Lionheart sits in his office with his head in his hands. Then Arthur opens the door to the room.
"Are we ready?" he asked
Lionheart lifts his head to look at Watts as he closes the door behind him and steps into the room. A brief exchange of looks is made as Lionheart turns his head away from Watts who smirks in response. The three soon enter a secret hallway adjacent to the office. At the end of the curved hallway is a circular room containing a Seer Grimm.
"After you" Watts said as he pushes Lionheart closer to the Seer Grimm.
"Your Grace, are... you there?" Lionheart asked.
The red smoke-like substance contained in the head of the Seer Grimm shifts to form an image of Salem and Cinder at their location in Salem's Domain "Hello, Leonardo. Do you have something to report?".
Salem and Cinder are also looking through a Seer Grimm to communicate with Lionheart and Watts.
"Of course, ma'am. I would not waste your time, if not" Lionheart answered.
"I'm still just so fascinated by this creature. Cinder dear, are we coming through?" Watts asked as he taps the Seer "Can you see us clearly? Well, as clearly as you can".
Cinder looked annoyed "Shut... up".
"Oh goody, you've recovered" Watts sarcastically.
"Your report. What is it?" Salem demanded.
"I've... I've found the Spring Maiden" Lionheart said.
That did gain Salem's interest "Is that so? Well done. Arthur, had I known how useful you'd be in expediting this process, I would've sent you long, long ago".
"As much as I'd love to take credit, ma'am, I can't say that either of us are to thank for this development. I guess you could say, a little birdie told us" Watts said.
Salem's expression changed "Explain".
"Qrow Brawnen, Dante, and a few children arrived earlier today. They foolishly revealed that the spring maiden could be a part of Raven's tribes" Watts said.
"Is... the girl... with him?" Cinder asked.
"Yes, Miss Rose was in attendance" Watts answered.
"And you know of the tribe's location?" Salem asked
Lionheart spoke next "Yes ma'am! But you have to hurry! Qrow is already at odds with my-"
Salem makes a face of annoyed concentration and in response one of the Seer Grimm's tentacles shoots out to wrap around Lionheart's throat and choke him "Leonardo, do you remember the first time we met? I remember. I remember your fear. But, since that day, you've been extraordinarily brave. I won't forget all that you've done for me. Do not forget everything that I can do to you".
The Seer Grimm slowly brings the point of another tentacle close to the face of Lionheart before drawing it back. Within the orb of the Seer Grimm, Salem makes a gesture, and the tentacle simultaneously releases him from the choke-hold. Lionheart coughs and gasps for breath.
"Cinder, you and your team will meet with Doctor Watts, and together, convince Raven Branwen that the survival of her people depends on her cooperation. Once you have Spring under control, escort her to the Relic and contact Hazel. The White Fang was promised the destruction of Haven, and they'll have it once we have what we need" Salem said.
"Understood" Watts said.
"Not you, Arthur. Tyrian's in need of a new tail" Salem said.
"What happened to his old one?" Watts asked.
"Guess" Cinder said.
"The silver-eyed girl?" Watts asked.
"Dante, actually, though the girl was involved." Salem said
Watts nodded: "It will be done".
"Good" Salem said.
"Just one more thing my lady. Has Dr. Pierce sent anything of interest?" Watts asked.
Salem smiled "She is busy putting the final touch on our new…what did you call it again…Cyberdemon?".
Watts nodded: "Very good."
"Also, may I ask" Lionheart spoke, "But is there any word concerning Julius? If he's still out there than this whole operation will be for nothing!"
Cinder growled, her face turning into one of anger at the mention of his name. Salem, however, remained calm.
"I share your concern on this particular problem, Leonardo, but I still have no conformation on whether he is alive or not. However, do not let that hinder our progress; we must keep moving forward with our plan."
The image of Salem disappears from the Seer Grimm to show the connection has ended.
"Seems Qrow was right, Lionheart. The students aren't pushovers."
