A Chance Encounter
Disclaimer: RWBY belongs to Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth (and now Viz) and Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo. I own nothing of either of them and make no profit from them. I am only playing in the worlds they gave us.
Well, it's been a minute or two hasn't it? Shortly after my last update and as I was trying to wrack my brain to figure out the path forward for this thing, my subconscious mind took matters into its own hands and decided that I needed to go on hiatus. A year later I suddenly realized just how long it had been.
It took a while to get back to this, and I nearly didn't. Quite frankly, I nearly made the decision to stop writing all together... I won't bore you with the reasons why. Then it became a case of trying to get back on the horse and then making it move. Progress for the most part was exceedingly slow and suffered from numerous interruptions that slowed the process even more and made it that much harder. Finally things started clicking and I finally have something to show for it.
Now, I still don't have a clear pathway forward with this story, but I will keep plugging away at it. Hopefully the hiatus has helped clear my head and my imagination will get with the program and start revealing this thing's direction. So, with out further ado, on with the show.
Chapter 28
Haven Academy, Headmaster Lionheart's Office
Leo Lionheart was a well regarded individual in the city and kingdom of Mistral. He was an exemplary headmaster and teacher with a demeanour well suited to dealing with the young people that attended Haven Academy. He was a hard man not to like and that along with his years of experience stood him in good stead when dealing with Mistral's ruling council. Politicians could be notoriously hard to deal with and were usually the last ones to 'get it' on many issues, but with his easy and pleasant manner and his experience in dealing with the varying egos that came and went on successive councils he was usually able to successfully navigate the bureaucratic chaos.
Well, as much as a Faunus could in a kingdom like Mistral, but he had proven himself over the years and even his racist detractors had to grudgingly admit that he could play their game as well as they could and as often as not, beat them at it. Unlike most of them however, he didn't gloat when he did. It had been much the same when he had been an active Huntsman out in the field.
The leader of a village might not like the fact that his settlement had been protected and saved by a Faunus Huntsman. But when he was the only Huntsman who had even considered taking the job and was the only reason the villagers were still alive and had a place to call home, the matter of being Human or Faunus didn't seem to matter so much. Funny how a near death experience could make someone realize what really was and wasn't important in life.
He'd had a long career in the field, a little too long admittedly, and a little too much of his courage had been left there and those factors were what told him it was time to get out of active Huntsman work. He began teaching and discovered that he was good at it. After proving his worth and along with his administrative skills and a recommendation from Professor Ozpin, he became Headmaster.
Soon enough, he was let into Ozpin's inner circle and the things he was told did little to give him comfort and only raised his levels of anxiety. However, other than sending Huntsmen out on scouting missions of which they didn't really know the true nature of and forwarding that information to Ozpin, nothing too far out of the ordinary or the expected happened. That is, until he was contacted by a representative of Salem and his world was turned inside out.
All of that strength and resolve he'd had as a Huntsman had left him far more than he had realized and had turned him into an easily bendable coward and he found himself providing identification and a cover story for Cinder and her group. When the woman had contacted him about the difficulties they had run into he had nearly had a heart attack, fearing that someone sent by Ozpin, probably Qrow, was about to come crashing into his office at any moment to take him out. The string of requests from Ozpin for him to contact him didn't help but he had already been sidestepping those for a while now and this situation meant that he couldn't stall any longer. While the conversation had gone remarkably well it had done little to calm his nerves, leaving him as an exhausted wreck afterwards. At least it didn't seem that Ozpin was aware of what he had done.
When the attack happened, he was speechless. On purpose, Cinder had not given him much in the details of what her plan was and even in the aftermath he hadn't deciphered all of what she may have been trying to accomplish, but what he did know was that he had stepped into an even deeper hole than he realized... and he should have been fully aware of that from the beginning.
Now, to make matters even worse, Ozpin had sent a message proposing a face to face meeting at some point in the near future. From long distance over a computer screen had been bad enough but he didn't know if he could keep himself together well enough to not give anything away when sitting within mere feet of the man. He hoped that the meeting wouldn't happen anytime too soon, maybe the situation in Vale would keep Ozpin occupied for some time and give him some time to prepare himself as best as he could for it when it did happen.
That kind of thinking was tempting fate and was proven true when a feeling of something that could only be described as all kinds of... wrong seemed to fill the air and sent a chill down his spine. In the middle of his office the air seemed to shimmer before a thin split appeared and it parted like a curtain, revealing a black void beyond and that wrong feeling intensified. Shocking him even further was the sight of Ozpin walking out of that void, followed by the Huntsman he identified as Ichigo Kurosaki. With a snap, the void closed behind them and the wrong feeling vanished. Well, almost. The glare he was getting from Kurosaki was just as disconcerting.
"O-Ozpin... what...?" Leo stammered.
