A World of Wild Wild Evolution

by erttheking

Life in Remnant is about to change. Courier number 6 investigates something wrong at the isolated Big Mountain research facility and has his life turned upside down. Inspired by Light at the End by BlindingPhoenix

13. Take Another Little Piece

Chapter 11

Take Another Little Piece

XXXXX

Finding the place had been easy, as had been setting up his little presents around the perimeter. He had just needed to avoid the obvious cones of vision that the floodlights had presented. After that, he needed to get up top without being spotted, so he needed to time his movements just right with the changing of the guard shift. He dashed out from his hiding spot had killed the lights with a quick cut powerline when there had been an opening. Afterward, he had climbed up the ladder in the dark, the Hunters none the wiser.

When James was up on the roof is when things had gone off the rails a bit. The guards had noticed James before he could eliminate them all, and one had taken a tumble through a window looking into the interior of the compound below. Heart hammering as he realized his error, he peered through and saw dozens of Hunters below, many of them starting to look up in his direction. With the Ranger helmet, James could see perfectly fine while the Hunters below couldn't, the benefits of night vision goggles, but many Hunters were producing flashlights. They would see him in a matter of seconds.

"Fuck it," he said. He already had his scavenged MG set up on the railing, this was just using it earlier than planned. His finger jammed down and the weapon roared to life, greedily devouring the chain of bullets that stretched out of the box mounted on James's back. Half a dozen Hunters had crowded around the fallen guard to see what the cause of the noise had been. They fell within seconds, one screaming in agony as she clutched at her leg, but the others were silent as their bodies crumpled to the floor. James twitched his arm and adjusted the aim and swept through a trio of Hunters that had been moving towards the others, managing to catch all three of them.

There was panicked screaming now. Confusion was seizing the Hunters down below, some were screeching as they ran in whatever direction their legs to carry them, while others were drawing weapons and firing wild shots in his direction. One way or another, the Hunters were aware they were under attack. Thankfully, most of the shots that came in his direction went wide due to the poor visibility the Hunters were operating on. At best, they had shaking flashlight beams and the muzzle flash of his MG to pinpoint his location. Only a handful of rounds hit him, ones that his Aura was able to easily take.

As the MG continued to thunder, spent casings pouring out the far side, James was able to claim a few more groups before the surviving Hunters realized the danger of clumping together. By this point, the majority of them had taken cover where they could, be it behind couches, metal shelf units, or kitchen counters. A pair tore for the far side of the building and wrenched the door open and bolted outside. They got a few feet out before they triggered one of the mines James had planted. The Dust explosion, combined with bottle caps acting as shrapnel, enveloped both of them. There was no coming back from that one, not with the minimal protection they were wearing.

Resistance against him was becoming more organized. Around the center of the room, he saw four people spread out but coordinating with each other, all of them clutching rifles. With a singular motion, they all rose up and opened fire on his position with full auto bursts. This volley of return fire wasn't 100% accurate, the shooters still couldn't fully see James's frame, quite a few shots ended up finding their mark. He recoiled, struggling to maintain his grip on the MG. His Aura was holding up, but he could feel the strain.

He swerved the MG onto the four, but they had all taken cover. The rounds either passed overhead or riddled the fronts of their makeshift barricades, doing little else. Glancing to the side, James saw, with a lurch of his stomach, that the MG was about to reach the end of its belt of ammunition. It wasn't unexpected, he had been firing non-stop since he had begun his attack, but that would mean he would have to make do without the MG for the rest of the fight. Sneaking a second box of ammo up here had been more than he had been willing to risk.

Deciding to make the change sooner rather than later, James tossed the MG to the side and went for his bandolier. "He's out!" a voice from below cried out. At the same time, James gripped a pair of grenade, flicking the pins out of each. "Suppressing fire, now!" One to each hand, James hurled the grenades in the direction of the four before hitting the deck. Every shot he took was damage to his Aura, in other words, a shot he couldn't afford to take.

There was a brief spurt of gunfire before a pair of explosions drowned them. Afterward, a cry of pain echoed out. "My legs! MY LEGS! WHERE ARE THEY!?" Getting to his feet, James dashed down the catwalk to a window down the far side, unholstering his rifle as he did. Screeching to a halt, he smashed the butt of his rifle into the window, shattering it. On the inside, cohesion was starting to fall apart. Only one of the four was still up and armed, two were immobile and the last was on the ground missing his legs and covered in gashes.

Recognizing that these were all most likely the ex-military leaders of the Hunters, James lined up a shot with this rifle and fired twice. Both shots blew fist-sized holes in the last of the four, his cover not protecting him from James's new position, and he collapsed like a puppet with cut strings. A single 12.7mm round was enough to reliably kill an un-augmented human when it hit center mass, while two was enough to ensure it was instantaneous. Better safe than sorry now that he didn't have the time to line up head-shots and he was dealing with numbers this big. The last thing he needed was an almost dead Hunter getting off one last shot when his back was turned.

His theory about his latest targets being the leaders was starting to pan out, either that or the situation was just generally collapsing. The Hunters were losing their heads. Some fired wildly in his direction, not even coming close to hitting him, a few were still shooting in the direction of his first window, and another attempted to make a run for it. She, like the first two, got a few feet out the exit before she was swallowed up by a detonating mine.

He took a quick sweep of the area. The dead Hunters now outnumbered the living ones, he had gotten the lion's share of them with his opening machine-gun assault, and the grenades had whittled down their more experienced fighters. The first minute of this fight had been a touch and go moment where it could've become a drawn-out slugfest if he had not gotten a crippling blow in early. Mercifully, it had not gone that way, and now he simply had to mop up the rest.

Slowly, taking his time, he picked them off one by one. There was so much sporadic fire from them that his rifle was masked by it. Two rounds in the one by the corner, two rounds in one that had been aiming in his direction, a headshot on one who hadn't been as well hidden as he thought. He fired three more rounds, the first going wide and the next two taking a runner in the leg and then the throat before his rifle clicked empty. There were only one or two moving targets down below. It was time to end this.

Reloading, he swapped out his rifle for his shotgun before jumping down into the building. A jump from this height would've normally rattled him quite badly, but when he landed he did so quite comfortably. Aura was a blessing in every way it seems. One of the survivors fired wildly in his direction, one round managed to catch him in the gut. Fighting back the urge to double over, James doubled tapped him with the shotgun. He promptly joined the ranks of the dead.

"No. No. It can't end like this. We were going to change things. Make things better." He recognized that voice. It was the voice of the ex-soldier who had lead the pack at the bar earlier today. A figure was rising from the pile of bodies James had created with his initial assault. Two bullet holes were bleeding profusely in his right arm. He was clutching futilely at them, attempting in vain to staunch the bleeding. "We're stuck here in the ghettos with those people, the people who stood by and watched when people were getting butchered in Vale. I-" James leveled his shotgun and fired twice. A dozen different wounds were torn open by the pellets as he tumbled over backward.

It was hard to make out in the monocolored green of his night-vision, but he looked as if he had the puffy face of someone holding back tears. Hatred surged through James. Everything the Hunters had done and this one was getting sad over it falling apart? Spiteful impulses getting the better of him, James emptied what was left of his magazine into the man's gut. Blood splattered the ground as the corpse's belly was torn wide open, earning a feeling of satisfaction in James. A second later, however, it was replaced by guilt. You aren't an animal James. Get your goddamn act together.

He looked around the refinery, reloading his shotgun as he did. There wasn't a single Hunter still on their feet. One here and there were still moving on the ground, moaning weakly, but their movements were growing weaker by the second. Every last member of this deplorable little group was either dead or dying. For a second, he thought that the battle was over. Then, a sharp tremble vibrated through the building. It was quickly followed by a second. James froze. These were the vibrations caused by someone very large moving very fast.

"THE FUCK!?" a door burst open. James's jaw dropped. An utter behemoth of a man, seven feet verging on eight, burst through, several glass bottles rolling through the doorframe around his feet. He had a thick, hairy build that could've been a Super Mutant's, complete with exposed veins in the neck and muscles as thick as a man's head. His face was just as hairy as the rest of his body, a thick beard covering everything from the nose down except his mouth, but with shorter hair up top. The man blinked, his eyes bloodshot, as he glared around the room. In one hand he clutched a massive woodsman's ax, and in the other a blue helmet in the shape of a bull, complete with horns. "I'M TRYING TO FUCKING SLEEP!" He wheeled around on the spot, glaring. The glare faltered when he saw the bodies. And reignited when he saw James, being close enough to him to see him even in the poor light. "You...you motherfucker."

James didn't hesitate, he fired three blasts from his shotgun. The man staggered back, stepping on and crushing one of the bottles in the process, but he seemed more annoyed than hurt. He had Aura. Between this and the helmet, it wasn't rocket science to figure out who the man was. James knew that he was facing the trump card of the Hunters. "You come into my house and kill my people?" the Blue Bull said. "How much did you get paid to kill yourself like this, little man?" His voice was noticeably slurred. Between that, the bottles, and the fact that he had slept through the majority of the attack, it was a safe bet to say that he had been blackout drunk and still hadn't fully sobered up.

"I hope it was a lot," the Blue Bull said, his voice a growl. "I snapped Grimm necks back in the day, one-handed at that." James wanted very badly to dismiss that as a drunken lie, but looking at the size of the man's muscles, he couldn't help but wonder if it was the truth. He was certainly big enough to grapple with those demonic wolves. "You're gonna find out what that feels like." With a sluggish but powerful movement, he slapped the bull helmet over his head and shifted the ax to a two-handed grip.

James resumed firing, but he only got two more off before the Blue Bull charged. He had expected a charge, there wasn't much else you could do with just an ax, but what caught him off guard was how fast the Blue Bull was. The lumbering behemoth of a man, still half-drunk, had no right to be darting forward as fast as he was. He was utterly graceless, his legwork so uncoordinated that he looked as if one bad move would result in him sprawling across the floor, but he was crossing the distance between the two of them with the speed of a freight train.

James's instincts switched from fight to flight and he threw himself out of the way, only daring to sneak a single shotgun blast in as he did. The one way in which fighting the Blue Bull was preferable to fighting Adam was that the Blue Bull either couldn't or didn't care about deflecting his shots. Though it was becoming an increasingly small comfort. His opponent missed him and instead swung his ax into a shelving unit. The unit collapsed as if it was made out of tissue paper, and overhead swing piercing through the top five shelves and causing the entire thing to twist and contort.

