"I promise you, Blake. I will make all the damned nobilities pay for this - the Schnee's most of all for what they do to our kind."

Blake awoke in a cold sweat alone in her room, the memory she dreamed of still burned in her mind's eye. It had been nearly a year since she had last seen Adam Taurus and then she naively volunteered to go out and steal much needed resources.

And how she got caught.

How she was beaten within an inch of death.

How the people sneered and jeered at her.

How she wished that she had died instead of going through these harsh conditions at the slave market. She thought her life barely surviving on the streets of Mistral was terrible – but as a slave! Oh Oum… she didn't know where to begin.

Then the one to save her should be none other than an Schnee.

Blake tried - she tried to her hate her, Weiss Schnee, she tried for the sake of her fellow oppressed slaves to hate this noble – especially after Adam's people had tracked her down. Adam's personal note of how pleased he had been when he found out that fate smiled down fortunately on their cause to have brought Blake to Weiss Schnee.

But if Adam knew where to find Blake after she had been purchased, then why didn't he try harder to release her from the slave market? Why didn't he try to save her before they put this blasted collar around her neck?

These were the questions and thoughts that were burning in her mind as she stood over a sleeping Weiss Schnee with a knife in hand - her slave collar lay forgotten outside by that peculiar crack in the wall.

Contemplating the firestorm that surged within her on whether or not she should carry out her orders she received earlier – that tonight was the night they were going to attack. Blake Belladonna took a deep breath and looked down at the sleeping form.

Sleeping alone.

'Wait.' Blake thought, she was a fool; Weiss hadn't been sleeping alone at all the past few weeks.

"What are you doing?" A voice emanated from behind her.

Slowly, Blake turned and faced what she could only describe as the Grim Reaper itself.

Silver eyes flashed to the knife, and immediately Blake became tense. As soon as Blake felt the pressure in the air build, did the Faunus act.

'She's unarmed, but I'm fast.' Blake assumed as she lunged at the unarmed girl, what she didn't expect was for Ruby Rose to act faster. With steadfast hands, it all became a blur, Blake's thrusts were easily parried and the sheer strength of the Gladiator was stifling as Ruby made quick work of the would-be assailant.

"What's going on?!" Weiss shrieked as she touched the fire dust crystal lamp in the room. The commotion in the room had awoken her.

Ruby sported a new gash on her arm as she held Blake face down on to the ground, her gaze was intense, but softened to a surprised one as she looked over Blake over.

"Where's your collar, Blake?" Ruby questioned, her grip still strong on the Faunus.

Blake bit the inside of her cheek, she was foolish, she had miscalculated.

'I grew soft on them.' She realized bitterly as she tasted blood on the inside of her mouth from biting down too hard.

"I heard a noise…" Yang trailed off as she stood at the doorway of the room, taking in the scene before her.

"Blake! What's going on?!" Weiss commanded, thankful that she and Ruby had opted out of some nightly activities and went to bed instead.

"I…" Blake's voice cracked, tears streaming down her face, 'I'm a traitor… not only to my brethren, but to them as well.' Once the rebellion started and they see that Weiss Schnee was still alive, her failure would surely be communicated to Adam.

"Blake." Yang's voice cut through the air, she put a hand on Ruby's shoulder, "Let her go, she can't do anything."

Ruby stared hard at the Faunus and then back up at Yang, her eyes fell to the last occupant of the house who made his way into the bedroom – Klein was white as a sheet as he tried to understand what was going on.

Reluctantly, Ruby released the assailant.

"Blake, explain." Yang tried again, she crouched down so that she was eye level with the Faunus who remained sitting on the floor.

"I'm a shit assassin." Blake let out.

Yang chuckled at the comment, "I can tell." She motioned to the fallen weapon.

"You… were going to murder me?" Weiss' voice was hurt.

"I… Yes, that was my assignment." Blake rubbed her neck; the collar was taken off as soon as she saw the key in that secret drop point out in the wall, along with a note.

Bring me the head of the Schnee.

"You… You – "

"Stop." Klein held out his hand, Weiss was surprised as her usual mild manner servant spoke up so strongly, "Why? Why didn't you do it sooner?"

"I was waiting for my orders." Blake answered the man.

"Who ordered you?" The man had done his time in Atlas' Navy, and his instincts were screaming at him that something else was going on.

