Ch. 61 Tribunal
Once the General got a hold of himself, he turned to the still frozen Marrow.
"Go, specialist. You'll have a hard time separating these two from their weapons." he said with a measure of exasperation leaking through into his voice.
Ironwood then sat down which prompted Jaune to offer a chair to Ruby while he stood behind her. A few seconds of silence passed before the general sighed and finally spoke to the pair.
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry for my behaviour."
Jaune nodded, though he was no longer smiling like he did in front of the specialist.
"Again, your behaviour was not unexpected. We don't like it, but we understand… to a point. Don't mistake this for forgiveness, General. I have half a mind to pack our research and leave before Atlas tries to kill us a third time."
Ironwood nodded and made to offer another apology before he stiffened in realisation. There was a reason he wanted Ruby to be seen working, and now that he summoned her here he may have tipped his hand.
"If you'd excuse me for just a second, you just reminded me of the impending trial. It would seem I may need to advance the timeline immediately." as he spoke he pulled up the screen built into his desk and started issuing orders and rescheduling planned actions.
"You suspect the R&D department." said Ruby. The statement gave Ironwould a pause, before he reaffirmed in his mind that this young woman wasn't made team leader for nothing. Much like her mother there was more to Ruby than her silver eyes.
"You presume correctly. Since we had no reason to believe the attack was directed at you specifically, we had you continue to work with the R&D department after the audit. The audit led us to names we believe were unaware of their involvement in all this. Nonetheless evidence points to someone in the department and we are close to proving exactly who was behind this."
"But my arrest may have stirred the hornet's nest."
"Yes, that would be an accurate assessment. Now we'll have to make more arrests than we would have otherwise. We should be able to prevent destruction of evidence by moving the trial date to…" he stopped his explanation briefly as he read the reply to his newly issued orders "…tomorrow evening it would seem."
"That's all well and good, but I think you still owe us an explanation…" pointed out Ruby, barely hiding the intrigue that has been building up ever since they met Keel in Forever Fall.
"Yes, I suppose I do… are the two of you familiar with The Story of the Seasons?"
=O=O=O=
Jaune lost in contemplation for most of their way back to their room. Fairy tales… such a strange coincidence. His mind turned back to the time after their summer vacation. Back to the book of stories he searched for clues of Nora's heritage.
Doctor Oubleck was the one to suggest it, but Ozpin was so eager to help. What are the chances it was deliberate, was he hoping for them to find The Story of the Seasons? For what purpose? It wasn't their team that had the maiden candidates, did he just hope Yang would learn of it from her sister? Or was it something else he wanted them to find?
Jaune regretted that he stopped reading after a while. Ruby kept reading but didn't remember much of the annotations surrounding this particular story. And now it lay in the ruins of their room at Beacon. What are the chances it was someone who knew one of Ozpin's lives that wrote those notes, or perhaps even Ozpin himself. What was the name again? Theodore Ozaki?
There was turmoil in Jaune's mind, he'd come to terms with Keel's existence enough to know there was a possibility. Still to have their suspicion of Ozpin's immortality confirmed?
Ruby wasn't faring much better with what Ironwood revealed to them. She felt lost, not because of the story, not because of the book… It was her family's secrecy that truly threw her for a loop. The loss and tragedy all stemmed from a conflict they knew nothing about and Yang was pulled into the mess by Ozpin… Has it always been like this?
She needed to know more, more than Ironwood trusted them with. She needed to hear it from someone she could trust or see it for herself. She needed to find Yang and talk to uncle Qrow. She needed to know…
The two didn't talk as they entered their room. They barely changed into their sleepwear before collapsing to bed.
Jaune held Ruby in his arms as they drifted off to sleep, but his mind was elsewhere. His imagination was stuck on that photo Ironwood showed to them. The Relic of Creation… what were the chances it was like Keel's magnum opus that showed him the ruin of Beacon… And if Keel made the Relic of Choice, were the other relics also made? Did Ozpin know? Keel said Ozpin asked questions, but did he know the origin of the relic?
As Jaune drifted to sleep he couldn't shake the image of the staff from his mind.
=O=O=O=
A man kneeled before a tribunal. Heavy shackles of wrought iron bound his hands together. It was early spring and the warm sun illuminated the carved stone plate upon which he knelt and to which his chains were affixed to. The amphitheatre was filled with members of the tribunal and public alike, all listening in silence.
"Nothing to say for yourself?" the man at the head of the court spoke. The golden staff in his hand showed power that commanded authority.
"You're making a mistake…" the shackled man spoke, his dark teal eyes meeting the other's defiantly.
"Am I now… very well. You stand accused of conspiracy against the nation of Cape. We've uncovered much from your compatriots and I must say, I'm impressed. It's only been two years since you joined the group and now you're the man in charge… if king Oznond truly was the one in charge before you, you've had big shoes to fill." The man's expression hardened as the admiration faded. "Your actions have caused destruction and death. Such atrocities committed for what, your crooked beliefs? To protect us from a Queen of Grimm? What did you call her again?"
"Stop talking…" the man spoke clearly with only a slight tremble in his voice.
"Your words mean little before this tribunal, Ostromir."
