Prelude to War-A Point We Can't Take Anymore

A Chapter by Miles W.

The Day of Reckoning has Arrived. The War of Seasons is about to begin.

The Day of Reckoning

Has Arrived

The Peace Won Years Ago

Will Crumble and Fade.

The Pieces

Have All Been Properly Placed

To Be Knocked Down.

The Kingdom of Vacuo

Sun was going over the different forms that needed to be filled out for a Dust shipment for his students at Shade Academy. There was an upcoming mission out into the wastelands and he wanted to make sure that everybody was more than prepared to defend themselves at a moments notice. But as he was finishing up the forms, he noticed a commotion going on just outside the city gates. He tried to see what was going on. A large crowd had formed at one of the entry points, but it didn’t look like a Grimm attack. Suddenly, his Scroll started buzzing which he picked up super quickly.
“This is Sector 2814 Patrolman calling Headmaster. You there sir?”

“Hey Hal,” Sun said as he continued to look out at the ever-growing crowd. “Care to tell me why everybody is all bunching up like bananas just inside your gate?”

            “Sir, we need to call a medical team!  We have seriously injured here!  She needs a hospital!”
            “Hal, what have I said about playing the pronoun game?  Who’s she?”
            “Natalie Grover sir.  She’s in really bad shape.”

4 Hours Later

Christy came flying through the doors to the medical ward at Shade Academy like there was no tomorrow. As soon as Sun found out that it was Natalie that was in critical condition, he made sure to alert Professor Ozpin who in turn alerted the members of Team NEMN who also alerted their friends and family of what had happened. Christy caught wind of this news due to the fact that she was in a meeting with Professor Ozpin and heard about Natalie’s condition almost immediately. She then took it upon herself to fly out to Vacuo and help speed up Natalie’s treatment. Ozpin had managed to alert the medical staff of Christy’s arrival, so once she came in clearly not willing to take no as an answer, the staff directed her to Natalie’s room, where Christy found her in really bad shape. The doctors had managed to do enough to keep her stable, but her wounds were incredibly severe. Her left eye had a huge gash across it, miraculously missing the eye, there were several stab wounds across her legs and deep in her shoulders, and her old wound from when Zenoma Mortem killed her had been re-opened. It was a miracle that she managed to stay alive for this long. Christy took a deep breath, and then poured every last ounce of her aura and healing powers into Natalie’s body. While Christy’s abilities had improved quite a bit over the years since she was a student and she could heal wounds without using too much aura, Natalie’s wounds were so extensive that Christy decided it was better to be safe rather than sorry. A few minutes passed as Christy’s Aura slowly enveloped Natalie’s body, healing her wounds. As the process neared completion, Natalie shot up with a start, screaming at the top of her lungs a single word:
“NATHAN!”

2 Hours Later

“What else can you tell us Christy?” Pyrrha asked as she looked over the medical information that Shade had provided for everybody. Ozpin called for a group holographic conference call not long after he got the news of Natalie’s conditon. Ty, Jacob and Brooklyn were sitting in with Weiss and Neptune this time as there had been a previous mission in Atlas they had responded too, and Evan was in Menagerie with Miles and Blake helping with another mission they had on their hands. Yang, Ember, Gray, Arri, and Hera were also in on this call due to the implications of what was going on calling in from their home on Patch.
“Not much” Christy said as she sent out another set of information as the doctors kept giving them to her. “After Natalie’s initial outburst screaming Nathan’s name, she fell unconscious. After a few more minutes, she did manage to wake up, but her mind was all over the place. Not really seeming like she knew what was going on or where she was.”

