> Heroes of Beacon
>  by HeartfireFirebrand
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue: Experiment Gone Wrong
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight wore a lab coat as she stood in a room full of machines, she frowned “Tempest are you sure about this?” 

Tempest nodded standing on a portal generating machine “I trust you Twilight, if something does go wrong, it’s not you fault.” 

Pinkie smiled “It will be okay, we’re here to support you, you got this.” 

Twilight began to activate the machine “Power at twenty percent, power at thirty percent, all seems good so far and…” Twilight eyes widened Rainbow Dash bolted into crashing into the thaumic capacitor, the machine instantly destabilised sucking Rainbow, Pinkie and Tempest into it as well as a few machines into it. Twilight managed to shield herself before bursting into tears at the loss of her friends. 

Meanwhile in the Kingdom of Atlas a young Faunus with pink fur, as well as pony ears and a tail crashed into the centre of a city, she looked up in shock and confusion having no memory other than her name and a few basic skills. 

People started to shout at her “Filthy Faunus!” 

She ran towards a building tears in her eyes where she bumped into a tall man who crouched “What’s your name?”

She smiled as she dried her tears “My name is Pinkamena Diane Pie and I’m alone here.” 

The man smiled “I’m James Ironwood, this place is not safe for a young Faunus like yourself. I know someone who can care for you in Vale, he has two kids, one about your age and one a little older.”

The young Faunus began to whimper “Can I stay with you please, I don’t want to leave?” 

James Ironwood being the general of Atlas’s armies was many things, headstrong, fierce and determined despite this even he couldn’t handle the starry eyed look the young Faunus was giving him “Fine but if you are to stay with there a few rules first off you are to stick close to me at all times, my line of work is dangerous and secondly I will teach you how to protect yourself if something does go wrong and we get separate for any reason I want to be safe you understand.” 

The young Faunus smiled “Yes.” 

Ironwood nodded “Well then Pinkamena come with me, I need to fill out some paperwork so that you are officially under my care.” 

The young Faunus smiled “Please call me Diane?”

Ironwood smiled “Alright, Diane it is.” Diane huddled close to Ironwood as they moved through the cold streets of Atlas as people glared at her, Ironwood sighed “Atlas has a poor reputation for hate against Faunus like yourself, I am not fond of it several of my greatest soldiers who I trust my life with are Faunus.” Ironwood almost spat the name “Unfortunately Jacques Schnee, head of the Schnee Dust Company use of Faunus labour has stopped me or any of the council from making any changes on that front.” 

Diane whimpered “That sounds awful.”

Ironwood grimaced “It is.” Diane was still holding onto his leg as they entered a massive building, it was incredibly well furnished couches along the walls had high quality glass panes. Ironwood hated orphanages like these, in fact under the table any Faunus children in these places were sold to the Schnee Dust company for money. Ironwood frowned as he walked up to a woman at the desk he coughed “Excuse me, I’m here to fill out some paperwork.” 

The woman looked up “Commander Ironwood sir, it’s a pleasure to meet you and…” she glared at Diane “Let me just get rid of that rabble and we can conduct business.”

Ironwood shook his head “She’s why I’m here actually, I wish to take her in so I trust you’ll give me the adoption papers so I can sign them and have put under my care immediately.”

The woman nodded “Forgive me I shouldn't assumed…” 

Ironwood grimaced, she gave him some papers which he quickly signed and then were documented. Ironwood smiled “Now come on I’ll take you to where you'll be staying.” 

Ironwood exited the building with Diane still almost strapped to his leg, as several continued to jeer at her one particularly bold tall well muscled man shouted “Take this Faunus scum!” as he threw a rock at her. Ironwood in a flash of incredible speed caught the rock in his gloved hand crushing it as he glared at them before walking away, Diane looked confused “He threw a rock at us, you looked angry, I thought you were going to hurt him, why didn’t you?”

Ironwood looked down at her with a forlorn expression as they headed to a massive ship that towered over the airship docks “It is up to people with power to act with responsibility and with respect for that power. I could have hurt him but I would have just stopped down to his level to be as bad as he is, if you want to see change then you have to represent that change not just through words but through actions.”

Diane nodded “I understand, we have to better than those who try to hurt us.” Ironwood smiled briefly before guiding onto the massive metal ship, the walls of the ship were a bland plain white as silvery metal machines wandered the halls. 

Ironwood grumbled under his breath “I remember when wars were fought by valiant men and women.”

He headed to a small room which had a plain bed and small writing desk in it, it was next to his office “This is my room, the bed is yours I know it isn’t much but it’s all I have.” 

Diane smiled “Thanks you , umm is it okay if I call you dad I don’t really remember much but it feels like that should be what I call you.”

Ironwood nodded “Of course you can call me dad, actually I want you to come around so you get a general feel of the ship and learn to get along with those on the ship.”

Ironwood guided Diane into a large room full of personal sitting at long metal tables eating, Ironwood commanded “Attention!” 

Everyone stood up in the room, Ironwood caste his steely gaze across the room “This is Diane, I have taken her in as my own because she has no home or family to go back to, you will treat with respect!” 

Everyone saluted “Yes sir!” 

Ironwood nodded “At ease men, take your seat and carry on.” Ironwood guided Diane to the line where a lion Faunus with a golden coat and long blue mane her tail tied back as not to interfere with others in the kitchen, she smiled “General Ironwood, it’s a remeasure to have you dining with us again.” 

General Ironwood let out a deep hearty laugh “Fiery Roar, I must admit I’ve missed dining with my men, they are much better for conversation then those rich fools I have to deal with.” 

Fiery then smiled “Who is this sweet dear that’s attached to your leg?”

Diane hid behind Ironwood’s leg, Ironwood coaxed her out “Diane it’s okay she’s a very kind person I promise.”

Fiery smiled “What would you like to eat…”

Diane cautiously looked at her “Could I have an apple please.” 

Fiery smiled “Sure here you go” she then turned to Ironwood “I’ll bring something a little more substantial over for her later.” 

Ironwood smiled “Thank you.” 

Fiery smiled “I’ll bring your lasagne over as well don’t worry General.” 

Ironwood laughed “You know too well, thanks for everything.” Ironwood picked up Diane and placed her on his shoulder, they sat down at one of the metal tables she happily ate her apple on his shoudler.

Diane looked around cautiously, Ironwood turned to her with a warm smile “Don’t worry Diane, this place is one of the most friendly places for Faunus, you see due to the large amount of mechanical soldiers we have very few humans want to fight in the army anymore but quite a few Faunus do as they are treated with respect here, for every one human soldier there are five Faunus soldiers, for every one human officer there is twenty Faunus officers and well with exception of specialists and me that aren’t really any humans higher ranked then that.” 

Diane smiled as she crawled off his shoulder “Thanks Dad for giving me a home.”

Ironwood smiled “Don’t worry about it Diane, I just did when any good person should which unfortunately here in Atlas is very few.” 

Soon their food turned up, for Ironwood a Lasagne and for Diane a potato salad, Ironwood then took Diane to her room and tucked her in with a smile “Tomorrow training begins so you better get a good sleep.”

Diane smiled “I will.” Ironwood got out a sleeping bag and got into sleeping on the floor, he was unaware of the shocking revelation that would turn up the following morning.
> Chapter 1: Diane's Training and Arrival at Patch
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Diane was standing in hall she was wearing a white shirt and blue pants her hooves on the ground her hands raised in front of her. Ironwood, had taken all clothes off his upper body revealing his half mechanical body. He was wearing a pair of plain white pants covered his lower half but he was not wearing any shoes. He frowned as he put his organic hand on the metal half of his body “As you can see Diane, fighting is dangerous business. If you end up in a fight to the death all it take is one wrong move and you are dead, I’m going to explain one simple rule above all else in a fight to the death if you’re much faster and stronger than you’re opponent then you can kill them.” 

Diane nodded “I understand dad.”

Ironwood frowned “Right well let’s begin with the basics, there are quite a few types of punches, a few of simple ones are jabs, straights, hooks and uppercuts this is a jab” his fist darted forward his arm extending partially beyond the elbow but not fully “this is a straight” he extended his arm fully out sending his fist forward forward “this is a hook” he swung his arm around in a curved motion “and this is an uppercut!” He swung his arm upwards fully extended as it sent him into the air before he landed on both feet with a soft thud.

He turned to her “Now you try.” Diane nodded as she launched a swift jab which Ironwood blocked with his arm followed by a straight which he blocked then a hook that actually got past his guard followed by a fierce uppercut. 

Ironwood smiled as he landed on both feet “Now let’s have a little sparring match.”

Diane got a worried look on her face, Ironwood smiled “Don’t worry, I won’t go all out this is just a sparring match.” 

Diane nodded “Alright father let’s do this.” They both swung a straights their fists slamming into each other, they then started testing each other’s guards with jabs. 

Diane managed to get a hook past him, before delivering an uppercut to his jaw. She then ran at him as he landed, Ironwood smiled (Time to see how she can adopt to a changing scenario.) He swung a kick at her sending flying into the wall, she coughed up blood, Ironwood grimaced “She hasn't unlocked her aura yet, shit I forgot about that!” 

What happened next was Diane’s body began to glow a bright pink before a wave of pink light flared out. Ironwood looked around in shock as the air was full of Diane’s aura, he struggled to move his body through the thickness of her aura, Ironwood shouted “Diane please stop.” 

Diane turned to him her aura fading from the air, Diane grimaced she walked over to him “That was a dirty trick also what was that strange energy around me?”

Ironwood frowned “I was just trying to see how well you’d react to my change in strategy, also that energy is called aura it can protect you body from harm and increase your attack potency, you have far more of through what anyone I have ever known it was so thick I couldn’t move, with such a powerful aura I will have to teach you how to direct and control it.” Diane nodded as the pair continued their physical traning after Ironwood promised to not pull any more cheap tricks although with her aura unlocked he didn’t have to hold back against her.

Meanwhile in the large forests on the island of Patch, two Faunus one dark orchid with a rose mane and a rose tail her hooves on the ground her single arm resting at her side, another pony Faunus, this one a light blue with a rainbow mane and a rainbow tail hovered above her wings flapping behind her “Urghh where are we these trees are boring me?!” 

Tempest grimaced “Rainbow you were the one who crashed into the thaumic capacitor and now we are young bipeds in the middle of nowhere, not mention Pinkie Pie is somewhere else. I hope she is safe, one of the machines that got sucked in hit on the head quite hard.” 

Rainbow smiled “Pinkie will be fine she is tougher than you know, in fact her body fell apart once and she just put herself back together without an issue there was even a speck of blood or nothing.” 

Tempest blinked “Really?”

Rainbow nodded “Yep, she is amazing.” 

Suddenly a hoard of Beowolves jumped out, Tempest screamed her hand glowing as she fired a blast of magic at them before shouting “Run!” 

Rainbow grimaced “Screw that, let’s fly.” She picked up Tempest or at least tired too. Rainbow shouted “You’re too heavy!” 

The Beowolves leapt at them, they both closed their eyes only for a crow to fly in front of them before transforming into a tall man with dark spiky hair he was wearing a grey dress shirt as well dark grey dress pants and dark grey dress shoes. He swung a massive sword tearing the Beowolves clean in half, he then pulled out a flask and took a swig of it before he turned to them “Now can you two explain why are two Faunus kids wandering around these forests.” 

Tempest explained everything in detail including where they were from, the man rubbed his nose “I wouldn’t believe you had you been found anywhere else but two Faunus children on their own on Patch that I have never seen or heard of is unusual, maybe Ozpin knows something he knows more than anyone else?”

Rainbow Dash frowned “Who are you anyway and where did you learn how to do that?”

Tempests scolded “That’s rude, he just saved our…”

The man laughed as he smiled at Rainbow Dash “I like you, straight to the point.” He then frowned “I’m Qrow Branwen, a Huntsmen it is our job to protect people and hunt monsters known as Grimm those Beowolves that attacked you are a type of Grimm.” 

Tempest frowned “Where are we going?”

Qrow spoke firmly “You two will not tell anyone about this place you understand, not a soul.” 

Tempest frowned saluting “You have my word.”

Rainbow Dash grinned “Rainbow ‘Secret Keeper’ Dash will not tell a soul, cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

Diane meanwhile paused as she blocked a punch from Ironwood “I felt something strange calling out to me, never mind it’s not important.” 

Back with Rainbow and Tempest, Qrow raised an eyebrow at Rainbow’s strange behaviour before shrugging “Come on let’s go.” Qrow lead them to a strange set of vines which pulled aside revealing a metal door, he got out a key and opened it, they entered a small grey room with various weapons on one wall as well as a small sleeping bag and a large metal desk with a large radio on it.

Qrow tapped a button on the radio activating it, he grimaced “Ozpin, we need to talk.” 

Ozpin meanwhile was sitting in office when he received a beep on his scroll, he frowned as she saw Qrow’s name come up “Qrow, did something happen?” 

Qrow frowned as he turned to the two young Faunus, “I found two young Faunus without parents they show far more traits of animals then most and one has wing despite being an Equine, they said they come from a land of ponies full of magic and got here because of a magical teleportation accident do you know anything about this?” 

Ozpin smiled “It seems you have found a few Equestrians.”

Qrow growled slamming his hands on the desk “Ozpin you mean to tell me you knew about another dimension and about magic and you didn’t tell me!”

Ozpin took a deep breath “Qrow I have my secrets ones I keep from everyone, you can never be too trusting in this line of work.”

Qrow grimaced as he took a swing of from his flask “Doesn’t mean I have to like it” he shook his head “also another one of them ended up here and we have no idea where she is.” 

Ozpin nodded “I’ll ask the others to keep a look out for any odd coloured Equine Faunus, in the meantime keep them safe, a friend of mine would certainly not want them harmed.” Ozpin smiled, he was completely aware of who would be visiting him soon, he did miss their conversations.
> Chapter 2: Visit
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Celestia was in her room, Twilight burst in crying. Celestia wrapped her wings around Twilight, Celestia looked at her with concern “What’s wrong Twilight?”

Twilight wailed “Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Tempest are gone!” 

Celestia frowned as Luna burst in, Celestia sighed “Twilight calm down and tell what happened?”

Twilight looked up before she started to cry again “My teleportation machine failed an-and they’re gone.” 

Celestia turned to her sister “Luna we need to do a dimensional location spell now!” Luna nodded without a word as she placed her horn on her sisters and then their magic intersected giving off a flash of light, Celestia nodded “Looks like we need to pay someone a visit” she then turned to Twilight “we found where your friends are.” 

Twilight looked up with tears in her eyes “Where are they, are they safe?!”

Luna frowned “We don’t know but we want you to come and meet a friend, he can help us find them.” 

Twilight gave them a determined look even as the tears dripped down her muzzle “I need to find my friends!” 

Celestia smiled “Good, there’s no time like the present.” 

Celestia pulled a book back and a long stairway opened in the floor, Celestia and Luna turned to her as they headed down “Come on follow us.” 

Twilight nodded galloping after them, Twilight watched as magical lights were strapped to the pale white walls. She watched as the floor closed of Celestia’s room close behind them, Twilight frowned “Where are we going?”

Luna frowned “Starswirl’s mirror is simply one of many designed to hold the magical anomalies that created permanent gateways between our reality and others.” 

Celestia sighed “We’d rather you don’t have to worry about this for several centuries but this is an emergency that involves you personally.” 

Twilight watched as the long white staircase opened to a small crystal room with several mirrors strapped up to a machine, Twilight gasped “This is another mirror room?!”

Luna nodded “This is were the most dangerous dimensions are kept.”

Luna and Celestia turned to one mirror, Celestia tapped the machine activating one of the portals. Celestia grinned “Twilight I hope you remember what you learnt across the mirror portal because it will help you here?” Celestia hoped through the portal, 

Luna sighed “Sister, really?” 

Luna jumped through and then Twilight nodded as she jumped after them. Twilight looked around, she gasped at Luna she was six foot five standing on her hind legs, her fur was visible under her a dark blue combat dress were there weren’t armoured plates there were powerful protective runes, her wings sticking out of two slits with a dark blue greatsword strapped to the back her arms stretching out “It’s been a while since I’ve used these.” 

Celestia smiled ‘”You always looked good in that.”

Twilight’s eyes widened as she saw her mentor about six foot seven her white fur sticking out through a bright orange dress very similar to Luna’s runes and all, her large white wings stuck out of the slits a massive halberd strapped to her back “You two look amazing!” 

Celestia smiled “You do too.”

Twilight looked at herself, she was about six foot and wearing something similar to the other Princesses, she felt her wings sticking out of the combat dress. She then felt something heavy on her back, she pulled it off her back it was a large staff wooden staff, Luna smiled “I guess it realised you were a mage and gave you something that better matched your talents.” 

A voice called out, she turned to see a man slightly shorter than Celestia at a height of six foot six “Celestia I haven’t seen you in over one hundred years.” 

Celestia gave him a hug “It’s good to see you again Ozma.”

Ozma? smiled “Actually It’s Ozpin now, no-one calls me that anymore.”

Celestia laughed “I don’t turn up that often, you can’t blame for not knowing your name every knew body you take” she then grinned as she beckoned to Luna “Guess who’s back.”

Ozpin ran over to her with a smile “Luna it’s been one thousand years since I last saw you” he then took a deep breath and looked between the two Princesses“so what do I owe the visit?”

Twilight waved meekly as she held onto the staff tightly “Hi.”

Ozpin raised an eyebrow “Who is this?”

Celestia smiled “That’s Twilight Sparkle my former pupil and Equestria’s newest Princess” she then sighed “she was trying to create a teleporter that could send ponies to different cities, after a certain pegasus crashed into one of the machines the portal detribalised and sent a three ponies here, I was hoping you could find them.” 

Ozpin smiled “I know the location of two but the third is unknown it will help if we find the third before the other two return.” 

Before he could anything a twelve foot tall man with a brown furred body a lion’s claw and a griffon’s paw as well as a deer antler and a goat horn sticking out of his head as well as dragon and goat leg. He also had a Pegasus and Bat Wing on his back as well as a dragon-like snake tail, he was wearing a purple suit with dark green dress shirt underneath as well as pair of blue suit pants, a massive claymore hung from his back, he gave them a toothy grin “Hello everyone.”

Celestia sighed “Discord what are you doing here?”

Discord frowned “I am here to protect the Equestrians in this world, also we need to ask if they want to leave as well. They may not.”

Ozpin frowned “Who is this?”

Luna frowned “Discord here is a former enemy of ours, he has been reformed recently.” 

Twilight blinked “What do you mean what if they don’t want to leave?”

Discord frowned “Dimensional travel is complicated, one of them could have easily lost their memories on the way through and it would be bad to bring them back before their memories recover.” 

Ozpin nodded “He speaks the truth, very well.” 

Celestia frowned “Are you sure you don’t need our help?”

Ozpin shook his head “No, Salem is my responsibility and I have to see this through.” 

Luna sighed “Stubborn to the last, Ozpin just tell us when you find them.” 

Discord nodded “I’ll pass the message along don’t worry” he then turned to Twilight “Return, I will keep them safe I promise.” 

Twilight smiled as she gave him a small hug “Thanks Discord.” 

Ozpin turned to Discord as the other three guest returned to Equestria “Tea?”

Discord laughed “I’d thought you’d never ask, I’ll be back I just need to do something.” 

He vanished with a click of his claws, he reappeared in dark palace, a long table stretched out with five figure sitting at it, their leader a deathly pale woman who had red and purple veins on her arms and face. She wore a deep black robe, her red eyes eyeing him with a hint of fear behind them, she spoke in a cautious tone “Discord what do I owe the pleasure?”

Discord grimaced “Salem you are well aware that the only reason I didn’t kill you is because Ozpin doesn’t want me to, however if you do force my hand he can’t complain can he so don’t piss me off!”

A tall muscular eight foot man stood up with a three quarter black shirt and a two tone olive coat, he then roared as he charged Discord “How dare you insult our leader!” 

Salem shouted “Hazel stop I…” Before she could finish her sentence her swung at Discord who caught his fist with his claw the punched his head clean off much to the shock of Salem’s other followers he then clicked his claws the body and head bursting into flames before turning into dust on the floor.

Salem froze as Discord’s eyes narrowed “You’re lucky I’m about to have tea with Ozpin or you’d be so dead.” He clicked his claws vanishing as he left Salem shivering in her chair with her three remaining followers looking in shock. Discord meanwhile was enjoying his tea with Ozpin unaware of the disruption to Salem’s efforts.
> Chapter 3: New Home
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Qrow turned to the two young Faunus “You two need to come with me, it isn’t safe for two children to be alone. My brother-in-law lives nearby, I’m going to see if you stay with him. Also don’t tell him that you’re from another world, he has enough on his plate as is and taking care of two more kids will be more than enough stress is that clear!”

Tempest turned to Rainbow “We won’t say anything, right Rainbow Dash?!”

Rainbow boasted “I won’t say anything I promise and I never break a promise!”

Qrow raid an eyebrow before shaking his head, as they left the hidden building, he covered the door again and then they started to move through the vibrant forest. Just as they past a tree it cracked and began to fall over towards Tempest for no apparent reason, Rainbow noticed immediately shouted “Tempest!”

Qrow looked around to see the tree falling, before he could even move Tempest slammed her elbow into the tree shattering it into wood chips and leaf piles. Rainbow blinked “How did you do that?”

Tempest frowned “I was a commander of an entire army remember, it seems even in this body I haven’t lost those instincts and I have retained some of my strength as well.”

Qrow thought to himself (Thing just keep getting weirder and weirder.) 

Rainbow Dash frowned “Why aren’t more those Grimm creatures approaching us?”

Qrow turned to her “Grimm are incredibly hostile but they are not dumb, they can tell when they can’t overcome an opponent and decided to avoid attacking them.” 

Tempest nodded “I see, that does make sense.”

Rainbow frowned “Why did that tree fall on Tempest anyway?”

Qrow sighed “All Huntsmen and Huntresses have a unique energy known as Aura, every Huntsmen or Huntress has a Semblance a special ability unique to them. Min is called misfortune and it is uncontrollable it causes random bouts of bad luck to those around me.”

Tempest shrugged “It’s fine, if you can’t control I’m not bothered, besides I’m tough.” 

Qrow was silent for the rest of the trip still processing what she said, the moon was high in the sky as they arrived in a open clearing with a nice quaint wooden house, Qrow banged on the door “Taiyang I have to discuss something with you?!”

