Were it his choice, Nicolaus would much rather enjoy his well deserved rest after the absolute mess that was his team's last assignment. Alas, as much as he was tempted to simply ignore the message from Goodwitch, he knew too well doing so would bring some severe consequences. Better do his duty now and sleep later than to suffer through whatever punishment she had in store later on.
So there he was, waiting before the heavy door made of dark wood until someone invited him over. He knocked about five minutes ago yet still no response. Luckily, he didn't have to wait much longer. The door creaked open and professor- well, acting headmistress Goodwitch stepped outside. Nicolaus wasn't sure what awaited him inside her office but, judging by her rather nettled expression, he figured it wouldn't be anything good.
"Here you are, Mr. Flamme." She tried to sound calm but the Faunus could tell it was forced. "Apologies for the belated response; I've had a rather unpleasant discussion with my current guests."
"Oh... Is this a bad time, then?" Nicolaus asked. "Should I come back later?"
"That won't be necessary." The professor replied crisply. "In fact, I'd say your presence is required."
"Uh, care to explain what's going on here? Your message didn't exactly mention any details."
"Just head on inside." Goodwitch huffed a reply. "The visitors will answer all your question... They better do, since they asked for you specifically."
What?
Nicolaus quickly entered the office, deciding against any other questions in order not to further incense the already annoyed professor. It wasn't like if he was afraid, not that much anyway... but he wasn't sure he liked the thought of someone asking for him. Who would possibly want to talk with him? He was but a hunter-in-training, no one important. Whoever this mysterious guest was could've easily asked for, well, anyone else, really.
All these questions would be left unanswered, though, unless he went in and talked with these people.
The office, which belonged to the late headmaster Ozpin, was filled with all kinds of antiquated furniture and many strange curiosities. But Nicolaus didn't care about that. It was the two strangers sitting at a long table that caught his attention.
Two men he had never seen before; a human and a Faunus, in fact. Both were wearing dark grey suits, reinforcing the impression they weren't here for a cordial chat. The human had piercing grey eyes and short white hair. Compared to his companion, the Faunus appeared far wilder, with a long grey hair, ruffled and unkempt, dark yellow eyes and a pair of large rounded ears on the top of his head.
Nicolaus was pretty sure he never met those people before... but he couldn't help it but find the grizzled lion faunus familiar somehow.
"So, you're Mr. Flamme, I presume?" The human asked, not appearing very impressed.
"Yep, that's me, last I checked." Nicolaus replied with a small bite to his voice. Honestly, he couldn't care less what this stranger thought of him. "Now, mind telling me who you are and what you want with me?"
During the next few moments of painful silence, Nicolaus had a feeling he might've chosen his words poorly. Then to his surprise, the lion Faunus chuckled lightly. "No need to be so hostile, young man. I realize we might have not made the best impression, turning up here uninvited and requesting a meeting with one of hunters in training... which is something Miss Goodwitch might wholeheartedly agree with."
Goodwitch huffed at the remark but offered no reply.
"I think it would be best to get the introductions out of the way, so... My name is Léon Acier," He bowed slightly and gestured to his human associate. "And this is my colleauge, Gottlieb Mohn."
Nicolaus responded only with a nod and a blank stare.
"Well, I've expected this kind of response." Acier chuckled mirthlessly. "I don't blame you for not knowing us or the organization we represent. While the cause we dedicated ourselves to is of great importance these times, it doesn't receive the level of publicity it deserves, in our opinion."
Well, this was getting awkward... Nicolaus didn't know what to say that wouldn't make him look even more foolish.
"It seems you're short on words as well as memory, young man." Goodwitch broke the silence, her expression both annoyed and incredulous. "Surely you know of Unity... unless you do not watch the news at all?"
Suddenly it dawned on him... and he almost wished he'd disappear, out of sheer shame. How could he forget that special assignment, where he and his team were to oversee the Faunus rights rally, especially with how the whole thing went down, White Fang attacking protesters and all that? Or the fact the assignment was given to them by the leader of Unity himself?
