Nightraze: Thanks! I am just getting started on escalating the story.
Skij Leonhart: thanks for reviewing then. I am glad to see that you do like it :)
Tuutje07: Good guys or bad guys? Spoilers! Bad guys. Also, alcohol. Everything is possible. I should know, I have to down large quantities of the stuff before I can write emotional scenes :P
Existence is simple: they do. And they don't. Also, Aura is the manifestation of the soul. So basically, stuff can happen. A lot of stuff. Mantis holds an important role…why, she will return in next chapter :D
Little sister has awesome ideas indeed…and a hell of a manipulative strike.
Blake's Arc!
"Professor Ozpin?"
"Hmmm…Lima Two-One, was it?"
"Yes sir. I wanted to let you that know Onyx is not going to send additional soldiers to the city in the foreseeable future, because they want to see how Beacon handles it."
"Additional soldiers? How many soldiers does Onyx possess?
"That's classified, sir. But has the result that the crime-sectors still active, such as the White Fang and certain terrorists, will remain unsuppressed. I take it this won't be a problem?"
"No, it will not."
Conversation between headmaster Ozpin and "Cal" Lima Two-One.
[DATA EXPUNGED} military engagement with Grimm forces, Vacuo
The Commando shouted orders wherever she went, rallying wounded and exhausted soldiers alike in her attempt to reorganize the defenses. She had little time, as the Grimm forces near the borders were massing for another attack. They just wouldn't let up; their numbers reached the thousand, while the defenders had limited ammo and personnel. Reinforcements had been unable to get to them in time and now, seventy people were stuck fighting a lopsided battle with quickly-dwindling supplies.
But Jasmine Seraphim was not thinking about overwhelming enemy numbers or painful odds. In her mind, she was running through the defensive layers again and again, trying desperately to determine how best to deal with the tidal waves of black bodies that were launching themselves towards their outpost. She didn't need to remind herself how crucial this mission was; if they failed, the Grimm invasion would strike at the nearest city, which had a population of sixty-thousand. They couldn't afford to fall here, they just couldn't.
"Sergeant, repair that radio and call for air-support. Corporal, get those grenades primed. I don't want to run out of them in the middle of a fight."
Both men saluted her and jumped to their respective tasks, leaving the Commando free to assess the situation. The outer perimeter was breached and the soldiers had pulled back, priming the minefield behind them. Total casualties of the first wave had exceeded reached triple digits and exhausted their first supply of Dust.
Now, there were two phaselines left to hold. The outermost one was protected by a minefield and turrets, the innermost by the seventy and hundred-eight droids they had left, together with half a dozen tanks and jeeps. Normally their ammo would be enough to repel any attack, but not this merciless wave of death.
"They are coming," shouted one of the scouts.
The Commando didn't need to be told. Her sensitive ears had allowed her to pick up movement that was still far outside of human reach. Could smell them too.
She didn't waste a moment. "Sharpshooters and snipers, target the Alpha Beowolves. I want precision shots and reload-calls. Sergeant, what's the status of that air-support?"
"Twenty minutes, ma'am!"
It might as well have been twenty days for all the good it would do them. The bulk of the Grimm forces was rapidly approaching them through the forests and even with a kilometer-wide plain separating them from the charging army, they did not have enough sight.
Jasmine crossed her arms and watched as a dozen soldiers opened fire with high-caliber snipers, tearing dozens of Alpha wolves apart with Red Dust. But it wasn't enough; the tidal wave of bodies approached their camp with frightening speed and animalistic ferocity. Soon, they were within range of the rest of the men and women charged with defending Vacuo.
Normally, the Kingdom could have mustered a dozen of Hunters to aid them in the fight, together with hundreds of soldiers, but there hadn't been enough time. The attacks had come without warning and with a vigor that seriously made the Commando doubt the current intelligence-model for the Grimm.
Tanks tore into the enemy ranks and jeeps fired off salvo after salvo of rockets, but the enemy continued on despite their casualties. Too soon they reached the outer perimeter and Jasmine watched the smaller Beowolves charge ahead of the larger, more durable Ursae, clearing a large path through the minefield. Clever little bastards! Where had they picked up that trick? Normally the larger Grimm charged ahead and got blown up for their trouble.
The monsters learned from their mistakes and it were antics like this that made humanity lose many good people in the constant, never-ending wars. Why? How could a mindless animal understand how to sweep mines with lesser beings? It didn't make sense!
When the Grimm reached the inner perimeter, they only had half their forces remaining. But they had forged a path through the costly mines and were now pressing dangerously close to the line. Explosive tank-shells, powerful rounds and explosives pelted their ranks and tore dozens of them apart in quick succession, but they were so fast. Already the Beowolves were charging their lines, forcing the sharpshooters to switch to their shotguns.
The Commando cursed under her breath as she tore through five of the bastards in quick succession. She had been fighting on this front for a week now, with minimal rest and sleep. Even for a powerful shock-trooper like her, this was pushing it. Her Faunus-traits gave her enhanced durability and stamina, but not unlimited. She was close to exhaustion and the enemy didn't seem to be capable of that human trait.
Slowly, the Grimm were forcing them back. Soldiers fell, torn apart by a barrage of monsters with uncanny intellect. Seraphim soon found herself on the defensive, taking big strides backwards to avoid getting caught up in the mass of bodies. The ground was littered by the torn-apart Grimm, soon to disappear, but now a testimony to their sheer numbers.
Then, the ground rumbled. Something tore through the sky above them and everything seemed to explode. The hordes of Beowolves and Ursae that had been hammering them from the front had died; blown to pieces by some massive ordnance. Those in the center of the blast-radius had been completely obliterated by the explosion, while those further away had been blown to pieces. Only a small handful had survived and those were being picked off within seconds, without any noticeable form of resistance.
One airstrike, hundreds of Grimm dead.
"Shit that was danger-close," breathed one of the soldiers near the Commando. "Flyboys got here in time!"
Two dark vessels stopped a rough hundred meters away from the forest. Seraphim gestured for the binoculars and peered through the device to get a better look. "Bullshit," she spat. "Those ain't our fighters!"
"Who else's, ma'am?"
The Commando enhanced the image and saw a dozen black-clad figures jumping out of the ships, covering the ten meters fall without any problem.
"What the fuck are they doing here?" she shouted at nobody in particular.
"They, ma'am?"
Onyx. "Get Command on the line, now! I want our people out of here and a damn army in the place."
"With all due respect, who are they? Why are you reacting like this?"
In the past ten missions, nothing had spooked her like this. It made sense for the soldiers to be frightened; an enraged predatory-Faunus was hell to fight. But she hadn't lost herself yet. First she needed to know for sure.