Ozpin raised a hand to quiet the man and without being offered he took a seat in one of the plush chairs in front of the desk. Ichigo simply stood behind him, continuing to glare at Haven's Headmaster.
"Under the circumstances of the issue at hand I felt that arriving unannounced was the most prudent course of action," Ozpin said, levelling his own gaze on the man. "And as for my method of arrival, that is not something that you need to concern yourself with."
A void opened in Leo's guts but he tried not to let on, though he need not have bothered as his expression mirrored his dread. He tried to feign ignorance of the situation but he had a terrible poker face and he certainly wasn't going to fool Ozpin. He opened his mouth to speak, but Ozpin cut him off.
"You already know what this is all about Leo," he intoned seriously. "You gave yourself away during our conversation about your misbehaving students. In all of my messages and attempts to contact you, not once did I mention to you what the issue was, yet when you finally responded you dove right into the matter without prompting."
Leo seemed to deflate in his chair. "I had little choice but to do as they wished of me."
"Bullshit!" Ichigo barked, making the man jerk as if he'd been slapped.
"She would have killed me and may well have destroyed the school and everyone in it if I had refused!" Leo countered.
"And where would that have gotten her?" Ozpin countered. "If she kills you then she loses her way to get into Beacon quietly and if she wipes out the school then the tournament and festival likely would have been put off if not cancelled entirely for security reasons. Not to mention there is the risk that someone survives and identifies her as the culprit and she becomes a wanted fugitive. Not exactly conducive for someone who is trying to operate quietly and unnoticed."
"So let's say you did this because you feared for your life and were too afraid to fight back," Ichigo said. "Why didn't you at least alert Ozpin to what happened?"
"If I had breathed a word she would have found out," the old Headmaster protested.
"Her group consisted of only four people," Ozpin told him. "We know this to be a fact, so there was no one here to watch you and report to her."
"Even if you weren't a member of Opzin's inner circle you should have taken some kid of action," Ichigo said. "You're still a Huntsman damn it."
"I assume that you have seen the reports on casualties and damages to Beacon and the city of Vale?" Ozpin asked. Leo only nodded. "If it weren't for Ichigo and his wife discovering Cinder's presence at Beacon, do you have any idea just how much worse those figures would be Leo? Can you begin to imagine how high the death toll would be?"
All of the colour drained from the old Lion Faunus's face and his posture sagged even further.
"Cinder could very well have gained the rest of the Fall Maiden's power. A virus that she introduced into the CCT system would have crippled communications between the kingdoms and was designed to also turn all of General Ironwood's robotic troops against the people. The last thing that anyone in the other kingdoms would have seen before communications went down, was troops from Atlas turning against the people of Vale, sowing just the kind of large scale chaos and distrust that Salem wants. While I doubt Cinder let you know any of her plan and just used you as a way in, and while the worst parts of this scenario were avoided, that doesn't not make the weight upon you any lighter here Leo."
"She needed someone to open the door for her," Ichigo said tightly. "And you did that without making even the slightest fuss. Your hands aren't bloodless."
The old Headmaster sagged forward, propping his elbows on the desk and buried his face in his hands as the full gravity of his mistakes settled upon his shoulders. "No, I suppose that they aren't," he said with a weary sigh once he finally composed himself and sat back up. "And you are correct, she told me very little. I knew that what I was doing was wrong but I foolishly chose to believe that nothing serious would come of it because I didn't want to think of the consequences."
Ozpin sighed. "When I recommended you to become Headmaster of Haven Academy and brought you into the fold, I thought that more steel remained in your resolve, that even though the years had taken their toll upon you that there was still something left of the man that had fought so hard against both the Grimm and the injustices in our society. Apparently I was mistaken and I apologize for putting you in such a position, but even so that does not excuse you for what you have done."
Leo sighed. "Yes, you are right of course. Despite what I have become," he glanced to Ichigo. "I am indeed still a Huntsman and I swore to give my all to protect the people and I have failed in that regard. I have betrayed their trust and yours."
"Yes," Ozpin agreed. "And the question now is, where do we go from here? Making you disappear is not something I want to do and having you suddenly resign and go into retirement would seem suspicious and would let you off the hook far too easily and I want you where I can find you and keep tabs on you easily."
"Meaning, you'll have me randomly dropping in unannounced now and then like we did today," Ichigo said levelly.
Ozpin continued. "Continuing to run this school and teaching the upcoming generations of Huntsmen and Huntresses, continuing to manage Huntsmen in the field and gathering intelligence will remind you of your duty and serve to remind you of what your foolish decisions might have cost our world beyond what it did. The reminder of your guilt and living with it will be your punishment and you will remain in regular contact with me. Needless to say if anyone else affiliated with Salem contacts you, you will let me know about it immediately."
