Fandom Distorted Mirror [IC]

[MyrtenRose]

"Additional intel from the head honcho, ladies 'n other folk! This just went from bein' a scout run to watchdog duty. Everyone with a lick o' ridin' experience, saddle up; those without, double up. Madame Schnee, per usual if'n you would be so inclined as to be our eyes from the sky. Mister Grey, you may as well ride with me up on the Stranger here. Rest o' you boys know what to do."

They gave deferential nods to those they addressed specifically, before swinging themselves up onto the chestnut brown stallion already primed and ready to go next to them and offering their fellow masked insurgent a hand.

"Huh." She couldn't help but wonder what exactly brought about the change, but Robyn got on one of the horses nevertheless as she thought about it. Ruby did likewise, though with far less comfortable familiarity than Miss Hill. It took her a few minutes. Not that she couldn't get on, she did that much with ease. But every time she did, it just...didn't feel right, and Ruby kept going off and getting back on until it felt she was in a proper seated position that didn't feel weird. Yet... "Er, does anyone have some advice for a uh...first time rider...on how to handle?" She'd never really rode a horse before.

Nora in the meantime, didn't go for a horse. Instead...​

Someday she was going to stop pretending that accent made any kind of sense. Winter's eyes narrowed slightly with concentration, and through the elaborate glyph forming next to her (a sight liable to give even the most hardened among the organization PTSD episodes following recent events) stepped the spectral recollection of a Manticore, Grimm known throughout Solitas and well noted for their flight speed and mobility.

"HEY CAN I RIDE WITH YOU?!"

 

[Gus Gungus]

"HEY CAN I RIDE WITH YOU?!"

"...I don't know... can't you just get on a horse?"​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"...I don't know... can't you just get on a horse?"​

"But...that's not as fun as riding a grimm. Been there, done that. Rode an Ursa on my first day at school." : ) "Besides...having some back-up is good, isn't it?"​

 

[Gus Gungus]

It earned them a sigh of relief, and the bartender began remaking Neo's drink because this was apparently how today was going to go. "...So. We uh... we weren't sure what happened, as you know, so... me n' the boys n' gals tried to keep things runnin as best we could, made a decent amount n' all, but we ran into a problem couple days ago. Someone who wants a meetin with miss Malachite herself, and who ain't too keen on takin no for an answer. Honest up and down glad you're back misses, and its a pleasure Mr. Black, but I reckon that they'll be back tomorrow and they won't be too keen if we tell em' no again, and we're not too keen on them not bein too keen since its the uh..." She cleared her throat again.

"...The shadowfang, and all...."

DRAMATIC LIGHTNING FLASH

"Oh."

Neither of them really cared that much. Emerald's straw made slurpy noises as she polished off the last of her cosmo, and Mercury noisily crunched his way through the entire fistful of pretzels he'd yoinked out of the bowl (at least half its contents) and shoved into his mouth all at once before Neo could stop him or take any for herself. "Those twerps are still knocking around? Yeah, don't worry about them. We'll get rid of them."

Merc swallowed. "I know the perfect spot to bury the bodies."

"It's true, he really does."

The assassin's son grimaced as his taste buds went from salty goodness to pretending to enjoy his whiskey straight, because that was what big men did. He polished off the glass and motioned for another double, then slowly leaned over towards Emerald.

"Psst. Think we're missing something here?"

"Who cares? We do our own thing now. No more clone shenanigans or saving the world, we're just three friends hanging out. We have every right to be."

"Good point. Also, Neo's no longer a liquor virgin."

"Yeeeeaaaaaahhhhh, we should keep an eye on that."

They both turned around and stared at her, only for the motion to bring them face to face with literally the last person either of them ever expected to see again.

No...it couldn't have been...

Pulling the hood on his jacket down, Tyrian bounded over to where Neo sat. Getting uncomfortably close as he quirked his head to the side inquisitively.

"That's....Really Neo. Huh."

He turned his head and glanced over at Mercury and Emerald, the gusto he'd built up to initially storm this place starting to dissipate.

"What...What are you guys doing here?"

"...Tryshfnm?"

Gulp.

"Tyrian? The hell, man? We live here now. Have you just been like, hanging out here this entire time? How have we never run into you?"

He shifted over to shoo him away from Neo's personal space, brow a little protective in how it furrowed. Emerald's cheek was in her palm as she stared over at the faunus, offering little more than a flat, unimpressed roll of the eyes.

"Woooooooow, it's the guy who bled all over my favorite outfit and ruined it! Hi, that guy!" She glanced over at the bartender. "If I tell you to shoot him, will you?"​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"But...that's not as fun as riding a grimm. Been there, done that. Rode an Ursa on my first day at school." : ) "Besides...having some back-up is good, isn't it?"

"True, but..."

...Her spine...

"...I can think of something a little better suited."

She carefully traced out another glyph with two fingertips, brow creased and mouth a tight frown of focus. As the glyph fully materialized, a shrill squawk emanated from within, and from its center trotted a chalk-white creature with sharp feathers and a long, crooked beak, a smaller mount than the manticore Winter sat astride but one still fully capable of bearing Nora's weight. The griffon sized her up expectantly, a few of its angular talons pawing the ground as it bent its neck low to accommodate her.

"Is that acceptable?"

Now she was a real Valkyrie.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"True, but..."

...Her spine...

"...I can think of something a little better suited."

She carefully traced out another glyph with two fingertips, brow creased and mouth a tight frown of focus. As the glyph fully materialized, a shrill squawk emanated from within, and from its center trotted a chalk-white creature with sharp feathers and a long, crooked beak, a smaller mount than the manticore Winter sat astride but one still fully capable of bearing Nora's weight. The griffon sized her up expectantly, a few of its angular talons pawing the ground as it bent its neck to accommodate her.

"Is that acceptable?"

Now she was a real Valkyrie.​

"...……..."

"You're...you're giving me my own Grimm??? Oh my gosh...BEST BIRTHDAY PRESENT EVERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" It wasn't even her birthday but the gift nevertheless had Nora jump up nearly a dozen feet in pure excitement. She probably would have tried to give Winter a hug but she was far too eager to try out her new pet grimm summon. The tiny bruiser scrambled up onto her mount so fast that she felt even Ruby wouldn't have been able to beat her up there. "Hahahahahahaha! I have my own GRIMM! Fear me, evildoers!!!"

"..."

In sharp contrast to the energetic Nora, Ruby stared over at that scene with a look that was...

...less than pleased. And more than a little envious of her fellow small huntress. That was hardly fair. Nora got a crazy cool griffon ride and she got stuck with a horse she hardly knew how to ride??? What fresh hell was that... "Ahem." She cleared her throat before asking once more. "Any help please?"
​

 

[Gus Gungus]

...less than pleased. And more than a little envious of her fellow small huntress. That was hardly fair. Nora got a crazy cool griffon ride and she got stuck with a horse she hardly knew how to ride??? What fresh hell was that... "Ahem." She cleared her throat. "Any help please?"

"Shoot, I beg your pardon pardner. I was gettin' lost in my buddy's eye holes over here," Cobalt drawled, tearing their elusive gaze away from Grey's ghostly mask as their mechanical eyes' LED displays blinked twice in apology. "I truly apologize, and ah'll be happy to give you lessons upon our return should you so wish. But ah'm afraid you'd best be hoppin' off that there bronco and saddlin' up with somebody who knows how to ride for the present."

