Summer Dawn was a small town sitting on the easternmost edge of Sanus. Its inhabitants amounted to barely one hundred peoples, with most of them being faunus. This place was by most measurements completely unimportant, it had access to no useful ressource, it wasn't located on a major trade lane, or any trade lane at all really.

Those were the thoughts on Griza's mind as she stared into the rising sun. No one cared about this place, and nothing interesting would ever happen here. She let out a curse, but it was soon carried away by the howling wind.

How would she become anything if she was to remain here, doing farm work until her death. What a shitty place, full of... not so shitty people at least. Both her parents were huntsmens, and they had ended up settling down here. There was nothing she wished for more than to become a huntress like them. However this wish would never become reality while she stayed in town.

Maybe the time had come for her to leave this place, Griza pondered. The girl grabbed a stick laying next to her. The hard wood felt good between her hands, like she had something to hold on. She had trained for years using this stick, now if only she could get her hand on an actual sword.

Unknown to Griza, this day would see her prayers answered, but at what cost ?

The sun was now high enough in the sky for Griza to begin feeling neck pains by looking at it. She lowered he gaze onto the plain below, and took a deep breath of the salty air. The morning mist was hiding everything, but she could still hear the sea's waves crashing on the rocky beach not so far away.

It was only now that Griza noticed that she was only hearing this. She couldn't hear the infernal mewing of the seagulls, nor the usual chirping of other birds. Griza took a look around her, yet nothing seemed out of the norm except for that.

Closing her eyes, she tried to focus on her faunus ears. The sea was deafening, but through the noise of the waves she could notice something else. It was faint, but after a moment Griza managed to pinpoint it.

It was extremely unpleasant to listen to, like nails scraping on a dashboard, like claws scraping on stone...

As if they had read her thoughts, the Grimms choose this moment to exit the mist and appear before Griza's terrified eyes. Thankfully it didn't take long for her to recover from the initial shock, and soon she was running faster than she ever ran towards her home.

She had to alert everyone, her parents should be able to help. Someone had to be able to help !

Her hopes soon began to collapse when she saw the first signs of fire in the distance. Tall columns of smoke blotted out the sun.

However the worst was yet to come, and the screaming began. Most voices didn't last long, before being silenced in an horrific gurgle.

Griza was now close enough to see townspeople running around hopelessly. Peoples she had know for most of her life were now dying left and right. Her neighbor from which she often purchased vegetables got sliced in two under her horrified eyes.

Suddenly a nearby glint got the young faunus' attention. She was greeted by the sight of her parents fighting for their lives in the middle of a literal sea of Grimms.

"Griza !" Yelled her father when he noticed her presence.

He immediately began to cut through the black tide to reach the young girl, all while his wife tried to follow with some difficulties. The man's attacks were of such a ferocity that it didn't take him ten seconds to clear the way and reach out for his daughter.

"It's fine... I'm here." Whispered Griza's father as he briefly hugged her.

In normal circumstances she would have reacted with some indignation, she wasn't a kid anymore after all. But right now she was too scared to oppose the display of affection and simply let out an uneasy whimper.

"This place is beyond saving." Said her dad while looking at the burning homes all around them. "I need you to-" He was interrupted by the characteristic sound of an aura breaking. His face somehow managed to drain itself of its colors in the short second before a singular scream of pain pierced the air.

"Noooo !" The father screamed in despair as he witnessed his wife's head being bitten off by a particularly imposing Beowulf.

Meanwhile Griza had been unable to see what had happened due to her dad's body blocking the view, yet she now had a pretty good idea of what it was about.

However the expected sadness or despair didn't came, and while her father was silently crying Griza found herself with the morbid thought that this would probably happen to them too, so what was the point of feeling sad if they would soon be reunited anyway ?

It appeared the alpha Beowulf wasn't very interested in their petty emotional troubles, judging from the fact that he started to violently push away his lesser breathens, killing a few along the way, all the deal the killing blow to the two survivors.

Griza's father managed to straighten himself just in time to avoid the alpha's charge. He then raised his sword and struck the beast in its neck as it bashed its head were he had been standing a moment ago.

This attack that would be lethal for any normal Grimm, was little more than an inconvenience for this one. The monster didn't even turn around to face his opponent, instead opting to focus on the defenseless little girl just in front of it.

