Later that evening, the former heiress stepped out of her bedroom carrying a white suitcase and Myrtenaster. She looked around cautiously, her footsteps loudly resounding in the ornate hallway. She jumped and gasped when Klein Sieben and Estelle Blanche appeared right behind her. The former put his finger to his lips and shushed her before smiling.
"Don't worry. It's just us." Estelle spoke softly.
Klein whispered, "Let's go."
The three moved quickly across the carpet, their footsteps muffled. Side by side, they went down the staircase and made their way across the entrance hall. They moved down another hallway when Klein's scroll started to buzz. The trio looked at it with squinted eyes.
Klein answered the call. "Master Whitley? I... um... yes, of course. I'll be just a moment." He ended the call and tucked the scroll away. "Head to the first floor library. Estelle, make sure no one else sees you two. I'll meet you there."
They soon separated, going in opposite directions. Weiss crept outside her father's study door when she heard her mother yell.
"Stop lying to me!" Willow yelled from behind the door.
She and Estelle crouched behind a cushioned chair against the wall.
"I'm not lying!" Jacques defended.
The two stopped, intrigued by the conservation.
"I know what you did, why else would you have hired her?"
"You are being overly accusatory!"
The scene switched to inside the office. Willow looked at her husband very angrily with tears in her eyes. "I know that you have no love for me, and that you married me only for money, but for you to just defiantly break your marriage vows by sleeping with...!"
"You have no proof that I ever did such actions with her!" He glared at her. "And even if it were true, why would anyone ever believe you? Mrs. Delaney is a charitable, respectable woman. She told me herself that she likes to perform. She would never do something so scandalous and neither would I!"
"Don't lie to me, Jacques." She stood up in defiance, even as tears fell down her face. "The truth has already been spread all over the manor!"
"Silence!" He grabbed her wrist with one hand and slapped her across the face with the other. "That is only mere rumor and nothing more! You can't prove anything!"
She held her hand to her left cheek where Jacques slapped her and held back a sob. "I thought I married a nice, honest, respectable man. What happened to that?!"
Back outside the office, Weiss looked horrified and saddened to no end as Willow sobbed.
"Come on!" Estelle whispered.
The two women continued their silent trek down the hall and they reached the library, but it was empty. "Klein!" Weiss called out. "Klein, where are you?"
A hidden door in the corner opened, revealing the butler to the ladies. Klein appeared with red eyes and answered in an accent, "Keep your voice down, I told you I'd be here." Weiss rushed over, dropping both sword and suitcase in order to hug Klein with both arms. He returned the hug and his eyes turned back to normal. "Are you sure Mistral is safe?"
She stepped back and clasped her hands front of her. "No, but it's where I'll find Winter. According to a letter she sent me a few weeks ago, she's currently stationed in Argus after the Argus Harbor Prison Breakout/Destruction. And where else would I go?"
Klein's eyes turned light brown and he sighed. "I guess you're right. I suppose she'd be the only family you have left after tonight."
The ex-heiress put her hand on his shoulder. "I'll always have you and Estelle."
"You most certainly will." Estelle told her.
She shared a group hug with them. "Thanks for everything, you two."
As she took a few moments to feel their warm comfort, Estelle's ears perked up. "Go, hurry." the elderly maid urged.
Weiss grabbed her things and went through the secret passage in the corner of the library. She paused and turned to look at the butler and maid one more time.
She smiled at her allies. "Good luck here."
"And to you as well." Klein replied.
"Bonne chance. Be careful." Estelle told her.
They nodded before Klein shut the door. When the door closed, Weiss began her descent down the secret stairway.
Meanwhile, further into the outskirts of Vale, the Scarlatti Trojan Alliance had set up their camp for the night and were being served their food. As groups of five came up one by one to receive their fill of stew from Atum, the other three team SOLR members and Tyrian sat on a log waiting for everyone else to served.
The scorpion-tailed faunus silently pondered to himself.
Alright, I've figured out a plan to make sure I can get Ruby alone. Now I just have to be sure that team SOLR goes along with it and doesn't try to question it.
He felt a nudge at his shoulder from Apollo and realized that it was their turn to get their dinner. Team SOLR-Tyrian took their portions and sat down.
"333 miles from Pyrrha's location. This is tough but we're making good process." Orville told everyone before taking a bite of stew.
"Hey, um, Mr. Arun?" one of the veterans began.
"You can just call me Surya." the team leader stated.
"Surya..." He corrected himself. "Do you actually have a plan for how we're going to defeat Pyrrha and her friends?"
"Hmm... Well, I figured we would simply overwhelm them with our numbers." Surya answered somewhat nervously. "But that's not much of a solid plan, is it?"
