Sorry for last week and the chapter dragged out over two days. I was really, really badly sick. It was honestly awful. I'm still slightly sick now, but it's much better. Last week I was getting fevers, drowsy spells (that might have been the medicine), headaches, sore muscles and wracking coughs. Now I'm just itchy throat and chesty cough which is quite a bit better.
Cover Art: GWBrex
Chapter 43
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Atlas councilmembers agree to "shun" Vale by refusing to attend Vytal Festival – Only Gen. Ironwood to be in attendance.
Atlas Times
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Rumours fly of Arc spotted saving lives on "humanitarian visit" to farming village in Vale.
Vale Daily Tribune
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Mistral's Pyrrha Nikos favourite to win Vytal Festival also scores top spot on bookie's lists to become Mrs Arc, replacing current fiancée Weiss Schnee following unconfirmed rumours of "issues" in relationship.
The Mistral Review
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As festival approaches at last, Gillian Asturias tells all of Vacuo to support our representatives no matter what happens. "Show the world that while they are fractured and squabbling, Vacuo is united as one."
Vacuo Today
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Ghira Belladonna and Sienna Khan to go head-to-head over stewardship of Menagerie.
Kuo Kuana Express
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Despite things going wrong at the end it was almost a shame to return to Beacon and leave Team CFVY and the confines of the Bullhead behind. They were a good lot, laughing and joking on the way back to distract him from those last scenes and telling him he could come hang out with them if he ever wanted to. As long as Elm didn't rat them out for any late-night drinking or parties she inevitably ended up seeing in her bodyguard job. Jaune laughed and said he'd think about it. He wasn't sure he could take them up on it sadly, if only because it would be a fresh set of rumours and a fresh cause of drama in some way or another. It was a nice gesture though.
The moment he hit the area around Beacon, they entered the CCT catchment area and his scroll beeped a message sent a day before. From Weiss. Jaune swallowed and opened it up.
"Can we talk when you get back? Call me and we'll meet."
Dread pooled in his stomach. It was weird since by all accounts this was a good thing, but he figured it was just nerves in general. You could feel anxious about something you liked without it meaning anything too bad. When Team CFVY disembarked to go report with Miss Goodwitch, Elm excused the two of them saying she'd forward her own report later. The teacher waiting for them nodded and let them go, knowing Elm's presence on the mission was a favour, and that they had no real control over what she did and didn't do. Once they were away, Elm spoke.
"You should call her quick. Get this ball rolling."
"I'm kinda tired from the journey…"
"Stalling will only make it worse. It feels bad for her too, so don't be that person."
Ugh. Elm was right, of course, but it was so tempting to find an excuse to put it off, even if he knew that'd become some mental block. He'd not do anything all day, too scared to be caught somewhere by Weiss and have her ask why he had time to do other things but not talk to her. Taking a deep breath, he made the call. It was short, quiet, and they agreed to meet at his room in ten minutes. Time enough to get a fresh change of clothes but not to gather his thoughts.
Elm took a position outside the door when Weiss arrived, closing it gently behind her and trapping the two of them in. Weiss looked… well, she looked the same as always. Pretty in her school uniform; he liked that on her. Physically, she'd always been beautiful and probably always would be. It was just that looks alone couldn't carry a relationship. On an emotional level she looked calm and collected, which meant she was fortifying herself and putting on that face to keep herself steady. He had no idea what she was really thinking.
"How did your mission go?" she asked.
"It was Team CFVY's mission," he said, then winced at how confrontational that sounded. Like he was correcting her. He smiled and pushed past it. "It was more of a short vacation for me, and it was good. Up until one of the villagers died and I had to bring them back. The locals who saw it did their best to keep it secret on my and Elm's requests, but there were some paranoid ones who spotted all the blood and dug too deep. It spilled out come the end."
"The blood or the secret?"
"The secret. Thankfully no blood – the place was too small to really gather a crowd large enough to intimidate Elm, so they never found the courage. It wasn't all bad. The first day was great. I was just another random guy, and less interesting to the locals than the ones on Team CFVY."