Rainbow and Tempest watched as a muscular man with blonde hair opened the door, he was wearing a pair of brown cargo shorts as well as brown leather vest over a tan dress shirt, he frowned “Qrow why are here this late at night I just put Yang and Ruby in bed.”

Qrow frowned “Tai, I wouldn't come here in the middle of the night to bang on your door in the middle of night if I was important” he then stepped aside revealing Tempest and Rainbow Dash “I found these two roaming around the forest alone, they got attacked by a pack of Beowolves.”

Taiyang frowned “You are telling me that they have to stay here with us?”

Qrow frowned “At least for the night, we can up with something better tomorrow.”

Taiyang sighed “Fine, I’ll get a couple of sleeping bags.” 

Tempest yawned “I’ll be fine “ Taiyang and Qrow blinked as she laid down on the wooden floor and quickly feel asleep, they turned around to see Rainbow pulling a cloud inside which she then laid on and fell asleep. 

Qrow shrugged “That works I guess.”

Taiyang turned to him “You are not bothered by that?!”

Qrow said to him as he walked through the door “Yes, now I’m going to sleep.” Qrow transformed into a crow flew up to a tree and fell asleep.

Taiyang sighed “I’m too tired for this, I hope I’ll wake up and find out this is all a bad dream.” 

The next morning Tempest groaned as she felt someone poking her, she looked up to see a five year old fair skinned girl with black hair that ended in dark red tips, she heard a voice but it wasn’t from the girl poking her. Tempest turned her moderate opal eyes resting on a seven year old fair skinned girl with bright blonde frowning “Ruby she was trying to sleep, Uncle Qrow told us she was out there for over a day without rest.” 

Ruby pouted as she jumped off Tempest “But Yang I just wanted to say hi.”

Tempest groaned as she sat up “If you’re done arguing let’s talk.”

Yang pointed to the cloud “Why is there a cloud inside?” 

Tempest rolled her eyes “My friend Rainbow Dash must have decided to bring herself something comfy to sleep on.”

Ruby blinked “Can I sleep on a cloud too?”

Tempest frowned “No, where I come from some of us can sleep on clouds but I’m not one of them.” 

Rainbow yawned as stretched her wings out and she turned around to see Tempest standing next to Ruby and Yang “Tempest who are those two?

Tempest frowned “I’m guessing they’re Taiyang’s kids as Qrow is their uncle.” 

Rainbow blinked “How did you figure that out?”

Tempest grimaced “I pay attention to important details you know.” 

Ruby smiled “Let’s go outside and play tag.” 

Yang smiled as she ran outside afterwards with Rainbow following them, Tempest sighed as she took a deep breath “Rainbow is such a child.” 

Tempest stood leaning on the wall as Rainbow poked Ruby “You’re it.” 

Tempest grabbed a rock hitting Rainbow on the head as she took off her wings “Rainbow, you can’t use your wings Ruby and Yang don’t have them how is that fair?!”

Rainbow groaned as she landed “Fine, I’ll play fair.” 

Tempest shook her head (She always behaves like a child.) 

Yang grinned “Tag you’re it.” Rainbow growled as she chased the other two girls with Tempest shaking her head as she watched her friend as well as two others playing like little kids as she simply stood by the wall.

A couple of hours later, Qrow and Taiyang came out to see Rainbow chasing the two barely winded girls as she puffed “How do they have so much energy?” 

Tempest rolled her eyes “You have put so much effort into traning your wings but your muscles aren’t as good in the running department.” 

Rainbow grimaced as she tapped Tempest “You give it a go, I need to take a breather”

Tempest rotated her shoulder “I’ll show how it’s done pay attention.” 

Ruby and Yang turned to see Tempest running behind them, Tempest ran past tapping Ruby on the side as she ran past, Yang burst into a run, Ruby blinked for a few seconds before realising what happened and chased after her sister.

Tempest ran back only to see Yang running at her (So Ruby caught up to her sis huh) Tempest didn’t stop as Yang swung at her, Rainbow’s jaw dropped as Tempest slid right under Yang’s arm to avoid Yang tagging her before resuming a run. Qrow, Taiyang and Rainbow’s jaw dropped Taiyang blinked “Where did you find her?”

Qrow frowned “I saw a massive flash of light in the sky, I headed to the area but no-one was there. Fortunately they left tracks, although there was only one set of tracks and they were covered well, I only found them because they were attacked.” 

Taiyang shouted “Girls come over here, I need to discuss with Qrow what we are going to do with Tempest and Rainbow Dash here.”

Yang and Ruby begged “Please let them stay here with us?”

Taiyang frowned “I’m not sure that’s such a…”

Yang and Ruby pouted “Ppppppllllleeeeeaaaaasssssseeeee.” 

Tempest frowned “I can keep Rainbow out of trouble don’t worry.”

Taiyang sighed “Fine but Qrow will begin teaching all four of you how defend yourselves.”

Qrow shrugged “I can do that.” The group went inside and a quick dinner before they all decided to get some rest, Taiyang of course was very confused at Tempest’s ability to sleep on the floor.
> Chapter 4: Important Meeting
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It had been a couple of months since Diane ended up Ironwood’s care, Ironwood was sitting in his office, it was a small silver room and it had a plain metal desk in the middle of it with a simple chair that he was currently sitting on, Ironwood grimaced “Diane I have important meeting and I’d like you to stand by me. Jacques Schnee going to be here in a few hours to discuss the Atlas Army’s payment for the dust our military requires.” 

Diane frowned “Father what do you wish for me to do?”

Ironwood sighed “I don’t wish for you do things, I would like your support though he grates me a lot.” 

Diane smiled “I will be there.” 

Ironwood nodded “I do believe it would be good for you to were your armour but leave your helmet behind, it reminds him of our solidarity and position.”

Diane nodded “I’ll be there father, I just need grab my armour.”

Ironwood smiled “I love you my daughter never forget that.” 

Diane smiled “I know you do father” she bowed and then left the office. She walked through the silver hallways to her room on the ship, it was small white room holding a plain white bed, as well as a side drawer and a custom suit of armour on a rack, it had a titanium steel chest plate with reinforced kevlar covering the stomach as well as titanium steel plating for the entire lower part of the armour. 

Diane headed into the plain bathroom with a plain sink, shower and toilet, she grabbed a plain white towel and hoped into the shower she lathered the soap over her skin through her mane and washing behind her ears, after quickly cleaned herself off she walked out of the room and quickly put her armour on. 

Diane exited her the room to see a six foot two pale white lion Faunus with a mix of two blue and cerulean in his mane, she forced a smile “Specialist Armour what do I owe the pleasure?”

Armour growled “You think you’re special simply because your the General’s daughter don’t you, that you can wander these halls like…”

A voice boomed “Specialist Armour what do you think you’re doing?!”

They both turned to see a six foot six dark blue equine Faunus weariness dark blue titanium steel armour with a moderate sapphire blue mane her dark blue wings flapping behind her, Armour bowed ”Forgive me Commander Luna but she shouldn’t be here, she is only here because she is the daughter of General Ironwood.” 

Luna shook her head “Really, did you know you were insulting my sparring partner.” 

Armour’s eyes widened as he turned to her “You spar with the Eternal Moonblade!” 

Diane frowned “I have about an hour to kill before I need to meet with father I’m sure we could spar for a bit.” 

The trio entered the sparring room, it was a dirty dusty pit of dirt surrounded by a silver room with several tables and chairs to watch the fight, as soon as Luna and Diane entered the room everyone turned their heads much to the shock of Specialist Shining Armour, one of them grinned “They’re going to go at it!” 

Shining Armour watched as Luna towered of Diane being twice her height, Diane was quite tall for her age at three foot three. Luna grinned as she drew her longsword “Are you ready?”

Diane grinned her pink aura filling the air “I wonder how much you’ve improved since last time.” 

Luna delivered a thrust which Diane caught with her fingers before throwing her off balance, Shining Armour blinked “How did she do that, Luna has been fighting battles for centuries?”

Diane turned to him “Rule one of combat, if you’re faster and stronger than your opponent you can kill them or in this case beat them.”

Luna sighed as she stood  “Ow okay I think I’ve had enough, that hurt a quite a lot more than I expected.” 

Diane rubbed the back of her head “Sorry I got a little carried away” she then pointed to Shining Armour “as I wanted him to get I am not just here because I am Ironwood’s daughter, now I need to meet with my father.” 

Diane headed to her father’s office leaving Shining Armour being glared at by everyone else in the room, Ironwood smiled “I’m glad you’re here beside me.” 

Diane smiled “Father, you’ve given me so much. I was on the street alone and you decided to take me in.”  

Ironwood frowned as he heard noise outside of the ship “Stand next to me, that is Jacques’s private shuttle. We are going to meet him out there, a mere formality but a necessary one for a man of his demeanour.” 

Diane nodded “Yes father.” The two headed to the front of the ship passing by Atlas soldiers and Atlas robots, they stepped out to see a shining white shuttle. A pale man with white hair and moustache walks forward, he was wearing a pure white double breasted jacket with a blue shirt and vest underneath, a could large men wearing black shirts and pants as well as sunglasses stood either side of him. He approached with a forced smile “James it’s been a while.” 

Ironwood nodded “Jacques, it has been a while.” 

Jacques frowned “Who is this Faunus you have with you?” 

Ironwood raised an eyebrow “She’s my adopted daugther, is there a problem?”

Jacques frowned “No there isn’t it” He turned his bodyguards “guard the shuttle” he then followed Ironwood and Diane into the ship. He grimaced as he looked around at the Faunus soldiers walking through the corridors “How can you stand collaborating with their kind?” 

Ironwood scowled “Jacques don’t forget what did you to Casey Stormwind? I have not forgotten that incident so don’t test my patience!” Diane raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything

Jacques nodded “I understand, so let’s get down to business. You want us to provide Atlas with your yearly supply of dust in exchange for your yearly payment.” 

Ironwood took a deep breath “Yes I do Jacques.” 

They entered his room, he took his seat and Diane stood behind him, he then pressed a button on the table a metal chair emerged from the floor for Jacques to sit on, Jacques grimaced as he took a seat “How do you stand to sit on these chairs, they are horrible?” 

Ironwood frowned “We are soldiers, sometime a stump is you seat plus you and I don’t have a tail to sit so it’s not as bad.”

Jacques shook his head as he put the papers on the table, Ironwood frowned as he begun to read the papers “Everything is fine except for the month delay for the delivery time, we need those here on that day.” 

Jacques frowned “The White Fang attacks have intensified, we will need to take a little longer to prepare the transport for travel so it won’t be attacked.”

Ironwood growled “Don’t you think Atlas has it’s own dust mines, they are far less efficient then yours but they can provide us with what we need. I make sure to purchase yours at five times the normal rate of dust because you guarantee that they get here faster than Atlas’s own, so if you want our continued business you will get them here on time am I clear!”

Diane frowned “Father we should provide an Atlas escort for the Dust shipment, we don’t the White Fang gets their hands on our dust.” 

Ironwood nodded “That is a good idea Diane” his eyes then narrowed as he looked at Jacques “I will provide an escort for the shipment but it must get there on time is that clear?” 

Jacques nodded “Yes,I will have it done right away.” 

Ironwood ordered a few soldiers to escort him to his shuttle, after he left Diane frowned “Who’s Casey Stormwind?”

Ironwood sighed as he felt a tear in his eye “She was an old flame of mine, she was a Faunus scientist that worked for Atlas before I took command, in one of the experiments conducted between us and Jacques’ company one which he was personally responsible for the safety on had an accident and she died due to his lackluster safety protocols her blood is on his hands. I have still not forgiven him for that incident.” 

Diane gave her father a hug “I’m sorry I brought it up.”

Ironwood shook his head “It’s fine, as my daughter I needed you to know.”

Unbeknownst to him a dark blue wolf Faunus wearing a dark blue shirt and pants was standing on the roof, her left eye glowed red as she had a black ooze around it, her right arm was black and covered in armour. She smiled as she left “I’m glad you have someone caring for you my love” not a single figure noticed her shadowy form leaving the area.
> Chapter 5: Student of the Sword
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

On a tall mountain overseeing the kingdom a massive golden temple stood with the symbol of a mighty sun on it. Inside the mighty temple past the massive golden doors what was a massive foyer, a golden staircase sat in the centre of the room while several golden door lead to side room. The golden floor was covered in a crimson red carpet, two golden statues of a female equine Faunus with wings that stood either side of the staircase.

The second floor was full of golden corridors full of statues similar to those on the lower floor standing on either side of every golden door, the sound of blades clashing cam from above the temple, at the top of the mountain on a barren ground next to the golden dome that topped the temple a tall woman about six foot eight pale shining white equine Faunus with huge white wings as well as a mane like an aurora.

She was standing opposite was a seven year old orange equine Faunus with a vivid crimson mane that had brilliant yellow stripes running through it. The white equine Faunus smiled “Sunset are you ready to go again?” 

Sunset took a deep breath and bowed “Yes Swordmaster Celestia, I am ready.”

Celestia smiled “Relax Sunset, I don’t like titles, neither did my sister.” she then sighed “We were known as the eternal twin blades, I was the Eternal Sunblade and she was the Eternal Moonblade, we didn’t like either title.”

Sunset bowed “I’m sorry Celestia.”

Celestia smiled as she put her hand on the hilt of her sword“It’s fine, let’s do this.” 

Sunset grinned “Yes let’s.” Sunset rushed forward swinging her flaming orange blade against Celestia’s glowing white blade, Sunset clearly held the speed advantage striking with rapid blows but Celestia’s strength meant Sunset had to dodge each of her mentor’s swings.

Sunset managed to get her blade inside Celestia’s guard and flung Celestia’s blade out of her hands, Celestia smiled “Well down. I yield.” 

Sunset sheathed her blade, she smiled “Thanks Celestia, let’s go and have some tea.”

Celestia smiled “Of course.” After Celestia retrieved her sword the two entered the golden dome where a massive golden circular fence with a single gap in it surrounded a golden circle in the floor. As soon as they got on, Celestia smiled “Take us to the second floor please.”

As they lowered Celestia asked “Have I ever told you of the origins of our kind?” 

Sunset frowned “No-one knows the origins of our kind.” 

Celestia shook her head “Me and my sister do we are a few of the original Faunus that have lived throughout these centuries. The truth we Faunus were a mutation of Grimm, very few Faunus remember those days as they were enslaved by humans.” 

Sunset’s eyes widened “That’s impossible?!” 

Celestia frowned “How about I show you exactly what I mean?” The elevator stopped on the second floor, she stepped out with Sunset following. Celestia’s body began to be covered by a black goo, white armoured plated covered her chest, arms and legs, her eye glowed red “You see Sunset we are just as tough as Grimm but we can switch between Grimm strength and Aura use so we have a few different options in a fight.” 

Sunset blinked “I could learn to do that one day…” Sunset pleaded on her knees“Please teach me how?!”

Celestia laughed “I will one day don’t beg” she then frowned “but when I do it would be unwise to show others unless necessary our kind are mistreated enough by humans without knowing we can draw on the powers of the Grimm.” Celestia returned to her normal form “Now let’s have tea.” 

They walked into the golden hallways and Celestia opened a door to a small golden kitchen and dining room, Sunset sat at the table as Celestia made them some tea which she then placed on the table. Sunset frowned “Why are we treated badly by humans, it’s not we did anything to them?” 

Celestia sighed “Actually there is a group known as the White Fang who attack humans because they want to be treated as equals but in doing so they make all Faunus look bad. My sister sends me letters, she works for Atlas and tries to be a real hero the Faunus should be looking up to.”

Sunset sipped her tea “They sound like awful an awful bunch.” 

Celestia nodded as she took a sip of her own cup “They weren’t always like this, there was a change of leadership that changed them from peaceful protesters to violent thieves and killers.” 

Just then they heard a distress call “Grimm are attacking an outpost near the Mystic Mountains.” 

Celestia grimaced “Are you ready to help some people”

Sunset nodded “Yes, let’s go.” The two ran down the nearby stairs out of the temple and down the mountain to see an outpost being attacked by several Beowolves, a few Ursai, a Beringel and several Lancers.

Celestia tore the head of Beowulf off with her blade, Sunset leapt on the Beringel shoving her blade into it’s neck. Her hand glowed with fire as she slammed it into the creature burning it to cinders, she then rushed through the lancers tearing them apart, just as Celestia ran through cutting an Ursai’s head off, a wyvern flew overhead dropping pools of darkness which began to spawn Beowolves and Ursai.

Celestia’s eyes widened “A wyvern, okay we may be a little out of our league here.” 

Sunset pointed upward to see what appeared to be an Atlas Shuttle, then they watched as a seven year old pink equine Faunus wearing Atlas Armour jumped out of it smashing a Beowulf into the ground, she then bowed “Diane, at your service.” 

The shuttle landed and General James Ironwood jumped out of it, he frowned “Celestia what are you doing here?” 

Celestia frowned as she pointed “Well my question is why is she here, she is only a…” 

Celestia paused as Diane punched a Beowulf so hard it exploded “That’s not important, do you have a plan to take that Wyvern down?!” 

Sunset frowned “We can’t, it’s too high in the air” then much to the shock of the group Diane’s aura wrapped around her as she disappeared in a flash of light before reappearing above the wyvern slamming her fist into it’s back causing it to explode, she then slammed her fist into the ground as he landed.

Ironwood after a second or two shook his head and smiled “My daughter just when I think there is no way you can surprise you do.” He then grinned “Now let’s clean house.”

Diane grinned back as they ran toward the remaining Grimm, Celestia and Sunset simply stood there in shock as father daughter duo mopped the remaining Grimm in record time, they snapped out of it as Ironwood and Diane approached them, Diane smiled “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” 

Celestia shook herself out of her stupor “It’s a pleasure to meet you as well” she then said to both Ironwood and Diane “Thanks for your help.” 

Diane and Ironwood bowed “It’s simply part of job, wish the both of you a good day.” Celestia turned to Sunset who was still stunned, she couldn’t blame her student, they had just witnessed a lot of seemingly impossible things that day. After her student was shaken out of her stupor the pair returned to their home to get some well needed rest.
> Chapter 6: Revelations
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Qrow frowned “Ruby, Yang, Rainbow Dash come at me.” 

Rainbow groaned as she pointed at Tempest who was busy training with Taiyang “Why is she training with him?”

Qrow grimaced “Because she has actually combat traning, she is actually better than me in close quarters combat so she is practising with someone who specialises in the field.” 

Rainbow Dash rushed at him from the air trying to use her aerial skills plus a series of punches and kicks, Qrow was easily blocking her blows, Ruby ran in trying land a blow while Qrow was distracted, only for him to move out of the way so that Rainbow and Ruby punched one another, Qrow smiled ‘That wasn’t bad Ruby it was a nice shot still it would help if Yang was also over here.”

Yang grimaced “I’m trying to find an opening in your defences.” 

Qrow frowned “If this was serious fight Ruby and Rainbow Dash would be in trouble.” 

Taiyang then flew onto Qrow’s back “Ow.” 

Qrow looked over to see Tempest stretching “Is that the best you got?” 

Taiyang turned to Qrow “How can one her age do that?” 

Qrow sighed “It’s complicated and…” his scroll started to buzz, Qrow grimaced as opened the call “Ozpin, what is it?” Qrow frowned “Alright, I’ll bring them with me.” Qrow and Taiyang stood up, Qrow smiled slightly “Rainbow Dash, Tempest we have your third friend. We are going to meet at Beacon Academy, a ship will pick us up soon.”

Taiyang frowned “Ozpin is calling you, why?”

Qrow sighed “It’s complicated and I’m not sure it’s okay for me to tell you, you know how Ozpin likes his secrets.”

Before Taiyang could say anything Ruby jumped on Qrow’s arm “Are you going tae Rainbow and Tempest away from us?”

Qrow sat Ruby down, he gave her a warm smile“They may have to go home to their families, you wouldn’t like it if you weren’t allowed to come home to us would you?”

Ruby shook her head “No…” she then gave him a sad look “I understand.” 

Yang gave Ruby a hug “No matter what happens I’ll be here for you.” 

Qrow frowned as an Atlas Shuttle landed “Why did it have to be an Atlas Shuttle?” Tempest, and Rainbow Dash followed Qrow onto the shuttle.

It was a long trip, Qrow and Tempest peacefully took their seats as the ship headed towards Beacon. Rainbow Dash on the other hand looked around trying to find a way out, Tempest facepalmed before pulling her onto a seat “Look I get you don’t like cramped spaces but try to stay calm.” 

Tempest placed her arm around Rainbow comforting her as the ship slowly headed towards a large amphitheatre around a fountain surrounded by two colonnades. The ship landed in the amphitheatre, Rainbow flew out shouting “Sweet Freedom!

Ozpin stood there with a strange person whose body looked like it was made of multiple different animal looking individual “I’m glad you’re here” he turned to the person next to him “Discord, I told you they’d be here.” 

Rainbow blinked “Discord why are you here?”

Discord frowned “I’m here to keep the three of you safe and bring you three home in one piece.” 

Qrow frowned “I believe we should all discuss this somewhere more private.” Ozpin turned to Discord who clicked his claws and all five of them ended up in a meeting room in the tower, the green room had one semi-circle table. Ozpin took a seat at the table, Qrow frowned “So you want them to go home?”

Discord frowned “I want to take all three of them home, we are still missing one.” 

Ozpin frowned as he got a message from Ironwood, on his scroll after quickly sending something “Ironwood needed a visual of where we were, I have no idea why but...” 

There was a sudden flash of light, Diane and Ironwood were standing there. Ironwood shook his head “That was certainly an experience.”

Rainbow and Tempest blinked “Pinkie Pie why are you wearing armour?”

Diane frowned “My name is Diane, as for the armour my father Ironwood gave it to me. He found me on the streets of Atlas with no memory of who I was beforehand.” 

Ozpin frowned “Diane we want to take you home to where you belong.”

Diane frowned “I’m not going anywhere, I don’t remember anything about where I came from.” 

Discord shook his head “You may remember when you return, please come with us.”

Diane frowned “No.”

Rainbow flew up to her face, she growled not noticing Diane started to shake in fury, each word made her fury intensify “Pinkie you have a family back home, we can’t say here we have family back home!” 

Diane let out a loud roar “I will not go back!” Diane’s eyes turned a deep black as her pink aura began tearing reality apart at the seams Ozpin’s desk exploded, portals to other dimensions began opening and the building starting to shake.

Ironwood quickly ran over to her and hugged her before the damage to got too much further “My precious daughter I won’t let anyone take you away from me, I promise.” 

