Alright, yet another chapter!
Start Chapter 21
Atlas is, rather unsurprisingly, cold.
In a weird way, it's almost nostalgic for Ruby to get out of the bullhead and suddenly be hit in the face with gale force winds that feel like they could freeze magma solid. Her time in Atlas hadn't ended well, but she'd enjoyed the first half a year or so that they'd spent there, before things went up in smoke.
Perhaps that's the odd emotion she's feeling; why it almost seems like she's walking amongst the ruins of a long-gone empire, suddenly brought to life.
For her, that's exactly what it is.
"Please form a single file line," A man in an Atlesian uniform that Ruby doesn't recognize – but then, it isn't like she knows everyone in Atlas, especially not a decade prior to when she'd been there – calls out to the students exiting their bullhead. "You will be scanned in through our arrivals system, and have your baggage briefly checked."
Now this is new; and judging from the look of aggravation on Headmaster Ozpin's face, not at all a welcome addition.
Ruby would like to pretend she's worldly enough to know whether or not this had happened once upon a time in Atlas, but if it had, no one had spoken of it, and, all in all, she can't pretend to know enough about this stuff.
So she has no idea if this is new for eleven years ago, or genuinely new.
She'd been too focused on searching for information on her team, or training, to worry about the politics of other Kingdoms.
"Surely, you do not need to go through so exhausting a process for students of Beacon Academy." Ozpin steps forward, flanked by Glynda on one side. "They've all been personally vetted by myself and the other teachers amongst Beacon's staff for years, and have shown no signs of trouble."
"It's not my call to make, sir." The man shrugs. "I'm just doing what General Hawthorne's told me to."
"Ah, Hawthorne." Ozpin says the man's name like it's a curse. "I'll be speaking to him about this."
"I'm sure he'll be more than willing to speak with you later, but unfortunately he's quite busy."
Ozpin just sighs. "Yes. How surprising."
His tone indicates that Ozpin is being sarcastic.
"Fine. But you will demonstrate whatever methods you wish to check my students on myself and Glynda before laying a hand on any of them."
Thus begins roughly a half an hour of bags being unzipped, pockets being unfurled, and a rather select subset of their students being picked out of the crowd for 'random checks'.
"You, come with us," Two guards step up to a fourth-year student, who doesn't back off at all. "You've been randomly selected to have your baggage double-checked."
The reason why is obvious.
"Oh, yeah?" The student – or perhaps Ruby should say the faunus student – squares his shoulders and spits out, "Try me."
His teammates look ready to back that claim up, too. They step forward with their hands balled into fists, clearly barely holding back fury.
The guards, not backing down either, draw their weapons, pointing them directly at the students.
"You will stand down immediately, or by our authority you will be–"
"Enough of this!"
Everyone in the room halts what they'd been doing the moment that Glynda Goodwitch raises her voice. She steps forward with a snarl, drawing her riding crop from off of her hip and yanking the Atlesian guards' weapons from out of their hands with her semblance. She holds them up in the air above her, and gets right in one of the men's faces.
"Point a weapon at one of my students again," She hisses out between clenched teeth, looking at each and every one of the now cowering guardsmen, "And I guarantee you will regret it."
Ruby's impressed, and she's not the only one. Several of the third and fourth years nod approvingly, and one particularly brave woman wolf-whistles. Glynda's still a first-year teacher, and she likely hasn't shown this side of herself very much. She's not had as much chance to be the stern disciplinarian without a Team RWBY to really be… well, stern with.
But if there's one thing that Ms. Goodwitch cares about more than her students endangering other people, its other people endangering her students.
The guards swear out under their breaths, and some of them seem willing to actually escalate the situation, but before both sides can come to blows…
"Gentleman!"
The person who's just shouted out commands the attention of every member of the guard within earshot. They stop on a dime, turn towards it, and salute.
And Ruby sees why a second later.
The man who steps into their little section of the landing bay is both tall and wide. He's slightly shorter than Ironwood, but not by much. His outfit is much the same, however, albeit with a few modifications.
He's wearing a long coat the same as Ironwood had, but his is lined with fur around the collar. His hair is longer, and a much browner color. He is graying in places, however, and so Ruby thinks that he must be at least fifty years old, if not older than that. He has medals strapped to the left breast of his uniform – what seems to be fifty or more of them.
