Weiss Schnee
With a raised eyebrow, the Queen of Vale glanced between each of the people standing before her. The women appeared nervous and almost rattled, though some for different reasons than others. "You're serious?" Her question was left unanswered for a moment, before Yang stepped forward and the whole council laid their attention on her.
"Yeah-" Weiss frowned at her tone of voice, Yang wasn't usually one to sound so unsure of herself. "The device... machine, vehicle, whatever it was - It wasn't making them Dust, not enough anyway. It wasn't even breaking-even with how much it used to move around."
"Between that and the bolts, it fired-" Winter took over once Yang stopped. "We think that its sole purpose was to lay a trap for us."
"I'm glad you all returned safely." She spoke with a genuine smile. "The people operating it, did they give any information?"
"Only that they were expecting one Dragon, the fact that two showed up ruined their plans." Yang's red eyes reflected that fact, she knew as well as everyone else did that if Winter hadn't been there... She may not have come home. Speaking of which.
"The man that you encountered, are you sure of his power?"
"Completely. It was... intense, in a word." Even Winter seemed still shaken by the encounter. "I have no doubt that he had a Penta-Affinity."
"With how much Mana you claim he had, I don't understand how you survived." Weiss was fine to move on from there, but the door to the chamber opened and someone spoke.
"Because he let them go." Weiss recognised the voice immediately.
"Ozpin?" She watched the frail-looking man walk into the room, being supported by Qrow with every step. "You should be resting." He was getting worse and worse every day.
"I can assure you, what I know will prove invaluable." Slowly but surely, the Harbinger of Death guided the man to his seat, the chair just to Weiss's right. "His name is Hazel... He was once a Huntsman."
There was a lot to unpack there, but Ruby spoke up from the other side of Weiss before anyone else. "You mean a Hunter?"
"No, he was a Huntsman. A special group of Hunter's I handpicked to handle jobs pertaining to a certain individual. Huntsman, Huntresses, they're made up of the people I trust most." He sighed gently, almost like he was reminiscing about something. "There used to be more, but only six still live."
"I'm sorry, but... What?" Weiss was almost outraged at this, unclear as to why she hadn't been told this already.
"Your majesty, I can assure you... up until now, it's been unnecessary for me to share this with anyone." Another sigh, this one much more tired than the last. "But now that I have proof that she is making a move... I have no choice."
"She? You mean Carmine?" Yang was first to speak up, with Ruby asking next.
"Cinder?"
It was Weiss, however, that whispered the correct name. "Salem."
"Who?" The three other Dragon's in the room asked at once.
Ozpin shook his head. "Your Majesty-" Weiss's eyes widened as he spoke to her... but he did it without speaking aloud, the words flowed straight into her head. Like telepathy. It was strange though, his voice was different, younger and with a strange accent that was foreign to Weiss. Yet, she knew it was him anyway. "It's time for you to make a choice. Who in this room do you trust?"
She was confused at first by his question, but after looking into his eyes, she only found a plea for cooperation. So, slowly but surely, she excused people from the chamber. Everyone she didn't trust was sent away, even guards and servants were excluded from the meeting. After it was over, Weiss glanced around the room. These were the people she was putting her trust in.
Of course, Ruby still sat by her side, Ozpin to her other - Glynda, Port, and Oobleck remained as well only at his request. The whole team that had gone to Vacuo still stood in the room as well, Yang and Winter being people she trusted completely... as for Coco and Robyn? Well, the Dragons sent on the mission had laid out their opinions on the other two perfectly well. Penny, however, hadn't been in the room to begin with. She had to head home as soon as it was possible. Qrow stood still by Ozpin's side.
"What's going on?" Ruby only spoke after the doors closed, but Ozpin shook his head again.
"Is there anyone else you trust? I'd rather do this only once." The old man's voice was one Weiss couldn't refuse... so, annoyingly, she had to call up the remaining people she did trust.
An hour or two was how long it took for the others to arrive. But, the group gathered didn't grow too much bigger. Blake had come as soon as she had called, entering the room and feeling the awkward atmosphere almost immediately, Velvet didn't lag far behind, entering and seemingly shrinking at that same feeling. The people who took the longest had a reasonable excuse, the Harbinger of Conquest and the Hero having needed time to find someone to look after their child.
