Fandom Distorted Mirror [IC]

[MyrtenRose]

The sound of one of the doors opening got her to blink rapidly and turn her back on Neo to see who the hell had done that, confident that any attack from the tiny threat wouldn't actually be a problem--​

—This nonsense, which preceded Weiss waving two fingers without breaking stride and Neo promptly finding herself at the center of an octagonal glyph structure that looked about as inviting as a venus flytrap.

And so the greatest chase Remnant had never seen ended, somehow, with both a bang and a whimper. The bombardment ceased immediately following the few seconds it took Neo's aura to shatter, Weiss continuing her torpid pace until she stepped right up to the woman whose actions had arguably drawn the single most direct line to what had become of her sister.

"Oh." Gwen murmured but didn't object to Weiss flexing hard and yet also uncaringly. That was not her place. And to be honest, Neo wasn't her biggest concern any more. Not after that beatdown and not after that entrance. The scientific specialist fell into a salute as Weiss approached, standing as straight as could be.​

"Pick her up. She's your problem. Helios..."

"...no one likes a showoff."

Then she just continued walking.

The salute lasted until Weiss resumed her stride, Gwen's face remaining composed the whole way even as Neo got picked up by the almost equally small Nora and they continued on. Not even that reprimand broke her stony expression, a simple "As you say, ma'am" was Gwen's only response to the declaration. After the group was out of sight, Helios's weapon returned to standard form, the pistol getting slung back into its holster and eyes curiously peering down the way Weiss and co had gone. Her robots stepped up closer once more to join her. "I've...never seen her like that. What do you think...what put her in that state of mind?" Gwen spoke but it was more putting voice to her thoughts than actually asking any of the machines around her.

One spoke up nevertheless. "Based on body language, word choice and timbre, body secretions and olfactory perceptions...it seems an extreme stressor of some kind."

She just turned her head sharply to the side and shook her head, resisting the urge to bonk it on its own synthetic skull. "I wasn't really asking, rusty. Let's go. We should get back to work." She spun on her heel, waving a hand to unseal and open the remaining doors that hadn't already been opened. The squad of bots fell in line behind her as she went the opposite direction of Weiss and the others. She may have not gotten to make amends for her earlier failure to apprehend Neo and the other one, but that wasn't her primary job duty anyhow.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Nora, in retribution for all that crap, punched the auraless Neo right in her damn nose and probably broke it. In addition to knocking her bitch ass out.​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Yang had given Weiss a worried frown as she dipped into the closet, and winced immediately at the sound that followed. Her brain latched on to the least damaging worry bouncing around in it right now, and with a fretful huff she hoped Weiss was ok without someone holding her hair back in there, but she didn't move to intrude. At Nora's brief venture at conversation, she took a deep breath and shook her head.

"Not yet Nora. Please. Lets just... lets just see what this is first. Hey sis." She couldn't help but at least add as much to Ruby with a wan smile before Weiss made her exit. She gave Nora another worried look but turned to continue after.

Neo got a much darker look as they past, but... that seemed in hand, and there'd been enough unecessary violence today as is.

 

[Gus Gungus]

She led them the rest of the way through Atlas's technological monolith in silence. Before too long they arrived at the academy's great central elevator, no indication given as to why they'd taken such a strange and indirect route other than the lingering, blank look of gaunt paranoia she gave both ways up the corridor as she waved them on.

Nothing else followed as the elevator undertook the lengthy climb to the former headmaster's office. Just more silence from a Weiss that could've been mistaken for a statue, one made of glass.



The congregation of figures awaiting them when the doors opened and they stepped through was like a row of dominoes, each one offering greater surprise than the last. On one side of the desk at the center of the room stood Robyn Hill and (this world's) Raven Branwen, a duo characterized by their absences in recent hours; though the shock of seeing them was a drop in the ocean compared to the trio occupying the other side.

"Thank you all for coming."

Penny Polendina. Cinder Fall. Ruby Rose (the good one). And, occupying the headmaster's chair like he never left it, James Ironwood himself, whose expression was as difficult to read as ever apart from the mild arch of the eyebrows he gave as the new arrivals poured in.

"So we're just... telling them now? All of them."

His confusion was obvious, but went unanswered by a Weiss who ignored him en route to the desk. In contrast to everything they knew about the two and their relations at this point, there was no tension or hostility in the way she stepped around it; only an easy familiarity as she leaned forward to being up the hardlight interface, swiped through a few menus and once again scanned her palm against the glossy blue surface that awaited it. An advanced, sealed containment unit of some kind rose from the floor towards the back of the room.

Ironwood huffed softly through his nose and stood to cross over to the duplex windows, gazing out over the horizon and allowing Weiss to slip into the chair in his stead. There was an almost hilarious degree of casualness to how she swiveled it lightly to sit at an angle, kicked her feet up on the desk and slumped back with cigarette already in hand, lighting it with the briefest flash of her eyes and appearing to relish that first pull more than usual as she extended her free hand towards Robyn with an impatient flap.

Assuming she took it, along with the unspoken cue, the first flash of green that ensued was a doozy.

"The rebellion in Atlas is a lie."

Ordinarily, it stood to reason there would've been a degree of superiority in the way she spoke those words. An air of smugness at how she'd fooled them all, regardless of however much time they'd wasted going back and forth and however many lives had been affected.

She exhaled, letting the cloud of smoke unfurl on the air with it, watching it as though mesmerized.

"A ruse designed to give the impression the kingdom was vulnerable to the coming storm. Ozpin's overconfidence is one of the only weaknesses we have to exploit, so the idea was to milk it for all it's worth. Then you people came along, and it became an asset for..."

Her eyes almost flickered to one in the room in particular, but a pang of guilt seemed to prevent them from doing so, and instead they hovered listlessly on the thin, smokey mist.

"...other reasons. Clarifying loyalties, assessing willingness to cooperate. That sort of thing. More importantly, it gave the actual organized rebellion brewing in Mantle a bone to chew on while I was preparing for the real war." Her eyes did move this time, hovering on Robyn for barely a moment as their hands continued to glow green. Whether it was a flicker of apology in those eyes or merely the light's reflection was harder to verify. "It's military intervention 101, really. Concerned about your supposed 'allies' refusing to tow the line? Install a leader who'll prevent them from ever mounting a resistance worth the trouble to begin with."

She shook her head slightly with a scoff, though it was mirthless. Another voice chimed in before she could press on.

"I apologize, for what it's worth."

That much came from Ironwood, his first contribution since the curtain started to raise. He barely turned his head from the window to address the room, and his tone of voice suggested he knew exactly how little it was worth.

It also didn't carry so much as a shred of regret.

It was an entirely different sort of vacancy to the one that now gripped Weiss's voice, more born from the same ilk of resolve that defined many of Weiss's speeches to this point. If a bit less self-congratulatory.

Weiss felt like she was barely there. She nodded, flicking the ash onto the floor without bothering with any of her usual disposal methods.

"Only James and I were aware of the truth behind all this before today. No one outside this room knew, not even... no one." She finished quickly, throat slightly dry.

"Yes, and I'm beginning to question the point of all that," Ironwood added, a bit tersely. "Where is Winter? I let you convince me she couldn't be trusted with the truth, but if anyone's been hurt by all the lies it's her. She deserves to know as much as anyone here."



Weiss bluescreened. For the first time since the cells the empty look of hollow-eyed haggardness was replaced by something else, and for the first time any of them could recall she looked like she didn't know what to say.

"No, it's... she's not..."​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"Not yet Nora. Please. Lets just... lets just see what this is first. Hey sis." She couldn't help but at least add as much to Ruby with a wan smile before Weiss made her exit. She gave Nora another worried look but turned to continue after.

"...Yeah, okay." Nora agreed, falling silent for the rest of the walk.​

"Thank you all for coming."

Penny Polendina. Cinder Fall. Ruby Rose (the good one). And, occupying the headmaster's chair like he never left it, James Ironwood himself, whose expression was as difficult to read as ever apart from the mild arch of the eyebrows he gave as the new arrivals poured in.

In contrast, the other Ruby Rose that waited for her there, flanked by the world's friendliest and coolest robot and the nice maiden, her expression was ludicrously easy to read. She was really happy to see Yang again. Were the room not full of all these people and the mood within not as serious, she might very well have pulled a super-fast hug tackle. The temptation was still there regardless, but it was successfully resisted. Ruby instead left it at a smile and a relieved nod.

A more extensive greeting could follow after, anyways. Another smiled as well but in her case it was far more brief before her attention turned back to Weiss and Ironwood, every bit the professional huntress.

"So we're just... telling them now? All of them."

"Tell us what, exactly?" The other maiden in the room questioned, eye following Weiss with every step Schnee took towards the chair. Not even the emergence of the containment unit broke her gaze, waiting impatiently yet also eagerly for an answer from the older woman. Her arms crossed as Schnee got comfortable, but when the first words of explanation came, shocked surprise shot through her. Enough so that she hardly noticed her own arms pull apart, falling down to her sides. "A...lie?" She repeated in a murmur to herself, a barely heard whisper that coincided with the rest of Weiss's words.​

Ordinarily, it stood to reason there would've been a degree of superiority in the way she spoke those words. An air of smugness at how she'd fooled them all, regardless of however much time they'd wasted going back and forth and however many lives had been affected.

She exhaled, letting the cloud of smoke unfurl on the air with it, watching it as though mesmerized.

"A ruse designed to give the impression the kingdom was vulnerable to the coming storm. Ozpin's overconfidence is one of the only weaknesses we have to exploit, so the idea was to milk it for all it's worth. Then you people came along, and it became an asset for..."

Nora blinked, more than a bit surprised and yet also not surprised at all. Surprised at the news of the long con the two had been pulling, but not surprised at the different tone than Weiss might have ordinally had in that reveal. Not after what had happened earlier...typical Atlas smugness couldn't have come easy after that disaster. Her eyes briefly locked with Weiss's in another show of sympathy before they looked to Ironwood's back, eyes narrowed slightly as if studying the man.​

"...other reasons. Clarifying loyalties, assessing willingness to cooperate. That sort of thing. More importantly, it gave the actual organized rebellion brewing in Mantle a bone to chew on while I was preparing for the real war." Her eyes did move this time, hovering on Robyn for barely a moment as their hands continued to glow green. Whether it was a flicker of apology in those eyes or merely the light's reflection was harder to verify. "It's military intervention 101, really. Concerned about your supposed 'allies' refusing to tow the line? Install a leader who'll prevent them from ever mounting a resistance worth the trouble to begin with."

"...What." There was no denying the honesty of the statements, not while their hands were entangled like this. Not while her semblance worked its magic, shining green the whole time. How hard she had been duped, the level of it...the shock hit her much harder than the young Cinder. That shock rapidly gave way to frustrated anger, vexed that she had been so easily and so thoroughly deceived but given that she had to remain standing here grasping Weiss by the hand, the only outward indication of that was her other fist tightening by her side. And after a short while, that red-hot anger faded into a more cold acceptance. The lengths one would have to go through against an opponent like Ozpin...the threat he could bring down...it was smart to play as many cards as you could.​

"I apologize, for what it's worth."

That much came from Ironwood, his first contribution since the curtain started to raise. He barely turned his head from the window to address the room, and his tone of voice suggested he knew exactly how little it was worth.

It also didn't carry so much as a shred of regret.

"Uh-huh." Robyn grumbled, but she didn't do anything beyond that.​

"Only James and I were aware of the truth behind all this before today. No one outside this room knew, not even... no one." She finished quickly, throat slightly dry.

