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Chapter 51: Mockingbird
It had taken Team FADE longer than they would have liked to find Atlas Academy's mess hall. Upon their arrival the previous night the transfer students had maps of the campus, their new timetables and a list of guidelines and protocols to be followed while on campus forwarded to their Scrolls; however this had proven a poor match for the brains of a group of sleep addled teenagers as the four of them had instinctively allowed their feet to carry them towards where Halo Academy's canteen would have been only to find nothing. Eventually the four of them managed to find their destination and claim an empty table, and not a moment too soon as before they could decide whose turn it was to go and get everyone's breakfast a voice, seemingly that of an older student bellowed out
"General on deck!" It soon became apparent who was a student of Atlas and who was not despite none of students wearing their uniforms due to it being a Saturday; those who attended Atlas Academy without exception leapt from their seats and snapped to attention, turning to face a small podium at the far end of the mess hall and saluting; the students from the other academies looked on in surprise with the exception of those students born in the icy Kingdom, Arctus included who joined in the display
"Dude what the hell?" Diamond whispered to her partner
"Habit" Arctus admitted with a slight shrug "You always salute a ranking officer in Atlas"
"At ease" Winter ordered calmly as she surveyed the students, upon hearing this those that had stood returned to their seats. Beside Winter was the woman in the black beret that had been present the night before, Winter gestured to her as she continued "This is for the benefit of the transfer students from Halo, Haven and Shade; this is my Deputy-Headmistress Professor Soleil, my duties as General frequently require me to leave the campus for extended periods and as such Professor Soleil has full authority to act on my behalf, any matter you wish to bring to my attention can be brought to hers and like any other member of staff at this academy you will treat her with the same respect you would show me"
"Weird that I've never met her" Arctus muttered before Winter continued speaking
"Second year students, I apologise for the short notice but your first mission as students of Atlas will commence at oh-seven-hundred on Monday morning, you are to present yourselves in the amphitheatre for mission briefings with your assigned Hunters" her stern expression softened for a moment "However this should ensure that you all arrive home with plenty of time to spare before the customary ball. Classes resume as normal on Monday morning at oh-nine-hundred for all other students, until then the weekend is yours to spend as you wish although I would suggest that you use this time to become acquainted with your new classmates; the Vytal Festival is after all a show of solidarity between the Kingdoms, it would be in keeping with the spirit of things" with the announcement concluded Winter stepped down from her podium, Ciel Soleil following after her with a tablet in her hands, eyes scanning endless reams of information
"Hey guys" Arctus's eyes were on his aunt as she left "I'll grab breakfast for everyone if you don't mind waiting for it, I haven't had chance to speak to Aunt Winter in ages" without waiting for a reply he made to follow after the elder Schnee, only to be completely blind-sided as someone collided with his chest; throwing their shoulder into it in a way that suggested it was not accidental
"We got a problem?" the student responsible demanded, the young man was six and a half feet tall with jet black hair tied back in a bun atop his head whilst the sides were shaved, angry amber coloured eyes and tattooed hands which were currently balled into fists as he tried to loom over Arctus
"No" the Bear Faunus answered simply, frankly confused by the situation
"Then watch where you're fucking going ass-hole" the newcomer spat, stepping into Arctus's personal space
"Sin, back off!" Diamond's voice cut through the suddenly tense atmosphere like a hot knife through butter, Cinnabar flashed her a smile full of pearly white teeth
"Dee-Dee, you know this guy?"
