I know I said updates would be more frequent but during the time between the last chapter and this one I output 2 other stories, one of Locke Ruin's Origin story and a Hololive fanfiction focused on Mori Calliope. After that, I had some creative burnout and needed a break.

I'd really appreciate it if you guys would read the other two stories I put up if you're interested in either of them. I worked really hard on them especially the one of Calli, it's arguably one of my better works.

Unicron thank you for the kind words!

Also huge appreciation to the people still reading this long winded story with slow updates, thank you!


Chapter 72: The Ice is Crumbling


The world spun around her in a blur of white and blue, her body had long since gone numb to the frigid air. Snow exploded around Nova as her feet rapidly dug through the white expanse, grease, sweat, and blood covered her hands and face from the machines she seemed to be endlessly slaughtering.

How long had it been since she started fighting? Two days? Three days? She lost track of time, Aura long since depleted as now every bullet that grazed her skin stung like fire, had it not been for the dragon scales, she'd have long become shredded like paper.

Gasping for air she clambered over the snow-covered hill, raising Helios high above her head she sliced downward on the last robot soldier, sparks flying around her as the last bit of sunlight was devoured by the night.

Wiping the blood that had leaked from a head wound onto her eyes she gazed around to survey the destruction. Not a single robot was left standing amidst the field of white snow and leafless trees, of course, there was no sign of the village either.

"How far did I go…?" she croaked out, her raspy voice taking her by surprise, though days without water or food would do that to a person.

She looked at her scroll, with less than ten percent battery left and no service signal. "Shit… fuck!" exhaustion took hold of her as she crumpled to the floor beneath a tree, "I… need to get back… they need me…" muttering to herself she tried to peel her eyes back open, but her body was much more honest, quickly dropping her into a dark sleep.

"Aw look at it… sleeping without a care in the world…" a deep voice dripping with darkness observed.

Onyx Steelmane stood above the dead-tired body of Nova, smirking from ear to ear, his sharpened teeth glinting in the starlight.

Nova weakly peeled open her eyes, "…W-What…?" her eyes stung the moment light entered them, severe pain striking like a hot iron against the back of her skull.

"Pathetic…" with one swift motion, Onyx struck Nova across the face so hard the dragon went sprawling across the snow.

Blindsided by the action, Nova was now on high alert, her eyes wide awake. Wiping away the disorientation muddling her vision, she saw Onyx standing amidst the black night sky like a towering demon, a squadron of robots armed to the teeth standing behind him.

"YOU!" quickly she began scrambling for her scythe only to come up empty.

"Fancy weapon you got here… I think I'll keep it…" Onyx said with another dark chuckle, observing Helios with keen interest.

Grunting in pain Nova mustered up as much energy as she could, trying to launch herself at Onyx, but be it due to exhaustion or her damaged state, Onyx easily backhanded the teen's smaller frame aside like a tennis ball.

"YOU FILTHY FUCKING COWARD! Hiding behind your minions until I'm too tired to fight! You couldn't face me on even ground so you resorted to this?!"

Onyx grinned and ordered his robots to stand back, he casually walked toward Nova, dark aura of Miasma generating around him like a thick coat of midnight, blackening his skin as the stone around his neck began to hum dangerously. His eyes began glowing deep purple as his entire body was wrapped in an almost Grimm-like skin.

His jawline became lined with a white skeletal structure (Think Grimmjow from Bleach mixed with a Grim version of Alien X).

For the first time since the battle of Beacon, Nova felt real fear, staring up at the monster of a bear-man advancing toward her.

"JUST DIE ALREADY!" Nova screamed out, summoning energy and magic from her already depleted sources. The Agniseki let out a drained groan like a metal vent contracting on itself, it seemed to be trying to draw on the natural force of Fire, generating as much as it could, but the stone was limited by the hosts capacity, and with Nova's already exhausted body and no Aura, there was nothing to generate fire from, especially not in the frozen tundra.

Weak balls of magic-infused fire shot out of Nova's open hands, in a desperate attempt to strike at Onyx, however, it was futile as the flames were not dissipated on contact… but swallowed by the Miasma.

Onyx finally closed the distance and reached down, firmly grasping hold of Nova by the hair and yanking her upward, "I don't ever remember being on equal terms with you… hatchling. You were always… always… beneath me…"

"Of course I'd be… beneath you…" Nova choked out, the Miasma was suffocating, "Your ass was always so fat I'm surprised you could see past your stomach."

Onyx let out a loud, unworldly snarl that echoed through the forest, silencing every living thing within earshot, "I don't think you fucking understand…" he pulled her up so they were eye to eye, "I am the alpha and the omega. Your beginning and your end… death is the least of your worries…" (Onyx's theme music is now Alpha & Omega by SWARM. It was just too fitting)

He then deactivated his power and flung Nova's limp body into the squadron of robots, "Shackles and chains. The Queen needs it alive… for now…" he grimaced, as if keeping the teen alive was the last thing he wanted to do.


-Mantle-

Ruby, Yang, and Blake along with Oscar, Luna, Jaune, Ren, and Nora had managed to barely make it off of Atlas city before Ironwood's forces emerged in full display.

Over the course of two days, they'd managed to regroup with the Happy Huntresses, Robyn's team now led by May Marigold in the absence of Robyn.

Mantle was in disarray, the people who'd been left behind were in the worst position they could possibly be in. The citizens on the ground were already eating scraps to get by, but now that all supplies had been cut off from Atlas, they'd been abandoned.

To top it all off, Nitro and Hex were stranded on Atlas, hold out in their parents' facility, like fugitives.