The alpha Beowulf slowly opened his massive maw in preparation for the coming meal. Thick dark saliva was dripping on Griza's shoes, and she could feel the beast's putrid breath blowing on her face.

Fear paralysed her, and Griza was unable to react when the Grimm finally lunged forward to eat her whole. However, at the last possible moment, she was brusquely pushed away by the only living being left in this place beside herself, her father.

It seemed however that while he had managed to keep his daughter out of harms way, he himself hadn't been quite so lucky. The Beowulf had managed to bite on both of the man's legs, as well as most of his hips and lower torso.

Horrifying cracks started echoing as the Grimm began to chew on the legs, and a small pool of blood soon appeared on the ground. The intensive head movements caused by this activity caused the sword to dislodge itself from the Grimm's neck, ending up on the opposing side of Griza.

After a particularly loud snap the legs and hips separated from the torso, with what was left of the body unceremoniously falling into the bloody puddle below.

Griza still didn't dare to move, even as her father's screams grew weaker and weaker. She had no chance to win this anyway, yet there was a part in her unwilling to just give up. It was begging her to act, to do something. How could she face all those who had died fighting otherwise ? She could do it, she just had to get moving.

The amount of effort she needed only to move a single finger was ridiculous, but after was seemed like an eternity she managed this small, yet immense feat. Her hand came next, with less difficulties this time. A short moment more and the entire arm followed. Legs moved in an almost mechanical way, and the entire body sprung into action. The Alpha Beowulf turned around just in time to see the girl slide right under his nose. When he locked his eyes on her once again she had already taken her father's weapon and was ready to fight.

This was her chance to prove that her training hadn't been in vain, that her dreams were still worth something, that she was worth something. Tightening her grip on the sword until her knuckles became white, Griza did her best to control her erratic breathing, and attacked.

The blow was clumsy, and weak. So unimpressive in fact, that the Grimm didn't bother to block or dodge, it didn't even blink. The sword was unable to cut through the beast's soft snout and slipped on it. This however proved more devastating that any successful strike could have been, as the blade ended up piercing the Beowolf's unprotected left eye.

The Grimm immediately howled in pain and confusion, arching itself backwards to the point of standing only on his behind legs. Despite this Griza held firm and brought the sword back to her side with an audible squishy sound. What was left of the eye was now quickly dissolving on the cold metal.

Without aura Griza could never hope to pierce the creature's thick skin, not even talking of the bone plates. It was now reflexively protecting its remaining eye with one of its paws. This left only one place to attack, and she didn't like it, at all.

The Alpha had by now mostly recovered from the blow, and was getting ready to counter attack. Griza stood motionless in her fighting stance, sword ready to strike.

"Your move." Joked the young faunus, hoping to provoke the beast.

It appeared to work as the Grimm took a few tentative steps towards Griza, only to stop just beyond her sword's range. Hind legs arched, claws dug into the ground, and finally, the monster opened its maw to roar at her just before attacking.

Griza immediately seized this opportunity. She quickly closed the small distance between them, and with all her strength, threw the sword right into the beast's gaping maw.

The sound of flesh being teared apart registered in her brain, indicating her attack's success. But Griza didn't get the time to rejoice before the Grimm reacted by swinging his arm towards her neck in an effort to decapitate her.

However when she tried to dodge her feet slipped on a puddle of blood and she was sent falling backwards. This didn't discourage the Alpha as it simply slightly lowered his blow, managing to claw right through the faunus' face.

Pain instantly flared up in Griza's head, and it was purely by instinct that she managed to roll out of the the way in time to avoid the next attack. Fighting against the pain she tried to stand up again with great difficulties. In the end she was unable to stand up straight and had to settle for a half crouch while awkwardly stumbling backwards, away from her opponent.

She was in no state to fight anymore. Even moving was difficult now, and the blood flowing over her eyes certainly didn't help. Griza stood as straight as she could, resolved to face her impending death with some dignity.

Wiping the blood away from her face to see the beast that had killed her people, her family, and soon herself, but what she saw surprised her. The beast wasn't moving towards her to finish the job. It was simply standing there, whimpering from time to time.

