(Something Taken)

(Chapter 27 once again, just after the Line, 'Let me take something from you.')

(Special thanks to :Enoch the wanderer: for the idea of this one, and inspiration for 'non-choice' based changes)

The gun hammer clicked…and then deafening silence. The silence of nothing happening…the silence of a jammed gun. Jaune, looking at it in disbelief, clicked it, again. And again. And then rapidly…then he looked at the others in the room, and his smile fell into a pit of madness. Something inside him finally snapped, as he rushed forward, suddenly enough that Blake brought Gamble Shroud up…only to realize he was holding Ruby like a shield.

He barreled into the pair, slamming them back down onto the ground, as Null surrounded them. Blake felt naked, as Jaune, still hoisting up Mors, brought it down. The butt of the gun slammed into Yang's head with a crack like a shot, and the blonde's eyes became unfocused. Blood loss, adrenaline crash, and now a sudden impact to the skull finally took its toll, and Yang was out cold.

Blake, who was on the bottom of the pile tried to push it off, tried to remove the weight, but found herself pinned…pinned long enough that she felt a bit of metal at her throat. A sharp blade, one that kept her still, and then the impact of a heavy blow to the side of her head, one that left her seeing stars, as Jaune rose up off her and the other two, still smiling as he turned to Roman.

"Neo, grab the red. I'll take blonde, you get Bitch, Roman," he said, and the other two tilted their heads at him, as he just smiled to them.

"Um, Kid, I'm a thief, so I'm all for taking things, especially when someone costs me on a job, but this is kidnapping. Kidnapping huntresses, for Grimm's sake! They don't make jails for people that do that," he noted, and Jaune just smiled, tossing Ruby to Neo, who caught her…barely, but then looped her arm around her neck, nodding that she had her.

"These aren't huntresses, Roman. These are karmic golden fucking tickets, and I'm going to be cashing in on each and every one," he said with a smile, and Roman seemed about to argue…but then the sound of tires sequeeling outside made him swear as he rushed forward, taking Yang from him, as Roman was the taller of the two of them, and could more easily carry her. A moment later, Jaune, looking for a moment like he'd stab the unconscious faunus, instead took her into his arms, and then they left, Neo covering them with an illusion, just as the authorities burst onto the scene, finding one survivor.

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The city was in an uproar in an hour. The loss of so much life, and the one survivor, barely alive, having swallowed several gallons of seawater. There was no real evidence of who was behind it all. The bodies, faunus and human, mangled beyond belief. If there had been White Fang masks on the Faunus, well, they were slag now, and worse the dockyard's pitiful, 'sign-in sheet', had been destroyed at some point.

The only clue was a robot, designed to look like a person. Seized by the Vale Security Force, and later demanded by Atlas as one of their units, it caused blame to briefly shift to them, and their efforts to instead say it had been Null…well, it rang hollow to many ears. What proof did anyone else have that Null existed? A few video clips and Atlas' word, a word that was becoming harder to believe by the hour.

Vale News Network would try and play up what they did have, the wounds on Glynda Goodwitch, the video of her pursuing an unknown individual, but her refusal to corroborate the story, either in person or even simply over the network, caused even more friction. People demanded answers. A hundred dead, no way to know who was who, and three huntresses in training missing? This was unacceptable.

In Beacon, shouting was heard from the Headmaster's office. A male voice, raised in anger, the sound of blade striking stone and wood, and the sound of a gunshot. It set every student on edge. Worse when none of the teachers would talk about it, and of course, Atlas holding the one member of Team RWBY on their battleship only made it worse still, as the day passed, and night finally fell again.

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Roman, despite his misgivings, had to admit, the kid's plan was working wonders for their rep. No one knew they were involved. The cameras in the dockyard had gotten taken out in the fight, and the only ones involved…well either they weren't talking, or they couldn't talk, as the portal lady still hadn't shown back up. He'd been afraid she would, people like that didn't tend to stay gone long if you took what they were after.

Better, the news, the people, everyone was at each other's throats. For once, Atlas was telling the truth, Null really was behind it all, but they had no proof, and worse, the evidence at the scene fingered them in some weird way, and it all looked like some big cover-up. It would have been perfect, if the kid hadn't kept smiling like that anyway. That smile was haunting his nightmares.

