Book 3 Chapter 3.3
- Location
- NOVA
Miracles of Ancient Wonder Book Three: Creation
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Chapter 3.3
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Chapter 3.3
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Yang circled their little airport, staring at the new commotion to try and make some sense of it. Four unmarked bullheads and a lot of people who were formed into two groups. It was three in the morning and a bit too dark to actually make out much. She flew past one of the lightning towers, letting it strike her to recharge some of the Au- Essence, dammit Weiss, she'd spent adding more filigree to her buildings.
The airport itself was a mess because of how rushed she was when she made it. One runway that was surrounded by defenses. Building the towers far enough out that airships could land safely while still maintaining a net that should stop any Grimm that tried to slip through had been annoying. She'd had to rebuild three of them because they were off by a foot or so, which was important, but was also hard to not have happen when you're growing metal trees.
She touched down on the top of their air command tower, where some of her people were waiting next to the AA cannon.
"What am I looking at?" Yang asked the startled group.
"Y-your Majesty!"
"You got here faster-"
"We weren't prepared for your-"
They stammered and bowed. Yang resisted the urge to sigh, she'd told them she was coming and wasn't exactly trying to hide her descent. They had two Faunus there, so not being capable of seeing her wasn't even an excuse.
"It's all right. What's wrong?" Yang cut them off before they could get too distracted. The ceremonies were honestly kinda fun, but it wasn't the time.
"Ma'am, we received a request to land from one group of two an hour ago and a second group half an hour ago." A man with dark purple hair whose name was on the tip of Yang's tongue responded. He was… one of their officers, she knew that much from the uniform and insignia. "They started arguing when the second group disembarked."
Yang nodded and looked back at the landing strip. "Any idea why?"
"From my men on the ground, the first group considers the second 'traitors' and the second considers the first 'heretics'."
"I'm sorry, what?"
"I…" He paused, looking from the ground then back to her, her wings in particular. "I don't want to make any assumptions, but considering what they're talking about, how the first group came from the Menagerie and the second came from northern Vale, and both of them are entirely Faunus who are all heavily armed… I suspect that both are from different White Fang branches."
Yang wanted to say something, but… the Menagerie's aircraft always flew their flag and there weren't many groups besides the White Fang who wouldn't have something to identify themselves with. Also, everyone being armed was… yeah… especially with no flag.
"Has anyone started anything?"
"Not yet."
"I'll take care of it." Yang stepped up to the edge. "Good report… Lieutenant Mul."
"Ma'am," He saluted so either she got it right or he didn't react to the mistake.
Yang kicked off and flew over the middle of the crowd. Some of the edges looked up, but those in the center were too busy shouting. Yang halted her speed and fell straight down, landing a couple of feet from the two who were dead center.
Waves of silence crashed through the crowd. Many people's hands jumped to their weapons, but only three or four got halfway through drawing before realizing what they were about to do. Now that she was close, Yang could easily pick out the White Fang tattoos on everyone, even if they'd left their uniforms at home.
"Sup?" She asked, crossing her arms.
The two in the center pivoted, dropping to one knee and bowing their heads. After a moment, most of the others joined them.
"Uhhhhh… glad we're all on the same page?" Yang did her best to keep the surprise off of her face. "That doesn't tell me what the problem you two seem to have is?"
They both started talking at the same time. The crowd surrounding them also started shouting.
"Should've seen that coming." Yang cleared her throat and silence reigned once more. "We're doing this again. You-" She pointed to the lizard Faunus on her right "-start talking and no one else interrupt until he's finished."
"My thanks, Your Majesty." He growled, glaring at the bat Faunus he'd just been arguing with. "I am Sill and I lead a group of the Claws of Luna who are here to serve the Silver Princess who our Lady has sent us."
Yang didn't snicker at the thought of Weiss' reaction, but that was only because she had to be regal right now. "And you?"
"I am Captain Violo of the White Fang. We've already met." His ears twitched.
