Ch. 85 Adversaries on the move
"Sir?"
"...my apologies Winter, please take a seat… what is the damage so far?" General Ironwood looked up from the report he was immersed in just seconds ago.
"Surprisingly little." Winter spoke as she took a seat in the General's office. "We believe they are simply consolidating their forces before commencing hostile actions."
"And the numbers?"
"...mere estimates…"
Ironwood frowned but nodded nonetheless, scratching the black beard that he's taken to keeping in the past months.
"Talk me through those estimates then."
"Understood. The initial targets seemed to be people already sympathetic to the cause of the late Charles Holzkohle. Estimates show around a hundred were approached, several dozen underwent drastic surgical modification through legal channels. The number of illegal modifications… is uncertain, they would have to be fairly minor though since these people don't show any outward changes. The several dozen initially modified then created several new nonprofit organisations, most notably among them the Institute of Personal Augmentation, which later consolidated the smaller nonprofits under its banner.
These nonprofits promised reconstructive surgeries through mechanical augmentation. It was at this time that we became aware of their use of the Arc-Rose research for their augmentations. We believe it could be a result of an information leak, however considering the public nature of my sister's case they could have simply made an educated guess. We currently have no evidence of personal items being used as materials for the augmentation, however the heavy use of ancient Valean script in these parts points to project Phoenix as the source in one way or another.
The surgeries done by the IPA are not tied to the identities of those receiving their help. This behaviour is lawful but it creates the possibility of undisclosed surgeries being undergone. This theory is further supported by the number of augmented people skyrocketing beyond the numbers reported by the IPA.
Unlike the IPA which is supposedly a charitable organisation the emergence of a new movement calling themself The Augmented has proven to be less so. They seem to be a group with a political agenda. Those heavily and visibly modifies claim they have been ostracised by businesses and their places of employment, thus the need to band together under the banner.
The estimated number of The Augmented is currently in the low thousands and growing. Predictions estimate about a month before they eclipse the total forces of the White Fang in numbers. A serious problem considering each individual Augmented is potentially capable of opposing a huntsman with some success."
"I see… And what of the SDC and the faunus there…"
"I am unable to report in any official capacity…" Winter spoke leadingly, which Ironwood picked up.
"And off the tape?"
"Whitley has taken as many steps as possible to make the work environment safe and hospitable. Unfortunately, the people in SDC's employ in the past few decades have amassed a substantial number of permanent injuries… The SDC is experiencing a shortage of workforce, which in itself was predictable. The problem is how the IPA's agenda appeals to those who worked under the SDC during my father's time as the head of the SDC.
The interviews with those leaving SDC's employment show around 60% of them did so because the IPA directly approached them promising to help… the real numbers likely being slightly higher than that as not everyone is willing to participate in the interviews or state the real reason for leaving."
"I see… what about doctor Polendina?"
"Permanent protection detail was assigned to him after the numerous instances of the IPA approaching him for recruitment. They have since become more aggressive in their approach, attacking his clinic and spreading defamatory misinformation about the doctor's own involvement in helping the community.
At the same time he is one of our greatest sources of information on the organisation as people that received IPA's help and subsequently didn't join The Augmented prefer to come to him for having maintenance and medical checkups done. As a consequence it is inadvisable to have doctor Polendina cease his involvement in Mantle's socioeconomically disadvantaged community."
The General closed his eyes with a weary expression. With what happened during the fall of Beacon, the White Fang was actively losing members within the kingdom of Atlas. The SDC's new leadership further pushed the Faunus population further away from seeking the White Fang's help.
The Augmented ceasing the opportunity presented by this power vacuum was worrying. Yet it was inevitable that someone would.
"Bring Holzkohle to me, Specialist."
"Sit if I may, I don't believe he is connected to…" Winter started, but the General stopped her with a hand gesture and a tired smile.
"I do not believe Jeremiah Holzkohle is a sympathiser. He is however both familiar with his late father's ideology and with the work of project Phoenix while not being directly involved in it. I want him on as an adviser. So if you could pull him away from his work and bring him here, Specialist?"
O=O=O=
Yang entered the seating area and immediately noticed Ruby sitting with Oscar by the railings.
"Sup you two, have you seen Jaune?"
"He's down there with Raven…" Oscar replied.
"Oh… mind if I watch?"
They all watched as Raven took her stance while Jaune just stood there.
"So, Oscar, how have you been since…"
"I've been well. For the most part I'm back to normal… only for the most part though…"
"What do you mean? Didn't it work? Jaune said he succeeded."
"...he did… This was always going to be the case, Jaune warned me and I knew it too, I was becoming more like Oz and I still have some of that. The separation wasn't as clean as it could be when Oz first took residence in my head."
Raven took a step forward and lunged into a slicing motion. Something which Jaune barely reacted to, just flaring his Aura to deflect the sword.
"Jaune said the procedure left me with the equivalent of second degree burns on my soul… which… I don't know how to feel about that, but Oz is gone and I'm grateful for that. I can lead a fairly normal life now… I still have a target on my back for the time being but once they figure out Oz has been removed I should be fine to do whatever…"
"That's nice. Are you going to stay here in Haven? I'm sure headmaster Verdant would let you stay." asked Yang as Ruby was lost in thought while watching the fight.
