Welcome back to Jaune's no good very bad terrible life, where everyone else is having a pretty great time, all things considered!
Start Chapter 26
Jaune had been fairly certain that 'sneaking in' to a building by wearing a green vest and holding a ladder was to be the dumbest thing he'd done that day..
This… this might be dumber.
"And what would the two of you like this evening?" The waitress asks, smiling down at the two of them.
"I'll have a sirloin, cooked rare," Tyrian speaks, and Jaune can't help but think that Tyrian taking his stakes rare is the least surprising thing he's ever heard. "Alongside the house Merlot."
"Alrighty then," The waitress writes Tyrian's order down. "And you, sir?"
"Uh…" He looks down at the menu in front of him. "…The same thing he's having. Medium on the steak, please."
"Will do." She bows, before making her way back towards the kitchens.
Jaune eyes Tyrian over the table. "What's your game, here?"
"Oh?" Tyrian places a hand over his heart. "Why do you believe I have some game at all?"
"Because you're you." Jaune speaks, and he feels that's more than fair in terms of reasoning. "So, what's with the fancy restaurant?"
"You don't believe I simply have particular tastes?" Tyrian gasps. "Why, Jaune, I'm offended."
He very much does not like Tyrian calling him by his name. Not at all.
Their food arrives rather quickly, which Jaune hadn't expected. Perhaps being a high-class restaurant means the food's fast-tracked, or something along those lines? Jaune doesn't really know.
It's annoyingly good food, too. A single bite has his mouth watering. He's not willing to admit how good it is; not and give Tyrian any credit for bringing them here, so he takes bites in silence.
Eventually, however, someone else walks towards their table. She's an older woman, perhaps fifty or so years old.
"Ah, Tyrian," She chuckles. "It's been a while. How've you been?"
"Good, good." Tyrian, once again, manages to act like a completely normal person. "Like I said the last time, my work takes me to many different places around the globe. I do quite like this place, but alas, duty calls."
"Believe me, I understand." She chuckles. "My husband's a Huntsman, and he gets called all over all the time."
Tyrian and the new arrival chuckle in unison, and Jaune just looks at them with a bit of disbelief.
"But still, Tyrian, you called ahead earlier and said you'd be bringing someone special." The woman wears a teasing smile, reaching out and smacking Tyrian on the shoulder playfully. "Is this him, then?"
"He is indeed." Tyrian plays the part of a suitor that's deeply in love, and Jaune just stares across the table, totally dumbfounded.
"Wha…?"
"Ah, Jaune, you'll have to forgive me," Tyrian places a hand on his heart. "I informed the owner here about our relationship without asking you."
…What is happening right now?
This… had Tyrian really brought him all the way out here solely to fuck with him?
Actually, no, scratch that. Of course he'd done that.
And Jaune has to play along now, doesn't he? Or else Tyrian will send back a report to Salem.
That utter…
He grimaces somewhat, before looking up at the woman and giving her an easy smile.
"It's nice to meet you, ma'am."
"Hah, I haven't been called ma'am in a while." The woman laughs. "I think you've picked a good one, Tyrian."
"Oh, I know; isn't he just the sweetest?"
Jaune lets out a beleaguered sigh.
It's all the energy he really has anymore.
/
"Are we forgetting something?"
"I'm pretty sure we're not."
"Hm…" Ruby hums out under her breath. "I guess I'm just being weird, then."
"Camera's down."
Ruby nods her head at Amber, and the two of them follow behind Roman as they make their way down the hall at a normal walking pace.
To be fair, they're not being stealthy. Roman had said first thing that them walking around like they had something to hide would be about a thousand times as suspicious as them just… walking.
Which, when Ruby thinks about it, adds up.
So, that's what they're doing, despite the fact that just walking past a bunch of guards gives her the heebie-jeebies. She knows the only thing that matters is that Hawthorne doesn't have proof of them sneaking out, and thusly, as long as they're not on camera, they're fine.
But… ugh, espionage is not her thing.
She's said this a lot, but she feels it bears repeating.
"So…" Amber brings up. "How long is the camera going to be down."
