Chapter 7: Last Generation's Mistakes

Azura Rose

"She rides a horse?"

Aunt Winter twitched on the screen, remaining brow rising, confused. Azura always thought her features were so ridiculously highlighted thanks to the motionless eyepatch, a fabric cover with the Schnee logo on it, dotted by a camera at its center.

"Yeah, she lets me ride it sometimes. I'm thinking I might try and beg my parents for one on my birthday," Azura whispered. The kid liked to lean forward towards the holographic screen and away from the citizens all around their allotted little cubicles.

"Your mothers both love you very much," Winter started, which was a bad sign for Operation Pony-Power, "yet I think you'll be hard-pressed to get them to agree to something so... antiquated. Remember how strongly your mother reacted to Summer asking for a motorcycle?"

"Yeah, but horses are cuter."

Winter gave away a smile for two-thirds a second. Of all the relatives Azura had, Atlas' General Schnee seemed least poised to understand them, yet all the same video chats were the norm. The two shared similar taste in humor, and Azura sure looked up to her 'kiss my ass' temperament. Not even fifty and Winter was already the premier of her country's academy and military. She trampled critics of Schnee hegemony, chewed on oppositional parties, and burned down whatever cultural expectations impeded her and her view of righteousness. She was cool manifested in a snow white uniform

"Regardless, I don't have time to waste on work animals or teammates. I didn't ask about them, I asked about you." Aunt Winter snapped her finger and pointed across the screen right at Azura. "How are you adjusting from Signal to Beacon? I haven't heard from you in over a month."

"Sorry, I just don't feel comfortable in a CCT sub-tower. It's so stuffy and suffocating. The whole place makes me itch." Azura tugged on the gold trim of their hood, hoping to be completely hidden. The Rose child prefered looking at their tattoos, a vibrant rose vine up the arm ending in a gold crown, rather than looking Winter in the eye.

"I don't want you comfortable. I want to break your comfort. Azura, you'll never get over your anxiety in a hole. The more you face it the less it'll affect you."

Winter didn't sound happy, but she trudged the same field without fail every time. Not that Azura was ungrateful or didn't believe Winter understood. Just her being right didn't make the chain that tugged on their chest any less demanding.

"It's not like it's going to go away by dragging me out in public," Azura replied.

"It's not about curing it," Winter waved off some man from the left corner of the screen, her gaze at Azura never breaking, "It's about numbing yourself. When you get use to the cold, you didn't magically make the world warmer, you—"

"I know." Azura put forehead to table, closed their eyes, and begged internally for some ear plugs. The senses were getting too much, here and at Beacon. Dawn, Summer, and Vermilion, too. Azura respected and liked the girls, but growing up in a large estate with empty ruins all around, silent spots where the natural world's hum was all that could be heard, left her at odds with the confined space. Everywhere had chattering voices now, constant stimulation. "I miss the mansion, is all. Plenty of little nooks to vanish in."

"No quiet places in Beacon?" Winter's tone shifted, quieter, gentler. Comforting enough for Azura to sit up straight and flash auntie with their Schnee blue eyes and smile.

"Plenty, I bet. I'll just have to find them."

"Keep that mindset. Those whom expect victory will oft find it." Winter returned the smile and even leaned back in her chair.

"O' wise teachings of Winter Schnee, volume 4," Azura joked.

"Of course, if you had studied all the ancestral wisdom the Schnee lineage has passed down to you half as hard as you study the ranging patterns of nevermores, you mi—" Winter's lips twisted into a grimace. The muscles in her shoulders tightened as the same man from before walked up to her, the grey white uniform he wore near identical to hers but lacking the subtle marks of someone with Winter's authority or flare. "I'm taking an important call. If this isn't absolutely dire you'd be wise to step out of my office."

The man shuddered, but did not balk. Azura watched him whisper something in Winter's ear, though the hunter in training only did so with the lightest of attentions. After all, the sudden silence in the crowd seemed way more interesting than Atlas business. Most of the people waiting for a call were bunched up against the glass overlooking the street. A parade? Seemed too quiet for one.