They were gathered in a rundown cafeteria, sitting in somber silence as May gave them a rundown of the current state of affairs, "Right now, there are citizens still located in city blocks C through F. We don't have enough people to protect everywhere, so right now we need to gather the remaining survivors and bring them to City Block A and B, where it's fortified and safe."

Everyone was sitting with grim expressions, except Ruby who leaned against a wall, sitting atop a metal desk with her red hood pulled over her head so her expression was unreadable.

"Survivors is it…?" Yang muttered under her breath, painfully gripping onto her arm.

"You say something blondie?" May's head perked up irritated.

Yang grit her teeth, "You called them survivors, not people as if to say that they're just the remainders…"

May's expression darkened, "This isn't summer camp kid, and I hate to break the harsh reality, but that's what they are. The ones who are still alive after you failed to protect them!"

Yang stood up abruptly, "Us?! You are just as much a part of their deaths as we are. While we were out there fighting for…!"

"Yang, stop," Ruby said with a stern voice. She'd been silently staring at her scroll every chance she got.

There were so many outgoing calls and text messages to Nova that she could no longer find where it started. He'd been silent for two days… not even a ghost of a whisper from him. It was unnerving and terrifying.

"But Ruby…"

"No, she's right. We failed to prevent things from happening because we were too passive. We trusted Ironwood and we didn't see his fall. But we have the opportunity to make things right," she got up from her seat atop the table in the corner, and pulled her hood off, "And we're going to fix things… even if we aren't in the best circumstances ourselves…" she clenched her fists in frustration and Yang saw that look on her face.

Everyone did.

She was worried about Nova.

"May, we need to launch Amity. Once Salem is finished with Atlas the rest of Remnant is next. They need to be warned."

"But what about the people? We need all the help we can get to save them!" Jaune interjected. "You can't be suggesting we dump them to sneak back into the Academy, right?!"

"Well… actually there are two terminals we can use to launch it…" Pietro said as he entered the room, behind him were Weiss and Anastasia aka Neopolitan, accompanied by Nova's mother and a few familiar faces, old and new.

"Doctor Polendina, is that plan really feasible in our current state?" Blake asked earnestly, trying her best to be the level head in the middle.

The old man nodded, "Well, normally I'd say no, but with Doctor Flareheart here and your friends in Atlas, we just might be able to do it." He gestured to Elain with a calm expression.

Ruby saw Weiss and Anastasia and immediately ran up to them, "Oh my gosh, are you guys alright?!" she asked concerned, desperately checking them up and down and seeing the sorry state they were in. Scratches and char marks scarred their skin as there were clear signs of battle.

Weiss hugged Ruby tightly, earning a slight pout from Anastasia behind her, "It's good to see you, Ruby. N-… Ana and I barely made it out of Ironwood's place on our own, even then it took us quite a while to get back here with all the Grimm running around…"

Anastasia signed, 'We're just glad to be alive right now.' She looked at Weiss and gave her an endearing smile, and the ice-princess felt her heart flutter.

"Aunty Ellie… what about you…?" Ruby looked up at the motherly figure.

Elain's stoic expression crumbled for a moment, "Me? I'm fine… but kid you look like shit…" she was eyeing the dark circles under Ruby's eyes and the clearly tired lines on her face. She noticed Nova was nowhere to be found, she would've asked had it not been for the feeling that bringing him up wasn't a good idea right now.

Ruby turned back to Pietro, "You mentioned, friends in Atlas? Are you talking about…"

"The Zephyr siblings of course!" he said folding his arms proudly.

"But I thought all communications had been shut down…" Ruby started but suddenly Doctor Polendina pulled up a screen from his mechanical chair on which the display turned on and the faces of Nitro and Hex were eagerly pressed against the camera, perhaps a little too close.

"HELLO?!" Nitro said rather loudly into the camera, startling the entire room.

Hex roughly grabbed him by the collar and yanked him back, "Sorry about my brother. Can you guys hear us?"

Ruby let out a faint smile, "Loud and clear, it's good to see you!"

"Yeah, nice to see you guys alright!" she glanced around and noticed Yang, "Hey babe~ I miss you~"

Yang turned bright red and waved back sheepishly, "Hi…" her expression said she wanted to talk to her but there were pressing matters to attend to.

"It's been hell up here. Ironwood's essentially put everyone on military lockdown, soldiers are in the streets in droves… it's pretty bad…." Nitro donned a serious expression. He wanted to catch up with his friends but time was a luxury they didn't have.

"How did you get communications up?" Yang asked, hoping to spend as much time as she could with Hex.

The purple-haired girl smirked, "Remember way back when we went to the CCT Tower in Vale?"

They all nodded.

"I lynched their source code for video transmission and crossed that with the stuff we had here at the lab and presto! One untraceable, unscannable and undetectable comms connection for yours truly and her special friends." Hex said proudly gesturing to herself.

"It's quite the impressive work, not that I condone the stealing of Atlas tech… but given the circumstances," Pietro chuckled heartily.

"This is all well and good but what are we going to do about the people that need evacuating?" May interrupted, "Or have you all forgotten the reason you chose Mantle in the first place?"

Weiss scowled, "Now wait just a minute…"

"No, she's right. We need to evacuate the people of Mantle, but we also need to warn the rest of Remnant," Ruby voiced, bringing them full circle to their previous problem.

Oscar who'd been silent for a long time finally spoke up, "Why not both?"

They all looked at him with blinking eyes.

Normally he'd have turned red from this much attention, but he was far different from the Oscar of a month ago.

