AN: Still no plan except a very hazy route in my mind. I will respond to reviews at the end of the chapter to avoid cluttering the start, but thank you very much for supporting the prologue and chapter 1. Depending on how much I get written, I'll probably release chapters either at a time or paired. I have no real release schedule, but a rough aim of 1 a fortnight. No school to deal with any more (long story) so hopefully I'll have a lot more free time, although I'll have to juggle work. Parts of this chapter, and my work going forward, take inspiration and cues from "Nyaaaaa!" by Mallobaude. A little crack, a little fluff. Also a timeskip.

Today's ambience: Greater Anglia class 755 FLIRT Ride: Norwich to Stansted Airport - 27/02/20 and the Logic World Soundtrack.

Chapter 2

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait.

Desmond woke up feeling like he was in a cloud. Not the cold, wet kind, but the warm, fluffy kind. He opened his eyes blearily and was almost blinded by the harsh, cold light of a fluorescent tube above his bed. Swearing, his voice crackly and rough and painful, he rolled over and almost fell off the suddenly very narrow bed, only barely catching himself. He heard a crash and hurried footsteps. Feet appeared in his field of view, and a moment later a hand caught his arm and rolled him back onto his back. The world seemed to swim, and he forced himself upright and Oum his neck hurt and someone was gently pushing him back into the bed and he saw pink hair and then everything went black.

The next time Desmond woke up, the first thing he realised was that everything hurt. The second thing he realised was that he could see properly, no longer blinded by the fairly dim, warm fluorescent tube that had hurt so much and looked so different earlier. The third thing he realised was that he could hear activity all around him. The school must have been full of students. That was odd. The last time he remembered not being in this bed had been a few days before the term was due to start. He sat up groggily and surveyed his environment. Then he realised that he could see clearly despite not wearing glasses. Forgetting the room, he surveyed himself, suddenly confused. He felt alive, like he had never felt before. If this was a medical drug, it was one hell of a high. He blinked. Nope, still seeing clearly. Still no glasses.

Looking up again, he glanced around. The room was full of beds, just like his own. Over in one corner three people were grouped around a fourth in a bed, a guy with brown hair and blue eyes and a jawline that could have cut steel. He looked like he'd just been pretty soundly beaten. In another was a woman with pink hair and a clipboard in one hand, wearing a white medical gown over blue scrubs. She had a pair of fox ears and a fox tail. Just like me, Desmond thought. He stretched, and turned his head further. Directly to his left was a girl with rabbit ears, sitting despondently. Behind her, a girl with a beret was staring at the guy in the bed like she wanted nothing more than for him to drop dead. Seeing no one else there, he decided he might as well at least try a conversation.

'If looks could kill, I think he'd be dead a few times over by now.'

'Good,' responded Beret Girl without even glancing his way, 'that thing deserves it.'

'Thing?' he asked, raising an eyebrow. She finally turned to look at him, before sighing.

'I'm sure you've heard it all before. Monster, freak, et cetera. That guy is a foaming racist.'

Desmond chuckled dryly. 'All that and then some.' He shifted the blanket off him and raised his tail. 'There are some rather more choice words people use against... well, people like me. Sometimes it's even other Faunus saying them. But there's more of a story here, I can tell. Name-calling doesn't - or at least shouldn't - result in him being in a hospital bed looking three-quarters dead.'

Rabbit Girl looked up, saw his tail, saw his ears, and yelped. She promptly went very pink and covered her mouth.

Beret Girl looked askance at Rabbit Girl for this, but kept speaking. 'Yeah, I guess. It's normally not so bad, but he decided to take it a little further during an inter-year mini-tournament earlier today. Going up against my teammate here - his main target at the best of times, he likes to pull her ears - he decided to get a little handsy with her. Teachers went to intervene, of course, but Team R-W-B-Y, pronounce it Ruby, got there first. They were up against his team next anyway so they were standing next to the ring, and Yang must have seen red. Four against one, he stood no chance, the fucker. This is the result. Don't know what he was thinking, he's probably turned half the school against him and his team now.'

'Hmm,' Desmond grimaced. Turning to look directly at Rabbit Girl, he said 'I am truly sorry for what he tried, and I'm glad you stopped him. If he's got physical with your ears before, though, why haven't you stopped him? You have to stand up to bullies, or they'll just keep pushing their boundaries.'

'I-I-I...' she looked to Beret Girl for support, but Beret Girl simply looked at her and raised an eyebrow. 'I guess... I don't... Ugh. I-I guess I just didn't want to cause trouble, or something, I don't know. He'll just do it to other people if he can't to me.'

