General ironwood exhaled, he had felt his blood run cold when Kazuma had stood between him and the Blue Maiden.

"Winter from now on Kazuma is to be called the Green Guardian," he said to Winter as he picked up his guns.

What had stood before him was an enraged beast that was ready to kill him and everyone present if he didn't like what he saw, but the glow his eyes gave signaled a hidden power that was just beneath the surface.

"Winter we're leaving" Winter heard ironwood say to her as he walked past the doctors and out of the room

"General" Winter said to Ironwood

"We're going to pay a visit to your brother and after convincing him to help us, we will be going to speak with the Maiden and her guardian," Ironwood said to her

As they walked out of the hospital Winter could see the old oil streetlights of mantle doing what they could to drive back the darkness of the night, with them were the few surviving golems whose specks could be seen moving around beneath Atlas.

Everything had changed now and there was no turning back.

"Excuse me for a moment," Ironwood said to Winter as he wrote something in his scroll before sending it to someone and then writing something else and sending it to whoever was on the other side.

In the other kingdoms both Humans and Faunus alike paid close attention to their radios, televisions computers or scrolls, for any information about what was going on.

After all Atlas and Mantle were the world's strongest military and if they fell, what chances did they have?

On their screens however appears two simple messages, there was no sound to accompany them, they were just something to inform the people.

Atlas Stands and immediately after Mantle Lives

In the Schnee mansion, whitey took a seat next to Silver.

Have they found grandpas?' he asked her but Silver shook her head

Whitley turned to look at his mother, but she just closed her eye and it was clear that she knew her father knew that the chances of anything being left of him would be a miracle.

"Remember when we finally made it to town," Whitley said to Silver and Rude as he began to tell his side of the story Silver had been telling.

Whitley began to laugh, now I remember that was the time Kazuma made you let him pet you, and" Whitley said to Silver before she graved the finger he was using to point at her with and tightened her grip on it.

"That never happened and you won't tell anyone about something that didn't happen' Silver said to Whitley

The sound of glass being swept by the Turks near where they were seated made the mood darken slightly as everyone tried to forget the recent events.

"We had walked out of mantle and passed two other towns to reach where we needed to go," Rude said to everyone

"And we nearly got lost and would have gotten lost if it hadn't been for a weak signal that we used our scrolls to guide us with."

"It was there that we found the pair," Rude said to everyone before becoming quiet

Whitley leaned his head back and Silver let go of his finger as they both remembered that night, that now felt so long ago.

The town was a or perhaps it was a village regardless of whatever it was it had been attacked because when they found it, several houses were burning and people were either cowering together in the center of the settlement as they watched a Kazuma and Aqua fight.

[Sometime in the past ]

Rude covered Whitley's mouth and pulled him behind a tree, the men and women that surrounded the town were wearing the uniforms of the White fang a terrorist organization led by Faunus.

He knew the reason why the Faunus hadn't noticed them when they approached the town, despite the loud noise they made when they crushed the snow underneath their boots.

He looked in front of him and found silver hiding behind another tree and the three of them carefully looked to see what was happening.

Several of the Faunus were tied by wires or ropes and were laying on the ground, while a green blur either struck the White Fang Soldiers or blocked attacks directed towards Aqua who stood still holding her staff.

"Buff"!" Aqua screamed and almost immediately the blur moved even faster sending one of the soldiers flying past them he only stopped when he hit a tree and falling unconscious.

they watched as a woman that had a chain as a weapon ran towards Aqua only to be met with the green blur, who stopped moving and they all saw it was Kazuma.

The two opponents locked eyes and Whitley would have screamed to Aqua that the rest of the Faunus were heading for her, but Rude still had his hand covering Whitley's mouth preventing him from doing so.

Then it happened Kazuma suddenly vanished and all of the white fang members' bodies lew into the air struck by an invisible force.

They couldn't see what was going on, because a couple of bodies blocked their sight, but when they fell, they saw that Kazuma stod in front of Aqua, he seemed like an impenetrable wall or some sort of beast that kept his master safe.

Soon only the woman with the chains was left standing

Whitley could feel his eyes widen, what was happening in front of him was just like in the movies he watched when he had some free time, only that what was happening right now was real.

