Big Issues
AN: Just so you all have a warning, this chapter has what some may consider ideologically sensitive content. Otherwise, please enjoy. And I recently found that my notifications were turned off so I haven't gotten any updates on reviews or the other stories that I follow. For those leaving reviews, thanks for doing so.
Love
If there was something the team noticed when looking around Haven, it was the sheer amount of quiet power and wealth the Academy boasted. The art and tapestries hanging in the halls, the statues and sculptures decorating the grounds, the feel of nature with how many trees growing between buildings and the colorful flowers in the low walls that broke up open spaces. That extended to the dorms as well, with each team having a common room, a bathroom, and a much smaller personal room for each team member.
"Wow, can you imagine if Beacon had dorms like these?" Ruby couldn't help herself, distinctly remembering the way her team had settled the bed situation. JNPR remembered the shock of seeing that setup for the first time and the surprise that nothing seemed to go wrong… somehow. No bed using stacks of books to be propped up or hung from a ceiling by some rope should be considered safe by any means.
"It is quite peaceful here." Ren notes as he eyes a spot under a tree that looks excellent for meditation. If they were going to be in Mistral for a while and visit the Academy, he'd keep that spot in mind.
"Perhaps we should use the forge to give our weapons and armor a touch up? It has been a while and there was only so much we could do in the hospital room." Pyrrha suggests.
Jaune shivered as he recalled when he and Ruby tried to sharpen their blades in the hospital… a nurse had burst in and yelled at them, lecturing the whole team for so long and loudly that they refused to touch their whetstones after putting them back in their maintenance kits.
"Hey, don't forget we gotta get all our stuff to the house first." Qrow reminds them as he leads the team back through the gates of Haven and onto the road that they needed to take to go back to the hospital. He smirked at the collective groans of having to go so far just to come so close to where they are now.
"We probably should have just brought our bags with us." Nora grumbles as she trudges after the elder Huntsman.
—-
"I don't want to talk about it."
That was all they had been getting out of Raven for the past ten minutes. Granted, how she had been phrasing it for the past five minutes tended to vary thanks to some colorful use of words.
But Anya was next to her draining her aura and the constant judging stares and persistent questions wore at her resolve.
"If you want us to trust you at all, you better tell us." Denko tells her flatly.
Raven looks at the team again. The irritated look she was getting from Yang as she grew weary of waiting… something that she apparently inherited from her. Denko sitting next to Yang being patient but insistent… reminding her far too much of Taiyang. Weiss was watching with some amusement at the grilling of her former captor. Talon remained as the one with a smile, trying to appeal to her better nature. Anya simply looked like she was bored with everything but ready to act if needed.
"It's not like I didn't tell you how Flora and Vernal came to the Branwen Tribe."
"Maybe, but you never said what happened to Flora." Talon reminds her. "You left us wondering about how you got the powers while her twin sister played decoy."
"You killed her, didn't you." Yang's voice was quiet but drew everyone's attention to her. Her eyes had gone red to lock onto the red eyes of her mother. "The only way to pass on a Maiden's powers is for them to die, right?"
For Raven, her breath was caught in her throat and her lungs seemed to lock up as her eyes went wide. The accusation from her own daughter was striking deep and hitting the one true soft spot that she couldn't hide behind walls.
"Do you think I wanted to?" The elder woman finally managed to say.
"What does it matter? You killed her and got the power!"
"I spent years helping her! Do you know what it was like to help someone who was so desperate to get out of a situation that she had no choice in? How many times I had to cover for her loss of control? To comfort her when she failed?" Raven asks harshly, the words shutting down her daughter's anger. And she continued as tears began to fall as the wound opened again. "How many times I had to help stop her from killing herself…"
Raven burst into the tent as Vernal wept and held her sister's arm, her hand clamped on the limb and covered with blood. The knife that caused the wound lay nearby. Flora was crying in pain and shame, her other arm bore other scars like this one was bound to be like.