"Actually, scratch that last order. I want a team of team of scouts on me within two minutes. We're going in."
"In Grimm-infested woods, ma'am?"
"If Onyx is involved, Grimm-infestations are the least of our troubles."
Her village had found that out the hard way.
Day 43, History module, 14:23,
"Now that we have spoken about the implications of Faunus and Human hate-actions to this extent, we will move on to a more controversial topic: the Arcadia-Luna conflict, commonly known as the Death-war.
An excited whisper ran through the college-room as the students processed what they were going to learn that day. The topic of war had already been discussed to a great extent with the Sergeant-Professor's Warfare module, but Johnson had not been willing to discuss the Death-war with them. But now, roughly a month later, it was finally time.
Yang felt excited about the subject, albeit not in a morbid fashion. Of course the ideas of military fights and engagements interested her greatly and the fact that their own city hadn't even seen military action yet made that interest only bigger.
Not everyone shared her enthusiasm though. She could see Blake and Weiss sitting next to each other, with the bow-wearing girl looking appalled and the white-haired girl looking…annoyed.
But Ruby seemed to at least understand that this was a very rare occurrence; her little redheaded head was paying rapt attention to the raving Professor, even though the subject wasn't really her thing.
"As tensions between the two independent cities rose out of proportions, the leaders decided that war could be the only possible outcome. In having decided to do so, both cities needed to bolster their defensive and offensive capabilities. As such, the plains lying between Arcadia and Luna were determined to be the perfect battlefield. Both of them were a nation on their own. Both of them had tens of thousands soldiers at the ready. Arcadia chose to invade. "
Yang nodded, understanding that such a wide, open place had to be the ideal place for such a battle and that the best defense was a good offense. Johnson had taught them that much.
"Now, as you all have learned during the warfare module, several key-factors determine the nature of a battlefield and the fight taking place inside of it. As Luna was situated to the east and Arcadia to the west, they had no choice but to clash in the fields. Can anyone tell me where the soldiers of Luna had dug in beforehand?"
The Professor looked through the classroom with an eager expression, but nobody replied.
That wasn't a problem apparently, as Oobleck merely downed his coffee-cup and ordered them to write down what they knew of Luna's staged defenses. "You have five minutes to write down anything you know about the subject, before I will pick individuals at random to hear the answer. Get to it."
Yang eagerly jumped at the chance to show off what she knew. Her interest might lie primarily with military-grade vehicles, but she also had a secret hobby in reading into military novels and history. As such, she knew more of the things that happened in Vale than the average student, she dared to bet. Even though most of the details of the conflict were lost to all but a very select group of individuals, she still knew enough to write down quite a few things.
And it helped that the person sitting next to her would most likely know even more than she did. "Hey Will," She asked the boy after a minute of silent writing, "What do you-?" She looked up at him when asking that question, only to notice that he wasn't even paying attention to her. He was simply looking at the patrolling Professor with a slight frown on his face. He didn't blink, he didn't even seem to breathe.
That was…odd.
Especially odd, seeing as he shouldn't be ignoring her. She generally disliked people ignoring her, but they were in a classroom. So it was okay to a certain extent with normal people.
Will was not normal people.
In the days that had gone by since the whole Saboteur-incident, he had shown remarkable willingness to make up for what he had done. He had gone as far as to show up in the dining hall, alone, unarmed and unarmoured, before sitting down at a place that was closer than the usual two-meter distance he kept between him and living beings. He hadn't missed a single college since having returned to Beacon and he had even talked to a few people out of himself.
He still sucked at anything involving other people, but at the very least it was a beginning. A beginning that was only reinforced by Ruby having decided that she trusted the kid better with team RWBY than with JNPR –as…well, LACG still didn't take very kindly to him being there.
Today, it was her turn to keep a close eye on him.
Eventually, the Professor decided that they had had enough time and that he wanted to know the answer. "Miss Rose, if you would be so kind?" He asked the younger girl with a speed that was nearly impossible to follow.
Luckily, Ruby was a master at speed-rambling. She wouldn't miss a single word that was put to her. "Ehm…I know that the soldiers from Luna had …half the area under their control. A defensive line…a thousand meters?"
The Professor celebrated his supply of coffee by quickly taking two gulps before answering. "Luna sure had more than half of the field under their control…but the lines of defense they had ran more than a thousand meters deep. Try seven-thousand meters deep Miss Rose, then you have an estimation of the scales."
Yang whistled softly, understanding the real scale of the conflict for the first time. Sure, she had heard of the many thousands of people that had died during the conflict, but the size of their battle had still been left unaccounted for by the tales. Only recently had the finer details of that war made their way to Vale.
The majority of the students started to whisper and talk to each other. Apparently, she wasn't the only one who didn't know how large the conflict had been.
"Yes yes, I know. The fields between Luna and Arcadia spanned a total of eleven kilometers and Luna controlled most of it. What else can you tell me concerning the geography of the area?" The Professor then asked.
Pyrrha raised her hand and Oobleck gestured for her to take the word.
"Trees and houses used to be scattered all over the area," The redhead stated. "However, they did not last past the first three days."
"Correct," Oobleck replied. "Now, before we delve deeper into the subject of the actual conflict, we must first understand the true reason for this conflict to have lasted so long. There are quite a few reasons for this, but the most important one can be related to the climate –more importantly, the weather."
Ten minutes long they listened to the teacher talking about the truly dreadful weather that had assailed the many men and women that had fought and died in the war. How they had been plagued by storms and lightning and hail –how it had rained for more than ten days during the fight, with just two or three days without rain.
Oobleck made it sound like the very world had turned against the combating soldiers. And even though a few people in the classroom –like Jaune and Weiss- were skeptical of what their teacher taught them, the majority of the students fell silent during his explanations.
"Only a few hours after the artillery and cannons had opened fire did it start to rain –and it did not stop for two days. Nearly seventy percent of those eleven kilometers had been turned into a deadly mudbath. From the many thousands of soldiers, as much as thirty percent drowned in mud."
"Hold on," Cardin asked, "How do we know this? This was only two years ago, but any information we have on other cities could be false, right?"
"Mister Winchester, a good question. However, any and all information collected after such a savage war cannot be forged. The conflict was simply too large to be kept a secret from the surrounding cities. Neither Luna nor Arcadia decided to stay independent for long."
"What do you mean, Professor?" Grace asked.
"I mean that only Vale and Aozon had chosen to stay out of the conflict. There were plenty of other cities and –as we are led to believe- even places across the continents that were willing to lend the cities a hand. This attributed to a number of soldiers far greater than the cities could support –both sides roughly had twenty-thousand able-bodied men and women."