Unknown to them, Neo was hidden in a small corner of the room, using her semblance to disguise herself…and she had recorded the whole conversation. Once she was sure the conversation had ended, she sent the recording through her scroll straight to Roman; everything was going quite nicely.
…
When Weiss had signed up to go on a transport ship to Mistral, the LAST thing she wanted was to get attacked by Lancers. Yet, here she was; standing at the back of an open cargo door fending off the wasp-like Grimm.
First using a glyph and white Dust to push back the Lancers with a gust of wind, Weiss summons an orange glyph and uses red Dust to shoot fireballs at the swarm, at least one of which succeeds in eliminating one of the Grimm.
V does his part, firing a sort of energy from his cane and stabbing any Lancer that got too close.
The airship does a sudden turn in the air next to a floating island before evening out again. Once even, Weiss summons five white glyphs which she uses to launch icicles out of while the cargo ship dives, eliminating five Lancers in the process. Weiss is knocked off balance when the cargo ship is suddenly rocked as Lancers successfully hook the flying transport.
Suddenly, a bright flash came from V as a large, blue, bird-like creature named Griffon appeared and started attacking the Lancers at the top of the ship.
"Oh no you don't!" he cried.
Weiss looked at V in amazement: "You can summon too?"
"Not like you can" V replied, "But yes."
The outside of the airship has two Lancers firmly planted on top of it before the rest of the swarm gains on the cargo ship once more, with some of the Grimm flying alongside it. The pilot accelerates the ship toward one of the floating islands, waiting until the last possible moment before suddenly diving and using the remaining forward movement to throw most of the Lancers on the ship off into the side of the rock formation. Griffon sees the remaining ones and chuckled.
"Your loss" he said before firing a bolt of blue lightning from his mouth, disintegrating the remaining Grimm.
The cargo ship is turned and travels toward a pair of closely adjacent, interconnected islands. As the cargo ship narrowly avoids the close islands walls and the attacking Lancers, Weiss fires three fireballs from her glyphs to destroy an overhanging rock formation. The attack, as well as seeming to disturb an offscreen Lancer not yet aware of the airship, causes debris to fall onto all of the Grimm giving chase and remove them as a threat. Following this, the airship manages to escape the falling debris itself and leaves the space between the two islands.
There is temporary rejoicing and relief from the pilot, V, and Weiss, before they notice that an extremely large Lancer, a Queen Lancer, is advancing on the ship.
"Hey, guys!" Griffon yelled, "We got big trouble!"
Noticing the threat, Weiss fires five cyan lasers which hit the Grimm to no effect. The Queen Lancer reacts to the attack by launching multiple bone spikes from multiple opened holes in its body toward the cargo ship. Weiss swings Myrtenaster and leans away, a pale blue dome appearing in front of her and blocking the spikes that were aimed at her. The rest of the spikes impale various parts of the ship, two of them landing in two exhaust ports in the back of the ship and causing explosions.
Turning back toward the interior of the cargo bay, Weiss jumps onto a white glyph which she uses to propel herself behind the crates of Dust cargo, cutting the crates' restraint as she does so. From her new position, using five white glyphs, she throws most of the Dust crates out of the cargo doors and at the Queen Lancer. Once the crates near the Grimm, Weiss makes a movement with her right hand, and the Dust creates a large explosion containing fire, ice, crackles of electricity and a cyan shockwave which travels outward from the impact point. From the smoke following the explosion, the Queen Lancer advances apparently undamaged, causing a shocked reaction from Weiss.
"Ok, seriously" Griffon said, just as shocked as Weiss, "What the fuck?"
Regaining her composure and a determined look, Weiss prepares to Summon her Arma Gigas. Once Summoned, the Arma Gigas enters a battle-ready pose. Weiss calls out to the pilot to pull up immediately.
"I'll cover for you" V says, raising his cane.
