Author's Note: Spoiler alert: this is not the last chapter, it will be explained in the ending notes even though I said this would be the last. Since I have free time since I'm done with the semester and I can't really go anywhere. So be safe, enjoy the read and hopefully we'll see again soon.

Chapter 22: Project Gaia Part 2: Time to Say Goodbye

Travis was flipping through the radio station in his rusted and old pickup, a small one at that too. It probably could have been ran over by a big rig truck and no one would have noticed. It was early, very goodman early. The radio was either stuck between pop music, crappy new stations, or those weird conspiracy theory focused ones that came on at 4 in the morning. The apartment complex he was parked out was a myriad of white buildings, pristine in their paint actually couldn't get into the complex because there was a gate and Reese hadn't supplied him with the code. He checked his phone again, which sat in the cup holder. Reese still hadn't texted him back, and he had the audacity called himself punctual.

"Punctual my ass, Brandon's gonna rip my ear off if we don't get there soon," Travis thought to himself, finally relenting and stopping the dial of his radio. A crappy pop station it was, with all its derivative sounding music and all. A lot of music was derivative on the radio, didn't matter the genre. Pop, country, hip-hop, even his preferred favorite of rock would sound the same after a while. He wanted to sleep, by god did he want to fall asleep right now, it wasn't the smartest idea to cram in an essay the night before a big trip. However there was no way he was going to do it over a school trip, what kind of idiot does work on a school trip? He closed his eyes for a mere moment before his phone sounded off with a ding and he jumped in his car. The vehicle shook from side to side.

"I wasn't sleeping!" He yelled to absolutely no one, his heart raced as he reached for the phone as he read the notification. It was a call from Reese, he answered.

"Where are you?" He heard Reese on the other side.

"You didn't give me the gate code, so I've been stuck out here waiting for you," Travis replied.

Reese gave an audible sigh, "Stay right there, I'll be over in a few."

"Take too long and I might leave without you," Reese ended the call without saying much else, although the gruff 'hmph' let him get a good idea of the dissatisfaction.

Reese appeared through the gates soon enough and tossed a sack of clothes over into the trunk where Travis already had his. He then opened the door and shut it barely giving Travis a glance, such common features of his likable demeanor. Ah, but by now Travis had grown used to it, putting the car into drive he spun the steering wheel and pushed the gas pedal and made their way to the school to meet up with Brandon and the others. The hum of the engine was the only sound for a while, to make it less awkward Travis reached for the dial.

"No radio, it's all crap," Reese told him and Travis slowly dropped his hand from the dial and back to the wheel.

"Does that mean you and your cheery demeanor are going to hold a conversation?" Travis asked in response with a grin.

Reese rubbed his temples, even in the dark of the early morning Travis could see the shadows under his eyes, "Sorry, I had a long night."

Travis slowed down and the smile left his face replaced with a worried glance, "Am I allowed to ask about it?"

His friend kept his eyes forward and then Travis shifted his gaze back to the road, turning the wheel along a curve, "She finished her round of chemo last night, she gets to rest for a little bit."

"You know, if you want," Travis said, slowing down even more, "I can turn the car around, no one would blame you for staying behind. Hell, I think you should be staying here."

Reese waved it off, "She wants me to go, she doesn't want to feel like a burden. Besides I've been ordered to take a multitude of pictures for her."

"Well if you're sure about it," Travis sped back up, "then who am I to stop you. You're gonna like California, we can walk the piers and tour Alcatraz."

"And maybe leave Franklin there?" Reese assumed and by the look on Travis' face he would be correct.

"Possibly, we'll have to make it quick, the tour guides will notice if we try stuffing somebody in a cell."

"I like it."

"The plan is foolproof, even the worst case scenario only has us banned for two years."

