Chapter 31: Retaliation

February 8, 2683; 2346 Hours

Remnant, Patch

Thorne casually sat on the upstairs balcony of Tai Yang's house, burning cigarette stuck between his lips. Quite frankly, he was getting rather tired of waiting for Qrow's 'agent' to arrive. He shifted in the lightly-padded chair, letting thin wisps of smoke trail from his nostrils as he let out a long sigh. He had a timetable to keep; he was due back in Atlas by tomorrow morning after a new development in the investigation, and he did not like the prospect of being late for something as big as this.

Just as Thorne considered snuffing out his cigarette and stepping back inside, he heard the glass door slide open. He craned his neck to look over, finding Qrow to be standing there with a rather serious look on his face. "She's here, Thorne."

"After ten hours, I finally meet this 'agent'…" Thorne said, squeezing the lit tip of the cigarette between his gloved fingers and tucking the extinguished, half-finished tobacco back into a metallic container in his pocket. He wasn't wasteful… he'd finish it later. "You still haven't told me who she is, only that I'm apparently not allowed to tell Yang."

"That'll make sense when you meet her." Qrow said, nodding for Thorne to follow. "She's downstairs in the living room."

Wordlessly, Thorne made his way through the hall and down the short flight of stairs. About halfway down, he saw the woman in question. She was wearing a shallow-cut black dress, carried a longsword in a metallic sheath at her hip, and sported a head of long, raven-black hair. She obviously heard Thorne's shoes clacking against the wooden staircase, as she turned her head to face him. He was surprised to see bright red eyes, the exact same coloration as Qrow's. He had seen this eye color, this facial structure, and even this hairstyle before… then it hit him.

"Raven Branwen…" Thorne said, descending the final stairs and clasping his hands behind his back. "I never would have thought the long-lost mother of Yang would be Qrow's inside source on Salem's little dealings. I'll admit, this surprised even me."

"I'm risking a lot by being here at all." Raven responded, her voice level and calm. If she was at all surprised by Thorne's immediate recognition of her, she didn't show it.

"And you risked even more by withholding information from the Office of Naval Intelligence." Thorne countered, moving his hands to his sides.

"Is that a threat?" Raven asked, her voice almost innocent.

"Not at all…" Thorne retorted. "You waiting this long to come forward only cost thousands their lives."

"Salem's influence is much greater than you can imagine, Agent Thorne." Raven responded, resting a hand on the hilt of her blade. "It's likely that Beacon would have fallen anyways."

"Believe me; I know how far-reaching the influence of the Precursors is." Thorne shrugged. "I do not deal in 'likely'… I deal in absolutes. And I am absolutely sure that if I had ready access to this information, then the UNSC could have responded accordingly." He waved his hand dismissively. "Enough about that… I need you to start working with me."

"Well…" Raven began, sitting down on one of the stools at the counter, leaning against the ceramic surface. "What do you need to know?"

Thorne mirrored her, sitting down in the adjacent stool. "I need to know what Salem's next move is."

"You're already on the right track." Raven explained. "Her next step is for Haven to fall… and to find the Spring Maiden."

"What's her motive? Why target the Huntsmen Academies?"

"They're the only legitimate threat." Raven answered as if it were the simplest fact in the world. "Without the Academies, without the CCTs, the Kingdoms are vulnerable."

"The CCTs are going to be outdated within the next year." Thorne added. "The UEG is installing a full Waypoint Network here soon… destroying the CCTs would hardly hamper communications."

"Precisely why her plans have been pushed forward." Raven answered. "If the communications grid is down, and the Huntsmen are scattered, it would force the armies of Remnant and the UNSC to spread themselves thin to keep order. At least… that's what I've gathered thus far."

"Overextension of our forces is hardly a concern." Thorne retorted. "The UNSC's Army and Marine Corps are millions strong."

"You have a limited, albeit large, number of forces to pull from." Raven answered. "Salem, on the other hand, does not have that problem. So long as she exists, the Grimm are infinite."

"So how do we stop her?" Thorne inquired.

"You need to kill her." Raven answered.

"And how would I go about that? Where is she? We've run deep scans of this entire star system and haven't found any trace."

"She… exists in another place entirely." Raven answered. "Another realm… a mirror of our own."

"Another dimension?"

"Indeed."

"How do we access it?"

"Simply put… you can't." Raven answered, definitively. "Not unless she wants you to."

"And you can access it?"

"I, and a select few others, can, through her blessing that is." Raven answered. "The Grimm use the same method to travel to Remnant, all through Salem."

"Fuck…" Thorne muttered.