Jaune soon came towards him, cracking his neck and rubbing his hands, obviously trying to get feeling back. He was…amused would not be the right word, but it was the closest thing to it. His smile hadn't left his face, but the twinkle in his eyes at the news reports and the online feeds, at how people were reacting now that he had done this…well it showed him he'd made the right call.

"How long can they stay like that, Roman? You said it was good for a few days, but if they were already messed up…" he let the thought trail off, as he took a seat, and Roman, who had been reading the paper, shrugged his shoulders.

"Truth to tell, seeing a Hunteress in their position? Well, I've never seen them like that. Huntsmen don't get 'wounded' on a mission. They succeed or they die, maybe losing a limb or two along the way. Their wounds aren't normal for someone with aura, but they seem to have healed well enough before we put them in the stuff. For now, I'd say they'll last a few days," he said, turning the page, and Jaune nodded.

They kept going through their day, waiting and waiting for…something. Jaune was certain something would happen, though Roman was sure it was just a bit of madness in the kid. Still, it was working so far, so he was willing to take the chance, and it was only just past one PM on their second day holding the girls that something did indeed fall into their laps, starting with a knock at the door.

Cinder and her goons came in, spouting the typical pleasantries, showing a lot more deference to Jaune than they had before, Cinder even expressing her sympathy for what had happened. How she knew what had…well, she kept that to herself, but as the three of them sat down at the table with Jaune, she got down to business, running her fingers through her hair, before putting on her game face.

"Now, I'm sure you can guess why we might be here, but to be blunt, as I have little to gain from playing coy, you have a person of interest to one of my business associate's being held here. I could care less about them, but the associate's skills are integral to plans that are currently in motion. That means I need her happy," she told them, and Roman had to fight the urge to whistle. Cinder was offering them a blank check by being forward like that. This had to be really, really important stuff.

"If you're talking about my golden tickets…well I have three of them, so we'll have to ask you to narrow down which one she wants to put a bid in for. And if she's the one concerned about it, I might even ask if she can bargain herself. I wouldn't want you to waste your time being a middlewoman in a deal like this. Your time is much more valuable than that, after all," he said, and Emerald seemed about to object, but Cinder put her hand on the younger woman's arm, and nodded at Jaune.

"My time is valuable, this is true, but at the moment most of my own projects are on hold, especially with the loss of the dust thanks to those self same Huntresses you have locked away," she told him, and Jaune nodded. His smile made it odd to watch, as it hadn't left his face the entire time he'd been talking, and Mercury, well, he was spitting it right back at him, sending a shiver down both Emerald and Roman's spines…the fact that Neo kept trying to do the same only made it worse.

"Yes, they cost us both something. Something valuable to you for your plans…something irreplaceable to me. Still, I'm a bargaining man. I have three sisters still missing…well, one missing, two are in Atlas. So, if your friend can retrieve my missing one, I'll be sure to give her her ticket. That sounds like a fair deal to me, doesn't it to you?" he said, and Cinder seemed to consider it.

She had, in the shuffle, learned something of his 'missing' sister. A girl, about the same age and description, recovered from an accident. Of course, she'd been taken by Beacon…probably into the same place as the Fall Maiden. It made sense, a school wouldn't have too many 'holding cells' or the like. If she played her cards right, well, Raven would do her job for her, which suited Cinder just fine.

"Very well then, I'll pass this information along. Might I ask, however, how you plan on trading the other two for your other sisters. It must be quite the plan," she told him in that 'sultry' voice of hers. Jaune, either ignoring it, or literally just not seeing it, leaned back in his chair, and nodded to Neo, who smiled, clapped, and then walked over to the wall, pulling a scroll seemingly from nowhere.

The group, even Roman, looked at it, curious, and realized it was a 'burner' scroll, given as a set, so a child and parent could communicate at larger events, such as the upcoming Vytal festival. This one was the 'parent' scroll, meaning it was the one able to keep tabs on the 'child' one, keeping their movements monitored, and even able to turn on the camera remotely, to view through it.

