The flight back to Vale was different from the ones Ruby was used to by this point, namely because it was so crowded inside the disguised gunship. Guhn had taken the bed and was snoring loudly, while Reuben was sitting on the floor in an almost trance-like state performing maintenance on his weapon, Penny and Annette were both in the cockpit. In the end what this meant for Ruby was that she had a quarter of her normal space with which to work with. Still she passed the majority of the flight working on her plan for when they arrived. They'd have two days with which they could set up their sting operation, though for at least part of that Ruby needed to secure their position a little better in case things went wrong. While Ruby was deliberating Penny came back from the cockpit.
"Friend Ruby, Miss Annette would like to see you up in the cockpit." Penny said as she stepped onto the main hold.
"Did she say what she needed?" Ruby asked.
"She did not." Penny stated with her normal cheerful energy. Ruby nodded and walked by Penny into the cockpit.
"What's up?" She asked Annette.
"We're about an hour out from Vale." Annette said, "where do you want me to put us down?"
"We're going to be working out of Juniors again," Ruby said, "one of the commercial air docks would probably be the best option." Annette nodded but looked like she was working up to saying something else. "Is that all?" Ruby asked.
"No, um," Annette began, "Those huntsmen called you Ruby."
"Oh, yeah," Ruby said, "I didn't really want to reveal my identity but the doctor tipped my hand on that. It's only fair that you know too..."
"Let me say something first." Annette said, "When I was little it was just my brother and I, we were poor and as the older one, he turned to crime to provide for us."
"Annette you don't need to," Ruby began to interrupt.
"Let me finish please." Annette said, "He did it to provide for us and I'll always be grateful to him for that, but when we became adults he didn't stop. Eventually he stepped too far over the line and got caught, he was sentenced to the redemption corps, a death sentence and I had to move on without him. I never expected to see or hear from him again, but one day out of the blue he calls me, tells me he's out and talks about this amazing commander he had who saved his life. He said her name was Ruby Rose, that was you wasn't it?"
"I-" Ruby started to say, but nothing further would come out. A faunus grinning at her while saluting, right ear missing and bandaged, flashed through her mind.
"It's ok, you don't have to say anything." Annette said, "Just, Thank you."
Ruby could only nod silently.
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Jaune was having a pretty pleasant day all in all. Classes were getting more relaxed this close to graduation, sure they had finals coming up, but he was confident that his team should pass with flying colors. He even had a date with Pyrrha later that night. That was until he got a message on his scroll, calling him to the headmasters office. There were usually only two reasons to get called to the headmasters office. One was if you, or someone on your team, was in trouble, but as far as Jaune was aware Nora hadn't done anything egregiously out of the norm recently, so that was unlikely. The second reason was if Professor Ozpin had a mission for the team, a far more likely scenario. So, while making peace with their lazy afternoon being disrupted, Jaune made his way to the headmasters office. He was rather surprised when Professor Ozpin, and his recent tag along, met him in the hallway leading up to his office.
"Professor Ozpin," Jaune greeted, "You called for me?"
"I did indeed Mr. Arc, walk with me for a bit." Ozpin said and started walking towards his office. Jaune quickly moved to follow. After a moment of walking Professor Ozpin began. "I trust your studies are going well?"
"Yes sir," Jaune answered
"Good, good," Ozpin said before pausing another moment, "I called for because someone is wanting to meet with you, probably to offer you a job, but I wanted to stress that within a month you will be a fully-fledged huntsman, the work you take is entirely up to you, your future is entirely up to you."
"Sir, it sounds almost like you don't want me to take the job this person offers." Jaune asked.
"What I want doesn't matter in this case, I however have reservations about letting this individual interact with my students," Ozpin said, "alas I was overruled by the council."
"Who is it?" Jaune asked.
