Howdy folks, how's it going?

I hope you all had pleasant Holidays, full of joy and good times.

For my part, I am here to bring you the traditional End of the Year update to Beneath a Broken Moon.

Given how long you've been waiting, I'll just say there's a bit more info down at the bottom, give my shout out to Chaos Productions for his being a bro helping my stories be better, give a quick disclaimer that I own neither RWBY nor The Elder Scrolls series, and leave you to your reading.

Enjoy!

/

Well-honed instincts kicking in, Tristard's response to being rushed by armed thugs from all sides was immediate and decisive, which is to say, he turned to the biggest concentration of them and bellowed:

"FUS RO DAH!"

The blue, distorted wave of Unrelenting Force surged forward, stopping the charge in its tracks and sending bodies flying everywhere, causing those outside the line of fire to briefly halt.

Which was all the opportunity the Dragonborn needed.

"Stand your ground! Drive them back!"

His rallying cry had the intended effect, and the young huntsmen snapped out of their surprise. With an impressive amount of wordless coordination, they organized a circle formation, with Tristard, Yatsuhashi, Yang, and Fox as the first line of defence while Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Coco readied their weapons from behind and Velvet kept the little girl close and safe at the center.

In the moments that took, however…

"Well? Don't just stand there. Get them!"

…The bandits did some rallying of their own, and their charge resumed. The teams' backline made to fire… And hesitated. Their ammunition had been packed with Grimm in mind, and thus meant for maximum lethality. And as much as these people were clearly hostile… They were still people, that the young huntsmen were still kids in training who had not expected this development.

Thusly unimpeded, in mere seconds the bandits were upon them, and a melee ensued. Amidst a swing of a blazing Gurahyol, and a blast of freezing cold from a frost spell meant to discourage a scruffy looking man with a mallet from getting past him to sneak up on Weiss, Tristard proceeded to access the situation. The group that had just ambushed was around 36 strong, give or take, all men and women with clothes in varying states of raggedness, armed with an assortment of weapons from large wooden clubs to mechashift capable blades and guns. They had been lying in wait amidst the ruins, somehow avoiding detection, and would have gotten the drop on them if he hadn't used Aura Whisper (And he was cursing himself for not doing it sooner. He had been in this situation before, how could he have been so complacent…?) just before it could happen. But more than all of this, there was something that drew the Dragonborn's attention. In the eyes of all the ones that got too close, there was a… frantic, almost desperate glint, and their fighting was… vicious, yet stiff, almost mechanical, and it rang all too familiar to him…

Suddenly it clicked, as he realized that none of them had bothered trying to resort to ranged weapons yet. These people didn't exactly want to fight them, but for some reason they seemed to fear the alternative more, and thus they were trying to end this as quickly as possible by overwhelming them with numbers.

Unfortunately for them, the surprise and hesitation had worn off quickly, and his friends were quick to prove their mettle.

Yatsuashi swung his massive cleaver in a wide arc, discouraging the small cluster of thugs coming his way from approaching, and then with a twist of the wrist used the momentum to swing it downwards into the ground in front of him, sending out a shockwave that sent even more of them flying. Yang was brawling with 4 thugs at once, and soundly beating them back, her usual levity replaced with an increased brutality born of anger. Fox, well, he was weaving around the ones in his general area like a shadow, knocking each down in one hit. As the fight dissolved into chaos, and despite their efforts, some of the thugs managed to get past, leaving Ruby and Weiss to make good use of their combined semblances to push them back, the younger girl ricocheting off the Heiress' glyphs around the unfortunate sods like a bullet, while Coco finally brought her insane contraption of a weapon (he briefly wondered where he could get one of those, would've made his job so much easier back then…) to bear against those who were further away, not actively aiming at them but seeking to discourage further approaching, and while no bandits had come Velvet and Blake's way yet, the former stood protectively over the girl, her eyes and hears peeled as she called out warnings and directions to her comrades, and Blake took shots based on those warnings.

