In Plain Sight

“Can you see if she’s telling the truth?” Weiss asked Pyrrha after Neo had finished her story, still being restrained by the other two.

“I’m afraid I don’t often have run-ins with her kind so I’m unaware if it would be effective or not,” Pyrrha admitted as she pursed her lips in thought. 

“I mean…my boss could meet her and find out, but that also means my boss is gonna come around for at least a few minutes,” Cinder said, looking uncomfortable at the idea. 

“I thought you said she was a nice person?” Ruby asked as she whispered soothing words to Weiss who was slowly calming down. 

Velvet had caught the tone in her voice and joined in, “Are you saying you believe her, Ruby?” 

“I mean I know I’m not an expert but she seems pretty on the level,” Ruby shrugged. 

“I also do not believe Friend Neo would do such a thing,” Penny added as Neo hid behind the woman, seeming uneasy at the reception she was getting. 

Not that she could even blame them. The diary was particularly damning but she didn’t even remember the person they were talking about! She was sure she’d remember someone who looked like the other two!

“You didn’t forget she attacked us right? And was a hair’s breadth from killing me?” Emerald snapped clearly not in the mood to extend any slack to the shorter woman. 

“While I don’t approve of that, she was doing it on orders, and it’s fairly common in our world. She also wasn’t aiming to kill you. At most it would have incapacitated you for a day or so nor did she take the chance to kill you while you were recuperating and we were gone,” Hazel informed the mint-haired woman. 

“Well I didn’t know that! I had to sit there and think I was gonna die my final death and leave Coco behind, and Coco felt all of that through our link. I had to listen to my strong and stupid sassy girlfriend break down and beg me on a message to be alright,” Emerald complained with tears in her eyes as she turned away from the group.

Neo’s face fell as she very slowly signed for Penny who dutifully translated for her. 

“Neo says she’s very sorry about that, and that she really had no intention of harming us no matter what her orders were.” 

Emerald scoffed and left the room clearly not wanting to be there any longer.

“I’ll let her embrace Coco when she’s ready. It’s the least I can do,” Cinder said as she left and typed out a message on her phone to send to Coco. “As for you,” Cinder said, refocusing on Neo. 

“You and Penny stay here. Penny, you're in charge of her. If she does anything or leaves the club, it's on your head, got it?” 

“Affirmative! But I believe in friend Neo!” Penny declared unaware of the small smile on Neo’s face at her words. 

“Good for you. When my boss gets here, likely to meet with Beckett I’ll call you in to meet with her. If you survive then great, and if not then,” Cinder shrugged. “Go enjoy the club or get a bite to eat for now.”

“Hazel, if you can remember anything else that might be helpful let me know immediately, otherwise well done as usual and take the next few days off.”

“May we go have fun dancing Miss Cinder?” Penny asked giddily. 

“Sure knock yourself out, not literally,” Cinder added when Penny opened her mouth to ask a question and let the two venture out into the club. 

“Do you think she’s being truthful?” Winter asked, her voice tight, and controlled. 

“I mean she seems like she is,” Ruby offered with a shrug. 

“I have to admit it would be very foolish of her to come back here if she had any inkling of what mother’s journal would say,” Weiss offered as she squeezed Velvet tightly clearly having issues of her own being objective about things.

“Here,” Cinder said, offering the book to Winter who reverently took it in her hands. 

“If the book was at your home…well how did it get there?” Velvet asked. “It sounded like she was in her safe house but how did the book get there? She said she was going to send it to someone she could trust, but if she was just going to send it back home then why didn’t she go too?” 

“I do so love a good mystery,” Beckett said as he entered the door to the room and closed it behind himself arriving without any fanfare as was his habit. 

“We were expecting you earlier,” Cinder said by way of greeting. 

“I ran into a self-important member of the Society of Leopold. We had a spirited debate,” Beckett said toothily leaving no doubt as to what transpired. 

“Come on then. I assume you’ll want to see the books you can have access to before you start anything,” Cinder said and waited for him to join her by the door to her personal room before she leaned in to whisper to him. 

“You let slip anything about my boss, or you even look at that woman wrong…” Cinder trailed off, nodding towards Winter who was speaking with her younger sibling and her girlfriends in the corner of the office as Pyrrha watched on.

