It was a beautiful midweek day in the city of Atlas, the roaring blizzard that had buried the streets of Mantle in snow had been mostly blocked out by the hard light shields, letting in only a small amount of lightly falling flakes, creating the perfect picturesque image. Of course, despite the light snowfall business in the city continued as normal. And nowhere was this more clear than in the Northland Bank which had already seen hundreds of customers pass through its ornate halls. However, if one was to stand in the lobby and try and strain their hearing they would hear a slight sound coming from below the floor, barely audible over all the hustle and bustle of the bank visitors.

The first oddity about the room underneath the lobby was the fact it existed at all. It would have been surprising to many of the inhabitants of Atlas, including the former owner of the building that the Northland Bank had an arena built into it. a recent addition, it had been crafted according to the specifications of the new chairman after he had taken over the bank. It was a large rectangular room with a large combat arena/gym taking up much of the interior, side doors opened out into several different locker rooms as well as spaces for the practice of more specialized skills (When they had moved into the building the Cicin mages had swiftly coopted several of the rooms for the housing of their pets.)

Another oddity about the room was the gigantic statue that dominated one end, it portrayed a hooded woman seated atop an extravagant throne staring down imperiously towards those who would approach. Her hands were placed in her lap with one wrapped around the handle of an ornate scepter, the handle of the scepter was covered in an elegant snowflake design that stretched up along the sides before culminating in a crystal ball that shone with an ethereal blue light.

Near the base of the statue two figures were engaged in an intense spar….well intense for one of them as they sped along across the arena towards their opponent dodging or deflecting arrow after arrow sent their way. Slowly but surely they gained distance on their adversary ducking this way and that to avoid the incoming fire, unfortunately just before they got into striking distance they fatally misstepped, stumbling for a brief moment and allowing them to be struck by a swiftly loosed missile.

"Good work, you almost got me into melee that time," said Childe lowering his bow. He glanced towards a clock at the side of the arena "want to call it here? It's around lunchtime and if we hurry we might beat the crowds."

Weiss huffed as she picked herself back up off the ground, instead she picked up her practice rapier and crossed back to her starting position.

"Again?" Childe queried, raising an eyebrow at her.

"I won't stumble this time," she responded raising her rapier in a salute.

Childe chuckled as he tossed the end of his red scarf over his grey jacket and spun the bow back into a ready position, "we'll see about that. Whoever loses covers lunch?"

"Agreed" the young heiress responds, a few strands of her pale white hair fluttering around her crystalline blue eyes as a slight smile of her own flashed across her face.

For a few moments, they stood in silence, the tall statue looming over their arena like a silent judge, observing everything from its lofty imperious throne. Both opponents observing each other for any minute movements. Finally, the standoff was broken as Weiss made the first move feinting slightly to the left before kicking off towards the right side of the arena as Childe sent an arrow towards her feint.

Childe eyed her as she ran, sending a leading arrow to try and overbalance her or stimmy her momentum every so often. But these were either dodged or blocked. Weiss for her part also never took her eyes off of her opponent as she beelined in on his position, having long since learned from their previous spars that letting her gaze drift for even a moment was a recipe for disaster. Childe proved her point, firing two arrows in such quick succession that the second one was hidden by the first. Luckily Weiss had dealt with such a trick numerous times previously and so had come up with a way to counter it. She quickly ducked her head to the right, feeling the first arrow graze through her fluttering ponytail taking a few hairs with it before she snaked out her rapier in a circular motion to slice the second arrow off its course as she continued her advance towards Childe's position.

Still, despite nearing her destination she dared not lower her guard, as her sparring partner/trainer had a habit of defeating her in increasingly humiliating ways. such as the time she had lost due to him sniping her out of her sprint with an arrow that he had thrown at her, not shot but physically taken into his hand and tossed towards her like one would throw a dart at a board, and he hadn't stopped laughing for nearly a quarter of an hour afterward much to her mortification.

But this time she would succeed, throughout all her previous attempts despite facing loss after loss after loss she hadn't given up hope. every single time she had gotten up from being knocked down by an arrow she had improved, whether it had been through footwork, reflexes, or just plain speed she had continued to cut down the distance between her and her opponent. And finally, as she closed in and pulled her arm back for a lunge, this time she would land a hit on him...and he would finally stop using a bow and she'd see how he performed when using a weapon that he considered himself "skilled" with.

She triumphantly thrust out her arm as she reached him a grin of victory spreading over her face as the dulled tip of her rapier shot towards his torso. Only for her glee to be wiped away as Childe lashed out with the arrow in his hand, the missile seemingly covered in thin blue energy as it slid down the sword and effortlessly diverted the blade away leaving the heiress wide open for Childe's follow-through attack.

The clatter of a falling sword broke the silence that had formed in the arena, followed shortly after by another dull thump as Weiss fell to her hands and knees, hot tears forming at the corner of her eyes. as her fists clenched in frustration. As her mind drew unbidden parallels to the Defense of Beacon.

When Weiss looked back on who she was when she first joined Beacon, she couldn't recognize her as the same woman she was now. The Weiss that had stepped off the Bullhead onto the docks was a prideful conceited girl more concerned with a petty meaningless fit she was throwing over her father. That Weiss hadn't desired the position of Huntress for any other reason than that her father wouldn't approve...but then she met her team and that Weiss started to change, possibly for the better but mostly along the same lines as before in terms of her goals. And then Penny was lying in pieces in the middle of the arena and a voice was playing over the speakers.

It had been a wake-up call for her, all too used to the regimented routine of spars and the occasional Grimm extermination. Even when her team had engaged in riskier conflicts it hadn't truly felt like anyone was in danger, and the fact that they had always made it out intact only reinforced that. But the Defense had changed everything...she had been utterly useless against the mixed tide of Grimm and White Fang, and for the first time she had seen friends and classmates perish in the line of duty. They were still pulling bodies out of the nooks and crannies around Beacon, the news was slow to travel due to the downed CCT network but the constantly updating casualty lists that would trickle over confirmed it.

