章 455: 11
"I don't care what alliances you have forged, Taurus, if you can't tell me their goals." Sienna Khan growled lowly, leaning back and letting out a long breath as he stared at the ceiling of his private room. "If you don't know your allies' motives, you can't trust them fully."
'Rabid Pulse', a club known to cater to Faunus, was situated at the edge of a major industrial district and low income housing- both places where Faunus tended to work and live, due to their status. While it wasn't exclusively open to faunus, the knowledge that the leader of the White Fang visited it almost daily kept any non-Faunus citizens far away from the bar. In the recent months, the Fang had graciously taken the burden of policing the streets neighboring it for the forces of Vacuo's own military and police- unprecedented peace and safety were the result.
For Faunus, at least.
The club itself was an old factory for automobiles, large, open spaces ideal for numerous dance floors and bars after they were stripped of their industrial equipment. High above the dark building's pulsing lights, and thrumming walls and halls, the symbol of the Fang flew proud and high.
Adam sat across from his 'leader', glaring at him from behind the safety of his mask in the dimly lit room that had once been an executive's office. Now it served as a private sitting room, used mainly for drinks and girls to entertain in. "But you can't argue that they haven't brought us success! Our ranks swell with eager Faunus, and even Humans that support our plight! And our raids have-"
"I am not interested in today's successes!" The tiger Faunus roared, leaning forward so golden eyes could bore into the smaller swordsman's own searchingly, and slamming a fist onto the couch. Sienna Khan was a titan of muscle hidden behind a simple suit. His russet hair making a mane around his head and draping down his back, and the broad axe he carried into battle hanging from his side menacingly. "These successes of yours always result in blood, and that echoes, Adam! It echoes around the world, and I end up seeing my men die for it. Or are you unaware of the recent killings here in Vacuo?"
"I am fully aware of it, and if you give me permission, I'll have Banesaw and two others of my best hunt them down." He nodded, feigning respect and forcing his voice to stay level, "Or perhaps you could allow me to do it personally."
"No." Sienna said quietly, shaking his head tiredly, "Honestly, Adam, do you think your butchery enough to answer every problem? How do you plan to deal with the Humans in Vale if your little plans work out? And don't deny that to be the endgame, I have men loyal to me even in Vale and its White Fang branch."
Adam grunted, turning to stare at the wall with a small frown, "Then we'll show them justice, and bring peace."
"You mean you'll kill everyone who disagrees, and force the others to be silent and accept their oppression." Sienna Khan observed quietly, shaking his head angrily and growling lowly, "Truly, I believe Ghira may have been right about you."
"That traitor is a coward and a fool who abandoned our cause!"
"He founded our cause, and united the disparate factions of Faunus!" Sienna roared back, standing to his full eight-foot height and glaring down at the comparatively diminutive man, "And he left only because he didn't wish to stain his hands with blood, while I was willing to make that sacrifice! You will respect that, or I will break you."
Adam sat in silence for several long seconds, refusing to give but also unwilling to challenge the man even with Wilt and Blush on his hip. The man huffed, "You will end your relations with this woman of yours, or I shall kill her with my own hands, nothing else is to be allowed."
"Understood." He grunted, standing and turning to walk from the room with a hand on his blade unconsciously. Sienna Khan watched him leave without comment, eyes carefully analysing his every inch as the door swung shut with a quiet click, mind racing in tandem with Adam's own.
"Only a fool doesn't know when he's a puppet whose strings are being pulled against a knife, Adam." He said with a sad smile, pulling his Scroll from his pocket and dialing a number. "Hey, Al, I have a request…"
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Jaune sat for several long hours, well into the night, pouring over the book's every detail, reaching out for the answers that had to be there. He read and reread every story in it, the numerous versions recounted in it spinning different tales. Small differences, but if Ozpin gave him the book for a reason….
Jaune blinked, straightening suspiciously and looking around. How had Ozpin even known to suspect him? He'd only ever spoken about what he'd seen and felt directly to his teammates in JNPR, so there was no way he could know without them telling him.
