The city of Vale was characterized by its tranquility and lack of emotions for a long time, since it had been renovated after the fall of Beacon, its citizens had become accustomed to nothing interesting happening, Haven fell and Atlas ended up in a hole in the middle of the ice, while they simply rebuilt their academy and fought the Grimm.
But of course, the calm can't last long, even more so if someone related to Ruby Rose is nearby.
The streets were congested with traffic and the irritation of the drivers was evident in shouts and complaints, the people gathered in groups were the reason for the delay, carrying signs and posters with curious and interesting messages.
Schnee Corporations needs to be down, they are stealing our land, we will not be sold, justice for John Hellman.
The citizens' displeasure with the Schnee Corporations was nothing new, ever since the corporation began to flourish in the kingdom its people had already begun to complain, the loss of jobs and the Atlas tint given to Vale was both widely rejected and accepted by many people to a large extent, those who supported Winter Schnee claimed that the future was approaching and they could not afford to be humiliated once again by a talking Grimm woman, while those who were against it screamed for their freedom, which they believed was being ripped away from their lives.
"John Hellman" Waylon Branwen muttered to himself, watching from afar the protest that was taking place in front of the gigantic building of his mother's company, which in the future would be his.
"Who is he?" Neithan Rose asked in an almost incomprehensible manner, his mouth full of multiple cookies his mother had recently baked "He seems…uhm, ah, familiar"
"He is Sara Shew's father, she is the leader of the SSTR team, and he just died" Roy answered his non-blood cousin's question, surprising him and Bryan "The news are recent, he didn't have an unlocked aura and the damage Felicia did to him was too much for him, it's… unfortunate that the company has to take responsibility for that, they were looking after him"
"We should go in and talk to my mother about the twins" Waylon decided to cut the conversation short, It was awkward to talk about how someone died indirectly because of him "She knows a lot about the criminal world of this city, she will be a great help"
Waylon and his team were in the city to continue with the plan to get information from different figures related to Felicia Torchwick or at least remotely involved with the political or criminal world of the city of Vale, things had worked out a bit with the visit to Emerald Sustrai, managing to get valuable information, however, Ruby Rose had taken a little break and left the smallest responsibility to the WBRN team, according to her.
The boys tried to investigate a little about that decision, they weren't exactly complaining about being left to their own choices, but rather why, Ruby could be many things, and among those was being very stubborn and determined in what she wanted, was the break real? Or had something else happened?
The WBRN team crossed the street and approached the building's entrance at a careful, slow pace, some of the protesters turned around and their eyelids opened much more than normal, within seconds, they began shouting insults and unpleasant comments in Waylon's direction, who forced his expression to remain neutral.
He was not going to show weakness in front of people who hated him for his blood.
It didn't take long for the Schnee Corp guards to start moving, positioning themselves at the heir's side and separating the protesters with moderate force, Waylon kept his teammates close, making sure they didn't get dragged into the balls of people.
"Neithan?" The aforementioned boy turned his head slightly upon hearing his name, his eyes opened and a smile formed on his face as he recognized who was in front of him, Sapphire Sustrai "What are you doing here?"
"Well…we came to…help Waylon with a business meeting, you know, the future of his company and all that" Neithan came up with something as fast as his brain allowed, still smiling "What are you doing here?"
Sapphire looked around for a second, she was holding a sign with the typical message of the day, we want justice, the girl was slightly embarrassed when she realized that Waylon was staring at her, not exactly happy.
"I'm here for Sara, her father was the driver who died recently" Sapphire's confession caused Waylon's expression to change radically, now with one of guilt he looked for Sara, finding her right in front of the protest group, the girl's icy blue eyes were stained with tears and runny makeup.
Waylon bit his lip and continued without saying much more, exchanging glances with Sara in a very brief but revealing way, the blue-eyed girl's annoyed expression turned into an embarrassed and confused one, but she didn't stop screaming, and he didn't stop walking either.
The WBRN team entered the corporate building with more calm and confidence, the teenagers analyzed the situation that was happening with more time and care, the workers who were in the living room seemed to be in a hurry and nervous, saying things to each other and walking to different parts of the building, to the laboratories, to the test rooms, to the records, chaos at the corporate level.
"Oh, Mr. Branwen," the receptionist in charge smiled somewhat tiredly as she recognized Waylon, bowing to him in respect "I'm sorry if you had trouble at the entrance, the protests are causing problems with the building's electricity, some criminals managed to sneak in and damage the power supply and-"
"It's okay, I'm used to unwanted attention now" Waylon quickly interrupted the woman, pointing to his team "We…need to see my mother"
"Ah" the woman gasped somewhat uncomfortably, rubbing the back of her neck "She is in a meeting with Carmellia Blood to talk about some collaborations and sales of discarded ideas, as well as the contract that Tairah Enterprises has with Atlas, she is not available right now"
"It's something important, I won't wait a week for it to be available" Waylon said firmly, the receptionist bit her lip and nodded, the rest of the WBRN team looked at their leader with some respect, apparently he had put aside some of that submissive attitude related to his mother.
They headed towards the elevator and began to ascend in silence, the team's thoughts were scrambled and quite scattered about the situation, especially about their leader, how would he be handling the situation?
They knew very well how he had been handling the Ex Requiem accident, in a rather strange way, Waylon had closed himself off since that night and Ruby had to be in danger for him to open up to help again, now he seemed to be much better than before, however, the current situation was closely related to that event.
"Are we really going to interrupt Aunt Winter?" Roy asked cautiously, watching his cousin's back "Carmellia Blood is almost as powerful as her in politics, even more so than my mother, they must be talking about important issues"
"We could wait" Bryan said, proposing a fairly basic idea "Let's wait a few hours and you can give us a more in-depth tour than Professor Neil gave us"
"Yes, you can even buy me a new Neo-Scroll" Neithan smiled as he waved his hand, emphasizing the device he wore around his wrist "…Waylon?"
"I know you think I'm scared of my mother…and you're right, I'm scared" Waylon turned around forcefully, facing his team with an expression that was somewhere between annoyed and determined "But just because I'm scared doesn't mean I can't challenge her…I need her help, I'm her son, and she should see me as such."
"That's great" Neithan replied, now a little calmer "I thought you were going to start crying and run into Riana's arms"
"No" Waylon growled in response, hearing his own family laugh at his relationship with his professor's daughter.
...
"I really like your office, Winter, it reminds me a lot of General Ironwood's office many years ago" Carmellia Blood smiled nostalgically as she looked at Winter Schnee's office, it was spacious and its colors were very reminiscent of the place where the late general of the floating kingdom made his plays "Although it is somewhat smaller"
Carmellia Blood was a stunning woman to look at, even at her advanced age she was able to attract all eyes to her, her fashion style characterized her quite a bit, she used to use incredibly expensive fabrics with exorbitantly priced jewelry of a quite unique beauty.
