Internal Woes

"Auuuughh"

The people in the room all snapped a look at the physically spent Ruby who had been at best asleep for 2 hours. It wasn't that much but chugging milk and coffee were beginning to do more than deteriorate her already tired mind.

Yang walked over and patted her head before looking closer. "You okay sis?" She then notices bags under her eyes being hidden by makeup. "Oh no, not this again," she recalls Blake's similar experience.

"I know, I know." Ruby lazily repeats. "I should probably rest up but the threat of those past council members keeps me up at night. I was helping out with what I could by coordinating the Gestapo all night, I wonder how they keep themselves up."

Blake understood the pressure, she had been in this situation before. "It's been very busy ever since we formed the Volksreich. Though, do you not have subordinates you can count on? Hanns said it's fine to find people in the military with the talent to do so."

Ruby props herself up immediately and races to face Blake. "Wait, really?"

"I guess you haven't been around Hanns too much. We all already have people we picked out you know? Each of them focused on parts Hanns entrusted to us, so we can leave it to them when we're away."

"You didn't tell me we could do that?! What about Yang, I don't see how she could be useful." She points to her sister before adding a "No offense." right after.

"None taken. Rubes, do you not know what we all do?"

She looks around shyly and admits it. "No…"

"Well, Blake handles the military side of things, everything from dispatching Grimm death squads to defending from an attack because she had experience beforehand. Weiss is responsible for anything related to the economy and is sort of the public figurehead since she learned a lot about that kinda stuff."

Ruby was astounded, she actually never asked what they do. "Huh, but I never see you outside from here Blake."

"I don't personally go there, I let my majors handle everything. Because of the Atlesian merger, I had to look over some that participated in the battle to handle the larger units. I promoted the officers who led the battle and some of their recommendations."

Yang coughed and continued.

"Neo and Torchwick now handle the internal affairs, just like propaganda and arresting people, I think I don't need to explain why. Finally, I keep public opinion in a normal way and manage the policies related to society. So from school funding to talking to the local leaders, smoothing things over with business owners, and maybe in the future sending out diplomats to the other kingdoms."

Yang looks around before adding another comment. "Also, I have something going on with Menagerie, so look out for that."

"Wait are you sure you're the best person for that? I don't see you talking… normally. Don't you usually punch stuff?"

"Well, I do… but Hanns told me I'm the one who's confident and outgoing so I guess he got something right. Besides, I get enough punching with training."

"Training? You can still train?"

"Well, I borrowed some people from the military. It's pretty much integrated with everyone. There are talented people in the military so I have a lot of time to practice with some off-duty soldiers. They can put up a fight despite not having an aura, apart from the officers of course."

Ruby shrivels into a blob on the ground as everyone looked on with pity. She had been so engrossed in her own work too much that she didn't know what was going around her.

Blake gets up and walks to the door. "I'll tell Hanns you need some rest, maybe we need to work harder to make it easier for you Ruby."

~

Weiss was watching over the columns of tanks and men marching along to a march that Hanns introduced to them.

Hanns of course took all of it from his world, it wasn't hard to replicate what he knew based on the melodies and lyrics. While playing Warthunder, Hanns has a dedicated playlist for every nation. No wonder, he could replicate the marches.

A show of strength meant anything, a parade was one thing but broadcasting it through the CCT is what made the objective finished. Part of importing culture was there too but Hanns already put Yang in charge of teaching said culture to schools.

Weiss was satisfied looking over the thousands of men, Blake spared her a few thousand to work with while pausing some operations all over Solitas.

While it may seem counterintuitive to take away soldiers to do a parade, the negativity lessened from seeing active troops were a positive Hanns didn't mind.

But among the crowd of people listening on, a man with fury in his heart clutched a device hidden in his jacket. He closes in to the acting Fuhrer, pretending to get a closer look and taking pictures like everyone else.

A guard blocks a sizeable distance from them, fully armored and in no way able to get through without a fight.

The man has an ace up his sleeves, he had an aura and a semblance. He breathes in deeply before charging in.

"Hey, you!" A soldier yelled out as he felt the chill of the man passing through him. He spots the device being out from the jacket. "Everyone watch out!"

Screams suddenly echoed as the man pauses from his step and throws the device over to Weiss. She narrows her eyes as the bomb travels to her.