The bounty hunter nodded to one of the former White Fang flanking them, still donning the militant white-and-red attire worn by the one-time followers of Eve Taurus—though minus the masks, which were beginning to instill a sense of unease among the faunus in light of the disturbing turn for the deranged their former kin in the Shadow Fang had taken. The man groaned with an extremely dissatisfied roll of the eyes, but obligingly trotted his mount over to offer Ruby an impatient hand she could swing herself up with.

Come to think of it, this guy looked kinda almost familiar somehow. Weird.

Spoiler

 

[MyrtenRose]

"Shoot, I beg your pardon pardner. I was gettin' lost in my buddy's eye holes over here," Cobalt drawled, tearing their elusive gaze away from Grey's ghostly mask as their mechanical eyes' LED displays blinked twice in apology. "I truly apologize, and ah'll be happy to give you lessons upon our return should you so wish. But ah'm afraid you'd best be hoppin' off that there bronco and saddlin' up with somebody who knows how to ride for the present."

The bounty hunter nodded to one of the former White Fang flanking them, still donning the militant white-and-red attire worn by the one-time followers of Eve Taurus—though minus the masks, which were beginning to instill a sense of unease among the faunus in light of the disturbing turn for the deranged their former kin in the Shadow Fang had taken. The man groaned with an extremely dissatisfied roll of the eyes, but obligingly trotted his mount over to offer Ruby an impatient hand she could swing herself up with.

Come to think of it, this guy looked kinda almost familiar somehow. Weird.

Spoiler

"But....but...." Ruby stammered, starting to protest that idea. But try as she might, no further objections came out of her mouth. By the time the former White Fang faunus trotted over and extended a hand, she'd reluctantly accepted that doing so was probably for the best. That didn't mean she had to like it though, and any passing sensation of familiarity she might have felt with the guy was overridden by frustrated pouting and a grumbled "this is so not fair." She took the hand though, and after she was on his horse she directed one last look of annoyance over to Nora, though the ginger didn't notice it in the middle of her excitement. "So uh...where are we going, exactly? And what happened to change it from scouting run to watch duty?"​

 

[MidwayLives]

The ranger offered an obliging flick of their hat.

"Goddamn if you really ain't one creepy sumbitch though, an' I got a face under here prone to givin' the kid folk nightmares."

The face of a devil.

Behind it was a face of a man with a heart of gold.
​

"Additional intel from the head honcho, ladies 'n other folk! This just went from bein' a scout run to watchdog duty. Everyone with a lick o' ridin' experience, saddle up; those without, double up. Madame Schnee, per usual if'n you would be so inclined as to be our eyes from the sky.

'Watchdog duty...? What could have transpired to warrant a shift in directive like this?'

Whatever the case may have been, Grey's interest was quickly taken by something else.
​

Mister Grey, you may as well ride with me up on the Stranger here. Rest o' you boys know what to do."

Grey had been planning to try and wrangle one of the horses for himself.

Keep his distance, do his own thing, be less of a potential burden if things went wrong, etc.

So for an offer like this to come his way?

'They see me as just....me. Grey Knights the person. Not a sniveling reporter \thriving on the misery. I'm just me.'

He smiled behind the mask. Not that anybody could have seen it.

"i'd be honored."

Up he went!
​

"Shoot, I beg your pardon pardner. I was gettin' lost in my buddy's eye holes over here," Cobalt drawled, tearing their elusive gaze away from Grey's ghostly mask as their mechanical eyes' LED displays blinked twice in apology.

'Flattery....'

When Cobalt had someone assist Ruby, the reporter tapped them on the shoulder and waved his scroll around.

"My initial plan before this mission had been to try and traverse around. See if I could find any 'dirt' on Schnee. But I think a commemoration of our new friendship is just as important..."

*click*
​

 

[MidwayLives]

"...Tryshfnm?"

Gulp.

"Tyrian? The hell, man? We live here now. Have you just been like, hanging out here this entire time? How have we never run into you?"

Having had time to cool his jets for a moment or two, Tyrian finally took in the fact that 'hey he was pretty cold,'

Bringing his arms in close for warmth, he sat down atop a chair with his tail coiled up behind him.

"I..."

'CINDER!!!! COME BAAAAAAACK!!!! AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!'

The new x-shaped scar he'd gained from bashing his head against the tree.

"It's been a while."

A part of him was relieved to see these three again. Really, he was. But it was like he'd told Trifa back at the motel.

He just wasn't 'the' Tyrian anymore.

"Ever since the team split up, I've been here with a friend of mine trying to track down Taurus."
​

He shifted over to shoo him away from Neo's personal space, brow a little protective in how it furrowed. Emerald's cheek was in her palm as she stared over at the faunus, offering little more than a flat, unimpressed roll of the eyes.

He gracefully stepped back when signaled. In his initial surprise, he'd nearly forgotten.

What Neo, no, what all of them had lost in their last fight against Ozpin's forces.

But...As far as Tyrian was concerned that life was over. He had one goal that kept him going and he'd see it through to the end.

Even if that end meant the cessation of his own life.

"Been here for a good month and a half actually. Got a prosthetic attached for my tail and been beating up anyone who might be able to cough up info on the Shadow Fang."
​

"Woooooooow, it's the guy who bled all over my favorite outfit and ruined it! Hi, that guy!" She glanced over at the bartender. "If I tell you to shoot him, will you?"

The faunus was confused at first.

But as he recalled the scar on his abdomen, he frowned in embarrassment.

"Right...Sorry."

A pleasant enough feeling that Tyrian had lacked for a good while surged through him. As good as it felt, it wasn't going to get him the answers he wanted.

"I hate to cut to the root of why I'm here but...There's a Shadow Fang in town and I've been trying to track them down. They've got a wicked semblance that I..." He paused and grumbled the next part under hsi breath. " 'struggled' against. They can hide in a person's body and manipulate them like a puppet and when the body's all broken and battered? They can climb right on out of it. Fought them and they told me I'd die if I kept pursuing Taurus and well..."

He clapped his hands on his thighs.

"I ended up here and bumped into you guys."

"Also, just so I don't feel out of the loop..."

Tyrian's stinger loomed dangerously close to Lupin's face.

"Who's he?" ​

 

[Gus Gungus]

'Flattery....'

When Cobalt had someone assist Ruby, the reporter tapped them on the shoulder and waved his scroll around.

"My initial plan before this mission had been to try and traverse around. See if I could find any 'dirt' on Schnee. But I think a commemoration of our new friendship is just as important..."

*click*

Cobalt threw up the bunny ears, and while they didn't consider themselves the most photogenic of hombres around by any stretch of the imagination there'd be no mistaking the delighted upward squint to their LED facsimile of eyes taking the place of a smile upon the end product's review.

"But....but...." Ruby stammered, starting to protest that idea. But try as she might, no further objections came out of her mouth. By the time the former White Fang faunus trotted over and extended a hand, she'd reluctantly accepted that doing so was probably for the best. That didn't mean she had to like it though, and any passing sensation of familiarity she might have felt with the guy was overridden by frustrated pouting and a grumbled "this is so not fair." She took the hand though, and after she was on his horse she directed one last look of annoyance over to Nora, though the ginger didn't notice it in the middle of her excitement. "So uh...where are we going, exactly? And what happened to change it from scouting run to watch duty?"

