Hey guys, so Chapter 3 was pretty kickass but I want to take a moment and say that my heart goes out to those affected by the Paris terrorist attacks and everyone affected on the horrible Friday, from Beirut to Lebanon. I pray for everyone's safety and for those that have lost their lives: they will be truly missed and they will be forever remembered. Thank you.

Chapter 17

Varis stood alone in a single bedroom, looking out at the vast flatlands of Vacuo. His Guild was in shambles, with only 23 assassins and 50 security guards, of which half were mercenaries he was forced to hire. He put his hands behind his back, trying to control the shaking as anger rushed through his body. Nearly a year ago he was ready to write off another assassin who had failed him dearly, such as Nico. Yet here he was, in the last bastion for the Guild, a small 5-story office building on the outskirts of the kingdom where no one could intervene or question them because no one knew they were there. Five days ago the last master assassin was killed, leaving them with no true master assassins to help in the fight. He sighed to himself, shaking his head as he heard a knock on the door.

"It's open," he said aloud. One of his assistants entered and walked up to him, a Scroll in his hands.

"Grandmaster Varis, here is the video you requested of the assassin's training."

"Thank you, dismissed," Varis said, taking the Scroll and waving the assistant away, who left after bowing his head. Varis watched the video, taking in how the last, surviving members reacted and trained. He noticed their nerves being shot, some struggling to do even basic movements.

"Damn Aero Kalo to hell. Him and his friends," he said to himself. In the back of his mind, Varis knew he should've killed Aero when he didn't complete his mission at the concert. But, something in Varis told him that maybe, just maybe, Aero could've become the next Grandmaster. Now, he was probably planning an attack, something Varis knew would happen eventually. All of this worrying and waging a war with one of the best assassins had aged him considerably, his cheeks and eyes showing more wrinkles and his hair looking nearly bleach white, clashing with his golden robe and matching sheath that hung at his hip. He threw the Scroll on his modest bed and turned back to the window only for rapid knocking to interrupt his train of thought.

"It's open."

"Sir!" the assistant from earlier exclaimed, running up to the grandmaster, "The door! Someone's…. knocking on it."

"Knocking?" Varis asked in confusion, walking with assistant to the main lobby. The main door that they used had three electric locks, so there was no need to knock on it. Varis walked down from his fifth floor room to the spacious lobby, which showed the age of the building. The chipped concrete went well with the sand-worn walls, the constant low wind's hollowing always heard. The lobby itself was nearly 100 hundred feet long and wide, with a desk across from the doors flanked by two stairs leading up to the rest of the building. The front of the building had been reinforced with steel to not only protect them from their harsh new environment but to make sure no one could spy on them. Varis made his way to the top of the steps leading to the lobby and stopped, holding his hands up to the mercenaries and assassins who had their weapons drawn. He heard the knocking himself and looked confused at the door.

"Who wishes to disturb us?!" he bellowed. The knocking stopped and for a minute the entire room tensed up, waiting for something to happen. As Varis began to turn an explosion ripped through the front, shocking everyone inside, who opened fire at the large hole created. After a steady stream of fire for a few seconds, everyone stopped to reload, stopping when they heard two weapons loaded and cocked loudly. Everyone looked at the hole and saw in the smoke and kicked up sand a figure making its way toward them slowly. Varis's face quickly became a scowl as the figure emerged.

"Aero."

"Hello Varis," he said in a cool tone, his pistols in his hands, "How've you been?"

"Don't toy with me Kalo! You think it's a good idea to just come here and try to take my life?!"

"Well, not just me. See, I still have my friends. And I've taught them a few things. For example, this is an entrance a Hunter would make. Now, let me pose a question to you Varis: what kind of entrance would a master assassin make?"

Aero grinned at his own question, Varis looking at him with confusion until he fully realized what he meant but it was too late. A figure dropped down, two blades driving into two necks as another brought a sword onto one's back. Multiple smoke pellets exploded as more figures descended from the ceiling, landing on one or two guards and knocking them out with various weapons. Aero held his pistols up and started shooting at all of the guards, hitting a few as he ran to cover. He slid over to a wall, braced against it and heard the panic and terror as his friends descended on the unsuspecting assassins.

He rounded the corner and walked up the steps, getting shots off as Sebastian cut down a guard while Lila shot two near Sebastian. Yang had one in a chokehold and Blake was whipping her pistol body around, landing blows with her cleaver and sword as Sun whacked a few guards. Ruby and Scarlet were fighting back to back, fending off attackers easily. Aero made his way to Weiss, who ducked a blow from a guard and stomped on another's ankle, breaking it. Aero took the man who missed and snapped his neck as the one with the broken ankle hollered in pain.

"Damn, not too shabby baby."

"Not too shabby?" she asked with a cocked eyebrow. Aero smiled and shook his head, drawing his sword to parry a blow and drive the blade into the man's gut. More of them had surrendered and as the smoke dissipated, Aero looked around and spotted Varis running upstairs.

"He's mine," he growled, taking off before anyone could stop him. Varis made his way to the fifth floor, breathing heavily, his hands on his knees as he caught his breath. He heard the footsteps behind him and turned in time with his sword, blocking Aero's strike and punching the master assassin.