Thorne carried on with his questioning for what seemed like an hour at most. Much to his surprise, it was well into the night when he finally ran out of questions for the raven-haired huntress before him. Much to his disdain, he found himself with more questions than answers. Sadly, even Raven didn't know who was in Salem's inner circle beyond Cinder.

"Well… For the first time in my career with The Office, I'm all out of questions." Thorne finished, sighing. "Questions that you might be able to answer, that is."

"I know that it isn't much, but I've shared everything that I know." Raven added. "Despite my situation, even I'm in the dark about most things."

"Well, it still helps." Thorne said, shrugging. "At least now I know how to respond." Thorne stood upright, a move that Raven mirrored. He extended his hand, which she tentatively shook. "Thank you for speaking with me."

"I figured I could spare one more act of kindness before I go back." Raven returned, nodding. "I assume that you're needed elsewhere?"

"I am." Thorne affirmed with a nod. Thorne wasn't quite sure what it was that possessed him to speak up about this. He could chalk it up to morality, but it was far more likely that he had grown rather close to the Huntresses that worked with his SPARTAN. "Speaking of acts of kindness…" Thorne said, stopping himself before he could leave to gather his few personal belongings. "Yang's been looking for you for years."

For the first time in their entire, hours-long conversation, Raven's expression seemed to soften. "I… I know. I've been keeping a distant eye on her, though. Even that is pushing it. It's nearly ruined everything that I've worked to build up."

"Hmm?" Thorne asked, once again caught in the dark about something rather important.

"I haven't completely abandoned my daughter." Raven answered.

Thorne nodded in understanding. Deep down, he almost hated the fact that he had grown so emotionally attached to the four young girls… almost. "Your daughter nearly died looking for you when she was younger… she says that she doesn't let her search for you control her, but I'm not so sure."

Raven seemed to tense up at the mention of the incident in the woodlands of Patch almost a decade ago. Qrow had told her what happened; Ruby and Yang were nearly killed when they were searching through their old, burned-out home. "I'd… only do more damage if I were to see her again."

Thorne nodded solemnly. He knew the dangers of tying family in with work all too well. "Has Qrow… told you anything about her recently?"

"I know she lost her arm to Taurus…" Raven's matter-of-fact statement was almost cold, but Thorne had learned to read people well. She was hurt by that fact. "For her sake, I hope you all succeed… I don't want her to deal with anything even remotely like what I have. I just wish she chose a normal life, honestly."

"Well, I know that meeting you would help to put her mind at ease." Thorne said. "Much to my surprise, I've come to genuinely care about those four girls… and I care enough to know that she'd give anything to see you."

Raven sighed. "I know…"

"Just think about it, for her sake." Thorne finished. "If you ever get definitive information that you can give me, and you can finally come out of the shadows, I know that she'd appreciate it."

"If I get the chance…" Raven retorted. "In the meantime… how is my daughter?"

"She's… doing well." Thorne answered. "She was suffering from rather… intense PTSD after the fall of Beacon, but I think her girlfriend's helped her through it."

Raven seemed to stare at Thorne for a moment. "Wait… Girlfriend?!"

"Qrow didn't tell you that she's been with her partner for almost two years?" Thorne asked.

"No… he didn't." Raven said, looking rather irritated with her brother.

Thorne shrugged, a small smirk on his face. "Eh, he doesn't tell me anything either."

Much to Thorne's surprise, Raven actually cracked a small smile. "At least he's consistent." She sighed, her mind drifting back to Yang. "You've… given me a lot to think about, Thorne."

"Well, thinking's all I can ask of you." Thorne added. "If you ever decide to break off from your work with Salem, you'd be a valuable asset to ONI."

Raven actually seemed to consider that for a moment. "I'll… give it some thought."

"All I ask." Thorne finished, gathering up his coat from the coat rack by the door.

"Thank you…" Raven said. "Here I was thinking I'd be enlightening you."

Thorne smirked as he reached for the door handle. "Good luck." He offered before pulling the door open and stepping outside. Sitting on wooden chairs on the front porch were Tai Yang and Qrow, both of them looking at him expectantly.

"How'd it go?" Tai asked.

"Surprisingly well." Thorne answered, finishing with the buttons of his suit jacket. "Thank you again, Tai Yang."

"Not a problem at all, Thorne." Tai said, offering a quick nod. "Good luck out there."

XXXXX

February 9, 2683; 2031 Hours

Remnant, Mistral (Camp Vorbeck)

Ivan let out a light laugh as the conversation at the dinner table took a turn for the reminiscent. "Y'know… after your party last night, I didn't really expect you to go off on the paparazzi like that, Weiss Cream." Yang said, stuffing another bite of the pasta that Ivan had made into her mouth. After she finished the bite, a small smile broke across her face. "I've only ever seen you scream like that at me."

