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Act II

Scene 25:

It's a New Dawn

"Now listen here, girl, we're going to start with the basics of cooking so you actually start being useful, and not just another hungry mouth to feed." The man said.

He was a middle aged man in a chief's white uniform, hat and all. Despite his average height, he towered over the small girl in front of him. She was young, couldn't have been older than 5 or six, and barely came up to his waist. She had blood red hair that shadowed her face, covering her eyes.

"Now then, let's start with some basic stuff, like learning how to make eggs, got it?" He sternly announced.

The girl simply bowed her head and murmured in agreement, intimidated by him.

"What?!" He bellowed, gripping her jaw tightly and forcing her to look him in the eye.

"Y-yes S-sir." she managed to stutter out, terrified of his wrath.

"Good." He growled, releasing her jaw.

Then he motioned to the stool beside him, "Now get up here so I can show you how to cook." He said.

Nodding, she climbed onto the stool so she could watch him work. He demonstrated how to properly cook scrambled eggs in front of her, but when it was her turn to try, she accidentally cracked the eggs wrong, spilling them all over the counter. After whacking her in the head with a wooden spoon hard enough for her to see stars, he ordered her to clean up her mess. And as she got out a rag and tried to wipe it all down, that's when it happened.

Boom

A powerful tremor shook the whole manor, making pots and pans clatter loudly. The sound of the explosion was soon matched by the sound of gunfire echoing through the halls.

"Shit!" The Chief cursed, visibly worried.

As he grabbed a knife and frying pan, he turned to the girl next to him and said, "Hide."

The girl was now even more scared than she was before. Before, she was just scared of messing up, of being thrown on the streets for being useless, of being beaten for being a failure. Now she was scared for her life. She didn't know what was going on, but she knew the Chief was worried, and if he was worried, what hope did she have?

Still, she did what he told her to. She got off the stool and hide behind the counter. But not before she grabbed a small, yet sharp, knife from the kitchen counter. She wasn't sure why she did it, it was simply reflex. But she felt safer with it in her hands.

As she hid behind the counter, she heard the sound of gunfire intensify, getting louder and louder as it got closer.

Then with a crash, the double doors to the kitchen were kicked open, and an intruder walked in. He wore a black suit and tie, with a black ballistic vest underneath. He had olive skin, messy black hair, and green eyes. He was carrying a pump-action shotgun in his hands, aiming it forwards, anticipating a threat from in front.

But it came from the side.

The chief ambushed him from the side, pushing the shotgun out of the way with the frying pan, before stabbing the gunman in the chest. Or, at least, he tried to.

Instead of penetrating his flesh, the knife seemed to glance off the man's clothes. Despite not making him bleed, the gunman still grunted out in pain, flinching painfully. The chief took the opportunity to press the advantage, smashing the fingers of the gunman's right hand with the frying pan, causing him to cry out as he dropped his gun onto the ground.

After crushing his fingers, a shimmer appeared around the gunman, before disappearing in a flash of light.

Not relenting, the chief attempted to push his attack, thrusting his knife towards the man's face. Unfortunately, the gunman had recovered enough to mostly dodge the attack, though the blade still glanced across his face. This time, however, it drew blood, creating a cut along his cheek.

The gunman kicked the chief in the chest, knocking towards that girl hidden behind the counter, giving him some breathing space. As the chief recovered from the counter-attack, he tried to close the distance again.

But it was too late.

In a flash, the gunman drew his sidearm, a .45 Mustang semi-automatic pistol, and fired.

Bang

Bang

Bang

With those three loud reports of his gun, the chief fell to the ground in front of me, dead. Two bleeding holes in his chest, and one in his forehead. The shock of it all, the loud gunshots echoing in the room, the suddenness of the man's death, the fact that she was now alone with the intruder, all combined to cause the little girl to stumble backward, falling out of her hiding spot. An action that did not go unnoticed by the gunman.

"Oh?" He began, his brow raised in mild surprise as a smile began to grow on his face.

"What do we have here?" He said again as he slowly walked up to the young girl, casually stepping over the still warm corpse he just made.

The girl trembled, frozen in her spot on the floor in fear. She was terrified of the man in front of her. She had never seen someone die before and had never been this close to death itself.

When the man reached her, he gripped her jaw in his left hand, his right gingerly holding the gun.

"Hmm…" He began as he inspected my face. "You look pretty cute, girl."

Then, a thin, predatory smile grew on his face. "You'll probably be a nice piece of ass one you get older."

"Shame that'll be a while, though." He remarked again, his smile falling into a frown.

"Then again…" He began with a sigh.

"Mistress did say no witnesses." He began, looking away from me as he eyed his gun in his right hand.

And in that moment, something inside that little girl pushed. All the fear built up before finally mounting onto two choices, fight, or flee. And the choice her instincts made, that she made, changed everything.

Taking the narrow window of opportunity given to her, she whipped out the knife from behind her back, and in a flash plunged it into the hand still caressing her face.

"AH!" The man howled in pain as the knife impaled the middle of his hand.

He jolted up, dropping the gun as he gripped his left hand in agony, the knife still stuck in his hand. As he stumbled backward in blinding pain, he tripped over the corpse of the chief he had made.