Desmond shrugged. 'That's their problem. You can't do shit about that, but you can stop the assault against yourself. Stand up to the man and he'll probably leave you alone. Let other people do it for you, and he'll just keep quote-endquote "innovating" to find a way that won't get him caught again. This is a combat school and you're a year above him. Kick him in the balls or something, I don't know. Trust me, that'll send a message.'

Beret Girl couldn't quite stifle a giggle, but she rolled with it. 'I like him. Do it, Velvs, and see what happens.'

'I-I -'

'Look,' cut in Desmond, 'the change has to start with you in this situation. Stand up for yourself a few times, and he'll find an easier mark. I know it feels scummy - "Faunus Stick Together, and all that bullshit - but they'll also stand up for themselves provided you stand up for yourself in a public place. Give them confidence, and they'll use it. Humiliate him.'

'I-I'll try.' Her ears, which until now had been drooping, perked up a little. 'I have to go. See you in our dorm, Coco!'

Beret Girl - Coco - turned to him and said 'What's it with you? I spend five weeks trying to hammer that message into her head and you do it in five minutes?'

He shrugged. 'Some people just need a stranger to say it to them. The fact I'm a Faunus - and a rare type at that - definitely didn't hurt, either.'

She bobbed her head in acknowledgement, before extending a hand. 'I'm Coconeas Adel, and my teammate there was Velvet Scarlatina. Call me Coco or I'll put pink hair dye in your shampoo.'

He chuckled, taking her hand and shaking it. 'Desmond Quicksilver. I don't know, I might rock pink hair.'

The corner of Coco's mouth twitched. 'You might. Anyway, I need to go and find a bunny. If you want to hang out, our dorm room is number 036, entry code is 4412. Knock first if it sounds like we're in, otherwise let yourself in. My Scroll code is CA362225, add me. I'll see you around. Don't be a stranger.'

'Noted,' he said dryly. 'I don't have one, but I'll see if I can fix that. Cheers, Coco.'

She smirked. 'Right answer.' As she walked off, she cast back over her shoulder 'Cute tail, by the way!'

Desmond blinked once. Had he just picked up a girl by giving life advice? Or was she being nice? He couldn't tell, so he filed it away for later consideration. She was pretty, he supposed.

He followed her with his eyes to the door, just in time to see a group of four people, all very mismatched, walk in arguing intensely. Each person seemed to have picked a different colour and decided "this is me", as they seemed to mostly be dressed in them. Red, White, Black, Yellow. Interesting colours, if sore on the eyes for their sheer contrast. They all pulled the look off, too. Especially Black, with those amber-gold eyes and that bow. Wait, that bow! His eyes narrowed, analysing. Something was off with it. Then he saw it. When White made a particularly loud noise, it twitched. Bows don't twitch. She was a Faunus, plain and simple. Would explain the somewhat odd eye colour, too. Central heterochromia, or heterochromia at all, was very rare in humans, as it was a byproduct of Faunus ancestry. It was, of course, very common among Faunus, although he himself didn't have it.

She saw him staring, and narrowed her own eyes back. He didn't break the contact. He recognised her, he could swear he did. She had the trademark features of a Belladonna, the same eyes and hair, and a similar facial structure to her mother, at least on the news. What was her name? Something Belladonna. Black? Bake? Book? Bella? No, not Bella Belladonna. Belle? Fuck. She was walking over now, her gait purposeful and dangerous. He realised his tail was still in plain view, alongside his ears. Oops. Too late to do anything about it now, he supposed. Then she was getting close, and he turned his neck to face towards her more. The skin on his neck pulled oddly, but he thought nothing of it. She gasped, and went pale, her eyes widening. She almost turned and ran, but after a moment shook herself and kept approaching. This was odd, even for his dual-traits. He frowned. Then she was there.

'W-What do you want?' she stammered. He tilted his head. She didn't seem like the kind to stammer. Quiet and purposeful, she'd seemed walking over, until she'd got close. He remembered the odd pull on his neck, and his hands went for his collar, only to realise it wasn't there. Instead, there was a bump of patterned raised skin about two millimetres above the rest. An ugly red ring all the way around, he guessed. Fuck. That explained why he was here.

Her eyes softened. 'You didn't know it was there?'

'Only just realised because of the way you and Velvet reacted.'

'I'm sorry. If it's any consolation, it's not that bad. Why were you staring at me?'

