''Mainline smt games are better than persona games because there's no waifu.''
''No I'm not releasing Pixie at Yoyogi Park, she's staying with me for the entire game.''
This is my brain on Nocturne.
ehhhh: That's... I'd argue that Salem hasn't 'learned all of Gemini's shit', but apart from that I can see where you're coming from. It's a very fair criticism, thank you for pointing the issues with that part of the fic.
Unfortunately, taking the soul fragments out would require a huge overhaul of the plot, which is a bit too late for that unless I rewrote it all from the beginning. With how much work that'd be, I'm gonna chose to go through with it anyway. But you're right that some of the consequences of including this in the story does have its downsides. Ah well, I suppose making mistakes is an unavoidable part of learning.
Daybit Sem Void: Eh, thanks. I'll be holding on to that crown. There's also more where it came from.
Reader 451: Yeah, that part took inspiration from people complaining about censorship in entertainment, people trying to cancel a show only for that show to get more popular than it would be without the cancelation attempt (Shield hero, Uzaki, Nagatoro. I wasn't even interested in the last two, I just watched them out of spite.) and 13-14 years old me not giving a shit about my favorite mangas being rated 18+(I mean, c'mon, these were shounens. Literally stories for teenagers.)
As for RT failling to write a better storyline about racism... Here's a quote from one of the writers about the racism subplot in RWBY: ''We were too ambitious for a 15 minutes, at a time 5 minutes, long show. Especially just, like, two white guys writing it.'' You heard him, everyone. RT can't write racism and discrimination right because they're whites.
What does being white has to do with being unable to write about racism? Fuck if I know. It's not like empathy, the ability to understand the feelings, thoughts and experiences of others without having to live through said experiences was an ability that most humans possesses, right? And it's not like talking to people who experienced discrimination or reading about their experiences was beyond any intelligent being's capabilities.
The part about Perry having being called a pet by other Faunus for working under a human boss? Yeah, I don't think I'd surprised anyone by saying that it came from talking to and reading the experiences of black americans who were told ''Why are you trying to 'act white''' and called 'uncle Tom' or 'house (insert n-word here)' by other blacks for not 'acting like gangsters'. (the black americans in questions' words, not mine.)
See? It's not that hard.
Lambda38: Yeah, the funny thing is, I didn't have any issues writing the chapter. It's only when the time came to publish it that I started to feel like I was watching my foot step on a landmine. On slow motion.
To be honest, part of me was also hoping someone in the comments would try and argue that Faunus and humans could successfully live together. Just to see what the counter arguments would looks like.
IronDeficiency: I mean, this fic has few chapters because it hasn't been a thing for long. But I'm glad that you like it enough and want more of it. I hope this chapter will be to your liking as well, especially since it's a big one (around 12 000 words.)
Disclaimer: RWBY doesn't belong to me, I'm just having fun with it while RT ruins my fun for the official show. Equally balanced, as all things should be.
There are two parts to this chapter, the first being at the Schnee manor, which you guys probably all know what this means (Weiss cream, yay. That's absolutely going to go well, it's not like she initially had a few attitude issues in the show, right? Right?) And the second part is Gemini going full troll on the White Fang.
Both parts have to do with hindering the White Fang in some ways, hence why the title of the chapter is the name of a game about fighting terrorists.
Enjoy.
Reporters weren't allowed to the formal party, but that didn't stop them from gathering in front of the Schnee Manor's front yard and harassing the guests with their questions. As soon as I arrived, they started asking me all sorts of question, talking over each others, and the flashes from their cameras blinded me.
Ugh, no thank you, I wasn't dealing with this crap.
I continued to walk straight, ignoring them the best as I could. When I passed by a familiar reporter with light purple hair.
"Hi mom." I said as I waved at her.
This caught the attention of the other journalists, who were now focused on the poor and confused Lisa Lavender. I profited of the opening to enter the manor unbothered, where they weren't allowed to follow.
I could be so evil sometimes.
"Welcome to the Schnee Manor, young man." A balding butler with a thick mustache greeted me at the entrance.
Oh, hey, that was Klein!
"Please, come inside," he continued, "I'm sure your parents will get away from the journalists and join you soon."
"Oh no, my father isn't here. I came alone," I waved my entry ticket, the stock certificate in front of him, "see? That's my name on it, I am the share holder... My father doesn't exactly know I'm here."
More like nobody knew. I came here without telling anyone, knowing nobody in my family would have let me. I was probably going to catch hell later from Neo for ditching her, but that was a risk I had to take. Also, getting her off my trail was one of the hardest thing I've ever managed to do.
She was going to be so pissed the next time I see her.
Klein's eyes turned red, an aggressive grin forming on his face. "Oh oh, I see we've got a little rebel on our hands, uh?" His eyes then turned yellow and his demeanor changed again, now being perfectly happy. "Come in, come in. I can't say I dislike kids like you, ha ha ha."
Oh, right. I forgot he did that.
I thanked him for his welcome and entered.
The Schnee Manor was... decadently luxurious. It was by far the largest home on Remnant, despite the very limited amount of land overinflating the price of real estate. But if the size alone was unbelievable, the decorations inside also had enough value that some of them could buy the house in which uncle Perry and I lived several times over on their own. Those windows in the entrance's stairway? They just looked like normal glass in the show, probably because it was easier to draw, but those were actually high quality stained glass. And those chandeliers? Most rich people had one in a few important rooms, Jacques had them as common lightning. One in every room, except the halls which had several all along their roof. Those giant suits of armor in the entrance's stairway? A normal sized one wasn"t exactly cheap, but one three time as tall, when needing exponentially more steel to upscale it? This could easily go over 200,000 Lien, and I was probably far below the accurate cost. Actually, I didn't even know why I bothered with the suits of armor after having talked about the other things, those suit are one of the cheapest decoration in this manor.
I also didn't miss how the security guards were armed with top quality armor and weaponry, though I supposed private citizens always had better equipment than the standarized military. Just like how during the american revolution, the state didn't really have a navy, but private citizens were the ones to provide ships, even Galleons. And many amongst those butlers and maids moved like trained fighters too. Over all I'd seen military bases less defended than this manor.
All this wasn't a waste of Lien, though. It sent a clear message: Jacques Schnee had too much wealth to be touched... and more than enough to ruin anyone who crossed him.
By God! The floor alone was worth more than all I'd ever had in my entire past life. This was insane!
The man had near complete monopoly on Remnant's only energy source, which gave him an annual profit varying between 58 to 70 trillion Lien. And that was from dust alone, because with all the profit it gave him he expended the SDC into several other industries, hence Remnant having SDC made toothpaste, so he had a hand in every basket. To put how rich it made him in perspective, the U.S. economy, since the second world war to the 2000s, produced an average of roughly 500 billion Dollars. Roughly 50 trillion once converted into Lien.
Jacques Schnee made more money per year than Earth's most powerful nation.
Nay, he didn't make more money, he made more profit. This was even more insane.
To think he managed to take the SDC, which was a failing company, and got this far when he used to be a mere small businessman.
I may not have a high opinion of him as a father or husband, but I could only respect, and be intimidated by, his professionnal abilities. I couldn't think of anyone else who would have been able to pull off something like this. Nobody did on Earth, even with a population twice as large as Remnant.