"That's my partner" Diamond answered flatly, cherry red eyes narrowing as she scowled "And my boyfriend….what do you want Sin?" Cinnabar merely turned and looked at Arctus, expression shifting between disbelieving, murderous and aloof calmness in barely a second before her turned back to Diamond and made to make himself comfortable in Arctus's seat
"Yeah sure he is, anyway I saw you in the crowd came over to say hi-"
"Well you've said it now" Diamond cut across him making it as plain as possible that she wanted the conversation to end
"I'm thinking we should hang out sometime, old times' sake and all that"
"Wow you are really bad at taking hints aren't ya?" Felix growled from opposite, cracking his knuckles as he spoke
"Pipe down kid I was talking to Dee"
"Diamond if this guy's bothering you just say" Arctus stated as he made to put himself physically between her and Cinnabar; the taller teen rose to his feet and squared up to the Bear Faunus and as he did so Team FADE saw movement from nearby, the rest of Team CNBR clearly preparing to leap into the confrontation the moment it turned physical; only to pale and gesture to something nearby. Cinnabar looked over Arctus's shoulder and saw Corvid Xiao Long glaring in his direction and silently mouthing out the words 'I will rip your balls off'
"Whatever, we'll talk later Dee" with that he turned and stalked away, rejoining his team-mates at their table before glancing over to Corvid who had returned to her conversation with a team of students she hadn't seen in over a year
"Who was that?" Eagle demanded, Diamond massaged her eyes with the heels of her palms for a moment before answering
"I'm sorry about that….that's Sin, Cinnabar Blaine; he's my ex"
"Seems like a lovely guy" Felix snorted as he cast his eyes around and saw that the attention of the mess hall which had been on them was gradually being turned elsewhere
"I mean he wasn't always a….I mean okay he's always been a bit of a dick" Diamond sighed "Kinda starting to see why my Dad didn't like him, whatever hopefully we won't see too much of him" before Arctus could answer another new voice rose above the ambient buzz of conversation
"DIAMOND, HEY!" a five foot six, tanned girl with vibrant pink hair worn in a gravity defying mass of spikes and eyes of a matching colour bounding over, her team-mates trailing behind her
"I thought I recognised this guy from the pics you showed me, you two look adorable together by the way….and holy Oum he's even bigger in person" Razzmatazz's words came out like machine-gun fire, prompting Diamond to roll her eyes and pull her fellow Mistrali into a lazy one armed hug
"Dude how much coffee have you had?" she then realised that she needed to make introductions "This is one of my best friends from back home, Razz meet Arctus, Eagle and Felix, we're Team FADE" Team FADE each greeted the seemingly hyperactive newcomer who stole Arctus's seat and casually leaned back over it to introduce her own team
"This is Team GRAY; Grease, Azure and Yuki-"
"Holy Oum, Grease?" Felix called over the leader of the team from Haven, a young man with a leather jacket and immaculately coiffed hair "I didn't even see you there man!"
"Hey Felix"
"We're both from Patch, he was in mine and Nyanza's class and Signal" the Lion Faunus explained to his team-mates upon seeing the confused looks Diamond and Eagle were giving him, Arctus had met many of Felix's old friends before and seemingly recognised him
"Wait is Nyanza here?" Grease asked
"Yeah….We should definitely hang out, all of us. I'll call Nyanza and get him to bring Team NEON, Ether's the guitarist for that band we went to see over the summer"
"I'd love to hang out" Arctus interjected "But me and Diamond have got tickets for that comedy show tonight"
"Dude that's tonight we can still hang out til then" The Bear Faunus saw Diamond's expression and quickly decided that he would love to meet some of her old friends
"Okay I'm in" and with that plans for the day began to be made, the brief altercation with Cinnabar already pushed to the back of their minds.
Team GORE had awoken early that morning and found the mess hall without complication, their previous lives as raiders having given the ability to memorise the layout of their environment quickly; they had already exited before Winter had arrived to make her announcements though the information had reached them in the form of text messages sent to the Scrolls they had been issued with upon taking on the role of students; the information had come with an additional instruction that other students had not been given, the General wanted to speak with them.
The General and Headmistress's office had not been hard to find, it was located towards the top of one of the castle like campus's towers, when they arrived Winter had already been waiting to allow them entry; the interior of the office was decorated in much the same fashion as the rest of the campus, pristine white surfaces and harsh overhead lighting though several indulgences were apparent, the table upon which a computer, tablets, a handful of manilla folders and miscellaneous pieces of paperwork were arranged was made of the finest mahogany, Winter's chair was comfortable deep red leather and the wall behind were was decorated with several photographs, many depicting Winter herself accepting some medal or honour, several faces appearing in many of the photographs, a prominent one being the brown skinned individual who wore a red bandanna beneath their military uniform which bore several medals of its' own and a pair of pistols at their hips. Carcharodon spotted another photograph showing a wedding between an obviously pregnant woman who bore a striking resemblance to Winter herself and a much younger Gangrel Slate. He was distracted when Winter spoke
"I hope the Atlesian climate isn't too harsh for you and that your accommodations are suitable" Winter's tone was one of rigidly forced politeness as she took stock of the four Faunus before her, she had her own misgivings about the operation they would be taking part in but she pushed them aside; a White Fang resurgence could not be allowed under any circumstances and despite their lawless and predatory nature the Shadow Cadre were willing to assist her in that endeavour.
