Hello!
Slightly earlier update than usual again for this month! Got a trip I'm heading out on so I'll be out over the weekend.
Warnings: Plot, War Crimes
For those interested in reading ahead however, you can do so on my βππ₯π£ππ π. You can read up to two chapters ahead there:
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Chapter 4
The damn man had decided to torch the city.
It was a terrifying sight, seeing the fireballs arc over the scorched walls and molten slag that had been the Great Gates. She felt shivers run down their spine each time they crashed on the Alanui Moana. The main road was glowing a white-hot from the constant barrage, and Sienna swore she could see it splashing every time one of the fireballs fell into it.
She'd already had to order her men to demolish parts of the city, making sure the fires spreading from the street didn't spread enough to consume the other buildings.
While it was tempting to force Arc into burning down the same city he came to conquer, the faunuskind stood to lose more if she let him do that.
Kuo Kuana was the bastion of their peoples for thousands of years, predating even the current four kingdoms despite many of their unwillingness to acknowledge it as one of their own. And while the God of Animals kept no temples, the very walls of the city were considered sacred, and many religious made pilgrimages to the city itself as a matter of faith.
Sienna didn't have it in herself to go down in history as the High General of the kingdom that permitted it to be razed. She knew that had the king been given the option, he'd have done the same.
The question was whether Arc would do the same when he took this place, because now that the gates were breached, it really was just a matter of how much he was willing to pay, be it in time or blood.
And it looked like it'd be time, since she'd seen a barricade setup at the breach at the Great Gate, and no further movement from Arc's forces.
Sienna couldn't say she minded that, however. More time meant more time for reinforcements to arrive, and if push came to shove, they might just be able to either trap Arc within the city or lift the siege entirely. After that, they could make their escape and disappear into the wilds and mountains of Menagerie to fight the asymmetrical war they'd been preparing for for years.
But first they had to survive this attack.
"General!"
Grey eyes hidden behind the White Fang helmet greeted her. Yuma. One of her best. Sienna waved away the salute and turned to address him.
"The patrols, ma'am. They've found something interesting."
Without waiting for her to reply, the bat faunus stepped aside to allow her to see the group of patrolmen who'd just come back from the city. The black marks on their armor told her they'd assisted in the tearing down of buildings between the fires in the rest of the city.
After that, however, she was greeted with an unexpected sight.
It was hard not to recognize her, though. The blonde hair and lavender eyes were ones she'd seen quite a few times in the years leading up to the growing tension and eventual war.
The general had never expected to see Yang Xiao Long in Arc officer regalia, though.
"Hi, Sienna," The girl sent her a grin, one that almost pulled a smile from the tiger faunus despite the blood spatters on the younger girl's gauntlets, "Blake home?"
~TtT~
"Father, please."
"No."
"Mother, help me!"
"I've already tried, dear. He's not budging on this."
Blake grit her teeth. That promise she made to Sienna was looking harder and harder to fulfill.
She and her mother have been trying to talk her father into escaping with them for hours now. In that time, she'd watched Arc's fleet continue their bombardment of the city, and part of it catch fire. All the while her father had met with his bodyguards, the remaining government officials that had chosen to remain in Kuo Kuana to see to their duties, and a few of Sienna's advisors.
He'd already donned his arms and armor, at his desk in the sitting room of the king's apartments and looked over the state of the troops all over the kingdom like they didn't have an army at his doorstep. It was surprisingly cramped, having two advisors, the Minister of War, two more bodyguards, her mother, and herself all in there to join her father in planning the kingdom's defense.
It was even odder to be doing this without Sienna here, but someone had to focus on the war at their doorstep while the king planned for what would come after.
But it felt wrong. Felt wrong to sit in this room where she'd spent most of her childhood learning from her father's lap as they spoke of what ground to give in the coming months. Even more wrong to do it while fire rained down on the Alanui Moana from over the walls.
The map on her father's desk was detailed, having everything from the positions of their most important forts to the lines marking the routes of their navy's patrols. Blake suspected they were accurate all the way up to yesterday morning.
She was also certain that the flotilla marked to patrol their northern shores were either broken or scuttled, removed by the Arcs on their way for the invasion. It was the only way they'd have been able to get the drop on them without warning.
"We can't count on the fleets coming back." Her father agreed, looking to their Minister of War, "If Arc managed to make landfall without any word coming back to shore, they've either been forced away or sunk. Our best bet is going to be local reinforcements from the nearby cities. Two of them are within a day's march of here, and we sent word as soon as the ships were sighted over the horizon."