"There's… a slave rebellion. Tonight. The Kingdom will fall."

"What." Weiss went wide-eyed at the comment. "So… all of this, was just an act? A ploy to get close to me?"

"It was… at first." Blake looked down, "Just get it over with and kill me already, please." The tears were uncontrollable at this point.

"Give me the knife, Ruby." Weiss demanded.

Silently, Ruby complied and handed the weapon over to the Merchant.

"Wait, no!" Yang yelled out in frustration and at once she made a grab for Weiss, Ruby once again showed off her speed as she wrestled Yang to the ground. The two rolled around for a bit before a sharp yell got their attention.

"Stop it!" Weiss hollered and she turned her attention back to the Faunus who remained seated on her bedroom floor. She held the tip of the blade to Blake's neck, "Blake." The woman in question closed her eyes, "Was it all a ploy? Has everything that happened the past year been false, was none of it true?"

Blake held her breath, closed her eyes, and then opened them again, "No… it was true." Another tear fell, "I… You made me soft, Weiss." Blake said softly, "I'm sorry."

A loud slap rang across the room, the sound of a metal hitting the ground echoed through out the room.

Wordlessly Weiss stepped away and left her room, leaving the rest of the occupants.

"We need to move fast," Klein spoke up, "You said the Kingdom will fall, how sure of you are that?"

Blake looked up at the servant; she began to open her mouth.

But she was cut off by the sounds of explosions in the distance.

"Barty! Move!" Atreus roared while another attacker launched themselves through the castle's corridor.

"How did they get in?" Oobleck was perplexed as they quickly jogged through the corridors, "Where's the King?"

"Probably in his room, where are the blasted guards?" Atreus looked around desperately, he easily skewered the attacker with a one handed sword thrust, Atreus Nikos was in no way letting old age get to him.

All the Councilmen were asleep in the Castle when the explosion went off; first Atreus heard the blood curling scream of a woman and then harsh sounds of swords hitting the stone. He didn't have time to check on Salem since an armed contingent of attackers met him at his doorway, instead he escaped through a secret backdoor that led him to another corridor, where he ran into Oobleck who was also trying to outrun his attackers.

Atreus was thankful he remembered to grab his sword after he hacked through another attacker that was waiting for them in the shadow of the corridor. Oobleck let out a tense sigh as the two continued down.

"The scream earlier… it sounded like Salem." Oobleck let out.

Atreus had a morbid look on his face, "I couldn't check, there was a gaggle of them in the main hallway that blocked my way to her room."

"Oum, what is going on?" He was confused.

They made their way down the twists and turns of the castle; both Councilmen were confused at the lack of guards.

"Of all the nights for these bastards to slack off." Atreus cursed, "Where are the Oum forsaken guards hiding out at?!"

"Atreus… I don't have a good feeling about any of this." Oobleck voiced, there were usually guards stationed everywhere at all times.

They approached the entrance to the throne room and the two hurriedly rushed inside in hopes that they had beaten the invaders to him.

"Having a nice evening, boys?" Both men's blood turned cold at the feminine voice.

"I fucking knew it." Bartholomew Oobleck cursed.

"Y-You…" Atreus looked at the bloodied mess at the foot of the throne.

King Leonardo Lionheart lay dead with a dagger in his back.

"HE TRUSTED YOU!" Atreus bellowed, his legs pumping as he charged the woman sitting on the throne, "YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE THE KING'S COUNCILMAN!"

"Atty, no!" Oobleck shouted, from the corner of his eye he saw the arrow let loose.

"Just like you said, Mother." Cinder Fall came out of the shadows with a bow in hand.

Atreus Nikos looked down at the arrow sticking out from his chest, eyes raging with betrayal and anger.

"You forgot one more." Emerald raised her bow and knocked back an arrow.

She didn't expect the Nikos warrior to charge at her so quickly, knocking the arrow out of its path.

"Barty, run!" Atreus yelled out, only for a fit of coughing to take over and a stream of blood to trickle down his chin.

"I forgot to mention, it's poisoned." Cinder smirked, her eyes catching the fleeting figure of the Councilman.

"Cinder, go kill him, he must not survive the night." Salem Fall waved her hand off to her daughter, "Report back to me when it's done."

