Sasha sat alone in the lobby beneath the Headmaster's office, nervously running her fingers over the oversized yellow clasp of her belt as her hair glowed gently. The faunus kept her eyes closed as she waited, replying softly to the implement's reassuring words while it tried to calm her down. Though she hoped that no one saw her in the process, Sasha was far more concerned with the possibility of Hazel leaving Vale City before he could be stopped.
You were right not to go to the authorities, the belt said in a soothing, familiar voice. There was a rough, gravelly quality of it, though Sasha knew it was doing its best to reassure her. They can't be trusted when it comes to helping your kind, and your previous run-ins wouldn't do you any favors.
"…but these people can be trusted?" Sasha asked, knowing the answer she would get.
They helped Kali, didn't they? You trust her.
Sasha let out a snort and opened her eyes, letting them roll.
"Yeah, but I don't really know why. I trust you more."
Should you? You know what could happen, going down this path. Where I could end up leading you.
"Yeah, well, can't be any worse than places I've already been," Sasha muttered as the elevator shaft began to make a soft humming noise beside her chair. "I'm surprised you're so on board with trying to stop him."
What can I say? I've watched the path he took and the consequences it has led to for both you and him. He might be blind to it all as he justifies it move-by-move, but I'm not.
"…I'm going to ask the pistol when we get back home," Sasha warned as the elevator opened.
See that you do.
Glynda Goodwitch exited the elevator looked rather exhausted by the situation. Sasha couldn't help but feel a shred of pity for the woman… and a bit of trepidation as well at what she was getting herself into. Clearly, the professor knew something about what was going on, while Sasha was still stumbling around in the dark and fumbling for aid.
"The headmaster will see you now," Professor Goodwitch said with a weary sigh. "Don't keep him waiting."
"You're not coming?" Sasha asked as she rose from her seat.
"There is no need. If Professor Ozpin has orders for me, I'll find out soon enough. For now, I… need a moment to mentally prepare for what's coming."
"…sorry?" Sasha offered as she reached up and rubbed at her nose, feeling one of the many faint scars that marred her face.
"Don't be," Professor Goodwitch offered, her tone softening almost imperceptibly. "You may be preventing an international incident with what you're doing here today. You have my thanks for coming to us."
"…oh," was all Sasha could think to say as she entered the elevator and turned to face the woman. "Yeah, sure. I'm just… doing what seems right."
"You have good instincts," Professor Goodwitch praised.
Sasha couldn't stop the amused snort that came as an immediate response, though the glare she received in kind made her feel awful for it.
"Yeah, I… uh, see you around," the faunus offered with a small wave before hitting the button for the top floor and watching the elevator doors close.
You really need to work on your interactions with these academic types if you're going to become a huntress…
"You should have taught me better."
Yeah. I probably should have.
Sasha hadn't been expecting the reply, and though she felt very stupid doing so, she spared a glance down to the heavy chain around her waist. Before she had time to reply, though, the elevator arrived at the apex of Beacon Tower and the doors slid open. Beyond the elevator carriage was a large circular room, gears twisting within the floors and wall and a lone man seated behind the desk at the center of it all. Sasha took a deep breath and steeled herself before walking forward into the room as the ghostly blue glow within her eyes and along her hair faded away.
"…consulting with your weaponry?" Professor Ozpin asked as the faunus made her approach.
Sasha whispered a nearly silent curse, making a mental note to try to cut off the effect more quickly next time.
"I'm flying blind, Professor," Sasha admitted. "Any advice is better than none."
"Yes and no," the man considered as he drummed his fingers atop the head of his cane behind the desk. "All advice should be considered, but some of it should be discarded, depending entirely upon the source. It's a hard lesson to learn, but listening to fools has merit. Discerning whose advice to follow and whose to discard takes time and practice."
"Right…" Sasha said uneasily as she lowered herself into the seat on the opposite side of the Headmaster's desk. "So…"
"…were you listening to anything I just said?" Professor Ozpin said calmly, his expression hidden behind his hands and his half-moon glasses. "Or simply agreeing to move things along?"
