Dark Whispers
Remnantian Year 875
“Salem… has her?” Tai slumped into the seat in Ozpin’s office with a horrified expression on his face as the older man gave a slight nod at this, regret evident in his eyes.
“Yes, alongside the rest of her team and Miss Blake Belladonna. Now telling Ghira and Saphron that… I do worry for my own safety,” Ozpin lightly chuckled but quickly dropped it as he could not brighten the mood at all.
“Our student size for this year is already so small. It’s a miracle that the council will allow our first years to even continue,” Glynda commented from Ozpin’s side as she glanced down at a report on her scroll from Vale’s council, “But if we do not retrieve them by the end of the year, they will be considered as expelled and their teams reassigned.”
“The likeliest outcome is Salem tortures the students and kills them quickly, though I suspect not. She would not orchestrate this just to torture them. No, Salem is making a major play for the first time since the war,” Ozpin laid out his thoughts and Qrow let out a light scoff from the wall, where he leaned against it, with a bird on his shoulder.
“You say that as if it’s not a big deal that my niece was kidnapped,” Qrow criticized and the bird on his shoulder flew off him and transformed back into Raven, who just put a paper on Ozpin’s desk.
“It’s more than that too. Junior’s been killed, Jill captured. Two more less vocal supporters of ours were taken out. Looks like Spider’s handiwork,” Raven revealed and Ozpin fell back into his chair with a sigh.
“Have you found his daughters yet?” Ozpin asked as he wore a tired expression, his age beginning to show more.
“Just got back from retrieving them, they’re currently staying with Yang, who was not happy with it, and they gave me those notes,” Raven motioned to the paper she put on Ozpin’s desk, “I should have properly done the favor he wanted from me. Then maybe the idiot would still be alive.”
“How did she learn our plans so quickly? If there had been a grimm outbreak, she could have gotten information much easier. And for the White Fang to capture Miss Schnee alive, Salem must be plotting something and getting more aid than ever from humans and faunus both,” Ozpin wiped down his face, trying to, and failing to, get rid of his tired demeanor, “And beyond employing more allies since the last war, she quickly eliminated Jack and attacked right before we could train Miss Rose. Either she has spies in our ranks, sleeper agents, or has created a surveillance grimm.”
“Or all of the above,” Qrow suggests and Oz sighs again as Glynda speaks up.
“I suggest we get in contact with…” Glynda whispered closely into Ozpin’s ear, who nodded along with her suggestion.
“That would be a good course of action. Glynda, the only other member I shall inform of this will be James,” Ozpin stood up and gave a sorrowful look at the gathered Xiao-Long-Rose family, “I apologize, but precautions are needed for this to work.”
“So long as it doesn’t keep me from looking for Ruby,” Raven acquiesced and Ozpin gave a nod.
“Of course. I would try to convince James to have Penny stop tearing through Vale, but love can be a very powerful force,” Ozpin gave a wry smile at Raven with his comment and she just scoffed.
“Yeah yeah, me and Summer were amazing,” Raven boasts playfully and Qrow rolls his eyes.
“Tai wasn’t a slouch either. And when my semblance isn’t a bitch, I’m up there with you,” Qrow lazily threw out there and Tai shook his head.
“Hey Rae, will you ever beat the sense into your brother to stop with the self flagellation?” Tai snarked and Ozpin smiled as the three adults began bickering about Qrow’s attitude. He could only hope that his students who had been captured would be able to smile once they were freed.
“This all my fault,” Pyrrha moaned as she was sitting in the back of a cell with walls of red and grimm markings all around, as if she was imprisoned in a grimm. Which, unbeknownst to her, was scarily accurate.
“No it’s not, we’ve been telling you it’s not for the last week straight,” Weiss yawned out from in her own cell, where she was curled up near the bars of the cell.
“Weiss, straight? Doubtful,” Ruby lightly teased from her cell, where she was chained up against the back of the wall more restricted than the others.
“Oh shut it. I just appreciate the beauty in all people,” Weiss waved off Ruby’s words and Blake snorted from nearby.
“If you had told me a year ago that a Schnee was bisexual, I’d have told you to fuck off,” Blake threw her two cents into the conversation and Pyrrha let out a small laugh.
“I’m just… sorry we’re all trapped here,” Pyrrha apologized once more, wiping her tears away.
“Hey, again not your fault. I blame that Adam guy personally,” Jaune spoke up as a small crash was heard and Blake gazed across to his cell and saw the boy had, yet again, tripped on his own chains.
“I feel we got caught up in something way beyond us,” Weiss suggested and groaned, “I feel like the only reason we haven’t been broken yet is because they have yet to stitch our mouths closed.”
