Arc One: Atlas

Chapter One: Hero and Criminal

There was no doubt that Atlas was the largest kingdom in Remnant and it was even rumored to be capable of holding the populations of all four kingdoms in a crisis. Tall glass skyscrapers reached for the sky like pillars the tallest being the CCT and at night the city lights twinkled like stars. The streets were clean and a train wound through the city on its tracks two stories above street level. The Atlesian Knight-130's were stationed on the tall walls surrounding the city to repel any attack by Grimm alongside the military and Hunters while the Atlas Police Department protected the civilians from human criminals. To most it was beautiful and awe inspiring at the height of its technological advancement.

Natsuki hated it. She hated it for everything that wasn't said when people spoke of it. The largest kingdom while capable of holding the populations of all the kingdoms would only take in the human part during a crisis, leaving the faunus - who made up 41% of the population - to fend for themselves. The skyscrapers were impressive true, but their lights polluted the sky and hid the real stars. The streets were clean, but the alleys were a mess, home to the unemployed and criminal. Beneath the streets, the abandoned metro was teeming with faunus to poor to afford homes or that had been evicted from them in order to make way for more skyscrapers. The chances of a police working to solve a crime against a faunus were less than ten percent while a crime claimed to be caused by a faunus resulted in their arrest ninety-eight percent of the time. And more importantly, Atlas was governed by its military with influence by the Schnee Dust Company and many more companies who were known for their poor treatment of faunus' laborers. Any faunus in and outside of Atlas would agree that the kingdom held the most racism and prejudice than the other three kingdoms combined.

Mood already soured by her poor opinion of Atlas, the sweltering heat caused by the summer sun and the trench coat she wore only increased her irritation. Natsuki ignored the sweat running down her back as she adjusted the sleeves of the green coat. The coat was far too big on her, falling to her heels and hanging an inch past her fingertips. While she disliked having to wear it, the coat was necessary for several reasons, including the concealment of her weapons as it was illegal for anyone who wasn't a Hunter to Academy student - of which she was neither - to carry a weapon in the city without a permit. With a frustrated sigh, she gave up on trying to roll the sleeves up as they dropped right back down to cover her hands.

Adjusting her dark blue fedora to shade her eyes, she panned her gaze over the crowd gathered in one of the city's park. There were more faunus intermingled with the crowd than she had expected and more potential White Fang gathered then she would have liked. Along with the faunus, there were quite a few news crews hanging around all focused on a stage that was put in place for today's event. The reason became apparent as a young woman took to the stage. A ripple passed through the news crews as they rushed to adjust their cameras and microphones. The woman was tall - perhaps even taller than Natsuki was - and her white hair was pulled into a neat bun, tinted blue by her shirt. She moved with purpose, no motion wasted and spine perfectly straight as she moved to stand in front of five new Atlesian Knight-200's. Natsuki wasn't sure if her regal bearing came from her military training or Schnee heritage. When the woman stood center stage with her hands behind her back, she decided upon the military. Her voice was beautiful, but there was no warmth in it as she began her speech.

A crackle of static sounded in Natsuki's ear briefly. "This is Hacker to Lightning Tamer. I am in position. I repeat I am in position. Over."

"This is Untouchable to everyone. what's the point of these codenames again? People keep staring at me."

"I'm more interested in why we're doing this mission in the first place."

"Codenames, Ninja!" Hacker chided.

"Oh, who cares about the stupid codenames. I just want to know why we're doing this. I mean she's a Schnee and we all know that the SDC is the worst at using faunus as cheap labor."

"Don't judge a person by their family, Yasmin," Xander answered, dropping the use of codenames. "She may be a Schnee, but she left the company, passing on the title of heiress to her sister, before joining the military in rebellion of her father's controlling nature."

"Because nothing screams rebellion against controlling parents better than joining a controlling military," Yasmin retorted.

"Focus, guys," Natsuki ordered lowly, offering an awkward smile to a woman who turned to look at her in surprise.

They fell silent, allowing Natsuki to focus more on what was going on around her. A slight disturbance to her left caught her attention and she watched as a boy wearing a hoodie slowly began to withdraw a black handgun from within his pocket. As focused as people were on the speech, no one besides her noticed as several more faunus around the park began to do the same.

