Yo!
Not a ton to say this week. Ended up having time to do a chapter (albeit a short one), but this one is not that chapter. Anyways, here ya go!
Start Chapter 42
"How's that? Feel better?"
Cinder stretches out her arm, which had been healing from a pretty nasty break as of fifteen minutes ago. Now, she flexes the muscles in it without issue.
"Wow!" She remarks, looking up at him in awe. "Your semblance is that strong?"
"Hey, I saved that Rhodes guys' life with it, I'd have thought you would've figured that out by now."
Cinder seems somewhat sheepish. "I… yes. I understand."
Jaune frowns. "I wasn't chastising you, Cinder. Just making a joke."
"Oh."
The fact that even after months and months of him training her, Cinder's first instinct is still to treat everything he says with caution makes him want to sigh, and then pull her into a hug. That would result in Cinder freaking out, however, and so he doesn't, despite how badly he wishes he could.
Healing her will just have to be enough.
He'd been so consumed in his anger at Salem's treatment of her before that he'd not been able to actually focus in on her at all. It makes him feel like an idiot now, but he's doing his best to make up for it.
Soon, it's just going to be him and Cinder, off on some mission… somewhere. The specifics will be decided by Cinder herself. Jaune's just along for the ride.
He just doesn't like the sound of how confident Salem had been before, when he'd questioned why she would allow the two of them to leave Evernight on their own.
Salem knows something he doesn't. That's not entirely surprising, given they're very much enemies, despite their continued stalemate, but…
Ugh, Jaune's too exhausted, both physically and mentally, to be thinking about this.
"Alright, run me through a few of your forms, and then show me some of what you've been learning with Salem. I want to see how it fares with your style."
Cinder nods her head, and immediately enters what Jaune's come to call her 'focused' mode. Her eyes narrow, and her body stiffens. She draws a pair of blades that Jaune has never seen before, but in that moment, he realizes they rather resemble Midnight, her personal weapon from the future.
They had, likely, been taken from the same place that Jaune had gotten his own nameless sword, which is resting at his hip, sheathed within Crocea's shield. The blade of Crocea is still shattered, and while he'd asked Salem to have it repaired, she hadn't been able to do so quickly. He'd originally been planning on having it repaired when they went to Atlas, up until he realized that trying to get a weapon that he'd been seen on camera committing a crime with repaired would probably lead to them getting caught.
Thusly, he'd gone to Salem directly, and she'd hummed, smiled, and said she'd see what she could do.
That's just sort of how she is; cryptic to the end.
He focuses himself back on Cinder, then. Her forms are good, albeit they're slacking somewhat given that it's been about a month since he's been there to drill her on them. Honestly, though, given it's only been that long, she's showing an almost prodigious level of growth since last he'd seen her. Moves he'd been just starting to teach her have already been added to her repertoire, and others that she'd been struggling to make her own seem to have been incorporated, or dropped entirely.
It makes sense that she's so skilled, knowing just how much of a force of nature she'll become in the future, but seeing it happening in front of him is somewhat staggering.
"Very good." He smiles as Cinder finishes up, sheathing her weapons on her back. "You've improved by leaps and bounds while I've been gone, I see."
Cinder turns around, preening slightly. She tries her best to hide it, but praise, it seems, is the easiest way to her heart. It makes him sad to think that the likely reason for that is because she's never received very much of it before now.
"Ms. Salem was teaching me all sorts of things while you were gone."
Ah. That makes sense. It leaves an ugly sort of feeling bubbling up within him, but for Cinder's sake, he'll shelve it for now.
"Well, I'm glad to see you've not been slacking. I know I was guilty of working a bit less hard whenever I had a substitute teacher."
Cinder tilts her head to one side, and Jaune chuckles. "Don't worry. Just a joke."
"Ah." Cinder nods, before beginning to shift forward in back in place. She's… thinking of something, Jaune can tell.
"…Mr. Arc?"
