Prologue - From Ashes
The flames rose higher into the night sky, the smoke thickening. Screams rent the air as people scrambled and fled. The Grimm tore through the village with single minded purpose, killing everyone in sight and leveling the structures. A man stood on the outskirts, a safe distance away, watching impassively. He was about average in height, with short cropped black hair, dark brown eyes and largely unremarkable features. Though he was human, he dressed in the uniform of the White Fang sans the mask. A pair of young hunters fought desperately to stabilize the situation in the town. As he watched, it became apparent that they would succeed, but the cost would be unbearably large. Corpses littered the streets and rivers of blood ran from the devastated hamlet. A Faunus wearing the armor of the White Fang approached him tentatively from behind.
"Sir, shall we leave?" She asked softly.
"...In a moment. These hunters look to actually be making it through. I'd rather not have any survivors."
He raised a hand, eyes closed. Dust swirled from the canisters at his belt, and a half dozen glyphs formed around him. The dust evaporated and crackled as he drew on its strength, the glyphs spinning violently. Dark sand began to swirl within them, developing into recognizable shapes. A few minutes later, six massive Ursa rose as the glyphs faded away. To the trained eye, they resembled Grimm with years and years of experience, survival and hunting. With a faint gesture from their summoner, the Grimm raced towards the exhausted hunters who had relief painted on their faces as their foes seemed to have been eliminated. That expression rapidly changed to hopelessness as the Ursa closed on them.
The man turned to leave. There was little doubt in his mind how this was about to end. The White Fang soldier at his side followed. After a moment's hesitation, she spoke again.
"Fourth village this month, sir. If they weren't alarmed before, they definitely are now."
He sighed. "Fair enough, I guess. We couldn't be unnoticed indefinitely. For what it's worth, they don't know who we are. Yet."
"Ozpin and the others have spoken with the Vale council. They're recalling and contracting various hunters and huntresses. Putting together task forces and teams to investigate and contain this sudden rash of Grimm activity."
"Well, this will make our job harder. We need to hasten our jailbreaks. I need my allies back. Bah, I needed them back years ago, but we've been making do. We need to push now."
"If you think we're ready. We do that, and the full might of our enemies will come crashing into us."
His eyes narrowed, filling with anger. "We will not be defeated. Not again. We're holding all the cards, but it's time to show our hand, and get this game started."
"We were holding all the cards last time too."
"You needn't remind me. But moving on, these task forces. Anything of particular note?"
She took a deep breath. "Yes. Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie, Lie Ren. Reconstituted as a team."
"Lovely news," he grimaced.
"...There's more. Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long. Reconstituted for this."
"Fuck. Ozpin suspects, he has to. You just don't drag some of the world's best hunters and huntresses to the same one place just for a moderate increase in Grimm activity."
"More than moderate…"
He waved his hand. "You know what I mean. One of those two sets would have been enough, but this… this is worrying. They were already such a big thorn last time."
"And that was eight and a half years ago. If they were a problem then, they're going to be lethal now."
He shook his head. "We all knew it was going to come to this eventually. This time, this time will be different. Everything is better laid and I shall hide in the shadows no longer. No, we all fight this time, and we do not stop. We just have to fight smarter. And that, that I can do."
"If you say so sir," she said as she pulled out an electronic device and a bunch of files appeared around her as she walked, reading through them.
"This prison break is going to make world news. They're in separate locations too, a lot of them."
He nodded. "Yes, but we need to do them all simultaneously. If we don't, all the ones we don't do first will become unreachable."
He scanned through the files with her carefully as they boarded an airship. "Mercury Black and Emerald Sustrai, Vale maximum security prison. Not that far from Beacon, as it were. Roman Torchwick, Vale maximum security prison, but a different one. Adam Taurus, Atlas military facility. And, of course, Cinder Fall, held at Atlas' most significant military stronghold."
He bowed his head. "I want her back, I want them all back. And we will get them. Begin the preparations. I think it's time to declare war."
Cinder huddled in the corner of her cell, silent as always. She had barely spoken in years, since their plans had been shattered. It all fell apart so suddenly that her partner hadn't even had a chance to help or do anything to contribute. The only benefit, if there was one, was that he was not known. He had slipped under the radar and so, everything was not yet lost. She had gladly taken the fall as the sole mastermind, waiting and praying for her salvation to come. As the years slipped by, she would have been lying if she had said her hope had not begun to wane. Maybe he had given up, broken by the sheer magnitude of their defeat. He had been left with nothing, that she knew. But, they had started with nothing too.
She heard the guards whisper and talk, enough to catch wind of major world events at least. Their conversation had shifted, increasingly in the last few months, to the spike in Grimm activity in the outlying regions of Vale. Villages and hamlets destroyed, strong and capable hunters and huntresses dead. And in that moment, she smiled, because she knew. She whispered to herself softly as she fell asleep, her new nightly reassurance.
"Charon is coming. This isn't over, it's going to start all over again."
Hey, I hope you all enjoy this story! I have it fairly well charted out, and expect it'll be lengthy. But I'd like to stick to as tight an update schedule as life will allow. At least one chapter a week is the goal. If you have to wait longer, then hopefully you'll get a longer section or a particularly important one. It should be a nice ride, and I hope you all have as much fun with it as I do writing it! Enough babbling for me, I'm just going to get on with posting and writing the rest of this :)