"You little fucking bitch." He growled, pulling the knife from his hand as he recovered.

"Now I'm really going to kill you." He continued as he began to get up, murder in his eyes

"You Fucking BI-" He began to growl again, but the words died in his throat as he saw what was in front of him.

The girl with the bloody scarlet hair.

With is gun in her trembling hands.

He knew his aura was dead and gone, as evidenced by the knife he just pulled from his hand. He was vulnerable.

The girl was scared out of her mind, the gun too big for her hands trembling fiercely. She had seen what it did, how it could kill a man. She knew that with this object in her hands, she had power, she had a chance, she could survive. But she also knew she could fail. There was no going back now.

Either this worked, or she was dead.

And she knew that.

The man slowly walked toward her, uninjured hand extended towards her in an attempt to be non-threatening. "Whoa whoa, just…just calm down girl. No need to do something hasty. Just put it down."

But she didn't believe him. He was going to kill her if he got to her. If she failed, she was going to die. And with the threat of death weighing heavily in her mind, she made a choice.

When the gunman saw the subtle change in her eyes, the steel she had gathered inside as she made her decision, terrified as she was, he panicked.

"No no NO-!" He yelled, breaking into a run toward her.

But his cries were cut short with a resounding Bang.

The aim of a scared, untrained, child firing a gun far too large for her was far from accurate, but it seemed fate smiled upon her in a twisted way. The bullet flew through the air, before impacting the gunman.

Right in the neck.

The bullet hit towards the left side of the neck, tearing the jugular vein open, and ripping a hole in his windpipe. The force of the shot caused him to spin ever so slightly. In the throes of death, he stumbled, trying to regain his balance. One hand was clutching his throat, desperately trying to stop the bleeding and the other reaching out to the girl.

As he choked on his own blood, he fell upon the girl, frozen in fear. Collapsing on her, he covered her in the crimson fluids leaving his body and trapped her under his weight. As she struggled to get out from under the dying man, she only served to cover herself more thoroughly in his blood.

When she finally managed to get out from under him, she looked back to see the life draining from his eyes as he drowned in his own fluids. He looked her in the eye, and with his dying breath, let out a strangled curse.

The girl, still flooded with fear, scrambled away from him, the gun that had saved her life, and taken his, held in a white knuckle grip in her hands. She began to realize the magnitude of what she had done, that she had just taken the life of another human being, and that she had been close to death herself.

"Michael!" A voice shouted, breaking her from her thoughts.

She turned, and to her horror, there was another gunman, dressed the same as the first, with a bloody knife in one hand, and a pistol in the other. He looked to the dead gunman beside her with horror and loss. Then, before she could hide, his eyes slid to her, and his horrified expression morphed into a rictus of rage.

"You BITCH!" He snarled, teeth bared in fury, murder in his eyes, as he charged towards the little girl

Terrified she rose the gun once more, praying for it to save her one more time.

She fired again, but this time the bullet did not draw blood. It bounced off his aura, making him flinch slightly in pain, but he powered through it, too driven by rage to stop.

Horrified that her savior had failed her, she fired again, trying desperately to save herself. The shot managed to somehow hit him in the hand holding the knife, forcing him to drop it in reflex and pain, but didn't actually damage the hand itself. Still, it was all that was needed to drain his aura in a flash of light.

But that was all she was able to get off before he slammed his hand into her, hoisting her into the air by her neck, and slamming her head into the wall.

Stars exploded into her vision as she suffocated under the pressure of his massive hand wrapped around her throat. Her left hand scratched against the one wrapped around his throat, trying to free herself, while the other hand struggled to raise the gun still in her tight grip, it's weight too much for one of her small, thin, arms to hold by itself.

"Stop." A voice said, calm, but commanding.

"She killed Michael." The man strangling the girl argued, glaring at her fiercely with his dark brown eyes.

"I said, drop her." She reiterated, her tone filled with iron, giving no room for defiance.

With an angry grunt, he obeyed, releasing the girl and allowing her to fall to the ground. Coughing as she massaged her bruised throat with her free hand, she kept her death grip on the gun that had saved her life once.

When she looked up, she saw a woman standing in front of the other gunman, radiating a commanding presence. She wore white robes with a gold trim. Her hair a dark brown, and her eyes a stormy grey. At her hip was a sheathed sword, on hand resting on the golden pommel.

"Why didn't you let me kill her?!" The angry gunman questioned.

"Because I see something in her. She managed to kill Michael, a little girl. I see potential in her. A will of blood and iron rests in her, and I want to use it." She explained as she smiled down at me, a pleased and predatory smile.

She walked up to the girl, and asked, "What is your name, girl?", as she towered over her.

"U-uh" The girl stammered, stunned. Nobody had ever asked her name before. She didn't even have a name. She had always just been called, "girl", or, "little bitch" when someone was mad.

"I-I don't have a name." She managed to stutter out.

"Hmm…" The woman hummed in thought.

"Well then, I guess I'll just have to give you one, won't I?" She mused quietly, her brow furrowed in thought.

So as the woman looked the girl over, covered head to toe in still glistening wet blood, with hair of a bloody red itself, one thing came to mind.

Scarlet.

