Heart to Heart

Chapter 65: Divide and Conquer

The next morning at the usual briefing Jaune was feeling a bit perked up. He had his morning coffee in hand plus the one he usually had for Marrow at this point feeling a bit more relaxed. Last night's movie night had been a good idea. They all just needed something to relax to after all the work they have been through, and they all seemed a little bit better moral wise. Well mostly everyone, he noticed that Winter and Weiss were talking off the side making faces and he had a pretty good idea what it was about.

Granted his parents were in a loving (he really hoped) marriage but if he found out his mother was cheating on his dad well, yeah, he didn't want to think about it. Granted, their father wasn't exactly Mr. Popular for various reasons. He smiled seeing Yang was bugging Ruby who was blushing and making wild movements.

Having plenty of sisters he had a good idea of what his girlfriend was doing to Ruby and while he hated to leave his good friend hanging, he didn't want to step into that. Then his eye caught Harriet looking very irritated sitting in a chair and not in a good mood.

"Hey there Jaune," Marrow eagerly took the coffee when it was offered.

"Hey man," He said down and then leaned over a bit to him to quietly ask the next part. "So, what's up with Harriet?"

The older boy leaned in to respond. "She lost her ID last night, couldn't find it at all and she had to fill out a lost ID paperwork to get a new one."

"Doesn't sound so bad." Jaune shrugged.

Marrow made a face. "That's because you're not military. See those are important and losing them puts you on a list they keep so if it happens again the proper corrective measures can be given. Not only that but you have to get your chain of command to sign off on it and given that her chain is Winter and then the General…"

He let it hang as Jaune started to get a picture of it. "Oh."

"Yeah, it's really embarrassing and apparently, he wasn't happy with her and gave her a talk about being more responsible with it. She's been like that all day." Marrow sighed. It wasn't fun filling out all that paperwork and then having to get it signed not to mention this incident might get put on her evaluation this year.

Jaune was glad he was just as Huntsman now and not part of the Atlas military, he wasn't sure how well he could do with all the extra rules and regulations. His eyes cast to the Schnee sisters still talking. "So…we heard about the run in with Qrow and their mom."

Marrow cast a quick look to the sisters and back to Jaune. "Yeah, not the most comfortable meal I ever had."

"I can only imagine," Jaune stated not sure he could even picture being in that kind of scenario. Maybe if he ran into Raven again at some point given that he was in a very deep relationship with her daughter. Granted, it's not like Raven and Yang were even close so the older woman might not even care all that much who Yang dated.

"It was the most awkward night I think I ever had," Marrow sighed slumping in his chair, the stress of that night was still on his mind a bit.

"What's awkward?" Yang came up behind him linking her arms around as she leaned her chin on his shoulder. Blake was next to her as the two of them had only just heard the last of that sentence. Yang had finished teasing Ruby as her sister was now talking with Penny.

"Just what happened last night," He explained.

"Ah, yeah not the best way to meet your girlfriend's mother." Yang teased.

"Girlfri…she's not my! I mean she's, well we work together and all and, well…" Marrow hadn't know that's what Yang thought he and Winter were. Looking at the others around he wondered is that how they came off? He quickly looking over his shoulder to make sure Winter was still talking to her little siter and wasn't close enough to hear everything. He looked back with his voice slightly lowered.

"Please don't start rumors like that," Marrow pleaded with her. "You have no idea how fast stuff like that travels in the military."

"You owe me ten lien," Blake said smugly.

Yang made a face and sighed with a roll of her eyes. It wasn't much given how much they made as professionals now, but she was king of hoping there had been something going on. Office romances were fun to watch. She did cast a curious look at Marrow, she felt there might be something, some sexual tension or something.

Well, she mentally shrugged it off. "So, you two are getting to be fast friends, watch out Jaune or Marrow might take Ren's place as you best guy friend soon."