Weiss closed her eyes and felt the wetness of her tears trapped within, so eerily similar to the night when she had opened one of the lists to find Jaune and Blake's names staring back at her. Even though they were listed as MIA it was no reassurance, because after the first 2 weeks none of the MIA were updated as anything other than KIA.

Although she had never returned his affections, Weiss still somewhat missed having the attention that he placed on her, so much different and more sincere than the myriad suitors she had rejected since returning to Atlas. Although his profile did not list his last known actions she liked to imagine him standing as a bulwark against the tides to buy his team time to escape, just like he had done at their Initiation putting his own life on the line to secure the lives of the innocent.

But with Blake...But with Blake she knew a bit of her last actions, in fact, her Faunus teammate was being lauded as somewhat of a hero in the Atlesian media for her sacrificial ploy to lure "vicious Faunus" Adam Tauros. Of course, these reports didn't know that the "hero" they were praising had been a Faunus herself. It was a bitter irony for Weiss that despite all the passion that her teammate had for the equal movement Blake's name was now being used as propaganda for the opposite.

And so it fell to her to keep their memories and dreams alive, she had come to that conclusion on that fateful night when she had read the long list of names...or maybe it had been even earlier… during that long night in Beacon, hunkered down behind a flimsy barricade and fearing that the next assault would be her last.

Finally, her resolve had been hardened, no longer would she try to be a huntress for her own selfish reasons, no longer would she be constrained in her narrow viewpoint. but instead, she would be the one to carry the torches of those who had fallen in the defense, those who had given their lives in the fight against the evils of the world. And in a way, it would bring her closer to the example set by her grandfather Nicholas than she ever would have gotten if she had kept to her original path.

And yet here she knelt as useless now as she was during the siege when it had fallen to Cardin of all people to lead the students in the final counter-attack. If she couldn't even land one hit on her sparring partner now then what chance did she ever have to live up to her new goals?

A few meters away from her Childe stood, silently examining the slightly frayed edges of his arrow before he dismissed the watery energy surrounding it. As he turned to look at the defeated Weiss he couldn't help but be reminded of some of the soldiers who had served under him in his tenure. He could see that the Schnee had arrived at a crossroads in her life but the looming shadow of her family and her self doubts was blocking her progress. So he decided to snap her out of her funk in the way he knew best.

. "Well, that makes loss number 50? Keep it up and next time you might make me move from my starting position." Angering her.

A short sob of laughter broke through Weiss' tears as she looked up at the young man. "Fuck you"

Childe did a quick doubletake before a grin spread on his face "my, my who would have ever thought the Schnee heiress would have such a foul mouth. Haah you must be hanging around some bad influences." he capped off his statement by tutting at her and wagging a finger.

Weiss gathered herself as she gave a remarkably well thought out and eloquent response to wipe the shit-eating grin off of his face, whipping her hand around and summoning a glyph infused with water dust over her partner's head unfortunately for her the bank head had anticipated such a response and with a brief flex of his power wrested control of the deluge that was dropping above him and instead diverted it to fall onto the still sitting heiress, drenching her from head to toe.

"Weiss, if you wanted to take a shower there're several perfectly accessible locker rooms accessible from this room, you didn't need t-t-to.. ." the young man stuttered in mid-sentence as his face flushed and he quickly diverted his gaze from the young heiress who stared at him in confusion before her eyes drifted down to herself, Weiss' outfit had been soaked and was now clinging onto her extremely tightly, add on the interesting phenomena that occur when white clothing gets wet and well…

The instant Weiss had looked away from him, Childe had already started running for a door on the opposite side of the room, and when he stole a glance behind him only to see a fully formed Boarbatusk on his tail he felt he was fully validated in that course of action. But on the other hand, Weiss now had a small smile on her face again

A Beowulf prowled through a frigid slum district of Mantle, one of the many districts of the old capital that had been abandoned by the Atlesian military as they turned their focus onto more profitable endeavors. Inhabitants of these districts rarely left their homes at night for fear of running into one of the myriad creatures of destruction that would roam in greater numbers during the moonlit hours.

Unfortunately, not all of the homes delivered on the security that their residents so desperately craved, and once every so often the silence of the evenings would be broken by the snapping of wood followed by screams and howls as the tenets were set upon by the Grimm. And come morning when the other slum dwellers exited their own homes they would try and gather what remains could be recovered for a proper burial. Once in a blue moon, an ambitious officer in the army or a rising political candidate (the two roles were not mutually exclusive in Atlesian society) would send patrols through to clear out the Grimm temporarily raising the morale of the inhabitants.

While these expeditions would have the effect of temporarily reducing the population of bloodthirsty monsters from outside the city they would swiftly be replaced by other predators from within, as the Atlesian officials would inevitably decide that the slums were safe enough for the inhabitants to start repaying their liberators and would draft new taxes and legislation to profit off of the endeavors.

Of course, as more and more of these oppressive legislations were placed upon the already poverty-stricken slums the mood would shift again as the inhabitant's high spirits were crushed under the oppression of the corrupt officials, and the Grimm scenting the rising despair would come back in higher numbers forcing out the soldiers and restarting the cycle. But recently something new had appeared and thrown a wrench into the status quo.

The lone Beowolf stopped in front of a small home, bending its neck and sniffing at the slowly rotting wood at the door, it could smell the muted sorrow of a young child from the other side. whether they had broken a favored toy or had been lightly chastised for some small misdeed did not matter to the dark creature, only that the scent caused it to salivate in anticipation as it began to paw at the wood wet chunks breaking off in its claws as the rising dread and the first pleas and screams from inside gave wind to its efforts. Unfortunately for the rabid creature, its efforts would never be rewarded.

Just before the Beowolf broke through the last few splinters of the door a glowing yellow shield formed around the frame, the wolf's claws fruitlessly scraping off of it in disappointment. As the monster turned to search for the cause of its obstacle it felt a strong wind form around itself as it was dragged back out into the street fruitlessly trying to dig into the ground to stop its unwilling movement.

