RWBY: Destiny of Remnant

by UGX7

In the wake of the fall Team RNJR sets out to bring Cinder Fall to justice while the new Fall Maiden overlooks her master's plan in Haven City. Meanwhile Weiss tries to help a friend, Yang struggles with the loss of her arm, and Blake deals with guilt over the White Fang. Meanwhile someone from Cinder's past returns and Salem's newest pawn rises. Arkos, WhiteRose, SunnyBees, Renora

34. The Elite Guard

RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth and created by the late Monty Oum.

Read, review, and tell me how I can improve, what you liked and what you didn't. Your feedback is appreciated, thank you! Thanks to all the reviewers, I appreciate all your kind words and thoughts. Seriously, you guys keep me going so share your thoughts. Please try to spread the word about this story so it gets more attention.

RWBY: Destiny of Remnant

Chapter 34: The Elite Guard

Blake quickly reached behind her and grabbed whoever had snuck up on her and flipped him over, slamming him to the ground to reveal it was the Coyote Faunus Qrow had spotted on the roof earlier. A good many people around the front of the store all snapped to watch the scene, wondering what had just happened.

"Ow!" the Coyote moaned as Blake grabbed him and hoisted him up.

"Word of advice; don't try to sneak up on me in the middle of the day and without backup." Blake snarled.

"Blake! What is going on?!" cried Weiss as the rest of Team RWBY and Velvet ran over to Blake.

"What happened?" Ruby asked.

"This guy snuck up on me and told me that 'we' have Sun's family and that if I want to keep them safe I have to give myself up to Adam." Blake elaborated, making Ruby and Velvet gasp.

"I'll get the others." Weiss said seriously before she ran off into the market place while Yang grabbed the Faunus from Blake and slammed him into the wall.

"Okay bud, spill it! What's going on?!" Yang demanded while Coco finished paying for their clothes.

"Hang on to these for me, okay? I'll be back after we deal with this. Call the cops." she said to the cashier, who was a little shocked by the incident but nodded and reached for the phone.

"I said spill it!" Yang ordered loudly as she slammed the Faunus into the wall again.

"Okay! Adam Taurus and some White Fang soldiers have made it into the city and they have the Wukong family hostage. If Belladonna, or maybe all of you, give up and surrender to him he'll let them go." the Faunus explained.

"That bastard." Yang muttered before she slammed the Faunus to the ground.

"Hey! I'm just a lookout and messenger, okay?! If you didn't want to get them involved you shouldn't have come around White Fang turf." he said.

"This isn't your turf, I don't know if you've noticed but a majority of Vacuo's Faunus population are done with the White Fang." Coco stated.

"That's what you think..." the Faunus muttered.

"Where are they?" Blake inquired.

"At the Wukong's home. As I said, give yourselves up and no harm will come to them."

"Like this Adam jerk-wad would keep his word." Ruby growled as Weiss came rushing back with Qrow, Winter, Penny, Sun, and the others behind her.

Sun grabbed the Coyote Faunus from off the ground and slammed him back into the wall.

"Again with the wall! What is it with you people?!" the Faunus asked before Sun slammed his fist into his face.

"They have my family! What did you do?!" Sun demanded.

"Like I said, I'm just a lookout, one of many, we watch for potential recruits or trouble makers. Adam has been having us all keep a look out for Belladonna or anyone connected to her. Sorry blondie but your family is now connected to her." the Faunus said, which made Sun growl furiously.

He was about to punch him again but Qrow caught his fist.

"I recognize this punk, I saw him on the roof of the house across from yours. You followed us?" Qrow asked him.

"I was ordered to, to tell you about this so Adam wouldn't have to wait. The cops are probably at the house right now." the Faunus said. Blake and Velvet listened and indeed they could just barely hear the sounds of police sirens in the distance.

"You're gonna pay for endangering my mom and sister." Sun snarled.

"Blame Belladonna for that." The Coyote spat.

In response Sun slammed his fist into the lookout's face hard enough to knock him out. Sun let the Faunus drop to the ground unconscious, breathing hard and furiously. Neptune placed a hand on his partner's shoulder and said "We'll save them, I promise."

Qrow and Winter looked at each other. "If Taurus is here now we have an opportunity to end this early."

"Hell yeah we do." Qrow agreed as a duo of police officers arrived. "Take this punk in, we got a hostage situation to deal with."

"Wait, what?" one of the cops asked.

"But we need to..." the other began before they all ran off.

"No time now, gotta save the day!" Ruby said as Team Beacon ran off.

As they ran out of the marketplace Blake managed to get alongside Sun and say "Sun, I am so, so, so sorry! This is all my fault."

"No, we talk about this later. Right now the only thing that matters is getting my mom and sister out of there." he said, his voice filled with an unusual seriousness that she had never heard before. His voice lacked any of the good natured cockiness she was used to from him, she could tell he didn't care whose fault it was, right now he was just dead set on saving his family.

Deep down Blake was afraid he would hate her for this and if anything were to happen to Gina and Haulan...

She didn't want to think about it.

"Well Branwen, this mission might not take so long after all, there is a positive to this." Winter said.

"A woman and a child are being held hostage because of our presence here, how is that a positive?" Qrow asked.

"If we can defeat Taurus here today we can end this mission early and force him to release Claudandus." Winter elaborated.

"It's never that easy." Qrow said, a plan to deal with this mess already forming in his head.

---

Adam looked out the window to see several of White Fang troops and Grimm Knights standing their ground while a group of nearly three dozen police officers with several police cars stood scattered about the street with guns out, he could tell they were totally unsure of what to do in a hostage situation, which was good since that made this all the easier to pull off. They had told the cops that they had hostages, which made these local cops, who had obviously rarely, if ever, dealt with a situation like this, hold off on doing anything until they got a better grasp on the ordeal, which would take a long time.

Adam knew Blake and her friends would be here soon, as a few minutes ago Wilder had reported in and was told to tell Blake of the situation at hand and what she needed to do for the outcome not to get bloody. Adam knew Wilder was probably out cold by now, no doubt beaten into submission by Wukong or Xiao Long, maybe even both, but it was obvious that Team Beacon was on its way. He just hoped that Razor and his Elite Guard got here, because once their numbers were increased by those warriors it would be obvious to Blake that she had no choice but to surrender.

He looked back to the living room where Wukong's mother and sister sat on the floor surrounded by White Fang guards and a couple of Grimm Knights.

Gina had tear stains on her face as she was obviously terrified for her daughter's life and her own as she held her youngest child close to her body. It was fairly obvious by now that the dark past Blake had included being involved with the White Fang, but Gina couldn't really be mad at the girl for that since she obviously left their foolish cause she didn't really know how to feel towards the girl due to the fact that her current and primary focus was keeping her daughter safe. Haulan, while nervous and afraid of what these people would do to her, tried to hide it and put on a brave and defiant face.

"So where'd you get the robots from? They look pretty cool." she said. Adam and the others ignored her at first before she called "Hey masked man! I'm talkin' to you! You break into my house, hurt my mom, want to do something creepy with my brother's girlfriend, so the least you can do is answer one little stinkin' question!"

"Haulan, be quiet!" Gina scolded nervously as Adam turned to face the.

He smiled and said "We got them from a... benefactor. Your brother and his friends went up against similar robots in Haven but these come from Vacuo, they're made of a different metal and are a little harder to destroy. They won't be easy to beat. I must say, you're awfully brave for one so young. You remind me of myself when I was your age. But unlike you I knew the full extent of mankind's cruelty. You obviously do not."

"Yeah, I've been picked on because of my tail, so what? You can't take a joke?" Haulan asked before Gina placed a hand over her mouth.

"Haulan, please! Don't upset him! I don't want you to get hurt!" her mother begged.

"No, let her speak. I won't hurt her... unless your son and Blake force me to." Adam said. Gina, too afraid to refuse, took her hand off of Haulan's mouth. "You know, I had a sister. She wasn't like you, she was shy, afraid of nearly everything, so I had to be the brave one, I had to stand up for her and others. The humans didn't like that, not one bit. I don't have a family anymore, do you know why?"

Haulan, eyes now betraying her nervousness, muttered "I... I don't want to talk to you anymore..."

Adam grabbed her face, pulled her close to him and said "Humans killed my family, including my little sister, and marked my head, that is why I wear this mask. Do you have anything else to say?"

"Yeah; my brother is going to kick your ass." she hissed.

"Haulan!" Gina scolded.

Adam smirked and shoved the young girl into her mother. "I doubt that very much. I take it you've met Blake's partner Yang, well by now you've noticed her robotic arm and that was my doing, so if your brother fights me I will do the same to him with little effort." he said.

"Sir, they're coming!" said a female White Fang operative.

"Excellent. Make sure they don't try anything." Adam said to the guards, who nodded and kept their guns aimed at the mother and daughter.

---

Team Beacon, with Sun, Blake, and Qrow in the lead, arrived at the neighborhood the Wukong family resided in only to find it surrounded by police officers and closer to the house were White Fang troops with a few Grimm Knights added to the mix.

"Oh great, its those tin cans again." Yang muttered before quickly adding "No offense Penny."

"None taken, besides we can take them out easily." Penny said.