All in all, they were holding on fairly well, and they kept doing so for a little while longer. The bandits had underestimated them, thinking their swarming tactics and sneak attack to be enough to overcome the huntsmen-in-training, and were now paying the price, beginning to crumble and buckle under the weight of a fighting skill far superior to what they had expected.

As they say, however, it only takes once, as a gasp from Weiss and a cry of alarm from Yang caught Tristard's attention.

Ruby had misjudged, put a just a bit more strength on her legs than was required, and ended up overshooting her latest leap, cutting herself off from the formation. And just before she could rush back into safety, a particularly burly man had blindsided her, tackling the girl to the ground, and making her drop Crescent Rose. The very next moment, he had one hand to her throat, completely ignoring his team leader's frantic attempts to loosen the grip, and the other held high over her, a wicked spiked mace about to swing down.

Yang was about to leave her position to rush in her aid only to be stopped by a new incoming wave of thugs, while Weiss began to cast her glyphs and Blake prepared to throw her ribbon, but Tristard knew that neither would make it in time.

Under these conditions, the Dragonborn did not hesitate. A sheet of hoarfrost and freezing mist covering his hand, he threw it in the knave's direction, aiming squarely for the heart, and the arm-length spike of ice flew true.

The burly man never saw it coming. The frozen projectile hit him squarely in the chest and sent him flying, piercing through his aura with ease and impaling him into a charred wooden pillar miraculously left standing. He lived just long enough to weakly reach for the cold, bloody sensation in his chest with a face of shocked confusion, before slumping forward, unmoving.

And Ruby, getting herself up, witnessed every second of it. Slowly, her eyes, wide in shock, turned to meet Tristard's own, and in the red-cloaked girl he saw signs he recognized, alarms blaring in his head.

This could become a problem…

But to his surprise, the shell-shocked disbelief faded, quickly replaced by alarm as she saw something beyond him.

"Tristard, behind you, look out!"

The Dragonborn immediately turned, finding himself face to face with the barrel of a gun, pointed at him by a bloke in a grey trench coat with unusually large yellow eyes, made even larger by the surprise at being spotted.

Once again, Tristard's instinctive response was immediate.

"FUS RO DAH!"

The man was blown away, flying like a helpless ragdoll across the air until he slammed into a still standing wall, the tell-tale crackling energy web around him marking the end of his Aura reserves. To the Archmage's mild surprise, he still managed to get back up.

"R-retreat! Fall back!"

Ah, so he was the leader of this sorry bunch.

Heeding his words, the bandits immediately ceased the fighting and began falling back, some going out of their way to help the wounded and the unconscious. In the span of time that it took him to glance at this development, the grey-cloaked man vanished.

The teams were left in this silent lull of the battle, briefly unsure of how to proceed now that the opponent had been beaten back. Then, Coco reached for the comm.

"Pilot, did you see all that?"

"Aye aye, young lady." Was the reply amongst crackles of static, as the Bullhead came soaring in, in the distance. "I am sorry for not lending a hand, but the bastards were too close, didn't want to risk friendly fire."

"It's fine, but we need extraction, now. They're going to come back for sure."

"Right you are, missy. On my way!"

The two teams allowed themselves a breath of relief. But then, a loud bursting noise was heard from beyond the walls. Something came surging towards their vehicle from beyond the tree line, and they recognized with alarm that it was a rocket. Tristard quickly tried to cast a bolt of lightning and Ruby began firing with Crescent Rose, but they were unfortunately not quick enough, the missile surging past their attacks. The pilot saw the incoming projectile, and tried to swerve the bullhead out of the way, but he wouldn't make it and everyone realized it with mounting dread.

"Shit!" The man cried out through the comm. "I've sent an S.O.S to Beacon! Hold on till then, kids-!"

A loud explosion rocked the air as the missile hit home, silencing the pilot's final efforts, and the flaming carcass of their only escape went crashing out of their sight.

They were well and truly trapped.

/

Welp, that hadn't gone according to plan.