But what went unsaid that 'over the horizon' didn't mean anything. Arc attacked in the dead of night, with no fires to mark his ships in the water until they'd made landfall, and while the capitol was undermanned. Even worse, the Great Gate had already been breached. Castle Belladonna was really the only place they could hold now.
And she and her mother were being sent away, alongside the very minister that her father was speaking with.
"Fall back to Pakaua Hao as soon as you escape the city." Ghira instructs, addressing the ministers and his bodyguards but looking instead at Blake. "Instructions have already been left to ensure that they are ready for you. General Chainer should be the officer-in-charge at the fortress now. He'll make sure that the forces of the other cities are properly organized in the coming days."
"No!"
She saw the hardness in her father's gaze at her cry, and saw the way his lips thinned. But Blake would be stubborn about this the same way he would.
"You can't leave instructions on how to fight this war and not be there to lead our people yourself! Abandon the city, father. Take everyone through the spring passages, and let's all make for Pakaua Hao!"
She felt her mother put a hand on her shoulder, "Blake-"
Blake shrugged it off, standing. Her fists clenched while she felt her voice shake, "This city is not worth your life, father! Our people need you! We need you!"
The tense anticipation of the past few minutes disappeared, replaced by one of shocked silence. Blake could feel the eyes of everyone on her, but the only one whose gaze she met was her father's. Two pairs of amber looked into each other before her father sighed and stood up.
He still towered over her, a veritable bear of a faunus and made twice as imposing by the armor he wore.
"Jaune Arc is not a careless man." He answers, circling the table. The ministers shuffled back to allow him to pass, some even pressing themselves against the walls of the too-small room to avoid getting in the king's way. "If he finds that the city is empty, he will scatter his forces to find us, and he may strike at the cities before they've had the time to muster their forces.
"Even worse, he may intercept our messengers as they make their way to the mountain ranges. Putting our hidden forts in danger, and endangering the little defenses we have left.
"But Jaune Arc is a thorough man. For as long as he has reason to suspect that you and your mother are here, he will focus on taking Kuo Kuana. We can make it costly for him while the cities muster their armies and can march to our aid."
His hands dwarfed Blake's shoulders, wrapping about her like a warm cloak even while he wore gauntlets.
"And you have ruled in my stead for the last two years now, Blake. Have done so in preparation for this very moment. Our people know you. Our people trust you." He turned to the others in the room.
To her surprise, she found them down on one knee. Her own grew weak at the sight, and she'd have fallen back into her chair if not her father's hold on her.
"Wha-"
Her father actually chuckled. "They knew that this was a possibility, kitten. I leave our people to you, Blake of House Belladonna. Menagerie is yours."
Blake didn't like to think of what she might have sounded like when she threw her arms around her father. It certainly wasn't anything dignified, but she doubted anyone present cared. She wept openly, sobbed into the overcoat that her father wore over his breastplate while clinging unto him for the last time. Moments later, she felt her mother join them.
She savored this just as she cursed Jaune Arc for destroying her family, and threatening her people with slavery and ruin.
~TtT~
Sienna felt really bad for interrupting them. Really she did.
But they couldn't really afford to wait, especially if what Xiao Long suspected was true.
Thankfully, it didn't look like Blake particularly minded. One moment, she'd heard the knock on the door and the clearing of Sienna's throatβ¦
"Yang!?"
And the next, she'd broken from her parents to tackle the taller girl. The human, fortunately, seemed to be used enough to getting tackled that way and just barely managed to keep her balance, though Sienna did fail to suppress her giggle at the sight of them.
"Woah there, Blakey!" The blonde answered with a laugh of her own. One Blake shared as the faunus was spun in the air once, twice, thrice before being put down.
"What the hells are you doing here!?" Was what the princes said next after stepping back. "And is that an Arc uniform? And is that blood?"
Sienna waved at the guards when she saw them moving for their weapons. Then, she met the eyes of the king and queen, "She's fine."
"Only way I could make it to the island in any sort of time to help. Sorry about that." She shrugged, and sent Blake's parents an apologetic smile. "I hope my letter at least made it early enough?"
"That it did, dear." Kali answered, stepping away from the king to wrap Yang in a hug of her own. Funnily enough, Xiao Long held her blood-covered arms away from the queen, but didn't shy away from the hug.
Considerate.
"Sorry about the blood," the girl said bashfully, "Arc sent me scouting with about fifty men. I had to⦠Ah⦠shake them before I could get here."
Two guesses as to how.
"No matter," Kali waved it off. Whether the queen understood what the girl meant, Sienna didn't know. "If it weren't for your message, we'd be in a much worse situation now. We'd have been unable to evacuate the civilians before the attack started, too." The queen said, giving the blonde a pat on the back before letting go. "Still, I'm surprised you all made it here so soon after war was declared."
