LXVI - Wane
Mild warning: Ox doesn't have a happy time in this chapter.
~~~(LXVI)~~~
Oxon groaned as the first retracted from his abdomen. There was a dull, throbbing pain spread out over his body and face. Thankfully, whether by choice, luck, or their height difference, very few of her blows hit him above the neck.
"So, you're going to stay stubborn?"
The girl, despite her petite stature, was a tough and strong woman. Since he'd had his aura broken when the electric bolo hit him, he'd been feeling every hit. It didn't help that he had been stripped of his armor before he woke.
That was worrying, but not as much as what was happening to the others. He didn't know if they were trapped in the same situation he was or not. He was hopeful that Qrow's apparent in with the general gave them some leeway. And hopefully some of that would trickle down to help out Oxon.
Yet there was one other issue in front of him. The woman working him over was under some misconception that he had information on Cinder and Salem. With each denial, she only became more frustrated. Something his stomach was starting to feel…
"I k-keep t-telling you." Oxon coughed. "You're barking up the wrong tree! Whatever plans Cinder had are moot, the bitch was made dead by Raven Branwen. As for the others, I never met the big guy before Haven, and I've never even seen the crazy faunus."
"And I keep telling you," The woman emphasized her statement by grabbing a fistful of his undershirt. His armor was somewhere else, along with his weapons. He didn't even feel his boot knife. "I don't believe a word of that, so we're going to keep going until we get the truth from you."
The truth is that I don't know shit you dwarf! I'd told Vale all I knew a year ago, it's not like Cinder was sending me her plans in the mail! Oxon coughed harshly and felt a web of pain pulse over his lower body. If they're going to arrest me, then they best better do it already…
"I don't have the information you're looking for."
"If you can't tell me anything about the future, then tell me their motivations at Beacon. According to the reports, Cinder Fall had been going around Vale and recruiting various criminal elements. Three known examples are Roman Torchwick, The White Fang, and you who worked for a crime family in Vale." Oxon was surprised they knew that. Though he hadn't been a criminal until- wait no, he'd robbed a fair number of shops with Roman when he worked for both him and Junior. Also, was looting destroyed settlements a crime?
"I don't know a whole lot, she didn't trust me as far as she could throw me. The only thing I was aware of was that Cinder was after some sorta power, now I know it was the maidens power. I thought she was after some type of weapon, not some mystical ancient power."
Suddenly, the light barrier once more blinked off temporarily, allowing a not so sight for sore eyes. Oxon mentaly groaned at the worsening situation. She was probably the one who had more than enough reasons to hate him.
"Miss Schnee!" The girl clacked her heels together and gave a crisp salute.
"At ease, Bree." The white haired woman confidently strode into the room. Her eyes looked over his form for a moment before looking at her peer. "Anything of note?"
"Not as of yet, he claims to not be aware of any of Salem's current plans and claims ignorance for Cinder's previous plot."
So they were aware of the big bad bitch as well?
"Thank you for your work, Harriet, you are dismissed. I shall take over from here." The girl gave one last salute to Winter and a final glare at Oxon before she left the interrogation room. Looking at the icy glare from the elder Schnee, he almost wished for her to come back.
Almost.
~~~(LXVI)~~~
Winter Schnee hated very few people in her life. Her father was chief among the despised, and until recently the board of the SDC was second, and a few previous Councilors in varying areas after. Somewhere was her mother, but that was more like unfathomable disappointment and loathing.
Now, there was a new name on her list.
"Oxon Adhmad." The prisoner before her looked up from the ground and she noticed the forming bruises on his face, stomach and chest. There were purple discolorations peeking through tears on his outfit. It seemed like the fabric of the shirt he arrived in had also gotten snagged and ripped on Harriet's gauntlets.
"Hello, Winter. Uhhh… been a while..?"
She narrowed her eyes, causing him to cease his attempt at a greeting. "I assume Harriet has filled you in on your position here." She has no time for a poor attempt at small talk, least of all with him. The young man glanced at his joined wrists as they hung above his head and then to the second pair around his ankles.