Her hair had a crimson red color identical to blood, her hourglass figure was enviable for any woman in the world, her charisma and way of getting what she wanted was also something quite coveted in Atlas, there was no one as good at business as her.
Well, besides Winter Schnee.
"Stop the poisoned sweet talk, Carmellia, just tell me what you want" Winter didn't beat around the bush and got straight to the point, the expression on her face betraying how irritated and certainly disgusted she was just by the other woman's presence in the room.
"Oh, there's nothing I want from you, I'm genuinely interested in what you do in Vale, after all, your activities in Atlas are so minimal that I just pass them by" Carmellia spoke in a sweet tone, even if sarcasm was also very noticeable in her words "I heard you have a high-value contract planned with Beacon, is that so?"
"I would like to keep those children in good hands, my technology is the best you can find in this kingdom, and I dare say it is better than yours" Winter shrugged, smiling proudly "Unlike you, who is dedicated to building weapons capable of destroying your own home"
A curious comment to say the least, Carmellia raised her eyebrows and danced in place, almost as if she were a little girl who had been caught trying to steal cookies from the kitchen.
The bomb that was supposed to destroy Monstra, and then Mantle, was created by Tairah Enterprises many years ago, Carmellia was the head of a group of companies that were dedicated to different things, however, the most notable thing was her great handling of weapons of mass destruction or of lower level, the bomb that General Ironwood was to use was no exception.
The contract that Atlas had with Tairah Enterprises had been maintained for several decades, they gave the army the necessary weapons to defend itself, even the academy itself, it was definitely the most powerful group of companies in the floating kingdom, and one of the several reasons for Winter's suspicion.
Carmellia and Winter had met in the past, several years ago, the Schnee had barely begun to act as the general's right hand when Carmellia took command of her companies and completely monopolized the Atlesian military world, the woman knew a lot about business, Ironwood never doubted her even in his extreme paranoia in the last period of his life, so Winter already knew what the redhead was capable of.
"No matter how much you think you are the guardian of this kingdom, if it doesn't belong to you, then it means nothing" Carmellia smiled as she spoke altruistically, turning almost theatrically to walk away from the white-haired woman "Truly powerful women aspire to more"
Carmellia approached the exit door and opened it with some effort, her eyes widened slightly as she met four teenagers, easily the age of her own children, she looked at them for a second, paying special attention to Waylon Branwen, Winter's son.
"Kids" Carmellia smiled and bowed her head in greeting, both Bryan and Neithan responded with a nod of their heads, while Waylon and Roy simply frowned and entered the white-haired girl's office, who simply sighed irritably.
"Kids, it would be a pleasure to have you here some other time, but I'm not in the mood right now" Winter leaned back, pressing her back against her incredibly comfortable chair "The protests out here have been quite a problem and Carmellia is just here to make things worse, you can stay here and grab something to eat in the cafeteria"
No one said anything for a few seconds, Waylon trembled slightly as the bottom of his jaw dropped into the air, whispering a few inedible words before he could formulate a coherent sentence "We need your help with the Malachite twins"
"Malachite?" Winter frowned, now somewhat intrigued "Why would you need help with those two criminals? Did you get into any trouble?"
"We… are helping Ruby with… something" Waylon made an almost inhuman effort to keep his words coherent, even if it was noticeable from afar that he was shaking "We need to find Felicia and… the Malachite twins know something, would it be possible for you to organize… a meeting?"
"Oscar brought you into his little secret clique, it's unbelievable" Winter said, surprising the rest of the WBRN team with the statement "I was part of it, at least in a way, If Ruby needs help with something, then it's because she's finally decided to get them into even more trouble"
Winter stood up and looked towards the large window, her icy eyes falling on the multiple people screaming below her, the feeling was clear, they were annoying, yes, but they were still beneath her status.
"I won't let you put yourselves in danger, there are consequences for leaving teenagers to their fate, Yang and Blake sneaked to tell Robyn Hill some things for no apparent reason" Winter commented quite casually, Bryan looked away embarrassed, while Waylon continued to strive to remain somewhat calm "Stay here until the protest is over-"
"We need to talk to the twins" Waylon spoke quickly, causing his mother to stare at him, with no apparent emotion "I need your help, Mom, If Felicia is still out there, then more people will get hurt…like John Hellman"
Winter didn't say anything in response, slowly approaching her son until she was in front of him, Waylon felt his heart suddenly race, a combination of fear and panic flooding his heart as he thought of all the possible answers his mother could give him.
And strangely, he didn't feel like he was able to take a step back.
...
Lisa Lavender grimaced as she heard another oddly high-pitched scream coming from the protest happening on the other side of the building, waiting was a wise man's virtue, and she felt pretty naive right now.
Lisa had been in the back of the Schnee Corporations building for the last few hours, the protest had caused most of the guards to move to the front to try to control the situation, the cameras that were watching her were currently undergoing maintenance, she had the whole situation prepared for months, she just needed a little but valuable help.
"You should be more discreet, someone could have seen you" A clearly nervous male voice caused Lisa to turn around, the woman smiled as she recognized her informant, a poor boy who had barely managed to get hired as part of maintenance for the automated machines, his name was Jason Kent, somewhat thin, with short brown hair, his face full of freckles adorned with somewhat large glasses, a nerd in his field, and therefore, more useful to Lisa.
"You're doing this for a good cause, to expose the lies of this company" Lisa said calmly, patting poor Jason on the shoulder "I know what I should do, but it's better to repeat everything before something bad happens"
Jason gasped nervously, running a sweaty hand through his hair "The elevator that leads to the lower levels has a secret combination, It will take you to a level that is larger than the rest and…dangerous, you must press buttons 1,1,5 in that order"
"Perfect" Lisa smiled determinedly, pushing Jason aside and heading for the door "Thanks for letting me have the chance, Jason, you're the best!"
Lisa didn't wait for a response from the young man, quickly venturing inside the building, the emergency hallway was empty, just as she thought, all the important workers were in the living room working hard, so getting to the elevator shouldn't be complicated.
Even so, Lisa allowed herself the pleasure of being more careful than necessary, checking that the cameras were not recording her or that some absent-minded guard had left, with patience and some caution she managed to reach the elevator, quickly locking herself inside.
Lisa pressed the combination that was needed, the elevator began to move downwards, Lisa kept her gaze on the steel doors, the cubicle suddenly descended at a greater speed, opening shortly after.
Lisa smiled softly in satisfaction, firmly taking her camera and starting to record.