"That's good."
Silence dragged out. A clock ticked. Voices outside the window and down on the lawns reached up. Jaune couldn't handle it and blurted out, "How did the news take it? No absolute disasters while I was gone?"
Weiss smiled weakly. "Various newspapers were playing `Where's Jaune` with one another, and a few tried to push the idea that you'd died and the Council were covering it up. Most were fine, though. You wouldn't have been at the hospitals anyway and Valean support for you is still really high after you all stepped in against that terrorist attack in the hospital. I'm more worried about the anti-Atlas sentiment creeping in, but that's not really relevant to us. It just makes me wonder for the future of the alliance between the kingdoms."
Big politics, then. He'd never cared for it when he was a kid in a nowhere village like Ansel, but it was his life now – like it or not – and he had his opinions. He liked to think the opinion that it was wrong to blame a whole set of people for the actions of a few rotten eggs was wrong, but who knew nowadays. It was easy to upset people. "Do you think I should speak out in defence of Atlas?"
"I think you should stay out of it. Anything you say or do is going to be twisted one way or the other. If anyone asks, then share your opinion, but I wouldn't bother trying to fix anything. You'll just be accused of pushing your own ends."
"Yeah…"
The silence reared its ugly head again, and this time he was out of ideas on how to run away from it. And maybe that was the problem; maybe he shouldn't be trying to avoid it at all. He stared at Weiss, who stared back, and they stared and stared as seconds by and reached a full minute, and until they both heard the groan come from outside the door. Elm smacked a fist back on it and shouted through the wood: "Talk already! Damn, you two are useless!"
Jaune flinched. "How is your tea-"
"I want to get to know the real you." Weiss interrupted him and rode over him. It was deserved this time. His weak attempt to deflect and delay was pushed aside as irrelevant, and she forced herself to keep going. "If you say that I only fell for the fake ideal of you I had in my head, then I want a chance to see if that is or isn't the case. We need to if this is going to work."
It was more than he expected.
Hell, it was more than he'd hoped for.
"Y-Yeah. Okay, yeah. That sounds good. Great, even. Then you want to go out?"
"Not publicly," said Weiss. "At least not where we'll be seen. We'll be hounded and it'll be more of the same and… and that's what has lead to this in the first place, isn't it? I'd suggest we go on a holiday somewhere but it's term time and you can't exactly leave Beacon. I wanted to suggest we go on series of dates in disguise. I know it'll be awkward but-"
"Disguises are fine with me. More than fine."
Weiss smiled, taking comfort in the fact that he was so quick to go along with her idea. It must have been a relief to know he wasn't already committed to ending this and was instead eager to make it work. A little of the tension bled out of her. "That's good. I've asked my team to help me with the disguise. I may have to dye my hair." She gripped a bit. "Wash-in and wash-out dye. It won't be a problem, nor will it be the first time. I had to dye colours a few times as a singer, though usually it wasn't all my hair."
"I'm kinda looking forward to seeing it."
"Really? Well, I suppose it's not all bad. And it'll be nice for us to be able to go out without being hassled. I'm mostly worried about Elm refusing it."
"Why would I?" Elm asked through the closed door, all but confirming – if there had been any doubt whatsoever – that she was eavesdropping on the whole conversation. Weiss rolled her eyes before answering.
"Because disguises don't mean much if one of the most recognisable women in Vale is trailing us scaring off onlookers. So, you'd have to leave us alone in the city."
"Ahah." The door opened. "Not happening. Sorry, kiddos. It's not that I don't trust you or think you'll run off to make out in some cupboard. It's more that a psycho with a bomb nearly killed you and we know for a fact more will be out there."
Jaune sighed. He knew her angle and it wasn't like Elm was being unreasonable when a guy tried to murder him less than a week ago, but Weiss was right – Elm's presence would blow any disguise wide open. And how many seven feet women were there in Vale for her to disguise as? A wig and a slap of makeup wasn't going to fool anyone.
"I trust you have another idea, then," said Weiss, crossing her arms. "Or are you just here to tell us there's no hope."
