Chapter XXX: Not a Watch

In Sun's humble opinion, Nora was the coolest of the marines. This had not been his first time being captured by any means. One might even claim him to be a professional at this sort of thing. That did not, however, make the experience any less boring. The metallic walls around them were too plain to even pass time staring at. There weren't any sort of marks, bumps, or cracks to trace — just one smooth surface.

When that had fallen through, he had turned away, only to spot Neptune smiling and waving — inside of Sun's cell. "How did you get in here?" Neptune inched back toward the bars, looked around, then completely phased through the bars, becoming water as he did. Sun could hardly believe it. "Bro, that's amazing!"

Neptune re-entered Sun's cell. "I know right?" That's pretty useful, isn't it?"

"Hmm, you're not supposed to be in another prisoner's cell." A chill ran down Sun's spine at the new voice. Both he and Neptune turned to see Nora Valkyrie staring at them. Her eyes wandered between the two, but she didn't speak up again.

"Um, it was getting boring," Neptune replied, sounding far more similar to a question than a statement. Nora's eyes bore into his own, unblinking with her unreadable expression.

She tilted forward to the point Neptune scooted back. Then she stood back up in one swift motion. "Okay. As long as you're not doing anything bad."

As she began to skip away, something compelled Neptune to ask, "Are there any cards on the ship?" Now, he and Sun were huddled together in Sun's cell by the corner, cards laid out before them. They had been much more careful, snapping to any noise they heard. That was until the other imprisoned crew showed themselves to be kind enough to look out. There had been a couple of close calls now, but nothing that gave them away just yet.

"How are we supposed to play this?" Sun grumbled, squinting at the card in his hands. Instructions had been hand-written on them. "I've never heard of co-op solitaire before."

"It beats nothing," Neptune pointed out. "Anyways, my devil fruit can help us a lot in this situation, but we need some sort of plan."

"Right," Sun nodded. "How the hell does a joker card send your opponent to the shadow realm? How does that make any sense?"

"Are you listening?" Neptune gripped, plucking the card from Sun's hand. "I could go around freeing us, but we would be in no better situation than when we started. We need to make sure we have a ship to get away in and a good enough opportunity to get to it."

Sun leaned back, moving his tail under his chin in a pensive pose. "How are you with stealth?"

"Haven't had much of an opportunity before."

"You could go around as a puddle?"

Neptune thought for a second, then shivered. "Ignoring the fact that I'd be stepped on, they might try and mop me up."

"What if —"

"Someone's headed down the stairs!" One of the Sea Dogs whispered to them. Deciding they could discuss it later, Neptune rushed back to his own cell.

Oh, how easy it was for a project to spiral out of control. Blueprints began small, but they culminated in size into something far greater than she had intended. Fortunately, Penny had no need for physical blueprints. She was capable of mapping out designs within her own head. More than once she had been caught 'daydreaming,' and she had to correct the soldiers that she was working on a plan. If they asked what that was, it was Ciel's watch.

Of course, she needed plenty of supplies for her friend's wristwatch. Bolts, plates, and screws to name the least. However, that was the original design. Now, she was needing lumber, but that was an issue. That material was not as present on the metal ship as the others. When she had asked for some, it was not granted to her. Very disappointing. That meant that Ciel's watch would take longer to create. It was not a deal breaker though. It was not favorable, and under the watch of normal workers would be unfathomable, but the wood of barrels and crates would have to do.

Much went into preparing the planks of scrapped containers. They were splintered at best, but the glaring issue came from how they were currently shaped. Especially the barrels, whose planks were cut, sanded, and bent in undesirable ways. Penny had to go to great lengths to get them to match her designs. It was in the middle of this process that a thought had struck her. She had been following a chain of thoughts so closely, she failed to realize just how far out they had gone. And now, she had yet to take into consideration what the owner might think.

She went to someone who would know what would be best for Ciel's watch. That was how she ended up in the brig. Penny hardly made it far before she spotted a face she knew. "Friend Ruby!" Penny charged the cell, but stopped herself just before she trampled through the metal bars. The girl inside stumbled back as if she had been collided with after all.

"Penny?" Still with a curious expression, Ruby moved back to the bars. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm an exchange student!" Penny smiled brightly. "Both myself and friend Ciel are present. I have already met with the others not imprisoned, but I did not know you were here."

Just like that, the moment was gone for Ruby. "Yeah," she said, kicking her heel against the floor. "I just love being here behind bars, ya know."

Penny tilted her head to the side. "Do you? I was under the impression that most people do not enjoy being in cells. Is this why you're down here and not upstairs with friend Yang?"

"No, I — that was —," Ruby took a moment to breathe. "No, I don't actually enjoy being here, Penny."