Winter stopped her words before she could even get them out, the scolding she had prepared for her son dying on the tip of her tongue when a soft but audible beeping sound began to sound beneath her desk, the woman seemed to tense up and turned quickly, approaching with an aggressive pace until she was in front of her luxurious desk, firmly punching a small electronic device.
Someone had entered level 115.
"Looks like there's someone in here" Winter muttered, clutching her forehead as she thought of quick solutions to the problem in front of her; someone had gotten into level 115 and she had no idea how.
Level 115 had been the replacement for laboratory 33.1, a worthy replacement since it was finally safe enough to continue the precarious and unethical experimentation, Winter bit her lip somewhat hard, things were even more complicated right now.
She wasn't very happy with the process she herself had approved, the Grimm Omega and the lethal weapons for faunus were approved by her, but she wasn't exactly excited about showing them to the world, at least not yet.
"I need you to leave, now" Winter finally spoke, approaching her son once more, pointing to the door with a firm and precise movement "We'll talk about this later"
"What's going on?" Neithan asked, certainly confused.
"Someone has managed to sneak into one of the lower floors, one used for storage of dangerous reagents such as unstable elements" Winter half lied, it was dangerous, but a lot more than she said "Leave now, I will take care of this myself"
"Let me help you" Waylon quickly grabbed his mother's forearm, she looked at him in disbelief, ready to yell at him, only for him to speak again "Please, Mom-"
"The last time I trusted you, you failed and ignored me for weeks!" Winter screamed back, trying to break free from her son's grip "Just let me go, damn it!"
"It's different now! My team is here, I won't fail this time" Waylon stared at his mother, his voice full of pleading as he tightened his grip "Please…"
Winter's expression changed multiple times in a short time, as her mind tried to formulate a decent strategy towards the events that were taking place underground, her son had already failed once under her orders, now he was accompanied by his team, and as far as she knew, together they had managed to stop Felicia Torchwick and saved Ruby from one of her abandoned laboratories, the record was favorable, at least.
But this could be risky, if they realized what was down there, if Waylon ever realized-
"Okay" Winter sighed, the WBRN team perking up slightly, only to be interrupted before they could even make a move "But I need you to keep quiet, If you see something you shouldn't see…you have to promise me that you'll keep it between your team, and you" She took her son by the shoulders, staring at him "I need you to trust me"
Waylon nodded with some confusion but satisfied, the instructions that Winter gave them were enough to understand what they had to do, catch the intruder and return to the office again, the entire WBRN team entered the elevator and entered the simple code, beginning to descend towards the underground floors.
Waylon had known the underground floors for some time now, the genuinely important research and experimentation that was still in its early stages was happening right under everyone's noses, not just any scientist or inventor could deal with the machines down below, there were certain requirements, confidentiality or having abysmal talent.
The elevator door opened and the narrow hallway was revealed shortly after, some sirens covered by red plastic were tracing a light that went round and round over the environment, the noise was certainly faint and it didn't seem like anything really serious was happening.
It only took them one step out for the alarms to resonate throughout the hallway, suddenly the light panels in the corners turned a reddish color and the surroundings took on the same color, now making the entire team tense.
"What's going on? Did we do something wrong?" Neithan asked, trying not to sound more nervous than he already was.
"The intruder must have tried to open some lab by accident" Waylon explained quickly, hoping that would calm Neithan down "We need to get moving. I don't know much about this place"
The WBRN team began to move through the underground floor, even with the alarms ringing from time to time, this time there was no one kidnapped or in imminent danger, the experiments here were classified, yes, but they could always bribe whoever was down here and fix it, both Waylon and Roy knew that very well.
The differences with the 33.1 facilities were considerable, the corridors of the underground floor were made of a different material that seemed to absorb sound, all prepared so that the common workers would not notice anything in the living room or anywhere else, in addition to being almost completely empty, they had come across some other doors, but opening them was not an option right now.
Neithan followed closely behind his companions, even if his mind was lost in memories and thoughts directed towards his mother, Ruby Rose, especially towards her recent refusal to continue with the plan they had proposed, he wanted to know why.
She looked depressed, her expressions revealed that there was something going through her mind that wouldn't let her rest, Neithan wanted to know what it was, he wanted to help her.
"Who was the guy Mom fought? The one with black hair and red eyes, and that weird clothes" Neithan opened his mouth, not able to keep his doubts to himself "Mom seemed tense after disappearing with him"
"Maybe it's an old friend she knows, Ruby must know a thousand people all over Remnant" Waylon replied, still keeping his gaze straight ahead "Don't worry too much, we're here to help her now"
"Now that I think about it, that guy looks pretty familiar to me" Bryan slowed down his steps a bit, holding his chin thoughtfully "His hair was black, a bit disheveled, his eyes were red…like-"
"Like Waylon's" Roy completed Bryan's observation, suddenly the three of them stopped to stare at their leader, the comparison continued naturally, sure enough, it was exactly the same reddish hue.
"Huh? I'm not the only person with this eye color, my father has them, Raven too, I'm not unique in everything, although I would like to be" Waylon finished with a smile, waiting just a couple of seconds to check if his team had satisfied his curiosity, unfortunately for him, they didn't seem satisfied "Guys, what's wrong?"
"That's it! She looks so much like Raven! Her skin color, her eyes, he even dressed similarly!" Bryan smirked, the grimace on his face turning into one of confusion "Why does he look so much like her?"
"They are Branwen, it is natural that they resemble each other" Waylon replied, somewhat tired of mulling over the subject.
"But they don't dress similar to Raven, I've seen images of her in some books, and in your house, Waylon, the only one who dressed similar to her was your father when they were both students at Beacon" Roy commented, staring at his cousin, curiosity gnawing at him a little "Maybe...is that man a possible relative?"
"Impossible" Waylon replied curtly, his expression now serious "I have no other family on the Branwen side, only my father and my aunt Raven, let's drop the subject at once, we have to move"
Waylon didn't wait this time, he just continued walking, Bryan, Roy and Neithan looked at each other, still puzzled and interested in the relationship that could exist between the mysterious man and Raven, who had a disturbing resemblance.
Now reunited, they continued searching more hastily, going round and round the hallway, they managed to locate themselves thanks to a worn map on a wall, which revealed some interesting things about the floor, multiple rooms were located in the north, which must have contained the machines that worked on the most complex and certainly controversial experiments, so it was very possible that the intruder was around those places.
And the strangest thing of all, there was a room that was not framed with a normal name, only with the letters N.P.R.
They continued down the halls until they reached the experimentation rooms, where they stopped momentarily to watch the machines work on different things. Waylon kept his eyes on a mechanical claw, which was modifying a small cartridge-shaped device.