"Tater! The kit!" She barks as she ties a length of cloth around Flora's arm to help slow the bleeding and lays the girl down while her arm remains raised.
"Here!" The large hand reaches in with the medical kit sitting on the palm.
Raven knew the layout of the kit well, keeping it well stocked for cases like this and she always made sure that she packed it herself. It didn't take more than a second for her to get the gauze and start wrapping it around her arm tightly to help further slow the flow through the open vessels.
Slowly and carefully, Raven took the cloth from the wound and examined the cut. It wasn't as bad as she feared, the major artery and veins were barely nicked by the blade and the bleeding was mostly from the large but shallow slice in the skin.
Working quickly, she cleans the cut with some freshly boiled water that had been allowed to cool before using the alcohol swabs. Then she took out what had become Huntsman's best friend when dealing with wounds- super glue. Pinching the skin together she gives the area one last wipe to clean and disinfect before applying the quick drying sealant.
Through it all, Flora lay in a pit of her own misery, crying and alternating between apologies and begging to just let her go.
"We are not giving up on you. Do you hear me?" Raven tells the girl as she finishes wrapping her arm. The cleaning of the tent and belongings would be a pain but as bandits, they had tricks to remove blood stains.
Sometime later, Flora was still under strict watch. She was the one person in the camp who rarely had to do work to keep her place in the tribe, all that she did was under supervision of the women on a rotating schedule. None stayed closer to the young Maiden than Vernal, who was almost always by her side except for when Raven would order her to take a break.
Tater was the only man trusted to be near the twins, his loyalty to Raven was strong and he bonded well with the girls. The other women saw the watch duty as a chore, but they did so because they were ordered to and would receive some form of reward the better they did the job.
But Flora never seemed to get any better, the girl who had been quite radiant when she had arrived was now a shell of her former self. Three years of tutelage under Raven with ever decreasing demands as her psyche continued to diminish, the weight of the responsibility of the power she held became too much. Raven couldn't even force herself to tell Flora about Salem, fearing that doing so would make the girl's sanity snap.
Months later, and there had yet to be any improvement for Flora. The girl had tried twice to get ahold of anything sharp and once to a poison, leading to her being restrained for her own safety.
"Please… Raven. I can't take this anymore. I-I can't live like this!"
"Flora, you need to calm down. You'll only make things worse if you keep this up." The woman had to hold her down by her shoulders, the girl already sporting a red welt on her forehead from bashing her head against the wooden frame of her cot.
"But I can't! I don't want this! I never wanted this!" Flora wept into Raven's shoulder, unable to hug the woman but that mattered little as she was held tightly.
The next day while Flora was kept sedated to rest. "Vernal… I don't know what to do." Raven sat on her bed within her own tent, a space where she could speak freely and let her emotions out without having to worry about the rest of the tribe judging her.
Vernal was no less distraught, deep bags under her eyes from sleepless nights trying to take care of her sister, bruises and a few small cuts from when she thrashed and occasionally used her Maiden powers.
"I don't know either. You've pretty much been our mother since we joined the tribe and we couldn't be more grateful for you taking us in." The teen sighs as she drops her head onto her arms folded on the table. "It just makes me wonder…"
"Wonder what?" Raven had an idea of where this was going and she didn't like it.
"What if… what if we let her go?" She didn't need to elaborate on what she meant by that. "If we do, she can finally rest peacefully for once. She's practically being tortured by having the powers now."
Raven's hair hid what little of her face that was left to be seen with her hands covering it as she let out a deep sigh. "Is… that what you think is best?"
"Raven… we tried everything we could to help her. I don't want my sister to suffer any more than she has." Tears ran down her face. No matter how many times the thought had crossed her mind, she had always squashed the idea of letting her sister die. But she was now in the uncomfortable position of doing what must be done for all of their wellbeing. If letting her go out on her own terms peacefully with those she called family by her side would bring her peace… "I think that she'll be happy that we gave her the choice."
