MARZ Rising

by FandomPariah

It's been thirty years since Ruby Rose saved Remnant from Salem and almost a decade since it was saved again. Salem is gone yet the Creatures of Grimm remain and now a new generation of Hunters are ready to begin their story... By enrolling at the Breaktide Academy of Menagerie where they'll be trained by legends including Team CFVY and Ruby Rose herself. Part 5 of the Spiral-Verse

26. Tight Hugs And Loose Ends

RWBY & All associated trademarks are property of Rooster Teeth (RIP Monty Oum)

I claim no ownership of anything except my own original characters.

I am making no money from this.

Chapter 26: Tight Hugs And Loose Ends

"You sneaky mother-fucker" the same words that Wolfram had uttered in jest to Astra on the hull of a demolished warship during the head to head exercise were what greeted the Deer Faunus as he stepped tentatively and with bated breath into Team WULF's dormitory, sweat prickling at his palms as he fumbled with the doorknob.

It had been a little over day since the events of the head to head training exercise and that time had passed in a blur of unmitigated chaos and frantic activity, seeming like it could be missed with a single blink and at the same time feeling as though it had aged Astra by several years with the toll it had taken on them.

They had reached Arslan and their fellow students in a panicked and frenzied state only to be granted a meagre respite by the knowledge that the teacher and allegedly responsible adult in charge of the situation had seen everything that had transpired due to the countless cameras that had been used and as such medical assistance had already been demanded with all due urgency, with the guards who operated the restricted site proving themselves to be well acquainted with the peculiarities of treating those with an unlocked Aura as they swiftly and efficiently began stabilising the most seriously injured of the eight teens whilst Astra themselves could do no more than watch and try to process how things had gone so wrong so quickly until finally a wing of medical transports arrived, flanked by gunships intended to keep any airborne monsters that might be drawn to the misery of their patients at bay whilst confirming that Nurse Kintsugi, chief medical officer of Breaktide Academy was ready and waiting and that specialists could be called upon at a moments' notice.

Being relatively uninjured, with only bruises and sprains that healed in mere hours with the use of prescribed Aura stimulants had left the Deer Faunus at something of loose end for much of the period that had followed.

There had of course been an official debriefing, in which they had broken down into a fit of uncontrollable, hysterical giggling upon being informed, with a sense of almost perverse irony that Team MARZ had technically won the training exercise by completing the objectives given to them and preventing their opponents from doing the same; following that revelation had come the news that the training exercises for the remaining freshman teams had been postponed and would be redesigned and rescheduled at a later date, though Team MARZ and Team WULF would not have to compete, nor even attend if they did not wish to and after that had come the physically, mentally and emotionally draining task of recounting everything that had happened from the moment that Team MARZ had declared that they were done planning and ready to begin the scenario to the moment it had ended, giving the Deer Faunus ample time to consider the many things they could have done differently and thoroughly curse themselves for their inability to take the exercise seriously after feeling that they had already been exposed to the realities of life as a Hunter.

Eventually they had been dismissed and offered the services of Counsellor Daichi which they had refused, at least for the moment as the Deer Faunus felt that they needed to try and rest and clear their head; though they had been unsuccessful in both of these activities, wandering listlessly and finding a plethora of small tasks to handle which largely centred around making Regalia, who lay shivering and fading in and out of consciousness in her bunk as comfortable as possible and demanding constant updates on the condition of both their own team-mates and Team WULF until finally they could distract themselves no longer and had plucked up the courage to march to Team WULF's dormitory where they knew Wolfram to be after being discharged.

Which was where they now stood, trying not to fumble their words after once again being called a sneaky mother-fucker.

"Hey...I...I mean" Astra failed in their attempt dramatically before taking a moment to collect themselves, take in a deep breath and look anywhere but at Wolfram as they tried again "I heard you got out of medical, are you okay….is everyone okay?"

"I'm good" Wolfram grunted shifting their weight and moving into a more upright sitting position which was made more difficult by the pain in their back and shoulder which were still healing after his fall from the hull of the airship.

"Laser's shaken up, Ursinia went to look for him but I think he's okay….coming from where he does he must've seen some shit right?" Wolfram continued, patting the space beside him on the lower bunk he was currently sat on to indicate that Astra should join him "Diabla's still out cold but it's not an induced coma any more, they said her Aura reserves are insane and that she could honestly wake up anytime but she's still gonna need some physio after this….Fuck, Astra I'm sorry-"

"What the hell are you sorry for?" Astra demanded, sounding more aggressive in their confusion than they had planned as they cautiously sat themselves beside Wolfram, hopeful and optimistic yet still utterly terrified.

"The whole thing with Diabla and AJ….Professor Altan showed me some of what happened between them, she's been part of my team this whole time and I had no idea what was going on with her; I should have made an effort"

"You should" Astra agreed suddenly, catching Wolfram off guard with the bluntness, yet the smokey blue-grey haired teen appreciated it more than any platitudes and the Deer Faunus quickly continued "But you'll do better, you know you will, we both will….all we can do now is figure out where we go from here"

"So where do we go from here?" something in Wolfram's tone made Astra look directly at him, eyes locking and a lump forming in the Faunus's throat as it became clear that the discussion had changed and that they were no longer talking strictly about their respective teams.

"So uh, everyone else is okay or gonna be okay" Astra fiddled with the spikes of their currently dishevelled Mohawk "What about us, are we okay?"

"That depends, are you gonna kick me in the chest again?" Wolfram snorted before uttering a line from a famous movie "This! Is! Mistral!"

"Man fuck you" Astra laughed, the tension being drained from the situation in an instant and allowing them to flop playfully, but still tiredly into the larger teens' uninjured side and shoulder which Wolfram responded to by moving their arm and instead of draping it over their shoulder as Astra had expected they wrapped it around their waist which in turn caused their breath to hitch in their throat and their eyes to widen.

"So uh…." Wolfram's voice trailed off as he rubbed at the back of his awkwardly with his free hand "Look I'm usually happy to ignore the Goliath in room, hell ask Diabla about how good I am at that….But we both said some stuff when we were fighting-"

"Oh right" Astra swallowed thickly before stammering out an answer "Hey it's cool, I mean you touched a couple of nerves but it's fine and if I said anything that pissed you off then I'm sorry and-"

"I was thinking more about the fact we both agreed to trying another date" Wolfram interjected, trying his best to keep his voice even and not be reduced to bashful mumbling even as his cheeks flushed scarlet with rare self-conscious embarrassment "Right before you kissed me"

"Oh" Astra gasped "Oh, that-"

"Yeah….Look, if you did it just to get me off guard then it's cool….a dick move but still, it's cool and-"

"No!" Astra's reply came with more force than they had intended and they took a moment to measure their words before speaking again "I mean that's kinda why I did it, but it's not the only reason"

"Awesome" Wolfram's grasp became a little more firm and Astra found themselves pulled a little closer, which they did not mind at all and actively leaned into the embrace "So….maybe when thing are a little less crazy?"

"I mean with us that's something we're gonna have to schedule a few months in advance" Astra noted with a wry smile, leaning their head on Wolfram's broad shoulder as much as their antlers would allow, only for him to slowly turn and gently cup their cheek and tilt their head upwards.

"Well….In the meantime?" it was a question that Astra understood and silently nodded their answer to, allowing the world to fade away along with their doubts, worries and insecurities for a few moments, the Faunus paying no heed to their blush or their heart hammering in their chest as Wolfram's lips met there's.

Though a small part of their mind, a voice in the back of their head happily declared that what had happened on the airship didn't count, this moment was the first real kiss between the two of them.

---

After searching for far longer than she had expected to have to Ursinia had finally found Laser.

In truth the hulking country girl recognised that her friend going to ground should not have surprised her in the slightest; amongst Team WULF the emotional maturity and fortitude to speak frankly and openly about ones' problems was a rare commodity and it had become clear to Ursinia that the Vaccuan was deeply troubled by something, even before the two of them, along with Zirconia and an unconscious Regalia had encountered Athena-Jade Slate carrying the ruined form of his partner. From there it had slowly become more obvious that Laser was avoiding his team-mates as his Scroll was turned off, if he slept at all during the intervening time he had not done so in either the teams' dorm or in the medical wing where Ursinia might have expected him to keep watch over Diabla no matter how bad the situation between the pair seemed. Eventually however she found her wayward friend, sequestered away in a dark and unoccupied corner of the campus, eyes darting around in a way that suggested that either his current location or something that had transpired had reminded him of his bleak beginnings in a way that he was uncomfortable with.

