A Cold White Blossom
Pt. I
Raging fires as far as the eye could see and Weiss was stuck right in the middle of it all. Weapon fire was all she could hear; drowning out the screams of the dying all around her. Running from cover to cover, doing her best to stay out of sight from a building that had a machine gun mounted on a window sill. She had watched that weapon rip through the plate armour of the soldiers that were unlucky to be caught down the street. Exposing as little of herself as she could, Weiss peeked around the corner and saw the building in question. It used to be a four-floor building before it was torn apart and converted. She could barely make out the metal of the barrel as the light of flames bounced off of it.
"Third floor, second window on the right,"
"Understood, moving into position," replied someone from her squad. Looking back the way they came, Weiss counted four bodies strewn across the ground; they were the ones caught off guard by the machine gun. The rest of her soldiers were behind another building just behind her. From where she stood, she saw their marksman as he moved to the ground and shimmied himself to the edge as slow as he could while not being exposed. When the enemy spotted him, the machine gun began to spray bullets down the way, only to bounce around the shooter and missed him completely. Weiss watched him line up the shot, only for a loud crack to come from the building and remove half the soldier's head before he could fire.
"There's a fucking sniper in the building too!"
"Damn it! Everyone, on me in two!" Weiss looked at the dead soldier lying on the ground near her, blood pooling around him, painting his dirty white uniform red. With a deep breath, she spun her weapon and summoned a Glyph to protect her as she ran around the corner and used it to stop all the bullets that came flying towards her. She ran down the street with everyone following her, pushing more energy into the glyph as more automatic fire was concentrated on them until they breached through a window. On the first floor, the soldiers spread out and took up posts, checking for flanks or any surprises that might be left for them.
Rushing up the stairs as soon as she found them, Weiss brought up a series of glyphs and leapt from the stairs to the wall, to the ceiling, avoiding a hail of bullets that went to meet her as soon as she turned the corner. Charging from the last glyph, she ran through one enemy and pirouetted to drag her weapon across the throat of the one next to her. With her free hand, she reached to her belt and pulled a handgun from its pouch and quickly aimed it at those who were just turning to shoot at her. With practiced ease, the weapon fired two rounds into two soldiers each, dropping them where they stood.
Looking up, she knew the gunner and the sniper were waiting for her, so she spun the Dust chambers on her rapier and thrust her blade to the air above her. She watched as the large red glyph filled the space of the ceiling, a second later, everything above her went up in flames. An explosion removed the top two floors of the building, taking the enemy with it. Looking up, she saw the smoke-choked skies highlighted by the flames that ran rampant through the city. Bright bullets crisscrossed across as assault Bullheads carried forces to and from the battle, dropping bombs or carrying the wounded back to the massive airship that hovered in the air.
The Mantle of Responsibility hung in the air above it all, bullets constantly firing from the many turrets on its sides. She hoped that Winter was still alive after all of this. For everything Weiss had sacrificed for this whole war, between the people she killed and the role she played in this horrid plan, she prayed that the devil was a man of his word. Making her way back down to the main floor, Weiss took a quick head count of her forces and counted seven left under her command. "We need to keep pushing towards the Academy, if we secure it and secure the council members, this war will finally be over," Weiss repeated the same objectives that she was given when the assault was launched.
"Yes, Ma'am!" came the collective response from everyone around her. Double checking the map they had, they plotted their course through the city and left their building, rushing from cover to cover, they kept their eyes out for any movement that might mean their deaths. Weiss was halfway across a street when she saw a blur of brown speeding towards them. Looking, she saw a large, scraggly dog rushing full speed towards her squad. She was so confused at the sudden appearance of the canine she nearly missed the large metal collar with a flashing light and wires coming out around it.
Before she could warn anyone about the threat, the dog happily barked as it charged headfirst at them, only to explode in a storm of improvised shrapnel and gore. Getting knocked to the ground, the ringing in her ears deafened the world around her as she struggled to get up. From the buildings around her, people wearing the uniform of the White Fang came out with weapons drawn, all firing at the recovering Atlesians. Rolling to her feet, Weiss yelled as she thrust her blade into the ground and brought up a wall of ice to separate them. Slapping her hand against the cold surface, she used more Dust to transform it and threw a storm of ice shards down the street and did not stop until she saw the last White Fang member dropped to the ground through the ice.
Looking back, she saw all the bodies on the ground. Unmoving in angles that were not natural. Taking deep breaths, Weiss fell to her knees and doubled over, exhaustion eating away at her limbs as she struggled for breath. The ice wall took a lot of energy out of her to summon it so suddenly, not to mention the shards that were made afterwards to throw at the White Fang. Looking up, she saw a patch of fur covered in gore and felt disgusted at what the White Fang had done. Rigging dogs with explosives as a part of their crusade against humanity was too far. How many more did they have, how many lives have they taken already?
