The Second Faunus Revolution

The situation only needed a small push to lead to war. A series of drought years and crop failures crippled Menagerie's economy and starved its population, the suffering bringing ever-increasing hordes of Grimm. The island nation teetered on the brink of chaos.

Newly elected High Leader Adam Taurus painted a picture of a great and fertile land waiting for them...it they could only claim it. Every ship, dinghy, and aircraft was rounded up, and the newly constituted Army of Menagerie launched a massive assault on the city of Mistral, seeking to claim it as their own territory. While the army attacked directly from without, the White Fang was reactivated and launched a campaign of chaos and terror against civilian targets from within, impeding the kingdoms' ability to respond to the threat.

The conflict was short-lived. Mistral's traditional ally Atlas brought its full military might to bear. Menagerie was bombed into a smoking wasteland, fully half its population dead and the rest displaced. The White Fang was brought down by espionage from within, all its major leaders rounded up and executed in a single coordinated sting.

The newly elected Mistrali and Atlesian councils led the way with the simplest and most final of solutions. Faunus living in their territories, along with the surviving population of Menagerie, were rounded up and sent to "processing centers" in the frozen north of Solitas. Upon arrival, all males were vaporized en masse, regardless of age. Females were evaluated for their usefulness; the old and infirm were sent off to the killing fields to die with the men, while those capable of working were sorted and priced. The strong--horses, goats, buffalo--were for manual labor. Rodents who could dig and monkeys who could climb were eagerly snapped up by the construction industry. Cows and chickens were sent to farms to produce milk, eggs, or meat. The most attractive young women, catgirls and foxgirls prominent among them, were to be pleasure slaves for the elite. All were sold off to businesses and wealthy individuals who jumped at the thought of cheap or free labor, with the proceeds being used to fund the costly logistics of winnowing the Faunus. Those with potentially dangerous Semblances or other skills were surgically neutralized before sale.

Vale and Vacuo, historically more tolerant of the Faunus, protested at first, but the constant terrorist attacks committed in their cities by the White Fang left the human population unsympathetic. Similar programs were eventually enacted, with the common rule that all male Faunus be killed on sight. Never again would their race be allowed to breed and multiply on their own.

Blake

Blake Belladonna trudged onward, the running chain connecting all the Faunus in her gang tugging at the shackles in her wrists if she slowed down. She'd failed. Her father had failed, murdered by his own people when he tried to propose a compromise solution. She'd failed even to escape Mistral.  She and Sun had come back from their Grimm-hunting mission in the wilds of Anima only to be set upon by an Atlesian special ops team, bound, stripped, and thrown into a holding cell with dozens of other Faunus. They were herded into a train, where they sat for what seemed like days, headed they knew not where. For a while the train car rocked, and they speculated among themselves that they might be on a ferry.

And then the train stopped and unloaded them...here. A cluster of nondescript concrete buildings in a high, remote mountain valley socked in by snow. The chain gangs were being led toward the central area, where they were formed into a number of lines, each with a bureaucratic-looking human at the head talking to and inspecting the prisoners one by one. After a brief inspection, they were divided into new gangs and sent in different directions. The men were all put together in big groups and moved into the buildings, while the women were divided into smaller groups and sent back to the train, loaded into specific cars. Many of the groups of women seemed to have animal traits from similar species. Blake shivered as the cold wind tore at her thin prison uniform.

And then they were at the front of the line. Sun was in front of her. The middle-aged man inspecting the prisoners looked at him and quickly said, "Block Six," clipping his shackles into a large group of men headed for the building to their right. Sun smiled back at her as he was led away. "See ya soon, Blakey!" He blew a kiss. Blake had to smile a little at his efforts to put on a brave face.

The man took longer to look at her, filling out a form on his scroll. "Feline...ears...about five-foot-seven." He tapped away. "Name? Age?" Blake answered automatically, too cold and hungry to argue.

Then, without warning, the man reached behind her and squeezed her ass. Blake jumped in surprise. He winked. "Excellent specimen. Car Eight." She was chained to a group of half a dozen other young Faunus women and they were brought back to the train.