A few button presses, and Jaune did just that, soon, the camera coming on, and showing…it looked like an office. Honestly, it was confusing, as the scroll was obviously set down somewhere, able to see a few bookcases along a wall, before looking at the ceiling. However, after letting them look for a moment, he then switched to the 'tracker' function, causing an arrow to appear on the screen, one that pointed almost straight up.

"Ironwood's office?" she whispered. The audacity of the action present in her voice, and Jaune nodded, his smile turning into a smirk as he set the scroll back down on the table, and then turned it off.

"A little fun with Neo and the post office got it delivered. Jerk still hasn't been back in since last night, but when he does, I'll set him up with all the details on where to bring Saphron and Terra. That just leaves Amber. Find her and bring her back. I'm going to guess she'll want the blonde for her, right?" he asked, and Cinder shrugged, but he could see it in her eyes, his smirk going back into the manic smile.

"Good, good, and tell Ms. Machina that I hope there's no hard feelings about the hole in her leg," he said, which seemed to shock Emerald. She'd met Raven…once. In that meeting, she'd seemed…invincible. Even Cinder had shown her respect, in a way she didn't to anyone else. If he could hurt Raven…well, this Null went up a notch in her opinion, even as he laughed to himself, and turned his back on them.

Cinder, for her part, just nodded, and then rose up from her seat. She gave a slight head tilt to Roman, and to Neo, before motioning with her hand, getting Emerald and Mercury to follow her out of the door, the trio soon vanishing into the streets of Vale, and leaving behind the rat hole apartment where Roman had set them up. It amused Cinder to no end that she passed several uniformed officers, all scurrying about, unaware their target was right above them.

That amusement died, however, when she walked up to the vehicle she had driven into this part of town. She would have preferred something with style and class. But that would have stood out, and with everyone on edge? A recipe for disaster. No, they were in a fairly nondescript van, one whose door slid open, revealing Ms. Machina herself, Raven Branwen, with her face scowling as the trio entered.

"Ah, I figured I'd be seeing you soon, Ms. Branwen. Tell me, did you see anything interesting in the apartment while we were in there?" asked Cinder, mockingly. A day ago, before she'd seen the woman's leg, wrapped up as it was, she might have been more careful with her words. As she was now? Cinder had little doubt she could take her, and seeing the acknowledgement of that in Raven's own face restored her good mood.

"She's not in there. I searched the whole place, top to bottom. He has her…I wasted my ONE chance to save her. If she is hurt in any way by him, I'll kill him. Fuck your plans, and fuck Salem," she said, and Cinder, seeing her agitation actually chuckled. Oh, this was glorious. It almost made up for losing all that dust, and having to in any way show deference to the child playing at being a killer.

"Then we had best find his sister, and luckily for you, Emerald has already provided us that information," she said, and Em, beautiful Em, nodded at Cinder's words, pulling out her scroll, and then slowly shifting through a few files, before finally putting what she'd found on screen, just as Mercury turned the motor over, and their group began to pull out of the space.

"Beacon made a few strange purchases recently. Like, a few days ago. Medical equipment, after someone brought in a body under the dead of night from the forest side of the school. Cameras don't give us any more than that, but given the timing of when Arms lost her, it's got to be Null's sister, and that probably means she's in the chamber under the school," she explained, showing a few snippets of the school's own security footage, and then a layout showing the room almost a kilometer down.

"Right where your target is…you're not using me to complete your own mission, are you?" asked the woman suspiciously, and Cinder, for her part, laughed again, and shook her head, running a finger through her hair to curl a few strands around it.

"To be fair, you're going to need me down there, lest you grab the wrong girl. But no, I didn't plan this. Events just so happened to play out this way," she chuckled, as the van echoed with Raven's cries of frustration, the portal mistress knowing the truth…and knowing she was about to have to get the tribe to pick up stakes. Because when her brother found out what she did…he was going to bring the wrath of an angry god down on their people.

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Ironwood grumbled to himself. Winter was with her sister, in the infirmary. It was still touch and go, but Doctor Snow had confirmed she had a better than eighty percent chance now at least. Her aura was strong. That said, when she would wake up was still anyone's guess, and it was leading to all kinds of other problems, as they had no info on what the hell had happened at the docks.

