Yo!
Yet another week, yet another chapter. Not much to say.
Start Chapter 30
Ruby may not have been nervous as the preparations for the first few matches of the Vytal Festival start to get underway, but she's very clearly alone among that number amongst her teammates.
Roman's got a leg bouncing up and down, trying his best to balance his elbow on it, and staring off into nothing. While Amber's hiding it better, she's twirling her staff over and over again in her hands, and has her eyes closed, taking deep breaths.
Ruby, for her part, is pretty much coasting at the moment.
She'd gotten a notice from Yang the previous night, of course, that her sister had somehow managed to make contact with Weiss! Not to mention, she'd come along with Uncle Qrow – and apparently Neo as well, which is something that Ruby's just not going to think about all that much at the moment.
She's riding high. Four of the five of them found and accounted for, and all in one place! Sure, Blake's got her own mission to attend to, but with Yang and Weiss in the stands to watch her, the only job she actually has is to make sure she manages to impress, and get on the big screens.
That, or, if she's lucky, her team can get her to the singles rounds, where she can win the entire thing, and do an interview.
That'll almost certainly make the rounds. Jaune will see it. She knows he will.
"Alright guys," She coughs forcefully into one hand, startling the others out of their heads. "Ready to kill it out there!?"
"Aha…" Roman's leg, if it's possible, starts bouncing faster. "I mean… yeah? I think? As much as I possibly could be?"
Amber chuckles. "Well, we know you're not one for the limelight, are you, Roman."
"Apparently not." He mutters, and Ruby takes some small amusement in just how different the Roman of this time, and the Roman of the future – a boisterous, confident man who'd definitely not shied away from the limelight – really are.
"Okay, so, best case scenario; we go up first, or last."
"Ruby," Roman groans. "I think if we get called up to go last, I'm going to do die."
"His heart can't take this waiting." Amber teases.
"Oh, like you're any better! Find anything different on that staff of yours on the thousandth spin there!?"
"T-That's–!"
Ruby zones the two of them out as they get into another verbal spat. Honestly, as much as it can be a bit annoying, it's almost certainly good for them at the moment. It'll distract them. And they might not even remember to be nervous until the matches actually start.
The announcers from Atlas – not just Beacon teachers being forced to work out of school hours for low pay – start the ceremony, and Ruby hears some bedlam above them. They're currently below the stadium, within the competitor area. It's a pretty big place, with a lot of separate rooms and halls. Then again, Amity had been built mainly by Atlas, which means it's got excess in spades.
The buzzer at the front of the room goes off, and one of the people they've been told will be announcing which teams are going up first moves to the center of the room.
The man clears his throat, before calling out, "Team Wyvern of Vacuo, Team Rarity of Beacon, make your way to the stage!"
Ruby's eyes widen. First, it seems. That's definitely a benefit for everyone.
Roman and Amber both look like they don't think it's a benefit, but then, she hadn't expected anything different. They stand up ramrod straight, and Ruby tries her best not to giggle at their expense as she stands up alongside of them, and walks ahead of them to the stairs.
She'd been in their shoes, once. It's hard to judge.
On the bright side, the other team walking alongside them doesn't seem any less nervous than her teammates. They are looking at them like they're wondering why Team Rarity – to their eyes a bunch of no-name kids – are even here, but they're certainly going to be figuring that out within the next few minutes.
The trip to the field itself is done in silence. Ruby is content to let the others breathe, and not interrupt any rituals they might have for this sort of thing. She herself has her hand around the edges of her cape, and is turning it over and over again in her hands.
…Her mom's alive.
It's an odd thing to have just be true. She could, after she wins, just… walk up to the civilian seating and talk to her mother. To the woman who Ruby can barely even remember.
Summer had died when she'd been… gods, but she doesn't clearly remember. Five or six? Maybe older than that?
She'd been so young, and neither dad nor Yang ever talk about that time. She has no idea the exact date that Summer had disappeared.
She likely never will, now, seeing as how she's not going to allow that to happen.
She gets what Yang's saying, a bit, about keeping everything on the downlow. The information they have becomes useless if too much changes. But…
Isn't that the whole point? Isn't that the whole reason they're here? The Blacksmith had told them that this is where they'd been needed.
No, not where. When.
That can't just mean to watch it all play out.
They're here to fix things. Change things.
…She'll talk with Yang once this is over. She'll convince her to at the very least tell Raven everything she knows. That way, they can have someone with a bit more influence holding some of the cards as well.
If Ruby had her way, she'd make sure that Summer, Taiyang, and Qrow all knew as well.
