Chapter Text
Technically, it wasn't supposed to be until a few weeks later that the Haven students were planned to travel to Beacon for the Vytal Festival, but Sun had jumped the gun on it for a few reasons.
The first and most obvious reason was that any opportunity to cut the last of his classes and take a trip to a different kingdom was an automatic yes in his mind. Add in the fact this was going to be the first Vytal Tournament he could actually participate in, and it was going to be in Vale instead of stuffy Atlas or creepy Vacuo, and Sun was stowing away on a boat heading that way before he'd even finished telling Neptune and the gang he was going.
The second reason was that usually most of the students coming from the other academies showed up and got their dorm situation sorted out while the students for whichever academy it was that year were away on break, so it gave them a chance to explore around campus and the city the academy was in proper without being swamped by a million regular students from the hosting school. Personally, that was a strict negative for Sun; he wanted to see all the Beacon students before anyone else, get the scoop on who was who on campus. Was Pyrrha the strongest student? People said yes. Was the school nurse a psycho? Also confirmed. Was Yang the funniest Beaconite around? Accounts on that varied. The important thing was that it was an entirely new social scene and Sun was swimming in it.
The third reason was smaller, but no less important. That being, on the chance he was caught and arrested for some of his... mischiefs, he'd have ample time to get bailed out before the Tournament.
He'd thought he'd gotten out from under that last by then, but...
"You."
Apparently not.
"Oh so you're Yang," Sun pointed at her from his elevated position being held against a wall by his jacket lapel. "Yeah, lot of things clicking together now."
"You're the monkey faunus that stowed away on that ship and got my hair dirty," she growled. "Cardin, back me up on this."
Cardin didn't look up from his scroll on the other side of the dorm common room, idly tabbing through something. "Yeah, my ability to care about a random faunus that did something to you expires about forty seconds after he leaves my field of vision." He waved, vaguely, in her direction. "Past the statute, nothing I can do."
Yang sighed, Sun sagging slightly in her grip. "Don't know why I bothered. Thanks, Cardin."
"Can you let Wukong down, Yang?" Weiss said, walking in stiffly with Nora's assistance, thick bandages over her eyes. "Regrettably, I believe he's paid back his debt to society already."
"What do you mean 'regrettably'?" Wukong challenged, grinning. "Hey, you should be fighting for my honor here, Princess, you really gonna let her treat me this way?"
Weiss snorted. "I changed my mind. Yang, keep hanging him by his legs or whatever you're doing."
Sun's playful exclamation of 'hey' was put in the background under Nora's instructions. "Big step here, couch right next to you now, to your left."
"Thank you, Nora." Weiss carefully lowered herself onto the piece of furniture. "Now I'm going to choose not to move from here for at least another few hours."
"Still rough walking without seeing where you're going?" Blake asked, Gambol Shroud disassembled on the table in front of her for cleaning.
"She only hit her shins on three things on the way here, this time," Nora announced, cheerfully.
"Yay." Weiss' cheer was much more sarcastic in nature.
"Hey, your eyes are gonna be alright, right? Like, it's not a permanent thing, is it?" Sun asked, his upbeat tone flickering with the question.
Weiss smiled. "Yes, thankfully the doctor told me I should have full vision returned in a week or two, well before the Tournament begins, but until then I have to 'rest' them like this as a precautionary measure."
"That's what you get for using a technique like aura reading without taking it slow first," Ren said disapprovingly, walking in with a plate of pancakes from the adjoining kitchenette and setting them in front of Nora. "You will be learning how to do it properly so that this never happens again."
"Thank you, Ren." Weiss bowed her head to him, slightly. "I'll try to learn it well."
"Teach strikes again, who won't be learning from you by the end of the year?" Cardin commented, making Ren duck back into the kitchen, a little embarrassed.
"Not exactly what I was expecting to be doing when we came into Beacon," Ren called from in there. "Anyone for pancakes?"
"I'll take some," Sun answered, still pressed to the wall.
"Me too," Yang said with him.
"Mmf phoo," Nora added, mouth stuffed full of all the previous pancakes given to her.
"Are we having pancakes?" Ruby's team had gotten progressively more skilled at accepting her ability to appear in the middle of a room or situation without making a sound. Weiss' team at least were able to mostly suppress a flinch by then. Sun still reacted every time. How did she do that? It was freaky.
"I hear four pancakes, is that right?" Ren asked, and after receiving a positive, went to mix more batter.
"Yang, let Sun down. He isn't even doing anything," Ruby said after she noticed what her sister was engaged in.
Yang did so, sliding him down to the floor, pouting. "None of you care about justice, I hope you know that."
Blake began refitting her weapon back together. "That's why we all joined a huntress academy: because we hate justice, Yang. I'm glad you could figure it out."