"Oh." A second passed before Penny spoke again. "I had a very hypothetical question for you, friend Ruby."

Without any words, Ruby gestured for Penny to go on. Penny's gaze almost felt like it was going through Ruby, not particularly looking at her despite being aimed right for her face. "If you happened to have a ship, would you like wood to be part of it?"

Ruby blinked at Penny. "I mean, I guess I would."

"Spectacular!" Penny rushed off out of the brig, leaving Ruby to look across to Whitley for any answers he had. The boy just shrugged at her in return.

Adam's death was a frustrating setback. While the man himself was a migraine to deal with, he was a beast that Cinder could control. It was like having a mutt that would devour anything given to it. Just because it might bark, howl, and snap at your fingers didn't mean it wasn't useful for throwing unwanted scraps at. She also knew what Adam wanted, and that made him easy to manipulate. Say the right words to him, point him off in a direction, and he would do it, claiming it to be for the best of all faunus.

With him dead, it was difficult to predict how much issue she would be having with the White Fang. For every loon that would eventually learn to kneel before her, there could be many more that would rather die than bow to her. That would be hardly surprising. For how cowardly many of the White Fang were, the ones that rose to power weren't always so, and they already acted flexible with their lives as it was.

That could be an issue in the long run. A leader refusing to take a knee to her might act a martyr, further pushing the White Fang from her grasp. With nearly every single thing going wrong for her thus far, she felt she owed herself to be able to think through this much.

"Ma'am," Mercury interrupted her musings. "Ilia's waiting for you to talk to her.

"I'm busy, Mercury. Can you not tell? Send her away."

He glanced at the faunus girl then back to his boss. "Ilia has been in charge of things here since Adam's death, and she's willing to work with us."

"Silence!" Cinder turned on her heel. "I have been too rash of late, as much as it pains me to admit it. For that reason, I must make absolutely certain that nothing goes awry from this point forward. Now, cease your interruptions and leave me be."

"Is she always this much of a bitch?" Ilia asked under her breath.

"Yeah," Mercury bluntly replied. He leaned back against a wall. He shifted slightly too far and his shoes flew out from him, launching the two pegs with them and dropping Mercury onto the floor. Ilia stared at him traumatized.

"Don't help him," Emerald stole the girl's attention. "He was offered a wheelchair. This was his choice, so let him do this."

Ozpin stared at the note on his desk incredulously. Ironwood had made some efforts to bridge the news between the Grand Line and elsewhere on Remnant. Using this as an opportunity to stay in touch outside of Remnant, Ozpin asked to be informed of anything that might be related where the two areas met. This, in fact, was one of them.

Sipping from his thermos, he looked the report over again for what must have been the hundredth time. There was a difference between someone setting off to become a pirate and someone commandeering a cruise ship while taking the staff hostage. In a sense, it was like brother like sister.

He glanced behind his desk to take note of how Jaune was faring. The boy was adamant about being uncooperative. Nothing Ozpin had presented budged his stance. In fact, the only words Ozpin had really gotten out of him were, "I'm the man who is going to become King of the Pirates!"

Ever since then, he had been silent. Perhaps he had learned the language of that brown and pink haired crewmate of his. Whatever the case, staying quiet wasn't the only defiance Jaune had offered. Every time Ozpin entered the room, the boy would act like he didn't exist. Most times, Jaune would simply turn away, not offering any attention to Ozpin. Not even when he tried speaking to Jaune.

Yet, no matter how well Jaune thought he hid it, Ozpin had been working with kids his age for years. There was a similar look that certain students had when it came time to turn in their work, and they didn't have it. It was an uncertainness that could be seen in both their posture and eyes. Even with Jaune turning away each time Ozpin entered the room, he still caught glances of the boy's expression.

Even offering supporting words felt meaningless at this point. Any reassurances that Ozpin could offer him would likely be thrown out the window he loved staring out. So, now Ozpin had to choose between speaking to a rebellious teenager and reading about how some one-thousand Mistralians had been abducted for a bandit tribe's vacation on the most dangerous seas known to mankind.

Ozpin, ever full of wisdom, chose not to deal with the angst of a teen.

How strange. Penny carefully examined the sides of the pirates' ship as it bobbed on the waves. For a brief moment, she wondered if she was having trouble seeing due to the movement, but that wasn't the case. It was rudimentary, but there were clear efforts made in repairs. Had someone else been down here working on the same project she had? She would need to figure that out.

Grabbing the welder, she made her way back off of the smaller ship. She sat it back down off to the side and thought about how to go forward. While it was great to have help, it would be disastrous in the long run to be following different blueprints.

Speaking of, she needed to look at the dimensions again. Since the additions had happened so gradually, it did not occur to her the size difference between the present item and what would be her creation. The well deck, as it turned out, was not tall enough to house her projected dimensions. That was an issue that needed to be planned out soon. At least she had plenty of barrels to deconstruct while she thought through it.

