Part of the Legends Universe.
This is a AU, which will become more evident next chapter. I do not own RWBY, RoosterTeeth owns it, if I did some, good characters would have more screen time.
1654 Hours (Eastern Anima Standard Time)
July 1st, 2320
White Fang Central Headquarters, Kingdom of Mistral, Eastern Anima
Sienna Khan was pissed, no she was livid as she fought back the urge to kill the Bull Faunus she was scowling at, if her bastard of a father was here however, he would've killed Taurus on the spot. Adam Taurus had serious balls to come to the White Fang's headquarters in Mistral. He had violated some of the rules she established after she took over for her predecessor, Blanc Luna, the first leader of the now militant White Fang. Attacking peaceful FAUNUS civil rights protests, working with HUMANS, murdering those who chose to leave the White Fang, and attacking THE most well known Huntsmen Academy on Remnant. That last bit was a clear indication that Adam Taurus is no longer fit to lead the White Fang branch in Vale.
"You have some nerve coming here Adam." Sienna said in a venomous tone as he kneeled in front of her.
"I am here to give a report on the situation in Vale."
Oh, she had gotten reports, from her spies in the WFV, it sickened her to read them. Reports of ultra-radicalism among his ranks, desertion, humans attacking his camp then offering him money and Dust, attacking and murdering Faunus who don't agree with them. Then there's the fact that Blake Belladonna left as well, the daughter of her dear friend Ghira, one of the few people that kept him stable. While she respected the Taurus family as honorable soldiers, Huntsmen, and warriors, Adam Taurus was clearly not worthy of the name. Sienna had somewhat fancied herself a moderate, but people assumed that she was like the rest: a Faunus that wanted to change the status quo. All she ever wanted from the humans was respect and to be treated as an equal, she would take that by force if need be.
"We have achieved a great victory in Vale." Adam boasted. "Beacon is nothing but ruins now, the humans in Vale City are scrambling for safety, and any potential turncoat has been eliminated." the Bull Faunus paused before continuing. "We were unable to destroy Amity Colosseum though."
"You destroyed Beacon!" Sienna yelled, her shock and anger evident. "And you tried to destroy Amity Colosseum!?"
"I will not deny that, but it achieved was with some help."
"But why?"
"That Colosseum is a represents the oppression human placed on our people." Adam tried to reason with her. "It had to be destroyed, it's destruction would show the humans the irony in that the labor they used to build Amity would be its destroyers."
'You forget both humans and Faunus built Amity Colosseum, together.' Sienna thought, her fury threatening to burst.
"As for Beacon Academy, it was a symbol of human pride, I wanted to show them the price of pride."
She went to Beacon, made good friends there and had many memorable adventures during her four years there, she met her lover there, even became friends with Team STRQ, a former Faunus servant, and a Schnee during her tenure at the prestigious academy. Sienna was hoping when the humans finally respect herself and her people and treat them as equals, she would be able to pay Beacon Academy a visit, but Adam ruined that chance. Hell, Sienna felt tempted to have him executed on the spot for that, but her logical side wanted her to capture Taurus and then hand him over to the URN.
"Sienna, we cannot waste time debating this, we have to capitalize on the humans' disorganized state."
"What do you propose?" Sienna asked, wanting to know what he had in mind.
"It will be an easier to accomplish here in Mistral than Vale." Adam answered confidently.
"It will?"
"We attack Haven Academy and destroy it, preferably before classes resume."
"NO!" Sienna snapped.
"But High Leader…" Adam said in a pleading tone. "…the Mistralian military are stretched thin and so are the local Huntsmen."
Attacking Haven Academy was suicide, even with all the students still on break. The Mistrala and Haven City Territorial Guard garrisons and Capital Region Defense Command, while spread thin, still was able to respond rapidly to any attack, Grimm or otherwise and were receiving reinforcements from across Mistral. Not only that, attacking Haven Academy would make the situation worse, most likely to the point that it will be open war, something the Tigress didn't want. Sienna had fought in the Faunus War in the Menagerie theater when her father deemed her old enough to fight against occupation forces led by the State of Mantle, which had recovered from losing much of its territory to the Kingdom of Atlas and its other successor states. She had seen what had happens in war when she was just a teenager, she knew a war against the more organized militaries of the world powers was suicide.
"Adam." Sienna interrupted her onetime pupil. "I'm not going to repeat myself, so I want you to listen when I tell that the White Fang will not attack Haven Academy."
"High Leader Khan, I am begging you…" the Bull started.
"You should beg for forgiveness and nothing else!" the Tigress snapped again and Adam looked downward. "The assault you lead on Beacon was not the great victory you clearly think it was and you should be grateful your punishment wasn't more severe."