“Let me guess…they’ll never find my body?” Beckett asked, mirth evident in his voice.

“Oh no. They'll be finding pieces of it for months. You’ll only be alive for the first few though,” Cinder said, eyes glinting as Beckett tensed a moment at the threat.

“Understood, although you know I’d never say anything by choice.”

“I’m aware but I’m also aware you’ve been ‘dominated’ and forced to reveal things before,” Cinder countered as he winced at the reminders of his failures. 

“I suppose I won’t be meeting them in person then?” Beckett asked only mostly rhetorically.

“No. Once you see the book…well you’ll put it together but it’s best you don’t actually meet them so you can’t say for certain. I suppose if you feel like you can handle it I can try and arrange it.”

“Well I admit to being curious so let’s see this rare book,” Beckett said leadingly as Cinder led the way. 

Her room remained mostly the same save for the addition of a single book under a cloth on her desk. 

When Beckett reached for it Cinder shook her head and gestured to the others first. 

“Before you go right for it make sure there’s nothing here that catches your eye,” Cinder ordered and he moved to comply, spending a few minutes running his fingers over the spines and cataloguing everything. 

“You do have some rare tomes I admit, but nothing that I would consider worth months of my service. A week or two perhaps,” Beckett said at length as he straightened back up. 

Cinder nodded as if she expected it and then reverently took the book still covered and handed it over to the vampire who promptly and with little ceremony removed the cloth and blinked in shock at the words on display. 

“Is..this authentic?” Beckett asked breathlessly. 

“It’s their personal book given to them by their sire directly,” Cinder confirmed with a nod and a smirk at seeing him rendered near speechless. 

“The Tremere said they’d destroyed every copy,” Beckett said almost reverently as he ran his hand across the cover reverently ignoring the slight change in the atmosphere. 

Cinder shrugged. “So what do you think? A chance to read the original  ‘Code of Samiel’  when you’re not working for my master and I. Is that enough for you?” 

“If this is truly what it appears to be then yes,” Beckett said, reaching to open the cover until Cinder’s hand caught his. 

“Work first,” Cinder chided him as she took the book from his unresisting hands and replaced the cloth cover over the top and set it back into the desk. 

“So your master…”

Cinder merely nodded as he chuckled. 

“Well I suppose that explains why you allowed yourself to be put under another’s yoke. You’d scarcely have to worry with them looking out for you. Are they as cruel as they say?” Beckett asked curiously. 

“You know the Tremere slander them. Not that it’s not nerve wracking even meeting with them in spirit, but compared to the others?” Cinder shrugged. 

“It would also explain why they haven’t succumbed to torpor as well. Still to think Qawiyya sired at all. I never thought they’d be the type. The Tremere certainly took credit for their death after all. Another lie I suppose.”

“You can see why the knowledge of their name, or meeting them isn’t something to do lightly. You’d be tortured and killed for it if they suspected you knew,” Cinder supplied. 

“Undoubtedly. Still…they know so much. They would have so many answers I seek,” Beckett said almost in reverence. 

Cinder elbowed him to snap him out of it. “Do your work well and maybe you’ll get to meet them before all is said and done. I will advise you not to mention their sire to them in anyway beyond general terms though.”

“Why ever not?” Beckett asked, aghast at an answer remaining out of his reach before he blinked as he put it together. “Oh…I see.”

“I’m…glad you’re alright,” Coco said, holding herself back from what she wanted to do until Emerald opened her arms and Coco crashed into them and squeezed as hard as she dared. 

“Sorry for worrying you,” Emerald forced out as she tightened her hold on her girlfriend. 

“It’s alright. I knew you’d make it back to me. Wouldn’t let any asshole out there take you out,” Coco assured her as Emerald went quiet. 

“What’s wrong?” 

“If Hazel hadn’t been there, and Neo had wanted to kill me…then I’d be dead,” Emerald admitted. She felt Coco nearly crush her hand in return for a moment. 

“Well then it’s a good thing I can look out for you now,” Coco said, handing over the phone she’d received.

“Oh,” Emerald stated simply, falling back onto the couch. 