Yang pointed a finger in her direction, giving an exaggerated gasp. "Holy cow, Blake is a faunus."
Blake rolled her eyes, uncovered cat ears twitching. "You know, contrary to what you might believe, Yang, that doesn't actually get funnier every time you do it."
"It's a slow burn, Blakey, it'll get you one of these times," Yang waved a hand, slumping down into one of the couches.
The Beacon dorm common areas were separated out four on each floor, one per corner of the dorms. With finals rapidly approaching and most students occupied studying or in one of the multiple other common areas available, the two teams and Sun had managed to more or less claim that one for themselves. Though the smell of Ren cooking brought with it more than a few curious eyes, none of those stayed long and both teams found themselves unconsciously congregating around there throughout the day.
Cardin had chosen his chair first and privately suspected everyone else had started gathering there specifically to bug him.
"So what's everyone doing for break?" Ruby asked, jumping over the back of a sofa to crouch on it, knees tucked under her chin.
"Staying here gang," Nora announced, pumping her fists up in the air. "Who's with me?"
"I will also be remaining," Weiss said, primly. "Though I'm not sure how entertaining it will be if I can't use my eyes."
"Cardin?" Yang asked.
"Yeah, unlike you people, I actually have a life outside of school, so I'm out as soon as finals are over." He kept on whatever he was doing on his scroll, not even bothering to look up.
"To do what?" Yang needled, grinning.
He huffed. "To visit my secret faunus wife, what's it to you?"
Yang's eyes lit up. "I knew you heard that."
He grunted, idly. "Amazing what ears can do when you don't ruin them listening to trash music."
"I feel like there's a dig on me incoming," Blake said, cat ears twitching again.
"If your reaction to someone calling out bad music taste is, 'this must be about me,' I'm pretty sure you've already made the dig for me." Cardin clicked his scroll off, standing up and starting to walk out. "Heading to the gym, don't bother me."
"Well I know you don't care, Cardin," Yang ignored his immediate 'I don't' comment, turning to address everyone else in the room. "But Ruby and I are heading back to Patch to see our dad before he completely loses his mind."
"Last thing he told us was he was redoing the front porch, so I'm pretty sure we'll have to come in through the chimney to actually get into the house," Ruby added.
"Isn't your dad a huntsman?" Weiss asked. "Does that not keep him busy enough?"
Yang waved a hand. "Retired huntsman. He works at Signal now, local combat school, but that doesn't take nearly enough of his time."
"He had too much free time when he was doing that and taking care of us," Ruby pointed out. "Now it's just Zwei back home, and he's pretty self sufficient, too."
Weiss raised an eyebrow. "Zwei?"
Yang gasped. "You haven't seen pictures of Zwei? I thought I showed everyone pictures of Zwei."
"Not much use showing me pictures now, is there?" Weiss said, flatly. "What even is Zwei?"
"That's our dog." Ruby spun in her seat, kicking her legs over the back and lying with her head off the edge. "He's adorable."
"A dog..." Weiss and Blake made nearly identical expressions at that. "How nice."
"What are you doing on break, Blakey?" Yang asked, apparently deciding not to pursue that reaction.
"There's an old friend of mine I have to track down." Blake slotted the last piece of her gun together with a click. "But I should be back before break's over."
"What kind of old friend?" Yang said it casually, but the meaning behind the question was clear to everyone.
"Old friend and former colleague," Blake confirmed, her voice dropping quieter in the technically public space. "There are too many questions with the Fang now. Their recruitment, working with humans, moving all this dust. If anyone knows what's going on there, he will. I've heard he's set up a bookstore somewhere in Vale; if I can find where, I can find him."
"Need any backup?" Yang asked, cracking her knuckles.
She waved a hand. "Thanks, but I should be alright. Even if he is still part of the Fang, I think I can get him to talk to me."
"Still, given how our last fun adventure with the Fang turned out, I don't feel great about it." Yang scratched the back of her head, sighing. "But I guess if you're set on it, not a lot we can do."
"I'll be alright, Yang. Really," Blake assured her, looking around as Ren began laying plates of pancakes near those who requested it. "Hey, where's Pyrrha?"
"And what's wrong with Pyrrha?" Ruby asked, flipping over again for better access to pancakes. "She's been acting weird ever since the other night."
Yang's lips twitched into a frown. "Heck of a thing for you to say, Rubes, don't you think?"
Ruby laughed, awkwardly, looking away. "Sorry. Seeing Torchwick again was... I mean, I know it was an imposter, but..."
"You can talk to me about it, if you want," Yang offered. "You still haven't really talked about-"
"Welp, gotta check in with the nurse before dinner." Ruby stood up, suddenly, stuffing pancakes in her face with disgusting fervor.