"Of course I know about Unity... it just didn't occur it to me right away." The fox Faunus spluttered. "But anyway, I thought the Unity was defunct these days, with Vale City ruined and all." And without a leader... Late Johannes Braun was assassinated by White Fang a week before the Grimm invasion, and with no one to replace him, the organization would fall apart... or so he assumed.
"The fall of Vale City was a heavy blow, that's for sure." Mohn said quietly. "We lost some damn good people that day. But Unity doesn't die as long as its ideals live on. We still have support all over the four Kingdoms, although coordination has been an issue lately, with communications disabled."
"Very true; we should get back to our business here, though." Acier interjected. "As you know, building bridges between human and Faunus communities still remains our priority. Actions of White Fang put everything we achieved so far at risk. We've maintained contacts with the authorities, including leadership of Beacon Academy... and we know your school has been sending its students on missions to investigate the Fang's recent activity."
"Yeah, that's true." Nicolaus nodded. "Some of us have more personal experiences with White Fang, so we seem like a logical choice for these missions."
Goodwitch heaved a sigh. "I wish we didn't have to send students out but the available professional Hunters are spread too thin."
"Desperate times call for desperate measures, we understand that. It's not our place to criticise your methods." Mohn said. "However, it came to our attention that you've seen the real extent of White Fang's current, ahem, activities." Or crimes... Far more appropriate word, anyway.
Nicolaus was no fool and it didn't take him long to connect the dots. "If you want to know the details, you could have asked for any student that took part in those mission. Or better yet, read the reports. Why come to me?"
"A fair question," Mohn stated. "We could have invited someone else or simply read the reports... but we didn't. Do you want to know why?"
Nicolaus couldn't help it but grimace slightly. The way the human spoke, cryptic, in riddles and taking his time to get to the point reminded him of Ozpin. "That's what I'm asking, sir."
"To put it in blunt terms, we've viewed the dossiers of each member of your team, yourself included." Acier said simply. "We're aware you grew up without any close family, first in an orphanage and then in the streets of Vale city, alongside a few other homeless kids-"
"You do realize that what you did is a violation of privacy, don't you?" Goodwitch interrupted, a severe look in her eyes. The fox Faunus was inclined to agree. It wasn't their business to dig around in his past.
"I do, and we apologize... but we needed to know who we were dealing with." Mohn said calmly. It didn't make Nicolaus any less annoyed about this, though.
Acier then continued where he left off. "For most of your life you were confronted with prejudice and racism which eventually led you to join White Fang."
"I joined the Fang because they offered me place to stay, training and a purpose." Nicolaus snapped. Those people didn't have the right to judge him. They didn't know the things he had to do to survive. "I wasn't about to refuse, not after some maniac singlehandedly murdered damn near all my friends!" True, they did break into his store just to get some food... but did it truly warrant such violent response?
"We're not judging you." Acier said gently. "I know that many people joined the Fang out of fear for their safety... and when they realized what they really got involved in, it was too late to back out. You were one of the lucky few that got out in time."
The fox Faunus knew where he was going with this... and he had an answer ready. "The Fang went far beyond what I saw as acceptable. On my first mission ever, I saw they were willing to execute innocents, just to send a message to the human 'oppressors.' I wanted no part in that." He spoke. "I wanted to be something more than just another cog in White Fang's war machine."
"As good a reason as any." Mohn remarked. "Anyway, you were arrested by a police and interrogated. The officers were surprised by your willingness to cooperate, I recall... But long story short, you ended up as a hunter-in-training, invited personally by late headmaster Ozpin himself."
