Cinnamon rolled her neck as she adjusted the collar of her uniform yet again. The stretchy, skintight white camouflage pattern of the bodysuit was a stark contrast to her usual, primarily orange sarong, though it was far warmer due to its built-in insulation. A black section of padded mesh ran up the center of the suit, and splashes of her signature orange were present around her left leg in a spiral pattern and around her ribs on the same side. The stretchy material squeezed tightly against the lionfish spines upon her triceps, providing her just as much constant, low-level annoyance as her present company did.
Arthur Watts sat near the front of the cargo hold, tapping away at a personal laptop while largely ignoring the others in the room. Beneath the bench and partially hidden behind his legs was a black briefcase with silver lining, the contents of which Cinnamon found particularly worrying. To Arthur's left sat Emerald Sustrai, who had spent the entire flight with her eyes glued to floor. Across the hold was Scarlet David, in the process of checking that his pistol was loaded for the fifth time since takeoff.
"Nervous, Red?" Cinnamon asked casually as she wrapped her fingers around one of the overhead metal bars.
"It's Scarlet," the teen insisted, giving her a moody look with the eye that wasn't covered by his crimson curtain of hair. "And… a little. This is my first big assignment for Salem…"
"Fortunately for all of you, I'll be doing the majority of the work," Arthur said without looking up. "I'm here to monitor communications, disrupt Atlesian systems when and where I see fit, and cause a bit of civil unrest down in Mantle. You three are functionally just bodyguards."
"Why's that? Can't defend yourself?" Cinnamon asked flippantly.
Arthur looked over the lid of his laptop. His eyes held an analytical sort of hatred, as though he was sizing the woman up. His mustache twitched briefly, perhaps to indicate that he didn't like the results of his quick study, before he returned his attention to the screen before him.
"…I can handle myself just fine. Think of it as insurance. Preparing Atlas for her arrival is too important of a task to leave to one man."
"And what are we doing to 'prepare Atlas', Watts?" Emerald asked, her voice a bit strained. "Why are all of us being kept in the dark? These two are new, but I've been at this for two years. I should be worth more than an expendable body to draw heat from you. Without my semblance, we wouldn't have be-"
"Yes, yes, your semblance was of great help at Beacon… and supposedly Haven, as well," Arthur said dismissively. "I'll use you as I see fit."
"You'll use me?" Emerald asked as she narrowed her eyes.
"If you're smart, you'll use all of us," Cinnamon cut in. "I'm a capable technician, and I've built many devices that the Fang profited from. If it's related to technology, I can play an assistant role."
"Have you?" Arthur asked before his lip curled into a sneer as he looked over his laptop once again. "Devices like the bombs that failed at Haven?"
Cinnamon managed to keep her composure as all eyes in the cargo hold turned to her, but only just.
"…I made the mistake of entrusting their deployment to an assistant of mine," Cinnamon explained calmly. "Ilia Amitola. She's now a part of Sun's crew, in Atlas."
Scarlet's face pulled into an ugly scowl at the mention of Sun. Arthur shot the boy a look of warning, which didn't go unnoticed.
"…allow me to take a moment to remind you, Mr. David, that personal grudges come second to our work in Mantle. As for you, Miss Shoal," Arthur began as he met her unreadable gaze with one of his own, "if you couldn't trust an assistant with technology, then why should I trust you as mine?"
"Simple," Cinnamon answered with a shrug. "Ilia screwed me over and then ran for the hills immediately afterward. If I were to try that? There is nowhere to run… especially once the assault on Mantle begins. What am I going to do, run out into the snow fields? Try to take a boat to Argus into a horde of grimm out for my blood? Or do you think I'm going to partner up with Sun, who I tried to assassinate mere weeks ago? I have no options, Watts. I may as well try to ensure that Salem sees me as useful while I'm here. Staying alive is my top priority. I'm not stupid."
The staredown between the two continued in silence for almost a full minute, as Watts stopped typing to give the faunus woman his full attention. Quite suddenly, the clicking of his keyboard started up again, and he briefly narrowed his eyes at her before returning his attention to his screen.
"…I'll make this simple for you. I don't trust you. I don't trust any of the three of you."