When the Beowolf was finally dragged to the middle of the street a sharp report broke through the muted snowfall, and the Grimm felt a burning hot projectile impact it in the side flames spreading out from within the impact point to consume its body. The last sound the Beowolf ever heard was the crunch of snow and the blowing of wind as the gusts that had entrapped it reversed their flow, dispersing its disintegrating ashes to join the falling white flakes.

As the yellow shield that had been protecting the house door slowly faded away a tall figure in a red uniform approached the spot that had recently been occupied by the Grimm, taking a knee and placing the stock of his rifle on the snow as he combed his hand through the mixture of snow and ash that had been left behind by the deceased monster. Satisfied by whatever he found he rose from his position and activated a communicator linked to a miniaturized scroll.

"4th patrol reporting in" he waited a few seconds before hearing a click on the other end

"Corporal Ivan, you are assigned to the eastern outskirts correct? Continue your report."

"Yes sir, the eastern outskirts have been cleared out, we've just finished exterminating the last straggler from the earlier purges, and are awaiting further orders."

"Hmmm, how far are you from the North-East Fringe?"

Ivan motioned the squad's Geochanter over, the staff wielder quickly projecting a holographic map of their location from the staff's lapis gem.

"Not too far" Ivan relayed over the commlink.

"There was apparently an Atlesian outpost located there from their last expedition that had to be abandoned when they withdrew from the incoming Grimm. before returning I want to scope out whether it can be repurposed for an outer base if needed."

"Any info on Grimm presence?"

"A few mages went through the area earlier I doubt they left any survivors. You have your orders."

"Yes sir." Ivan waited until he heard the line go dead before he hung up on his end "Alright we've got one last set of orders before we go back for the night, we are to go and assess an abandoned Atlesian outpost to see if there's anything salvageable." He heard a chuckle coming from Andrei, the squad's Anemo vanguard.

"I doubt it, officers call every random bunch of rocks an 'outpost', remember some of the 'outposts' we had in Dragonspine?"

Mikhail the Geochanter shuddered as he deactivated his staff "please don't remind me, I nearly froze to death 5 times and I still can't get the taste of goulash out my mouth."

Ivan laughed as he turned back down the street "well with any luck if our report's good enough then we won't be the poor bastards tapped to man it." as he spoke he spied a large form emerging from the house they had just protected "Daniel! how are the 'hearts and minds' of our hosts?"

The squad's Electro vanguard had an introspective look on his face as he picked up his hammer from where he had leaned it against the outer well "they are well, and very thankful, I fear that we might have to sleep on beds of casserole at some point if this keeps up."

Andrei piped in from the side "you hear that Mikhail? Maybe you'll be wishing for the return of goulash soon enough."

As Mikhail scrunched his face in a feigned look of disgust Daniel continued

"It's just...it's just bothering me you know? How different it is here."

It was Andrei's turn to look confused as he processed Daniel's words "What do you mean?"

Daniel gestured towards the surrounding buildings and the bright city floating in the distance

"It's weird, all of this is just so different from anything I've experienced up till now. I mean, back when Lord Tartaglia had us stationed in Liyue it was constant fighting against Vishaps or Hilichurls. And the locals weren't much better, especially after that Knight showed up...remember what he did to that one Cryogunner who went to pick berries?"

Ivan nodded "Yeah, poor bastard, I heard they sent him back home a few weeks later, his delusion got damaged or something. they woulda been able to fix it but weren't able to get there in time."

Off to the side of the group, Andrei growled and put in his own two cents "Liyue's a joke, for all their talk about contracts and agreements they'd never side with us outsiders. Never mind the fact that their roads were safer than they had been for years after we started running patrols along them. We must have stopped at least 10 separate plots by the Abyss Order by the end of it. I'm still disappointed that overgrown eel didn't sink the lot of them."

Mikhail lightly coughed "I believe that last part was used -quite fairly I might add- as justification for much of their attitude towards us." He paused in thought for a moment to stroke his chin "instead, if I had to pick out a city I felt owed us a change of stance it would be Mondstadt. At least during the times when Lady Signora wasn't stationed there. After all, if it wasn't for the Harbingers they would still be dealing with 'Ursa The Drake' you'd think they would be more appreciative."

"Exactly" Daniel chimed back in having stayed silent as they gave their opinions "Think about it, we just saved those people from a Grimm, moreover instead of threatening to call the Knights or the Millileth, they're giving us casseroles. They actually appreciate the work that we're doing, it reminds me of those first postings at the small villages back in Snezhnaya."

The other members of the squad pondered their surprisingly eloquent Electrohammer trooper's words for a few quiet minutes as they trudged through the deep snow of the Mantle streets, their way lit by the dim glow of their weapons and armor, or the occasional working street light overhead.

After trekking for a few hours the buildings that had been flanking their sides began to peel away, giving way to the old ruins of previous attempts to expand the city. The bright light given off by the floating city shone down on them from overhead, no longer mitigated by obstructing structures but giving them the light they needed to navigate the unkempt snowy paths.

They continued towards the distant outpost in silence for a little while longer until finally, Mikhail who had been looking at a screen that was inset on his gauntlet broke the quiet "We're almost there..this new tech they've been giving us is fascinating. . I heard some of the eggheads have been working on cracking how the 'CCT system' they had here worked before it went down."

"Really?" Daniel queried "I can see the merits of the quicker communication, but judging by recent history it's more of a liability."

"True, But they've gotten pretty far already, apparently all that's left is to bring in some engineers from Fontaine. After all, they don't want the trans-continental comms to go down just cause some Vishap got frisky."

The group lapsed back into a brief silence before Andrei cut in "Lord Dottore's scientists have been having a field day with this expedition. I even heard that the Mages have been feeding Dust to their Cicins, apparently, the little things love the stuff."

He tapped a green gem on his gauntlet "Personally still prefer good old turquoise myself, more you can do with it."

"Hmm I can't say I fully disagree, but I don't agree either," Daniel spoke up for the first time in the exchange. "While it might not be that appealing for you, I appreciate the wider variety of options it gives me." He pointed to a glowing crystal embedded in the head of his hammer.

