Struggle and Strife

Chapter 8, A New Type of Hope

I do not own anything pertaining to the RWBY universe, or Final Fantasy. No stocks, no stakes in RT or SE, nothing. Don't even own any merchandise.

[SaS]

Sienna Khan was, without a doubt, one of the most ambitious and intelligent members amongst the current White Fang. This was true in both physical and mental capacities, as her combat skills lay only second to her General, Adam Taurus, and her prowess in terms of strategy were second to none. Long having a knack for thinking in not only the short term, but the long term as well, she planned all of her battles and political maneuvers according to how the benefits and downfalls of her actions weighed in both the now, and the later.

Try as she might, however, she couldn't quite predict how a confrontation with the being below might proceed. He was both unaccounted for and unaccountable all wrapped in one. Hidden completely until this moment and unanswerable to any but the man whom held his contract.

Sienna couldn't quite comprehend the scene that had just played out before her as well as she would have liked to, her mind drawing a complete blank as she watched the massive dragon the man hired by Ghira had summoned start to evaporate into a green mist. The harsh breathing of Adam Taurus and Blake Belladonna faintly registered in her four ears, her own breath coming out in small pants as the air around them was thin and suffocating with heat and smoke from the bountiful destruction and plentiful falling lightning around her.

She could feel her heart beating in her throat, slamming heavily against her esophagus similar to the rhythm of a war drum and forcing her to swallow thickly as saliva pooled near the back of her tongue. Sienna felt as if her world had been tilted on its axis, and that everything she thought she knew about strength fell away in the sudden shift.

From what she had just bore witness to, she didn't know the first thing about strength or power as she had led herself to believe. It was humbling to know that a single person held within him the capabilities of potentially razing all of Kuo Kuana to the ground, should he have felt the need to summon that monstrosity of a beast that belted ruin within her home village and not use it to slay the Grimm threat at their back door.

How did one reconcile with the fact that their life was as close to being snuffed as their mortal enemies in the face of the heavily armored dragon? That another twitch of its head in their direction would have been their ultimate doom?

The High Leader attempted to replay the scene in her head, yet it made less sense the longer she thought about it. Was that the man's Semblance in action? Was that dragon he summoned simply an Aura projection created by the power within him?

If that was the case, then the beam of blue ruin that the dragon belted was created completely under the power of the blond himself, and that was more terrifying than anything else she had just seen. If he could fire off attacks like that on his own, without the help for his dragon, then just what kind of monster was he? There was no way something like what she was witnessing was normal, as it was anything but. No Human or Faunus she knew of could boast legends of slaying upwards of two hundred Grimm by themselves while taking almost negligible damage to oneself in just hours.

Even the Specialists of the Atlesian Military were incapable of the feats the man hired by Ghira seemed to be displaying, even without his penultimate summoning ability.

Sienna could have likened the ability to the Glyph Semblance that all Schnee seemed to have, but the symbols and structure of the blonds summoning were so unlike what she had studied going over illegal footage of Winter Schnee training within one of the Atlesian Bases dotting the coasts of Atlas that they were almost incomparable.

The Schnee were refined, snowy and had a propensity towards being slim and short in stature. Nothing about what she'd expect from a Schnee, even a bastard, displayed itself in the Grimm-slaying nightmare down below. That, and there was just no way a Schnee would ever raise a hand to help a Faunus, let alone the very home of the species, even for all the Lien and Dust in the world. It was just an impossibility, and she knew as such.

It was also the knowledge that Ghira wouldn't have hired a Human tourist, even with immense strength at his beck and call. While the man wasn't a Speciest quite like Sienna was, he was pragmatic enough to keep anything and everything happening within Kuo Kuana as obscured to the Human world as possible.

Even under the threat of death he wouldn't have included Human's, as that would threaten his very position as High Chieftain amongst his more vocal advocates and potentially throw everything he had ever worked on into flux.

The blond presented a mystery to Sienna, one that she was keen to unraveling as soon as Faunusly possible. Should he prove willing, she would gladly use her position to hone him into a weapon for the White Fang. Should he prove himself a potential enemy...

How would she go about killing a man who could summon a dragon in retaliation should she fail?

Making an enemy of the man seemed to be foolish at best, down right suicidal at worst. That left her with only one real choice if she were honest with herself, and that was to ally herself with him in some form or fashion.

Adam's Lieutenant was the first to break the silence between the three White Fang members watching the slaughter below, her voice thick with a multitude of emotions. "What... what did I just witness? Was that... real?"

