Ooooooowwwwweeeeee this story got a lot more attention than I thought it was gunna get. Thank you to everyone for the kind reviews, and to ease some concerns let me clarify; Ironwood is not racist. Mettle is just a silly goofy semblance. A stupid one, but the writers made it canon, so now I get to abuse it :D
Beta'd by: Immortal Spank, Old man of the mountain
Mettle is…a semblance; it's neither good nor bad, but Ironwood would love it if his semblance didn't activate in moments of stress randomly.
It's not even that it automatically activates; whether it does is entirely random and out of his control during these moments, and Ironwood despised that.
Can he turn it on manually? Yes, absolutely. Does he? No.
Mettle is only at its fullest potential when he already has a plan in mind, one that runs through his most trusted intelligence officers to ensure that it's already as good as it can get.
With a mettle turned on, he can stick to the plan with 100% maximum efficiency and ensure that an enemy can't manipulate his emotions in a way to jeopardize that plan, and if something goes awry, he is able to think quickly of a competent solution. All in all, it's a reasonable semblance for a military commander.
It's just moments like these that Ironwood reflects as he leans back in his chair, where he would love it if his semblance never existed.
It had so far been just shy of five days since the attack on the police station… and the Schnee board of directors meeting, which they were confident wasn't supposed to happen for a full week; the whole reason he pressured Jacques was to secretly push the meeting's date a week ahead of schedule.
The SDC CEO was furious at him. A small, tiny, minuscule part of Ironwood thought that they deserved it for their refusal to accept his military personnel as armed security for the venue and instead relying on their own private security force.
But that part was squashed ruthlessly by his basic morals.
Ironwood sighed deeply as a hand ran through his short black hair, his other hand holding onto multiple reports that Elm had handed him earlier regarding the bull Faunus Cedar Minos.
His earlier judgment of the young man was… rash, to say the least, though he can blame Mettle for that.
It was the day immediately after the terrorist attack that Ironwood was finally able to stop and think without Mettle's influence meddling with his thoughts, and after going over the information Winter Schnee had given him again, he had uncovered some unpleasant information, or rather, a lack thereof.
There was definitely some level of suspicious activity that Cedar exhibited, mainly the contents of his brief research at the library and the unexplained six-day absence after his termination, but that was all.
Ironwood could not work with incomplete information and sent Elm and Vine to investigate, along with some of their data miners, IT operatives, and criminologists.
Days had passed until today, when Elm came back to him with a folder full of information they were able to collect not only from the attacked station (and their own follow up investigation about said information), but also transcripts of interviews that the team had gone out of their way to make with some key individuals, such as Cedar's neighbors, a previous employer, and a Stardust convenience store worker.
Elm even mentioned that their men had even managed to uncover some surviving footage from the station's security cameras and even some audio recordings, but that was only from the interrogation cells. Unfortunately, the rest of the station was not fitted with that kind of equipment.
It was clear to Ironwood that the "evidence" (and he uses that word lightly) could only lead to Cedar being the perpetrator if the police had already thought he was the culprit or if they needed a scapegoat.
The police's prime reason for suspicion, the six-day absence, was debunked easily once Elm and Vine had searched Cedar's residency. Having been covered in mold, the miscellaneous foods that loitered, enshrouded in filth and decay, only corroborated Cedar's claim of being sick. Even more so once Ironwood had read the transcript of the Stardust employee's testimony. He attested that Cedar had shown up every day for the six days he was unseen and had agreed to the claim of the young Faunus being sick based on his recollection of what Cedar looked and sounded like.
Their most substantial "evidence", in Ironwood's opinion, of the library search was also discredited with just the barest bit of digging.
Yes, Cedar had looked up Weiss Schnee during his brief stay at the library. But just a bit of digging showed at least eleveninstances of computers searching her name up as well, hours before Cedar had shown up to the library based on the librarian's own testimony.
When Ironwood had gotten to the recovered audio of the interrogation room, he had to restrain himself from crushing the very desk under him.
