Chapter XXVIII: Behind Bars

It was nearly impossible to follow Cinder's instructions to be 'inconspicuous' when Mercury had to hobble with every step. The sound of wood tapping against stone permeated throughout Vale's nocturne streets, easily noticeable over everything else. That was still ignoring his few close-call stumbles and the other times he hadn't caught himself.

"Would you hurry up?" Emerald called back to him. His eye twitched with ire. There were many choice words he had for her, but he had known Emerald long enough to know it wasn't beneath her to steal one of his legs from him.

The monstrosities beneath him hindered his every movement, and he couldn't wait to have them replaced. Sure, he was fine with having a pirate aesthetic, but ignoring the difference between a small bit of fun and putting up with something for much longer, it was supposed to be one pegleg, not two. In his opinion, it was impressive to walk around like this. Evidently Emerald agreed, but he still didn't appreciate the term 'circus freak.'

"We're going to be late," Emerald rushed, knowing damn well what was taking him so long. "If you don't hurry up, I'll just have to go on ahead myself."

Mercury ground his teeth together. "It's just a meeting with the damn White Fang. They won't care if we're a bit late."

"Adam's a beast ruled by anger," Emerald replied flatly. "It would be a miracle for him to be reasonable a single day in his life. Besides, Cinder told us to meet at this time, so we should be there by then."

"It's Cinder that has that beast cowed," Mercury bit back, looking down to carefully place his legs along the sidewalk. His peg legs had been given a slight edge to them, only enough to keep the sneakers he was given from falling off. At the moment, one was cockeyed and the other was backwards. It was still better than earlier when one shoe had fallen off and the leg had gotten caught in a crack. He was sure the crowd loved seeing a wooden rod torn out of his pant leg as he hopped around to get it back.

Emerald didn't offer a retort of her own, mainly because they had reached their destination. Or, she had and it took a moment for Mercury to catch up. The warehouse for their meeting was large and unassuming, at least in the sense that it was unknown what criminal activities went on inside of it. A large, abandoned building on the poorer side of Vale was suspicious, but the authorities didn't know if it was a place for drugs or a home for squatters. They likely wouldn't have assumed it to be terrorists.

Emerald rapped her knuckles against the large front doors. The metallic sound echoed through the area like small thunder. After a minute of waiting, the door slid just far enough for a single eye to peer through.

"What do you want?" The voice on the other side didn't give them the hospitality they were expecting. Adam should know better than to treat Cinder's people like this, but the voice wasn't Adam's.

As Emerald opened her mouth to respond, Mercury found himself falling. Slightly adjusting his foot to the side, his shoe had tumbled to the side. Concrete, for how rough it was, seemed smooth to wood, and one of Mercury's supports launched out behind him. He caught himself on the metal doors, causing a loud slam that put Emerald's knocking to shame.

The eye peeking from behind the doors visibly flinched, retreating slightly. Gritting his teeth as he tried to right himself, Mercury grunted, "We're here to see Adam." He had to push himself off of the door to right himself, and it was a herculean task not to simply fall back the other way. Luckily, he had just enough experience not to. As subtle as they had been so far, Mercury put the peg leg back in its shoe, though it was now angled inward.

The door slid open, revealing a tanned woman with chestnut hair and freckles dotting her skin. What she wore wasn't the usual attire of the White Fang, sporting a black, sleeveless jacket and black gloves. However, she still had the monstrous, grimm mask they all wore.

While they were almost unnoticeable, Mercury caught signs that she shied away from them as they entered. Good, at least if Adam didn't answer them, the others knew to fall in line. Mercury didn't really care so much about holding their respect or fear as he did not having to put up with a headache. These people were fanatics, and they always made him want to bash his head through a wall when they went on and on.

They looked around the area, seeing nothing big of note. There were a couple of crates of dust currently being loaded onto a truck for transport. Weapons were strewn about along with their owners, White Fang members lounging about. How did they lounge so casually in those uniforms?

