Volume 2 Intro Song: Finale (Original Mix) by Madeon

Beep beep. Beep beep.

Hedge is awoken by his alarm the next morning. He quickly shuts it off to not wake the others. Some time during the night, the rest of Team HAZL arrived back in the room after their gym session, but Hedge was fast asleep already, something that surprised everyone as Hedge hardly ever went to bed early. He looked around at each of his team members beds to make sure he didn't wake them. He went over to the bathroom to take a quick shower and get ready for his meeting with Ironwood. Even though he got a good amount of sleep, his mind was still thinking about how things would go with the General. He put on his combat gear and grabbed his swords to place them in their sheathes. He did a quick check at the time on his scroll.

"6 o'clock. More than enough time." He started to walk toward the door, but was stopped just a few feet from it by someone grabbing onto his wrist.

"And where do you think you're going?" Hedge turns his head to see who had awoken from their slumber to see that it was Anne. He leads her out of the room and leaves the door cracked open so she could go back inside once finished.

Hedge: "Didn't expect any of you to be awake at this time." Anne places her hand on her hip.

Anne: "I could say the same thing to you. We didn't expect you to be passed out in your bed when we got back last night. Leo won the bet by the way. You should've seen Zion's face. He couldn't keep quiet about even when we entered the room."

Hedge: "Guess I'm that much of a hard sleeper. I'm going to have a meeting with the General. Though I don't know too much about him, I'd expected he wouldn't like it if I was late to it." Anne looked at him with a surprised facial expression.

Anne: "The General wanted to talk to you? Is it more on what happened with that mystery girl, or something else?"

Hedge: "I'm not sure. My gut tells me it's about the Doctor." Now Anne's facial expression turns to that of concern.

Anne: "What will you do if it is that?"

Hedge: "Play it by ear I guess. I have to go." Without much thought, he sprints up to her and surprises her with a kiss on the cheek, then runs toward the stairs of the dorm. Anne places her hand on the cheek that was kissed and is blushing. She smiles and returns inside the room to get some more sleep.

Hedge walks out to the Beacon courtyard and looks up at the three Atlas carrier ships in the sky. Just from looking at them, he could barely make out the one that looked to be the General's. He activated his hover shoes and flew up to the ship. He expected maybe to see any of the ships' turrets to lock onto him as he got closer, but never saw them move their attention to him. When he got higher and flew over the deck of the ship, he almost thought about keeping his shoes active while he landed. Thankfully, none of the ships were in motion, so he deactivated them to land in a crouch position on the deck. He smiled at his landing, but that smile disappeared into a face of shock as he looked up to see a bunch of Atlesian Knights surround him. Hedge knew that Atlas upgraded their droids from their previous ones, but he didn't expect to be at gunpoint by them. He got into a fighting stance with his hands at the handles of Chaos and Destruction in their sheathes.

"Stand down." Hedge looks in the direction of the voice. His eyes are in shock when he sees it's the General walking toward him. The droids lower their weapons. "Apologies for that, Hedge. I forgot to inform the Knights that you would be arriving this morning. Please follow me inside." Some of the Knights moved out of the way for Hedge to follow the General inside to the bridge of the carrier. He took his hands away from Chaos and Destruction.

As they walked inside, Hedge spoke up. "Not the kind of welcoming party I was expecting, General."

Ironwood walked behind the main console of the bridge and turned to look at Hedge. "We're still in the workout phase of the Knights, but for the most part, there hasn't been a problem with them yet. In fact, you might be seeing some around once the Vytal Festival starts up."

Hedge looks around the bridge of the ship, but with an expression of 'Move on to the real reason I'm here' on his face, which the General does take notice of.

Ironwood: "Ahem, but enough about the Knights. I'm pretty sure you have an idea on why I reached out to you and called you here."

Hedge: "I have a pretty good assumption as to why it is you called me here. My guess is you realized a…99.99% potential connection to someone I may have. A certain 'Doctor' if you will."

Ironwood sighed. "Your assumption would be spot on. It only dawned on me who you were when you left Ozpin's office yesterday."

