Crossroads of Fate

A/N: Funny thing, the character, Kane, is actually based off one of my long-distance friends. We still keep in touch, and I asked if he could create one for the story. So, after a few tweaks and writing magic, we got Kane Carnage; the redshirt character. Now, don't let that fool you, he will make several returns in the future, there just won't be major focus on him.

Now, sorry to keep you waiting. I just realise how frustrating these Author's Notes can be, that is if I don't want to rant about my private life.

Same time…

Utter chaos.

If SK had to describe what he saw before him in the courtyard of this once-respectable stronghold in two words, those would've been it.

The place was in total anarchy as people fought recklessly for themselves while the White Fang began picking off various individuals. Leave it to the Faunus to organize something like this. SK thought as he rolled past the swing of a machete.

He was fighting for his life on one of the four walls that surrounded the fortress, currently having to deal with three Faunuses at once. What they had in sheer numbers, the rogue made up for with his Vanish and skilled swordplay.

After successfully parrying away one of their broad swords, SK ran his scimitar through the White Fang soldier behind him who was rearing up to strike. The black-haired teen even surprised himself with how well he was holding out against the Fang as he flung the dying Faunus' body off his sword and off the edge of the wall. Keeping his body low, he was able to dodge an overhead swipe from one of the other Faunus' scimitars before slicing out at his legs. This caused the girl to drop to the ground as SK sprang back to his feet and spun around in a decapitating swipe.

He took a moment to draw his blade back as he readied himself for another fight with the last of the soldiers on the wall, before realising his tactical advantage. Aiming Yakmak at the Faunus, he simply twisted the knob on its side to split apart the blade of the scimitar and fire a beam of Dust energy at his opponent, knocking him off the wall to be sliced apart by the mad skirmish below.

Lowering his blade into a ready position, SK scanned the other sides of the walls to look out for any more opponents, when he saw one man in particular fending off the White Fang soldiers along the base of the wall. The boy had dark brown hair and was using a combination of Dust infused bullets and a form of Dust coating on his sabre.

Reflex kicked in when a White Fang soldier with an axe took a running start at the swordsman while his back was turned. Hefting his laser rifle, the rogue fired a beam that hit the Faunus square in the chest. The swordsman took notice and turned to his saviour before giving a friendly wave.

SK hesitantly waved back as he turned his attention back down to the scene in the courtyard. The more he stared at it, the more the rogue began to realise that it wasn't one big war, but rather a bunch of individual skirmishes that were taking place around each other. One fighter amongst them all stood out in particular, and SK couldn't help but zoom in on the figure.

He had a large red afro and his leather harness and pieces of body armour were almost as covered in blood as the shirt and pants he wore underneath them. Focussing on his glasses to detect the long range sounds, he was able to filter out the noise of the battle to hear the man's inhuman war cries and cheers for the blood of his enemies. What worried him most was the familiarity of the figure; SK was sure he had seen him somewhere before. Maybe from back in Vacuo. He might have been on the…watch…list…oh dear Oum, no. SK's eyes widened as he made the connection in his mind.

His Scroll pinged loudly in his pocket at that same moment. Looking around, he saw that the fighting wasn't being drawn in his direction, so he quickly ducked down behind the raised barrier along the wall to open the Scroll. Finding an anonymous message in his inbox, he opened it and found that the message was written in large bold letters.

'YOU HAVE SEEN THE BODIES. WILL YOU STAND IDLY OR WILL YOU FIGHT?'

Closing the message, he checked the location of the counter-virus' source to find that it originated from within the courtyard of the fortress. It can't be a coincidence.

With a deep breath, SK took a chance and rounded the small barrier to oversee the mess of androids, White Fang and mercenaries clashing amongst themselves below, trying to spot out his mystery hacker. All the while, he noticed that the androids were not fighting alongside the White Fang, but against them.

He must be one hell of a hacker. SK thought as the fighting seemed to be dying down with the reduced White Fang numbers, until one particular White Fang stepped out of the central tower, grabbing an android by the neck and crushing it with just one hand.