"Argus is too young for this."
"Sister, should I call Whitley?" Winter had already grabbed a Scrying orb... but she slowly put it away with an almost confused expression as Weiss shook her head.
"Is this everyone?" Ozpin's question made Weiss look over the room once more, and with a small nod, she turned to him.
"Yes. This is everyone I trust." Her response made some of them gap in surprise, but Winter looked the most shocked... probably thanks to the exclusion of their brother.
"Then... I can tell you all the truth." His eyes flickered with a sad nostalgia, an expression Weiss was confused by... but one she soon wouldn't be. "My name used to be Ozma... and, even though I am not one anymore... you could call me the last Angel." Already, he had left the room with a million questions, but that was still only the beginning. "A long time ago, I was sent to this plane to assist someone... and, while I was here, I fell in love. This woman... this person... her name was, and is, Salem." His frail body and tired voice made the whole speech resemble an old man's recounting of his life... though, if what he was saying was true, then he certainly was older than anyone else present. "She seemingly loved me too, and I wanted nothing more than to remain here with her... But, the God's I was loyal to didn't see it the same. They tried to call me home, so, Salem begged to her own God... to Remnants God, the World. And, it gave her something that could change fate. Two things, actually... Both with names I still yet don't properly understand, one called Abaddon... and one called Schnee."
Weiss was confused at first, in fact, everyone was... baring Ruby seemingly. Weiss caught her wife with widened eyes and realisation plastered on her expression.
"Salem used these gifts, and as I was leaving, she offered me the chance to remain... but giving up what I once was." He paused, and once again, only Ruby seemed to know what was coming next. "And so, I became the third ever Dragon."
"Third?" Ruby's voice was the only one that could form questions anymore, everyone else too confused to even know where to start asking.
"Yes... She was the first, and her sister, a woman by the name of Eirwen, was second." That however, was enough for both Ruby and Weiss to pale. "Things were wonderful for a too short amount of time... I doubt it was even a week before the power went to Salem's head. She was, and still is, the strongest person I have ever seen. A natural Hybrid Affinity of Bronze and Silver, the title of Death... and the title of the Grimm Dragon." His hands clenched into fists as they rested on the table in front of him. "I watched as the power corrupted her mind, body, and soul... I watched as she claimed that Heaven and Hell were threats to us... I watched, and felt powerless, as she created spells and rituals to escape our plane..." Ozpin's voice hitched. "I watched and did nothing as she created Grimm... as she let the lesser versions leak and breed on this plane-"
"Lesser?"
"And I watched... as she exited Remnant... as she took her army of Grimm... and emptied Heaven of life." His rising tension, his rage, his anger at his previous self... it all slowly simmered and died as he sat there, forcing himself to relive his past. "Afterwards... after I felt the lingering connection to my home flicker and die... I sensed her again, as she used her immense power to contact me from between planes... Only then did I realise she had been manipulating me... as I listened to her claim that the World made her do this... that she hadn't been in control."
"I didn't know that a Dragon's telepathy can reach that far..." Yang was the only other one willing to speak up, as if she was trying to momentarily change the subject and give the man a break.
"It can't... not unless you're strong enough. I don't know exactly how it works, but having a Title of a Dragon and the Title of a Harbinger at the same time grants more power than the sum of their parts." With another deep breath, and some water that Qrow helpfully provided, he continued. "So, I sought about attempting to rid her of one of them, a way to dampen her strength before she could do the same to Hell."
"A mistake." Qrow grunted his words with the frustration one could only have after spouting the same points too many times.
"Perhaps... Maybe we are better being rid of that plane... but in the moment, I couldn't see that. So, I gathered the strongest Wizards that I could... I powered a ritual using a shard of the Dust Spike as large as a castle... and, we managed to attack her soul from here."
"Attack her soul?" Blake didn't have to wait long for clarification.
"We managed to rid her of the Title of Death. But the ritual was too powerful, it had a kickback we hadn't been expecting... and it demanded a price all of Remnant had to pay."
"You mean-"
"Yes... the Great Erasure... It was nothing more than the cost of casting the most powerful ritual there is... Genesis." Every sentence was another revelation, every word made Weiss worry that he would reveal another truth... how long did this go on for?
