I just edited this chapter since its release. I accidentally put Amber instead of Kai. Enjoy!
Chapter 6: The Castle
Remnant, Continent of Sanus
POV: Mark Temple
Premise: "Only remember this: to seek justice is a good and noble thing, to seek revenge out of hatred is something that will devour your very soul."
4 days ago…
Temple stood within the White Fang's castle as his sim-troopers and mercs, along with WF goons were working together mobilizing equipment for their plan. As he stood overlooking everyone, Cinder and the others were watching him.
"Hey tin-can." Mercury said to him, "We're waiting."
Temple turned back to face everyone, "Sorry, I was admiring our work. Your men are quite vigilant Taurus."
"They want blood as much as I do." Adam replied, which made Temple chuckle
"We're not so different, you and I." he said to him, "Both are considered the damned of the world by people."
"Let's get one thing straight, we are not the same." Adam retorted, "The only reason I haven't killed you is because you're our new supplier."
"Au contraire, mon friend. We're all equals here after all." Temple continued, "You want your people to be on top, I want revenge on my doppelgangers, and Cinder here, wants what has been taken of her."
"And how exactly are we gonna attack Beacon?" Emerald questioned, "Both the city and academy are fortresses."
"With fear." Temple replied
That was when Gene entered the room, "Temple, your weapon is ready."
The maroon soldier placed a case on the table and opening before stepping aside. Temple then walked over and pulled out a sniper rifle. Its color scheme was that of a yellow, beige, whate, and gray camo pattern. Once he got a hold of the weapon, it projected some sort of red aura around him.
"Let's get to work."
POV Change: Richard Simmons
Present Day...
Simmons watched as a WF bullhead flew past both his and Qrow's position. He then gestured for Qrow to follow him.
"Carolina, it's Simmons, we're closing in." he said through comms, "Starting to crowded up here."
"Then we're closing in." Carolina replied, "You should be arriving at where Tucker and Sarge dropped. Be advised, this area might be hostile. Direct action might be necessary."
"Roger that, Simmons out." he said before needing the call, "Hmm, when Carolina runs an op, direct action is ALWAYS necessary."
"I see." Qrow muttered, "Let's move."
The two then jumped off the hillside before coming across a small WF patrol.
"Two of them." Simmons, "I'll take one on the left, you take the other."
"3.2.1. Check your shot."
Simmons quickly took out the first goon, as for Qrow, he ended up missing, but quickly rectified that by charging him and knocking him unconscious.
"You missed." Simmons muttered
"Misfortune." Qrow explained, "That's my semblance, it's constantly on, my biggest advantage/disadvantage."
"Well, let's move Unlucky Charms." Simmons replied as they pressed onward. They eventually found both Tucker and Sarge overlooking several bodies.
"Looks like you two have been busy." Qrow muttered
"Yeah, and we just came across something disturbing." Sarge replied before kicking over the body of a soldier in red armor with a green visor.
The body of a simulation trooper.
"Temple." Tucker growled, "Looks like he struck a deal with the White Fang."
"Let's move, there could be more." Qrow suggested before they pressed forward, "So ya mind telling me who this Temple guys is?"
"Mark Temple was a sim-trooper like us." Tucker explained, "He and the Blues and Reds are basically evil doppelgangers of our team. They are terrorists who allied themselves with Salem. They even briefly captured Ruby and her team."
That made Qrow tense up a bit, "Do they-"
"No, they don't." Tucker cut him, "They don't know about Salem at all. But Gene did take a sample of blood from Ruby, nothing else."
"Gene, what's he like?" Qrow asked
"Oh he is the worst!" Simmons explained, "He's a brown nosing kiss-ass, and constantly begs for attention!"
"Dude, you literally described yourself." Tucker said to him
"Urgh, we are NOT the same!" Simmons retorted, "I'm gonna kill him."
"Your clone or Tucker?" Qrow asked
"Yes."
Eventually, the group reached a cliffside overlooking the remains of a castle that was inhabited by the White Fang. The place was bustling with soldiers, bullheads, and Pelicans.
"Carolina we visual." Tucker said through the comms
"What do you see?" she asked
"The White Fang are set up here, but not just them Temple has been supplying them with weapons."
"That complicates things." Carolina muttered, "What does it look like they're doing?"
"It looks like they're packing up shop." Sarge answered, "Bullheads and Pelicans are preparing for departure."
"Then our best bet is to stall them." said Carolina, "Destroy as many transport as we can, along with gathering intel they might have in other WF bases."
"Roger that." Simmons replied before looking at his friends, "So what do we do?"
"Guess go through the front door."
