Chapter 49 - Operation Defang Pt.1

Schnee Manor Grounds - RWBY World - Immediately after the end of the previous chapter

(Grey's P.O.V)

As I managed to Kai Kai the RED spy over to the Schnee manor, Kiritsugu waved us over to a spot that is well hidden from any prying eyes as we all huddled together. Kiritsugu and RED spy both quickly take a look at what security they can see in the Schnee manor before looking over the group..

"Emiya, how many cameras did you spot on your side..?" RED spy asks, to which Kiritsugu holds up two of her fingers. RED spy nods and also holds up two fingers, making us realize that a set of four cameras survey the immediate perimeter of the manor.

"Merlin, are you able to use your clairvoyance to–" Kiritsugu goes to ask but the flamboyant and mischievous half-succubus already has a finger on the Black haired mercenary's lips and winks before simply saying..

"Already know what you're gonna ask, and yes I know where the guard watching the cameras is, they're on the first floor near the kitchen.." This makes Fu smirk as she grabs her tanto blade before standing up, holding two fingers to her head, and simply say..

"I'll be back in a moment then.." Before anyone can say anything, Fu disappears in a flash of instant transmission. Several seconds later Fu returns with a smug grin, to which Merlin returns as they fist bump.

RED spy and Kiritsugu are both deadpan as the RED spy simply says.. "Well, if nothing else at least the cameras are offline.." This makes Fu give an embarrassed smile because once again, she proved herself the wild card of the Retinue.

As the RED spy sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose, Kiritsugu looks at the manor again to confirm the cameras are down, thankfully it seems that before Fu returned she turned off the cameras.

Without even turning back to the group, Kiritsugu asks Merlin.. "How many guards remain inside the manor..?". She's silent for a moment as she focuses on her clairvoyance and before long she replies with..

"Five remain, Two on the first floor, two on the second and the final one is keeping an eye on Willow while she's drinking alone in her room…" Kiritsugu and the RED spy look at each other before looking at the rest of the infiltration group, seeing that there are five in the group so each of them can take down one guard.

RED spy takes a moment to collect his thoughts before saying.. "Tonight, before our task is complete the entire Schnee manor must appear as if it is a tragic electrical fire gone wrong, so no lethal takedowns as we don't want any evidence to suggest otherwise.."

The rest of the group nod their head, although Kiritsugu does turn to Fu and ask.. "How did you handle the camera guard..?" Fu simply makes the gesture of someone falling asleep and Kiritsugu merely nods her head, seeing that Fu chose to knock out the guard thankfully…

Medea looks at Fu's Tanto and can't help but ask her.. "You used one of your seals I take it..?" This makes Fu nod her head, making Medea's expression go from calm to contemplative as she is considering getting Fu's help to make some brand new mystic codes imbued with some of those same seals..

However Medea is broken from her thoughts as both RED spy and Kiritsugu motion us to follow, the five of us quickly rushing towards the now unwatched front door. Kiritsugu turns to me and soon says… "When Merlin says the coast is clear, Kai Kai into the manor and open the door for us…"

I nod and ready myself, Merlin to my left closing her eyes as she waits before suddenly holding up 5 fingers, then 4 which makes me realize that she's counting down. The moment she finally closes her hand into a fist, I Kai Kai past the front door and unlock the door, allowing the rest of the group into the manor itself.

As we close the door behind us, we hear a gasp and see the family butler staring at us. However before anyone can say anything Fu gasps, having realized who this is and grins before asking the man.. "You, you are Klein Sieben right..?"

The man, now known as Klien Sieben looks surprised to be recognized as he looks confused and asks.. "Forgive me, do I know any of you..?". When he gets a shake of our heads he looks nervous, his eyes darting about before Fu says..

"Look, we're here to get Willow out of her–" before Fu says anymore, RED spy just gives her a stern look. However, it's enough to make Klein realize that despite the shady way the group came in, they're here to assist the Schnees in a way..

"I see…well if you're here to get Willow away from here, I will certainly not tell you that any important documents that Willow will need to live independently are in her Husband's Study, nor will I inform you that any of Jacques sensitive documents are kept in a safe hidden behind the family portrait in that same room.." Klein says with a conspiratorial smile.

RED spy just narrows his eyes at this sudden turn of events and can't help but asks.. "And why would you reveal all this, what motives do you have to help us..?" This makes Klein sigh before he simply responds with..

"Because if I had to choose between an unknown group that has the slightest chance of freeing Ms. Schnee from her current state or the status quo that her husband has generated with both the family itself and the SDC…I think it's time I take a gamble…" Klein's words belay a man frustrated by the goings on in the family and want things to change for the better..