I observed the Schnee's ball room, occupied by the SDC's shareholders and their families. Jacques was busy talking to a few others men in suit, somes having their wife at their side. I saw general Ironwood talking with them too. The White Fang turning terrorists was his problem to deal with too, after all.
Good, I knew he'd be there, of course. I counted on it, though talking to both Jacques and Ironwood at the same time was a no-no. I needed to talk to the general alone.
I spotted Weiss further away, standing alone with an aloof expression, a glass in hands. She wore a long, fancy white dress fading into a very pale blue toward the bottom.
Aaah, the third member of RWBY. Might as well go and say hi to the one person close to my age that I knew didn't like this place.
I approached her with a polite smile, trying to keep my legs steady. Come on, now wasn't the time to get nervous.
"Hello Miss Schnee, it is a pleasure to meet you in person." I offered a handshake, which she took for the sake of politeness.
"A pleasure," she said in a neutral voice, clearly not meaning it, "and you are?"
"Gemini Torchwick, a fan of your singing." That wasn't a lie either, Weiss tended to sing along classical music or other derived styles, which I did enjoy listening when relaxing on my own.
Meanwhile, I'd asked Ruby what her favourite style was after her birthday. I didn't know what I expected, but death metal wasn't it.
"Yes, I'm sure you are." Weiss said, unimpressed. "What do you want?"
Haved I done something to upset her?
"... I just wanted to greet you?" Why did I make that sounds like a question?
She rolled her eyes. "Well, that's done. You can go bother someone else now. Your parents won't gain anything from you wasting my time."
I raised an eyebrow. Was that what she thought I was here for? Hardly.
"I am not here with my parents, Miss Schnee. I am here on my own." I said, finally catching her attention for real as she bothered to size me up for the first time.
"Wait, you are a shareholder?" She asked, not being the first to be surprised at me already involving myself in the stock market despite my age.
"Yes," I nodded, "and before you ask, it wasn't with borrowed money from my father. I started with no real capital to my name and worked my way up on my own."
I thought telling her I wasn't actually part of Atlas' high society would dissipate any assumption she had about me, but instead she scrunched up her nose in disgust.
Was I missing something?
"New money, then. Go away, I have nothing to say to people like you."
"Have I-" I was going to ask if I had done something to displease her, but she cut me off.
"I said: go away. Before I have security throw you out for being a slimy little creep." Her eyes threw daggers at me.
I winced. "Sheesh, calm down. Isn't that a little too harsh?" Why was she that pissed off?
"So? What does it matter? Last time I checked, the guards works for my family. If I want you gone, you will go away."
"Alright, fine! Whatever you want, ice queen." I said, before turning around and walking away.
"Excuse me!? What did you just call me!?" Nope, not answering that. I was ignoring her screeching and that was it.
That was... a surprising reaction. I knew it was common for those born amongst the 'elites' to hate poor people who managed to become wealthy, viewing them as nothing but upstart peasants who didn't know their place, but I didn't expect Weiss to share those views. Not with how she seemed to hate said 'elites'. I knew she had some... attitude problems at the beginning of the show, but still, I thought she was better than this.
And I kept 'elites' in quotation because while the term suggested they were the best exemple of Humanity's greatness, most of the times they were more parasites born in wealth and continuing to enrich themselves by manipulating money and colluding with corrupt politicians instead of actually contributing something to society. Often to the detriment of the working and middle class.
For this, Jacques, who was born amidst said working class, wasn't as bad as the rest of the people here. Sure, he was a selfish, greedy bastard who didn't take care of his children as well as a parent ought to and he acted as smugly as those born into money, but he at least had actual accomplishments to back up his smugness.
Hey, 'not as bad' didn't necessarily equate 'good person'.
Of course these sycophants, now playing nice with him, hated him more than they hated anyone else on Remnant, and considered his success to be a personal insult. I knew that during his rise toward becoming the richest man to have ever lived, several of these old money families sent assassins after him, after failing to bankrupt him. He would have been dead without the foresight to ally with criminals with expertise in counter-assassination. Of course, that expertise was because they familiar with murder themselves, and said families lost several of their members in 'tragic accidents' following each assassination attempt.
Even the terrorists who recently killed Weiss' relative lost half of their men in the process, and it was followed by several faunus in Atlas committing suicide by two bullet at the back of the head. The police's investigations discovered that they were part of the White Fang, some were even accomplices in the operation.
The game of money sure was a dangerous one.
"... Ahem?" Someone coughed to catch my attention.
I looked at the white haired boy in front of me, who looked to be my age. Was that Whitley?
"Oh, sorry. I was lost in thought."
"It's fine," he assured me, "I'm the one who should apologize on my sister's behalf. I'm Whitley Schnee."
Yep, that was him.
"Gemini Torchwick, a pleasure. Don't worry, I understand the loss of her aunt is a stressful event." 'Stressful' was putting it lightly, though I doubted it was the only reason for her unfriendliness. Else her attitude wouldn't have worsened when learning I was new money.
At least she didn't assault me with a summoned Boarbatusk. Then again, the writing of everything was so terrible after Volume 3 that everything in Volume 4 and onward might as well be a fanfiction as far as canon went. A high budget but bad fanfiction.
Now living on Remnant, I could at least confirm that unfortified settlements weren't a thing. That village in Volume 4 having no wall? Not canon. Kuroyuri having walls but no doors? Not canon. I mean, Kuroyuri did used to exist, but the walls had actual fortified doors, so the walls weren't pointless.
Whitley went along with the excuse. "1st cousin once removed, actually. But yes, functionnally our aunt. Aunt Eve was... one of our relatives my sisters and I were the closest to. We miss her deeply." The content of his words might have seemed like the cliche empty platitudes of someone who pretended to care, but the way his voice almost broke at the end, trembling a bit... Yeah, he was just a kid trying to hold himself together.
"My condoleances." I hated how fake I sounded. "I'm sorry, I wish I could sound as sincere as I feel, but I've never been great when it came to social situations."
"You do seem out of your element here, I suppose." Something attracted his attention and his eyes widened. "Ah, sorry to cut this short, but I must go play damage control, I swear my sister is trying to ruin our family's reputation."
I looked in the same direction he did and saw Weiss scowling at a few teenagers trying to talk to her. Given the look on their face, they didn't seems to appreciate her attitude, just like she didn't seems to like their company.
"Then don't let me hold you back. Good luck, Mr Schnee."
"Thank you, Mr Torchwick. But please, call me Whitley. Mr Schnee is my father."
I chuckle. "Then call me Gemini... Mr Torchwick is my father." Well, more or less. Nobody called him Mr Torchwick, but he was still usually called by his last name while I went by my first name for obvious reasons.
"Very well, Gemini. I will be looking forward to the next time we met." He said before going to met the ones who tried to talk to his sister, now having walked away from her. I didn't believe there will be a next time however, as after tonight I wasn't going to have a reason to come back.
As for me, I noticed Ironwood having walked away from Jacques, and was currently busy talking with some other people I couldn't care any less for. Time to meet the owner of the place, then.
As I approached Jacques and the people talking with him, I heard them discuss how to prevent future attacks from the White Fang.
"If you may forgive my meddling," I said, "I doubt simply reinforcing the SDC's security would be enough."
Jacques raised an eyebrow, skeptical - and dismissive - of the mere child who just said that. It still was a much more friendly reaction than the dark glares of the others.