Diane’s power as he hugged began to calm, he glared at Rainbow Dash momentarily before hugging Diane who began to cry “I don’t want to leave, please don’t let them take me away.”

Discord shook his head “I will not force her to go anywhere, when and if she decided to return it will be her choice. Even if I wanted too bring her back immediately which I don’t the damage we would do to this reality wouldn’t be worth it.” 

Tempest blinked “How did she do that?”

Ozpin frowned “That is a good question, maybe our resident expert on reality manipulation can shed some light on this incident.”

Qrow turned to Discord “Well then enlighten us master of reality.” 

Discord grimaced “Qrow, I could make you my pet crow permanently so don’t insult me” Qrow paled very slightly, Discord took a deep breath “Well the simple fact is Pinkie Pie had potential for chaotic power far greater than I ever since I met her, the only reason I didn’t fear her then was she couldn’t use her powers at will. It is also why at this time it would be unwise to take her back, the portal could become unstable if a being of her power crosses the portal now she can start actually using it.”

Tempest nodded “I’m staying as well at least until she returns home, she always tried to make me smile even when everyone else was suspicious of me. I will say here until the end.” 

Rainbow grinned “I’m staying as well, I never leave my friends hanging.” 

Qrow smiled ‘I’m sure Ruby and Yang will be happy to see you two again.” 

Discord nodded “I’ll be staying with Ozpin, if any of you need help you can come here.”

Diane stood up drying her tears “That won’t be necessary,” she then turned to her father “It’s time we go home isn’t it?”

Ironwood smiled “Yes it is my daughter.” The pair dissapeared with a flash, later that night Ironwood tucked her in and looked outside for a moment with a smile before heading to bed himself.
> Chapter 7: Sense
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ten years had passed since Diane had arrived, Ironwood frowned “I was considering you should go to a school for Huntsmen and Huntresses, I believe Vale would be a good school it has very different teaching style from Atlas and is a much more friendly environment for Faunus.” 

Diane now six foot seven a little taller than her father nodded “I wouldn’t mind learning more about Grimm and how to…” Diane felt a sense of foreboding from far away, Diane grimaced “Something bad is happening, I have to go.” 

Before Ironwood could respond, Diane disappears in a flash. Diane reappears in a field, three figures on one side and a fourth on the other. One of the three steps forward her pale skin and black hair as well as red dress stand out quite clearly, she frowned at Diane “It would not be wise to get in my way, you don’t want to mess with us.” 

Diane growled “I’d say the same about you, who are you anyway?”

The woman shrugged “I might as well tell you since you are going to die anyway, my name is Cinder, these two are Emerald and Mercury, we are here for the Fall Maiden back there.” 

Diane turned back to see a woman with light brown skin, brown hair and eyes, the woman was wearing a white blouse with a brown vest, corset and pants as well as a golden pauldron, golden boots and golden bracer. Diane frowned “What’s your name?”

The woman nodded “Amber” she then scowled “those three attacked me to steal my powers.” 

Diane turned towards Cinder, Mercury and Emerald, she scowled “Well looks like it’s your lucky day Amber as I am going to kick some the ass of these three shits.” 

Diane’s aura flared up, Cinder, Mercury and Emerald were shocked as Diane’s aura locked them in place. She then slammed her fist into Cinder first causing her to cough up blood as her stomach ruptured, before kicking one of Mercury’s metal legs which instantly shattered. Diane then grabbed Emerald, Diane then slammed Emerald into her knee, Emerald screamed on impact as her spine shattered.

Qrow ran over to them brandishing his sword, he turned to Amber “Are you okay?” 

Amber nodded “Thanks to that woman, she beat them up like it was nothing.”

Diane walked over to them, Diane smiled “I believe we should speak to Ozpin.” Diane clicked her fingers and within a second they were in Ozpin’s office.

Ozpin raised an eyebrow “What happened, why is the Fall Maiden here?” 

Qrow and Amber were taking deep breaths as they were recovering from the teleport, Diane frowned “Three people Cinder, Emerald and Mercury attacked Amber, I sensed something bad happening and teleported there. I did a real number on the assailants so they won’t follow us anytime soon.”

Amber smiled as she regained her bearings “Thanks Diane, I was not sure I could take all three of them by myself.”

Diane shook her head “I just did what anyone should do in the situation.” 

Amber frowned “Unfortunately should and would are very different things, so thank you.” 

Diane turned to Ozpin “I was planning on becoming a student in a few weeks, I want to know more about Grimm then what I can find in books plus my teamwork skills are somewhat lacking.” 

Ozpin smiled “It will be done, I’ll see you in a couple of weeks.” 

Diane bowed “Thank you sir.” Diane dissapeared in a flash of light, Discord frowned as he watched from a distance. Diane reappeared in her father’s office “A woman known as they Fall Maiden was under attack by some goons, I felt something bad happening and ended up in the middle of it.” 

Ironwood sighed “Ozpin has a lot of secrets but considering that you saved one of the maidens you deserve to know, those people were most likely sent by a woman if she can really be called that known as Salem. Essentially she seeks the end of humanity, me, Qrow, Ozpin and a few others are a small group set out on stopping Salem’s plans. Ozpin is the leader of our little group.” 

Diane nodded “I won’t tell anyone, I promise” she then smiled “I am going enter Beacon Academy in a couple of weeks.” 

Ironwood smiled “Congratulations, I hope you can make some friends other than those in the base.”

Two weeks later they were on an airship on the way to Beacon Academy, Diane smiled as she watched the scenery passed her gunblade and shield rested on her back. She heard music and turned to see two girls, one a Bat Faunus she was pale white, her hair was a moderate cobalt blue with cyan streaks, her wings were flapping behind her back, her ears were hidden by a massive pair of headphones while her eyes were covered with a pair of purple shades.

The other was a wolf Faunus, she had a goldish grey coat with dark grey hair her greyish mulberry eyes were focused on her cello. The Bat Faunus girl turned to the Wolf Faunus girl and cheered “Octavia we’re finally heading to Beacon!”

Octavia sighed “Vinyl calm down, we’re not there…ooph.” She turned around to see a pale white man with burnt orange hair holding onto her tail “Who are you and what do you think you’re doing?!” 

Vinyl turned to him “Don’t say anything you’ll regret.” 
The man grinned “I won’t regret anything, I am Cardin Winchester and I am putting you filthy Faunus in your place.” 

Vinyl turned to Cardin “You’re doomed.” 

He turned back to see Octavia’s eyes glowed black as she put her bow into a slot inside her Cello, the bow morphed into a longsword and the cello morphed into a massive shield, she growled “I think it’s time for me to kill you!”

Someone laughed beside her, an five foot eight orange equine Faunus with a vivid crimson mane that had brilliant yellow stripes running through it, she smiled “That guy is a total idiot.”

Diane smiled “Sunset I couldn’t have put it better myself.”

Suddenly a six foot light blue equine Faunus with a rainbow mane and tail flew in front of her “Diane!” 

Diane saw her pulled back by a six foot four dark orchid equine Faunus pulled her back “Rainbow Dash that’s rude.” 

Diane laughed “These are two of my friends Rainbow Dash and Tempest Shadow,” she then whispered “just be careful of Rainbow she has a bit of an ego.” Diane then smiled “Rainbow, Tempest this is Sunset.”

Rainbow boasted “I’m the fastest Faunus flier in the world.” 

Tempest deadpanned “That isn’t much of an accomplishment when very few Faunus can actually fly.” 

Diane smiled as she looked out the window “Well it’s a new day for all of us, we are going to be huntresses.” 

They were interrupted by the sound of barfing followed by the sound of anger and fury as Yang chased Jaune around, Tempest sighed as she walked over trying to prevent a murder before they even arrived little did Diane know her team would be very difficult to deal with.
> Chapter 8: Teams
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Diane, Tempest, Sunset and Rainbow get off the airship, they smile as they walk forward only to hear shouting. Diane runs forward to see a pale white girl with white hair shouting at Ruby who she saw earlier on the ship, Diane stormed over as the girl shook her vial of powdered dust around, she grabbed her arm “Stop shaking the dust around, that could explode by you just shaking it if you’re not careful.” 

The girl growled “Let go of me, I am Weiss Schnee heiress to the Schnee Dust Company!”

Diane stood up in a proud stance her armour “Pinkamena Diane Pie, also known as Diane adopted daughter of General Ironwood. I didn’t mean to offend but you could seriously hurt yourself and others messing with dust like that, my anger was out of concern.” 

Weiss Schnee bowed “Forgive me for assuming you were upset because of my family’s business practices.”

Diane shrugged “You don’t run the company and I don’t blame you from thinking the worst, those damn White Fang make all us Faunus look bad.” 

Weiss smiled “You’re not so bad, I assumed all Faunus were like the White Fang but I guess I was wrong.” 

Diane smiled “It’s a little known fact that most of the non machine part of the Atlas Army that actively hunts the White Fang are actual Faunus, they are proud of what they do.”

Weiss paused before sighing “I have a lot to think about, maybe we can talk later.” 

Diane followed Weiss into the main auditorium, they see Ozpin standing at the front with a pale white woman with blond hair wearing white long sleeved pleated top and a black high-waisted pencil skirt.

Ozpin stepped forward “I’m sure you know of me but for those who don’t I am Ozpin and this is Glynda Goodwitch. Now I’m going to keep it brief, your travelled here to learn, to seek knowledge and to hone you craft to acquire new skills or hone you current ones and once you are done you seek to protect the people of this world. But as I look at you I see wasted energy, that need purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step.”

Diane facepalmed “Great speech Professor, real motivational.”

Glynda stepped froward “You will all stay in the ballroom, tomorrow your initiation begins. Be ready, you are dismissed.” 

Later that night Diane quickly fell asleep, the next morning she got up earlier than everyone else having a short shower before putting her armour on and getting her weapon and shield ready to the point everyone else had only just awoken while she was all ready, she was reading a book titled Common Grimm and How to Kill Them. 

They all met up in the morning, Ozpin stood at the front of the group “We are here to decide your teammates for the next four years at the Academy. This year is unique however, instead of having four members on each team each team will have five, as such we have to change the rules a bit. Each of your scrolls will have one of two markers, one will be a plain marker a pulsating light, the second marker will be a crown, the crown is the leader of their team and the first four they meet will be their teammates.”

Ruby shouted “Whaaaat?!

Ozpin ignored her “After you’ve met up with you teammates you are to make your way to the north, do not hesitate to destroy all that is in you way or else you will die a slow and painful death. You also will monitored and be graded on your performance during the initiation but none will aid you, there is an abandoned temple at the end of the forest which contain several relics each team must grab, if you take more than you fair share you will be disqualified. Any questions?” 

Jaune raised a hand “Yes I do sir?”

Ozpin laughed “Good! Now, take your positions.”

Diane shook her head as she crouched before glancing at Sunset, as Jaune continued to ask questions Diane was launched off a pad, she swung her sword tearing through tree after tree before landing on her shield which slid along to a stop. She put her sword and shield onto her back, she frowned as she pulled out her scroll which had a crown symbol on it, she sighed “Just my luck.” 

She began roaming through the forest, she heard the sound of combat she ran into the clearing only to see Weiss and another fair skinned woman with black hair standing over a several dead Beowolves. Diane sighed as she saw she wore a ribbon tied into a bow on her head, Diane walked over to them “Are either of you leaders?”

Weiss shook her head “No, I’m not are you?” 

Diane showed them her scroll “Yes I am.” 

The other girl shrugged “You’re the leader of our team then, I’m Blake Belladonna.” 

Diane smiled as she held out a hand “Pinkamena Diane Pie but everyone calls me Diane. Now I believe we should head north we can find our fellow team members on the way.” 

Meanwhile Tempest was sighing, her poleaxe rested on her back. Her scroll had a crown on it, she was slowly heading North when a blast of music sent a Ursa Major flying right past her. Vinyl shouted pounding her gauntlets together “That was sweet!”

Octavia sighed shaking her head as she cut a King Taijitu in half before loping of both heads “Vinyl you are attracting Grimm.”

Vinyl grinned “And maybe our new leader come on!” 

Tempest sighed as she stepped into the clearing “I guess from that you’re on my team.” The small group headed north.

Meanwhile Rainbow was flying over the Forest with a grin looking at her scroll “Sweet I’m the leader.” She landed when she saw two individuals in a field fighting a large pack of Beowolves or rather one fighting while the other was trying not to die, both had pale white skin, one had red hair while the other had blonde hair. 

Rainbow grinned as she slammed into one the Beowolves with as she cut into it with a pair of daggers which then shifted into guns as she flew back firing at the creature. After the Beowolves were defeated Rainbow grinned “I’m Rainbow Dash fastest Faunus flier in the world.” 

The red haired girl walked over and bowed “Pyrrha Nikos at your service.”

Jaune meanwhile waved enthusiastically “Hi I’m Jaune Arc.” 

Rainbow grinned “Let’s go and meet up with the others.” 

Diane’s group was heading north, Blake frowned “What’s it like being a Faunus in Atlas base, I know for a fact that Atlas isn’t very friendly for Faunus.”

Diane laughed “Maybe the people of Atlas are like that but the fact is as I told Weiss here the Atlas Army is largely made of up of Faunus soldiers, there are five Faunus soldiers for every one Human soldier.”

Blake blinked “Really?”

Before Weiss or Diane could add anything Sunset dragged an unconscious Cardin towards them with a grin “Look whose ass I just kicked.” 

Weiss asked curiously “Are either of you leaders?”

Sunset shook her head “No.”

Diane growled “Sunset do you realise what you have done?!”

Sunset blinked “What I kicked his ass and brought him here, I don’t see the problem I put him in his place.” 

Diane scowled “I am the team leader, before I was confident I could run this team but now I have to somehow get Mr I hate Faunus to co-operate.” 

Sunset blushed in embarrassment “Oops.”

Diane growled “Oops is right, now let me just…”A blue blur crashed into her, Diane groaned as she looked up “Rainbow, the heck?.”

Rainbow pointed to her Teammates, Pyrrha grimaced “Could you please slow down for a minute, I think I use up my aura just to keep up.”

Just then Ruby ran over “Yang look, I found two teams.” 

Yang sighed as she jumped off a tree “Well that’s great and who’s our team leader.”

Rainbow boasted “I’m your team leader, Rainbow Danger Dash!”

Yang slumped over “Fantastic.”

Diane sighed “At least you don’t have to deal with Mr anti-Faunus over there.” Diane then turned to Blake “And you need to stop hiding, my team will not hide their identities from each other.”

Blake nervously backed away “I’ve got nothing to hide.”

Diane rolled her eyes “Many Faunus recruits come in trying to hide their identities at the Atlas recruitment offices. I have seen it enough to recognise a Faunus who is hiding, also you are on file in the Atlas computers as the daughter of Ghira Belladonna and Kali Belladonna. You are also a former member of the White Fang.”

Weiss’s eyes narrowed but Diane turned to her “Don’t do anything rash. I know how your company treats Faunus and while I know that’s not your fault, you must understand where they are coming from.”

Blake nervously took of her ribbon revealing her cat ears, Weiss stepped forward and held out a hand “I have been blind to a lot of things but recently I’ve been learning some things from those around me. The world is not as black and white as I thought, I hope we can work together.”

Blake saw the look on Diane’s eyes and sighed as she took Weiss’ hand “Maybe I have my own prejudices to overcome but maybe I’ll get over them with you by my side.”

Cardin groaned as he stood up only to see the the others around him, Diane frowned “You’re on my team alongside Sunset, Blake and Weiss. Now we need to move out, if you lag behind I’ll use you as a weapon.”

Cardin saw everyone glaring at him and he gulped as he resigned himself to his fate. Diane moved forward as she pulled her massive one handed axe out and began tearing through the forest as her team followed behind with Rainbow’s team right by them. Cardin frowned as she looked at Weiss “You of all people have reason to hate Faunus, why would you side with them?”

Weiss grimaced “Cardin, you can’t blame the enslaved for hating the slavers. It’s something that I endeavour to change, regardless Diane is a Faunus worthy of respect and many end up being the future head of the Atlas Military. Her father General Ironwood confirmed the rumours that she was able to take down a Wyvern with her bare hands.”

Meanwhile Tempest, Octavia and Vinyl were rushing through the forest tearing part any Grimm that were in their way. Tempest raised an eyebrow “How did you two meet anyway?”

Octavia sighed “I’m a Cellist who won’t get any chances because I am Faunus, Vinyl is a DJ who wanted to be a Huntress since our home was destroyed by Grimm. Since my dream is impossible I decided to join Vinyl.”

Before another word could be said a fair skinned girl with orange hair carrying a huge hammer jumped past them as shouted “Renny, I found our team.” 

A pale young man with black hair, a magenta streak through the left side carrying twin green pistols ending in sickle like blades. He frowned “Nora, slow down please and stop calling me Renny.”

Nora grinned madly “Ren, relax. We have found our team and all is good. All we need do is find those little relics and all will be good.”

Vinyl grinned “I like her style, let’s go!” Tempest, Octavia and Lie Ren shared a look as they new they would have to keep some semblance of order in this ragtag group.

The three teams arrived and causally grabbed their relics as they talked, Rainbow smirked “So Diane how do your like your team because I know mine is awesome!”

Diane deadpanned “I have no idea why someone whose ego is bigger than their brain was given command of a team. I have more important things to do with my time then listen to your ego fuelled ramblings, I have no idea how my past self was friends with you.”

Rainbow’s jaw dropped, Tempest walked over and put a hand on her shoulder “Rainbow, you do have a bit of an ego problem.”

Rainbow turned to her with a growl “So you agree with her!”

It was Tempest’s turn to deadpan “Everypony back home knew you had a huge ego but they didn’t care you were their friend. Diane doesn’t know the good pony beneath the ego very well but until she does tone down the boasting a bit.”

Before another word could spoken, the ground began shaking. Ozpin who was watching through a scroll eyes widened in shock as a massive Grimm he had never seen before. It was a huge muscular giant that’s fingers were bigger than the Wyverns accompanying it. None of them noticed the light purple equine Faunus with the two purple mane a streak of light aquamarine running through it. She was standing on the Grimm’s head, Diane blew apart the colossal Grimm with a single blast from her finger. The light purple Faunus grinned as she floated there before letting her immense aura flare out in challenge. 

Diane flew into the air and emitted her own aura, the two clashing more fiercely as the two got closer. The light purple Faunus pointed to Diane “I am Starlight Glimmer and I challenge you to a duel!”
> Chapter 9: Duel
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Diane smiled as she drew her massive axe out her shield resting on one arm “I have not fought an opponent my equal, very well I accept your challenge.”

Starlight drew her halberd and rushed at Diane, Diane blocked the blow before swinging at Starlight. Starlight dodged to the side and swung again“Impressive speed but not good enough.” 

Diane teleported behind Starlight striking her back with the axe, Starlight turned around with a growl “That was cheating!”

Diane rolled her eyes “I thought this was a death match, there is no cheating in a match like that. You coming with an army of Grimm made me think you were an enemy. I was going in for the kill with that strike, besides it’s not like I was getting external help. I was simply using one of my many powers.”

Starlight smirked “Well I can do that too.”

Diane grimaced “Then start.” Diane slotted her axe into her shield and it transformed into a giant rocket hammer. Starlight and Diane began teleporting their weapons clashing as massive waves of energy echoed across the arena. 

Meanwhile Nora, Ren, Tempest, Vinyl and Octavia were sitting on the back of a a huge scorpion Grimm known as a Death Stalker. Octavia frowned at the Grimm“Are you sure he’s cool Vinyl?”

Vinyl laughed “Our buddy here is more intent on watching the fight, it seems to think it is foolish to mess with us considering how powerful our friend up there is. Besides the others are even crazier.”

Cardin, Weiss, Blake, Sunset, Ruby, Yang, Rainbow, Jaune and Pyrrha were sitting on a Nevermore. The Nevermore was watching intently as well, the Death Stalker looked at them with a frown “We are Creatures of Destruction but make no mistake we do have a level of free will that grows with time and power. We are not merely mindless beasts.” Everyone on the Death Stalker’s back save Tempest looked at the Death Stalker.

Meanwhile the Nevermore was having the conversation as everyone save Rainbow and Sunset were stunned. Sunset frowned “That makes sense, it does explain some things.”

The Nevermore nodded “The Death Stalker with your fiends is explaining the same thing. One of the things most of you don’t know is that Faunus are descended from Grimm. In truth Faunus didn’t exist until the second coming of humanity.”

Weiss’s eyes narrowed as he demanded “The second coming of humanity, what does that mean!”

The Nevermore frowned “Don’t make demands of me!” It then took a deep breath “Still in simplest terms Salem was at fault, she wanted to revive her husband but when the god refused her and made her immortal.She then lead a human rebellion against the gods. The gods then decided to destroy all humans and left the world blowing up part of the moon on the way out.”

Diane then landed on the Nevermore “Sunset hold my weapon.” Sunset took the heavy hammer with help from Pyrrha.

Diane then flew towards Starlight the two swung their fists creating a massive shockwave of aura. Diane grinned as she swung her fists rapidly clashing with Starlight’s fists “Mighty impressive, this is the first time I fought someone my equal before.”

Starlight chuckled as she exchanged blows “I’d say the same, being the one leading the Grimm Faction in Vale gives me quite a bit of influence. There are two others, the Queen of Change, Chrysalis commands the Grimm Faction of Vacuo and the Master of Shadows, Sombra commands the Grimm Faction of Mistral.”

Diane managed to dodge a punch and with one of her own sent Starlight hurtling into a mountain that shattered into dust. Starlight burst back towards Diane as she swung her own punch which was blocked by Diane “The truth is we are missing one of our number, Atlas doesn’t have one holding dominion over the Grimm in the area. We are the one stopping Grimm from going on an all out war. I wish for you to be General of Chaos for Atlas.”

Diane grimaced as she exchanged blows with Starlight “Wait, that means you haven’t fought either them.” 

Starlight sighed as she stopped fighting “We are not allowed to fight each other, stops us from being power hungry. Sombra got to induct Chrysalis so this is my turn.”

Diane raised an eyebrow “What about Salem?”

Starlight shrugged “She leads a small contingent of Grimm outside of the nations despite her immortality, it is nothing that we can’t overwhelm with enough power. She is small fry, we are more concerned about the state of the gods. We fear they may come back unstable and we will be forced to put them down. The worst case scenario is that out there they merged into a twisted horror of creation and destruction.”