"What is it?" He asks, very much feeling his age – well, his mental age – whenever she calls him that.
"I just, uhm…" Cinder's face goes a bit red with embarrassment. "I'm just glad to have you back. I missed you."
A warmth fills Jaune's chest, gradually encompassing him, until it reaches his lips, and pulls them up into a smile. Even with everything going on, with the world falling to pieces around them…
"Yeah." He laughs.
"I missed you, too."
/
"A mission?"
All those currently within Evernight – which is to say Jaune, Cinder, Salem, Tyrian, and Watts – are sat within the dining hall. Hazel is apparently out on some sort of scouting mission in Solitas, though for what reason Jaune's not been made aware of.
Cinder is the one sat at the opposite end of the table from Salem this time. Jaune is sat closer to Cinder than Salem, but still too far to really offer much more than moral support. Opposite him is Watts, who looks entirely bored of this whole affair, and to Jaune's left is Tyrian, who has, despite having completely free reign of the entire table, decided to sit right beside him.
Likely purely to fuck with him.
"Indeed." Salem answers Cinder's question. "And a mission that you have full choice over the specifics of. You will set your goal, and you will accomplish it."
Cinder thinks on that a moment. "…What do you mean, 'goal'?"
"What is it that you desire to do, Cinder?"
It's clear that she hasn't quite thought that far ahead. Jaune can't entirely blame her, either. She's only just escaped confinement some few months ago, and has likely been living on a high ever since. To her, this is as good as things can get.
And yet, he can see a sort of darkness playing about Cinder's expression already. Something lurking beneath, threatening to rise up to the surface.
"I… there is something."
"Speak your mind, child."
"…The orphanage I used to live at." Cinder's voice is quiet. "They sold me to the Madam. The other kids there… the matrons and…"
Ah. So that's what Cinder wants to do.
"If I can choose anything then… I guess I'd want to go back there." Cinder says, eyes hard as she looks up at Salem. "I'd want to see just why it was those people gave me away to such a horrible person."
It's a fair question, and, knowing some of the facts of the situation, is also one that Jaune suspects an unfortunate answer to. In his opinion, the 'orphanage' that Cinder had grown up in could quite likely be some sort of human trafficking operation. And even if it's not, finding out how someone like the Madam could've adopted a child from Mistral all the way from Atlas is worth looking into. Because, from what Cinder says, she'd never actually met the Madame before being shipped off to Atlas.
It's suspect at the very least, if not outright damning.
"Very well, then. If that is the mission you wish to partake of, then it is the mission you must bring to pass. What is your goal, Cinder?"
"I…" Cinder looks down at her hands, clenching and unclenching them in her lap. It takes her a good few seconds to finally decide, but when she does…
They close into fists, and her knuckles almost go white.
"I'm going to investigate what they're up to. And… if it turns out that they're abusing kids just like me, then…"
Her expression darkens, and Jaune feels a chill run down his spine.
"I'm going to put an end to them."
/
The beach is, admittedly, gorgeous, no matter how difficult it can be to focus on such things with the world as it is.
Yang is trying to keep herself relaxed. This is supposed to be their actual vacation after things at Atlas had gone so wrong. And yet, of course, the moment they'd returned to Patch…
Ozpin had been kidnapped. Stolen away from under Atlas' watch by Tyrian Callows.
There are so many things about that particular set of circumstances that are bad that Yang would have trouble listing them all out. She's going to try nonetheless. The first, of course, is that Ozpin had been stolen away under Atlas' watch, which is leading many in Vale's leadership to question the legitimacy of Hawthorne's projected power. If Beacon's headmaster can be kidnapped right under their noses, then are any visiting dignitaries truly safe?
