Ch. 36 A crack in the facade
Life was treating Cardin well. It felt like ever since he started making an effort to be a better man than his father, life has been a lot brighter.
His team may have its cracks and pitfalls, but they were getting along. Sky was making an effort to be a better leader and while it was a work in progress, so was Cardin himself. They were both working on being better and that was something Cardin could respect.
Pyrrha has changed too. The closed off public persona was slow to melt away but she opened up eventually. She was the calm rock the team could lean on as well as the powerhouse when it came to combat along with Yang.
Speaking of Yang, she hasn't really changed much. She was crass and annoying, but she was the glue keeping the team together. Without her efforts they probably wouldn't be able to bounce up from Forever Fall quite as well as they did. And without Yang's meddling, he wouldn't have met Mint at that club.
And of course Mint was another piece of his life that seemed almost too perfect. A loving girlfriend he loved spending time with, someone that made him happy. Happy like he wasn't in a long time.
So imagine Cardin's surprise when Mint came to his dorm after everyone else had left already and with a serious expression on her face, signed the words us talk important now.
"Important?" he managed to get out before she grabbed him by the wrist and started dragging him away.
Cardin was a bit too shocked to even protest as she pushed him through the door of his empty dorm and further into the dorm's bathroom and locked the door behind them.
"Mint, what are you…"
His words were stopped by a finger on his lips in a universal shush gesture.
Her face filled his vision as she pinned him to a wall, silently mouthing the words "Do you trust me?"
It took Cardin longer than he'd like to admit to process those words. She looked so worried, so unsure in a way he'd never seen her.
He nodded and she took a step back before taking a deep breath and shattered into shards of glass.
Cardin was confused but remained silent as the shards reformed into a visage of a little girl with brown hair draped over her face.
Cardin slowly took a step forward, getting on one knee and reaching for the girl's hair, brushing it out of her face. As the girl opened her eyes he was met with a view of familiar heterochromatic eyes. One chocolate brown and the other a brilliant strawberry pink. The exact ones he last saw when he was eight.
"Triv?" he whispered on the edge of tears before hugging the twelve year old visage of someone he once knew.
When the glass shattered once more he found himself hugging a kneeling form of his girlfriend but also not. She still had those same heterochromatic eyes now with hair dyed half pink to match. Her face was also a little different, a detail that was off here and there, but now that he knew, he couldn't not recognise Mint.
"Mint? You're Trivia… right?"
She looked at him with tears in her eyes, but didn't answer. Instead her face contorted, a facade cracked and she buried her tears in his chest, pulling him tighter into the hug.
=O=O=O=
"So you get the heebie jeebies from that Mercury Black guy and didn't think to mention it until now, why?"
Jaune was currently sitting on his heels within the confines of Fort RNJR, the blanket fort within their dorm room.
"It wasn't as important as making sure we enjoyed the dance. And in my defence we got called into the principal's office first thing next morning. General Ironwood questioning pushed it out of my mind. And now that it happened again I'm telling you now."
"Ok, but that was yesterday. We've had plenty of time to talk about it."
That was true to an extent, but seeing as Ruby was busy with her homework and for once didn't make it a team activity, he just didn't want to interrupt her then.
"You were busy working yesterday, and this isn't that important."
"Ok, fine. So what should we do about it? Do you at least know why it's happening?"
Ruby finally stopped pacing and sat cross legged in front of Jaune.
"We keep an eye on him in case we fight in the tournament? I don't know, this isn't like that time with Penny."
"What about Penny?"
Jaune cringed at the blunder. There was reason beyond it being an Atlasian military secret to not involve Ruby in that mess.
"Oh, uh nothing?"
"Jaune…"
Too late now he supposed.
"Look, it isn't my secret to tell. I felt a different aura around Penny too, but it's different."
"Different how? Explain to me so that I can understand it."
Ruby's look of earnest determination made Jaune descend into a pensive silence for a few seconds. There was no going around it, he would have to explain, the question was how to explain it without leading Ruby to a conclusion.