"He's going to stop you…"
"Who is?"
"Ozmond, he won't let you reveal…"
"Ozmond is gone dear Ostromir. A fool afraid to use the power at his fingertips."
The shackled Ostromir shook in sudden panic, fear making its way into his voice.
"Stop! You can't! The people are innocent!"
"You speak as if the truth was poison. I am not going to hurt anyone and the people deserve to know why their loved ones never returned home."
The shackled man slumped and closed his eyes. The next time he opened them a golden green glow settled over them. As the man stood straight and proud the people started to boo him. They did not notice the chill that started to creep into the air.
"I thought you a smarter man than this old friend…" Ostromir spoke with an echo of another voice covering his own.
As the sky darkened with clouds and snow started to fall the people finally started to notice the change in the shackled man for what it was. The people started to run and Ozmond let them, his eyes locked with the man holding the staff.
"... that can't… Ozmond what sort of devil did you sell your soul to?"
Ozmond let out a quiet laugh. This seemed to be the trigger for the battle to start.
Ozmond was rather nimble despite still being bound, stepping out of the way of the golden spears conjured by the staff. Yet Ozmond didn't retaliate in kind. Instead his magic kept growing in power.
"You may think yourself a smart man, but in truth all you've achieved is making Her aware of the relic. It cannot fall into her hands… I'm sorry, but for humanity to survive the staff must be lost from memory…"
The current king was struck with sudden realisation as he looked on the storm brewing all around them.
"You wouldn't, YOU DEMON!" the king spoke as Ozmond approached him, his shackles shattered under the immense cold.
"...Cape will never be the same again, a wasteland scorched by ice and wind should be enough to hide the staff for a while. But man is resourceful, people will return here and find little but legends…"
As Ozmond grasped the staff and released his magic, the world froze over.
=O=O=O=
Jaune woke up with a start, the feeling of immense cold still felt in his mind even as Ruby's warmth calmed him. As he tightened his hold on her subconsciously, Ruby suddenly stirred.
"...hhhmm… another dream?" her sleepy voice brought Jaune to the present.
He buried his face in her hair for just a few seconds before replying.
"A bad one… still the past but…" Jaune had trouble putting together an explanation.
"You don't have to talk about it, you know… Do you want to visit the lab today? I really think we have our prototype figured out."
"Don't we have to go to court today?" the image of Ostromir's tribunal flashed before his eyes.
"Only in the evening, who cares if we show up covered in grease, we're researchers and craftsmen."
Jaune let out a hum as he thought of the prospect. Normally he would try and convince Ruby they needed to be presentable, but really he didn't feel like it. He barely even wanted to go there at all.
"You know what, yeah, you're right… hey, do you think I could build the bike with it? A full bullhead still seems far off but… Oh, I have some ideas now…"
Ruby smiled at the dolt as she escaped the bed to get ready for the day. Jaune meanwhile grabbed his sketchbook and started penning down ideas. This was better than having him back in paranoia mode. He has been so restless since the dreams started again… Maybe they should leave Atlas… not the kingdom for now, just get away from that damned Relic. Mantle is still a bit too close, they'd tried that and as uncomfortable as Dr. Polendina's clinic was, it wasn't worth it for the meagre improvement. Or maybe they should leave for Haven, find Ren and Nora and go from there… but would that help at all? If there's a relic near each academy it wouldn't actually help much would it…
As Ruby got out of the shower she couldn't help but curse the collapsed state of the CCT, if only she could talk to dad about Jaune, or question Qrow about the whole Maiden and Relic mess.
=O=O=O=
As Jaune and Ruby hurriedly sat down in the courtroom and finally caught their breath after running all the way from the R&D department. They of course lost sense of time and only left when they received a message from Ironwood that they needed to be there for the court.
Neither Holzkohle was present in the lab, though that was more unusual for Jeremiah than his father. Jaune hoped that Jeremiah wasn't arrested because of this, he seemed like a good man. The few people that saw Ruby get arrested yesterday peppered them with questions and asked if she happened to know if anyone else was released.
Ruby just deflected saying that her arrest was something of a mistake and she didn't know anything about the other researchers. Jaune was a bit surprised at how well Ruby managed to integrate herself into the lab's community, but supposed it was because people excited about their research were less uncommon there and they actually listened when people talked.
But now the court was about to begin its proceedings. Jaune stiffened as the judge began speaking, immediately reminded of the dream he had managed to pretty much push out of his mind since morning.
At least he wasn't holding the damn staff.
=O=O=O=
Author's note:
Well, we're at the point where Ruby and Jaune know about the Maidens and Relics. Speaking of the much needed talk, I'll need to backtrack and show you what happened with Qrow and his bunch of teenagers.
I originally intended to have to include the whole court proceedings in this chapter, but had trouble writing it. It just didn't flow well and wasn't interesting. I'll likely omit most of it from the next chapter too, focusing on the resolution instead.
In other news, I think I finally managed to finish my thesis and so I should in theory have more time to write for you guys rather than the academics.
But hey if you want to support me you can do so on P a treon . com (slash) OlympianScribe
Anyway I hope you enjoyed and are looking forward to the next chapter: Ch. 62 Judgement