Diane nodded before assuming a combat stance as did Starlight. The two then rushed at each other exchanging punches and kicks. Explosions echoed throughout the air as reality began to shatter as their full powers were bought to bare. 

Ozpin and Glynda watched on in shock as the power of the above deity level beings clashed. Glynda looked at Ozpin fearfully “Who are those two?”

Ozpin frowned as he took a deep breath to regain his composure “Beings above gods, that is all I know.”

Glynda blinked “And one is a student at our school, what could we possible teach her? She took out the biggest Grimm I’ve ever seen like it was nothing more than a fly. She has been trained by Ironwood so she has the discipline.”

Ozpin frowned “Teamwork and Leadership, still I think it’s safe to say that she has no real need for sparring.”

Glynda sighed as the pair returned to watching the fight unfold. Starlight grinned as she formed a triangle with her fingers firing off a huge purple triangular beam“I’d say it’s time to end this fight! Fear my Master Destructor!”

Diane silently held up a finger forming a mighty pink ball of energy that grew to easily the size of the castle. Everyone was watching on in shock as Pinkie through the huge ball of energy that struck against the purple beam. Starlight was sweating profusely as she tried to push it back “That is a powerful technique.”

Diane was pushing as well, sweat running down her armour. Diane grinned as one hand was pushing the huge pink ball of death “The simplest techniques are sometimes the best and this only needs one hand which means…”

Her other hand created a second death ball throwing it into the first causing it to double in size and power as it pushed Starlight’s beam back before striking her. It detonated in her face sending a huge waves of energy, leaving anything in the immediate vicinity of the blasted in strange colours. The sky changed to neon plaid as the ground changed to a the black and white pattern of checker boards.

Starlight was puffing as she floated there exhaustion visible in her eyes, she landed on one of her Wyverns “You did well… Diane .. what do you … think of … our offer.”

Diane smiled as she flew over to her “I will after my time at Beacon is complete, keep the Grimm and by extent Salem in check.” Starlight tiredly waved goodbye as Diane did the same, she then landed in on the Nevermore and chuckled “I haven’t felt this tired ever.” She then blinked as she saw the stunned looks “Did something happen?”
> Chapter 10: Return to the School
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Diane, Rainbow and Lie Ren leading their respective teams had returned to Beacon. They were in a large hall on a stage Ozpin and Glynda Ozpin frowned “We had to make some changes to how the teams work. As such the first team is…” Diane stepped forward alongside Sunset, Cardin, Weiss and Blake “Team DSBUC (Pronounced Duskbuck) lead by Diane, the adopted daughter of General Ironwood.”

Glynda stepped forward “Our second team is…” Rainbow flew forward alongside Pyrrha, Jaune, Ruby and Yang “Team RPJRY (Pronounced Raprajury) lead by Rainbow.”

Ozpin nodded “Now last but not least we welcome the final new team…” Lie Ren walked alongside Nora, Tempest, Vinyl and Octavia “Team LNTVO (Pronounced Linoteviot) lead by Lie Ren. These are your new teams, we have great expectations of you all.”

The other students cheered, after being officially inducted into the school the three teams split up as they headed to their rooms. Diane lead her team in their room, Cardin frowned “Are you really the adoptive daughter of General Ironwood? I didn’t know that there were Faunus in the Atlas Military.”

Diane nodded “Most of the Higher ranking Atlas Officers are Faunus. Most of those who go after the White Fang are Faunus, none of us like the fact that some of our kind are giving the rest a bad name.”

Blake grimaced “Wait you are telling me there are Faunus who fight against their own best interests? The White Fang wishes for us to be equals to humans.”

Diane’s eyes narrowed as she turned to her “How are we doing anything other than proving them right? Many believe that we are violent beasts, how does going around terrorising everyone change that? It just makes us smart violent beasts instead of dumb ones, that makes us in their eyes more dangerous.” 

Blake was silent as Diane turned back to Cardin “Cardin. Whether your hatred of Faunus alleviate itself of not is not my problem, my problem is that you will not obey my order because I am a Faunus. That you will not work with your teammates because they are Faunus. If it helps see me as your CO and they are your fellow soldiers. You must work together with them because lives will be on the line, more than just than just the lives of our team.”

Cardin saluted “I can do that Commander.”

Diane nodded “We should get some sleep, we need to be ready for classes tommorow.”

Meanwhile in the room of Team RPJRY Rainbow, Ruby and Yang were throwing pillows at each other while Jaune and Pyrrha watched. Pyrrha stood up with a frown”Tommorow we have classes and it wouldn’t be wise to be falling asleep in class.”

Rainbow whined “Does this mean we have to study?”

Jaune frowned “My father always told me that if one didn’t study then they would run foul of some Grimm one day that they don’t quite understand. The thought of the Apathy Grimm still give me Nightmares.”

Yang blinked “What are Apathy, I’ve never heard of them?”

Jaune grimaced “Apathy are not very physically strong but they band together in packs their screams drain one of their strength. To the point they can kill you just by draining your strength, they are also quite durable and require quite a bit of power to take down which makes it all the harder when they sap your strength.”

Ruby blinked “How do you deal with them?”

Jaune frowned “Range, their screams weaken the further you are away. The other option is to use automatic drones, they can’t drain their power.”

Pyrrha was slightly shaken “They sound horrifying, like something out of the darkest nightmares.” Rainbow was however was shaking like a leaf in a hurricane,she simply got under some blankets trying to blot out the images of the horrid monsters sucking out her soul.

In the Team LNTVO’s room, they were all getting ready for bed. Nora complained “Can’t we stay up a little longer Renny?”

Ren shook his head “We have classes tomorrow, it would not be wise to be late to our first class.” Tempest nodded as she laid in her bed, Vinyl had put some relaxing music on headphones as she drifted off. Octavia tucked herself in and soon all of them save Nora were sleeping.

The next morning Diane woke up first and rounded her team up, Sunset and Cardin nodded to Diane both clearly early birds. The three had quick showers while the Blake and Weiss had longer ones to wake themselves up. 

Blake turned to Diane with a scowl “Did you have to wake us up so early?”

Diane shrugged “A Huntress should rise with the sun, the reason we had a quick shower was so we could have a longer one later. I want to know where you are all at so I’m going to observe you spar against each other, Weiss vs Sunset and Blake vs Cardin.”

Cardin nodded “We’ll do it out the front where we will disturb minimal people.”

The team headed to the front of the school, Blake stepped forward drawing her weapon Gambol Shroud, it appeared to be a clever style blade. Cardin met her drawing his mace the Executioner, a huge black weapon spiked mace with in circle around a large amount of empty space. A red dust crystal was embedded in the top of the hilt.

Diane gestures for them to begin, Cardin swing his heavy mace only for Blake to dodge and her weapon converts into a Katana. Cardin turns around barely able to block the swing of the weapon with his mace, Blake seemingly divides into two, one leaps at him and explodes in flames. Blake then cuts him with her weapon glowering “How do you like that?”

Before she could reacts grabbing her arm with one hand using it to swing his mace striking her in the gut. Then in the head, her aura beings to splutter. Cardin smirked “That cut hurt, that was a pretty good shot for a Faunus.”

Blake snapped back “Your not bad yourself, for a human at least.”

Diane interrupted before they got into a death match, she turned to Cardin “You have a lot of strength but that is not an excuse to think. You should have known that your enemy was trying to trick you” she then turned to Blake “You were a little to hasty to go for the finishing stroke, your aura is not designed to take hits like that.”

Cardin and Blake both nodded before returning to the sides as Weiss and Sunset , Weiss drew her rapier Myrtenaster which had a revolver style hilt with dust cannisters inside. Sunset drew her flaming sword, Philomena. Diane smiled “You may begin.”

Sunset rushed forward so fast that only Diane saw the movement, Weiss barely had enough time to block using her rapier to create a hard light barrier. Weiss then used Lighting Dust to create a series of Lightning Glyphs allowing her to move faster. Sunset dodged Weiss rapier thrusts “That’s quite Impressive, using your semblance to keep up with me but you made one mistake. You got too close.” Sunset’s body flashed red and powerful flames surrounded them “My semblance, Flame Walls allows me to trap my opponent in close quarters which helps me to overcome ranged opponents.”

Weiss was about to move only for her lightning glyphs to vanish and Sunset smirked as she moved fast cutting into Weiss until her aura depleted. Diane frowned as approached the pair, she turned to Weiss “You should not rush at your opponent it never works, it just makes you a target.”

She then turned to Sunset “That semblance of yours doesn’t work very well on Grimm or large mechs, save it for ranged targets.” Diane’s team after that headed back to have some proper showers before classes.
> Chapter 11: First Class
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

After their shower Team DSBUC got dressed in their uniforms and were heading to class when they were joined by Team LNTVO, Diane frowned “Ren, what do you know about Professor Port?”

Ren frowned “Not much, all I know is he does like telling stories about himself. You can drown those out, they don’t hold any real importance from what most say.”

Weiss frowned “We should still listen to what he has to say?”

Blake nodded “But take everything with a grain of salt, if he likes talking about himself he likely has a huge ego.” 

Vinyl chuckled “I might take a nap during that bit, no reason to listen to him ramble on right. Tavi, you will wake me when he actually mentions important stuff.” Octavia nodded with a shrug.

Tempest frowned at Diane “Looks like we will be the ones paying attention to the lesson and taking notes.” She shook her head “Where’s Rainbow’s team, they should be here by now?”

Sunset frowned “They will show up sooner or later, for now we should get to class.” 

Cardin frowned “I agree, we shouldn’t be late for class. I’ve never been very good at academics so I’m going to really have to pay attention to the class.” The group headed towards their classroom, Cardin flinching as Octavia glared at him. They entered the room to see a battleaxe crossed with a blunderbuss mounted above the board, a portly man with a moustache man chuckled “You are here early.”

Diane nodded “Professor Port, my team rose with the sun. I needed to test the strengths and weaknesses of my team, Team LNTVO joined us on the way here.”

Nora shouted “So when do we get to fight Grimm!”

Port chuckled “While admire you enthusiasm this is a theoretically lesson so please take a seat.” The two teams took their seats, as other students began filling in Lie Ren frowned “Where is Rainbow’s team.”

Just then a frantic Team RPJRY burst in, the quickly took their seats. Port began talking about the Grimm “Monsters! Deeeemons... Prowlers of the night! Yes, the creatures of Grimm have many names, but I merely refer to them as prey! Ha-ha!”

Sunset was taking notes, as were Pyrrha, Diane, Weiss, Lie Ren and Cardin. Tempest, Octavia, Vinyl, Yang, Blake, Jaune were all paying attention to the lesson. Rainbow, Nora and Ruby were sleeping. Rainbow’s loud snoring could hear throughout the room while Ruby and Nora doodled in their notebooks.

As none of the class seemed to acknowledge his attempt at comedy Port moved on “You shall too, upon graduating from our prestigious Academy. Now Vale as well as the other three kingdoms, are the Safe Havens of all in an otherwise treacherous world. Our planet is absolutely teeming with creatures that would love nothing more than to tear you to pieces! And that's where we come in. Huntsmen! Huntresses...” 

Yang groaned in discomfort as Port winked at her, this turned out to be a mistake on his part as Rainbow leapt out of her seat jumping on him much to shock of most of the other students. Diane walked over as Rainbow punched Port in the face repeatedly as she roared “How dare you say that to my teammate you old perverted bastard!

Diane placed a hand on Rainbow’s arm “Calm down Rainbow, while it is honourable to sand up for a teammate especially as a leader you can’t jump in guns blazing at every opportunity.”

Rainbow grimaced “Fine.”

Port smiled “Thanks, I…”

Diane glared at him “Professor, it is inappropriate for a teacher to flirt with their students. Now it’s one for a young teacher to do that, the students likely won’t be bothered but you are easily old enough to be Yang’s Grandfather. So please tone down the flirting.”

Port flinched for a second before regaining “Right… Well I think that’s enough story telling for today, who wants to assist in a practical demonstration.” He pulled out a cage, Diane could sense the Grimm inside the cage it’s lack of aura reacted to her powerful aura.

Weiss nodded “I’ll assist you sir!” Weiss got into her combat uniform and stood in front of the cage, her weapon at a ready. Diane frowned, this was worse than she thought. Letting a Grimm lose in a new class, this was a recipe for disaster. 

Port pulled his battleaxe blunderbuss off the wall “Alright!” He then slammed the axe part of his weapons down “Let’s begin.” Diane’s eyes narrowed further as the Boarbatusk emerged, very few had experience with dealing with one of those in one on one combat. They tended to avoids fighting groups but in a one on one fight their smaller size and higher agility makes them more dangerous then Ursai and Beowolves. 

The beast ran at her, she created huge wall of ice to stop the Boarbatusk, the Grimm slammed through the ice knocking Weiss into the wall before jumping towards the rest of the class. 

Diane jumped forward punching it so hard it vaporised in mid air, the look of death she sent at Port was overwhelming “You idiot, you let a Grimm into a classroom! One that many here haven’t faced in single combat, not to mention that very few have combat experience fighting in such enclosed spaces! You put every student in this classroom at risk!”

Port pulled up his axe blunderbuss “I could have easily taken it out with Blowhard here. There was no need to worry.”

Diane snarled “You moron, that is part Blunderbuss and fires spread shot! You would injured at least one student by shooting that weapon! Honestly I need to talk to Ozpin about this!”

Cardin gulped “She’s scary.” Everyone nodded at him in unison, easily agreeing with him on that point.
> Chapter 12: Discussions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Diane stormed into Ozpin’s office with a scowl “Professor Port brought a Grimm into the classroom! Do you realise how crazy that is?!” 

Ozpin raised an eyebrow “How else are huntresses in training supposed to fight Grimm if they don’t face them at the school?”

Diane frowned “Ozpin, he pointed his Blunderbuss at the students. He needs to be more careful, as for the Grimm it should have be done in a way didn’t threaten the students who weren’t fighting.”

Ozpin nodded “That is a valid concern, you are very smart for your age. Yet again you have been taught by Ironwood, he takes safety as a very serious concern.” He then sighed “Sometimes he worries too much.”

Diane bowed “I wish you luck, Headmaster Ozpin.” Diane stepped out only to see Sunset, Cardin, Weiss and Blake outside. Diane nodded “We better go over some of the books before the next class.”

Sunset nodded with a smile “I agree, my, mentor Swordmaster Celestia always taught me the importance of studying hard. We should head to the our dorm.”

Blake nodded “Maybe we can study with Team LNTVO, Lie Ren seems to be a studious type. I doubt Team RPJRY will be so keen, Rainbow doesn’t seem to be one for studying.”

Cardin rubbed the back of his head “I’ll be fine as long as you keep Octavia away from me, we didn’t exactly get along on the way here. I’m confident she is still holding a grudge.” Meanwhile Rainbow Dash was snoring as Ruby and Yang were throwing pillows at one another. Pyrrha and Jaune were training together on the roof.

Back in Team DSBUC’s room, Vinyl was frowning as she concentrated on the book she was reading alongside Cardin. Octavia whispered to Blake as they were working through some combat problems “How can you handle such a Faunus Hater being in your team?”

Blake frowned “He’s learning, right now he is acting as a fellow soldier but with time we can help him overcome his prejudice.” 

Weiss walked over from working with Tempest and sat down “How are you two doing?”

Blake nodded whispering “Good Weiss, we just discussing Cardin. Octavia wanted to know how I could trust a ‘Faunus Hater’.” 

Weiss rolled her eyes “I am the heir to the Schnee Dust Company and Blake is a former member of the White Fang. By all reasons we should be the most hated of enemies but as you can see that is not the case. We have chose a different path, a different way. It’s why we trust Diane above all else, she has proven in just one day to be a capable leader.”

Octavia looked at Lie Ren who was frowning as Nora complained “Do we really have to study? It’s so boring.”

Vinyl rolled her eyes “I’m all for fun Nora but you get nowhere without some hard work. One doesn’t become a skilled DJ in a rural Faunus village without some serious know-how. You are never too cool for school.”

Diane was solving problems a remarkable speed, her mind running quickly. She had been solving combat problems all her life and many of these were simple compared to what she was used to. Tempest growled “I don’t get this, what kind of operations are they running in these problems!”

Diane frowned s she looked over her notes “These are not large scale battles, these are often Grimm hunts. Grimm are much more instinct driven than people, it was one of the reason Faunus were hated as we often closely associated with the Grimm for some reason.”

Cardin nodded “Those two Grimm mentioned that Faunus were descended from Grimm. That does explain the animal features but that doesn’t explain how they can use aura while Grimm can’t.”

Sunset frowned “Can I trust you to all keep a secret, it wouldn’t be good if anyone new about this.” Everyone nodded, Sunset’s body began turning black as white Grimm plates and red markings began forming on her body. 

Everyone watched in shock except Diane and Tempest, Cardin shook himself out of his stupor and touched the plates on her arm “Hard like steel but flexible enough to absorb impacts.”

Sunset returned to normal with a sigh “I was a little worried you would all hate me. Grimm are our enemies and the fact I can turn into one partially…”

Cardin was the first to respond “No, I must admit I have been firmly in the anti-Faunus camp for sometime. Yet watching Diane’s ability to inspire change, to see Weiss and Blake getting along. Trust has to begin somewhere.”

Diane smiled “I’m glad your starting to see Cardin” she then turned to Sunset “I’m glad you have trusted us with this. We will not say a word.”

Lie Ren nodded “I agree with Diane, we will keep this silent.” he then turned to Nora “I understand how you get excited but this needs to be kept secret.” 

Nora nodded at him with a smile, she then grinned “After this how about we have a slumber party!” 

Diane paused as she heard a voice shout from far away (Party!) She shook her head brushing away the thought “As long as you are okay getting up early, my team does training early in the mornings. It helps keep us in shape, maybe you can join us.”

Tempest turned to them “That would be a good idea, we should never let ourselves get rusty. We seem live in a time of relative peace where the biggest threat are small groups but that can change. War can emerge at any time.”

Octavia frowned “No-one would start a war with all the Grimm around, they would be attracted by the immense pool of negative emotions.”

Vinyl shook her head “War had befallen the world before, eighty years ago so many lives were lost. That could so easily happen again, we must be ready to step in and protect the world from the Grimm.”

Diane nodded “Indeed but we must work together to succeed at that task. We also must do our best to prevent a war from breaking out.” They all nodded before returning to their studies.
> Chapter 13: Forever Fall
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Team LNTVO, Team DSBUC and Team RPJRY were standing out in a forest of red trees carrying packs full of empty jars. Diane was carefully assessing the forest around them, Sunset had her weapon ready. Blake was in the trees with a clone walking alongside them. Weiss and Cardin were discussing strategy. Lie Ren, Tempest and Octavia were carefully watching Vinyl and Nora who were looking around in awe. 

Jaune and Pyrrha were on point was keeping their shields up weapons at a ready.  Ruby and Yang were happily chatting as Rainbow soared above them. Glynda turned to the group “I’m glad to see some of you at least serious about this. Complacency is dangerous as these woods are full of Grimm.” She then held up a jar full of a red liquid “Each of you is to gather one jar's worth of red sap. However, this forest is full of the creatures of Grimm, so be sure to stay by your teammates. We will rendezvous back here at 4 o'clock. Have fun!”

Diane leads her team deeper into the Forest, they need five jars of red sap. Diane had her axe and shield resting on her back, Cardin frowned as he looked around “It is way too quiet around here, the Grimm should be on us by now.”

Sunset frowned “They won’t attack as long as we have our guard up, Grimm tend to avoid fighting us. At the least the older ones and considering that this place is used for aspiring Hunters and Huntresses there are really going to be any older Grimm who will attack us with these numbers.” 

Just as she finished speaking they all heard a scream of pain from someone else, Cardin ran in the direction the scream only to see Pyrrha fighting several Beowolves while Jaune helplessly pounded an Ursa Major with his shield.

Cardin ran over smashing against it’s body with a heavy strike from his Executioner. The rest of Team DSBUC soon turn up, Cardin shouted “Help Pyrrha, I’ll take care of this one!” Weiss used Lightning Glyphs to speed up Blake, who proceeded to tear one of the Beowolves apart with multiple slashes from her weapon Gambol Shroud.  Sunset using Philomena and Diane using her fists fought the other Beowolves.

Cardin growled at Jaune as he bashed the Ursa Major “Fight like a man and help me kill this thing! Seriously, you want to be Hunter then start fighting!”Jaune responded by rushing forward only to get knocked away by the beast’s side swing, it then knocked Cardin into a tree with a mighty swipe.

Before the Ursa Major could attack either, Diane leapt in front of and punched it into oblivion. Cardin groaned as he stood up “I’ll be fine.” 

Diane gave him a thumbs up before picking up Jaune, she glared at him “You stupid bumbling moron, you could have gotten one of my teammates killed! What the heck where you thinking, you charged forward and your shield was so poorly placed that you got instantly knocked away. I will take over your training and by the end of this you will be a capable fighter!”

Jaune gulped as she dropped him “Yes Ma’am.”

It was at that moment that Rainbow, Yang and Ruby entered carrying five jars of red sap. Pyrrha stormed over to Rainbow “Where were you when we were ambushed by Grimm! We could have both been killed by Grimm!”

Team LNTVO entered the clearing with their own jars, Lie Ren frowned “Did Rainbow ‘s Team end up in trouble or something?”

Diane grimaced “We had to save Pyrrha and Jaune because the rest of their team ran off like a bunch of happy go-lucky children.”

Tempest growled as she stormed over to Rainbow “Rainbow, you are supposed to take care of you team! Do you understand what it means to be a leader! It means you have to protect you team, they depend on you for guidance!”

Rainbow growled “I’m doing my best here, I have never led a group before! I thought I could trust the two of them to take care of themselves if they were attacked!”

Diane sighed as she lead her team away to collect their own jars, Lie Ren frowned “Rainbow being a leader is never easy but it is something that one must take seriously. Your a responsible for their safety… you are not like us. I can see the innocence in your eyes, you have never been in danger before. You have never had to live in fear.”

Rainbow slumped “The truth is I’m not even from this world and I have not even heard of Grimm. The idea of fighting them terrifies me, that I will die in the middle of nowhere a world away from home.”

Tempest frowned “I came along with her, as did Diane. Diane lost her memory on the way through and ended up far from us. We were adults where we came from but became young kids when we arrived. I was Commander of a Military for many years thus this doesn’t really faze me too much.”