Swiping his finger across the frame of his glasses, SK zoomed in on the figure as seemed to be adjusting a pair of large gauntlets on his arms, before four blades shot out of either one.

Oh, this should be interesting…

His attention on the scene was drawn away by a loud growl from behind. Turning around, he saw that several Grimm were trying to scale the wall while others were pouring into the stronghold through the large opening. If I'm going to get any answers, I'll need to take care of them first. He concluded as he raised his sword, ready for another fight.

"Bloody right that these wankers can't aim." Kane glowered as he tossed one of his curved machetes at another White Fang soldier as T performed a check on the status of the androids he was controlling.

More than half of them had already been destroyed by the White Fang around them, but they made up for it with the body count of dead militia-men. They had also secured the Bullhead hidden behind the central tower – cutting off the White Fang's only means of escape. It helped that the rogue arrived on time as he worked quickly to clear the gunners along the walls. Admittedly, T had been a little hesitant initially about leading the Raider here, but the opportunity to gain an infiltrator with his ability was too good to pass up.

All he needed to do now was wait for the lieutenant to join the fight.

As predicted, the White Fang lieutenant stepped out of the central tower to make his last stand. He now wore his signature bladed bracers, specially modified for his own close-quarter and long-range needs. T had read up on the Faunus' dossier; he knew everything there was to know about the man.

The hacker could bring up the bat Faunus' psychological profile that the Faunus probably didn't even know existed with just a thought, but right now that wasn't important. Bringing up the Lieutenant's weapons and equipment schematics in his mind, he began planning the best course of action.

Dense steel blades, medium-to-long range machine pistol, compact flamethrower…curious…advanced gliding system…

T's thoughts were broken as he watched a pair of bat-like metal wings extend out from the Faunus' back, attached to him by a harness. "Traitor! Prepare to perish!" The Lieutenant shouted theatrically as he extended all eight blades out of his gauntlets.

The tracker took one look at the Lieutenant before looking back at T. "Uh, right then. I'll leave this bugger to you." He said before his machete flew back into his hand while running off to confront several Grimm that were headed his way.

Scroll hack; 78% complete. Just need two more minutes. He thought as he readied his own metallic arm. Extending it at a right-angle to his body, he taunted the Lieutenant with the pistol in his left hand.

Without needing extra provocation, the Lieutenant used the added propulsion of his gliding pack to dash straight into T with his foot-long blades pointed straight at him. The hacker managed to fire three shots that bounced harmlessly off the gauntlets and harness before having to roll to one side to dodge the charge attack.

Unfortunately, T wasn't expecting the Lieutenant to be able to stop his charge so quickly. As he redirected the propulsion force of the gliding pack, he was able to slow to a skid before firing his boosters again, delivering a devastating punch that ate into T's Aura.

As he was thrown back several feet, he saw his Aura gauge drop tremendously while a sharp pain ran through his chest. Changing his strategy, he quickly directed half a dozen AK Type-120s to attack the Lieutenant and distract him.

They all charged the levitating Faunus with their blades drawn and with synthetic growls while T checked his wounds. He barely had time to move his overcoat and examine himself before the hacker was forced to roll to one side to avoid a plunging sword.

On his back on the hard concrete floor, T was at a tactical disadvantage to the White Fang swordsman that was approaching him. He had dropped his silenced pistol during his fight with the Lieutenant, and was quickly running out of options as the Faunus approached.

As he prepared to resort to the automatic pistol in his metal arm, the berserk war-monger he had identified as Mason Mars pounced on the swordsman and quickly buried his sword in the Faunus' throat, laughing maniacally as he did.

T recognised a greater threat when he saw one and quickly pulled out the syringes full of tranquilizer he had brought with him. Holding one in each hand, the hacker took a low sprint towards the redhead cannibal and jammed both into his back before flipping over him.

They met their mark and Mason paused in his evisceration of the corpse to examine and remove the empty syringes. He paused for a second to look at them curiously before looking at T accusingly. "Did you just try to tranq me, bro?"

Without replying, T rushed the man and sent a firm fist straight into Mason's jaw, effectively knocking him out. The hacker was surprised at the man's resilience to the tranquilizers; he knew from looking at his unofficial medical report that he had developed a natural resistance against most lethal diseases and biological weapons, but he thought that two shots of elephant tranquilizer would have worked.

