The Games We Play

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

Masked

My grandmother lifted her eyes from her work to quirk an eyebrow at me.

"And who is this?" She asked, flicking a glance at the man standing stock still behind my chair.

"My new bodyguard," I nodded back at him, smiling widely.

"Your bodyguard," She repeated, eyebrow climbing higher as she watched Adam for a long moment. "Mm…"

I chuckled slightly as her skepticism.

"You gave me one last time," I reminded, smiling slightly. "Grigio?"

"I recall," She gestured dismissively, returning her gaze to me. "Of course, last time you were my youngest grandchild, who I'd seen only a handful of times—and in all of those occasions, you were struggling in your effort to become a Hunter. When I saw you again, I knew things had changed, but I had no idea how much until you told me. Grigio was there to insure nothing got out of hand if the other Families chose to test you and to see that none of my enemies made any choices they'd regret. Now, though…well, I think we all know you don't need someone to protect you, which makes me wonder who he really is."

Through it all, she didn't so much as glance back at Adam, her expression blank. Her words were directed solely at me and we all knew it, which was why Adam stayed professionally silent, hidden within my Glamour.

"His name is Adam," I answered. "You've heard of him, I'm sure—my right hand man."

"Adam," She repeated, pausing to squint at the man. "Adam Taurus of the White Fang?"

Adam inclined his head silently.

"You look different," She noted dryly, returning her gaze to me even as she spoke to him. "I didn't recognize you."

I spread my hands and smiled even wider.

"Hence the disguise," I answered brightly. "We can hardly have a wanted criminal walking around in broad daylight, can we?"

She hummed in acknowledgement.

"Since he is here and you are yourself," She said by way of answer. "I assume he knows the truth?"

"He does," I confirmed. "He was my assistant during the White Whale incident and has helped me out a number of times since. I consider him a close friend and trust him completely."

"Is that wise?" She asked.

I leaned forward slightly to rest my elbows on my knees.

"I'd know if it wasn't," I answered, smile unchanging. "Like I said, he's helped me many times and has never betrayed me, despite having a number of chances to do so."

"How can you be sure?" She challenged, to which I met her eyes and slowly raised an eyebrow. She glanced at the ceiling and shook her head before nodding at me once. "Of course. Then I welcome you into my home, Adam Taurus."

"A pleasure," He answered, bowing his head even deeper before falling silent again. My grandmother returned the gesture a touch less deeply and made several motions on her computer.

"I take it you'd like this bodyguard business to be official?" My grandmother asked me, tone a touch tired but accepting. "And I assume he'll need paperwork supporting his new identity?"

"Yes," I answered. "We'll be working together for some time, you see."

"Mm," She answered, making notes. "To what end, might I ask?"

"Adam's the White Fang's official representative to our mysterious third party," I explained. "He'll be helping me in that regard as well."

My grandmother paused in her typing, a frown of consideration touching her lips.

"I see," She whispered, nodding slowly. "Interesting. And what do you know of these friends of ours, Adam Taurus?"

"Annoyingly little," He answered rigidly, containing a disgusted snort. "They're good at staying out of sight, I must admit. I've never even seen the woman in charge personally."

"A woman," She mused. "Do you know her name?"

"No," I answered in his place, holding out a hand. Images formed above my fingers, taking the shapes I remembered. "But look into Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black. They're associates of hers—and they were the ones responsible for transporting a shipment of weapons. Weapons they stole in the recent bombing in Atlas. Do you mind looking into a few things for me?"

Her frown deepened as the image changed from a picture of the pair to those of the weapons I'd seen and then settled on the symbol that tied them to Atlas.

"I heard you were in a bar last night," She replied after a minute. "I can't say I actually believed that you were simply enjoying yourself."

"Learning's fun," I said, denying her claim. "And I learned a great deal."

"So I see," Grandmother chuckled. "Very well, I shall see what I can find. Their leader wasn't there, however?"

I sighed and shook my head.

"That's why I don't know her name," I shrugged.

"I suppose it would be unrealistic to expect things to be that simple," She mused. "Do you know where she is?"

"In Vale, last I heard," Adam rumbled as I glanced at him.

