Coming Storm - IV

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"So…" Ozpin smiled, took a sip from his hot chocolate - the best gift the Gods had ever invented, chocolate - and turning back to the man across the desk from him. The tired blonde met his look with a flat one, and Ozpin smiled even more for it. "You stole your family sword, came to Vale, happened to be sent to the single most wanted man in the entire Kingdom… and hit it off because you knew sign language?"

"About right, yeah." He shrugged, "Just crazy enough to be true, right?"

"My sentiments precisely, yes." And Ozpin was more than happy to find out that the young man was not only insane and capable enough to get here and pull all of this off, but had enough fortitude to simply… Accept the insanity of life for what it was. Humming, he murmured more to himself than anything, "Miss Goodwitch had been curious about your quick improvement…"

"Yeah, she said that, too…"

"Oh?"

"I rode up with her."

"Ah." That was right, he had. Listening to the young man's story had taken long enough, and he'd paid such attention that he'd forgotten. Shrugging the matter off, he went on, "Well, once we have extracted her, I'm certain Miss Neo will be more than able to repay our kindness."

"Yeah…"

"Be calm, Mister Arc." He didn't need to be a mind reader to hear the anxiety in his voice, or see it written across his shoulders. "I don't intend to indenture her. Turning her talents to fighting the Grimm is my intention for her. And that will be enough."

"She's not the best against Grimm." Ozpin raised his brow and the young man explained, "Her fighting style. It's more suited to people, and crowd management. I mean, uh, crowd management… Of people."

"Such makes sense, given her background." And, should worst come to worst, Ozpin knew that someone adept at handling mankind rather than the Grimm could come in just as handy. But he suspected mentioning that would not go to his benefit, and so kept his peace. Instead, he offered, "Rest assured, time in Beacon will give her plenty of chance to learn how to fight our common, dark foe."

"I guess she'll have to accept that." The young man snorted at something, but waved him off when Ozpin hummed his curiosity. "Nothing, Sir. Inside joke."

"Care to share…?"

"Uh, well…" He frowned, though for a moment, and then explained quietly, "Neo will only rush around for four things. Roman, a delicious bowl of ice cream and getting to beat something up. Preferably for pay."

"And the fourth….?"

"Come again?"

"You said four things." Ozpin smiled, "That was three."

"..."

"..."

"It's a secret?"

"Now, now, there are no secrets here, Jaune." Or at least, none that Jaune knew about. Though then again, that was how secrets generally worked, no? Still, Ozpin smiled and pressed on, "So please, do tell. I'm dying to know."

"...Me." He sighed, finally, flushd admitting, "She'll rush out to do stuff if it helps me. Sometimes."

"Oh hoh?"

"Oh, don't start that…" And my, the blonde sounded… Defensive. Was there something there, then? Ozpin filed it away to find out for certain later. Romantic feelings, as with all others, were always a useful thing to know about.

Still, it wouldn't do to press the young man too hard about it, lest Ozpin push him away. Or at least, there was no need to press then and there… Later, though? Well, if the topic came up, or could be steered towards, Ozpin might need to know.

"So, then." Ozpin moved on, noting the relief that spread through the young man's shoulders for it. So Ozpin's suspicions were definitely true, then… Ignoring it, he stood and asked, "Now I know your secret, would you like to know one of my own?"

"Only…" Jaune blinked, a touch of wariness flitting across his face and voice that he tried to hide but just couldn't manage it. Still, he tried, "Only if you want me to?"

"No, now, Jaune, my new friend." Ozpin chuckled, setting his empty mug aside and stepping around his desk in one motion. Jaune rose as Ozpin stepped by, and Ozpin stopped at his side and laid a hand on his shoulder. "You came to Beacon to be a hero, yes? To protect the people of Vale?"

"To protect everyone, yeah." The correction sounded automatic, something that had come out before the young man could even think about what he'd said, and Ozpin smiled for it.

"Good." He nodded, stepping by in an obvious demand for the young man to follow him. "I'm happy to hear it. Ah, and Mister Arc?"

"Uh, yes, Sir?" Ozpin heard his chair scratch against the floor as he stood and the old Headmaster turned and smiled.

"Welcome to the war." He smirked, "It's good to have you."

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Sharp green eyes blinked their surprise, and pink and brown ones matched them. Pyrrha sat down her scoop, and, without blinking, the other woman plucked it up to heap ice-cream out of the buffet line. Four, five, six- The woman loaded her bowl up with the sweet treat without ever breaking eye contact with Pyrrha while Pyrrha stod, unsure of what to say or do.

