Prologue
A cold morning, nothing too unusual for the residents of Atlas, if anything it would be almost apocalyptic for them to witness a summer sun in their cold, icy prison.
The city was full of three things.
Underpaid workers
Snobby upper-class citizens who see the lower classes as cattle.
Army personnel.
The last one wasn't too bad as they would usually be those who came from the underpaid worker category.
In a small house on the edge of the Atlas army base was a small family. The only child of this family had seen better days.
She woke above the floor, her hammock wrapped tightly around her to keep her warm, her long fluffy stark white tail curled around her leg, soon unravelled itself.
"Nix, get up! You've got three hours before your uncle picks you up!" Nix's mother called.
The artic fox Faunus yawned and slid out of the hammock with practised ease, years of the same sleeping arrangements made every morning work like clockwork.
Get up, get out of bed, get dressed, have breakfast, check dad's lab, grab coat, gloves, weapons and mask, then finally leave the house.
Nix was never normal, not even by Faunus standards. She had quite the accident as a child, she had a fear of powdered Dust ever since.
Her everyday outfit doubled up as her combat outfit, like many other Huntsmen and Huntresses in training. A pair of black trousers tucked neatly into her knee-high boots, no fancy heels just good thick soles that worked as shock absorbers from falling and to decrease the chance of her slipping on the snow and ice. A plain dark blue dress shirt hid her arms, a navy-blue vest over top.
Nix was always a light eater ever since her accident, her mother never complained. There was a squeak, a sigh and a little white rat appeared on the table, its name was Snow, it was Nix's pet and best friend. Slipping the little rat into her pocket Nix disappeared down the stairs to where her father worked.
The cellar was dark and cold but Nix didn't feel it.
"There's my little girl! Sleep well?" The man smiled from his desk.
"Morning Dad, you could say that."
"Dreams of the void, floating islands and whales again?" The older artic fox chuckled to himself going back to whatever experiment he was doing.
"Yeah, Mom said it's time for you to get some breakfast, we have under three hours until your brother-in-law comes around." Nix replied scratching at the scars on her cheek.
"Oh joy." He growled sarcastically.
"Well, let's hope he doesn't try to employ me again." He sighed scratching his pointed ears.
Nix's father a man named Hunter Regalia, ironically enough, was best known as being a mad scientist. The kind that would do horrific experiments on themselves, which explains why he has both the ears of a fox and the bushy tail like his daughter.
Nix watched as her father stood from his chair and stretched out, who knows how long he had been down here for. He looked to be working on her weapons, upgrading them for when she would start at Atlas Academy.
"Here you go, these should suffice for your first year." He smiled handing Nix her weapons, a folding sword, a pistol and a crossbow. Nix flicked her weapons testing the weight and how quickly she could draw them if needed.
"Thanks Dad..." Nix smiled her hand twitched as she hesitated.
"Now go out there and kick some Grimm ass!" Hunter laughed collecting his pride and joy in his arms in a tight embrace.
Heading back upstairs Nix returned to her room, grabbed the bags that held her extra sets of clothes and rat feed for Snow, she threw on her large coat, tugged up her gloves and placed her mask over her face, Snow gave another squeak as he travelled from the vest pocket to the coat's.
Heading outside Nix strapped her bags to her back and used her semblance suddenly appearing at the top of the tree, leaning back she sighed and closed her eyes, the air was cold but relaxing to her.
She fell back into the void, the floating islands of stone panned out before her most were a quick hop skip and a blink for her, she looked up hearing the call of the whale that "swam" above her, there were never any stars here, but floating lanterns lit up the path before her. She always returned here when she fell asleep, she knew this dark dream world well, though it was a shame that she would always be alone when wandering the void.
The whale would always be there though, it was always the same one, she could tell by the odd tendrils that grew a side its maw. She didn't know its name but felt as if it had one here, whenever the whale would call out Nix would try and mimic it as a reply. It was a fun game.
However, the void this time was silent as if she wasn't meant to spend very long here.
Waking with a jump Nix gripped the branch she was sat on and looked down to see her parents talking to a very familiar man.
A white overcoat, a single white glove, his stark white trousers tucked into silver boots akin to Nix's own outfit.
Nix blinked down to them and stood at nearly shoulder height with him.
"Uncle James." Nix said her pitch black eyes staring into his blue.
"Are you sure about this Nix?" He asked, the Faunus nodded in response gripping her bags straps tightly.
"Well let's get going then, it's going to be a long year." He smiled gripping his niece's shoulder as they walked to the car.
Nix sat silently in the back running her fingers over the whale bag her mother made her, she loved the whale bag despite her only recently growing into it. She loved it mainly because it looked like the whale from her dreams.
The drive was quick, through the quieter streets of the city, the small car parked up just outside, Nix got out and moved to the front to speak to her Uncle.
"Now remember what myself and your mother has told you." He said Nix only nodded.
"Only use my first name, hide my prosthetics, hide my tail, and don't give away that you're my uncle." She repeated to him.
"Good, now go on, I'll check on you after the opening ceremony." Her uncle, General James Ironwood, then drove onwards as Nix walked across the snow, she knew that no one would believe that she was his Neice, after all she looked more like a Schnee if not for her tail.
As for her prosthetics, due to an accident when she was younger, Nix had to have both her arms and legs replaced, the mask was to cover her metallic lower jaw and mechanical right eye there were certain limitations she had but the pros outweigh the cons to her. Her limbs never got tired, she could tear through metal like butter thanks to her jaw and she can teleport thanks to her semblance.
Walking up to the school's front gates Nix gave her whale bag a little squeeze, made sure her tail was hidden and swallowed any fear.
It was going to be a long first year.