To be quite honest, there hadn't been much of a plan to begin with, given how flat-footed he and the crew had been caught by the incoming bullhead, but Strix Lenoir had never been one to mind the small details.

Heck, he had to give credit where credit was due. The huntsmen of Vale were truly a breed apart from the Mystralian fair they were so used to. Back home they'd have at least a week to calmly do their thing before someone was sent to check, and that is if anyone bothered to show at all.

They had tried to avoid conflict, mind, hiding in every nook and cranny and waiting while the huntsmen (mere students, whoever organized the huntsmen response was either really foolish or really confident in their abilities…) would snoop around the late, much lamented Ashenwood, hopefully assume the Grimm had done the town in, get out, and leave them with ample time to do their business before any sort of rebuilding effort began. No trouble, no fuss, everybody wins, just like Strix preferred it. He had even gone out of his way to use his Semblance to help stay unnoticed, silencing whatever areas those girls snooping around within his field of vision approached. But of course, just as it seemed like he had managed to avoid another mess, everything had to go pear-shaped.

The kids had found a survivor, and one he recognized at that, that little racoon girl who liked to snoop around the inn, ragged and weak, but still alive. And that complicated matters.

Now, Strix did not consider himself a heartless man. He felt for the kid, he really did, and he would have much rather preferred that this whole business could've been avoided. But sadly, the Boss hadn't seen it that way. Whatever the Boss said goes, and what the Boss said was no survivors.

Much as he didn't like it, Strix knew it was a suicidally bad idea to go against that, and he liked living too much for that.

So he had given the signal to attack, and drawn his gun to take out that kid in the golden mask, he seemed like the greatest threat…

…A thought that had been confirmed moments later when the guy turned to stare in his direction and blocked the shot. And then again a moment later when he'd screamed a bunch of them away.

Seriously, what was Vale feeding its kids? Even very obviously untrained in fighting people looking to kill and very clearly hesitating because of it, they had still managed to hold their own. And when the element of surprise was lost, they had managed to push back.

And all throughout, the masked kid's presence kept increasing the worry Strix was feeling. The way he fought, the way he threw lightning and fire and frost around, the way he did in poor Ol' Driscoll without a hint of the hesitation the others were feeling, the way he reacted to his sneaking upon him to try to get rid of the greater threat again… It brought Strix unpleasant memories, unpleasant memories of the reason they had left that shithole of Mystral in favor of Vale in the first place…

After he had managed to figure out which way was up again and recover from the retaliation that felt like a Goliath had stepped on him, Strix realized that this was a losing battle, and since he liked living, he called the retreat.

The Boss would not be happy, but he did need to hear about what went down. And so it was that he and the others under his command found themselves leaving the village, run ragged by the fight and the hasty withdrawal, heading straight for the encampment around the CCT tower, where the rest of the crew had settled. As their presence was noticed and the people of the camp began coming their way to help tend to the injured, Strix could not help but sigh…

"Well, well, well…"

…Because he knew what was coming.

The owl faunus turned to the speaker, a tall, muscled woman, with a mane of wild rusty-looking orange-brown hair, in her usual cargo pants and tank-top and jagged armor plates that made it look like she had just come off a nosedive into a scrapyard, her bright green eyes staring him down condescendingly as a cheeky, taunting grin spread across her face.

Connie Russet, the biggest psychotic bitch this side of Remnant, and unfortunately, the closest thing he had to a colleague in the pecking order of the crew.

"Care tah explain what yer bunch's doing here, Bird Brain, as opposed to checkin' that dump fer missed supplies like ya'll were told? Prolly had something tah do with that fancy schmancy flyer that had ya all scurryin' like little rats, uh?" She asked expectantly, looking mighty pleased to see him in a rough spot.

"Something like that." Strix replied, not rising to the bait. Connie would pick a fight with anyone over anything if given half a chance, and he wasn't about to give her the pleasure. "That "fancy schmancy flyer", as you put it, was bringing in huntsmen. And now they can't go away and leave us be, because someone had to get trigger happy."