"But…Vale has only fifty-thousand civilians!" Weiss cried out, "How many of those people actually died?"
Oobleck lowered his head and crossed his arms, sighing. "No more than two-thousand people survived. Total."
"Both sides put together?" Jaune then asked him, incredulously.
"Yes mister Arc, soldiers from both Arcadia and Luna were counted amongst those men and women. It truly was one of the most tragic cases of deaths ever since the Grimm-Human war."
Yang happened to glance to her side and was surprised to see that Will didn't look very good. He was very pale –more so than normal- and clammy sweat stuck to his skin. His fists were clenched and his nails dug deep into the palms of his hands. But he didn't tear his solid gaze off of the Professor, staring as if he was hypnotized "Huh…" She mused and tore a small piece of paper off of her note-block, crushing it to a small ball.
"Those lives that were not claimed by the deep trenches filled with mud or sludge were snuffed out by the relentless pounding of the artillery. As the lines of infantry of Arcadia clashed against the defensive lines of Luna…"
She flung her makeshift projectile at Ruby and hit her dead-center on the back of her head.
The redhead turned around, scowling. "Hey!"
She nodded with her head at the frozen boy sitting next to her and sighed exaggeratedly, albeit silently.
Ruby cocked her head and stared at Will for a few seconds, before turning around to continue listening to the Professor.
That wasn't because she hadn't seen anything. Ruby had only needed a few seconds to read Will's body language, taking in every little detail before turning back to process it all. When he tried to keep his emotions hidden, he was very hard for her to read. Just like Cho and Alessa.
However, his control over his body had slipped. It allowed Ruby sister to get a good idea of what was going on, after which she could confront him about it.
"The conflict raged on for two weeks, during which both sounds continued to hammer each other with all the lethal force they could muster. Roads and houses were long since gone and the supply-lines were cut off at both sides. Now, there are a few facts and trivia that you are all bound to have heard over the months. What was considered a long-term military mishap for the Colonel in charge of Arcadia's front-line troopers?"
Yang raised her hand, already knowing the answer.
"Miss Xiao Long?"
"Nearly everytime the night fell and the fighting died down, he renewed the violence by ordering his soldiers to stop resting and continue fighting. And killing," she told the Professor, suddenly feeling a bit unsure whether she wanted to be known for knowing that fact herself.
"Correct. Good rest is vital for a soldier to continue fighting, not to mention their morale. Even though the morale of both sides had been destroyed along with the landscape, they did not get much respite throughout the fighting. More?"
"Is it true that the frontline had been stuck for two days in a row, twice?" Ruby asked.
Where did she hear that?
"Yes! That is a fact! Five days into the conflict, the frontlines fell into a deadlock. Neither side was capable of breaking through. The first time this occurred, Arcadia had reached more than six kilometers into the fields. Luna had lost two kilometers to the relentless charges, but they still kept strong. The second time was at the eight day, where Luna stopped the advance once again at nine kilometers distance. By that point, they only had two kilometers left. But their defense had grown desperate."
"Ehm…desperate?" Lisa asked.
"Yes," Oobleck verified, "During the last days of the war, it is said that Luna begun to slowly force Arcadia back, pushing their troops all the way back to the middle. At the dawn of the thirteenth day, they were back where they had begun."
"If Luna was finally winning ground," Cardin asked, "How did the war end?"
Cardin's attitude had increased lately. He was a lot less sure of himself now that he had been beaten by Jaune and he had almost completely stopped bullying altogether…which might have also been because his other bully victim, Velvet Scarletina, has been carrying herself with double the self-esteem than usual.
That was one of the better side-effects of a group of soldiers attempting to socialize with them. Velvet seemed to like their leader, who in turn liked her.
Oobleck downed his third cup of coffee and said, "That is where history has become scares and vague, I am afraid. There are no more reports concerning the war…but seeing how the war went, I would wager that nobody won. The survivors were few. It is possible that, without anybody left to order the soldiers, the war simply stopped."
His words hung in the atmosphere for a while, electing a long silence.
Eventually, Jason Cho broke that silence: "What happened to the survivors?"
PTSD, probably.
"Unfortunately, I cannot say. I can only imagine the horrors that they must have seen…it was said that the soldiers were forced to use the bodies of their comrades to gain height, cover and distance. Both sides suffered losses…so many losses."
Next to her, Will lowered his head. His hands grew white from the clenching, the skin on his palms was broken and bloody and an idea was slowly starting to form in Yang's head.
She had heard enough about the topic; Oobleck could stop now.
But the Professor did not stop. "There is plenty of war poetry written about the Luna-Arcadia conflict. But the solid facts concerning the true history and, by extent, the nature, are better suited to indicate the true horrors of that fight."
"For example?" Weiss asked.
"The usage of barbed wire, trenches and minefields for example. Everybody was conscripted for the fight; kids younger than you, men older than Professor Port and Adamant combined and even women."
"Kids?" Ruby asked softly, "They used kids?"
"Often without training, ranging from usage in the kitchen as to clear mines." As Oobleck answered Ruby, Will abruptly stood up and walked out of the classroom. The teacher probably did not notice it, but every single student did.
Oobleck continued talking, Ruby looked over her shoulder and looked at Yang.
She replied in kind by shrugging, indicating that she had no clue to the unspoken question: 'why?'
The rest of the lecture was spent speaking about the political, geographical and even cultural influences of the war. Why the cities went to war, how they got their equipment and how they set their lines out. Once the remaining thirty minutes had been spent, everyone was free to go. Oobleck zoomed out of the classroom and it was up to them to make their way to the dining hall for dinner, though the mood was heavy and sulle.
"What was that about?" Weiss asked and pointed to the door. "You would think that if anyone would be able to stomach this topic, it would be him, right?"
"I'm not so sure…" Ruby muttered and crossed her arms. "Perhaps we should ask him?"
Blake nodded, perhaps seeing the logic behind her words.
Yang, however, wasn't too satisfied with that choice. "Ehm…hello!" She exclaimed and placed her hands on her hips. "What makes you think we will find him?"
"He will turn up somewhere, I am sure of that," Ruby replied.
She sighed and tried to think of a reason for the boy's sudden disappearance. He wasn't the type to risk attraction attention like that, especially not in the middle of a lecture. So there had to be an important reason for him to behave like that.
And that reason probably meant trouble for Beacon. Again.
The students poured out of the lecture hall and as she had predicted, Will was nowhere to be found. Pyrrha threw Yang a concerned glance before Jaune led the team out of the hall and LACG lacked a response to the disappeared soldier altogether.
