The Games We Play

Chapter 96: Link

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryugii. This has been pulled from his Spacebattle publishment. Anyway on with the show...errr read.

Link

"By any chance, were you at a club last night?" Ozpin asked without preamble.

I nodded at him as we walked through the halls, reflexively locking down the air around us to keep things from reaching people they shouldn't.

"A friend of mine has owed me a drink for some time now," I replied. "He heard the news and came by to check up on me; seemed like as good a time as any."

"Ah," The headmaster tilted his head slightly to the side in acknowledgement of the words. "Did you have a good time?"

"Not really," I shrugged. "Turns out I can't get drunk."

"Oh?"

"Well, it's not really surprising, I guess," I mused. "I figured that drunkenness would be shut down by the Gamer's Mind. Without thator beyond it or in addition to it or whatevermy body just considered it a type of poison. I drank a bit, got an anti-poison skill, and there went that idea. I might have done something else to pass the time, but I was interrupted before I could start dancing or something and things just went downhill from there until I just gave up. I'm guessing you heard about Yang?"

"Indeed," Ozpin nodded, sighing quietly. "A pity that she ruined your night, but I thought it might be for the best to discuss it now, just in case it should matter later. Ms. Xiaolong is"

"Raven's daughter," I finished. "I know. Grandmother mentioned the names of Raven's teammates back in Mistral and that she remembered Raven being close to a boy named Taiyang Xiaolong. Beyond that, well, if you'd seen her"

"She looks a great deal like her mother," He nodded. "Qrow and Taiyang have mentioned that to me quite a few times; I should have guessed you'd see it, too. Then it will not be a problem?"

"I was gentle with her," I promised. "Or as gentle as I could be, at least, when she was so intent on picking a fight. I only hit her once and it was just to make a point and knock her into the street; I made sure not to really hurt her and I'd have healed her immediately if I had. Under the circumstances, I figured that was pretty reasonableit should be obvious to Raven that I held back for her sake. If she wants more than that, then she should keep her daughter from picking fights with strange men."

"Her father has mentioned that, too," Ozpin answered. "After Raven's disappearance and Summer's death, Ms. Xiaolong became quite intent on finding news concerning her biological motheralmost to the point of tragedy. Since then, she's become more careful, butI suppose it's not easy to go years without her mother and her frustration is understandable, but it might be leading to recklessness. She is strong for her age, one of the strongest fighters at Signal, and she's never lost any of her previous fights, but the world is a very large and dangerous place. I've asked Taiyang to be more careful with her in the future."

I eyed him contemplatively.

"You're watching her," I stated. "Like you watched me for my dad. Because of Raven?"

"That is a part of it," Ozpin admitted. "With news that Raven is still alive, the odds that Ms. Xiaolong might eventually find what she's looking for has become at once much better and much more worrisome. If she should find someone who does recognize her mother or who can see the resemblance as you diddepending on how much they know, that could end very badly. Though I make a point to keep an eye out concerning news of all my Hunters and their families, I cannot deny that Ms. Xiaolong has gone up the list, as of late. With her mother and the recent news concerning her sisterin truth, it is very unlikely she will stumble across many opponents of your caliber from what I know of her methods, but if she does, I cannot imagine it ending well."

I nodded.

"My grandmother hinted that Raven wanted to speak to me soon," I said. "I don't know if it has anything to do with Yang or not, but I intend to bring it up even if it doesn'tbetter that she hear it from me than learn some other way and draw the wrong conclusions. Should I ask her to keep a closer eye on her daughter? Depending on what we find, I might need to mention what's happening with Ruby to her, since she probably knew Summer best. Unless you want to bring Taiyang or Qrow in on this?"

"Perhaps," Ozpin murmured and then shook his head slightly. "Before we get down to business, however, I wanted to inform you that the matter with Conquest has been completely resolved."

That drew my attention.

"Tyrian and Castanea came back?" I asked. "Were they?"

Ozpin eyed me closely for a minute and I could literally feel him weighing his options before speaking.

"They were unharmed," He replied at last. "Conquest didn't even touch them, as far as we can tell."

"Oh," I saidbecause I knew what he was saying and why he was watching me. If they were untouched despite how close they'd been to the blast, they must have left the moment the Pandora Shell opened, if not beforeleaving the rest of us behind in the process. Perhaps it was a matter of range; they'd stayed close to one another all throughout the fight, but things had gotten chaotic enough that they could have been pushed away. Or maybe it was a matter of reflex? I knew better than most how little time there had been to think the moment things went to shit, and there'd probably been a lot less for those without high Intelligence, tremendous Wisdom, and flat-out time manipulation. All told, when they saw the bomb about to go off, maybe there hadn't been time to react properly. Or hell, maybe they'd tried and Conquest had screwed them over like he had me and Naraka. Maybe there was some limit to the ability I didn't know. Hell, maybe they'd just panicked and hadn't thought of it.

