Vale. Headmaster office.
"Our visitors will be here on a confidential basis," the Headmaster spoke as he stood by the window, staring out at the sky as he often did. However, instead of the usual blue sky, he saw a giant battleship."Because of the news about the Black Knights, the Atlas Armada was forced to move in sooner then we expected. I'm afraid it would cause undue distress to the people of Vale, so James will be attending in a personal shuttle. Similarly, Miss Schnee will be attending privately as an Agent of the SDC. So I, of course, hope you know to keep these meetings private?"
"Of course," Glynda sighed, apparently still displeased at having to deal with her old stalk-friend again. The door at the back of the room dinged softly, signaling a person riding the elevator to the top. The Headmaster sighed, as though he'd aged fifty years in a single moment, but rose to his feet nonetheless.
"Ozpin!" The man that came from the elevator greeted jovially, long white coat flapping behind as immaculate boots slacked on the tiled floor. Dressed in a pristine white uniform, and with two armed guards on either side of him, the General cut an imposing figure, even with the smile on his face. "Good to see you after so long."
"James," the other man replied still not happy with the military fleet outside. "it's been quite a while."
"It has, and of course I'll be helping provide security for this little event won't it be great to work alongside one another once more?" The two men met with the Headmaster's desk between them, hands grasped."Especially taking in mind recent events." he said with a hint of anger.
"I had heard, yes. Take a seat please, I insist." the Headmaster added on the end, the moment after, Ironwood had already taken one. The Atlas general then looked at the blonde professor and said.
"Glynda, it is nice to see you too. I think it's been a year since we last saw each other." smiled James while Vales scariest professor nodded.
"Yes, it was, James." said Glynda while keeping to herself. 'But still not long enough'
"James, while I'm grateful to see you in good health, I think we need to discuss an obvious problem. The Queen and Zero." said the headmaster in a serious tone. Both general and witch became more serious.
"Ozpin, I know that our information about Salem is limited, but are you sure that she's started to move?" Ozpin could understand why James was still unsure about all this. He was still new to their little circle."It might just be a coincidence."
"I don't think so, James. The latest news from Qrow-" old man could see how Ironwood narrowed his eyes at the mention of the drunk huntsman's name." have shown that something is happening. He also said that Salem might have her minions in Vale."
"Could it be related to the recent dust robberies?" asked Glynda. The headmaster could only nod.
"Yes, it is a possibility. Roman Torchwick is a well-known criminal who has broken dozens of laws... Yet, last police report showed that he was doing nothing else but stealing dust for the last two months, be it a small shop or even SDC cargo. And also the fact that he was stealing only dust, he didn't take any money."
"We can as well include the stolen Atlas military technology." said James with crossed arms."Evidence has shown that it was also his doing."
"Also." started Glynda."If what team RWBY said was true, he is working with the White Fang as well." now Ironwood was confused.
"Torchwick and White Fang? Together? Now that is something I would never have even thought about." said the Atlas general as if it was a joke. "Roman is also a famous racist. The White Fang cell in Vale is known to be one of the most brutal to humans in all of Remnant. There is no way they can work together."
"Yet they do." stated Ozpin. "Like one of our teams said, they engaged in a fight with him when he and the White Fang were trying to steal dust at the docks."
"Team RWBY... Isn't that the team with the young Schnee?" if James remembered correctly, Winter had said something about her little sister going to Beacon.
"Yes, it is. The team also includes a young Ruby Rose. Does that name ring any bells?" asked Ozpin while carefully watching his friends reaction. He was amused to see how his eyes widened.
"Wait, the daughter of Summer Rose is in your academy right now? Isn't she supposed to be like twelve years old?!"
"She is fifteen, James." corrected Glynda from the side.
"And she has proved that she deserves to be here," added Ozpin.
"She's still too young to be here, Ozpin. I'm sure that you want only the best for all of us. However, we can't take risks like this. She is the last silver eyed warrior after all." said James while clenching his left fist."It's too dangerous if we lose her too-"
"We will not lose her." calmly said Ozpin. "Not this time. With the upcoming storm, we need to be prepared and we need Ruby Rose as well." the old man then sighed."I don't like doing this either, James but I believe it will be better this way." Glynda was silently watching them from the side, waiting for the general's response, she could see that he was angry but gave up.