"You really think you can kill me?" he said as Aero rubbed his jaw and twirled his sword in his hands. The two stared at each other, encircling the other until Aero dashed in, his move parried but nailed a hit to Varis's chest with a punch. Varis stumbled back, hitting the railing as Aero moved in, sheathing his sword. Varis swung wildly but his punch was caught, allowing Aero to trip the grandmaster and slam him hard on his back. Varis rolled and knocked Aero down, who kicked at him before quickly getting up. Varis lunged at Aero, who had drawn a pistol, and tackled him to the ground, both wrestling for the gun in his hand. Aero engaged one of his blades and stabbed Varis in the shoulder, the grandmaster yelling in pain as Aero hit him in the head with the stock of the pistol and pushed Varis off. He got up, cocked the gun and aimed it at Varis, who held his hands up, his stern face and voice never faltering as he looked at Aero.

"So, this is how you want to end it? A simple bullet?" Varis asked. Aero looked at his pistol and holstered it.

"Yeah, good point, should try and draw it out, give you a few more seconds."

"You're a fool for killing me."

"Is that so Varis?"

"It is Aero. You will doom humanity. How will it function without us?"

"Well, it did pretty well before the Guild."

"And that led to war!"

"And?! That's how life is! You talk about how humanity will not function without us! That's the problem! It never should've gotten to that point!"

"But we had too! Humanity… it can't be trusted. Look at what humans did to your kind."

"And look at what's happening with the relations between humans and faunus'. It's gotten much better in the past couple of years."

"And how long will that last?"

"Hopefully a good long while Varis. You are no longer needed. Humanity can and will function without you or the Guild. No more trying to get our legislatures passed, no more trying to influence people. It ends," Aero said, moving forward, expecting Varis to make a move and he did. Varis attacked with a blade aimed at his knee but was caught and his head was slammed hard into the ground. Varis tried to attack Aero again, who grabbed the grandmasters wrist and twisted it slowly, feeling the bone twist as the grandmaster yelled. Aero kept twisting until suddenly grabbing his opponents head and slamming it into the ground again. Varis' vision blurred, barely making out Aero, who slammed his head twice more into the ground, blood escaping from a laceration that had formed from the hammering. As Varis' vision slowly realigned, Aero grabbed the grandmaster's cheeks and held his head still.

"Goodbye Varis," he snarled, the grandmaster's eyes going wide, his head shaking and his body struggling against the assassin as Aero slid his hidden blade into his enemy's heart. Varis held a gaze with Aero, who let go of his face and thrust his other hidden blade into Varis' neck then removing the blade. Varis convulsed, blood spilling from his mouth, chest and neck until he finally stopped moving. Aero stood and went back downstairs to everyone, looking at him with relief.

"It's finally over," he said, Weiss running into his arms as the two shared a sweet moment, savoring the end of the long fight.

"AERO! Come on!" Weiss yelled out to her boyfriend. A year had passed since they had ended the fight with the Guild and everyone was as happy as could be. Ruby and Scarlet had gotten married, Blake and Sun were expecting a child while Yang and Sage had just moved in together. Aero and Weiss had settled into a large, high-rise apartment in the middle of the business center in Atlas.

"I'm coming!" he yelled back to her as he finished pulling a boot on. He walked out into their spacious living room and couldn't help but admire Weiss, who was wearing a white strapless dress that went to her knees, her hair flowing behind her in her off-center ponytail. She had just enough light blue make up around her eyes and her lips to add pop to her pale skin.

"Hi beautiful," he said with a grin that made her roll her eyes as she smiled at the compliment. He was wearing a white suit jacket, dark blue shirt and matching slacks with black boots. While his wardrobe hadn't changed, he did add one thing to his jackets and shirts: a large snowflake on the back, the crest of the Schnee family. His hair had remained short and he was clean shaven, his golden eyes staring at her as he walked over to her, leaned down and kissed her lips softly.

"Hello handsome. Ready to go?" she asked as they stood in the white living room with black furnishings, the color pallet copied throughout their apartment. Their entire apartment was large but intimate, giving the couple enough room to move around and plenty of large and small furnishing while also giving them the privacy they had wanted for a long while.

"I am… oh, wait," he said, turning back to their room.

"Oh hell Aero we are going to be late!" she yelled after him.

"Whoa, mouth sweetie. Besides, we're never late," he said behind him, infuriating her more as he opened a drawer on the nightstand. He moved around shirts and pants until he unearthed what he was looking for. He grabbed a small black box and opened it,revealing a silver band with three large diamonds in the center, with his initials inscribed on the inside. He closed the box, stuffed it into his inside jacket pocket and walked back to her.

"I don't want to be late for dinner with our friends."

"We won't," he said in a sincere tone, cupping her face and kissing her lips softly, "Let's go," he said with a big smile that confused her, not knowing of the surprise he had in store for her.

And another story is done, but this one will continue on soon. So, I know I talked about putting out a new chapter a day when I get to Uprising, and I want to because a lot of you guys have read my stuff for awhile now and I want to do that as a thank you. Here's the problem: I have my thesis paper, revised short story and a new short story along with my exams in the next month. So, the plan is this: I'm gonna take care of those and finish Uprising (still on 8 sadly). After my exams and what not, which officially end on December 12, I will post a chapter a day starting on the 13. So, in about a month, we will get to the end of Aero's journey. I really hope you guys have enjoyed the ride so far and again please keep not only Parisians but also Japanese and Syrians in your minds and prayers as all have faced tragedy since Friday. Again, I hope you guys have enjoyed it, send me any comments or thoughts on the story if you wish and I'll see you guys in a month. Until then stay safe and thank you for taking time out of your day to read this, it is greatly appreciated. And big thanks for being patient as I try to get my life back in order.

Sincerely,

Zach Piggott