"Councilor Baillergeon." Ozpin answered and Jaune sucked in a breath. The councilman had managed to avoid much of the negative publicity regarding the news about Ruby being right, despite being the one overseeing her trial. Regardless Beacon knew, the Huntsmen of Vale knew, and while many felt guilty themselves for being so wrong about Ruby, many more looked at the trial as the sham that it was. Many Huntsmen and Huntresses had seen that trial as a betrayal of trust from the council, and Councilor Baillergeon in particular. The amount of huntsmen who would take Council missions, without first being filtered through either Beacon or the Huntsmen's Association, had dwindled to almost nothing.
"Oh." Jaune finally said after a moment of thought.
"Yes, Oh." Ozpin said, "The Council overruled me and wanted to have a meeting with you and he is their representative in this case."
"Why me sir?" Jaune asked.
"Well you are currently the leader of the top ranked team in your year," Ozpin answered.
"You know that's only because team RWBY isn't, y'know." Jaune stated.
"Yes, I am aware, however I have a feeling they wouldn't approach team RWBY about this even if it were at full strength due to the incident." Ozpin said.
"Yeah, you're probably right" Jaune conceded, "what does he want to talk to me about."
"In truth I do not know," Ozpin answered, "I have an inkling but even if I were certain I wouldn't be permitted to say, just remember what I told you, when you graduate you will be a full-fledged huntsman and what work you take is up to you."
"Okay, thank you sir," Jaune said as they reached the elevator. Ozpin nodded and Jaune stepped into the elevator alone to go up to Ozpin's office. The ride itself was normal enough but the conversation he had just had with his headmaster left Jaune's head spinning. Upon the doors opening Jaune saw three men in the room. The first two were off to either side and wearing a modern uniform that very much fit the image of Vale's soldiers during the Faunus Rights Revolution, Vale's Expeditionary Corps if Jaune remembered correctly. The final man in the room was unmistakable, the man who had presided over his best friend's trial, Councilor Baillergeon.
"Ah, Jaune, Right?" the councilor said as he stood up, "Can I call you Jaune?" He extended a hand towards Jaune.
"If you want to." Jaune said, ignoring the hand offered to him.
"Ah, yes well, please have a seat." the councilor pointed to a pair of seats that had been apparently moved into the office for just this meeting. Jaune took his seat and looked expectantly at the councilor.
"Jaune, what do you know about the current state of international affairs?" The Councilor asked.
"Not much," Jaune answered, "just enough to be an effective huntsman."
"I see." Councilor Baillergeon said, "let me paint you a picture of what is going on right now."
"Alright," Jaune said.
"Internationally things are, tense, more tense than people want to realize." The councilor said, "the assassination of two separate headmasters has rocked the world in ways that not even the attack on Beacon four years ago could have." Jaune nodded it was all over the news that two headmasters had been killed within a short time of one another. "As such the council feels that it may be prudent to move away from our current policy of having an active military."
"What do you mean?" Jaune asked the Councilor.
"Well these two gentlemen behind me are part of our new initiative to institute a Valean Defense Corps." Councilor Baillergeon answered.
"I see," Jaune said, "and this has what to do with me?"
"Well," the Councilor began, "as part of the initiative we are wanting to institute a new Cadre of huntsmen dedicated to the protection of Vale, Similar in mission to Atlas's Specialists, we wanted to extend an offer to you to lead this new organization, the Valean Rangers, within the Valean Defense Corps." The Councilor had this big smile on his face like he had just handed Jaune a deal too good to refuse.
"Why the hell would I accept such an offer?" Jaune said, enjoying the man's smile fade, "the last time any Beacon students did work directly for the Council one of my good friends got railroaded through a court trial and hung out to dry."
"Yes, well…" Councilor Baillergeon tried to answer before Jaune continued.
"What's more, why are you coming to me with this? I may be close to graduating but I am still a student," Jaune continued, "you would be much better served getting an older huntsman to do a job like that."
"yes, the trial of Ruby Rose was a mistake but one we could not have known about until much later." He answered, to which Jaune scoffed, "we are offering this to you for several reasons, one you are the leader of the top team in beacon this year, you are a Valean native, and your family name is well known and respected within what circles of the military persist to this day."
