RWBY: Chosen King and Queen

Chapter 16: Winchester Family Plight Part 2

" And there it is." Drayce had stepped back a little as the drive had finished loading. "Now to see what you've been up to Mr. Winchester…" Drayce, with Cardin over his shoulder, started to maneuver through the files in front of them. "Okay so we have plans for street construction… Projection of profit for dust metal… Facility construction for dust metal in Atlas…"

After a while of this Cardin decided to ask, "Anything yet?"

Drayce shook his head, "Nope not a thing that is incriminating anyway. It's all business stuff and profit from what I can see." Drayce motioned for Cardin to look at the computer, "Wanna take a crack at it?"

Cardin stepped up and started scrolling through files. He went from profit ranges, to production, to even facilities. It seemed full proof. That was until Cardin spotted something, "Huh?" He found a file after he clicked through dust metal production called, "'Better Vale'? What's that about?" Cardin then clicked on it and the only thing that showed up was two files. One was called 'Dust Metal 45' and 'Azure Sky'. "Azure Sky? What does he have to do with my father? I know my father is backing him but to me they rarely speak to each other."

"Open it."

Cardin did as he was told and in the file was nothing. "What the hell?"

Drayce thought for a second, "So something was in this file but maybe a while ago he deleted it for whatever reason. Let's check the Dust Metal 45 file." Cardin went back and checked the file and it was nothing but a set of numbers. "A set of numbers? What does that mean?"

They both thought for a second, "Maybe a set of coordinates?"

Drayce opened his scroll and plopped in the numbers in his scroll and then a location south of Vale popped up. "Looks like we found our answer. Let's go see what this is about. We leave tomorrow."

"Why not now?" Cardin asked eagerly, "Isn't it best to strike while the iron is hot. Plus it's still early in the day."

Drayce placed a hand on Cardin's shoulder, "You've been a tremendous help Cardin, for now go get some rest better to be ready to go after a night's rest then to go in now. We have time." Drayce started to walk out, "Additionally we should prepare ourselves. We don't know what we might encounter or see tomorrow. Before that we should be of sound mind before going. I'll talk to Ozpin about letting you go with me tomorrow and you having the next three days off."

Cardin understood and nodded to Drayce, also leaving for Beacon Academy, to get prepared for what is to come.

Cardin walked to his room until he was intercepted by the leader of Team RWBY, Ruby Rose herself, "So how did it go?"

Cardin nodded, "We have a lead and we will be investigating it tomorrow."

Ruby nodded, "Wanna talk?"

Cardin looked at her but then sighed, "Yeah."

Ruby motioned Cardin to follow her as they met up on the balcony, "What's up? What did you want to talk about? Is it about your father?"

Cardin sighed looking at the sky, "Yeah." He then motioned himself to sit at the edge, "I am just scared at what we'll find. I trust Drayce, and that's why I am afraid. Drayce wouldn't look into my father without a reason. That in itself is terrifying."

Ruby nodded, and sat down next to him, "I know what you mean. Drayce is more often than not fighting for everyone's safety. So I get it."

Cardin nodded, "I just hope it's not as bad as I am thinking it will be. If it is then…" Cardin paused, not wanting to say what he may have to do. With that said he knew what he was possibly getting into when he decided to help Drayce, so he resolved to himself that he wanted to become a true huntsman which meant one thing. "Then I will do my duty and do what must be done."

Ruby looked at him in surprise, "Wow. I don't even know if I would be so resolved if the same thing happened with my dad." Ruby stood up, "You've changed Cardin. I am happy to have you as a friend. Good luck tomorrow. Make it back safely." With that Ruby left Cardin alone with his thoughts.

After a while Cardin heard new footsteps arrive and a very flustered voice after. Cardin recognized that voice and was surprised that she was here. The Winchester turned around to see Velvet Scarlatina standing there flustered, "Sorry I didn't know you were up here. I'll come back later."

Velvet was about to turn to leave until Cardin called out to her, "Wait!" The rabbit faunus jumped slightly but stayed and turned to him. "Can I ask you something?"

Velvet, now curious, tilted her head sideways, "Sure what is it?"

"Well I never got the chance to ask but…" Cardin paused for a second, "Why…Why did you forgive me? After everything I did…I treated you like trash, like less than a person, so why? Why did you give me a second chance?"

