Chapter Thirty-Eight: Before The Storm.
Weiss sighed as she placed her scroll down beside her on the bed. With a soft smile the Heiress shifted the loose crimson locks that had fallen into her wolf's face as the younger girl rested her with her head on her lap. Ruby had barely left her side after the fight with her uncle, Blake had explained that it was the Faunus nature being protective of her mate. The bluntness of the statement had make Weiss blush at first but she wasn't going to complain since Ruby was extremely cute when she got protective.
Ruby shifted slightly in her sleep and pulled herself closer to the Heiress, her black and red tail flipping to rest across Weiss' legs causing small shivers to run up them. Once her wolf was settled again Weiss picked back up her scroll and started to read again. She had finally decided to read through the rest of the projects she had downloaded from the computer on their last mission. Just like the first three she had decoded the rest painted a very unsettling picture.
The first one she had read through had made her stomach turn with revolution and she had to fight to not throw Ruby off her lap and run to the bathroom to throw up. GEMINI had involved several experiments between twins; could they feel each other's pain? Could they communicate to each other without speaking? Could they share experiences when only one of them had had the experience? What would it take to make these questions reality?
One experiment she had read involved sticking placing both twins into separate sound proof rooms then one was given a list of items to read and they had to 'send' that list to their twin, if the twin in the other room failed to respond correctly the first twin was shocked with high voltages and told to try again, this would continue until they could not continue then they would switch to the other twin and then they would hand them a new list and try again. Another experiment was to make one twin watch while the other was forced onto an operating table then tortured, it would only stop when the twin not strapped down could prove they could 'feel' the pain, as far as she could tell it never happened.
But the worst experiment Weiss had read about involved the idea on how they could make their hypothesis work, but fusing the twins Aura's together. The theory had been that since Aura's were a projection of the person's soul then if they could fuse the Auras together then they would be able to share thoughts and feelings. However there was no way to permanently fuse Aura's together, sure Aura transfer techniques could tether two Aura together for a time but it would dissipate after a few hours. In order to, fix, this problem the people behind the project had propose jamming the Aura's together into one body. They had tried to rip away one of the twin's Auras and then shove it the other's body. The results were not pleasant.
The twin that had their Aura ripped away would die within minutes from the shock, apparently their heart would literally beat itself into a pulp before rupturing, vessels in their brain would burst causing blood to hemorrhage from their eyes and ears and their lungs would collapse from ruptured alveoli. The twin who had the second Aura shoved into their body didn't fair much better. They would last an hour at best before the fever they developed cooked them inside out. Their blood would boil away as would all other liquids in their body before they would whiter away into a shriveled up corpse. Each loss was considered a learning experience for the team on the project as they refined their technique, the only 'success' of the project was a pair of twins that lasted four days after the experiment, both had been put into a vegetated state having to have machines doing all of their bodily functions before they finally died due to the team pulling the plug on them. The next project wasn't any better.
MAIDENS involved young women that had strong Aura's as well as powerful semblances. The projects goal was the exponentially increase their powers by manipulating their Auras. Though the science behind the project almost seemed like it was based in fantasy, but it was very in depth and the reasoning behind it very convincing. For the first few tests the women would wind up dead from the drain the process put on their Aura's eventually shattering it into nothing and casing them to die within seconds. When they had finally tuned the process in there were fewer deaths, those that did die had weaker base levels on their Aura's than those that survived. And those that survived weren't guaranteed to lived much longer either. After manipulating the young woman's Aura their semblances became unstable and it was a constant fight for them to control it and when it failed it failed with disastrous consequences. Each case was different depending on the woman's semblance but the end was the same, the woman was killed by her own power.
One such failure saw the young woman whose semblance was pyrokinesis spontaneously combusted into her own funeral pyre burning her body to ashes in seconds from the intensity of the flames. Another failure had a woman being beaten into a pile of mushed flush and pulverized bones from the force of the sound waves she could control. A woman had torn herself apart when she had tried to use her slicing semblance with her weapon. And other had caused a massive explosion that killed her along with nearly fifty other people and wounded two hundred others.