"And what would a child know of those matters?" Unimportant bootlicker number one sneered.
I gave them the fakest smile I've ever had. "Your skepticism is reasonable, given my age. But what I know, is that the White Fang trades in Faunus' lives. Making the security stronger merely raise the price they have to pay. They are fanatics, and does not care about maximizing profit, they will pay the cost regardless of how unprofitable it is. It won't be enough to stop them, not on its own."
"And I supposed you're the little genius who know better? Why don't you enlighten us, then?" Unimportant bootlicker number two tried to deride me.
"Simple, give Menagerie a CCT."
They all laughed at this, and I laughed with them, although their laugh was a mocking one. All except Jacques, who was frowning.
"'Give Menagerie a CCT' he say, ah ah ah. I can't believe what I'm hearing." Unimportant bootlicker number three said.
"Ah yes, giving a gift to our ennemies will absolutely solve all of our problems. Should we give them actual military training as well? Invite their leaders over?" Unimportant bootlicker number fo-
Actually, I think this might be number one. I already forgot who was who.
"You think giving Menagerie a CCT would hamper the White Fang's ability to recruit new members. 'Purchasing new Faunus lives to spend', to borrow your own words."
Of course if there was one amongst them who caught on, it was going to be the man who raised himself from the masses to the top of the world. Well, if we were talking about wealth. Pretty sure Salem trounced everyone else in terms of military power.
The others were shocked that he even bothered with taking what I said with a modicum of interest. "Mr Schnee, you cannot be taking this kid seriously? He's clearly talking rubbish. He's mad!"
"Now, now, this is just idle chat. Is this not what we are gathered here for?" Jacques chuckled. "We'll have ample time to discuss the more serious ideas during the meeting. For now, what is your name, young man?"
"Gemini Torchwick, new money."
Jacques' eyes narrowed at my name. My father might less know outside of Vale, but I suppose the man with a monopoly on dust would know about the most infamous dust thief of the biggest kingdom.
The others didn't seem to recognize the name, but their glares, if already unfriendly, now turned downright murderous. They couldn't say anything about it, though, because Jacques was too powerful for them to be able to afford losing his favor and he too was new money.
That's right, assholes. Yours was a very select club and thanks God I ain't in it.
To clarify: I didn't have problems with them for having lots of money, nor even for having inherited their fortune. It was only natural for people to want more than poverty in life, just like it was natural for parents to want to leave something for their children. My problem with these people was them having their heads so far up their own asses that they were disconnected from reality to the point of thinking that humans that weren't born amidst their social caste were some sort of 'lesser breed' or something. Also, them being corrupt oligarchs. I hated oligarchs with a passion.
"You're new money, not your parents? Interesting phrasing." Jacques mused. "Implying you're the one who accumulated the capital to join us this evening, despite being so young. Out of curiosity, how exactly do you think giving the Faunus a CCT will stop them?"
"The White Fang 'buy' new recruit by selling them a narrative, narrative that most Faunus living in the four kingdoms don't believe in. This is proven by how, following the organization's turn to terrorism, it suffered from mass desertion in the four kingdoms. But since Menagerie has no CCT, the White Fang are its principal source of information on the outside world, allowing them to hide the full extend of their crimes while lying on how bad the 'oppression' of the Faunus is in the kingdoms. Because of this, the support for the White Fang is still high, likely close to what they had in the kingdoms before turning violent, and it is there that most of their future recruits will come from. A CCT in Menagerie would destroy their monopoly on information and make them unable to gain the lives they will need to spend to continue attacking the SDC and assassinating other Schnees."
He rubbed his chin, thoughtful. "Dismantle their monopoly on information to ruin their reputation and sabotage their position in their own home. I suppose the idea isn't completely devoid of merit, but... I cannot say it is actually a feasible one. The cost is simply too high."
I sighed, a bit disappointed, and rubbed the back of my neck. "I can't say it's much of a surprise. To be honest, I half expected it."
"Good," Jacques nodded, "if you hadn't, you would have been a fool."
"Maybe. Still, while a CCT certainly doesn't come cheap, I can't help but wonder... Is there another reason why it wouln't be pratical?"
"Well, of course. The main issue with the price of a CCT for Menagerie is that the returns cannot be measured. Even if it were as successful as you hope it could be, I would never know how much of that success was caused by the CCT and how much would have happened even without it. In that sense, it is less of a risky investment and more of a gamble I would never know the true result of, and while I could afford to take that risk, the same cannot be said of my investors. Not at its current cost."
Ah, good point. To know how much it would actually influence the White Fang, he would need to know how things would go for both building and not building that CCT. I was the only one on Remnant that would be able to make that comparison, but only after it was made and after a few months, or years, of observing how things would go if it was build. To know in advance whether it was worth it, even foreknowledge of one future path wasn't enough.
Yet, something he said allowed for some hope, as meager as it was.
"'Not at its current cost'. So if you didn't have to pay the full cost, it'd be worth considering?" I asked, my plan was on the verge of failing, but it might be salvageable depending on his answer.
He snorted. "Hardly. While I am confident I could negotiate a good deal for the cost of the materials, a project like that would still need someone else willing to take half of the price off of my hands. I highly doubt Ghira Belladonna, with the settlement's income, would be able to pay for more than 2% without endangering Menagerie's local economy, it just hasn't grow enough for that yet and likely won't for a few decades of everything going well for them. So unless you're volunteering, I am afraid the idea is nothing more than a fantasy."
"Oh my, Mr Schnee, are you offering me a joint project? You flatter me, such a shame I don't have the capital to take the offer." I chuckled, before noticing general Ironwood going alone on the balcony. "In any case, I must take my leave now. Thank you for humoring me, it was instructive."
"Please, it was a pleasure. Rare are the children so willing to learn from their elders, much less seek that learning by themselves. I have a feeling that I will hear of you again."
I doubted it. This was the only time I was going to involve myself with a kingdom's high society. I hated everything about 'parties' like this.
/-/
General Ironwood was standing alone on the balcony, eyes staring toward the horizon.
"Taking a break from the party, general?" I said, approaching in a relaxed walk.
He turned around and looked at me with an eyebrow raised in subtle surprise, before nodding.
"Well, yes. I'm not really one for this kind of gathering. Can I help you? Do you need help to find your parents?"
I was starting to get real sick of people assuming I was just tagging alone with my parents. I couldn't wait to be an adult again, because this was just annoying.
Wait, actually, no. I could wait to be an adult again, since I didn't have to pay taxes on income due to being underage.
I shook my head, and decided to cut straight to the point. "You're the one I was searching for, general. I would like you to take a look at this, it's important. Very."
I took my scroll out and gave it to him, the video of my fight against Salem's Seer ready to play.
First skeptical, Ironwood's eyes widened in shock as the recorded scene unfolded in front of him and he saw the Seer. When it reached the part where Salem's voice came out of the Grimm, he paled in horror.
After the video finished, both he and I waited in silence. I, in waiting. He, thinking about the implication of what he had just seen, his body as stiff as the steel of his prosthetics. It was after a good minute that he spoke with a firm voice.
"Where was it filmed?"
"In the forest of Patch, sir."
"Was it the only one?"
"There was another that I killed before, but I didn't have a camera to collect proof at the time, sir."
"Do you think it found who it was sear- no, nevermind. If it had found her, it wouldn't still be searching. Do anyone else know about it?"