Xiao Long grimaced. "That's the odd part. I sent the message as soon as war was declared. My mother managed to get me into Arc's personal guard, but by the time we joined the fleet, they were already halfway to menagerie."
"What do you mean halfway there?" The king questioned, brows furrowed as he approached the young woman.
And so Xiao Long told them. She told them that the fleet was already at-sea when they'd arrived, having made it to Arc's flagship from Monte Cristo over the course of one night. On a frigate. There was only one way it could have been done.
"Magic." The king whispered, fangs bared. "Not unexpected, but I hadn't known the Arcs would be able to wield this much power. The fires make much more sense now. It was the only way for him to breach the walls as quickly as he did, or to have kept his fleet hidden so long. There were no sightings of any Arc ships anywhere from Monte Cristo to here. If it weren't for you, we'd have never known they were coming."
Xiao Long continued, telling them all she knew. She told them of the size of the fleet, of the way it was split - with only a small fraction of it being committed to taking Kuo Kuana and a vast majority of it set to begin raids of the kingdom's northern coastline, and what Arc planned of the kingdom should he take it.
The sound of horror and disgust must have been loud enough to be heard from the battlements.
Ghira, however, turned grim. "All the more reason that Blake and Kali must leave immediately." He turned to the others in the room. "Go." And then to Xiao Long, "Is there anyone in Monte Cristo that doesn't support this war? Your parents?"
The blonde shook her head, "Summer and dad both support the war. Ruby follows their lead, too. It was why it was so easy for me to get a spot with Arc. Nepotism and all that. There's⦠my birth mother. But she's not really part of that life anymore. We can get her help if we really don't have any other choice, though. She's not a fan of this the same way I am."
The king nodded, "That will have to do, then." He addressed Sienna, "All the more reason we need to keep them locked up here. If Arc has the means to travel at unnatural speeds, he'd only catch up to them." And back to Xiao Long, "I leave my family in your hands, Yang Xiao Long. Protect them. Protect my daughter."
And while Sienna mostly just knew the girl as Blake's girlfriend, the general felt a swell of affection for the blonde when she dropped to one knee.
"Yes, my king."
This⦠all of this left her hopeful despite the bad news Xiao Long brought them. That their people had a future where they weren't wiped out or turned into chattel as the line of House Belladonna survived this trying time. Sienna felt her chest puff and her back straighten while her heart filled with a furious determination to buy Blake as much time as they could give them.
Arc would waste days here, weeks if they could manage it, and she'd make sure that the campaign was hobbled.
Once everyone was sent away and the king had joined her at the war table downstairs, they spoke of what might happen come morning, of how Arc may raze the entirety of the city around them to ensure that no ambush could take place, of how that would work in their favor because it meant a long siege.
Then dawn came.
~TtT~
When Xiao Long had warned them of the Arc magic, they should have expected that he had something else up his sleeve.
Because as dawn came, with the sun cresting over the tops of the eastern walls of Kuo Kuana, Jaune Arc stood with an army at his back before the river of fire that had been the Alanui Moana and turned the white-hot lava into passable rock.
It came in a gust of wind, one so strong it rushed up the road and through the gates to toss Sienna's hair about like she was at the top of Menagerie's tallest mountains.
When the wind had died down, Sienna could only stare in horror at the sight of the smooth stone that replaced the impassable rubble they'd made of the Alanui Moana.
Then the screams began as Arc's cavalry charged towards the gates.
Plans went up in smoke as she screamed for the gates to be closed. The king was already sending guards up to man the walls. The same guards that had been told they were supposed to be going in and out of the castle to assist the ambushers in their fight against Arc's forces.
Gates shut, and Sienna had to suppress a wave of terror that passed through her the same way it did the rest of her men. They were trapped here now with a good chunk of their forces lost to them outside. Those forces were now caught in the empty city with Arc's forces pressing on them from both ends. All the while, a road that had been magically repaired allowed his troops unrestricted movement between the outside of the city and the streets closest to Castle Belladonna.
Worse still, Sienna had no way of getting word out to the soldiers outside, no way of relaying orders in this development none of them had been prepared for.
And Arc, of course, had no intention of giving them any more time to react to his play, because as soon as he'd set his forces between the city and the castle, and the city and the gates, balls of fire began flying over the walls and setting the rest of the city ablaze.