"Kokkinos." The woman announced.

"K-kokkinos?" The girl repeated, confused.

"Yes. Your name, from now on, shall be Kokkinos." The woman explained.

The girl, stunned that she had finally been given a name, just nodded dumbly at her, not knowing what else to do.

"My name, is Lady Agathe." The woman began, gesturing towards herself.

"But you will call me mistress." She continued, her grin growing.

"Because you, my dear Kokkinos, are mine."


Kokkkinos pov

what? I thought, confused.

I blinked my eyes open, consciousness filling me.

I was…awake. The dream, the memory, had ended. And I had awakened from it. In the normal way.

I was waking up, from actual sleep. I was still in bed, the blanket laying discarded on the floor, just as I had left it when I went to bed.

Why am I still awake? I wondered.

This isn't how it was supposed to work. I usually only appeared when she was in times of great stress or danger, when she called on me, when she needed me.

Perhaps…I've actually been asleep for a while? I suggested.

Picking up my scroll from the desk near the head of my bed, I looked at the time. Unfortunately, it only confirmed my fears. It was the morning after the night I had awoken. I hadn't lost any time.

This was…curious. Something like this hasn't happened in a long time, and even then, things weren't as…sedate…as they were now.

Realizing the predicament I was now in, I sighed loudly.

I was not trained for this I thought darkly.

But, I suppose I'll just have to adapt. I thought, resolve taking hold. No use sitting around whining about it.

And with that thought, I decided it would be prudent to do some research. Research on the school, my teammates, hunters, Grimm, and of course, "Pyrrha Nikos". Since that's who I was, apparently, it would make sense if I actually knew about myself.

First, though, I had something very important I needed to do.

Reaching over and opening a drawer in the desk, I pulled out the sacred relic that was the Black Book, my Journal. I opened it up, flipped to the most recent page, and made my entry.

I had already made another entry last night with the date and time of the entry, as well as a short description of what happen. I, of course, encoded it. Lady Agathe was nothing if not cautious, and seeing that I knew many of her darkest secrets as her slave, she saw fit to make sure I knew how to keep them. It was double encrypted, first using my, our, mother tongue, and second, using an encryption key and phrases that we had memorized to heart.

In short, to almost everyone, even if they managed to open the book, all they would be able to see was something in Mistralian. Even if they understood that language, none of it would truly reveal anything to them. Nothing important, at least.

So putting down a new entry for the predicament I found myself in, I closed the journal, sealed it, and then put it back in its spot. I then proceeded to open my scroll back up to do some of that research I so desperately needed.

Time to see what you've been up to while I was asleep I thought.


Goodwitch pov

I don't even know what to feel I thought, looking down at them.

Anger? Shame? Disappointment? Suspicion? Satisfaction? Greif? They were all there in some way, but it was more of a messy sludge of feelings, than a blend of different flavors.

"So, how are they?" Ozpin asked from beside me, stopping to take a sip from his mug.

"They...are alive. For now. Beyond that…" I trailed off.

"We'll find who is responsible." He said, trying to comfort me.

"I'm not sure we will," I responded despondently.

"What makes you say that?" He asked.

"Mr. Thrush, Mr. Winchester, and Mr. Lark are all in a coma, and we have no idea when they will awaken, if they ever do. Only Mr. Bronzewing has woken up, but even then he suffered a massive concussion. Combined with the psychological trauma he and the others received, he can barely remember anything about the encounter, or even why he was there. All he can seem to remember is pain and a red monster." I explained.

"Not to mention, whenever it happened, it happened when no one was around so we have no witnesses. We don't even know what attacked them. It could have been a Grimm, but if so, why didn't it kill them? And how did it get here? If it was a human or Faunus, how and why did they do this?" I continued.

"Frankly, the most likely scenario is that Mr. Winchester and his team bit off more than they could chew. It's a relatively well-known fact that Mr. Winchester had been leading his team around as a pack of bullies, bullying many for being weak or Faunus, including Ms. Scarleneta of team CFVY. It's possible someone, or even a whole team, had enough of his behavior and decided to take revenge on them." I admitted.

"But...I don't like the idea of one student in particular, or even a group of students, being culpable and complicit with this." I added solemnly.

"What did they do?" Ozpin asked again.

"Frankly, they tore them apart." I began, looking him in the eye.

"Each one of them has significant bruising and broken bones. Mr. Thrush, in particular, was treated like a bear's punching bag. He has a severely bruised liver, a broken wrist, and several cracked and broken ribs. Worst of all is his head. He suffered some kind of either repetitive or powerful singular blunt force trauma that destroyed his left eye, with no hope of recovery, and sent fragments of his skull into his brain, along with further severe brain damage."

"Mr. Lark..." I began, forcing myself to swallow the bile rising in my throat.

"Mr. Lark had arm torn off, as well as suffering severe brain damage and a cracked rib. And yes, I said torn off, not cut off, like with a blade. It was ripped off at the elbow with pure strength." I explained.

"Mr. Bronzewing got off the easiest, relatively speaking. He has major brain damage as well, and a severe concussion, but he was the only one to wake up so far. In addition, he has lost the use of his right leg. The bones in his knee were practically ground into dust from another massive blunt force impact, and there is no hope of recovery without prosthetics. He has also suffered massive external damage to his ears. While they may recover in time, his hearing has been severely affected."

