Bombs exploding in the distance rang all around the ears of the scared and hopeless. A burning forest and screams were swallowed in the cacophony of the raging inferno.
Cries for help were ignored, escape was out of reach and none were surviving this night and all she could smell the burning flesh and wood before opening her eyes, then silence.
Gasping for breath a woman leaned to the side coughing hard into her fist...or she would have, if her arm wasn't missing from the right bicep down.
"Guess I won't be playing the guitar ever again" she joked as she threw her legs over the side of a camping cot and went for standing up but fell down on her side and cried out in pain holding her arm.
Behind her, a door slammed open and heard someone running to her, "oh my goodness, madam your not strong enough to get our of bed just yet"
She looked to her side and a brown skinned deer faunas wearing hospital scrubs helping her up and to sit on a more comfortable bed with a pillow.
"You've been unconscious for a few weeks so I need to check you for abnormalities." The nurse spoke with the tone of a rehearsed stage actress.
That feeling put her at high alert and through sheer will the woman pushed off the chair and tackled the nurse.
Both wrestled to the floor and when both hit the ground the woman's aura burst out like a flame of pure aura. "Where's my son, did you see a boy around 5'10, long white hair multicolored eyes and has scars over half his face?"
"N-no, I don't know the boy you describe. I'm just paid to help you heal and get back on your feet" she shook and trembled under the woman with faunas eyes ears...and a pair of tails? "Your safe here ma'am, as soon as your better you'll be a man with second chances, named red baron...though we just call him baron"
the woman stood up from her and replied picking her up to her feet, "I'm sorry, I thought I was still at the market center in vale city"
"Where do you think you are?" The nurse asked freezing mid-stride.
Looking at her she gave a confused smile "what do you mean? Were at a valeian hospital-"
"Vale yes, but not a hospital. This is the home base of the red baron and refugee camp" the nurse gestured walking to the window guiding her to see downstairs, "this place is called second chances, and your our newest member"
Huffing out a laugh full of mirth she pulled away from the nurse "im not staying here, my son is still out there and he needs me"
"The breach that destroyed vale center was a massacre that stole countless lives you survived by the skin of your teeth and you want to waste this chance...wha- to find your dead son are you dense?"
Having enough of this woman she teleported past her in a huff and slammed through the door meeting a man in grey clothes at the doorway holding a bag with a hanger or two out the top.
"Good to see you up and ready to eat; dress is for you, dinner is down the hall and afterwards the baron will discuss finding your son" he said with a sophisticated tone and a smile.
"Fine, I'll play dress up" she spat taking the outfit and stomped down the hall into an empty room.
Twenty minutes passed and she entered a big room filled with different foods from the hundreds of families who sat in tables on the perimeter of the warehouse.
"Madam, your presence is required at the baron's table towards the northwest side of the building" the man from earlier directed her to the man know as the baron.
Families ranging from valeian, vacuian, Atlesian, and Mistralian. All human and faunas alike feasting on everyone's food.
Her heart leapt when she saw children laughing and eating with other children. "Heh, he would have loved this place." She thought stopping infront of and grabbing a chair to sit down.
Minutes ticked by before the man she'd been expecting to see was spotted walking down a set of aluminum stairs made from crudely welded metal sheets together, though it held together it groaned and creaked like it was barely managing to stay together.
"Good to see your up and moving around miss..." he trailed off stopping near a chair and pulled it out to sit down.
"Just call me lilac, and I'm greatful for taking care of me for the time I've been here." She gave the normal nice and respectful approach to a possible threat.
"Wrll then lilac, I'll get to the point and explain why you came to my care and to put it, plain and clear I help the lost and purposeless find what makes them, well them." Smiling at her he waved over the butler she saw earlier come to his side and poured a glass of wine in a cup infront of her then his glass. "I nearly forgot, im baron to these people but no one knows my real name and if you want to know it you'll voluntarily fight for my little community to pay for the resources you had my doctors use to keep yourself alive...one way or another you'll pay me back"
She immediately felt an itch to flee, attack, hell even take him up on his offer and work in her favor to find her son...but she had conditions. She gave a smile and grabbed the glass of wine before speaking, "im not the killing people type, so unless your raven's dog im not voluntarily doing a thing, but if your just a man with a goal to help people because they help you I'll stay and help"
Baron glared at her beginning statement but retracted his assumptions when she agreed under conditions, he smiled mirthfully and waved his hand and out from a set of steel double doors came four men carrying platters with domes over them and two were set in front of both parties and when baron gave a sharp whistle the platters contents were revealed to be roasted carrots, potatoes, steak, green beans and rice. Lilac was no fool, the food was damned good in smell and looks but the message was that the host takes the first bite and that baron certainly did and ignored her.
