Qrow ambled down the sidewalk with a certain swagger in his step, hands in his pockets and a smirk upon his face. He meandered and weaved through the crowds of downtown Vale city, drawing more than a few looks from passerby on account of the polished weapon dangling from his belt. Despite the reactions, the teen paid the onlookers no mind as he continued along his path. His destination was in sight, and he his curiosity was piqued.
As Qrow rounded the street corner and made his way up to the familiar garage, he was surprised to find the giant steel doors wide open. No vehicles were in the bay, and the place seemed almost entirely barren save for the sole occupant leaning over a workbench near the far wall.
"…John?" Qrow tried as he walked out onto the floor of the garage.
"Jacques," the man replied without looking over his shoulder.
"Really? Keeping that charade up even when it's just the two of us, now?" Qrow said playfully as he arched a brow and continued his approach. "I thought 'Jacques' was your business-in-Atlas persona."
"Perhaps," the man acknowledged as he continued his work, the items before him hidden from Qrow's line of sight. "As Johnathon was for Vale. After all, I never did say that was my real name."
Qrow froze and shifted his weight to one side, before folding his arms across his chest and narrowing his eyes.
"…'was' for Vale? Why does this conversation suddenly feel like it has some foreboding air of finality about it?"
"Well… the simple answer is usually the correct one, as they say," Jacques answered with a grim smile as he turned around. As if on cue, his chin-length, scraggly black hair began to frost over into a bleached white, and his facial hair receded into a finely trimmed mustache. His buttoned shirt and slacks also bleached over into a white suit, giving him the appearance of a high class Atlesian elite. "I called you here to let you know that we won't be seeing each other for a while. Perhaps a long while."
Before he even realized what was happening, Qrow's face fell, and he lowered his arms. His good humor seemed to have deflated almost immediately, and he let out a sigh of defeat.
"Damn it… I knew you'd skip town eventually, but I didn't expect it to come this soon. I thought STRQ and OKRA were making you enough lien to keep you rooted in Vale, at least until we got through school."
"You are," Jacques confirmed as he closed the suitcase laying atop the workbench behind him and zipped it closed. "That being said… my sights are aimed higher, and opportunity knocks. I'm not the sort of idiot to leave her waiting at the door, no matter how good of a distraction the party inside may be."
"Atlas," Qrow said knowingly.
"Atlas," Jacques confirmed. "I was made an offer that I cannot refuse. As much as I'd like to continue working with you face-to-face, and I do mean that, I need to physically be in Atlas as soon as possible. Willow has done a wonderful job of introducing me to people who have useful connections."
"Ever the businessman," Qrow said impartially. "Off to rub shoulders with the Schnees?"
"I am, yes," Jacques confirmed. "However… not all is lost for you and yours, if you're worried about pocket money. It may take a while, but I plan to offer jobs to you remotely. How that's going to work, I have no idea… but we've done more improbable things already, haven't we?"
"You could say that," Qrow replied with an amused snort. "Really, though… it's not about the money, for me. I'm sure Adam, Roman, and Kali will miss that aspect quite a bit, but I think I speak for all of us when I say we'll miss you, too. There's a little something more beneath that slimy business layer, as much as I hate to admit it."
"Is there?" Jacques asked, seemingly disinterested as he walked to the front of the garage, wheeling his suitcase behind himself. "If there was more to this than business, then a decent man would stay in Vale. What does that tell you about me?"
"It tells me that you're doing what you need to do for yourself," Qrow answered as he moved to follow Jacques. "That doesn't make you an asshole, or mean that your relationship with the nine of us is suddenly over. STRQ, OKRA, and Willow will all understand, even if we don't particularly like it. We're not vindictive or selfish people, Jacques. Besides- some of us will be taking trips up to Atlas now and then, once we get back from Vacuo. Maybe all of us will, given enough time. We'll visit."
Jacques brought a hand up to his forehead. He shook his head and let out a short chuckle, before slicking his hair back. Somehow, the fibers stayed perfectly in place, as though they had been gelled into place.
"…sentimental fools, all of you. You know, there are other job providers of questionable legality out in the city of Vale, Qrow. You wouldn't have to look very hard, and some of them even pay better than I do. I could hook you up."
"Again- it's not about the lien for me," Qrow replied with a shrug. "You've pulled some strings for us and helped us out of some shitty situations way beyond our contracts before… even after we messed up a vehicle or two of yours. Or three."
"Don't remind me," Jacques said with a grimace as he checked his scroll. "But… you do have a point. There have been times where we've both done each other favors, and others where members of your team and OKRA have gone out of their way for me. Willow goes without saying…"
"Exactly. So don't get cold on me now, just because you're headed off to a place where you have to act that way," Qrow warned. "I've seen good people change themselves entirely to blend in for a so-called 'mission' before, and it only hurt them as time went on. Wearing a mask around those you've already shown your real face to is just… off-putting. None of us would be working with you if we didn't like you. That's just the truth, no matter how much you think this has all fallen under the umbrella of 'just business.'"
Finally, Jacques put his scroll back into his pocket and met Qrow's eyes.
"…you're right… and I'm sorry. I've had a lot on my mind lately, and cementing this big of a change has skewed my perspective on things to the point where I feel like I have to push you all away. I wasn't originally going to call, you know. The plan was to just contact you from Atlas after you started your second year and continue handing out jobs in Vale from there."
"Well… I'm glad you did call, to say the least," Qrow said as a taxi rolled up to the curb. "I take it this is you?"
"It is indeed," Jacques agreed.