"Ruby-" Yang started, but she vanished in a cloud of rose petals before she could finish whatever thought or plea she had. "Or just leave. That works, too."
No one said anything for a few minutes, the slight sizzling of pancakes on the stove filtering in from the kitchenette the only sound.
Weiss was the one that broke the silence. "Torchwick was involved in her accident, wasn't he? That's how she knew he was an imposter; she'd met him already."
"Yeah..." Yang rubbed at the back of her neck, sighing. "You could say he was involved."
"She'll talk about it." Sun nudged her in the side, sitting down next to her on the couch. "When she's ready, she will."
"Thanks, Sun." Yang smiled, wrapping an arm around him, then squeezing a little threateningly. "I still haven't forgiven you, though."
Sun curled his tail out and used it to slowly slide his plate of pancakes her way.
"Alright, I'm warming up to you."
([___
Ruby stumbled, choking, before finally spitting out a chunk of pancake into a nearby trashcan, leaning heavily against it, shaking.
"Okay, note to self," she muttered to herself. "No semblance with a blocked airway. Got it."
"Are you alright?" Pyrrha came behind her, rubbing comfortingly at her back.
"Yep," Ruby said, coughing into her hand for a second. "Just learning new things every day."
"Aren't we all?" Pyrrha said, quietly.
"I guess the better question is, are you alright?" Ruby turned around, concerned. "You've been really quiet after the Fang. Not even Yang's talked about your fight that much, so... what happened, really?"
Pyrrha hesitated, backing up a step, and as she struggled to find words to fit her thoughts, Ruby just stood in the Beacon hallway and waited patiently for her to speak. It took a few minutes, but finally, she did. "Do you believe in destiny?"
"I... don't know," Ruby admitted. "I guess I never thought about it."
"I think there's something in everything you can do, everything that happens to you, that builds to something else. It's like a purpose, something you're meant to do, somehow, and whenever I find something that only I could have done, I feel a step closer to it. That's what I call destiny." Pyrrha hugged her arms to herself, looking away. "Sometimes, though, there are times I come across something that seems so obviously like it's calling to me, like it feeds into my destiny, but I don't know how. I thought I was supposed to be a huntress, a hero, but... I don't know how this fits in with that... maybe my destiny's something else entirely."
Ruby's eyebrows furrowed, confused. "Something like what?"
She hesitated again, obviously hedging around whatever filled her thoughts. "How special do you think humans are?"
"Like, compared to faunus?" Ruby asked.
She waved a hand. "No, like people. Humans and faunus, everyone."
"Compared to what?"
"If there was a... grimm, that walked and talked like a person. If you could hold a conversation with it, ask about its likes and dislikes, would you think that was a trap? Some skill it had to lure in prey, or try and infiltrate people somehow, to hurt them, or would you think maybe, just maybe, it could really understand you? Have feelings, life, in a way that you didn't think possible before?" Pyrrha looked at her, expectantly, eyes pleading for something Ruby didn't know.
"I mean..." Ruby scratched the back of her head, uncomfortably. "Are we sure it's even a grimm?"
"Let's say you have a semblance that can feel grimm; you use it on her and find out there isn't any part of her that isn't... grimm."
'Her'?
"I'd be a bit suspicious, for sure," Ruby admitted, carefully. "But also, what if it's true?"
"You really think it could be?" Pyrrha said, skeptically.
"Well, yeah. Remnant is a big place, and even after fighting grimm for so long, we don't nearly know as much about them as a lot of people want to." She shrugged. "I don't think that grimm could be like that, but I don't know for sure they couldn't either, and more than that, if it is true, that person-grimm doesn't deserve to get smacked down just because other grimm are monsters, right? It didn't ask to be a grimm, if you think it's possible it's actually alive like that, why not give it a chance to prove it?"
"It could be a spy," Pyrrha said, quietly. "Could be a trick."
"Sure, but so could anyone, right?" Ruby gestured back toward the common room, where BRWN still was with Yang. "Weiss ran away because she thought Blake could be, and she was worried any of us could be the same. That's always gonna be there, but... we've gotta trust people a bit anyway, cause otherwise how are we ever gonna make friends?" Ruby thought of Neo, of Weiss, Pyrrha, all of them scary in their own ways, but all of them still some of the best friends she'd ever had. "People are weird, and complicated, and a lot of them are jerks, so maybe the grimm-person is, too, but how are you gonna know before you try?"
"I..." Pyrrha closed her eyes, breathing out slowly for a handful of seconds before opening them again. "Thank you, Ruby. You are... unexpectedly wise."
Ruby chuckled, feeling her ears burn a little. "Nah, I'm just on the side of being friendly."
"Even so, I think I needed to hear that," she said.
"So, am I ever gonna meet this grimm person, or whoever it is that makes you wonder about it?" Ruby asked.
