32

Chapter 32 – Re-Jauneimator

Blake woke immediately. Instincts drilled into her flaring to life as her body warned her of danger. One hand reached for a knife that was no longer beneath her pillow, even as her golden eyes fixed on the person stood beside her bed.

"Uh… morning," Yang greeted nervously. Blake's ears flattened against her hair.

"Yang," conversational, soft… her voice held a deep promise of pain, "why are you holding that mutt over my body?" The blonde girl looked down at the dog in her hands, which she was holding out in such a way as to drop it onto Blake's sleeping form. To Zwei's credit even he seemed to think this was a bad idea, the dog struggling to escape its imminent demise.

"No reason."

"Yang…"

"I was just taking him for a walk." The corgi seemed to sense a chance to escape, squirming its way out of her grip as it fled over to hide under Weiss' bed. It was a sad day indeed when it had more sense than its master.

"Just…" Blake sighed, "forget it. Where is everyone?"

"Weiss and Rubes went to grab some food for us. They took your bear with if that's what you're wondering. Don't worry, it'll be safe."

Huh, she hadn't even realised he was missing, though she probably should have. If only because of the lack of any interruptions. As long as he stayed in the bear he'd be fine. It wasn't like Weiss or Ruby were going to let him be stolen.

Fishing the scroll out from beneath the covers, Blake swiped a finger over the screen to turn it on. The bright blinking number 167 over the messages icon painted a dark picture.

"Sheesh," Yang hovered above her shoulder, "Are all of those from Penny?"

"Looks like it…" the last one said something about breakfast and a meeting, but she didn't bother to read any of the others. Jaune could skim through them later to see if there were any important ones.

"Worse than dad when we went on our first school trip… he was sending us messages every ten minutes to make sure we were okay. Then again, at least he had an excuse – what have you gotten yourself into now?"

A good question… and one she wished she had an answer to. Beacon was supposed to be a fresh start for her. A chance to leave the subterfuge and violence of the past behind. She'd expected easy lessons, tentative friendships and relatively little drama.

She had not expected to be caught between terrorists, robots and the undead. It sounded like the tagline for a bad movie… In cinemas now, Blake Belladonna's messed up life.

"Just the usual madness," Blake said with a small laugh, pushing herself out of bed and slipping into her normal clothes. It felt nice to be able to do so without worrying for her dignity. Though she still spared a second to look around carefully… just to make sure he wasn't hidden somewhere and that the other two hadn't taken away an empty bear.

"I should hope not Blake, your usual madness nearly got you expelled."

"Okay, nothing that bad. It doesn't have anything to do with the White Fang at all. I did promise I would come and tell you if it was about them, remember?"

"You did," Yang sighed, "but I wasn't sure you'd actually keep it."

That warranted a dirty look from her, even if she couldn't really refute it. What were promises in the grand scheme of things? She'd made the decisions to approach the Fang alone in order to protect Team RWBY – her friends. Was it better to be honest and casually risk their lives?

For she knew they would want to come with and help her… Weiss had the personal reasons to want to stop them, Ruby was just the kind of person to want to do the right thing, no matter the costs. Yang would come along to try and keep them all safe…

Was maintaining her own personal honesty worth their lives?

Of course not. She would lie and break promises left and right if it kept them safe, and if that made her a bad person then she'd be fine with that. Jaune would understand… and he would know the true reason why she did that.

That was enough for her.

"There's no reason to at the moment." This, she could say with honesty however. Stopping the White Fang had always been an important thing, but to her surprise it paled in comparison to protecting and staying with them all. "Trust me Yang, if anything comes up with the White Fang I'll let you know."

"Heh, guess I'll be trusting you on that front," she sighed, "Well, at least you didn't get up to any trouble yesterday."

"Miss Belladonna," Miss Goodwitch said as the door slammed open, showing the stern-looking woman stood before her nervous teammates. "The Headmaster wishes to see you in his office immediately."

"Uh… hey," Jaune greeted, "We uh… found trouble."