"...Very Well." finally said, James." If you think she can do it then I will trust you, Ozpin...Now About the Black Knights. I don't see them as a potential problem. At least not compared to Salem or the White Fang."
"And that might be our mistake." said Glynda."When we learned about Zero and the Black Knights we thought that they are just another terrorist group but now it is clear that they differ from the average terrorist organization."
"Name one thing about them that other terrorist cells don't have." said James. It was Ozpin who answered him.
"Well, they seem to be organized enough to be able to destroy almost all criminal groups inside the city in just two months. And do I need to remind who do they have?" asked Ozpin and James sighed.
"I know that Gabriel Reyes is in Vale." James forced himself to say this name, the betrayal of one of his battle friends still angered him.
"Do you mean the news where he shot soldiers in front of citizens or when he was among the Black Knights when they were announced? I think Atlas should have dealt with Reaper a long time ago." said Glynda with a strict tone.
"Glynda, please. Gabriel knows how Atlas works and because of that he was able to hide so well," added James. He hated Reaper but he could do nothing in the past."But now."
"Now Reaper made himself know as one of the Black Knights." declared Beacons headmaster."And our main question is, why? Why would Reyes become part of the Black Knights? And who is Zero? We have too many questions and not enough answers. We need to be ready for Salem and her forces attack, but at the same time stop the potential threat and face Zero before his rise to power becomes a threat to us all." there was a moment of silence, the three of them were thinking about their current situation.
"The Black Knight are still only humans and faunus, unlike Salem and her Grimm." stated Ironwood. "We can deal with them after we make sure that all the maidens are safe. It also seems that the White Fang is not friendly towards them so, if anything, we can wait for the two of them to gnaw one another's throats." finished James but then Glynda said with an angered tone.
"And close our eyes on their activities? That is a terrible idea, James."
"I agree with Glynda. It will become only worse if we leave thing the way they are right now...Also Wasn't Miss Schnee with you?" suddenly asked Ozpin who only remembered about the other Atlas soldier who was missing. James just waved at him.
"Winter said that she wanted to meet with the Beacon professors. Something to do with her sisters status I think."
It started as a normal day in Beacon Academy.
The bell rang and the students left the classroom. The history teacher had a little chat with his helper before leaving the room as well. As usual, it was only the raven-haired young man inside the room and was drawing some kind of design, it depicted some sort of armored figure. The design was complex, If any engineer or anyone with enough knowledge saw this, they would tell you that it was a blueprint for a weapon.
Lelouch was a happy man. It has been one month since the Black Knights helped the now-former White Fang members if what his geassed spy said was true. There were not only rumors but also news about their operation. Someone in kingdom decided to spread the news about Atlas failing in Forever Fall. Small news channel wanted to make as much profit as possible from this, that they didn't even understand what a big favor they were doing for him. Steeljaw managed to bring more people to join them and all of them were experienced in some way. The Demon Emperor was especially glad to learn that some of them were engineers, it will make his next phase of the plan easier. And finally Gray Raven had finished every task that Zero gave to him, he was working non-stop but it was worth it. They have found interesting support and most important they have found a scientist!
Now, it wasn't Gray who found him but Reaper. Some of his old connections answered that they wanted to join the Black Knights. From Reapers last report it seems that they already have started building improvements on their base, they need them.
So, in the end, Lelouch was really a happy man. His plans were progressing quicker than he thought possible. His knights had made their name known around the world and now it was time for them to rearm themselves and prepare new recruits. Right now, Lelouch needs only one thing. And that was to make sure that no one finds them.
With this thought, Lelouch decides that it was time for him to rest. He pulled out his scroll and looked at the time, it was already lunch. He collected his stuff and went to the exit. He was about to leave the room when someone opened the door from the outside. Lelouch's eyes went wide when he saw a familiar face.
"Excuse me, is professor Ooblick here?" asked a woman with white hair who was probably in her early twenties. Her light-blue eyes looked at Lelouch's wide violet ones. "Are you one of the students?" asked Winter Schnee, a deadly specialist who fought with him or, more specifically, his soldiers just one month ago. Lelouch understands that his silence would make things only more awkward and quickly answered.
