Countdown

Sitting on the throne within his manor Shen tapped on the armrest under his hand. A holographic panel quickly opened up revealing a list of contacts. Shen selected one as the holographic screen quickly moved from his side too in front of him growing in size.

"Master, how can we assist you?" The video on the screen was the Council of Mistral. He could directly contact them from Kuchinashi at a moment's notice.

"Send down an order, I want Mistral's borders completely shut down. No one gets in and no one gets out. Also, I want every city and town put under lockdown. This is your top priority I don't want any issues occurring is that clear?"

"Of course as you wish Master Shen." The Council of Mistral all bowed as the video ended. They would get it done within a matter of days. However, Shen wasn't done there, after the hologram closed he quickly contacted someone else.

"Lord Shen to what do we owe the pleasure?" The image showed the memorable Venti. They looked just like before, impossible to tell whether they were a man or woman and their face was hidden.

The most immediate difference, however, was how they were speaking. They never called Shen Lord before and of course, he knew the reason. They must have gotten word of his influence in Mistral. He was now someone who could measure up and possibly threaten them, leading to a tone of respect.

"Venti it's been too long." Shen gave off a pleasant smile in which Venti returned with a nod.

"Indeed, we must admit we never expected you to go this far. Truly you hold more power in your hands than any singular person in the world." Shen laughed hearing that as his eyes narrowed.

"Tell me something Venti, The Black Sheep don't truly exist do they?" His question caused Venti's words to get caught in their throat. They were clearly surprised and that verified Shen's theory. No Noble Family hold's enough power to do what The Black Sheep do. It's impossible, however, that's if the Black Sheep was a Noble Family at all.

"I see… So you've figured it out, impressive though I should expect no less. Indeed The Black Sheep don't exist. 'We' are simply an organization or maybe an alliance is more accurate." The truth is hardly any large Noble Family gains power in this world through legal means. Nearly 90% of all of them have dipped their tows into the underworld.

As such The Black Sheep was formed over the Claus of allowing Noble Family's to stay in power. They would pool their resources and authority forming one will. This will would act under the benefit of all Noble Family's within it and would also keep them safe.

If one Noble Family grew too powerful or risked harming the other's then this 'group' would act balancing it out. This was The Black Sheep, the will of practically every major Noble Family in the world. As for Venti, they were the middle man, the person responsible for converging all possible information and acting in the interest of all parties.

In such a sense their role made them the most powerful person in the world when it came to authority even if they couldn't act however they liked.

"Venti, thanks to your help things have been going quite smoothly for me." Shen knew for certain that The Black Sheep had been handling things behind the scenes. It was very minor however they had been slowing information from spreading, hiding details, and misleading people tracking him. Overall, it made operations smoother.

"As such I'm willing to offer you all a deal. On one hand, I could deal with it all on my own and destroy the Noble Families in Mistral without a second thought. Or on the other, you could submit and work with me. You can limit my message to Mistral for now. You can let them know I'm willing to give them an opportunity they could only dream of. After all, I control Mistral's government."

Venti was silent as Shen spoke, they were smart and they could easily guess what Shen was offering. Each Noble Family lived in their own city and there they had nearly full control. Police, Personal Military, Taxes, Trades everything went through the Nobel Family of that City. They were like kings in that sense, however, they had limits.

They couldn't push their power too far or control cities with too tight of grips or else Mistral's government would take notice and shut them down. However, if Shen used his authority that changed. They could control their city however they liked with no interference. He was giving them unlimited power within their territory.

They could increase taxes and do whatever they wanted with their citizens. Anyone who resisted could be dealt with publicly with no backlash from Mistral. It would be a monarchy and all they had to do was pledge loyalty to Shen granting him control over them. Looking at it that way it an offer too tempting to refuse.

"And what about myself." Venti tilted their head to the side asking Shen calmly.

"I can make you my Iron Fist, my Envoy. I'll leave all the political matters and territory distribution to you." The nobles will reign over the cities and towns and Venti will control them under Shen's authority. Thinking about it Venti couldn't help but laugh to themselves.

"I see… Very well then. So tell me what is your first command for me?" Venti's tone shifted compared to before sounding more alive than before. The temptation was the bane of any person no matter how cold and ruthless they may be. Even Venti couldn't pass up such an opportunity.

"Send me a list of every city in Mistral that is not under The Black Sheep's influence. I'll deal with the rest." Venti nodded with a smile creeping across their face.

"Right away, Master Shen." And so the Noble Families were dealt with. Just a few minutes later Shen received the list from Venti as requested.

"Sienna prepare our forces and work alongside Taupher. I want them split into fifth separate groups. Taupher you will focus on managing resources and weapons. Anything Sienna requires for success will be under your jurisdiction to control." Taupher and Sienna who had been quietly listening to Shen speak both nodded.

"As you wish." Turning his head Shen looked towards the others.

"Our targets are the cities Venti listed, each section of forces will go after a group of targets. Torchwick you'll be in control of the secondary force while Taella your in control of the third. Neo will be in control of the fourth and Sienna and Taupher will control the fifth and manage things from here." Taella looked the most excited out of all of them.

"So we get to command our own armies doesn't that sound fun?"

