Vine Zeki

**Vine Zeki** was a member of the Ace Operatives Specialists who first appeared in "The Greatest Kingdom", the first episode of Volume 7. His weapon of choice was Thorn.

In "The Final Word", he sacrificed himself to prevent Mantle from being destroyed by a bomb his side had originally deployed.

## Professional Status

### Previous Affiliation

* Atlesian Military
* Ironwood's Group

### Previous Occupation

* Huntsman
* Special Operative

## Appearance

Vine was a tall man with short shaved gray hair, deathly pale skin and light blue eyes. He had several tattoos, including a third eye tattoo along the center of his forehead and chin. He wore an Atlesian Specialist uniform that consisted of a white double-breasted, partially unbuttoned coat with a broad tail, navy blue accents, collar and shoulder flaps, a red sash running diagonally over his left shoulder meeting a second red sash around his waist under a large blue belt, and navy blue fingerless gloves that go up to his brachium. He wore navy blue pants tucked into a pair of navy blue thigh-high boots with steel toe and heel plating, a small pouch on the sides and kneepad detailing. He wore beaded necklaces around his neck and beaded bracelets around his right arm alongside two silver bands, one small, one large on his left forearm.

## Personality

Vine was described as calm and tranquil in both speech and temperament. He was shown to be in control of himself, especially when compared to the rest of Ace-Ops. He was also shown to be easily exasperated by their comparatively more gung-ho approach. Vine believed self-improvement was the highest pursuit.

At first, Vine, like other members of the Ace-Ops team, seemingly didn't consider his teammates to be friends.

Vine didn't seem to be very humorous. In "Pomp and Circumstance", when Marrow Amin joked about the new Huntsmen and Huntresses being fresh meat, Vine responded that he didn't smell any meat.

Vine, like the rest of his teammates, was intensely loyal to James Ironwood. He was wiling to follow through and support his decision to abandon Mantle in order to save who they could.

Despite his loyalty, Vine was shown to be similar to Marrow as he didn't wish to fight Team RWBBY in "With Friends Like These". He attempted to stop his teammates and them fighting each other by begging the group not to force them and later attempted to talk down Blake and Yang from fighting his team. Even when the situation had became more dire, Vine still attempted to try and resolve things peacefully, expressing understanding that what the group did was based on what they believed to be right and attempting to get them to see things in Ironwood's way.

When Ironwood killed Councilmen Sleet in "Divide", Vine was the only one to not visibly react.

In "War", when Lie Ren used his newly evolved Semblance to see the true emotions of the Ace-Ops, Vine's emotions remained calm and restrained, a stark contrast to his teammates.

Vine's composure was broken for the first time in "Risk", where he was visibly horrified at Ironwood nearly killing Marrow.

After hearing Robyn Hill ask them in "Worthy" what was more important, the people or the land they lived on, Vine began to question if they had really been doing the right thing up until that point.

Once Harriet decided to bomb Mantle herself, Vine attempted to talk her out of it since he believed it was pointless after the citizens of Atlas and Mantle were being evacuated. He believed that Harriet was doing it just as a way to hide her grief at Clover's and that she shouldn't let it control her. After he and the other Ace-Ops convinced her to stop and Arthur Watts armed the bomb himself, Vine decided to sacrifice his own life to save his friends from the bomb, using his Semblance to contain the blast.

## Powers and Abilities

Vine was a skilled fighter as he was in the Atlesian Special Operatives unit, one of the most elite groups of Huntsmen and Huntresses in Remnant. He showed a restrained style when entering battle, along with the Ace-Ops, as shown by his surprise of Team JNPR's headfirst approach. Vine also owned a weapon, Thorn, although he rarely used it. The only time where he was seen using Thorn was with his fight against Penny.

Vine's fighting style was heavily dependent on his Semblance, and he did not seem particularly durable (such as when Yang and Blake defeated him with a quick series of heavy hits), but conversely afforded him a fantastic degree of mobility and versatility. His agility and flexible fighting style allowed him to maneuver gracefully around a battlefield, swinging and ascending on his Aura vines and maintaining a smooth, flowing combat style that was in line with his calm and quiet personality.

### Weapon

Vine's weapon of choice was **Thorn**, a bladed throwing star. However, he rarely used it, instead mainly relying on his semblance in battles.

### Semblance

Vine's Semblance, **Aura Vines**, allowed him to generate vine-like appendages from his arms and legs, essentially extending the length of his limbs. He was seen using his Semblance to propel himself and grapple at other enemies, as well as using the extended limbs to punch at them from a distance.

Later during his battle against Blake and Yang, Vine displayed the ability to freely alter the shape of his Aura Vines into claws, allowing him to grapple and capture a fully grown woman with ease using his new Aura Claws and he also displayed enhanced strength, as seen when he was able to easily throw large boulders at Yang and Blake without difficulty.

Vine is also capable of forming a 'bubble' with his Semblance. One strong enough to contain the bomb that would have destroyed Mantle, though at the cost of his life in doing so.