Summary:

James Ironwood arrives in Beacon, prepared to nip the growing issues in the bud. Adam's running low on apathy and patience.

Blake decides that she's done playing around; she wants to help take the Fang down.

Notes:

And enter James Ironwood.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

"No need to look so sour Roman," Sheena called out as she walked towards the redheaded thug in their base, "You still get to play ring-master."

After saying this, she handed him a set of keys.

"What are these for?" he asked sulkily.

"Let's just say their gifts from Atlas, they'll be arriving today," she said, "Use them to rally the troops."

"Yes ma'am," he said mockingly as he walked away, before a soldier who would direct him to the objective appeared next to him.

xXx

In the Beacon Academy cafeteria, there was a general, jovial mood of students chatting, eating and altogether enjoying themselves, the exceptions were few, and team SYBR was one of them. The team's table was a tense one, the two monochromatic members staring intensely at each other, making everyone in their immediate environments immensely uncomfortable.

Suddenly, the Schnee heiress' gaze faltered and she blinked, sighing and later growling on seeing the cat Faunus' smirk.

Still, she begrudgingly lifted a huge binder that had the words 'Vytal Festival Activities' crossed out and replaced with 'Death Games'. She opened it and penned down a tally mark under Blake's name that was next to hers on a table in the binder. According to the table, the Schnee heiress was lagging behind by a single point with only two to her name.

It had started a little while after the incident at the docks, Weiss had suggested a series of contests to decide who would write the history essay for their group since the Rose-Xiao Long sisters had made it abundantly clear that they wouldn't go near the issue. Blake had been victorious in the combat and tracking categories in addition to the staring contest she had just won, on the other hand, Weiss emerged victorious in the speed and general knowledge categories.

"You're very good," Weiss stated simply, "I guess you'd have to be… I'm sure the White Fang doesn't accept just anybody."

"I'm sure they don't," Blake replied evenly, "I wouldn't know though."

"Of course not," Weiss said, proffering a smile she knew was just as artificial as Peter Pumpkin's ice-cream flavouring.

"If you'll excuse me," Blake said, rising from her seat.

Mid ascent, her face was planted with a whole pie. The sudden assault surprised the entire table, Weiss recovered quickly though and she burst into a bout of guffawing before her face too was struck with a desert.

Before long, foods of all kind was being flung about the cafeteria, dozens of students attacked their friends and foes alike, many augmenting their ammunition with their Semblances as the uproar consumed the students who were trying to hide underneath their tables or make a break for it.

"What's going on here?" shouted Mrs Goodwitch as she walked into the cafeteria, tailed by the various class reps that she had been having a meeting with. The panic suddenly died down; Glynda's presence putting everything to a stop.

Out of nowhere, there was a rogue pastry, tracing a trajectory that was more like a bullet, clearly augmented by a Semblance and headed straight for the Vice Principal.

. However, Adam (as seemed to be Adam's major role in this fanfic) stepped in front of the projectile, ready to slice it apart before it. However again, the pie ceased it movement before it reached him.

Glynda had stopped it with her Semblance, it was no task for a Huntress of her level.

"It's the thought that counts," she said, clearly amused by Adam's actions.

Boom!

Although confined by Glynda's Telekinesis, the pie suddenly exploded and though Glynda reacted in time to stop the splash from getting her and those behind her, Adam and a few others were completely covered in the warm dough.

Adam looked down at his uniform that was in terrible condition; it wasn't that bad though- it was just a pie.

He looked at his hand that was shaking uncontrollably, there wasn't a need to be that angry- it was just a pie. He tried to rein in his reaction by breathing deeply- it was just a pie.

It wasn't working, his breath was getting more and more ragged -it was just a pie. Anybody who was close by could feel the intense rage that permeated from the faunus, he wasn't sure why he was reacting this dramatically though-it was just a pie.

"May I be excused?" he finally said, after struggling for several long moments to get himself under control.

"Are you okay?" Glynda asked, her voice careful in its manner.

"Of course," he responded gently with a smile, "It's just a pie."

xXx

That was bad, thought Blake as she followed Adam as he made his way back to the dorms, she didn't recall ever seeing him have such a reaction to something so small, she wanted to make sure that he was okay. As she moved through the corridors, she saw a group of second-years; it was Scarlet Velvetina and the members of team FROG.