Those same 'eyes' seemed genuinely saddened by Ruby's lack of excitement around her first ride out, though the gunslinger's cheery modulated vocal pitch didn't reflect as much. "Well, ah got the word from James just now that lil-miss Polendina actually made first contact with these buncha mysterious moseyers just a short time ago! There's a meetin' with the general at a neutral location in the works too boot. 'Steada traipsin' around in the snow lookin' to find these errant pilots, our new mission parameter's to keep an eye on the whole charade from a distance an' make sure nothin's too likely to go amiss. Sorry if that ain't the excitin' trail mission you was hopin' for, pardner."​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Those same 'eyes' seemed genuinely saddened by Ruby's lack of excitement around her first ride out, though the gunslinger's cheery modulated vocal pitch didn't reflect as much. "Well, ah got the word from James just now that lil-miss Polendina actually made first contact with these mysterious moseyers just a short time ago! There's a meetin' with the general at a neutral location in the works too boot. 'Steada traipsin' around in the snow lookin' to find these errant pilots, our new mission parameter's to keep an eye on the whole charade from a distance an' make sure nothin's likely to go too amiss. Sorry if that ain't the excitin' trail mission you was hopin' for, pardner."

"HEY NO DON'T GIVE ME THAT LOOK I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO TRY RIDING A HORSE, I JUST...I'D PREFER IT IF I WAS DOING IT SOLO, EVEN FOR A FIRST TIME. THAT'S ALL. PLEASE QUIT IT WITH THAT LOOK." She hurriedly spat, not wanting to see anything feel sad because of her. "But that can wait, since we got this stuff to accomplish. Mysterious folk with the general and us on security...I can dig it."​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"HEY NO DON'T GIVE ME THAT LOOK I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO TRY RIDING A HORSE, I JUST...I'D PREFER IT IF I WAS DOING IT SOLO, EVEN FOR A FIRST TIME. THAT'S ALL. PLEASE QUIT IT WITH THAT LOOK." She hurriedly spat, not wanting to see anything feel sad because of her. "But that can wait, since we got this stuff to accomplish. Mysterious folk with the general and us on security...I can dig it."

"Ah can't help it, li'l red. My eyes' emotional calibrators are all jacked up! They give up the exact way ah'm feelin' at all times no matter what I do! Don't go feelin' sorry for me, though. Your hoss'll just up 'n bolt on ya if y'ain't got the experience to control 'im, that's all." Came their chipper twang in reply, though those fake eyes only grew sadder.

 

[MyrtenRose]

"Ah can't help it, li'l red. My eyes' emotional calibrators are all jacked up! They give up the exact way ah'm feelin' at all times no matter what I do! Don't go feelin' sorry for me, though. Your hoss'll just up 'n bolt on ya if y'ain't got the experience to control 'im, that's all." Came their chipper twang in reply, though those fake eyes only grew sadder.

Don't look don't look don't look don't look don't look don't look​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Somewhere in the city of Mistral, there was a very passed out and very drunk Vernal.​

 

[Indolent]

"I see."

The figure's tone was far more guarded than it had been just a few moments ago, what they'd learned in the last minute apparently having a deep affect on their understanding of the situation. The silence that came after those two words stretched on far longer than was any degree of comfortable, and they began to get the gnawing feeling they weren't the only ones this person was talking to.

"I think..." They finally broke the silence, the words carefully spaced as they organized their thoughts. "...I think that there are things that you've done that have hurt people deeply. People that I care about, and... and myself." they murmured, a strange stutter over the sentence "It makes it very difficult to take you at your word, Miss Sustrai. I do not think you are a very good person, and I am unsure if you are the sort who would ever want to be. But... General ironwood believes that you are telling the truth about wanting to get home, and would like to meet with you all, away from resistance headquarters. But please, behave yourself Miss Sustrai. I will be watching you and miss Neopolitan very closely."

They grabbed the hat with both of their hands and pulled it off their head, gripping tight in front of them as they did their best to give Emerald an intimidating glare.

"And I do not think your tricks will do to me what they did to miss Nikos."

For everyone in the room except Neopolitan, it was like seeing a ghost. Long, bouncy orange curls poured out of the hat, and frecked cheeks framed dazzlingly bright green eyes that seemed to shine in the dark. The look on the girl's face was a tense frown that was warring between nervous and determined, and despite how kind her face naturally was, there was a dangerous tension in the air as she stared Emerald down.

"...but more importantly..."

All of a sudden her feet started to glow. A split second later she attacked with the force of the heavens.

Absolutely demolishing Cinder with a hug.

"IT IS SO GOOD TO SEE YOU AGAIN, SIXTY PERCENT OF MY DEAREST REMNANT TWO FRIENDS!"

The span between these two words and the next stretched into an eternity, the thief's shadow cast by the light of the doorway to her back frozen in anticipation of whatever might come. By whatever means, someway somehow, this stranger not only knew a pertinent detail to Emerald but also evoked a sense of familiarity for some reason. It was a feeling she couldn't quite shake off, which exacerbated the thrumming din in her mind that increasingly spoke of danger in her presence. It was also a question of whether they were hostile towards her specifically or everyone.

Her question was answered, the alarm in her features expressly growing as the modulated voice breezed through each sentence in spite of the stutter. The visceral sensation of familiarity ramped up to a point it was unbearable, that it would have burgeoned a insistent question from Emerald's mouth were it not preempted. Otherwise, she would have had choice words to level against them for the content of theirs.

It was her, the robot she. She helped kill way back at the Vytal Festival. When she'd trick Pyrrha Nikos into believing she was about to weather a literal typhoon of blades from Penny Polendina, forcing her into leveraging her magnetic semblance to repel the attack that resulted in the dismemberment and bisection of Penny. It had been a part of Cinder's plan, to sow chaos within the stadium to embolden a swathe of negativity for the coming attack that led to the Fall of Beacon in her world. At the time, Emerald remembered vividly deriving a sense of joy and personal satisfaction in the act, a weighty contentment that stemmed from being of use to the one individual she held dear, to help her in her endeavor whatever they were.

Here now, there was none of that but inscrutable disbelief in her features that culminated in a growing o of the mouth, her eyes growing equally wide. Whether it was shock at the sudden, and cheesy, revelation of the robot or if it was genuine remorse remained to be seen as the thief was stunned though not unreceptive to the words Polendina doled out for her. Even the foretelling glow of the boosters housed within the robot's soles did nothing to elicit a reaction of any kind from Emerald, not until it was abundantly clear her intention was not for her but Cinder. The clangorous conclusion of that absurdly enthusiastic glomp and the heightened proclamation in the robot's voice roused Emerald from her stupor, a downcast expression falling over her as she stepped back.

"I... I..." She struggled to start, her arms straightening in her frustration as she tried and failed to work out all that happened with the emotions she found herself mired in now, an uncharacteristic shift to the unflappable aplomb she so readily displayed. It at least served as an indicator as to why the thief swiftly turned on her heels and disembarked through the lit doorway, a frenetic energy to her gait. She easily lost anyone who tried to follow after, a clear sign she wasn't wanting to be found.

