Author's Note: Welcome back. Sorry things took so long - I update chapters whenever the rough draft of the next chapter is completed, and the chapter after this is probably the longest one so far.
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Sins of the Forefathers
Act the Second: The First Step
Chapter Twenty: First Blood
"Ranged units open fire!" Jaune yelled. Spurred by his command, Yang and the others let loose on the Beowolf, blasting everything they had at it. It seemed to work for a moment- the Beowolf was crouched low, using its forelegs to cover up its face and torso.
Wait, why is a Beowolf defending-
With a roar, the Beowolf swiped at the woman with the spear-staff. Her Aura was destroyed in that single swipe, and her left arm went flying-
Men broken and battered, glass shattered - Yang stood in the middle of them and remembered the crunch of their bones against her fists. More than a few were burned, and one man had blood pooling beneath him-
Blood pooled beneath her father. He carried a body, covered by a white cloak, turned scarlet from the blood. He was kneeling, holding the body close to himself, and sobbing.
Behind him, a woman with long dark hair was leaving, disappearing into darkness.
Yang blinked.
The Beowolf had taken steps towards the group - the girl, Wilhelm's partner, was lying in the grass unmoving near the edge of the treeline.
To her surprise, Blake and Jaune were already engaging the Beowolf. Blake, far surpassing her expectations, had engaged the Beowolf in melee- or rather, it would be more accurate to say she was harassing it in melee, as Yang didn't think any of her strikes or shots were really doing anything.
"Wake up!" Yang heard Jaune yell, and she realized he must have been yelling for the past few moments, trying to rouse them all from their shock.
The Green guy and Pink girl were moving already- using some sort of Semblance to disappear, they reappeared closer to where Wilhelm's partner had fallen, and were now firing at the Grimm.
With another blink, Yang charged, along with Pyrrha. Yang used Ember Celica to propel herself forwards and deliver a quick blow that knocked the Grimm's defending arms aside, then used them again to dodge away while Jaune, Pyrrha, and Ruby began taking shots at its face.
"Focus fire!" Jaune called out. "Pour all your attacks on its head - we don't have the firepower to punch through if we all spread out our shots!"
At his direction, Pink and Green also began to aim at the Grimm's face, until it regained its composure. It alternated covering its face with each arm while taking occasional swipes at Blake.
"Haaah!" More blasts of fire washed over the Grimm's fur as Ruby's partner - Weiss, right? - used her Dust Rapier to attack. Blake jumped back while the fires washed over it, taking a reprieve as the creature covered itself with its forelegs.
With a great yell, the four guys in armor that joined up at the last moment also began their charge. Only one of them - the guy with the sword - seemed to have a ranged weapon, and he was firing while approaching the Grimm.
Shit, are they going to get into melee with it? If they aren't as good as Blake or I am, then they'll be slaughtered!
As the armored men ran in, Weiss turned to Ruby. "Come on! Let's get in there!"
Ruby nodded, but before they could get moving, Jaune ran in front of them while still shooting the Grimm.
"Hold on!" he yelled as he reloaded. "That thing ripped through that girl's Aura in one strike! The only reason Blake's still okay is because she excels at dodging. Unless you can do the same, don't get close!"
"Then what are we supposed to do?!" Weiss yelled.
"Look at its face mask!" He fired another round as Weiss and Ruby looked.
The white bony mask covered the top of the Grimm's head, stretching around its upper jaw from its nose to the base of its ears. It had a few cracks in it, and they noticed as Jaune fired another shot that it was continuing to crack.
"We're wearing down its armor! Ruby, focus fire on the head and we'll punch through in time! Weiss, unless you have any Dust Artes capable of bringing it down in a single strike, use the flare gun to alert the teachers and then focus on restricting its movements with your Artes!"
Ruby nodded and immediately got to firing, while Weiss gritted her teeth and begrudgingly followed Jaune's commands. I hate to admit it, but he has a point. My Dust Artes don't have enough strength to damage it, at least not noticeably.