Did they really try to imply that Cedar was in any way the one who committed the Dust cargo robbery? For one thing, the criminal and Cedar didn't even remotely look alike, and for two, they already knew who committed that robbery: one Adam Taurus.
The blatant racism shown by the men and women who were supposed to be keeping Atlas's streets safe made Ironwood sick. It was abundantly clear that the police at that station, and maybe every other station if this behavior is exhibited in other precincts, needed a complete overhaul. This disgusting conduct cannot be allowed to poison and corrupt the souls of people meant to uphold justice.
Some serious changes need to be made, but that will need to be brought up at the next council meeting… joy.
That's if the changes are even made. Ironwood would not be surprised if the rest of Atlas's esteemed council members had some lobbyists who would…benefit from this kind of behavior.
Jacques probably being one of them.
The General exhaled a loud sigh as he leaned back in his chair. Regardless of the circumstances, regardless of Atlas's frigid behavior toward the young faunus, it did not erase the fact that Cedar had both helped the White Fang escape and had also willingly left with the terrorist group, not to mention the massive property damage he caused in the police chase.
Cedar Minos became a terrorist the moment his compliance turned to allegiance, and as such, he shall be sentenced as such once the man is caught.
It pained him, it really did. But Cedar's face has already been plastered all over Atlas, and both the media and many Atlas civilians have painted the young man as a violent terrorist.
It did not help that his compatriots were masked and could not be identified as quickly as the maskless bull Faunus. What that meant was that Cedar was now effectively the face of the attack, a symbol that people could point to and blame as responsible.
Everyone who lost loved ones or property during the police attack and subsequent police chase placed the blame solely on that young man's shoulders.
Ironwood glanced at the clock on his wall as he stood up from his chair and left his office, striding down the hallway of his academy as his thoughts shifted from Cedar towards more important matters.
It was time to go over the academy's budget.
(Cedar)
I can't tell if taking a whole week to travel from Atlas to Menagerie means that remnant is massive or if bullhead flight capabilities are just not as advanced as they are back on Earth. Maybe a combination of both?
Yuma and Trifa were good company, though. They asked me a lot of questions about my life—questions I didn't have a lot of answers to—but they just took it as shyness, I think. And they had gotten very mad on my behalf when I told them about the incidents that led up to my arrest.
A cynical part of me whispered into my brain that they were overplaying their reaction to make me like them and be more complacent. But honestly? Even if they were, I wouldn't care. It just felt nice to have someone express some empathy.
They were surprised to find out that I had aura and shocked to learn I had a semblance on top of that.
See, having aura was cool and all, but it was unhelpful outside of a career catered to fighting. To see a civilian like myself with aura is statistically unlikely enough; to have a semblance on top of that? Practically unheard of.
Their wonder turned to worry quickly once they learned that my semblance passively promotes the growth of mold. The food that they had managed to secure for the journey back was kept as far away from me as possible.
I understood the precaution, but it felt weird having to sit at the very back of the bullhead while Yuma and Trifa continued to talk to me from a distance.
My reminiscing was interrupted as I felt the bullhead slow down to a crawl and begin to descend. I rose from my seated position, stretching out my body from the uncomfortable position. I watched as Yuma and Trifa unstrapped themselves from the seats they were in, getting up just as I was in preparation for our arrival.
The bullhead shook a bit as it landed. I could faintly hear the sounds of the lapping waves of the ocean as the aircraft landed fully onto the ground, buckling a bit as it settled into what I assumed was sand.
The pilot opened the cockpit and stepped out into the cabin. I barely got a glimpse at his black hair and sideburns before he pressed a button, and the door to the shuttle opened, thumping softly in the sand as Yuma and Trifa shuffled down the door's built on stairs. I muttered a quiet "Thank you" as I passed the man and stepped out onto the island.
I shielded my eyes from the sun's bright rays as I slowly descended the steps and onto the sandy beach. Blinking away the briefly blinding light, I was amazed at the sandy white beaches and tropical trees, their leaves swaying gently in the breeze as the ambient noise of nature filled my ears, my eyes hungrily taking in the beautiful sight of the beach at sunset.
