Adam Taurus knew he was in trouble. He knew Sienna was coming. It was only a matter of time before her arrival. He sat down on his throne, trying to resist the urge to pace about. He was not going to show more fear than necessary.
"Master Taurus." The messenger came rushing in, trying to catch his breath. "She is here."
"Send her in." He stood up as the messenger opened the doors, steeling himself to face the music. "High Leader Khan."
As she approached him, he bowed down to Sienna on his knees. The leader looked at him with a scowl. "Adam Taurus, do you know why I have come here?"
Behind his mask, he looked at her eyes sincerely yet calmly. "I believe I do."
"Then tell me; why am I here?"
"You have come to ask me about the events that occurred at Beacon Academy."
"You are correct. So spill! What happened?"
"There are a lot of preceding events to the Fall of Beacon, but the most crucial would have to be the first and second matches within the singles round of the Vytal Festival. I didn't get to witness the first one, where someone was attacked in cold-blooded spite in the aftermath, but I did get to see the duel between Pyrrha Nikos and Penny Polendina, in which Pyrrha was tricked into using her semblance to tear the metallic girl into pieces. The world was horrified upon seeing the end of the match. Immediately afterwards, the broadcasts were jammed, and Cinder, one of my allies, made a speech to stir up chaos. In fact, I even memorized her words."
Sienna looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "What did she say to the horrified audience?"
"Her words were and I quote," He cleared his throat before reciting Cinder's speech. 'This is not a tragedy. This was not an accident. This is what happens when you hand over your trust, your safety, your children, to men who claim to be our guardians, but are, in reality, nothing more than men. Our Academies' Headmasters wield more power than most armies, and one was audacious enough to control both. They cling to this power in the name of peace, and yet, what do we have here? One nation's attempt at a synthetic army, mercilessly torn apart by another's star pupil. What need would Atlas have for a soldier disguised as an innocent little girl? I don't think the Grimm can tell the difference. And what, I ask you, is Ozpin teaching his students? First a dismemberment, now this?
"Huntsmen and Huntresses should carry themselves with honor and mercy, yet I have witnessed neither. Perhaps Ozpin felt as though defeating Atlas in the Tournament would help people forget his colossal failure to protect Vale when the Grimm invaded its streets. Or perhaps this was his message to the tyrannical dictator that has occupied an unsuspecting kingdom with armed forces. Honestly, I haven't the slightest clue as to who is right and who is wrong. But I know the existence of peace is fragile, and the leaders of our kingdoms conduct their business with iron gloves. As someone who hails from Mistral, I can assure you the situation there is... equally undesirable. Our Kingdoms are on the brink of war, yet we, the citizens, are left in the dark. So I ask you: When the first shots are fired... who do you think you can trust?'"
"Hmm. Well if she was trying to stir up chaos, she did a pretty damn good job..."
He smiled briefly. "I would have to agree with you there."
Wait a second! He's trying to distract me by shifting the focus away from him! What a sneak!
"Alright, enough messing around. Get to the point." she ordered.
"Anyway, after her speech, the Grimm started to attack the city, and so did we. Shortly thereafter, Atlas drones were hacked and began to attack innocent civilians. No one knows who to blame, really. What I had hoped to do was to defeat Headmaster Ozpin in the midst of all the chaos, to show what happens when humans oppress the faunus. Unfortunately, I never got the chance to carry out this action. Somehow a giant Grimm dragon emerged from this chaos, and rather than risk the lives of my followers, we swiftly fled the city and retreated here. Alas, I can not say that this attack ended with everyone of us making it out of there alive and unharmed. I was about to inform you of what happened, when suddenly the Vale CCT tower had been destroyed."
"And how did that happen?"
"I have no idea." he truthfully answered. "By the time the CCT tower went down, I had already fled the city with my men."
"Do you know how many injures and deaths to the White Fang there were?"
"At over 20 injures and at least ten deaths. There's probably more of both of these events."
"Hmm..." Sienna mused to herself for a moment. "I don't want to demote you, you've done a such a good job as leader of Vale's White Fang before now... But at the same time, you caused a huge wave of terror throughout the globe, painted a bigger target on our backs, and worst of all, willingly worked with humans who don't give a damn about us. Therefore, I'll be taking one third of your troops..."
"What?"
