"Why are we fighting criminal organizations again?" Lux asked as they watched the police haul Abellio away, "You know, instead of the Grimm that have been running rampant across all of Remnant since Beacon?"

"You weren't paying attention during the briefing, were you?" Saffron replied.

"No, I was too busy watching squirrels and chasing the tail I don't have," Lux shot back. Saffron raised an eyebrow. "Okay, I wasn't doing those things, but I did space out," Lux admitted, prompting an exasperated sigh from Saffron.

"The Nebula Syndicate has been playing off of people's fears to make money off them," John explained, "Extortion, black market trades, whatever they can do to profit from fear-mongering, they'll do. With the spike in Grimm activity, anything we can do to reduce the amount of people living in fear is worth the effort."

"How are they still operating?" Lux asked, "I mean, if they're this bad, surely the police would have gotten involved by now."

"If you'd been listening, you would have known this," Saffron groaned.

"I don't need to know the why, I just need to know what I'm supposed to do."

"You're asking why right now! If you were paying attention during the briefing, you wouldn't need to ask!"

"To answer your question, Lux," John said, stepping in between the two, "they've tried. Every time they've put Nebula's leader behind bars, he's broken out, leaving the guards babbling about him being some sort of demon. After the sixteenth time, the authorities decided it would be better to leave them be. Assassination attempts have gone just as well. The man is ruthless. Not even Huntsmen who have tried to go toe to toe with him have gotten away unscathed."

"Suppose it's a good thing Atlas got involved then, huh?" Lux said, "Maybe our tech could contain him better."

"Wouldn't doubt it," Blaze muttered, finally looking up from his shotguns.

"Not just him," John replied, "With the intel we recovered from Abellios, we could take down the whole organization." Suddenly, his Scroll began buzzing. He took it out of his pocket and read something off of it before putting it away. "But that'll have to wait for some other time," he added, "General Ironwood's calling all troops back to Atlas."

"Are you serious?" Lux asked, "Why?"

"Atlas is closing its borders. The general wants all hands on deck, it would seem." Lux grabbed a bottle from the ground and smashed it against the wall of the closest building with a growl.

"You mean we're just supposed to leave the job half finished?" he said, turning to face his leader, "We've studied so much about enemy behavior and tactics. Surely you realize that things will only get worse when we leave a hornets nest we stirred up. If we're leaving, at least we should leave Nebula's leader six feet under!"

"Look, I'm not happy about it either, but unless you want to get court-martialed, there's not much we can do without losing the resources that gave us a chance to begin with," John said, "Besides, as twisted as Nebula can get, it's still a business. Fact of it is, here's how taking it out on the people would end: people either decide to fight back, or they get mad at Atlas and cause a Grimm attack, killing everyone, including their 'clients'. One way or another, they lose people they can use for profit. Mistral's too close to ruin for anything but letting our raid go unanswered to be a viable business strategy."

"Fine," Lux grumbled after a few seconds, "Let's go."


"Shame we have to leave," John said, hefting a duffle bag with his belongings in it over his shoulder as he turned to smile at his teammates, "I was just beginning to get cozy." His remark was met with cold glares from Blaze and Saffron. "Just trying to lighten the mood," he added before giving up and reviewing their orders.

"Why'd it have to be Atlas?" Blaze muttered, "Why couldn't we be assigned to clearing out Beacon?"

"Not every assignment has to involve killing stuff, Blaze," John replied, "We wouldn't last at Beacon, anyway."

"Speak for yourself."

John shifted his attention to his Faunus teammate. "Lux, you can fight it as much as you want. You're still going to have to pack your bags," he said. Lux was too engrossed in his Scroll to even acknowledge the comment. "Lux," John tried again before deciding to go loud, "LUX!"

Lux winced at the noise and glanced up from his device. "Right, yeah, of course," he said before returning his focus to the Scroll in his hand, muttering to himself. "No, that's not right. They were fine yesterday. They've got to be fine."

"What are you looking at?" Saffron asked, moving away from her bags and leaning over her friend's shoulder to see for herself. Her face fell as the information on the screen registered and she let out a small "Oh."

"What is it?" John asked.

"Just…some friends of ours," Saffron said, "From Haven. They were listed as missing in action today."

"I'm sorry," he said, "Do you two need some time to yourselves?"

"No," Lux said, standing up from his bed and beginning to shove his things into his bag.

"Lux, if you need some time to deal with this, you can have it. We still have a few hours we leave, anyway."

"No, we don't," Lux replied, "We have all the time we need. We're not leaving."

"Lux, we have our orders."

"Screw our orders! I know Akane. She's alive, I know it!"

"Lux, we can't just go AWOL!"