"This, you could say, is the reason we turned to you." Acier added. "As a Faunus, you had enough reasons to ally with the Fang in the fight against humankind... but unlike many others, you recognized violence wasn't the answer, and would make the situation many times worse. As you surely know, the current ideology of White Fang abandoned the ideal of equality and focuses instead on Faunus superiority and the war of attrition against humankind." The lion Faunus narrowed his eyes. "You've seen this with your own eyes and while reports would provide the information we seek, I find that personal experience is more... valuable."
Silence reigned over the room.
As the Unity representatives regarded him with pointed looks, silently prompting him to speak up, Nicolaus found himself hesitant to utter but a single word. The things he saw during the few missions to investigate White Fang, the atrocities people were willing to commit just out of the sheer conviction that they were in the right, that their cause was as noble and righteous as it could possibly get and anyone who thought otherwise was the enemy, or worse... The stuff kept haunting him and anyone who was with him during those missions. It took a lot to get those things out of his head and he was afraid that talking about them in front of the guests would make it all come back again...
"I understand this is a sensitive topic and talking about it would make you uncomfortable." Mohn spoke up, giving the fox Faunus a proverbial push. "You can leave out the most gruesome details, if you wish-"
"No, it's alright." Nicolaus cut him off. "I just- I needed to collect my thoughts. It's hard to talk or even think about, you understand?" Mohn and Acier nodded in reply.
Exhaling deeply, the fox Faunus began recounting his experiences.
"You see, my team and some of our friends had run-ins with the Fang before. The docks incident, the attack on Faunus rights demonstration, loss of TITAN Beta mine, first breach... and the Vytal festival massacre, where my teammate and friend nearly died." Roland Peregrine, team TNDR's master rifleman, who only barely survived being blown up by a grenade, at the cost of his right arm. Were it not for Doctor Polendina and his ambitious surgery, Peregrine would remain a cripple for the rest of his life. It was luck, which some other people didn't have... "And it all culminated with the Fall of Vale city and attack on Beacon."
"The most convincing proof that peaceful coexistence of human and Faunus communities means nothing to White Fang any longer." Acier commented, his expression grave. "Second only to murder of Doctor Braun and his family."
"White Fang is an unprecedented threat and must be dealt with." Goodwitch interjected. "Ideally before they can cause any more damage."
"I said it before that all available full-fledged Hunters are overworked... so sometimes they have us students help out investigating the Fang." Nicolaus continued. "Mainly those that had prior experience fighting 'em."
Acier nodded curtly. "So, what can you tell us about the Fang? Its goals, or modus operandi?"
"They're vicious bastards, that's for damn sure." Nicolaus scowled. "Don't know if they're like that everywhere, but the Vale branch is ruthless... and their mean streak only got worse after the Grimm invasion."
oOo
"WHAT?!"
He couldn't believe what he was hearing.
It was the morning after the fall of Vale City and, fortunately failed, invasion of Beacon. Nicolaus was away from the heaviest fights for the most part; he and his partner were trying to take back a rogue Atlesian cruiser, taken over by Roman Torchwick and his henchwoman Neo. It went badly but a surviving crew member managed to start a self-destruction sequence, which blew the ship apart in minutes. Nicolaus and Emery only narrowly managed to escape death. But by the time their lifeboat reached Beacon campus, the battle was almost over.
The morning after the disaster he asked around, trying to learn what happened. And the more he learned, the more he regretted asking at all... especially when his teammate Roland recounted the Fang's actions he witnessed while fighting his way through the doomed city.
"I know what I saw, Nick!" The rifleman snapped back. He was tired and angry. Nicolaus didn't blame him, for they all were. "The Fang were executing people; humans, Faunus, men, women... Didn't matter, they just butchered them on sight!" He covered his face in his hands. "Everyone that doesn't support the Fang becomes a target... I saw dead bodies lining the streets. And I just happened upon that bastard Dracul," The same person that recruited Nicolaus... and nearly killed Roland a few years later.
Nicolaus felt a chill run down his back as he listened. Such ruthlessness, such savagery... And it felt even worse to him since Frey Liath, one of his best friends back in his street days, fully accepted their hateful, destructive ideology.