“I thought you’d be happy,” Coco said warily. 

“I am. You can’t believe how happy I am that we’d get to be together for a good long while, but it’s just…there’s a lot to prepare for.

You’ll want to eat your favorite meal, get a good look at the sunset, maybe go to the beach one last time. That kind of stuff,” Emerald rambled as she began making plans until she felt Coco settle her beret on her head and lean into her. 

“I already called my job and told them it was either night shift or remote work or I was done, and that I was having a procedure done and wouldn’t be in the next week. I’d love to have dinner with you somewhere, and I never liked the beach that much. Besides in time I’ll get to do most of that stuff with you again anyway,” Coco informed her. 

“You’re…so good to me. You know that right?” 

“You stole my heart at the same time you took my wallet,” Coco joked, earning a snicker from Emerald. 

“Does it hurt?” Coco asked after a moment.

“Like a bitch, but I’ll be here for you through the entire thing,” Emerald promised. 

“That won’t be so bad then. Tomorrow?” 

“Yeah.”

“Can we stay like this for a little while?” 

“Anything you want,” Emerald promised as they sat in silence basking in the others presence. 

“This is rather fascinating,” Beckett said as he looked at the slides Ruby had on offer. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen one of these families. May I?” Beckett asked, dipping his finger in a single drop of blood and then touching it to his tongue. 

“Yes, that’s almost certainly the case, although I hadn’t known any new ones were created. Fascinating.”

“Want to share with the class?” Weiss asked waspishly, annoyed at how close he was standing to Ruby. Granted she was showing him the slides, but Velvet was annoyed too if her posture and thumping her foot said anything so she didn’t feel like she was in the wrong. 

“I need to compare it to a normal human to be entirely certain but,” Beckett said as Ruby took a syringe and plunged it through her shirt's sleeve before pulling back the needle and offering it to the vampire who gave her an amused look. 

He put a single drop of her blood onto his tongue and nodded although when he looked back toward the doctor he found her being pulled back by Velvet and Weiss who glared at him as Ruby put a small bandage and cotton ball over the injection site. 

“It’s as I suspected,” Beckett began without preamble. 

“And that is?” Winter asked as she stood next to Cinder. 

“Your entire family are revenants,” Beckett said simply. 

“And that means?” Velvet asked glaring at the man who sighed and explained. 

“If I had to guess, your family didn’t always live in Atlas but settled there, perhaps even ages ago. Revenants are ghouls, but naturally born. Many different clans, although usually a Tzimisce, realized that constantly having to create ghouls was a hassle, but what if they had no need to? Why not a family that was a cross between a ghoul, and a vampire? A vampire without the weaknesses inherent in the younger fledglings, but strong and long lived enough to be of use to the vampires that created them that produces vampiric blood all on their own.”

“So we’re lab creations?” Weiss said angrily as the other two bracketed her and squeezed as Cinder did the same for Winter. 

“Your ancestors might have been but you were born all the same. You merely benefited from the experiments performed on them, and it’s always nice to get something for nothing isn’t it?”

“Do you think other hunters are the same? Could this be some ancient’s plot?” Cinder asked as Pyrrha shifted in concern at that. 

“I’ve killed enough persistent hunters that I can assure you it’s not a common or even widespread plot if it is. It could have been at one point but the one who started it lost track of them, or died, or perhaps is waiting for the right time to do something.”

“We’ve noticed an aversion to certain things like going to hospitals and have memory gaps when trying to remember our mother. We can remember training but,” Winter trailed off. 

“I’ve looked over the training they were given and was written down. It’s like they wanted to appear to give accurate or good information but it was only truly useful against fledglings. When we met I thought she was trying to flirt, and well she was being serious,” Cinder said with a shrug as Winter colored at the reminder of her poor showing. 

“Intriguing. You’re suggesting they’re being trained and strengthened and then when ‘ripe’ plucked and consumed,” Beckett theorized as he leaned against the desk in thought. "Almost as a way to increase a weaker vampires power through Amaranth without tainting the soul visibly."

“Ugh. Still bleeding, can I use your restroom?” Ruby asked as Cinder pointed to the side door she almost never used and Ruby excused herself.