"Hhhm." The redhead snorted with an unrepentant shrug. "What can I say? The thing was blockin' the skyline, and I was curious tah see how it'd look all blown up. Damn shame I wasted mah last rocket and didn't get them hunties with it, woulda cleaned your mess right up."

"All you did was put us on a damn timer." Strix replied exasperatedly. "Vale ain't Mystral, the top brass will notice when a bullhead doesn't turn in, and will send more to investigate."

"And that is a bad thing, why? Way I see it we could all use the exercise here. The village folk didn't provide none." The woman replied, sounding genuinely confused, to which the faunus could only sigh exasperatedly.

"What was I thinking? Of course you wouldn't be able to. Think, that is."

"Ooooh?" Connie's grin turned feral, and Strix much annoyedly realized he had slipped, as the others seemed to pick up the on the rising tension and began stepping back, forming a circle around him and his much-despised colleague. "You wanna have a go, Bird brain? Cause I'm feeling like shoving my boot right up yer-"

"What's all this racket?" A calm, measured voice cut in. Strix immediately clammed up, and so did the redhaired bitch. Even Connie wasn't dumb enough to blatantly go against the Boss.

From out of the shadows of the tower's entrance came the leader of their merry bunch of misfits, and a heavy silence fell as everyone seemed to go out of their way to try to avoid the man's attention, even as his piercing, dull grey eyes calmly surveyed the crowd, before finally stopping at his seconds-in-command, eyebrow raised in expectation.

"Ah, nothin' much, Boss." Connie was the first to reply, her insane recklessness working in her favor for a change. "I was just wonderin' why Bird Brain and the guys'ta went with him were back already."

Damn bitch was throwing him under the bus, Strix realized angrily, a reminder she wasn't as dumb as she looked.

"Indeed?" Was the smooth reply, before those grey eyes locked down on him, sending a barely supressed shiver down the faunus' spine. "I was wondering why did it seem like the number of people here had doubled. Care to explain, Mister Lenoir?"

"Well, Ya see, Boss." Strix began, survival instinct kicking in and helping steady his voice. "It seems that we may… have underestimated how quick Vale is to react to outer territory issues. They sent a Bullhead with a group of Huntsmen, nine strong-"

"Nine?" Connie all but chortled. "You got yer arse beat by just-" A glance from the boss silenced even her.

"She does raise a good point, though." The man said as if the interruption hadn't occurred. "Just nine huntsmen, capable of beating a cadre of my finest men? Tell me about them, Mister Lenoir. How'd that come about?"

"Well…" Strix began. He knew he'd have to be fast pleading his case here. "Fact is, I reckoned all we'd have to do was hide and let whoever came chalk things up to the Grimm and call it a day, but these huntsmen, kids probably barely out of training at that…" He rushed to finish as he saw the slight frown on the man's face. "…They saw through it, figured something didn't add up, and then they went and found a survivor. I figured then that we'd have to deal with them to hide our tracks but…"

"Yes?" The man inquired with a deceptively calm tone, noticing his henchling's hesitation. "I am waiting, Mister Lenoir."

"…I think these kids showing up may work in our favor, Boss. I recognized the Schnee heiress among them, she could fetch a pretty big ransom. And even more than that… there was this guy, Boss. Seemed slightly older than the others, was the first to see the ambush coming, and he… he fought like her Boss. Threw elements around, did Ol'Driscoll in that way, the works…"

A glint that Strix was quick to recognize appeared on the man's eyes.

"Tell me more." He said simply.

It would seem that the kids had gained the attention of Alexander Kron. Strix honestly felt sorry for them.

/

"So" Coco, breathed out, making an effort to take stock of their current situation, as she looked around. "Is everyone alright?"

Her teammates and most of team RWBYS seemed pretty shook up by the ambush, and even more so by the cut off of their only means of escape. Yang was right by her sister the moment they'd gotten some breathing room, and now they were all gathering around her, still alert lest those crooks return to try for a round two. Still, they were all mostly uninjured and were quick to report as much.