Pyrrha smiled, mysteriously. "Maybe," she hummed, walking away with her hands behind her back. "Who knows? Maybe you've met already."
Ruby furrowed her eyebrows again. "Who?" Pyrrha laughed, still walking. "No, seriously, who?"
Still, she didn't answer.
___])
Ciel was mad at Penny again, which wasn't necessarily a surprising outcome given what she did, but still made Penny guilty every time it happened. On top of everything else, though, her first testing period in Vale had expired, so she was going to ship her back to Atlas on a bullhead no matter what she did, and having Ciel angry was an acceptable price for seeing her friends again.
Her friends...
Nora was still out there somewhere, but Pyrrha had given her that look, and even though she didn't have much experience with friends, she was pretty sure that look meant it was over. It was the same look Ciel gave her, that Ironwood gave her, that anyone who knew what she was always did. Penny wasn't sure how she knew, it felt like her aura had rippled with a semblance, but she didn't have enough instances to properly analyze it.
She'd thought she was combat ready, and in a way she was, the White Fang didn't stand a chance against her, but... if she had to do it over again, maybe it would have been better to stand there and let Pyrrha and Yang deal with it.
"Is it fun?" Ciel asked.
Penny tilted her head, confused. "Is what fun?"
Ciel looked up at her, frowning from across the bullhead's seating. "Running away from me, is that fun for you?"
Penny felt another little stab of guilt at that. "I wanted to see my friends." She tapped the tips of her fingers together, looking down. "Don't you wish you could see yours?"
"The difference being I know I can't," Ciel sighed. "And you should know the same. You're not allowed to do whatever you want, that isn't even because you're Atlas property, no one can just do whatever they want. We have laws, duties, consequences for anything you do. If you want to try and live above that, eventually it'll all catch up to you."
Consequences...
That face Pyrrha made, confusion, fear, suspicion, she never would have made it if Penny had just stayed in the hotel room.
But... "I can't stay locked up forever." Penny threaded her fingers together, eyes resolute. "There's a difference between doing whatever I want and being able to go outside, talk to people, make friends. I know there is."
Ciel shook her head. "Not for you, there isn't. Maybe in a few years once the techs have all the kinks worked out you can do that, but right now you're stuck here. That sucks, I get that, but every time you go off doing something like that, it doesn't just hurt me, and what the higher ups think of my ability to keep you under control, it also hurts you in the future, cause who knows what they'll think if you keep going rogue?"
Penny sucked in air, an imitation of a breath, just like everything else. Camera lenses for imitation eyes, processors for an imitation brain, wires and lightning for imitation nerves. Fake. Thing. Property. Able to be altered, destroyed, maybe even simply switched off, at the leisure of her owners.
Her aura flared in agitation at the thought, but that's what finally cooled her whirring brain.
Aura, a product of the soul.
"I am real," she said, firmly.
Ciel raised an eyebrow. "Okay?"
She didn't understand, but she didn't need to. As long as Penny knew, that was enough. Ciel and the others in the project may not think she was alive, but Penny already knew she was. And she knew it wasn't right to cage living things who had done nothing wrong.
Even with that, she knew it wasn't Ciel's fault. She didn't want her to get in trouble for Penny acting out.
She'd wait for a better chance. It'd come sooner or later.
Ciel leaned back in her seat, apparently satisfied that the conversation was over. "Well, I hope you enjoyed your joyride through Vale. It might be a while before you're able to come back."
Penny looked out the window at the endless sweeping forests of Vale, so different from Atlas. "It was sensational."
She couldn't wait to be back.
([___
Frau Holly walked through the halls of Atlas Command with a crick in her neck to match the stiffness of her shoulders. To say it had been a long day was a criminal understatement. On top of her normal duties reading through reports and sending recommendations to the General, on top of listening to pleas from the people, trying to wheedle as much to help them as she could out of current policy, send in new policies in the hope some could slip past, she'd met with resistance members that day growing increasingly restless at Ironwood not showing his hand yet. Some attributed that to ignorance, saying he wasn't aware of the rebellion growing right under his nose, or if he was aware he was powerless to know where to strike at it. Others worried the opposite, that he knew everything, every member, every act, and was waiting for something before he wiped them out completely. Holly imagined the truth was somewhere in the middle. He knew enough to act, but decided to wait until he knew more.
It wasn't a comforting thought, but for every day he delayed, they were working harder on consolidating power, protecting themselves, their families. He wouldn't be able to wipe them all out without provoking unrest, or prying eyes from the other kingdoms. If he did that, then even after death, they'd have won. Ironwood wouldn't survive such intense scrutiny. He couldn't.