There was also another draw back caused by the project. If the woman had actually survived the process and had gained control of their semblance, they had to be very careful to never let it loose to its fullest potential, if they did it would cause their Aura to drain completely and once their Aura was gone their bodies would break down and cause them to die then simply fade away. There had been very few successes from the project but those that had survived were all very young when they went through the project. Those that had survived had been given code name; 'Ironblood' could from weapons with her blood, 'Hopper' could teleport across anywhere she envisioned, and one called 'Striker' was unstoppable once she started running mowing everything down in her path. One name though stood out from all the others, 'Legion'. According to the notes Weiss had found 'Legion' was theorized to be able to copy herself nearly an infinite amount of times but doing so would result in her death. When Weiss read that she had glanced down at her wolf, the power sounded an awfully a lot like her partner's mother's. Weiss knew that Ruby didn't know much about her mother's past and wondered if it was possible that this 'Legion' was the same person as Summer Rose.
The current project Weiss was reading through had the Heiress wondering just what made a person. HALLOW had a date that reached back nearly eighty years. At first Weiss had thought it was just another genetic manipulation project before she reached a part about created bodies. Decided that she should not just be skimming the project Weiss went back to the beginning and started to read more in depth. What she read left her heart racing.
HALLOW was a project that was focused on creating 'blank' bodies. Bodies with no soul or conscious then by forcing a portion of a soul into a body give them basic functions. To make this possible the team on the project had discovered the technique that allowed for a person's Aura to be taken from them. It was the same technique that had been used in GEMINI and MAIDENS, letting Weiss know that this had been one of the first projects that had taken place. This technique involved forcing a person to exert their Aura to the point before it shattered only to then have it captured by a device that Weiss could barely understand. Once the soul was stored inside the device they would allow a small amount into the 'blank' body but only enough so that it could carry out commands. Essentially it was a way to mass produce an army since a single harvested soul could be distributed through fifty blanks.
There were two massive problems that prevented the project from going very far; the bodies themselves did not last for more than a few days before they began to break down and decay and they had the tendency to go berserk towards the end of their lifespan. There were reports of rotting and decaying bodies turning on their handlers ripping them apart in various manners. Weiss had a hard time not thinking about zombies as she read through that.
The thing that had Weiss on edge as she read was the fact that the Helios company was the one funding or backing each of the projects, even after the date that she knew the SDC had acquired the company. After fist seeing that the company had been active after the take over Weiss as looked for any record of them outside of the files in every source she had available, patent records showed all of the products being handed over to the SDC, reports of earnings stopped the day after the take over, and even tax files were stopped. She had even looked through the SCD reports regarding the take over yet they all stated that the company had been acquired and that the transfer of power was complete within a matter of hours, all t's crossed and all i's dotted. Weiss knew she was missing something but didn't know where she should look for the answers.
Before she could continue reading Ruby stirred some more, Weiss looked down and watched as silver eyes slowly blinked open and her wolf gave a small yawn before sitting up. "Have a nice nap?" Weiss asked as she reached out and moved some of the crimson locks out of Ruby's face.
"Yeah." Ruby nodded wiping at her eyes. "I feel a lot better now."
"Good." Weiss nodded, "So that means you shouldn't complain when I tell you you need to go finish your report."
"But Wei-" Ruby was cut off as Weiss pressed a finger over her lips and gave her a bored stare.
"Ruby you said you'd finish it after your nap," Weiss pointed out. "Now is after your nap so no complaints."
Ruby gave a small pout but Weiss just continued her stare, after a few moments the wolf have a huff, "Fine. I'll finish it, but I'm not changing so text Yang to bring back some food." Getting off the bed Ruby stretched her arms up over her head and felt her spine pop in a few places making her groan with content. As she stretched her shirt rode up and Weiss could only stare at the teasing hint of her wolf's toned stomach.
