8The sound of frantic steps saturated the air of a calm and tranquil late evening in the city of Vale. Hurrying past the flat, polished rooftop of a market hall closed for the night, they ceased for a second, before returning as a blunt thud onto the wall of the four-story residential house on the other side of the street.
A young woman, having undershot her jump somewhat, was now holding onto the intricate, metallic handrail on the edge of the roof, but it did not worry her much – with a simple pull upwards, she hopped over the railing with an acrobatic spin, and then immediately ran for cover. Thankfully, much like the roof of the opera house, it was vacated, and there was no commotion in the streets, either. She did not need any more attention than she's already gotten – and she was certain that she would be getting plenty.
Not just because of her clothes, a worn-down leather jacket and pants that would immediately betray to anyone that she's not from around these parts, or the patchwork of scales on her face that made it impossible to hide her heritage. Why was she running as if her life depended on it, too?
Well, her life really did depend on it.
The woman, uncertain if she was still being pursued or not, continued advancing through the rooftops. A sleepy residential area unfolded beyond – a handful of civilians, be it old ladies returning from the theatre or children trying out their newly unlocked Semblances on one another underneath the shade of trees, were still around, but none were aware of the chase taking place above their heads. This was good. If she can lure her pursuers in this direction, eventually, they should be able to reach the Amber Castle, hiding away in the residential district. Miss Jurata will not be happy with her getting into trouble, but she'll help her get these bastards off her trail, for certain.
Blasting them away would be so much simpler. But no, of course. Got to stay hidden, got to avoid drawing attention to herself. It'll jeopardise their fight if she tries. As if that wasn't consistently frustrating in spite of how right it was.
As she advanced from one rooftop to another, her thoughts became more and more consumed by those memories, and so, the safety instincts that had guided her thus far were moving more to the side-lines. It didn't help that she couldn't see her pursuers for a few minutes now, either, and it increasingly seemed like she had lost them.
A big mistake.
When she leapt over another street, her body was intercepted by an object flying from the side at incredible speeds – a thick metal ring, which snapped in half in mid-air and then clasped around her ankle with a loud clang. Immediately, it pulled her downwards, and thus the woman crashed into the parapet of the next building instead of landing safely on the rooftop, with a painful yelp.
Even when protected by Aura, the blow was painful and left her groaning under her breath. The metal ring snapped tight and painfully squeezed her leg, and she was certain that it weighed at least a hundred pounds, too.
Gah... Gods, damn it...
She glanced to the direction from which the ring had been thrown. Three figures were standing on the other side of the street, on the edge of the roof of another residential block. The hand of one was held forward in a disk throwing stance – it didn't take a genius to figure out where it came from, and that these were the mysterious figures following her all along. Each one had pitch black masks covering their faces below the eyes, cloaks were running down from their shoulders, and they were brandishing weapons.
The assailant standing next to the disk thrower pulled out a revolver with an intricate design and poured a paper cartridge of Dust into its innards. The woman, hanging off the partially broken parapet, was an easy target – but she wasn't going to wait before she got blasted. Suddenly, she let go of the concrete frame and allowed herself to fall – just in time, too, as a blast of energy punched through where she was hanging moments after, blowing off chunks of the wall and roof.
What she hadn't calculated, however, was landing with a heavy mass attached to her leg that messed with her balance, and so she painfully crashed on her back on the street below, forcing out yet another grunt and groan.
D-damn...
This just wasn't her day...
The assailant lowered his revolver and then gestured with his hand. His two partners leapt off the rooftop and gracefully landed on the street, approaching the felled Faunus. Her body ached, but she didn't plan to go down without a fight. Her hand burrowed within her jacket, pulled out a water bottle and snapped its lid open – the water began flowing from the inside and then floated up to her palm, spinning under it like a cutting disk.
Yet, lying on the ground, struggling to get up when restrained, a fight seemed like a lost cause.
"You won't take me alive..." she gushed out, her golden eyes staring at the approaching assailants with bloodthirsty fury. At the same time, however, her hand twitched and shook. It was not easy to show bravado when you were faced with the possibility of a fate worse than death.
