Sins of the Forefathers
Act the First: A Beacon of Hope
Author's Note: Woo! A chapter where Jaune preps for something! I bet no one is tired of these!
^^;
Well, if it makes it any better, Blake gets to shine in this one. I've also got everything planned out until the start of Beacon, when all the other characters join in and we can finally get some character interaction that isn't intrigue and attempts to backstab each other.
Still gonna be a few chapters until then though, we have Mountain Glenn and Amber to get through first.
Chapter Eight: Wrong Side of the Tracks
The days passed quickly as we prepared for Mountain Glenn. Roman got in touch with me and we settled on a price of twenty thousand Lien for the whole job. He also gave me schematics for the Merlot Industries building, marked to indicate the most likely locations for research, and all the other intelligence I had asked for.
As we talked on the phone, I managed to get one more safeguard.
Neo Politan.
Cinder wasn't going to be coming on this assignment, since she was doing prep work for Amber. Of course, she wasn't going to send me in to Mountain Glenn alone - not that I would have accepted the assignment if those were the terms, of course. That would be suicide.
She was sending in "Merc" - Mercury Black - and Greenie - Emerald Sustrai, her apprentices.
Naturally, I wasn't going to entrust my safety to people working for Cinder. So, I asked if Roman would be willing to spare his apprentice.
Surprisingly, Roman accepted with little issue. In fact, the way he talked about it, it was as if Neopolitan wanted to go on the mission - and in any case, Roman figured she could probably get some good experience working alongside me.
I told him that I also wanted to train with each of them at least once so I could develop some plans of attack and basic strategies.
This was accepted, so I spent all my free time in the next few days training with the three of them to figure out what they could do.
And to study their fighting styles, and grow stronger as a result.
Take Mercury, for example. As it turns out, he's not just a kick-oriented martial artist. His father, Marcus Black, was a master of the Rushing Wind style.
One of the Four Elements styles, said to be the progenitor of all martial arts, Rushing Wind focuses on fast footwork and faster kicks. It requires intense endurance as the practitioner has to constantly move around, rushing (as the name implies) to various positions in order to outmaneuver the opponent, as well as deliver blindingly fast kicks.
In terms of raw striking power, it's probably the strongest of the Four Elements styles.
However…
As a kick-focused martial art, it's weakness is its reliance on range. It mandates perfect positioning to generate the greatest power possible from striking. Aside from specialized elbow and knee techniques, it doesn't have a lot of close-range strategies.
Still, if nothing else I can benefit from knowing the basic footwork and some of the strikes.
Speaking of his footwork, the dude apparently has weapon-prosthetics. They're hardly a new concept - ever since Doctor Gepetto Polendina got Atlas funding, robotics technology has seen a significant jump in ability. Even old Jimmy Steeldick has a robotic replacement, though his is for the entire right side of his body.
Mercury's, however, aren't nearly as intricate or well-functioning. As far as I could tell from the brief look I got, his weapons were pretty makeshift - he probably upgraded them himself. Admirable, but they do limit some of the Rushing Wind techniques he can perform - he'd need much more advanced prosthetics to really pull off the style.
Emerald, on the other hand, is practically an amateur at fighting. From what I gleaned from asking around, she lived a hard life growing up, a street urchin with no one to help her. She clawed her way up to survive, stealing what she could and avoiding fights as much as possible.
She can scrap as well as any experienced street thug, but she lacks actual technique- everything she knows is probably from Cinder. And while she's undoubtedly a quick study, her long years of avoiding fights has seriously stunted her combat ability compared to the rest of us, who have a lot of real combat experience.
With that said, her biggest overall weakness is her lack of formal education.
Say what you will about school - admittedly, I didn't have much of a "formal" education either - but a proper understanding of basic academics can carry you surprisingly far as long as you couple it with the ability of how to apply that knowledge in a variety of situations.
As for Neopolitan, or Neo, as she likes to be called…
Her fighting style is damn near impossible to understand. Or, well, no, it's simple in concept, but I don't understand how she pulls it off. She bobs and weaves her body with a flexibility far beyond that of the average human, dodging attacks at the last possible moment with frightening consistency.
In three days of training, only Emerald failed to beat Neo. Mercury had to push his speed further than his usual pace to win, and I was only able to beat her by engaging in a grapple and using my strength to force her into a submission hold. The fact that my strength is what mattered means that our technique is roughly equal, however, so I should probably practice my grappling more.
Perhaps a Semblance of some sort? Something that gives her enhanced reaction speeds?
In any case, she uses a smallsword hidden in the umbrella she carries around. Roman's probably taught her bartitsu, so she undoubtedly has a good handle on it.