"I got a Gravity Dust crystal installed before we headed out earlier, and I can tell you it's already paying off. I would have hated dragging this through the snow at full weight, it hits a lot harder too. I don't think you should sleep on how useful it can be, you don't need to go overboard but I would suggest some Fire Dust to augment your vortex" He turned to the squad's geo chanter "You've implemented a few dust varieties as well right?"

Mikhail nodded and held out his hand with the palm facing upwards as dull brown rock coalesced into it "I got some rock dust not the most impressive..but let's try augmenting it a bit.." a purple gem on his glove slowly began to shine and the rock rose into the air "Gravity Dust, love the stuff interesting isn't it? Let's try increasing the weight a bit..." lines of energy came off the gems adorning his outfit and the rock slowly increased in size, growing larger and larger until it started shaking in its midair position.

He whipped his hand back before the rock crashed into it "Still no replacement for good old lapis mixed with plausterite." He paused as he stared into the air towards the floating city. After a few minutes of this, his squadmates began to get a little worried before he spoke "I just realized how idiotic that city is."

"What do you mean?" Andrei asked in confusion "it's not that different from the Jade Chamber, and you used to get all Adeptus on us about how beautiful it was...I swear some of the poetry you spoute-"

"Precisely Andrei, here have a star" the tip of Mikhail's staff shone and a glowing yellow star fastened itself to the mouth of the vanguard, silencing him despite his fruitless attempts to pick it off. "...Also I'm not an Adeptus...Now! to continue down this intriguing thread of thought: The Jade Palace had its unique position due to the Tianquan's discovery of a Plaustrite mine.. interesting because there's still a mystery to be solved here...if it took that much to float the Jade Palace" he pointed to something over their shoulders and continued as they glanced back "What are they using to float an entire city? That's the question anyone who grew up in this world should be asking themselves."

He shook his head in disappointment "The Kingdom of Atlas is the single largest producer of Dust, its people are raised with a metaphorical -or literal in the case of the Schnees- Dust spoon in their mouths and yet they've never questioned how a landmass that large could float without a disproportionately huge presence of Gravity Dust. and as for the Atlesians, it's like they're not even trying to hide their Relic, and their usage of it is just as stupid! Why is it only Atlas that floats? It makes no sense that they just leave Mantle to the literal wolves"

"Maybe the staff doesn't have enough power to float Mantle as well as Atlas?" Andrei questioned before he was swiftly silenced again as Mikhail retorted.

"It's a RELIC made by GODS you IMBECILE it DOESN'T HAVE POWER REQUIREMENTS, MORAX CREATED ENTIRE MOUNTAIN RANGES AND BARBATOS FLATTENED THEM NUMEROUS TIMES PER D-"

"Mikhail, shut up." Ivan's voice cut through the Geochanter's increasingly loud rant.

"What the hell man, why did you go off on me like that?" Andrei asked in slight hurt.

It was Ivan who answered "Mikhail and I served a few missions on loan with Lord Burattino's division, one of the missions had us head into the desert near the Mare Javari to investigate an ancient city that had been ruled by Geb, a Geo god...turned out he wasn't as dead as we thought and it left some lasting impressions." He flicked his head towards the path in front of them. "Anyway, we're getting close to the outpost, and despite the Cicins going through earlier I don't want to get caught off guard by anything that might have managed to avoid them.

The squad went quiet as a small cluster of icy rocks slowly appeared in front of them, a derelict building that now more resembled a shack haphazardly constructed amidst them. As they approached the building they kept their eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary, noting a few electrical burns on the surrounding outcroppings that must have originated from the mage's foray into the area earlier in the day.

As they drew close they stopped, letting Mikhail walk a few paces in front of them. He paused and knelt to the ground, placing his palm on the earth as he recited a small hymn. When he finished the large lapis chunk on the tip of his staff began to glow a vivid yellow as energy poured off of it and into the earth. The Geochanter stayed in his kneeling position with his eyes closed cocking his head every so often as if noting something.

After a few minutes, he stood up and spoke "Well you were right about the mages possibly missing some of the Grimm."

"Where?" Ivan asked as Andrei and Daniel instantly went on high alert.

"Wellll…" Mikhail shot to his feet, grabbing his staff as a small spear tip formed on it he thrust it into the ground near his position, eliciting a shriek as a small Creep burst from the earth in its death throes. "Besides from that one? A surprisingly large amount are submerged surrounding the outpost."

He flicked his hand and projected a 3D model of the area, with several red dots surrounding the structure, their position denoted by green dots while the outpost itself was undefined. "How do you want to go about this Ivan?"

The squad leader narrowed his eyes in concentration as he played around with the hologram, after a few moments of thought, he responded "Did you feel out any Alphas?".

"No, you want me to play this like in Liyue?" Mikhail asked.

"Yes, crush them...after all, they were kind enough to dig their own graves."

The Geochanter nodded before he retook his previous position and started uttering another hymn, but this time he struck the ground with his staff. Once...Twice, a dome of yellow energy expanded to cover the area, Three times... Four times… The yellow energy dispersed down into the ground... Fifth...Sixth… the ground began to tremble and peeps of panic were heard from small holes surrounding them. Seventh… shrieks of pain sounded from around them as the earth collapsed into the Creep's holes, crushing them under tons of loose dirt and ice.

"Alright guys, we still have to finish checking out the outpost itself before we can head back, lets get it over with," Ivan commanded. "But I want to take this a little carefully, It doesn't make sense that so many Creeps were dug in around here, so Daniel you take the point, Andrei you follow behind and keep him healthy if anything attacks."

The two vanguards nodded and took their positions at the front of the squad. As they approached the entrance the amethysts adorning the Electrohammer wielder's armor lit up, electro currents coursing through the metal plating as Daniel drew ahead of his companion.

When they finally reached the slightly dilapidated wooden door they paused for a moment before the larger agent shifted his hammer over to his other hand made his way inside with Andrei, the other two starting towards the building a few moments later.