On his face, perhaps most notably about him, is a large scar running down his left eye. It looks like the kind of thing that might have taken his eye, and yet, no, the eye is there, and doesn't seem blinded by the wound.
Ruby can't tell if it's Grimm in origin, but then, she doesn't really have time to focus on the scar before the man is suddenly face to face with Ozpin, and offering out his hand.
"Ozpin. It's been a while."
"General Hawthorne." Ozpin's always been a polite person, but the handshake he gives to Hawthorne is brief, curt, and has nothing behind it.
"I see my men are giving you grief." He looks towards them, and they all shrink away.
"They seemed to be rather… focused with the students they picked out at 'random'."
"Ah, well, unfortunately, randomness can appear at times to have an agenda." The man chuckles in what Ruby's pretty sure is supposed to be a good-natured way, but it doesn't reach his eyes. "Nonetheless, it seems you've all been searched enough. Guardsman, escort the students of Beacon Academy to their hotel. Students of Beacon Academy, know that you are restricted to the grounds of Atlas Academy and its surrounding facilities for the week, until everything's been settled."
It's clearly not what Ozpin wants to hear, but the man is evidently happy enough to get his students out of this scenario in the first place, and so nods towards Hawthorne, allowing the guards to start escorting them forward, deeper into Atlas.
All the while, Hawthorne looks on at them. Even as Glynda Goodwitch – still hovering the guards' weapons over her head – exits the room. Even as the students follow after her. Even as Ozpin, the last to go, gives a subtle look of distrust back at him.
He does not look away.
He will not show his back.
It is only after their group has left that room, and is being escorted to their destination, that Roman leans over towards her and mutters, "That guy's kind of an asshole."
Ruby snorts.
"Yep."
/
Technically speaking, ferrying people about in the back of a cargo freighter is a perfectly legal method of transportation. Especially so when the pilot has the proper papers, and has documented the entire process, making no secret of this.
Then again, one wouldn't know it given the welcome the fifteen or so people who've flown from Menagerie to Mantle get when they land.
"Yes," Ghira Belladonna huffs out darkly below his breath as he allows the dozen soldiers who've come to search them for 'contraband' to do their work. "The hospitality of Atlas on full display."
The guard checking her father clicks his tongue against the roof of his mouth as he finishes checking Ghira, and finds nothing on him. Blake had half expected him to try planting evidence, given how obviously corrupt they are already, but perhaps they're not quite solidified enough in their positions to perform an action that could turn the people against them.
"State your name and business." One of the other guards, a younger-looking man, speaks, and Ghira harrumphs.
"You've read it on the manifest, have you not? We're here to protest the abhorrent treatment of the faunus here in Atlas."
The man doesn't say anything, just looks down at the paper, looking it over, and then sighs.
"Fine, you're free to go."
"I wasn't aware we'd done anything wrong." Kali, her mother, places a hand over her mouth, always an expert at the 'innocent' act. "Our apologies for inconveniencing you, officers. I'm sure you've important work to get back to."
Blake can't help the way her lips upturn ever so subtly. Her mother had become a lot more mellowed out by the time that Blake had eventually returned to see her after Beacon, only occasionally showing signs of the fiery woman that she'd been when Blake had been just a child. It's good to see her like this again; the yang to Ghira's yin.
Yang.
It's a somewhat sudden change in thought process for Blake, but…
Well, sue her, she'd had a girlfriend who she'd finally confessed her feelings to, and lived in blissful happiness alongside her for a day before Ruby had nearly died, the cat had nearly killed them, and then they'd been ripped apart and sent hurtling around the world to different places.
So yes, Blake's still a bit hung up on Yang.
It must be an obvious thing, because she soon finds her mother, Kali – who doesn't know she's her daughter, but isn't the type to just let someone suffer in silence – has come over and bumped her on the shoulder with her own.
Blake is startled out of her own head and turns to see her smiling over. "Cat got your tongue?"
"Casual racism." Blake jokes. "Very humorous."
Kali, as Blake had known she would, chuckles at that. "I'm afraid I'm not going to let you change the subject quite so easily, Miss."
Blake chuckles. "Am I that obvious?"