"Again, I'm not seeing a good reason why I would accept." Jaune answered, "If you're coming to me instead of an already active huntsman that must be because you asked some of them first and they all turned you down, you came here hoping to sucker some poor Beacon student into a raw deal because you thought they wouldn't know better."
"No, not at all, in truth we hadn't even considered any other beacon students." the Councilor answered, "I don't think you understand how much weight your name carries amongst the right circles young man, your ancestors haven't just served this kingdom in the militaries but were heroes to all the men and women they served with, even if you had not gone to be a huntsman we would still probably be looking to recruit you as part of the VDF initiative."
"Even still, that does no good if I or anyone who goes with me is going to be hung out to dry once something goes wrong." Jaune answered.
"We are aware of the, eroded trust huntsmen have in the council recently." Councilor Baillergeon said.
"Oh, good. I'm glad you noticed." Jaune said, not even bothering to hide his sarcasm.
"As such we're introducing a compromise." the councilor continued, "the Rangers will have joint oversight as well as a qualified immunity." at Jaunes quizzical look the councilor continued, "Rangers cannot be directly charged for actions taken in the line of duty unless an inquiry by the huntsmen association finds sufficient evidence of wrongdoing."
"That's, why?" Jaune asked, he had never heard of this 'qualified immunity' before, it had to be a new policy the council thought up.
"The trial of Ruby Rose was a mistake, as was everything that followed, I let my emotions get the best of me, people wanted someone to blame and we on the council wanted to give them someone, in that manner I let my emotions get the better of me and push through a trial with a lack of evidence." Councilor Baillergeon said, "If I could meet Ruby now I wouldn't hesitate to apologize to her, this is the councils way of extending an olive branch, we fully recognize that huntsmen will not work directly for the council in the future unless they are part of the Rangers but we hope that the Rangers themselves will show the measures we are taking to make things right."
"Why though," Jaune said, "You've been pushing all of the council missions through Beacon and the HA anyways."
"The answer to that goes back to the international affairs." the councilor said.
"you're preparing for war." Jaune said.
"In a sense." Councilor Baillergeon answered, "Preparing for is not the same thing as wishing for, currently Mistral and Atlas are both gearing up their militaries, understandably as it was an Atlesian agent that assassinated their headmaster, even if that agent was supposedly rogue, the new commander of the Atlas military is mostly an unknown as he hasn't done much under General Ironwood, Vacuo has seen the buildup of both Mistral and Atlas back to levels that haven't been seen since the Faunus rights war and has gotten nervous enough to begin their own buildup, and we are in the same boat, in the end if we do not match the buildup we will put ourselves at the disadvantage on the negotiating table."
"What do you mean?" Jaune asked.
"Frankly sometimes one must have a strong hand to be able to negotiate for a softer approach." Councilor Baillergeon answered, "A peace treaty holds little meaning if only one side can enforce its terms, all I ask is that you think about it, your participation in this endeavor would be quite helpful to the kingdom as a whole.
"I'll think about it." Jaune said.
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"I thought you'd be happy with more people to watch your enterprise." Ruby said.
"One huntress or huntsman on the payroll shows strength, four screams government stooge." Junior shot back.
"Then they aren't huntsmen." Ruby said.
"What else could they be!?" Junior asked pointing to Rueben and Guhn who were both obviously armed and dressed in their combat outfits.
"Mercenaries, bounty hunters, thugs, take your pick." Ruby said, "they're working for me and I'm working with you."
"uh huh, and what about rooms?" Junior said, "It was easy to give one room for you and the Faunus girl in exchange for protection but you, the Faunus girl, the two guys, and your twin? Jeez, Red I didn't even know you had a twin."
"I don't." Ruby said pulling out a case from behind her, "There's only one of me, I'm renting three rooms from you and you don't know anything else about me, got it?" She handed over the case. Junior opened it slowly before quickly shutting it and looking around the mostly empty bar. Once he was sure no one other than his security was looking at them he opened it back up.
"Red where did you get this?" Junior said holding up a high value lien card, the case was full of them. "I'm not actually a government stooge here right?" Ruby chuckled.