POV Change: Castle Entrance
Two WF goons stood at the entrance of the castle, conversing with one another about their job.
"Can't believe we have guard duty." the first one groaned, "This sucks."
"Hey you were the one who complained in front of Adam." the second one retorted
"Yeah, and then that Temple guy handed us the job." the first one added, "Speaking of which-"
He was suddenly cut off by the sound of a vehicle approaching at full speed.
"Halt!" he shouted but soon realized that the driver wasn't planning on stopping, "Wait! No-"
The Warthog proceeded to run over the twoo goons and into the complex surrounding the castle. Both Doc and Donut jumped off the vehicle and the former fired two rockets that quickly split into six which destroyed several bullheads taking off. The medic then used his rocket launcher as a club to beat up several WF goons before grabbing one and tossing it towards Donut. The pink soldier proceeded to hit the goon with his hammer in the air before swingin the weapon like a bat, sending the goons into a crowd of charging WF goons, sim-troopers, and mercs. The crowd proceeded to tumble over like bowling pins.
"YES! OBLIVION IS AT HAND! HAHA!" O'Malley shouted, "Face the full might of O'Malley!"
"Nice job, buddy." Doc said to his alter-ego, 'How 'bout some deep breaths now. We want to keep all that violence built-up for later."
"How 'bout deep bullets?" O'Malley suggested, "In through the eyes, out through the cerebral cortex!"
"O'Malley, that's not nice." Doc said to him
"Shut up, it's the appropriate amount of nice."
Several more Bullheads and Pelicans then took off, while some fled the area, others flew in to intercept the Reds and Blues. However, Sarge, Simmons, Tucker, and Qrow arrived and proceeded to board one, take out its crew, before using its on board gun to take out three of the ships. Sarge proceeded to toss a grenade into another Bullhead's engine, destroying it, while Tucker slashed the wings off a Pelican.
"That's all the ships, the rest fled the scene." Wash said while getting out of the Warthog
"Highly doubt the place is deserted though." Grif added
Dex is right." said Qrow, "We should look around, make sure nobody's still here."
Tucker then got on the comms, "You hear Unlucky Charms, Kai get inside and search the area."
"On it." Kai answered as she flew from the Prowler and into the castle's interior. As she looked around the barren corridor she was in, Kai felt an odd presence.
"Gah!" she cried ass she was hit in the back by something. Kai fell off the ledge of a stairwell but managed to fly back up to the top. It was then she noticed her attackers.
"Well well, the false maiden herself." Cinder muttered alongside Emerald and Mercury
"More like a real maiden, bitch." Kai retorted before flying forward and grabbed onto the three and crashed through the rock wall before sending the trio falling to the ground outside. Kai then landed on the ground as her visor lit up in flames. Cinder then snarled in anger and charged forward, but Kai managed to send her flying into a portion of the castle.
Setting her sights now on the Cinder associates, Kai summons an orange staff with her powers. She saw Emerald running towards her, her guns firing green shots, each of which were deflected by the Fall Maiden's hand. Kai twirled her spear around her body, kicking up the winds and blasting it towards her opponent, forcing Emerald to slide back.
Just as she did this, Mercury came up from the side, landing on Kai's spear as she forced him and a returning Emerald back with another gale. Mercury simply kept on a post and launched himself at her, forcing Kai to unleash a stream of fire from a red crystal on him, but her attacker merely curled up and let his legs take the brunt of the damage, the flames burned away the orange pants as complex machinery and lit-up metal making up the robotic prosthetics underneath were revealed.
"Wow, you really are a Darth Maul ripoff, aren't you?" Kai quipped
"Shut up." Mercury retorted
With his artificial limbs, Mercury continued to come forward through the fire and kick Kai on her back, only for Emerald to land on her from above, cracking the very ground underneath and destroying her staff. She and Mercury jumped back and got ready to fight again when Kai suddenly got back up, head bowed until she looked up with orange energy pouring from her visor. The winds erupted from the Maiden, swirling around and making her enemies cover their faces from the force, when she lifted off the ground and spread her arms to the sky, lightning now rumbling in the clouds for her to aim at the two, who barely got out of the way in time.
As the fight ensued, Cinder slowly got back up and charged at Kai, but she quickly dodged her. The Maiden then summoned the nearby rubble in the area around her before morphing them into balls of fire and sent them in the trio's direction. Cinder caught several of them and morphed them into an even larger ball and threw it back, hitting Kai and sending her to the ground, knocking her helmet off in the process.