"This cold is the closest I've felt to home in over a year" Carcharodon rasped out, his faux politeness readily apparent
"I'm glad, I wanted to speak with you in person and make sure you understand exactly what it is that's expected of you"
"We want the same people dead, we're going to fix a problem for ya" the towering Puma Faunus, his name was Onyx if Winter recalled the files she'd read on each of them, chuckled. The Axolotl Faunus seemed outraged at the way the idea was presented
"We're not your soldiers and we are most certainly not mercenaries; we're here because-"
"Enough Raffia" Carcharodon warned before turning back to Winter "Though he isn't wrong, we're here because we were promised retribution"
"And because your only other option was an Atlesian military trial which would have ended in your execution" Winter added delicately, continuing before they could object "Regardless, we believe that when you compete in the Vytal Tournament and are broadcast for all of Remnant to see, our mutual enemies will send agents to tie up lose ends; this is our best chance at eliminating serious threats and taking prisoners with vital information-"
"Prisoners?" Carcharodon snarled, flashing his rows of jagged teeth "That's not the arrangement we made….understand that our taking of your scientist was a decision I did not make lightly, taking hostages is not our way"
"You will be given your chance to face this 'Cult of Taurus' in battle if they present themselves, the agreement you had with Commander Slate will be honoured" Winter assured them "However I have other concerns, taking out the entirety of this New White Fang movement is the goal, not just the parts of it you personally dislike, and taking prisoners rather than just killing everyone is my peoples' way"
"Understood" Carcharodon nodded with some apparent distaste at having to compromise his beliefs yet again "Was there anything else?"
"There was" Winter nodded "I'm giving you the courtesy of not having your every movement monitored, I treat my operatives with respect regardless of their backgrounds. Do not make me regret that decision; you are to lay low and not draw undue attention to yourselves" her eyes seemed to linger on Onyx and Raffia, suggesting that the files she had received regarding them detailed their exploits at Halo Academy.
"It won't be an issue, at least for today" Carcharodon informed her "We plan on leaving the campus as soon as possible" Winter fought to mask her concern, as far as she was aware the only time that Team GORE had set foot on Atlesian soil before this had been to take part in the ill-fated joint operation with the New White Fang which had led to their current enmity; their people had also raided several Atlesian ships over the years. Hellion seemingly sensed her misgivings as she explained their motives
"We left Atlas in full retreat before, several of our people fell here and were never given their last rites….that has to change"
"We're returning to the docks" Carcharodon's voice was low and laced with menace "If any of your people are there they would do well to not bother us, I for one will be in no mood to entertain them" Winter nodded in understanding despite the urge to reprimand the Shark Faunus for his tone, she had attended the funerals of her parents, Klein when old age had finally claimed the Schnee families' butler and several members of the Atlesian military, including people she had seen as family in all but blood; she knew exactly how hard it would be for the group before her, still teens despite their experience, to return to the sight of a personal tragedy and do what was required of them.
"If that's all?" Carcharodon didn't wait for an answer, simply making his way to the door and beckoning that his people follow
"One more thing" Winter indicated to Raffia, specifically the weapons hanging from his hip "I had several misgivings about allowing you to be given the weapon Specialist Asteri was field testing. It is to be used only in the most extreme circumstances, if I hear of you using its' full capabilities against another student there will be consequences. Do we understand each other?"
"Perfectly" Raffia gave her a mocking bow and a smile that managed to appear sinister despite being comically wide "I'll take care to bury the charred bones in the snow so that you never find out" with that Raffia followed his team-mates out of the office, his demented giggling echoing through the hallways. Winter pinched her bridge of her nose and sighed.
Situated in what had once been a military installation, now seemingly forgotten about and overlooked by the Kingdom of Atlas was a settlement which had never officially existed as it was not one of the many bases repurposed by the Kingdom to house refugees after the battles against the White Fang and the Grimm; this settlement had been established deliberately away from the watchful eye of the authorities as a last bastion at which the White Fang could regroup. The initial counter offensive that those founding the settlement had been expecting had never come, without Adam Taurus's leadership and vision the White Fang had been broken and the settlement of Tartarus had grown, becoming a home to those Faunus who wished to be free of the Kingdoms' authority and live amongst their own kind. Then Celeste Lupus had taken command, wielding the sword of the fallen Adam Taurus, a sharp mind which had seen her rise to prominence within the various groups what would form the New White Fang and a message delivered with unquestionable zeal and charisma it seemed that the self styled 'Taurus Reborn' was ready to take up the mantle of her predecessor and orchestrate the counter attack that the settlement of Tartarus had been founded in preparation for.