Blake knew what was going on, she had witnessed similar scenes throughout the semester, so she knew that all she needed to do was keep her head low, so long as she kept moving, they wouldn't notice her.

xXx

The faunus class rep walked briskly back into the dorms and stormed into his team room. He dug into his luggage, knowing that he would not find what he was looking for; he had only kept track of every single one of them, after all.

Still, he sighed as he discovered that all of it was gone.

This is bad, he thought, burying his head in his hands.

"Are you okay?" came a timid voice from behind the closed door, it was Blake's, and Adam was in no mood for her at the moment.

"I'm fine," he mumbled, hoping to ward her off with his insincere declaration, but getting up and opening the door for her to come in either way.

"They really did a number on you," she let out a small, awkward chuckle as she sat on his bed. This was a familiar feeling; the two were partners for a year after all and his tent or hole or hammock or wherever they were unfortunate enough to be spending the nights of their missions, was usually open to her.

The pie stains added to the reverie of the moment, as they reminded her of how his uniform always looked just after a mission; almost always the time she came to talk.

"You've been busy," he said flatly, speaking in a manner that wasn't unlike him, especially when he was peeved at something.

"Yeah," Blake said as she reclined into the mattress she was seated on, "The past few days have been intense, having to deal with that Schnee girl."

"She's so annoying," she added, "Your uppity and myopic; she lives in a bubble and disregards any problems that aren't hers as non-issues. She refuses to admit the harms that her company has perpetrated against faunus for decades and instead tries to pin it on the Fang and faunus in general. It's… frustrating."

After he little rant, she turned towards her former mentor; this was the part where he started dispensing advice and sometimes a joke or two.

"What were you doing at the docks?" he asked her, his voice dangerously low.

"I… heard that the Fang might be there so I decided to check it out," she responded quickly despite being surprised, his tone of voice was also reminiscent of their White Fang days.

"Why though? You obviously aren't interested in bringing them down, after all, you didn't tell Ozpin anything that might be helpful in capturing them."

"I don't know to be honest… I just wanted to see. They weren't the best method, but they'd never do anything to hurt faunus directly, I'm sure of that much… I was sure."

"I don't want to tangle with them again," she said, "I've already broken my low profile once, now I just want to avoid them and get that essay done."

"The one Dr. Oobleck assigned?" he asked with a cocked brow, "What makes that so important?"

"It's an opportunity to help faunus in Beacon, break some of the misconceptions about us in the school. Besides if I don't, Weiss will and she'll make sure to be as racist as she possibly can."

"Is that so?" he asked, morbidly amused, "What makes you think you deserve to deliver this message?"

The question shocked Blake, who had already been expecting something harsh from her ex-partner, she felt herself swallow, trying to moisten her now dry throat, delaying as she thought of an answer to the question she had just been bombarded with.

"You," Adam continued, not giving her any time to recuperate, "The very Princess of Menagerie, ran away from your home and abandoned the cause. It's one thing to leave the White Fang, but you've not done anything to help faunus since you arrived in Beacon."

With every word, he became more and more quiet and solemn, his voice was hardly a whisper when he was done with his tirade, but every word he said reached her and they hit with more force than Smoke rounds.

"Y-you left too," she whispered, terrified at seeing Adam this way.

"I have never, never, stopped working towards freeing our people," he declared, letting just a little bit of the disgust he felt whenever he looked at this turncoat seep into his speech.

"If you'll excuse me," he added, this time the edge taken out of his voice, "I need to change."

xXx

The princess of Menagerie walked through the hallways once more, this time her shoulders drooped as she thought on the words of her once mentor.

Who was she kidding? She'd always been running from the responsibilities of her position, that was why she had joined the White Fang, wasn't it?

Wait a minute, she said to herself, What gives him the right to judge me? He's hiding just the same as I am. In fact, screw him.

"Come on, just a little kiss." Team FROG was still at it, they were still bullying Scarlet, Blake felt that she ought to do something about it, but she had to keep a low profile, she had to avoid trouble as much as possible. Still, she was the princess of Menagerie, it was her duty to protect all faunus wasn't it?

"Hey!" she shouted, surprised by her volume, "Leave her alone."

The group simply turned towards her as though confused.

"This isn't any of your business," declared the one in the middle, his name was Gordo, he wasn't the team leader, but he sure acted like it, "You can go now."

"I'm not going anywhere," she said as clenched her fists, ready to fight all four second-year students.

Gordo was hardly amused, but he shrugged in a bored manner and approached her steadily while the others watched.

"Blake," Adam called out, having reached her side at some point, "We'll be late for class, so you ought to get moving."