Once Ruby had relaxed her arms Weiss shook herself out of her stupor and closed the files on her scroll and opened up a message box to the blonde. Sending a quick message to pick up food the Heiress also transferred some extra lien to her as well to get the food. The rely came quickly back though it was from Blake state that Yang was a bit 'tied up' at the moment but she'd make sure they got the food before heading back. Weiss tried pushed back down the blush that started to creep up into her cheeks, they had only gone for a sparing session but with out skilled the panther was at throwing her weapon Weiss could only imagine how well she could 'tie up' Yang. This time as the thought settled Weiss couldn't push back the blush and threw her scroll down on the bed before stalking off towards the bathroom to run some cold water over her face.
Once she had splashed a few handfuls of cool water on her face Weiss looked up into the mirror, her eyes slowly wondering towards the scar that rested over her eye. She knew her team wondered how she had gotten the mark but was extremely thankful they never pushed her on it. But she knew she would have to tell them, she knew that they deserved to know the truth about it. As she stared at the mark her mind slowly drifted back to the day she had got it.
She could feel the heat of the flames as they formed a lake of fire below her, she could feel the metal of the catwalk she lay on dig into her side as she tried to force the haze from her mind. She could hear the alarms as they wailed around her followed by more explosions and people screaming as metal beams and parts of the ceiling fell on them. She remembered seeing through the blood that covered her face as a large chunk of the ceiling fell on the part of the catwalk that that woman was on, breaking it away from where she lie and dragging it down into the sea of flames. Then it happened; she watched as she moved forward slowly, trying to save the doctor from also falling only for him to plummet into the fire before her hands could reach his coat. She could see his face twist into one filled with shock only for his green eyes to flash with manic laughter before he disappeared into the flames. She remembered SDC personal pulling her from the catwalk and evacuating her as the White Fang fled from as more of the bombs went off bringing the facility down.
Taking a shaky breath Weiss shook her head clear only then realizing her hands here balled into tight fists and were shaking. Forcing herself to calm down she took a few deep even breaths letting the tension to bleed from her body. If there was one thing that she was extremely grateful for from her training it was that she had learned how to force herself to calm down. It had come in handy in the chamber when she had to fight from panicking at the sheer numbers she was facing.
Once she was calmed back down Weiss exited the bathroom, her gaze wondering over to her girlfriend who was sitting at her desk writing her report, her ears twitching from time to time and her tail swishing back and forth slowly. As she observed her wolf a small part of her mind started to wonder just how Ruby would look tied up on their bed. Before she could shut off that train of thought images of the crimson wolf in very suggestive poses and positions flooded into her brain making the Heiress light up like a tomato with blush, her heart started to race and her breathing grew slightly heavier. She could feel the heat started to build up in her core. Shaking her head quickly back and forth Weiss stopped all of her thoughts and quickly returned to her scroll, see that Blake had messaged her saying that they were picking up pizza before heading back.
"Yang and Blake are getting pizza, anything else you'd like before they get back?" Weiss asked cursing that her voice was slightly husky.
Ruby had heard Weiss go to the bathroom and then when she exited but had not put much thought into it as she was focusing on her report and hoping that if she got it done quickly the Heiress would reward her for a job well done. But when she heard Weiss speak her ears perked up instantly. Normally Weiss' tone was light and soft like a clear chiming bell, well except for when she yelled, then it was cold and harsh but she rarely turned that tone on her team now. Now however her mate's voice was heavy and slightly deeper, like the one she got after a long make out session when their hands began to wonder. It was the tone that always sent shivers up her spine and cause her nerves to tingle.
Turning slightly Ruby saw that Weiss was blushing and looking down at the ground trying to not make eye contact with her letting her know that the Heiress knew how her voice sounded. Ruby was not put in a strange dilemma, she really wanted to go over to the Heiress and push her down into the bed and capture her lips with her own but she knew Yang and Blake would be returning soon and Weiss had firmly told her that there would be no making out before she had her work done and it was a stance she was very firm on. Swallowing hard Ruby shook herself free of her own desires and responded to the Heiress, "No I'm good." She blushed herself as she heard her own slightly husky voice.