-Present Day, Remnant-

The soldiers of Atlas stood silent and hung on rungs lined in the bullhead. The hum of the engines, more akin to a roar as the last remaining ship that was still in the air. Travis' face in a sneer as clouds parted and split when met with the hard metal face. He was pacing in a small circle and only one soldier would spare a glance at him at a time. He brought his thumb up to his lip and bit down on it.

"Just our fucking luck," he snarled, loud enough to be heard, but also quiet enough to draw in the ears of the soldiers, "Like seriously? Does the world have a damn hate boner for us? Could somebody have slipped the information?" Travis looked around, "Well? I want an answer."

A soldier spoke up, "Highly unlikely sir, many of the details have been kept from us as well, so if it were it then the leak would need to come from the ones planning this mission."

Travis leaned in slightly aghast, "You mean you don't know why you were called for this mission?"

"No sir, we have faith in General Ironwood, we have been ordered to follow the mission directive."

"Well right now the mission is currently going belly up," he felt the need to point out, "do we have any contingencies?"

"As of right now, our best bet will be to get to the mission site and hold off any resistance that we may come across. However, that is your call to make."

He stepped back, "My call? Why the hell is it my call?"

"As of this moment you are the highest ranking figure, without Specialist Winter the chain of command falls to you," the soldier explained.

"Me? How? I'm a student, I'm barely eighteen, you're also a soldier."

"As of starting this mission you were to be regarded as a full fledged huntsman, who rank higher than lower level military officials."

"I feel like this is some political sounding bullshit," Travis got right into the face of the soldier, his sneer uncontainable.

The soldier, a bit more of a colored helmet than the rest, didn't budge, his military training showing itself with his steeled face. "You can say whatever you want sir, but whether you like it or not, you are in command."

At this rate it was very evident that he in fact did not like this. This was stupid, on a fundamental level. Yes, Winter's ship was shot down removing her from the equation. But in what damn way was he more qualified to lead a mission? What kind of backwards logic was that? Yes, Remnant was severely lacking in a few things, but among that he didn't think common sense was missing. Damn Remnant rules, damn Atlas military, damn Ironwood, damn Ozpin. His hand slapped across his face, "I swear to god when I get back I'm going to make an effigy of Ironwood and Ozpin and punt it across a football field."

"Sir?" The soldier questioned.

Travis' eyes peered through the gaps in his fingers, "Don't worry about it." He turned around near the front of the bullhead, to the cockpit. "What's our current status?"

The pilot, a female judging by her voice, looked up to him, "Assuming we don't have anymore interruption we'll be touching down shortly." Great, just great, they were this close to getting out of Remnant scot free, but no the damn terrorist had to rear their ugly. "However there is an issue sir," while Travis didn't like the 'sir' part he kept his glance to her, "I'm not picking up any responses from the team stationed at the mission site."

"Who was stationed there?"

"A standard research team and small deployment of guards," the message she wasn't saying came clear to him. His eyes narrowed and once again he scowled. If the White Fang were already here with aircraft ready to mobilize, then that would mean the research team were either subjugated or worse. And judging the White Fang's usual demeanor to all things Atlas he could count on that 'worse' option being the one they picked. It would mean there would be a fight at the landing, the mission site would be tough to get to and-

"Wait," Travis stopped for a moment, looking down at the ground, If the White Fang at the mission site and the device to get them Home was the mission site that would mean the White Fang could-"No."

"Can this thing go any faster?" His hand came down on a panel and his tone changed, it was forceful but scared. Fear in his eyes as his hand was threatening to crush the panel.

"Yes, it can," the pilot responded, she pushed some buttons and flipped a lever and the ship lurched forward to where the other soldiers held on to the straps to keep them stable.