"The sick fuck enjoyed killing people... and was about to kill a little girl right in front of her Dad. I had to do something..."
And that 'something' meant him and Penny Polendina, his companion at the time, going in guns blazing and killing every Fang thug in sight, including Manson Dracul himself.
Nicolaus didn't say a word as Peregrine finished. No words were needed, anyway. Bottom line, the man did what he had to do... and the Fang brought it upon themselves.
oOo
"This is what the Fang became, a bunch of fanatic murderers hell-bent on destroying everyone and everything in their path." Nicolaus said in a dark voice. "But it gets even worse."
"That seems hard to believe, after what you just told me." Mohn remarked, his expression one of revulsion.
"This is atrocious, unacceptable." Acier grounded out through gritted teeth, looking like if on the verge of exploding with anger.
And their eagerness to kill and destroy already proved useful to some people, Nicolaus thought. Cinder Fall, the mastermind behind the attack, was one person to come into mind... but that wasn't something he was allowed to talk about.
"We already knew the Fang was bad." The fox Faunus continued. "But only during our recon mission in Stone Creek we saw how far they were willing to go."
oOo
A whole crowd of captives, humans, Faunus, men, women; all of them malnourished, filthy, beaten, exhausted... Nicolaus didn't know what to expect when he and his teammates embarked on this mission. But this certainly wasn't it.
Only three of the prisoners, a Faunus woman named Anise, Wren, a forester from the village of Avalon, and Nebula's teammate, Gwen Darcy, preserved enough of their sanity to give them some answers as to what the hell was happening in the village.
Wren was the first to talk. White Fang attacked Avalon a week back; killed anyone that stood in their way, then rounded up the survivors and forced them to dig graves for their dead. Anyone trying to escape was shot on sight. Then they split the survivors among other conquered villages and the main base, wherever that was. An officer told them they were to 'serve the future masters of Remnant.'
"They had us diggin' up trenches, layin' down barb wire, carryin' stuff around, you name it! Some of them were sent to a Dust mine, horrible place to be... And we had to obey their orders to the letter; do what they said, go where they wanted us to. One step out of line, we'd get a beatin'."
Then Anise chimed in. "There was so much to get done and at the end of the day they'd make sure we met our quota. That was the only time we'd get food, too. And if they decided we hadn't done enough, we wouldn't get any. I saw a few people collapse from sheer exhaustion. Every time a trooper came in to finish him off... We were of no use to them if we couldn't work."
Worse, the Fang 'enlisted' her young son against his will. No one knew what they did to him to make him convert.
But the most chilling testimony came from Gwen Darcy, who was captured by the Fang during the invasion, along with two of her teammates. Her leader, Nebula Violette, died during the ambush... or so she thought.
"Every now and then, they'd take some of the captives and sell them on slave market. Strong and healthy males... and good-looking females. The officers... kept some of the women for themselves."
With every new revelation, Nicolaus grew more disgusted by what became of the Fang. And to think I used to run with them... As if destroying an entire city and indiscriminate killing wasn't bad enough, now they dealt in slavery, shipping captives to Mistral to be sold on illegal markets.
And if they treated their captives horribly, what they had in store for Gwen and her teammates was way worse... After a failed escape attempt, Fang officers forced them to watch the execution of several fellow prisoners and then had the young huntresses in training whipped half to death. Only a few days in recovery and they were separated, never seeing one another again. Gwen wound up in Stone Creek, only hard labor and misery awaiting her there.
"The commander made sure that everyone gave me special treatment; if the Fang treated prisoners like shit, what I got was way worse... I'm surprised I haven't slit my own throat yet but something kept me going through all that time."
She was lucky to survive, found and freed by Nebula herself, who survived the ambush and recovered from her wounds... only to end up leading team TNDR on the Stone Creek mission.
