Author's Notes;
-Once again, we have gotten into a new year; 2022. Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel. One part of me feels optimistic, one part fears my optimism is probably blind, and another part is utterly terrified. (Okay, I'm mostly terrified... For a number of reasons.) It's a strange feeling. You know what else is strange? Having the first chapter of 2022 start off with and be completely focused on the villains. Who knows? Maybe if I start off with the bad guys, things will get better this year.
Nonetheless, let's begin.
Cinder sat on her bed within her room, forcefully shutting Slave to the Sword.
Alright. Finally done with that awful book. she thought to herself. Damn those last few chapters... Took me an extra week to get through them. She sighed. Fifty chapters. Plus a prologue and epilogue. Honestly I'm tempted to just burn that book here and now. But Salem would likely get suspicious, and I do not want to explain that the only reason I took this book was to learn about silver-eyed warriors. So I'm forced to be a good little girl and put it back where it belongs.
She exited her room, and entered the library. She went up the stairs faster than she did previously, knowing where she was going. By the time she arrived at the third level, she saw Salem levitating a tome into her hands.
"Why, hello. Finally finished with your book? Did you enjoy it?" Cinder nodded vigorously side to side, and made a face of disgust, pointing to her own tongue. "Oh, sorry to hear that. Let me guess, you're more into horror, aren't you?
Cinder briefly nodded up and down. Salem cradled the tome in her left arm, using her right hand to levitate a book from a shelf on the second floor and into her right hand. "You might like this one. Who knows? Maybe you'll inspiration from it."
The Corpse Doctor. Cinder read the title in her head. She briefly looked at the book Salem was holding. What is that book?
The Fall Maiden tilted her head towards Salem, only for her to teleport away before she could ask her anything.
Cinder scowled in her head.
Back within her room, Cinder read the back of the book Salem had given her.
A monstrous man created with the parts of dead men's bodies, brought to life by lightning. she thought. It seems ludicrous. Being able to create life with electricity. But lightning is a powerful element. And it is closely related to fire. Hmm... Maybe I could use this and my powers of darkness on the unlucky minion from the Spider's Web, or whatever the gang is named.
Later, in the torture chamber, Cinder was shown throwing jabs of fire, at the prisoner, presently chained to the wall. She followed up with a few beams of darkness, continuing to injure the poor woman. Spider screamed as her flesh was set ablaze, all before Cinder snapped her fingers and the fire went out.
As much as I'd love to watch her die, I still need to use her for magical experimentation. Somehow I doubt Salem will get me a new "toy" if I break this one...
The prisoner heaved for breath, the smell of burning flesh filling the damp, sticky air of the dungeon. Cinder took her right hand and focused her intent, imagining a small bolt of lightning within her hand. The crackle of electricity, the static of the bolt, and soon enough
The malicious maiden smirked. "This is going to be fun."
"Oh no..."
Cinder fired it at her right hand, causing her to scream as one of the few areas on her skin that hadn't been burned earlier was now singed. With both hands she created a few more lightning bolts at head, including one at the head. She started to create a slightly bigger lightning bolt between both hands.
"Stop! That's enough!" Salem ordered. "She's unconscious."
At that moment, Cinder noticed the Spider had passed out from her torture. Her body was burned, raw red and charred black from the burns. Her muscles spasmed, or at least, as much as they could when she was chained to the wall.
"Very well then. At least..." She coughed. "I have a new power to play with."
"Lightning, I see. Smart move. It's closely related to fire, and can be deadly within the right amount of amplitude and voltage. Keep this up, and your future opposition won't stand a chance against you."
Cinder nodded and shut the door, locking it before leaving the dungeon.
Salem snapped her fingers and the chains were undone, letting Spider fall to the floor. The witch cast a beam of dark purple energy at the prisoner and it slowly washed over her body.
"That should heal her just enough to let her live. I must say, Cinder is doing well with her training. This is going better than I thought it would."
The witch conjured an image, the vision in the black circle being obscured from the audience.
"Well, what have we here? Looks like team SOLR, or rather, what remains of them, is about to suffer the consequences of their actions... It's only a matter of time."
She chuckled to herself as she drained on their negativity.