“It is quite tempting,” A seductive voice echoed down the halls and all conversation stopped as a cold sense of dread fell over the group as a woman who had the white skin of a grimm, with black accents and outfit, topped off with piercing red eyes, approached them.
“Good. You’re learning,” The woman cooed at their silence as she stopped in front of Ruby’s cell and smiled, “And as usual, I shall begin with one Ruby Rose.”
“Leave her alone you bitch!” Jaune roared out, pulling as hard as he could on his chains, his legs growing bloody as the aura suppressants on his arms worked their job.
“I’ve been called much worse, Young Arc. Dear Oz was far more creative in his insults. I think my favorite was him calling me, oh what was it? Oh yes, ‘an insult to all things living and not even hell would accept my presence as I’d try to rule it.’ Something like that, I’ve lived far too long to recall everything perfectly. He is not wrong, I would overthrow hell’s ruler,” Salem sneered back before she raised her hands and the cell bars to Ruby’s cell lifted to her command, and she made her way into the cell, “Today, you will be coming with me to somewhere special. Don’t worry for your friends, my associates are to not interact with them today at my request. Isn’t that nice?”
“Let our leader go!” Weiss snarled out as she tugged on her suppressant cuffs to try to escape, to no avail, “Hurt me instead!”
“Oh children, you’re already helping me plenty through hurting Oz. After all, five students in my clutches? He’s probably gone paranoid as in our last war,” Salem clicked her tongue and Ruby’s chains released from the wall and into Salem’s hands.
“What do you even want from us?” Blake asked as Salem began to drag Ruby from her cell with anger in her eyes. Salem flicked her gaze over to her and gave a small smile.
“To show you the truth of this world. After all, the best way to strike at your enemies is to turn their allies against them,” Salem revealed and gave a small chuckle at the winces that her words gave the imprisoned students, “I was at first only planning for Rose, Schnee and Belladonna. But an Arc, whose sister is on Oz’s council, and Miss Nikkos, one of the candidates for extraordinary power. Now now, I must be going about my business. Come along, girl, or,” Salem lowered her voice low enough for only Ruby to hear, even with Blake’s sensitive ears, “I begin taking away fingers.”
At those words, Ruby lowered her head, not wanting for her friends to be hurt for her fighting, and Salem smiled down at the small faunus girl with gleeful hatred in her eyes. Without another word, the witch and the wolf made their way away from the dungeons, with Ruby being guided by her chains. Soon, the two of them found themselves in front of a pit of bubbling darkness and Salem sat down near its edge, pulling Ruby to the ground with her.
“Ahh away from all those troublesome children. The youth truly do get more unruly as the years go by,” Salem mocked and Ruby gulped nervously as the grimm woman stared at her prisoner, “And I find myself so intrigued by you especially. Despite being captured, despite the misery of losing a mother, despite being abandoned. Despite it all, your negative emotions are all so… quiet. And usually those with silver eyes always have heightened emotions.”
“Heightened?” Ruby whispered to herself, as her ears flicked in recognition of the phase. She had heightened senses, sure, but emotions?
“Ahh I can hear the turmoil inside of you from that. I do know you have the potential for overwhelming negativity, and yet you’re holding tight to the positive,” Salem quickly took note of and looked up at the skies around them, reddened by the overwhelming darkness of the lands, “You’re suppressing everything.”
“Why do you even care about that? You keep saying things about me that make no sense. I may have silver eyes, but I’m just a normal girl, with normal knees,” Ruby hugged her legs closely to her, her tail and ears all drooping, tears in her eyes, “And I just wanna be with mama again…”
“Your mother who left you for so long, just to return just as you need here? Very coincidental,” Salem chuckled darkly as she dipped her hand down into the pit of darkness, “Don’t you find that so… suspicious? I was a mother once, yet I would never abandon my children.”
“I… what do you mean?” Ruby asked nervously, almost dreading what the woman would say. Salem just shook her head.
“What I mean is, Raven Rose abandoned her two children to help Ozpin fight his war against me. A war, instead of staying at her children’s side. Oh she watched over you, but from afar. A shame, how often people do such a thing. People who put the whole world above their family, are the worst type of person,” Salem’s voice was very distant now to Ruby as she felt herself internally panicking.
“Mama… she’s lying right? She has to be? I wanna be a huntress like you but… you said you’d come back home,” Ruby whimpered, not noticing Salem’s wicked grin grow before tugging again on the chain, leading the distraught girl back to her cell. Even as the other children yelled at her for information about their friend, Salem just walked away, pleased at her progress.
“Oh Ozpin. Children such as these are precious tools. Yet tools all the same,” Salem sneered as she walked through the halls of her palace, “I wonder, how long will it take for these tools to break and let me reforge them.”