Weiss just nodded instead of responding and sent Blake back a message that pizza sounded good and then sat down on her desk and picked up her Dust Manipulation work and started to work through the formulas on the sheets. After a few seconds of just staring at the paper unable to focus on her work she sighed at the slight tension in the room between herself and Ruby. "Oh this is ridiculous." She huffed and turned to face her wolf who had turned to face her, her head cocked to the side in that adorable puppy like manner.
"What?" Ruby asked her ears twitching a bit.
Weiss shook her head, "Neither one of us can obviously focus on our assignments so we might as well do something about it" Ruby's burrow furrowed in confusion making Weiss sigh again, "Ruby you stopped writing the moment I came back into the room and I can't even focus on my Dust formulas, we're both distracted so let's get this out of the way so we can both do our work." Seeing Ruby's confusion deepen Weiss rolled her eyes and walked over to her wolf. Reaching down she pulled the younger girl's face up and placed her lips onto hers. Ruby gasped slightly only to lean in and wrap her arms around Weiss neck.
Weiss kept the kiss tame not allowing either one of them to get to distracted by it and pulled back after a few seconds earning her a small whine from the wolf in her arms. With a smirk Weiss placed her fingers on Ruby's lips keeping them from closing in on hers again, "Now back to work Ruby."
"But Weiiisss." Ruby whined slightly, giving her a small pout.
"No," Weiss shook her head. "Call it incentive to get your work done before Yang and Blake return." With another pout Ruby nodded and returned to her report more focused than before.
With a chuckle Weiss returned to her own work and started to work through the long chemical formulas and interweaves on the paper. Weiss found the work very relaxing and methodical allowing her to let her mind wonder, though not too much. After a few minutes she felt her wolfs arms encircle her neck and place a soft kiss into her neck. "Ruby I told you-"
"I'm finished." Ruby replied in a whisper sending waves up Weiss spine.
The Heiress paused, it had only been a few minutes by her count, how had Ruby… "Ruby did you use your semblance to finish it quicker."
This time Ruby paused, "Uhhhhhh, no?" Her voice was quieter.
"So if I looked over at your desk I wouldn't see a pile of Aura petals disappearing?" Weiss questioned trying to turn only for Ruby to hold her tighter to prevent her from turning.
"Nope defiantly not." Ruby chirped her reply moving to sit on Weiss lap and keep her facing away from facing her desk. "You know I wouldn't do something like that."
Weiss raised and eyebrow at her wolf's antics making Ruby fidget for a few moments, with a sigh the Heiress shook her head, "Ruby you really shouldn't use your semblance to finish your reports."
"Well you said to get it done before Blake and Yang got back." Ruby replied, only to frown realizing she had been caught. "Hey that's not fair."
Weiss sighed again, "I'll check it later but for now I guess you finished your work." Leaning up she captured Ruby's lips again and pulled her wolf back into her.
Before their kiss could get too heated however the door opened again and Yang and Blake walked in, the blonde holding two large boxes of piping hot pizza. "Food!" the blonde cheered only to spy how her sister and the Heiress were sitting, "Oh I'm sorry should we come back at a more convenient time?" A teasing smirk pulling at her lips.
"Yang!" Ruby cried as she jumped off Weiss lap and glared at her sister, "We've been through this you can't tease Weiss and me like that."
"Weiss and I." Weiss corrected as she fought the blush out of her cheeks.
"Oh Rubes." Yang shook her head, "I'm always going to tease you, it's a big sister's job."
Before Ruby could reply Blake took the pizzas from the blonde, "Before this goes any further let's eat while the food is still hot." Pulling out the paper plates they had the panther put two slices on a plate and walked over to her bed. With another glare Ruby grabbed two plates and put the pizza on them before zipping back over to Weiss.
"Oh fine." Yang sighed, "You just have to go and ruin my fun don't you Kitten?"
"Yang we had fun earlier." Blake smirked as her amber eyes flashed with humor. Once again Weiss' face lit up with blush at the panther's words.