"Well, just be glad that Thorne warned me." Weiss said, being slightly more cordial in her eating habits. "It might've been a bit more profane if that was a surprise."

"And believe me… Weiss does not curse often." Winter added from the other end of the large dining table. Ivan knew that this house was not at all meant to accommodate fourteen people, but at the very least the dinner table was big enough… barely.

"What can I say?" Weiss shrugged. "Annoying sensationalist 'journalists' bring out the worst in me." Ivan and Winter both noted the slight glance that Weiss gave Ruby. "Thankfully, you all bring out the best."

"They're actually the most adorable thing ever." Winter came over Ivan's neural implant.

Before Ivan could respond, he was surprised to hear the doorbell ring. "Who the hell rings a doorbell at eight at night?" Ivan wondered aloud, letting out a sigh as he stood up to answer it.

He made his way out of the kitchen, and through the living room with the light hum of conversation in the background. He deactivated the magnetic lock, then opened the door. Much to his surprise, he saw a familiarly tall, white-haired woman before him. He recognized her immediately, Viktoria Schnee, Weiss' mother. Standing just behind her was a shorter, teenage boy with similarly white hair and blue eyes. Color him surprised to see Whitley at his door just a few days after kicking his own down. "Missus Schnee… this is a surprise." He said, standing a full head taller than the admittedly tall woman. "What can I do for you?"

"Hello, Mister Chesnokov." She answered, giving a half-genuine smile. "I was hoping I could see my daughters."

"Of course, please come in." He said, stepping aside and allowing the two visitors to walk in. As they walked in, the teenager introduced himself to Ivan after he had finished closing and re-locking the door.

"A pleasure to finally meet you, sir." Whitley said, catching Ivan's attention. "Without the army of soldiers watching us, I mean." Much to his internal amusement, he was almost twice the boy's height, even outside the armor. He seemed friendly and positive enough, but Ivan detected just a hint of that affluent snob in his tone that the SPARTAN was so used to from his childhood. He had come from a relatively well-off family, and he had made absolutely sure that he was nothing like the other rich kids from his youth. It was a part of the reason that he considered himself so down-to-earth.

Ivan smiled as Whitley reached out to shake his hand, a gesture that he mirrored. "A pleasure to meet you too, Whitley." Ivan said. "I wish it didn't come to that." He hummed. "Before Atlas, I didn't know Winter and Weiss had a brother."

"I'm not surprised they don't speak of me." Whitley responded with an indifferent shrug. His movements, even his body language, seemed fluid and choreographed. "Winter and I… never got along very well, and Weiss had been away for a long time."

Ivan nodded, knowing full well that Winter obviously had a reason for not liking her younger brother too much. He was unsure of Weiss' reasoning for never mentioning her younger sibling, however. Despite that, he turned his attention back to the Schnee mother. "We were just starting to eat dinner, the two of you are free to join us… if I can squeeze you in at the table that is."

"That's quite alright." Viktoria responded, waving her hand. "We've already eaten. Thank you for the offer, however. I assume Winter and Weiss are in there as well?"

"Yeah." Ivan affirmed with a nod. "C'mon, I'd imagine that they'll be happy to see you."

With that, Ivan led the two through the somewhat cluttered living room. There were magazines, books, controllers for a video game console, a laptop, and various other oddities scattered all over the furniture. As he neared the entry to the dining room and stepped through, everyone turned to him expectantly. "Looks like we have a few surprise guests." Everyone gave him a questioning look for a moment, then the new arrivals stepped through behind him.

Everyone with the exception of Team RWBY and Winter looked completely and utterly confused. Winter and Weiss' eyes widened in surprise. "Mother?" Weiss asked, placing her silverware back down on the table.

"Hello, Weiss." Viktoria said, a small smile breaking across her features.

Weiss stood up, and quickly made her way past Ruby, Blake, and Yang to find herself wrapped in her mother's embrace. "It's… good to see you again."

"You as well, Little Weiss." Viktoria responded. "How have you been these past two weeks?"

"I've been wonderful… even after everything that's happened."

Winter was the next to make her way over, giving her mother a one-armed hug. "It's wonderful to see you again, Mother."

Viktoria smiled again. "It's wonderful to see the two of you again. It's been far too long, Winter. You've gotten taller."

"Aww!" Ruby squeaked out, earning a quick, joking glare from Weiss and Winter. That earned a few laughs from the others at the table… all except Blake, who looked a bit mortified.

