Disclaimer, I do not own RWBY or any of the franchises referenced in this work

Note: Thanks to LockeBelmont for identifying the original fic, it's Team ALAB by Saint Danielle, a crack fic with some touching moments in it. Go check it out, it's a good read if a bit short. Also, Coronavirus is still a thing, stay safe people, stay indoors if you can and try to avoid large gatherings.

Chapter 23: Team ALBA Pt 2

Inspiration: Mass Effect 2

"Alright, technical difficulties sorted out, on with the show." Blank said as he resumed the interrupted viewing from where it cut off.

"Hmm, yes I do recall hearing of that incident, a massive slave trading operation just off the coast of Mistral. It caused quite a stir with the White Fang being the ones to break the news, I didn't know you had a hand in it." Ozpin rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he placed Mercury's file on the table and move to the next one.

"Spectres don't go around publicising their work in foreign kingdoms for obvious reasons. We prefer to have an invisible hand when we have to work overseas." Jaune said evenly.

"Do Spectres always go about undermining the other kingdoms by supporting a terrorist organisation so casually or is it just you?" Goodwitch narrowed her eyes at the unrepentant Spectre.

"I'll leave that to your imagination deputy headmistress. In any case, on to the next member of the team. Lie Ren."

"Huh." Came Ren's eloquent response.

"Ren! How could you be on a team with Jaune-Jaune and leave me behind!?" Nora started complaining immediately, grabbing hold of Ren and shaking him repeatedly.

"Divergence?" Pyrrha asked.

"Divergence." Blank confirmed.

"In this timeline, the Grimm attack on Kuroyuri went differently. There was an attempt by a section of the Mistralian mafia to expand into the village as a base of sorts. Their men were present when the attack happened and helped contribute to the defence to protect their investment. Kuroyuri was saved, but regrettably Li and An Ren still perished. Without anything left, that Lie Ren joined the mafia in the hopes of growing strong enough to exact vengeance against the Grimm, eventually becoming one of their best assassins."

"I see… and what about Nora then?" Ren asked after a moment of silence.

"She's alive, mainly because she wasn't in Kuroyuri at the time. That version of her wound up as the Maria Calavera's protégé and sort of granddaughter after a chance encounter one day. You two do meet and as to your relationship… well just keep watching." Blank said.

"M-Maria's protégé? Oh come on! How can anyone be that lucky!?" Qrow complained.

"Tough luck Qrow." Taiyang gave the bad luck charm several awkward pats on the back, in his expert opinion, Qrow was far too old to be fanboying over anyone.

"But… but… Grim Reaper!" Qrow continued whining.

"Mission boss?" Mercury perked up Jaune stepped through the door of their current base. Formally the penthouse of Mercury's original client, Jaune had used his Spectre credentials to stake a claim on it for his own use. Thanks to that, Mercury was now living the good life whenever he was 'off duty'.

"Damn, those are some sweet digs… I don't think I've ever even seen anything that posh. Damnit, I wish I was other me." Mercury whistled in appreciation, the difference between their two bosses was… striking to say the least.

"Yep, we're going after the third member of our crew. Back to Mistral it is." Jaune said and tossed a dossier on the table, allowing the file to slide over to Mercury.

"What are you even recruiting so many of us for? I'm sure the two of us are more than enough to handle whoever it is we need to kill." Mercury, started flipping through the file, skimming through the details for the gist of it.

"It's classified information, I'll wait until the team is assembled before I fill you all in at once. If I can't get the full team, the mission is off." Jaune said, and Mercury blinked in surprise, looking up at the Spectre in confusion.

"The mission is off? What? Why?"

"I won't bullshit you on this Mercury, the mission will be anything but easy. The expected four of us is the bare minimum for the mission to even have a small chance of success, anything less and it won't be a suicide mission, it'll just be suicide." Jaune answered.

"Shit. We stormed an island fortress and put my old man six feet under… you telling me even after all that you got no confidence in us?" Mercury asked.

"I believe its better to err on the side of caution, to put it simply, Vale is already down two Spectres, I'd rather not bump that number up to three. Considering our target is holed up inside one of the most dangerous places outside the Grimmlands, we have our work cut out for us. Much as I'd like to succeed, sending us to an early grave benefits no one but our enemies." Jaune said.

"Fuck." Mercury said succinctly.

"Essentially. In any case, pack for a trip. We're settling the Malachite issue as well." Jaune shrugged and started heading for the door.

"Hell, it's about time." Mercury grinned and fingered a knife, eager to exact his own personal brand of justice on the one responsible for the slave camp.

"Good, so that monster is finally going to face justice." Blake hissed out, anyone who could make life in the SDC mines look like a paradise deserved what was coming to them in her opinion.

"Finger's crossed for another saw outing." Mercury said.

"The two of you were beaten to the punch, so no saw outing." Blank replied.

A cold wind blew through the deserted parking lot. At 3 AM in the morning, the world was quiet as it slumbered. The muted sound of an engine heralded the arrival of an unassuming truck. Mercury perked up as Jaune stepped out of the shadows to meet their contact.

"Amitola, wasn't expecting to see you here." Jaune greeted the chameleon faunus that stepped out of the driver's seat with a handshake.

"Ilia?" Blake squirmed uncomfortably in her seat at the sight of the friend she left behind in the White Fang.

'Wonder how she's doing now…'

"Not here for chit chat Spectre, Sienna Khan sends her regards. For rescuing those slaves, she expects you to do her a favour." Ilia said.

"Huh. Ya know, I'm pretty sure the White Fang got the better end of that deal. But fine, shoot." Jaune folded his arms and waited.

"Thanks to you blowing her operation wide open, Malachite's paranoid now. Convinced there's a spy in her ranks leaking information." Ilia shrugged at Jaune's raised eyebrow.

"Yes, I know, I'm one of the moles in her organisation. But the problem is, she's looking in the wrong direction, since the White Fang intervened, she's convinced her faunus staff are responsible for the leak."

"And she intends to plug em all? Predictable. Asshole move, but predictable. Guess Khan wants me to save those faunus and leave the White Fang to claim credit for it? Spares you a body count and get the PR boost. Also predictable." Jaune said.

"If you say so, those are the conditions for our assistance. Malachite's got her whole compound on lockdown to keep any 'rats' from escaping, without my security clearance, you're going to have to shoot your way in. Then again, it is you, so my help will just be saving you some ammo in the end." Ilia shrugged again, not really invested in the exchange. It wasn't like either of them didn't already know the result, but politics demanded a power play just for show.

"True enough. Khan can have the credit. After all, I was never here." Jaune agreed to the terms easily enough, whatever it took to hide Vale's involvement in this mess after all.

"Good. Then we better get going, the purge is taking place in about… forty-five minutes, so I'll get you there just in time to start." Ilia didn't wait for a response before getting back into the vehicle. Jaune sighed before motioning to Mercury to follow suit, recruiting Ren would have to wait till he was done with Malachite evidently.

"Purge? You're kidding, I get that Mistral isn't the friendliest of places to the faunus, but there's no way anyone would be able to cover up something like this." Ironwood said in disbelief.

"Oh, you'd be surprised by what money and blackmail can achieve honestly. And when in doubt, put the blame on some scapegoat, bet you everything I have she already has a fall guy ready and waiting." Torchwick said.

"And what would you know about that?" Winter asked.

"Quite a lot actually. Let's just say, most of my earliest ah… escapades were fabrications. I got even, and then I just rolled with it." Roman admitted, next to him, Neo mimed running a knife across her throat to get the point across.

"Remember Arc, don't shoot anyone wearing a white band. Those are my men." Ilia said as she pulled up to a stop at the guard house. Flashing her pass, the guard waved them through, Malachite Towers looming over them all.

"Sure, just make sure they get the memo to not shoot at me. If anyone does, I'll assume they're with Malachite and act accordingly." Jaune replied.

"Your target will be on the top floor surrounded by her guards, send whatever faunus you find to the lower levels, the White Fang will handle their evacuation from there." The truck rumbled to a halt at the entrance and after a quick check of the surroundings to make sure they were in the clear, Ilia let Jaune and Mercury off.

"I'd wish you luck Arc, but you don't need it." She nodded her goodbye before driving off, leaving the two of them behind to begin their mission.

"Tch, she could have stuck around to help." Mercury complained as he deactivated the safeties on his boots.

"She got us this far, it'll have to be enough. Come on, let's not keep Malachite waiting." Jaune drew Crocea Mors and a slid a pistol into his shield hand, leading the way into the darkened interior of the building.

"This is… strange… seeing the White Fang as the good guys." Weiss muttered under her breath.

"The White Fang weren't always bad guys you know." Blake said, her ears having picked up on the comment anyways.

"I know, I know, I'm just saying it's weird, that's all."

"Good is debatable, in this timeline, there are a lot more shades of grey than your own. And of course, the White Fang here is fractured, Sienna Khan's faction is completely grey, there are others that stick to the original ideals of its founders and there are the factions that believe in escalating the conflict everywhere." Blank said.

"Adam." Blake spat the name out like a curse.

"No, surprisingly enough, not him this time." Blank corrected. Blake stared at the ball of light dubiously but said nothing, if it was another divergence, it'd probably come up later in the viewing.

Jaune and Mercury stepped over the cooling bodies of several members of Malachite's gang. While Jaune frisked the bodies for useful supplies, Mercury planted a breaching charge on the metal shutters in their way.

"So much for stealth." Mercury commented as the explosive synced up to the detonator in his hand.

"Meh, if Ilia did her job right and shut down the security system, Malachite will know something's up even if she's blind to it. Might as well confirm her fears, let her sweat a little. Blow it." Jaune held his shield at the ready and Mercury hit the switch.

The thin metal of the shutters stood no chance against the breaching charge and a large hole was torn into it allowing them access. Jaune charged through the opening and held his pistol at the ready, pausing when he received no incoming gunfire.

"Don't shoot! Please!" Jaune's pistol snapped to the direction the voice came from and he could just make out several terrified faunus huddled in the corner.

"Who are- oh you must be the faunus Malachite is trying to silence." Jaune lowered his pistol slightly once he ascertained they presented no immediate threat.

"Hey… they're not with the Spiders I think. A-are you here to rescue us? We've been locked inside this tower for days now." One of the faunus spoke up when he noticed Jaune and Mercury lacking the spider tattoo that marked Malachite's men.

"Not… exactly. We're here for Malachite actually." Jaune answered.

"Oh. B-but is it safe to come out? You k-killed those thugs didn't you? We sealed ourselves in when they reached our level." The faunus pointed to the bodies lying at the entrance. Jaune and Mercury exchanged a glance before the Spectre shook his head.

"No, we did not. Head for the ground floor, there are… friends there to take you to safety. It's a lot safer than waiting up here anyways." Jaune instructed and the faunus didn't need telling twice, all of them scrambling for the exit.

"Someone else here for Malachite?" Mercury asked.

"Sure looks that way, let's go, maybe we'll meet em on the way up." Jaune shrugged and headed for the cargo elevator at the end of the room.

"Just going to guess that it's Ren." Jaune said.

"Indeed. He's here to bring down Lil Miss Malachite as well for his own reasons." Blank confirmed.

"A gang war? You did say I was a mafia assassin." Ren frowned as the words left his lips, sounding strange even to his own ears.

"Indeed. Malachite is consolidating power, pushing the other crime lords out of Mistral one body at a time. You are their answer to her. And, it's also your last mission for them before your retirement." Blank said.

"Retirement? Assassins don't retire, they either just disappear or get iced by their bosses when they try to leave. If this Ren is that good, they'll never let him go." Mercury commented.

"Normally, that would be the case. But that version of Lie Ren is one of the best assassins the mafia ever had, it's less costly for them to simply let him go than try and off him. Even if they succeed, they're projected to take massive losses in the process, if they fail, he'll give them all a house call. And after this, he has the backing of a Vale Spectre, he's untouchable." Blank said.

In hindsight, taking the elevator up when the bad guys were expecting you wasn't the best idea. Jaune sighed and held up his shield as soon as the lift rumbled to a halt, the emergency override activated from outside. "Get behind me Mercury."