"In Vale?" Grandmother repeated, sounding annoyed. "All this time?"

"Doubtful," I shook my head. "But the White Fang only became aware of her absence recently. She has an illusionist on her side, it seems."

My grandmother swore under her breath.

"That would explain a few things," She muttered darkly. "We'll have to take measures. Have you checked the house?"

"Of course," I answered, almost offended by the question.

"Good," She nodded, frowning. "If she's in Vale, however, learning about her might be a bit…complicated."

"No need to worry about that, thankfully," I smirked. "We know where she'll be, after all?"

"Oh?" She asked. "Do tell."

"According to Raven, this friend of ours works out of Haven," I said. "She's a student there, it seems—or, at least, is posing as one."

"A student at Haven," Grandmother repeated, a touch of disbelief in her voice until she paused and considered it. "Well, I suppose I wouldn't have looked for her there, which makes it a fairly good hiding place."

I hummed in agreement.

"Do you have access to the list of students that will be arriving this year?" I asked. "Mercury and Emerald are old enough to go this year and I'll bet they're going to enroll as well."

My grandmother didn't answer for a moment, closing several windows and then checking her email. Eventually, she fould one containing a list of names, faces, and profiles and scrolled through it, stopping twice.

"Mercury Black and Emerald Sustrai," She said, nodding. "I assume these profiles are full of lies, but they're on the list. I'll look into them further to see what I can find."

Then she looked up at me.

"I'd wondered why you wanted to go to Haven," She told me. "You intend to find her?"

"Either she'll be there," I answered, shrugging. "Or her illusionist will be. Either way, it's worth a look. There's more going on than we know and I don't like it. The arms deal last night was done without Adam's knowledge, though we're still hunting down who was responsible. That implies she has connections in the White Fang and, presumably—"

"The Families, as well," She finished for me before pursing her lips. "Probably within Haven, too, as well as Vale if she's operating there. And Atlas, perhaps, given her thefts there. That is…rather concerning."

"As far as Vale goes, see what you can find out about a man named Roman Torchwick," I said. "He's working for her and he tried stealing the White Whale at the same time I did. But yes, the number of pies she seems to have her fingers in is rather alarming, so I'd like to see what I can dig up. If all is well—which I suppose could always happen—then we'll leave things be and simply keep an eye on her every now and then. If necessary, however, then I've considered filling Olivia in on things and having her observe this friend of ours."

I shrugged again

"Of course, that depends on what I see when I look at her," I continued. "I'll only bring Olivia in if it's safe to do so. From the way Raven's spoken of this friend of ours, that might be too dangerous."

"And if it is?" Grandmother asked. "What will you do?"

"I'll take matters into my own hands, of course," I replied.

She watched me for a moment and I saw when the pieces clicked.

"Haven," She said. "You'd go to Haven for this?"

"If she's a big enough threat, then I'll do whatever I need to," I hedged. "With an illusionist by her side, sneaking in and out should be trivial for her, so we'd need someone who could see through such things. And if that needs to be me, it's better than letting her move without us knowing. But…"

"But you don't want to go to Haven," She finished again.

"But I really, really don't want to go to Haven," I sighed. "Or any other school, for that matter. Reserve me a seat anyway, just in case."

She nodded sharply.

"I'll see to it." She replied. "If you'll excuse me."

I inclined my head and rose, leaving her office with Adam at my back. It would take my Grandmother time to look into what I'd found as well as make the necessary arrangements, so it was best we went back to work and left her to hers. The sun had risen only a short time ago, but there was enough to do that we couldn't waste any daylight.

"Hey," Adam whispered as we went down stairs to steal some breakfast. I didn't need it but he did.

"Hm?" I hummed questioningly.

"If you do end up going to Haven," He began slowly. "What does that mean for me?"

I looked over my shoulder and gave him a flat look, to which he made a disgusted noise.

"What?" He groaned. "No. God, please no."

"You're the White Fang's envoy to them," I reminded. "A job you previously could not do during the day and couldn't do effectively at night. This would get you close enough to keep an eye on them and find things out. Also, you're my second in command and my best friend; if I suffer, you suffer."

"Fuck."

