A/N: Hey guys, Weaponmojo here. Just letting you guys in on a little info ahead on time to make things a little clearer. This story takes place a few years after the story of RWBY and I am taking a few liberties here and there with how the story may come to a conclusion. Furthermore, I'm also taking some liberties on how the Faunus work genetically, which will all be explained in more detail later on in the story, but to give you a bit of a heads up I'm treating same genus Faunus reproduction (an example would be Blake's parents) as a "pure bred" pairing which will further their animal traits. Again, all of that will be explained in detail later on in the story.
Characters I can promise you'll see from the main series include but are not limited to Winter, Ironwood, Qrow, and I'll at the very least be alluding to team RWBY.
If you have problems with allusions to rape, please skip this first flashback. Thank you.
I hope you guys enjoy this first chapter and the ones to come.
The soft crackling of a fire echoed through the trees around the small faunus. A wooden mask hid her face as she creeps through the forest. She slowly approached the clearing, feet barely making a sound with each step she took. The bushy fox tail twitched nervously as she got close, the crackling fire barely illuminating the wood of her mask.
A soft gasp escaped her lips when she saw the red and white emblem of the White Fang. The fear was almost crippling, she turned ready the run when her forehead hit something hard. She stumbled, falling and looking up at the white and red mask of a white fang grunt.
He chuckled, reaching down and yanking her to her feet, "Hey, look boys! We got a new toy! Hah, she's even travel sized!"
The fox screamed, struggling against his grasp to no avail as he simply yanked he off the ground, pinning her to the tree behind her. The air was cold against her skin as he ripped the fabric from her body. The mask followed suit, leaving her bare and powerless. She squeezed her eyes shut.
Her eyes open, meeting with the soft glistening of moonlit snow. She glances around, taking her surroundings back in.
"Kiyomi." The voice in her radio says. The fox sighs softly, blinking behind her mask. The waist high snow reminds her of the surrounding winter, snapping her attention back to the mission at hand.
"Hey, Kiyomi," the voice spoke again, "You alright? You went radio silent for a little long there… you sure you're up for this?"
"Yeah…" the fox mumbles, turning her attention to the large bunker doors not far ahead of her. "I'm good, just lost in thought… How're you coming with the door controls? Ebon and I are freezing our tails off out here…"
"I've almost got it… Have you two seen any movement yet?"
A new voice responds through the ear piece, "No… We're still alone out here." Kiyomi glances off to her left, barely making out the form of her squad mate.
Ebony Pascal stands against a large spruce tree, the dark browns and greens of her current attire making her blend in far too well against it. As soon as the moon peeked from behind the clouds, however, she stands out just enough for Kiyomi to spot her. The thin metal plates that cover her arms gleam softly in the moonlight as she flexes her fingers in the sharpened gauntlets. Their eyes meet behind their masks for a moment before they both look back to the door.
Kiyomi takes a breath, pushing past her memories and focusing on the task at hand. "Aleta, c'mon, if you don't get that door open soon, this whole operation is going to be blown."
"Jeez, Foxy, hold your horses, I've almost got it…"
"Yeah, you said that five minutes ago. I'm about to get frostbite over here!" Ebon growls, "Now c'mon, this op's only supposed to take a few minutes."
"We all know it's not going to be that easy, Ebon," Kiyomi sighs. "This place is fortified for a reason… Whatever this guy's up to isn't going to be easy to swallow…"
"Whatever, Key. It'll be like every other op, beat our way through and leave."
"Actually, Ebon, Command wants you guys to snag some data from him… Ha! There we go, girls, let's get this started!" The large, reinforced metal door slowly begins to open, screeching loudly into the otherwise silent night.
Kiyomi was the first to move, launching herself through the snow as quickly as she could. She brings her glaive around, catching the ground with the end of the pole and vaulting through the still opening door. Ebon lands behind her a moment later, nodding to the fox as she regains her balance and the pair take in the space around them.
The door begins to shut behind them, the cold wind slowly coming to a stop. Aleta's voice crackles through their radios, "Alright girls, you've got thirty minutes, door's closing behind you and we're gonna be radio silent until you're done. Good luck and don't forg-" The radios crackle to silence as the door shuts behind the two with a loud thud.
Kiyomi pulls her arm around, setting up a timer for thirty minutes before looking around the room. Large flat metal lines the walls and floor alongside the massive machinery required to open and close the door. A single set of double doors sits at one end of the room beside a large electronic panel.
The two share a glance before quickly and quietly making their way to the panel. Kiyomi sets to work opening the door, using the codes they'd collected ahead of time to override and bypass most of the defenses, effectively hiding their presence in the compound.