"Hey, even the illustrious Black Fang has to have some weaknesses, no?"
It's an incredibly odd thing for Blake to hear from her own mother's lips. Odd, and a touch painful; not that she can show such on her face.
"I suppose I must."
"So?"
"Hm?"
"So, what's on your mind?"
"Ah." Blake isn't really uncertain as to whether or not she wants to tell her mother; she definitely wants to. It's more… should she? Is it too much information to provide to her mother? "I… I'm just missing the person I love; I suppose."
"Ah. A boyfriend?"
"A girlfriend." Blake says, somewhat embarrassed, even knowing her mother would never judge her for such. She's never really had a preference for guys or girls. She considers herself equal opportunity. Bisexual is a way more boring way of saying things. "She… we were separated due to circumstances outside our control. I just…"
"Miss her?"
"Mm."
"You'll see each other again."
"What makes you so sure?"
"Because if you long for someone, they'll assuredly come back to you." Kali speaks, and she says it with an almost secretive smile.
"Is that how that works?"
"Well, not exactly," Her mother rolls her eyes, "But as long as you keep her in your heart, and continue to search for her, I'm sure you'll find her."
Her mother's always been a much more optimistic person than Blake has, in truth. That's not to say she's expressly… pessimistic, she just tries to be objective about things.
And the objective truth is that the world is a big place. Her chances of meeting Yang without knowing where she is, and without making a show of herself – or Yang doing the same – isn't very high.
But then…
She can always make a show of herself.
Not now; not with their band from Menagerie doing their best to stay under the radar until the protests, but while she's there…
Well, such things will assuredly be filmed. Likely played on the news as a sign that the faunus are 'totally unreasonable' for asking for equal rights and treatment. Blake's seen this all before, and knows what the SDC and the news networks it sponsors will try to spin their actions as.
But while on tv, who knows? Yang might very well watch it.
And if she sees Blake as a part of a retinue from Menagerie…
That might give her the hint she needs to find her.
Blake will stand at the front of the crowd.
Her initial plan had been to sit back, and essentially act as the eyes and ears of their contingent. To be there in case shit hit the fan. But then, if she's front and center, she can do that job just as well.
Yes.
It's a plan, then.
Now, she just needs to put it in action.
/
Yang's almost managed to forget the level of sheer chaos that comes from a family with young children trying to do… well, anything.
"Yang! Yang get back here!"
"But there's a horsey!"
"I know, but you need to stay with us."
"Mommy! I hurt my foot!"
"I'm sorry, my little rosebud. Where does it hurt?"
"My big toe."
"Ah, okay, let mommy kiss it be– YANG GET BACK OVER HERE!"
Yang – or, uh, adult Yang – is currently watching all of this with a raised eyebrow.
"Huh."
Taiyang rushes over and gets Yang, preventing her from running over to the horse that's giving out rides for what seems to be a rather exorbitant price. It's the kind of display that would seem out of place at any other time but the Vytal Festival.
There are all sorts of attractions, however. There are booths with carnival games – things like ball throwing, bb gun target practice, and throwing rings on bottles – stalls for food or entertainment, and even more obscure things, like fortune-telling and shops selling out-of-Kingdom merchandise.
Beside her, Raven seems to be doing much the same thing she is; observing. There's an awful lot going on, but something that immediately jumps out to Yang is a bit less obvious to the average festival-goer.
There are a lot of Atlesian guards present.
It's nothing too major, in all honesty. It's a number that Yang's seen before during her own time in Atlas.
The reason it stands out to her, however, is that the last time she'd been in Atlas, the entire Kingdom had been preparing for a war they'd not even been certain they could win. Things had, therefore, been on quite a high alert.
And certainly, the Vytal Festival is an important event, but…
"They seem oddly on edge." Raven says exactly what Yang's thinking.
"Yeah." She notes. "You know what's going on?"
"If I'm going purely on what I read on the news? Then it's some mixture of new policies the general here has implemented. They can't exactly put every citizen under the same quarantine that the students and staff from other schools are coming in under, but they can make sure they're being watched at all times."
"Why? Do they suspect an attack?"
"You'd think." Raven shrugs. "But nothing I found suggested that such an event was going to happen. From what Summer and Tai are saying, Hawthorne – the guy in charge – is just a bit of a paranoid piece of shit."
