So, a while back someone told me that the death count from after the Battle of Beacon was a bit low. Since the precise number comes up in this chapter, I've decided to go back and look into it and taken a bit of advice on it.
Just a warning, but this chapter's going to have a few darker elements.
Chapter 57: Head Count and the HPF
Citadel Tower, with Team RWBY
Weiss paced around the lift nervously, watching the various levels go by, unsure why they were going so far up the tower. "What's so special about this council meeting that it's not taking place in the Council chamber, Ruby?" the fox asked nervously.
Yang glanced at her cousin and adoptive sister with a frown. "Yeah, I don't get what's so special about this…"
Ruby sighed, playing with the Rose crest that she was using as a clasp for her cloak. "Whenever something happens that involves the Order of the Blue Rose, there was always a meeting place where the members involved would meet. Here in Bastion, I guess Aurelius had a room built for these meetings."
Blake blinks. "I get that you and Weiss are part of it because of the fact you were born a Rose and Weiss chose to become one, but what about Yang and me? We never actually agreed to join."
Ruby glanced at the cat faunus before shrugging. "Most likely it involves all of us, which means we might not be the only teams here for the meeting," Ruby said before the lift stopped, stepping off with her team in tow. They wandered down a corridor nervously, glancing around at the Goliaths and Prefects that had replaced the usual security of the Citadel. Near the end, they found a large door with the Rose crest carved into it, with Adrienne standing outside, a frown on her face. "Hey Adrienne, is something wrong?"
Adrienne ran a hand through her hair, looking away. "Yeah, we have the death count for the attack on Vale and Beacon…" she muttered, causing the group in front of her to get serious. "Grandpa Auri needs me to get a few more people, just go in and find a chair wherever you want, okay?" She quickly ran off, leaving Team RWBY to blink in confusion before heading through the doors.
The interior of the room contained a large, circular table surrounded by chairs, with two rows of chairs and desks surrounding it on platforms. Aurelius sat at the head of the table, glancing over some papers with a frown. Winter was standing behind him with a hand on his shoulder. Much to the surprise of everyone except Ruby and Weiss, Torchwick and Neo were in the room, with the girl happily eating ice cream out of a cup, bits of candy in it. Yang walked up to the girl and looked at her. "Remember me, shorty?"
Neo stopped to look at her. "Oh, hi… Sorry about the fight, dad says it's important to do your best on the job…" Torchwick put his hand on the girl's head, gently ruffling her hair and causing her to pout.
Yang rolled her eyes and grinned. "How about we have a rematch sometime? Just a friendly spar," Yang asked.
The girl smiled as she took another bite of her treat. "Mhmm," she nodded, continuing to eat.
Yang let out a sigh and sat down next to the rest of her team. "You know, I don't think I was expected to get my ass kicked by a cheerful little girl…" she muttered, causing Weiss to roll her eyes and pat her shoulder.
"Don't worry, Yang. With a bit of practice, you might be able to hold your own against her," the White Rose said, causing Yang to cast a glare her way.
"Gee, thanks Weiss, that makes me feel so much better," she said sarcastically, causing Weiss to grin. Before the fox could respond, the doors opened again. The group glanced over as Qrow, Summer, Team JNPR, Janus, and Adrienne came in. Team RWBY blinked in surprise at the sight of the other team before Ruby's earlier words came to mind, causing them to simply wave to the other team as everyone took their seats.
Once everyone was seated, four screens lit up, each showing the insignia of one of the major kingdoms. While Ironwood appeared in the screen displaying the Atlesian insignia, a member of the Valian Council appeared in Colvin's place, a woman appeared over the Vacuan insignia, and a large, stern looking man appeared in the screen for the Mistrali representative. "Oh great, it's Richie…" Qrow muttered, causing the Mistrali representative to frown.
"Is there a problem, Qrow? I don't seem to recall having you complain about me being one of the things on today's agenda," the man said with a rumble in his voice. He had brown hair with traces of grey and a short beard. Beyond that, the only thing that could be seen was the red surcoat he was wearing since the screen showed nothing below his chest. Many in the room could easily recognize the man named Richard Lionheart, the younger and more respected brother of Leonardo Lionheart.
Qrow stretched, putting his feet on the table. "Nah, I just don't think I want to hear your amazing stories today."
"Enough, both of you," Aurelius growled out, causing everyone to glance at him nervously. "We're have more important matters to deal with than listening to your childish squabbles!"
"He hasn't been in a good mood at all today… I thought Adrienne was exaggerating when she said he doesn't handle his perceived failures well, but this…" Winter thought worriedly.
Ironwood nodded. "I have to agree, we have some… serious matters to discuss, beyond the Battle of Beacon," he said, getting the attention of everyone in the room before the woman spoke up.
