Yo! Back for more.
Got some small announcements at the end of this chapter, but for now, let's just get into it!
Start Chapter 25
If anything, it's far colder up in Atlas than it had been down in Mantle, despite the fact that the upper city is doing an awful lot better for itself in terms of wealth.
That mostly comes down to the fact that Mantle is a walled city, and thusly, the heat that the heaters give off ends up largely staying put within those walls, causing the entire area to be a few degrees warmer than it would be otherwise.
Atlas has no such advantage, and what's more, it's a good kilometer in the air. Things tend to get colder the higher up one goes.
Jaune finds himself looking back towards Tyrian, who's just shucked off his work vest into the nearest trash bin, much as Jaune himself has. They'd experienced little resistance, and been lucky enough that the Snow Shoe Shipping company's Atlas building had been – while not abandoned – understaffed.
They'd only had to duck around a few workers on their way out, and once they'd exited out of the building, well…
They're home free, now.
Jaune's almost wishing they got caught.
Still, he knows that while he can afford to have such thoughts, Cinder isn't quite so lucky. He has no doubt that Salem would be petty enough to kill Cinder for his perceived failure, even if he isn't around to actually be shown that failure, in the case of them somehow being captured.
Which means he can't let that happen.
Cinder… she might just be one girl, in a sea of people, but if he can keep her safe, then…
Gods, but he feels like a fool sometimes for caring so much, no matter what his teammates might say about that being a positive trait.
"Where are we headed?" He breaks himself out of his own head.
"Nowhere for the moment." Tyrian tells him, chuckling to himself. "Unfortunately, we're on break for the next little while, until the Vytal Festival kicks off."
Jaune's brow furrows. "We're going after her… after the Vytal Festival's started? That doesn't seem wise."
Not that he's complaining, mind.
"Well, we can't now," Tyrian begins to explain. "Because all of the students from other academies are being vetted by Hawthorne to make sure they're not members of any faunus rights groups, or really suspicious in any way,"
Jaune scoffed.
"Which means they're under constant surveillance. I doubt even the two of us would be able to get the girl more than 50 meters out of her room before we were brought down."
The smile on Tyrian's face unnerves him; like the man thinks his own potential death is a humorous thought.
"Funnily enough, she will be under the least watch in the stadium itself." Tyrian tells him. "While the amount of personnel will no doubt be much higher, no one will be paying much attention to one young, innocent huntress-in-training amongst a sea of people who need protecting from all sorts of potential… threats."
It makes a sick sort of sense, in truth. While it might seem antithetical to try and kidnap Ruby during the Vytal Festival – which is still something Jaune's not actually going to let happen, to be clear, he just doesn't have a plan to prevent it yet – there will be so many people that keeping track of any individual becomes a damn-near impossibility
As Tyrian says, oxymoronically, she will be at most vulnerable amongst a sea of guards, surveillance, and Hunters from all over the world.
"Alright." He nods his head, trying to pretend that getting a look behind the curtain of this whole villainous espionage stuff isn't getting to him a little. "For now, then, what's our plan?"
"I figured we'd eat," Tyrian says, clapping his hands together. "Why, there was just the most delightful restaurant near that place you picked young Cinder up from; what was it called again?"
A chill runs down Jaune's spine at that, and he hisses out in anger as he brushes past Tyrian, trying not to let the way that man gleefully cackles get to him. It's… difficult, to put things lightly.
Though, inadvertently, Tyrian has told him an awful lot just now without perhaps meaning to.
The fact that Tyrian had found a restaurant he liked near The Glass Unicorn – assuming he's not full of shit, which is a very real possibility – means he'd likely spent a great deal of time in the area. It hadn't been his assumption that Tyrian would be the one put in charge of gathering Salem's potential recruits, but…
Well, he can ponder such things later. For now…
Tyrian's suggestion isn't half bad.
"Fine." He grunts out. "Where to?"
"Come, come!" Tyrian giggles excitedly.
"It's just down the way!"
/
"Okay, everyone, let's go through the plan one more time."
Roman raises a hand beside her.
"Yes, white rabbit?" Ruby asks him.
"I feel like my code name is demeaning."
"Oh, be quiet already." Amber groans.
"Yeah, listen to brown fox."
"She's just saying that because her name's way cooler!"