            Professor Ozpin stood up and looked over the details regarding how she was found at the gates of Vacuo.  “Did she have any information about what she was doing?  Perhaps a clue as to where she was or what had happened?”
            “Well that’s just the thing,” Christy said creating a wide display of all the available information like a web of paper.  “She says the last thing she remembers is boarding an airship with her brother to destroy the Order, but everything after that is a blank.”  The room fell silent as Weiss looked at Yang with a sort of concerned look.
            “Don’t look at me” Yang said holding up her hands.  “I haven’t seen or spoken to my estranged husband in years.  This is the first I’m hearing about all of this.”
            “It’s true,” Jacob said walking towards the center alongside Christy to look over the data.  “Keeping the Xiao Long’s in the dark about all of this was kind of a jerk move Ozpin.  Heck, even keeping the Grover’s in the dark wasn’t the best idea.  We should have at least told them what was going on and what Natalie was trying to accomplish with her brother.”
            “Hindsight is twenty-twenty Mr. Strohl,” Ozpin said pinching his forehead.  “What we need to do now is determine what exactly caused this loss of memory for Natalie if we are to figure out what exactly happened out there in the wastelands.”
            “You sure it’s not just the stress of what happened is blocking that memory for Natalie?” Ty asked also making his way towards the web of information.  “Maybe once she’s caught her breath, she could recall everything that happened to her.”
            “I doubt it” Miles said walking forward throwing up a mugshot amongst the web.  “This has Vinculum Memoriare written all over it.  He’s removed memories from me, Nathan, heck, even Brooklyn has been affected by him in the past.”  The conference fell silent for a minute as everybody pondered this information.  Evan then looked over the mugshot himself, as well as the information regarding Natalie’s condition.
            “If that’s the case,” Evan said pulling up a map of Vacuo and the surrounding wastelands, “then it stands to reason that Natalie and Nathan found the Order’s hideout, but failed to defeat them.  Somehow, Natalie managed to escape and make her way back here, surviving on sheer will power alone in order to get back to civilization.”
            “But that doesn’t make sense” Blake said stepping forward.  “If the Order had Natalie and used Memoriare to erase her memories, why would they let her go?  Why go to all the trouble of erasing her memories and releasing her instead of just killing her?”  Before anybody could ponder this, Jaune walked forward, bringing up a livestream feed to the rest of the call.
            “This started just a few seconds ago across all major communication networks” Jaune said sending out individual screens to everybody on the call.  “Pretty sure our towers got hacked.  You need to see this.”  The livestream feed was an image of a red flag emblazoned with the sigil of the Order of the Four Seasons all in black.  There wasn’t much else at first, until a single woman walked in front of the flag.
            “To the world of Remnant, I am Lord Anima Imperia, master of the Order of the Four Seasons.  You may have thought us dead and destroyed after the battle of Vytal decades ago.  But like the seasons, following the death of winter, we rise up once more with the spring.  For years, we have been preparing, making sure that all was in its proper place for our return.  Building our forces, increasing our influence, improving our weaponry, regaining all that we lost decades ago.  And now, we are ready.  You may have also heard of the so called “Sons of Aequo”, a group of extremists who thought they were crippling us and bringing us to the brink.  But in truth, they were playing right into our hands.  They captured pieces that played a larger role in recruiting new members into the folds of the Order from the prison system of the Four Kingdoms, increasing our armies tenfold.  Even as we speak, massive prison riots are breaking out as our soldiers break out those who are loyal to our cause to join our ranks in our new mission.”  Professor Ozpin, Pyrrha, Weiss, Sun, and Blake all checked their respective Scrolls to see if these claims held any weight, which turned out they did.
            “But that is merely the tip of the iceberg” Lord Imperia continued.  “I did not simply do this stunt to prove to the world that we, who have been branded criminals, brought more criminals into the folds of our organization.  No, we have an even greater message to send to the world.”  As Lord Imperia said this, the flag retreated into the ceiling, revealing something that made everybody in the conference all either gasp or scream in horror.  Nathan Grover, beaten, battered and bloody chained up to a stone wall, struggling to break free of his bonds.
            “Following the Battle of Vytal years ago, several students were granted medals of honor recognizing them as war heroes, and were granted all the rights and laws of war heroes.  Including the law that if they were ever executed by man and not animals or creatures of Grimm, it would be considered either a war crime, or a deceleration of war.”  As Lord Imperia said this, a new figure entered the frame.  A tall figure with long hair wearing black armor, and a mask with purple and white stripes that formed a spiral that lead to a single black dot in the center of the mask around where the nose would be.  There were no eye slits in the mask, suggesting that this mask could still see in all directions despite it having no clear visual capabilities.  This new figure also carried a large sword shaped like a tuning fork.  Lord Imperia smiled a sick smile as the new person placed the tuning fork sword at Nathan’s neck.  “Well then, this is the Order’s official declaration of war against the Four Kingdoms of Remnant.  Lord Tenebris.  Do it.”  Without hesitation, the figure that was addressed as Lord Tenebris took the sword, and beheaded the body with a single strike.  No one could truly describe all the emotions that were felt by everybody in that conference call.  While some like Weiss and Pyrrha clasped their hands over the mouth with tears streaming down their face, others like Christy and Ty let out blood curdling screams.  Others such as Yang, Brooklyn, Evan and Jacob found no words or sounds could escape their lips, only tears running down their faces.  Ember fell to her knees and hands, tears falling from her eyes as she punched the floor in anger.  Gray passed out from the sight of what happened.  Arri ran over to Ember’s side and held her tightly while Hera covered her ears and tried to tell herself it wasn’t happening.  Miles simply stood there, his face completely white at what he had just seen.  Lord Imperia smiled as grunt soldiers cleaned up the mess behind her.
            “We will not accept any negotiations or discussions of a cease-fire” Lord Imperia said as the flag was lowered back down to hide the carnage.  “This will not end until the Four Kingdoms are burned to the ground and the Order reigns supreme.”  The transmission ended, leaving everybody to try and respond to what had just happened.  Their minds knew what they had to do in order to protect the world, but their bodies and their hearts were stuck, unable to move in light of what they had just witnessed.

            As the camera cut out , Lord Imperia made her way over to the bridge of the airship that she commanded.  A large battleship that they managed to steal from the Kingdom of Atlas and then mass produced in order to give themselves an edge in the coming battles.  She looked back at where Lord Tenebris had struck, and saw that the mess was already cleaned up.  She smiled and saw Lord Tenebris still standing over where he had struck.
            “Do you regret your actions Lord Tenebris?”  Anima asked placing her hands behind her back.  “Declaring war like that….”
            “I regret nothing” Lord Tenebris said putting his sword away.  “Nathan Grover was weak, so I destroyed him.”
            “Indeed he was.”  Lord Imperia said with a sick smile.  “But his name is an important one in the logs of history, so it was important that the whole world watch him die.  So that they knew they have no hope.  You have done well, Lord Ferish Tenebris.”  Lord Tenebris turned towards Lord Imperia, and fell to one knee.

“I serve only you Lord Imperia. No one else.” Lord Imperia smiled at this, and turned her attention back to the bridge.

“It’s time to open the final door.”

The Day of Reckoning

Brings Chaos and Destruction

A Crushing Blow to Those Who Fought Before

Now Facing an Old Threat

Who Refuses to Stop

Until Each and Every One of the Old Heroes

And All the People of the World

Lie Beneath the Rule of the Order

RWBY

War of Seasons