She walked into her office, wrapping her coat tighter around herself. After five, the offices shut down the heating to save money. It was a wonder with how much they spent elsewhere, the sheer amount of policies in place meant to save the government money.
Her hand touched the handle of her filing cabinet and she drew it back, sharply, cradling it. It felt like the handle was on fire. What-
Her breath came out in thin white wisps, eyes widening when she saw it, the door sliding shut behind her.
"Hello, Frau Holly."
She spun around to see Ironwood sitting at her desk, Specialist Schnee behind him like a grim spectre, neither seeming bothered by the freezing temperature in the room.
"General," she said, unable to mask her surprise at his sudden late night visit. Her fear, she only managed barely. "And Specialist, what can I do for you, today?"
"Two hundred thousand," Ironwood said calmly.
She blinked, confused. "What?"
"That's the minimum number of people that would need to die to make a successful coup against me," he explained. "And really, that's just the coup. It doesn't take into account the civilians who'd need to die for connections to higher military figures, or those who would die from corporations that would pull support and collapse the economy. In just the coup, whether it's loyalists or dissidents, two hundred thousand would need to lose their lives for you to beat me."
"I..." she kept her panic subdued, under her skin. "I don't understand. Why are you talking about coups?"
He brushed past the question, continuing on. "You will maintain your dissident connections, any complaints you receive will filter through to me, along with who is making the complaint, where we will measure its merits. You won't take any actions without checking with me first. Your 'coup' is now property of the Atlas military. We'll be managing it from now on."
Holly felt her face grow pale, anything masking her fear falling away. This was far worse than ignorance, even then destruction. This was becoming a puppet to the system she was fighting against, damning all her colleagues to the same.
"Tell anyone about this arrangement and we will kill you, whoever you told, and anyone we suspect you might have told on top of that," Ironwood said, still unstoppably calm.
The meaning sunk into her bones with the chill of the cold, making her breath catch. "My family-"
"Has been recalled from their Mistral vacation. They're actually on a train heading back into Atlas now for a banquet celebrating many members of the government, including you, who do such good work to keep the wheels of the kingdom turning." He leaned forward, hands clasped together. "There isn't anywhere you or they can go that is out of our reach, Frau Holly. You have to know that by now."
She was shaking, shivering in the room that only seemed to be growing colder by the second. "You're... you can't do this."
"Your life or that of your family's is not the first I've had to trade to save two hundred thousand," he said, tone as frozen cold as the room. "It isn't even the most valuable."
She swallowed, heavily. "Can I have some time to think about it?"
"Of course." Ironwood stood up, walking to the door. "You have until I leave the building." He walked out, the door closing silently behind him.
Winter didn't move.
Holly stared at her as Ironwood's steps grew steadily farther away, her glare like ice, and though she must have been breathing in the freezing room, there wasn't a wisp of steam coming off her.
"If you keep doing this," Holly said. "We'll never have a free Atlas."
"No," Winter agreed. "We'll have a safe one."
Holly looked down, hands tightening into fists. "Tell that to my family."
"Say no and we'll have no use for them." Winter's eyes narrowed. "They'll probably leave Atlas, or choose to continue your legacy, but either way they'd be free to do so. Say yes and they'd be safe, we would ensure it. You tell me which you value more."
Holly hesitated for a moment, desperation coating her like a gel, making her sweat stick ever tighter to her despite the cold, but after the moment was over, she ran out the door, sprinting down the halls, down stairs, making it out to the first floor just in time to catch Ironwood at the door out of the building.
"Yes, Frau Holly?" Ironwood said, casual, like she'd come up to him in a coffeeshop or boardroom instead of running like mad to catch him before her life was forfeit. "Have you made a decision?"
"I'll do it," she said, still shaking. "I'll take your deal."
Winter passed her, silent as death to stand behind Ironwood once again.
Ironwood smiled, clapping his hands together once. "Excellent. I'll expect the first report on my desk by Monday. I'm sure we'll all be happy working towards a better future for Atlas together." She couldn't muster a response to that, but Ironwood didn't need one, turning and walking out the door with his Specialist following close behind. "See, Winter?" She heard him say before the door shut completely. "Just another valve to turn."
Holly was left alone in the government building, captured completely.
But safe.
___])
Jaune Arc breathed in deeply through his nose, sighing contentedly at the beautiful vista before him. He'd never done much traveling before, but now that he'd gotten a taste, he loved seeing all the sights Remnant had to offer, from the glass arches of Atlas, to the mysterious forests of Vale, the Mistralian mountaintops had to be his favorite by far.
Yet another thing he supposed he had to thank his Beacon expulsion for. It probably would have been years before he could see a view like this, if he ever did. Maybe he should write Goodwitch and Ozpin a thank you letter.
Nah.
"Incredible, isn't it?" Jaune asked a nearby goat faunus, slumped down one of the trail benches. "Nothing in Vale could compare."