"And reassigning them to work in Mistral."
He reached his hand out, trying to protest. "But..."
She glared at him, folding her arms. "Don't argue, or I'll make it worse."
He sighed and looked down. "Understood, High Leader. I yield. Although, of all the places to reassign my troops, why Mistral?"
"That is because of the events of the False Signal Incident."
He looked at her, his eyebrows secretly raised in confusion underneath the mask. "False Signal Incident?"
She gave him a disappointed look. "You didn't hear of the False Signal Incident, also called Storming the Sanctuary?"
Adam nodded, confirming what she already knew. "I can't say that I have, High Leader. What has happened there?"
"According to what I was told by Maura, several weeks ago, after the annual Mistral Regional Tournament, a group of rogue White Fang members openly declared that they were going to attack Signal Academy in Vale. They said they were going to attack in three days. To prepare for the incoming attack, they called on huntsmen and huntresses from Vale and Mistral to defend the school. When the third day came, they expected an attack. But it never came. It was a diversion to call away the professionals from the real attack on Sanctum Academy. Maura ordered the group not to attack, but despite her commands, they recruited hundreds of White Fang members and angry Faunus from around the world to storm the huntsmen prep school. Everyone knows that Sanctum Academy is surrounded by a huge stone circular wall and the large moat with alligators, so one would think the school could never be invaded. They thought wrong. They planned out their ambush, first by having a White Fang agent, disguised as a teacher, infiltrate the school and throw a specially-designed ice capsule to freeze the water from the moat into a thick ice lake. Then they planted bombs on the wall and blew the entire structure to pieces. Once that was done, they drew down the drawbridge and began to invade the school.
"No one could have seen it coming. They had the element of surprise on their side, and it seemed as if the school would fall. However, the new Mistral Tournament Champion, Ash Nikos, was able to hold back their forces while his friends notified the staff and students about the situation. He lead the teachers into battle against the group of White Fang members and their allies, even if one later admitted, 'that boy [Ash] is absolutely crazy.' While they originally didn't want the students to have to fight, the teachers were overwhelmed by their numbers and had no choice but to accept their help. With Ash at the helm, they managed the defeat the rogue faunus, but as a result of the incident, Mistral's White Fang branch has been weakened and divided. Maura made a video showing her as a silhouette, claiming that the faunus who attacked Sanctum Academy did not represent the will and motives of the White Fang. Of course, many did not believe her, and despite her attempt to make amends, a huge bounty has been put on her head."
Adam stated, "Well, that is troubling to hear."
"Indeed it is. I can only hope she can avoid trouble until this situation between Mistral and the White Fang dies down. Then again... that may not happen. Either way, that is why I am assigning one third of your troops to Mistral. I'll be checking in with you in a few months. I hope that by then, you can get your act together and further strengthen our cause without causing unnecessary violence."
"I will."
He had no idea if he was going to follow through on her instruction.
"Until then, farewell Adam Taurus, and good luck. You're going to need it." She began to walk away, before stopping herself to face him once more as he slowly rose from the ground. "Oh and um, fire those humans while you're at it."
She slowly disappeared from his line of sight. Once she exited, the White Fang messenger closed the doors as Adam sarcastically remarked, "Well, this is just great."
"What are you doing to do now, Master?"
He sighed deeply. "That is what I must figure out."
I promised to make Blake suffer, and I will. Adam thought to himself. Since she was a student at Beacon Academy, she had to have had three different teammates. The unnamed blonde brawler who confronted me is one of them, but who are the other two? And where are the three of them now?
Meanwhile, back in Patch, the blonde who was once a brawler laid there in the guest room of the house. Yang heard the sound of a slash, startling her, so got up from the bed, still in her pajamas and watched the scene down below. She sighed in relief; the slash was just Ruby continuing to practice fighting with her weapon. She knew the sound of Ruby's Crescent Rose, but why did it still startle her?
She briefly turned away from the window and looked at the calendar on the wall.
October 25th. she noted to herself. Four weeks, if you look at a month as 28 days, then one month, since Beacon was attacked. One month since all was lost. She looked back to the window, with Ruby briefly smiling as she slashed a cardboard cutout of an Ursa. Every afternoon, at around 3pm, Ruby would sharpen her combat skills by facing off against cardboard cutouts of Grimm that she created the night before. It wasn't quite as effective as training against an actual opponent, but it was better than nothing. Yet... Ruby's still training... Still smiling. How is this so? She looked again at the calendar. It is getting close to Ruby's birthday. But even then, that doesn't explain why she's continuing to train. Beacon's been destroyed. It's not like they're going to repair it. So why does she press on?