The woman placed several miniature blades on the chain all of them were different colors then she charged at Kazuma.

Whitley could see Aqua wrap her hands around Kazumas waist and in an instant, they were both gone, the woman looked around waiting for Kazuma or Aqua to attack but after a moment she smirked and turned her attention towards the townspeople.

Rude coved Whitley's eyes so he couldn't see what was about to happen.

"What the hell!" the woman screamed and Whitley felt when Rude removed his hands from his eyes

The snow around the town was melting rapidly but at the same time, it dragging the woman away from the people, while it was gathering in front of Aqua.

Aqua looked like a blue star surrounded by a forest covered in white snow, while in front of her was a river of water that was gathering in the palm of her hand.

Then they all noticed when Aqua's eyes met with the woman's before she closed her hand and fired all of the water at her.

The Faunus woman barely managed to dodge Aquas attack, but she had let herself open and it was then that Kazuma attacked.

Unfortunately, the woman recovered before Kazuma could reach her and she swung her chain at him.

Kazuma used his short sword to block the woman's attack and Whitley along with his companions watched as Kazuma was hit with the different effects of the dust blades the woman had used.

One moment his hand was covered in ice, the next it was covered in fire, the ext it was nearly crushed by rocks and.

"Incredible" Silver said as she watched the ongoing fight.

"What do you mean?" Whitley asked Silver but it was Rude who answered him.

"It might be hard for you to see it boss, but that guy is avoiding that woman's blades at the last possible moment"

"I don't know how he's timing it, or how it's even posable but it's happening"

He's somehow moving fast enough to break her blades and made the dust in them activate, while at the same time somehow avoiding the effects of the dust those blades are made of" Rude explained to Whitley.

"No way," Whitley said as he watched the impossible happening in front of him Kazuma was dodging the woman's attacks.

He watched as Kazuma managed to grave the woman's hand before screaming

"Drain touch!"

The woman screamed until she fell unconscious, it was over.

Snow began to fall quietly around them, the only sound that could be heard was that of the fires that were still burning and the crying of women and children.

Kazuma quickly but carefully walked back to Aquas's side and the two began to tie any of the Faunus that laid unconscious.

With the snow melted every step they made sounded like water splashing on a dirty floor.

They watched as Kazuma handed his short-sword to Aqua and she immediately used it to cut the ropes of the men, the men immediately rant towards the women and children before hugging them.

"They're coming," Kazuma said to Aqua and it was then that Whitley felt Rude picked him up, before running into the town.

Whitley didn't understand what was happening, he only knew that he had just been carried past Kazuma and that Aqua walked back to the Kazumas side.

He watched as she stood next to Kazuma before holding his hand, he watched as the pair began to glow before a blue Glyph formed below them.

The Glyph grew in size until it surrounded the town, he watched even as the people ran towards the houses that weren't broken for protection.

And he watched as the door was slammed shut.

Then he listened to the hellish growls and roars of the Grimm.

[Present ]

"We haven't changed have we?" Whitley said to everyone as he turns his head and sees snow begins to fall outside of the window.

'I haven't changed have I?" he said to himself this time

"I'm still that kid from back then, I don't understand what's going on, I'm in way over my head and Not only did I drag you guys into all of this, but I can't even"

Whitley wasn't able to finish what he wanted to say as Silver suddenly rose to her feet ad slapped him forcing him to keep his mouth shut.

Silver glared at Whitley, as she grinded her teeth, she knew exactly how he felt, no she understood it better than anyone else could, she had been trained to be able to defend herself against both Humans and Grimm and she had been useless both back them and these past few days.

"I don't ever want to hear you talk like that again," she said to Whitley

"Your men, no, we could have turned our backs on you at any moment, but we chose to follow you," she said to him, as she tried to drive away any doubts that Whitley might have

Right now, Whitley needed to be at his strongest, even if it was nothing but a farse, but he needed to look his strongest for his men to keep going.

The cold wind blew into the mansion as the Turks began to drag a cabinet and placed it in front of the window to help keep the cold wind outside.

The door opened and Winter walked in.