"We can do both. We have two teams and more than enough Huntsmen and Huntresses to spare. Split it off, half of us secure Amity and the other half handles the evacuation."

Yang folded her arms, "But what if something goes wrong on either side? What if we need more people?'

Oscar stood firm, "We can't be waiting around and banking all of our decisions on 'What ifs'. The longer we wait, the faster Salem is going to get here, and by then it'll all be too late. Time is something we don't have, so let's just stop wasting it and get shit done?"

Luna fought down the urge to let out an impressed whistle and scream 'Hell yeah! That's my Oscar!'. Instead, she settled for, "Oscar's right. We can split up. I'll help get with the Mantle evacuation; my powers will be more useful there."

Ruby again let out a faint smile, "Thank you, Oscar. I agree with you, what say the rest of you?"

They all looked at each other nervously but agreed nonetheless.

"Then it's settled. We'll divide the teams based on utility. Since we have to sneak our way into Atlas, it'll be me, Ren, Jaune, Blake, and Penny…"

Ren interrupted her, "Wait, Ruby, I think Jaune and I should go with the Mantle team. With the Grimm about, I can cloak everyone's emotions amplified with Jaune, it'll make things safer for escorting them."

The Reaper nodded, "Understood. In that case…" she eyed her team, "Weiss? Anastasia? Are you guys coming then?"

The two shared a look before Weiss responded, "I… we…"

'It's alright. We should go.' Anastasia signed.

"What about Nova? Where is he in all of this?" Nitro asked from the monitor. "Where's my bro?"

Everyone in the room was silent, no one could answer.

Yang was about to answer when Ruby spoke up first, "He's missing..."

"Ruby…" the blonde gave her sister a sorrowful gaze but Ruby simply shook her head and put on the sternest face she could muster.

"No it's fine. We need to stop avoiding the subject like it's the plague. The reality of the situation is that Nova is missing, and I haven't… we haven't had contact with him since he left. I… don't want to say it but…" she bit down hard on her lower lip as if struggling to hold back a sob, "We need to press on… and trust that he's okay…"

"AHEM!" a loud throaty noise erupted from behind the pack of people, causing all attention to be drawn to the three individuals who came in with them.

The three people pulled down their snow-covered hoods to reveal Fenrir, Randolf, and Olwen standing there.

Luna stared wide-eyed, "Uncle Randolf? Granny? What are you doing here?!"

Fenrir coughed, "I'm your uncle too you know…"

No one paid him any attention.

"We just got here from the village. It took a long time to travel on foot with our entire population in tow…" Randolf said with a grim expression.

"Entire village in tow…" Luna felt a cold chill run down her spine, "Does that mean…?"

Olwen nodded, "We were overrun… not by Grimm… but by robots."

"Robots?!" came the unanimous exclamation.

"Nasty buggers. Onyx's forces, the ones that we'd been suspecting for a while now? They sprung an ambush on us during the chaos that happened here. If it weren't for that princeling we'd be bloodstains on the tundra." The old woman explained.

"Nova was there?! What happened to him?! Where is he?!" Ruby was frantic.

Randolf shook his head, "We have no clue. He charged headfirst into the enemy and bought us all time to escape. We had our hands full dealing with Grimm on the way here that none of us really had time to double back and check on him. We just had to trust that he'd find us on his own once he was done…"

"YOU JUST LEFT HIM?!" Nitro exploded, "How could you just abandon him like that?!"

Randolf grimaced, "Do you think we wanted to?! It was him or the hundreds of lives in our village! IT WAS NOT AN EASY DECISION TO MAKE!" the wolf Faunus defended. "He had control over the situation! Those robots were dropping like flies to his strength! I had to trust that he'd be okay!"

"Trust that he'd be okay?!" Nitro let out a dry, sarcastic laugh, "Everyone's been saying that today. Trust in Nova' strength, trust in him, trust that he'd be okay… Aren't you all forgetting something?"

"Nitro please…" Hex tried to appease him but he was losing it.

"No Hex. I've been hearing about it since the start but I let it slide because I didn't really know your circumstances, but aren't you relying on him a little too much?! Yeah he's strong, yeah you can trust him to protect you… but who the fuck is protecting him?!"

Ruby felt a direct stab at her heart even if the words weren't directed at her. Nova is her boyfriend, her lover, her other half. It was her job to protect him when he's incapable of protecting himself, this whole situation was just a stark reminder of how helpless she felt.

Luna saw the Reaper digging her nails into her arm in frustration, desperately holding in her sorrow and instantly felt deep sympathy for her.

"I say we go out there right now and look for him! We need to…!"

"WE CAN'T!" It was Luna who yelled out. "We really can't… don't you think we would have if we could? It's bad enough we have to work like this… " she flared up in anger, her dragon eyes glowing with power, "We might have enough people for two teams but not three… we can't spread ourselves any thinner than this…"

"But he's our friend! Our leader! OUR PRINCE! We can't just leave him out there alone!"

"Don't you think I want to go after him?! We're all hurting, but if the one who has it the worst is willing to put her emotions aside and make the right decisions then so can you!" Luna gestured to Ruby, tears threatening to leak from her eyes.

Nitro wanted to retort but he shrunk back, how could he fight her logic? She was right.

"I… I'm sorry… I…"

"No it's fine… look we have our plan, let's just figure out how we're going to sneak into Atlas…" Ruby said finally finding her voice again.

Hex broke in, "Leave that to us."


