Chapter 14 – down in the docKs

Author's Notes

I'm going to be posting violently from here on out, and then not posting at all. Let me explain: I won't be able to update for a while starting next week, so I'm going to post the four chapters that would be missed starting Thursday. It's basically going to be a chapter nearly every day, frontloading my updates so that everything stays on track for my timeline. Warning you now: there will be a complete two week posting/commenting drought on my end, so ration out your chapters accordingly. The same is true for my other fanfic, The Empty Seat.

Happy rats, and don't do crime!

"…and that's how the difference between a rational and an irrational number," explained Blake.

"Oh! That makes so much sense!" exclaimed Ruby. "So it really has nothing to do with the number being sensible and having well-thought out ideas?"

"Not at all."

"I would be deader than a dead toast on this assignment if you weren't here, Blake. Thank you so much. My biscuits have never been more buttered than right now."

As he watched them go over Ruby's homework together, Adam let out a sigh. He and Blake had reached a tentative agreement regarding how to proceed with the Ladybug ship. He'd vehemently apologized for his misdeeds, only to find her equally repentant for not taking the situation seriously enough. Together, they and Ilia had agreed to have Blake continue to befriend Ruby and behave as a close partner, but romance was off the table unless Ruby sought it out.

Blake's scroll dinged, causing all four of their heads to turn at the noise.

"One sec, Ruby."

"No prob."

Blake had been leaning over Ruby's shoulder as they completed the worksheet, so she had to walk back to her desk to check whatever notification had arrived.

"You good?" called Ruby.

There was no response.

"Blake?" asked Adam. "Are you o…K?"

"I'm o…K." She tore her eyes from the screen and shook her head. "Nah, I just wasn't expecting them to be giving out free cookies at the Beacon cafeter–"

A flurry of rose petals exploded out the front door. One of them passed through Adam's lips and nearly caused him to choke. In hindsight, lounging near the sole exit to their room with full knowledge of Ruby's semblance had been a tactical blunder.

"What is it, actually?" asked Ilia asked as Adam performed the Heimlich maneuver on himself desperately. He finally managed to dislodge the invasive flower bit just as Blake answered.

"Marrow's tracker's back on."

Okay, you couldn't blame Adam for gasping in shock and re-inhaling the petal. Ilia had gasped too! It was just a normal response when someone was shocked. If anything, it was Blake's fault for dropping that…that bomb when he was in such a vulnerable state.

"It's–"

Adam held up a finger to silence them as he hacked. Both girls looked at him and patiently waited until he finished expelling the bit of rose. Once he'd thrown it away, he gestured for Blake to continue.

"It's coming from somewhere near the waterfront on the west Valean wharf. This needs to be investigated. It could be our first real lead on who killed Marrow."

"It's obviously a trap," pointed out Ilia. "We're marching to our deaths."

"But we know it's a trap," Blake countered. "We're not going to play right into their hands, whoever they are."

"But they know we know it's a trap," counter-countered Ilia. "The culprit clearly feels confident enough in whatever they've got planned for us that they're openly challenging us. It's their game we're playing, on their turf, on their terms, at the time of their choosing. They have all the advantages, no matter how safe we play it."

"You don't think we should go?" asked Adam with a raised brow.

"Oh, quite the opposite. We need to go. I was just saying."

"At least we know one thing," said Blake.

"And what would that be?"

"Ruby isn't the one we're after."

Adam shook his head. He wanted to censure Blake for falling for the small girl's adorable wiles, but memory of how his disappointment had steered him into poor choices last time tempered his response. "It could've been remotely activated via a timer. We can't be sure."

"We can. It's 4pm on a Sunday, and she has two binders' worth of unfinished homework assignments due tomorrow that she put off until the last minute. She and I are going to be stuck in the dorms for the rest of the weekend, and we'll probably be pulling an all-nighter. There's no way she's going to have time to visit Vale today. And how can she assassinate you two in Vale if she's here with me?"