'Hmmm.' Desmond mused, wondering how to say it. In the end, he gave up. 'I'll be blunt. A bow is a piss-poor disguise if you let your ears twitch constantly.'

She went pink. 'They get itchy! And it hurts to have them constantly up when it gets loud.'

'All the same, if I can see it others will eventually too. If it helps, I was trained to be observant. Former bus driver.'

'Okay. Thank you. That can't be the only reason, though.'

'Nope. Was trying to work out who you are. Managed it.'

'Oh really, detective?' she drawled. 'Pray tell.'

'Blake Belladonna. Long-lost Princess of Menagerie. Daughter of Kali Belladonna, Queen Leader of Menagerie, and Ghira Belladonna, City Administrator for Kuo Kuana. It's not exactly difficult to work it out if you know what to look for.'

'If you tell anyone...' she warned.

'The only person I'm telling is Ozpin, because he deserves to know his students. Your secrets are your own, however.'

'Don't tell the Headmaster!' she pleaded. She seemed panicked now. Odd, he mused.

'You really think that if I could connect the dots Ozpin won't have too?'

'I-Look, please don't tell him. I'll do anything you ask.'

'Anything? That's a dangerous promise to make.'

'I -'

'I don't want anything from you right now, and I won't accept that wording. But alright, you owe me a favour for this. I won't tell old Oz-man.'

A nod. Less panic. 'My Scroll is BB1823225. Add me. Thank you for not telling anyone.'

'No worries. Oh, and Blake?'

'Yes?'

'Do your team know?'

'No.'

'Fix that. They deserve to.'

'I have the SDC Heiress on my team. Seeing as you have SDC branded onto your neck, I'm sure you can see how that'll go.'

'Do it anyway. Also, what? Get me a mirror, please.'

She obliged. Around his neck was an ugly red burn scar about a centimetre thick, with the letters S.D.C. burnt into the scar right over his Adam's Apple. He stared at the mirror, horrified, and Blake sent him a sympathetic glance.

'I'm sorry, for what it's worth.'

He blinked once.

Planning a railway line was hard. Planning a railway line right into the heart of a city not designed for it, without being able to go underground, alone, was almost impossible. Planning two at once? Yes, that was impossible. He'd been sat on his scroll all morning having finally finalised the route for the Beacon to Vale airport line and had after much wrangling been allowed to build the Beacon to Vale phase. This was his second iteration of the plan, after he'd realised he wouldn't be able to build a line straight through due to the fact he couldn't go below ground or just bulldoze right through Vale's central business district. He had had to fight for the oversized terminus and station throat that he had wanted*, but as he'd explained he was planning for future expansions. Almost two months after his encounter with police that had started all this, and he'd only just got approval to build, and only for the first phase of the line? What a joke.

'I hate bureaucracy.' he groaned, finally putting the scroll down. Planning a single railway line alone was hard. Two was impossible. Thankfully, he wasn't alone.

'Agreed' came a melodic female voice from the door, and Blake stalked in, closing it behind her.

'You okay?' he asked. 'Something got your hackles up?'

'Cardin tried it with me.' she muttered. 'Asked me for help picking up Velvet. Like I'd ever help that steaming pile of human faeces. I still don't believe he's changed. More like changed tactics.'

'I'm sorry to hear that,' he answered gently. 'Thank you for coming anyway. You know you didn't have to after that first time.'

'Eh,' she shrugged, 'I like the ear scritches. It's worth it. Plus, I, uh, kind of like helping you.'

He glanced up. She was looking not at him but the wall off to his left, and there was a faint pink flush on her cheeks. Odd. Must have been cold outside.

'A-Anyway, speaking of...' she pulled her bow free, exposing cat ears the same colour as her hair, and sauntered over to him. 'Scritch before work?'

He patted the ground next to him, but she instead chose to settle between his outstretched legs - directly on the map he'd been sketching routes on - and lie back against him with her head on his chest.

'Scritch. Now.'

'Only a little,' he warned playfully, 'or you'll get spoiled. Main scritches later.'

'Hm. Fine. Scritch nowwww. They're so itchyyyy under that bow!'

He buried his hands in her hair, found the bases of her ears - one per hand - and started gently massaging the area. Her back arched a little and she shivered under his touch, but otherwise stayed still and silent. She smelled nice today, of the sea. A little hint of pine and jasmine underneath that. It went well together, somehow. She shuddered again as he pressed a little harder, and let out a half-quiet mewling noise. Those noises and that proximity weren't helping his focus, and he was sure she could tell because of where she was lying. It did things to him.