"Little late to be running!" the Blue Bull bellowed, ripping his ax out of the contorted hunk of metal with distressing ease. "You shouldn't have come here in the first place if you didn't have the guts! What's the matter, only willing to fight people when you have the drop on them?" A deep, almost primal, guttural noise escaped the Blue Bull's mouth. "Cowards like you piss me off so much." Part of James wanted to scream back at the blatant hypocrisy at that statement, but he couldn't manage. His heart was slamming against his ribcage and adrenaline pumped through his veins. If he stopped to say something stupid, something he knew he wasn't always above, it could be the fatal misstep that led to him being gored.

"Cowards like you, cowards like the White Fang, you're the reason I joined the Hunters. So I could give you a taste of your own medicine!" Bellowing, the Bull Blue charged again. This time, James was more prepared for his surprising speed and was able to compensate for it. With a few well-placed side steps, he was able to proactively clear the Blue Bull's line of attack, emptying his shotgun's magazine as he went. Even then, with a distance he had considered comfortable, the Blue Bull realized his charge would overshoot James and swung his ax as he passed. The man's ridiculously long arms brought the ax far too close for comfort, only missing James by a couple of inches, and left him scrambling away.

He forced himself to breathe. The Blue Bull hadn't scored at hit yet, while he had managed to dump an entire magazine into the giant of a man.

"I don't like using this on anything but Grimm, even the White Fang doesn't deserve it," the Blue Bull said, fury pounding in his words. "But if that's how you want to do it? Fine!" With that, he flipped a switch near the base of his ax. A grip and a trigger emerged on the lower handle, but the true transformation happened up top. The head of the axe expanded, enough for it to still be used in melee, but revealing an internal casing of red Fire Dust. Fire Dust that was now openly burning. "This is what you get for murdering my family. BURN YOU SON OF A BITCH!" And with that, a massive tongue of fire roared from the ax.

Swearing internally, James put as much distance between himself and the raging inferno as possible. His range of movement was limited, the arc on that weapon was able to reach halfway across the building before it finally spluttered out. James wanted to kick himself right now. Ideally, his best move would be to get outside where he wasn't as boxed in by this weapon, but if he tried to do that he would trigger his landmines. He did not have the time to safely disarm them before moving on; he had trapped himself.

Holstering his shotgun in a hurry, he drew his rifle again and took aim, opening fire the second he had a halfway decent shot. The 12.7mm rounds got more of a reaction from the Blue Bull than the buckshot had, with direct hits causing him to wince and even cry out with the first one. "No more running!" The Blue Bull tore forward, wildly swinging his ax as he did. The result was terrifying. Thick whips of fire lashed through the air without any rhyme or reason to them, the Blue Bull now close enough that there was no area that the flames couldn't reach.

James did the only thing he could, wildly zigzagging through the various pieces of furniture that the Hunters had set up. Even then, more than once he was buffeted by the wild flames. He could feel the heat pressing up against him, as well as his Aura struggling to keep it back. If he didn't have any Aura, he would be dead right now, or at least immobile on the floor with third-degree burns. He had to do something and do it fast.

Sliding up against a couch, he emptied the last of the bullets in his magazine, aiming for Blue Bull's head this time. He scored three direct hits, causing a momentary relief in the fire as the last Hunter bellowed in pain, staggering back. Now or never, James thought, kneeling behind the couch. After a quick reload, he turned his attention onto his Pip-Boy. He slammed down hard on the Wild Wild Wasteland button, praying to whatever was watching for a Bloody Mess magazine.

Not stopping to look at the results, James poked his rifle over the top of the couch, aiming. He fired two shots off at the Blue Bull, who turned to aim his flamethrower when it happened. Everything started to slow down, to the point where he could make out the shapes of his bullets flying through the air. He had gotten V.A.T.S., not Bloody Mess. James felt a sinking feeling in his gut, but at the same time resolved to make the best out of what he had. And it was right in front of him. The opening on the Blue Bull's ax had a noticeable supply of Fire Dust right on the inside. It was a weakness he could exploit. Aiming, James fired again and again and again until his rifle clicked empty.

To his delight, the Bull Bule had chosen that time to keep his ax more level, aiming it straight at him instead of flailing it around. The fire was roaring out of the opening again, blocking James's line of sight with it as the bullets disappeared into the flames. Just when James was considering ducking back down getting out of the cone of fire, the flames were stifled, dying at the source. The Blue bull jerked back, clutching his ax. The cartridge of Fire Dust was vibrating wildly, glowing brightly as it did. "Shit!" the Blue Bull shouted, jamming his hand into the opening, ripping the Dust cartridge out, and tossing it high up into the air. It exploded as it reached the top of its arc. The heat was so intense that James winced even though he was a floor away.

Despite this, James had not been idle while the Blue Bull had dealt with his malfunctioning weapon. Letting his rifle fall, held in place by its strap, he grabbed two more Dust grenades. Things were already starting to return to normal speeds, so he had to act fast. Ripping the pins out with his thumbs, he tossed them just as the Blue Bull tossed his malfunctioning Dust cartridge into the air. The went off nearly simultaneously, one buffeting him from the front, and the other the left. Mixed in between the explosions, barely audible, was the sound of something shattering. A cobalt blue aura briefly flared around the massive man before dying as soon as it came. He was vulnerable.

"The people you killed, did you even know their names? Henry? Nine-year vet? The one that stood by me even when Atlas turned its back on me because the brass lost their spines? No, of course you wouldn't!" The Blue Bull was working himself up into an even greater rage. His ax was still in his hand, but he seemed to have forgotten about it. Letting out a bellow of pure rage, he charged at James, reaching the couch within seconds. Instead of swinging at him, he slammed into the couch and pushed hard. James, unable to react in time and with V.A.T.S. having fully worn off, found himself buffeted by the couch, pushed back and unable to break free.

"I'm done. I'm done with you," the Blue Bull growled. "No more hiding like a damn coward. You killed seven good men and women today, you're gonna keep them company in the ground." James scrambled, trying to get a firm footing on the ground while pushing back against the couch. He had one good foot when his back slammed into something hard, forcing his mouth wide open in a silent gasp. The Blue Bull had pushed him right into the wall, pinning him behind the couch, both of his hands keeping it in place. "Can't hide anymore!" the Blue Bull roared in triumph. Lowering his head, he thrust it forward.

James attempted to veer to the side, put the couch made it so that he could only wiggle. One of the horns missed, but the other found the edge of his stomach. James roared in pain. Even though his Aura was still up, even though his stomach was armored, the horn had somehow managed to pierce him. A second pain tore through his back and he realized that it had been full penetration. "How?" he gasped out, his mouth moving on its own while his brain was in full survival mode. That injury wasn't necessarily fatal but it was bad. The horn hadn't been small and he would be losing blood at a worrying pace when it was pulled out, assuming he didn't simply go into shock. More injuries like that would drop his chance of survival into horrifically lopsided odds, he couldn't afford to

"What, wondering why your Aura isn't protecting you?" the Blue Bull said, a sneer working its way into his voice. "I'm a specialist and you're a nobody, you think they let just any punk with Aura into the specialists? No, they want fighters who can go in and put down little shits like you." With that, he pulled back, tearing the horn out of James's stomach. Before he could thrust forward again, however, James drew his knife and thrust down into one of the Blue Bull's arms. Howling, he instinctively drew back to pull the knife out of his arm. In doing so, he released his grip on the couch.

Desperation flowing through him, James drove his knee into the couch, pushing it forward a few inches. Now having another room, he grabbed the White Fang SMG with one hand and drew A Light Shining in Darkness with his other. The pistol still had its silencer on and only three rounds in the magazine, but he didn't care. Aiming both weapons at the Blue Bull, he unleashed everything he had. The Fire Dust ammo of the SMG and the trio of .45 rounds. With his Aura down, the Blue Bull was riddled with bullets everywhere from his pelvis to his throat. His face was protected by the helmet, the few SMG rounds that went that high bouncing off of it, but the rest of his body was riddled with dozens of bullet holes.

He staggered back, his ax falling out of his hand, as he weakly glared at James through his helmet. He opened his mouth, no doubt to let out one last scathing insult, only for a glob of blood to be spewed out instead of words. His strength fading, he tumbled over backward. James, wincing at the pain in his side, moved around the couch, slapping fresh magazines into his weapons. There was no way in hell the Blue Bull wasn't dead, not after taking a mag and a half of ammunition, people just didn't survive that. People don't survive being shot in the head twice either a voice in the back of his mind said.

Making his decision, he holstered his weapons before picking up the Blue Bull's ax. This was always the most unpleasant part, but it would give him peace of mind, plus act as proof of the deed. Slowly, he positioned the ax's blade directly over the Blue Bull's throat before raising it over his head. The Blue Bull was a thick man, even with enhanced strength it took a couple of swings. But on the third blow, he was able to liberate the head from the neck. It rolled a few inches, freely spewing blood as it went, before coming to a stop. Sighing, he rested the ax against the couch. "ED-E!? I'm done in here!"

He staggered forward, dragging the Blue Bull's ax behind him, the pain still pulsating from his wound. He inched his way towards the door the ex-specialist had emerged from, figuring that he would have the most salvageable equipment. Moving through the door, he found himself in a one-person bedroom. Apparently, the Blue Bull didn't have to share. The walls were covered with Atlas military posters from floor to ceiling, depicting everything from recruitment posters, positive depictions of Atlas's armed robots, to calls to buy military bonds. If James had to guess, this was what Atlas patriots looked like.

Aside from that, the room was a mess. A dresser was on the far side of the room, with clothes poorly folded and awkwardly sticking out of it, but that was just the appetizer. Every single surface past the threshold was littered with empty beer bottles. For some reason, the Blue Bull had both a mini-fridge and a cooler in his room, on top of several unopened boxes of beer. It was the definition of excess. But James's attention was drawn to his bedside table, which had several lockboxes and a first aid kit. Feeling a small sense of relief, promptly grabbed the kit and sat down on a part of the floor where glass bottles were scarce. Slowly, he undid his armor, removing his helmet and chest plate, and slid his coat and undershirt off, leaving the wound in his stomach exposed.