"It doesn't make me feel any better that we're doing this." Raven was no stranger to death, life as a bandit and having grown up in the tribe, she had killed her first man by the time she was a teenager. She had seen other tribe members fall to the Grimm and to those who they attacked… and it was just the way of life for her. Qrow had killed as well, but never took pleasure in it as others had. Herself… She had to continue the mantra 'The strong live and the weak die' to help justify her actions. There was no joy or sorrow, just the cold devotion to keeping the tribe surviving.
But this one death to come… It frightened her. And reminded her of the nightmares she had holding an infant with a tuft of golden hair on her head.
"Vernal, make her favorite foods with whatever we have or you can get. I'll… make the medicine." She couldn't bring herself to call it poison but she knew what she had to get.
Three days later, both of them were ready and Tater was standing guard over Flora's tent where she had remained rather passive since her latest breakdown.
"Oh! My favorite candy!" Flora was all smiles at the sight of the wrapped sweets. Quite honestly, this was the happiest she had looked in over two years. "You went to a town and found some?"
"Don't worry sis, we have more of your favorites." Vernal grins, though it wasn't as wide as normal knowing what was to come. The three women shared their dinner together, the good food assisting in recalling happier times, but eventually they had come to an end for the meal.
"Ah, that was good. Nothing like spending time with my family." Flora looked between Raven and Vernal. "What's wrong?" She noticed that their smiles were forced and they only grew more upset but were trying to keep their emotions restrained.
"Flora… we have something to tell you." Vernal begins hesitantly.
"You're not going to try sending me back to Mistral are you?" Flora half jokes.
"Flora…we… we discussed your future in the tribe and what you feel is best." Raven begins before reaching within a hidden pocket to bring out a small glass bottle filled with a slightly pink liquid. She had to swallow hard to clear her throat, this was the hardest thing that she ever had to do aside from childbirth. "We've spent a lot of time doing our best to help you control your powers as the Spring Maiden and to simply live as normally as you can in our tribe. Unfortunately, we've come to a point where we believe that it is best for you to make a final decision on your fate."
"What is that? What do you mean?"
"This… this is a medicine that will put anyone who takes it into a sleep so deep that they will never wake again."
Flora looked from the bottle to Raven and to Vernal, both women were on the verge of tears at merely offering this choice but it was a choice for her to make and she knew why: the scars on her arms are an excellent reminder of all of the times she had tried to kill herself in her moments of grief.
"Are you… asking me to take it?"
"No." Raven says firmly before her tone becomes much more gentle. "This is a choice for you to make. We've known how much pain you've been in and how we've done everything in our own power to keep you going. This." She gives the bottle a small shake. "This is a chance for you to end it all, peacefully and on your terms."
"But sis, we love you, so don't forget that. We'd rather see you live and get better but we also know how things have been for you. If you want to end the pain, we won't hold anything against you for that."
The choice had been put in front of Flora and she sat silently on her cot for the next half hour as the Raven and Vernal cleaned things up from dinner.
"I've made my choice." Those words made both women stop and give the Maiden their undivided attention. "Do you have any more of that candy?"
Vernal reaches into her bag and pulls out a trio of wrapped treats. "These are the last of them."
"Then I want us to have a piece each together as I take the medicine. I want to be with my sister and mother until the end." Flora managed a small smile as she spoke.
Soon the three had poured cups of drink and the medicine was added to Flora's as she held her cup and all three held the chocolates in their hands unwrapped.
Flora raised her cup high. "While I may be gone soon, I wish that you both, my family that I love, continue to find happiness in your own lives. May you live well and long."
Raven and Vernal raised their cups as a salute and all three drained their cups together, followed by the chocolates.
"I'll do my best, Flora." Vernal held her sister tightly in a hug, feeling the young woman already beginning to relax in a way that she hadn't in years.
"I know you will, Vernal." The sisters hugged as tears ran freely. Then Flora pulled Raven into the hug, the woman not hesitating to wrap her arms around the girls. "Raven, try to be happy. You've done so much for me, even with this. Maybe you can be with the rest of your family too, I know you love them. You just need to open up like you did for us."