But…
The alarm goes off, signaling that they have thirty seconds until the match starts. Above them, the roulette wheel is spinning to determine the first match. Ozpin had revealed to them once that the brackets for the first round had been decided days ahead of the first matches, but the spectacle of seemingly randomly drawn matches is fun for the audience.
Their names likely come up, and then Team Rarity takes their positions as the platforms they're standing on begin to rise. They're opened up to the sun – and to the crisp Atlas air – as they're lifted into the arena itself.
It seems to be an odd combination this time; half destroyed city, and half volcanic hellscape.
Eh, they'll manage.
Ruby cracks her neck as the announcers count down. She looks to her teammates, and nods to them.
She gets two nods back.
Ruby smiles with just a tad bit of cockiness.
And then the buzzer sounds.
She is in motion in the very next moment.
/
Blake sits atop a building near Atlas HQ, her 'Black Fang' mask secured to her face, and her eyes scanning the crowds moving below.
There are still quite a few people, even with the Vytal Festival having kicked off. Then again, it's not like the government can stop functioning just because a sporting event is being held.
Still, security is much lower than it would normally be. There's only a single guard at the main door, instead of the normal two. Hell, normally, there'd be another two dressed in casual clothes, doing their best to blend in with civilians.
Then again, it's not like Blake's going in through the front door.
She's been searching for a way in for the last hour or so. She's waiting until the festivities are in full swing, to be fair, so it's not like she would've made any moves yet, but she thinks she's found something plausible, at the very least.
There's a window on what seems like the eleventh floor that seems to be open. Likely, the person within the office is just doing their best to aerate the room.
But it's exactly what she needs to get in.
Once she's in, she'll need to somehow get access to the lower floors. She happens to know where prisoners had been held in the future, given that both Qrow and Robyn had been held within those very rooms. As for whether or not those same cells will be used at this point?
Well, she's pretty much just got to hope.
She watches on her scroll as the first match – starring Ruby's team, humorously enough – begins. She feels a bit bad as she pockets her scroll, turns it off, and then zips up the pocket. She'd like to watch Ruby's match – even if she'd just be watching a fully grown Huntress beat up on students, that's still her leader – but can't really afford to.
Ruby will forgive her.
Speaking of their team, however, the news had come in last night that Yang had met up with Weiss. It's an almost unbelievable thing, but it does have Blake's spirits soaring the smallest amount.
Just Jaune left. Once they've found him…
Well, Blake's not really sure.
It had been Yang's plan to keep their cards close to the chest, and while Blake agrees, she's…
Well, she's already mucked a lot of things up on that front.
She's saved people, accidentally kept Ironwood from getting installed as general, and made day-to-day life for the faunus of Remnant worse.
It hadn't at all been her intention, of course. And it's not fair, either, given she'd only saved the victims of harsh and bitter abuse. But the world isn't fair, especially not to the faunus.
Perhaps it's time for them to stop playing fair, either. To stack the deck in their favor. To give as much information to their allies as they possibly can?
…She can think about this later. For now, she has to rescue Eve.
Once that's been done, she can focus on other things.
She heads back inside the building she'd climbed to the top of, taking off her mask and blending back into regular society for a time. The public library she's walking through has clearly seen better days. If Blake had to guess, they'd received budget cuts under the new administration, and are still trying to make ends meet with the same costs they'd always had.
She emerges outside of the building a few minutes later, and makes her way towards Atlas HQ itself.
Her goal is to look entirely normal. That's helped, somewhat, by the fact that she has a Hunter License if push comes to shove. If they catch her in and around the corridors – outside of more restricted areas – she can just claim she's here to visit a dignitary, and got lost or something to that effect.
Then again, she's not planning on getting spotted at all.
She steps past the main entrance, and keeps going until she's made it to the side of the buildings. She idles a moment, pretending to check something on her scroll, just to see if anyone's following her.
No one moves. No one's even looking at her, aside from one younger teenager who's very clearly checking her out. Blake's not judging them. She'd been that age, once.
Finally, she rounds the bend. Again, no one watches her. Security truly is lax. She'll have appeared on some cameras walking past the front of the building, but then, it's not like she's going to get caught immediately from that.
They can have her true identity if they want it. Blake doesn't even technically exist in this timeline. They'll have a heck of a hard time finding anything on her at all.
She throws Gambol with expert precision a few flights up, and then, when the weapon bites into the wall, tests the ribbon to see if it can support her weight. Once she determines it can, she begins to climb.
All in all, it only takes her three or four minutes until she's made it to the window she'd spotted earlier. She's not trying to make especially great time or anything – not at the expense of safety – given that she has the full day to get Eve out, but even so, there's no reason to hesitate, either.