I look into another room, there seemed to be meat on a white steel table, a gas came out of the ventilation ducts, the room was soon filled with said gas with a cloudy green color, it only took a few seconds for it to dissipate, the pieces of meat had decomposed fairly quickly and the test ended, a digitalized message appeared on the glass, TEST : FAILED.
Waylon felt his stomach turn.
"This is… amazing" Roy muttered under his breath, watching with a complicated expression as some rats were dismembered by a leg, so that the mechanical claw could then administer some kind of serum to them, calming them down "This is supposed to be tissue regeneration and… lost limbs"
"They are experiments that are still in development, maybe that's what Mom meant by keeping this kind of things between us" Waylon replied dryly, looking away from the rats.
"Poor little friend" Neithan murmured with a sad grimace, gently placing his hand on the glass.
"That's the world of science, I guess" Bryan took his cousin's shoulder and patted him, trying to cheer him up.
"We're going to be sad about this if we keep watching, let's find the gossipmonger" Waylon pointed with his finger down the hallway that continued, a reinforced steel door had been forced open strangely, it was clearly mechanical, as the gate was pretending to close and open, the teenagers slowly approached the door, listening from there some papers and careful movements.
They didn't wait any longer and launched their attack, both Waylon and Roy created multiple glyphs around the entire room, quickly illuminating it and revealing what was inside, it was the storage room.
And right there in the middle was Lisa Lavender.
Lisa's facial expression revealed her not very pleasant surprise at recognizing the group of teenagers, she tried to sneak away without much success, Bryan only had to grab her expensive suit by the sleeve and snatch away any chance of being able to escape.
"Lisa Lavander, it's not very nice to see you here" Waylon said, approaching the woman and leaning down a little to be at her level, the boy's lips twisted into a smile "I'll be nice this time and let you off with a warning, okay? It's illegal to meddle in other people's business"
"You look too much like Qrow Branwen, you have the same idiotic smile" Lisa commented, widening Waylon's smile even more, the woman squirmed in Bryan's iron grip, sighing and giving up on the idea of escaping "I don't care, I already have what I need, once this gets out to the press you and your mother will be finished"
"That sounds like a threat" Waylon laughed lightly, walking past Lisa and looking more carefully at the warehouse, It was quite large "I'm just defending what will be mine, Lisa, I won't let you ruin it out of a false sense of heroism"
"This isn't about heroism, this is about doing the right thing" Lisa growled, shaking her head "Read those files, you might not be so confident after seeing them"
Waylon frowned, but silently agreed, firmly taking one of the multiple folders placed on the table, and without waiting long, he began to read.
...
January 5, 4XXX
I don't really know what's out there now, it's been a while since I was able to set foot outside the facilities, all I know is what Winter says, the Black Fang is becoming a problem in Mistral and she doesn't like it, I don't remember very well who had mentioned it, perhaps Robyn Hill, Leonardo's son, I don't know.
She asked me to take charge of creating something new, something unique enough that only faunus can be affected by it, I feel the need to laugh but I can't, my body is too weak and the laughter no longer comes out.
It's almost like a bad joke, that she and her sister dedicated themselves in the past to rejecting any racist image of their family and that she needs something unique that only harms faunus feels ironic, but I'm not interested, I'll just do it, I'll need time, working with audio frequencies is very complicated.
No need to sign this, no one will read it, it's just something to relax me.
March 15, 4XXX
Testing with the sound bombs has begun, I'm not able to see the results in person, I can only make do with the videos Winter provides me, but from what I've seen, the test subjects seem to be quite affected by the bombs, one dog faunus, in particular, seems to have been left completely deaf.
It could be considered immoral, perhaps in the past I would have completely refused to participate in something like that, but it is for the good of Mistral, at least that is what Winter constantly says.
Next week more test subjects will be integrated into the experiment, all that remains is to take prisoners from the Black Fang, nobody cares what happens to those people anyway.
As an observation, it seems that the bomb also affects normal humans, it must be refined.
January 29, 4XXX
The Noxium gas hasn't been working as it should, tests indicate that cellular degeneration is happening extremely quickly and cells are breaking down from one moment to the next, Winter didn't specify much what this was for, she mentioned that the Atlas army needed it, I don't doubt that it was rejected by a Tairah, they are usually very mean, before i understood them and did what i could for them, now, well, it's not like i works for them anymore.
I'll try to fix it, I need to do something in my free time.
February 24th 4XXX
Cellular regeneration from reptile genes, isolating their healing factor is complicated and isn't doing much good, the rats used usually die or end up with overly exaggerated tumors, testing them on Grimm isn't an option right now, I wish I could manipulate it myself, but, this is schoolwork for newcomers to these parts, Grimm Omega is a bunch of scribbles that should make sense, Merlot knew a thing or two about experimentation but didn't consider how painfully fragile Grimm is, we'll need some kind of way to insert lizard DNA into them, or a miracle will fall from the sky.
I'm tired, I can't go down to the labs anymore, maybe I need to retire soon.
May 3, 4099
Winter gave birth a few months ago, the little boy looks adorable and is a happy little lump of flesh, it deeply moves me to be able to hold a baby again after so many years, the feeling made me cry in front of Winter, and she comforted me a little.
She asked me to do some tests with samples of Waylon's DNA, I agreed without thinking much, I am not a doctor but I am a scientist and inventor, I can do some things, the results will arrive soon.
May 12, 4099
The results are impressive, this kid is an aura tank and he's not even able to unlock one, my machines can't fail, I've checked it, his soul is gigantic, I could see his abilities with my own eyes, he hurt himself by accident when he cut himself with a scalpel that's in my lab, and he healed in a matter of seconds! He hasn't gotten sick at all, I'll wait a little longer to see what happens.
August 21, 4099
I have asked Winter to allow me to take samples of Waylon's DNA, as well as his blood, he has not shown himself to be affected and the experiments have begun, I will try with simple things for now, maybe find some sick rat and check what happens, this is in the future, of course, I am old and regeneration from the reptilian gene is the priority, this is...unethical, but it is for the good of science.
December 6, 4XXX
The Grimm Omega is finally stable, who would have thought that Waylon Branwen's blood would be the missing piece to keep them from dying immediately? It's funny, the Beowolf that's trapped here is, to a certain extent, long-lived, it no longer necessarily need to consume people, they're dying because of the nuclear reactor, and at the same time they heal so quickly that the damage is practically non-existent, although their hunger increases, this will do for now.
Waylon's blood will be used for other things, Winter doesn't need to know that, anyway, my notes are kept in only certain folders in the storage room, which functions like an elevator that goes from floor to floor.
I should stop writing these things, someday someone will find it and it will be a problem.
Never mind, that'll be all for now.
...