Weiss reached for the cylinder on her back and pulled out the flare gun, firing it up into the sky before turning back to the Grimm-
"Look out!"
Ruby bursted over to Weiss with her Semblance and tackled her to the ground, just in time to avoid the biggest of the armored men from flying into her. He crashed into the ruins in the center of the clearing and onto the ground, going limp.
As Ruby helped Weiss up, they saw that the rest of the armored men were doing no better - two had been sent flying into the eastern edge of the clearing, while a mohawked third with no armor was sent crashing into the forest.
"We're running out of bodies! Ruby, keep doing as Jaune said and focus on its face! I'll seal its movements with my Dust!"
"Right!" Ruby sped away, running around and leaping onto a branch on the edge of the forest. From there, she got a better vantage point and fired Crescent Rose. One of the shots impacted the edge of its eye, and it howled a roar before abandoning Blake and running at Ruby.
Unable to contain herself, Weiss swore - "Damn! RUBY!" - and launched a salvo of ice spears at the Grimm.
As the creature ran for Ruby, dodging Weiss' Dust Arte, Pyrrha and Blake ran after it.
"Pyrrha!" Jaune yelled as he ran and fired alongside them. "Can you block its hits?"
Pyrrha nodded. "I should be able to!"
"Focus on parrying! You and Blake harass it, keep it stuck in one spot! Then Weiss can trap it with her Dust!"
"On it!"
She and Blake ran forward, in front of the Grimm. Pyrrha fired a pinpoint shot directly into its nostrils and it roared, rearing up before taking a swipe at her.
Pyrrha deflected the blow - Use the edge of the shield, like father taught me! - and spun in place, delivering a small scratch to the attacking arm.
As she reset her stance, she felt a slight pressure on her shoulder as Blake leapt off her and delivered two quick blows to the Grimm's face bone. Twisting in the air, she landed on a tree then dodged a swipe that tore through the trunk, landing next to Pyrrha.
"Sorry for stepping on you," Blake said.
"I barely felt it. You're very light on your feet."
Blake glanced at her then nodded.
As the Grimm turned to them again, Pyrrha noticed Yang running towards them, only to be stopped by Jaune, who pulled her towards Ren and Nora.
What's his plan? No. Whatever it is, I need to focus on my part!
With a great battle cry of her own to match the Grimm's, Pyrrha launched forward and slammed her shield into its snout, causing it to rear back. She then deflected two more blows and delivered glancing strikes to its forelegs, driving them apart while Blake once again leaped off a tree and fired three shots into the creature's face-bone, fracturing more of it.
A great shot rang out as Ruby fired a shot while the creature's face was open - the great force of her high-caliber round cracked through the bone and dug into the fur, but didn't put it down. With another great howl, the Grimm covered its face-
And Weiss took the opportunity to use a Dust Arte, sending a wave of ice over the ground that covered the Grimm up to its waist, trapping it. When it realized what had happened, it dropped its guard and began clawing at the ice-
Which is when Ren took his hands off of Yang and Nora's shoulders, revealing them on the edge of the forest - Was that a Semblance that hid them? Nora's earlier grenade launcher had transformed into a great hammer, and she wielded it with deft grace as she jumped off of the ground, swinging towards the back of the Grimm's head. Yang pivoted to the front of the Grimm, and charged straight in, driving her right arm forward in a straight punch.
In a great explosion of fiery force, the Beowolf's face-bone, fractured from all the shots, finally collapsed under the might of Yang's punch - the creature's entire head then collapsed inwards as Nora's blow crushed through to meet Yang's punch in the middle of the skull.
Silence descended on the clearing as the Grimm, now headless, collapsed onto the ice of Weiss' Dust Arte before slowly disintegrating as they all did.