Azura's gaze flashed back to the holographic display when Winter became paler than usual. Her eye widened and lips parted, making a face like a woman ready to murmur a heinous whisper. Then something clicked.

"Azura Rose get the hell out of that tower and call Weiss!"

Azura blinked and lurched back from her auntie on the screen. Winter tried to say more, but it cut off as power seeped out of the building. All at once displays shut down and lights dimmed as emergency power kicked on. There was a sound below, a popping noise, distant and familiar. The sparking of fire dust, the ripe smell, and gunfire.

"The White Fang?" Azure heard someone shout before a whine burned their ears. The kid's knees buckled as a hard force rippled through the floor, up the side of the wall, through people and glass.

Before Azura gained back a sense of sound, they already pieced together what was going on the moment the quake hit. Someone, or ones, cut the power, started a gunfight, and set off bombs. The shock hit her from all sides, Azura guessed the explosives were prepositioned. That meant crumbling. That meant a fall.

"Oh no, please no."

The third floor started to sink into the lobby below, the support beams likely crumbled or bent. Azura could see part of a cubicle nearby completely cave in. At this point the shy person that was Azura surrendered to the hunter in training. Fortuitous Druid as the conduit, Azura focused a glyph in the center of the room, a pale, snowy, spinning, sigil extended by the draining of dust. Azura's hair tips changed from blue to white, the matching color rose on their arm alight as well.

The butt of Fortuitous Druid smoked and shot out two now empty capsules of frost dust as the glyph finally reached the far edges of the room. In a flash before everything crumbled over, Azura spread a thick film of ice, lacking the supports and ground. It sealed the cracks, tightening the floor, but not permanently. Ice melts, even as the room dropped in temperature and fresh snow floated through the dim ceiling. Eventually it would loosen the structure even worse than before. Their little snow globe was cracking.

"Everyone!" Azura yelled, ears finally normalizing from the shock, "We need to get out of the building as fast as we can!" People looked at the young would-be hutner, and all but a few seemed to listen. Most had their mouths agape in shock or were screaming.

"What did you do?!" a man in a suit cried from the back.

"I'm hurt! Please hunteress, help!" a student lightly cut up by glass screeched. Azura recognized the Signal freshmen uniform on her.

"We," Azura felt the growing urge to vomit bubbling up the throat, "Need to go down...the stairs...please."

The jolt of adrenalin had been wasted on saving the third floor and the shadow of insecurity was overwhelming. Everyone's waiting on you, thoughts shouted despite not being even close to true. ost simply fumbled around, nearly slipping on the ice or, if they could manage, helping move the injured. Just say it loud, say it clear. We all need to leave!

A hand gripped Azura's shoulder, dragging them from the consuming shadows. A guard had snuck up on her, the light olive armor distinctive of Vale's citizen soldiers. He was tall, with a certain dignity that shone through the bit of blood and ash smudging his face. He was older, likely a veteran from the fall of Beacon years ago, scar on his face suggesting so. He was injured, yet almost unaware of it.

"You're a huntsman in training, aren't you? Beacon or Signal?" He smiled, kept the standard issue rifle loose in his hand and even kept his breath steady, despite the obvious pain he was in, leaning on one leg wrapped in a shirt.

"Hunter in training at Beacon, sir," Azura replied. Despite how hushed it was said, he nodded back, patting the kid on the shoulder.

"Hunter. Sorry, ma'am."

Ugh, I'll fix that later.

"You did great work with the ice. How unstable is this, if you don't mind me asking?"

"On a scale of Beacon Tower to human-faunus relations, very, sir," Azura ended with a pained chuckle. The guard let go, shifting the weight off his good leg. He grimaced before defaulting back to a smile, trying hard to make normal what thankfully could never be. At least one would hope cracked floors and blown out glass walls wouldn't be normal. "Thank you...uh?

"Azura Rose."

