BLCK

III

Though I dressed like and wore the mantle of a knight of old, I possessed none of their supposed honour. Along the way to a mansion in the far reaches of Atlas, I took on job after job, though I had no need for money, so I instead took on forging lessons from the local smiths of each town I passed, so should my armour or weapons become damaged or broken, I could  repair them myself, though I usually remained in an area I was stronger at, so assassination jobs were the norm. I finally arrived.
This was Raoulf estate, a hugely influential family, who were known compatriots to the even larger Schnee dust company and were good friends with the family itself, indeed, their eldest daughters were known to have a close relationship with each other, in fact, when Winter Schnee had run away to become a huntress, the eldest Raoulf almost followed, almost, but was forcefully stopped by her family. She was a few years younger than Winter, and slightly older than Weiss Schnee, so her rebellious nature remained, and she became an excellent thief in the years of inactivity left to her.
through my contacts, I had learned something else; she had applied to beacon, and was due to run away that night, I would help her do so, so long as she joined my team, I would even pay her if I had to, though I would never bother doing as such, paying her half before, then killing her afterwards to both retain the money and to avoid any loose ends. I settled down into a tree and waited until nightfall.
As I did, I thought on my childhood, my family had also been close to the Schnees, indeed, I remember playing with both Weiss and Whitley, but those times were gone now, I had a job to do.

I snapped into consciousness, my internal clock rousing me from slumber, soul reaper already in my hands, my employer wished for me to assemble my team as quickly as possible, and I too, needed this done quickly, while Miss Raoulfs money may get us secure lodgings in Vale, I would rather rely on myself, as I had for a long time.
I stealthily crept across the grounds, avoiding any guards, of which there were several hundred, not that I couldn't take them, of course, I simply needed this to seem like Miss Raoulf escaped of her own volition and not like a one-man army had swept in and kidnapped her. I swept past, the green of my armour blending in perfectly with the darkened grass, I swerved past spotlights and dropped as guards passed on patrol, there were three concentric walls holding Miss Raoulf in and I could only hope she truly warranted all these safeguards. I flipped over the first two walls and flattened against the third, it had some sort of current running through it, I could hear the humming. Then, all of a sudden, the power shut off, automated gun turrets sagging in their nests, whilst the spotlights shut off, the current stopped. I smiled thinly, time for my semblance to get to work. I thought up the most terrifying monsters I could think of, daemons with thousands of eyes and monsters made from black drooping ink with no eyes, I then unleashed Terror. The night rang with screams as the three hundred guards fired sporadically into the night, I could see what they saw, of course, I had thought of them. I then casually strolled through the now ajar gate of the third wall. I watched as men shot through the horrifying images and into their own comrades, the bloodshed seemingly adding to the substance of the monsters, as they immediately assumed the wounds were from the monsters rather than themselves. I then came face-to-face with a silver knight, she wore a literal cloak of daggers and had twin swords sheathed at her sides, this then was my target: the Bladed Queen, Lydia Raoulf the second, the first being her mother.
"Good evening miss Raoulf, shall we depart?"
"Sure..."
We turned and walked away through the grass, continuing in silence for almost half an hour before Lydia broke the silence.
"So who, exactly, are you?"
"Ah, she speaks, excellent... Lady Raoulf, I'm here to recruit you, the payout is two and a half million lien, and it will guarantee your entrance to Beacon academy. What say you?"
"What do you want me to do?"
"So far, it's just infiltration, assessments of competition and potential threats. Nothing to worry your pretty head about."
"Pretty?"
"I've seen pictures, you seem to resemble some model, your face, though pretty, is also familiar to me, care to explain?"
"My younger sister was a model."
"The dead one?"
A hesitation, then, "yes, the dead one..."
I pushed past a few ferns then continued,
"Anyway, the mission, we require two more members, a Faunus living in Menagerie, and an ice-warrior from the northernmost part of Vacuo. We are on our way to find the Faunus first, then we shall find the ice-warrior."
We continued to March west for another hour in complete silence until we reached an aerial transport the same colour as my armour,; on my way to the estate, I had called ahead and ordered a transport dropped off here. Whilst it remained in the forest, it was camouflaged, and so had avoided discovery. Fifteen minutes later, we were in the air, and the armoured model slept in the copilots seat, I glanced down at the lush rainforest, it was nice while it lasted, but onto phase two now.
-my first compatriot has been acquired, I move now to Menagerie, where I shall find the sniper-
I sent to my employer, almost immediately, a text appeared in the inbuilt HUD within my helmet.
-message received and understood, you move quickly, advocate, well done, I look forward to seeing you In action, you will be invaluable to the mission, keep up the good work
-C.F-
The employer had called me by my work name, Deaths Advocate, but that was not the greater mystery here, the greater mystery here was the identity of my employer, C.F? No... it couldn't be, could it? No, the odds of meeting her again were astronomical, it was nigh impossible. But not completely impossible. I shook myself, now was not the time to dwell on the past, on Salem and Cinder, I had a mission to do, and it would be done, through hell or high water, it would be done. I pushed the craft as far as it would go, I would be at the ferry within the hour, and from there, menagerie.