A/N: Hello again, everyone! I know this is incredibly fast, but I've decided to go ahead and put the second chapter out as well. I'm not incredibly proud of the first chapter so I figure the second might help show where the story is actually going compared to the multitude of other stories with a similar premise. Chapters after this will come a bit slower, but I will say that the third is already finished as well. Thanks to everyone who has already favorited, followed, and reviewed, it's very heartening to see it get responses so soon, and I hope you enjoy the second chapter!

Excerpt from "The Age of Heroes", by Weiss Schnee

When Jaune died, we were all heartbroken. I will be the first to admit that he was a nuisance to me in the past, what with his constant and terrible attempts at flirtation, but we grew something of a friendship once he finally moved on and his loss hurt me. However, no one was affected by his loss more than my team leader, Ruby Rose, and his partner, Pyrrha Nikos.

The two of them had been best friends with Jaune when he died, so of course, they mourned for him the most. We all mourned in our own way, but those two were the only ones who never tried to hide it. We had to be strong for them so they could begin to come to terms with the life of their best friend suddenly being cut short, and that meant putting our grief to the side.

The next six months were some of the hardest of our lives. Ruby and Pyrrha had previously been two of the happiest and strongest people that we knew, so to see them so damaged was heartbreaking to witness and it hurt more the longer it went on. However, eventually, they finally began to heal from the loss they endured. As our first year started coming to a close, they began coming out of their shells once more, not quite the same as they were before but willing to try to be those people again.

Naturally, after nine months had passed, we thought that we could finally begin to move on. That the specter of Jaune Arc would remain just that - a specter, a memory that we could look on with fondness but ultimately move past.

And then, nine months later, at the beginning of our second year at Beacon Academy, our lives changed forever. Although we didn't know it yet, Jaune Arc, the man I had dismissed as a useless dolt who wouldn't amount to anything, had returned from the dead.

And he was angry. Angry enough to change the course of history and drag everyone I hold dear into a battle for Vale's soul.

Out of all the missions he had ever taken for Ozpin, Qrow had to admit that this was one of the weirdest.

Not because of the subject matter, to be sure. That honor still belonged to the supposed "swamp thing" everyone had been talking about outside the Kingdoms that turned out to just be a guy with a really weird Semblance and an obsession with plants. But in terms of an objective? This was the weirdest.

Detective work wasn't usually his specialty; that particular honor went to Ironwood or Goodwitch. The fact that Ozpin had told him to look at the scene under the guise of "you're the closest" meant only one thing: Ozpin was nervous enough to forsake skill for convenience, and that made him nervous.

Of course, now wasn't the time for nerves, now was the time for work.

Walking into Gotham Village was easy enough since he had his license with him, but from there he had to meet with whoever was in charge before he could investigate the scene. The guards on the wall directed him towards City Hall in the center of town, so he walked towards it until he came across an ornate building that could only be City Hall.

The civilians outside gave him several odd looks thanks to the massive weapon on his back, but Qrow was more than used to the stares of the populace. No matter how common Huntsmen were, especially outside the Kingdoms, they always made people stare. The fact of the matter was, no matter how much he wished the job hadn't ostracized him from the rest of the world's population, he had more important things to be worrying about than some odd looks.

Walking into City Hall, he took a brief look around. The building was exactly as he expected - not overly flashy by any stretch since the exterior settlements had to send their budgets to more important places, but certainly not filthy either - with the reception desk right in front of him. There were people in suits walking in every direction, most of them carrying scrolls but some carrying stacks of paper, all of them no doubt doing their part in response to the murders. The woman behind the desk took a brief look at him from her scroll call and Qrow could see the flash of recognition in her eyes before she wordlessly gestured for him to take a seat.

Normally, Qrow would have played a game to entertain himself until the mayor came out to see him, but in this case, he had several things he had to take care of before they went to the scene. Pulling out his scroll, he pulled up the information Ozpin had on the victims of this attack.

Team CRDL, led by Cardin Winchester. They were noted to be remarkably average in almost every capacity - in terms of brute strength, they were ranked number two in their year, but in every other stat, they were in the high single digits. Not particularly great students, and if their record was any indication, not that great of people either. Close to being suspended multiple times due to apparent racist behavior towards Faunus students and multiple attempts at intimidating other students, including outright attacking them.

They reminded him of Rae.

Overall, Qrow got the impression that if their deaths hadn't been so sudden and brutal, this wouldn't have gotten as much worldwide attention as it did.