The force of the punch had an unintended effect on T as well, as the strain he put into the hit stretched the wounds on his chest. "Argh, fuck." T groaned as he sank to one knee. Pushing his overcoat apart, he saw that the wounds were relatively shallow, but they were still bleeding.

Not wanting to leave himself vulnerable while the fighting was still going on, he turned back to face the White Fang lieutenant as the Faunus finished the last of the androids with a plunging attack from above.

Checking his Heads-Up-Display, T found that most of the androids under his control had been destroyed, and the remaining few were stationed around the hidden airship – standing guard in case someone decided to run away – while the others were busy holding off the encroaching Grimm.

As if attracting one by thinking of it, a Creep jumped off the wall behind him and growled menacingly. It was all talk though, as T quickly blew chunks of its head off with his pistol.

"Look around you!" T addressed the Lieutenant in a stern, hoarse voice. "Your forces are broken. This fortress is lost! It's over."

The Lieutenant took a moment to pause and look back and forth at the result of what was supposed to be a quick and easy massacre by a firing squad. After letting out a loud growl, his head snapped back towards T. "It isn't over yet! Come, traitor. Face me and we will see who the better fighter is!" he spoke as he grabbed a charging Beowulf by the neck and crushed its skull with his other hand, in a show of strength that T didn't really care about.

Pulling one of the several harpoons he had brought – strapped to his back under the coat he wore, he got into a ready position as he prepared to force this Lieutenant to run back home.

Emptying both pistols both ways down the length of the wall, Tanner cleared the last of the four lines of gunners. He was still on one knee as he wore off the shock of the impact, having propelled himself up on the wall by stepping on a charged Fire Dust crystal. Once the tingling feeling left his legs, he got back up and turned around to stare at the opposite wall that had been blown apart, creating a massive hole in the fortress' defence. Several resounding explosions went off around the large concrete stronghold as explosives and parts of some of the buildings scattered around the interior of the walls went off. It was then that his eyes landed on T, who seemed to be squaring off with a rather angry-looking White Fang Lieutenant, if the decorated mask was anything to go from.

Man, I can't wait to find the armoury around here. He thought as he looked left and right to check that none of the terrorists were getting back up before taking a step too far off the wall.

Tanner dropped down off the wall and broke his fall by rolling before standing next to T. Even the brunette could clearly see that the cyborg was injured and probably couldn't take the Faunus on, even if the Faunus looked quite tired from fighting all the androids. The other White Fang soldiers – being the inexperienced amateurs they were – had been little trouble for the swordsman. The time it took for Tanner to clear the walls had even been halved by their new arrival, who he couldn't seem to find.

"You want me to take him?" Tanner asked as he held his sword at the ready. "It'll be fun on my part."

"No, I've got this." T snapped back. "Make sure the survivors don't kill each other."

Tanner hesitated for a moment before running off to help any of the survivors he could see. Astonishment hit the swordsman like a rock when he realised how few people had survived the ambush, despite looking quite well-armed.

While trying to make anything out of the smoke and smell of burnt flesh, the swordsman spotted one of the survivors he saw fighting alongside T earlier. The man was facing off against five White Fang soldiers by himself with his strangely shaped weapons.

In his flurry of quick dodges, weaves and attacks, he was able to slit the throat of one of the soldiers around him while knocking the other to the ground. Tanner took the opportunity to take aim with his flintlock pistol at the downed man, only to realise that it was out of ammunition. Again.

Barb, fucking dammit! He cursed in his mind as he put the pistol away in favour of using his Semblance to detonate any Dust on the Faunus. The brunette had detected a grenade on the Faunus' belt just as he caught a glimpse of the man with the curved machetes put sheathe one of his machetes in favour of using his hand. Tanner thought that it was a foolish tactic until he saw the tracker's hand start to glow a bright brown-maroon.