Before an increasingly low feeling Leo could respond the shadows in the corner of his office seemed to expand and two people stepped out of them and walked over to his desk. One was the Huntress he recognized from his files as Yoruichi Shihoin. The other was a man dressed in a similar manner to Ichigo, but sporting dark hair, a few days worth of stubble on his face and wearing a pair of angular, smoke tinted glasses. The gaze he received from the both of them seemed to cut right through him.
"It's done," Yoruichi said. "No one other than Ichigo or myself will be able to break the seals." She tilted her head at Leo. "His key will no longer open the vault and even if someone gets in they won't be able to get through our seal and get to the original."
"Thank you," Ozpin said with a relieved sigh and a nod. He looked back to Leo. "You no longer need to worry about the relic. That responsibility has been taken out of your hands. Your pocket watch will no longer open the vault and if the Spring Maiden were to suddenly appear she would not be able to access the gate to the relic even if she could get to it."
Leo sighed tiredly and along with that weariness he also looked relieved to a degree. "In my younger days if I knew that I would ever do something like this... if I knew I would become such a sad spectacle of who and what I once was, I may well have allowed a Grimm to swallow me whole to avoid such shame. Being aware of your own slow, downward spiral is a terrible thing to experience. But still, that is not an excuse for what I have done. I fully understood the scale and scope of what we face with Salem when I became a part of this but I let my own personal fears and insecurities get in the way and cloud my judgment." His eyes met Ozpins. "You were correct, even I thought I had more steel left in my resolve but apparently I did not. I am truly sorry."
"As am I old friend," Ozpin said. "Nothing about this brings me any joy and I wish that I could still place my trust in you unconditionally but sadly we both know that can never happen again now."
"Yes, you are correct of course," Leo admitted sadly as Ozpin stood. Ichigo raised his hand and tapped the air and that ominous portal that they arrived through reopened, sending a shiver down his spine.
"Be seeing you again," the orange haired Huntsman said. "When you least expect me."
The other man pinned him with another piercing gaze before seemingly dissolving into motes of blue light and being... absorbed, for the lack of a better word into Ichigo, leaving him wide eyed and slack jawed. It took him a moment to realize that Yoruichi had lagged behind. She placed her hands on his desk and leaned in towards him, a cold look in her eyes.
"Mess up again, even once and it won't be Ichigo that pays you a visit," she warned. "And I can guarantee that you'll never see or hear me coming."
She turned and entered the portal, the ominous void, swallowing her up and the opening snapped shut behind her leaving him alone with his misery.
Somewhere in Mistral:
In a very unladylike fashion with one leg thrown over the arm of it, Sienna Khan sat slumped upon her throne in the great hall of the White Fang's headquarters. She gazed idly about the space. What had she been thinking at the time. A great hall lined with tapestries and lit by old style Dust torches. A high vaulted ceiling and the walls painted with scenes relevant to Faunus history. Large, carved wooden double doors and a crimson and gold carpet leading to an ornate throne on a raised dais. Really? Had she been that full of herself when she took over that she needed all of this?
True, a lot of this was already in place. The building was part of an old estate from a noble family who's own infighting had brought them to ruin and the family bloodline had died out. But a good half of the adornments are things that had been added after she took over from Ghira and took this place over as the groups primary base. She was fighting for equality for her people, yet the trappings she surrounded herself with reeked of privilege. Too many of her kind lived in poverty and if they could see this place they would wonder if the White Fang was really working to make their lives better, or just make the White Fang's lives better.
Whether the money that funded them came from legitimate donations or the proceeds of crime, too much had been spent on things that had no impact on attaining their stated goals. How did an ostentatious, and quite frankly pretentious headquarters, help get laws changed or entrench the fundamental rights the Faunus deserved into the charters of the kingdoms? Ghira had done far more in that regard with much less in the way of resources and in a shorter time than she had in the five years since she had taken over.
Any gains she had made were based solely on fear and intimidation and those gains could never last and she had always known that in the back of her mind. But, she had been willing to take the high stakes gamble on that ever so thin chance that rather than reaching a saturation point where they would no longer tolerate her methods and push back hard, the Humans would come to accept that the rights of the Faunus needed to be acknowledged and accepted and enact real reforms.
Even without the actions taken by Adam and his ardent supporters that had always been a long shot and now those already slim odds had been reduced to near zero. Because of him crossing too many lines, their lofty goals had come crashing down to earth.
Well, at least she had a mighty nice headquarters to watch the crash from and thanks to what Adam had done she was right in the middle of that crash right now. A few hours before she had recorded and sent off to the news media a statement disavowing all knowledge of Adam's actions and reiterating that it was not the policy of the White Fang to attack the Huntsman academies. He was acting of his own accord without the knowledge or support of the organization as a whole nor of her as leader.
