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Hit List
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Before we saw their numbers,
Before we saw the glint of their weapons,
We heard their footfalls.
Like the drums of war.
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…
…
"…"
"…mmMMGAH!"
Yang woke with a violent jolt by something being shoved up her nose. She snorted painfully on reflex and cleared the irritation from her nostrils. Paper stuck to the side of her cheek from the drool and her body felt stiff from sleeping on the table.
Trying to get her bearings straight, Yang looked about her surroundings and recognized it as one of Haven Academy's libraries.
Though she made a lot of noise on waking, the facilities were practically empty, so no one paid any mind. Save the one person sitting across the study table.
She threw a heated glare at the boy who could only be the perpetrator.
"Bean. What was that for?"
"You were snoring," the mechanical voice replied. "Loudly. Interrupted my reading."
"Couldn't bother waking me up in a more gentle way?"
"Attempted. Was ignored. Resorted to…other alternatives."
After his half-hearted explanation, the boy retreated back to his book. The tome of which, was almost half his size.
The student's name was Bean. With his small stature and large forehead, he bore close resemblance to his namesake. The boy's tiny size was further accentuated by the school's uniform, which, despite being the smallest size available, wore long and baggy on his person.
Unlike most other students, Bean was only ten years of age. Possessing an advanced intellect, he was also part of the newly regimented "Strategic" class offered at the school. As well as studying under the direct mentorship of one of the professors and leading Grimm researchers: Henry Stein.
If there was a word others described Bean by, it would be genius.
Perhaps, because of his ability to learn faster than the teachers could provide material, the boy often skipped class. Choosing to spend his time at the library when no one was around. Which funnily enough, led to his acquaintance with Yang.
With a sudden renewed interest in academics, Yang had taken to studying seriously as of late. She attended lectures, took tests, even participated in the class sparring matches. Although she only fulfilled the minimum mandatory attendance, skipping non-essential lectures in favor of hitting the books in the library.
Yang gave an outstretched yawn that made her back and neck crack all over. She rubbed her eyelids and gave a sharp sniff.
"Bean…Help me study for the test coming up," she requested groggily.
"I am busy…So. No."
"You're reading a fictional novel."
"Relevant education. Philosophical morals. Invaluable at this age."
"Hm…" Yang glanced the cover of the book. "'The Man With Two Souls', huh?"
"You've read this text previously?"
"A little. I…fell asleep partway through."
Bean sighed. "Then, I assume, you do not know what it is based on."
"The duality of the soul, right?"
The boy cocked his head to the side.
"Impressive."
"I had it explained to me," Yang chuckled, remembering a past discussion with Blake. "Struggling with some inner demons?"
"…Possibly."
"Aren't we all."
Yang began sorting the books and papers surrounding her. Many of them documented historical events, notable figures, and variations of Grimm. Half-finished notes and assignments also included in the mess. She couldn't help but realize how much more studious she was now, compared to when she was at Beacon. One of the many things that were changing within her.
"—Afternoon, Yang, Bean. Looks like you could use an extra hand," a voice suddenly greeted them.
The two turned to see Inna Kao tipping her cowgirl hat to them. Her being there meant one of Yang's mandatory classes was about to start.
"Hey, Inna," Yang smiled. "A hand would be great."
"No problem. What are friends for?"
"Yeah, Bean," she side-glared. "What are friends for?"
The boy continued to delve into his book, trying to ignore the other two.
As the scattered notes were organized and the books being put into neat stacks, Inna and Yang chatted.
"Still, I'm surprised yer takin' classes seriously now. From one of our talks before, I got the impression you didn't care much 'bout graduatin'."
"Hehe! I'm a little surprised myself. I think I just got more ambitious."
"Ambitious? About what?"
"Some stuff happened and I just decided… I still want to be a Huntress."
Yang's resolute answer hung in the air for a while. The conclusion to her team's last job triggered something in her. She wanted to trust in the path she was traveling, as well as pursue the goals she could set her sights on.
Inna read into her friend's expression and smiled from ear to ear.
"Good on ya', Yang!" she encouraged. "But I gotta admit, it's a bit disturbin' how easy yer gettin' through the class ladder. Bein' that you never fight with yer full team."
"Can't be helped."
When Yang proposed participating in the school's ladder matches, Emerald only answered:
"We're a team in name only. You feel like wasting your time with grades, just so you can get some stupid license? By all means, go for it. But I have better things to do."
Mercury feigned some interest, but opted to spend his time sleeping instead.
Fortunately for Yang, Neo was happy to oblige her. And from the results, her partner was really all she needed. In spite of having to fight with a two-person handicap, the pair managed to win every one of their ranked matches.