"Ruby's called red mouse." Amber raises an eyebrow. "That's not cool."
"Yeah, but she's happy with that name!"
"Alright, fine; Roman, what do you want your codename to be?"
"White ninja!"
No one says anything.
"I thought it was cool."
"And that's why we didn't let you rename your weapon."
"Hey, 'Phonograph of the End' is a great name!"
"Yeah," Amber snorts. "If you're twelve."
"Guys," Ruby interrupts before these two can get into yet another argument. "Let's focus in on the here and now. We've got a hotel to sneak out of!"
"Right," Roman sighs. "…Okay, but can I be white ninja, or–"
"Fine, you can be white ninja," Ruby rolls her eyes. "Now, hotel. Focus."
"Right," Roman coughs into his hand. "Okay, so… how does that work, exactly? I'd assume our rooms are being watched pretty much 24/7, no?"
"I'd also assume as much." Amber agrees. "Always plan around your enemy being far more capable than they might actually be. It's possible all they have is a few cameras set up in the hall, but let's assume they have one pointed directly at our door. Given who we are," Amber nods to Ruby, "I'm fairly certain we'll be given a bit of extra surveillance."
Ruby grumbles, having somehow not thought of that.
Her sister has always said she's a bundle of positivity, but also a very obvious bundle of positivity. So, yes, she's really not good at this espionage stuff. It's about as far from out of her wheelhouse as possible.
"Uh, I mean," Roman shrugs. "If we just have to get past a camera, that's not that hard."
They both turn towards him, and Roman coughs into one hand.
"This is your criminal past coming into play?"
"I stole from people to eat, Amber," Roman hisses out. "I wasn't a criminal for the fun of it!"
"Why do you know how to get around cameras if you only stole to eat?"
Roman raises a single finger, before said finger wilts.
"That's not important," Roman coughs out.
"Oh, yeah, okay." Amber scoffs.
"What is important is our methodology here." Roman barrels right through Amber's interruption. "For right now, we'll head out for a normal walk. We pace around, we try and casually notice some cameras. If we spot them in some places, and not others, we can map out a route. Then, maybe, we just so happen to get lucky with certain cameras dipping out where others don't."
"Why would they dip out?"
Roman coughs. "I may or may not have a method for making that happen."
Ruby's eyes widen. "Is it… a technological thing, or?"
"Nah," Roman rubs at the back of his neck, seeming awkward. "It's my Semblance, actually. Not a particularly useful one most of the time. It lets me short out electrical devices, open some very, very basic electronic locks. Basically, anything you could do with a 9-volt battery and some copper wire, just a bit more subtle. I think I should be able to turn off a few cameras before they spot us."
Ruby's not quite sure why Roman seems so glum about his Semblance. "Well, it certainly sounds handy!"
Roman reacts at that rather obviously. Ruby's not really sure why, to be honest. Not everyone can have super speed, or super strength, or the Schnee glyphs. Some people get more narrow semblances. But Roman's is obviously a rather powerful utility semblance.
Yet he seems surprised by the fact that she's complementary of it. How odd.
"Well, anyways, we'll do as Roman suggested," She turns away from the others, looking towards the door. "We'll investigate the halls that lead towards the entrance, find the cameras, and plot our route for tonight when the rally takes place!"
The others all nod – it takes Roman a second to snap from out of his brief stupor, but he does nod – before they follow her out the door.
But Ruby, in her excitement, misses the warmth in Roman's face, the way he looks down at his hands, and smiles, just a bit surer of himself.
/
Blake tells Ghira about what had happened that next morning, separate from the others. She'll inform Eve and Sienna in a bit, but she doesn't want to scare poor Adam.
"What!?" Ghira, evidently, hadn't at all expected something like this. "They… they were going to burn the hotel down?"
"They were pouring gasoline on the floor," Blake nods her head, feeling that disgust from before building back up within her. "They'd planned on killing all of us in our sleep without alerting anyone. What's more, I'm fairly certain they were hired by someone in the government. They mentioned 'suits' giving them the job."
Ghira is evidently having a crisis in that moment, for he looks towards his Blake, and Kali, standing a ways away near the front entrance. He takes a breath, a deep, pained thing, and runs a hand down his face.
"…What should we do?"
It's odd, to have her father ask her the plan for this situation. Then again, this is before Ghira had really officially cemented himself as the leader of the White Fang. And perhaps, because of that, he's yet to fully come into his role.
