Ox's POV

At 1:00pm sharp, the twenty-two members of our family arrived in front of Professor Nightingales office.

I knocked once and heard "Come in".

We filed in. The five people from before, who I now knew were known as the Shade Council, were standing behind Professor Nightingale's desk. Nightingale was sitting and smiled when she saw all of us come in.

"Welcome. Thank you all for joining me."

"It was the least we could do, with everything you have provided for us."

She waved a hand. "It was nothing. Especially with what I must tell you. To be completely honest, I don't believe I have done enough, but we can cross that bridge when we get to it."

She sighed and tapped a button on her scroll. I heard the doors behind us lock. "I apologize. But what is said in this office can not be spread to the others outside. Now, when our last member arrives, I'll be all set to fill you in on what we know. One of the conditions for your help that Miss Adel negotiated was complete and open honesty. I intend to honor that deal."

Before I could ask how the last member was going to arrive with the doors locked, a red and black circle appeared in the room and out walked a black-haired woman in red and black armor and a white Grimm mask.

When she took the helmet off, I gasped. She was like an older clone of Yang, except with red eyes and paler skin. She braced herself from a hug from Professor Solstice that she returned with warmth, then went and shook hands with Mister Umber, and nodded to Professors Bloodwynd and Hawthorne. She stopped by Professor Nightingale, who stood up and gave the woman a quick peck on the lips.

"Everyone this is my wife, Raven Branwen. She's our best field intelligence operative."

The woman, Raven, looked over everyone before settling on me.

"You must be Ox."

I nodded. This didn't seem like a woman who would appreciate my smart aleck remarks.

She didn't say anything else but nodded to Nightingale, who turned back to us.

"This is going to be a long story. Please let me get through it first before asking any questions, but afterwards ask me whatever you want, and I'll do my best to answer."

We all nodded.

"Okay. The story starts hundreds of years past when all of humanity could harness magic. A woman named Salem was locked in a tower by her father. She was trapped for years before a wandering warrior named Ozma found her and freed her. They spent many years together before Ozma fell ill and died. In anguish, Salem turned to the gods of light and darkness and pleaded with them to revive her beloved. While the God of Light ignored her pleas, the God of Darkness agreed and revived Ozma. Their happiness was short lasted, as the God of Light killed Ozma once again to preserve the balance between life and death. The Gods proceeded to revive and kill Ozma many times before it was revealed to the God of Darkness that he was Salem's second choice. In his anger he kills Ozma a final time.

Salem, in her fury, attacked both gods who proceeded to curse her with immortality until she could learn the importance of life and death. Salem however, used her immortality to gather an army to oppose the gods. In their attack, the God of Darkness destroyed humanity, leaving Salem alone. In her despair, she threw herself into a pool of dark energy in the God of Darkness's domain. Instead of killing her, the darkness corrupted her, giving her powers a boost and driving her into deeper madness.

The God of Light, knowing that humanity would return, left behind four Relics for humanity to use. The Relics had the powers of Creation, Destruction, Knowledge, and Choice. To safeguard these Relics, the God of Light brought Ozma's soul back into the world cursing him with reincarnation and telling him that when the Relics are brought together again, the gods will return and judge humanity to either guidance or extinction. Ozma attempted to reason with Salem, however this led to disaster and that reincarnations death.

Ozma proceeded to hide the Relics in vaults that could only be opened by the Four Maidens. These are women who can wield magic like the previous human race. I'm sure you are all familiar with the fairy tale about them. Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. These four Maidens would not be enough though, so Ozma proceeded to build fortresses to train warriors over the vaults. These you might be familiar with. Atlas, Beacon, Haven, and Shade. Ozma wanted to create warriors to oppose Salem. He also proceeded to gather Silver-Eyed Warriors, people born with part of the God of Light's powers whose eyes could petrify or vaporize Grimm.

This is where the story comes into present day. Ozma's reincarnation in this era, was Professor Ozpin."

I gasped and heard similar sounds from those behind me. before we could ask anything, Nightingale held a hand.

"There will be time for questions later, I promise. Let me finish my story."

She took a breath and looked ten years older than normal.

"Ten years ago, I led a team on Ozpin's orders into Salem's stronghold. We were to escort a silver eyed warrior named Summer Rose in, hoping her powers could neutralize Salem long enough to come up with a way to deal with her in the long term. I'm the only survivor and I can confirm that Salem is immortal. One of my teammates blew off her head with a shotgun, and it regenerated back almost instantly. Her powers were immense. Twenty trained Huntsmen, including two Mega-Faunus, were killed in that fight. But we accomplished our mission. Miss Rose was able to use the power of her eyes on Salem, and she was petrified. However, Rose was mortally wounded in the battle and died shortly after. We later got confirmation from intelligence operatives that Salem was unpetrified by the end of the year. All that work and deaths of good men and women, and it didn't even buy us a year. Ozpin later appointed me Headmistresses of Shade and I've spent the past decade putting forces together for the war that's coming."

She stood and walked over to a large TV on the far wall. With a few taps on her scroll, various pictures of men and women came up.

"You see, Salem is immortal, but she is not omnipotent. She needs allies, henchman, and soldiers to help her. Ozpin mostly ignored these helpers, focusing all his power on Salem. I want to take a different method. If her support base is eliminated, she would only have the Grimm to back her up. Grimm are ferocious, but they can't hack a defense network, or plant bombs on military bases. My plan is to eliminate her lieutenants, whether through capture or death, and watch her plans crumble."