"Cedar!"
I shook my head slightly and refocused on Yuma, his hand next to his mouth as he waved me over as Trifa started to walk off just ahead of him. I jogged through the sand and joined him, walking together on the beach as we traveled up the shore towards some wooden shacks I could see in the distance. My eyes glanced towards the ocean, noticing some wooden boats with faunus fishing in the water.
It took us another five minutes of walking once we passed the fishermen's huts to reach the entrance to a large settlement…if you could even call it that.
Ahead of Yuma and I, Trifa spun around and spread her arms out, a lackluster smile on her face as her earlier enthusiasm trickled away.
"Welcome to Kuo Kuana!" She cheered. I could tell she tried to hide it, but there was no way to disguise the undertone of sadness her voice carried.
We passed under a weathered down wooden archway adorned with various paper decorations, passing by decorative wooden shacks and huts as I walked down the stone path. I saw some children playing on the grass as we walked past them, and the adult faunus spared us short glances as they continued with their daily lives. I barely paid attention to Yuma and Trifa introducing me to the facilities around me as I gazed around at the slanted and curved roofs.
Most of Kuo Kuana appeared to be large quantities of homes, architectures unfamiliar to me but large all the same: likely to house multiple families in them. Most of the tour I was given showed me around these residential areas, but there were splotches of more commercial areas. I could see some eateries splashed about; the seafood smells wafting through the air as we passed by smelled heavenly compared to the heartier, meaty smells of Atlasian cuisine.
Deeper in the settlement, Yuma, Trifa, and I passed by a massive stretch of stalls with thousands of people milling about, bartering their goods as we walked through the open market. I could see many stalls filled with foods like fruits and vegetables, and I could also see many stalls filled with trinkets and oddities I imagined were scavenged from the other kingdoms. Unfortunately, there were far too many places to see and so little time to get acquainted with them all, so we had to leave before I could explore fully.
After another hour or so of showing me around, we finally made our way to a circular area in what I could only assume was the center of the community, given that the large area had multiple connecting pathways to other clusters of houses and within that circle was a large board that had postings of paper on them.
"…and this is the center of Kuo Kuana," Yuma said, snapping me out of my thoughts. "The people of Kuo Kuana use posting boards like this one to post job requests or just for news in general, considering we lack one of those fancy CCT towers the other kingdoms have, nor a support tower to pick up the faint signals that manage to reach us from the Mistral's tower."
"You say that as though you aren't one of its people." I commented, my eyes glancing to the side at the Bat faunus.
Yuma rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Not officially anyways, Sienna can explain it better than I can. Or I guess you could talk to the Chieftain, if he's feeling well enough anyways."
I nodded, content to inquire about that later.
"Now that we've shown you around," Trifa chimed in, "Yuma and I have to go report back to Sienna."
"W-wait a second," I stammered, "Where do I even go? I don't have a house, and I don't know what I'm supposed to do."
Trifa pointed over her shoulder, "Uh, the Chieftain's house? We mentioned it earlier while we were walking through the stalls."
I peered over her shoulder and reddened slightly in embarrassment at the large wooden manor in the distance, easily three or four times as large as all the other smaller huts and homes we had passed by.
I looked back at Trifa, "So, why do I need to go to the Chieftain's home again? The arrival of a new citizen doesn't seem like an…important enough event to involve them directly."
"Well, normally it wouldn't," Yuma agreed, "But Kali is kinder than most leaders you would meet, and typically does go to the docks to welcome new Faunus to the Island; Ghira too, when he's able."
"You also can't get a house until you meet with her anyways," Trifa added. "Menagerie doesn't have enough habitable land to allow people to settle down on their own, land and homes are regulated through the chieftains to conserve space. But you're something of a unique case due to your semblance."
I nodded, "That makes sense." I shifted a bit in uncertainty as I held my hand out to the two of them. "Thank you both for helping me out, I really appreciate it."