"Menagerie must burn!" Celeste cried from what amounted to a pulpit at the front of settlements' meeting hall "It must be purified and cleansed with fire! Every human invader that desecrates our motherland must be put to the sword, and so must every Faunus traitor that orchestrated this atrocity! They are heretics and traitors!" The Ram Faunus looked down at her congregation, they were young; wide eyed idealists ready to fight for the cause and the future she promised them. Many were too young, mere children who eagerly pestered her officers asking to do favours for them all so that they could say that they were a part of the White Fang. Those in their teens were already being trained to fight, a handful had already seen combat. Each of them gazed up at Celeste with rapt attention, her sermons' had become even more impassioned since the surgery which allowed her to walk again and now her followers gazed at her in unabashed awe when she spoke
"We must be prepared to do as the Great Adam Taurus did before us!" she bellowed "When the enemy led the greatest creature of Grimm ever seen into our homes, he laid down his life and cast the beast aside! We will not let his sacrifice be forgotten!" their was a scattering of applause and cheers
"We must take back the promised land of New Menagerie! Atlas is ours by right of conquest and the word of the Great Taurus!" the cheers grew louder and more prevalent
"We must raze the motherland and slay the human invaders!" many of the congregation were on their feet cheering now
"We must cast out the heretic and the traitor, purge those who have sided against their own kind, those who consort with humans!" Celeste's voice dropped to a harsh stage whisper
"We must subjugate the humans as they did to our ancestors, for we are the children of Taurus, we are the New White Fang, we demand reparations and we demand vengeance" as the crowd reached a fever pitch, those amongst her followers who had earned the right to wear a mask and uniform appearing as islands amongst their peers the Ram Faunus ended her speech with words that every child born in Tartarus learned young, words in the language of Mantle known to the people of the frozen Kingdom as Old Atlesian
"Der Reibzahne soll zeichnen blut!" and the crowd answered her with a unified voice
"The Fangs shall draw blood!" as the sermon ended and her followers began to file out, reinvigorated with righteous fury Celeste caught sight of an older denizen of Tartarus, a wasp Faunus gifted with a large tail tipped with a stinger and whose hair naturally grew in black and yellow stripes. Celeste gestured to a door at the side of the meeting hall and made her way towards it, muscles aching as lances of burning pain shot through her back; she had appeared before her people without her armour and was currently feeling the effects of being upright for an extended amount of time without its' aid, she was getting stronger but it wasn't enough yet.
"High commander" the Wasp Faunus bowed her head reverently as she reached Celeste, the Ram Faunus made to reply but caught sight of a child who had been part of the congregation hiding behind her legs, seemingly both eager for attention and terrified of asking for it
"Yes little one?" Celeste cooed as she couched down to the eye level of girl who she guessed was perhaps six years old, the Wasp Faunus stepping aside
"Well it's just um well" the little girl audibly gulped "My parents always tell me that you're going to stop anyone from ever picking on the Faunus again" The Wasp Faunus almost laughed, catching herself and masking it as a cough before Celeste silently gestured for the girl to continue
"It's just well….some of the other kids here are picking on me and I want it to stop, they all call me 'Fingers'" Celeste looked to where the girls' hands should have been and nodded in understanding, she was a Crab Faunus and her forearms were bulky and chitinous, ending in oversized pincers
"Until recently I couldn't walk, ask those children who pick on you if they would ever call me 'Legs'" Celeste whispered, the little girls' eyes widened in shock at the idea
"Tell me" she continued "Do you want to help the White Fang when you're old enough?"
"Yep!" the answer came without hesitation
"Then you were born lucky" Celeste assured her as she rose to her feet "Our Faunus traits are a gift little one, and you were gifted with weapons….now run along" she watched as the little girl left, skipping away happily before turning her attention to her subordinate
"You have word?"
"Yes High Commander" the Wasp Faunus bowed again "Our messenger has made contact, the operation will proceed as planned; they were most grateful for your gifts"
"They have no concerns with the arrangement?" Celeste raised an eyebrow, the leader of this particular group of militants had a reputation for being outspoken
"The situation was thoroughly explained to them"
"I see" Celeste nodded "Is there anything else you wish to tell me?" the Wasp Faunus visibly shuddered, eyes darting around the room beneath her mask as if the mere mention of the Faunus she was about to speak of would summon them
"The Cult of Taurus are in position"
"Good" Celeste's gave a smile that was unsettling to behold "They know their orders, kill the blasphemer."
The tickets which Arctus had been gifted to the comedy show that night had been front row and while both of them were familiar with the comedian Harry Regal and his particular brand of humour they had somewhat naively seen no downside to this. After booking a hotel in Atlas's capital of Eisenstadt Prime for the night and a dinner at a decidedly upmarket restaurant at Arctus's expense the pair had arrived at a concert hall, situated, Arctus had explained, where the divide between Upper and Lower Atlas had once been. Harry Regal had grown up alongside Gangrel Slate, Bake Belladonna and Adam Taurus in the Rauchigschmiede area of Lower Atlas; a poor and crime ridden part of the city and not only did his material reflect such a background, so did the majority of his audience. Arctus was visibly financially better off than many of those around him and Diamond had noticed that she was one of very few humans present; not that this would stop either of them from enjoying themselves, they had both been in hysterics since Harry had begun his routine.