"Get ready," She ordered lowly.

"We're always-"

She felt the EMP before her earpiece cut out abruptly. Electricity from her semblance sparked by her ear as it absorbed a bit of the electrical pulse. There was a more noticeable disturbance in the news crews as their equipment, but no one realized something was wrong until the new AK-200's stances relaxed from standby mode to offline. Natsuki was moving as soon as felt her semblance spark, putting on a black half mask with a yellow stripe down the nose piece. A purposeful spark from her semblance activated the gears in her boots and the stripes of yellow that ran up the backsides began to glow yellow.

When the first gunshot echoed through the park, Natsuki was already tackling Winter Schnee off the stage and leaving the bullet aimed for her head to ricochet off one of the inactive AK-200. People screamed as soon as they realized what was happening and began to make a run for it. Natsuki was a bit too distracted to worry about the crowd, though. She should have known that tackling a trained soldier wouldn't be a good idea.

As Natsuki started to rise, Winter's elbow slammed down between her shoulder blades before locking her legs with Natsuki's to roll them so she was on top. Natsuki quickly blocked a punch from the woman

"Woah, there, Schnee. I'm not your enemy."

Instead of responding, Winter attacked again. As quick as Winter's reaction time had been to Natsuki's tackle, Natsuki's was just as quick and she quickly reversed their positions, but this time managed to pin WInter's wrists.

"I'm not your enemy," She repeated.

"You'll have to excuse me for not trusting the word of a masked stranger who attacked me."

"If I hadn't tackled you, you'd be dead. So you're welcome. Now I'm going to let you up and go help my friends so I'd really appreciate it if you wouldn't attack me."

Without waiting for a response Natsuki stood and swept back her coat to grasp the hilt of her weapon. She dropped back down without drawing her weapon as a bullet glanced off the stage frame. "Son of a bitch. They brought a freaking sniper with them."

She sighed as a thin blade poked her back, feeling the subtle shift of her Aura in response to the threat. "For the last time, I am not your enemy, Schnee. Now put your sword away before you poke someone's eye out."

"I don't take orders from half-dressed degenerates," Winter replied, referring to the fact that Natsuki was shirtless underneath the trench coat with only a blue sports binder for modesty. "Tell me who you are now."

"And I don't take orders from trigger happy military personnel," Natsuki finally snapped in irritation and turned to slap the blade away with her bare hand, Aura protecting her from injury.

She turned her back on the female soldier, sweeping the coat back to unclip one of her scimitars from the metal clamps hanging from her belt. A guard covered the majority of the blade, leaving the last two inches or so uncovered, and a clip of yellow dust bullets glowed in the guard. With the careful application of her semblance, she changed the scimitar into its rifle mode, covered section of the bladed rotating around the rifle barrelled that ran up the blade while the hilt broke apart and tilted into the rifle grip while a trigger popped out of hiding in the guard. She peered around the edge of the stage before recoiling with a curse as another bullet hit the stage near her face. The sniper was getting more accurate. Of course as accurate as the sniper was getting he'd never be as accurate as . . .

"Nickolas!" She shouted. "There's a sniper on the tenth, no the ninth floor of that building that's under construction."

"I'm a little busy!" He shouted back and Natsuki sighed quietly.

She could hear her friends fighting the White Fang out there and she didn't like that all she could do was cower behind a stage. She turned her attention back to Winter and sighed as she saw that she had pulled out a scroll.

"That won't work. They used an EMP, it's why your new shiny tin soldiers are just standing around looking pretty."

"And how do you know about this EMP?" Winter asked suspiciously.

"Because I can feel it," Natsuki answered., a single spark of electricity crackling off her cheek in brief demonstration of her semblance.

Bracing the front heavy rifle with her left hand, she peeked around the stage for the second time. She forced herself not to flinch at the next of the sniper's shots, trusting in her Aura and semblance to protect her as well as the hope that the sniper still hadn't adjusted his angle properly. The bullet struck her Aura first, slowing it slightly but not stopping it. Her semblance was next, a sheen of electricity sparking into life an inch away from her face. Manipulating the electricity to divert the fast moving piece of metal to the side was difficult and it still cut a line across her cheek. Ignoring the sting of the minor injury, she fired her rifle.