His eyes opened wide in realization when he felt his Scroll vibrate. He pulled it out and hung up on the caller, ending the vibrations, heaving in sudden terror. The Scrolls… Beacon issued each to their students, and he knew their features. Tracking, special vital monitoring equipment the school could use to rescue imperiled students or to help with diagnosis post-combat or mission. It wasn't even just suggested, is was required to take one with you.
How hard would it be to hide equipment in something like a Scroll to listen in?
He flipped it open in spite of that, dialing for Pyrrha without a thought. He knew he could trust her, sensed it and had heard it reinforced a million and one times. She would help him. Goodwitch herself had even said- thought, rather- that she'd fight the very Headmaster himself when she'd taken Jaune to speak to the man; and that had been about something so pathetically small in comparison he almost cried.
"J-Jaune?" Pyrrha mumbled sleepily, Nora's snoring barely audible in the background, "What's wrong? You never came back, so I waited up… I must've dozed off though, because it's-"
"That doesn't matter, Pyrrha." He snapped, looking down at the book in fright and fisting a bunch of his hair, "I need you to come to the library, we need to talk... I need your help."
"With training?" She asked, bleariness gone from her voice, "You're doing fine, Jaune…. Why do you sound so scared? What's happened?"
"I just…" He paused, looking at the Scroll with wide, bright eyes for a moment, his hand shaking, "I just got some bad news is all, and I… I need someone I can trust to talk to. Alone."
"Oh Dust, Jaune…." He heard the quiet sounds of steps and a muted door clicking closed before she spoke again, "I'm on my way, I'll stay on the line so-"
"No!" He half-yelled, smacking a hand across his mouth and looking around in trepidation for a moment before sighing, "Leave your Scroll. Trust me, Pyr, and leave it somewhere."
The line was quiet for a long, tense, few seconds, in which Jaune wished so badly that his power could tell him what she was thinking right then, before she responded. "Okay, Jaune. If that's what you need, I shan't refuse you. Where are you exactly, anyway? The library should be locked to students at this hour."
"I never left it, and… I'll explain that too, I promise. Just hurry, and avoid anyone in the halls. I'll let you in when you get here." He said quietly, closing the book and standing straight. He closed the Scroll before she could answer, and went to the door impatiently, looking for the red blip that would mark the hall's camera and grimacing when he saw one pointed at the door through the crack he made when he opened it slightly.
It only took a few minutes before he heard Pyrrha's emotions in the hall, turbulent and afraid as he'd expected they'd probably be, and hoped they wouldn't be. He opened the door before she could knock, grabbing the hoplite and pulling her into the room, the girl staggering into it in surprise and turning to him with wide, vivid, green eyes to stare into equally vivid blue.
"Jaune, what is happening to you?" 'You aren't yourself….' She stepped back from him nervously, unconsciously raising her shield-arm across her chest on instinct. A move he knew came from her yearning for her arms and armor, "What has happened to make you like this?"
"Your Scroll, where is it?" He demanded shortly, tossing his own against the wall and dashing it to pieces.
"I-I left it in a planter near our room so I could easily retrieve it." She answered, looking him up and down and taking a breath, her emotions balancing by force, "Now, please Jaune.…" 'Explain yourself. Justify all of this to me.'
"Ozpin came to see me and I… he didn't say anything, I but I heard him anyways," He walked past her, grabbing her hand and dragging her along, ignoring her emotions.
"Jaune?" She asked, or thought, he couldn't tell without looking. He felt the swirl of emotions. Fear, anxiety, a pang of slight joy, all spinning around in her head and mingling with his own feelings.
It was suffocating.
He let her go when they reached his table, pointing at the book with a single finger, "He knows what I told you, and suspects what I haven't. He… he gave me that book, said I should read it, that it would help me understand. Or maybe he didn't, but that's what he meant, what he wanted."
