Ch. 40 Snow white shackles
"Ugh, I can't believe she did that!"
Ruby plopped herself down on the bed. It had taken them the better part of their morning to go through all the necessities their dubious success brought up. Paperwork, interrogations, statements, all that on top of acting as guards for the captured Adam Taurus. They were only relieved of their duty an hour ago and it was close to four in the afternoon.
And after all that Winter Schnee had the audacity to tear into Jaune for letting Torchwick and his partner escape. Despite the fact that it took heavy support from Ruby for Winter to capture the terrorist they were there to capture, she for some reason believed that Jaune was supposed to capture TWO criminals on his own!
"Just let it go, Ruby."
Ruby had first hand experience in letting Torchwick get away and knew exactly how slippery he was, since she couldn't capture him even with the support from professor Goodwitch.
"No, it's not just about her being ignorant of what he's capable of, or the fact that she expected you to win a two on one against known tricksters! She has no right to berate you like that."
"She is our supervisor for this mission."
"Right and that means that RNJR is supposed to be shadowing her. If she has anything to say to us, she's supposed to tell me and let me deal with it how I see fit as team leader. She's an insufferable bossy ice queen and has been from day one."
"This really struck a nerve with you huh."
"Of course it did! I fought Torchwick, she didn't. She needed my support to capture Taurus! You had none against the two of them. She has no right to talk with you like that after you did exactly what you should have done and that was to prevent Torchwick from interfering."
"Alright, if it helps at all, I'm glad my team leader, the person whose opinion actually matters, thinks I did good."
"Yeah, you did good. Now come to bed, I want you to hold me while I sleep for the next dozen or so hours."
"We do deserve some sleep after all that."
=O=O=O=
"Hey, good job last night…"
"You! How did you even get up here!?"
"I have my ways."
Unlike Winter, Qrow was in a great mood and well rested. Winter of course, being the overachiever she was, hasn't slept yet and wasn't entirely sure that Qrow sitting in the open window of her hotel room wasn't some kind of a nightmare.
"Anyway, I heard Zwei made some arrests?"
"I didn't even know the dog went with us before the VPD reported that the White Fang members were tied up next to the corgi guarding them. During the following interrogations the ones that were conscious after miss Valkyrie incapacitated them also said that the dog was the one who tied them up."
"Good for him, it will look nice on his record."
"Why are you here Qrow, I'm admittedly very tired and still have a bunch of transcriptions to go through."
"Good news actually. Your mission is over for now."
"WHAT!?"
"Simply put, I got my hands on Torchwick after Arc drove him away from your fight with Taurus. We have some new developments, need to know basis, you know how it is. I expect Oz or the General to contact you with official instructions soon-ish."
"So he's captured then."
"Not that simple unfortunately. No, he's not. Again, need to know basis. If it's any consolation, Oz wants to bring you in on what's happening somewhat soon. Just not yet."
Winter sighed. The fact that she didn't technically finish the mission was a bit upsetting, but at least they managed to capture the adjacent terrorist.
"If you want my advice? Give the kids a few days of free time, finish the paperwork for the VPD tomorrow and write up the mission commentary for Beacon in the next few days. Take it from someone who's been doing this for longer than you, you did good."
Winter planted her face square in the middle of the pile of papers in front of her, producing an incomprehensible grumble.
"What was that?"
"Get out of my room before I launch you with a glyph. I'm going to sleep."
Qrow gave her a hearty laugh before exiting from the window via freefall.
=O=O=O=
"Mister Taurus. I can't say I relish in the circumstances of our meeting, but I hope you understand why you're locked up like this."
Ozpin sat on a foldable chair facing a thick window of bullet proof dust reinforced plexiglass composite. On the other side of the admittedly small window sat the recently captured leader of Vale's White Fang cell, Adam Taurus.
"You're right to be afraid."
Adam sat on a bench that served as his bed, wrists shackled together behind his back after he nearly broke his hand beating against the plexiglass. His ankles shackled together and to the far wall for much the same reason. The restraints were far from comfortable, but they did prevent him from reaching the window with his arms and legs. He could still theoretically beat his horned head against it, but refrained from doing so under the threat of a collar chaining him to the wall like an animal. The white polymer the shackles were made of was specifically designed to hold aura users and even with his above average strength, afforded him by his bull faunus blood, he doubted he could break them with his neck. Plus there was the indignity of being chained by the neck like cattle.
"Perhaps… Now I was hoping you'd be willing to shed some light on some, shall we say, confusing aspects of all this. Namely, why are you working with Roman Torchwick? He isn't exactly known to be a pro-faunus activist, quite the opposite actually."
"Just a means to an end. He is a necessary evil. He too will pay eventually, and I'll be the one to extract the payment by the edge of my blade."
"Hmmm, and what is the end you're working towards?"
"Retribution! For all you humans did to us!"
Adam growled at Ozpin, who deep in his mind revisited the lives he spent with a faunus host. Admittedly it only accounted for little under a quarter of his reincarnations as the most like minded individuals were more often than not human.