"I'm afraid you are late, the doctor has already left. I think he went to the teacher's lounge." said Lelouch and then added."By the way, may I know your name." the black prince decided to make it look like he didn't know her. Winter blinked, surprised that he didn't know her and was somewhat glad.
"Winter Schnee, Atlas specialist," she said with a professional tone. She didn't need to keep her status a secret.
"Lelouch Lamperouge, doctor Ooblecks assistant." the former emperor introduced himself. "...Isn't Weiss Schnee your sister?"
"Yes, she is. Do you know her?" Winter decides that her search for a green-haired teacher could wait, in the end, her original plan was to find teachers in Beacon and ask how her little sister was doing.
"Sometimes I would check the student's homework." most of the time." and I saw her works. She's a perfect student and has the highest grades in history class among the first years." Lelouch praised her sister and saw a tiny smile on Winters face.
"I expected nothing less from her." said Winter with a warm voice."What about the other subjects?"
"Sorry but I mostly work here and wasn't able to see her on other lessons." on Grimm studies he was busy learning about Grimm and in combat class, Lelouch would usually go to see second, third and fourth years fights. First-year students weren't so interesting, with the exception of Pyrrha Nikos maybe.
"Hm, I see." Winter was a little upset and decide to return to her main objective since Lelouch has informed her about her sister's grades in history she will go and try to find others.
"If you want to see the doctor I can show you the way. I'm sure the other professors are there as well," commented Lelouch and Winter nodded.
"I would be grateful to you." said the older Schnee and the two of them made their way towards the teacher's lounge...that Just happened to be near the cafeteria.
In his long life. Wait, does 17 years count as a long life? Maybe... But probably not. Well, whatever. Anyways, Jaune was expecting this day to be like any other day. It has been a month since something huge happened, and he meant RWBY's fight with that some burner guy in the docks. The young team leader never in his life could predict that something like this would even be possible. He and his team went to the cafeteria for breakfast and sat near their sister team, team RWBY.
He sighed, it started so normal but then, some orange haired hammer user. A girl, who was totally not together together with her childhood friend, threw some food at the easy to anger blonde boxer. Needless to say what happened next wasn't good for anyone else in the area.
"FOOD FIGHT!" declared Nora happily while Yang's eyes widened slowly. They blazed with vigor.
It was a disaster. Nora was throwing everything that was near her, that includes Jaune himself, at everyone in the cafeteria.
Jaune quickly found himself thrown through the nearest window.
A watermelon bounded off his head, knocking him down, and he only had half a moment to wonder where someone had found a whole watermelon before he was yelping and crawling away as two people nearly fell on him. They landed hard and it seems that they fell unconscious, students he didn't recognize, their sacrifice was needless just like the fight that was happening right now.
Jaune didn't know what to do. He was saved however by his partner who quickly got to him and helped him get up. Pyrrha was his saver right now. When he looked at, what minutes ago was the cafeteria, he saw Ruby and her team, the only ones standing.
"Well, look at this!" should Nora as stood on top of the table."It seems we found a worthy opponent to challenge me, queen of the castle! Isn't that great, Ren?!" she shouted at her right side where her life partner was standing. The boy in question could only sigh.
"Nora, I don't think they want to fight us-"
"Oh, we totally do!" shouted Ruby."Right, Yang?"
"Yeah." her eyes turned red."Totally." She was really angry at Nora and Jaune could see why. Her unusually beautiful hair now was ruined thanks to Nora's soup. He was able to see that the rest of team RWBY was also looking for a fight. The only reasonable thing he, as the proud team leader of JNPR, could think of right now-
"JNPR! Let's show them!" yelled Nora when their friends ran at them with some food weapons. Oh, boy it wasn't gonna end well for them, for him to be precise.
"So Mr. Lamperouge." started Winter."You are the only teachers assistant in all of Beacon?" asked Schnee's oldest daughter as the two made their way towards the cafeteria. They walked kind of awkwardly and were very quiet so she decided to ask anything.
"Yeah, I heard that Beacon was looking for someone and decided to try and work here. Well, now I'm here."