Yang pulled back, shaking her hand from the impact as Nora cheered over their victory. Blake moved up and clapped Yang on the back as Ruby descended from the tree she had been shooting from. Weiss moved up to talk to Pyrrha, but Pyrrha's eyes were on Jaune, who clapped Ren's shoulder before moving to-
"The wounded!" Pyrrha cried and ran over to Jaune. Spurred on by her cry and realizing that they'd neglected the other wounded, the others also ran to attend to the various injured. Weiss and Ruby went to the large armored man who'd fallen by the central ruins, while Blake, Yang, Ren and Nora attended to the other men who'd fallen by the treeline.
As Pyrrha joined Jaune, she saw him holding on to the girl's wrist, then checking her neck. The girl had been badly injured beyond the loss of her arm - her clothes had been torn and raked through by the Grimm's claws, and the loss of her Aura had prevented her from healing. Long bloody gashes travelled down her torso and ended in a deep wound in her hips. One of her dog ears had also been torn off, and was missing.
Jaune sighed, and looked up at Pyrrha, shaking his head.
She gasped, and held her hands up to her mouth in shock. Jaune looked back down and closed the girl's eyes, then stood up.
"There's nothing we can do for her. I'm going to check on Wilhelm, the guy who got hit first."
Pyrrha nodded, and followed Jaune across the clearing. As she followed along, she silently ruminated on what had happened - whether she could have done anything, should have done anything different.
...I could have… Could have run up when they did, taken action sooner instead of-
"Don't blame yourself for her death," Jaune's voice cut through her reverie.
"What?"
"It's your first time, isn't it? Seeing a corpse like that."
"It isn't yours?"
"...it's never easy seeing someone dead. But you have to remember that there was nothing you could have done."
"But there was! I could have-"
"What? Raced across that field in the split seconds between the Grimm's arrival and her death? Taken the blow on your shield?" He glanced back at her, then continued staring at where Wilhelm had last been seen. "You're a champion fighter, but you're not a fully fledged Guardian. None of us are. We all did the best we could."
"But we could have done more."
"What? Fired at it to give it pause? Perhaps. But the reality of our chosen profession is that people die, Pyrrha. Don't dwell on your failures, just use them to empower your growth."
"...how many people have you seen die, Jaune?"
Jaune remained silent until they came across Wilhelm- or what was left of him. Pyrrha took one look at what had become of him and then turned away to vomit.
Jaune sighed, and then answered Pyrrha's question. "More than anyone should have to."
Ruby was in a daze. After the high of killing that Beowolf wore off, everyone was sobered up by Pyrrha's call to action for the wounded. While the four men - team CRDL, now - had been okay, only knocked unconscious, Wilhelm and his partner, a dog Faunus named Alison, had been killed by the Grimm. She'd seen Alison's- body, and that had been a shock, but not Wilhelm's.
Jaune didn't let any of us near it, but Pyrrha threw up… Just how bad was it?
Shortly after, the teachers had arrived, along with the last few partner groups that were made into teams. They'd taken care of the bodies, loading them up in their own Bullhead, and everyone had been picked up and brought back to the school.
And now they were here, being formed into teams, and Ruby barely remembered anything from the last half hour.
"Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos, and Lie Ren," Ozpin called them up to the podium.
As they stepped up, Ruby noticed that only Pyrrha seemed to be openly affected by the deaths they'd seen - she had tear-streaks running down her cheeks, and whatever eyeshadow she had put on had been smudged into a mess on the flight. Jaune had actually pulled out some cloth and given it to her to wipe her face off, which was a nice gesture, Ruby thought.
But I wonder why the other three didn't cry?
Ren and especially Nora were definitely more muted than they tended to be in the short time Ruby had known them, but Jaune in particular seemed almost apathetic about the whole thing.
Has he seen… that, before? He and Blake were roommates, so maybe I can ask her. Actually, she didn't cry either now that I think about it. Maybe they both had the same training experiences?
Even as Ozpin declared him the team leader - to which Ruby applauded politely along with the others - Jaune didn't react with excitement or joy like one might have expected.