The liberation of those poor people was but a brief flash of light in the darkness that White Fang worked to create. How many people were suffering under the Fang's iron fist? How many died to their rage?
Nicolaus was afraid to know the answer.
OOo
The guests from Unity were stunned into silence as the fox Faunus recounted everything he saw. Goodwitch excused herself and left the office a while ago, claiming she had things to get done. It was just as likely she couldn't stand listening to more of the Fang's atrocities.
Alas, he wasn't done yet.
"Some five or six weeks later, Qrow Branwen received a tip from another Huntsman about the Fang's large underground base in the southeast of Vale. Naturally, he took my team and what's left of team RWBY with him to check it out." He continued. "We arrived right when the Fangers were in the process of vacating the place... as if they knew someone was coming."
"What did you find?" Acier questioned.
Nicolaus gave him a leveled look. "About the same as in Stone Creek... and worse."
oOo
Two pairs of boots thundered down the vacant corridors.
The base was mostly empty and only a small number of Fang troopers remained, finishing the cleanup. Of course, they fought tooth and nail once they saw the intruders. It wasn't enough to stop Qrow and his company... but they had to split up to cover more ground which could make them vulnerable.
Nicolaus caught footsteps right next to him and bent down just in time to evade an incoming blade. He twisted around and hit the offending Fang thug with his rifle-mace, knocking him down. Then, for a good measure, he added a kick in the head, just to silence the bastard's pained screams.
His team leader, Tanya Griffon had caught up with him. "You good, Nick?" She asked, panting a bit. This was her first mission since the fall of Vale City, months ago.
"Yeah, I'm good." He nudged the unconscious goon with his boot. "Him? Not so much."
She nodded. "Come on. Qrow wants us to find some info, if there's still any; gotta know what the bastards are up to."
Nicolaus didn't get his hopes up. Fang was vacating the place when they got here; he had a feeling they somehow knew they were coming... Just then he suddenly heard voices further down the corridor. "You heard that?" He spoke up, his fox ears perking up.
A woman, whimpering and crying. A captive?
"Yeah, I did." Griffon scowled, drawing her sabers. "Let's go!"
The two of them followed the voice which led them to a plain rusted steel door. At that moment, Nicolaus heard another voice, deep male grunts. He couldn't explain it but something about it just set him on edge. Griffon stood at the wall on the door's other side and jerked her head towards whatever lay beyond.
Nicolaus understood the gesture. With all his might he kicked the door open.
The moment he saw the scene... it was as if time came to a screeching halt.
A small dimly lit room, bare with only a table in the middle.
A girl on the table, laying on her back. She was completely naked, bruises and gashes all over her body and ribs showing under her skin. Her hands were bound tightly to the table's legs and she struggled weakly against the bonds.
A man wearing a Fang officer uniform stood at her, restraining her legs by holding them over his shoulders.
His pants were down.
Nicolaus remained standing for a single second. That was all it took for his rage to boil over at this heinous sight.
The Fang officer noticed the intruders too late.
A round from Nicolaus' rifle buried itself in his chest.
Then an avalanche of small caliber shots blasted him backwards, away from his helpless victim, and turned his upper torso into an unrecognisable mess of flesh and blood. He was dead before he could make a sound.
Griffon stepped quickly to the table and started cutting the ropes restraining the captive. Nicolaus went to do the same but as he approached, the girl kicked him in the chest with an unintelligible scream. He couldn't forget the look of pure terror in her eyes and her frantic attempts to get away from him. She saw him as a threat, despite seeing him for the first time.
Just what kind of torture did those swines put her through?
"Nick, stay back! I got this!"
Finally managing to cut her bindings, Griffon pulled the frightened girl into her arms. She struggled against her at first... but the presence of another female seemed to calm her somewhat.
"It's okay, honey... he won't hurt you anymore..."
The captive broke down, her sobs echoing throughout the vacant hallways.