"Indeed? Perhaps let me ask about something else. Do you remember the two Pharos students? The two faunus boys that stood up to you?"
"What about them?"
"Do you not feel… remorse for their untimely death?"
"They were traitors to the cause. They should have either joined us or stood aside. Their own actions had them at the mercy of my blade."
The callous disregard for the life of even faunus children made Ozpin pause. Perhaps Adam didn't think them children. After all he was involved in the white fang since early youth. Perhaps he saw them no different from himself.
"Quite… Now what can you tell me about your… employer shall we say."
Adam said nothing. A flash of fear. Oz could work with that.
"To what end does the White Fang aid her. I sincerely doubt she has the best of intentions for you and the faunus."
"She too is a means to an end. And then I'll cut her down."
"Is that truly how you see it?"
Adam once again fell silent. This was far from the first time Ozpin had interrogated someone in his many lifetimes and experience told him it was time to leave for now.
"Perhaps this is enough for today. I'll be in touch mister Taurus."
=O=O=O=
Qrow sat in a bar. Well it was more of a restaurant, but they served hard liquor and that was enough for him.
It wasn't his place of choice, but today he wanted to be visible. Approachable.
And sure enough a short woman approached and sat next to him at the bar. She ordered a large ice cream parfait before she finally acknowledged him.
She looked very different from when he last saw her, but that was to be expected. She was a wanted criminal, deal with Ozpin or not. The short woman had platinum blond hair tied in a ponytail and wore a business suit. With the amount of office space in the surrounding buildings one could easily come to the conclusion that she was on a lunch break from her nine to five office job.
"So, I assume Roman sent you?"
She shook her head.
"No? That's surprising. So why are you here today?"
She didn't say anything, which was unsurprising really. Qrow just took his time sipping his whisky while the blonde devoured her parfait.
Only once she was done did she turn to him again.
"Neat trick that one. Can I have my scroll back now? I'm sure you figured out it's empty anyway. Just a burner."
While he had a personal scroll, he usually left it with Tai on patch whenever he was working for Oz. Last thing he needed was to lead his enemies back to his nieces.
When Neo slid the scroll back to him it was unlocked and had a new contact saved. The name on it was just the ice cream emoji followed by the knife and money bag emoji.
"Creative…"
The blonde waved him goodbye and left.
It was only when Qrow finished his drink and went to pay that he found out that she didn't pay for her ice cream. And that a single parfait cost more than the rest of his tab combined.
=O=O=O=
"So… we're done?"
"Yes, miss Rose. I received a missive from headmaster Ozpin this morning. All indicates Torchwick ran away from Vale for the time being, likely as a result of our confrontation with him and the arrest of Taurus."
"Then are we going back to Beacon?" asked Ruby hopefully.
"No, not yet. I'm still officially in charge of you and was told to do with you as I see fit for the next three days."
The whole team's expression fell when they heard that.
"Lucky for you, I don't have time to deal with you right now. The VPD has me buried in paperwork following the arrest and transfer of Taurus to Atlas custody."
"So we can do whatever?" asked Nora.
Winter sighed in return. She really didn't want to do the thing Qrow advised her to do, but it was probably for the best.
"Yes, you can do as you wish. Just don't get into trouble, don't trash the rooms and make sure to be here when we leave. Dismissed."
As Winter walked away from the lobby back to her room she could hear the team of students planning out their next course of action.
"Ruby, can I borrow Zwei? We want to visit the orphanage we passed by two days ago."
"Sure, just maybe let the director know in advance that you're coming."
"Way ahead of you. It's not the first time we've done this. Ren always makes sure we have permission after that one time."
As half the team and the dog left Winter could hear the young team leader put on a husky voice and say "And how about we continue where we left off in the morning."
Followed by a "I would love to, Ruby." from her partner.
It was only when both of them laughed that Winter realised that she had been standing in the stairwell, in clear view of the two. It dawned on her that they were probably overplaying it as a joke at her expense. Possibly in retaliation for the way she treated them back on day one.
She shook her head and continued to her room, quietly contemplating whether Ruby got that behaviour from her uncle. Only once she had truly left did Ruby speak to Jaune again.
"Seriously though, can we just cuddle in bed all day? Yesterday took a lot out of me."
Ruby was proud of herself. This time there was no doubt that it was her own decision to lay in bed with Jaune. Not because of circumstance, not because they needed to sleep, just no other reason than that she wanted to. And hopefully so did Jaune.
"How about some food first. I know I'm starving."
Before Ruby could answer her stomach did so for her and let out an audible growl.
"Fine, food first then we laze around all day." pouted Ruby.
=O=O=O=
Author's note:
Sometimes I feel like I flipflop between characterising Ruby as a lovestruck teen and an anxious one. In my experience both can be true at the same time and the anxiety can go away for a time if all is well. I just hope it feels organic to people other than me.
It's kinda funny how my own life lines up with the story, as I've spent the last two weeks on what is essentially an internship for teachers. I'm behind on everything. How fun.
Anyway I hope you enjoyed and are looking forward to the next chapter: Ch. 41 Experimentation