"Doubtful, if we rush into this Mrs. Wukong and the girl could be seriously hurt." Winter remarked before she approached the officer in charge, a human who appeared to be in his fifties with graying hair. "Officer, I am Winter Schnee, a specialist of the Atlas military."

He shook her hand and said "I'm Chief Banner, I'm glad we have a military specialist here because he could use some help with this, we're are really out of our league Specialist Schnee. These White Fang punks have at least two hostages in there and they refuse to give any demands for ransom or anything."

"We know what he wants; me." Blake said as she stepped forward. She looked towards the house and at the guards, none of them did anything more than briefly look at her, their expressions hidden by their masks.

"Have the hostages been hurt? That's my mom and sister in there!" Sun said.

"We don't know, but we assume their unharmed for now." Banner said, which didn't make Sun feel any better.

"Hey, the door is opening up!" cried a cop. Everyone looked to the front door as it opened to reveal Adam, standing proud and arrogant. He looked to Blake and the rest of Team Beacon and allowed himself a small smirk.

"Hello, my love." he said to Blake.

"Don't call me that, you lost that right when you joined forces with Cinder." Blake hissed.

"You bastard." Sun growled, "Trust me Taurus, no amount of doctors, aura, or science will be able to fix what I will do to you if you've hurt my mother or sister!"

"Don't worry Wukong, they're unharmed for now. Blake, come up here." Adam ordered.

"No way, she's not going with you alone!" Ruby objected furiously.

"Very well then, who will come with her? How about you, Xiao Long? Up for another severed arm?" Adam taunted dryly.

"Keep cracking jokes, dick weed, it'll make all the sweeter when I slam my robo-arm into your face." Yang snarled.

"Save it." Winter said to the blonde before giving her attention to Adam. "Mr. Wukong will go in with her, he needs to be assured that his family is safe."

"Very well. Surrender your weapons, all of you. Throw them out of reach. Now since Xiao Long and the robot's weapons are technically part of their bodies and therefore can't simply toss them aside my guards and the Grimm Knights keep their aim on anyone who's unlucky enough to be in the way so if they try anything 'innocent' people will die because of them." Adam said. The guards all nodded and made sure to keep their aim on the police officers or at the members of Team Beacon themselves.

"Unacceptable, we need to protect ourselves as well as others." Winter denied but Qrow stepped forward.

"No, drop your weapons kids." Qrow ordered as he noticed one of the police cars towards the back was parked over a manhole cover.

"Are you sure Uncle Qrow?" Ruby asked.

"Listen to him, unless you want guns to start firing." Adam called.

Ruby glared at him but threw Crescent Rose down to the ground about ten feet away from her. Weiss reluctantly nodded and did the same with her rapier, followed by Neptune, Scarlet, Coco, Velvet, Yatsuhashi, Winter, Blake, Sun, and Qrow all doing the same. Yang took off her left gauntlet, while never taking her glaring eyes that had changed from lilac to red off of Adam's form. Penny, for her part, remained still and careful to make sure her weapons wouldn't activate by instinct, should it cause someone to get hurt.

"Come on in." Adam beckoned as Blake and Sun walked up to the house and stepped inside, the door closing behind them.

"Qrow, I hope you have a plan to salvage this." Winter whispered.

"Trust me." he whispered before he walked over to the car and sat down behind it, out of the White Fang's field of vision. "I got an idea." he added before he beckoned Penny to come over to him. He whispered something to her and when she nodded he rolled underneath the car.

Winter sighed before looking to Ruby and Yang and asked "I'm never going to get used to him, am I?"

"Probably not." Ruby answered.

"Oh no." Yang admitted with a little smirk.

Winter shook her head before she looked to Penny, "What did he say to you?"

"Mr. Branwen said to jump in when the fighting starts." Penny answered quietly.

Winter moaned, knowing Qrow was probably going to pull something dangerous and stupid. She got on her knees to look under the car. "Qrow what are you...? What in the name of...?!"

Qrow had vanished. Had they paid close attention a few seconds ago they would have noticed a crow hopping out from under the police car and taking flight.

---

Blake and Sun followed Adam into the house, escorted by several guards who all had their guns carefully aimed at them.

He stopped and turned to face them, "What happened to your ear?" he asked Blake, pointing to the small portion of her ear that was missing.

"Cinder cut it off during the Battle of Haven." Blake answered.

"She didn't tell me about that, but then again she has been rather reclusive for the last five months. Now second of all I want to know where Nikos and Arc are, Salem knows they are alive so it is a safe bet she would like them back." Adam stated.

"They're back at Vale, Beacon to be specific. Good luck capturing them there while they're surrounded by nearly two hundred Hunters." Blake answered.

"Oh well, I suppose Cinder and her followers will just have to get them later." Adam said as they arrived in the living room.

Sun's heart skipped a beat at the sight of his mother and sister sitting in the center of the living room floor with guns pointed at them, with Hui the White Fang Lieutenant standing firmly over them.

"Sun!" Gina cried.

"M-mom... oh gods..." Sun stuttered out.

Blake felt terrible, she couldn't help but blame herself for this entire ordeal, but the pain in Sun's voice was making it worse. "Alright Adam you have me, now let them go." she demanded.

"Not just yet, I think of them as leverage for the time being, assurance that you won't try anything. I know you very well, my love, and I know you're capable of more than a few tricks without your weapon so until our extraction arrives we keep them as hostages." Adam said.

"You won't get away with it Adam, my friends out there will stop you." Blake stated.

"I doubt that." Adam voiced as he glanced to the mother and daughter, looking at Sun. "Do they know, Blake? Do they know about your past? That you are one of us?"

Gina and Haulan looked shocked, while Gina had suspected it after Adam arrived she didn't want it to be true.

Blake sighed and answered "No, I was going to tell Gina but she gave me time to be comfortable, so she didn't know. And I am not one of you, not anymore. A year ago last month I left you for good Adam. I thought leaving you and the Fang behind would make you understand that I couldn't follow you down the path you were treading but... but now I know I only made things worse. You were becoming a bad person, but when you helped Cinder attack Beacon, cut off Yang's arm, and tried to kill me it was clear to me that you've become nothing but a monster."

"You call me a monster, even though you know what humanity did to my family? To me?" he asked as he lazily traced a hand over his mask. "No, they're the monsters and you are the freak for joining them."

"Keep talking horn head, I'll take your sword, cut off those horns, and shove 'em up your ass!" Sun yelled furiously.

"Cute." Adam muttered as he tightened his grip on his sword.

"Adam, please, prove to me that the man I once loved is still in there, prove to me that you have respect for what the White Fang are supposed to be; let them go and sever your ties with Salem." Blake pleaded.

"I won't do that, even if I wanted to I couldn't. Surrender yourself to me Blake and I might just let your little silver eyed leader and the rest of your friends go unharmed for the time being." Adam demanded.

"No. I will never be yours and I know you won't keep your word. You didn't before." she said angrily.

Adam smiled and said "You think you're so damn clever, don't you? Wrong!"

In the blink of an eye he unsheathed his sword and grabbed Haulan by the hair to yanked her up and place his sword under her neck.

Haulan let out a scream of fear as Gina cried "NO! No please! Take me just don't hurt my baby!" She tried to get up but several White Fang guards kept her pinned down.

"Get your damn hands off of my little sister!" Sun screamed, but before he could do anything a Grimm Knight grabbed him to hold him back.

"Adam don't!" shouted Blake as Hui grabbed her to hold her still.

"Your choice my love, be mine again or I slit open this little brat's throat!" Adam roared.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean for any of this to happen! I never wanted any of you to get hurt becasue of my past!" Blake cried to Sun and his family. "I'll come with you just let her go! She has nothing to do with this!" Blake yelled.

"Yes she does, when you left me for him you involved her in it. I lost a sister once, it's only fair he should lose... AH!" Adam yelled in pain as he dropped both Haulan and his sword. Blake could see that Haulan had somehow stabbed Adam in the ribs... with a thumb tack.

Just then, seemingly out of nowhere, Qrow crashed through the widows and collided into a White Fang guard, his feet slamming into the thug's head and knocking him out.

The Grimm Knights began blasting at Qrow, so Sun used this distraction to create four clones via his Semblance. Two of the clones crashed into the Grimm Knights, blowing up and knocking them off balance and while the third one collided into the White Fang guards who were holding his mother, and one more into Hui, which freed Blake from his grasp. Sun jumped forward and slammed his fist right into Adam's jaw, and Haulan quickly yelled at Adam "Told ya!"

"Where did you come from?" Blake asked Qrow as he grabbed a wooden chair and threw it at a Grimm Knight. He quickly grabbed the gun of one of the out cold guard's and blasted one of the Grimm Knights down while the other avoided the blasts.

"From the sky." Qrow answered snarkily with a wry smile.

Sun quickly grabbed his sister and mother's hands and began to pull them to safety.

"You always do steal the dumbest things. I mean a thumb tack, really?" Sun asked his little sister with a small grin.

"I swiped one from Mrs. Fa's board, I needed it to put up a poster." Haulan justified.

"Oh Sun, thank goodness..." Gina began before the second Grimm Knight jumped in front of them, guns out and ready to fire.