"Jaune, what do you mean?" She asked quietly, shaking her head and biting her lip nervously, "I… I want to help, I swear this to you, but you need to… to-" '- to make some Dust damned sense.'
He closed his eyes, thinking quickly and, probably, rashly. Then he sighed and looked at her, "Then let me explain, so I can make some 'Dust damned sense', as you said."
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Ozpin blinked when the boy smashed his own Scroll, eyes wide in slight surprise before he set down the mug he held and leaned forward, flipping to another hidden camera in the library and smiling almost reverently, "You figured out the Scrolls… That's the first test resoundingly solved, I'd say."
He flicked his fingers across a terminal, the button lighting up as he dialed Glynda. She answered on the second ring, as always, "Yes, Headmaster? What is it?"
"Mister Arc appears to have found out about our audio monitoring via Scrolls." He said simply, smiling pleasantly when the woman's eyes widened on the other end, "He smashed his own, and had Miss Nikos leave hers behind as well, so they could talk about the book I left with him."
"I…. What should we do, then?" She asked quietly, standing up from her bed.
"Come here, and… give the library a very wide berth. Even if it slows you down, stay far away." He smiled wider, tapping his finger on the desk rhythmically and ending the call before she could answer him. "When you eliminate the possible…."
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"I-I didn't-"
"No." He interrupted lightly, collapsing into a chair with a light sigh, "You didn't say it, you thought it." He winced at her shock before pointing behind her."
"I… I did, but how do you know that?" "You can't have known that… Did I say it aloud?" She eased into a chair across from him, tenting her fingers together on the table and looking at him anxiously.
"You didn't say it out loud, Pyr. I heard it anyways." He smiled slightly, a grimace more than anything, at the crimson haired champion, "I heard your thoughts, Pyrrha. Right out of your head."
"Impossible." She said almost instantly, eyes wide and lip trembling, "I… that shouldn't be possible." 'And even if it is possible, it simply shouldn't be in the slightest.'
"A Semblance can be anything at all, Pyrrha. Like Oobleck said in class the other day. Speed, Durability, Clones, Electrical Control… Telepathy." He shrugged, smiling at her honestly and breathing shakily, "I have been reading thoughts since you awakened my Aura in Initiation. More than that, I can… feel things. Like your emotions, right now." Terror, anxiety, horror, shock, "I can feel it all, just like I would."
"That's… that's wrong, Jaune. To invade someone's thoughts that way is…." she paused, searching for words, and staring at her hands with lidded, sad eyes, "I can't…."
"I wouldn't do it if I could choose not to." He said quietly, reaching over and touching her hands with his as he knew she wanted- as he knew would help. "But it's as much a part of me as my hands are, and I can't change that. Only accept it, and use it right."
"And how can you expect to do that? For how many moons can your resolve last, before you begin using your ability to make money? Friends? …Lovers, even?" She demanded, looking at him with suddenly hard green eyes, "How long can you stay you when you know all, Jaune?" 'There is a reason that only the gods may know our hearts."
"You're right." he said, nodding quietly before looking into her eyes, "Which is why I need your help, Pyrrha. Or one way I need it, at least."
"What do you mean?" She asked quietly, mouth slightly parted in surprise and eyes searching his.
"What I mean is that I need you to help me keep myself. I can't control my power, so I need you to help control me." He smiled, pulling away and leaning back, sensing the girl's disappointment, "You're the best person I know, Pyr. And my partner besides."
She closed her eyes for several seconds, before sighing and looking at him levelly, "One's partner is an important thing in Mistral, Jaune. So long as you don't misuse your Semblance, I will stand beside you gladly. My shield and sword are yours so long as you deserve them, may they never waver." He sensed the reverence of the words, and smiled at her emotions as they stabilised.
"Now… I have a story to tell you. One I suspect is true, and one I need your shield and sword for more than anything." He slid the book across to her, smiling nervously, "And this will be more unbelievable."