It was a curious case, the scenario with Will. He truly worked hard to make up for the things he had done, but at the same time he still his strange habits and quirks that made his presence hard to tolerate. Like his tendency to want to fix everything with violence…his usage of complicated military terms that only she was willing to listen to…his complete inability to show empathy to other people.
Well, that wasn't really true. He was capable of showing empathy to others, mostly towards Ruby and her, but he had yet to show that. It was the thought that counted and for four days he had shown nothing but willingness to improve his relation with others. So…this sudden change in behavior was especially odd. Perhaps something in the lecture had hit a sore spot? One of his previous assignments ?
"You heard Oobleck talk about children fighting in a war?" Blake asked them after a while, when they were walking to the dining hall. "Do you think that is true?"
"Wouldn't children be a burden in a fight?" Wiss answered, sounding deeply disturbed by what she had heard that day. "I don't even want to think about having to fight while near small kids, let alone fight against one."
"But Professors are always right," Ruby replied. The poor girl sounded as shaken as Weiss did. "So that means there was a war in the Kingdom that utilized child-soldiers…very recently."
"But…Vale didn't have anything to do with that, right?" Yang asked. The mere thought of people using child-soldiers in the most deadly war in their known history was sickening and enraging, but she needed to know that they weren't responsible. Oobleck had said that Vale had not picked a side, but she had to be sure.
"I don't think so…" Blake replied. "But…it raises a few questions."
"Do you think that's why Will left before Oobleck could finish?" Ruby asked. "Because he encountered child-soldiers in the past and is ashamed of having fought them?"
"Anyone would be ashamed of having done so. Killing children, even if they attacked you…" Yang felt a chill run down her spine and she quickly wrapped her arms around her waist. She didn't naturally get cold. She wouldn't be able to do it; she could never bring herself to harm a child, even if it was pointing a gun at her.
"You might be on to something there, Ruby."
"We have no way of knowing that," Blake stated, also bringing up a good point.
"Hence the asking." Ruby then decided, ending the conversation.
The first-year students were really lucky currently; Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were all scheduled as environmental recon days. Meaning: they had three days of spare time on their hands. Jaune and Lisa had planned a little excursion to the city, but Yang had a feeling that other things were going to happen.
And if things were going to happen…people from Onyx would be involved. Perhaps that was the reason Will had left? Because he really did have to leave?
But as the teamleaders had communicated with each other to a better degree than normal, there was less doubt regarding who would come to the city and who not. She was excited to finally visit the city again, especially considering the coming event: the Vytal Festival. Because a different Kingdom had finally opened diplomatic…things…with Vale, they could finally reenact the age-old tradition of having a big party.
She didn't really understand why this whole "Vytal Festival" was such a big deal. A bunch of people were going to meet a bunch of other people and that really the extent of her knowledge. She loved to learn about military events, tactics and history but things like culture weren't really her thing. So she left Weiss to do the loving culture thing. But Professor Goodwitch had been really clear on the importance of the events, as she had started pushing them even more with her lessons. Impressing other schools that were coming to Vale was apparently very important?
Either way, the only thing she was really looking forward to where the upcoming tournaments. She didn't know who, when or how they were going to fight other Academies, but it sounded like a whole lot of fun to her.
After they had worked their way through their banquet together with LACG and JNPR at one big, merry table, Jaune and Lisa had decided that they were going to take their respective teams to the city. People were starting their preparations for the imminent party, which wasn't something they wanted to miss.
Ruby told them that it was alright and that she wanted to do a few things before setting out to the city.
But after teams JNPR and LACG had left, she understood that there was really one thing that Ruby wanted to do.
"Hangar bay?" Yang asked her younger sister.
"Hangar bay!" Ruby happily confirmed and set out towards the dreaded Hangar bay that they had come to dread, her red cape flapping behind her. Dreadfully.
"Why are you so curious?" Weiss asked the rapidly moving redhead.
"Aren't you?"
"N-not to such degree, no!"
"Liar! Your skirt is on fire!"
"Stop making jokes about my skirt!"
"Only if you stop wearing it!"
That's going a bit far for a joke, Yang thought. Ruby and Weiss had grown awfully close together…not that it bothered her, but there was a limit to the things two girls could say to each other.
At least she thought so.
"You're not trying hard enough."
Weiss almost made it sound as if Ruby was trying to get in her skirt. Panties. Whatever. It was a bit…disturbing.
And also a little bit cute. But mostly disturbing.
Eventually, the four of them ended up near the Hangar bay. Blake lifted her hand to knock, but Yang beat her to it. "Knock knock!" She exclaimed and roughly jerked the door open, causing Blake to quickly take a step backwards.
"You could have just asked…" She softly complained.
"Yang never asks," Ruby clarified while she stepped inside. "She just takes. You should know that by now!"
"Hellooo?" Yang chirped and jumped over the recently-repaired railing. She spotted a heavily armed figure pacing back and forth between a few consoles and guessed the rest.
And the lack of helmet was a pretty big indicator too.
"Hey soldier-boy," She laughed and walked up to the black figure in front of her. Ruby and Weiss were closely following her, while Blake snuck off to investigate something. "What's the hurry? Can't wait to get to the city either?"
Will turned around and looked at her. He did not look very amused.
"You look terrible…" said Ruby.
Even though Yang was no magical face-reader like her sister was, she was pretty sure that she saw the same things. His eyes had that same haunted expression they had had after the compound-thing and his paleness had reached a new level. It looked like he was about to throw up.
"Why did you walk out on the lesson like that?" Weiss demanded assertively, following the way of the Xiao Long.
"I had things to do," The boy replied without moving a muscle.
Ruby shook her head and sighed. "Don't lie to us. I don't like that. Was it the subject?"
Will pulled a muscle in his jaw and his eyes narrowed, but he remained carefully under control of his expressions. "No." Then he turned around and grabbed a black piece of armour, which he then started to strap to his leg.
"What did the Death-war remind you of?" Ruby asked, stabbing right through Will's "obvious" lies.
He spun around and opened his mouth to formulate a retort, but at the last moment he seemed to change his mind and shut his mouth again. Then he frowned…before the grown disappeared and turned into a mild expression that Ruby was probably able to glean a thousand and one pieces of information off.
Yang only saw a certain helplessness on his face. It was…unnerving to see a seasoned fighter like Will pull such a face. She would have given him a hug, but she wasn't too sure if he could appreciate that. So she stayed her hand.
"I was there…" He told them, barely audible. His voice was like a whisper and it sounded like he had to force the words out.