Blake won't judge him, either way.
"I would say that continuing on with our protests at this point would be dangerous." She admits to him.
"And yet, not protesting is almost certainly exactly what they wanted from us when they took such an action." Ghira growls out. "They intended to either kill us, or scare us into leaving, and getting out of their hair."
Blake doesn't disagree. Honestly, as horrible as it is, it's not as if this is her first experience with terror tactics. She herself had been a part of some of Sienna's White Fang's first operations against the SDC. They'd done… while nothing this dark, some rather harrowing things in the name of progress.
"…We'll protest regardless." Ghira breathes out in a rush, and Blake's eyes widen. "We can't say that our lives are more valuable than any of those people here in Atlas, who are being trodden on and abused. We can't allow some of Hawthorne's proposed policies to go through. It would set the world back decades."
Blake admires how much spirit her father is showing in that moment, even if she can't help but worry for him.
"But even so, I'm going to be telling everyone in the group about this, and sending back everyone who wishes for it." Ghira reveals, and Blake agrees with the plan. The children, at least, should be sequestered away. "I myself will stay, and…"
"I will as well." Blake reassures him, and Ghira laughs out in a breath of relief.
"I didn't want to pressure you, but… well, I think the chances of something happening to me are significantly lower with you here."
She nods her head.
"The rally is tonight, correct?"
"Mm." Ghira runs a hand down the back of his neck. "It'll be difficult to get everyone out of Mantle by then."
Blake nods her head, feeling a bit of that same worry that her father's feeling flooding through her. She wants to offer him some manner of assurance.
"Sienna's likely quite capable of defending the others." She tells Ghira, and watches him grow the slightest bit concerned. "I know you think of her more as a daughter than an employee…"
Ghira looks away, caught. Blake has to resist the urge not to laugh. "But you should put your faith in her. I've been her teacher now for quite a while. I'm confident she would've been able to handle those same men from last night. I doubt we'd be able to get our people out of Mantle in time for the rally anyways. Instead, they should stay in a populated area, with witnesses all around, and Sienna watching them. Meanwhile, the rest of us will go to the rally, and then we can all leave together in a few days, once the Vytal Festival starts up."
"Hah…" Ghira runs a hand down his face. "Why does this all have to be so complicated?"
"I'm afraid that when you chose to fight for the rights of the oppressed, you signed up for this."
"Yes, well, I can tell you that I didn't think I was signing up for anything."
Blake laughs, and her father just rolls his eyes.
/
The others take the news in varying states of shock. Of course, they'd have to have noticed the lingering stench of gasoline that had filtered through the hotel, but they'd have likely written that off as something that had happened outside.
Now, they know the truth.
"Wait, but…" Eve shakes her head, seemingly unable to reconcile the facts of the situation. "Why would anyone want to…" She checks on Adam, who's currently talking at the other end of the room with Blake, the two of them being looked after by Kali. "Why would anyone want to kill us!?"
"Because they know the effect we might be able to have." Ghira grunts out. "Because they do not want to risk us potentially disrupting their efforts to paint the faunus as monstrous animals."
Eve scoffs, as if the very thought disgusts her. "Why? Why are people so… so…"
It's a question that Blake has asked herself so very many times. How could people be so stupid, so shortsighted, so hateful? She's never heard an answer that actually satisfied her, and as far as she's concerned, she never will.
Most of the time, the people actually peddling such false ideologies don't even believe in them. They're simply grifters looking to make a quick buck off of a group of idiots. The annoying part is that it works often. Far too often.
Still, her attention is focused, mainly, on Sienna, who doesn't seem thrilled when Blake gives her the plan.
"I was supposed to be at the rally," Sienna argues, and Blake had seen this coming. "Not…"
"Not protecting the people that you care about?" Blake raises an eyebrow at her, and Sienna looks caught. "I understand you're frustrated, and believe me, I am as well. But you will have a job that is equally as important as my own. You're protecting people. There's no higher calling, Sienna."
The girl scoffs, looking away. It's clear she's not thrilled about this. But the fact that she's so annoyed also means she's accepted what she's going to be doing.
Blake isn't worried about them, to be honest. She's more concerned about the protests. The worst that Sienna and the others might face is some racism on the streets – which is, to be clear, not at all minor, but it's less bad than, say, an IED that might be planted in a garbage can.