Should she even say or do anything? Ideally, their enemies, whoever they were and however many of them there were, didn't know they knew each other. And without Jaune here, how were they meant to speak? Through Scroll, perhaps, but-

A hand on her breast snapped her out of it and sent her backpedaling through the empty line with a squawked, "P-Pardon you!"

Grinning, Neo flexed her fingers in a squeezing motion and then turned to pick up her tray along with Pyrrha's mostly full bowl. Turning, she bobbed her head and, red-faced, Pyrrha followed her to one of the seats in the dimly lit, empty cafeteria. As she slid into her bench, across from Neo and thus safe from grabby fingers, the woman slid her Scroll onto the desk.

"I kept trying to get your attention. That was all that worked." The machine spoke, voice tinny and quiet but feminine enough.

"That doesn't make it alright!"

"If it helps, I've felt better."

"It doesn't help, actually! How is that supposed to help?" Pyrrha hissed, covering her chest with a hand and grumbling self-consciously, "And I will have you know my chest is fine enough, thank you. There's just… A padded bra and shirt in the way."

"Nah."

"Nah?"

"I don't believe you." The Scroll spoke, "Simple as that."

"Well, you are free to be wrong then." Pyrrha demured, taking a bite of her ice-cream and frowning around it.

"You could always take them off and prove me wrong." Pyrrha choked on her dessert and met Neo's mirthful eyes with a scowl. Shrugging, she typed out, "What? That'd prove it. If you care enough to."

"...You're just a pervert, I see." Pyrrha concluded, rolling her eyes when the woman only chortled mutely. Finally, after another moment, Pyrrha asked the obvious. "Are you really quite certain us talking is a good idea?"

"I'm really quite certain you're a B cup at best."

"Neo…"

"Right, right. Serious time, got it." She let that speak before typing out the next bit of her response, frowning a bit as she did. This, though, came to Pyrrha's Scroll, pinging her messenger. "Cinder wants us to try and make friends with your team and RWBY. So I can just say we hit it off."

"By you groping me in the cafeteria…?"

"Some girls have weird kinks." The message notification pinged a moment later. Pyrrha only glared, and Neo waved her off, returning to her chat app and its voice. "Anyway, where's your partner at?"

"Oh?" Pyrrha couldn't help the little sirk that brought to her face, in spite of the muted pang of ache it brought up, too. She knew that would stay for a time, but it had already faded. So, a wound mending, if not mended. Still, it made her feel more than a little vindictive as she went on, head cocked to the side. "And why would I tell you that, hmm? What if he wanted some private time?"

Neo gave her a look at that, and Pyrrha flushed and rushed to add, weakly, "N-Not that kind of private time!"

"You're terrible at teasing people."

"H-How do you know I was trying to do that?"

"The smirk." Neo rolled her eyes, and tapped out, "Please, though."

Pyrrha paused for a moment, considering how to phrase it rather than whether or not to, and eventually sighed and offered the best she could without seeming suspicious to any onlookers they didn't know about. Finally, she settled on, "The Headmaster called him to his office for a meeting. Nothing too terrible, but… Important nonetheless, if you understand."

Neo nodded, but didn't say anything for a long moment. Finally, though, she asked, "He'll be alright, right?"

That… Was a question Pyrrha could read into a bit too much for her liking. Surely she didn't think the Headmaster would hurt him. Why would he have a reason to? Unless Ozpin had done something to Neo or Roman, or wanted to, Jaune certainly wouldn't push against him. No, it was more likely the Headmaster would include him, and Jaune would be happy for it, too. In exchange for Neo and Roman's protection, she knew for certain.

But then, Jaune had already said that… And Pyrrha was sure he hadn't only said it to her, too.

So, she supposed Neo must have meant everything that would come after. And to that, Pyrrha responded quietly, "If I have to use every last ounce of strength in me, he will be."

"Samesies." Neo's Scroll buzzes out a moment later, before the woman nods and flicks her fingers across her Scroll again. Another message pings on Pyrrha's Scroll and, as she reads it, Neo leaves. "Headed back to C. Keep Jaune safe until whatever's coming happens. That's your job. Owe you one."

Sighing, Pyrrha looks down, intent on returning to her ice cream while she thinks. But…

Her bowl is gone, along with the short woman.