She knew that any who supported Adam would leave if they hadn't already and would likely form their own group to continue on as Adam had been and would likely try and recruit as many others to their side as they could. As a whole, every Faunus in the organization would have to lay low to avoid the increased scrutiny. She already knew that the police and military had been cracking down hard and attacks on all Faunus had increased. The human supremacist groups had all but declared open warfare and had taken to the streets armed and eager to spill Faunus blood. At least they were being rounded up too and weren't being allowed to do as they pleased.
She knew that she would also have to lay low for a while, but then what? What was the future of the White Fang going to be and what was it going to look like after this unmitigated disaster? After things had cooled off she would have to try and pull the ragged pieces of the organization back together and try to sew the disparate factions it had fallen into back into one piece again.
She doubted that any of the hardliners who had sided with Adam would ever be enticed back into the fold unless she pledged to follow their even more extreme methods. If she did that then she would be nothing more than a figurehead with no control as they rampaged and did as they pleased no matter how much additional damage it did to their cause. She wouldn't throw their cause away like that and she would not be anyone's puppet. There was also the danger that the hardliners could actively turn against her and force a take over and the last thing the organization needed, especially now, was to be fighting with each other.
At the other end of the scale she had probably already lost the ones who had been just barely hanging in, the one's who were eager to join at first but discovered that the violence wasn't for them. To be truthful, she had always held a certain degree of scorn for those people. They wanted the rights and freedoms they deserved, but they weren't willing to get their hands dirty to win it. She didn't need passengers on this ride and the trip wasn't free.
That left her with those in the middle between the two extremes and judging by the way the ranks had thinned between Adam's humiliation and his demise, there wasn't a lot left and like everyone else they had scattered to the winds. The attack on Beacon was a watershed moment that was going to cause a shift in the thinking of the Faunus population. This had not been an attack on a racist corporation, or supremacist group. It hadn't been a reprisal raid on a business that wouldn't serve or hire Faunus, or who mistreated them if they did.
This was an attack on a school full of teens, children, both Human and Faunus, who had committed themselves to learning the skills to protect the world from the Grimm and any other threat that could and would be confronted by a Huntsman or a Huntress. It was an attack on a festival meant to be a symbol of unity and peaceful coexistence. It wasn't going to be remembered as an attack by a madman leading a splinter faction of the White Fang, it was going to be remembered as an attack by the White Fang, period.
People were going to question, if they hadn't been already, if the organization as a whole and especially its leader really had the best interests of the Faunus people at heart. Or, did they just want to cause damage and spill blood in the name of retribution for the long history of mistreatment and to hell with the type of progress that Ghira Belladonna had been seeking and slowly succeeding at?
It didn't matter. She could not and would not abandon her approach. The Faunus couldn't wait for Ghira's slow pace of reform to build, that was why she had forced a change and taken over as High Leader. She would need to rebuild the organization and maintain a tighter reign on it. She had allowed people like Adam to have too much room and to operate too freely and it had cost the White Fang dearly. Recruitment was going to be a bitch, and she didn't want to rely on the White Fang chapter in Menagerie to send her anyone.
It was run by two fox Faunus brothers, Corsac and Fennec, and they had been with the Fang right from the beginning. There was also something about them that she didn't entirely trust. Nearly every recruit they had sent her over the last couple of years had turned out to be Adam loyalists and she always had the sense that the two were operating on their own agenda. She had given them the benefit of the doubt up until now but that time was at an end and she would need to look a little more closely at the two and determine just exactly where their loyalties lie and what their agenda was if they indeed had one.
She took a deep breath and let it out in a whoosh. Adam's actions and her need to give the press release this morning had really backed her into a corner and as much as she wished it wasn't so, what was done was done and she would have to simply deal with it. She would need to go through her list of contacts and determine who she could rely on to help her start rebuilding and who was likely to work against her. She would also need to go through her list of safe houses and determine which ones had been raided or were being watched and which ones were still viable since she wouldn't be able to continue using this place.
She shifted in her seat in order to get up and froze when she saw someone standing on the gold trimmed red carpet that led to the raised platform of the throne. It was a dark skinned, purple haired woman dressed in black, white and orange. Her posture was relaxed as she stood there with her hands on her hips.
"Took you long enough to notice me," the woman said, an amused smirk adorning her face. "Makes me wonder how you've lasted as High Leader with that level of awareness."
She hadn't heard a thing or sensed anything. She was not an easy person to sneak up on and she was definitely on edge right now and she didn't like it. "How the hell did you get in here?" she demanded.
"Not exactly hard when there's no one else here," the woman responded. "Not that it would matter if there was, place was full of people the last time I was here and no one saw me." She shrugged. "It's kind of what I do."
Sienna's eyes narrowed. "You're the one that left that card in my quarters and the one who humiliated Adam."
"Yoruichi Shihoin, at your service," she introduced herself. She pointed to the corner of the room behind and to the right of the throne, where the passageway into the deeper parts of the building was located. "And that's Ichigo Kurosaki."