Hedge: "Which is surprising to me given that me and my team have participated in the past three Vytal Festival tournaments, which now that I think about, I don't think we've even been qualified for this year's. Surely you must have heard my full name. I half expected to receive a message from you much sooner than yesterday."

Ironwood: "Though that may be true, I just never put two and two together. To be honest, I had forgotten about the Doctor and the main connection he had to the name 'Badnic.'"

Hedge crossed his arms. "It's not exactly a name I can forget. Hell, it's my last name after all. But it's all I really have to go off of."

Ironwood looks at Hedge intrigued. "If you don't mind me asking, what did happen to the Doctor?" Hedge goes and leans up against one of the walls of the interior of the ship, arms still folded.

Hedge: "Well, I could give you the short answer, but I feel as though you might want a bit more than just that." Ironwood looks at the leader of Team HAZL with a face Hedge can definitely tell the General already suspects what the answer will be, but he gives affirmation to continue.

Ironwood: "Please, tell me what became of the Doctor after I banished him from Atlas."

Hedge closes his eyes. "How long ago did you banish him?"

Ironwood draws back into his memory. "If memory serves, 17 years ago."

Hedge: "Hmm, 2 years before everything began. With what I do remember, he must have stayed in hiding in Vacuo, plotting on how exactly he wanted to get back at you and Atlas. I don't exactly know what he did during those two years before I came into the picture, but he must have been planning on what exactly he wanted to do."

Ironwood took a seat at the chair next to the bridge's main console, fingers intertwined and looking at Hedge. "You said 'before you came into the picture.' What do you mean by that?"

Hedge: "I was getting to that. Fast forward two years, my family was in a local market at the corner of the kingdom, with a 5-year-old me in tow. Unbeknownst to them, he must have been watching them, waiting for the right moment to snatch me away, and when they least expected it, he made his move and kidnapped me in broad daylight. My guess is that no one saw him take me away, or even assisted my family in searching for me."

Ironwood: "What makes you say that?"

Hedge sighs. "Considering the doctor wiped my memory of everything but my first name, I don't even know what truly happened to my family. In the years that followed, I read an article about a Grimm attack that had destroyed a nearby market. For all I know, they may be dead."

Ironwood: "And I assume you have no way of knowing if they were a huntsman and/or huntress do you?"

Hedge: "No, I don't." There was a brief pause as Hedge clenched his fists. "The Doctor took me in as his adopted son, to where I donned his last name. He forcibly unlocked my semblance, probably before he wiped my memory." He lifted his shirt to show the General the scars. When he was younger, at that time it was stitches that were there since his aura wasn't fully developed just yet, but after they were removed, his aura had to do the heavy lifting, now with the scars in their place. Ironwood winced at them. As he lowered his shirt, "Over the next 10 years, I trained in enhancing my semblance, acquiring new ways to utilize it: summoned electrical spears, electrical ranged slashes with any melee weapon, electrical touch, you name it. But I also grew skeptical of what the Doctor truly had planned. At first, I thought he had some good in him, but then I got curious and did some stooping around his laboratory. I found out what his true intentions were." He opened his eyes and looked at the General, who leaned back in his chair.

Ironwood: "Revenge." Hedge nodded.

Hedge: "And what better to use than the one thing that Atlas is known for discriminating against?"

Ironwood: "A Faunus."

Hedge: "Correct. However, when I learned about what he had done to me, I couldn't let him get away with what he had planned. When my 15th birthday came around, he decided to make his move on me."

Ironwood: "Make his move how?"

Hedge: "His 'plan' was to try and make me submit to him, as I had grown too powerful for his liking. That, or he would try to kill me himself. I decided to spring his trap, but in a way to make him drop his guard. It was simple, really. I just talked to him about how he had everything wrong about me. And so, when he least expected it, I used my newly acquired technique of teleportation to run him through the back. No aura, no defenses. I let him live, briefly though, to explain to him that his original plans for me had been stopped, and that I would dedicate my life to become a huntsman, and break the discrimination us Faunus have dealt with. Soon after, I obliterated him with my power, leaving no further trace of him. I took up Destruction," he made a motion with his left shoulder to indicate which sword he was referring to, "and continued training for the next two years to then attempt the entrance exam for Shade. The rest is history."