The second piece is that Tyrian is a faunus, and Hawthorne is just loving that particular bit of information. Already, calls for further restrictions to be put into place on the faunus in Mantle are coming out from the expected circles – which is to say racists and idiots, but then, that particular Ven Diagram happens to be a circle – and Hawthorne is not at all shying away from them, despite the pressure that many people outside of Atlas are putting on him and his leadership. Vale and Atlas' alliance has never once seemed so shaky, and it feels like it's on the precipice of breaking down entirely, no thanks to the fact that Hawthorne seems completely content to allow it to erode away without taking any action.
Yang runs a hand down her face, even as a shadow falls over her.
"You're blocking my sun." She pouts.
"My apologies." Blake responds, her hands on her hips and a wry smile on her face. "But frankly, that pout on your face was blocking mine."
Yang raises an eyebrow. "Was that supposed to be smooth, or?"
"It was the best I could come up with in five seconds."
Yang snorts.
She takes a moment to inspect Blake's attire, given that they're on the beach, and this is her girlfriend. She's dressed in a fairly standard dark bikini, albeit one that has a few frills of fabric hanging off of it in certain places. It's certainly a lot more elegant than what Yang's wearing, which is a sports zip-up bikini top, and a pair of trunks.
Eh, sue her, she wants to be able to actually do things on the beach without her breasts… breasting everywhere.
Blake, on the other hand, seems content to wear something stylish, and lie down and sun bathe.
Color Yang entirely unsurprised.
"You're still standing there." She remarks, and Blake chuckles.
"I don't know, you seemed to be appreciating the view from what I could see." She teases.
"Hey, what can I say, you're hot." Yang shrugs, and enjoys the annoyed flush on Blake's face.
"I can't believe I actually liked hearing that."
"Neither can I. C'mon, sit with me."
Yang had been anticipating Blake pulling up her own beach chair, and the two of them lounging about for a bit like that. She had not been anticipating Blake laying down atop her, her chest pressing into Yang's own, and making her feel some kind of way.
"This is, uhm…"
"You don't like it?"
"That is pretty much the exact opposite problem I am having right now."
Blake snickers, even as she pushes her head forward, so that it's resting directly in the crook of Yang's neck. She feels warmth suffusing her at the way that Blake slots so nicely against her, and, without really thinking about it, she wraps her arms around her, pulling her close.
"I–"
Yang cuts herself off, and her face goes entirely red. She hadn't even been aware of the fact that she'd just been about to tell Blake she loves her until it had been coming out of her lips. It's not like that's a secret, Blake probably knows, it's just…
They've got other things to be thinking about right now. Their fledgling relationship can come later.
…
"Yes?" Blake tilts her head somewhat, so that she's meeting Yang's eyes.
"I just uhm…" Yang tries her best to cover for herself. It isn't entirely working. "What's your opinion on everything in Atlas?"
Great, Yang. Excellent job. Way to segue the conversation away from your love for your girlfriend to international politics.
Blake frowns. "I've been doing my best to distance myself from it for the time being. I'm not pretending like it doesn't concern me. It very much does. I know that, but I can't constantly be on edge. Until you guys leave, I plan on not doing anything relating to Hawthorne or Atlas in general."
Yang can't blame her for that. The situation with Atlas is reaching a near untenable state for the faunus. She's already been quite clear with Yang about her intentions to start up some form of resistance using the White Fang as a base.
She'll be taking action. She just wants to enjoy what little time she has left before she does.
"But honestly, let's not talk about that." Blake groans, stretching her body somewhat before snuggling closer to Yang. "It's warm, and quiet. I plan on relaxing for a few days at least before shit hits the proverbial fan."
"Is your family ever worried about how you seem to exhibit every stereotypical cat trait imaginable? You love fish, you hate dogs, you like to find a warm, quiet spot and sleep?"
Blake gives her the finger without looking up at her, and Yang snorts.
They stay like that for a good fifteen or so minutes. At some point, Blake's breathing evens out, and Yang realizes she's fallen asleep.
She looks down at Blake's body, and, idly, gazes over where she knows she'd been shot just a few days back.