"I heard some rumors about former assistants who worked here as well, I didn't believe them of course, but If I remember right there was news about how professor Port-"
"They are true." quickly interrupted her Lelouch."Whatever you heard about him is true." he said with a scared tone and could see that her eyes went wide.
"Oh, does that mean you also?"
"No, thanks to Miss Goodwitch I was able to avoid such things." smiled Lelouch."If I may ask then, why are you here?"
"Classified."
"That was a quick answer."
"You must understand that I, as an Atlas specialist, can't tell you anything." responded Winter.
"If you did then that would be treason?" joked Lelouch.
"No, I would just be forced to eliminate you." she said with a serious tone and Lelouch just started to stare at her for few seconds before laughing lightly."Is that so funny?"
"Well, not all of it. I mean the thought of my own death doesn't interest me." anymore at least."Don't understand me wrong, I just can't see you doing something like that."Winter was surprised, she could and sometimes did that, but it wouldn't be wise to scare a civilian."However, I can see you as someone famous. I would suggest trying to become a singer."
"No, I suppose I can not see myself anywhere else but the army. But thanks for the compliment." become a singer? Even the simple thought of it sounds silly and impossible to her."Thank you, Mr. Lamperouge"
"Lelouch."
"Excuse me?"
"Please, call me Lelouch." said the demon emperor."I don't really like being called Mr. or by my surname. So Lelouch will be fine. In return I will call you by your name too, how about that?"
Winter looked at him again and wondered what he wanted. Was he trying to get closer to her after just a few minutes of chat? 'Hardly.' Winter thought that if she was going to stay in Vale for some time, she might as well get to know the Beacon staff better.
"Very well...Lelouch." The revolutionary undercover smiled.
"See? Isn't it better, Winter?" the women in question gave a slight nod. It really feels better to be called by name, not her family name or military rank. They reached the doors of the cafeteria when she and Lelouch heard strange noises from inside.
"Should we check?" asked Winter.
"I think we could." said Lelouch and stood in front of her to the open doors for her like the gentlemen he was."Your sister must be in there right now." he said before opening the doors and saw...
Instead of the normal cafeteria what they saw was a mess, to say the least.
Teams RWBY and JNPR were fighting with each other. Well not all of them, Jaune Arc, for example, was lying on the floor with his teammate Lie Ren not far away from him trying to stand, while the female part of their team was fighting off the girls from their sister team. What Lelouch noticed was that Weiss Schnee was thrown at the wall behind her and then landed in the hands of her partner and before Winter could make any move, Ruby Rose launched herself at their opponent with super high speed.
And everything went flying: food, tables, bodies of students and team Jupiter. Seconds later they all stuck to the wall as drinks and foods covered the students. Ruby Rose won, to say the least. Seconds later her team started cheering. A moment later professor Goodwitch from the main entrance and used her semblance to clear the full room. She wanted to punish the students but just said to not play with food and decided to do it later and just left.
"Wow." was all Lelouch could say. 'So that was Miss Rose's and Miss Goodwitch's semblances in full power looks like' thought Lelouch, he hoped that it was at least their full potential."You don't see something like this every day, do you Winter?" he asked but the answer didn't come."Winter?" when he glanced at his companion Lelouch's eyes went wide.'Oh, shi-'
"Weiss Schnee!" shouted the Atlas specialist and first daughter of the Schnee family, Winter Schnee with a red face. Red not because of her anger, she was angry of course, but because of red jelly that was covering her and from what Lelouch could tell it was probably from the pie that was now on the ground next to the woman beside him."What is going on here?!"
Team RWBY who was cheering immediately stopped and the called individual looked at her sister. Weiss's eyes went wide and her face went pale.
"W-Winter?!" she yelped, clearly not expecting to see her sister here. Not knowing what to say, Weiss said: "W-what are you doing here?"
"It's me who should be asking that." with a dead serious tone Winter said to her little sister. "The first moment we finally meet I see you here, destroying academy property and fighting students." Weiss tried to avoid her sister's cold gaze but she could still feel Winter's anger. "How do you explain this?"
"I-I-"
"Weiss, who is she and why does she look like your older version?" innocently asked Ruby, Yang and Blake were interesting as well.