She sighed. "It won't grant us a complete victory, but it won't lead to our destruction either. Salem's goal is to acquire all four relics and call the gods back to eliminate humanity. From there, Ozpin guessed she could rule over whatever comes next."

She turned to us. "My plan has two parts. The Relic of Destruction lies in a vault under this school that only the Summer Maiden can open. Said Maiden is in hiding with a location only known by me. The first part of my plan was to establish a strong defensive base around the relic. It's taken me ten years, but I've done that. The second part is to establish a group of Huntsmen and Huntresses to engage Salem's forces in a shadow war. That is what I want your group to become. My shield is built, now I need a sword to strike the enemy. Will you be my sword?"

"Fox, we need a link". I said.

"Got it."

Once I felt we were all connected I asked. *How are we feeling about this*

*Immortal witches, magic maidens, relics, sounds like fairy tales to me * Maya thought

*I've known Professor Nightingale for two years now, I don't think she's lying. Besides this is a very intricate story to lie about and what would be the goal* TJ added.

*No clue but if it's true, I'm on board* I sent

There was an almost deafening silence.

*Uh Ox, you heard the part about the magic immortal witch, right? How the hell do we fight that* Lapis asked.

*Like the Professor said, we don't. Take out enough of the lieutenants and sergeants, and an army falls apart* Nick said.

*Spoken like a true army brat* Dustin retorted.

*It makes sense though. No matter how impressive a building is, without its support structure, it is doomed to collapse* Yatsu said.

*When Roman and I were working with Cinder, she would occasionally mention her mistress. Thought she was just an overly devoted Sub at the time, but this Salem would definitely fit the bill* Neo added.

*Meaning the Fall was Salem's plan* Coco thought. * I could see that. Ozpin or Ozma or whatever is essentially her ex. She kills him again and takes out one of the places he built to guard one of these Relics. Plus adds enough negative feelings in the general air to increase Grimm attacks* she continued.

*Okay the more we talk about it the more this is starting to make sense and that scares the hell out of me* Lapis thought

*Not exactly giving me the warm fuzzies either sis but what else are we going to do about it? Lay down and die. At least with this plan we can put a wrench in her plans* Lazuli countered.

*If she's behind the Fall, then I'm on board for any plan that's going to hurt her, no matter how small of an injury it is* Nolan added with anger.

*Seconded* Fox agreed.

*If anybody wants to back out, now's the time. No judgement from anyone here* I thought.

I gave it ten minutes. No one said anything.

*Then it sounds like we're in agreement*

Fox ended the link and cleared my throat.

"Okay Professor. We're in. You got your team.

She sighed with relief. "I'm so thankful to hear that. Thank you everyone. I can't express my gratitude enough.

I raised a hand. "I have a question though. You said the team you were with included two Mega-Faunus. Do you happen to know anything about them?"

She nodded. "Their names were Jay Monarch and Fuscia Yami. Jay was a Falcon-type Mega-Faunus and a hell of a gunfighter, while Fuscia was a Panther-Type and preferred to fight with her claws. They were first generation Mega-Faunus.

"First generation?"

"They were born as ordinary Faunus. However, one day Ozpin decided to use some of the magic he possessed to amplify the animal traits of Faunus. Instead, he created the first-generation Mega-Faunus, around a hundred of them. However, some had issues. They would lose themselves in a primal fury and attack their allies. Most never broke free of that madness and had to be either locked up or killed. According to Jay, around a third of the original Mega-Faunus succumbed to this Primal Madness. The rest, through years of brutal battles, were killed. Jay believed him and Fuscia to be the last ones alive. As far as I know, you're the only second-generation Mega-Faunus."

My blood went cold. I figured I was the last of my kind but to hear it almost certainly confirmed wasn't a comfort. Velvet reached out and grasped my hand.

TJ raised his hand. "Where do we start? I mean you have maybe forty names on that board. Who's first?"

Professor Nightingale typed a few keys on her scroll and a file came up.

I gasped. The picture with it was of a Mega-Faunus, with a scaly black head and green slitted eyes.

"This Mega-Faunus is one of the first generations thought to have gone mad. He escaped custody and appears to have found his way to Salem, where she restored his sanity and appointed him to be one of her lieutenants. Since then, he has been a major proponent of the more violent White Fang. He's the one who convinced the Peridots to create the Blood Fangs, some of which have recently started appearing in the Lower District. His name is Varan Nox."

"Son of a bitch." TJ cursed.

I heard a growl, Talia most likely.

"If we can stop him, we can destroy a foot hold Salem has in Vacuo." Nightingale said.

I nodded. "Leave it to us. Can you send us the file on him?"

Nightingale smiled. "I'm sending you copies of all these files. Officially your group will be receiving private training. Miss Royale and Mister Porfirio, you will be paired together and be on a team with Mister Coal and Miss Katt. Your team's name is FRNN (Fern). Miss Schnee you will be assigned to Team OPLL, now marked as OPLLS. Neopolitan has been assigned to team TTNNM, now with an extra N, under the name Neo Corvin. However, for simplicities sake, I'll need a name for your group. If none of you have one, I have a suggestion."

When we all shook our heads, she smiled. "When I was growing up, my father told me stories of creatures who lived in the shadows and would make bad people disappear. One moment they'd be in their homes or on a walk or even in a crowded dinner, the next they would be gone. These creatures were called wraiths. I feel that would be an appropriate name for your team."

I looked back at my people. Every was nodding and some, like Nick and TJ, were smiling. I was smiling to.

"I like that. Okay Professor. From this moment on, we're the Wraiths."