Kavala, Altis
June 21st, 0958 Hours
While Ruby and her team and family were catching up in the undisclosed facility, the rest of the world outside turned as it should. People went to work, soldiers ran drills, and the leaders of the land went about completing their work to make sure the nation didn't set itself on fire. Mark was one such person in that bunch of leaders who was busy with a plethora of seemingly meaningless things that actually held an enormous amount of importance in greasing the gears of his islands. The work was repetitive and never-ending, just a stream of reports and bills or contracts he'd have to approve or decline; in all honesty, it was a tedious and boring task that anybody would hate. Although he would happily do the work, after all, it keeps the very thing he spent decades creating alive. However, a little help is appreciated.
Take Mark's assistant, one of the first Faunus refugees on the island from Mistral that was given full asylum and granted a position in the government workhorse, something few got. Her name was Miss Hue Sung, a spiffy young girl with a pair of canine ears on top of her head that match in color to her grey, almost silver, natural hair which reached down to her shoulders loosely. She sat at her desk outside the office labeled merely as ZEUS going over appointment schedules, some extra work Mark asked her to do, all while finishing the crossword she started the day before. She was intelligent, exceptionally so, and able to multi-task productively and efficiently, so much so that she believes it to be her semblance sometimes.
As she worked with a small smile on her face, Seth stood off to the side leaning against a file cabinet with a generic comic that was secretly imported from the mainland; it was one of his pastimes when Mark was busy with office work and had no need for a bodyguard. Especially since the office had almost a company worth of military security inside and an armored section out-front. Needless to say, Seth could harmlessly slack off some and drop the military pleasantries, for the time being, not caring if it didn't look professional to others.
Miss Sung kept working, beginning to hum a song she heard on the radio when the door opened, and a man in full dress stepped in. Seth put away the comic and stood straight out of respect for the man who stepped closer with a relaxed look on his face; the man stopping and saluting the guard in return out of mutual respect. Miss Sung didn't even have to ask the man his name, by the uniform alone she could tell he was with the Coalition Army Medical Research Division, so she stood and greeted him cheerfully. "General Stag, it is a pleasure to see you again." She said. The older looking General with salt and pepper hair nodded with a smile "And the same to you Miss Sung. I'm here for an appointment." he replied.
Miss Sung nodded "Yes, Chief Harrison has been expecting you, I'll see you in."
Mark sat in his office going over the nations finance report of the month when his assistant stepped in making him turn up from his dull paperwork. "General Stag is here for his appointment." Miss Sung said sweetly, opening the door enough for the well-dressed General to step in which the man did, giving a crisp salute to his superior. "Fantastic," Mark commented, "Thank you, Miss Sung, you can leave us now." The aforesaid Faunus woman nodded and left, shutting the door to return to her work.
Mark shook hands with the General before sitting himself again "Good to see you again Richard, how's the wife?" He asked, Stag chuckling in response "A thorn in my side as always; how about you and your new secretary?" the General returned with a knowing smile. Yes, Mark had been sleeping with the woman, what can a guy do? Especially when he's essentially an eternal God who presides over an advanced species by direct interaction; he's bound to get tied up in the occasional love affair. Mark sighed and shook his head with a smile "You see right through me Doc." Ah, it would be useful to mention that the good General has a Ph.D. as Masters, one of the reasons he was given lead role in the Medical Division "She's sweet, keeps thing's professional as you can see, I even have toothbrush status at her place."
Stag chuckled to himself, more than at Mark "You're one horndog, you know that? But enough about our personal lives, as much as I would like to jab that you probably do doggy style more often than not, we have business to attend to." Mark brushed off the comment and nodded, pulling out a manila file labeled 'Project: Rose Thorns' and setting it on the desk. "Are you sure it's safe to go through with your little plan? Project Rose Thorns is meant to keep people away from the subject not put her in direct contact with people. We don't know what will happen, Mark, I don't feel comfortable signing off on this." And the General's concerns were warranted given what they were dealing with.
