Right, so uh, sorry about there not being any updates whatsoever for the past two-ish weeks. No worries, I'm finally back, and if all goes well I should be able to get back to my Monday & Friday schedule again! For now, enjoy the new chapter.
Chapter 19: Truth
Grunting, Simon hoisted the guard's corpse over his shoulder and hid it in a nearby garbage container. "That should be the last of 'em," he announced while wiping the blood off his rapier.
"Excellent," Buck growled. "Now, let's put an end to this once and for all." The two of them made their way to the giant door that led to the stadium's engine room. The door was labelled with bright yellow signs, saying KEEP OUT, HAZARDOUS MATERIALS. Buck took out a fake security card from his pocket and scanned it in the key slot. With a loud beep, the great door slowly opened.
Buck chuckled as he walked in. "Well well, R and their 'Grandmaster' come through for us yet again."
In the centre of the engine room was a large generator, glowing purple Dust energy being pumped through the machine to the rest of the Amity Coliseum. "Finally, we've found it," Buck rasped. "Now then, Simon. Prepare the device."
"Yes, sir." Simon retrieved a metal orb from his pocket. At its core was a large orange Dust crystal-the Promethian Ore. Surrounding the crystal were several sharp razor blades made of Gravity Dust. Simon attached the device to the generator. "The timer on this bomb lasts about ten minutes," he noted. "We'll need to rush to make it out of the blast radius."
"It's alright, lad. We've already got a craft prepped for our escape," Buck grinned. "Now then, we should wait for the next match to begin before starting the countdown. Blowing up a mostly empty stadium wouldn't be very fun, now would it?"
"Will they really continue the matches with the riots in town?" Simon inquired.
"Not a chance," his boss growled confidently. "Humans like them are stubborn fools-cancelling the tournament will be admitting they've lost. We have nothing to worry about."
Instinctively, he touched the black bracelet on his arm. Everything's ready for the final phase, Buck thought triumphantly. Finally, I'll make my dream a reality.
Back in the Hyperion district, the air was filled with the sounds of bullets. Slowly, the Atlesian military was being overwhelmed by the Faunus rioters and their superior weaponry. "D-dammit!" The officer yelled into his radio. "W-we need backup!" No response. "We're being overwhelmed!"
"Then let us help," came a young woman's voice.
A series of rays of freezing energy came flying from behind him, striking the rioters' rifles, preventing them from shooting. As they looked down in confusion, an explosive shell landed in their midst, knocking them out and blasting them several feet back.
"Sorry we're late!" Latte yelled, as he and Isa walked up to the remaining Atlesian soldiers. "We'll take care of this." He shot out a wave of napalm from his cannon, making the rioters back up in fear.
The officer breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank the gods...but what about the other districts? They're under attack too!"
"Not to worry!" The Huntsman pulled out his Scroll. "Marguerite, you got our backs?"
"No problem!" Marguerite's voice rang through the device. As she said that, a crimson red bullet struck one of the enemy's aircraft, sending it crashing to the ground. Isa quickly encased it in a structure of ice to stop its fall. "Oops. Sorry about that, guys!"
"Esther, you down to guide the civilians away from the battle zones?" Latte asked. "Yeah! I'll summon some fog to hide them from the rioters!" Esther responded via Scroll.
"Badass. Now then, Team IVRY! FLWR! JADE! You guys all got the other districts under control?"
One by one, the other teams all responded over the Scroll that they had engaged the enemy.
"Then we all know what to do," Isa nodded approvingly, readying her gauntlet. "Everyone, subdue the rioters, but avoid fatalities where possible!"
Latte grinned, preparing to fire his cannon. "Come on everyone! Let's show them what we're made of!"
"..." All four members of Team HTHR stared at Summer as if she'd gone crazy.
"Look, I know this is a lot to take in," Summer mumbled awkwardly. "But we're serious about this. We really need your help."
They were in HTHR's room, on the second floor of the hotel. Summer and her team had hurried their way there and had immediately burst into a long and very rambling explanation of what was going on, as well as everything about their involvement with the Revenants' activities. That included their encounters with R and Buck, and the Promethian Ore. As Heather's team hadn't heard the news, they'd also spent fifteen seconds explaining that roughly half the city was in the middle of a mass Faunus rioting.
In hindsight, maybe they shouldn't have been so abrupt about it.
"No, no, we believe you." Heather shook her head, a serious frown on her face. "If the city is in danger of any kind, we will help you in any way we can."
"Uhhh…" Regal scratched his head, chuckling nervously. "I mean, I don't actually get all of it, but whatever it is, I'm in!"