"Sure boss." Mercury shrugged and ducked behind Jaune. Right as he did so, armour piercing bullets started pouring through the metal doors as Malachite's goons on the other side tried gunning them down before they could exit.

While bullets pinged off Jaune's shield, Mercury palmed another breaching charge and chucked it at the door. The bomb's adhesive stuck fast and a few seconds later, the doors blew outwards. Jaune and Mercury's aura took damage from their close proximity, but that still left them in better shape than the grunts on the other side.

Foolishly stacked up in a firing line for maximum concentration of firepower, they weren't expecting the metal doors and a cloud of shrapnel to suddenly go flying at them. They never got the chance to recover from being bowled over when Jaune and Mercury rushed out to finish the job.

Screams of shock and pain transitioned to choked gurgles as the coup de grace was delivered one by one. Mercury chuckled and lowered his boot when the last of their would-be executioners breathed her last. "Not so fun when the fish in the barrel shoot back is it?"

"Ah hell. We're too late for them." Jaune grimaced as he looked to one side of the lift lobby.

"Hmm? Ah fuck me. So what do we do boss?" Mercury cursed as well when he noticed what Jaune was staring at. The corpses of over a dozen faunus were leaning against the wall, each had been shot execution style, one bullet to the back of their heads. The bodies were left to rot where they fell.

"Ilia's not going to like this, scout ahead while I call this in." Jaune said.

"Monsters, how could anyone do this?" Blake hissed in frustration at the atrocity on screen.

"Considering she set up that death camp, it's just another Tuesday for her I'd wager." Roman said.

"How barbaric." Goodwitch summed up.

Avoiding any more elevators, Jaune and Mercury legged it the rest of the way to the top, fighting their way past waves of mechs and goons. As they systematically cleared their way upwards, the came across more faunus workers, some still alive, the purge not having reached them yet. Those they sent downwards to Ilia, but most of the time, they were only greeted with rooms full of blood and bodies.

"Ma'am, I haven't heard from teams four or five. Team eight is also late on their report." A lone commander stood in front of a glass window, looking out at the city of Mistral while giving his report to Lil' Miss.

Surrounded by the bodies of massacred innocents, the commander continued reassuring his boss that everything was under control. That his team would be ready to move at any moment to take down the intruders, whoever they were.

So preoccupied with the report, he never noticed Jaune and Mercury entering the room behind him. The Spectre smiled grimly and waited for him to finish his report and hang up on Malachite before announcing his presence with a cough.

The commander looked back and found himself staring down the barrel of a shotgun courtesy of Mercury. "Shit."

"Someone else is in the building besides us. I want information on them." Jaune said.

"If I knew that, would I be wasting time talking with you? Who the fuck are you anyways?" The commander shot back, unimpressed with the Spectre.

"You don't seem to understand your situation right now, there are two ways down from this level. The stairs and the express, it's your choice." Jaune said, advancing on the mercenary.

"Look pal, even if I knew who they are or where they are, I wouldn't tell you. So fuck off."

"Not the answer I was looking for." Jaune gave the man one last chance to reconsider his choice.

"Quit wasting my time, I got nothing more to say to you. My team is just around the corner, you shoot me and they'll AHHHHHH!" The commander's screams were punctuated by the sound of shattering glass as Jaune rammed his boot into the man's chest, sending him right through the window.

"The express route it is, thank you for flying Air Arc, many happy landings and all that." Jaune raised his shield and levelled his pistol at a door, the sound of footsteps and shouting coming from it.

As soon as the reinforcements burst through the door, they were met with a hail of gunfire that scythed them all down before they even knew what hit them.

"Onwards and upwards. Yay." Mercury discarded the spent captured shotgun and cheered unenthusiastically, not really looking forwards to climbing more stairs in the twisted building.

"Whoever designed this building should be shot."

"I heard Malachite did off the man, just on the off chance that there might be a security flaw somewhere he can sell to her enemies." Jaune replied.

"Shit, really? So… is there a flaw?" Mercury asked curiously.

"Technically, its defensive strength is the flaw. According to the blueprints I've got, when the lifts are shutdown, it's one way in, one way out and no fire escape or other emergency exit. It was built that way to hold off a siege of some sort, but then the obvious solution is to just burn down the building with everyone in it."

"Which we can't do since we gotta save these faunus right?"

"Pretty much. At least we know Malachite's not going anywhere." Jaune shrugged and pressed forwards.

"There's no way she doesn't have some kind of secret escape route. No one would rise that high up in the underworld without having some kind of exit strategy. Bottling up for a last stand is stupid, and stupid gets you killed." Roman said, folding his arms and waiting to see what sort of trick Lil' Miss had up her sleeve.

"You are correct, but her escape route has already been taken into account." Blank said.

"Ooh… I can see it already. She runs when fearless leader shows up and then WHAM! Renny's already there waiting for her." Nora pounded a fist into her palm and grinned in anticipation.

Lil' Miss Malachite spun around when the doors to her office opened, her guards raised their weapons and aimed them squarely at the duo who just sauntered in like they owned the place.

"Jaune Arc. A Vale Spectre in Mistral, international laws don't mean anything to you, do they?" Lil' Miss greeted in a faux cordial manner.

"They're more of a polite suggestion than anything else." Jaune nodded in acknowledgement.

"And now you're here to kill me." The mob boss snorted and poured herself a drink, sneering at Jaune and Mercury in disdain.

"Maybe I'm just here for a visit? Vale is always looking to foster closer friendships with her neighbours." Jaune said.

"Ah yes, friendships with an expiry date, the best kind. The only people vulnerable to a knife in the back are fools and close friends, am I warm?"

"Searing. But it's not the knife in the back you should be worrying about."

"Vale cloak and dagger, all smoke and mirrors and misdirection. While your enemies are busy chasing shadows, you walk up to them and stab them in the front. My island operation… that was you was it not?"

"Got it in one." Jaune gave her a round of applause for making the connection.

"Haaa… looks like I purged those animals for nothing then. At least I don't have to pay them anymore after this. Win-win." Lil' Miss shrugged and sipped from her glass nonchalantly, as though the hundred or so corpses littering her building didn't mean anything.

"That's all you care about? Damn, the more people like you I meet, the more I think I'm a well-adjusted individual. Shit, I'm pretty sure I qualify for sainthood already." Mercury snarked, ignoring the guns suddenly pointed his way.

"Why should I care about anything else? They're just animals, I'm worth more than their entire species put together… and we all know it." Malachite boasted, uncaring about the dark looks they were shooting at her.

"Damn, the size of the ego on that one." Qrow commented while shaking his head.

"If she's trying to convince them to spare her life, I don't think she's doing a very good job of it." Emerald said.

"No shit. What school of negotiation did she even go to?" Mercury followed up.

"Considering I'm standing right here, you might want to rethink that statement." Jaune said.

"You've destroyed my most profitable operation, killed half my men and practically destroyed my tower. I should have you fed to the Grimm for this, but I think we can work out a deal." Malachite sat down in her chair and folded her arms.

"You tryna bribe us lady? You can't afford us." Mercury fired back, after everything he'd seen, he wouldn't spare Malachite, not for every last lien on the planet.

"Nonsense, every man has his price, but be quiet dog. I'm speaking to your master." Malachite rolled her eyes and dismissed Mercury's presence, focusing on the Spectre instead.

"Why you-" Mercury began but Jaune cut him off.

"Stand down. For now."

"Boss, you can't be serious!" Mercury protested but did as he was told.

"Good dog. I knew you'd see sense Spectre. I own the Mistral council, was thinking of just taking a seat for myself next election too even if it is just a formality. Through me, Vale will gain control over this entire kingdom, what do you say?" Malachite made her offer and both Jaune and Mercury's eyes widened.

"Holy crap, I knew the council was corrupt, but to that extent?" Torchwick's jaw hung open from shock. Neo politely reached over and pushed it shut with a finger.

"They're not completely corrupt, they just have no choice in the matter." Blank corrected.

"What do you mean they have no choice? They're the council! They're there to serve the people. This is cowardice… no, it's treason!" Winter spat out.

"Lil' Miss Malachite's reach is too great for them to oppose. If the council tries anything, she'll make them pay for it, and their efforts will be washed away by other pawns. They know that any resistance is pointless so they don't bother." Blank said.

"It's still cowardice." Winter persisted.

"Is it? If you were in their position would you oppose her if she promised to send you one of Weiss's fingers for every day you fail to comply with her demands?" Blank asked and Winter fell silent immediately, a greenish tinge colouring her face as she processed that image.

"Whatever the council's faults, they're only human."

"Hmmph, bonds made them weak, so much easier to do without. It's so easy to bend some people it's honestly quite a let-down." Cinder said, missing the look of hurt from Emerald.

"…Very interesting proposition. But it's not going to make your problems go away. I passed a lot of your workers below, I can already see how our partnership will end." Jaune said and Malachite hissed at him.

"Screw you Spectre, where do you get off acting so high and mighty. We're both monsters who kill for our own desires, what gives you the right to judge me!?"

"I kill for Vale, you kill only for yourself… hell that ain't right, you kill just because you can, even when you gain nothing from it."

"Hmmph well… in any case…" Malachite trailed off and Jaune raised an eyebrow when confusion spread across her face.

"What? Why isn't it working?" She cursed and continued pulling a small lever under her desk repeatedly, frustration growing when nothing happened.

While all eyes were focused on Malachite's panic, Ren dropped in on them from the ceiling. Snapping the neck of the nearest guard with a savage twist, Ren danced away from the crosshairs of the remainder before slitting the throat of the next one with StormFlower.

Moving amongst the panicking guards with supernatural grace, Ren calmly disposed of all of them before finishing his performance right in front of Malachite. The mob boss could only gasp as Ren planted StormFlower right over her heart and pulled the trigger.

"Ren." Jaune greeted as the assassin carefully laid Malachite to rest, then clasped his hands together in silent prayer.

"Arc." Ren returned the greeting once he was done.

"Clean. But, she got off easy." Mercury commented, impressed with Ren but disappointed at Malachite's easy passing at the same time.

"Do we know each other already?" Ren asked while trying to keep Nora's exuberance at his appearance in check.

"You've clashed once in the past, when you handed the Spectre one of his only defeats. Then you met again later on the same side, dealing with an arms dealer trying to start a new great war for profit." Blank said.

"So… we're friends?" Jaune hedged.

"Not exactly, not yet anyways. Most of the bad blood between the two of you is gone though thanks to Nora as a mutual friend, well that version of Ren is a little bit more than friends."

"I'm surprised you're here. Thought I was going to have to go searching for you." Jaune said and started patting down the bodies for goodies.

"One last job for the mafia before I leave. I see your kleptomania has improved." Ren replied.

"Looting corpses is an improvement?" Mercury raised an eyebrow as Jaune snickered upon finding a wallet stuffed to the brim with lien.

"He calls it battlefield acquisitions, I think. At least he's capable of waiting for the bullets to stop flying before checking the bodies now." Ren shrugged and put away StormFlower seeing that neither of them were here to fight him.

"You're joking… boss, were you dropped on the head as a baby or something?" Mercury met Jaune's baleful glare with a blank stare of his own.

"I believe in efficiency, the sooner I get the goods, the less time there is for blood to reduce the resale value."

"All due respect bossman, you're fucked in the head." Mercury shook his head and sighed exaggeratedly.

"If it works, it works, I'm not going to let something like societal expectations stop me. In any case, if you're leaving the mafia, guess that means you finally put a ring on Nora then." Jaune rose to his feet after cleaning out the bodies, moving over to Malachite's computer to see if there were anymore goodies on it for him to collect.

"Ah… um… not yet. I was planning on asking after this mission actually." A small blush coloured Ren's pale features and the normally reserved assassin fidgeted on the spot.

A purple silencing cylinder sprung up around Ren and Nora a split second before Nora could start screaming at the top of her lungs. As it was, the audience could still see her emoting excitedly inside and squeezing Ren in a death hug.

"I'm curious, how did the two of them meet?" Pyrrha asked.