Before Ivan and Mikhail had made fully made their way through the entranceway a voice sounded from inside a side room "Ivan you said they left this outpost in a hurry cause of Grimm right? Cause it seems like someone didn't get the memo"

Ivan quickly went into the room that the voice had originated from, only to be met with a solemn-faced Daniel as he looked down at Andrei who was hunched over something that was leaned against the wall. As the Anemo wielder stood up Ivan was finally able to get a clear look at objects that he had been examining.

Atlesian soldiers lay where they had fallen in their final moments, some even still clutching their weapons, ammo cartridges still in hand as their last looks of defiance or fear remained frozen on their sometimes half-decayed or mutilated faces with icy tears still visible on some.

"They must have been abandoned when Atlas pulled out of here, that feeling's probably what drew the Grimm here looking at some of them." Mikhail who had entered the room observed as he looked down at the sorry remains of the Atlesian outpost's garrison.

"No" Andrei replied.

"No? What do you mean no?" Mikhail asked in confusion.

"I mean that they weren't immediately attacked by Grimm after the rest of the force pulled out, what happened here was much worse...look here." he pointed at a remarkably well-preserved corpse that was lying apart from the rest.

"This poor soul froze to death in his sleep, you can tell from his face...and there are some faint bite marks on his limbs...human bite marks." as the two skirmishers recoiled in disgust Andrei continued "No what drew the Grimm was the despair at having to cannibalize their friend in order to survive."

Ivan turned his head away from the defiled remains in horror and disgust, but as he did so he happened to see something out of place on one of the other corpses. He crouched down to investigate, it looked to have been moved at some point and there was something else that was just off about the body but what was...it.

"He's missing his gun." the words had barely left his mouth when he heard a click come from the doorway behind him.

"I'm not going back, I'M NOT LETTING YOU TAKE ME BACK THERE" Ivan had barely begun to turn around before he heard the discharge of a weapon and the pinging of a projectile off armor as Daniel intercepted the bullet in a surprising burst of speed given his large stature.

As Ivan completed his rotation he was met by the site of the vanguard holding a young boy up in the air with one hand. The struggling teen's wrists gripped within the towering soldier's fist preventing him from using the Atlesian pistol that he held in them. Instead, the boy was reduced to fruitlessly kicking at the unimpressed Electro wielder.

Ivan noticed Andrei coming up on his side and smacked the Anemo boxer on the head much to the other Fatui's confusion.

"What was that for?"

Mikhail who had come up on the green armored agent's other side rapped his head with his staff. "You had one job 'Clear the outpost ahead of us' if you'd actually done that job then w

e wouldn't have gotten ambushed would we?"

Andrei opened his mouth to respond only to be cut off by a surprised shout from Daniel who was now crouched over the slumped form of their young assailant. Andrei immediately rushed over to the fallen teen shoving aside the larger agent as he examined the youth.

"What did you do?!" He shot

"Nothing! One minute he was kicking out at me and the next minute he just went limp."

The Anemo wielder swore and turned back to his patient "Shit He's bleeding pretty bad, looks like he got hit by a Grimm at some point….it's a miracle he's not dead yet...but wait, He's got dried blood all over him...these can't be recent, I'm gonna need tot take a closer look." before he could continue he was interrupted as the teen opened his eyes and started thrashing around when he saw the intimidating figure looming above him.

It was amidst commotion as the medic was trying to restrain him that a small rag atop the teen's head came off revealing a set of canine ears in addition to the more human pair. The sight stilled the Fatui agents in the room.

"Oh shit He's a Faunus" Ivan deadpanned as he looked on at the thrashing teen.

"I don't care what the hell he is if he doesn't calm down and let me treat him he's gonna reopen some of his wounds if not worse." Andrei shot back still trying to placate the Faunus who had shuffled away from him and into a corner, not letting any of them come close.

"Come, one kid, you've got some nasty-looking wounds there but I can't do anything if you don't let me come closer." Andrei tried placating the teen.

"I'm not letting you touch me, 'treating for injuries?' I'm not gonna fall for that like those other idiots, I'd rather try my luck with those crazy chicks that went through earlier." the Faunus punctuated his rebuttal by sending another Andrei's way.

The silent standoff between the two sides seemed to stretch on for hours before Mikhail leaned his staff against the wall and walked up to the glowering youth dropping to one knee while resting his chin in his hand while he examined the young Faunus. "I haven't met a lot of kids that act like you, but the ones I have met all shared a similar background… and although I haven't been in Atlas that long I think I can guess what yours is. You're from one of the factories, aren't you? ..No, that's not it...you're from the mines, aren't you. Come on kid, talk to us, we're trying to help."

The youth sharpened his glare before responding "I know what you do to the ones who talk, and I've seen what you humans do to 'my kind'...just end this farce and kill me. because if you try to take me back there...I'll make sure to draw in the Grimm to finish what they started. So go ahead and make your choice human."

Mikhail hung his head and let out a breath "there's really no other way to change your mind is there?" he felt a slight pressure on his shoulder and looked up to see Ivan's hand on his shoulder, the squad leader gave his shoulder another squeeze and sent him a reassuring nod before stepping back as Mikhail raised his hand to his mask. The Geochanter hesitated for a brief moment before he unhitched his mask and removed it from his face prompting a gasp of surprise from the teen.

The Geochanter's appearance was as if someone had taken the purest block of marble they could find and carved it into the visage of perfection and then to finish their masterpiece had given it two yellow gems for eyes, and it was these eyes that looked at the Faunus with such an expression of pity and empathy that it nearly moved the youth to tears, but the Fatui agent was not done. With his mask now removed, he raised a slightly trembling hand to his cap and gently lifted it off his head, and the Faunus' look of confusion was wiped away in shock as he stared at the small pair of white and red horns sticking out from Mikhail's dyed grey hair.

"Im...impossible, they'd never let a Faunus join them...which means…!" The Faunus shot forward and grasped Mikhail's shoulders shaking the Fatui a bit. "PLEASE YOU HAVE TO RESCUE THEM!"