She immediately went for the steak and the taste made her heart leap in her chest. The flavor and type of degree cooked was just amazing. She looked up from her plate and baron held out a tissue and said "no need for tears lilac, just eat and well talk after you've gotten cleaned up; clothes and bathing essentials are in the room you woke in but I'll have someone take you to a more permanent room to your liking"
She wiped the supposed tear streaming down her face and nodded as she ate both plates. They both ate in silence while the ambiance around they sang like a dream she was content with at the moment but she still kept her guard up just for insurance.
A few more minutes to get a feel for the woman eating, baron was so deep in thought she had already stood up and walked away. He contemplated her role and what he would push her towards and where her loyalties lay so he made a note of how she reacted to his appearance to taking her leave and he didn't completely like her fear so he told the nurse that took care of her and his butler accompanied her to pass his message along.
He pulled them into his office and the nurse looked him in the eye and asked "are you completely sure I should-"
Barn slammed his hand on his desk glaring at her "don't question me, just get it done" he shifted to the butler "Cornelius, imma need your finest rum and a bottle of that cherry coka"
Cornelius bowed to baron and took his leave but turned with his sweet smile baron took note of that of a fatherly way he had "would you like those cherry pastes too sir?"
"Get one for lilac too, and get her some chocolate." He sat in his chair turned on the intercom system and spoke "ladies, gentlemen and those with children its time to clean up early; get your schedules and hurry to bed we've got to move again...code 3-15-12-5 Victor, Sigma. Good luck and good night"
Definitely his most hated essential duties is never staying rooted due to the amount of people he houses they all needed he figured a doctor from way back when could supply his people with a few ships. Grabbing his scroll he tapped a calligraphy A,W and after two rings he said "I need 4 airships, 3 for my people, one for our supplies and I need them tomorrow at 1700 I'll pay-"
"I'll have 4 ships to you by that time for free baron, I just need you to find a male for mistress salem, he's young but he'll grow to a powerful man-" with that he cut the call and grumbled and booted up his laptop and typed up reports, data sheets and read over dossiers on potential men salem wanted but ozpin was changed to "kill on sight" due to being too old to be a candidate and three more men were scrubbed for various reasons.
"This salem is super picky for someone who's desperate to get mate" he mused hearing Cornelius enter and exit and looked over and saw he'd dropped off his snacks and liquor.
"Take the next few months off Cornelius, I'll have you sent home for holiday!"
In that instant the butler gasped and tried to convince baron but before he could get a word out, there was a muffled scream and a crack of bone and gurgling that followed by a body dragged downstairs to a basement.
"fucker forgot my crisps with chocolate again" he growled spooning the cherry paste in his rum and mixed both with orange concentrate shook it up and dumped the liquid over a cube of ice and drank in relative peace and quiet.
In the basement tens of people sat in the darkness screaming through their gags and some cried seeing the butler fall on the floor still twitching from a broken spine and a man announced, "the day has come everyone, code 3-15-12-5, Victor, Sigma. Is in play and it's time for us to bid you dissidents adieu. Sorry for the inconvenience" a man said calmly as a button was posed followed by screeches of metal on metal could be heard, silence for five seconds was all it took for the fear to grip them all to scream some more.
Arachnid and deathstalker grimm flooded the basement and the doors sealed shut and a two ton forklift placed over the metal hatch to prevent exit or entry. "I hate my job" he said pulling out a cigarette and took a large drag from it and turned to leave when he saw lilac in front of him and choked on his nicotine cloud at her sudden appearance.
She glared at him with a dagger in hand and grumbled "I hate my job too" and threw the blade into a baseball size deathstalker pinning it to the wall and swiped his gun, unloading two rounds into the bug she killed it and put the gun back and took his cigarette.
"Baron won't like that your not asleep miss" he said lightning another cigarette and waited for her to complain but she just nodded and pat his shoulder walking off.
"I'm sure he'll have an exception for me" she quipped and went back to her room and opted for a shower before bed. Her arm was on fire for tossing that blade so hard and after shooting that gun her hand felt like it was one big bruise. "Could be worse I guess" she mused turning on the cold water and started washing up in the make shift shower.
The nurse in lilac's room sat in a recliner sleeping peaceful when she heard "miss nurse, I need help" she chortled awake and wobbled into the bathroom with a robe to give lilac but she was already in one...and sitting infront of a shard of a mirror having difficulties brushing her hair.