"Oh, this is going to be fun."

As for the main force, Shen would be controlling that himself. What fun would it be sitting around doing nothing? L1 and L2 could easily handle communications between Venti and managing Mistral during this. By the time the borders are closed, everything will be mostly in place. And just like that everyone got to work.

The room was emptied a few minutes later leaving Shen on his own. Well temporarily at least as soon the sound of footsteps entered his ears. Entering through the doors of the room two people were being escorted by guards. It was both Pyrrha and Raven the two of them stepped inside before the guards bowed and left closing the door behind them.

"It's been a while are you two doing good?" Shen was obviously being sarcastic. He received constant updates on these two even when he was away. As for why they didn't have any restraints or cuffs on them? As long as Shen was around there was no hope of them ever escaping he knew that and so did they.

"Quit joking around what do you want!" Raven didn't humor Shen directly yelling at him. As much as she tried to hide it her eyes were burning with absolute rage. If she could she would kill Shen right here and now.

Despite that Shen just smirked at her before glancing over a Pyrrha. The look on her face was complicated, to say the least. Shen had used Mental Refitting on her however at the same time he didn't find an emotional vulnerability first. Instead, he used it when her will was the weakest. Now that she had recovered to some degree there was a conflict going on in her mind.

She despised Shen for what he did, she hated him, but at the same time, she couldn't bring herself to express that hate no matter what she did. Her mind and body were fighting against one another. As such when she looked at him all she could do was give off mournful look.

"Heh… You know you two have probably been treated better as prisoners than most people in this world have their entire lives. But that's fine, I need you two at your best either way." The two of them looked at Shen wondering what he was talking about. Standing up from his throne Shen began to walk towards them.

"I'm going to be giving you both a chance to kill me." Hearing that their eye's widened.

"Not now of course, at the moment the two of you are too weak. However, I'll be giving you two a chance to fix that soon enough. Whether or not you agree is up to you. Of course, if you do go along with it I can only ask that you two put on a good show. After all, we don't want the audience to get bored."

Pyrrha stared at Shen standing in front of her now and she couldn't match it to the Shen back at the academy at all. Shen leaned forward and whispered in Pyrrha's ear causing her body to tense up.

"I really hope you don't disappoint me. Out of everyone you were one of my favorites." Pyrrha didn't know what Shen meant by that nor did he explain. They were taken away just seconds later, Shen waved as they left.

Yes, there was no way anyone could have seen what was coming next.

"Daddy look what I made." A spirited young girl rushed into a large office holding a piece of paper in her hands. She was staring at the middle-aged man sitting behind a desk. He looked at her lovingly as sat up and walked over to her.

"What is it?" He bent down as she handed the paper to him, it was a crude drawing of him and her holding hands in a park. Looking at it and then seeing her excited expression a person couldn't help but smile.

"Do you like it?"

"Of course! I was looking for something to hang up on my wall and now I have this. I'll make sure never to take it down." Seeing how happy she was he was about to hang up the drawing until someone rushed into the office. This time it wasn't a family member but someone dressed in a uniform resembling a military officer.

"Forgive me for intruding Genera, but we have an issue. You need to come with me immediately." Hearing the serious tone in the officer's voice the General nodded. Looking back at his daughter he handed her drawing back.

"We'll hang it up on the wall when I get back ok? Try and find a good spot for it."

"Ok, Daddy." With that, the General stood up and quickly left the office. He along with the officer was a part of this city's military. Leaving the General's home which was located near the center of the city, the two of them quickly drove to their HQ.

When he arrived he noticed that the Mayor along with other important figures. Even the leader of this city's Noble Family was there.

"Ah, General your here good." The Mayor looked relieved when he saw the General enter. This room was full of military personnel working at their stations on different devices and monitors. However, what immediately caught the General's eye was the large monitor attached to the wall at the front of the room.

It was displaying a countdown and was currently at four minutes and twenty seconds.

"What is this?" Speaking to the officer who had led him here the General was confused.

"We're not sure. This signal has been played over every major broadcast signal in the Kingdom. In fact, it may even be broadcasting to other Kingdoms as well. We can't shut it off and it's being forcefully displayed on TVs and Monitors throughout the city. Even our equipment has been compromised." Hearing that everyone there couldn't help but frown.

No normal hacker could do something like this. A signal this large could only be handled by the CCTS tower's each Kingdom has to set up global communications. But to do that they would have to have bypassed Mistral's security entirely. That was impossible…

"So in the end we can only watch as it countdown?" The Leader of the Noble Family of this city sighed. This kind of situation made him too tense to calm down. The best-case scenario was the countdown was nothing and everything would be fine at the end. However, that was just wishful thinking.

One thing they were right about however was the range of the broadcast. It had indeed reached every major Kingdom in the world. Although the signal couldn't forcefully display itself on devices outside of Mistral millions of people saw it all the same.

"James, have you seen it already?" Ozpin sitting in his office had calm look on his face as he spoke.

"Of course, it's originating from Mistral but anyone in the world can tune in on it. Nothing we do can block it off." Ironwood's words were had deeply rooted worry within them. Staring at the countdown before them Ozpin's eyes narrowed.

'Something horrible is about to happen.'