"I-I don't know if I can. I've hurt them so much already."
"You'll never know if you don't try. Promise me you will?" Her eyes were getting heavy and her arms beginning to grow slack as tiredness began to overcome her.
"I-I'll try, for you, Flora."
"Thank you, Mom." With a smile, Flora closes her eyes as Raven lowers her down in her bed and gives her a kiss on the forehead "Goodnight, Vernal. I'll see you later."
She held her sister's hand and felt the pulse slow until it faded altogether. And when it was gone, both women in the tent broke out into a fresh set of tears now that the girl had passed on. The girl who was a twin sister to one and an adopted daughter to the other. Neither were in the state of mind to notice as Flora's body began to glow a soft pink and the light gathered itself into one mass just over her chest.
It was at that point that they noticed the now brilliant light and began to recognise it for what it was- the power of the Spring Maiden.
"Flora?" Vernal asks, taking hold of the cooling hand once more. But as soon as she did, the ball of light shot itself at Raven and merged with her, though not without tipping her and the chair she was on over to dump the bandit chief on the ground with a grunt of surprise.
"Vernal?" Raven stumbles to her feet, the emotional turmoil combined with the sudden rush of power was leaving her unsteady on her feet until the girl caught her and straightened her chair again so she could sit down.
"Raven… you're?"
Raven now had red 'flames' coming from her eyes that swept towards the sides and her aura pulsed as the new power began to fully integrate with her own, bolstering her own powerful aura and strengthening her body.
"I see. Thank you, Flora. I'll do my best to control this in your stead and keep your sister safe."
The next day, the Branwen Tribe were on the move to the one place that they considered sacred, a small circle of boulders within which the past leaders of the tribe were buried. It was also the resting place of those that the leaders had a great connection with and the occasional tribesman who fell performing a great deed for the tribe that the story would be remembered for generations.
They didn't have long to travel and soon Flora was laid to rest among those of the highest honor of the Branwen Tribe. That same day, Vernal received a tattoo on her left arm of a bird rising from a flower.
"And that's how it happened." Raven finished her tale hoarsely as tears ran as freely as they did that day.
Around the fire, there wasn't a dry eye to be found and nobody could find words to say for a while.
"Is that how it really happened?" Yang eventually asks as she holds onto Denko.
Raven nods as she clears her throat. "You can ask Vernal if you want, you'll get the same thing."
The blonde watches as her mother collects herself, wiping her eyes and nose on her sleeves. "Do you really think of them as your daughters?" Raven froze up momentarily before looking her progeny in the eyes.
"Yang… I- I was too scared to be a mother when I had you. Everything with Salem, I was afraid that she'd target you to come after me… me, your uncle, Summer, Tai. We were Ozpin's front line against her and she made sure that we had to fight for our lives on every mission." She had to take a deep breath to help steady herself. She knew that she was showing vulnerability in a way that she'd normally consider shameful but she was already exposed and the words kept flowing.
"Having you filled me with as much joy as it did fear, even if our team had effectively retired from the big missions. We built that house together to make it a family home for all of us. But after having you… I had so many nightmares about what Salem could do to us… I just couldn't take it anymore." Raven grew quiet as the memories overtook her and forced her into silence.
"So you just ran because of a few bad dreams? You got scared?" Yang counters. "And you didn't answer my question, do you see Vernal and Flora as your daughters?"
"You haven't seen what Salem is capable of! What she did back at Beacon, that was tame compared to the horrors she's made over the years I was serving under Ozpin! Every time I faced them and beat them down and spat on their corpses!"
"Doesn't change that you ran away!"
"I was trying to protect you! You were more helpless than that puppy your father found. I couldn't risk you being used by her! I didn't want to see you getting hurt because of her schemes!"
"And look how that turned out!" Yang detached her arm and used the now limp fingers to poke her mother in the chest. "I had a mother who watched but never helped, a friend who knew the psycho who cut off my arm but never told her team about him, Uncle Qrow is too busy picking up the slack for you to be at home for his family, and Dad turned into a complete wreck every few years!