"You're the only one I've told, sir."
General Ironwood nodded in approval. "Good, this is sentitive information, so consider it highly classified. I know you're not one of my soldiers, but don't tell anyone about this, understood?"
"Yes sir."
"I will also be taking a copy of the footage. Delete the one you have."
"Yes sir."
I copied the video and transferred it into his scroll and I then erased the original. I expected him to want to keep it secret, though, and already had another copy hidden in an USB key back at home.
His body finally relaxed, and he offered me a small smile. "On behalf of not only Atlas, but all of Remnant, thank you for bringing this to me. You did well."
"I'm only a concerned citizen doing his duty, sir."
"A concerned citizen's 'duty' could have just been to alert the closest authorities." Ironwood chuckled. "Although I'm not complaining that you've shown more sense than that."
Bringing the video to the police of Vale would have either caused it to be censored, and probably never reached a foreign nation, or caused a panic. Both of these results would have been undesirable.
"I figured if someone needed to know, it would have been you. I just wanted to make sure you'd receive it, sir."
"And I'll make sure the intel doesn't go to waste. Still, I'll have to jungle this problem with that of the White Fang, though, along with the usual operations. I suppose I have my work cut out for me."
"Then it's a good thing I have an idea for dealing with the White Fang." I smiled.
He raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "Really? Please do tell."
Before I shared the footage, he probably wouldn't have bothered taking advice from a kid - what kind of military officer would have? -, but now that I'd gained some credit in his eyes he was at least willing to hear me out, regardless of whether he expected something helpful or not. Just as planned... Well, more like hoped for. I kind of just prayed it'd work.
So I talked of how the White Fang's support in Menagerie was due in great part to the settlement being cut off from the rest of the world and how it gave the terrorists full control of the information coming in and out of Kuo Kuana. How giving it a CCT would sabotage their propaganda and severely limit their recruitment, weakening them and making them easier to deal with. After all, a war against terrorists, before being a war of weapons, was first a war of propaganda.
The White Fang was free to hide and only engage when it benefited them, but their dependence on controlling what Kuo Kuana knew of their operations made them vulnerable.
'So in war, one must avoid what is strong and strike at what is weak.'
Such was the art of war.
Frowning, general Ironwood held his chin in thought. "They can't fight without troops to deploy... I suppose it would hamper their efforts in the future. At the very least it would make for less terrorists to endanger people." Which would waste less soldiers and munitions that could be used on the Grimm too. "But the military wouldn't be allowed to spend that money on a CCT, our budget exist to pay our soldiers and for military equipment."
"But a state would be able to do it if they decided so. You could bring the idea to the rest of the council."
The council of Atlas had five positions. One voted by Atlas(the city), one voted by Mantle, one voted by both, one that was held by the General of the kingdom's military forces and the last one held by the headmaster of Atlas Academy. Granted, the laws concerning these positions weren't made with the idea of the same individual holding more than one seat, but there were no laws forbidding the General of also being headmaster or someone holding different seats. An oversight in the legal system that allowed Ironwood to hold both seats at the same time.
If he was convinced of the idea's merit, then he only needed to convince one other member of the council for the decision to pass. One out of three, I'll take those odds.
"Yes, but how are they supposed to accept spending so much on what is essentially a foreign nation? Constructing a CCT is far from a small project."
"Would it be better if Atlas only had to pay for half of it?"
At my words, general Ironwood eyes' narrowed.
"...You know something I don't." He said.
I smirked. "I already shared the idea with Mr Schnee. He said that the gamble wasn't worth it because of how much Lien it would cost, but that it might be if someone else could pay half of it."
"You convinced Jacques to pay for half of a CCT for Menagerie?" Ironwood gave me an incredulous look, unable to hide his shock.
My previous smirk quickly turned into a sheepish smile. "Err, convinced might be too strong of a word. As of now, he thinks nobody would be both willing and able to pay the other half. He might be convinced if someone else able to do so showed himself willing to but until then, he thinks it's not worth it and is not interested. The White Fang does threaten his profits after all."
"Ah... yes, that makes a little more sense, I suppose? I can try putting the idea on the table during the meeting later."
"Thank you, general. With that, I will take my leave." I turned around to go back inside, but general Ironwood called out to me.
"Wait. Before you go, would you be interested in joining Atlas Academy?"
I looked back at him, suprised by his offer, though not that he realised I could fight. People trained to fight carried themselves differently than most civilians, I wasn't surprised Ironwood was able to identify someone as being able to fight on sight.
"I'm sorry, sir, but am I not too young to become one of your students?"
He chuckled. "Of course, but what I was offering was for when you would turn 17. What kind of irresponsible headmaster would allow a child into his academy years before they should?"
/-/
Across time and space, the Ozpin of the canon timeline sneezed.
/-/
Oh, right. I'm sorry, but I don't feel like becoming a huntsman is my calling in life. There are other things I wish to accomplish." Plus, everything will go fubar before I hit 17 anyway. Not that I could say that out loud. Then again, keeping an in with Ironwood could prove useful one day, and you never truly know what the future held. There was no point in closing a door you could keep open "But I'll keep your offer in mind if I ever change my mind."
"I would argue that if you have the power to help you should." He said. "But I suppose there is nothing wrong with living your own life. Still, if you ever wish to join the military, my offer will stay open. You show potential, and I'm sure you could do a lot of good as one of my specialists."
It was a shame that Salem would make her move I could make use of that door.
"... Thank you, general. Have a good evening." I ended up saying with a nod, before leaving him on the balcony.
Now all that was left was the meeting, which was going to be a pain to sit through.
/-/
After the kid was gone, Ironwood realized he hadn't gotten his name.
'I must be more tired than I realized.' He thought.
/-/
As I expected, the meeting was long and boring.
It took place in Jacques's dining room, around the longest table I had ever seen. Jacques himself was naturally sitting at the end of the table, with his investors sitting on the sides, not a single chair remained unoccupied. At first, the ones sitting next to me wondered what a kid was doing here, though at least they stopped paying me any mind after I said I'd stay silent and was just here to listen and learn.
Then they talked and argued about how to protect the SDC's profits from the White Fang, and about the SDC in general.
For. Four. Hours.
Screw all this. Kuo Kuana could deal with its own crap, this wasn't worth it. Why was I even subjecting myself to this torture when I could have just stayed home?
... Oh, right. Cinder, White Fang, fall of Beacon and all that.
Still, was this really worth it?
"Before we conclude this meeting, I would like to make a proposition in my capacity as both General of the military and member of the council..."
Why are we here? Just to su- Oh, look! General Ironwood, about time.
He then went on to propose my CCT idea, which I was honestly surprised I managed to take this far.
At hearing him, Jacques' eyes narrowed as he looked at me. I just stayed silent, unable to stop the smuggest of grins from creeping on my face.
The rest of the room, however, had very mixed reactions. Which was still better than I expected, mind you, because I thought only Ironwood and Jacques would even bother entertaining the idea.
Of course, in insight, there were few amongst those who supported the idea that I should have expected to. Namely, Mr Copeland was also the CEO of a construction company, so of course he'd support the idea. If he could get his company contracted for the job, the construction of the CCT in itself would be beneficial for him regardless of the effect on the White Fang, or lack of. I loved how human greed could sometimes make the world become a better place.