"Yeah, not exactly a hard thing to understand." Oxon rattled the luminous chains for extra effect. The display did not impress her or make her feel any sympathy.
"After facing justice in Vale, you escaped from their prison system. How?"
He was suspiciously silent for a moment before eventually speaking. "Well, not exactly how I expected my sentence to go. I wasn't even expecting to get freed. I just happened to be locked up alongside more than a few high value White Fang members. Adam Taurus wanted them back."
Of course, the Fang had raided prison convoys in the past, this made perfect sense. After weakening Vale, the prison where members arrested before and during The Fall would have been under less security. It was regrettable that the general did not ask for him to be extradited.
"And you joined up with Adam afterwards?"
The teen let out a snort one that clearly caused him pain the next second. He mumbled to himself about not doing that again.
"Not exactly, he promised me information on Cinder if I delivered a letter for him, I didn't expect to be sent to Menagerie. From there, I was pretty quickly betrayed by the local cell and forced to help them." She was about to condemn him for that but he continued speaking. "He was pretty surprised when I showed up with an army of faunus at my back in Mistral. We kicked his and the rest of the White Fang's ass that night and he ran away like an errant leaf."
The other students of Beacon said the same thing, that he'd been present at the battle at Haven and fought in its defense. They also said he'd been present for and contributed in the fight that claimed the life of the terrorist leader. She then questioned him on those events.
"I was at Haven for Adam. I hoped to find Cinder too, but only ran into her underlings. I never expected to find Ruby and the others, it was a major surprise. I don't know if you are aware of Hazel and his skill, but that guy broke through my semblance and still managed to send me flying, he's bad news." Winter mentally jotted that down for her report to the general. She was aware of Oxon's semblance. Kinetic force inflicted by him is absorbed into his aura, creating a defensive shell that can negate blows of varying force depending on how much he charges up. A useful power, and a suitable warning of how strong this Hazel is. "As for the final fight with Taurus, it was all his fault. The guy stalked us over the continent, Blake primarily, and tried to kill her. Then kill Yang and I when we backed her up. There was no negotiating with him."
He did not look disappointed at that, she noted.
"If it were your words alone, that story would not hold water in my eyes." He looked down and to the side. "But the story has been verified by my sister's friends and by our base in Argus. His body was found washed up on a beach near the communication tower you attempted to disable."
She heard him mumble a curse and "good riddance" at the confirmation.
"So two terrorists dead and one in chains." He let out a humorless laugh and looked up at his chains. "I don't suppose I'll be able to leave here?"
"For your many crimes, now including escaping prison, Atlas will be the one to mette out your punishment. The aid given to Haven and against Adam Taurus will be considered, but I would not hold onto any hope of a short sentence." Winter reached forward and grasped a fistful of his hair to make him look at her. "The rest of your group may believe that you have turned over a new leaf, but I do not. People like you, criminals, do not change. You are fooling them for now and perhaps even fooling yourself as well, but eventually you would have slipped up and gone back on them. That is why we will be keeping you here. Permanently."
"Yeah, kinda expected this…" Rather than afraid, he looked almost accepting. "But I gotta think that it was worth it."
"What you believe is meaningless." She released his head and took a step back. She didn't like the slight smile on his face. "I do not normally take pleasure in seeing people put in shackles, but for you, I'll make an exception."
He sagged slightly. "It's personal, I get it."
His attitude pissed her off.
"I don't think you do!" Her blade sang as it came out of its sheath and the blade rested under his chin and against his jugular. "I don't think you quite understand just how much of an eyesore you are. It's not common that I am wrong about a person, and I am glad to see my initial thoughts on you were correct. I should not have let Weiss continue that foolish relationship back in Beacon."
That put a frown on his face.
"Making decisions for her." He spoke with more confidence than he had any right to possess. "How very "Jacques" of you."
With a snarl she removed the blade from his neck and struck him in the cheek with her guard. There were many things she wanted to say to him; to do to him. Biting her tongue, she refrained. Using her experience in the military and back in the manor, she composed herself and turned to leave him. If he wanted to judge her for her love for her sister, then he could do so in a cell.