It was a bit difficult to make out her voice completely, Sienna being made aware of the ringing in her head and four ears almost instantly. It wasn't quite enough to bring on a migraine, but it would be an annoyance for some time.

"It was." Her partner confirmed, his voice as equally disbelieving as his partners, "That actually just happened."

A flash of green caught the High Leader's eyes, causing her to turn her gaze towards the blond swordsman casually cleaving through the remaining Levi-creeps that weren't vaporized by his still-fading dragons attack.

The crackle of lightning once more echoed across the ruined metropolis, though it was far closer to the three than the other bolts had been. Jerking slightly in surprise from the proximity of the crash of electricity, Sienna and her two underlings swept their gazes upward, where a large, almost solid white Nevermore descended from the sky rapidly with its plumage ablaze.

Three arrow-like feathers impacted the buildings around them, indicating that the Grimm had been perhaps targeting them from the heavens before it was struck down by lightning. The massive Nevermore crashed heavily into the ruined city below, not even a block from their position. The resulting crash toppled quite a few buildings from the heavy impact and a good remaining chunk of the Levi-creeps were crushed under rubble and decaying Grimm carcass.

This broke the three out of the heavy trance-like state they had fallen into, snapping them back to reality rather harshly.

"Lieutenant Belladonna, we rally near the mercenary, General Taurus, signal the fall back." Sienna eventually spoke, watching as the bone-white feathers previously aimed at them dug deep into the heavy stone the buildings around them were crafted from, "I want our wounded being sought to and our men given hot meals, get to it. I doubt the Levi-creeps will be a problem after tonight."

Adam looked like he wanted to argue with the woman but seemed to think better of it, instead snapping a tight salute in the High Leader's direction before moving to carry out her orders, his movement stiff and rather awkward as he tried to leave without turning his back to the black-clad mercenary who almost blended into the heavily dwindling crowd of Grimm. The scent of fear in the air was unmistakable, though he seemed to give off far more of the foul smelling pheromones than either she or the Lieutenant were.

Sienna couldn't help but find it rather strange, as Adam was hardly prone to showing such cowardice before.

The dark skinned tiger Faunus wouldn't admit it, but she was rather scared of the blond below as well, and for good reason. Her preferred weapon, a long chain-whip with three detachable dagger-tips enhanced with Dust shards, would likely be useless against said mercenary should he happen to become belligerent, as unlikely as that were to come to pass.

Not only was there a great size difference between herself and the tall man, with the blond hired by Ghira appearing to be around six and a half feet tall, but his weapon was equally as large as he was as well.

The monstrous blade that seemed to be an amalgamation of a multitude of smaller blades could quite easily slice through her chain if the trenches left in the heavy stone were any indications of its cutting power.

She knew she couldn't leave gouges over a foot deep and inches across in stone with her little dagger whip, that was beyond certain. Perhaps weakly crafted walls of steel, as she had demonstrated in the past, but her fighting style was aimed far more towards agility and dexterity rather than brute force and Aura usage.

Sienna still hadn't discovered her Semblance, and it had been close to twenty or so years since the powerful source of energy had been released from the depths of her Soul. This forced her to rely on her skills with the whip, Dust and intimidation tactics alone in combat, with her Aura simply there as a force field or way to heal from whatever wounds she received.

Her meager Aura reserves and weapon wouldn't last a second against the behemoth below, let alone if he happened to just summon his dragon again. It would be suicide to even consider trying intimidation tactics to get such a person beneath her heel, so she was stuck with negotiations being the only possible option when it came to interacting with Ghira's recent hire-on.

While her position as High Leader within the White Fang brought her many privileges that most Faunus did not have intrinsically, such as wealth and prestige in the form of notoriety, Sienna felt there was little she could offer the swordsman currently providing a permanent solution to Menagerie's Grimm problem.

"Blake, is there... anything you can tell me about this man before we go down there?" As much as Sienna desired to remain the strong figure of authority that her position demanded of her, she couldn't stop the conflicting heat gnawing at her stomach as the man continued his deadly display below, "You mentioned his name, James Bark or...?"

"Jaune Arc, Ma'am. He claims to work for a company known as 'Strife Delivery Service', his position being a courier within said company." Blake listed what she knew about the blond with a small hitch in her breathing growing stronger, likely due to fear or the thinning air around them, "I made the mistake of questioning his ability to fight, causing him to display irritation. Otherwise, he is difficult to get a read on, practically a blank slate with how in control of himself he is."

"A courier?" Sienna was unsure of what to make of his job description, giving Blake a look that made her thoughts on the subject clear, "How do you know this blond fellow again?"