The door opens. Ebony slips through before Kiyomi does, and the moment she was through the door shut behind them both.
A single long hall stood in front of the pair, doors lining it at exact intervals.
"Alright, Key," Ebony speaks, "Aleta said there was a server room one floor down, all we have to do is get there, get the data, and get back…"
"I know Ebon… I'm not stupid."
"Sorry, you seemed a little spacey earlier… What was on your mind?"
The pair starts creeping down the hall, glancing through windows as they go. Each room had a small cot as well as what seemed to be a toilet.
"Bad memories… the chill brought them up… why?"
"Just wanna make sure you're not gonna zone out on me during the mission…"
"I'm not going t- Hold up… is that blood?" Kiyomi peers through the window on one of the doors, barely reaching the bottom of the glass. The small cot in the far corner was stained with crimson splatters. Ebon walks back, glancing over Kiyomi through the glass.
"Yeah… that's blood… whomever was in that room probably didn't make it very far once they got out…"
"We need to hurry… the faster we can get the data we need the faster the rest of the Insurgence can get here and clean this place out…" Ebon nods and they quickly reach the first fork in the hall. Three possible directions lay before them with no indication of which was different from the others.
Ebon speaks up first, "Left hall's out… I can hear footsteps…" her words were quiet, barely audible even in the silence of the hall. The large, furry, wolf-like ears atop her head twitching softly.
"Then let's go straight… if they're coming from the left they're probably heading to the right."
Ebon nods, dashing through the intersection with Kiyomi hot on her heels. The rest of the hall was the same, mechanical sliding doors, blank metal walls and floors, however the end of the hall is capped with a set of double doors, much akin to the doors of an elevator.
"This should be the way down… You watch the halls, I'll start trying codes."
Kiyomi nods, turning on her heels and standing by the closest door.
A sharp ding resonates through the hall not a moment later, leaving Ebon cursing under her breath, "That wasn't me!"
Kiyomi glances around, slamming her hand on the small pad by the door. A soft hiss escapes as it quickly opens. They both duck in, Kiyomi putting a small sheet of wood in the path of the door before closing it behind them. They both duck out of view of the little window as the elevator doors open, three sets of footsteps making their way past.
"-out of the way, have you successfully dealt with the subject twenty rejects?"
"Yes sir, there is a single Twenty faunus breed left. She's still in her holding container, presumably asleep."
"Alright, good, in the morning her next heat cycle should begin, once you have confirmation begin the procedure."
"Of course sir we c-" Their voices trail off, too quiet for Kiyomi to make out the words.
"Are they… creating faunus? What could the point possib-"
"Who are you?" Kiyomi tenses, looking into the room she'd thought was empty. A faunus woman sits in the far corner. Her hair hanging low and long, dull, greasy, and knotted. A calico pattern coats her hair and fur across her body. Two cat ears twitch atop her head and her long thin and furry tail wraps around her waist.
Ebon spoke up first, whipping her head towards Kiyomi, "Shit… Should we kill it?"
"Kill?!"
"Ebon! No, we don't kill her… She's a person like the rest of us…"
"She's more of a freak than I am!"
"Ebon!"
"Whatever! We need to go!"
"We can't just leave her here!"
"Why not?!"
Kiyomi groans, turning to the calico faunus, "What's your name?"
"U-uh… th-they call me Twenty…"
"Twenty, what do they do to you here?"
"I… uh… They take me down to the next floor to another room and give me a shot… Then I get put back here for a while… They feed me… water me… keep me warm…"
"What do you think about getting out of here?"
"Kiyomi, we're not taking her with us!"
"I'm not going to leave anyone behind, especially not when we know they're just going to kill her!"
"We don't have time for this, we have a mission."
"We can grab her on the way out."
"G-grab me?"
"Don't worry, Twenty, we won't let them hurt you…"
"Don't make promises you can't keep, she'll probably freeze to death before we get back to Aleta any way."
"Whatever, just help me pull this door open, we can't exactly open it normally from this side."
The pair takes a moment, carefully pulling the door open and slipping through before it shuts with a familiar hiss. Kiyomi opens it for a moment, "Don't worry Twenty, we'll be back soon, we'll get you out of here… ok?"
"There is no out…"
"There is now." The door shuts once more leaving Kiyomi to turn to Ebony. "Get that elevator running, we have seventeen minutes, the transfer will take at least ten."
Ebony rolls her eyes, fighting with the keypad a moment before the same shrill ding resonates through the hall once more. The pair quickly slip into the elevator, going down one floor before getting off.
Kiyomi furrows her brow behind the mask as she glances from the walls to the floor. Pristine white paint coats the walls, a simple but precise tile pattern coating the floors, the sliding doors along the hall a clean white without any of the windows seen in the holding cells of the doors on the upper floor. "We'll have to check each door… I'll take the right, you take the left, they all should have the same code, once it doesn't we have our room."