And maybe that was the point?

Putting aside that question about motives, he continued analyzing the team. Their records had a history across their first few months - until, suddenly, they stopped completely. For a reason Qrow couldn't discern, they apparently cleaned up their act out of pretty much nowhere and their disciplinary notes slowly but steadily came to a halt. The spot of change was notable - Glynda even wrote in her notes that it apparently was just after a field trip to Forever Fall, whatever that was about - but ultimately there was no real explanation for what happened.

He supposed he would just have to ask Glynda when he saw her next.

He didn't have much time to think more about the case because, at that moment, the mayor came out of his office to greet him. Qrow noted that while the man was built rather conventionally in a way that didn't draw focus to his muscles, the suit was clearly personally tailored in such a way that could only mean he was ready for a fight. It wasn't uncommon for mayors to double as police chiefs outside the Kingdoms, so this must have been the case here.

The man finally reached him, so Qrow stood up to shake the outstretched hand. "Glad you made it safely. I'm Mayor Anthony Garcia, but today I'll be mostly acting as Police Chief Garcia. I'm sure that won't complicate things too much?"

Qrow shook his head. "Nope, I lived out in the wilds before I went to Beacon. I'm used to it."

Garcia noticeably brightened upon learning he wasn't from the Kingdoms. That was probably another reason why Ozpin sent him specifically; he wasn't some stupid city dweller to them and could relate to their slightly different culture. With not much more to say, the two men left City Hall and began walking toward the crime scene.

The two men walked towards the warehouse, with most of the civilians giving them a wide berth, and Qrow was making sure to get any information he could out of the chief.

"So let me get this straight. One minute the team's walking in the streets, there's a couple of loud noises that may or may not be gunshots, and then they're dead? Just like that?"

Garcia gravely nodded. "Just like that. I'd guess it all lasted about two and a half, three minutes at most. It's why our immediate response was to call you instead of solving it ourselves - we just have no idea what we're working with here."

Not that Qrow had ever doubted that they made the right decision, but this confirmed it.

"And you said that there were only three bodies? What about the fourth?"

Garcia nodded again. "We have no idea. Russel Thrush's body is missing, and the brief look we had before we called you didn't give us any ideas as to what happened to him. For now, he's listed MIA, but we have no reason to assume he's alive even if there's no body."

So either the fourth member of the team was taken for an unclear reason, his body was stolen, or there was so little of him left that there was no sign of a corpse.

Qrow really hoped it wasn't that last one. Instead of dwelling further, he continued his questions.

"Tell me more about this warehouse they were found in. Anything special about it? Something that would indicate why he would do it there?"

Garcia shook his head. "The warehouse is our stockpile for food, medicine, and other supplies that haven't been distributed yet. It's full to the brim with workers for 15 hours of the day with only half an hour break during lunchtime, and all of the workers we questioned say that there was never any sign of anything wrong. If anything, with how busy it always is, you'd think that they would choose somewhere more discreet."

"And no evidence that they sabotaged any of the supplies?"

"Aside from the things that got blood on them, no, and all of that was just some lien-a-dozen pain meds. It didn't seem purposeful."

So the location was just a strategic choice for combat, not to damage the village. It could have also been because it's so public that they could ensure the bodies would be discovered. All noted.

As they turned the final corner, the questions ceased. The warehouse was now in sight, and now it was time to truly begin the investigation. The mood shifted considerably, and Qrow noticed that there were no civilians anywhere nearby. He quickly realized that they were being kept away, ensuring their privacy.

Good.

The warehouse itself seemed very nondescript. Bland exterior, no windows (likely to remove entry points for thieves), barely even any color - there was nothing distinguishing it from the buildings next to it, making it a perfectly bland place for a murder. Qrow pulled out his scroll, ready to begin documenting his findings to make his job easier when he talked to Ozpin.

Except that when he pulled out his scroll, he realized that something was incredibly, incredibly off. A gut feeling he didn't recognize and couldn't explain, and it made him stop in his tracks, still half a block away from the warehouse.

Garcia stopped as well, turning back in confusion. "Mr. Branwen? Is everything alright?"

Qrow shook his head. "I don't know how to say this, but… my gut's acting up, and it's rarely wrong. I don't even know what it's trying to say, but it's telling me something."

At just that moment, his scroll went off. He looked down at it, shocked by what he saw:

"Aura Confirmed: Russel Thrush"

His Aura reader was going off? That wasn't supposed to happen - that only went off when he directed it to, and even then he had to be directly holding it against somebody for it to register. For it to go off unmonitored in the middle of nowhere, with the Aura of the missing kid no less?