"Well." Weiss stated, her tone serious yet carrying some notes of sadness. "It would seem we found the scoundrels that were responsible for… This."

"Yeah." The older team-leader replied, then grabbed her scroll. "…Damn, no reception, the tower's not emitting, likely because of those bastards. Calling for back up is a no go, and trying to walk back is just stupid. We're gonna have to hold out and hope that… the Pilot's S.O.S came through."

She hadn't even thought of asking for his name… She'd make sure to check first thing the morning after they got out of this mess, she decided, swiftly silencing that treacherous little whisper in the back of her mind that said, "If we get out…".

"Why… Why would they even do this?" Vel all but whispered somberly. "Why destroy a village like this? And why stick around to try to attack us…?"

At that, Blake turned to Tristard.

"What do you think?" The disguised faunus asked, thinking he'd probably have the perspective to work it out, a thought that was mirrored by Coco herself.

"Hhhmm." The Dragonborn hummed, thinking of how best to voice his suspicions. "Well, I can't really say much for the first question. Brigands like these are like crows, they must have thought the place easy pickings for some reason. As for the second, I don't think they were actually trying to ambush us."

"What do you mean?" Ruby inquired.

"Cases like this… They clearly had their way with the place, so if any of them were still around, it's most likely because they were checking if they had missed anything they could still take. We likely caught them red-handed, and they tried to go unnoticed, explaining why we didn't see anything at first."

"Despicable…" The Heiress hissed, to general agreement. "But if that is the case, why did they attack?"

"Honestly? Because we found her." Tristard replied, turning to the little girl that was now hesitantly peeking at the group from behind Blake. Softly, he approached her, and dropped to one knee to be at eye level with her, removing Kohnariik from his face and giving her a friendly smile.

She was a small, delicate young thing, covered from head to toe in soot, round face framed by two long bangs, orange-brown eyes looking at him uncertainly, a dullness in them that had no place there, her bushy, ring-marked tail trembling uncertainly.

"Hello, Little one." He greeted kindly, to which the girl retreated further behind her cover, Blake gazing down at her sympathetically. "Don't be frightened, nobody here is going to hurt you. What is your name?"

"..ny." The girl mumbled at length.

"Hhhhm?"

"T-T-Tawny." She repeated, a little louder. "Tawny Azeban…"

"Well met, Tawny, I am Tristard Soverick, and the one you're standing behind is Blake Belladonna. You have been a very brave girl so far, I hope you realize that." The Dragonborn praised, making the girl avert her gaze shyly. "Now, however, I am afraid I need to ask you a question, and I need you to be brave when I do. Do you think you can manage that?"

The now named Tawny stared at him hesitantly, before her gaze passed through all the students present, each trying to show her a kind, supportive smile as they made their own introductions.

"Wha- what is it…?"

"Can you tell us anything, about what happened here?" Tristard asked, his tone patient and understanding. He knew full well, and from experience at that, (a vague memory came to mind, of guards finding a lone, ragged little boy in the woods…) that he was prying into very open wounds, and he felt terrible for it, but this was information that they needed. Predictably, the girl seemed to almost recoil, and stood quiet for a very long while…

"It… It started a few days ago… I was helping Auntie Bertha around the inn, like I usually do, when a couple of people entered. That… that grey guy and one other. Said they were travellers from Mystral, looking f-for a place to stay, maybe even a job if they were lucky…" She paused, staring at him uncertainly, and although Tristard could already see where this was going, he nodded encouragingly. "I didn't like them very much at first, but t-the Mayor said that all are welcome in Ashenwood, so we tried to ac-acoo…"

"Accommodate?" Blake supplied helpfully.

"Y-yeah, that… They began looking around the town, getting to know us, sometimes they helped here and there with odd jobs, talking with the Huntsmen team and the tower's workers, and we… we started to welcome them, they started to seem nice."