"Make it so then," he told her. The green armored warrior, once just a simple student studying music and wanting to be an engineer, looked towards the soldiers of war. He gripped his axe, a weapon he merely thought as cool was now being used to fight for his survival. His head ached, that power he discovered that begged for release constantly, hopefully when he returned it would go dormant forever so he could sleep in peace. "Goddammit," he told himself before he straightened his back. "Alright!" He nearly shouted to the soldiers, "Listen up, since Specialist Schnee is currently absent, I will be taking the reins for this mission until she returns. It wouldn't be out of the question to guess that the White Fang have already taken the landing site for their own. Which means landing is going to be hell. But once we land, we need to engage, find the research team stationed there, and then defend the site until the other members of Team BBRS, Team KKLF, and Specialist Schnee. We will have to fight White Fang and I'm gonna bet the place will have grimm coming soon either from hearing the explosions or from the sheer anger I'm exuding right now. Am I understood?"

They all snapped to attention and saluted, "Yes sir!"

Travis turned to the Bullhead door that would soon open and when the sunlight shined on him his eyes were swallowed in blue light. The head of the axe slowly turned orange as he leapt out of the machine, catching a tree and riding it down, splitting in half by the searing axe blade. "You won't harm any of them."

-X-

In hindsight it was probably not the smartest idea to jump out of one airship, mid flight, and then hop into another one, mid flight. This was doubly true as he decided to punch his way through the glass, or more accurately crash into the windshield. It was proven thrice when he saw he was surrounded by White Fang. Not to mention a fourth time when Reese asked who wanted to "get fucked first".

A master of subtly Reese was not.

Without a moment of hesitation the first grunt charged him with the others following. He fired the first shot with his pistol and the energy shot hit one in the shoulder spinning him around as he seared in pain. The arm that held the pistol then jutted back and his elbow slammed into the mouth of another faunus. His other arm, currently engulfed in orange flames ran right into the chest of one. It didn't catch fire, but the faunus on his other side freaked when the fire came close to his face. This gave him an avenue of escape as he swung his leg into the side of one of the attacker's head and launched himself back from it. The current field of battle was small, but he had the pilot's chair to his back, it would be easy to incapacitate them and merely jump ship. The faunus knew this too as they all grabbed swords, guns would have been too dangerous in such close quarters. Between their group, and his elusiveness friendly fire would be easy to fathom. Gripping his two pistols he connected them shifting them into their stun baton configuration.

The battle began anew as Reese quickly defended himself from the multiple blades coming down on him. Each connection of the baton and their blades crackled with sparks of electricity. The helmet began to beep wildly, the motion sensor to warn him when someone has behind him. He thrusted the baton at the next slash sending the blade upward out of the grunt's reach. The huntsman student snatched it and using both arms he blocked one sword from where the pilot's seat was located. The airship must have had either an autopilot or a second pilot he didn't initially see. His other arm, holding the baton, was holding off the other swords with the sound of metal screeching against electricity. He pushed off both of them and the pilot was unprepared for it. Quickly thinking he stepped forward and slammed the flat end of his boot into their chest and they hit the metal wall. With two weapons he was able to defend better against the three swords that tried to get the jump on him.

Metal clashed and sparks flew once more, Reese had to weave his body around the third strike that tried to come in after the first two were blocked. It became a pattern that only elongated well past his liking. He had to find Winter, they needed her for this mission, not to mention what Weiss would say to him if something happened to her.

"Not like I'll be seeing her again," while not the main reason, the thought of leaving her sister behind tugged something deep within him. With a growl he stepped back and let the first faunus awkwardly misjudge the distance. The terrorist lunged forward and Reese retaliated by thrusting the pommel of the sword he stole into the center of his back. Then before he hit the ground the grunt was met with Reese's boot colliding with his chest.

However before Reese could ask someone from behind had tackled him to the ground, his baton rolling off to the side. It must have been the pilot he kicked away earlier, and by the sounds of it they were getting some cuffs or something to restrain him with.