Yuma, thankfully, shook my outstretched hand. "No problem dude, we've done this more times than you know, it's no biggie."
Trifa lightly slapped my arm, "Yeah, don't sweat it Cedar."
After that, we exchanged goodbyes as we split up; Trifa and Yuma to the White Fang's hideout, and I to the Belladonna manor.
I walked down the beaten dirt path, passing by homes and other faunus milling around as I made my way up to the Manor.
I ascended the rickety wooden steps up the hill and through the courtyard until I reached the large wooden doors of the Belladonna Manor; a massive two storied structure made of dark brown wood and stone. Large rectangular windows surrounded the walls, but nothing could be seen in the darkened interior of the manor. I continued up the large stone steps up to the Manor's entrance. I reached out and grabbed the large wooden rings and knocked them against the door, the loud noise they made breaking the tranquil silence as I waited somewhat anxiously outside.
A minute or so passed until the door was opened. The woman that appeared was short, around 5'6" if I had to guess. She had short black hair, tan skin, yellow eyes, and two cat ears atop her head; both appeared to be pierced with earrings.
She appeared to be wearing some white outfit covered by an ankle length black skirt, loose and flowy around her legs as it swayed gently in the day's wind. Above her waist, she also wore some sort of black top with one long sleeve that exposed most of her torso and chest, showing off the white dress she wore underneath. Her other arm had a long black arm warmer, with a purple band tied around it on her forearm and golden bands worn on her wrist.
"Oh my!" Kali gasped softly as her head craned back to look up at me, "I definitely haven't seen you around the island, you must be new!" The cat faunus smiled gently at me. "Welcome to Menagerie friend, my name is Kali Belladonna; may I have yours?"
"Cedar, ma'am." I mumbled, "Cedar Minos, I just arrived today about an hour ago."
"It's very nice to meet you Cedar," Kali stepped to the side as she opened the door further, "Now let's get you settled in, shall we? Come inside and we'll get everything sorted out."
"Thank you," I muttered quietly, stepping into the large manor as Kali closed the door gently behind us.
"It's no problem," Kali assured me as she walked ahead of me, leading us down the large hallway, "It's one of my duties to help the new inhabitants of Kuo Kuana settle in. Admittedly, I usually have other trusted community members help when there's a lot of people, but it's easy enough to get oneperson accommodated by myself."
Kali led me down to what looked like a personal library. Tall bookcases rose to the ceiling, filled to the brim with books and journals. Large light fixtures hung from the ceiling, casting a soft yellow glow into the room as kali flicked on the light switch. In the center of the room was a big coffee table surrounded by four couches, and further back into the library was a large wooden desk filled with stacks of paper, and what appeared to be a fancy computer on the counter.
Kali guided me to one of the couches and sat me down, "Don't worry, this shouldn't take long."
I watched her grab a bunch of papers from the large desk in the back of the study and walk back to me, sitting down across from me as she spread out a large map. From a short glance I could see what I assumed was the layout of Kuo Kuana, with large swaths of homes and marked areas of what I assume was clarifying information or maybe just pointing out important locations like medical centers.
"Alright then, let's get started with housing." Kali began, "Almost all of Kuo Kuana's homes are multi-family homes so that you will be sharing a home with others. Now here I have a list of the availa-"
"Actually," I hesitantly interrupted, "I will need a home to myself."
Kali looked up from her papers and raised an eyebrow at me, "I'm going to assume there's a better reason than just wishing for home for yourself."
"It's a side effect of my semblance," I explained, "My semblance is called 'Plant Growth,' it's rather self-explanatory." I grimaced, "However, my semblance's passive ability is the ability to accelerate the growth of moss and mold within a certain radius of me, and I'm not sure how far that radius is."
"Ah," Kali winced, "Yeah, that would be a good enough reason."
Kali set aside a couple of papers she was holding to the side, muttering as her eyes scanned between the list she was holding and the map; her finger gliding lightly on the map's surface.