Mark had put thought and plenty of free time into this plan of his, even going as far as to test it small scale with a willing volunteer who was met with promising results, something that Mark mentioned in the report he filed to Stag the day prior. "Yes, but as my report stated yesterday, this can work, it's only a matter of how we go about it. Something I'm hoping you'll take care of. We just need to be careful… Come on Richard… your own men signed off on the test and checked the results, it's completely sound."
"What about long-term? We can't release the subject for long and risk a breakout… Lord knows how catastrophic that would be…" Stag trailed off remembering a certain event on that faithful day roughly twenty years prior. Mark nodded and lowered his head. Both had lost something that day, and the scars were still there. "I never said she'd be leaving the island. While letting her leave the compound alone is already worrying, I'll be honest I'm not comfortable with this either, it's the right thing to do. It may actually help her with her condition…"
The two sat in silence a moment, knowing full well what that meant. Mark could be right, and it may actually help, or it won't, they would only really see if they try. That said, the tow soon started speaking again, going over what ifs, buffing out Mark's plan more, even rechecking previously discarded ideas. Stag wanted to be sure that things would go smoothly.
The last thing he wanted was the most dangerous thing on the island to have an accident.
Coalition Data Farm, Stratis
June 21st, 1021 Hours
Months after the Coms glitch that rocked the entire satellite island causing undo havoc things were starting to normalize and return to normal. Especially for the nerdy IT scientist who ran the island's primary Data Storage Farm, a massive underground facility that sat below Air Station Mike-26, which just so happened to be the source of the enormous glitch that sent the island into a communications blackout. Two such scientists were wandering the server racks checking terminals and drives for anything out of place. They weren't exceptional; they were a couple of guys in a sea of others like them who did the exact same thing they did across the three islands at similar facilities.
One held a clipboard and pen while the other typed away at an access point in the farm going through a cache of encrypted files checking for errors or things that were out of place. The one with the clipboard methodically and quickly checked off a list on as the other listed off files in the cache, silent and almost mechanical in his work while his companion promptly listed them off.
However, the other stopped his friend from a listing of the files when he came across something he wasn't expecting "Did you skip a file?" he asked his partner who shook his head "No, of course not, especially with files as sensitive as these." He said, turning back.
The other looked at his companion oddly and scooted in the check the list and compare it to the physical copy. And sure enough, a file was missing, one that made his eyes go wide.
"Oh no…" he said, voice almost a whisper "What?"
"We need to contact the colonel…"
The other man gave his peer a curious look, eyebrow raised. He didn't even get to ask why before his co-worker showed him the file list, highlighting one out of the bunch. When the other man read the list his face blanched, and eyes shrunk, looking at his friend worriedly, already knowing what was inside the file.
OPFOR weapon and vehicle schematics…
Classified Location, Altis
June 22st, 0932 Hours
It was visiting time again in Ruby's room, the gang all back in here – Weiss and Blake sitting off to the side, the latter reading a book as usual but still listening while Tai and Yang hovered around Ruby. Strangely Qrow was nowhere to be found. However, Cole was there alongside Boon this time, the two soldiers standing diligently by the door while Tom sat out in the hall doing his duty. The Xiao Longs were busy regaling Ruby with tails of their search for her after she fell, Yang blowing everything waaaaay out of proportion in the process. While the search by air was epic, the entirety of Vale did not drop what they were doing and hop on a Bullhead to go look for Ruby. Tai was in the middle of telling how they were getting ready to give up looking for her when there was a curt knock at the door before it opened to reveal a nicely dressed Mark in a very lax stance.
"Good Morning everyone," He said and was met with a garbled response from everyone responding all at once, something which made the man chuckle "Good to see that you are all in sync. My name is Mark Harrison; I preside over this facility and the entire island." Tai was first to move, standing from his chair and walking over to shake hands with Mark "It is a pleasure to meet the man who saved my daughter." but Mark respectfully shook his head. "Oh no, that honor is not mine, it is Sergeant Hughes here-" he gestured to the Grenadier on the inside right of the door "Who saved your daughter, him and his team."