"Have you ever had something happen to ya that was so racist that ya didn't even get mad it just had you stood there surprised like Oum damn that was racist?" the comedian waited for a moment, small scatterings of laughter and agreement could be heard in the crowd before he continued "It was right here in this mother-fucking city, Upper Atlas the human side of the fence; first time I visited the capital since I got out. I went to a fast food place to order a burger and said to the guy can I get- He just cut me off and said 'Extra seeds on the bun' and I was stood there like 'What the fuck'….'cos he was absolutely right!" At this point the crowd erupted into laughter, Harry Regal needed to wait several seconds before he could continue
"So I had to ask this guy how he knew, this is what he tells me 'Buddy as soon as you walked through that door everybody knew that whatever you were gonna order you'd take extra seeds on the bun; it is no secret here that Bird Faunus will pick the damn bird seeds off and forget the rest of the burger….I didn't even get mad, I was just upset because I was not ready to hear that, all these years I thought I liked eating bird seed because it was delicious; turns out I'm genetically predisposed to liking seeds and also shitting on that guys' wind-shield!" The crowd erupted into laughter at the admittedly crude punchline, Arctus leaning close to Diamond and surprising her with an admission
"Fuck people like that, it's why I don't eat salmon any more" she gave a quick glance, suddenly concerned before seeing that the Bear Faunus was still smiling and turned her attention back to the comedian; Harry Regal was an Eagle Faunus of an unremarkable height and build, skin paled by the lack of natural light in the Atlesian Hive Cities marred in several places by scars inflicted by prison shanks and his hair worn in a simple crew cut, his hand ended in avian taloned claws and in place of lips he had a curved beak which by some quirk of nature hadn't impaired his speech and was partially filled with mostly human teeth, giving him a slightly unsettling appearance; his outfit was expensive but had been purchased several sizes too big and worn baggy, a fashion style that had been popular when he had first been incarcerated and had never grown out of in prison. After pausing for a moment and waiting for the laughter to die down Harry launched back into his routine
"I mean I suppose they've gotta find new ways to fuck with us now because name calling does not work on the modern Faunus. Like if I went to Wham-Burger and for some reason everyone behind the counter had really obvious Sapient Prime tats, or whatever other anti-Faunus group, what do you think I'm gonna do in this day an age? Run out the place? You underestimate the kind of munchies I get when I'm high, I'll walk right up there and not care what he says, I want a chicken burger" he paused before affecting a sneering voice clearly intended to be the racist in this scenario "So is that cannibalism? I guess you want seeds with that huh Fleabag?….I thought the bun came with seeds, what's all this attitude. Get me a burger, make it snappy"
"My Dad and Aunt Blake have actually got stories about stuff like that" Arctus managed to wheeze out over his laughter
"Some things aint changed though" Harry sighed, clawed digits tapping against his microphone "Fifteen years I went away and Faunus are still not getting jobs, only way you're getting a trade if you're a Faunus is to learn it in jail and then just never come home. Do the job for two Lien a day and live on prison food at the taxpayers expense and suddenly everyone's an equal opportunities employer, affirmative action my feathery ass" there were countless cheers from the audience at that but Harry continued on
"Seriously, they invited me to speak at my old school….coincidently that's the most time I ever spent there at once but that's beside the point, they had me talking to some Faunus kids about how to avoid getting caught up in gangs and stuff; so I gave 'em some real advice straight from the heart….Either become a Hunter or get into sports, if you're not entertaining these humans or saving their asses you're trapped!"