"These are out," she muttered as she crossed out something on her sheet, "Here? No…not here either, far too close to the medical center."
I sat patiently as Kali continued down her list, crossing out possible locations until she neared the bottom where she stopped.
"This…could work," she mumbled, "Far enough away from the important locations, but not far enough to be too far away in case of an emergency…"
Kali looked back at me, "So…some good news and bad news." Her finger tapped on the map in a section with lots of trees, "Good news is that we do have a home built for one person. The bad news is that the house is old and may need repair. It is also fairly far away from most of the people living in Kuo Kuana."
"That's fine," I replied, "I'm fine with a little isolation, and a few repairs will be simple enough to fix."
Kali smiled, "That's great then, I'll get someone to show you to your new place in the morning." The woman glanced at a clock on the wall, "Right now it's fairly late, if you wish to, you can stay in the common room for the night and we'll get you settled in the morning." Her eyes darted to me, "No offense, of course, but this house is probably the cleanest one on the island and I'd rather not risk mold growing in the homes meant for incoming refugees."
"No offense taken," I waved off, "And that's more than fine with me. Thank you for allowing me to stay in your home."
Kali patted my arm and stood up, walking out the study with a gesture to follow her. We walked down the dark halls until we reached a quaint room with an oversized leather couch with an assortment of throw pillows on it that sat in front of a large un-lit fireplace. On one of the walls was another bookcase similar to the ones in the study, but smaller and from what little I could see filled with children's story books with an occasional historian book or two, along with some family photos of Ghira, Kali, and a much smaller Blake who appeared to be around 5 or 6. There were some other comfy looking chairs set up in the corners of the room, small round tables in front of them with coasters and books laid about on the surface.
"You can sleep on the couch here," Kali told me as she grabbed a blanket off one of the chairs, "It's not much but it'll do for a night."
I sat down on the couch, marveling at the softness as I laid down, gently grabbing the blanket from Kali's hands and covering myself with it.
"This will more than do for the night. This couch is honestly better than the bed I had at my home in Atlas." I admitted.
Kali let out a sad sigh as she turned to leave the room, "I'm sorry for that. Have a good night Cedar, we'll talk in the morning more about your future on Menagerie."
Kali walked out as my eyes started to close, the day's events catching up to me as I started to doze off.
I woke up to the smell of fish.
I sighed as I woke up from what felt like the best sleep I've had in ages, swinging my legs off the couch as I reluctantly got up.
I walked through the hallway towards the smell of food and found myself in a spacious kitchen, and Kali was cooking away at her stove. I saw her faunus ears flicker at the sound of my footsteps as she turned her head to look at me.
"Cedar!" She smiled softly, "Good morning, I hope you slept well."
I nodded, "Thank you, and good morning to you too."
"I'll be with you in a second," Kali hummed, "Just getting food ready for my husband, and then we can discuss other matters."
My stomach growled loudly; I blushed in embarrassment as Kali laughed, "Well, I suppose I'll make enough for three then!"
"Thank you." I mumbled.
Kali hummed to herself as she continued to cook, setting aside a large plate of fish and vegetables for I assume Ghira. She then plated two smaller plates for her and me.
She handed me a plate and took the larger one upstairs, coming back down quickly as I quietly ate the fish she provided me. It was good, a taste I didn't recognize but the fish was delicate and tasted very good with the potatoes and what I assumed was Zucchini, but I couldn't be sure.
Once we ate and cleaned the dishes we met back in the standard room, kali sitting on one of the chairs as I sat back on the couch.
"Now that we've gotten your living situation sorted out," Kali began, "let's go over possible options for what you can do on the island for work." Her eyes roamed my body, "Given your musculature, you'd do well in any of the more physical tasks that we need; lumberjacks, carpenters, or fishing could work." She shook her head, "Of course, that's if you're interested. I'm sure that you had a job back on Atlas, let's see if we have something similar here that you could do."
"I was an engineer." I lied, "I have a lot of knowledge on how to build technology that's good for the environment, but I also have some sporadic knowledge in other fields." That'll be as good a cover as any to explain away my system.