Tai nodded "Either way… thank you." The blonde man cupped Mark's hand and shook it one last time "You're very welcome sir, but thanks are really not necessary. However, I am not just here to meet the family and team of the young woman that was saved on my lands. I'm actually overseeing something." Outside, Blake could hear the sound of thudding footfalls making her ear twitch in response "You see Miss Rose happens to be a very special case when it comes to tourists. It's one of the reasons we are in this facility… Tell me, how long has it been since your mothers passing." The question caught everyone off guard. It was no secret that Summer had passed and that her grave lied near the family home on Patch. "Pardon me mister-" Weiss spoke up only to be stopped by Mark "Please, my father was Mister Harrison, call me Mark." To which Weiss nodded politely "Ok… I just wanted to ask; what does that have to do with anything? I mean no offense, but it just seems like such an odd thing to ask."
"The answer will come soon." Blake noticed that the footsteps stopped just short of entering view of the room outside. She also noticed Yang and Weiss had taken notice of the noise and gazed at the door a moment before refocusing on Mark. "But first, Ruby? Can you answer the question?"
"Well… all I really know is she had gone on a solo mission somewhere in the Menagerie desert only for her to disappear without a trace. We… we stopped looking soon after…" Ruby spoke, a detectable amount of sadness in her voice that actually made Weiss want to hop up and hug her, an urge which she resisted but Blake did notice out of the corner of her eye.
"….Bring her in," Was the only thing that Mark said after a short pause. Deep down he knew there would be some sort of backlash from attempting something like this so he decided to go the Band-Aid route and tear it off in one go.
In stepped through the door a quad of guards clad in black tactical uniforms, their presence actually throwing Cole and his friends for a loop, more so with whomever they were escorting.
A strange woman.
She wore a heavy-duty, tear proof Hazardous Containment suit with oxygen set; it was bright orange covered in grey armor plates and tubing with her head was completely visible in the semi-dome helmet showing her face to everyone in the room. She had a similar hair color to Ruby, only not as vibrant because of her age. The room was silent for several tense seconds, almost palpable before someone decided to finally speak.
"Summer... is… is that… are you real?" Tai questioned "M-mom?" Ruby asked teary-eyed while Yang stood utterly slack-jawed. Meanwhile, Weiss and Blake watched the exchange, equally surprised.
Summer on the other hand… she looked confused and even a bit skittish, actually scooting back some.
"Mom?" Ruby asked, tears now flowing freely "I-it's me… R-Ruby…"
Mark took this time to cut in, not wanting this to degrade into something worse "She can't remember you." He said simply, although things escalated when Yang to a step forward, tears also flowing "Why not? What did you do to her?! Why is she dressed in that?!" She yelled accusingly, causing Summer to step back some in sudden fear. "Calm down!" Mark yelled Summer backed away more "NO! I want to know what is going on! Why is our mother here!?" Summer began breathing rapidly, something that Mark took notice of when his smartwatch beeped alarmingly and he checked it quickly seeing Summer's heart rate "Shit, she's having an episode, get her out of here!"
Ruby tried to intervene, ripping out her IV and launching up "No wait!" she jumped and tried running for her mom. Luckily her condition made it difficult for her semblance or Cole and Mark wouldn't have been able to stop her, Blake seeing reason and enlisting Weiss to hold back their team's blonde brawler "Yang calm down!" Weiss yelled "NO! I WILL NOT CALM DOWN!" Yang yelled, and Summer curled up visibly, closing her eyes as her heart rate spiked more, she was beginning to have a panic attack. "Major! Get her out of here now!"
The soldiers who escorted Summer in quickly ushered her out while a medical team in White Hazmat equipment began checking her over as they moved away, Yang yelling for Weiss and Blake to let go. Nurses rushed in the room to control Ruby, Cole standing back straight and going over to comfort the Red themed girl who looked like she needed it. It was actually a godsend that Tai was too dumbstruck to do much, Mark and the team were having trouble with two family members calling for their mother and all but screaming, Ruby crying loudly while Yang shed her own tears through her unbridled fury.