"There they are."
Almost a hundred meters away, huddled together on the spire of the neighbourhood's resident temple, a small party was watching the incident. Three women stood at the front, all wearing a somewhat militaristic uniform, though each with accessories of their own.
"Slave hunters," one of the women announced with a faint shudder, watching the scene through her monocular, then pushed the device back into her large backpack, past her long blonde hair. She wore a light jacket on top of her dark green uniform, with plenty of zip pockets. "Every week, they get a little bolder. They basically assaulted a Faunus on the street just because they think she's a fugitive."
"Disgusting," an answer came from her peers. Yet, it was not any one of the three women. Walking past them, a young man stopped at the front – his hair bright white and his eyes an almost unnaturally rich shade of blue, yet his clothing completely out of step from his uniformed comrades. With a jacket and a shirt underneath, as well as wide-legged trousers, it was as if three soldiers had pulled a man right from the street to serve as their accomplice. The woman addressed him:
"No better time to go than now, Firre."
"Yes," he answered, then gestured to his peers. "Yche, Ashen, head first, draw their attention as soon as you're able, so they have as little opportunity to harm that Faunus. Reza, try to keep your distance and support once we engage. I'll try to pull her away from danger."
"Aye!" all three yelled in unison, and the quartet bounced off the rooftop, each one of the fighters taking different directions.
Yche and Ashen, the vanguard of the team, hopped through the residential blocks that dotted the approach to the incident – the former, a tall and bulky warrior with long dark red hair, who had already rolled back the sleeves of her uniform all the way up to the shoulders, pulled out her weapon. A large and heavy hammer, it moved torrents of air behind it just from its movement.
"Alright, just like we practiced!" Ashen yelled besides her. Compared to her peer, she was shorter by a whole foot, and her pitch-black hair was a far shorter cut. Yche didn't need to be told twice – she reached out her hand and let Ashen hop onto it, then threw her into the sky with a powerful swing.
Far above the street, Ashen spread her hands to the sides – particles of Aura collected behind her back and shaped a set of glowing feather wings, with which she stopped her ascent, made a loop and sped towards the three slave catchers.
"Watch out!" one of them called out, the approaching glowing wings catching his attention. One of the trio, frustrated by the water blade being thrown his way, had grabbed the fugitive Faunus slave by the hair and slammed her to the ground, and was restraining her, when a woman with wings suddenly blitzed through them at immense speeds, throwing the slave catchers off the ground. By itself, the attack was not enough to take them out, but the distraction was enough for Yche to leap off the building and slam her hammer down on one of the catchers. The sheer force shook the ground and let forth a shockwave burst.
"Damn it, what's this now?!" the catcher keeping the Faunus girl restrained gushed out, while his teammate drew a sword and ran forward with a yell.
"Really, you're gonna try to stab me with this twig?" Yche was not going to even humour the guy. The muscles of her right leg suddenly bulged, infused with Aura, and she sent a kick forth, smacking the attacker in the chest and sending him flying.
Ashen swooped down on the helpless slave catcher – she pulled out her weapon, a lance with a crude mechanical tube attached to its tip, and stabbed him from behind. The Dust stored at the tip of the fire lance was then shot forth as a wide, colourful shotgun blast that threw him into the ground.
Only one left.
"Uh... uhm..." he mumbled. He wasn't paid for a last stand to the death against Valean rangers – so, he threw the Faunus in his hands into the air, as hard as he could, and then ran. Perhaps, if these people were here to rescue that fugitive, they'll be too focused on saving her from the fall to follow after him?
No dice. After all, it wasn't just Yche and Ashen in the fight.
Having followed her two friends without causing as much ruckus, Reza comfortably perched herself on the rooftop of a smaller house overviewing the street, pulled out her own weapon, a small repeating crossbow, and picked out a few arrows from her backpack, each one tipped with a crystal. As soon as she saw the slave catcher run, she took aim and fired – three shots pierced the ground in front of him. He didn't even realize what was going on before he ran past the arrows and they detonated on command, throwing him to the side, into the nearest window.
