A/N: Quick note, You may have noticed that this fic has been changed to T on both sites. This is because after thinking about it what I've written and what I plan to write isn't something that needs an M rating. If this changes or I'm told otherwise by moderation for either site I'll switch it back. But for now, a T rating is appropriate in my eyes.
Ruby's heart sank as she watched Scarlet's crimson blade cut open Lumi's back. It had happened so fast, blood red steel arcing through the air and striking true in what felt like a millisecond before the wall of light separating the sparring match from the rest of the students fell, Lumi had made a simple mistake in her last blow. She'd always been so protective of that damn sword, ever since she had fought with her brother for it, she'd protected it more than she did herself, the Aura that had been focused into her weapon should have been focused on herself. Instead, Scarlet's parry hit the sword hard enough to cause Lumi's Aura to flicker and weaken across her body, her already meager defenses reduced to the point that Scarlet's blade, bigger, longer, sharper, and with much more strength behind it, had no problem passing through. Ruby could have screamed, cried, or, if her temper had been anything like her sister, lash out in uncontrollable fury, but instead she stood there in shock as Lumi lost blood.
Time slowed to a crawl for Scarlet, it was a lot like when she was under the effects of Lumi's Glyph, but weaker. She looked down at the pool of blood slowly spilling out from her partner's grievous wound, the wound she had inflicted. Shit, shit, shit, shit! What had she done!? Accident or not, the bovine girl felt sick at what she had caused, the fires of rage stifled by a deluge of remorse. She had to fix this, make things right somehow, maybe she could use her Semblance? She had used it to get blood back into smaller cuts for herself in the past, but Lumi's injury was far worse than any of those instances and… well, it wasn't on herself this time.
She only managed to take a step closer to her fallen opponent before something slammed into her from behind, hitting her at a speed that immediately knocked the air from her lungs and launched her off of her feet in the same moment, the sudden force following her onto the ground. Before she knew it, someone had her arm in a bind behind her back, pinning her down. She immediately started to twist and turn in an attempt to get free, and in the struggle, her assailant's identity soon came to light. Ruby. The assistant headmistress had tears of anger in her silver eyes as she pinned Scarlet down, trying to stop her student from getting any closer to her injured niece.
Ruby cursed herself, this was her fault, she should have stopped the fight the moment she saw them going at it with genuine anger, rather than reminiscing on the good ole days, and now Lumi was paying the price for her failure. The students in the stands were making a ruckus, mainly gasps of horror, exclamations of swears and profanities, and there was a scream that she was fairly certain had come from Goose. She couldn't worry about any of that at the moment however, trusting Koji to settle the students while she restrained Scarlet and tried to get the situation under control, specifically the redhead currently struggling under her.
"Let me go! I can fix this!" Scarlet cried, struggling against the grip of the Professor that had pinned her to the ground. Despite all her efforts though, it seemed that no matter how hard she pulled and writhed against the teacher's grip, there was no budging the older and stronger woman's grip from her current position, locked down on her like a vice.
"You've done enough! Just… stay still so we can handle this, okay?!" Ruby's words came out strained and uneven, the woman was clearly panicking and trying to hide it, badly, her silver eyes darting back and forth from the girl under her to Lumi just a few feet away. In her captors panic, Scarlet saw her opportunity, suddenly shifting her body as far as she could to the side and managing to knock the Professor off balance from her perch atop her. Seizing her chance, she pushed Ruby as hard as she could, managing to throw her off. With newfound vigor, she scrambled over to her partner on hands and knees, placing her hands just above the open wound and starting to concentrate on the red liquid that oozed out of her.
"Come on damn it, you talked all that shit but can't take a hit?" she said, her fingers tensed and her eyes squeezed shut in silent exertion. Suddenly the rivulets of blood stopped, Scarlet's Semblance keeping the tide still, before willing it to contract and move back, the crimson pool spread across the ground receding as it started to flow back towards the source.
"You… you can do that?" Ruby said in both surprise and skepticism. Despite her obvious display of distrust, she did nothing to stop her student, hoping that her gambit would play out and that Lumi would be okay.
Scarlet ignored the question and kept her mind on the task at hand, she had to make sure she didn't mess up and accidentally put the blood somewhere it didn't belong, because, as much as she wished it was the case, she couldn't just shove the blood back in and call it a day. Blood was weird, blood was complex, and thus, she had to make sure she got it back into where it was meant to be, the veins and muscles, something that she knew her Semblance was capable of thanks to her limited experience, but was still complex, requiring a good deal of concentration. After several minutes that felt like hours to those present, Lumi began to stir. The blonde let out a low groan, her eyes fluttering open as she regained consciousness. Then the pain set in. Gods above, it felt like she was on fire, her breath speeding up as she started to choke on her own spit, coughing as a waterfall of tears began to stream down her face. Looking back, her soft blue eyes widened in shock as she made eye contact with Scarlet.
"Oh thank the Gods, you're awake. Now, stay still." she said, clearly in a less than comforting mood, grumbling as she kept redirecting the flow, ignoring the whimpers and gasps of pain from Lumi as she worked to stabilize her. She didn't feel bad for the girl, dragging her and her father through the mud like that. And who the hell even was Adam Taurus anyways? Her cousin or something?
Every instinct Lumi felt told her to run, to grab Crocea Mors and take a swing, use her Semblance to throw her back, slow her down, to do anything but just lie there, but the feeling of her blood flow being directed by someone else kept her frozen in place on the ground, recognising that she was at the mercy of the same girl who had sliced her open in the first place.
The class was dismissed and led out by Koji, leaving Ruby alone with the two girls, keeping a close eye on them as Scarlet worked. It took a bit longer than expected, but eventually Koji returned, now with Qrow and Jaune in tow. Great, now she'd have to explain this…
"What happened? Oh Gods, Lumi?" Jaune exclaimed, his expression shifting from concern to horror as he ran in and dropped down to kneel next to his eldest daughter, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. He looked over at Scarlet, watching as she brought the last droplets of his child's blood, his blood, back where it belonged. Scarlet was then gently pulled away by Ruby, the student tried to argue before seeing the glow of the blond man's Semblance at work. He let his hands rest over Lumi just as Scarlet's had moments ago, pouring his Aura into her using his Semblance and causing her weakened Aura to surge back to life, the room awash with white as her wound started to close.