Blake's very much hoping it doesn't come to that, but then, she doesn't have quite as much control over the world as she'd like to.
"Alright, Myself, Blake – er, adult Blake," Ghira clarifies as his daughter tilts her head in confusion, "alongside Anders and Alistair's groups, will be going to the protests. Sienna, you'll be in charge of taking care of everyone else."
"I…" Eve steps forward, clearly perturbed. "I'd like to go with you all."
Blake steps in immediately. "I can't allow that."
"But–"
She places a hand on Eve's arm. "Evelynn. Adam needs you."
Her mouth opens, shuts, and she lets out a heavy breath. She nods her head in the next moment.
"I just wanted to be able to give something back for once."
Blake can more than understand where Eve's coming from, alongside her frustration with again being thrust to the side, needing to be protected. That had been something Blake had been figuring out about Eve; her reasoning behind wanting Blake to train her in the first place.
"You will be. Even if it's just to Adam himself. You'll be keeping him safe."
Eve nods, still a bit glum, but she doesn't seem quite as upset as before.
"Alright," Ghira clears his throat. "For now, we'll start preparing to leave. Everyone…"
"Safe tidings."
/
There's a knock at Yang's door later on in the evening, and when she opens it, she finds her mother stood there in the doorway.
"What's up?" She asks.
"Let me in."
"You could be a bit nicer about it."
Raven stares at her flatly.
Yang just rolls her eyes, but lets her in nonetheless.
Her room quite literally hasn't been touched in the few days they've been here now. Outside of the shower, and her bed, nothing else has been so much as moved. There's a television, a temperature unit, a dresser she could put her clothes in, and an old phone that's hooked into the wall.
"What's up?" She asks again.
Raven, as per usual, wastes no time. "There's a rally for the faunus being held down in Mantle. Wanna go?"
Yang raises an eyebrow. She's not nearly as doubtful on her mother's capability to be a good person these days, but forgive her for not thinking Raven Branwen would be the champion of faunus rights.
"Why would you care?"
"Specifically?" Raven turns back towards her, before giving a cocksure smile. "Because General Hawthorne told us to leave the event to his people. And frankly, if Hawthorne doesn't want us to go, I think we should. Shitting on what he wants is funny.
Yang can't really deny that, knowing what she does about the man.
And honestly, given who's she's chosen as her girlfriend and partner…
"It would just be us, given that Summer and Tai are taking the girls out to see some of the sights tonight. I figured we could chat about things while we're there."
Rather obviously, Raven wants to talk about Yang's future, or at the very least, to learn more about Ruby, and the others who are here in this time. Yang can't really blame her for that – she'd probably be doing much the same in her shoes – but she's also not going to say too much.
"Yeah. Sure. I'll go." Yang makes her way towards her suitcase, preparing an outfit for the night, smiling to herself all the while.
"My girlfriend would smack me if I didn't."
Raven hums. "Strange."
"What's strange?"
"You said that like it was a bad thing; I just sort of assumed you'd be into that."
Yang rounds on Raven with a red face.
"Oi!"
/
When she and Trivia exit out of their hotel room that morning, they emerge to find Qrow waiting for them.
The man seems to get off on standing against the wall opposite Weiss' door with his arms crossed and one leg up. She's pretty sure he thinks it looks super cool, and that the pose makes him seem edgy and mysterious.
It doesn't, but Weiss doesn't have the heart to ruin that for him.
"Alright, so," Qrow clears his throat. "I still haven't managed to get a chance to meet up with my sister, who is apparently back with us, but I think she's going to have no choice but to see me later tonight, unless she finds some other bullshit excuse to skip out on me."
Given that Raven had already done so several times, that's not particularly unlikely.
"But for now, how about I finally introduce you to the guy I work for?" Qrow asks, and Weiss is somewhat surprised at that.
"Ozpin?"
"The very same." Qrow nods his head. "I've been talking about bringing you into the fold, and I think he's ready to finally hear me out. Like you asked, I haven't told him about your whole… situation." He gestures to her hair, and she gets the idea that he's talking about being a Schnee. "But you're probably going to want to tell him that at some point."
"I will eventually." Weiss confirms. "Just not immediately. Besides, I'd like to get to know this man before I commit to anything."