"No!" cried Blake.

"Kill them!" ordered Adam.

Just then Penny came crashing through the front window and slammed two of her swords into the Grimm Knight's torso. She used the powerful strings to pull it over to her as her arm transformed into gun mode and she blasted the Knight's head multiple times at point blank range until it exploded.

Gina's mouth was agape while Haulan managed to find her voice and say "She is so cool!"

"Thank you." Penny said perkily before she grabbed a White Fang trooper and threw him out the shattered window and into the fist of Yang.

"Is everyone alright?" Yang asked as she climbed through the window. It turns out that Qrow had told Penny that he would sneak away and once the fighting would start she would lead the others into action to take down the White Fang. Penny told Ruby and they passed it from there and once the fighting began Penny and Yang led the charge with Penny using her swords to disarm the White Fang guards while Yang kept the Grimm Knights distracted long enough for everyone to reclaim their weapons.

"Yes, oh thank Oum!" Gina said as she hugged her children to her, kissing their foreheads.

"Mom!" They both whined.

Adam tried to get up only to be stopped by Qrow.

"You're not going anywhere." he said. Then Hui grabbed Qrow by the neck and threw him across the room, into the wall.

"We must retreat sir!" Hui yelled as the last two White Fang troops supplied cover fire.

Adam took one last look at Blake and said "Agreed."

They jumped out the window where their three getaway cars were waiting only to discover that Qrow had knocked out the drivers.

"Damn it! We'll do just drive ourselves." Adam barked as he climbed into the car.

Ruby ran past the Wukong family once she was sure the were unhurt and made it to the window in time to see one of the cars pulling out. "They're getting away!" she cried.

"We can't let them get away, if we catch Taurus now we can end the threat of the White Fang much sooner than expected!" Winter declared as Qrow got up.

"Mom, we're going after them." Sun as he escaped from her grasp while Banner and a group of police rushed in through the front door.

"Sun, wait!" Gina called.

"Go get 'em!" encouraged Haulan as Coco

Blake gave Gina an apologetic look before following Ruby, Qrow, Winter, Sun, and Yang out of the window with Weiss and the others close behind.

"We can't all fit into one car, Qrow you take the first while I take the second." Winter ordered.

"You got it." Qrow agreed with a nod as he quickly got in the driver's seat of the first car and started it up. Team RWBY and Sun quickly piled into the car with him and they sped off after Adam, joined by a couple police cars. Winter took control of the second car while Penny, Neptune, Scarlet, and the present members of CFVY got in with her, but it was a rather tight fit, with Neptune on the left, Velvet in the center, Scarlet on the right, and Penny sitting on the floor, so Yatsuhashi climbed onto the roof of the car and hung on tight as Winter drove off to join the chase.

---

Adam sat in the front passenger while one of the two soldiers drove the car with Hui and the other trooper in the back. They had managed to get away from the suburbs quickly and easily and were now on the main road out of town but it wouldn't be easy getting away, he knew that much. Adam took out his scroll and called up the Elite Guard's ship, they should have been here by now.

Jinty answered but before he could get out a single word Adam shouted "Where are you?!"

"We're coming up into the town now, from the north." Jinty reported. Adam looked out the window and indeed he could see the shape of the Elite Guard's ship in the distance. "What's goin' on?" Jinty asked.

"The situation is no longer in our control, we're currently in a car heading for the bridge over the highway." Adam said. "Contact our pilot and tell her that she needs to pull out and return to base."

"Okay, will do. Help is on the way sir, Razor and the others will be heading your way with drop ships, just don't get caught." Jinty said before he ended the transmission.

Adam sighed, that damn Huntsman had come out of nowhere, had somehow taken out three armed White Fang soldiers without anyone hearing or noticing, and had ambushed them expertly. He knew he should have brought more troops but now was no time to reflect on the past, now was time to focus on getting away.

"Sir, we got company." Hui said from the back. Adam looked in the rear view mirror to see the two other cars they had hijacked as well as several police cars were speeding after them in pursuit.

"They just don't quit." Adam muttered before telling the other soldier "Shoot them, keep them back."

The soldier nodded and shot out the back window and began to open fire on their pursuers , he managed to hit the front tires of one of the police cars, causing them to spin out of control and veer wildly off the road where they came to a stop.

"They're shooting at us!" Velvet cried.

"Then let's shoot back!" Neptune declared. He looked at Scarlet and the redhead nodded. "Hold on to us Penny!" Neptune ordered. The robot girl nodded as both boys jolted up and opened the doors and with Penny hanging on to them with a mighty grip they were in no danger of falling out of the car and onto the rapidly going by road as they began to shoot at the White Fang.

"What are you...?! Oh forget it, Penny don't let go of them!" Winter ordered.

"Yes Ma'am!" Penny called.

Neptune and Scarlet kept firing at the escaping White Fang members and in the first car Yang said "Not a bad idea, wanna help 'em out Blake?"

Blake nodded and rolled down the window while Yang crawled over Weiss to stick her robotic arm out of the right side of the car and began shooting at their foes.

Hui, now armed with the driver's gun, began to help the solider return fire but it was hard to do that when the car was swerving wildly to the right and left of the nearly empty road to avoid being hit. Hui fired off three shots in rapid succession, managing to hit the second police car in the radiator and twice in the windshield, managing to blast the driver in the chest. The other cop in the car managed to get the driver unbuckled from his seat belt and out of the car before it went careening off of the road and crashed into a ditch.

"We're down another car!" Coco exclaimed.

"Then we better take out those gunner quick!" Neptune replied as he began to shoot faster as the approached the bridge.

"We got another car off our backs." Hui told Adam, before one of Scarlet's Dust bullets from his flintlock slammed into his shoulder and forced him to cry out in pain, and to make matters worse a stray shot from Neptune managed to land on his chest.

The soldier looked to Hui but before he could do anything a blast from Yang's gauntlet slammed into his side and knocked him out, his body collided with the back of the driver's seat which made the driver nearly lose control of the car.

"We need to take out the car. Yang, use the rocket!" Qrow ordered.

"What?!" Weiss, Blake, and Sun all cried in confusion.

"You sure about that Uncle Qrow?" Yang asked.

"Oh yeah, do it!" Qrow cried.

"Oh heck yeah! I finally get to see this in action!" Ruby cheered.

"What is going on?!" Weiss demanded to know.

"This!" Yang said as she pressed a small hidden compartment on her robotic arm that revealed a button. She pressed it and another hidden compartment opened up to reveal a rocket. "Boom goes the Adam!" she yelled as she fired it with a complex motion of her hand, it shot off her arm and slammed into the back of the car, making the rear tires burst and sending the car flipping into the air and landing upside down.

"Whoa." was all anyone could say, except for Ruby.

"That. Was. Awesome!" she cried.

"Hell yeah it was!" Yang agreed before she kissed her robotic arm while Qrow stopped the car.

"Time to take this punk down." Qrow said as Ruby handed Reaper to him, "Thank you." he said to her as they got out.

"Yang, where did you get that rocket from?" Weiss queried.

"Dr. Kimball installed it when he fixed it up, figured I'd need it and boy was he right. I've been dying to try it out and Mr. Crazy Redhead over there gave me the best opportunity ever." Yang explained.

"Hardcore." Sun muttered in admiration.

"Ohugh..." moaned Adam as he, Huo, and the driver crawled out of the wreck of the car. He glared up at Blake, her team, Qrow, and Sun while Winter and the last police car stopped a few meters away. Winter and the others got out of their car, after Winter told Penny that she no longer had to hold onto Neptune and Scarlet, of course. Adam tightened his grip on his sword as the driver grabbed the gun of the other soldier and tried to shoot but Ruby used her speed to jump up and slam her foot into his face, knocking him out. "No." Adam muttered as he shot up and unsheathed his sword, Wilt. "I will not go without a fight!"

"Take a look around kid, no way you're getting out of this." Qrow stated.

Just then Blake and Velvet's ears perked up. "We've got company!" Blake announced as she turned to see two drop ships approaching them with a third, much larger airship keeping away in the distance. "The Elite Guard!"

"The what?" Neptune asked.

"Some of the White Fang's top fighters, I should have known you had a backup plan!" Blake shouted at Adam.

"I usually do." Adam said as he made his way to the edge of the bridge and jumped off into the highway below.

"After him!" cried Winter as the drop ships opened up to reveal a grand total of seventeen Faunus warriors, nine in each ship. Blake recognized some of them all too well, including Razor and Kane.

Qrow pointed at Yang, Blake, and Sun and shouted "You kids take take the car and go after Taurus, we'll hold these clowns off."

"You got it, come on!" Yang said as she dashed over to the car and got into the driver's seat.

"You can do this guys, we trust you!" Ruby encouraged.

"Kick his butt!" called Neptune as Blake and Sun both got into the car.

On the highway a man had stopped his car to watch what was transpiring on the bridge so this gave Adam the chance to make some distance between he and his enemies. He threw the man on the ground and drove off.

"Hold on." Yang said as she built up speed before racing off the bridge and landing on the road below with a hard crash but luckily she had built up enough speed to keep going.

Razor saw this and said "Kong, take your group and go after Adam, make sure he's unharmed."