"He arrived at my home today some time before I did, bringing my mother a large package of books I believe. I wasn't there long enough tonight to speak with her on the subject much." The slightly taller female walked towards the edge of the building she and Sienna were currently standing on, the ground level only being approximately two floors down from their height, to get a better look below.

"Yes, your father was rather... pleased with the news, I was in the middle of a voice call when Kali mentioned they had a guest for dinner." Sienna followed Blake and scoffed lightly upon seeing close to twenty of the Levi-creeps still mulling about and thrashing one another to try and get at the mercenary a few blocks away, "I don't imagine being much of a help against those numbers."

The admission seemed to almost visibly wound her, as Blake tried to assure her that she doubted she would either, given the circumstances. "Gambol Shroud barely makes a dent in their armor, I'm next to useless against the Levi-creeps without a way to get past their scales."

"Either way, I would like to personally... thank, this Jaune fellow and see about offering him a more permanent place here in Kuo Kuana. Do you think he might be agreeable to joining the White Fang?" Sienna glanced downward at her apparel, brushing the back of her right hand over her slightly bloodied and torn shirt from where she had taken a wound for Adam only a day prior.

"I... don't know, Ma'am." Blake admitted after a few moments of consideration, her brows furrowing in thought over what she did know about him, "He seems to get along with my mother well enough and he has obviously aided us in our battle against the Grimm, so he isn't against the White Fang?"

It was impossible for the man to not know whom he was aiding, so the chances of him actively disliking the White Fang were slim in Sienna's opinion, but she felt like it would be best to get perhaps a more educated opinion on the subject of her current inner turmoil.

Even as she said it, the Lieutenant of Adam Taurus looked conflicted on her answer, almost posing it as a question instead. The information that he got along with Kali Belladonna, however, was something Sienna could work with.

"Right, give me a moment then." Sienna murmured as she reached into the pouch hanging on her right hip to withdraw her Scroll from its sewn in slot in the bag, "Let me give her a call and see what she knows about Jaune before we make our presence known."

"As you wish, Ma'am."

The offered excuse was rather weak, as neither woman felt like leaving the safety their perch afforded them in order to speak with the blond mercenary for varying reasons.

One was out of fear, for having already visibly upset the blond prior to his wholesale slaughter of the Grimm.

The other because she didn't want to make a fool of herself by going in blind, especially when such a rare specimen of a man was finishing off the remainders of the Grimm she had dreaming about seeing dead since they starting plaguing Menagerie.

[SaS]

Kali groaned lightly in both frustration and pleasure as she heard her Scroll start ringing at the most inopportune of times. "B'Ghira, sweetie, I-ah!-need to answer that!"

It was the things Ghira did with his tongue that made Kali glad she got him before Sienna could, the younger woman having been infatuated with the man for quite some time.

Reaching clumsily to her left to grab at the infernal device, which was still ringing, Kali bit her lip in confusion and slight mischievousness. Think of the devil and she'll ask for a video chat, apparently.

'Purr-fect timing, too!'

A slightly worried looking Sienna popped up on Kali's screen, the background flashing brightly as the sound of thunder rolled over the landscape as far away as Kuo Kuana proper. "Kali, I'm glad you're still up, I have an urgent matter to discuss with you!"

Kali blinked lazily due to the sudden bright flash of light and loud crackle of lightning crashing in the background so clearly, leading the dark haired woman to assume Sienna was close to where lightning had been touching down near the mountain for the past five or so minutes.

She had been given a great view of the light show and only just missed the full formation of the weird tornado-like funnel that had started forming when her husband had went to town on her, so to speak. The chances of a tornado forming in Kuo Kuana was rather slim, and it would have likely been over the ocean by the time in would have touched down anyway.

"Suure," She couldn't help the slight hitch of her voice as she removed one hand from the back of her Scroll to grip her husbands hair tightly, "What's going on, Si-Si?"

The mere fact that Sienna didn't snarl or growl or anything of the sort upon hearing Kali's pet name for her told her something might be wrong, just now registering the fact that Sienna mentioned the word urgent as well. "Is everything okay?"

"Well, yes, maybe? I need to know everything you know about this Jaune Arc fellow your husband hired." Sienna reached up and pinched the bridge of her nose, visibly under stress on the other end of the call.

"Did Jaune do something bad? He isn't hurt, is he? Please tell me he isn't-" Kali would have continued, but Sienna quickly turned her scroll away from her face and over some sort of stone ledge, giving the short haired woman a better idea on where the tiger Faunus was currently at.

