(?) Pov

Weary I walk among the corpses of people I once called my allies and my friends, fellow soldiers who were sent to die over a cause that wasn't just. Over a fallacy of a cause spread by a charlatan.

Running past the bodies located in the once stainless steel hallway I pushed open the doorway with my shoulder and ran to the panel of the ship that we were in watching over an airspace.

With the ship pointing down towards the ground and decreasing the distance between the two with every second it gave me the much-needed boost to increase my distance per stride.

With the angle, I was gliding against the ground in a freefall-like state falling through doorways and hallways, with me occasionally pushing my feet against the wall to add speed.

Halfway through a door started to close, most likely to due a loose wire or magnet, with the door closing at a rapid pace. I activated my semblance as my eyes glowed a purple color, the little momentum the door had stopped abruptly.

The mission was easy, not even a mission really. Just watch over an airspace that was a hot spot for trading over a dead zone of people. No bandits or Grimm even a mile within the space, let alone something else that could harm people.

Slamming my fingers over various buttons I ignored the shadow now cast upon my area as an object eclipsed the sun above me.

"Hello this is General Striker Lykos of the 151st fleet of the Altesian navy I'm not requesting backup it's just me left in this fleet and what is left is bound to be destroyed. But this wasn't caused by Grim but rather inside this fleet. It may be too late for me," The ship creaked at this moment as the objects started to fall forward and hit the window before me.

"But I give you this message there is instability and corruption within Atlas and its military when you get this they will try and cover this up so I just hope my death isn't in vain. My final message is for my son, Holden I love you but daddy isn't coming home tonight... I'm sorry little guy." My voice cracked at the end.

Looking up towards the little area we could see the sky a bright green glowed from it before it came straight down towards me as I stood there silently thinking one thought.

I'm sorry son

11 years later

My body shifted towards the right as my feet turned to the left, my right hand that held one of my razors swiped the gut of my opponent, the whip cut into his skin leaving a little a small cut.

Wrapping my left razor around the spear he held in his hand I charged my shoulder into him and as his body was sent flying I turned my left razor around and threw his body to the other side leaving a huge cut on his chest as he was being sent past me.

Breathing heavily I slightly bent down to help catch my breath ignoring the groans that come from behind me. Putting my razor to its full shape I cleaned off the specks of blood that littered it with my sleeve.

"Claire get ready for the test, and Holden stop cleaning your weapon in the middle of the arena," a voice behind me boomed and I couldn't help but flinch at it.

Turning around I walked to the side as a cat fauna girl walked past me with a snark on her face with her seeing my flinch.

Seeing a darker-skinned boy with a like golden shade of hair combed back towards the back of his head that I recognized I nodded at him and sent him a small smile as he did the same to me.

To his right was a boy that stood stiffly at his side his spine as straight as an arrow, held grey hair and red eyes that stood in contrast from each other.

We were in the backyard of an investor of the Atlas Academy, he was a friend of my father and after he died I was sent to him, as were the other students here as well. We were fed, cleaned, and washed up, the only difference was our education, our education focused on fighting, and while we did study it was far from the focus.

There were 4 students here, me and three others with each one having a parent that died that needed shelter. Claire has been here the longest, with me than the blonde and then finally the grey-haired kid who has only been here for a year.

Placing myself in between the two people I watched as Claire got ready for battle herself, she held a weapon similar to mine, a whip, but if adjusted stood straight into a spear, with a shield placed on her back.

The boy on the right leaned over to me with a knowing look on his face, "You know Claire was talking shit and dissecting your fight right?" He asked

I nodded used to this, that was Claire in one sentence, she was the top of our class with a near-perfect form, our teacher had praised her, getting praise from our teacher was rare, but consecutively and your ego were bound to rise.

"Yeah, Orin I know, well figured anyway but I was right," I said while Orin just nodded with a smile, 'Don't listen to her' he would say, to both me and the boy on the right, who she was significantly nicer too.

"Boys'" my teacher's voice boomed "Study her stance and attack, project her attack before she does it, learn to do this and you won't be challenged." He said while bringing out his razor as it straightened out into a sword that curved inward and outward multiple times as he dragged it from side to side mimicking the moves Claire was doing as a demonstration.

"Etain," the voice boomed one again "What can you decipher about Claire's style."

"Well Crius sir," the voice on the right began "Claire depends too much on her momentum using her arms rather than her legs and calves, she refuses to adjust her body according to the attack she sends and believes her strength is enough to topple her enemy," Etain said whilst barely showing any indication that he's listening.

Crius nodded at this content with the answer he was given as Claire flipped the guy over her shoulder.

Claire not wasting a moment walked right back over to the sidelines flashing me a punchable smirk on the way with it going under Crius gaze. I glared at her as she did this, and unlike her smirk, this was noticed by Crius who just sent me a disapproving gaze.

Orin went up next, he was the second greatest at fighting out of the four of us, only surpassed by Claire. His body unlike Claire's drifted like a ballerina or a block of ice drifting on an icy lake.

Every motion of his body had a purpose, no matter if you could see it like his big strikes that went from one side to another. Or even the ones you could barely see with the greatest of eyes as he jabbed with his razor both in whip form, and his personnel-specific double-bladed sword putting his opponent on edge with each blow.

His semblance helped him out, and it was quite god-like when he is in a conflict he would be able to tell an enemy's attack before they happen, with an accuracy immeasurable. The only thing he needed for this to work was direct skin-to-skin contact.