She stared at lilac till she furrowed her brows and said "it's embarrassing okay, just come please comb my hair I'm right handed so I'm practically useless"
O-of course, I apologize if I was neglecting you I had been up for days taking care of so many people"
Humming at that lilac smiled and sighed "im not going to bite your head off miss, I just need help brushing my hair nothing more, honest."
She took her brush and tufts of her hair and went to work brushing out bit by bit getting all the knots out and while she did so lilac looked her reflection over and noticed she looked skinny and malnourished.
"I'm sorry, I've been working on trusting people with just a days worth of attention" she replied snidely.
The woman smiled and ignored her as she brushed lilacs ears and then moved to her twin tails.
"I'm a nurse as well as a therapist ma'am, I take everyone's stress as it comes and just ignore the barbous remark here and there because I know its nothing personal...plus my semblance deals in relaxation and comfort so it wasn't a problem to help you" she picked up a blanket and set it next to lilac smiling before leaving.
'But, I never thanked her for helping me" she watched her walk out the doors and said "is she an empath?"
Lilac hummed at the knowing she'd not get an answer so she went to slepp...or she tried to if not for the crying herself to sleep part and regretting her choices previously in her life ranging from her husband divorcing her, losing her son and thinking she'd gotten him killed.
She cried for hours before finally falling asleep but not before hearing whispering from outside her 'room'.
"Sir she's not going, I can't ask for a week" she questioned. 'That woman is not strong. I felt it and you can't say it's wiser to kill her-"
She was interrupted by a hard slap to the face and a burly and deep man growled "and you sorely underestimate a mother motivated to find her missing son, hell a son hoping he'll see his mother; pack her up in the morning and leave her in my private ship am. I. Clear." He asked less and threatened more or less.
"Y-yes sir, I'll have her prepped in the morning" she said walking into lilac's temporary room and left a note for her with an alarm clock set for 0630.
"Don't be late" she said walking out and closed the door quietly.
Over the next ten years, lilac had worked with baron and his community of what she found to be were a rag-tag group of thieves and brutalizers that walked the razors edge between desperate and bandit behavior.
She was beyond angry with how little baron regarded life beyond resource and usefulness and it came to a head when one of his men was warned by baron himself that his second-in-command was to be left alone, little did they know that when one of the men tried coercing her with drinks. When he got too close she punched him so hard he spun around and fell on his face.
Her first solo mission was to monitor a man cloaked in a familiar brown cloak and had an erratic semblance described as agonizing if affected by it.
"Target just entered- no exited the building with two kids...they're bloody and crying" she watched on as the man checked the kids and handed them off to the police to enter back in the rundown apartment looking either frantic or angry but all she did see was his lightning crystal injected into his arm then smashed through a window.
"Sir, this man is currently throwing dust around and...threw a man out the wall- YES, I SAW IT HE LITERALLY THREW THE FATHER THROUGH THE WALL!" she yelled running from the area hearing the explosion.
"Lilac, I need you to infiltrate beacon to dig up more about this boy; he's too well protected to get to so I'm not going to ask you twice" baron threated.
He was not a angel of remnant but he felt that he'd given more than enough time to no longer keep it balanced he needed the man known as the beast of beacon. "Remember why your my second-in-command, why your the best and why your working under me"
She groaned and said "I'll need a few things and my own aircraft; stealth and speed is a must" she hung up and felt sick having to spy on a student but honestly baron and his group was better than the white fang...even if her son was a member now she just had to move on and hopefully it worked itself out...both lives were converging and she neither ignored nor fought it at this point.
She was like a wolf in a pack but not integrated into it just living and working with them, but as they say: "to each, their own path they must walk alone till happiness is reached"
After her mission she looked back and saw the police airship land so out of curiosity she decided to double back and see how the man did.
His hood was down and tears from her face like it was a broken spigot, it was like watching a convict who was innocent but found guilty and arrested. "Looks like even students can fall from grace" she huffed running back to the camp baron's people lived in.
Roman's warehouse*
Strolling on the roof of a warehouse of a friend she smirked watching cinder walk away and Roman himself turned away so she decided to drop in. She landed on the table relatively quietly and smiled deviously,
"did she like your little gift?" She asked from behind him.
As soon as he heard the question he whipped around pointing his cane at the person and stopped dead in his tracks "the hell are you doing here." he threw his arms out wide and slumped "I thought you were at beacon?"