"The headmaster of Shade Academy could not take part in this meeting, but the head of the Council of Vacuo has requested that I sit in for them both. I would appreciate if we could get this meeting finished quickly," she said, getting a nod from many of the room's other occupants.
Aurelius quickly gestured to Janus, causing him to step forward. "During the Battle of Beacon, we managed to evacuate 60% of the approximately 450,000 residents of Vale to the Bastion. Of the remaining 180,000, approximately 5,490 were confirmed dead, 3,245 were missing as of the end of the battle, and the remainder had been evacuated to shelters in Vale. The Aurora had, before it's destruction, destroyed approximately 28% of the city, including a number of shelters. A number of other shelters were destroyed by its debris or collapsed during the night while we were organizing search and recovery teams. Counting those within the shelters, we can now confirm that 15,893 of Vale's citizens were killed in the battle, an equal mix of faunus and humans… However, more pressing is that we still have only accounted for 163,870 of the 164,107 Valian citizens that should be on the ground…" The Imperator's shoulders sagged. "Of these 237 people still missing… only thirteen are faunus…"
"What the hell do you mean there's still over two hundred people missing? Are you suggesting they'd just leave?!" Richard growled out, slamming a fist on what was probably a desk.
Aurelius let out a sigh, clasping his hands in front of him and glaring at the table for a moment before Blake spoke up. "Considering Adam was leading the attack…" she looked down as everyone looked at her. "It's possible that… the White Fang took the missing people with them when they left. Before I left the White Fang, Adam made it clear that he doesn't really like humanity. After what happened during the Battle of Beacon, it might be that he really thinks humanity is so far below the faunus that they need to be either wiped out or kept under the boot of the faunus… He might have decided that anyone the White Fang found would be either taken with them or killed."
A grim expression crossed Qrow's face. "Are you sure, kid?" he asked, getting a nod from Blake before Roman spoke up.
"The idiot that was leading the White Fang hijacking the Aurora did say something like that, now that I think about it…" he muttered.
"It'd make sense. When Yang and I fought him at Beacon, he seemed to think that humanity had to belong to the faunus for us to survive…" Blake said, looking away after a moment.
Aurelius let out a frustrated sigh. "So, I assume he would have to report in to Sienna Khan after this?" Blake went to speak up before Summer interrupted.
"Wait, Sienna's leading the White Fang?" she asked getting a nod from Blake. The Green Rose sank into her chair, a disturbed look on her face. "Sienna couldn't have anything to do with this…" The other occupants of the room looked at her strangely. "I ran into her during one of the two times Team STRQ was involved in the Vytal Festival since she was on a team with one of my cousins. Back then I was pretty serious about calling for equality between humans and faunus, and she was a member of the White Fang who wanted to help people. Our teams fought against each other and we talked for a while, eventually becoming good friends… We might not have agreed on exactly what needed to be done, but I know she wouldn't willingly allow this much bloodshed, let alone call it a victory for the cause of equality…"
Aurelius ran a hand through his hair. "After this, I doubt many people are going to want equality. They're going to want blood and I don't think-"
"Actually…" Ironwood said with a sigh, causing the room to look at him. "I'm afraid to say they already do…" Ironwood went to tap something on a terminal, causing Roman to stand up.
"Damn, sorry guys, I just realized I promised I'd take Neo to the park today. C'mon Neo…" he said, tugging the girl up.
"No, you didn't," she said in confusion.
"Neo, just… c'mon, I think you'll like the park better than this dusty room…" he said. "Especially if my gut's right…"
Neo hummed and went to follow the man, the doors closing just as a series of pictures flashed onto the screens. The two teams of Huntsmen and Huntresses-in-training paled as they saw a series of gruesome murders of faunus. Pyrrha covered her mouth when she realized that a number of the faunus had their ears, antlers, or tails cut off. "Who… who would do something so horrible to another person?" Pyrrha asked while Jaune tried not to throw up.
"From what we can tell, they're calling themselves the Human Primacy Front and they've carried out a number of brutal attacks here in Atlas since Weiss' concert. It seems that Jacques' PR campaign regarding that incident and everything since the Battle of Beacon has worked the most xenophobic and racist members of the Atlesian population into a frenzy. Much of the Atlesian military has been deployed to police Atlas and Mantle to contain the situation, but as you can see…" Ironwood gestured vaguely. "It isn't doing anything."
Winter watched Aurelius' expression darken. "We can't risk either the HPF and the White Fang establishing a presence in Bastion," he grumbled before Janus. "Ensure that our forces understand that any acts of hostility between humans and faunus in either direction is to be treated as seriously as possible. The last thing we need is for the HPF to get into Bastion and incite violence that'd lead to increased support for the White Fang, or vice versa. All it takes is one incident in the wrong spot and we might not be able to keep Bastion in the air." Janus nodded before going to leave the room. "We need to find a way to pacify the White Fang and the HPF. I'd like to suggest that, at this point, a reward will be given for any information that leads to the ringleaders of the Human Primacy Front or Adam Taurus and his lieutenants in the White Fang."
