章 65: More Questions
A/N: A decision is made. But as it turns out, not everything is as it seems...
-x-X-x-
Admittedly, Jaune already knows what he wants to do. But he still gives Salem a look, silently asking for her opinion. She gives it without reservation of course.
We will have to go with the girl, I'm afraid.
Jaune can't help but raise an eyebrow at that. He'd come to the same conclusion, truth be told. The only downside would be the blow to their pride in 'attending' to another ruler instead of making her come to them, but it was better that than turning this into a full-blown brawl that might result in Kali's home being destroyed. Still, he would have expected Salem of all people to argue otherwise.
Even if we did reject the offer and fight off this Sienna Khan's lackies tonight, she would just continue harassing us for the rest of our visit to Menagerie, my beloved. This is supposed to be a vacation, so it's far better to nip this in the bud now. Besides, if we have to deal with Khan in a more permanent fashion, we might have to do the same to Kali's estranged daughter. Best to do that out of her sight, given she already lost her husband.
Ah. There was the callous, inhuman monster he knew and loved. Jaune gives Salem a pointed look and very deliberately focuses on his response to that. They were not, under any circumstances, going to kill Blake Belladonna. Not after they just fucked the girl's mother. Salem rolls her eyes at that but nods her head infinitesimally in agreement with him.
This all takes about a second, and Blake and Kali are still engaging in a stare down that looks like it's going to ramp up into a full-blown family fight when Jaune turns back to them and cuts in with a smile.
"Very well. We'll come with you, Blake Belladonna. We'll meet with this… Sienna Khan."
Both Blake and Kali jolt in surprise at that, with Blake looking pleased after a moment.
"Good. High Leader Khan will be happy to have you."
Looking between them, Kali looks ready to protest… but then at the last second changes her mind, an expression of pure determination spreading across her face.
"Fine then! I'm coming too!"
Blake looks alarmed by that.
"What?! Mom, you can't!"
But Kali is already getting her coat, her mind made up.
"And why can't I? Are these not MY guests? I've welcomed them into my home, given them food, and offered them a bed to rest their heads. I am responsible for them, Blake. And besides, whatever Councilwoman Khan has to say to these two can be said in front of me. I am the Chieftainess of Menagerie, after all."
There's emphasis placed on 'Councilwoman' that makes it clear Kali doesn't have any respect for Sienna's position within the White Fang… nor does she have any respect for the White Fang themselves. Blake frowns but doesn't look like she knows how to convince her mother to say. Truth be told, Jaune would have preferred Kali have stayed home as well… but at the same time, perhaps her presence would keep Salem from going full Queen of the Grimm if Sienna turned out to be too much of an uppity bitch to be reasoned with.
"Fine!"
Blake bites out her response, throwing her hands up in the air as she finally gives in. At the end of the day, she's still completing her mission after all. Jaune and Salem follow Blake and Kali out of the house and into the cool night air, with Jaune himself feeling a mixture of amusement and bemusement over the situation.
The bemusement definitely overtakes the amusement a moment later however, when they find themselves stopped by Blake's backup. Or rather… what Jaune and Salem had ASSUMED were Blake's backup all this time.
"What… the Albain Brothers? What are they doing here?"
Blake's whispered words, which don't go missed by Jaune, Salem, OR her own mother judging by Kali's twitching ears, make it clear that he and his Queen's assumption was completely wrong.
"Corsac. Fennec. What are you two doing here?"
In front of them, a pair of faunus wearing white and black robes with red hoods block their way. The two definitely look similar enough to be brothers, but that could just be the fact that they're dressed identically save for Fennec's faunus traits pushing out of the top of his hood in the form of large animal ears, while Corsac doesn't seem to have the same.
Both men have matching smiles on their faces though, with Corsac being the one to step forward. With his arms clasped behind his back, he offers them all a bow.
"Apologies for the intrusion, but we're here to take these two off your hands, Blake. We'll be sure to get them where they need to go from here."
Soft-spoken. That's the first impression Jaune gets from the male faunus. And yet… he can tell that it belies something deeper within. Something darker. Blake, meanwhile, furrows her brow in consternation.