"I'll have to talk with General Ironwood but I may – may – be able to get you two a different shadow for the odd day. I'll still be around, close enough to intervene if needs be, but I won't be within line of sight of the two of you. If I can get him to agree to this though, then you both need to realise the responsibility for what it is. We're trusting you not to run off and ditch your shadow, or to be reckless with your own safety."
Jaune was quick to agree, and Weiss too. Their first date was tentatively set up for two days away, and Elm left to approach Ironwood with the idea. Weiss left after her, thanking him for the chance and saying how she was looking forward to getting to know the real him.
All in all, it went well.
I guess I was making a mountain out of a molehill…
/-/
Cinder was not a woman who was often amused by "girly" things. Perhaps that was a facet of her life that had been taken from her when she was young, or perhaps it was just not "her" kind of thing. Either way, she'd never had dolls or played dress up as a child and didn't much see the need as an adult. She dressed well herself because she respected herself, and because it felt like she was digging a knife in that woman's skull to own so much expensive clothing. All of it was, of course, functional for combat if needs be, but she couldn't say she was a fashionista.
But there was a certain amount of entertainment to be had in peeling Jaune Arc's mess of hair back and styling it into something a little more controlled while Emerald explained the use of contact lenses that could change eye colours.
He'd come to Mercury asking for aid and Mercury had brought him to them on account of him being about as useful as a chisel made out of chocolate. Mercury was neither fashionable nor hard-working and would have just shrugged the request off if not for her stepping in and offering the aid of the more capable parts of her team. Emerald had gone along with it, confused at first but soon getting into it and seeming to enjoy the whole thing even more than she did.
It helped that Jaune had given them a practically unlimited budget to order him clothes. Tens of millions, more than they'd ever need. Cinder might normally have tried to skim a little off for her own needs, but that would be counter-productive, and why risk alienating him when he was not only walking into her hands, but almost dragging her along with him? By all accounts, Jaune Arc was keener on escaping the cities than ever before, and all she needed to do was show him she would be there to help if needs be.
And this was good practice for when the time came. He'd have to be disguised then as well to make their escape easier, so him knowing how good they were at making him blend into the masses would stick in his mind. He'd come to realise that he could trust them not only to get him out, but to hide him and take him away.
Why kidnap when they could recruit?
"We'll alternate colours for different dates," said Cinder. There were a few packets nearby. "You need to make sure you're not seen with them in public as yourself or then people will catch on. We'll go with brown for the first. It's the closest to blonde and it should stick well."
"Thanks again for this," he said. "I really appreciate it."
"Don't you worry," she cooed. "We're friends – and this is fun for us as well."
"Still, are you sure you won't take any payment? I'm swimming in money."
"No." Cinder glared Mercury's way when he went to accept. "We don't need money. You're Mercury's friend, and therefore ours. Honestly, with how little Mint is on the team you might as well be our honorary fourth member. We'd be happy to have you."
An idea planted in his mind.
"-and believe me, when Emerald and I are done with you, no one will be able to recognise you. I promise you could walk right out the gates of Vale and no one would stop you."
A seed.
Jaune's face looked much too interested in his reflection in the mirror she'd set up. "You think?"
"See for yourself. Let's get your hair wet so I can lather this in. Emerald, can you get the black jeans – no, not the rocker ones. The one with the belts. Yes, that one. I'm thinking more black than white. White is an Atlesian colour. Darker tones aren't what one thinks of when they think of Jaune Arc or Weiss Schnee. Let's saturate you in brown, black and grey. You'll be unrecognisable."
They held his head over the sink in their bathroom while Cinder lathered and washed the dye into his hair as he kept a towel around his neck and shoulders. It took a few minutes but she was more practiced with it than she cared to admit; a holdover from times when she'd needed to disguise herself more thoroughly, back when she wasn't quite so capable as she was now. Her hair had always been distinctive, and quite the pain to dye with how black it was. Jaune's was much easier, taking to the darker colour with ease.