"EVERYONE CALM DOWN!" Mark yelled.
Weiss and Blake managed to get Yang to sit in one of the chairs, Tai being snapped from his stupor and looking around "Mister Xiao Long, please take a seat and allow me to explain somethings." Mark said. Tai, being an adult – even in his state, sat down as well with his full attention on Mark. "Thank you… I had a feeling that this was going to end in tears…" Mark took a breath and exhaled, composing himself.
"To start, we have to go back about twenty years ago… One night CENTCOM received a transmission from Coalition Tower C-7 on the East side of the island about a downed craft of foreign origin. The presiding general at the time dispatched emergency crews to the sight and recovered one deceased and one critically wounded female. The pilot and Summer…" Mark paused a moment, seeing if that got everyone's attention.
Yang seemed to have calmed down substantially, although she still looked cross. Tai was leaning on his arms forward, listening intently offering a hand to his youngest daughter for comfort while the nurse hooked Ruby back up correctly. Cole sat close by, also doing his best to calm ruby while Boon and Tom were back at their posts.
"Summer was brought in while the pilot was later labeled a John Doe and put on Ice for the time being. It wasn't until the next week that Summer awoke… and people at the hospital began calling in sick. We quickly learned that she had retrograde amnesia and that she somehow had a disease that was spreading rapidly. Everyone here would be essentially dead if we even breathed the same air as her. She was wearing that suit because whatever virus she is carrying has a one hundred percent mortality rate with no possible cure or treatment."
This was a surprise to everyone, no disease like that was known on Remnant, advanced technology as well as Aura helping with health. This set off major red flags for those present, namely Blake, Weiss, and Tai who all gave Mark a partial scrutinizing look. "Before you all start asking me questions about the disease, let me say that we don't understand it either. We simply call it the Yellow Death on the account that the liver fails first followed quickly by other major organs. What we do know is that it doesn't originate from Summer herself."
"What does that mean?" Tai suddenly asked, "How can she not be the carrier if you say she is the carrier?" He asked, further scrutinizing Mark.
"Because we believe it's the ancient looking bracelet that is fused with her arm."
"What?" Blake asked out of the blue, leaning in close to see if she heard mark right.
"A bracelet, ancient looking and has essentially fused to her skin somehow, we don't understand why or how, but it's keeping her healthy and killing anyone that gets close to it without proper equipment or environmental conditioning. We were too late to figure this out and paid the price. People around her dropped like flies, an entire town and military base gone…" This took everybody back. None of them could comprehend that amount of sheer death, and – if Mark's story is to be believed – all because of some old piece of jewelry.
"The event took a toll on Summer," Mark continued "Hence her skittish nature and panic attacks, she is suffering a form of PTSD. Bringing her here was an attempt to remedy the amnesia, and possibly help her with her PTSD by putting her around people she loves." Mark said somberly, looking down.
"We knew from the beginning it was a long shot and had a lot of backlashes if it went south. It's actually one of the reasons I took your weapons and had Ruby's scheduled for another maintenance that I 'forgot' to add… I didn't want bloodshed, or worse, the virus escaping. I don't want to know what would happen if it got out."
Everybody was speechless, Ruby's silent sobs being the only real noise coming from any of them. Blake was mulling something over her in her head that took all her attention of the real world away, her face scrunched up in disbelief and confusion. Weiss was staring at ruby and flicking over to mark occasionally. Tai was also thinking about how this was all possible, while still trying to cope with the fact that his once dead wife was now among the living once again. Yang was staring at nothing and nobody, in particular, arms crossed as she bore down on the floor, still not trusting of this 'Mark' character.
"…. Mark?" Blake unexpectedly asked, getting his attention "Yes miss Belladonna, something you want to ask?"
The black haired girl nodded "What does the bracelet look like?" This got everyone to switch their attention to Blake, looking at her like she just grew another set of cat ears "Why would you care about that?" Weiss asked, severely mixed up. "With everything else, you chose to ask what the deadly bracelet looks like?" Yang butted in, an angry look directed to her partner.