It then took a single step forward, before tumbling over and crashing on the ground with deafening sound. This was soon followed by an intense silence as the Grimm slowly dissolved.

'It's over.' Was all Griza could think as she almost collapsed from exhaustion. However the silence was broken by a light gasp, coming from her father's body.

Quickly Griza limped at his side, and clumsily checked the body for signs of life. He was still breathing, even if barely so. His heartbeat was already weak, and getting weaker by the second.

Not knowing what to do Griza took her father's hand into her own, as if physically holding on to him would stop him from leaving. His eyes were barely lit, yet he managed to slowly turn his head towards his daughter. He then slowly began speaking in a voice so weak Griza had to be right next to him to hear what he was saying.

"The time has come... were you have to make your own decisions, live your own life... without us."

The implications behind those words made Griza squeeze her father's hand even harder, this wasn't something she was ready for.

"Live how you see fit... Follow your dreams-"

Griza felt a foreign energy slowly flowing through her hand, moving inside her chest. It was changing something, awakening something.

"-but don't forget us."

Light left the man's eyes, just as another exploded inside Griza and she passed out.

"-no use. Everyone is dead." Heard Griza through the pain. Everything was fuzzy and a great light was blinding her.

But then a dark figure moved over the light, hiding it from her.

"Wait lieutenant, this one's still breathing." Said the figure. Griza's half baked brain managed to guess that the bright light had been the sun, and that a man was standing before her.

A massive creature suddenly appeared from nowhere right next to her, and Griza instinctively tried to move away. The pain proved itself to be to great of an enemy for Griza to beat, and she collapsed before being able to stand up. The creature slowly approached her, and when it was finally face to face with her, talked.

"You look terrible kid." Said what Griza now recognized as a man, a bear of a man to be precise. The man in question proceeded to offer her some water, of which she drank some and used the rest to wash her face.

Without the dried blood in the way she could now see what was going on. The man that helped her was crouched at her side. He was wearing a mostly black and white uniform, with the exception of gracious red marking on an otherwise completely white mask.

A dozen or so similarly dressed people were currently around, apparently trying to find survivors amongst the smoldering ruins. A few of them looked at her every now and then, and when Griza briefly locked eyes with one of them, she noticed that the person didn't have two, but eight pitch black eyes.

"It should be fine, this looks mostly superficial." Said the lieutenant while examining her injuries.

"Leave it to your aura for a few days and nothing but scars will be left." He continued in a half joyous voice.

"Speaking of..." Continued the man with his voice suddenly getting darker. "It won't be pretty, to put it lightly."

"I've seen my fair share of ugly scars, and you've just gotten yourself a place among them."

The Lieutenant seemed unusually worried at Griza's silence. Before she was able to react he placed his hands on her cheeks and forcibly opened her mouth. This barely lasted a second before the man let out a sigh of relief and removed his hands.

"Can you speak ? None of your injuries should prevent it, but maybe there's something I missed. I'm no doctor after all. Try telling me your name for example."

Griza stood silent for some more time before finally speaking.

"I'm fine. It's just... a lot to take in."

The man nodded in silence. No word were exchanged for a long time. In fact by then all of the Lieutenant's men had given up on their search and were waiting for further orders.

"I suppose we're done with this place." Stated the man before addressing to Griza. "I can see from your ears that you're a faunus like us. What do you think of joining us, the famous White Fang ?"

"Ehh... I don't want to offend or anything, but I have no idea of who you guys are." Said Griza with a dumbfounded stare.

"Wow, I knew this place was completely... how to say... isolated. But that you wouldn't even know our name..."

The Lieutenant then stared at the girl as if expecting her to answer that this was in reality just a gross misunderstanding. When nothing came he looked even more uncomfortable, but eventually still tried.

"Well at least you won't begin with any prejudice about us. We're like... an organization of faunus... to protect faunus." Awkwardly started the man.

"Why isn't Adam there when I need him..." Grumbled the man under his breath.

"Our leader, Adam Taurus, would probably give you some great speech about faunus rights, injustice, and others things like that."

"But I'm no Adam. There only two things I can promise you, and neither are as frivolous as liberty or equality. With us you will get a chance to change things, to make sure that horrors like this-" He raised his hands to showcase their surroundings. "- never happen again."