"Gron Sjuttiosex," the soldier clarified. He hoisted his rifle back up, propping it on his right shoulder. He sucked in a deep breath, earning a cough due to all the smoke. Not the brightest. "Alright!" he shouted, "Everyone please move with me down the stairs and through the emergency exits. This tower is not safe. Please help those who cannot move themselves, and please keep your head down. Stay calm, stay safe, but we cannot stay still. Everyone to the stairs, please!" He pointed down to the back flight, a little used corridor. After all, the towers all came with several elevators. "You too, kid," Gron added lower so only Azura could hear.

The hunter nodded, picking up Fortuitous Druid, and left him. Beyond that moment, Azura had no idea what became of Gron. Hopefully nothing but the best.

Azura lept down the stairs, trying to get ahead of the first evacuee. The lobby below was connected to the back exits, and almost absolutely the source of the gunshots before the bomb. A hunter defends the helpless, even if they can't manage a handful of words. By just distracting the intruders the rest could make it out.

Landing on their feet, Azura rolled into the fall right against the door. It remained on its hinges but just barely. Small holes shot out beams of light to spy through. Reconnaissance was key to a hunt.

"The tower's not collapsing." Azura could see the speaker, a taller man dressed in a grey and black vest with armor plate down the limbs that matched the chrome colored hair. He had two bionic legs and subtle black cat ears perking off the sides of his head. Azura didn't recognize him, but did recognize the white and red mask he wore as the pattern of the White Fang. "How did you screw up the bombs?"

"The explosives worked just as planned, something's up. There's some sort of ice sheet holding it together. " The second voice was distorted into a deep robotic monotone. Their body looked feminine through the sleeveless blue hoodie and twisted milk white mask with its own streams of red. Bunny ears popped out of their hood and pushed aside silver bangs. The feminine White Fang enforcer wielded a ivory scythe with a blood red gem; it looked almost like mom's. Azura felt a queasy churn in their stomach when comparing them and decided exactly who Fortuitous Druid would be aimed at first.

The man with robotic legs ran a hand through his hair, shaking off the concrete dirt and linoleum dust that floated through every room after the explosion. "Grab Rock and see if you can manage to blow it up properly this time, would ya? We've got, what, minutes to make our escape?"

No, you're out of time. Azura detached the staff bayonet. Opening the door just a touch gave her all the room needed to take aim. Butt pressed into the shoulder, dominate eye glaring down the wood knob sights, they counted, Three, two, one.

Azura fingered the hidden hair trigger, felt the thud through the gun, and watched the scythe wielder eat a shell to the chest.

One down, and Azura wasn't dumb enough to think the other man in armor would just take it. The bayonet spear point reattached, and with a force glyph beneath the young hunter charged through the door.

"Who the hell?" the male enforcer shouted. He twisted his body into a defensive stance, hips forward and arms shielding his face. Azura could tell by the lift in his right knee that there was a kick coming.

Azura sped up the glyphs under their feet and lifted Fortitius Druid's spear point. Clash incoming, three steps in, for the first time Azura could see the breadth of the room. No other visual targets beyond the smoke, ash and machines were thrown to the corners blemished by small trails of blood. Victims. There was fighting outside, but time was up, the man with grey hair was popping his leg out. Now was the moment.

Azura stopped on a black glyph, out of the range of the kick and just in range to stab through his boot, the metal point clear out the other side. Aura didn't stop it from leaving both of them equally as confused. Wait, it's cybernetic dummy!

"Oh, ho, ho, ho. I recognize those little shapes," the man chuckled from beyond the mask. Azura noted his boot had more than one black barrel shoved through it. "Snowflake, wanna see something cool?"

"No?"

The enforcer flexed his foot and fired off the white blast of force dust. Azura, dislodged, flipped and landed on a glyph to steady their feet, but again the grey faunus was on the attack. Three more snap kick bullets came Azura's way, only a touch more prepared than before. Fortitius Druid blocked each as they twirled in combat, mom's defensive technique. Didn't get easier, his attacks weren't even phased by their elegance. He just stepped back and kept up the pressure, flipping on his hands then once again for more kicks with some distance. He built a pattern and Azura exploited it.

