30

"...while the masses are left with many questions. Both the huntsmen academies as well as the councils of the kingdoms involved have declined to comment beyond informing us that an investigation is currently underway and that as things stand, the Vytal festival is to go on as scheduled. Obviously they would not have arrested beloved Haven headmaster Leonardo Lionheart without some sort of evidence, but whatever they have has not been shared with us. What will the future of Haven look like? Will this affect the performance of their students participating in the festival? Rest assured, when the answers become available, you will hear them here first. This has been Lisa Lavender-"

Second Thoughts changed the channel, switching it to some inoffensive cooking show.

With Sun and Neptune as the team JNPR tagalongs at the moment, such a news story made things a bit awkward.

"I don't understand, why would they arrest headmaster Lionheart?" Pyrrha asked, seemingly just as confused. "I know I chose Beacon over Haven, but I still thought he was a good man."

Ah. Right. Sometimes Jaune forgot about the fact that she was from Mistral.

"I'll admit that when they mentioned a situation in Haven, I did not suspect that they meant the arrest of their headmaster. I would not think ill of him either, but I suppose appearances can be deceiving." Ren chimed in. "Though the timing is a bit suspect. Would you two happen to know the reason for his arrest?" He turned towards Jaune and Second.

"Well, um…" Jaune struggled to find the right words, worried about the reaction the Haven students would have.

But Sun rolled his eyes. "Relax, man. It's not a big deal." His partner turned to him, raising an eyebrow. "Okay, it is a big deal, but only in the general wow this is news sense, and not on a personal level. Haven isn't like Beacon. We've been in the same room as Lionheart maybe… three times?" He looked to Neptune for confirmation.

"Eh, three or four sounds about right." The blue haired boy made an iffy gesture with his hand.

"Right, and that's not one on one conversations or anything. That's a few times where he spoke to the whole student body. We're not like you guys and team RWBY, constantly getting pulled into the headmaster's office. Though maybe that has more to do with how weird your teams are than the schools themselves," the blond teased.

"It's definitely weird to hear that our headmaster got arrested," Neptune continued, "but it's more in the sense of worries about what it means for the team than any sort of close relationship with the guy. Personally, I always thought he was a bit of a weirdo. Always looking around like he thought something was gonna jump out of the shadows at him."

"That's because he was worried about that." Second Thoughts decided to explain. "He was being blackmailed. Or at least, I assume that my prediction was correct, given the arrest and all."

"Somebody was blackmailing the headmaster of a huntsmen academy?" Nora asked, doubt clear in her voice. "What sort of dirt do you have to have on a guy like that? Oh! Do you think we can get dirt on Ozpin to get out of homework?!"

"The threat was murder, and that won't work on Ozpin, no." Second dismissed her idea.

"But who would be strong enough to make him fear for his life? He's constantly surrounded by some of the strongest people in Mistral, plus all of those students!" Pyrrha questioned.

Jaune clapped his hands together to get everyone's attention.

"Nope! No more!" He shook his head. "I have had enough excitement in the last few days. The most capable people for the job are already investigating, and I'm happy to leave it in their hands. We have our own problems to worry about without getting involved in that."

"Our own problems?" Ren prompted him to continue.

"Weren't you paying attention to the news, Renny?!" Nora jumped up excitedly. "The Vytal festival is still on! We've got to plan for how we're gonna kick their butts!" She pointed at the two members of team SSSN.

The boys smirked. "You think you're gonna beat us?" Sun taunted, a confident look in his eyes. "You wish!"

"Sun, I appreciate the confidence, but we've got Pyrrha Nikos and I vaguely know the future." Second reminded them.

Their confidence wavered. "...if you'll excuse us, I think we're late for a team strategy meeting." Neptune grabbed his leader by the collar, dragging him out of the room.

The footsteps clanking with every step were enough of a warning for him to make himself look presentable. You didn't get a rep like he did without being stylish, after all.

Seeing the general himself was a bit of a surprise though. "Interrogating the prisoner" had been delegated to the Schnee bitch for quite some time now. Maybe that last comment he made about helping her de-stress by replacing the stick up her ass with something else had finally broken her? The thought brought a smile to his face.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" He asked the imposing man.

"There have been some developments relating to your case." The slight frown indicated that the general wasn't happy about them, which was probably good news for him.

"Well? Are you going to share these developments or do you think mean mugging me for the nth time is going to finally break me?"

The general took a moment to respond, though Roman wasn't sure if that was some intimidation tactic or genuine frustration.

"Details of your plans and… previous employment have been uncovered."

"Previous employment? Come on now, you and I both know that I look out for number one. There's no room for an employer!" He laughed at the idea.

"Really? Then you won't recognize the name Cinder Fall?"

It was only years of working in the underbelly of Vale that allowed him to keep a poker face. What the fuck had that lunatic done now?!

"Can't say it rings a bell."

It was clear that the general didn't believe him. "I see. Well, in news totally unrelated to your case then, I thought you might want to know that after a failed assassination attempt, involvement in a grimm breach of the city of Vale, and a host of other crimes, Cinder Fall and her associates have been set to priority number one for law enforcement in every kingdom. Her whereabouts are currently unknown, but we believe her to be hiding alongside Atlas traitor Arthur Watts."