"For the Council! A free Atlas!" The man screams as dozens of soldiers tackle him to the ground but get passed through because of his semblance.

Weiss unphased by the attack tilts her white commander's cap and lifts her rapier before glyph forms underneath her, she uses it as a platform and increased her speed to reach for the bomb before it could even form an arc.

The bomb has barely left the man's hand a second ago before Weiss poised her leg and kicked it as hard as she could upwards into the air.

She then switches her Myrtenaster to fire dust and points at the bomb before letting out a spray of flames above her.

*BOOM!*

The bomb explodes, barely affecting anyone in the radius as the man widens his eyes in disbelief before his semblance deactivates from use.

Soldiers around the man take the chance to restrain him and pummel the man with the stocks of their guns, shattering the man's aura and knocking him out.

Weiss didn't even seem scared at the action before readjusting her cap, tossed a bit from the explosion, as she goes back to her place and signaled to resume the parade.

The crowd slowly claps before everyone cheers at the fearless action. "Amazing!"

Though, it was a bit different on the inside. 'An assassination attempt?! I could've died from that if it produced that much gust of wind! Thank goodness I had enough reaction time. I need to speak to Hanns about this.'

Her hands were sweaty despite the cold. That was how scared she actually was, enough to defy the laws of nature.

It was all caught on camera too, the nature of the broadcast being live meant everyone in the world saw Weiss kicking away a bomb and walking away without flinching.

~

After the parade had ended, Weiss was ushered to a safer place and eventually reached the military building everyone else was in. She rushes for the room that Hanns usually frequents.

"Everyone, where is Hanns?" She asked around the room.

"Weiss! You didn't say you were here. Are you okay?! We watched it live when it happened." Ruby leaped for a hug as the rest of the team watched with worry.

"Ruby, it's fine." She gently pushed away Ruby. "You saw what I did and I got out of it without a scratch. I was scared, sure but I handled it decently enough in my opinion. Anyways, do you guys know where Hanns is?"

"Still! We were worried sick!" Ruby relaxed as Weiss affirmed her status. "If you need Hanns he told us a while ago that he's visiting Pietro."

Weiss nodded. "Thank you." She walks away and opened the door before turning around, noticing the lack of action among the members. "Why are you all here? Don't we still have things to do?"

"About that." Blake stood up to explain. "Hanns permitted us to, as long as we delegate it to our subordinates. We're also going to work hard next time, Hanns told us he has something to help with that."

"What do you mean?" Weiss asked.

"He said he has something for Merlot to make, I think it's called… Redbull. It's supposed to be an energy drink that Hanns has a few ideas on but he said something else under his breath."

"Under his breath? Did you hear it by accident?"

"Yes, he muttered something about less destructive methamphetamine-infused Redbull for the armed forces. I don't know what it means though."

"Oh…" she didn't recognize the long string of words. She shrugged and proceeded to exit the room. "I'll find him and maybe ask, see you all."

~

It took half an hour for Weiss to find her way to the clinic in Mantle where Pietro was. Traveling with escorts was not unusual for Weiss but an entire section of the military dedicated as her guard was more than what she knew.

"We'll wait for you outside. The perimeter will be watched so don't worry, we'll detain anyone suspicious."

"Thank you. It won't take long."

The soldier salutes before signaling to the others to spread around the building. Weiss sighed before heading inside the clinic.

'Where is he?' The sounds of machinery going off in the back of the room enters her senses. 'Are they working on something?' She goes closer and feels the door unlocked.

She creaked the only thing separating what Hanns was doing on the other side. Opening the door wide she stops frozen as the conversation slowly seeps into her mind.

"Hmm… I think that body could do better. Penny is a good base but I need to wear it like a skin-tight suit."

"I agree, look here." Pietro points to a severed robot head he had been working on. "Maybe this could work, I had this made just in case someone lost their entire face."

Hanns looks at it before commenting, "Could you maybe make this look better? There is beauty privilege so maybe people would have a better opinion of me while I commit human rights violations."

Not even bothered by the answer, Pietro thinks about it. He was a craftsman and would probably do a decent job. He made Penny after all.

"I could, it's going to be hard to source the parts from this. I could always use Penny's spare parts. I have a lot of them just in case she ever scraped off the skin from damage."