"I think Ren lately has had other things on his mind," he said as all four sets of eyes set on Nora and Ren, Nora was hanging off his arm and while he looked like he wasn't used to it, he wasn't looking uncomfortable either.

"Huh," Blake tilted her head. Ren wasn't much for public displays of affection, but this was the most she had seen him do so far. "They have been a lot closer since their date while we were at that gala."

"Yeah, I noticed that too, I think we need another girl's night to see what we can pry out of her," Yang got a glint in her eye as Blake followed suit, Blake did have a thing for romance novels, and she was curious what the two of them had gotten up to.

"So there's really nothing going on between you and Winter?" Jaune asked curiously. "I thought there was."

"Same," Yang nodded.

"We just work together," he said although why didn't it sound convincing when it came out of his mouth?

Yang smirked as she slid around and sat in Jaune's lap. "You know that's how we started up, just friends and well things kind of evolved."

Jaune wrapped his arm around her waist while it was a little embarrassing he did enjoy how affectionate Yang was as a person.

"That's kind of how Sun and I started out too," Blake agreed although she felt a little pang of envy that Yang had the person she was dating here. Often Blake would wonder how Sun was doing, he most likely got back to Shade by now and she was curious how he was doing. Letters just took too long to get through and with the blockade nothing was coming in or out of Atlas.

"Well, I mean…" the words died in Marrow's mouth as he cast one last look to Winter. He had to admit she was a beautiful woman that he respected but he wasn't sure if there was anything going on.

"Look we're not trying to pressure you into anything," Jaune could see the conflict in the slightly older man's eyes. "We're just saying that things can happen if you let them."

"Yep," Yang threw her arm around Jaune's neck. "Sometimes it's also worth taking the chance, I know I'm a lot happier now than I was last year."

She felt Jaune hug her a bit closer both for a little comfort for herself as he knew what she was referring to, with her losing her arm and her depression after it, but also a little for himself as he too had been in a bad place after losing Pyrrha.

Marrow thought on their words and were about to say something when Ironwood called for everyone attention that the morning meeting would soon start. Yang had to get off Jaune's lap as she didn't want to get chewed out and she wanted to be a little professional. She did give him a light kiss to the cheek as she left for her chair as did everyone else.

Marrow tried to pay attention to the morning brief and what they would do, he listened to his assignment, another patrol, but after his found his mind wondering.

-Schnee Estate-

Willow woke up to the feeling of the bed shifting, she moaned as she turned over and reached out to feel the empty space. She opened her eyes to see Qrow getting dressed.

"Must you leave?" She asked.

"Sorry Princess but I do have to get to work, I'm already late." He moved to the bed and kissed her head. "I'll most likely get a bit of a talking to, but I'll see you again tonight, might be a bit late though, I think Jimmy wants us to be at Robyn Hill's election night for some reason or another."

"Alright then," she sighed as she felt his hand rubbing her bare upper back. "Don't keep me waiting too long."

"Oh, trust me if I could I'd steal you away and we'd just have nothing but enjoying ourselves all day long."

Willow moaned at the thought as she closed her eyes, she heard him go to the window and for a moment she thought she heard flapping wings? There had been this odd black bird she noticed flying around here lately. He must have disturbed it going out the window like that.

A few more moments and she eventually managed to drag herself out of bed, she headed to her private bathroom for a long shower to help wake her up. A part of her wished he was here to help wash her, she blushed at the thought.

'I'm starting to act like a teenager again,' she mused although she had to admit she did feel more energetic and lively lately. Looking at herself in the mirror she wondered if she should try and get into better shape. Sure, she was fit for her age, but Qrow was around fit and healthy people all the time as a Huntsman. He certainly had a very fit figure that she had spent so many hours enjoying.

She also noticed all the little love bites and a few marks from their relationship on her form. It was a good thing she wore clothing that hide most of her skin or else there was no way to hide this from the house staff or from Jacques. She shuttered at what he could do if he ever found out, his pride wouldn't allow this to go unanswered.