"But more than that, what we are is a place were you can feel safe, a place were everyone shares your pain and understands you. What we are is a community, a people, a family."

"So what do you say kid, will you be one of us ?"

Everyone was looking at her, many with curiosity, some with cold professionalism, none with pity or contempt.

"If I join, will you teach me how to fight ?" Asked Griza.

The Lieutenant took a long look at the ruins around them, then at Griza herself.

"You managed to survive this shit... You should survive my training." Was the Lieutenant's answer before he offered a hand to the young faunus.

Without a word, and without anymore hesitation, Griza shook the hand. Despite the mask she could see that the Lieutenant was smiling, seeming genuinely happy.

"Welcome Griza, welcome to the White Fang."

Gunshots echoing through the city had become a common occurence in Mountain Glenn. Generally the cause could simply be found in some daily skirmish against the Grimms, but today was different. The only person shooting on this otherwise calm day was the necromancer himself.

Standing with his mansion right behind him, Kieffner faced the street that had seen an entire team of Huntsmen be defeated. In his only remaining hand he held a pistol of his own design. This world's inhabitants seemed strangely fond of weapons with the ability to transform. Most of their workings didn't abide by any logical rule, replicating them was far beyond Kieffner's abilities.

Despite this he still salvaged the concept on his gun. It was mostly like the pistols used in his own world, with wood being the most common material except for the barrel and the mechanical parts like the trigger which were mainly steel.

With the help of the White Fang he managed to get his hands on the equipment necessary to implement rifling into his barrel, as he was told it would increase accuracy and penetrating power. The rounds he used were the most common for pistols in this world, as producing his own didn't seem worth the assle.

The last notable part of the weapon was the blade fused into the handle, birthing some kind of makeshift axe. He had to straighten the handle to make the weapon usable as a axe. The blade also rendered the cartridge unusable and he had to add a new loading compartment on the side. This not only involved a lot of work but also made his creation harder to use as a pistol.

He ended up with something that was neither a good pistol nor a good axe, as well as with the feeling that this all had been a shitty idea from the beginning. It wasn't exactly a good weapon, but it was still better than nothing.

There wasn't the time to make another one anyway. They would soon have enough explosives to execute the plan. Now he just had to find a way to get rid of Cinder.

Firing all 20 bullets in his pistol at the target before him, Kieffner sighed desperately when none but one hit it. In the end the only weapon he could rely on was his magic, but it wouldn't be enough. A firearm might just give him the edge he needed, even with this terrible aim.

It was honestly really frustrating to see his undeads be better at using modern weapons than him. To be fair most of them still had two arms, and weren't affected by things such as breathing or shaking.

Speaking of modern weapons, their production had been considerably ramped up in the last few weeks. Dust certainly wasn't a problem anymore thanks to Roman's smuggling and Ironwood's deliveries. For some reason the latter had become scarcer and scarcer. What had once been shipped in a week would now almost take twice as long to get to him.

Confronting the General about this was an option of course, yet getting his attention in a time like this probably wasn't a good idea. He was receiving enough dust from Roman anyway. Many caves were now filled with it.

Kieffner estimated this stock could last up to three months in the most probable scenario, meaning fighting waves upon waves of Grimms until their supplies ran out. This time would get significantly shorter if they had to deal with Ironwood or whatever would be left of Vale.

But there was still time before this fateful moment, and Kieffner was determined make the most out of it. His skeletons had essentially finished repairing the city's main wall. The new wall wasn't pretty, but it would do its job.

When this had been done the Necromancer found itself with an army of obedient workers without work to do. This was when a few White Fang grunts, upon seeing the renovated wall, shared their surprisingly extensive knowledge of modern warfare with Kieffner. Those same grunts were now happily organizing the building of a massive network of trenches, palissades, bunkers, and minefields.

Kieffner's dream of an invincible fortress was slowly taking form. He held no doubt towards the fact that one day Mountain Glenn would stand as a beacon of civilization against a sea of darkness. It was only a matter of time, time that was quickly running out.

This line of thoughts was cut short when a familiar individual approached him.

"You know Kieffner, you don't have to be a fighter." Suggested Adam while looking at the almost completely intact target before them.