Kali's eyes widened, "An Engineer? I'm surprised Atlas let you go; they're always starving for new blood like you." She shook her head, "Apologies, let's get back on track; an Engineer…" She bit her lip, "Unfortunately, Menagerie just doesn't have the infrastructure nor materials for that…"
Her eyes met mine and stared, contemplating, before she leaned back and sighed. "Well, there might be a way…and your new home is close enough to them that it wouldn't be a hassle." Her eyes met mine again, "Is being an Engineer what you wish to do?"
"Yes." I replied immediately.
"Then…oh brothers I can't believe I'm doing this," she mumbled, "I'd suggest meeting with Sienna Khan, she would likely have the means of…acquiring the materials you'd need."
"I take it you don't have a good relationship with the White Fang?"
"Ah, so you already know about Sienna." Kali mused, "To answer your question; it's complicated. I do not like the direction Sienna took with the White Fang, however they are a part of Menagerie just like the rest of us; and as such we are in this together. And I am not so ignorant as to hate Sienna or the good people that join the White Fang; I see them in the market all the time, and we all get along just fine; I even strike up a conversation with her. I just personally do not agree with the radicalism that Sienna's change to the White Fang has given birth to."
I nodded slowly, "I think I understand. So you don't want me going to the White Fang because you disapprove of their methods, but will recommend them to me anyways because they're the only way I have a chance to do what I want?"
"Pretty much," She agreed. "I'm not going to force you into doing work you don't want, so even if I'm against the radicalism I can and will put aside my feelings so that you're able to do the work you want to." She smiled, "I'd rather you work towards something you enjoy while working with the White Fang than have you slave away at a job you don't enjoy just to ease my emotions."
"Thank you, truly." I said, "This means more to me than you probably realize, but I'm not going to bog you down with my baggage." I leaned forward, "So where can I meet with Sienna?"
"The White Fang's headquarters are further down the coast eastwards," Kali explained. "It's not a far journey, 30 or so minutes by walking at most. You will be walking through the forestry but as long as you stick near the coast you won't get lost; they have a port for their transport boats so you can't miss it if you stick to the shoreline." The cat faunus straightened up, "Why don't I take you to the coast and you can go from there? I need to visit the market anyways and that's on the way."
"I won't say no to that," I replied, "Thank you, for everything."
She hummed as we left, leaving the manor and making our way into the heart of Kuo Kuana. Our journey was made in comfortable silence, only talking when I had a question about one of the more commercial structures scattered about that I hadn't seen during my initial tour. On the way, however, we passed by a very large building with a line that wrapped around the building and further beyond.
"What's that for?" I asked as we passed by, the line stretching on what I could only assume was for miles.
"That's the building where we keep most of our food," Kali explained. "Menagerie as an Island doesn't have much fertile land to grow food, and the land we do have access to is mostly surrounded by sea water, so the few produces we're able to grow, along with food the White Fang can procure for us, has to be stored and rationed out to the people." She sighed, "It's a serious problem I'm afraid. Luckily, we're able to fish off the coast for most of our food, but because of the aquatic Grimm we're unable to sail further out to catch more fish." Kali grimaced, "We are at serious risk of overfishing in the next decade or two, and no one has a solution to the food crisis outside of possible trade, but we have nothing to offer the other kingdoms in exchange."
Kali slapped her forehead and groaned, "Aaaaaand I just dumped all of that onto our newest resident. What a great job I just did; sharing that kind of heavy information for the world to hear."
I ignored Kali reprimanding herself as I gazed at the line of faunus that had to be thousands long, watching in sadness as I saw a child walk with two potatoes and some carrots away happily from the faunus handing out the rations. I was forced to stop thinking about it when Kali tugged my arm, leading me down an adjacent pathway that led us to the market.
Once there, Kali pointed out to me where I needed to go to get to the White Fang HQ. After we exchanged pleasantries, we split off from there as Kali went into the morning market and I towards the Forest.