Waylon's expression turned into one of total disbelief, mixed with other negative emotions as well, confusion, disgust, fear, all in one package, he had been reading the files for a few minutes, in total silence, the revelations were shocking.
Had they experimented with their own blood? Had his mother been creating biological weapons capable of degenerating people at a cellular level? Weapons capable of killing faunus indiscriminately?
If this comes to light, his reputation, no, his legacy, would be tarnished for the rest of existence.
Schnee Corporations, may cease to exist.
"You can't reveal this" Waylon quickly turned around, facing Lisa Lavander, grabbing her directly by the neck and pulling her away from Bryan "What do you want it? Thousands, millions? What the hell do you want?!"
"I just want to reveal to the world what a monster your mother really is" Lisa smiled with a hint of pride, not even bothering to try to push Waylon away "You think you can buy me with money? You can't, kid, In the real world, actions have consequences, and your mother will suffer jail time, as she deserves"
Waylon let out a growl and pushed Lisa hard, the woman crashed into the steel floor and grabbed her neck in pain, the teenager began to walk in circles, being watched by his teammates, who had read the contents of the notes with their leader.
"This is too hard" Roy muttered under his breath, somewhat horrified by the experiments that had been observed by Winter, especially using faunus to test his experiments with the sound bombs. "But…what could we do?"
Neither Bryan nor Neithan dared to give their opinion on the matter, it was quite horrifying to think about what things Winter had allowed and what things they didn't know, Bryan certainly felt uncomfortable thinking about fauns who suffered hours and hours of experimentation, probably ending up dead or deaf, Neithan was deeply disgusted, the simple thought of harming people for a greater good sounds wrong to him, however, both he and his cousin are aware that this is a Schnee matter, therefore, Waylon and Roy are better suited to know what to do.
"Damn it" Waylon growled under his breath, clutching the bridge of his nose in stress, his eyes once again falling on Lisa, approaching her and opening his mouth to try to threaten her again, his thought was interrupted by a strange sound, coming from the hallway which was to the left.
A sound, which was clearly a heavy growl.
The WBRN team didn't have enough time to react to the sudden attack of a Beowolf, the Grimm was much bigger than one usually would be, its body was surrounded by veins that lit up in red energy, a light of the same reddish tone seemed to be embedded in its chest, there was no doubt, it was an Alpha-Omega Beowolf.
Waylon was the first to react, summoning a copy of Harbinger and trying to impale the monster in its neck, however, it easily deflected the weapon and grabbed Lisa with force, lifting her in the air and digging its sharp claws into her abdomen, the woman moaned in pain and tried to kick so that the beast would break free, Neithan, clearly nervous, grabbed his scythe and lunged forward, cutting off the Grimm's arm and freeing Lisa.
The Grimm barely looked at its newly amputated limb, which disintegrated as it fell to the ground, using its jaw it attempted to tear Lisa's head off, leaning down and opening its jaws at a terrifying speed, Bryan was the one who interrupted this time, firmly taking hold of the monster's head and pushing it back, making it stagger.
Waylon took Lisa by the arm and put her inside the storage room, trying to hide her a little, the Beowolf slowly stood up, his previously amputated arm began to regenerate quite quickly, his core pulsating multiple times before being fully healed, ready for the attack.
The Grimm lunged forward once more, attempting to enter the room with a calm very strange for its species, Bryan again grabbed its head and struggled against it, Roy created glyphs beneath the monster, successfully immobilizing it, Neithan raised his scythe and swung it forward with force, at the eye.
The Beowolf still didn't seem to be close to giving up, it opened its mouth once more, its bone-colored teeth turning crimson red as multiple veins surrounded its skull, giving it an even more terrifying appearance, it bit Bryan hard on the shoulder, causing his aura to flicker momentarily.
Waylon took advantage of the distraction and left the storage room, summoning Harbinger and throwing it towards the monster's chest, the Beowolf caught the sword in the air and broke it in one movement, he took Neithan's scythe and simply threw it back, causing the blade to stick into the wall, dangerously close to his neck.
Bryan gritted his teeth and landed a firm punch to the Grimm's jaw, the Beowolf finally seemed to react aggressively, starting to move erratically and throwing punches everywhere, the space in the hallway was small for the Grimm, so it began to hit itself against the walls, also injuring Roy and Bryan.
The Beowolf continued to punch the walls and the air for a few seconds, stopping only when it was in front of Neithan, the monster's eyes glowed for a moment as it watched the teenager struggle against his own scythe, the Beowolf slowly knelt down, bringing its claws closer to Neithan's eyes.
The silver-eyed began to shake his head from side to side in panic, somehow sensing the interest the Grimm had in his eyes, the Beowolf placed it's left hand on Neithan's head, keeping him extremely still, with the claws of his left hand he lightly touched the area of his eyelids, beginning to sink them quite cautiously.
Neithan closed his eyes tightly, expecting the pain in his eye, he opened his eyelids when he heard the sound of a blade sinking into flesh, and when he looked up, he found Waylon, who had pierced the Grimm through the chest, destroying its core.
The Beowolf fell to the ground, finally beginning to disintegrate in its entirety. Waylon ignored the Grimm and knelt in front of Neithan, pulling Red Reaper off the wall and handing it back to him "Looks like your granny wanted to get a closer look at you, huh?"
"That's not even funny" Neithan snorted, while Waylon laughed lightly without any humor, the red-eyed got up from the ground and re-entered the storage room, finding Lisa, still conscious by a miracle.
"You need to go to the hospital, there's a risk that you've pierced an organ, I'd give you the chance to go to the company infirmary but I'm sure you'll find something to reveal to the press" Waylon made an effort not to let his conflicting emotions and thoughts out for a second, the idea of knocking out Lisa and finding a way to keep her quiet sounded darkly tempting, yet he simply couldn't do it "We're going to get you out of here"
"Are you going to take me to a hospital? To the same person who is about to ruin your life?" Lisa asked in pain, her tone of voice bordering on sarcasm and confusion "You could have let me die, the dead don't talk"
"It wouldn't have been the right thing to do, that's the bad part of being a Huntsman" Waylon replied half-heartedly, trying to lift Lisa up by himself, however, she simply waved her hand from side to side, indicating for him to stop.
"I'll be fine… I'll make it back upstairs on my own" Lisa muttered, successfully standing up and starting to walk down the hall, Waylon and the others again offered to escort her, but she refused and they just continued investigating.
The 4 teenagers followed the trail where the Beowolf had come out from, the marks of its claws were present both on the floor and on the walls, it had been running its hand along the metal the whole way, even so Waylon had a question, what was it doing there?
The atmosphere changed drastically when they made a fairly normal turn, the red lights became a soft blue, bordering on light blue, they were now not alarms indicating a violation of the floor, but simple lighting.