"Yes, mother." Cinder nodded as she took off running with Emerald in tow.

This left the dying Atreus Nikos on his knees in front of the stolen throne, "Why?"

"It's simple… Atty." The nickname was vile when she said it, "Why be the King's Councilman when I could be King? Or in this case, Queen."

"You damned… whore…." Atreus fell into another coughing fit, the wound on his chest also began to leak red. His emerald eyes fell to his fallen King, the man he had followed into battle countless times before in his youth. Back when the now deceased man was known as Prince Leo the Brave.

"Long… live… Mistral."

"Where are we going?" Yang questioned as she hastily put her great sword on her back, a light bag was hanging at her side.

The occupants of the Schnee Villa wasted no time putting on decent clothes as soon as they heard the initial explosions go off.

"Not to the gates, the original plan was to set up ambushes and traps by the gates so that no one can leave the city by foot." Blake explained.

"They don't have the balls to outright blow the gates down, they don't want to risk a swarm of Grimm coming in." Yang bit her cheek, the amount of chaos going on here would surely attract a few packs of those monsters to the Kingdom's walls, "It would be suicide to try to escape by foot outside with the amount of commotion going down."

"The docks." Klein offered, "It's impossible to close down all the roads to the port, the port is too huge for that."

"But we need a boat, Klein." Weiss was dressed in loose trousers and a coat, Ruby helped her dress and pack in the short amount of time. At her side was a burlap bag containing hastily packed clothes, jewels, and whatever gold lien Weiss had laying around – Ruby insisted on bringing some just in case.

Shouts could be heard outside the Villa.

"This is so well coordinated." Klein muttered while his eyes flicked to Blake who had remained silent the entire t

"If you want me to forgive you…" Weiss was stern as she faced the Faunus, her ears visibly drooped over at the Merchant's tone, "You're going to do your best to help us get out of here."

"…Okay." Blake replied quietly.

"Death to the Schnee's!" A few voices were heard coming from the courtyard, the scuffling of feet clambering over the stonewalls were heard - some was attempting to raid the compound.

Ruby brandished her gladius, despite the night of the full moon, her eyes were able to train themselves in the near pitch-blackness of the night. Her eyes darted from left to right, "Four men!" She called out, knowing that Yang had her great sword held at the ready.

With ease, Ruby ran out to meet the first of the pack, she parried the strike and then pushed him off to the side – Yang Xiao Long finished off the fallen attacker with ease as she cleaved her great sword towards his midsection.

The Gladiator skewered the next opponent, the Huntress easily met the two other attackers that tried to catch her little sister off guard. The sparks of metal clashing with metal flew throughout the dark night – a grizzly scream echoed throughout the courtyard and a man was suddenly without his sword arm.

"You bitch!" One cried, but before he could retaliate, an iron gladius was protruding from his neck.

Yang took care of the last one, she swung her great sword at the man's midsection and his body fell into two heaps.

Ruby caught sight of the uniform some of the men wore, "Where have I seen this before…" It was familiar, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

Weiss did her best to not gag at the sight; it was so different with the bodies being so close to you as opposed to watching it from the stands in the Arena.

"Jaune." Ruby mentioned suddenly, Yang looked over at her sister in confusion, "Jaune said he has a boat in port, it should be stocked up by now because he was getting ready to shove off in a day or two." She thanked the skills she learned in the Valesian Army as a scout: think fast and act faster, don't let any detail escape you.

"Do we even know where it's docked?" Blake asked.

"Her Villa isn't too far from here." Weiss looked out the window, the coast was clear for now.

"It'd be nice if you had some horses." Yang complained as they darted quickly out of the Villa. All were armed to some degree, Weiss with a rapier that she took off the wall of her study, Blake with two short swords, Ruby with a gladius, and then Klein with an Altesian blade.

And of course Yang with her great sword.

The group came to a halt as they came across the Nikos Villa.

Which was ablaze in the night.

"Oum no…" Weiss let out as she saw the flames dance about. "Pyrrha…" She nearly fell to her knees, but Ruby caught her with ease.

"Dust be damned!" A voice called out from inside the home, through the front door came crashing through Jaune Arc as he held his precious shield and sword in hand, right behind him came Pyrrha armed with her legendary sword and shield.

"Thank you…" Weiss sighed in relief, "Pyrrha!" She called out.