The brunette was surprised, but she was happy, the odds were definitely in her favour if Adam was on her side.

"Oh yes," Adam said, as though he had almost forgotten, "Senior Scarlet, Mrs Goodwitch is looking for you."

The bunny-girl who had backed up in a corner suddenly looked up, "Huh, me?"

"Yes, she says it's urgent."

"Okay then," she said as she tried to walk between the boys in front of her.

"What does she want her for?" Gordo asked as he walked up and into Adam's face.

"You'd have to ask her that yourself," Adam said hostilely while staring down at Gordo. The second-year was just a few centimetres shorter than Adam's 190cm, but a few centimetres helped.

Gordo was really ticked off at this guy; he wasn't even trying to be convincing with his lie, not to mention that he was flashing a smile so snarky that it definitely needed a fist or two to wipe off.

At the end, he simply let out a chuckle as he signalled to his teammates that it was time to leave.

"Have a nice day senior," Adam called out after them sarcastically as they left, to tell the truth, he was a bit disappointed, but this set things up better for later.

"Thanks," Blake said once they had left.

"Next time," he berated as he walked past her, "Do something that will actually help our people, rather than trying to prove yourself with poorly thought out stunts. By the way, Goodwitch is actually looking for you."

xXx

"So Sun," Weiss asked, straightening her hair as she did, "Who's your friend?" She was referring to the tall guy he had walked into the room with, the one that had captured her attention for the past few minutes.

"Oh him?" Sun asked as he gave way to his blue haired friend who had hardly a stain on him despite having entered the cafeteria during the uproar. "He's my old friend Neptune."

"Hi, Snow Angel," he said, locking his eyes with the petite heiress.

Just as she was stumbling over her response, her scroll rang and she excused herself from her present company to answer it.

"Hello?" she said when she was away from the others.

"What's up cuz?"

"I'm okay," she responded, relieved that he had called, "How're things over at Shade?"

"They're actually pretty good," he declared with a smile, "Just be prepared, team CJS is definitely going to win the Vytal Festival Tournament this year."

"You have a better shot than team SYBR at any rate," she declared depressingly.

"You guys still at loggerheads?" he asked concernedly.

"You bet," she basically sighed at the fact.

"I was certain the old man's advice was going to work though."

"It was, but everything went to scrap a few days ago."

"What happened?"

"Basically," she said, "I found out that one of my teammates could not be trusted."

"Okay then," he continued knowing that if she wanted to be any more specific than that, she would, "Speaking of the old man, he says that you have been ignoring his calls. You'll have to have a talk to him by the day's end."

"You're the messenger of doom, huh?" she said in mock disgust.

"Why're you even avoiding him? Are you in trouble?"

"You don't know the half of it," she said, "I'll tell you some other time, for now, I have to rush back to class."

She was lying, it was a free period, but what else was she going to tell him? There was no way she could tell him what happened, not yet.

xXx

The day was as pleasant as any other, a bright sun, a gentle breeze and the hum of Atlesian airships as they flew towards Beacon. The ships were magnificent war machines, never failing to gather a crowd of admirers and gawking civilians wherever they flew past.

"Ozpin," called a cordial voice as he stepped into the principal's office.

The man's immaculate uniform told of his high rank and fastidiousness.

"Hello General," the white-haired professor responded seriously, while standing at attention.

"Please, drop the formalities," he said before turning towards Glynda who was, as usual, at Ozpin's side, "It's certainly been too long since we last met."

Glynda merely smiled curtly as she made her exit, leaving the two men to their business.

"What brings you here General?"

"You know I love Vale this time of the year," he responded jokingly, "Thought it was about time I took a vacation."

"And the fleet outside?"

"I decided to make it a working vacation," he said with a smile.

"The people will be worried," Ozpin said, "We're in a time of peace, and before our most cherished period of festivities. War machines don't exactly breed peace of mind."

"I sleep like a baby with Due Process at my side."

"Seriously though," he said on seeing Ozpin's brows furrow slightly, "There's a need for this; the encroachment of the White Fang, what happened to Autumn… We're closer to war than we've ever been and we need to be as proactive as possible. Nothing good ever happened to anyone who sat on his butt for the problems to knock on his door."

"At the same time, we shouldn't announce our presence. Strength ensures protection, but flaunting it invites conflict."

"So does demureness," Ironwood said, as he rose from his seat, "In case you didn't notice, when a Maiden nearly gets killed, that counts as conflict, conflict too large to ignore, conflict that demands that we show that we won't back down."