Yang's never been all that well versed in history, but she's pretty sure this Hawthorne guy had been taken out of power when she'd been a kid. Whether or not such had already happened at this point…
She doesn't know.
"What is it?" Raven notes her look of consternation.
"Nothing." She lies. "So where are we headed first?"
"We're off to go see that student Ozpin wanted Summer to investigate, I think." Raven tells her. "Though we're dropping the tykes off first with Tai at the hotel."
Yang nods, and they do just that over the course of the next thirty minutes. It probably shouldn't take that long, but then, wrangling children is a tall task, especially when one's trying to get them to do something they don't want to.
"We can go see the horsey later."
"But I want to see the horsey now!"
Taiyang, a beacon of patience and love, smiles over at Raven, Summer, and adult Yang as he tries to keep little Yang from collapsing in a sobbing fit over not getting to ride on the earlier horsey. Ruby is playing with a loose tooth in her mouth.
Overall, it's a real fun time.
Eventually, Summer, Raven and Yang exit out of the hotel and make their way towards Atlas Academy, where the students and staff of Beacon are being put up for the time being.
It's not a short journey, and it's made even longer when they're stopped every few seconds by guardsman to ask them the purpose of their 'visit'.
"My name is Summer Rose." Summer always says, and a few people recognize her via just her name. It's a bit of a cool thing for Yang, seeing just how famous a Huntress her mother had been back in the past. "I'm off to meet with Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Academy for private business."
It's after they've been stopped for the third or fourth time that Raven growls, annoyed, and pulls them to the side.
"Let's not bother with this shit anymore." She hisses out.
"What do you mean?" Yang asks.
Raven draws her blade, slashes down, and a portal of red and black swirls into place right beside her.
"Oh. Right." Yang mutters. "I always forget you can just do that."
"It's been a while since I had access to it." Summer chuckles. "I admit that I nearly forgot myself."
Raven mutters something under her breath, then, but gestures for them to go on and step through. Summer goes first, followed by Yang, and Raven comes in last.
Ozpin seems a bit surprised by there suddenly being three more people in his room. Yang can't really blame him for that given they just sort of… showed up.
"Miss Rose," He clears his throat, trying to recover from being so surprised. "I admit I wasn't quite expecting you so soon."
"We were being held up every few meters it felt like," Summer shrugs. "It felt prudent to just let Raven take us the rest of the way."
"Yes, I can see how it might be." He looks towards Raven, and Raven meets his eyes.
There's no love lost between those two, it seems. Raven's not quite glaring, but it's also clear she's very much not a fan of Ozpin. Ozpin, for his part, doesn't seem to have much trust in Raven either, for he's keeping her well within his line of sight.
"Regardless, it is good to see you both again." Ozpin says, and then he looks towards her. "And who might you be?"
"I'm Yang." She tells him, though she doesn't move to give a last name, mostly because she still hasn't really come up with a good fake one. "I've heard a lot about you from Raven and Summer."
"Hopefully good things?"
"Mostly." She quips, and Ozpin does smile, so that's good.
"Well, I suppose that will have to do." Ozpin swipes his hand down his coat, and then stands. "Summer, if you wouldn't mind, I'd normally take some time to speak more with you, but I'd like to get your opinion on the student in question before any more time passes."
"Because the Vytal Festival is coming up?"
"Exactly." Ozpin nods his head. "And because I am nearly certain that, benign or not, she wishes to do something involving it. I'd rather know if such is a threat before a situation where such knowledge would be required."
"Understood." Summer nods her head. "Then lead the way."
They step out of the room, and Yang gets her first look at Atlas Academy as it had been a decade before she ever arrived there. It's a bit surreal to walk down the same hallways that are just painted different colors, or to see uniforms a bit less advanced, but certainly still of the same line, to the ones that she knows.
"That's right," Summer turns to her, smiling. "I had forgotten; you said you got your license here in Atlas, right Yang?"
It's really not that much information to disclose, but she really would've rather not had it said within Ozpin's hearing. She doesn't distrust him, especially not when compared with Ironwood, but she's not his hugest fan, either.
"I did." She tells her mother, again upset that she can't be truly honest with the woman who'd raised her. "I got my license here after an incident with my place of education. My team and I roamed around the world a while, and eventually settled here."