"Dad… she…" Lumi tried to speak, but was still feeling the effects of the blood loss, her body not yet realizing she had recovered her lost blood.
"Not now, wait until you're healed sweetie." Jaune said softly, glancing down at the wound that was mostly closed by her Aura. It was going to leave a scar, a large one too, a mark that trailed from her right shoulder all the way down onto her left hip that would likely remain on her for the rest of her life, fading, but never disappearing.
"What the hell happened?" Qrow asked as he turned to his niece, shock and anger clear on his wizened face. It was only the first day, and someone had gone and gotten themselves cut open, the fact that it was his granddaughter only adding to his frustration. Once her wound had fully closed, Jaune lifted the small teen up, helping her stand.
"It was a sparring accident, my fault. I… I should have stepped in." Ruby said, trying to pull the blame onto herself. It wasn't like she had lied or anything, she should have known better than to let the fight carry on, but she'd been stupid and let the fight continue well past the point of acceptability for a sparring match.
"No it wasn't!" Lumi gasped, still panting heavily as she leaned against her father, her anger returning as her aunt defended Scarlet. No, she absolutely would not stand for this, they'd know the truth about her, pointing a shaky finger at Scarlet and shouted. "She… she.. she maimed me!"
"Lumi stop, it was just an accident." Ruby responded immediately using as calm a tone as she could muster, still trying to defuse the situation, yet her niece was having none of it.
"No it wasn't! That girl is Adam's child, how could you expect anything less from her!?" Lumi said with righteous fury, only to fall silent as her declaration wasn't met with the gasps of revulsion that she had expected from the teachers, but an uncomfortable silence as they shared glances amongst themselves.
Jaune felt his throat dry up, he didn't need to ask, a simple look at Scarlet and the resemblance to her father became astoundingly clear. He found himself biting his lip and looking at the girl with a scowl, her parentage was already a good enough reason to be wary of the girl, and now she had attacked Lumi? There had better be a damn good explanation for all this. The blond man looked over at Ruby, a remorseful expression on her face hoping to convey her regret at not telling him without needing to say it out loud, her head nudging at the horned Faunus at her side, the girl already fuming.
"What the hell are you talking about? My Dad's name is Terracotta, not 'Adam'. I've never even met an Adam in my life!" Scarlet continued to argue, going to step forward to get back in her partner's face, only for her arm to be grabbed and pulled back by Ruby. Stopping to think for a moment, and seeing the two less than amused huntsmen at Lumi's side, she decided to just let it go for now, taking a deep breath and crossing her arms, her stance on her partner's baseless accusations proven quite thoroughly.
Qrow groaned, so she really didn't know, didn't she? Great, that was responsible of them. It wasn't like he didn't understand, it's not like he had jumped to tell Goose about his past as a bandit, but even so, he'd told her and Willow everything, and he didn't even have the looming bombshell of being responsible for the largest terror attack in Vale's history to inevitably drop on them. Besides, it was just his luck that Adam's little bombshell would finally blow up once it was suddenly his problem.
"That's enough!" The sudden boom of the headmistress's voice caught everyone's attention, drawing their eyes to where Glynda stood, arms crossed and glare firm. At her side, Touko looked over the scene with a clear look of trepidation, unable to meet anyone's gaze. Both had caught the latter half of the exchange, and while the cybernetic professor wanted to speak up about what they'd heard, a single look at her superior told her that now was definitely not the time. Goodwitch closed the distance and addressed her staff. "Jaune, take Miss Arc-Schnee to the infirmary for now, Miss Rose, I expect you to handle Miss Taurus-Fall. As for the rest of you, we're going to have a meeting. Mr. Arc-Schnee, once your daughter is released, you and I will discuss this personally."
"You're damn right we are." Jaune said, still helping Lumi stand as he led her out of the sparring hall. Glynda decided to let it slide for now, if she'd walked in on Cassia unconscious with an open wound still spilling blood, she'd hardly react well to it and, frankly, she had more pressing matters to attend to. Shooting a stern look over at Qrow, Koji, and Touko, she motioned for them to follow her, leading everyone but Scarlet and Ruby out of the room. They'd have plenty to talk about after all.
Jin paced back and forth in front of the infirmary door, as, despite knowing full well that on the other side, Lumi was being looked over by Jaune and the nurse, he still felt responsible. The large boy had been like this from the moment he'd seen her take the hit that brought her down, and, while the knowledge that she was fine for the most part helped somewhat, but without seeing it for himself, that fear remained in his mind, and it was eating away at him. Jet sat silently, unsure as to whether saying anything would help, or just make things worse, the waiting room was already tense enough with the two boys, and BGEL's presence didn't help ease it much, if at all.
Elizabeth was the most tense visually, hunched over and tapping her foot nervously on the tiled floor, her eyes glancing from the door to the time displayed on the hardlight display of her scroll, counting the minutes as they went by. Goose and Belka, despite being in calmer states of mind, were both visibly unnerved by the event, Belka distracting herself with whatever she could pay attention to aside from her thoughts, currently looking through the notes she'd taken of her classes, absentmindedly biting her fingernails down to the nub. Goose was the opposite, sitting and staring at the door, lost in her own thoughts with a face that would involuntarily tense and contort whenever one of her thoughts turned particularly unpleasant. In stark contrast to the others, Lao was serene, sitting stone still as he waited with the rest.
Jet took another look at his partner and sighed, seeing the monkey tailed boy start to pant as he became more and more frantic with each passing moment. Deciding that even getting yelled at was the better outcome, between that and letting Jin work himself up into a panic attack, he stood and grabbed his partner's arm, the blond behemoth jumping at the sudden contact, still too far in his own head to realize Jet had even moved.