At least last night's event had let her to reconnect with her daughters, sure it wasn't under the best of circumstances, and it was a rough start but by the end of last night she was sure she at least had reformed some bonds with them. Now she was just worrying about her last child, her youngest. She hoped that she could reach him as well. For the first time in her life, she felt maybe this darkness that hung over her entire life she could find some light in it.

When her personal attendants came in to help her get ready for the day, they were surprised she was already out of bed and dressed. What they didn't know was that was to prevent them from seeing any evidence from her trysts with Qrow. Rumors could spread like wildfire in this mansion and even though she had her husband had barely been talking to each other for years, she didn't want him to overhear a pair of over gossiping maids.

She surprised them a second time by telling them she wouldn't want her usual morning drink. For years she had been numbing herself with alcohol but lately, she didn't want to feel numb to the world. Granted she still felt the pull of having a drink now and then but at least her mind was clearer than it had been for years.

While she had no dealings with her family's company she did have small things. She looked after the family expenses and ran the household. That meant going over budgets, staff problems and payments as well as upkeep and maintenance. They lived in a large estate and so someone had to oversee these things, this was something she had been trained for since as far back as she could remember.

It was also something she had neglected or pushed off to people she hired for far too long. She wanted to get her life back on track, to start to take back piece by piece what she lost or let go of. Talking to her daughters last night made her realized that they had gone out to seize the life they wanted.

She paused when she realized she had to go past Jaques' office to get to her own she used to run the household. Taking a breath she just hoped that he was too busy to notice her. She saw the door closed and was thankful for that as she could just hear some of what he was saying.

"…promised me I could win this…yes I know you said not to worry.."

She had a feeling he was talking about that election, why he even ran she had no idea. Didn't he have enough power as head of the company?

"…you're certain no matter of the results I'll win?"

That made her pause, was he talking about fixing the election? The thought made her consider what she was hearing. Was he truly trying to commit fraud on a scale his large? She looked down the hallway on either side, no one was here so she tried very carefully to not make a sound as she leaned a little closer. The slight tapping sounds of her shoes on the hard floor make her mentally curse.

They really should have put down a carpet in the hallways to cut down on the sounds everyone shoes made.

"…Good…Yes I will come through on my end, you just get me elected…" There were other things being said but she couldn't make it out. That's when she heard foot falls down the hall.

Willow moved away from the door and started to walk with purpose as though she was just on her normal business. She passed two members of the house staff that she ignored, mainly because of how nervous she was feeling. Her heart was racing a mile a minute as she felt flush, and she was trying to control her breathing.

Finally making it to her office she saw the three assistants already there.

"I need to office for an hour, take a break everyone," she told them.

There were confused looks but one by one they decided that an hour break wasn't something to argue about. She sat down and when the last person left, she leaned back in her chair and sighed. Her nerves were getting to her. She had been walking on eggshells in her marriage for so many years now another reason she took to drinking was to calm her nerves.

This affair with Qrow was risky enough as it was but at least it was rewarding. She had to take a few calming breaths before she opened her private terminal. For the last few years, she had gotten paranoid that her husband would try something against her and her children. At first, she had tried to think she was just paranoid but over the years he had seem more and more controlling.

When Weiss had left for Beacon that seemed to have sent him into a cold anger, she remembered hearing him mutter how his two eldest were showing sighs of defying him and there would not be a third. That's when she had done something she hadn't been proud of but something she felt she had to do.

Privately through some of the few personal channels she had she had acquired several monitoring devices. She had placed them in the children's rooms, the main hallway, dining room, kitchen, library, her office, her bedroom, his bedroom and finally his office. There were a few others, but this was done originally in case he started to get abusive.

She remembered last night how Weiss explained why she had run off to join her friends, how her husband had locked her in her room and even slapped her. Willow hadn't had time to investigate it, but she pulled up the camera for that date. It took her some time, but she found it, she heard the conversation and saw the slap to her daughter's face. Willow covered her mouth she couldn't believe he could be so callus to his own child like that.