The room in front of them this time was quite different from the rest, it was much larger and seemed to be more like an elevator turned into a room, the height could be 12 meters or a little more, its width could be 30.
The main difference was that it was open.
Waylon read the steel engraving on the side of the hatch, N.P.R, the window that was supposed to allow those outside to see inside was shattered, the hole was narrow and high, so he assumed this was where the Beowolf escaped from.
The team entered the room cautiously, making sure not to accidentally cut themselves on the glass, Neithan began to look for anything interesting that could be in the place, Bryan searched through some drawers for traces of papers or files, documents, whatever, while Roy and Waylon stared at the capsule from which the Beowolf had emerged.
It was quite large, the Beowolf had apparently been asleep or giving in, it had acted very docile, attacking Lisa above all things and taking a great interest in Neithan's eyes, instead of killing him, it wanted to tear his eyes out.
That was scarier than a normal killing-hungry Beowolf.
Waylon leaned his head forward a little, rubbing his eyelids absentmindedly "We were supposed to get Lisa out of here so we could talk to the twins, not find out that my mom likes to play mad scientist down here"
"It's a military company, I guess I can understand that" Roy murmured, gently placing his hand on Waylon's shoulder "Are you going to talk to her?"
"I need to know, I need to know why she hurt those people, there must be a reason, if not…" Waylon fell silent, staring at his cousin "If not, it means that the image I have had of her is a lie, a damn lie"
"Waylon, you should see this!" Neithan shouted, interrupting Waylon's lament, both the red-eyed and blue-eyed moved to see the discovery that the youngest of the group had made.
The WBRN team focused their attention on a capsule smaller than the Beowolf's; the cylindrical shape of the metallic object gave them the opportunity to look at it more carefully. The glass seemed to be dysfunctional, as there were exaggeratedly large spots that prevented them from seeing the contents inside.
Bryan moved his hand around the edge of the glass, finding an engraved name, which he said out loud: "Nickel Polendina"
"Polendina?" Roy muttered, quickly approaching Bryan and checking the name, it was correct "What is this thing?"
"It appears to be a capsule for…someone, Pietro Polendina had no family that I recall, all he had was terrible luck, he had a real daughter, Caroline, Penny Polendina was an exact replica of his daughter…and she also died, in Atlas" Waylon said, trying to clean the stains, without success "We should leave this here and go back up…I-"
"Look at that" Neithan brought his curious hand closer to a small panel at the edge of the glass, right next to the name, when he pressed his palm the outline of his hand was traced digitally, the panel turned red with a somewhat annoying sound, error.
"It seems to be an access panel" Waylon muttered, looking a little more closely at the large cylindrical object, ironically it was smaller than him, perhaps the only one of them who could genuinely enter there would be Neithan, who was the shortest of the group, the red-eyed came to a conclusion quite quickly, someone could be inside.
Without waiting much he placed his hand on the access panel, the outline of his hand was traced quite quickly and the panel flashed green, the sound was now softer and more pleasant, without any warning, the capsule simply opened.
A somewhat strange gas was released from the capsule, forcing the teenagers to separate a little, once the gas dissipated they could see who the person inside was, it was a girl, her dress seemed to be that of a porcelain doll, mainly black with dark green edges, her incredibly pale face was adorned with freckles on her cheeks, her hair had a copper orange color, the entire team quickly connected the threads, coming to a more than obvious conclusion.
She was terrifyingly similar to Penny Polendina.
None of them could react properly when the android opened her eyes, her emerald irises moved across the room, her eyes filled with multiple feelings, curiosity, innocence and tranquility, Waylon and the others simply remained silent, trying not to move as much as possible.
"Hello-" Neithan opened her mouth to communicate with Nickel, the android raised her arms violently and grabbed the edges of her capsule with impressive strength, burying her bionic fingers in the metal and bending it slowly, an alarm began to ring in the room, making the atmosphere even more tense.
"Damn it" Waylon muttered, looking around to try and find some sort of solution to the situation, the boy managed to spot a command room on the other side of his current position, the only connection to his current position and said room was a moderately wide ventilation hatch. His mind could barely form a glimmer of an idea "Neithan, go into the command room through that hatch and deactivate the alarm, It should be a red button, we'll take care of it"
Neithan obeyed without hesitation and quickly knelt down, his body passing through the hatch without much difficulty and he began to search for something important, his silver eyes fluttered from side to side as he recognized the command console, full of buttons, levers, and lights of all kinds of colors.
On the other side things weren't any better, Waylon, Bryan and Roy took a few steps back while Nickel rose above her capsule, getting up slowly and theatrically, the android turned her head to the side, practically performing an impossible turn, turning the teenagers' stomachs.
Her eyes flickered slightly, recognizing the identity of the three, multiple elongated pieces separating from her back, the metal pieces gathered together and formed two black wings, releasing a greenish trail, the window behind them was closed by a metal panel, leaving them with no way out.
"Prepare yourselves, we don't know-" Waylon tried to warn his companions of something, but unfortunately for him, his body was rammed by the android, which flew from her capsule to him and hit him in the chest with all possible force, slamming him against the steel window.
Bryan and Roy quickly turned around, impressed by the android's speed, Bryan raised his arm and prepared a hook to hit Nickel, the orange-haired robot extended her hand into the air, the tips of her fingers separated and released a sound wave, which reached Bryan's ears and caused him an incredibly sharp pain, leaving him stunned for a few seconds.
Roy blinked a couple of times, unable to understand why Bryan had started to stagger, his distraction cost him a kick to the abdomen, and then he was grabbed forcefully by the ankle, Nickel lifted him into the air without any difficulty, beginning to slam him against the ground multiple times.
Nickel leaned her head to the side, avoiding a direct hit from Waylon, the red-eyed swung his sword at specific weak points to incapacitate the android, the robot dropped Roy and focused on Waylon, dedicating herself to dodging or blocking his blows.
Waylon created a glyph and summoned a replica of Ex Harpax, pulling it up and impacting Nickel's hand, some sparks were created by the impact, Waylon tried again to hurt the android with the gigantic double-bladed sword, without much success.
With his left hand he summoned Arondite, throwing the weapon towards Nickel's skull, who only ducked her body to dodge the attack, Nickel was unable to react to Bryan's hook, which had recovered in time.
"Neithan! Did you manage to find the damn button?!" Waylon shouted to the youngest member of his team, who seemed quite nervous and worried.
"There's nothing here! I try to touch everything but, nothing happens!" Neithan mumbled in response, Waylon gritted his teeth and began to think of a quick solution, they had to destroy Nickel.
His thoughts went no further than that.