The Gorilla Faunus, armed with gauntlets, nodded and said "You got it Razor. Let's move out!" He led four other Faunus; an elephant, a hyena, a ram, and a dog, to the back of the ship while Razor jumped down to the ground with Kane as well as a female Faunus with the tail of a Mandrill and a large woman with the thick skin of a Rhino. A young Mouse Faunus girl led the warriors from the second ship down to reveal these types of Faunus included a large man who had the white hair and black eyes of a Polar Bear, a wild looking teenager with the feet of a Spider Monkey, a man with a Skunk tail, a girl with the wings of a Flying Squirrel, a guy with the ears of a Giraffe, a teenage girl with the claws of a Tasmanian Devil, and a man with the horns of a Buffalo all jumped down, ready for battle.

"Well, well, what do we have here? Two members of the infamous Schnee family." Razor said darkly as he withdrew his sword.

"Stand down, whatever crimes any of you have committed are unimportant. Let us capture Adam Taurus and..." Winter began but she was interrupted by the sound of some kind of large custom made vehicle bursting out of the side of the drop ship. It went sailing into the air and landed on the road below them and sped off after Yang and the others.

"Okay, listen bud; we couldn't care less abut what you want but like Ice Queen over there said; piss off and let us take down that Adam brat." Qrow said as he transformed Reaper into scythe mode.

"I'm afraid we cannot allow you to do that. Even if I have had my differences with Taurus in the past he is still my leader and I will not allow you to take him." Razor said while Hui took out his sword.

Winter quickly counted their numbers; while the White Fang currently had thirteen they only had ten, twelve counting the police officers who were hesitantly waiting off to the side. She secretly began to power herself up with aura, it looked like this situation would call for one of her larger summons.

"If you want a fight we'd be happy to oblige." Coco said as she transformed her bag into minigun form while Yatsuhashi swung out his sword. The two sides stood apart from each other on opposite sides of the road, ready to strike at any moment.

"You're leader's a no-good scumbag! Ten minutes ago he was perfectly willing to murder a Faunus child!" Qrow snapped, making many members of the White Fang Elite Guard all look to Razor, who in turn looked to Hui.

"Lieutenant Hui, is this true?" Razor inquired.

"No, this human is a lying fool." Hui stated.

"No he is not!" Ruby cried.

"Tell me girl, did you witness our leader attempting to murder a Faunus child? Can any of you truly back up this Huntsman's claims? Did any of you truly witness this?"

There was a dreadful silence from the present members of Team Beacon, as none of them could truly claim that they had.

"As I thought. " Razor remarked.

"The ones who did went after your leader. Sorry but I'm kinda getting tired of justifying myself to a terrorist cell." Qrow barked.

"And I no longer wish to speak to one who fraternizes with slavers like the Schnee family!" Razor barked back, pointing to Winter and Weiss.

"I beg your pardon?! Our family hasn't done such a thing for years!" Weiss cried out furiously as she loaded up a Dust crystal in the hilt of her sword.

"You, young one, are most likely unaware of the most recent sins your father has committed." the Polar Bear Faunus stated.

Before Weiss could argue Winter stopped her by saying "Enough of this. If you wish to stand in our way then we have no choice but to fight you." Deep down Winter was wondering what these Faunus meant by their father's recent sins.

"Very well. Attack!" Razor shouted.

All of a sudden an odd, yet beautiful music began playing but all of the Elite Guard members seemed to know what it was. The present members of team Beacon realized it was coming from the radio/boombox like device the Mouse Faunus had.

"Um, what the...?" Neptune began to ask before he received a kick in the gut from the Spider Monkey Faunus.

"Well that settles that." Coco muttered as she opened fire.

Ruby, however, was a little worried to fight living beings after the... incident at Haven. Over the months she had been training with Penny, Yang, and her dad to have better control, but that didn't mean her anxieties would automatically go away.

She saw her Uncle Qrow and Razor trade blows with their respective blades when the Flying Fox Faunus known as Alessandro Kane jumped in front of her.

"Hi, I'm Ruby." she said as she transformed Crescent Rose into its full form.

"Uh... hi, Kane, fight?" he asked as he held up his rifle/bayonet hybrid.

"Sure." Ruby answered before she dodged a shot from his rifle and slammed the pole of her weapon into his legs. Hopefully no one would be hurt at the end of this.

---

Out on the highway Yang kept her foot on the gas pedal, pouring on the speed as they drove after Adam.

"Run all you want, you're not getting away from us." Yang said darkly.

Blake looked behind them to see a vehicle she knew belonged to the Elite Guard chasing after them. "We've got company." she announced.

"So there's probably no reasoning with these Elite Guard guys?" Sun guessed.

"No, Razor is bound by honor to be loyal to whoever commands the White Fang." Blake explained as she loaded up a purple Dust crystal into Gambol Shroud.

"Well ain't that just our luck?" Yang joked before saying "Sun, take the wheel!"

"Sure thing." Sun agreed as he scrambled over to the seat next to him while Yang moved into the back with Blake.

"How many?" she asked.

"Probably four or five, I can't tell from here. We need to shoot out Adam's tires, we can't let him get away." Blake stated.

"Understood, I'll..." Yang was cut off by the shaking of the car as it was hit by a Dust blast. The partners looked back to see the Dog Faunus had jumped out of the car and was using an acceleration Semblance not to dissimilar from Ruby's to catch up with them.

Sun saw this and got an idea, he slammed the brakes hard, making the Dog Faunus accidentally outrun them as Blake opened the door. Sun used Jingu Bang to shoot the Faunus a few times, making him trip and lose his balance, so Blake took advantage of this and used Gambol Shroud's kusarigama to take his enemy out of the fight. She whipped it hard to wrap it around the Faunus' waist and then slammed it back, lifting him up and throwing him into a sign that was between the highway lanes.

"Well that's one down!" Yang said as she aimed for Adam's tires and fired multiple times. She scored hits on both of Adam's back tires and as the car swerved violently about she took out his left front tire, crippling his getaway vehicle further.

Adam quickly got out of the car and took out his sword, ready for action.

Sun opened up the driver's door and created a few clones. "Take him down!" he ordered as they rushed forward.

"Sun, no! That's a bad idea!" Blake cried, but it was too late. The clones all crashed into Adam harmlessly as he used his Semblance to absorb their energy. He grimaced as he channeled their energy into his blade and jumped up into the air and slammed his sword down a few feet from the car, totally demolishing it. Yang, Blake, and Sun all jumped out just in time as the car flew over Adam and landed in a ruined heap behind him.

"Okay, not the best of ideas I've had." Sun admitted as he got up.

"Yeah, we should have warned you about his Semblance." Yang said bitterly, remembering what it did to her.

Adam growled furiously and said "If you thought you could defeat me like that then you are sorely mistaken."

"Well whatever your plan was it obviously failed big time." Yang said to him as he eyed began to turn red.

Blake looked over to see Kong, along with the Hyena and Ram Faunus running towards them and in the distance she could see the Elephant Faunus she recognized as Babara helping the Dog Faunus she had defeated into their vehicle.

"Commander Taurus, sir! Are you injured?" Kong called.

"Just attack them!" Adam shouted as he slashed at Blake, who easily dodged his attack.

"You got it!" said the Hyena Faunus took out a mace.

Kong activated his gauntlets and charged Yang who didn't back down. Her eyes shone red and her hair began to glow as she met him fist to fist, the impact of their gauntlets colliding created a small shockwave in midair that forced them both back.

Blake quickly used Gambol Shroud to shoot Adam in the shoulder to slow him down, then she used the Dust crystal in her sword's hilt to power up the blade. "Yang, get clear!" she called as Sun used his weapons' combined form to pole vault right into the Hyena Faunus while creating a clone to knock down the Ram.

Yang smirked and jumped out of the way, giving Blake a clear shot. She slammed her blade down and a purple energy arc was created, it zoomed over to Kong and exploded on impact, blowing him back. Yang grinned as she opened fire with every ounce of ammo her gauntlets had while Blake went back to fighting Adam.

She fired twice at him, he managed to dodge the first blow but the second landed on his shoulder before his aura could heal his previous wound. Adam ignored the pain and swung his sword out but she dodged the attack by leaning back, letting the blade move above her body. Blake dropped to the ground and rolled out of the way of another swing and jumped up to parry another strike.

The two pressed their blades against each other as Adam said "Did you learn nothing from our last encounter, my love?"

"Yes, I learned just how low you can go." Blake hissed as she struck again.

As the two traded blows Sun dealt with the other two. He swung his bo-staff back in forth expertly to dodge the attacks of the Hyena's mace and the Ram's horns. He smacked the mace back before quickly blocking the Ram's attempt to, well, ram him in the chest with his horns. Sun knocked the Ram down with a kick to the chest just in time to turn around and jab the Hyena in the face with his staff. Sun moved forward and took his staff apart and slammed his opponent five times with his nunchucks only for the Ram to grab him from behind and hold him.

"Gotcha!"

Sun managed to land a nunchuck on the Ram's horn and while it did hurt it wasn't enough to make the Rem let him go.