"Ok, fine, the aura around Penny is… it's like a well sharpened and oiled blade. Mercury is more like a rotting wound, like I can tell something is wrong and don't know what it is."
"Ok, that's something I guess. And it's just those two?"
"Right, I have only felt something similar around these two people."
"So if I want to know more I should go and ask Penny?"
Of course Ruby would… The question was, how would Penny react?
"Uh, I don't know about that. I think it's more like if she wants to tell us she will? Look I don't even know what exactly is up with Penny and I don't think she knows about my suspicions either, I've made an educated guess and confronted someone about it. That's about as much as I can share without… yeah."
"So you don't trust me?"
"It's not that. I don't want to change your view of Penny by telling you. I don't want to ruin your friendship with her."
"...ok, I'll just ask Penny. If she doesn't want to talk about it that's fine too…"
"And I suppose I can't change your mind?"
"It'll just hang in the air if I don't ask it. Let me just invite Penny over for the evening."
"Won't Ren and Nora be around then?"
"Nope, Nora has something planned with Ren. They're going swimming at the gym apparently. One of the few workouts she's been able to convince Ren to go with her."
"Right…"
If the situation wasn't quite as serious right now, Jaune may have thought about visiting the pool with Ruby. Instead he worried about what may get revealed that evening and how it would affect them.
=O=O=O=
Cardin awoke to a banging at the door. With a single eye open he looked at the chair they had jammed under the door handle for exactly this reason.
"Open up Car! Or I'll kick the door in and you're the one paying for it."
Cardins mind whirred about at a hundred miles an hour. Looking at Mint in his arms they were thankfully decent. The problem was that it wasn't Mint he saw in his arms, it was Neo, or Trivia… It all came flooding back. Trivia is dead. For all intents and purposes the girl he knew was gone, only Neo remained. As for why she was here in Beacon pretending to be Mint? She was being forced and needed help getting out of that arrangement alive.
"Mint, wake up." he spoke softly into her ear before he got up and approached the door.
"Shut it Xiao-Long! Give us a second to get dressed."
"Oh now I need to see this! Let me in!"
Neo's eyes shot open as she sat up and looked herself over. She was still dressed and looked to Cardin in confusion.
"Your hair and eyes." mouthed Cardin soundlessly as he signed the same with his hands.
Neo caught on quickly and in a mischievous move messed up her uniform just enough to make it seem like she had just put it on while simultaneously using her semblance to change her appearance to that of Mint.
When Cardin saw Mint ready he went ahead and removed the chair. As soon as he did he was met with Yang dressed in her sports wear.
"Ugh, seriously Yang, couldn't you take a shower at the gym?"
"Nope, all my hair products are here. So finally got lucky did you?"
"Would you believe me if I said we just cuddled?"
"Nope! Not that I care so long as you don't use my bed."
"I'll make sure to keep that in mind the next time you're being annoying."
"You wouldn't dare!"
"You don't know that…"
"Eh, whatever, I'm going to take a shower."
Cardin thought for a second about just bringing Yang into the know about Neo but then he reconsidered. This would take a bit more time and Neo had a hard time trusting people. It was honestly a miracle in itself that she trusted him enough to reveal her past to him.
They had a long way ahead of them, subterfuge and scheming was never Cardins strong suit. Bullying and blackmail was more his style. And not even that anymore, thanks to his rivalry with Jaune Arc.
Though ironically Jaune may be one of the few people outside of his team he could trust to help when the time came.
As the bathroom door closed behind Yang, Cardin turned to Neo only to find her sitting on Yang's bed and wiggling her eyebrows.
"Tempting…"
=O=O=O=
"Hello friend Ruby, friend Jaune!"
"Penny! Hi, come in, make yourself at home."
Ruby was acting as she normally would. To her this was just a matter of ask and see if Penny wants to tell. Jaune on the other hand felt uncomfortable.
