Sienna found herself questioning what she knew. As she continued roaming through the forest, she attempted to organize her thoughts.
Well Sienna, things could be much better. She sighed. At least my period's over. Now I'm back in tip-top shape, ready to find answers. And boy, do I need them.
Without any warning, a vision came to her; Maura Celandine tied to a stake, burning and suffering a cruel version of capital punishment.
Sienna... Maura began. Forgive me, High Leader... I have failed you. We've lost. The Loyalists have failed and the Revolutionists have won... The sun will set for good as the shattered moon brings forth an everlasting night to the Fang. I'm going down in history as a villain, and Athena will take my place. I am the sacrifice, the price payed for her crimes. What's worse is that they never saw my innocence. And they will never see the truth. My days became hours, hours became minutes, and now, my minutes mere seconds. It's over for me... She wanted to cry, but couldn't. I can only hope that my last words will change the world for the better and hope that she does not suffer my fate. Farewell, Remnant...
Maura suffocated and closed her eyes for the last time. As her body continued to be consumed by fire, the sky was shown with the last few rays of orange and yellow at the bottom and a light blue night sky at the top. Black smoke from below rose into the air and the camera turned to show Athena Bruna flying high above the area, smiling to herself.
"At last, she is gone." the owl-winged faunus spoke to smoke-filled air. She scowled as she saw the smoke. "Maura, you have held us back for too long." She folded her arms as her frown turned to a smirk. "'Tis a pity that you won't be here for my finest moment. So long and good riddance."
The vision ended abruptly. Sienna blinked, trying to stop tears.
It seems I've been cursed with dark visions that come and go. Maura... How can the world be so cruel?! She was wrongly blamed, wrongly slain. To prevent herself from crying, she conjured feelings of anger. Her hate for Salem, Adam and Athena, and turned back to other questions. I know can't trust Adam, but could he really be in league with the Goddess of Grimm? What is Athena up to? Where is she? Why did Salem spare me? What does she really want?
The tiger faunus froze in fear as a new thought came to her; How does she intend to use me?
She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't see a huntress nearby her. The huntress had long slate blue hair flowing to her waist, fair skin and ocean blue eyes. In her hair was a light blue comb with blue beads and a faux flower made out of white gemstones. She wore a blue mermaid-silhouetted dress so long her feet couldn't be seen along with a blue ribbon at the waist forming a bow in the back. On her right wrist was a bracelet of seashells and on her left was a band of pearls.
The huntress soon took notice of the White Fang High Leader. "You!" Sienna turned to find the huntress staring and pointing at her. "Stay right where you are!"
Sienna scowled. "Aw crap... As if my woes couldn't get any worse..." She squinted. "Wait a second. I know you! You're Slate de Sena, five-year alumni at Haven Academy and a finalist during the 37th biannual Vytal Festival Tournament."
The huntress grinned. "So you know who I am. Seems you've done your research." She scowled. "Too bad it won't save you."
Slate got out her weapon, a trident-like weapon lined with electric dust, and swung at the Queen of the Fang, throwing yellow dust waves in her direction. As the tigress jumped back and evaded the dust waves, she unfurled Cerberus Whip and attempted to snatch the trident away from Slate. Slate however, saw this coming and proceeded to backflip with her trident in hand, her feet landing on a tree, bouncing forward and trying to strike Sienna down. The huntress aimed for the ribs, but Sienna jumped back and released the first of Cerberus's "heads"- the fire dust blade. Using her trident to deflect it away from her, the blade was sent flying with enough force to break upon impact with a nearby tree and set it on fire.
Sienna looked shocked and even horrified by the events that occurred. The first head gone. This isn't good...
"Now do you see who you're up against, Vicious Tigress?" Slate asked, throwing more dust waves at her.
Behind her, the fire started to spread, but Sienna payed no attention to her environment. "Why are you even fighting me? You know you can not win!"
"Oh High Leader, I knew you were here." Slate answered as Sienna used her chain whip in another attempt to get the trident out of her hands. "Team CUBB mentioned you during Maura's trial. They didn't know if you survived your fall. Unfortunately it seems that you have. And all members of the Fang are dangerous." The huntress's look became colder. "All faunus are dangerous."
Her face twitched, morphing into anger. "How would you know that?! Even if the Fang was malevolent as you thought, which it isn't, not all faunus are involved in the White Fang!"
She threw her whip forward, trying to grab one of the huntress's arms... "Those that aren't involved will eventually get involved!" Only for Slate to step aside. "They all do!"
The Queen of the Fang's anger only grew. "You are really that blind?!" She lashed out with her whip, attempting to strike Slate down. "I can name at least ten faunus I know personally who aren't involved in the White Fang in any way! Also, the White Fang is not evil!"