"Oh, sure," moaned Ilia, throwing her hands into the air as she went to her bed to grab her whip. "You get to have fun solving for the derivative of an integer with Ruby while Adam and I go risk our necks on a plan that the killer is absolutely sure will work."

"Don't be stupid," said Blake. "The derivative of an integer is zero. Why would you ever need to solve for that?"

Adam still wasn't convinced. "What if she hooked up an IED to the tracker?"

"You have aura. Literally everyone at Beacon does. Like Ilia said, the culprit knows we know it's a trap, so they must also know that you're going to be keeping your aura up at all times. A bomb would never work against us. Remember, this tracker is also the only cluethat they have towards finding us. They're not going to waste it by blowing it up on a plan that's barely got any chance of success."

Ilia nodded. "Blake is right – if we play our cards right and split up, we can definitively eliminate Ruby as a suspect. That way, no matter how successful we are in our investigation of the tracker at the docks, we narrow down the list to three."

"It all depends on Ruby," said Blake. "If she's willing to stay and do homework, she's in the all-clear."

"We still can't just ignore her, though," said Adam. "She could be our ticket to getting closer Ozpin, given her connections to the old man. Even if she's off the list of suspects, we still need to keep playing her."

"I know, I know. I wasn't suggesting we tell her about K or something, just that we ease up on her a bit. We're going to be royally screwing her when we pull out of this school, so the least we can do is treat her a bit nicer."

"Fine," Adam conceded, clipping Wilt and Blush to his belt. "But only if she's clear."

Evidently, Ruby really was clear. She didn't even fight to go with Adam and Ilia when they announced they were going into Vale to grab a bite to eat. Apparently, Blake hadn't been exaggerating the breadth of homework that Ruby had saved to the last minute if even a fun night out in Vale wasn't enough to tempt her to leave it behind.

Ilia wondered if this was all part of a master plot to get Blake alone so Ruby could murder her, but the mental gymnastics it would take for that to make sense were just too intense. If it were, then that meant Ruby knew who they were and had elected to not slip them some poison or stab them when they fell asleep. It also meant that Ruby had been counting on K splitting up and using this as a test of her authenticity rather than just inviting her along.

No, Ruby was legit, or at least legit as any student could be. In a perfect world where K had time aplenty, they might keep surveilling her for treachery, but they had to also watch Goodwitch, Schnee, and Pyrrha Nikos, the last of which they hadn't even started on. And that was just for their secondary mission. General Ironwood had said that the aura transfer device was supposed to take precedence. If they could discount a suspect and target their limited resources elsewhere, they needed to.

Ilia was given Blake's scroll (with the tracking software), and she gave Blake her own just in the event they needed to call for backup. The ride to Vale was blissfully uneventful, as was the trolley ride down to the docks near where the signal was coming from. Adam and Ilia could have taken the buses all the way down, but they figured that it would be safer to approach the final location on foot. That way, they could stop some distance away to observe who was in the vicinity. If they saw any of their three remaining suspects, that would be proof enough to retreat for now, regroup with Blake, and kill the suspect at their leisure.

"Woah," said Ilia, as they passed a Dust shop with shattered windows and an abnormally large police presence. "What's that?"

"Not our problem. Let's keep moving."

Ilia nodded in agreement. Police and Faunus rarely mixed well, and getting pulled over now would just slow them down. They had no idea how long the signal was going to last, especially if–

"Hey, stop that Faunus!"

Both of them looked up to make sure that the Faunus the humans were calling for wasn't Adam. Fortunately, though, it seemed like the cries had come from a boat some distance away, still mid-moor. A blond monkey boy darted nimbly between sailors who were trying their best (and failing) to catch him. Ilia rolled her eyes and turned in the other direction. She didn't even need to say anything to Adam, who matched her stride without missing a beat. Sometimes it felt like this whole darn city was just full of distractions.

"Well, look what the cat dragged in," her companion said aloud.

None other than Weiss Schnee stood before them, leaning over the railing and staring at the incoming ships as they came into view. Her smile faded when she saw Adam, but it brightened noticeably when she realized that he wasn't alone.

