Here we are again guys, going to try and keep this going as part of my new plan. I've altered it a little bit so that at the very least each week there will be one chapter for this story, two if I am lucky. With that said, there really isn't that much else to say. Back to the story, I hope you all enjoy!

Beta: CrowSkull

Destiny Fated Black

Chapter 21

Jaune cut down a small Beowolf with reckless easy, under the careful watch of his champion partner Pyrrha and the supervision of Specialist Schnee he felt confident enough to take point. His partner, as usual, was much too polite to deny him this small pleasure, which was admittedly one of the best things about her. Aside from getting away from doing his homework, he could get away with a lot with her. Made him wonder sometimes, but he wasn't going to complain about it.

The Grimm in Glenn was much less dangerous than he'd thought they'd be. The reason for that was probably because there weren't any people here for them to go after but he knew that somewhere in these vast ruins there was going to be a Goliath somewhere. He already saw some on the ride here in between throwing up in the air toilet and being able to look out the window, and Glenn was a really big city, there had to be some really strong Grimm hidden around somewhere. And thankfully if there were, he had a championship fighter and a full-on huntress behind him to deal with it for him. After training with his partner he found what his limits were, and without help, strong Grimm would likely have a field day with him.

Ever since they landed it was going through a routine of things, it's been two days so far and at night they would have a watcher that would keep an eye out for Grimm while the others rested and in the morning they would break down camp, send out two groups of three, which usually consisted of him, Pyrrha and Winter and the other group consisting of Ren, Nora and Qrow. After the patrols were completed they would set up camp again after giving them instructions and little tests of their memory to see if they are remembering what they were being taught out there on the field and rinse and repeat. It was a constant cycle. Not necessarily a boring one because of the Grimm and new scenery, but one that Jaune quickly found himself getting used to.

"Great job Jaune!" Pyrrha cheered when Jaune slew another Grimm. Unbeknownst to him, she took out the rest of the pack but let her partner believe that it was just the one.

"Thanks!" He replied happily.

For them, this was a good distraction from everything happening back in Vale. With the White Fang and the white-haired guy running amok in the city a lot of the students were getting stressed out. Most of them had family in the city, some of them were even caught up in some of the robberies that were happening frequently. Others were faunus and in the same boat, and the racists and bigots like Cardin were keeping an eye on them afraid that they were going to use their teachings and join the White Fang. It was stupid and no faunus student even considered that, but it was something that got serious enough to the point that the professors had to start stepping in and shut down any racist comments and potential attacks.

It only got worse when Blake was killed, most of them still believe that she was human when she was found out to not only be a faunus but an ex-member of the White Fang. All under their noses too. It wasn't like she was friends with a whole lot of them, hell, not even the members of Team JNPR could even say that they knew her very well, but she was still one of their peers and a distant friend if any. Most of all, however, she was a student of Beacon and she tried to stop Marcus Black and died for it. For one of the first times, Jaune watched the news for hours, finally opening his eyes to everything that was happening in the world. Menagerie was apparently getting up in arms and downright excommunicated every member of the White Fang and forbid them from ever returning, apparently blaming them for Blake's death. The reason for that was because again, apparently, Blake was the daughter of the chieftain of the island kingdom.

It was a horrible surprise after horrible surprise if Jaune didn't already have time to process it he didn't know if he would have been able to really handle it. Thanks to his teammates and friends banding together to give everyone support, he was. The ones who needed it most was Team RYS, and he didn't know if they were ever going to be able to move on, even Ruby, his best friend, never seemed to be able to stop crying just yet.

Behind the blonde and his red-haired partner, Winter followed them and watched with an observant eye. The two of them were going to be okay, Qrow already scouted around earlier that morning and no serious threats of Grimm were spotted within thirty miles of where they camped, this was more of a lesson to the students than anything. However, just because Qrow didn't spot Grimm that didn't mean that something more dangerous than Grimm wasn't still skulking around somewhere.

This entire time she's felt like she was being watched, every broken window and every broken wall in the ruined buildings around her could potentially be housing a very dangerous assassin. The two students before he didn't stand a chance, not even Pyrrha Nikos. The way she was used to fighting was in a tournament like setting, and she has seen the way Marcus fights, both in person on the roof and in the footage of when he fought and slew Blake Belladonna. It would hardly be a contest. The champion might be able to hold her own for a few minutes, but she would not win that fight. He would pick her apart and destroy her if he fought her seriously.