But I'm still willing to fight! I got back up to help my sister who would jump into the mess if she knew about Salem or not! Denko told me about the crap he's had to deal with and expects worse to come but I'm going to be by his side fighting the whole way until we can go home and relax!
I may be scared of what's to come… and still dealing with the stuff that's already happened… but I'm going to keep fighting no matter what because I know what really matters."
The four watched on with silent awe, pride, and a bit of fear that a fight would break out between the mother and daughter any second. It was hard to tell if the women had even noticed that they had stood up and closed the gap between them, being too focused on their argument but thankfully hadn't stepped into the fire at all.
"You really are stubborn." Raven eventually responds.
"Hmph, I got that from my mom."
Raven gave her a small but amused smile at the retort before it faded as she turned away and hugged herself. "You wanted to know if I see Vernal and Flora as my children? The answer is yes."
There wasn't too much of a shock through the team; they had seen how the woman broke down during the story of how she gained her powers. It was more of a confirmation of what they had suspected.
"So you adopted them but left me in the dark? I would have thought you were dead if Dad and Qrow didn't let it slip that you were still around." Yang still demanded answers and if she was going to take advantage of her mother's distress to get them, she would. She had too much pain over the years that needed to be assuaged.
"Sounds like you were trying to find a loophole to have a family and ease your guilty conscience." Denko comments from his seat.
Raven's head snapped to him with a glare that faded to sadness the moment that she saw that he was being more sympathetic than accusatory. She let out a sigh as she dropped back onto her original seat.
"You're pretty perceptive."
"Perhaps, but it looks like you need to focus on your family. The one that is here now." The blonde counters as Yang sits next to him again keeping a scowl on her face.
Raven closed her eyes and sat silently for a few moments before opening them again. "I suppose I should. It's overdue as a promise to one daughter and even longer for my first."
"Don't think I'm just gonna take you back so easy, you gotta earn my trust." Yang was no longer scowling but she wasn't happy, just accepting of the promise to a 'sister' she had never known.
"I understand."
"And you're gonna have to talk to Dad and Uncle Qrow about this and what you've been doing."
"That… will be difficult."
"Tough. And you're gonna have to meet with Ruby."
"Hmph, that girl is just like her mother, just with a lot more around the middle." Raven quips. "And I suppose he's a package deal with you?"
"Yeah, if you haven't noticed by now, we're together and dating." The blondes wrap their arms over each other's shoulders.
"Hmmm… from what I have seen, you've been doing a bit more than dating." Raven's smirk grew as both of them blushed.
"Please, are we done now?" Weiss asks, hoping that the new direction of the conversation would stay tame.
"Clean up and get to bed!" Talon was quick to support the heiress.
-—-
Neo was enjoying her new abode. While the room she was provided wasn't particularly large or luxurious, it was a far cry better than what she had dealt with over the past few months. A soft clean bed, a hot bath, meals provided if she asked for them… she was happy. Add in that she had been able to go shopping and get some new clothes.
The regular food and plenty of it helped her fill out her frame again from the half starved state she had arrived in Mistral with. She hadn't regained the girth she had back at Vale when everything went down, though that had helped provide energy when she had little to eat. At the same time, she doubted that she would keep the extra weight off with the way she was eating and the relative lack of jobs to do.
That being said, the work that Lil' Miss Malachite was giving her was far too easy for her liking. A couple rounds to serve as an extra body when enforcers collected dues, escorting some goods from one part of the city to another, assisting with the cleaning of the hotel she was staying in… She missed the thrills of a fight and the training she'd do in back alleys and against a few willing Spider grunts simply didn't come to match what she had been used to when she was with Roman.
A glance from the bathtub filled with hot water and bubbles to the bed where the bowler hat sat, restored to looking like new. Roman's hat was one of the few things that she had to remember him. It wasn't the one he had been wearing that night but one of his spares from their safehouse, yet it gave her some measure of comfort to have something of his close at hand.