"Wait you have a collection of Penny spare parts?"

"I also have her old models. Seeing as I'm going to make this in a week as you say, I need someone to help me create the frame. There are a lot of problems trying to fit someone inside of a human-like shape. It's simply going to be bulky."

Hanns notices Weiss standing there with horror strewn all over her expression.

"Weiss? I didn't notice you there. Do you need something?"

Hanns didn't even think about what the room looked like, dozens of realistic-looking body parts were hung from racks. Heads of eerie realism patterned the tables that Pietro worked on.

"Hanns, these are all prostetics right? Why are they all so… real looking?" She points to a head without eyes laying on the corner of a table.

"Oh, I had Pietro try to make something for me. These were apparently the most expensive he has, so he usually stores them here. Prosthetics here usually are bare but he has a lot of them laying around."

Pietro raises his concerns. "It'll look like a robot more than a human for now, but I'll improve it over time. I made Penny, so it's not hard to make a robot that looks human. Though making a robot that can be worn as a suit while still looking like a normal human is harder."

"How did you even make it here?" Weiss asks. Everything about it was weird, Hanns fitting inside a barely tall enough room was ludicrous to think about.

Hanns replied, "The camouflaged wall doubles as a garage door now. It's made for me ever since I tried staying here before."

Weiss walks closer and eyes the different parts. "What are you planning?"

"For one, I need a publicly acceptable look, I don't think anyone would feel confident in a tank staring at them. Plus, it'll make it easier for me to enter places."

"So you're planning on revealing yourself to the world? As a human?"

"No, I'm going to say I'm a robot with a soul. It isn't exactly a well-thought-out plan but I need to do it."

Hanns thinks to himself, 'Not that I personally want it, the quests says I need to but I don't want to incriminate myself by showing that I'm a conscious transforming vehicle.'

Weiss understood what he meant. "Is that so? Anyways, Hanns we need to do something about the council. They openly started assassinating me earlier, we need to take action."

"Yeah, I've heard." Hanns considered it. "It could be time for that… I want to join you when dealing with the rest of the remaining council."

"We're going to publicly execute officials?"

"No, not yet. We're going directly against them, find out where they have placed themselves, and raid it. Then smear their name and finally get them out of the equation. I recall we have a few left, right?"

Weiss nodded and picked out her modified scroll and navigated to her notes. She opens each of their files, the display showed pictures of them being either crossed out with only three left unmarked.

"The old economic minister, Fera Violet. The representative for the outlying villages, Ash Veneer. Finally, Weil Stygian the monopolistic business owner. The others have been arrested already but these are the more influential which is why they are so hard to pin down."

"We'll get the rest of the team to help out. If they're openly showing hostility, they must be up to something. I can't risk a threat to our stability."

Weiss reflexively salutes as she heard those words from him. "Of course, Hanns."

~

A room filled with 3 people was in an unnamed location outside of the capital city. The 3 argue over the recently failed attacks. The influence was still strong with the people of Atlas which they had more control over but it was deteriorating.

"So, the attack failed… what do we do now? She knows we're after her."

"Don't worry, they might not know we are behind it." Fera assumes.

Weil slams his hand on the table, the cups of coffee splattering all over the surface as he stands up in a rage.

"Foolish woman, we are the only ones going against them, what else are they going to think when someone with a bomb attacks their leader?!"

A knock on the door came as the guard announces his presence. "Excuse me? Someone wants to see you all."

"Who is it?! Turn them away! We have no time to entertain some random shmuck in the middle of an important talk!"

The door forcefully swings open as a man with slightly tanned skin with short grey hair enters the room. He adjusts his long coat as his green eyes loom over the three previous council seatholders.

"Arthur Watts… you can call me Watts. A pleasure to meet you." He respectfully bows before approaching the three alarmed individuals.

"Who do you think you are-"

"I am a solution to your problems, being aware of the situation you find yourselves in is what I know very well."

"We don't need you."

Watts smiles as he gently brushes the tip of his mustache with the ends of his finger. "Oh, but you do. You find yourself in the middle of a frozen village covered in snow instead of the luxurious dining rooms you so rightfully deserve."

They all look at each other with doubt but their curiosity peaks. "…Explain."

"I have a proposition for you all that you would be wrong to reject."