 

[Indolent]

"I don't understand what just happened. Besides that Penny's back! Well, not our Penny but still... it's really nice to see you." Gretchen chimed in, hovering nearby the hug convention that transpired in all of two seconds. It was no easy feat to shove her memory of the incident at the festival from her mind, though it was made easier by the decision to take in the moment and enjoy it for what it was. There were so few of these far and in between that it was reinvigorating her spirits. She definitely didn't have close a relationship with her world's Penny but whatever interaction she came away with the robot, she absolutely loved. That brimming enthusiasm, the intense lust for life. It was just amazing and downright contagious that it was a robot manifesting these things.

No, that wasn't fair.

That it was a person who exhibited all of that, a rarity in these days.

"So what do we do about her?" The tinier Rainart hesitated to broach the subject, glancing to the robot and the others before settling her eyes on Neo. Though it was not out of apprehension for what she might do, more of concern considering the only real advocate that went to bat was the selfsame one that bolted. "Do you want us to help find your friend?"

Hazel's words came as something of a gentle interjection, his tone the vocal equivalent of the shake of the head, "If we looked, we might not find her anyhow. If she doesn't want to be found. I'm in the same boat as Gretchen but even I could tell this was really jarring for Emerald. She might need time."

"Yeah..." Her words flowed, the undertone to them a disheartened acceptance of the reality though she still glanced to Neo with the intent to help if she wanted it.

"I love reunions as much as the next person but we don't have the time. Penny, if you will?" He hated to hasten things along, there was a modicum of urgency inherent to their circumstances though Cinder and Gretchen both knew one thing.

He'd let the reunion persist a few minutes longer anyway.

 

[Gus Gungus]

Don't look don't look don't look don't look don't look don't look​

"You're a bad person," said the White Fang guy.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"You're a bad person," said the White Fang guy.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"We all know that ain't true!"​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"We all know that ain't true!"​

"Thanks."​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"Oh."

Neither of them really cared that much. Emerald's straw made slurpy noises as she polished off the last of her cosmo, and Mercury noisily crunched his way through the entire fistful of pretzels he'd yoinked out of the bowl (at least half its contents) and shoved into his mouth all at once before Neo could stop him or take any for herself. "Those twerps are still knocking around? Yeah, don't worry about them. We'll get rid of them."

Merc swallowed. "I know the perfect spot to bury the bodies."

"It's true, he really does."

The bartender blinked a few times. "I... ain't boutta tell you your business ma'am, but from what I understand the man's only lookin for information, which what being what we do around here, just offin the bastard seems like it might tarnish the rep some."

Her initial surprise had been moreso at the fact Emerald and Mercury seemed to blase about killing Fang, but then she remembered who she was talking to and tried her best not to remember the last sounds her old boss made.

"Miss Malachite weren't keen on working with em either, but they pay good money n'all. Wouldn't a been a problem if they weren't so insistent on talkin with the boss. And-"

Tyrian looked at his weapons and then back at the door. A silent judgement passed in his head.

"Alright...Here we go!"

He kicked the doors open and stomped in, his tail uncoiling.

"Alright! Who here knows about the-"

Tyrian didn't recognize this man.

No...it couldn't have been...

Pulling the hood on his jacket down, Tyrian bounded over to where Neo sat. Getting uncomfortably close as he quirked his head to the side inquisitively.

"That's....Really Neo. Huh."

He turned his head and glanced over at Mercury and Emerald, the gusto he'd built up to initially storm this place starting to dissipate.

"What...What are you guys doing here?"​

When Tyrian busted through the doors, about twenty guns were suddenly pointed at him from the bar, the kitchen, and the upstairs banisters.

Neo barely reacted to all the commotion, a concerted frown on her face as she stared deeply into the glass she'd been drinking out of, already halfway through her second as some sort of realization hit her. Whether she intended to share it or not was lost to time as she turned her head, saw the scorpion faunus not two inches from her face, and just straight up disappeared.

Not for very long though; she reappeared on the other side of the more talkative members of MNE with a deeply suspicious frown that flitted between Tyrian himself and the rest of the bar, clearly expecting someone else to be there.

"...Tryshfnm?"

Gulp.

"Tyrian? The hell, man? We live here now. Have you just been like, hanging out here this entire time? How have we never run into you?"

He shifted over to shoo him away from Neo's personal space, brow a little protective in how it furrowed. Emerald's cheek was in her palm as she stared over at the faunus, offering little more than a flat, unimpressed roll of the eyes.

"Woooooooow, it's the guy who bled all over my favorite outfit and ruined it! Hi, that guy!" She glanced over at the bartender. "If I tell you to shoot him, will you?"

"...So does that mean shoot 'im?" The bartender asked, pulling the hammer down on her revolver, only to yelp in surprise as Neo reached over and slapped her hand.

"...So don't shoot 'im."

View attachment 711885

Having had time to cool his jets for a moment or two, Tyrian finally took in the fact that 'hey he was pretty cold,'

Bringing his arms in close for warmth, he sat down atop a chair with his tail coiled up behind him.

"I..."

'CINDER!!!! COME BAAAAAAACK!!!! AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!'

The new x-shaped scar he'd gained from bashing his head against the tree.

"It's been a while."

A part of him was relieved to see these three again. Really, he was. But it was like he'd told Trifa back at the motel.

He just wasn't 'the' Tyrian anymore.

"Ever since the team split up, I've been here with a friend of mine trying to track down Taurus."


He gracefully stepped back when signaled. In his initial surprise, he'd nearly forgotten.

What Neo, no, what all of them had lost in their last fight against Ozpin's forces.

But...As far as Tyrian was concerned that life was over. He had one goal that kept him going and he'd see it through to the end.

Even if that end meant the cessation of his own life.

"Been here for a good month and a half actually. Got a prosthetic attached for my tail and been beating up anyone who might be able to cough up info on the Shadow Fang."


The faunus was confused at first.

But as he recalled the scar on his abdomen, he frowned in embarrassment.

"Right...Sorry."

A pleasant enough feeling that Tyrian had lacked for a good while surged through him. As good as it felt, it wasn't going to get him the answers he wanted.

"I hate to cut to the root of why I'm here but...There's a Shadow Fang in town and I've been trying to track them down. They've got a wicked semblance that I..." He paused and grumbled the next part under hsi breath. " 'struggled' against. They can hide in a person's body and manipulate them like a puppet and when the body's all broken and battered? They can climb right on out of it. Fought them and they told me I'd die if I kept pursuing Taurus and well..."

He clapped his hands on his thighs.

"I ended up here and bumped into you guys."

"Also, just so I don't feel out of the loop..."

Tyrian's stinger loomed dangerously close to Lupin's face.

"Who's he?" ​

Neo's suspicion faded somewhat at the mention that team WTCH had parted ways. It in fact disappeared entirely, a small, saddened frown on her face as Tyrian spoke. She came out of a it all a bit more confused than when he started talking instead of the reverse, and she sidled out from behind Emerald and gestured to the side of herself with a questioning head tilt, where a shimmering copy of Eve came into existence, frozen in a power stance with blade ready to strike something or another down.

The bartender's eyes narrowed at the mention, but professionalism dictated she kept her own mouth shut.

Lupin, for his part, Leaned as far away from Tyrian's appendage as he could without falling off his stool.