"You are a symbol for many in our organization, but that doesn't make you infallible." Sienna began, doing her best to stay calm.
"I was merely trying to follow your example, High Leader." Adam replied, the Bull Faunus's gaze still on the floor.
"And what example might that be?" Sienna asked, skepticism dripping in her every word.
"Strength; strength and unwavering conviction." Adam answered resolutely. "The humans have seen that strength now."
"I was one of the first to suggest violence where violence was necessary. Peace bred complacency and acceptance of our place in the world. I will not allow humanity to push us down without pushing them back." Sienna said to him, remembering the months leading up to Ghira's resignation as Leader of the White Fang. "But the destruction of the Huntsman Academies crosses a line! The loss of the CCT has brought global communication to a crawl!" the Tigress continued her anger returning. "And the White Fang is more of a target now than ever before because of the attack!" her fury was on the rise as she lectured one of her best officers. "You have justified humanity's campaign against us, and for what?!" she questioned him angrily. "Empty promises from a group of humans? Humans we still know nothing about, and come and go as they please!" Sienna was ready to pounce on Adam and kill him. "These are not examples of strength, Adam. They are examples of your talents being diminished by shortsightedness!" the White Fang High Leader finished as she pounded her fist on her throne's armrest.
"If you want to know more about the humans, then why not talk to one of them yourself?" Adam says before turning toward the large doors. "Hazel! Julius!"
At that moment the large doors to the 'throne room' opened and fourteen HUMANS entered. Twelve of them wore jet black, advanced body armor, BDUs, helmets that resembled those used by most militaries on Remnant, and combat boots. They were armed with either what appeared to be rifles, a LMG or two, shotguns, and a number of other specialized weapons as well as baring pistols, batons, and an assortment of knives in holsters. The two she assumed to be their superiors wore different outfits. The one on the left was tall, 6'4 if she was guessing right, muscular, short brown hair, a beard and hazel eyes and his hairy arms appeared to have scars near the edges of his shirt's sleeves. He wore a two-tone olive green coat over a black 3/4 sleeve shirt, and a large belt, black pants, and his boots were brown with white fronts. The other man had dark brown hair, green eyes, stood at 5'11, and possessed a scar over his right eyebrow. He wore a black trench coat over a equally black shirt and a grey vest, black pants, and black dress shoes. While the one on the left appeared to be unarmed, the one on the right had a sword on his hip and possibly a pair of high caliber pistols. Both looked confident and judging by the way they walked in, they probably could their own in a fight. As soon as she was done with her observations, her anger returned.
"Took you long enough." the one with hazel's eyes said with a Southern Osea accent.
"Bout bloody time." his partner said in a Brenlish accent.
As they approached her, Sienna Khan rose from her seat and her guards all point their spears toward the humans, the one in black reaching for his sword while the soldiers' were seemingly unfazed. "What is this?!"
"Apologies. I don't aim to cause any trouble." the tall man said in an attempt to calm her.
"You've brought humans to this location?" the Tigress yelled, incredulous.
"You should hear what he has to say." Adam replies in a disrespectful tone.
"This is grounds for execution!" Khan screamed.
"Ma'am, please." the tall man, she assumed to be Hazel pleaded. "Nobody needs to die today." he kneeled while his partner rolled his eyes. "I'm just asking for a moment of your time."
'At least one of them has some respect.' Sienna thought. "The longer you stay here, the less of a chance you have of leaving alive."
"I'll take those chances, if you don't mind." Hazel replied, confidently. Sienna sat back down and her guards returned to their original positions.
"You don't like me. You have no reason to like me." Hazel started. "But you don't have to like me to get the results you want."
"I'm starting to doubt either of you fully comprehend what it is that I want." Sienna retorted, seething inwardly. "I want humanity to fear the Faunus, to know that we demand respect! I do not want to start a war with the humans that we cannot win!"
"That's where you're wrong." Adam cut in. Sienna, Julius, and Hazel focused on Adam.
"We can win a war against the humans. Not only because we have the support of Hazel's master, but because the Faunus are the dominant species of this planet." Adam said as he walked toward Sienna. "We're better than humans. We have everything humans have and more. Humans shouldn't just fear the Faunus, they should serve the Faunus." It was clear to Sienna that Adam's traumatic, tragic past and supremacist views was motivating him and that the humans he was working with exploited that to make him to go rogue.
"I've had enough of this conversation for tonight." Sienna sighed, tired, before motioning her bodyguards forward. "Guards, take them away." They stood still, doing nothing. "I said, take them away!" the Tigress ordered, but her men still do nothing.
"I will admit, Sienna, you were right about my popularity." Adam said, smirking. "My followers in Vale already see me as the true High Leader and and many here in Mistral feel the same."