Opening the first aid kit and withdrawing his medical supplies, James injected himself with a stimpack before getting to work. He cleaned and disinfected the wound before moving onto the part of first aid he always hated the most, giving himself stitches. He had been doing it long enough to be quite accomplished at it, but it always sucked. For several agonizing minutes, he threaded his flesh and slowly closed the wound. At least this one was in an area that was easy to reach. After that was mercifully done, he applied gauze and bandages to the wound before producing a vial of Med-X and injecting himself with it. He then leaned back in the chair. Hopefully, before too long, the Med-X would kick in and reduce the pain to something far more tolerable.

Swiveling on the ground to reposition himself, James leaned against the Blue Bull's bedframe. For a second, he merely sat there, feeling the throbbing in his side gradually lessen, before he eventually slipped his clothes and armor back on. He did not get up though, partially due to simple exhaustion from the fight, but mainly due to a general weariness that was starting to weigh down on him. Idly reaching out, he dragged the cooler across the grounds towards him. Opening it, he took one of the beer's inside and popped the cap off.

He bitterly took a swig of the crappy, cheap beer. This would've been a cakewalk if the others had been here. Boone and Raul up top raining down sharpshooter fire, Veronica and Arcade soaking up everything thrown at them, Cass blasting anyone who came within spitting distance, and Lily being the knife in the back. Things had worked out in the end, but only just barely. The second another Aura user had shown up, everything had almost entirely fallen apart. Even after everything that he had been through, he had only won by the skin of his teeth against a drunk.

Sighing, he undid all of his weapons and laid them out on the ground in front of them, ensuring that they were topped off. As he reached A Light Shining in Darkness, he detached the silencer and slapped in a fresh magazine. Once it was loaded, he didn't put it down right away. He slowly turned it over in its hand, looking at it without a clear motive in mind. It felt heavy, more so than usual, and powerful. It had taken so many lives, many without the victims even realizing it. One-shot had been all that was needed. Just like that.

"Getting sentimental in our old age, are we?" Mr. House's voice said. "When you violated my hospitality, broke into my inner sanctum, and single-handedly destroyed two centuries worth of plans for the human race, where was this sentimentality? Or is this a case of nerve impulses reaching your trigger finger before they reach your brain? Consistently."

"Will you shut the fuck up?!" James said before he could stop himself. Rage pounding through him, he threw the bottle before it could stop himself. It shattered against the far wall, its contents trickling down as glass fragments tinkled onto the floor. "I really don't need your shit right now!" Shame and embarrassment flooded through him the second the words were out of his mouth. He had to get a grip, he couldn't slip right now, not when there was so much he had to juggle.

He leaned over, grasping his head in your hands. "You've survived so much worse than this, come on. Keep it together, you can do this," he whispered to himself. "You've got people counting on you. You've done this before. The kids, think about the kids. Think about what the Legion will do to them if you crap out. You have handled tough shit before!" The logic center of his brain knew he was right. He had survived the Sierra Madre, Zion, Big Mountain, and other equally hostile areas. The emotional part of him wasn't listening. Feeling his heart starting to beat faster and his breathing becoming more shallow, James attempting to regulate his breaths. It was a losing battle, however, and after a minute or two of struggling furiously against it, tears started to leak out of the corners of his eyes.

Just then, a low humming filled the room. ED-E floated in, sporting a few new scratches but otherwise looking unharmed. "Finished my perimeter sweep. Five of them tried to slip out windows, they didn't get far. Mines took one, I got the other four. No one else around here is moving." he reported. Gently, he floated down towards James. He gently rubbed his chassis against James's cheek. James smiled, wiping away his tears. It was a little easier to breathe now. "You ok? We probably should've asked Team RWBY or Team JNPR for help on this front."

"Somehow I don't think they're at that point in their lives. Killing someone in self-defense is one thing. A preemptive slaughter, and that's what this is, is different," James said. He paused for a moment, taking a deep breath to calm himself down before continuing. "There's a certain, well, cruelty to it. A cruelty that just about every wastelander that doesn't live in NCR core regions has, even if it's just a little bit. Those kids? They're skilled, they're brave, some of them are damn prodigies. But they're defenders, not killers. And I'm not in too much of a hurry to push them over the edge. Not when I'm around to do the dirty work."

Gingerly, he stood up. "I've not been here very long but I'm starting to get the basics down. Huntsmen and Huntresses are elite warriors who are supposed to keep the peace and slay the evil monsters. You can't have the peacekeepers running around at night killing a few dozen people in ambushes, can you? No. That's for people like me. I know what I'm doing." He looked through the doorway, into the main body of the refinery. Blood was still dripping from many of the corpses he had left. "And I'm damn good at it." There was a rather empty feeling inside him as he said this.

"But that's beside the point. Ironwood would never have sanctioned this. If we're being honest, I'm due to get my head chewed off by both him and Qrow. I'm used to Qrow, but Ironwood was just starting to trust me." He made an exhausted grunt. "Well, screw it. We needed brownie points with the White Fang, this'll get us brownie points. Also, fuck these people in general. I would've done this for half a bottle of water, frankly. I kept Ironwood's army from going all Yes-Man on him, I should still be in the black with them." He lowered his head slightly. "They are going to be pissed with me though, no two ways around it."

ED-E shifted slightly. "You seem rather accepting about that."

James let out a sigh. "No point in getting indignant about it, I suppose. I went off on my own and racked up a double-digit body count without checking with them. I knew what I was signing up for, I'm not going to be the asshole who complains when I put my hand on a hot stove. They're gonna be pissed at me, best I just suck up and accept it now. They're gonna yell at me, it's gonna blow, but we'll move past it." He shook his head. He was no stranger to pissing off people he was working with. An image of Qrow smiling smugly flashed in his mind and he felt a twinge of anger. He pushed it down. It was like he had said, he had done this to himself. He would have to accept the punishment.

"Well, since we're here, we might as well do the usual. Do a quick search, see if you can find any more medical supplies or ammo that fits my SMG. We're not going to find ammo that'll fit any Earth guns here. We just-" but before he could finish, ED-E interrupted him.

"I've got movement! It's hard to tell with so many bodies, but one of them just moved! He's in the bathroom across from us!" Without saying a word, James seized his shotgun and rose to his feet. Bursting through the doorway and spotting the ajar bathroom that ED-E had been talking about, he crossed the refinery at a run and kicked the door fully open, leveling his shotgun.

A kid wearing a green scarf, no older than twenty, was cowering on the floor. As James aimed, he let out a wet sob and raised his hands. "Please don't," he whimpered. His face was red and puffy, as well as stained with tears. Notably, he wasn't wearing the mismatched combat gear that James had come to associate with the rest of the Hunters. His trigger finger slackened, but only slightly. "P-please don't," the kid repeated. James's mind raced. This was an unexpected variable. Who was this person and why did he look so very out of place? Part of him wanted to take pity on him, but another part of him was well aware that sob stories followed up by an attack to the back was a popular survival tactic.

"I want to ask you something," James said, his voice neutral. "Did you know what these people did? Did you know how many people they were hurting?" The boy recoiled, looking horrified. "I'm not going to hurt you if you say yes," James said honestly. "But I do need you to be honest with me right now."

The boy's lip quivered. "I-I never did it myself, bu-but the Sergeant showed me what the Bull did with his horns." Every word he said was drenched in fear, no doubt expecting James to pull the trigger at any second. "But you need to listen to me. I didn't want to do this, I don't like hurting people, but they didn't leave us any choice." Tears welled up in his eyes. "You must've been paying attention to the news. Do you have any idea how many people they killed in Vale? They set dogs and a cannibal on unarmed civilians. And there's more White Fang in Atlas than in Vale. They were going to do it all to us, maul us, crucify us, gun us down in front of our homes, if we didn't get them first."

James kept his weapon trained on the boy for a few seconds, digesting what he had heard. Then he lowered it. The boy blinked in surprise. "Y-you're not going to kill me?" he asked, sounding shocked. James nodded. He wasn't an expert on reading people, but he had been around long enough to tell when a person was capable of violence or not. This boy, at the very most, could muster up the will to kill in self-defense.

"You're not a killer," James said simply. Frankly, he had a feeling he could walk back into the Blue Bull's room, go to sleep with his weapons on the floor, and the boy would merely use the opportunity to run for it. James doubted he would even go for help. "You're not like the rest of them, the ones who would go into bars and pull out guns to feel tough."

The boy winced, and James had a strong feeling he had witnessed such behavior before. "They were scared," he said defensively, despite his now strained voice. "I know they could be cruel. The Sergeant and his buddies always liked to remind us that they were the ones in charge and we were dumb kids that knew nothing. And so many of the others wanted to get into a good scrap, I know, they liked to talk tough." He sniffed. "But I could tell that most of them were scared. I was scared too. I didn't want what happened in Vale to happen here."

"You know," James said, wondering if now was a good time to lecture but pressing on anyway. "A lot of the White Fang was scared too. About what people did to them. I'd put hard money down that they saw joining up as their only way out."

"Does that make what they did ok!?" the boy shouted, his fear giving way for anger.

"No, it doesn't," James said. Reaching down, he undid his chest plate and lifted his shirt. The long, thick wound that Adam Taurus had given him had long since healed, but a faint, white outline had been left as a permanent reminder. "Which is why I'm doing everything I can to track them down and ensure they can never do it again. To make sure that they pay for what they did." He let his shirt fall. "Because I don't care if you're Faunus or Human. You target unarmed, innocent civilians?" He gestured around the delipidated refinery. "This is what you get. It doesn't matter how scared you were. I don't discriminate if you slaughter shamelessly."

"T-they started it," the boy said weakly. He had the look of someone who was running out of arguments and knew it but was stubbornly refusing to concede. There was a flare of anger within James. He had marked the boy before him as a kid, it was true, but he looked as if he was legally an adult. Why was he pulling the type of argument that most children grew out of when they hit their teenage years? There had been a terrorist attack on another continent, therefore the logical conclusion was to hang out with megalomaniacal militants who let their best pal impale people? But as soon as the pang of anger had started, it faded away, replaced with exhaustion.

Human-Faunus relations were something he was just beginning to understand. From what he could tell, not too long ago it had been legal to own Faunus as slaves. According to the brief research he had done before heading out, the Faunus had fought and won a war for liberation, but if his time learning Earth history with Arcade was anything to go by, these types of affairs were never won and done. The transition towards a more equal society was always a messy one, heavily influenced by there being a lot of ground to cover between slaves and equal citizens. James couldn't help but notice exactly how many Faunus were living in the shittiest parts of Mantle and doubted that many lived in the more upper-class sections.