Aside from her umbrella, she's a skilled martial artist. When Mercury disarmed her in their spar, she managed to get some hits in as well before he outpaced her.
On top of that, she was like me.
She learned in the middle of battle.
Mercury probably noticed it better than I, but in the midst of their fight, she started copying his Rushing Wind footwork. Not enough to threaten him with it, but it was proof that you had to be careful with what you did around her.
All in all, Mercury was definitely the strongest out of us. Now that he didn't have to hold back, he beat me and Neo every single time. Neo and I tied for second place, each with two wins each, and Emerald was the weakest - she didn't win any of her spars.
As the mission day approached, I kept using my free time to plan and study the intel Roman had gotten me.
Mountain Glenn was a failed expansion of Vale's settled territory. Outside of the capital, the biggest settled territory in Vale (the nation) is the island of Vytal, with the island of Patch right after that. Past that, most of Vale's settled territory is small villages or towns scattered across the continent wherever people could bring themselves to settle.
Mountain Glenn, however, was meant to change that. It would be a new city - walled, protected by a barrier, and with its own expansion of the IGO offices. Located in the South of Sanus near the edge of the Kore Mountain Range, it was meant to be a stepping stone for greater expansion in the southern reaches of the nation. There were already some small settlements, but Mountain Glenn would be a hub for them.
On top of that, it was planned as a way for the southern settlements to more easily get to the capital. There is a long underground train line - around fifty to sixty miles - running from Vale to the ruins of Mountain Glenn. Presumably, it saw quite a bit of use when the city fell. As it is now, though, the tunnels have been sealed, so they're nothing but a dead end.
The city was established forty years after the end of the great war, and lasted for twenty-five years. No one knows exactly how the collapse started. As far as official reports go, Grimm just suddenly appeared in the middle of the city without warning.
Unfortunately, when one cross references the reports with the maps, Ground Zero becomes pretty clear.
The Merlot Industries Tower.
This was going to be a fucking awful job, I could just tell.
"You're closing the store!?"
"Only for a week. Calm down."
Tukson turned back to me as he locked the doors. "You said you needed a few vacation days too, right? Just go ahead and take the week off."
"I mean, sure, but… What's this all about?"
"I'm taking my daughter Tariro on a trip, to celebrate her recovery. Baburon's coming too, and no offence, but I'm not leaving you to watch the whole shop without me. There's a lot of logistical stuff that I need to handle myself."
"Yeah, no I get it. But wow, I guess it's good luck that it all worked out like this, huh?"
"Yeah," Tukson muttered under his breath, "Lucky me."
Blake stared at the page of the book, awestruck. Tears ran down her face as she beheld the tragedy of Hamlet's fate, and that of his family.
"It was all for nothing?" she whispered to herself. "All his efforts, all his struggles, Ophelia and his mother, and it all just… crumbled away?"
Revenge isn't worth it.
She knew it was a basic theme, probably the least complex of all that was explored in the story, and not even the most interesting one that she'd gleaned from her first time through.
And yet…
There was something to be said in comparing her own situation to that of Hamlet's. Faced with injustices, she had chosen to take action, and while she had been much more direct and focused than Hamlet-
Had she just… perpetuated the cycle of violence?
They had freed Faunus from Atlesian labor camps, and mines controlled by the SDC, yes. But in return, while there was some progress, there were setbacks as well. Anti-faunus sentiment rose wherever they operated, and stop-and-search laws targeting the Faunus had been initiated in both Atlas and Mistral.
Actions cause reactions.
Things might not have been perfect for the Faunus before the White Fang became a proactive group of freedom fighters, but-
Things had been more peaceful.
Was father right?
Is peaceful, open, honest dialogue truly the best way to do it?
She shook her head forcefully.
No! No, if that were true, then-
NO.
"No," she said, voice resolute. "This… This is a story. What we're doing is different. It's necessary."
Yes, that is what you told Illia, wasn't it? When you came back, covered in your sworn brother's blood, after Adam said he sought to desert. That it was a sacrifice that had to be made for the betterment of all Faunus.
The first of many "off the books" jobs for Adam. The first of many-
Assassinations.
"It was necessary."
She shot up off the chair she was sitting in and threw the book onto her cot. Shaking her head again, she drank some water and tried to force the thoughts from her mind.
I can't get distracted. We have an assignment.
Tukson yawned as he sharpened the blades of his weapons. They were a set of gauntlets with spiked knuckles and bladed bracers to protect his forearms. Nothing too fancy, but they worked well for his fighting style.