The tiger faunus fighting Nickolas spasmed as he fell, two pronged stun bullets sticking out of his neck, one significantly shorter than the other. Natsuki raised an eyebrow at her fighting partner as he spun the fired revolver by its trigger guard to grasp the barrel as the gun grip unfolded into its hatchet form. Xander smirked and saluted her with the changed weapon, blocking an attack from another White Fang faunus with its twin. Nickolas transformed his orange trident into a shotgun and spun in the direction of the sniper. He didn't even try to aim before pulling the trigger, not that it mattered with his semblance.

No more shots from the sniper followed Nickolas' shot and Natsuki quickly swept her gaze over the nearby rooftops wary of any more surprises.

"Nice shot as always, Nick. That sniper won't be shooting at anybody else anytime soon," Xander praised and turned towards the fourth member of their team. "Hey, Yasmin, don't you think it's time you stopped strangling that snake faunus and start finding that EMP."

"Shut it, Irving!" Yasmin shouted back.

"Don't start," Natsuki ordered, leaving Winter behind as she stepped into the open with her weapon back in scimitar form. "And Yasmin, I would greatly appreciate that EMP being found."

Yasmin released her opponent from the stranglehold of her kusarigama's golden chain. "Of course."

"Good, now let's finish this shall we?" She directed the question towards the remaining White Fang members.

"Has that sniper been questioned yet."

"Not yet, sir," Winter replied. "Our men are still trying to unthaw him.

General James Ironwood sighed at the information as he stared through the one-sided window at one of the many faunus that had been brought in. She wore a sleeveless black shirt trimmed with purple, a purple sash belt, a hip cape the faded from white to purple, and black pants tucked into her black boots. The black gloves adorning her hands bore her purple emblem, four hiltless kunai knives stacked on top of one another. The brown fur of her tail was the same color as her hair except for its black tip. Her tail twitched slightly and when he blinked he couldn't locate her again almost as if she had become invisible. "What's this one's name?"

Winter Schnee cleared her throat as she answered from behind him. "She gave her name as Yasmin Fiala. The only information we could find on her were her adoption records and the police report for a missing person. She's a stoat faunus with a semblance to direct attention away from her."

"A missing person's report?"

"She ran away from the family that adopted her. However, for some reason, the report was never looked into."

Ironwood moved to the next window. "And this one?"

The boy had kicked his feet up on the interrogation table, hands folded behind his head. His head turned towards them as if he knew they were there, green eyes sparkling in amusement. Like Yasmin, he wore black boots, but that was the only black he wore. He looked like a normal kid in a white t-shirt emblazoned with his green emblem of two revolvers framing a lightning bolt, blue jeans, and a green jacket. If Winter didn't know better she would have thought him related to the girl that had tackled her based on their same black hair - though his was much longer.

"His name's Xander Irving. His mother was killed in a White Fang raid on an SDC office building when he was young and his brother, Simon, went missing not long after. His semblance is empathy and he claims to be one of the leaders of an organization known as the Black Fang. But the existence of the Black Fang is just a rumor, I don't think-"

"I don't pay you to think, Miss Schnee," He interrupted rudely before moving onto the next window.

Shifting slightly at the harsh comment, Winter began telling him about the second boy on the other side of the glass before he could ask. The boy's light brown hair was tousled and he seemed to have fallen asleep with his head resting on his crossed arms on the table. He was dressed in a pair of swim trunks with orange stripes on the outside of his thighs, a lighter orange trident shaped emblem sticking out of white and light blue ice stood out. Orange stripes also ran up the sleeves of his black long sleeve wetsuit top. He kicked off his black and orange tennis shoes at some point as they lay in the corner of the room.

"Nickolas Tachibana, arrested several times on charges of disturbing the peace and for sexual assault, although it seems the reported assaults were just misunderstandings. He's an otter faunus with a semblance of accuracy. He reported that someone stole his work on the linking of artificial intelligence and semblances two years ago, but it seems the report was also overlooked."