The bullheads were White Fang, he was certain of it. They had to be. No registration, and the Dust from the Warehouse had been loaded onto them. But at the same time, the human corpses mixed in with the Faunus made no sense if that was the case. Worse, Penny's body. Her processor had been completely destroyed, and Pietro had immediately demanded to know who had hurt his daughter.

Ironwood had confined him to quarters, both because he was not mentaly stable enough to work like this. He had never been really, but this had highlighted that. On top of that, the idiot had let loose a unit with more firepower than a team of huntresses, and then let it roam unsupervised? He had paused that project, and when the Council had tried to intervene, he'd reminded them of who they were talking to. Commander-in-the-Field, General Ironwood. Military Matters were his purview, and they could sod off.

Sol had told him to watch his words…he wasn't sure he could trust Sol anymore though. This was growing to be a dangerous game, and he wasn't sure who his allies were in it. Idly, he toyed with going to Ozpin and maybe even Lionheart to get some solidarity between headmasters going, show the conspiracy what for with their power, and oust them from whatever dark holes they were hiding in.

Distracted by the nice thought of wringing Fields' neck, James was shuffling his papers around for almost a minute before he noticed something buried under piles of reports and the like. A brightly colored and oddly done scroll, like one for a child, and as he picked it up, it had only a few buttons built in. One was a tracker…that he pushed first to find that function was unavailable, and the other was a call.

Knowing almost anything could be sent over such a device, having felt it light enough that even if it had been explosive he'd have been fine, Ironwood was about to take the scroll to Logistics, and have them investigate it. Before he had risen all the way out of his seat, however, the scroll rang, and on instinct, and with just a bit of personal curiosity, he decided to accept it.

The moment the image flashed onto the screen, Ironwood's blood ran cold. The thing framed in it was the face of an unconscious woman. Specifically Summer Rose's daughter. She had a black eye, and a small cut across her cheek, but otherwise looked unharmed. However, she was very out of it, as the image being shown to him bounced around a bit, the one holding it 'peeking' to see that he was watching, before pulling it away.

The face that replaced her was Jaune Arc's. He'd expected that. He'd had a suspicion that Null had to have been involved in the dock's incident, but this? He wasn't even sure what this was. And the worst part was that smile. It was not the smile of a madman. He'd seen those in his long years. Nor was it the smile of a sane man. It was a smile born of the worst sort of drive, the sort that killed a lot of people if they didn't get what they wanted.

"Good, I was hoping it would be you. Kind of hard to explain to a minion what's going on, or convince them I'm serious, you know?" he asked, sounding almost casual, and Ironwood just stared at him passively in response.

"What? No chatting? No words to tell me that I won't get away with this? That I should surrender now, before anyone else gets hurt?" he asked, and again, Ironwood just stared, the smile never breaking, but the eyes…they spoke of something, and with a sudden movement, he brought up a knife, and then showed it to Ironwood, letting the scroll take the thing in.

"Okay, no fun then. Cut to the chase? These girls, they killed a hell of a lot of people. Those hundred plus at the docks? Every one of them died because of these bitches. So, that makes them criminals of the highest order, the sort the Kingdoms really want to get from one another, right?" he asked, and this time, Ironwood nodded, not wanting to see if he'd do something with that knife if he refused to at least acknowledge him.

"Good, good. Then here's my extradition price. I want my sisters. Brought too…one second," he put the scroll down, and for a moment Ironwood was hopeful it would point to something, anything that could help him identify where they were being held. Even a certain layout of bricks or grain of wood could help. But Null kept him pointing straight into a light, before he brought his face back.

"Okay, there, sorry about that. These geo positioning coordinates don't roll off the tongue, so I had to write them down. Now, are you ready?" and Ironwood quickly grabbed a pen and some paper, and then motioned for him to proceed, Jaune quickly rattled off some, and Ironwood, who had memorized quite a few such things in his day, did a few mental calculations. The point was somewhere just between Atlas and Menagerie.