"It was on the mission where Jaune Arc and Lie Ren first met. Ren was there to assassinate a VIP from Vale that Jaune was guarding. After the Spectre lost, Ren would have succeeded in his mission, except Nora Valkyrie was there. And she didn't take kindly to someone trying to carry out an assassination in front of her." Blank said.

"Nora beat Ren and then he fell for her?" Jaune asked.

"Not immediately, but that is the gist of it. And whenever the two of you start fighting, she's usually there to beat you both into the dirt, and thanks to her training under the Grim Reaper, she outclasses you both." Blank replied.

"Not fair. It's not fair." Qrow started grumbling again, getting awkward pats on the back from his teammates.

"Hmmph, congratulations in advance then, we both know she'll say yes." Jaune said with a small grimace.

"So much for the mission."

"Mission? You're here to recruit me?" Ren asked.

"I was. But not anymore." Jaune shook his head, no way he was bringing Ren with him on a suicide mission.

"What kind of a mission is it?"

"Either assassination or search and destroy. Problem is, our target is located deep inside Grimm territory. I wanted your semblance to get us in, that's not happening now though. You deserve your happiness with Nora." Jaune downloaded as much info on Malachite's drive as he could before stowing the scroll away. The Merlot assignment would have to be passed to another Spectre after all.

"Eh, if the job is off, can you at least explain what you wanted us for now boss?" Mercury asked.

"I must admit, I am curious too, not everyday a Spectre comes looking to hire me." Ren added.

"…Fine. Do you both know of Mount Glenn?" Jaune spoke after a moment of hesitation.

"Yeah, failed expansion of Vale. Some fluke drew a bunch of Grimm to the city, entered through tunnels under the mountain. Whole city lost." Mercury answered.

"It wasn't a fluke. A mad scientist named Merlot was experimenting on the Grimm and attracted more into the city when he ran out of test subjects. To say it ended poorly is an understatement." Jaune said.

"Well, at least he's dead… ah fuck me, he's alive isn't he, and you wanted us to go kill him right?" Mercury looked to Jaune for confirmation. He sighed explosively when the answering nod came.

"Awhile back, we got news of activity going on in Mount Glenn, at first we thought it was some bandits trying to desecrate the place or loot it. A Spectre was sent to check it out, he vanished. A second was sent, and managed to report back about massively increased Grimm activity underground and a confirmed sighting of Dr Merlot before expiring."

"So you want him terminated." Ren said.

"Yeah. One, it's justice for the people who died. Two, whatever he's doing, it's not in humanity's best interest that's for sure. Mount Glenn is too close to Vale to ignore, and the spike in Grimm activity is worrying to say the least."

"I see… then I shall join you on this mission." Ren said after a moment of thought.

"What? No. I can't ask you to do this." Jaune shot down the suggestion.

"You're not asking, I'm volunteering. Jaune, you know me. You know my past. Do you seriously think I'm just going to stand by and let what happened to me happen to someone else? No." Ren stated firmly.

"Gotta say, it sounds like suicide but you helped me off my old man, so I'll go wherever you need me to boss. It's not like I have anywhere else to be." Mercury added on, leaning against Malachite's desk.

"…Alright, fine. One more person to recruit so there's still time for either of you to change your minds. But for now, it's a long walk down since the elevators are still out." Jaune said at last.

"Not exactly, there is one more elevator that works fine. It was Lil' Miss's escape route, but I disabled it while she was distracted with your climb." Ren said, pulling out a scroll and inputting several commands.

"Done, it's reactivated. Under her desk there are two levers, one causes the platform to descend to the basement slowly, the other is a rapid drop for emergency uses, but the brakes on that one are still deactivat…ed" Ren finished and blinked owlishly at the suddenly missing Jaune and Mercury as the desk fell through the floor.

Looking down into the hole the disguised lift had dropped into, he could make out their rapidly shrinking forms inside. A brief shout of 'wrong lever!' floated up to him. Shrugging at the turn of events, Ren leapt into the hole after them, his aura would handle the landing for him.

"Hehehhehe… okay that was pretty funny." Mercury chuckled at the misfortune befalling his counterpart.

"Huh, emergency exit right in the middle of an office? Guess the architect put it in and then she had him killed to keep it secret." Ironwood mused to himself.

"It is one of the reasons. After all, the less people in on a secret, the more secret it actually is." Blank said.

"And now we move to the last member of the team. This should be interesting." Ozpin said, sipping from his mug.

"So that's Lie Ren and Mercury Black, both of them are professionals so I'll assume they can follow your instructions." Ozpin lowered the file, moving to the last one in the stack.

"But really, it's the last one that I'm worried about. His… disdain for the Schnees is very well documented. Not to mention his… predilection for using murder as a solution to his problems."

"He's a terrorist, wanted dead or alive by both Mistral and Atlas, actually, just dead in the case of Atlas. You cannot seriously expect Beacon to enrol him." Goodwitch huffed in exasperation.

"Umm… the last member of the team is White Fang? Is that wise? Given they're trying to protect Weiss here?" Blake asked hesitantly.

"Eh, it'll work out fine Blakey, I mean, Jaune's a good judge of character, there's no way he'll choose someone evil for his team." Yang reassured.

"He is a troubled individual, but really, who on my team is well adjusted? I'll keep him in check, don't you worry about that." Jaune said.

"Your reassurances aside, I must admit to holding a lot of doubts about this one." Ozpin grimaced as he read through the rap sheet included in the documents.

"He's a cold-blooded murderer."

"Aren't we all? I am a Spectre, and your hands aren't clean either headmaster, nor yours, deputy headmistress. You know what they say about throwing stones in glass houses." Jaune fired back.

"Semantics. I am concerned for the safety of my students. As much as I hate to see it, racism is still present even in the student body, given his… character, I'm worried he'll start killing at the smallest slight." Ozpin said.

"I'll keep him in check, and if anyone is stupid enough to challenge him, nothing like a few broken bones to try and fix a case of terminal stupidity. They'll learn that not every fight is winnable, and picking ones you have no chance to win is a quick way to end up dead." Jaune replied easily.

"Mr Arc. The safety of my students isn't a joke." Ozpin glared at the Spectre for his nonchalance.

"It isn't? I honestly can't tell if you're being serious. Considering what you chose for your school's initiation, I think I'm actually more serious about their safety than you are. In any case, he owes me, so I'll keep him in check." Jaune shrugged off Ozpin's glare and folded his arms.

"See that you do." Goodwitch spat out.

"Of course, I take my job seriously. I suppose I should go over his file now, the final member of Team ALBA, Adam Taurus."

"…I would like to retract my earlier statement." Yang said as a round of coughing and sputtering took the entire audience by storm.

"Him!? What madness is this? Weiss will never be safe with him around, he hates the Schnees more than anyone I've ever met." Blake shook her head in disbelief, then an icy claw reached around her heart at the thought of Adam and her both being in Beacon at the same time.

"What divergence caused this? Just the thought of Adam freaking Taurus protecting a Schnee is giving me a headache." Roman rubbed his temples to ease the building migraine.

"Well, you remember when I said the White Fang was fractured?" Blank said, getting a bunch of nods in response.

"As you no doubt can guess, Adam Taurus would have been the champion for the more extremist factions, his strength, his skill, his unwillingness to compromise. But, he had one weakness that kept him from his 'potential' in their eyes."

"What weakness could he have?" Blake asked, wracking her brains to try and think of what could possibly be holding her old mentor back from being even more violent.

"You." Blank said simply.

"What?" Came the confused reply.

"In this timeline, you kept him in check, kept him from sinking into the abyss completely. Until you couldn't anymore." Blank said before falling silent and allowing the viewing to continue playing.

Mercury and Ren were playing a game of chess when the door to the penthouse swung open. Jaune stepped through and greeted them both with a nod. "Alright, I have a fix on the final member of our unit. We're off to Atlas."

"Ah so Sienna Khan finally located Adam. Very well, I shall make preparations immediately." Ren said and stood up, heading for his room to begin packing.

"Just don't bring along any of those health drinks and we'll be good. I'm pretty sure that thing is just a few ingredients off a chemical weapons classification." Mercury rose and started stretching to work out the kinks in his back.

"So what it is it this time boss, we just gonna walk up to him and ask nicely or what?"

"Not exactly, we don't have a lock on his current position, but we know where he's going to be. In a few days, one of the SDC's most profitable dust mines is going to be attacked by a branch of the White Fang, they want to send a message by destroying the place completely. Adam will be there to ensure they pay for their victory in blood, we'll try and get him to join us when we find him." Jaune answered.

"Wait, he's fighting against the White Fang? How does that work?" Weiss asked.

"In this timeline, Adam Taurus is no longer with the White Fang, in fact, he's largely opposed to most of their factions after they betrayed him." Blank said.

"Betrayed?" Emerald looked for an explanation but none was forthcoming.

Adam Taurus stared dispassionately at the White Fang member currently impaled on Wilt. As the flailing arms grew weaker and weaker and the gurgling died away, Adam tore his blade free from the corpse, letting it fall to the ground and stain the pure white snow a bright crimson.

Returning the bloody blade to its scabbard, Adam stepped back and admired his handiwork. The broken forms of a full White Fang platoon lay scattered all around him, another unit destroyed, another unit the betrayers no longer had to protect them. Snow continued falling from the sky, blanketing the world in white and beginning the slow process of covering up the bodies. A no name road in the middle of Solitas's frozen wastelands, Adam wondered if this little bit of pest control would help put it on the map one day.

The sound of someone clearing their throat pulled the faunus out of his thoughts. Adam turned to regard the newcomers, his eyes narrowed when the three of them approached without a shred of fear to them. "What do you want meat bags."

"Adam Taurus, didn't expect to run into you here honestly. I thought you'd be at the mines already." Jaune said in greeting.

"So you found me, here to kill me? You're welcome to try." Adam kept one hand on Wilt's handle, ready to draw it at a moment's notice.

"I'm here to extend a job offer." Jaune said. The bull faunus simply snorted in response.

"Not interested. Leave before I cut you down."

"Some things never change I guess." Cinder muttered, recalling her first meeting with the Adam of her world.

"So quick to turn down the offer, I guess you don't want the information I have then. You'll just have to get your revenge on your own." Jaune said, undaunted by Adam's expected response.

"…Get to the point, or I'll get to mine. And mine is infinitely sharper I assure you." Adam said at last.

"I'll give you what you want, in exchange I want you on my team for a mission." Jaune said.

"No. Give me the information now or else." Adam threatened, causing Mercury and Ren to both enter a combat stance.

"Oh you really don't wanna try us buddy." Mercury snarled back.

"Stand down, both of you. We're here with an offer from Sienna Khan, work with Vale for a bit and she'll clear your name." Jaune held up an arm to keep Mercury and Ren back from starting a needless fight.

"Khan? How generous of her, she's the one who hung me out to dry. What, have I killed so many soldiers of the White Fang that she's finally desperate to get me out of her hair?" Adam gestured to the bodies around them and smirked cruelly.

"Considering you've personally wiped out the White Fang presence in Vacuo and damn near did the same to the Atlas branch, I'd say yes, she probably is. Though she's got nothing against you except your existence disincentivising faunus from joining. It's not like the ones you killed haven't been thorns in her side." Jaune said.

"So, why the offer all of a sudden? She was fine letting me take the fall a year ago. Now she can suddenly clear my name? What's the catch?" Adam asked.

"No catch. Your mutual enemies have finally left Menagerie to lead an operation personally. It's the perfect chance to strike. Once they're gone, there's nothing stopping Khan from undoing their work. Of course, you won't find them by just attacking the operation at the mine by yourself, they'll ditch as soon as they get news of your arrival."

"The Albains are out in the open? I see… so in exchange for helping me kill them, you want me to be your personal attack dog is that it?" Adam's eyes widened perceptibly at the news before narrowing at Jaune.

"I just want your strengths for a mission. Once it's done, you're free to go, as long as you don't hurt Vale I couldn't care less what you do after that. Stay in Vale, go back to Menagerie or continue your campaign against the White Fang, it's your choice."