Third kick he stopped his right leg and swapped. So practiced he never bothered to watch his feet, especially as Azura's hair glowed a very distracting orange to match the glyph repulsing his foot back into the air.

"Gotcha!" Losing his footing, the White Fang operative was in tailspin. Azura twirled the blade point right for his unprotected free falling head. When the bayonet snagged, his neck twisted audibly, cracking almost too far before it cut through one of his ears.

With shocking grace, he landed on his hands and backflipped into position. "You think you're hot shit, huh?" He rolled his neck in a circle to get out the kinks, grey spikes of hair even more messy than before and tinged with sweat. That was good. "God, I'm getting so old. By the way: to your left, kid."

"Huh?" Azura glanced, only for a second, finding nothing but shattered glass, dust, a dangerously crumbling ceiling plaster, and some unfortunate red stains. The enforcer remained unmoved, defensive stance and shielded by his mask. Only one of his ears were still perked up and proper. "Wha—"

A pop came from the right and hit Azura like a bull on rocket skates. In full tumble their hair turned black, summoning glyphs designed just to stop the motion before another sniper round shattered what little Aura was left. Azura barely stabilized in time to dodge the second shot, a vibrant white shell that melted right through one of the few stable support beams left. Great.

The feminine operative apparently survived and had enough time to drag out a sniper rifle from somewhere, another blinding white weapon. This murderer was disgustingly tacky even for Azura. "Sure we can't do one on one again?"

"Can we just leave her, Mercury?" The synthesized voice was as presumptuous as it was grating.

"Roll, are you even? We killed like twenty people! No! Of course we're going to kill her!" Mercury, Azura guessed, had his robotic legs loaded with another volley as the other took aim. Both sides were ready for simultaneous fire and nothing was left standing for cover. When outmanned and outgunned, it called for terrain advantages.

A white glyph spun below Azura, and right as the two White Fang members opened fire an ice wall rose up, taking Azura with it. An dodge that gave the hunter higher ground. The sniper versus sniper and crazy leg man duel was now in Azura's favor.

Fortuitous druid fired slowly unfortunately, though while it forced the one called Roll to retreat behind cover, the Mercury guy unloaded at the young hunter. Azura had to take a step back from the edge not to be riddled.

"Shit," Azura took out their scroll, sliding down to Dawn's number. She was the best fighter, though probably a million miles away. They needed someone to rocket here now, preferably with one more year of training. The line cleared and Azura didn't even wait. "Dawn, I'm at the tower and people blew it up, and I need to buy time and there is this crazy dude and I cut off his ear—which isn't bleeding by the way— and now he's trying to kill me! Send help!"

"This is Dawn. If you're getting this message, my scroll's currently charging on my bike and I'm probably driving. Can't pick up the phone, but as soon as I stop I'll be sure to. Later."

Dead end.

"I shoulda called mom." A half gallon of ice splintered right behind Azura, covering her in snow-like shards, a dangerously close shot.

"What's the matter, Snowflake? What happened to your fight?" The wall of ice was cracking under the pressure, on top of freezing Azura's butt. The scenario was untenable, the hunter reasoned. A tactical retreat just as poor an idea as sitting still. The wall was see-through and the sniper was still on the field hidden behind a column Azura didn't dare blow out. Yet the sniper didn't know that.

Azura took aim, hair glowing snowy again, and a small additive glyph formed at the end of the barrel. The sniper ducked at the sight and in a moment another volley from Mercury would come. It didn't need to be a perfect shot, a rapid tap on the trigger would do, as the fourth and final frost dust vial fired out shot after shot of icy shells. The sniper dived out in the open to avoid a tumbling column that was just reinforced.

Azura rolled along the ice edge, avoiding a white blast to the side of the head and took aim once again. The sniper sitting down the sight of Fortuitous Druid had taken a knee, already firing, just not at them. "Wha?"