"Are you going to be at this spot with those girls?" he asked, trying to sound casual, and Jaune's smile, for just a moment, wavered. It was like he hadn't thought of that, but the smile came back a moment later, as he ran his fingers through his hair, slicking it back.

"Oh, oh, you think this is a trade? No, no, no. This is price for price. You give me mine, and I'll release yours. Don't? And they die. You see, I'm not playing around anymore. I played your games, I tried to be the good boy, the mama's boy. My mother died though. At the docks. These bitches killed her. So now, their lives? They exist only because they have worth to me. Prove to me they're worthless, and I'll throw them in the trash," he brought the knife up, as if to emphasize the point, a common enough tactic…but effective in this case.

"And I'd hurry, if I were you. Can't wake the bitches to feed them, and we've had them for a few days now. Wait too long, and even when we let them go, well…it won't be pretty," he said that, and then cut the transmission. The moment it was done, Ironwood moved, bolting out the door, his two Ace-Ops guards following him as he stormed through the ship, and right down to logistics.

They spent less than a minute finding the singal the scroll used…only to discover a dozen 'sources' all over Vale that could have been where this one was. And what's worse, they pointed out it could be none of them. He didn't tell them what was going on, but knowing…well anything about the current situation, the on duty officer guessed, and added that if they acted against them all at once, and NONE of them were correct? Those girls would be dead before they could recall the teams.

That left one option. Give Jaune…give Null what he wanted. Ironwood thanked the on duty officers, and then, with a sigh of such weariness that it almost spread to everyone in the room, he marched back up to his office, the one that joined his captain's cabin, and collapsed into the chair, trying to think of how to make this work. He had to make this work, as he refused to abandon those girls.

Then a sudden bit of inspiration struck him. Those women were his 'prisoners', military prisoners. No one in any position had any authority to claim them. He suddenly had an awful, terrible, idea, and with a few calls, had it setup, apologizing to the woman on the other end of the line, as he made the final one, and wishing her good fortune, as he signed off, and then leaned back in his seat, smiling himself, as he closed his metal hand in the air, like he was crushing a throat.

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The chamber under Beacon. Raven had known about it from her days on team STRQ. Well, to be fair, it was one of several such chambers, but she knew it to be the deepest of them. The one designed to house a small group of people against any swarm of Grimm that could tear through everything above. It had one entrance, and thus, one way in or out, save for her portal, which she held open for Cinder.

The pair of them stepped out into the dimly lit room, and quickly made their way to the far edge, where their targets were. Cinder's was in a glass tube of some kind. The thing looked like it had stepped out of some kind of science fiction novel, with flashing lights beside the empty tube, slowly blinking, as if beckoning someone to step inside. Raven's gaze, however, was swept past it, to the other woman in the room.

Well…girl. Amber was younger than Yang, and she looked beat up. Patches of her skin were cut, and one of her fingers was bandaged. She'd had an accident of some kind. Oddly, she had aura, Raven could see it, and it WAS healing her, but then how had she gotten those wounds in the first place? They weren't the sort someone with aura tended to get, and it left her befuddled, if only for a moment.

That moment passed with the sound of shattering glass, and her head whipping around to find Cinder stabbing Amber Fall. She'd…well Amber was already dead. She felt that Ozpin keeping her alive like this was a travesty. She was, however, surprised at Cinder's action, rushing to her, and slapping her even as she had that look in her eyes as she received exactly what she'd wanted.

Cinder looked up at her, hurt, only for them both to hear it. The sound of distant alarms. Intruder ones probably, and Raven rushed back to Amber Arc, the only way Yang would be safe. After this, she'd put the 'observation' portal back on her. It would take hours, that was why she could only offer her daughter a single moment of protection in the future, but with all this, she knew she'd have to do it again, just to keep her safe from Cinder.

She tried to be gentle, disconnecting the various tubes and the like, but soon found it best to just rip them off, tearing away the plastic, as a low, loud thump echoed from the elevator, Cinder didn't rush her, not verbally, but her eyes told her to just take the girl. They'd figure something out. But the moment the last tube was pulled free, something entirely unexpected happened to them.