"...I'm... I'm Lupin. And these people have unlawfully kidnapped mepleasehelp-"

 

[MidwayLives]

"...Yeah. It is so great to see you." That brief statement wasn't enough to convey all the emotion she wanted to, but she honestly didn't know if she'd be able to do that even if she had days to do so. Which they didn't have. There wasn't that much time to waste, so she settled on those few words and hoped the hug managed to say enough. Seeing one of her good friends again, back from the dead...it honestly was a shot in the arm that sparked a great deal of the feeling of hope back into the teenager. Something that had been in short supply after so much of the recent crap that happened to her, and to the rest of WTCH and MTEN.

"How have you been?"

Yuck.

This whole song and dance of reuniting and it feeling so good made her want to wretch.

Emerald and her were here for a goddamn reason. Not to watch a mini-Cinder and her ginger friend talk shop.

...Even if a bit of that annoyance stemmed from a touch of jealously on Neo's part.

A reunion with a certain someone would have been nice....

​

Here now, there was none of that but inscrutable disbelief in her features that culminated in a growing o of the mouth, her eyes growing equally wide. Whether it was shock at the sudden, and cheesy, revelation of the robot or if it was genuine remorse remained to be seen as the thief was stunned though not unreceptive to the words Polendina doled out for her. Even the foretelling glow of the boosters housed within the robot's soles did nothing to elicit a reaction of any kind from Emerald, not until it was abundantly clear her intention was not for her but Cinder. The clangorous conclusion of that absurdly enthusiastic glomp and the heightened proclamation in the robot's voice roused Emerald from her stupor, a downcast expression falling over her as she stepped back.

"I... I..." She struggled to start, her arms straightening in her frustration as she tried and failed to work out all that happened with the emotions she found herself mired in now, an uncharacteristic shift to the unflappable aplomb she so readily displayed. It at least served as an indicator as to why the thief swiftly turned on her heels and disembarked through the lit doorway, a frenetic energy to her gait. She easily lost anyone who tried to follow after, a clear sign she wasn't wanting to be found.

That...Wasn't supposed to happen.

Neo watched Emerald run and reached out to her in vain.

No sounds came forth from her mouth.

A fact she'd curse herself for if she could.

It'd been Neo's inability to do jackshit to Carneilan that lead to Emerald being left like she was. Now that she'd run away from the rest of them?

Well, Neo wasn't going to let that happen.
​

"So what do we do about her?" The tinier Rainart hesitated to broach the subject, glancing to the robot and the others before settling her eyes on Neo. Though it was not out of apprehension for what she might do, more of concern considering the only real advocate that went to bat was the selfsame one that bolted. "Do you want us to help find your friend?"

Anybody else may have snapped or said something rude at the offer of help.

These people didn't know her or Emerald. As far as they knew, Neo had just been on the side of Team Bad.

But having already lost this world's version of her favorite person in the world? She glanced from Gretchen to Hazel and shook her head.

Reaching out, she gently ruffled Gretchen's hair before pulling back and tipping the brim of her hat.

She'd be back and she'd bring Emerald with her.
​

"Yeah..." Her words flowed, the undertone to them a disheartened acceptance of the reality though she still glanced to Neo with the intent to help if she wanted it.

Neo raced off in the direction of Emerald.

When she caught up to her colleague, she was going to give her such a stern....finger wagging.​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

It was overwhelming, but in a good way. As Penny came in, Cinder was still so stunned by the reappearance that there was no attempt to even move a single inch out of the way as she got ABSOLUTELY SMOTHER-CRUSHED by the hug coming in at mach speeds. It didn't bother her in the slightest. Something she made clear as she laid there on the ground wrapped up in the embrace and returned it wholeheartedly, finally knocked out of her stupor. Both arms wrapped around so tightly, like she never wanted to let go if she could help it. The return hug was just as warm as it was tight, and there were even a few sniffles as she did so. Ones born more of intense joy than any sadness, though. "Penny, I..."

"...Yeah. It is so great to see you." That brief statement wasn't enough to convey all the emotion she wanted to, but she honestly didn't know if she'd be able to do that even if she had days to do so. Which they didn't have. There wasn't that much time to waste, so she settled on those few words and hoped the hug managed to say enough. Seeing one of her good friends again, back from the dead...it honestly was a shot in the arm that sparked a great deal of the feeling of hope back into the teenager. Something that had been in short supply after so much of the recent crap that happened to her, and to the rest of WTCH and MTEN.

"How have you been?"

"I'm absolutely fantastic now that you've made it here!" Penny all bout shouted back as she squeezed Cinder, one of the few people on Remnant who the maiden could hug without fear of doing so too hard and frankly in danger of the opposite happening. She found herself suddenly swept off the ground in a spin as Penny's boosters righted them to standing with a cheerful grin. "We have an astonishing number of topics to catch up on."

"I don't understand what just happened. Besides that Penny's back! Well, not our Penny but still... it's really nice to see you." Gretchen chimed in, hovering nearby the hug convention that transpired in all of two seconds. It was no easy feat to shove her memory of the incident at the festival from her mind, though it was made easier by the decision to take in the moment and enjoy it for what it was. There were so few of these far and in between that it was reinvigorating her spirits. She definitely didn't have close a relationship with her world's Penny but whatever interaction she came away with the robot, she absolutely loved. That brimming enthusiasm, the intense lust for life. It was just amazing and downright contagious that it was a robot manifesting these things.

No, that wasn't fair.

That it was a person who exhibited all of that, a rarity in these days.

"So what do we do about her?" The tinier Rainart hesitated to broach the subject, glancing to the robot and the others before settling her eyes on Neo. Though it was not out of apprehension for what she might do, more of concern considering the only real advocate that went to bat was the selfsame one that bolted. "Do you want us to help find your friend?"

Hazel's words came as something of a gentle interjection, his tone the vocal equivalent of the shake of the head, "If we looked, we might not find her anyhow. If she doesn't want to be found. I'm in the same boat as Gretchen but even I could tell this was really jarring for Emerald. She might need time."

"Yeah..." Her words flowed, the undertone to them a disheartened acceptance of the reality though she still glanced to Neo with the intent to help if she wanted it.

"I love reunions as much as the next person but we don't have the time. Penny, if you will?" He hated to hasten things along, there was a modicum of urgency inherent to their circumstances though Cinder and Gretchen both knew one thing.

He'd let the reunion persist a few minutes longer anyway.

"It is delightful to see you again too!" Penny replied, Gretchen making the lethal mistake that team RWBY hadn't in their reunion and getting too close to the hug; she was swept up in it in another swirl of flight, penny's enthusiasm doing wonders for the room's tense energy and her iron limbs doing anything but wonders for the pair's spines. "Salutations to you too, Hazel! I am sorry, I have run out of arms. but know that I am very excited to see you! However-" She began, willing herself to frown again as she spun the tri-hug to face where Emerald had been standing just a moment ago. "we still-"

The span between these two words and the next stretched into an eternity, the thief's shadow cast by the light of the doorway to her back frozen in anticipation of whatever might come. By whatever means, someway somehow, this stranger not only knew a pertinent detail to Emerald but also evoked a sense of familiarity for some reason. It was a feeling she couldn't quite shake off, which exacerbated the thrumming din in her mind that increasingly spoke of danger in her presence. It was also a question of whether they were hostile towards her specifically or everyone.

Her question was answered, the alarm in her features expressly growing as the modulated voice breezed through each sentence in spite of the stutter. The visceral sensation of familiarity ramped up to a point it was unbearable, that it would have burgeoned a insistent question from Emerald's mouth were it not preempted. Otherwise, she would have had choice words to level against them for the content of theirs.