The android flew towards Bryan and grabbed him by the arm, pulling him hard and slamming him against the wall at an exaggeratedly dangerous speed, causing the blonde's aura to flicker multiple times, Waylon summoned Harbinger and tried to split the android's head in half, Nickel simply extended her arm and grabbed him firmly by the neck, squeezing her fingers so hard that he was forced to try to get away in another way, she was suffocating him.
"Let him go!" Roy rose from the ground with a strength that came from who knows where, taking his rapier and impaling it against Nickel's left arm, the android turned her head dramatically, extending her palm and causing a hole to appear, releasing a charge of plasma energy and launching it towards Roy, injuring him and destroying his aura.
Waylon looked to the sides, totally stressed and somewhat scared, Bryan was still on the ground recovering from the attack, and Roy was writhing, not much better than the faunus, what was he supposed to do in this situation?
His eyes widened as he felt his abdomen being pierced, the grip on his neck loosened slightly, allowing him to breathe, the boy coughed a couple of times, some blood coming out of his mouth, giving him an idea of what had happened.
Nickel pulled her arm out of the boy's stomach, letting him fall to the ground, the android approached her capsule and inserted her arm into a hole that seemed to fit perfectly, the blood surrounding her limb was sucked out through some pores, leaving the android completely clean.
Nickel slowly turned around and began to walk towards Waylon, raising her right arm into the air, the girl's hand separated into four parts, leaving room for an extremely sharp blade, her green eyes calculating the perfect place to pierce his neck.
"Stop!" Nickel didn't plunge the knife into Waylon's neck, instead, she turned her head slightly to the side so she could recognize the person behind her, it was the same boy with silver eyes and black hair with reddish tips, she tried to use her facial recognition system once again.
ERROR.
"I won't let you kill him, he's my family" Neithan muttered, totally scared, his grip on his scythe was weak and he was shaking too much, even so, he took a step forward, preparing to have to atack the android.
Nickel blinked a few times, her database seemed to suddenly stop, trying to search for some kind of old file, her bionic brain worked like a highly advanced computer, therefore, there were few things that could cause an error in her system.
She try using the recognition system a couple more times, again, again, and again, slowly starting to piece together Neithan's face.
Nickel's soulless eyes suddenly took on a new glow.
"Ruby" Nickel said calmly, her lips that had formed a line curved upwards, creating a radiant smile on her now happy expression "Ruby! Greetings! I was hoping to see you soon, I…I'm not Penny, but-"
Nickel couldn't finish her sentence properly, the android looked down with the same happy expression, finding a bluish sword in her chest, which slashed the rest of her body to the side, breaking it and causing it to fall to the ground, turning off completely.
Waylon Branwen gasped several times, still holding Harbinger, the red-eyed swayed in place a few times, looking towards Neithan shortly after "Are you okay?"
"Y-Yes" The silver-eyed man muttered, looking down, Nickel's shattered body was releasing a very unique bluish liquid, almost as if it were her blood "W-Waylon-"
"I'll be fine" Waylon murmured, putting on a calm smile, the boy took a couple of steps forward, trying to get closer to Roy so he could help him stand up, however, he was barely able to get closer than half a meter before collapsing to the side, staining the floor with his own blood.
"Waylon!" Bryan quickly got up from the ground, approaching his cousin and grabbing him by the shoulders, beginning to assess the damage, his lilac eyes horrified at the sight of the sizable hole in his abdomen "Shit, shit, shit"
"We need to call Aunt Winter" Roy muttered, crawling over to his cousin and firmly grasping his head before looking at Neithan in despair "You need to go upstairs and call her, he'll die if he's not attended soon, hurry!"
Neithan nodded with tears in his eyes and began to move, he raised her scythe and with a simple movement she split the steel window into multiple pieces, managing to create a hole and using it as an escape route.
He was going to save his leader, no matter what happened.
...
The hallway was quiet and had a typical hospital aesthetic, the walls had a mint-greenish color that prevented people from feeling stressed or attacked by the mere fact of being in such a place, he didn't care much, he had been here several times.
But not for this specific reason.
Qrow Branwen had been waiting patiently in the hospital for the last few hours, in front of him was his son's room, a luxurious one and the most expensive possible for the hospital, the operation to save his life had been a complete success and the boy was out of all danger, even so, he had not woken up, according to the doctors his mind still needed to adapt or something similar, Qrow had not paid much attention to that, knowing that he would live, he was fine.
The man looked up when he heard footsteps beside him, Winter Schnee looked just as he expected, beautiful, stressed, and incredibly scared, he quickly stood up to approach her, stopping her in her place.
"I'm sorry I'm late" Winter quickly apologized, hugging her husband tightly and burying her face in his chest, she was deeply grateful that the hallway was deserted, she didn't like being seen being so vulnerable and affectionate with her husband "Qrow…honey, I'm so sorry, I didn't know Nickel was active, I thought only Grimm Omega was there, damn it!"
"It's okay, it's okay" Qrow kissed his wife softly, rubbing her arms to try to calm her nerves "He's okay, he's a strong boy…calm down, what happened?"
"…He didn't tell me she'd be there" Winter muttered under her breath, shaking her head from side to side "Nickel is, stable, I sent her to the first underground floor and she's being repaired, I want so badly to just turn her into an ice cube and destroy her…"
"But she reminds you a lot of Penny" Qrow added, stroking Winter's hair calmly "What about the intruder? Lisa Lavender?"
"I tried to talk to her but she assured me that she wouldn't say anything, she said that…that Waylon doesn't deserve for me to get my punishment, so she would just shut up, at least for now" Winter said, not believing Lisa's words, but still accepting the apparent calm for a while "…I've been a terrible mother, Waylon admires me so much and wants to be like me, and all I've done is push him so that he learns to hate me in the future and destroy me, just like I wanted to do so many years with my father"
"You're not Jacques, stop saying that" Qrow firmly grabbed Winter's cheeks, forcing her to look at him "You'll never be like that jerk with the smug millionaire's ass, you love our son, you're just too hard on him, he could never hate you"
"But he could, the mobile storage was on that floor, if he stopped Lisa it means he read the damn experiments" Winter sighed in defeat, taking her husband's hand and gently rubbing her thumb against his palm "I'm so stupid, I deserve all this"
"I won't let you continue torturing yourself" Qrow smiled slightly, interlacing his fingers with Winter's and approaching the door to his son's room, opening it with extreme caution, the interior was quite luxurious and pleasant for a hospital room, it was spacious, with a huge window that allowed you to see outside, a television, a refrigerator, and some machines that seemed to be monitoring Waylon's vital signs.