Ironwood: "I see. And now that you and I are talking, face to face, do you see anything of the type of person I am from what he told you?"

Hedge unfolds his arms. "Truth be told, General, there isn't much I can really gather of the person you really are. I may know some things about your semblance, Mettle, but that's really it. Other than being a real pain in the ass." Ironwood looks at him with a raised eyebrow. "Hey, no offense. Doctor's words, not mine."

Ironwood chuckles. "None taken. So, he's no longer around anymore. The real reason I banished him from the Kingdom of Atlas, was because of his mindset on working on the living for his experiments. No one was willing enough to be experimented on, but always continued to bring it up to me whenever I had asked him and the other top scientists of any projects that they had thought up."

Hedge: "How long did it take for the camel's back to be broken?"

Ironwood: "Not that long actually. After having chosen some of the other scientists' projects over his numerous times, which reminds me of another Doctor, apparently, he had attempted to secretly work on people from both Atlas and Mantle. To my knowledge, there hasn't been anyone that had agreed to be experimented on. Word spread throughout the kingdom and eventually it reached me. When I had learned of this, that was the last straw. And so, with a unanimous vote from the Atlas Council, he was banished, never to return to Atlas or Mantle. But I guess that wasn't enough to stop him from trying to continue with his goal." He looked at Hedge, solemnly.

Hedge: "No, it wasn't." Hedge then perked his head to something outside the bridge of the ship.

Ironwood took notice of Hedge's demeanor changing. "What is it?"

Hedge: "Do you hear that?"

Ironwood then focused his hearing. "Actually, I do." The two of them rush outside the bridge onto the deck of the ship. As soon as they opened the door, they were met with a loud alarm going off.

Hedge: "What's going on?!" He yelled as loud as he could so that Ironwood could hear him. His scroll buzzes from his pocket. He answers it.

Anne: "Hedge, are you alright? We heard the alarm coming from the city." Next to her is Zion and Leonidas in their combat gear.

Hedge: "The city? Is it an attack or something?"

Anne: "We're not sure, but we see a giant cloud of smoke. I think we just saw Team JNPR head off in their bullhead to that location."

Leonidas: "Hold on." He spreads his wings and grabs onto Anne and Zion, lifting off the ground and heading to the city.

The scene shifts back to Hedge and Ironwood on the deck of the ship. Anne: "We're on our way there too."

Hedge: "Copy, I'll meet you guys there. Be careful." The call ends, and he looks over to the General. "Thanks for this little meeting, General, but looks like the city is in trouble."

Ironwood: "Likewise. Show me what you are capable of." Hedge nods at the General and turns to the bow of the ship. He gets a running start and leaps from the end of the ship's deck, doing a free dive for a few seconds then using full power of his shoes to fly toward the smoke. Ironwood watches Hedge fly off, then gets on the intercom to his fleet. "I want every ship headed to that large smoke cloud now!"

--

Meanwhile, in the city of Vale, Team RWBY are surrounded by a swarm of Grimm: King Taijitu, Beowolves, Creeps, Ursas, Deathstalkers, and Nevermores. The King Taijitu roars, signaling the Grimm to rush the first-year team. Ruby jumps in between a group of Beowolves and plants Crescent Rose into the ground. She spins around kicking all of them away. Yang jumps off of a Creep into the air backwards, firing Ember Celica to eliminate a swarm of Creeps and Beowolves, however in her momentum, she bumps into a Nevermore and falls down hard to the ground. Blake dodges a swipe from a Beowolf and stabs it in the head, followed by turning Gambol Shroud into its pistol form to shoot a few Creeps. Weiss slashes and stabs a group of Grimm with Myrtenaster and an ice sword from a glyph. Yang recovers from her fall and slams a car into a group of Grimm.

Ruby slashes at two Grimm, but is right in front of the King Taijitu, it hissing at her. However, from a far, an explosion is heard. Both the scythe-wielder and the giant snake look in the direction to see Nora riding her hammer toward them, slamming the snake head down. She lands and is joined by the rest of Team JNPR.

