The Shadow Consumed By Darkness

Pt: I

Do you know what it is like,

to lie in bed awake;

with thoughts to haunt

you every night,

of all your past mistakes.

Knowing sleep will set it right—

if you were not to wake.

-"A way out" Lang Leav

It was a dark morning in the small, dusty town of Breill; being so close to the Grimm Aggression Zone around Vale meant that people avoided the place. The creatures of Grimm only chased people for so long until they turned back and filed back into the city; creating an invisible wall that was formed when Vale and Beacon were overrun. The people here took in anyone they could, but when the Grimm began to come out of the forest to the north, many people fled. The town was reclaimed by a pocket of people, just enough to keep the Grimm away, but anyone who ventured too far into the forest typically never showed up again.

A kind of peace settled on the small town, barely getting any visitors; just a few Huntsmen and Huntresses here and there, whenever they wanted to do their actual job and not just be soldiers for their respective armies. In the small town, the local tavern had a few people all quietly talking or playing cards with brunch. Wisps of smoke were crawling to the ceiling from lit cigarettes. The soft clinks of glasses broke the steady sound of a broken speaker as it played the hits from nearly a decade ago. It was a usual morning for the small community until she walked in.

A young woman with a long white coat walked in. Her raven hair was topped with a black bow as the patrons watched her amber eyes quickly scan the room. As she made her way to the bar, the black ribbon of her weapon swayed as she walked. All conversations stopped as everyone turned to watch her as she walked in her thigh-high boots and leaned against the bar, palms pressing against the bar top as she eyed down the bartender. Walking up to her spot, a young man stood behind the counter with a raised eyebrow.

"What can I get you?' he asked politely. Two small black bumps poked out of the short brown hair atop of his head, marking him as a faunus of some sort. He had a long face and mostly clean clothing as he waited for the woman to say her order.

"Whisky," she answered.

The man simply raised his eyebrows and leaned in slightly, "It's not even lunch yet..."

"And a cheese sandwich," she deadpanned.

He nodded and reached behind the counter and grabbed a smaller glass and poured a small amount of dark liquid into it. She simply grabbed the glass and downed it in one go before slamming it down. She eyed him and he quickly poured another for her.

"Anything else?" he asked as he raised his eyebrow, pouring a third after she downed it again.

She eyed him and held the glass in her hand, staring into the alcohol. She thought about it for a few moments before speaking. "Any and all information on the White Fang hideout located in this town would be good..."

She stared into the man's eyes. His jaw clenched nervously as his apple bobbed in this throat a few times, his complexion paled and began to sweat as she sipped the glass. Everything grew silent around her, the song had changed and now the previous curious glances towards her had become threatening stares.

"Oh," she had an afterthought, "and any information on the whereabouts of Adam Taurus as well." She heard chairs sliding across the wooden floor. People were getting up and starting to walk towards her, improvised weapons in hands. A shattering of a beer bottle on a table made a sharp edge for cutting. She heard the sound of wood splintering as a few of them turned a broken chair into makeshift batons. She quickly counted seven individuals closing in around her, more probably in the back and upstairs. Her eyes landed on the young man in front of her as he leaned forward slightly, doing his best to look intimidating, but the drop of sweat from his forehead gave away how afraid he was of her.

For good reason.

"Listen, we know who you are, Blake," he said slowly, a slight shake in his voice, "Adam has given us very clear instructions not to kill you...But you're making it much harder to do that the more safe houses you destroy..." His hands began to slide off the bar and down under the counter. "After last week, we're up to six places you've fucked up now..." he said; her ears picked up the sound of metal being shifted at his hands, probably a shotgun. A small smile slipped to her lips as she brought the glass up to her mouth and stared at him.

"You're wrong," she said as she took another sip. His eyes widened slightly as the people closed in around her. "It's seven now."

With a jerk of her left hand, the whisky spilt out of her glass and into the man's face; causing him to cry out as it got in his eyes and to fall to the ground behind the bar. Swinging her arm around, she smashed the glass into the head of the man to her right, knocking him to the ground. Ducking under a baton, she brought her right hand up gripping Gambol Shroud and brought it off her back, cleaving an arm off. She left an older man screaming in pain as blood spattered across the room and he spiralled to the ground. Seeing the fangs in his mouth, Blake figured he was some kind of dog or wolf faunus.