"And then there's Mr. Winchester." I began, with a sad sigh

"Mr. Winchester has suffered massive and repeated blunt force trauma to the head. If it wasn't for his Aura, he would probably be dead. Even still, he is on the edge of life as it is. We don't know if he'll ever wake up or mentally recover, but even if he does, he has another problem to deal with."

With that, I brought out one of the x-rays I had brought with me, this one showing his spine.

"Mr. Winchester had a pipe rammed through his spine, and pinning him to the ground. It must have been at an incredible temperature at some point when it entered him, because the heat not only cauterized the wound it made, but it also fused the pipe, to a degree, with his own flesh and blood. They managed to remove most of it, however, some of it remains in him, primarily because if they took it out he would bleed to death. Not only that, but because of it's placement and entry, it severed his spinal cord. He is now paralyzed from the waist down, and thanks to the pipe still there, even attempting to apply a prosthetic to him would be even more difficult than normal." I finished.

"So, what you're saying is that they're out of action?" He questioned.

"Yes. As unfortunate as it is, they cannot become huntsman as they are now. Perhaps some of them might find a way around their new disabilities if they have the drive, but that's assuming they ever recover." I answered.

And with those words he took a long, deep, sigh.

"Can we not find anything about who might have done this to them?" He questioned with closed eyes.

"No, we don't even have their scrolls to find out what they might have been doing. All we have is evidence at the scene of the crime, but even then, none of that's going to be processed into anything useful anytime soon." I explained.

"I see." He began, trailing off as he glared out the window of his office to the school below.

"How many people know about this?' He asked.

"Not many, just the staff. I was intentionally vague when I questioned the students." I answered.

"Good, lets keep our investigation discrete. We wouldn't want to alert the students, especially after Initiation. If they thought not even Beacon itself was safe...I shudder to think what would happen." He said darkly.

"Will we be getting the police involved?" I asked.

"No, this is a huntsman issue, and more importantly, a Beacon issue. We can handle this." He responded.

"The Vale government might not see it that way when they find out." I warned him, choosing to say "when", not "if".

"I'll deal with them when that happens." He said with cold confidence.

"Alright Ozpin, I hope you know what you're doing." I sighed, relenting to his wishes.

"So do I, Glynda, so do I." He said with a sad smile.


Blake pov

What...what is that? I thought, distressed, a shiver going down my spine

I was sitting in the cafeteria with Jaune and Lilith, waiting for Pyrrha to show up. I hadn't seen her all day yet. I'm guessing that Pyrrha woke up and went out for her morning exercises while I was out for a bit, and she didn't return to the dorm before we went to breakfast. In response, I decided to leave a note for her telling her where we were. Hopefully she would show up before class.

But now, my instincts and senses were flooded with this...aura. It felt primal and powerful, but coiled up like snake. It smelled thickly of iron and seemed to put some kind of pressure on me. Lilith seemed to respond to it's presence as well, perking up and looking toward the entrance of the mess hall. Jaune, however, didn't even look up from his food.

Then I saw it.

Saw her.

Pyrrha.

A dull frown adorned her face as she walked this way, her hands in her pockets. Her pants pockets. For some reason she was wearing a boy's school uniform, pants and all, and surprisingly enough, it seemed to fit her well. Her dark emerald eyes gazed over the entire cafeteria, searching for something.

Then, they locked onto my own, and in that moment, when she looked me in the eye from across the cafeteria, I felt like a kitten before a lion. It was humbling and terrifying.

And then the moment was over.

Without wasting any time, she made her way straight over to the rest of us. She took an empty seat right next to her partner, Lilith, and right in front of me.

"H-hey Pyrrha." Jaune said somewhat nervously.

Something was bugging him, and it didn't take a genius to figure out what. After all, it was bugging me too.

"Pyrrha." I greeted cordially.

Lilith, instead of greeting her, instead just looked at Pyrrha with a puzzled, yet curious, expression. Like she had just found a very interesting puzzle unexpectedly, but was eager to unravel it's secrets.

Pyrrha, instead of responding verbally, just looked us all over with a dull look, before humming in acknowledgement.

I shared a concerned look with Jaune before I asked, "Pyrrha, are you ok?"

She simply shrugged.

This is...weird. I thought, very disconcerted by how she was acting. She definitely didn't seem fine, but she also felt very far from sharing her problems.

"Okay." I said slowly, "Then let's head to class. History starts in a few minutes."

She hummed again with a shallow nod of her head, getting up with the rest of us and following me out. It was deeply unsettling, seeing the girl that once wore her heart on a sleeve like this. I could barely read anything from her beyond bored disinterest.

And so it continued like this for the whole day, something clearly wrong, but with nothing we could do about it. In fact, the only time her face of bored disinterest seemed to break was when it fell into something I can only label as murderous annoyance. It was always fleeting, only momentary narrowing of her eyes, a glimpse of her lips pulled back into a snarl, but it was enough. It was just like how she was on Initiation, when nearly attacked me, when she killed the Death Stalker.

It was...frightening.