Getting vengeance on Cinder would be sweet; the arrogant woman and her tagalongs had made Roman the face of their entire operation and the fall guy for when things failed. Roman and herself had to do the bulk of the work from stealing the Dust from all over Vale to coordinating the White Fang for that plan in Mountain Glenn to stealing the war machines from Atlas. Even Roman's arrest and imprisonment after the Breach was part of the plan by that hotheaded hellion.
And Neo was going to make sure that Cinder paid for all of that and for his death.
Her scroll buzzed and the text popped up; she had another job lined up.
—-
The house that Qrow was provided far exceeded the expectations of the team. Two stories tall and a few steps to reach the wooden front door they entered to find that the floor was dominated by a large open room. Hardwood floors kept clean and shiny with a section in the middle that was filled with tatami mats where a large low green marble table sat. Around the table and tatami sits a pair of red couches capable of holding all three girls easily with a matching plush armchair. Along the wall to their left sat a cabinet with some potted plants while a few pictures hung elsewhere on the wall. On the far right side a set of wooden steps led to the next floors.
But it was the far wall that garnered a lot of attention as the wall was actually a large window that let in the natural light and gave them a good view of the small garden within the enclosure that could be accessed for tending by a door on the far side. Beyond that lay the bathroom as they'd soon discover. A kitchen sat next to the garden and only a short walk to the main room.
Overall, the place looked great to relax and get some rest before the next job comes along.
"Oh, this is nice." Nora was quick to try a couch and bounce on it a little, proving that it was very durable and comfortable as it barely made a sound under her weight. Ruby and Pyrrha were still a bit apprehensive about adding themselves to the equation, just in case.
"Alright kiddies, the first rule of the house is to not do anything stupid. You break it, you pay for it. Something like that." He points to the glass enclosure. "Will wipe out a lot of your savings."
"Anything else?" Ruby asks as she adjusts her backpack.
"Yeah, clean off your boots at the door if you're not gonna take them off. Make a mess and you clean it up. And don't bother me unless it's urgent when I'm in my room."
"Sounds simple enough." Jaune shrugs with a smile, he was used to a large family and this was a cakewalk compared to being at home.
"Good. There's a small training room downstairs you can use anytime, just no shooting. Upstairs are the rooms, take your pick… after me." Qrow makes his way to the stairs. "Oh yeah, and they don't keep any food here besides some rations. So you're gonna need to eat out or buy something to make for your meals."
"What are you going to do?" Ruby asks as he climbs the stairs with a slight limp.
"Time to take my pills and pass out. I'll eat when I wake up."
The teens split up to take a quick tour, there wasn't much more to the main floor so they went downstairs to find that the training room was nearly half the size of the floor above with wood and paper doors that slide open to reveal a small wooden walkway with steps to the yard outside. The yard wasn't large by any means but they could do some light sparring and short sprints. At the same time, the tatami mat floor of the room offered a great place to practice unarmed combat and much to Ruby's delight, had several racks of varied weaponry.
Going upstairs, they found that Qrow had taken the room closest to the stairs by hearing snoring; the medication he had to take put him under fairly quickly but he only had a day or two left of taking it.
But the upstairs rooms were simple and small, just large enough to hold a pair of beds and a small dresser for each, a few coat hooks on the walls and a window. The good news was that there were enough rooms for each of them, no doubt that they could be filled by a large team going on a mission or returning.
It didn't take them long to put their things as they liked in their rooms and wander back to the main room where they sat awkwardly staring at the walls, lights, paintings, plants… anything really.
GRRRROORRRRWWWWLLLLLL
Pyrrha felt her face turn as red as her hair thanks to her stomach making such a loud noise. "Well, um, maybe we should find somewhere for dinner."