Ebon nods and they set to work, checking and clearing each room one by one. Most doors opened to storage, housing cells, an operating table or three. The last door Kiyomi opened instantly chilled her to her core. The walls of the large observation room were covered with shelving, each shelf filled with labeled, barcoded, and meticulously organized glass jars. Each jar contained the floating remains of feline faunus, some with ears, tails, or other physical traits. The jars farthest from the door held the remains of faunus with multiple traits, ears and tail, much like Twenty.
Kiyomi whips around, ripping the mask from her face to reveal the subtle green eyes behind it before doubling over and violently vomiting. As soon as she was done she wiped her mouth and put the mask back on.
"Alright… I'm definitely not leaving her here…"
"What did you see?"
"Babies in jars… have you found the right door?"
"Sick… Yeah… The first two codes didn't work… so this should be the right room."
"Alright, here, let me open it, you watch the hall… mind the puddle…" Kiyomi pushes past Ebony, quickly typing a long string of numbers. The door opens with a familiar hiss before the two slip in, closing the door behind them.
A quick glance around gave them all they needed. The room was filled with large server towers and the occasional terminal. Kiyomi rushed to the closest one and plugs in the thumb drive before rifling through the files for a moment. There were a lot of smaller folders titled things like "Maintenance Reports" or "Employee registrar" however there was a large folder entitled "Primary Subjects" that contained multiple gigabytes of data. Kiyomi copies over the employee and subjects folders, skimming through the subjects folder while she waited. There were 21 sub-folders labeled 0-20. Folders 0-19 had the tagline "Deceased" however folder 20 did not.
Ebon turns to Kiyomi, "How long on that download?"
"At least another five minutes… there's almost 100 gigs of data on here… I have to compress it all onto a 12 gig thumb drive…"
"Try and hurry… I think I hear footsteps…"
Kiyomi nods, moving back over to the door to listen with her. After a moment they could hear footsteps slowly approaching the direction they'd come from.
"-ve been finalized, the last three 21-A subjects failed to meet standards as well."
"That's six failed litters. I assumed you've already updated her file?"
"Yes sir."
"Good. Come morning I want her euthanized, I was hoping that last litter would have revealed at least one additional evolutionary trait. We'll simply create a new subject 19 and start from there."
"Yes sir, I'll make sure that happens sir."
"Ugh… and send one of the faunus to clean up that mess, one of the Bull recruits must of found the leftovers from 20's failures."
"Yes sir."
The voices fade, but the shrill chime of the elevator reaches her just well enough for the pair to know they'd left the floor.
"They're going to kill her…" Kiyomi mumbles, checking the time on her scroll, "We only have nine minutes… keep your ear to the door." She orders quietly before hurrying back over to the terminal and setting her glaive down against the wall beside her. She closes out the windows she's opened to view the information, waiting another two minutes before pulling the thumb drive out and picking her glaive back up. "Alright, we have the data, let's grab the girl and get going."
"Why are we sticking our necks out for her?"
"She's evidence, living proof of what they did."
"Shouldn't we grab a jar baby on the way out then?"
"Do you want to carry a jar baby?"
She pauses a moment before growling, "Whatever, Key, let's just get going."
Kiyomi nods opening the door and glancing down the hall, the sound of footsteps could be heard off in the distance but that didn't phase her as she turns and hurries back to the elevator, Ebony now hot on her heels.
When the elevator doors open back up on the top floor things quickly took a turn the the worse. Three guards stand directly in front of the pair, a pair of average looking faunus standing just behind them.
There wasn't a moment of hesitation before Ebony flung herself through the open doors bringing her right hand down and around. The impact was sudden, far faster than the guard could have dreamed of reacting to as she slices the sharpened claws through the man's chest. Her second strike gives the man just enough time to get his aura active to block the blow, however the force sends him tumbling down the hall.
Two bullets deflect off her aura as the sound of gunfire leaves her ears ringing. Before she could maul the next guard down the line the back end of Kiyomi's glaive cracks against his jaw causing him to stumble back. There was no time to hesitate as she brings the blade up and around, catching the man in the lower abdomen and sending him skidding back a few paces. She takes the opportunity, lunging forwards with her glaive outstretched, shattering the man's aura and sending him tumbling back.
The last guard drops his weapon, turning to run. Ebony growls softly, dark swirls of smoke coursing around her legs as she dives for the man, sending him flying down the hall and spattering the wall with blood.
The two share a look before Kiyomi rushes to the cell Twenty had been held in. "Key, what are you doing?! They know we're here, we have to go!"