"Woah take it easy there, before we go about rescuing anybody else you need to let us patch you up, kid." Mikhail placated while slowly lifting the teens' hands off his shoulders "But first, it feels wield referring to you by kid or Faunus, could you give us a name?"

The Faunus sat back and finally allowed Andrei to approach and begin scanning over him for injuries "Grau… Grau 1021."

"1021? That's a strange word to use for a surname" Ivan chimed in as he pulled a dusty old chair over from the side of the room.

Grau let out a mirthless chuckle "That's cause it isn't one...I'm just the one thousand and twenty-first kid in the mine to have the 'privilege' of getting the name."

"It must get confusing what with all those people sharing the same name," Andrei said as he patched up a nasty cut on Grau's leg.

"I wouldn't know, only one person has the name at a time…the one before me 1020 was a monkey Faunus" The teen stared into the air as he recalled, "he was one of the lucky ones."

"Lucky? What happened to him?" Mikhail asked as he helped Andrei set Grau's leg, hoping to distract the teen from the painful treatment.

Grau smiled "Tunnel collapse, barely would have felt a thing, Warden was pissed cause it happened before he could have his fun with him, he took it out on Grun 5451 instead, carved him up...he was one of my friends." the Faunus broke down into sobs, the stress that he had been under finally giving way to relief that his harsh experiences were behind him, all of these emotions came crashing down on him.

"Blanc 10021 was with me when I ran, the others didn't even make it out of the crater. Guards caught up to us near the outskirts, I managed to hide in the crawlspace but he wasn't so lucky...if only he had been born with wings instead of feathers oh Oizys why wasn't he born with wings...they gave him 'wings' when they were done...and unlocked his aura before they finished, to make it last longer, he was alive when I left" Grau looked them in the eye "I think he might still be..." He lapsed back into silence and his head drooped to the side, causing a slight panic in the squad.

"Don't worry he's just unconscious." Andrei announced after he ran a quick pulse check "looks like the shock finally caught up with him, not too surprised kids been through hell." The Anemoboxer stripped off the ragged piece of fabric that had once been Grau's shirt revealing a network of scars trailing all over the teen's body. "Some of these are the kind you'd expect given what he told us, a few deep scratches or cuts that would have come from mining-related accidents if they weren't properly cared for. But it's these marks on his chest and back that are confusing me." he pointed to patches where the Faunus' skin seemed slight rough or reddened

"I have a few theories about what these could be but I can't be certain with what I've got with me right now, we'll need to give him another scan after we get him to base." He turned to the others "I don't think I really need to tell you this, but whatever he was put through...it was bad, real bad I've seen people who were killed by Visharps that were more intact than this kids'. We need to get him back to the factory's hospital just in case there's some internal bleeding that I missed."

Ivan mused over the medic's words for a few moments before responding "Is he stable enough for us to carry him back? Or should we call in evac?"

"He should hold up till we get back I juiced up my gauntlet output so he's got a small shield going to provide some passive healing while we head back to the base."

"Will the shield persist if you're not around to sustain it?" Ivan asked as he cupped his chin in thought.

"It should, you want to split up for something?" Andrei replied.

Ivan looked at the peacefully slumbering Faunus "He said he escaped along with someone else...Blanc if I remember correctly, and that they were separated at one of the buildings in the outskirts. There's not too many of those between our position and where that kid came from."

He kicked back his chair and stood up "Alright, Daniel, Mikhail take the kid back to the factory and inform Javert of the situation. Meanwhile, Andrei and I will search through the outskirts for the kid's companion...and see if he's really still alive."

As Andrei and Mikhail quickly cleaned up the room and prepped the escaped slave for transport Daniel motioned for Ivan to join him in the hallway, once they were both situated there, in relative privacy the Vanguard spoke: "You've figured something out haven't you?"

Ivan nodded and launched into a recollection"the kid's story, it reminds me of an incident from when I was just starting out. a Hilichurl tribe had been able to grow to an unusually large size and had begun to raid the surrounding villages, they'd been taken a bunch of captives during the raids and we were tasked to try and bring them back….turns out the Hilichurls were led by a Mitachurl who had been exposed to something from a nearby ruin that had been cracked open in an earthquake."

"Apparently the Mita had been going on a tear after its exposure, crushing the other tribes and combining them under his banner...we hadn't seen anything like it before, even to this day, not even now with the Abyss Order organizing the tribes, it's nothing compared to the sight of a full tribe of lawachurls charging into a squadron of your buddies, and then there was the Mita." Ivan's eyes had a far-off look in them as he recalled the thought.

"Some of us took to calling him Ymir after one of the old gods, he was a third again the size of a Lawachurl and the ax he used would have dwarfed three normal Mitachurl's combined height, and every breath he took froze the air in front of him. He took down the Agent who was leading us even when his Delusion was pushed to the max, and it was at that point that we realized the squadron the lawachurls annihilated were our Vision bearers. We would have been finished then and there if Lord Burattino hadn't happened along."

"He had learned about the ruins from some rumors on his travels back after he finished his studying in Liyue, and he arrived just as the last of us were surrounded...he didn't even hesitate, just tore through the lawachurls and threw himself at Ymir. The two of them fought back and forth for 10 hours without either one getting a clear upper hand. Finally, when it seemed that Ymir was about to get the finishing blow in, Lord Burattino's body just glowed and the biggest geyser I've ever seen and through Ymir before freezing. And he was still pulling himself off of it when Lord Burattino cleaved his head from his shoulders."

