, that had long since ceased reporting in. This "Project for the future" was something that he had never been briefed on when he became a general, yet somehow it was a group that was supposed to be reporting to him.
Still, such a report was only a mild annoyance, he would simply have to contact them and force them to report. A little extra effort sure, but nothing that could ruin any given day. That was until Winter had continued. The young woman went on to report to him that at the beginning of the initiative, they had kidnapped twenty four 'volunteers' and forced them into a training regimen designed to turn them into assassins.
This was when James Ironwood started to get angry, kidnapping was an unforgivable offense, and yet a branch of the Atlesian government, a military group even, had committed said crime. The next bit of information is what put the general in his current mood. Winter Schnee had reported the ages of those kidnapped. Most of the kidnapped 'projects,' as they had been referred to in the records Winter had found, had been between nine and fifteen years old when they were kidnapped ten years ago. Yet two were younger. One was five, the other six. By the time Winter had finished giving him this information, General Ironwood's blood was boiling, and he could easily tell that hers was as well.
The two had decided that this situation could no longer be ignored, and so he had contacted the group, and after a short conversation with their department head, had informed them that he'd be visiting later that day for an inspection. It was the only reason a general would ever, personally, visit 'Project for the Future'. Yet he needed to be there, in person, to tell them that he was shutting them down. He knew that they wouldn't take it kindly, and he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, that there would be some arrests, and possibly even fatalities.
General Ironwood and Specialist Schnee now stood in front of the door to the building that was the base of The Project. A large, dome-shaped, building that likely had the majority of its facilities hidden underground. He hadn't planned on hesitating in front of the building. However, walking into a building while obviously furious, was likely to make people more wary rather than accepting. After a few moments, to ensure he was in control of his emotions, he entered the building and walked towards the reception desk, with Winter Schnee close behind.
The two hadn't even gotten halfway across the room before someone called out from the side. "I'm assume you two are the people who are going to inspect the facility?" The feminine voice they heard was laced with annoyance, probably at the fact that the person had been assigned the task of escorting the two military officers.
General Ironwood turned to face the person who spoke, a young woman with silver-eyes and red-tipped brown hair. She came up to his chest and therefore was forced to look up at him. The General's eyes widened. The young woman strongly resembled Ruby Rose, the missing daughter of his friend Taiyang. The only difference being that she had wolf ears on her head.
He took a few moments to look over the young woman, he needed to make sure whether or not this was actually the daughter of his childhood friend Taiyang, even if the two hardly talked anymore. Her eyes were cold and unamused. Her face showed no traces of her true emotions other than boredom, which he suspected to be a farce, and she was wearing a black t-shirt and black pants with a pair of black and red running shoes. Though despite her being the polar opposite of what you'd expect when thinking of the once bubbly and excitable child, he could find nothing, save for the ears, that would label her as someone other than the young Ruby Rose. Especially considering that her colour scheme was the same, albeit she wore more black than red now.
"Yes, I am General Ironwood, and this is Winter Schnee," he said with authority laced in his voice.
"I am aware," the silver-eyed girl responded. She then turned to start walking down a hallway before waving to tell them to follow. "I am Four, and I will be your guide through the facility. Would you like a tour, or will you be speaking to the management first? You could continue staring if you want as well."
"I apologize for that, it's just that you strongly resemble the daughter, of my childhood friend, who went missing ten years ago. I'd like to speak with the management."
That caused the young woman to stop. "You knew me before I was taken?" She asked, her former facade of boredom broken, and replaced with a large amount of suspicion as she turned to face the general, who had frozen at the question.
"If you are Ruby Rose, daughter of Taiyang Xiao-Long, then yes," his words didn't sound as confident as he wanted them to, but the level of confusion he was feeling was something he was entirely unprepared for. "Though I only met you one time. However, I will inform you, that before even coming here, I was less than pleased with this organization, and there is little you can do to change that, even if you are her."
A small sarcastic laugh sounded from Ruby's throat. "As if I would, the management sucks, though the people in 'The Project' are relatively good people… well… as good as you can get when you're trained to be super soldiers or assassins. I am that Ruby Rose by the way. The ears are 'additions' to make me more effective."
"Super Soldiers?" Winter asked from behind the two. "I don't think that was mentioned in any of our files. Our files only mentioned assassins"
"Your files must be outdated by at least seven years then," the red-tipped brunette replied easily, as if ignoring the concern while she turned around to continue walking. "After three years of training, it became readily apparent that only seven of us had the capacity for the stealth and other skills required specifically for assassination. So they took the others and trained them to be super soldiers, something beyond even huntsmen, who could be sent out on what should be suicide missions and still come back alive."