Pyrrha: "Let's move!"

While Team JNPR spreads off to defeat the Grimm, Hedge flies in to the battlefield to see all the chaos ensuing below. He notices Jaune about to fight an Ursa. He briefly recalls the time Jaune was in a similar situation back when he was dealing with Cardin and his team thanks to Pyrrha explaining the event to him prior to him agreeing to assist training the leader, so he watches from above as Jaune slices away at the Ursa, albeit in a careless manner. Soon after nothing happening between the two, the bear type Grimm crashes backwards. Hedge smiles at the outcome, as the rest of his team fly in, and Ironwood's fleet behind him as well. Some of the ships blast their guns at the Grimm below, one blasting at an Ursa jumping to attack Ruby from behind, which she salutes to the pilot.

Ironwood speaks on the intercom to the ships again. "Drop the Atlesian Knights!" Soon, all ships opened their cargo holds, and multiple bots are released. The bots take aim at the Grimm and shoot them down, although some do get taken out by a Boarbatusk. Team HAZL jumps into the action to eliminate the Grimm. Even the boy and girl that Zion and Leonidas saw at the dance were there, however with another girl in a red dress. They too helped to take out the Grimm. From the crater where a train had its locomotive poking out, an Atlas Paladin appeared, however with White Fang insignias on it, along with a small dog. The corgi jumped and headbutted an Alpha Beowolf.

Ruby was ecstatic to see him. "Zwei!!"

Another bullhead flew over the area, containing both Professor Port and Team CVFY. Coco Adel, Velvet Scarlatina, Fox Alistair, and Yatsuhashi Daichi all show off their combat skills as they eliminate groups of Grimm, Coco, their leader, eliminating the most by using her weapon, Gianduja, which doubles as a handbag and a minigun. Before fully utilizing its capabilities, she embarrasses an Alpha Beowolf by blocking a swipe from it with her weapon in its handbag form, kicking it in the privates, then smashing its head into the ground with her weapon. When she does transform it into its minigun form, she is able to eliminate a Deathstalker and a few Beowolves.

Three Nevermores attempted to fly to attack the 2nd-year team leader, and she would've made paste of them too, however, Hedge flew through them as an electrical drill, slashing them apart. As he lands, multiple Grimm surround him, all ready to cut into him. He does the unexpected and returns Chaos and Destruction back into their sheathes, but he also removes his bracers on his wrists and puts them in his pocket. He didn't need to remove all four to accomplish what he was going to do next.

Hedge: "You beasts think you can just waltz here into Vale and wipe out one of the kingdoms?" He starts to generate massive amounts of aura into one of his more devastating attacks. He may not use this attack often, mostly due to how much damage it could cause to the area he's in, but considering just how much Grimm was around him, suffice it to say, he was putting caution to the wind. "Let me show you all just how hopeless that is." He brings his arms into an X-formation across his chest, his attack nearing the pinnacle of being ready to unleash. The Grimm seem to catch on, as they all rush in to jump him before he could unleash it, however, they were too late as he yelled out two words as he threw his arms out.

"ELECTRIC BLAST!"

What happened next got everyone's attention. They all heard the electrical explosion, but didn't expect it to come from the person they knew was in the center of that attack. A giant lightning dust hemisphere had suddenly appeared, and all remaining Grimm were disintegrated, leaving just Hedge standing. However, shortly after, he dropped to one knee as his aura broke, breathing heavily. Anne rushed over to him to make sure he was okay...and scold him.

Anne: "Did you really have to exert yourself that much?"

Hedge: "You probably would've done the exact same thing I did if you were in my position," as he sports a grin on his face.

Anne opens her mouth to retort, however she couldn't seem to come up with one. "...Touché." Hedge just laughs at that. She contemplates smacking him on the back of his head, but with his aura broken, just a simple slap would hurt much more than probably even she intended it to. She did think about actually doing so after thinking about it, but she held back. She helped him put his bracers back on.