"So why are you telling us all this now--" Nora started, but her words quickly faded away when Ironwood likewise spoke up, his words reaching her ears and cutting her off.​

"Yes, and I'm beginning to question the point of all that," Ironwood added, a bit tersely. "Where is Winter? I let you convince me she couldn't be trusted with the truth, but if anyone's been hurt by all the lies it's her. She deserves to know as much as anyone here."

Weiss bluescreened. For the first time since the cells the empty look of hollow-eyed haggardness was replaced by something else, and for the first time any of them could recall she looked like she didn't know what to say.

"No, it's... she's not..."

Spoiler

The wide-eyed, sympathetic and sad look returned to a degree before Nora cleared her throat and continued in Weiss's stead. "She, uh...won't be joining us." The small bruiser let go, throwing the auraless Neo roughly to the floor. "This chick, she...she wanted help in making a play for the relic, snatch the lamp right out from under your watch. When I took another option, she, um..." A hand rose to rub at the back of her head in guilt and nervousness. "...she released the Shadow Fang attackers we had just arrested. They...they...." She trailed off, struggling to continue just as much as Weiss did.

The realization of what they were saying, or more accurately what they could not say, dawned on a few of the others at varying speeds. "Oh." Cinder muttered quietly, thinking back to her brief chat with Winter. Robyn's shock returned as her head turned, glancing towards an empty part of the room. It was a major understatement to say they had not always agreed but in an unorthodox way, Robyn had grown used to Winter. Even before all this, before the lie, they had been contemporaries at Atlas Academy. Top of their classes, even. For her to be gone way before her time should have come...

Ruby frowned as well. She couldn't say she knew Winter all that well, but back home she knew the elder Schnee sister had been one of the only positive family relationships Weiss had, if not the only one. Okay, it might not have been the same here but that didn't mean it wouldn't hurt badly. Ruby looked towards Weiss before immediately taking a few steps over and lightly reaching out to place a comforting hand on her shoulder in a show of support. Whatever Raven felt was hidden away by her neutral, composed expression, letting the silence go on a little longer before she spoke up.

"So what happens now?"​

 

[MidwayLives]

As before, each and every strike that came in impacted against the pale blue hardlight shield. No matter where the blows were intended to hit, the stabs never brushed against her protective aura. Her secondary defense system did its job. When the flurry of attacks let up, Gwen didn't even initially counterstrike. Her head tilted ever so slightly, a low but appreciative whistle coming from her. "That's the spirit, little waffle cone." Finally she bothered to attack back, her own series of slashes and stabs coming from her wrist-mounted blade aimed for the diminutive criminal. It culminated with a final slash that cut through nothing but empty space...the gale-force blast of highly compressed air that followed, less so.

Neo's expression stayed as determined as possible.

Even in the face of adversity.

Her back had been agaisnt the wall before and she'd come out on top every other time. This wouldn't be any different.

She would take Emerald home.

Digging Hush's blade against the floor, Neo's soles scratched against the floor before she was straight up blown back. The blade clattering from her hands and her aura flashing as she slammed against the steel door and fell forward. In an enclosed space like this with nowhere to go, no brute-ish techniques to exploit, Neo wasn't a straight up brawler. On top of that if this bitch seemed like she was even in the slightest bit of danger, those machines would step in.

Still, she couldn't give up.

Grabbing the handle of Hush, she stood up and brushed herself off.

​

The sound of one of the doors opening got her to blink rapidly and turn her back on Neo to see who the hell had done that, confident that any attack from the tiny threat wouldn't actually be a problem--

...She had turned her back on her?

Neo could feel her blood boil.

Hush's handle rattled in the palm of her hand as she sprinted forward. Ready to try and plunge the blade right into Gwen's back-

​

And so the greatest chase Remnant had never seen ended, somehow, with both a bang and a whimper. The bombardment ceased immediately following the few seconds it took Neo's aura to shatter, Weiss continuing her torpid pace until she stepped right up to the woman whose actions had arguably drawn the single most direct line to what had become of her sister.

And continued stepping. Head down, shoulders hung, barely even acknowledging Neo save for a brief passover with the same vacant eyes, a vague motion towards Yang or Nora with her hand, and couple of sentences spoken in the same drab, burned out monotone that had characterized her entire bearing for the last few minutes.

"Pick her up. She's your problem. Helios..."

"...no one likes a showoff."

Then she just kept walking.

The aura shattered and fizzled away.

Hush's blade lay unused beside her and the parasol left where it'd been dropped.

It hurt to even try to move.

But it wasn't the pain that upset her or even the fact that she was picked up off the ground.

It was that they'd got her. Her weapon was out of her reach, her aura was broken, and she was defeated.

Sorry Emerald.

But even as she was scooped up, she gripped the brim of Roman's hat and didn't let go, even as she was carried away.

She couldn't lose everything.

​

The wide-eyed, sympathetic and sad look returned to a degree before Nora cleared her throat and continued in Weiss's stead. "She, uh...won't be joining us." The small bruiser let go, throwing the auraless Neo roughly to the floor. "This chick, she...she wanted help in making a play for the relic, snatch the lamp right out from under your watch. When I took another option, she, um..." A hand rose to rub at the back of her head in guilt and nervousness. "...she released the Shadow Fang attackers we had just arrested. They...they...." She trailed off, struggling to continue just as much as Weiss did.

Neo winced as she was thrown to the ground.

What were the odds?

Surrounded by people she hated once again. It was though she hadn't left Ozpin's 'employment.'

At the mention of Winter's death-presumably by the ends of Belladonna or those two others-Neo's expression only hardened.

It didn't need to happen if they'd only helped her. If they hadn't forced her hand.

Whatever else may come of what she'd 'done', Neo....accepted it.

​

 

[MidwayLives]

"Not yet Nora. Please. Lets just... lets just see what this is first. Hey sis." She couldn't help but at least add as much to Ruby with a wan smile before Weiss made her exit. She gave Nora another worried look but turned to continue after.

"Hi."

Ruby said softly, seemingly at a loss of what to say or do.

Comforting wasn't a skill prized highly among Ozpin's acolytes.
​

The congregation of figures awaiting them when the doors opened and they stepped through was like a row of dominoes, each one offering greater surprise than the last. On one side of the desk at the center of the room stood Robyn Hill and (this world's) Raven Branwen, a duo characterized by their absences in recent hours; though the shock of seeing them was a drop in the ocean compared to the trio occupying the other side.

"Thank you all for coming."

Penny Polendina. Cinder Fall. Ruby Rose (the good one). And, occupying the headmaster's chair like he never left it, James Ironwood himself, whose expression was as difficult to read as ever apart from the mild arch of the eyebrows he gave as the new arrivals poured in.

"So we're just... telling them now? All of them."

Ruby's eyes widened and after a baring of teeth, she-

...Paused in outright confusion.

Even as far back as it felt from when she'd first come to Weiss for help, she'd made it clear she didn't detest or hate those behind Atlas's 'rebellion.'

They were misguided souls who simply didn't see or appreciate the brilliance of her designs.

Thus Ruby stayed her hand and tried to wrap her head around this.

...Had they all come to their senses?
​

"The rebellion in Atlas is a lie."

Ordinarily, it stood to reason there would've been a degree of superiority in the way she spoke those words. An air of smugness at how she'd fooled them all, regardless of however much time they'd wasted going back and forth and however many lives had been affected.

She exhaled, letting the cloud of smoke unfurl on the air with it, watching it as though mesmerized.

"A ruse designed to give the impression the kingdom was vulnerable to the coming storm. Ozpin's overconfidence is one of the only weaknesses we have to exploit, so the idea was to milk it for all it's worth. Then you people came along, and it became an asset for..."

Her eyes almost flickered to one in the room in particular, but a pang of guilt seemed to prevent them from doing so, and instead they hovered listlessly on the thin, smokey mist.

"...other reasons. Clarifying loyalties, assessing willingness to cooperate. That sort of thing. More importantly, it gave the actual organized rebellion brewing in Mantle a bone to chew on while I was preparing for the real war." Her eyes did move this time, hovering on Robyn for barely a moment as their hands continued to glow green. Whether it was a flicker of apology in those eyes or merely the light's reflection was harder to verify. "It's military intervention 101, really. Concerned about your supposed 'allies' refusing to tow the line? Install a leader who'll prevent them from ever mounting a resistance worth the trouble to begin with."

She shook her head slightly with a scoff, though it was mirthless. Another voice chimed in before she could press on.

"I apologize, for what it's worth."

"...Oh."
​

"Yes, and I'm beginning to question the point of all that," Ironwood added, a bit tersely. "Where is Winter? I let you convince me she couldn't be trusted with the truth, but if anyone's been hurt by all the lies it's her. She deserves to know as much as anyone here."

Weiss bluescreened. For the first time since the cells the empty look of hollow-eyed haggardness was replaced by something else, and for the first time any of them could recall she looked like she didn't know what to say.

"No, it's... she's not..."

"...Weiss..."

Ruby's artificial fingers clicked and clattered as she tried to reach out.

Only stopping herself before she actually made contact.

....Comforting wasn't her strongsuit.

'You'll only make it worse~' The 'other' her she'd been seeing whispered in her ear.

Ruby's lips pursed and her hand fell to her side.
​

The wide-eyed, sympathetic and sad look returned to a degree before Nora cleared her throat and continued in Weiss's stead. "She, uh...won't be joining us." The small bruiser let go, throwing the auraless Neo roughly to the floor. "This chick, she...she wanted help in making a play for the relic, snatch the lamp right out from under your watch. When I took another option, she, um..." A hand rose to rub at the back of her head in guilt and nervousness. "...she released the Shadow Fang attackers we had just arrested. They...they...." She trailed off, struggling to continue just as much as Weiss did.

The realization of what they were saying, or more accurately what they could not say, dawned on a few of the others at varying speeds. "Oh." Cinder muttered quietly, thinking back to her brief chat with Winter. Robyn's shock returned as her head turned, glancing towards an empty part of the room. It was a major understatement to say they had not always agreed but in an unorthodox way, Robyn had grown used to Winter. Even before all this, before the lie, they had been contemporaries at Atlas Academy. Top of their classes, even. For her to be gone way before her time should have come...

Biologically they were cousins. Their parents tried to raise them as sisters.

Given how both turned out, it wasn't too successful.

But even in the depths of her abuse and torment of her Yang when they were younger, Ruby still loved her.

In turn despite her Yang's boasts of how she wished Ruby would die/never been born/get killed, etc, whenever the chance was there to simply snuff out Ruby's life or even gouge out her eyes, it was never taken or acted upon. So to stand here and be faced with the sudden realization that at some point the two would cross paths again and possibly....kill eachother.

The thought left her feeling sicker than she'd like.

To lose a sister....

....Ruby was at a loss.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

The wide-eyed, sympathetic and sad look returned to a degree before Nora cleared her throat and continued in Weiss's stead. "She, uh...won't be joining us." The small bruiser let go, throwing the auraless Neo roughly to the floor. "This chick, she...she wanted help in making a play for the relic, snatch the lamp right out from under your watch. When I took another option, she, um..." A hand rose to rub at the back of her head in guilt and nervousness. "...she released the Shadow Fang attackers we had just arrested. They...they...." She trailed off, struggling to continue just as much as Weiss did.

The pitying looks, the sympathetic phrasing, even the sudden attempt at comfort from the Ruby she least expected it from, all of it seemed to hardly even register with Weiss beyond a crease of the brow. She just kept staring blankly into space, letting the stunned silence that had settled over the room hang, her own words having trailed off into a nothingness as numb and empty as she felt. It was as if she didn't know how to process that kind of reaction to her mistakes, like it was some form of cryptic, indecipherable language to her.

The disapproving voice of a male authority figure, on the other hand, was far more familiar territory, enough so that the subsequent boom from the other end of the office was enough to jolt her from her daze so vigorously she dropped her cigarette.



"WHAT?!" There was no empathy, pity, or attempt at comfort to be found in Ironwood's snarl as he whirled on her, nothing to temper it from being anything less than pure outrage. It was clear from the moment he turned that none of the blame or disgust in his eyes was being reserved for Nora or Neo beyond an astoundingly dark stare at the latter. "She was in your care! Why the HELL was she being held anywhere near those savages to begin with?!"

Weiss sat up stiffly, legs crossing, and though her tone still wasn't quite that of someone who was all the way present there was enough scathing accusation in the questions to have her fidgeting with her appearance in discomfort. She blanched, trying to offer some meek semblance of an explanation.



"Look, they're not... I—I don't know, things just keep happening and I haven't had a chance to sleep in I don't know how long and I just... didn't think about it, I didn't think-"

"You didn't think?"

"No, I-"

"Your sister is dead because you didn't get a good night's SLEEP?!"

"That's not what I'm saying, I just-!"

"THEN WHY IS THERE ANOTHER DEAD FAMILY MEMBER ON YOUR CONSCIENCE, COUNCILWOMAN?"

"BECAUSE I WAS WRONG!" She finally snapped back with a defiant glare, though it had no bite and had already fallen by the time Ironwood collected himself enough to reply. She cut him off before he did, gaze staying rooted on the floor when she found she couldn't bring herself to lift it to anyone in the room.



No one, in this reality or any other, had ever seen Weiss Schnee look so defeated.

"... I'm not the person I thought I was. This entire time I've been deluding myself into thinking I'm some sort of... tragic hero, like my life has this grand purpose only I can see. It doesn't."

Brushing some stray, frazzled bangs back behind an ear she let her hand glide up to trace the scar she'd been covering up and ignoring for years and snorted, a bitter sound of pure dejection.

"I suppose it helped, believing there was a reason for all the pain in my life. That it... that I had meaning, or at least some kind of a reason for being here. Like I was being groomed, or... I don't know... prepared, somehow, to do great things. The things no one else would have the courage to do. The deeper I got, the more battlefields I conquered, the more I actually believed it." She forced a laugh, shaky and derisive. "But it was just pain. Typical, pointless pain. And the only thing it made me into is another version of the man who gave it to me. Except I'm worse. So much worse."

She hung her head, grateful for how the hair stubbornly continuing to fall over her eyes at least made it easier to avoid catching anyone else's.

"I lie. I exploit people. I can't stand anything I can't control, and if—god forbid—anyone comes along with a view of the world that looks even a little different than mine then I lie, exploit, or outright manipulate them until I control it too. Or worse, throw them in a cell." She breathed the last sentence in a mutter so scant it was almost impossible to hear. "Courage! Ha. What a riot. I know what courage looks like, and I can't even look her in the eye anymore. She makes me too ashamed."

She finally looked up at Ironwood, who had once again fallen into a stoney silence for the duration of the rant. There was no sympathy there, but she wasn't looking for any.

"So that's why, James. Because I'm worthless. Because I come from poison, I have poison inside me and I poison everything I touch. That's my legacy. The worst part is I'm an idiot, too, because I've ignored every sign the world has ever given me that this is just the way things are, that I should just lie down and accept it, and it's been beating me over the head with them since day one. Most of the people in this room have thought the same thing, and one of them said it best: There are very few people in Remnant who deserve nothing at all. I'm one of them."

She fell silent, letting a heavy silence linger on the air as her gaze drifted back to the floor.

The honesty of Weiss Schnee had long been called into question, justifiably so. But in that moment, there wasn't a doubt in anyone's mind as to the truth of her words. No one could possibly have pretended to hate themselves that much.

And if any skepticism yet lingered, they needed only spare a glance down at Weiss's hand.

The one entwined with it still shone as bright a green as it ever had.



"Believe what you want." He eventually answered. He wasn't about to play life coach at a time like this, and it only took one look to understand it wasn't what she wanted, anyway. His harsh stare never relented as he pressed on, hands clasping behind his back like the icy authority of a general had never left him. "But when you staged your little coup, when you gave a lunatic my rank and threw me in a cell for weeks, in the middle of all your fascinating philosophical insights about how poor a job I've been doing you sat down and convinced me—No. Swore to me you had a plan to defeat Ozpin. A better one than mine; than Salem's. I chose to believe you. Now I have to ask."

His tone somehow grew graver, if it were at all possible.

"The enemy is on our doorstep. We have weeks, at the most. A crisis of faith is not what the situation needs. Can you still do it?"

She didn't answer.
​

Whatever Raven felt was hidden away by her neutral, composed expression, letting the silence go on a little longer before she spoke up.

"So what happens now?"

She did, however, turn her attention to the source of the quote she so-poetically concluded her diatribe on, abruptly standing and making her way over to the containment unit in the back. Again, she typed in a passcode, and again she scanned her palm to begin the depressurizing process with a hiss of air.

"Before we, ah... mutually parted ways, Ozpin was pressuring me to surrender the relic of creation in a timely fashion. I told him that wasn't possible; that the staff is what keeps Atlas afloat, and the gravity dust substitute my researchers have been developing wouldn't be ready for at least a few months."

She sighed, at the very least letting a twinge of irony slip through this time.

"Another lie. That prototype was finished six months ago. And opening the vault was one of the first things I did when I got these powers."

The unit slid open, and suspended side-by-side with the relic of knowledge was Atlas's own relic, the Staff of Creation sporting a similar sleek design of ornate gold and blue. Ironwood's anger had shifted to visible confusion at such a flagrant demonstration of Atlas's most guarded secret, mingled with a growing wariness.

"What are you-?"

"It's dormant right now. We drew so much power from it for weapons development it's entered a charge cycle, or... Something. I think. Honestly, it's hard to say. There really isn't a manual."

Her smile was wan as she reached out into the field and withdrew both relics with as much grace as she could manage in her still-foggy state. She gazed at them briefly, particularly the tip of the staff.

Then she held both out to whoever was willing to receive them, eyes resting on the floor with visible fatigue.

"Take them."

Ironwood almost coughed up a few screws, aghast.

"Are... Have you completely lost your mind???? You don't just give away the relics!"

Weiss hummed, like it was amusing somehow. "They need them. It's the only reason they came here."

He failed to see the humor in it. "WE need them to defend Atlas!" He snapped, frustration bubbling once again. She just shook her head ruefully.

"We don't. We never did." The ghost of a smirk flickered across her face, though like everything else about her current bearing it lacked its customary splendour.

"I know exactly how to defend Atlas."​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"... I'm not the person I thought I was. This entire time I've been deluding myself into thinking I'm some sort of... tragic hero, like my life has this grand purpose only I can see. It doesn't."

Brushing some stray, frazzled bangs back behind an ear she let her hand glide up to trace the scar she'd been covering up and ignoring for years and snorted, a bitter sound of pure dejection.

"I suppose it helped, believing there was a reason for all the pain in my life. That it... that I had meaning, or at least some kind of a reason for being here. Like I was being groomed, or... I don't know... prepared, somehow, to do great things. The things no one else would have the courage to do. The deeper I got, the more battlefields I conquered, the more I actually believed it." She forced a laugh, shaky and derisive. "But it was just pain. Typical, pointless pain. And the only thing it made me into is another version of the man who gave it to me. Except I'm worse. So much worse."

She hung her head, grateful for how the hair stubbornly continuing to fall over her eyes at least made it easier to avoid catching anyone else's.

"I lie. I exploit people. I can't stand anything I can't control, and if—god forbid—anyone comes along with a view of the world that looks even a little different than mine then I lie, exploit, or outright manipulate them until I control it too. Or worse, throw them in a cell." She breathed the last sentence in a mutter so scant it was almost impossible to hear. "Courage! Ha. What a riot. I know what courage looks like, and I can't even look her in the eye anymore. She makes me too ashamed."

She finally looked up at Ironwood, who had once again fallen into a stoney silence for the duration of the rant. There was no sympathy there, but she wasn't looking for any.

"So that's why, James. Because I'm worthless. Because I come from poison, I have poison inside me and I poison everything I touch. That's my legacy. The worst part is I'm an idiot, too, because I've ignored every sign the world has ever given me that this is just the way things are, that I should just lie down and accept it, and it's been beating me over the head with them since day one. Most of the people in this room have thought the same thing, and one of them said it best: There are very few people in Remnant who deserve nothing at all. I'm one of them."

The silence lingered for a good while among several of the people gathered there. Watching Weiss act this way...not even those who had criticized the councilwoman like Nora and Robyn could deny that it was tough to witness. And not even the harshest among them took any pleasure or satisfaction in seeing Weiss in this state. Raven didn't regret the words she had spoken then, wouldn't take any of them back, but even so, this display even had her look away in discomfort. Weiss's sad state, James' angry outburst, all the explanation and the talk about the relics...it was met only with silence on many of their parts. The crossbow wielding lie detector, the avian swordswoman, the lightning bruiser, the speedy rose, all stayed quiet, some exchanging looks between each other, others just looking towards Weiss or James or even the floor. Ruby did reach out to take the relics when offered, with a cautious look towards James as she did so, but only one among them spoke.



"...I thought I had a grand destiny too."

"Sorry, I know we haven't really met in person. Cinder. Cinder Fall, though I'm guessing you...knew that already." She coughed awkwardly before proceeding. "Sorry(not really) to interrupt the talk about the relics or the plan you have, but I'm going to say this much. For a long time I felt resigned to my fate, to just be some nobody in the heart of Mistral. To forever be nothing but a servant towards the cruel and the lazy, to...do everything my parents thought beneath them. But all that changed one day, when I woke up with, well, y'know." She held up one palm, a small but brilliant ball of flame erupting to life and illuminating her face in its pale blue light. "After that, she entered my life and everything changed. I guess it all went to my head. I mean, what are the odds? Some nobody named Cinder Fall is randomly imparted with the powers of the Fall Maiden? That had to be destiny at work. At least I thought it was." The younger maiden shook her head and let out a quiet sigh.

"I was so eager about it that I jumped repeatedly at the chance to learn from someone more experienced at being a maiden. Vernal, the Spring Maiden and bandit thug. I didn't really care what she did for a living, only that maybe she could teach me some things. Even when she turned on us, I still clung to that hope. It worked, to a degree I suppose, but...it came with a cost. I was so desperate for it that when push came to shove...I abandoned my team, my friends for the chance of greater power. I told myself it was all for the greater good, that it was a sacrifice I was making to be a stronger protector for all of them...but looking back? I've had a lot of time to think about it, and deep down I think I knew even then that it was all a lie. What I really wanted was to never be weak again. To be the strongest, most powerful version of me that I could be. To never be stepped on by somebody cruel ever again. " Cinder frowned, gaze dropping to the floor in shame.

"And to achieve that, I left several of my friends behind at the time they were hurting the most. When they needed people in their corner, backing them up, I just...turned my back instead." The guilt was heavy in every word. "I don't even know where some of them are now. I suppose some of them...hate me now. And they should. They have the right. I'll never do something so stupid again, but that doesn't change what happened." She shook her head again, briefly shutting her eye before clearing her throat.

"And to make it all worse, I saw all this reflected in my older, murderous counterpart. That lust for power...it pushed her into becoming a monster. And that's what stung most of all. The idea that the two of us are not so different after all. That I...I could very well be..." Her whole body shuddered in fear and shame at the mere possibility of it. Cinder was silent for several seconds after that. When she finally continued, she was looking Weiss in the eye.

"Point of all this is, I understand. I get believing your life has some great destiny ahead, that you're fated to do what others can not. That you're special. I may be young, but I understand what that can do to a person. You've lied, manipulated...but those things don't have to define you. I've come to believe that destiny, fate, whatever you want to call it, it isn't set in stone. I don't think it's some predetermined thing you can't escape, but I believe it's something you ultimately choose. You...make your own fate. Good or bad."

"So...it may be something easily written off as the naivety of some foolish kid, I think that...even if you're correct about how you are poison right now, how you damage and destroy lives...that doesn't have to be true forever. You recognize your faults, own them...people can change, for the better. We can both become better than we've been, I believe that wholeheartedly." Cinder allowed herself a small, hopeful smile.

"I didn't learn too much from Vernal. I struck out in getting anything from the other Raven. But, I think, with what we have in common, where our lives and mistakes have taken us...you might be the one I was meant to learn from. If you'd have me."​

 

[Gus Gungus]

The silence lingered for a good while among several of the people gathered there. Watching Weiss act this way...not even those who had criticized the councilwoman like Nora and Robyn could deny that it was tough to witness. And not even the harshest among them took any pleasure or satisfaction in seeing Weiss in this state. Raven didn't regret the words she had spoken then, wouldn't take any of them back, but even so, this display even had her look away in discomfort. Weiss's sad state, James' angry outburst, all the explanation and the talk about the relics...it was met only with silence on many of their parts. The crossbow wielding lie detector, the avian swordswoman, the lightning bruiser, the speedy rose, all stayed quiet, some exchanging looks between each other, others just looking towards Weiss or James or even the floor. Ruby did reach out to take the relics when offered, with a cautious look towards James as she did so, but only one among them spoke.



"...I thought I had a grand destiny too."

"Sorry, I know we haven't really met in person. Cinder. Cinder Fall, though I'm guessing you...knew that already." She coughed awkwardly before proceeding. "Sorry(not really) to interrupt the talk about the relics or the plan you have, but I'm going to say this much. For a long time I felt resigned to my fate, to just be some nobody in the heart of Mistral. To forever be nothing but a servant towards the cruel and the lazy, to...do everything my parents thought beneath them. But all that changed one day, when I woke up with, well, y'know." She held up one palm, a small but brilliant ball of flame erupting to life and illuminating her face in its pale blue light. "After that, she entered my life and everything changed. I guess it all went to my head. I mean, what are the odds? Some nobody named Cinder Fall is randomly imparted with the powers of the Fall Maiden? That had to be destiny at work. At least I thought it was." The younger maiden shook her head and let out a quiet sigh.

"I was so eager about it that I jumped repeatedly at the chance to learn from someone more experienced at being a maiden. Vernal, the Spring Maiden and bandit thug. I didn't really care what she did for a living, only that maybe she could teach me some things. Even when she turned on us, I still clung to that hope. It worked, to a degree I suppose, but...it came with a cost. I was so desperate for it that when push came to shove...I abandoned my team, my friends for the chance of greater power. I told myself it was all for the greater good, that it was a sacrifice I was making to be a stronger protector for all of them...but looking back? I've had a lot of time to think about it, and deep down I think I knew even then that it was all a lie. What I really wanted was to never be weak again. To be the strongest, most powerful version of me that I could be. To never be stepped on by somebody cruel ever again. " Cinder frowned, gaze dropping to the floor in shame.

"And to achieve that, I left several of my friends behind at the time they were hurting the most. When they needed people in their corner, backing them up, I just...turned my back instead." The guilt was heavy in every word. "I don't even know where some of them are now. I suppose some of them...hate me now. And they should. They have the right. I'll never do something so stupid again, but that doesn't change what happened." She shook her head again, briefly shutting her eye before clearing her throat.

"And to make it all worse, I saw all this reflected in my older, murderous counterpart. That lust for power...it pushed her into becoming a monster. And that's what stung most of all. The idea that the two of us are not so different after all. That I...I could very well be..." Her whole body shuddered in fear and shame at the mere possibility of it. Cinder was silent for several seconds after that. When she finally continued, she was looking Weiss in the eye.

"Point of all this is, I understand. I get believing your life has some great destiny ahead, that you're fated to do what others can not. That you're special. I may be young, but I understand what that can do to a person. You've lied, manipulated...but those things don't have to define you. I've come to believe that destiny, fate, whatever you want to call it, it isn't set in stone. I don't think it's some predetermined thing you can't escape, but I believe it's something you ultimately choose. You...make your own fate. Good or bad."

"So...it may be something easily written off as the naivety of some foolish kid, I think that...even if you're correct about how you are poison right now, how you damage and destroy lives...that doesn't have to be true forever. You recognize your faults, own them...people can change, for the better. We can both become better than we've been, I believe that wholeheartedly." Cinder allowed herself a small, hopeful smile.

"I didn't learn too much from Vernal. I struck out in getting anything from the other Raven. But, I think, with what we have in common, where our lives and mistakes have taken us...you might be the one I was meant to learn from. If you'd have me."​

"Who exactly asked you for your mawkish opinion??? I'm trying to do something good here, can you NOT make me regret it?"

Weiss's immediate reaction in the wake of such a heartfelt, impassioned message was truly and uniquely her, proving that even in the depths of grief she was very much still the same person.

That was precisely the problem.

She caught herself a moment later, releasing poor Cinder from the freezing-cold floodlights of the stare she'd become embroiled in and letting her eyes shut for a few seconds to clear her head. Opening them finally after a deep, centering sigh, she smiled apologetically and started over.

"Sorry, it's been a day. But you're misunderstanding me. What I mean to say is... Look. That falling-out you had with your friends. You regret it, don't you? You'd go back and change it if you could." Her tone of voice made it obvious that she was less asking, more affirming. "I can tell by your face that you would. Wonderful. Congratulations on having a moral compass that points north, south, east and west. But that's just it."

Her line of sight had drifted to the star-map and constellations that characterized the room's ceiling, but they resettled back on Cinder for her next words.

"I don't."

They were hard eyes. Turbulent, drained, but still as cold as the tundra winds.

"My compass points two ways: I can move forward, or I can move backward. There isn't a single act, not one step in my life I regret taking before today, and that's just because before today I've never made a mistake. Not in my mind, anyway. Everything I've done, I've done with a purpose: to fix a world that is broken. To take Remnant back from the vipers, because I saw myself as above them. I wanted to be better than men like my father."

The steely look on her face softened, a bitter melancholy creeping back into her voice. Her gaze slipped down to her hands, white as porcelain where they lay flat on the desk.

"...I'm just... not. In the den of serpents, I'm the cobra. And I recognize that now, and I have to make some adjustments to the plan. That's it. That's my big revelation. I haven't changed. I'm not on some self-congratulatory journey of redemption. I just... have a new angle to consider now. And that should make you very, very worried. Do you know why?"

She looked back at her fellow maiden, and when she spoke again it was with crystal clarity.

"Because you're Cinder Fall, and I'm Weiss Schnee. Sounds simplistic, but that really is the long and short of it. You look at me and say we're similar, and to a certain extent that's true; we both know what it is to be stepped on by somebody cruel. But I became the cruel person who steps on others, miss Fall. You became... something else. Know what I see when I look at you?" She breathed out heavily, shoulders quivering faintly with the motion. She was doing an excellent job of covering it, but the shock of what happened had still yet to release her.

"I see four different ways I could take you right now without anyone in this room being able to stop me." The words were spoken so casually it almost came across like a joke, but her placid stare dispelled any such notions even before her next words. "I'm serious. I could have you strapped into an aura transfer machine and your magic added to my own within the hour. No more Fall Maiden, no more choosing your fate. Just your power, becoming mine. You don't believe in destiny, miss Fall? No... Cinder."

She corrected herself with a respectful tone, cocking her head.

"You should. Never doubt yourself or what you were meant to bring to the world. You have those powers for a reason. But I stole mine; and if you entrust your destiny to me, then I'll just steamroll it and steal it away from you too. I can't train you. I'm sorry. But..."

Her hum was thoughtful as she spun elegantly in her chair to face the hardlight screens, and after a frenzied spree of swiping and a few keysmashes Cinder felt her scroll vibrate in her pocket.

"...I just transferred Atlas's entire archive of prior maidens and their training logs to your scroll. It's what I've been using. Have fun. Fria's notes on meditation were of particular help."

Ironwood's eyes looked just about ready to pop out of his head, but before he could interject she simultaneously cut him off and moved on in a mannerism clearly born and bred in a boardroom. She clapped her hands.

"So! You'll all be going to Vacuo. Immediately."​

 

[Gus Gungus]

Dozens of stories down, the doors to the prison wing slid open, and through the hardlight of their cells the three captive Shadow Fang members saw the three Ace Ops fall into instant salutes, Clover at their head. The consensus had been that it was better not to take any chances with their guard posting this time, and so the trio widely regarded as Atlas's best special operatives stayed.

The man they were saluting was commonly regarded as Atlas's worst, period.



Flanked by two guards, Carnelian smelled faintly of scotch and was a shadow of the proud general the media and public saw; Hair unkempt, a minor stubble building around his jawline that just looked scruffy in conjunction with his mustache. His reconstructive mask still hid the bulk of the disfigurement had Eve paid him, but it would've been clear the three were making a conscious effort not to look at it even without telepathy.

"General. There was a-"

"I'm aware. My aura appears to be suppressed."

"Precautionary measure, sir. Security footage pointed to a tricky semblance as being the cause of all this, so we thought it best to eliminate the risk factor. This entire room's under full inhibition, aura and semblance. Anyone comes back, my guys'll be ready for 'em."

"That won't be necessary, soldier. I'll oversee things from here. Dismissed." He held out his hand. Clover followed the direction of his gaze all the way down to his belt, where the remote Weiss had given him connected to the prisoner's chips was slotted.

He slowly looked back up.

He could feel Elm and Vine's eyes on him, waiting to see how he'd react. Officially, Borous Carnelian was an exonerated man; no official Atlesian documentation corroborated any of the accusations activist groups had made against him, and any rumors and hearsay perpetuated over the years were considered exactly that.

Unofficially...

"Respectfully, sir. Councilwoman Schnee put me in charge of this posting."

"Disrespectfully, son, councilwoman Schnee is just that. An elected official, and frankly one being afforded an alarming level of military oversight as of late. You're military, which puts you under my command. And I'm telling you to leave."

"That's..."

He trailed off, completely dumbfounded by the sight of what appeared to be one of Borous Carnelian's personal armed guard... dancing away. Literally just shuffle stepping over to the other end of the room, where she executed an energetic twirl, moonwalked the last few feet to the wall and leaned against it with arms crossed like a breakdancer. Her compatriot seemed as baffled and unamused as the Ace Ops were, but Carnelian just ignored it.

"You know your second's obviously listening to music under her helmet, right?"

"I guess that'd be my problem, now wouldn't it?" He returned dismissively before giving the barest motion with his hand, still extended. "Now are you going to make me repeat myself?"

Clover weighed the pros and cons in his mind, wondering if today would be the day he finally said enough was enough and rebelled against a clearly corrupt regime.

Nope.

"...Sir." He eventually muttered, tossing the controller at the general before making for the exit. The other two followed suit.

When he was gone and the door mechanisms engaged, leaving only him, his personal guard, and three caged faunus in the room, then and only then did Carnelian... start pacing. Back and forth, across their cells, like a lion separated from the gazelle by only a thin layer of glass. Blake's, then Tiger's, then Bear's. Then it repeated. Blake's, Tiger's, Bear's. Blake's, Tiger's, Bear's. Blake's, Tiger's.

Bear's.

He stopped. One old man stared down at another, two relics of a bygone conflict. Fighting the same war, all these years later.

Carnelian smiled. It wasn't the conventional kind of old man's smile; it was the smile of the snake finally able to shed its skin.

It was a smile of evil, and he had seen it before.

"How's the arm?"​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Dozens of stories down, the doors to the prison wing slid open, and through the hardlight of their cells the three captive Shadow Fang members saw the three Ace Ops fall into instant salutes, Clover at their head. The consensus had been that it was better not to take any chances with their guard posting this time, and so the trio widely regarded as Atlas's best special operatives stayed.

The man they were saluting was commonly regarded as Atlas's worst, period.

View attachment 813950

Flanked by two guards, Carnelian smelled faintly of scotch and was a shadow of the proud general the media and public saw; Hair unkempt, a minor stubble building around his jawline that just looked scruffy in conjunction with his mustache. His reconstructive mask still hid the bulk of the disfigurement had Eve paid him, but it would've been clear the three were making a conscious effort not to look at it even without telepathy.

"General. There was a-"

"I'm aware. My aura appears to be suppressed."

"Precautionary measure, sir. Security footage pointed to a tricky semblance as being the cause of all this, so we thought it best to eliminate the risk factor. This entire room's under full inhibition, aura and semblance. Anyone comes back, my guys'll be ready for 'em."

"That won't be necessary, soldier. I'll oversee things from here. Dismissed." He held out his hand. Clover followed the direction of his gaze all the way down to his belt, where the remote Weiss had given him connected to the prisoner's chips was slotted.

He slowly looked back up.

He could feel Elm and Vine's eyes on him, waiting to see how he'd react. Officially, Borous Carnelian was an exonerated man; no official Atlesian documentation corroborated any of the accusations activist groups had made against him, and any rumors and hearsay perpetuated over the years were considered exactly that.

Unofficially...

"Respectfully, sir. Councilwoman Schnee put me in charge of this posting."

"Disrespectfully, son, councilwoman Schnee is just that. An elected official, and frankly one being afforded an alarming level of military oversight as of late. You're military, which puts you under my command. And I'm telling you to leave."

"That's..."

He trailed off, completely dumbfounded by the sight of what appeared to be one of Borous Carnelian's personal armed guard... dancing away. Literally just shuffle stepping over to the other end of the room, where she executed an energetic twirl, moonwalked the last few feet to the wall and leaned against it with arms crossed like a breakdancer. Her compatriot seemed as baffled and unamused as the Ace Ops were, but Carnelian just ignored it.

"You know your second's obviously listening to music under her helmet, right?"

"I guess that'd be my problem, now wouldn't it?" He returned dismissively before giving the barest motion with his hand, still extended. "Now are you going to make me repeat myself?"

Clover weighed the pros and cons in his mind, wondering if today would be the day he finally said enough was enough and rebelled against a clearly corrupt regime.

Nope.

"...Sir." He eventually muttered, tossing the controller at the general before making for the exit. The other two followed suit.

When he was gone and the door mechanisms engaged, leaving only him, his personal guard, and three caged faunus in the room, then and only then did Carnelian... start pacing. Back and forth, across their cells, like a lion separated from the gazelle by only a thin layer of glass. Blake's, then Tiger's, then Bear's. Then it repeated. Blake's, Tiger's, Bear's. Blake's, Tiger's, Bear's. Blake's, Tiger's.

Bear's.

He stopped. One old man stared down at another, two relics of a bygone conflict. Fighting the same war, all these years later.

Carnelian smiled. It wasn't the conventional kind of old man's smile; it was the smile of the snake finally able to shed its skin.

It was a smile of evil, and he had seen it before.

"How's the arm?"​

Navano knew this visit was coming long before the doors slid open. It wasn't any sort faunus senses; hardlight stopped even smells from slipping through. But destiny loved a vicious cycle, and one had already made a particulary gruesome rotation of the wheel tonight. He was seated in the middle of his cell, legs crossed and his palm resting across the matching knee, his eyes closed in a picture perfect example of, if not peace, then acceptance.

There was a dull fire in those eyes as they flickered open. It wasn't hatred though. Navano thought he'd understood hate. He thought it was the feeling that had burned within his soul in the decades since the war, what had driven him to mentor Sienna and then accept her lead, dark allies, everything that had happened these last few years. But no. What he had was not hatred. He should have realized it, after coming up against it all those years ago, that whatever darkness churned inside him was no match for the black beast that stood outside this cell. He finally had realized it, after seeing it again tonight.

Pure, distilled hatred. Conceiving of nothing but the pain and destruction of whatever drew its ire. A fire that fed itself, that would never burn out. He knew it wasn't what he had, because he could see it right now in the cell across from him, Blake's eyes still burning with fresh tears she lacked the self worth or shame to bother hiding, trying to tear Carnelian's spine out through his back by force of will alone. If hatred was what he had tried to grasp in his pursuit of justice and victory, then it was no surprise all he had to show for it was grey hair and a hand full of ashes.

And yet maybe that was the reason his breath came so much easier than it seemed to for any non-dancing person in the room, as he sucked in a weary intake and let his eyes filled with mere anger and loathing settle on the beast before him.

"Hmph. Better than your face it seems. At least mine came off clean."

 

[Gus Gungus]

Navano knew this visit was coming long before the doors slid open. It wasn't any sort faunus senses; hardlight stopped even smells from slipping through. But destiny loved a vicious cycle, and one had already made a particulary gruesome rotation of the wheel tonight. He was seated in the middle of his cell, legs crossed and his palm resting across the matching knee, his eyes closed in a picture perfect example of, if not peace, then acceptance.

There was a dull fire in those eyes as they flickered open. It wasn't hatred though. Navano thought he'd understood hate. He thought it was the feeling that had burned within his soul in the decades since the war, what had driven him to mentor Sienna and then accept her lead, dark allies, everything that had happened these last few years. But no. What he had was not hatred. He should have realized it, after coming up against it all those years ago, that whatever darkness churned inside him was no match for the black beast that stood outside this cell. He finally had realized it, after seeing it again tonight.

Pure, distilled hatred. Conceiving of nothing but the pain and destruction of whatever drew its ire. A fire that fed itself, that would never burn out. He knew it wasn't what he had, because he could see it right now in the cell across from him, Blake's eyes still burning with fresh tears she lacked the self worth or shame to bother hiding, trying to tear Carnelian's spine out through his back by force of will alone. If hatred was what he had tried to grasp in his pursuit of justice and victory, then it was no surprise all he had to show for it was grey hair and a hand full of ashes.

And yet maybe that was the reason his breath came so much easier than it seemed to for any non-dancing person in the room, as he sucked in a weary intake and let his eyes filled with mere anger and loathing settle on the beast before him.

"Hmph. Better than your face it seems. At least mine came off clean."

"Ha! Yeah."

There was an easy admittance to the way he threw his head back and laughed, on the surface; but one as naturally in touch with his spirituality as Navano could spy the falseness in his old foe as easily as Carnelian's semblance could probe the mind. The tension growling at the back of his throat; the hostility simmering just below the veil. The malicious resentment he was brimming with for the first faunus to ever put a scratch on him, and the unresolved sting of rage from the bitter pill that she was somewhere he could never, ever pay it back.

There was nothing false about the willingness with which he thumbed down on the remote in his hand, and the animal in the cell felt thousands of volts' worth of electricity interrupting his meditations as it coursed through his old bones. Neither of his guards reacted, though Blake became vaguely aware that the dancer was trying to pull her attention off of Carnelian. By mouthing the 'hey yo' part of No Diggity, tracing a heart with her fingertips and miming it breaking free of her chest to the rhythm, apparently.

Carnelian was already moving on to the next cell, a low whistle of admiration as he passed the Tiger's cage once again.

"Big one. They breed you, or something? Hey old timer, your kind start crossmixing with the grimm yet?" He tossed casually over in the direction of Navano while he caught his breath from the shocks, sneering.​

 

[MidwayLives]

"So...it may be something easily written off as the naivety of some foolish kid, I think that...even if you're correct about how you are poison right now, how you damage and destroy lives...that doesn't have to be true forever. You recognize your faults, own them...people can change, for the better. We can both become better than we've been, I believe that wholeheartedly." Cinder allowed herself a small, hopeful smile.

"I didn't learn too much from Vernal. I struck out in getting anything from the other Raven. But, I think, with what we have in common, where our lives and mistakes have taken us...you might be the one I was meant to learn from. If you'd have me."

She corrected herself with a respectful tone, cocking her head.

"You should. Never doubt yourself or what you were meant to bring to the world. You have those powers for a reason. But I stole mine; and if you entrust your destiny to me, then I'll just steamroll it and steal it away from you too. I can't train you. I'm sorry. But..."

Her hum was thoughtful as she spun elegantly in her chair to face the hardlight screens, and after a frenzied spree of swiping and a few keysmashes Cinder felt her scroll vibrate in her pocket.

"...I just transferred Atlas's entire archive of prior maidens and their training logs to your scroll. It's what I've been using. Have fun. Fria's notes on meditation were of particular help."

Ugh, that was such a sickeningly touching moment that if it was a confectionary?

Neo was sure she would have gagged upon eating it.
​

Then she held both out to whoever was willing to receive them, eyes resting on the floor with visible fatigue.

"Take them."

Ironwood almost coughed up a few screws, aghast.

"Are... Have you completely lost your mind???? You don't just give away the relics!"

Neo's eyes lit up upon seeing the relics with her own eyes.

The very things she'd broken in here to try and find. The objects that were supposed to get Emerald and her home.

Neo weakly reached a hand up and tried to reach out in the direction of the objects.

But her strength-fading as it was-let her down and she collapsed back onto the floor.
​

Ruby did reach out to take the relics when offered, with a cautious look towards James as she did so, but only one among them spoke.

Whether it was the 'lil Red' of her world or the disgusting one from this one?

They both pissed her off.
​

 

[MidwayLives]

Carnelian was already moving on to the next cell, a low whistle of admiration as he passed the Tiger's cage once again.

"Big one. They breed you, or something? Hey old timer, your kind start crossmixing with the grimm yet?" He tossed casually over in the direction of Navano while he caught his breath from the shocks, sneering.

"..."



Tiger's chest could be seen rising with each breath she took in and exhaled.

But apart from counting out her percentage earlier, she still wasn't speaking.

She wouldn't give him the satisfaction of being indulged.

As he passed her cell though, her eyes followed his every moment.​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

She led them the rest of the way through Atlas's technological monolith in silence. Before too long they arrived at the academy's great central elevator, no indication given as to why they'd taken such a strange and indirect route other than the lingering, blank look of gaunt paranoia she gave both ways up the corridor as she waved them on.

Nothing else followed as the elevator undertook the lengthy climb to the former headmaster's office. Just more silence from a Weiss that could've been mistaken for a statue, one made of glass.

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The congregation of figures awaiting them when the doors opened and they stepped through was like a row of dominoes, each one offering greater surprise than the last. On one side of the desk at the center of the room stood Robyn Hill and (this world's) Raven Branwen, a duo characterized by their absences in recent hours; though the shock of seeing them was a drop in the ocean compared to the trio occupying the other side.

"Thank you all for coming."

Penny Polendina. Cinder Fall. Ruby Rose (the good one). And, occupying the headmaster's chair like he never left it, James Ironwood himself, whose expression was as difficult to read as ever apart from the mild arch of the eyebrows he gave as the new arrivals poured in.

