11
"I still do not understand why we need to move." Whitley poutingly said, but his eyes betrayed his wonder as he looked around the place.
"It's just temporary. You heard General Ironwood. He said that they need to search our house..." Weiss tried to sound mature, but even she looked at the wooden architecture with amazement, rarely she saw or was inside something so...
Living...
"Oh? You said that and sounded so alright just because when you wanted to object, he patted you on the head and told you that everything would be alright! As if didn't everything wasn't already alright!" Whitley shouted triumphantly as he watched his sister's face suddenly burn red.
"O-Oh? A-And who was the one who turned his head to the side with red cheeks when General ruffled his hair and said that he is now the man of the house and should take care of his family? Hm? Oh yes! It was you!"
"Wasnt!"
"Was!"
""Hmph!!"" Both siblings turned their heads from each other as they crossed their arms...
Winter wanted to facepalm, and she rarely had such feelings, mostly when she came across a very...
Nonsensical subordinate whose idea was to create debauchery parties to ward off negative feelings and thus Grimms...
Still, Winter hid her smile when she saw both Whitley's and Weiss's radiantly red cheeks...
She never knew that General was so good with kids, the way he behaved with them, the way he spoke, and how he always knelt or bent down to be at their eye level when he wanted them to listen...
Even his sometimes too-familiar behavior, like patting their heads or ruffling their hair, something that could be taken as patronizing, looked too good when done by him...
And somehow...
The idea of General behaving around children like that made Winter fiercely blush...
"James... Lives in there?" Winter looked at her mother while hiding her frown. She knew that it was unfair to judge her mother...
At least from her, from her time with General, where he trained her and taught her to look deeper into things and into the inside, Winter realized that she herself was similar to her mother, but where mother's escape method was to drown in drinks, Winter's was to run from home...
Leaving her siblings to father, she should know, no, deep inside she knew that father wouldn't change and would treat them the same as he treated her, but she still hopped or was just too blind to see, that nothing would change, and rather than protecting, Winter chose to run...
Leaving her siblings behind...
"General Ironwood said that he had this build a years ago but never truly spent too much time in there, with his duties needing him to be in the center of matters..." Winter explained at least they wouldn't need to worry about Grimms, as the Generals house was precisely inside Atlas military patrolled zone, and even then, the General admitted that there were enough automatic defenses against a Grimm that could sneak into there to drown them in bullets...
"It... Certainly fits his character..." Mother mumbled, touching the warm wooden walls with a sigh leaving her mouth.
------------------------------------------
"Your rooms are prepared..." Klein bowed his head as he walked to them and gave them his report.
Winter thanked their family Buttler, who followed them in there.
"Thank you, Klein. Why don't you take a rest yourself? I'm sure even you are spent after the moving." Winter said, making Klein shake his head.
"Thank you for your kind words, mistress, but I can't do that, and my body is still full of energy!" Klein exclaimed with a smile as he patted his shoulder, his eyes flashing briefly.
Winter shook her head but accepted Buttler's words. She never remembered when Klein took it easy, he was always there for them, and that was something Winter would always be grateful for, still...
Winter wondered what Klein and General Ironwood spoke about, and now she knew they knew each other from when her grandfather took General Ironwood as his non-official ward, but...
Rarely Winter saw Klein's eyes turn to red, and when he turned from General, she saw a glimpse of them changing, just like General's half-amused and bemused expression...
Still, as Winter settled her family in their new temporary home that belonged to General, she wondered what General Ironwood was doing...
But Winter realized something...
She...
She was to live there too with her family...
She was...
Winter Schnee was to live in the home of her boss, and not just any boss...
"Winter? Why is your face suddenly red?" Winter didn't hear her mother's question, as her mind went overloaded.
She was to live with General Ironwood!!!!
------------------------------------------------------
"Something wrong, General?" He asked, seeing how General Ironwood's face conserved as if he had a sudden realization.
He worried that this would lead to the end of talks. He worked his entire life for this opportunity just to give up now. He needed, no Faunus needed this chance...
"Do you want to end this nonsense? Did you finally choose to stop this farce?" A more arrogant voice sounded, and he frowned...
Where did he go wrong with her? Sienna wasn't like this, at least not at the start...
Why did she want to end anything that didn't fall into her view of the world...
"No... I had just a sudden feeling of something, and no, I do not wish to stop this. What will be chosen there will affect not just Atlas and Menagerie but the entire Remnant." He sighed in relief as he heard General deny any negative outcome...
For a while, he was truly worried.
"But, let's get back to the matter. I'm sure you have already heard of the news that is happening now in Atlas. I wish to know your output on this." He frowned. What General Ironwood truly wanted was beyond him, but as nominated ruler of his people, he took a good guess, as one defacto ruler to another, cooperation was the best way...
But what could they give to the General for him to wish to pursue this kind of action?
"One racist down, another takes his place, nothing changes, even if Jacques Schnee himself is the one down. Until the entire Schnee family isn't dealt with, there is no reason to talk." Sienna dismissively said with a scoff, making his eyes widen.
What did she just say?!
Did she want to kill them? Or just take them from power?
No...
Knowing Sienna...
His face paled, but that was nothing against the bang that followed.
"You will not touch a single hair on any Schnee that isn't in prison if you will. If something happens to them, I will change the White Fang designation from protesters with rare cases of extremists to terrorists, and I will command that they are killed on sight." Ghira palled, his body trembling at what he had just heard, disbelievingly looking at the stone-faced general whose eyes became emotionless.
"Oh? Finally ending this play and showing your true colors?" Sienna said with a scoff. Ghira was losing any patience he had with the woman that was once a close member of his family. She was like his little sister, but that was a long time ago, and now he was becoming increasingly irritated with her way of burning bridges.
"Do not try to project yourself as a saint and fighter for justice. We know you aren't anything but a woman driving with her own self-sense of vengeance. I have hundreds of satisfied and happy working faunus in the Atlas military. This isn't about racism, this is about your personal vengeance, and if you try to act upon it, I will have no other chance than to try it myself." Ghira listened to General as he finished with his speech, but before he could, General closed off Sienna's connection.
...
Did he end her call?
Ghira wanted to scream, and he knew very well how Sienna would react to this course of action...
"Ghira Belladonna, I called you because I wish to make an official deal between Menagerie and Atlas, we both know that no amount of pretty words could restore Atlas's image, not after the dirt that was given to the public, but action could."
"What do you wish, General Ironwood? I fear that I can't help you even if I could. There is nothing that Menagerie has." Ghira wanted to say White Fang, but he knew that ship sailed a long time ago when they started becoming more extreme...
There wasn't any chance for Atlas to ally with them, at least not until they gave up their more infamous members to Atlas's hands, something Ghire knew Sienna wouldn't do...
And...
Ghira knew that his own daughter belonged to that list...
Oh, Blake...
Just into what you jumped into...
"But you have, we know that even if SDC mines open once again, and they will, as Dust can't ever stop flowing, nobody will believe that the miners are being taken care of as they deserve, and that is just one of the reasons I call you, I wish for Menagerie to open their official Embassy there in Atlas, with yours own chosen inspectors and overseers that would work and make sure that SDC mines are as just as they are portrayed, if people wouldn't believe your own oversight, then they wouldn't believe in anything else."
Ghira couldn't form his words...
He knew what the General didn't say...
He knew that just now, General admitted that he would officially support Menagerie's claim of sovereignty as Kingdom...
This...
Ghira's hands trembled at what he had just heard.