There were lots of possible explanationsbut whatever the reason, the results were the same. They'd left their team for dead. They'd left me for dead. It was only natural to be upset over that.

But was I?

On one level, yes. If they'd stayed, things might have been different. With two more hunters with defensive powersand with their ability to shunt things out of time especiallyI might have been able to save more people. If we'd been smart enough, lucky enough, we might have been able to trap the stolen Hunters, giving me hours to find a cure instead of minutes. If they'd been there, I might have saved my father. I couldn't help but think that and wish they'd been there and be angry that they weren't.

But at the same time, I understood ithell, I completely empathized with wanting to get the hell out of that situation. I'd known even at the time that attempting to stop Conquestand what's more, to cure it while in the middle of an outbreakwas obscenely dangerous, especially for those who weren't personally immune to him and who he didn't need alive; that's why I hadn't asked anyone else to help me fight him. My father's teammates especially, the people that he'd know well and who Conquest thus new well, would have been outright targets for him, especially given the nature of their powers. And really, if Conquest had seized them, the traps he might have been able to setor if he had done that to me, dooming the village

They'd have been risking lives, theirs and maybe others, even trying, putting themselves in far more danger then me in the process. I couldn't ask anyone to do thathadn't asked anyone to do that, though Mom had done so anyway. If they'd stayed, if they'd helped, things could have been different. They might have been better, or they might have been far worse; I didn't know. Butthey hadn't. They'd tried to run as, really, anyone who wasn't crazy would have, and they'd kept their lives for it. Not everyone has to volunteer for a suicide mission; it was understandable that they hadn't.

And however much it hurt, it was over now. We'd all just have to live with everything that happened that day and wonder. Whether they'd have saved us or doomed us all, we'd never know, but maybe there were a few more kids that'd get to see their parents come home. My father would have liked that, I think.

Nodding to myself, I closed my eyes and smiled just a bit. It wasn't a big smile, wasn't anything that had my heart in it, butlike I'd told myself so many times, I'd be okay. Maybe we all would be, eventually.

"Okay," I said at last, opening my eyes to meet his. "That's good, right? I hope they're okay."

Ozpin continued to watch me for a moment before nodding to himself and smiling in return.

"They seem to be," He said. "Physically, at least. When they heard the news, however, wellyou can imagine. I actually debriefed them earlier this morning, but they were rather shaken up."

I tilted my head to the side, wondering if I should have felt something at that news. I didn't, really, beyond some vague empathy. I figured living through the events still took the cake, but essentially waking up to that mess probably wasn't that great either.

"Does Mom know?" I asked after a moment. This time it was Ozpin who closed his eyes and sighed.

"Not yet," He said. "If she's awake, I'll tell her today. I debated with myself whether to tell her at all, given her condition, but given the circumstances and the fact that they were members of her teambesides which, there's no doubt in my mind that the first thing she'll ask me is how everyone who survived is doing, and I can't lie to her about this."

"And telling her while she's missing her arms and a leg might lower the chances of anyone getting stabbed in the face, maybe?" I guessed.

"I hadn't thought of that, but I suppose it's possible," Ozpin considered blithely, making me snort. "There is some good news, however."

"Oh?"

"Though most things were destroyed in the cleansing of the area, one of the Hunters on duty found something that managed to survive. Though it's a little worse for wear, he identified it as your father's hammer. I suppose you disarmed him during the battle?"

"Yeah," I considered, eyebrows rising as I understood what he's saying. "Then you mean"

"It'll need to go through a series of rather through checks to make sure that nothing dangerous has been left on or inside it," Ozpin warned. "But once it does, I should be able to return it to his next of kin, as is proper."

"Yeah," I nodded, swallowing slightly. Some groups had dog tags or badges that got given to the families of the fallen, but all Hunters had weapons that were unique, so they'd come to serve that purpose at some point. Under the circumstances, I'd written off my father's hammer as a lost cause and too dangerous to risk taking, but if it passed all the tests "That would begood."

"I thought you might think so," The headmaster said, taking a sip from his mug. "Now then, shall we get down to business?"

"What did you find out about Summer and Ruby Rose?" I asked him.