The Faunus, flying through the air, had resigned to her fate. The assailants may have believed they were being attacked for her, but she didn't – and she expected a bone-crushing fall any time now. Yet, instead, she landed on something tough and coarse without any harm, and opened her eyes to see herself suspended twenty feet in the air.
"Aw," Ashen said, with faint disappointment – she didn't get the chance to rescue the woman. Instead, she had been caught by a tree trunk suddenly growing out of the ground, breaking through the asphalt and forming a seat of sorts, or a catching hand, that stopped her from crashing. And she wasn't the only one who was now suspended in the air by the wood summoned by Aura force.
"Don't worry, you're safe now," Firre said, sitting on a branch protruding from the main trunk next to the Faunus woman. With a snap of his fingers, the wood began to recede and gently lowered them both to the ground. Reza lowered her weapon and jumped down to the street.
"All right, we won!" Ashen yelled, dropped down and immediately threw her arm around Yche's neck, which briefly startled and got her to let out a faint annoyed grunt. The receding tree placed the Faunus girl in Firre's hands and he lowered her down to the ground while speaking:
"Are you alright, can you walk-"
Instead of an answer, he received a sudden push from her, forcing him back. Yet, after stumbling for a few steps, she lost her balance and crashed on her bottom – the ring attached to her ankle hadn't gone anywhere, after all.
"Where are you running? We're not that scary, are we?" Yche commented, slightly baffled. Firre was not deterred – he approached the Faunus, stretched out his hand, and said:
"Come, take my hand. I'll help you on your feet until we can remove that thing on your foot."
She turned towards him, but didn't take his hand – rather, her golden eyes stared at the hand, then struck a glare towards the man's face, her body cowering from the gesture somewhat. Still, not a single word. She doesn't seem like she trusts us.
"Right... sorry, I should introduce us first," Firre said as he lowered his hand, then gestured towards his three peers. "My name is Firre, and this is Yche, Ashen and Reza. We are a team dedicated to making people's lives a little better here in Vale – we patrol the streets, put a stop to oppression and violence, and help those who need to be helped."
"Just like heroes!" Ashen called out with a smile.
"Or keepers of peace," Reza added.
"Who hunt villains and monsters... like, huntresses," Yche finished, grinning.
"They're students in the Lantern Ranger Academy, I'm, uh... well, I am a combat tutor for them, I suppose."
Reza didn't take a liking to his statement – she folded her arms and said:
"Come on, Firre, we all know that this isn't what she'd recognize you for..."
Rangers, heroes, or the life stories of the quartet were not what was on the Faunus' mind, however. She continued staring at them with a baffled look. Why won't these humans just... go away? They can't possibly be thinking that they're fooling me with that pretend. If this was a group of Valean law enforcement officers who intend to deport her behind the city walls, or, worse, a rival group of slave catchers who scared off competitors and were about to kidnap her, then she had to get away from here as soon as possible.
Yche was the first to notice. "Hey, what is she-"
The Faunus girl grabbed onto the metal band on her ankle, putting as much force as her body could allow and eventually getting it to rupture. With a swift rip, she pulled the entire thing off – and immediately let out a pained yell. Drops of blood fell on the asphalt below, one after another – several deep gashes were left where the ring had been a moment ago.
Needless to say, it was shocking. But, of the patroller quartet, Reza was the one who kept a sound mind – she went down on one knee to get a better look of the wound and then explained:
"Yeah... you probably shouldn't have done that. I've seen this type of restraining collar before – not in Vale, though. It pops out spikes whenever it notices a strong enough force pulling onto it, so that if it tears apart the slave's limb when it's ripped off by force, that way they can't run away. You're lucky they didn't get your neck with that thing."
In spite of the awful condition of her leg, the Faunus girl tried to pull herself onto her feet, to no avail and further agonizing pain. "I... don't care..."
"Stop!" Firre ordered, placing his hand down on her shoulder, only to receive another shove.
"Get away from me!"
"Good brother, she hates us..." Yche mumbled to Ashen next to her – who merely shrugged. It was as if she didn't even notice that they rescued her from the hands of the slave catchers...