Raven, who was wounded in one leg still, collapsed to the floor, crying out in pain like she'd not felt in a long time. Her aura, suddenly gone. She recognized the feeling, both from training to depletion a time or two, but also from her fight with Jaune Arc on the docks two days ago. This, however, was worse, as something far more ingrained in her being than simply her aura winked out as well.

Cinder, looking back at her, scoffed, and came closer, only to enter the invisible boundary of something, and suddenly her eyes, with flickering flames around the edges, dulled. The world around her grew heavier, and her step faltered, nearly enough to send her crashing to the floor. The two women, one laying on the ground, the other just barely on her feet, looked at each other, then at Amber.

Cinder moved a moment later, obviously intending on killing her, and getting out. After all, she had what she wanted, and Raven…well, they'd figure something out. But Raven knew better. Jaune Arc's smile, that thing plastered on his face. It was not the smile of a man who would give her her daughter back, not without his price, and if this girl died, Yang's life was forfeit.

When the elevator finally arrived in the underground chamber, holding Glynda Goodwitch and Ozpin, they were left bewildered. Before them, two women were currently engaged in a duel to the death, with Cinder Fall obviously trying to kill Raven Branwen. As much as neither was in the good graces of the pair, as they flitted about the room, the flames coming from the eyes of Cinder told them exactly who to support.

This left the fight's conclusion foregone. Cinder, for all that she was indeed quite good, had only been able to fight Glynda to a stand still a few weeks earlier. Not that she was dumb about it. She used Amber Arc's strange field, so much more powerful than her brother's, to her advantage, diving into it so that Glynda's thrown objects would lose momentum, or those strange blasts of Ozpin would simply vanish.

She also was trying to make her way to the elevator, no need to kill anyone, while on their end, the three others had to stop her. Protecting the escape proved far harder, and for a moment, it seemed as Cinder dove for it, she would get out, only for Glynda to spot Raven making a portal, and tossing a shard of glass from Amber's tube into it, the shimmering piece coming up from beneath Cinder with all the force of a bullet.

It drove Cinder into the ceiling, the look on her face one of disbelief, as her life's blood began to swiftly drain from her body, as she was soon dropping to the floor. It seemed the weapon had been aimed well, and as she was rolled onto her back, it was obvious her heart had been pierced. Ozpin, in a strange move, tried to drag Miss Fall back into Amber's field, but the woman had enough strength left to thwart him.

She dove at him, dragging him out, as she burst her entire body into flames, the power of the Fall Maiden consuming both to ash, as Cinder's thoughts were focused on the one before her, Glynda, who, with a twist of her hand, pushed them both away from the innocent girl. When it was over, she then shouted out in surprise, pain, and power, as her body began to glow with an awesome energy.

An hour later, Glynda, with her eyes now shimmering, would emerge, along with her two living people, and one dead body. The former two, Raven and Amber Arc, would be shuffled out of the building, neither one getting much in the way of questioning, while the third would find itself given a state funeral later that month, as Glynda recounted a tale of her being Ozpin's daughter, kept at a distance, until an assassin had found her way to Beacon and killed both.

That news would rattle all of Vale, and the world as a whole. Some would know the truth of it, and they would lament. One girl with green hair would, in her grief, throw herself from a cliff, while a silver haired boy would smirk, shrug, and vanish. Others, like a headmaster of another combat school, seeing the two sides in a shadow war weakened, would start to plan his own schemes, and the world would thus begin to turn.

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Ciel Soleil was used to strange assignments. She was Penny's partner after all, and finding out you were being assigned as the 'big sister' of an android with a soul was not the most normal thing in the world, even in a world like Remnant. But at least she had been part of something she understood doing that. Penny was a weapon system, a living one sure, but still a weapon, so she was just there to protect and direct it.

This? She had been told to go to an apartment, finding two women and a young boy there. Her orders were to get the three to one of the 'Shadow' Docks in the airhanger. If ANYONE stopped her, she was to kill them. No questions, no second chances. Anyone tries, they're a target. She was uncomfortable with that sort of order, but she trusted Ironwood, and he'd told her it was for the good of Atlas.