Nearby, Baburon was performing maintenance on his own weapon. A modified, oversized chainsaw, they had taken it during a raid on an SDC mine that was located in a dense Mistralian forest - those kinds of tools were necessary to keep the operations area clear of plants. Baburon thought that it had a sort of nice irony, to use the SDC's own equipment against them - even more so because it wasn't originally designed as a weapon.
"Puma," Baburon said, using the code name that Tukson had been assigned. "How is she?"
"She's fine. Still recovering, but the doctors say she'll be out within the week."
"Good. In that case, once we return from this mission, we should celebrate."
Tukson nodded. "Yeah, we should." For a moment, he said nothing more and continued his sharpening, but then sat up straight and said, "You know what?"
"What?"
"We should bring the kid, too."
"Jaune?"
"Yeah. It'll be good for T- for her to know someone her age."
Baburon nodded. "Very well. I have no issue with it. We'll bring him along as well, then. But enough talk of the future - focus on the now, for we have a job to do."
"You're right." Tukson stood up and slipped his hands into the gauntlets, tightening them so they fit snugly. He then grabbed his mask - just a generic one, not a customized one like Adam, Blake, or even his brother had - and put it on. "Let's go."
Adam looked out from his position on the cliff, overlooking the railway line. Made of hard concrete and plated with thick aluminum, it was an incredibly sturdy structure. It had to be, to continue functioning in spite of the Grimm.
To Adam's knowledge, maintenance on railway lines through the wildlands was an incredibly lucrative job - which made sense, considering the risks. Though a privately hired Guardian was probably brought along to assist in the maintenance.
In any case, he looked out across the small valley and over to where the other platoon was located. There, on a smaller cliff, Tukson and Baburon - Puma and Jaguar - were watching the line to see when the train would come by. When it did, they would signal Adam, and he could begin his mission.
Behind him, in a clearing, Blake sat on a rock, contemplating something. He had asked her what her problem was, but she had simply responded that she had read something tragic in one of her fiction books, and that she would be able to deal with it for the mission.
I've always told her that reading fiction is a waste of time. In order to change things for the Faunus, we need to stay focused on the reality of the situation at all times.
A flickering light from across the valley caught his attention - Puma and Jaguar were signalling him with their mirror.
-.. ..- … -
D - U - S - T
It was here.
Adam turned around and called out, pulling Blake from her reverie.
"Blake."
Slowly, languidly, she turned to him.
"It's time."
She nodded and got up, joining him at the cliff.
They could hear it now, coming down the tracks. They stalled their approach for a few moments more - no sense in going too early and getting caught by whatever defensive systems they had.
As the train came around, they finally set off, leaping off the cliff's edge without hesitation before landing on a diagonal hill. They slid down fast, racing towards the train before leaping once more towards the train.
As they achieved the peak of their jump, Adam twisted in the air and drew his sword, Wilt before angling himself downwards towards the roof of one of the cars. The passenger cars had long since passed, so this would be one of the cargo cars.
He stabbed his sword through the roof, forcing his body to stall its momentum. He had avoided stabbing one of the anti-Grimm guns, but still, there was no time to waste. There was no telling if he had set off some other sort of alarm.
Blake landed nimbly behind him, using her Semblance to reverse her momentum, a shadow clone disappearing in the air behind her.
He envied her that Semblance - it was much more widely applicable than his own. His own allowed him to achieve greater strength, but that could be done with simple training.
Still, beggars can't be choosers. Only the strong can decide their own fate.
Once they recovered, they raced across the roofs of the cars towards the back of the train. Blake quickly severed the last car before they headed into the cargo hold.
"Alright, it's severed. Let's move."
Tukson and Baburon rose from their kneeling position and raced out towards the separated train car. They were meant to plant a bomb on it, time it, and then contact the railway authority about the separated car.
The run took a while - even after being separated, it took some time for the car to lose momentum. They had to travel about three miles - a run of sixteen minutes, at their quick, experienced pace - before using some climbing equipment to latch onto the car and reach it.
Superhuman, they were not. For all their Aura and enhanced Faunus physique, they couldn't just make the hundred-something foot leap from the ground up onto the raised tracks. That was more Adam or Blake's speed.
They clambered up the rope, before boarding the car and entering it.
As soon as they did, an alarm rang out.
"INTRUDERS, IDENTIFY YOURSELVES."
A booming, computerized voice rang out as numerous pods lining the walls of the car, about the size of a human, opened up. Red light shone from within as numerous metallic figures stepped out.