"A few minutes, maybe?" Roman shrugs, as if he's not really sure. "It's basically a pulse that restarts the camera. It has to go through its bootup sequence again, find the place in the recording that it left off… it takes a minute or two. Not enough to do anything major, but just for sneaking by it?"
"It works perfectly." Ruby laughs. "Nicely done, Roman."
"Yeah, well…" He rubs at the back of his neck, smiling smally. "I'm glad you guys seem to see more use in it than I ever did."
"Are you kidding?" Ruby chuckles. "Sure, I imagine it's not much good in a straight fight, but in a scenario where we have to gather intel, or sneak into a highly-guarded base? Your ability will more than come in handy."
They'd have killed for something like Roman's semblance when they'd been trying to sneak their way into Atlas HQ. All the crappy distractions they'd had to make would've been a lot easier.
Although now that Ruby thinks about it, she wonders if Roman's semblance would do anything to Penny?
Probably not, and just in case such would hurt her, Ruby doesn't want to try it, either.
…Penny.
It's an odd thing for her to suddenly think about. Her friend who'd fallen in the line of duty. Who'd become a human, who'd gained a life, only to lose it thirty minutes later.
Ruby hasn't thought about her in… months, honestly. The last time she had had been in the Ever After. She'd been too busy to have much time to think about her. They'd been training Roman, coming up with team attacks, and plans to make it far into the Vytal Festival.
But…
"Ruby?"
She snaps from out of her own head to see Roman looking down at her with concern.
"Huh?"
"You alright?" he asks. "You just looked kind of out of it."
"Ah, well…" She supposes that in this case, she can just be honest. "I was thinking about a friend of mine. She was… she was killed about a year ago."
Amber and Roman's eyes widen. "That's terrible." The former speaks. "You say this happened just a year ago?"
"Mm. Only a month or two before I joined up with Beacon." It's hard to remember exact periods of time when the Ever After is involved. None of them are quite sure how long they'd been there. Several weeks is their best guess. "She uhm… well, she was a very special girl. Penny was her name."
Roman and Amber share a look between them that Ruby can't identify, before Roman steps forward and opens his arms up.
"Ya' want a hug?" He offers.
It's funny, then, that it takes him offering for Ruby to realize that yes, she very much does want a hug. She giggles lightly as she leans forward, and wraps her arms around Roman. He hugs her back, but gently, as if worried he might break her if he hugged too tightly.
Amber stands a ways away, awkwardly bouncing from foot to foot.
"You can join the hug too, y'know." Ruby offers.
It's an awkward thing, the way that Amber sort of… hobbles her way over to them, and wraps her arms around them. She does so very loosely, without any real strength in her grip.
Ruby finds it hilarious.
"Hey, aren't we trying to sneak out right now?" Roman brings up.
"Oh, shit, right!"
All in all, it takes them roughly ten minutes to escape the confines of their hotel.
Escape might be too harsh a word. Really, they walk out to very little fanfare, and no one puts in any effort to stop them.
Ruby begins to think she might've put in a bit more effort in terms of this 'escaping unseen' thing than she'd really needed to, up until Roman lets out a sigh of relief.
"Man, that was too many cameras." He shakes his head. "Why would anyone be that paranoid?"
"Because of kids like us?" Amber supplies, and Roman doesn't seem to know what to say to that.
"Alright, guys." Ruby clears her throat. "We've got two hours until the rally starts! We get to Mantle, attend the rally, and we make it back before anything knows what happened!"
Amber and Roman both nod, although a second later, Roman's eyes bug out.
"Hey, hang on…" He mutters below his breath. "Does anyone know how to get down to Mantle?"
Ruby raises one finger, before that finger wilts over the process of five or so seconds.
Because while she'd known how to get down to Mantle in the future – where they'd been fully fledged Huntsman who could take out military hardware for use on jobs – she very much does not know how to get down to Mantle as a student with zero lien to her name.
Huh.
"Welp…" Ruby mutters under her breath.
"I think that might have been the part we forgot about."
/
All in all, the rally is a much humbler thing than Blake remembers attending as a child.
That probably has something to do with the fact that she's over twice the height she'd been at seven or eight, when she'd first started attending her family's rallies. Now, as an adult, she can realize just how much heart has been poured into them, to make up for the lack of a budget.