"Where's Adam?" Mercury asked, not spotting him in the crowd. He didn't bother turning to face the woman that had greeted them, not desiring to lose his shoe again.

"A-Adam isn't here." The response was hushed. Mercury shuffled around slowly. If one didn't know about his legs, it might have seemed dramatic irritation. He glanced at Emerald, but she rolled her eyes. He took it as her saying that he had done the talking thus far, he could deal with this.

"Why isn't he here?" He ground out, his ire at Emerald seeping through. "Where is he?"

The woman looked toward the ground with an almost reverent look. "Adam is dead."

"Dead?"

She looked up, just short of meeting Mercury's eyes. "Yes, he died a while back. He was giving a long and noble speech — such a length that he neglected to breathe and passed."

"Cinder's going to be pissed." Mercury cursed under his breath.

Luckily, the woman knew some of the interactions between Adam and Cinder's henchmen. "We're still collecting the dust, see. Our members are more rallied and ready than ever before. We won't let Adam's death be in vain; nothing will get in our way."

"And who are you anyway," Emerald finally decided to join in.

"Ilia," the woman responded. "I've been keeping things together in this area since Adam's passing."

The visibility across the hall wasn't great. Trying to peer in the cell directly across wasn't a challenge, but trying to look even one to the left or the right wasn't so easy. Standing in the corner and pressing one's head against the bars just barely made it possible. At the moment, two of Whitley's men were doing just that. They had deep, contemplative looks, as if they were deciphering the greatest puzzle they had ever encountered. In a sense, they were. Neo's exaggerated movements weren't easy to follow, especially when she got excited and moved faster and faster.

"Slow down!" The man directly across from her begged. "I can't keep up. We've only gotten to where you devastated the town's plumbin' system and decimated their public transport! Tha' took us hours, so hold up jus' a moment!"

Neo dropped her hands to her sides and rolled her eyes, as if to say no one understood her. "Jus' a moment now," the woman in the cell to the left spoke up. "That 'ad to do somethin' with gum, didn't it?"

Crossing her arms into a large 'X,' Neo shook her head. She repeated the motion she had moments before. Flapping her hands over her ears, she made an exaggerated shape with her cheeks and lips. The three across from her grumbled and discussed aloud their theories. Seriously, how was it so hard to guess 'fish?' Repeating the motions several times only had them inching closer to the truth, but at an extremely slow rate.

Weiss, in simple terms, was done with Winter's presence. There wasn't a damn day that passed anymore without her sister breathing down her neck. It was completely, and utterly ridiculous, and she refused to allow it to go on any longer. A plan was already in the works, but Weiss would allow no room for error. Any slip up would simply place her in an even worse situation than she was already in. She can only imagine how Winter's tactics might change if she knew Weiss was avoiding her. That being said, any sane person would have already come to such a conclusion. Yet, Winter seemed ready to dismiss Weiss' multitude of diversions.

With all that being said, planning took a great deal of effort. Perhaps Yang's version might not, but Weiss had greater standards. That meant she required a break from time to time. Their room was getting stuffy at the moment, but luckily Weiss had found another place Winter would not follow her. While she could only assume it was due to Whitley's presence, Winter would not enter the brig.

Traveling from her room to the brig felt like forever, especially with Winter not ten feet behind her. She passed the time by paying attention to anything except for her stalker. The stark, smooth walls had slowly grown onto Weiss, though she wasn't sure when it had happened. On one hand, they faintly reminded her of the halls in the house she grew up in, which did not bring forth good memories. On the other hand, they didn't feel so empty. Marines moved about, whether it was room to room, loitering, chatting, or even cleaning the halls. It made it all feel more mechanical — as if the bleakness to the halls alluded to a structure rather than a barren enclosure.