The possibilities were numerous, and all of them raised more questions than they answered.

Garcia noticed the fear on his face. He got on guard, his stance noticeably tightening in preparation. "Mr. Branwen? What's going on?"

Qrow quickly waved him off, taking him out of his fighting posture. "I don't know, but I don't think it's cause for that much alarm yet. I'm getting an Aura reading on my scroll. Russel Thrush, the missing teammate".

Garcia's look of confusion matched what Qrow was feeling. "Why would his Aura be here, of all places, if his body isn't?"

Qrow gravely responded, "I can think of a few reasons, but none of them are good. Do you see any patches on the ground? Something like a wet spot or even something looking like a stain?".

Garcia looked around, squinting his eyes for anything like Qrow was describing. As Qrow was looking around himself, he couldn't see Garcia shake his head. "No, nothing over here. Why? What's that got to do with Mr. Thrush?"

"It has everything to do with him", Qrow muttered. He had spotted something on the ground and knelt down to look closer, confirming his fear.

A spot on the sidewalk that at first glance simply looked like a water spot, not unlike those left over after a rainy day. On a closer inspection, however, the spot was a very dark red color. Dried blood, in minuscule amounts; whoever had been hurt here hadn't bled much at all, but in this case, it spoke to something much worse.

A bloodstain directly underneath a spot where a missing person's Aura was apparently still present, hovering in the air like a poltergeist stuck on the mortal plane? Qrow didn't need to test the blood to reach his conclusion.

This poor kid was disintegrated. Judging by how little blood fell and how strong the Aura left behind is, it was basically instantaneous. If he suffered, it wasn't for long.

But that still didn't answer the million-lien question: even if he was killed instantly, why was his Aura still present? It should've been annihilated with his body, not completely bypassed and left behind. What did that mean for the poor kid? Was his spirit still stuck without his body, unable to move on?

Qrow double-checked his Aura reader and breathed a small sigh of relief. The Aura reading was at 70% and not 100%, and given that the team had been ambushed without any prior combat in the village, it would've been at 100 when he died. The fact that it was dissipating, albeit slowly, meant that there was no way Russel would be sticking around for long.

It didn't mean Qrow was any less terrified of the implications, however. Killing someone with Aura, even if it was down at the time, should've taken the Aura with them. The only explanation for a kill like this is that the attack didn't just bypass the Aura, it actively fought it back while still killing the body. Already, Qrow knew that whoever did this was not any kind of conventional killer.

This has to be one of her agents. There's no way she would've let someone with this kind of ability slip by. But why would she target a below-average second-year team in the ass end of nowhere? What does she get from this except attention?

He had no time to ponder the implications and questions further; Garcia was suddenly standing in front of him, snapping his fingers to get his attention. "Mr. Branwen, what's going on? You're zoning out, what're you thinking?"

Qrow may have been a drunk, but he was one of Ozpin's secret keepers for a reason. If this killer was working for Salem, there was no way he could keep Garcia entirely in the loop. "I was checking for dried blood. I thought I found some, but it was just a spot or two. I don't know what happened here, but someone must've gotten shot, then the team followed the shooter into the warehouse."

Without further elaboration, Qrow stood up and started walking to the warehouse. Garcia obviously wanted to ask more questions, but he either realized he wouldn't get an answer or just wanted to get it over with as soon as possible. Taking a deep breath, Garcia followed him, bracing himself for witnessing the horrific scene that had been described to him.

Nothing could have prepared either of them. Even Qrow, who had thought he had seen everything, had to stop for a moment and consider what he was seeing.

Cardin Winchester was crucified against the front of the first two shelves, knives stabbed through his palms and into the shelves behind him and leaving his body hanging between them. His face was contorted into a horrific scream, his eyes almost bugging out of his head from how wide they were - it was almost certainly caused by the massive gash in his stomach, from which his insides were slowly falling out onto the floor.

Qrow had seen worse, much worse, over the years, but only from ravenous Grimm who had nothing more than basic instinct. From one human to another, this was easily the worst he'd seen. Garcia had stepped back outside for a moment, presumably so he didn't throw up and contaminate the crime scene; Qrow didn't blame him for a second. If he weren't used to drinking enough alcohol to make a grown man vomit ten times over, he probably would be throwing up too. Nevertheless, he had work to do, and now that he knew Salem was involved, it was better for Garcia to miss anything he could.