"Madness!" Jaune exclaimed, "One of the slaves tried to kill me in my sleep." A slight cut on his cheek could be seen.

"Same here." Pyrrha looked back at her family Villa, "They doused the whole place in kerosene before they tried to kill us."

Weiss looked on at the burning building, "We need to get out of here."

"The stables haven't caught fire yet, we can hook a carriage towards the west gate that's away from the-"

"The gates are compromised." Yang let out, "We need to go by the dock."

"That's near the heart of the Kingdom, who knows what's going on there." Jaune interjected.

"And all this fighting is going to attract the Grimm by the hoards, once we step foot outside the walls it's going to be a mad house." Yang pushed back, "Unless you want to try your luck fighting through with what's on your back."

"I see your point." Pyrrha sighed, "But you said the gates were compromised, how do you know that?" She caught sight of Blake.

Blake the slave without a collar on.

"You!" Jaune reached for his blade.

"Enough!" Weiss yelled back sharply, which put the Valesian Commander in his place, "It's already been settled, Blake's on our side."

Jaune narrowed his eyes, but a pat from Pyrrha quelled his anger.

"We need to move quickly, who doesn't know how to ride a horse?" Pyrrha asked the crowd.

Ruby knew how from her time in the Army, Weiss because she learned along side her sister… Pyrrha looked at the rag tag group and saw only one hand in the air.

"I don't know how to ride." Blake let out.

"You'll saddle up with me then." Yang offered, "Do you have enough mounts?"

Pyrrha nodded her head, "Come on, saddle up so that we can get going." She led the group to the stables.

The steeds were restless with the brewing fire and increasing sounds of fighting through out the streets. It took longer than any of them would have liked to calm the horses down before they could even begin to saddle them.

They moved hastily, for Weiss it was a bit of a struggle since she had rarely saddled her own horse and for Ruby she missed a few belts just because of how long it was. Jaune and Yang remained calmed as they corrected and helped the others with their saddle and soon they all started trotting out of the stable.

Ruby looked at the remaining horses, she kicked open the stable and began slapping the horse's rears to get galloping out and away from the burning compound.

"I didn't even think of that." Pyrrha admitted.

Ruby nodded, "I wouldn't want to be tied up in a burning building, so I doubt they would've either." Easily she got up on her steed, the reins she held through sheer muscle memory.

"Stick as closely as possible, I'll lead the way – Ruby and Jaune, can you bring up the rear in case someone tries to attack us." Pyrrha instructed.

"Aye." Ruby and Jaune answered in unison.

"You really were a part of the Army." Jaune smiled.

"Best damn scout you'll ever meet." Ruby quipped back as they rode through the streets.

They galloped a good while, but they were disrupted once they caught sight of a group of armed men who were chasing down an injured rider.

"Hang on tight." Yang instructed to Blake who rode in front of her, Yang gripped the handle of her great sword as she rode ahead to meet the armed riders chasing the injured one.

"Watch out!" One warned out, a majority of the group pulled tightly on the reigns to stop, however two of them were not so lucky once the slab of metal came around and easily cleaved the men in half.

"How do you wield that with one hand?" Blake looked in half horror and half amazement.

"Practice."

Pyrrha rode hard to come to Yang's side, as soon as the armed riders caught sight of the Mistrali Commander did they turn tail and gallop away as fast as possible.

"Pyrrha! By Oum… it's you." Bartholomew Oobleck leaned over his steed, an arrow was sticking out of the horse's hind leg and there were a few sword marks the lightly decorated his arms and sides.

"Oobleck!" Pyrrha let out, she looked the man over.

"Nothing serious, I'll survive." The Councilman explained. "Pyrrha." Oobleck straightened out and he looked Pyrrha in the eyes, "You were right, it's Salem, the Fall family is behind all of this. Cinder and her forces are trying to hunt me down and murder me as we speak. The castle… the castle is no longer safe, not for me."

"Where's my father?" Pyrrha looked around, her father often stayed at the castle to handle business, "How did you escape the castle?"

"Murdered by Salem." Oobleck took a deep breath and kept his gaze steady on the Commander, "There's secret corridors that Salem didn't know about, I used them to escape to the stables. Unfortunately the castle courtyard was taken over by a uniformed guard – but they didn't bear any flags or symbols, nor did they look like our own. I barely rode hard enough to make it out."