"Ilia! It's so good to see you!" She sneered. "And I see you've brought your pet."

Ilia feigned disgust. "My miscreant of a team leader insisted we…" Ilia put on a goofy face and crossed her eyes. "…pardner up wif da buddy system. So, yeah. I'm stuck pet-sitting and I can't get rid of this animal."

"The feeling is mutual, human," Adam growled at her.

"Why don't you go play over by those trees, boy?" Ilia said dismissively, waving him to a sparse patch of grass and saplings in the concrete jungle. "I saw a no-leash sign somewhere around here."

Adam stepped towards Ilia menacingly but backed down when she placed a hand on Lightning Lash. Their well-rehearsed little dance seemed to convince Schnee, and she smirkingly waved as he retreated.

"Let's not allow him to ruin this meeting. What are you doing in town, Weiss?"

"Oh, I came to see the decorations for the festival and greet the newcomers to Vale."

"Huh. I didn't take you for the sort that would be happy to welcome people from other kingdoms like this."

Weiss regarded Ilia curiously. "I-I am an immigrant from Atlas, you know. I respect all the different cultures of the four kingdoms."

Ilia backtracked. "I didn't mean it like that. I was just saying that it's odd you came down here all alone to welcome the festivalgoers. Aren't the boys usually busy worshipping the ground you walk on?"

Weiss harrumphed and held her nose up high. "While my men are uncompromisingly truehearted and valiant, they tend to be…" Weiss looked like she was struggling to choose a charitable synonym for porcine. "…uncultured."

Ilia decided to hold her tongue.

The Schnee shook her head. "They came but got bored within moments and decided to partake in the local theater scene instead."

"They went to a play?"

"Theater, not theatre. There's a Spruce Willis movie screening in local cinemas, and…"

"Say no more."

That means that Russel is also here.

Ilia wasn't sure why she'd singled him out. Ever since the confrontation between their teams that had transpired just before initiation, she'd noticed that he didn't act like the others of Team Sword. He played along with the whole soldier boy routine that Schnee had foisted onto her team, but he never seemed to fully commit to blissfully ignorant Schnee-worship like the others had. Come to think of it, Ilia couldn't consciously remember him taking part when Weiss had tried to bully Ruby and Adam…or the rabbit Faunus.

What was up with him?

"Ilia? I think that the Faunus is trying to signal you."

"I think he's overdue for his deticking," Ilia said. "I'll catch up with you later, 'kay?"

"Of course. It was a pleasant surprise to bump into you."

Weiss turned back to gazing at the ships, and Ilia moved to rejoin Adam. The conversation with a mortal enemy of all Faunus made her feel…odd.

Ilia was most familiar with pure evil.

The Grimm were pure evil.

Jacques Schnee was pure evil.

Weiss Schnee was not pure evil.

She was wicked, vile, and cruel, but not pure evil. The camaraderie she showed her teammates was genuine, as was the warmth she'd shown Ilia (even though it would evaporate instantly if Weiss learned the truth). It was impossible to feel sympathy for the offspring of the man who'd allowed her parents to die, but Ilia couldn't help but wonder if, in a different life, perhaps with friends to temper Weiss' baser instincts rather than bootlickers to feed into them, those brief moments of tenderness might have amounted to a kinder person. Ilia knew from the way that Weiss called for the genocide of her people that she was beyond redemption as she was, but perhaps she hadn't always been. Whatever nice person lay underneath the abrasive shell had to be long dead.

That didn't mean Ilia couldn't mourn her passing.

Blake could give you a rundown on how to prove that all repeating rational numbers can also be expressed as a second repeating decimal with a repetend of 9, but she figured that you'd rather hear more from Adam or Ilia's point of view.

"What is it?" Ilia asked.

Adam pointed to what he'd seen while the chameleon Faunus had been distracted with the bitch. "Team Yellowjacket. They're here too."

"You mean Yellowjacket-P."

