Chapter Four: Impact Winter

Ruins of Beacon

Merlot held up the holographic display of the Grimm horde, so massive the image was distorted and downscaled to accommodate the total. "The number is sufficient. I trust the stress has eased?"

Regen, seated on her makeshift throne of scrap metal, nodded. "They are calmer. They speak less frequently. But when they do speak… the number becomes overwhelming."

"There will be another disruption before the process is complete," Merlot warned her. "If you lose yourself in the Grimm's chain of communication, all this will be for naught."

"I have something to motivate me, Doctor," Regen told her cohort. "How much longer do you need?"

Merlot switched the display on his scroll, showing his ally a projected map of weather patterns. "Once the water vapor dissipates above the tower and the methane from the Red Dust settles around my instruments, we launch the final volley. With the remaining reserves of Yellow Dust, there should be enough force to propel the magnetized debris right into the hole we'll tear."

"How much longer, doctor?" Regen repeated, briefly breaking her calm front. A pair of nearby Creeps stopped to glance towards Merlot, and the scientist was quickly reminded of how precarious his position was.

Merlot smiled. "You needn't fret. In mere hours, we will tear through the sky. We will create a perfect, endless storm."

Regen looked through her thick black locks towards Merlot's labcoat. "And the serum?"

"Enough for one more injection, and only one," Merlot advised. "One more risk to be considered."

"A risk worth taking," Regen assured him, her voice monotone once again. The nearby Grimm grew disinterested in Merlot, continuing their wandering.

Merlot returned his attention to his scroll, examining the holographic display of Beacon and the Grimm horde, expanding outwards…

"Hopefully, before our enemy moves on us," Merlot dryly observed, pulling up the display for his ally once again, this time focusing on a collection of tiny, trim figures amassing on the edge of the Safe Zone. "Because Atlas is about to knock on our door."

Regen audibly sighed. If they interfered now, she'd have to instruct the Grimm personally to attack them. Left to their own devices, the Grimm would lash out and attack the soulless soldiers, and eventually break from their carefully managed trance. They'd already briefly considered leaving the ruins when a burst of negative emotion emanated from the rest of Vale, and she'd had to quickly suppress their instinct to pursue their quarry.

Directly controlling that many Grimm in the heat of battle would be difficult. There'd be hundreds of voices talking at once. And hundreds more hearing cries in the distance. And hundreds more sensing the changes; the discrepancy of mass, even in the dark.

"The storm is already intense," Regen pointed out. "Will their army really try to attack us?"

"When all they sacrifice are empty hunks of metal, Atlas can be quite reckless," Merlot answered. "Perhaps they think matching the Grimm's numbers will give them the edge."

"Do you think they know what we're doing?" Regen inquired. Her calm demeanor broke as her cold focus shifted towards a more personal slant… rage buried just below the surface, scratching and clawing to be unleashed. "Did Schnee tell them…?"

Around him, the Grimm began to stir again, reacting to Regen's sudden outpouring of emotion. Amplified by a serum that already attracted them, Regen's rage was slowly becoming their rage. Beowolves and Creeps began moving towards Merlot, snarling and thrashing about.

Merlot tried to keep on topic. "If your old friend told her countrymen anything, it's too little and too late. Even if they move on our position, they won't reach us in time, and they'll be caught at the point of impact and swept away."

Regen was slow to compose herself. She had to focus on her objective, bring her mind into the present, away from a powerful, vivid memory to a gray and mundane sight. She clenched her hands against her metal seat, she clenched her teeth and held muscles in her abdomen in place. Slowly, gradually, she felt it again… not anger, not betrayal, not despair…

Just pain.

The Grimm surrounding Merlot abruptly lost interest and resumed their meandering, as Regen took a deep breath and turned her thoughts away from the Schnee of Mantle, and towards the scientist from Vale.

"Hurry, doctor," she requested. "I will not allow myself to fail when I'm this close."


Vale Safe Zone, District 16 Border

"I really must protest this," Ironwood muttered feebly into his scroll.

"Again, your objection is noted, General," one of the Atlas councilors replied patiently. "Do you require any more clarification on your orders?"

"Only that I don't understand your strategy," Ironwood answered, more terse than he intended.

"This is only an expeditionary force being committed, General," the same Atlas councilor explained. "Less than 12% of the AK-200 corps will be sent into Beacon, purely to perform reconnaissance."

"And the instant the Grimm spot them, they will be attacked!" Ironwood protested.

"The number of Grimm is only increasing," another Atlas councilor reminded him. "Unless we increase production of the knights, your reinforcements will be overwhelmed regardless."

"But here we have a defensible position," Ironwood countered.

"General, your concerns have been noted," one of the exiled Vale councilors reiterated. "We require more information on the Grimm's activities and we want to –if possible- to locate Merlot. We anticipate some of the knights will be destroyed. We do not expect these losses to be unacceptable."

"Do you want us to clarify your instructions, James?" one of the Atlas councilors inquired.

Another reminder of his place; another bitter pill to swallow. "No, sir," Ironwood managed.

"We'll leave you to it, then," the same Atlas councilor concluded. "We'll contact you again for a status report at 1900 hours."