"I've thought about it but I haven't decided yet. I've been spending time with Azure now that Oz isn't constantly reminding me of my impending doom.
She was made team leader you know… we kinda hit it off and if things go well I'll probably want to stay here."
"And if they don't go well?"
"Jaune offered to take me to his home. I could probably get set up there, either fishing or maybe farming… he said if I can develop the land it's mine to keep so I've been thinking about that…"
Yang grinned at him "Buuuut?"
"But I'd much rather spend my time here with Azure."
"Huh, you're no fun."
"Yeah, it's the remnants of Oz… and also the fact that I was basically dying of a terminal illness and was suddenly cured. Makes you think you know?"
Yang nodded and refocused on the fight. Jaune had finally summoned some of his weapons and started fighting back.
"Wait, is that?"
"An axe that swings out from a gauntlet? Yeah, Jaune made it the day after Oscar's procedure. He's been sleeping better and feels more like himself." Ruby replied, finally entering the conversation.
"What's it called? Oh let me guess, Let me axe a question?"
"Tree Branch actually, Arbor Ramus…"
"Neat! So what's the plan for you two now?"
Yang cheerfully changed the topic to the one Ruby was avoiding for the past few days.
Ruby made a face, but for once didn't steer the conversation elsewhere.
"We're still headed back to Vale, just without Raven's help now that dad's here…"
It was a problem, not one caused by anyone directly, but Taiyang being away from Vale meant no connections there.
"Good, I'll stay here with dad and let you know when he wakes up." said Yang resolutely.
"I'm kinda hoping he wakes up before we leave. I was thinking of looking into the Spiders… it's kinda what we should do too since it's our research they're using now." Ruby backpedalled almost immediately.
"...but that's… you don't have to stay because of the Spiders. We've got that covered." Yang replied slowly, with even more resolution in her voice. "If you want to stay, do it for dad, don't make excuses." Yang continued as she watched Raven dodge another strike from Jaune and felt the magic in the air swell up.
"Maybe you're right but I… I don't wanna feel selfish. And I'll feel selfish no matter which we choose… Salem is moving her forces again and we need to do something too."
"I think you should go to Vale, see how Beacon's doing, maybe help get the CCT back up. I know dad would understand that you didn't sit here twiddling your thumbs while he took a nap."
The trio fell into silence as they watched the match. It was quickly becoming clear that despite Raven's clearly superior skills honed through experience and the Maiden magic she now used liberally against him, Jaune just endured through sheer amount of Aura.
In the match against Yang, he at least tried to make it look even, despite the showmanship they both exuded during it. Now he had no such qualms, he fought like someone who knew that he could afford to take hits.
It appeared reckless to charge through a storm of magic to just barely scratch Raven. The Aura display showed a different story however as the percentage of Aura lost was in Jaune's favour.
Soon Raven reached the edge of critical Aura, a single grazing hit away from losing. Ruby knew what was coming, she had seen Jaune do this before.
A single well placed hit not only sent Raven into the red but more importantly completely shattered her Aura.
To her credit, she fought through the shock and pain of her Aura breaking and stood up again, wobbling slightly before collapsing.
While Oscar and Ruby went to make sure she wasn't too hurt, Yang stood still in the audience seating. It felt cathartic yet also evoked an image of herself in Raven's place.
Feeling conflicted Yang decided to leave and find Pyrrha instead, deciding she no longer needed to talk with Jaune.
O=O=O=
Two robed figures walked over the cold sands of the Vacuan desert. It was nighttime and the sky was perfectly clear, showing the broken moon.
The taller of the two figures tripped and fell suddenly "Fucking sand!"
"Quit whining Merc and get up. We have a mission."
"Hey, you have a mission. As far as I know, I don't get anything from this."
"It's what Cinder would have wanted."
Mercury rolled his eyes.
"Cinder's dead. I don't care what the witch told you. Face it Em, you can't bring back the dead."
"She brought Ozma back…" Emerald replied silently, clinging onto hope.
"And look how that turned out, he has led a secret war against her since. Face it Cinder would sooner stab you to become a Maiden than thank you for bringing her back."
"..." Emerald stayed silent and started moving again.
"Come on Em, can we at least go somewhere that isn't sand? Atlas has a Maiden right?" Mercury pointed out as he got up and tried to catch up.
"The Summer Maiden hasn't joined either side, that means she's alone…"
O=O=O=
Author's note:
A very dialogue heavy chapter with quite a bit of exposition. I think it turned out quite well in the end though and I find this type of exposition easier to digest.
Sorry for the late upload today. I took on some extra work as a few of my colleagues are sick, this left me with almost no free time as I need to both teach and prepare my lessons for tomorrow... And here I naively thought I'd have more time to write than I did during the summer.
But hey if you want to support me you can do so on P a treon . com (slash) OlympianScribe
Anyway I hope you enjoyed and are looking forward to the next chapter: Ch. 86 Goodbyes before the road