Hell.

That was the only that could be used to describe the ruin. The entire battlefield looked like a smoldering wasteland, even long after the battle was over. What remained of this section of Mistral was burned out and gutted, much like as if a nuke went off. There was no life in any direction. No signs of anything, human, faunus, or Grimm.

Melanie Malachite's eyes slowly opened and as she looked around, she was met with this wasteland. She slowly sat up, brushing rubble off of her and tried to get to her feet. A sharp pain shot through her leg like lightning and she groaned in agony, still not completely conscious. She looked at her leg and did a double take, a shard of metal cut deep into her calf.

Melanie reached for a piece of half-charred wood to pull herself up, the wound in her leg pulsating waves of stinging pain every time she moved. She broke the piece of wood off of what was left of the foundation and leaned on it, using it as a makeshift walking stick. The first thing she felt while walking was that the air was much colder than it was before she lost consciousness. "I've must have been out for weeks" she thought to herself. She kept hobbling along, looking for any survivors.

For the better part of a day she limped along, looking for something different. Nothing changed, just miles and miles of wasteland. She was about to sit down and try to get some rest when she came across a small grove, or what was left of it. It was really only a few half dead trees and a stagnant pond. What really caught her attention was the sound of a girl sobbing, the voice sounding similar to her own. Melanie approached the source of the noise slowly, not wanting to disturb her. She kept walking towards the girl when she stepped on a fallen branch and it crunched loudly.

The girl spun around grabbing a vintage hunting rifle off of the ground and fired in Melanie's direction. She missed horribly, the bullet impacting a nearby tree and splintering wood everywhere. The girl slid back the bolt on her rifle, chambering another round when she stopped and looked straight at Melanie, who was frozen in place.

"M-Melly, you're alive!" the girl stammered out and ran to her, pulling her into a tight hug.

Melanie blinked, unsure of who it was for a second until she realized it was her twin, Miltia. She looked corpse like, pale and emaciated, with dark circles under her eyes. Melanie hugged back gently, without saying anything.

"I thought you were long gone..." Miltia continued, tears of joy and relief streaming down her face.

"What happened?" Melanie asked calmly, her memory being hazy and blurred.

"I...we...I don't know" Miltia started sobbing into Melanie "I'm just glad you're ok"

Melanie hugged Miltia, patting her back as Miltia cried into her. She sat down as Miltia cried into her and tried to think of what happened. She couldn't discern one memory from another, they were just mashed together into some kind of hellish slideshow. Melanie felt what she thought was tears at first, but then she realized the source of the liquid was not her eyes, but her head. She rubbed her forehead a little and looked at her hand. Dark, red blood covered her fingertips as she realized that she suffered more than just a leg injury in the battle.

Melanie let go of her twin slowly from her embrace and looked her in the eyes "why don't we go find the rest of them." She suggested to Miltia in a fake optimistic tone, trying to give her hope

The girl in red wiped her eyes and nodded slowly "o-ok" she stammered out, sniffling as she spoke.

The twins got up and walked along the pond, Miltia walking slowly as Melanie limped along behind her. Melanie had the rifle slung onto her back, being the less malnourished of the two. They walked along for about fifteen minutes until Miltia turned around slowly and looked her twin in the eyes "it's no use" she flatly stated, seemingly without emotion but with a small pang of sadness in her voice.

"What do you mean" Melanie responded, wondering what her sister meant.

Miltia sighed sadly and looked down "everyone's gone."

"As in..."

"They're all dead." Miltia added. "I'm surprised you made it, I thought that boy with the wolf ears bashed your head in."

Melanie struggled to recollect what happened. The last thing she remembered was fighting a boy, a bit taller than her. She tried to kick him in the throat and he slashed her leg open with some kind of cross between a cleaver and a hatchet. Everything was a blur after that.

Melanie sat down and put her hands on her head. "What the fuck..." was all could she could say. She was trying to process what happened. She took a few deep breaths and then looked up at her twin. "Everyone as in..."

"Everyone we know" Miltia continued "the fact of the matter is we were way over our heads."

"Did we win?" Melanie asked, wondering what the outcome of the battle was.

Miltia choked up a bit and looked down again "...no."

"So the city still stands?"

"Yes." Miltia was holding back tears, as she knew everyone that would even be remotely friendly to her and not wanting her dead or in prison was gone. They couldn't go to anyone for help. Not even Junior, for the twins betrayed him six months back.

Melanie stood up and grabbed her makeshift walking stick "We need to head into a town, it doesn't matter what the hell we did we were too low on the chain of command for anyone to give a shit. Ninety percent of everyone there will just see us as two random girls. We need to get you some food and I need some kind of stitches or pain meds." she took a step forward and winced, cussing under her breath.

Miltia wiped her eyes and followed her twin the other direction, towards what was left of Mistral.