Ironwood was finally alone, but the reach of the Council hadn't lessened its grip upon him. In pledging his loyalty to them, he hadn't expected they'd be ignoring his military experience or his advice.

But then, he hadn't predicted a lot of things recently.

Ironwood sent in the orders to his techs, and went to the bridge to view the departure. The AKs didn't need time to organize; they didn't require logistical support. They just received their instructions and marched.

Just over one hundred Atlesian knights moved from their positions in defensive battlements and formed ranks just past the border of the safe zone, organizing into squads of ten, then further into scouting parties of four and combat cells of six. They began their march, moving into the ruins of Beacon.

Into the storm.


Vale Safe Zone, District 4

After a long trudge through mud, constant rainfall, and more than one extraction from deep pits in the ground, Ruby, Jaune, Nora, and Ren finally reentered the premises of the city. What had once been a bustling metropolis was a barely illuminated void, with only a few pedestrians and fewer cars in the distances. Many shops were boarded up, many others were announcing their closure and offering fabulous sales. Nearly every residence listed vacancies at ridiculously low monthly rates.

"Not quite how I remembered it," Ruby observed.

"This is tragic!" Nora observed. "That we should be unable to take advantage of all these sales and investment opportunities for the sake of our mission! Truly, the life of the huntress is fraught with peril!"

"I'll be quite pleased if that is the greatest adversity we face today," Ren wryly replied.

"Come on," Jaune instructed. "If we hang around too long someone's bound to notice us."

The thought convinced Ruby to progress. Her Dad was probably already scouring the continent trying to find her, and if any of her teachers had kept residence in the city, they might already have agreed to help recover her.

"Any idea on how we can get into Beacon?" Ren asked.

Ruby gave it only brief thought. "Yang told me about a friend of hers' in a seedy part of town…"


Ruins of Beacon

Regen was glancing in multiple directions, reaching her hands up to her ears to try to silence the constant whispering. It was a pointless gesture; there were thousands of voices trying to be free of her grip, each wanting to wander out and find their own prey. The young Grimm wanted to lash out at so many nearby targets, and they were getting increasingly restless. The elders had learned to focus and live with their constant yearning. Yet many of the Grimm present were newly forged, birthed in despair from conflict.

"How much longer?" she snarled at Merlot, digging her fingernails into her skull and ripping out clumps of hair.

"I am nearly in alignment," Merlot assured her. "Seven, maybe eight minutes."

It would've sounded like a reasonable length of time, were she not attempting to filter the screaming pain and the quiet bloodlust of hundreds of newborns, screaming in her brain and whispering in her ears. The serum was wearing off, and Regen's control over them was lessening. Some were becoming aware of Merlot's presence, sensing a meagre –but nearby- presence of aura to consume.

"You need to inject me," Regen managed to breath out. "I'm losing them-!"

"This is the only remaining dosage," Merlot pointed out. "If my calculations are off, there won't be any other opportunity."

"There's no choice, Doctor!" Regen snapped, her control breaking, her tone rising. She dug deeper into her scalp, drawing blood. Her irises began to darken, the green fading away.

Merlot was irritated, but he complied. He ran up to join Regen at her seat, found her vein, and injected her once more with the serum. He took a moment to examine the Grimm, as many of them began moving towards him, driven by their hunger for his aura, their hatred for his light.

Regen took several seconds to adjust, but she focused on her objective, and gradually, the green poured through her, and she was able to bury the pain beneath its surface. She took a few deep breaths, and then turned her attention to the horde, whispering to them, promising them a greater reward than the small meal in their midst.

And it was so close now…

"There goes our contingency plan," Merlot lamented as he cast aside the empty syringe.

Regen composed herself, her voice returning to monotone. "How many of them will you need?"

"A much greater number of Griffons; Nevermore if they can be spared," Merlot answered, returning to his adjustments. "The discharges will need to be consecutive to lift the heavy metals from the top of the tower. Without sufficient force, they won't tear the hole any further."

Regen was attempting to stifle each and every voice, but some of the young ones had wandered off during her breakdown, and upon relocating them…

"Atlas is here," Regen said.

Merlot glanced back at her. "How long?"

Regen only shook her head. "I can keep them busy. I'll try to move the fliers back into position."

Merlot stopped to consider. "No. Move them closer."

Regen was perplexed. "Why?"

"The Atlesian knights are composed of a transition metal in their reactive armor," Merlot explained. "Drag them into the storm at the right coordinates and they'll act as suitable lightning rods."

He switched displays on his Scroll and showed Regen the holographic readout. "Bring them here, here, and here… and let nature take its course."

Regen scanned his projections for the locations, and concentrated…


A few miles away, a scouting party of Atlesian knights had encountered a group of wayward Beowolves, and –as their programming dictated- they fired on the hostile targets, signaling to the other AIs in the vicinity to regroup and reinforce. Troops poured in to strengthen their position and increase their fire efficiency, shredding the lupine Grimm with impunity.

More Grimm broke off from the horde to join the fray, rushing the AKs. The knights adjusted their strategy, forming a strong line and holding their position, spreading out their fire and cutting the Beowolves down.