"Right, yeah, I suppose that's fair." Qrow chuckles, before seemingly remembering that Trivia's present at all. It's not hard to forget, given she can't exactly make noise, and she's not at all the type to really assert herself. "Oh, Trivia. Uh… well, I guess you can come with us, though you won't be able to join in the meeting itself. Is that fine with you?"
Trivia nods her head quickly, seemingly more than willing to accompany them on what will likely be a fairly mundane trip. Still, Weiss has already been able to figure out that Trivia's the kind of girl who appreciates being able to feel included. So, Weiss is more than willing to go out of her way to do just that.
They exit out of the hotel itself a few minutes later, walking together for a bit before Trivia, in her boundless excitement, breaks off from them and begins investigating things in front of them. Never too far that either she or Qrow have to worry, on the bright side, but Weiss would still rather she stayed closer.
"She's rather rambunctious." She mutters, and beside her, Qrow laughs.
"More than a little, yeah."
"…I can't say this is where I thought my life would be going a year or so ago."
"What, in Atlas, having accidentally kidnapped/adopted a young girl?"
"Yeah, that about covers it." Weiss sighs out, and Qrow laughs at her pain.
"Hey, your life's going a lot better than mine was at the time. When I was your age, my sister ran out on her husband and wife."
"Wait… husband and wife?"
"Oh, yeah, she was in a throuple."
"Huh. I… had no idea."
"I don't know why you would, given I've barely told you about them." Qrow snickers, and Weiss has to remind herself that she's not supposed to know anything about them beyond what Qrow's told her, which…
Which she's having trouble distinguishing from the things that Ruby and Yang had said to her, once upon a time.
Suddenly, she feels Qrow tense beside her, and though she feels something might be wrong, Qrow relaxes a moment later, as if whatever it had been had dissipated. Weiss is content to leave things there, only…
"Listen to what I'm about to say and don't visibly react, alright? Keep walking as you normally would."
"What?"
"We're being followed."
Weiss eyes widen, but luckily, she's able to keep her outward reaction to something that's purely front-facing, and thusly, anyone behind them won't have been able to see it.
Still…
Her brow furrows. "By who?"
"I have no idea." Qrow admits, even as he uses the reflective windows of a storefront that they're passing by to see those following them in the reflection itself. "Huh. Couple of local thugs by the looks of things. Don't seem like government suits or anything, which is sort of what I assumed."
"What?" Weiss narrows her eyes. "Why would people from the government be following us?"
"Well, two reasons. One, I'm pretty much Oz's number one problem solver, and Hawthorne's still wary around Ozpin because he knows there's more going on, but Oz hasn't been willing to fill him in on some of the more… big picture elements at play in the world right now. Two, I figured they might be following you."
Weiss scoffs. "Why would they care about me?"
"You're a Schnee, aren't you?"
The idea isn't a terrible one when Qrow puts it like that. He thinks she's from Atlas, after all, and though she is, she's very much not from this Atlas. He probably thinks she fled from the Schnee Manor at some point, and that the people following them might be trying to identify her.
But no, that's not the case.
"Alright, then why else would they be–"
Suddenly, someone barrels into Weiss' chest, and she has a half-moment of purest panic before she looks down, and realizes it's just Trivia, having come up to wrap her arms around her waist in a hug. She looks up at Weiss and smiles; all teeth.
Weiss can't help but melt at that look, and the stress of knowing they're being followed goes with it. Not all of it, but–
"What?" Qrow turns around suddenly, gazing behind them, and Trivia seems rather confused.
"What's wrong?" Weiss asks him.
He gives a haggard breath, before turning back towards her, and saying,
"They're gone."
/
Two men duck into an alleyway a minute later. The first stands lookout, leaning against the wall and watching for anyone coming or going.
The other brings out a scroll.
It doesn't take long for the person on the other end to answer, and when they do, it's with an amused hum.
"I'm taking it you have good news?"
"We do, Miss Malachite." He confirms.
"We found the girl."
End Chapter 25
Alright, chapter 25!
Not a ton to say regarding things, other than that our plots for all five people are progressing! Things will be coming to a head sooner rather than later!
Now, I wanted to say that, to promote the discord server (the link to which you're probably better off just going to my AO3 to find lol) you can read the next chapter of this story right now just by visiting! It'll be in the next chapter channel!
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