The Hyena got back up and grinned as he rushed forward, ready to slam his mace into Sun's exposed chest but Sun quickly used his Semblance to create another clone and it exploded on impact with the mace wielder. Sun grinned and wrestled himself free from the Ram's grip and began another round of fighting.

Blake parried another strike of Adam's sword but didn't move fast enough to block his fist that knocked her down on her back. Adam approached her, sword in hand as she loaded another Dust crystal into Gambol Shroud and used it in combination with her Semblance to create a flaming Blake clone that ran into Adam and exploded, covering his torso with fire. He cried out in pain before he tore off his robe to reveal his scarred, but muscular, body and quickly dropped to the ground and rolled to put out the flames. He got up only for Blake to slam the hilt of her sword onto his back, he grunted but endured the pain as he grabbed Blake by the hip and threw her to the ground.

He stood up and approached her as she took a shot at him with Gambol Shroud but his blade easily absorbed the energy of the blast and he used his Semblance to throw it back at her but she avoided it with a well timed jump.

The two former lovers glared at one another, her amber eyes staring at his red and white mask. Blake knew he might somehow know about their mission so decided to play dumb. "Where is Claudandus? I know you have him, tell me where you're keeping him." she demanded.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Adam said. He held his sword firmly and charged at her and Blake met him head on.

Yang panted, her gauntlets now out of ammo, a little tired as Kong tried to get up. "You can take your beatings, I'll give ya that." she complimented as she reloaded her gauntlets.

"I know, can you take yours?" he asked as he charged at her.

Yang stood her ground and smirked as he got closer and closer to her. She used her gauntlets to brace herself but he didn't go for her head like she thought he would, but her stomach. She was pressed backwards a few feet, feeling the pain of the attack from she from the mighty punch of the Gorilla Faunus.

Then she smirked. "My turn."

With the power of her Semblance her hair and eyes began to glow as she slammed Kong with a powerful uppercut before grabbing Kong by the hands and began to slam him into the pavement over and over again before tossing him up in the air, aided by a powerful punch, and added to it with a few blasts of her gauntlets as he began to come down. He landed on the ground, and though he tried he couldn't get up from a beating like that. He looked up to see Yang right in front of him with a smile on her lips.

"Nice try." she said as she finished him off with a shot from her robotic arm. "Okay so that's two down." she muttered to herself. She quickly surveyed the situation to see Blake holding her own against Adam, for now anyway. Blake parried once and evaded two strikes aimed at her chest before striking on her own twice and then ducking to avoid having her head cut off.

Blake seethed in anger at the sight of that but she rushed in she saw that Sun seemed to be having trouble dealing with the other two. Yang sighed and decided that Blake was holding her own so Sun needed more help.

Sun blasted the Ram with Ruyi Bang's gun but the Faunus didn't seem to be effected by it.

Just then Yang rushed past them, grabbing both White Fang members and flipping them on their backs.

"Thanks Yang!" Sun said as the two got up. The Ram Faunus pulled out a couple of pistols and aimed one at Yang and one at Sun. Yang aimed her gauntlets at the Ram and the Hyena while Sun did the same with Ruyi and Jingu Bang, which left the Hyena with only his mace, to which he muttered "Crap."

"Okay boys, we got you outgunned." Yang said as she kept aiming at them.

"So just drop your weapons and give up, unless you want to end up like your two friends." Sun added.

The two Faunus looked to each other.

"Wanna give up?" the Ram asked.

The Hyena smirked and said "I don't see why not."

The Ram dropped both of his guns while the Hyena seemed to be gently laying his on the ground... that's why Yang noticed there were buttons between the mace and the handle. The Hyena pushed one and one of the spikes shot out of the mace and stabbed Yang in the shoulder.

"AH!" she cried.

"Yang!" Sun shouted. The Hyena tried to do the same to Sun but he evaded the spikes and punched the Hyena in the face, pushed him towards Yang who took him down with a blast of Dust bullets and a metal fist to the face.

Sun grunted in pain as the Ram used his horns to score a gash across Sun's chest. The Monkey Faunus flipped over on his hands and kicked the Ram back before jumping back onto his feat and opening up a volley of attacks with Ruyi and Jingu Bang until Yang helped out by slamming her fists into the Ram's chest. She grabbed him and flipped him over, slamming him into the pavement and kicking him into the Hyena.

"And that makes four." she commented.

"Now let's finish this." Sun said.

Adam and Blake traded another series of blows that ended with Adam spinning around and gaining momentum to slam his blade into Blake's hard enough to make her lose her balance. She looked up at Adam, more specifically his mask...

She got an idea. She jumped up and went on the offensive, slashing at Adam with her sword four times before he swung at her only for the Cat Faunus to avoid it. She struck him twice more but she made a misstep and got too close to him, which allowed him to punch her in the face. He swung his blade hard but she quickly met it with a parry. The two surged against one another, neither giving in.

Blake took her chance and reached for his mask.

"No!" he screamed as he grappled with her and threw her to the ground. Adam brought his sword up, aiming to finish the duel, but then both Yang and Sun opened fire, slamming their Dust bullets into his back. Blake took advantage of this distraction as she jumped up and slashed Adam across the mask with Gambol Shroud, making him cry out in pain as he fell, the mask separated from his face.

"All right! Way to go Blake!" Yang cheered.

"Thanks." Blake said, giving her partner a tired smile as she got up.

The three looked at the downed Adam, who was not yet unconscious, just hiding his face from sight as he sat on his knees.

"You think you've won? Wrong, even if I fall the White Fang will go on. You'll never beat us." Adam said furiously as he glanced at them revealing blood red eyes while his hand covered his forehead but if one were to look closely they would notice some kind of mark or a hint of a scar.

"Think again." Yang said as she aimed her Gauntlet at him.

Just then they heard the roar of a large woman as the Elephant Faunus Babara, who they had forgotten about since she had stayed out of the fight, slammed a huge Dust loaded battle-ax down on the ground a few feet away from them, sending them flying off the road.

Babara quickly went to help Adam up, "Sir, thank goodness I got here in time, do you need medical attention?" she asked as he reclaimed his mask.

"Just some rest." Adam answered as he put his mask, now cut open to reveal his eyes, back on. He looked over to Blake, Yang, and Sun to glare at them, his scarlet eyes radiating hatred as he got up. Babara helped Adam to the vehicle while the newly awake Kong carried the Hyena and the Ram Faunus back as well. The trio of young Hunters wanted to do something but the vehicles guns were aimed at them in case they tried anything.

"Next time, my love." Adam said out loud, leaving the three to watch as the vehicle raced off down the highway, back to the bridge.

---

As the battle on the highway occurred, the battle between Team Beacon and the White Fang on the bridge raged on; Qrow dueled with Razor, their mighty blades slamming into each other over and over again, sending sparks flying while Ruby and Weiss battled Kane and the Mandrill Faunus. Velvet fought Piper, who had seemed to be treating this more as a game as she used her transforming musical weapon to dodge the Rabbit Faunus' attacks as Scarlet and Neptune fought the Giraffe and Spider Monkey Faunus off to the side. Winter and Yatsuhashi had teamed up to take on Hui and the three heavy hitters still present; the Buffalo, Polar Bear, and Rhino along with Hui so this left Coco and Penny to fight the Tasmanian Devil, Skunk, and Flying Squirrel.

Qrow slammed Reaper's scythe into Razor sword as he activated the chainsaw feature. "Chainsaw, not a bad idea." Qrow remarked as he parried a strike. He swung up his sword to the upper part of Kill-Master and slid it up, creating a small shower of sparks.

"Do not rip it off." Razor said dryly as he dodged a swing and plunged his sword at Qrow, only for the Huntsman to sidestep it. The two warriors swiftly slammed their respective blades against one another six times, the strikes were fast and deadly but neither landed a hit. Qrow struck twice more as he dashed behind the Warthog Faunus who quickly turned around to block another attack. Razor pressed forward, swinging his blade wildly to drive Qrow back.

Nevertheless Qrow met the attacks head on and blocked a few of them before he leaned to the right to avoid a hit to the head. He quickly brought up Reaper and the two blades clanged together once again as Qrow hopped back to avoid a punch from Razor. They slashed against each other but this time Qrow had the upper-hand as he forced Razor's weapon down before quickly bringing his sword up to take a swing at the enemy but the leader of the Elite Guard expertly ducked it and managed to land a small jab on Qrow's stomach.

They brought their weapons together again and surged against one another.

"Why don't you just use those guns on your ships to finish this off?" Qrow asked before Razor drove him to the side of the bridge where Qrow jumped on top of the traffic barrier and leaped over Razor who quickly whirled around to block another attack from the Huntsman.

"Because the blasts would kill, and I don't aim to kill young warriors such as these." Razor stated as he pressed on another set of swings and slashes against Qrow who met the attacks head on.

"Then you're on the wrong side, bud." Qrow remarked as he blocked another attack.

The two swung their blades at each other once again and they met with a mighty clash that created sparks.

Meanwhile in one of the ships up above the pilot was keeping the ship steady while also watching a certain young brunette Rabbit Faunus that he recognized all too well.

"Oh Oum no, that's Velvet."