Qrow approached the body with his scroll out, ready to read Cardin's Aura. Normally that wouldn't be necessary, but if Russel's Aura could still be loose in the air after his death, then there was likely something left in Cardin's corpse as well. His guess proved correct; placing the scanner against his body produced a reading at 54%. Noticeably lower than Russel's, but still more than present enough - and again, not destroyed as it should have been once Cardin died.

Note to self: check Ozpin's database for a Semblance that could pull something like this off.

At least this time around, the cause of death was obvious: the massive gash in Cardin's stomach. A cursory glance at the rest of the body showed a bruise around his neck suggesting a chokehold, but nothing that would be so quickly lethal. Of course, the order of events was still a question, and it was one Qrow couldn't answer with just his eyes.

Luckily enough, there appeared to be cameras in the four corners of the room on top of the second floor. Those would be enough to see everything that mattered.

As if Qrow's thoughts summoned him, Garcia walked back into the room, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. "My officers warned me that the scene was gruesome", he said, "but I guess they didn't feel the need to give me details. Gods, who could do something like that?"

Normally, Qrow would try to raise the mood, but with this scene in front of them, it simply wasn't the time and place. "That's what we're here to find out", he replied. "I can see the cameras in the corners of the room. Has the footage been pulled to see what happened?"

"Not yet", he replied, "but it can be. All the security cameras in the public buildings are funneled to a database back at City Hall. I'll call them real quick and ask for all the security footage for twelve hours before and after the gunshots were reported, that should give us more than enough window to catch anything out of the ordinary."

Qrow nodded, slightly impressed with Garcia's quick thinking. As he went back outside to place the call, Qrow left Cardin's body and started walking through the shelves.

If I were the students here, lured into a warehouse after one of their teammates got shot right outside, I'd split up to try to find him. It'd be stupid, but a second-year team wouldn't exactly be thinking straight.

The shelves to the left of Cardin's body were empty; no corpse, no blood, nothing. As far as Qrow could tell, nothing happened there. However, there was a body in the aisle directly to the right of Cardin's corpse. It was face up, still clutching his sword like a lifeline, as though he went from a fighting stance to dead in a single moment.

Of course, the gunshot wound to the head probably explained that one.

Once more taking advantage of Garcia not being in the room, Qrow pressed his Aura scanner against the body. It once again produced a result: "Dove Bronzewing - 82%". It was closer to Russel's Aura than to Cardin's, and the lack of wounds led to at least one more revelation about the situation.

Winchester wasn't just brutally killed, he was tortured first. It's the only reason why his Aura would be so much lower than the people who seemed to have died fast.

There were no more visible wounds besides the gunshot to the head, not even a bruise like with Cardin. Not only did that mean Dove was killed in one shot - again, despite an active Aura - but that the killer must have had a serious grudge against Cardin. When two of the four died relatively fast yet the third was tortured, murdered, and then displayed, there was something personal there.

While Qrow was examining the body, Garcia re-entered the room. "I've got the footage for you, I'll forward it to your scroll so you can examine it."

Qrow nodded. "Perfect, thanks", he said. "Do you mind checking the aisles to the right for anything? Damage, blood, anything at all?"

"Sure, I'll check there", he replied. "What are you gonna do?"

"I'm gonna check upstairs. From the looks of things, Dove here got shot from the balcony. I'm gonna go look and see if he left any evidence behind."

Garcia nodded and moved to investigate the shelves, while Qrow went back to the entrance and went up the staircase to the second floor. On the way up, he heard his scroll ding, indicating that Garcia's footage had arrived.

He didn't have time to check it before he saw quite a lot of evidence displayed on the second floor in the form of Sky Lark's corpse.

Walking towards it, the first thing Qrow noticed was that his corpse was completely bloodless. Unlike Cardin and Dove, Sky was entirely intact, with no visible wounds like gunshots. However, his head was at a horrifying angle, a bone in his neck was slightly sticking out, and the skin on his head was slightly purple, all of which pointed to an obvious conclusion: his neck had been snapped.

With Garcia downstairs, Qrow went to measure the final victim's Aura, only to get a surprise: no Aura registered at all. Despite the other three leaving Aura behind, even when one of them had apparently been completely disintegrated, Sky's Aura was nowhere to be found. It had been destroyed when he died, just as it should have been for the others.

What had changed here? Did the method of death have anything to do with it? Why would a gunshot, a disintegration, or a mutilation leave behind Aura when a simple neck snap would destroy it completely?