OOo
They all saw some terrible things that day. Mass graves, morgue filled with dead captives, all of them bearing signs of physical abuse... Peregrine and Griffon found one of their missing friends from Vale among the dead. But the Fang officer violating a helpless woman was the scene that stuck in his mind. Nicolaus found it harder to talk.
"It turned out later that the girl Griffon and I saved was another member of Violette's team, Dew Gayl. But none of us recognized her at first. She was just in such miserable shape, both physically and mentally." He spoke quietly, not looking at the visitors. "Only getting her to talk to us took a lot of effort and even then she wasn't making much sense. The only thing we understood was that the officer we killed took her as his personal plaything." The distaste in his voice couldn't be clearer. "Both servant and sex slave... She was put through hell and it broke her." Words seemed to suddenly get stuck in his throat. "Sorry, it's just... difficult to talk about."
"I can only imagine." Acier sighed. His human colleague was better at hiding it but both of them were clearly equally shaken by the testimony. "Did you discover anything important?"
"Only bits and pieces." Nicolaus admitted. "In those few documents we got our hands on, there were references to 'Harbingers of the Revolution.' We think those are highly ranked authorities in Vale's White Fang, who aim to spread their ideology to the rest of the world. The papers mentioned a 'steady stream of recruits' coming from Atlas and something about 'Sienna Khan and her uncooperativeness.'"
"I know that name." Mohn muttered. "She's the leader of Mistral's faction of White Fang. Their policy is also radical but nowhere as violent as its Vale counterpart."
"And it doesn't sit well with Vale's Fang, I think." Nicolaus added. "But what really scares me is the thought that despite what happened to Vale, some of my people actually approve of Fang and their methods. I can't imagine they'd be willing to turn their guns on their own kind and do all this revolting stuff, all in the name of 'Faunus freedom!'"
"We can't allow this." Acier stated resolutely, almost as if reading his mind. "Our people need to see White Fang for what it really is; a bastardization of the formerly peaceful organization and its ideals, hell bent on plunging the world into the war of attrition. Your testimony, as well as stories of other people, will help us thin the base of the Fang's support. It just might be enough to undermine their power."
Only we have far worse enemies, Nicolaus thought grimly, the kind that doesn't need brute force to do harm. How can we stop someone who uses guile, manipulation and subterfuge as their main weapons?
This was a question no one had an answer for yet.
The 'conversation' with Unity's spokesmen lasted more than two hours... and succeeded to bring back all nightmares Nicolaus worked so hard to banish.
He knew that in this line of work he would confront gruesome sights sooner or later. But never in his life he thought it would be that soon. Seeing dead Faunus miners in TITAN Beta mine was terrible but it paled in comparison to what would come later on. First breach, Festival massacre, fall of Vale City, Stone creek and the unnamed underground base lost in the mountains... and it was all done by an organization that taught him nigh everything he knew. How come he didn't end up on the same dark path like Frey, his one-time friend?
They both shared the same friends, a mix of humans and fellow Faunus, while living in the streets, surviving on whatever they managed to steal, sticking together through thick and thin, no matter what. Frey and him weren't all that different... so what went wrong?
It didn't matter.
Nicolaus knew where he stood, dedicating his life to fighting for a safer, better world. So did Frey, fighting for terrorist that wanted to claim Remnant for themselves as their dominion and kill everyone standing in their way. It was all too clear the next time they met would end up with one of them dead... and he could do nothing but accept it.
Sighing deeply, the fox Faunus headed to the training room. The memories were becoming too much and he needed to drive them away.
Author's notes: This is no. 2 trailer in this series. I probably should've said it earlier but the shorts contain references to past events in both To be a Huntsman (the main story) and Hunters and life (the oneshot collection). Recommend reading through those in case something isn't clear... or purely if you're feeling curious.
As always, thanks for reading, review, favorite or follow; compliments and/or critique always welcome :-)