"Of course we can! Leave a note! They're not going to shoot us for leaving!"

"Lux…"

"Save it. Mistal needs all the help it can get. Whether it's us, or Team CYAN, we're not leaving without making sure there's still someone to protect the people here. Or at least, I'm not."

John glanced at Saffron, who flashed him an apologetic grimace before moving to side with Lux. He took a deep breath and began searching for a way to reason with his teammate. He looked over at Blaze, who seemed more interested in the prospect of fighting Grimm than following orders. Finally he sighed and decided to throw in the towel.

"Fine, let's go," he said.

"You're going to have to make…" Lux replied, trailing off as he realized what John meant, "Wait, what?"

"You're right. Mistral needs all the help it can get at the moment. Personally, I'm not fond of having little to no access to Dust and a target painted on our backs, but if those are the sacrifices we have to make in order to protect the people, I'm game. I enlisted in the military for that reason, after all."

"Uh, great!" Lux said, very clearly not expecting this argument to end like this, "Let's get ready to head out, then."

"I'll write the note."


John's Scroll began to buzz as they stepped out into the streets. He took it out and looked at the name on the caller ID, finding it to be a number used by Atlas personnel. His thumb hovered over the answer button before he took a deep breath and returned the device to his pocket. Lux moved over and placed a hand on his team leader's shoulder.

"You sure you want to do this?" Lux asked.

"Yeah," John replied with a sigh, "Yeah, I'm sure."

"You don't have to come with us. Atlas would probably find you a new team, or find missions you could do on your own."

"Someone has to help Saffron keep you and Blaze in check. Especially with his Semblance, I'm the best person to deal with him when it gets out of hand."

"I have control over it," Blaze interjected, "and I know not to use it when other people are near."

"Still, I would rather you didn't lose contact with the team because you're fighting endless waves of Grimm. If you get near a village…"

"He won't," Saffron said, "He's better than using it near others."

"I'd be more comfortable if I was there to make sure of it."

The four of them fell silent for a moment before Lux decided to speak up. "What's our next move, John?" he asked.

"Well, we're going to need supplies for our little expedition," their leader replied, "Ammo, food, maybe a map or two…" He looked up at his teammates. "What do we have to work with?"

"Let's see," Lux muttered as he began rifling through his bag, "I've still got some Dust on me, and…some MREs."

"Me too," Blaze said.

"Same here," Saffron added.

"Okay, it's a start, at least," John said, "What about money? How much Lien does everyone have?" The four Huntsmen began to pool their resources together on the ground and counted it all together.

"Let's see…" Lux said as he counted up all the cards, "I'd say we have the money to buy enough Dust and food to last us for a few weeks, maybe two months, at most. That's only assuming we have a minimal amount of engagements with bandits or Grimm."

"Saffron? Would you agree with that assessment?"

"Give or take a few days, yeah," Saffron replied.

"Any clues as to your friends' location?" John asked as he returned the Lien to his bag.

"Their mission was to check on the villages within the range of Mistral airships," Lux replied, "That narrows it down to somewhere in western Anima. Still, Mistral airships can go pretty far out, and it would take at least two months to comb through it all on foot, which, since we don't have access to Atlas equipment anymore, is our only option."

"And that's assuming that's where they were when they went missing," Saffron added, "Just because their mission was in western Anima doesn't mean they couldn't have made a detour to, say, literally anywhere else on the continent before they went missing."

"All things considered, we aren't going to have enough supplies to completely search the whole continent," Lux concluded, "Not unless we get lucky enough to find them before we reach Higanbana."

"We could hijack an airship," Blaze suggested.

"No!" John shouted, causing several nearby citizens to stare at the four of them. "We are already in enough trouble as it is," he added, lowering his voice to a whisper, "I decided to come with because this was one of the things I was worried about! Under no circumstances are we stealing airships!"

"It was just a suggestion," Blaze mumbled.

"If you don't like our plans, maybe you should offer up some of your own," Lux retorted.

"Maybe there's a way we can earn a little more money before we head out." John mused, turning to look at Lux and Saffron. "It would probably be best if we had a place to lay low until we're ready to leave the city. Atlas personnel might be looking for us while they're still here. Any ideas as to where we could go?" Saffron and Lux shared a look and Lux put a hand on his neck.

"I think I know a place we could stay," Lux offered, "It's not the greatest place to hide, but there's a chance we could get some money and the rent is free. I hope."

"It's your parent's house, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"Does the house have enough space for all of us to stay?"

"Are you willing to sleep on the floor?"

"I suppose we don't have much choice," John said before shrugging, "Well, might as well get going." Lux and Saffron took the lead and began to guide their friends towards their destination.