Pyrrha Nikos swallowed hard, but a tear still managed to escape, "Father…" She took a deep breath, she closed her eyes and counted to three – once she opened them again those green eyes belonged to Commander Nikos, Champion of Mistral. "If what you said is true… then we need to protect you at all costs."

Oobleck nodded, the realization dawned on him all at once.

"By order of succession, you are Mistral's hope – it's new King." Pyrrha saluted the man.

Oobleck nodded, "We'll discuss those matters later, because those formalities won't matter if we end up dead."

An explosion in the distance interrupted them, a wild battle cry echoed from not so far away.

"Go! We've got them covered!" A familiar voice rang out.

"Nora." Jaune and Ruby looked at each other and immediately the two went riding off towards the sound.

Two blocks over they encountered the fight. Ren making quick work of the armed slaves with his swordplay and then Nora flawlessly covering his back. The two worked perfectly in tandem with each other as they fought off the attackers in order to give another group a few yards down a chance to escape.

Not too far away was Bolin Hori as he held the sword in his hand so familiarly, behind him was his mother, sister, and Reese up against the building as the Gladiator beautifully held off the lone attacker that had managed to slip past Ren and Nora.

"Bo!" Ruby called out while charging towards him on her horse, she leaned over her steed and sunk her sword into the final attacker – she took note that some of the men were dressed in actual armor as opposed to the rags that some of the slaves wore.

And the uniform looked eerily familiar.

"Ruby!" Bolin was glad to see her, "The slaves in the market, they're running amok and attacking anyone that looks remotely well-off, we're trying to leave." He motioned to the two scouts, "They thought it would be good to try and escape through the west gate since this path takes us by Weiss and Pyrrha's Villa."

"Oh Dust, I'm glad you're alright." Ruby hugged the man.

"Ruby!" Reese called out, she wrapped her arms around the smaller Gladiator, "We were worried about you when the first explosions went off."

"The gates are compromised, we're going to go by boat." Jaune explained.

"The main road leading to the port is chaos, we ran right by it while trying to escape." Ren reported, "There's easily a company's worth of revolting slaves, they're well-equipped and they know how to fight. The city guard is having trouble trying to contain the madness… it's not looking good."

"Not good at all, the Inn we were sleeping at didn't last long at all." Nora recalled the gruesome sight they were treated when trying to leave.

"There's other ways to the dock, do you know where your ship is?" Klein asked, the rest of the group had managed to catch up to them.

"South Side with the fishing trawlers, thankfully there wasn't enough space at North Side with the usual travelling vessels." Jaune replied, his thoughts then went to the men, "Fuck… they're supposed to be going home soon." He ran a hand through his blond hair, Jaune Arc was referring to the very men he had worked hard to release from their chains of slavery.

"We saw a few of the POWs from the Inn, they took up arms and started fighting back – with the slaves… but the confusion of it all…" Nora looked down, "It was difficult to tell who was trying to kill us and who was trying to run away."

"Thank you for coming for my family." Bolin let out to the two scouts, "I don't think we would have made it out without you."

"Nora insisted we check on you as soon as we escaped the Inn." Ren clarified., "Those guys in armor, they were hunting you down with a purpose." He noted, "Why?"

"This is the same uniform that the guys who were chasing Oobleck were wearing… And the same uniform as the guys who invaded Weiss' Villa" Ruby observed in, "What's going on?"

"I think they're sell-swords of the sort, no doubt a part of this coup that's taking place." The Scholar let out as he looked around, "This isn't a time to stand around though."

"Roman." Bolin looked up at Ruby once she said the name, "I remember now, some of the new guards he hired were wearing this uniform."

"Ruby…" Bolin started, he saw that the gears in her head were turning wildly.

"He wants us dead that badly?" Ruby looked down at her reins.

"Ruby…" Yang warned, but Blake tightened her hands around Yang's wrists to prevent the girl from doing anything ra

"I… I can't go, not without settling this with that bastard."

Without leaving any room for arguments, Ruby rode off hard towards the Torchwick Villa.

A/N:

Ides of March indeed.

I think everyone can guess what's about to take place next chapter.

As always, I hope you guys enjoyed the read.

See you all very soon.

Cheers,

DevilRed