"But why did it-" Yang was interrupted as Ruby explained, seemingly having figured out more than the others had.
"Genesis... If Salem was as strong as you say, then it's a ritual meant to hurt a God. The price for that has to be paid with more than just Mana, and there are only two things as important to us as Mana is... knowledge, and time."
"Exactly... But, the caster had a bigger price to pay, I'm afraid." Ozpin looked down at his hand, the once smooth skin having recently been replaced with that of an old man's. "This body isn't my own. I have been excluded from moving on to the afterlife... instead, ill be forced to inhabit bodies not my own for all time. Moving between forms as one dies, and taking pieces of whom that person was with me." Weiss understood his pain only because she had thought long about that sort of thing thanks to Ruby... the idea of slowly becoming someone you weren't was terrifying, and maybe unstoppable.
For a moment all was silent. No one knew what to say, or even if saying anything was necessary anymore. How much did they now know compared to everyone else in Remnant? How much did they still have to discover? Had Ozpin kept things from them still, or was that truly everything? Personally, Weiss didn't believe that he had told them everything. Even suggesting that was too optimistic. After all, he hadn't mentioned anything from after the Great Erasure. Something had to have happened in the last two thousand years, surely.
Finally, someone spoke. "What does all of this have to do with Hazel?" Yang tried to keep herself strong and focused, but it was clear to Weiss at least that she was grappling with everything he had said just as much as everyone else was.
"Salem intends to destroy Hell and all of its residents, Hazel happens to be someone with quite the grudge against Devils. I have no doubt he is working for her, it was his intention to find her when we last spoke, after all... and he's grown much stronger since then."
"I'm just gonna say it-" Weiss perked up with curiosity as Coco spoke. "Why don't we just let her wipe out Hell? Is anyone going to miss a bunch of Demons and Devils?"
"They may be evil, but letting her commit genocide against them...?" Robyn didn't seem to agree with her, but Coco didn't budge.
"Yeah? You said it yourself, they're evil. Why not kill them all?"
"That is a discussion for much later." Ozpin took control of the conversation back with his first word. "Whether Hell deserves to go or not isn't the issue... the issue is letting Salem have the power necessary to do it."
"Why not just turn Pyrrha or Qrow into a Dragon, then?" Jaune's idea was one everyone had been thinking. "That would make them strong enough to beat her, right? And I mean, if not, then just turn both of them." Ozpin was silent for a minute, the expression on his face almost looking ashamed.
Ruby figured it out first. "Salem's claim about the World controlling her... you don't know if she was lying or not."
"Unfortunately... yes. I was hoping you could look into that, your Highness." Ozpins question had a trace of optimism, but Ruby met it with a frown.
"For now, we need to worry about this war first. It's not something we can exactly ignore." Qrow took command of the room and leaned against the table. "Here's what's gonna happen, I'll handle Hazel, the rest of you just worry about the rest."
"Qrow-" Yang's voice was quick to worry. "I've seen how strong you are, you can't beat him."
"You've never seen me fight seriously, kiddo." Qrow smirked softly.
Weiss, however, wasn't impressed. "You mean that you weren't trying when you fought Pyrrha? Or Carmine? Or Cinder?" She had also wanted to mention Neo, but that wasn't something any of them wanted to remember, not now that two of the people present were raising her.
"I was fighting them as hard as I could given the situation. I fought her-" He gestured to Pyrrha. "And Carmine in a tournament. As for Cinder, we needed information out of her."
"Each Harbinger has an ability that puts them at the top of our world. Conquest can copy Affinities, Famine can devour souls, War can break the Affinity cap, but Death? Its ultimate power allows the user to enter a death match with their opponent. One that prevents the usage of magic." Ozpins words were slow and careful, clearly he had been speaking too much... Weiss was soon going to send him back to his rest.
"I've heard of that." Pyrrha spoke up. "It confines both opponents into a small area that none can enter or interfere with... and strips them both of all Mana and magic."
"It also forces both parties to go for the kill. No holding back or sparing your opponent." With a flick of his wrist, a piece of parchment burned into existence in his hand. "Their name has to be on this list for me to use it, and I can only have five names on here at once." He laid it down on the table in front of him, and Weiss looked it over with a frown. "Once the name is on there, it can only come off when they die." There were only two names, Raven Branwen, and Cinder Fall.