All questions to mull over when he had the time. For now, he had footage to review. Before he could, though, Garcia spoke up from downstairs.

"Did you find anything?", he asked. "I checked the rest of the shelves, but there's nothing here. It looks like he was never in the shelves outside of the one with the body."

"Yeah", Qrow replied. "I found the last body. Sky Lark's up here, looks like his neck got snapped. I'm gonna check the cameras, see if I can see what happened."

Taking out his Scroll, Qrow took a quick look at the cameras' angles and decided that the one he was currently standing under provided the best angle; it not only covered most of the warehouse, but it most plainly covered the spot where Sky was murdered. He would have to switch to an adjacent camera for Cardin and Dove's murders, but he had a good starting point.

Using his scroll's controls turned navigating the cameras into an easy task. Quickly sliding along the bar showed that Garcia was right to describe how often the warehouse was full - of the twelve hours before the gunshot was reported, he could tell just from a glance that the first eleven-and-a-half of them had the entire building full. For such a small warehouse, it was bustling with activity - people were bringing in food and medicine, stocking shelves, picking up supplies, and reorganizing donations on a constant basis. If the killer were someone who worked in the warehouse then this would be a very convenient opportunity to scope it out, but even if he slowed down the footage he wouldn't be able to find someone like that.

But then the building cleared out for the night, and that's when things got interesting.

As soon as the building cleared out, a cloud of smoke erupted where Qrow was currently standing… and out of the smoke came a man.

The man was wearing militaristic armor from head to toe, including several extra pieces of padding on the shoulders and knees, a utility belt with ammo pouches, earpieces that almost resembled blades on the sides of his head, and, most noticeably to Qrow, a pistol in a holster on either hip. As the man emerged out of the smoke - seemingly from nowhere, he noticed - he took a quick glimpse down at the shelves and around the balcony. He was clearly scoping out the warehouse, but the familiar way he looked implied he had indeed been there before.

One of the workers who managed to hide in plain sight? Someone who managed to scope the place out before with no one noticing? Either option was possible, but either way, it showed that preparation had clearly gone into the murders here. Between the personal cruelty inflicted on Cardin and that he had clearly already scoped out the warehouse, the entire thing had been planned long before he arrived.

From there, Qrow saw everything. He saw as the man finished his preparations and then briefly exited the warehouse. He could vaguely hear a gunshot in the distance, then he saw the man walk back into the warehouse, shoot some kind of grapnel line to the second floor, and boost himself up so he was hiding behind the banister. He saw as Sky Lark obliviously walked to his death via a snapped neck, as the man shot Dove Bronzewing right in the head while barely even looking, as the man jumped down to confront Cardin Winchester personally, and then finally as Cardin was strangled, stabbed, and mutilated before being displayed like how he was found.

The cameras clarified the order of events, at least, but they didn't tell him anything he didn't already know.

At least not until the man took out a crystal of fire Dust and, after very noticeably looking at the camera Qrow was viewing all of this from, walked to the back door.

The cameras were left on on purpose. He wanted us to see him do this. What does he gain from that?

That didn't matter for the moment, because now he knew he had done something with fire Dust outside. There was little else to examine from the bodies, as cold as it sounded, now that he had seen everything and confirmed everything he thought. Glynda would be proud.

Walking back downstairs, he saw Garcia examining the two bodies down there, looking them over with gloves. As Qrow approached, Garcia stood up to face him. "I've looked over everything I can, and the only wounds on them are the ones that killed them. How the hell is that possible? They were Beacon students, they had Aura."

Qrow was rather impressed with Garcia's detective work. Though he couldn't tell the full story, he had to at least play along with what he already knew. "It looks like the killer is able to punch through Auras somehow. A Semblance like that isn't unheard of but it's pretty rare. If anything, it'll actually help narrow the search once I can check the database back at Beacon."

Garcia nodded, with Qrow never clarifying that the victims still had their Auras intact. That was the thing he had to keep private at all costs.

"For now, I saw in the camera the guy left out the back door with a fire Dust crystal in his hand", he revealed. "Don't know about you, but that doesn't seem like a good thing to me."

Garcia nodded again, already pulling out his scroll. "My people did a quick look around the building before calling you and didn't see anything, so he didn't set anything on fire, at least. If there's something there, I should have the fire department ready to respond."