Pulling herself to her feet, she promised herself that she would run Watts through with her blade for the atrocities he had committed in the name of his idea of peace and whoever was running the White Fang for forcing innocent animals into their war. Looking around, she found her bearings and continued forwards, pushing through the limp in her leg while calls erupted in her ear. Everyone was calling in dogs rigged with suicide collars and White Fang coming out of the woodwork. Weiss nearly lost her footing when something exploded and shook the ground all around her. Atlas did not want to capture Mistral, they were trying to burn it to the ground.
Looking down the street, she saw a large, shaggy dog sniffing the ground around him before noticing Weiss. The wagging tail behind it broke her heart as it sped towards her, happily ignorant about what was about to happen. Pulling her pistol out, Weiss fought every instinct in her body to pull the trigger. The painful yelp killed her inside as she watched the dog bleed out across the street, the whining coming from it tore her down, only for Weiss to pull the trigger again to put it out of its misery. Another innocent life taken away by her hands. Gritting her teeth, she watched as more White Fang members walked out of a broken storefront and began to fire rifles at her.
Anger rose up from her throat as she screamed at them. Stabbing the ground in front of her, she summoned another wall of ice to protect her while she got a running start. Forming a ramp behind the wall, she ran up it and leapt onto waiting glyphs that took her to the middle of the White Fang group attacking her. Spreading the ice around them, she trapped them all inside of a cage she made. Looking down at them, she manipulated the Dust to choke what little space they did have left until they were all shoulder to shoulder. Staring down at them, she summoned one last glyph to cover the top of the cage she made and pushed it down towards them.
They began to scream, to cry out for mercy, but she refused to listen to them. She pushed the Glyph down further and further until it reached them, and she pushed more. She watched as the monsters who claimed they fought for equality were compressed between each other and the ice she formed. Their screams stopped after a while, but the snapping of bones continued until she was confident they had paid the price for what they had done. Walking away from the horrific scene, Weiss wondered if she used too much of her Dust on such a display of cruelty and malice, but when she walked up to the dog she had to shoot, she ran her hand through its dirty fur and closed its eyes and decided that what she did was too good for them.
With nothing else for her here, she knew there was supposed to be another squad around this area. Rushing down the alleyways and avoiding more White Fang traps, she made her way to where the rendezvous was supposed to be, only the find an alley filled with Atlesian bodies. Two squads worth of soldiers all dead or dying with a single person standing in the middle. They were tall and holding the last person in their large hand and tossed him to the ground, where he remained motionless. Weiss pulled her blade to the ready and stared at the full face Grimm mask they wore. It had been some time since she saw them, but she was not going to lose to them again.
He hurt Ren.
That was the only thought running through Nora's mind as she charged forward, screaming as she swung her hammer. Jaune met her with his shield and cried out in pain as the momentum from her attack ripped into his body. Over and over again, she swung her hammer over her head, never giving Jaune the chance to counter her attacks. After the fourth swing, she spun in place to generate momentum as he raised his shield to block an attack that was no longer coming from that direction. With his only form of defence no longer there, Nora slammed the face of her hammer into his chest plate from the side and sent him flying into a building.
He hurt Ren.
Nora watched as he pulled himself up to his feet and stared at her. With another scream, she launched herself at him again, launching her grenades to push her faster than she usually could go. Jaune rolled out of the way as she crashed through a brick wall and found herself swallowed by darkness. Rolling along the ground, she quickly rolled to her feet and crouched down as her hammer folded up into its launcher form and she pulled the trigger, sending an explosive projectile right at him. Acting fast, he blocked the next six explosions thanks to his shield before Nora launched herself from inside the building right at him.
He hurt Ren.
Knocking him to the side, Nora reached behind her and threw her hammer with all her might right at Jaune. The loud clang of metal clashing together echoed through the air as she surprised him by tackling him to the ground. Throwing his sword out of his hand, Nora threw her fist into his face with a scream. The flames highlighted Jaune's features, nothing but anger in his blue eyes as she threw all her strength into each punch. When he tried to use his shield to block her fist, she put a large dent in the metal before gripping it with both hands and standing up. Planting her foot on his chest, she screamed as she pulled on the metal, giving Jaune only two choices. Lose the shield or lose the arm.
He hurt Ren.
Releasing the shield, Nora stumbled back with the bronze metal in hand. Jaune struggled to his feet as he grabbed his sword and pushed it back into its sheath, only to pull the whole thing out and create a heavy two-handed sword. Throwing the familiar shield away, Nora picked up her hammer and got ready for his attack. She had lost sight of who he once was, their leader and her friend. Now, she only knew Jaune Arc as one thing. The person who hurt Ren.
A/N: I don't know how many times I must apologize for taking so long between updates but here's one more.
Big thanks to StreetAngelJ for his continued work on making my story as best as it can be!
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