She brought her leg up and kicked the broken bottle out of the hand of the next attacker. She slashed across his chest, spilling more blood as the brawl continued. Separating her weapon, she pulled the katana out with her right and slid the cleaver into her left, blocking and countering the pitiful attacks from the rest. Broken chair legs were ducked under before she landed a thrust through someone's chest. A switchblade was redirected into another's thigh before a slash across his throat brought the total down to two still standing. With ease, her weapon collapsed in on itself and she threw it so the ribbon wrapped around the face of one of them and buried itself into the other's back. She pulled the trigger with a jerk of her arm, opening his chest cavity; bringing his insides out with the momentum of the gunshot while the tension exerted on the ribbon snapped the other's neck.

Bringing Gambol Shroud back to her hand, she aimed at the stairs just in time for three people to come storming down only to be cut down by gunfire. The last one down fell with blood blossoming from his chest; falling down the stairs, tripping the other two. A single headshot killed the second, and a sick crunch sounded as the last of them fell upon his neck when reaching the ground floor. Blake didn't waste the bullet, since he didn't move after his fall.

Her attention was stolen by a shell being jammed into place and the bartender jumping up to fill her full of lead. The shot never left the gun; as her weapon wrapped around his neck and Blake yanked hard, sending the bartender over the bar and through a table. Walking up to him, she forced him to his knees after kicking the basic weapon out of his reach. Shoving the muzzle of her pistol into his mouth, she gritted her teeth as she whispered dangerously to him, "Where are they?"

The young man began to cry; tears ran down his cheeks and snot coated his upper lip. Shaking, he flinched when she asked again. Roughly grabbing him and glaring into his eyes, she asked a third time before he capitulated.

He nodded and pointed to a room next to the bar. Blake looked over at it and took a deep breath; with a jerk of her hand, the blade of her weapon sprung out and separated the man's head from his jaw, letting his body fall limply to the ground. Cleaning her blade on the man's shirt, she also wiped the blood off her white jacket (It came off with ease thanks to the Dust lining in the fabric). Walking to the door, she opened it and saw an opening that led into a cellar. Walking down a short stairway, Blake Belladonna found herself in a tunnelled out cave system that ran under the whole town and was lit by Dust lamps.

Silently walking down the stone tunnel, she managed to find a storage room filled with munitions designed for the White Fang Extremists. Walking inside and closing the door, she began to open crates and load up as many bullets she could carry while still being light on her feet. Sitting on a crate, she took a few empty clips from her pockets and loaded up on Dust-Infused bullets; nothing like what Weiss had given to her before the Fall, but they would do.

Pausing for a few moments to reflect upon the ice queen brought forth memories of her friends, her first real friends. Of Ruby Rose, the young girl whose innocence of the world made her adorable as she tried to fill the shoes of a leader while still being a child. The same girl who would scarf down cookies at an impossible rate and be so full of energy that Blake would simply sigh and roll her eyes; but she never failed to bring a smile to the cat-girl's lips. How she did her best to help everyone around her; always finding the best in anyone and doing nothing but everything she could to protect those around her.

Of Weiss Schnee; Blake had to admit the first time she met Weiss, she had nothing but anger towards the heiress. As that year progressed, she learned to like the girl, even if she was high strung and a total bitch at sometimes. The few times she would let people through the wall of ice she had around her heart, Blake saw a child who needed someone to love and to hold her. Of Yang-

Blake's hand flinched and a few bullets dropped to the ground, tears lining her eyes suddenly and threatening to spill out. Balling her hand into a fist, she felt her nails digging into her palm as she let out a quiet sob. She leaned against the crate and took deep breaths as the night of the Fall crossed her mind, the sight of Yang flying through the air. The look of pure hatred for Adam in her eyes, even in the burning flames of the building and the smoke that filled her vision, Yang Xiao Long was radiant.

Then Adam stole her arm from her. His promise at the time fresh in her mind, words that were repeated in her brain every day and night for the last four years; as she hunted Adam Taurus from one White Fang hideout to the next, destroying and killing anyone and anything in her way to the man. He promised to take away everything she loved, starting with Yang.