Despite her intentions, she wasn't able to leave without one last word.
"When we kill Salem, the world will finally be at peace and the other kingdoms will realize how much they need us. You, however, will be remembered as one who stood against humanity. Unless you are forgotten about entirely." As she dropped the hard light barrier, she heard him chuckle. With a frown, she turned to look back at him. He had a grin on his face, but not one that looked happy. "And why is that amusing?"
"It's just that your plans don't account for one thing." He looked over at her from his awkward position, deep green eyes meeting her blue ones. "The wicked witch can't die."
~~~(LXVI)~~~
The group was meeting in the new team RWBY dorm. The meeting yesterday with general Ironwood and Winter Schnee had not gone quite as expected. They learned that the general had told his people about Salem, a move that apparently went counter to what Ozpin would have liked.
Blake vocally stepped forward to kick off the much needed conversation. "So what is our plan now? I mean, we're not telling the general the whole truth. Is that wise?"
"We said we'd follow Ruby's lead." And she'd stick to that promise. "It might be a bit awkward to go back there and tell him we lied in our first meeting. We need to build up some goodwill with the people here."
"I think this is a bad idea. Not giving him the information about Salem feels like a mistake. He's probably the best person to tell."
"It does feel kinda crummy…"
Ruby shook her head at Oscar's and Nora's worries. "We saw what Mantle looked like. I don't know if it's his worry that makes the kingdom look like this, but we've seen how they work."
"Yeah, they're the shoot first, ask questions later kinda people." Normally she tended to as well, but not like this. Not on this scale.
"Yang's exactly right. If we only had a chance to talk things out, I doubt Oxon's would have been taken away the way he was. He probably would have still been arrested, but not in that manner." Jaune turned to give the kid a regretful smile. "Sorry Oscar, but I think it's a good idea to hold onto a few of our cards right now."
"Well if our fearless leader agrees, then I'm down." The bubbly girl bounced back quickly from her moment of doubt.
She was surprised when Oscar stepped forward.
"I don't like this. I don't want to sit here when I could help. I know I might not be Ozpin, or Ozma really, but I don't eat to accept this situation." The young boy has a determination in his eyes that Yang could respect. She felt the same, but didn't know how she would be able to help. The general may have said he'd look at the information they gave him, but she doubted he'd be very lenient.
"I'm sure the general will honor his promise, we just have to be patient and not upset him. If we go and piss him off, then Ox may be the one to suffer." She tried to sound jovial, but she just saw him clench his fists. "I'm sure he'd appreciate the worry, but he should be fine."
"He's done a lot for me, and for the rest of us…" The boy looked at the others around him. "I know he's done bad things, but I can't in good conscience let him be taken away from us. Especially in that way."
"You and Oxon get along well, I've noticed." Ren was his usual collected self in this situation. "Something that has been a surprise."
Lilac eyes roved over to glance at the Mistralian.
Like Yang, he and his team had been "unenthusiastic" about having him back at first. She wasn't sure when they started to really come to terms with it, but they weren't hostile anymore. Even Jaune tended to ignore him instead of glare at him anymore. Something she could understand and yet her own feelings were still a bit uncertain.
He'd done a lot of nice things before The Fall: He'd made Weiss pretty happy, helped her out with the Blake situation, he helped Jaune finally beat Cardin, and a few other smaller things here and there. It's an understatement to say she was hurt by his betrayal and had been happy to see him punished. And at the time, she thought that was the end of it. Then he showed up again at Haven, and not on Cinder's side if his kicking of Mercury's ass was anything to go off of. Even so, she wanted to beat him black and blue then and there, but Blake held her back.
And that was another thing! Their whole relationship situation was a hard thing to get a grasp of. Yang could count the number of conversations they'd had at Beacon on one hand, it was that sparse. Hell, she'd been pissy about their fight for a whole week as well! So now they're suddenly super close and also siblings? She'd wanted to call bullshit, but Blake's mom clearly adored him and kept fussing over him in a way that made her jealous.
She acted as if she was his mother.