Chuckling, Pyrrha stands and sighs, "Little minx…"

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The Headmaster's elevator, as it turns out, does not just go to his office and a couple of floors for access. The elevator descended further than the ground floor and opened up on a long, wide, dark and, from the chill that swept into the elevator when it opened, cold. Not enough to need his Aura, but enough to settle a chill along his neck and arms. And the dark set a different kind of chill in his stomach, too.

It felt like a crypt…

"Come along now." Ozpin chided him quietly, "There's much to discuss, and lingering won't help us get to bed any closer to an appropriate time."

"Yeah…" Jaune murmured, "Fair."

The… Vault, he guessed, was massive. Like someone had found a huge cavern deep underneath Beacon Academy, smoothed it out, and covered it with carved stone and brickwork columns to hold it all up. Long cables half as thick as Jaune himself was wound out from the dark over the elevator. They must have been built into the elevator shaft itself, running down and into the open space where they crawled along the roof, powering large, round lights that lit up the space well enough for him to see. Though, not well enough to keep the shadows at the edge of it from keeping their darkness, which made it feel like the space was trying to close in on him.

The cables continue all the way to the back of the vault, and then newer ones, dozens of them, suddenly spider down from where they met the wall. From there they spindled and weaved down to… A large machine of some kind, with a pair of pods laid out to either side of it and a massive machine in between. Medical equipment crowded one side of it, feeding even more wires and tubes into one of the pods, but the other was strangely clean and clear. No cords, tubes or anything beyond a thick connection to the main terminal and a large metal back panel.

As they got closer, Ozpin cleared his throat to break the silence before he spoke, "Once we are done here, I will show you to where Mmister Torchwick is being kept. But I hope you will come to understand that this is… All rather more important than time spent with friends."

"I guess, yeah." He'd have preferred to see Roman, and know he was safe, but for now he figured he needed to trust the Headmaster. What else could he do anyway?

Not much…

Ozpin got to the weird machine first and stopped by the wired up tube. As Jaune joined him, his smile turned forlorn and he said, "Mister Arc, I would like you to meet a… Friend, of sorts, of mine. Amber."

The young woman is… Well, she'd be pretty, if she weren't laid in a hospital, er, pod and wrapped in enough bandages to make a mummy jealous. The machines fed into the machine and broke up into even more tubes and wires, all smaller than the ones outside, that fed into her arms, legs and chest. And there was an odd set of little disks set on her forehead and neck, with more wires like the ones they connected to running under her that told him they probably hooked up along her spine, too.

"Is she…?"

"Dying. Yes, I'm afraid that is, unfortunately, the case..." Ozpin nodded, standing at his shoulder and watching the woman with a flat, but forced, neutrality. Like a man at a funeral, fighting to keep it all together.

And failing just enough to make it obvious to anyone that knew how to look.

"She was attacked, shortly before you all came to Beacon Academy for your first semester, in fact." Ozpin went on after a moment, laying a hand on the glass and sighing tiredly. "All my… Aid was able to discern, when he intervened, was that there were three of them. Two women, one man, but… His vision was obscured, for some reason."

"Obscured?"

"According to him, he got a glance and then their faces and forms… Changed." Ozpin explained, "Randomly, at that. The young, dark skinned woman suddenly turned furry, for example. And the man had metal legs instead of the norm, as well as a pumpkin for a head."

"A Semblance, maybe?"

"The obvious answer, and the one I personally lean on." Ozpin agreed easily, "I canvassed for illusory Semblances and found many. But every single one of them had alibis, or were simply too far away to possibly have been involved. The two that were suspect were easily cleared as well. One was in the hospital with a broken arm, and the other was… Well, she's something of an entertainer, not a fighter."

"Entertainer?"

"Miss Cerulean." Ozpin explained after a second of thought and a quiet chuckle. "She's an adult entertainer. Her Semblance allows one to be immersed in whatever world they wish, where they may do as they wish to whomever they wish."

"Oh." Jaune blinked, then coughed to clear his throat and moved on. "You… Think you know who did it, though?"

"Roman informed me that his employer wields fire like a woman born to it, and works with two others." Ozpin explained simply, "Amber's… Uniqueness allowed her to do the same. And I believe this 'Cinder Fall' may have stolen that from her."

"She stole her Semblance?" Jaune blinked, shaking his head and flicking a look from the dying woman to the Headmaster, "That's… That shouldn't be possible."