"Good, I want to look you in the eyes when you die." Cinder muttered
She then attempted to slice Kai with the two blades, only for the Maiden to deflect each hit and kick the assailant away just as Mercury and Emerald came forward. The two missed their initial attacks and got kicked for their efforts, but Mercury landed a blow on her only for Kai to rush at him, not noticing Cinder connecting her swords together into their bow shape and notching three arrows. Kai managed to punch Emerald and kick Mercury away right before turning around and saw Cinder launch the arrows at the ground around her, which erupt in a high whistling noise and a burning explosion from each projectile.
When she came to her senses, Kai was quickly grabbed by both Emerald and Mercury and held down. Cinder then approached her satisfied in her victory.
"Such wasted potential." she muttered, "No matter, we can forget you ever were a maiden and get things back to the way they were before."
"Shut up you fucking bitch." Kai retorted
Cinder then took out a white glove and held it in front of Kai. A red glyph appeared before a small Beetle-like Grimm latched onto Kai's chestplate with a black webbing. Then all Kai felt was pain.
"Aaaaahhhhh!" she cried, all while Cinder smiled
"Now, it will be mine."
BANG!
Suddenly, a lone bullet flew through the air and tore through the webbing, severing the connection. Cinder's smile quickly turned to a sneer as she turned in the direction of the bullet, only to get hit in the face by an orange-armored glove.
Cinder did a flip in the air to avoid the incoming fire from Grif before charging at him with her sword. The orange soldier deflected her attacks with his energy sword and managed to slash her back. Cinder winced in pain but did a second flip before morphing her swords into a bow and fired three arrows, but Grif dodged them and ford a single round from the Grif Shot that shattered her bow and sent Cinder flying to the ground.
"Cinder!" Emerald cried before getting slashed at by an attacking Qrow. She was knocked in Wash's direction before getting knocked to the ground. Mercury was then about to go after Wash, but a rocket fired by O'Malley got to him first. He was then flown in Sarge direction, who fired a shell right in his chest, sending him crashing into the ground next to his allies.
Cinder noticed her white glove nearby and tried to grab it, but Tucker then stepped in and sliced it half. Due to it being a Grimm, the glove then vaporized.
"NO!" Cinder cried before setting her sights on Qrow, "You…
"Remember me?" Qrow asked her
"You saved the first maiden I attacked." Cinder sneered
"It's over." Tucker announced, "Give up while you still can."
"You're gonna kill us?" Emerald sneered
"Maybe." Wash replied, "But we''l probably let Cinder live so Caboose can end her life."
"Let's begin." Tucker fired a shot, but it was blocked by a sudden figure clad in a red aura, holding a sniper rifle.
"Temple." Tucker sneered
"Well well well, if it isn't the fucktard loyalist of the UNSC!" Temple announced, "It's been too long."
"Indeed it has." Sarge retorted, "Ready to go back to jail."
"On the contrary." Temple replied, "I'm just getting started. Listen, I have quite a lot of work to do, so I should get going."
"No! You're gonna pay for all of this!" Wash shouted, "For us! For Ozpin! For RWBY! AND for this planet!"
This only made Temple chuckle, "You still believe in Ozpin, Washington? A mysterious man who has influence all over Remnant. And he just happens to believe all of you without hesitation. HE must have a good judge of character."
"He told us everything." Simmons injected, "The maidens, the relics, Salem, all of it."
"Did he?"
"Enough of this." Qrow announced, "Let's finish this."
Before Qrow could attack however, Temple took out a teleportation grenade and he and the trio of criminals disappeared.
"Dammit!" Qrow muttered, "Where'd they go?"
"Future cube." Tucker answered, "Teleportation grenade."
Kai was then helped onto her feet by Grif and Donut. She grunted in pain in the process.
"We're gonna get you out of here." O'Malley said to her
"How bad is it?" Tucker asked
"I can walk." Kai replied
"This happened to the previous Maiden, Amber." Qrow said to them, "We need to get her back to Beacon, make sure Cinder didn't get a sample of the Maiden powers."
"Agreed." Sarge replied, "Lopez! Bring the ship around!"
"[Ok.]" Lopez replied as the Prowler landed in the castle's complex
"Ozpin's not gonna like this."
POV Change: Merlot's Island
"Welcome to our new base!" Temple announced to associates, "Make yourselves at home! Just don't go into Cronut's room."
"I know this place." Cinder said to him, "This facility was used by Dr. Merlot."
"Yes, unfortunately Dr. Merlot was killed by his own experimentations." Temple replied, "Rest his soul."
"So why are we here?" Adam asked
"Like I said, this is our new base of operations." Temple explained, "From here, we will get revenge on those who damned us all. Cinder will lead the Grimm attack on Beacon, while Adam will lead a small White Fang squad."
How are we gonna get our hands on Grimm?" Adam asked
"Leave that to me."