The growl of a hungry engine matched the burst fire from a desperate marksman. Azura barely caught the front wheel of a motorcycle catch fire, still streaming passed shattered glass and smoke right at the sniper. The operative took the bulk of a bike to the stomach and into the back wall into a mess of fire and mangled metal. Well that was helpful.

"Did you just—" Mercury was interrupted by a flame spraying Dawn, smoke bellowing of the orange embers flickering from her hair and legs. Dawn popped up a high kick and Mercury returned it, each matched blow for blow, sending bullets and fire bolts into the walls.

Dawn was quick, insanely so, but Mercury was faster, between each block a close call. Azura jumped off the slippery cracked mess of an iceberg onto a rubble pile and summoned glyphs again. Yellow light ran through their highlights and down the tattooed sleeve. Crested dull gold clocks spun backwards around Mercury, turning his world to half time. Dawn remained unaffected, except for a curved smile as her eyes and flame turned a bloodlit crimson. One kick and Mercury's slowed leg was bent out of the way, and full bodied she went in for the punch, rocket fire spewing from the gauntlet as she struck his face head on. The mask shattered into wooden fragments.

"Hella," Dawn muttered as Mercury tumbled.

He latched onto the ground as Dawn took aim with her SMG gauntlet Gawain. Just in time he slammed his foot down, an explosion building an impromptu rubble shield between the two of them. Dawn's bullets riddled it, taking chunks of concrete and rebar with every round.

"Dawn, how did you get here?!" The belt ran out of bullets and flew off with a metallic snap. She didn't even bother reloading, happy to fire off from the other gauntlet, Agravain, another belt to sheer away his defense.

"Thought I'd make a phone call. Didn't know the line was bus—" A sniper shell cut off her corny one liner, making Dawn take a knee. A heavy gut blow from a rifle did wonders even with most of her Aura remaining.

Azura lept to her, sliding in and generating a black glyph field around them. Ice worked better, but the stocks were gone. Black repelled, but was a nightmare to hold up, each round burning up more of Fortuitous Druid's capsules.

"You know," Dawn groaned, standing up from the dirt, a heavy layer of white concrete dust all over her, "When you ram someone with a motorcycle you expect them to stay down." Neither of the White Fang operatives were out, though one was hunched over and holding the remains of a mask to his face and the other singed and covered head to toe in dirt.

"Tell Rock and Iron we're done here," Azura heard from Mercury's side.

With just a nod from the other, he went into a flurry of kicks, making a cyclone of white force bolts circle round their little haven, like sharks about to feed.

"Not good," Dawn mumbled before the strikes came down on the spinning glyphs, the black Schnee logo trying its best under the onslaught. Eventually the defense crumbled, a handful of shots cleared through and mostly kicked up debris and smoke. Azura dropped to the floor, hacking as they tried to breath. The pressure and glyph use devouring their Aura and leveled the hunter to the concrete

"Azura," Dawn turned the kid over, those golden cat eyes looked down from a smokey room, "Get up, they left. We've got to get you out of here."

"What about everyone upstairs?" Azura groaned, feeling a dull pain down the side as they lay on the eviscerated tile. "Everyone needs help. Ugh, I think I sprained everything."

"I blew up my motorcycle, don't whine." Dawn pulled Azura up onto their wobbly feet. The ceiling was groaning again, dripping from the ice seal. This would probably be the first CCT tower to ever literally melt out of existence. "Seriously, I need to get you out of here."

"Wait," Azura whined. The foyer really was empty, dead lights hanged from above, the floor damn near shattered, but the White Fang were gone. Roll and Mercury. Code names, not faunus names. Faunus... that still bothered the hunter, kept hitting the original snag. "I need to check something."

Vermillion Lance

Vermillion's mother once told her that the separation between heroes and the rest is in their reaction to danger, violence, and malevolence. It is natural to try and escape, avoid, deny. A hero could not resist it; the pull of duty was like moths to a flame. She took it as encouragement, and lived her life running towards the distraught, wanting to be a hero. Took it to heart when the CCT support tower burned with the emblem of the White Fang. It was up to her to stop them, and she did so. Several of their ground troops in outdated uniforms crumbled as she rode through the bullet riddled plaza and toward the enemy.