"We have?" Yang honestly couldn't remember him.
"You punched me off of a train after slaying our commander."
"That doesn't really narrow it down that much."
He chuckled, "Of course it wouldn't. Taurus was a fool and Kahn is the same. I can see that now. We come to swear allegiance to the only woman fit to rule the White Fang, Blake Belladonna."
"Swearing allegiance to a traitor." Sill muttered under his breath.
"Serving a Schnee." Violo started standing.
"Okay," Yang took a deep breath. "I don't know what sort of arguments you two, all of you, have been having, but if you want to join us then you're going to have to follow both Weiss and Blake, got it?"
She could practically see the anger boiling off of them.
"Got it?"
"...Yes." They said in unison.
Yeeeeeah, that was definitely the truth. She couldn't even use her normal threat because they'd be fighting each other, not her. Also, the White Fang was totally willing to suffer the pain to fight, they'd already proven that.
Make an example of one.
Nope.
"We're going to hold you to that. Any fighting between you and anyone else, isn't going to be tolerated, especially right now." Yang wouldn't trust just her words for that, but they had other solutions. "Give me a minute."
She pulled out her scroll and called Carmen. Her High Priestess had taken over so much of the administrative stuff Yang didn't understand and did it well. Anything removed from their desks was a godsend. After a bit of consulting, she hung back up and waved one of the soldiers over.
"Here's the plan. Sill's group is going to be housed in the old hotel on Pine and 4th. Violo's are taking the one on River and 24th." That should keep them far enough away from each other until they had a better solution. "We'll figure out jobs and better housing once everyone's through immigration?"
The saluting woman paused. "Uhhh, immigration, Ma'am?"
"Yeah, new office. Contact Captain Marigold about it." Yang turned back to the leaders of their latest problems. "Can you get all of them there?"
Both nodded.
"Great." Yang took flight again and pulled out her scroll. She needed to call Marigold about this new idea before anyone else tried to. One of her teammates would probably have a better plan, but they were all supposed to be sleeping.
"And, do you have any notable non-combat skills?" The interviewer asked, adjusting her glasses as her assistant took notes.
"Umm," Rubel fidgeted with his scarf, tail standing on end behind. "I… can camp? Hunt? Look, I joined up to wet my claws on the blood of our enemies. That's who I am."
"At the moment, our leaders are prioritizing rebuilding from the last battle and strengthening our forces."
"They have the kingdoms quaking in their boots! This is when we should be striking! Break their stranglehold!" He started standing up.
"Are you questioning the wisdom of Luna's Chosen?" She met his eyes, sending him slinking back down.
"I- I of course not I just…" The man shuddered, shrinking under her gaze. "I… I'm sorry… Uhh, besides fighting… I make a mean stew? That's not combat, right?"
"Acceptable." The interviewer turned to her assistant, who also nodded. "You'll start off with a small stall near the central square. We have ample supplies of tools for you to pick from, but only enough food will be given to you for the first three days of operations. After that, you'll need to buy more with profits from the first week or any money you've brought with you."
He blinked at her.
"With the festival right around the corner, I suggest that you hurry."
"That's it?"
"One more thing," Her assistant tore off a sheet of paper and held it out. "Here is a quick reference for our bylaws and restrictions that all citizens will have. Please read it and confirm your understanding."
He nodded, eyes glazing over briefly as he read at a speed he never had before, 'Uhhh, wood battery stapler?"
The interviewer nodded. "Thank you for being so understanding. Please finish filling out your paperwork in the lobby and you'll be shown to your new lodgings."
As soon as he left the room the interviewer groaned.
"You don't need to be here for all of them." The 'assistant' said.
"After the bandits, I'm not letting another fifty timebombs in without vetting them and you're biased." Weiss dropped the illusion for a moment and stretched.
"Like you aren't biased…" Blake paused and checked on Weiss, considering what she said. There wasn't any anger. "Also, thank you for holding your tongue."