Heat crept up his neck as he slammed his domed helmet into the pilot's nose. They fell down as a trickle of blood seeped from them. "Hands off!" He shouted fully enveloped in flames. The metal beneath his feet began to glow as with resituating his feet, he held up his arms in a fighting stance. The grunts were understandably uncertain as to how to proceed against an opponent literally on fire like it was nothing. Reese stepped forward, they stepped back, he stepped forward once again, they repeated their action. Reese noted that they were running out of space in the airship, he was huddling them into a corner. While it may have been a tad racist to think like this, the old saying was that a cornered animal was when it was at its most dangerous. And now Reese had three of them. He steeled himself as their swords raised once more. He ducked under one, grabbed the arm of another and twisted it painfully, and threw the one grunt's face covered mask into the steel hull. The remaining two tried to double team him but with the fires still burning they were still cautious, but only to a point. One cried out with another overhead slice and the other ran towards him with his blade held closely to his stomach. A move to limit his options and method of defence. Except he merely stepped backwards letting the two run into each other. They noticed only briefly and just barely adjusted their blades so that when they ran into each other they didn't run through each other. They bounced off one another and Reese grabbed them both by the backs of their heads and forced them together. The masks broke and they recoiled in pain, stepping haphazardly away from one another. Reese then took this opportunity to run up to one of them and leap into a kick that sent one of the grunts into the hull. The grunt must have hit the release on the door because the metal slid open. The one grunt slipping out into the open skies before he knew what was happening.

Reese reached for his baton, the sound of rushing wind deafened anything else that could have been heard. He split the baton back into his usual pistols and ran towards the cockpit, now empty since it's pilot was unconscious. He positioned the control stick so that the airship immediately angled down, racing towards the ground. The huntsman then aimed his pistols and fired away, blasting the controls which sparked. The grunt who was still up and kicking decided to do just that, kick. Reese was brought low when the grunt sent his heel into the armored teen's back. He had been holding on to a safety rail and Reese shot back up and pistol whipped him on his hand. The grunt seethed in pain and stood back which gave Reese enough time to tackle him towards the empty doorway. The jetpack on his back roared to life and the grunt-Reese duo shot out of the descending airship. A small fistfight ensued between Reese and the grunt but when Reese ignited once again the grunt let go in reaction of feeling his finger's burn. The realisation of what Reese did hit after he saw the grunt fall and disappear into the treeline.

"I hope she can forgive me," he pleaded. Shaking his head, he needed to stay focused, there were a few plumes of smoke. The smoldering wreckages of the previous bullheads that fell. Since Winter's ship was the most recent to go down that would mean the closest tower of smoke would be hers. He found it and rocketed towards the smoke in a race against time. His and Winter's.

-X-

Brandon's back hit the dirt pretty hard as the Beowulf got the jump on him. Currently his sword was all that was stopping those skin shredding claws from getting to him. He could smell its near rancid breath and could see the droplets of drool. Utterly disgusting. He growled something, almost as feral as the monster pinning him to the ground, and the blade of the sword started to spin. The grimm was thrusted forward by the suddenness of it all and the blade caught skin and fur. As effective as a drill bit could be from the side it tore into the flesh of the paws and the wolf growled angrily. Before it made a move though the spinning blade lodged itself into its sternum and the beast faded into black dust.

Lavender met his back, the two staring at opposite sides, stuck in the middle of the encircling horde. "We need to do something," she said, dropping down to pick up a few errant screws that had blown free from the crashed bullhead that was still nearby.

"I'm well aware Lavender," he barked, "but we really don't have a way out."

"Do you think Travis and Reese made it?" The mundane objects in her hand started to glow purple as she fueled them with her semblance's energy.

The grip on his sword tightened, "We can only hope."

As the grimm around them began to howl, the call for more was interrupted by the ear piercing scream of a blast. A small group of grimm, maybe three or four, evaporated. The only remainder was a small mist of blue. Subsequently more grimm fell and Brandon gave chase to the grimm that went off into the treeline where the shots were coming from. Off went an arm, a wolf sliced in two, the head of an Ursa cleaved. The ones farther back being blown apart by Lavender's assault using screws, sticks, playing cards, whatever she could infuse with energy. When the rest of the pack was gone Brandon placed his sword in the ground.