Daniel's eyes widened in disbelief at the thought of a Mitachurl standing up to a Harbinger for any length of time let alone almost a full day, but he also realized that Ivan hadn't answered his question "You still haven't told me what you realized Ivan"

"I'm getting there, after Lord Burattino slew Ymir we were able to rout the remaining Hili and Lawachurls, but it was when we got to the camp that the true horror of the situation hit us. Bodies, everywhere... Arms and legs sticking out of pots, skulls adorning tables, dead silent survivors rocking back and forth in cages, it wasn't like any Hilichurl camp we'd ever seen. We even found a few half-eaten Samachurls, Lord Burattino managed to find a caged Hilichurl and interrogated it, apparently, the Samas had opposed Ymir's methods and he had slaughtered them for it. But that's not what stuck with me, instead, it was when we found an inverted Statue of the Seven with seven corpses spread out around it, their ribcages spread open to give them 'wings'"

He stared Daniel in the eye and the Electro wielder took a step back in surprise at the look of fury and hatred in the Pyroslinger's gaze. "And if that's what I find when we locate 'Blanc' then Lord Tartaglia and Commander Javert will have to notified immediately because it might force us to reevaluate this entire operation.'

It was warm and comfortable in the Atlesian base, a stark contrast to the freezing weather that surrounded the structure but also a testament to the benefits that long cooperation with the Schnee Dust Company brought. Unfortunately, due to the guard rotations, only a certain number of soldiers at a time would be able to enjoy the internal heating as the rest had to deal with the routine patrols around the perimeter.

One guard near the back wall was being exceptionally cooled by the nighttime temperatures, of course even if he had been brought inside it wouldn't have helped much. After all, one had to be alive to enjoy the heat. And as the guard choked on the knife buried in his neck it was more than a certainty that heating was the absolute least of his concerns.

A figure dropped down from a shadowy cliffside near to where the guard's body lay, pausing a brief moment to tug their knife out of the rapidly cooling corpse with a wet snap before continuing onwards, The figure passed through the entrance of the base a few moments later, having taken special care to eliminate most of the guards, sparing only the most remote, those would provide the alibi after all….

A small group of off-duty soldiers passed around a corner and continued down an empty hallway towards a lounge, halfway down they were immolated by a wave of flame that exploded from the center of their formation. Unknown to the garrison scenes like this had replayed themselves numerous times that night, the Agent picking and choosing his engagements to ensure that his operation would not be blown. But with this action, he had finally cleared the path to his destination.

As the door to the communication room slid open on silent hinges he was met by the sight of a guard with her back to him, as he strode over to her she turned around in her chair possibly thinking that he was here to relieve her...which he was in a way.

The Atlesian froze at the sight of the Agent, the beaked mask and heavy coat that could be mistaken for the attire of a White Fang operative were it not so radically different in design, she opened her mouth, whether it be to scream or to question would never be known. As she opened her mouth she blinked, but when her eyes opened, the Agent was no longer in front of her, and she also felt oddly tired and slowly slipped from her chair.

The Agent heard the thump of her corpse behind him as he hunched over the terminal she had been seated at. He swiftly browsed through the security video of the last few hours to make sure his actions hadn't been caught on the cameras. Luckily only a few brief glimpses of his shadow appeared on the screens, but just to be safe he deleted those files, replacing them with copies of the footage from before he passed through the frame. Next, he navigated to the main reason he had decided to head to this room first, there was an interesting facet of this type of Atlesian base, a small design choice that was a holdover from the great war, a hidden passage between the commander's office and the information room or as it was called nowadays the security room.

With a click, a hidden panel on the wall slid to the side to reveal and pristine white hallway that sloped upwards. But the Agent wasn't done yet, he pulled up one more tab he had opened, a steady feed of the main heating room. He stared at it unblinkingly for over a minute before stepping away from the terminal and vanishing. A moment later the door to the side let out a hiss of air as it slid shut again leaving the corpse of the guard as its only occupant.

A few moments later a wall panel shifted open in a sleek luxurious office, elegant wood desks and furniture dotted the space with a polished mahogany desk dominating the center while a taxidermied antlered Beowulf head was mounted on the wall above a set of filing cabinets.

Snores echoed from a side chamber and for a moment the Agent toyed with the idea of silencing the base's commander before discarding it. Instead, he headed over to the desk to check through the papers that were spread out across it, shuffling through them to find anything that would bear further scrutiny. When he found a few papers bearing the name of the SDC he did a closer examination before tucking them into a pouch within his heavy jacket.

After he had finished at the desk he headed over to the filing cabinets, shooting a disgusted look at the mounted Beowulf head as he did so. Grimm vaporized when they died, no remains left to be taxidermied, oh the antlers, fur, and teeth on the wall mount were real alright, they just weren't from Grimm. Once again he debated the merits of killing the commander now but he turned his attention instead to the files in the cabinet, the Atlesian wouldn't live through the night anyway.

He quickly rifled through the filing cabinet pulling folder after folder out and stuffing them into pouches hidden under his heavy layers. And then finally he found what he had been looking for, it was at the front of the filing cabinet ironically enough, he had been going from the back towards the front when he could have saved himself the trouble. As he leafed through it he allowed himself a small sound of disgust at the contents before he closed it up and stowed it with the others within his jacket.

With his mission completed, he only had to establish his alibi, and although he wanted nothing at that moment than to gut the commander he would not jeopardize the mission for personal indulgences. And so the Agent stepped back from the cabinet and vanished into a swirling shadowy portal, only to reappear a moment later within the heating room. Without wasting time he brought out a small package from his coat, a product that they had procured from Inazuma before the Sakoku Decree had gone into effect.

The Agent placed the bundle by the machines that powered the heating of the base and touched the tip of his finger to its wick before stepping back. As the embers on the wick began to burn from the power of his delusion he vanished through a portal again, reappearing outside the building, but still within the walls. Here he knelt a brought forth a vial filled with a black smokey substance, he unstoppered it, letting it spill out onto the ground before he vanished once more into the shadows.

This time the portal brought him out on top of a hill a ways away but still within eyesight of the base. Here the Agent began to silently count down and when he finally got to zero the base was engulfed in a massive fireball, electrical discharges arcing off of it and into the air. Barely a moment later the ammunition store went up in an even greater explosion as the shockwave from the fireball hit it. In the immediate aftermath, he heard faint cries of panic from the still-living guards before they turned to screams as Centinels burst from the ground within the base.

No longer needing to worry about his mission and having observed the first Megolith herds moving in off the tundra towards the base the Agent teleported out of the area for the last time.