"I gave her my word," she growls back, "watch the hall I need to get her out of here." Her fingers quickly tap at the keypad and after a moment the door slides open once more, revealing a cowering and fearful Twenty.
Kiyomi quickly pulls her mask of, hooking it onto her belt as she slips into the room, kneeling in front of the scared faunus. "My name's Kiyomi, that's Ebony, we're here to get you out, alright?" She holds out her hand, beckoning her forward, "we won't hurt you."
Twenty gingerly reaches out and takes her hand and gets quickly pulled to her feet by Kiyomi. Twenty stood a bit taller than her, though being two inches shy of five foot this wasn't anything new to her. She quickly puts her mask back on, "Follow us and stay close, we have three minutes to get out of here safely."
As if on queue Ebony sticks her head in, "C'mon, we have to go before we both lose our heads, there's another patrol of guards coming down the west passage."
Kiyomi nods, quickly turning on her heels and practically dragging Twenty out of the room and down the hall.
The trio sprints down the hallway with Ebony leading the way. She skids to a stop just before the intersecting hallways, forcing the other two to stop in the process. She listens a moment before motioning them forward.
Kiyomi nods, gently tugging on Twenty before sprinting across the gap. Twenty's tail had no sooner passed by the corner than bullets started flying. Ebony and Twenty both press their ears against their heads, wincing from the echoing gunshots that filled the hall.
Ebony dives through the gap, rolling on the other side and landing on her feet, sprinting off ahead of the other two. Kiyomi wastes no time, tightening her grip on Twenty and speeding after her.
Ebony reaches into her pack, pulling out a small canister of red dust, twisting the top, and throwing it behind the three of them. A few moments later a large fiery blast fills the hallway, practically singing the fur on their tails in the process.
They reached the double doors quickly thereafter. Ebony throwing two more dust canisters, these ones full of a dark blue dust that violently fills the hallway behind them with a thick layer of ice. "That'll buy us maybe thirty seconds, Key. Get that door open!" Ebony growls. With a flick of her wrist the gauntlets on her arms extending to coat her fingers in sharpened metal. Kiyomi gently pats Twenty's hand before pulling away and moving to the console.
Shouting could be heard beyond the wall of ice, gun fire bouncing off of it as large cracks started to form. Before the ice could shatter however, the double doors began to open. "Alright, we're through, Aleta should be opening the blast doors any second and-"
A heavy thudding cut her off as the men on the other side of the wall of ice starting slamming something against it. Twenty recoiled, clamping her hands over her ears as the loud thudding filled the small space they had to work with.
Kiyomi quickly reached over, grabbing her shoulder, "we have to keep going, come on, it's just a few more feet. We can barricade the other side of the door until our exit opens up."
Twenty responds with a few shakey nods before she ducks past the large metal doors with Kiyomi following after her. Ebony rears back, smashing her clawed hand into the terminal before diving past the rapidly closing doors.
"There," she huffs as she picks herself up off the floor, "no easy way in, we should have plenty of time for Ally to get the damn doors back open."
Kiyomi nods and grabs Twenty's hand again and pulling her towards the blast doors at the front of the large industrial room they'd entered through to begin with. She looks down at the timer slowly ticking away on her wrist, "if Aleta's spot on with her numbers as she usually is… then we have less than thirty seconds before those doors should open."
After being silent the entire time from her small cell, Twenty finally spoke up. "A-are we really about to go outside? I… thought outside didn't exist…"
Ebony looks at Twenty before turning to Kiyomi, "and this is the biggest piece of evidence we just had to smuggle out of here?"
"You heard that monster, they were going to kill her. I wasn't going to let an innocent woman be murdered for no reason." She shakes her head, fiddling with her mask as she looks back to Twenty. "Yes, we're going outside. We'll get you to our camp and they'll check you over there. You'll be safe and warm in no time."
Before the calico faunus could respond a familiar ear destroying screech filled the room. Twenty recoiled in pain, hands clamped on her ears once more.
The radio in Kiyomi's ears crackles to life, Aleta's voice coming through, "alright girls! Door's open, let's get you home."
Twenty's eyes go wide as Kiyomi pushes her through the slowly opening door, "whoa… it's beautiful."
"Yes. It really is." Kiyomi smiles, crawling out after her, "now we need to get you out of the cold before you start losing toes. Camp's this way; Ebony, carry her."
Ebony grunts in response, picking the calico up and unceremoniously flopping her over her shoulder.
Kiyomi smirks behind her mask before speaking into her radio. "Fox to Camp; data extraction was a success, however we have an additional payload that will require medical attention and a set of winter clothes. ETA fifteen minutes."