It was her, the robot she. She helped kill way back at the Vytal Festival. When she'd trick Pyrrha Nikos into believing she was about to weather a literal typhoon of blades from Penny Polendina, forcing her into leveraging her magnetic semblance to repel the attack that resulted in the dismemberment and bisection of Penny. It had been a part of Cinder's plan, to sow chaos within the stadium to embolden a swathe of negativity for the coming attack that led to the Fall of Beacon in her world. At the time, Emerald remembered vividly deriving a sense of joy and personal satisfaction in the act, a weighty contentment that stemmed from being of use to the one individual she held dear, to help her in her endeavor whatever they were.

Here now, there was none of that but inscrutable disbelief in her features that culminated in a growing o of the mouth, her eyes growing equally wide. Whether it was shock at the sudden, and cheesy, revelation of the robot or if it was genuine remorse remained to be seen as the thief was stunned though not unreceptive to the words Polendina doled out for her. Even the foretelling glow of the boosters housed within the robot's soles did nothing to elicit a reaction of any kind from Emerald, not until it was abundantly clear her intention was not for her but Cinder. The clangorous conclusion of that absurdly enthusiastic glomp and the heightened proclamation in the robot's voice roused Emerald from her stupor, a downcast expression falling over her as she stepped back.

"I... I..." She struggled to start, her arms straightening in her frustration as she tried and failed to work out all that happened with the emotions she found herself mired in now, an uncharacteristic shift to the unflappable aplomb she so readily displayed. It at least served as an indicator as to why the thief swiftly turned on her heels and disembarked through the lit doorway, a frenetic energy to her gait. She easily lost anyone who tried to follow after, a clear sign she wasn't wanting to be found.

"-Oh. She is- they are both gone."

... She had essentially two tasks here. One was to ensure that Weiss Schnee or Ozpin was not trying to inflitrate their ranks with people wearing familiar faces as disguises. That's why she was able to talk her way onto the sort of task that she was normally ill suited for; Penny's eyes and sensors were incredibly difficult to fool. semblances and grimm that affected the mind were no concern to her, and even the invisible couldn't hid from her. In fact, it was a very good thing she made sure she was the one to meet them! Who knew what sort of dastardly deeds the evil Emerald and Neopolitan might have gotten up to had they been allowed into the resistance under the the guise of the native specimens! She believed she had done a very good job with task one

The second task, of course, was making sure anyone who was trying to infiltrate them didn't just run away. Which they just did, because she'd gotten excited and let her feelings get in the way of what was assuredly a very important task

"...Ironwood is not going to be very happy about this." she said with anxious, distressed frown as she released the other two and hovered back to the ground. She debated pursuing them, but she was not what the resistance called a 'stealth operative'. While she was very proud of her disguise that she wore getting here, chasing misses Emerald and Neopolitan through the streets may have drawn unwanted attention, and when Cinder was...

"Hazel is correct. We should make for the meeting spot as fast as possible. Follow me!" she declared, burying whatever concerns she might've had with a flourish of her trench coat as she zipped over to where her hat had ended up to screw it back onto her head. before she hunched over slightly and power walked for the door to lead them out the building and down a side street.

 

[Indolent]

Weiss nodded, listening attentively to every word but not quite looking up from her glass just yet. Every interaction to this point had been gauged, every subtle push and pull she exerted over the conversation a notation carefully taken down by the councilwoman's shrewd mind, whatever conclusions she drew her own to keep close to her chest. She really did like the suit though. "I'm a powerful woman, colonel. And I do mean multiple definitions of the word. I'm sure you gathered as much for yourself from the footage of the seditionists' efforts to capture me. That doesn't make me a soldier, and it doesn't mean I'm unwilling to defer to the judgment of someone who's made a career out of the military life and its litany of intricacies. Which extends to any officer you'd hold in high enough esteem to bring to this meeting," she added, eyes flicking up to hold Liza in a brief gaze that lacked the icy scrutiny of the ones she'd weathered at the door.

Perhaps Weiss nurtured a dislike for those that simply fell in line under her authority, a cavalcade of obsequiousness and sycophancy that all manifested in nearly the same manner by which they carried. A cadre of placid yes-men and sniveling bootlickers that all blended together into a vague caricature of human beings without an iota of pride in their work, how they presented themselves. Perhaps it was this specifically more she abhorred than anything in her line of work, though that was not to say she did not recognize their value for other purposes. Weiss Schnee was certainly a woman who understood and appreciated the nuances of the authority with which she exercised to great effect. This was the difference she would see firsthand, that she already intuited for herself, in the Colonel who exuded nothing but pride in himself and his accomplishments thus far in conjunction with his faith in his own station and ability.

So it was with a genuine inflection to his words he responded, "I appreciate the confidence you place in me, Madam Councilwoman. It means more than you know and I will accept no substitute in meeting your expectations." The phrasing a delicately crafted reply born of his years intermingling with the politicans and officers that oftentimes were one and same, it was almost a cut and dry sequence of words that wasn't out of place in everyday interactions like these within Atlas. It was that character of the person that enunciated these words which distinctified them.

She paused, more to give the conversation the appropriate room to breathe than out of any uncertainty as to what she was going to say next. Her words, though humble, were simultaneously assured in her own ability to sit at the head of the kingdom's united front, provided she had the backing of dependable allies; frankly, the woman radiated authority and confidence by the bucketload, and not a single drop of it registered as misplaced. She was someone capable, someone who knew what she was doing even in the bleakest of times, and it wasn't difficult to see why so many had willingly put their faith in her.

"I'd like to be clear before we continue, however; I don't defer to simply any soldier who believes Atlas's military power renders its other branches of government impotent. Had that been the case, James Ironwood would've successfully detained me and led this kingdom to ruin by now. I represent the people, duly elected to see them through the coming storm and facilitate the promise of a better life waiting on the other side, and as far as I'm concerned? That authority supersedes any within the armed hierarchy." Her eyes, having returned to watching her finger trace circles around the circumference of the glass, shot back up to regard him with cold steel no less commanding or filled with resolve than any Ector had ever encountered in his own profession. "I practically had to beat Ironwood upside the head with that ideal while he held his station. Now that he's gone, I've had to be no less adamant about it with General Carnelian. Men who believe in the rule of power are easily lured to temptation by it, no matter how nobly they intended to wield that power at the start. But I didn't ask for this meeting because I intend to beat you over the head with any such dogma, colonel. If we're being honest, I didn't even send for you so we could discuss my security matters. No; you're here because I happen to know you already agree with every word I just said. Am I wrong?"

She cocked her head, an almost playfully knowing smile on her face as she arched an eyebrow as if to dare him to tell her she was. A lesser level of intelligence and perception than the one occupied by Weiss Schnee could've seen a man like Colonel Ector for what he was, no less deftly than she had seen Carnelian and Ironwood. Only this was different.

It had been evident even as far back as the galas and events she'd subjected herself to all those years ago, even with Weiss's own ambitions only in their burgeoning stages. The way he put in facetime with the relevant figures of influence without ever truly allowing himself to be won over by them; how he indulged those of higher station and lesser character without ever truly heeding their banalities. Even then, a girl no more twenty at the most, she'd been able to see it. He'd been a man playing a part. Someone shaking hands with these people only to wipe it on something once their backs were turned. He was a man who wanted change.