It struck him suddenly, what this might look like to someone walking in. The comfortable silence became gradually awkward - for him, at least - as his mind raced, and he sought to break it before it made him ridiculously nervous. What's wrong with me? He cast around for a topic, and eventually found one. Latching onto it with the relief of a stranded man who has just found a life raft, he spoke.

'You could always ditch the bow, you know,' he murmured gently.

'And l-l-l-looosssee this?' she asked, stumbling over her words a little as she shivered involuntarily. 'I don't think so.'

'You wouldn't have to lose it.'

'What do you mean?'

'Lack of bow does not mean lack of ear scritches. Your help is invaluable, this is my way of repaying you.'

'I'll think about it.' she mumbled, before twitching a little as he found a good spot.

'That's all I ask,' he answered, before unceremoniously removing his hands from her hair. 'Now, let's bang our heads against a wall for another few hours. Shall we?'

'Hmmm. Fine. More scritches later.' She crawled reluctantly out of her position half-lying against him, and sat on the floor next to him with her legs curled under her. He shifted, and moved the now crumpled map towards her so they could both read it.

'We need to find a way to put a bypass - an avoiding line, or "chord", if you will - between the line from the airport and the line from Beacon, so direct trains to Beacon from the airport and vice versa don't necessarily have to stop in the terminus. It's not going to be necessary or utilised much at the moment for passenger services, although possibly for freight, but I think it'll prove invaluable with the Vytal Festival fast approaching. The issue here is elevation. The thankfully now approved line to Beacon starts turning around the estuary and ascending almost as soon as it leaves the station, which means that this chord is going to be very steeply inclined to make up that elevation. The trains I've designed** can deal with a maximum incline of probably three percent, so we have to keep that in mind. Any ideas?'

'Well, she mused, 'we could go from here' she grabbed a pencil and indicated the point where the airport line began its sharp 180-degree turn towards the terminus 'and run the line up past here, skirting the outside of downtown - sorry, the "Central Business District" -, to this point on the Beacon line?'

'Yeah, that's the most obvious solution to me too, but I've sent surveyors out and they say it's not possible. Too much soft ground.'

'Fuck,' she muttered, biting her lip. 'Possibly then... here? We'll have to skirt through the outside of the CBD, but that seems better. Avoids that bog.'

'Nope,' he said simply, 'the Council have made it clear I've already mutilated their CBD enough with the existing plans. This chord can't touch it. Before they let me do any more than I already have planned to the city centre, I have to get some serious results. Beacon-can-stop-using-Bullheads type results.'

'Fuuuck,' she answered quietly.

'Fuck is right. I was thinking along here,' he indicated with his own pencil, 'through some of the more ghetto areas. It'll be cheaper, almost as fast, and still avoids that bog.'

'We'll be doing Faunus out of their homes,' Blake objected.

'We'll be doing that anyway!' he snapped. After a moment he sighed. 'I'm sorry, I'm irritated. Not with you, don't worry. I happen to agree with you, but I see no choice. It's that or the line doesn't get built. Oz wants to stop using Atlesian lorries for freight. I intend to let him, which means we need this chord to run through freight services from the airport. Pity about the Faunus, and pity about the Club we'll be knocking down, but hey, at least it'll happen.'

She looked at him for a long moment, clearly pained, but agreed. Then; 'Have you found someone to build your trains for you?'

'No,' he grimaced, 'No one wants that kind of responsibility. Apparently the issue is twofold. No one has ever built trains like the ones I've designed before. They've always been big and slow and full of weaponry, to fend off Grimm. They've never tried the "outrun them" approach. The result is no one is willing to risk their name being attached to a catastrophe if a train gets attacked, and no one wants to risk it being their workmanship that fails at 200 or in the future 250+km/h. Most importantly though, no one is willing to risk building trains that run on electricity rather than Dust, as they would basically be - in the SDC's eyes - going up against the SDC. They know their business wouldn't survive that, and honestly fair enough. I think we'll have to go in-house, which I'm honestly happy with. Gives us more control.'

'But... your electric trains might not have dust on-board, but they still run on a power grid powered by Dust through the catenary***... They wouldn't be going up against the SDC at all.'

'I know that, you know that, they know that, but they just don't want to risk it. As for the SDC, I really don't want to use Dust so I've been looking into alternative power sources. I might - might - have a solution, but it's coming along slowly.'

'What is it?'

'You know that big hydrogen power rush a few years ago?'

'Yes - my family did help to engineer that after all. We wanted fewer people using Dust. Pity it didn't work.'