Fortunately Ursinia had some idea of that might be troubling him.

"I saw everything y'know" she intoned warmly as she sat her larger friend behind the wiry and emaciated husk of a teen "Back when we were fighting Zirconia….Her Semblance, it didn't take me anywhere, it just kept me out of sight from you; but uh thanks for whatever you were gettin' ready to do anyway" she kept her tone light and jovial, hoping that by framing the situation as something of a positive Laser would at least open up enough to discuss his problems; that notion died with his next words however.

"No idea what you're talking about" he spoke quietly and with a stern resolve that was a world apart from his usual mischief and endearing roguishness. Ursinia blinked in silence a few times before her brow furrowed in irritation and she clamped her hands around shoulders that were more muscular than they seemed at first glance but still slender and narrow for a Hunter, physically turning Laser to look at her which in turn allowed her to see dark rings around his eyes, pallid complexion making his exhaustion all the more apparent.

"Please don't lie to my face or take me for an idiot" she sighed, trying to reign in a temper that she sensed would achieve nothing if it were unleashed "I get that you're upset about what happened, I get that you're worried about Diabla; all of us are, she's one of us no matter what she said before….Something else is crawling your hump though and aint no sense in lying about it; I saw you getting ready to use your Semblance and-"

"You can't tell Wolfram" the words were snapped out hurriedly the moment that he realised that further claims of ignorance would be useless yet even then Laser appeared as though he had conceded too much.

"Now lookie here, I don't mean to pry but I can't just keep secrets from our team leader without a very good reason y'hear"

"It's not Wolfram's business" Laser ground out with far more force than he would likely have had if it were Wolfram questioning him in person, however upon seeing the deepening concern etched into his friends' features he relented somewhat "If he knew what my Semblance is, what I can do then he'd either be freaked out or he'd want me to use it all the time….that one's worse; there's a reason I don't use my Semblance"

"Does it hurt you?" Ursinia asked carefully, noting that something self-destructive might be oddly fitting for the person paired with Diabla Fuego until she forced that unkind notion into a particularly dark corner of her mind.

"No" Laser shook his head weakly, eyes downcast "It's not that….It's, you'd think less of me-"

"Honey I doubt that but how about you go on and try me?" Ursinia fought the urge to snort in defiant bemusement before adding "I don't claim to be some kind of high and mighty expert on it but your Semblance is a part of you….it's a part of your soul expressing itself, you're our friend even if ya are a varmint so how could it make us think less of you?"

"It's all the worst parts of me, the parts that made surviving the Overspill easier for me, the parts that would make you think I should've stayed there" Laser seemed to crumble and fold in on himself "You wouldn't get it"

"Really now?" Ursinia drawled out slowly, forcing herself to remain calm despite the anger simmering below the surface at the perceived underestimation "Ya think I don't know about not being at peace with myself? Whole reason I became a Hunter is because I just didn't fit where I was, my Semblance….well it aint quite healing but it helps, I take the edge of things and I try and make it better; that's apparently part of who I am. You wanna try squaring that with the fact I have a poisonous sting in my tail, 'cos gosh darn I sure tried to"

"Your tail isn't your Semblance-"

"But being a Faunus is a big part of who I am let me tell you that partner, this tail's the first thing a lot of people see and I gotta live with that even if I'm not comfortable with what I can do to people if I'm not careful"

"Alright fine, I get it" Laser squirmed uncomfortably, visibly agitated at the direction the conversation was taking "Just please don't tell Wolfram, I don't want my Semblance to become an issue and look….you know how he gets, if he finds out there was something I could have done to win and I didn't do it he'll kick my ass"

"Okay, we've gotta acknowledge the corn on that" Ursinia admitted with a sigh, accepting that Laser was right and that her team leader and partner did have a certain fire about him in these matters.

"So you'll keep it a secret-"

"Darlin' I don't know your secrets and I don't care to" Ursinia gave him a gentle grin that showed brilliant white, if slightly gappy teeth "I didn't come down here to get you to tell me about your Semblance or anything else you don't want to, I came looking for a friend 'cos I guessed they might be having a hard time"

"Thanks, it means a lot" Laser's nasal tones did little too disguise how suddenly choked his voice was and so the sudden changing of the topic was somewhat expected when he added "Any change with Diabla?"

"Still hasn't woken up" Ursinia lamented before searching for a more positive outlook "But they say she could wake up at any time, we won't be able to see here right away; I think some of the professors need to talk to her-"

"I should've gone with her" Laser muttered "Tried to keep her from going all out like that and-"

"And left me to get a whipping from Zirconia and get yourself hurt by gettin' between Diabla and whoever she's fixing to hurt at the time….I really do want to like that girl but she's got problems of her own darn making" Ursinia saw a scowl etching herself into the face of the blonde beside her and quickly course corrected her statement as best she could "You made that stretcher out of part of the wall when Athena couldn't carry her any more, that was quick thinking….You did what you could to help; to help both of us"

"Thanks" Laser murmured, though there was no real heart in it and so Ursinia decided that it was time to try a more blunt, if crude approach and simply pulled him into a hug that pressed the two of them together briefly, yet long enough to go somewhere to short-circuiting the blonde teens' mind for a moment.

"Ya saved my hide and looked mighty fine doin' it, we might just make a Hunter out of you yet….If only you didn't steal the spare nuts and bolts from the workshop"

"Gotta have spares!" the thrifty, opportunistic and morally questionable young man laughed; his customary manic cackle and some of his usual jittery cheer returning to his demeanour as Ursinia's ploy to distract him proved successful.

---

Diabla's eyes, the usual intent fire behind them absent from her bright orange irises had screwed shut almost the moment she had tried to open them; harsh and glaring lights and with a level of pain that was simply unthinkable which consumed every inch of her body conspiring together and leaving the Huntress, who understood intuitively that she had been seriously injured feigning sleep for as long as possible, partly as an admittedly childish attempt to simply ignore her problems, both within her body and beyond it and also as part of an attempt buy enough time to gather at least some of her thoughts. Those efforts came to a halt as the door to what she could only assume was a private room within the medical wing slid open with the slightest of creaks and Diabla felt a presence loom over her, a being that she somehow knew was far larger than Wolfram or even Ursinia's towering height and hefty mass yet at the same time impossibly light-footed and radiating out a sense of warmth that permeated the matter of fact that this new figure gave as a greeting.

"You came very close to never walking again yesterday Miss Fuego….possibly worse"

Diabla could pretend no longer and what limited progress she had made in clearing the chaotic mess that filled her mind was promptly undone by that blunt admission; her eyes shot open and she tried to fling herself into a sitting position only to be left bent almost double, retching and choking as pain lanced through her ribs and midsection. Finally, after several moments filled with a fit of mucus-laced coughing the wounded teen managed to take stock of her situation enough to realise that much of her upper body was wrapped in layers of bandages and supportive braces beneath a gown that she had been placed into, with several tubes disappearing from view whilst her right arm was encased in a solid and sturdy cast.

"I'll have Nurse Kintsugi increase the dosage of your pain medication, you're clearly uncomfortable" the same warm and friendly voice noted and Diabla forced herself to turn away from the sinking chill that had began to claw its' way outwards from her gut with the realisation of how close she had come to losing everything she had worked for and instead look ahead, doing so she saw that the speaker was a giant of a man currently clad in a mossy green suit who she recognised by reputation.

"Counsellor Daichi" she fought to keep her tone even and devoid of anything that might betray the terror seeping into her as she decided that nothing good could come of the student counsellors' presence; those attempts quickly failed however as a new thought came to her unbidden but impossible to ignore

"What about my gear?" she fought to swallow a sudden lump of near palpable dread that formed in her throat "My weapons, my armour….Hell my boots were-"
"Your armour had to be cut away so that your back could be operated on before Aura stimulants were administered, the tactical vest was beyond repair however the academy can source a replacement if you wish" Yatsuhashi interrupted, sensing that the student before him was about to work herself into a frenzy that was utterly incompatible with recovery "As for your weapons, they were removed….They're damaged but seemingly not too severely, they should certainly be serviceable in due course. It is concerning that you asked about your weapons before your own health-"

"I'll be fine, what fucking use am I to anyone without my tools"

"I think that statement alone proves that you are not and will not suddenly become fine….and that you haven't been for quite some time" Yatsuhashi's gentle, soothing tone rankled at the raw nerves of Diabla who had learned long ago that no sign of caring was to be trusted in the long run, those who gave such signs would always throw her away when she had no more to give. Fighting the urge to ball her fists and cause herself more undue pain she took several slow, ragged and rattling breaths as she fought to remain at least somewhat logical and coherent in her responses despite the medicine and emotions brewing within her.