"Anyways." Weiss coughed before the blonde could reply, "Yang why did you by two extremely large pizzas?"
"Well the joint we got them from offers Hunter sizes and there was a deal today on buy one get one half off." The blonde replied with a shrug. "And hey if you've never noticed Huntsman and Huntresses usually eat a lot more than normal people."
"Not the point Yang." Weiss sighed, "I highly doubt that we'll be able to eat all of that."
"Oh never underestimate the eating ability of a Xiao Long." Yang smirked. Weiss just shook her head instead of replying, she knew Yang was right; there were never any leftovers when they ate out. And there weren't this time.
Roman was on edge as he lead the White Fang group onto the docks and towards the shipment of Dust, ammo and weapons the Doctor had told him would be there. He was still a little wary of the man and it bother him that his new 'employer' was just giving the White Fang these supplies just to attack Beacon. Spotting the large containers with the Schnee logo on it Rome nodded, "Right there they are. Remember quick and quiet." At his words the Faunus went to work cutting open the locks and unloading the crates of Dust and ammo checking in each of them to see what the haul was. Roman was surprised that a few crates held brand new Dust rifles and Dust blades.
"Ah, Roman I was beginning to wonder when you'd show up." A smooth voice sounded out from behind him, the two Faunus that were standing beside him snapped their rifles up and took aim at the Doctor as he slid from the shadows. "Oh now there's no need for that, I happen to be Roman's contact on this shipment, isn't that right?"
Roman hesitated seeing the Faunus look at him, "Err, yeah. He's been a silent partner in your little endeavor, he lets me know when large shipments come in and when they'll be unguarded. But he's usually not around when they happen."
At his pointed word the Doctor just shrugged, "Well I was hoping I could get one of your colleges to help me with my own little, experiment." The Doctors uneven smile sent shivers up Roman's spine and warning bells off in his head.
"Well that would be their call." Roman said looking around at the Faunus who had stopped working and were now staring between the two humans. "I mean I'm only helping them so you'd have to ask their boss."
The Doctor waved his hand at the comment, "Oh I don't think that will be necessary. I'm sure my idea will help them in their own attack." Every Faunus went on high alert making the Doctor chuckle, "Oh come come now, I'm asked to find a large shipment of Dust, ammo and weapons, enough to equip enough people for an assault just after Vale has been attack, it's not hard to figure out what your target is."
Before anyone could respond the Lieutenant walked forward and stopped before the Doctor, "Just what are you talking about?" His voice was muffled slightly by his mask. Roman had to keep from shivering as he replayed the first time he had met the Doctor, he still could see the shock on the Faunus' face as he fell apart.
"Well I have come into the knowledge that a certain type of Faunus is currently residing at Beacon." The Doctor smiled, "Should you not take her out of the fight early she could become very troublesome for your little group."
"And why should one Faunus Huntress concern us?" The Lieutenant asked.
The Doctor smiled, "Well this one just happens to be involved with the Heiress to the Schnee Duct Company." That earned several growls from the surrounding Faunus. "Oh and she's a wolf so it could be a bit of a challenge to bring her down."
The Lieutenant regarded the Doctor for a few moments before laughing loudly, "A wolf! I haven't fought one in ages, and you say she's with the Heiress to the enemy of all Faunus, oh I will enjoy making her scream."
The Doctor's smile widened, "Oh I'm sure you will."
Raven leaned back in her seat as she nursed her mug of ale. She wasn't really sure why she was back. She had vowed to herself she would never return, never would she let the memories of her mistakes haunt her but yet here she was sitting in a pub in the last town she ever wanted to be in, Patch.
The black haired woman was very thankful that there would be few people looking for her here. Hell most of them probably assumed she was long dead and buried. Even if someone did recognize her they would only stop for a moment before shaking their head sure they had been seeing something that wasn't there. And right now she was fine with that.
