A/N 1: Hello all!
Several of you have messaged me pertaining to the removal of this story from Archive of Our Own, and I fully intend on answering your questions in another Author's Note that will be at the bottom of this chapter so that those who only want to read the chapter itself can choose to ignore it and simply enjoy the story I have worked hard to create. In the case of those who are curious but will not want to read the veritable essay/letter that I will be adding to the tail end of this chapter, all you need to know is: this story has been removed from A03; I have every intention of continuing with this story; and while I have been flattered by the occasional PM of support, please try to keep your opinions on the situation (in particular pertaining to the inevitable outrage and flames regarding it) out of the reviews.
I apologize for the length and any perceived bluntness or contempt in this A/N, that was by no means my intention. I'm also sorry for how this chapter turned out. I wrote myself into a bit of a corner, and haven't had the time to make a better rewrite of what I have. Finally, I would like to once again extend my thanks to those of you who read, follow, and favourite my work and an extra thank you to those of you who comment telling me what you think.
Weiss woke up to the smell of freshly brewed coffee and the sloshing of waves against the hull of the boat. With a small groan, she stretched out on the small cot and opened her eyes, smiling, as she was greeted to the sight of her favourite brunette.
Re –Ruby was sitting at the nearby table, a coffee in one hand, a tablet in the other. She was dressed in nothing more than a sports bra and a pair of shorts, a lights sheen of sweat clung to her skin of her face, shoulders and the slices of abdominals Weiss was able to see passed the scrunched up leg upon which the other woman's chin was resting.
"Morning, Princess."
Weiss's cheeks flamed at being caught ogling the other woman and it was with great effort that she managed to force her gaze upward and meet those silver eyes that twinkled in amusement.
"Morning," Weiss grunted as she shuffled out of the bed, snagging Ruby's coffee on her way to the other chair across the table from her. "I'm guessing by the way you're dressed that we've docked."
"Oh, this?" The con woman asked, a sultry smirk on her face as she deliberately stretched out her arms and arched her back flirtatiously. "Yeah. Had to get some things for the meeting today. Figured I might as well get a run in on the way. You'd be surprised how hard it is to find a decent electronics store in rural Brazil."
"So, what's the plan for today?"
Re –Ruby hummed as she thought about the question before answering. "Well, Pyrrha went to escort Ren and Nora to the nearest airport, Blake and Yang went into town to find us a hideout, and my grandpa is talking to some old war buddies of his in the area."
"I thought Antonio was Spanish." Weiss remarked confusedly.
"Puerto Rican," Ruby corrected, "he has some old friends who were helping out in Columbia and Venezuela that are here for some off time."
"What are they doing there?" Weiss inquired, throwing on a blouse (that may or not have belonged to Ruby) and some shorts before following Ruby outside.
"Pretty much anything they can to help the people there." Ruby replied, holding a hand out to help Weiss on to the dock. "With Columbia finally declaring a ceasefire with the FARC, Venezuela declaring a state of emergency in more and more cities, and Brazil's unemployment rate steadily rising, they come here to offer work as anything from peacekeepers to building houses and delivering food."
"How have I not heard of all this before now?" Weiss wondered glumly as she looked around, taking in the near third-world conditions many of the people they passed seemed to be living in.
"Because you were distracted." Ruby said grimly. "Most people are."
"But you aren't, are you?"
Ruby didn't reply, electing to simply nod as she checked her phone. She pocketed the device, and Weiss watched as her eyes seemed to dart from person to person, situation to situation, seemingly against her will, before forcibly focusing on the space in front of her, as if the brunette had no choice but to notice and take in all the suffering around her. Constantly trying to come up with a solution for it before consciously reminding herself to focus on the problems at hand.
"What is it like for you?" Weiss asked softly as she noticed Ruby's eyes doing another sweep of her surroundings.
Ruby must have understood what she meant as she sighed and for the briefest moment, Weiss could see the weight that came with seeing everything. "It's loud." She confessed after a moment.
Weiss smiled sadly and reached down to hold Ruby's hand. They were silent as they walked, content to simply draw silent comfort from one another as the morning sun climbed steadily through the sky. Weiss was so preoccupied trying to understand what Ruby had meant that she almost didn't notice when the other woman stopped in front of a worn down motel.
"We're here."
They walked inside and were greeted by the rest of their group. Ruby went to work setting up her devices while Pyrrha informed them that Ren, Nora, and their money were safely away. Ruby nodded and pulled out a folder filled with various sheets of paper.