It felt like they were cornering Penny, bringing her here to be questioned. But he supposed there was no other way really. Ruby wasn't about to let it go and he wasn't about to tell her about his suspicions about Atlas mistreating Penny. Not like that would help anyway since Ruby would absolutely either question Penny anyway or go on a warpath against Atlas.
"What did you want to talk about, friend Ruby?"
"Right, guess it's me asking the questions. Jaune already kinda knows but also doesn't want to tell me, since it's your secret he says."
"I'm afraid I don't understand, what is it that friend Jaune knows?"
"Right, I guess "know" is overselling it a bit. I had a few suspicions about how Penny was treated and confronted specialist Schnee about it. She alleviated some of my suspicions somewhat, but she didn't tell me any specifics."
"I see. I believe I know what this is about. Just to be certain, could you tell me what you already know and how you came to the conclusion?"
"Well, let me start with the fact that my Aura is sensitive and my semblance is particularly attuned to weapons. And Penny, I don't know how to say this so I'll just come out and say it. You register as a weapon to my semblance. You're the only one to be like that. No student, huntsman or soldier does, but you do."
"That… is a correct characterisation of what I am."
"Anyway, since Atlas is obviously treating you like they would a military R&D project, I came to the conclusion that unless you're a literal metal weapon in disguise, then Atlas had done something to you when you were a child to make you like this."
"I see. That is partially correct, though not the human experimentation part. To explain… Perhaps it would be easier to demonstrate. Friend Ruby, may I have a knife? Anything sharp will do."
Jaune reached into his pocket and pulled out Gemini Aculei. He was about to hand the blades over when Ruby grabbed his hand and pulled it back from Penny.
"Penny… you aren't about to hurt yourself, are you?"
Jaune's eyes widened. He really should have considered that a possibility before procuring the blades for Penny. Especially given what they were talking about.
"Of course not. I'm merely going to damage my skin a little, just enough to show you what's underneath."
"How is that not hurting yourself!"
"Strictly speaking, I'm going to damage myself not hurt myself. My skin is synthetic and isn't equipped with pain receptors. Plus it's easy to repair, it happens all the time."
"I'm… ok. I'm going to trust you."
Ruby let go of Jaune's wrist but Jaune didn't move. That didn't matter much as Penny reached over and took hold of one of the throwing knives.
Next moment she pulled up the sleeve of her uniform and made a quick incision.
Ruby and Jaune both winced at the sight of the knife sliding through the pristine skin, but contrary to their fears no blood came out.
Penny then pulled the skin aside to expose what's underneath.
"As you can see, I'm not exactly a normal human. I am project P.E.N.N.Y. the first synthetic human capable of producing Aura. A combat gynoid to be specific, which is why I am registered as a weapon by friend Jaune's semblance."
Silence reigned over the trio before Penny broke it once more.
"I understand if you no longer wish to be friends with me."
"NO! Why wouldn't we want to be friends with you Penny!"
"But I am not a real girl?"
"Of course you are! Who cares if you've got nuts and bolts instead of squishy guts! You are a real girl with a real soul."
"I'm inclined to agree with Ruby on that. You're very much a real girl, no matter what my semblance says. You're a person. And of course you're also our friend. This changes nothing about that."
"Spectacular! I can't wait to tell specialist Winter about this."
"Oh right, I did promise to tell her if you decided to tell us about yourself. I guess I can see why she'd want to know."
To be honest Jaune felt a little better knowing that Atlas didn't do anything to Penny beyond keeping an eye on her because of her unique constitution. On the other hand it contributed nothing to the mystery of Mercury Black.
=O=O=O=
Author's note:
I'll be honest, I'm swamped with work right now so I'm going to keep this brief.
Neo revealing herself to Cardin was a long time coming, I just hope it came through in the past chapters. As for the tides of battle, this doesn't mean the balance shifted all that much. Not yet anyway.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and are looking forward to the next one: Ch. 37 Preparations on all sides