Adam pinched the bridge of his nose. "The headmaster punishes us with Rabies and them the whole silent letter thing, and he blesses Team Sword with a fearsome title? I despise this school. I truly do."

He was lying, though. Just being able to grumble about how much he hated this school was one of the reasons he couldn't bring himself to really hate it. As much as Beacon (and specifically Ruby) could annoy him, it was a pleasantly refreshing break from the White Fang. Adam loved his Faunus brothers and sisters, but those had been the ones to take up arms against James and try to overthrow a legitimate government for no other reason than their own personal, uncontrollable wrath. They deserved the fate that had befallen them.

I would've been just like them. If James hadn't found me, I would've been no different than those animals. Adam caught himself subconsciously fondling the trinkets in his back pocket. His mother's emblem was now bloodstained from the injury he'd sustained during initiation, but it was still an important part of him and his heritage. And the pocketknife…that was a symbol of his victory over hatred. The worrisome thoughts about the life that could have been drifted away as he rotated it in his palm.

"Adam? You planning to shank Yang or something? Because if so, I'm all for it."

Adam returned the knife to where he kept it and shook his head. "I would've thought you'd enjoy Yang's company. You both love your stupid jokes and whatnot."

"Nawww, I don't appreciate her muscling in on my territory. I'm the top prankster around these parts, and I ain't lettin' no bitch-ass blonde bimbo steal that from me."

Team Yellowjacket-P continued on their merry way without even noticing Adam and Ilia from across the street. The four of them were all holding ice cream cones, and Yang and Pyrrha carried full shopping bags with the Shopkeep Vuitton logo on the side.

"Looks like they had a fun day out, eh? Now, all that's left is for Glynda Goodwitch to show up out of nowhere and complete the suspect trifecta."

Ilia scratched at her chin. "There's just one thing I don't get. We were expecting to walk right into a trap, but so far, everyone's been just lounging about. If Weiss or Pyrrha or Russel–"

"Russel?"

"I added him to the list of suspects, provisionally. If one of them turned on the tracker, why are they just strolling about the town? Shouldn't they be armed to the teeth, waiting in the shadows near the tracker's signal? We're nowhere close to it right now."

"Unless it's Goodwitch, and she actually is lying in wait for us."

"Wouldn't that be – oooof!"

A bluish-white blur whizzed past them, and Ilia fell to the floor. The monkey boy from before, the one from the boat, weaved through passersby on the street without stopping.

"Sorry, toots, but I gotta scram until the heat dies down!" he shouted.

Ilia turned bright red – the blush of her her cheeks, not her Faunus trait. "Toots? Toots?! I'll show you toots!"

"Sounds like fun! It's a date!" he called before disappearing.

A random teenage girl who'd been nearby offered Ilia a hand before Adam could do so. "Oh, my. That was quite rude."

"I'll say."

"He didn't even apologize."

Ilia dusted herself off. "Some people…eh, it's not worth the time."

"But you know what is worth the time? Bananas."

Adam looked over the stranger. She appeared to be human, not Faunus. Was she trying to make some sort of jest regarding the fact that the boy who'd just shoved Ilia had a monkey tail?

"B-Bananas?"

"Bananas. They are rich in magnesium, iron, and, of course, potassium."

"C-Cool. Well, if that's all…"

"That is all. I suppose I shall be seeing you around…friend." The bizarre girl overdramatically blinked her eyes as though she thought she was winking, then turned around and walked off. Ilia stared in confusion.

"Who–?"

"Amitola. We've wasted enough time. The tracker?"

"Right." Ilia pulled out Blake's scroll. "Hey, wait a second…"

"What is it?"

"The signal from the tracker – it's gone!"

Omake

Weiss: My men are valiant, but they're also…uncultured.

Ilia: *decides to hold her tongue*

Weiss: Ilia, why are you holding my tongue? This is very uncomfortable.

Author's Notes

My high school civics teacher actually once said that math classes teach us useless things like how to solve for the derivative of an integer. Well, the joke's on him, because my classmate and I shared a silent laugh at this very joke.

Happy rats, and don't do crime!