Further down the road on solid ground Velvet used a light-copy of Crocea Mors' shield to block the powerful attack of Piper's weapon as it sent powerful soundwaves at her. Velvet kept bracing herself but strangely the soundwaves weren't bothering her sensitive ears. She watched as the Mouse Faunus transformed her weapon from boombox to... a violin?

Piper smirked as she yanked out a bow from a pouch on her belt and quickly rubbed it against the strings of the violin to create arcs of energy that went flying at Velvet who quickly dodged them.

Velvet mentally deduced that the reason this girl's must have a Semblance that gave her control over sound, that was why these sound based attacks weren't hurting her sensitive ears; it was probably due to the fact that they would also hurt her fellow Faunus which would give Team Beacon an opportunity to win this battle easily. Velvet quickly jumped up into the air and her camera switched to a copy of Milo's rifle mode and she opened fire on the Mouse Faunus.

Piper quickly moved to avoid getting blasted by Velvet's shots and when the Rabbit Faunus landed Piper sent an arc of energy at her with the violin, which managed to hit Velvet and knock her down. Piper smirked but before she could do anything else Velvet's camera created a copy of Magnhild and slammed it into Piper, sending her down the road.

Velvet got back up as Piper transformed the violin into a set of bongo drums. She whipped around at Velvet and began beating the drums rapidly, creating energy blasts. Velvet got hit by a few of them but her used her camera to create a copy of Akouo for cover. Velvet tried to think of a way to beat her musical enemy as she approached with an energetic, and catchy, beat of the bongo drums that kept slamming energy into the shield.

"Stop right there!" yelled one of the cops, who finally decided to enter the fight.

Piper whipped around and blasted him down with energy from the bongo drums and did the same to the other cop who was trying to take a shot at her. She turned around only to face a standing Velvet and copies of Penny's swords.

"I might look cute, but that doesn't mean you can turn your back on me." Velvet said with a smile as she brought the swords down.

Piper, realizing this wouldn't be that easy of a fight, moved as quickly as she could to avoid the swords slamming into her, even jumping from blade to blade, only for them to vanish. She looked over to see that Velvet had replaced them with copies of the Ember Celicas. Piper began blasting at her with rapid beats on the drums and Velvet returned the favor, resulting in two barrages of energy colliding with one another and exploding, blowing both girls back.

Velvet moaned as she stood up only to see Piper already recovering, taking out a pipe and playfully blowing into it and making some kind of sound that seemed to be an attempt at a voice that said "This is fun."

Velvet gave the younger girl a weird look before her weapon transformed into a guitar that resembled an ax. Velvet frowned as she created a copy of Yatsuhashi's sword and got ready for another bout.

Penny's swords danced about in the air gracefully, forcing the three Faunus she was facing off against to keep dodging while Coco tried to blast them. The Skunk managed to dodge the heavy blasts and managed to get close enough to Coco that he could land a hit on her shoulder with his elbow but Coco got him back with a mighty swing of her bag.

The hit was heavy enough to knock the Skunk down on his rear where he said "How do you even lift that thing?"

"With a little thing called effort." Coco answered over the sounds of battle as Penny blasted down the Flying Squirrel who collided with the Skunk.

"Nice one Penny." Coco complimented as the Tasmanian Devil pounced onto Penny tried to take a bite out of Penny only to discover the metal underneath.

"Ow!" she cried in pain before Penny grabbed her and threw her at Coco who blasted her with a barrage of Dust bullets.

"That was not very smart." Penny observed before she noticed the Flying Squirrel was now on all fours before she rocketed up into the sky.

"Whoa, must be her Semblance." Coco guessed before the Skunk attacked her with a club.

"Correct." he said as he met her bag with his club. "What, no crack about my odor?"

"Nope, if you haven't noticed I got three Faunus on my team, I am no racist. Plus I am not that cheap." Coco said as she ducked a swing and bashed the Skunk in the stomach with the full force of her bag.

"Ugh, good to know..." the Skunk grunted painfully before the Tasmanian Devil jumped over him for an attack on Coco but the knocked the Faunus girl down by slamming her purse into the side of her face and blasting her away again.

Penny, for her part, blasted at the Flying Squirrel who was throwing down miniature explosives but Penny quickly dodged everything that was was thrown at her. She shot up her swords into the sky and the strings wrapped around her enemy. Penny smiled as she brought her swords down to the road, bringing the Flying Squirrel with them. Penny forced her swords apart, which made the Flying Squirrel slump to the ground. Penny approached her to see if she was alright but the female Faunus jumped up and landed a punch on Penny's face.

"Gotcha!" she said.

"And I got you." Penny said as she grabbed the girl's arm and spin her around before letting her go, sending her flying into the Skunk.

Off to the side on the embankment that led down to the highway Scarlet and Neptune faced off against the Spider Monkey and the Giraffe respectively. The teenager Faunus was lean and very agile, it helped that his feet allowed him to grip onto things while aided him in avoiding Scarlet's shots and slashes.

"Too slow human!" he taunted as he dodged a blast from Scarlet's flintlock. He jumped up to the side of the bridge, hanging upside down by his feet before Scarlet whipped around and blasted him in the shin, forcing him to drop down and land on his head. "Ow!" he cried before he ducked a kick from Scarlet.

He jumped up onto Scarlet's back and began wailing on the former pirate's head. "Ah! Cut it out you little bugger!" Scarlet yelled. He reached up and grabbed the Faunus by the neck and slung him into the wall of the bridge.

The Spider Monkey growled before he took out a small orb out his pocket and yelled "Eat this!" as he chucked it at Scarlet, who dodged the orb which rolled over to where Neptune and the Giraffe were duking it out and exploded, knocking them both back.

Neptune got up first and charged at the recovering Faunus with his gun but the Giraffe jumped up and grabbed the bluenette's weapon and forced it down. Neptune tried to deck his enemy in the face but the Faunus caught that too, forced both of Neptune's arms down before punching him in the face. The Faunus tried to stomp on Neptune's stomach but the young Huntsman used his weapon's guandao for to hit him in the knee, forcing him back, this distance allowed Neptune to jump up and spin kick his enemy in the head. Neptune landed on his feet and moved to attack but the Giraffe Faunus surged forward and caught him, forcing the two to grapple for dominance over the fight before he headbutted Neptune in the face.

Neptune fell to the ground only to bring up his weapon in gun form and shot his opponent in the chest.

"Not bad for a pretty boy human." the Giraffe admitted.

"Thanks." Neptune said before attacking again.

Scarlet was forced to the ground by a kick from the Spider Monkey. "Running outta aura, ain't ya human?"

"A little bit, what are you exactly?" Scarlet asked as he spotted an old soda can next to him.

"I'm a Spider Monkey." he said, as if it was obvious.

"Why are they called that?" Scarlet asked.

"Uh... I think it has something to do with the long limbs? I dunno." the Faunus confessed.

"Wouldn't it be cool if it made sense and you had eight arms?" Scarlet pointed out.

"Oh tell me about it..." the Spider Monkey began before Scarlet threw the old soda can in his face, distracting him. "Ow what the...?!" Scarlet fired his flintlock's grappling hook and it wrapped around the teenage Faunus' legs, yanked him towards him and bashed him in the face with his elbow.

Neptune, meanwhile, was sent to the ground on his knees by the Giraffe Faunus, who activated the gauntlet on his arm to reveal a small, but sharp blade. "Time's up human." he said.

"No way." Neptune cried as he used his trident to sweep the Giraffe's legs out from underneath him. The Faunus fell forward and Neptune pushed himself up to punch his enemy in the face, blowing him back. Neptune got up as the Giraffe jumped to into the air and tired to stab the bluentte with his blade two times but Neptune dodged them both as he transformed his weapon into its gun mode. The Giraffe got behind Neptune and tried to stab him in the back only for the bluenette to whirl around and blast him in the face point blank range, knocking him flat on his back and twitching.

Ruby and Weiss were not having it any easier than the others, as Kane and the Mandrill proved to be worthy challengers. The Mandrill blasted at the duo and forced Ruby to give them cover with the rapid spin of Crescent Rose. Kane helped out but Ruby deflected his shots too when Weiss jumped out from behind Ruby and used a Weiss' glyph to send Ruby sailing into the air as the Mandrill Faunus reloaded her blaster. The Mandrill tired to shoot down Ruby but the silver eyed girl got the first shot, blowing the female Faunus down.

Ruby landed in front of the Mandrill and spun around, using the blunt side of Crescent Rose to whack her in the side. Ruby rolled forward and saw that Weiss was trading blows with Kane, her rapier with his bayonet and while her talent was giving her a good edge his experience gave him one as well, so neither one seemed to be winning as their blades clashed.

"Weiss outta the way!" Ruby called.

Weiss saw Ruby and quickly dashed away from Kane and before he could move to attack her Ruby blasted him in the back, which allowed Weiss to shove him down with a shoulder slam.

The Schnee heiress smiled to her partner. "Thank yo... Ruby behind you!" Weiss cried.

Before Ruby could turn around she was shot in the back several times by the Mandrill Faunus, forcing her to cry out in pain.

"No!" yelled Weiss as she loaded up a Dust crystal into the hilt of her sword, created a glyph and created a wall of ice and sent it right at the Mandrill Faunus, encasing her in the ice.