But it wasn't as if Humans here were immune to poverty. It was unlikely many of the Hunters had moved to Mantle by choice, odds were that the Sergeant and his war buddies had recruited locally. No doubt, many of them had gone through crap quite similar to poor Faunus, and the White Fang, odds were even before the Legion had co-opted them, had given them something to fear. That being said, James didn't quite feel comfortable saying that both sides were the same. He had seen the way Faunus on the street had been terrified to be out in public after the attacks in Vale, the sheer amount of graffiti directed at them. Humans hadn't been terrified to be in public after the Hunters had attacked. Poor Humans and poor Faunus had a good deal in common, but there was no getting around the fact that one group had the scales tilted against them significantly more. Human society wasn't struggling to rebound from being considered property.

"I know," he said sympathetically, putting a hand on the boy's shoulder. "But this? It wasn't helping. If anything it was only going to make things worse. You weren't doing anything about the ones who were hurting people. You were just giving them more reasons to keep doing what they were doing and giving reasons for why other Faunus should join up with them." He gave a comforting squeeze. "These people weren't your friends. They were using you for their own petty grudges." He took the boy in. Nothing about him made him look like the type who would belong here. "Can I ask your name?"

The boy hiccuped. "B-Basil."

James nodded. "I'm James. I want to ask you something, please be honest with me. How did these people treat you?"

"I mean," Basil said, breaking off eye-contact with James. That alone spoke volumes, and James didn't like what he was hearing. "It's military, they were harsh because they wanted to toughen me up." He paused. "They go overboard sometimes, like when Dorian had to do his 16-hour guard shift, but-"

"That's abuse," James said bluntly. "That's sleep deprivation. What's more, it's stupid. Basil, I know you're going through a lot right now and I know it's because of me. I apologize for that. But these people sound like the types who mistake being cruel for being 'tough'. I've spent years hanging around military units, doing contract work, and I can tell the difference between a stern professional and an asshole who's getting their rocks off over having power over others. Think long and hard Basil, which did the Sergeant strike you as?"

Basil didn't say anything. Instead, he slowly slid back into the corner, looking up at the ceiling. Tears began to stream down his face again. "I-I think I messed up," he said, his voice choked.

"We all do," James said, as kindly as he could manage. "But the important thing is what you do to make up for it. How are you going to make what you did here right?"

"What? Are you saying that I owe the Faunus?" Basil asked, sounding confused and incredulous at the same time.

"It's not that simple," James said. "There's two prongs to making up for your screw-ups. Part of it is, yeah, you need to make amends with the people that you hurt if you want them to forgive you. But I'm going to tell you something from experience. If you knew that they would never forgive you, you would still do everything in your power to make things right. Because you wouldn't be able to get the forgiveness of the person who matters most if you didn't. Your own."

There was a long, pregnant silence. "You talk about it like you've been there personally," Basil said, sounding as if he was wondering if he was pushing his luck. "Did you ever do something?" James felt very cold. He had said too much. Basil noticed. "Sorry, shouldn't have asked," he said hastily. "I-look. I don't want to sound like I'm flip-floppy, I need time to think about all of this. It's a bit much and I don't know what I'm going to do." He paused. "Where the Hunters really as bad as the White Fang to you? They killed people, I know, but not as much."

"I don't care," James said simply. "And I wasn't going to give them a chance to even the score."

Basil let out a long sigh. "Damn it. I've been so stupid." He sniffed loudly, a few more tears leaking out. "You said you were going to stop the White Fang?" James nodded. "I want to help. If you can do all of this," he gave an uncomfortable gesture towards the bodies outside, "then I know you can take down the White Fang."

James blinked. This was a very odd situation. He had found allies in very odd places, there was no getting around that, but not usually after he had massacred most of their organization. "I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but you're taking what I did rather well," James said.

"I mean, I don't want to admit it but you're kind of right in that they were pretty lousy to me," Basil said. "I only really had one friend, Dorian, and even he didn't really seem to like me that much. I just, I don't know, thought I could bring out his better half."

The little shit at the bar? That would've been an achievement and a half. James could read between the lines though, and he had a very good feeling why Basil had been drawn to Dorian. James wasn't going to judge him too harshly, he had looked the other way when for his early crushes on boys that had caught his eye. Young and in love for the first time was a cocktail for dumb decision making, there was no frame of reference to inform decisions. "I saw Dorian earlier today. The kid would've pulled a gun on a bartender for slightly late service if I hadn't stopped him. Trust me, you're better off without him in your life." Basil swallowed. He had the look of someone whose entire life had turned upside down. James knew the feeling, it was how he had felt when he had been dug out of a shallow grave in Goodsprings. "You got a place to go back to?"

"Not really," Basil said. He looked as if he was lost deep in thought. Then he took a deep breath. "I meant what I said. I want to help stop the White Fang. I know I can't do much, but I do want to do what I can. Just...let me get my things. I don't want to stay any longer than I have to. I might see Dorian and...I can't handle that right now. I know he was an asshole, but I just can't." James nodded, holstering his shotgun. "Just one more question. You could've killed me. Why didn't you?"

"Couple of reasons," James said. "You were unarmed for starters. You had your arms up, I had essentially won the fight and you just didn't have the attitude or body language of a killer. The rest of them did." James did his best to sound reassuring and comforting. "I'd get called naive by a lot of people back where I'm from for this, but I think you're a good kid who just made a dumb mistake. You don't deserve to die for that."

Basil made a strangled noise. "The Hunters never would've done that." Most people who made comments like that tended to say it insultingly. Basil wasn't.

"And I have no desire to be anything like them," James said. James had never considered himself to be a saint. He had done a lot of vile shit in his life, to the point where if Joshua was right about his faith, there was probably a luxury suite reserved for him in Hell. That being said, there was a certain degree of standards he tried to hold himself to. "You know why? They think they're out here making the tough calls no one else can. They're not. Anyone can just decide that everyone they hate should just go die, it's being a slave to your most primal of impulses. It's being selfish masquerading as being wise. Holding yourself to being more than that? It's hard. It takes work. That's why these people won't bother because it's just easier to pretend acting on spite all the time is profound. So why would I ever base my actions on what they would do?"

Basil gave a weak smile. "I think...I think you're one of the good guys," Basil said. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me just yet," James said, not sure if he was being an idiot or not by agreeing to this. "You wanna help me? Ok. First, grab a couple of trash bags. I came here for a few things and I'll need help getting it out. I may be grabbing some supplies too. Second, there's a lot to this situation you don't know, it's a bit more complicated than you might think. I'll explain on the way." He was going to have to explain to Basil that the White Fang who had attacked Vale were radicals and that they were doing everything they could to get the less extreme ones to cooperate. This was going to be messy. "Oh, ED-E, take one last sweep before we go. Let me know if you see any more movement."

Basil nodded, giving a nervous look at the drone as he floated by. "He seems like a good kid James, but I wouldn't show my back to him. Just to play it safe." James nodded grimly.

"Ok. Want me to snag the Sergeant's car keys? That'll make all of this much faster. Or should we take your car?" Basil asked.

James blinked. "Car keys?"

XXXXX

Weiss's fingers were a blur. James had given her 10,000 Lien, which was a couple of months worth of allowance for her. A year ago she would've thought that this wasn't a particularly large sum of money, that she would be able to get more by sitting around and waiting for the 1st of the month. But James had put an idea in her head. She was going to take back the Schnee Dust Corporation from her father, but there was little chance he would let her. It had been easy to not think about that too hard when her Huntress duties had been keeping her busy. Nevermores and the White Fang had made it easy for her to file taking the family company back under something that she would do after she graduated.

She wasn't so certain anymore. Legacy met everything to her father, and his legacy would be tainted if she undid all of his policies when she took control of the company. James had been right. There was a good chance she would have to take her grandfather's company back by force. At the moment, she had no idea how she was going to do that, it was easily one of the most valued companies in the world. But, at the moment, she was building up revenue.

She leaned back in her chair, checking her scroll. "Net stock worth, 34,674 Lien," was at the very center of the screen. Ever since she had gotten James's gift, she had done the only logical thing she could think of. She invested all of it. Technically, she was too young to trade stocks at the age of seventeen, but it was hardly her first time doing so. Her father wanted a loyal heir to the Schnee Dust Corporation, but he wanted a competent one as well. He had put her through quite a few business exercises when she was growing up, such as giving her a hundred Lien and expecting her to be able to turn it into five-hundred. He had been strict and unforgiving, but she had learned. She had learned because not learning had been an unacceptable outcome that promised nothing but punishment. And now she was using what she had learned against him.

Getting back into the stock market had been easy, it was alarming how many safeguards she could bypass by saying "my last name is Schnee." Nothing that she was doing was illegal, she had contacted the right people who had filled out special forms that cited obscure loopholes in old laws, simply because of her name. They had needed no prompting beyond that, they merely expected good things to follow from being friendly with the Schnee family. She felt a little sick just thinking about it. Still, she was hardly in an advantageous position and had to take advantage of every little edge she could get.

Every last penny she had been given had been invested, some in risky startups, others in more reliable companies. She had bought stocks as low as possible every morning and sold stocks as high as she could every night before the market closed, aside from some long term investments she was gestating. It was a tricky, risky business, and not all of her gambles had paid off. Some stocks had tanked without any signs of recovery, putting her at a loss, but overall things had gone well. Still, 30,000 was pocket change compared to the type of money she'd need to buy even 0.1% of the SDC's stocks. But it was a start. At the very least, she wasn't reliant on her father's money for her day to day life anymore. There was an indescribable feeling of freedom that came with that, and it brought a smile to her face as she finished up one last transaction for the business day.

It just barely got through, a thousand Lien's worth of stocks in the budding fast-food chain Rosina's Cottage, bringing her up to 35,674 Lien. Putting her scroll down on the table in front of her, she stood up and stretched. She had accomplished a great deal in a short amount of time; a tiny prickle of pride was blooming in her. It was getting late, she had about an hour left in her before she should be getting to sleep. Yawning, she glanced around the room that had been granted to them.