In spite of the Faunus' efforts, Firre didn't allow himself to be pushed this time, and retained his firm grip onto her shoulder, keeping her to a sitting position. Reza approached them. "Look, we'll have Reza patch you up. Just stay calm for a second, would you?"
He didn't appear to be exerting himself much, yet Firre's grip felt strong as steel, so all she could do was flail around until Reza grabbed a hold of her leg. As soon as the soldier's hand was placed on her ankle, the pain from the bleeding wound began quickly recede, and it was withdrawn a few seconds later, revealing that it was now good as new. Firre let go immediately afterwards.
"See, that wasn't so scary, was it?"
The Faunus woman jumped to her feet. There was a myriad of different horrible things they could have done and maybe did against her knowledge, her mind was flashing through each one, considering the possibility, and her instincts told her to run from a group of armed humans as fast as she could. Yet, with each second that she didn't keel over and die, or get stabbed, or get kidnapped, her fear was slowly being supplanted by bafflement.
"Are you... just letting me go? Why... did you rescue me in the first place?"
The question got the four warriors to take a look at each other. It was so simple to answer, yet, with their eyes darting towards one another, it was as if each one of the young adults were tossing the opportunity to each other. Finally, Ashen, after letting go of Yche, replied:
"Why should we not? We just saw you being shot at and dragged away in plain sight. I wouldn't wanna get abandoned and tortured if I was in your shoes, so I'm here making sure other people don't experience that, either."
"Vale is a land of freedom, after all!" Yche suddenly announced, with a big grin on her face and a clenched fist. To that, the Faunus merely let out a faint scoff and muttered:
"...haven't seen much freedom here thus far..."
After another uncomfortable pause, Firre picked up the conversation:
"To answer your question – yeah, we'll obviously let you go, but, would you mind answering a few questions first? About the people who just attacked you, we... need to figure out more about these hunters, and how we can dispatch of them."
Sensing an opportunity, Ashen suddenly ran forward with a wave and yelled:
"Oh, why don't we get ourselves more comfortable, then? I just remembered a café that we haven't given a try yet!"
Now escorting a runaway slave with them, who was still cowering from the slightest twitch, the four fighters departed from Vale's quiet and sleepy residential districts and thrust themselves straight into the lively late evening life of the city centre. A mere few decades ago, this would have been unthinkable, but as the threat of the Grimm turned less and less immediate for the inhabitants of the four Kingdoms thanks to new technologies and superior defenses, the people could dedicate themselves more to leisure and relaxation.
The four made their way past women in flapper dresses and men in three-piece suits, casually strolling towards or out of the numerous diners and cafes that were still operating in the evening. It was difficult for the eyes to not stumble across the sharp hair colors – it was the fashion of the recent times to accentuate one's hair color, or even add multi-colored streaks to the hair. The news of restrictions on individual expression in Mantle and Mistral, concerning to Vale's well-off, caused a natural reaction.
A team of straight-faced Rangers in training dressed in the familiar uniformed green, bringing with them a Faunus who was dressed more for an expedition across the Grimm-infested wastes than a night at the town, thus naturally stood out. Thankfully, they didn't draw so much attention as to get bothered by one of the city-dwellers on their way.
„I saw this place a few days ago, while looking for a Dust store, and I thought it'd be perfect for the four of us to go out one day," Ashen rattled out in an exceedingly fast pace, jumping to the front. „It doesn't seem to be very busy most of the time, and it has this really comfortable atmosphere, and when I brought it up to Martel he said that- Oh, there it is!"
The Seven Ravens. Tucked away between two five-story residential houses, it was a little inconspicuous, but it wore its name on its sleeve. The front of the café was adorned with dark, engraved metallic images of the birds, their wings spread out and claws reaching forth as if they were descending upon the double door from both sides. The sound of soothing accordion music could already be picked up from the outside. While a few visitors could be seen through the large glass windows, there seemed to be plenty of empty tables.