"Sam?" He called out and the bushes brustled, the younger kid came out. He looked worse for wear, hair messed up, twigs and leaves sticking out of his clothes, and bruises on his face. Thankfully he still had the Alto Cannon latched on his arm.

"Thank god I found you guys," Sam said, out of breath as he leaned his shoulder on a tree.

"Where is Kendra?" Lavender stepped forward to help him out and dust off the foliage apparel.

"Don't know, we had to jump out of the ship before it blew, we got separated, I heard your guys' fighting and rushed straight over" he explained.

"What about you? How bad is it?" Brandon asked, pointing to his bruised face.

"Just took a hard hit. I'll shake it off," he declared, stepping away from Lavender's hold. His stance was slack and favored his left side over his right. Brandon hoped his aura would work on it. "Where do we go from here Brandon?"

The team leader looked to Sam and then to Lavender, "I don't know, we don't have the coordinates to the mission site. We might have to walk blind."

"You and I both know we won't make it if we take that long," Sam said.

"What choice do we have Sam?"

That's when Lavender stepped in, "I saw a CCT support tower before we were shot down. If the mission site was made by Atlas they probably have some way to connect the CCT. We may be able to contact it if we get close enough."

"Sounds good, lead the way," Brandon pointed, taking his sword out of the ground. He took the back position, Sam in the middle, and Lavender leading into the forest. "Hold on Travis, Reese, we're coming."

-X-

"Sniper! Watch out!" Cried one of the White Fang before slumping over, a bright red blotch in his shirt. In the confusion two of the other grunts twisted as their body went with the velocity of the bullet and fell to the ground with a thud.

Kendra pulled back the hammer and the gold casing shot out from the rifle, falling to the ground on top of the other. Even with the distinct clink of metal, she was too far away for them to hear. Two more appeared in the reticle of her scope, not reinforcements but others a part of the patrol. Another two shots went off and they fell like the others. She waited, and waited, and waited some more before she lifted herself off the ground, popping out of the bushes and made her way to see if she could find anything off of the guards. She approached the bodies cautiously, not because they might be alive, but because the severity of what was happening hit her. Yes, as far as she knew, if she stayed in Remnant or this mission took longer to happen she would at some point need to take a shot like this. She was even planning on going into the military when she got back Home. It still didn't make the sensation of killing any easier. Her dad had talked about it, the feeling that never went away.

She knelt down to the body and looked for anything that might be of use, but alas only basic things like ammunition. She had plenty already. A beep went off and she whizzed her whole body around with her hands gripping her rifle tight to her body. She wasn't so untrained as to not grip the trigger or be anywhere near it, but her hand was ready to shift. The beep went off again and then she heard a voice. It was coming from one of the other bodies, slowly she approached it. The voice came in clearer and she could make it out beneath the clothing.

"Fellow brother, please report!" The voice on the other side shouted. Not knowing fully what to do, she was now acting on instincts, she split shirts and folds to find a basic radio. They were probably too far to get consistent scroll signals so radios were a smart call.

Hesitantly, she clicked the button and spoke, "We're fine, we just had a small scare. Grimm got the jump on us."

"Thank the gods, I'm on a hair trigger here, with Atlas sending a bunch of huntsmen and huntresses along with their own toy soldiers," the lump in Kendra's throat got bigger and the pit of despair in her stomach grew. "Listen I need you to regroup with patrol 3, they should be northeast of your position. They captured two of them, a human and a traitor."

"Franklin and Kylie," she wanted to scream at them, beg them not to do anything to them, plead with them even. "And what of you? How's your situation going?" She needed more information.

The sound of a bullet came through the other side, whoever they were happened to be locked in combat. "Well they missed one ship dammit, now I got a huntsman on our tail, along with a small group of soldiers. Damn axe wielding human."