The pilot causes the cargo ship to pull up and ascend further into the air, before maneuvering to have the vehicle upside down. During this, the Arma Gigas leaves the vehicle and dives toward the Queen Lancer. Once it has begun to dive, Weiss moves her head down toward her weapon and closes her eyes to concentrate. After its initial dive, the Arma Gigas turns in the air, summons its weapon, and reenters the dive again with its blade ready.
The Queen Lancer prepares to fire another volley of spikes, but is suddenly interrupted when Griffon gets up in its face.
Soon after the cargo ship regains its normal orientation, Weiss concentrates and Resummons the Arma Gigas in order to change its position from above the Queen Lancer to underneath. From its new position, it ascends to attack the Queen Lancer from behind, before then being Resummoned multiple times to different positions adjacent to the Grimm to attack it from multiple angles. After its last attack in the combo, the Queen Lancer fires its stinger at the Arma Gigas, which it deflects, causing the stinger to heavily impact one of the wings of the airship. The fight concludes after the Queen Lancer's attack, with the Arma Gigas slicing the Grimm one last time, causing it to dissipate.
"Damn, she's good" Griffon marveled. V simply smiled: "Indeed, she is."
Weiss summons multiple large black glyphs in the path of the cargo ship in an attempt to slow its sudden descent and lessen the impact of its subsequent crash.
V dissipated Griffon, then slammed his cane into the floor of he ship as he steadied himself.
"Brace!" Weiss called out…just as the ship crashed.
…
Inside the White Fang headquarters, Adam Taurus kneels before Sienna Khan, who is sitting on a throne flanked by two guards on either side of her "Adam. I'm not going to repeat myself, so I want you to listen when I tell you that the White Fang will not attack Haven Academy".
"High Leader Khan, I am begging you" Adam said.
"You should beg for forgiveness and nothing else! The assault you led on Beacon was not the great victory you clearly think it was, and you should be more grateful your punishment was not more severe. You are a symbol for many in our organization, but that doesn't make you infallible" Sienna said sharply.
"I was merely trying to follow your example, High Leader" Adam reasoned.
"And what example might that be?" Sienna asked.
"Strength. Strength and unwavering conviction. The humans have seen that strength now" Adam said.
"I was one of the first to suggest violence where violence was necessary. Peace bred complacency and acceptance of our place in the world. I will not allow humanity to push us down without pushing them back. But the destruction of the Huntsman Academies crosses a line! The loss of the CCT has brought global communication to a crawl! And the White Fang is more of a target now than ever before! You have justified humanity's campaign against us, and for what?! Empty promises from a group of humans? Humans we still know nothing about, and come and go as they please! These are not examples of strength, Adam. They are examples of your talents being diminished by shortsightedness!" Sienna snapped.
"If you want to know more about the humans, then why not talk to one of them yourself?" Adam rises and turns toward the entrance to the room "Hazel!"
Hazel opens the doors to the large room "Took you long enough".
As Hazel enters, Sienna rises from her seat and her guards all point their spears toward Hazel "What is this?!".
"Apologies. I don't aim to cause any trouble" Hazel said.
"You've brought a human to this location?" Sienna demanded.
"You should hear what he has to say" Adam said.
"This is grounds for execution!" Sienna said in rage.
"Ma'am, please. Nobody needs to die today" Hazel said before kneeling down "I'm just asking for a moment of your time".
"The longer you stay here, the less of a chance you have of leaving alive" Sienna said, calmer now, but her anger still clear.
"I'll take those chances, if you don't mind" Hazel said. Sienna sits back down; her guards return to their neutral position and Hazel rises again before continuing to speak "You don't like me. You have no reason to like me. But you don't have to like me to get the results you want".
"I'm starting to doubt either of you fully comprehend what it is that I want. I want humanity to fear the Faunus, to know that we demand respect! I do not want to start a war with the humans that we cannot win!" Sienna said in frustration that they were so ignorant to her true goals.
"That's where you're wrong" Sienna and Hazel focus on Adam who begins to advance toward Sienna while continuing to speak "We can win a war against the humans. Not only because we have the support of Hazel's master, but because the Faunus are the dominant species of this planet. We're better than humans. We have everything humans have and more. Humans shouldn't just fear the Faunus, they should serve the Faunus".
