17

"Let me state it plainly. I can't force you to give up on your people, nor do I wish to escalate things more than they are now. The Grimm are enemies, not you. At least not yet." There I stopped as my eyes bore into those of feline faunus narrowed ones.

"But, I can't have them go free, not after what they did to the public, and I speak about the public, the reports from villages to trains that transported both Dust, materials, and THE passengers, innocent civilian passengers." There my voice almost growled.

"The sole reason I did not call for a true strike. IS that it would lead to more deaths on all sides. Do not temp me, Miss Khan. Atlas shall not be bullied." Second most militaristic organization or not, White Fang was still an organization without a true place. They were mostly nomadic in their operations, with rarely any true base outside of Menagerie.

And thus, it would be all that simple to call for airstrikes and bombardment without any need to meet them on equal battle terms.

The problem was finding such camps and bases that were littered all around the kingdom wilderness.

That, and the White Fang's terrorism was just still in its infancy. They have already done damage, but not so much that it would destroy me in a public act of forgiving them under some favorable terms.

Sienna and I spent some time just watching each other. Both of us didn't speak.

At least until I watched her take a deep breath and ever so slowly slump on her throne chair.

"And what, you pray to tell me to do?" Sienna asked me, and I masked my surprise by nodding my head at how.

How genuine her question was.

"I do not think you would truly see any of my advice in sincere light and would doubt any of my words. And so, I wish for you to speak with the person you know more than me." I tapped on the keyboard, and after a while, another image was added to our call.

"General Ironwood?" Ghira Belladonna said in greetings as I nodded at him.

"Chief Belladonna, I think it time for you and Miss Khan to speak about the matter we spoke about last time, the one where we discussed the lack of Menagerie's protection." I could see how Sienna's eyes gleamed in curiosity as she heard my words, and her amber-gold eyes looked from me to Ghira.

"Sienna? I see. Thank you, General. I will have words with her." Knowing that they wished to be alone in this, I nodded at them both and cut off my connection.

"Now... Let's hope for the best." I whispered.

"Gaaaah ahhh!" Harriet cried out in pain as she flew into the wall.

"You need to be more chaotic in your approach. You are too predictable." I said to the speedster girl and newest member of the Ace-Ops.

I frowned when I looked at the rest of the team.

Somehow, their image irked me, and I didn't know why.

Until I again looked at Harriet, seeing her uniform that showed too much of her bare youthful skin.

"Does armor restrict your mobility?" I asked the girl, who now limpidly stood up, I didn't enjoy hurting my men or women, but I was a strict believer in the saying that the more challenging the training, the easier the actual fight.

"I-Cuough, yes, all armor I tried was too restrictive." I hummed as I nodded at the black Pikachu girl and looked at the rest of the team.

"I guess that goes for the rest of you, too, hm?" I asked in confirmation, making them nod.

"Yes, Sir."

"Yes, General Ironwood."

The girls and boys nodded because even if they were outside of the school, they were still girls and boys in my eyes. I looked at the reports. They weren't ever in a real bloody fight.

Against Grimm horde, yes.

And yes, for protecting or failing a settlement, seeing death with their own eyes.

But never were they sent on a dirty mission, a bloody mission.

"Then you will return to the R&D team and let them take your measures and cooperate with them on your new armor. That is an order." I knew this world had armor. In the past, before Ozpin created huntsmen, the Kingdom's armies wore armor. Yes, it was more restrictive than normal huntsmen apparel, but it saved many lives.

The problem is, the armor isn't cool, at least not to the younger generation that is too dependent on their Aura, not knowing what to do once it's spent or broken.

It was the same for Tyrian Callows, who could ignore his opponent's Aura. For such cases, an actual armor capable of deflecting or stopping blades or shots meant life or death.

That said.

The times changed, and the once clumsy armor doesn't need to be such.

Atlas advanced a lot in time, and I'm sure they could come up with some skintight protection wear, like armor.

Why the Xcom Warden's suit jumped into my mind wasn't known to me, but once I thought about it, it was a clear why.

It was created for both protection and mobility, something the Specialists could use.

She looked at James's broad shoulders as images flashed into her mind.

"Do you know what she did wrong?" James asked, and she returned back to the present as she looked at what he was speaking about, her heart almost jumping to her throat when she saw Weiss on the ground, above her, the energetic orange-haired girl.

She wanted to think something bad, and yet.

She couldn't, she spoke with the girl when she saw her for the first time, and in the act of dragging her youngest daughter by the arm, at that time she wanted to demand what was happening, just to stop as she saw a look of hopeless resignation on Weiss's face, and not of any fear or anger.

And so, she stayed quiet, watching how the boisterous girl dragged Weiss outside, where they then spent some time speaking and then lightly sparring.

She didn't know when James came, nor when her son joined them, all she knew was that she couldn't bring herself to say anything when she saw James's hand on Whitley's shoulder, as he kept asking and speaking with her son, who for the entire time seemed to be a happy, shy, but happy.

"Weiss jumped into the air?" Whitley innocently asked as James chuckled and patted her sons head.

"Yes, and no, for most. Being in the air in the fight is a danger, as they can't control their movement up there, but for Weiss and those with Schnee semblance, or others with similar ways, it is not because they can use a certain means to maneuver in the air even more than on the ground." James patiently explained.

"..."

"What is wrong, Whitley?" She looked from the place where her daughter once again jumped into the air to evade the sword the orange-haired girl threw at her and resisted the bile that jumped up in her throat as she looked at her son, who bent his head down.

"...I do not have it..." Whitley whispered, and her heart almost broke at the way his voice quivered.

"It? You mean the... Whitley, do you know that for the Semblance, you need to have activated Aura?" James kindly asked as his hand moved back to her's son shoulder, giving it a light squeeze.

"What?" Her son asked as he looked up.

Did nobody explain to him? She felt shame and regret at that. She should have told him. Did Whitley think he wasn't Schnee or part of their family just because he didn't have their hereditary family Semblance?

She hoped not because if yes, she failed once again.

"Whitley, do you wish for me to activate your Aura?" James asked and looked at her, making her freeze.

These times, she didn't have a chance to speak with him, even if she saw him in the house, HIS house. She was too preoccupied with the entire SDC takeover and multiple new policies she needed to make up for things Jacques did.

She just didn't have time, and yet, she felt it was a good thing.

As she felt that a time would give her too much time to think, and thinking would lead her to the desire for a new glass of wine...

Something she didn't want, and yet the more she didn't want it, as she knew what it would do to her family now that things were improving.

The more her desire for it grew.

But she would hold like she was supposed to much earlier.

She would.

If not for herself, then for them.

"Y-yes?" She smiled at how her son's voice changed from questioning to determined and nodded at James, who sent her a smile.

She...

She felt blood running down her cheeks as her heart quickened.