It was at the final set of stairs that she felt Winter pause. There was no doubt in Weiss' mind that she would find her waiting at the top for when Weiss returned. That was not what occupied her mind. She hesitated to move forward; there wasn't so much a question of what she should do, but if she was ready. She passed by the pirates she didn't know, making well sure to ignore the two that were supposed to be warlords that had turned their backs on them. Eventually, she stopped just before Blake's cell. What she did not expect was to find the normally quiet girl already in a conversation with the man across from her.

"I'll admit; was probably not a good idea to give 'im that much sugar, but then he acted like it was the first time in 'is life that he had any! Next thing we know, we're havin' to haul ass back to our ship with a baker, a barber, an' a local farmer chasin' us. See, the cap'n flips 'em off, right? The baker throws an egg at 'is face! Ever since then, Cap'n has been tryin' to find a way to make a chicken out of a marine."

"That still seems a bit random," Blake replied. "Then again, we're not that much better off. The idea's been in our captain's head for some time even if he didn't show it, so I can't really use that as a comparison. However, our helmsman, Neo, joined without a second thought when Jaune told her his dream."

"Is that so?"

Weiss couldn't see Blake's expression, but her voice grew softer. "Yeah, he wants to become king of the pirates. I'm not sure any of us really believed him at first. Cardin maybe thought there was a chance, I can't ever understand Neo, but maybe Ren did. Yet, we always get thrown into these wild situations and somehow get through them. Maybe he will be able to make it there."

Not wanting to eavesdrop any longer, Weiss cleared her throat and walked into Blake's view. She by no means fooled the prisoner in the cell to the side of the man Blake was talking to, whom she had been standing next to the entire time.

Blake regarded her wearily, but didn't look away. The sight of her unwavering eyes made Weiss' brain freeze. Eventually, she recovered. "It seems that this adventure of yours is over. Are you done running?"

"I decided that I was done running a while ago." Blake's voice was challenging in a way Weiss didn't expect.

"If you intended to stay put, why have you ventured so far from Beacon? Would we not still be in Vale if that were the case?"

"You implied running away," Blake noted. "There is a difference between running away and running forward — something I've learned now."

"Running forward?" Weiss scrunched up her face. "I'm not sure exactly what you mean by that."

"I'm not running from anything," Blake amended. "My entire life, I've had goals that felt unreachable. They were always so distant — so impossible to reach that they seemed they would never be more than just that: dreams. Now it doesn't feel the same way, but not entirely. There's something about what I'm chasing now that feels obtainable, but I think that if I fail to keep going, I'll never reach it."

Weiss shook her head. "And what dream is it that you're chasing now?" Blake did not respond.

"It's the call of adventure." the man behind Weiss spoke up.

"Excuse me, this is supposed to be private." Glancing back at the unapologetic man had no effect on him.

"When someone gets called out to the seas, it's a callin' like no other," he continued. "It doesn't matter who ye are or where ye came from; it's all the same. An' she's right about givin' up too. Adventure demands for those with brave souls — not those who'd give up for any reason."

Weiss turned her attention back to Blake. "If you wanted some adventure, you could have gone on one with our entire team."

"Jaune would have been more than willing for you to join."

Weiss grew flustered. "That's — the entire concept was like a lunatic's fib! And even once we learned it was all true, do you think we should have chosen to be criminals?"

"We haven't really done anything wrong."

"You're in a cell, captured by the marines." Weiss waved her hands around. "Can you really sit there and say you haven't done anything wrong?"

"Weiss," Blake's tone made her freeze. There had been so few times Blake had sounded this serious that Weiss could count them on her hand. "So often in my life, I thought I just had to sit and accept what I had. Especially when I watched the White Fang turn to more extreme measures bit by bit. I always thought 'this is just how it has to be,' and I would do my part. Now I'm starting to see that the only way to get something that far out is to head straight for it. You can try and find your way around things or prepare all you like, but the longer you take to head after it, the less time you'll have to make it there."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Weiss sounded like she was pleading, begging Blake to make any sense to her. "Is that your defense for what you've done?"