"You want me to sign up for meetings with you?….Do I have choice to opt out?"

"No" Yatsuhashi said simply "Counselling is being mandated by Professor Adel and the motion was seconded by Professor Altan….After she was convinced that expulsion would be unsuitable given what came to light during the head to head exercise" hearing those words sent ice into Diabla's veins and a dull, numbing drone spread from the back of her skull whilst blood pounded in her ears.

"Everyone heard that?" she asked numbly, that horrifying fact somehow rising above the knowledge that her expulsion from the academy had been considered to become the most disquieting of all.

"Heard and saw" the giant man confirmed "What transpired between you and Miss Slate would be considered an attempted murder in any other context and it's important that you understand the severity of your situation….however given the nature of your circumstances-"

"I don't want your FUCKING PITY!" Diabla's voice rose with each word until it echoed off of the walls whilst her rage left her immune to the fact she was screaming at a member of staff "IF I WANTED TO USE A SOB STORY TO GET A FREE LUNCH THEN I WOULD HAVE! I DON'T WANT SPECIAL TREATMENT, I JUST WANT WHAT I WORKED FOR BECAUSE….because damn it I gave up too much to be a failure and what the fuck have I got to show for it? What am I gonna do now? I can't go home, I don't even have a home" Diabla let out a single choked sob, a sound that she had held back for what felt like years and her shoulders buckled under the force of the motion; her head sagging forwards as sniffles and tears followed in a wave that the habitually gruff and unshakeable teen was no longer able to keep at bay.

Yatsuhashi, having been yelled and screamed at by dozens of teens by this point in his career and largely unflappable by nature had allowed Diabla's anger to simply wash over him but seeing one of the students in his care in a condition such as this was always heartbreaking and something fundamentally anathema to the core of the gentle giant. Diabla Fuego was, despite her flaws, simply a child who had been acquainted with certain harsh realities of the world far too soon and who was reacting to having their dreams trampled underfoot in an unacceptable, unproductive but entirely understandable way; namely bitter anger tempered with no small amount of self loathing.

If were not so inappropriate to do so Yatsuhashi might have given her a hug, it had likely been far too long since anyone had done so.

"The academy is your home" he finally answered, giving her enough time to regain some of her composure "I assure that each and every member of staff at Breaktide Academy has seen the consequences of a gifted student, or any student falling through the cracks of the system and one of the founding principles that was agreed upon when Coco, Velvet and myself founded this school was that there would be no such mistakes here….we are happy to allow you to remain on campus during breaks"

"I don't….I mean why….I-" Diabla trailed off, entirely unable to give thanks for the gesture as she simply couldn't convince herself to believe in it, which Yatsuhashi saw as a more damning condemnation of those who had been responsible for her care before now.

"That offer is of course dependant of your engagement with ongoing counselling and other conditions, first of which is naturally an insistence that you will not trouble Athena Slate again….A reasonable request considering the lengths she went to in order to pull you free of the wreckage and carry you to safety despite her own injuries" that those injuries had been administered by Diabla herself in a berserk fury seemed redundant to add, especially considering the lost and utterly shell-shocked look on the young woman's face.

"The rich kid….why, why would she help me?"

"Because like any good Hunter should she believes that lives have inherent value and also because your own estimations of her are based entirely on your own preconceptions that she is under no obligations to validate" Yatsuhashi fought his hardest to keep a biting, accusatory note from his voice "And I am sorry for what has happened in your life to cloud that view for you however, I can safely say that any of you classmates would have done the same, to say nothing of your team-mates who, despite your apparent best efforts to dissuade them would likely have torn that warship apart entirely to get you out of it"

"They should've focused on the job, I don't need their-"

"Friendship is not pity and caring is not weakness, furthermore Miss Fuego I am entirely certain that you don't truly believe that it is either" Yatsuhashi interrupted firmly, mildly impressed with his charges' obstinate willpower even in such a heavily medicated condition, though finding it tiresome nonetheless.

"I can understand that you have been hurt and that you have been wronged, even that this was not your first choice of academy and that Breaktide may never feel like the home we intend it to be for our students" he added "However, in the most simple terms I can manage; you will never reach your potential as you are….You have a bright future ahead of it but only if you show that you are willing to make changes and keep moving forwards towards it" Whether it was some effect of Yatsuhashi's impromptu speech of whether she had looked inward and seen the glaring error of the attitudes informing the actions that had ultimately led to her current injured state Diabla sagged further forward, almost enough to convince the Counsellor that she had collapsed before he watched her bury her face in her hands as much as her broken arm would allow and let out a fresh wave of strangled, pitiful sobs whilst looking more vulnerable than Yatsuhashi was willing to wager she had allowed herself to be in several years.

"I won't let you down sir" the fact that even in such an emotionally turbulent state some force of habit compelled Diabla to give her best approximation of an Atlesian salute that her injuries would allow was simply too much for Yatsuhashi and this time he did step close enough for physical contact, not quite hugging the student but allowing her to bawl her eyes out uncontrollably into his shirt as anger and grief that had been steadily building with no proper outlet since she was twelve years old finally came pouring forth.

Professionalism be damned, he would do what was needed.

---

Athena-Jade Slate had left Team MARZ's dorm shortly after being discharged from the medical wing, largely so that she would not inadvertently wake Regalia who was sleeping off the effects of being poisoned. Upon setting out onto the campus the Bear Faunus had deliberately sought out a location with dim lights and as few reflective surfaces as possible

She had no desire to look at herself right now.

She had finally succumbed to her injuries and fatigue during the emergency flight back to the academy and passed out, waking up several hours later in the medical wing in an ordeal that had been broken down into individual waves of pain and revelations about her condition. True enough she would make a full recovery and the shoulder that she feared might have been broken was only severely bruised but her face was another matter entirely and was an utterly sorry state to behold.

Athena did not consider herself vain but still had a measure of pride in her appearance and as such she had been unable to keep a whimper of despair from escaping her upon properly seeing her chipped and broken teeth for the first time; a quirk and advantage of Faunus genetics meant that they would regrow and her Aura would accelerate this as it did every other kind of healing however in the meantime she was wearing a set of covers that would both hide the damage and make it more comfortable to eat; the unblemished white of the faux teeth looked laughable when set against the sickly yellow and deep purple that covered much of the Bear Faunus's face and torso, cheeks swollen after being subjected to a thorough pummelling from Diabla whilst the sapphire blue of her eyes looked simply unsettling when contrasted against the vivid red that stained the space around them after her blood vessels had burst. The bloodstains would wash out of her clothes and her snowy white hair, which was a small mercy though Athena had noted that she would likely have to touch up her undercut again simply to even out where Diabla's vibrating blade had ripped at her; however at this point she was simply thankful that her ear had stopped ringing.

The fact that she had woken up to the feeling of her Aunt Ruby squeezing her hand gently to comfort her had been nice.

Once fully conscious and coherent Athena-Jade had been given a recap of what had happened, which had including watching the video footage of her encounter with Diabla before being asked to give a debriefing, which had in all honesty felt like a victims' statement more than anything else.

Once this was concluded Ruby had pulled her niece aside and warned her, apologetically that her parents had been informed of the situation whilst she was unconscious as a matter of course, though for now at least it seemed that the press at least were unaware.

