I'm back again, hope this doesn't suck.
After a long and stressful day assisting her boss in connecting the dots on the Yang Branwen case, Officer Nancy Opal, sat sipping on some cheap liquor and watching some documentary about Atlesian wildlife. She had lost his appetite and didn't think she'd get any sleep, thanks to the worries she now, and she was just doing her best to relax. She didn't drink often, but now she understood the magnitude of what the city and the GTF were facing, she needed a little alcohol to take the edge off.
As much as she didn't want to admit it, since she'd become a cop and joined the GTF to make the world a better place no matter the cost to her, she was terrified by the new threat. Vale had been a dangerous place already with the likes of the Branwens and Roman Torchwick running around, but if the new intel was to be believed, things were about to get a whole lot more dangerous for the police, the criminals and everyone caught up in between.
Despite all of the prejudice she had to face as a Faunus, she had always tried to see the best in everyone, even the most ruthless of criminals. But now, she was starting to question her way of thinking. She didn't agree with her more hardline members of the GTF about the death penalty, but with Yang and her new gang's recent actions, she was finding it harder to argue against them and harder to believe that incarceration could reform people.
Even with her best efforts, she couldn't get those thoughts out of her head. Even though her family were all far from Vale, she couldn't help worrying that they would somehow get caught up in everything she and the GTF were facing. As much as she loved her job and couldn't see herself doing anything else, the risks associated with being on the frontline in the fight for Vale did make her question her career choice from time to time, and that uncertainty was now worse than ever with the storm that was coming.
The doubts and worries continued to swirl around in her head no matter what she did until she was snapped from her thoughts by all the lights and the TV going off at once. The sudden darkness came as a shock and she was hit by a sudden sense of dread before she noticed the blackout was affecting other nearby buildings, she relaxed a little upon realising that there probably weren't any malevolent forces at work, and focused on finding some alternate lighting.
With the flashlight on her phone acting as her only light source, she set about gathering to candles, but a knock on the door which almost made her jump out of her skin drew her attention away from the task at hand. Certain that it would either be someone from the building's staff on the residents or a neighbour looking to borrow a flashlight or something, she headed for the door without hesitation.
Of course, Nancy knew better than to just answer the door. So, she looked through the peephole into the hall which was now only lit by the dim red emergency lighting, to be greeted by the sight a woman she didn't recognise who seemed to be looking off down the hall. It struck Nancy as suspicious until she realised the woman was dressed like one of the building's maintenance staff.
She was somewhat reassured and hadn't seen any weapons on the maintenance worker, but still, she wasn't entirely certain she should be answering the door to the stranger. "Who is it?" she asked through the door, as she made a mental note of where her gun was in case the woman was a threat,
"Maintenance, I'm just checking in on everyone on this floor. Need to make sure we don't have any fire hazards and nobody needs help," the woman, sounding a little nervous, responded. She still continued to look down the hall when she answered, but Nancy didn't really think anything of it.
"Oh, well everything's fine here, but thank you for your concern," Nancy told her, not really wanting to let the woman in if she could avoid it but still trying to be polite since it seemed to just be a nice if slightly awkward maintenance worker doing their job.
"I'm sure you're right ma'am, but I'd like to do a quick inspection if you wouldn't mind letting me in," the woman responded, she sounded like she felt bad for having to intrude, and it was all Nancy needed to hear.
Not wanting to hinder the woman in her work and not having any suspicions, Nancy decided to grant the request. After all, she was sure that she would be able to defend herself against the woman if she had to. " Alright, come on in," she said, as she unlocked the door and pulled it open, stepping aside to let the woman enter.
"I'm sorry about this," the woman said as she looked Nancy in the eye for the first time. It would have seemed like she was just apologising for the intrusion, had her face not been one of pure fear. Nancy paused and looked at her confusion, which turned out to be the biggest mistake of her entire life."
A group of armed individuals dressed completely in black and wearing masks rushed in through the open door of the apartment. Before Nancy had time to react, she and the maintenance woman were forced to the ground at gunpoint with hands clamped over their mouths. Nancy felt her heart stop as it dawned on her what was happening and realised that she couldn't risk fighting back without putting the innocent maintenance worker at risk.
