"We can't keep waiting for him." Olivia said. They were sitting at a table in what was left of the cafeteria. The school had been undergoing massive reconstruction and repair. It just so happened that Olivia"s Father was more or less running the school with Professor Goodwitch.
As such she was allowed to stay on campus and she had asked nicely so the rest of her team and team RWBY was allowed to as well. It had been several days since all Hell had broken loose. Now they were trying to get their teams together to form their next move.
"Agreed," Willow said. The sight of her teammate lowered Olivia's mood. Willow hadn't been the same since Jaune left. Apparently Jaune's father sent him to Beacon in order to prevent an attack that the Arcs had caught wind of. When he failed the only possible punishment was banishment.
Glancing around the table didn't turn up any better results. Yang was worse off then Willow, she was mostly unharmed minus a few new scars but her soul looked broken. In less than a day she went from happily married and thinning about the moment. To being alone and terrified.
Ruby hadn't told anyone but Yang had been sneaking into her little sister's bed at night and holding her close. Whether it was because she needed someone to comfort her or if she was scared of waking up and Ruby not being there was unknown but it still wasn't good.
Ruby looked downtrodden and with the loss of Shiro, Sun, Pyrrha, Blake, Jaune, and Weiss she was. That left Ren, Nora, and Naomi. Just thinking about the last one;s name made Olivia growl lightly. They had been betrayed, stabbed in the back.
"Without Shiro we are gonna need a better plan." Willow said. "There is no way that we are gonna be able to track any of them down with just the four of us."
"Six," a voice corrected, the source was Ren. He and Nora had been missing since the night that everyone went drinking. They had actually been dropped from their classes.
"Where have you two been?" Willow snapped getting to her feet and walking over to them. "Do you have any idea how worried we were about you, you just disappeared!" by the time she had reached them she was almost in tears. Stopping for a moment she threw her arms around both of them and cried. "I'm just so glad you're safe."
This caught both teens off guard. They had never considered that Willow would care about them but it made sense the more they thought about it. She was their team leader's sister. Kinda like a semi-aunt.
Pulling back she tried to talk but her tears silenced her. "We know about Pyrrha," Ren said, slightly tightening his arms around her and Nora. It was an odd feeling, the one he was getting from this strange group hug but he liked it and it helped to lessen the sting he felt having to say that Pyrrha was dead. Together they returned to their seats.
"We plan to go after the ones who did this." Olivia interjected. "Are you in?"
Ren looked to Nora and when he got a nod he looked back. "Yes, who are we hunting?"
Tossing a series of photos she got from her father he pointed to the circled faces. One was of a large man with large sideburns. And the other was a woman, she had long dark hair and a smooth face.
Pointing to the man Olivia explained. "According to Atlas intelligence that I am not about to share with you this man is named Hazel Reinhart. He has no major record in fact he has nothing more than a name and a dead sister. He was at the breach we sealed last month and he was seen less than a mile from the field where the Grimm were massing for their attack on Beacon."
Next she tapped her finger on the woman. "This is Cinder Fall, she's here from Haven and she was also seen near the Breach."
before she could continue Willow interrupted. "But the exchange students hadn't arrived yet?"
Nodding at her teammate Olivia continued. "That's right and that is our heading. Haven academy."
"Any sightings of either of these people since the attack?" Ren asked.
Olivia shook her head to say no before Ruby took over. "We are gonna need to split up." Motioning to her sister she said. "Our home is between here and Haven. We can set out from there but we are gonna need Weiss. I still don't like the odds of just the six of us doing all of this."
"You guys get to Ruby's house," Olivia said. "I'll get Weiss." standing up and heading for the door Olivia glanced back and said. "If I'm not back with Weiss inside of two weeks go without me,"
…
Junior was waiting for Mercury and Emerald to return from the gas station they had stopped at. He had taken them out of play the night that Beacon was attacked. They were coordinating the lesser white fang assault on the city of Vale.
Once he had them he went to check on his daughters. What he saw shocked him and told him that he had finally succeeded. A large man with a sling and a crutch was wearing one of his suits and giving his men orders.
He clearly had at least a little hunter training and under his orders the six block radius of the club was protected until Vale SWAT was able to contain the attacks. It was a surprise to see but also told him that his biggest job yet was complete.