"According to…?" Ozpin asked quietly, raising a brow and then chuckling quietly. Lowly enough Jaune would have believed him if he said he didn't want, he said, "You would not believe the reality you live in, if its secrets were laid bare to you. Who is to say a Semblance couldn't exist which steals Semblances?"

"I guess…"

"Regardless," Ozpin turned to him, coughing again to clear his throat and going on, "based on what Roman has said, I believe that this woman's goal is the destruction of Beacon Academy in its entirety."

"What?!" He blinked, "Why?"

"I can't quite say." Ozpin smiled at something Jaune didn't understand and then went on. "But you and Roman are likely the keys to preventing that. And saving a great many lives in the doing, in fact."

"I'm happy to help." If Beacon fell, that would be the end of Vale, too. The fear and grief alone would bring the Grimm swarming, and with as many Hunters as would die defending Beacon, and with no way to replace them…

It would be cataclysmic.

"Especially to save your friends from the justice system, I presume." Ozpin chuckled, turning away from Amber and waving him off to show that he was only joking. "Regardless I'm afraid that, for now, we're on the defensive."

"We are?"

"Roman wasn't pre-informed of Cinder's plans." Ozpin explained simply, "His directives were simple. Collect Dust. Move it to Mountain Glenn. Secure a train, move it to Mountain Glenn as well. The overarching goals were never revealed outright to him. He knows the Vytal Festival is important to her, somehow, but not how."

"So… We have to try to find out."

"If possible, yes." He nodded, "Otherwise… Well, keep your eyes open, and listen for my instructions."

"What about Roman?" Jaune asked worriedly, "And Neo? What do we do about them?"

"I've told Roman to go along with her plans until he sees the chance to turn coat." Ozpin explained simply, "Given they are separated, I felt that was the safest course for the two of them. Once I find a way to trap her safely, we will make our move."

"She's here though, right?"

"She is, yes."

"Then why don't we just go get her?" Jaune asked quietly, waving a hand up, at the Academy above them both. "You, a bunch of Hunters, even my team and I, if you want. We have to be able to take her down, right?"

"Amber is, or, well, was, one of the most powerful people on Remnant." Ozpin explained simply, "And she and two others beat her, and ripped her Semblance out by means unknown. And she's clever and resourceful enough to have information so falsified, even specialized investigators I had look them over found nothing."

"I mean," Jaune shrugged, "I got through…"

"You weren't subjected to what I put these papers through." Ozpin assured him, "The people I hired are specialists employed by Vale and Atlas both. They are only involved when one already suspects a problem. With your incoming class, we had no such suspicions. With those coming in from the other Kingdoms, and Roman's information, Fall's team did. And they passed every check."

"Ah." He blinked, brow furrowing in distaste. It sucked, but… Jaune could see where the Headmaster was coming from pretty easily. "Yeah, it probably isn't smart to come after her here… She might have plans set up in case that happens."

"And if she does, we may be walking directly into what she wants." Ozpin nodded, "If she means to sow chaos, what better way than by escaping with the tales of Vale trying to undermine Mistral's chances at the Festival?"

"Yeah, I get it." Jaune sighed, "So… Wait around for something to happen, then?"

"Indeed." Ozpin nodded, gesturing for the elevator. "You may go now, Mister Arc. It's rather late."

"But-"

"Roman has been returned to James' airship, where Cinder wanted him to be." Ozpin cut him off, "I will provide you a way to see him tomorrow. I would do so now, but the timing would be more than a little suspicious, would it not?"

"Yeah…" Jaune comes to meet the Headmaster personally, and then heads out to the ship Roman was on? Or even just to any of the ships at all? It would scream that they were up to something, and Cinder would act. Sighing, he nodded, "Alright. Tomorrow, then."

"Indeed." Ozpin nodded, turning his back to him. "Goodnight, Mister Arc."

With as many questions as answers, now, Jaune turned to leave with a frown. Welcome to the war indeed...

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Smokey Panda :

I personally imagine Glynda is quite the softie under it all, yeah.

Archivist of Nyx :

Yeah, I need to get that book, lol.

Em wasn't being a pervert. Em noticed that Ruby had some feelings about how close Em was, and used that to get info more easily. Emerald had zero interest in any of that noise, she just wanted Ruby to not think about what she was saying.

Azrael Saint :

Yup!