Placing the hand on the face of one of the soldiers around him, both the tracker's and the soldier's faces began to glow brightly with surging Auras that flared like a flame. Within seconds, the Faunus was screaming - not with pain, but with fear. Fear laced with anguish as the tracker released him and he slumped to the floor, his breathing slow and shallow. It was then the tracker realised that he still had two other opponents and rolled away just as they struck.

It was then that Tanner stopped spectating and took action by forcing his Aura forward and activating his Semblance. The Faunuses were shocked as they were when their grenades began glowing with an orange hue, but even more so when they exploded in a flurry of energy.

The intensity of the flames produced by the explosion was bright enough to force the tracker to shield his eyes, and the force of the explosion was enough to blow his hat off his head, revealing his head of straight, light-blonde and red-tinged hair.

After the explosion subsided, Tanner approached the tracker, picking up his hat, he handed the garment back to the surprised man. "You alright?" he asked, only slightly concerned about the man's well-being.

"Yeah." The tracker breathed out. "Thanks, mate. Kane Carnage." He said as he put the panama back on his head and stuck his hand out to shake.

"Vermillion, Tanner." He replied, shaking the man's hand quickly before taking out a Lightning Dust crystal and using it to fire a quick jolt of electricity at a small Ursa that was trying to sneak up on them. "Persistent, aren't they."

"Wankers just don't know when to quit." Kane said in his heavy accent – Tanner wasn't sure if he was talking about the Grimm or the Fang, as he was talking about the latter – before peering curiously around Tanner. "Oi, you think we should help him?"

Curious, Tanner turned around to see T and the White Fang Lieutenant standing off. In his left hand, T was holding one of his harpoons as a melee weapon. "Nah, he wants us to stay out of it." The swordsman waved off, confident that he could pick up from where T would leave off.

The standoff only lasted a second more before T and the Lieutenant charged towards each other. Extending the combat knife in his arm, the cyborg spun in a clockwise motion to parry the strike from the Lieutenant's right gauntlet before breaking his guard by knocking away his other hand with the harpoon. He then tried to impale the Faunus with the barbed end of the harpoon, but was unable to as he spread his metallic wings and glided backwards – out of T's reach.

The Lieutenant then tried to burn T from a distance with a flamethrower hidden in his gauntlet, but the flames fell short as T stuck the harpoon into the concrete ground, causing a large wall of obsidian to form in its place. The cyborg took several quick shots with the pistol in his arm by leaning around the corner of the barrier he had created, but was unable to do any real damage as the Lieutenant kept blocking the bullets with his gauntlets.

This all only seemed to wear T out as he took a few seconds too long to catch his breath behind the cover.

"Screw it. The drongo's going to get himself killed." Kane glowered under his breath as he readied both machetes while the Lieutenant jumped high enough into the air with the added propulsion to be able to grab on to the top of the wall of obsidian. Flinging both weapons, they flew at curved angles but ultimately missed the Faunus.

"You missed." Tanner remarked as he began reloading Crossed Star, thinking that maybe T was worth saving.

However, before he could cock his flintlock, the blonde put a hand in front of his face. "Wait for it." Kane said as the curved machetes continued to curve in their flight before eventually flying straight into the Faunus, knocking him off the wall of obsidian. The weapons continued flying, however, and Tanner was starting to get worried that he might get hit.

Cocking the pistol, he aimed at the one that seemed to be flying straight at him before Kane stuck both hands out and caught both weapons by their hilts.

The Atlas-born swordsman was astonished for a moment by the man's skill and trick attack with such a strange weapon. "Not bad." Tanner complimented, which was quite rare for him. "Did you ever end up catching it by the blade?"

"If I did I wouldn't be able to keep throwing them." Kane bit back, but with a friendly smirk that the brunette easily returned.

The moment didn't last long as the loud repeating sound of a machine pistol was followed by several bullets sent flying their way. Tanner was quick to draw Beofield and hold it in a defensive stance as he deflected several bullets while the White Fang Lieutenant charged at them, firing the gun hidden in his other bracer as he did. The tracker had enough sense in him to raise his own machetes to deflect the bullets sent his way as Tanner began thinking of something witty to say to his opponent.