"Are you confident you can beat Hazel without magic?" Winter crossed her arms with a raised eyebrow, and Qrow shrugged.
"If he doesn't have magic, I have the advantage. The guy doesn't use a weapon, so he'll be stuck with fists against my sword."
"Hopefully that's enough of an edge."
After that was settled, there were only a few things left to discuss. Weiss still wasn't exactly sure about any of this, but letting one person have the power to fully destroy a plane - no matter their intentions - was a bad idea. So, after all that, she supposed that they were all Huntsman and Huntresses now.
"Oh, we have one more matter to discuss." It was something she had nearly forgotten, but, with a smile, she gestured Robyn and Coco forward. "Yang and Winter were very positive about you both in their reports, so, I'd like to officially invite you both into the Drake Squad."
"Thank you for this honour." Robyn bowed her head slightly, and Coco chuckled at the reaction.
"You don't even know what that is, do you?"
"Unfortunately not."
Weiss chuckled a little at their interaction. "It's a team of Knights I'm readying in case of emergency. If we have need of you, Ruby will turn you into a Dragon temporarily to give you a boost in power. Unfortunately, you won't get to keep that form, but I can assure you that we'll turn you back into a Roc."
After further explanation, Robyn and Coco both agreed, and Weiss was ready to move on... but, someone else spoke up.
"Weiss. I'd like to become a member of that squad as well." At her words, Weiss and Ruby looked surprised... but Yang was the most shocked out of all of them.
"... What?" The blonde turned to her wife with confusion. "Blake, are you sure?"
"I'd have no issue with that." Weiss was quick to seize the opportunity, after all, even if all these people were ones that Weiss trusted, she could name even less of them that she would trust being a Dragon permanently. And all of them that she did already were Dragons, besides Blake of course.
"If I'm needed, I want to be able to help... but as I am now, I can't." She looked into Yang's eyes, and both of them shared a gentle smile. Weiss didn't know how important being a faunas was to Blake, she doubted that she could ever understand... but... it seemed that she had chosen her immediate family as more important to her than that.
"And that, at least, is something I can understand."
Ruby Schnee
With a gentle sigh, she pulled the door closed behind her and stepped into the office. The room was familiar, though, it had been for years.
"Ruby-" Weiss looked up from her desk in surprise, but she quickly swapped out that expression for a gentle smile. "How's Argus?"
"Sleeping soundly." Moving further into the room, Ruby took the seat in front of her wife's desk, taking a moment to admire how Weiss looked when backlit by the moonlight. "I mean, it's not like he had a weird day or anything."
"True, I suppose..." Putting her pen down, Weiss focused on Ruby instead. "I guess today was only revealing for some of us."
"How are you feeling? About all of that, I mean."
"I'm more concerned about you, personally."
Ruby chuckled. "I know, but for that same reason, you have to know I'm more worried about you."
"Ruby, I love you, but I'm more worried about you because I'm better at handling this kind of thing." Weiss deadpanned as she spoke.
"Oh. Well, I think I'm ok? I'm not too sure how to tell if I am or not." Ruby had always known that Gods and Angels used to exist, and one day a long time ago, they all disappeared... But, to hear about the event from someone that had felt it happen... To hear that their enemy was stronger than a God, to hear that the World may be another enemy... "I'm worried."
"So am I." Weiss smiled reassuringly. "But, I can keep going, so long as you and Argus are safe. So, even if we have to choose the lesser of two evils, I don't care, so long as we all make it out the other side." After a moment, Weiss blinked as if she had realised something. "Oh, right. Did you come here for something in particular?"
"Oh, no. Not really? I just wanted to make sure you were alright, you hadn't come to bed yet."
"Oh-" Leaning back in her chair, Weiss let out a tired sigh. "-That. I'm waiting."
"Waiting?" Ruby tilted her head. "I'm not so bad in bed that you're waiting for me to go to sleep, right?"
Another deadpanned expression from Weiss. "Is that your attempt to make me blush?"
"Do I have to try harder?"
"As much as you wouldn't like to believe it, Ruby, I have somewhat gotten used to the fact that we sleep together."