What followed was a bloodbath, with their cut-off forces being forced to either push into the Arc's formation because the fires were pushing them to do so and being killed, or dying to flames. Sienna couldn't even tell if the Arcs were taking prisoners. She couldn't see beyond the wall of flame that now surrounded them, smoke rising high and telling everyone in the kingdom that Kuo Kuana had fallen.
In a matter of hours, practically all of their forces outside Castle Belladonna were purged. Arc continued the bombardment of the city.
By noon, most of the city had been razed, and Arc used the same spell he used to solidify the molten rock of the main street to put out the fires.
When sunset came, Arc began his attack on the castle itself.
In under an hour, the gates fell. The king was slain during the initial breach.
By nightfall, it was over.
~TtT~
Sienna Khan dodged a sword strike at her head from the left, then backpedaled when his fist came in from the other side. Her opponent stepped forward as she stepped back.
Before Sienna could recover, he sent a kick towards her lagging knee. She barely managed to parry it with her blades, the edges scraping against his greaves.
Then came another sword strike, and another bash, and then a shoulder charge with that same shield. Sienna could only evade.
She grit her teeth
Space, she needed space.
Arc was determined to not allow her any. The monster had charged in as soon as they'd engaged, allowing her no room to properly use her whip. She'd been fighting him with her daggers ever since.
Grudge wasn't working, either. Her semblance let her sense if her opponent's aura was flagging or broken, and strengthened her as she got closer to the kill.
That damnable Arc wasn't anywhere near. Grudge couldn't even smell if he was winded. And the bastard had been fighting the whole day while Sienna was fresh.
With a growl and a burst of yellow lightning, she detached one of the knives that made the tip of her whip. Arc paused, blue eyes flashing in recognition.
Sienna took the opening. She lunged, threatened with the lightning blade and forced him to actually dodge this time. His armor for once a disadvantage. While he backpedaled, Sienna threw the dagger in her other hand and stopped.
Then, when he parried that, she finally got what she wanted.
The general of the faunus took two steps back and drew Cerberus, the whip's chain links catching the gold-orange of the fire.
"I'm going to kill you, Arc." She growled, her aura flowing down the whip and into the dust shards of her two remaining blades. Fire and Ice danced about them. "And I'll make sure your head is hung from the spikes atop this castle."
"Oh that's an idea." He answered with a grin, shield raised before him and his sword hidden behind it as he took a half-step toward her. "How about I do that to Ghira's bits and pieces? I'm sure that would do great for whoever's left after tonight."
He charged.
Sienna kicked Cerberus's blades straight at his head, shining chain glinting behind them. Arc dodged under and to her right, letting the whip sail over his shoulder.
With a swing of her arm, she sent the whip down towards him. It slung around the arm he raised to stop it from impacting his shoulder, then wrapped around his shoulder. Sienna snarled, she got him.
The world shook, shifted. Sienna blinked as the earth shifted underneath her and she felt something get ahold of her arm.
Her vision darkened, and then came the pain. Sienna's head rocked back, stars flashed before her. Arc's hold on her wrist stopped her from being thrown back.
But he wasn't done with her.
Sienna was yanked back, then the shield came down on her head again. He followed with a knee to her stomach, and then she was thrown unto the ground.
The general choked, air pushed out of her lungs from the blow. She couldn't move. Sounds of the battle around her muted, shrinking down to only the sound of her thrashing about on the ground and struggling to draw breath.
A weight settled over her belly, Arc's hands grasped her left pauldron before yanking it off her.
"GAH!"
The pain got her to take a breath at least, but her shoulder burned with pain. Amber eyes opened to meet two chips of ultramarine. She had just enough time to register the hunger in them before he ripped off her other pauldron. Sienna screamed.
Strength left her, pulled away with each piece of her armor he removed. The straps squeezed tightly around her before snapping off.
"Get off the general you damn human!"
Through the haze of pain, Sienna caught a flash of green and silver. Tock had come to help her. But Arc hadn't been caught off guard, it seemed. Sienna heard a grunt and the sound of flesh hitting stone as the Tock was thrown away.
More of her men came, some two or even three at a time, to take on her attacker. All failed. Each exchange was quick, with Arc dispatching her men with terrifying speed. By the time her vision was clearing up and the pain was turning into a dull ache, Arc was on her again.
"You're a popular one, Khan." He said, pulling her by the hair so she'd be seated. Sienna groaned as he did so, but couldn't fight back.
He held her up, pulled her head back just so her back arched. It let the cold night air brush against the skin exposed by her tattered shirt. She tried to squirm out of his grip. She growled. Arc held her tighter, then laughed.
Her people were defeated. Many of them dead or dying, but even more being tied up by Arc's forces. Still, Sienna was heartened by how the fire burned in the eyes of many of them still.