On the other hand, we had people like Mr Ward, owner of several weapons factories. He made firearms for the military, or for private security. As one could expect, he had a vested interest in having both the SDC and the military engage in a drawn out armed conflict with the White Fang. He wanted the terrorists to be a threat, so he could have an increase in business and, maybe, sell to the White Fang under the table while he was at it. Thus he opposed the construction of the CCT and would oppose it even if he thought the plan could work. No, especially if it could work. I hated how human greed could sometimes make the world become a worst place.
In the end, however, it wasn't enough and the project only received 47.22% of the votes.
Even though the people voting in favor of funded the construction of the CCT owned on average a bigger percentage of shares than the ones voting against and the value of a vote was proportional to how much of the company the voter owned, there was just too many of them that were unconvinced by the idea.
Of course, Jacques never owned any less than 51% of the SDC, lest he find himself in danger of being replaced as CEO by the shareholders. This meant he could easily take any decision concerning the SDC on his own, but doing so would alienate his shareholders, who would have less trust in the company and this would affect both the value of the SDC as they got rid of their shares and went elsewhere with their investment money.
So to soothe them over, Jacques usually either didn't vote or only voted using 5% of the company's share, leaving the 46% remaining unused. And yes, he did vote in favor of the project.
Ah, well. It would have been nice if my plan worked, but it was always a longshot anyway.
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The flying city of Atlas, for all of its futuristic look, wasn't really much different from... well, any other cities, really. People got up from bed, worked, ate, slept and lived like anywhere else in the world. And like in any sufficiently large city, not everyone followed the same schedule of working during the day, sleeping at night. Some people did the opposite, leading to bars being visited between work and home even during the dead of the night.
Faunus, in particular, usually had a easier time than humans when it came to adopt a nocturnal lifestyle. Being able to see in the dark more easily kind of had something to do with that. Thus, in a Faunus neighborhood, it was common to see bars full all around the clock. This had the unfortunate consequence of giving Faunus an undeserved reputation for alcohool, even though they drinked as much as humans on average.
...Or, well, a little less than humans. A certain drunkle kind of brought the average up all on his own.
Ahem, anyway. All this to say that this one particular bar was far from empty when some redhead human kid opened the door and made an ass of himself.
"WHY HELLO THERE. IS ANYONE HERE PART OF THE WHITE FANG?" Said kid obnoxiously yelled.
This earned him a glare from all of the establishment's occupants.
The barman, a middle-aged Faunus with graying hair and a deer tail, glared at the boy too. "I don't know what's your damned problem, brat, but if you came here to insinuate my clients are terrorists, you better fuck right off." He said in a displeased growl.
"PERFECTLY UNDERSTANDABLE, GOOD SIR. HAVE A GOOD NIGHT." The boy then turn around and exited the bar, having barely set foot in it in the first place.
Of course, the child knew that most Faunus weren't terrorists and that there was a good chance he had just bothered the bar's customers for nothing. But if you thought about the statistics, even if only 1% of faunus joined the White Fang, by going through populated area full of Faunus he was bound to eventually find a member of the terrorist organisation, right?
Sure, maybe it was a flawed plan, maybe it wasn't even a smart plan, but most improvised plans weren't that great to begin with. Either way, he came to Atlas to ruin the White Fang's day and he was going to ruin the White Fang's day even if it wasn't anywhere as much as he had initially hoped for.
This was the fourth Faunus bar in downtown Atlas he visited, and where the first three hadn't been fruitful, this one had three Faunus leave their unfinished beers on the table and follow the kid outside.
The barman's eyes widened when he saw this, wondering if what he thought was happening was indeed happening. Asking himself if he should call the police, he ultimately decided otherwise. After all, he still had clients to serve.
That and, well... The kid literally asked for this. That meant it wasn't his fault if something happened to him, right?
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"PLEASE, STOP! I'LL DO WHATEVER YOU WANT! JUST PLEASE STOP HITTING ME!" The walrus faunus thug pleaded in tears, his two comrades, unconscious and sprawled in the back alley where they tried to ambush me.
"Wait, already? But it's only been like, two minutes. We're not even at the part where I rip off one of your tusks and see if it fit in your ass." He paled at my words. I was surprised I had managed to break him already, I didn't exactly consider myself an expert on tor- I meant, forceful interrogation. All I did was punch him in the face for a bit.
Sure, he now had a pretty painful looking black eye, but you'd think a grown man would have more tolerance than that. Then again, I guessed it was normal for a street thug to not be like an hardened soldier, so I wasn't sure what I was expecting.
The walrus guy whimpered in fear.
"Okay, sure. I'll stop hitting you if you tell me where I can find the nearest White Fang base." I said, and his unswollen eye widened.
"White Fang? W-why would I know anything about them?"
I looked at the broken masks on the ground, the ones these three losers put on before trying to shank me in this dark alley. He followed my gaze and gulped.
"Look, you can either bring me to the closest hideout, or I can castrate you. It's becoming obvious that your species is better off with you not reproducing anyway."
"Fine, fine, I'll do it! P-please, mercy!" An horrid smell suddenly came from his pants, one I'd so far only smelt in a bathroom...
Did he just shit his pants? Yeah, he sure wasn't the best recruit the White fang could find.
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On Remnant, the lack of space available for human use meant that they had to limit the number of large building as much as possible in favor of apartment complexes. As such, many kingdoms have done their best to encourage homeschooling to reduce the number of schools required. This worked well enough, but Atlas, wanting itself to be the foremost kingdom when it came to innovations, desired to take it a step further and decided to introduce online schooling.
While the pratice had some criticism, notably from people who doubted the quality of the education it would offer, the fact remained that the primary objective of the measure was reached and a few school's buildings were not required anymore and were going to be replace by apartments to house the rising population. One such disused school was slotted for demolition in two month, serving as a White Fang's temporary hideout until then, as the building was basically abandoned in the meantime. This was where they brought the dust and weapons they managed to steal in Atlas, which was going to be distributed to other White Fang cells in Mistral, Vale, or Menagerie.
Not in Vacuo, though. The organisation wasn't very active over there. Nothing was really active in Vacuo, in great part because nobody cared about it. ''Even the Grimm hated the place and stayed away from it'', it was said.
Of course, the White Fang had to stay inside of the building to avoid being seen, so any patrolling had to take place inside. This meant I was free to approach the building at my leisure, as long as I was careful to not stand in front of the windows when one of them was looking outside.
So I sneaked next to the school gym, the room spacious enough to be where they probably hid their supplies. Since that school's gym had the windows close enough to the ground, I carefully peeked through one and, indeed, there were various crates haphazardly stored inside, taking around half of the gym. Perfect, I didn't know if that was all they had or if there were some more hidden elsewhere in the school, but this will do all the same. I saw movement in the darkness of the room, too, and managed to identify two people wearing the White Fang's uniform.
What? Human eyes could also adapt to the dark, it just took us like 10 minutes where Faunus could do so in 30 seconds. It was also not quite as good as the Faunus', but at least the Faunus's night vision was not on the level of night googles either. Or the Grimm. And even if they still had the edge in the dark when compared to humans, I'd grown used to fighting in darkness thanks to my usual training hours.
So if I was able to sneak around the Grimm in Patch, I should be able to sneak around the White Fang, even if I'd have to be more careful because the latter was more intelligent than the former. Not that it was a high bar to pass.
