Chapter 20: The Black Jewel

Summer stared, disbelieving, at the spot where Harriet had vanished. She couldn't comprehend what had just happened. Judging from the shocked expressions of the people around her, neither could they.

"What?...What?" Regal gasped. "That can't be. Harriet was…"

"…You're kidding me," Tai muttered, frozen in disbelief.

"…" Heather glared at Raven, who was still standing there, calmly, though her hands were visibly shaking. "Spit it out, Raven. How long exactly have you known about her secret?"

"For about ten seconds, as of now. I always had some doubt as to whether my theory was right," Raven admitted. "Thankfully, Harriet was kind enough to prove it for me."

Summer was staring at the floor, her mind blank. She flashed back to her memories of the rabbit Faunus. Harriet shyly thanking her for standing up for her on the first day. Her sadness at seeing her people being discriminated. The two of them hanging out and buying dresses for dance night. Harriet smiling and encouraging her, reminding her that she was a leader. Was she…lying? All this time?

"There's not much time left," Raven said abruptly. "We have to get to the stadium before it's too l-"

Tai stood up angrily. "Wait, wait, we're not done yet!" He walked up to his partner and stared her in the face. "Rae, how did you even know all that? You were in the dark about this whole syndicate thing just like the rest of us, and suddenly you know everything about them?!" He turned to Qrow. "And Birdy…did you know, too?"

"…Some of it," Qrow muttered, looking down. "On the ride to Atlas, Sis told me the gist of her suspicions. But she said she didn't have any proof. Now she does, I guess."

"You guess?" Tai asked incredulously. "Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you tell us, we should've known about this! And Raven, you still haven't answered my question -"

Before he could finish, Professor Terrion's voice rang out from the speakers. "Attention everyone, the next two-on-two match is beginning in twenty minutes! Everyone, please make your way to the Amity Coliseum as soon as possible!"

"I'm afraid there's no time to answer that," Raven said, grabbing her katana. "Not this time, at least. We need to go."

"But-" Tai protested.

"She's right, Taiyang," Torrence interrupted. "Lives are at stake right now. We can worry about the details later." Regal nodded in agreement.

"…" Summer still said nothing. "Oh, Summer…" Heather murmured sadly.

Qrow frowned awkwardly at his partner. "Hey, hey, snap out of it, kid."

"…Not a kid…" Summer muttered pathetically.

"Come on already! I mean, yeah it's a shock to know someone you were close to was actually evil, but even her teammates are takin' it better than you!" She didn't respond.

"Birdy." Tai sighed. "Why don't you let the people person handle this, okay?" He walked over to Summer and put his hand on her shoulder. "Summer…maybe Harriet was lying about everything. About how she was grateful to you, and how she thought you were a great Huntress, and all that. But you weren't lying, were you?"

"Well…I…" Summer muttered.

"You're a leader, Summer," Tai encouraged her. "And while I don't have any experience in the field, I think being a leader in this situation means getting off your butt and doing something about it. Right?"

"…" Summer sighed, and slowly picked herself back up. "…You're right, Tai. Sorry guys. Guess I'm kind of an idiot." "Not at all," Heather said, smiling at her.

"…Wow. Quite the charmer, aren't you?" Qrow muttered bitterly at Tai. "I do my best," he said cheerfully.

Suddenly, Summer felt her Scroll vibrate from within her pocket. She took it out and saw the sender's name: Latte Adel. I thought he was supposed to be dealing with the riots. What's he calling me for? She put it to her ear. "Hello?"

A loud explosion came from the other end. "Uh, hey Summer?" Latte shouted desperately over the noise. "I hope your teammates are with you right now, because we could use some help."

"Huh? Are there too many of them?" Summer replied anxiously.

"No, no, just the opposite actually! It's one guy! Wearing a mask! He just appeared out of nowhere and started decimating us! We won't last much longer!"

"…" Summer went silent.

"The other teams still have their hands full with the riots. Onyx told me you guys are heading to the stadium, right? Can you spare maybe two, three people to help us out? We're in the Hyperion area. Okay thanks bye!" With that, Latte's voice cut off.

Everyone in the room looked at each other. "Harriet…what are you doing?" Heather muttered.

"I'll go," said Summer, trying to sound assertive. "I'll fight her, see if I can talk her out of-"

"If you're going, I'll come with you," Qrow interrupted her.

"Huh?" Summer looked at him, surprised.

"Well, if you went by yourself, I'm pretty sure you'd try something stupid like trying to bring her to the 'good side' or whatever," her partner said dryly. "And seeing that you not getting killed would be overall better for most of us, I guess it's my job as your partner to make sure you don't do anything stupid. Alright?"