Actually, he almost seems… annoyed?
She didn't have time to dwell on it. Immediately after they left the stage, Ozpin called out: "Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long."
As the four of them approached the podium, Ozpin smiled softly at them, and even Glynda standing next to him seemed sorrowful, her usual pointed look abandoned.
"I'm sorry that you had to go through that," he said quietly to them. "It should never have happened. I'm not sure how that Grimm managed to escape our culling, but it was our fault that it did."
He paused a moment, allowing them to absorb that, then continued, now speaking up to carry his voice. "The four of you collected the White Knight pieces. As such, you will now be placed on a team together. It used to be that the faculty would come up with a name for you," Ozpin chuckled to himself, "but we got tired of that about fifty years ago. In any case, coming up with your own team name will be a splendid team building activity."
"Ahem," Glynda fake coughed.
"Oh right! And your team leader will be Ruby Rose! Congratulations, young lady."
"What?" Ruby heard Weiss mutter quietly to herself, but when she looked at her, Weiss simply remained impassive.
I wonder what her deal is.
She turned back to Ozpin, who gave another soft smile and said, "Work hard, Miss Rose. This is a great responsibility. Of course, if you ever have any questions, you can come to me or any of the faculty- that goes for all of you, of course," he gazed across the rest of the new team.
"Of- of course!" Ruby said. "We'll do our best!"
Willow Schnee stood at the window of her private office, gazing out at her private aviary. She enjoyed her aviary - filled with rare birds captured from across Remnant, it was her one true indulgence. The heating and maintenance costs necessary to keep it running in Atlas would bankrupt smaller villages.
Her eyes tracked a rust-orange flash across the window - My Antioquia. The Antioquia Brushfinch was a rare find, as they only naturally lived in Vale, in the far South-West of the Sanus continent where Vale connected to Vacuo next to the desert. It was a fairly small bird, able to fit in a human hand, with a rust-orange crown that faded into dark-brown feathers on the dorsal half of its torso; the ventral half had softer, light-brown and white feathers. A single stripe of white feathers ran under each of its eyes, from behind its neck to the base of its small, conical beak.
That far away from any city or village, Grimm roamed freely alongside the baser beasts of the wilds - Grimm scientists and behaviorists were uncertain as to exactly why, but the Grimm tended to ignore normal animals.
It was so far away from civilization that she'd had to hire her retrieval team at triple the usual rate, as well as pay for protection from three separate Handyman teams, because no Guardians would take the job.
Five people died getting that bird… I suppose poor quality is what happens when you buy from outside of Atlas, whether it's products or help.
She sighed as she looked back to her desk, where her second daughter had just responded to her question.
"No."
Or rather, 'No' was the intent of the message - it was accompanied by the typical apologetic snivelling she attributed to Weiss whenever she failed.
To be expected, I suppose. If Weiss partnered up with Ozpin's favorite, it's only natural that Ozpin would then place that favorite in a position of power. Weiss will simply have to work harder to make up for it.
She walked back to her desk, set her sword Optimates aside, and began preparing her response message: 'forgiveness' for her failure (not that she needed it, as Willow had expected as much, but it was what Weiss wanted to hear); basic instructions for her to begin networking in Vale (not that the SDC hadn't already made attempts, but it would be the first time they'd actually sent one of the family in person); and some documents to assist her in doing so, as well as providing extra reading material for her to study about the business.
We'll see how committed she truly is. If she really wants to supplant Winter as the Heiress...
Hidden within the many documents she would be sending were out of place questions that, while related to the topics of the e-books and easy to answer, would instruct Weiss to contact Willow about them - in other words, it was a test to see if she was actually working through the content and paying attention.
If she isn't capable of even this much… I'll just pull her once she graduates from Beacon and have her manage some operations out of the way where she won't embarrass us.
A knock at the door interrupted her thoughts.
"Come in," she called.