"You're worth too much to risk your life on the front line." He continued.

"I get it, I get it... I'm only useful as a minion master. That's the truth."

Adam's silence told him everything.

"I mean normally I would be fine with that. It's just that... what if it's not enough ?"

"You know..." Adam began answering. "This woman might be very powerful, but in the end she's still a mere mortal. If I can't defeat her, then you just need to blast her from far away until she's dead. As simple as that."

The necromancer scoffed at this. "Easier said than done. Not like we have any heavy cannon or one of those fancy airships. I guess we'll have to get lucky on this, even if I don't like it."

"Anyway what do you intend to do once everything has calmed down ? I heard you guys are trying to overthrow governments. You might get a lot of opportunities with the fall of Vale and the ensuing instability."

"It's complicated. You can't just coup a government like that. Believe me, we tried. We have to act very carefully. We are still far from being able to confront any kingdom in a conventional war, even less all of them at once."

"Many faunus will die in Vale. If word gets out that I was involved in this... I can't imagine the White Fang lasting for very long."

"Speaking of faunus,-" Interjected Kieffner. "- I wasn't expecting you to be so open with an human like me. I mean someone, whose name I will definitely not disclose, has told me that you're not very fond of my kind. I hope it's not a touchy subject, but could you enlighten me about this ?"

Without a word Adam looked around, before sitting down on a nearby barricade. And while staring at a group of working skeletons next to them, gave an answer that surprised the necromancer.

"You just don't strike me... as human. You look weird, you act weird, you feel weird. There's something about you that isn't natural. I can't say if it's good or bad, but you're certainly not like the humans I'm used too."

"Also, you shouldn't believe everything Roman say about me. My dislike of humanity has been... greatly exaggerated."

"So you're not a bloodthirsty faunus supremacist but just want to achieve equality between your people and mankind ?" Asked a dumbfounded Kieffner.

"If only it were that simple. Horrors have happened that cannot be forgotten, atrocities that cannot be forgiven. I don't think faunus and humans will reconcile during my lifetime. Both our peoples should be left alone. Let us live in peace and maybe one day, ancestral grudges will fade away, forgiven but not forgotten."

"What about Menagerie ? It sounds like they got the 'let us live in peace' part right."

"Menagerie ? You mean this patch of sterile soil sitting in the middle of powerful Grimms ? I'm gonna tell you why it exists. A few decades ago it suddenly became politically inconvenient to simply kill lousy faunus communities. But guess what ? Turns out people are surprisingly comfortable when you instead force those faunus to leave their ancestral land in favor of some promised land where they won't have to fear for their lives. If they then starve or are killed by Grimms, well that's not their problem."

Adam took a deep breath after talking non stop for longer than should have been humanly possible.

"I'm sorry if I bothered you with this rant, but it's not everyday a... human... show interest in our struggle."

"No problem, it was very interesting." It also helped Kieffner gather a good deal of useful informations.

"I hope we will both survive this Kieffner, and that one day you will witness this new world I'm building."

"Then to our survival." Said Kieffner while mimicking holding a toast.

Adam smiled for the first time that day.

"To our survival."

Hello everyone !

Lot of things in this chapter. A new OC is introduced, the unnamed White Fang Lieutenant... is still unnamed. The bromance between our trio continues one at a time. Next chapter should see the beginning of the fall of Vale btw.

You seemed to enjoy the little I wrote about Adam last chapter, and as your benevolent god I answered your prayers. His view may seem somewhat vague, which is completely deliberate as I wanted to avoid drawing obvious parallels with real life. You could argue that Rooster Teeth already did that with their whitewashed view of the civil rights movement, and honestly that's I felt the need to talk about the White Fang to some degree.

Anyway during the last month I got unlucky enough to get injuried multiple times, first during my PE exam and latest with some kind of allergic reaction to an wasp's sting. Always to the hand. Now my right hand's thumb is so swollen that I can't write with this hand. On the good side with all of this I'm getting pretty good at using my left hand.

Enough talking about my problems. I sincerely want to thank all of you. Even for those who never comment, knowing that people read my story is incredibly gratifying. Knowing people out there are enjoying my story is why I am writing at all. So from all my heart I just want to say: Thank you.