"Oh! So cold! S-somebody g-g-get me out of t-this!" the Mandrill managed to cry out as Weiss checked on Ruby.

"Ruby, are you okay?!" Weiss asked frantically.

Ruby gave her a smile and said "Just fine." Weiss returned the smile and helped her partner up as Kane loaded up a red Dust crystal into his rifle and blasted at the large mound of ice to free the Mandrill.

"You okay?" he asked he as she stumbled around, now wet and rather hot.

"Yeah, I was just frozen and then burned out in the span of seven seconds, no big deal!" she snapped furiously.

"You try to help somebody..." Kane muttered as he shook his head and opened fire on Ruby and Weiss. Ruby quickly used Crescent Rose to cut down the heat-powered Dust bullets but doing so reduced them to hot slag that fell to the ground.

"Watch your step." she said to Weiss as she blasted Kane in the stomach.

Weiss nodded and gracefully avoided the smoking debris as she ran forward and used a glyph to bring the Mandrill flying over to her where she greeted her with a kick to the face. The Mandrill fell to the ground and muttered "This is just not my day."

Ruby jammed the blade of her weapon towards Kane's head, which forced him to step back only for Ruby to grab his hair and yank him towards her but he swung up the butt of his rifle and whammed her in the stomach with it, forcing her to cry out in pain before she smacked him in the face. He grabbed her and wrestled her to the ground, glaring at her.

"Two members of your team ruined me a few months back and I..." before Kane could finish he was blasted away by the combined weapons of both Weiss and Penny.

Ruby gave them both a smile as she reloaded Crescent Rose and jumped back to battle Kane once again.

As the battle between Qrow and Razor raged on with the two avoiding or meeting attacks Razor heard a message from one of the pilots via his earpiece.

"Razor, we just got word from Babara, they've got Adam and are heading back."

"Understood!" Razor yelled as he slammed his chainsaw-sword on the ground where Qrow had been standing a mere second ago.

Winter and Yatsuhashi fought bravely on, even though the fight was not in their favor as they were outnumbered two to one by Hui, the Buffalo, the Polar Bear, and the Rhino.

Yatsuhashi was currently backed up against the traffic barriers as Hui and the Buffalo, armed with an ax, wailed on him while she was kept busy by the Polar Bear and the Rhino who were both armed with swords but she kept them back with her own blade and her rarely used main-gauche. As Winter fought on, parrying and striking as quickly as she could she continued gathering up aura for a summon, but one she had been saving for such an occasion.

Yatsuhashi fought on as well even though he was literally pushed up against a wall. He struck out at the Buffalo hard enough to make him lose his balance and then he attacked Hui, slamming his sword down on the White Fang Lieutenant's own hard enough to make his lose his grip on his blade, which gave Yatsuhashi the chance he needed to take him out of the fight. Since Hui had been hit multiple times since this mess began and had been in the car crash he would naturally be a little easier to take out. The large teen stabbed his sword into the ground and punched the Buffalo down before opening up a barrage of punches on Hui's head, shoulders, and chest. Hui stood dazed as Yatsuhashi grabbed him, hoisted him over head, and slammed him into the recovering Buffalo.

That was Hui out of the fight but he noticed Winter was having some trouble; Winter's clothes were torn in several places and she had one or two bruises about her body as she suffered another punch from the Polar Bear but she didn't back down. She slashed the Rhino woman across the stomach, but the Faunus endured it due to incredibly thick skin and an endurance Semblance. Winter jumped up and kicked both her opponents in their faces with her legs before she landed on her feet just in time to block a slash from the Polar Bear Faunus. She pressed her sword and main-gauche against him hard enough to make him stagger back and then she jumped up into the air to avoid being rammed into by the Rhino who crashed into the Polar Bear instead.

Yatsuhashi ripped his sword out of the road and ran over to her and said "Specialist, I've defeated one of them but I don't know if we can beat the remaining three."

"I know we can, and I have just the trick for the job up my sleeve." she said as she created a large white glyph.

"The Schnee is going to summon something! Stop her!" yelled the Buffalo as he charged them. Yatsuhashi swung his sword at the attacked but the Buffalo dodged, accidentally getting a haircut as the teenager's sword sliced through the Faunus' thick hair. The Buffalo Faunus slammed Yatsuhashi with the blunt side of his ax only for the samurai to grab his hands, and by extension the ax handle.

"I don't think so." Yatsuhashi growled as he hoisted up the Buffalo with all his strength and tossed him into the Polar Bear, and while such a move put quite the stain on him it still bought Winter more time as something on the glyph began to take shape. Something very big.

The Rhino Faunus lobbed a grenade at them but Yatsuhashi quickly used his sword like a baseball bat and knocked it high into the air where it exploded harmlessly. As that happened Yatsuhashi noticed one of the drop ships was landing behind the bridge... and that the car that had ejected out of it earlier was returning. He turned his attention back just in time to see the three large Faunus all approaching him.

"Game's over kid, now..." the Polar Bear Faunus began before his jaw dropped at the sight behind Yatsuhashi and his two partners did the same. Yatsuhashi turned around to see Winter atop a white version of a Goliath, but this Summon version seemed to be a pure version of some long vanquished, ancient Grimm.

Everyone stopped to look at the sight as Winter glared down at them and firmly said "Give up. Now."

"Whoa..." Ruby said in awe.

"Well, that's not good." muttered Kane.

"You wonderful Ice Queen." Qrow muttered to himself before Razor punched him down.

"Launch the wreckage!" Razor ordered.

The Polar Bear, Rhino, and Buffalo all retreated towards the wrecked car Adam had been in, and the soldier had woken up and crawled out of it only to find himself smack dab in the middle of a battle. As he crawled out of the way the three large Faunus worked together to lift up the totaled car and then Razor used a mighty kick to send it flying into the Goliath Summon.

"Razor, we got Adam on board, you wanna pull out?" asked the pilot via the earpiece.

"Yes. Everyone, we are leaving! Piper, take the younger ones and get to the first drop ship. The rest of us will hold them off." he said as Kane, the Polar Bear, Rhino, Buffalo, Mandrill, and Skunk all gathered around each other. "Second ship, open fire!" he yelled.

The second drop ship quickly began shooting at Winter and the Goliath while Piper led the Flying Squirrel, Tasmanian Devil, Giraffe, and the Spider Monkey all retreated to the ship that had landed to reconnect with the vehicle.

"Can't let 'em get away!" Coco said as she began blasting at the still hovering ship, but its shields withstood her blasts.

Ruby, Weiss, Penny, Velvet, Scarlet, and Neptune all opened fire on the second ship that was about to take off.

"Why are they leaving like this?" Weiss inquired.

"I saw that odd vehicle return, they must have gotten Taurus." Yatsuhashi called as she parried a strike from the Polar Bear while Qrow and Coco helped Winter out.

"Then stop it from taking off!" Ruby cried as she opened fire, helped out by the others as they poured it on.

No matter how much they fired they couldn't stop it as it lifted off and began to provide covering fire, blitzing up the bridge and forcing Team Beacon to scatter and allowing the other ship to land.

"Get it!" yelled the Polar Bear as he grabbed Hui while Razor grabbed the unconscious driver and the soldier jumped into the ship. The remaining members of the Elite Guard all piled into the ship and took off, leaving for the larger ship in the distance.

The present members of Team Beacon all breathed heavily as they watched the ships leave. "So... did we win or lose? I'm not really sure what to make of this." Neptune remarked.

"It's called a stalemate kid, we didn't get what we wanted but Adam didn't get what he wanted." Qrow answered as he sat down against the traffic barriers but Ruby wasn't sure of that unless she knew the rest of RWBY was okay so she got out her scroll and called Yang as Winter recalled her summon.

"W-was that...?" Weiss tried to ask.

"Yes, the Goliath that destroyed my second sword. I only use it in the most extreme of circumstances.

"Maybe you should have used it to begin with." Qrow remarked.

"I needed to gather up aura to pull it off, but I think it worked rather well. What makes you think they saved Taurus?" Winter inquired.

"Because if he was dead they wouldn't stop fighting. I saw that kick you gave those two Faunus, you got great legs." Qrow said, which nearly made Winter blush.

"The nerve of you!" Weiss cried before Ruby yelled something out.

"They're okay! Yang, Blake, and Sun are okay!" she cheered.

"Where are they?" Penny asked.

"They're in the desert, I guess Adam wrecked the car." Ruby said as Velvet's ears perked up.

"Sirens, I guess the police are coming." she said.

"Late, as frikkin' always." Qrow said with a chuckle.

Weiss looked to her older sister and asked "Winter, what do you think that Faunus meant about our father?"

Winter looked at her younger sister but couldn't give her an honest answer at the moment.

---

As the two drop ships docked with the Elite Guard's ship Adam stormed out of the first one to meet Razor.

"You shouldn't have retreated!" he yelled.

"I had no reason to fight them anymore." Razor said, "You're welcome by the way. If we hadn't come in time you'd be in human custody and I'd have to risk the lives of my troops to save you."

Adam glared at the older Faunus, his eyes showing through the gash in his mask. "We should go forward and bomb that entire town." he said darkly.