It took me some time to traverse along the coast, but I managed to find the White Fang's base easily once I noticed the large docks in the water. It was just a matter of getting there and walking along the side of the building until I managed to stumble into a patrol unit.
I explained to them that I was there to meet Sienna and they reluctantly broke patrol to take me inside. The interior of the building was a series of reds, browns, and burnt oranges, and very spartan; bare and desolate beyond the occasional banner with the White Fang's insignia.
They led me down the halls until I was taken to a small room in front of two massive doors guarded by two masked faunus. Once I sat down they told me to wait there while they left to go speak to her.
They came back soon enough and said that she was willing to speak to me, but she was currently in the middle of a meeting with her advisors and that it will take some time before they finish. They left before I could say anything, but I wasn't annoyed.
I spent what felt like a couple hours sitting patiently in the lobby, bored out of my mind. I did manage to chat up a couple of white fang members that strolled about, but most couldn't talk to me as they had to be somewhere.
It is at this time that I am painfully reminded that I don't have my phone to distract me from this boredom. I'll need to get my hands on a functioning scroll as soon as possible.
My eyes glanced at the screen only visible to me, the anxiousness that I felt slowly building in my chest easing away as I stared at the blueprints shown. I have a goal; and I had the design to execute it. I just had to convince Sienna to take the leap of faith.
The sound of the door opening brought me out of my daze, the guard who brought me here peering out to address me.
"The High Leader will see you now."
I grunted and stood up, silently dismissing the screen quickly as I nodded politely to the guards before entering the room. I felt my jaw drop at the disgustingly gargantuan room I found myself in.
The room was massive, easily the length of one or two military hangers and twice as large. A large, long red carpet stretched across the room from the door to the back of the throne room, where I could see a series of steps leading up to a wooden chair that acted as a throne. Sienna Khan lounging in it with two faunus by her sides draped in some robes that I couldn't make out. Behind them was a massive 100-200 ft long banner with the insignia of the White Fang, and a few more hung in the air throughout the room. I shook away my surprise and walked across the room until I was at the bottom of the steps that led up to the throne, Sienna looking down at me as I craned my head up to meet her gaze.
"This is certainly amusing," Sienna began. "Not even two days settled in, and you already wish to speak with me?"
I blinked, "You know of me?"
"My operatives mentioned you in their report yesterday," Sienna explained, "They spoke of you well enough, and I am told that it is because of you that we recovered one of Atlas's combat androids." She smiled, "Atlas no doubt is going to update and upgrade their remaining models to remnant and back to render the stolen one redundant to us, but it will still no doubt prove useful to the cause."
"That's…great?"
"Indeed," she agreed. "And it is because of this boon that I have agreed to meet you so quickly despite the lack of a formal notice."
"Ah…" I winced, "I…could have handled this better."
"It is fine this once," she dismissed, "Just keep in mind that in the future if you wish to speak with me." Sienna then leaned forward, "Now, let's get into why you're here."
"Kali Belladonna sent me," I ignored her confused blink, "I told her I was an Engineer back in Atlas, and the Chieftain told me that if I wished to continue this, you are my best chance at getting the materials I need to start my projects."
"And what would these projects be?" She asked.
"An alternative power source to dust, but that can come later." I answered.
Sienna raised a skeptic eyebrow, "You do realize how preposterous this sounds correct?"
"Yes, I know how absurd my claim presents itself." I grunted, "But perhaps I am getting ahead of myself, we can talk more about it after I prove myself capable to you."
"And exactly how do you plan to do that?"
"I'm going to help fix the food shortage problem on Menagerie."
Sienna's eyes widened at my proclamation. "A bold claim, perhaps bolder than your earlier one." She turned towards the two fox faunus and motioned them over. I could not overhear their hushed conversation, but it was clear to me from what I could see of their faces that the two fox faunus did not look particularly happy at whatever Sienna was saying. Eventually, they separated, and Sienna turned back around to look at me.