Velvet stood there for a second, "Because you deserved it." Cardin was shook by her answer and had confusion on his face so Velvet decided to elaborate. "I am a faunus. My people have been oppressed, beaten, killed, and abused for years, and some still do to this day, because of people like you were." Cardin lowered his head in shame, "But you aren't that person anymore." Velvet knelt down to Cardin, "If I hated you for what you did then I would be no better than my abusers. Everyone deserves a second chance, the only thing that matters is what you do with that second chance. Will you stand by and watch it happen again and again and again." She stood up with a smile on her face, "Or will you do something about it. And Cardin I think you have the strength and resolve to change."

Velvet's words struck a chord in Cardin and made him for the first time in a while put up a genuine happy smile, "Thank you Velvet."

On the airship on their way to the coordinates both Cardin and Drayce sat in the airship waiting as it hit the afternoon. Cardin decided to strike a conversation to ease the tension, "What do you think we will find?"

Drayce thought for a moment, "Well if it has anything to do with the person who sent me out for this mission. I would have to guess it is a faunus related issue."

"Faunus?" Cardin thought about it for a second, "I can see that, but is your employer a faunus."

Drayce nodded, "I rather not give out their identity but just know they are an important figure. They can also help with what is to come and security. I would rather have them on our side than against us." Cardin nodded to this as he understood.

Just then the intercoms of the aircraft flared on, "We are a few clicks from our destination. Do you want us to drop you off at the location or right here?"

Drayce got up and ready, "Right here is fine. We will travel the rest of the way. I rather nobody knows where we are and or going."

"Understood opening the doors now. Call us when you are ready to be picked back up."

"Guess it's time. I just hope it isn't so bad."

Drayce nodded, "I hope so too."

Drayce then jumped out of the airship leaving Cardin who sighed, "I have a bad feeling about this."

He then also jumped as well diving straight for Drayce. He then touched Drayce's back as the prince threw his weapon straight to the ground. Once he confirmed that the weapon hit the ground, the prince turned to Cardin, "Get ready we'll be teleporting in 3…2…1…now!"

With that they teleported safely to the ground where his weapon was. "Well that was surprisingly quiet."

Drayce nodded, "Best to not make that much noise. Now let's go." Cardin nodded and they began walking in the direction.

Night had fallen with Drayce and Cardin walking in silence. 'Damn where is this place? We should have hit it by now.' Cardin thought, getting a little impatient.

Drayce, unbeknownst to Cardin, had similar thoughts, and was starting to get confused. 'Were we wrong?' He then looked to the sky to see smoke in the air. Drayce nudged his companion, motioning him to the sky, to which Cardin saw and nodded to Drayce as they began jogging to the location.

After jogging a bit they were met with the edge of a cliff, they then looked over it and saw a whole facility. A warehouse in the middle of nowhere with security everywhere. "What the hell is this place?"

"I don't know but we are about to find out." Drayce searched everywhere for an opening to drop down from and after some searching he found one right at the edge of the gate that the warehouse was surrounded with. He threw his weapon with great accuracy and nailed his target, and in a swift motion teleported both Cardin and himself inside. "Okay we're in but now we need to get in the warehouse."

Cardin then pointed to a window that was open, "Before we teleported I saw a window open. If we can get there then we can get in."

Drayce nodded, "Good thinking."

Cardin then led them to the window without getting seen but before they were there Cardin pulled Drayce into hiding while telling him to be quiet. Two guards appeared as they walked by conversing with each other but they couldn't really catch their conversation. Drayce perked up his ears and waited until they were gone. "Thanks for the save, now let's go." Drayce took out his sword and Cardin his glaive and proceeded to get on the roof, Drayce with his teleportation and Cardin with a short burst of wind dust and aura.

Once inside, on steel bars, they closed the window and looked down to see something that shocked them and terrified them. There were many people in rags that were mining a wall with subpar equipment with officers watching them. In the warehouse were also two distinctive things. There were many cages and many tall glass tubes that could fit people. But the most disgusting part was that there were people in those cages, with their malnourished bodies sitting there. All of them were Faunus as well as the miners. "What the hell?" Cardin asked, not knowing how to process everything, "What the hell is all this?"

Drayce was disgusted as well but they needed to focus, they can help everyone else later but first they need to find something they could use to condemn them. After looking for a while Drayce found an office door on the second floor of the warehouse however, there were guards along the walkway, two specifically. "We need to take out those guards and then get into that room." Cardin shook his head to snap himself out of it and nodded. "Alright when they meet up and then turn around I will drop my sword. Before it hits the ground we'll teleport and then we will take them out, quickly and quietly."