Adam said nothing for a moment. Reaching down to his waist, he retrieved his second weapon. Staring at Gambol Shroud for a moment, he closed his eyes and made up his mind. Returning it to its holster, Adam looked Jaune dead in the eye, searching for any sign of deception. He huffed when he found none. "Fine, but if you cross me, you won't live long enough to regret it."

"That's… why does he have my weapon!?" Blake stared at the screen in surprise.

"Grrr… what did he do to Blake?" Yang growled in anger.

"Nothing. He didn't do anything, and that was the problem." Blank said.

"I'm not sure I follow." Jaune said, voicing the confusion plaguing most of the audience.

"I'll let him explain it himself." Blank said and redirected their attention to the screen.

"So what's your story?" Mercury asked as the transport rumbled along the rocky roads. The four of them were en route to the mine with Ren in the driver's seat. Jaune himself was seated on top of the vehicle, busy emptying his stomach over the side repeatedly, leaving Mercury and Adam alone in the back.

"And vomit boy strikes again." Jaune sighed at his motion sickness acting up on screen while his friends giggled despite themselves.

"I don't see the need to explain myself to you flesh bag." Adam shot Mercury a glare that the assassin simply shrugged off.

"We're about to attack a small army of terrorists, then the boss has some kind of suicide mission planned after this. Nothing wrong with just chatting, we might be too dead for that tomorrow. So, what's your story? Me? My dad sawed off my legs with a saw, then the boss helped me get revenge, so now I do what he says." Mercury lifted his pant's legs to display the prosthetics underneath, drawing a small 'hmmph' from Adam.

"What's to say. I joined the White Fang when I had nowhere else to go. I wanted vengeance against the Schnee for what they did to me as a child." Adam removed his face mask and ran a finger across the SDC brand across his eye.

"Shit, and people call us monsters. How'd you survive?" Mercury asked.

"Same way you survived having your legs sawn off, a stubborn enough bastard can survive just about anything. Rage is a hell of an anaesthetic." Adam grunted out before returning the mask to his face.

In the audience, Weiss and Winter squirmed uncomfortably as the sins of their family was brought up once more. Ironwood on the other hand was making note to thoroughly investigate the SDC and other Atlas industrial giants, the brothers know they had enough enemies as it was without having to deal with their own people making more.

"True that. But how'd you go from White Fang poster boy to their single greatest pain in the ass?" Mercury asked, getting a warning growl from Adam in return.

"I had a pupil once. Daughter of the founders of the White Fang. She convinced me to shift my goals from vengeance against the human race to ensuring this doesn't ever happen again." Adam gestured to his mask before sighing.

"It worked, our actions brought change. But some people thought I wasn't going far enough. That I was going soft, that my pupil was taking away my edge. The Albain brothers, Corsac and Fennec, they were the loudest of the bunch, demanded I stay away from her, keep my blade from rusting any further."

"You refused and they offed her, didn't they?" Mercury pieced the puzzle together and Adam responded with a curt nod.

"I'm… dead?" Blake whispered softly. She didn't have time to wallow in shock though, not with her team pulling her into a group hug.

"Killing your own as a way to motivate others? Oh boy, if that isn't asking for a knife in the back, I don't know what is." Qrow muttered and drank from his flask to wash out the disgusting taste in his mouth.

"It would work as a false flag operation though. Blaming Ms Belladonna's death on humans would only incentivise greater hatred and give them the escalation they desire." Ozpin said.

"That was the plan, but it fell through due to unforeseen circumstances. And the result is the Adam Taurus you see on screen." Blank confirmed.

"They arranged a hit on her while she was out on patrol. A friend of hers found out about the assassination plot and came to me, we… we didn't make it in time." Adam looked away from Mercury, his failure to save Blake haunting him to this day.

"The Albains wanted a monster, they got one. I butchered the hit squad like the animals they were, would have gone after the brothers next, but they cut their losses first. Named me a traitor, damned me for killing an entire squad of loyal soldiers and his own pupil out of spite and jealousy. Turned the entire White Fang against me overnight, had me banished from Menagerie on pain of death." Dark laughter emanated from Adam as he drew Gambol Shroud out of its holster and stared at it.

"Khan stood by and did nothing. Her parents cursed my very existence without bothering to hear my side of the story. The faunus, the people I bled for, they turned their backs on me. I thought the brand on my face was the single greatest injustice I could ever suffer. I was wrong." Adam shrugged and holstered the weapon.

"And you lot wonder why Salem is winning. You're doing such an excellent job destroying yourselves sometimes I wonder if Salem even needs to do anything other than wait for you to destroy yourselves." Cinder smirked at the glares directed her way.

"We'll stop you, then we'll stop your boss. So just shut up and wait quietly for one of us to slit your throat okay?" Qrow an empty wine bottle at the barrier separating their sections, growling when it shattered harmlessly and caused Cinder's smirk to widen.

"I suppose you are entitled to your own delusions, however ridiculous they are."

"Bet ya made them regret not killing you huh?" Mercury commented.

"Oh but of course. I live only to grind everything the Albains have ever built to dust. Them and all who would follow them. Vacuo no longer has a White Fang branch and Atlas will soon be free of the infestation too. I've killed plenty of humans and faunus, and I've come to the conclusion that all of you are just meat bags, you bleed red and you die when I remove your head. Equally worthless in the end." Adam chuckled to himself.

"Hey, speak for yourself. Meat bag I may be, but I'll have you know that I'm at least worth more than our fearless leader up top currently setting the world record for most disgusting case of motion sickness ever." Mercury joked back and despite himself, Adam found himself chuckling along.

"Motion sickness is a more common problem than people think." Jaune sighed as the wave of giggling hit him.

"Cheer up Jaune, it's getting better at least." Pyrrha offered him a smile while doing her best to keep her own laughter in check.

"Hmmph!" Jaune frowned and hunched over with folded arms pouting, that simply drew out another wave of giggling from the champion. A quick peck to his cheek did improve his mood at least.

By the time they got to the mines, the battle was already in full swing as White Fang soldiers clashed with SDC security. Bullets were flying everywhere and panicking civilian workers were running about, adding to the chaos.

It was a bumpy ride to their destination as Ren refused to stop the truck, barrelling over the White Fang in their way and turning them into roadkill. A pale and shivering Jaune managed to ready his weapons while Adam and Mercury both shot him looks of sympathy.

"We're here, sector D-3, everyone out!" Ren announced before aiming the truck directly at a large concentration of White Fang grunts. Bullets shattered the windscreen and Ren ducked behind the wheel to present a smaller target. Waiting till the last second before opening the door and throwing himself out the side, he rolled to a stop and watched the faunus scatter or be run over by the runaway truck.

Jaune staggered to his feet and pressed the detonator in hand, activating the explosives attached to the vehicle, blowing it sky high and wiping out the White Fang soldiers unlucky enough to be caught in the blast.

Crocea Mors deployed and Jaune held up the shield, allowing bullets to bounce harmlessly off it while he regained his bearings. Adam and Mercury had already engaged the survivors at melee range while Ren hung back and provided cover fire.

"They're certainly effective." Jaune gave himself a small pat on the back for putting together the team before shaking his head to clear away the distractions. Retrieving his gauss rifle from its position slung across his back, the Spectre contributed sniper fire to the mix, taking out anyone trying to flank or counter snipe.

"For a group that was just thrown together, they work together surprisingly well." Ironwood commented.

"Spectre Jaune Arc set it up that way. All of them can do multiple roles thanks to their training, but the ones they default to complement one another without interfering with the others too much." Blank said.

"Erm… what does that mean?" Ruby asked.

"I'm the sniper, Ren's the mid-range support, Mercury is the hit and run skirmisher and Adam is the frontline tank and… heavy hitter maybe with that semblance. At the same time, Ren and Mercury can both run crowd control with their weapons." Jaune analysed.

"Oh, that makes sense… hey! This makes us sniper buddies, now if I just had the blueprints for that gun…" Ruby started muttering unintelligibly under her breath, already making plans to get Jaune a sniper rifle and convert him to the way of the sniper in the future.

"Uh… maybe that can wait till I'm a little better at the sword and shield first?" Jaune laughed nervously as an unholy gleam entered Ruby's eyes.

"I-inside! They're both inside! Argh!" A captured faunus choked out as Adam continued holding him in the air by the throat.

"Good. The mines can be their tomb then." The bull faunus raised Wilt and rammed it through his captive's heart, killing him immediately.

"Oh, we killing prisoners again. You know at the rate we're going, people are going to stop trying to surrender to us." Mercury complained.

"And that is a problem how?" Adam asked.

"A lot of unnecessary fighting. I'm an assassin, the idea is I kill my target asap, get out and get paid so I can get to the next job. Sticking around fighting random mooks isn't profitable and a bloody waste of time." Mercury said.

"We'll keep in mind for next time. Way forwards is clear, let's go before the Albains get away." Jaune slung the rifle over his shoulders and switched to a pistol and shield combination for the close quarters inside the mine.

"Mercury making sense for once? Just how twisted is this world?" Emerald rubbed her eyes to double check she wasn't hallucinating.

"Piss off Em." Mercury shot back.

Visibility inside the mine was poor, with most of the lights destroyed by the White Fang to give the faunus an advantage over the human defenders. It was frustrating for the human members of the team, their muzzle flashes playing hell with their vision in the darkness, but for Adam, the near pitch-black environment suited him just fine.

"Hmm… this reminds me of those horror movies Nora likes to watch, only the horror is on our side." Ren had a half smile as Adam slaughtered his way past the White Fang troops trapped in the mine with them. The screams of terror died away one by one and thanks to the nature of the mines, he could only wonder exactly what other White Fang members were thinking when the echoes reached them.

Adam's rampage into the mines came to a halt when he heard footsteps on a catwalk above him. Looking up, he was greeted with the sight of one of his targets standing there. The muted rage that had been burning in him constantly flared up into an inferno. "Corsac."

"Adam? This is unexpected, so you finally tracked me down." Corsac glared at Adam, by his side, his guards raised their weapons and prepared to open fire on his command.

"You're a dead man, you and your brother." Adam snarled, gripping Wilt tightly.

"And you're a bloody disappointment. You could have been the greatest of us, but you let Belladonna corrupt you. Betrayed us all for that miserable wretch!" Corsac snapped back.

"Only one traitor here and I'm staring at him. But don't worry, where you're going you won't be seeing her again."

"Don't try it Taurus, I have a whole company of White Fang behind me, ready to kill or be killed on my command. Actually, take your best shot, give my men a reason to put you down like the mad dog you are." Corsac grinned, firmly convinced in his superiority.

That grin was wiped away when Adam fired a fully charged Moonslice at him. He ducked under the energy wave in time but the two guards next to him didn't and their heads hit the ground a second before their bodies followed suit.

"You just signed your death warrant Taurus, kill him!" Corsac yelled and retreated further into the mines to regroup with Fennec. The remaining White Fang troops hosed Adam and company with bullets forcing them to duck behind cover.

"Damnit Taurus, couldn't you wait for me to line up a shot? I almost had the bastard." Jaune peeked out from behind cover and started sniping, downing several before incoming fire had him pulling back. The Spectre sighed at the missed opportunity to eliminate Corsac, having arrived at the tail end of their conversation, he was a split second away from putting a rail gun round right through Corsac's skull when Adam did the Moonslice and tossed that plan out the window.

"This is my mission, it goes how I want it to go. You want my help meat bag? Then quit getting in my way." Adam said.

"Yeah but uh, the boss had him dead to rights, you let him get away." Mercury chimed in.

"Less arguing, more shooting." Ren called out while firing on the enemy with his guns.

But as it turned out, the point was moot. The mine shuddered and cracks spread across the wall, several explosions could be heard in the distance. The White Fang soldiers on the catwalk vanished when the entire section of the wall crumbled away, dumping them on the ground and then a few hundred tons of rubble on top of them.

"The hell was that?" Jaune was the first to find his voice once the rumbling ceased.

"Is the mine being destabilised? That could collapse it on top of all of them." Winter said, some worry in her voice.

"Did the White Fang do that? No… that can't be right, their own leaders are inside the mine." Taiyang dismissed the idea as soon as it popped up.

