Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.

xXx

Seeing Red

xXx

Anger and rage were very familiar emotions to Adam Taurus. Some would go as far as to claim they sustained the bull faunus and had kept him going were others would have long given up. Perhaps, there was some truth to that. Unlike his... partners, the authorities knew exactly what he looked like and were actively hunting for him. Most would not have been able to avoid Mistral's authorities for as long as he had and made it all the way to the White Fang's main base in Mistral through a Grimm-infested forest.

Adam did though. Rage. Spite. Hatred. All of them pushed him onwards. All of them swirled inside of him, reassured him of one thing.

Blake Belladonna would pay.

"Sir!" One of the guards cried out when he saw him near the base. Adam's clothes were dirty and torn in various places. The sheer number of Grimm his negativity had attracted had been more dangerous to him than the night's mission. "Are you okay? What happened? We lost contact with-"

The guard stopped talking when Adam glared at him; such was the power of Adam's glare that people could feel it even through the mask that always adorned his face.

"Gather everyone," Adam growled out. The guard paled and hurried to follow his orders. The other guards, not willing to draw his ire opened the gates for him and stayed very still as Adam made his way past them.

Three hours later, Adam stood just outside the main hall. Inside, there were about 50 members of the White Fang.

"Is this all?" He asked. His voice dripped with negative emotions. For some, three hours would have been enough time for their anger to cool down. Adam had plenty of experience keeping his rage at a boiling point and not one degree less.

"Y-yes, sir," stuttered one of their members. "Communication is hard since the CCT went down. We couldn't call everyone, a-and we can't transmit live. However, we'll make sure the recording reaches all our Mistral cells."

"No," Adam said.

"Sir?"

"You won't be sending this just to Mistral," Adam said as he walked inside. "All the White Fang needs to hear this."

The moment Adam stepped into the room all conversation died. Eyes full of respect, admiration and even slight hints of fear in the case of a few followed him as he made his way to the podium.

"Brothers and Sisters of the White Fang," Adam began, his voice powerful and clear. This was the voice of a man Blake Belladonna had once believed to be justice. "Today was supposed to be a day of triumph for us! Beacon fell before our might! Haven was supposed to follow. However, we were betrayed! Our own brothers and sisters, our fellow faunus, they set a trap for us. They stopped us from reminding the world why it should fear the faunus, why it should never dare to raise its hand against our brethren! "

Murmurs rose up from the small crowd. Adam let them go for a moment before continuing. "The ones who stopped our plan were not just a misguided few. No, this betrayal cuts far deeper for they informed Mistral's government of our plans. They set them upon us. I saw with my own eyes as they handed our own over to them to be caged like animals! I barely managed to escape their grasp."

The crowd roared. Adam fought to keep a smile off his face. It wasn't hard. All he needed to do was think of Blake.

She may have stopped his plan, but she had made one crucial mistake. It would have been one thing if she had just shown up with a group of faunus to stop him. However, she hadn't done that. She had called the police on them. She sided with the Mistralian government against the White Fang. She had turned her fellow faunus over to Mistral's authority, human authority. That was the one thing the White Fang could never forgive. Had this been Vale, it may have been more acceptable. Mistral, though?

The only way she could have erred harder was if she had done this in Atlas.

"You don't need me to remind you of all the many great things Mistral has done for you," Adam said, spite dripping from his words. The anger radiating from the crowd came close to matching his own. "You live them every single day. You know how well Mistral has protected you from the Schnee Dust mines. I am sure our brothers and sisters of Windpath can tell you all about the many good things Mistral did for them when the local crime lords hired Hunters to extort so-called protection money from their families, all while the humans in Mistral grow fatter by the day. "

A section of the crowd shouted their approval. Adam was glad they had enough members from Windpath present this night.

"People say we need Hunters to defend us against the Grimm. I tell you Hunters only ever care about those who have the money to pay them! The humans in Mistral control the wealth. They deny us opportunities and keep Hunters as their private army. It is Hunters who zealously guard the Schnee Dust Company! It was a Hunter who killed our great leader, Sienna Khan! Today, we were supposed to put a stop to that! And yet... and yet one of us dared to side with them against us!"

"Who was it?" Someone in the crowd shouted.

"Who was the traitor?" Another yelled. The question was soon echoed by many in the crowd.

"It was the Belladonnas," Adam said at last, prompting numerous shocked gaps from the crowd.

"I know it is hard to believe," Adam went on. "Once upon a time, Ghira Belladonna led the White Fang. He saw the unfairness of the world and sought to change it. However, his methods failed, and Ghira Belladonna did what was best for the faunus. He stepped down, making way for a more capable leader. It was thanks to Sienna Khan's methods that the White Fang has flourished into what it is today. It is Sienna Khan's vision that I seek to make a reality! The Ghira Belladonna I know would have never betrayed us like this, but time has a way of changing people. While we have fought and bled for the cause, he has been content to stay and rule over the prison known as Menagerie. He has been content to live as humans want us to live, locked away in a tiny corner of the world."

Angry hisses rose from the crowd. Menagerie would always remain a sore spot for the White Fang. It was a sanctuary for faunus. That much was true. However, living there was too much like giving up, and everyone in the room knew it.

"Today, Ghira Belladonna has shown his true colors," Adam said. "He not only sided with the humans over us. He has tainted the minds of our brethren in Menagerie. He has told them it is okay to live in hiding. He has told them it is okay to bow to human authority, that it is okay for humans to rule over us! Is that something you can agree with?"

The response from the crowd was unanimous. No. They would not stand it. They would not bear it. They would reject it with every fiber of their being.

"Of course not!" Adam said to the roaring approval of the crowd. "It is not us who should bow to the humans! Humans cannot see as we do. They cannot hear as we do. They cannot fight as we do! We are superior! It is they who should bow to us! It is the White Fang's purpose to show them this truth! Traitors like the Belladonnas cannot be allowed to get in the way of our glorious mission!"

In a smooth motion, Adam drew his sword and stabbed it into the ground.

"On this day, I declare the Belladonnas and all who would follow them traitors to the White Fang! Traitors to our kind! Treat them as you would a Schnee. Show no mercy to them for they have shown none for us! Show them that the White Fang stands united!"

As he stood before the frenzied crowd, Adam knew that he had won. The day he had killed Sienna Khan he had become High Leader of the White Fang in name.

By the time his speech made its way around the world, his position would be beyond reproach.

xXx

The End

xXx

AN: The idea came to me shortly after watching the end of Vol 5. Sure, Ilia is all like, "The White Fang won't support a leader who runs," but what was the alternative there? Adam was outnumbered like 50 to 1. Hell, Adam is the guy who got the White Fang to go along with Cinder's plans after a bunch of them died during the end of Vol 2. Compared to that, this is nothing. I get that they want to get rid of the White Fang plot as soon as possible (I hope), but I wanted to explore some possible ramifications here.

Writing this was hard, though. Long speeches are a pain in the ass.