Weiss pov

"I'm sure many of you have heard about this famed "Honey Trip" you freshmen usually take." Lt. Niflheim began.

It was Monday, the beginning of the week, and the first class of the day, combat class with Lt. Niflheim. To be honest, I found that I liked this class more than I thought I would, namely because of the teacher. Lt. Niflheim's thick northern Atlesian accent, despite sounding what some might consider brutish, was actually comforting. It reminded me of home. I myself would probably have a similar accent if Father didn't insist on instructing all of us on the more "standard" accent of the world.

Another thing I appreciated about him was the way he seemed to get to the point, didn't treat us like weak children, and his professionalism. Basically, he was a model Atlesian officer, just like Winter.

If Winter was a 7ft tall mountain of muscle and masculinity.

In any case, instead of starting with today's lesson, he instead started with an announcement.

"Now, for those who don't know, usually freshmen go on a supervised trip into Forever Fall to collect sap from trees." He explained.

"It's often described as a nice trip with beautiful scenery, little danger, and on the whole being an easy A" He continued.

"Which is exactly why I put a stop to it the moment I heard about it." He announced.

There was a chorus of moans and disapproval. Many of the students had either heard from their family, who had also gone to this school, or upperclassmen, and were looking forward to the trip. Personally, I thought it was a waste of time. I didn't come to Beacon, one of the most prestigious schools for training hunters how to kill Grimm, in order to collect tree sap.

"Come on man!" One student exclaimed, "This isn't fair, every other class got to do it before us."

"Well, the other classes weren't being held up to my standards." The Lieutenant replied with a disapproving frown, his deep rumbling voice as resolute as tempered steel. "As I said before, this institution isn't here to coddle you, and it isn't here to teach you about the beauty of nature. If you want to frolic in the woods collecting honey, then drop out or do it on your own time."

"So instead of going on a picnic like a bunch of newborn kittens..." He began

"We're going camping."

"At Mt. Glenn."

"For a week." He announced.

And in the wake of his declaration, silence

Deafening, crushing, silence.

Instead of going on a scenic trip for an easy A, we were going to be staying in the dangerous Grimm infested Terrain of Mt. Glenn.

For a week.

It would be dangerous, strenuous, intense, and in no way easy.

It was perfect.

I could barely keep myself from bursting into maniacal laughter.

This is going to be an incredible challenge, the perfect way to prove myself I thought with glee.

"We will be going four weeks, plenty of time for all of you to properly prepare yourself. I will be taking this class and another one with me. When you return, I'll be leaving with the next two classes, before I return to teaching you here. Don't worry, though, I'll leave something for you to do in my absence." He explained.

Someone in the crowd of students sitting on the bleachers raised their hand.

"Why not take all the students at once?" He asked after the Atlesian gestured to him.

"Because 80 students is far too many for me to keep track of all of you. 40 is much more manageable." He answered.

This time, I raised my hand. When he gestured to me, I asked, "What is the class we will be going with?"

"Class B2" He answered, "The 2nd class I have tomorrow for freshmen."

This time, I did smile.

Perfect I thought.

That's the class with Team ANBL. If everything goes just right, then nothing will be able to stand in the way of greatness.

I just hope my little gamble last Friday worked.

And with that, I thought back to how the events played out that evening.


Friday Evening

I entered the classroom for the leadership class, a mandatory class for all team leaders. It was also something only team leaders could attend. As it was, since the freshmen class was so low, every freshmen leader was in one class, all 20 of us. Normally there would closer to triple or even quadruple that number, but the severity of Initiation had taken its toll.

In any case, this was an opportunity for me to accomplish something very important to my plans of world dominat-I mean greatness.

And maybe I'll finally do something worthy in his eyes, maybe I'll finally be good enough. I silently hoped.

Shaking my head of those depressing thoughts, I moved back to the task at hand. Searching for a certain raven haired beauty with amber eyes. Unfortunately, I hadn't been able to even see her in person at all yet, only the picture of her the school has for registration and filing purposes. We shared no classes, and her team likely went to lunch before or after ours. A shame considering how interested I am in her and her team.

But now I would have that chance. She had to be here today, which meant I could finally meet the leader of team ANBL.

There I thought excitedly, seeing a flash of black in the classroom.

She was sitting in the back corner of the room, with nothing but the wall behind her. It was a nice secluded spot, away from most of the louder, more rambunctious people. All in all, a great spot for a reclusive loner.

She was wearing the school uniform, but unlike in her school picture, she wasn't wearing a black bow. Instead, she wore a black flat cap that only seemed to add a level of intimidating confidence of her frown, one that said, "Don't Fuck with me", especially the way her amber eyes seemed to almost glow in the shadow of the hat.

So, suppressing my anxiety about this whole thing, pushing down the fear of failure or rejection, I made my way over to her.

"May I sit here?" I asked politely, fighting to keep the quiver from my voice.

She gave a noncommittal grunt without even glancing at me, but gestured to the chair with one of her hands, so I took it as a yes.

Once I sat down next to her, I began to center myself again, to push down my nerves and build up that confidence, false or not. Drawing myself up, I turned to her, fought the butterflies in my stomach, held my hand out, and introduced myself.

"Weiss Schnee," I said.