Ciel had once thought that Weiss Schnee would be far more dignified than the sight she was seeing now. If she didn't know any better, she was watching a game of tag between two sisters. It made it hard to think with them running through the halls, something Ciel had been doing often lately. How had the words of a criminal embedded themselves into her consciousness? The least she could reassure herself was that it was all only in her mind. So long as she never acted on such a thought, which would never come to be, it was okay.

Oddly enough, Ciel almost wished to hear Penny ramble on. It might have served as a distraction, or it might have brought her to some conclusion. Penny had been more than eager to discuss pirates and such as they were on their way to the Grand Line. Perhaps she would have been able to shed light on the concerning thoughts in Ciel's head. It felt strange to think of that. Penny was highly intelligent, and also had access to the internet, but there was a strong difference between intelligence and wisdom, and advice often came from the latter.

However, at that moment, Penny was off working on a project. "Ciel's watch," is what she told everyone. If it wasn't so blatantly obvious it was something else, Ciel might have believed her. It wasn't uncommon for Penny to do something this elaborate on a whim. It wasn't even the tools the girl had been gathering that gave Ciel doubt, but rather the intensive amount of materials. A wristwatch like hers did not require several sheets of metal. Yet, somehow, Penny was always able to successfully say that she was "working on Ciel's watch" without seeming to be lying.

As the thoughts she had been avoiding returned, she gave up on her distraction for the moment. Ciel left her room, and was immediately knocked to the side. Weiss was sprinting down the corridor, letting out a very un-lady-like sound of frustration as she passed. Winter soon followed suit, calling ahead, "It is good for you to exercise when you can, Weiss. Marines need their stamina."

Were people losing their minds? Likely, as recent events would lead him to believe. Ironwood drummed his fingers against his desk as he reread his latest message from the council. Of course, it was his free arm on his desk. The other was lost in a sea of blankets, but he needed one for hot cocoa access.

Vale was being pressured by its people, that was for certain. Vale's council was busy throwing a fit over a headmaster, and it was biting them in the ass. Now, they were trying to drag Atlas into it. They had been for some time, but they had recently tossed aside the masque. They had gone from asking, to heightening tensions and asking. Truly, the only thing you could trust the council to do was bully others into getting what they wanted.

The letter he held, though they could have just called him, listed the various reasons they wanted Oobleck out of Beacon. It included, but was not limited to, causing difficulty in communication, being a bad role model for students, placing Vale in a coffee drought, and causing suspicion of treason. Had Ozpin robbed their sanity when he left? No; he would have some left for himself afterward. Even if Vale's council wasn't the most sensible group, anything was greater than none.

Unlike himself, there were others in Atlas pushing to bend to Vale's demands. While there certainly wasn't much Atlas could do, especially as a foreign kingdom where Vale could not, Ironwood wasn't just a political figure, but the headmaster of Atlas' academy as well. It still didn't give him any position to directly influence Beacon, but it would give Vale another direction to threaten Beacon from. That would be if Ironwood agreed to these games.

Many thoughts entered his mind, but most proved to be fleeting. L'appel du vide, they called it. In the end, he settled on something that felt very appropriate for the recipients of his reply. It was bold enough that he never would have done it in the past, but to be frank: he didn't give a shit anymore. One moment, the letter was in perfect shape within his grasp, the next it was back in an envelope torn to sunder. Let Vale whine to him and let others rage at him for this response.

No matter what anyone else said, it felt nice to let the intrusive thoughts win for once. The secret was not caring.

There was a loud bang, then a metallic clatter. Pyrrha halted in her step and turned toward the door. It came from Ozpin's office, the same room that Jaune was being held in. While she had been allowed to take him there, she wasn't sure if she was just allowed to walk in whenever; however, the thought didn't even cross her mind. Clearly, her duty to check on strange noises from prisoners superseded that concern.

Opening the door, she scanned the room. It looked mostly in order, though what caused the sound was easy to find. Ozpin's thermos was rolling along the ground, spinning in a circle after falling off the desk. As for the other noise, Jaune was bunched up on the ground against the bars of the cell. She could imagine what he had done to get there.

Sighing, she leaned over to push him away from the bars, only to press against them herself. Instantly, she was taken back to the time she had fallen in the sea. Pyrrha stumbled back away from the cell, her strength coming back to her. Okay, the bars were thinly spaced. Carefully, she lifted her foot and tried to nudge Jaune back the only place she could find: his head.

As Jaune groaned in response, footsteps came from the door behind her. She turned just in time to see Ozpin enter the room, an odd look on his face. For some reason, Pyrrha's instincts made her feel like a child about to be scolded.

