Hello my lovelies, Nightengale here, and I just wanted to say, sorry for giving up so suddenly on my previous stories. I don't know what happened but all of a sudden, I lost the desire to continue those stories. This story is going to be an attempt at maybe revamping my "Broken Fang" story, because after rereading my story, I was extremely disappointed with what I called grammar and pacing I put into this story. So I am hoping that I can maybe make this story closer to what I had hoped it would be. This story will be different, different beginning, different pairings, all that good stuff. So, without further ado, here is the first chapter of "Broken Fang, A Second Chance"
As we slowly become aware of our surroundings, we are assaulted by the sounds and smells of a run down bar, windows barely lit by the waning light of twilight. We turn and find two men sitting in the darkest corner, one a large burly man, golden eyes constantly scanning the entire room, making sure that there are no obvious threats to be weary of. He quietly sighs and looks to his companion.
"Grun, look, it's extremely dangerous for either of us to be out an about right now. You are supposed to be dead, and Adam is going to realize that I've defected any day now. Why would you call me out here at this Oum forsaken hour?" His friend doesn't say anything at first, quietly picking at the bandages that wrap up his forearms, contemplating his words slowly.
"Tukson," Grun finally croaks out, "You are my friend, and you have been my best lieutenant for years now, which is why I trust you enough to tell you this." Grun stops to down the last of his whiskey before continuing. "I'm going to take the White Fang apart."
Tukson is shocked at this, thinking his friend has gone insane, not hesitating to tell him so. "Grun have you lost your marbles?! You, better than anyone, know how far the Fang reaches across Remnant, and you think you can just dismantle them on your own?" Grun finally looks Tukson dead in the eye, his bright grass green eyes practically glowing in the darkness. "The Fang have let themselves become nothing more than a vindictive group of terrorists who's sole purpose is to wipe out humanity!" Grun growls at Tukson, the hair on his dark brown wolf ears standing straight. "You left the Fang because you don't believe in what they stand for anymore. They tried to KILL me because I verbally and actively went against their decisions to use m violent methods in their mission of 'equality'".
Tukson stares into his drink, before looking back up. "Grun, I'm not saying that you are wrong, that the Fang needs to be put down." Grun visibly calms down at his words, but he still watches Tukson, wondering if he made the wrong choice in talking to him about it. "I'm asking how you, a single Faunus, plans to physically accomplish this. No one knows for certain the exact number of active and Sleeper Fangs across Remnant, and the Council has worked damned hard to keep it that way. How do you plan on taking down a corrupted network nearly a century in the making?"
Grun finally relaxes a little, finally understanding his friends apprehension. "How does a King Tijitu hunt?" Tukson frowns and thinks before saying, "By distracting with one head while the second sneaks up from behind." Grun smiles and says, "Exactly, misdirection." Tukson's frown deepens, not understanding him. Grun sighs and says, "Ugh, now I remember why Arianna was made leader over you." He smiles at Tukson, while running a finger over the pair of ring hanging from a small chain around his neck.
Grun shakes his head, bringing himself out of his musing, "Look, don't worry about the details, just know I have a plan. I wanted to ask you if you have any information on current movements of White Fang troops, what are they planning, where are they going?" Tukson hesitates, but he eventually relents, writing down as much pertinent information he can think of in the notebook Grun passes him. Grun thanks him and stands up to leave, before Tukson reaches out to stop him, careful not to squeeze his arm too hard.
"Grun, for what it's worth, I AM sorry for what happened to Arianna. We may not have left on the best of terms, but she was still my friend, and my leader, and I'm sorry I couldn't have done anything to stop it." Grun reaches out and pats his hand, smiling at him. "Tukson, you have been my friend for longer than anyone else, I know if you had even had a hint of what was going to happen, you would have intervened. I don't blame you for what happened, and you have nothing to apologize for." Grun almost laughs at the tears of relief threatening to spill from his friends eyes.
"Listen Tukson, it's going to be getting real bad in Vale in the next week or so. I think it's best if you pack up and head back to Vacuo. It'll be safer there." Tukson looks worried, but he nods, agreeing with Grun's concerns. "Ya, I think I'll close up shop, I should be ready to leave by the end of the week."
