Chapter 38: A Moment to Think
In which a Grimm walks into a bar (no, this isn't the punchline of a joke), Sky realizes he's a red shirt, and Russel humors some odd theories.
A/N
Map of Mountain Glenn: imgurdotcom /1lkwa3F dotpng
Why can't I just upload images like on AO3? Whyyyyyy?
Also, remember to read the previous two chapters. I got weird with the uploads because of some loser threatening my street cred, so I posted a few extras that you might have missed
Ah, this was the life. No boss to tell him what to do, no schedule or hours or landlords, drinks whenever he wanted them…it didn't get much better than this. Becoming a bartender in some remote village in the middle of nowhere had been the best decision Tukson ever made.
It hadn't come free, but he'd happily paid the price. To buy his way out, he'd handed the Fang the bookstore he'd spent his entire life in. His officer had balked at the loss of a soldier, but the Fang needed safehouses. Tukson's Book Trade, an established and legitimate business, was the perfect cover. They'd parted on good terms, but if he'd waited any longer, it was very possible that he might've been branded a deserter. Tukson had seen the writing on the walls – the White Fang's leadership was going absolutely bat-Faunus-shit crazy. He had even bought a one-way ticket out of the kingdom that he hadn't needed to use, just in case he'd been forced to flee hurry. Sadly, the ticket was non-refundable, but finances were the least of Tukson's worries at the time.
That was nearly a year ago. Tukson idly wondered what became of his former organization as he polished an empty shot glass. They'd grown far too radical for his tastes, putting radicals like Taurus in high-ranking positions of power. Raiding trains, stealing Dust, building bombs…hard pass. It didn't matter now. His new village was too small to attract their attention, and just far away enough to avoid the fallout if that lunacy of their actually came to fruition.
The door opened and closed as a cloaked figure entered the empty tavern. Tukson eyed the Dust tri-shotgun hidden under the bar. Dark and mysterious strangers passing through these parts were common enough, but it didn't hurt to be safe.
"What can I get you, friend?"
"The strongest beverage you have. Friend."
"Coming right up. Hey, do you mind wiping your boots? You're leaving a trail of mud or somethin' behind you."
"Apologies."
He didn't wipe his boots, but Tukson was the proud owner of a mop, so he decided to let it go. Turned to his stocks, the Faunus briefly grabbed one bottle, before letting go of it in favor of a top-shelf drink. His strongest was the Six Swans brand vodka, but his most expensive was an imported Mistralian sake.
"I was wondering if you might ask a favor of you."
"For a paying customer, no problem. What can I do you for?"
"I've a message to send."
Tukson placed the sake in front of the traveler and looked him over. He was a great big guy, probably a full head taller than Tukson himself, but his entire face was covered by the hood he wore. That voice…it didn't sound like a man or a woman, more like a growl. The only way he knew it was male was because no woman had ever been that tall.
A furry, clawed hand extended out of the stranger's robe and placed payment on the bar. Tukson saw the hand, and he knew instantly that this person had meant for him to see it. This guy's grubby mitt resembled Tukson's own clawed hand.
There was no doubt about it; his newest patron was a Faunus.
Tukson's eyes narrowed. "You here cuz of me?"
"Yes."
"You with the Fang?"
"No. I am here because I need a message sent to Beacon without the White Fang knowing about it. I figured that an exile, familiar with their spy network, would be best suited to pass it along undetected…"
The furry hand slid the tall stack of lien chips to Tukson. Tukson realized wasn't ones – it was hundreds.
"…for a paying customer."
Tukson had sworn to never get involved in that life again, but he was still paying off the mortgage for this place, and lien talked. Besides, if the job was to specifically avoid the White Fang, all the better.
"Alright. What's the message?"
"Me."
The stranger removed his hood.
Scratch that…it's hood. This was no man, woman, or Faunus.
"Tip came a little under a week ago, addressed to me specifically," explained Qrow. "Source was a bartender in buttfuck nowhere. The dude said some mutated Grimm charged in and laid waste to his little tavern. Poor bastard was a wreck after the incident when I say him in the video call. His palms were sweaty, and his knees looked weak. There was even vomit on his sweater."