The five of us look at each other before RED spy has me go with Klein up to Willows's room, the two of us walking through the halls of the large manor in silence. Soon enough Klein speaks up and says to me.. "You know Miss if you don't mind me asking you this, why do you keep your hood up constantly…?"

I blink for a moment as I process his words before sighing heavily, unable to bring myself to say anything. Klein notices my sudden sullen silence and speaks up by saying.. "I see, if I had to guess it's to hide your face from the world, am I wrong..?"

His words startle me as I stare at him with wide eyes, with Klein noticing my sudden change in demeanor and sighs and giving a wry smile. "I understand the feeling somewhat, my semblance allows me to change the color of my eyes temporarily, but doing so changes my personality as a result.."

He demonstrates by turning his eyes red and his expression goes from warm to grumpy in an instant, with him soon saying.. "It's rather annoying to get used to at times, far too annoying!" in a particularly displeased and annoyed tone before he shifts his eyes back to his usual light brown.

"I….I guess due my past I..I ended up hating my face for a time, and I think part of me still does…" I admit, with Klein giving a soft smile and nodding his head while we continue to walk to Willows's room, my Ki senses detect the others having taken down the other four guards swiftly and without bloodshed.

"I see, why is that if I may ask..?" Klein asks me, as I think about it though I find myself remembering sister Arturia's promise to me before responding to his question by saying.. "My face is not only original one, it was forced upon me by another's semblance…" Editing part of my history to fit in with the world's view of magic and all..

Klein's eyes widen as he looks particularly startled, soon responding by saying.. "That is…that is terrible, to be robbed of part of your identity…" To which I give a sullen nod and elaborate by saying.. "I came from a village that sought to have me become a legendary hero reborn, so the villagers tried to…..change me in order to better embody that hero, starting with my face.."

Klein just sighs as he can't help but look at me with pity in his eyes, soon responding by asking.. "And because it is a face that isn't your original, you hated it…?" I simply nod in response before the Butler of the Schnee family ponders for a moment…

"By your earlier words, it seems that you've moved past that for the most part, can I ask what happened..?" Klein asks with sympathy in his voice. I smile softly and soon say.. "I met my sister, who brought me into her family along with one other at first, she promised that I will be me, that she will help ensure I won't change further.."

Klein smiles at me, pleased that I had found someone that will accept me despite the changes I went through, and simply asks.. "Then why hide your face still, after all, if you have found someone who genuinely cares for you despite that you bear another's face, then what's the point of continuing to hide behind that hood..?"

I think about Klein's words carefully, seeing that what he says makes sense as if Arturia and the rest of the family already accept me for who I am rather than whose face I bear, then perhaps I should stop wearing my hood so often..

I've changed so much since becoming part of my sister's family after all, perhaps It is time I moved on from my past completely and embrace my new Identity, the one I made for myself alongside my family..

I can't help but chuckle as the Irony hits me, they tried to turn me into King Arthur but instead the only Pendragon I shall be is Grey Pendragon. After all that is the name I have now, it is my name and no one elses..

I think when I get back from the mission, I might let my hair grow out at last since I don't think I will be continuing to wear my hood anymore. Although I can hear add chuckling at my waist ever so quietly, I shake my head before Klein finally brings the two of us to Willow's room.

He has me wait just out of view as he knocks on the door before saying.. "Ma'am, I'm coming in to do some light cleaning if that's alright..?". I don't hear the response but Klein does, likely having learned how to interpret certain things over the years before he finally goes in, keeping the door open so I can peer into the room.

The Guard watches him as he begins to make Willow's bed, allowing the chance to rush in and knock the guard out without him being able to make a sound. Willow looks particularly startled, the matriarch of the Schnee family already at least one glass down at the moment before I rush over and knock her out in turn.

Klein sighs and turns to me, simply asking.. "May I ask where you are taking her..?" While packing several things into a briefcase for her. I quickly use my Ki senses to check where everyone is in the manor and find the rest of the group in Jacques's study as I simply reply.. "We'll be taking her to beacon, however, you need to understand that we can't exactly leave the manor intact.."

Klein's eyes widen as he understands that we plan to torch the place, connecting the dots in his mind as he realizes that this entire infiltration is an attempt to get Jacques removed from the Schnee family itself and as a result, remove any form of power he has in Atlas..

"Is the destruction of the manor truly necessary..?" Klein asks, to which I regretfully nod my head and say.. "We need to pull Jacques's attention away from the Civil war that's going on currently, especially since Atlas already has taken over Haven.."

Klein frowns as with this information, he understands that the ultimate goal of doing all of this, removing Jacques from the Schnee Family, and ousting him from SDC as a result, is all an elaborate ploy to ensure Atlas won't get directly involved in the Civil War any further..