The girl's lip began to tremble, a moist sheen grew at the edge of her eyes. A sniffle was heard.

"An-and then one night, I woke up and there were screams, and fire and smoke. Everyone was running, and they were hurting us, and laughing and burning and why, why, why did this hap-?!"

"Hush now, Little One." The Dragonborn gently interrupted the panicking girl, a pale green glowing finger softly reaching for her brow. "Rest."

Tawny's eyes quickly grew unfocused, as the Calm spell quelled her fear and sorrow and let her exhaustion win over, making her stumble and collapse into the Archmage's waiting arms.

"Poor girl…" Velvet said sadly as Tristard came to her, taking the child from his arms without complaint.

"Indeed." Yatsuhashi agreed, his usual stoic demeanour marred by empathy. "No child should have to go through such a thing."

"So, going by what she said, those pieces of shit were scouting out the place, trying to figure out how to pull their attack." Yang stated brusquely, her eyes briefly flashing red as she forced herself to stay calm.

"Aye. Likely trying to figure out guard patterns and holes in the defences. When they learned what they wanted, the two she spoke of used the cover of the night to open the gate, and let the rest of their group in." Tristard once again surveyed the wreckage around him. "A foul, but sadly effective tactic."

"Well, what we need right now is to wait for the back up to arrive, and keep an eye out should the bastards get any funny ideas about coming back." Coco said at length. "We should search for a position that looks defensible."

"And maybe gather up some stuff for barricades?" Ruby offered.

"Yeah, good call, Red." The older team leader agreed with a nod, briefly glancing at the bandit corpse that had been left behind with a grimace. "Let's get started on that then. But no splitting up anymore. Move out."

No one disagreed, and the group formed up in a column, continuing their scouting of the place. By some twist of fate, Tristard found himself besides Ruby, and figured he might as well.

"Are you alright, Ruby?" He asked in concern.

"I…" After a moment of silence, where her face shifted through myriad emotions, the girl ultimately replied with a weary sigh. "I don't think so."

"Do you… wish to talk about it?"

"I think I will need to, yes. But not now. Now, we should focus on getting past this. I'll freak out later." She answered honestly, the sheen of steel sounding strong beneath all the weariness.

And Tristard was once again reminded of why exactly did he respect the girl so.

"Ozpin was right to make you leader, you know."

That drew a small smile from her, and Tristard considered it a win.

/

Tawny woke up with a start, her addled mind momentarily unable to grasp where, why and how she was. Then she glanced around, and as that blissful sleep loosened its grip, it all came back to her.

It had all been real, not one of those bad dreams she'd wake up from in a comfy bed, and Auntie Bertha would come and give her a glass of milk and gently tuck her back in…

That could never happen anymore, because her home and everyone in it were gone. Tawny felt a deep pain in her chest, even as her eyes began to tear up again, but then, something she had been thought came to mind.

"Bad thoughts and feelings draw them Grimm critters in, lassie." Auntie would say jovially as she worked around the cooking pot. "'Round these parts, when you feel really sad or afraid or angry, best to focus on the bright side, not give those huntsmen lads too much work to deal with."

And so Tawny tried to do just that, even if this time it was really hard to see anything bright, hugging her tail for any measure of comfort she could get… Her home was gone, but she was still here… And she had been saved from the rubble, sitting now on what she recognized as the ruined second floor of the village's general store, were the Old Shopkeeper would sometimes treat her to free candy…

The building, situated in the village's central plaza, had been deemed stable enough by her rescuers (after Tristard gave it a bit of an alteration touch), what was left of the walls providing adequate cover, while the high vantage point meant they could see anyone approaching easily, but all this was over Tawny's head, as the girl hugged her tail closer and focused on the happiness of that memory…

"Ah, you're awake."

The little girl jerked at the voice snapping her out of her musings, looking up from where she sat to see that black-haired girl, Blake, coming her way, reaching for something in her backpack.