It was a standard barracks room designed to house four on Ironwood's flagship, a pair of bunk-beds on each side of the room. Ironically, despite being a bare essentials military room, it felt fairly similar to their dorm room. Yes, it was smaller and more barren, there was not a color outside of silver, but oddly enough the set up was still the same besides that. Ruby taking the bed above hers on the right side of the room, Yang and Blake on the other. She eyed her bed from the table in-between the bunk beds, wondering if she should idly lounge there before drifting off to sleep when she heard a groan of frustration from Ruby's bed. Curiosity getting the better of her, she climbed up the ladder leading to the higher bed. "Everything all right?"

Ruby, lying flat on her back, gave a weak nod. She had half a dozen different print-outs scattered across her mattress, all of them with "Classified" printed in bright red ink on the front. Ruby looked up, nodding. "Just looking over everything they gave me," she said, sounding miserable. "I'm supposed to review it twice, so I'm starting my second go around. Possible scenarios that we might encounter and the plans for each one." She yawned loudly.

Weiss slid up and sat on Ruby's bed, letting her legs dangle off over the side. She picked up one of the files and flicked through it, skimming it lightly. It was a rather thick document with detailed schematics of areas where a battle might take place, complete with multiple formations and use of combined arms tactics for each possibility. This level of preparation was to be expected, they were working with Atlas specialists after all. Still, Ruby wouldn't get anywhere by working herself ragged.

Sliding the file shut, she glanced at Ruby. "Want to take a break for the night? See if Blake and Yang want to do anything?" Ruby's eyes lit up with delight at once. A second later this brightness faded as she looked with weary resignation at the paperwork that was scattered across her bed. "You can get back to it in the morning. How much would you even remember if you kept going like this?"

Ruby nodded, not taking her eyes off of the files. "I know. It just doesn't feel right." Weiss could sense that if she merely tried to reason with Ruby, this was going to take at least half an hour. So she took initiative. "Weiss I-" Ruby began but was silenced as Weiss put a finger over her lips.

"Movie or that fighting game you like so much?" she asked briskly.

Ruby blinked. "You hate Cross Fighter." Weiss almost grimaced, barely catching herself. Yes, she did hate that game. She was expected to remember a dozen different esoteric button combinations while using a controller that was quite picky over what constituted a 90-degree flick of a joystick and being pummeled into a pulp by Ruby or Yang. She was normally content to join Blake in watching the sisters play, that way there was an uncertainty in the outcome and entertainment to be gained from that. Now though, she wasn't certain if Yang was up for a game and she needed a concrete promise.

"That doesn't matter right now. Movie or Cross Fighter?" she repeated, willing herself to suffer through another half dozen announcements of "Player One wins!" Because of course, she was always Player Two. These were stressful times, she could take a bullet for the team. As much as she was dreading the idea of forcing herself to jump through the hoops that were that game's controls. She could do this, she had resigned herself to suffer through far less pleasant endeavors.

Ruby gave a shy smile. "Movie." Weiss could almost feel herself slacken in relief. A movie would be something that she could join Ruby in enjoying, as opposed to suffering through for her leader's benefit. "And thank you, Weiss." She felt herself go a little red in the face. "Yang, Blake!" Piling up her papers in the corner of her bed, Ruby leaned out of her bed, facing the far side of the room. "Movie?"

"Heck yeah!" Yang said, bounding out of her bed in excitement. With a swipe, she slid her scroll across the table and pressed the screen. A holographic projection of a double-sided screen, showing the same image on both sides, blinked on above it. "Ok, I got around a hundred to pick from on my scroll. Got any preferences?"

"Ideally something a little light-hearted," Blake said. She was lying on her bed, an open book in her hands. She had not turned any pages in a long time and was closing it in frustration. "We could use the change of pace."

"Sappy romantic-comedy coming right up," Yang said. She began to flick through the movies on her scroll when there was a knock at the door. "It's open!"

The door creaked and a teenage girl's head poked around the entrance. A freckled girl with ginger hair and green eyes. "PENNY!" Ruby squealed with joy, speeding off her bed in a blur of red and pedals, nearly knocking Weiss off in the process. Weiss barely caught herself on the handlebars of the upper bunk bed, hissing through her teeth as she barely caught herself from falling. Meanwhile, Ruby had reached Penny and had bowled into her. There was a fair bit of tumbling backward, but somehow the two girls managed to stay upright.

The ginger-haired girl grinned widely. "Salutations!" she said, cheerfully waving to everyone in the room. "I was told that my friends were on board! This was so delightful that I had to see them." Weiss smiled and waved. Penny's manner of speaking wasn't quite as awkward as it used to be, but there was still an element of inexperience there. She had made strives since they had first met. "Would it be ok if I were to join you?" Ruby's head spun around so fast that Weiss wasn't sure how she didn't crick it. A stupid, happy look on her face, she took turns looking at each of her teammates, silently begging for approval.

Yang gave a lazy smile and a wave, while Blake gave a cautious nod. "I mean, of course, she can, she doesn't need to ask," Weiss said, hoping she wasn't going too far, or that she wouldn't regret this later. Ruby squealed.

"Sit with me! Sit with me!" Recognizing the logistics behind this, Weiss dropped down and took a seat on her bed. Ruby, meanwhile, became a blur of red again. In the blink of an eye, she was back on top of her bunk, Penny right next to her. Weiss was surprised the girl was so chipper after being dragged along by Ruby. In her experience, being pulled along by Ruby's Semblance felt like your innards had been randomly rearranged.

"Oh my gosh, you didn't tell me you were coming along for this!" Ruby squealed. Weiss couldn't help but smile. Ruby's over-excitable energy could grate when you were exposed to it over a prolonged time. But this had an element of charm to it. From both ends. "Where have you been, how have you been!"

Penny gave a wide grin. "I have been quite busy, working with General Ironwood and my father, on things they promised me to not tell. And I would never tell anything my father told me not to." At that moment, Penny gave a small hiccup. "Oh, my apologies. I'm just a little excited."

Yang glanced up from her scroll. "Need a glass of water there?"

Penny shook her head. "Oh, it's something that's always happened to me, water won't help much. Thank you though!" The amount of positive energy the girl gave off was astonishing. Thinking about it, Weiss struggled to remember even a single time when Penny was sad, or even mildly upset. Even Ruby wasn't constantly this happy.

"Ok. Well ladies, sit back, relax, and enjoy a nice evening of-" Yang began, but was cut off as Weiss's scroll began to ring.

Feeling embarrassed, Weiss got to her feet. "I'll take this outside," she said, scurrying through the door as fast as she could. She had told everyone involved in her stock trading to not call her while the market was closed, what could be so important. Groaning in frustration, she answered the call. "Weiss Schnee."

"Is this thing working?" James's voice said.

Weiss blinked. "James? I thought you were-nevermind. Are you not back at the base or on the ship? What are you doing out so late?" Weiss's irritation faded away, replaced by confusion. She knew that James was on an important mission, but even then he would need to sleep. He hadn't been working through the night, had he? Oh. Oh goodness, he had.

"That is a long story and, I'm sorry, I don't have enough time to tell it now," James said. Weiss felt a little insulted, but James had continued before she could interrupt. "Ok, uh, Weiss? This thing came with the numbers of Beacon students, not Atlas military. Could you do me a favor and pass a message along to her sister? And please tell her not to be too mad at me."

Weiss felt dread grip her. "What did you do?" She had not been expecting this. James had seemed a bit mild-mannered and fairly out of touch, but this was the type of call that never had good news with it. He was supposed to be on the job, helping Atlas. Why was he calling her sister in the dead of night and asking her to not be mad?

There was a strained laugh from James's end. "I'm not sure how much I can say, but I think your sister's opinion of me is about to drop a few notches. I'm sorry, could you please tell me that there's a bar I need her to meet me at? She might scramble all of you too, just a heads up. We may be moving forward with the plan."

"I think it might be better if I give her the scroll, this is something she needs to hear personally," Weiss said.

James gave a dejected sigh. "Sadly you're probably right. Ok. Here's what I want you to tell her." Weiss listened. Her jaw slowly opened as everything was recounted to her.

XXXXX

Winter had been preparing for bed when Weiss had knocked on her door with a call from James. First, she had been pleased and impressed. James had, with twelve hours to spare, managed to find an opening with the White Fang. The man was proving to be highly productive and resourceful in a way that was nothing short of commendable. Then she had learned the exact details of what he had done. Now she was in a foul mood.

She had taken two private vans, outwardly mundane but secretly possessing bulletproof plating and glass, and headed straight into the Faunus populated portion of the city. General Ironwood had been informed and he had given the order, they would be having their meeting with the White Fang now. She was sitting quietly in the shotgun seat of the lead car. Team RWBY was in the back, quietly checking their weapons, just in case. Team JNPR was in the second van, not far behind them, but far enough to throw off suspicion. Qrow was nowhere to be seen, but Ironwood had assured her that he would be tailing the vans and watching the meeting from a distance.

Her fingers twitched as they rested on the hilt of her sabers. She had been developing a healthy layer of respect for James. He was no soldier, but he had been proving himself to be polite and reliable. What could have possibly have driven him to do something this reckless and this stupid? The questions bouncing around her head had no easy answer, and she could feel irritation slowly building up inside of her. They did not need mavericks at a time like this, Qrow was pushing their limit to the breaking point as it was. What were they going to do with this man?

The driver, a man wearing the disguise of a chauffeur but possessing a concealed pistol and body vest, silently turned the wheel. "Ma'am, we're almost there." She nodded wordlessly. It was well past midnight now, the streets of Mantle were clear of all forms of traffic. The only movement was the occasional person walking down the streets, who moved a little faster. Eventually, the vans came to a stop in front of the bar that James had specified. It was closed for the night, but a few lights were still on inside. A black sedan was parked out in front, one that was stuffed to the brim with garbage bags in the back seat. A large ax was lying across the passenger's seat. She thought this was odd, but it didn't appear to be rigged to blow, so it was only of middling importance.

Slowly, she stepped out of the van, Team RWBY and Team JNPR following suit. "Standard securement procedures?" the driver asked. Winter nodded. "Roger. Signal me when it's all clear."

"Miss Nikos? With me. Everyone else, maintain guard outside. Retreat inside if fired upon," Winter said sternly. "This is unlikely, but take all precautions." Pyrrha separated from the group, her shield and spear visible, but not drawn. Everyone else milled about the vans, keeping watch. They looked nervous but collected. It was the best Winter could hope for. "Miss Rose, Mister Arc, keep watch until I return." Both team leaders nodded. With them, plus Qrow keeping watch from somewhere Winter couldn't see, this meeting should be safe. Striving forward, Winter pushed the door to the bar open.