She saved the part of the recording and stored it away she was glad they only recorded when movement happened because they would delete older files to make room. Thankfully only the staff went in a few times to clean, and the room had been unused since Weiss left that the video evidence was even still around.

Then she pulled up Jaques office, she was looking for that call and hoped that she could get the full conversation. The view was from an overhead shot where it was concealed in his bookcase, she knew that he never actually used the books, he just had them there to look impressive to those visiting the office.

It took a little searching, but she found when the call came in. It was with someone whose voice she didn't recognize.

"You promised me I could win this election easily." Jacques said angrily to the person on the other end of the call.

"I told you not to worry about this."

"Yes, I know you said not to worry, but I'm not exactly leading in the polls here."

"It doesn't matter Jacques, numbers like anything can be adjusted if you know how."

"So, you're certain no matter of the results I'll win?"

"I told you I will guarantee you'll win the election, and you will. Just keep doing what you are doing, and I'll handle the rest."

"Good, I'll hold you to that."

"Just remember to come in with your end of the deal when you get elected."

"Yes, I will come through on my end, you just get me elected and you'll get your access."

"Don't forget to push for the good Colonel to replace Ironwood, he's thrown in with us and with him in Ironwood's place we'll have a three-vote majority."

"What if Robyn Hill demands a recount and Ironwood agrees before things are settled?"

"Oh don't worry, I'm sending an associate to cause enough trouble to keep Ironwood busy and people to focused on him to care about election results until it's too late to do anything."

There it was her husband was conspiring to steal the election and become the next council member. If he was head of the SDC and a Council member he would in effect become the second most powerful person in Atlas. The only one that would rival him would be Ironwood because of his status as head of the Atlas Academy and head of the military and it sounded like they were going to replace Ironwood.

Willow felt herself shaking a little, this was so much larger than she thought. Her husband was committing treason by the sounds of it. This could ruin him, the SDC, their family but that's not what worried her. It was because if he knew she had seen this, she wasn't sure what he could do to keep her quiet.

Would he lock her up for the rest of her life or would he be pushed to silence her in any way he could? What about the person on the other end of the line? They had such a cold and calculating voice she could easily imagine them taking things into their own hands to make her disappear. Not only that but they had a Colonel in that Atlas military on their side, if so then who else was in on this conspiracy?

Willow paled as she could feel the walls closing in. There was no telling who else was in on this or who would report her. She bit her lip trying to think, this had to get out, she had to stop this, but she was afraid. She closed her eyes and thought, then she thought of Qrow.

He was a friend of Ironwood's or at least close to him, he knew her daughters, his nieces were part of Weiss' team apparently. There was no way he was a part of this, he couldn't be. At least she hoped she was right. There was a lot about the man she didn't know about but there was no one else other than her daughters, she could send it to them as well.

She pulled the recordings and put them onto her scroll as she put away all the programs. Qrow was meeting her later tonight, but she couldn't wait that long.

She sent him a message to meet her as soon as possible at the restaurant they had gone to, how it was important that they talk and if possible, to bring her daughters as well.

-Elsewhere-

Cinder had been studying the files and information that Neo had gotten them through most of the night and early morning in her private room. She needed personal place to think and plan and so far, she had a few ideas. First, they had a good idea of the layout of the tower and where Ruby and her people were staying, also apparently, they still had the lamp with them. She wasn't sure why it wasn't locked up with the Relic that Atlas had but most likely there were two possible reasons for that, there was a problem with the Winter Maiden, or the vaults could only hold one item at a time.

When Ironwood activated his computer their little backdoor had recorded what had to be his password. After a remote link when he had logged out, she gained access and started looking through the files quickly. Thankfully it seemed Ironwood while cautious was not very inventive with his filing system.