A few moments of silence followed that announcement as both Winter and General Ironwood processed the information. Then the general remembered how Ruby introduced herself. "You introduced yourself as Four," he stated matter-of-factly. "Do you normally go by -"
"No," Ruby said, cutting off the generals question. "We were given numbers by the men in charge, and they only call us by our numbers. We call each other by our underground names, our real names, or nicknames depending on how close we are. The others would hate it if you called them by their names though, we … don't generally like how the management works, and until a few moments ago we all thought that they were working with your approval. As of now, I'm the only one who knows that they aren't. So I'd ask that you'd continue to call me Four. We're almost to the project lounge, the management offices are directly above that."
"They seem confident that you're not going to try and kill them despite how much you dislike them," Winter said with a trace of confusion. "You'd think they'd keep their offices much farther away."
"It's not worth the effort," came the response from their escort. "It's heavily guarded by machine gun turrets and stuff like that, killing them would be more pain than it's worth, especially with nowhere to go after that."
"So they place themselves here to irritate you every time you think about it," General Ironwood said with distaste as he looked towards the ceiling. "I'm liking them less-and less."
"Good thing I'm not here to make you like them, or that'd make me look bad," Ruby said as she opened a door and walked into a large open room with a variety of furniture and televisions. The room also had some workout machines, and even some pool tables off to one side. She then pointed to two large doors on the opposite side of the room. "That elevator will take the two of you to the management offices. I've been ordered to wait here while you have your meeting."
"Thank you for your help," General Ironwood responded professionally. "This meeting may last a while, and I can find my way out if necessary. If something comes up, or you get bored, you may leave."
Ruby simply nodded in acknowledgement and watched as the other two crossed the room, and entered the doors that led to the management offices. She then readied herself for what would likely be a long wait by heading over to one of the couches and sitting down. She didn't have anything to do for the day, so she was planning on waiting for the two of them to finish their meeting, and then either see them out, or give them a tour.
Something that Ruby hadn't anticipated however, was the meeting taking over four hours to complete. Let alone the fact that not only did the general and his little helper come out of the elevator, but also the management of The Project. In the time that they were in their meeting, the rest of the numbered members returned from their daily business. None of them had been given missions today, so all twenty-four of them were there when the group of men and women exited the elevator, and all of them stopped whatever they were doing to stare instead.
General Ironwood walked in front of the group, anger seemingly radiating off the man as the sound of his boots pounding into the ground resounded throughout the room. Ruby was confused, she had known that the general was upset, but while he was obviously angry at something, he wasn't anywhere near as furious as he was now. A quick glance around the room showed that her confusion was mirrored by her fellow project members.
After a few moments of no sound other than his boots hitting the ground, the general's voice rang out. "Due to their hideous treatment of people who can only be considered innocent, the management of 'The Project' are being placed under arrest, and 'The Project' is being officially disbanded. You are all free to leave and live your lives as you so please, just know that the Atlesian Military will be sending a representative here to help you obtain housing and/or a job if you so desire. Otherwise, you are free to leave."
Silence. Complete and utter silence reigned in the room after that statement. A silence that was only broken by the general continuing his march to the building's exit, with Winter and the management following behind him. A million thoughts raced through Ruby's head. This was not an expected development. Sure, she had expected him to do something, but she was mainly thinking he'd improve the quality of life for those who were project numbers. Disbanding The Project in its entirety was not something she thought plausible, let alone possible. This was not the time to dwell on that however, now was the time to make a decision. What decision though? How did she want to live her life? She doubted that they would be happy if she told them that she wanted to continue being an assassin, but she did. It was the only thing she knew. Why would she want to change?
For now, the only answer Ruby could think of was to follow them. The two people who had effectively freed not only her, but her friends and allies as well. She doubted that the representative would actually be able to help her, and even if the general didn't help, he was her best shot at something similar to her current life. So she followed him. The surprised glances from her fellow project members were expected. The concerned glance from Winter however, was not. So naturally she put on her best innocent smile. "Can I talk to you two?" She asked smoothly as if not bothered by anything that had just happened.
"You may," was the cool response that came from the white-haired woman. "Though you may want to wait until we're back at the general's office. Grab your weapons, we'll wait for you in front of the building."
"Okay, I'll just be a moment," the small assassin responded quickly. "You won't have to wait long." With that said, she disappeared in a flurry of rose petals.
A/N
Fun Fact. Moving sucks. Fun Fact number two, cats are adorable. Nyway, how's it going everyone? Some of you may be annoyed at me for how long this took, and you'd be justified in being so. I always hand write my stories before I type them up and send them to Imo for betaing/editing, (she's awesome, just saying) and while I don't normally look at the handwritten chapter as reference when typing it, I do like to have it nearby. I've had this, and the next chapter, handwritten for a little while, but due to moving had to pack my notebook :'( . Good news being that I'm done moving, neutral news being that I'm going to try and not handwrite my chapters before hand anymore, and see if it impacts the quality of the chapters in any way. So be on the watch out for that in chapter 4. Also, with any luck (I say that 'cause I'm in pain and tired from moving a lot of furniture) I should be able to put out chapter three in a mere couple of days. If I succeed, then think of it as an apology for my lateness with this chapter. Nyway, I hope you all have a great day, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter.