Family Issues - Part III

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"I-I don't really know what to do about any of it, either." Blake said, sitting beside Yang with her knees tucked into her chest and her arms hugged around them. She was scared, but with Yang's hand on the small of her back, she wasn't as terrified as she had been an hour or two ago. "I talked to Yang about it, told her everything, and now…"

"Now you are telling us because if you get involved it'll force our hands, and you want to at least notify us before dragging us bodily into an underground war." Weiss' words were sharp, edged and angry, but by now Blake knew better than to think she was angry with her. Rather, Blake knew as she watched her pace, the young Schnee was just processing in her own way. Finally, she sighed and collapsed onto the chair beside her own partner, head resting back against the headrest and groaning, "Why can't my life just be normal?"

"Aren't you one of the richest people on Remnant though…?"

"Shush, Dolt." Weiss ordered, a finger snapping out to point at the young leader stood beside the door, hugging Zwei against her chest. Gently, Weiss added, "Not the time to correct me for comedic effect, Ruby."

"Sorry, Weiss." In spite of the chide and the situation, Ruby managed a small smile at the friendliness she knew was in the gesture, turning to look at Yang and Blake. "It's a good thing that you came to us, though. We're a team here, and that means when you fight, we fight too."

"Ruby's right." Weiss added kindly, "As frustrating as you lot can be- Are," she amended when Ruby chuckled, "at the best of times, we're a team. And this team stands together, come Grimm or high water."

"Thank you both." Blake smiled, genuinely comforted by the girls' instant backing. "It means the world to me, to have all of you."

"Of course." All three of the young women parroted at once, Yang chuckling as a result. A sound that carried around the room and seemed to warm it, somehow, before she felt lavender eyes on her again. Still smiling she asked, almost flippantly, "So, uh, what's the plan, then? Aside from 'punch whatever we see that goes grr or tries to steal our magic bull-crap' I mean."

"Telling you actually is the plan." Blake answered simply, shrugging beside her and feeling her partner begin gently tapping her fingers along the small of her back to keep her presence and support known. Something Blake thanked her for by nudging her in the side, even if she couldn't keep the anxiety all the way down. "We tell you, and then we make a decision about what to do together. Like a team ought to do."

"Well…"

"If I don't take it and she dies, then the power will probably go to whoever killed her. That's what Ozpin said when I asked." Blake said when no one spoke, chewing on a lip as she thought and relayed what the man had told her. "He said there weren't any options as good as me but one, who had already said no."

"Who was it?"

"He wouldn't say." Blake shrugged, "He said that he didn't want them to be called out for their decision."

"That's…"

"Fucking wonderful?" Yang finished for her sister, the girl flushing a bit at the swearing but nodding curtly regardless. Evidently, the younger girl didn't feel like this was a situation for chiding someone's foul language. Yang only sighed, though, nodding, "Yeah, it's just… So damn dumb. I mean I get the idea behind it, of course. It's so we don't get after 'em or anything, but still. I don't like him foisting this onto Blake like this."

"Yeah." Blake sighed, eyes pinching closed against a wave of anxiety and aggravation. "I'm sorry guys… This is all my fault, as usual, and you're all going to get dragged in with me."

"Complaining won't do anything to solve our situation. Even if it is totally your fault, you little criminal." Weiss dismissed easily, giving the Faunus a smile when her head shot up and her ears flicked anxiously. Raising an eyebrow in her teasing, faux arrogant sort of way, she sighed, "And besides, we're a team, unfortunately. So there's not really an option. We stand together, no matter what weird tomfoolery comes our way."

"So what we do is, you know, it's kind of up to you. Isn't it, Blake?" Ruby asked, hoping up onto the desk behind her partner and flailing her hands at the disapproving look she got until Weiss gave up. At her huff and rolled eyes, Ruby turned back to her team's other half and went on more seriously. "What do you want to do about all of this… Stuff?"

"Run away to Menagerie?" Blake joked weakly, rolling her eyes when no one even chuckled. Well, aside from Yang, but she didn't count. After a moment of though she shrugged and let out a long breath, "I don't know. I... I came to Beacon to make up for what I did to the White Fang. And under it, after what I did to it. This would be a great chance to do that, if nothing else."

"A good chance to die doin' it, too." Yang murmured, raising an eyebrow challengingly when the others turned a look on her for it. Voice as hard as stone, she confronted them, "What? It's the truth. Whoever took out the last one took out a fully fledged Huntress with this weird power. What are four first years supposed to do against that?"

"Uncle Qrow would help us…"

"Uncle Qrow didn't do much to help that girl, did he?" Yang countered, waiting a moment for any of them to counter her point before nodding and grunting a short, satisfied, "That's what I thought. Love him to death, but if the last girl couldn't count on him, then we should assume we can't either. He'll be there," she added quickly, before Ruby could say anything, "and I don't think he won't. But we can't rely on him to pull us out of the fire."

"The Schnee Dust Corporation could help, but…" She gave Blake a long look and then flicked her gaze to her ears and grimaced. "But with everything going on, I don't think my father would be… A friendly ear, to say the least on the matter."

"What about Ozpin…?" Ruby tried, "He'd help, wouldn't he? We're doing this for him if we do it, after all."

"Second verse, same as the first, Rubes." Yang groused, foot beginning to tap an anxious beat out on the posts at the foot of the bed they were sat on. "Whatever kind of stuff Ozpin could throw at it, I'm gonna assume he did. And it didn't work, now did it?"

"Well we can't do it on our own, now can we?!" Blake finally snapped, before Yang's arm wrapped around her waist to try and calm her. She let out a shaky breath and pinched the bridge of her nose, counting to ten before finally grinding out, "I'm sorry, I just… None of this back and forth is helping. Ozpin and your uncle couldn't protect her on their own. We need more."

"What about…" Ruby chewed on her lip for a second and then looked up, eyes hard. "What if we ask Juniper for help? They're some of the strongest in Beacon in our year. And we're close enough friends with Nora and Ren, they should be able to convince Jaune and Pyrrha if we can convince them."

"The previous Maiden was overwhelmed by numbers, right?" At Blake's little nod Weiss began nodding in turn as her internal gears began to turn, and she planned. Something that the clever girl was rather good at, in their experience. And now, Blake hoped, would be no different. "Quality didn't work to protect the previous Maiden, and quantity worked against her. So enlisting more teams is probably the best course of action."

"Only if we trust 'em." Yang added, "If we can't trust 'em, then they could just stab us in the back."

"Obviously." Weiss snapped at the blonde, shaking her head like she was offended that Yang had even thought to add the little note. "So we need to start looking for people we can trust to bring into this. And not just students, either. Blake, have you called your parents and told them about what's happening?"

"No." She shook her head, "Ozpin doesn't want everyone and anyone knowing about this. I… Figured the less people who knew, the better."

"They're your parents, and unless they are like mine, you can trust them. Especially with how much danger you're going to be in here." Blake didn't bother pointing out how dark an outlook that showed. It wasn't conducive to anything at the moment and frankly, Weiss probably would have agreed that she hadn't been raised particularly well. Standing, the Schnee grimaced and ordered, "Get on your Scroll and call them, then. Ruby, Yang, go talk to Nora while the other two are out."

"And what about you?" Blake asked as the white-haired young woman reached for the door. "Where are you going?"

"To call my sister and ask what she can do." She answered stiffly, anxiety etched into every inch of her body at the words. Before any of them could say anything she slipped through the door and pushed it shut behind her.

After a long moment, Ruby made to follow her out and across the hallway to talk to the N and R of Juniper, waving a hand as the door shut, "Bye, I guess?"

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"It's all a fantasy, Ozpin." Ironwood declared as soon as they reconvened in his office, each sat across from the other at his desk and with warm mugs of coffee between them. Outside, Ozpin could see late afternoon clouds drifting by, but the irate man across from him went on before he could consider retiring to be a cloud-watcher again. "I had my agents look into his missing persons file, and when it was issued properly to Vale, Mistral's eastern coasts were experiencing an early, violent monsoon season. The kind that precludes wandering fishermen heading to it, or through its waters to Menagerie."

"And this to you proves that the entire story is false?" He asked, taking a sip from his mug and tapping a finger on his desk. He elected not to comment on how swiftly the man had produced results. Even if it hadn't been more than a few days, James was a judicious man, and wouldn't waste his time on anything not thoroughly satisfying to his sense of evidence. "It's an oddity, to be certain, but I wouldn't say that this discounts him entirely."

"No, it doesn't. And if that was all I had, I wouldn't be here so soon." The man shook his head, smiled wryly, and leaned back in his seat, and Ozpin knew he was pleased with himself. James smiled so rarely that he would expect Glynda's marriage announcement before it on most days. "The fact that my man couldn't find any history of worshipping this 'Force' on Anima's eastern coast. The western does have a history of a small cult of inland villages following what they term as the Force."

"Does it function similarly?" If so, he would need to look into them, and see what he could add to his collection.

"They meditate in nature but beyond that?" He shook his head, "No. No warriors are among them. They're pacifists, in fact, relying on mercenaries to protect them. A far cry from what looks more like a warrior monk with a limb severing weapon in my opinion."

"Indeed." And a tragedy that was. If they'd been even remotely similar to Arc, he would have kicked himself for not finding them sooner. Curious, he asked, "How did you get this information so quickly, though? I'd have expected you would need to dispatch Specialists to Anima itself to get this sort of information. And yet, you're reporting findings significantly before I would have expected you to find some wayward cult of small villages."

"You know Qrow's Semblance?" He nodded and Ironwood smirked, "I have a Specialist with the complete opposite of it. He ran into a scholar in Mistral, who pointed him to a meeting of traveling merchants. They told him where to find the tribe, and from there it was just a quick trip as the crow flies to get to where they were and confirm the information."

"I see…"

"Also." Ironwood added, "The cult is vegetarian. And I already checked, but Arc eats meat. Further, they didn't recognize a picture of him."

"Are they now…" Arc had indeed eaten meat, he was certain of it. And besides that, a vegetarian would never be a fisherman. So his story began to fall apart even before the addition of them not recognizing him, which meant that they couldn't have raised him. Smiling, Ozpin spoke, "Tell your man he did very good work then, and give him my compliments for it."

"I will, Oz. I've already given him an official commendation, so I'm sure he'll preen with your own on top of it." Ironwood promised, taking a long drink of his Atlesian Black and sighing contentedly. How he could drink the nasty sludge, Ozpin didn't know, but once again he moved on before Ozpin could muse further. "Now, what do we do about Arc?"

"Is there something we should be doing about him?"

"Ozpin, you can't be serious." Ironwood sighed, good mood dying an ugly death at the mere hint that the ancient man wouldn't leap to action as soon as suspicion cropped up. As usual, Ironwood was swift to take action, and swift to get irritated when Ozpin wasn't the same way. Groaning at his raised brow, Ironwood argued, "Ozpin, with everything going on, you must know how bad an idea letting someone like him off without even an interview. Much less an arrest."

"Vale doesn't make a habit of arresting people for keeping secrets." Ozpin pointed out with a small smile, "Believe me, James, I know about secret keeping and which Kingdoms tolerate it."

"Are you actually going to make this about your 'civil liberties' argument again?" The man almost growled, shaking his head at the mere prospect. A prospect that Ozpin neither confirmed or denied, content to let him make his own conclusion on the topic. Which he did rather swiftly, folding his arms over his chest defensively. "The Kingdom of Atlas respects the sovereignty of every citizen. Our monitoring program only flags individuals that could pose a threat to the safety of the Kingdom."

"Yes, and 'being a Faunus' tends to be enough to get you flagged."

"Give the greatest threat to Atlas outside the damn Grimm are Faunus extremists-"

"As much as I enjoy our little debates, I think we have more important topics to settle before we get to your Kingdom's semi-racist profiling programs." Ironwood seethed at both the old, familiar barb and argument, but eventually relented. Satisfied Ironwood wouldn't continue the useless argument, Ozpin began. "We already showed young Mister Arc to the Fall Maiden. Any risk he poses has already been followed through, and so playing our hand against him if he is an infiltrator is pointless."

"He has access to Beacon." Ironwood pointed out quickly. "A student's access only, of course, but still. It's a hole in your security, Oz. You have to know that."

"Indeed." Ozpin admitted, less for agreeing with the point outright and more for wanting to give the man a win in the back and forth before he got angry. In the same vein he offered more for him to see as a win, to settle the matter, "Because of the risks involved here, I would appreciate your assistance bolstering Beacon's security."

"...Seriously?" Ironwood blinked, "Are you asking me to overhaul your security?"

"Yes, I am." Ozpin nodded, taking a drink to let him school his features into something more impassive than he might have otherwise had. Ironwood was a friend, and a useful one as well, but that didn't mean Ozpin enjoyed his methods. Even if diplomacy meant he had to cave to them somewhat to keep the peace. And the alliance. "So long as you can be subtle about it, and agree to let me review more overt changes to routine, I would appreciate the hand."

"I… Can have a plan proposal for you in an hour." Ironwood nodded, their old argument entirely forgotten as he relaxed. Smiling more jovially, he added, "Especially if you keep treating my old wounds the way you did the other day."

Chuckling, Ozpin only sighed and offered a quiet, "I'll see what I can do, old friend. But first, I would enjoy a report on this… Cult you mentioned."

"You would?" He nodded and Ironwood shrugged numbly, confused but evidently not curious enough to ask. "I suppose I can compile Ebi's reports for you and send it your way. Rather dry reading, I'm sorry to say."

"I'm sure I'll manage, my friend." And the information might just lead him to somewhere interesting. Adding to his collection could only strengthen him, after all, and any lead to that end was one worth pursuing.

And it made a worthy pursuit to spend time on until the man no doubt returned come evening to review his security proposals.

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"My father used to tell me the Tale of the Seasons before bed..." Ren murmured, sat stock still on his bed with Ruby sat in a chair across from his bed, while Nora paced the rest of their dorm anxiously, chewing on a thumb-nail and staring at nothing with wide eyes. Watching her, Ren asked quietly enough Ruby barely heard it, "Nora, what's in your head?"

"What's in my head? Oh I dunno, Renny, what do you think is in my head right now?" She laughed, a harsh sound especially from someone who was normally so happy. Voice like a razor's edge, she rattled off, "Right now, I have the pythagorean theorem in my head, right beside the complete history of the Faunus Rights Revolution and the Dust damn shark song! Oh, and, you know, the magical catastrophe that just knocked on our door during movie night!"

"S-Sorry, Nora. But we-"

"Hold on, Ruby." Ren cut in almost paternally, turning from her back to Nora and raising an eyebrow. "Anything else you want to say?"

"Yes!" She shrieked, loud enough that Ruby was certain someone would have heard it. "I have so much to say! Like how angry I am that our movie was interrupted, which is stupid, I know, but- Still! I want to go scream at Ozpin too for this bullshit and-and- And I don't wanna lose another home, and I… And I can't-" For a moment she descended into hyperventilation, hands clutching her head before she eeked out a small, weak, "Ren, I need you."

He was moving before she'd finished his name, but instead of giving her a hug like he'd expected, he simply laid a hand on her. As soon as he did, she calmed down, her Aura shimmering oddly. After a moment, Ren asked gently, "Are you alright now?"

"Yeah." The suddenly, oddly calm girl nodded, smiling as the man stepped back and retook his seat. "Thanks, Ren."

"Of course." To Ruby he explained, "My Semblance lets me suppress emotions in anyone that is willing to have them suppressed, and conceal them from the Grimm. Kind of a niche thing, but it helps."

"Renny used to cuddle with me and read me stories while he did it, so the Grimm wouldn't come for us." The memory was a nice one for her, and brought a smile to her face for it. But that smile quickly turned sour as the mention of stories brought them back to why Ruby had come to see them in the first place. "I liked the Tale of the Seasons, too… Ren told it to me when we were really young, before we got books for more stories."

"It was the only one I could remember." The young man smiled, frowning and sighing after a second. "Blake is certain that this is all true, then?"

"I mean, it was Headmaster Ozpin and General Ironwood." The young woman answered with a small shrug and smile, adding after a moment, "Why would they make all of this up anyway? They don't get anything from lying about this kind of stuff. They won't tell us who the other girl is they asked-"

"It was Pyrrha."" Nora cut in sharply, sounding exhausted but certain in a way that confused Ruby. Seeing it on her face, she explained quickly, "Ren and I both saw it. Those two have been anxious and training into the ground for months now. They wouldn't tell us what it was, but…"

"Something was wrong, though, and this had to be it." Ren filled in knowingly, certain that Nora was right seemingly just because of her own certainty. That was a kind of trust that Ruby was jealous of, to say the least. But Ren moved on regardless of her jealousy, quiet and sure, "It makes sense, too. If people are after the Maiden, a freshly made one would be easy pickings out in the city or frontier."

"But a first year choice would be safe here, at Beacon." Nora finished simply, quiet and calm for her partner's Semblace's effects still running through her. Even if she did have a bit of energy and panic starting to just edge its way into her tone, "She could train to use her new power, surrounded by an army that would protect her if she were attacked."

