Exchange

I made it in the nick of time. When I looked out the window at the scene far below me, I saw the battle winding down as more and more Hunters began to go on the offensive as the machine's numbers dwindled. Adam was still there in the thick of it, but a glance at my Party Menu showed that his MP was looking dangerously low and once others began taking over, he started using Wilt and Blush to keep himself upright instead of fight.

Further away, the man Blake had been fighting seemed to be escaping on a Bullhead I hadn't noticed until now. Blake was standing on a rooftop watching him go with weapon in hand, looking tense and ready. I put Weiss down, leaning her against the wall so I'd have my hands free. Fetching my scroll from my Inventory, I opened it and sent her a message.

'Dealt with my problem. Can see you. What happened?' I typed quickly, though she didn't react until the Bullhead had retreated far enough. After finally relaxing, she glanced up at my ship, glanced around, and quickly got out of sight.

'Third party interfered. Things got bad. Adam intervened.' She messaged back a moment later.

I nodded to myself having figured something along those lines. It didn't exactly tell me much about what had sent our whole plan straight to hell, but there'd be time to discuss the details later. For now, we had bigger concerns.

'I can see everything from my position,' I sent. 'Fight's dying down, but Adam's exhausted and surrounded. Good chance the Hunters will turn on him once they realize what he is.'

'Can you make a distraction?' Blake asked. 'If you buy us some time, I may be able to rescue him.'

'Too risky,' I said and meant it. There were too many unknowns; so many high level Hunters, each with unknown training, unknown semblances, unknown weapons, and world famous Huntsmen like Ozpin and Ironwood nearby on top of that…it was a horrible idea. There was a reason pretty much my entire plan up to this point had been to go around the enemy instead of through them.

Maybe it could have worked—for all their power, Huntsmen were people, too. They weren't infallible or all-knowing; today had been pretty solid proof of that. Not one but two different attempts on the White Whale had caught them off guard and though I didn't want to count my chickens before they hatched, one of them seemed to be going okay thus far.

More than that, no one was good at everything. That was pretty much the sole reason I'd gotten this far; I hit my opponents where they were weak and I was strong. I fought the Nevermore on the ground and Weiss in the dark, using my skills and abilities to get every advantage I could and exploit their weaknesses. Everyone had things they were good at and bad at and that held true of people as much as it did of monsters. Hunters were an elite but diverse group. Not every member was an espionage or intelligence expert and only a small fraction of even the local Hunter community would be attending an event like this in person. On top of all that, there was plenty of chaos all around us and I was getting pretty good at creating more on demand.

Given all that, I'd acknowledge that it was possible to succeed in such a way. Blake and I could have charged head first into a large group of higher level opponents that were already on guard with absolutely no information and we might have succeeded in saving and escaping with Adam. And after we saved him, we might be able to get back to the ship unnoticed, take off, and make good on our plan without getting caught. It was possible.

But it was also possible that I'd win the lottery—and honestly, that seemed more likely at the moment. Already I could see people keeping an eye on Adam, gesturing and whispering subtly to one another as they finished the cleanup. They had him in their grasps for all intents and purposes, and I could recognize something in their movements as the combat slowly died down. They were wary of the unknown, slowly fencing him further in. If we did something obvious, if Adam tried to just run away now…he wasn't getting out of there. I don't think he'd die, but he wasn't escaping that way. If it came down to it, I'd rather risk a rescue operation from whatever hole they threw him into than charge into that fray, because it probably had a better chance of working.

We couldn't fight them. Not all of them. Facing down the fullness of their power and overwhelming it had never been an option. The only thing we could do…was the same thing we'd been doing. Finding a battlefield where they couldn't exert that power.

'I have a plan,' I told her. 'Will use it if I have to. Need you to monitor what they're saying. Can you get close enough without getting caught?'

'Yes,' She said simply and I clipped my scroll to my waist, gathering Weiss up again as I got into position. Feeling a little guilty, I nabbed her fallen weapon as well as I walked passed it on my way into the hallway. If she was anything like I was with Crocea Mors, she would hate to lose it, but I also didn't want to risk her waking up at an inopportune time and stab me so I stowed it in my Inventory as moved through the ship towards the exit. Shifting Weiss so I could carry her over a shoulder, I checked my scroll as it beeped again.