She peaks into the window as subtly as possible after she's put the mask back on, and sees the office, thankfully, empty. She wastes no time in stepping inside, making sure not to disturb anything.
Alright. She's in.
Now, she just needs to make her way to the elevator.
She debates simply walking to it. No one's likely to question her as long as she walks with confidence towards her destination.
She sighs, takes the mask off, and steps out into the hallway beyond.
It helps, of course, that the floor she's on isn't at all for secretive matters. If she's remembering right, then the upper floors of Atlas HQ are mostly for the important, but ultimately unimpressive work. Things like syncing up traffic lights, taking citizen complaints, gathering survey data… the things that actually keep a government running behind the scenes, but that no one really knows needs doing.
The people there pay her no mind. Most of them are too focused on their own work to even bother. She finishes making her way towards the elevator, presses the button, and steps inside.
Just as she'd expected, there's no 'take me to the secret government holding areas' button, but there is at least a button for the first basement floor. From there… well, she'll likely need to work her way down to Eve the hard way.
Hopefully, she's not being held too deep underground. Qrow and Robyn both had been, but then, Ironwood had regarded both as rather harrowing threats.
Eve's just a woman.
At the level of a huntress in training, but nothing more than that.
The elevator rumbles to a stop as it reaches the basement level, and Blake checks herself mentally to make sure she has everything she needs.
She has Gambol. She has a bit of each type of dust, just in case. She has a few clips of specialized rounds. She has a change of clothes for Eve so that they don't get accosted walking out…
That's everything.
The door opens, and she steps out of the elevator casually. The room she steps into is a simple one. It's that same familiar Atlas white, the same as the rest of the compound, only a shade or so darker, bordering on gray.
It's not very well lit; dim area lights above her leave the whole room feeling darker than it really is. As Blake steps forward, two guards in front of her do the same.
"May I see some identification, ma'am?" The man asks, seeming puzzled. She imagines they don't get a lot of unknowns this far down.
"Of course," She decides to play along. "I'm a Huntress, I was on the scene just following the killing that happened the other night in Mantle."
She shows her ID – though she covers her last name 'accidentally' – to the guard, and he looks at it curiously.
"Looking to interrogate the suspect?"
"I wanted to speak with her. I'm afraid I didn't have the chance."
"I understand, ma'am, but I'm afraid General Hawthorne doesn't want the perpetrator seeing visitors of any kind at the moment." He speaks. "They're doing their best to get her to admit to her motivation behind committing the crime, you see. Seeing others might give her a chance to come up with a lie."
Ah. So, they're doing their best to get a false confession, stating that all of this had been some racially motivated event; that she'd killed a human for no other reason than because he had been a human?
It disgusts, but doesn't surprise Blake. No, unfortunately, it sounds almost exactly like what she'd expect.
They're not going to accept the real reason.
Blake won't allow this. No matter what she has to do.
"I see." She sighs out, already priming her muscles and aura.
She snaps her arm forward, knocking the first man out with a blow straight to the nose, and sending the back of his head into the wall behind him. The other man hesitates to draw his weapon for a half a second, and that's more than enough time for Blake to take him down, choking him into unconsciousness quickly.
She's on a time limit, now. She needs to find Eve before they wake up, and sound the alarm.
If it goes off while she's still here…
Well, she's not going to think about that, for the sake of her own sanity.
She cracks her neck, dons her mask, and charges into the depths of Atlas HQ.
/
Yang's…
Actually having a pretty relaxing day, honestly.
Ruby and Blake have business that's preventing them from relaxing as she is. She'd love to be there for Blake, but unfortunately, she'd insisted on this being a solo operation. Yang doesn't really agree with that, given that she's fairly confident they could utilize Raven's portals to get in and out without any difficulty, but again, Blake doesn't' want Raven connected with the crime at all.
It makes sense, even if it frustrates her to no end to not be able to help the woman she loves.
Raven's picking up on that frustration.
"You're aggravated."
She pushes a breath out between her lips as she eyes her mother. They're all sat within Amity Colosseum, within a box reserved for dignitaries or other invited guests. Ozpin's there, Hawthorne is as well, and a few other people that Yang thinks she vaguely recognizes as being on the news when she had been younger.
Jacques and Willow Schnee are also there, alongside a thirteen-or-fourteen-year-old Winter.
That's throwing her brain for a bit of a loop, but she's doing her best to take things in stride.
"I'm fine."
It's Raven's turn to laugh at her.
"Right. Do you want me to pretend like I believe that, or call you on your bullshit now?"
"The former."
"Well, tough shit."