She looked at me, a little startled, but instantly on guard and warry of me, her eyes taking in every inch of my person.

"…Blake. Blake Belladonna." She responded, slowly taking my hand.

"I've heard a lot about you, and your team." I began as I retracted the hand, silently thanking god the first stage went smoothly enough.

"And?" She questioned with narrowed eyes.

"And…I'm impressed." I declared with a smirk.

That statement seemed to truly stun her, her eyes opening wide as she all but visibly recoiled.

"Impressed?" She repeated.

"Yes. Your team was the only one to survive the tornado, and all night in a Grimm infested forest during a lightning storm. Something that would require either considerable potential or luck." I explained.

"And what if we just got lucky?" She challenged

Instead of frowning, however, my smirk only grew more predatory.

"That might be even better. After all, an ancient general was well known for preferring lucky men to skilled ones." I answered.

"And how did that serve him?" She responded.

"He became an emperor," I grinned

She stared at me for a moment, before giving me a lovely little grin.

"That he did." She responded.

"So I say this to say, I'm very interested in you and your team. In fact, I think we could accomplish great things together." I proposed.

"What do you mean?" She questioned, warry of my intentions.

"I'm proposing something of…an alliance. We would work together, help each other out, train together, help each other study, and do things for each other. Together, nobody could stop us, we would rule the school. Strength, grades, popularity, fame, it would all be ours" I explained.

"And more importantly, we would be safe." I confided.

"Initiation proved that becoming a hunter isn't as safe or happy as we were told it was, and it's always good to have allies, strength in numbers after all." I continued.

She hummed in agreement. I could see the gears in her head turning as she processed this idea.

"Okay, but why me? Didn't Cardin Winchester's team join you as the first two teams to make it to Beacon?" She inquired suspiciously.

I grimaced at the mention of Cardin's name.

"Cardin Winchester is a misogynistic brute." I spat out "When I brought up the idea to him, he thought I was hitting on him."

That rat bastard didn't even think I was anywhere near his level, that I was just some fucking whore that fell for his muscles I internally raged.

Blake, in response, raised a quizzical brow, before giving me another one of those little beautiful smirks.

Sighing as I gathered my bearings again, I turned back to her to begin again.

"Blake, your team is made of the only son of the noble Arc family line, the fabled "Invincible Girl", and Ms. Goodwitch's niece. And yet, out of all those people, Ozpin chose to make you, a relative nobody, the leader of the team. That speaks volumes about you, because you have nothing to fall back on, no legacy, no fame, and no connections to give you an advantage." I said, laying it all down for her.

I had done my homework on her and her team, as I had for many of the teams. Not everyone, not yet, but so far just the standouts. And at the top of the list of standouts, was Blake Belladonna and team ANBL.

"Whatever you did was enough for Professor Ozpin to decide that you were the best choice for leader. And you did it all on your own despite who you were being compared to. That's why I'm interested in you." I finished.

She stared at me with eyes narrowed in thought. Her amber eyes filled with calculated thought and suspicion.

"…I'll think about it." She finally said.

"Good, that's all I wanted," I smiled.


Present

And if she accepts, this will be the perfect first test of our alliance. I thought

A challenge like this camping trip would be the perfect thing. I wasn't looking forward to the honey trip because it was just an easy A, there was no challenge. Some people may have liked it because it was easy and "safe", but me?

I thought it was insulting and beneath me. How am I supposed to be able to prove myself to others if they keep handing me tasks anyone could do? How could I rise to greatness and perfection if there was nothing to challenge me to do better? If everything was handed to me on a silver platter, then what would be the point in having it at all?

As father told me, everything worth having in life was taken through blood, sweat, and tears. If you didn't work for it, then you couldn't truly appreciate it and it didn't mean a damn thing.

So something like this camping trip, where I would be working with Tam ANBL and Blake, where I would be challenged with something I had never done before and would truly test my skills, filled me with unbridled excitement.

This is going to be glorious I thought with a hidden grin.

"Now then, back on topic" Lt. Niflheim began, his rumbling voice shaking me from my thoughts. "The last two days of class, I had you all spar in both unarmed and armed combat, all to get a feel for how you fight. What I learned is…"

"I have my work cut out for me." He said disapprovingly.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" One student accused.

"It means all you all seem to know how to do is wave around your pointy sticks and shoot things. You don't know how to truly fight." He explained.

"But don't worry." He began

"You will."


Jack pov

Shit I thought as I pumped my legs harder and harder, pulling my sidearm from its holster.

It was night, and I was on my way to the station to take up the night shift of guarding Torchwick again. As per standard Watchmen regulations, all my armor and the majority of my weapons were locked in the secure Watchmen armory at the station. Still, the allowed me to keep my sidearm, and one of my personal weapons. So I chose to keep Sleas, my flaming axe, with me. I had a lot of history with that axe, and it was a personal favorite of mine.

In any case, I was walking to work late at night. Most everyone was asleep by this point. Then I heard a scream. A scream, followed by gunshots.

And so now here I am, running towards the sounds of gunfire and screams. Such is the duty of a Watchman.

This is going to be so much paperwork I mentally groaned as I ran.