"Hey, breathe man, Lumi's dad said she was fine, right? That this was just a check up and that she'd be out in a bit." Jet said, bracing himself for the sudden outburst he'd expected from the larger boy, but it never came. Instead, Jin's breathing slowed, showing that he was at least trying to take his advice, but seemed to be unable to get rid of the anxiety bubbling up inside him.
"You're right, but I just… I can't be sure until I see, y'know?" Jet nodded, he had felt his heart stop seeing Lumi go down like that, and he'd only known her for just over a day, he couldn't imagine what Jin felt now, let alone what he might have felt in the moment it had happened. Another part of him was just happy that Jin didn't explode on him, but for now that didn't seem likely, the big guy just needed to calm down. Reaching out, he awkwardly gave Jin's shoulder a firm pat, not really sure what else he could do, but it seemed to help, Jin's lips tilting upwards by just a hair.
In the silence that followed, Elizabeth tried to swallow the question that dug its way into her thoughts, but try as she might, Lumi's claims stayed fresh. Now that the idea was firmly planted in her head, she saw things that she hadn't thought about or had merely assumed were just coincidences, Scarlet had his name, his horns, his blade, and apparently his temper…
"Do you think it's true?" Lao said, surprisingly enough being the first person to actually bring up the question that laid so heavily on their minds, his stone-still face and monotone voice managing to hide any personal feelings he may have had on the matter.
"Lao… n-now isn't really the time." Goose said in response, trying to direct the topic away from the incident, preferably back to Lumi's condition if she could help it, but it seemed that the others had no intention of just letting things go.
"No, he has a point." Liz spoke up, calmly, but the accusatory tone she spoke with was unmistakable. "If Scarlet knew, and she hid it from us, it could point to ulterior motives'."
"That's a big if." the leader of BGEL pointed out, the scowl on her face now directed at her niece. "And, we don't even know if it's true or not."
"I don't think she was wrong, one look at Professor Rose showed that Lumi knew what she was talking about." Lao pointed out once more, brutal in his honesty.
"Does it even matter?" Belka said, surprising everyone with the question, silence falling briefly on BGEL and the boys from SJJL. Jet breathed an inaudible sigh of relief, but it didn't last as Elizabeth stood up, bewildered by her aunt's statement.
"Wha- Of course it matters! Did you not hear what I said? What if she was keeping it secret for a reason?"
"You mean like worrying about people judging her for something her dad did? Yeah, what an unfounded fear, I don't know anyone who'd be so juvenile." Belka's sarcasm wasn't appreciated by the pint-sized Atlesian.
"I- seriously? If anything this would just prove Mother's point that yo-"
"Guys, enough!" Goose said, scolding the pair to the point of actually stomping her foot down in irritation, more than a little irritated that they'd bring this up now after what had just happened to Lumi.
"But-" Elizabeth's protest was cut off by another indignant stomp from her aunt, once again shutting down the argument.
"No! We don't even know if she knew herself, so, no more arguing until we know Lumi's okay!"
Then, as if on cue, the door to the infirmary door opened up to reveal Lumi and her father, she was now dressed back in her dull red uniform, holding the damaged dueling jacket in her arms, as while her flesh had been healed, her favorite combat attire had not.
"I'll be fine." she muttered, looking down at her feet in embarrassment. Everyone present had seen her go down, defeated in such a way that left her with no excuses. While the actual pain may have been fresh in her mind, her failure in combat was what had truly been digging at her, she'd been cocky, underestimated her opponent, a mistake she would make sure not to make a second time.
Lumi didn't get the time to properly stew in her own regret though, as a pair of powerful arms immediately wrapped around her and picked her up off the ground. With a startled yelp, Lumi tried to push Jin off her for a moment, her arms feebly straining against the wall of seemingly rock hard muscle that made up his torso before giving up and slumping forward, reluctantly holding onto the boy's head, just to maintain balance, of course.
"I just told you I'm fine, you big oaf." Lumi chided, but unable to manage the serious tone she'd intended to use thanks to her feet dangling a good two-ish feet off the floor.
"Uncle Jaune, are we sure everything is okay?" Elizabeth asked, turning to Jaune and ignoring the protests from her dear cousin. Thanks to the girl's pride Lumi was likely to say the same thing even if she had been paralyzed, but her uncle didn't seem to be freaking out, in fact he seemed to be weirdly calm considering the circumstances, but she just chalked that up to relief that Lumi was okay.
"The nurse says she's fine, but needs to keep herself from doing anything too strenuous for a few days just to stay safe. Jin, think you could make sure she listens?" the blond knight said, asking the muscular boy with a carefree smile that masked the growing feelings of betrayal that being kept in the dark about Scarlet's heritage by Glynda and Ruby was causing to brew within him. But, that could wait until he wasn't right in front of his students/younger family members.
"Sure thing. I'll carry her around if I gotta." Jin said, setting her down immediately after saying as much. Settling back to her feet with a huff, Lumi immediately turned away from the boy, only to come face to face with her other male teammate, and it took everything in her power to not immediately slap Jet the moment their eyes met. He opened his mouth before stopping, seemingly to reconsider his words, before starting once again.
"Lumi I do-"
"Don't." Lumi cut him off with a sharp growl, her fists clenched as she glared at the green haired boy. "You knew, I saw how you ran up to the Professor, you knew and you said nothing!"
Jet flinched, looking away as he couldn't bring himself to look the girl in the eyes. After what she'd gone through, he really didn't know what to say. Thankfully for him though, Jin immediately came to his aid, putting his massive frame between the two of them.
"Lumi, come on, we don't even know for sure if you're right about this." the boy said, trying his best to defuse the situation but only succeeding in getting Lumi's ire turned onto him instead.
"Seriously? After she cut me open you're still going t- You know what, forget it, I'm going to the dorm, Father already told me he'd deal with this mess." And with that, she turned on her heel and stormed off. Elizabeth moved to join her, calling out for her cousin to wait at the sudden departure, only to be ignored. A reluctant Goose, caught in the throes of hesitation, looked between the SJJL boys and her leaving nieces, before ultimately following them out, followed closely by a scoffing Belka and silent Lao, leaving Jet and Jin alone with Jaune.