Aura is a powerful thing. Already, the wounds on Blake's body have been reduced to mere welts, some slightly discolored skin in certain places. Her broken wrist is in a small cast, but even that will likely be able to come off within the next few days.
She can't help but run her hand up and down Blake's wrist, wanting to offer whatever comfort she can, despite knowing that, on this particular matter, she is all but powerless.
"I see you two are enjoying yourselves."
Yang looks up to see Raven standing there with her arms crossed. She is very much not dressed in appropriate beachwear, but she is dressed down from her normal Huntress outfit. She still has Omen on her, of course – Yang's fairly certain her mother literally wouldn't be caught dead without her blade at her side – but she's wearing a red t-shirt and jean shorts, which are so ridiculously casual that they're throwing Yang off her rhythm.
She knows there's a stupid joke to be made about jorts somewhere in there, but she just can't manage to summon one up. Probably about how she's latched Omen onto a pair of jorts. It's just… there's something there.
Ah, well.
"Yo." She calls out quietly, trying not to wake Blake.
"Yo, yourself." Raven looks to Blake, and sighs. "Figured you'd be a little more focused on the current situation."
"What do you want me to do about it, exactly?" She fires back, feeling annoyance building within her already.
Raven rolls her eyes, but shakes her head. "Nevermind. Qrow wants to talk about all of this. He wants you and your girl in on things, seeing as how you're involved."
They are, unfortunately. Yang and Raven had fought against Tyrian directly, and because of that, Qrow has been making it his mission across the last few days to extract as much information on the man as possible. Why he's so focused on getting Blake involved, Yang doesn't know, but it's probably just because she'd proven herself a powerful Huntress by being able to survive a battle with Hawthorne.
Qrow has been… off the past few days. Again, not that Yang can blame him. Ozpin had been kidnapped by one of Salem's own. Yang doesn't like Ozpin, but she knows that his heart, what's left of it, is in the right place. Their only real consolation is that he's almost certainly being kept alive. To kill him would only send his soul bouncing around Remnant somewhere, and hell, Yang and the others might even know exactly where it is it would be going.
Then again, she somehow doubts they'd be able to convince the parents of Oscar Pine to part with their two-year-old boy.
"I swear, ma'am, that your son actually houses the reincarnation of an ancient semi-immortal warrior! He needs to come with us! I don't care if he's not out of diapers yet!"
Somehow, Yang thinks that probably wouldn't go over terribly well.
"Alright. Once Blake wakes up, we can go and chat with Qrow."
Raven scoffs. "Yo, Black Fang, up and at 'em."
Yang glares at her mother, even as Blake groans, and tries to snuggle back into Yang to no avail. Instead, she turns, stares flatly at Raven, and then sits up.
Yang misses Blake's body against her own immediately. Raven will pay for this slight one day, she swears it.
"Get dressed." Raven says simply.
"I get the feeling this isn't going to be a quick conversation."
/
For the first time in nearly two years, ever since she'd been spirited away from Beacon after its fall, Weiss Schnee is alone.
That's not entirely true, of course. She has Trivia, and the girl is currently sketching something in a notebook over on her bed inside of their modest hotel room. No, that's not entirely what Weiss had meant when she said 'alone'.
It's more that she has no true companion. For all of that time, ever since she had met back up with Yang in the Branwen's camp, she'd had someone to rely on. First Yang, then everyone in Team RWBY and JNPR. Then, RWBY and Jaune, and then, even after being separated from them, she'd had Qrow.
Now, it's just her.
Not that she doesn't understand Qrow going off with the others. Ozpin is gone, and it's clear that's really affecting him. She hadn't quite realized how important the man is to the Qrow of this time. Then again, this is also likely before Qrow had really become a part of Ruby and Yang's lives. From what they said, he hadn't moved to Patch full time until after Summer's death.
He had stepped up and helped to raise Ruby and Yang when Taiyang had been lost in grief. And because of that, he had distanced himself from Ozpin's missions.
But in this time, Ozpin is clearly still his main confidant.