The signs in the protestor's hands aren't mass-printed off, but individually painted and drawn on. The pamphlets they're handing out have clearly been written by someone without any actual knowledge of design. It's also clear that they hadn't chosen a particular area for the rally ahead of time. They'd just picked a street that looked occupied and began setting up.
Seeing the behind the scenes of what had seemed to a child to be a highly-choreographed ballet… almost makes Blake appreciate her father's work more.
He'd had so little to work with, but he'd put in everything he possibly could. Not for himself, but for others.
Her heart swells with pride, even if it dims somewhat to know she can't truly share it with him in a way that matters. Praise from a woman he's met recently won't mean as much as praise from his daughter.
And besides… the Ghira Belladonna of this timeline isn't her father.
But such are wasted thoughts as of right now. She has a job; to protect the people of the rally, and watch for any bad actors who might be attempting to ruin it.
Honestly, as much as Blake is worried, she doesn't think that anyone's going to intervene here. A bunch of visiting faunus being the victims of an arson attack is easy to get rid of, in terms of a story for news outlets. It's much more difficult to cover up a politically motivated assassination in the middle of a bustling street.
For that reason alone, Blake's confident nothing will happen.
But she's not taking chances.
She checks the ammunition loaded into Gambol Shroud for perhaps the thirteenth time. It's a bit of a nervous tick when she has nothing else to do with her hands. In another scenario, she might break out a volume of Ninjas of Love, perhaps, but given that the later installments haven't actually been written yet – and those have all the good scenes – and that she has a job to do, that's not really an option.
So, Blake sits, and she watches.
She's not expecting anyone to interrupt that.
But someone does.
"Ah, Ms. Blake," She turns, and sees her father walking up to her. "I was wondering where you'd gone off to."
Currently, she's standing at the entryway of an alley close to where the rally is going to be held. She's not going to stay there long, however. She'll take to higher ground once the event is in full swing.
She tells Ghira as much, and the man chuckles. "I appreciate that you're taking this so seriously, but I wouldn't be terribly concerned. An attack in public would be foolhardy, and would only serve to galvanize public opinion in our favor."
Hah. So, her father's also put that together, has he?
Maybe, even still, she's not giving the man enough credit.
"Still, I wished to ask you something." He clears his throat as he looks back towards the people still setting up. "Do you believe protesting to be meaningless?"
It's an incredibly odd thing for her father to suddenly ask her, and the first thought Blake really has is, "Why do you ask?"
"Ah, well, suffice it to say I got the impression when I was first discussing this with you that you didn't actually believe this rally would do much good." Ghira speaks, and Blake can't quite remember what her exact reaction had been back on Menagerie, when he'd first briefed her on the idea, but… she might've seemed dismissive, perhaps? "Am I correct in my insinuation, Ms. Black Fang?"
She chuckles lowly at her government-given code name, before thinking more deeply about the question itself.
"…No. Not meaningless." She eventually settles on. "But on its own, with nothing else to accompany it, a peaceful protest like this one serves little function."
"Oh? Might I ask you to elaborate on that?"
She can, although, perhaps in this case, she might use the same argument that had convinced her when she'd been a child.
She doesn't believe in much of what Sienna and Adam's White Fang had taught her anymore. Much of it has proven itself to be mere dogma; the ravings of people who desired only to get even with those they felt had wronged them.
But some things…
"There's a proverb from Vacuo that I heard when I was younger." She speaks. She remembers the exact way Adam had put it at the time. It's almost funny. Those words still ring out in her mind's eye. "I feel it applies to the current situation rather aptly."
"'To threaten violence without potential peace can be only ever war.
But peace without the threat of violence is far too easily ignored.'"
Ghira's eyes widen somewhat, and Blake clears her throat. "It was first said just after the execution of Malik the Sunderer. I'm sure you know he was a brutal tyrant who ruled over Vacuo for nearly thirty years. During his reign, he was known for executing political prisoners by cleaving them in half with a single strike, which is how he earned the name 'Sunderer'. "
Ghira nods, evidently knowing the history. Blake's not surprised.