"I must say, Miss Nikos." Ozpin's gaze lowered to her foot on Jaune's head. "I am sorely disappointed." Pyrrha glanced down, and realization dawned on her face. She hopped away from the cell like it burned her, stomping on one of Jaune's hands as she did. By how it looked, the seastone must have also taken away his ability to use aura.

Ozpin placed his hand firmly on her shoulder. "I understand your frustrations, but this isn't —"

"It's a misunderstanding!" Pyrrha blurted out. "Sir, he — I — I heard —"

"Miss Nikos, calm down." Ozpin gripped her other shoulder and squeezed. "Do you want to explain why I walked in on that display?"

Pyrrha coughed into her fist, feeling her cheeks darken in embarrassment. "I heard a loud noise so I came to investigate. He was like that when I got here. I tried to help, but it was difficult for me to use my arms because of my devil fruit, so —" She trailed off at the end.

"If that was the case, you could have gotten someone to help you rather than kick him back."

"I wasn't kicking!" Pyrrha insisted.

Ozpin sighed. "It was a hyperbole, Miss Nikos." He let go of her and moved over to gently push Jaune back into his cell. "It still was not appropriate to have your heel planted on his forehead." Once free from being tangled in the bars, Jaune scooted away from Ozpin and directed his gaze out of his window.

"I'm sorry," Pyrrha said quietly.

Ozpin opened his door for her. "I understand. Just next time, please get help if you need it."

Unbeknownst to both Ozpin and Pyrrha, Jaune lamented that Pyrrha had placed the thermos farther back on the desk than it had been.

Qrow lounged against the ship's railing, watching the clouds go by. Back in his heyday, such calmness would have been annoying. He had always been a venturesome captain, pushing to get from each island to the next. Every moment of slow sailing would grate on his nerves, but not any longer. If anyone asked him, he blamed his devil fruit.

At the moment, they were still sailing near Vale. Just beyond reach of their radar, but steering clear of the Calm Belt not too far from them. They were still waiting on one last crew member to join up with them, though Qrow wasn't sure how he felt about that.

"The Revive-Revive fruit sounds like a blessing and a curse," Qrow muttered to himself, tipping back a flask. "It does nothing for you until you kick the bucket, then it's extraordinary. And now, we're waiting for either good news or bad news — and I'm supposed to feel good about the bad news because of it."

"Relax, Captain." Clover patted his shoulder. "Look at all of where we've gone. A small brush with death isn't too much to worry about for a New World crew."

"It shouldn't be how we hope to —" Qrow was cut off by his scroll buzzing in his pocket. Pulling it out, he saw a name that he hadn't seen in a while.

He answered it and listened to the other side without a word. Once the person hung up, Qrow's face soured a bit.

"Something wrong, Captain?" Clover asked. Instead of replying, Qrow pocketed his scroll and marched over the deck. He made his way down to find Ghira and Port in the middle of a card game.

He observed the two before speaking. "I was just told that the Straw Hats have been captured." The game froze, mostly in part by Ghira whose head snapped to Qrow. "It wasn't too long ago. They're quite a bit of the way through Paradise, but they got caught with a damaged ship in the middle of the water."

Ghira bolted upright. "I refuse to allow my daughter to be held prisoner. Let's go."

"You know, they might have freed themselves by the time that we get there?" Qrow asked the man.

Ghira glared at him. "Are you saying we should just leave them?"

Qrow was already headed back. "Not at all. I'm just saying that you should have a bit more faith in them." After all, they were placing their bets on the new generation.

Penny found it quite odd that Ruby was a pirate. Media always portrayed them in different ways, but most were unsavory sorts. Ruby clearly did not fit that description. She was brave, kind, and helped people where she could. Maybe she was a different sort of pirate? Penny had heard other types of pirate stories before, and to be honest, she preferred them.

Hearing tales of sailors challenging the ways of society was far better than tales of cruelty. At least Penny was able to tell her father about this. Due to the new CCT on the Grand Line, she was able to keep in contact with him this entire time. Nearly every night, she called just to talk to him. That day, she hadn't been able to wait until night. The idea of Ruby being a pirate was too strange for her to hold onto until the sun began to dip in the horizon. Now, she had tried calling him back and he hadn't picked up right away. It took a while, but he eventually called her back. While Penny felt he didn't need to, he had apologized for missing her call, claiming he had been busy at the time. That was very understandable, since Pietro Polendina was a busy man.

AN:

We all knew this roman numeral would come eventually. Be mature…

This chapter didn't flow out as cleanly as the others had been. It felt a tad forced to get through it, and I hope it isn't too noticeable in those sections.

Big stuff is happening, big stuff is beginning, so what's going to happen next?

Anyways, next chapter: The Ultimate Coffee