She'd only had that for a few short years and Ruby barely even remembered it.
She missed that.
She missed having a mom.
She missed Summer.
Clearly Oxon missed his own as well and didn't fight the attention unlike Blake. It has been pretty amusing watching her use him as a human shield for her mom. The big lug never even seemed to notice the fact, too focused on Kali.
"It's unfortunate that this has happened, but it's something that he had anticipated." The group looked over to Blake as she leaned against the wall. Her expression was measured, but Yang could see the frustration beneath. "There was always a good possibility of being arrested if he came with us to Atlas, but he came anyway. I tried to get him to stay safe and follow Sun to Vacuo, but he refused. He said: "He couldn't abandon us, not now.""
"Wasn't he in jail in Vale for a good while?" Blake seemed to frown at that fact. "I'm sure he can last as long as it takes for us to figure something out."
"We need to actually figure something out though… A way to convince the general." Nora made a good point. "How will we convince "Mr. Law and Order" himself into letting Ox out?"
There was a moment of thought as the assembled teens wracked their brains. Eventually, Jaune came up with a thought. "Community service? I know that's usually for small offenses, but it could work?"
Weiss seemed interested but still cautious. "That's if the general will listen. He seemed pretty firm earlier. We can run it by him, but we should try and come up with backup plans before we try. He might just throw away the key if we do anything too heavy handed."
"I don't like the idea of leaving him on his own. His time in prison… It wasn't good. Not by a mile." Blake closed her eyes as if she was recalling something. "Atlas isn't known for it's kind treatment of criminals, especially terrorists. It could likely be worse than what he went through before. I am worried about what might happen to him."
"How long will this take? Weeks? Months?" Oscar shook his head with a frown. "He's been a valuable member of our team since Haven, earlier for the events in Menagerie…"
"The issue is his past." Weiss looked over with an empathetic gaze at Oscar. "While we have, mostly, forgiven him. Much of the world has not and likely will not. We got lucky that Mistral was willing to turn a temporary blind eye to him. But if global communication has still been up and their forces not gutted, they might have been less willing to show that mercy."
"I don't care about his past. I know he is a good person from what I've seen. He's treated me well despite everything he and we have been through, I refuse to not even try to repay that kindness as quickly as possible. I am going to speak with the general on his behalf. I owe it to him since Oxon didn't get mad at me because of what Ozpin did…" He made a pretty valid point, not one anyone was able to argue against. With that, the boy left the room before anyone could get a word in.
"Oscar, wait!" Ruby made to follow him until Jaune stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.
He gave her a small smile. "Let's let him try, I'm sure he'll surprise us."
She gave him a brief pout. "I wasn't going to stop him, I was going to join him." That made Jaune's firm look falter as he gave her a bashful smile. "Ahhhh… Oops, sorry Ruby." He looked out the door, but from his expression, Oscar was already gone. "Uh, maybe we can still catch him?"
Yang rolled her eyes as Ruby bodily dragged the taller blonde out the door and after the former farmhand.
"Well, let's hope that doesn't make things worse…"
~~~(LXVI)~~~
"Sir, are you sure this is a good idea?"
He looked back to glance at his subordinate. The girl was furious, he could tell. As well as she could hide the signs from most people, he knew he could read her better than most. She had been a student back when he was a Colonel, and he'd watched her career with great interest. She'd been the eldest born Schnee and heir to the SDC, yet she joined the military.
She had been loyal to the kingdom and its mission from the start and quickly rose through the ranks. Not due to outside influence of the SDC like many rumors suggested, but due to her high drive and motivation. She was a valuable member of his team, and he valued her input.
"I understand your frustration, Winter." He did, truly. After the dangerous and unthanked work of his men and women back in Vale, to see one of the collaborators walking free formed a flash of anger in him. He too wanted to see Adhmad back behind bars.
But the students of Vale were persistent.
He didn't know how the boy had repaired the burnt bridges, but the students and the new host for Ozpin were upset at his actions. He'd been ready to ignore their requests and demands for the sake of security, but after thinking on the possibilities, Ironwood reconsidered.