"…Mom's spaghetti," finished Nora.
"He didn't say 'arms were heavy'," added Cardin.
"I'm trying, Cardy! I'm doing this for us!"
"What's the plan?" asked Sky. The team and their hunter were currently aboard a bullhead following the heading this unknown witness had provided. Sky couldn't tell where they were due east of Vale and somewhere in the mountains.
"Not much of one. The source didn't give anything but the mutated Grimm's description and the direction it went. We know that it's wandering somewhere in these mountains. I'm hoping the element of surprise will give us an edge."
That's it? Has Professor Branwen forgotten the last time our old friend Mr. Grimm trounced him?
Nora and Cardin wore rambunctious grins and seemed pleased with their nonexistent strategy. Of course they would – the two swung blunt instruments around wildly and called that a fighting style. Sky's boyfriend was the only cultured one on the team. Ren didn't look worried, but his enviable semblance was basically cheating.
Sky didn't want history to repeat itself and wasn't crazy enough to think that the eLEmEnT oF SUrPrIse would be enough to change the results. This Grimm could and would kill them all, and Sky would be first. He'd lost his halberd at the Emerald Forest, and he'd been more or less useless in Forever Fall. If this were an episode of Space Trek, Sky would be wearing the red shirt. Nora would be the bold plucky Captain, Cardin would be the surly Chief of Security, and Ren would be…maybe the Medical Bay nurse? Damn, Ren's ass would probably look great in the female officer's miniskirt uniform.
The point was, Team CVS were the kind of people who got to live. They were heroes and champions and main characters. Team L was just an ordinary student. He only got into Beacon because he was a big fellow and had eaten a hearty dinner the night before his primary combat school's physicals. When the time came, he'd probably die so Ren's character could be developed. Even though he wore gray armor, Sky was a red shirt.
Sky raised his hand. "Uhhh…"
The bullhead's engines coughed loudly and shook the entire ship. Branwen grumbled as his whiskey spilled from the turbulence. "Damn semblance. Whaddaya want, kid?"
"P-Professor, without a plan, how is this going to go any different than last time?"
"What is this, twenty questions? We see a Grimm, we hunt it down. It's what huntsmen do, kiddo. Huntsmen and huntresses," he added before Cardin could speak up.
Sky wanted more than anything to obey the professional and join his team in their blissful ignorance, but he was done being the yes man. He could trust Nora, Cardin, and Ren to stand with him, even if he rocked the boat a little. It was time to start speaking his mind.
"Um, with your permission, sir, would it be alright if I were to maybe come up with some strategies? Please…sir?"
Way to assert yourself, Sky.
"Fine. Knock yourself out." The bullhead rumbled again as the engine sputtered. "Imma go ask our pilot why we're bucking like a woman's hips when Taiyang comes within ten feet…"
Well, at least the hard part was out of the way. Now all that was left was to outsmart the most dangerous Grimm known to human and Faunus-kind. Time to begin.
Sky's brain turned on.
Beowolf Grimm.
Aura.
Regeneration.
Super speed.
Prehensile tails.
Two pairs of tusks.
Arm fins.
Black liquid in its eyes.
Intelligence.
Speech.
Those were the obvious ones. Any other key traits? Even the most trivial attribute could turn the tide of a battle…
It understood the label on Cardin's jar – reading.
It remembered Team Castle – facial recognition.
It was agitated when we called it a mindless Grimm – pride.
It was driven to protect Weiss – a goal.
That was everything obvious that Sky could think of. Now, to turn those advantages into disadvantages. Branwen and the Castles had the greatest advantage of all – preparation. How could they use the Grimm's strengths against it?
"Oh, look at that. Did you know that the amount of time it takes a Grimm's body to dissipate into smoke is proportional to the square root of its mass?"
"Yes, indeed, I did know that. I am an Academy Headmaster, Mister Thrush."