"Go for his right!" The brunette shouted as the Lieutenant leaped up into the air for a downward strike, which Kane sidestepped while Tanner raised both his weapons to block the plunge attack. Using the momentum that was transferred over to him, Tanner braced himself against the ground before pushing the bat Faunus backwards, sending him into the air once more. However, this time the Lieutenant opened up his gliding pack and slowed to a hover before spraying fire straight at the swordsman.

Hoping for the best, Tanner raised his pistol, aimed straight at the tendril of flame and pulled the trigger three times. Please don't be Fire Dust. Please don't be Fire Dust. He made a mental note to thank whoever was guiding him when he blindly reached into his ammo pouch for rounds when he reloaded, as the bullets exploded in a spray of water, extinguishing the fire and created a light fog.

This worked to Tanner's advantage and disadvantage. For one, now his enemy couldn't see him. On the other hand, I can't see shit either.

He kept to a defensive stance again as he turned at every sound that was made. From the fog, he heard the clash of steel and grunts of pain before something heavy but soft hit the concrete ground. Eventually, Tanner decided that he wanted to have the upper hand for when they fought again and emptied the rounds of Dust in Beofield, replacing them with a single Wind Dust round. Gotta be careful; I'm running low on Dust. Pulling the trigger along the hilt of the sabre, it began glowing a sky-blue as a small hurricane began picking up around the blade of the sword.

Swinging his sword all around him to clear the fog, Tanner was partially surprised and partially scared when he saw that the Lieutenant charge towards him as the fog began to lift and swirl with his blade. The brunette barely had time to aim the blade of the sword before the Faunus was upon him, but long enough for him to send a light gust the Lieutenant's way, causing him to lose his momentum and balance as the gust of wind was caught on his open wing, sending him tumbling into Tanner.

When the tussle subsided, the swordsman found himself pinned underneath the Lieutenant – blades ready and raised right above his head, while his own weapons lay just out of his reach. Tanner first tried to reach for his sabre, which he couldn't reach because of how firmly the Faunus held him to the ground. While doing so, he also noticed that Kane was also lying on the ground a few feet away clutching his left thigh in pain as it bled out.

"You are more persistent than I imagined." The terrorist leader spoke through gritted teeth. "But you will still be crushed with the ease of an insect."

"What's the matter?" Tanner asked jokingly as he tried to reach for the flintlock on his other side. "Are we making you a little…batty?" Uh, that one was so weak.

Without another word, the Lieutenant raised his fist into the air – the blades suddenly looking much sharper – before bringing his fist down on Tanner. The swordsman quickly closed his eyes so that he didn't have to see his end coming as he heard the Faunus' fist make contact.

Only, the sound was of the metal fist meeting concrete.

Opening one eye first, he saw that the Lieutenant was grunting in pain as he clutched the barbed end of a harpoon that stuck out of his shoulder. Looking to his right quickly, Tanner also saw that the shot was enough to make the Faunus miss by a few inches, the metal gauntlet firmly planted into the concrete.

The firm grip on his shoulders had also loosened, giving Tanner the opportunity he needed to reach for his pistol and place it against the Faunus' chest. The resounding blast sent Tanner skidding across the hard concrete for a few seconds, but it also served to blow the Lieutenant a few feet back, giving him time to regard T.

The cyborg extended an electric prod out of his robotic arm as he bent over to pick up his pistol. "I said I had him."

"You're welcome." Tanner glowered as he got back up and rubbed his sore neck.

Quick to get up again, the Lieutenant eyed up Tanner before the swordsman took a step back. "You're more than welcome to take him by yourself." He said as he transformed Beofield into its pistol form and stuck it in its sling.

"Gladly." T murmured as he surged forward in a burst of speed. Fighting with a combination of his electric prod and his gun at point-blank range, the cyborg quickly pushed the White Fang Lieutenant back, even with his advantage of height. T's offensives consisted an awful lot of non-lethal strikes with his electric prod for Tanner's taste, but it seemed to be wearing down the Lieutenant quickly.

After a few more quick punches to his chest, T ducked under a rather slow overhead swing before pushing the barrel of his gun into the Faunus' good shoulder and blowing a hole straight through it.