Weiss sighs, massaging at her brow and earning a look back from Trivia, who arcs an eyebrow.
Weiss smiles, before trying out one of the phrases she's been learning in ASL recently.
'I'm okay.' She signs.
Trivia's face lights up, and she quickly tries to come up with a sign herself. She had never been taught the language by her parents – likely them wanting to pretend that their child had been the picture of normalcy – and thusly is learning this along with Weiss.
But in a way, that's making the two of them closer.
'I'm okay, too.' Trivia ends up signing, looking like she feels a bit silly. She seems to have forgotten the way to sign 'I'm glad' or 'That's good'. To be fair, Weiss can't conjure up either of them on the spot, either.
She'd only really started learning ASL a few days ago, and at the moment, she only has the twenty-five or so most common phrases memorized. Things like 'My name is' and 'Bathroom?'. Signing names is a whole process, which involves individually spelling out every letter of her name with the alphabet. She'll get there eventually, but Weiss isn't even going to pretend like she can fully say her full name yet.
Even 'Weiss' is pushing it.
Just then, there's a knock at the door, and Weiss watches as Trivia's entire body stiffens, and she reaches to her waist, where the taser that Weiss had – technically illegally – acquired for her rests. It had been that or a knife, and Weiss would prefer her daughter not go through any further mental scarring, whether as Trivia or otherwise.
She stands, takes up Myrtenaster, and slots it on her hip. She motions for Trivia to calm down, seeing as how it's probably just room service, and the girl does.
When she relaxes just a bit, Weiss does as well.
She opens the door to see a familiar figure, albeit one she hadn't at all expected to see again.
"…Gato, was it?"
She knows his name, of course, but she can't exactly show it. Gato had been one of her father's most trusted aids, after all. He'd also been the one to try and deliver her an invitation to the Schnee Vytal Gala, which she'd rejected. Why he's here when Weiss had been rather explicit last time…
"Ms. Weiss." The man bows respectfully, already showing more of it than he had during their entire last conversation. "My apologies for bothering you. I've been instructed to come and deliver something to you."
Again?
The man holds out a letter, yet again, and Weiss takes it, yet again.
"If you're trying to get me to that stupid ball, then–"
"This is not an invitation to the ball. No." Gato interrupts. "This is a personal invitation. Directed solely to you, and to your daughter."
Weiss' eyes widen as she brings out the note, and reads of it. It's a much shorter thing, and this time, it's also written, not typed.
On it are but a few simple words.
'I extend a formal apology for aggravating you before with my heavy-handed approach. I would quite like the opportunity to speak with you at the Schnee Estate. You are more than welcome to bring your daughter, if it would please you. The both of you are welcome any time it is convenient for you in the coming days.
Regards,
Willow Schnee'
Weiss can't exactly claim that she'd expected to hear from her mother again. She thought she'd managed to avoid that particular problem from rearing its head.
Yet, no, it appears she can't be that lucky.
She sighs, before running a hand down her face.
"Mrs. Weiss?"
She looks up at Gato, and sees a much more patient expression on his face.
"I do not mean to rush you, but I must depart within the next few minutes. If you'd like, please, take my card. Call anytime and I will have a car ready for you to take you to the Schnee Manor–"
"There's no need." Weiss shakes her head. "It's clear that this isn't an endeavor that Mrs. Schnee is going to be giving up on. Tell her to pick a time this Saturday…"
"We'll be there."
End Chapter 42
Alright, the plot moves forward everywhere! Well, except for Ruby, but surprise surprise, she might get some time next chapter.
Not a ton else to say. In theory, I won't be busy, so I'll have time to do some writing next week, too, but we'll see. Consider chapters tentative for the next few weeks, but like... 70% chance, if that makes sense?
There's a discord server you guys can join to read the next chapter right now for free, but posting links on ff is like damn near impossible, so instead, here, just have the last letters of that, after the discord dot gg. uYwsZKw3eT
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