The battle was over as quickly as it began with the enemy having no chance. Unlike Claire, Orin didn't have satisfaction with toying with his enemies, he respected them too much to toy with them. Claire didn't care though if she thought that toying with her enemy would benefit her, who would stop her.

Then finally Etain came up, he was the most underskilled out of the four of us, despite being only a year in. Even with me being a year in I would've easily beat him, anyone else under Crius's teachings would be able to.

In the fight, Etain struggled his form was ungainly compared to ours, but he tried he really did. His body snapped with contained movement trying to find a blindspot that didn't exist. His razor snapped around like a snake never quite finding a mark.

Etain repeatedly backed up and tried to go around the enemy which didn't work out. Halfway through the fight, Etain was kicked down to the ground with his body drifting back and causing a drift in where the sand was.

"Enough!" Crius yelled seeing where the fight would go. The man who was fighting Etain stopped immediately before bowing and excusing himself in a hurry. "Etain" Crius began "I don't know where to begin, you were unsure in your attacks, your stance kept rotating, your footwork was a mess, and the only time you made contact with him was when he hit you," he finished as he put his head in his hands.

The only thing worse than a pissed of Crius was a disappointed one.

"The amount of progress you make here every day since you got here has slowed down to a halt, and each day I'm left wondering if training you was the best thing for us both, even with your mothers wishes" Etain's normally calm and unresponsive faltered for a second with a look of pure unfiltered hurt crossed his face before he put back on his facade.

Crius told us to go home after this, as soon as his body went out the door we all made the effort to comfort Etain.

Claire got to him before we could and with the glare, she sent us we didn't try any further.

Orin and I just stood to the side shifting our feet unsure of what to do before we both decided to leave them alone and start our trek to get something to eat.

It was something of a tradition that we did, after a hard-fought day of training under Crius we would grab something to eat sometimes with Orin's brother Stephon to accompany us.

Orin got out his scroll and with a faint smile at even remembering his brother clicked the call button. It rang once and Stephon answered immediately asking if it was time much to my delight.

After answering yes we could hear excited footsteps ring from up above and towards the stairs and not a second later down the stairs and into my stomach sending me to the ground.

"Holden it's been so long, how have you been?" he asked in a very excited tone

"It's been a day, not even since we last saw each other," I replied not even trying to keep my grin at bay.

Our conversation was cut short with Orin clearing his throat and gesturing towards Stephon

"Yes Orin did you forget something," he asked not noticing his gesturing.

"Well while I would love to go, it's kinda hard if you're still in your socks rather than your shoes." He said with a snicker.

Stephon glanced below him and saw that he was right, with a blush he ran back upstairs before coming down a minute later with his shoes on.

Chuckling at him I opened the door for them as we walked down the streets of Atlas to a known bakery we went to.

3 blocks later and we entered 'Bernies Bakery' it was a small bakery near the Crius household. It was a small family diner owned by Samantha Sparks, daughter of Bernie Sparks, Bernie died when Samantha was 14, so Samantha, or as she told us to call her Sam spent her life trying to conserve her Mother's name.

Walking into the bakery the woman at the front desk, Cherry smiled at us and gestured for us at a table near the corner, and began to yell into the back our orders without us even needing to say them.

Sitting down at the table we began to talk, just the three of us no Crius or Claire. During the conversation, Stephon gravitated his conversation towards me, which didn't surprise Orin or me.

We both knew Stephon gravitated towards me conversation-wise cause of our mutual love of strategy and the fact that I don't treat him differently due to his age.

"Hey, Holden can you explain something to me?" He asked after a moment of silence when we got our food, Orin a blueberry muffin, Stephon got a lemon bar, and I got a mini icecream cake.

Nodding he asked the question. "What is aura?" giving him a confused glance I looked over to Orin and mouthed 'You didn't explain it to him" "I can see you!" Stephon yelled before adding "When I asked him he just used the force as a metaphor,"

I sent him a 'Your dumb' look before turning towards Stephon.

"Basically your Aura is the physical manifestation of one's soul, it can be manifested in a shield-like barrier around your body or your sembalance.

Like Orin's sembalance is to warm or freeze water to a certain degree, that could be used in the middle of a fight quite often and even is improved upon with cosmetics," I said gesturing towards the pouch of water on him.

"Then you have some peoples sembalance that can't be used as often, like mine, I can deactivate one semblance with the glare of my eyes, while that sounds cool and fun I have to keep my eyes on them and my eyes from blinking to keep them from getting it back." I continued

He nodded with a thoughtful expression on his face that isn't usually there before nodding with a smile. "Thanks your explanation was much better than Orin's," he said with a smirk.

"So I just have one more question?" he asked before tilting his head "What are you going to do when you are done with Crius?"

I thought about this for a moment before answering what was on my mind for a little while, "I've been thinking about this for a while and I think I'm gonna enroll into the Atlas Military," I said

Stephon smiled about this while Orin looked conflicted. We had been talking about this for quite some time and while he disagreed about putting what Crius taught me and put that into the military rather than being his personnel attack dog.

Paying the check we exited the bakery as we began to walk back home with a smile on our faces and a stomach full of food. But my mind couldn't help but drift, with Crius's teaching ending in a week whether I wanted to join the military still be mostly put into the air for debate.

I had to make my decision now.

Y'know how this goes, except if you are new to my stories this is where I say thanks for reading, and then to increase what looks like is going on down here I just say a stupid fact.

Fact; Bones found at Seymour Island indicate that, 37 to 40 million years ago, penguins stood at a formidable 6 feet tall and weighed 250 pounds