The moment he found out that his wife was expecting twins he knew that his reason for being had changed. That was when he started to get out of the brotherhood. His new purpose was to make sure that they never needed him again. And now after almost two decades he had done it. They didn't need him anymore. It was bittersweet, and he revealed in it. He almost didn't notice when Mercury and Emerald returned.
"Where are we going!" Emerald snapped. It was no secret between the three of them that the only reason she was coming quietly was because Mercury practically begged her. She wanted to stand by Cinder till the bitter end.
"Ever heard of Manotach?" Junior asked.
When he got no response he explained. "Not many have. It will be a great place for us to lay low until this all blows over."
"What do you want?" Emerald asked.
The question caught him off guard since he figured that they would be a couple of good soldiers and do whatever the person in charge told them.
"What do you mean?" she looked like she was about to answer but he already knew that he wasn't going to be satisfied with the answer so he added. "What are you afraid of?"
She was clearly uncomfortable but he had attributed that to the fact that her entire unit had been crushed by one man who had told her and Mercury to follow him.
"I understand why you want Merc. he's a killer with potential but me I'm just a thief. The only reason someone like you would need me is if you get, um." she wanted to ask her question but she also didn't want to insult the man who had killed twelve white fang elites in less than five seconds. "Lonely,"
It took him a moment to figure out what she meant, a sign that he was getting old. " No," he quickly stated. "I'm not helping you two so that I can help myself. I used to be a cop and I saw a lot of kids like you two. I couldn't help them but I can help you."
It was clear from his tone that he didn't want to talk about the matter further but they stik believed him so they kept quiet for the rest of the ride.
…
James Ironwood sat at his new desk in Beacon's main office. The room was relatively untouched after the attack but that didn't mean that nothing had been changed. Until a suitable replacement could be found James was stuck running both of his schools and the entire army of Atlas. He was a lucky man to count the staff of all three organizations as skilled and in many cases capable of handling themselves. So for now he would focus on Beacon. Dr. Polendina had the academy under control and while Winter wasn't running the army she was handling much of the administrative work.
That left him time to work on how to repair the school. Starting with the main structures that were damaged such as the cafeteria and the main dorms. Then there was the matter of the injured students.
Thankfully there were only two fatalities. Pyrrha Nikos and Sun Wukong. James was writing a note to Leonardo to explain the death of his student as well as to the family of Ms. Nikos. He was electing to leave out the part about her getting married since it wouldn't help with their grief.
James knew little of the NIkos family but if what he had heard was true then their first move upon learning that Pyrrha had been married would be to find the husband and try to bring him into their family.
That was something that Jaune Arc would not want. If James was right and when it came to the Arcs he normally was, then the boy was doing his best to drink himself into an early grave as a way to dull the pain and shame.
He had not only failed as a son, but as a husband as well. Two of the three most important things that he could have become he was now a failed example of.
The bodies were being cared for by the Beacon Medical Examiner. They would be sent to their respective final resting places when the arrangements were done.
His scroll buzzed and when he looked he saw that it was a message from Junior to him and all other brotherhood members. "Sustari and Black are out of play, we are dropping off the grid until this is over. Lose my number.!"
There was no need to respond if what James knew of Junior was right then he had already thrown the scroll out of the window while speeding down some dirt road in the ass end of nowhere.
Before he could put down the scroll it buzzed again. This time it was Glynda, one upside to being in Beacon was that he got to spend more time with her.
She wanted to tell him that breakfast was almost ready. He knew better than to ask what she had made since the answer would be in a different language so he simply responded with "On my way,"
When he arrived at Glynda quarters he saw that she had set out the table for both of them. Sure enough the food on the plates was something he had never seen before but it smelled good. Taking his seat he noticed that he was eager to eat something that wasn't from a MRE ot ration can.
Soon the soon to be headmaster of Beacon Academy came from the small kitchen in her room with a pitcher of what seemed to be coffee but again James knew better than to assume. "I have some news," Glynda said, setting the pitcher down and sitting down in the other seat.
Before James could reach for the coffee she explained. "Olivia left for Atlas this last night,"
Ironwood froze in the middle of his reach. A deathly serious tone came over his voice as he asked. "Where is she going?"
Realizing that she had delivered some troubling news Glynda answered. "I don't know, is there a problem?"