Now, considering the metal gauntlet holding her skull in its oversized hand, disarmed and desperately trying to electrocute this horned giant, two times the size of a normal man and covered in rags, Vermillion considered that maybe it had been more of a warning. Moths are flammable in the end, while this man proved to be nonconductive.

"Huntress, huntress, have mercy. I can't take anymore," the giant man growled from behind a white grimm mask. She had beat through two operatives to get to him, this colossus that at the time was caving in a police car with a hammer. The same warhammer that now folded down into a four cylinder chaingun, the barrels coming out of the flat end.

The chaingun began to spin and Vermillion nearly accepted life as a future blood stain. Nearly. She kicked and bit into his metal hand, ignoring the pain as his fist tried to crush her skull. She focused all her Aura into protecting her body, vowing to survive this vermin. This was not the end for Vermillion, not by some false White Fang miscreant, not after they clashed for five minutes, not after she survived his intense onslaught, trading blows and bullets. Not like this.

And not like that it was. The barrels spun up, but before the trigger was pulled a ribbon locked to a sickle wrapped around it. It jerked to the side, putting baseball sized holes through an empty car. The giant roared in surprise as a woman from out of view landed on his chaingun. A huntress in a white coat with black waves of hair, a faunus with tall cat ears and golden eyes.

Vermillion didn't recognize the famous Blake Belladonna until she had a gun in the man's face. "You're under arrest." The giant dropped Vermillion as soon as Vale's chief of police started unloading her magazine in his face, full auto.

Free, Vermillion rolled out of the way, diving for her discarded weapon while the titans dueled. The chaingun reformed into a heavy warhammer of heft steel that the giant could shatter bones with, but the huntress danced around him, dancing was the only word to describe it. She let it come close, splitting into two right before the strike landed and shattered the fake. Her sickle strikes always hit, with every opening whipping away at the giant.

"Die, bitch!" The warhammer dropped down on what was suppose to be Mrs. Belladonna's head, smashing a distorted image instead, achieving nothing but sending fragments of gravel into the air. The huntress stood atop his hammer. She leaped into a front kick, cracking the White Fang mask almost in half, but the beast didn't balk. He dropped the weapon entirely and snatched her leg with his free hand, so tight her protective Aura visibly pushed against it.

He had forgotten about Vermillion, or determined her irrelevant, either way Arondite spread into its buzzsaw form, a perfect projectile to smash in his head. Sparks lighted off of his helmet. It cut his hood to fragments, revealing some of the mechanical visage within. A full bodied suit underneath?

The giant dropped Blake and snatched up his warhammer as he fell back a few feet. Mrs. Belladonna had cartwheeled to a proper stance no problem, already prepared for another attack and starting her assault. Vermillion swapped the electric charge on her current, Arondite spinning back toward her and retracting to a sword. Things were getting bad. Already his White Fang brothers were packing back into their iron monster of a truck to survive the hailstorm of bullets from both the cops on the ground and the growing number of military airships coming out of the Carrier Autumn Storm, head peaking out from the dark clouds building in the west.

The giant growled, the sound distorted by what had to be speaker interference. His hammer folded back into a chaingun, barrels spinning mid-transformation. Mrs. Belladonna dove for a strike against his hands, but wheels snapped down from the heels of his feet, steel grappling ropes fired out from behind and latched onto the same armored truck, jerking him as the truck started to move. All the while the White Fang mech started putting as many bullets downrange as possible to keep the huntresses down..

Vermillion ducked behind cover, but the legendary faunus had no such aversion to danger. She chucked her sickle around the steel grappling ropes and let herself get dragged along with them. Her high heels were destroyed, sending sparks up as the truck started towards the river.

The giant focused on her alone. She twirled around the volley of fire, sliding herself left and right to avoid the firepower.