"No, not at least that any of them know about." Ruby said, "This is our downpayment, I'll still continue to help prevent any gang action against your establishment, as will my associates, and you'll get a tenth of this monthly in exchange for your continued support."
"Sounds an awful lot like being a government stooge." Junior said, eyes not leaving the lien card. "Make it a fifth of this and I'll take it."
"Done." Ruby said.
"People are gonna get suspicious if they start asking about you and I don't have anything to say." Junior said, "especially if you're living under my roof."
"then make something up." Ruby said, "Say I'm the leader of a start-up mercenary group from Vacuo that couldn't quite hack it there."
"I'll get you the new rooms." Junior said finally closing the case and putting it behind the counter.
"Ensure they are all right next to each other." Ruby said.
"you're not planning on remodeling are you?" Junior asked.
"Some," Ruby said, "This will be a long term arrangement and we need to ensure it will suit our needs." Junior sighed after a moment.
"Just, keep the noise down please?" he asked and Ruby raised an eyebrow.
"You run a nightclub." She said flatly, "I doubt there is anything that we could do that would be heard over that."
"Fine." Junior said as he handed over the new room keys. Ruby and her new team moved up to the room and got to work. Ruby and Annette's original room would remain a room for the girls on the team while the room on the far end of the three would be for the boys. The room in the middle however they moved the furniture out and set it up as a planning room and workshop. It was around the table in the center of the room that the team now gathered around.
"It took us a little longer to get this place set up than I'd hoped." Ruby said, "but that gives us just over a day before we are supposed to meet Hazel, Penny what do we have on the area we're supposed to meet up?"
"It's a Warehouse leased out to Mistral Shipping incorporated," Penny said while sending a picture to everyone's scroll, "The lease is still current however recent events have forced the company to focus on their headquarters in Mistral, the warehouse itself is not occupied."
"In other words the exact kind of place the White Fang would operate out of." Ruby said, "that's who we'll be posing as in case anyone isn't up to speed."
"but only Annette and I are Faunus." Rueben said, "won't they get suspicious?"
"That's what I thought too, but Summers, er Ruby-" Annette corrected herself, "proved me wrong."
"That's another thing," Ruby said, "From here on out we will not be using our real names, we'll use alias's as the mission requires but even in down time we'll use a code name that will protect our identities."
"What should we use?" Guhn asked.
"Something that sounds like it could be an actual name but has no relation back to you." Ruby answered.
"Red, Red Snow." Rueben said, "That'll be mine."
"I suppose I'll go with Steele for my last name." Guhn said, "and I'll go with Timber for my first name."
"Annette?" Ruby turned to the Pilot.
"I'm just a pilot," She answered, "I'd prefer to stay far away from any action that doesn't have me in the cockpit."
"Fair enough." Ruby said, "In order for this to work we're going to need to look the part, Steele I need you to go get a security guard uniform, I don't care where or how, in fact the more generic it looks the better, just make sure you can fight in it."
"Ok." Guhn said.
"Penny, I'll need some documents," Ruby turned to the android, "Police, requisition of evidence, once you've got it done go ahead and get us constant surveillance on the warehouse."
"Right away, Friend-Ruby." The excitable android answered back.
"Annette can you grab my disguise box from the airship?" Ruby asked.
"figured we might need it so I already brought it in." Annette said.
"Good thinking." Ruby said as she walked over to where Annette was pointing, she found the box and rifled around in it for a moment before pocketing something out of it.
"documents are ready and transferred to your scroll." Penny said.
"Good, Snow you up for your first undercover work?" Ruby asked.
"uh, yeah, sure." Rueben asked. Ruby motioned him to follow her and he did. Somewhere between the door to their little safe house and the entrance to the nightclub Ruby had gone from her normal looks to a girl with Blonde hair and blue eyes and who somehow looked inexplicably older than she actually was.
"how do you do that?" Rueben asked.
"Hmm?" Ruby looked at him.
"That," he said motioning to her, "Just change who you are on the fly."