Taking a small sip from her mug Raven let her eyes wonder across the crowd that had gathered in the pub this evening letting themselves unwind after a long stressful week of work, enjoying each others company and the homebrewed ale that flowed through this establishment. Raven kept to herself in a small corner of the room letting her eyes drift from each group, reading their lips for the conversations she couldn't hear over the noise. She had learned the skill from Qrow long ago allowing her to gather information at a distance and not look suspicious. She was currently watching a group of Faunus near the door.
Patch was one of the few places outside of Menagerie were there was virtually no discrimination against the Faunus, everyone who lived on Patch knew that if they wanted to survive there was no room for hatred amongst them. However this group of Faunus stood out in the crowd, they were not interacting with anyone outside of the group. As Raven watched she slowly drank her ale reading their conversation.
"So you remember the plan right?" The first one was saying, he had curved horns on his head.
"Yeah, we go in hit him before he realizes what's going on and put him down." The second nodded, this one had two large fangs hanging down from his mouth, "Do you really think he'd come after us though?"
"From what the boss said it's his daughter he's about to kill, what do you think?" The third snorted, she had a long yellow tail that swished back and forth slightly as she spoke. "Even if he's been out of the game for years do you really think he'd sit idly by after that?"
The fourth one must have said something but Raven couldn't make it out since his back was to her, she also couldn't see any distinguishing features on his back. The others nodded at his words and the second one leaned in closer, "He use to be a legend in his time, strongest man alive. It's said that he could bring down a Goliath with a single swing of his fists, level entire forests with barely a thought, even wrestle Ursa Majors into submission without breaking a sweat."
"Yeah which is why we need to hit him before he can react." The first nodded. "The boss is trusting us to get this done, so no fuck ups."
"Are we sure he's alone?" The third asked, "Wasn't he married or something?"
"She been dead for years and the other one walked out before that." The first shook his head, "Hell she's probably dead as well. From what I've heard he's isolated himself in his little cabin in the woods. No one's around to help him, he's going to be alone." Again the fourth one said something and the first replied, "We hit him when they hit Beacon. With all of the confusion going on in Vale no one's going to think to check in on a lone Huntsman."
Raven set down her mug on the table, her conscious at war with itself. She knew had been members of the White Fang and knew they were talking about Tai and Yang. She knew that they were going to go after him and try to kill him as well as Yang. Hell it had been the reason she had come back to Patch in the first place, she had been tracking White Fang activity for some time now. After failing to track the Doctor she had found that the White Fang was leading it's own investigation in to several of the projects that he had completed. If she could find out what they knew maybe it could lead her to the Doctors location. She had been following this group for a while now from Vacuo after they had attacked a shipment of Dust and had also taken several files of projects the SDC was funding.
Now she had a choice to make; she could either stay and warn Tai about the attack that was coming or could try to save Yang from the attack on her. If she went to Yang she knew Ozpin would find her and force her to explain everything but if she went to help Tai she knew he would demand answers she just couldn't answer, but she knew he deserved them to be answered. If she left for Vale she would lose her trail and possibly lose the Doctor again, but Yang would be safe, but Tai would likely die. If she stayed she could interrogate these White Fang members after she and Tai fought them off and Tai would be safe, but Yang could die. She was only one person and she couldn't do it all herself. With a sigh Raven knew what she had to do, she just didn't want to do it.
As she watched the White Fang members walk up to their room Raven sighed again and pulled out her scroll pulling up a number she never thought she'd call. Swallowing against the pain that began to build in her chest Raven hit dial, the call was picked up on the second ring. "Glynda, Beacon is in danger."
A/N: And there's the set, now who's ready for the go? So if this feels choppy sorry but I realized that I needed to set up a few things before the attack on Beacon and start moving a few more pieces about the board. Next up the siege of Beacon begins! That's probably going to last about two maybe three chapters but I'm not really sure, a lot is going to happen. Anyways sorry I miss my regularly scheduled update, I was on the road basically for the last two days. Also next week might be late as well cause here in the States Thanksgiving is this week and with family coming to visit and all that fun jazz I'm not sure how much time I'll get to write.
With that: Thank you all for your continued support, please stop by and lets chat, and find a reason to smile today.