"That has to be Travis," her mind shot quickly. If she could get Kylie and Franklin, and then regroup with Travis then their odds of making through this would increase dramatically. She had to keep him talking, "Are you sure you don't need immediate help, if those other two are captured I-we could come help."

He laughed on the other end, "Oh don't worry, we're getting help, Jayde will be assisting us shortly. She's gonna skewer this pesky human brat good." Her grip on the radio tightened, "Don't worry once you meet with patrol three you'll come back to base. Maybe we'll find out what this damn machine is for." The machine?

"No!" Her gut wrenched as she realized what he meant. Project Gaia was in the hands of the White Fang, if they found the way to Earth there was no telling what might happen. She dropped the radio and booked it, heading to the northeast where supposedly Franklin and Kylie were. From there she could head off with them to help Travis and Reese. Hopefully Sam was safe, Brandon and Lavender too. Not to mention Winter, they had been so kind to her and her friends. She pushed past foliage, ignoring the wetness that dripped from her eyes and cheeks.

She was going to save them whatever it took.

-X-

"It's time like these I wish I had Reese, or Brandon, or Sam, or really anyone at this rate," Travis thought to himself as XYZ spun in his hands bouncing bullets to varying angles. They would get stuck in the bark or shoot back into the dirt. The very moment they had landed the bullhead after he jumped down they were getting fired upon. The bullhead went down quickly, it had been focused down. The pilot managed to get out and, like the other soldiers, stood behind defensive positions. Tree standing, trees that had fallen, large rocks or boulders, and even the fiery wreckage of the bullhead were all used while the small number of soldiers and Travis faced against the White Fang force. He had to guess thirty, and if he stayed like this his aura would be nickled and dimed until he was dead along with the others.

Flicking the switch in his axe the blade quickly glowed bright orange and he charged off to the side going to a standing tree. He lept in the air and swiftly slashed multiple sections in the middle of the tree. Taking his axe he caught the top of the tree and sent it to a corner of the White Fang and they ran away before it fell on top of them. Other large logs then went into free fall and using the other side of his axe, just the shaft, he smacked the pieces at the terrorist. Wooden missiles knocked out a few other faunus. He got back to the ground and charged the enemy now that a good number were gone. The soldiers, taking his lead, moved up giving him support. It was a lot like fighting with Reese, having to weave in and out of incoming fire, plus having a protective shield around you helped. The faunus met Travis head on as blades clashed, their swords met the shaft of XYZ. Travis backed off and raised his axe above his head and slammed it to the ground. It missed his target but it gave ample time for a soldier to follow up with a shot. The grunt was not totally incompetent and blocked the shot with his blade, however that didn't take into account the axehead swung toward him. The grunt was sent into flying and Travis didn't bother to follow up as he engaged another group of grunts.

He swept the feet by swinging his axe. It picked them up and he spun in the opposite direction slamming the three grunts together and they fell to the ground and skidded. From behind her heard yelling and Travis quickly turned to intercept. Though a bullet jerked the grunt and sent him spiralling to the floor. The decorative officer came up beside him.

"The mission site is just up ahead sir!" He yelled through the gunfire.

"That explains why they seem so staunch in their defence. They probably don't know what it is, but saw the type of people working there and thought it was worth taking."

"Seems like it sir!" He shouted and fired more rounds before reloading his weapon.

Travis and him sped off to round up the dwindling forces of the White Fang, cutting some down, others getting knocked to the side, some falling down after getting shot. The other soldiers were moving up with him and slowly but surely he could see a building come into view, along with something tall and metal. His eyes flashed as the previous months of despair and lost hope washed away. It was there, the physical proof they had a chance to go Home. And these damn terrorists were standing between him and Home? His eyes narrowed and soon they were gone, swallowed in bright blue misty light.

"Victor, heed my call!"