She made a promise to tear down everything he ever built with her bare hands, and this was the seventh White Fang safe house in four years she would burn. Clearing her mind, she wiped her eyes and began to reload the clips with renewed motivation, mumbling to herself as she did so. "No more tears," she mumbled out, "No more tears until he's dead. Adam dies, and you can go back to her, you can go back to Yang and apologize. Then you can cry, cry in her arms." She then paused for a moment and sighed, correcting herself. "Arm..."

Finishing up, she loaded a clip into her weapon, tossed the spares inside the pockets in her jacket, and slipped out the room to begin silently making her way further inside the tunnel complex. After a few minutes of walking, she was beginning to wonder how deep these tunnels went when she heard someone's voice calling out; once he was done speaking, a cheer would echo and the man would resume speaking.

Making her way closer, she came out into a large opening where there was a group of maybe thirty White Fang members wearing white and black garb with Grimm masks covering their faces. In front of them on a stage was a man with red hair and bullhorns running along the sides. He wore a black coat and a sword that he held at his side. Adam had just finished saying something and everyone was in mid-cheer; when they were finished, he continued his speech.

"And with the rest of our brothers and sisters relocating to Mistral, we will bring the last human city before Atlas to its knees!" Another cheer came from the people. "Vale was the first step in our crusade to show the humans that it is them that should fear us! Not the other way around!" He was pacing back and forth on the stage while everyone cheered again.

"After Vale fell, Mistral attacked Atlas; causing them to invade and wipe out Vacuo for us! It was during the Vacuoan Fall that I realized that what we're doing is actually helping them! We're saving them from their self-destructive nature! The humans need to be protected from each other or else the entire world will suffer!" He spread his arms out and allowed the cheers to wash over him.

"Now! Let's get everything ready to move to Mistral; for our new world order, Mistral must Fall!" One last cheer erupted, louder than ever. Adam was examining the crowd until his masked face looked up and he saw her. She was so busy listening to his rant and lost in her own mind she did not see him look straight at her until his voice echoed through the cavern, "Blake?"

Suddenly, all eyes were on her. Quickly snapping out of it, she aimed quickly and fired off a shot at him. One of the grunts jumped in front of the shot while others either grabbed their weapons or ran further down the tunnels. Blake fired off more shots before running towards who was left. Slashing with her weapon, she cut one of them open while blocking with the cleaver as a blade came down towards her. With both her arms occupied, Adam came in for a slash downwards and cutting into one of her shadows. He quickly looked over and saw Blake open the throats of three grunts with a single slash. The two of them stared at each other for a few moments before he gestured to those who remained. "Go get the ships ready, I'll take care of her."

Following his orders, the room was cleared of people, save for Blake, Adam and five dead and dying White Fang members that had little effect on either of them. They walked around in a large circle, giving each other a wide berth while never looking away. Amber locked with the pale white and red of the Grimm mask he wore; a face so familiar to Blake, she couldn't even remember what colour his eyes were.

Blake was the first to charge in, dark steel clashed against the red edge of Wilt as they danced around the room. Sparks flew off their blades as they continued to fight, the black cleaver came down was blocked by Blush as Adam counted with a thrust and Blake twisted past it to score a hit against his arm. His Aura stopped any slashing damage from taking place; but he still staggered backwards, Blake never letting up as Adam combined his weapons together and began to defend against a torrent of angry strikes against him. Blake spun as she advanced, katana strike followed by a cleaver slash to be chased by another katana strike; with each attack Adam's blade and clothing began to glow brighter and brighter. Blake raised her foot and kicked him hard in the stomach, sending him sliding across the ground, his hand gripping the hilt of his weapon and drew his body back and twisted slightly, ready for Blake's next assault.

And she was ready for him.

Charging forward, Adam's blade shot out of his sheath and dashed forward to meet Blake halfway, his blade arching through the raven-haired women as his world turned red and black. A shocked expression on Blake's face was the last thing he saw before a foot came out and connected to his face, causing the colour to return to his world and stumbling back. Looking around, he saw one of Blake's shadows fade away in smoke as the woman continued her attack. Taking deep breaths, he blocked the best he could and ended up with another foot to his stomach, causing him to double over and begin to cough. Blake began to walk towards him, her face contorted in hate and anger as she kicked his weapon out of the way before he could reach it.