White Fang soldiers enter the throne room, pointing their IR61 assault rifles and spears at Sienna. Hazel and Julius looked behind them, surprised by the sudden intensity. The soldiers looked around, weapons at the ready and fingers on the trigger, indicating that they weren't aware of what was going on as were their leaders.
"What are you doing?" Hazel asked, confused as if he wasn't aware of what was happening.
Julius chuckled, amused by the sudden turn of events. "It's a damn coup."
Suddenly the words of a human spark back into her mind: "Taurus is a wildcard! When his ambitions overcome yours, he WILL stab you in the back!"
"What's right for the Faunus." Adam replied, his smirk still on his face. "From this day forward, I will be the one to lead the White Fang."
More White Fang soldiers appear on the flanks with their weapons drawn as Sienna's guards point their own spears at their former charge, whose eyes widen at the betrayal. The Tigress quickly analyzed the situation, looking for a way out but found none and mentally kicked herself for not expecting this, she should've listened to that huntsman's warnings. Realization sunk in before she got a crazy idea as her eyes narrowed darkly.
"If you think I'll just step aside and follow beneath you, you're wrong." Sienna said with conviction. Turning around to face the putsch leader and his allies only to feel immense pain in her stomach, gasping in pain, her body shaking from it. Looking downward, she found Adam's chokutō, Wilt, impaling her through the gut.
"I know." Adam retorted in a dark tone.
The Bull lifts the Wilt upward, the blade sliding deeper into Sienna's body and lifting her off the ground. Clenching her fists in an attempt to fight the pain, her eyes moving around rapidly, her breathing erratic. Taking advantage of the closer proximity, he grabbed her shoulder so he could speak in her ear.
"Thank you, Sienna; you were there when our people needed you, but they need me now." Adam said as he flashed a wicked smile. "I'm sorry you couldn't see this through to the end."
The Tigress growls in anger and defiance, lifting her hand to claw at the betrayer's neck. Before she could even attempt to cause any harm to him, however, Adam swiftly ripped Wilt from her body, causing her body to fall down the steps leading to her throne. The White Fang officers and soldiers withdrew their weapons. Hazel looked at the former White Fang leader, annoyance all over his face, while Julius looked at the body with suspicion, mostly due to the lack of blood pooling beneath it.
"Give our former leader a proper burial." Adam ordered and several. "All who were here tonight will claim that Sienna was murdered by a human Huntsman. Sienna Khan will become a martyr for our cause, her final act as High Leader."
"When were you planning on telling us about that?" Hazel said dangerously.
Adam withdrew a cloth from his back pocket and slid it across Wilt's blade, cleaning off Sienna's blood. "This was my business, not yours."
"It's our business now, and I don't appreciate you withholding things like that." Hazel retorted.
"Your master was concerned with Sienna's willingness to cooperate." Adam replied in a matter of fact tone. "Now she doesn't have to be."
"You should've have still informed her." the Brit said in a scolding manner. "She likes it when a plan goes according to plan."
"Nobody needed to die today." Hazel said calmly as he left the throne just as Adam sat down on the throne.
"I…disagree." Adam retorted, satisfied.
As soon as he was sure that Hazel was gone, Julius turned toward his men, ordering them to do the following. Secure the landing pads so no potential witnesses and none of Khan's loyalists could escape. Lock down the armory so none of said loyalists will be able to arm themselves and fight their way out of the compound. Then to eliminate the loyalists not present before they could be a threat.
"You four, oversee the proceedings of Khan's burial."
"Yes sir!" the Neo-Umbrella soldiers said in unison and rushed out to catch up with Khan's stretcher.
"Why bother with it." Adam asked confused. "You saw me kill Sienna."
"Can't be too careful." Julius replied, before switching to another topic. "We should probably get rid of any of Khan's loyalist officers, discreetly of course, then pin their deaths on the local Huntsmen." the man rubbed his chin before leaving. "We should also coerce those who are not loyal to you or Khan."
"You're taking this better than Hazel." Adam said simply.
"I figured that if things went as planned, Sienna would be a loose end, bolt the first chance she got." the Neo-Umbrella leader explained before turning around and leaving the throne room. "If you would excuse me, Hazel and I need to make a report to Salem."
Meanwhile, the White Fang soldiers carrying Sienna's body had made their way outside, now backed up by the Neo-Umbrella operatives, ready to shoot any threats to the Haven plan without hesitation. What they did not notice was a subtle motive of the Tigress's hand and a subtle golden glow where her wound was.