It made sense to Qrow, so he let Garcia start his call while he went out the backdoor. As Garcia said, nothing was visible at first. As far as he could tell, it was just a grassy knoll in between the building and the village's outer walls, not even a tree decorating the landscape.

And then he looked at the ground and his stomach went in a knot.

He was standing next to a path of fire Dust shards, the result of a crystal being crushed into sand. It started next to where he was standing and went out into the grass. Qrow had no choice but to follow the path and see where it led.

It didn't take long following the winding path before he realized that he was looking at a message written in the ground. If he had to take a guess, it ended with an "s", and continuing the path led to an "n". That was all he needed to know what the killer's intention was.

He's left us a message, and the only way to read it is to set it ablaze.

Since there was no immediate danger, the fire department took their time getting everything in order before rushing out. Better to have more resources available to make sure the blaze didn't get out of control. The plan was simple: Qrow would be stationed on the roof recording on his scroll, Garcia would light the message, and the second that the entire thing was visible and recorded, Qrow would signal and the fire department would immediately wipe out the blaze.

Not the most elegant plan, but it would get the job done and the risk of the fire spreading was basically nonexistent.

With a fire truck surrounding the blaze in all three directions and the crews standing by to extinguish the flames, Qrow figured it was time. Starting the recording on his scroll, he called for Garcia to spark the flame, and soon enough flames were spreading out across the grass. The fire crews were clearly antsy to do their jobs, but Qrow needed them to have a bit of patience before they started.

After about thirty seconds, the fire stopped spreading, meaning the entire message was visible. Checking the camera to make sure it had been clearly recorded, Qrow called for the fire crews to get to work and they did. As soon as he gave the word, all of them turned on their hoses, dousing the flames to control the fire. Since it was minimal in the first place, it didn't take long for the crews to extinguish the blaze.

In about two minutes, the flames had gone out, the message had been recorded, and any help that Qrow could provide had basically concluded. The bodies would need to be shipped back to Vale proper so they could be buried according to their families' wishes, but that wasn't Qrow's job; he was just there to investigate what happened, and anything else tracked back to Ozpin and Beacon.

In short, it was time for him to leave and present his findings to his allies.

As he gave Garcia a firm handshake and promised that he would be available should they discover anything else, he left the village as quickly as he came, walking into the woods where he could transform in peace. As soon as he was out of sight of the village guard, he used his magic to transform into a bird, taking off into the sky back to the Kingdom.

He was not looking forward to the conversation he was about to have. The message in the fire indicated that whatever the man intended to accomplish here and how this connected to Salem, this was only the start of their plans:

SO IT BEGINS

I vividly remember the day we found out about Team CRDL's deaths. Make no mistake, the four of them were some of the worst people I had met at this point in my life. They were racist bullies who got off on lording over their own masculinity at every opportunity and took every slight against them as the most grievous offense they could. They even once tried to attack Pyrrha with rapier wasps just because she correctly answered a question in class one time and they somehow took it as a personal attack. They had no idea, but Pyrrha is allergic to rapier wasps - they could have accidentally killed her, all over a history question.

Ironically enough, the only reason that didn't happen was because Jaune stepped in and prevented it. It's a cognitive dissonance I've never been able to shake; Jaune accidentally saved her life that day, and if it wasn't for him, there would be no Batwoman. Just imagine how differently our history would have gone if they had been able to go through with their attack.

But to die in the horrible manner they did? They absolutely did not deserve such a fate. I have since met the actual kinds of monsters who deserve that kind of death, and compared to them, Team CRDL were about as threatening as an ant underneath a particularly sharp heel.

That may be rather crude to admit in writing like this, but given who my friends and I have faced off against and survived, I believe I have earned the right to express some strong emotions.

What always concerned me the most about their deaths, however, wasn't the violent way in which they were killed, but, simply put, the overwhelming feeling of dread it caused me. This wasn't just the unexpected deaths of another of my fellow students, this was a sense of foreboding. The best way I can describe it is that I felt like this was not going to be the last thing this person did; that something else was going to happen, and that this was only the beginning.

As we all know, I was correct.

However, before I can explain what happened next, I need to explain just how the world of Remnant was truly run before the events that created the Justice League. The Kingdoms held elections for council members, sure, but unknown to even them, there was a secret organization of Huntsman leaders dedicated to protecting the world from threats we were never ready to face. Though they would reveal themselves to be unprepared for the events that transpired, they protected the world for centuries from the shadows, keeping Salem, the threat to all life, at bay.

The leader of this organization was none other than Headmaster Ozpin himself.