Contacting her parents had naturally become a priority at that point, they were far from overprotective and had often allowed her to push her boundaries within reason whilst growing up however she knew that they would both be worried, showing it in their own ways and she could not in good conscious allow them to think that she might be more seriously hurt than she a was a moment longer than necessary. Her father had been at work, teaching at Atlas Academy and unable to exchange more than a few brief words wherein he assured her that he had every faith in her and that even the best Hunters suffered serious injuries, joking that all things considered it should be considered as something of a milestone that she had passed. Her mother had predictably been worried sick, Weiss had been horrified and close to tears at the sight of her daughter so mangled and her sister Coral had hidden her own discomfort at the sight behind jokes about this being all the reason she needed to join the other family business; however after several promises and assurances Athena had managed to convince her mother than she was as well as could be expected and that what had happened was simply the result of a training exercise gone wrong rather than a targeted attack or anything else that would require her to fly to Menagerie from Atlas and give Professor Adel a piece of her mind and from there Athena had managed to enjoy catching up with her family.

Now she was left wondering to herself if she had been entirely accurate or honest in her description of the events.

"Something's bothering you?" Athena jumped reflexively, as keen as her ears and eyes were even in the gloom of the empty corner of the academy she had sequestered herself in were she had been entirely unaware of Zirconia's approach until her partner was looming over her, as she watched the Grasshopper Faunus manoeuvrer herself into a squatting position that was not quite sitting in order to accommodate the angles that her cybernetic and insectoid legs naturally rested at the shorter but more wide-set and muscular of the pair managed to calm herself, though she was aware that she was likely still running on some left over adrenaline high

"I mean you can see my face right?" she asked, gesturing to the pulverised mess that it had been reduced to.

"Purple doesn't suit you?" her partner rasped out with all of her usual dead-pan dryness that left Athena laughing until her bruised ribs hurt, eventually managing to collect herself enough to rest a large hand on Zirconia's shoulder.

"Thanks for that Hops" she chuckled faintly and more weakly than she would have liked.

"But seriously, are you okay?….That looks painful?"

"I'm pretty tough….besides they gave me a lot of painkillers" the pale Faunus noted, punctuating her words with a jesting half-hearted flex of her bicep before adding "What about you, I didn't see it on the cameras because your Semblance hid it from view but it sounds like you uh, you went a little crazy when Regalia got taken out?"

"It was nothing" Zirconia looked away awkwardly, mismatched eyes suddenly downcast "She's my friend, I would have done the same for you….for any of you"

"Oh I um, I wasn't implying anything" Athena stammered out, words tripping over one another in her still-medicated fuzz "I just thought you were pretty cool, same as always"

"Thank you" Zirconia cleared her throat and tried to quickly dispel the sudden awkwardness and move the conversation away from what had transpired in the cargo hold "So, what's bothering you?"

"Diabla" Athena said simply.

"You think she'd try something else?….After what happened" Zirconia seemed appalled at the idea.

"No" Athena shook her head as much as she could without it making her dizzy "I just….After everything she's done I feel bad for her. Don't get me wrong I don't think I deserve the way she's treated me since we've been at the academy at all, I didn't do anything to her but….She really had nobody looking out for her; I can't imagine what that must be like"

"Fortunately neither can I" Zirconia acknowledged "My guardian took me in as soon as he could, even when I lost my parents I had a home"

"It's just really sad and I think on some level I get it" Athena pursed her cracked and split lips and closed her bloodied but thankfully undamaged eyes for a moment before adding "I really don't like using the family name to get things….but this wouldn't be for me, so it's different right? What if I asked my Dad if he could set up a transfer, Diabla would obviously be happier at Atlas-"

"I think that would be a gross act of interference of the part of the staff of both academies, changing the teams after they've been formed like that is essentially setting them up for failure" Zirconia gave Athena a serious look "And I also think that it would be a massive overstepping of boundaries on your part"

"You're right" Athena admitted, hating the way that Zirconia visibly relaxed upon hearing that; hating that first impressions that she had made and was even now trying so hard to undo and be more than. Letting out a slow sigh she rested the back of her head against the cold, hard wall "I just feel like I should be doing something, I guess that's just who I am"

"And who you are is truly great" Zirconia answered so quickly it was as though the words refused to be contained, though her follow up to that statement was notably more measured "You don't owe Diabla anything, in any reasonable estimation she should be the one to make the first move but if you truly want to do something for her then perhaps it would be best to simply be a friend to her….if she would allow it"

"Maybe" the Bear Faunus sighed, not wanting to voice her own doubts about the likelihood of that "I just….I don't know, with everything I've got, my families' name, Lien, contacts….Diabla really had nothing; I just feel like I should be able to do so much more to help"

"I know that feeling" Zirconia murmured beside her and Athena, preoccupied and slightly woozy as she was took the comment at face value, completely failing to notice the sudden look of deep thought that crossed her partners' high cheek-boned and sharp but delicate features and even if she had it would simply have been added to the list of mysteries that Athena planned to one-day solve.

---

Regalia let out a final gurgling retch before flopping limp and boneless to the side, slumping downwards where the cold tiles of the bathroom floor felt almost euphoric in the relief they granted to the feverish Racoon Faunus.

Now she understood why Ursinia had apologised when she had stung her.

She had initially woken up in the infirmary, though she had quickly been escorted from there by Astra who, whilst clearly distracted by a head full of racing and colliding thoughts had still obviously been overjoyed to see that she was, if not exactly well then at least conscious and mobile and as her partner had helped her make her way back to Team MARZ's dorm they had given her as much of a recap of the events she had missed as possible; Team MARZ had won the training exercise albeit under unwelcome circumstances, Athena-Jade and Diabla were both injured and Zirconia was likely repairing damage to her prosthetic leg.

Once in the dorm she had made herself as comfortable on her bunk as possible, slipping in and out of a restless and fitful sleep that did nothing to grant her any respite or make any noticeable difference to her nauseous and sickly condition until finally she had drifted off for what must have been a notable amount of time for when she awoke again, vest soaked with a cold sweat, the sun had begun to set which brought a welcome coolness that would soon become a biting chill whilst the lights of Port Alistair shone in the darkening distance; more immediately important to Regalia however was that Astra had left a large bowl of chicken soup on the bedside table they shared with a note declaring that it was their mothers' recipe, or as close to it as the Deer Faunus could manage.

To a member of Clan Aiktishaf, who often made do with whatever could be made edible and who as such treated a good meal with all the respect it deserved the gesture of home made food was something that spoke of the deepest kind of friendship and the sight of it warmed her heart as much as the soup itself warmed her stomach.

Unfortunately she had been unable to keep it down.

As she lay on the bathroom floor she managed to form enough coherent thoughts to be thankful for the fact that she had kept her grey-brown hair in its' customary lions' tail where it could not be sullied by her own vomit; beyond that there was little to be thankful for as her joints ached, she shivered as though freezing despite the sweat prickling at her skin, her eyes itched and burned and her heartbeat thundered in her head with a dull, pounding drumbeat that promised to eventually drive her mad.

Until a distraction came in the form of the dormitory door creaking opening and several pairs of footsteps announcing the return of her friends.

"Hey, I'm in here...I'll be out in a sec" Regalia managed to call out weakly before forcing herself up from the soothing cold of the floor and swaying to her feet with her bushy tail extending behind her yet offering little in the way of support, staggering to the door only to promptly stumble and collapse through it as her vision blurred and all coordination left her. Thankfully she was prevented from falling face first onto the carpet by Athena-Jade, Zirconia and Astra who all reached out and grabbed her.

"Thanks….heh, you guys are the best" she mumbled into the sudden press of bodies until she was directed gently onto her bunk which in turn allowed her to take in the appearance of her friends; Zirconia looked much as she always did though she was in clothing that was as close to simple and casual as she ever wore, allowing the Racoon Faunus to focus on the fact that her face was uncovered and more importantly her damaged prosthetic was largely repaired, only a single missing outer panel betraying its' pristine appearance. Astra looked somewhat red in the face and signature dark make up that seemed to have not been reapplied since the previous day was smudged in a way that it had not been before whilst Athena-Jade simply looked terrible.

"Holy crap are you guys all okay?" Regalia gasped, her own temporary upset stomach seeming miniscule in the face of her friends' utter ruination that no amount of forewarning could prepare her for.

"It hurts but it'll be okay" Athena assured her calmly "Nothing lasting"

"Are you well?" Zirconia asked, eyes facing downwards for some unknown reason "I….May have lost sight of the fact that it was a training mission when I saw you unconscious"

"Aww nuts, you didn't do anything permanent to Ursinia did ya?" Regalia groaned, flopping backwards onto her bed and feeling her heavy, uncomfortable eyes drift close almost the instant her head connected with her pillow; Zirconia gave no answer however and the former nomad assumed that the Scorpion Faunus who had been amongst her first friends at the academy was unharmed

"Heh, I'm good" she finally sighed sleepily "But is this what you all feel like when you try my peoples' food?"