"So do you just plan on allowing the Civil War to continue..?" Klein asks me before I shake my head and respond with.. "No, let's just say we already got people handling that tonight right now…"

As I wonder how things are going in Kuo Kuana, however, Kiritsugu calls me through the Tempest Jewel Call function and asks.. "Have you secured the target..?" to which I nod and reply with.. "Yes, I have willow out cold and Klein is packing her things currently.."

I hear Kiritsugu humm to herself and soon say.. "Alright then, once Klein has finished doing that, I want all three of you outside in the grounds waiting for us, we're just finishing up in here and grabbing anything that might be of use later like Jacque's laptop among other things.."

After that Kiritsugu ends the call, Klein soon finishes packing Willow's suitcase before we make our way out of the manor, meeting up with the others before noticing that everyone is outside and yet there is no fire..

Merlin giggles softly and turns to Medea before saying.. "Well that's everyone, I do believe it's time to set off that mystic code of yours Medea.." Which makes said woman simply nod her head and focus.

Meanwhile, inside of Jacques's study, a small magecraft-infused cap is latched onto an electrical socket. The moment Medea activates the magecraft in the plastic cap, it sends a minor electrical surge through the socket that damages it enough to cause an electrical fire while also destroying the cap itself..

The fire quickly spreads to cover the entire study before moving on room after room, the rooms of both Weiss and Winter were also stripped of anything of note by Merlin's own request, although the flamboyant Half-succubus chooses not to elaborate except by saying that "It'll make sense later.."

Eventually, the fire begins to consume the manor as the fire managed to spread to the generator, flames blazing as Klein gazes on in sorrow. "It truly is a shame that in the end, Jacques would be the reason that the home of the Schnees for generations burns…" Klein says all while looking not exactly too surprised at the outcome..

"And now, what to do with the guards…" The RED spy says as he points to the tied-up guards who are awake and trying to break free of their restraints. "Allow me to handle this.." Medea says as she goes up to the guards and hypnotizes them in order to have them believe that the fire happened so fast that they only had enough time to get themselves out and that they do not know what happened to Willow..

Once that's done, Medea returns to them and says.. "They'll come out of the trance with the altered memories in about two minutes.." Making RED spy and Kiritsugu nod before they turn to me.

"Alright then, everyone ready to head home..?" I ask, to which everyone in the group nods. I bring everyone close together while keeping hold of Willow in my arms with Klein touching my right shoulder and RED spy my left.

I soon Kai-Kai back to Beacon with the others who can apportate with their rings teleporting to my location shortly after. Although as we relax after doing our part in the operation, I can't help but wonder how things in Kuo Kuana is going..

Meanwhile - Kuo Kuana - Roughly at the same time the infiltration had originally started

(General P.O.V)

As Arturia returns with the RED team, minus RED spy of course, she returns to the sight of her retinue already making their way to a nearby pack of Grimm that are assaulting a northern White Fang position.

"HAHA TAKE THIS!" Mordred says as she is the first to leap into the battle and decapitates King Taiju that was about to take a bite out of one of the White Fang Defenders. Artoria (Saber) and Artoria alter quickly move in to support Mordred as the trio makes a counter attack upon the assaulting Grimm horde.

Meanwhile, Asia from Rias's Peerage moves over to the downed White Fang Defender and uses her Sacred Gear, Twilight Healing, to begin tending to the White Fang Defender's wounds. The Faunus is stunned that what he believes is humans coming to the aid of the white fang out of nowhere..

As Mordred and both saber versions of her father continue to slice their way through the Grimm to allow the White Fang time to retreat back toward the main forces in the southern portion of Kuo Kuana..

As that happens, Arturia herself is jumping from Rooftop to rooftop while trying to locate Ghira Belladonna. She soon finds him leading efforts to liberate Kuo Kuana and leaps off the building in full armor to confront him.

She finds herself with guns pointed at her before simply asking.. "Ghira Belladonna..?" in which the Panther Faunus looks at the heavily armored woman and simply asks.. "Who's asking..?" which makes Arturia smirk under her helmet.

"Your reinforcements, that's who.." after that declaration, suddenly almost all of the Kuo Kuana liberation team apportates using their rings to Arturia, shocking everyone before Arturia takes off her helmet and smirks at Ghira.

Only Rias Gremory, Asia Argento, Mordred Pendragon, and the two Artoria Sabers are not here during this gathering, regardless the sight of so many people coming to the aid of Ghira and the white fang makes the burly panther faunus smile widely..

"Your aid will be much appreciated, I promise you this.." Ghira says to which Arturia nods however before any pleasantries can be exchanged a White Fang Scout reports that a contingent of Blood fang is making their way toward the eastern barricade.

Before Ghira can say anything, Arturia steps in and says.. "Allow some of my family to take care of that issue for you, your men could use the rest from the constant fighting I bet.." Making Ghira frown before relenting..