Jin suddenly felt anxious once more, watching in silence as the door closed behind Lumi and BGEL. Crap, he'd messed up, he didn't really know what else he could have done differently, just that he needed to fix this. Rubbing the back of his neck, the large blond glanced at his partner, already feeling guilty for what he was about to say.
"I uh- I gotta…" He didn't need to finish, Jet understood. Besides it had been a long day, well mostly the last thirty minutes, although they'd felt like hours.
"Go ahead man, I gotta go find Scar. I'll meet you back at the dorm."
Without hesitation, Jin took off after his friend, stopping briefly at the door to shoot Jet a thumbs up and a cheesy grin, which the other boy tried to return, but was just a bit too slow on the draw as Jin closed the door behind him, leaving Jet alone with the counselor. Jaune, deciding that it was okay to let his composure drop just a bit, let out a tired sigh, turning to his remaining student a moment later. The boy looked very familiar, and, after taking a moment to put the pieces into place, he immediately knew why. Scarlet Taurus-Fall. Even if he couldn't clearly recall the exact faces of Jet's parents, nor their master, he looked enough like Emerald for the connection to click, especially if his friend happened to not just be Adam's daughter, but Cinder's as well.
"You're Mercury and Emerald's son, right?" the sudden question taking Jet by surprise, causing him to answer without thinking.
"Y-yeah, how'd you know?"
"Just a feeling, they were pretty close to who I'm pretty sure is Scarlet's mom, so y'know, safe bet." Again, Jet found himself taken aback by the suddenness of the statement, as well as the casual nature he spoke with, as if the ponytailed man was just commenting on something as mundane as the weather.
"With Ember?"
Jaune chose not to comment on the clearly fake name, but took note of the hesitation in Jet's voice. He sighed once more, damn it, he was making the kid nervous. Screw it, he had plenty of time to get to the bottom of things once he got to speak with Glynda.
"You said you were going to look for your friend right? Well Ruby's- sorry, Professor Rose's office is on the third floor of the administration building. I can take you there." Jaune said, turning around and motioning for Jet to follow him. Jet, not really having a good reason to object, followed the man, silently praying to whatever god would listen that he wouldn't ask any more questions.
The office Professor Rose used was surprisingly cozy, the walls adorned with a warm red wallpaper, similar in color to her cloak, seemingly chosen in contrast with the dark green carpet, giving the room an almost festive feel. The woman's desk was a mess, papers haphazardly strewn all over the wooden surface, with the sole exception of a space cleared out around the pictures she kept of her friends and family. Scarlet couldn't help but notice that there wasn't anywhere to sit by the desk, just an overly soft looking couch over on the side of the room. Maybe it was supposed to make the students feel more comfortable?
"So, what're we doing?" It felt like a stupid question, obviously she was there because she'd just cut open Lumi, the real question was what was going to happen to her now? Had this happened even just an hour earlier, she would have been certain that Miss Rose would've thrown her out for this, along with whatever weird problem the Professor had with her. But, the woman had spoken in her defense, so maybe it was going to be okay? Damnit, this was just getting more confusing!
As her student stood in the middle of the room, still confused as to where to take a seat, Ruby made her way over to the couch and flopped down on it face first, letting out a tired groan as she did so. startling Scarlet as the so far mostly upbeat Vice Headmistress stared off into the fabric depths. After a moment, she rolled herself over to stare at the ceiling, her silver eyes furrowed as she took off her glasses and set them on the arm rest, letting herself sink further into the couch's embrace. Great, what a fantastic idea Glynda, just ignore the ticking time bomb that was right in front of them… No, that wasn't fair, she couldn't have known this would happen so soon, and it didn't change the fact that Scarlet deserved a chance at a relatively normal tenure at Beacon. But now the situation was out of their hands, and unfortunately, Scarlet was going to face the brunt of what came next.
"Scarlet, I owe you an apology, several actually." she began, sitting up straight and patting the couch over to her side, inviting Scarlet to take a seat for what would likely be a long conversation. She didn't move from her spot in the middle of the room, still visibly on guard, shoulders tensed and back straighter than steel. Ruby decided not to comment and let her student do whatever made her feel comfortable. "First of all, I should have stopped that fight much sooner."
"So… I'm not in trouble?" Scarlet asked, clearly skeptical, and understandably so considering the not so private closeness between Lumi's family and the Academy.
"No, it was a sparring accident. Both Professor Castleton and myself saw what happened, and we'll make sure the record reflects that. You and Lumi both will be taken off of the roster for Combat Class for the next week, but that's standard procedure when accidents occur, not a punishment."
The bovine faunus relaxed a little, that was more than one weight off of her shoulders. Okay, so she wasn't getting kicked out, and more importantly, she didn't accidentally cripple Lumi. So mostly good news, but if that was all there was to be said, she wouldn't be here alone with Miss Rose, all that could've been done by just pulling her out of class for two minutes right? There had to be something more to this, and that really didn't sit right with her.
"Okay, don't take this the wrong way but if that's the case, then why am I here?" Scarlet asked plainly, taking a note of how the Professor briefly broke eye contact, like she was feeling guilty about something.
"Well, that's something else I need to apologize for… How much do you know about your mother and father exactly?" After the day she'd had, it was no surprise that the question caused Scarlet to tense up. Unfortunately Ruby couldn't just backtrack, because this would make her even more uncomfortable, and there was no way her student didn't have questions of her own now.
"What do you mean?" Scarlet was already defensive, again, not that it surprised Ruby, especially after today. Yet, it didn't make the next part any easier.
"Scarlet… Lumi wasn't lying, or mistaken."
Oh for fu- was she actually supposed to believe that? No, no there was absolutely no way her father could be capable of anything Lumi claimed. Terrorism, something about her aunt? No, she refused to believe it.