It took Ivan a moment to figure out why, but one particular piece of her normal ensemble of clothing was missing: her bow. Her ears were flattened against her head, and she was fidgeting in her seat. Yang noticed this too, and wrapped her metallic fingers around Blake's hand.

Ivan glanced around the table, seeing that everyone was practically done eating anyways. He shrugged. "C'mon, no reason to stand around the table." He said, nodding towards the living room.

XXXXX

February 9, 2683; 1604 Hours

Remnant, Atlas (Schnee Estate)

Thorne stepped off of the Falcon that transported him the relatively short distance from Patch to Atlas, finding himself standing on the garden grounds of the Schnee Estate. As he looked around, it seemed that his orders had been carried out in full. The Schnee Estate was manned by a full garrison of ONI's dedicated ODST detachment, most of them guarding the perimeter of the massive mansion's grounds.

Waiting for him at the makeshift landing pad on the eastern end of the estate was a familiar Admiral that was ordering the ONI agents around. The white-clad Admiral carried a small metallic briefcase with him. With a small smirk, Thorne made his way over as the Falcon's rotors wound down. As he approached, the Admiral turned to face him, returning the mischievous smirk. "I didn't know you could order my men around, Tom."

Lasky chuckled. "It's been too damned long, Gavin. How's the Office treating you?" The still-youthful Lasky reached out to shake Thorne's hand.

"Well enough." Thorne answered, shaking Lasky's hand. "Gotta say, I do miss the Infinity. It was good to see her in orbit."

"Miss the War Games?" Lasky asked, adjusting the cuff of his formal, all-white uniform.

"God, no." Thorne chuckled. "I miss having my CO not be a damn bureaucrat." With that, the two started on the short trek to the now-discovered entrance to the Forerunner Vault beneath the estate, located on the Western edge of the grounds. Thorne shrugged. "That… and I miss my armor. I had to… erm… borrow the Colonel's during the battle last year."

Lasky chuckled. "And I miss only having one ship to worry about instead of the whole UNSC Armada."

Thorne looked Lasky up-and-down as they walked. "Uniform suits you, Chief of Naval Operations."

Lasky scoffed. "Please… now I've joined the ranks of the top brass. It's horrible. It's all just committee, Waypoint meetings, and sitting around doing nothing. This is the first time I've gotten to sit at the helm of Infinity in almost three years. I finally found an excuse to yank her out of the Exploration Flotilla: this crazy planet."

As they approached the short staircase leading down into the Vault, the four SPARTAN IVs gave a salute, standing back at ease as Lasky waved them off. "What? You don't like playing politician on Earth?" Thorne asked as they descended the steps, passing through the Forerunner Alloy blast door.

"I like it about as much as Sarah liked you at first, buddy."

"What? I made up for that little incident on Midway Station." Thorne said, innocently.

"Yeah, only took you two years." Lasky returned.

Thorne sighed. "Man… the good old days with the other SPARTANs." Thorne shook his head as they walked past the scientists that were hard at work deciphering Forerunner glyphs, picking apart Forerunner technology, and conversing among themselves. "Anyways, I take it you've already been informed of what we found down here?"

"It was the first Priority-1 message I've gotten from HIGHCOM in months that actually mattered." Lasky said, sighing. "Looks like the fleet's getting a new flagship."

"And we found another Domain Nexus, just like the ones on Genesis." Thorne said, stepping through one of the many doors in the Vault. After passing through another hallway and into a massive, brightly-lit room, the object in question became very apparent.

It was a massive spire, hard-light glyphs dancing around the pillar in incandescent blue light. In the center of the spire was a small indentation, a perfect rectangle. Lasky laid his briefcase down on a small table just next to the spire, removing his white glove and placing his hand against the biometric scanner concealed in the very metal of the case.

With a soft pneumatic hiss, the briefcase popped open, revealing the source of Humanity's massive technological advances over the past century: The Janus Key. "Only took us six years of prying Cortana apart to finally find this thing…" Lasky lamented, holding up the small Forerunner construct, glowing red on one half and blue on the other. "If we're right, this Nexus will finally put all of the pieces of this puzzle together."

"I can guarantee it." Thorne responded.

With a heavy sigh, Lasky pushed the Key into its proper place in the rectangular port. The spire lit up, its activation accompanied with a soft humming. With no noise, the Forerunner Alloy plates covering the spire's surface shifted, peeling away layer after layer of technological armor. After a mere minute, six hundred small plates floated around the room, hard-light glyphs and images shifting as they slowly orbited the spire, revealing secrets long locked away from the universe.