"It's a side effect of the conflict in another section of the mine. A recently discovered dust vein got agitated by all the fighting and is about to start a chain reaction that could level the whole place." Blank said.

"Well… at least we know the team survives?" Pyrrha offered, trying to look on the bright side.

"I'm more worried about the other miners still trapped inside." Blake said.

Pushing deeper into the mines, the Albains remained one step ahead of ALBA, the sheer number of bodies they had to throw against the team slowing them down considerably. All the while, the mine continued to shake under their feet.

"Help us! Please! We can't get to the control room to seal off the dust storage! The chain reaction is going to collapse the entire mine!" A faunus miner screamed at them for help once he noticed them approaching.

The miner was trapped on a lower level with no way to escape and more of his compatriots were tied up even further within. He ducked as several explosions nearly consumed him before looking back to them, desperation written all over his face.

"No time. If we delay, Corsac and Fennec might find a way to escape again." Adam said before pressing ahead, leaving the miners to their fate.

"You want to leave the miners here to die?" Ren asked, raising his voice in shock.

"I get you want them dead, but is it worth watching them all be buried alive?"

"I'm not sticking around to watch. We stop to help the SDC and the Albains get away. And if they get away, I'm blaming you." Adam jabbed a finger into Ren's chest, getting the Mistralian to growl in anger.

"Help the SDC? But… that's helping the miners, the faunus, not the SDC! What is wrong with him?" Blake spat out.

"Quite a lot actually. He didn't take your death or his subsequent banishment very well. The drive for vengeance has almost consumed him completely. It is a good thing he's not completely lost though." Blank said.

"You sure? Looks like a lost cause to me." Yang said.

"Enough. You want the Albains dead. They'll die. You want us to abandon the miners, we can do that too. Time's a wasting." Jaune said evenly.

"Good that you see things my way." Adam turned away from them and prepared to march deeper into the mines, vengeance was so close he could almost taste it.

"What the heck is other me doing!? He can't seriously be agreeing to abandon them!" Jaune stared at the screen in disbelief. The sheer callousness of his counterpart's words a shock to the system.

"Hmmph, guess a Spectre's mandate of protection only extends to the people of Vale then." Torchwick said. Neo shook her head and displayed her scroll to him.

"Yes, I know he saved those slaves on the island… and killed Malachite… but those were… oh… mind gaming Taurus? That could work." Neo smiled at having brought Roman around to her viewpoint and waved off the curious glances being sent her way.

"I mean we all die someday. Looks like their time is up today, as long as you can explain yourself to Blake on the other side when it's your turn to go, do whatever you want." Jaune added and Adam halted mid-step.

"What are you getting at flesh bag?" Adam whirled on Jaune Wilt already in hand, ready to attack if Jaune continued pushing his buttons.

"Hey, I'm just saying. I've made peace with the fact that I'm a monster, but you? You carry her weapon as some kind of memento, a reminder of who she was. I never met her, but I happen to know an old friend of hers who gave me a good idea of what kind of a person Blake was. You obviously know her better than I do, so you tell me how do you think she's going to react to you abandoning the miners." Jaune said.

"Do their lives matter to you that much? Then go save them on your own." Adam snarled, unable to find a way to refute his words.

"They don't actually. The citizens of Vale are the only people I'm concerned with. A Spectre will do whatever it takes to complete the mission. And my mission requires your assistance, so right here and now, I'll follow your lead." Jaune said, giving the choice to Adam.

Adam growled in frustration, Gambol Shroud seemed to have increased in weight by several hundred times and was now weighing him down. With a final snarl, he changed course and started heading for the trapped miners. "Fine! But if they get away, it's on you."

"Don't you worry about that. I take responsibility for my actions, even if they do get away, there is nowhere they'll be able to hide from me forever. You may not be able to enter Menagerie, but that restriction doesn't apply to me. we'll get them." Jaune smiled thinly and fell in step behind Adam, Mercury and Ren exchanged a glance before following suit.

"Whew, so he wasn't going to abandon them after all." Jaune sighed in relief and sank into his seat.

"Yeah, for a moment there, I thought he was actually going to go through with it." Roman commented.

"Out of curiosity, would he have abandoned them if Adam Taurus insisted on pressing ahead?" Goodwitch asked.

"He would have." Blank answered.

"What!? Why!?" Ruby shouted out.

"He's a Spectre, the people of Vale are his only concern. And that means putting a stop to Merlot's plans in Mount Glenn, it's cold and cruel to abandon the miners but if it gets Adam Taurus on his side and they can stop Merlot from damaging Vale or possibly the entire world, then the trade off is worth it in his eyes." Blank said.

"How can he even justify that!? To abandon people in need right in front of you just to worry about a threat that might not even exist?" Blake sputtered out.

"Spectres cannot allow themselves to be blinded by things like emotions or ethics. They are the last line of defence for Vale, a lot of lives are riding on their shoulders and that means doing things they're not proud of. Black ops are black ops for a reason, and considering Merlot personally wiped out an entire city of people, he's a clear and present danger. The question to the Spectres isn't 'if' Merlot will threaten Vale, it's 'when'." Blank explained.

"To do what needs to be done, no matter the cost huh." Ironwood muttered.

Halting the chain reaction threatening to bring down the mine was more difficult than initially expected. Several explosions and earthquakes had damaged the machinery and even with four of them rushing around fixing things alongside whatever miners could help them, they were stretched painfully thin.

Chemical fires and combusting dust added toxic fumes to the equation and throw in some fanatical White Fang for good measure, the entire mission was a complete mess. Progress was almost stalled by the ludicrous amount of opposition in their way but progress they did.

First the power to all nonessential systems were cut off, preventing broken wiring from causing anymore fires elsewhere. Then the dust storage was sealed off where the fires couldn't ignite the dust within and cause a massive explosion. Several walls were collapsed, causing a breach in the dust veins and keeping the chain reaction from progressing any further. And finally, there was removing the rubble blocking the emergency exits, allowing the miners to escape to safety above ground.

By the time they were done, all four of them were dog tired. Adam's anger had dulled to smouldering embers, despite having been betrayed and hurt by everyone, it still felt good to rescue the miners. Reminded him of better days despite his efforts to quash those memories.

"Well, well, well, so good karma is a thing after all. Yo, Adam! Got something here for you!" Mercury grinned as he looked down into a pit. Several White Fang members had fallen into it and were now trapped inside, fuel from damaged machinery was pouring into the hole, making the walls too slippery to climb out.

Most of the masked terrorists weren't of concern to Mercury. But one amongst them was outfitted in a similar manner to Corsac, and since he didn't wear a mask, the familial resemblance was obvious. Mercury chuckled and stepped aside, allowing Adam to get a better look.

"Fennec. How deliciously unexpected." Adam's cruel smile was plastered across his face as he stared at one member of the treacherous duo down below.

"Adam?" Fennec looked up with fear in his eyes.

"Please help us!"

"After what you did to Blake and myself… do you seriously expect me to do that?"

"It wasn't supposed to be that way! She was corrupting you! Making you weak! We only wanted to see you strong again!" Fennec called out and Adam started laughing.

"Hhhahahahah… oh you wanted me strong? You succeeded."

"Help us damnit! You can't leave us here for Atlas!" Fennec roared. His face paled when Adam brandished a red crystal in hand.

"Alright, I won't leave you for Atlas. Fry, you son of a bitch." Adam agitated the red dust in hand and let it drop into the oil filled pit before walking away. The dust crystal ignited and soon the entire pit was burning with everyone in it. The screaming only caused Adam's smile to grow.

"Ice cold baby, ice cold." Mercury chuckled at his little joke as Fennec and his goons went up in flames.

"One down, one to go." Roman said.

"Those screams are going to haunt my nightmares." Jaune sighed out.

"So does Corsac get away?" Ozpin asked.

"No. Sienna Khan sent extra help to make sure the Albains are put down for good. You'll see in a bit." Blank said.

As ALBA exited the mines, they were greeted with the curious sight of several captured White Fang prisoners kneeling on the ground. And their captors were more White Fang.

"Stand down, they're friendlies." Ilia said as several rifles snapped in ALBA's direction.

"Ma'am, that's Adam Taurus! We should kill him before he kills us all!" One of the grunts said, slight panic in his voice.

"If you don't shoot him, he won't kill you. Hurry and load the rest of these jokers on the bullhead, we're don't have time to tangle with Atlas reinforcements." Ilia ordered and her men snapped to attention, hurrying to carry out her bidding and getting the hell away from the Butcher.

"Hello Adam, Jaune."

"Ilia. Khan sent you to assist?" Jaune returned the greeting with a small nod of his own.

"She did. I'm here to make sure the Albains don't get away again. Good thing I got here in time isn't it?" Ilia gestured to two men standing off to the side, at once they began dragging a hooded prisoner over to them.

Upon ripping off the hood, Corsac's pissed off expression was visible. It transitioned to one of fear once he noticed Adam's grinning visage in front of him, then his struggling intensified. "No! You can't be here! Kill him! He's the traitor!"

"No, that's not happening, and shut the fuck up you bastard." Ilia emphasised her words with a right hook to Corsac's face, knocking several teeth loose and causing him to bite back a scream of pain.

"Amitola! Whatever disagreements we have with Sienna, this is Adam Taurus! He's the one who killed Belladonna! He's a filthy traitor! Kill him!" Corsac spat out when he found his voice again.

"Lying even now. I was framed, by you. The only traitor here is you." Adam fired back, hand already itching to draw his weapon and start stabbing.

"Your lies hold no weight here Corsac. Didn't you ever wonder how Adam got to your men that night? Didn't you ever wonder who tipped him off?" Ilia's voice was quivering from the pure rage she was bottling up.

"You?" Corsac's eyes widened as realization dawned on him.

"Me." Ilia confirmed.

"You had my best friend murdered and framed Adam for your sins. There's nothing I want more than to run you through with Lightning Lash right now but… Adam has the right to your head. Go on, do your thing." Ilia stepped back and gestured to Adam to get on with it.

"Hahahah… I've waited a long time for this day. I found your brother in the mines, trapped in a pit, want to know what I did to him?" Adam leaned in close and relished in the horror on Corsac's face.

"He begged for mercy and then I burned him alive. His screams were exquisite, a shame I don't have the time to do the same to you."

"No! Bastard! Let me go! Let me go!" Corsac redoubled his efforts to escape but his captors held firm. Adam glanced to Jaune to see if he wanted to interfere again but the Spectre merely tapped his watch to hurry him along.

Adam chuckled and drew Wilt with one hand. In the other, he pulled out Gambol Shroud and switched it to katana mode. Resting the blades against Corsac's throat like a pair of oversized scissors, he allowed the doomed faunus several moments of struggling to get away before speaking again.

"Goodbye Corsac, die knowing that you've accomplished nothing of worth in this life. Rot in hell with your brother."

"NOOOOO-" Corsac's scream was literally cut off when Adam moved his swords, the blade scissoring through his neck and a second later, there was a dull thud when his head hit the floor. With their prisoner executed, the White Fang guards simply dropped the body and backed away from the expanding pool of crimson.

"Haaa… it's done. You've helped me get my revenge Spectre, so you can count on me for your mission." Adam said to Jaune.

"Excellent. Then let's get going before Atlas arrives, I don't want to have to explain this."

"So what happens to Adam now? He's got his revenge." Blake asked softly.

"There's the mission to Mount Glenn, after that he just stuck around in Vale since clearing his name and preparing a welcome back to Menagerie would take time even with the Albains's interference gone. Then, it's a very slow road to healing." Blank said.

"But he gets better then?" Blake asked again.

"For a definition of better. He's functional but will never really fit in again, not after everything he's been through. As you can no doubt see by now, none of the members of team Alabaster are what you'd call well adjusted. Each of them is broken in their own way." Blank said.

"But since the four of them are a team now, they function as a support group for one another then." Goodwitch commented.

"Indeed. Not a perfect solution, but it's the best one they've got." Blank confirmed

"So that's your team. If Adam Taurus got his rage under control with the deaths of those who betrayed him, I suppose things could be worse." Ozpin said and lowered the file to the table.