"I've never been able to win an argument against you James."

"Well, you have to be loud when you're wrong," the General said self-deprecatingly, "But I don't know what else to do, so I have to press on. We both know how costly indecisiveness can be."

"We could write a book about it," Ozpin said melancholically, "Wouldn't be a very fun read."

"Embarrassing would be more like it," he chuckled as he emptied the contents of his canteen into his mug and downed the liquor.

"How's Penny by the way? She was caught up in that White Fang business a few days ago."

"I'm well aware," he declared, "It'll take more than a few thugs from the White Fang to down the future protector of Mantle."

"Glad to hear it, I'd feel a lot better if she weren't moving around so brazenly, especially considering what happened with Autumn."

"I have soldiers watching her around the clock. Besides, she's scarcely left Atlas and even at that she was mostly in a lab. It'll be good for her to experience the people she's going to be protecting."

"Visionary as always," Ozpin complimented, "You think so much of the future that one could liken you to a child. If only you didn't have that wretched scowl."

Ironwood made no reply and instead raised his mug towards his old friend.

xXx

Later that night, team SYBR was seated in their dorm room, as usual, Blake and Weiss were making everybody else uncomfortable with their glaring. The two glared at each other, glared at their teammates when they so much as sneezed, and glared at the cards in their hands.

Yes, they were playing Remnant, although neither of them were in it, both of them were thinking about what happened earlier.

"Weiss," Blake said, still staring at her cards, "Let's be serious about this."

"I don't know how to play dumb board games," Weiss responded absentmindedly.

"Not this," she said as she leaned in towards her, "You have something against the White Fang right? I want to take them down too, and I have part of a plan to do so." Weiss' attention was clearly piqued, although she pretended to be concentrated on her cards.

"Why should I believe you?"

"I was a member, so I know a bit about them." Weiss was a little surprised by this confession, she already had her suspicions about it, but she never expected that Blake would just come out and say it.

"I don't gain anything by lying to you, we have common enemies, that should be enough to trust each other."

"It isn't," Weiss stated plainly, "But go on."

"The Fang will likely be holding recruitment rallies, I can find my way into one of these and gather all the information I can."

"I don't see why you need me for this."

"I don't" she responded snidely, grin and all, "Not for that part at least, what I need you to do is see whatever information you can get from the SDC. They've been one of the major targets for a while, the chain of attacks might point towards something, and they've likely also started investigating the Fang themselves, so you could also get access to that."

"You're not the only who's thought of that," Weiss snorted and leaned back, disappointed by the lack of creativity on Blake's part, "If I could get that information, I would've done so already. Just because you're an heir doesn't make you privy to sensitive information, especially when you're separated from the family."

"So you're going to give up? As long as it isn't handed up on a silver platter right?"

"You don't understand anything about me," Weiss said as she jumped up to her feet in anger.

"I'm sure," Blake said as she pushed aside the finger that was pointed at her, "Prove me wrong then, do it Ice Queen."

"Let me make a call," she said as she retreated into the bathroom.

"Are you crazy?" asked Yang and Ruby, who had been holding their breaths throughout the entire exchange, simultaneously.

"What?" Blake asked stoicly.

"The White Fang, that's what."

"You can sit it out if you think it's too intense."

"Come on, we didn't mean it like that."

xXx

"Ah Weiss," a refined looking man with white hair said as he appeared on Weiss' scroll, "How are you?"

"Rather, I should say, 'what do you need?' that's the only time you ever do call isn't it?"

"Either way," he said, cutting off whatever she had to say, "I'm busy now, go to the CCT tomorrow and we'll talk from there without anyone listening in."

In response to that, Weiss blasted the door open with her Semblance, surely enough, it struck Yang and Ruby, who had been eavesdropping on her conversation.

"Nice to meet you all," the man said with a chuckle before ending the call.

That was her father all right.

"What's the big idea?" she asked to her teammates.

"We were just a little curious," Ruby responded bashfully.

"Yeah, your dad is like the richest man in the world right?"

"Not nearly," she said as she walked out the bathroom, "I'll do it, tomorrow when I go to the CCT."

"Good," Blake said, "I'll do some digging tonight and see what I can up with."

"Good luck then," Weiss said as she stretched out her hand to her teammate.

"Thanks."

"By the way," Weiss said with a smile, "I win, Atlas' airships just bombed the last of your shelters."

Notes:

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