The shot caused the Lieutenant to stagger backwards before resting on one knee. "Give up," T spoke to the Lieutenant as he stopped right in front of him. "-you've lost."

After a few deep and shallow pants, the Faunus eventually spoke back. "You think you've beaten us? You've only scratched the surface of what we have in store for the world!"

"I'm counting on it." T said as he raised his pistol to the man's head. He didn't get a chance to pull the trigger as he quickly jumped backwards to avoid the tornado of fire that the Lieutenant produced before spreading his metallic wings and taking off. The updraft from the flames gave the bat Faunus the added height he needed to soar into the night sky – away from the fortress and in the direction of the broken moon.

Tanner took it as his queue to take aim and shoot the bat down, but T was quick to put his hand on his gun and lower it. The brunette looked at him, dumbfound. "What the fuck are you doing? You're letting him get away!"

"He'll lead us straight to Cinder." T affirmed as he raised his Scroll for Tanner to see. At first, he wasn't sure what he was looking at, but his arms relaxed and his eyes widened when he realised what it was.

"You put a tracker on him." Tanner murmured, acknowledging what T had done with a nod. "Good thinking." The swordsman tried to think of a pun at this point, but was quite exhausted as it was.

The cyborg seemed to acknowledge how tired Tanner was, as he spoke up. "It's not over yet."

"What do you mean?" T turned away as he asked that seeming to stare off into the large broken wall and the few Grimm that were more interested in eating the cadavers that they left than the living. Suddenly, he turned to face one of the more violent fighters. "Don't do it, Desert Raider!" he commanded while pointing at nothing…well it was nothing until the same man that helped him earlier materialised out of nowhere.

Up close, he looked to be in his late teens, had black hair and wore a dark-amber poncho over a dull-brown T-shirt with a cowl and black pants along with a pair of black glasses. In his hands, he held a scimitar that was pointed directly at the sleeping figure.

There was a moment of pause – likely the shock of having been called out, before the black-haired teen spoke again. "Do you know who this…monster is?" he asked rhetorically. "He's a cannibal, a murderer, and a psychopath!" the rogue's voice got louder as he listed off the different crimes of the man on the ground.

"Don't fer-get arse-un-ist" the drowsy man drawled as he seemed to be recovering from his drugging.

"He dies here and now; he's killed too many of my people to breathe another second." The man spoke as he raised his sword high above his head to decapitate the rising man, who slumped back to the ground after rising to one elbow. However, the sword didn't come down as T spoke his ultimatum.

"Kill him now and your people will have no chance of surviving what's coming."

The rogue seemed to have frozen solid for a moment before his arms relaxed as he turned to address T. "Why? What's coming? Who are you?" he suddenly bombarded the cyborg with questions as he began approaching, taking the time to step on the redhead's body.

T turned his Scroll to face him for a second before turning the black-framed device to face the rogue without a word. From the transparent glass of the device, Tanner could clearly see that T was showing the black-haired teen his symbol. He stared at the picture on the Scroll for a second before looking up at T with wide eyes. "The hacker with the counter-virus." He murmured silently. "Why did you lead me here?" he asked out loud.

"Hold on, I'm clearly missing something." Tanner spoke up. "Do you know this guy?"

"His name is SK Esinti. He's from Vacuo and was hired by Cinder to break into the CCT Tower in Atlas to infect the system with my virus." T explained, to SK's wide-eyed surprise.

"H-how do you know that?"

"You're here because I led you here." T continued, not acknowledging SK's question. "Because I need your help to stop Cinder."

"Stop Cin-ok, what is going on? I want answers now or all you'll get is my sword!" the rogue countered. Tanner – himself – didn't expect such a fiery questioning from the man, if what T said about him being born from Vacuo was true.

With a sigh, T removed a spherical projector from his pouch and dropped it on the floor. He gestured to Kane, who was standing idly by – watching the scene unfold. "Come here. You need to see this too."

For about four minutes, T explained Cinder's plan to them as he had for Tanner. He went over her forces, her end-goal, the designs she had in mind for each of the four Kingdoms, even the power of the Fall Maiden that she possessed. It all seemed very unbelievable, but at the same time sounded crazy enough to actually happen.