"Wait, Ashen, are you sure this is a good-" Reza was about to protest upon seeing the café, but before she could even finish, Firre had already walked past them both and reached for the knobs of the wooden double door.
"Alright, let's not waste any more time."
He swung the doors wide open, but, after stepping into the cool lounge and taking a whiff of the scent of coffee, he realized that he was not being followed. A few of the customers by the tables turned their eyes towards the entrance and then glanced away in visible contempt, while the waiters behind the counter started talking to each other.
"There's one of those beasts bumming around by the front door..." they were muttering loud enough for Firre to hear. Suddenly, from outside, the Faunus girl called out:
"Hey, smart guy, you forgot this..."
There was a sign hanging on one of the doors, explaining the situation in plain black on white. "NO FAUNUS ALLOWED".
"I suppose we should search for another place?" Yche asked, shrugging her shoulders. Firre's expression did not show any surprise. He turned around, walked out of the café and approached the sign – then, he pulled it off and ripped it in half.
"Hey!" one of the waiters yelled, immediately running past the counter. The Faunus girl's eyes widened. W-what?
Firre dropped the two pieces of the broken sign on the ground and entered, just in time for the waiter to stop in front of him and yell:
"What is this vandalism?! What are you pulling here?!"
"I suppose I should remind you that these sort of entrance restrictions aren't legal in Vale any longer?" Firre answered, his voice calm. It was true that, because of resistance from so much of the upper class of the Kingdom, his father's laws went largely unenforced without a strong presence from the law enforcement, but that didn't make these restrictions any less unjustifiable and disgusting. The waiter looked him down, then briefly glared at his party, still waiting outside. None of them appeared to be licensed Rangers – the uniforms were plain and resembled that of Lantern students.
"Who do you think you are, ordering this establishment around like this?"
Firre sighed. His hand burrowed within his jacket and pulled out a large pin, which he popped onto his chest and immediately got the waiter to briefly recoil. It was a large circular symbol, depicting two axes crossed and surrounded by a laurel wreath. Any citizen of the Kingdom could recognize it as the symbol of the Royal Family – that, combined with his white hair and rich blue eyes, got the gears in the waiter's head turning.
"Prince... Firre?"
And with that, Firre was made certain that they were done with the café's resistance. He signalled with his hand to his party and approached one of the tables, while the girls stormed into the Seven Ravens after him.
"Wait... prince?" the Faunus called out, with a shock to her tone that got Reza to giggle.
"See, I told you that was going to be more important to her than "combat tutor"." The three girls shoved themselves onto the bench on one side of the table, squeezing against each other a little to save the necessary space, while Firre and the fugitive slave sat down on the other side.
"Of course, it is," he confirmed, though his voice betrayed a little bit of disappointment. "I didn't find it important to mention when we first met."
"I... if-if you think you're being nice and helpful doing this, then you miscalculated..." the Faunus began to speak under her breath, drawing the group's attention. "They're just gonna put up a new sign tomorrow... and it's not like they'll bother to serve us any drinks now, either..."
The rest of the table went silent for a second, before Firre replied:
"I know. It's... unfortunate, and a perversion of our kingdom's principles that we treat people like you this way, when we're supposed to be equals. But even if this café goes back to turning away Faunus tomorrow, at least a few people here will see today that people like you are no threat, that you can talk to their country's heir to the throne without an issue – and so, maybe they'll reconsider a few of their beliefs." Indeed, the entire café's eyes were now towards their table – plenty of disgusted looks, but a few curious ones as well. Faunus were quite rare, even in Vale, and a lot of people dismissive towards them hadn't even seen one in person before. "What's your name?"
"...Silva."
"You came here from Mantle, haven't you?"
The question got Silva's face to perk up, and, for the first time in the conversation, her eyes met the eyes of the quartet. "Why... do you think that?" Her voice was a little bit more concerned than they anticipated, but Reza answered her question regardless:
"Your incident isn't the first. We've had to thwart slave hunter gangs several times in the past few months, and they all appear to be from Mantle."
"Obviously, Mantlean slave hunters only try to capture fugitive slaves from Mantle itself," Firre added.