"I've had enough of this conversation for tonight. Guards, take them away" Sienna said, but The guards remain stationary "I said, take them away!".
"I will admit, Sienna, you were right about my popularity. My followers in Vale already see me as the true High Leader. And many here in Mistral feel the same" Adam said as four armed White Fang soldiers enter through the main doors and stop, pointing their weapons into the room as Sienna rises to her feet.
"What are you doing?" Hazel demanded
"What's right for the Faunus. From this day forward, I will be the one to lead the White Fang" Adam proclaimed.
Four more soldiers reveal themselves with their weapons drawn, two on each side of the room, as Sienna's guards point their weapons at her. Sienna quickly judges the situation, though taken by surprise. Her eyes narrow darkly "If you think I'll just step aside and follow beneath you, you're wrong."
Then, she suddenly got a smug grin on her face: "Looks like Amitola was right."
Adam looked puzzled: "Who?"
Suddenly, one of the guards was launched into the air by an unseen force. As the other guards tried to retaliate, the sound of blades unsheathing was heard as the rest of the guards were mysteriously cut down.
"What is this?!" Adam demanded.
"I suspected you would try to overthrow me" Sienna said, "Thank goodness I had a loyal friend who was willing to protect me."
Hector then appeared, crouching on the throne above her, his arm blades fully extended and his armored tail ready to strike.
Adam growled in rage: "You…"
Hector chuckled: "Doesn't it suck that I'm always one step ahead of you?"
Adam yelled in rage and shot forward, ready to kill them both, when Hector suddenly brought a small ball out of his pocket and threw it on the ground, sending a cloud of smoke that blinded Adam. When it cleared, both Hector and Sienna were gone.
Adam screamed in rage before looking at a guard who was still standing "Spread the word! Sienna Khan has turned her back on us! And now my word is law!"
Hazel watched the scene with no emotions.
Later, Sienna and Hector were on a White Fang ship, heading away from the base. Hector was at the controls. Sienna sighed as she sat down. She ran away and left the White Fang in the hands of Adam and his madness. She hoped her followers would see through him, but she was wrong. Well, almost wrong.
"I'm sorry I doubted you, Hector." She said, "I knew you were telling the truth; I just didn't want to believe it."
"We all try and reject what we fear most, Sienna" Hector calmly replied, "It wasn't your fault."
"But now I've lost the White Fang, and Adam will destroy everything we've worked so hard to achieve."
"Not if we stop him first."
"What's the plan?"
"I'm flying us to Menagerie. If you want to get help in taking down the Fang, then we'll need help from another leader."
Sienna thought for a moment before realizing whom he was talking about: "Ghira."
Hector nodded: "He and Blake have already been cracking down on the Fang's actions there. I say we give them a hand. Besides, with you helping Ghira, there's no doubt the faunus will decide to follow."
Sienna nodded in understanding: "Well, you haven't steered me wrong yet, so Menagerie it is."
"Yes ma'am" Hector said.
Sienna smiled: "And Hector…thank you. For standing up for me."
Hector chuckled: "Hey, that's what we do for friends We stick up for em. I still haven't forgotten the good times we had back in the Fang. Now, I suggest you make yourself comfortable; we got a long trip ahead of us."
…
"We need to stop Adam before he destroys everything we worked so hard for. But to do that we need help... which is why we are going back to Menagerie" Sienna said.
The cargo ship has crashed in a forest. V is unconscious while Weiss is lying injured on the ground with clothes dirtied as two bandits approach her "Help... please".
"What do you think?" One of the bandits asked.
Raven approaches from offscreen to take a position between the two bandits and directly above Weiss "I think... we just hit the jackpot.
Weiss' face turns to one of concern as she looks up at Raven, as she lifts her boot to stomp on her face, knocking her out.
Let me know what you think so far!