"It's fine," the goat faunus hedged, uncertainly. "Just, half the time I come here, feels like a big old pile of rocks and that's it."
"You Mistral-born?" Jaune asked, and at his affirmation, nodded his head. "That's your problem, man. You can't appreciate what you've got. I've been all up and down the kingdoms at this point, this is the first time I've seen something like this."
The goat faunus scoffed, lightly. "Yeah, well, I'm not really in an 'appreciating what I've got' mood," he said, bitterly.
"School trouble?" Jaune asked, curiously.
"Not anymore." He picked up a rock and threw it off the cliff, the stone bouncing and tumbling far below. "Got kicked out of Haven yesterday."
"What? No way." Jaune grinned. "I got kicked out of Beacon."
He looked over, skeptically. "Really?"
"You're looking at the proud owner of half a semester's worth of tutelage from the fine Beacon teachers," Jaune announced, gripping his lapel like it was some great achievement.
The goat faunus snorted, looking back out at the view. "Well, congratulations. I guess we're both failures."
"Failures? No." Jaune waved a hand. "The system's rigged against the people who want to change it. The only way to fail is by playing."
The faunus looked at him like he was crazy, before returning to the view. "Sure, dude."
"No, I'm serious." Jaune picked up a rock and threw it off the mountain, too, watching it bounce down the cliff. "Beacon's interested in optics and prestige. They're limited by law what they can do and what they have to teach to keep it going. The actual combat and training you're doing is a fraction of the curriculum compared to all the history, english, math, and listening to Port drone on that they need to stay accredited, and I'm willing to bet Haven's the exact same way."
"I mean, sure, but we have to learn that stuff," he said, giving a lopsided shrug.
"You went to Haven to learn about punctuation?" Jaune shook his head. "I don't think so. I bet you went there to do the same thing I did: to become a hero, am I right?"
He sighed, slumping further into the bench. "It would've been nice..." his hands clenched and unclenched in agitation, trying to find the words. "All my life, I wanted to be a huntsman. I wanted to be strong, save people, do what I could to help out wherever I could. My hometown isn't all that big. We only had the one huntsman in it, but he was... incredible. I trained as hard as I could, got him to unlock my aura eventually, and when I got into Haven was the happiest day of me and my family's life." He buried his head in his hands. "I don't even know how to tell them I flunked out."
Jaune shrugged. "Don't tell 'em."
"What, you want me to live up in the woods, come back during the weekends and pretend I'm still up at Haven actually going to become something every time I sit down for dinner? No thanks. I might be a flunky, but I'm not stupid enough to lie to my parents."
"What if there was a different way you could become a hero?" Jaune laid a hand on the faunus' shoulder, pumping his semblance into him, the goat faunus' aura growing bigger, brighter.
"Whoah." He stumbled off the bench, backing up before his breathing got heavier and he looked down at his hands. "What did you do to me?"
"Just a little power boost, it's my semblance." Jaune showed his glowing hand, guilelessly. "I was in the same place you were after getting kicked out of Beacon, but I found new friends who really put the whole thing into perspective for me. They taught me you don't need to go through one of those cruddy mismanaged schools to become a hero. You just need to have something to fight for." He sat down on the bench the faunus was in just a few moments before, stretching out with a relaxed sigh. "My friends all have something to fight for, and they could take on anyone at Beacon from student to faculty any day of the week. Trying to now, actually."
"What do you mean, they're trying to?" The faunus asked, suspiciously.
"Beacon's corrupt," Jaune said, frowning. "Haven, Shade, Atlas Academy, they're all corrupt. They pump out soldiers whose whole job is to keep the status quo. You ever notice anything about the status quo? It keeps guys like us from poor towns from becoming heroes, and it elevates the dirtbags from the rich cities so they have more power than ever before. I wanted to be a huntsman so people could be happy when I walked into a town, and you want to know what I found out? The further you go from the big cities, the more people hate huntsmen. I went to a town in West Vale where they told me the last three hunters that walked into their town extorted them for money, stole their food, even hurt people, and every time when they tried to report to the Guild about it, they were told to shove it. Hunters aren't heroes." He reached into his jacket and pulled out a white mask, laying it on the bench between them. "Those are heroes."
"The White Fang?" The faunus took another step back. "You're a terrorist?"
"They call them terrorists because they're fighting a corrupt system. If you wanted to discredit them, you'd do the same thing in their place. But you talk to the people who have actually met Fang, and they'll all tell you the same thing: they want change, they want a better future and they know the current regime is gonna fight tooth and nail to make sure that doesn't happen. You ever wonder why the good deeds of the White Fang are never talked about on the news? I mean, it's a huge group, there's gotta be some of them out there doing good, right? But to admit that would be fighting the narrative, so they keep quiet about it. That's what it means to be in control."