The two leaders of the present teams advocated heavily for their ally to be released. Ruby was allowed entry due to the nature of her eyes, a powerful gift that ended the Grimm dragon threat. The other was Jaune Arc; a mystery to Ironwood still, the boy having been allowed to enroll despite the obvious forgeries. Be it due to the boy's lineage or something else, the old wizard felt it necessary to let him try. And Ironwood has to admit, he had impressed him.
The two were strong for their age, commanded strong and influential allies, and would greatly help them in the coming war.
Speaking of the old wizard, that was another reason for allowing Oxon some semblance of freedom. It was a tragedy that Oz was not currently present for unknown reasons, but the host still is conscious. Showing some kindness may help put the boy on his side. While he had to wait for Ozpin to come back, convincing the new host, Oscar, to be on good terms with the kingdom could only benefit Atlas.
"Letting him out is a risk, allowing him to take part in the Amity Project seems unwise."
"I don't believe so." She gave him a skeptical look as Ironwood turned to look out the window. It is a beautiful view, all of Atlas and Mantle spread out beneath him, reminding him every day of his duty. To protect it all. "He has nothing. He might have won their affection, but that is all he has. From what information we gathered, he has no home or family. His old allies, if they find or track him down, would likely try to kill him on sight. Without my or any of our say so, he cannot leave his room, let alone the city."
Ironwood angled his head so to glance back at the woman
"It is by my mercy that he can work off his crimes instead of wasting away in a rightfully deserved cell, and we can use that. Especially if our new allies don't seem willing to share important information."
Winter's report about them using the lamp and discovering the truth about Salem was a shock. The fact the witch was immortal was even more so. Many of his plans had died then and there since taking the fight to her would only fail and cause too big a loss for so little. The Amity plan would work still, telling the world about Salem was critical so they could all prepare for her. Some may decide to turn on humanity in a vain attempt at survival or power, but he would see them defeated.
"The information he gave us on Salem is worrisome, the fact that Ruby, Ozpin's new body, and Qrow did not share that with us is equally so." She looked down in shame. "And that Weiss did not either. Do you think what he said was true?"
"That they are worried about your and my own mental state?" She flinched at the words but nodded anyway. "It's a worrisome prospect, but they have not been in Atlas, they do not know how the world has begun to look at us. In time I'm sure they will begin to place their trust in us once more when they see that the actions I have taken are necessary and justified."
"Yes sir."
"For now, we leave them be, we will give them licenses as well and have them work here in the kingdom. I will think of how we will deal with Adhmad later."
"And my suggestion for monitoring him? To ensure he does not tell the group about us knowing of their deception?"
"While the audio monitor may work to keep him from vocalizing, and even a camera to watch him as well, I have doubts that it would work." His soldiers also have similar tech installed in their armor, but they were willing. Adhmad would likely try to find a way around it or make him become better at hiding things. "No. While I have requested him not to share our discovery with his "friends", I doubt it would work, if we bugged the gear he knows so well, he'd be even more wary of us. I'd prefer it if he kept the secret, but he could easily just write it down and hand it to them. The same issues exist with a camera."
He heard winter let out a frustrated sigh and only that. "Understood, sir. If we can't monitor him, could I at least request that-" Him raising a hand silenced her.
"I know what you want to ask, Winter. And I know why." The girl had made it clear with her attitude. "I will see if I can place your sister on missions where his participation would be prohibited, most of the work on the Amity Project is classified and not something we can let a security risk be involved in. If she decides to accept such missions, she won't be near him. But I won't risk making them more suspicious by restricting their options."
This time a relieved sigh escaped her and her posture straightened. Really, the girl was almost too protective of her sister. Then again, he never had any siblings, so he wouldn't know the same worry she had. Perhaps it was like how he felt for his kingdom?
"But that means you're considering letting him have freedom to work in other sectors? They would be low risk, I assume?"
"Yes." Moving back from the window, Ironwood looked over mission requests from both Atlas and Mantle. There were many more located on the grounded city, more than a few with no worry of Oxon finding out anything that could be leaked. The illusion of choice would be given to him, but nothing that would put his plans in jeopardy.