"So we're all good….we're all okay, better than okay" Astra mumbled, words giddy yet somehow muddled as a bright but decidedly absent expression crossed their face only to quickly vanish before Regalia could open her eyes enough to see it.

"But we've gotta think about something important" the Deer Faunus sighed, eyes hardening as they leaned against the frame of the bunk-bed they shared with their partner "We all guessed that the head to head training exercise was gonna be Professor Altan, or the all of the Professors' way of trying to either prepare us for or scare us off of going after the Grimm smugglers"

"Having us fight a simulated terrorist threat against rogue Hunters would certainly fit what we would expect to see from the smuggling operation" Zirconia noted quietly "Especially now that we've seen that they have capable fighters like the one that Regalia and Team WULF have encountered"

"Crazy how I'm the only one who hasn't actually met her yet" Astra noted with a dismissive shrug, the notion seeming odd to them before being disregarded.

"So what're you thinking?" Athena forced the question out as she massaged her temples, unsure of how much more mental strain she could truly take.

"I just wanna know if you're still okay with this….If you still want to look for the Grimm smugglers" Astra paused and sighed "Look, I'm gonna keep this up because I think it needs to be done but if any of you want to tap out now then I get it, no hard feelings-"

"I'm with you" Athena breathed out with a sigh of something close to resignation "I was with you before, I was worried when Aunt Ruby tried to warn us off but let's be honest….there's no trouble I can get into with my family that's worth more than peoples' lives. I came here to show everyone that I'm more than just the family name and who I know but this is about more than that, more than proving myself; if that training exercise was a rough idea of what to expect from the kind of people we're going up against….Well then I have to stop them, because I wouldn't wish them on anybody else"

"I came to this academy to help make a better Remnant, to do what needs to be done" Zirconia rasped out quietly, her expression as unreadable as ever and whilst her answer, indirect as it was would serve its' purpose it was clear that the inscrutable insectoid Faunus was currently considering matters in her own head that might be unrelated entirely. Before anyone could question the most closely guarded member of Team MARZ the situation was given a slight moment of levity by Regalia.

"By your powers combined I am….really sleepy, but definitely gonna stop some smugglers….when I wake up" naturally the overall response to this comment was that Astra and Athena were reduced to incoherent and hysterical wrecks, needed to support one another's weight as each attempt to halt their fits of laughter was scuppered whenever they looked either at Regalia or one another and promptly started again whilst Zirconia was roused from her own musing enough to managed a small smile before finding herself humming the theme-tune of the old cartoon whose protagonists' catchphrase her team-mate had so utterly butchered. Eventually the noise in the dormitory subsided for long enough for Team MARZ to regain their collective composure at which point Athena, tired and aching as she was spotted what Regalia had already noticed, a snowy eyebrow arching in questioning as she regarded her team leader and friend.

"What happened to your make up?" before Astra could manage a verbal response their cheeks flushed deepest scarlet and though their sea green eyes darted around the room a bright, giddy smile split their face as they played with one of the points of their Mohawk awkwardly.

"I uh….me and Wolfram….He….I" the Deer Faunus paused and took a deep breath before focusing "Wolfram and I are dating now, it's kinda official" before any words could be uttered Astra felt the air be forced from their lungs as Athena wrapped her around them in a crushing hug and promptly lifted the Deer Faunus from the ground and twirled them with an excitable laugh.

"Oh my gosh you've gotta tell me everything, details Astra! I need them, I need them right now!" the sudden shift in her demeanour was enough to remind her team-mates that the Bear Faunus was a middle child and was happy to use skills and mannerisms associated with both older and younger siblings to devastating effect.

---

Arslan Altan had been, despite her reputation as a fearsome and unflinching warrior of well-earned renown, utterly dreading the next time she came face to face with Ruby Rose and as the Silver Eyed Huntress used a small but perfectly executed burst of her Semblance to deliver her first blow that dread was proven to be justified. The blow had been a simple backhand, thrown from the shoulder and elbow in tandem and Ruby's speed had caused the sound of the blow to be lost beneath what had sounded like a sonic boom as she sent Arslan hurtling backwards through the staffroom to collide with a wall that was, thankfully as heavily reinforced as the rest of the campus and Arslan, being well attuned enough to her own physical and spiritual being to gauge such things without a Scroll, knew that the simple hit had eaten through more than half of her Aura reserves.

She had already been advancing with the clear intent of a second when Coco and Velvet had flung themselves between the two women and, undeniably more importantly Penny had wrapped her arms around her wife's upper arms, gentle but immovable.

"Ruby, don't" the android said simply, tone urgent and wavering.

"I don't want to fire you Rose but so help me if you take one step forward I will!" Coco barked out as she planted herself in the kind of wide, bracing stance that suggested she expected to need her weapon for this confrontation; Ruby's only answer to that particular challenge was a wordless scoff which made it clear precisely how little it had affected her. Ultimately however she relented, Penny's unrelenting grasp, insistent without being forceful finally being enough for the still furious woman to stand down at precisely the moment Velvet stamped a foot in a rare outburst of anger, her rabbit ears twitching in agitation as she snapped out orders of her own.

"Everyone calm down!" she glared from Ruby to Coco "Everyone, sit down. We're going to use our words….Damn it Ruby we had to have this conversation with our own kids literally years ago!"

Ruby was honest enough to admit that comment stung, albeit in a way that left her shamefaced enough to sag forward under the weight of the sigh that escaped her and make her way towards one of the seats Velvet had gestured to the moment Penny released her, doing so with a dramatic flop that would have well suited a much younger version of herself before quickly rounding on Arslan as the combat instructor took a seat opposite her with a coffee table between them, though this attack fortunately remained verbal.

"So first question, how the hell did you manage to mess up something so routine so badly?" Arslan, despite understand completely the source of her colleagues ire could not help but bristle visibly at the accusation and its' tone; she was a warrior at heart after all though before she could do or say anything that might cause the situation to devolve further Penny interjected.

"Ruby's question is a valid one" it was clear that the copper haired android was hoping to ensure cooler heads prevailed but also had her own serious issues with what had occurred "Velvet and her engineering team ensured that the testing site was combat ready, moving the head to head training exercise forwards was your idea; surely you had an accurate appraisal of the students abilities prior to suggesting it? Surely you saw the situation deteriorating-"

"I thought it was under control" Arslan admitted through clenched teeth, suddenly finding herself unable to look at either Penny or Ruby "Team WULF took their role as the hostiles in the training scenario seriously, more seriously than most students do and that, combined with pre-existing grudges between certain students led to the situation we saw….These are the teams we were considering giving additional training, obviously I made assumptions and estimations that were wrong; I take full responsibility"

"So what happens now?" Ruby demanded, her anger not as fiery and vitriolic but still clearly present; Arslan made to offer an answer but found herself silenced as Coco, Velvet and Penny finally took seats around the table.

"The matter is already being taken care of" Velvet assured Ruby "It's clear that Fuego has issues and that counselling along with some actual, material improvements to her life are the only real way forward….Expulsion would do nothing"

"And you're too close to this one Ruby" Coco added "I trust you but no way in hell am I letting you handle this" Ruby's fists balled in response, mechanical eye whirring as her scarred face was morphed into a deep scowl until finally she was forced to relent with a nod.

"That's fair" she finally huffed "That's my niece Coco, that's Weiss and Gang's little girl….how could I look my old partner in the face again if something happened to her? You didn't see her face when I called her Coco, do you remember how many times Arctus nearly died as a student?"

"I know" Coco sighed.

"I should have been the one to make the call" Arslan chimed in, voice mournful "It wasn't fair or right that it fell to you; I should have been present to take responsibility"

"You should" Penny agreed, that simple agreement doing more to crumple Arslan's own self respect that any raging tirade ever could. A tense silence hung in the air for several moments until Coco cleared her throat and turned all attention back towards herself.