Cardin nodded, "Ready." So they waited with Cardin's hand on Drayce's shoulder, and once the time was right Drayce dropped his sword and right before it hit the ground he teleported both Cardin and himself to it. The guards heard the slight movement and turned their heads but before they knew it was too late. As Drayce in a fluid motion caught his weapon and with the blunt side hit the man hard in the neck, while Cardin hit the guard in the head, knocking them unconscious. Before they hit the ground however they both caught the guards and laid them on the floor. "Whew, that was easier than I expected."

Drayce nodded and they began to walk quietly to the door. At the door they saw a lock with a keypad, Drayce moved aside, "Would you like to do the honors?"

"Why, how kind of you," Cardin said sarcastically as he used the device he used to open his dad's door, "Just cover me would you." Cardin looked back to see Drayce had disappeared, "Of course." After a while he was able to get it open and when he looked back he saw Drayce was standing right there and almost jumped from fright, "Goddammit Drayce could you scare me anymore?"

Drayce smirked as he twirled some keys with his fingers that he had, "While you were doing that I went to snag some keys." Cardin just facepalmed and ignored Drayc as he opened the door into the office. The office had a table in the middle of the room with a chair both made of marblewood, with many papers on top of it. Behind it was a tinted large window giving a clear view of the warehouse but the outside could not see inside. In front of the desk were two shelves of books. One on the right, the other on the left. "I'll look at the desk. You look around to see if you could find anything on what's going on here." Cardin nodded and began looking around and started at the bookshelves.

He began to look at them, "Dust and aura manipulation, grimm anatomy, dust metal, aura conducting metals. Basic huntsmen stuff but why is it here." Cardin began to look around more before Drayce spoke.

"Oh shit…"

Cardin looked at him, "What's up? Found something?"

Drayce looked back at Cardin with widened eyes, "Something I wish I hadn't."

Cardin walked to him and looked at what he was looking at to see it was a note from his father.

Entry 52

We have made plenty of progress when it comes to the research of the Ultimate Huntmen project. Councillor Azure Sky has told me that the experiments from the test subjects that I have given has been going swimmingly. I don't know how well but he seems to be confident in it. Until then I will continue to hold up my end of the bargain. I could understand why he has been using only faunus. With their 'superior' traits and genes as he puts it. I guess faunus is good for something, if only to be pawns for us to create the perfect soldier. He says they need to be tired and weak so that the serum could take effect without any issue or potential of it being rejected. Not that it is a problem with me. If I have to starve, kill, and maim faunus in order to see this take root, then I will be more than willing to do so. Regardless, as men who have lost their wives to this war on the grimm, we are willing to do anything to make sure we succeed.

Cardin could not believe what he was reading. His own father was essentially torturing Faunus in order to do what? Create a super soldier? "Father…why?"

"It seems as though this place was supposed to be another base for these experiments." He tossed pictures that he found on the table, "Something may have happened to the previous location." Cardin looked at the grayed out pictures, but he could see them clearly. Faunus were floating in tubes in one picture and in another we saw a faunus strapped down on a bed with doctors injecting him with some kind of fluid. Another picture was something that was horrifying, it looked like a faunus transforming with his skin turning black with lines all over his face. Last picture was of a grimm in a cage as doctors extracted something from it.

"What the hell is all of this?"

"Oh no…"

Cardin looked at Drayce to see a faunus collapse from exhaustion only for an officer to kick him. Once he didn't get up the officer pointed his gun at his head and pulled the trigger and the sound echoed throughout the warehouse leaving both Cardin and Drayce stunned. "We have to stop this."

Cardin's answer came with Drayce materializing his weapon, "Kill them all leave no one alive. This stops tonight."

If looks could kill Cardin would be dead with the anger and rage present on Drayce's face, 'He means it. He is going to kill everyone here…' Cardin shook his head, 'No that is what they deserve for this. My father has gone too far and it's time to rectify my family's mistakes.' Cardin took his weapon from his back, signalling that he was with his friend.

For the soldiers they just recently dragged the dead body of the faunus to an area where they disposed of deceased bodies. The soldier looked back at the cage, "Alright the next one is up. Get to work." The faunus' all shuddered in fright, not wanting to be put to work with such low energy. "If someone doesn't come then I'll-

Before his sentence could be finished he started grabbing his throat and gargling as blood leaked out from the wound and he began to choke. Another guard saw the blood and rang alarms in his head, "Sound the alarm there is someone he-"

He as well didn't finish his sentence when his head was severed from his body, making all the faunus scream and the guards on high alert. "Over there!" Everyone turned to the entrance of the warehouse to see both Cardin and Drayce standing there.