Julius Lane is a OC in my Legends universe and the first in a long line of humans from Earth who serve Salem in her machinations:
Born in England, United Kingdom and once a distinguished member of the British SAS, Julius Lane was on the fast track to becoming the next CEO of Umbrella when he came into contact with the Queen of the Grimm in 2304 during a top secret Umbrella expedition to Remnant. Falling under her influence, Lane would go on to capture or kill many Aura users, Huntsmen or otherwise, and silver-eyes for Arthur Watts, Quincy Merlot, and Witch Doctor Quan Chi's Revenant and Wraith programs.
The Brit would later become the mastermind of the Battle of Concord, a bid to secure previously hidden Dust deposits which ended with a dozen of his officers dead and the destruction of a ancient, but modernized warship as well as hundreds of Grimm and copious amounts of Grimm tar. Forced to flee from the ever expanding realm of UEG space to Remnant, he would reform his Umbrella Corporation splinter group into the feared Neo-Umbrella terrorist organization and pledged loyalty to Salem. The years between 2309 and 2314 saw Julius build up his power base within the Eclipse Council: first by absorbing several militant groups and criminal organizations across Remnant then acquiring the assistance of a major Animan bandit tribe. Julius would also recapture a pair of escaped Wraith candidates with the aid of the Huntress turned mercenary Bounty Hunter J, destroying her airship over Lake Valorous, Southeastern Vale after her contract was completed and leaving her for dead.
Lane would eventually engage in combat with the UNSC again when the United Earth Government sent expeditions to Remnant and would ironically unite the UEG and the Brotherhood of Light against Salem despite his best efforts to prevent it. He went underground afterward but would resurface prior to the Fall of Beacon attempting to counter the efforts of the renegade private military group known as Requiem to undermine his mistress's plans. Julius would also help coerce, blackmail or bribe White Fang-in-Vale officers into joining Adam Taurus's growing splinter group. His whereabouts after Beacon's fall are currently unknown but recent intelligence reports indicate that he was hunting for Requiem operatives in the deserts of eastern Anima.
Julius Lane is a ruthless, uncompromising and slightly sadistic individual who has a tendency ridicule and even execute incompetent officers and soldiers, takes little to no chances when it comes to loose ends, and a strategic and tactical genius. Nearly unflinching in his loyalty to Salem, Julius will go to any length to see his master achieve victory. Julius is a expert swordsman, sharpshooter and close quarters combat specialist, extremely lethal. His weapons are a pair of Mark XIV high-caliber pistols, a backup revolver, an estoc, and a variety of other melee weapons. His semblance is electricity based though it seems that he's developed a form of telekinesis as well, likely a result of enhanced training with Salem.
I pictured Sienna Khan as being a bit of a anti-hero, the result of her father's decision to conscript her into his radical sect of the Menagerie Liberation Army when she was just ten years old thus leading her to lose the innocence that most children and young teens hold onto. Ironically this would lead to her meeting Ghira Belladonna and his own MLA cell, mostly made up of orphans or children separated from their families. This would lead her to regard the conflict as being more of a war than a revolution. Sienna meeting with Ghira would influence her decision to undergo Hunter training at Beacon Academy in the aftermath of the Faunus War and the first few years that immediately followed the Ulysses Disaster. Becoming a member of Team HWKS as the partner of her old friend's future wife, Kali, Sienna once was an close friend of fellow teammate Willow Schnee. They had a falling out sometime after Jacques Schnee took over the SDC, barely keeping in contact with each other. The two would cease communication when the White Fang became violent and committed acts of terrorism worldwide.
I will explain my take on the other known war in RWBY.
Basically I turned the Faunus Rights Revolution or as it is more commonly known as the Faunus War into a World War 2-like scenario, with stubborn remnants of the Mantlean government, Mistralian and Vacuan Nationalists, Belka, Erusea, and their allies against the four great Kingdoms, the Osean Federation and their allies. The war is more or less a combination of the Belkan War, Second Usean Continental War, and the Anean Continental War from the Ace Combat series. The Mantle-led alliance, the Kerlin Alliance, wanted to centralize the Faunus population and any other 'undesirables' in Menagerie while the requesting that other two major alliances, the United Remnant Treaty Organization and the Directus Pact, to follow their example, only to be ignored. The Alliance would later invade and occupy Menagerie, in order to ensure that none would leave the island continent, but would eventually commit acts of genocide and other crimes against Humans and Faunus living there at the behest of their leaders. Menagerie would be liberated towards the end of the war by a joint URTO-Yuktobanian-Huntsmen task force and aid would be provided to the locals by URN and URTO. Menagerie would regain its independence after a period of reconstruction and would be the home of an incomplete STONEHENGE battery, abandoned in the wake of a Level 10 Grimm attack.
The AU part of this will become pretty apparent next chapter. That ancient starship and telekinesis bit in Lane's profile is meant to be a tie-in to the rest of Legends, specifically the Star Wars portion of it.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!