Chapter 30

Less than a half-hour later, everyone Weiss messaged was gathered in one of the library's meeting rooms. Weiss scanned the room and saw a range of expressions from curiosity to boredom to fear. She settled her gaze on Neo, who nodded for her to continue.

"Okay, here's the basic rundown on what we know so far. The night that Neo and I went on our first date, Neo was attacked by a woman named Cinder – she's the leader of a criminal faction in which Roman Torchwick, who we have been investigating, is one of her lieutenants. Neo and I managed to chase her off after a pretty fast, but heated fight. Apparently, she's pretty upset about being forced to retreat by one of her former accomplices, considering her rule comes from her minions fearing her and knowing what she can do to those that disobey her. Since she needs to regain control before there's any thoughts of a challenge to her power, the word is that she plans to kill Neo, and most likely me as well."

Winter stepped in, "Neo has confirmed the reports our Intelligence Service has gathered that Cinder Fall is here, on Beacon's campus, with multiple members of her faction, disguised as exchange students from Haven. As her initial plan to breach the east side of Vale has failed, we have reason to believe that she is accelerating her timeline and is set on some manner of terrorist attack on Amity Colosseum during the Vytal Festival. Based on the information we have regarding the amount of Dust she and her people have at hand, we suspect they will try to set off an explosion to try to bring the Colosseum down and, as a result, crush a significant portion of Vale as it falls from the sky. By all accounts, this woman is a sociopath bent on killing as many people as she can, though we do not know what end she intends to reach by doing so."

"That sounds accurate," Blake began, "I met a defector from the White Fang and she told me that they had an entire warehouse of dust and dust products that they were manufacturing into bombs. Some of those bombs were used on the train to breach Vale, but it wasn't even a quarter of their supply."

"Weiss, why didn't you tell us that you were attacked? Tell us that there was someone other than Torchwick to try to investigate?"

"I didn't want you to worry Ruby. Besides, Neo and I decided that it was best to focus our energy on the pieces in this chess match that we could actually see and knew about, namely Torchwick and the White Fang. While we were doing that, if we learned anything more about Cinder and her plan, we could use that as a jumping off point to launch an investigation or assault against her."

"Right… Well," Ruby pointed at both Weiss and Neo, "you two aren't going anywhere alone until she's in custody. At least two of us will be with you at all times."

The group nodded together at Ruby's suggestion.

"Ruby, Cinder needs to be killed." Weiss lowered her eyes and shook her head, "We can't capture her. She's strong and manipulative, there's no way anyone will be able to hold her for long or keep her from trying to achieve whatever her twisted goals are, so long as she's alive."

The small girl's face fell.

"I understand that killing a criminal without a trial is against much of what we all believe in terms of our understanding of justice and due process, but in this case, Weiss is right. This woman is leading a global terror network. Several other attacks have been linked to her faction, and any attempts to capture her thus far have been frustrated by her people. As a result, Atlesian Intelligence, with the consent of the other three kingdoms' Councils, has issued a kill order for her. That is part of the reason that General Ironwood and I are here with some of our forces." Winter confirmed.

Everyone in the room sat in silence as the implication of her words sank in.

"I know that most of you have not killed another human before, and that you don't ever want to, but understand this: our enemies are not just the Grimm, there are humans and Faunus amongst us that plot our demise and they must be dispatched with the same cold efficiency as you have been trained to exterminate Grimm."

Blake caught Neo's eyes briefly. She wasn't sure if it was a trick of light or if she imagined it, but Neo's eyes burned a flaming orange-red.

iWinter's logic is sound. Yes, there are a number of implications that justify Cinder's death. My reason for killing her is far more personal and I should be the one to kill her. Avenge what she did to me… But in the end, as long as that bitch is in the ground, I don't care who kills her or what reason they justify it with. All that matters is that she dies./i