The inside was barren, most of the tables covered with upside-down chairs, except for one in the middle. James was sitting at the table, a trash bag at his feet, ED-E floating behind him. A flare of irritation flashed in her as she spotted James, but she ignored it. She would deal with him and his recklessness later.

A youth with a babyish face and a green scarf was standing behind him, fidgeting nervously, while a Panther Faunus in his mid-30s and an elderly woman sat across from James. All eyes were on her as she entered. The Faunus man got to his feet. "I didn't believe him when he said a Schnee would show up, but I'll be damned," he said through grit teeth. "You've got a lot of nerve showing up here."

He moved to step forward, but the woman grabbed him by the arm. "We were told that we would be having guests. We were also told that these guests would be here to talk in good faith. So we will be listening to them and not starting anything. Do you understand, Baghanda?" Baghanda shot a glare at Winter before sitting back down. "Good. You'll have to forgive him, Specialist. We haven't had the best relationship with Humans, and your father has been one of the worst."

"I understand and apologize for what he has done," Winter said, not for the first time in her life. "I'm sorry, I didn't get your name."

"Kanton," the woman said. "And I appreciate the apology, even if you are disowned. Please." She pushed out a chair that was positioned between herself and James. "Have a seat." Winter gave a nod of thanks, lowering herself into the seat. "Your friend here told us that you wanted to have a word with us. Well, here we are. We'd offer drinks, but the owner had to go home for the night. Three kids."

"I'm grateful, but I don't partake," Winter said. She refused to, after seeing what alcohol had done to her mother. Anger briefly sparked in her at the bitter memories. The sad mess that a once-proud Huntress had been reduced to. She had sworn long ago that she would never be that pathetic, an oath she intended to uphold.

"That simplifies matters then," Kanton said. "Now, to ensure we are on the same page. You want the location of Adam Taurus and his followers, correct?" Winter nodded. "Ok. See, you found us in a sticky situation. Our leaders are pissed at Adam right now, about as pissed as you can get. He has made things so much more dangerous for Faunus everywhere, seeing as he was kind enough to reinforce stereotypes that we're all just bloodthirsty animals. But." She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Handing over one of our own to the Atlas military doesn't set a very good precedent. See, Humans can call the police, the army, even Huntsmen and Huntresses when they're in trouble. For a lot of Faunus, the White Fang is all they have to keep them safe. Adam forgot that when he got a taste for blood, but we haven't."

"Are you-" the boy behind James angrily began, but James held up a hand. The boy took a step back, looking frustrated.

"I understand there being some degree of hesitation, but I ask you to consider this," Winter said. This was nothing more than simple stubbornness, it could be dealt with easily. "Adam is a threat to everyone, not just Humans. Friendly fire is not a concept he particularly cares about. We have reports of Faunus being hurt and even killed in the attacks he has partaken in. Many times, deliberately. Forgive me, but Adam seems to have lost sight of the Faunus against Humans goals of the White Fang. He has adopted White Fang against anyone who isn't White Fang. If he is not stopped, he will do to Atlas what he did to Vale. Dozens, potentially hundreds of innocent civilians dead. Including the Faunus citizens that you claim to be protecting. You do them no favors by protecting Adam."

"Are you lecturing us right now?" Baghanda said, his voice dripping in fury. "Is a Schnee, a Schnee of all people, telling us how to protect Faunus? Tell me something Ms. All Knowing, how do we protect the Faunus that die in your daddy's mines? Maybe you can give us pointers there, then we can move to everyone who got black lung while you were sucking on your silver spoon." Winter felt a twinge of irritation. This man hadn't come here for a discussion, he had come here for a fight. He was letting his emotions get the better of him.

"Baghanda, sit down and be quiet or wait in the back if you can't control yourself!" Kanton snapped.

Baghanda rounded on her. "So, you're just telling me to keep my mouth shut while Jacques

Schnee's brat walks in and pretends she knows better than us?" Baghanda's entire body was tense, and Winter had a suspicion that he was so wound up that he was ready to attack anyone who pushed him just a little further.

"That is exactly what I'm telling you to do," Kanton replied, her voice dangerously low. "Because the lady over there hasn't said a single thing that was wrong yet. Adam is killing our kind, innocent bystanders. Now. Sit. Down. We came here to talk, and that's what we're going to do."

"Oh, so you want to do everything Ghira Belladonna style now?" Baghanda shouted. "We ditched that sorry bag of bones because we both decided that when you got kicked, you shouldn't roll over and ask for another. You change your mind on that? You wanna go crawling to the Humans, asking nicely for them to stop being so mean while licking their boots?" Winter had a feeling that she and James had been forgotten by this point.

"Baghanda," Kanton said, her voice now so low it was barely audible. She stood up, her face mere inches away from Baghanda. "My mother was a slave. She told me horror stories that I am still not ready to repeat about what her owners did to her. She risked everything to fight in the Faunus Rights Revolution, including two of her sisters and two of her brothers. All of them died. Aunts and Uncles I never knew. My family was torn apart fighting for Faunus rights. My mother gave an eye for it. Until the day she died, she would wake up screaming in the middle of the night, remembering the war."

She took a step forward. Baghanda, the fight going out of him, took a hasty step back. "So. If you ever accuse me of being a Human bootlicker again, you won't be leaving his bar under your own power. Do you understand?" There was no response. "I asked you a question." Baghanda gave a hasty nod. "Good. Now sit down and shut up." Winter felt unnerved as Baghanda, now thoroughly cowed, silently sat down. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that James looked similarly perturbed. "My apologies," Kanton said, sitting down as her anger gradually fading. "Tensions run high in the White Fang at times. We've all been through a lot."

"Wait, hold up," James said, putting his hand up. "Belladonna?" Winter blinked. Now that James mentioned it, it was an odd detail. None of her briefings on the White Fang had ever mentioned a Belladonna.

Kanton looked back and forth between the two of them incredulously, before the expression faded, replaced by a dejected one. "Not surprising, the White Fang didn't get much accomplished back then. Ghira was our old leader, and he was a pacifist to the core. Didn't want to fight Humans, even when they were shooting at him. He gave us the old spiel on how contempt only breeds contempt, but standing around with signs got us nothing except bruises, broken bones, and occasionally bodies. So when Sienna Khan stood up and said, 'enough is enough, when they hit us, we hit back' most of us were more than happy to go along with her."

She gave a bitter grunt. "Here's the part where the irony hits. Sienna held up a Faunus who was among the first to get violent when Humans attacked, saying he was who we should all strive to be. Adam. And now Adam is striking off on his own with these new friends of his. Alienated about 75% of the White Fang in the process, if they weren't in the Vale branch, they want nothing to do with him." She massaged her temples. "I think he got too much too fast, it all went to his head. He's a rank and rifle member of the pacifist White Fang, then in a year it's transformed into what it is now and he's one of Selina's top officers. The fact that he was screwing Girha's daughter probably inflated his ego a fair bit."

"What?" All heads turned to face James. The look on his face was a mixture of shock and disgust. "He did what?"

Kanton nodded grimly. "She was sixteen I think, just old enough for it to be legal by Menagerie law. Still, he was in his 20s, the age gap was big enough that it'd be a little weird even if he was the ideal boyfriend. And I think his actions speak a lot to how close he is to that."

"That little shitstain is in his 20s?" James said, his voice a low growl. "So on top of everything he's a goddamn ephebophile?"

Kanton was silent as she stared at James. Winter recognized that look, it was the face of someone who was doing everything they could to analyze another person. "You've met him, haven't you?" James nodded. Winter saw an opening.

"Yes, in Vale. He was there during the attack, protecting people. Human and Faunus," she said. "He wasn't hired to do so, we only took him on board for freelance work after. White Fang fired on civilians. James defended them. Adam nearly disemboweled him for it."

"He showed me the scar!" the boy behind James said, his voice louder than it needed to be. His face turned a little red as he realized what he had done. "Along the side of his stomach. Looked like he had been cut open."

Kanton buried her head in her hands, massaging it wearily. "You've already got the knife in my gut, no need to give it a hearty twist." She looked up. "I know I can't let Adam run loose. But I can't just give him to you. Even if I was okay with it, and I'm not, Sienna would have my head if I did it with her approval. So, do you have something to make it worth the White Fang's time?"

Winter nodded, doing her best to hide the maelstrom that was now brewing inside her head. She had been aware that Blake Belladonna was an ex-White Fang operative, as well as who her father was. She had not been aware of her relationship to Adam Taurus. The implications for that were nothing short of staggering. If she was here, actively working against him, there was a chance she might be a priority target. Judging by James's reaction, he had been in the dark on this too. "I am here under direct authorization of General Ironwood, who is willing to offer quite a bit."

Kanton nodded. "Well. In that case, I'm not the person you need to talk to." Reaching into her clothes, Kanton produced a scroll. Picking up the trash bag, which was dripping a suspiciously red fluid, she opened it from an angle where Winter couldn't see it what was inside, snapped a photo of the interior, closed it, and typed something into her scroll. Winter heard the telltale sound of a message being sent. "What you did with the Hunters, James? We're never going to forget that. You're always welcome around here because of what you did. But from this point on, all I can do is put in a good word for you. You're going to have to talk to Sienna." She glanced at the boy behind James. "I'm going to have to ask you to wait outside. This line is for as few ears as possible."

James glanced at the boy. "Basil, I've got this. Head outside, ask for Ruby, tell her you're a friend of mine. She'll be good to you. ED-E, go with him."

Basil nodded hesitantly. "Ok. Don't let them pull a fast one on you." With that, he left the bar, ED-E following him. Baghanda glared at his retreating back but remained silent. As soon as the door closed behind Basil, Kanton acted.

Placing her scroll flat on the table, she initiated a call. It only rang twice before it picked up, the scroll on speaker mode. "I got your message Kanton, is anyone else listening in?"

"No, we're good, Sienna," Kanton replied.

"I'll take it from here," Sienna said. There was a beep. The scroll, which had only displayed the number called, changed. A dark-skinned woman with cat ears and a red dot in the middle of her forehead appeared on the screen. Kanton shifted the scroll, propping it up so that it was facing James and Winter. Sienna took both of them in. "A Schnee wanting to talk to me, never thought I'd see the day. And an unknown element working for them. Strange times."