Winter hesitated for a moment as they moved onto the final window. "Not much is known about Natsuki Sora. Her only information is in the database for listing Alpha faunus, there was no information on what type of faunus she is. It did, however, list that she's from an all faunus island outside of Vale. And based on my experience in the recent events, her semblance appears to be electricity based. She claims to be the second leader of the Black Fang."

Natsuki was the least relaxed of the four, legs crossed and the fingers of her right hand drumming a beat on the table as her left twisted the bright blue scarf she had donned shortly after the battle with the White Fang. Her boots had been taken since their utilization of lightning dust fell under the category of weapon. Without the mask covering her face, there was something about the girl that seemed familiar to Winter.

"So all four have their semblances unlocked." The General mused thoughtfully and then turned and walked away. "Ready a conference room, I would like to speak with all four of them in private."

"Yes, sir," She saluted him smartly.

"And see to it that Miss Sora gets her boots back without the dust inserts. There's no point in her walking around barefoot."

Natsuki looked at the general stoically after he tossed their four black masks onto the conference table. Once out of the small interrogation room and back with her friends, she had been able to relax fully and she was unintimidated by him. Xander was the first to reclaim his mask, the green stripe separating it from the others. He slid Natsuki's mask to her as Nickolas flipped the remaining solid black masks over to figure out which one was his by the initials painted on the inside.

"My Special Op's commander claims that you call yourselves the Black Fang."

"We call ourselves no such thing," Natsuki replied, finally picking up her mask. "The organization that we are a part of on the other hand . . ."

"I've heard the rumors about the Black Fang. They say you're a group of faunus that supposedly fights against the White Fang and yet there's never been any substantial evidence to support those rumors. Until now that is."

"General may I ask what law we have broken?" Natsuki asked politely, meeting the man's gaze evenly.

"You are aware that vigilantism is illegal, are you not, Miss Sora?"

"Fully aware, just as I am aware that it's not illegal for an individual to stop a crime from being committed. Which seeing as we didn't kill or maim anyone I don't see what crime we've committed."

"How about carrying weapons without permits?"

"We had permits," Xander informed him.

"Permits from Vacuo that are two months overdue for renewal."

"We've been too busy to get them renewed."

"Too busy doing what."

He's trying to trip us up and catch us in a lie. Clever, but not clever enough. Natsuki leaned back in her chair. "Are you aware how difficult it is for a faunus to get a decent job in this city especially if they haven't had proper schooling?"

She could see that the General didn't have any good response to that, so she leaned forward.

"General, how long can you hold us for not having weapon permits with no evidence of any other crimes being committed."

When Ironwood didn't respond right away, Nickolas did. "They can hold us for a total of twenty-four hours, and as we've already been here for five hours, that leaves him ninety more to find evidence of some other crime to hold us any longer. And as Xander is human, they won't be able to get away with holding us longer due to the possibility of us being members of the White Fang."

"Thank you, Nickolas. So General, are you going to make things easy on all of us and let us go, or are you going to hold us for the full twenty-four hours while you search for nonexistent evidence."

"I can't believe that bastard actually had us detained for the full twenty-four hours," Xander complained as they left the police department.

"Hey, at least we were able to get some weapon permits out of it without Yasmin having to forge them," Nickolas commented as he looked over the blue card they each had been given. "Hey, can we get some actually decent food before we head back to the hotel?"

"I agree, their food was horrible."

"What's wrong, Natsuki?"

Natsuki glanced at her friends at Xander's concerned question. Anyone else would be unsettled by Xander's ability to sense their emotions, but not Natsuki. If it weren't for Xander's empathy, they would have never become friends and created the Black Fang together. He kept her sane when she was at her lowest.

"It's nothing, I'm just thinking."

"About?" He pressed gently, gesturing at Yasmin and Nickolas to go ahead of them.

"What if it's time that the Black Fang steps out of the shadow?"

He nodded thoughtfully. "I think I know where you're coming from, but I disagree. We chose the name of Black Fang not as an opposite of the White Fang, but as a promise to work in the shadows and fight fang and claw to stop the terror of the White Fang. The only reason the White Fang hasn't sent anyone to kill all of us yet is because they don't know who we are."