As Inna continued to sort through some of the folders, a few peculiar papers caught her eye. She set down the rest and began rifling through the portfolio containing dossiers on several Huntsmen and Huntresses. Some of them, widely known figures throughout the Kingdoms.
"Uh, Yang? How'd you get these?" Inna puzzled.
"Oh, those? Iunno. I just asked for them and the record office gave them to me."
"Huh, pretty sure these 'er supposed to be classified." Inna leafed through some more pages. Even Bean set down his book with interest. "Summer Rose. Qrow Branwen. Raven Branwen. Taiyang Xiao Long," she read off different names associated with the past suppression of a Nightmare-Class Grimm called, Monstro. "Adam Taurus…?"
The figures she noted became more obscure as she went on.
"Okay, give me that," Yang took the packet back. When she held it in her hands, she glanced at the record Inna stopped at.
On it, was a profile picture with a brief summary typed:
Cinder Fall
DOB: N/A
Place of Origin: Mantle
Semblance: N/A
Status: MIA
The rest of Cinder's bio had black lines drawn through its notes.
"And what's this?" Inna stared quizzically at another folder. This one seemed to bring a dark furrow to her brow. "Yang?"
"…You have your hit list. I have mine."
Inna flipped through the pages with a sour expression. Her demeanor becoming graver as she read on.
"I know you ain't the kind, but you wanna explain to me why these are all Faunus?"
"You're right, I'm not the kind," Yang replied simply. "They all just happen to be Faunus. Anyone in there you know?"
"Mmmm…none I recognize."
"Good. Cause they're members of the White Fang. More specifically—the ones responsible for what happened at Beacon. The ones I found so far, anyway."
"Yeah. Lucky I can say for certain," Inna breathed a sigh of relief. "I don' know, nor do I associate myself with any of these varmints. These people represent the worst of the White Fang."
"Do you support them? The White Fang, I mean."
Inna shrugged with a mixed emotion. "Like any large group of people, they have their good apples—and their rotten ones."
"Ever thought of joining up?"
"I was mighty tempted once upon a time. But those Grimm masks. Eck! Not my style."
"Good to hear."
Though technically, because of mom, I'm part of the White Fang too.
Let's hope she doesn't make me wear one of those masks.
"Still," Inna interrupted Yang's thoughts. "Never figured ya for the vengeful sort. Any plans on what you'll do, once you find 'em all?"
"That's a good question. I'm not too sure yet." Yang shuffled the papers into the folder once more. "But I'm looking forward to finding out."
"…Some things, you can only understand in the moment, huh? You sure like testin' yerself."
"It's the only way I know. I think it was my Uncle who told me there's no better teacher than experience."
"Givin' the word headstrong a whole new meanin'. Now, let's see if we can fit some smarts inta that noggin along with all that stubbornness."
Yang glanced at the clock on the wall.
"Yeah, we'd better get going," she nodded.
As she stood, she took the school's blazer from the back of her seat and put her arms through its sleeves. The uniform was a bit formal for her liking, and Yang quietly wished she could just wear the leather jacket Emerald bought her.
While thinking that, she turned to Bean.
"Y'know, my sowing's not great, but I could probably make those at least fit."
She and Inna gazed down at Bean's pants that threatened to swallow his feet. Also his sleeves that needed to be folded multiple times at the cuff.
"Not required," he replied shortly.
"So you say. I doubt I could make it worse than it is. I used to do the same for my little sister's clothes."
"Not required," Bean answered again, hugging his arms.
Seeing as he was protective of his clothes, Yang decided to respect his privacy.
"Alright. Let me know if you ever change your mind. Coming with us to lecture?"
The small boy, once again, dove into his book.
"Not interested."
"You sure? It's Professor Stein's."
"I'll go," he quickly amended.
And without a moment's delay, Bean closed the text, placed it on a shelving rack, and was out the door.
Yang and Inna looked to each other for a moment, then shrugged.
And they were off to class.
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X
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The lecture hall was shaped into a round theatre. Students sat along the rows of the auditorium. Their desks facing the center of the room.
In the middle, was the teacher. His voice magnified by the microphone system. And a great hologram rotated, brightly detailed for all to see, even by those in the farthest back seats.
At the moment, the projection displayed an enhanced map of Remnant zoomed in on the space between Atlas and Mistral.
"—Now, Would…would someone care to explain to the class why Atlas has made no att-ttempt to invade Mistral from the north?"
Every student stared at the professor with an off-tilt look.
Henry Stein wasn't a man of intimidating features. His hair was frizzled and striped black and white. His eyes seemed to pop out, more so behind the concentration of his spectacles. The jacket he wore was roughly patched and untidy.
Still, in spite of his odd appearance, there was an intensity about him. Even as he droned on with a tired voice, a vast intellect lurked under his humble features.
"A-anyone have an an-answer?" Stein stuttered.
