Chapter 34: The Beginning of the End
Gunfire rang out in the distance. None of Lord Ozpin's soldiers knew where the tide of Grimm had come from, but all they were focused on now was keeping it away from Beacon. After the losses they had suffered at the fortress, the task was more difficult than they were used to.
Those who were not fighting the Grimm horde off were frantically putting out the fire at the laboratory, using hoses to douse the flames. Medical personnel retrieved one person from the wreckage in terrible shape, and found the charred body of another nearby, along with what looked like footprints in the ash. A collection of other corpses and body parts were found as well, though they had been dead long before that night.
Lord Ozpin sat at his desk, the sound of yelling, fighting, and working heard outside his window. He put away his personal Scroll, which had just informed him of Haven Penitentiary's fall. He exhaled deeply, his hands clenched with his fingers laced together. He was lost in thought.
That thought was interrupted when the heavy doors to his office swung open with loud creaking. He glanced up at the intrusion, his eyes briefly darkening before snapping back to normal. He exhaled again as he saw the figure in the doorway.
She was panting heavily, covered in ash and blood. Her clothes had almost completely reduced to soot and scrap, clinging together by threads. Her arms and legs were scorched, lined with blisters and crackling skin. Her face was bruised and covered in ash, as well as lined with cuts and scrapes. One of her eyes was swollen shut. Her usually long, red cape was burned into a black, frayed rag clamped around her neck. Her breath was raspy and strained, and she limped across the room to Lord Ozpin's desk, almost collapsing in the chair on the other end.
"You look terrible," Lord Ozpin said nonchalantly.
"Y-yeah, I feel terrible too," Ruby wheezed, coughing into her hand.
"And the… Resistance… got away again?" Lord Ozpin asked with a sound of disapproval.
The slightest grin formed on Ruby's injured face. "Not all of them," she said.
"I see," Lord Ozpin said before pushing back from his desk and standing up, turning away from Ruby and looking out the window behind him.
"M-motherfuckers blew it all up right in front of me, let the rest fall on top," Ruby muttered. "Probably have your little experiment to thank for me still being alive." She huffed and looked at the ground. "Oh, and your gung-ho medical staff p-picked up Yang. You know how many years I've had her clinging to life? And now she's getting patched up somewhere. I'd go slaughter your entire medical staff and stop it right now if I didn't hurt so fucking badly." She inhaled sharply, trying to catch her breath after saying so much at once.
"You managed to drag yourself here," Lord Ozpin said almost dismissively.
Ruby leaned back in the chair. "Yeah, but truth be told, Ozzy, I don't know if I've got the strength to pick up my scythe at the moment. And honestly? Some medical treatment sounds kinda nice right about now." She coughed again.
"And I assume that rather large amount of Grimm is your doing?" Lord Ozpin asked.
Ruby groaned and slapped her forehead. She winced, instantly regretting it. "Fuck, I forgot all about them."
She glanced up at Lord Ozpin, who was silent, looking out the window at the night sky. Her expression turned to one of inquiry.
"Gotta say, Oz, I'm a little confused," she admitted, clearing her throat of ash. "A bunch of your troops have been killed. The laboratory that sat at your godsdamned doorstep has been blown up, along with all the little projects you had going on inside. Plus I heard that Haven was liberated. With all that in mind, and considering the type of guy you are, I'd think you'd be furious right about now."
"There have been losses tonight," Lord Ozpin replied, not turning away from the window. "But there have been far greater accomplishments. Goals that I have been working towards for quite some time have been reached tonight. I could rage over the things that have not gone according to plan, but all of them were trivial sacrifices. To put simply, miss Rose…" He finally turned and looked at Ruby. "I am in too good of a mood."
The campfire crackled and popped. Blake felt its warmth as she examined the map on the table in front of her. She heard the chatter and workings of the White Fang around her, but was so engrossed in thought that she payed them no mind. She barely heard someone approach from her right.
"High Leader Belladonna?" Ilia asked, startling Blake from her thought. She looked up at her friend, flanked by two other members.
"Yes, what is it?" she asked.
"We just got major news from some of our scouts out south. There was an attack at Beacon."
Blake stood up straight. "What?" she inquired.
Ilia nodded. "We don't have confirmations, but what we've gathered is that the Resistance staged an attack on Beacon Laboratory, and they succeeded. They blew it up."
Blake thought for a moment. "If the Resistance were at Beacon… that means Adam was there with them."
"Well," an obnoxious voice said. Sun slid next to Blake. "What are we waiting for? Let's go get 'em."
"We will," Blake growled. "The full might of the White Fang will move in on them, and Adam will finally pay."
One of the White Fang members next to Ilia glanced up and over his leader's shoulder. A crowd of other White Fang members had formed, all with red smears on their shoulders, listening in. He nodded, and Perry pushed his way through the crowd to the front, approaching Blake from behind.
"We have issue with that, High Leader Belladonna," he said loudly.
Blake slowly turned around, an angry scowl hidden under her mask. Ilia looked surprised, and Sun huffed and backed away by a few steps.
"What?" Blake growled.
"Your obsession with Taurus," Perry continued. "Your need for revenge against him has… stifled the White Fang. And you've made questionable decisions because of it."
"You dare question me?" Blake clenched her left hand into a fist as her right reached for her weapon on her back. "I should shoot you where you stand. If you knew what he did to me…"
Perry pointed at her. "There. Right there. You'd shoot me, a fellow Faunus, the ones you claim to want to liberate and protect, for disagreeing with you? It sounds like you really don't have the interests of Faunus at heart."