"Let's say I agree to help you out, what exactly would you need to do for your little project." Sienna asked me.
"If you provide me a pen and paper, I could list everything out for you?"
Sienna waved her hand and the faunus on her left nodded, leaving the room and eventually returning with a clipboard, paper, and pen. I quickly listed out everything I needed, subtly glancing at the blueprint provided to me by my system to double check I had everything. Satisfied, I clicked my pen shut and handed the clipboard to the faunus man.
Sienna hummed as she was handed the list, her eyes scrolling through the items; never once showing an ounce of emotion.
"This is…doable," she finally spoke. "Many of the materials listed can be found during our shipment raids, and we should be able to transport these items back along with the dust we collect." Her eyes met mine, "However, gathering these materials for someone not in our organization, nor someone with a reputation, will be difficult to justify. You see where this places me, don't you?"
"What would you have me do in return?" I prompted, "I do not expect such generosity to come freely."
"Firstly, you must join the White Fang." Sienna stated firmly. "This is a must, I can not and will not risk my forces against the dogs of Atlas to acquire valuable materials for someone who is not committed to the cause."
I nodded slowly. "Alright, easy enough."
"Secondly," She continued, "we will need to gather you some tools and the equipment necessary to build your projects. However, it would be a waste to have these be attained solely for the purpose of enabling your fantasies. Success or failure in this project you have, you will contribute to the cause by building us weaponry."
"I do not know how to build weaponry-"
"Then we shall acquire the blueprints and you will learn." She interrupted, "I do not care for the speed at which you build, only that you learn and contribute to the cause." She closed her eyes, "We can discuss what exactly can be expected of you once you succeed or fail with your proposed project."
"…Fine." I eventually said, "I'm more than confident in my ability to impress, I accept your terms…High Leader."
Sienna looked pleased, "Fantastic. We will discuss further at another time, please leave me; I will send someone for you once we have everything ready."
"How would you know where to find me?"
"I can always ask Kali where your new home is." Sienna waved her hand towards the door, "You may leave now, I have other matters to attend to; and now I will have to also plan and execute a new raid to get the materials you need."
I nodded and left, thanking the guards on my way out as I headed back towards Kuo Kuana.
Now…how do I keep myself preoccupied?
Sienna watched the large bull faunus walk away and leave through their doors, sighing internally she felt the stares from Corsac and Fennec.
"Instead of staring at me like pouting children why not act like the adults I know you are and say what's on your mind." She drawled.
She heard Corsac inhaling deeply. "Sienna," her 'advisor' ground out, "you can't honestly believe the things that man was saying do you?"
"He seemed confident," Fennec noted. "False bravado or real I cannot say, but his story leaves much to be desired." The man snorted dismissively, "Atlas would never allow a trained Engineer to escape their grasp, Faunus or not. And the tales of such would reach even our ears, even with our land so far removed from the human's global communication."
Sienna rolled her eyes, "To answer your question Corsac: No. I don't think he can do it, but we might as well let him try." She shrugged with one arm, "if he succeeds then frankly that's fantastic, if he fails, we have someone who's agreed to mass produce weapons for us."
"But the risk-"
"The risk is minimal, Corsac, we have little to lose and much to gain with this little deal we struck." Sienna rose from her seat, "We're done discussing this. Let's get a move on, it's time to plan our next raid and keep up our end of the bargain."
Name: Cedar Minos
Species: Bull Faunus
Aura Capacity: 100%
Semblance: Plant Growth [Unevolved]
{Technological Packs Equipped [1/5]}
[Solarpunk]
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[]
[]
[]
{Technological Packs Unequipped [0]}
Oh wow that was a long wait now wasn't it? Apologies for that, work got crazy in the summer and uni rolled right in and fucked me hard with labs and projects. But now my labs are over and my projects are done so I'll have more time to write until finals are coming up!
Anyways, I got a discord link for you chuckle fucks. I hang out here with other authors so come join u shitheads, https/ /: discord . gg / wd3tU YWVCd – just remove the spaces.