Ozpin sighed slowly and stopped to look out the nearby window.

"Not as much as I hoped, I'm afraid," He said. "I'd feared as much, with the trail this cold, but I suppose there's always that tiny part that wants to believe that maybe things will be simple this time."

"A little is better than nothing," I tried to be positive.

He shook his head.

"In many cases, yes," The headmaster replied. "But in this case, it's perhaps the opposite. The issue isn't so much amount, for I do have a great deal of information about Summerabout all my hunters, really. The nature of bureaucracy and the nature of people make that almost inevitable, really; from the moment they enter Beacon or any other combat school, they become part of the system in one of the most important ways. From grades to required forms, mission reports and medical records, regular psychiatric evaluations both official and not, financial reports, and more, it's all kept track of. It has to be, for Hunters are treated differently in many regards thanks to their roles and that means the information needs to be kept track of. All of which amount to a long, long paper trail, which, in truth, is working as intended, but while that can be helpful if a Hunter begins showing signs of erratic behavior, for an event that we hadn't realized happened and still don't know when happened"

"Ah," I understood, nodding slightly as I gave him a sympathetic wince. "There's a lot to work through, then?"

"I have records of Summer dating back to when she was twelve years old," Ozpin shook his head again after taking a deep sip of his coffee. "And what seems like every day of her life after that, now that I'm forced to look over it all."

"And we have no idea what we're looking for," I grimaced. "Which means going through everything to see what stands point. Though even then"

"I'm sure you can imagine. I went through her mission reports first, of course, as well as any mission even vaguely involving her, however vaguely, looking for hints ofanything odd, really. And I found a great deal, naturally, at least in a certain lighttimes when she was separated from her group for some period of time, missions that went on longer than expected, injuries that were mentioned but were to minor to look into deeply, old enemies, old friends, and far more. These are things happen to any Hunter, however, and mean nothing in and of themselves. In the time I had left, I tried to go through her tax records and purchase history to see if any odd expenditures were made, but while that was enlightening in a disturbing number of ways, such reportseven for civilians, many purchases can seem suspicious without context. For Hunters, far more so."

I took a moment to remember the many strange items that had occasionally been dragged through my house and made a face.

"Ouch," I said. "Yeah, believe me when I say I can imagine. One time, when one of my sisters had to babysit me, she brought home five sniper rifles and a bomb and started messing with them. I still don't know why."

"Yes, well, there were quite a few things along that vein. Purchases of high explosives and heavy weaponry, sudden payments of tens or even hundreds of thousands of Lien and acquisitions of similarly large sums, on and on. Things that, in any other profession, would be tremendously suspiciousbut which, for a Hunter, may or may not be signs of business as usual. The weapons could simply have been part of her normal duties, the payments made to acquire information or pay for damages, the money from rewards of some kind or favors to the powers, and so on. At the same time, they could be signs of very, very suspicious behavior, but without any context, it's almost impossible to say which. In this regard, the Council's attempts to monitor Hunters has simply failed, but the biggest issue is threefold."

"Three?" I asked. I could think of two, but it took me a moment to jump through enough hoops to reach the third. "Summer specifically, her team as a whole, andthen Raven specifically?"

"Precisely," Ozpin nodded, seeming pleased. "The first issue is obviouswe lack any context for these events and we cannot ask Summer to give us one or explain her actions. Worse, over a decade has passed and so both evidence and memories of her are likely to have faded, so the only opinions we could truly rely on here would be of those closest to her."

"And they're likely to get suspicious if we start shaking them down for questions," I agreed. "And the only way we're likely to get anything solid is if they know what they're looking for. That means explaining ourselves, convincing them of the truth, and by that point, we've basically brought them onboardignoring any reaction they might have to the news and suspicion we'd be directing at someone they loved, we'd need to be sure we can trust them, even though they were almost certainly closer to Summer, and now Ruby, then to us."

"Exactly," He said. "And all of it is made worse by the final issue. Assuming we can tell them and assuming they still remember enough to be useful after so many yearsall of which itself assumes we're on the right track to begin withthere is a variable that we cannot ignore. Summer, for many years, was the teammate and best friend of a woman who could create portals. Any time we were not entirely certain of her location, she could have been potentially anywhere doing anything."

We were both silent for a moment. I don't think either of us had had particularly high hopes of discovering much a decade after the fact, but this

"I could help," I said at last. "With all of it. For the records, I read really fast and my memory is as photographic as they come. I could see what I can find in the reports, maybe pick something up with my skills. I got a few new ones from upgrading my Wisdom again recently, though I haven't gotten much chance to test them out yet. I was going to check out Qrow and Taiyang anyway, to see if they were clean or not, and as for Ravenlike I said, I was going to meet her, anyway."