As the door opened, Willow took sight of her husband, Jacques Schnee. A tall, lanky man, with a scruffy white mustache and combed-back gray-white hair, he was as well groomed as Willow demanded that he be. His white suit-jacket had a red handkerchief sticking out the breast-pocket and went over a light-blue blazer.
His expression was sheepish, almost afraid, as he stepped into the office.
"Willow," he began.
"What is it?"
"There's… been an attack, just a moment ago."
Willow shot up. "What? The White Fang? Where? Our Argus facility?"
He shook his head, and held out the extra-large Scroll Tablet in his hands. "Mantle. And while it was the White Fang, the bigger problem is how they got there."
"What do you mean, how they-" she paused in her tracks as she looked at the security footage. As she pressed play, she quickly glanced at the walls of the warehouse - Warehouse A113, the one nearest Mantle Mine.
While Mantle was of a significantly lower class than Atlas, the twin cities were inseparably connected, and as such Mantle received significant protection and funding, both from the Atlas Military and government proper as well as from some private enterprises, primarily the SDC. The SDC itself had set up their first facilities long ago - at the end of the Great War, when Brutus Schnee struck down the tyrant Gaius Caesar and assumed control over the new Atlas Military Republic. The Mantle Mine had been mined clear for decades now, and nowadays served as a pseudo-museum for the SDC, to drum up minor profits from the land they owned as well as assist with their public relations, reputation, and recruitment.
The facilities there, however, were still perfectly usable, and so they were - primarily for the storage and processing of raw Dust, imported from the other mines situated across the continent of Mantle.
Warehouse A113, in particular, stored Dust collected from one of their most lucrative mines, the Argus Mine. While the mine itself was not literally situated in Argus itself, Argus was the closest city to it - hence the name.
As she watched the video, dark circles appeared in the air and a woman stepped out - while the image was blurry from the camera's distance, there was no mistaking who it was.
Raven Branwen!?
From the portal came another figure. A somewhat tall man, with red-hair and black horns, he matched the descriptions of Adam Taurus given by those lucky few who had survived dealing with him.
Is this the first time we've caught him on camera so clearly? I suppose it's because they didn't disable the cameras ahead of time.
Dozens of other figures, all Faunus in White Fang masks, quickly came through the portals and began gathering as much Dust as they could.
A bright light came from the corner of the screen, and a spark lit off the wall behind Adam and Raven - one of the security guards had fired at them, but missed. In a blur of movement, Adam disappeared from his spot while his men, apparently used to working while their commander fought, continued stealing the Dust through the portals without pause.
"...she's never attacked us before, at least not directly. And working with the White Fang?" Willow looked up at Jacques and returned the Scroll Tablet to him. "What's her angle?"
"We don't know. We expected some sort of message, especially considering that Adam Taurus himself was part of the operation, but nothing was left behind, no messages or notes of any sort. The only survivor of the attack was the night-shift janitor, who surrendered immediately and wasn't told anything."
Willow sighed. "Ultimately, it's the Empress' fault for not doing anything about Raven or the White Fang. Lucius warned her to deal with them, but she ignored him and now they've attacked Atlas proper. Are Specialists on site yet?"
"They are. Apparently, General Ironwood has sent his elite unit, the so-called 'Ace-Ops' to directly investigate."
"Good, we can leave it to them to find any evidence. In the meantime, make sure the PR unit is preparing a statement, and if the security forces haven't put every other facility on high alert, fire whoever's in charge and replace them with someone competent."
Jacques had quickly tapped his Scroll Tablet as Willow spoke and looked up as she finished. "Done. Is there anything else?"
"Yes, tell Jeoffry to bring a bottle of the Vytal White to the bedroom. Be there in ten."
Jacques blinked. "Wait, now? We need to deal with this-"
Willow's backhand slap knocked Jacques back against the wall. It wasn't hard enough to do any real damage, but against someone untrained as he was, he was reeling. Before he could fall, Willow grabbed the front of his shirt and held him up.