"So, sis," Yang started, "you gonna show us the rest of this grand reveal of yours?"
"I kinda did most of that yesterday already," Ruby replied. "Now, all that's really left is to share what I found at Gregorovitch's villa."
"You talkin' about those old letters you found in the statue Torchwick was selling?"
Ruby nodded. "But first," she turned to Antonio, "did your friends say anything?"
"They did," Antonio replied calmly. "They told me they were having trouble finding workers due to many people moving north to Roraima where, supposedly, there's been a sudden influx of work."
"What do you think it is?"
"No lo se. The rumors say that some big American company has come to develop the land –though for what no one seems to know –but my friends tell me it is just as likely to be cartels abusing the desperation of hungry people."
"Interesting." Ruby muttered.
"How so?" Pyrrha asked.
"You all know the letters Yang and I found were hidden inside a poor forgery of a golden statue, right?" They all nodded, eager to see where she was going with this. "Well, those letters were a series of correspondence between the Royal Geographical Society of London and a Canadian explorer named John Hemming."
She was interrupted by a gasp from Antonio, who look as if he had seen a ghost. "Surely you aren't saying…"
"Not saying what?" Yang demanded, perplexed.
"In nineteen eighty-seven and eighty-eight, Hemming went on an expedition to the island of Maraca in search of evidence of the ancient city of Manoa. Officially, he didn't find anything."
"And let me guess, these letters prove otherwise." Weiss surmised.
"Sort of," Ruby said. "It's true he didn't find an ancient city, but I think he did find something just as interesting." She handed one of the letters to Pyrrha to read. "This is one of his journal entries he sent back as a progress report."
Pyrrha took the proffered sheet and began reading. "August fifth, nineteen eighty-seven. While we may not have found the signs of Manoa we had hoped for, the men and I have stumbled upon something equally curious. Standing where we expected an ancient, Amazonian city to be, was a complex of structures clearly of British design. Thompson tells me that the oldest of the buildings he could see couldn't have been older than three hundred years. Intrigued as we were, we tried to approach the structures only to be met with gunfire. Fearing our safety, we ran and ended up stumbling upon something perhaps even more perplexing… Then it just stops."
"So what did he find?" Yang wondered.
"I can answer that," Ruby said as she pulled out another paper. This time it was a photograph. "Take a look at this." She handed it to Weiss who examined the picture closely.
The photo depicted a large cliff with a waterfall surrounded by lush greenery, but the focal point was what seemed to be lodged in the small stream flowing away from the cliff.
"Is that a submarine?" She asked, dumbfounded.
"That's not just any old submarine." Antonio said as he looked at the picture before handing it to Blake. "Look on the side, near the back."
"A swastika," the burglar murmured.
"What's a Nazi U-boat doing in the middle of an island in northern Brazil?" Pyrrha questioned.
"Hemming wondered the same thing. His next correspondence with London asked as much."
"And? What did they say?"
"They said that it was of no concern to him and they already knew about it. They told him he had gone outside his proposed search area and deemed his expedition a failure, ordering him not to tell anyone what he or his men saw. He tried to fight them on it, but members of his team suddenly started being accused of looting historical artifacts with the charges being dropped once he agreed to return and report his failure."
Yang threw her hands up exasperatingly as she tried to understand what her sister was saying. "So, let me get this straight. Torchwick was planning on selling a fake statue holding letters proving the existence of some hidden facility to the highest bidder? Why?"
"Unless it wasn't going to the highest bidder," Blake suggested. "Those were largely silent auctions, and considering the amount of shady deals I saw going on beforehand, it's not that big of a stretch to think it was just a cover for a regular sale."
"That could explain the blatant forgery," Pyrrha added. "Torchwick would need some sort of cover if he wanted to the letters to stay secret."
"What's so special about this place anyway?" Yang questioned.
"And what does any of this have to do with my father or the CCS?" Weiss asked.
They all turned to Ruby who had become uncharacteristically quiet as she stared into space. Weiss was about to ask if she was alright when she shot to her feet and turned to Antonio.
"Abuello, do you still have that book I gave you?"
The older man nodded and pointed to his bag which was promptly turned over, its contents spilling out on the floor. Ruby squatted down and started sifting through them, muttering to herself.
Weiss was on the verge of asking once more if the her friend was suffering some sort of episode, but was cut off when she shot back up, book in hand and an excited gleam in her eye.
"Rub-"
"Shut up. All of you. Quiet. Don't move, don't think. Just sit perfectly still."