As the projector shut off, SK was the first to break out of his state of bewilderment and respond. "This is madness." He said as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I know; it's pretty overwhelming at first." Tanner commented, which was neither welcomed nor refused by the two who seemed to be at a loss for words.

"I knew something was off about the job I was given." Kane pitched in. "Nobody orders for three dozen Beowulves and the likes for no reason."

"Wait, how many?" T asked. For the first time since meeting him, T sounded surprised – and that worried Tanner.

"Something along the lines of three rucksacks of hounds, two pins of porkers and a hell-of-a-lot of other critters." Kane explained.

"Um…English, please?" SK said, not really understanding what the tracker was talking about. Tanner couldn't blame him, he could barely understand half of what the man said.

With a groan, Kane tried again. "Three dozen Beowulves, two dozen Boarbatusks…and a bunch of others." He recited. "Thinking about it now, it makes a lick of sense if what you're saying is true."

"All the same, the Maidens are just a story. There's no such thing as magic or wizards." SK said defiantly.

"Haven't you felt something different about Cinder? Something...intimidating?" the rogue didn't respond, but he lowered his head in a form of understanding. "What I said was the truth and we need to move to…hold on." T said as he looked away, before his head suddenly snapped to one of the White Fang soldiers that were still alive, curled up into a ball and groaning in pain. He walked right over to the man before picking him up by his collar.

"Where is it?"

"Where's what?" the Faunus croaked back.

"Where are you keeping the back-up of the list of Pawns?" T clarified in a more threatening tone.

"Bite me. I'll never tell you." The Faunus spat back before actually spitting in T's face.

Letting go of the man, T extended the electric prod out of his fist and was about to continue with the interrogation before the blonde tracker put his hand on the cyborg's shoulder. "Relax, mate. Let me have a crack at him." He said before kneeling down. "I've got a score to settle as it is." Rubbing his hands together, one of them started glowing a dark-maroon as he reared back his open palm. "Remember: the more you resist, the more painful it gets."

With that, he slapped the Faunus in the face with his open hand and held on tightly while pinning him to the ground with his free hand. At first, it looked like the two had caught fire, but as Tanner watched, he found that it was just their Auras flaring. Barely two seconds had passed and the soldier looked on the verge of crying out in pain. His face was read and beads of sweat were dripping down his forehead. Before long, he let out a cry of anguish as vapour seemed to be coming off the man.

"That's enough!" SK suddenly shouted, breaking Kane out of his trance. To the brunette, the man seemed to have actually been taking some form of sadistic pleasure in watching the man scream in pain, but it disappeared completely once he let him go.

Getting back to his feet, Kane took a few deep breaths first before addressing T. "He'll tell you anything you want now."

"Anything?" Tanner asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Anything." He affirmed.

Tanner decided to have a little fun and test that theory. "Hey; how many girlfriends have you had?"

"Four." The Faunus replied with a dead look in his eyes and a weak tone of voice – completely different to the defiant, squirming Faunus that T held earlier.

"Are you still a virgin?" he continued.

"Yes."

"How did you do that?" SK asked, taken aback by what had just happened.

"It's all in the Semblance, mate." Kane replied with a light chuckle. "I burnt away at his will, so now he doesn't have the conviction left to resist."

"What's the point?" the Faunus asked rhetorically, wallowing in pessimism.

"Where are you leaders keeping the remaining lists of Pawns?" T questioned, getting back on track.

"In a server room underneath the old Sapphire Stronghold." The Faunus answered, his eyes blinking very slowly. "The boss thought you might be going for it so she made sure to station lots of guards by it."

Getting back up, T turned to face Kane. "Will he be like this forever?"

"Nah, mongrel will get back to normal in a few hours." Kane replied.

"This is the next phase of our operations: we need to break into that stronghold and destroy the list. It's on a closed network, so simply destroying the servers should-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down, what do you mean 'we'?" SK asked, hysterical at this point.

"This is why I brought you here; if we're going to stop Cinder from bringing the world to ruin, we need to work together." He leaned slightly to look at the redhead's recovering body before regarding SK again. "All of us."