"You don't trust me?" Emerald asked as she bristled. "I've d-"
"I've spoken to Tyrian," Watts interrupted. "He told me several things of interest about you, and your conversations with Mr. Black. All three of you are in a position where you'll have to prove your loyalty before I allow you to do anything more than function as escorts."
"Tch," Emerald spat as she stood and stomped her way to the front of the hold. Cinnamon leaned to one side to allow the younger woman to pass. She couldn't help but smirk as she watched Emerald disappear through the sliding door and into the cockpit.
"…we'll be making landfall at the bay outside of Mantle soon," Arthur observed without breaking focus from his typing. "From there, we head into the sewers, and follow the tunnels into the city. Scarlet, you'll be on point. I trust you can handle something as simple as navigation through the tunnels?"
"Yes, Sir," Scarlet replied as he popped open his firearm once again.
"Good."
Cinnamon moved to occupy Emerald's former seat before pulling out her scroll. She watched as one of the odd rings around Arthur's fingers lit up in her peripheral vision, before hesitating with her thumb just over the fingerprint scanner of her device. Without taking her eyes off the screen, she checked the time on the lock screen before slipping the device back into her pocket. The dim glow from Arthur's fingers faded, and Cinnamon's nose twitched in response. She spent the rest of the flight in silence, reveling at the disappointed look on the man's face.
Weiss felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach as she reread the text for a third time, wishing it had said anything else.
I'm sorry, Weiss. I can't make a meeting like this on such short notice.
Weiss closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, well aware of all of the eyes expectantly upon her.
"Winter… can't make it. Could we please discuss my father and the election another time? I don't think I can really… explain it as well as she can."
"Just… tell me one thing," Ilia flatly as she gave Weiss a sour look. "Do you promise me you'll make his life hell to the best of your ability?"
"Of course I will!" Weiss emphasized. "We all will… and Winter, too. Believe me, Ilia, I want nothing more to see him thrown in jail for what he's done to the faunus people, but we don't have the means, at the moment. If we're lucky, he'll get elected and do something to make it easier to pull his throne out from beneath him. He is family to me in name only, and even then, he's not a Schnee. Not really."
"Then I'll just… try to let it go," Ilia resolved with a sigh as she stood up from her couch and walked over toward Weiss'. "Sorry for being… you already know. I've said it like five times already since we got here. Still feel guilty, though…"
"…I know," Weiss reassured as the faunus took a seat next to her and offered a hand. Weiss lightly placed hers into Ilia's palm and gave the other girl a gentle squeeze. "And I'm sorry for dropping that on you suddenly during our meeting with Ironwood. It was… tense. He makes me nervous."
"He makes all of us nervous," Yang added from her place leaning next to the door to the hallway. "He's also playing games with us. I'm starting to side with Ilia on that notion."
"You… are?" Jaune asked as he placed his hand down on the vacant spot between himself and Sun on the other couch. "He's been giving us a lot of opportunities and perks thus far."
Sun looked across at Jaune and the crown of malformed, half-eaten pygmy bananas that were masquerading as hair just above his brow.
"…he has, yeah, but it does feel like he's testing us. I'm starting to have second thoughts about the footage from Vale."
"I'm not," Yang denied as she pushed off the wall and approached the group. "We have it? We use it."
"What about his warning?" Weiss asked as she watched Yang take a seat between Sun and Jaune. "He gave us everything, but there was a caveat."
"One that he didn't explain," Ilia pointed out.
"One that he didn't need to explain," Yang grumbled. "He's fucking with us. He's daring us to show that footage to Hope, because he doesn't trust us, even after bringing him the lamp. And if we do… it's going to end badly for us."
"That's one way to look at it, sure," Jaune proposed. "But I think it's… the opposite. He's giving us the power to do what he'd rather we didn't do because he trusts us."
"That's still a test, and not the kind of stress we need right now! Having that footage itself is stressful enough!"
Sun's tail flicked wildly in the space between him and the armrest. Eventually he shook his head and heaved a sigh, before giving Yang a guilty look.
"Alright, I'm… I'm gonna be the asshole," Sun resigned as he folded his hands in his lap. "I think asking Ironwood for the footage was a mistake. All it's done is start to make a rift between us and pulled more and more of our focus toward Hope. Finding out whether Hope and Penny are at all connected… it isn't our problem. Ironwood's made that pretty clear, and outside of keeping eyes on her when she's spying on us and working alongside her… Yang, I… think you should drop it. Seriously. We have bigger problems."