"Yep, that's all three of em. Any other questions, if not, I have paperwork to fill out." Jaune's grimace spoke volumes about just how much he detested that one particular portion of being a Spectre.

"Just one. You said you recruited them for a mission to assassinate Merlot in the ruins of Mount Glenn, but you also said he's still alive. How did that happen? And did it have anything to do with the massive explosion a while back?" Ozpin asked.

Jaune's expression turned ugly as he recalled the clusterfuck of a mission and how badly things had gone wrong in the tunnels beneath Mount Glenn. "Yeah, that explosion was us. The mission was a bust from the very beginning, Merlot was never there, he's operating remotely from a base elsewhere. At the very least we stopped the abominations he was creating."

"Abominations?" Ozpin raised an eyebrow at the word.

"Hmmph, the Grimm are a big enough threat as it is, ask anyone and they'll tell you that. Not the bastard though. I don't know what kind of experiments he was doing when the city fell, but I know what he's doing now. He's completely fucked in the head, the Grimm are too weak he said. Evolution made them the apex species on Remnant, but didn't push far enough. He's trying to improve the Grimm, become some kind of Grimm God, create the ultimate Grimm and wipe both humanity and faunus kind out." Jaune said.

"That's ridiculous, no one would be that insane!" Goodwitch denied, unable to wrap her head around the idea of someone trying to make the Grimm more dangerous. Someone who wasn't Salem anyways.

"Then it's a good thing he failed I suppose." Ozpin sipped from his mug, halting at the dark laughter coming from Jaune.

"Failed? He succeeded!" Jaune hissed out, slamming a fist down on the table in anger.

"What!?" Ozpin's exclamation mirrored his on-screen counterpart and spoke for the entire audience.

"It's a divergence. The Merlot of your world hasn't made it anywhere near as far as that Merlot. But this one is a threat to humanity on the same level as Salem." Blank said.

"That's impossible! No one can be stronger than her. With her magic and control of the Grimm, she's invincible." Cinder denied.

"Hard to beat, not invincible. But this version of Dr Merlot is increasing his control over the Grimm, given enough time, he'll match if not eclipse Salem's control. And his Grimm are superior to standard Grimm on almost every point. Stronger, faster, tougher, more violent. To be honest, that world only continues to exist because Merlot and Salem are unaware of one another, if they ever join forces, that's it for Remnant." Blank said.

"That's a disturbing image." Qrow said and started draining his flask.

"No kidding, gimme that bottle." Summer agreed and grabbed one of the bottles next to Qrow.

"Succeeded? Explain." Ozpin's brows furrowed in thought as he waited for Jaune to calm down.

"Excuse me. Just recalling that mess is enough to piss me off. Point is, Merlot's found a way to make… improvements to the Grimm. And he can control some of them personally. Haaa…" Jaune sighed and breathed in deeply to recompose himself.

"We found his old lab in the ruins of the city, then we found a still active one below it. As it turns out, the city was probably doomed in the long run anyways, Merlot just kicked off the first domino early. There was an actual fucking Grimm dragon sleeping beneath the city, the damn thing can spawn more Grimm just by existing, it's how the city fell so fast. The Grimm Merlot lured into the city via the underground tunnels dragged all the other spawned Grimm out as well, the city never had a chance against that kind of numbers." Jaune said.

"I suppose I should fill you in on the rest of it, there's always the chance huntsmen might run into more of his creations and someone should know what the hell they're dealing with."

"There was a dragon underground spawning more Grimm? How did we miss that when we were building the city?" Roman threw his hands up in exasperation. At least he had a better answer for why his team wound up being sacrificed the way they did.

"Mount Glenn was initially slated for colonisation efforts due to its natural defences. The terrain made for a natural barrier against the Grimm and there were plenty of underground tunnels that could be expanded into or used as shelters in the event of a disaster." Blank informed them.

"Much of the tunnel network hadn't been charted and while they were always known as possible Grimm entry points should the network connect to other sections of the mountain or elsewhere in the wilds. It was deemed an acceptable risk as tunnels could be collapsed or blocked off to keep Grimm out, should further expansion be required, they could be opened up again later. The Grimm dragon was sleeping in one of the uncharted regions, unknown to everyone at the time."

"Did Merlot know about it?" Weiss asked.

"Not at the time, if he did, he wouldn't have bothered trying to lure Grimm from outside, he'd just have used the ones already present. But when he came back later, he found it there and that was the problem." Blank answered.

"Damn this place is creepy. You think it's haunted boss?" Mercury kicked a rock into the doorway of a destroyed shop. The pebble bounced about inside the empty building, its echo incredibly loud in the silent ghost city.

"No such thing as ghosts, but keep your eyes peeled for Grimm. This place is supposed to be crawling with them, but we haven't run into any so far." Jaune said.

"If it's fine with you Jaune, once the mission is over, I'd like to spend some time here to pay my respects to the lost." Ren said, a bitter expression on his face as he surveyed the ruins of Mount Glenn around them.

"Why not, maybe one day we'll be able to reclaim the city itself." Jaune replied.

"I don't see any signs of life. Are we sure he's here?" Adam asked.

"No. The report came in quite some time ago and parts of it was garbled. It's entirely possible he's already moved on. But, the info did state he had some kind of major operation here, even if he's left, there might be clues to his location here." Jaune answered.

"So first stop, Merlot Industries HQ… or what's left of it." Mercury shrugged and stared at their destination looming before them. The building was one of the most damaged structures in the entire city, given that it was at the heart of the outbreak, it was to be expected.

"Comms check… alright we're green. Split up and search for clues, if anything comes up, ping the rest. If anyone's comms go dark, assume we've been engaged by hostiles and react accordingly." Jaune gave the order and his team split up to cover more ground.

The interior of the building was even worse than it looked from the outside. Barely any of the furniture within remained intact and most of the walls bore some kind of damage, whether they'd already been knocked down, had holes punched through them or simply long jagged lines carved into them. The bloodstains, bone fragments and tattered bits of clothing scattered around certainly painted a grim picture of the events that transpired.

Shaking his head to ward of unnecessary thoughts, Jaune pushed deeper into the building, searching for Merlot's office if it was still intact.

"You know, I'm actually glad we ran into the White Fang at Mount Glenn now. Definitely not interested in seeing all that in person." Yang said, wincing as the sound of bone crunching underfoot could be heard. Several shaky nods came from the rest of team RWBY as they agreed whole heartedly.

In Roman's corner of the theatre, the master thief was busy grumbling under his breath, cursing Cinder for sending him back into the hellhole and the theatre for reminding him of what he had to go through. Neo shrugged and continued coming up on suggestions for Cinder's execution to cheer him up.

Instead of arriving at Merlot's office, Jaune stumbled into one of the abandoned labs instead. The place was as much of a mess as the rest of the building, several holes in the walls led to sunlight streaming in from outside. Jaune knelt down to shift aside some rubble, several sheets of paper had survived the devastation and were pinned to the floor.

"Hello there, what do we have here?" Jaune muttered to himself as he held up the yellowish scraps of paper to the light. The ink had faded and parts of it were torn, but what little Jaune could make out didn't make sense to him.

"Neural command link? What is this? Never mind, I'll let the eggheads back at Vale sort this out." Carefully folding the papers and placing them in his pocket for safe keeping, Jaune looked around but found nothing else of use in the lab.

The sound of gunfire and a massive crash got Jaune to spring up, weapons already in hand. The communicator in his ear came to life a moment later.

"I have made contact with Grimm in the basement." Adam's words came through, interrupted by occasional bouts of gunfire and the roaring of Grimm.

"Watch yourselves flesh bags, these aren't normal Grimm. I've never faced Beowolves with glowing eyes or spikes before. Tougher than normal, but they still go down if you hit them enough." Adam reported again after several seconds of combat.

"I got Ursas in the west wing, more glowing stuff and holy fuck these guys are big. Came straight through the floor." Mercury's report came in next.

"Clear on my end, I'm closer to Adam, moving to assist now." Jaune said before sprinting out the door, Crocea Mors at the ready.

"Understood, all clear here as well, I'll assist Mercury." Ren followed up afterwards.

"Things are off to a great start." Qrow muttered.

"This isn't what I'd call a great start, if anything, things are going wrong right out the gate." Winter replied.

"Hah, of course you'd think that ice queen. Look at it this way, at least now they have confirmation something is definitely wrong in this place. Beats coming up empty and then assuming Merlot is gone for good." Qrow said and Winter conceded his point.

Jaune skidded to a halt as a mutated Beowolf crashed through a wall. Covered in crystal spikes that glowed with an emerald radiance, he didn't have time to do anything when a shot put the Grimm down for good. Shaking himself out of his stupor, Jaune rushed in to assist Adam.

"Sit rep." Jaune said as he started hacking away at the Grimm, noting the improved resilience of Grimm flesh to his blade. Not enough to impede his blows, but the fact it existed at all was worrying.

"Grimm jumped me as soon as I entered, they're coming from the lower levels. I wasn't aware this complex had that many basement floors." Adam replied and cleanly bisected a Beowolf with a Moonslice.

"It doesn't, not according to the original blueprints anyway." Jaune replied, he'd memorised the building layout as soon as the mission was good to go, nothing in the plans mentioned additional basement floors.

"Boss, Ursas's dead, there's some kind of sublevel below the floor. We good to investigate?" Mercury asked.

"Negative, we're dealing with unknowns, regroup with us at the basement and we'll progress as a unit from here. I'd prefer if none of us walk into any more ambushes while alone." Jaune replied.

"Got it boss, Ren and I heading over now."

Jaune spared Adam a nod and the two of them redoubled their efforts to finish clean up of the remaining Grimm in their area.

"What is with those Grimm?" Weiss asked, just the look of those mutant Grimm set off all kinds of warning bells in her mind.

"Those are Merlot's creation. Grimm he's upgraded with his serum, a kind of mutagen that works on Grimm, improving their stats and giving some of them additional powers." Blank answered.

"Damn, as if the Grimm we have to deal with daily aren't enough of a problem. Is there a limit to what the serum can affect?" Qrow asked.

"No. It works on all Grimm, and that's the problem." Blank replied.

"These must be the tunnel network beneath the city." Ren said as the team entered the caves. Investigation of the sublevels with Jaune's drones revealed that both led to the same location. Beginning with holding cells that the Grimm were released from, the sublevels held entrances to the tunnels and there were clear signs of human activity there.

"High alert gentlemen, no telling what we'll find deeper inside. Ren, be ready to use your semblance at any moment, I'll buff you to keep us all cloaked from the Grimm." Jaune ordered.

"Understood. I do hope my semblance works against these strange Grimm though." Ren said.

"Not inspiring confidence right now." Mercury snarked but nonetheless kept his eyes peeled for any signs of trouble.

The journey deeper into the mountain's depths was an experience to say the least. The lack of sunlight and only illumination coming from the green crystals embedded in the walls stripped away all sense of time very quickly.

Upon encountering several more mutant Grimm along the way, Ren used his semblance to stealth himself before assassinating the Grimm and avoiding a firefight in the cramped corridors. All four of them thankful his semblance still worked on these strange Grimm.

Eventually, the tunnels opened up into a massive underground cavern. The four of them could only stare blankly at the sight before them. Adam was the first to find his voice. "That is a lot of Grimm."

"Understatement of the century right there." Mercury added once his mouth started working again. The ceiling was covered in more of those glowing Grimm, they hung from the stalactites like oversized bats, all seemingly asleep.

"This is insane, how did we miss something like this so close to Vale?" Jaune whispered, not daring to raise his voice lest he awaken all of the Grimm from their stasis. Placing one hand on Ren's shoulder, he started funnelling his aura into the assassin to boost his semblance.

"No one bothered looking, we all just assumed the city was lost and that was it." Ren replied, activating Tranquillity to cloak them all.

"Oh. My. Goodness." Goodwitch breathed out, the theatre audience sharing the same stunned reaction as ALBA.

"And if all of them are upgraded Grimm… I'm not sure if Vale will be able to survive a direct assault from those Grimm. Not if they enter in a surprise attack like the Breach." Ozpin muttered.