"It wasn't why I joined Jaune," Blake replied. "But it's why I haven't given up. I don't think this adventure of ours is over just yet. I'm still running forward, chasing after my goal. I'm not going to stop, and I won't hesitate just because it seems so far out there."

Blake closed her eyes and took a deep breath, almost as if making a decision then and there. When she opened them, there was a firmness to them. "It's growing louder by the day, but a part of me believes that Jaune is the man who will be the king of the pirates."

Transportation to the Grand Line really wasn't a simple matter. Despite having finally made full connection to Vale, interactions were still new and in the middle of being developed. Taiyang made several calls, searching everywhere he could, but nowhere seemed to be able to book him anything soon enough. Most tourism wouldn't be happening in the near future due to safety concerns. Flight made the journey much more possible than any sea faring vessel, but they still had issues. Mainly, the public was concerned about the monsters in the area around the Grand Line. That news had spread and become widely known now, and people wanted to make sure their flights would go well over the heads of those creatures.

Frankly, Taiyang could care less and had half the mind to wrestle one of them if it meant getting to Ruby. While that was mostly an exaggeration, there was a lot a parent was willing to do for their child.

With commercial flights being unavailable at the moment, Taiyang looked deeper into what he had available. Once he finally got through to Ozpin, he had a lengthy conversation with the man about getting him there. Ozpin mentioned the marines might not be happy about him dragging someone else into this, but Taiyang wasn't having that. He told Ozpin that he was seeing Ruby, and wouldn't accept anything else. In the end, Ozpin had arranged for him a marine sanctioned flight, but told him that it would take a few days for them to get there as well as review him.

When Taiyang asked why he needed to be reviewed, Ozpin had simply answered, "Qrow."

Fortune favored the bold — hopeful words from a dead man. Raven didn't believe that boldness alone could bear any fruit. No; being bold without having the strength to follow through was no better than pointing a gun and not having the heart to shoot. Fortune favored those who took. That was part of the philosophy of the tribe. Take what you desire, and only those with the strength to stop you could do so. If you wanted food, there was no waiting to get your serving. If you failed to grab your share, then you might starve.

Of course, they carried this philosophy outside of the tribe. If they could take something from another person, then what right did that person have to hold that item? Thus, when the Branwen Tribe needed, it took. Needed food and supplies? They bullied local villages into handing theirs over. Needed weapons? Many of the outer villages would rather lose some weapons than soldiers. Needed a ship? They found one. Albeit, the one they found wasn't the conventional ship for sailors.

Raven watched with an unreadable expression as her tribe acted like kids. Some were swimming on the lido deck, farther down she knew there was gambling, bingo, and whatever else they could find. It would have all fallen apart except for the fact they kept most of the original crew on board.

Vernal launched off a water slide into the pool, splashing tribe members around her and Raven as well. Her eye twitched. Why couldn't they have picked a different boat? Why a cruise ship?

"Hello, Mister Marine!" Penny greeted with a small wave. It was surprising to her that most of the people on the ship shared the same name, written in bold letters on their uniform. It seemed too improbable to be a coincidence, so perhaps it was planned for some reason.

The man greeted her back with a wave. "Do you need something?" He asked her.

"I only require an arc welder." Penny's blasé tone had the man nodding before her words truly sunk in. The young girl before him didn't exactly conjure the image of someone welding. Then again, he couldn't exactly judge someone by their looks.

"Sure, let me see what I can find for you. What do you need it for?" He turned around in the storage closet and began searching through the various items present.

"I need it for a project."

"Really, what project?"

"I'm — I'm making a hic —" Penny loudly hiccupped. "I'm making a new watch for Ciel — hic!"

The man turned toward her, giving her a questioning look with a raised eyebrow. "You need an arc welder to make a wristwatch?"

Penny smiled brightly. "Yes." It took everything she had to suppress the hiccups.