In the hall housing almost two hundred students, only Bean raised his hand.
"Miss Xiao Long," Stein singled out Yang, who was seated next to Bean. "D-Do you have a hypothesis to present?"
"Uh…!" Yang flipped through her notes in a panic. "Was this part of the reading?"
"No, it was not. But I…I must stress the importance of thhhinking on your feet. Please demonstrate a plausible, em, theory. Yes."
Yang grew more nervous. She looked to the side and saw Bean with a disappointed face, unwilling to help her. She looked to the other, where Inna was refusing to make eye contact, in fear of also getting called upon. An expression that virtually all her peers wore.
Yang sighed and felt a bead of sweat trickle down.
Come on, I can be smart.
I can totally be smart!
I'm not just muscles and punching…
I can be more.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, Emerald and Weiss were lecturing her condescendingly. Yang blinked a few times and stared at the teacher, and then at the projection.
After scrutinizing the map for a good few seconds and reflecting on the recent lesson material, she tried putting two and two together. She knew the Professor wouldn't ask something completely off-topic. This week, they talked about the histories of failed settlements. A large variety of Grimm was covered, including each species' behaviors and habitats.
Suddenly, an idea sparked in Yang's head like a light bulb.
"Does it have something to do with the [Dracul Isles]?"
Stein only continued to stare with quiet patience.
"Right… Theory," Yang massaged the back of her neck. "Well, one of Atlas' military strengths comes from their advanced airships. While Mistral has a better navy, they're behind when it comes to flight technology," she slowly rationalized. "If Atlas planned to invade, they'd do it by air. And they'd do it easily too."
"Except…?" Stein ushered her along.
"Except the Dracul Isles are in the way."
Yang eyed the small islands that dotted a distance from Mistral's northern coast. A confidence grew, driving her train of thought. Her voice becoming more sure now.
"Thirty years ago, a fishing village was founded on those islands. But like many new settlements, the people's anxiety attracted the Grimm. It wasn't long before they were overrun, and the Grimm made the islands their home. The type that settled there were Vlads. A type of flying Grimm."
Stein nodded and pressed a button on his console. The map projection zoomed in on the Dracul Isles, which were shaped similarly to the spread wings of a bat.
A new hologram popped out next to the chart, depicting the image of a giant mosquito. Its lengthy snout contained barbs and sharp blades reminiscent of a lance. Like all Grimm, the insectoid was all black except for the bone-white head piece and crimson eyes. In addition to its spear-like weapon, the creature possessed the ability to drain Aura and Dust if a source was impaled.
"If Atlas wanted to invade Mistral, they'd need to fly over the isles," Yang voiced. "But the Vlads have a large population there and would swarm anything that came anywhere close to their territory. That's why Atlas hasn't invaded."
The professor nodded to confirm Yang's theory, before adding,
"Yet."
Bells rung throughout the hall, signaling the class session over. Sounds of chairs being turned as students were leaving their seats, and lining to get out of the auditorium.
On the loudspeaker, Stein called out.
"Bean. Please stay after class."
The small boy turned and nodded, walking down the stairs to his mentor.
Yang couldn't help but notice the odd relationship between the two. It seemed Bean looked up to Stein, not so much as a mentor, but as a father figure. In contrast, the Professor treated the child with no affection whatsoever.
Her mood sobered at the thought, as Yang turned to leave.
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X
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Sailing on the northern seas, Mistral's naval vessels were making their usual patrol rounds.
With tensions increasing between Kingdoms and refugees immigrating to and fro, security along the borders heightened with each passing day. Even the soldiers, who thought the work was tedious, could sense the importance of their duty. So they kept a sharp eye out, relaying anything remotely out of ordinary to their superiors.
The captain of one these ships searched the sea with a pensive stare. Years on the ocean made him acute to its subtler changes. And he could almost feel something wrong in the way the wind blew or how salty the air smelled.
He wanted to leave the bridge and take in the situation outside. But before he could get any idea of what irked him, he bumped his knee against the corner of a metal box.
"ARGHHH! CURSE ALL THE—"
He stopped himself from shouting any further, else he'd make a fool of himself in front of his crew. Instead, he glared at the device with all the hatred his agony brought.
There was a reason for the captain's sudden mishap. Although he knew his ship like the back of his hand, this piece of new equipment was installed only two days ago. He didn't even know what the thing did.
All his superiors told him was if the device started acting up, he was ordered to bypass the ranks and contact Military HQ immediately. With such drastic measures in place, the captain thought twice about hucking the damn thing off his skiff.
Wonder if I broke it when I knocked my—
Without warning, the box whirred to life. A read out with listed values appeared on the visual display.
I didn't break it, did I…?
Preparing himself for a reprimanding, the captain decided to follow his orders and contact HQ. He would report the machine's readings and let them know it may have been caused by him kneeing the contraption.