"Sienna didn't tell me anything about this. She gave me specific orders; I'm supposed to deliver them directly to her."
Fennec pipes up next, proving to be just as soft-spoken as his brother.
"Orders change all the time, Blake. You don't need to worry. Just pass them off to us and spend the rest of this evening with your mother."
Jaune tilts his head, nonplussed. What was this, exactly? An internal power struggle with the White Fang? And with them caught in the middle of it. How annoying. Salem clearly agrees with him because not only can he feel her irritation through the magical connection she's forged between them, he can also feel her reaching out with her magic.
The other eighteen faunus surrounding the property haven't moved yet, even though it's obvious now that they're Corsac and Fennec's backup, not Blake's. That doesn't make Salem any less aware of them and the threat they pose, however. Not to her and Jaune of course. They pose absolutely zero threat to the pair of disguised Grimm Humanoids. But with Kali and Blake potentially in the line of fire…
Jaune nods his head ever so slightly in approval as Salem magically puts all of the Albain Brothers' back up to sleep, making them all slump down in their hiding spots and begin snoozing. No muss, no fuss. Meanwhile, back with Blake…
"I'll have to call this in then. Confirm with Sienna that this is okay."
"That won't be necessary."
Corsac's reply is immediate and while still relatively soft-spoken, it's also definitively sharper than before. Blake's eyes narrow as her suspicions are confirmed.
"Sienna didn't send you at all! This has Adam's mark written all over it! What does he want with these two, huh? What did he promise you both for helping him? Sienna is still High Leader of the White Fang, last I checked! You owe her your loyalty before Adam Taurus!"
Corsac and Fennec exchange a glance at that before letting out matching sighs.
"Blake… you're letting your paranoia get the better of you. Please be reasonable."
At the same time that Corsac is speaking, Fennec is making hand signals behind his back clearly intended to alert their backup to start moving in for a takedown if need be. And it certainly looks like they'll need it, because Blake is hissing and spitting like a cat who just got tossed into water.
"I AM being reasonable! It's you two who have bought into Adam's bullshit!"
Corsac and Fennec's smiles remain on their faces… but slowly become more and more fixed in place as nothing happens despite Fennec's signaling. After a moment of silence, the Albain Brothers glance around for a moment, their brows furrowing in confusion and consternation. When absolutely nothing continues to happen on account of their goons all taking a nap on them, they slowly begin to tense up.
After all, without their backup… well, they're quite outnumbered here. Four on two is a lot better odds for the four then four on twenty is, that's for sure. Fortunately for the brothers, Blake gives them an easy out, her hand dropping to the weapon holstered at her waist.
"Get out of my way you two. And tell Adam that Sienna WILL hear about this."
Exchanging one last set of glances between them, Corsac and Fennec adopt pained smiles as they step aside, backing down.
"You're being ridiculous, Blake."
"Taurus had nothing to do with any of this."
"We're all loyal members of the White Fang at the end of the day."
"Don't let your paranoia divide us."
Blake snarls at the two of them and keeps her hand on her weapon even as she leads the way past them. Jaune eyes the two brothers, both with his real eyes and then through Salem's magic once they've walked past, half-expecting them to try something even now. But no. They're too cowardly to do that from the look of things… either that or they aren't committed enough to risk it.
Still, that WAS interesting. Blake had really come alone on Sienna's orders with no backup to force the issue if Jaune and Salem said no. He wondered why that was. And he wondered what would have happened if they had said no now. Would Blake have left and then Corsac and Fennec would have tried their hand at convincing them? Well… it didn't matter now, Jaune supposed.
Unbeknownst to Blake, Salem had just saved her from quite the battle, salvaging her mission. Now it was time to meet this Sienna Khan at long last. It didn't slip past Jaune that after performing a false flag operation as White Fang, he was now meeting with the White Fang's High Leader. This was going to be… interesting to say the least. What sort of woman was Sienna Khan, exactly? What could they expect to find at the end of this rabbit hole?
-x-X-x-
"High Leader Khan! The two faunus you requested. And…"
Before Blake can introduce her mother's presence, Kali does it for her, stepping forward with eyes narrowed and hands on her hips.