Aboard the stolen ship SS Salamander, Steve, Frank, Melody, and Amy were all at their posts. The former prisoners had traded their orange jumpsuits for black and white sailor uniforms. Captain Tyrian (or Scorpion as he was known to the gangsters), stood at the helm looking over Frank's shoulder. The moon and stars in the sky were the only lights on the open sea.
"How far do you think we are from shore?" Tyrian asked his crewmate.
"By our estimation, maybe... an hour or two?" Frank guessed.
"You sure?" Amy asked him. "There's nothing but sea for miles!"
"That's only because the sea is so large. Do you remember anything from geography class?"
I must say, aside from their bickering, these Green Chainsaws have been a very helpful crew. If I were a nice person, I'd thank them for their services. But it'd be more fun to kill them!
"In all due respect, Captain Scorpion," Amy began, snapping him out of his thoughts and whipping her lizard tail against the metal railing. "We're not sailors. We have no idea what we're even doing, and I doubt you do either. For all we know, we could be lost at sea."
I hope we're not lost at sea... Lady Salem will be very displeased at the thought!
"We've been at this for weeks." Melody spoke, her voice as melodic as ever. "But we don't even know if we're heading in the right direction or not. What if we arrive at the wrong destination?"
"It would be better than being stuck out here forever." Frank told her.
"Land ho!" Steve cried from down below.
On the lowest deck, he was shown with a telescope in his left hand.
"Yahoo!" Melody exclaimed.
"Hooray!" Amy cheered.
Tyrian grinned. "Excellent news."
And as we get closer to the shore, they get closer to their demise!
The ship continued forward and was docked within the hour. As Melody dropped the anchor, Frank pressed a button, lowering the drawbridge.
"Here we are, Captain." Frank told him. "The village of Aslolis."
Excellent... the captain thought.
At that moment, as Frank was about to go down the drawbridge and everyone else lined up, Tyrian unfurled his scorpion tail and stung Frank. Immediately after poisoning, he was pushed off the ledge and into the water. Soon he did the same to Steve, who was standing nearby before his corpse fell into the water. Melody tried to run away, but didn't make it even three feet before she suffered the same fate. Amy, however, did not go down quietly.
The lizard faunus girl jumped back, shouting, "You traitor!" From the opposite side of the lower deck, she threw a few knives at him, only for him to unfurl The Queen's Servants and block them all. "Explain yourself!" She pulled out a pipe, using it as a sword. "We helped you to get here!"
"That is true, and while I should thank you, it would be more fun to kill you." He pushed her back. "You're no longer of any use to me and I work better alone."
With this, he stung her and slashed her across the chest.
"How easy it is to kill them." He picked up the dead woman in his arms and walked with her to the drawbridge. "Pretty soon, Miss Rose will be in my arms once again. And this time, she won't get away!"
He dropped her into the water, her corpse sinking into the sea alongside her fellow dead gang members farther down below.
Back above the surface, Tyrian exited the ship.
Time to do some digging around and find their trail.
The former captain ran from the docks and into the night.
Meanwhile, Adam, Ares, Athena and Wungeng were finishing a meeting. Hazel had already left, and all of them were thankful that he was no longer there.
"They have a lead on who the keyholder is, but they still haven't found her..." Ares stated.
Wungeng took a chip from his platter of pork nachos. "I'm beginning to question the competence of our so-called friend."
Athena was dismayed. "You're just now questioning it? And why are you always eating junk food?"
"You're questioning my life choices?" He spoke with a mouthful of chips. "You know full well why I joined the White Fang. So let me ask you this; Why did you end up joining the White Fang?"
The owl-winged faunus faltered, turning sorrowful as he swallowed his food. "I'm doing this... for my brother."
Ares raised an eyebrow. "Your brother? I thought you said you were an only child."
"I did, but I wasn't always an only child."
"So what happened?"
"It's a long story. And there's a bit of pretext required. My brother was a lot older than I was during the time he was alive. He was twenty three on the day it happened, and I was only six. The reason for this seventeen year gap is that I was the surprise child of my parents. Valerie and Henry Bruna were simple retail workers, cat clawed and lizard tailed respectively. But Bruno wanted more for himself. He wanted to make a difference in the world, for faunus and humans alike, so he chose at an early age to become a huntsman. At seventeen and a half, right as I was born, he started his journey at Haven Academy, becoming a member of what was once team CUBB (Cubeb) of the year 57 AGW. Not to be confused with the female graduate team of 78 that was found dead several weeks ago. This team CUBB was all male, and had one faunus member; my brother. They were good friends, but ultimately, had different desires in life. As such, the team split soon after graduation and official licensing.