"Don't worry," Antonio muttered, "she does this when she's figuring something out."
Weiss nodded and watched curiously as Ruby paced back and forth muttering and flipping furiously through the pages of the book.
"Come on. Think, think, think. What did he say?"
"What did who say?" Yang asked.
"Here," Ruby exclaimed as she whirled around to face her sister before shoving the book into her arms, "read this."
Yang raised an eyebrow and looked down at the indicated passage. "Unfortunately, as soon as Hemming's team returned, the Royal Geographical Society of London finally received a long-waited boost in funding that would have extended his search for-"
"That's it!" Ruby shouted. "Don't you see?"
"See what?" Pyrrha asked.
The completely dumbfounded look Ruby gave them served as somewhat sad reminder to them about the true source of her widely-acclaimed genius. Despite the wealth of knowledge at her disposal, and a preternatural skill for understanding and perfectly emulating how different people think and act, the truth was that Ruby simply saw the world in a way they could never hope to comprehend, and it was moments like this one that showed just how lonely it could be.
As quick as it came, the look was gone, and Weiss felt her heart break a little as she watched the loneliness of one who simply wished others could see things the way she did be hidden behind the arrogance of a genius.
"Ugh!" Ruby groaned exaggeratedly. "It must be so boring in all your heads."
"Watch it," Yang growled, though Weiss could tell the brawler was doing it more for her sister's sake than out of irritation.
Ruby rolled her eyes and turned away from her sister. "Blake, do you remember what Adam said Torchwick told him before attacking that lab in the Amazon?"
Blake nodded. "He said that it would help him build rapport with some company."
"Exactly! Ironwood also had dealings with a cartel of strange companies that had nothing to do with his engineering firm. All of which are buried under so much financial rigmarole it's pretty much impossible to tell who's in charge."
"You can't be suggesting they're the same people," Pyrrha countered. "The facility the White Fang destroyed belonged to Ironwood."
"And the experimental battery we were hired to steal just happened to be Ironwood's as well." Ruby replied.
"So, what are you saying, Ironwood's acting as some sort of patsy?"
"I'm saying Ironwood was an inside man."
"That's crazy." Yang exclaimed.
"Plus there's the disappearance of a freighter not long ago, the owner of which is yet another company that can be connected to both Ironwood and Schnee. I'm also willing to bet there'd be a paper trail linking that U-boat Hemming found to one of those companies too."
"Okay, but to what end?" Pyrrha questioned.
"This entire continent is a goldmine in natural resources, oil being one of them. That being said, it's also a political melting pot. Most of the economies here are in need of dire help, and the people will take it wherever they can find it. Odds are, whoever's in charge is using those buildings on Maraca Island as a sort of storage for years. Powerful people pay to store stuff there and in return, they get to be one of the new power houses when they swoop in to help save the poor, starving, war-torn civilians."
"This whole decades-long conspiracy is all well and good," Weiss said, "but shouldn't we keep focussed on the fact that several of these powerful people want us dead, including a man who will have access to the most powerful surveillance system in the world?"
"Weiss is right," Blake added. "Even if what you're saying is true, we won't be able to do anything if we're always being hunted."
Ruby visibly deflated and sank in her chair with a sigh. "You're right."
"So," Yang offered, "what's the plan?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Pyrrha said. "We need to make sure they can't find us before it's too late."
"Good thing you put that back door thingy in the programming of that battery, eh sis? You can just hack in and take us off the watch list."
Ruby sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "It won't be that easy. I'm still going to need direct access to a control hub to do anything. And I'll give you three guesses where Schnee plans on keeping it."
The grim silence that fell over them chilled Weiss to the bone. She looked around the small, rundown motel room, and realized what everyone else must be thinking.
There was a very real chance of this being their last job together.
A/N 2: Hello again,
As I stated previously, many of you are probably aware of the fact that Scattered Petals (SP) has been removed from the Archive of Our Own (AO3). The reason for this is that I have been accused of plagiarizing another author's work. I was given until the 7th of August to make the necessary changes or my story would be taken down. Considering SP has not returned to being available on AO3, I think it is quite clear that I chose not to do this.
I have been accused of plagiarism before, particularly concerning SP and another story of mine: We're Yours (WY). In the case of WY, I was knowingly copying from other writers (with their permission) and changing little bits so as to provide myself with a fun little medium with which I could practice writing scenarios and scenes, particularly smut and fluff, and see what people thought. As a result, I really didn't care what I was being accused of. In contrast, I was purposely obtuse and refused to give any credence to the comments made pertaining to SP. It was my first foray into creative writing on a public forum and I did not want to let what I thought at the time were just the spewing of harsh words, as is the wont of many when hidden by the anonymity of the internet. I deliberately ignored these criticisms and brush them off as malicious entities trying to undermine the still-fragile self-confidence I had built up in order to post my work.