"So we're just... telling them now? All of them."

His confusion was obvious, but went unanswered by a Weiss who ignored him en route to the desk. In contrast to everything they knew about the two and their relations at this point, there was no tension or hostility in the way she stepped around it; only an easy familiarity as she leaned forward to being up the hardlight interface, swiped through a few menus and once again scanned her palm against the glossy blue surface that awaited it. An advanced, sealed containment unit of some kind rose from the floor towards the back of the room.

Ironwood huffed softly through his nose and stood to cross over to the duplex windows, gazing out over the horizon and allowing Weiss to slip into the chair in his stead. There was an almost hilarious degree of casualness to how she swiveled it lightly to sit at an angle, kicked her feet up on the desk and slumped back with cigarette already in hand, lighting it with the briefest flash of her eyes and appearing to relish that first pull more than usual as she extended her free hand towards Robyn with an impatient flap.

Assuming she took it, along with the unspoken cue, the first flash of green that ensued was a doozy.

"The rebellion in Atlas is a lie."

Ordinarily, it stood to reason there would've been a degree of superiority in the way she spoke those words. An air of smugness at how she'd fooled them all, regardless of however much time they'd wasted going back and forth and however many lives had been affected.

She exhaled, letting the cloud of smoke unfurl on the air with it, watching it as though mesmerized.

"A ruse designed to give the impression the kingdom was vulnerable to the coming storm. Ozpin's overconfidence is one of the only weaknesses we have to exploit, so the idea was to milk it for all it's worth. Then you people came along, and it became an asset for..."

Her eyes almost flickered to one in the room in particular, but a pang of guilt seemed to prevent them from doing so, and instead they hovered listlessly on the thin, smokey mist.

"...other reasons. Clarifying loyalties, assessing willingness to cooperate. That sort of thing. More importantly, it gave the actual organized rebellion brewing in Mantle a bone to chew on while I was preparing for the real war." Her eyes did move this time, hovering on Robyn for barely a moment as their hands continued to glow green. Whether it was a flicker of apology in those eyes or merely the light's reflection was harder to verify. "It's military intervention 101, really. Concerned about your supposed 'allies' refusing to tow the line? Install a leader who'll prevent them from ever mounting a resistance worth the trouble to begin with."

She shook her head slightly with a scoff, though it was mirthless. Another voice chimed in before she could press on.

"I apologize, for what it's worth."

That much came from Ironwood, his first contribution since the curtain started to raise. He barely turned his head from the window to address the room, and his tone of voice suggested he knew exactly how little it was worth.

It also didn't carry so much as a shred of regret.

It was an entirely different sort of vacancy to the one that now gripped Weiss's voice, more born from the same ilk of resolve that defined many of Weiss's speeches to this point. If a bit less self-congratulatory.

Weiss felt like she was barely there. She nodded, flicking the ash onto the floor without bothering with any of her usual disposal methods.

"Only James and I were aware of the truth behind all this before today. No one outside this room knew, not even... no one." She finished quickly, throat slightly dry.

"Yes, and I'm beginning to question the point of all that," Ironwood added, a bit tersely. "Where is Winter? I let you convince me she couldn't be trusted with the truth, but if anyone's been hurt by all the lies it's her. She deserves to know as much as anyone here."



Weiss bluescreened. For the first time since the cells the empty look of hollow-eyed haggardness was replaced by something else, and for the first time any of them could recall she looked like she didn't know what to say.

"No, it's... she's not..."

The fight with Cinder had been incredibly stressful. One friend with no aura, the other frozen, and a woman with the power of two maidens and a seeming particular loathing for all three girls determined to tear all of them apart. Needless to say, it hadn’t gone well, and the bits of skin coating missing from the side of her cheek and the singed pieces of her clothes made that clear. She had been afraid she was going to die, again. Even worse, that her friends would die, with no second chance for them in sight.

Of all the things that could’ve saved them, Weiss Schnee descending from the sky and in no uncertain terms declaring where she stood on the resistance and Ozpin by firing off enough elemental power to level a building, freeing friend Ruby from her icy prison, and forcing evil Cinder to flee had been number 137 on the list. Right after a dead whale grimm falling from the sky on top of her, though still before Zwei unlocking his secondary semblance and coming to their rescue. Her lists admittedly tended to get a bit fanciful past the 100 range.

But this… this was a lot. She gave Ironwood a confused, hesitant frown, unsure of how to speak up yet.

"...Yeah, okay." Nora agreed, falling silent for the rest of the walk.



In contrast, the other Ruby Rose that waited for her there, flanked by the world's friendliest and coolest robot and the nice maiden, her expression was ludicrously easy to read. She was really happy to see Yang again. Were the room not full of all these people and the mood within not as serious, she might very well have pulled a super-fast hug tackle. The temptation was still there regardless, but it was successfully resisted. Ruby instead left it at a smile and a relieved nod.

A more extensive greeting could follow after, anyways. Another smiled as well but in her case it was far more brief before her attention turned back to Weiss and Ironwood, every bit the professional huntress.

"Tell us what, exactly?" The other maiden in the room questioned, eye following Weiss with every step Schnee took towards the chair. Not even the emergence of the containment unit broke her gaze, waiting impatiently yet also eagerly for an answer from the older woman. Her arms crossed as Schnee got comfortable, but when the first words of explanation came, shocked surprise shot through her. Enough so that she hardly noticed her own arms pull apart, falling down to her sides. "A...lie?" She repeated in a murmur to herself, a barely heard whisper that coincided with the rest of Weiss's words.



Nora blinked, more than a bit surprised and yet also not surprised at all. Surprised at the news of the long con the two had been pulling, but not surprised at the different tone than Weiss might have ordinally had in that reveal. Not after what had happened earlier...typical Atlas smugness couldn't have come easy after that disaster. Her eyes briefly locked with Weiss's in another show of sympathy before they looked to Ironwood's back, eyes narrowed slightly as if studying the man.

"...What." There was no denying the honesty of the statements, not while their hands were entangled like this. Not while her semblance worked its magic, shining green the whole time. How hard she had been duped, the level of it...the shock hit her much harder than the young Cinder. That shock rapidly gave way to frustrated anger, vexed that she had been so easily and so thoroughly deceived but given that she had to remain standing here grasping Weiss by the hand, the only outward indication of that was her other fist tightening by her side. And after a short while, that red-hot anger faded into a more cold acceptance. The lengths one would have to go through against an opponent like Ozpin...the threat he could bring down...it was smart to play as many cards as you could.



"Uh-huh." Robyn grumbled, but she didn't do anything beyond that.



"So why are you telling us all this now--" Nora started, but her words quickly faded away when Ironwood likewise spoke up, his words reaching her ears and cutting her off.

Spoiler

The wide-eyed, sympathetic and sad look returned to a degree before Nora cleared her throat and continued in Weiss's stead. "She, uh...won't be joining us." The small bruiser let go, throwing the auraless Neo roughly to the floor. "This chick, she...she wanted help in making a play for the relic, snatch the lamp right out from under your watch. When I took another option, she, um..." A hand rose to rub at the back of her head in guilt and nervousness. "...she released the Shadow Fang attackers we had just arrested. They...they...." She trailed off, struggling to continue just as much as Weiss did.

The realization of what they were saying, or more accurately what they could not say, dawned on a few of the others at varying speeds. "Oh." Cinder muttered quietly, thinking back to her brief chat with Winter. Robyn's shock returned as her head turned, glancing towards an empty part of the room. It was a major understatement to say they had not always agreed but in an unorthodox way, Robyn had grown used to Winter. Even before all this, before the lie, they had been contemporaries at Atlas Academy. Top of their classes, even. For her to be gone way before her time should have come...

Ruby frowned as well. She couldn't say she knew Winter all that well, but back home she knew the elder Schnee sister had been one of the only positive family relationships Weiss had, if not the only one. Okay, it might not have been the same here but that didn't mean it wouldn't hurt badly. Ruby looked towards Weiss before immediately taking a few steps over and lightly reaching out to place a comforting hand on her shoulder in a show of support. Whatever Raven felt was hidden away by her neutral, composed expression, letting the silence go on a little longer before she spoke up.

"So what happens now?"​

The pitying looks, the sympathetic phrasing, even the sudden attempt at comfort from the Ruby she least expected it from, all of it seemed to hardly even register with Weiss beyond a crease of the brow. She just kept staring blankly into space, letting the stunned silence that had settled over the room hang, her own words having trailed off into a nothingness as numb and empty as she felt. It was as if she didn't know how to process that kind of reaction to her mistakes, like it was some form of cryptic, indecipherable language to her.

The disapproving voice of a male authority figure, on the other hand, was far more familiar territory, enough so that the subsequent boom from the other end of the office was enough to jolt her from her daze so vigorously she dropped her cigarette.

View attachment 813711

"WHAT?!" There was no empathy, pity, or attempt at comfort to be found in Ironwood's snarl as he whirled on her, nothing to temper it from being anything less than pure outrage. It was clear from the moment he turned that none of the blame or disgust in his eyes was being reserved for Nora or Neo beyond an astoundingly dark stare at the latter. "She was in your care! Why the HELL was she being held anywhere near those savages to begin with?!"

Weiss sat up stiffly, legs crossing, and though her tone still wasn't quite that of someone who was all the way present there was enough scathing accusation in the questions to have her fidgeting with her appearance in discomfort. She blanched, trying to offer some meek semblance of an explanation.

View attachment 813712

"Look, they're not... I—I don't know, things just keep happening and I haven't had a chance to sleep in I don't know how long and I just... didn't think about it, I didn't think-"

"You didn't think?"

"No, I-"

"Your sister is dead because you didn't get a good night's SLEEP?!"

"That's not what I'm saying, I just-!"

"THEN WHY IS THERE ANOTHER DEAD FAMILY MEMBER ON YOUR CONSCIENCE, COUNCILWOMAN?"

"BECAUSE I WAS WRONG!" She finally snapped back with a defiant glare, though it had no bite and had already fallen by the time Ironwood collected himself enough to reply. She cut him off before he did, gaze staying rooted on the floor when she found she couldn't bring herself to lift it to anyone in the room.

View attachment 813198

No one, in this reality or any other, had ever seen Weiss Schnee look so defeated.

"... I'm not the person I thought I was. This entire time I've been deluding myself into thinking I'm some sort of... tragic hero, like my life has this grand purpose only I can see. It doesn't."

Brushing some stray, frazzled bangs back behind an ear she let her hand glide up to trace the scar she'd been covering up and ignoring for years and snorted, a bitter sound of pure dejection.

"I suppose it helped, believing there was a reason for all the pain in my life. That it... that I had meaning, or at least some kind of a reason for being here. Like I was being groomed, or... I don't know... prepared, somehow, to do great things. The things no one else would have the courage to do. The deeper I got, the more battlefields I conquered, the more I actually believed it." She forced a laugh, shaky and derisive. "But it was just pain. Typical, pointless pain. And the only thing it made me into is another version of the man who gave it to me. Except I'm worse. So much worse."

She hung her head, grateful for how the hair stubbornly continuing to fall over her eyes at least made it easier to avoid catching anyone else's.

"I lie. I exploit people. I can't stand anything I can't control, and if—god forbid—anyone comes along with a view of the world that looks even a little different than mine then I lie, exploit, or outright manipulate them until I control it too. Or worse, throw them in a cell." She breathed the last sentence in a mutter so scant it was almost impossible to hear. "Courage! Ha. What a riot. I know what courage looks like, and I can't even look her in the eye anymore. She makes me too ashamed."