"If there are more of those things inside that Mount Glenn, I'm pretty sure even a frontal assault on Vale's walls will succeed." Ironwood corrected.

"It's a good thing those don't exist here then." Taiyang said.

"Not exactly. They exist thanks to Merlot, just not in such numbers." Blank said.

"Great, just great." Torchwick shook his head and sighed.

"Magnificent aren't they, truly my masterpieces, every one of them." A voice called out and a figure stepped out from a tunnel on the far end of the chamber.

"Merlot I presume." Jaune glared at the approaching man and could just make out white hair and a single glowing red eye on him.

"Dr Merlot at your service, in the flesh… so to speak." Merlot grinned as he approached, as he got closer, ALBA recoiled from him in shock.

The doctor looked less like a human and more like a Grimm. Red and black veins framed his face, pasty bone white skin was visible where his cloak didn't cover him and his fingers ended in blackened claws.

"What the hell are you!?" Ren's eyes were wide as the doctor came to a stop.

"I am the pinnacle of human evolution. I am mankind perfected." Merlot boasted.

"Fuck that! Are you even human!? You look like a bloody Grimm!" Mercury snapped at the doctor.

"Oh my appearance? Hahahahahahah, I look like this because this body is a Grimm." Merlot scratched at his face with a bony finger and broke the skin with the claw at the end. No blood flowed out, instead wisps of black vapour leaked from it, not too dissimilar to when a Grimm was killed and started disintegrating.

"What?" Adam blinked in confusion, nothing the doctor was saying made sense.

"The process isn't perfect yet, but it will be soon. And then mankind will be invincible. For years, I thought Grimm were the superior species on Remnant, they are stronger and more resilient than any other living thing on the planet. Pure aggression and destruction given form, and their capability to evolve in such a short time, truly magnificent. But for all their strengths, there is one curious problem about them, they have the capacity for thought and strategy, especially the older Grimm, but they lack true sentience. The Grimm have no aura, no semblance, no soul." Merlot lectured.

"Get to the point doctor. What the hell are you doing down here!? Wasn't it enough you destroyed the city? Come to desecrate it further!?" Jaune growled at Merlot.

"So impatient, but such is the naivete of the young. It's simple, I just want to answer the question, what if I gave a Grimm a soul? Combined the pure power of the Grimm with human ingenuity, the best of both species and none of the drawbacks." Merlot chuckled and stared at his Grimmified limbs.

"I am the result. The process isn't perfect yet but soon, there will be a new master race on Remnant. Grimm, humans, faunus, they'll only exist in the history books soon."

"You're insane. We will sto-" Jaune's words were interrupted by a gunshot from Adam. The bullet struck Merlot dead centre in his forehead, punching through flesh and bone before emerging on the other side.

"Problem solved. Nothing but a flesh bag in the end." Adam spat to the side and lowered Blush.

"That is one way to solve a problem." Mercury shrugged before Emerald deflated his balloon.

"Yeah? But we already know your little mission ends in failure. So obviously it didn't work."

"…Shut up Em."

"So what was that? Some kind of remote drone?" Winter asked.

"Not exactly, just watch." Blank said.

"So quick to resort to violence. As I thought, mixing mankind with the Grimm truly is the best way forwards." Merlot's voice resonated all around them.

"What? I killed you." Adam growled and stared at the disintegrating corpse.

"So you did, but death is nothing more than a nuisance, that word will mean nothing once I've succeeded in full. Watch." A single mutated Ursa clinging to the ceiling awoke. Falling to the ground with a thunderous crash, it rose up onto two feet but didn't attack or even roar, simply standing there for a few seconds until the inconceivable happened.

An aura cloak formed around it and its form started to ripple. ALBA could only watch on in shock as Merlot did… something to the Grimm. "Assuming direct control."

The Ursa began shrinking inwards, its flesh bulging and contracting in places to form a cocoon covered in those green spikes. Then the cocoon burst open, and a new Merlot was standing in its place.

"As long as even one of my Grimm exists, I'll be able to assume control of them endlessly. I Doctor Merlot, have conquered death itself. I am the vanguard of mankind's salvation." The mad scientist grinned maniacally at them.

"This world is about to enter a new age. One where mankind is no longer bound by their physical limitations, and of course, as the one who brought the future to the present. I will be a god."

"Such hubris, can he bring back those he murdered? Nothing but a mad man with delusions of grandeur." Roman glared at Merlot as his rage simmered inside.

"But given what he's accomplished, can you blame him for thinking that way? He's certainly playing god if nothing else, and without any magic or miracles to boot." Qrow said.

"This is insane, he's doing things that should never even be attempted. Humans and Grimm essence do not mix!" Ozpin raised his voice, Merlot's appearance and his goals… it was like he was trying to turn all of mankind into Salem copies.

Cinder stared mutely at the screen, wondering what it took to achieve such power as a human. A mere mortal was transgressing on her mistress' domain and doing quite well at that too.

"You're a monster. The kingdoms will never bow to you." Ren said and raised StormFlower.

"I am perfection. What are a few measly kingdoms before a god? The four of them continue to lose ground to the Grimm every day, what are they against me? One who stands above the Grimm themselves. They will bow, or I will smite them all." Merlot replied.

"Like hell you will, I won't let you hurt Vale." Jaune snarled and fired his gauss rifle, taking Merlot's head clean off. Once again, the death didn't stick, another Grimm dropped from the ceiling and seconds later Merlot was back.

"Yes, the last Spectre I met said as much. Tell me Spectre, what is the worth of a human life?" Merlot asked while inspecting his nails, completely unconcerned with the hostility directed his way.

"What?" Jaune blinked in confusion, unsure if it was a trick question of some sort.

"In most cases, the answer is a negative number. The average human is a net drain on society. They consume precious resources, output nothing but negativity to draw Grimm and contribute nothing of worth in return. Parasites in other words. So why do you fight so hard for them? When the world would be a much better place with most of them gone." Merlot said.

"That's it? That's how you justify your actions? Everyone who died in the fall of Mount Glenn, your own subordinates… they mean nothing to you!?" Jaune spat out.

"Well of course they meant nothing. Why would they? Most of them contributed nothing to my cause and those that did couldn't offer anything more. Your efforts are futile, spent in service to people who can't and won't appreciate it, who don't deserve it."

"You've lost all of your humanity. I can't believe I prefer flesh bags over you." Adam shot back.

"Hmmph, humanity only holds us back in the end. It's why I've done away with it, I just thought you'd like to know that your lives and deaths are the same as the rest, ultimately, entirely worthless. The future is about to become the present, it's a shame you won't live long enough to see it." Merlot snapped his fingers and the ceiling came alive with activity as every single Grimm woke up, directed by Merlot's will to attack, Ren's semblance doing nothing while the doctor could direct them.

Jaune swore and fired his gauss rifle again, killing the Merlot vessel and hurrying his team forwards. "Run for it, we're dead if we stay here!"

Retreat was cut off when several Grimm fell and formed a solid wall between them at the way they came in from, leaving them no choice but to continue forwards, through the same tunnel the first Merlot entered.

The four of them charged through, firing on everything that moved. As they rushed through, Mercury dropped several grenades, rolling them back towards the entrance and bringing that section of the cave down, sealing the entry and preventing pursuit.

"Woah, this is some action movie stuff right there." Nora said and shoved more popcorn into her mouth. The silencing cylinder had finally lifted and she could speak freely without leaving her seat again. Ren was next to her, having passed out from being hugged too tightly for too long.

"Yeah. It's a shame half of them are bad guys we need to beat up." Ruby shrugged before following Nora's example and snacking on some cookies. It was a good thing they already knew ALBA would escape just fine or this would be a lot more nerve wracking.

"Hey! I'm sitting right here!" Mercury complained after overhearing Ruby's comment.

"If you stop being a bad guy, we won't beat you up… although Yang might, since she's angry at you for planning to frame her." Ruby said, Yang echoed her words by running a thumb across her throat, glaring at Mercury with crimson eyes.

"Fuck this is insane." Mercury yelled out as he slammed his shotgun boots into the side of Merlot's head. Aura flared when he fired but the doctor didn't go down, retaliating with claws instead. Mercury ducked and the claws raked harmlessly against the wall, carving out several long furrows in the stone.

"Aren't you supposed to be a doctor? What the hell is this crap!?"

"Sometimes, direct intervention is necessary. Even in the past, Grimm tend to be unruly test subjects. It's easier to break their limbs before heading to the operating table, to save time, I do it myself." Merlot replied.

"Then it's a good thing we aren't Grimm." Adam said and lopped off the offending limb with Wilt. While Merlot was off balance, he stabbed the doctor in the neck with Gambol Shroud, tearing through the remaining shreds of aura and then decapitating the abomination in one motion.

"What's the plan Jaune? We can't outrun him forever." Ren stabbed a Beowolf through the eyes with StormFlower's blades and ripped them free, leaving the Grimm to disintegrate.

"These tunnels are a network that runs throughout Mount Glenn, there has to be another exit somewhere. I managed to get a message through to the White Fang, with any luck, they'll be here to bombard the place soon." Jaune said tersely.

"An airstrike would collapse part of the city, but if this Grimm infestation goes deep enough into the mountain, it might not be enough." Ren said.

"I know. I hope it doesn't come… to… what… the hell am I looking at?" Jaune trailed off as the tunnels opened up into another massive cavern. This time, there weren't Grimm hanging from the ceiling.

There was just a single colossal one taking up most of the cavern. A titanic behemoth of a dragon lay in the centre, countless tubes and pumps were attached to it, some funnelling an unidentified green liquid into the Grimm, others taking away what could only be described as Grimm essence.

"Assuming direct control." Those words punctuated the arrival of a new Merlot. ALBA simply glared at the man as he stepped through the doorway, flanked by a boatload of mutant Grimm.

"I am beginning to detest those words." Ren said and started shooting immediately.

"Preaching to the choir. Adam, those tubes look important, charge up a Moonslice and get back to me." Jaune instructed and Adam nodded.

Once more battle was joined, the four members of Team ALBA fighting desperately against the Grimm hordes, using the slumbering dragon as cover, trying to get the Grimm to damage it through friendly fire.

"Why do you continue to resist? You should have seen the futility of your actions by now." Merlot chided as Jaune fended off his claws with his sword and shield while Mercury engaged with his boots.

"Yeah well I'm a stubborn bastard. People keep expecting me to give up and die, I continue to disappoint to this day." Mercury grinned and delivered a roundhouse kick to Merlot's face, sending the doctor flying back. Jaune didn't miss the opportunity to rush in for a straight thrust through his Grimm heart.

"Assuming direct control." Merlot reformed almost immediately, a look of annoyance plastered on his face.

"You are stubborn, and effective I'll admit. All the more evidence my path is the correct one. Imagine if you had the power of the Grimm at your disposal, just how much more you could do, that is what I intend to gift humanity."

"No thanks. How many times have we killed you now? If this is the power you're offering we don't need it." Jaune replied.

"So you've killed me multiple times, yet I continue to return at full strength while you grow weaker with every kill. You cannot beat me in a battle of attrition." Merlot's words elicited a growl from the Spectre.

"We'll see about that." Jaune caught Adam's signal that his Moonslice was at full charge. Jumping back from the swiping claws of an Ursa and a mass of spikes shooting up from the ground, Jaune regrouped with Adam and used his semblance on the faunus.

Adam didn't hesitate, swinging Wilt at full strength, he fired a wave of pure destructive energy enhanced by Jaune, the wave easily cutting through the reinforced cables connected to the Grimm dragon and into the Grimm itself.

"NO! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?" Merlot roared as his prized specimen was damaged. It started as a low growl before transcending into a deafening roar as the Grimm dragon finally woke up from the damage.

Its form rippled and started bulging, the serum inside it reacting with the Grimm itself instead of just the bits being siphoned away to create more Grimm. Additional bone plating formed on the dragon, crystal spikes started growing out of it and its eyes burned a sickly emerald green.

And as if it wasn't large enough, it started growing even more, two growths appeared on either side of its neck, growing larger and larger until two additional heads sprouted from them, leaving ALBA facing down a titanic three headed dragon that was thoroughly pissed off.