"Less well known was the fact that he was a resourceful tyrant. He used his armies to subjugate different tribes of Vacuo one at a time, taking them on in order from weakest to strongest. He was cunning, as well as cruel, and once he took over those tribes beneath him, he put them to work bolstering his armies, as well as enriching his Kingdom. Vacuo had great supplies of silver, gold, and many other precious metals beneath its surface, not to mention Dust itself. He created great labor camps, and forced those he'd taken into his Kingdom to work, or die. Eventually, almost all of Vacuo was under his domain. Ironically, the reason that Vacuo stands united as a singular Kingdom today, and not as a series of disorganized tribes, is likely due to Malik's efforts so long ago."
"Progress can come from evil, as much as good."
"Mm. But back to what I was saying; during the reign of Malik the Sunderer, several people rose up to attempt to advocate for peace between their tribe, or set of tribes, and Malik. They did so without outside support, without threat. They were easily silenced. Whether by being killed, imprisoned, or simply ignored entirely, and eventually subsumed into the Kingdom."
She's telling the story somewhat differently from how Adam had. He'd done so from a position of anger; seeing in Malik the same qualities he'd seen in the many humans who'd wronged him. Knowing what she does now about his branding, and his childhood – everything he'd gone through – she cannot much blame him that.
"And yet, Malik was overthrown. He was defeated, and by a group very similar to the last few. How did this happen? It happened because the group that eventually overthrew Malik did so by amassing force, first. They gathered a small army, took the fight to one of Malik's many mining camps, freed the people there, and then issued their proclamation. That they would no longer toil as slaves for the will of a tyrant. It rallied many other camps to their side as the news spread, and they wasted no time in utilizing force to free the people; to liberate the lands of Vacuo. Eventually, Malik, too, was thrown from his throne, and beheaded in front of the Ziggurat that would one day become known as Shade Academy."
"So, I see. That is your perspective, then?"
"It is."
"And do you believe our scenario alike enough to that which the people of Vacuo suffered under Malik?"
"Perhaps not." Blake admits. "Things are not so dire at the moment. But, at the same time, I'm not exactly sure how far away from such a reality we find ourselves. Certainly, the faunus working in the mines for the SDC are paid, but they aren't paid well. And faunus prisoners, those who've broken laws in Atlas, can be worked without pay as a means of servitude. Penal labor. It's effectively slavery, just for prisoners."
"Many people would say those who've broken the law deserve no such payment."
"I assume you're simply challenging me ideologically, and not agreeing with such a position?"
"Hah. Of course not." Ghira chuckles at the absurdity, and Blake allows herself to smile. "I merely want to hear your thoughts."
"I suppose I would argue against those people by asking 'do you truly believe everyone who's ever been imprisoned is guilty?' Would someone like Hawthorne really only lock up truly guilty faunus? Or could he start arresting people like us, trying to spread the word of his actions, but without weight behind our words to counteract them."
Ghira nods his head, and Blake lets out a sigh. She's allowed herself to become partially lost in the same arguments that had once radicalized her.
It's different, now. She knows from going down that path that such will not end well. But what she's proposing – peace with the threat of violence – is not what Sienna and Adam's White Fang's had become.
Theirs had been only ever war.
And her father's… far too easily ignored.
She means to strike a middle ground.
"I appreciate your words, Ms. Black Fang. And know that I will take them to heart. But I must argue that we are not without our fangs." He smiles, then, and she can see some of the warrior he had been, once upon a time, in that expression.
"We have you, after all."
She breathes out in mirth. "I'm glad you have such faith in me."
"Those who came aboard the Divinity spoke rather highly of you."
"Yes, well, those aboard the Divinity didn't actually see me fight, aside from the crew." Blake rolls her eyes. "…Even so, yes, you do have me. I only hope I won't be necessary.
"Hah." Ghira barks out a laugh. It is mirthless.
"As do I."
/
The trip down to Mantle is easy; Raven flies down, and then portals for Yang to follow.
It really is a radically overpowered ability.
"Y'know, if you were a friendlier person," Yang raises an eyebrow. "Then that would likely be the strongest semblance of all time."
"Well, I think the caveat was given to me on purpose." Raven remarks boredly. "C'mon, not far to the rally."