Amber eyes closed, as she breathed deeply. Strength left her.
It was over. Her king was dead, and Kuo Kuana was lost. She only hoped that it was enough time for Blake and the others to get out from under Arc's nose. They would lead the faunus now. They were the future of their people.
She'd have been happy if they'd managed to take out Arc. Jaune was their heir and it would have been one hell of a parting blow to deal to the barbarians of humanity.
But this⦠this would do.
"No sleeping, Khan." Arc growled, pulling at her hair so hard Sienna squirmed to follow his hand back. "Open those eyes for me."
His hand brushed her neck, fingers wrapping around her throat in a gentle grip that caused an upwelling of disgust to come from her belly. Arc had her pulled flush against his chest, the hand that had gripped her hair now brushing her belly through her shirt. Sienna clenched her eyes shut in defiance.
"Open them, Khan," the monster's voice was a whisper now, low, predatory. "I want you to watch." She could hear the grin on his face. "If you don't, I'll make sure they suffer more. I'll make sure they never get to live a normal life ever again."
God of animals, grant her strength.
"Y-you're already doing that." Now she opened her eyes, turning her head to meet his own. It hurt her neck, and something in his gaze stirred at the discomfort she was feeling, turning it into a pit. "What future is left for us? For any of them?"
She was going to be raped. All of the women were. It wasn't hard for her to figure out. And after that, they'd be collared and turned into slaves. Wouldn't it be better to die here than to let any of that happen?
There was a yell, a strike, and the world spun again. Sienna was tossed end over end. The ground came away from her, and for a brief moment she saw the earth above and the sky below.
When she crashed, it was to have her face rubbed against the cobblestones of the castle's courtyard. It scratched at her skin and would have broken it if not for her flagging aura.
"I don't know if you're hoping I'd kill you, or if you just failed at cutting open your own throat." His hands gripped at the hair again and pulled.
"Nghaaaaaahβ¦"
"Look at them, Khan." Her shirt barely protected her from the rough stones, and it tore at some of it, scraped at her belly, her hips. "Some of them tried to help."
Ancestors, no.
Even with her darkening vision, Sienna could spot three others being pinned to the ground by a few of Arc's surrounding men. Tock, Mina, and Yuma. All three struggled against their captors despite being bound, Tock managing to squirm even as two armored soldiers had their knees on her back.
"Get your mitts off her you fucker!" She cried, teeth gnashing.
"How about I show you what happens, hmm?" He had his mouth next to her ear again. Then to his men, "Kill the male. We don't get anything from him. For the girls, cut off their arms and legs. They don't need it where they're going."
What?
"Wha-what?"
Screams filled the air. Some panicked, some terrified, some begging.
"No! No! Please!" It was Mina. "Yuma! Yuma!"
All three struggled now, even as two of Jaune's female lieutenants approached and drew their weapons. Still, the hold on them stood firm.
The others were squirming now, too. Adding their voices to the din, even as the soldiers behind each of them pushed them down with their feet.
But when she looked to Arc, all she saw was his eyes on her. Cool and calm even as hers was wide. She could feel the blood thunder in her skull, even as the screams grew louder.
"They don't need arms or legs to be fucked, Khan. And they'll be easier to carry around, too." His whisper was almost gentle, even as he spoke of her soldiers, her people, as though they weren't people at all. "Obey, and I'll make sure they can at least move on their own power after we're done with them."
Even though they'll still be property in the end.
"F-fine." She answered. Whatever fight she had remaining left her. Her shoulder slumped, and she let Arc fully support her weight. It hurt to have him hold her up only by her hair, but she didn't care anymore. "Fine. You win. I⦠I'll watch."
"Belay that order!" Jaune cried to his men. The lieutenants immediately ceased their advance and stepped back, their weapons back in their sheaths. He then leaned in close one more time. "Good girl," he whispered.
Sienna gasped, winced, shivered. His words hurt more than any blow he'd struck her tonight.
He gave his lieutenants a nod, and the three women stepped away and out of Sienna's view.
Finally, he said, "Have your fun, boys!"
The men cheered. Then screams started, and Sienna felt her heart break.
Sienna watched. Sienna watched it all. And Siena would remember all of it for the rest of her life.
Finally, Kuo Kuana falls.
I'd love to hear what you guys think of the story so far. Thanks for taking the time to read!
For those interested in reading ahead, you can do so on my βππ₯π£ππ π. You can read up to two chapters ahead there:
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And in case you'd like to see updates my writing updates such as when I get started on a chapter or when stuff gets posted up on my twitter:
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