"Yeah, and they've been turning more and more brazen about it, too. Obviously, ever since we abolished slavery here, Mantle's kings have been pissed off, as, to them, what it means is that the workforce they abuse has an incentive to run away," Yche continued, folding her arms behind the back of her head and turning her eyes to the ceiling as she recounted old history. "We've been here before. A few centuries ago, Vale only granted freedom to human slaves – so, Mistral and Mantle eventually switched to enslaving Faunus like you. Now that the King declared that Faunus slaves that escaped to Vale receive freedom too, those two kingdoms are afraid that slavery's on the way out. There's not really anyone else they can put to chains if the Faunus are set free."
"Unless they enslave Grimm," Ashen butted in, getting the other two girls to snicker.
"That'd be the real technological revolution," Firre muttered under his breath, and turned his eyes back to Silva. "No, it just means that they're fighting like hell to prevent this from happening. So, the King of Mantle has been sponsoring these slave catchers, even though they violate our law. And morals."
It was a heavy topic, and so, for a few seconds, the conversation died down. With an expression on his face filled with contempt, Firre was glaring at the dark wooden table, while Yche, Ashen and Reza were all somewhere on the spectrum between awkwardness, anticipation, and righteous anger. Ever since Mantle was mentioned, Silva was searching for a way to escape from the conversation – yet, nonetheless, she mumbled out:
"What... do you need me for?"
"We... want to help people like you."
Sure, you do. She hadn't trusted a human to truly fight for her rights before and she certainly wasn't going to now. He's a prince. Royalty. If he saves a few Faunus on the streets every once in a while, lets them go and forgets about them tomorrow, it's easy political points for him.
Firre, undeterred by the silence, continued:
"You managed to escape from Mantle, so you might know how we can ensure that more Faunus like you manage to reach our shores. Who in Vale is backing slave hunters and cooperating with the Mantleans. All that information is crucial."
"Actually, how did you escape from Mantle? It's a hazardous way here," Reza raised a question that immediately got Silva to tense up.
"I... I can't tell you."
"Huh? Why?"
"I just can't..."
"If it's a secret underground route, then I can understand not wanting to share it," Ashen, noticing that the Faunus was turning a bit heated, jumped into the conversation. "But, come on, surely you can trust us with something, right?"
Silva remained silent, huddled up in the corner of the bench.
"Do you know anyone in this city you can trust?"
Yet another question from that black-haired girl, and just like she had feared from the very beginning, this turned into an interrogation. Silva, meanwhile, didn't want to share anything – hell, she couldn't share anything, even if she wanted to. So, once confronted with that question, she ran. Suddenly, jumping off the bench and accidentally hitting the corner of the table with her leg, yet hurrying towards the exit in spite of the pulsating pain.
"Wait!" Firre called out, his hand extended forth, yet, to no avail. Soon, she was gone, leaping onto the rooftops once more and hurrying across the city. The sky was turning dimmer – it was even less safe for her to wander the city than before.
"Not even a thanks and a bye..." Reza muttered after an uncomfortable pause. Yche turned to Firre and asked:
"Should... we follow her?"
To which, the prince let out a sigh.
"I'm... concerned what's going on with her, yes, but I feel that would just make matters worse."
Thank you for reaching the end of Chapter 1 of Genealogy of the Great War! (yes, the name is Fire Emblem inspired, though this isn't a crossover - I do like Fire Emblem, though, so maybe something inspired by it will end up here?)
This is my first RWBY fanfiction, but the idea has been burning in my head for a while. Only now, however, was I able to shape the loose, disjointed ideas of a Great War Remnant story into something coherent, and I hope you enjoy it!
This story will be canon compliant, but this should not hamper the storyline even a bit. After all, all that we know of the Great War from canon is ten years of war condensed into a five minute episode. Divergences from canon will be meager, if any, mostly related to adding concepts that detail a Remnant ninety years before the start of the show - with much more primitive, yet still recognizable technology, different fashion, culture and lifestyle.
The story begins right before the start of the Great War, and will hopefully take us some ways into it. Thank you for reading!