Blake hesitated. He had a point, but she refused to take this insubordination. "The Faunus… mean everything to me. Not just our liberation, but our pride! And Adam Taurus damaged that pride!" She lowered her hand. "I will hear no more." She looked out to the crowd that had gathered. "Detain him, and tie him to one of the trees for the night. Maybe then he can reflect on all I've done for this group."
As Blake waited for someone to step forward, she saw no one do so. Ilia stepped forward next to Blake.
"You heard her!" Ilia demanded. "Your High Leader has given orders!"
There was a brief moment of silence, then the man with sideburns stepped forward. "Frankly," he said. "We agree. Blake Belladonna is not fit to be High leader of the White Fang."
Ilia reached down and retrieved her whip from her belt, cracking it in the night air. "It's treason, then! I'll personally see you hanged!"
"It's not treason," the girl with the antlers said. "It's revolution."
"Stop!" a pig girl shouted. "High Leader Belladonna just wants what's best for us!"
A few murmurs of support joined in, but not the majority of the group. There was an uncomfortable pause.
Suddenly, Ilia cracked her barbed whip at the girl with antlers, slashing her across her chest. Her shirt tore and blood splashed as she cried out, falling to her knees and clutching her chest. Before Blake could even reprimand her friend, one of the White Fang members who had been behind her lunged forward and grabbed Ilia's arm.
"Let go of her!" Blake demanded, her arm snapping up and yanking her blade off of her back. She slashed forward, cutting the man's throat. He released Ilia and stumbled back, clutching his bleeding neck.
Before Blake could even respond, a reptile man pushed past the others and aimed a pistol at Blake. In a swift motion, a caterpillar boy grabbed the gunman's hand and forced it up, making him fire in the air. The shot set off a revolt, as the silence immediately turned into shouting and clamoring as the revolutionaries and the loyalists clashed.
"Well fuck," Sun said. He ran off in the opposite direction. Neptune stepped out in the clearing briefly, but saw his boss waving him to run. Neptune obeyed and hurried into the trees. Sun followed, grabbing a tree branch and swinging like a monkey into the forest.
Blades clashed and shots rang out as the two opposing sides clashed. The pig girl was stabbed, and a spider girl incapacitated two loyalists with her webs. Blake whirled around at the other man behind her pulling out a knife, and quickly stabbed him in the gut with her blade. Ilia roared into battle, cracking her whip at a lion man before jumping at him and wrapping it around his throat, pulling it swiftly so his neck broke.
The man with bat wings took to the sky, and threw throwing stars from above. Some missed and planted into the grass, but most hit the heads and arms of the loyalist targets below. A woman with owl feathers shot multiple times at him, each shot tearing through his wings. He crashed to the ground on top of another revolutionary, breaking both of their necks on impact.
Several more revolutionaries attacked Blake. One had an axe and swung it at her. She ducked, allowing it to pass over her head, then rose up and ran her blade between the woman's ribs. Another, a mole man, attacked with a dagger, and Blake raised her weapon in time to block. They dueled for a moment, their blades clanging as they fought, but Blake slashed at his wrist, making him drop his weapon long enough for her to stab him through the bottom of his chin. She recalled her blade as he fell dead on the ground.
Blake heard footsteps quickly approaching behind her and turned to fight, but saw it was Ilia. Even under her mask, Blake could see she wore a concerned expression.
"Blake, there are too many. There aren't enough loyalists. You need to run, now!" she said.
Blake did not move.
"Please! Go!" Ilia begged. "The world needs you!"
Blake hesitated for another moment, then reached up and sheathed her blade. However, she did not run away at first. Instead, she reached forward and grabbed Ilia's free hand.
"It needs you too. I need you," Blake said.
Ilia stared for a moment, then nodded and put her whip away. Blake pulled her friend forward, and the two began running. There were shouts from the White Fang behind them, both revolutionaries and loyalists, but they did not turn back. Blake released Ilia's hand and the two ran side-by-side into Forever Fall, ducking through the trees and leaping over bushes. Blake felt the warmth that had been provided by the campfire leave her body as the cold night air took hold. She kept running, only paying attention to the path in front of her and Ilia's panting by her side.
The last one loyal to High Leader Belladonna was stabbed in the heart. The frog girl let out a death rattle as she fell. Her killer, the man with sideburns, looked out at the crowd and saw only those with red stains on their shoulders, and no sign of Blake Belladonna or Ilia Amitolia. They had won.
"The White Fang is ours again!" the man shouted. Cheers rose from the crowd. Perry stepped forward.
"To mark the beginning of a new age of the White Fang, we shall finally do what former High Leader Blake Belladonna suggested so many years ago!" Perry proclaimed. "Our next target is Schnee Manor itself!"
The new White Fang cheered. From shadows, they would rise.
"Well, what's the status?" Jax asked through the Scroll.
"We made a full retreat," Green said. "We suffered some losses, but not as many as we predicted. Lord Ozpin's forces really had no idea we were coming. We caught them by surprise."
"Good," Gillain chimed in. "Head back to the meeting point. We'll wait for contact from the Resistance, and let you and the others know what we hear."
Green paused. "You mean the Resistance hasn't reached out to you yet?"
"No, why?" Jax asked.
"It's been several hours since the attack," Green explained.
Jax sighed. He glanced at Gillain.
"I hope they're all okay," she said.