The boy was awake, now dressed in a hospital gown and lying on his stretcher, Waylon smiled as he recognized his parents, who approached him quickly, Winter was the first to pounce on him, hugging him by the neck and hiding her face there, Qrow just watched, taking a couple of chairs and placing them in front of the stretcher.
"Are you feeling okay?" Winter asked carefully, sitting down next to Qrow and looking expectantly at her son "The hole in your stomach was too big, you were losing blood and some organs were damaged"
"Apparently I healed pretty quickly, I'll be here for a few days on their orders, so I can't do much" Waylon replied, still smiling as he looked at his parents "…Why do you look so sad?"
Qrow looked down at the ground, certainly embarrassed, he brought his hand closer to his son's, squeezing it tightly "Waylon, I know you have mixed emotions towards your mother, from what you must have seen today and...from the way she has treated you your whole life, you should know that this is not entirely her fault, I allowed this too"
"Dad, you shouldn't-" Waylon tried to reassure his father, but he simply refused.
"When I was young, I never thought I'd have a family like this, I spent years as a failed drunk trying to drown my sorrows in alcohol, It was your mother who gave me the chance to have this family and…I allowed her to do everything her way since I didn't believe I was capable of being the best father for you" Qrow explained, somewhat embarrassed by his own words and his attitudes, both past and present "Your cousins Ruby and Yang think they have the coolest uncle in the world, but in reality all I did was give them problems and problems, Raven, Summer's secrets, disappear for months on end because of my semblance, I never wanted that for you, so I allowed your mother to raise you how she wanted"
Waylon nodded slowly, looking down at his own arms with mixed emotions, he had always been aware of his father's lack of action in the face of Winter's strange attitude towards him, he had never questioned it, now he had an answer to such an attitude, which changed absolutely nothing, It was still exactly the same.
He had come all this way for her, he was a Huntsman because she had been one, it was his ultimate motivation for having made every current decision in his life, having distanced himself from his own family so he could concentrate on being better, them admitting it didn't change anything, the damage had already been done.
"I know you read the files on the experiments I monitored" Winter seemed to regain some of her icy composure, still, she was clearly affected by the current situation and the mere act of speaking seemed to be a battle, which she was winning "I don't think you understand but, this is the way the world works, I'm not as good as you think I am, I was a soldier, I participated in the destruction of Mantle and I reacted too late to what Ironwood was doing, your aunt Weiss seemed to have died and…I fell into a pit so dark that not even your father was able to get me out for a while"
"All those faunus, all the hatred you have for Grandpa, how can you say you hate him when you're just like him?" Waylon asked, squeezing his hands with what little strength he had left.
Winter bit her lip, preparing to have to confess some sort of secret she had been keeping to herself "Your grandfather…never stopped seeing me as his daughter, he decided that I needed to become strong in his own way and left me adrift, once I became the general's right-hand man, he seemed to view me with a hint of what seemed to be pride, and, some time later, I found a letter that he was supposed to send me, but it stayed in his office in the mansion"
"He wanted to talk to me, to do some kind of meeting so we could reconnect and include me in family events, like some kind of ally, I hated him for that, and I still hate him, but my twisted head thought for a second that that way of raising me was the right one and I tried to apply it to you in my own style, give you the necessary training and leave you to your own devices so you could transform into me, sooner rather than later" Winter didn't seem to be shaking, or on the verge of tears, her posture and expression had straightened in such a way that they reflected her current emotions, she was prepared, ready to accept her son's rejection, even if in her eyes was the desire for him not to.
"It's your decision, accept me as the terrible mother that I am and help me change, or leave me out" Winter lowered her head slightly, while Qrow silently comforted her, the atmosphere in the room had certainly become much darker and heavier, for absolutely everyone, emotions were not exactly something easy for the Branwen and Schnee, and for the back luck of Waylon, he was both.
The pure reality sounded horrible to him, Winter was still the same person as many years ago, she was a soldier who had made wrong decisions under someone else's orders, and she was exactly the same now, with the difference that there was no one to influence her way of thinking.
He had to accept that? Accept that his mother was someone more perverse than he believed, understand that she was capable of creating weapons capable of ending the lives of faunus, understand for a second that the Grimm Omega were a twisted form of himself, understand that so many years of silence were to make him stronger? When all he did was suffer.
Accepting the fact that his father was someone who, as much as he appeared to be calm and scared, did not have enough courage to stop his wife and help his son when he needed it most, the decision seemed to be a bad joke on the part of fate, it was an endless cycle.
The son always ends up killing his father somehow, Winter left her father aside, and Qrow killed his because it was the right thing to do.
But Scav Branwen and Jacques Schnee never gave their children any kind of choice, did they?
The reality was that, the mere fact that Qrow and Winter were in front of him right now, asking for forgiveness indicated that they had put aside their inability to hide their emotions and were now trying to redeem themselves in some way, which was something more valuable than either of them could believe.
It wasn't going to be easy, she had spent her whole life wanting unconditional love from both of them, so they would have to work to be able to create something similar to a halfway functional family.
And if Waylon had to be honest, he wasn't willing to let them go.
"Okay, I want to try, you know…have dinner like a normal family and go to the fairs, I don't know" Waylon shrugged, already feeling the hopeful glances from his parents "I can't forget what happened, but I can try to forgive you and accept you, we are family after all, I don't think I can stop loving you from one day to the next"
Winter and Qrow hugged their son with much more force than necessary, both surrounded the boy and held him tightly, almost as if he were at risk of falling into the void or something, the boy groaned slightly from the feeling of suffocation, even if a new and unique warmth loomed over his chest.
The warmth of feeling, for the first time in too many years, like family.
Waylon wrapped his arms around his parents' necks, finally cementing the first family hug in more years than the three of them wanted to admit, but it would be the first of many.
"I NEED TO SEE HIM!" The three of them looked up at the door, which was violently thrown open, revealing a black-haired girl, battling against multiple hospital guards "DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?! I'M RIANA REN, I NEED TO SEE WAYLON"
"Stop" Winter pulled away from the hug, speaking in her characteristically firm tone and pointing at the guards, then frowning upon recognizing the girl "Who do you think you are, brat?"
"She's my…friend, she's a good friend" Waylon replied, patting his mother on the arm to reassure her "Dad already knows about her, don't worry, she's good"
"Y-Yes! Mrs. Schnee, I just came to say hello and see how Waylon is doing" Riana replied with a nervous smile, moving away from the guards and waiting for a reaction from Winter, who didn't change her expression at any point.
"Fine" The woman didn't say anything else, sitting back down in her chair and silently taking her son's hand, caressing it carefully , while Qrow simply laughed and leaned back in his chair, Waylon smiled in Riana's direction, indicating without any words that everything was fine.
In fact, for the first time in his life, he felt like everything was okay.