Yang gave Sun a venomous glare, though the boy didn't turn away.
"…so you're telling me that you don't want to know whether or not the people we're working for think it's absolutely fine to turn a former friend of ours into nothing more than a weapon?"
"Penny is dead," Weiss replied with a sense of finality in her tone. "She's gone, Yang. It's obvious. It's been obvious. The shell named 'Hope' isn't going to jump into Ruby's arms when they meet again. Maybe that's not okay, but maybe Sun is right. Maybe… maybe now isn't the time, while Salem is poised to make a move on all of Remnant."
Yang looked between Sun and Weiss, before exhaling sharply through her nose and running her hands through her hair.
"…so you're telling me to just drop it. Entirely," Yang replied.
"…if you want to talk to Dr. Polendina and find out why things are the way they are… then I'm not going to stop you," Sun clarified. "But I don't think anything good can come out of asking Hope herself or continuing down this path. I think the past has a place and should be kept in mind, but we're holding a proverbial time bomb in that drive, and when it goes off… who it affects is up in the air. Maybe Ironwood's right not to trust us, if we can't see that."
"We… all have things we need to set aside," Jaune said quietly. "Or maybe not set aside, but just… make peace with. I needed to stop letting Pyrrha's death determine the direction of my life, Ilia's got the mines and the Fang to deal with, Weiss has her father and the election, Sun's got the issue of letting Mantle continue as-is with its treatment of faunus… and I think Hope might be yours. I know it sucks, but this is just… growing up. This is what it means to be a Hunter, right? Setting aside what we want to protect everyone else, sometimes?"
"Yup," Yang agreed, letting her lips pop at the end of the word. She wrestled her hands through her hair for a moment before clenching a fist and pounding it down into the couch as she stood up. "I'm going for a walk. Destroy the fucking drive or give it back to Ironwood. I don't care. I'll stay away from Hope, and just… get over it. I get it. This is a me problem."
No one said anything as Yang stomped her way out of the room. Sun merely held his forehead, Jaune fiddled with his hands, and Weiss leaned back into the couch with her eyes closed.
"…hey, Weiss?" Ilia asked.
"…yes?" the girl answered as she opened one eye.
"…you still have the drive, right?" the faunus began. "Before we give it back… can I… see it? The footage."
Sun raised his head to give Ilia a quizzical look, his face incredibly pale.
"Why? Why would you want to see what's on there? It isn't pretty…"
"Exactly," Ilia answered with a grim expression. "I want to see it because… I want to feel what you all felt. I want something else to focus on, when we head into the mines to start the campaign against Salem. I want to know firsthand what we're fighting against… and fighting for."
Sun said nothing as Weiss withdrew the small device from her pocket and placed it into Ilia's palm, before holding it captive between Ilia's hand and her own.
"…I hope you're ready for what you'll see," Weiss warned. "But… we're asking a lot of Yang, right now. A lot is being asked of all of us. I… would ask that you offer to show it to Corsac, as well. Use it to bury the past of your time together in the Fang, and give both of you new purpose."
"…there's no avoiding the fact that we'll be working together soon," Ilia considered. "Yeah. Fine. I'll… make the offer. We'll try to start over, as best we can."
Weiss gently lifted her hand, leaving the drive in Ilia's palm.
"Alright. Then maybe some good can come of it after all."
"…maybe," Sun agreed as he stood up and headed toward the door. "I think the best thing we could all do right now is just get some sleep. We can't afford to go into the mines at anything but our best."
"Yeah, I'm with Sun," Jaune agreed as he moved to follow. "See you girls in the morning!"
Ilia offered Jaune a weak smile as the boys exited into the hallway, while turning the drive over in her fingers. Finally, she stood up and headed for the door herself.
"You're not… going to Corsac tonight, are you?" Weiss asked.
"…might as well," Ilia replied with a shrug. "No matter what I do… I'm not sleeping tonight anyway."
Weiss watched as Ilia made her way out into the hall, before standing and dusting off her outfit.
"…you and me both…"
Author's Note:
Next time- the intro to Beacon, and the mines…
-RD