And honestly, the specialist thought that if she was to fight him one on one, she wouldn't win either. After going through all the records she could find about Marcus Black, she read through countless concealed from public military information about all the times they tried to assassinate the assassin. Marcus was an expert and evading them, and in his prime, he was able to defeat entire squads at the same time. Not all at once of course, he could still be overwhelmed and there were moments that he was almost defeated before. But he used everything and anything to give himself an advantage. Whether it be stealing away someone's semblance or using the environment to his advantage. Such as fighting in a public area and using innocents as shields so his assailants wouldn't fire their ranged weapons, leading huntsman into Grimm and causing a three-way battle, and other times he was just too skilled to be taken down. To expand on that, there were actual official records that revealed that yes, he is a relative from way back in the past and connected directly Nicholas Schnee. Which confirmed that yes, they were very distant cousins.

She would never consider him as such obviously, but it was disturbing to know that even however slight it may be, they did share the same ancestor. It didn't stop him from assassinating many Schnee's and it wouldn't stop her from taking him down once and for all.

The plan was that if he showed himself he would be ganged up on immediately. They couldn't give him the time to plan and think. She would be the front liner while Pyrrha and Jaune supported and Qrow's team would be notified as soon as possible. If they were able to fight him six against one, even the best fighter in the world could be overwhelmed. The only concern would be what he would do with the environment around him, which consisted of hundreds of ruined buildings whose foundations have only grown weaker over time. Not to mention the Grimm that could be roaming around every corner. If given time their advantage of numbers could quickly turn into a disadvantage since the negative emotions that come forth naturally in a battle would attract Grimm by the dozens.

Which was why she was so on guard, and hasn't been able to get off it except for the time Qrow convinced her it was time to get some shut-eye for the rest of the night. They had their advantages and disadvantages, but the last time she let herself lower her guard the man snuck into Beacon and right under their noses killed a dozen Atlesian guards and a huntress in training. She as much as every staff member and professor at Beacon all felt guilt in not being able to protect the student, however irrational and not at fault she may be, she felt partly responsible for the death of that student.

If it wasn't personal before, it was now. Qrow had more reason than her to take him down but her sister was now depressed and crying every day because of what he did. It may be compromising for her to be on this mission, but then again just about every huntress and huntsman felt like one of their own was just taken from them meer weeks ago. There wasn't much in the range of options for people who weren't compromised, and she and Qrow were some of the best in Vale at the moment, they couldn't send anyone worse if it wasn't an army.

Taking in a deep breath she made herself think on other matters. Glenn was still as vast as she was taught back when she was still in school. It was a historical tragic event that was known all over the world in every kingdom and even in some villages that lied in the outskirts of each kingdom. The city was more ruined than she thought it'd be, and unfortunately, essentially none of the bodies that were left behind were collected and buried properly. Her and the rest of their squadron opted to not focus on the decayed skeletal remains of the bodies of innocents and the past huntsman and huntresses who tried to protect them and gave their lives in doing so, only for the call to be made to collapse the tunnels so that Vale didn't meet the same fate as their attempted expansion.

From what she read many huntsman and huntresses either retired or quit after that, and she couldn't blame them. Witnessing such events unfold must have been beyond traumatizing. She was still a teenage girl when it happened, but Qrow was in his fourth year of Beacon. It was one of the things she admired about him, the ability to keep going on after that. A shame certain people were not able to move past it…

Her thoughts were interrupted as she spotted a shadow move from around the corner of a building that Jaune and Pyrrha were just about to walk past. Moving without hesitation, she fired past them in a white blur and activated her semblance the moment she got in front of the alley. An Atlesian knight burst from a glyph and impaled a creature on the end of its pure white-blue blade, lifting it up and out of the alley to reveal that it was not the assassin like she thought it'd be but the alpha of the pack that they were worrying about before. The Grimm struggled to get itself off the sword, but expired quickly due to blood loss and the massive wound in its chest.

"Woah!" Jaune cried out as the alpha Beowolf, a creature that was many times bigger than he was landed with a weighty thud just in front of him. "I didn't even notice that it's huge!"

"Me neither…" Pyrrha said with a sigh of relief.

"Watch your surroundings," Winter said as she turned to them and deactivated her summoning glyph. She looked to them with a scolding glare that made the two teens shrink in on themselves. "If I'd not been here you would have been caught off guard and potentially killed. Never let your guard down when you are in Grimm territory. No amount of skill will protect you from an attack you do not see coming."