He had never heard of a Watts before, and that frightened him just a tad. Dealing with Cinder was bad enough, but if she was hanging around with some other crooks…

Well, that either meant that she'd found a suitable replacement for him, in which case he was screwed, or it meant that she wasn't the top dog like he had assumed before now, which was just as worrying, if not more so, but for different reasons.

"In light of the…" Ironwood forced the words through gritted teeth, "possibility that you were coerced into your latest actions by such a heinous criminal, we are floating the idea of being… lenient with your punishment. Provided you can agree to some stipulations."

Cinder being on the loose meant that she was still a threat to his life, but he could at least hear the bastard out, if only to watch him squirm at the thought of lighter sentencing for "big bad Roman Torchwick".

"Oh? Go on, I'm listening."

"In exchange for the assistance of both you and one…" He cringed as the name left his mouth, "Neo Politan…"

The more that the general spoke, the higher Roman's eyebrows rose.

It sounded like his early arrest wasn't actually part of Cinder's plan. And if this deal was legit…

Well, as long as it served his interests, perhaps it was time to look for new possibilities.

This would not be the first time he had been forced into this role. There were worse positions to be in, he supposed. At least here, stuck in this box next to Peter, he was not tasked with ensuring that every little detail behind the scenes played out just as it had been planned.

That did not stop him from worrying though.

There were the typical worries, like whether or not he would slip up and say something he shouldn't while being broadcasted all over Remnant. Or, in a more likely scenario, that Peter would do such a thing, and he would be expected to cut it off before he did too much damage to Beacon's reputation.

There were also the not so typical worries. Like the possibility of Second Thought's prediction of a disastrous Vytal festival coming true. The scenarios that had been laid out for them were something he was very much keen on avoiding, but the problem was the number of variables involved. Second might have had a point when he noted that the timeline as he knew it had been altered enough that the festival could go on without interruption. But who said that outside influence was required for things to go poorly? Just because Cinder's plans had seemingly been foiled didn't mean that nothing could go wrong.

An unfortunate reality of the White Fang is that there was no concrete method of stopping them in advance without some sort of gross overreach on their part that would only exacerbate the divide between the Faunus and baseline humans. They could keep an eye out for suspicious activity, but were largely left to do little more than react to any issue that might pop up.

"It seems we have another astonishing bout ahead of us, wouldn't you agree professor?" Peter asked him.

"Doctor." He corrected his colleague for what must be the thousandth time. "And yes, Peter I think this is shaping up to be a very close match-up!"

Glynda would probably kill him if she found out, but he allowed his mind to drift as Peter went over the "first time watching the Vytal festival?" spiel once more.

There was the Roman situation to worry about. He wasn't quite sure how to feel about that one. With the way that Second had explained it, it sounded like there were two possibilities for the thief. Side with Jaune in some capacity… or die. Granted, what "siding with Jaune" meant specifically seemed to vary by quite a bit, but it didn't paint a picture he liked.

While he would very much like the man to pay for his many crimes, none of them went nearly so far as to be deserving of something like the death penalty. And while none of them had any plans to end his life, would ignoring the knowledge they had been given and leaving him to his fate not be endorsing his death in some manner? Ethics never was an easy subject, but he felt that if the choices for Roman were "join or die", he was obligated to do what he could to make the thief's redemption a reality.

And yet, it was almost entirely out of his hands. He held a position of authority… but only within the school. He did not lead a military power like Ironwood, he did not have a seat on the council like Ozpin, and the ability of huntsmen to preside over such matters typically ended at apprehension. Sentencing was outside of his wheelhouse. Thus, his involvement in the matter was limited to petitioning Ironwood. It was not a position he liked to be in, but it was his current reality.

"...why, I tell you, when I was a young lad I could have taken on both teams at once! That's not to say that they're not giving a great showing, this is probably one of the most impressive fights we've seen so far, but I was simply that amazing! And let me tell you ladies… I've only improved with age!"

In a way only someone as practiced as him was able to, Oobleck let Peter's words fall away into background noise.

There was also Jaune and Second to worry about.

Team JNPR had not yet made their debut in the festival, but he found himself both agonizing over it and eagerly awaiting it. He had strongly recommended that Jaune simply handle things on his own for the tournament. Both because the short amount of time the duo had gotten to practice separately had not been enough to adjust to a proper fighting style, and because limiting information on their capabilities would be a wise choice with the enemies they had made.

There was also the other matter…

Second did not know how to fight. At all. Watching the semblance move around was like watching a teenager who had just hit a growth spurt and wasn't quite sure of how long their own legs were. It seemed that while he had been a passenger to all of Jaune's training since his manifestation, that didn't translate to actual capabilities for himself. Not that he could be blamed. If Bart had been trapped inside someone's head with seemingly no escape, he probably wouldn't be terribly interested in noting down the exact mechanics his host's body was using at every moment either.

All he could do for now was watch, wait, and try to guide them towards a better future.

"...reminds me of the time I fought off fifty Beowolves on my own! It was just last week, and I had nothing but my bare hands…"

But perhaps he should be more focused on controlling Peter. Glynda was surely ready to murder them both already, but saving the broadcast now might downgrade his punishment from something brutal and torturous to a swift, painless death.