"Actually, I've been thinking about that." Tyrian said, turning to team SOLR. "Us five are best warriors in this entire group, correct?"
"Yeah..." Atum raised an eyebrow. "What about it?"
Atum took a bite of stew as the secret Salem agent answered, "Well, since we're the strongest and most skilled, I figured we should be the ones to take team JNPR-Ruby down. The four of you can fight against team JNPR, and I'll take on Ruby."
"It seems fitting that we are the ones to slay. But what role does everyone else play?" Apollo inquired.
Tyrian gestured to everyone else with his left arm. "They can slow the villains down. They're not strong enough to kill anyone, but with their numbers, they can overwhelm them. Once that's done, we go in for the kill."
Although Ruby won't be among the dead... Tyrian thought as he ate.
"Hmm... I see what you're getting at." Surya stated.
"Perhaps we can coordinate the other fighters to specific targets with their skills." Atum suggested.
"The archers could aid Apollo in taking down Pyrrha." the second veteran suggested. The five strongest looked at him curiously. "Think about it. With that many arrows to dodge, there's no way she'll survive them all. Sooner or later, she'll be shot in heart. Or head. Or any other vital organ."
"Well, we got Pyrrha down. Now what about her teammates?" the policewoman asked.
"Jaune shouldn't be too hard." Surya stated. "He does have a shield, but if I can knock it out of his hands, he won't have anywhere to hide."
"What about Nora Valkyrie?" the policeman grilled the team.
"Hmm... Nora is a dangerous one. And I should know- she knocked me right out of the stadium in the doubles round of the last tournament!" Orville told them.
A brief flashback was shown as Nora was charged up with pink electricity flowing through her and striking him in the chest, sending him flying out of the stadium. Orville's icon was seen with an X through it along with Apollo's.
"Team JNPR wins by a landslide!" Professor Port announced.
The scene returned to the present.
"The wooden staves would be the weapons most likely to break against the metal hammer, considering how long they are." Surya stated. "The valkyrie would be least likely to break the bows, but the archers are already aiding Apollo in taking down Pyrrha. Still, hopefully the sword wielders can slow her down."
"And what about Lie Ren?" the third veteran queried.
Surya didn't answer, not only because he had food in his mouth, but also because he didn't know what advice to give his teammate.
Tyrian give his advice to Atum. "Perhaps what you should do, is sneak up on him from behind and then overwhelm him with your strength."
He put up a finger, swallowed his stew and responded, "Seems like a good plan."
"Wait. What about Ruby?" the young preteen girl asked. "She's traveling with them too."
"Fear not, young lass. I already have a plan to take her down. I have observed footage of her from the Vytal Festival and I know how to counter her fighting style. She seems to fight from afar, so all I need to do is get up close. Just leave it to me."
"Well, I believe that covers everything." Surya stated. "Any other questions?" Silence reigned for a few moments. "No? Well then, eat up and get some sleep. We still have a lot of ground to cover if we wish to catch up to Pyrrha and her no-good cohorts."
There was little conservation after that as everyone finished up dinner. Shortly thereafter, tents were set up and everyone went to bed.
Tyrian entered his tent and internally laughed in sadistic glee.
This is working better than I thought it would. Looks like Lady Salem will be very pleased...
Back in Mistral, the glass cylinder elevator soon reached a dark cellar lit by artificial candlelight and a ding was heard as the door opened. Sienna exited the elevator and found herself stopped at the top of a wooden stairway with a control panel for the elevator. Down the stairs was a stone room about the size of Maura's cottage with normal size bookshelves lined against the wall. On these shelves were old books and parchment scrolls. To the right in between two bookcases was an open archway that led to another room of books on bookcases.
Perfect.
She searched through books and old parchment scrolls, carefully removing a few books and placing them on top of the bookshelf they came from as she scanned them.
"There has to be something on ancient symbolism here somewhere..." she spoke to cold, empty air.
The masked high leader skimmed through a few books, one at a time, but didn't find any answers, so she put them back where they came from. A montage was shown of her doing this process a few times and her looking really tired at the end.
"This isn't working..."
She clumsily dropped a stack of books and found one of them standing out to her.
The Truth About the Dark Goddess
Kneeling down, she picked up the book and examined it. There was no author listed on the front cover. She checked the backside, only to find it completely blank.
Why would this be banned? And why is there no author on this book?
She opened the book and began reading.
The first page read;
Published and Written by Anonymous, January 13th, 80 SCE, Titerra Empire
Sienna mused to himself. SCE... Second Common Era... Lasted about three hundred years before the Great War started. The Titerran Empire? That's one of the many fallen empires that would eventually become part of Mistral. But the Titerran empire vanished nearly two hundred years ago... She blinked her eyes to be sure she was seeing things right. This book may not look like it on the outside, but it must be very old.