"And, according to this website, Faunus animal parts are considered neither dominant nor recessive traits."
"I understand that non-combat missions can be boring, but please try to stay on task. You did request to join me."
"Woah. It says here that Mistral's Gravity and Lightning Dust consumption went down by 70% in the past year. Isn't that marvelously fascinating?"
"Young man, if you could try to stay…wait. Repeat that."
Russel looked back at his computer screen. "The Dust numbers? Apparently, Mistral is using less and less of it every year. I'm reading this right off the Mistral Finance Bureau's annual stats page. It's public info."
The headmaster stooped behind Russel so that he could read the article over the boy's shoulder. The five of them were gathered in the library of Beacon, trying to find something to tie Cinder to the CCT attack. Computers were normally restricted to use in 1 hour blocks of time that had to be reserved in advance, but the rules were loosened when most of the students left on their missions. Also, Ozpin was with them, and no librarian was going to say no to the bossman of Beacon himself.
Noticing the headmaster's attention on Russel, Pyrrha paused the instructional video on Dust weaving she was watching and leaned over his other shoulder. Russel started to feel a little claustrophobic with all the crowding around him. He hadn't actually expected anyone to be interested in the random facts he'd been rattling off to annoy with the headmaster.
Pyr frowned. "Hard light and ice down by 40%, wind down by 20%, fire down by 95%? How are the hunters in Mistral able to repel Grimm without Nature's Wrath? Jaune, would you do us a favor and look up the historical figures for the number of Grimm attacks on cities and villages in Mistral? Everything up to ten years back."
"Make that sixteen," requested Ozpin.
While Jaune searched the numbers, Russel went to check on his partner. Computers and blindness didn't really mix well, so Dove was brushing up on some Valean extradition practices with a pile of braille books.
"Any progress?"
"If Fall committed a crime on Valean soil, she could be tried by Vale's laws. But the issues arises when one considers how Beacon isn't a part of the kingdom, at least not in the strictest legal interpretation. Mistralians rarely commit crimes on Beacon premises, so no precedent has been established in a court of law. Furthermore, one might argue that the CCT towers are Atlesian in origin and therefore may be classified as an embassy–"
"I think I get the idea." Russel picked up one of the books that Dove had set aside and began thumbing through the pages of gibberish. He could read the braille, no trouble, but laws and codes were little more than nonsensical jargon to Russel. Only Dove could understand that sorta thing, probably since formal talk was normal talk for him.
"Legally speaking, we'd be unlikely to push any charges without opening ourselves up to the possibility of a loophole stopping justice."
"Rats. Even if we brought her in, she'd get off scot-free."
"If we brought her in alive."
Russel put down his book. "I'm not entirely sure what you're implying, Dove."
That was a lie. Russel knew what Dove had just suggested.
"Rose fell from the top of the CCT. By all accounts, she should be dead."
"She's alive, Dove."
"Whether she survived changes not the fact that Fall is a murderer. If one pulls the trigger of a gun but misses, it does not absolve them of guilt. Fall must be brought to justice, and the law will fail us."
"Dust, we're not even sure it was her! We don't have proof! And what about her team? I doubt they'll just let us kill their leader. We gonna 'bring them to justice' too?"
"She fits the description of the assailant. Furthermore, she was not present in the ballroom when the attack transpired."
"Neither was I, but that doesn't mean I tried to off Ruby!
"The headmaster informed me that her documentation as a huntress student was tampered with. She's a fraud."
"So is J–"
Russel cut off before he could go any further. This was getting too heated. He'd nearly outed Jaune just to prove a point. Russel inhaled and forced himself to count to ten before he spoke again.
"Look, Dove. You're right, she's probably guilty, but we can't just dole out punishments on a whim. Laws exist to limit our authority as huntsmen because it would be so easy for us to let that power go to our heads. We keep order, not judge and execute. Even the guilty have rights. She belongs in prison, not the ground."
"But she won't be going to prison, Thrush. Extradition laws and bureaucracy shall protect her. At the present moment, our only options are to do what needs to be done, or to let Fall escape and enable her to kill again."