"I'd like to think our biases are counteracting each other and if I was biting it any harder I'd be bleeding." Weiss pulled out her scroll and rapidly typed. There were so many projects she needed to handle at once. "All of the new problems have stymied us too much and I can't imagine it's going to end anytime soon. Who's coming next, the Mantel Separatists? Or maybe one of the Mistral Crime Families wants to move in?"
"Uhhh…" Blake wasn't sure how to tell Weiss that she had to kick out one of them back when the blockade was still being setup.
"Spectacular…"
"Is there any other way for us to do this?" Blake played with her pen. Each interview had its own cadence, but the plan was the same. Weiss would press for whatever risk someone might have while Blake wrote as compelling of a letter as she could in five minutes. She could write a lot in five minutes and had managed to get the most important parts of what laws they had down to only thirty seconds, which left four and a half minutes for all of the reasons why whatever idea popped into the interviewee's head was bad.
She'd even figured out a way to make it able to be read super quickly.
"I'm working on deprogramming one person right now. Maybe we'll be able to do more later, but I wouldn't hold my breath on being able to get as many people as we need to help while being ethical. No matter how… distasteful I find their beliefs, they need to be convinced the slow way."
"We could've turned them away if it's too hard."
"We should take on tasks that are important, even if they're hard. Besides, manpower is our most significant resource constraint right now and… It's also good of us to do this. If we turned them away, what would they do? Go back to terrorism?"
It was Blake's turn to bite her tongue. There was a time and a place for rehashing their first real argument and now was neither. "I just want them to realize there's another way. That we don't need to fight like that anymore."
"One of the groups seems to already believe you're correct, but the other... The two of us spending our morning on this is step one. Two through ten are integrating them without anyone getting maimed."
Blake gave her a look.
"Humans are just as capable of maiming as Faunus and I'm worried about violence in either direction."
It probably would've been good for Weiss to have her eyes opened like Yang's had been instead of seeing it from the top. Blake filed the thought away for when they had time. "Everyone should have read my "Don't be Racist" pamphlets, but I don't have the time to make sure everyone did."
"And there are risks besides that. The cults; past crimes; simply having more people with Aura, a history of violence, and alcohol… Yang's plans for the festival…" Weiss grimaced. "If this keeps up, Ruby's just Awaken everyone's Aura plan might stop being an awful idea."
"Is it really that dangerous? The Menagerie always had a lot more people with Aura because we had to. I get why Ren and Nora are against it, but…"
"The diplomatic implications are fraught. Though, maybe not more so than recruiting criminals and White Fang platoons."
"About that," Blake took a breath because it was another tricky topic that she knew Weiss was passionate about. "What's going to happen if someone did something in the past and one of the kingdom's wants them? I can't…"
"We've already spoken to five people who're on one of Atlas' lists and at least ten for Vale. We'll negotiate extradition once they agree to send us Exalts who've done nothing wrong."
Blake had seen the news about Vaccuo killing one who had tried to steal a long distance plane. "I'm kind of surprised that Atlas hasn't agreed to that."
"They believe they can recruit any Exalts they find or prevent them from joining their greatest political rival."
"And.. you're still helping Atlas despite this?"
"We need their intelligence apparatus and I'm certain that they're going to fail. Without General Ironwood's defense, their top priority is going to be replacing me. But, the only thing they can offer that we can't is immediate material luxury." Weiss grinned. "Soon enough, that won't be a problem anymore."
Blake smiled as the air got colder. That was something they could all agree on. A knock on the door interrupted the thought.
Captain Marigold, who Yang had thrown so far under the bus that she'd be getting a raise and forced vacation as soon as either were feasible, called out. "Are you ready for the next meeting?"
Weiss renewed her illusion. "Yes, send them in."
A/N: Happy Halloween! I had really hoped that I'd have this done and we'd be at festival time at the right time, but two other scenes kept not working out no matter how many times I tried to fix them. Eventually I gave up and cut them for pacing reasons... Still spent a lot time.
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