"That reminds me... the Huntsman said that you threatened to spill the blood of a Faunus child. Is that true?" Razor asked darkly as he gripped Kill-Master.

"No." Adam lied, "I might be a dark person, but even I wouldn't go that far."

"Good, because if I discover that he was telling us the truth... I might have to do something about you." Razor hissed.

"Is that a threat?" Adam inquired.

"Only if you cross the line." Razor answered.

Adam nodded and said "Once we're far enough away we'll meet up with our ship and head back to base."

"What of the troops left behind? They could give out information." the Polar Bear Faunus pointed out.

"The ones that were captured know nothing important except for the location of our base and I have made sure they won't reveal that little detail." Adam assured him as he walked away.

As soon as Adam was out of earshot Kane said "Razor, I think you're the only person in the White Fang with the balls to stand up to Adam like that."

Razor simply smiled as he turned around and said "Today we didn't truly win, but a stalemate is good a victory as any. I'm proud of all of you."

"Why? We got our butts kicked." the Tasmanian Devil girl said.

"But you managed to hold your own against Hunters, and Hunters, even the ones in training, are much harder to battle than a guard or Atlas soldier. Today was the first time some of you have ever went up against such opponents so tonight we celebrate!" he announced.

Everyone either cheered or let out some appreciative words for their leader, but one of the pilots didn't look so happy and Razor saw this. As the others departed to go about their various routines Razor followed the pilot to the side of the docking bay.

"Thayer, old friend, what's wrong?" he asked.

"That Faunus girl Piper fought... you... you know who she was." the pilot, a Rabbit Faunus, said.

"Yes, I recognized her from the old photos you showed me..." Razor said with a sigh.

"She's my niece, Velvet..." Thayer said nervously.

The two waited in silence for a few moments before Razor said "I'll make sure Adam doesn't find out."

"Th-thank you sir."

---

To say that it had been a long day would be an understatement. The members of Team Beacon were utterly exhausted from their clash with the White Fang and its Elite Guard but they all knew it would most likely not be the last time they had to fight this group of Faunus.

After being picked up by the police and taken back to the Wukong family home Qrow (who also stopped by the train yards to tell the Allcroft family what had transpired) and Winter went with Chief Banner to interrogate the captured White Fang troops and the lookout before they were taken to Atlas for proper questioning and incarceration while the students stayed with the Wukong family.

The house had been fixed up quite easily by the cleanup crew, a profession in Remnant where men and women with Semblances similar to Glynda's would use the repair ability to fix up homes damaged in Grimm attacks. Chief Banner had left a small squad of officers behind to keep guard, because now that the White Fang knew where the Wukongs lived it was very possible that they could attack again. He had brought up the likelihood of relocating Mrs. Wukong and Haulan to another home on the other side of town but after all that had happened in the preceding hours Gina was in no mood to consider such a thing right now so she simply said "I'll think about it tomorrow."

Team RWBY, Penny, and the Wukong family sat in the living room while Scarlet, Neptune, and the present members of Team CFVY stayed in the kitchen to rest and to stay out of the way of anything dramatic that could happen.

"So, you were part of the White Fang." Gina said to Blake.

"Keyword being was. Ugh!" Yang cried as her shoulder still ached from the spike she took earlier, her aura still hard at work healing it.

Blake took a deep breath and said "Look I... I didn't want this to happen. I can honestly say that this was all my fault, but I had no idea that Adam would come here and do..." she stopped and looked at Haulan, "what he did. I left the White Fang because of what Adam was twisting it into but I didn't leave until it was too late and it drove him over the edge. No matter what anyone tells me I can only blame myself for this."

"Don't, from what you've told us Adam was messed up before he met you, he would have gone crazy sooner or later." Sun assured her.

"Yeah, plus even if you had stayed Cinder would have forced you both to work for her, trust me she has her ways." Ruby agreed.

"I guess so but I still..." Blake began before Gina cut her off.

"It's obvious that I don't know a lot about what's going on or your history Blake. So before I say my piece I want to know more about you." the elder Faunus said calmly before asking "Will you tell me what happened?"

Blake looked to Ruby and Weiss, they both nodded and the former said "Hey Haulan, they're about to talk about boring stuff, how about we go in the kitchen with the others and tell you about our battle?"

"Oh heck yeah!" the young girl said eagerly before running off into the kitchen with Ruby, Weiss, and Penny in tow.

Blake looked to Yang but the blonde shook her head. "I'm staying." she said firmly.

Blake nodded and began to tell Gina her story, all of it.

Once she was finished she, her boyfriend, and her partner waited quietly as Gina took the tale into consideration. After a while of silence, aside from the voices coming from the kitchen, Gina finally spoke up.

"I understand Blake and I cannot be mad at you for what happened to us." she said.

"You can't? But I..."

"You joined the White Fang back when it meant something, when it a noble purpose. You made a mistake joining with Adam's insurrection but you have realized it was a mistake and have tried to atone for it by leaving them and becoming a Huntress. What happened here today is Taurus' fault, not yours." Gina said.

Yang placed her hand on Blake's back and gave her a smile, but the Cat Faunus was still unsure. "I don't feel good about this, I nearly got you both killed because of my relationship with Sun and..." she said before Gina stopped her.

"I approve of your relationship. I'm happy Sun found a girl like you." Gina said with a smile.

Sun grinned and let out a cry of "Yes!"

"B-b-but...!" Blake stuttered before Gina walked over and sat next to her.

"Blake, your parents were killed by humans, whatever was under that man's mask must have made your early dislike of them even easier. When I was your age it was worse, hardly a day went by when I wasn't tormented by schoolyard bullies because of my tail. I used to be so angry at the humans and wanted nothing more than to fight them, it wasn't until years later that I realized how wrong I was about a majority of humanity and I'm happy I was wrong. You learned this lesson just as I did, even if it was a bit harder for you. As I said earlier your past doesn't control your present. When I think about everything Sun has told me about you and the friends you have clearly made and what you've done for them it is so obvious you have changed for the better. Today you risked your life for mine and my daughter's, so I don't hate you at all, in fact; I'm happy my boy is with a girl like you." the older woman said before she grabbed Sun and Blake and hugged them both to her.

Blake smiled, a few stray tears coming out of her eyes before leaning into the hug, happy to be accepted. She looked over to Yang who wore a wide smile and a thumbs up.

---

A couple of hours later, after Haulan had forced her brother, Blake, and Yang to tell her how they had kicked Adam's butt and nearly captured him, Team Beacon returned to the train station to find their ride waiting off to the side for them; now with just the engine, the two coaches, and the caboose.

Tom, Anna, and Clara all waved to them, "Its about time you got here!" Clara called.

"From what Qrow told us you guys had quite the day." Anna said.

"They can tell us about it later sis, right now I think they'd like to get moving." Tom stated.

"That sounds most ideal. Thank you for your hospitality, Mrs. Wukong." Winter said to Gina.

"It was nice to have you Specialist Schnee." Gina said as the younger woman embarked on the train. Deep down Winter was a little uneasy, despite their efforts in the interrogation Winter and Qrow couldn't get anything out of the captured White Fang agents who withstood every thing they used against them in the time they were allotted and the Coyote Faunus' hard-drive had been wiped by some kind of automatic device. Plus there was what Razor said about her father and slaves...

The Wukong family said their goodbyes to everyone as they boarded the train until only Sun and Blake were left. Sun looked to the back where a few cops who would be guarding his family stood. While he was a little worried for them Sun knew he couldn't stay right now, he needed to help Blake and the others fight the White Fang.

"Be safe, Sunny. I love you." Gina said as she hugged her son and kissed his forehead.

"I will, just be careful while we're gone and let the cops take care of you. And I love you too." he said as he hugged her back.

"I still can't believe you're on a major team with some of the coolest girls in Remnant." Haulan said.

"So I'm I finally awesome in your books?" her brother asked.

"I guess so. Go kick some more butt." she said as she hugged him.

"I sure will, little sis. Love you." Sun said before returning the hug.

"I love you too." she returned.

Gina smiled at the sight and said to Blake "I know Neptune and Scarlet will look out for him, but make sure he doesn't get hurt."

"I'll do my best." Blake promised.

"Good luck with your mission, I'll be praying for all of your safety." the older woman said kindly.

"We might need it." Blake said with a nod.

The couple boarded the train and in a few minutes the engine set off into the desert once again, with Sun's family waving goodbye as they rolled off.

"You think they'll be okay mom?" Haulan asked.

Gina sighed and considered everyone on that team, ten wonderfully talented teenagers, a powerful but kind robot, a trained military specialist, and a strong Huntsman. Put them all together and you had a force to be reckoned with. She knew they

"I think they'll be okay." she told her daughter.

Next Time: Back to Beacon with JNPR, Fox, and Sage.

Soundtrack for this chapter (and Adam's theme): Cry Little Sister from The Lost Boys

We have officially reached 300 reviews on Fanfiction . net! More please. Also I've hit half a million words on Ao3.

I came really close to showing you what was under Adam's mask in this chapter, but I decided to save it for later on in the arc.

And before you ask, yes Piper is inspired by The Pied Piper and Babara is named after the children's book Babar.

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