Arturia turns around and says.. "Izayoi, Kiba, Akeno, Jeanne Alter, and Kuroka…you are to go and support the White Fang's eastern Barricade, give them time to recover and replenish their defenses.."

All five of them nod with Jeanne Alter taking the lead for the moment since Rias is elsewhere as they head for the eastern barricade. Arturia then pulls up her Tempest Jewel ring call function and quickly gets in contact with the Pendragon Saber Trio up north..

"Mordred, bring yourself and the other versions of your father back over here, I'll have Arcueid handle the Grimm from here on alright..?" Arturia says the moment the call connects, she hears Mordred chuckle and reply with..

"Eh, I kinda feel sorry for the bastards then despite them being eldritch shadow beasts…alright we'll head over shortly.." Arturia simply nodded before turning to Arcueid. The Blonde haired True ancestor smiled and nodded as she heard the conversation loud and clear before apportating to Mordred's position so she can take over slaying the Grimm..

Meanwhile back where the team first teleported into Kuo Kuana, the RED team has already set up their own little hotspot that is nicely wedged between the Grimm and the Bloodfang. Every time the Grimm try to rush the RED team's position, they're met with the RED pyro's flamethrower burning them alive as he chuckles happily all while continuing to burn the grimm.

However, he isn't alone in dealing with the Grimm as The RED engineer has set up his level three sentry and the practically essential Dispenser to provide an infinite source of ammo with the RED team constantly coming back to get spare ammo.

All while RED engineer relaxes in a mechanical lawn chair drinking beer while watching his sentry rip through dozens of Grimm either through bullets or by rockets. Although the Texan man can't help but feel a bit wary as he watches the RED pyro do his work, he doubts that he'll ever get used to the Pyromaniac of the team..

As for the others on the RED team..

"DOKTOR, CHARGE ME!" RED Heavy screams as the RED medic grins with his medi-gun charged before they both enter Uber state with the RED Heavy slowly lumbering forward while his Mini-gun practically kills at least one Blood Fang member every second.

However some Blood Fang members do try to take a more sneaky approach to try and flank the RED team, but whenever they do though, they always end up caught in some carefully prepared Sticky bomb traps set up by RED Demoman who relies on RED sniper to spot the sneaky ones coming in through the alleyways.

Meanwhile, RED scout and RED soldier find themselves walking about an empty street as they aren't able to find any Blood Fang due to most of them ending up either fighting Heavy or getting sticky-bomb-trapped by Demoman.

"The one time we get involved in an actual war, AND WE DON'T HAVE ANY ENEMIES IN OUR LANE?!" RED scout complains to which RED soldier sighs and is about to respond before a lanky man with a scorpion tail jumps down from a nearby rooftop with a psychotic grin..

"Oh don't worry, I am more than willing to play with you instead~!" The one who would be later Identified as Tyrian Callows says before he giggles madly and rushes the two members of the RED team.

And with that, the first hour of pendragon's involvement of the conflict is over..

And only 3 more hours until midnight remain..

Author's Note

And with that, the first of four parts is over..

We are close to the end everyone as once the clock strikes midnight, the final moves of this world will begin…

Right, let's get this chapter's plot points out of the way

Schnee Manor Infiltration

With the team set up as it was, it wasn't gonna be hard to get in to be honest. Especially since two of the members on the team can teleport as well as Merlin having got her own level of Clairvoyance, hence her inclusion into the Infiltration team..

Now I did have to recall the fact Klein, the Schnee family butler, would be there so I hoped I characterized him correctly since he was the same butler that helped Weiss leave the manor in Volume 4 in the first place so if he had the chance to get willow out of the ugly situation she's stuck in, I think he'd be willing to take a chance.

Also, since Klein does have abilities that work akin to granting him personality shifts, I figured it might be a good time for Grey to get some further character development considering that she is technically still wearing the hood up even now, several years after first meeting Arturia at that..

Plus, look forward to a Long haired, Hoodless Grey!

The initial incursion into Kuo Kuana.

With this being the first part, things are still being set up so there wasn't all that much happening beyond Arturia making sure to get in contact with Ghira while also working on her leadership skills via a trial by fire in this regard.

Due to how long I expect the Kuo Kuana part to be, I hope to make good use of this time to properly flesh out some of the other characters I have yet to get around to or some of those who haven't made many appearances yet.

Tyrian Callow's appearance early into the war

Yea, he will be facing the RED team directly in the next chapter, so I do hope you all enjoy watching one crazy maniac go up against a team of mercs. It'll be fun to write no matter how the chips fall..

Now then, Next time on A Golden Goddess: Tyrian Callows VS RED team, Arcueid's Grimm Hunt, and Kuo Kuana Liberation Part 2

See you all roughly Tuesday next week!