Sienna turned to see the tall orange haired man leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. He didn't say anything but just stared at her. A stare that felt like he was looking right into her soul. She didn't like the feeling one bit.
"We've been out tying up loose ends," Yoruichi continued. "And you happen to be one of them. Caught your press release by the way. I didn't expect you to so thoroughly throw Taurus under the bus."
"I told the truth," Sienna said. "He was operating on his own without my knowledge or support. I have always maintained that the Huntsman academies are off limits and he knew that."
"You know as well as I do that in the court of public opinion that won't matter," the were-cat said. "His actions are seen as the White Fang's actions, despite what you say. And, by so succinctly laying it all on him, you admitted publicly that you have no control over your own organization. Your credibility is shot and between the two of you, you have effectively destroyed your own cause."
"That remains to be seen," Sienna countered. "There are still those who believe in my approach."
"And probably just as many that believe in Adam's," Ichigo spoke, his gaze still boring into her. "You'll be lucky if you don't end up in a war of factions. Both sides will lose if that's the case and unfortunately so will all of the people, Human and Faunus, that will get caught in the middle between you."
"Any gains that your approach may have garnered, as dubious as they are, have likely already been lost," Yoruichi stated.
"And what would you have me do?" Sienna questioned sarcastically. "Throw my hands up in the air and give up? Turn myself over to you so you can toss me in a jail cell to rot?" She reached behind her back and produced her weapon, Cerberus Whip, and unfurled it. She rose to her feet. "I haven't fought for all of my life for my people only to end up caged like an animal. The two of you won't be the first to oppose me that I've had to put in the ground. You'll have to kill me to take me in."
Yoruichi chuckled darkly as lightning began to arc around her body and her eyes glowed an ethereal electric blue. "Naive child, you're at least a thousand lifetimes too young to think you stand a chance against me, but you're welcome to try."
Try she did, but the attempt was short lived. She never saw her opponent move, but she certainly felt the pain of numerous blows striking her in such rapid succession that she could barely comprehend it before an electric jolt left her immobilized on the floor. Through her blurring vision she saw the orange haired main standing over her.
"Your cause is just but your methods are not," he said. "And being dead won't make you a martyr and it won't help your people. You may be headed for a trial and prison, but you still have a voice to speak with to fight for the rights of the Faunus and that's the only reason why you're still alive. It's more than a terrorist deserves so don't waste the opportunity."
She passed out and when her eyes opened again she was in the infirmary of a secure facility in Vale.
Vale Hospital
"So then we're all in agreement?" Weiss spoke from he seat on the end of her bed. While the members of Team RWBY were waiting for the final okay from their doctor so they could be discharged, they had taken the time to meet with Team JNPR and discuss their future in regards to the advanced combat class. It had been a very frank and productive discussion, and it was clear that all eight of them had taken the time to think and consider how the attack had affected them personally and not just on a physical level.
Each person had related their own experience, their thoughts and fears as they had fought and how they had been coping with it in the aftermath. While the attack may have been an extreme example, it had shown them a glimpse of the life they had all chosen to train for and live and it had given them all a very sobering insight into it that they couldn't get with training alone.
While RWBY had already been blooded in their encounters at the docks, their fight against Roman Torchwick and his stolen Paladin, and the entire Mountain Glenn situation, their sister team had less experience dealing with real life and death situations, only being part of the fight at the end of the 'The Breach'. Thus, the attack on Vale and Beacon had been a little heavier for them to deal with. All of them had performed well under the pressure of the attack, but it had taken a little more effort for JNPR to come to terms with things.
Fighting Grimm was one thing. As malicious and deadly as they were, they were monsters that you could kill without remorse and they conveniently turned to dust and were gone when you did. Fighting other Humans or Faunus however, that was a far different thing. Grimm didn't lay there in a pool of blood, their bodies broken and screaming in pain or gurgling their last breath before they died, or pinning you with an accusing glare as they lost consciousness or the light faded from their eyes.
All of them were far too young and too early in their training to need to be exposed to that, but that was the unfortunate reality of life on Remnant. While the Grimm were an enemy to everyone, there were those who felt the need to prey upon their fellows. Apparently having a common enemy whose sole purpose was to kill all Human and Faunus life on the planet was not enough of an incentive to keep people on a better life path.
The others in the room all nodded or spoke in support of the pale girl's words but before anything else could be said a loud ruckus made itself know from out in the hallway.
"I don't care what the doctor is currently doing," a loud and certainly very arrogant sounding male voice boomed from the hallway. "Get her here right now or I will take my daughter out of here, her clearance be damned!"
"Oh no," Weiss gasped, her already pale skin seeming doing the impossible and becoming even paler.
"Weiss what's wrong?" Ruby asked.
"...my father. My father is here." Everyone in the room could easily tell that she was terrified.