"Um…." Summer was slightly taken aback, but nodded with a smile. "Alright!"

"You've got a bit of charm yourself, Birdy-in your own special way," Tai grinned.

Raven glanced over everyone, then said loudly: "Then we have our objective. Summer and brother will head to the Krios district to help out Latte's group, and subdue Harriet. And the rest of us will make our way to the Amity Coliseum's engine room and stop the explosion. Are we all prepared?"

Everyone nodded. "I guess all that training'll be worth something," Regal sighed.

"C'mon, everyone!" Tai grinned. "We have a city to save!"

Saying a quick farewell to the rest of the group, Summer and Qrow headed towards the Hyperion district as fast as possible. Before they'd made it very far, they saw an explosion from one of the rooftops in the distance. Qrow narrowed his eyes. "Someone's there-they're in trouble!" He yelled. "I'll go help 'em, you can catch up, right?" Summer nodded, and Qrow quickly turned into a bird and flew off.

When Summer caught up to him, catching her breath, Qrow was holding someone over his shoulder. It was Team LIME's sniper, Marguerite. "Are you okay?" Summer called out to her as she approached.

"She's fine," Qrow assured her. "Hey, what happened to you?"

"Ugh…that went to shit faster than my last Grimmball tournament," Marguerite groaned, getting to her feet. She didn't appear to have wounds, so her Aura was intact, but judging from her gait she wasn't exactly in top condition. Aura protection didn't extent to preventing pain and exhaustion. "That asshole appeared and started blasting us with some weird…dark matter…stuff. Latte and Isa are…holding them off…You sure…you'll be alright?"

"W-we can handle it!" Summer nodded furiously. Once they'd made sure Marguerite could make her way back to Atlas Academy safely, the two of them continued running. Finally, they reached the spot where the bulk of the fighting had taken place. "Oh shit…" muttered Qrow.

The unconscious bodies of both the rioters and the Atlesian soldiers were strewn across the pavement. Isa and Latte lay bruised and battered nearby. And several feet away stood the masked figure, waiting for them.

"I thought you might show up," she said in her distorted voice. "I was hoping for Heather as well, but I can settle for the two of you."

"Harriet!" Qrow called out. "We know it's you, so quit with the stupid disguise already!"

"…" Wordlessly, Harriet obliged, removing her mask and the auburn wig. Looking at her face, Summer saw none of the shy, friendly girl she'd known for the last few months. "Well. Now that you know who I really am, what exactly do you want to do?" In sharp contrast to her usual persona, her voice was cold, confident, and utterly merciless.

"Only one thing we can do," Qrow answered, readying his sword. "Kick your stupid ass, that's what."

"…." Summer glanced at Latte and Isa's bodies.

"They're not dead," Harriet assured her. "I promise that if I'd been fighting to kill, there would have been nothing left of them to find when you arrived."

"…Why?" Summer demanded. "Why did you sneak into Beacon? Why lie to us and pretend to be our friend? What do you gain from doing all this? We all believed in you, Harriet!"

"If you're trying to appeal to me, you'll have to make a better attempt than that," Harriet said coolly. She held out her hand, as a vortex of dark energy swirled from within it.

Summer drew her bow. Despite what Qrow had said, she had no intention of trying to 'save' Harriet. She just wanted to know the reason why her 'friend' would do something like this. But if she wasn't even going to answer that, they'd just have to take her down by force.

"I'll give you a small mercy, however," Harriet mused. "If you can win, and your friends manage to stop Buck's little plan in time, I will tell you the truth-the whole truth, the truth even Raven did not get quite right. Does that sound fair?"

Qrow shook his blade, morphing it into its scythe form. "Fair enough. Beating the crap out of you is all the reward I need, anyw-"

"Oh. I'm sorry. You must be confused," Harriet interrupted. "I never said I was the opponent." She shot out a black ball of energy from her palm.

"Wha-" Qrow was cut off by the black shape striking him in the face. A pattern of molten-red markings appeared on its surface as it manifested itself. It was a rat-shaped Grimm. It dissolved into a black fluid and quickly flowed, forcefully, into Qrow's mouth. Choking, the boy shuddered for a second before going quiet. Then, slowly, he glanced up at his partner, his red eyes filled with an inhuman rage. He pointed his weapon at her.

"No! Qrow!" Summer yelled.

"Well then. It seems he really doesn't like you that much after all," Harriet chuckled. "I can control his actions to an extent, but like with Jin, he needed to actually have some hostility towards you to begin with."

"Nghh…" Disgusted, Summer readied her bow. "Fine!" she spat at Harriet. "I'll play your game. It's about time I started winning these fights, anyway!" With that, she prepared to meet Qrow's attack.

"We're here," Heather announced.