"Get off!" the man in the machine shouted as she defied him. They were only a few hundred feet from the river, riding for a direct course into the water and out to sea, despite the combined fire from the airships. Did nothing more than dent its thick metal cover and ruin the red wolf emblem. Mrs. Belladonna was gaining, and in desperation the man grabbed the line with his hands, holding on to keep himself steady, and detached the connection Blake's sickle was caught on.

Mrs. Belladonna flipped as her ribbon was let free, sliding through a plaza garden as the vehicle and the colossus both crashed through the railing and sank into the water. Vermillion couldn't see much from where she was, sore and focused on the search for any of the suspects she had defeated earlier. The cops raided the ruined tower, taking it back from the terrorist forces who had all retreated, or killed themselves depending on the trucks submersibility.

Watching them spray water on the flaming wolf blow onto the building, Vermillion could think, and think alone, for the first time since it started. None of this made sense. When she had left them the White Fang was not only in a state unwilling to carry out an attack like this, but definitively unable. The armored truck, the bombs, the mechanized soldiers... they didn't have anything even close to that still in service. At home they had hard strung ironwood bows and enriched steel swords. Menial dust use and only simple transforming blades like Arondite. In her lifetime, this shouldn't have been possible. A portal to last generation's mistakes had opened up and brought havoc with them. Vermillion felt a headache come on.

As Blake stood over the river's edge, calling out orders to the police, Vermillion collapsed and let exhaustion slug her. A combination of firefighters, first responders, Vale soldiers, and survivors swarmed around her as the support tower slumped into rubble. Vermillion found a spot among the wreckage of a car and soon enough Azura and Dawn appeared from mass of ash covered survivors. They both managed to get involved, apparently saving the vast amount of people in the tower. Azura just happened to be in a call at the time and Dawn was likely still tracking the faunus. She always seemed to be in her shadow.

An hour passed as different offers briefed them and doctors cleared them of serious injury. The sky called on rainclouds to help put out the fires once the tower collapsed. The showers emptied much of the building crowd thankfully, though they were not permitted to leave.

Summer wouldn't have been allowed to enter either, but that didn't stop her from pushing passed the police barricade like she owned the nation. As she approached, Vermillion felt a mix of real relaxation hit her, or horror as soon as she realized Summer was scowling.

"What the hell were you doing?" Summer started, marching right up to all three of them. Her face was flush red, hands balled up in fists, prepared to smack someone. They could have really used that anger in the fight. The rain dragged her hair out from a bun. The silver strains looked too heavy soaked to her face, but never lost their color.

"Fighting crime, boss lady," Dawn snapped with a smile. Earned her a thump on the head from Summer. She was not content in the least.

"What you should do is call your teammates, the police, the school, literally anyone! You guys could have been hurt while I was in the dorm room doing homework!" Summer paused only to take a deep and angry hot breath.

"I know. I saw the fire and needed to do something. It was irresponsible and rash." Vermillion dropped in a bow, emphasizing her apology. Despite the truth that the faunus would have done it again, well, maybe at least called Summer first. "I'm very sorry." Vermillion felt the drops on her head as everyone shifted, trying to figure out how to reply.

"You should be," Summer grumbled. She tapped her foot and crossed her arms to note her displeasure, but eventually with a roll of the eyes and a tilt of her neck, Summer's shoulders dropped. "Whatever. I'm just glad everyone's okay."

"Thanks, leader," Vermillion said, smiling despite the awful day. This is what a team was: warmth on a rainy day.

"Vermillion," a woman's voice called from behind. A familiar one, the chief of police's exhausted monotone, "can I speak to you in private?" Vermillion got a front row view of her fighting, but this was the first time she saw her just stand. Tall, powerful, but elegant. The white trench coat was still left open despite the rain. She should be tired, but Vermilion couldn't sense it anywhere other than her voice. She was beautiful, especially given she was the mother of a teenager. "I want to clear up a few things." In a sick sort of way, Vermillion understood why Adam was obsessed with her.