"Mentioning Arctus is a good way to change the subject. While a chance to clear the air was definitely needed, the training event wasn't what I actually called you about"

"Then why are we here?" Ruby asked shortly, trying and failing to regain any sense of professionalism after so thoroughly shattering that image of herself the moment she had struck Arslan.

"We received word from Grapeshot and Carmesi" it was Velvet who answered, she and Coco comfortable in taking each others' stead in all matters as always "We requested a status update and it seems that they still are on the island, although Carmesi has left Port Alistair again. The two of them are still tracking down the hybrid Alpha Geist that escaped from the fight club and have been made aware of the developments regarding the smuggling operation and their suspected attempts to recapture it"

"Have the two of them encountered any of the criminals since Carmesi attempted to apprehend one of them?" Penny asked.

"No" Coco shook her head "Unfortunately not, on top of that tracking that Grimm is proving to be a job all of its' own; it hasn't torn anything else apart that we know of recently so they don't have a trail to follow….That thing is still a priority though so we can't ask them to focus on the smugglers"

"It'd be nice if they all ran to each other in the same place and the whole mess solved itself" Velvet allowed herself a small smirk before adding "But since that's unlikely we relayed the information to Qrow and he agreed that if we want to stop the smugglers and find out who it is that's still bankrolling them it's time that we had some outside help"

"They've got some loose ends to tie up, but they should be able to set sail soon" Coco finished with a smile of her own as she watched the gears turn in Ruby's mind; her remaining silver eye widening as she realised why the mention of Athena-Jade's older brother and Weiss's first born child Arctus Slate had been a good segue into this topic of conversation and exactly whose help it was that Coco and Velvet had enlisted. Turning to her wife Ruby saw that Penny had come to the same conclusion and the pair uttered the same single word in perfect unison.

"Sensational"

---

Team FADE and their exploits were the stuff of legends, following in the lineage of other iconic teams such as Team RWBY and Team STRQ.

There was their leader Felix Xiao Long, Lion Faunus and adopted son of Blake and Yang Xiao Long who stood at a height he often wished he could increase, being decidedly under six feet tall with a lean and athletic build that boasted well defined muscles that bulged and rippled beneath skin whose light brown shade was often ambiguous and somewhat hard to describe, though the man himself could easily be identified by his long mane of dirty blonde hair, currently tied back into something manageable to tame curls that he shared with his sibling Astra despite their different colours along with tattoos which included the lions' head in a cheap imitation of the style used by the tribes of Anima which served as a focal point in the interconnecting web of ink that was a far more genuine article and extended down from the flesh of his bicep to the golden paint of his cybernetic right hand. His Faunus attribute of a lions' tail had been lost when he was only eighteen and replaced with a prosthetic attachment which mimicked the movement of the original limb whilst also containing an Aura regulator which helped empower and control his Semblance.

Arctus Slate had a stocky and powerful build shared with his sister, however where Athena-Jade was short and compact despite her broad shoulders and muscular limbs Arctus was a towering slab at six feet and three inches; snowy white hair worn with a windswept look and a small amount of well maintained stubble accenting his jaw whilst his attire was a blend of pristine whites accentuated with black, grey and silver that blended style with Atlesian utilitarianism seamlessly.

Arctus's wife, partner and Huntress of undeniable renown in her own right was Diamond Slate, formerly Sustrai-Black whose silver hair was worn in a ponytail with bangs that framed her face in a way that Athena-Jade Slate had spent years copying. Diamond's own attire had maintained its' Mistrali street fashion ethos over the years and served to highlight her slender but toned and lithe form whilst the silver of her wedding ring stood out in stark contrast to a left arm that was mechanical from the shoulder down and had been painted a matte black to give it an almost futuristic appearance.

The final member of Team FADE was Eagle Arc, niece to the late Jaune Arc and daughter of Qrow Branwen and Antonia Arc, head of Remnants' largest robotics company and the blonde woman exactly as tall and imposing looking as one might expect with her deep crimson eyes, powerful stature, messy undercut and sleeveless leather jacket bearing the Arc family crest worn over her pristine armour which left her arms bare to display sleeve tattoos depicting the most fearsome of the Grimm she had overcome. The occasionally intimidating aura that Eagle inadvertently gave off was however swiftly cast aside the moment she spoke or simply gave one of her bright smiles that dimpled her freckled cheeks as any onlooker would quickly conclude that the woman was, as her wife and friends often declared, a lovable goof.

Today that friendliness was not needed as Team FADE were on duty and currently pursuing their quarry through the heart of Neo Vale.

The four of them had spent much of their career, which had begun in earnest with the defeat of Salem though it had been agreed that Ruby Rose would be the public face of that particular event, battling the Creatures of Grimm out in their own territory; protecting smaller outlying settlements of which there were now many more littering the wilderness beyond the Kingdoms' walls and destroying Spawning Pits and individual Grimm that through their sheer size and destructive capabilities or, in several chilling cases their intellect had marked them out as a particularly dire threat. After the taste of violence against other people that they had endured during their time as students Team FADE had collectively agreed that such missions were not where their speciality or their future lay, however when Qrow Branwen, father to Eagle Arc and Great Uncle to Felix Xiao Long as well as being a Professor at the Halo Academy of New Vale and a mentor to generations of Hunters had informed the team of the activities of the inter-Kingdom Grimm smuggling operation that had now cost several lives they had naturally obliged his request for their help.

Thus far the mission had been slow going, with Team FADE being forced to turn their attention back to hunting Grimm rather than criminals more than once due to the monsters becoming a more pressing issue or simple lack of a trail to follow however that was not to say that no progress at all had been made in their endeavours. The first breakthrough had come in the form of information that had come in the wake of Team MARZ's first mission and whilst Felix had been appalled at the degree of danger his younger sibling had been placed in their was no denying how useful the intelligence they had gathered was as it allowed many of the financial backers of the Grimm fight club, presumably the same people involved in the smuggling operation to be brought to justice; others however had gone to ground or sequestered themselves on private islands and other places from which they could not be easily extracted via legal means and it was these high profile and detestable individuals, most of whom had power and influence in several circles that Team FADE had been aiding in building a case against, primarily by targeting their underlings and minions though it had become clear to the Hunters that something was amiss, that something had changed in the criminal underbelly through a series of steadily more unsettling encounters with fleeing criminals whose frantic desperation to avoid capture had led to them throwing their lives away. That their current quarry might be another such person had the four of them on edge.

Neo Vale city, capital of the Kingdom of Vale was a vast, three-dimensional maze. Much of its' innermost reaches were comprised of vast, monolithic Hive Towers that were a holdover from a previous iteration of the sprawling metropolis; each of the towers being several times the size of a city block at their base and then extending upwards several dozen stories until their uppermost echelons were only a short distance below the aerial defence platforms which guarded the city. The towers were each effectively a large town or small city in their own right though, rather than being a self-contained community each of the enormous structures was linked to those around it and the rest of the Capital City as a whole by an immense network of bridges and tracks along which the cities' monorail operated and it was this dense and bustling city that the chase had made its' way into after several failed attempts to halt and capture the suspect earlier on when they had first been encountered after a lead had sent the Hunters to an industrial district towards the edge of the city, specifically the outer surface of one of the many Hive Towers.

The man, nearing his thirties and with an unkept of black hair which fell over his shoulders, scraggly stubble and a gaunt and emaciated form, with skin that suffered from the effects of malnutrition and various poor life choices and vices was an example of a worryingly more common trend within the city; namely that criminals who had never unlocked their Aura or been trained either professionally or otherwise were foregoing weapons or even Aura enhancing drugs and were simply using mechanical aids, a choice possibly inspired by figures such as Corvid Xiao Long and Nickel Polendina whose battle-suits had become iconic symbols.

Team FADE's current quarry for example had strapped himself into a truly unique machine that had once clearly been some kind of mechanical loader or similar apparatus but was now a lightly armoured and many limbed mass of hastily welded steel; the wild-eyed suspect being fastened into a central cockpit barely large enough to be worth the name with a series of harnesses and a roll-cage which left them dangerously close to the things' power supply. The once sturdy legs of the machine had been modified to convert their simple power into more useful agility, armour plating removed to reveal digitigrade and piston-powered libs whose clawed toes clutched and ripped at the surface of the monolithic tower. Where once the loader had been fitted with powerful upper limbs the machine how had four overlong and spindly arms which had each been thoroughly weaponised, the lower pair of arms featuring a crushing, vice-like implement and a flamethrower whilst the upper limbs ended in a splintering array of saws, drills and other bladed implements.