"I'm feeling stressed, Jacques," she began. "This incident is just the cherry on top of a… series of recent disappointments. So what's going to happen is, you're going to tell Jeoffry to bring a bottle of the Vytal White to the bedroom. You're then going to freshen up, and in ten minutes, you're going to head to the bedroom where you're going to put that mouth of yours to use for something that matters. Do you understand?"
Jacques whimpered something unintelligible, but nodded.
"Good." She dropped him, allowing him to slide down the wall onto the floor, and left the room.
Raven sat in the meeting room of Salem's Keep. She sat on the right side of the room, directly next to where Salem would normally sit at her Throne. Across from her, from her left to right, sat Tyrian, Hazel, and Watts - with Tyrian being closest to where Salem would be sat, at her left hand.
Sitting to Raven's direct right were Cinder and Vernal. Emerald and Mercury both stood behind Cinder, quivering in fear despite their attempts to stand still at attention. Raven didn't blame them - it was their first time in the Keep, and even she had been uncertain the first time she had come. Cinder herself kept her eyes low, refusing to meet anyone else's, out of shame for her failure. Vernal was openly rubbing Cinder's back, attempting to get her to cheer up.
Outside, lights flashed and shockwaves occasionally rattled the crystalline windows as a battle raged.
I suppose this outcome was inevitable, Raven mused. Jacob can't help himself… faced with a whole new opponent, it was only natural that he tested himself against Salem.
She glanced across the table and noted that Tyrian seemed to be, for the first time in her memory, worried.
"What's wrong, Tyrian? It's unlike you to be so concerned for Lady Salem."
"I am worried, Raven! If this… Jack the Ripper is as capable as you claimed, will my Goddess then no longer have a use for me? I could not STAND it if I were to be useless to her!"
Raven laughed. "I doubt you will have to worry about that. Jacob is far too… independent, to be truly useful to Lady Salem."
Even as Tyrian nodded to himself, accepting Raven's answer, Watts spoke up. "Yes, which raises an interesting question. Why did you bring Jack onboard? It's bad enough we have to work alongside your… apprentices," he wisely amended whatever insult he had planned to say about Cinder and Vernal, "but if he's such a wildcard then is he truly worth the risk?"
"He's independent, not chaotic. He'll follow our plans because our plans align with his interests."
"And what would his interests happen to be?"
"Killing Ozpin."
Watts raised an eyebrow as he was annoyingly wont to do, as though he'd heard all he'd needed to hear and was simply humoring you from that point on. "Oh, well if that's all that we need, then of course! Bring him on board, it's not like Salem's existence is the most important secret in the world or anything!"
"Watch your tongue, Watts."
"Oh, I'm sorry, am I irritating you? Does it annoy you that I'm concerned about the state of our operations? Our secrecy is our greatest weapon, and it does us no good for you to go gallivanting around the world causing problems, like helping the White Fang steal Dust! Dust, for the Brothers' sake! And you were even caught on camera!"
"Are you going somewhere with this?"
"I just don't understand why you're acting so openly. We've maintained a very low presence for years now, and we're not even half as prepared as we had intended to be-"
"The plan has changed. Our strategic objectives for Remnant remain the same, but we're pushing back our plans in Vale until the Vytal Festival."
"The Vytal- that's in two years! And security in Vale will be its highest at that point! Why would you want to attack then?"
"It's explicitly because security will be at its highest then. With all the world watching, we will be able to sow the maximum amount of discord between the nations. But enough questions. We will discuss our strategic objectives for Vale when they finish outside, and can discuss our operations in earnest."
As if on cue, the great doors at the end of the hall broke open, torn from their hinges as something came flying through. As the doors collapsed onto the ground, a great crashing noise resounded through the hall, compounded by the body that had come flying through- Salem's body. It slammed into the wall with a great crack as the stone shattered.
"MY GODDE-!"