"Oh." Yang quickly made some calculations. The most brutal war in history of Vale and he had been there. No wonder that he was so…him. Will. Operative. It explained quite a few things, although the thought still struck a sensitive nerve within her.
"You were there?" Blake said, suddenly standing next to Weiss. "But that was like, two years ago. You should have been fifteen or sixteen then." She sounded more compassionate than normal, which wasn't too weird concerning the circumstances.
Will averted his gaze and reached for his left shoulder with his right hand, giving off a very nervous air. Vulnerable, even.
"Yes…" He said with a weak voice. "It was."
"What were you doing there?" Ruby asked him carefully. Weiss didn't say anything; she just stood there with a hand in front of her mouth, too dumbstruck to say a word.
"I…" The soldier started and looked away. "I had a mission. An i-important one."
Stumbling over his words? Will? "How long were you there?" Yang asked him, memories of Oobleck's lecture flashing back into her mind. The soldiers drowning in mud as their comrades forced to climb over their bodies, the barbed wire and mines and the child-soldiers, having been forced to fight for their cities.
"I saw it through…" the Operative replied and for a second, his eyes glazed over as if he suddenly remembered something. Then he shook himself out of it and hid his emotions behind a new pokerface. "I can't talk about it."
Much to Yang's surprise, Ruby didn't pursue the issue. "I understand. Want to tell us where you are going then?"
Will seemed hesitant for a moment, before he yielded and answered her. "The northern continent was overrun millennia ago when the Grimm attacked mankind. Nobody has been able to reinitiate communications with them, not even Onyx. The other continents do. Onyx is planning an expedition, but first they need me to follow a trail."
"A trail?" Yang's interest was piqued. She and Ruby were from the north, even though they didn't really come from the northern-most continent. That was where their parents had met each other after the incident.
"Yes. Two weeks ago, I was attacked and subsequently beaten by an Onyx Operative going by the name of Mantis. She went AWOL and this trail is all we got."
"That?" Weiss asked, speaking for the first time since Will's open reveal. "But you were…she nearly killed you! And now you're going after her?"
"Yes," The boy replied with a shrug.
"Can't Onyx and Beacon work together with this?" Ruby asked him.
"Maybe. But you need to focus on the Festival. Represent the kingdom."
Weiss ticked Ruby on the shoulder and the redhead nodded, picking up on Will's subtle signal.
"We need to go now," Ruby told him and awkwardly scratched the back of her head. "If you want to join us, we'll be in the city tomorrow too."
"Yes," Will replied and resumed tinkering with a heavy-looking pistol. He had clicked from vulnerable war-shocked to on-duty fast. Too fast for a normal person. His emotions were genuine, but…it seemed so odd.
Blake sighed and threw the boy a concerned glance, before Ruby touched her shoulder gently and steered her away. They couldn't help the boy any further, if he wanted to be alone they would respect that wish.
And with 'they', Yang meant the rest of her team. Because she didn't let go that easily.
"You're holding it upside down," She told Will when he tried to stuff an explosive device in a carton box in a rather handicapped manner.
He turned the thing the right way up and proceeded to slid it in the box without trouble. Then he blinked and lowered his gaze.
She was silent for a few seconds, knowing that the rest of her team would wait for her outside until she was finished satisfying her curiosity. Ruby knew better than to stick around when it wasn't really needed and Blake didn't want to have anything to do with people from Onyx unless absolutely necessary.
Weiss had been too shocked.
"What's eating you?" She finally asked him, deciding that she still did not truly understand what was wrong with the guy. If she wasn't mistaken, he seemed almost…anxious. "Was Oobleck's college too painful?"
It took the boy a while to reply. "Amongst others."
'What others? Who is this 'Mantis' chick?"
Will put down a large knife and sighed. "Years ago, there was a war-philosopher known as the Aristocrat. He thought that the perfect soldier was embodied by three traits, exemplified by the rifle and the body. Accuracy and speed were two of them-"
"-what was the third one?"
"-with me and Mantis fulfilling them, respectively."
"Hold on," She agitatedly said, ignoring the fact that Will had just stated to be 'fulfilling' the stupid dreams of an old geezer, as creepy and perverted as that sounded, "This Mantis is another Operative? Like you? But she…she kicked your ass, right?"
"Yes. One-time occurrence."
"And you are… accuracy…while she is speed?"
"Yes."
"How are you going to beat her then?"
"Don't worry," The boy stated, "I have a plan. It's classified."
Yang scowled and looked over her shoulder to the door, where her team was undoubtedly waiting for her. Then she turned back to him and jabbed with her finger at his chest, twice, for emphasis. "If you don't come back alive within a few days, I am going to beat you to do death with your helmet!"
Will slid a clip into a second large pistol. "Remind me of telling your sister a story before you do that."
"Got it," She confirmed with a grin. "Happy hunting."
"You too."
She turned around to leave, before remembering something else. Something quite important. " Hey…if you were to find something interesting on this Torchwick guy…or other people we might come across…give Ruby a call, kay?"
He nodded and continued packing his stuff. She shook her head and walked away with a faint smile. As she left, she wondered just how important Onyx was going to get in their near-future. If they couldn't control their own soldiers, Vale would be in for a lot of trouble.
Vale city district, 16:44
After Yang had finally rejoined the rest of them, they could finally set out for Vale. Weiss had wanted to visit the docks for some reason, so that was where they were heading. The streets were decorated royally, with balloons and streamers of all colours having ben spread all over the place.
One shop even had a sign that said "Welcome to Vale!"
As Weiss and Yang led the way, Ruby had the chance to talk with Blake about something she had been thinking about.
"You know Blake," She asked the dark-haired girl. "I've been meaning to ask you a question."
"Alright," Blake replied, not sounding particularly interested…or caring in any way.
"You weren't very amused last time our conversation turned towards the White Fang with the Warfare module. I didn't know that they interested you so much?"
Blake's expression shifted; her eyes narrowed and she set her mouth in such a way that it seemed as if she forced herself to keep looking neutral. "I sympathize with the White Fang."
"Why would you do that?"
"Because I think they resemble the issue that Fauna have; they are misunderstood and ignored. Abused."
Ruby frowned, feeling the suspicion she had been having for weeks slowly increasing, "Are you talking about the White Fang…or Fauna in general?"
"F-Fauna in general," Blake was quick to reply.
Just not quick enough to hide the small hesitation in her voice. Curious. "Well, I've been thinking. You turn awfully defensive when it concerns those issues…and you also turn awfully assertive when talking about things like Onyx."
"So?" Blake replied, her voice being kept in a careful tone.