As soon as the captain was given a line and reported the values, he was cut off from saying anything further. The personnel on the other end put him on hold for a few minutes.
When the line resumed, a new voice came over the communication. This one he recognized as the Supreme General of the Mistral Armies and the current leader of Parliament itself.
"You are hereby ordered to withdraw immediately, Captain. Good work," said the grizzled voice.
The feed cut out, leaving the captain briefly flabbergasted.
He gave the order to his crew to return to Mistral's shores.
Upon arriving at the harbor, he and his men saw different ships heading in the direction they came. Everything and everyone at the docks could be seen moving in an orderly kind of chaos. Urgency sprung from each step and officers could be heard belting out commands along the shores.
The captain looked at the box on his ship like it was cursed.
It wasn't long before his crew was ordered a new sortie, receiving fresh assignments for a high-speed transport vessel.
Only later, would the captain learn the machine he almost shattered his knee on was an early detection system set up to locate specific energy emissions from Atlas' new Dust Reactor. A reactor which would be present on all Atlas warships, which the reported values indicated, was a lot.
The development of the early detection system was only possible, due to a certain team obtaining the prototype engine, and sending it Parliament's way.
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X
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As far as labs went, Professor Stein's was abnormally large for single person use.
Taking up a whole floor of the science department's underground basement, it was the size of a mini chemical plant. Industrial-grade hardware lined the walls and barrels full of different reagents were in ready supply. Test tubes the size of people bubbled with dark purple liquid. Inside the containers, floated shiny crystals of black.
And in the center of the workshop, Bean reclined in a chair resembling one found at a dentist's. Leaning back into the seat too big for him, he waited patiently for his "father" to finish his discussion over the sound feed.
"I under…st-stand, Prime Minister."
"Run the preliminary tests in double time, Doctor. I need him functional before the operation begins."
"It is all moving acc-ccording to schedule."
"Our forces will deploy shortly. I am going to ask you one last time. Is the boy ready?"
"Bean is at…performable standards," Stein nodded.
"…I'm signing off. I'll contact you again when our forces are sortieing for the Dracul Isles. Do not make our people fight two fronts at the same time!"
"Bean is…at performable standards."
The sound cut out and the professor returned to the boy lying in the chair.
"Your…clothes."
Bean quickly sat up and removed his baggy blazer and undershirt.
With his upper body laid bare, several wounds and metallic implants could be seen embedded into his flesh. His spinal column was not made of bone, but steel and wiring, which connected itself to the plugs on the back of the chair. The ports spun to secure the positions like screws fastening into place.
If they were painful—and they surely were—Bean did not show it.
As Stein was about to engage the last pair of wirings on opposite sides of the boy's neck, he had no choice but to look at the child in full.
There was no trace of fear or doubt in Bean's eyes. Rather it was a look of adoration and fidelity. A happiness given from simple attention. It was the most innocent way an adolescent saw their parent.
And in that instant, Stein hesitated.
"Father?" Bean's voice cut like a cold knife. "Has a problem surfaced?"
The professor swallowed hard, pushing away the doubts, and replacing them with thoughts of his wife. It was enough to harden his resolve and let him do what was needed.
He attached the conductors to the sides of Bean's neck. Stein then, operated the console and began running preliminary tests.
After analyzing the subject's health, he measured out the dosage on the computer, and then distributed it with another. The fluid in one of the giant vats siphoned off.
It traveled through the machinations before being injected along Bean's spine and neck.
…
The chair almost lifted off its hinges when Bean's body began convulsing.
The boy could feel Bane flooding his arteries. Gloopy tendrils latched across the edges of his mind. Pain spread across his body, and then concentrated on the front of his skull.
An extra head piece burst from under the skin of his face. The white of his eyes dyed black and his irises stoked with an eerie light.
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X
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In her obsidian palace, Salem sensed something, turning her attention towards Mistral.
A thin smile formed her lips.
"So, the last fairy tale begins."
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EXTRA
-WARNING-
Below, I list references made in the story. I know some of you like to figure out which things represent what, so if you would like to form your own answers first, do not read past this. If you want to know the answers, well then….
Inna Kao *backwards spelled* Anni Oak Annie Oakley. Legendary gunsman, famous for her sharpshooting and trickshots.
Vlad Grimm are based off Vlad the Impaler, otherwise known as Vlad Dracula. The infamous figure Impaled his enemies on spears, mosquitos penetrate skin with their mouths. Mosquitos drink blood, vampires drink blood. Parallels drawn from there.
Brass Libra. Libra is symbolized by scales, which can be the scales of justice. Also, represented by Lady Justice.
I might do this from now on when I introduce new elements or go in-depth on some of them story-wise.
As always,
Thank you for reading and your support.