Most of the others were shocked but Lie Ren frowned “That does make a lot of sense, Faunus only have one traitfrom the animal that they are part. You have more than one.”

Vinyl frowned “I never noticed that. Yet again I am not the most attentive about appearances as long as it doesn't involved my safety.”

Tempest frowned “This needs to be kept secret, Ozpin, Ironwood and a few others are in on it. It would not be good if word spread that beings from another world are real. I'm sure you can understand our concern.”

Octavia nodded “We won’t tell another soul, we swear it. Our three teams will keep this between us but Team DSBUC should be fully informed about what happened. It would be unwise to leave them out of the loop.” The two teams nodded and then they turned around to see Team DSBUC carrying their jars ready to return. The three teams all returned to Glynda who congratulated them on completing their tasks before they headed back to the school.
> Chapter 14: Relaxation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Diane lead her team out to a local port town, Weiss frowned “Why are we out here anyway?”

Diane smiled “To relax, it’s never good to be too tense. Besides I haven’t actually spent much time out of Atlas and I want to know more about the world I live in.”

Sunset frowned “Isn’t Vytal Festival coming up soon, shouldn’t we be preparing for that.”

Blake shook her head “Well the students from Vacuo are arriving here soon, maybe we will get to meet some of them.”

Cardin frowned as he saw a dust store with shattered windows “Another Dust robbery, whoever needs this much dust must be planning something really big.”

Diane frowned “The main suspect is Roman Torchwick, Atlas has been providing aid to Vale in order to catch him but we have little luck. Someone has been keeping him hidden and we are not sure why.”

Diane then sighed as she saw a blonde monkey Faunus running away from two detectives on the docks “Let’s go and help them, that man has a lot of Aura within him. Likely he is one of the Students from Vacuo.” She then ran after the two detectives, the rest of her team following behind.

Diane ran around the corner after them only to be knocked over as she bumped into someone, a freckled girl with orange hair wearing a whitish-grey blouse with short grey overalls. She also was wearing a black and green collar with matching stockings.  Diane dusted herself and blinked “Penny.”

Penny helped her up with a smile “Diane, I wasn’t expecting to see you until the tournament.”

Diane smiled “I wasn't expecting it either but it is good to see a friend here.”

Penny's eyes widened “You really think I’m your friend, I always thought you just used me as a training partner.”

Diane laughed “There plenty of other strong training partner in the Atlas Military” she then gestured to her team “Meet Sunset, Weiss, Blake and Cardin my teammates.”

Sunset smiled holding out a hand “It’s a pleasure to meet you, I’m Sunset Shimmer. It’s a pleasure to meet one of Diane’s friends.”

Penny smiled widened as she looked at them “Does that mean that all of you will be my friends as well.”

Diane frowned “I must tell the truth about Penny, but you are not to tell anypony. You see she was not born, she was built by Atlas as the world’s first android that can use Aura” she then smiled “Regardless, she is my friend and I hope she will be yours as well.”

Weiss smiled “Gladly, I’m Weiss Schnee it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Penny wrapped her in a hug “Thank you for being my friend.” 

Blake giggled at the display, while Cardin pried the girl off Weiss “Maybe you should tone down the hugging. You are much stronger than the average person and you need to be a little more careful.”  He then smiled “I’m Cardin Winchester, I’ve learned a lot from Diane since I joined her team. It’s been a real eye opener for me.” Diane smiled, she was glad that Cardin was opening up to the rest of the team. Cardin called out “Blake!”

Blake walked over nudging him with a smirk before smiling at Penny “I must admit I don’t much about Atlasbut it’s pleasure to meet you all the same.”

Penny exclaimed “So what’s your friendship like! Please tell me!”

Diane nudged her “You'll learn more from watching us, some things can’t be explained by words. We have a monkey Faunus to meet up with.” Diane burst into a run, her team and Penny quickly following her.

Diane paused as she saw the Faunus they were looking for sitting at table by himself, Diane walks over to him with a smirk “Good job evading those two detectives, yet again that should be expected from a Hunter in Training.”

The Monkey Faunus smirked “I am Sun Wukong, now what is the daughter of the Atlas General doing in Vale?”

Diane smiled “Well I am attending Beacon to become a Huntress, there wouldn’t much for me to learn in the Atlas Academy. I assume you are from Vacuo judging from your attire and judging from your Aura you from the Shade Academy.”

Sun laughed “Well your half right, I was born in Vacuo but moved to Mistral to attend Haven Academy.”

Weiss raised an eyebrow “I didn’t think that they would accept you wearing that while representing Mistral. They are a very formal society.”

Sun smirked “Well I was born in Vacuo, I tend to rough whenever I can. Can’t let myself go soft, all those fancy buildings and clothes don’t suit me.”

Diane frowned as pulled out her scroll to see her father looking at her, Ironwood grimaced “A Schnee Dust Shipment is coming to the port town you are in. Jacques had demanded that I provide armed guards to the ship when it stops off in the town, all these Dust Robberies are making him paranoid.”

Diane frowned “I assume you want my team to assist, seeing as we are in the area. Give me a minute before I tell you who is coming.”

Weiss frowned “It is my family’s shipment, I’m in.”

Cardin nodded “I’m in as well, this sounds like fun. Our first proper mission.”

Sunset nodded as Blake frowned “I’m in as well, can’t believe that I am doing this. There was a time when I would have been the one raiding the ship.”

Sun smirked “I’ll join in as well, sound like fun.”

Diane nodded to her father “We’re all in, how much authority did I have over this mission.”

Ironwood frowned “You acting with my full authority, having said that try to keep the damage to the shipment to a minimum. I’d rather not have Jacques breathing down my neck because of the damages.”

Diane nodded “We’ll do our best but you know as well as I do that no plan ever survives contact with the enemy.” Diane sighed as the message ended, she was hoping to relax for a little bit but works was work.
> Chapter 15: Guards
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Diane was frowning, Sunset and Penny was sitting down next to each other. Blake was patrolling with Cardin. Weiss was speaking to Sun “So Sun, what was life like in Mistral?”

Sun frowned “Different from the harsh lands of Vacuo. Sometimes I miss the harsh life back there, some days it was rough but all that I needed to survive back there was my wits. My life was under my control. When I moved to Mistral, the disdain for Faunus was very clear and it made bonding with others much harder.” 

Weiss blinked “Wait they don’t discriminate against Faunus in Vacuo?”

Sun laughed “If your tough enough to live in the harsh conditions then you are accepted.” 

Before another word could be spoken, several aircraft were approaching. Diane pulled out her axe and shield “Bullheads, it seems like father was right to request our help.”

As the Bullheads landed, several Faunus wearing white masks disembarked from one of them lead by a Faunus with red hair and two bull horns on either side of his head. Out of another came a neatly dressed man carrying a cane along with his own goons, a woman with one pink eye and one brown eye by his side. Blake and Cardin returned, Blake’s eyes widened at the red haired Faunus “Adam!”

Adam looked at her in disgust “So Blake you have betrayed the White Fang have you? I will exact retribution on your on behalf of all Faunus!” 

Blake froze at the accusation as Adam drew his word rushing towards her, Diane leapt in front of him. Anger filled her veins as she grabbed his blade, her skinshifted from the pink that it was normally to blacker than the darkest night. Black ooze dripped from her flesh as white armoured plates with red lines crossing them formed over her body. Her irises glowed red as her sclera turned a deep black, her voice seemed to twist “A̶d̵a̷m̵ ̵T̶a̵u̸r̵u̶s̷,̶ ̶y̸o̷u̵ ̴d̶a̴r̷e̵ ̶t̴o̶ ̶i̸n̶s̵u̴l̸t̷ ̴o̷n̵e̶ ̴w̵h̶o̷ ̵I̷ ̵c̵a̸l̴l̷ ̷f̴r̸i̸e̵n̸d̴!̵ ̵I̸ ̷w̶i̵l̶l̸ ̸b̴r̵i̶n̵g̸ ̵y̸o̵u̶ ̸t̴o̵ ̵y̵o̶u̵r̵ ̷e̷n̵d̴!̸”

Much to the shock of everyone pink energy burnt into his body, he screamed in agony as his mask fell off. Diane’s anger lessened as she saw the brand on his face, she tossed him to the ground “You were a slave to the Schnee Dust Company at one point. No wonder you feel such hatred towards humans.” 

Her Grimm side retracted, she summoned two sets of shackles, she bound his legs and arms. She then turned to the two well dressed humans “You two are coming with me as well.” Before they could retreat she fired beam out of her fingers, each Bullhead exploded as the beam made contact.  

The two humans and the rest of bot Groups moved over to them. Diane opened her scroll as her teammates watched the group and called her father “Father, I have apprehended several attackers.”

Ironwood nodded “I’ll send some troops over.”

The man sighed “Well I guess the jib is up, I’m Roman Torchwick and this is Neopolitan. She doesn't have the ability to speak, to think my criminal career would end here.”

Diane was observing Roman carefully, Blake frowned “Diane what are you thinking?”

Diane frowned “Roman, is Neopolitan your daughter?”

Roman looked at Neo “Officially no but I took care of her for most of her life. She is the only person in this world that I trust without hesitation, why would the daughter of Atlas’ general care about a lowly thief like me.”

Diane smiled “My father found me in the streets with no memories of my past. I was alone as the people of Atlas sneered at me for what I was but he stepped in and took me in as his own. You two have quite a valuable set of skills that would ultimately be wasted if you rotted in a cell somewhere.”

Roman grimaced “Anything is better than locked in a cell, what do you want from us?”

Diane shrugged “We’’ll have to discuss this with my father but I’m sure he’ll agree. We do lack an espionage arm and instead of stealing dust you will be stealing information. I’m sure both of you could achieve that with Atlas’ resources backing you up.”

Neo walked forward transforming into a perfect copy of Ruby, voice and all “Sounds interesting but our former employer may not be too happy about us changing sides. Still it’s better than being locked in a cell and I’m pretty confident that dad would like to play with some of Atlas’ toys.”  

Cardin frowned “How do we know they are not playing us?”

Diane grimaced “They could very well be but at the same time nobody succeeds without taking some risks. Something my father taught me.”

Weiss frowned as she glared at Adam’s restrained body “What about him, he seems to have an intense hatred for humans? We can’t just let him go free can we?”

Sunset frowned “We’ll leave him in the hands of Atlas along with his fellow White Fang members. We are not sure of what needs to be done on that front.”

Their deliberation was interrupted as several Atlesian Airships descended from the sky. Commander Luna stepped off the airship in her armour, two hilts resting on either side. Diane saluted “Commander Luna.”

Luna laughed “Your not under my command, you don’t have salute to me Diane.”

Sunset’s eyes winded “Your my mentor’s sister.”

Luna looked to her with a grin “So your Celestia’s newest student, is still as much of a stiff as I remember. She used to get so angry over every little thing I did.”

Diane frowned “We should focus on business, I’ll return with you to Atlas for the time being.” She then turned to the rest of her team “I will be back before classes, inform everyone for me please.”

Blake frowned as she looked at Adam “Be careful with, him his semblance allows him to store energy in his sword and redirect it back.”

Luna grabbed the unconscious Bull Faunus and took him onto the airship. Diane followed with Neo, back in her true form, and Roman close behind.  Roman looked around the massive airship as Atlas soldiers took the remaining White Fang members onto the airship while his goons joined him “Working with Atlas is going to be a treat if I get to use tech like this.”

Adam slowly stirred in Luna’s grasp, he opened his eyes and looked around. He growled at Diane “You are a disgrace to the Faunus, you serve those who would enslave us!”

Luna tossed him to the floor “I was alive when our kind was still in it’s infancy and your petty actions make us look like nothing but the wild beats that humans think of us as!” Her glare silenced him as the multiple airships slowly returned to Atlas.
> Chapter 16: Roman
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Roman and Neo were walking alongside Luna and Diane, Adam was unusually silent during the trip as he looked between the group. Luna frowned as they heard commotion, several of the White Fang members ran down the hall with weapons! Adam reacted as his cuffs dropped onto the ground and knocking Luna down with a sudden strike before taking one of her swords and rushed at Roman. 

His eyes widened as the illusion shattered before him, Neo coughed up blood as the blade had embedded itself in her gut tearing through her as her aura shattered from the impact. As Adam pulled out the blade Roman roared in pain and anger, tear streaming from his eyes “NEO!” He rushed at Adam with his cane, knocking the blade out of the Faunus leader’s hand. 

Diane rushed over to Neo, she used powers to slow the bleeding as Luna used her remaining sword to take out the escaped White Fang Members. Roman split into multiple versions of himself, all of them beating up Adam with multiple cane strikes. 

Adam’s face was covered in blood, Roman was about to finish him when Luna interrupted him as a medical team was carrying Neo away “Stay with your daughter, we will save her. You have our word.”

Roman’s clones dissipated as he ran after his daughter, Diane created a powerful series of chains and bound him tightly “I will remove them when we get to solid ground.” Diane’s Grimm side began showing “If it was up to me I would kill you right now! You are lucky!”

Luna frowned as she looked over the corpses on the ship “It seems we will be personally escorting you to your cell.”

Meanwhile Roman was sitting in a room as Neo was hooked up to multiple machines, the woman smiled “I’m Doctor Snowy Coat, that Diane is a miracle worker. She stemmed the bleeding very well, it’s much slower and we can easily seal up the wound. Still we need you to leave the room so we can operate, Mr Torchwick we do everything in our power to save her.”

Roman sighed as he left the room, tears began dripping from his eyes. He let out a sorrowful “To think here I am working for the authorities, my daughter being operated in another room.” He then slumped over “This is not what I expected when I first became a thief all those years ago.”

Roman frowned as Diane sat next to him “Roman, is everything alright?”

Roman grimaced “I thought that being a thief I can cat aside all my connections to others, yet here I am working for Atlas. My daughter in hospital because I was unprepared, just how much have I failed in my goals.”

Diane sighed “Roman, tell me more about yourself. Who you were and how it all happened.”

Roman closed his eyes  “Well I suppose I should start at the beginning.”

Many Years ago

A young Roman was a fairly normal boy, like many others. He was playing with some other boys when everyone saw an armoured black boar-like creature come into town, everyone grabbed their kids and ran, everyone except his parents who ran. The Grimm charged at him, but something in him fiery and furious echoed outwards. 

He dodged the charging Grimm, and grabbed it by the tusks tossing aside. He grabbed the lid of a trash can and bashed the Grimm until it dissolved into dust, that day the young Roman stopped relying on others and instead focused on himself.

When the huntsmen and huntresses he was taken to the big city, as soon as they weren’t looking he fled. Roman joined a local gang, after joining for the next few days he spent his timepractising throwing knives at a dart board around a big dusty room that had multiple half broken couches scattered around the room with several adults smoking and drinking. One of them looked at the boy “What reason would a boy like you want to be here?”

Before Roman could respond a ten men and wome  carrying weapons entered, he saw the emblem dark blue axe emblem that stood opposed to the blood red stone emblem on his shoulder. The leader, a massive man smirked “You Bloodstones are old news, the Frost Axes will be taking over now!”

Before any of the Forest Axes could respond Roman tossed a knife into the man’s throat, he then looked to the other men as he pulled out five other knives “Who wants to have a go!”

Five of them rushed forward, he casually tossed the knives killing each one before they even got close. The remaining five Forest Axe members fled as the other five Gang Members in the hideout stood up. Roman sighed as he pulled out five more knives “I was hoping they would try their luck. As for why I joined this gang I am seeking power and dominance, I will make the world my own.”

Present Day

Diane sighed “Roman, I’m sorry that those things happened to you.”

Roman shook his head “That was the past and the past is behind me now.” He then frowned “Be careful of that Cinder Fall. She is a very dangerous individual, smart and cunning.”

Diane frowned “I know that woman, fought her and her two lackeys. Do you know who she is working for?”

Roman frowned “No but I know she was powerful and had grand plans for the world. Do you think that you could stop her?”

Diane grimaced “Well I would have to feel her power first before I could make a decision.”

A doctor exited the room with a smile “Mr Torchwick, the surgery went smoothly. Barring any sudden complications everything will be fine.” He then turned to Diane “Good work on slowing the bleeding. That is something that is very different even for skilled doctors.”

Diane nodded with a smile “Thank you Doctor, Roman you should stay with your daughter until she wakes.” Roman nodded as he headed into the room, Diane smiled glad that all was well here.
> Chapter 17: Aftermath
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Roman was sitting in the room with Neo laying on the plain white hospital bed, Neo’s eyes slowly flicked open as she transformed into Ruby “Dad, is everything okay?”

Roman smiled tear flowing from his eyes as he gave her a light hug as though she would shatter at any moment “I’m so sorry that I couldn’t stop him, please forgive my weakness.”

Neo smiled as she returned the hug “Father, don’t worry it’s fine. You have taught me how to survive when no-one else would give me even a second of their time. Besides I did it to protect you. You can’t have expecting him to do something so stupid in front of those who could have taken him down. Is Adam dead?”

Roman frowned “I doubt it, those who followed him likely are. Still I am confident in the fact that he will be receiving proper justice for his crimes once we get to Atlas.” Neo nodded as her illusion vanished, revealing the stitches from the wound. The Doctor and Nurse entered to see Neo awake “Mr Torchwick, we will take her onto the main base were she will be safe. You are free to come with.”

Meanwhile the Airship had just landed in Atlas facility, Diane dismembered removing the chains from Adam as she tossed him before her father. Her father bound his feet together as well as his arms with an electronic set of cuffs. Adam snarled “How dare you bind me you filthy human!”

Ironwood turned to Diane and Luna “Let’s take him inside.” Luna and Diane pulled him to his feet keeping him standing as they followed. As he entered scowling he noticed the faces looking upon, there were countless Faunus faces with the occasionally human glaring at him.

He shouted at the Faunus around him “What are you doing working for those who enslave us!”

Armour growled “Really, that’s a lot of talk for those giving all Faunus a bad name! Those who treat us badly call us monsters, what better way to spite them then prove them wrong! All of us here chose to rise above the actions of others.”

An orange tiger with a dark blue mane stepped forward a brand resting on his face in the same place as Adam’s “You are not the only former slave Adam, I chose to be better. Acting like you won’t gain me any sympathy from anyone. You have hurt Faunus human relations for so long, ruining our attempts to be treated as equals.”

Adam was stunned by the branded Faunus in front of him, he was soon moved along a stunned look on his face. As Adam was pushed away Shining Armour looked at him while the other Faunus kept glaring at Adam “Did you know Adam, Flash?”

Flash frowned “I did, we escaped together from one the Schnee Dust Mines. I joined the military and he joined the White Fang, we were like brothers in the mines. We escaped in order to make great change to destiny of our kind.” 

At the end of the hall, Ironwood smiled “I believe it’s time for you to get back to Beacon. I will take good can of both Roman and his daughter I promise you that.”

Diane nodded “I will hold you to that, father. If anything happens I will return.” Diane teleported back to the Beacon roof and returned to her dorm. 

Weiss raised an eyebrow “Diane how did you get back so quickly?”

Diane frowned “I teleported” she then turned to Blake “I’m sorry that most of the White Fang members didn’t make it to Atlas. They tried to take over the ship, the only survivor was Adam.”

Blake felt tears forming in her eyes “I know what they were doing was wrong but to die like that. Why couldn’t they have just surrendered…” 

Weiss hugged her teammate “Blake, look we may not always see eye but none of this is your fault. Adam and the White Fang are not your responsibility anymore, you don’t have to take responsibility for their actions.”

Blake looked at Weiss “Um, why are you hugging me.”

Weiss’ face glowed red with embarrassment “You looked like you needed a hug, that’s all.”

Cardin nodded “What they do is their problem not yours, we leave the past behind and move to the future. We can’t change the past but we can make the future better one step at a time.”

Sunset smiled “We will make the world a better place one step at a time?”

Blake smiled weakly “Thanks, I needed that but I’m sure we all have a big question on our minds.” She turned to Diane “How did you channel aura through your Grimm form?”

Diane frowned “Most of my abilities are not my semblance, it’s something else. I can bend twist and warp reality, channelling my soul through soulless flesh is child’s play. Still I’d rather keep knowledge of my power to a minimum, we don’t want the world trying to replicate them.”

Before another word could be spoken, there was a knock on the door. Diane raised an eyebrow “Who is it?”

Ozpin’s voice came from the other side of the door “I need to speak to you about a mission?”

Sunset opened the door letting him, she scowled “We just completed a mission Headmaster, we shouldn’t just go on another one immediately.”

Ozpin frowned “I understand your hesitation but this come from the disappearance of Team RPJRYwho were investigating some strange enhanced Grimm. They dissapeared as they were investigating an abandoned town crawling with Grimm, the fact that they dissapeared has me worried.”

Blake growled “I won’t let anyone else be hurt, they our fellow students and they need our help. They would do the same for us.”

Weiss nodded standing up as well, and walked over to her blade filling it with dust. Diane picked up her weapons as well “We are ready to go, tell us where the town is.”

Ozpin frowned “The town is near the Mountain Glenn settlement, back in the day it was simply called Glennford.” The five of them stepped up hoping to prevent deaths unaware that they were already too late.
> Chapter 18: Consequences
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rainbow was ecstatic as was Ruby, Ruby cheered “This is our first real mission!”

Yang was concerned, Ozpin told them this mission was very dangerous. They were not sure about these new Grimm but what Ozpin knew was they were smart. Yang frowned as they walked through the abandoned Glenntown “We should have seen Grimm by now?”

Pyrrha looked around “Grimm would have noticed us by now surely, not to mention my scroll won’t get any external message here. It’s as if it’s being jammed by someone.”

Rainbow waved her hand “We have got this, now let’s find these strange Grimm.” 

As she said that several Boarbatusks green forming out of their back. Yang punched one with them with her Ember Celica, knocking it into a building.  The Grimm emerged with severe damage but was still alive, Yang growled “These Grimm are tougher than the ones we have faced before!”

Ruby rushed one eagerly and cut it in half with Crescent Rose “We can still take them out! Come on everyone!”

Pyrrha bashed one with her shield Akouo before stabbing it with her spear, Milo. Jaune did the same bashing with shield part of Crocea Mors before stabbing the Boarbatusk with the sword part. Rainbow destroyed them with her daggers, Rainbow Blitz. Rainbow shouted “We did it!”

Several massive Beowolves with similar crystals on their back began to emerge, Pyrrha shouted “We can’t take them if they as enhanced as those Beowolves! We need to retreat!” As they ran away Jaune noticed that the Beowolves weren’t chasing them, they entered an abandoned house out of sight of the Grimm. Pieces of broken, rotten furniture were strewn around the structure.