"Well…"
Weiss acted like she was in heaven, raising her arms in amazement when she saw the colourful setting." The Vytal Festival! Oh, this is absolutely amazing!" her sudden exclamation disrupted Ruby's conversation and Blake took the opportunity to sneakily make her way to the front.
The redhead decided that she would ignore that and smiled when she saw her dear friend acting so happy. Weiss didn't smile often enough in her opinion.
"I don't think I've ever seen you smile this much, Weiss. You should do it more often."
Weiss turned to face her. "How could you not smile? A festival dedicated to the cultures of the world! There will be dances! Parades! A tournament! Oh, the amount of planning and organization that goes into this event is simply breathtaking!"
Yang crossed her arms and sighed while they continued deeper into the city. "You really know how to take a good thing and make it sound boring."
"Quiet, you!" Weiss snapped back
The closer they got to the docks, the louder the sounds of foghorns mounted in large ships got.
"Remind me again why we're spending our afternoon visiting the stupid docks?" Yang asked.
Ruby smelled the stench of fish and quickly covered her nose. "Ugh, they smell like fish!" Blake didn't seem to mind the smell of fish. Interesting…
"I've heard that students visiting from Vacuo will be arriving by ship today. And, as a representative of Beacon, I feel as though it is my solemn duty to welcome them to this fine kingdom!"
Right. Like anyone would believe that.
Weiss turned to walk away again and Blake took the opportunity to comment on that ridiculous comment.
"She wants to spy on them so she'll have the upper hand in the tournament."
Weiss scoffed. "You can't prove that!"
She laughed and just happened to glance to her right, but what she saw completely nullified her happiness. "Whoa." She muttered. She was looking at a shattered window down the street, complete with a door full of yellow caution tape. Two very familiar detectives were working near the front of the building.
"What happened here?" She softly asked Weiss.
One of the Police officers answered her…but did not answer her. He answered one of the other Police Officers.
"Robbery. Second Dust shop to be hit this week. This place is turning into a jungle."
His partner walked over to him to reply, while Yang softly sighed. "That's terrible…"
"They left all the money again…"
"Huh?" Ruby turned her head to listen in on the conversation. That was interesting…
"Yeah, just doesn't make a lick of sense. Who needs that much Dust?"
"I don't know, an army?"
"You thinking the White Fang?"
Ruby turned her head to look at Blake and was not surprised to see her frowning. Again. Every single time Fauna were brought up in a dark light. It was slowly getting obvious to her.
The second officer removed his sunglasses. It was the same guy who had been investigating the Warehouse when it had been hit by…people. "Yeah, I'm thinking we don't get paid enough."
"This coming from the guy who received a promotion when he brought in two weird soldiers?"
What? Was this the guy that had arrested the two guys from Fireteam Lima?
…and had he been promoted for it?!
"Yeah, they forced me to let them go. But not before giving me a medal and telling me things…I only wanted a vacation."
She tore herself away from the strange conversation and returned her focus to her team.
Weiss was not amused. "Hmm! The White Fang." She closed her eyes and raised her head, looking rather arrogant when doing so. "What an awful bunch of degenerates!"
"Weiss…" Ruby hissed at her friend, but Weiss didn't hear her. And what were degenerates?
"What's your problem?" Blake snapped at the girl, as she had expected.
Weiss shifted her attention to the bow-wearing girl. "My problem? I simply don't care for the criminally insane."
"The White Fang is hardly a bunch of psychopaths," Blake growled, crossing her arms to show that she was getting serious. "They're a collection of misguided Faunus."
Wasn't Blake the one who thought the four soldiers from Onyx to be nothing but sociopaths?
"Misguided? They want to wipe Humanity off the face of the planet!"
And wasn't Weiss the one who had been thinking that Will too was just a sociopath, even though he was clearly a hundred percent focused on protecting humanity?
"So then they're very misguided. Either way, it doesn't explain why they would rob a Dust shop in the middle of downtown Vale!" Blake told Weiss angrily.
Ruby decided to quickly open her mouth and stop the argument before it grew worse. Weiss' opinion on Fauna was very obvious to them all…and she knew that Blake would not take it: "Hmm... Blake's got a point. Besides, the police never caught that Torchwick guy I ran into a month ago... Maybe it was him. He had been working on gathering Dust for a while."
"That still doesn't change the fact that the White Fang are a bunch of scum." Was Weiss blind to Blake's growing anger? "Those Faunus only know how to lie, cheat, and steal."
Yang decided to add something of her own, too. "That's not necessarily true..."
As if he had wanted to prove Weiss' point, a man started yelling from the docks. "Hey, stop that Faunus!"
Ruby groaned in frustration and looked up at the sky. "That doesn't help!" She muttered, but nobody heard her.
And as her team overheard the cry for help and rushed to investigate, they saw a lone Faunus with a golden monkey tail running down the length of the boat, leaping on to the edge as two sailors were about to apprehend him,
The Faunus looked back at his pursuers and laughed. "Thanks for the ride, guys!"
Then he jumped off and hit the decks, running away from the clearly angry sailors.
One of the sailors was just in time to see the Faunus jumping away from him. "You no-good stowaway!"
The Faunus, using his tail to hang on a lamppost while he peeled back a banana, took obvious offense to that: "Hey! A no-good stowaway would've been caught! I'm a great stowaway!" He was about to take a bite from his banana, when the mysterious sunglass-wielding Police officers suddenly appeared next to him on the lamppost, staring at him with his face only inches away from his.
"Get down this instant," He told the Faunus with the same weird tone he had used against RWBY all those days ago.
The monkey-Faunus merely dropped his banana peel on the face of the other Police officer, who growled in return at the attempt on his life. Then the blond teen leapt off and ran away, leaving the two Police officers before they had a chance to pursue him. For all his mighty sudden-appear-skills, the Police officer was powerless before a fleeing Faunus.
But as the monkey-boy ran past them, laughing in amusement, he gave a sudden wink aimed directly at Blake. Blake showed that she didn't know the guy by replying with honest disbelief and shock, but the fact was there.
The almighty Police Officer sprinted after the Faunus, moving so hard that Ruby could have sworn that his nipples caught fire.
Yang seemed confused too. "Well, Weiss, you wanted to see the competition, and there it goes..."
"Quick! We have to observe him!" Weiss cried, dropping all pretention of her intents.
And so they ran after the monkey-man, but not before Ruby spotted Blake, standing still for a moment, lost in her thoughts before she came back to reality and joined the chase.
But as soon as they rounded a corner, Weiss ran into something and tripped.
And Ruby watched as the Faunus jumped onto a roof and disappeared from their view. Deadly, scary corners. Always getting the better of good students.
