A Path to Wonderland

Chapter 5: Iron Cold Meeting

-Gwyneira's journal

-Past memory

-Present

Cold piercing blue eyes stared down into spring green ones, the glaring Atlesians separated by a mere spruce wood desk. The much larger and taller of the two having his elbows propped up on the wood, hand intertwined and covering his mouth as continued to glare at his new 'co-worker'.

"So...Ironwood, was it?"

Gwyneira's eyes scanned for an inch of emotion from the General, having hoped that' forgetting' his name would have annoyed him at least a little bit. To her distain she saw no change in his form, merely meeting his glare once more. They had been sitting here like this in the General's office for a good hour and no matter how many condescending comments the ashen blue haired Gwyneira had made, the raven haired man that sat in front of her just didn't seem to budge. However, despite the lack of reaction, Gwyneira seemed to be revelling in the attention from the prized Genera--

"James."

Snapping from her thoughts, Gwyneira blinked with a surprised look.

"Wait, what?"

"James. We are to be co-workers despite my many complaints to Ozpin, so I assume that we are now on a first name basis...Gwen, was it?"

Her once confident smirk was instead turned to utter confusion as she quickly shook her head, leaning forwards from her once relaxed position in her chair. He had just threw back her comment in her face, even having the nerve to get her name wrong despite her knowing fully well that he had read her file. Her knew her name and who she was.

"Gwyneira actually, ...Jimmy."

Most surprisingly, the General's glare seemed to leave his hardened expression, eyes softening into that kind look I had seen him use to calm civilians. 'A silly act' as Gwyneira had noted time and time before, when passing  his little speeches and such.

It'd be a little under two years since he had become the General and he was already beloved by the Atlas citizens, in fact he was a loved a little too much. His stern yet relaxing personality only seemed to further the growing God complex the Kingdom seemed to have. 'Take the rich assholes of Atlas or that weird shoe wielding Cordovin Lady in Argus for example... I still can't believe Ozpin had her babysit me for a week. My poor ear was ringing under my hat all week!' 

"--ou're not listening are you, Gwyneira?"

"Not at all~"

Gwyneira simply responded, smirking to the Gener- to James as she reached up and fiddled with the new fiddler cap that covered her bandaged rabbit ears. She now adorned a set of Atlas Militant-like attire much to her distain. Gwyn wore a ghost white overcoat and a white vest under that, that was worn over her black blouse and an airforce blue cravat made of lace, that matched the same lace that came from her sleeves and the same coloured, airforce blue, skirt. Along with the skirt and black petticoat, Gwyn wore white tights and knee high ghost blue boot that had a black wedged sole. In other words, she had fought with Cordovin over the outfit, refusing to wear just white, grey and black. 

"So what were you saying, James?"

"I was asking about your health and self in general, Gwyneira. Care to answer?"

"I'm pretty sure my file says a bunch about me, James. I'm five foot eleven, 19 years old, I graduated from Atlas Academy at the age of 17, having entered at 14, and what else? Oh right~ I've killed a bunch of scientists that kidnapped my sister." 

"Your sister, Miss Copper?"

Gwyn nodded, "Yeah, Rusty Copper of the Copper family. My half sister, on my Mother's side."

"Care to tell me more about your family, Gwyn? Your files only say so much about you, I'm afraid."

Giving an uneasy glance, Gwyneira nodded and sighed as she reached up and pulled off her fiddler hat, allowing her large ashen blue ears to stand as tall as they could, James offering a surprised look at her heritage's reveal. He wasn't disgusted, but more so intrigued about it. She had attended the Academy and yet no Faunus was known to have entered the academy until the ban had been lifted, which was just a mere year into his own position as General and Head of the Academy...

"You cheated yourself into the Academy, didn't you? No wonder you didn't use your last name."

"How do you know my last name anyway?"

"Ozpin."

She gave an unimpressed sigh as she thought it over. She had confessed her past to the green clad man, so it made sense he had updated her files. However, that didn't stop her from being a little annoyed at the old grey haired geezer. She had spent most of her life trying to forget that name, yet he had the audacity to make it public to any higher ups across Remnant. What an ass.

"No need to worry, Gwyneira... Ozpin made it clear that only he and I would see that part to the file. Now, if you would?" 

"Fine, fine!"

She sighed, groaning in annoyance before she leaned back in her chair once more.

"Well James, listen close....my true name is Gwyneira Copper. I'm the older sister to my half sister, Rusty, and daughter to our Mother, Auburn Copper. She was a human, same as my sister, and she died from an illness a little after Rusty was born."

Gwyn tapped her fingers against the desk as she watched James' expression turn to that of pity. As annoyed as she was, she pressed on, "We had never met our respected Dads, so we were thrown into an orphanage. Well, Rusty was. As a Faunus I was instead cast aside, given the usual Atlas treatment until I ran away and learned to hide my ears. Once I was twelve, I came back for my sister and, well, you know the rest. She got ill, I joined the Academy, she got kidnapped and so on..."

"That must have been awful for you to go through, Gwyn. I can almost see what would drive you to such criminal acts."

"Oh fuck off, James. I don't do pity. I'm just as crippled as any other idiot Hunteress or Hunter, or do you really want me to pity you over being a human tin can?"

"You're...right, Gwyn. I apologise for my behaviour, I am just--"

"Used to Faunus lashing out or crying about their pasts. I get it, James. Trust me, I'm honestly more annoyed at my kind then the humans are... However, we're not here to discuss Faunus. I was just going to mention that my ears have healed up nicely and the bandages will be off soon. I've been told that, despite the loss of three quarters of my right ear, my hearing should be unaffected. Other than that, I can proudly report that I don't hold any further injuries."

"Right. Well, in that case, I would like to introduce you to a close friend of mine. A Scientist actually."

"You sure, Jimmy? I don't exactly have the best track record with them, you know~?"

A snort came from the General as the two shared a look of understanding. It was clear that they did not pity the other, nor did the seem to hold any grudges... Despite her plan to annoy him to death, Gwyn could see she and James were beginning to become frie-- 

"If you kill him, I'll have you shot Miss. Phantoms."

Nevermind.