After parting with Summer and Qrow, the group had rushed to the airport, and, amidst plenty of pushing, shoving, and hastily apologizing, had caught the first flight possible to reach the stadium. Thankfully, they hadn't been too late. Slipping away from the rest of the crowd, they'd made their way down to the bottom floor, where the engine room was.

"Well, it's now or never, guys," said Tai with a mixture of nervousness and excitement. "Anyone have any last words?"

"Let's not," said Regal dryly.

Raven inserted the keycard Argent had given Summer into the slot. The giant door slowly opened.

A familiar raspy voice came from within. "Well, well, it seems you made it after all. Welcome, all of you."

In the centre of the engine room was the great generator that powered the whole structure. A peculiar device was attached to it. The bomb, Raven deduced. Beside the generator stood two Faunus. Buck, the savage wolf Faunus she'd encountered once before, grinning sinisterly with his chainsaw in hand. And next to him was a young cat Faunus, dressed in a casual red suit, thick black boots, and wielding a rapier.

"Buck, wasn't it?" grumbled Tai. "I did not want to ever see you again. Especially not here."

"So you're Buck…" murmured Heather.

"Heh! You know, it's quite funny," Buck chuckled, stroking his weapon. "I was hoping that no one would arrive in time to stop us. But after a while, I just thought that would be such a pointlessly easy victory. Now, Simon and I can actually have a little fun."

"We have about five minutes left before the next match," the cat Faunus, Simon, said calmly. "We just need to kill you quickly and set the timer before escaping. Piece of cake."

Tai got into his battle stance. "Don't underestimate us Huntsmen! We already beat Buck once, and this time there's five of us! Just try and beat us, you monsters!"

"Blowing up such a revered symbol of peace…" Heather murmured, drawing her pistols. "That's certainly a monstrous crime by my standards."

Buck sneered. "Symbol of peace? Hah! Is that what you humans call it? Because it means something completely different to me! It's a reminder of all the agony my ancestors-no, my whole species-went through as it was built all those years ago! Countless Faunus, forced to mine for rare Dust in the most dangerous mines…working hours upon hours of backbreaking labour, in despicable conditions, with survival as their only salary…being tossed into the cement works once they'd outlived their usefulness…THAT is what your symbol of peace is! Quite literally built on the corpses of innocent lives!"

Everyone stared at him. "What are you saying?" Heather asked angrily. "That's absurd. No one would have approved something like that! That's slavery-it's never been allowed in Remnant from the moment it was formed!"

"You think so? But I'm afraid Remnant was quite different back then, child." The chainsaw blades on Buck's weapon began to whir. "A technological marvel like the Coliseum being built in the aftermath of a worldwide cataclysmic war? One that shook civilization itself to its very core? That would have taken thousands' worth of manpower, and of course the new government didn't want to endanger what remained of humanity on such an extravagant undertaking. But lucky them! Because they'd also just discovered the existence of a new species, one that was almost human, but not quite. And if they weren't human, well-they could do anything they wanted to them, couldn't they?"

"That's enough." Raven fired a bolt of Dust energy from her katana. Jumping in front of Buck, Simon deflected it effortlessly with his rapier.

"That's…that's crazy…" Regal muttered at Buck's revelation.

"My family was one of few who ever knew the truth about our ancestors' treatment and survived," Buck continued. "I decided I'd be the one who would take revenge on their behalf. I'll grant that the outcome of the Faunus War was a start for Faunus equality, but it wasn't nearly enough. I tried reasoning with others of my kind to rise up, but it soon became clear I was the only one who understood what needed to done. So, I took matters into my own hands. And here we are." He raised his hands, gesturing to the bomb containing the Promethian Ore.

"Oh, just stop it," Tai gritted his teeth. He lunged forward, but Simon simply blocked his charge with a swift parry. "Whatever we did to your people might have been horrible, but that was in the past! Killing hundreds of innocent people now doesn't make you any more sympathetic!"

"I can understand why you feel the way you do," said Heather quietly. "I won't make any excuses for what the humans from sixty years ago may have done. But you have no right to endanger the lives of people who had nothing to do with any of that!"

"Wonderful speech, Buck, but now it's time for you to take a rest," Regal snarled, drawing his knives.

"You're through, monster," said Torrence, unsheathing his axe.

Buck sighed. "I never expected you humans to understand. Now then…" Without warning, he pressed a button on the device. The bomb began to flash red. 'Sir…?" Simon asked, shocked. "We weren't supposed to-"

"As of right now, you all have less than fifteen minutes to live," Buck grinned, preparing to attack. "We'll make short work of you and then escape! Crush them, Simon. If you don't want us to die with them."