"I have a few ideas."
~~~(LXVI)~~~
It had been two days since they arrived in Atlas, and no progress has been made on the Ox situation. They also continued to keep the general in the dark, something that had a few of them uneasy about.
This morning, they had been summoned down to the research and development area of the academy.
"Sooooo…. You said we could get our gear upgraded?" eyed the office/ laboratory with a critical eye. It seemed similar to the one back in Beacon. She could see a bit of familiar equipment here and there. Except this stuff was totally more advanced and Ruby was zipping around the place at mach speed with a manic grin that looked like it wasn't going away anytime soon.
"Yes, while I'm sure your gear is more than capable of killing Grimm, there's always more that can be improved upon."
Yang hummed in acceptance and relinquished Ember Celica and traded the man for a temporary prosthetic. It felt wrong to be unarmed, even if only for a few days. Taking a deep breath she remembered that she was safe here and felt much better on the release.
"If you have any requests, feel free to send them forward and I'll see what I can do."
From down the way she heard a light "thwack" accompanied by a mildly pained cry.
"No, Nora, I will not wear a "Mankini", think of the climate here."
With an awkward look at his teammates, Jaune coughed into his fist before speaking to the old man. "I was hoping for some dust function for my shield. Something to help me be a bit more well rounded."
"I'm sure I can put something together, I'll make some blueprints and send them to you before I start working on it. How does that sound? I'll come up with ideas for your armor as well, to make it a bit more durable and modern."
"That's awesome!"
"How about the rest of us? Not all of us really use armor like his?"
"Well, Atlas has pioneered more than a few lightweight yet durable fabrics over the years." The man tapped away at a nearby computer to look at said materials. "I can have something made in conjunction with our uniform division. I can create a few sketches or you could send me ones yourselves if you prefer."
"I'll be sure to put something together." She rolled her eyes at the sparkle in Weiss' eyes. There were going to be a lot of wasted sketchbook pages in their new dorm soon.
Turning from his computer, the man spidered over to a table a few feet away. away. It had a few familiar sights.
"Speaking of armor, I had the chance to inspect the gear of your friend, Oxon if I recall correctly." That got a few more eyes looking his way and he laughed at the obvious interest. "It's certainly more heavy duty than what most huntsmen work with, if a bit simple. I can tell that everyone but Jaune and him tend to focus on speed over defense."
"Yeah, that broody guy is a real tank!" Nora gave a big grin and mimed swinging her hammer. "He only slides a foot back when he blocks maginhild!"
Blake pushed forward, clearly focused on the first half of what that man said. "Wait, why do you have his stuff?"
Either not hearing or just plain ignoring the suspicious tone in her partner's voice, the man pulled out what looked like one of Oxon's gauntlets. It's smaller size made it likely to be the one for his right hand. He began fiddling with it and a few odd bits of tech before her repeating the question got him to respond.
"The general asked me to make an analysis of his gear for him. He wants to know exactly what he uses as well as to modify a few things to make the boy less of a threat to the kingdom." He definitely saw the angry glare Blake sent him at that. "I know what you're thinking, but it's mostly a precautionary measure the general feels is necessary. A few additional items will be made in order to give him and a few other members of the council and military a bit of reassurance. Though I doubt the boy will much approve."
"Well, the last interaction we know about was the Ace-Ops tasing him." The flat look did make the older scientist frown for a moment, but he recovered quickly.
"It's unfortunate that he went through that. It's always a shame when violence wins out over words." He let out a sigh as he placed some sort of contraption around the wrist of the gauntlet. "But I believe this is a better alternative than him being locked away."
"Wait what!?"
"He's getting out? Is that why you're tinkering with his gear?"
"Can we get him a mecha-bull!?"
The group and the doctor turned to look at Nora with a range of looks. Most questioning her sanity. As usual, she pushed through any slim amount of embarrassment and doubled down. "What? He said he rode one back in his home? Wouldn't that be a cool thing to see?"
"I think that might be a bit much, all things considered." She gave a small but happy pout to her partner.