Before a White Fang grunt a towering blue, misty figure appeared before them. A regular hand on one side and a large cannon for the other. It took its hand and gripped its fingers around the grunt's throat. The bullets that fired upon it merely bounced off it, Victor had shown to be impervious to most physical attacks when Travis was putting all the effort he could in sustaining it. With a simple flick the summon threw the grunt at the others and then blasted them with a fire from its destructive cannon. The master of the summon wasted no time in keeping up his aggression and the minion followed suit. As Travis would slash and force those to the side Victor grabbed them and slammed them back into the dirt followed by a stomp from it's deceptively heavy body. When the summon fired off a blast Travis would follow up by leaping in the air to catch anyone who might have gotten away. The soldiers back up the two and soon enough they defeated the White Fang. At least those ones there. Those not dead were tied up thanks to the soldiers having cuffs. It helped that those left conscious were being intimidated by the summon.

Travis left them to it as he stepped to the Project Gaia mission site. It wasn't anything special, perhaps that was General Ironwood's plan. To make it inconspicuous and thus avoid any unwanted groups to use it. It appeared it didn't work. To the one side was a building that didn't look the best secured, but would definitely hold a strong assault for a short duration. Two soldiers of the small group of six went in to try and see if anybody was still alive. The senior officer met Travis as he walked to the machine, the fruit of Project Gaia's labour.

It reminded him of the Eiffel Tower, if said tower were made today, was plated in white metal, and used a single piece of curved metal from each of its corners that formed the point. In that way it was more close to the Space Needle close to his home town of Washington.

Now that he was here the soldier beside him spoke in mild awe as they both looked up at the point, "What is it?"

"Something you would never believe," Travis said, equally in awe, his glowing blue eyes scanning it.

The soldier was going to ask what that meant but the two soldiers sent to investigate the building came back. "Sir!" the one reported, "we couldn't find anybody, the White Fang must have attacked a few days ago."

"Dammit," Travis internally grimaced.

The senior officer placed his hand to his chin, "Then why stay here? They got what they wanted by killing Atlas personnel. What more would they want?"

"Perhaps a whole world totally unprepared for their assault," was what he wanted to say, but didn't. Instead he walked up to the soldiers, "Since we don't have any of the engineers or scientists to talk with, try to get into this machine, if anything else we need to see if we can communicate with somebody. Either someone else in this mission or even Ironwood to let him know what's gone wrong" he pointed to the computer terminals with wires leading to the towering machine. Even if he didn't totally trust Ironwood, this was by no means his fault unless this rabbit hole went so deep it connected to Earth without the need of a dimensional gateway. The two went over and Travis sat on a rock and took a moment to rest. The senior officer walked up to him.

"We've moved the prisoners inside the building, we'll have a transport pick them up when the mission is over," he explained.

Right, the end of the mission, when he and the others are gone. That would have to be a mess for Ironwood and Ozpin. What would happen to these soldiers? Would they be forced to swear to secrecy? Would they just disappear, be spread out and ordered never to speak of this again? Would they be paid for their silence? It really wasn't his place to say since he would be gone. The back part of his mind wondered about their friends at Beacon. The story was that he and his friends died in a tragic accident during their mission. When they first started doing this they had read up on such accidents. They weren't common, but they weren't rare and events like these had a massive effect on those who knew the deceased. He should have told Ruby at least, the others would believe her.

"I shouldn't have been a coward," he thought.

"Sir," Travis was interrupted from his thoughts as the senior officer, "we've been able to access the communication function. Whatever it was built for they also built in a smaller version of a support tower. We'll get it up and running as soon as we can."

So that was how Ironwood convinced any funding for this project. He probably said it was a prototype or experimental support tower. Probably claimed it was better, cheaper, and safer from grimm. Travis stood up and walked over to the terminal when he felt something shake the ground and the sound of a nearby explosion. They all looked to each other and Travis' glowing eyes narrowed as he thought he saw something shining and-

Travis immediately fell to the ground and clutched his head. Pain, searing pain, it felt like his brain took a nail straight to it. Victor's back hit the ground as green bolts of energy struck its chest. Travis' breathing was ragged and one of the soldiers went to him, he looked back up again, the light in his eyes fading a bit. He saw the shine for a moment and saw green go towards the down summon. Travis lurched forward and screamed in pain, his hands clawing at himself to make it stop. Victor broke, shattered into tiny glass like shards before dissolving into light blue mist. The lights in his eyes went away completely showing just how bloodshot they had become. While his summons seemed impervious to anything physical, the crippling weakness they had were in elemental or energy based attacks. Electricity especially.