I waited for these two to exit the door before taking a window breaker, a hand tool specifically designed to break glass without needing much strength, and applying it to the bottom of the window. It punched a hole into it, with the rest of the window breaking into tiny shards yet still holding together. I then used my hand to enlarge the hole enough so that I could worm my way in. With how damaged the window was, it came apart easily.
Once inside, uncut by the broken glass thanks to my aura, I silently lifted the top of a crate to confirm it contained dust and then placed explosives in some of them. Regardless of how this night was going to go, the White Fang were going to lose their stolen dust.
"Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win."
This, was the art of war.
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"So we're leaving?" Blake Belladonna asked.
Adam nodded. He was standing above a map of the city, laid on one of the cafeteria's table, with his radio placed next to it.
"Yes, Fennec and Corsac have already secured cargo bullheads. They're keeping them hidden for now, but it won't be long before people start getting suspicious. We start loading the trucks tonight and head tomorrow."
They'd done several heist in the past three weeks, seizing a good amount of dust for the White Fang, but the police - and worse, the military - was hot on their tail. It was only a matter of time before they were caught. They'd done good work, but now they needed to get out of here, else all of their efforts would go to waste. They needed this dust if they wanted to maintain their firepower long enough for their operations in Mistral to pick up steam.
It was kind of a risky plan, to steal large amount of ammunitions in Atlas for the other cells to use. Sienna had wanted to take it slow and safe with several smaller raids in Mistral instead, but the Albain brothers convinced her to give the okay for this operation. They'd bet on being able to pull it off due to Atlas' forces being unused to dealing with terrorists, as they'd usually fight Grimms above anything else. Something the two Albains had argued would change in the coming months, so they should 'make use of the opportunity while they could'.
Adam suddenly gasped in pain and held his head, suffering from a splitting headache.
"Adam!?"
He raised his hand in response to her worries. "I'm fine, it's just a headache."
He hadn't slept much these past few days, too worried about being so deep in ennemy territory.
"You should rest."
Adam nodded in agreement. "And I will, as soon as we're out of here."
"That's not what I meant. You need to sleep now, Adam." Blake insisted.
"But if Atlas finds us..."
"If they find us it'd only take a second to wake you up." She continued. "You're the strongest amongst us, we'll need you at your best if something like that happen. At least more than we need you with loading the dust we stole."
It looked like Adam was considering her words, but before he answered her, the radio turned on and one of his men's voice came from it.
"Captain Taurus," he said with obvious panic, "we found two of our brothers cuffed up."
Blake's eyed widened and Adam quickly grasped the device.
"Where did you find them? Do you know how many men Atlas sent?" He asked in a tense tone. That Atlas found them was the worse case scenario.
"Uh... Well, we found them in the lockers of the gym... But, err, I don't think it's Atlas." The White Fang grunt said, confusing Adam and Blake.
"What do you mean, it's not Atlas?"
"Well... the guys said it was a kid?"
"A kid?" Blake repeated, dumbfounded. What the hell was a kid doing attacking terrorists?
Adam was just as confused, he expected specialists. Or, you know, at least grown adults.
But just because the one attacking them was a child didn't mean there weren't under attack. That was still a problem they needed to solve.
"How young of a child are we talking about?" Adam asked.
This time, it was another grunt, one of the two who had been defeated, who answered. "A young teenager, a year or two younger than Lieutenant Belladonna, I think."
'Child, my ass.' Adam thought. Blake might only be 15, but if she was the second strongest fighter here, a teenager who choose to engage an armed group, even if a little younger than her, shouldn't be thought of as a child.
Now addressing all of his men, who no doubt heard the exchange with their own walkie-talkie, Adam once more talked into the radio. "I want everyone to start the search for our attacker. Capture him alive unless he start killing, I don't want this to turn bloody if it can be avoided."
He might have killed once, but that was against an adult trying to murder Ghira and he hadn't killed on purpose. He panicked and put more strength in his attack than he should have. Either way, while he knew that killing was going to be inevitable on the path they'd chosen, he wasn't particularly comfortable to kill someone that young.
He turned to his partner. "Blake, I want you to take a third of our men and lead the search in the east half of the school. I'll search in the west." The west was were the gym was, and thus were the two grunts were found, making it where their oppenent was more likely to be found.
"You're not trying to keep me out of the action, are you?" Blake frowned.
"Of course not." Adam chuckled. He would never do that, Blake and him were in this together, and he knew he could always trust her to have his back, just like she could trust him to have her's. "If he's more directly confrontational, then we'll find him attacking us in the west part, but if he end up in the east part, then that might be because he priorises stealth and avoiding being found. You know stealth better than I do, Blake, I'm just playing to our respective strength."
"... Alright then. Can I take Ilia with me?"
Ilia? Ah, yes, a recent recruit that had shown a natural talent for discretion. Adam supposed she would be more useful alongside Blake than him. "Sure, why not?"
And the chase started.
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Having found another grunt isolated from the rest, I profited of the occasion to jump him and cuffed him like the last two. Immobilizing them without knocking them out wasn't the easiest thing to do, it would have been easier to just fight them until they were unconscious. But doing that would mean that when I detonated the charges I put in place, those of them who had yet to wake up wouldn't have their aura to protect themselves.
As my favorite anime character put it: "The only ones who should kill, are those who are prepared to be killed." And I wasn't prepared to be killed, I was prepared to live for as long as possible, thank you very much. I liked being alive. It was kinda stressful, but that was still better than being dead.
Sure, wrestling adults to cuff them so they weren't able to fight was pretty difficult to do, but as long as I avoided groups and only attacked grunts who were alone or in duo, I could deal with them. If worse came to worse, I only needed to use the detonator and use the chaos of the explosion to escape.
Until then, I was going to have my fun. Like with that guy I just captured.
"Hey," I put my foot on his chest and tried to think of something out of context to confuse him, "where's Waldo?"
Yes, that was the best I could come up with on the spot. Sue me.
"...Who?" It was a shame the mask stopped me from seeing the confusion on his face.
"No, no, not 'who's Waldo', I'm asking you 'where's Waldo?'"
"...I don't know?"
"Good. Thank you for your time." I gave him a bright smile and nodded, before leaving the confused terrorist behind.
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Another two.
"No, seriously, what's wrong with you guys? You're all pathetically weak."
"Excuse me?" Their indignation held no weight, considering they were two adults who just got their butt handed to them by a kid.
"Look, I'm just saying, you guys are supposed to be terrorists and that occupation comes with preeeetty dangerous missions. You'd think the White Fang would at least train you lot a bit before deploying you, but you're all barely above untrained civilians with guns. As things are, I feel less like I'm dealing with terrorists and more with the grunts of a pokemon evil team-"
"The fuck's a pokemon?" I ignored him.
"-and those guys get their entire organization destroyed by a 10 years old kid who stepped out of their tiny backwater village for the first time in their life last weekend-"
Now that I thought about it, the White Fang was even organized exactly like one. With the useless grunts who were nothing more than cannon fodder that gets their ass kicked by underage youngsters and only a handful of officers at the top able to put up an actual fight.
"No, seriously. What the fuck are you talking about?"
"-How does it feel to be as useless as the cannon fodder of a children game's antagonist? HOW DOES IT FEELS?"