"Oh, yes!" seeing an opportunity to change the subject Weiss started to introduce her teammates."Winter, let me introduce you to my teammates. Ruby, Yang and Blake." she waved at the girls. Ruby gave a goofy smile, Yang waved a hand and Blake slightly bowed."I wrote to you about them." smiled Weiss hoping that it would work and distract Winter.
"Don't think that I will forget what happened here, we will talk about it later." warned her sister and Weiss nervously smiled."But yes, I do remember about your team. Weiss told me many things about you girls."
"I hope only good things." smirked Yang.
"Hardly." commented Winter.
In the other part of cafeteria team, team JNPR was recovering from what just happened.
"Ohh, my head." Jaune tried to get up and almost fell but someone caught his arm. "What? Oi, thanks, Lelouch."
"No problem." said Lelouch while helping the young knight to stand."You made a huge mess here."
"Yeah..Wait. Why is everything clean?" asked Arc as he looked around and found the whole cafeteria in a normal state.
"Miss Goodwitch returned everything back to normal, but I'm sure that you will get punishment for this" smiled Lelouch when the knight groaned.."How did it even start?" The blonde teenager just pointed at his ginger teammate who had the biggest smile of her life.
"Guys, did you see that?! Ruby was super fast! And Miss Goodwitch was like a wizard with magic semblance and I was the queen of the castle! This is the best day ever!" commented the super-active Nora who wasn't even tired from that. "Ren, did you see that?"
"Nora, I think Ren lost consciousness," added Pyrrha.
"Then this means that we need to do it again so he will see it all!" Nora came to the conclusion.
"I pity you." said Lelouch to Jaune who just weakly groaned.
"I hope that you understand that such behavior is not permissible. What if father learned about what happened today? He would take you back to Atlas!" Winter was lecturing Wiess. After they left the cafeteria team RWBY went to their dorms to clean themselves. Now Weiss and Winter were inside their room while the rest of the team was outside trying to listen to them.
"Yes, Winter. I understand." was everything Weiss could say."I will never do something like this again."
"Good." said Winter before she sat on the nearest bed and wondered how they didn't fall yet?"Now, tell me how have you been?" suddenly asked Winter with a tired yet worried tone and her sister blinked from the sudden change of topic.
"Emm, I was okay? I mean I had some troubles trying to get used to Beacon and my new team, but in total it was okay...I Think." Winter looked at her with a worried gaze.
"Are you okay with what happened in that hotel?" Wiess's eyes went wide. She sat next to her sister and said
"Oh, so about that, well...I was scared." admitted the younger Schnee and Winter put a hand on her shoulder.
"It is normal to be afraid in situations like that, Weiss. You didn't know what the White Fang would do to you. Anyone would be scared."
"Even you?"
"Even me." weakly smiled Winter."The White Fang and people like them have been trying to kill our family for years. I lost count how many times they attacked me. I'm just happy that you managed to return safely."
"Well, I did nothing really. It was the Black Knights work," said Weiss still not knowing how to feel about them and Zero.
"Yes, I heard what they did and I will admit, I grateful to them for it...Yet It doesn't mean that I will forget what they did before that or after."
"After?" blinked Wiess."Did something happen between the Black Knights and you?"
"Let's just say that I meet them during my work." said Winter and her little sister eyes went wide.
"Did you fight them?!" was the first thing she asked.
"I didn't want to but they didn't leave me a choice." commented Winter."I tried to stop them without using violence but Zero didn't let me...Anyway, We're not talking about them, we are talking about you. I spoke with Lelouch and he said that-"
"Wait, Lelouch? You mean Mr. Lamperouge?"
"Yes, him. Is something weird?" Weiss found it strange that her sister was calling him by that name after their first meeting.
"It's just, you hardly call anyone by their first name." said Wiess. Winter blinked and thought about it.
"Do I? Well, anyways, while you were in the bath I also went to the other teachers and asked them about you." and so Winter started to tell her little sister how to improve her already high grades to perfect.
While the two Schnee sisters were having a family chat, the rest of team RWBY was outside the door trying to listen to them too. You don't see Weiss nervous like this every day.
"Do you hear what they're talking about?" asked Ruby who was excited to see her partners sister.