The Atlesian Knight-130; about twenty of them,
"Dammit, I was hoping they wouldn't activate. Dealing with this stuff is more of the boss' specialty," Tukson groaned.
"Worry not, Puma," Baburon moved up in front of his brother. "I have been training hard. I will take the lead of the assault."
"Fine by me. I'll handle the stragglers!"
The brothers charged, getting to work.
Blake knew their cover was blown from the moment they stepped inside the car.
Instead of crates full of Dust, they found nothing but a car empty of anything but people. Four people.
A team of Guardians.
They landed and immediately got in formation, standing back to back, eyeing the Guardians. They were stood at the corners of the car, weapons pointing at them - they had positioned themselves well, able to spring the ambush whether they came in from the roof or one of the car's doors.
The thickness and oblique shapes of their weapons suggested that they could transform to some degree, but whatever they could be, they were currently guns pointed at them.
On top of that, twenty of the AK-130's were spaced around the room, with their weapons set to guns as well, also pointed at them.
If they were anyone else, this would have been a bad situation.
After a tense staredown, one of them finally spoke.
"It's over, Taurus! We've got you surrounded, and we're taking you in! Come quietly, or else!"
Hearing this, Adam smirked, and straightened up, leaving Blake crouched in her ready stance.
"Or else what?" he called, right arm moving to rest on top of the hilt of Wilt. "Tell me, are you sure you can take me? Even with these metal toys, being outnumbered means nothing to me when you're so clearly outmatched!"
With no further words, he leaned forwards before he moved, dashing forwards in a blink.
Blake paused to let the enemy focus their attention on Adam, the one that had moved. After a moment, she jumped up, using her shadow clone to teleport into one of the empty storage overheads. She lay prone for a moment as chaos erupted beneath her, the Guardians and AK's opening fire at Adam, a few of the tin cans being cut down even as she crawled along towards the back end, where the two Guardians had slowly moved up to support their friends.
It wouldn't amount to much against Adam - if they were anything other than Rank 3's they would almost certainly die - but still, Blake felt that she should do her part as well.
She rolled over and fell to the floor, catching herself quietly behind the two she had marked as her targets. They were still shooting at Adam, his Redsteel flickering crimson light in the distance at the other end of the car, flashing as he struck and sheathed Wilt with immense speed and control.
Should I use the cloth to wrap them both? No, they're too far apart. One at a time then.
She drew her own blade out as she crept towards the closest one, to the right of her. The black blade of Gambol Shroud gave off no reflection, no light, as she hugged the wall and approached the girl's back.
Once she got within range, she struck quick, according to Adam's teachings-
When a beaver aims to bring down a tree, he does not do so by chipping away at the top of it, climbing up through the branches and working his way down. He strikes the bottom, and allows the tree to collapse under its own weight. The same applies when you face opponents of an equal size disparity.
-her foot flew out, heel driving into the back of the Guardian's knees. She stumbled and fell back with a cry, arms flailing as Blake slipped Gambol shroud in between her arms and flicked her weapon away.
The girl was no rookie, however, and reached out as she fell, latching onto Blake's knees and pulling her down. Blake flipped her sword over and used the momentum to drive the point into the girl's abdomen. She screamed as the top burrowed into her clothing and flesh, but her Aura held as she let go of Blake's leg to flick the blade away.
Blake lifted her sword up as the girl did so, catching her balance before driving the point down once more, catching her off guard.
This time, it went in.
The girl gasped as Gambol Shroud pierced her unprepared Aura and sank into her abdomen, sliding through her muscle and into what Blake knew from experience would be her stomach.
Blake let go of Gambol Shroud then, letting the girl suffer - she wished to finish her off, but the other one had noticed the scuffle and was beginning to swivel the barrel of her gun at her.
Blake drew the sheath of Gambol Shroud - also bladed, but square, lacking a point - and rushed the other Guardian, a boy.
From the sounds at the other end of the car, things were winding down. She no longer heard any metallic clanking, and aside from the boy she was rushing, only one set of gunshots erupted, followed by the clashing of metal on metal as Adam likely closed the distance on his last opponent.
But she had to focus on her own. The male Guardian had abandoned shooting at Blake and had switched his weapon off to it's melee form - a longsword, no, a rapier, in the Atlesian style. As she closed in on him, he lunged, only to hit air as Blake slid below the thrust. She swung wide, her blade bouncing off his greaves, before rolling on the ground to avoid a series of thrusts. Blake stuck her hand out, pushing off the ground onto her feet before charging again.
Adam pulled out a handkerchief, wiping the blood from Wilt as he surveyed his battleground and considered how he would improve himself further. His foes had been weak, to be sure, but that was no excuse for ignoring some self-criticism that could help him grow further for his war on humankind and the Schnee.