"Is this what you've become, Adam?" she spat at him as she looked around the room, "Your hatred turned a force of peaceful revolution into nothing more than terrorism!" She could hardly contain her anger as he slowly got to his feet. His semblance attack would have drained most of his aura, it wouldn't take much to finish him off; but she needed answers. "Why?" she screamed at him, her fists shaking as she clenched her weapons in her hands.

"Justice," he simply replied.

"Justice? You call this justice!?" she screamed as she gestured wildly, "The world is tearing itself apart and all you care about is justice? The White Fang were supposed to be a symbol of peace! and you've stained it with the blood you spilled! Your perverted sense of justice has caused all of this! How many people have died since you've taken over Adam? All we wanted was to be equals!"

"What you wanted was impossible," Adam yelled back at her, his one hand holding his stomach, "I made this world for you! All I ever wanted was you; for you to be happy in a world where we could be safe!"

"And killing all the humans would accomplish this?"

"My only regret is that I didn't do enough to keep you by my side as we changed this world for the better, hand in hand." Adam's voice lowered slightly. Blake shook her head slowly as she raised her weapon up and her blade collapsed in on itself and aimed the pistol at his head.

"My only regret," she began, "was that I loved you once." She took careful aim at his head and pulled the trigger.

Just as she fired, a White Fang Grunt charged at Blake, knocking her to the ground as the shot went wide and hit the wall behind him. Adam quickly collected his blade and went to finish the job when the grunt quickly got up, grabbed Adam and pulled him down the tunnel, saying that they had to leave since the place was going to explode. Getting to her feet, Blake could feel blood seeping from a gash on her head that her Aura was already sealing. She did her best to aim at Adam through her haze and only managed to hit the grunt that saved him as he disappeared down the tunnel. She let out a strained yell and took a few deep breaths as her vision focused and become clearer.

Breaking into a short jog, she was about to follow Adam when a dark red portal appeared at the tunnel's opening and someone new walked out. A figure stepped out wearing a full face Grimm mask with black feathers lining the side of her black hair. She wore a black, low-cut dress with red accents and pieces of armour on her arms and legs. Another row of black feathers ran down a chain on her hip. In her hand, a large circular sheath with several lines of colour could be seen.

Blake stopped and stared at the woman. Judging by her mask, she was someone high up in the White Fang. Blake grit her teeth as she drew her weapons up and got ready for another fight. Her Aura was low, but she was not losing Adam when she was this close to ending it. The woman simply raised her hand and gestured her to stop. "Wait! I don't want to fight you!" she said behind her mask. Blake simply charged towards her. The woman's sheath began to spin and then she quickly drew a red blade and blocked the attack, knocking Blake to the side. Her blade extended and she pointed the tip at Blake. "Stop! You need to help your friends!"

Blake ignored her as she continued to slash and charge towards the woman, who simply stayed on defence and waited for her to tire out and kicked her away. Using her shadow to move through a block, she connected a slash across her stomach and the woman growled, "I don't have time for this!" Blake ran forward one more time, only for her to slash the air and open up another black and red portal. There was no way of avoiding it, so Blake jumped through it to slash at the woman.

Only to find herself in broad daylight.

Quickly looking around, she saw that she was on some rooftop and the woman was nowhere to be seen. The sound of gunfire echoed through her faunus ears as she tasted sand and blood on the winds. It just past dawn when just a few minutes ago it was early afternoon; the lush forest was now desert; and the town was switched with a hollowed out city, mirroring Mountain Glenn. This made no sense; how could she be in one place one second, and on the other side of the continent the next. Hearing an explosion, she quickly ran to the edge of the roof and looked down at the people running around the sandy streets of the dead city.