To see such a machine bounding across the outside of their homes must have been an ordeal for the residents of Neo Vale.

"Arctus, try and box this ass-hole in! Eagle and Diamond are closing in!" Felix yelled out to his cousin before speaking into a small and practical headset "Helios, what's the situation like as a whole?"

"Working on it, only so many glyphs I can pull up at once!" Arctus shot back, though the Bear Faunus did as asked and flung up a series of glowing and ephemeral barriers only for the mechanical suit to simply barge through them. Felix let out a growl of frustration, large canine teeth bared as they found themselves unable to directly contribute much to the battle and forced to simply leap from one glyph to the next as Arctus created a steady supply of platforms for the Lion Faunus high above the ground where any fall would be, for a normal person at least, fatal; Arctus himself was using a summoned Nevermore to fly further ahead whilst Diamond and Eagle used their own Semblances to give chase, those being an ability to warp and bend gravity and other relative forces in such a way that down was simply the direction Diamond's feet were pointing and the ability to transform into a snowy white bird of prey respectively. The Lion Faunus could not answer Arctus directly as he was distracted by his efforts to coordinate with his long-time boyfriend and leader of Team NEON, Helios Nikos who was currently overseeing the efforts of both local authorities and the other members of their combined group of Hunters.

"I have word from the police that a cordon is being set up both in and outside of the tower, Hellion is using her Semblance to make sure that our target is truly alone and not leading you into a trap….Carcharodon wishes to inform you that the ships' primary weapon is ready should you wish to simply reduce the target to a stain on the wall"

"Negative" Felix answered, his own chuckle matching Helios's despite the current tension as the couple thought of the expression that must currently be on the face of Carcharodon Gore, Shark Faunus, leader of Team GORE and Captain of the ship that they all called home.

"We're gonna try and bring this guy in, if he's got answers then we need them" Felix continued before calling out to his team-mates "We need to be able to get him off of this wall, try and force him towards the monorail track!"

"Good luck Fluffy" Helios's voice intoned before the line went dead and Felix allowed himself a feral smile before drawing his massive chainsaw-bladed sword named 'Overkill' from its' harness on its' back all whilst continuing to bound from glyph to glyph in attempt to remain part of the chase as Arctus did as instructed and used his glyphs more tactically and began to control the advance of the suspect, all whilst Eagle and Diamond began to close the distance.

A moment later the chase became a battle.

Eagle Arc reached the mechanical suit first, letting out an avian shriek before returning back to her true form in a flash of pure white Aura and deploying her weapons; as she fell upon the machine from above she drew her unnamed and black bladed sword to deliver a single punishing slash which cleaved through coolant and hydraulic pipes in a spray of fluids before raising her shield to deflect a retaliatory blow from the now crazed and screaming pilot. In her human form Eagle fell and was naturally unable to find any purchase on the sheer surface of the tower wall though instead of using her Semblance again she instead deployed her shield which unfurled into its' true form, an avian droid named sentinel whose singular optic flashed as a series of chirping, bleeping vocalisations escaped it before the droid dove and used its' retractable cables to catch Eagle by the shoulders.

With one of its' four arms damaged the machine was far less able to halt the attack of Diamond Slate who rushed close and leapt onto its' back, drawing her own weapon 'Lex Talionis' in its' glaive form and jamming it directly into the generator that powered the suit, leaving the back of the machine a sparking, overheating mass of steel whilst its' limbs began to twitch and spasm. From there she leapt up onto the top of the roll cage that housed the pilot, who continued to scream with an urgency that made it clear just how far out of his depth the man was before flinging herself into a handstand and calling out to her husband.

"Big guy I need a glyph!" Arctus responded without hesitation and placed one of his glowing circular constructs directly above Diamond's feet and as the silver haired Huntress engaged her semblance again up and down were promptly reversed, meaning that the battle-suit and its' pilot suddenly felt the floor become the sky and before they could fall they were simply hurled away from the wall and out into open air.

Only to be caught by another glyph from Arctus.

"You're not going anywhere! Stand down!" the Bear Faunus yelled as they positioned the glyph so that it hovered over a monorail track which had been disabled as part of the cordon that the Hunters had hastily arranged with the police. the suspect, wild-eyed and unhinged as he clearly was had nowhere to run yet still brought his heavily damaged and failing suit to its' feet once again, only for Arctus to draw his own weapon 'Grimmiger-Henker' and shift it into its' double barrelled laser cannon form and fire at the leg of the suit and leaving it crippled.

The unknown man's only response to this was to let out a shrieking cackle of utter insanity.

"YOU'RE NOT TAKING ME IN! I'M NOT GONNA TALK! YOU KNOW WHAT THEY'LL DO TO ME IF I TALK?" Arctus's sapphire blue eyes widened a fraction at that before his mind began to race, hostage negotiations were not something he handled on a regular basis though it was clear that whatever was going on here shared several key details

"We can keep you safe" he called up to the panicked and frenzied criminal "If you get out of the mech and cooperate we can help you-"

"YOU CAN'T DO SHIT! YOU CAN'T HELP ME!" the man screamed, letting another laugh before unfastening the harness that held him in place. Arctus new better than to hope that the man was planning on complying with his demands and instead prepared a glyph in case the subject tried to jump, realising a moment later that he had instead drawn a pistol and was shooting into the same gouge in his machines' armour that Diamond had made.

He was trying to force the machine to self destruct, though at that moment Felix joined the fray.

"GET CLEAR!" the Lion Faunus yelled as Eagle, with the use of Sentinel dropped her partner onto the now smoking and clearly critically damaged power supply before she, along with the rest of Team FADE fell back and allowed Felix to engage his Semblance, known as 'Brimstone' the ability allowed him to siphon and redirect thermal energy, often using it to enhance his own power to the point of being temporarily invulnerable and unstoppable. The suit exploded and though twisted shards of metal streaked through the air, being caught by the rest of Team FADE before they could do any damage or injure any civilians on the ground yet to flee the blast was largely contained as the flames were absorbed into the golden Aura of Felix Xiao Long who, peering through the smoke could only let out a curse, deep blue eyes widening as he saw that the suspect had managed to leap free at the last moment and was now laying flat on his back, injured several dozen feet below, in a sprawl on the monorail track stretching between two towers.
"Arctus glyphs!" Felix called out "Everyone get down there! Stop this guy before he can run or jump!" each of Team FADE were already in motion, running leaping or flying towards their goal yet it was already too late; the cackling criminal, the last lead that Team FADE had in their efforts to bring the head of the Grimm smuggling operation to justice rose to his feet and spread his arms wide, an expression of euphoric, serene calm falling over his face as he became silence a split second before something that should have been impossible happened. The deactivated monorail track came to life, being controlled remotely by some unknown powers and in doing so it sent a lethal amount of electricity coursing through the body of the man who stood on it.

Killing him instantly.

"NO!" Felix yelled, eyes wide and stomach lurching as the smell of burning flesh reached him as the smoking body collapsed forward.

"Dude….what?" Diamond mouthed out, cherry red eyes mirroring Felix's own expression of utter loss as she and the rest of Team FADE fell into position around their leader on a series of glyphs created by Arctus.

"He said someone would kill him if he talked" Arctus lamented "He's not the first one to say that….he's not the first one to end up dead"

"They've been saying the same thing in Menagerie as well" Eagle added, revulsion of the purest kind crossing her features "Whatever we're looking at….this is bigger than fight clubs and smuggling, this is something huge Felix"

"And we don't have any more leads to follow" Diamond noted pointedly before turning to her leader "So now what? What do we tell Qrow?"

"We tell him what happened and that we're dealing with people who might have more power and influence than we thought" the Lion Faunus breathed out slowly "Then we tell Professor Adel that we've done everything we can in Neo Vale….I think it's time for us to head to Menagerie and investigate there"

And despite the horror that had happened below, a nightmarish scene which ambulances and other emergency vehicles were already rushing towards in the sirens in the distance were any indication each of Team FADE couldn't help but feel at least a small pang of happiness at that idea.

Felix and Arctus especially wanted to see their siblings again.

