Author's note: So, my dear readers, as you all know, the previous RWBY fic, To Be a Huntsman, was finished over a year ago. Since then, all I wrote about the RWBY gang was a couple of oneshots. But that wasn't good enough. I thought about the sequel to the main story and the overall direction I wanted it to take but I was faced with a dilemma. Should I stick to the canon storyline as close as possible and putting off writing until I knew enough about canon RWBYverse, or try my luck deviating from the canon, risking that it might turn out to be complete garbage? It really was a difficult choice but I couldn't just put this off forever... so I'm gonna just start putting it together now. The story's already deviated from canon so we might as well continue the trend, right? Let's hope it won't turn out too bad.
Without further ado, this short fic will be sort of a prologue to the new story arc which will be centered on my OCs, team TNDR. It'll be something akin to trailers/character shorts as an overall introduction into the story. First the intro and the first trailer/CS, and I'll upload the other three 'till the end of this year. And I should also take care of some formalities so here it goes: RWBY belongs to RoosterTeeth and absolutely fantastic Mr. Monty Oum (RIP)! I own nothing of RWBYverse except my OCs.
With that out of the way, have a good read and I wish you all very merry Christmas and happy New Year, and may all your wishes come true!
It has been six months since the second breach that ultimately led to the fall of Vale City.
That day, most of the city was laid to waste by a large scale Grimm invasion after White Fang sabotaged the bulwark protecting the city and its inhabitants; not only that but they also killed many people during the invasion, soldiers, Hunters, and civilians, and even attempted to destroy the Beacon Academy. The once peaceful organization turned a terrorist group earned widespread and well-deserved hatred for this unprecedented act of cruelty and violence. Only few chosen ones knew who really was behind this catastrophe. White Fang was fanatical and dangerous and they proved it time and time again... but in spite of all that, they were just tools, pawns.
The tragedy that claimed the lives of thousands of people was orchestrated by one woman and a couple of her associates. No one had a clue how Cinder Fall managed to gain the support of staunchly anti-human radicals but that was of no consequence now. She manipulated few chosen individuals to do her bidding and in doing so, she perpetrated what could be considered the worst mass murder in Remnant's post-war history. Worse, she uncovered an existence of a true legend, only to kill her and claim her power for herself. And this cunning, ruthless woman, dangerous in her own right, still remained at large. She vanished shortly after the communications between the Kingdoms were knocked out. Without the option of coordinating their actions, the authorities had no chance of tracking her down... and the woman knew it.
Though Beacon Academy survived the invasion, it was too going through rough times. Headmaster Ozpin was missing and presumed dead. It's reputation was tarnished, as its Hunters couldn't prevent the destruction of the city. While most monsters retreated after the enormous wyvern Grimm was slain, White Fang remained as active as ever, doing everything in their power to make humans' existence difficult. Over the first two months since the fall of Vale City, it was housing thousands of refugees until those could be transported somewhere else. Whatever was left of Atlesian fleet was stationed in the industrial district, the only part of the city that survived the Grimm invasion relatively intact.
Over the course of the following few months, all refugees left in the area were taken to safety. All that remained in Beacon and ruins of Vale City were military personnel and Hunters and they were all struggling to survive in what was now a desolated wasteland, scavenging for whatever they could use.
However, even after suffering such a heavy blow, the Hunters of Beacon weren't idle throughout these few months. With Ozpin gone, Qrow Branwen took over the duty of tracking down Cinder and all her associates, including White Fang... and a selected company of Beacon students aided him in his effort. Qrow hated having to put them all in danger, since he was better off doing this kind of job alone. But those 'kids,' as he called them, showed the kind of talent he hadn't seen in years. Especially his young nieces... Though he wouldn't show it, he often marveled at how these girls grew in such short time, in more ways than one.
More importantly though, his laborous investigation had finally brought some results, after months of nothing at all. The Vale offshot of White Fang turned out to have numerous contacts in Menagerie, Atlas, and Mistral; the last locality was even more important as in some of Cinder's associates (or lackeys, perhaps) were reportedly seen in this foreign Kingdom.
Qrow wasn't sure what this meant. But he knew one thing for certain...
It was time to act.