I knew this city like the back of my hand, especially this route, something that came from being born and raised in the city. So I knew that I was headed straight towards an abandoned warehouse district, a place where nobody should be. It was also a place well known for crime, especially if you wanted to be discreet.

Probably a drug deal gone bad or something I thought, considering the possibilities for what I would see as I ran through the alleys.

As I continued on, the screams of pain and gunshots only got louder and louder, signaling that I was headed in the right direction. But I also couldn't help but notice that slowly but surely, the gunfire was dying down.

God, I hope I'm not too late. I thought.

Then, finally, I burst out from the alleys, and into the collection of warehouses. Looking around, I saw a warehouse with several black luxury SUVs parked in front of it, each one with tinted windows.

Gangsters I thought, narrowing my eyes. It was probably one of the mobs, not sure which one at this point, but it was definitely one of the high profile ones if they were using luxury SUVs.

The massive doors to the warehouse were opened slightly, and I could see small flashes of light from the darkness within. Running over there, I tried to make it there to catch them in the act, make some arrests, save some lives, do my job. That kind of stuff. But when I got to the door, and peered inside, nothing could have prepared me for what I saw.

The walls were covered from floor to ceiling in blood and gore, the floor littered with bodies torn limb from limb. Machinery and chemistry equipment was strewn about, broken, but obviously once functional. Discarded guns lay scattered on the ground of all different makes and models. But in front of me stood that which captured my attention.

A man in a black suit with a red tie and sunglasses. In his hands was a red machete, while on the ground was a discarded assault rifle.

And he was being held 3 feet in the air.

A large white claw was wrapped around his neck, attached to a large fury white arm that easily held him in the air. The arm itself was attached to a large, easily 10 foot tall, white monster with pitch black eyes. Its silver-white fur was stained with copious amounts of blood. Its bloodied teeth barred to the man in its grasp. Its black eyes looking at him with hunger and desire.

It was the White wolf.

Up close and personal.

Before I could make a move, it grasped the man with its other claw, before biting down on his head, and with a wet, meaty, crunchy, Snap, it ripped it off. I stood there frozen as it ripped the man's body in half as easily as one would tear paper. Torn open, his organs fell from corpse like bloody candy from a meat piñata. His lungs, intestines, stomach, plopping on the ground, further staining the floor of the warehouse with his blood, all the while the White Wolf gorged itself with the meal in its hands, devouring him, bones and all.

I was torn from my stunned stupor when I heard a whimper from inside the warehouse. Tearing my eyes away from the scene in front of me, I saw a woman in torn and bloodstained clothes, crouched in the corner with a bloodied face and tears streaming from her eyes. She was terrified, trying to be as small as unnoticeable as possible. When I looked in her eyes and saw the utter terror that filled them, I made my choice.

Against my better judgment, I raised my gun, aimed, and squeezed the trigger.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

I fired again and again, putting round after round of 9mm ammunition into the distracted monster's face. I emptied the entire clip, all 15 rounds, before I stopped. Pausing for a moment to reload, I glanced away. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement, and looked up, and froze. The spare magazine fell out of my hand as I stopped in stunned disbelief and horror.

H-how I thought.

The White Wolf was standing up from its meal, completely unhindered and undamaged from the point blank assault on it. My gun hadn't done a damn thing to it. I didn't expect it to kill the Grimm, it was only a 9mm round gun, made for stopping people, not monsters, but I expected it to do something. Glancing down, I saw something else that only furthered my horror. Crumpled bullets lay strewn about the floor everywhere, as if they had smashed into something but simply bounced off.

"My god…" I muttered.

I had thought that the reason the White Wolf was still okay despite fighting such a large group of well-armed mobsters was because it either dodged all the bullets, or they couldn't shoot for shit. But I was wrong. Now, as the White Wolf rose to its full height, towering over me, it was clear.

They hadn't missed a shot.

I grit my teeth and tried to clamp down on that fear. I was a Watchman dammit, I wasn't going to let some uppity albino Beowolf scare me like I was some green-ass recruit.

I dropped my gun, seeing as it was useless, and began to draw Sleas, my axe, as well as using my police-issued scroll to contact the precinct. I don't know if I'd be able to kill it by myself, but at least wanted to know that backup would be on the way eventually. But even if they were on the way, that didn't change the fact I knew full well in my mind.

Right now I'm all alone.

And as it towered over me, looking down at me like I was just another piece of meat for its insatiable appetite, I couldn't help but feel a fear in my gut. This thing was a complete unknown. It vaguely resembled a Beowolf in the basic anatomical sense, but that was like comparing a real bear to an Ursa. If it wasn't for the fact I had just seen it eat someone, I'd be questioning whether or not it was actually a Grimm. The coloring was all wrong, the white and black being inverted and not a trace of red save for blood on it. The second most glaring difference was that it lacked the armored bone mask that all Grimm had, or any such plates or spikes in general. Something that made me question how on earth it was bulletproof.

But the lack of typical Grimm traits gave me no comfort. There was still this unnatural feeling coming from this thing, this feeling that it was wrong, like it didn't belong here, and that its very presence was unnatural. Everything about it felt…off. Its eyes were too dark to truly be called black, they were almost empty bottomless pits that swallowed all light that dared approach. Its fur was an unnatural silver white that seemed to glisten and shine. Its head was a twisted interpretation of a wolf's. Its arms too long, both spindly and muscular. Its claws like scythes, long enough to scrape the ground.