-With Nova-

Cold, biting chill and frigid air was all Nova could feel amidst the throbbing pain in his side. Peeling his eyes open, the dragon could barely make out his surroundings with dull blurry vision. A low vibration rang through his ears as he tried to pull himself to his feet, except… he found that his arms and legs couldn't move.

With immense effort, he craned his neck to the right, and then to the left, finding that his body had transformed back, and his arms and legs were bound in shackles to ice-covered walls, suspending his body above the ground in what seemed to be a frozen jail cell.

A bleak white light came from above his head but he couldn't see the source beyond the bars of his cell, staring out into what seemed to be a long icy tunnel.

His breath came out in white puffs of steam, though his breathing was shallow as each inhalation sent a sharp pain through his torso.

'Shattered ribs, haven't felt this in a while…' he thought to himself. His brain finally beginning to fire up, he tried to summon his fire, but the Agniseki simply let out a pained hum and dimly glowing before fading again. The mere act of trying to draw up his fire was exhausting as beads of sweat formed on his tired face, the droplets almost freezing instantly in the cold.

"I wouldn't try that if I were you…" a familiar deep voice said.

Nova craned his neck forward to see Onyx striding through the frozen tunnel, his large frame coming to a stop, just in front of his cell.

"Actually…" Onyx placed a finger on his chin tapping thoughtfully, "How about you struggle more? It's funny to see you suffer like this, brat."

"Fuck you!" Nova spat on the floor, the saliva practically freezing mid-air, turning into an icy ball of spit before crashing onto the floor. The sheer speed of freezing was astonishing to Nova.

Onyx smirked, "Nice huh? That cell was built specifically to hold you. It was the only thing we could do short of submerging you in a frozen lake," he stroked his beard, "Turns out the Aspect of Fire doesn't work when you're -40 degrees Celsius, far out of reach of the sun."

"Please if it was that cold, I would be frozen solid without my Aura. What did you do to me?!" Nova demanded.

Onyx made a tsk sound, "Hmph don't believe me? See…" he leaned against the cage, "The only reason you're still alive is due to the concoction we injected you with."

"What are you talking about?" the dragon hissed.

"Oh just a little by-product of our research. Keeps your Aura down to a bare minimum so you don't freeze to death, and those confounded nanomachines in a barely active state. You aren't healing, you aren't able to use your powers, but just barely awake enough to keep you alive. It's brilliant really…" a dark smile appeared over the man's face, "I should give Stein a raise!"

Nova held his breath and finally asked the question that had been burning on his tongue ever since he'd awoken, "Why am I alive? If you got your hands on me, why are you keeping me alive?"

Onyx's expression seemed to hold a gleam in his eyes, "I thought you'd never ask. See… you're the Fall Maiden, and the queen needs the power of the Maiden to get the Relic in the vault under Beacon."

"So just kill me. Put a bullet right between my eyes right fucking now and take that power for yourself!" Nova taunted, a sadistic grin on his face.

Onyx slammed his fist against the cage, "You think I don't want to? Don't play coy. If we kill you that power goes right into the hands of that Ruby bitch or that fucking sister of yours and that just makes things even more complicated for us. See… you might be the strongest to them, but to us? You're just the weakest link."

"What does that mean? You think I'll just co-operate with you?" Nova cursed aloud, "You're out of your fucking mind if you think I'll ever help you."

Onyx smirked, "We'll see about that…"

"Go on! Bring the torture. I'm fucking ready, you'll never break me."

"Oh… are you sure? You see… I know exactly how to make you squirm," Onyx dialled something on his scroll, "To break a diamond, you need to use a diamond…"

"What are you…?"

Suddenly around the corner heavy footsteps were heard, as a tall humanoid looking robot with a body made out of black carbon-fibre plating showed up. Its body was broad and sturdy while its head was almost human-shaped with a face made of a black screen.

"Obsidian. I want you to… help our guest see things our way…" Onyx said darkly.

Nova huffed, "What's a robot supposed to do?"

The robot named Obsidian stood stiffly and opened the cage, approaching Nova, "Yes Commander. I will apply the appropriate procedures." It's monotone voice made Nova's blood run almost as cold as the air.

"T-That voice…" Nova stuttered out.

"Mmmm ahahahahAHHAHA! Yes!" Onyx chuckled throatily.

"There's no way… that can't be. This is some kind of trick…" Nova croaked out, a lump forming in his throat.

The bear Faunus grinned with a mad, face-splitting smile, "OH BUT IT IS REAL! Isn't that right… Flint?"

Obsidian's facial screen plate turned on, and staring at Nova, at eye level, was the face of his father, Bortz Flint Flareheart.

"D-Dad? DAD?! WHAT DID THEY DO TO YOU?!" Nova screamed out, but the robot didn't even so much as flinch or change it's expression.

"Yell all you want, but your father is now our personal pet Artificial Intelligence. See… dear old daddy was working for me so diligently until Beacon fell. We all thought you were dead and when he heard the news, he tried to kill himself…" Onyx was glancing at his fingernails as if mocking the dragon, "We stopped him from doing that and turned his brain into the core of our most advanced intelligence system… he truly was a remarkable specimen…"

Tears threatened to burst forth, Nova's turning bloodshot red but his body was so deprived of moisture that it had slowly stopped releasing moisture, "YOU MONSTER!"

"Really now… you should be thanking me… I did save his life after all~" he replied calmly.

"DAD PLEASE! IT'S ME! IT'S NOVA YOUR SON!" he broke into a fit of dry sobbing, "Please…"

"I'll just… leave you two to get acquainted. Obsidian, execute prisoner code 12, constraints: Until his heartbeat almost stops, then you can patch him up and start over. Food and water once a day, we can't have him dying on us." Onyx instructed.