Yang frowned “What do we do now? We can’t communicate back to Ozpin and none of us are strong enough to take out those Grimm! Heck the only student who could would be Diane!”

Jaune frowned “The Grimm must be planning something, they are much smarter than most. Not to mention those crystal structures that formed on their bodies.”

Rainbow was fiddling “I hate being cooped up in a place like this, when do we leave?”

Pyrrha grimaced “Rainbow, this is a lot worse than you realise. We may die here, we will die if we go out there. We should get some rest and sneak out during the night.” The group of five pull out their sleeping bags and laid down in them, all them trying to sleep even as they heard the sound of the Grimm prowling outside.

Eventually they found peace in slumber, for hours they slept until Yang awoke just in time to roll out of the way of a huge Beowulf slamming into the ground. Everyone forced themselves out of their sleeping bags and grabbed their weapons. Three Beowulves tore their away into the building, Yang leapt at one punching it out of the building. Ruby and Jaune took on one of them while Pyrrha and Rainbow took on another. 

Jaune’s training with Pyrrha had made him much more capable, he slammed his shield into the Beowulf hard enough to knock back a bit allowing Ruby to deliver several deep cuts into it. 
Pyrrha was baiting one of the other two Beowulves while Rainbow slashed at with her daggers. A loud scream pierced through the air, Ruby screamed out as she saw Yang’s body torn into two separate pieces falling to the ground “Yang!”

Ruby rushed over to her sister’s side at blistering speed, cutting the Beowulf nearby in half as with her scythe as she moved. Yang looked at her sister with a sad smile as she joked “Look like I’m beside myself.” She then chuckled wtiha slight winceas she felt her insides spilling out “Ruby, take care of yourself.”

Ruby cried as she grabbed her sister’s hand “I’m not going to lose you, sis!” As Yang’s body fell limp a golden glow from Yang’s body surged into’s Ruby’s hand, Ruby took of her sister’s Ember Celica and put them on her own hands. She picked up her scythe and placed it on her back. 

Ruby rushed forward knocking the Beowulf Jaune was fighting backwards, Beowulf lashed out knocking her backwards. Ruby re-orientated herself in the air, and landed on the ground perfectly. Ruby slammed her fist together, her glowed gold as her silver eyes turned red a golden aura. She leapt at the Beowulf punching a hole through it, the other Beowulf seeing it’s comrades destroyed ran from the battlefield. 

Ruby’s hair and eyes returned to normal as tears fell from her eyes, Rainbow approached her “Ruby….”

Ruby sobbed “Yang… why did it have to be her?” Anger welled up in her as cried to the heavens themselves “WHY!”

Rainbow put a hand on Ruby's shoulder “We should make her a proper coffin, one that may she rest within. No matter what happens remember the good times you have had with her.”

Pyrrha wrapped her in a hug “If it ever becomes too much tell us, we are your team and we’ll be there for you. No matter what happens.” 

Ruby smiled weakly “Thanks but we can’t leave my sister here, if we are going to make a proper coffin we need wood.” Ruby walked over to a tree and cut it down with her scythe, they spent hours cutting the wood only to see a ship flying overhead. 

Five individuals jumped off the ship, Blake and Weiss’ eyes widened as they saw the remains of Yang. Sunset looked down while Cardin growled “Damn it!”

Diane was not fazed, she had seen worse before. She barked “Help them build the coffin! I need to speak to Ruby!” Her team immediately joined in, she beckoned for Ruby to leave the group. Ruby followed quietly, Diane frowned “How you holding up, be honest with me?”

Ruby felt tears starting to fall from her eyes “My sister’s dead, what am I supposed to do! She was so strong so brave and here I am, without her!”

Diane wrapped her arms the younger girl “Ruby, you are braver than you know and have a heart of gold. Don’t ever lose that, never stop caring for others.”

Ruby nodded “I won’t but if I find who created those Grimm, I will bring them to justice.  You have my word.” 

Diane frowned “Just don’t caught up in revenge, it could make you a monster if your not careful.” she shook her head “Enough depressing talk, let’s back to the group. I’ll transport the coffin back to Ozpin so we can find who is responsible so that no-one else had to die.” Ruby nodded with grim determination on her face.
> Chapter 19: Younger Sister's Fury
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ruby was looking at the coffin that was just finished, Ruby saw her sister’s damaged body “Diane could you put her body back in one piece. She deserves to buried whole.” 

Diane nodded as she reattached the two halves her sister’s body and then placed it in the coffin. Diane dissapeared with the coffin, Ozpin jumped at her entrance. Diane frowned “I’m afraid we couldn’t save the elder sister. It was too late by the time we arrived, also all communications are jammed within the town so we will be out of contact until we figure this out.”

Ozpin sighed “I will inform Taiyang, he would be furious. After what happened to Summer and then there’s Qrow.”

Diane frowned “I will protect Ruby, she will return in one piece. I can assure you of that.” Diane teleported back to Glennford.

Ruby lifted her scythe “There must be some clues around here about how these Grimm came to be!” Diane joined Ruby with Sunset and Cardin standing next to Pyrrha and Jaune. Blake and Weiss were standing next to Rainbow.

Twenty of the mutated Beowulves run towards them, Ruby rushed forward cutting the first Beowulf down the middle with a single swing of her scythe. She grabbed the paw of a secondand tossed it into another with little effort. Diane rushed up and obliterated one who snuck up behind with her own punch, Sunset cut another into pieces while Weiss and Blake tore one apart with multiple quick attacks to it’s unarmoured parts. 

Pyrrha, Jaune and Cardin aggressively battered another Beowulf. Ruby caught the one that she launched with a single uppercut destroying it. Rainbow meanwhile baited those that were no being attacked with barrages of long range gun fire. Soon all twenty mutated Beowolves were dust in the wind. Rainbow blinked “Ruby how are you so strong?”

Ruby growled “It doesn’t matter, look at that.”

Weiss grimaced as she saw the mark “Merlot Industries, it shut down after the attack on Mountain Glenn. They were working on genetic engineering when their main facility was lost alongside Mountain Glenn, a few rumours suggested they were experimenting on Grimm in hope of using them as weapons.”

Ruby growled “Then we go there next, maybe there will be more clues about all of this there.”

Sunset frowned “Isn’t the city overrun with Grimm, maybe we should returned to Beacon and think of our next move.” 

Ruby growled “I’m not going back until I figure this out!” 

Diane sighed “Ruby, calm down. We will go to Mountain Glenn because we need to investigate further but don’t act rash, your anger is getting the better of you.  I promise we will find who caused all of this.”

Ruby sighed “Sorry everyone, I’m just so angry. I just wish to break something, to cause damage to everything around me.”

Blake sighed as she approached “I understand how you feel and if you ever wish to talk about just ask. I was so bitter about how Faunus were treated that I lashed out violently.”

The group of nine headed toward Mountain Glenn, Diane frowned as she got a call on her scroll once they left the town. Ozpin frowned “What did you find in the town?”

Diane grimaced “Merlot Industries, I suspect that someone is running their endeavours again. 
The Grimm had green crystals on their back and were tough enough to give Team RPJRY a lot of trouble.”

Ruby frowned “Three Beowulves were stronger than five of us, we need to get to Mountain Glenn and figure out what is causing this. What do you know about Merlot Industries?”

Ozpin frowned “Their leader Merlot wanted to use Grimm to benefit humanity and the company started experimenting on them. We have no reason to believe he is alive.”

Sunset frowned “But what if he did, his company may have even been the ones attracting Grimm to Mountain Glenn and he knew this would happen escaping while using his experiments to keep the Grimm away.”

Weiss frowned “We will figure it out when we get there but let’s not many hasty assumptions.”

Ozpin nodded “If you can contact me when you find something then do so, there may be more transmission jamming systems out there.”

Diane nodded “Will do.” Given the closeness of the town, it was not long before they arrived at Mountain Glenn. Diane frowned as she saw a woman with deathly pale white skin, her red irises surrounded her sclera as well as several veins like lines running across her body. Diane frowned “You are the self-proclaimed Dark Queen, Salem and archenemy of Ozpin. You seek dominance over the world don’t you.”

Salem nodded “Correct, you are well informed and your power I must admit is far greater than mine. Still I am not here for my feud with Ozpin right now, I am here for the fact someone is experimenting with the Grimm which concerns all of us.”

Rainbow growled “Why should we trust her!”

Ruby shook her head “I don’t care about her, she is not important to me. I wish to find the one responsible for the Grimm that killed my sister and if that means working the Dark Queen over there then so be it.” 

Everyone paused at the declaration save Salem who eyed Ruby for a moment before looking to a ruined Merlot Industries building in the distance “The Grimm around here have been avoiding that area, I assume that is where they have been disappearing from.”

Diane grimaced as they walked through the ruined city “Well let's find out who has been experimenting on the Grimm, I have my suspicions on who it is.” 

Salem frowned “Do tell, who would be really so arrogant as to think he could improve the Grimm by experimenting on them.”

Ruby growled “His name is Merlot and I will make sure he faces justice! Now can you to stop wasting time with idle chatter so we can get in there!”

Salem raised an eyebrow “She doesn’t seem to show us much respect does she? You should really change that.

Diane ignored Salem as they walked past ruined buildings and hordes of Grimm who were more than content to ignore then due to Salem’s presence. They entered the building only for the ground to collapse beneath them from a series of explosive charges, Salem groaned as she stood up “Fuck me” she then stood up before looking at the group who were slightly stunned at her speech “sorry I usually keep my composure better than but I am a little bit” her eyes narrowed as a fearsome scowl passed over her face “absolutely livid.”

Ruby growled “I fucking hear you, who puts fucking explosives in the entrance to their own fucking facility!”

Diane stood up “One who had another exit somewhere else that only he could access. Now let’s get moving before…”

Several creeps with crystal on their back exploded, luckily for the group Diane put up a magical barrier. Sunset’s eyes widened “Those Grimm just exploded.”

Rainbow frowned “It seems there is an underground tunnel which could have used an an escape when the Grimm attacked. Maybe we’ll find the source of these Grimm.”

They walked through the deep underground caverns, tracks that were designed for trains to travel on. Ruby was looking forward with col determination, Diane and Salem were keeping a close eye on any potential entry ways. It felt like hours since they had seen sunlight, Sunset frowned “Doesn’t it feel much more humid down here then when we arrived.”

Salem nodded “We are currently under the ocean, in fact we have been under the ocean for quite at least a few hours. We should all take a short rest before moving further.” 

Blake raised an eyebrow “Why, we could still keep going.”

Salem frowned “Other than me, Diane and Ruby you all are showing sign of exhaustion.” Cardin and Weiss were breathing quite heavily, Rainbow and Sunset’s fur were dripping with sweat. Pyrrha and Jaune were both slightly winded, Blake herself was even starting to feel it somewhat.”

Sunset panted a bit “We need some rest.”

Diane frowned “I was hoping to find a spot out of the way first but if we keep going we might run into more Grimm that will strike us when we are weak. They have already proved they are smarter than the standard Grimm.”

Cardin frowned as he looked at Salem “So how did you come up with this hatred for Ozpin?”

Salem sighed “I might as well tell you the truth. I was a woman in a tower locked in a tower and the man who Ozpin once was Ozma rescued me from the tower.” She let out a bitter chuckle “We fell in love and were going to explore the world together.”

Rainbow snarled “I have a hard time believing that a witch like you could ever feel love!”

Ruby smacked her angrily “Shut up and let her speak! We should hear her side of the story!”

Salem nodded before continuing “He fell ill and died. I was so desperate to have him back, that I went to the God of Light, once he refused I tricked the God of Darkness until they realised my deception and made me immortal so I would never see Ozma again as punishment. Thus I used my immortality to get the people of the world to declare war on the gods and they wiped out all of that version of Humanity, those blessed with Humanity.”

Blake frowned “How does this relate to Ozpin?”

Salem frowned “The gods brought him back and created the relics when they abandoned humanity. The Crown of Choice, the Lamp of Knowledge, the Staff of Creation and the Sword of Destruction, he was tasked with protecting the Relics. We both tried to allow our lives to return to normal and even had four kids, eventually our differing views tore us apart. Our kids were caught in the crossfire and Ozma reincarnated again. He has opposed me in many different bodies preventing me from getting the Relics.”

Weiss frowned “Let me guess Ozpin is the current incarnation of Ozma.”

Salem nodded “Yes, now you all seem rested enough let’s continue.” 

Diane frowned “Thanks for your honesty, now let’s find out who created these Grimm.” 

It was not long before they arrive at a strange facility, as Ruby punches down the door. On a screen an old man with one robotic eye and a robotic arm greeted them “Intruders, I am Dr Merlot and you will soon face the might of my upgraded Grimm!” Ruby growled as she rushed ahead, only Diane and Salem able to keep up with her.
> Chapter 20: Island of Doctor Merlot
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ruby growled as she ran into the facility “Merlot, stop hiding from me!”

Diane put a hand on her shoulder “Ruby, calm down, I promise once we find him you’ll be able to do whatever you want to him. For now let’s focus on locating him.”

Salem soon joined them, she saw multiple metal pipes, camera and Computer screens resting on the metal walls of the complex. Sunset, Rainbow, Cardin, Weiss, Blake, Pyrrha and Jaune joined them only to hear the sounds of clunking metal. Bulky androids that reminded Diane of the older models of Atlas Knight-100s that were decommissioned in favour of the Atlas Knight-130s. 

Some of them were carrying spears, others were carrying machine guns and grenade launchers. Merlot’s face turned up on a screen “You have done well to get this far but you won’t get past my…”

Ruby rushed forward and tore all of them in half with a swing from her scythe. She growled “I have little interest in your toys, Merlot! I want your head and I will stop at nothing until I get it!” 

Merlot instantly shut off communications, Rainbow approached Ruby with a frown “Are you okay, Ruby. This isn’t like you.”

Ruby crossed her arms “I’ll be better once I’ve taken Merlot’s head. Now where could that bastard be hiding.”

Diane frowned as her scroll began to buzz, Ozpin’s face appeared on the scroll “Diane you have been out of contact for over a day. Is everyone alright?”

Salem walked over to her, venom coursed through her tone “Ozpin, it’s been centuries.”

Ozpin’s eyes widened “Salem, why are you here!”

Salem smirked “Well normally I would send one of my some of subordinates but all of them in the area had been injured by young Diane over here. As such I have had to take to doing grunt work, Diane here probably could find a way to mess with my immortality, I must admit I am enjoying this. an opponent who has me at a disadvantage. It’s quite refreshing actually.”

Ozpin turned to Diane “Why are you working with her? You know that we are enemies right?”

Diane frowned “Well she told me the whole story from her perspective and besides we are here for the same reason. Dr Merlot survived and is making Grimm for his own personal use, we both have reason to want that to end so we have called a truce.”

Sunset frowned “I’m surprised we are not being jammed by Merlot. I doubt he would want us getting backup.”

Weiss frowned “He likely has benefactors on the outside he needs to keep in contact with on the outside. It is important to keep contact with those funding an operation, especially if you are trying to keep it secret.”

Blake raised an eyebrow “How do you know such about this anyway?”

Weiss rolled her eyes “Blake, I am the heiress to a major company. It wouldn’t exactly be ideal if I didn’t know how to run a business.”

Ozpin nodded “You should focus on finding his Main Laboratory, that will be likely where he resides. If he is not there then I’m not sure where he is hiding.”

Ruby growled “That will take too long, let’s blow up everything until we find him!”

Diane frowned “Well we aren’t going anywhere by talking, I’ll contact you if something really bad happens.”

Ozpin nodded “I know you will. See you back at Beacon.”

Ruby growled “Enough lollygagging, I want to find this Merlot is! He can’t be too far from here!”

Salem smirked “I think your idea has some premise, no point playing wander through the labyrinth.” Salem held up a hand let out a powerful blast of destructive energy tearing through anything that got in it’s way.  All that was left was a huge chasm of melted metal and piles of rubble save a few tall buildings in the distance.

One of the monitors turned on as Merlot shouted “What have you done to my facility!”

Salem turned to him with grim expression “Show you what it means to mess with a god. Now I suggest you surrender, it will be easier on everyone.” 

Merlot growled “I won’t surrender to you, you can’t possibly get past my army of Grimm!” 

Thousands of mutated Beowulves rushed towards them, Ruby’s silver eyes glowed fiercely as she roared “I am sick of the mutated shits getting in the way.” That aura surrounded her body, she rushed forward delivering punches at blinding speed the Grimm turning to dust before her fury.

Salem’s eyes widened “I’ve never seen Silver Eyes do that before, they just obliterate Grimm.”

Diane frowned “This is more that simple anger, this is a primal hatred. She has become focused on the goal of vengeance, there is a great amount of power in those eyes but because it is despite it’s bright nature, it is a form of dark magic brought out in the most desperate of situations. It takes incredible amounts of will in order to control it as it actively fights against you.”

Salem frowned “Well I’m glad I won’t have to fight that anytime soon.”

Ruby leapt towards a tower and smashed into it, she dodged the punch the of Merlot’s robotic arm. She grabbed his mechanical arm and ripped it off, she growled as she put her foot on his chest “This is for Yang you mad bastard!”  Ruby smashed his skull into dust with a mighty strike, she then left the tower using Speed.

Ruby rushed over to them “He’s dead, I’ve made sure of that.”

Salem frowned “I’m going to activate the Island’s self-destruct, don’t want anyone else trying to do this again here. In the meantime you have funeral to attend.”

Ruby nodded “I do, I can now move on. Thank you Salem for getting us here, I needed to kill him with these hands.”

Salem smirked “Don’t get to friendly, if we meet again it will be to the death. Still I doubt you will be the one I’ll be fighting.”

Diane nodded “I’ll be ready for that Salem.” Diane teleported them into a room only to see Qrow, Taiyang and another woman yelling at Ozpin.
> Chapter 21: Truth
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Diane frowned “Ruby, we’ll leave this to you.” Diane, Weiss, Sunset, Cardin and Blake left the room.

Rainbow nodded “We’ll do the same, but if you ever to talk to any of us just say the word.” 

As the rest of her team left, Ruby turned back to the Qrow, Taiyang and the other woman that reminded her Yang but with black hair and red eyes.  Ruby frowned “Why are you yelling at Ozpin?”

Qrow shouted “Because he sent you out on a really dangerous mission!”

Ruby shook her head “It was supposed to be a recon mission, there was not meant to be combat. Those Grimm were smarter than we gave them credit for and all communications were jammed, I mean how many Grimm would pull off such a perfect ambush by waiting during the night.”

Ruby then turned to the other woman “Who are you anyway?”

The woman’s cold tone was clear “I’m Raven Branwen, Yang’s mother. I felt her link vanish, so I came here only to find a coffin.” Raven scowled as she pointed to Ozpin “Once again someone I care about has died because of him, at least this time there is a body to bury.”

Ruby frowned at Qrow “What does she mean by that?”

Qrow grimaced “What my older sister is trying to say is that we never found Summer’s body. She went out to face a Grimm attack but never returned. No sign of her weapon or body was found despite our best efforts.”

Ruby frowned “Does this have something to do with Salem.” 

Taiyang growled “Ozpin. You told her about that. Your promised that you wouldn’t!”

Ruby frowned “I’ve met her face to face, she was in Mountain Glenn and told me about her past. I may know more about her then you three do.” She then grimaced “Yang deserves better from us then to argue.”

Meanwhile a huge violet castle towered over a barren wasteland, it’s rocky terrain was separated by massive purple crystals emerging from the ground.  The dark red sky glowed as Grimm poured out of black pools. 

Inside the castle Salem was sitting on a crystal throne at the end of a large crystal table. In the large room there several crystal formations were standing against the glass windows with white candles. Six wooden chairs were on either side of the table, a tall middle aged man, a twitchy Scorpion Faunus was sitting next Cinder who had Mercury and Emerald behind her.

Cinder had stitches where her stomach was replaced with a mechanical one, Mercury's mechanical leg was replaced and Emerald had metal spine on her back. The middle aged man frowned “I don’t know why you are keeping those three around, they were defeated by teenager.”

Salem raised her hand to silence him “I have felt Diane’s power for myself, even I would be hard pressed to best her in direct combat DoctorI find having such a powerful opponent a change of pace, still for now I have other concerns.”

The Scorpion Faunus was rubbing his hand together “When do I get to go out?”

Salem turned to him “You will when the time is right. I have things to do.”

Cinder frowned “I don’t understand why you saved that woman, yet put such effort into her. She was our enemy.”

Salem’s eyes narrowed “Because you don’t understand what she did, she was tenacious and capable. I don’t how many times she came for my head, had I not been immortal she may have succeeded. “

Salem exited the room and walked through the purple corridors, candles on similar crystals to the ones in the meeting room were on both sides of the halls. She approached a room and calmly knocked, the door opened with faint glow. Salem entered, the room was dark save two silver eyes glowing in the darkness. 

Dark blue flames lit up the sconces in the room revealing a woman who’s body was largely made of pitch black material, not much flesh was left except her face as well a few parts of her torso and legs. She was wearing a wearing a black dress and a pitch black hooded cloak, a scythe resting by her side “Salem.”

Salem approached her carefully “Summer, I have some bad new to do with one of your daughters.”

Summer demanded “What happened to them, tell me now!” 

Salem frowned “One of them passed away, the funeral will be held soon. I thought you would…”

Summer growled as she grabbed Salem by the neck and lifted her up “Who did it, tell me Salem!” 

Salem frowned “Merlot, the head of Merlot Industries. Your other daughter killed him, she wanted vengeance so badly.”

Summer took a deep breath as she lowered Salem to the floor, she leapt out of the window as she shouted “Sleipnir to me!” A horse Grimm with eight legs galloped outside of the window, Summer leapt out of the window onto the Grimm’s back. Summer smiled as she rubbed it’s neck “Sleipnir, let’s hurry I got to get there fast.”

Sleipnir nodded “Yes, Ma’am.” 

They travelled continents in mere minutes,  easily breaching the borders of Vale within the hour. The sight of a Grimm sent the city into a panic, Summer was not concerned as she made her way to Beacon. She got off Sleipnir only to see a few familiar faces, she frownedas she saw Qrow “It’s been a while Qrow but then again I was dead.”

Qrow’s eyes widened as she looked into her eyes “Summer, what happened to you?”