"Yes, mam…" Pyrrha knew that last part was directed straight at her. She looked down, ashamed with herself. "I'm sorry, it won't happen again."

"I certainly hope so," Winter sheathed her weapon and continued their patrol forward. Neither Jaune or Pyrrha argued that they were supposed to be the ones taking point, after that, they knew they couldn't be trusted to keep up the front line.

Winter sighed silently through her nose. Teenagers, it was annoying that she had to keep watch for them after all the training she's done to become a specialist, but she knew it was for good reason. She thought that it was Marcus casting that shadow at first, only for her to find out that she was literally jumping at shadows with that last attack. Now she may have broadcasted her position to the man if he didn't know they were there already.

Tch… I need to be more careful as well. She scolded herself mentally. She couldn't afford to keep making mistakes like that, she didn't know who could be watching. One wrong move, and their entire squad could be cut down by one half.

Marcus sniggered as he watched the group of three continuing forward after a light scolding to the two youngest ones. If he was allowed to he would have jumped out at them right at that moment, being in the dark building beside them and a few floors up, they wouldn't have even heard him coming until he was already on the huntress. Dead Grimm evaporated in front of him as he turned back around and continued to move through the abandoned apartment complex. There was a pack of Creeps here just waiting to be slaughtered and it was annoying to take them all out silently. He was good at suppressing his emotions so they didn't detect him until he was already taking them out one by one.

He's been following these three for the past couple of hours. He decided that it would be better to let them roam around for a few days before actually going to try and find them. Give them time to calm down a little, take in the sight and get used to the destroyed city. It made it easier for him to sneak around them undetected. He stuck to the buildings above them and within them. Either on the buildings or in some stable rooms themselves. His job here was to keep an eye on them, and while he had many chances to take them all down, which he knew he could given that he had the element of surprise on his side, he knew and Roman pointed out that since they were split up if one group went silent the other would assume correctly that they were no longer active and have been defeated. They would return to Vale and come back with a practical army. So he took the unneeded advice and just became their shadow.

Contrary to popular belief, one didn't need to actually keep their target insight to know where they were and where they were going. Especially for a place like Mountain Glenn, the only direction they could safely take was the road because it was much more open than the ruined and dark buildings and alleyways. Which meant all he had to do was look out a window and find them. It was like a cycle, he would peek over the edge or out a window, spot them, wait ten seconds, move and then spot them again. If they were too far he would catch up, too close and he would wait for half a minute. It was second nature to him after going through a life of evading and defeating huntsman and huntresses and even other assassins like Cobi after he took her bounty. Thankfully he didn't have to worry about that here in Glenn, since there were no people here that meant no targets, which meant no assassins coming to get him if Anon decided to break his side of the deal and send people after him. Ironically, possibly the least safe place in Vale was the safest place for him. Away from Cinder and all that Beacon bullshit.

At this rate, he was never going to be found out by them. He only ever poked his head out for a second at a time, and he only ever did that about every minute or so and when he did do it he would make sure his white hair and face were still concealed by shadows. It would take some crazy observational skills to spot him with the way he was making his way through the dark buildings now, it was difficult even for him to get through all the dark buildings and he had to move extra slowly when it came to rooftops.

Grimm came and went as he moved on. He avoided them whenever he could and destroyed them when he had to. The small ones were small fry compared to him but the bigger ones would take more effort, so he often didn't even get close enough to those ones for them to detect him lest he announces his presence and make everything even harder for himself.

"Just like old times…" He whispered to himself as he spotted the three moving on ahead and almost out of sight, signaling to him that it was time to move again. He prepared himself to get out of his current hiding spot and looked around for Grimm, after failing to find anything he relied on his hearing to try and locate with that, once he was confident that he was safe he nodded his head and stood up.

Only for him to slam his back up against a dark corner of the room as he heard a bird flap its wings and land on the windowsill beside him. He knew better than to assume that the bird was just your regular every day avian and slowly unholstered his gun. He was shrouded in darkness but a bird's eyes worked differently than a humans, which meant it could probably see him in the dark. He took aim at it and held his breath, he didn't want to shoot if he didn't have too, even if it was Qrow the bird would still have aura and it wouldn't die from just one shot despite how weak and frail its body would be. It's small and black head sporadically looked to each corner of the room as it preened its own feathers.

Finally, after a few very tense seconds, Marcus almost pulled the trigger when it's head reared upon him. He let out that breath of relief and cursed for the bird to leave when he saw that the bird did not have the red eyes that he was looking for. Once the bird panicked and flew away from its potential predator, Marcus holstered his guns and looked out the window again. Finding that Winter, Jaune and Pyrrha were even further ahead than before.