"Here." She said kindly, handing her a ration bar. "You must be hungry. It's not much, but it'll help."

Tawny hesitated, unsure on how to proceed for a bit, but then her stomach betrayed her, grumbling so loudly that some of the others turned her way in alarm before chuckling as they realized what happened. Blushing, the mortified girl quietly took the offered food and began munching.

"T-thank you…"

"You're welcome." The older girl answered with a smile, going quiet as she watched the kid eat. This was… new territory for her. Blake was no stranger to how harsh, how uncaring, life could be. She had witnessed plenty of times how people had suffered because of it, and all this time she had been trying to fight against it… But she had never been good at offering comfort, specially not in as extreme a case as this. How sad it sounded to her, that right now all she could do was try to offer a bit of their meagre food supply…

Surely, as a Huntress she should be able to do more than that, right?

The awkward moment was interrupted, however, as Ruby, who had been keeping a look out, shouted a warning.

"We got incoming! Three people coming from the main road!"

The reactions were immediate. Everyone took cover behind the pieces of wall that stood in that general direction, glancing over it to see the incoming threat as they readied their weapons. Worried, the racoon girl hesitantly followed, sticking between Blake and Velvet for safety and comfort, and with some difficulty reaching over the wall to glimpse…

… Tawny whimpered.

The three people approaching strolled into the ruins, walking with a surety and purpose that made it feel like they owned the place. To the left, she recognized Strix, grey coat and big yellow eyes and feathers dotting the short hair under his hat, the one who pretended to be nice only to let the baddies hurt her home. To the right, she recognized the big, scary woman who had spent the whole night laughing, a large, wicked axe with a chainsaw blade resting on her shoulder. And between them…

He was a tall, sturdily built man, with a big, broad chest and one fleshy arm more akin to a tree trunk carrying a longed, barbed spear, while the other was all wicked, black metal, cybernetic fingers swaying softly as if hitching to grasp at something. He wore a black vest and boots, alongside a cape and leather pauldrons, and his black dreadlocked hair, dull grey eyes and aquiline face completed the ensemble, making him look the part of a barbarian conqueror.

He was the one who was leading the other bad guys that night…

The racoon girl's discomfort was clear for all to see as she ducked back down and held on to Blake like a lifeline. Coco and Ruby glanced at each other, then with a nod, the older girl broke cover and aimed her gatling gun at the incoming party.

"That is far enough." The brunette called out, with as much steel as she could put into her concerned voice. "One more step and my twitchy trigger finger may begin to act up."

The trio stopped at that. Trench coat stood quietly, though his discomfort at being held at gun point (with such a big gun at that) was plain to see to the Dragonborn. The woman, on the other hand, just grinned all the wider, a grin that Tristard found not too dissimilar to an orc's. And as for the other one…

…The man was smiling. Tristard did not like that smile, it looked so real it might fade in smoke like his illusions.

"Now, now." He said, in a smooth, calm tone. "I assure you, there is no need for that."

"Forgive us for remaining sceptical." Tristard replied, not buying into the affable demeanour for one second.

"It is within your right, yes." The man agreed. "But I assure you that we are here in good faith. I am Alexander Kron, and these are my colleagues, Strix Lenoir and Connie Russet. We came here in good faith hoping to… Clear up the misunderstanding."

A moment of silence ensued, as the teams quietly tried to figure out what to make of that.

"…And what misunderstanding is that?" Ruby called out as she left cover to join Coco and Tristard, and the man's gaze lingered on her momentarily, whether because of confusion at her age or something else was anyone's guess.

"Well, I was informed by Mr. Lenoir here that there was a scuffle between my people and yours." The man said, gesturing his black metal arm towards the other man, and none of the students missed how stiff the later went at the motion. "I hope you understand, we have no quarrel with you, it was just… a bad decision, made in the rush of the moment. Had we known you were huntsmen from Beacon, we would not have gone out of our way to pick a fight."

The man then threw his arms wide, in a gesture that he perhaps thought to be inviting.