Not so terribly unlike somebody else who had been in those rooms.

It wasn't anything she could make use of back then, but she had certainly made a note of it. She went so far as to keep an eye on his career progression even while her own soared to unimaginable heights, a steadfast, dependable crawl through the ranks earned through diligence and competency that was nevertheless beginning to be marred and slowed by the ones above Ector who weren't too partial to this younger officer and his various notions. It was inevitable as it was sad, really. Men like him had come along before, promising young leaders who saw the world for what it was and strove tirelessly to make it better, and they always rose to a certain level in the command chain then rose no further, held down by those above who understood the threat they posed to a way of life that benefited them. And only them.

Men like her father. He wasn't military, no, but how many officers had he shaken hands with following substantial donations or the funding of new military ventures? How else would someone like Jacques Schnee have become acquainted with a man like Borous Carnelian? The wealthy and the leaders; in a city like Atlas, the two words were practically synonymous. These were the men who planted their feet and stood in the way of progress, because progress didn't suit them. Stagnation did. They were the people who thrived from the status quo, because the status quo gave them power, and so the status quo would remain. Ozpin was the original world-ender, but these were the ones born into modern society, born from the weakness that could take hold of the human spirit. They were the snake eating its own tail.

Weiss Schnee may have been drawn into the conflict between Ozpin and Salem and its world-shattering ramifications, but a simple need to prioritize that particular layer of her grand plan of late did not make it the original one. The one that started all this. The bottom layer that started everything was no different than she'd said: the intent to create a better world, the utopia they were owed. But political machinations could only get one so far. The systems in place had their limitations. Only one with the drive and uncompromising willingness to do whatever it took could make such a world a reality, and there was only one way such a world would ever come to fruition.

By burning the old one down.

To do that, as much as the lies and machinations laid the groundwork and allowed her to secure power and influence she simply never would've been allowed to obtain otherwise, there came a point where the weight of them all would catch up to a Weiss Schnee who acted alone. Recent events had driven that point home more emphatically than ever, spurring the councilwoman to trust her own instincts and take a leap of faith. It wasn't something she was very accustomed to putting in others, outside of herself.

It was entirely possible recent events had swayed her opinion on that too. She took a heavy, world-weary breath, and hoped she was correct in those assessments as she polished off another sip of her drink.

The query did prompt a reaction, a small change in Ector's posture. His hands separated from his lap, sliding across the lengths of the armrests with his fingers splayed loosely as he maintained the selfsame confident demeanor, with a stern bend to his expression and outward aura now. It could have almost been mistaken as a defensive measure utilized to cover a moment's hesitation on his part in delivering his reply but it was not so much that. No, it was a carefully selected gesture that helped to add a weighty solemnity to his answer.

"You aren't." These two words were delivered with his own eyes resting upon the councilwoman's own ice blue, allowing for a spaced punctuation to take place before appending more. "I suspected since our first meeting, Madam, that there was more to it all than meets the eye. A pretense as a prelude to something more significant. I came here today to eke out what that was and you've graciously offered it. What I think you're going to anyway." There was a minuscule inclination of the head, a barely perceptible nod, a reaffirmation of her question as he continued. "I have always long held the belief that it is the people we serve, not those of special interests and ourselves. It is true there are far and few in between who embody that ideal, a true indictment of our current system and its shame."

These years spent currying favor was an arduous task Colonel Ector had to commit himself to nearly day and night atop his ever growing duties, a testament to his incredible will and ability to manage an influx of components. There was always the recognition from the very beginning that he would meet an obstacle he could never overcome without sacrificing his ideals and principles, a trait many would insist to be a fault, a shortcoming where only a few, including himself would recognize it as a virtue that was exceedingly becoming scarce in this world. In all honestly, he had never expected to reach the rank of colonel, having approximated his ascent to halt at the Major's rank as facilitated by those few in the upper echelons that considered men with his strength of character injurious to the status quo that benefited them. In a way, it only served to emphasize the growing complacency that existed with the hierarchy, a strengthening acceptance of the decadence the system in place only encouraged.

He suspected that the councilwoman, at the very top of the hierarchy, aimed to change it all much like he did. She was within the apex position where she would be able to effect it whereas he was not, his lifelong goal necessitating the need to achieve the rank of General like that of Ironwood and Carnelian, to take up the reins of the Atlesian Military to have the clout to usher in a change. Even though with that borderline infeasible accomplishment in its own right, it only led to the hurdle Ector would have to overcome next. That of proselytizing whomever held the seats in the opposing branch of government, within the council. Which might well have taken well as long as it would to become General, his rough estimations generously placing the time-frame being within his fifties. This was discounting the current way of thinking cementing itself furthermore by then, magnifying a Herculean task closer to the impossible. A simple rumination on all these details was likely more than enough to discourage even a good man, to convince them to turn to a less grandiose endeavor more for personal satisfaction and gain, a decent life of some kind. That was a byproduct of the current system, whether by design or circumstance, working to excise hopefuls like himself from their world.

So it was why Llewellyn Ector decided long ago to ascend the ranks as far as he can, to coalesce whatever resources and support he could muster to his ideology, to the understanding that to effect a change he was going to have to accomplish something along the same line of thought as Weiss Schnee. He was going to have to burn it all down in order to erect a better world from the ashes. The irony was not lost on him, as distasteful as it was.

It was long before Atlas had given Weiss Schnee the keys to the kingdom that he intuited the woman was of a similar mind, though he could never quite ascertain how to approach her. Not with the eyes of old men ensconced within the thrall of power leveling their unrelenting gaze of scrutiny upon him, to even openly hold a discourse on the idea with his own allies was to invite a swift demise to his own ambitions. It was a repressive affair that assailed his spirit on the daily, his only fortune that he was able derive from it as a source of motivation to bolster his drive. It would be untruthful to say he hadn't hoped for a change in the doldrums of his life to meander along, an opportunity to seize to progress closer to the world he envisioned for all.

He was elated Weiss Schnee recognized and approached him.

"...This meeting is going to end up being something of a rollercoaster, Colonel. Before proceeding, I ask that you open your mind and keep it open." Her tones were smooth, breezy and polite in her eagerness to cut through propriety and get to the heart of the matter. As messy as it truly was going to be to relate everything. Some matters would be kept hidden, acts and ruses she was confident a man as decent as the colonel who didn't share in her detachment from emotional thinking could tolerate; but finally, vindicatingly, Weiss Schnee was going to bare the true core of her motivations to someone.

It was almost a bit exciting. She just hoped she hadn't overestimated the colonel's commitment to their shared ideals.

She diplomatically curled a hand as she commenced. "We're not so terribly dissimilar, you and I. I know, I know, feel free to scoff at that if you like. But it's true. We're both well aware what the rules of our respective games are. We've learned to play them, and play them well. We've both seen how cruel the world can really be, and for the past several years we've dedicated ourselves to improving the system that allows for it to be so. But progress stalls, and the ones who benefit from the current system ensure any actual improvements fall within their acceptable parameters. Very little actually changes; the ones the system doesn't cater to? The likes of the downtrodden, the faunus, Mantle? Their suffering only worsens, and goes unanswered. The world continues to be cruel. And people like you and I start to become... jaded. Discouraged. Downright cynical, even. We start to realize one simple, disappointing truth."