"No, he got away!" Weiss cried out, but she was missing the most important part
Yang saw fit to point said part out to her. "Uhh... Weiss?" Then she pointed to the person lying at Weiss feet –the person that she had ran over.
Weiss finally saw that she had fallen on a rather weird smiling girl, who immediately startled the Heiress and forced her to get back on her feet.
She had medium-short, curly, orange hair and a large, pink bow on the back of her head. Her eyes were rather green and she was wearing an old-fashioned blouse, with short feminine overalls. A black and green collar with a matching pair of stockings completed her outfit.
"Sal-u-ta-tions!" The girl said, still lying on the floor and still looking very, very weird.
"Um... hello," She replied to her.
"Are you... okay?" Yang carefully asked her, sounding more creeped out than worried.
"I'm wonderful! Thank you for asking."
The rest of the team looked at each other in bewilderment before Yang spoke up again. "Do you... wanna get up?"
The girl seemed to think about that for a moment. "Yes!" She then said, before she leaped back to her feet –which forced them to step backwards with haste. "My name is Penny! It's a pleasure to meet you!"
"Hi Penny. I'm Ruby."
"I'm Weiss."
"Blake."
Yang broke their friendly line of introductions: "Are you sure you didn't hit your head?" But before Ruby could correct her older sister, Blake poked her in her side. Then the blonde corrected herself. "Oh, I'm Yang."
"It's a pleasure to meet you!" The weird girl then told them. Again.
Weiss was quick on it immediately. "You already said that."
The strange girl paused for a second, without her creepy smile faltering for a second. "So I did!"
"Well, sorry for running into you!"
Even though Weiss then turned around to leave, she was still glad that her partner was capable of apologizing. She waved her arm at the curious girl and bid her goodbye. "Take care, friend."
When they were far, far away from the strange girl, Yang spoke her mind. "She was... weird..."
Weiss had her priorities in order alright. "Now, where did that Faunus riff-raff run off to?"
The Heiress looked around, scowled and turned back again –only to find the same girl she had run into standing in front of her, looking intensely at her face. Or someone's face." What did you call me?"
Weiss looked back and forth between the place where she had bumped into the newcomer and where said newcomer was currently standing. "What?"
Yang looked apologetic. "Oh, I'm really sorry, I definitely didn't think you heard me!"
Ruby didn't think that was the best way for someone to apologize.
"No, not you," The girl said and walked through the group, stopping when she was standing right in front of her. "You!"
"Me? I-I don't know. I, what I, um, uh..." Ruby tried to make words with her mouth, but that did not seem to work out very well.
"You called me 'friend'! Am I really your friend?"
"Uuuum..." She looked over Penny's shoulder while her teammates motioned to deny her. "Y-Yeah, sure! Why not?"
The weird girl seemed overjoyed when she heard that. "Sen-sational! We can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys!"
"Oh, is this what it was like when you met me?" She groaned to Weiss and padded her clothes.
"No - she seems far more coordinated. And less cute." The white-haired girl replied with a smug smile, warming her little heart again.
"So... what are you doing in Vale?" Yang asked, trying to break the ice.
"I'm here to fight in the tournament." The girl replied proudly.
"Wait, you're fighting in the tournament?" Weiss asked her in shock.
The orange-haired girl saluted. "I'm combat ready!"
Weiss was not impressed. "Forgive me, but you hardly look the part."
Blake scowled when she heard that. "Says the girl wearing a dress?"
Dress? Dress? That wasn't a dress!
"It's a combat skirt!"
It was a combat skirt. Ruby sped over to her skirt-sister's side to come to her aid. "Yeah!" She yelled and low-fived Weiss' hand when the Heiress held it out.
An idea seemed to strike Weiss' mind and her eyes widened. "Wait a minute."
Then she walked over to the girl and grabbed her by her shoulders –not too rough, but also not as tender as she could do at times.
"If you're here for the tournament, does that mean you know that monkey-tailed rapscallion?"
"The who...?"Penny replied, sounding mildly confused. Mildly so.
Weiss pulled a poor drawing of the criminal-in-question out of…nowhere, apparently, and held it in the air for all to see. "The filthy Faunus from the boat!"
Oh Weiss…her timing was as poor as it was
"Why do you keep saying that?!" Blake exclaimed angrily, placing her hands at her hips.
"Huh?" Weiss asked.
"Stop calling him a rapscallion! Stop calling him a degenerate! He's a person!" It sounded like Blake had had enough of Weiss' sort-of racism.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Weiss sarcastically said, looking like she was setting her head to be extraordinary stubborn…and sort of blind. "Would you like me to stop referring to the trash can as a trash can? Or this lamppost as a lamppost?"
"Stop it!" Blake shouted, clenching her fists.
It was obvious now; Blake wasn't simply mad because of Fauna rights and stuff like that. It had to do with the White Fang…and herself.
"Stop what? He clearly broke the law. Give him time; he'll probably join up with those other Faunus in the White Fang!" Weiss angrily replied, crossing her arms
"You ignorant little brat!" Blake growled.
Weiss looked offended, but when Blake walked away she replied with a less well-thought comeback. "Why would you say something like that? I'm your teammate!"
She sounded legitimately insulted.
"You are a judgmental little girl," Blake not-so-much-explained.
"What makes you say that? I'm not talking about you, am I?"
"The mere fact that you would sort that Faunus boy with a terrorist group solely based on his species makes you just as much of a scoundrel as you believe him to be!"
"Um, I think we should probably go..." Yang told her..
The strange orange-haired girl –who suddenly popped up behind her- agreed, too. "Where are we going?"
"So you admit it! The White Fang is just a radical group of terrorists!" Weiss finally yelled at Blake.
"That's not what I meant, and you know it!"
Their arguing continued even as they made their way all the way back to the dormitories, where it promptly escalated into something much worse.
Ruby watched two of her close friends verbally lashing out at each other and wondered when Weiss was going to figure it out what this was all truly about. It was already getting dark and she couldn't stand seeing Blake and Weiss fighting like that.
"I don't understand why this is causing such a problem!"
"That is the problem!"
Weiss, who had been sitting on her bed for a while, stood up. "Then explain it to me! You realize you are defending an organization that hates Humanity, don't you? The Faunus of the White Fang are pure evil! They want to kill all humans!"
Blake got to her feet as well. "There's no such thing as pure evil! You should know this by now, with everything that has happened! And why do you think they hate Humanity so much? It's because of people like Cardin, people like you, that force the White Fang to take such drastic measures!"
"People like me?" Weiss shouted back, a red blush creeping on her cheeks.
"You're discriminatory!"