"Of course, officer," Vermillion mumbled. Mrs. Belladonna had eyes that peeled away paint and masks, she could sense it. That yellow gaze made Vermillion feel small, a pale shadow up against a torch.

"Wait, auntie," Azura cut in, hopping off the top of some wreckage. The youngest still seemed wiped from before, unusually quiet, even for them. Ponderous even. "I snagged it off of one of them. Here." Underhanded, Azura tossed a piece of fur to Ms. Belladonna, a small ear almost, completely clean. Blake's eyes flashed, perhaps reflecting the red-blue police lights.

"Thanks," she muttered, putting the piece in her jacket. "I called Beacon; Yang is here to pick you all up and bring you all back home. Get some sleep tonight, put everything out of your mind. I will call to ask details tomorrow, but please, students, I need you all to get rest. This isn't your fight."

"Absolutely, auntie," Summer nodded. "We'll head out as soon as you're done with Vermillion, I promise."

Blake blinked and shook her head. "It'll be a while. Don't wait." Blake turned around, one hand stuffed in the pocket with the ear, the other signalling for Vermillion to follow. The faunus huntress in training sighed. She felt like a hangman's noose was already draped over her.

"I'll see you all at the dorms," Vermillion offered, more hoping than stating. Dawn walked away, Azura waved, and Summer remained. She wore an uncomfortably fake smile and shrugged.

"See you then."

Vermillion caught up to Blake, snatching her sword on the way. Blake opened an umbrella, holding it between them without much of a word. Vermillion noted they were walking to the chief's car, something Mrs. Belladonna didn't seem to find odd. "You seem to get along with your teammates."

"I like them," Vermillion said, trying to remain honest and trust the chief, "I don't think your daughter likes me, but she's talented and honorable."

"She's just worried you're going to hurt her cousins," Blake replied as if it was as obvious as the rain or rubble of the tower. "My wife, professor Long, she lost her arm and more than you could imagine to your father. Dawn grew up being held by a stub. The threat is very real to her, you understand."

"I know," Vermillion swallowed her heart as it tried to pull itself out and escape this nightmare, "I'm not my father."

"I know," Blake acquiesced softly. She opened the back door to her car, motioning for Vermillion to get in. "I don't know who you are. I know terrorist group attacked Vale today dressed as the White Fang, and I know you were here. Please take a seat."

"I've done nothing wrong," Vermillion mumbled, knowing how little that would do. Blake again blinked, those molten cat eyes without the slightest shift in expression.

"I know, but by law I can hold you for questioning without charge for one full day, which I intend to do." Chief Belladonna drolled out, bored or just tired. Vermillion stared at the sky, the clouds were darkening, rain heavier. In the distance, toward the sea, lightning brought some color to the sky, too far away to hear. "For what it's worth, things will be okay."

Blake didn't look at Vermillion, she just stared at the tower and waited. Her hand gripped Vermilion's shoulder, but didn't push, just rubbed with her thumb the way a mother comforts a scared child. Vermilion felt so small she feared she'd need a booster seat.

"Yes, ma'am."

***Well as always summer's Vale chapters are longer than I intended hahaha. I really kind of wish I could animate this like the show, but alas! Sorry for the long wait, got a tooth pulled and all sorts of crazy stuff and lots of antibotics, been a hectic october! Hope this chapter isn't too bogged down by the action, but I think it came out real well. Had fun writing Azura though the pronoun stuff can be tricky, never wrote like that before. Also new RWBY's well, I'm withholding my judgement, it's got a hell of a lot of potential though!

So some updates, I'm about finished with third and final Their World short, its a cocobun thing so I hope you enjoy but this will be released sometime in November because november is nanowrimo, also known as hell month. For you all it'll seem like I took a vacation, for me, itll be anything but. After I get back december should see new chapters of Summer's Vale, the Sci-fi AU finally, and then lastly a new modern AU I've been dreaming up, so that'll be fun!

Lastly thank you to Lazykatze who should be renamed sleepy cat, she works so much dude. Good job cat I love youu! She edits as always and is amazing, give her lots of love!