"Dove, we don't have all the facts. We have courts with lawyers that review evidence for a reason. What if there's more going on here than meets the eye?"
"How do you mean?"
Russel looked back and checked the others. Pyrrha, Jaune, and Ozpin were combing over the Grimm attack statistics, too focused on their investigation to overhear his conversation with Dove.
"Why did Cinder attack Ruby?"
"The headmaster already recounted Rose's testimony. Rose interfered with some manner of virus upload or file transfer, and Fall tried to kill her."
"But did she? Ruby said that Cinder chose to stop the glass spear before it hit her. If she wanted to cover up the attack and silence any witnesses, why let the only one get away when she had her?"
"That is…actually a good point."
"The only time Ruby was in any true danger was when she jumped from the CCT, and that was of her own volition. I think Cinder wasn't using lethal force. She either didn't want to hurt Ruby, or maybe needed her alive."
Dove leaned his head back and sighed deeply. "I hate being wrong. Ugh, I suppose I must agree, Thrush. It was presumptive and hasty when I suggested executing Fall. We do not yet have a broad enough understanding of the situation to take such drastic and irreversible steps."
"Our understanding is worse than you think."
Dove raised an eyebrow.
"Dove, do you have any idea what was happening in Mistral sixteen years ago?"
"In Mistral? Not at all. Why sixteen years?"
"Because Ozpin specifically asked to extend Jaune's search parameters to sixteen years."
Dove inhaled deeply, then exhaled. He repeated this five times before answering. The intense use of his semblance made his aura hiss sharply as it was drained away. Russel knew that locating a specific shape or pattern in a room this size probably cost him 50% or more of his aura. In a fight, that would be a huge waste, but they were safe in a library, so it couldn't hurt.
"I searched for the braille words for Mistral and the year in question. A Mistralian book on Haven Academy's Command Structure mentions that tenured Professor Leonardo Lionheart was promoted to Headmaster that year. That is the most notable event."
Ironwood's words echoed in Russel's brain. Lionheart's clearly compromised. Cinder fits the description of the new Fall to a tee, and Leo hid things about her. Damning things.
Cinder's school records had been edited, and Ozpin's friends were suspicious of her academy's headmaster hiding things about her. It was too coincidental. There had to be a connection.
New Fall. Such odd phrasing to use when referring to Cinder Fall by her last name. And why say that Cinder Fall fit the description of Cinder Fall? Was Fall not really her last name? Or did 'new Fall' refer to something or someone else?
New Fall. A connection to Forever Fall? That was a bit of a stretch.
New Fall. Cinder Fall. Had Cinder replaced a relative and become the new matriarch of the Fall family?
New Fall.
Fall.
Fall as in autumn?
Fall was a season. Cinder fit the description of a season? But they talked about it like it was a person.
A person who was a season…
"Thrush?"
"Sorry, lost in thought."
Omake
Russel: I've got it!
Dove: What is it?
Russel: Cinder's formed a band with Team Caiman. They'll be called Fall Out Girl!
Dove: What?
Russel: No wait, that's not it. She and Lionheart are teaming up by practicing Trust Falls.
Dove: I don't understand.
Russel: You're right. That makes no sense. Hmm, maybe she's working with Sky Lark of Team Castle to direct a new spy movie called SkyFall.
Dove: What are you talking about?
Russel: It's a conspiracy, Dove. They've infiltrated the government. Lionheart is one of those lizard people.
Dove: A lizard Faunus?
Russel: No, a reptoid!
Dove: Russel, you're being weird.
Russel: Hold on, did you just call me Russel?
Dove: Um, errr…
Russel: *rips mask off of Dove* Just as I thought! A reptoid infiltrator! Who are you working for?
Reptoid: Hisssssss! I was a spy for Salem all along!
Russel: I knew it! How deep does this go? Also, WHO THE FUCK IS SALEM?!
Next Chapter: Crime Scene – In which it's patrol time for Detective Cardin and pizza time for Deputy Hazel.