Before Tyrian could finish his exclamation, a sword flew through the room and impaled Salem's chest, pinning her to the cracked wall. Wide eyes flew towards the entrance of the room, where Jack the Ripper entered, walking as casually as though he was returning from an errand. Behind him, the walls of Salem's Keep had holes in them all the way through to the outside - apparently, Jacob had blown Salem clear through the Keep.
"Yo Raven! I thought you said this chick was strong? As far as I can tell, even Luke or Miko would be able to handle her."
"HOW DARE YOU!" Enraged, Tyrian leapt from his seat and extended his wrist-blades, firing at Jacob with one hand as he prepared a swipe with the second-
"Cool off, would you?" Jacob grabbed Tyrian by the face and threw him back through the holes, sending him outside. Dusting himself off, he turned back to Raven. "So yeah, what gives?"
Raven sighed, shaking her head as she facepalmed. "It's not her raw combat ability that makes her unbeatable."
"Quite." Jacob and everyone else in the room turned up at Salem, pinned against the wall, and watched as she slowly pushed herself off. As the tip of the sword left the wall, she fell to the floor and only just caught herself standing instead of falling onto all fours. As she straightened out and stood up, she pulled the sword out of her chest and tossed it lightly back to Jacob, who caught it. "You will find that it is quite impossible to truly defeat me."
Jacob blinked. "Huh. That's different."
Salem waved towards the table and the open seats. "Would you like to discuss our operations going forward?"
Jacob looked at the seats, nodded, then sheathed his sword and stood at the opposite end of the table from Salem.
"You won't sit?"
"I don't play second fiddle to anyone."
A tense moment passed where Raven wasn't sure if Salem would begin another fight over the insult, but to her surprise, Salem simply nodded in acceptance and sat down on her throne.
"Very well." Salem relented. "Once Tyrian returns, we will begin."
A/N: All right! Teams are formed, plans are made, the forge's fire is heating up. All that's left is to place the irons in.
Review Replies:
AK-103: I usually respond to reviews in the order they come in, but you get special mention for being the only one to notice the Touhou reference. Tojiko kinda has to deal with it because as the Empress, Miko wields absolute power. No, Mononobe isn't an arsonist, but a proper Seneschal.
CircusControl: I hope this was worth the wait! Jaune fights in a military manner now because that's what he's most effective with - which is ultimately his primary concern. Now that he's at Beacon, however, he'll slowly start to become more capable with Crocea Mors (which, while not mentioned often, has been a part of his arsenal from the start of the series) and eventually live up to his ancestry.
hirshja: I'm aware that in canon RWBY Beowolves are considered mooks or even slime-tier enemies, but I'm intentionally powering up the Grimm in this AU partially because I want them to be treated as a serious threat, and partially to help explain why the high-Ranking Guardians and Assassins are so damn strong - because they have to fight Grimm that are so damn strong.
Tyler Regis/Nyla Regis: Uh, thanks? I don't think I've seen that much purple prose in my reviews before. I do appreciate the support!
Almighty Spartan: Welcome back, and thanks! I hope this next installment was worth the wait!
hzs: Thanks for your support! Don't worry too much, Yang will get her day in the sun at some point. It's never my intent to bash any characters, but sometimes they walk into situations they just aren't prepared for - case in point, Yang wasn't prepared to deal with someone as experienced in intrigue as Jaune.
Xero619: Thanks!
Nobody: Thank you! I will give a small correction, Jaune doesn't disregard human life, he's simply desensitized to killing "at the moment" of doing so. In the moment, with his life on the line, his adrenaline pumping, when it's life or death - he can take life without hesitation because he's been in so many combat situations that it's second nature to him. But after things calm down, well… that's when the nightmares come.
Chris Adair: I hope this lives up to your expectations! Pyrrha and Jaune training is definitely on the menu, but Jaune won't be using Crocea Mors proper for some time, partially due to his own machinations...