The Beginning?

There was a wooden house by a large satellite dish located in the forests of northern Mistral. Surrounded by trees and a force field stretching 100 meters in diameter this was just about the safest place one could be except for the cities.

Inside the house were piles of scientific equipment, some books and a TV. The walls are pinned with newspaper articles concerning the man Phoenix Garnet Moon and the company Moon-Access.

There were pictures of the young man as an Atlas Soldier, as a company CEO, and as a scientist.

But that was a long time ago.

Now Phoenix just sat on the sofa, playing with his yo-yo, watching the Vytal Festival tournament like he always did every two years when it was held.

The Vytal Festival, it was supposedly symbolizing unity between kingdoms and exchange in culture. The most celebrated festival in the world. Phoenix enjoyed watching the huntsmen and huntresses fight as a child, sitting at the back seats with his father.

But that was also a long time ago.

Now the fights were uninteresting and predictable, except for that last match where the yellow girl broke that silver guy’s leg-the irony made Phoenix chuckle slightly.

Now it was Pyrrha Nikos’ fight, which was always something to watch.

Pyrrha was supposedly a very skilled fighter winning the Mistral regional tournament four years in a row. Phoenix heard about her of course, and looked forward to seeing the fight.

And Phoenix watched till the end; it was interesting all right, but it filled him with shock.

Pyrrha seemed to have activated some kind of a shock wave and her opponent was sliced to pieces by the wires attached to her swords. What was more shocking is that the opponent seemed in reality to be a robot or android.

Phoenix gazed at the screen, mouth wide and lost for words, thinking of all the possible explanations for such a turn of events.

Then the screen flashed and changed to a black queen chess piece on red background, with a woman’s voice speaking clearly and calmly.

“This is not a tragedy. This was not an accident. This is what happens when you hand over your trust, your safety, your children, to men who claim to be our guardians, but are, in reality, nothing more than men.”

''I didn’t and don’t need to hand over my trust to anybody'', Phoenix snorted.

“Our Academies' Headmasters wield more power than most armies, and one was audacious enough to control both.”

Hearing this, Phoenix laughed, knowing that the woman meant General Ironwood, his old “Commanding Officer” whom he disliked.

He then listened patiently, slightly disturbed at the speech as it went on.

“Our kingdoms are at the brink of war, yet we, the citizens, are left in the dark. So, I ask you, when the first shots are fired, who do you think you can trust?”

The woman finally finished. Phoenix stared at the screen which turned static, silent in thought.

Phoenix stood up from the sofa and started to pace around the room, seemingly agitated.

“See, this is strange. More than strange, strange is an understatement!”

Phoenix began talking to himself as he always did when something struck his mind.

“Question one: Why does whoever did this do it? Answer is pretty straightforward, probably because she wanted to cause chaos.”

“Question two: Who is she? Or rather who’s the mastermind as the woman might just be a pawn. What do we know?”

Phoenix sat in front of his desk, opening his computer.

“While I’m terribly bored and have nothing better to do, let’s just investigate this. So we know that she had complete control over the broadcasting system, and a black queen is shown. What does this tell us? This event was planned carefully, the person has power and probably like chess. By entering this into the police database I hacked into I could find the most likely person behind all of this. See Dad? Hacking isn’t useless.”

Phoenix looked behind him, smiling but falters after realising that his father was not there.

“Don’t worry dad, I’m not just doing this for the fun of it. I’m going to make you proud and they will speak our family’s name with admiration again.”

Meanwhile in Beacon…

Lilac stood in shock as the speakers delivered the warnings of a grimm attack.

''“Threat level: Nine. Please seek shelter in a calm and orderly manner.”''

“Nine?!”

Lilac looked up to see masses of nevermores flying towards her, their black bodies seemed to join into a gigantic sheet covering the sky and blocking the sun.

“Oh my goodness…”

She dashed out of the cafe she was in and grabbed her flute before being met with nevermore. Lilac continued running as the nevermore flew above her, trying to grab her with its claws. Lilac reached a T junction, turning right as the nevermore crashed through a shop window.

Remembering the route to the Amity Colosseum, Lilac continued to run in its direction, worrying about her teammates who were still in it.

Suddenly a dozen more beowolves blocked her path. With a sigh Lilac charged at the pack, attacking the grimms’ eyes and dodging swipes of the claws before making her way past them.

Lilac ran. She continued to run; she was running for her life now, hopefully to safety when she arrives at the Colosseum. Lilac pressed a button changing the flute into a shotgun, ready to attack from a distance.

She loaded her gun and aimed it at another grimm which was crawling on a roof ready to pounce. Lilac fired as the grimm jumped, before falling down to the ground.

The main task now wasn’t to protect the school; it is not basic survival.

After over ten minutes of running and shooting she finally saw other students battling the grimm while slowly retreating to the landing pads.

Lilac suddenly saw a boy who she recognised as one of her team leader Scarlet’s friends. Lilac ran towards him, while shooting at an ursa which was coming close.

“Thanks,” the boy said.

“Have you seen my team?” Lilac asked quickly.

“They were defending a shop full of people,” the boy whispered after a long pause.

“Where are they?”

“They fought well,” the boy mumbled, looking down.

“They’re-”

“Dead,” the boy continued, “I’m sorry.”

Another long pause.

Lilac finally sighed, fighting back tears.

“They fought well,” the boy repeated.

Lilac nodded, trembling, “Let’s get to safety.”

She turned to see several Atlesian Knights glowing red aiming their rifles at her. Lilac turned her shotgun back to a flute, determined to charge at the Knights and arrive to the landing pads.

Meanwhile in Mistral…

“Only two in the database fit the criteria well, and one of them is in prison.”

Phoenix stared at the screen, reading out the information on the most likely suspect.

“The Chess-master. Besart Gilford. Usually uses chess pieces as a calling card. Apparently runs a massive global underground criminal network. He’s probably the person responsible.”

Phoenix spun on his chair, sipping a mug of coffee, “Better get ready Chess-maker! I’m coming!”