Speaking of the Schnee…
Keeping Wilt unsheathed, he pulled Blush from its place at his hip and levelled the barrel at the leader of the Specialist team.
"Albrecht Schnee. Son of Alfons and Friede Schnee. Your father is the brother of Willow Schnee, which makes you the cousin of Winter Schnee, the Heiress to the SDC."
"I- I guess even animals can learn to read, if you give them enough time," he grunted, clutching his stomach, blood slowly pooling out onto the floor.
"Hmph. As I figured, with your Faunus teammate down, your true colors come out- stark white imagination, uncompromising racism, and cold hearted, as befits your name. With this shot, I cleanse the world of a stain that has gone unchecked for far too long."
"Fuck you, you filthy-"
"Goodbye… cousin."
He pulled the trigger.
The man roared as he caught Gambol Shroud with his open hand, accepting the pain and loss to his Aura in exchange for a better position. Grabbing the blade, he jumped forward, using his shoulder to check Blake's instinctive punch. It went wide as he bore down on her, gaining the upper hand as they fell.
He grabbed her wrist and knocked her blade away before abandoning his own weapon and beginning to punch her in the face, wailing on her with a face twisted in fury.
"This! Is for! Karen!" He screamed, punctuating each strike with a roar of revenge for his fallen teammate.
Despite the heavy blows raining down upon her, Blake remained calm, passively parrying and deflecting each strike as it came in to preserve her Aura. She waited for a moment, just a moment when his attention would slip-
BANG!
A gunshot rang out from the otherwise silent other end of the car, and despite his rage, the man paused.
"Albrecht?" He whispered, turning away from Blake.
Big mistake.
She unwrapped the ribbon from her arms and lunged up, wrapping it around his neck and pulling taut. He grasped at it, but it had dug in, and was too slim for him to get a hold on it.
With that option a failure, he then reached his hands out and began to choke Blake in turn, eyes bulging with fury, fully content to die here if it meant taking her with him.
Blake squeezed harder, and harder, pulling at the ribbon with all her might until-
His grip loosened, and his eyes rolled up.
Blake knew better than to let up however, and kept the pressure taut as she wiggled out from under him, only letting the pressure release when he had been choked for a minute. As she rose, she checked his pulse - still beating - before she reached for the sheath of Gambol Shroud-
And stopped herself.
It's done. There's no need to go that far.
But another part of her spoke up. A dark part, one that had argued with her before the mission. And now that it spoke up again, she couldn't help but think that the voice sounded somewhat like Adam.
It's not done, Blake. It will never be done as long as the Faunus suffer the injustices forced upon them by mankind. There is no place for weakness in the White Fang, Blake. Finish the job.
She shook her head wildly, dispelling the thoughts, the voice of her mentor.
No. We're revolutionaries, not serial killers. I won't kill unless it's absolutely necessary.
She left him there and walked towards the female Guardian. To Blake's surprise, she was alive, conscious, and had pulled Gambol Shroud out of her stomach and began crawling towards her own weapon.
To her greater surprise, she was a Faunus. Brown furred bear ears flopped listlessly against her hair as she reached out, only to wince as Blake kicked the weapon away.
Satisfied that the woman was no longer a threat, Blake began to walk away, only to come mask-to-mask with Adam.
"Finish the job, Black Cat. Don't let our sister suffer to death."
Blake winced at the codename- she'd never liked them. She understood their necessity, but it felt too much like they were hiding because they were ashamed and afraid.
Still, she nodded and turned to the girl - Karen, if the other Guardian had been speaking about her.
Blake knelt beside her, looked her in the eyes. "Karen, right?"
"You have n-no right to call me tha-at," she groaned out in reply.
"For what it's worth… I'm sorry, sister." She raised Gambol Shroud up once more.
"You're- no sister of mine, you shit breathing terror-"
The blade came down.
Author's Note 1:
In hindsight, maybe 'The Scottish Play' would have been a better Shakespeare story to resonate with Blake than Hamlet. A man seeks the ascension of his station through violence, only to find a bitter end as his violence turns people, including those he had sought to win over, against him? Works better for the recovering terrorist to work through. What do you think?
Author's Note 2: Review Replies
CircusControl: Damn, that is… High fucking praise. I hope that the story will continue to live up to that expectation.
Xealchim: So did you just skim over the part where Jaune expressed his clear intent to betray Cinder and Roman, or did you just read Jaune agreeing to work with them and immediately abandon all your abilities of reading comprehension?