The black-haired rogue looked back and forth between him and the redhead for a moment before raising his voice. "You expect me to work with that…thing?" a split second later, he aimed his scimitar at the man and it transformed into a laser rifle, firing a beam at the redhead that knocked him unconscious yet again. "If you expect me to help you, then you'll let me kill it."

"He is the muscle of this operation. The enemies we face are far stronger than we are, and we need a heavy hitter if we're going to beat them." Tanner found T's argument valid. He had watched the redhead berserker fight, and he could easily topple a Goliath on his own if he wanted.

However, SK didn't seem to agree. "Forget it." He stated as he sheathed his sword in the scabbard on his back. "I refuse to work with it. If what you say is true, then I will fight Cinder on my own accord, all-powerful Maiden or not."

"You will lose." T hissed at him. "You will lose and your death will mean nothing. Fight with us, and I promise you that I will do what I can to keep Vacuo out of the line of fire."

Leaning in closer to T, SK muttered into his side. "I'll keep Vacuo safe myself. I'll let that vile marauder live today, but one day I will return to kill it." He said in a louder voice as he backed away slowly. "And mark my words, if you stand in my way of exacting my revenge against Cinder you will know my-Gah!" he suddenly exclaimed as he tripped and fell backwards over a piece of concrete rubble.

Scrambling back to his feet, he stared at each of them as his face turned slightly red. "You get the picture." He said before drawing his sword, running off for the broken wall and disappearing.

"You're making a mistake! We need to beat her before she's whole!" T called out before leaning closer to Tanner. "He'll be back." He whispered.

"No offense, you two." Kane said as the blonde dusted himself off. "But I think I'll follow that bugger's lead and skedaddle. Fighting a terrorist organisation isn't really my thing and I very much like my life, but if you need my help for something small." He reached into the pocket of his tunic and tossed a paper card their way. "Here's my number."

Catching the card, Tanner felt a hint of disappointment as the man walked away. He expected T to say something like he did to the rogue, but he held his tongue. Out of the dozens of people that came here today, they seemed to be back at square one when it came to recruiting extra help.

"What now?" he asked as he pocketed the piece of paper.

Turning, T slowly began walking towards the stumbling figure with the red afro. "Now we fight monsters with monsters."

As the lingering effects of the tranquilizer agent had yet to wear off, Mason was left to ponder the meaning of life after he had been knocked down by a laser beam. That lasted for about three seconds before he began fighting the drowsiness in time to see the rogue disappear.

Seeing as that his attacker was gone, the berserker once again found himself stumbling to his feet like a drunkard to go find himself a can of cream soda and…wait, this isn't my bedroom! And why are there dancing mushrooms with ripped bodies? He thought to himself as he rubbed the colours and shapes out of his eyes.

The effects began clearing quickly as he saw two men approach him slowly. Good I'm starving…and horny.

"You're recovering faster than I anticipated." One of the men with a cyborg arm spoke.

"Should we be worried?" the other man asked.

"Yesh, you should." Mason said as he fumbled with reaching for his sword. "I'm gonna put holes through your head and stick my-"

"We need your help." One of them said. Before long, Mason began to realise that he was the man that knocked him out initially. Before he could ask why, the cyborg continued. "We need your help to find and kill the people that tried to kill you."

"Hah, jokes on you!" Mason declared as he pointed his sword at the two men. "That's the last time I accept a side-quest!"

"We can pay up front in miniguns and grenade launchers." He followed up his offer.

The redhead paused at the statement before giving off an eerie chuckle. "You think you can sway my allegiance with DPS? You've got another thing coming if-"

"We have a gunship."

"I'm in. Sign me up, I like this clan." He said with a change of heart. I can kill sooo many people with a gunship.

"That was pretty easy." The brunette commented, sweeping his hand in the air. "To think, all this fucking mess could've been avoided if we just talked things through instead."

"Who says I didn't want this to happen?" the cyborg asked rhetorically. "Besides, talking's never been my style. Let's go."

"Right, let's gun it!" The swordsman said with a pause. "Cause we've got a gunship?" he continued with a wink.

"Shut up and set the charges."