She showed an image of her brother.
He had brown eyes and fair skin much like his younger sister. Unlike Athena, Bruno had shaggy brown hair and short bangs and a pair of dog ears atop his head. His combat attire consisted of dark chocolate colored pants and a light brown button up with a coffee cream undershirt. He wore black combat boots and had a gun by his right side on a dark grey belt.
"For my brother, this meant traveling to the kingdom of Atlas. He believed that by working in Atlas that he could make a difference for the faunus living there, and hopefully improve the relations between them and the humans living there. During his journey, he met a lovely lady named Pearl Callows. She was a spider fanged faunus, who actually has deadly venom. She wasn't a huntress, but she was skilled in the art of aura and combat to take down foes. They first met when Pearl was surrounded by Grimm, and the two fought them off together. To thank him for helping her, she treated him to coffee and pastries at a local coffee shop in her hometown; a small village in the northwest called Normandouen.
She got out an image of Pearl Callows.
The spider fanged faunus appeared to be between the ages of 18-20. She had short white hair, blue eyes, and very pale, almost snowy skin. Her combat attire consisted of black fishnet stockings, a snow blue miniskirt, a short sleeved white shirt with light blue sleeve cuffs, snow blue fingerless gloves and white boots.
"The two hit off instantly, and as a result, started taking more missions in the village, which mostly involved catching criminals. He was pretty good at it too, with only one criminal eluding him and everyone else; a man named Gorlois Moss. But that is for another day.
"After a year and a half of dating, Bruno proposed to her. She said yes, and so wedding preparations began. The faunus community in Normandouen wasn't exactly very big compared to the major cities, but they were all well connected. Nearly every faunus was there, as well as a few humans who were close friends with the families and/or the guests. The only major person of importance who wasn't there was Tyrian Callows, Pearl's younger brother. The reasons were never clearly stated, only that he was having his own problems and stated something about strange symbols. Whatever that meant. Nonetheless, the two were gathered with family and friends on March 15th, 60 AGW, in the Sanguine Cathedral. Unfortunately, that day marked the worst day of Pearl's life and mine.
"Just as the two lovebirds were saying their vows, a quintet of human supremacist criminals came in and caused massive chaos. Ten faunus were killed on that day, including my brother and Pearl's parents. Bruno did not go down quietly, but when he did die, it was a shock to us all. Nearly twenty more people, mostly faunus, were injured. Albeit Pearl did not have her weapon, she was sorrowful and furious upon seeing Bruno killed. In her rage, she knocked one down, stole their gun and murdered four of them right where they stood. But the fifth one, an unnamed dame with a blonde ponytail, got away. To this day, they still haven't caught or identified her. My parents were injured trying to protect me, and as such forced me to unlock my aura and start combat training. This incident was referred to as the "Wedding Massacre", which would have many consequences, both short-term and long-term, including fueling the fires of the Faunus Rights Revolution."
Ares looked at his girlfriend with a mixture of concern and sadness. "What happened to Pearl?"
"Pearl's psyche... started to crumble as her heart was consumed with rage. Her relationship with her brother began to deteriorate even further. But while Tyrian turned inward, Pearl lashed out at the world in anger. One made her crimes known to everyone, while the other worked in the shadows. Tyrian became criminally insane, or perhaps he was that way all along, and committed a series of murders in Atlas and went on a massive crime spree across Anima, including murder, assault and kidnapping. He was eventually caught by Atlesian and Mistralian authorities as well as a huntsman named Figaro Pickerel. He was supposed to transport Tyrian from the Catacombs Correctional Facility in Mistral to the Cold Stone in Atlas, the kingdom's harshest prison in Atlas city. However, for unknown reasons, he refused and things went awry during the transport as the airship was attacked by Grimm. It was believed that Tyrian was dead, but sometime later, Pickerel was found dead in his home. To this day, no one knows where Tyrian truly is, other than that he is in no way associated with Pearl or the White Fang.