Summer frowned “That’s a long story, and one that can wait until I see my daughters.” She turned to Sleipnir patting his head “Await me at Mountain Glenn, no need cause anymore panic.” Summer turned around and walked past Qrow in a determined stride, Qrow caught up to her as students watched in shock. 

Summer barged into Ozpin’s room only to see Ruby, Taiyang, Ozpin and Raven. Ruby’s eyes widened before jumped her “Mum!”

Summer smiled as her rubbed her hand across her hair ‘It’s good to see you Ruby and I’m sorry I couldn’t visit but I doubt that Qrow would accept my choice in company. Also I doubt Taiyang could lie to him for very long.”

Raven frowned “So the rumours were true,  you are working for Salem.”

Taiyang growled “Is that really true, are you working for that witch!”

Summer’s eyes narrowed “You all assume I am working for her. I am working with her, our goals are aligned. She chose to save me and spent considerable time on my rehabilitation, you know how many times I tried to kill her. I tried to find a weakness but even when I did it did nothing, she was immortal unkillable and yet I kept trying anyway.”

Qrow turned to Ozpin “This is not true is it?!”

Ozpin sighed “It is, there is no way to kill Salem that I know of.”

Qrow walked over to O\pin and shouted “Are you fucking kidding me, that is important information!”

Qrow stormed over to Ozpin only for Raven to sand “Qrow enough I want to know what Summer when she said that Salem spent time on her rehabilitation.”

Summer took a deep breath “Salem respected my tenacity despite knowing I couldn’t beat her. So on that last mission when I was bleeding out, my body torn to shreds and I felt my life leaving me Salem granted me something special as you can see.”

Ozpin’s eyes widened as he looked over her face, she didn't look a day older than when she died “She found out how to make others immortal like herself!”

Summer frowned “Yes but it takes several millennia to build enough energy. She won’t have another charge for a while. I remember looking up to see her tending to my body, most of my internal organs were shredded and I was missing an arm as well as most of the lower half of my body was damaged to the bone. She spent hours tending to fixing my body, sometimes I woke up to see her sleeping next to me.”

Raven rolled her eyes “You act as if Salem cares about someone other than herself. You are just another pawn.”

Summer’s eyes narrowed “Raven, Salem has not asked anything of me. In truth I have been raring to get out there but she has told the time is not right to put our plans into fruition. I am the White Queen to her black, still I am not here as an enemy but as mother who wishes to attend her daughter’s funeral.”

Ruby let out a sad smile “You should see her face one last time.”Summer walked over and pushed the lid off the coffin, she began to cry as she rubbed her older daughter's face. Ozpin meanwhile was frowning, this made matters so much more complicated for him.
> Chapter 22: Funeral
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

On an airship returning to the Island of Patch, Ruby was sitting on Summer’s lap.  It would have been normal if it weren’t for Qrow and Raven glaring at each other, Taiyang looking at Summer with worry.

Summer frowned as the airship arrived in Patch docks, as soon as they got of Summer smiled at Ruby “Spend some time with your father, I will join you shortly. I need to speak to Uncle Qrow and Raven.”

Ruby looked at the two glaring at each other before smiling “I understand mum.”

Ruby joined Taiyang as several people carried out Yang’s coffin, Summer frowned at Qrow and Raven “Look I don’t care what problem you two have with each other but I won’t have you ruining Yang’s funeral with it. Honestly the fact that you two are angrier at each other than me is shocking.”

Qrow frowned “It’s a lot more complicated than that, I never really discussed our past with you did I?”

Summer rolled her eyes “You mean that little Bandit tribe that you think keeps you hidden, Salem has been keeping a close eye on them.  There is no way to hide from her eyes, she may make use of you in the future.”

Raven was visibly shaking “She has been watching me, I need get out of here. I...” 

Summer slapped her “You are going to stay for your daughter’s funeral! Salem will always be watching you, running away won’t protect you so stay here and be a good mother for once in your fucking life!”

Raven was stunned as she touched her cheek “You never had the gut to hit me before.”

Summer smirked “I am far stronger than I was back then, I had to become stronger and stronger. In my one woman war against Salem I pit myself against stronger and stronger Grimm, I was up against too many strong Grimm even if I took most of them out.”She then shook her head “We have a funeral to attend.

Summer lead them to Taiyang and Ruby who were already making the trekto the cliffside, Ruby frowned at Qrow and Raven “Worked out your little issue?”

Qrow frowned “We will leave it until later, now is not the time for that.” 

Ruby nodded “Good, I don’t want whatever is getting in the way of this. It’s too important, in fact it is the most important thing right now. The world has to wait for this in my eyes, if it doesn’t then it can go and burn.”

Summer smiled as Qrow and Taiyang’s eyes widen in shock “Exactly, Ruby we must never give up on those closest to us. We must always hold then in our hearts, for me that is you and Yang.” She sighedI wish I could put Taiyang, Qrow and Raven in that as well but I will do what I need to if they stand in my way.”

Raven looked at Summer in fear, she shuddered slightly at her former teammate. Summer noticed this but said nothing, Raven was hiding something and she knew she may confront her in the future. The Grimm in the woods watched closely as they passed, it was not long before they stood before Summer’s grave.

A hole had already been dug, Summer watched as Yang’s coffin was lowered into the grave without fanfare by a group of people. All was silent, a sign of respect for the departed as the dirt was piled upon the coffin. A stone gravestone was placed on top of the disturbed ground.

The family of five sat there silently, the sound of wind, rain and fire would not interrupt the peace. They stood there for hours before the group left as they came in silence, a Crow and Raven took flight as Summer dissapeared in a flash of silver light. Leaving Taiyang and Ruby to return home.

Summer reappeared in Mountain Glenn and whistled, Sleipnir galloped over “You wish to return to the castle?”

Summer nodded “I have plans, we need to get the Crown of Choice and we need to get it fast. I know exactly how to do it too, we need to create a situation where all of Vale is focused on a massive Grimm invasion.”

Sleipnir frowned “So you’re tossing subtly out the window with this one right?”

Summer frowned “It’s all just a distraction to buy us some time and also make the world panic. That panic will give us time to get the other relics with Atlas being the last one.”

Sleipnir looked at her “Your daughter just passed away, you were just at her funeral as short as it was. I must admit that I don’t understand human emotions very well but do you really want to jump into this again so soon?”

Summer frowned “We have grand ambitions and those don’t stop because of something like this. Ozpin will be moving quicker now, we need to pre-empt him by going bigger and larger. He is used to having time to prepare, we will strike so fast and hard that there will be no time for him to counter.”

As soon as they arrived at the castle, Summer pushed open the doors and marched inside. She barged into the meeting room and turned to the Doctor “Dr Watts, is Cinder in good enough form for an excursion?”

Dr Watts nodded “Yes, her reconstructed stomach is full operational.”

Salem raised an eyebrow “What do you have planned?’

Summer smirked “We have been too passive, acing too slow and giving Ozpin too much time to react to all of this. We need to strike fast and hard putting the world on the backfoot, twenty Wyverns and a large group of other Grimm types to assault Beacon. Cinder will kill the current Fall Maiden Amber.”

The Scorpion Faunus began to laugh madly “I like your direct attack plan, less wasting time.”

Summer nodded “Thanks Tyrian.”

Salem frowned “This is very blatant, are you sure you will be able to get the crown like this?”

Summer frowned “The one point of failure is that Cinder will do what she set out to do without hesitation.” Her eyes narrowed as she turned to Cinder “Screw this up for us and I will make your regret it.” Cinder froze as the silver eyed woman’s eyes bored into her soul, Summer was deadly serious and Cinder knew it.
> Chapter 23: Rapid Assault
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ozpin was sitting in his office, thinking to himself. The fact that Summer was working with Salem was deeply troubling, he was interrupted from his musings as his scroll lit up revealing Ironwood’s concerned face “Ozpin an army of Grimm is heading your way. Twenty Wyverns and a multitude of other Grimm are rapidly approaching Beacon. They are dropping Grimm all over the city and my airships won’t be able to get there in time.”

Ozpin nodded “It seems I have to lead to fight them back.” Ozpin frowned as he turned on the intercom “All students, a huge wave of Grimm is planning to assault Beacon. I suggest you all get your weapons ready and prepare to fight for the good of Vale.”

Diane’s team alongside Rainbow’s team and Lie Ren’s team were armed and ready outside of the school within the hour, Lie Ren frowned “Why would so many Grimm launch an attack here at this point?”

Diane frowned “I don’t know, I mean there is one being that could launch an attack of such magnitude but they were never this brazen. They would be much more subtle than this.”

Rainbow frowned “We don\t have time to discuss this, the enemy is here.” Diane nodded as she leapt toward one of it the Wyverns punching it’s head off, Rainbow gunned down the weird two legged creeps. Sunset cut Beowulves and Ursai while Jaune and Pyrrha took down a Death Stalker.

Weiss and Blake backed up Cardin in taking down any Grimm that got to close to the school, countless other students poured out of the school to hold back the Grimm assault. What none of them noticed was that Summer and Cinder had snuck into the school, Cinder grumbled quietly “Why are we being so quiet?”

Summer hissed “Quiet. We need to find Amber, her magical signature is not too far from here.” They snuck up to the room, Amber was humming to herself. Summer turned to Cinder “Do it but quietly.”

Cinder nodded with a grin, she snuck up behind her drawing a knife. She tapped Amber on the back, Amber turned around her eyes widened as she saw Cinder for split second as she felt a knife shoved into her throat. She silently gagged as blood started to pour out of the deep cut, the power of Fall Maiden surged into Cinder. Summer frowned “Now let’s go and find the relic, he kept in a high tower though a path only the Maiden could reveal.”

Summer and Cinder snuck through the empty hallways, they came to a set of heavily worn stair up a mighty tower. The pair snuck up the tower, soon arriving in an empty room green room. Summer walked over to the right green wall and tapped it “Put your hand here and activate your powers.”

Cinder looked at Summer with scepticism but did as she was asked. The wall vanished revealing a chamber with chest of various minerals, Cinder frowned as magical words appeared in he air “Choose the correct chest and live, fail and die.”

Cinder frowned “Which one?”

Summer looked around for a second pointed to the most plain looking chest, no adornments. It was so plain that Cinder didn’t even notice it was there, Summer smiled “That is the one. Ozpin is always the humble one, the greatest treasure hidden where no-one could find it.”

Cinder nodded as she opened revealing a black crown laying at it’s bottom, Cinder retrieved it and the two women left. Cinder smirked “I’m starting to see why Salem placed your as her equal, you are capable and driven. I always through those with kindness in their heart were soft weakling but you are not. I look forward to our next mission.”

Summer whispered “We are not done yet, we still need to get out of…” Peter Port stumbled out of a room and saw them, Summer swung her scythe cutting his head off.  Cinder blinked, she didn’t expect the woman in front of her to do that. Summer frowned “He was going to tell Ozpin, now let’s move.” 

She cleaned her scythe with a cloth in one of her pocket before putting on her back, she walked outside and then teleported them to Mountain Glenn, Cinder frowned “Why didn't you do that earlier?”

Summer rolled her eyes “I’m hardly the first magic user Ozpin had dealt with, the walls were warded against such things and while some beings could easily overcome those wards for me it would take some time. Even Salem would take a few minutes to get out of those.”

Summer whistled for Sleipnir and he arrived, the pair got on his back. Cinder frowned “So what should we be doing now after this, we got the Crown of Choice?”

Summer smirked “We take Mistral’s Relic next then Vacuo’s and then Atlas’ last, we will move so fast that Ozpin will never be able to keep up. I’d say if we hurry we’ll have the Relic of Knowledge within the week at the latest.”

Summer and Cinder arrived outside the Castle, after getting off Sleipnir they entered the castle. Summer took the crown from Cinder as they entered “We got the crown and the Grimm should be returning here. We need to move on Mistral next, I will get in contact with Raven. She may aid us in getting the Relic of Knowledge.”

Salem frowned “Summer, our spies reported that she got her hands on the Spring Maiden.”

Summer walked over to her and gave her the crown “We will move out immediately, Lionheart works for us so all we need is the Maiden. Cinder will come with as well in case I need extra help to get the Relic.”

Salem gave Summer a small smirk as she looked over the crown “I would say that your hasty behaviour is reckless but it has got more results than before. Still the Grimm Leaders may take offense to our actions.”

Summer nodded “We are causing minimal damage and taking only what we want. I doubt they will even notice.”

Meanwhile Ozpin was outside frowning as he watched the Grimm leaving (What could Salem be planning, this is unlike her. She would never be so brazen but if not her then…) A pale skinned man with green hair and glasses ran out. Ozpin frowned “Dr Oobleck, did something happen?”

Dr Oobleck looked at him “Port is dead and so is Amber, someone broke in through the attack. Whoever killed Port needed to have used a large weapon with a blade on the end.”

Ozpin’s eyes widened “I know who did this and if she is moving this fast then we are in big trouble.”

Diane frowned “What do you mean?”

Ozpin frowned “Summer Rose, Ruby’s mother is behind this. She likely is already moving out and may strike again before we can stop her.” Diane grabbed him and teleported to his office “Are you telling me that someone who thought you thought was dead is working with the enemy!”

Ozpin frowned “I only found out yesterday and yet she has acted so fast. She may have equal say to Salem and has already got one Relic, she might be already moving to take a second.”

Diane grimaced “Well then I need to return to Atlas immediately, she may come that Relic next. I believe that Weiss should lead in my stead.” Ozpin nodded with a frown as Diane teleported away, he had heavily underestimated Summer Rose. His frown deepened as he realised he may have already lost.
> Chapter 24: Keeping Up the Momentum
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Raven was looking to the sky over their temporary encampment in Mistral. She was deeply unnerved as five Griffons landed unloading Ten Large Beowulves alongside Summer, Cinder and Sleipnir. Summer frowned as she blew down the gate with a small blast of magic, she could feel the magic pulsing from further in one of the things that Salem taught her on how to use the magic within.

Summer sighed as she saw Raven, the magical power was emanating from her. Summer lifted her hand “You know I was really hoping it wouldn’t come to this Raven, we were friend once upon a time but now you are in my way. Your whole tribe is.” Her hand glowed as she fired large bursts of magic turning every member of the tribe to ash save Raven herself.. 

Summer then pulled Raven over to her in the silver glow, Raven growled “What are you going to do to me!”

Summer frowned “I’m taking your powers, by killing you.” Before Raven could say word, Summer punched into the Bandit Chief’s chest and ripped her heart out.  The powers of the Spring Maiden coursed into her body, she tossed Raven’s lifeless corpse to the ground.

Cinder smirked “You are brutal, you killed her without even the slightest of hesitation.”

Summer frowned “When you are truly driven, you get rid of what is directly in your path. I needed the power of the Spring Maiden to get the Relic and she had it, I was not going to risk her getting the Relic for me.” Summer clicked her fingers, bolts of lightning struck igniting the structures. Summer frowned as she jumped on Sleipnir “We need to get close to Haven Academy without being spotted.”

It didn’t take long before they got to the outskirts of the city of Haven they got off Sleipnir in an outcropping and walked into the city. They made their way to Haven Academy, it’s blue tiled roof and wooden walls was reminiscent of a more traditional time. The pair walked towards the Headmaster’s office, they entered to see a blonde Lion Faunus sitting behind a wooden desk. 

Summer walked up to him with a smile as silver trails flowed from her eyes “Headmaster Lionheart, Salem sends her regards. So if you don’t mind taking the newest Spring Maiden to the Vault, we have already got what want from Beacon.”

Lionheart panicked “O-okay, I’ll take you to the vault.” The nervous Lionheart guided them through the old fashioned hallways, when they were taken into the Grand Hall which was a massive space with a statue flanked by two stairways was in the middle.

They approached the statue and Lionheart activated the Elevator, the group descended into a massive chamber where a stone platformbabove a large chasm. Several circles glowed blue in the presence of the Spring Maiden, as they landed Summer walked towards the Vault as Lionheart followed her with Cinder at the back. 

The orange door’s floral pattern glowed blue as she approached, the door opened revealing a realm of desert. A golden lamp with blue liquid inside floated, Summer walked towards the lamp and took before exiting the realm. Lionheart looked to them “I-I c-can g-go n-now, r-right?”

Summer shook her head before turning to Cinder as she pointed at Lionheart “Kill him.” Cinder’s eyes glowed orange as Lionheart began to run only to be hit by a blast of Cinder’s powerful fire magic. He didn’t even get to scream as his body was turned to ash. 

Summer than teleported them out of the vault, Cinder frowned “It seems Ozpin didn’t ward Haven the same way he did Beacon.”

Summer frowned “He couldn’t without it being suspicious. Now let’s get back to base.” They arrived back at the castle, Summer gave the lamp to Salem as they entered the meeting room.

Cinder frowned “So Summer what is the plan now?”

Summer frowned “Vacuo, we will head for the academy and get what clues we can gather from there.” 

Meanwhile in Atlas, Diane had returned to her father's ship. Diane frowned as she walked through into her father’s office. She created a field of silence around the room, Diane frowned “Salem has already got one relic and may even have all of them except ours. I can make a replacement for it and give the last one to her.”

Ironwood's eyes narrowed “So we will betray Ozpin and give away what he entrusted us with?”

Diane growled “We have a greater duty to the people of Atlas then to him, we can’t let our people suffer in an attack in which they will get the relic! We can settle this peacefully.”

Ironwood smiled “You are right, we have a duty to Atlas. Very well, I’ll speak to Fria and we’ll take the staff out of the vault, I almost forgot that in trying got stop the enemy.”

Diane nodded “I’ll be waiting at your office in Atlas Academy. I’m surprised you don’t use that more often.”

Ironwood frowned “Too far away from a ship, I need to be able to act fast and get myself out there. I am not the sit down and wait for my troops to do the work type of general.”

Diane left her father’s office, she exited the lager ship and took a small shuttle to Atlas Academy. It was a solid metallic building with rigid corners, she was glad she chose to go to Beacon. This building was as cold and uncaring as the snow around it, Diane entered the building with stoic determination ignoring the metallic cold hallways and the students who didn’t pay her much heed.

Diane entered her father’s office and saw he father’s desk with a purple seat, a solid reinforced glass window behind it that was designed to be able to stop even a griffon at full speed ramming into it. Golden stars were all over the floor in patterns, she remembered the day when she watched the stars with her father. They would have to do that again sometime soon.

Diane waited for her father to arrive, he entered the office a couple of hours later helping a thin elderly woman, she had spiky white hair and dark blue eyes. She was wearing a dark blue dress. Diane frowned as she clicked her fingers “If you told me she was like this then you could have asked me for help.”

The wrinkles fades from the woman's body, muscles that were weak started to glow as their lost strength returned. The slightly confused look in her eyes vanished, Diane smiled “Pinkamena Diane Ironwood Pie at your service.”

The woman laughed “No need for formalities, I’m Fria the Winter Maiden. Never get old, it’s not fun.”

Diane frowned “I don’t think I can and if I do I can always halt it. Speaking of which.” She clicked her fingers “Now you won’t either.”

Ironwood pressed a button on his desk opening a secret elevator shaft “We should get going and take the Relic before they get here.” They entered the elevator,  Ironwood frowned “Any elevator can get down here but all require a password for it. Don’t want too many people getting to close to the vault.”

As they go down, the arrive on a long metal platform with glowing cyan lines that form a rectangle. The platform they walks is very slim and widened nearer to the vault door. Pale blue crystal structures towered over the metal blocks they were attached to. Long white planks float over in front of them as they glow recognising the Winter Maiden. 

Fria approached the door, the rectangular pattern glows white as it sinks into the floor. Diane looks at the Relic before her hands glow as she forms a complete replica and with a click of her fingers the two swapped places. The fact that they didn’t fly towards the roof said that it worked, Diane levitated the staff into her hands “Now to give this to Salem’s group when we meet them.” Ironwood nodded, they couldn’t support Ozpin if it meant endangering the people of Atlas.
> Chapter 25: Relics United
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Summer was sitting on the back of the Wyvern, Salem was beside her. Summer frowned “How are we supposed to get the relic from Vacuo? Whoever Ozpin appointed would certainly give us trouble.”

A slight chuckle escaped Salem’s lips “The headmaster appointed died, I didn’t have any part to play in that. He went out on a Grimm hunt and didn’t make it back, someone powerful took over the school. It won’t be long before we get the Relic if we play our cards right.”

It was not long before another Wyvern flew up beside them, a black bug Faunus with dark teal hair sat on the Wyvern next to pink woman with tricoloured hair “You are here for Relic of Destruction and the Summer Maiden. Consider them yours, I have little need for either of them. My own power is enough.” 

Salem bowed as the woman carrying the sword flew over to Salem's Wyvern “My thanks Chrysalis, Queen of Vacuo Grimm Faction.”

Chrysalis shrugged “I have enough duties training up the next generation of Changelings, keeping those safe is not my problem.”

Salem took the sword from the woman as she got a closer look at woman’s face “What’s your name, Summer Maiden?”

The woman shrugged  “Cadence, I was one of the stronger hunters and was the apprentice to the previous maiden Amore. As such as I was the one who inherited her powers when she passed.”

Summer smiled “Well Cadence, we have a Relic to pick up on the way back. We’ll be stopping in Atlas before taking over Vacuo, Vale and Mistral.”

Cadence raised an eyebrow “What about Atlas, I thought you wanted to rule the world? Isn’t that your big plan?”

Salem shuddered “That girl, General Ironwood’s daughter. I can’t normally sense the magic of another but hers’ was so huge that it’s impossible to miss. I’ve felt Discord’s, I’ve felt the god’s but hers’ was something else. It was as if all of reality could be consumed by it, we are naught but ants before a Wyvern.”

Cadence frowned “How are you going to get their relic if she is that powerful?”

Summer smiled “Well it seems she wants to hand over, the safety of Atlas is worth more than the Relic. In fact she made something stronger to replace it, our spies determined such from them.”

As they passed by Atlas, Diane teleported onto the Wyvern’s back with a smirk as emitted a relatively tiny bit of power “I trust you will leave Atlas alone. Because if I catch even a hint of you attacking I will bring my power down on you and those baubles will do nothing to me.”

Cadence shivered “I see what you mean? I only picked up a small glimpse but it was enough.” 

Summer frowned as they returned to the castle “So what do you think will happen when all four Relics are close together.”

Salem frowned “I don’t know but I know they are powerful artifacts full of great power.” They entered the castle, Cadence was looking around the dark features of the castle. There was a great amount of dark power here, Salem entered. 

Dr Watts frowned “Who is our new guest?”