'Thanking him, asking who he is. People suspicious of his power. Noting Faunus traits. Some people familiar? White Fang mentioned, accusations of involvement.' Blake said succinctly in a pair of messages, probably jolting down what stood out while listening carefully to the conversation. Other messages followed, with short pauses in between. 'Schnee robots used in the attack, confusion over who did what. Arguing over Adam's involvement. Saying there would have been casualties without him. Raising more questions. Accusing Adam, defending him. Wanting to know his intentions. Focus shifting to White Whale. Having trouble contacting the pilot. Schnee heiress missing, causing suspicions.'

'Is there any chance they'll let Adam go?' I typed back, scanning the messages. There was only so much she could write down while listening to what were probably dozens of confused, arguing people, but I trusted Blake to get everything important and I'd have to do my best to extrapolate the rest. I glanced over my shoulder where Levant followed silently and considered trying to boost the sound. I wasn't sure she could guide that many different voices that far, especially without giving something away, but…

I sighed. I knew the truth. Despite everything I'd done to Weiss, I hoped on one level that it was all for nothing. Maybe that was strange, to want to have made a mistake, but I didn't really believe in the whole sunk cost thing. If I could stop now and not need to go any further, if I was wrong, that would be…not good, considering what I'd done, but better then what would happen otherwise.

And yet, as much as I wanted it, I…

'Demands. The civilians are scared, panicking. Bigots making accusations, people trying to intervene causing more accusations. Adam waiting, saying nothing, getting ready. For us? Things getting bad, people trying to reach a compromise, talk of arrest pending investigation. Whatever you're doing, hurry.'

I already knew what would happen. That was probably the best result we could hope for—and yet, it was still a horrible result. Nothing was set in stone, but even assuming that they found nothing in Adam's background, which I rather doubted, Adam would probably take the fall for this, one way or another. Some of it could depend on who he got prosecuting him, on the judge and jury and biases towards Faunus, but just by being a member of the White Fang, he was probably doomed on that front even if the Schnee Dust Company didn't decide to take a hand in the proceedings. With the utter fiasco today, he'd be hung out to dry.

The worst part was, given the situation and the unknowns and everything that was going wrong, he'd probably take the heat for this even without a background if nothing was done. With the damage caused and the other party escaped, with what I'd done and would do…

But I'd known all that, too—and I wouldn't let it happen. I could make plenty of logical arguments, of how Adam's arrest under these circumstances could incite the White Fang, of the risk to innocent people when he struggled against what I'm sure he knew would lead towards imprisonment, and many other things. But in the end, something came before all that.

He was my friend.

I wasn't a fool. I knew that despite his reasons, despite his intentions and the logic within his beliefs, Adam had probably done his fair share of bad stuff. But he was my friend and I don't think that he was a bad person, truly.

Besides. I had just learned first had how easy it could be to do the wrong thing for what you felt were the right reasons. Could I have done what Adam did if I'd been in his shoes? I'd wondered and now I felt pretty sure the answer was yes. If it was for innocent people or for my friends…

I opened the door and stepped onto the edge, leaning out into the wind. Far below me, Adam was surrounded, a crowd of people like ants from this far away. I took a deep breath, partially to brace myself. I'd known this was coming, even before I'd first struck at Weiss. Again, I was faced with the question of if I could do it—and again, I knew the answer was yes.

I threw my head back and roared, then, the sound louder than any I'd ever made. Levant stepped up behind me, grabbing fistfuls of my cloak—and the sound got louder and louder still, rising into the roar of a beast that could have shaken the pillars of the Earth. Weiss woke with a start, blood beginning to trickle from her ears, but I'd already heaved her forward, leaning her out of the ship into the open air. She struggled at first and may have screamed, but if so it was a whisper drowned out by my voice and she froze in the face of that sound, in the face of the new nightmare she'd awoken into. She stood, powerless above over a thousand feet of empty space as the sound went on for a moment and finally died.

I felt her gripping my arm as tightly as she could, knuckles white and fingers shaking and wondered when I'd stop antagonizing this poor girl. Not yet, evidently.

As my air ran out, I sucked in another breath and looked down, my vision impossibly sharp through Lenore's eyes. I saw people looking up at the sound, saw expressions of shock and fear and, on a rare few people, simple, focused attention.

I spoke again, Levant's power carrying my voice upon the winds.

"Schnee," I said. "I have your ship. I have your daughter. Let's talk."