They were wearing the red and black uniforms of the Valenese Reclamation Army. While a division of men was running into cover, Blake spotted a familiar presence casually walking down the street. Her bright orange hair and pink skirt was only half as familiar as the weapon she carried. A large grenade launcher in her hands fired a round through a building, causing a squad of Atlesian soldiers to be consumed by a pink explosion. Nora opened her weapon and began to load up more pink grenade shells without breaking stride. Her usual smile was gone, replaced by a dark, angry look that broke Blake's heart to see. Her attention was drawn by the sound of an all too familiar rifle shot. Quickly running across the roof to the other edge, she witnessed Ruby Rose fighting with Weiss Schnee.

The woman's words quickly made sense. "You need to help your friends." Blake watched as Weiss summoned a massive suit of armour from a glyph which then batted Ruby away with ease. Stowing Gamble Shroud onto her back, she quickly jumped off the side of the building and began to run down the side to try and get to them before either one does something that couldn't be fixed. Hitting the ground hard, she sprinted off towards the duel as it began to hit its climax. Coming up on Ruby's blind side, she grabbed Weiss just as Crescent Rose nearly rent through the two of them. Leaving a shadow to take the hit, she pulled Weiss to safety and looked at the two of them. "Pull your forces back, Nora's on her way now..." she told Weiss.

The white-haired woman simply nodded and radioed in a retreat order. Blake looked over at Ruby and saw how much older she had become over the last three years. She was shocked to see the dark circles under her eyes and the small scars on her hands and exposed legs. She was about to say something when the building behind Ruby exploded with Nora's grenade fire. Bits of concrete were flying through the air and she watched as Ruby got knocked to the ground from being hit in the head; Blake released Weiss and dove for cover. When she looked around, she saw Weiss running away towards her side, and Ruby was beginning to get up.

Figuring out her options, Blake ran into a building nearby when Ruby began to look around, she heard her plea to the air as she began to retreat to her side. With a sigh, Blake dashed into the shadows and waited for nightfall.

A red and black portal opened up in the middle of a forest, a woman walked out and sighed heavily as it dissipated behind her. She took a few steps when she heard the squawk of a crow above her. Seeing the bird in question, she reached out an arm and it flew onto her hand. Gently stroking its chest, she spoke quietly to it, "It's done, all we can do now is wait and hope they can pull it together."

The bird flew off behind a tree and a man came out from behind it. "Let's hope so, Raven..."

Qrow, her twin brother, pulled out his flask and took a seat on a log. Raven pulled her mask off and ruffled her hair slightly. "What about the boy?" she asked as she set her mask on a rock and looked at her with red eyes. The shake of his head said it all as he took a long sip from his flask.

"He's started praying to Pyrrha," he said as he pushed some more of his quickly greying hair out of his eyes, "I'm pretty sure that there's going to be a new religion in this world if we completely fuck up our mission." He took another sigh; he looked so tired of it all.

"Then we'd better not fail." Raven and Qrow looked over and watched as a man walked out towards them. He had a black jacket with a green turtleneck tightly hugging his skin. He was leaning heavily on a cane, holding a tin cup with steam coming off the top of it held in his other hand. His grey hair was a bit longer than the last time she saw him and looked even more tired than her twin brother.

"Can they actually do it, Ozpin?" Raven asked. "Those kids have been through hell in this war; and all our plans now rely on them."

"It can only be them, Mr. Arc was the last hope of putting what is left of JNPR back together; and with him no longer viable, we must trust in Ms. Rose."

"She's almost as bad as he is," Qrow said as he stood up and walked towards the man in green. "You know what they call her? the Red Death! She's not even twenty and she's cleaving her way through the battlefield like a goddamn myth..."

"It has to be her," Ozpin stated as he sighed deeply, "She's the only one who's fast enough to do what needs to be done. Besides, that's why we are getting the rest of RWBY; so that they can pull her back, and together they can save this world."

"Speaking of the team," Qrow started as he took another swig from his flask, "What about Yang?"

"I've sent our 'Acquired Assets' to help her get on her feet," Ozpin said as he sipped his drink from the tin cup slowly.

"Hopefully they get there fast," Qrow said as he looked around, "Last I checked, Cinder was sending people out to track down RWBY and kill them. I was about to check up on her after we're done here." Qrow stood up and looked at Ozpin. "Do you trust them?" he asked.

"We're going to have to," Ozpin said as he looked over at the after dawn light and took another sip, "I have to."