"Yes," Winter said briskly. "I'll be blunt. General Ironwood would like the location or possible location of Adam Taurus. In exchange, he is willing to provide general amnesty for all crimes committed as members of the White Fang, a personal promise from him to utilize his political pressure to achieve some of your long term political goals, and witness protection for those who fear for their lives. He also granted me wiggle room for demands you wished to make."

"Awfully generous of him," Sienna said, her voice dry. "I can only wonder if he has the power to do things for the Faunus, why he waited until he wanted something from us in return."

Winter's jaw tightened. General Ironwood was offering her so much and she was choosing to be flippant about it? She forced herself to keep talking. "You'd have to ask him yourself. Regardless, this is an offer you should take advantage of."

"Well, I can certainly think of one." She pointed at James. "I hear that this one was busy tonight, wiping out the Hunters. The effort is appreciated, but it'll be spitting in the wind if people think it was just another case of gangs going at each other. I want General Ironwood to have a conference tomorrow morning. That attack was a raid carried out by Atlas specialists. The Hunters were considered a threat to public safety and were removed from the equation." She eyed up Winter before a sly grinned bloomed on her face. "And you lead it. Atlas officially sending in a Schnee to kill anti-Faunus gangsters. That sends a message loud and clear, and it's from an official source. Can you do that?"

Winter felt her entire body tense up. James had committed nothing of a massacre without informing a single soul, and now Sienna Khan was asking her to legitimize it? To effectively reward what could've caused a public crisis? Not trusting her voice, Winter nodded her head. "All right, we're getting somewhere," Sienna said, relaxing ever so slightly. "He should also clarify that they're observing for potential hate-groups like that in the future, give anyone with a bone to pick a second thought."

"Anything else?" Winter asked. "Any individuals you would like to put forward to amnesty or witness protection?" It would be for the best if she took her thoughts off of what happened to the Hunters, to focus on something she could change.

"No," Sienna said. "I'm much happier with the statement. Oh, but Ironwood pushing politics? I'll take him putting pressure on the Schnee Dust Company and other businesses. Increased safety regulations and better pay for Faunus. I'm not holding my breath on that one, but I'll take Jaques Schnee sweating himself out."

Winter blinked. "May I ask why you are turning down the rest of Ironwood's offers?" It didn't make any sense. Sienna had effectively been given a way to escape the fear of punishment from Atlas forever.

"See, both of those say the same thing. That the White Fang gives up. That we're done. That we're not going to do anything else and trust the authorities to solve our equality problems." She gave Winter a stony gaze. "And I don't. Either Ironwood isn't as honest as he's claiming to be or we'll get shunted down his priority list. That's what'll happen because that's what always happens when politicians make promises about Faunus rights. I've been down this road too many times to make the same mistake again."

Unless Winter was mistaken, Winter was quite sure that Sienna had just called General Ironwood a liar. She could feel her temper beginning to boil. "It takes two to tango Sienna," James said before Winter could reply. "We can talk all about getting fucked in the past, but if you want any of this to happen, there's gonna need to be a little give to your take. You've got a rabid dog on the loose, one who's made friends with a bunch of slaving rapists." He leaned forward. "Did you know that? The people who he joined up with wouldn't blink to do everything Humans ever did to your kind, plus probably a whole lot worse. So unless you want to see Faunus hanging from crosses all over Atlas, we need leads. No leads, no press conference."

Sienna turned to focus on James. The two locked eyes, neither one blinking. "Playing hardball I see," Sienna said.

"I've been dealing with your problem child's new friends for three, almost four years now," James remarked bluntly. "I don't fuck around when it comes to them. You don't want to take amnesty and witness protection? By all means, give them up. That just means we have to offer up less, no skin off of our backs. Just remember you don't get to ask for much when you smack an offer out of someone's hands." He glanced at Winter, giving her a quick nod. She returned it in appreciation. He had given her enough time to collect herself.

"We need to find Adam and his allies soon, a week is as wide a window as we can afford," she said, forcing her voice to be neutral. "If what you offer can't let us do that, then we don't have much to discuss. I can promise you a press conference and a push for increased regulations on the Schnee Dust Corporation in return. Are there any other conditions for this?"

Sienna took a minute to reply. "Not that I can trust to be reliably enforced. Very well. We do have a good idea where Adam might be. Not his exact location, but he's been making stops along our safehouses if our missing supplies is anything to go by. When I see that conference in the morning, I'll leave where he most likely is with Kanton." Winter nodded, feeling relieved. "One last question. Are you going to kill him?"

"If he surrenders, we will be happy to take him in to stand trial," Winter replied curtly. They weren't butchers. Well. Most of them weren't.

"So yes," Sienna said. She sighed. "A pity. That boy had potential. I'd feel guilty about doing this if I didn't know he would've done the exact same to me." Winter wasn't sure she had heard that right. Sienna had noticed. "Yes, it turned out he had planned to kill me and usurp me as head of the White Fang. He planned on using my personal guard to help overthrow me." She smirked. "Shame his popularity with the White Fang has plummeted drastically, his co-conspirators that haven't followed him on his new endeavor sold him out. I was always more willing to push farther than Ghira, but it seems he was unable to find supporters out of Vale. He could've been something."

"That's the funny thing about appealing to radicals," James said coldly. "No matter how far you push, there's always someone who thinks you're not being extreme enough. And I'm gonna have to correct you. No. He never would have amounted to anything, unless you consider being a spiteful little shit 'being something.'" Winter was taken aback by James's tone, which had an unprecedented level of disdain in it.

He leaned forward. "There was a powerful group back where I came from called the Brotherhood of Steel. Easily one of the most powerful factions in the region, weapons and armor like no one else. Father Elijah was their leader of one of their chapters about eight years ago, about equal to the position Adam had in the overall organization. And he was fanatical and obsessive. So fanatical that he refused to have his forces abandon a valuable installation when they were surrounded by opposing forces just because he didn't know how to let go, its secrets were too tantalizing for him. And eventually, he just abandoned them. Half of them ended up dead and the survivors had to go into hiding. Then he turned up three years ago, kidnapping people and strapping bomb collars to their necks and forcing them to hunt for more secrets. Elijah and Adam are cut from the same cloth, except I doubt Adam has the technical know-how of Elijah. And, god willing, Adam will get what's coming to him, just like Elijah."

"I take it to mean that you killed Elijah?" Sienna said calmly.

"He didn't get off that easy," James replied in a tone that brokered no follow up. Winter's imagination was left to run wild. What exactly was he attempting to imply with that?

"I feel like you understand my ideology more than most," Sienna said. "I didn't start a fight with Humans, nor do I desire dominance over Humans. I've simply made it very clear that we are no longer helpless victims."

"I think we both know it goes a little further than that, otherwise you never would've tolerated someone like Adam in your ranks," James said. "But we're getting off-topic. Any other clauses you want to add on?"

Sienna nodded. "No. I must say, this hasn't been an unpleasant experience. The White Fang wouldn't be necessary if goals were this easy to meet." She shrugged. "Until then, the White Fang will be a necessary part of the lives of Faunus everywhere."

"We will be back for the location of those safe houses tomorrow," Winter said. "We are authorized to crack down on local White Fang operations if we do not receive it. At that point, you will be openly aiding and abetting a wanted terrorist."

"Oh don't fret. Unlike most, I keep my promises," Sienna said. With that, the call disconnected.

"That got a little tenser than I would've preferred," Kanton said. "But, Sienna's word is my word. You'll have what you came for. Hopefully, the people won't lose trust in us considering what we're getting in return. Feel free to come back here anytime. Preferably with a smaller entourage." James nodded, getting to his feet. Winter followed suit. "We'll be here tomorrow morning, and every day this week. See you then."

"Thank you for your cooperation. I promise you that it will reveal itself to be a wise decision," Winter said. She turned and moved to leave the bar, James right behind her. "May I ask who your companion was?" Winter asked. Much of what James had done during the talk had surprised her, making her realize that there was much about the man she did not know. Now that the talks were done, however, she remembered how very irritated she was with his reckless behavior.

"One of the gangsters at the place I hit," he replied. "Kid wasn't like the rest of him, and he wanted to help. God, he almost had a heart attack when I told him that we had to work with the White Fang, but he settled down when I explained the ones behind the Vale attacks were radicals." He paused in front of the door, looking at her. "You're mad at me, aren't you?" He wasn't blind to his situation then. A tiny part of her appreciated that he wasn't being snide or smarmy the way Qrow would be, but only a very tiny part of her.

"Yes. I am," she replied briskly, her reserved distaste flaring up into full-blown anger. "What you did was impulsive and stupid. Regardless of what your targets might have done, they were Atlas citizens. You had no warrant, you had no permission from higher up, what you did was effectively vigilantism and, depending on which judge you ask, a massacre!" She grabbed him by the shoulder. "Do you understand that if General Ironwood doesn't slip this under the rug, you could face anything from life in prison to the death penalty?" James nodded somberly. "Then what were you thinking?"

"If I'm going to be honest, this is how we solve things back where I'm from," James said. To give him credit, he didn't sound indignant or offended at her anger. Ironically, that made it harder for Winter to stay angry. Nevertheless, she held firmly onto her anger. "You don't always have time to run for help. If you see a pack of assholes and you got the hardware to take them out, that's exactly what I did." He looked very tired. "I'm not going to apologize for what I did. I will apologize for the trouble and stress I've caused you. I'm sorry. I took a calculated risk out there, and I apologize for any hardships it causes."

Winter was finding it very hard to be mad at this point. "Let me ask you something. Knowing what I just told you, would you do it all over again if you knew you would be put to death for it?"

James nodded. "I would."

Winter scrutinized him. He didn't seem to be lying. "And would you accept that punishment?"

Another nod. "I would. My life for stopping the Hunters and getting Adam's location? Yeah. That's a fair price to pay." A melancholic look crossed his face

Winter scowled. At this moment, she almost wished he was being more like Qrow, at least then matters would be more simple. "Don't talk about your life like it's Lien, to be spent wisely. What you did was reckless for more than one reason. You're a priority target for the Legion, you know more than anyone else does about them in Remnant. They were willing to dedicate an entire battle simply to try and kill you. Would you be willing to give the Legion what they desire so easily? To leave the students to fight them without you?"