"Yes Commander, orders accepted and constraints applied." The robot saluted back.

The large man nodded, "Good. Now if you two will excuse me. I have a city to burn…" he turned and walked out leaving Nova and his now torturer.


-Inside Atlas Academy-

While Ruby, Weiss, 'Anastasia', Blake, Nora and Randolf ventured into Atlas and the others made their way to the city blocks to evacuate citizens, a dusty old Qrow sad in a jail cell made of energized dust, quietly clutching onto the bloodied badge of Clover.

"If only I wasn't so blind… or if you weren't so fucking hard-headed…" Qrow muttered under his breath as he tightly gripped the four-leafed clover badge.

"You know I do quite enjoy the silence, thanks for ruining it you vagabond," the arrogant voice of Jacques Schnee echoed from the other cell.

"If anyone is disturbing the peace, it's you, traitor." Robyn sneered as she banged her fist against her cage that was adjacent to his.

Jacques huffed, "Traitor?! How dare…"

"That's exactly what you are! Don't even try to sugar coat it. You sold out, plain and simple, and now all of Atlas and Mantle are doomed because of it. You Schnees always acted like nobility and this time you royally fucked up." Robyn gripped the bars through the shocking pain and glared at him deep in the eyes, "The only difference is, money can't fix the damage that's been done."

Jacques looked pale, more so than he already was, and stiffened, "I-I was just doing it for the sake of my family's legacy!"

"Oh, cut the bullshit!" this time it was Qrow who roared out smashing his fist against the bars, sparks flying everywhere as the glint of Clover's pin grated against the energy, "Family legacy?! Where's your family now Schnee?!"

"M-M-M"

"Exactly, you never gave a fuck. Your wife and son are probably scared to death in their house, Winter is battered and bruised in medical and the daughter you straight up disowned is god knows where else. Face it Jacques, you never once gave a shit about your family. You were always ever in it for yourself!" Qrow glared, he was pissed. All of his self-hatred and anger had to be directed outward onto someone.

"Just do us all a favour and bite your tongue off," Robyn seethed at Jacques before turning to Qrow with a soft expression. She could see the hurt on his face. "Hey birdy… you okay?"

"No… no I'm not…" Qrow admitted dejectedly, slumping back down onto his bench.

"What happened with Clover wasn't your fault… I don't know what happened but I know you're not the type of man to kill his friend like that…"

Qrow raised his eyebrow apathetically, "You don't know me." He said flatly before turning around.

"Maybe not… but I'd like too if you'd let me?" Robyn held a sympathetic look.

The huntsman snorted, "Why do you care?"

"I…" she bit her lip, why did she actually care. Comradery? Because they were on the same side? Because she could sense he was tormented and troubled and her instincts told her to care? "I… have nothing else to do…?" she finally answered.

Qrow rolled his eyes, "Well sit-down lady, you're in for a long one…"


-Mantle Crater-

Ruby and her squad had made it to the center of Mantle's crater, a large pillar towering into the sky connecting the two cities, and at the base of it stood a warehouse-like complex, unmanned robots were operating as guards at the entrance.

May used her semblance of invisibility to cloak the whole squad allowing them to sneak inside without any hindrance.

Once they were inside and the cloak was removed, Weiss explained the plan, "These tubes can take us directly to Atlas central district or directly into the Academy depending on which one we take."

May looked nervously at the robots, "What about these things?"

"This facility is owned by the SDC so all drones here answer to us not Ironwood," she gestured proudly to herself while Anastasia rolled her chocolate eyes in amusement.

'Is there anything you don't own in Atlas?' she signed at Weiss who blushed bashfully.

"I well… anyway since the fall, all tubes connecting to the Academy are sealed so…."

"Wait, hold on a minute. Are we seriously 'mailing' ourselves up there?!" Randolf exclaimed in surprise.

The girls all shot him a dull look, "Uh… yeah? You got a better idea?" Blake studied his expression.

The flabbergasted man just shrugged and composed himself, "Um, no uh… carry on…"

Weiss made an 'ahem', "So as we were saying. Atlas Academy is locked so we'll be mailing ourselves to the Zephyr labs, that's where Nitro and Hex come in. They'll smuggle us into the facility."

"I knew you guys were crazy but sheesh… what if something goes wrong in the tubes? What if we… get stuck?" Randolf asked hesitantly.

Ruby's jaw dropped, "Randolf Wulf? Nova's martial artist-teacher and Uncle Qrow's friend is… claustrophobic?!"

The wolf coughed into his hands, "AHEM! NO! I'm just uh… not particular about… mailing myself…" his ears twitched nervously.

Nora snickered, "It'll be fun big guy, here, all you need to do is take the first step!" she pushed him slightly, knocking him off balance as he fell into a capsule behind him and was instantly shot into the sky.

Everyone gaped, "NORA!"

"What? We're doing this anyway?"

"…"


-Mantle City Block D-

On the other side of Mantle, Luna and her team were working quickly on evacuating the citizens. They were forced to move quietly and cautiously as, despite having pre-emptively cleared all the Grimm, there was no telling when more would show up or be drawn to commotion, and as such, the citizens were filed in a thin, long line with Jaune at the front, Ren and Yang to the sides while Luna looked after the rear with Oscar.

Ren was withholding from using his semblance as to conserve Aura, until the situation would prove otherwise.

Oscar on the other hand was beside himself with worry and concern. His mind was plagued with an internal struggle, one which he deliberately didn't share with everyone. Ozpin was back.