"How interesting." Ozpin cuts in. "I've never heard of you, Ms…?"
"Just Yang." She smirks at the very poor attempt to learn her last name. She can't divulge it.
Or, well…
"I'd say you could call me Yang Xiao-Long, given I've been living with them for the last while," She jokes, and Raven's eyes go wide for just a moment before she catches herself. "But given there's already one of those around, I think that would be a bit confusing."
Ozpin laughs. "Yes, it would."
"My last name was Brown." She shrugs her shoulders, having come up with… well, nothing good, but something to at least prevent Ozpin from being suspicious. "I'm not sure you're aware of the common reason kids get given such a name, but…"
Ozpin nods, now seeming apologetic. "A name given to children whose parents are unknown. Seeing as we live in a society that celebrates color, and brown is the amalgam of all."
It's a rather fanciful reason to be given a rather drab last name, but Yang supposes that if she really had been an orphan, she'd have likely appreciated such.
She feels a bit bad to be pretending to be someone she isn't just to get Ozpin off her back, but she doesn't want him looking into her too deeply.
"Rather self-explanatorily, I've never much cared about my last name." Yang tells him. "So, call me whatever you want."
"Then for now, I'll simply refer to you as Ms. Yang."
"I'd appreciate that, Headmaster."
Their journey isn't much longer. They arrive at a room numbered high into the triple digits, and Ozpin gives the door a single knock. Yang waits off to the side alongside Raven and Summer, and eventually, someone answers the door.
This is the first mindfuck that Yang Xiao-Long receives in the span of thirty or so seconds.
Because standing there, at most seventeen years old, is Roman Torchwick.
Yang's lucky that Ozpin's in front of her, unable to see her face, and that both Summer and Raven are discussing something as well, because it takes a good three seconds for her to screw her face back on straight.
"Ah, Mr. Torchwick, it's good to see you."
"You as well, teach." Roman looks back behind him, into the room. "Uh, did you want to talk to Amber?"
"Your other teammate, actually."
"Ah, okay." He turns around, and calls back, "Yo, Ruby! Headmaster's here for you."
It's… hard to really describe what goes through Yang's brain in that moment when she hears Torchwick say that name. Of course, the vast majority of her labels it, immediately, as a coincidence. Another person named Ruby. How rare could such a thing really be?
And yet, as Roman backs away, and another figure appears in the doorway, smiling up at the headmaster with some wariness, Yang's heart just sort of… stops.
"You wanted to see me?" Ruby Rose, her sister, asks Headmaster Ozpin.
"I did, Ms. Rosenberg. I have a few people here I'd like you to–"
"Ruby?"
Her voice comes out small; almost afraid. She wants so badly to be right, but… it can't be. She can't have just… stumbled upon her.
…right?
And then Ruby turns to her, and the look in her eyes is much the same as the one in Yang's own. Total shock.
"YANG!"
A moment later, her sister utilizes her semblance to blaze forward, and smashes into Yang's chest, nearly bowling the both of them over.
And everything else just sort of… falls away.
Nothing else matters.
Ruby's there. Yang's found her.
She hugs her sister hard enough that for a moment, she's a bit worried she might crush her. Of course, given that Ruby's doing her best to crush her back, she's not all that concerned.
Unfortunately, it takes Yang more than thirty seconds too long to realize that she and Ruby have just made some rather glaring mistakes.
Because as they pull apart, still smiling dumbly at one another, it is to see the others, Ozpin, Summer, and Raven, all looking at them in varying degrees of shock. The most shocked of them is Raven, who's able to put the pieces together – knowing Yang's her daughter from the future, that this girl's name is Ruby, and that they're close – and knows just who Ruby is.
But most worrying of all is Ozpin, who looks between the two of them with something…
"Ah, ahem," Ruby clears her throat, stepping back, red in the face. "So, uh…"
She looks around at the others, seemingly just having realized what Yang had before.
"We're acquainted?" She tries.
"Yes, Ms. Rosenberg." Ozpin smiles knowingly.
"I think we've all figured that out by now."
End Chapter 21
Welp, Yang and Ruby got too excited, and now they're SUS.
Sorry, that was cringe.
Anyways, something something, next week, another chapter.
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