Prologue

2018

"No peace in segregation!"

"Acknowledgement for the Grey Fang!"

"Keep the humans and faunus unified!"

Among the many voices yelling is a young woman with long, wavy black hair and fiery golden eyes. Swept in the anger of crowd, a rush of passion drives her to reach up above her head. Plucking the end of the bow expertly within the pretty bow she'd made earlier that day, her arm swings dramatically as she pulls it loose. Undone, the ribbons takes to the skies, blown away by a gentle gale through the square.

Flags of a forward-facing grey lion roaring on a plain of blue billow with fervor. It was as if nature itself was adding its voice to the message of the Grey Fang, a united homo- and fauno-sapien organization not unlike a political party. They were many in the square, hundreds of faunus and humans cramping together before the local council house. Their petition was for the abolishment of the SJP, for the continued coexistence of the faunus and the humans.

They hold signs together, speak together. Their voices blend into one and bleed into the wind, carrying their words out as far as the gales of their rage would fly.

"No apartheid!"

"Freedom for both!"

She is Blake Belladonna, an orphan of human and faunus lineage – a dauntless, bold half-breed with all the passion and optimism the world would allow in a person. It was accurate to say her entire life was the Grey Fang. Her lineage, her beliefs, her past, all step in line to follow the mantras of the Grey Fang. So ingrained was her hope that she couldn't understand for a moment why tension crackles through the air. She ignores the feeling as it sends shivers down her spine, proudly and challengingly revealing her forward-facing cat ears.

"I am faunus and human!" she cries out to the silent council house, glaring ferociously at its high-reaching gothic walls, at its gargoyles, at the stark white of its pillars and towers. "Love for both! Live as one!"

Such zeal! Such power (she praises herself) that she manages to add to her voice – which cracks beneath the weight of her fiery outrage. At her side, a sunny blonde with a long-sweeping always-twitching monkey tail glances at her with a grin on his face, the light in his dark-grey eyes driving her to continue yelling madly.

"That's it!" he exclaims, impassionate.

How odd! she thinks, finding herself beaming back at him. The newbie is praising me!

She continues on. The crowd is pressing forth; Blake is pressing forth.

Her cat-like ears twitch and flatten slightly as something in her screams a warning. She hears a rumbling in the distance, offhandedly wondering at the thunder in the distance. Would it rain?

Chancing a glance to the sky, she frowns with confusion. Her heart races powerfully, smacking violently against her sternum as her golden eyes search for clouds in a sea of endless blue. The sun shines just lower than its peak and Blake's logical brain rejoices. What a beautiful day! A beautiful day for a beautiful purpose, and it would be today that they would finally change the world! However, not all of Blake shares this exalted rapture. Indeed, it seems that a primal and primeval voice is ushering her to go. Nausea bubbles like boiling water in her belly, threatening to come up her esophagus.

I'll get some water, she decides, and falls in behind the crowd. Her eyes pick out a cooler just a little ways down the street. Had she forgotten to eat earlier? It wasn't unlike her to get so taken away by her passions that taking care of herself would be entirely put from her mind. Splitting away from the crowd, she notices with idle curiosity that there was a vibration in the air. The thunder in the distance grew louder and louder. Claiming a pre-filled cup for herself, she downs it as she throws a look towards the council house.

A v-shaped flock of planes hurtle towards them, swiftly becoming larger and larger. Tiny specks drop from them as they fly overhead.

Blake's golden eyes go wide, but she has no time to yell out.

In the next instant, the city square erupts in garish hellfire. An explosion rocks through the city, protests turning to screams as the concussive blast sets fire to the council house and all of those surrounding.