"I'd been gone for too long. To think, things would devolve like this without my presence…" Ozpin said in Oscar's mind as he mused on his memories.

'Without your presence? Really? You have some nerve showing up now of all times.' Oscar responded in kind, the bitterness echoing in every thought.

"I understand your grievances but I believe you need my help now more than ever."

'Need your help? My grievances?! Do you have any idea how much we've suffered? You ran away like a coward once we discovered your secret, you hid so much from us and now you come crawling back? Why should we even trust you?!' Oscar fumed, his rage was building like a brewing storm. If only Ozpin had been here several months before, if only he hadn't lied and ran away… things would have been so much different.

Ozpin sighed, "You have every right to be angry. I admit… I was a coward. Unable to bear the consequences of my actions I took vestige in your mind and locked myself away, afraid to face what had become… For that I'm sorry. I should have trusted you all from the start…"

'Apologizing now doesn't fix a goddamned thing! It doesn't make up for the struggles we've had to endure… do you have any idea what I've, we've been through?! What Nova and Ruby have had to shoulder since you were gone?! All your responsibility fell on them and they've lost so much because of it…'

"I… can see that. Yet, I can't help but feel that they've handled the situations better than I ever could… my judgement might have only hindered the progress you've made. If it were up to me… or rather up to the past me… I'd have never tried reviving Miss Nikos or appealing to Mantle the way you did. Things would've fallen long ago…"

'Doesn't that contradict what you just said about your presence not being here causing this to happen?'

" Somewhat. I meant if I had been here perhaps when James was on the verge of falling I might have been able to stop him. I had come to terms with my mistakes a while ago… but fear kept me back. I truly am sorry…"

"Your apology doesn't mean shit!" Oscar said aloud, though not quite a shout, but loud enough to startle Luna who was in close proximity.

She turned to him with a very worried and frightened look, "Oscar are you alright? What are you…"

Instantly the boy looked at her with an apologetic expression, guilt marring his features, "I'm sorry… just… thinking about something…"

"Care to share it with me?"

He shook his head, "Not right now… it's not the time anyway. Our attention should be focused on the…"

"GRIMM!" Yang shouted.

"I was going to say people but that works too…"

"DUCK!"

"Well, I hardly see how ducks are supposed to be relevant, firstly this is the North there aren't any ducks in…!" Oscar was interrupted when Luna grabbed him by the collar and dragged him to the floor, as a mass of black feathers swooped just above his head, narrowly missing his nose. It was so close he could smell the stench of death. "Oh… actual Grimm…"

The sparkling blue sky was now blanketed in a coat of black, as the loud sound of cawing was heard and the flapping of feathers.

"REN! NOW!" Jaune rushed up to Ren and together Ren activated his Aura coating all the survivors, "EVERYONE STAY TOGETHER AND MOVE SLOWLY! REMAIN CALM WE ARE CLOAKING YOU FROM THE GRIMM!"

The people were confused and disoriented but with enough coordination, they were able to get the train moving. As they escorted the people out, Yang, Luna, and Oscar remained to fight.

The black in the sky began to converge into separate clustered masses forming two of the humanoid Nevermore Yang had encountered back in Argus while she, Blake, and Hex had assaulted the communication tower.

"Fuck not these things…" Yang grumbled as she witnessed them. "At least it's just two… the three of us can handle them…"

The creatures dashed from the rooftops at blinding speed, accelerating with the rush of wind behind them as one landed in between the three, forcing them apart. With a swipe of its arms, razor-sharp feathers flew in all directions forcing the team to scatter.

The second one ambushed Yang from the side, with a forceful flying kick it sent her cratering into a nearby building. Oscar didn't even have time to react as the first one was on him, thrusting forward with bladed arms and attacking with the moves of a taekwondo master.

Oscar brought up his Aura shield that covered his arms to block but the weight under each strike was beyond what he was prepared for, forcing him on purely a defensive state until Luna knocked it aside with Galaxia.

"What the fuck are these things?! Why do they know martial arts?!" Oscar asked bewildered.

Yang had erupted in a yellow explosion out of the building as a smouldering fist sent the second creature hammering into the street next to its ally.

"No fuckin clue! We barely took them on the last time and they somehow feel so much stronger than before. Their bodies might feel solid but they could disperse into a flock of mini Nevermore at any point!" Yang said, and just as she did, both creatures got up, and spread their hands. Following which birds shot out of their bodies like bullets raging in all directions.

They spent their stamina dodging and deflecting until the torrent stopped.

"Like a Murder of Crows?!" Luna pointed out.

"Murders? Kinda unoriginal for a name…" Yang said dryly.

"No I mean that's the collective noun for a flock of Crows… ah whatever we can name them later!"

Just as they were about to gear up for round two, a loud screech penetrated the atmosphere forcing them to cover their ears in pain.

"What now?!" Oscar voiced out.

The ground began to rumble as the shadows around them seemed to converge and combine. The world seemed physically darker as something manifested from thin air. It seemed to just appear before them like the horror of pure fear and death.

Towering high above the other two, this creature stood nearly eight feet tall with a wide, muscular body that seemed almost hairy, like a giant bear on two legs, except its head was a skull with deer antlers. It resembled a Wendigo of ancient folklore.

"What the actual fuck is that?!" this time it was Luna who was exclaiming in pure fear.

Yang grimaced, "They just keep coming up with new shit!"

With a deep below, the creature let out a thunderous roar and got down on all fours, barrelling past its two allies and straight toward them, singling Oscar out of the fight with its immense strength.