"Bullshit!" she snarled, unwilling to listen to her father's name get slandered again. Lumi was bad enough, but now the Vice Headmistress? No, she was done. Turning on her heels, Scarlet went to storm out of the room, hearing the silver eyed woman get to her feet behind her.
"Miss Ta-" Scarlet spun around so fast her hair whipped around her head in a tangle of brown and crimson, anger plastered onto her face as she let her re-ignited anger out in one colossal outburst, well past the point of caring what Ruby thought about it.
"No! You're full of shit! My Dad's name is-" Ruby cut her off just as the girl had done to her a moment earlier.
"Terracotta Taurus, he works with the Patch Huntsmen guild as a freelancer along with Mercury Black taking care of small local Grimm sightings, typically Beowolves and the occasional Ursa."
"H-how did-" She couldn't finish the sentence, fearing what Ruby might say in response.
"Because his file is right here on my desk. We gave him the position Scarlet, and his new identity too. It was necessary to keep people from having an uproar over finding out that Adam Taurus was allowed to walk away from what he had done, rather than being punished for his crimes."
Scarlet could have vomited at that… there was no way, it just couldn't be right, her Dad wasn't like that was he? She didn't want to believe it, she wanted to scream in the smaller woman's face, but she couldn't just ignore what she was being told, no matter how badly she wanted to. She had to know just what her mom and dad were hiding.
"Crimes?"
"Your mother and father are in… Well, I guess you'd call it some kinda witness protection." Ruby tried to explain the situation as best she could, since she hadn't been part of the official process, her involvement in the whole thing had really boiled down to purifying Cinder's body with her silver eyes. She still didn't know what deal she and Adam had made with Oscar to be allowed to keep their freedom, but she knew that it must have been something big, probably something about Salem if she had to guess.
"I… No, you're… you're lying…" Scarlet shook her head, trying to deny this in any way she could, but nothing she could think of explained how Ruby knew what she did. Gods above, she didn't know what to say, what to think or even what to feel. Her parents had never been very open about their pasts, giving vague answers even to the most innocent of questions, something that unfortunately only gave her more reason to believe the Professor.
"I know that this is hard to hear, but I'm sure they had their reasons not to tell you." Ruby said, gently placing a hand on Scarlet's shoulder. The redhead recoiled immediately, looking like she was on the verge of tears.
They… that was right, Mom. She had to have known, there was no way all of this was just being done under her nose. Taking a deep breath, Scarlet sucked up as much of her fracturing composure as she could.
"What about Mom?"
"Your mom?" Ruby's heart skipped a beat at that, Cinder… Crap, that wasn't a conversation either of them were ready for.
"You said 'parents', not 'Dad'. What did she do?" Scarlet asked plainly, her voice unable to hide the pain in it. Ruby shook her head, not denying her slip of the tongue. She couldn't lie, not when her student was teetering on the edge like this, but now wasn't the time. If hearing about Adam hurt her this much… she wasn't ready to learn the truth about Cinder, far from it.
"One thing at a time, take some time to process what I've already told you, and try to fix things with your team. I… I really am sorry, we… never meant for things to blow up like this, we wanted to protect you, and we still do." Ruby said, trying her best to be comforting, but it was clear she wasn't exactly doing a stellar job at it. Scarlet slinked back, her mind still reeling from everything she had just heard, and now there was apparently more.
"I… I think I should go." she said with a flat, dejected tone, as if the fight had been physically ripped out of her. Trudging over to the door, she felt a wave of tiredness overtake her body, the conversation draining her on not just the emotional level, but the physical level too. Ruby opened the door for her, figuring it would be for the best to give the girl the space she needed to process what she'd been told.
"Go right ahead, take as long as you need, the staff will be ready if you need help, Miss Goodwitch and I will make sure of it." Scarlet nodded numbly in response, stepping out of the office and down the hall, her movements dull and sluggish, the fire in her eyes naught but ash. Ruby took a second to watch the girl walk off, meeting with Jet as he ran up to her. They talked for a moment, too far down the hall for Ruby to hear, but from the way Scarlet slumped into his chest, she could take a guess. It didn't feel right to just sit there and watch as her student sought comfort, and knowing that she'd done more than enough damage for one day, she slinked back into the room, shutting the door behind her. She'd fix this, she just had to figure out how.
Jaune walked in silence to the ornate clocktower where Glynda's office was located, the counselor had more than enough time to think of how he'd scream at Glynda for this, how he'd resign on the spot and get his family the hell away from this place. But, he'd also been given time to think logically instead of with his emotions, his daughter had been injured, and he was still processing that, along with the fact that his best friend of nearly twenty years had kept such a secret from him. If it had just been Adam's kid like Lumi thought it would be bad enough, but keeping the fact that Scarlet was the daughter of that monster… He knew it was wrong, but it had taken a good deal of control not to lash out at the girl after such a revelation, and he couldn't help but wonder if he would have had the circumstances been different, if the girl didn't have a Semblance that could've helped Lumi… Would he have acted on his anger?
No, no, of course not, but the fact that he was even considering it as a possibility… Well, it made him feel sick, that wasn't the person he wanted to be, it wasn't the person he wanted his children to look up to. He paused, taking a minute to cool down and regain his composure. Keeping allies in the dark, ancestral secrets, that didn't sound like Glynda or Ruby, it sounded like him. He was going to talk to Glynda and he was going to get an damn explanation, whether she liked it or not.
Making his way to the office, he slowed down as he saw Touko leaning against the wall, looking up from her scroll at hearing his approaching footsteps. The professor's tired face brightened up somewhat at the sight of him, even giving her friend a small smile as she relaxed against the wall. But, she soon came to second guess the position, awkwardly moving away from the wall and standing up straight like a normal person.
"Hey, uh, how's Lumi?" Touko asked, mainly as a courtesy, Jaune wouldn't even be heading up to see Glynda if his girl wasn't out of the infirmary.
"She's alright, thank the Gods." he said, still tense despite the clear signs of relief on his face. Even though she already knew the answer, she took comfort in hearing it said aloud, being able to relax at hearing the good news. Although, she was still visibly nervous, glancing back at the elevator doors that led up to their boss's office.