Stone buildings filled her view for a moment before the camera of Sienna's Scroll focused in on what appeared to be a churning sea of black and white. It took a second for Kali to realize that the sea of black was really over thirty or so Grimm piling over one another as they tried to close in on an almost blurry figure cleaving through the crowd with ridiculous ease, wielding a massive sword of some sort.

"You see that, Kali? Because I've never seen anyone that good at killing Grimm in my life, and this isn't even close to the crazy shit this mercenary pulled off! He summoned a DRAGON, Kali. A WHOLE DRAGON!" Sienna snapped the camera back to her face quickly after admitting the last little bit of information, her orange eyes wide and blazing. "I need to know what I'm about to get myself into, Kali, and you seem to know the most about him by your daughters guess."

"Wait, what did you just say? What did I just hear?" Ghira questioned quickly upon hearing the tone in which Sienna was speaking, hardly ever hearing his old friend and successor so flustered, "A whole dragon? He summoned... a whole dragon? And I have to pay him for that?"

"You're not done yet, ladies are talking here." Kali quickly gripped Ghira's head and prevented it from rising from its position between her legs, "And you! Don't go trying to sink your claws into him, Sienna! I have plans to hook him up with my Blakey to get her away from that bully!"

Kali was not liking the direction their conversation seemed to be taking, knowing that her chances of getting Jaune to sweep her daughter off her feet despite her earlier words would be slim to none if Sienna took an active interest in the young man. "He's not even twenty yet, anyway!"

"I honestly don't give a damn! Your daughter has enough of a man in Taurus anyway, I doubt she'd change mates so quickly." Sienna seemed rather dismissive of the fact that Jaune was likely fifteen years her junior, "Lieutenant, do you have any desires of pursuing the mercenary?"

Kali was mortified to hear her daughters simpering 'No Ma'am!' in the background and the smug expression that glossed Sienna's face afterwards.

"So, he's a delivery boy, then? I... damn, what kind of monster gets that strong and plays delivery boy? How does that make any sense?" Sienna tried to change the subject and get Kali back on track with answering her questions now that the pecking order for the rights of the blond had been established between the three women, "I need to do more research, but I don't have any time! Ugh!"

"Look, I'll tell you what I know, and you take it from there, okay? I'm... busy right now, and you're not only breaking my heart, but interrupting my time with Ghira."

Kali got vindictive pleasure from the way Sienna's eyes narrowed upon hearing her admission. She may have won the battle for Jaune against her Blakey, for now, but Kali won the war for her husband and that made them even.

"Fine. Out with it, you old cougar."

"Hey! Look who's talkin' you damn cradle robber!"

[SaS]

Jaune was keenly aware of the two women still perched atop one of the stone buildings within view from his position on the ground level some block and a half away, but his hearing was nowhere near as advanced as his vision and sense of smell and thus he couldn't quite make out what they were saying.

Wiping his brow lightly with the back of his left arm, the blond swordsman was made aware of his slightly dwindled Aura and Magic reserves after the summoning of Bahamut was completed. It seemed to require both energies on Remnant for the summoning process to function properly, but it was well worth it in his opinion.

With his Semblance allowing him to basically top of his Aura whenever he so desired, his ability to fight was only limited to his physical and mental energies alone. That said, even with as much Aura and Magic as he had running through his veins, he was slightly tired after mowing down close to a hundred of the reptilian Grimm alone, and that was before he summoned Bahamut on them.

Despite feeling somewhat weary, however, the former terrorist pressed onwards and continued his mission of cleaning out the nest of the Grimm with no small amount of determination. His idea of asking Ghira for the rights to some prime picks of land in the quickly developing island nation would require a service worthy of his request, and he felt the complete annihilation of the native Grimm population surrounding Kuo Kuana for a few miles would be a good start.

Due to his nature as a former experiment of Professor Hojo, even in a new life, he found it hard to stay around people for any extended periods of time beyond those he associated with from AVALANCHE. His relationship with the Arc Family, while indeed a familial bond, he was still far too different from his seven sisters and parents to claim being entirely comfortable with said differences.

He wanted a place to call his own, where his sisters and parents couldn't track him down to harass him and call him a weirdo or an alien. Hiding out amongst the Faunus seemed to be his best bet in that regard, as the Arc's would never think to look here for him.

Especially if he picked up an alias. He wasn't above wearing fake facial hair, a bald cap, a suit and some sunglasses, his impressions of Rude being almost indecipherable from the real deal due to a few years of fighting along side the man. It wouldn't be his first course of action, but that didn't mean he wouldn't eventually stoop to that level if he felt the need.