"Just look on the bright side, Adam," I tried to sound soothing.

"What's the fucking bright side?" He muttered. After a moment of silence, he lifted his head and frowned. "Jaune?"

"Shut up, I'm thinking," I told him—and then, once we'd made it the rest of the way down stairs, gotten some food from the kitchen, and finished eating, I gave him a shrug. "Yeah, I got nothing. Let's just hope it doesn't come to that or this is going to suck."

Adam and I were fed and out of the house before my mother even made it downstairs. I reminded myself that I'd need to introduce Adam—my 'bodyguard'—to the rest of my family soon, but…well, there was no rest for the wicked, or else I'd have made more progress against them by now. With the training out of the way, we had other things to do; I'd had Adam send the message before we left Mistral, which meant it should have reached Raven by now.

And we'd best not keep her waiting.

Between one step and the next, the real world faded behind the walls of Naraka—and in that same step, Jaune Arc and his bodyguard were gone and Jian Bing and Adam Taurus walked in their place. I let Adam set the pace, which still let us move decently fast, and we quickly found our agreed upon meeting place by the tallest building in the city. Adam silently followed my lead as I formed an invisible, airy staircase and then took a seat beside me on the edge.

I shattered the barrier I'd erected with a flash of power, tearing it down and instantly scoured the area with my senses, just in case. Then, once I was certain no one was spying on us, I meet the eyes of Raven's mask and smiled in greeting.

"It seems we're being lied to, Raven," I said, Levant carrying my voice over the wind so I didn't have to raise my voice.

"Jian," She greeted as she walked closer. "As talented at starting conversations as ever, I see."

Then she tilted her head to look at her 'son.'

"Adam," She frowned beneath her mask. "You look different."

He grunted once and nodded.

"I've been training," He stated, jerking his head my way to shift her attention towards me.

I merely chuckled at being thrown under the bus, however, inclining my head slightly.

"I've merely been giving him a few tips," I explained easily, giving him a knowing smile. "Best he be prepared with an illusionist running around, no?"

I could tell Raven understood the true intentions beneath my words from the way her Aura flickered, how her heartbeat rose, and from how her emotions flared, but none of it showed in any more obvious manner and Adam didn't react. I felt her gaze settle more fully on me, but I didn't react either.

"You'll have to tell me about it sometime," She said at last. "But as you said, yes. We're being lied to."

"I trust you examined the location I sent you?"

"Of course," She stated. "It's Kijani."

By my side, Adam took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly, so I nodded as if the name meant something to me.

"You don't seem very surprised," I noted.

"The method itself was surprising," She denied. "But the fact that he attempted something was not. I suspected he would do something for quite some time."

I nodded.

"Then would you like to take the lead on this?" I offered. "I would be happy to bow to your experience on this matter."

"I'll handle it myself," She shook her head. "It's not a problem as of yet, especially with what we now know. And it's always possible that he knows something of value."

"A pleasure to be of service," I inclined my head. "I shall leave this to you, then."

"But that's not all you wish to discuss, is it?" She pressed. "You've found something?"

"Indeed," I answered before gesturing to the empty sky around, drawing us silently into Naraka. "I learnt of Kijani's actions while pursuing a different end—this friend of ours. I learnt a great deal in the process and if you have the time, perhaps we could discuss them somewhere that's…not an empty rooftop, perhaps?"

She looked at me, silent and expressionless, emotions caught between confusion and disbelief. I chuckled slightly and glanced towards Adam, drawing his Glamour back around him, making Raven's eyes widen slightly.

"In response to our newest problem, I thought it best to…dust off my own skill with illusions," I explained. "As I made something of a breakthrough, I thought we might meet somewhere more comfortable for once—though naturally, the choice of location is up to you. May I?"

I held out a hand to her expectantly, fairly sure I knew what was to come. She looked at the hand for a moment, settling her own on the hilt of her blade—and a fraction of a second later, I felt my arm come off. I closed my eyes for a moment, exhaled slowly as I healed the damage, and continued to hold out my hand to her as she sheathed her blade, apparently satisfied but unsure of what to make of my offer.