"Yeah… but how about you? Not to be rude but you look… not great." She wasn't wrong, Jaune looked stressed, just this morning he was his usual self, happy and energetic. Which, considering what had happened, was a fair change. Jaune followed her gaze to the door, he had an idea about what sort of 'talk' he and Glynda would be having.
"I guess that depends on what Glynda has to say." Jaune answered, deciding not to dance around the impending lecture he was no doubt about to receive from their boss.
"She didn't really leave much room for discussion." the cyborg said sheepishly, she'd tried to speak up during her own verbal beatdown, tried being the important part as Glynda shut her down almost the same moment she opened her mouth.
"She normally doesn't." Jaune chuckled, the woman had never really dropped the disciplinarian attitude she was known for when he and Touko had attended Beacon Academy. Having become educators themselves, they'd grown to understand why of course, and had certainly grown to appreciate it, but she had a bad habit of turning that attitude onto her co-workers, especially the ones whom she'd taught herself. And over something like this… "Taurus-Fall, do you buy that as a coincidence?"
"I didn't really think about it until…" Touko shook her head, because at this point it wasn't really a question. She knew, the whole staff now knew that they were teaching the child of a woman who'd all but burnt the very school they protected to ashes, the same school that they had seen their friends, and in the case of Glynda and Oobleck, their students, die to protect. Needless to say that alone was a hard pill to swallow. "She's not reversing her decision, and pretty much said that anyone who has a problem is free to leave."
So it was an ultimatum, wasn't it? Either fall in line, or get kicked to the curb? That was quite the gamble, and once more, something that sounded less like something Glynda would pull and more like something out of Ozpin's playbook…
"Well, best to not keep her waiting, we'll talk later, 'kay?." Jaune said, swallowing the feeling of anxiousness and deciding to get it over with, leaving Touko to her own devices and calling down the elevator. The slow ride up was nothing short of torturous when he was in a hurry, the looping melody of the music was grating to his ears. Eventually the lights on the antique elevator had moved all the way to the end, indicating that he was finally at the top of the tower. The doors opened slowly, prolonging his wait just that little bit longer, but he soon found himself speed walking out and into the office where Glynda sat, paperwork neatly piled in stacks on her desk as she worked.
"Jaune, please take a seat." She didn't even look up as she greeted him, too busy filling out the incident sheet, the form should have been done hours ago. Jaune pulled the metal chair back and got comfortable, there was a good chance he'd be here for a while.
"When were you going to tell me?" he asked bluntly, not seeing a purpose in drawing this out with small talk. Something his superior seemed to agree with, moving onto a new paper with naught but a momentary glance at her employee.
"I wasn't, I knew you'd figure it out eventually, and I knew you were capable of handling it like an adult."
Jaune didn't bother trying to hide the scowl that made its way onto his face, not that it mattered since she was still looking at the paper. He knew she wasn't trying to be insulting, but Gods above, he'd be a liar if he didn't want to scream once more. As if just ignoring the very real damage Scarlet's mother had done to the school, to just ignore all that the amber eyed woman had taken from them, was the 'adult' thing to do, in the very spot his partner had lost her life no less. And even besides that, he knew what this was really about.
"Don't. This isn't you having faith in me, this is keeping things from me that I should have been told about. It's something he'd do." Glynda's pen stopped, piercing emerald green eyes turning upward, finally giving him her full attention as she set the pen aside. He wasn't wrong, Dr. Pine had made a suggestion to keep the staff in the dark for the time being as to let them know one at a time, starting with the least likely to react poorly and working her way through from there. Unfortunately though, the exact opposite had occurred, with Ruby finding out by pure luck and Jaune learning because his daughter was injured, which in turn led to the entire staff learning at once, alongside what was soon to be the entire school.
"Dr. Pine on-"
"Ozpin." Jaune growled, cutting Glynda off, he wasn't about to listen to her speak as if the man they took direction from was the same innocent, wide eyed boy he'd met in Mistral all those years ago. "Oscar's gone, don't insult my friend by acting like that thing puppeteering his body is anything else." The silence was deafening, both blondes staring the other down, Jaune's more open and loud outrage met by the cold stare of Glynda's quiet anger held back by a calm face, save for the emerald eyes that burrowed into his very soul.
Eventually, one of them had to cave, and surprisingly, Glynda was the one to give in, her desire to move the conversation along outweighing her desire to win some petty argument of meaningless semantics.
"He suggested that Scarlet would have an easier time at Beacon without the stigma of her parents' actions being on the staff's mind. I happened to agree."
"I'm not doubting you Glynda… but I'm not going to pretend that this was a misguided effort from the goodness of his heart, and not him keeping more secrets from us." It wasn't the first time that man had kept his own agenda close to his chest, and not the first time it had blown up in their faces in spectacular fashion.
"Jaune, I don't care how you feel about him." Glynda said plainly, doing what she could to level with Jaune so that they could focus on the actually important part of this conversation. "This isn't about Ozpin."
"We can agree on that much." Jaune conceded. He knew why she had him here, the girl, Scarlet. He sighed, despite her heritage she didn't seem like a threat. He didn't trust her, but at the same time, she could have let Lumi bleed out on the floor and she didn't. It wasn't much, considering she had caused the wound in the first place… but it had to count for something. "...As long as she doesn't give me a reason to suspect her parents rubbed off on her, I won't make a problem about Scarlet."
Glynda nodded, it was an acceptable answer for now.
"Good. I'll be brief since I have no doubt Professor Fuchsia filled you in already, I will not tolerate any of my staff mistreating a student for her heritage. You don't have to like her, but as long as she is one of our students, it is our duty to make sure she becomes the best huntress she can be."
The pair stood, and with nothing more to be said, they walked over to the elevator, silence enveloping the room as they waited for the metal doors to open, Jaune stepping inside.
"Thank you for your time Jaune… For what it's worth… you weren't the one I was concerned about." she told him as the elevator doors closed. Jaune figured her words were meant to be comforting, her expression had been softer than before, her compassion breaking through her hard gaze for just a moment.