Grun smiles at him, "By the way, I never would have pegged you as such a narcissist. 'Tukson's Book Trade'? Was naming a shop really that hard you had to use your own name for it?" Tukson glares at him, his cheeks glowing red, "Shut up Grun, you try coming up with a good name for a cover store on short notice." Grun just starts laughing before walking out of the bar, waving to his friend as he leaves.
As Grun walks to his hotel room, he is constantly watching his surrounding, his wolf ears constantly moving to any sound under the hood of his hoodie. As he enters the building, he nods to the clerk at the desk, one of the owner's kids, before walking up to his room. When he enters, he is met with the sight of his teammates, sitting around bed, smiling and waving at him, as if they didn't just spend hours in their leaders room after breaking into it. "Hey Boss!" Blitz says from the bed, while his wife and teammate Leere is sitting behind him, brushing out his long red hair. "We were starting to worry you weren't coming back!"
Grun sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. "Did you guys not get the hint that I wanted to do this alone when I left without telling anyone?" Blitz smiles widely as Leere starts braiding his hair. "Oh no, we got the hint, we just ignored it. We weren't going to let our leader up and try to take down his old organization by his lonesome,"
Grun shakes his head and looks at Macht before asking, "How in Seven Hells did you even find me?" Macht smiles and says, "We've been trained since the start of our careers to be the best damn Tracking Hunters of our generation. Did you really think you could hide from us?" To which Grun mumbles, "Since I was one doing the damned training, yes."
The other three just laugh and go back to what they were doing. Leere finishes up Blitz's hair, pecks him on the cheek and grabs Grun, dragging out onto the balcony. Blitz doesn't even bat an eye at it and starts checking his weapons, a pair of tonfa.
"Grun, why did you try to ditch us?" Leere asks her leader. Grun stays quiet a moment, but Leere doesn't push him, knowing he thinks things out before speaking about something important. "I have every expectation to die on this mission I'm setting out on, as well as racking up a body count that could border on attempted genocide. Do you really think I would ask you guys to follow me down such a dark path?"
Leere looks at Grun for a good minute before she reaches out and grabs hold of one of his human ears, giving it a good twist. "Do you really, honestly think we would want you to do this by yourself? We already lost one friend when Arianna died, and I'll be damned if we lose another because he didn't take back up." Grun is on his knees trying his best not to cry at having his ear twisted, "That's exactly why I didn't ask any of you to join me! Not a single one of you would hesitate to go with me! I'm not going to have my team's death on my conscience as well as my wife's!" Leere looks at Grun, close to crying after hearing his reasons.
Grun stands up and rubs his ear, "Leere, you guys are my friends, my family. I'm not going to ask you guys to put yourselves at risk just to help me with an extermination." Leere looked at him and grinned before she said, "Well it's a good thing you didn't ask, because we are CHOOSING to help you do what you need to do. You wouldn't hesitate to help any of us if we needed to do something near impossible, so how can we call ourselves your friends if we aren't willing to do they same? Now come on, we need to get some rest if we are going to get started tomorrow."
Leere smiles cheekily as she turns around and walks inside before flopping down on the bed beside Blitz, where he rolls over to cuddle against her, the two falling asleep almost immediately after. Grun shakes his head and walks in as well, saying to himself, "I couldn't have asked for better friends." Before he lays down, he frowns and says out loud, "I'm not losing my deposit on this place because of you guys, so I hope you can either fix or pay to fix the window ya'll broke to get in here."
Here it is everyone, my first chapter of my new take on "Broken Fang". I want to give a huge THANK YOU to my good friend, Nickshephard, for Beta reading this for me, and for helping me really put the right kind of effort into this story, the kind of effort it, and you all deserve. Just so you all know, I have, after extensive talks with Nick, decided to have my story take place within the same universe as his story "Rise of a Star Knight" a Jaune centric crossover with "The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings" elements to it, that I am proud to say I helped Beta for him, which honestly gace me the desire to write again. So, if you all like what I did so far, let me know, and Pop over to Nick's profile and check out his stories, you won't be disappointed. Until next time, this is Nightengale, signing off.