"I guess..." he took a miniscule step forward, uncertainly. "It's a little weird..."
"Look, I don't want your money, don't want you to do anything crazy, literally just let me introduce you to a couple of my friends, we'll hang out and go bowling or something, see how you feel about 'em, that's all." Jaune spread his hands, reasonably.
The faunus hesitated, looking side to side like something was going to pounce out at him at any moment. "Nothing crazy?"
"I promise, just friends hanging out, that's most of what it is when we aren't training anyway. It's like Haven without the boring classes."
"Alright," he finally relented. "But you're buying me snacks at the bowling alley."
"Done and done," Jaune agreed.
"And put that mask away, it's skeeving me out." The faunus brushed past him, back down the path.
Jaune grinned, tucking the mask back into his inner jacket pocket.
"Hooked another one," the translucent man beside him noted, smugly.
Jaune chuckled, moving to follow. "It's a wonder they got anyone to join up without me."
He hiked his backpack further up his back, everything he needed from extra water to weaponized dust stowed safely inside, and went faster down the path, trying to catch up to the faunus. "Hey, wait for me."
White Fang recruitment had never been so good.
([___
Ruby crept into the medical wing, time slowing to a crawl, bleeding petals with every movement, silence and pressure surrounding her like a deepsea trench.
Neo was looking through a medical file of some kind, sitting in a chair by her desk, paging through it, frozen fingers on frozen pages, completely unaware.
She lunged forward, just as regular time resumed, wrapping her arms around Neo and-
Neo shattered, shards of aura infused light scattering to the ground.
Ruby hissed through her teeth, immediately dropping into a crouch and spinning to try and intercept Neo's counter, an action that might have worked had she not burst out of a cabinet on the side she was just facing, legs wrapping around her neck and twisting to drop her to the floor in a painful hold.
Ruby tried to reactivate her semblance, but Neo squeezed her legs tighter around her neck every time she tried to get a full breath, and eventually she tapped out, Neo finally releasing her.
"Thought I had you that time," Ruby groaned, flopping back onto the floor.
Neo's scroll hovered into view. 'Your sneak attacks are getting better, but you're not going to get anywhere clomping through the hall like that. I heard you long before you activated your semblance.'
"So be quieter next time," Ruby sighed. "Got it."
She tapped in a response, holding it out again. 'And check your surroundings next time, too. You could have spotted the real me if you had looked.'
"The real you..." Ruby sat up, biting her lip as Neo stood to gather up some papers that had fallen during their brief skirmish. "Neo, there's something I think you should know about when we fought White Fang in Vale the other day..." Ruby said, hesitantly.
Neo flashed a questioning eyebrow her way, righting the papers and moving on to the sink, to fill a glass with water, sipping it.
"We fought a bunch of White Fang, but there was a human with them, too. He was wearing a grimm mask and... he was dressed like Torchwick."
Ruby didn't know what Neo's relationship to Torchwick was, but she figured there was some connection there. It was one of the first things Neo had asked her about, back when she was still pretending to be Polly, and since then every time Ruby had brought up Torchwick or the accident, as admittedly few as those times were, she got this sad expression on her face, almost like mourning. It was always a little strange to think someone like Roman Torchwick could have someone feel so deeply about his passing, but...
The glass in her hand cracked under a grip that turned knuckle white.
She wasn't wearing a sad expression just then.
Neo didn't need to type on her scroll, the liquid rage bubbling down her face said everything for her.
Still, Ruby kept talking, babbling at a point. "He had the hat, the cane, the coat, but even with the mask I could tell it wasn't really him. Even his voice was different, but... he called me Little Red, like Torchwick had, before..." she sagged, looking down, "...you know. I never told anyone about that. Maybe he got lucky, maybe someone picked it out of my head with a semblance, but for I don't even know how long as Cardin fought the Fang all I could do was stand there, useless." Ruby stared at her hands, helplessly. "I'd understand if it was him, but it wasn't him, just someone playing pretend, and even that was enough to make me freeze. That's what bothers me the most. What am I supposed to do if all it takes is a suit and hat to shut me down?" Ruby felt Neo come closer, but she kept talking, words dribbling out past her mouth like vomit. "And I feel awful talking to you about this, cause it's not like I liked Torchwick. I thought he was a jerk, and you were actually his friend, I think, but who else am I gonna talk to? Yang's so worried about me and everyone else is so strong, what am I even gonna say to them? I'm supposed to lead a team with some of the strongest people in Beacon in it, and as soon as I see a guy in a hat, or fire, or have a pancake in my mouth, I turn into a wooden plank." Neo knelt down in front of her, but Ruby didn't look up, throat burning around stifling heat. "I keep having to stretch for ages every morning because my joints lock up in the night. I'm always too hot. I have nightmares constantly. It feels like I hurt all the time, and I don't know if it's ever gonna get better."