It didn't help that the first person to try and stop them was in a military uniform. A captain, far above her own meager rank, but the General…well, he outranked everyone, and the moment the Captain told her to hand over her prisoners, she did as she'd been told. She drew her weapon and killed him. She gave no warning, and watched as he slumped to the plates on the catwalk, before rushing the civilians out.

She wondered about them. The boy, the two young women…young in terms of age in general, they were older than her, married too. But they didn't act like civilians. They just kept walking, the boy not even saying a word as they moved towards the place where she'd been told to drop them off. On the way five more people of rank approached her. She let them say the words each time, before she killed them.

They learned, of course. The sixth time, this time someone she knew from the Academy, an instructor, didn't ask, he jumped at her, demanding her charges. She wasn't honestly certain she could take him, but a bullet, armor piercing, designed to deal with aura too, slammed into his head, and before he could adapt, another blasted out his chest, leaving a wound there the size of her fist.

Now they were running. She heard the near inaudible click of those armored boots of the Ace-Ops from the catwalks around them. Apparently they had backup. She was grateful for it, as she saw a dozen more enemies dead along their path, some of them familiar faces from the Council, and one a distant relation who had been a former Admiral in the Atlas navy.

When they reached the docks, she quickly shuffled the trio into a waiting ship, one of those fast darter things, the experimental aircraft that might, if they panned out, eventually replace the bullhead as the go to deployment craft. The General was going all out on this, it seemed, and she was soon stepping back as the ship was launched, its engines making the air ripple with heat, before it streaked away.

In the skies of Atlas, that ship would be accosted by three others soon after launch. All bearing the logo of Chivalric Arms. None of the three aggressors survived the confrontation, as anti-air cannons shredded them without a word, the CIC telling the ship to go straight to its destination, as per the orders of General Ironwood, as those below continued to fight against the forces of a full blown coup-d'etat.

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Four days after three huntresses had vanished, the world was much changed. The leadership of Atlas found itself scrubbed clean, as over half the Council members had tried to intervene in what was being described as 'a purely military operation'. Reports were released quickly that showed three unknown individuals, with no known connections to the White Fang or any other group, had been escorted to a waiting ship, and forces had tried to stop them.

Why were they important enough for this? No one was saying, but in the wake of it, and the death of people like Jacques Schnee, the Council's attitude was visibly changing. Suddenly dust mines found themselves under scrutiny that had been lacking. Business and facilities belonging to everything from Chivalric Arms to the makers of Atlasian Black coffee were being brought to heel.

In Vale, the loss of Ozpin was felt in the school of course, but the Council soon found that now Headmistress Glynda Goodwytch was not one to be trifled with. She used information that Ozpin had merely been sitting on to unseat all but one of the sitting Councilors, tossing the others into cells so deep and dark the sun wouldn't be seeing them for a few dozen years or so.

And in an apartment, behind a door hidden via an illusion, a young man would approach several young women, suspended in tanks of water, with small wires dipped into the liquid. A neat trick an older man had known, to neutralize aura, with the shocks, barely felt, would be enough to keep them depleted. Done with them, he would smash the tanks, violently, and then would leave the girls to awaken on their own.

Weak, starving, and barely able to stand, the three would awaken hours after, and would stumble from the apartment, their captor and his people long gone. Glynda, grateful for their survival, would hide the news of what had happened, while turning a blind eye to a certain aircraft with three white stripes on its side, entering and then leaving the Vale airspace, wishing the ones on it…not well, but at least to stay out of her Kingdom for the rest of their lives.

In Menagerie, a family was reunited, and amongst all the tears, happy and sad, there was a promise to never be drawn apart again. The White Fang allowed this, as they began to take a watch and see approach, as all the changes began to stack up, and soon enough, they themselves might be able to go to the bargaining table, if not as equals, then at least with a voice, and for them, that was victory.

In her Citadel, far from the Lands of Men, the Mother of Grimm would see these changes, and a smile would touch her lips. This world was in flux, and despite losing her most mobile agent, that flux meant more might shake out for her. For now though, she would wait. If only to see how all the chips would fall, and how many would be in her own pile at the end of the day. After all, if Karma was protecting a few young girls, what would it do if she claimed one or two for herself? A plan formed, but for now, the world would be at peace.