"I know you're right," She replied with a quiet sigh and then stopped walking. "You guys should go eat. I'll meet you back at the hotel later."

"Before the curfew, please," He requested before catching up to Nickolas and Yasmin.

Natsuki wandered the city for an hour before returning to the park where they had fought the White Fang. The thin metal strips embedded in the soles of her boots chimed softly against the pavement as she walked. The stage was gone, taken down during their detainment and the park was cleaned. Bending down to pick up a crumpled metal bullet that had been left behind, she wondered over how quickly they had managed to clean up the mess. As she was straightening a gleam of ice blue caught her attention. Picking it up carefully, she raised it up to the light. The blue topaz earring sent streams of sunlight reflecting off its faceted surface. It was no doubt expensive and probably belong to Winter. Natsuki marveled over the intricate detail put into the apple-shaped gem and the familiarity of its design.

She paused and slowly reached into the pouch hanging from her belt, withdrawing the necklace within. Even with her gloves on, she was careful not to touch the ring hanging from the chain as she compared the topaz pendant hanging from the chain as well to the earring. The apple pendant had the same intricate detail as the earring.

"Here, Natsuki. I want you to have this necklace it was once a part of a one of a kind jewelry set I got from my mother."

"It's pretty."

"It is and it's very expensive. This here is a real topaz so be careful that no one steals it."

Looking between the two pieces of jewelry for a moment, she slowly returned the necklace to the pouch. Her mother had to have been mistaken about the set being one of a kind. She stared at the earring again. She was almost positive it was Winter's, but why would the Schnee have a chain and cuff earring made for a faunus. She could tell by the latch on the cuff piece that allowed for it to be switched for a different cuff for a faunus' nonhuman ear so they could wear it on whichever set of ears they wanted. Closing her hand over the earring, Natsuki shook her head. It wasn't really any of her business.

She looked up at the clock in the center of the square. They had been released at 2:00 and it was already 3:13. That gave her less than five hours to track down Winter and return the earrings before curfew. She still had some things to do, though, things she should have done yesterday. Returning the earring could wait a few hours.

Natsuki cursed quietly when no one answered her knock. It had taken her longer than she would have liked to finish what should have been done yesterday and taken longer than she thought it would to track down Winter's address. She lived on the opposite side of the city and now Natsuki barely had enough time to return to the hotel before curfew. Groaning, she dropped her forehead against the door, the movement added to the flattening of her wolf ears knocking off her fedora. A horrified gasp from behind her made her jump and she blinked in confusion at the little old lady that quickly began trying to hurriedly unlock her door while shooting distrustful glances at her.

Sighing, she retrieved her hat from the ground and walking towards the elevator. The woman pressed herself tightly against her door as she passed before finally succeeding in getting to her apartment and slamming the door behind her. Taking a sharp left, she avoided the elevator like it was a plague and pushed open the door leading to the stairs. She would hate coming back here tomorrow. She stopped on the landing on the floor below Winter's, staring out the window. Frowning thoughtfully, she shrugged. Why not? She'd nearly broken all of Atlas' laws already, what was another? Pushing the window open, she carefully slid out onto the fire escape only to wince as the metal in her boots rang loudly on the metal of the fire escape. Pulling them off and holding them tightly with one hand, she measured the distance between this fire escape and next. It would be a long painful fall if she missed, but giving up wasn't in her nature.

She backed up as far as she could on the landing before taking off. The other fire escape rattled as she slammed into the fenced side, barely catching it with her free hand. The metal was slippery beneath her gloved hand and she quickly activated her semblance to cling to the railing like a magnet before she could fall. Heaving herself up, she took a deep breath to her calm her nerves before doing it again. Winter's apartment while on the same wall was at the very opposite end and by the time she finally made it, she had developed a rhythm to her jumps. Winter's window was locked, but it was no problem for Natsuki to use her semblance to flip the latch and lift the window. It had been a long time since Natsuki had done anything like this and she found it enjoyable if a bit overheating - although the overheating part was probably from the trenchcoat she still wore. It was an easy matter to slip out of it.

