If it seems I'm villainizing Ironwood or Atlas in this chapter, it's only because it's so easy to do. Also, you haven't seen anything yet! I've got a lot more on the evils of a military state, and you won't want to miss that!

Storm felt uneasy as he walked into General Ironwood's officer on board his flagship, the Chrome Axe. He had been summoned during dinner, before he could even finish. He was more nervous than he had ever felt before.

The office was made of metal painted white, with a desk bolted to the floor of similar construction, and an uncomfortable looking chair on the side of the desk facing Storm. Other than that, the room was quite barren, having nothing but what he imagined was needed to complete a general's paperwork. Ironwood stood behind his desk, and gestured to the chair. "Have a seat, mister Sapphire."

"Thank you," Storm replied and seated himself. He had no idea why General Ironwood had called him here, but he was terrified. Ever since the Atlesian fleet had showed up, he wondered why they had. There was no war to fight, no enemy to conquer. It made him think that Atlas was going to take over Vale, which he very much hoped wasn't going to happen.

"I guess I should tell you why I asked you here," the general said. "I called you here about your brother: Rayne Sapphire."

He felt relieved and even more nervous at the same time. "What about Rayne?"

"We believe he may be unknowingly involved with a terrorist organization of some kind." Terrorists?! He felt his eyes grow large as the general finished, and his heart dropped. "Yes. We fear that Rayne is being manipulated by his partner, Ember Fall, who has ties to one of the terrorists."

He was shocked. He couldn't even speak! Rayne a terrorist?

"Now, this is just a theory, but it would correlate with the odd set of events he's been through since enrolling in Haven. The shooting, the disappearance, the reappearance. It's all very suspicious."

"What about that threat they were tracking down for Headmaster Forester?" Storm asked.

"Really? Well if they were, Forester never told me," Ironwood replied. "More likely that was a lie to avert suspicion." Was anything true anymore? "Really, Mr. Sapphire, I thought you were smarter than that."

He was at a loss for words. "But we can't prove any of this," Ironwood continued. "For all we know, this could be a humongous misunderstanding, and Forester forgot to tell us."

He felt a little more hopeful, but one question occurred to him. "Why tell me all this?" Storm asked.

"He's your brother, and a fellow student. If anyone has a right to know this, it's you." That made sense, he supposed. "Dismissed."

As Storm got to the door, Ironwood seemed to remember something else. "Mr. Sapphire."

"Yes?" Storm replied.

"We found an old woman unconscious on the school grounds. It looked like someone was trying to hide her. Her ID identified her as Locaster Sapphire—a relative of yours?"

"Yes," Storm said concern. "That's my great aunt!" His great aunt who inspired both his mother and uncle into becoming Hunters. "Is she alright?"

"She's in a coma, but we think she'll pull through. Do you want us to contact your family about this, or do you want to do it yourself?"

He considered it. He was never any good at explaining things, so he thought it was better if they told them. "You can do it," he said.

"Alright. As I said, you're dismissed."

He exited and breathed a sigh. This was a lot to take in. His great aunt was in a coma, he was getting summons from Atlesian generals, and his brother was a suspected terrorist. If this was what college was like for his siblings Vermont and Tress, he felt sorry for them, he really did.

Azura was on her way to the airfield so that she could watch the next tournament match. Team SNOW was going to battle some other team with an especially odd name—she couldn't remember it, but it may have started with an "I" or a "J", or maybe a "G". As her boots clacked along the pavement to the large disks, she heard another pair of boots coming up behind her much faster.

As the boots came closers, she was tempted to move her hand closer to Standoff. While it was most likely some overeager student who was afraid of missing the transport up to the arena, more often than not a pair of running feet behind her belonged to a Grimm, at least back home it was. When the student called her name, she could recognize his voice: it was Rusti.

She turned around, and sure enough, it was Rusti. "Azura," he called out again. He caught up with her soon enough and they continued walking to the airfield. "Azura," he said, "I'm sorry about blowing up at you yesterday."

"No harm done," she replied.

He paused, and continued. "Well, there's something I have to say. What I said… wasn't very nice. I shouldn't have said what I said. But I will say this for what you said: that wasn't so nice either."

"So?" she said.

"So, I think you owe me an apology just I much as I did."

"Huh." An apology; he wanted an apology? She thought that they were even, so neither of them needed to apologize. Apparently things worked different for city folk. "Then I'm sorry. But you still need to visit Tyson."

He growled slightly. "Why is this such an issue? Why do you care whether or not I visit my brother?"

She sighed, and she realized it almost sounded like she was hissing. "I said I knew what it was like, and I do."

They had walked to the airship where two Atleasian guards were posted. The guards wanted for them to show their IDs, and they did. The guards were satisfied, and they boarded. They took a couple of seats on the airship, and waited for it to take off.

Meanwhile, Rusti continued to press Azura for information. "How? How could you know how it's like?" he asked.

She considered how to say this. She measured how many words it would take, and said, "While ago, a tree fell on my mom's legs, breaking them." Rusti cocked his head. Apparently that wasn't enough. "My mom was fighting Grimm. A Beowulf made a tree fall on my mom, and her legs broke. While here, her legs probably could have been healed so that she could walk again, but to this day she hasn't—says it's too painful."

Rusti's jaw seemed to drop. "I'm sorry."

"Not your fault."

"No, I'm just… I never thought… I'm sorry. It must be very difficult talking about this."

"Yeah."

Rusti was quiet for a while. "So how did you get over it?"

"Really, sometimes I envy her; she doesn't have to go fight Grimm. But other times, I feel sorry for her. She's my mother, and for ten years she's barely left the house." She felt something odd; an itchy liquid running down her face. She rubbed the liquid onto her glove and she examined it. She had been crying.

"So I should visit my brother?" Rusti said.

"Yeah," she replied, and put her arm down.

"Then I'll go later this afternoon."

She nodded. It was good that he decided to. Now she wouldn't have to listen to him.

"Hey." Azura looked to her right to the source of the voice. It was Crystal. "Are you excited for the next match?"

"Yep," Rusti said. "Who was SNOW fighting again?"

"Team JNPR."

Yes, team JNPR. This is going to be fun.