She giggled with a bowl of his stew in her hand and pushed the weapon away from her face "I told you before, I don't need to be there to get him out of that place; this is delicious by the way" Roman sighed realizing she wasn't a threat and sat down rubbing his face before turning to his food to think about his side plan in case the shit hit the fan.
"look kit, I have a plan you helped cook up, a girl I have to take care of, a house to prepare and a boss to ditch so I'm in no mood for this right now"
the woman chuckled and walked out flaunting her tails walking out the back door wearing a pair of boots, black and white pants and a brown shirt with a pair of pistol hatchets on her waist with four clips to each hatchet.
"By the way, im lilac not kit, those white fang days are in my past" she said quietly but realized he'd gotten distracted.
Since distraction after distraction came up to keep up appearances lilac got fairly impatient and looked into other sources looking for her target and the path led to a huge load of dead ends that somehow linked together with a pair of odd white haired individuals who were dubbed the twin white wolves ciri and geralt by the white fang due to their temporary appearances throughout mistral and vale, weiss schnee was always with a red clad girl supporting her target but the other students around and closest to him berated and bullied him but of course academy staff couldn't do everything and worst of all cole was getting more volatile each passing day.
Months ticked by fast and since summer was around the corner she decided to take a extra mission to an arena control room and froze at who she'd spotted training. "Baron, he's in the 13th arena I'm filming as we speak"
"Good work lilac, afterwards upload it to the CCT and play the hardlight projectors and don't forget to evacuate after" he responded as he hung up.
"Wish he'd say bye like a nor- right...he's not normal" she mused recording his latter half of his session when the fire started.
The more he fought and talked she slowly realized who he really was and her blood ran cold. Still though she had to get out and irony aside she couldn't help but laugh.
Satisfied with the outcome, (more pride that satisfied) lilac chuckled and began the upload just before leaving the room to regroup with the others. "sir, the package was successfully delivered; show's bout to start so don't be late" she sent the message and quickly ran out using the rooftops to escape faster.
"I just hope he can handle the power. out of all the subjects he just might survive this"she thought as her form disappeared after she ran towards the mountains. Her only fear was that he'd unintentionally kill someone or at the very least send them to the infirmary.
As impressive as cole was he still had his terrifying moments. "just hope he doesn't take this too badly" she said before disappearing in the courtyard full of people. Although she'd helped cole with attaining power she still felt wrong deep down doing it with drugs and dust he probably couldn't handle.
For the better part of a week or so she had a ton of difficulties tracking cole through the woods after he fled from the city and from there she had lost him completely until she spotted a severed left arm expelling quagulated and bacteria infected blood -she watched a few chunks splat to the ground like thick red scrambled eggs, smelling and seeing the arm made her shiver as she spotted Adam walking away holding a few baskets full of roots and plants that were by her knowledge all edible but the happiness she felt seeing him turned to sadness when he glared at her way and turned away strolling away back to wherever he'd come from.
"Not even you want me around- no, it's not right feeling like this" she said calling baron "I lost him sir, tell Roman and his people to be on stand by for now.
"Good work lilac, report to-"
"Why are you obsessed with this boy sir, you obviously don't really care about him beyond his potential to your group of degenerates"
"Its not your place to know any of my intentions lilac!" Baron barked outbreaks a glass on his end.
"Just asking, I've been tracking and gathering information on him from his admittance to beacon till now and his past is a fog to everyone around him; unseen roads are more treacherous than a lit one" she quipped and hung up.
"Two sons overlapping paths and I missed both growing like weeds" a voice spoke behind her and whipping around lilac pulled her hatchets out and teleported behind her intrusive guest threatening to rip her head off.
"I'm sorry for the scare, I actually need your help" she said feigning innocence.
"I don't believe you" lilac replied with practiced malice.
I won't lie, I'm drained from editing and writing this one and if you figured it out who lilac actually is I'm not surprised but if you haven't already I hope you love the reveal.
For those upset I killed Blake, ozpin and a few other Characters in my story let me know why it upset you, otherwise I won't know about it.
I have been feeling a bit uncomfortable sleeping in general and it's worse now that I'm probably going to need a ton of more editing done to my entire story AGAIN, but not until I feel motivated enough for it and because I've been losing readers it's made it hard to care about editing since no one says anything or just gets bored of this story in general so I'll keep writing cause it's all I have left for hobbies...but I'll end this with: love ya'll, enjoy my story and comment your opinions cause otherwise I won't know what mistakes I made, also I'm part of an RP where I de-aged cole and takes place in a different timeliness where cole ends up on a team by force cause who needs lone wolf hunters.