Ironwood, Richard, and the Vacuan Councilwoman nodded quickly before the Valian Councilor spoke up. "I'm afraid that I'm not allowed to agree to anything without Colvin's approval. I can at least inform him of the proposal and recent developments."
Aurelius frowned and scoffed slightly. "Typical…" He glanced around the room. "The other solution we have is to determine a way to pacify the White Fang. We don't need them to completely turn to pacifism and nonviolence overnight, but if the White Fang's leadership are willing to show that they are just as against recent events as we are and reduce their attacks, if not outright shun Adam Taurus, it might be enough to take some bite out their more aggressive members long enough to stabilize the situation. On top of that, we need a way to show that neither Adam's brutality or the HPF's senseless slaughter will sway us from supporting equality between humanity and the faunus."
Yang tore her gaze away from the screens to look at the Blue Rose. "What about helping make Menagerie a better place to live?" she asked, getting Blake's attention. "There has to be something that you can do, right?"
Aurelius hummed. "Irrigation, fertilization, clearing out the hostile wildlife, constructing a proper city and infrastructure… It would be an immense undertaking, but I think a strong alliance and enough resources might make it possible eventually. The formation of a new, proper kingdom for the faunus and the promise of eventually turning desert into lush grassland would be a powerful message indeed. The only problem is the lack of a connection to the CCT network, which means we'd need someone to provide an introduction or that wouldn't be thrown off the island immediately…"
Blake let out a sigh before Yang wrapped an arm around the cat faunus, causing her to jump slightly. "Blake and I can do that! I want to actually see Menagerie anyways, so it'll be perfect!" Yang said with a grin before looking at Blake. "Right, kitten?"
Blake blushed and looked away with a meek smile. "I… I think we could do that…"
Summer smiled at the couple before glancing at Aurelius. "It might be dangerous, but perhaps I could try to get in contact with Sienna again. She might be more receptive to a familiar face and it'd help soften the blow from learning about the HPF forming."
Aurelius let out a frustrated sigh, glancing at the screens. "I can't prevent you from leaving, but I can ask you to be careful if you do decide to do that and try to keep in contact when you can do so safely." The Green Rose nodded before Aurelius glanced at Adrienne. "Adrienne, I'm sure you know that Sanctuary and Atlas have agreed to an exchange of representatives to ease communication. In this case, with the information I have, I feel that you would be the best option if you went to represent our interests."
The Orange Rose hummed before nodding. "Alright, Grandpa Auri, I won't let you down."
The Blue Rose let out a sigh and looked around the room. "We will discuss the rest at a later date, for now… I think we all need some time to think about what we've seen. Most likely, we will be sending a few people to Mistral to help with the situation there in a few months as well. Now then, everyone is dismissed, go try to enjoy the rest of the day…" Aurelius watched as the room emptied, the screens going blank.
Winter stood up and walked over to him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Are you… Alright?" she asked, concern in her voice.
Aurelius ran a hand down the side of his face. "I'm not even sure anymore… I've always hated dealing with the knowledge that I couldn't save everyone, struggling to remember that it's impossible to do so when my heart always makes me feel like I could have tried so much harder to save the people that were lost…" He looked up at the ceiling. "In this case, I know there wasn't anything more I could do, no more preparations I could make short of knowing where everyone would be at every moment, but it still somehow feels like a failure to me…"
Winter let out a quiet sigh before smiling at him. "The fact that there are still people alive to mourn and rebuild is a triumph, Aurelius… How about we go back to your office and I make you some tea?"
The wolf faunus looked at her, a tired smile on his face. "Perhaps that'd be for the best…" he muttered before the two quietly left the room.
I'm sorry that this chapter so much longer to write, but a mix of writer's block and real life dragging me away from my writing whenever I was starting to figure out where I wanted this to be led to extremely slow progress. Hopefully I'll be able to make up for it next week with at least 3 chapters, but I know for a fact I'll be losing several hours of potential writing time tomorrow and at least four hours on Saturday, so I don't expect to have much progress on a chapter until 2-3 days from now.
The Human Primacy Front (HPF) is more or less a group that's taken the attack on Beacon and Vale as proof that the faunus pose an existential threat to humanity and, as a result, are unwilling to consider standing on equal footing with them. To the HPF, faunus need to be either wiped out or enslaved to protect human existence and freedom. The HPF is very much the exact opposite of Adam's White Fang, while the White Fang under Sienna's and Ghira's leadership, as well as the Order of the Blue Rose, all support equality through different means. (Sienna through fear, Ghira though protests, and the Rose family/Order of the Blue Rose though direct cooperation between humans and faunus)
I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter overall. Please let me know how you feel.