Car Eight was nicer than the featureless boxcar Blake and Sun had been packed into on the way there. It had a bathroom, where they were allowed to quickly shower and wash off the filth of the last few days, and simple bunks, with shackles where the guards attached their chains. Blake wolfed down her ration of bread and soup and quickly drifted off to sleep, too tired to even care about the discomfort of lying down with her hands shackled behind her back.

She woke to the train pulling into a station and the guards stomping down the passageway, putting everyone back on the running chain. The group in Car Eight were quickly roused and hurried off the train, blinking as their eyes adjusted to the bright light after using their sensitive dark vision in the dim interior of the train.

Blake knew where they were: Atlas West Station, the major depot where trains carrying raw Dust from the mines entered the city and were split up into smaller groups of cars to be delivered to the refineries in the industrial district. The White Fang had unsuccessfully tried to break in years ago. At the moment, it appeared to have been converted into a depot for prisoners. Dozens of trains like Blake's were unloading their cargos of female Faunus. A gunship passed overhead with a low drone. There was a great hubbub around the other end of the station, where the prisoners were being led. Several voices shouted at once over megaphones, too far away to hear distinctly.

Car Eight was herded over to a relatively small area at one end of the station with about a hundred other Faunus, where their wrist shackles were attached to rings in the wall, holding them with their backs to the wall and their arms over their heads. Everyone here was young and above average attractiveness, with a high concentration of feline ears and tails.

Then the soldiers went down the line stripping them. Blake spat at the young corporal as he unceremoniously unbuttoned and pulled off her light smock, which only earned her a hard smack in the face. She was left completely naked in the chill fall air. Some of the soldiers winked at each other and made crude comments as they did their job, occasionally stopping to grope a breast or a crotch. A few of the prisoners cried; most stared in shocked silence. A second soldier made his way down the line with a sponge and a bucket of warm soapy water, scrubbing her down. A third brushed her snarled hair until it fell straight and smooth down her back again. A fourth had a razor, removing the black stubble from her armpits, legs, and crotch. Blake stayed very still for that one, conscious of the sharp blade near her privates.

And then they were put back on the running chain and marched out to the front of the station onto a makeshift stage. There were several stages that Blake could see. The biggest had signs announcing BEASTS OF BURDEN, CATTLE AND STOCK, and HOUSEHOLD; smaller, more specialized marketplaces said SWIMMERS, DIGGERS, and EXOTIC. On each stage, an auctioneer brought the Faunus prisoners up on stage and heard bids, selling them off one by one to the well-dressed humans in the stands.

The stage Blake was brought out on was one of the smaller ones, but very well attended for its size, and the clientele looked richer than the ones bidding at the big stages. The sign said PLEASURE. Blake's heart sank as she looked out on the sea of wealthy older men intently watching the naked prisoners being brought out onto the stage.

The bidding went quickly, each prisoner taking center stage for only a couple minutes before the winning bidder led her away. Soon it was Blake's turn. The guards pulled her to the front, spinning her around and roughly spreading her legs to display her body. For the first time, Blake felt exposed. "And here we have an excellent nekomimi specimen!" the auctioneer barked. "Nineteen years of age, fine black hair and ears, look at that ass! Former Huntress, so if you want one with some fight and attitude in her, this is the kitty for you!"

The bidding started. Ten thousand. Twenty. Thirty. Fifty. Seventy-five. A hundred. One hundred fifty thousand from a young man with blue hair and yellow eyes. "Going...going..." The young man stood up to pay the cashier.

Then a paddle went up in the very front row. Two hundred thousand. The young man sat down. The buyer, a lean elderly man in a white suit, handed his card to the cashier while his burly manservant went to meet the soldiers leading Blake down off the stage. They handed her off to the servant, who draped a robe over her shoulders and led her out past the audience to a long silver limousine. Blake considered bolting as they exited the station, only to be discouraged by another military airship humming by overhead. This whole town would hunt her down.