Author's Notes:

BEFORE I SAY ANYTHING ELSE: TODAY IS THE 4TH SEPTEMBER 2021, WHICH MEANS IT IS NOW FIVE YEARS TO THE DAY SINCE I POSTED CHAPTER 01 OF THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL.
THIS IS THE FIVE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE SPIRAL-VERSE, when I started I hadn't written anything for around for at least five years prior and had no idea that it would get this far so I'd like to take a moment for everyone who has read, reviewed, shared and make fan-art of this series, you are all the MVPs

And that is the first half of Vol.02 done.
Let's be real though, with that reveal at the end...or that whole last scene it could really have been a season finale; we'll cover that in the summary though.
There won't be an upload next week as I'm taking my first break in over six months; there's a chance that it'll stretch to two weeks but that's unlikely.
I worry that the cast is gonna get a bit bloated and also that Team FADE will actually steal the spotlight so, whilst they're gonna be present for Vol.02.5 and Vol.03 at least I'll be using them sparingly and also they won't have much of their old supporting cast like Team NEON and GORE with them for this.
Also, I'm writing this on August 21st 2021 and I saw the English Dub trailer for Star Wars Visions a couple days ago….Holy shit that looks stunning and I feel like it's gonna be one of those things that has some degree of influence of fight scenes immediately after I watch it.

But anyway let's summarise shall we?:
Of course those are Wolfram's first words to Astra….also, once again I'm doing the whole "Impact then pull back and set up after the fact" thing that's one of my trademarks at this point.
Obviously Arslan didn't let things go totally out of control, but it's also a good reminder that the rest of the first years saw pretty much everything that happened because the training exercise was being showcased for them.
So while the other teams are being put through the wringer Teams MARZ and WULF will be free to do something else, yay plot convenience.
Wolfram's right about Laser seeing some shit, but totally missing the point.
"You should" Astra and Penny both pulled that kind of line out this chapter and it's effective, just undercut any self pity.
This! Is! Mistral!….I'm not sorry.
"Yeah….Look, if you did it just to get me off guard then it's cool….a dick move but still, it's cool and-" of course he mentally braced himself, but at least the two idiots are actually getting somewhere now.
And there we go….Now we just need a proper ship name for these two.
Am I lying though? Team WULF have one person capable of a proper discussion about feelings and it's Ursinia.
So, Wolfram didn't see what happened with Laser when he was shown his team-mates' fights which means that nobody outside of Zirconia's Semblance did, but Ursinia was inside of it with him despite being separated.
So, back to the mystery of Laser's Semblance….I'm obviously letting it stew and build up for dramatic effect.
So whatever Laser's Semblance does it's a reflection of a part of himself that he doesn't like, it was also fun to have Ursinia be a little more than just team mum or buff country girl.
Not even a shipping moment, Ursinia is just realistic to know that her friend needed a distraction and tits are pretty good distraction so she hugged him enough to press hers against him….Which is exactly the sort of thinking you end up with after hanging around Laser.
Well damn, Yatsu telling Diabla she was very nearly paralysed by what happened is one hell of an entrance.
Interesting choice of words, Diabla wasn't bothered about her life in of itself, she was bothered about losing what she's worked for, followed by "I'll be fine, what fucking use am I to anyone without my tools"
Oh definitely attempted murder, she beat the stuffing out of AJ.
And now we get part two of Diabla's much needed breakdown, she got most of the rage out of her system but God damn she just needs a good cry.
"Friendship is not pity and caring is not weakness, furthermore Miss Fuego I am entirely certain that you don't truly believe that it is either" Yatsu said stop being a fucking edge-lord.
Talking about reaching her full potential might have seemed out of place but honestly it's probably the only thing that would have really resonated with her.
So from inference, AJ and Astra have been in and out of the dorm but haven't really had a chance to properly talk to each other.
She got hammered, plain and simple.
Of course Ruby was there and of course Weiss and Gangrel were told….Also, Gang's joking comments aren't exactly wrong where the Slate family is concerned; look at the injuries Gang took in Downward Spiral and Arctus's injuries in FADE: Legacy.
Good old Zirconia with the off-key sense of humour.
AJ and Hops….Oh my God you awkward, oblivious fucking nerds!
But also, note that Zirconia did not tell Athena-Jade, or anybody else about her Semblance getting an upgrade.
Zirconia's right, even if it's with the best intentions it is not Athena's place to interfere with this.
Ah, she's so mysterious it's almost a meme at this point but just wait til it pays off.
Regalia just straight up doing an Al Murray routine there.
Seriously, the way to Regalia's heart is through her stomach.
Astra's right once again and it's a good idea to have a team meeting and ensure that all four of them are still on the same page, it's also a nice way to round out the mid-season finale by giving all of Team MARZ a scene together.
Notice that Zirconia always talks about what needs to be done and making a better Remnant, but never says Hunter specifically.
….And Regalia is just spaced.
Also yeah, Astra and Wolfram are dating, it wasn't just a make out session.
It might have been a little out of character for Ruby to chin-check Arslan but desperate times and all that.
Velvet "Fuck around and find out" Scarlatina.
This scene is honestly mostly filler but I feel like we had to see the Professors have some discussion about how things fucked up.
So the villains are sending the occasional message to the Academy, both to keep up appearances and also to get information back, since they're still regarded as legit Hunters….though obviously the information they give isn't gonna be enough to let the heroes ruin their plans.
Recently, it's been three weeks since the last Hell-Hound scene remember.
I'm sure you knew what was coming from the word Sensational.
God I didn't plan for the Team FADE scene to be so long, but it was fun to write them again.
Obviously had to give a little recap on their appearances, which were based mostly on the epilogue of FADE.
A recap of what exactly FADE have been doing behind the scenes, obviously they've been involved since an attempt to smuggle Grimm through Neo Vale docks led to several deaths; that was actually done by the benefactor and not the fight club people but since the heroes don't actually know the ins and outs of their enemies' organisation they're still working on the assumption that both sides are the same people and always have been.
So, the people they've been trying to catch and get answers out of are all dying before they can talk, some by their own hand….definite Kingpin vibes.
The idea of criminals using mech-suits to fight Hunters is great and so is the idea of a multi-limbed mech-suit scuttling along the outside of a Hive Tower to avoid capture.
Obviously I had to show where Helios, Carcharodon and the others were to some degree eve if having them all in this scene would have made it too hectic.
Had to recap what Team FADE's weapons and Semblances are as well, including Sentinel 2 which we only saw in the Epilogue of FADE and didn't actually see it fight.
So the guy freaking out and saying that they'll kill him….Is he working for the original backers that were paying Persian and Rowan, or is he working for the benefactor; 'cos that sounds a lot like how the criminals in Port Alistair were talking but it was kinda obvious that the person they're scared of is Carmesi.
So, whoever it was that silenced that guy has influence over things like the infrastructure of at least one Kingdom, which should give you some ideas about who it actually is and will also set things up moving forwards.
So….Team MARZ and Team FADE team-up is now definitely on the cards.
But also I think I'm gonna have a reason to have Teams GORE and NEON be elsewhere, with the possible exception of Carcharodon just to keep things from becoming overcrowded.

Thank you to SumoSnipe, Funlander and MajorBrony95 for reviews on the last chapter.
Eh, Aura cuts that recovery time down….I mean think right back to Downward Spiral when Gang got impaled through the chest in four places, and Weiss nearly got her belly ripped clean open by the Dragonfly Grimm at the very end….Those two together have produced some tough kids.
I mean Weiss could track down Diabla's family but I think at this point she'd choke-slam them more for disowning their daughter.
Oh yeah and as you can see I wasn't done making you feel for Diabla, but also note that at no point did I attempt to use her past as justification; she has a large portion of chips on her shoulder and she's been done dirty, but she still acted a prick.
AJ doesn't reallt have anything to be guilty for?
I don't think it was a deliberate choice for Diabla to let things go as far as they did, it was just that all of that anger finally had somewhere to go.
Bakugo of Remnant is an interesting take, although I'd argue that Bakugo has no justification that we've seen.
As you can see kicking Diabla out was definitely on the table but honestly AJ being the one to vouch for her wouldn't feel right, at the end of the day Diabla has to work for forgiveness and to be better not the other way around.
….Oh snap indeed.

As always thank you to everyone that reads this, with a special thanks to those of you that follow, favourite and review.