Countless eyes followed Scarlet all throughout the walk back to their dorm, word spread fast, and the video spread faster. The only upside was that people seemed to be smart enough not to get in her and Jet's way as they headed back. Instead, they whispered amongst themselves once they thought she was out of earshot.
"Did you see the video? She carved her partner up good."
"You think her dad's proud? I mean, she did it to a Schnee after all."
"Like father, like daughter I guess."
Scarlet turned on her heels, her fists clenched in rage as she got ready to confront the gossiping students.
"If you have something to say, then say it to my face!" As expected, the whispers died immediately. What, no one had the balls to say something now that big bad Scarlet didn't have her back turned? Even more infuriatingly, some of them flinched, so that was all it took? One training accident and people were afraid of her, looking at her like some sort of animal ready to snap? One boy looked at her with such disgust on his face that she could practically feel it, and, already riding high on her anger and the shock of Professor Rose's revelation, she was too caught up in her thoughts to properly think, moving forward to give the punk a piece of her mind. She stomped forward a few feet before a hand grabbed her wrist from behind. Her head snapped back on instinct, ripping her hand away before she saw that it was Jet.
"Scar, come on, don't." he spoke calmly. While he understood her anger, he couldn't just let her start a fight with their fellow students, not when things were bad enough already. "Don't prove them right."
Scarlet paused. He was right, something she really didn't want to admit when she was mere moments away from getting in someone's face. Is that something Dad would do? She didn't want to think about it, in fact it was the last thing she wanted on her mind. Grabbing Jet by the wrist, she walked off, away from the students and their whispers.
Once arriving at the dorm, the pair were greeted by Jin sitting upside down in mid air, lips firmly pressed together, seemingly in thought. This strange expression, what the pair assumed was his thinking face, immediately disappeared when he noticed them walk into the room.
"Oh, hey guys." he greeted them cheerfully, reorienting himself to be rightside up before dropping to the floor. Scarlet sighed, honestly just thankful he wasn't acting weird or, even worse, judging her like everyone else did.
"Hey Jin, how's Lumi doing?" Jet asked, her absence immediately noticed by him and Scarlet. It wasn't really a surprise, neither Jet nor Jin expected her to want to be around Scarlet right now. It was probably better this way, Scarlet was already in a bad mood and Jet assumed that Lumi was just as angry, but, then again, he didn't exactly have the chance to say much last time he and the blonde spoke.
"Lumi's okay, she just needs to take it easy, but uh… well… she's not happy with uh… with any of us." Jin chuckled sheepishly at that. She really didn't appreciate his attempts at peacekeeping, which he kinda got, she just got hurt, he was sure she'd calm down eventually when she'd had a minute to cool off. "She said she's going to stay with BGEL tonight."
"You're not staying with her?" Scarlet was surprised, she had figured he would've stuck by her, they seemed inseparable, like her and Jet. But, despite the spat they seemed to be having, Jin kept his usual smile, as if he was completely unfazed.
"She has Goose and Liz, she'll be fine. Besides, I wanted to make sure you guys actually came back, it would suck if we all got split up because of some misunderstanding."
Right, a misunderstanding… Scarlet didn't even know how to open up that can of worms, that Lumi was right and that her father was a…
"Jin I… I don't wanna talk about this right now... Tomorrow, I'll tell you everything tomorrow." She didn't sound like herself, lacking the confidence and volume she typically carried. Instead, she looked tired, drained. Jin looked to Jet, hoping for an explanation, but only getting a shake of the head in response.
"Oh, alright, I guess it is pretty late, goodnight guys." Despite his worry, Jin knew better than to push this further, he'd just have to wait until Scarlet was ready to tell him what this was all about, though he could hazard a guess.
The three went to bed soon after. Scarlet flopped down on her bed and closed her eyes, desperate for the day to finally be over. Minutes passed, maybe even hours, but Scarlet remained awake, unable to get comfortable or calm her mind from the information thrust upon her earlier in the day. Dad… why didn't he tell her!? Did he think she just wouldn't find out? And Mom, Gods, she didn't even know what horrors her Mother had done, and she didn't want to if she was being truthful with herself. No, she had to take her mind off of this, get comfortable, safe. Sitting up, Scarlet looked around the room, Jin was asleep, face down on his pillow, kept from floating around in his sleep via a weighted blanket. Jet was still and quiet, which, considering the boy tossed and turned constantly, meant he was probably still awake as well. Good.
Standing up, Scarlet made her way over to the bed Jet lay in, and, without a word, took a seat on the bed. Jet lurched up at the sudden intrusion, his eyes taking a moment to adjust to the dim moonlight coming through the window. He relaxed a bit once he recognised Scarlet. They didn't say anything, they didn't need to, it wasn't the first time this had happened. She was too proud to admit it, but whenever she had nightmares during the many, many sleepovers they'd had throughout the years, she'd climb into her friend's bed for comfort, something he was ready to give even in the dead of night. Now was no different as Jet pulled back the comforter and let Scarlet climb right in, immediately taking comfort in his warmth as she rested her face on his neck as they lay back down.
"Jet?" she whispered, now finally starting to drift off.
"Yeah Scar?"
"Today sucked." Scarlet couldn't have hidden the way her voice broke if she tried, but thankfully, she knew she didn't need to with Jet. The boy wrapped an arm around her, trying to do what he could for her, which was admittedly not very much, but she was thankful nonetheless.
Things couldn't possibly get worse, right?
Disinterested pink and green eyes watched a large fist whiff the strike intended for their owner's head, casually leaning out of the way as his opponent put too much of their weight into the punch, losing balance and stumbling forward just enough for the heterochromatic man to smack his assailant in the back of the head with the curved handle of Melodic Cudgel. The much larger man winced and clutched the base of his skull as the welt started to grow. To be blunt, this was grunt work, in fact, he was fairly certain stuff like this was the exact reason he had goons. It wasn't a big deal in the grand scheme of things, Rajah was just a typical upstart who thought he could gather up some guys who thought they were more important than they really were and steal a shipment of high yield Dust to make a stand against their old boss. It was a problem that could be solved by sending in Steele and four or five decent shots, nothing he needed to be personally involved in, but he just didn't like leaving these kinds of things to chance.