"OSCAR!" Luna screamed but couldn't react in time as the two Murders jumped on them, sending them in separate directions, forcing one on one scenarios. The Grimm was strategic.

"ARGHHH!" Oscar yelped in pain as the creature which had taken him by the left arm dragged his body across the asphalt leaving a crater trail before whipping its head and slamming Oscar into the street with immense force.

His mind had almost gone blank from the pain of his bones being crushed while being ragdolled around, Ozpin activated a magic shield in the case and forced the creature's jaws apart, shattering a few teeth and freeing Oscar from its clutches.

"This creature is beyond anything I've ever seen. What has Salem been hiding?!" Ozpin was startled.

Oscar gritted his teeth but didn't respond, unfolding the cane he rushed at the beast, infusing his own Aura into it and trying his best to strike hard and fast, but on all fours, the beast was too agile.

It dodged and minimized the strike damage in consecutive blows before retaliating with claw swipes, and biting down with its teeth.

Oscar tried to block the bite with his left arm again since the teeth were gone, he figured he could stop the attack with his Aura focused on defence and land a blow but something unexpected happened.

As his arm came into contact with the toothless jaws clamping down onto them, a sharp pain ripped through his arm, blood spurting like a fountain as he was forced to recoil.

Teeth had grown back, sunk into his arms as when he ripped his arm free, the teeth came with it.

The shock and horror were disorienting as the creature stood up on its hind legs, "OSCAR LOOK OUT!" Ozpin yelled inside his head but it was too late.

The boy turned around just in time to see the creature's massive paw swinging toward his head like a hairy wrecking ball. The slap was so loud and hard that the crunching of bone was heard as Oscar was knocked off his feet like a golf ball at the mercy of a professional player.

*BOOM* was the sound of the boy crashing into a concrete wall.

"OSCAR!" Luna called out she ran toward him, she looked tired but not injured, the same went for Yang who emerged from her own fight. The corvid Grimm were strong but not powerful enough to drag down experienced fighters such as them.

The creature looked back and witnessed that his allies had perished, unsure of handling the situation three on one, it took the decisive action.

With another loud bellow, it stunned the two girls and rushed after Oscar, picking up the unconscious and barely alive boy from the rubble.

"LET HIM GO!" Luna screamed out, using her powers to force the creature down.

A mass of black energy emanated from it, as the beast struggled against Luna's force of power.

"YANG QUICKLY GET OSCAR!"

"Right!"

The brawler rushed to secure the boy when a loud thundering was heard, it sounded like hooves.

"What the….!" Yang was blindsided as out of a street she was knocked by a black blur like a train.

"YANG! NO!" Luna lost her concentration as the new threat emerged, freeing the Wendigo.

Standing between her and the bear creature with Oscar was a massive centaur-like Grimm, similar to the one they'd fought at the village and frozen lake back in Mistral. The difference is, unlike the first one, this creature was much more robust, and its horse head was billowing black smoke. It's rider was a muscular six-foot-tall warrior with armour made of the white Grimm mask material covering its black skin. Its head was like a gladiator helmet with long curved tusks at the jawline, and in its right hand it wielded a long spear.

The new Grimm gave a nod to the Wendigo, and it understood what it needed to do. The Wendigo then retched and transformed, its body morphing and growing wings as its bear-like form shrunk into the gargoyle-like state, taking flight carrying the boy away.

"NO! GIVE BACK OSCAR!" Luna yelped.

"No… you will perish…." Came the inhuman and layered voice of the Grimm.

Luna stared back startled, did the Grimm just… speak?!


-Secret Base-

*Squelch* *Crunch* were the sounds that echoed like reverb in the empty caves of ice.

"Dad… please… you don't have to listen to them! AAAAHHHH!" Nova screamed out as his ribs were beaten in with a metal pipe swung with the force of super strength.

The robot said nothing, simply continued to beat Nova senseless. At first attempts at sharp objects were used but Nova's skin with the scales was too difficult for traditional tools, but despite all of this it was soon discovered that even if the exterior was sturdy, the interior was vulnerable and thus inflicting internal damage was ideal.

"ACK!" Nova choked as another blow this time aimed at his arms that were hanging from the chains connected at the point between the elbow and upper forearm. His arm wanted to buckle from pain but it was stretched to its limit, all of his muscles were in constant tear, unable to properly heal, constantly in writhing pain.

Hours flew by, like days for him, it was real hell. To make matters worse, if physical pain wasn't enough, the torturer was none other than his own father, and each moment he had to take a blow knowing that his father was doing this against his will.

"Dad…" his head slumped down, consciousness beginning to fade signalling the A.I's protocol to reactivate the dragon's nanomachine cells and let him recover before returning to the procedure.

Nova's head hung low but his breathing soon stabilized as a syringe was injected into his arm.

In the robot's head, Flint was losing his mind.

He'd lost motor control and the ability to disobey orders long ago, but his mind was still able to freely think outside of commands.

Several hours before when he was summoned by Onyx to the prison cell, he couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor sap that would suffer his torture protocols, they was brutal even by ordinary standards.

'Nanomachine suppressors? What do I need these for? The only people who should be using that tech according to the databases is Onyx… so who…? Did someone else appropriate my wife's technology?'

However, his mind went numb the moment he saw who was hanging from the chains. At first, it was difficult from a distance, but there was no mistaking it now. No matter how many years passed by, how long it'd been, or how much he'd changed, Flint would never forget the face of his son.