As she flipped to the next page, she saw that the corners of the book were yellowing and peeling away. She tried to ignore it and read it contents.
Many Gods and Goddesses have been known throughout Remnant's history. Some are real, and others are fake. However, I have managed to prove the existence of at least one of them. I know that this one is real because I signed a contract and agreed to work for her. (It's a long story...) Anyway, you're probably wondering who this Dark Goddess is. She is known by many names; Dark Queen/Lady, The Umbra Queen, Shadow Queen, Queen/Lady of Shadows, and The Goddess of Darkness, to name a few. Thanks to my inside info, I learned who she truly is. Well, for the most part.
Her real name is Salem. Goddess of magic, darkness, destruction, death, deception, and commander of the Grimm. Her origins are unclear and she refused to speak about her past, so I had to rely on old, ancient myths. One version says that she is the daughter of the God of Darkness and a powerful sorceress who tempted him and was born as a semi-immortal being who fell into the Grimm pool, giving her complete immortality and strengthening her dark power. Another states that she was actually the daughter of the God of Light who fell in love with a queen and was born with semi-immortal with light powers, but turned dark and completely immortal when falling into the Grimm pool. I don't know which version of the tale is true, or if it's actually neither of them, but I do know this; Salem is a very powerful goddess.
She turned to the next page.
The full extent of her powers is unknown to me, but from what I've seen, she is capable of creating and commanding the Grimm. I've noticed that some Grimm have a symbol on them that Salem has been known to use (See Figure 1).
To the right of the paragraph was figure 1. She looked at the picture in the book and then looked at the symbol on her napkin. They were a perfect match. She gasped in realization as the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stood up.
Salem... Does she really exist? I mean... I was knocked into unconsciousness for two weeks, yet somehow survived. I also ended up where I should have landed when I fell from that cliff and didn't die. It would make sense. But if this Salem goddess is real, then what is her objective? Why would she save me? Why would she spare me instead of killing me? Is it possible that...?
Before she could question any further, she felt a stabbing feeling in her stomach even though she was unharmed. Why does my stomach hurt? And how long have I been here? She sighed and checked her scroll for the time.
11:45pm
She sighed. I've been here for at least an hour and now I'm left with more questions than answers.
The High Leader took out a golden seal with the symbol of the White Fang on it and looked at backside. On the back of the seal were the initials G.B. Only the leader and a few others knew the meaning behind the initials- they were the initials of Ghira Belladonna, the first leader of the White Fang. They also served as a way to prevent the Badge of Leadership from being replicated. She held the badge to her chest and let a few tears fall. I'm supposed to be the Queen of the White Fang, the High Leader, but at that same time, I failed to protect my friend and ally. Am I piece on someone else's chessboard? And is it perhaps possible that...?
The elevator went back up without her touching any of the buttons.
Is that normal? Or... She put away the badge and came to a realization in terror. Oh no...
She rearranged the other books back where they were on the shelf, took the book she was reading and quickly hid herself under the staircase. She put her hood back up and silently hoped that whoever was about to enter the underground library wouldn't notice the missing book, or worse, notice her presence.
I could kill them if I really had to, but that would only make things a lot harder for me. If I killed them, should I leave the body there or should I take it and dispose of it? There is no camera down here, so I could theoretically leave it here, but if they traced the murder back to me, it could backfire. How badly would it backfire?
She had no more time to think about it as she heard the elevator ding. The visitor, and possibly the owner, had arrived down. Gradual footsteps were heard as they made their way down. As she heard the steps, she realized that there were two pairs of feet descending the stairs, one going faster than the other. Sienna peeked from behind the stairs to see the visitors.
The first person to descend down the stairway was an old man in tan business clothing and black dress shoes. Another person soon joined him at the bottom of the steps. She was a woman with blue hair in a pixie cut and purple eyes. She wore a forest green mini-skirt with a light blue sweater over it along with brown hiking boots. Her weapon, an azure blue whip with ice dust, was shown hanging around her waist like a belt. She wore a forest charm pendant necklace and a faux purple flower in her hair.
"I'm not seeing any intruders." the woman stated.
"True, but they might be hiding somewhere." the man told her. "Still, thanks for coming to investigate, Mrs. Durham."
She smiled at him. "Please, just call me Azura."
"Alright, Azura. Check the back room." he ordered. "I'll look at the front to see if anything's missing." She nodded and went forth into the other room. The librarian examined the bookshelves, and his eyes came across the same bookshelf Sienna took the book from. "Wait a second. A book's out of place." He gasped. "It's missing."
Offscreen, Azura asked, "Do you think that the thief may still be here?"
"The camera saw them come down here over an hour ago. They haven't come back up since."