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Ozpin laughed. Happily, brightly, and celebratorily. Jaune was far more than he'd ever thought… A gamble made, and a reward won. Now he only needed to test his mettle in combat, to decide what to do next fully. When the elevator opened, and Glynda stepped in with wide eyes, she sighed.
"Did you drink Bart's coffee again, Headmaster?"
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Salem paced her meeting room angrily in a way that left Tyrian, even in his own sycophantic way, anxious. She'd sensed his mind touch her Grimm, in a way that she knew had told him too much… But did he know how to use that information?
Her spies, her little birds, had heard nothing so far. It was clear that he either didn't know how to use it, or didn't know it at all. Both were useful, though she felt it best he be eliminated before he ever had the chance to worsen the thorn he'd become.
"Tyrian." She said quietly, turning to the eagerly waiting, yet still nervous, man suddenly and waiting for him to slink towards her before speaking, "I have a job for you. Something very special to me. Something I would consider a personal favor to me, if you were to do it."
"Anything for you, my queen, you know you have but to ask me." He said, suppressing a mad cackle only barely, "Of course, my Queen, anything." He gave a maniacal grin and a mad cackle as he bowed lowly. "I would fight for you, die for you, kill for you…Fight, die, kill, oh yes, kill! Who would you like me to kill? Should I make a brilliant, public display, or a slow piece of the purest, most… Visceral form of art… All in dedication to you?"
"I know, my precious child." She suppressed a grimace at his joyous chuckle and reached out to touch his face, to keep his mind on her words and in the moment, "Go to Vale for me. Find someone. A boy. I have asked Cinder to look for him as well, but she has much on her plate."
"Nothing should be as important as your request!" He snarled, turning around and shoving aside a chair angrily. "She should drop everything, everything, for your words alone!"
"Perhaps, but she has her own duty. I have given her many tasks… And I need you to gather information." She let her hand droop, smiling at his sad whimper, "Find out who at Beacon can sense my guiding hand among the Grimm. All I know is that he is blonde haired, and wields a blade and shield. If he is a threat to me, perhaps I will allow you to deal with him as you see fit. If he is a potential ally..."
The man raced off cackling in excitement, and Salem resumed her pacing. This time, with a wan, confident smile.
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Cinder growled to herself, resting on a couch in a random club under Roman's thumb, the name not important enough for her to care to remember. "So, you see, I can't get much more Dust without the Kingdom calling in more specialists to try and put the old squeeze on me." Roman continued, pretending to ignore the threatening glare he was receiving, "Neo can continue, of course, and in a matter of weeks I can too, once the heat towards yours truly dies down a bit."
"We need that Dust, Roman." She said simply, smiling at him coldly and titling her head in what would have been flirtatious, had her hand not burst into flame beside her head, "And funny you should mention the heat, given your predicament if you fail me."
"We have enough for a moderately large army! Or a very large series of explosions." He argued, waving his hands defensively, "There's not much left in smaller towns, it's mostly military and Huntsmen anyways. You'll start losing out on Dust by attacking them."
"That's fine, Roman." She said quietly, watching his face grow confused for a moment, "I don't seek to gain from those fights, only for them to lose out on their own supplies."
"But why would you-"
"You're thinking, Roman. Not obeying." She said with a click of her tongue, shaking her head, "You know thinking isn't your place until I say it is. So don't. Use the White Fang, cause some chaos, and weaken the Kingdom's weak willed defenders."
"Fine, fine." He said quietly, false bravado echoing hollowly, "I'll raise some hell then, just don't roast me when you're shorter on Dust than you'd like, okay?"
"Be careful, and you won't have anything to worry about." She said, alluding to both herself and all other involved parties as well, "Now leave, I wish for rest. This room is rather nice."
He stood and walked stiffly to the door, grumbling to himself lowly, "Should be, it's supposed to be mine…"
"What was that, dear Roman? I couldn't quite hear you." She smiled at his back, crossing her arms under her breasts alluringly and smiling at him, "Did you say something?"
"Nope!" He said brightly, slamming the door shut as she chuckled darkly.
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