Qrow watched curiously as Jacques let go of his suitcase and began to slip a ring from his middle finger. Immediately afterward, Jacques held the loop out to Qrow, who placed his open hand below it.
"What's this…?"
"A gift," Jacques said simply as he let the ring drop into Qrow's palm. "The first totally unnecessary thing I ever bought for myself after I started in on 'the hustle,' if you want to call it that. Think of it as a promise that I'll only keep necessary things in mind for purchase, moving forward. Maybe that way, I won't succumb to the typical greed and insanity that seems to run to Atlas' very core. Or, think of it as a simple token of friendship. Either or."
"Both sounds good," Qrow offered as he lifted the ring to inspect it. It was a rather simple gold band with a horizontal indent traveling its length. A small, radiant-cut sapphire was inlaid upon the front of the ring, catching the sunlight. "Wonder what I could pawn this for…"
Jacques laughed in spite of himself, earning a devilish grin from Qrow in response.
"Now who's the asshole, hm? Well… I guess I'm off."
"I guess you are," Qrow agreed. "Take care of yourself, and stay in touch."
"And you do the same," Jacques offered as he opened the door to the cab. "And once you get back from Vacuo… be on the lookout for assignments. I need people I can trust, especially when working remotely."
Qrow offered Jacques a two-fingered salute while watching the cab door close. Within seconds, the vehicle took off, leaving him alone with his thoughts as he rolled the ring back and forth between his thumb and forefinger. After a moment, he slipped the band onto his middle finger and took to the sidewalk, leaving the barren garage behind him.
Tyrian let out a peal of laughter as he watched Leonardo's futile efforts. The lion-tailed faunus was knelt over a small ring of rocks in the center of the spacious cavern, hurriedly rubbing his hands around a piece of wood. A bundle of sticks and haphazardly chopped tinder was nestled into the center of the ring, and Leonardo had busied himself for the last hour with trying various methods to light a fire. He had been entirely unsuccessful despite his efforts, and finally hung his head in defeat before looking back toward Tyrian. The scorpion faunus was sat a few feet behind him, twirling a dust crystal of deep red between his fingers as he watched, his eyes seeming to glow a sickly yellow in the darkness of the cave.
"Tyrian… please. She doesn't need to know," Leonardo tried once again. "Just let me use it! I don't see the point in this."
"The point," Hazel said sharply from his position at the mouth of the cave, looking out over the half of the mountain below them, "is to see how you would fare entirely on your own. If you can be trusted to be useful without Salem's direct control. So far, you've been totally useless since giving us the information about your clan."
"I can survive on my own easily enough, and still get things done," Leonardo snapped while sinking back onto his rear. "I fed Arowana information on Raven and Qrow remotely. Enough information to give us an opportunity to make an attempt on them."
"An attempt that ultimately failed and resulted in you running away and leaving me with a mess," Hazel reminded. "Failure isn't something that Salem seems likely to tolerate. Here she comes."
Leonardo squinted past the other two men and toward the entrance to the cave, beyond which was a brilliant blue sky. The light was so intense that it hurt his eyes, rendering Hazel's bulky form nothing more than a fuzzy silhouette against the midday sun. Suddenly, the blinding field of blue was blocked out by a descending shape that seemed altogether wrong.
At first, Leonardo had no idea what he was looking at as Salem's silhouette dropped down to merge with Hazel's in his blurred vision. He thought he saw extra limbs upon her shadowy form, or even wings wide enough to block out the entire mouth of the cave, but he couldn't be sure. Just as quickly as her warped form had appeared in the entrance way, it receded to that of a slender woman and entered the cave with the shuffling sound of bare feet upon stone.
"Still dark, I see," Salem cooed as she strode into the cave. "Disappointing."
As Leonardo opened his mouth to begin making excuses, the cave became immediately awash with light. A swirling duo of fireballs flew from Salem's fingertips and began to slowly dance and shift around each other, hanging in midair above the makeshift fire pit and providing light to the entire cave. The bounds of the rocky walls were suddenly clearly defined, and Leonardo blinked several times to let his eyes adjust to the sudden brightness.
"How…?" Leonardo began, only to pause as Salem locked eyes with him.
"The how matters little, especially to a servant so incapable," Salem warned as inky black slime began to seep up from within cracks in the cave floor. The gooey mass widened the cracks until twisted fragments of bone began to rise up from somewhere within the floor, working to form some sort of frame. "Tyrian."
The faunus rose from the cave floor as he was addressed and thumped a fist into his chest, all smiles.
"Yes?" he asked in a singsong voice.
"Leonardo's information was correct. Their camp is near the peak of the mountain, and heavily guarded. Bring me one such guard. Alive," Salem ordered as the construct of bone and inky fluid assembled itself into the shape of a throne behind her.
Tyrian watched with a smirk as Salem sat down and crossed her legs, her eyes upon the cave entrance.
"Of course. Anything else?"
"…you have one week. Consider this a test to see how useful you'll be to my cause in the future," Salem said airily as she returned her gaze to Tyrian.
"I'll return sooner than that," the faunus boasted before sauntering out of the cave and disappearing beyond its rocky walls. "Take care, friends."
Leonardo kept his attention on where the other faunus had been, dreading Salem's next words.
"Hazel. Leonardo."
"Ma'am," Hazel replied immediately as he moved deeper into the cave to stand before Salem.
"I have other plans for the two of you. Now listen closely- this will be… delicate work…"
Author's Note:
Aaaaaand the chapter slides in right at the end of the week. Sorry for taking so long- this holiday season has been absolute flaming ass. Next update the week of 1/11.
-RD