"What exactly is the meaning of this, Councilwoman Khan? Sending my daughter as your errand girl? Dragging us here to this cave? If you wished to meet with these two, it should have been in your office, generously provided to all Council Members of Menagerie. And it should have been in the light of day."
As Kali lays into Sienna, Jaune notes how the other faunus in the audience chamber all bristle in agitation at the disrespect. Sienna herself, meanwhile, remains unmoved at least visually. She sits on a rather large throne at one end of the room, a few steps up on a dais so that she can look down at them all from on high. At first glance, she seems completely in control, implacable even in the face of Kali's verbal diatribe. And yet…
She's dying.
Jaune grunts softly at Salem's words in his mind. Even without her magic, Jaune could have deduced that something was wrong with the White Fang's High Leader. She was sick. It was obvious to someone with his senses. The smell of sickness in the air was faint, no doubt masked by a number of things on Sienna's part to hide it from her faunus brethren… but it WAS there. More than that, while she'd done a good job of covering up other signs of her illness as well, Jaune could see right through them. Her makeup likely wouldn't last much longer before she sweated through the stuff with how hard she was perspiring.
This whole situation got curiouser and curiouser. But before they got to the bottom of things, they had to play out this lovely bit of theater first.
"A coward like you doesn't get to speak to High Leader Khan like that! You and your-!"
"Enough."
Just before the fateful word 'husband' could be uttered, Sienna cuts off the subordinate who spoke up out of turn. The High Leader's hand has come up in a fist, commanding a sudden stillness from the room. Kali, meanwhile, looks completely calm… but Jaune can tell that calm hides a bonfire of rage burning in her heart. If the faunus who'd piped up had gotten out that last word… Kali wouldn't have been able to control herself.
"Leave us. Now."
There's some hesitation at that and yet none of them question her. It's obvious they don't know she's sick, because her rule over the White Fang, at least those in this room, is apparently still quite ironclad. In the end, they all begin to file out, with Blake hesitating for a moment, as if uncertain the order applies to her as well. In the end though, Sienna gestures for her to go and so she goes, leaving the High Leader alone with just him, Salem, and Kali.
The moment that the doors to the audience chamber close, Kali wastes no time in spilling the beans.
"You're sick."
Jaune can't help but be a little surprised by that. He knew how he and Salem had noticed, but how had Kali known when none of the other faunus seemed capable of detecting it? Why hadn't she said something in front of all of the others?
Letting out a weak smile, Sienna Khan opens her mouth to speak… only to launch into a coughing fit that results in her spraying blood all over the fist she brings to her lips. With a snarl, the tiger faunus wipes her hand across her clothes, seemingly uncaring for appearances at this point.
"Of course you would notice. I imagine you're recognizing familiar symptoms, aren't you?"
Kali's eyes narrow and she crosses her arms over her chest. Understanding dawns for Jaune just as she speaks up and confirms it.
"You have whatever my Ghira had. And from the look of things, you've had it for only a few hours. Meaning you have a week left to live."
A few hours? Jaune's eyes widen at that. Kali had told them how fast Ghira wasted away, but he didn't know the illness came on this fast. Really, no wonder the White Fang didn't know yet. It hadn't been long enough for them to catch on. Still, an illness that took someone healthy and in their prime from peak physical condition to coughing up blood in just a few hours… that didn't sound like sickness. That sounded more like…
"You are not sick."
Jaune raises a brow as Salem steps forward, interrupting the other two women. Sienna and Kali both look at her in confusion, causing the disguised 'dragon faunus' to flick out her fingers and scoff.
"You are dying, of course. That's undeniable. But sick? No. You are not sick. You have been poisoned."
Shock ripples through both of the faunus women at that. Sienna's shock and horror have nothing on Kali's slow dawning realization and anger, however.
"But… if Sienna has been poisoned and shares the same symptoms as Ghira…"
Salem nods, surprisingly solemn and even pitying as she gazes at the Chieftainess of Menagerie.
"Yes. He was likely poisoned as well."
Well. Shit.
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