"As for Pearl herself, she created a devastating tradition. Every year on March 15th, the anniversary of the "wedding Massacre", she would murder ten innocent humans. One to represent the ten faunus killed. She also killed one member of the SDC Executive board or one of their business partners, to represent the one who got away. At some point, she fused her engagement and wedding rings together, and incorporated it into her rogue warrior combat gear. We became close friends as well, and even helped me with aura and combat training. Nonetheless, she did these annual murder sprees for many years. Eventually the original Atlesian White Fang leader, Skyla Morris, was impressed with her and sought her out to recruit her for the White Fang, and she accepted. A year later, she took over leadership, allowing Skyla to comfortably retire. Pearl led them for six and a half years, and was regarded by many within the Fang as better than her predecessor."
Athena got out another image of Pearl.
She was a few years older, and by this point, had joined the White Fang. Pearl had donned a white furred tailcoat with a navy blue undershirt, white pants and white furred combat boots. Her engagement and wedding rings were fused together into one ring, worn on her left ring finger.
Wungeng appeared confused. "So what happened to Pearl again?"
"I'm getting there. Pearl was a great leader, and she was one of my closest friends growing up. But it would not last. During one of her murder raids, she killed Charles Blanche. He was the Vice President of the SDC at the time, and eventually it would come back to bite her in the butt. Six years later, his daughter, twelve years old at time, learned the truth from one of her uncles, and she sought vengeance.
"December 18th, 75 AGW. Claire Blanche finds the main White Fang fortress on the outskirts of Aramoor and begins her invasion. She had no aura skills nor was she formerly trained in weaponry, but she did have years of hand to hand combat and self defense training. Armed with only a sword that would later be christened as Glache Blanche, she tore through Pearl's forces like a demon, and soon confronted the leader. The two engaged in a fight that by all accounts, Pearl should have won. But then the near impossible happened; that pesky little girl unlocked her aura and her semblance under pressure. But Claire Blanche did not seek to kill her. She stated in an interview that she "...wanted Pearl to feel the pain and understand what she had done to her and all the families of her victims." With her newfound power and a few more blows, Pearl was defeated.
"However, the aftermath was not so simple, for Claire or the White Fang. There were many details of the report that weren't fully known to the public right away, including Claire's semblance. In fact, her semblance would not be known to the public eye until nearly two years later, during the final round of the Vytal Festival Tournament of 77. She also stated that she was 'grounded for life' by her mother for her reckless stunt. She used her time wisely, practicing swordplay with a wooden rod, and using the book Aura101- the basics of aura and advanced techniques of aura and its uses to learn everything about aura. Because she had so much time, she learned not only the basic level that all huntsmen and trainees achieve, but obtained a higher level than most of her future peers. She is regarded as an aura master, and because of it, is arguably considered as skilled as Pyrrha Nikos, the latter notable for exceptional combat skills. Nearly one year after the raid of the White Fang Fortress, shortly before Claire turned thirteen, Ironwood came to her personally and offered her the once in a lifetime chance to attend Atlas Academy, and obviously, she accepted. And now, that pesky girl is about to graduate at the end of the year!"
"So you hate her." Adam concluded.
"Like you wouldn't believe. Claire doesn't deserve her position, or her friends or anything she has really. And there are a few people outside the Fang that agree with me. She has many adversaries in and out of Atlas Academy. However, most of those in the first group backed off after her victory in the Tournament of 77. The only reason that little princess is roaming the halls of Atlas is because she got lucky. She's spoiled rotten, and despite having her father leaving behind a ton of money, she didn't even have to pay for her tuition thanks to that one-of-a-kind scholarship! And I swear if I ever get my hands on her, I will make her pay for what she did!"
She seethed with anger before Ares asked, "Um, Athena? The aftermath?"
"Oh right. As for the Atlesian branch of the White Fang, they were weakened after Claire's attack and the arrest of Pearl. Laverna, her previous lieutenant, learned of Pearl's status via the news within mere hours of her leader's arrest. She was shocked and angered, but she knew retaliation would not be the right move. She moved the main base to Mantle and started planning from there. For a while, Atlas was in a state of relative peace. But it didn't last long.