"Oh my Oum" Diamond managed to gasp out between peals of laughter, hands covering her mouth in shock "I don't even know if I should be laughing at this"
"Speaking of Faunus and human relations and some really entertaining shit" Harry sauntered across the stage, eyes gleaming with mischief as he crouched down directly in front of Arctus and Diamond "I grew up with Gangrel Slate, the Faunus who hooked with a Schnee….that jackpot winning mother-fucker; after fifteen years of him not visiting me in prison I give him tickets to this show and he sends his son instead and I'm starting to take this shit personally….Since you're here you've gotta tell me does Whitley Schnee really listen to Faunus With Attitude? 'cos that sounds kinda fake"
"No he really does" Arctus mumbled, painfully aware of the gaze of the entire audience on him
"Well damn" Harry gave the closest thing to a smile his beak would allow "So come on kid which did you pick, Hunting Grimm or entertaining the humans? You're not free from this shit" Arctus wasn't sure where the answer came from but he gave a cocky smirk and quipped back
"Well I'm competing in the Vytal Tournament so both"
"Make some noise for the kid, Hunters do a valuable job….unless you're at the bottom of Lower Atlas in which case get ready to run or try and fight the Grimm with a broomstick, business as usual; he's not gonna turn up" Harry's eyes that shifted to Diamond "So that must make you his partner….can I ask you a weird question, I don't wanna make you feel uncomfortable and if this doesn't go well we'll just edit it out anyway….Is it weird to be the only human on the front row, does it not worry a little?" Diamond chuckled good naturedly before answering
"Well it wasn't until you mentioned-"
"GIMME ALL YOUR LIEN!" Harry barked, before speaking to audience as a whole "Ice in her veins, didn't even flinch….Remnant is good hands people!" It took a while for the crowd to quieten down again, Arctus and Diamond both laughing despite being the butt of the joke
"No but seriously it's good to see us Faunus doing well for ourselves" Harry sighed "Marrying Schnees and not getting harassed by the cops as much; I'm kinda glad Adam Taurus isn't around to see it because y'know he would probably blow some shit up and put like fifty Faunus out of work and act like he saved us all by doing it….let me tell you anyone who thinks that his shit didn't stink I had to wear his hand me down clothes from time to time-" Arctus and Diamond joined in the eruption of laughter from the crowd, the Bear Faunus with wide eyes as he'd never heard the late leader of the White Fang discussed in such blunt and irreverent terms
"I'm sorry but we as a people are not gonna be represented well by the guy dressed in all black with red eyes and horns on his Oum damned head….making it too damn easy" the jokes continued and the crowd continued to laugh, nobody noticing a lone Faunus slink out of an open fire exit wearing a hateful expression.
The show had finally ended and Harry Regal was travelling from Eisenstadt Prime to Eisenstadt Dritte, the city he had been born and raised in; though it had been transformed beyond all recognition during his time in prison, the damage wrought on Lower Atlas as a hole finally providing enough incentive for the government to repair and modernise the infrastructure of six of Atlas's seven major cities. Normally the ludicrously extravagant limousine was filled with his entourage and served as the venue for a mobile after party but Harry's current tour was winding down and he was leaving each show progressively more exhausted, as such the only occupants of the vehicle were himself and his chauffeur; a human who had been Harry's cellmate for his last two years in prison, the young man had been transferred from a young offenders institute where he had been imprisoned for a string of car thefts upon turning eighteen and had been terrified to be surrounded by harden criminals many of whom had ties to extremist organisations. Harry had promised to try and help his former cellmate out when he was released, giving him a job was his way of honouring that promise. It also left Harry free to get thoroughly intoxicated but that was besides the point
"It's a shame Gang couldn't come….had a whole routine lined up for him and everything" the avian Faunus lamented as he exhaled, pungent smoke filling the rear of the limousine "I hear Blake is hooked up with a teacher; because of course she is….gotta get her to come to a show sometime" he fell into a peaceful silence upon receiving no reply for his chauffeur, whose concentration was firmly on the icy and snow covered road between the cities. Harry merely lost himself in his own drug addled mind as he took several long drags on a joint laced with things he couldn't even remember the name of, as he watched the snow falling outside he realised that if he was truly honest with himself he'd been reaching out to Gangrel and to a lesser extent Blake because the kids he'd grown up with in Sienna Khan's orphanage as well as Sienna herself and Tukson had been the closest thing that he'd ever had to a family and despite his newfound fame and money he had no real idea what he was doing with his life. He missed them all but Blake and Gangrel had seemingly forgotten him and moved on with their lives, Luna had vanished after Felix's death, Chitin had been killed in a bar fight, Fagin had been set up by his own lieutenant in Vaccuo; everyone else's death was Adam's fault either directly or through proxies. Harry took a deep breath and forced himself not to lash out at the mere though of the Bull Faunus, trying to find something positive to focus on….he'd heard through the grapevine that Blake had named a kid after Felix, that was something.
CRASH
"What the fuck!" Harry demanded, jolted from his introspection as the limousine was brought to an abrupt halt, rear wheels rising from the ground as it collided with something, quickly stamping out the joint he'd dropped before it could cause anything to catch fire he leaned forward and banged on the partition between the front seat of the vehicle and the passengers
"You okay kid, what the fuck happened?"
"I don't know!" he chauffeur replied frantically as he extricated himself from the airbag "I didn't see anything, fuck I still can't see anything!" Harry tried to peer through the smoke rising from the hood of the car obscuring the view from the wind-shield but couldn't make out anything
"Fuck it, get out there and see how bad the limo is. I'll call the insurance company"
"But what if it's a Grimm?"