"Officer Opal, you try anything and they'll be picking her brains out of the carpet," one of the masked individuals threatened, pressing a shotgun against the maintenance workers head as they spoke.
Had she been on her own, Nancy would have tried to escape or fight, but the need to protect an innocent stopped her. So, she stayed still, and let her attackers do what they would. She was scared, but she was willing to lay down her life if she had to. Of course, coming to terms with the situation and her possible fate wasn't easy, even after everything she'd witnessed and been told in her time as a cop.
Without another word being spoken between the intruders, they bound, gagged and blindfolded Nancy and the other. Neither woman dared make a sound or resist, out of fear of incurring the wrath of their attackers. It was a truly terrifying ordeal, having freedom, sight and the ability to cry for help taken away, knowing any moment could be the last.
As quickly as they had come, the attackers left the apartment with the two captives in tow. Nancy stumbled a few times as she was forced through the halls of the apartment building and down the rarely used stairwell. She prayed to any god willing to listen, that nobody else would fall victim to her attackers, that her fellow captive would be okay, and that she would survive her ordeal or at least have a swift and painless death.
Her feline ears flicked around as she listened to her captors and tried to maintain some sense of where she was and what was happening around her. While no words were spoken, she could she was taken down to the underground parking area.
She wasn't sure who exactly was responsible for what was happening to her, as they were very careful to not reveal anything. Even as she was forced into the back of what she assumed was a van, very little was said.
"Package secured," she heard the one who'd threatened her say into either a radio or a phone.
"Good job, bring it in," her feline ears heard the person on the other end responded. Both of them the people sounded female, but that was all she really learned from hearing them speak.
The van soon started up and Nancy felt it begin to move. Having been told what to do in such a situation, she prepared herself to make a mental map of the route they took, so she would have some idea of where she was being taken. Of course, there was no guarantee that it would work or that she'd ever get a chance to use, but she had to try.
The drive took a while and there were many turns made, which she took as a sign that they knew what she was doing and were trying to throw her off. Still, they eventually came to a stop after driving down a ramp, which made her think they were parking underground.
The van doors opened and Nancy was dragged out, before being taken into what she assumed was an elevator. Her suspicions were confirmed when she heard the doors close and felt the sensation of the elevator going up. She felt herself being dragged out again once the doors opened again, and she immediately sense a lot of people surrounding her, before she was taken into a different room before being forced into a chair.
The door to the room closed, and Nancy heard someone take a seat opposite her before someone behind her pulled her blindfold off and removed her gag. She was immediately hit by a blinding light which hurt her Faunus eyes, and it took a moment to adjust. When her sensitive eyes finally adjusted, she was shocked to find herself sitting opposite none other than Pyrrha Nikos.
"Nikos?" Nancy questioned. She knew that Pyrrha had become involved with some unsavoury characters, but she was the last person she expected to see after being abducted.
Pyrrha gave her a small smile, which Nancy didn't expect. "It's nice to meet you, Officer Opal. For what it's worth, I'm sorry we had to bring you here like this," she said, which really caught Nancy off guard. She really didn't know what to make off the former cop and had no idea whether she was being genuine or just leading her on with the pleasantries.
Rather than responding in kind, Nancy asked "Why are you doing this? Why am I here?" She knew she wasn't going to get a good answer, but she at least wanted to know why she'd been abducted before things progressed.
"Right now, I just want to talk. We didn't just bring you here to hurt you, if that's what you think," Pyrrha assured her, still being unusually polite for a someone who had a cop kidnapped.
"What about that maintenance worker?" Nancy pressed, dreading the thought of the innocent woman being harmed.
"She'll be fine, as long as she cooperates. We have no intention of harming the innocent, of that I can assure you," Pyrrha explained, which did reassure Nancy a little, despite that fact she didn't know if she could believe a word the redhead was a saying.
"You better not touch her, it doesn't matter what you do to me, but don't touch a hair on her head," Nancy told her, wanting it to be known that she would rather die than let them harm her fellow captive.