"Y-yes sir!" Simon charged at the group with his sword. Torrence parried his strike with a grunt. Despite the cat Faunus' lean appearance, his skill with a sword was impressive, and nicely complimented by his agility. This wasn't an opponent to take lightly.

"Take this, son of a bitch!" Regal flung five or six combat knives at Simon, but he dodged them all effortlessly before lunging at him with a powerful downward strike. "Ugh!" Regal grunted in pain.

Meanwhile, Buck fired magazines of incendiary rounds from his chainsaw-gun as Raven and Tai ran desperately to avoid them. Getting impatient, Tai ran straight at him, taking the bullets with a grimace, before slugging Buck's face in with a powerful punch.

Before Buck could recover, Raven swung her katana and struck him in the arm, knocking his weapon away. Growling in pain, the Faunus grabbed Raven's blade with his bare hands, attempting to wrench it out. The katana began glowing with red Dust energy, searing Buck's skin, but he held on.

"Hiyah!" Tai swung his fist at Buck from behind, but he swiftly let go of the sword and dodged. Narrowly missing hitting his own partner, Tai turned around to face his opponent. "You don't seem to have gotten any stronger," he taunted him.

"Still strong enough to scold a kid like you," Buck snarled. "Just die!" Without bothering to retrieve his chainsaw, he charged at Tai with frightening speed, and the two fought blow for blow. On the sideline, Raven readied her sword's energy blast, waiting for an opportunity.

"Khrahh!" Tai grabbed Buck's shoulder after dodging his punch, and threw him towards Raven. "Do it!" he yelled.

Nodding intently, Raven fired her sword beam, impacting the Faunus at point-blank range. "Grahhh!" Buck yelled as he was knocked gracelessly to the floor.

On the other side of the room, Simon was taking on Heather, Regal and Torrence at once. He deflected Torrence's axe swings while swatting at Heather and Regal with quick strikes from his combat boots. Slowly, however, they overpowered him. Simon's cat-like reflexes failed him for one moment, and the price to pay from a giant switch-axe to the face, followed by a swift bullet to the head that depleted his Aura and knocked him to the floor, unconscious.

"Heh! Not bad!" Regal said with a grin.

"How about it, Buck?" Tai taunted as the canine Faunus struggled to get back on his feet. "Looks like your little plan's gone off the rails, buddy."

Buck let out a short, raspy laugh. "Keh-heh-heh…How ignorant. You're standing on your grave, boy."

"…What?" Tai's eyes narrowed. "What else do you have up your sleeve?"

Wordlessly, Buck walked over to the bomb and wrenched the cover open. At its core was a glowing crystal of Dust-the Promethian Ore. He pressed his hand to it. "I'm going to show you exactly what it means to oppose me," he rasped. His body began glowing with energy.

"What's he doing?" Regal yelled.

Heather's eyes widened. "He's…absorbing the crystal?" she gasped. "But if he infuses that much Dust into himself, his body will…will…"

Her voice trailed off. A strange black aura was emanating from Buck's arm. The source seemed to be the black necklace he was wearing on his left arm. She could sense Aura energy flowing from the jewel into the man's body, stabilizing his own Aura, allowing him to absorb more Dust.

Analyzing the black jewel through her spectacles, she was unable to get any reading on it. Despite that, Aura was practically gushing out of the thing like river water. How is that possible?

Raven struck him with a direct blow from her sword, but it bounced of his body like it was nothing. "Hahaha…" he chuckled, still clutching the Ore. His veins were glowing red as the Dust flowed through him. His eyes became even more animalistic than before. "This is even better than I imagined. Even without the bomb, like this, I could butcher everyone in the Kingdom like-"

Suddenly, his eyes widened. "…What? What is…" he gasped. He collapsed to his knees. "This power…it's...graaaaAHHRGHHHHHH!"

Screaming in agony, Buck let go of the crystal, his hands now squeezing the jewel on his arm in pain. The black necklace was loosened from his arm and fell to the floor. Buck's body became enveloped in a pitch-black haze. His voice turned from a pained screech to a primal, guttural growl.

When the darkness faded, his figure had been mutated into a giant hideous monstrosity. What stood before the group now was a grotesque wolf creature, its body black as night, with enormously sharp fangs and claws, and red scars all over its body. Its eyes glowed a sinister shade of molten red.

"Grrhhhhh…krhhhhh…." The monstrosity growled.

"What in…" Torrence gasped.

Regal was equally confounded. "Did he just turn into a freaking Grimm?"

Raven stared intently at the monstrosity, wielding her katana. "Something about that jewel on his arm…but that can wait. We need to put him down, quickly!"

"Come on, everyone!" Tai yelled. "Time to finish this!"

Thanks for reading! Next up should be the final chapter of "Volume 1"!