James was already out the door before he responded "Damn it she's going after Weiss,"
…
Olivia did a final check to make sure that her face paint properly broke up her out line before turning back to Mitch. "You know the plan. Let's go,"
Finding Mitch was an easy task; his unit was a ghost unit, she recognized that his unit patch wasn't on the books so it wasn't too hard to figure out. From there she just had to follow the ghost money. Luckily a quartermaster owed her a favor.
He was against the idea of breaking into Weiss Schnee's mansion but when Olivia threatened to call "Daddy" in tears and say something about him saying or doing something wrong he changed his tune real fast.
She did feel bad about it but she needed to get Weiss away from her bastard of a dad. Mitch refused to get his team involved in what was about to be at least six different felonies but he came and that was all she needed.
Getting past the drones that patrolled the grounds was beyond easy. But those were meant more to keep people from getting back out than anything else. The Schnee mansion had been set up in a double direction of defense. Getting in required bypassing several lines of security but getting out was even harder.
The human guards were more trouble Mitch stopped her from just beating a few of them unconscious so that they could still try and never be seen. They made their way to what seemed to be the security house making sure to keep low and slow.
Mitch used a few toys that didn't officially exist yet to tap into the cameras. The device also made a map of the entire mansion and surrounding grounds. Both of which helped. While Olivia kept her eyes open for an attack Mitch used the map and cameras to figure out where Weiss was and what the fastest way to her was.
With all of their routes planned they disconnected and headed into the house. It could have been a maze of hallways if they didn't have their map. With the map finding Weiss was shockingly easy.
The lock on her door wasn't even engaged, that was odd but not unheard of. Slowing opening the door Weiss could be seen on her bed. "Weiss, grab your things," Olivia said looking around to make sure that they were still clear.
Weiss, not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, quickly grabbed a few changes of clothing and her rapier before following the two of them out of the house. Or at least that was the plan. They were a few turns from their exfil route when they rounded the corner and saw a tall thin man instantly recognized as Jacques Schnee.
Not slowing down and acting fast Olivia drove her shoulder into him while Mitch grabbed Weiss by the hand and half lead half dragged her away.
Jacques for his part just saw someone drag his daughter away and another person was doing their best to take him to the ground. Not liking either of these things Jacques dug his hands under his attacker's arms and forced her up and away from him. With his right hand posted on her left shoulder Jacques stepped so far to his right that his originally left foot forward orthodox stance was now a right foot forward southpaw stance.
Before Olivia could adjust to the surprisingly fast man he launched a left roundhouse that hit with the force of a medium sized car directly on her solar plexus.
The blow sent her back several feet and without the ability to breath properly she slumped to the ground clutching her chest where she had been kicked. The pain was debilitating but when she looked up she saw that Jacques slumped against the wall himself. His left leg was clearly broken and he looked exhausted.
Drawing her sword Olivia managed to fight to her feet. Only able to take small steps she made it to Jacques and was about to run him through when he noticed that his neck was glowing. It was a tattoo that seemed to be doing the glowing.
Ignoring the odd fact Olivia drew back her hand for the kill when a scary strong left hand grabbed her forearm the same grip was applied to her throat by the new persons right hand. The attacker who had come from behind and slightly to the right stepped around and swung Olivia into the nearest wall making her drop her sword.
The last thing she felt was the hand around her throat grab the back of her head. And the last thing she saw was Adam Tauras' forehead coming straight at her before everything went white.
…
Letting the now unconscious attacker drop the floor Adam ran over to Jacques who pointed in the direction that Mitch and Weiss ran saying. "They have Weiss!"
Nodding Adam took off after them he had no way of tracking them inside the house but Jacques had given him a map of the house when they arrived so he used that to guess their route. Once he was outside it was his domain. Here they left actual tracks. Following them Adam used one of his lesser known skills, his speed. He was one of the fastest runners on Remnant; his top speed was around thirty five miles an hour but that was only for about a minute.
He saw them boarding a bullhead and put everything he had into getting there. Instead of making it in time he reached into his pocket and as the bullhead was lifting off he jumped, throwing what to most would seem like putty at the rear door.
That putty was actually very adhesive when it was impacted with enough force. Like being thrown at the wall or the back door of a bullhead. It contained a tracker that went live the moment the motion sensor.