“So what does that mean for Weiss, and Winter?” Velvet asked even as she kept shooting glances to the door where running water could be heard. 

“Very little as is, but there’s always a danger that the vampire that created your line might try and command you at some point. I am unsure if you could resist if they were close enough, but the farther away they are the better the chance you could. Typically in the past as long as the revenant proved their worth they were often embraced. 

The fact that they’d had vampire vitae in them for so long and lived so much longer than normal meant that once embraced most of them were nearly ancients themselves making them far more useful especially as soldiers in an army back when territory wars were more common.”

“If they were embraced would that break the vampire’s hold on them or strengthen it?” Cinder asked as the two Schnee’s snapped their head toward her as she held up her hands in surrender. 

“It should break it along with any sort of subliminal orders although those might take a little longer. In time you could even recover your memories,” Beckett offered. 

“You are certain of this?” Winter asked blue eyes hard as a glacier. 

“Not entirely,” The man freely admitted. “It is, however, my best guess based on past experience with your kind. Besides while revenants age far slower than a normal human if you plan on staying with your…partner long term, you’ll be wanting to look for a more hmmm…permanent solution,” Beckett said looking significantly from Cinder to Winter, and Weiss to Velvet, and then to the bathroom door Ruby was emerging from.

“I’m sure we’ll think over it in time. For now you can go read the book although Penny will likely want to ask you some questions later, and then Neo has to meet my boss and the letter. Ugh so much to do.”

“I did hear through the grapevine that you might actually be considering allying with the Kuei-Jin?” Beckett asked leadingly. 

“I just got their offer letter and haven’t even opened it yet,” Cinder admitted. 

“You might wish to do so. Something in the air. It’s approaching soon. If we wish to survive we’ll all need to be on guard,” Beckett said, pausing at the threshold of the door before Cinder shooed him to go read the book. 

“You know I always thought our second date would be fancier, but somehow I’m not surprised,” Weiss said as she accepted her plate of spaghetti with a smile. 

“Pssh nothing is fancier than spaghetti! Right Velvet?” Ruby asked as she tantalizingly held a meatball with a tong over Velvet’s plate. 

Weiss knew she’d lost when she saw the woman’s eyes follow the meatball as Ruby moved it. 

“Of course, Ruby,” Velvet answered as Ruby smiled brightly and dropped it, and then several more scoops of food onto her plate. 

“Remember doctor’s orders. You’ll feel better once you’re getting the food your body needs!” Ruby cheered as Velvet took her food to the table. 

“Are you sure we’re safe here?” Weiss asked as she looked around the apartment. 

“Cinder said we would be when we asked so I don’t see why not,” Ruby said with a shrug as she narrowed her eyes and looked out the kitchen window. 

“Did you see something?” Weiss asked looking worried. 

“Oh a squirrel or something. I was just hoping it didn’t chew on my power lines, or sneak into the apartment,” Ruby said brightly before she gestured to the food on the table.

“Besides this is home-made pasta and sauce!” Ruby proclaimed as she put the Parmesan cheese on the table and sat down. 

“It’s alright. I’m just glad to be doing something normal with you two after all the insanity we’ve gone through,” Weiss admitted. 

Velvet and Ruby both claimed one of her hands to comfort her. 

“If you want to talk to us, about anything, you can you know?” Velvet assured her white-haired girlfriend. 

“We don’t think any differently about you even though I’ll be all old and wrinkled before you get your first grey hair!” Ruby said cheerily despite the thought it generated. 

“If you think Velvet or I are letting you go before us, then you don’t know us all that well at all, Ruby Rose!” Weiss declared as Velvet nodded possessively despite the slight smearing of sauce on her cheek. 

A cheek which got very red when Ruby leaned over and wiped off the sauce with her finger before bringing it to her mouth and cleaning it off. 

“Hmmm this sauce is sweeter than I remember making it. I wonder why that is?” Ruby teased as Velvet whined adorably.

Ruby shared a smile with Weiss as they started eating their simple home made meal. 

Things might be strange, she might need to think more about her mother, and what her family was and dangerous times might be ahead, but for this moment Weiss was content. 

The rest could wait until later.