"You were doing sixty, if it's a Grimm then congrats you're a Hunter now. Get your ass out there and see how badly you fucked my car up" the chauffeur did as he was instructed and climbed out of the vehicle, the drivers' side door sagging on a damaged hinge as it opened. Harry watched as the young man took a few tentative steps around the side of the vehicle, a low whistle making it clear that the damage was extensive. Then there was a low warping sound and the chauffeur was gone, or more accurately he was everywhere at once, his body reduced to gore and viscera splattered across the wind-shield with enough force to crack the glass. Harry let out a scream, his Scroll falling from his hands in shock and revulsion as his mind managed to make sense of what he was seeing, he continued screaming until a voice, a harsh rumbling snarl issued a single demand
"Get out" Harry struggled to comply, trembling hands fumbling with the door and upon opening it the terrified Faunus collapsed to his hands and knees in the snow before rising to his feet and desperately casting his eyes around the otherwise empty road, lit by large and sturdy street lights built at the roadside which arched overhead. In the distance there was a large hulking figure brandishing some kind of weapon, turning his attention back towards the wreckage of his limousine bile rose in his throat at the sight of the lower half of his drivers' body slumped against the front wheel while everything above the waist had been eviscerated; the truly horrific thing however was the person, if one could call it that which had ordered him out of the car, the light glinted against countless metallic surfaces and Harry couldn't be certain how much of this hallucination was drug induced and how much was sheer terror but he was certain that his sense must be deceiving him; the nightmare made flesh stood before him could not be real.
"Good" the same sandpaper rough voice sneered "Look at me; look a the big scary monster in front of you….whatever you do don't look behind you"
"Wha-ARRRGH!" Harry had made to whip around and see what was behind him, before he could do so he collapsed to the ground screaming in agony and clutching at his left thigh, his breaths came in shallow laboured gasps as he looked at the wound in horror, his jeans were rapidly darkening as more of his blood soaked into them, the flesh had been pierced by a three foot long harpoon which now jutted from the front of his thigh. Harry had only the briefest glimpse of a small figure, face obscured by a mask with too many eye holes scurrying down the surface of one of the street-lights carrying the weapon the harpoon was attached to. A moment later several serrated barbs burst from the tip of the spike buried in his leg, making it impossible to remove; Harry was reduced to screams of pain once more as he felt himself being dragged back towards his attacker, then hoisted into the air; the arm of the street-light being used as an improvised pulley suspending him upside down roughly six feet in the air. Through his pain Harry managed to make out a lone feminine figure approaching though the snow, any hope of being rescued was shattered the moment he heard the voice that seemed to come from everywhere at once, smoky, enticing and hypnotic
"Hush little traitor don't you cry, I'm gonna sing you a lullaby" the haunting melody reduced Harry to whimpers which he failed to hear, his senses unable to focus on anything other than the slowly approaching figure clad in black and white
"You should have learned to hold your tongue, now your final judgement's come" she was close enough that Harry could see her face was obscured.
"Our people's revolution's near, and you'll play no part 'cos you won't be here" Harry's eyes widened in mind-numbing terror as he saw what was covering her face, a mask, a kind of mask he was intimately familiar with.
"Hush little traitor don't say a word….I'm gonna silence a mocking bird"
A moment later the sound of screaming could be heard, and then silence.
Authors Notes:
Now that's how you introduce an antagonist….honestly if I was making this as an actual series, that last scene would be a teaser trailer.
The fiftieth chapter seemed to get more feedback than normal so I wanna thank you guys again for sticking around and being the awesome people that you are.
We're nearing the end of Vol.4, I'm gonna follow the 'Missions are Volume finales' setup meaning that we'll get to see of Atlas in Vol.5 and Vol.6, I feel like the pacing on this volume has struggled a little as I've had to re-establish the characters, set up plot points and change the setting completely without sacrificing character interactions and development.
Also you can blame my friend, Tumblr user Torossotron for this but I'm giving serious consideration to starting a Transformers story based in the IDW comics continuity, set post war roughly around the same time as the "More Than Meets the Eye" series. I promise I won't let it interfere with the upload schedule for FADE, this is and will continue to be my main story. As things stand I have a crew of fifteen OCs with rough outlines but no actual plot….let me know if you'd be interested in seeing me venture into other Fandoms.
So, let's summarise:
Anyone else do that when they wake up somewhere new? Just wander off in completely wrong direction.
When Winter Schnee walks into a room you stand to mother-fucking attention.
A few of you guessed it, yes the woman beside Winter last chapter was Ciel. She's Winter's deputy and will kinda be acting like Goodwitch did in canon; the one really running the show while the headmaster is busy.
Confirmation that Arctus doesn't know Ciel, he does know several high ranking officers in Atlas as well as several politicians and CEOs just by virtue of his parents; if Antonia Arc was more sociable he probably would have met her as well.
We've got a mission coming people, brace yourself for antics.
Diamond's ex, surely you knew he was coming back….the guy is so creepy it makes my skin crawl to write him.