Cinder frowned “She is the Spring Maiden. I would say she looks soft but you don’t go far being soft in Vacuo, her appearance is deceiving.” Salem put the crown on, strapped the sword to her back as she carried the staff and the lamp. They glowed as their powers combined sending a beam energy towards the stars, Salem froze as two massive humanoid beings one gold and the other purple. 

The golden being was tall and muscular, deer antlers protruding from his head. The purple being was lean and slender, ram horns emerging from his head. Salem’s voice held traces of panic “The God of Light and the God of Darkness, the Relics were meant to summon them.”

The God of Light’s deep voice filled the room “Even now Salem, seeking power that you don’t deserve. It seems we should have removed you from existence earlier.”

The God of Darkness turned to his brother “I told you that she would cause problems in the future and that Ozma wouldn’t be enough to stop him.” 

Before either God could act Diane teleported in “You are the two gods who forged this world but you failed to give humanity any challenges that they couldn’t use their magic to overcome. Now it’s time for me to correct that mistake.”

Diane’s hands glowed as she fired two powerful blasts, their forms shattered as the magics that made up their bodies emanated over the world. Summer blinked “What did you do to them?”

Diane smiled “I destroyed them while spreading the magic that made up their forms across the world. The world will start showing signs of change, there will be greater challenges for you to overcome when you take over Vale, Vacuo and Mistral.”

Diane teleported away leaving Salem’s faction to begin the next steps of their plans, meanwhile across the world changes were taking place from the massive discharge of magic. Most were minute, shifts in soil and slow changes to creatures in the wild. The biggest change came form the ruins of Mountain Glenn, the skeletal bodies left there glowed with destructive magic as the waves of magic flew over them.

The skeleton’s eyes glowing purple as they shambled out of the structures in droves, the Beowulves, Goliaths and Creeps were assaulted by the undead. The Goliaths crushed some under their feet only for the skeletons to reform, the Grimm started to fall from the relentless bony assault of undead. Soon for the first time in decades Mountain Glenn was free from the influence of the Grimm.

Now it was haunted by the skeletal remains of those who had fallen all those years ago roamed the ruins. While much was uncertain the power that Salem’s faction was going to bring to bear would reshape the world and  ring about a new age.
> Chapter 26: Takeover
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Summer was doing her part while Cinder was taking Vale, she burst into a large wooden structure in Mistral. Several elderly people turned to her in shock. Silver trails flowed out of Summer’s eyes “I’m sorry but this is a takeover. Mistral, Vale and Vacuo will soon belong to Salem and I.” A Beowulf tore a hole in thew wall, the rest of it’s pack surrounded it. Summer patted the beast “You now see the power that Salem and I bare, the Grimm are ours to command. So I suggest you surrender now.”

The elderly people bowed “Very well, you have made your point.”

Summer frowned “I was expecting you all too make a fuss about it.”

One of them chuckled “When you get to our age you know when your beat, opposing you would be a waste.”

Summer smiled “I’m glad that I’m the Spring Maiden.” She then frowned “I wonder how Cinder is doing in Vale.” Meanwhile in Vale’s Council Chambers people are screaming, Cinder smirked as she ignited one of the Council members while Grimm run around massacring anyone in sight.

Back in the Council building, Summer shook her head “I probably don’t want to know what she did doing.” Summer frowned as a summoned a Seer, she frowned as she spoke to Salem “Mistral is under our control.”

Salem frowned “So is Vale, Cinder had just destroyed the Council. I was hoping she would be more subtle, I trust the Council has surrendered.” Summer nodded, Salem smiled “Now it’s time to kick our plans into action.”

Salem turned to Ozpin who was bound next to her as she stood in the Beacon Tower, she smirked “Now is a birth of a new age Ozpin. The gods are dead, it’s time for a new age to begin now that their magic has been scattered across the world.”

All across the four Kingdoms, all screens turned on as Salem stood there “I am Salem and the world is about to change, the Kingdom’s of Vale, Vacuo and Mistral are now mine to command. They are now one nation under the rule of me and Summer Rose, I promise you a strict but fair rule. As for those of Vacuo who have seen this message, I am well aware that you have very little centralised government so long as a reasonable amount of resources come in I will leave you as you are.”

She then turned off the message and untied Ozpin, she shook her head “Ozpin, you have lost and any help you thought you had is gone. You are going to continue to reincarnate yourself throughout the ages, I can’t stop that from happening so killing serves no purpose. You have a duty to Beacon and I will make sure you do your job.”

Ozpin’s eyes narrowed “I will find a way to stop you one day, Salem.”

Salem frowned “I doubt you will Ozma, Summer will aid me in the new world. We are products of an old world but you refused to change, I was destructive and ruthless tearing the world asunder after our first conflict. I developed a sense of fairness over the years and treat others with what they deserve.”

Ozpin shouted “You brought down the fury of the gods upon humanity! You wanted to establish control over the world, it was not yours to rule!”

Salem frowned “I am a brutal entity Ozma but Summer brings out the best in me. At first I considered her as a successor for my own goals but she gave me more than that, she acts fast and with conviction. She doesn’t hesitate to get her own hands dirty, I wasn’t always a monster Ozpin and with her by my side I feel like I be something other than a monster again.”

As Salem left an exhausted Discord popped into the room “Ozpin, what has happened since I was gone?”

Ozpin stood up “Salem has taken over every Kingdom except Atlas. I will need your help after all.”

Discord growled “I have burnt up too much power to help and Equestria is in shambles, without the Bearers of Harmony and their Rainbow Power Equestria was attacked by the fearsome Grogar! I brought the full extent of my power to bear against him and it wasn't enough, in the end it required something even greater then I!”

Ozpin sighed “So I’m not getting any help?”

Discord frowned “No. Rainbow and Tempest are safe right?”

Ozpin nodded “Yes, Diane is too.”

Discord smiled “I knew she would be, she is tougher than me by many leagues.” He then frowned “I have to aid in the reconstruction, I will be back to retrieve the others once Pinkie is ready to return.” Ozpin frowned to himself as he returned to the Academy.

Meanwhile Salem and Summer arrived in the ruins of the Vale Council rooms. Summer deadpanned at Cinder “Fucking really Cinder, I mean come on. I was hoping you had at least an inch of subtlety but obviously you bloody don’t.”

Cinder shrugged “What do you want from me, I like to lay with fire. Besides I have no sympathy for others, you knew this about didn’t you Summer.”

Summer grabbed Cinder by the throa tand lifted her up “Cinder, you mistake me for your friend too often. I have let it slide but I am your superior and you need to recognise that.” Cinder spat at her, Summer moved her head out of the way. She then tossed Cinder to the ground “Cinder, you have never showed my due respect. Salem kept me out of the action as a sign of respect.”

Salem frowned “Cinder, you will show her the same respect as you do me from now on. She is my equal and you will remember that,  also clean up the mess.” She then turned to Summer “We have a lot of work to do to prepare our new nation to stand up the might of Atlas, we can’t rely on the Grimm forever to protect us form what new things may come forth.” Summer nodded as they left the wreckage.
> Chapter 27: Pinkie's Awakening
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Diane was returning to Beacon on an Atlas shuttle, she was sitting down looking over the recent news on her scroll. A familiar cheery voice echoed in her head “Finally, I am able to speak to you. It’s been so long travelling through the dark place back there, it was really boring too.”

Diane let out a loud cry as her head felt like it was about to split, she remembered a farm covered in rocks as she trudged on four hooves along the grey fields. She was about to return home when she saw a huge rainbow explosion and she was pushed into her mind. Diane frowned as she saw a vibrant pink mare now in control. 

Year past as she watched the pink mare Pinkie living her life, she was always quite a sad filly and the smile on Pinkie’s face was worth so much more than the sad life she would have led on the rock farm. One day however after Pinkie’s birthday she was worried, talking to rocks and other objects was not normal. 

Diane frowned as she felt the realm shake, she approached where Pinkie was in the mindscape only to see a pony with a darker pink coat colour similar to her own. That was where the similarities ended, she galloped over to Pinkie and kicked the mare off of Pinkie. The dark pink mare’s mad smile didn’t even phase her, Diane’s eyes narrowed “Who are you?”

The mad mare laughed “I am Pinkamena and this body is mine now, so if you would kindly get out of my way I’ll get back to taking control.”

Diane leapt at her and lifted her up by the neck with a single hoof “This is not your body nor hers. In reality it’s mine but I have no place out there, she does though which is why she is in control not I. You on the other hoof do not have my permission.” Diane destroyed Pinkamena with a single slam into the ground.

Diane opened her eyes to find herself back on the shuttle, Diane smiled “Pinkie, I’m glad that your back. Just give me a second.” Diane's hands glowed and in a flash of light a copy of her with a poofy mane stood in front of her, Diane smiled “Hello Pinkie.”

Pinkie leapt at her with a big smile “Diane, to it’s so good to finally meet you in the real world!” she looked around in confusion “Um where are we?”

Diane smiled “Pinkie, we are in an Atlas shuttle. We are not even on the same world anymore but soon you will return, I told you that I had no place in Equestria but here I have a life to lead and a purpose here.”

Pinkie began to tear up “I’ll miss you Diane.”

Diane pulled her into a hug “You can always visit but Equestria needs you, I have no idea what could have befallen your home without two of it’s guardians.”

The shuttle arrived outside of Beacon, Rainbow Dash rushed Pinkie “Pinkie, your back.” She then turned to Diane in confusion “You two are not the same pony anymore?’

Diane nodded “I remembered what I needed to, I was who Pinkie was before the Rainboom. I didn’t really have much of a place but Pinkie did. It is time for you, Pinkie and Tempest to return home.”

Rainbow frowned “I need at least say goodbye to Ruby first and I’m sure Tempest would wish to do so as well.”

Tempest walked up beside them “Indeed I would, Ruby has gone through enough without us bailing on her without so much as a goodbye.”

Meanwhile Ruby had just returned as well, Salem and Summer were standing there. Ruby walked over to them with surprise on her face  “Mum, I wasn’t expecting you to be here today.”

Summer smiled “Well while you were gone we got the Relics and have established dominance over all nations except Atlas.” 

Ruby noticed that Salem was wearing a crown and carrying a lamp while Summer had a staff strapped to her back and sword on her side, Ruby blinked “I was only gone for a few days? How did you accomplish so much so quickly?”

Salem smiled at Summer “Someone prefers to act quickly and decisively.”

Ruby frowned “Does Beacon still have it’s headmaster, I mean he is your enemy right? Wouldn’t be killing him easier?”

Summer frowned “Ozpin would just reincarnate in a new body, keeping as headmaster will allow us to monitor his movements.” She then sighed “I have to tell something, it’s better you hear it from me than from Qrow. I killed Raven and her tribe, she was the Spring Maiden before me.”

Ruby frowned “I don’t really know Raven that much and I doubt Yang did either. Whatever happened is in the past and I will not let that cloud the good memories we had.” Before Ruby could say another word, a crow landed in front of her and transformed into Qrow. Qrow eyes narrowed only for Ruby to place her hand on him “I know what she has done uncle.”

Qrow turned to her “You are okay with that, she killed Raven and the entire clan.”

Ruby frowned “I won’t start hating one of the family members I have left simply because of the deaths of people who I don’t know. I met Raven once, you don’t really learn much about a person in a single meeting.”

Summer frowned “Qrow, I am not the person I was when we met. I was so naive and full of hope, after our failure against Salem I felt lost. The only thing that give me any sort of hope was the kids and the mission, Salem saved me from the futility.”

Qrow growled “I can’t just let this go Summer, for all of her flaws and faults Raven was my sister!” He then pulled out his canteen and took a swig “I will remain amicable when we all meet but I can’t leave this in the past Summer.” Ruby, Summer and Salem watched as Qrow left to get drink from the local pub.
> Chapter 28: Returning Home
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rainbow and Tempest were outside of Beacon Academy with Pinkie. Ruby looked upon Pinkie as she approached before frowning “I guess this means you two are returning home?”

Rainbow looked uncomfortable “I hate abandoning you like this but our home needs us. I have a duty as the Bearer of Loyalty to protect my homeland.”

Ruby smiled “I understand but please do visit if you can. We all have our duties, so take of yourselves.”

Tempest gave her a thumbs up “We will, see you around Ruby.”

Pinkie bounced excitedly “I hope that next time we’re here I can get know you better!” Pinkie bounced after Rainbow and Tempest, Rainbow turned to her as they entered “You should be the leader of the team. I can’t be anymore.”

Ruby nodded with a smile “Will do.”

Rainbow nodded as she walked alongside Tempest and Pinkie, the entered Ozpin’s office only to see him frowning at his desk. Tempest frowned “Headmaster, I believe it is time for us to return home.”

Ozpin stood up with a firm expression as he opened up the room that allowed access to the portal “Wish you luck, I heard that things didn’t go very well after you left.” Tempest's eyes narrowed as she stormed towards the portal with Rainbow and Pinkie behind, they leapt through the portal. 

As soon as they exited they were standing in the ruins of Canterlot, tents were scattered across the city. Rainbow saw Twilight but deep, dark bags were under her eyes. Rainbow flew over to her “Twilight are you alright?”

Twilight began sobbing as she wrapped Rainbow in a hug “It was horrible, I can still hear the screaming. The cries for help.”

An orange Alicorn with a fiery red and yellow mane trotted up behind her, two copies of everypony plus another version of Rainbow and a unicorn Twilight “Rainbow Dash, welcome home to Equestria. I wish there was more to see but things have been rough here.”

Tempest tensed up “Who are you?”

The orange Alicorn frowned “Sunset Shimmer, the current Alicorn of the Sun.” A tear dropped from her right eye “Celestia didn’t make it through the battle, by the time I was informed it was too late.” Sunset shook her head “I would love to stay and chat but the relief efforts need my attention.”

Discord materialised “Princess Twilight, if I may they need to be filled in on what happened while they were gone.” Twilight dried her tears and trotted over to both Fluttershys who put their wings over her.

Rainbow, Pinkie and Tempest followed Discord as they walked through the then filled ruins of the once proud city “Grogar was one of our most ruthless enemies, Celestia, Luna, Cadence and Shining Armour were killed after my defeat. It took a power that has never been brought to bare before.”

He waved his claw and a strange circular screen showed that Grogar was standing amongst the ruins  of Ponyville. Ponies cowering in fear as he looked around “You are unprepared for true horrors of this world, to face the true darkness. Now bow before me as I wipe your pathetic species off this world.”

A voice spoke “That’s enough Grogar!” Sunset moved forward with purpose in her eyes as Twilight limped back to the others.

Grogar let out a dark laugh “Another Alicorn, what could you hope to achieve where the other could not.” Sunset Shimmer didn’t speak as her wings and horn grew larger as they glowed gold they then exploded as they flashed with the colours of the rainbow. Grogar growled “You think that flashy light show will stop me!”

His horn pulsed with dark magic as the bell around his neck filled him with power, he fired a massive orb of pulsating black and deep purple magical energy towards her. Sunset simply tapped it with her hoof and it dissipated into nothing,  Sunset teleported in front of him “You have caused enough harm, begone.” A powerful rainbow blast from her horn and there was nothing left but ash.

Pinkie’s mane fell limp, Rainbow looked down while Tempest's eyes widened  “What was that power?”

Discord frowned “I don’t know the details but it is something that Sunset unlocked in the human world. She said that i wasn’t as powerful in the human world but here with all the magic fills every being it is far more powerful. She called it Daydream.”

Before another word could be spoken, Sunset’s voice boomed all across Canterlot “Blueblood for the fiftieth fucking time in the last two days, Equestria is in fucking shambles and doesn’t have resource to rebuild your fucking fifty foot mansion you fuck!”

Rainbow’s eyes narrowed “Figured that guy would piss someone off but seriously does he expect anyone to pay him any mind.”

Blueblood’s scream was soon heard as he soared over them into the distance, Discord rubbed his talon and paw together “I’m going to love working with mini-sunbutt.”

Pinkie raised a hoof “Um, couldn’t she put you back in the statue if she annoys you? It sounds like she wielded a power similar to the elements by herself and well she just sent the last pony who annoyed her sailing through the air.”

Discord rubbed the back of his head “Hmm, I can’t do that. I haven't had to be cautious in a long time, it’s a weird feeling.”

Meanwhile Sunset is sitting in a meeting with the Dragon Lord Ember and the King of Changelings, Thorax. Sunset frowned “I understand that the dragons need someplace to stay as well but there is barely room for the survivors as is. Grogar destroyed everything we have built in days, Cloudsdale managed to survive but that’s it.”

Thorax sighed “I would love to help but I’m already taking in as many dragons as we reasonably can.”

Ember gritted her teeth “It seems we need to make ourselves a new home them.” She took a deep breath “I will meet with you after we find a new home.” Sunset rubbed her forehead as the Dragon Lord took flight, she still couldn’t actually believe that long ago she actually wanted this job.
> Chapter 29: Act 1 Ends
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the sun began to fall below the horizon, Weiss was wearing a long light blue dress while Blake was wearing a similar dress of black as they were out on the town. Blake frowned “Why are we doing this?” 

Weiss frowned “I forgot, you have exactly done this before.” She the smiled “We are going out on the town, looking at clothes and stuff. Getting something eat, things most people do our age.”

Blake raised an eyebrow “What about Sunset and Diane?”

Weiss giggled “I gave them a list so they are out doing the same. I’m sure they would like to wander around the city and do those things. Now come on let’s have some fun.” Blake dubiously followed her, Weiss smiled as they approached a clothing store.

A tall man pointed to Blake “We don’t admit their kind here!”

Blake turned around only to hear a cry of pain. She turned back to the shop only to see Weiss had kicked the man between the legs. Weiss gave Blake a hug before smiling “We’ll go somewhere else, come on.” Blake followed her, Weiss was behaving strangely. She would never imagine that the heir to the Schnee Dust Company would be so brutal. 

Blake put a hand on Weiss’ shoulder, concern marring her features “This is not like you Weiss. Why did you attack him?”

Weiss growled “Because it’s not fair, why does the world have to be like this! Why do they have treat you differently because you have cat ears!”

Blake frowned “Arrogance, greed and fear.” She then smiled “Your friendship is enough, you took the time to overcome the fear and you have more reason to fear us than most. Don’t worry about what others think about me.”

Weiss smiled “Well there is a nice restaurant that specialises in fish and allows Faunus in it. I was hoping to go there for lunch, want to come.” Blake’s glistening eyes were all Weiss needed to know,  Weiss giggled as she walked in the direction the shop.

Blake followed with a smile on her face, the pair soon arrived at the restaurant. It was incredibly high end restaurant, a huge golden sign that read ‘Song of the Sea’ and yet it was devoid of customers. The Maître D' was a tall yellow rabbit Faunus in a purple business suit with purple eyes. He smiled “Madam Schnee, Madam Belladonna welcome to Song of the Sea. Allow me to guide you to a seat.”

Blake looked at the fancy blue walls with intricate engravings of fish. They sat on plush red seats at a table for two, the fancy mahogany table was covered in the finest silk tablecloth. The Maître D' placed down two menus “I will await your decisions.”

Weiss picked up her menu as did Blake, Blake looked over the menu before her eyes tear up slightly. She smiled at the Maître D' “I would like to have the Red Wine Braised Tuna with Salmon Cakes.

Weiss made her decision and turned to the Maître D' “I’d like to have the Sauted Crab with a side of Mussels.”   

The Maître D' bowed “You will be served shortly.”

Blake smiled “You are very good at your job, may I ask your name?”

The Maître D' smiled back “William, Madam Belladonna. Now I will return with your orders, wait a bit.”  

As he left Blake frowned “Weiss, at this time of night a place like this should be full of guests.”

Weiss giggled “Well yes but I figured that having so many people here would make you uncomfortable so I booked the whole place out for the night. Blake’s jaw dropped, this was high end. The cost must have been astronomical. Weiss smiled “I don’t spend that much normally, I have been saving up for years and this was well worth it in my eyes.”

Blake was about to respond when she saw movements, someone was outside. Before she could get up William returned and pulled all the curtains shut “Relax and enjoy yourselves. I’ll handle whatever is outside.”

As William left the building, Blake took a deep breath “Is this supposed to be a date? It is quite a romantic setting for friends to go out for a meal in?”

Weiss smiled “I suppose it is but I want to get to know you better, you barely talk about your past. I want to know you better.” 

Blake frowned “Well I have been part of the White Fang since I was old enough to be. I participated in protests for our rights and all was fine until even if not much changed. Until one highly ambitious Faunus, Sienna Khan took over saying that we weren’t doing enough.”

Weiss looked down “I’m sorry if it’s too painful.”

Blake shook her head “I need to tell someone everything. I continued being part of the group, I learnt how to fight and soon I was partnered up with Adam Taurus, we fought many battles together but I quickly discovered that he was incredibly violent. I held a torch for him once but that dimmed as he killed more and more.”

Weiss frowned “What happened?”

Blake growled “He killed a child in their crib, I tried to stop him but I wasn’t strong enough. Eventually I left the White Fang because I couldn’t handle the killing.” 

Meanwhile outside of the building William was surrounded by the White Fang all carrying weapons. At the front of the group was a female Bengal Tiger Faunus, she had a dark complexion and a second pair of tiger like ears. William bowed “It’s an honour to meet Sienna Khan, Leader of the White Fang. What brings you and your men to Song of the Sea.”

Sienna Khan crossed her arms “Don’t play games with me, waiter! I have business in there and you are in my way.”

William smirked “It’s been a while since I’ve killed someone, I have put my past behind me but it seems I need to bring it out for this occasion.” He pulled out a blood red knife, a four ghostly burnt figures materialised around him. One a chicken, one a bear, one a fox and the final one a bunny.

Sienna actually began to shake “You’re him, William the Phantom Killer.  You have blood of thousands on your hand.”

William frowned “I owe Ghira a lot, he manged to get me a clean slate with help from General Ironwood.” 

Sienna snarled “Kill him, bring me his head!” Thousands of White Fang members rushed at him, Sienna watched in horror as they exploded as William stood there seemingly unmoving. The Phantoms beside him vanished, he sighed “Did you really think you could stop me with that paltry attempt?”

His form shimmered as he moved, before she could say a word he was already in front of her. He looked down with sorrow in his eyes as he saw her face “You remind me so much of your sister, I have cleaned up my act but those faces still haunt me.  I am telling you to turn back from this path before you become a monster.” William walked back into the building as Sienna retreated from the area having made sure that the guests had a good night.