Winter's apartment was cold, in the temperature sense and lived in sense. The walls were white, the furniture was white, everything was white except the hardwood floors which were covered in a pale blue rug. There was a bookshelf where a tv would usually sit and a single picture of Winter's young sister sat on top of it. There were no other pictures or knick knacks to be found. Trying to get a sense of Winter's likes, she wandered over to the bookcase after handing the green coat off the back of the couch. She barely contained a snort of amusement when she saw all the books about Dust and military conduct that lined the shelves. Two books on the very bottom caught her attention and she carefully withdrew them. They both still bore their price tags. A growl rumbled in her chest when she saw the titles and author.

A Study on Alpha Faunus: Bizarre Mating Habits by Professor Tawny was the first and the second was A Study on Alpha Faunus: Instinct over Intellect also by Professor Tawny. She flipped open the second book to the first page, growl growing in intensity.

"After spending a year in the company of Alpha faunus, I have come to the ultimate conclusion that due to the possession of several different animal traits, Alpha faunus are more animalistic than normal faunus who only possess one animal trait. Not all faunus are Alpha faunus and it is unclear how an Alpha can be conceived by normal faunus parents and how two Alpha's can give birth to a normal faunus child. It is, however, clear that they are instinctual creatures that are often quick to anger, making conversing with them difficult as they can take insult over the smallest things. In this study on Alpha faunus, I will explore the concepts of how they use instinct over intelligence, their heat cycles, and their eating habits. "

Natsuki snapped the book closed before opening the other, knowing that it would be just as bad.

"Like certain species of animals, Alpha faunus mate for life. Before they choose a mate, they first imprint on or claim up to three people, whether they be human or faunus, whom they believe possess traits to make a stronger bloodline. The Alpha will grow increasingly more protective of these people, that they call potential mates. Where a human may give gifts of flowers or chocolate when trying to win someone over, an Alpha gives gifts of small animals that they have hunted. Once the Alpha has chosen one of these potentials to be their lifemate, they will seek to consummate the bond as soon as possible. This occurs most often during their heat cycle (see Instinct over Intellect) and the Alpha can grow dangerously possessive over their new mate. During my time among the Alpha faunus, I witnessed the mauling of one Alpha's younger brother when he got too close to the Alpha's mate. It was quite the shocking experience for-"

Natsuki looked up from her book, ears twitching beneath her fedora at the sound of talking coming from outside the hall.

"Oh, Winter, I'm so glad you returned home before I turned in for the night. There was a faunus here earlier when I came home. She was snooping outside your room, I think she was trying to break in."

Eyes widening in surprise as she realized that the soldier had finally returned home, she quickly replaced the books on the bookshelf and rushed to grab her coat. She had only meant to drop the earring somewhere in the apartment, not get caught breaking and entering into a military officer's home by said military officer.

"Break in?"

"Oh, yes. It was simply dreadful. She left as soon as she saw me. I think she might have been White Fang. You should be careful, dear. Oh, I couldn't imagine what they would do to you if they got their hands on you."

Natsuki dropped the earring on the coffee table as she hurriedly pulled on the trench coat and scooped up her boots.

"I promise to be careful and thank you for telling me, Mrs. Worthson. Good night."

"It was no problem, dear. Good night."

She threw open the window quietly as the door was unlocked with a click. A hand caught the back of her coat shortly after she had jumped out the window, yanking her back quickly. She let out a startled yelp, bare feet slipping out from under her and head smacking against the window frame. There was no way Winter could have caught Natsuki without the use of her semblance to close the distance. It had to be someone else, please let it be someone else. She tilted her head back to stare into the icy blue glare of one irritated Winter Schnee.

"I can explain," She exclaimed guiltily.

What's this? A new story? Where's the update for The Guardian Spirit? It's in the process of being written and yes I know it's late. I've been swamped with college work and was only able to post this story because I already had this chapter written and just needed to polish it up a bit. I also wanted to get this story out there before season four of RWBY comes out. If you're reading this story and haven't read the trailers yet then I suggest you go read those first. Pictures of my characters can be found on my deviantart 3wolfheart4. Also I apologise if this A/N jumps around, I'm in a bit of a hurry at the moment. Take care all and have a wonderful week.

Edit: Something went wrong with my section breaks, but I fixed it.

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