She could be well assured that he knew that much, his hands gripping the armrests' ends before he pulled himself forward into a lean, propping both arms by the elbow as he overlaid one hand over the other to rest against his mouth in study of the councilwoman as she spoke, his attention held rapt by what she had to say.



As unmoving as he was from then on, there was nothing to suggest a disagreement of any kind thus far.

The sigh that served as a bridge from those words to her next came from deep within her lungs, so bitter and contemptuous it was almost a hiss. It'd be a terrible shame if she'd misjudged this man and he tried to arrest her in the next few minutes, but she still held confidence that her judgment of his character wasn't inaccurate. She saw too much of herself in him to believe that.

"The system is broken. It can't be fixed. Not through the conventional methods, anyway. There are too many people with too much power who won't allow for it. And you know how I know, Colonel? Would you like to hear why I'm so sure? Because I'm one of those people the current system caters to. I have lunches and dinners with the types of reprobates I'm talking about almost weekly. One of those people spawned me. Everywhere I go, everywhere I turn, I'm bombarded by their stench, the stench of greed, of apathy, of corruption. And I'll tell you this much; they are not going to relinquish their control without a fight. They don't care about the suffering, they don't care that the world is cruel. Because what's happening right now, the way things are? It works for them."

She had to admit, it felt good to finally say all this out loud to somebody. Zwei didn't make for the most compelling audience, and she was admittedly eager to hear the thoughts of someone she thought might understand. Or hoped.

No. She knew he would. Because everything she was saying, all the things she'd set out to achieve, however amoral some of the things she'd done in the interest of gaining the power necessary to achieve them were?

There wasn't a single word of it that didn't make sense.

"Please don't presume what I'm about to say to be arrogance, because I assure you it isn't so: I see myself as the solution to this problem. I have the drive, I have the resources, I have the intelligence, and most importantly? I have the perspective. There's never been someone like me on the side of the downtrodden before. I've spent years devising new systems, new mechanics, new protocols, all of which I'd be happy to share with you, and when I achieve my goals every single one of them is going to work. And what's more? They're sustainable. It's real democracy. It's a republic without the greed, without prejudice, without the trappings of emotional thinking committed by men who lack the discipline to even begin controlling their emotions; Instead, they're ruled by them. I know exactly what I need to do, and I know exactly how to do it. And all I need are allies. Military allies."

Somehow, the tempered steel resolve in her words had only risen in potency the longer she went on. Her hands both nursed the glass they were holding as she took another deep breath, gaze falling to regard the clear liquid swirling within.

"Right now, that means General Carnelian. But he's a temporary measure, and he will not have a place in the system I intend to establish. I assume neither of us harbor any delusions about who he is and what he's done. He's a rabid dog, a fossil, and quite frankly one who deserves to die out in the old world long before he ever gets a chance to live in the new one. And if I'm being honest? I don't think he expects anything less." Seeing into that man's soul hadn't been difficult. He was bored. He'd lived too long. His best days, the ones he could truly say he enjoyed, were all behind him, and now all that was left was finding the one capable of carrying out his passage to the void. The man truly did embody that old parable of the snake who consumed itself.

"But he is strong. There's no one in all of Remnant with more accumulated time on a battlefield. And make no mistake, the time of war is upon us. Even as we speak, an enemy the likes of which the kingdom has never seen before gathers his forces and prepares to strike. But we'll get to him in a minute. Do you see where I'm going with this?"

She raised the glass to her lips and finished it, gathering her thoughts with an inscrutable expression as her eyes drew in the colonel's each and every reaction to her words, every flicker of emotion and twitch to his expression.

It was important for settling one crucial question before she went any further, after all. Her expression was almost droll as she delivered her follow-up.

"I assume that after everything you've just heard you're either interested or you're going to have your bodyguard arrest me. So before I use up any more of my breath, I should very much like to know which you're going with."

Every word, every sentence, every insignificant detail ranging from the punctuating pauses she exercised for effect to the various inflection and enunciation used for emphasis was committed to memory, engraved in his mind's eye as he digested it all. While affixed still as a statue in thoughtful pose, his gaze rested upon Weiss unflinchingly. When she delivered her inquiry at the end, he took the liberty to study her for a minute, perhaps to the councilwoman's disliking, as a moment's reprieve for himself to arrive at a decision. The very first indication that he had was a contemplative sigh accentuated with the creasing of his brow. In the next second, his hands separated as he leaned back momentarily, before rising to standing and brushing himself down to avert any unwanted wrinkles within his attire before gazing downward to the seated councilwoman. His features reclaimed the signature stoicism he was renown for throughout Atlas, potentially giving her an impression of the wrong sort.

Ector gingerly clasped the sloping neck of the bottle wherein dwelled the high quality beverage Miss Schnee indulged herself with throughout the meeting with his right, his left supporting its base as he moved forward to refill her glass with more of the acrid drink. It was a gesture that spoke volumes more than words ever could allow, a nonverbal assent to everything she had outlined, a clear statement that he was truly and well interested in what she had to say. However receptive she was to it, the Colonel took the liberty furthermore to replace the bottle, before recouping his composure and peering over the left shoulder towards Liza, his features tense with an underlying message that only she would understand innately. Glancing back to Weiss, she saw a countenance drastically different from the one displayed seconds before.



He reclaimed his seat, the relaxed air returning to him as his hands overlaid one another again, his eyes lidding shut as he exhaled something a mix of relief and appreciation. It was hardly a break in decorum, though the shift was still towards the unprofessional, his eyes opening as he started to speak. "Thank you, Weiss. If I might address you by your name? I have longed wished to be able to discuss such matters openly beyond hushed tones within dark corners, with few friends to truly trust with them. I must say I am under no illusion we live within a society rotten nearly from the inside out with hardly any consideration for the unfortunate many merely eking out lives of their own. A society that actively oppresses and makes their lives all the harder while the few benefit from it. Good folks, soldiers, workers, even the faunus, fall victim to this system of decay. And it is actively maintained by the selfsame individuals that benefit from it, just as you say. The very idea of allowing it to persist any longer than it has is... infuriating."

He murmured the last word, eyes once more knitting shut as he exhaled, a definitive source of frustration being that very thought itself.

"I do not have qualms admitting that you are the best and brightest Atlas has to offer. No, perhaps the world. It's foolish to let one's inadequacies get in the way of the facts. I had always intended for something similar though it would require of me to bide my time for long. Far too long. If I could accomplish bringing about the vision we share through another means, I would be the world's greatest fool to put my pride before it. The world's affairs are reaching a tipping point, there are things afoot that I am not aware of and that vexes me. If a change, a new era, is to be ushered in, it is now and that requires the dismantling of the old world, the removal of every entity resistant to the winds of change."

His features hardened immediately, the person clearly in mind easily surmised by Weiss. At risk of repeating precisely what she'd said, Ector continued along.

"Borous Carnelian, a monster cultivated by the system that has allowed him to run unchecked for far too long and yet even we still have our use for him. A warrior's death is a generosity I have trouble extending to even him. Regardless, It's a matter of practicality... the roads we've taken have not been easy, hard decisions have been made. Harder for you than I."

He squinted and briefly entertained the idea that perhaps he did require a drink after all. He departed from the very notion with all haste. He leveled his eyes upon her once more, steeling every fiber of his being as he made the statement to her that less demanding and more a solemn imploring. "Tell me everything."