She finally looked up at Ironwood, who had once again fallen into a stoney silence for the duration of the rant. There was no sympathy there, but she wasn't looking for any.

"So that's why, James. Because I'm worthless. Because I come from poison, I have poison inside me and I poison everything I touch. That's my legacy. The worst part is I'm an idiot, too, because I've ignored every sign the world has ever given me that this is just the way things are, that I should just lie down and accept it, and it's been beating me over the head with them since day one. Most of the people in this room have thought the same thing, and one of them said it best: There are very few people in Remnant who deserve nothing at all. I'm one of them."

She fell silent, letting a heavy silence linger on the air as her gaze drifted back to the floor.

The honesty of Weiss Schnee had long been called into question, justifiably so. But in that moment, there wasn't a doubt in anyone's mind as to the truth of her words. No one could possibly have pretended to hate themselves that much.

And if any skepticism yet lingered, they needed only spare a glance down at Weiss's hand.

The one entwined with it still shone as bright a green as it ever had.

View attachment 813713

"Believe what you want." He eventually answered. He wasn't about to play life coach at a time like this, and it only took one look to understand it wasn't what she wanted, anyway. His harsh stare never relented as he pressed on, hands clasping behind his back like the icy authority of a general had never left him. "But when you staged your little coup, when you gave a lunatic my rank and threw me in a cell for weeks, in the middle of all your fascinating philosophical insights about how poor a job I've been doing you sat down and convinced me—No. Swore to me you had a plan to defeat Ozpin. A better one than mine; than Salem's. I chose to believe you. Now I have to ask."

His tone somehow grew graver, if it were at all possible.

"The enemy is on our doorstep. We have weeks, at the most. A crisis of faith is not what the situation needs. Can you still do it?"

She didn't answer.




She did, however, turn her attention to the source of the quote she so-poetically concluded her diatribe on, abruptly standing and making her way over to the containment unit in the back. Again, she typed in a passcode, and again she scanned her palm to begin the depressurizing process with a hiss of air.

"Before we, ah... mutually parted ways, Ozpin was pressuring me to surrender the relic of creation in a timely fashion. I told him that wasn't possible; that the staff is what keeps Atlas afloat, and the gravity dust substitute my researchers have been developing wouldn't be ready for at least a few months."

She sighed, at the very least letting a twinge of irony slip through this time.

"Another lie. That prototype was finished six months ago. And opening the vault was one of the first things I did when I got these powers."

The unit slid open, and suspended side-by-side with the relic of knowledge was Atlas's own relic, the Staff of Creation sporting a similar sleek design of ornate gold and blue. Ironwood's anger had shifted to visible confusion at such a flagrant demonstration of Atlas's most guarded secret, mingled with a growing wariness.

"What are you-?"

"It's dormant right now. We drew so much power from it for weapons development it's entered a charge cycle, or... Something. I think. Honestly, it's hard to say. There really isn't a manual."

Her smile was wan as she reached out into the field and withdrew both relics with as much grace as she could manage in her still-foggy state. She gazed at them briefly, particularly the tip of the staff.

Then she held both out to whoever was willing to receive them, eyes resting on the floor with visible fatigue.

"Take them."

Ironwood almost coughed up a few screws, aghast.

"Are... Have you completely lost your mind???? You don't just give away the relics!"

Weiss hummed, like it was amusing somehow. "They need them. It's the only reason they came here."

He failed to see the humor in it. "WE need them to defend Atlas!" He snapped, frustration bubbling once again. She just shook her head ruefully.

"We don't. We never did." The ghost of a smirk flickered across her face, though like everything else about her current bearing it lacked its customary splendour.

"I know exactly how to defend Atlas."​

“...What?”

A hand had curled up slowly in front of Penny’s mouth, her eyes wide with horrified shock.

Winter? She was… she was gone?

When she’d first been reactivated, she’d been miserable. Ciel had been discharged from her position on the grounds of abject failure, and Ruby was gone, her letters arriving to a slightly confused Taiyang Xiao Long. She still had questions about her own existence, but one thing she’d determined with some certainty was that… she enjoyed having friends, very much so! Yet there was no room for that in Atlas; there was too much work to be done, preparations to make, an entire city that it was put on her shoulders to protect.

But working with Winter… it had been nice. Her pride, her skill, her professional tier sarcasm, it had made the job easier. Maybe friends was too strong a word that Penny would definitely still use but was perhaps a one sided affair, but she was still important to Penny.

And now she was gone. Maybe not the exact one she knew, and one who it seemed had never gotten such a relationship with this world’s penny, but one very close to that person.

And she was gone because...because why?

“...Sir” Penny began, a waver to her voice as she lowered her hands. “I think I am unclear on how this came about. I… if we had worked together from the beginning, If… if we had simply trusted each other, if… if you had trusted us….”

 

[Gus Gungus]

And now she was gone. Maybe not the exact one she knew, and one who it seemed had never gotten such a relationship with this world’s penny but one very close to that person.

And she was gone because...because why?

“...Sir” Penny began, a waver to her voice as she lowered her hands. “I think I am unclear on how this came about. I… if we had worked together from the beginning, If… if we had simply trusted each other, if… if you had trusted us….”

Ironwood had given his back to the room at that point, though even with the interference of prosthesis Penny's visual receptors knew how to spot the tiny little pinpricks of tension running absolute roughshod across his body, the way his organic hand was clasped over the mechanical behind his back with so much tension in the grip it would've been dangerous if it were the other way around. A minute turn of the head was all he acknowledged Penny's approach with, hearing her out before he returned his attention to the skyline. His response came only a beat or two from the point Penny probably would've accepted that there was none coming at all, and it was hard to surmise if it was a good thing that he sounded more tiredly frustrated than angry.

"Then Winter would be alive and we'd have one less card to play against Ozpin. Or she wouldn't, and we wouldn't. What do you want me to say, Penny?" He answered dully. "I'm fighting a war. One which, until recently, I knew half the story of. Mistake or no, when Weiss told me what Salem had been keeping from us I chose to put my trust in her. She's compromised her moral integrity countless times, done things Winter would never have agreed to let her keep doing. And you..."

He huffed.

"...You can't keep a secret."

She could see his eyes reflected in the window glass, defined by that hard, lifeless look that only showed when the general reached that mindset where he couldn't be argued with. Whether it was a characteristic of his semblance or simple will and stubbornness was nigh impossible to discern to organic eyes, and hers couldn't fare much better. One thing was certain, though.

It was a worrying look.​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"Ha! Yeah."

There was an easy admittance to the way he threw his head back and laughed, on the surface; but one as naturally in touch with his spirituality as Navano could spy the falseness in his old foe as easily as Carnelian's semblance could probe the mind. The tension growling at the back of his throat; the hostility simmering just below the veil. The malicious resentment he was brimming with for the first faunus to ever put a scratch on him, and the unresolved sting of rage from the bitter pill that she was somewhere he could never, ever pay it back.

There was nothing false about the willingness with which he thumbed down on the remote in his hand, and the animal in the cell felt thousands of volts' worth of electricity interrupting his meditations as it coursed through his old bones. Neither of his guards reacted, though Blake became vaguely aware that the dancer was trying to pull her attention off of Carnelian. By mouthing the 'hey yo' part of No Diggity, tracing a heart with her fingertips and miming it breaking free of her chest to the rhythm, apparently.

Carnelian was already moving on to the next cell, a low whistle of admiration as he passed the Tiger's cage once again.

"Big one. They breed you, or something? Hey old timer, your kind start crossmixing with the grimm yet?" He tossed casually over in the direction of Navano while he caught his breath from the shocks, sneering.​

Despite what Sienna would've preferred the world believed, Blake was singular even among the talons in her ability to ignore pain with terminator-esque determination, and a a rush of air that was half angry growl and half throaty wheeze snaked out of Bear as her fell backwards when the volts coursed through him, and it took him a few breaths before he responded from where he was now observing the ceiling.

"No. wouldn't-" he grunted as he slowly sat back up. "-want to shoot too far past you humans on the evolutionary track."

He would've asked why Carnelian was here, but frankly, he didn't doubt for an iota of a second that this petty taunting and torture was beneath the creature outside this cell.

Blake initially didn't regard the dancer with even an iota of her attention, even after a invitation so woefully sensual and majestic. But something about the angle she'd stood at had lined up her up with someone else who had just been in these cells not minutes before, and her gaze slowly tore from the pacing general to lock onto theirs past the helmet, and the faunus' glare slowly went from pure hatred to something far more dangerous.

"...Dragon." she eventually greeted.

 

[Gus Gungus]

Blake initially didn't regard the dancer with even an iota of her attention, even after a invitation so woefully sensual and majestic. But something about the angle she'd stood at had lined up her up with someone else who had just been in these cells not minutes before, and her gaze slowly tore from the pacing general to lock onto theirs past the helmet, and the faunus' glare slowly went from pure hatred to something far more dangerous.

"...Dragon." she eventually greeted.

The 'guard' popped one earphone out from under her helmet to listen, lazily shoving the few blonde tresses of hair that sprung loose back inside and pretending to act affronted.

"Whaaaaaaaaaat? Noooooooooooo. I'm like, totally a guard and stuff."

Then she touched a single finger to her lips in such a way that made 'sensual' seem as valid as calling the sun a candle. And wouldn't you know it, Blake got the whole rest of the song.

"..."

Tiger's chest could be seen rising with each breath she took in and exhaled.

But apart from counting out her percentage earlier, she still wasn't speaking.

She wouldn't give him the satisfaction of being indulged.

As he passed her cell though, her eyes followed his every moment.

He shocked her anyway and moved on.

Despite what Sienna would've preferred the world believed, Blake was singular even among the talons in her ability to ignore pain with terminator-esque determination, and a a rush of air that was half angry growl and half throaty wheeze snaked out of Bear as her fell backwards when the volts coursed through him, and it took him a few breaths before he responded from where he was now observing the ceiling.

"No. wouldn't-" he grunted as he slowly sat back up. "-want to shoot too far past you humans on the evolutionary track."

He would've asked why Carnelian was here, but frankly, he didn't doubt for an iota of a second that this petty taunting and torture was beneath the creature outside this cell.

Perhaps surprisingly, he grunted his agreement. "Mhm. Then maybe you'd finally be able to carve yourselves a nice, hefty slice of the kingdoms like you always wanted. Pretty soon it's the whole pie."

His measured pace brought him to a final halt before Blake's cell, where he gave Yang a brief once-over (she had moved on to I Want It That Way) and shook his head before looking back down at the incarcerated faunus.

"Interesting friends you got."

"FWB, actually."

Beneath the other helmet Pyrrha Nikos was probably super apologetic or something idk she has two players already there can't be a third

He ignored that without so much as a twitch in expression, apparently no greater pleasure to be derived from that mental image than from what he was doing right now.

Then he just stared.

And waited.

Waited for that blood to boil. Waited for the hatred he recognized so well to hit its peak. Waited until Blake was angry enough and hated him enough that had her cell been a bear trap, she would've chewed off as many limbs as it took just to get at him.

Then he lifted the remote and-

Dully glanced to the left as a hand suddenly seized his wrist, coming eye to eye with a Clover who looked appalled and disgusted. And still confused at why that soldier was dancing.

"What. Is this?"

He didn't even know who he was looking at for an explanation, but instinctively - or just by dumb luck - He looked at Bear.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"Who exactly asked you for your mawkish opinion??? I'm trying to do something good here, can you NOT make me regret it?"