"Cardin," the young man looked to his friend, " Take care of the ones outside. There should be 10 out there. I'll take care of the 20 here. Dispose of them however you wish and then call Ozpin to get airships over here in secret. We need to get these people out of here."

Cardin nodded, "As you wish." He didn't mean that in a mocking tone or anything he just felt and realized how terrifying Drayce could be and he rather not see more of it.

Drayce then began to walk to his enemies, "Who are you?!" A soldier asked.

Drayce looked at them, "It doesn't matter who I am or who I am with. Dead men can't talk anyway." Without any warning he sped to the closest soldier and cut his head off his shoulders

"Open fire!" The soldiers did as they were told as they opened fire on Drayce only for him to dodge and deflect the shots coming at him. He then threw his sword into the chest of an officer as he teleported to it, landing on the officer as he wrestled the sword from the dead corpse, blood staining his clothes in the process. He then dashed forward to the next as he deflected more bullets and then vanished from sight. He appeared in front of one of the officers and they began to beg, "Wait don't I have a-" The man was then silenced as Drayce cut him in half and moved onto the next where he slashed his abdomen open. "Take this!" Someone then threw a dust grenade towards Drayce who caught it and threw his sword in the air teleported to it and dropped the bomb in the middle of a group and teleported out as it exploded killing five of them. He then blitzed another as he swept their feet from under him and then stabbed him in the heart while in the air, slamming the body into the ground. "Wait, stop, we surrender please."

An officer said but Drayce wasn't having any of it, "Did you stop when any of these people asked you to?" He gestured to the faunus in the cages. None of them could muster a word of opposition, "Didn't think so." Drayce then stalked them as he continued his massacre.

Outside once an explosion was heard from inside of the warehouse all the guards gathered at the door to find just Cardin there with his weapon ready to fight. "I am sorry for what is about to happen but you guys allowed something to happen and it's unforgivable." He then ran at them with the guards shooting at him, so he twirled his weapon deflecting their bullets away. He then stabbed his glaive to the ground and used wind dust to launch himself into the air. In the air he cocked back his weapon and threw it with all of his might to the ground racing towards the center of them. The weapon hit the ground with a shockwave blowing back all of them allowing Cardin to land next to it. He then twirled the weapon and with the blade decapitated one of the guards. Four of them tried to surround him and that's when he spun and threw his weapon at them. He then clicked a button on his wrist activating the gravity dust as the weapon began to fly around killing all four of them. He then saw four others grouped together and ran at them, while deflecting bullets flying at him. When he got to the first one he used both of his hands on his weapon to cut him in the chest diagonally. With the man falling on the ground, dead, Cardin spun on his heel and with his back turned stabbed the other straight through the heart. Next he spun again on his heels, this time forwards and decapitated the next man as his head rolled to the floor. Spun one last time but this time with his body low to the ground and swept the man off his feet with his weapon and stabbed him into the ground. Cardin breathed in and out as he was still getting used to his new style of fighting, but the spars with everyone was helping tremendously.

Cardin then heard shaking as he saw a guard on the food shaking in fear. There was silence before the man got up and tried to run, screaming. Cardin sighed as he threw his weapon, stabbing the man in the chest as he fell down succumbing to his wounds. Cardin clicked the gravity activator once again as the weapon flew from the dead body into Cardin's hands.

With the carnage over he was about to throw up seeing the dead bodies but he scarfed it back down and steeled himself. 'This had to happen and this is part of the job of a huntsman as well.' He thought using that as motivation while taking out his scroll and contacting the headmaster.

"Ah Mr. Winchester I assumed everything went smoothly?"

"Unfortunately, yes. We need a transport."

"Of course. Sending one for both you and Drayce."

Cardin shook his head, "Not just us. We have some civilians here that we are trying to move out. As quietly as possible. We'll give you all the details after but know that this isn't pretty."

There was a pause over the phone, "I understand. Sending a couple your way, please load them all in safely."

"You got it, professor." Cardin then sent him their coordinates and waited for Drayce, however it didn't take much longer when the door opened behind him to see Drayce guiding the refugees out. He had blood all over his clothes and weapon, however so did Cardin. "Is it over?"

Drayce nodded, "Yeah. For now it's over."