"A mixture of cybernetics, experience and acting." Ruby answered, "in truth these days I'm always in one character or the other, after my first few missions didn't go as I'd wanted Ironwood got a private acting tutor and I've been putting up a front ever since."
"That sounds," Rueben began, "not healthy." Ruby shrugged.
"What's not healthy is getting shot or mauled by Grimm because I couldn't keep control over myself." Ruby said, "I know it's going to come to a head for me sooner or later but I just need it to last until this mission is over."
"Then what?" Rueben asked.
"If I get that far I'll let you know." Ruby said, "we're here, remember we're supposed to be here act with confidence and let me do the talking." Rueben nodded and looked to the building they were entering. It was a VPD station.
"Hello, can I help you." A receptionist asked.
"I'm certainly hoping so." Ruby answered, "I'm detective Emerald, and this is my partner detective Snow, we're with the Commercial District Department." Ruby said as she pulled out an authentic VPD detectives badge. "We're working on a case but need to infiltrate a White Fang rally. I understand you still have some uniforms from that organization in evidence?"
"Yes but I'll need authorization to release any-" the receptionist said.
"Way ahead of you." Ruby said as she pulled out her scroll and pulled the documents Penny had made, "got the documentation right here, including the raid warrant and court evidence release forms."
"Wow," the receptionist said, "I was going to accept a letter from your chief, you guys in the Commercial District really do cross all your T's don't you?"
"If something is worth doing it's worth doing right." Ruby said.
"Yeah, let me see what we've still got, the VSS's has been taking most of the evidence related to the White Fang." the receptionist said as she looked back to her terminal.
"Who?" Rueben asked, realizing his mistake just in time to catch Ruby's glare, "Sorry been undercover for a while," he said quickly while flexing his ears.
"I'll bet you have, if you know where a White Fang rally is going to be." the receptionist said, "the VSS is part of the Council's new defense initiative, Vale's Secret Service or something like that, They've been taking over most of the terrorist investigations, you're probably gonna want to finish your investigation quickly or they're gonna snatch it up too."
"My thoughts exactly." Ruby said.
"It looks like you're in luck," the receptionist said, "We've got two sets of uniforms and masks, I'll have our evidence guy bring them up for you."
"Thank you." Ruby said. Soon enough Ruby and Rueben were walking down the street back to their safe house. Only once they were out of sight of the station did Ruby glare at Rueben.
"I know." He said.
"two things." Ruby said, "I told you to do two things."
"I'm sorry." He replied. Ruby sighed.
"At least you managed to cover it up quickly." She said, "Still if we're going to work together you have to listen to what I say."
"Yes ma'am." Rueben said.
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A/N: Well, it's certainly been a while. If I still have anyone keeping an eye on my stuff I'm sure you were surprised to see this pop up in your notifications. I'll be honest the last year or so that it's been since my last update has been a rough patch for me when it comes to writing. I've been through some highs and lows. Getting out of the military, getting to one of the top positions in my company, watching as the shutdowns sent that company into an early grave, and getting a new job. In all that time I haven't had much time or energy to continue writing but I still kept doing little bits here and there. I still intend to finish this story and the others but I can't promise a concrete upload schedule (not that I was ever able to make that happen). Still I hope you enjoy this chapter and the fact that I am once again posting chapters.
Now good news and bad news, the bad news is that RWBY A family business by yours truly will likely never be completed, at least as it is now. Despite any and all of my best efforts, as well as the efforts of my brother who I originally made the story with, we were unable to put together enough notes on the backstory to make the story make sense. I will unfortunately be taking it down. Now the good news, it will return! Since we couldn't put together the backstory and, being a next generation story, it relies on backstory, I'll be rewriting it eventually as a sequel to this one. This does mean it will be some time before that story makes its return as I need to finish this one first but I do believe it will be worth it, I've already got a new outline started for it and it's already looking pretty good.
On another note, there are some smaller stories that I've done a little work on that I'm thinking about posting, this one is probably going to be the main one for a while but I may post some of those stories on occasion. Some of them are even me branching out from RWBY.