She looked at Ruby's face, smiling as she struck down a Beowolf.
And how does she still manage to smile?
As Yang asked herself that question, she went away from the window as Ruby struck down the last Grimm with a bullet.
"I'm going to need to make more of these... and get more ammunition. Note to self; save bullets and dust for the real deal."
Also, I've done this so many times I could do it blindfolded. How do I spice it up?
As if the person could read her thoughts, a voice said to her, "Well it might actually help if you had a real training partner as opposed to third grade cutouts."
Ruby turned around to find her honorary uncle. "Uncle Qrow!" She threw her arms around him. She looked at him curiously. "I thought you were away on important huntsmen work."
"I was, but I'm back. At least for a while." He turned to her hesitantly, his smile disappearing. "Is Yang getting any better?"
"Not really." She frowned. "If anything, I'm worried it's gotten worse. Everytime I tried speaking to her, she pushes me away." She started repairing the cardboard cutout models with duct tape. "I guess that's also another reason I'm doing this same training exercise over and over again."
He looked at the remains the cutouts. "To distract yourself from the situation at hand?"
"Yeah..." she admitted. "That isn't a bad thing, is it?"
"I wouldn't say so. But the thing to bear in mind with that tactic, is how long can you do it." Ruby shrugged as she taped together the same cardboard Ursa she slashed in half a minute or two ago. "You know, you don't have to repair those cardboard cutouts."
The little hooded huntress looked at him curiously. "Well, what do you suggest?"
"A duel... against me."
She smirked. "You're on!"
Very far away from the Xiao-Long/Rose Family home, Weiss stood at the center of the descending staircase. On her left, at the top of the steps was Estelle. On her right, also at the top of the steps, was Klein. The two slowly descended down the stairway, Klein taking the first step as they both looked at the ice queen solemnly.
"You're going to speak to her?" Klein asked.
The ice queen sighed. "I'm going to try to."
"Should we be present? Just in case... something happens?" Estelle asked her.
"Sure, I suppose. It won't hurt anything."
The three went down the steps, Weiss taking the lead with Estelle and Klein in tow as the three traveled through the hall. After walking forward through a hallway, they reached a gateway with one path leading to the left and another to the right. They went to the left and continued until they found a glass double door. Weiss breathed in, trying to calm herself, and then opened the doors.
As the trio stepped outside, Weiss looked around the outside of the mansion, now remembering that the garden was bigger than she remembered it being. The garden was this wide open space about the size of a football field, with a sheet of snow covering the bushes, potted trees and the entire white stone ground as a whole. Way in the back of the garden were several glass containers with plants that Weiss wouldn't be able to identify. In the center of the garden was a huge blue stone three tiered fountain with flowing water surrounded by an open square of four rectangular glass cases with blue and white flowers.
The young huntress looked to the left side of the fountain and saw a woman at a glass table with matching chairs setting an empty glass down. The woman's white hair was long and flowed to her waist, tucked back save for her curly strands in front of each of her ears. Her skin was pale was snow and her light blue eyes were sunken with sorrow. She wore a long white dress with an unbuttoned blue vest. Her wrist sleeves weren't buttoned up and one could see the white silk gloves she wore on her hands. Underneath the dress, she wore white tights paired with navy blue snow boots.
Weiss hadn't seen her in over a year, but she knew that her mother, Willow Schnee, had changed while she was gone. After staring at her for a moment, she called out softly, "Mom?"
Mama Schnee turned in her direction. "Winter?"
"No... Mother..." she said, her voice slightly shaking. "It's me... Weiss."
She blinked twice. "Weiss?"
Weiss noticed her on the verge of tears. "Mom... Are you... alright?"
She sobbed. "I... I heard about the attack on Beacon... I thought you perished!" She threw her arms around her daughter.
Weiss returned the gesture. "Mom... I'm so sorry..."
Her mom looked at her sadly, trying to wipe away her tears."For what?"
"That I didn't come to see you sooner."