Torrence nodded. "You have our full support."
"Th-then what are we waiting for?" Harriet asked, getting up. "We have to get to the Amity Coliseum now!"
"Wait," said Raven calmly. "There's one more thing we all need to know. That's right, all of you." She nodded at her teammates.
Summer frowned, confused. "Huh? What are you talking about, Raven?"
"I mean the truth. The truth about everything-the syndicate, what they're after, and what they REALLY want." Raven pulled out her Scroll and opened a file, revealing a picture of a small black rat with molten eyes. "First of all...I think you all remember this, right?"
"That's...the black thing that came out of Jin Shi-Huang in the Emerald Forest, isn't it?" Heather asked, astonished.
"Wait, wait, how'd you find a picture of it?" Regal demanded. "Even Heather didn't know what the hell that thing was, and she's the smartest person in the school!"
"..." Harriet was staring at the picture, rigid, a strange look in her eyes. Summer thought she looked...confused? Somehow, she felt that wasn't it. Glancing around the room, she noted that Tai and Torrence were looking at Raven with a mixture of surprise and intrigue, wondering where she was going with this. Curiously, Qrow looked rather calm, though judging by his posture he was clearly as tense as the rest.
"This is a special breed of Grimm, and it's not in any history book or encyclopedia," Raven continued, avoiding Regal's question. "It's actually one of the few successful man-made Grimm in existence. The corporation that made them performed their experiments in secret, before being shut down and assimilated by Merlot Industries a few years ago."
"Are you serious? How does someone 'make' a Grimm?" Tai asked, incredulous. "No one's even captured one before."
"I don't know the full details," Raven admitted. "But I do know these rat Grimm were made for a special-and dangerous-function."
"...And what function would that be?" Harriet asked, gritting her teeth, her voice barely a whisper.
"We all know that Grimm are attracted to negativity. These Grimm take it a step further-they are somehow able to affect negativity itself. When they latch onto an individual, it amplifies the victim's dark emotions and desires...and make them do things they'd never do normally. It's very similar to what we know as 'brainwashing'."
Summer's head was spinning. What? What is she talking about? Barring the fact that she had no idea where Raven could have gotten this information from, she couldn't really see why she had to bring it up at a time like this.
"...That does line up with what happened to Jin," Heather muttered. "It would explain why he seemed so irrationally aggressive that day."
"Though to be fair, 'aggressive' is how he always is," Qrow chimed in dryly.
"But…" Heather frowned at Raven. "What does this have to do with anything?"
"That's my next point. You see, the thing about this so-called 'syndicate' that puzzled me the most was how despite the erratic and senseless violence of their actions, next to nothing about their members was actually known. On one hand, they seemed to be a very organized society, with all the advanced technology at their disposal, but on the other, their actual crimes made them seem like nothing but low-level thugs." Raven paused. "But once I knew what that rat Grimm really was...everything made sense. There are NO members of the syndicate, other than R and Buck, and perhaps a few others. The 'Revenants' never existed."
Tai raised his eyebrows, looking more confused by the second. "Never...existed? What does that even MEAN?"
"I mean that they have no actual underlings running around and performing terrorist attacks in their name. The bombing of the department store was an exception." Raven took a deep breath before continuing. "My theory was this: They use the rat Grimm to corrupt individuals into committing crimes against Faunus. That way, they achieve their goals without ever dirtying their hands."
"But what's their goal, exactly?" Tai asked. "We never did find any clues to what they were after."
Heather bit her lip, looking deep in thought. "And you say they targeted Faunus, yet they had Faunus working with them? How does that make any sense?"
"I can answer both of those at once. Their goal is simple. Their plan-and by 'their' I mean two or three people, along with the technology given to them by their 'Grandmaster'-isn't to discriminate against Faunus. It's the opposite. They're Faunus sympathizers." On her Scroll, Raven displayed several pictures of crime scenes committed by the supposed 'syndicate'. "They committed horrific crimes against their own kind, and in doing so, they built up motivation for dissatisfied Faunus to rebel...like, for example, what's happening in the city right now."
Summer tried her best to take everything in. Looking around, she felt slightly relieved seeing everyone else was as bewildered as she was-particularly Team HTHR, who had just had all of this information dumped on them. She glanced at Raven, suspicion of her teammate swelling up inside her. What she says makes sense, but...how did she get that information?
"S-so those Faunus rioting down in the streets are working for this...fake syndicate?" Harriet asked, anxiety in her voice. "I guess that'd explain why they have all that fancy tech with them."