Yang hisses something out below her breath. Probably a curse. She's not really keeping track.
"Fuck off."
"I refuse."
"Fine, yes, I'm struggling just sitting here and doing nothing." She admits, glaring over at Raven. "Happy now?"
"Not really." Raven hums out. "I'm feeling much the same. Sitting around and wasting time has never been my strong suit."
"You certainly seem to be growing used to it these days."
"Doesn't make it my strong suit."
She's tired of this dancing around. "What do you want me to say?"
"I want you to tell me what you know." Raven meets her eyes. "I want to be in the loop. You're hiding things from me. That's obvious. And don't try and pretend like you're not. All I'm asking is to be on the same page as you are."
It's… not expressly unfair. "I thought we agreed until after the Vytal Festival."
"We did."
"Then…?"
"I've decided I don't want to wait."
"Very cool of you." Yang rolls her eyes. "What do you want me to tell you?"
"Why you're holding secrets in the first place." Raven speaks, eyeing her. "After all, you clearly don't trust Ozpin, which means that, I'd assume, you don't agree with his methods. But you're doing the exact same shit, aren't you?"
It's easy for Raven to say that, not knowing what Yang knows. She's… she's not sure this is the best option, but she has to try something. Telling the truth, the whole truth, would invariably flip the world on its head.
…Wouldn't it?
The terrible truth is that Yang can't know. But she prefers the familiar to the unknown.
Fear. How pathetic that that's what's holding her back.
"…Shit happened where we're from. A lot of it. I just…" She runs a hand through her hair, still not quite as long as she'd like it to be. It's… growing, but certainly taking its time. "We lost people. A lot of good people. A lot of people that I'm hoping we won't lose now. And I think the chances of being able to prevent those losses are a lot higher if we don't go messing with things to an extreme degree. If I – and the rest of us – know what is coming to a certain extent. If we don't… then what's different?"
Raven nods slowly, hesitantly. She sighs after a while, running a hand down her face.
"You're complicated, kid."
"Yeah, believe me, I know." Yang mutters. "But I'm telling the truth."
"I know." Raven admits. "You've got the eyes of someone who's seen more than they'd care to."
She takes a breath. "I just… wish I could be doing more. Even so, a part of me just wants to take a break. These last few months have been such a relief, and…"
"You're allowed to not work yourself to death."
She pushes air through her teeth. "Doesn't feel like it. Besides, hearing that from you, Ms. 'I'm struggling just sitting here and doing nothing', doesn't help."
"Listen," Raven groans, "I'd say you know more than anyone that I'm not exactly the best role model,"
Yang snorts.
"So maybe do as I say, not as I do, hm?"
"Yeah." She grunts out, before standing up. "I'm going to use the restroom."
It's a lie, and she's pretty sure Raven knows. Hell, she's pretty sure that Raven knows that Yang knows that Raven knows.
…Right. That makes sense.
She exits out of the box and makes her way… anywhere. Just not where she is.
She's wandering without aim. She passes by a few people, and accidentally bumps into a few more. A couple heckle her as she jostles them, but she mostly ignores them with her hands in her pockets, and her head hanging low.
Why does life have to be quite so complicated, she wonders?
She heads towards the back of the stadium, where those who want to purchase things like popcorn, hotdogs, or other standard stadium refreshments can. It's also where the restrooms are, but then, Yang hadn't come here for them.
Instead, she leans against a wall, presses her head against it, and lets herself just… drift.
She's not doing that long, actually. She has her eyes open, and is watching the crowd. And as she's doing so, peering out at the figures just beyond…
She spies a familiar head of hair.
Her eyes narrow, and she steps forward, pushing herself off the wall. It's… the head the hair is attached to is taller than the others, barely peeking out above the hundreds of other people in the back corridors. She follows behind at a medium pace, knowing that this can't be who she thinks it is.
Once had been a lot. Twice a near impossibility.
On the third, Yang had thought she couldn't possibly be any luckier than she had already been.
A fourth would be–
Yet, the crowd clears.
And standing there, walking at a brisk pace, is…
"Jaune!?"
The man turns.
His face is somewhat older. He's got a five o'clock shadow that hasn't seen a razor in a few days, and his hair has grown longer, halfway between his style in Atlas, and the Ever After.
But…
It's him.
It's really him.
"Yang…" Jaune speaks, and his voice is filled with so many paradoxical things.
But he manages, barely, to smile. It doesn't quite reach his eyes.
"It's… good to see you."
End Chapter 30
Alright, that's chapter 30!
Starting the final sections of the Atlas Arc. Hope you guys are enjoying the story!
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