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"-So all this to say that you should really reconsider your life choices."
"... No thanks, I'm good." The grunt's wolf ears twiched in displeasure, as if he didn't like me. I didn't understand why, all I did was attack him. No big deal.
"Are you sure? Think about how your parents would feel if something happened to you."
"I'm an orphan."
"Oh... friends?"
"They were killed last year."
"Oh... What happened?"
"Grimm."
"Ah... Girlfriend?"
"I'm single."
"Really, at your age? That's kind of sad."
"... Screw you."
"Sorry, I don't swing that way. You'll have to find somebody else."
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"... Alright, I'll bite. What kind of faunus are you?"
"I don't know?"
"What do you mean, you 'don't know'?"
"Well... I have spurs on the back of my ankles, but I have no idea what animal it's from."
He indeed had small, bone-like spikes coming out of his legs... Wait a minute, those things were somewhat familiar.
"Oh my God, you're a platypus faunus!? That's so cool!"
"... A what faunus?"
Oh, right. Due to the Grimms limiting where people could go, several species that were know to Earthlings had never been heard of on Remnant. Thankfully for this guy, I was there to enlighten him.
Well, 'thankfully' was relative, I did just kick his butt, but that was that and this was this.
"It's a small mammal with the bill of a duck, the tail of a beaver and the feet of an otter."
"... Wha- Are you pulling my leg?"
"It's also one of the very rare mammals to lay eggs, though they still lactate and feed milk to their youngs. But they don't have mammaries, instead they just kind of sweat the milk through their skin."
"... I'm pretty sure you are."
"They're also the only mammal to have venom, though only the males are venomous."
"... Okay, I'll admit those spurs do have venom, yeah, but it still sounds like a fake animal."
"It's not fake. They're related to echidnas."
"... Yep, you're making this shit up. It's just wild claim after wild claim."
"It's. Not. Fictionnal."
"... Right. Anything else crazy about it?"
"Well, it has a sixth sense to detect electric fields. That's how it finds its preys."
"Sure it does, because why not. Are unicorns real, too?"
"I'm telling you, the platypus is a real animal." And yes, unicorns were real. They weren't horses with a horn, though. The real unicorns were the rhinoceros.
I wasn't kidding, it's just that medieval drawings based on the descriptions of medieval explorers weren't exactly the most accurate representations of animals.
"There's no way something that stupid can exist!"
"Platypuses aren't stupid! They're cute, funny and weird. They're awesome!"
"Uh uh, sure they are."
"Did I mention they're also biofluorescents?"
"Ugh..."
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"You know, faunus are kind of a disappointment."
"WHAT?" The grunt yelled, unable to either see or hear me properly, just like the other three faunus sprawled on the floor.
Yeah, flashbangs will do that to you. Now that I thought about it, maybe using one on faunus in the dark was a little cruel... I'd feel guilty if these guys weren't terrorists.
"I mean, you either get like a tail or a pair of cat ears but not both. That's like the lamest kemonomimi ever. I get that Rooster Teeth only created the faunus to justify giving Blake a pair of cat ears because they thought it looked cute, but the least they could have done was add a cat tail to make her a proper cat girl. Now the only other thing she's got going for her is what, her ass? Sure, it's a great one, but it isn't really enough on its own to make up for the terrible personality."
"WHAT?"
"Oh, sorry, I guess I shouldn't ramble about meta knowledge with a background character. Don't worry, the more you learn about this stuff the less sense it'll make to you. And hey, since you don't matter that means Rooster Teeth isn't going to ruin your writing, it's all about silver linings."
"SORRY, I CAN'T HEAR YOU! IS THE HUMAN GONE?"
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Four grunts ran downstair, not noticing me as I hid below the school's stair. Once they were gone I profited of the occasion to silently go up to the second floor.
Things were getting pretty bad. All of the school's exit were guarded and the White Fang was conducting a much more organized search than in the beginning. I was going to be in trouble if I got surrounded inside, so I needed to make it onto the roof if I wanted to escape.
I heard another group running before we saw each others, so I slipped into a classroom to let them run past me without being spotted. I walked out once the sound of their steps grew faint and resumed my escape.
When I found the stairs leading to the roof, however, I let out a cry of pain as my aura blocked a shot coming from my left.
Looking at the direction of the attack, I saw the walls of the hall move... No, not the walls, there was someone here. Someone I couldn't see clearly in the darkness because both their White Fang uniform and their skin were of the same white as the walls.
"Adam, Blake, I found the intruder. He's at the stairs leading to the roof."
Wait, Adam was here!? Oh fuck, I was actually in danger.
"Good, we're not far away. Hold him there." A man's voice came out of her radio.
Please, don't actually hold me here. I don't think that was very good for my health.
My attacker's skin changed color, turning into a normal human skin color which I assumed was her normal color.
Skin changing color? And with that ponytail...She wore a normal White Fang uniform and mask, and only had the basic rifle and sword of the organization, but that was...
"I'll offer you this one chance to surrender. Take it and we might be inclined to be lenient toward you." Ilia said.
I feigned to consider it before answering. "Very well. Since you're offering so graciously, I shall accept your surrender."
"...Wha- wait, no. I'm telling you to surrender."
"But why would I surrender when I already won?" I asked with an air of false confusion.
"Already won? What kind of objective do you have to consider being cornered 'winning'? Why are you even attacking us?"
"Eh, I dunno, for fun? I don't particularly have something to gain from this." Well, ruining their operations at the beginning of their rise might have them slightly weakened in the future, when they'll end up being Salem's pawn, but that wasn't really something I could just come out and say. Plus, any difference I might do there would be pretty minimal, so I was really more bullying these guys to compensate from my plan at the Schnee manor failing. It's not like I had any reason to hold back from going after the White Fang, right? Or so I though, before learning Adam freaking Taurus was here. Then again, it was the middle of Atlas so of course the guy in charge would be a strong one. In insight, it was really stupid of me to plan as if everyone here would be on the level of the basic White Fang grunt. Oh well, what didn't kill you only made you stronger, lesson learned. "I guess I'm doing this because I just don't like terrorists."
"We're not terrorists, we're freedom fighters."
"Terrorist, revolutionnary, freedom fighter. You can call yourself whatever you want, it doesn't matter. Groups like yours always end up turning against the very people you claim to fight for." Case in point: the White Fang tried to assassinate their own people's chieftain in volume 5. And even without that, I was pretty certain the fall of Beacon caused a ton of faunus to die too.
The french revolution was also a good exemple of this. First rebelling against the monarchy for the sake of the commoners' rights, it ended as a reign of terror that executed everyone who didn't openly support them, many of which were either commoners or fellow revolutionnaries. In Earth's 5 millenia of written history, the only revolution I could think of who didn't immediately end up being a tyranny worse than the previous regime was the american revolution.
So even if the White Fang were to defeat and take over the four kingdoms (not that it could ever happen), I was pretty sure they'd just make everything worse. At best they'd treat humans more cruelly than the humans ever treated Faunus. At worse they'd tyrannise both. Either way, it'd be short-lived thanks to the Grimm.
"That's just ridiculous! You can't honestly think the White Fang would hurt faunus." Ilia's skin turned red with her anger.
"They already did."
"Oh really? I doubt you have anything to back your baseless claim."
"I do, actually. It's just a matter of numbers."