Sasha's cheeks flushed, though her skin tone hid most of it. There was no dodging the accusation in an artful way regardless of who had made it given how obvious she tended to be with what she was thinking. When it was Headmaster Ozpin, though, she knew the man could see right through her.
"…the second one…"
"Well, honesty is a valuable trait, if nothing else," Professor Ozpin said with a subtle smirk. "That being said, I would very much like to get to know you b-"
"Professor, with all due respect, this is urgent," Sasha insisted as she scooted forward in her seat. "We don't have time for getting-to-know-you games right now. Hazel is in Vale, and he's about to leave to go and do… do something that isn't g-"
Professor Ozpin slowly raised his hand for silence, and Sasha trailed off, her feline ears flattening in annoyance. The man rested his cane up against the edge of his desk as he settled back into the chair and folded his hands across his lap.
"And do you know where he's leaving to?"
"Mistral," Sasha answered quickly. "He's going to Mistral to… I-I'm not really sure what specifically he's going to do, or how, or why, but he said he needs to destabilize the hunter's guild for his employer. I don't know who that is, either."
"I likely do," Professor Ozpin reassured. "And that is all we really need to know. If you would like, for your protection, I could offer you room and board here at Beacon before the coming semester begins in order to ensure your safety. You must be worried that knowing what you know, Hazel or his employer might take action against you."
Sasha blinked several times, staring straight ahead and through the Headmaster.
"We're not… you aren't going to send anyone to stop him?"
"Most certainly not," Professor Ozpin said as he slowly shook his head. "It would be much more valuable to monitor him, forewarn the guild, and string him along. Such a course of action would also keep your brother out of harm's way. I get intelligence and the potential to learn of his employer's whereabouts, and you get mental peace and updates that no harm has come to him. You did lament the path he chose in our first meeting, and expressed the desire to try to help him course correct, did you not?"
He's got you there.
"…I… did," Sasha admitted, annoyed that her weapon-turned-accessory decided to chime in. "I want us both to have a decent life going forward, but he's just… choosing to not even try."
"He's trying, in his own way," Professor Ozpin corrected. "Her promises can seem very tempting, Miss Rainart. I'd not be surprised if he was making the decisions you disprove of out of a misguided desire to protect you."
I can guarantee you he is.
"Shut up," Sasha snapped, only for Professor Ozpin to raise a brow in surprise. "Not you, the… the belt. Gods, I feel like an idiot…"
Professor Ozpin watched curiously as the faunus put her head in her hands, covering her eyes with her palms. Slowly, he rose from his seat and leaned forward, resting his hands atop the desk as he looked Sasha over.
"…I won't ask what it's telling you, but… is there a way to stop it? You were quite vague on the details of your Semblance when we first met."
Without a word, Sasha undid the heavy industrial hook holding the chain to her pants and rested it atop the desk with a weighty thump. The ethereal glow around her features ceased immediately, and she gave the Headmaster a solemn look.
"…I have to be touching a weapon to be able to 'hear' it," Sasha began. "And… I'm sorry for being such a panicky mess and looking like shit right now. This should've been so simple, and… you're totally right. Following him at a distance, keeping tabs on him… I really don't want him thrown back in jail, or worse. I'm glad I came to you."
"Most of my students tend to be," Professor Ozpin replied, earning a skeptical look. "I'll take care of the tracking aspect, and give you regular updates. Now that that's taken care of, though… I am curious about that Semblance of yours, if you'll indulge me. I've never heard of one quite like it, and I've seen my fair share of unusual Semblances…"
"Great," Sasha said sarcastically with a roll of her eyes. "I mean, I guess I owe you, and it's not that it's a bad thing, I'm just… tired of people looking at me like I'm insane when I explain it."
"I will do nothing of the sort," Professor Ozpin reassured. "May I… inspect the chain?"
Sasha visibly tensed as she took a long, deep breath and blew it out with exasperation.
"…you may. I guess the easiest way to explain it would be… I'm not actually talking to a real person when I communicate with a weapon, I'm talking to an… an imprint of them."