He appeared in a warmly lit room on one knee with his hand clasped across his chest as he bowed, waiting to be acknowledged. For a few minutes, no sound pierced the silence of the room save for the scratching of a pen upon paper. Finally, the figure seated at the desk set the file that he had been working on aside and clasped his hands together as he stared at the kneeling Agent. For a minute more he regarded him before he spoke.

"Pyotrov, you may give your report."

Pyotrov bowed his head deeper before he responded "Commander Javert sir! my mission was a success, I managed to successfully infiltrate the base and retrieve the files pursuant to the information we received. Additionally, I recovered several other files related to our suspicions of the Schnee Dust Company's weapons division. Following this, I withdrew from the base after sabotaging their dust heating systems and laying some Grimm bait."

He continued "When an investigation occurs they will conclude that the explosion killed the guards stationed inside while the ones outside will have died to the Grimm by this point, no doubt any communications the survivors managed to send out before perishing would reinforce this conclusion."

Javert nodded as his course of action before beckoning him to approach the desk. Understanding what was being requested of him Pyotrov withdrew the folders he had within his coat and placed them on the desk in from of the commander. Javert flipped through a few of the files, giving them a cursory glance before once again turning his attention onto the other Agent.

"You have done well Pyotrov, I will ensure that Lord Tartaglia is made aware of your accomplishments. For now, you may take the rest of the week off as shore leave on Mantle. I do believe that more than a few taverns have been giving our members discounts as thanks for our services to the community."

Pyotrov bowed in acknowledgment and made to teleport out when Javert spoke up again.

"Ah! I regret to ask you this so soon after I just gave you the time off, but if you happen across any White Fang members while you are on vacation see if you can set up a meeting with their higher-ups. Their aid will be useful in the coming months and I believe that the Mantle branch is eager to redeem their organization's name for the reckless actions undertaken by the Vale branch."

Pyotrov nodded and teleported out, leaving Javert to turn his attention back to the files that the Agent had secured. Files that detailed multiple Dust Mines and Schnee Dust Company weapons testing sites. All of them using slave labor -mostly Faunus with the odd human slave- all of them horrific. As he read the description of a Schnee Ice Dust gun designed to inflict frostbite Javert idly noted that they did not need to puzzle out the cause of the burns that covered the back of the young Faunus that Ivan's squad had brought in.

And as he flipped the page and was greeted by a picture of a group of Atlesian men posing over a Faunus that had clearly been subjected to torture most horrific Javert also noted that they no longer needed to find the man who had tortured the Faunus named Blanc either. Instead, Javert stared at the caption of the image, committing the name of the most prominent figure to memory. Not that he needed much help, after all...he already knew of him.

Mannfred von Rheinstein overseer of the Schnee Dust company's largest mines and their weapon's divisions. Jacques Schnee's right-hand man. And now he is also known as The Warden

Author's note: Sorry again for the wait, I got stuck hard at a sentence earlier in the chapter and wasn't able to push past it for weeks, hoping I can get these out faster in the future or at the very least get my other fics finished and shipped. In the meantime enjoy this omake suggested by someone on the SGO server.

"Do you believe in destiny?" Pyrrha mustered what little remained of her strength to pull her body up just enough to look her enemy in the eye one last time before the end.

"Yes," the fallen Maiden replied with a cruel smirk as she notched one final arrow and aimed it at the fallen spartan, with the gargantuan Grimm Dragon overseeing the tableau with the eye of a cruel god. Ruby who had just managed to summon the tower let out a scream of horror as she started to dash towards the two Maidens in an attempt to interfere, but she wouldn't be fast enough…

Suddenly the elevator dinged, the innocuous sound drawing the attention of the combatants as they saw the doors collapse in a cloud of golden dust as a voice spoke from within the murk.

"Rex Lapis once said: 'Ones who break their contracts shall suffer the Wrath of the Rock.'"

As the cloud began to clear a figure gradually became visible, clad in an elegant brown tunic with glowing golden brown highlights running throughout, more curious though was the fact that the figure seemed to be carrying a large bundle...that was...struggling?

"The Vigilant Yaksha once said: "Giant monsters with small throat tend to suffer a different type"'

The clouds dispersed revealing...Jaune? Pyrrha was stunned, the leader of JNPR had disappeared after the events of Vytal, but she never would have imagined that he would show up here of all places..especially carrying what looked to be an unwilling blue-haired Faunus.

Suddenly Jaune shifted the weight of the now quietly sobbing Faunus as he reared back, before launching her between the now flabbergasted Maidens and towards the Grimm dragon.

Tears scattered through the air as the crying Adeptus sailed towards her fate, and with a quick pop, the Grimm dragon acted on instinct and snapped the unfortunate Adeptus out of the air.

For a few moments, there was silence as Pyrrha, Ruby and even Cinder turned from Jaune to the dragon and then back to Jaune, trying to reconcile the fact that the leader of JNPR had just seemingly murdered a poor Faunus by feeding her to a dragon.

Suddenly a wet coughing sound drew their gazes back to the dragon as it started to writhe while making hacking coughs, opening its mouth they could see the legs of the Faunus had somehow gotten wedged at the back of its throat and by the frantic flailing it was obvious that the Faunus was somehow still alive. Cinder watched in absolute disbelief as one of the strongest creations of her queen hacked and coughed and started slamming its head into the tower in an attempt to dislodge the Faunus that was somehow choking it to death, a voice spoke up drawing all their attention back to the blond-haired youth who was still standing at the entrance.

"O dragon who has spelled the ruin of entire Kingdoms, it is time for you to suffer 'The Wrath of Thighs'"

BTW when Grau calls out a deity's name that's intended to be Ozpin's name from when he pretended to be a god and here are some other options that were put forward by the 4 am crew on the SGO server:

Ozmanthus

Ozymandius

Ozmosis

Ouranus

Orbona

Oz

Ozcar

Ozma

Ozpin

Ozgilliath (my personal favorite, go read Roger's "A Simple Shopkeeper" In the Fairy Tail section here or in QQ")