She let out an angry, frustated sigh. "This is going to be a waste of time, but fine. What the hell are you on about?"
I was a little surprised that she was willing to let me talk, but then again, she had just been instructed to keep me here. Letting me run my mouth off actually served her well right now.
"The dust incidents that happened in some of the SDC mining camps lately, that's what I'm on about. I have reasons to suspect the White Fang might have had a hand in causing them."
"... If you were going to lie, you should have at least gone with something halfway believable." Ilia said with clenched teeth.
"Pfff. I have no time to waste on lies. It is truth that before, a SDC camp exploding because of a work incident only happened once every three years, on average. It is truth that this year, there has already been four of those explosions. That's an increase of 1 200%. It is truth that these sort of increase don't just happen for no reason." That's right, I actually researched this crap.
It wasn't like those explosion happened because Jacques didn't pay for proper security measures. He didn't care about his employees, but he did care about his profit and paying for the proper equipment costed less than the dust he'd lose if he didn't.
Accidents still happened from time to time because of human(and Faunus) errors, but that was always going to be the case.
And I didn't understand what was wrong with people on Remnant for acting like being a miner was a bad thing and being one was being oppressed. Sure that was a high risk job, but it also paid really well. Their average annual salary was around 5 200 000 Lien, which was enough income for a household to be part of the 1% richest families (to not confuse with the 1% of the 1%)... with one parent working, let alone two. There was a reason why Ilia's parents were able to pay her a spot into one of Atlas' fancy private school.
No, the SDC didn't underpay its employees either. While Jacques could afford the lawyers to extend the cases until the prosecution gave up, that could only do so much before it started costing him more than he'd save by underpaying. There were too many old money in the four kingdom's just waiting for such an excuse to give the SDC death by a thousand cuts. Plus, happy employees tended to be more productive.
"And you think that 'reason' is the White Fang? Are you insane? We exist to defend Faunus, we have nothing to gain from hurting our people." She raised her voice, getting more and more pissed.
"It is precisely because the White Fang exist to protect faunus that the organization depends on the suffering of the faunus to prosper."
"That doesn't even makes any sense!"
"Oh? Then you deny that some faunus joined the White Fang specifically because they've lost someone in one of those camp explosion?" I knew for a fact that she did, so even if she claimed otherwise, she knew the truth.
But instead of lying, Ilia roared in anger and raised her gun.
"NINJA VANISH!" I threw a smokebomb between Ilia and I before she could shoot me. She coughed as I bolted upstairs, a few bullets whistling behind me, barely missing me.
She chased me in the stairs and didn't look pleased by that little stunt.
She looked even less happy when I threw a flashbang behind me and covered my ears with my eyes closed. I heard her cry out in pain and fall down the stairs.
"Ilia! Are you alright?" A girl's voice came from further down the hall.
Uh oh, reinforcement were here. I continued running to the roof.
Unfortunately, getting to the roof turned out to be putting my head into the lion's mouth. As soon as I stepped into the roof, a black horned Faunus came at me with his red sword and I narrowly dodged his blade before moving away from the door leading to the stairs.
Facing Adam was bad enough without being caught in a pincer attack.
I parried and dodged a few more cuts from his sword, my muscles straining to follow his pace, before another ennemy group joined us on the roof, Blake leading them. That was bad, while I was holding my own against Adam better than I expected, I was still on the losing side of that fight without him receiving back up.
I swung my sword at his head, the first actual attack I had room to try, but he easily blocked it with his own, though he did flinch at the sound of the clashing blades. Strange, but it wasn't something I had the time to stop and think about so I just ran away in the direction of the school gym's rooftop.
"Don't let him escape, surround him." Adam barked his orders with a hand on his head.
They spread out as they chased after me. Looking behind me, I noticed Ilia wasn't with them, probably still recovering from my flashbang, but Blake was gaining ground on me. She was fast, not as fast as Ruby, but still fast enough that I couldn't outrun her.
But rather than grab me, she jumped above to land in front of me and slashed at me with Gambol Shroud. I blocked with my sword, but Adam and the rest managed to surround me. No matter, I managed to get to the roof of the gym, or at least approximatively so.
"It really is a child..." Adam said in disbelief under his breath, barely audible, as the grunt pointed their guns at me. "Why are you attacking us? Has Atlas started using child soldiers?"
I bet you wished they did. Although in that case, Atlas'd be the ones I'd try to undermine. No, the four academies didn't count, the age of majority on Remnant was 17. I guessed Ruby would be one, but that was on Ozpin, not Atlas.
Yeah, like I was going to tell you the real reason. Nah, I'll just give you the first excuse that came to mind. "Self-defense." I said.
I really needed to prepare responses in advance, those I came up with on the spot always sucked.
"...Self-defense?" Adam repeated.
Blake was just as incredulous as he was. "You're the one who attacked us first. How is that self-defense?"
"... Preemptive self-defense?"
"'Preemptive self-defense' isn't a thing, that's just assault!" She said.
"Is it? Oh well, see ya in court after you report this assault to the police then." Not that she could do that, being a terrorist and all.
She knew it, too, and looked annoyed by my attitude,
"Enough!" Adam barked. "Even if you don't want to talk, you've lost either way."
I smirked. "Lost? Ah, Hardly. Every pieces on the board is exactly where I wanted them to be and with this, I call checkmate."
"Checkmate? I could beat you on my own, how can being surrounded by us be how you wanted the 'pieces' to be placed?" Adam said as all of the members of the White Fang presents either scoffed or were confused.
"BECAUSE KILLER QUEEN HAS ALREADY TOUCHED YOUR DUST!" I screamed before pressing my detonator.
The dust below us exploded and the roof we were standing on erupted upward in a storm of fire, wind, electricity... and I think some ice? We were all projected in different direction, with both the blast and the landing being more than a little painful and several dropping their weapons. Not me, though, but only because I knew what was going to happen so I held on tight.
I really needed to find other ways to find fights than blowing myself up. Either way, I took advantage of the White Fang still groaning in pain on the ground to run away. I also looted Gambol Shroud while on my way. It was just laying there, on the ground, begging to be taken. I didn't know what to do with it, but it could always be a nice decoration.
As I ran away from the heavily damaged and still burning building, I heard sirens moving toward the place of the confrontation. Hey, at least demolishing the old school won't take as much taxpayers' Lien, what with part of the job already being done. If the White Fang members gets arrested, well I was sure the organization wouldn't let Adam and Blake stay in prison and be executed. They were too important to the White Fang for that, what with one being their best fighter and the other being Ghira's daughter.
I didn't have time to think much more about it, though, as I turned the corner of the street.
And gulped as I came face to face with angry pink eyes.
"... Oh, hi sis... You don't look very happy."
Will Gemini get spanked for his little stunt in Atlas? Will the White Fang ever recover from his random bullshit? Will Weiss even remember meeting Gemini? Finds out next week on Dragon Ball Z-
Wait, no, wrong show. And it's in two week, not one.
Fun fact: First draft of this chapter had the SDC's shareholders vote in favor of building the CCT, but it stretched my suspension of disbelief way too much so I changed it. The change also had the benefit of giving Gemini motivation for going after the White Fang directly in the second part of the chapter. So I like how it turned out much better.
Next chapter, Payday, will be out December 12th.
Please, let me know what you think of the chapter, and the fic in general. I welcome both criticism and positive reviews.