Chapter Two
46 Months until Crossover
Off the coast of Solitas
"To think that I went through so much trouble to find you, only to have you to deliver yourself to me."
"This isn't what's right for the Faunus!"
"You can't stop us."
"You're right. I can't stop you. Not by myself."
"Miss Belladonna, Miss Xiao-Long, thank you for joining us."
I could have done without the tone, but I made sure to school my reaction. Yang looked like she was about to pop, but Ozpin either didn't notice or, more likely, chose to ignore it.
He continued, "As you all know, we are about to enter the Kingdom of Atlas. James Ironwood is a trusted friend of mine, and he'll take us in, at least for the moment. However, we must still be wary - he is not the only man with influence in this city, and Jacques Schnee would most likely be exceedingly unhappy to learn we have arrived once he learns that we have his daughter."
Weiss, seated by the window to Ozpin's left, shifted uncomfortably but nodded in agreement. I shared her sentiment - the longer we could go without encountering her father, the better.
"Jacques will no doubt learn of our arrival soon after we land, and could very likely have men intercept us before we have left the airship dock." I saw the doubt in some of the other's eyes, Jaune in particular, but I knew better. "He carries nearly as much political power as Ironwood does, and would happily have every one of us imprisoned if it suited him. I think we can all agree that it would be best if this did not come to pass - regardless of how easily we believe we might escape."
He said that last part while looking directly at a quickly-deflating Nora. She perked back up with a 'harrumph' and spun in her seat, twisting sideways and sitting with her back to Ren's side.
I spoke up asking, "I take it you have a plan to avoid all of that?" For someone who hid as much information as he did, he seemed to love his grand reveals. I'd learned that facilitating that tendency was often an easy way to get him to give up more information.
He nodded. "Indeed I do, Miss Belladonna. Jacques' men won't catch us at the dock because we won't arrive there. Once we reach the mainland, we will exit the ship from the air and make our way to the city on foot."
That caused a well-deserved uproar. Yang and Jaune were both trying to shout over one another, Qrow was giving the boy an incredulous look, and even Ruby looked disturbed.
"On foot! Do you have any idea how cold it is out there?"
"Atlas is on top of a mountain in the middle of a blizzard, not even the Grimm can make it up there in one piece!"
"Oz, are you sure about this?"
"Quiet!" That last one was Weiss, and the whole room obeyed in an instant. "Quiet. Ozpin, with all due respect, we won't survive a trek through Solitas at this time of year. We're barely past the coldest part of the year, the temperature will be well below freezing more often than not, and there's an entire mountain range between us and the city. There aren't many Grimm, but that won't matter if the cold kills us first."
Ozpin nodded, "We will encounter an escort from Ironwood's forces after we land, they will ensure our safety once they arrive."
Weiss' eyes narrowed, but Yang beat her to the punch. "Why didn't you say that before?"
Ozpin responded, "Perhaps because I assumed the rest of you would trust me to have a plan. Believe it or not, this is not my first visit to Atlas in the winter. I am well aware of the weather patterns."
"Oz-" Qrow started, but he was cut off by Weiss speaking over him.
"How long after we land?"
That gave the old man pause, Weiss seemed to be onto something. I would admit to a little satisfaction at seeing him outwitted for once. "As soon as they find us. I will contact James as soon as we land to give him our position, and he will send out the escort."
Send out the escort? Jaune realized the implications of that phrasing at the same time I did. "The escort isn't even waiting for us. Of course, I don't know what I expecte-"
Ozpin cut him off. "Do you want Mr. Schnee to learn we're arriving? If the escort was sent out ahead of time, he would learn of it and, through it, us. Now, the sooner we leave, the sooner we can get to Atlas. Get your things together - we won't be coming back to retrieve anything we leave behind."
With that, Ozpin's Aura flashed green, as he surrendered control of the body to the other person in that head. Oscar stumbled a bit with the unexpected transition but recovered nicely, a testament to the effectiveness of his expedited Huntsman training. He looked around at the looks he was getting from the gathered group, ranging from Jaune's glare to Ruby's pitiful expression to Yang stomping off, and winced a little.
I felt bad for the kid. This situation wasn't his fault, and I knew better than most how hard it was for people to divorce their feelings towards a person from that person's appearance. I couldn't ignore the rest of the situation, though. In some unknown amount of time, Oscar would be absorbed into Ozpin's… gestalt, and then I didn't know what would happen. Ozpin hadn't exactly given away many details, as usual.
Oscar watched as people began filing out of the room, following Ruby in particular, then spun around and began walking back toward his cabin. I caught him whispering in angry tones to Ozpin's voice in his head, and against my better judgment decided to listen in.
"Why do you keep doing this?" There was a pause while he listened to a response that even my ears couldn't pick up. "You're making everyone hate you, and it's reflecting on me, too." Another pause. "Sure it's safer, but you can trust them! Do you really think Ruby would ever-" Listening to someone get cut off by something you couldn't hear was an odd experience. "If that's true, then I can't exactly help it."
Before he spoke again, the door to his room slammed shut, cutting off my chance to hear him. Everyone else had cleared out, and I followed suit. Like it or not, he knew things that we needed if we were to fight Salem, and that meant he was in charge.
As I began packing my things, I pondered whether he kept his secrets only so that he wouldn't have to fight Salem by himself.
Shorter chapter this time. Most of them are probably going to be closer to this length than chapter one, but it'll probably vary some. We've skipped a few months ahead, and that'll be a common thing here - we've got over four years to cover in 30 chapters, after all. There will be chains of interconnected chapters, but it's almost going to read more like an anthology than anything else.
Regarding NaNoWriMo... yeah that didn't happen lol. I wound up just shy of 14k, which isn't bad, but also a long way from the 30k that I was hoping for. I also didn't end up getting chapters posted like I said I would, and I apologize for that. Like I said on my profile and on Scatterer, I'm probably going to try for a bi-weekly release on both stories, with alternating posts of either one on each weekend. I've got enough of a backlog on this story to last through mid-January on that schedule, so it should stay true for a while.
Anyway, thank you for reading and any critique you decide to offer, and I'll see you next time!