Within the hour, the team found themselves in a decent restaurant that they were recommended to try and to put it mildly, the staff didn't seem to know what to think of the teens ordering so much food. But given that this was the first time they could really eat to their stomach's content, they made a nice dent in their recent earnings and they felt a little bad for whoever had to wash the dishes, at least they left little on their plates.
"Ugh, I don't think I've eaten so much since that pancake eating contest on the way here." Jaune groans as he drops onto the couch.
"Hehe, I know I'm full!" Ruby pats her own belly that stretched her outfit taut across the mass, too stuffed to jiggle much at the touch.
Pyrrha caught Jaune in the hallway on her way back down for a shower, he was going to have his turn after her.
"Pyrrha, what is it?"
"Um… Jaune, would you like to get lunch tomorrow?"
"Uh, just us?"
"Yes."
"Oh, okay then."
The Mistral champion flashed him a smile before making her way downstairs to clean up, her bundle of pajamas and supplies tucked under her arm. Meanwhile, Jaune walked to his room and sat on the bed as the realization began to hit him.
"I'm having a date."
-—-
Ren and Nora found themselves in the garden after dinner, the former meditating while the latter walked around to examine the plants and humming a little song to herself.
"Nora?"
"Yes Ren?"
"Would… you like to sit with me?"
Nora was surprised, Ren normally asked for her to keep herself occupied while he meditated. If she had to remain close, she was to be quiet, like she was up until now. But she wasn't going to turn him down either.
"This good?" She asks as she sits behind him, so that they were back to back and the warmth between them offset the cool night air.
"Yes, yes it is."
"Do you mind if I keep humming?"
"It is fine."
With that permission, Nora continued her songs as she took comfort being so close to her best friend. And the vibrations from her voice could be felt through their contact, relaxing both even more.
And Nora couldn't help herself as she smiled, this move was a huge step for Ren and she was happy to take this step with him.
—-
Back on the docks of Menagerie, the White Fang troops were either lining up in preparation for their commanding officers or to storm into the town while others unloaded supplies being brought over with every load of fresh troops. The large vessel stayed back from the shoals and let the smaller ships make their way over and through the shallow waters to the mainland, but they had time thanks to a number of plants they had with caches in their homes that were used to take the townspeople hostage either in the main square or at the newly built school.
"Haha! Didn't think that taking this place would be so easy!" One man boasts.
"Did you think that the Boss would have failed at planning this operation? Of course things are going to plan. We got everyone right where we want them and Adam will be here soon enough to take care of the Belladonna's." The man's apparent superior tells him loud enough to be heard by all of the troops on the dock so they would be prepared and improve morale.
Sun snuck around some crates and had heard everything they were saying. The fact that Adam Taurus was so close and coming to Menagerie with the intent on causing harm to the Belladonna family made his blood boil.
A peek over a barrel and he saw that many of the White Fang were carrying a rifle that he'd never seen before. They were sleek and carried a short blade under the barrel but the weapons look like they were Huntsman grade rather than something that would be carried by a common soldier. Seeing some of them popping the magazines out to double check their weapons, he saw that they were similar to TriHard in that the main thing they used was raw Dust as their ammunition.
But he stuck to his plan and hoped that Blake was in position. Reaching his destination, he found that there was more than what he had hoped and that would only make his idea work even better.
Over with Blake, she had successfully snuck over to the other side of the growing lineup of White Fang soldiers. There had been little problems with that part and she was glad to have slimmed down a fair bit to make it through the foliage and crates without making noise that would alert the soldiers. But what made her freeze up and blood to run cold was hearing that Adam was on his way here and was after her family.
Her mind raced through the possibilities of what he'd do but she was sure that he'd kill them all and anyone who lived in her house. She didn't want to think of what he'd do to Sun upon learning of their status as lovers.
Peeking over the crates that served as her hiding place, she watches the White Fang unload another boat full of soldiers and supplies. "Come on Sun, what are you going to do?"
She didn't have to wait long to get her answer, a trio of forklifts with large crates came barreling down the docks at the assembled White Fang with no sign that they were slowing.