"Not evil?! How can you justify your actions?!" She swung her trident around in a circle, throwing several dust waves at her. "You and your followers have targeted the Schnee Dust Company, a company that benefits the entire world, and have killed or attempted to kill its board members, including Jacques! Not to mention you've set fire to any shop that refuses to serve you! Maura's lieutenant Athena destroyed half of Sanctum! And more recently, Vale's Fang leader, one of your closest allies, chose to attack a huntsman academy!" Slate stopped spinning, suddenly becoming dizzy. The small forest fire was now growing into a huge conflagration. "You, and anyone else in the White Fang... are pure evil!"
As Slate recovered from her dizziness, Sienna harshly retaliated, "The attacks on Sanctum and Beacon were not authorized by me! I know that as the head of a faunus fighter organization I may seem cruel, but even I have standards!"
"Standards? What kind of filthy animal would have standards?! You're a bad, bad, woman, if I can even call you that!"
Taking advantage of her inaction, Sienna swung her whip forward, grabbing onto her left arm. "You're no better, de Sena! You support an organization that hates faunus, abuses them, and in the worst cases, literally enslaves them! Do you just not know, or do you just not care?!"
"So what? To defy the natural order of society would be remiss. Faunus were always meant to be at the bottom!"
Sienna gasped and accidentally loosened her grip on the chain. Slate grabbed the chain and used it to throw Sienna into the forest fire. She got up, coughing, pushing herself with her arms. As the fire burned around her, Slate charged at her, swinging the whip she stole at its owner and the tigress barely dodged. Slate followed up by throwing more dust waves from her trident at the tiger-eared faunus.
This is bad. Really bad. I need to get out of here. If Slate doesn't kill me, the smoke will!
The High Leader made a mad dash through the blazing forest in an attempt to get back to the clearing. As she ran, she suddenly came to a stop as a flaming tree branch fell down right in front of her. Her heart was pounding and she felt a bad mixture of chills and sweat. She saw Slate not too far from her.
"Get back here!"
She jumped over the flaming branch and continued her dash. Slate used the electric dust from her trident to destroy the branch and she ran after the White Fang's High Leader. Sienna ran and ran, but as the fire continued to spread, she found herself lost in the forest. She soon found herself at a dead end with a large circle of flaming trees around her.
This can't be it. This can't be the end... Sienna held back tears. Will I be shocked to death, strangled by my own weapon, or go down in flames?
"It's the end of the line for you. Maybe you should surrender now. It'll make your death less painful. "
She choked, her voice slightly cracking. "I will never surrender! Not now and not ever!"
"Well, it's your funeral."
Sienna gave her opponent a glare. "You're saying that as if my death would be a good thing."
"The death of a faunus terrorist is always good thing! Besides, who cares how many faunus die? All they ever do is lie, cheat, steal and murder! They're all monsters!"
Sienna looked at Slate with a deadly glare. "NO! You're the real monster!"
She screamed in rage and punched Slate in the face, knocking her back into a flaming tree. She carefully noticed that a deep blue aura was seen on her back, before flickering away as she rolled on the ground to dose the flames. Sienna quickly activated her semblance and as she glowed with blood red aura surrounding her, Slate's deep blue aura was shown to be continually breaking.
Slate got to her knees and gasped in horror. She dropped the whip and extended her arm, intending to do something with her aura, but it was no use. "What is this?!"
Sienna retrieved her weapon and answered, "This is how you meet your demise!"
With her right hand, Sienna swung her whip around Slate's neck and started to choke her. The sea huntress let go of her trident as the air was restricted from her lungs, her aura continuing to break. Rather than wait for her to choke to death, the tigress ran forth, her grip on the whip firm, and grabbed the trident. Using her left foot, she forced Slate down, let go of her whip. In the blink of an eye, Sienna moved her foot off the huntress's back and used her remaining hand to strike the trident directly into her back where her foot once was. Slate de Sena was electrified, lightning shown crackling in and out of her, and within a matter of seconds, she closed her eyes for the last time.
As the forest burned and the fire moved away from her, Sienna recalled the vision of Maura's death and began to sob.
She screamed in sorrow and rage as the forest continued to burn. "Maura!"
Salem watched the scene through her Seer from afar, seeing Sienna continue to sob.
The Grimm goddess smirked. "This is going even better than I thought it would. With Azura Durham and Slate de Sena gone, it seems Sienna is embracing the new role I have planned for her quite nicely. She's taking out more of the huntsmen and huntresses, aiding me in bringing Mistral to its knees, and ideally, sooner or later, the last fragments of her sanity will crumble. She will see every human as an enemy, and she will wage war on humanity." Salem smirked. "She may know of my existence, but in the long run, it won't matter. If this plays out the way I desire, she'll be the one working for me, whether she realizes it or not." She chuckled. "It seems that madness is like gravity. And all it takes... is a little push."