"Nonetheless, Pearl's downfall impacted all of us. Immediately after the massacre, I had my aura unlocked by a wise faunus sage so I could fight and defend myself. At age ten, I started to learn combat as well. After fifteen years of combat training, I joined the White Fang and was immediately accepted as a specialist due my high level of skills. It took me two months to become Maura's lieutenant, but once I had that power, I was able to frame her and proceed with my plan to take power over the Mistralian branch.
"While working to become her lieutenant, I also happened to meet fellow specialist Ares during a mission to steal dust from the SDC Headquarters in Kuchinashi. Maura noticed we worked well together, and assigned us for a few more missions. One of those missions, an attempt to steal dust from Grand Industries, went horribly wrong. Turns out GI has better security than the SDC does. So as we ran from the guards, we found ourselves near a cliff. They closed us off and we were surrounded. Knowing that I had wings, and could easily fly away, he told me to save myself, but I refused to abandon him. During the fight, he was knocked down to having no aura and was shoved off the cliff. I tried to dive down, only for one of them to lasso my leg. I knew it was a risky move, but I had no choice; I cut myself free and fell down.
"Trying to reorient yourself and fly while falling backwards is no easy feat, but somehow, I did it, and saved Ares from certain death. It was then and there that I realized how I truly felt about him. I told myself I'd never fall in love, but I fell fast and fell hard. I told him the truth that day. Fortunately, he felt the same and he didn't even rat me out when he discovered my plans to take out Maura. In fact, he told me that he secretly hated her and that I would be a better leader than she would ever be. Alas, despite my intelligence, skills and luck in having Ares by my side, things haven't been as easy as I would have thought.
"Everyone and their mother knows that I was defeated by Ash Nikos at Sanctum Academy, and from there, paving the path to power became much more difficult. Had it not been for Ares and the five remaining Revolutionist specialists, the Loyalists would have won the Mistralian White Fang Civil War, and I would most likely be dead. But the what ifs matter little now. What matters now is taking this kingdom by storm, making humanity pay for their crimes, and if possible, getting revenge on the Schnees. Pretty soon, all of Mistral will be bowing at my feet, and the humans will be begging for mercy.
"Those who were at the wedding massacre will never forget the horrible tragedy that started this all. It has been twenty years since my brother was killed. The one who got away still roams free, and for these and many other reasons, faunus still live in fear. This human-run society is broken, ruined and deserves to be destroyed. Faunus shouldn't have to live in fear. Humans should fear us."
Wungeng gave her a puzzled look. "Aren't the Schnees pretty powerful though?"
"Winter and Weiss are, but Whitley will be easy pickings guaranteed." she answered. "To best of my knowledge, his aura is locked, and therefore can't use his semblance, and he has no combat skills. He probably doesn't even carry pepper spray, relying on his 'security' to do the job."
"Are you sure?" he asked, before stuffing some chips into his mouth.
Athena nodded with a smirk. "Positive. He has no plans to go to combat school, and only plans to follow in the footsteps of his father."
All the while, Whitley Schnee was shown meditating within his room. He sat lotus position on his bed, breathing in and out. As he was shown breathing, the light of the full moon poured in through the glass door. Slowly but surely, the moon shone down upon him. As the moonlight was draped over his closed eyes, he continued his rite. The moon was shown pulsing with light as the camera faced away from the youngest Schnee and there was a flash of white within the room.
The heir opened his eyes and smiled contentedly.
Well, it appears all of my hard work has finally paid off. Perhaps the moon truly is good for manifestation, even if it is broken. He smirked. I know someone who would love to hear this.
Unfolding his legs and standing up from the bed, he got out his scroll and looked through his contacts. Soon he found Iris Khloris. He pressed the number and dialed up a video-chat call. A ring was heard as he waited for her to answer. Another ring.
Soon after the second ring, Iris was shown in her dorm with yellow eyes and a paintbrush in her hand.
"Oh, hello there." She set the paintbrush on a palette, tipped back into a light purple. "I wasn't expecting to hear from you at this hour."
"My apologies if I disturbed you. Were you in the midst of an important task?"
A painting with a yellow and orange background was shown, this time with more small purple rays than pink and the foreground consisted of a field of green grass, with several small blades present. "Well I was painting The Rebirth of Dawn, but other than that, I'm not really occupied. So what's up?"
He grinned. "I have some very good news to share with you."
Iris looked at her friend with a curious smile. "Really? What is it?"