That got a reaction out of James. The look on his face was one of sheer shock and horror. After a moment, he found his tongue. "I didn't mean that," James said. "And the Legion has tried to kill me before, they've never been able to pull it off before." He sounded more defensive now. Winter pressed forward.

"They didn't have Aura before, they didn't have Marie F. before, and they didn't have the support of the White Fang before," Winter said. "Adam Taurus may be a 'spiteful little shit' as you so eloquently put it, but he is dangerous. I fought him back in Vale. Do you even know what his Semblance is? His sword absorbs energy and then unleashes it back on his opponents. He has been able to kill Huntsmen with full strength Aura using this. And by going out there alone, you put yourself at risk of attack. You said it yourself, the Legion has skilled spies. How do you know none of them are watching, waiting for an opening to strike?"

James looked at her. He looked lost, as if he had just woken up and had no idea where he was. Winter's anger died. She put a firm hand on his shoulder. "Promise me something," she said. "Promise me you won't charge into another situation like this without telling me first." She had no idea what she was feeling anymore, only that she could feel a good deal of stress coming from somewhere, pressing down on her.

James made a strangled noise. "Ok. I promise."

The pressure that had been pressing down on Winter lifted. She believed him. He was looking directly at her, sincerity in his eyes. "Thank you," she said, withdrawing her hand. They would have a lot of work ahead of them, ensuring that Sienna's demands were met. And Ironwood would have to cover up what James had done if he wasn't willing to imprison him over it. But, for now, she felt a moment of relief.

XXXXX

Dorian was shaking. He had played dead the second the shooting had started. For what had felt like an eternity, he pretended that the fall had killed him. The attacker, somehow, hadn't noticed. He had been busier with the others and the Blue Bull. When it was all done, after his fight with the Bull, Dorian had been able to crawl into one of the bathrooms and patch himself up with the first-aid kit in there. He had heard the attacker searching for survivors, heard him find Basil. The little fucking traitor. That little cocksucker would've been dead, but right after the butcher who had nearly killed him, and should've killed Basil, had been right there. But he had been forced to stay still, playing dead.

The old prick had said something about movement, so hadn't dared to budge an inch. It had been hell, listening to the two move about the refinery, picking through it, robbing the dead they had murdered. After what felt like hours, mercifully, they had left. The Sergeant's car had roared to life and driven off with those two fuckers in it. Only then had Dorian felt comfortable getting up.

He shook as he walked out, the pain not helping matters. This had been it. This had been everything. Every last Hunter had been here when that psycho had started spraying his machine-gun at them. They were all hands on deck every night, to make sure none of the animals that infested this city got any bright ideas about taking the Hunters out while they were asleep. And one lone man had killed every last one of them, excluding himself and Basil. Even the Blue Bull was dead, their ace in the hole.

Dorian slumped into the couch he had been sitting in mere hours beforehand. Bodies were everywhere, blood dripping out of all of them, to the point where barely any of the floor was clear. Everything was still in pitch darkness, but there was enough light from the moon for him to just make it all out. What was he supposed to do now? Go back home? Hardly an option, the fuckwits he called parents had made it quite clear he wasn't welcome there. This place was his home. That asshole, the asshole he had met at the bar earlier today, had ruined it. His hands had tightened into fists. He recognized that voice, there was no mistaking it.

He was going to burn down that shithole of a bar, he should've done it from the start. He was going to get a bunch of fire Dust, sneak around at two in the morning, and burn it to the ground. Show the old fuck what happened when you messed with the Hunters. In fact, he was going to go and do it right now. The idea was slowly coming together in his head. He would arm up, to the bar, wait for an opening, then strike. Every last one of those fuckers would pay for what happened tonight.

Dorian got to his feet, heading straight for the Hunters's armory. Inside was a mostly bare, windowless, concrete room that had been packed to the brim with rifle racks and ammo cases. Quite a few of the rifles were missing, the prick and the bitch had taken a few of them when they had ransacked the place. He grabbed one, slapping a magazine in, before moving around to gather more. After tonight, he would go around making sure everyone knew that a Hunter had done this, then he would start over. The Hunters would rise again, stronger than before, and he would be at the helm.

But then, something happened that nearly made his heart stop. Two pairs of heavy footsteps from outside. Panicking, he grabbed the door to the armory and closed it quietly. The footsteps got louder; they were inside the refinery now. "What the hell happened here? Were the others supposed clear the area before we got here?" a deep, gruff voice said.

"No," said another. This one was strange. It had an odd distortion to it like the owner was talking into a voice changer. "This wasn't us. Shit. Looks like the White Fang had enough of the Hunters." More heavy footfalls echoed. "And it looks like they took the Blue Bull out of the equation. Damn it. We could've used that Semblance of his."

"He was medium priority, at best," the gruff voice said. "Boss is gonna be annoyed when he hears the news, but same time the next day it'll be like nothing ever happened. There are better people we can look at for quality Semblances anyway. His was raw combat ability anyway, strong but nothing special. Utility Semblances are the real hidden gems."

Dorian looked around him. There was no way out of the armory except the door, they hadn't wanted anyone to be able to sneak in through it. Maybe he could take the two of them? It was possible if he could get the drop on them. Still, it was smarter to play it safe.

"Still, take a look around, we may find hints for fresh leads," the odd voice said. "The Bull was an ex-specialist, maybe he kept up contact with old army buddies. That won't be of much help if they're still enlisted, messing with the Atlas military is out of the question, but if they're like him they could be future targets. After all, anyone that willingly puts up with him is another potential recruit for groups like the Hunters."

"On it," the gruff voice said. "I'll see if I can pull any documents. Check his scroll, he'd be the type to get lazy and not secure his contacts."

There was a thump that sounded like something heavy had just been shifted. "Well, we're not gonna know. A round went right through it. Damn it. We're out of luck unless Jane can salvage the hard drive, and that's a longshot. There was total penetration here. We'll have to check his room. There were more heavy footfalls. They stopped right outside the door he was hiding behind. His breath stopped. "Wait a minute. Why would there be a door closed if the place got...Wiglaf! We got a straggler!" the synthesized voice shouted. Dorian's blood went cold.

"This might be a hidden little present. Let's see if they have anything worthwhile." Without warning, a massive, armored hand tore through the wall, grasping him by the throat and tearing him back out. His world turned upside down before he saw the ground rushing up to meet him, his rifle soaring out of his hands. Stars burst to life in front of his eyes as he was slammed into the ground, his entire body screaming in pain. "Damn, one of the younger ones. Still, worth checking." Dorian shivered. The one with the gruff voice, Wiglaf, was right behind him, keeping him pinned with one arm, well out of Dorian's sight when he had his face against the ground.

There were more footfalls and he felt a second, smaller hand brush against his back. There was a noise of disgust from the synthesized voice. "Nothing. He has no Semblance."

Wiglaf sighed in disappointment. "That's a shame. I thought we might've gotten lucky here, but tonight's not our night. Egh. I say we cook something nice up when we get back, take our minds off of this. Even the boss would be up for something at a time like this."

"Might as well," the synthesized voice said, sounding more frustrated than agreeable. "But this could be a problem, we're hitting dead ends here. We need to find a better venue."

"You're right there," Wiglaf said. "It's only to be expected that you only find trash when digging through the ghettos. Anyone with a Semblance worth a damn would've joined the specialists and gotten out of here." His hand tightened around Dorian. "What do we do with Junior?"

There was a moment of hesitation. "As much as this feels wrong," the synthesized voice said, "the boss's orders have never changed. No witnesses. Just make it quick, he doesn't need to suffer."

"Wait, no, NO! YOU CAN'T FUCKING DO THIS!" Dorian screeched, thrashing wildly against Wiglaf's grip. How was this possible? First, the old prick that had attacked them earlier and now this? What had he done to deserve this?

"Not a statement with a good deal of evidence to support it," Wiglaf said. "Honestly, I think my partner is giving you more sympathy than you deserve. But I try to not let my personal opinions get in the way of work. I was superior to just about everyone in here and that stayed at the back of my mind, despite how much your rhetoric irritates me. I mean, really? Do you think you're superior to Faunus? Do you even know what actual superiority looks like?"

"Oh for the love of-again with this Wiglaf?" the other voice said. "We've talked about when and where is a good time to bring this up, now can you please not drag this out?"

"Right, my apologies," Wiglaf said, sounding sincere. "It's a topic I'm passionate about. I did say that I try to not let my personal opinions get in the way." Dorian had no idea what he was talking about and was about to begin another thrashing attempt when the hand pinning him tightened.

"It's not a big deal," the other voice said, still sounding irritated. "But we need to move fast. Legionary forces are on their way here and we need to be ready when they get here." There was a sigh and the anger faded from the strange voice. "I don't mean to snap Wiglaf, but I'm worried about you and the others. The boss has made it clear there's going to be a big upheaval soon, and I want us all to be ready for it."

"Oh, I agree," Wiglaf said. "And we will be. But until then." A massive hand, thick and calloused, closed around Dorian's head. He felt it twist. It was the last thing he ever felt.

XXXXX

Author's Note: Mailman kills Paul Buynon, more at 11. P.S. Does "it is also a gun" still apply for flamethrowers?

I've developed a policy when writing minor antagonists as of late. Make them despicable if I want, make them hateable if I want, but give them a consistent internal mindset. No matter how horrible they are, they themselves think that they're in the right.

While we're on that subject matter, I know there's some screwbally things on when exactly the White Fang turned more violent, which is important as it factors into when Adam and Blake were involved. Considering that, in the flashbacks, Illia and Blake have the exact same models as the current day selves, I think what happened is a simple case of the writers for the Adam short forgetting that Blake said that the White Fang turned violent five years ago. Honestly I find it to be an understandable mistake, it was an offhand line that was said half a decade ago, I've made bigger screw ups in my writing. So while Adam is a fucked up human being, I don't think he's a pedophile on top of everything else. I DO, however, believe he is an ephebophile, as he was estimated to be in his 20s. Heck, speaking of screw ups, I had James call him kid and boy because I was under the impression he was Blake's age. Ah well, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. I think it's fitting for James and how little he respects Adam to have it be that James just lowballed Adam's age. It leads to more interesting stuff than just going back and changing everything.

P.S. If I had to describe James with one sentence, it'd be this. He's as good as the wasteland let him be.

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