Since my first post, I've written and worked on a few fics from a few different fandoms. Sometimes, it was because I was unhappy with how the shows own writers handled the story (Rebirth and Recognition), other times it was because I had come to love the show and wanted it to continue (Book 5: Choices). That being said, all of my other writings always ended up acting as practice for Scattered Petals.
I started writing because I was of the mind that if I couldn't find a book/movie/TV show with the specific story that I wanted to experience, I would just make it myself. That's how SP started. It was the result of me wanting a good crime story and taking it upon myself to write one. The concept began as a modernized version of the typical princess/heiress whisked away and caught up in the adventures of a puckish rogue, and while conceiving the character of said rogue, I flipped a coin and decided they would be more interesting as a female. Thus, the idea for Red was born. I then had the idea for a second pair of characters in a sapphic relationship who could act as a comparison of where the main characters were developmentally, and where they could be.
Next, I needed to figure out where to post it. It was then that I realized RWBY would be the perfect medium for my characters as the show itself already stars four strong female leads and was a site that I already knew that got a decent amount of traffic, ensuring that someone would read what I had to say.
I wrote and posted the first chapter while vacationing in Florida with my family. It felt so good to create something of my own that I immediately got to work on the next chapter. Over the next two years, this story turned writing from something I had little experience in to not only one of my passions, but my own form of therapy as well. I have poured my thoughts and views and feelings into this story and, quite frankly, it helped me deal with many of the problems I was experiencing at the time.
Almost two weeks ago, I received an email saying my story was plagiarizing Aelsa's Stolen Ice and would be hidden from public view pending my correction of the infraction. At first, I was outraged, but once I had calmed down, I went and reread both of our stories and the first chapter or two in both were so similar that I couldn't help but agree with the claims against me without contest. And while I could have brought up any number of arguments from stating that there are, in fact, no new ideas, and that imitation is the highest form of flattery, to having not broken any laws as I have not made attempts to profit from my work and that only a portion of their work was plagiarized, that is not what I want to do. In my own arrogance and stubbornness, I made a grievous mistake. Instead, I immediately PM'd Aelsa, apologizing for appropriating their work without permission, and I am here now to apologize to those whom I ignored when they first tried to inform me of my misstep.
That being said, I have no imminent plans to change my story. This story is the first of a series that I have tentative hopes of maybe getting published one day, meaning that I will be going back once I have finished and editing, changing, or removing any blatant theft of Rooster Teeth's intellectual property and I have decided that would be the appropriate time to make changes to the opening chapters. Until then, my first priority is finishing at least the first in this series of adventures that I have devoted so much of my life to. I will say that it is a significant blow to one's pride when it is discovered that what was thought to be a great original idea turned out to be, in fact, nothing more than the memory of someone else's hard work. However, in the two years since that night in Naples, I have put my soul into this work, and while it may not have started as my own work, I know beyond a doubt that it has become just that.
Once again, I'd like to extend my apologies for my actions -or lack thereof -and I do recommend you all read Stolen Ice as it's a very interesting, well-written read. As I have chosen not to change anything, I am sorry that this story will no longer be available on AO3. Instead, I will continue to post here, and when I find the time, I will post each chapter in its entirety to my tumblr ( .com) (I apologize for the state of my blog, I mostly use it for following not posting. I'll make sure to make it more user-friendly when I get around to posting the chapters)
Hopefully, this doesn't anger too many of you, and you keep reading what I write. That being said, while I appreciate the occasional PM of support I have received, I ask that you try to keep your opinions on the situation out of the reviews. I use the reviews to get the feel for how my audience reacts to what I write and as such use it to figure out how to best convey the thoughts and feelings I am trying to express. Also, though I know it probably sounds superficial or vain, going back when I feel that I'm in a slump and rereading your thoughts reminds me that there are people who appreciate and enjoy what I'm writing and are waiting for me to post the next chapter, providing both the validation and motivation to not give up on something that I greatly enjoy.
Thank you all for taking taking the time to read this and, with luck, understand what I'm trying to say as well as recognizing that it is said without malice, sarcasm, or prejudice.
If it makes you feel any better, I should have another chapter coming out following this one relatively soon.
Thanks again,
Jester