Mark was also confused "Miss Xiao Long has a point, even if she was a little rude about it, why do you care?"
"The whole thing… it… sounds familiar… an old wives tale from when I was a child…" Blake answered.
Mark gave Blake an interested look "Well the bracelet is an interesting piece. It's an old, brass looking metal bracelet, not very big, but it has intricate carvings and appears to have been laced with some unknown crystalline material."
"That sounds like it would be it… Although I can't be sure, people descriptions varied, but that sounds like the most used." Blake answered, albeit unsure of herself. "Tell us the tale as best as you can remember it, maybe something about it can actually help us," Mark asked.
Blake looked at Mark a moment before nodding and beginning to try and remember how the tale was told to her all those years ago "…. It was during the Great War between Faunus kind and Humans. Legends tell of a group of mages who were all gathered by the king of Menagerie who were tasked with creating a weapon to help defeat the Humans and win the war for all Faunus. There were three mages in total, Cruecella, Angelia, and Reddlia, some of the most powerful Faunus mages ever known at the time." Blake paused trying to remember more.
"They toiled for what many say years, nobody is sure, but it soon gave birth to the World Ender. Cruecella was the one who discovered the means to create the weapon, what some say is a twisted form of Dust and devised a way to harness it so it may kill Humans in the vilest ways possible. But as they quickly found out it affected Humans as well as Faunus when Reddlia was killed by the weapon." Mark had heard stories like this before. One person creates the weapon of ultimate power, another one takes the weapon and seals it away, classic storytelling. "Cruecella saw it only as a necessary evil to win the war while Angelia saw the true evil the weapon had and stole it in the dead of night. Cruecella found and tried to stop her, dying in the process, but mortally wounding Angelia as she made her escape. She ran into the deserts of Menagerie, never to be seen or heard from again, taking the weapon with her…"
Mark took notice about halfway through the story "Did you saw it was a form of Dust?" Blake shook her head favorably "Yes… an evil, twisted version of Dusk that nobody has ever heard of before."
Mark snapped his fingers "That's it! That's how it works! Dust was the answer all along, of course, it was!"
"You couldn't figure that out before?" Weiss asked, herself more experienced in Dust work "Did you not run any tests to be sure it Dust?"
"We did, however, it's not cut and dry. Our knowledge of Dust is simply too basic to get a good grip on analyzing it. Plus, we don't exactly have the proper equipment for the job." Mark answered "We may have advanced technology, but you have to remember, it's not even close to your people's level of tech yet. Not to mention, importing dust on a large scale is sure to cause suspicion, something we are trying to avoid, so we aren't discovered as you all know."
Weiss said no more. However, Yang spoke up "What does that mean about our Mom, what are you going to do with her? Keep her here until she dies?" she sounded less angry and more annoyed and sarcastic.
"No, on the contrary, we are going to have to go to initiate a whole new protocol about the matter. First, we are going to send you all home, except Ruby and possibly her father. Qrow has already left; he claimed to have received a mission and didn't want to tell you about it."
"You expect me to leave my sister?!" Yang said, outraged "I barely trust you, especially after the stunt you-" "YANG!" Tai suddenly yelled, having been trying to get her attention for the last minute "I'll go back to patch… I can't be gone from Signal long… even after finding out one of the loves of my life is still alive, I have a job to do. I can't exactly tell them where I am and stay and lying won't get me far… especially with Ms. Trade as the School's vice principal; the woman can smell a lie a mile away." Tai said growing a sneer on his face at the mention of her name "You stay… be with Ruby…"
"But, I don't want either of you to leave!" Ruby cut in.
"Sorry, sweetie… But I have to…" He turned to mark "Promise me this... you'll keep my family safe… I just got them back; I don't want to lose them again."
"Sir, this island is one of the most closely guarded secrets this world has and has a military force that makes Atlas look like common thugs- no offense miss Schnee," Mark said with sincerity "None taken" the white themed girl responded.
"Your family will be safe with me. I promise…"
Kavala, Altis
June 22st, 1921 Hours
Hours later, Tai, Weiss, and Blake were sent back home to avoid suspicion on their part and keep up appearances.