"Damn it," Deciding that it was more risky than it was worth, he let them go and pulled out his scroll, sending a quick message to Neo who was the one keeping an eye on Qrow and his group. Having a semblance that basically makes you invisible made it pretty easy one to sneak around even in plain sight, so she naturally had that advantage over him and didn't have to worry about being seen as much.

"Heading back now, my three are going ahead but the suns going down. They'll probably camp up for the night and start again in the morning. You should probably do the same." Was the message he typed and sent to the mute.

'K' Was Neo's reply.

He scoffed and stuff the scroll away, his job was done for now and he doubted that they'd find the subway that night but would probably find it sometime tomorrow. With one last glare to where that bird used to be, he jumped out the window and landed quietly on the road under him and made his way back underground.

Roman puffed smoke out of his lungs and then proceeded to take another deep breath straight after, blowing even more of it out and finishing the rest of that cigar and flicking it away with his finger when he saw that it was just a stub of thick brown paper left. He barely acknowledged his old friend turned assassin as he entered the front train car with him, landing gently with impossible silence that would have been unheard if he was actually trying to hide himself.

"They'll find us tomorrow," Marcus said as he moved to the seat against the wall of the train car, taking out and flourishing a knife out of boredom. "Are the animals ready?"

"As ready as they'll ever be I guess," Roman muttered with a sigh. "What did you see today, same shit?"

"Same shit," Marcus nodded his head. "The Schnee and her two brats did the same shit, though I laughed a bit when she jumped at a shadow and killed an alpha, Grimm. I could have killed them a dozen times already if you weren't so afraid of being caught out by Ironwoods army."

"Sorry to disappoint but not everyone can beat whole teams of huntsman at once," Roman rolled his eyes. "And I would like to hold off on turning this ride on for as long as possible, the less pissed Cinder is the better."

"And here I thought you were planning to ditch her," Marcus remarked.

"Oh I am," Roman laughed. "But on the off-chance that she isn't planning to kill us all I'd rather ditch her on good terms y' know? Maybe if she finds me she wouldn't burn me to death on the spot that way."

"Hmph," Roman was lucky to even have that option. Marcus almost reminded him of the fact that he was being hunted in all kingdoms, by other assassins, and potentially the fucking personification of evil if he was so lucky to gain her scorn as well. It turns out that he's made quite a name for himself, hasn't he? Especially recently.

Neo turned up a few minutes later, with much similar results to what he reported to Roman. Qrow, Winter and their little junior team of huntsman in training were still just doing the same shit. Day in and day out, and the nights were always the same. There were just six of them but sadly that was six more huntsman and huntresses that the White Fang could reliably handle. The only ones that he was confident that could take them on was himself, Neo, and maybe Roman if he caught one or two by himself. He was always the weak one on the team, so it didn't surprise him to find out he had Neo babysitting and protecting him whenever fights came along. But when he did and would have to fight, he really was a dirty tricker and had more than a few tricks up his sleeve.

"Man," Roman sighed again and it was clear that he was tense with the way he was constantly tapping his foot and adjusting his hat into more comfortable positions. "This is shitty."

After a few moments of awkward silence and Roman looking to him through the corner of his eye, Marcus rolled his own eyes and replied. "What is, Roman?" In a bored tone.

"Y' know, the whole blowing up a big fucking hole in the middle of vale thing seems to be getting to be a little bit. Just imagine all the chaos that we're going to cause, and the Grimm coming in to make things even worse. Man, if I'm not more wanted than you are at the end of this than I am going to be genuinely surprised. But still," Roman continued. "Lotta people are going to die, man. Especially the women, and especially the children."

Neo snickered silently behind him.

Marcus frowned. "You're selling it a little too hard there Roman, what's the point you're trying to make?"

"My point," Roman turned to face him fully, and animately twirled his can and placed it on the ground with a loud tap. "Is that this is going to be bad for business, believe it or not, Marcus, but I have never killed anyone before."

"Bullshit."

"Fine, I haven't killed anyone important," Roman allowed. "But my statement remains. My reputation of a gentleman criminal is going to be dragged through the mud and thrown into a cesspool only for that cesspool to be lit on fire and dumped in the Grimmlands. I'm a wanted man now, but I'm the kind of wanted man that doesn't have to worry about cops going after him because I don't cause chaos. I just make points by stealing millions of Lien and therefore make it a little harder for myself as the council gets their heads out of their asses. Only way to get a message across."