"In the past, you and Adam have had…difficulties moving in broad daylight," I continued as if nothing had happened. "A side effect of being officially deceased and a wanted terrorist, I assume. It occurred to me, however, that under the circumstances, it might be better if you were able to move a bit more freely. Don't you agree?"

She hummed slowly but placed a hand in my own. At once, her appearance shifted, details changing as they went. As she changed, however, I drew a mirror from my Inventory and offered it to her.

"I thought of making you blonde, at first," I stated. "But I feared it would make you look too much like your daughter. Instead, I tried to match your appearance more closely to your son's—or, at least, to how he seems to appear. Should you have any different preferences, however, I would be happy to oblige you however I may."

She took off her mask and looked at her new reflection for a few seconds, lifting a hand to her face once and nodding before handing me the mirror back.

"It's fine," She answered, glancing at her son. "And I know a place, as it happens."

She paused to look down at herself. I'd turned her dress pure black for the sake of simplicity, but left the mask and her weapon be because there were only so many ways to adjust the appearance of either without turning them invisible or making them even more attention drawing.

"I'll hide them if you wish," I said after a moment, returning the mirror to my Inventory. "Or hold onto them if you desire."

Slowly, she extended the mask, a silent gesture of trust in my ability to hide her, but kept her sword as I'd expected her to. Smiling, I stored the mask as well.

"Where do you put them?" She asked after a minute. "The things you make disappear?"

I paused for a moment to consider how to explain that.

"In a…" I bobbed my head from side to side. "I suppose the easiest way to describe it would be as a dimensional vault I keep attached to my person. Beyond that, details get complex, but it's very useful. It allows me to carry everything I might need with me—and hide things I don't want people to see."

She nodded slowly, staring at the air her mask had vanished into for a moment before snapping a finger and turning on her heels, shoulders tense as she walked through the portal she'd pulled together. She wasn't used to the idea of showing her face—but then, that was part of the point of all this. Getting my friends used to the possibilities my Glamour created.

I followed her in, Adam a step behind me, and we found ourselves striding quickly down an alleyway. I shattered Naraka and we returned to reality, the noise of city life returning abruptly, and Raven guided us to a restaurant I didn't recognize. A glance at the sky told me we were still in Mistral, however.

"Adam, why don't you go get a drink?" Raven stated as we enter. "Jian and I need to speak in private for a moment."

"It's pretty early in the day," Adam noted before pausing to think, probably about going to school. "Though it's never too early to drink, really. In fact, I'm going to get into a drinking contest with myself now. If I should start dying of alcohol poisoning, don't bother saving me—it's how I'd want to go."

Raven's eyebrows furrowed in abrupt concern as she watched Adam beeline for the bar. She turned to glance at me questioningly.

"Bad news," I explained. "I'll keep an eye on him."

"Did you bring him into this?" She asked, keeping her eyes trained on mine.

"If by this you mean our issue with the Riders, then no," I replied, making sure not to react. "Although this illusionist gave me the opportunity to begin preparing him. I trust his judgement."

"As do I," She whispered with a sigh before nodding decisively. "And I trust yours. So I'll leave that choice to you. He really has gotten stronger, hasn't he? In just a few days?"

"Best to be prepared," I answered, smiling. "And with time of the essence, it's best to prepare quickly. He will be assisting me for a time, so I felt it best to make sure he was ready."

"For her?" She asked.

I looked at her for a moment, shaking my head minutely.

"I think it best to handle that myself," I said. "But she is gathering friends around her; best to do the same."

"Friends?"

"I assume you know of Mercury Black and Emerald Sustrai?" I arched an eyebrow her way. "A boy with silver hair and a girl with green?"

"I've seen them." She confirmed.

"They will be entering Haven shortly," I stated. "Presumably to aid their Mistress's plans, whatever they may be. And she…has begun to move."

Raven took a breath, held it for a moment, and exhaled slowly, looking around.

"Perhaps we should find a seat," She suggested. "I assume you have something in mind. It's driven Adam to self-opposed drinking contests, a few chairs may be warranted."

"I pride myself on being able to make people feel that way," I smiled. "And though his reaction is for personal reasons, I do have several things to discuss with you."