The fact that Weiss stayed as long as she did was already getting attention from her father who was about to send some of his private security to get her; however, she did not leave without saying a proper goodbye to Ruby. Mark wasn't an idiot, he knew Weiss was in love with her, but the simple fact was she couldn't stay because of her social status as an heiress.
Tai returned to Signal to resume his job as a teacher feeling both happy and sad, the feeling of loss returning when he has to leave his daughter and wife who he just got back. Even if he were to claim he was on a mission, it wouldn't last much longer. He was using the same excuse to sulk at his home, something the fabled Ms. Trade was starting to pick up on. Blake went back to see her family, albeit, reluctantly seeing as how she was one of the few people that could've stayed longer since she was Huntress with no missions.
But, there was actually another reason Mark sent her back home. He sent her with a Sat Phone to keep in contact so she can relay research and information about the tale she told back to Mark so he and his scientist can find a way to either remove or negate the bracelet.
Mark left Yang and Ruby. One of the two already hated his guts, he didn't want to make it worse, so he returned back home to hopefully let her cool. He and Seth walked in the door exhausted, Mark switching on the light and finding that he and his companion were not alone. The two of them drawing their respective weapons and turning them on the intruders that we sitting in his living room, one asleep and drooling on his couch the other drinking some of Mark's wine from his cupboard. Mark sighed and holstered his weapon, telling Seth to do the same "I'll handle this, go wash up, I'll be fine…"
Seth, grateful that he could actually take a shower finally, didn't argue and went up to wash. Both he and Mark knew the two women that made themselves at home and knew they would never try anything as stupid as attacking him in his home… not with the military within spitting distance of the house and capable of responding to a distress call.
"Cinder… see you made yourself at home." Mark droned, annoyed.
The woman giggled "Yes, might I say you have a fine selection of beverages to choose from. I thought I'd help myself."
"Whoppdie does, what's this about. I know you wouldn't come here without something good. That's why I pay you and your little minion Emerald there." He waved an arm towards the green haired girl leaving a spit stain on his couch. Yes, the two of them were on his payroll. He met the two a long while ago and decided that they could be significant assets to his intelligence network, hiring them and giving them the means to act in the shadows how they see fit and get him news about happenings on the mainland, specifically with the darker forces at work around here.
"Why yes, we do come bearing news… and you're not going to like it."
"Oh, fun… hit me with it."
"Alright… the Reds are mobilizing for something… we don't know what, but it's got to be big with how much resources they're pulling aside for it." Ah yes, the Reds. The exceptionally larger, more militaristic, brother of the White Fang. They call themselves the Red Skrill and they're more dangerous than the White Fang. Made up of the descendants of Faunus soldiers from the Great War they are an adversary that should be feared, working in the shadows like the White Fang devising was to seek revenge against humanity for what they did to their species all those years ago.
"How can you be so sure they're preparing for something? They're not a very 'public' terrorist group, they're too careful to do something huge like that." Mark said.
"I'm not sure… but something is off. They're moving equipment I've never seen before, equipment that looks strikingly familiar to the equipment your army uses… They're going big this time, that's why I came directly to you because you and I both know when they strike… the leave no survivors."
Mark nodded. Every time they poke their head out, they leave no witnesses to make sure they stay hidden, even children and women. Entire villages have burned in the night because of the Reds, and people on the outside world believe it was merely an attack by the Grimm.
"I'll look into it… But more important things have come up… in the meantime, thank that friend of yours for delivering the letters… and let Miss Neo know that there is a position for a person of her expertise if she needs it. That trick with the delivery guy and Emerald with her illusions was perfect."
Cinder chuckled "I will make sure she gets the message… Toodles~" the red themed woman said as Mark ascended the stairs knowing the two can find their own exit.
He promised himself he'd check into the Red Skrill later after a good night of sleep and a healthy breakfast in the morning.
What he didn't know was that the Reds were already going to attack.
And their target was the same place they got the schematics for all their new weapons…