"On second thought... never mind. She'll be leaving now!"
The sound of shoe leather slapping against the floor sounded like the ticking of a doomsday clock to Weiss. A moment later the partially closed door was shoved open by a large man in a black suit, and in strode Jacques Schnee as if he owned the place. He was dressed in his trademark white suit, his hands clasped behind his back. He wasn't a large man, but the aura he projected filled the room like a living thing, and not a pleasant one at that.
"You can't just barge in here like that!" Yang protested.
The bodyguard gave her a silencing look while Jacques ignored her and everyone else and focused on his daughter, his disapproving eyes boring into her. She flinched and seemed to be collapsing in on herself, trying to make herself smaller like a mouse trying to hide from a cat. She wasn't the only one. Blake had hunched down behind Yang and was covering her cat ears with her hands. She did not want to be noticed by one of the greatest enemies of Faunus kind.
"Just as I predicted it would this pathetic little adventure of yours has ended in miserable failure," he said imperiously. No greeting, no concern for her health, just smug criticism.
"We defended the school from the Grimm and White Fang," Ruby spoke up. "That doesn't seem like a failure to me."
"Was I talking to you, child?" Jacques questioned, turning his displeased gaze upon her and making her flinch. He looked her up and down. "And to think, this is the pathetic waif who bested you for the role of team leader. Ridiculous."
"Do not talk about Ruby like that," Weiss countered angrily. "She's a good team leader and she saved my life during the attack."
"Which only further proves my point," he retorted. "You needed to be saved by someone who belongs here even less so than you do."
"Hey!" Yang shouted, shooting to her feet, her fists clenched at her sides. "Don't talk to my sister like that... or Weiss. I don't care if she is your daughter!"
The bodyguard turned to her and took a half a step, trying to be menacing.
She stood her ground, her eyes went red and her hair ignited. "You want to try your luck bud?"
"And since she is my daughter, how I speak to her is none of your business," Jacques countered. "I suppose that even if you had become the team leader, there would be little that even you could do with a child, a hot headed rube, and one of... them."
"Listening to him I actually feel glad to be an orphan," Nora muttered just loudly enough to be heard.
He ignored the comment. "Now enough of this, I've allowed you to pursue this nonsense long enough. You're going back to Atlas."
"I'm sorry, you've allowed me to pursue this?" It was clear that Weiss was quickly going from frightened to angry. "You haven't allowed anything. I earned it. You gave your word that if I satisfied your requirements that I would be able to attend Beacon. I surpassed each and every one of the ridiculous and increasingly difficult barriers you placed in my way." She pointed to her scarred eye. "This is proof of what I fought through and endured. Proof that I earned my way here and now that I am here, I am not leaving."
"It is apparent that your recent injuries have affected your mind," he said evenly. "Having to fight for your life has left you in a state of shock and your mind is clouded."
"My mind and my thoughts have never been more clear and focused," she countered. "Physically and mentally I am perfectly fine."
"No my dear, you clearly are not," he said, his tone oily and condescending. "You need help. I was already about to cut off the flow of money to you since you haven't seen fit to answer your scroll when I call or return any messages. I chalked that up to you becoming headstrong and defiant while out of my sight. Since it seems that this recent incident has damaged you then I'm afraid that if you can't see reason then you will be removed as my heir to the company and confined to the family compound for your own good."
Her eyes went wide and the shaking of her form increased, both due to fear of him and anger at him. She closed her eyes and took a deep, steadying breath. When she released it her shoulders slumped. She opened her eyes again and looked around at her friends. The one's who had come to accept her despite the rough beginnings she had with them all. The one's who now defined her life and made it better. She looked into the lovely silver eyes of the first person she had met at Beacon and had probably treated the worst, the girl who never gave up on her and insisted on being her friend. The first real friend she had ever had.
"Fine," she said with a sigh. Her friends were all aghast and Jacques broke into a self satisfied little smirk. "Take the money and the inheritance." His jaw suddenly dropped. "If that's the price I have to pay to get out from under your heel, then fine, I'll take it. But I am still not going with you. I am staying here and continuing to study at Beacon."
"You will not defy me child," he warned angrily. "You will do as I say."
"No, I will not," she countered, standing her ground despite how much she was shaking. "Why should I listen to a man who treats his own wife and children like garbage? You aren't even a Schnee, you're a thief who stole the family name and my grandfather's company and you've dragged both through the mud and turned them into something loathsome!"
With a quick step forward Jacques slapped her across the face, hard enough to send her sprawling across her hospital bed. Through the ringing in her ears she heard a quick snap/crunch and the sound of Jacques howling in pain. Through her starry vision she saw her Father on his knees and his right hand and wrist was crushed in the grip of Ichigo's right hand. His body guard received a fist in the throat and a pump kick to the chest from Yoruichi that sent him flying backwards out of the room and into the hallway.