"Stop them!" The commanding officer of the group orders and they raise their weapons and they begin firing at the forklifts.
And the new rifles, they fired bolts of energized Dust. Not just a single type of Dust but most of them looked to be mixtures judging by the prismatic streaks that flew at their targets. When the bolts struck the crates carried by the machines, they tore through the heavy metal containers with ease.
But that created holes that began to billow smoke trails of various colors… and the forklifts weren't slowing down at all. And that was when some of the Faunus with keener eyes began to really notice the smoke and some of the surviving labels on the crates.
"Stop! Stop shooting! That's Dust!" The Sergeant yells a moment too late as a few more shots hit the crates and the reaction begins.
Within seconds, the loads on the machines exploded in a brilliant array of colors and effects thanks to the various types of Dust carried within. The explosions were so powerful that the entirety of the docks for several paces away from the epicenters were reduced to nothing but splinters. That said nothing of the beams and shrapnel that flew in all directions to land all across the docks. And the blast waves threw the White Fang from their feet, many of them landing in the water. Even the incoming boat was capsized by the pressure wave and the following white caps the blast created.
Even Blake had her ears ringing, though she was out of the worst of the damage and had her ears covered, the crates she was behind still were pushed into her and knocked her to the ground. She rose to see the damage done and her eyes went wide at seeing how many bodies were strewn around the remains of the docks, boats, and in the water. Only a few men were moving but they were in no shape to be going anywhere.
She walks out of her hiding place to get a better look at the damage and finds that roughly a quarter of the docks were destroyed along with the three nearby boats.
"Um… I did not expect such a big boom when I made that plan earlier." Sun sheepishly says as he walks closer to her.
Blake waited until he was in range before… SLAP! The back of his head throbbed from her hand. "Dummy, you know how dangerous Dust is, now the docks are ruined."
"Hehehe, technically only this part is. The rest just has a bit of cleaning to do." That earned him another slap in the same place. "Yeah, I deserved that."
"Yeah, wait until you tell Dad what you did."
"But we did stop these guys. Maybe it'll slow down the others trying to come in."
"True but let's help Dad."
"Got it!" With that in mind, the couple raced up the stairs and made their way back to the captives and their guards.
—-
Kali ran to the classroom and peeked through the window to find that there was a young woman who was yelling at her captor. A woman who Kali recognized as being the one who was dancing and hanging out with Itazura during the celebration.
"What do you want? Why are you attacking civilians?!" She shouts through the door.
The man dragged the girl closer to the door so he could speak without yelling too much while ensuring that he had a hostage immediately on hand. "Stop struggling or I will shoot!" He warns the girl as she struggles until the gun is jabbed into her back. Then he turned his attention to Kali. "We don't want to kill any of the people here, so long as they don't fight back. High Leader Adam Taurus is coming tonight to dispose of the traitors like you. We just need these people out of the way!"
"And what do you get out of this!?" Kali asks, her grip on her pistol tightening.
"What do we want? Ha! After we take Menagerie for the real High Leader, we'll have a new base of operations and a major ace to play against the humans thanks to you building this school and the Communications Tower!"
"Really? That is what this is all about? An attempt to force your way to power? No matter the cost?"
"It's for the good of the Faunus!" The man shouts.
"For the good of the Faunus!" The other captors echoed.
Then the girl began struggling again until the man slammed the butt of his gun into her shoulder that made her fall to the floor. "Try that again and I will shoot you!"
Kali watched as the girl sat up and stared down the barrel at the man's masked face. "Go ahead. Prove that you are a coward and shoot me."
"Fine! Then you'll be the first example of what happens when anyone opposes Adam and the White Fang!" The man shouts for the whole room to hear and squeezes the trigger.
AN: I want to thank all of the readers who have stuck with the story thus far. As for the story of Raven getting the Maiden powers... let's just say that the contents of that strike a little too close to home for me and leave it at that. If that brought tears to your eyes as it did for me, then good.
As always, reviews are always welcome! See you all next time as we focus on Menagerie.