"Blake…" Yang growled, "How? I swear to any God out there, I watched you all day! How could you possibly have gotten into any trouble?"

"Miss Xiao-Long. While I appreciate your commitment to the task given to you by the Headmaster, you can rest assured Miss Belladonna isn't in trouble," the words caused them all to relax a little, and Yang to stop giving Blake a dirty look. "For once, anyway." The woman unhelpfully tacked on.

"What is this about then?" the faunus girl asked, accepting Jaune back into her hands so that he could vacate the bear to float beside her. No doubt he wanted to hear whatever it was she was going to be told off for as well. "Why does he want to see me?"

"Since I am not the Headmaster, I cannot say." The woman rolled her eyes, "But if you will follow me then we can both find out."

"I'm sure it will be fine," Blake called to her teammates as she made to follow the woman. "She did say I wasn't in trouble after all."

"Hope you're ready to eat those words…"

Shut up Jaune.

"This is General James Ironwood," the headmaster pointed towards the man, who Blake would have recognised even if he hadn't been introduced to her. At nearly seven feet tall, not to mention with his distinctive outfit, he was hardly an unknown figure to the faunus of the White Fang.

Though his name did come with a `do not engage unless necessary` tagline.

She really didn't want to engage him, even now.

And, of course, the reason why he was here, "Hello friend Blake!" the robotic girl waved energetically, literally swinging her hand back and forth over her head… like she was hailing someone a few hundred metres away. As opposed to the four or five feet that separated them.

"I knew she was going to get us killed. I want it on record that however she screwed up, it wasn't because of my memories."

Well thank God I've got you here to solve all my problems, Jaune…

"Miss Belladonna," Ozpin continued, "the reason we've asked to speak to you is because of a rare request made by the General himself – something which I believe you might already be aware of?"

"if you mean my helping with Penny… I wouldn't say aware of in any way. But she did mention something about it."

"Not an uncommon situation," the tall General interrupted, stepping forward to shake her hand. You could tell a lot about a person from the way they did that… this man, if she hadn't already known, was definitely powerful and confident. If he did know her past, then he clearly held no fear of her. "I'm afraid that, despite best efforts, Penny remains… difficult at times. Case in point, she was under strict orders not to reveal her unique circumstances."

"That was an accident General," the girl in question piped up. "I bumped into Blake and we fell over. She was able to immediately ascertain my nature due to the weight and feel of my body."

She's lying, Blake realised, though she didn't comment on it.

"It was an accident," she agreed instead. "I didn't mean to find out anything illegal, and it doesn't change anything about how I view her. Of course, I would never reveal this either, since it's something Penny clearly wants to remain hidden."

"That is all well and good… there's little I can do to stop you either way, since your Headmaster refuses to allow me any direct influence over you."

"Whooo – Go Ozpin! Also, do you find it a little creepy how the man was fine with just saying that to you?" He wasn't the only one in that regard… that he would willingly admit that he'd tried to have her arrested was a rather obvious threat.

"Sorry I'm late!" A new voice apologised as the doors slammed open. Blake had time enough to see the General sigh, before she was roughly spun around and a new face filled her vision. "Marvellous – simply marvellous, this is my little golden girl, is it?"

"Eh…?" Blake managed, right as the man released her shoulders and pushed her aside. It was only Hunter instincts that allowed her to remain standing as she watched him rush to the General. He was older than she'd expected for a man professing to be Penny's father, though since she was a robot it kinda made sense that he could be any age. With white hair around the sides of his head, along with a balding crown in the middle – not to mention the thick-rimmed glasses and grey stubble, he looked like a Professor Oobleck who had aged badly.

And forgotten his razor…

"Doctor Polendina," Ironwood sighed, "I was under the impression you were still on the ship."

"As was I," the man crowed, "and then I realised I wasn't, and thought – hey, why not come meet my new baby girl's friend. And then I was under the impression I was right here, and I was! Genius!"

O…kay… Blake looked towards the other adults in the room to see they were all wearing the kind of detached look of confusion she was.