"Weiss!" Ruby exclaimed in concern as she helped her into a sitting position. "Are you alright?"
"I didn't expect him to hit me," she responded, blinking her eyes and working her jaw. "Or that he would hit me that hard."
She glanced down at her father, the man she had feared more than loved for most of her life. He was whimpering in pain as Ichigo kept a solid grip on his crushed hand. He didn't look so imposing now, his presence no longer felt suffocating though she still feared him. She couldn't really remember a time when she hadn't feared him or at least felt intimidated. Not the kind of emotions a child should ever have to feel from a parent and that didn't even get into all of the hateful garbage he had tried to cram into her head for all of her life.
"Jacques Gallee," Ichigo spoke, his voice sounding like a mixture of his and Shiro's. "You and I are going to go and have a little talk. Call it a, negotiation if you like. One where if all goes well you just might remain a free man and not end up with a cell in Vale's prison next to Sienna Khan."
With a crackle of Sonido, they were gone. To the roof... but that wasn't a detail that anyone else needed to know.
"Can someone go and find the doctor please?" Yoruichi asked.
"I'll go," Pyrrha volunteered.
"You okay Weiss," the were-cat asked.
"I think so," she answered.
"Um, Ichigo's not going to kill him is he?" Jaune asked uncertainly.
"Tempting," Yoruichi admitted. "But no. It's like he said, they're going to negotiate."
"Negotiate what?" Blake asked.
"Not sure exactly," she answered. "We didn't have time to discuss it, but I would imagine he's going to make sure Weiss keeps her allowance along with getting a couple of other things in exchange for Jacques not going to jail." She held up her scroll. "We arrived just as he came in the room and I recorded the whole thing. He can easily be charged with assault and the uproar of it being made public that he physically assaulted his own daughter, one of the heroes of the defence of Beacon, while she was still in the hospital recovering from her wounds, is not something he'll be able to shrug off. As ironclad as Jacques thinks he is, the charges would stick and even he wouldn't be able to weather the storm if the video were to be released to the media."
"Isn't that blackmail?" Yang asked.
"I believe so, yes," Yoruichi responded with a Cheshire grin.
"Just checking," Yang grinned back. "Couldn't happen to a nicer guy."
"Besides, if we did just outright release it and have the police arrest him, he's not the only one who would be hounded night and day by the media," she explained. "So would Weiss. She wouldn't have a moment's peace."
At that moment the bodyguard stumbled back into the room but Yoruichi cut him off and shoved him back out. She pinned him with her spiritual pressure, sending him sprawling to the floor.
"As for you, know when you're beaten and stay down. When my husband brings your boss back the two of you will get the hell out of this hospital, go back to the airport, and get the hell out of Vale." She let up on the pressure and he shakily rose to his feet. "Move from that spot and I'll crush you like a cockroach."
When the doctor arrived and found out what happened, she was livid and ready to call the authorities on the spot. Yoruichi persuaded her to wait until Ichigo returned with Jacques and they found out what sort of deal had been made. The doctor reserved the right to say screw it no matter what the deal was and call the cops anyway. The were-cat felt that was fair, she was asking a lot for the doctor to hold off after all.
Fifteen minutes later Ichigo returned with a very pale and bedraggled looking Jacques, who had also quite obviously pissed himself at some point. They went to the doctor's office and discussed matters and returned to Team RWBY's hospital room about half an hour later.
"Is my father gone?" Weiss asked.
"On his way back to the airport as we speak," Yoruichi answered. "Shiro and Tensa are following to make sure that he doesn't make any extra stops or side trips."
She visibly relaxed. "So you negotiated with him?" she asked Ichigo. "I can't imagine that was pleasant."
"It wasn't," Ichigo smirked. It certainly hadn't been pleasant for Jacques. "But it actually went quite well. Firstly, he won't be cutting off your monthly allowance, he'll be doubling it." That made the girl's eyes widen. "Second, stewardship of your trust fund will be transferred to a lawyer here in Vale that we trust and will be available to you when you graduate from Beacon. Your father will have no control over it any longer. As for being removed as his heir to the company, that's up to you so you'll have a decision to make there."
She sighed. "He can keep the company, give it to my brother. I don't want it," she answered.
"But Weiss," Ruby began. "I thought you wanted to take it over and fix it, undo all the bad things he's done with it."
"I did," she admitted. "But I've thought a lot about it lately and I have to be realistic. No matter what I do with it, the Schnee name will never again mean what it did when my Grandfather was running it. Father has pretty much destroyed any chance of our name regaining its former honour. Changing its business practices would be almost impossible since the board of directors would fight any change tooth and nail. Father made them tons of money which has ensured their loyalty to him and the way he does business. It would be a constant battle to try and even get the smallest of reforms through them and they would constantly challenge me in ways they never would challenge my father." She looked around the room and then into the eyes of her partner. "I think I could do more good in this world as a Huntress. I'd rather be fighting alongside you than losing my sanity in an office or a boardroom."