Yang nods her head, and together, the two of them start down the semi-busy Mantle streets.
It's odd, in Yang's opinion, to see Mantle so… alive.
The last time she'd seen it, to be fair, had been after nearly a full year of neglect, a government lockdown, and multiple terrorist attacks. So perhaps she's judging the place a bit harshly.
But even so, she's just… glad to see people out and about in Mantle. Glad to see faunus gathering around a heater. Glad to see faunus discussing something amongst themselves by a nearby bar. Glad to see faunus…
Actually, when Yang looks around, she realizes she's pretty much only seeing faunus.
It's not everybody; the ratio's more like 5:1. But that's a helluva lot more than it is up top in Atlas, where Yang would say it's likely skewed more 10:1 in favor of humans.
And it paints a slightly damning picture about societal issues. A picture which Yang is likely only going to be seeing more of in the next few hours as the rally really kicks into high gear.
Systemic racism really isn't within Yang's purview. But it's within Blake's, and that means Yang's going to put in the effort to think more about it; to consider the issues at play.
She just wishes everyone else in the world would put in any effort at all.
"What's wrong?" Raven asks her.
"Huh?"
"You look like you ate something sour."
"Eh. Thinking about racism."
Raven snorts. "What a thing to say."
"Yeah, I guess that sounds kinda' weird." Yang grumbles. "I guess I just… it never really occurs to you how lucky you have it until you meet someone else who wasn't so lucky."
"Mm." Raven hums out. She doesn't say anything else, but in all fairness, her childhood is pretty close to being as bad as one could be.
She'd been reared in a bandit camp, raised to adhere to their moral values and code, and then had likely been taken advantage of as she'd been honed into a monster, only truly seeing the light when she'd been…
"How old were you when you and Qrow went to Beacon?"
"Hm?" Raven seems surprised by the question. "…I don't know exactly. The nurse said we were 'around sixteen' or so, but she said it could've been a year either way. Qrow's younger than I am. I'd say I was sixteen, he was fifteen."
Yang's eyes widen. "I… never knew you guys went early."
Raven barks out a laugh. "Yeah, well, we didn't really have much choice in the matter. We were the best in the clan, so we got sent to attend the Huntsman school. Age wasn't really a factor that we were all that worried about. Hah. We nearly got turned down because Qrow was too young. But Ozpin pulled strings. You know how that is."
"So, Ruby wasn't the first fifteen-year-old to attend Beacon, then?"
"Not by a longshot." Raven shakes her head minutely. "Part of the reason I've never much trusted that bastard. I don't doubt he's got the world's best intentions at heart, but that's just the thing. There are a helluva lot of people in that world that Ozpin couldn't give two shits about. He'd throw Summer, Tai, Qrow and I into a fire without hesitation if it bought this garbage heap another few months to live. And I wasn't okay with that."
"…But that wasn't why you left, was it?"
Raven doesn't look at her. She sighs, eventually, reaching up and running a hand down her face.
"Nah. I'd love to say I had some deep reason for the shit I did. But no. I was just a fucking coward. It's easier to say that, now that I've faced that shit, and put it to bed."
Yang's glad, even if she's not sure what to do with the ugly feeling welling up within her.
…
"How do you feel about Ruby and Yang?"
"The tykes?" Raven seems caught. "…I don't think much about them."
Yang snorts.
"What?"
"Uh, mom, all due respect – which isn't much, to be clear – you adore the both of them."
Raven's face actually goes a bit red at that insinuation. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Uh-huh," Yang just rolls her eyes. They round a corner, and they're there; the street the rally has been set to take place at.
"Sure, you d–"
And it is in that moment that Yang's entire body just… stills.
Because…
There she is. Standing right there, maybe ten meters in front of her. Her hair's grown a bit longer, and her ears a bit fluffier. Her eyes seem somehow brighter, but maybe that's just because she hasn't seen her in so long.
But… none of that really matters.
It's her.
It's really her.
It's Blake.
End Chapter 26
Tyrian fucking with Jaune, Ruby and co sneaking out, and of course, Blake and Yang thinking about systemic racism and the ways to combat it. Pretty standard WYAN chapter, if I do say so myself!
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