"And if Blake takes it, you want us in on it. To help protect her, if someone comes for her new power." Ren remembered, the younger girl smiling apologetically and nodding. Ren waved the silent apology off and sighed, turning back to Nora, "Call them and tell them we need to talk."

"But they're on a date…"

"They interrupted our movie night, too." Ren shrugged simply, "And after keeping all of this from us, I don't really mind ruining their date night at the moment."

"Okay, Renny." Nora said with a little shrug and nod, fishing out her Scroll and setting to work.

While she did, Ren turned to Ruby and ordered, "You said your partner was calling someone else for help, too?"

"Yeah." She nodded, "Her sister, Winter."

"Then get the rest of your team and meet us in rec room three, if you don't mind." Ren asked quietly, standing and rolling his shoulders in a stretch. Ruby nodded and he added wearily, "I'll run to the cafeteria and get some food together while we wait. This is going to be a conversation, but it's not one we have to have hungry."

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"What do you think had Nora so upset?" Pyrrha asked as their Bullhead landed and they disembarked, stepping out into the chill evening air. Their Aura and comfortable, warm clothes protected them from shivering from it, thankfully, and the woman continued to worry unperturbed. "She was so excited about us going out… Why would she beg us back so desperately after dinner?"

"I don't know, Pyr." And though he sensed something, he couldn't tell what. Anxiety to be sure, but every student in the Academy reeked of that with the festival coming on, and the tournament with it. Not to mention the semester exams coming up right after. Regardless, "She said to head to the rec room so we can all talk. Why we're not doing this in our dorm, I don't know, but…"

"Jaune, you don't think they know about one of our… Things, do you?" Pyrrha asked as they stepped into the halls of Beacon, sparsely crowded and forcing the woman to step close to him to whisper.

"I don't know how they would." He murmured, wrapping an arm around her waist as they walked to keep them in step. She stiffened a bit at the contact and he gave her a look, the young woman smiling slightly to show it was okay. That settled, he went on, "We've kept things under wraps well enough, I think. Unless the Headmaster went to them about the, uh, sleeping beauty problem we have."

"My, my, Jaune." Pyrrha joked weakly, "I might get jealous of you calling someone else a beauty."

"Oh, come off it, Pyr." He rolled his eyes and she chuckled, the weak joke enough to at least ease the tension. Which had been her aim, he was pretty sure. With a sigh, he shrugged as they rounded a corner into the long hall of rec rooms, and joked, "I'm not a fan of her. I, uh, prefer redheads, I think."

"That was smooth, Jaune." Pyrrha laughed as they reached the door marked out with a big, gold '3'. Laughing with him, she reached for the door, smiling as her hand landed on it and giving him a last friendly barb before whatever lay behind it, "Why, I didn't know you were that charismatic, Jaune."

Before she could open the door, it was pulled open and an angry looking Weiss met their gazes. Quietly, and exuding anxiety and fear now that he was paying attention to something not red-haired and Mistralian, she ordered, "Inside now. We have a lot to talk about, and we don't have the time to wait for you two to be all lovey-dovey."

Blinking their surprise at each other, the two followed her into the room without a word.

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(Review Responses)

Anubis the Shadow :

Yeah but why does Blake typically run from things? It isn't to flee. It's either to cease contributing to something bad as in the White Fang, or to disprove assertions in the case of Yang. And the second didn't happen in this story, Yang convinced her to come out. So all Ozpin has to go on in-story is Blake deserting a terrorist group to help people.

The rest, I agree with you. Ozpin, love him, isn't good at getting plans to pay off.

Demedichi :

I have 'professional' stories and 'side' stories. I thoroughly plan the former where I can without inhibiting myself, and let things happen more organically in the second. This story falls into the second. The setup for Blake is an example of something I planned a while back, but others that I want to happen more naturally aren't. Other Force users, for instance, I want more naturally occurring.

Glad you enjoy it!

RC Jackson :

That plot point has been playing out over the last several chapters, actually. Only in the background. It's a paperwork war, as alluded to by the Jacques scene included a few chapters back. I figured no one would be interested in lawyers filing against each other.

Argus 456 :

Yep. I called this arc 'Family Issues' for a reason~

Scrub Lord :

I despise you…. XD

Smokey Panda :

Yeah. I try pretty hard to humanize characters like Ozpin and even Salem when I use 'em. Hard to pull it off sometimes but eh. Worth it when it works.