That brought on a squeal and a lunging hug from Ruby that flattened the pale girl onto her bed and brought a chuckle to everyone else.
"We'll pass your decision on," Ichigo said through a smile. "And lastly, he will be making a very sizable donation to this hospital every year for the foreseeable future. He didn't like any of the points we settled on, but it seemed like he was extra pissed about this one."
"He has nothing against holding fundraisers," Weiss explained. "It raises his profile in the community and it's other peoples money that's getting donated. He hates donating his own and especially so to a cause outside of Atlas. He see's the other Kingdom's as being lesser and beneath us."
"Speaking of beneath," Yoruichi chuckled, giving the girl a smirking look as she was pinned beneath Ruby. "Would you like us to give you two the room so you can have some privacy?"
"Huh?" Ruby asked, not getting it. Weiss however was turning a very unhealthy shade of scarlet. It was a toss up in her mind what was more embarrassing, the innuendo and her friends all chuckling at it, or the fact that in a corner of her mind she was very much enjoying the compromising position she was in.
Traitorous brain. Stupid hormones.
"Wow sis," Yang laughed. "I didn't know you were like this. First Ichigo, now Weiss. And right here in front of everyone too."
"What are you talking about Yang?!" She had shot up to a sitting position to confront her sister, but at the same moment her mind started to catch up to events. She looked down at Weiss, who's hips she was now sitting astride, then at the pale girl's red face. Her own face went red and there may or may not have been a puff of smoke from her ears. In blur she had gone from Weiss's bed and back to hers.
"You're all perverts!" she accused, muffled by the layers of bedding she was now hiding under. Considering the thoughts now creeping around in her head, what did that make her?
Yoruichi winked at Weiss and mouthed the words 'warrior princess', causing the girl to turn even redder. It's a wonder she didn't spontaneously combust.
'I just had to let curiosity get the better of me and look that up on the lingerie store's website after she teased me about that didn't I? Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!'
"The doctor should be along in a few minutes to finally give you guys your last check up so you can get out of here," Ichigo said by way of coming to the rescue. "Do you all have somewhere to go when you get released?"
"We're going to Patch," Yang answered. "Dad volunteered to take everyone in until we can get back into the dorms. It'll be a bit tight to fit everyone in the house but we'll manage."
"You all should be able to unwind a bit before classes start up again," Yoruichi said. "It'll be good for you all."
"Speaking of classes," Weiss said as she sat up. She looked around at the others and got a nod from everyone, even Ruby who had poked her head out from the blankets. "We were discussing it before my Father so rudely interrupted and we decided that we wanted you to continue teaching us."
"Are you sure?" Ichigo asked.
"We are," Ren answered. "You made mistakes but you owned up to them and told us how and why you made them. You've told us before that you would always be honest with us and you were. You didn't try to hide behind excuses or downplay what happened. You laid yourselves bare and told the truth and it was obvious that you regretted those mistakes."
"We trust the two of you and you have already taught us so much," Pyrrha said. "And we want to continue to learn whatever you can teach us."
"If you're sure then we'd be glad to continue teaching you," Yoruichi said, hiding the fact quite well that she was about to get a little misty.
"It would be our honour," Ichigo said as he put his arm over Yoruichi's shoulders. He caught sight of the doctor standing at the door and nodded to her. "Time for us to go and for you guys to get checked out of here. I'll make dinner for you all again right before classes resume. We've still got a bunch of things we promised to fill you in on after all." That definitely got their attention.
They left the doctor to do her thing and walked off down the hall, heading for the elevator.
"So how did you get Jacques to piss himself?" Yoruichi asked him. "Did you give him the eyes?"
He shook his head. "Didn't have to."
"So what? He was afraid you were going to throw him off the roof?"
"Probably but he didn't have much time to think about that," he said. "The trip up via Sonido was hard on his stomach but once he got done puking he got all angry and indignant and started yelling. Then he realized that we had come to a stop eight stories up and over the intersection down the street. That's when he pissed himself and he passed out. Though, Shiro popping out and laughing in his face played a part in that." They came to the elevator and he pressed the 'down' button. "I spent half my time up there trying to wake him back up, after that he agreed to everything. Tensa came out and warned him of the consequences of violating our agreement. The Old Man can be pretty damn intimidating when he wants to be."
The doors opened and they stepped in. "They're not just bird dogging him back to the airport, they're going to follow him all the way to Atlas aren't they?"
"If he looks outside he'll see Shiro sitting on one wing, and Tensa on the other."
Her laughter could be heard down the hall until the doors closed to cut it off.
Don't know when the next chapter will arrive, but I can pretty much guarantee it won't take over a year again.
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