Heading back to Jacques he found that Klein had already splinted the leg and was helping Jacques back to his feet. Olivia was still laying on the floor so Adam grabbed one of her legs and dragged her after Jacques and Klein. This led them to the area of the mansion that contained the interrogation room that nobody knew Jacques had.
Soon Olivia was strapped to the table and had a water hose flushed over her face. Her gag reflex woke her up just in time for Jacques to limp his way over to her side. "Where is my daughter?" He knew about Adam's tracker but one of the most important things they could do is convince whoever this was to give them what they wanted. Once she was broken the rest would be much easier.
She opted to stay silent causing Jacques to turn to Adam. "you have their location. Go get her and kill anyone who gets in your way, you have the best legal team in the world behind you."
'"I'm gonna need a weapon," Adam answered. "I can't use my sword it just feel wrong,"
Nodding Jacques turned to Klein who had taken to the surprise of Adam and Olivia as well as the torture room rather well. "Take him to the guard shake, let him have his pick of weapons. If any guards don't want to give him the weapon, buy him one to match."
As he spoke he reached for the scalpel and limped over to Olivia's feet. You think you're tough, but I promise you the faster that you talk the fast the pain will end, and until you do I am going to take you apart inch by inch, nerve by nerve, tendon by tendon."
As Klein and Adam were about to leave and Jacques was getting ready to go to work starting with Olivia"s feet they all had to ignore the fear in her eyes. They hated this, but she knew where Weiss was, and she was one of the ones who kidnapped her so they were somewhat lacking in mercy.
Adam was a few feet from the door and Jacques a few inches from Olivia's big toe when the door to the room was thrown open and James Ironwood barged in shoving Adam out of his way before using his right hand to rip the restraints off of Olivia who threw herself into his arms the moment she was free and cried into his shoulder. She tried not to show it but she was terrified beyond the capacity of rational thought and right now her father was the only safe thought she had.
Feeling his daughter pressed against him James also felt his heart rate slow back to normal. Once she stopped crying he led her to a chair in the corner of the room and sat her down.
Walking over to Jacques and Adam he quietly growled. "Which one of you hit her!"
Adam was about to step forward and take the beating that was coming his way when Jacques cut in. "we both did, after she kidnapped Weiss, now who is she!"
James wasn't going to beat the dying man so instead he snarled and answered. "She's MY daughter, which one of you hit her?"
Now that he was more level headed so Adam stepped forward and explained "I'm the one that gave her the welt on her head." he left out Jacques round kick since he didn't see it happen and honestly had no idea it happened.
"I didn't kidnap Weiss," Olivia managed to whisper from the corner. It was just loud enough to be heard by the rest of them. It was clear there was confusion of Jacques and Adam's part so she kept going. "We came to rescue her, get her away from you," she said snarling lightly at Jacques.
Her words made Jacques take a step back. They thought his own daughter needed to be rescued from him. Putting his pain aside Jacques turned to James. "She knows too much, she's one of us now. You get to explain." he turned for the door but turned back for a moment to say. "Her first mission a get-a-long with Adam," leaving the room
James went over and after nodding for Adam to leave he started talking to Olivia. "So you've met Jacques and Adam,"
"What the fuck dad!" Olivia exploded.
James chuckled lightly at that, she had been holding a lot in for the past few minutes. Now she wanted answers. "The brothers are real," he said, telling her that fairy tales were true was simply enough. "But they aren't gods, they are little more than monsters that played with mankind and when they gew board wiped it out. Now they are waiting for a signal to return. Adam, Jacques, and myself among others are in a group that has dedicated itself to make sure that never happens. We also have a long standing commitment to protect the people of Remnant from the Grimm."
Wrapping his arm around the now standing girl he said. "You now know more about me than Glynda, you're one of us now. Welcome to the Grimmbane brotherhood sorry about the name it was founded by a group of brothers and the name stuck."
"What are my orders?" she asked. This was all still new to her and she was falling back on instinct.
"You are going to go with Adam for a Get-a-long mission afterwards the two of you will hunt down the White Fang." he answered waiting for her shock to pass before explaining. "According to himself and Jacques Adam has had a change of heart and is planning on destroying the whtie fang. You will help him."
Olivia nodded. She knew that there were a lot of questions but right now wasn't the time. She had her orders. If she needed to spend a mission co-existing with the most wanted man on Remant in order to destroy the white fang then so be it. Team RWBY would be fine without her.