When his breathing calmed and the pain was barely bearable he looked back as to who shot at Victor. Stood before the soldiers and the huntsman were a fresh group of White Fang, not as many as before but enough to get the job done. There was one who stood in the middle looking more distinct, a higher up maybe. It was a woman by the looks of it. She was tall, taller than him although that may have been because he was on the ground still. Her hair was a dark shade of green, almost matching his armor and axe. Her mask was more like a straight line that ran across her face rather than the usual ones. And then one her arms were these gauntlets colored gold and green.

He stood up, as much as it hurts, as the one in charge should. "Who are you, what do you want?" Travis demanded as the grip on his axe tightened.

The woman chuckled, a smile across her face, "I should not have to humor Atlas serving toys but since you disposed of my previous force I shall entertain you boy. I am Jayde, lieutenant of the White Fang here in Vale. You, human?"

Travis rolled his eyes, at the very most he would only have to deal with this for a few more hours before the others got here. "Travis Basco, student at Beacon Academy."

"Oh a student, maybe this isn't as important as those fools before you suggested it was," she noticed the grip on his axe tightened, "maybe you can tell me."

"You wouldn't believe me even if I told you," he said.

"Try me, I am very open minded," she replied.

"Says the terrorist and referred to me as 'human'," he silently digressed. At this rate, and in his current state, he decided to tell them. "What you see here is a gateway to another dimension, it is where I come from."

The woman laughed, "You don't have to lie to me if you don't know."

"A world very different from this one," he continued, "a world without grimm, a world without huntsmen and huntresses, a world without Dust, and a world without faunus."

Beside him the ground erupted into near ear splitting screech as the same green electrical blast was met just before his feet. One of her gauntlets raised up and her face showed sharp teeth. "Do not jest with me boy!"

Travis wasn't worried about that, instead his thoughts focused on that energy blast. Yes, it was the same one to take down his summon so he would need to be careful. But the sound, the feel, the explosion of energy was all familiar. Then he looked at her gauntlet and his eyes widened. The way the energy was trapped inside, the two prongs although in the style of a dragon. It was like the depictions of those lion dragons statues you see in China back home. Green was the primary color but gold made up the prongs which were modeled to look like teeth. He realised what the weapons were.

"Are you fascinated with my weapons boy?" Jayde coyly turned them, "This will be a perfect test run for them."

"You made them without the blueprints," he said.

"Hmm?" She raised her brow, "What was that?"

"A railgun style weapon using electromagnetic prongs to direct the discharge, and you made more than one" he breathed recalling the explanation of the documents still in that drawer back in the Beacon workshop.

"And how" she aimed one of her gauntlets down at him, "would you know that?"

He turned to the senior officer and whispered to him, "Keep that one working on the communications, the rest we need to hold them off." The soldier nodded and prepared for his weapon. Travis steeled himself and flicked the switch on his axe, the blade glowing orange. "Well then Miss Jayde the answer is simple," he said, speaking up, " I stole the blueprints from you, to make sure you never could make the original model." He charged forward and Jayde fired a burst of green lightning.

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

I didn't intend on this being a three parter, but lo and behold here we are, about the time I wrote Kendra's part I realised I needed one more. So I am sorry for those of you expecting this to be the last chapter. However the next chapter, no matter the length, will be the last one. Whether it's seven thousand words or fourteen thousand words. Since I have this free time I will get to work on it perhaps tomorrow, I will at least have it done by the end of the summer. See ya guys.