"With that in mind… How about we cease the hostilities, and look for a way to deal with the situation that will benefit both sides?"

That… was not what any of them were expecting to hear. Another long moment of silence followed, this time marking the confusion the teams were feeling.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Coco answered for all of them.

"It is a rough life here, on the outer reaches of the kingdom. We do what we must to survive. As I understand it, your means of travel were… denied to you amidst the misunderstanding. As a compensation, why don't you join us, so we can sort things out?"

"You can't be serious." Coco replied, torn between shock and anger at the inanity that she just heard, once again, a sentiment that everyone shared.

"You and your men massacred an entire village of innocent people." The Dragonborn interjected, outrage radiating from him in waves. "Your men attacked us, with the intent to kill, because we found someone who escaped your butchery, you killed one of ours already and you still have the gal to throw a recruitment pitch?!"

"What happened here in Ashenwood was a tragedy." Kron nodded, with a sincerity that sounded so utterly faked even his own henchman couldn't help but roll his eyes. "Something that we dearly wish could've been avoided, but sometimes, sacrifices must be made for survival. Surely, you would see the benefit of cooperation to avoid a tragic rep-"

"You can fuck right off." Was Coco's crass interruption, voice thick with disgust. "Get the hell out of here before I start shooting."

As if for emphasis, all ranged weapons at the teams' disposal were trained on the bandit trio. The two henchmen stiffened, but Kron… the only reaction he gave was the fading of his smile, his face becoming disturbingly blank.

"Surely, there is no need for such. It's dangerous out here, it would behove you to at least consider."

"Like the villagers here were given the right to consider?" Ruby cut in. There was a stiff, hissing edge to her voice. It honestly took everyone a while to realize that it was fury. "We've seen what your "cooperation" is. We'll pass, thank you very much."

Something flashed on the man's face. Going by the sneer that very briefly bloomed, it was not a nice thing.

"I assure you, you are making a poor decision."

"And I promise you." Tristard replied, staring the man in eye with no doubt or fear. "The poor decision here was all yours, and you will regret it soon enough."

"I see…" Kron gave a sigh, as if disappointed at their short sightedness. "You clearly need some time to mull it over. We will leave, and return tomorrow to wait for a verdict. If it is the wrong one… sacrifices must be made. And consider also, if you are expecting back up, that we control the CCT tower. No communication to or from this region goes through without our say so. Think of that, and have a nice evening."

His piece said, the man turned around and walked away, his henchmen following. And so Team CVFY and Team RWBYS were left to decide what their next step would be.

/

Unknown to all, at the other side of the valley, the smoke that still wafted from Ashenwood did not go unnoticed. A figure stood, glancing up at the sky, as it sniffed at the air.

"Smoke and ash, not too far from here… Are you certain you will not take that bet?" It enquired, earning it an unimpressed stare from its companion.

"Unlike you, I know when the odds are against me."

And with that, the two pressed forward.

/

So…

My first attempt at a fully original arc is finally developing, and I dearly hope that it was in a way that you all found satisfactory. Rest assured, I do not intend for the OCs that appeared here to be show stealers, but I also do hope that you found them interesting enough. The next update will wrap things up, and the storyline will finally move forward.

Speaking of updates however, well, I think I may have some good news there.

I have been looking back at how… pathetic my track record of updates has been over the years, and have decided that this shall not stand.

I have made a New Year's resolution of sorts, and from now on I will strive to get something out for you guys at least once a month, barring any real-life predicaments getting in the way. It'll still be a bit of a wait, I realize, but it's leagues better than what I've been doing, wouldn't you say?

And this will start right in January, with the very first chapter of a new fic, the idea for which I simply could not get out of my head, branching out into two whole new series for my repertoire of stories. I hope I will see you there, in a tale where heroes thrive and green is best.

And with all of that said, there's nothing else but to wish you all a Happy New Year. May it be a prosperous one, full of good moments and great developments.

Cya all on the next one.