The most unnerving thing about the White Wolf, however, wasn't any of that. Up close and personal, it was the massive waves of hunger radiating off of it, causing a tiny voice in my head to constantly whisper,

"You're just food, You're just food, You're just food, and you're next."

It stared into my eyes with those hungering pits of its, judging my worth as food, measuring like a cut of steak. Then, suddenly, it twitched. I prepared myself for its charge, but instead of attacking, it turned its head. It looked out towards the northern side of warehouse, the ears on its head twitching as if honing in on a sound only it could hear.

What the hell is it doing? I wondered, Can it hear the backup I called in?

Then, after only a few seconds of the distraction, it turned back to me and did the damndest thing, something I never thought I'd see in a thousand years. Something that made my blood run cold, made my soul scream.

It grinned.

The edges of its mouth pulling up to show its teeth in a twisted facsimile of a grin, before crouched down, as if preparing to jump or sprint. Then, it twitched again.

Then it's entire form shuttered.

And with a small flash of light, and a Crack!, it was gone, only leaving what looked like a small trail of falling ash in what I can only assume was its wake. The trail only lasted for a few feet, but it was heading straight in my direction.

I blinked in surprise, before spinning around as fast as I could, thinking it had gotten behind me. But no, it was gone. Just like before.

What the hell was that! I that, bewildered and terrified.

So, as I heard sirens in the distance, signaling that help was finally on the way, I looked back down at the trail of ash that the White Wolf had left in its wake. As I did, I couldn't help the thought that crossed my mind as I did.

These ashes I thought, picking up some in my hand

They kind of look like fallen petals.


A/n:

I Have Returned!

With a Vengeance!

And I passed the 200K mark!

And on the (actual) Six month Anniversary of this fic!

Ish

Technically it's a day off, but you can blame February for that.

Anyways, this is the first chapter of the new arc, arc 7, which is...well...I'm hesitant to say "filler arc" because it does bring up some very important plot points, but on the whole it's more just a space where things happen before arc 8.

If that makes any sense.

Anyway, I'm hoping that I can get the next several scenes out on a weekly basis, but you shouldn't hold your breath.

Now one of the many many reasons that this chap is coming out so late is because of, well, my job, which has picked up and gotten more intense so I have even less free time than before.

Buuuuuut

The main thing was that I got X-com 2 finally, which has eaten up nearly all the free time I do have.

I have no regrets.

X-com is love

X-com is life

Fuck Codex's though

Little bastards

Anyway, back on topic, this Scene.

Finally posted the chap with the dream I posted in Dreamstate, hope that dream is insightful.

Or cryptic and horrifying

That'd be cool too.

Also Weiss is making alliances.

Well, just one, but still.

Now, honestly, I'm not sure if it's totally in line with how canon Weiss would act.

I don't care though.

Canon Weiss was kind of a...what's the word?

Tsundere?

Yeah, that. At least, at times. Other times a bit of a bitch.

She also made good points and, well, I could go on a 12-hour rant on the many problems of RWBY I have when I sit down to think about all the shit in it, but I won't do that.

Lets just say I'm making Weiss more tactically inclined, and tactically, making an alliance with the Team ANBL makes a lot of sense.

Also, Team ANBL is pronounced team ANVIL now, it works Phonetically, like RWBY does

Also, since this doesn't appear to be a thing in the show (which isn't surprising) I'm doing it here because it makes sense. The different kingdoms have different accents and languages based on earth ones.

Atlas is basically germanic, or northern Europe, which includes Germany, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, maybe even a dab of Russia

Vale is basically southern Europe and America, so France, Spain, UK, Canada, Mexico, etc.

Mistral is basically Greeko-Roman with touches of northern Africa and maybe a few other ancient cultures of that region.

And Vacuo...Vacuo is probably the Middle East and Africa, but that might change

That's not to say they will actually be those countries, they will just be influenced by them and based on them.

And I don't see it as a stretch to say that Weiss's father would make it such that his family lacks a distinct accent when speaking "common", which is probably English.

Also, Team CRDL is out of action, so there's that.

Oh, and the White Wolf.

That's a thing.

Also, a couple people have brought up that in canon Jaune is taller than Pyrrha. That's true, he is.

But fuck canon.

Always pictured Pyrrha as being, in basically every way, physically superior to Jaune, including height. Actually, I mentally pictured Pyrrha as being the tallest person, second only to Yatsu.

Then I saw an episode in S3 after I started posting this fic, saw Jaune was taller than Pyrrha, said "FUCK!", and then proceeded to not do anything cause fuck it

It's fan fiction, if I want Pyrrha to be 6'6", I can

Oh, and one final note

Actually, it's a question of interest.

I'm curious about what you guys think about pairings, by which I mean what pairings do you want to happen or think could happen in here?

By the way, this has almost no actual impact on what happens with that shit, this is mostly to indulge my curiosity.

I say almost because one of you may suggest a pairing I hadn't considered at all, and find strangely possible.

But I think that's it, good day to all of you.

See you later.