She caught herself a moment later, releasing poor Cinder from the freezing-cold floodlights of the stare she'd become embroiled in and letting her eyes shut for a few seconds to clear her head. Opening them finally after a deep, centering sigh, she smiled apologetically and started over.

"Sorry, it's been a day. But you're misunderstanding me. What I mean to say is... Look. That falling-out you had with your friends. You regret it, don't you? You'd go back and change it if you could." Her tone of voice made it obvious that she was less asking, more affirming. "I can tell by your face that you would. Wonderful. Congratulations on having a moral compass that points north, south, east and west. But that's just it."

Her line of sight had drifted to the star-map and constellations that characterized the room's ceiling, but they resettled back on Cinder for her next words.

"I don't."

"B-but--But you still can..." Her voice was far more shaky, and she honestly didn't know how to continue from there.​

They were hard eyes. Turbulent, drained, but still as cold as the tundra winds.

"My compass points two ways: I can move forward, or I can move backward. There isn't a single act, not one step in my life I regret taking before today, and that's just because before today I've never made a mistake. Not in my mind, anyway. Everything I've done, I've done with a purpose: to fix a world that is broken. To take Remnant back from the vipers, because I saw myself as above them. I wanted to be better than men like my father."

"...oh." Her comment was quiet, almost ridiculously so. Enough that anybody would have to strain their ears to pick up on how...defeated that single word sounded. Wanting to be better than fathers was something she could easily understand and get behind but...zero regrets? Not a one...?​

"...I'm just... not. In the den of serpents, I'm the cobra. And I recognize that now, and I have to make some adjustments to the plan. That's it. That's my big revelation. I haven't changed. I'm not on some self-congratulatory journey of redemption. I just... have a new angle to consider now. And that should make you very, very worried. Do you know why?"

Something told her she didn't want to know, but such was life. She didn't often get what she wanted.​

"Because you're Cinder Fall, and I'm Weiss Schnee. Sounds simplistic, but that really is the long and short of it. You look at me and say we're similar, and to a certain extent that's true; we both know what it is to be stepped on by somebody cruel. But I became the cruel person who steps on others, miss Fall. You became... something else. Know what I see when I look at you?" She breathed out heavily, shoulders quivering faintly with the motion. She was doing an excellent job of covering it, but the shock of what happened had still yet to release her.

"I see four different ways I could take you right now without anyone in this room being able to stop me." The words were spoken so casually it almost came across like a joke, but her placid stare dispelled any such notions even before her next words. "I'm serious. I could have you strapped into an aura transfer machine and your magic added to my own within the hour. No more Fall Maiden, no more choosing your fate. Just your power, becoming mine. You don't believe in destiny, miss Fall? No... Cinder."

She corrected herself with a respectful tone, cocking her head.

"You should. Never doubt yourself or what you were meant to bring to the world. You have those powers for a reason. But I stole mine; and if you entrust your destiny to me, then I'll just steamroll it and steal it away from you too. I can't train you. I'm sorry. But..."

I................I guess we are just that different. It wasn't an easy or a pleasant thought to have. Her eye flickered back and forth in discomfort. Weiss's words, her tone...they all spoke of seriousness. Of there being no point in trying to refute any of it, not to bother trying to argue. It would only be wasted breath. We have common pasts, but...I guess the paths they led us on...our two paths diverged a long time ago. We walked different roads. And...I guess no amount of effort could bring them together. That was honestly a really sad thought. So much so that she wished she did have the ability to go back in time and change it. Find a way to make Weiss truly...better. But that was just the wild hopeful imagination of a child. She couldn't do that.

"I'm sorry too."​

Her hum was thoughtful as she spun elegantly in her chair to face the hardlight screens, and after a frenzied spree of swiping and a few keysmashes Cinder felt her scroll vibrate in her pocket.

"...I just transferred Atlas's entire archive of prior maidens and their training logs to your scroll. It's what I've been using. Have fun. Fria's notes on meditation were of particular help."

That sorry feeling didn't stop her face from expressing surprise after hearing that. Surprise that rapidly shifted into a small smile as she pulled out her scroll and looked at it. "...Thank you." She said softly, her mind now thinking back on words Mercury said to her a long time ago. Perhaps that was the way after all.​

Ironwood's eyes looked just about ready to pop out of his head, but before he could interject she simultaneously cut him off and moved on in a mannerism clearly born and bred in a boardroom. She clapped her hands.

"So! You'll all be going to Vacuo. Immediately."

"Wait, hold on!" Nora stammered, her voice found once again now that it seemed the exchange between those two was over. "What about the plan to keep Atlas defended? Safe? We can't just leave, right? Not when we can help."​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Whether it was the 'lil Red' of her world or the disgusting one from this one?

They both pissed her off.

 

[Gus Gungus]

I................I guess we are just that different. It wasn't an easy or a pleasant thought to have. Her eye flickered back and forth in discomfort. Weiss's words, her tone...they all spoke of seriousness. Of there being no point in trying to refute any of it, not to bother trying to argue. It would only be wasted breath. We have common pasts, but...I guess the paths they led us on...our two paths diverged a long time ago. We walked different roads. And...I guess no amount of effort could bring them together. That was honestly a really sad thought. So much so that she wished she did have the ability to go back in time and change it. Find a way to make Weiss truly...better. But that was just the wild hopeful imagination of a child. She couldn't do that.

"I'm sorry too."

One might have been forgiving for finding a quiet exhale of relief, nigh impossible to spot. A strange reaction to successfully swatting away a hand endeavoring to reach out, but then nothing about her current mood was orthodox.

"Did I ask for your pity??"

"Wait, hold on!" Nora stammered, her voice found once again now that it seemed the exchange between those two was over. "What about the plan to keep Atlas defended? Safe? We can't just leave, right? Not when we can help."

"Nope! Vacuo!" She repeated with a minor hand flourish, as if she were sending them off to Disneyland or something. To the naked eye it appeared as though the maiden had collected herself rather well, though those who knew a Weiss Schnee of any stripe particularly knew how to recognize the falseness in her cheer, the haggard quality to her voice and the sag to her shoulders she took great lengths to hide. The steps she took to avoid showing vulnerability.

"It's an arrangement I worked out with that one's brother over a few drinks. The one who's semi-relevant," she clarified with a nod in Raven's direction, beginning a truly manic spree of typing across the screens. One almost wondered how many 'a few' were. "He's there right now, turning over stones. The deal was that once I ran out of practical uses for you nuisances you could go, take the relics and do whatever you had to as long as you weren't interfering in this world's affairs anymore. Ozpin believes both relics will be here, so if it gave him that extra little kick in the teeth all the better. Except..."

She shrugged.

"As I mentioned, the plan has changed. I'm done with you people. So now you go."​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"What is the plan?"

Yang had been uncharacteristically quiet up till now. Maybe understandably, considering she'd just put a bullet in her partner's double to save a life that didn't end up saved, only to get hit with this 98 mph curve ball immediate afterwards, but her voice was firm when she did finally speak up from where she was leaning against the back wall with her eyes trained on the floor, almost as pointedly ignoring Weiss as she was her.

"I know you people seem to think that we're not responsible for this fight, but you're asking us to trust you with hundreds of thousands of lives, every person in Atlas and Mantle. Trust you two built on pillars you just flat out told us have never been there in the first place. You guys kept me from my family for months, Weiss has my mom's maiden powers, and Winter isn't even the only person who's died because you two thought you were so much smarter and harder than the rest of us. I can't speak for the whole group"

Her eyes tilted back upwards with a mixture of frustration and hurt that were almost entirely swallowed up by a determined frown.

"But I'm not going anywhere till I know we're leaving these people with two protectors, and not a pair of statisticians with a god complex."

 

[Gus Gungus]

"What is the plan?"

Yang had been uncharacteristically quiet up till now. Maybe understandably, considering she'd just put a bullet in her partner's double to save a life that didn't end up saved, only to get hit with this 98 mph curve ball immediate afterwards, but her voice was firm when she did finally speak up from where she was leaning against the back wall with her eyes trained on the floor, almost as pointedly ignoring Weiss as she was her.

"I know you people seem to think that we're not responsible for this fight, but you're asking us to trust you with hundreds of thousands of lives, every person in Atlas and Mantle. Trust you two built on pillars you just flat out told us have never been there in the first place. You guys kept me from my family for months, Weiss has my mom's maiden powers, and Winter isn't even the only person who's died because you two thought you were so much smarter and harder than the rest of us. I can't speak for the whole group"

Her eyes tilted back upwards with a mixture of frustration and hurt that were almost entirely swallowed up by a determined frown.

"But I'm not going anywhere till I know we're leaving these people with two protectors, and not a pair of statisticians with a god complex."

Ironwood's response wasn't altogether surprising. He just ignored her outright, not even deigning to turn his head to acknowledge the words the way he had Penny's. Apparently he felt the need to justify himself to a Salem affiliate from another world about as much as he was compelled to share a multi-stage war plan involving deception and subterfuge with her, which was to say not even slightly. Anyone who caught a glimpse of the former general's eyes reflected in the glass saw the other side of it; that the general's thoughts in all honesty hadn't even been in the room since he exploded at Weiss. Where they were, none could say.



That left it to Weiss to answer, and though she likewise didn't meet Yang's eyes with her own it was hard to ignore how deeply those words cut her, written across her face as plainly as any scar no matter how much she excelled at hiding her feelings. It was equally hard to sympathize with, given it was the round hole Weiss had beaten their square peg of a relationship into entirely of her own volition. There was an especially guarded note to the tone she took when she eventually did respond, sanded down to sound as dull and expressionless as possible; not dissimilar to how she'd been in the immediate aftermath of Winter.

"Then you haven't listened to a single word I've been saying, because I just finished explaining that's exactly what I am. Welcome to Atlas. And I never 'asked' you to trust me, Yang. I just convinced you to."

That was all she did, really. Convinced people of things. The consummate saleswoman. She managed to catch herself before spiraling fully into a rabbit hole of self-pitying nonsense (though the thought certainly was tempting) and in place of whatever rousing exercise in diplomatic persuasion the Weiss of a week ago probably would've segued into she just said the following.

"All I'm willing to share is I won't allow any harm to befall the citizenship of either city, the power of your world's Spring Maiden will be back where it belongs shortly, and Remnant will not have to suffer mine or Ozpin's scheming for very much longer. Trust me or don't trust me, I'm afraid it really isn't up to you either way. So suck it up. Let me do one good thing."

That was all.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"As I mentioned, the plan has changed. I'm done with you people. So now you go."

"No."

"......I literally just talked about how I turned my back on people and ran once before and how I never intend to do that again."

"I'm not some child you can boss around whenever you want, Schnee. I'll go when I wish."

"Yeah, I'm with Yang. If you seriously think I'm just gonna leave when people are in need or without at least knowing this plan of yours, I must have given you the wrong impression during our conversations."

"...I don't know if you're including me in that, Weiss, but if you are? With all due respect, you must be out of your mind. This kingdom is my home and like hell I'm just going to abandon it when there's danger on the horizon. I'm not going to escape and leave unprepared people behind to deal with that. Not while I can still do something about it."​

"All I'm willing to share is I won't allow any harm to befall the citizenship of either city, the power of your world's Spring Maiden will be back where it belongs shortly, and Remnant will not have to suffer mine or Ozpin's scheming for very much longer. Trust me or don't trust me, I'm afraid it really isn't up to you either way. So suck it up. Let me do one good thing."

That was all.

"What are you going to do if we refuse to let you do that one good thing alone, then?" Raven questioned almost sarcastically, crossing her arms. "This Vacuo travel plan doesn't work without my cooperation. I say you suck it up and let us help." ​