Unfortunately, their defense was focused on the threats on the ground. Griffons descended from on high, crashing into the knights' line and hoisting one android at a time, pinning their arms and legs in the beasts' talons. The Griffons carried the AKs skyward, their comrades trying to react to a tactic not previously present in their database as more and more were carried away by the Grimm, and more and more were removed from ranks by stampeding Beowolves.

The two pronged attack broke the Atlesian line, and Griffons continued to collect the AKs, functional or not, pulling them up into the clouds.

On the bridge of his flagship, Ironwood observed footage from the AKs mounted cameras, trying to coordinate with his techs and support staff.

"Get me the Council, now," he instructed his adjutant. "Patch them into this."


Merlot hastened to improve his schedule, pushing the Dust containers into position himself, forming a crude assembly line for the Griffons to collect the Yellow material and hoist it skyward. Once the boxes were all ascending, he moved to follow, jumping on the back of a Griffon and ascending up the tower to the ruins of what had once been Professor Ozpin's office. He dropped from the back of his mount and went about arranging the polarized metals –the debris, the clock gears, the pillars- pointing it up towards the center of his massive artificial storm, towards the tear in the magnetosphere.

He watched the winds with his right eye, his cybernetic left counting down the seconds.

He estimated Regen's reaction time over so many participants, and at three seconds before zero, he whispered the word that would change the world.

"Now."

Griffons flying above the tower crashed into each other, destroying themselves in the explosive bursts of electricity. The Yellow Dust reacted appropriately, discharging above the tower, in one burst after another. And as Merlot planned, rocks and dirt collected on the tower began to rise to meet the charged areas, drawn up by electromagnetic force.

But they were just the vanguard of this move. The pull of the planet's own magnetic field resonated with metals, previously polarized by the Semblance of a young huntress many weeks earlier. The electrically charged area above them drew them skyward, each aimed at points in a violent, swirling storm of Merlot's own design.

The pillars and gears shot up, crashing into particulate matter pulled up from the planet's surface, striking an already damaged magnetosphere with both the weight of load bearing structures and an oppositely polarized surface.

They were dragging it down, corroding the magnetic field…

…and then Griffons and knights were struck by additional discharges, of both natural lightning and Yellow Dust swirling in the storm, creating a series of explosions around the academy tower at the epicenter. The opposite pressures pushed the winds outwards.

And then, at last, the polarized metals tore through the magnetic field and fell into place, covered in Red, Blue, and Yellow Dust, leaving four holes in the planet's atmosphere, encircled over the tower. The violent winds and heavy rain clouds began to disperse above the tower, and propelled away from the polarized metal anchors, moved to join larger wind streams, leaving a calm center above the Grimm, the setting sun illuminating their new home. Lightning bolts rained down from the storm clouds, more intense than ever. Hail joined torrential rain, with chunks of ice and bursts of electricity destroying the AK-200 squads, sweeping the force away in a few motions.

Merlot laughed heartily from the top of the tower, bathing in sunlight shining down on only himself and the Grimm. He looked down at Regen, waiting to see if his hypothesis had been correct.


In Vale, en route to a seedy club Yang had visited, Ruby and her friends observed a hole tear in the stormy sky, a single point of light at the center of dark clouds. They didn't have long to be impressed at the sight in the distance, as the storm front expanded and moved further, reaching into the safe zone. Ahead of them, Atlas soldiers and ships were buffeted by hail and blown about by winds strong enough to sweep robots up into the air. Ruby signaled to the others and they drew back, but only Ruby herself was fast enough to avoid the storm winds, the other three blasted aside by the force of the gale.

Roofs were blasted off buildings. Street signs were ripped from lamp posts and beams. Lightning bolts that hit the ground took out the power supply, leaving the city in darkness.

Jaune was quick to recover from being knocked over, and exchanged looks with Ruby. He muttered: "Simple, huh?"


At the newly-created eye of the storm, Regen looked up at the sunlight, feeling its warmth amidst the intense cold of wind and rain. She looked out over the Grimm, and lessened her grip, hoping that it had been done. She waited, knowing their senses would overpower her in a moment; that she would hear their voices and feel their pain. She reached out to them, no longer in her thrall, but free to be as they were.

She heard… nothing.

She felt… nothing.

Exactly as she wished.

Merlot descended the tower, using the remaining polarized metal to create a crude staircase down to the ground, walking on the ferrous surfaces. Once he rejoined her, he turned his attention to the Grimm near them.

They were indifferent to him, passive. They saw his aura, his light in their darkness… and did nothing. They did not hunger for it. The light did not burn them. There was no pain. There was no hunger. There was no bloodlust.

Regen turned her attention to the massive Grimm wyvern frozen beside the tower, trapped by an ancient magic and immobilized. Its presence had drawn the Grimm to it, called them to a place where the darkness would gather, where it would dilute the suffering they'd experienced since they were forged by the energy the humans had emanated.

There was no more need to pursue the humans that hurt them. Now there was a place where they could dwell, free of hunger and want.

Regen ascended the staircase Merlot had given her, to take her seat in her new kingdom.