Ruby gasped in an overly-dramatic fashion. "I can't believe it! My wife is tired of me!"
With a slight curl of her lips that showed the beginnings of a smile, Ruby called her attempts a success, and Weiss continued. "We have a shipment of Dust coming from Atlas that should have arrived today, not an overly large amount, only two tonnes, but it contained fifty grams of Spatial Dust."
Ruby titled her head. "Why are they sending us that? Also-" She tilted her head further to look out the window behind the Queen. "It's kinda late for a shipment."
"As much as it hurts the pride of all the Wizards in Atlas, you are better at Technical magic than all of them combined. General Ironwood was hoping that you could study a sample and possibly increase our efficiency with it." Weiss leaned forward, and her voice dropped in volume. "This is double what they send us in a year of it, so I was hoping you could produce some results." Ruby nodded along, honestly, it would be better for her to spend her time looking at the machines and items that used the Dust type, but she'd also just take the free sample anyway. "As for why the shipment is arriving this late... I'm not sure. It was supposed to arrive this morning."
With a nervous look, Ruby glanced back out the window. "That vial would be worth more than the rest of the shipment combined... You don't think it was attacked-"
"I'm hoping not... But, if it had been..." Leaning even closer, Weiss whispered now. Like she was trying to share a secret. "Ruby... I think Whitley wants us to use Argus."
"What?" Disregarding her wife's attempts to keep quiet, Ruby was almost immediately angry.
"I can understand where he's coming from, if Argus's rate of production is identical to the fire Dust he made... He could make over a kilo in ten minutes." She took a deep breath, trying to contain herself. "But it sickens me to think of using our son like that."
"We can't let Argus know." Ruby stood, moving over to the window, she scanned the night sky outside of it... Like she was trying to spot an airship. "He'd want to help... He'd want to turn himself into a farm."
Leaning back in her seat again, Weiss brought a hand up to her necklace and held it gently. "If it hasn't arrived by morning... I'll need to send someone to look for it. If I contact Ironwood, he'll be able to tell me where they lost track of it."
"I'll go."
Ruby kept her eyes locked to outside the window, but even without seeing her, she could hear the smile in her wife's voice. "I know."
The morning came and went, and like both of them had feared, the shipment never arrived.
After Ruby went to calm some very upset workers who were on standby the whole night waiting for the airship, she returned to the council room and found a slightly unexpected sight. Apparently, Ironwood had called Weiss before she had gotten the chance to do the opposite.
"-General, calm down."
"I can't!" True to his word, the man looked dishevelled to put it lightly. "Why couldn't it have at least made it to Vale?!"
"Ironwood-" Both the Queen and the General looked at Ruby with surprise as she called him that, which she had only done thanks to her being annoyed at him. She didn't like people yelling at Weiss. "Where did the signal from the ship stop?"
"Over the island of Vytal." He tidied himself up a bit through the Scrying Orb, fixing his tie and hair mainly. It looked like he hadn't slept all night. "Recovering the shipment is important, we've already sent ships to surround the island and secure anyone from escaping it by air or sea."
"You think it was attacked?" Weiss was curious about his attitude towards this situation, but then again, so was Ruby.
"It had to be. The shipment was being guarded by one of our attack ships." Ruby shuddered momentarily, she remembered seeing those things on multiple occasions... Their hull were covered in weapons capable of putting a hole in a Dragon.
"That's a lot of trouble for one shipment, aren't the cargo ships usually armed anyway?"
Weiss's question didn't do anything to quell his panic. "Yes, but, a few days ago, the miners hit a deposit of Spatial Dust. It wasn't too much, but it's more than we're used to... So, without much notice, we upped the amount of it we sent you."
Now Ruby could figure out why he was panicking, and she was quietly joining him in that. "How much did you-"
He interrupted her question with an answer. "Two hundred grams." That number meant something to all of them, Ironwood had probably heard some wizard explain why it was such a big deal, Weiss knew how much it was compared to how much they usually got... But Ruby? Well, in the seconds of silence that followed, she worked out exactly what that one vial could do.
"... Someone could use that to open a portal past Vale's barrier..."
"Oh... Shit." Ruby's reaction perfectly encapsulated how the others felt about it.
19th Day, Fourth Strike, 2115 PE