'Well, turns out that while the SDC bought all the scientists and physicists involved with the original projects, not to mention blueprints and patents, they've accidentally let the contracts of some of them expire without strong-arming them into new ones like they apparently have with the rest of them. I managed to snap them up. It was really rather easy. Turns out the SDC has been paying them to quietly discover ways to use hydrogen as an anti-personnel weapon rather than an anti-Grimm weapon or power source. These guys didn't like that, and they're confident they have a newer, better reactor design which they were working on on the down-low. Tokamak magnetic confinement, or doughnut, rather than spherical inertial confinement. It'll apparently produce helium as its waste gas, and being inert we can use it in suspension components, motors, stuff like that. No waste. Even better, they predict they can have it ready to supply power within a year or maybe two, so at that point we'll be able to disconnect from the grid. They even think it'll be able to supply enough power for the desalination and electrolysis plants that supply it with hydrogen. If we can go fully independent with our railway's power delivery, I am confident we can keep ourselves White Fang-free.'

'That's amazing!' Her eyes had lit up and she was smiling like a little kid who'd just had Christmas come early. 'That's amazing! Why do you say "our", though? Isn't this your railway?'

'Sorry,' he grimaced, 'I just thought seeing as you've helped so much you'd like to get partial credit and stuff. If you don't want to that's alright and I'm sorry.'

'No, no,' she promised, 'it's okay, I do. I just wasn't expecting it, that's all.'

'You know, when I first roped you into this I had no idea you were so into trains,' he mused.

'To be honest neither did I, but when you - we - escaped the pre-planning and research stages and entered the planning stage it just kind of clicked. I suppose I like small, fast trains more than big, slow, hulking ones. Plus,' she smiled wryly, 'the irony of two Faunus planning and building a railway network for a city full of humans was too strong to ignore.'

He tilted his head in acknowledgement and then sighed. 'Well, we have a preliminary plan for a chord, I have phone calls to make, and you have accounting to do. Let's get this shit done.'

Definitions:

*London Paddington-esque.

**British class 745. Class 755 will come later ;).

***Overhead wires, Overhead Line Equipment (OLE), call it what you will. They're the wires, masts, and tensioning equipment that train pantographs interface with to deliver power to the train.

AN: Not sure what I think of this chapter. Can't decide if it's good or bad. It's certainly heavy on dialogue and exposition, and I think the timing is all over the place. Don't worry, most chapters will be far more Desmond-centric and contain far less dialogue. Yes, finally trains, but I couldn't find somewhere to end it smoothly, I'm not sure what to think of the timeskip, and I don't know if the fluff between Desmond and Blake is A) Well written, and B) Well placed, just to name a few issues I have with it. I'm actually really nervous to release it, which has never happened before. Just feels like people's expectations are high for this, and I really don't want to disappoint you all. It's a new feeling, and I actually really like it.

If you are, please review and let me know with a healthy dose of constructive criticism. Saying "Shit chapter" and unfollowing is a lot less helpful than saying "A, B, and C are wrong, but/and the chapter is/feels overall strong/weak/good/bad." I of course take all criticism and feedback on board, or I wouldn't be asking for it. Pretty massive timeskip in this chapter. A solid two or three months. I've rewritten parts of the timing a few times, and if you find any that contradict please let me know as I have forgotten to change it or missed it :)

There are some things that happen in this chapter that I haven't elaborated on. Trust me, that's deliberate.

Responses to Reviews:

Engineer1869: I am sure a burn scar around the neck wasn't quite what you had in mind as an alternative, but oh well :) As for Jaune, spoilers :p. Thank you for your review, and I do hope this chapter is as interesting as the last.

ThatSpaceMann2: Sinks, traffic jams, I see no difference. They both need more trains!

ThatSpaceMann2 2: Thank you! Thank you for your reviews.

vmoneywashere: Very true, and I've noticed that a lot. I wonder if it's because it's less interesting, or is more difficult to write, or something. Characters are here, and then they're there, and there's no mention generally of how they teleported halfway across a metropolis. Thank you for your review!

selfishgecko: Fair enough. I hope it keeps your attention. If not, thank you for trying it anyway, and thank you for your review.

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Even if I didn't mention you by name during this (now very long) postscript/AN, thank you all! Your support motivates me to keep working.

Parts of this chapter, and this work going forward, take inspiration and cues from "Nyaaaaa!" by Mallobaude, and from the Coeurverse (Double or triple trait Faunus, and Kitsune the sadistic doctor, so far.)

If you are interested in being a beta for this story, please do reach out.