Remember Cinnabar and Corvid are in the same year, Corvid went to Haven for the Vytal Tournament in her first year. Cinnabar knows exactly how good she is.
Felix's sarcasm, feels like it hasn't been present enough lately; I need to write more Felix and Diamond interactions.
Team GRAY, one of Felix's old friends and one of Diamond's old friends; they'll probably only ever be background characters but we need more of those since we've left Vale….besides, someone's gotta fight 'em in the tournament.
When Nyanza said he was gonna get the 'Signal crew' together to go to Ether's gig at the start of the volume Grease would have been one of those people.
Yeah Cinnabar in the grand scheme of things is a minor annoyance, he's a high-school bully; it's like comparing Cardin to Tyrian….one of them is a threat the other is not.
Mahogany.
Matte Skye appears in almost all of Winter's photos, if you can't find them then look harder.
Also Weiss was pregnant when she and Gangrel married.
They're called the Shadow Cadre of the Frost River Tribe you know damn well they like it cold.
Team GORE are bait.
Remember how many misgivings they had about taking Antonia as a prisoner.
Winter didn't have Merc and Em trailed when they resigned from her black-ops unit, she's not going to have Team GORE stalked.
Confirmed that there's no Klein in this story, the Schnees never fired a replacement. You can't replace Klein.
Raffia is a shit.
Also I never intended for this to happen but as I've been reading things back to myself I've realised that Carcharodon is actually starting to remind me of Piccolo from DBZ.
I was honestly planning on watching some fire and brimstone really out there wing-nut southern preachers before writing Celeste's sermon but honestly I would have ended up pissing myself off to the point I punched a hole through my laptop.
For those of you that haven't read the Downward Spiral, Adam Taurus died wiping out a gigantic Grimm that had been airdropped into a city that his forces had taken over by a renegade faction of the Atlesian military; his forces fractured without him but he still died a martyr in some peoples' minds.
When Adam took control of Lower Atlas he renamed it New Menagerie, Celeste is talking about taking over Atlas and then burning Menagerie down to start again, she would rather it be a wasteland than have one human living there.
"The fangs shall draw blood" is going to become something of a slogan.
Celeste still isn't 'cured', she was paraplegic for twenty years, the cybernetic spine allows her to stand up and walk but without Neon's armour it is still a struggle.
"My parents always tell me that you're going to stop anyone from ever picking on the Faunus again" that may be the most chilling thing I've ever written in context.
Just the idea of Celeste comforting a child by telling her "Don't worry, the differences you're being picked on for will actually help you destroy our enemies"
An Operation, that will coincide with the second year missions….oh goodie.
Even the rest of the New White Fang shudder at the thought of the Cult of Taurus.
If you want an idea of what the Cult are going to be like read the Transformers "More Than Meets The Eye" comic series, I based them on the "Decepticon Justice Division" it won't be like for like adaptions but the principle remains the same.
Don't be front row at a comedy show.
A lot of the comedians' routine was based on Dave Chappelle, there's a video on Youtube "Best of Dave Chappelle part 2" with a mix of bits from different shows that I used for reference.
Wham-Burger is a thing that canonically exists within Remnant.
A little note on the private prison industry, fuck that shit it should not exist.
Whitley liking Faunus rap groups is a callback to The Downward Spiral.
Jokes about Adam Taurus, that is the kind of shit that gets you put on a hit-list.
"I hear Blake is hooked up with a teacher; because of course she is" is it really a surprise to anyone?
Yeah Felix was actually named after the Chainsaw guy from Vol.2, in The Downward Spiral Adam cut him in half.
R.I.P driver boi.
So that's three of the four members of the Cult of Taurus, the big guy who blew the driver up, the monster that stopped the car and the small one with the Harpoon sniper rifle.
And here's the fourth.
Sing that little song to the tune of hush little baby and tell me that it's not menacing as fuck.
Yes the chapter was titled mocking bird just for the "I'm gonna silence a mocking bird" line, I've had this scene specifically planned out since the beginning.
And wait til you see what her weapon is.
Thank you to SumoSnipe, Araniladin, Funlander, FleetOfWarships, TigerRose, Ferrous, BooDawg, Arkanes Shippou, FluffyFirefly and ShadowAlex2000 for their reviews on the last chapter.
Yeah Felix has Blake's copy of Ninjas of Love, Corvid has Yang's old scarf.
Yep it was Ciel.
I could created a new airborne Grimm but I wanted to highlight the Baba-Jaegers, I just thought it made more sense to put them against a known quantity.
Well I didn't make a transforming mech for no reason.
The slow burn is real, what if I told you I'm gonna give you all two ships by the end of Vol.5?
Also bring back Winter in Vol.6 RT.
As always thank you to everyone that reads this, with a special thanks to those of you that follow, favourite and review