Professor Goodwitch appeared to fix up the breach where both the White Fang's train was at and where the Grimm were exiting out of with the use of her semblance. As the battle finished, both the girl and the boy, whom Team HAZL learn their names are Emerald and Mercury, hand off Roman Torchwick, who was knocked out for the duration of the fight from Blake, to the Knights. Everyone celebrates and head back over to Beacon.

Anne and Hedge are seen looking out to the city. Anne: "So how'd the meeting with Ironwood go?"

Hedge: "Nothing too eventful. It went as expected really."

Anne: "Let me guess, he asked you what happened with Doctor Badnic, didn't he?"

Hedge: "Yeah." He hanged his head downward. "I told him everything that happened up to before I started on my path as a Huntsman, and he told me what type of person the Doctor was before he had banished him from Atlas."

Anne: "Was he any different from the person you knew him as?"

Hedge: "No. Well, different from how he was pretending to be towards me during the first few years I was under his care, but in the later years, he was the same as before I came into the picture." He brings his head back up to look at the sky. "I've said that I want to rid his influence of him on me, and I plan to do so…with you alongside me." He turns to look at her. Anne turned to look at him as well, with him taking her hands in his.

Anne looked at him a little confused. "Hedge, what are you saying?"

Hedge, with his face flushed red, moves his vision to his right, but his face still looking at Anne. "I know that over the past three years you have been head over heels for me, and before the dance, I mentioned that I had a crush on you too. In the past few days, I've been debating on whether or not I have the guts to really make a move, or even dedicate myself to a relationship, but…" He releases her left hand, and drops down to one knee. Anne's heart beating so fast now she didn't know what to think. "…I think I can manage." Hedge reaches into his back pocket and brings out the small box. He releases Anne's other hand, which she brings it up to her mouth with her other hand. "Anne Rosemary," he opens the box to reveal the diamond ring, "will you marry me, and be my fellow speedster?"

Anne still had her hands on her mouth, gasping and crying out her tears, trying to gain the breath to say her response, but before actually saying the response, she nods her head ferociously, letting a "Yes" in between her gasps and crying. Hedge smiles and takes the ring out of the box to place it on her left ring finger, wrapping his arms around her and going in for the kiss, which she returns in kind. Moments after, both Zion and Leonidas, and even Team RWBY had come out of their hiding spots clapping their hands, Ruby yelling out, "Congratulations!!" and jumping into the air. Hedge and Anne break their kiss to smile and laugh at each other before turning to their friends. Hugs and high fives exchanged between everyone.

Zion: "Actually had the balls to move forward and ask the big question, huh?" Hedge chuckles.

Hedge: "You should know how much confidence I had to generate to actually do that." His scroll buzzes. He takes it out and sees there's a voice message from Ozpin. "Looks like the Headmaster has something to say." He puts the message on speaker.

Ozpin through the scroll, "Hello Hedge. Just sending this message out to inform you and your team that with the bravado you showed off during your last mission and with helping clear out the Grimm in the city that you are officially qualified for this year's Vytal Festival Tournament. I hope to see great things from your team." Excitement is shown on the face of the members of Team HAZL, whereas conviction is on the faces of Team RWBY.

Hedge to himself, "Gable, you sly dog. Thank you."

Yang: "Looks like a rematch can happen. We won't go down so easily next time."

Zion: "We'll hold you to that, Yang."

Yang: "Oh, who was the one that got eliminated first in our sparring match?"

The camera ascends to the sky as Zion and Yang argue, everyone laughing. The scene transitions back to where the breach battle occurred, Emerald and Mercury talking with the other girl in the red dress.

Girl: "All in all, I think the operation was a success."

Emerald: "Those kids really screwed things up."

Mercury: "Yup, a lot of Faunus didn't make it out of the tunnels. Do you really think the White Fang is going to listen to us, Cinder (addressing the girl)?"

"No." says a male voice off screen.

When he enters into frame, it appears to be Adam Taurus, the leader of Vale's White Fang division. "But they'll listen to me."

Author's Note: Another volume down. Getting into the thick of things now. If you know what happens in show canon, I'll do my best to express it here in the story. I'm super excited to bring what I have cooking for the events in Volume 3, and beyond. Thank you to all that have stuck with the story thus far. Till Volume 3, stay healthy everyone.