After all, if Romeo knew one thing about this business, it was that you made sure these jobs got done right.
"Oh please, that was a love tap." the gangster said mockingly, taking a disinterested look down at the once pristine white suit jacket he wore at all times, now with a not so insignificant black and gray mixture of grease and grime smeared into the fabric from when he'd been careless and gotten thrown to the warehouse floor. That was three thousand Lien right down the drain… "I owe you a lot more for what you did to my suit."
Rajah snarled and spun on his heels, respectably fast for his size the man swung his hand at Romeo, his retractable claws coming out as he hoped to slash the ginger's throat open. But, being smaller and far more nimble, Romeo ducked under the blow, and, using both hands to take a firm hold of the cane that dear old Dad had been kind enough to leave as a parting gift, swung upwards with a golf swing that'd give Wood Tigers a run for his money. The arc of his swing hit Rajah's bottom few ribs, and if the wet-sounding snap and the sudden gasp of air forced from his opponent's lungs was any indicator, broke them for good measure.
Romeo shook his head as the man limped backwards, his gait stiff and off balance from the sudden pain spreading through his torso. It was unfortunate that it had come to this, but brutes like him were impossible to reason with, he was the type to taste his own blood or feel his heart beating out of his chest and get excited. Not that those people didn't have their place mind you, Rajah made for a great attack dog, but as a business rival? Well, he supposed he had no one to blame but himself for letting it get to this point.
"Damn it! Stop acting all slippery, you afraid to fight me head on little man!?"
Ah, a jab at his height and stature, how original. Not dignifying the petty insult with a response, Romeo took aim and fired a charge from Melodic Cudgel, which hit nothing as the large man teleported away almost immediately in a plume of smoke. Short-range teleportation, a fairly basic Semblance, but one that was incredibly dangerous if used correctly. Fortunately for him though, Rajah's usage of such an ability was as basic as they came, side-stepping his predictable strike from behind without even turning around, before blindly aiming over his shoulder and firing another round into the savage's chest, his mediocre Aura flashing as it struggled to stay up, before giving out and shattering into an orange mist that dissolved into nothing only a moment later.
"Man, that tiny little mind of yours must be really lonely in that big ol' head." Romeo muttered, leaning on Melodic Cudgel and shaking his head. It was a pity, as with some training and some common sense, Rajah could have gone places, he was strong and charismatic, just dumb as a doornail.
"What's that 'sposed to mean?" Rajah gasped out, somehow able to get to a sitting position as he used his arms to stay steady, his chest still smoldering from the fire Dust he'd been shot with.
Case and point. He really didn't know why he'd expected the moron to understand when he was speaking at a higher level than what a grade schooler would use.
"That your skills somehow stink even worse than you. You have heard of baths before, right?" The snarky comment was received about as well as he expected, impotent rage spreading across Rajah's face once more as his pride took a bigger hit than anything Romeo could do to him physically.
"Then what was the last few minutes?"
Romeo stroked his chin, gazing up at the poorly maintained and rusting roof of the warehouse, a vacant expression taking over his features as he considered his answer, before deciding to just be blunt in his response.
"Honestly? I was bored."
Rajah, seeing his chance, leaped at the man, hoping to take him by surprise and get a lucky strike with his claws. Romeo, without batting an eye, angled the cane forward, and with the press of a button, the handle shot forward, slamming into Rajah's throat with a sickeningly wet crunch. Now with a collapsed windpipe, Rajah gasped and heaved for air, until, from the corner of his eye, he saw Melodic Cudgel come down onto his temple hard enough to send him face first into the concrete floor, and the dark embrace of unconsciousness.
Torchwick watched his body lie still for a moment, before twirling the weapon in his hand and with a second button press, retracting the cable, causing the u-shaped handle to return to its original spot on the weaponized walking stick. Well that was… disappointing, barely even a warm up. Before he could decide what to do with the man, his scroll started to vibrate in his pocket, the blue display revealing the contact information of Hei Xiong the Third, though Romeo's contact info just had him down as JJ. Answering his childhood friend's call, Romeo kept an eye on his former underling and raised the speaker to his ear.
"Rome, you busy right now? I got something you're gonna want to hear about." the man on the other end asked, uncharacteristically slipping over even a basic greeting. With an intro like that, this must be really important, or really fun, only one way to find out.
"Oh, right to business JJ? Okay, I'll bite, business or pleasure?"
"Depends, you remember those names you were having Dad keep an eye out for?" Ah, business then, oh well, there'd be time for fun later. Only issue is he didn't know who exactly JJ was talking about, Uncle Junior had become his go to for keeping track of people, and there was no shortage of names on the list.
"You'll need to narrow that down a tad I'm afraid."
"Guessing you haven't seen the news then, I'll send you the article, it's on Taurus and Fall."
Romeo's eyes went wide, had he heard that right? Them? They'd screwed up and made enough of a stir to be on the Gods-damned news!? Okay, without a doubt that took priority, which meant Rajah's time was up. Aiming Melodic Cudgel at the man's head, Romeo pulled the trigger without a second thought, the fire Dust round to his skull putting an end to him immediately, the sudden explosion catching JJ's attention over the call.
"I thought you weren't busy?"
"It's called 'multitasking'." Romeo said matter of factly as he pulled up the article he'd been sent.
Breaking News: Terrorist's Daughter attacks Schnee at Beacon Academy: Graphic Video
The headline was, as usual, lacking in anything of substance, and was clearly designed to attract more clicks than anything, a pure example of nonsensical clickbait. But, his friend had never steered him wrong before, and the girl in the photo certainly looked like she could be Adam's… Alright then, time to get moving, if this information was public, then he was on the clock, and from what little he knew of them, he had no time to lose.