"If you were silent maybe I would have been able to find out, Ruby." Yang wanted to hear anything embarrassing about Weiss so she could use it in the future. Oh, she could already imagine Weiss's red face from both anger and shame. "Hey did you see her figure? Do you think our Weiss will ever have a chest like that?
Blake rolled her eyes. Her teammates could be so immature sometimes... But this time she also wanted to know about the older Schnee sister.
Outside of Vale.
In the dark of the forest, sounds of construction were heard. Months before it was just a forgotten dust mine but now it was something different. The once working dust mine started to work again but this time as a proper basement for the Black Knights.
Zero was making his way through their mine and was admiring the view. People both humans and famous were working, trying to rebuild this cave and make it as useful as possible. They were increasing the space by destroying the needless walls, everything of course was calculated. The leader of the Black Knights could admit they did a good job in such little time. Now his base will be able to contain more soldiers and not only them.
As Zero made his way he heard an angry voice of someone. Making steps towards the voice he saw an old man yelling at the Black Knights for something.
"How many times must I repeat myself?! Do everything according to the scheme, but make one mistake and this cave will become our grave!" he had disheveled gray hair, a matching mustache and beard, and prominent eyebrows. He was wearing a gray jacket with a high collar and a red shirt underneath. The most noticeable thing was that one of his eyes was robotic and was glowing with red.
"Doctor Merlot," called Zero. The now known Merlot turned to his new leader."I'm sure none of them want to die here so yelling will be unnecessary." he said and walked towards him.
"But they can't make anything right! I have to tell them everything!" yelled again the crazy scientist. Lelouch looked at his schemes for a second. Complex and difficult to understand design. They were making a base, not a rocket station!
"I believe anyone would have problems trying to understand this. Doctor, your plans are too complicated for those who don't have knowledge in engineering," said Lelouch and dismissed the poor knights. Merlot crossed his arms and looked to the side.
"It's just proof of my intelligence... Anyways, Zero. What did you want to talk about?"
"Tell me, Doc. Have you seen Atlas's latest weapon? The Paladin?" he could see that his friend's eyes narrowed at the mention of them.
"Heard?! I made them!...Well, Some of the prototypes at least." corrected himself the crazy man."It was a long time ago back when I worked with Atlas. Why are you asking this?"
"I want to know more about them and other technologies that Atlas has."
"Hmm, well, since the Black Knights fought with Atlas and now that I'm part of your Order I must help you deal with them. Very well, I will prepare some plans for everything they have. If that's all you want I will-"
"Actually that's not everything." interrupted Zero. "You see, Doctor. Since I saw a Paladin in the Forever Fall for the first time I couldn't stop but think about making a better weapon. A machine to surpass everything our enemy might have. The Black Knights needed their own technology." Merlot raised his eyebrow, this sounded interesting."Reyes mentioned how you wanted to create new machines but were stopped because of the kingdom's bureaucracy."
"Fools couldn't see my genius and everything it could bring! But Zero, what do you have in mind exactly?" under his mask Lelouch smiled. He pulled out his own schemes and handed it to the scientist.
"This is something I would like the Black Knights to have. Simple yet promising plans for us." Merlots eyes went wide, both normal and robotic.
"This...this... Is amazing! This idea! This design! The style!...Landspinner Propulsion System, I never thought I needed to build something so badly until now! This is brilliant!" Lelouch allowed himself a smile. He wasn't as good as Lloyd or Rakshata but he saw their works and learned some things about creating robots of war. The creation of the Shinkiro and its design was his original idea after all!. "Don't tell me you did it." said the old man and his eyes went wide again when Zero nodded."My God, with this and my old projects I can create so much!"
"Doctor, please focus on the present and what we need right now." remind Zero.
"What? Oh, yes whatever you say, Zero...What's The name of this project, by the way, I can't see it anywhere." Lelouch smiled. Soon the Black Knights will have their own machines of the war like Atlas. Only theirs will be more deadly, useful and most importantly stylish!
"Knightmare model Vehicon."
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Beta reader Shad7000
Thanks for reading. I made new changes, first I added Merlin as crazy scientist and decide to give Black Knights Vehicon from TFP other than that everything is the same.
Thanks for reading again and have a good day.