'NOVA!' Flint inwardly screamed, by externally he was inexpressive. 'NO! OF ALL THE PEOPLE! NO! WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE YOU!'

"Proceed with the torture protocol," Onyx said to him.

'REFUSE! PLEASE REFUSE! THIS IS OUR SON! NO GOD FUCK NO! PLEASE STOP BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!' he screamed internally but externally he said, "Yes commander"

The moment he picked up the metal pipe and struck down hard, he was already in tears in his mind, every strike ate away at the remnants of his soul, 'PLEASE! SOMEONE STOP ME! Please…' he was internally sobbing, uncontrollably he lamented as, despite his greatest efforts, he could not overwrite his programming.

"DAD PLEASE!" he heard Nova calling out to him.

'SON! I'm trying! I'm… trying so hard *sob*' Flint's mind was in complete dysfunction, his inability to control the situation had led to a spiral of self-hate that was driving him insane.

Still, the rational part of him had to admire his son, not only was he able to suffer immense stress and pain for hours, but amidst all that, the boy never once gave up on his father. He could only imagine what hardships one had to endure to turn them into a person like Nova, the world knows that if their roles were switched, Flint would've caved in the first five minutes.

Day turned into the night when a new arrival was brought into the base.

Nova heard the scuffling of footsteps and something being dragged, as a large Grimm, occupying his entire field of vision stood outside the cell room.

"Toss him in there. Obsidian will deal with him on rotation." Onyx said from outside his field of vision as the door to the cell swung open and a small person was tossed in like a ragdoll before two other robots strode in carrying shackles.

Nova's eyes widened as he saw who it was. Through his swollen face, the dragon could distinctly see the green coat of Oscar Pine being chained to the adjacent wall in his field of vision.

He pretended to be unconscious before the Grimm and Onyx left. Once they were surely gone he called out, "Oscar?! Oscar is that you?!" he shout whispered.

The boy groaned as his eyes peeled open, "Unnh… What…? Where am I?" he looked upward to see Nova, bloodied and bruised suspended in the air by chains, "NOVA?!"

"…Hey kid… nice to see you too…" he choked out, his breathing hard.

Oscar's eyes were wild with confusion and worry, "What are you doing here?! Where are we?! How did you get like that?!"

"…So many questions…" Nova chuckled roughly, "They captured us, they want something from us, as for how we got here… I was dragged on my ass after having said ass handed to me. What about you?"

Oscar frowned and sighed, "Sounds about the same… we were protecting Mantle when this new Grimm ambushed us… they were too strong…"

Nova grimaced, "Yeah… I'm starting to feel that the enemy has numbers and power-ups now. I'm worried about our future. How is everyone back at base? Is the city alright? What about James?"

At the mention of General, Oscar flinched harshly, "It's… really bad. Ironwood's gone crazy and divided Atlas and Mantle. He plans to abandon the people and use the staff of creation to fly Atlas into the atmosphere away from the Grimm so Salem can't get her hands on it."

"ABANDON MANTLE?! IS HE SERIOUS?!"

Oscar nodded, "Yeah… I tried to reason with him but… he sorta turned me down before shooting me. Ever since we lost contact with you, everyone's been really depressed and on edge. Ruby's doing a great job of handling it, but even I can tell that the pressure is threatening to break her at any given moment. Luna is… holding up a lot better, I think it's because she resolved herself to her role as the one to carry your mantle as the Aspect in the event of your absence, and she's putting aside her emotions to do her best… but it's all just… a horrible mess…"

Nova felt a stone form in his stomach at that, he knew things were bad, but he never thought they'd gotten to this extent. He thought he was strong enough, with all this power he almost thought himself invincible, but when faced with the worst possible conditions he realized that he was easily drained and fallible when forced to play to his weaknesses.

Cursing mentally he realized he was too naïve. Relying on his own power rather than the co-operation of his team to fight all the battles. He was too short-sighted to think that his enemies would play fair and fight on even ground. This was war, and there was no fairness in winning or losing.

His enemies had exploited their weaknesses, dividing them, tearing them apart at the seams, and forcing him to fight against insurmountable odds in situations where he could not utilize his fullest potential.

He had been one step behind them this entire time.

"They're on their way to securing Amity and warn the rest of Remnant, but after that… I'm not really sure what our plan is to stop Salem. She's already on her way to Atlas, it's a matter of time before we're all overrun…"

"She's already on her way?! What about the Winter Maiden?!"

Oscar hesitated, "We're not sure. Something must've happened because Ironwood hasn't used the staff yet. We think that the Maiden might have died and her power went onto someone else, but we don't know who. Weiss was there but… we never heard the explanation before things went crazy… there was just so much going on…"

"At least everyone is safe more or less… now if only…" suddenly Nova's ears twitched, "Shit he's coming back…"

"What? Who's coming back?" Oscar was confused. "Onyx?"

Nova held his breath before saying with a tight expression, "No… my dad…"


After Friday of this week I should get started on the next chapter but until then I have some work to clear up despite it being summer vacation. Also, upcoming works in progress besides the DnD main campaign story is the origin story of my new OC Raelynn Infernas the Tiefling Wild Magic Sorcerer.

They're a non-binary character who's cursed with unpredictable magic, and the curse also makes it so other people who see Raelynn view them as their preferred sex, regardless of whether they know it or not, so Raelynn is a walking gay radar (gaydar?). Anyway their story is pretty interesting so far so when I finalize those details I'll get started on that.

As for Dragon's Rise, I do have everything mapped out but I'm trying not to blow through Volume 8 before 9 comes out and start getting more ideas.