Neo grabbed her hands, stilling their shaking, and Ruby finally looked up to see her, anger largely subsided for one of those sad, mourning, expressions she wore for Torchwick. She slid her scroll into Ruby's hands, drawing forward to wrap her in a hug, tight with rough emotion.
'You're broken,' Ruby read off the scroll, with eyes already blurred from tears she couldn't control. 'But I'll fix you, like he fixed me. We'll make them pay for what they've done to us, and we'll get strong enough no one can ever hurt us again. I promise, Ruby.'
Ruby sobbed, gripping Neo tighter, scroll slipping out of her hands, and feeling wet on her back, where Neo's own tears landed.
'I'll make you better.'
___])
Glynda lived her life under a strict code of discipline, an ethos she did her best to impress on her students as well. She had a firm respect for rules, but also had a great skill in foresight and attempted to arrange aspects of her life to prevent future problems. She never engaged in activities she knew would create difficulties in the future. No matter how 'fun' it seemed, no matter the temporary convenience, Glynda's impression of greater utility was largely unmatched.
That being said, when it came to Guild politics and some of the impenetrably mysterious actions of Ozpin, it was unfortunately often she found her patience ground into nothing. So, in an attempt to keep as much control as possible, she did her best to manage both in small amounts.
It worked right up until Ozpin requested a meeting with some Guild representatives.
"Are you out of your mind," she hissed at him as the last of the Guild members shut the door to Ozpin's office behind them. "Why would they ever agree to something like that? Why would you suggest something like that? Why-"
"I think that went well." Ozpin said, smiling enigmatically. "Don't you?"
Glynda's eyes widened. "They practically laughed in your face. I think one of them actually did, and just pretended it was a cough. If that's your measure of the meeting going well, I'd hate to see how it could have gone badly."
"I was looking for amusement or anger, I got amusement. The disturbing scenario would have been them trying to humor me." He turned to the window, looking out at the few students remaining during the break between semesters. "She needs a more complete body of huntress work, a recommendation from someone who isn't her teacher-"
"She needs to graduate," Glynda cut off, eyes narrowing. "She needs to actually begin working as a huntress."
"No." Ozpin shook his head. "The requirement to be a hunter has never been graduation; it's been recognition. As long as I can make her recognizable, she'll be acknowledged as a huntress."
"And your idea of recognition is to make her a laughingstock?" Glynda spread her arms, furiously. "And say this ridiculous plan ever goes through, what will it accomplish other than painting a target on her back?"
"She's going to have a target on her back either way. I'm simply taking steps to ensure she knows it's there," he said, mildly. "As for the laughingstock question, I don't believe anyone will continue to have that opinion once they see what she can do. This is just a way to get them to remember her name at the moment."
Glynda crossed her arms, eyes narrowing. "And the Candidate process? Do you want her to become a Maiden as well?"
Ozpin considered the question for a handful of moments before shaking his head again. "No. Given her current state, that process would make her far too unstable. We need someone fully grounded in themselves to stand a chance."
Glynda sighed, moving alongside him to witness the students below. "They're children, Ozpin. For this, for the Maidens. We're playing with the lives of children."
"Yes." Ozpin closed his eyes, sadly. "I've often thought even our graduates are too young to put in the positions they are." He opened them again, looking at her. "Did you still feel like a child when you fought the Witch?"
Glynda's hands twitched, imagined lightning arcing down them, even after so much time had passed. "You've fought Named grimm, too, Ozpin," she said, quietly. "You already know the answer to that."
"I suppose I do." He turned back to the window. "She needs a recommendation," he said. "It'd work better if it was someone who hates me."
"I don't suppose we're short on that supply," Glynda remarked, sardonically. "But why would that someone give her a recommendation on your say-so?"
"I don't expect that." He smiled, the shadow of smugness behind his eyes. "I expect whoever we choose, to watch her and make a decision on her merits alone. I expect by the time we arrange it, she'll have grown enough to impress on her own."
Glynda hummed at the point. "Then I suppose a better question is, why would this hunter even come to see her?"
Ozpin thought for a few minutes in silence, Glynda alternating between staring at him or looking out the window all the while. When she was just about to say something else, he finally turned away and began walking to the door.
"Field trips need chaperones, don't they?" He asked, and it took until he had already left the office for Glynda to grasp his meaning.
Glynda lived her life with foresight, logical steps following into the future allowing her to gauge the potential ramifications of actions, hers, her students, and others. Every day, Ozpin tested this. No matter how hard she tried, sometimes, when he put his all into an action.
She had no idea how it'd turn out.