"NO! The transformation is incomplete! I can't control it!" Merlot roared as the Grimm dragon shook off his attempts to shackle it to his will.

"That's incomplete!? Then what the hell would the completed version look like!?" Jaune's imagination ran wild as he tried to figure out what could be worse than the monster on screen now.

"You don't want to know." Was Blank's only reply.

"Damn you Spectre, you've destroyed years of work!" Merlot glared at Jaune for several seconds before returning to a calmer state.

"Ah, never mind. I have all the data I need. The loss of the Mount Glenn facility is tragic but ultimately inconsequential. I have other labs to attend to. But this isn't over Spectre, not by a long shot. I'll be back to settle the score. Releasing control." The Merlot possessed Grimm shuddered before crumbling to dust as Merlot's mind vacated the empty shell.

"I'll be expecting you Merlot, next time I'll kill you permanently." Jaune said before returning his attention to the dragon in the room. The thing was thrashing about, shaking off the remaining tubes on it in an effort to free itself.

"Boss! This thing is about to bring the entire mountain down on us! What do we do!?" Mercury looked to Jaune for orders, nothing in his training had every prepared him for something like this.

"Right, stay close to it, grab one of its legs if you must, I don't think it's noticed us yet. If the mountain collapses on us, under it will be the safest place to be. Something tells me it'll take more than a mountain dropping on this thing to kill it." Jaune shouted over the thrashing Grimm and collapsing rubble.

"Sounds like suicide, but it's the only plan they've got." Roman said, his fists clenched from the tension despite knowing how it would end.

"Whatever their faults, it's a shame I can't have this team for Atlas." Ironwood sighed.

Just as predicted, the Grimm dragon's relentless thrashing brought down the mountainside on top of them. Staying in the shadow of the Grimm, it served as a shield for much of the rubble falling on them and just as Jaune predicted, the Grimm dragon refused to go down.

With an unholy roar, the dragon raised its heads up and started charging balls of yellow lightning in each of them. Firing all three at once, the lightning bolts disintegrated whatever they touched, punched through the mountain and into air, carving several forked lines into the heavens.

Shaking its heads from side to side haphazardly to destroy the rubble raining on it, the Grimm thrust out its wings and flapped once, buffeting the area with gale force winds and forcing ALBA to cling tightly to its legs or be blown away and buried alive.

Then without warning, the dragon shot into the air, its wingbeats powering through the collapsing mountain to hurl it into the air, team ALBA still clutching on tightly.

"FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!" Mercury's eloquent swearing drastically understated their current mood as they were suddenly airborne and staring down at the demolished city from on high. And against all odds, that mood only worsened when the Grimm dragon was hit by canon fire and shuddered from the impact.

"You gotta be shitting me! They pick now of all times to arrive!? Call em off boss!" Mercury yelled at the top his lungs.

"Gah! I would, but my scroll's busted." Jaune removed the now useless piece of tech from his pocket with one hand, a rock or something must have smashed into it during their dramatic escape and broke the thing. Any thoughts of repairing it went out the window when the dragon took a nose dive and the howling winds ripped the device out of his hands and into the void.

Once the dragon hit the ground hard, the four of them were thrown free from the impact, auras flaring as they bore the brunt of the damage.

"This place…" Jaune matched their surroundings to the map of Mount Glenn he memorised and blinked when he realised they'd landed near the city's power plant. With it going offline as part of automated safety mechanisms during the fall, there should still be plenty of dust inside. Dust that he could set off and hopefully cause a big enough explosion to kill the Grimm.

"I got a plan, this is near the power plants, I'll cause a meltdown to kill this damned thing. The three of you stall this thing, stop it from sinking our air support, try to drive it towards the power plants if you can." Jaune ordered, pointing in the direction he needed to go.

"And how the heck are we supposed to do that?" Mercury yelled.

"Just keep hitting it. Ren, can you blind the dragon by using your semblance on it?"

"I… I don't know, I've never tried using my semblance on a Grimm before." Ren admitted.

"Try! If it doesn't work, then use it to cloak the three of you. Adam, keep it grounded, Moonslice its damned wings. Mercury, try to get a message to the White Fang, call for pick up and get them to drive it towards the plants. You're all stubborn bastards so I expect to see all of you alive once this is over." Jaune's words were greeted by three nods from his team and the Spectre dumped nearly all of his remaining aura into buffing them.

"Got it boss, go team All The Bastards." Mercury replied and the four of them sprang into action. Ren doing whatever he could to distract the dragon, Adam hacking and shooting at every exposed fleshy bit and Mercury spamming every frequency on his scroll to try and get through to the White Fang currently shelling them.

Jaune sprinted through the destroyed streets, the sound of battle ringing in his ears as he left his team behind to fend for themselves. "Come on, come on, luck don't fail me now."

Rushing into the power plants, he was glad to see some of the systems were still operational. Activating them and trying to trigger a meltdown was a lot harder than he expected, but that was a given, the entire point of all the safeguards was to ensure what he was trying to pull off didn't happen ever.

"Somehow, I don't think the engineers ever thought someone would be suicidal enough to trigger a meltdown to kill a dragon of all things." Jaune said as he smashed several consoles, taking their systems offline and kickstarting the meltdown.

Rushing through the facility in a desperate effort to increase the speed and scale of the meltdown, it was a mad race against time to destabilise all of the reactors. Even with his semblance boosting his own performance and his rapid aura regeneration, he was running on fumes and growing more tired by the second.

Finally, his comms crackled to life and Adam's voice came through. "Mea-Jaune, the three of us are on board a bullhead, the dragon is headed your way. Get out of there now."

"I'm just about done here as well. I'll make my own way out of the city, get the airships clear, the blast is going to be huge. I'll see you on the other side." Jaune replied and started sprinting again, his aura flaring as he pushed himself to the absolute limit, maximum speed to put as much distance between himself and the soon to be blast crater.

The minutes ticked down as Jaune continued running. Then the entire world turned white. The reactors exploded in a blast of heat and light, vaporising the three headed dragon caught at ground zero and sending up a mushroom cloud. Jaune was picked up by the blast wave and tossed into the air.

Crashing back down to earth was a painful thing, bouncing off destroyed buildings and abandoned vehicles, the strong winds picking him up several more times and smashing him against rocks and other hard places repeatedly.

By the time Jaune came to a stop, his right arm and both legs were bent at odd angles. His ribs were one massive bruise and Jaune was pretty sure he'd broken most of them. Coughing up blood several times, he stared into the blue skies overhead and marvelled at the beautiful view.

The colours were striking this day and he regretted not spending more time appreciating the view in the past. Oh well, what's done is done. The last thing he recalled before his vision faded away was Mercury's voice in his ear, something about them being on the way and not dying.

'Heh, relax, I'm a stubborn bastard. Ain't dying so easily… just need… a little… rest…' Jaune's last thoughts faded away as well as unconsciousness claimed him, delivering sweet relief from the pain.

"So the dragon is dead. And most of Mount Glenn is gone. Not how I thought things would go." Ozpin admitted.

"I did say Spectres were known for collateral damage." Blank said.

"This… is beyond collateral damage, I think a new term might need to be invented for it." Winter said.

"Perhaps, but it's done. With the exception of Merlot's survival, the Mount Glenn incident is closed with this." Blank said.

"But that's… a lot of injuries." Pyrrha whispered as she mentally ticked off Jaune's injuries.

"Good thing other me makes a full recovery huh?" Jaune said to lighten the mood.

"That Jaune Arc ends up in a hospital for quite a bit but recovers eventually. That hospital stay is the one regret he has about forming team Alabaster though." Blank said.

"Why? Didn't they visit him in the hospital or something?" Weiss asked.

"On the contrary, they made sure to visit, and made doubly sure he resided for the full duration of the stay. Spectre Jaune Arc attempted to escape mandatory bed rest six times, each time he was arrested and returned by his team. He was not happy about that." Blank said.

"Oh. So like Qrow then." Summer said and Taiyang just sighed, remembering how difficult it was to get Qrow to stick around in the hospital.

"What does uncle Qrow have to do with it?" Ruby asked.

"Your uncle hates hospitals, we had to tie him up and carry him in or he'd run away. His bird brain doesn't realise his unluckiness just causes his injuries to worsen when he goes on the run." Summer chided. Qrow simply pouted and looked away with a huff.

"And that's the incident in full." Jaune said to Ozpin, leaving the headmaster to stew in his thoughts.

"I thank you for your service in destroying the Grimm and Merlot's experiments under Mount Glenn then. I shudder to think of what would happen if he had gone unnoticed for even a moment longer." Ozpin said at last.

"I hardly need the thanks, my duty is the protection of Vale and her people. That Grimm was a threat so I eliminated it." Jaune replied.

"All the same, we owe you and the other Spectres a debt that can never be repaid, that most will never know even exists." Ozpin said.

"It is what it is. Spectres may be known to the public but we're all black ops. We fight in the shadows to uphold the light at any cost. As headmaster of Beacon, I'm sure you're aware of it, we're surrounded on all sides by enemies and we have precious few allies. What the people don't know might keep them alive to see another sunrise." Jaune shrugged.

Ozpin said nothing, choosing to sip from his mug instead. 'I wonder if you realise just how right you are. Maybe its time to add to our number? I'll leave that decision to another time.'

"And Merlot?" He asked at last to break the silence. Jaune's bitter smile returned in force and the Spectre shrugged uncomfortably.

"We don't know. It pains me to admit it but he's beyond the reach of Vale intelligence. Before recent events he was a ghost, and now he's a ghost story once more. But he'll be back, I made it personal when I destroyed his operations. He'll come for me if nothing else." Jaune replied.

"You're being awfully candid about this. What about the students?" Goodwitch said.

"I'm being truthful because I don't want the students caught in the crossfire. He might be back tomorrow or he might be back in ten years, if he is as immortal as he claims to be, time is on his side and he can play the long game. As much as I hate it, the ball is in his court, unless I get a lead on Merlot's location, it's a waiting game, I can only wait and plan my moves accordingly and hope I don't choose wrong. Lives are at stake and I will not bullshit you on this." Jaune's words once again reminded Ozpin of his shadow war against Salem.

"Hmm, I have some contacts in the other kingdoms, I'll see if they can't find something on the doctor. His is a threat that transcends national borders, if he truly plans to replace all of humanity with his Grimm hybrids… this isn't a problem Vale can tackle alone." Ozpin said.

"Perhaps so, but if there's nothing else, I'll take my leave now. I still have work that needs doing." Jaune said.

"No that will be all, thank you for your time Spectre. I'll see that your team's enrolment is processed smoothly. God speed." Ozpin nodded as Jaune rose from his seat.

"To you as well headmaster." Jaune said before turning and leaving.

And with that, the screen faded to black.

"That's it for the viewing everyone." Blank said.

"So. Million lien question, do they get the son of a bitch eventually?" Roman asked.

"Eventually, but that's another story for another time. Go refresh yourselves, the next viewing will be ready shortly. I have something a little more… unorthodox planned for the next one." Blank said and his audience shuffled out, all of them lost in their own thoughts.


Author's notes: Done. 20k words and 41 pages of writing. Finishing this chapter nearly killed me, 10k words written in a one Sunday long marathon session. This brings team ALBA to a total of 30k words, wow. I'm dead tired now so if you find any mistakes in the writing, leave it in review or a pm and I'll get to fixing it when I can. Mercury, Adam and Merlot were a lot of fun to write. Oh, and Ren isn't married to this world's Nora yet, it's more of an engagement kind of thing, fiancé sorta. Anyways, I hope this chapter was as fun to read as it was to write.


Inspiration list:

Jaune Arc as Renegade Shepard

Mercury Black as Jacob Taylor

Lie Ren as Thane Krios

Adam Taurus as Zaeed Massani

Lil' Miss Malachite as Nassana Dantius

Ilia Amitola as Seryna

The Albain brothers as Vido Santiago

Dr Merlot as Harbinger

Grimm dragon as human reaper/King Ghidorah

Ozpin as TIM