As he continued to examine for clues, Sienna tuned out their conservation as she got the black bag off her back, put the book in it, and slung it back on.
"Is there an underground exit?" Mrs. Durham asked.
Without any warning, the hidden faunus used her whip to grab the librarian's arm and dragged him into the darkness. He screamed as he was dragged into the dark and heard gasping. Azura turned to find him, only to see the dark area under the stairs. Then there was silence.
"Come out, whoever you are!" Azura ordered. Sienna, realizing her cover was blown, had no choice but to stop hiding and unveil herself. With her hood up and mask on, she came out with her weapon still in her hand, dragging the dead librarian by the neck. The huntress gasped upon seeing the dead man. "You monster!"
In a flash, she got out her whip and lashed out at the intruder. She released her hold on the dead man and jumped up to evade her attack, barely dodging a wave of ice dust. Sienna swung and released her first head of the Cerberus Whip, only for Azura to dodge it with ease. Azura smirked as she cracked her whip, releasing wave after wave of ice dust at the High Leader.
"Who are you?!"
She has a short temper. Sienna noted. I can use that to my advantage. Sienna dodged more dust waves. Now how can I make her angry?
"Who you think you are?!" Sienna spoke in a disguised, high-pitched voice. "You're no hero! You're nothing but a liar!"
"A liar?!" She growled and tried to grab Sienna with her whip, only for her to backflip and dodge as the huntress unintentionally destroyed part of the stairway. "You're the liar!"
The High Leader smirked. Hook, line and sinker.
She released the second head of Cerberus and it countered the ice dust from the whip, creating an ice wall between the two. She saw the huntress try and grab her by the ankle with the whip, so she jumped up and punched the ice wall, sending some of its ice crystals towards her opponent. The huntress continued to dodge them, but one of them hit her face and another one jabbed her in the stomach. She did this again and after being hit with a few more crystals, the wall disappeared and Azura's aura was shown flickering in a slate blue color.
Time to activate my semblance.
Sienna's blood red aura surrounded her entire body, making her stronger, faster and more vicious. As Azura's aura was shown continuing to break, Sienna threw her whip and grabbed her arm. The huntress screamed as she was dragged forth. The High Leader grabbed Azura's whip out of her hands and wrapped it around her neck to choke her. Her grip tightened and within a matter of seconds, the huntress was knocked unconscious.
The faunus leader took her last head of the whip and used it to stab the huntress's neck, finishing her off. As the aura glow disappeared, she retrieved the pieces of Cerberus Whip and put it back together. She took a black cloth and wiped the blood off her weapon before wrapping it around her arm. Now that her unwelcome guests were dead, she breathed a sigh of relief.
Alright, I better get out of here before more huntsmen or huntresses show up.
She quickly walked up the stairs, pushed the button and got into the elevator. After a few seconds, the door closed and she went back up. Upon arriving to the top, she went back the way she came and ran off into the night.
As Weiss descended through the secret tunnels, she held her sword at her hip and her suitcase in her left hand. She found herself mostly in the darkness, her path illuminated only by artificial torches along the wall. Her heart threatened to pound out of her chest. She stopped in her tracks.
What if I'm caught? What if someone finds me here? Stealth was never a weakness, but it was never a forte either. I managed to sneak out of the manor, but I had help. Now I'm on my own.
She felt a cold breeze gently blow by her.
I have to move forward. Just think, what would Pyrrha do? What would Pyrrha do? She paused to herself. She would go forward, no matter what, and bravely confront whatever came her way.
With some more vigor in her step, she descended down the rest of the steps and a sound reached her ears.
Do I hear... running water?
She went through the gateway and found herself standing on a concrete runway next to a man-made river of running water.
The sewers... Of course there's a sewer tunnel. But yet... She sniffed the air. It doesn't stink down here. Weird... But there's no time to question it- just keep moving.
The former heiress made her way forward, keeping her eyes constantly moving as she walked down the concrete path.
At least now I'm in a place with more light. But I'm also more vulnerable to being seen. I have to be constantly alert at all times.
As she wondered through the sewers, she looked for a way out. She turned around, thinking she heard something like footsteps, but quickly dismissed it. After about a minute or so, she saw a faint ray of moonlight. She quickly followed it to find a ladder leading up to the streets of Atlas. She ran to the ladder and quickly climbed up. Upon reaching the top, she pushed open the manhole cover slightly to make sure the coast was clear. Not seeing anyone who would catch her and report her, she pushed off the cover and climbed out. She knelt down and put the cover back on and breathed a sigh of relief.
Made it. Now to get to Mistral.
The former heiress ran off into the night, feeling free. And for the first time in what felt like forever, she was genuinely happy.