"It would," Raven agreed. "But...how would you know about their tech, Harriet? Summer never mentioned anything like that."
"H-huh? Oh. Ugh. I-" Harriet started nervously. Raven cut her off.
"And now for the last part of my little explanation. I always believed that someone close to Beacon Academy was involved in this whole incident. It would explain how 'R' seemed to know things they shouldn't-like Qrow's Semblance being shapeshifting, or the blueprints to the CCT Vaults." She paused, as if building up tension for what she said next. "What really clued me in was Qrow's injury. The night we fought off Buck, my brother was shot by R, and got hospitalized for a few days."
Qrow rubbed his chest, wincing at the memory. "And it still hurts like a bitch couple months later."
"The four of us wanted to keep it a secret, so the next day at lunch, I lied and said he'd come down with a fever. You all wished him well, but…" Raven turned her piercing gaze to Harriet. "You said you hoped he wasn't 'hurt too bad', didn't you? Like you knew what had actually happened…"
"Huh? Wh-wh-what are you talking about?" The rabbit Faunus stammered. "Watch yourself, Raven," Heather frowned sternly at her. "What are you accusing her of?"
Raven simply continued. "From the first day...you always made me feel uncomfortable. My Semblance lets me sense people's presence, as well as their emotional state. That day, you were being viciously bullied before Summer stood up for you. From anyone else, I should've felt some sort of strong emotion radiating from your Aura-fear, anger, even gratitude. But I didn't sense anything like that from you."
"..." Harriet was glaring at her.
"And of course, you ARE a Faunus, so I would say you have some motivation to support such a plan. I don't think trying to blow up the stadium was your idea, though. If I had to guess, that was probably Buck's way of showing off his "power" to his supporters."
"What kind of suggestion is THAT?" Harriet yelled, understandably furious. "Y-you think I'd side with terrorists just because I'm a Faunus? What about all the other Faunus in the school, huh? And besides," she stopped to catch her breath, panting. "You said Qrow ran into this 'R' person in the Emerald Forest, right?! That couldn't have been me, I was with you all the whole time!"
Regal looked down. "...Not the whole time," he muttered. "You did run off for a while saying you were going to chase after the rat Grimm…"
"REGAL!" Harriet stared at her teammate in disbelief.
"Raven, what are you saying?" Summer yelled at her friend, horrified at what she was saying. "Why would you think Harriet's our enemy? Is this just because she's a Faunus?" She didn't like losing her temper, and she rarely did, but she couldn't just stand there and listen to Raven make such absurd accusations against Harriet. "What motive could she possibly have?"
"Because she lost everything she cared about ten years ago in the prelude to the Faunus War-including her good friend, Violet Fortune."
Raven's answer was immediate, quick, and unwavering. A particularly heavy silence followed.
"Violet…?" Tai asked. "That girl who was killed at a protest?"
Harriet gave a sharp, incredulous laugh. "Wh-what kind of accusation is that?! I never even knew Violet! I was living in a whole other Kingdom when the war started! You expect anyone to believe this?"
"No," Raven admitted. "But they'll believe THIS." Holding out her Scroll, she opened up another image.
In the streets of a suburban city, five Faunus children were playing tag. Everyone's eyes were drawn towards to the two girls in the centre-one with long auburn hair and a large fox's tail, and another with short mousy hair, acne, and a short, fluffy white rabbit tail. The photo was in rather low quality, seeming to have been taken by an older model of camera.
The photo seemed to be from an old newspaper. At the bottom of the photo was a caption written in formal font: Violet Fortune (middle left) was confirmed dead in yesterday's attack. The whereabouts of the other four children (Jake Blackthorne, Mira Bright, Sean Amber, and Harriet Maroon) remain unknown.
The silence in the room grew ever thicker. The tension could be cut with a knife at this point. Slowly, everyone turned to look at Harriet.
"How…" she growled, glaring at Raven with narrowed eyes. "How do have that picture? I thought-"
"-all mentions of your existence were erased from the records?" Raven finished. "They were-but I have my ways of digging up that sort of information. After all, you're not the only one who has secrets, 'R'."
Harriet went dead silence for a brief moment. Then she gave a short laugh, as her face curled up into an unpleasant sneer.
"I never liked you much, Raven," she murmured. "I always thought you'd be the one who'd stand in my way."
Before anyone could react, Harriet was gone. In a flash, she'd disappeared into thin air, with no indication that she'd been sitting there a moment ago. The room was quiet once more.
Qrow was the first to speak. "Well then...I guess that settles that."