"I know, which is why I brought it up," Ozpin said. "Indeed, Raven may be the most likely to know something and given your working relationship, you may be able to ask her if you tread cautiously; she and Summer were always very close. But while that is an opportunity, it is also a concern. Both were close and both disappeared under what we now know to be strange circumstances. Summer, it seems, was involved with the Riders even before her deathdo you think Raven might have been, too?"

I had to pause to consider that, frowning to myself.

"Idon't know," I admitted. "I was never able to see her title when we met with one another."

"Your level was in the forties at Mistral, correct?" He asked. "And now it's"

"Sixty-nine," I supplied.

"Almost seventy," He nodded. "You said you could see up to fifty levels above yourself, correct? Do you think you'd be able to see her now?"

"Maybe," I hedged. "Grandmother and I hadmaybe hoped that would be the case. If the scale went up to ninety-nine like in most games, then after I was above fifty I'd be able to see anyone. But sirI can't see your level. I've never been able to."

Ozpin frowned at that.

"Still?" He asked. "Then that means"

"It could mean all sorts of things. The highest level I've seen was ninety-four, so it's possible that the last five levels are special in some way. It could just be something about you and how your power works. Or, yesit could mean the scale goes higher then we thought. I can't make any promises on what I'll see when I look at Raven."

"Unfortunate," He frowned. "Then we'll have to exercise caution."

"I will," I promised. "I'll figure something out when I see her next, just leave it to me."

"Are you sure, Jaune?" He sounded worried.

"As much as I can be," I nodded. "And I'm the only one who can do it, anyway; no one else could get close, no one else has even a chance of being sure, but I do. And I did some tests last night, too, with the skills I got from Conquest, just to make sure. I can infect myself with Metamorphosis and it's not contagious, except maybe if I wanted it to be. I can even transform as Jian Bing and keep all the Faunus stuff. As the White Rider, I might be able to provoke a reaction from the other Riders. I don't think that's a great idea to test on Raven, but if we have to and we're sure we can do it safely, I could attempt to draw out the Red Rider. And even if I don't dare try that on Raven, but I could still mention a few things to see how she reacts to them. I should be able to tell that much, at least."

"Perhaps," Ozpin mused, considering it. "Yes, it's possible. We'd need to be careful and it'd take time to arrange, butyes, maybe. I intended to keep an eye on Ruby, regardless; you will watch Raven, I assume?"

"As much as anyone can watch Raven," I nodded. "But I'll see what I can do. Did you find anything about Ruby, by the way? Anything else that stood out?"

He shifted a shoulder in a neutral gesture.

"I looked into her records as well," He replied. "As I think we both expected, nothing obvious came up in her medical records, or else we'd have noticed sooner. Other than that, her record was much like her mother'sfull of things that may or may not have been suspicious, but nothing definite. The only thing of note came when I looked into the sleeping troubles I mentioned previously, partially for lack of anything else to go on. It wasa bit interesting, under the circumstances, if a bit vague. It seems she has nightmares unless she sleeps with something covering her eyes or bed, which I thought a bit unusual. Furthermore, several of the doctors she's seen concerning the matter noted that the dreams appeared to be related to her motherdespite the fact that she would have been too young to remember Summer when she left. Do you think it could mean something?"

I spread my hands and shrugged.

"It could. This Red Rider might be the cause or something Summer did," I mused. "Or maybe it's related to the Red Rider's power in some way. It's something to keep in mind, at least, right?"

"I suppose there's little else we can do, as of yet," He clicked a nail against the window and sighed once more. "Then shall we both make arrangements and see what we can find? I'll prepare what can on my end, of course, but I understand that you'll be busy soon."

"I'll manage," I answered. "We'll meet again soon, then?"

"I, fortunately, am easy to find," He smiled slightly. "When you need to, you'll most likely find me in my office. It's in the giant, shining Beacon, if you recall."

I snorted slightly at that and nodded.

"It'll probably take a while to set things up with Raven, but I'll tell you if I learn anything," I promised. "If you get something before I do, I'll be with my family. Just come over whenever; I don't sleep much."

"Then until then, Jaune." The headmaster lifted his cup slightly in a mock salute and stayed by the window as I began to walk away.

"Yeah," I sighed, looking up at the white ceiling. "Until then."