Once it was rinsed and she'd dabbed away the smudges on his forehead, he was well on the way to looking like another person, but colour was only the first step. His lank, wet hair still had that droopy style he wore, but a little work pinning it up with wax and then blow-drying it so it set into position soon put a stop to that. Jaune stared at himself in the mirror, awed at a man with his features but dark-brown spiky hair and swept-back sides. It wasn't a perfect cut since she couldn't cut without that being noticed in his normal colour, but he normally had a lot of hair coming forward and she'd made sure none did now. About as "opposite" as she could go.
Add some brown eyes courtesy of Emerald's contacts and a dusting of makeup over his cheeks to hide the odd blemish, and a bit of twisting around his eyebrows with fingers dipped in wax to make them look a slightly different shape, and soon enough the boy before them could have passed as a stranger.
"Wow. I… I can hardly recognise myself. No one would know who I was like this!"
"Exactly." Cinder placed her hands on his shoulders and leaned over him, smiling at him in the mirror. Not predatorially. Mercury's advice had been to appeal to him as a friend and nothing more. Mercury had almost been defensive about it.
"My man has enough problems with women without you or Em trying to push your way into his feelings. That'll alienate him faster than finding out many people you've murdered."
Normally she'd trust her own instincts over Mercury's but Jaune was no typical man, given his situation and sudden rise to fame and all the pressure that had come from it. If Mercury felt it best to be a friend, she could be a friend.
"Like this, you can be a normal person – but do be careful. Once you let the secret slip, it'll be hard to get away with it again. I would avoid making eye contact with anyone for too long. Develop a habit of covering your face if you can. Like this." Cinder balanced her elbow on his shoulder, and her face behind it, cupping her temple and leaning into her hand. "See? Use the arm and wrist to obstruct your features. Your nose and mouth will be your most recognisable aspects with your hair, eyes and eyebrows changed."
"He could get a lip or nose piercing," said Emerald.
Jaune quailed. "Ugh. I don't know about that."
"It could be a clip or stick-on piercing," she said. "Just a little adhesive and it sticks to your nose but looks like one at a glance."
"We'll consider that if he needs more next time," said Cinder, noting his discomfort. "But for now, I think he wants less drastic measures. He and Weiss want to be able to recognise one another after all." He nodded, relieved. "In the future we can do some tricks with makeup. Give you freckles or a little scar on your cheek. Thinks Jaune Arc does not have."
"Yeah. That sounds good." He smiled back at her. "Thanks for this, Cinder. Emerald. Seriously. You have no idea how much this means."
Oh, she had an idea. The poor boy was trapped and under the control of others – used and abused for what he offered with no account for what he wanted. Cinder knew full well how that felt, but she doubted he would ever take her approach to escaping such a life. Well, it wasn't quite so comparable. She had only needed to kill four people. He would need to kill thousands. Even a serial killer might grow bored of that.
"It is what friends are for – and you're our friend, Jaune." Cinder squeezed his shoulders. "You shouldn't hesitate to come to us if you need anything. And don't worry about paying us back. We are very unlikely to die anytime soon. We're just happy to have someone who feels closer to a teammate than Mint does." She winked. "Do let us know if you want to join our team officially. I'd be happy for us all to run off together."
Jaune laughed. He assumed she was joking, but even then she could tell how interested he was in the idea. Every time she mentioned it, his eyes misted over as he imagined it, and he would hum appreciatively, as if savouring the idea in his mind.
Not every seed planted sprouted, but this one was growing strong.
"We could sabotage his dates," said Emerald once he was gone. "Make it so he's got even less reason to stay."
"Dick move, Em," said Mercury.
"Don't tell me you're actually-"
"We do nothing," said Cinder, cutting them both off. "We do nothing but assist him and be there for him. The world's leaders are doing a fine job of pushing him into our hands as it is, and I don't see the point in us courting disaster by working against him."
"What if they fix their issues?"
"Silly Emerald. You can bail water out a boat and then patch the hole up, but that doesn't mean you've fixed the problem. The issues that caused the hole to appear in the first place will remain, and that hole will keep coming back larger and larger."
