Destiny No More

Chapter 19

It didn't take long for the police to arrive, which made sense considering how loud the fight had been. Pyrrha had honestly expected them to never show up. Someone on the inside had to be protecting the White Fang, or covering for them in some capacity, if they had been able to operate so openly without a care in the world. It had taken a Huntsman calling in that they had attacked said terrorists to get a response. She quietly considered that it might have been incompetence, but realized that wouldn't be any better.

Despite all of that, they had arrived when called upon. She hoped that was a good sign, but judging by the glares she was getting from the officers as they carted away their prisoners, she severely doubted it.

"Why do they all seem so..." She struggled to find the words to describe their animosity.

"Pissed?" Qrow offered. "Probably because we had to do their job for them. Authority figures never like it when it's implied they can't do their job."

"But... we stopped the White Fang, nobody even knew that they were here. Isn't that a good thing?"

"Of course it is." Qrow waved his hand to dismiss the thought. "And they'll publicly thank us for it, I'm sure, but someones about to have to answer why it was us that made the move and not them."

Pyrrha thought for a moment. "Do you think they'll find spies?"

Qrow chuckled half-heartedly. "This isn't an action movie, more likely they'll uncover someone with sympathies that was willing to overlook more than they should have. Most likely a few people will lose their job... probably some who don't deserve it." Qrow nodded forward and Pyrrha looked over to see one of the Faunus police officers dragging away the prisoners. "Hopefully they'll catch the actual problem in their witch hunt."

Pyrrha looked down, sighing as processed everything Qrow said. Vale wasn't the worst for Human-Faunus relations, but it had a long way to go. In her past life the only real source of prejudice she ever saw first hand, in Vale at least, had been Cardin. She'd heard Blake talk about the plight of the faunus numerous times, but it had always seemed like an issue in Atlas or Mistral. Vale had been different, or so she thought.

She hadn't realised just how bad things were, none of them had until it was far too late. When the White Fang descended on their school in an attempt to kill the next generation of Huntsmen and Huntresses, all to send a message. It was easy to say they were extremists, and they were, but it was hard for her to see and hear about the things most people claimed were made up as propaganda. It was difficult to see that the extremists had their reasoning, as skewed and twisted as it was.

"We should be free to go." Qrow's voice snapped her attention back to the present.

"Shouldn't we give a statement?" She had never been involved in something like this before, and it shamed her to say it, but that's what always happened in the movies.

"I already did, most of it anyway." Qrow started walking towards the exit, Pyrrha following closely behind. "Left out how we knew of course, much to their annoyance."

"They didn't want to hear from me?"

"It's... best if we keep your name out of the papers." Qrow explained. "I'm a well known Huntsmen and they know I'm associated with Oz. If what you said about the White Fang working for her is true, then they won't bat an eye. You on the other hand..." They thought she was dead, or dying at least. "We took a big enough risk with a straight up fight, the ones that escaped will probably describe you to their higher ups. Thankfully Amber was never the most flashy of Huntresses, so I doubt they'll draw the connection so easily."