Professor Ozpin ran his hand along the worn links of the chain, feeling its rough surface before making his way to the hook. The implement looked like it was built to haul cargo, and more like a piece of a vehicle than a conventional weapon.
"…an imprint?"
"Yeah, or… I've heard it called an 'engram' before, but I don't really… know what that is," Sasha admitted. "When someone touches an object- specifically, touches it with the intent to use it as a weapon- they leave an impression of themselves on it with all of their knowledge, feelings, and combat prowess up to that very moment. It's like… almost like a spirit bound to the weapon that takes the form of that person as they were the last time they touched it. So… what I'm hearing from the chain is a version of… of someone from years ago. Whenever the last time they picked it up was."
Professor Ozpin lifted his hand almost immediately and gave the young woman a very serious look.
"Am I not ruining it by touching the chain myself…?"
"No," Sasha answered as she shook her head. "It's… complicated. First, you don't have the intent right now, and secondly- more importantly- it goes by whoever has used it the longest, and maybe… how many people they've killed using it. If you started making it your primary weapon, eventually, you'd replace… him."
Professor Ozpin blinked, meeting Sasha's eyes over the rims of his glasses.
"And who i-"
"No."
"…I see," the Headmaster relented. "I can see that you're getting tense. Would you like some tea? Coffee? Hot chocolate? I feel as though we should clear the air between us before this discussion goes any further."
Sasha let out a sigh and rubbed at her arm self-consciously.
"Sure? I haven't really had much of any of those, actually. I think I'll try… tea. Can't remember the last time…"
"Is that so?" Professor Ozpin asked rhetorically as he moved away from the desk toward a small table along the side of the room and began to inspect the materials upon it. "No interest, or… damn. I've run out. I'll be just a moment."
Sasha watched as Professor Ozpin moved toward the elevator, and she immediately stood up out of her seat to hold out a hand.
"No, you don't have to…"
"Come now, it's hardly an inconvenience," the man reassured as he stepped into the elevator. "I'll just be a moment."
Before Sasha got a chance to protest once again, Professor Ozpin had closed the elevator door and left her alone in the office. The faunus looked around at the walls and the gears within them, suddenly feeling uncomfortable with all of the subtle ticking and whirring in the room. Oddly enough, there was also a buzz that she couldn't put her finger on. The sound was beginning to give her a headache, and so, she reached for her belt and secured it back in place as her eyes lit up.
"What is that noise?"
You hear it, too?
"Yeah," Sasha confirmed. "I don't like it. It's… sickening, in a weird way."
Have you realized where it's coming from?
"Have you?" Sasha asked, already knowing the answer. "Tell me."
…I don't think I should. I know exactly what you'll do if… Sasha…
As the belt spoke, the faunus had already figured it out and began moving toward the desk once again.
Sasha. Think about what you're about to do.
"I am thinking about it. What's the harm?" the woman asked. "If anything, I can ask him what he's thinking. The imprint of someone tends to be more honest than they are, after all."
But the feeling it's giving off…
"Yeah, yeah. Just a touch…" Sasha said with a smirk as she reached her hand out for Professor Ozpin's cane. "No different than any other weapon."
Sasha, don't!
But it was too late. As the Sasha wrapped her fingers around the rounded top of the cane, her head felt as though it was going to explode. There was not one voice, but thousands attached to the weapon, and they were all louder than all others she had heard from any other object. The cacophony was deafening and overwhelming to the point Sasha's vision filled with black dots as her head began to swim with a feeling of vertigo… and a flashing images of men she had never seen before. Suddenly, she could see them all standing before her, looking her way with their faces twisted in agony. Just as quickly as they had appeared before her, their faces twisted and warped into impossible shapes as the procession of unfamiliar figures all let out a synchronous scream in a chorus of tortured voices. Before Sasha could even begin to process what was happening, she had fallen to the floor hard, her head smacking against it and turning everything to black.
Author's Note:
Next time- back to the beach house.
-RD