Lasky and Thorne both stood stunned as something completely unexpected happened. The plates of the walls began shifting as well, slowly opening up and revealing a wealth of technology. Everything that a UNSC scientist could ever dream of surrounded them: Forerunner Combat Skins of varying ratings, hard-light weaponry, Forerunner Information Retention Drives, star maps, and one of the things that the UNSC had been searching for decades to uncover… a room dedicated to the storage, recharging, and creation of Forerunner Vacuum Energy Cores: the most powerful energy source in existence.

"God…" Thorne began.

"Damn…" Lasky finished, looking around in bewilderment. In all of his years dealing with Forerunner tech, this was everything that he had hoped to find, all in one place. This discovery alone, with enough study and work, could easily propel Humanity to Tier-1 status by the turn of the 28th Century.

Almost as if to accent just how massively important this discovery was, the glyphs that were previously floating around the spire began to move and shift places. They aligned themselves before the two humans in the room, cycling through the hundreds of thousands of languages that existed in the Forerunner Archives before finally settling on English. In wonderful simplicity, they read out two elegant words that very nearly caused Thorne's jaw to drop open:

"WELCOME, RECLAIMERS"

Thorne and Lasky both exchanged glances. Lasky was the first to break the minutes-long silence. "We should probably call the President…"

XXXXX

February 9, 2683; 2103 Hours

Remnant, Mistral (Camp Vorbeck)

Ivan simply smiled as the amicable conversation hummed throughout the living room. Weiss and Winter were getting caught up with their mother, who occasionally brought questions to everyone else. Blake had finally started to feel comfortable enough to let her ears stand up normally. Much to her surprise, Viktoria made no comment, and even complimented Blake on how strong she was for coming along to the party all that time ago. Blake smiled, taking that as a victory.

As the conversation carried on well into the night, Ivan made out a sound that was all too-familiar to him: an explosion. At first, he wrote it off as a scheduled air combat drill… then the Raid Siren started blaring, accompanied by another, closer detonation.

Ivan and Winter both looked to each other as looks of worry spread to everyone else. Ivan's expression hardened. "You two, follow me." Ivan said, looking to Viktoria and Whitley. "Everyone else, gear up!" He shouted, standing up and heading down the stairs and into the basement, everyone else following behind him.

It was rather obvious that Viktoria and Whitley were not expecting a full armory in the basement, let alone two suits of MJOLNIR armor, but Ivan's mind was otherwise occupied. The Huntsmen all darted off into the armory, gathering up their equipment and weapons.

Winter had already set to work removing her outerwear, grabbing her gel layer from its resting place beside her white helmet. As Ivan reached for his own, he spoke to Viktoria and Whitley. "The two of you need to stay down here until the all-clear is given by the Commander. Am I clear?"

"We can help, sir." Whitley retorted. "My Mother's a Huntsman, and I'm going through training in a combat academy."

"You're still in training, and I will not allow non-combatants to fight on my base." Ivan said, his tone making it quite clear that he would not be argued with. "If you really want to help, stay down here and keep my mind at ease."

Whitley gave an indignant huff, but Viktoria nodded. She wasn't arrogant. She knew that was a definitive difference between killing a few Grimm and fighting a battle against other, sentient beings. "Thank you." Ivan said, finishing with his Tech Suit.

As the Huntsmen of Team RWBY, Team JNPR, and Team CFVY filed out of the armory, Ivan stepped into the MJOLNIR apparatus. Whitley and Viktoria watched in wonder as the six robotic arms of the machine picked up each individual piece of Ivan's jet-black MJOLNIR armor, placing the pieces over his body and sealing them together.

After the machine finished laying the armor atop the SPARTAN, he stepped out of it. He grabbed his ODST-pattern helmet, pulling it over his head, and powering up his HUD. Beneath the surface of his visor, it began to glow a dull blue as the armor synched up with his Neural Implant. He reached over to the weapon rack just behind the apparatus, grabbing an M6 SOCOM magnum, an SRS-99 Sniper rifle, and a BR-85 Battle Rifle. He locked each of the weapons in place on the magnetic retention strips on his back and thighs, then turned around.

He saw all of the three Huntsmen teams standing before him, all of their weapons loaded and ready. Winter had just finished attaching her sabre's metallic sheath to the back of her armor, along with a pair of suppressed M7 SMGs at her hips. For the first time in months, everyone was back together, and ready to fight together. It brought him a sense of comfort and familiarity, which manifested in a small smirk as he saw Weiss give him a small smile.

"Alright…" Ivan began, racking back the charging handle of his Battle Rifle. "Fireteam Hunter, the light is green!"