The man shrugged and turned back to rummaging around. Eventually, he found what he was looking for. It was a fairly large red and black box with dials and wires on the front of it.

"If you need any help carrying this, I can —"

Penny easily lifted the box from the man's arms with one hand and held it by the handle like it weighed nothing. "Thank you very much Mister Marine!" Penny saluted him, as she had often seen the soldiers do to one another, and left the room with the welder. Luckily, the man was none the wiser to her plans.

He called out as she left, "Wait! Do you need a welding mask?" However, Penny did not stop. Her ruse was a success, and she needed to hurry.

She navigated the halls all the way back to the well deck. The ship was almost labyrinthine with all of its turns and uniform halls, but she had been quick to memorize and plot out a 3D map of it.

With the door now secure and no chance of anyone entering any time soon, the question became of where to begin with the process. The day before she had tightened the rope supports. It put a strain on them, one they wouldn't handle for too long, but it allowed the vessel to drain back into the waters. Now she needed to patch up the floor so that it would at least float without sinking. That way she could repair it without it sinking.

Penny paused. Not that she really needed to repair it, but if she was stopping it from flooding, then it wouldn't hurt to go further, would it? It would be perfectly reasonable to put the entire ship into a better condition. That way she could more properly inspect it, which was her original task anyways.

She walked over a plank to the ship with a hint of grace. Touching down, she began investigating it further. Her initial observation had underestimated the damage present. Simple hammers and bolts wouldn't fix these sorts of tears. It wasn't just about bending and fastening the metal anymore.

She had gathered pieces of metal to help aid in the process. Once more, she glanced around just to make sure she was alone. Yes, she was confident she would be, but arc welders were a concern for eyes. As the entrance was only ten feet from her, anyone walking in on her without the proper protection would risk damage. Luckily for Penny, her eyes acted as such protection.

Once she was sure no one was around, she began fixing the metal sheets to locations of the damage. However, even after getting just one sheet on, it was clear that the aesthetic had been lost. She frowned. This was not something she had thought about when beginning the process, but she might try and preserve how it originally seemed — or maybe make it look better. After all, she was needing to make it presentable for marine investigation, so taking it from its current, rough condition to something better was good, right? She continued welding for the moment just to get rid of the cracks on the hull. She needed to be able to slacken the ropes without the ship sinking.

Penny stowed the welder away on the well deck. As she left the area, she began to ponder what she could do to improve how it looked. Since she was looking away, Penny never noticed the wind shift the flag in a way that made it seem to smile — more than it already was.

That night, as Weiss tried to sleep, Blake's words kept echoing in her mind. If she wanted something, she should just chase after it. No waiting, not even planning involved. The thought made no sense, yet for some reason, she couldn't stop thinking about it.

AN:

What is Weiss thinking about? What is she planning? Hopefully it's nothing reckless…right? As for Penny, how far will she take her little project of…building Ciel a new watch? She's definitely going to need a lot more power tools for that.

I realized I haven't written too much direct confidence of Jaune's crew in him realizing his dream. That's partially because he wasn't nearly as prepared starting out as Luffy was when Luffy started his journey. Now that Jaune has started to get some stuff done, I'll try and add more of that. It was always one of my favorite things hearing the Straw Hats' unwavering faith in their captain.

Will Raven be eternally pissed by her tribe having fun, or will she eventually join in? Who knows. The idea came to me literally the sentence before. I knew they were going to steal a ship, and I was sitting there thinking of what sort of ship they would get. The question is how they're going to get a cruise onto the Grand Line.

I also wanted to specify something. One of my readers was confused as to what a well deck was. I'll admit, I had the mental image of one and had to look up if it was a thing (I was fairly confident it was), and what it would be called if it was. Looking up an image will do better than just reading words, but it's like an in-ship harbor. It's an area at the bottom of the ship with an open floor to the ocean that a smaller ship can sail into and dock at.

Anyways, next chapter: Origins for a Dream of Destiny