"This is the man we're going to trust my fate to?" Jaune asked, right as the man waved his arms and explained that Blake would be doing part-time work for him. "I'm more screwed than I was with Cardin…"

"Explain to me Doctor," Ozpin cut-in, "why you need my student precisely? While I am not above allowing Miss Belladonna to spend her free-time doing this, if she so chooses. I am curious as to what benefit a student can offer to an accomplished engineer like yourself. Especially when it comes to your robotic works."

Uh-oh… that was bad. If he mentioned anything about ghosts or spirits, then she was going to be sunk. They either wouldn't believe her, or would want to know more… they would want answers to questions she just didn't have.

"Clones!" the man cried, "her semblance of clones offers unparalleled opportunities. Make one now, my dear."

Blake jumped at being addressed so suddenly, but after a quick nod from the Headmaster leapt back, leaving a clone in her wake. None of them seemed particularly impressed, but the General did nod, as though confirming a theory.

"Manifestations of aura that exist outside the body, truly incredible – and something many might simply dismiss as mere distractions. Tell me, my dear, how do they react with dust?"

"They gain elemental properties" Blake answered honestly. "They can explode, freeze things that attack them or act as solid barriers of rock." Dust was expensive however, especially the good stuff… she'd asked Weiss if she could get some – and the girl had assured her she would, but that it would take time.

"Perfect! Adaptive to dust, existing without body. General, I present to you – artificial representations of the soul – and is that not what we have been doing with Penny?"

The General nodded, "I see. Though temporary, these clones act in a manner similar to Penny, existing outside the body regardless of no aura of their own. I can't profess to know what you're thinking doctor," Blake was sure she heard him mumble something about that being a good thing, "but I suppose I can agree to allow this. If both Miss Belladonna and Ozpin agree?"

"I'm fine with it, so long as it doesn't interfere with my studies."

"I shall agree the same," Ozpin said. "Please alert a professor if you are leaving campus for these meetings Miss Belladonna, a quick message to Miss Goodwitch will suffice."

"Excellent, now we must go – I must speak to her to discuss what we will be studying, come girl," the elderly man grabbed her wrist with more speed than she was really prepared for, dragging her from the room with Penny close behind.

"Wait, back ther-" she tried to ask, only to be shushed.

"In time, my girl – in time. Penny, find us an empty classroom." The ginger girl nodded, eyes going blank as she looked around. Blake wondered what she was doing, some kind of aura-sensing, thermal imagery? Whatever it was, it didn't take a few seconds for the girl to point towards a nearby door.

Blake wasn't sure if she should tell them this was a women's bathroom…

"No doubt you are wondering why we told that little lie to the general," the man cackled as he sat down on one of the toilets, watching Blake as she awkwardly leaned against a sink. She wasn't exactly comfortable talking to an old man in this situation, but what was she supposed to do?

"I guess it was to protect my secret, thank you for that."

"No problem friend," Penny cheered, "I explained why this is important to my father and he was quick to see the point!"

"Exactly!" said father crowed, laughing loudly, before a fit of frantic hacking coughs interrupted him. "Your clones make a valuable excuse when our true research will be focused on you and your little undead partner."

"That…" how should she put this? "That show with the General then, was it all an act?"

"Absolutely!" He leaned forward with one hand before his mouth, as though sharing some great secret, "I'll have you know my dear, I'm not quite as insane as the good General thinks I am." Behind his glasses the man's eyes widened as he rummaged in his coat for something, "Here, hold this – it will stop anyone overhearing us."

"Um…?" Jaune floated before the instrument to look at the long cucumber she had just been given.

I don't know… I'm beginning to think Ironwood has a pretty good grasp on your sanity.

"Now we can talk," the old man whispered, drawing forth a cucumber of his own and holding it before his face like a weapon. "Tell me all about your ghostly friend, then once we've gotten that out the way we can get to my lab so I can start conducting fun experiments on you!"

…

"Blake… what the hell have you gotten us involved in this time?"

I don't even know…