Meanwhile, in Wind Path, Adam and his entourage continued their search for Athena Bruna. They had split up to cover more areas of the city, and the camera showed Ilia being in a four way call with Adam, Douglas, Hector, and Daphne.
"Two hours into day two." Ilia noted. "So far, nothing."
"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll find something." Hector stated.
"What makes you say that?" Adam asked.
"Well..."
As he answered, his words were lost on Daphne's ears as a small rock was thrown towards her feet.
"Psst! Over here!" a male voice whispered.
The Loyalist messenger looked around, put her phone off speaker and followed the sound.
"Hello?" she called out.
"Over here!" the voice whispered.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the speaker; a white-cloaked figure. He dashed into an abandoned warehouse and she followed him. "Hello? Who are you? Why have you lead me here?"
"Who are you? Who are you? My dear, I'm the one that should be asking you that question." The stranger let down the hood of his white cloak, revealing himself as Marrok. "I am Marrok, Lady Athena's loyal agent."
Daphne sneered. "Cut the high-and-mighty talk. She may be the leader of Mistral's White Fang branch, but she's not all that!"
"Oh what little do you know, Loyalist Traitor."
The Loyalist messenger folded her arms. "You're one to talk you fucking hypocrite."
Instead of lashing out in anger like she expected, Marrok kept his cool. He then posed a question of his own. "Hypocrite? What makes me a hypocrite?"
She blew up in anger. "What makes you a hypocrite?! You joined Athena's Revolutionist movement, attack a primary combat school and destroy an entire prison, plunging Argus into chaos! You swore to be loyal to the Fang, and you betrayed your leader by causing mass chaos!"
He put his hands as if he was about to pray. "I did swear to help my leader. And that I have done that." He let his hands down. "I have aided Athena to the best of my ability."
"Athena is not the High Leader!"
"She may not be, but she is the leader of Mistral's branch." Marrok reminded her.
"Only because Maura was framed!" She angrily pointed at him, taking a step closer to him. "And you helped to frame her!"
"Do you really think that Sienna has made any major progress in the last year?"
Daphne's eyes went wide and she remained silent.
Sienna... I know she made tremendous progress during previous years. Well, if Maura's words are anything to go by, but... if I really think about it...
Marrok noticed her hesitance to answer. "Let me ask you a different question; Why did you choose to join the White Fang?"
Daphne gasped and faltered. After a moment or two, she sniffed. "My... my boyfriend... was killed. He was an innocent dog-eared faunus. Never did anyone any harm. He was killed by racist, bigot cops over a year ago. I watched through the window of our apartment in Kuchinashi, how he was shot in the back three times. I hardly had any combat skills when I joined, but I wanted to believe I could make a difference, and prevent such things from happening again. In the end... I'm just fooling myself. Nothing has changed for the better. And those cops still haven't been punished for any of their crimes."
Marrok gave her a look of sympathy. "Aw, it must hurt... to see someone you love, perish before your very eyes. You hide pain, sorrow, and, correct me if I'm wrong, tears as well. Am I right? Take off your mask if I'm right."
Hesitantly, Daphne took off her mask with green markings, feeling numb. Tears lined her eyes, threatening to escape. She felt Marrok touch the underside of her right wrist, but she didn't seem to notice or care that the sheep-eared faunus untied the green ribbon and took it from her.
"How can the world be so cruel?!" Daphne lashed out.
Marrok pocketed the ribbon and answered, "Because we are not monsters. They are." He held out an owl-feathered mask, much like the ones he, Aoi, Cola, Gilford and Tawny wore. "The Revolutionists aren't pure evil. We're lost, broken souls that have been hurt by humanity." He presented the feathered mask to her. "But Our Winged Lady Athena can bring us to the light. With her, we will soar above the humans who keep us down. We will be lifted up from our fears and become fearless. You can't hide it from me, little girl. You're scared, alone, and oh, so lonely..." He placed his fingers under her chin. "Join us, and you'll never be lonely again."
Daphne took the owl-feathered mask in conflicted sorrow as Marrok backed away. She held it in her hands and felt tears come closer to escaping.
My love... Daphne silently cried. Gone forever...
Tears fell from her eyes as the emotional wound opened up again. They streamed down her face, and Marrok smirked. He had her right where he wanted her. As they fell to the ground, they formed shapes of a broken heart. The camera on the lower part of her face, she took the mask and slid it over her eyes.
She looked at Marrok with her mask on and a serious, determined look on her face. "Where do we begin?"
He gave her a warm smile and extended his hand out to her. "Come with me. I'd like to personally introduce you to our savior."
Marrok took her hand and they left the warehouse in a dash.