"I swear I was hired once to kill a council member…"

"Oh yeah!" Roman laughed. "I remember that new, man, Atlas was pissed. Anyway, I don't want to do this but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do to survive."

"Even if it means giving the women and the children a brutal death?"

"Even then…" Roman hesitated, good, Marcus would have been put off if he didn't.

Marcus hummed and looked away and down to the floor. He didn't care much for the deaths of others, women and children died every day, and his kill count didn't even come close to that of the Grimm. He was just the most famous for it because of his past allegiance to Beacon. A man of his profession couldn't allow himself to feel empathy or sympathy for others. If he did he would have been broken by now. He had his Black genes to help him with that, which over time underwent microevolutions in order to make each generation less and less emotional. Some turned out well while others… not so much. His generation was a lucky one, he and his late brother were born pretty similar, but it was clear that he came out with the better hand.

Mercury wasn't so lucky… in the scenario that Mercury lived a longer life, he would have been too directed by his own emotions which would have lead to him making mistakes.

He didn't find himself thinking about his son often, he was dead and that was that. It wasn't like they were incredibly close anyway. After his wife was murdered and Mercury blamed him for it the only relationship they had was driven by blood and nothing else. He was a shit father of course, but he did try. One thing was certain however, he was not going to have any more kids. Which meant that when he died, the Black bloodline would finally become extinct.

Thinking about his son lead to him gritting his teeth he remembered other things that happened because of his birth. The death of a friend, and the promise he silently agreed too. The small amount of emotions he had almost lead to him making a mistake at the wrong time, it made him hesitate. Got him shot and then lead to him making another mistake right after that. Letting the girl down and deciding to let her live. Of course, it didn't go the way he intended it too, he kept his aura up just in case and was rewarded for it by surviving another gunshot to the head. He killed her and then everything became a mess right as a result. All because he stayed there for an extra minute when he didn't have to.

And those damn words were coming back to him. Change his mind it begged him, do the right thing it told him. He promised, it reminded him. He remained silent and shut his eyes, Roman noticed that he wasn't going to speak any more to him and scoffed. If only he knew what was going on in his head at that moment, maybe he wouldn't have been such an asshole about it.

Even dead for over a decade, and Summer still kept being an annoying thorn in his ass…

And she'd still be around if it wasn't for… wasn't for…

Marcus snapped his eyes open and stood up in a panic. Roman was startled and was pushed back until he fell over, Neo widened her eyes and prepared to fight just in case Marcus was making a move, but instead she watched with confused shock as the white-haired man aimed his gun at the front of the train over Roman and not at the window of the front train car.

At the noise of the train was a black bird, a crow with red eyes. It was staring at them, a strange emotion within them. Neo thought to herself that she didn't know birds could have eyes of that color.

Marcus fired without hesitating. The bird squawked in a panic and flew off, Marcus ran up to the window and cursed when he realized that he's lost it when it flew up to a crack in the ceiling of the tunnel.

"Fuck!" He cursed loudly.

"The fuck was that for?" Roman complained as he was helped up by Neo.

"They're coming," Marcus barked. Roman widened his eyes, shocked. "That bird was fucking Qrow Branwen, I don't know how but I know he can turn into a bird."

"How do you know that?"

"I-" Marcus hesitated, remembering a conversation from a long time ago. "Cinder," He lied. "Don't worry about it, just go to the White Fang and get them to start this train now."

Roman knew the tone of his voice, it was a voice that left him no room to talk back unless he wanted to get shot. Roman looked to Neo and nodded to her, and then nodded to Marcus and stormed out the door. Once that was settled Neo looked to him for instructions as if he was the one calling the shots now, which honestly he pretty much was.

"When they get here, try and separate them," Marcus said as he loaded a magazine for his pistol. "Take the kids, I can deal with the two hunters."

Neo didn't even argue with him, she knew he was capable of it. All she had to do was play her part. She disappeared with her semblance and he didn't know when he was going to see her again, not that it mattered as long as she did what he told her to do.

Marcus sneered and loaded his gun, again. He hesitated. Again.

He was starting to get sloppy, thankfully, it seems like the White Fang finally woke up as he heard them start to load as much dust as they could only each train car.

The final set up chapter, whew, this was a good one. Short but sweet, I like it. Next one is the long one and this little arc will be about 3 chapters give or take. Wish me luck, time to go to work again.

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