He had once worn a dress to sneak into a crime lords bed and had convinced the man to pick him over Tifa and Aeris. Jaune wasn't exactly keen on doing it again, but he had learned a lot about going incognito from that experience alone. Working along side the former Turks for years only honed his abilities further.

Another major purpose of his for having a large amount of land to call his own would be to create a layover position between Vale and Mistral to use during deliveries. He had plans of creating an airship of his own off a few scrapped Atlesian Military crafts and a few pieces of technology he had a hand in creating along with Cid Highwind that Remnant sorely lacked.

Anti-Gravity that didn't rely on Dust to function was pretty interesting, and he was still a bit upset he couldn't apply the rough engine he had created a few years prior to the permanently grounded beast he named Fenrir.

After approximately ten minutes of further conflict after the dragon king dissipated, the ancient ruins were as clear as they were going to get for the time being. When no more Levi-creeps tried to throw themselves at him and Jaune was left standing with his sword at the ready for more than a minute without any activity, the black clad swordsman finally allowed the Fusion Blade to lower from its readied stance.

With no Grimm left to deal with for the time being, it left Jaune a few moments of peace to gather his thoughts and regain his breath. Even after years of constant exercise, extended usage of the Fusion Sword in it's full form took a toll on his stamina, hence his need for slightly smaller blades to work with if a situation in which he had to heavily conserve stamina arose.

Even with Aura, Mana, Mako and C-Cells running through his veins, it would require another few years of growing before he reached his peak once more. He was twenty two in his previous life when his physical strength and mental stability peaked, and it would likely be the same in his current life on Remnant as well.

Sighing lightly while rolling his shoulders and cracking his neck, Jaune called out to the two women that continued to jump from rooftop to rooftop to get closer to the fighting when it became clear they weren't going to leave without speaking to him. "You can come down, it's clear for now."

They seemed to hesitate for a few more moments, consulting one another lowly before they decided to follow through and leap down from the rooftops. Both were forced to roll as they landed to prevent any sort of damage to their limbs, but it was graceful enough that Jaune could say he was slightly jealous.

Due to his size, grace was not exactly his forte. Raw power, however, was.

"Miss Belladonna, Miss..." He paused and looked in the shorter of the two's direction, waiting patiently for an introduction.

She must have been someone important for the daughter of the High Chieftain to defer to the shorter woman to take the lead. The blond took a moment to take in her appearance, finding the word fierce being the best to describe her if he was forced to choose.

The first thing he noticed about the woman were the large orange and black striped tiger ears resting upon her head, the left ear having two golden rings piercing it. Her skin was much darker than Blake's, and her sharply shaped eyes were colored a burning orange. She wore a black sleeveless top that exposed a bit of skin with a crimson and black garment and belt covered her midsection. The garment seemed to cover the top of her waist and black leggings protected her legs from the element, finished off with oriental looking sandals strapped to her feet.

Her weapon was an odd one, being a chain whip with three dagger-tips attached to the end. Jaune highly doubted getting hit with that weapon would be pleasant, though he could think of a hundred ways to counter it in almost an instant should she choose to attack him.

Chain wielding foes had not been completely uncommon in the past, to say the least.

"Sienna Khan, High Leader of the White Fang and fill-in Chieftain of Kuo Kuana when Ghira is away." The woman answered instantly, her tone somewhere in between demure and awe, though not overly so. "Who might you be, Sir?"

"Jaune Arc, Strife Delivery Service. What can I do for you tonight, Ma'am?" Jaune questioned almost tonelessly, only a small amount of weariness present in his voice.

Fighting so many Grimm alone would cause more than just weariness in most, however, showing just what kind of mental and physical fortitude Jaune held, though the fighting isn't what caused his current unsureness.

"I was hoping to speak with you for a few moments, if you were finished with your... hunt." Sienna admitted as she shifted from one leg to another, Blake doing the same behind her a moment or so later.

The blond tensed slightly as he made eye contact with the woman, his grip on the Fusion Sword tightening all the while. "For what purpose?"

Sienna didn't answer verbally at first, instead shooting a fleeting glance over her shoulder at Blake before returning her attention forward, unable to school the worried glare lingering in her eyes. "I would prefer to speak about it in private, if that would be to your liking?"

This only made him tense further, and once again the faint smell of fear and desire danced across his nose before disappearing as quickly as it came.

'God's damnit, another one.'