They wouldn't be able to bail out water forever.
/-/
They left Beacon separately and were practically smuggled into Vale via unmarked vehicles, with fake IDs provided by General Ironwood. He didn't even meet Weiss until he ended up outside a cinema, with two soldiers in plain clothes acting like a dating couple. This was all designed as a "double date" with Ironwood assuring him that the duo could be relied on for professionalism and discretion both. The guy even had brown hair similar to his new shade, making them look somewhat like brothers. Sure enough, no one reacted to them. He wasn't Jaune and Elm was nowhere to be seen. There was no reason for anyone to assume it was him.
But Weiss…
Oh hell. He didn't recognise her when she arrived. Not until she walked up to him and cleared her throat. "H-How do I look?"
If Cinder had gone with the theme of "opposed colours" to disguise him then Weiss' team had gone with "pure opposite." There was no subtlety whatsoever, and while it definitely did work, he couldn't help but gape.
Weiss' hair was pitch black and hanging low down her back; her eyes were red, contacts again, and her distinctive scar had been covered over with makeup. He could just see it as a faint pink line, but it wasn't obvious at a distance. Her makeup was heavier than normal around her eyes giving her a punk look, and her clothing finished that off. Instead of her usual skirt and dress, she wore a charcoal grey jacket over a black tee-shirt with short sleeves that probably came from Blake, with a loose-fitting black belt studded with silver hanging off her hip – Ruby's, no doubt. She had tight black pants instead of a skirt that really showed off her figure, and a big pair of combat boots. Definitely Ruby's.
"W-Well?" she asked, shuffling awkwardly. A few silver bangles on her wrist jingled merrily. "How do I look?"
"Uh. Good. Real good."
Weiss scowled. "I look stupid, don't I?"
"No. No." Honestly, she looked hot. Really sexy. Just not in a way he'd have normally attached to her. This was like the punk-goth twin of Weiss Schnee he'd never met, and who he half-expected to have a diary of poetry and song lyrics about how lame life was. "You look amazing. Just… ahah. I think your dad would have a heart attack if he saw you."
"Hmmm. You don't look so bad yourself. At least we fit."
Dark hair, dark clothing, dark styles. They did look like a pair of teens into heavier music and moshing – when they weren't bemoaning the unfairness of life and strumming out angsty music or painting weeping tracks of tears down their face in black eyeliner.
"So…" Weiss let the word trail off. "Are we watching a movie?"
The hint was blunt but needed. This was his chance to show Weiss the real him and let her get a chance to feel that, and hopefully – with any luck – to fall in love with who he really was. Or to realise that she loved him all the same. Hopefully. That was the plan anyway. Now that he was here, he couldn't help but worry about utterly bombing it.
But it's better we find that out sooner than later, isn't it…?
"Y-Yeah. I figured we could catch a movie, then have dinner and go bowling."
"Bowling?"
"I used to like it when I was younger. You ever been?"
"Not to a public bowling alley. Some of the manors I visited had their own-"
"Yeah, no." Jaune wrapped an arm around her. Weiss glanced at it but didn't stop him. "We're normal people tonight, Weiss. Pedestrian. Paupers. You're going to get the full experience of how a normal couple our age go out on a date."
Or close enough to that. He didn't want to take any chances on their identities staying hidden in a club with a load of drinks, and he was fairly sure that would cross Elm's line of being responsible. This was going to be the first of many such dates after all.
Assuming they went well.
Punk Bleiss Schnee.
Hey, I bet she'd look damn good as a punk emo chick. I'm sure there's a whole bunch of fics with that premise – the whole cast of RWBY being punk rockers and having to form a band together or whatever. Not my cup of tea personally, though I did love Bocchi the Rock. Then again, that's more for the story of someone fighting past anxiety, etc.
Also, probably showing my age a little with the dating outfits. To be fair, my day was the Killers, My Chemical Romance, Muse, etc. There were a whole lot of studded belts and tight black jeans on display. xD
Next Chapter: 11th May
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