"I'm a victim!" Weiss snapped and clenched her fists. She and Blake stared at each other in silence, before she eventually rested her elbows in the window-frame and sighed. As she stared out of the open window, she started to speak again. Quietly. "You want to know why I despise the White Fang? Why I don't particularly trust the Faunus? It's because they've been in war with my family for years. War, as in actual bloodshed. My grandfather's company has had a target painted across its back for as long as I can remember. And ever since I was a child, I've watched family friends disappear; board members executed. I had a little nephew, barely eight years old at the time. Abducted from his room by the White Fang. Eight, Blake! And that was ten years ago! And two years ago, more than forty White Fang protesters planning to attack one of our factories were suddenly attacked and murdered. All of them. Shot. My father has had to deal with false accusations and pointing fingers to this very day. It didn't stop there. An entire train car full of Dust, stolen-"
Why did Blake suddenly look so guilty? Did she know something about that?
"-and every day, my father would come home, furious. And that made for a very difficult childhood. "
Ruby gasped softly when she heard that, understanding the underlining message very clearly. Walking over to her friend to hug and comfort her, she softly spoke her name and tried to get her to calm down a bit. But she wouldn't have any of that. After a second or two, just when she was starting to think that Weiss was going to calm down in her embrace, the pale girl suddenly wrenched herself free.
"No!" She shouted and faced Blake again. "You want to know why I despise the White Fang? It's because they're a bunch of liars, thieves, and murderers!"
"Weiss," Ruby told her partner one final time, hoping that she could end it. She didn't truly want to interfere when both of them didn't understand a thing, but Weiss just had to realize it. "Blake is a Fau-"
"Well maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!" Blake then screamed, interrupting her to send the message out herself.
An eerie silence fell across the dormitories. Weiss looked up at Blake with shock and her expression softened. "Blake…you…?"
Blake understood that she had slipped up. "I... I..."
Before anyone could stop her, she turned around and slipped out of the room.
"Blake, wait! Come back!" Ruby exclaimed and ran after her teammate, yelling her name and wishing that she would just listen to reason. But her desperate shouting was in vain and slowly, her friend's footsteps died away.
Day 33, Thursday, 00:12
The steady thumping of her footsteps echoed in her ears and she felt her heart burning in her throat, but she paid it no mind.
Blake just ran and ran and ran. Moving through hallways, jumping down stairs and weaving through doorways. Weiss' words had hurt her…so much. How were any of them going to improve the world if they couldn't even set themselves above their own petty feelings of prejudice?
Of course she had never meant to hurt the girls…never had she lashed out at them and never had she thought about even disappointing them. She had been so scared of being rejected…but they had accepted her.
Or so she had thought. Weiss' attitude wasn't uncommon in the world; she had dealt with hateful prejudice and violent racists for as long as she could remember. She hated humans…they could only think of themselves and nothing more. Blindly pursuing their own petty goals and hurting everyone else in the process.
Who could she possibly trust? Weiss was a member of the Schnee Family; hating Fauna was something that lay in her blood. Yang and Ruby had seemed like descent people before, but now? Now that she had slipped-up about having been a member of the White Fang? She couldn't trust them.
She couldn't trust anybody. Not JNPR, not LACG and especially not the Professors. The White Fang was feared and hated as a terrorist organization and she knew how the teachers thought about those people. Johnson had been in the army, Adamant was completely ruthless when it came to dealing with crime and Goodwitch had to be as narrow-minded as Peach. Only Oobleck had seemed slightly capable of understanding, but she could not trust him either.
And she was scared. So very scared of what would happen next. She was all alone, with nobody around she could even remotely trust. Only Ruby could perhaps understand…but not protect.
Blake knew what happened to members of the White Fang when operating in public. Even though the rational part of her brain fully understood that Weiss hadn't had anything to do with the brutal murders of her brothers and sisters all those months ago –even her partners in the White Fang hadn't truly understood what had happened- but she didn't care for that. The biggest commercial company in the Kingdom was out to get her and all Fauna –and an even worse group lurked behind the shadows.
Onyx. She knew them and she knew what they were capable of. Ever since she and her close friend had narrowly escaped a run-in with two of their dispatched soldiers –armed and armoured just like the so-called allies from Fireteam Lima- she had known that one day, she would encounter them again.
And now that the word was out, she knew that it was just a matter of time before Onyx found her.
She didn't want to be alone. She didn't want to be all on her own.
Her legs had carried her all the way to northern entrance of Beacon, where the supposed grand statue of the Hunters stood. It was a statue of an armoured man with a sword and a hooded woman wielding an axe on an outcropping, with a slain Beowolf lying underneath them.
She stared at the Beowolf and felt a hint of recognition. The beast…meant to be slain by men. The so-called monster that could only kill. Slain by the brave heroes.
She closed her eyes and slowly brought her arms up to her bow, pulling the string to release it from her hear.
The black ribbon waved in the wind as she pulled it off, revealing her sensitive cat-ears that she had been able to hide for well over a month. Only Ruby had been capable of deducing what it had meant…and now the secret was out. Ruby, Weiss and Yang knew everything now.
She was on the verge of crying and quickly reached for her face, wiping away the tears that were rolling over her cheeks.
Then, a voice somewhere above her yelled out at her. "I knew you would look better without the bow."
Her heart skipped a beat and she turned around and looked up, thinking that someone was about to attack her.
But when she saw the blonde form of the monkey-Faunus they had encountered in the city, she understood that she was in fact, not fully alone. Here was another Faunus; another unfortunate soul that had been lost in the tidal-waves of humans.
She inhaled and tried to calm herself. He needed to calm her heart, lest she lose control over her mind. Her ex-team might hate her or they might not. The teachers might banish her or they might not.
But one thing was certain: once Onyx found out about her, they would send someone to kill her. She had to move away from Beacon now that she had the chance…and possibly find a way to prove that the White Fang was in fact, not behind the attacks on the Dust-shops.
And if they were…she would find a way to deal with that knowledge.
"The Death-war? Is what they call it now?"
"Yes sir. Just like the Final Solution killings, the name stuck."
"Then Ozpin's personnel are more competent than we had presumed. Death-war…an apt name, for sure. Forty-thousand soldiers fighting for eleven kilometers of mud and death. One of our biggest failures, too."
"I am sure it is, sir."
"But that's not why you're here. UAV's have located a White Fang formation moving through an abandoned military base, to the east of Vale. We can't trust the Grimm to get to them and there is bound to be ordnance lying around. I want you to clean it up."
"Yes sir. Do you want me take Amber with me, sir?"
"Yes Frost, that's a good idea. Keep a close eye on her."
"Yes sir."