"You're not in a position to make demands, Officer Opal," Pyrrha reminded her, briefly giving her a glimpse behind the calm and polite demeanour.
"Just don't hurt her, Nikos. Whatever this is, she has nothing to do with it," Nancy told her, not wavering from her desire to prevent the other woman from being harmed. Whoever the maintenance person was, she certainly didn't belong in the crossfire.
"As I said, she'll be fine as long as she cooperates. Now, if you're finished, I'll tell you what this is," Pyrrha responded, gesturing to the room they were in. She grew colder and more serious, and Nancy could tell she was a long way from the hero cop she'd once been.
"I'm listening," Nancy said to her. If she managed to get out alive, she wanted to obtain as much information as she could, and Pyrrha was providing her with a golden opportunity to find out what she was up to.
"Good. Now, let me tell you a story," Pyrrha said, before getting into it. "Back when I was still a cop, my partner and I were on patrol and we responded to a call about some suspicious activity. We interrupted a meeting between a number of dangerous criminals Raven Branwen, Roman Torchwick, Adam Taurus, and Cinder Fall. We got into a firefight with them and Jaune was hit. He's been in a coma ever since."
Nancy knew the story and she knew what Jaune was to Pyrrha, so despite the fact she didn't like what Pyrrha had become, she couldn't help feeling bad for her and for Jaune, for what they lost in the line of duty. Of course, she didn't say anything to Pyrrha, not wanting to interrupt her and potentially make her situation worse.
"At first I believe that those responsible would be brought to justice, but I wasn't allowed to involve myself in the case and Vale PD did nothing, even the GTF failed to act. So, wanting revenge and knowing I wouldn't get it the legal way, I quit the force and found myself a job at Beacon. That position helped me move forward with my plans while remaining under the radar, and it's how this all came to be," Pyrrha continued.
Nancy didn't like what she was hearing, knowing that the former hero felt like she'd been failed by the system she once served. She didn't agree with vigilante justice, but she could now see why Pyrrha had changed into what she now was.
"Eventually, Yang Branwen was brought in. At first, I thought she was a lost cause like her mother, but that quickly turned out to not be the case. I managed to get through to her, I turned her against her mother and she agreed to help me with my plans," Pyrrha then explained.
Nancy couldn't stifle a gasp at the revelation. Things had pointed to her and Yang being linked, but the possibility of a former cop working with the psychotic blonde had seemed far fetched. "How can you work with that psycho?" she had to ask.
"She's a victim too, and she cares about me," Pyrrha answered without hesitation, jumping to Yang's defence as if she hadn't brutally slaughtered countless people.
"She's dangerous, Nikos, you shouldn't trust her," Nancy told her, not wanting Pyrrha to be mixed up in Yang's dealings. Even if she disagreed with the path Pyrrha had chosen, she wanted to protect her from Yang.
"You don't know her the way I know her, you just see her for her crimes, not for the person she is beneath all that," Pyrrha snapped, clearly not appreciating the way Nancy spoke about Yang.
Nancy stared at her in disbelief. She couldn't understand how someone like Pyrrha could be so trusting of Yang. Even if she wanted revenge, aligning herself with someone like that was insane.
Pyrrha looked past her to the other person in the room. "I think it's time to bring her in," she said. The moment she said it, they headed out of the room, leaving Nancy and Pyrrha alone.
Nancy considered taking the opportunity to make a break for it, but she doubted she would get far even if she could somehow make it past Pyrrha, so she decided to put her escape attempt on hold. It soon proved to be the right decision, as the door opened a moment later, and in walked one of the people Nancy feared the most.
The Faunus' eyes opened widely in fear as she took in the sight of Yang Branwen. It would have been an intimidating sight even if she'd been fully armed and armoured, but bound and with the only escape route blocked, it was truly terrifying. Having seen what the blonde was capable of, and knowing she was on her shit list, Nancy assumed she was moments away from a violent and painful death.
"You causing problems, Opal?" Yang snarled, glaring at her with eyes that put the fear of the gods into her. Even after years of being a cop, Nancy struggled not to wet herself in fear.