"Moving on from Oxon's robo-steer…" Weiss walked forward to inspect the various bits of gear on the table that Pietro was working on. She looked closely at what was happening and did not look happy.
"Why are there gravity dust rings being welded to his gauntlets?"
"Hahhh…" The man rubbed his forehead after letting out a sigh. "I was hoping you wouldn't see this until it was done, but it seems the cat is out of the bag now. The general and Specialist Schnee came up with a few cautionary measures in order for your friend to have a bit of freedom. These additions to his armor are a part of those."
The man cleared off a bit of space on his desk and placed the two gauntlets a few feet apart. Next, he pulled out his scroll and handed it to the girl in front of him. Yang couldn't really see what was in it, but Weiss must have.
"Go on, press the button on the screen."
Weiss did, and the gauntlets sped towards each other before locking together rather violently. The loud din of the two heavy hand guards crashing together startled her and the others. The purpose of the additions were clear.
"They're scroll activated handcuffs…"
"Yes. As I was told, Mr. Adhmad will not be allowed out of his cell unless accompanied by at least two handlers. Whoever it is at that time will have access to the code necessary to activate the restraints." He gestured to a pair of boots on a separate desk. "His feet will also be the same."
Blake stormed forward to get a better look at the improvised shackles. When at the table, she tried to separate the two gauntlets but had no success. She tried again after putting aura into her limbs, once that failed, she sent a glance at her.
Yang let out a sigh as she stepped forward and put her hands into the gauntlets. They were more than a few sizes bigger than Ember Celica, she noted. With a burst of aura boosted strength, she too attempted to separate both halves.
No dice.
"I can't, I don't think you could either."
"Whaaaat? Really?" Nora had been looking at the "improved" gear as a challenge.
"This can't be right!" Blake was visibly shaking in anger and Weiss wasn't much better. "We all told Ironwood that Oxon wasn't a threat! There's no need for these measures!"
"It's not that simple. The Vytal Festival was broadcast to every city, town, and village with a signal. And then the fight between Nikos and my daughter happened." Nobody needed clarification on that. "The whole world watched as a kingdom was almost brought down. Everyone of course wanted answers and justice. Low level White Fang members and the occasional officer were helpful in bringing anger down, but it was the arrest of one of the believed "ringleaders" that got people to cheer. I and the general now know he wasn't actually one, but that had been what was published across this kingdom. If he's seen in the street walking as free as one of you, the people will go into uproar."
"But what if we tell people he helped defend Haven?"
He turned to face Ruby with a sad smile.
"Do you have any evidence on hand? No, I don't think you lied about that." He had cut off her sister before she could say anything. "I'm just saying that if there's no proof, the council and the people won't trust you on word alone."
"And the work you're doing isn't just to his armor, isn't it?" His guns were laid out as well. The revolvers his brother gave him, his old logging ax turned rifle, and the short barrel shotgun hatchet were arranged and in various levels of taken apart.
Ox would lose his shit if he saw his stuff like this.
"No, due to me being under orders to do so, I will be limiting his offensive capabilities as well."
He's reeeeeally not going to like that…
~~~(LXVI)~~~
Apologies for the long time between updates, I've kinda been in a mental slump and needed to recover. Thankfully, I am indeed still alive lol. I'll try and not repeat the long slump that I went through last year where there was a few months between updates. I do appreciate having folks worry.
As we can see, it's not a great first day in Atlas for ol Ox. Poor dude is getting nerfed. Does Harriet seem out of character? Idk, I always saw her as a bit more vicious than the other Ace-Ops. Also far too eager to follow shitty orders.
I know the whole "squad" got upgraded gear, and I'm trying to decide on whether or not Ox gets some too. (Not now of course, since there are two scenes weeks apart where they get new toys) I mean I just gave him New Leaf, and Oxon isn't even a big tech guy per the story, but I do have some possible ideas as to what upgrades for our boi could be. Either way, most of em wouldn't really affect the story drastically (one would though) and I'm having a hard time deciding what to do. Ugh…
Please drop a review if you could! Helps me know how folks feel about things!