Everything was neat and orderly and even the codenames were very unimaginative.

"Seriously the man is as bland as a piece of steel," Cinder muttered skipping over dull emails and reports while looking for certain keywords. It took her an hour, but she managed to copy and close out of the remote link with enough information to go by.

She opened up the Salem file which had a list of known associates like herself. He had plans and scenarios in it on how to deal with Salem it would seem. None of them would work of course, apparently Ruby and the others didn't tell him that Salem was immortal since all his plans seemed to be centered around how to 'neutralize the threat'.

"Well, you are going to be in for a surprise," she mused knowing full well that Salem was immortal and unkillable.

She read up on some files and something caught her attention. It seemed that Ironwood was going to station his team and Ruby's group at the election headquarters of Robyn Hill on election night. They were there to make sure nothing happened. She had seen the news herself of how this was a very controversial decision because of how very vocal critiques of Ironwood were ending up dead lately.

This had Arthur Watts fingers prints all over it and she had a feeling given the grewsome murders it was Tyrian being the one doing it. Well, that fit, now she knew part of what Watts was up to, but it seemed Ironwood was in the dark on who was doing it. Most likely if he was seen protecting Hill then it would be good PR, also from his files and from what she knew, Cinder guessed the man didn't trust Hill at all.

The man was paranoid, seeing traitors or possible traitors or spies everywhere. The man obviously didn't know who to trust outside of his circle.

She smiled leaning back in her chair. That was the problem with people like Ironwood, sure they were strong pillars of their beliefs, but they refused to bend even a little. People like that with enough pressure broke and when they broke, they broke hard.

Looking at the pictures of him recently with his appearance slipping she could tell he was on the edge. All it would take is just the right push and he'd fall and not be able to get himself out of whatever pit he fell into. Yes, she could see Watts' plan slowly being laid out in her mind now. There was more she was missing but the goal was to destabilize the government and what better way than to make Ironwood crumble and fall? It would start an avalanche and then Salem would just come in and sweep away the pieces.

She frowned then, the timetable she knew had been altered, things were speeding up which meant she needed to gain that Relic and soon.

The time had come, the access card that Neo took wouldn't last forever and they needed to use it quickly before it was rendered useless. They had their way in, but they would need to keep everyone busy, and the election night was just perfect.

Getting up she went to the main room where everyone was. "Well, it's been a long wait, but I think we have an opportunity to act."

Adam looked up with his single organic eye at her from his seat as Neo who was on her scroll stopped to look up at her from the couch.

Cinder walked to be in a position between them. "Neo and I will get into the tower to get the lamp, that's our bargaining chip."

"And me?" Adam asked.

Cinder grinned at him. "Team RWBY is going to be at Robyn Hill's election night along with some Atlas backup, do you think you can cause enough of an incident to draw everyone's attention?"

Adam's red cybernetic eye glowed, this was what he was waiting for. He didn't care how many people he had to cut his way through, he was finally going to pay Blake and her partner back for what they did to him. Being stabbed and then thrown off that cliff and left for dead left him crimpled but he found new life after it. He clawed his way out of hell, and he was going to drag those two down into the flames with him. Them and anyone else that got in the way.

"I'm looking forward to it," He coldly stated.

Cinder nodded. "Good, we'll get prepared, we don't have much time and we'll only get one shot at this."

If they could get the Relic then it would go a long way of re-earning Salem's trust in her, also she had a chance to find out the location of the Winter Maiden, she had to be in the tower somewhere secured. Even Ironwood was careful not to let the location be on his own computers, she doubted he would keep her far from his power base. It was too dangerous to have a Maiden from where he couldn't keep an eye on her and keep her protected.

Amber made that mistake and Cinder remembered taking the last of that woman's powers in Beacon. She failed to get Raven's because of her trick to use a decoy, she would not fail to get the Winter Maiden powers this time.

"Well then, let's divide and conquer then." Cinder smiled.

TBC…