"She's cooperating, mostly, but I wanted you to be here," Pyrrha told her. Nancy couldn't believe how relaxed Pyrrha was in Yang's presence, or how she spoke to her as if she was a normal person.
"Need me to rough her up a little?" Yang asked, taking a step closer to Nancy and clenching her fists. Despite not wanting to show her fear, Nancy closed her eyes, expecting a fist to be slammed into her face.
"Not yet, I haven't told her about the deal yet," Pyrrha responded. To Nancy's surprise, Yang did as Pyrrha told her. When she opened her eyes, she found that Yang had stepped away and was now standing at Pyrrha's side. Yang following the orders of anyone other than her mother was completely unheard of, but somehow Pyrrha seemed to have managed to tame the beast.
"What do you want from me?" she built up the courage to ask, wanting to know what the deal was. She still didn't understand why they had gone to the trouble of abducting her and hadn't injured or killed her, it was a well-known fact that the GTF was incorruptible even under threat of death.
"It's quite simple. You keep the GTF out of our way, go after our enemies, protect Jaune, and act as a mole for us, or Yang kills you and we take out the rest of the GTF," Pyrrha explained, not even seeming vaguely concerned by the prospect of Yang killing members of the same police department she once served.
"You know I can't do that, I won't do that," she responded, ignoring how much her self-preservation instincts were screaming at her to give them what they wanted, after all, she was sure the rest of the GTF would be safe even if she was killed.
Yang snarled at her, storming over to her and grabbing her by the throat. "You know we can get to the rest of the GTF, we already know their names and addresses. We could kill them all in their sleep, and then who would protect the city you care about so much?" Nancy didn't want to believe what she was hearing, but they had been able to get to her, so she couldn't just assume they were bluffing, but she couldn't give in.
"I'm not afraid of you," she said defiantly, despite the fact that was very obviously not true. She couldn't and wouldn't bend to the will of Yang Branwen, even if it cost her her life, she couldn't do it.
"Bullshit, you're pissing yourself," Yand snapped, pointing to the dark stain which was now covering her crotch. She'd tried her best to stay strong, but Yang's hand around her throat and the threat of death had taken away her bladder control.
"Why are you doing this?" she asked, trying to ignore the fact Yang knew just how utterly terrified she was.
"I want revenge, for all of us," Yang told her, before releasing her and walking back over to Pyrrha. It didn't really help Nancy understand why Yang was working with Pyrrha, but she knew she was pushing her luck with the questions.
"This can be mutually beneficial you know, we can make the city's gang problem disappear," Pyrrha said, once Yang was back by her side, trying to sell the deal to her without making any further threats.
"I can't put innocent lives at risk, and you've already hurt too many people," she responded, not willing to step aside and allow them to continue slaughtering people across Vale, too many people would get caught up in the crossfire for her to ever agree to such an arrangement.
Pyrrha sighed. "If that's your answer, then I'm afraid we're going to have to do this the hard way," she said, before standing up and leaving the room. Suddenly, Nancy was alone with Yang, and she could tell the blonde wasn't willing to take no for an answer.
"You know, you could've made this so much easier for yourself," Yang said to her, as she cracked her knuckles. Then, before Nancy even had time to flinch, she threw a right hook and hit her in the side of the head with enough force to knock her to the floor.
Nancy's human ears rang and her visions blurred from the force of the impact, and she didn't get the chance to recover before a foot collided with her gut. It was going to be a long night for her if she survived the beating.
Far from Vale, near the city of Argus, a redheaded woman dragged herself across a lawn, as she fled from her home. Her clothes and skin were soaked in fresh blood, and her eyes were filled with tears, the horrors she'd witnessed were unspeakable.
A masked figure wielding a sword walked out of the house and quickly caught up with her. The figure rolled her onto her back and pressed the blood-covered blade to her throat.
"Why?" the redhead asked, as she looked up at the one who'd just broken into her home and butchered her family, the one who'd run her children through and beheaded her husband without mercy.
"You can thank your daughter for this," the figure responded, before slashing her throat with the blade.
As the redhead lay there bleeding to death, she watched through dull eyes, as the figure turned and walked away, wiping the sword clean before vanishing into the forest that surrounded the house.