This story was inspired by a lot of horror/dystopian/survivor fictions, such as: Prototype, Warhammer 40k, Judge Dredd, The Walking Dead, Gears of War, Metro: Last Light, Cyberpunk, Resistance: Fall of Man and a lot of others. You get the gist (If you've played the games, I mentioned, or watched the movie and the tv show as well). I took inspiration from each of them, in order to create a darker Remnant where humanity was being pushed towards the edge, slowly bit by bit.

This story explores what the setting might be like if Salem wasn't content to sit idle in the shadows beyond the borders of civilization, acting subtly through agents with almost no one on the planet knowing she exists. Here she was done hiding, came out to the public and told everyone what she wanted and that she can't lose, because she's immortal. A world where Salem, decided to change her overall strategy for a far more hands on, strategic and aggressive means to achieve her goals. Here she directs the Grimm into aggressive and strategic attacks, actively innovates her forces with stronger and newer Grimm, using far more devastating tactics such as deploying bioweapons, and proclaims her status as an immortal to weaken humanity's morale.

Basically, what she did for the Fall of Atlas story arch in volume 8, but much sooner.

And add to all that some survivors from the Old World got themselves teleported to Remnant…. talk about bad timing.


Know No Fear

I fear we are entering a new dark age, a bloody age, an age of barbarism, desperation and of deeds most foul. Different from the one in the Old World, but just as cruel and harsh. Perhaps, more so. It will be an age of battle and death, and perhaps even of the world's ending. Amidst all of the fire, flame and fury it will be a time, too, of mighty heroes, of bold deeds and great courage.

Felix Jaeger – The Remembrancer's Memoirs

Chapter 1: Unwanted Guests

When the ruins of the Kingdom of Mantle came into view, no one inside the Corvus Blackstar said a word, if it weren't for the noise caused by the aircraft's twin engines you could hear a pen drop.

Whether the silence was out of respect for those who dead 26 years ago or something else entirely Felix didn't know. What he did know was that 15 million people had once lived there, most behind the city walls, but some had lived in slums outside.

Now it was a ruin… and a mass grave.

In three days, the entire population save for those who had been fortunate enough to have been living or working at the time on the floating island above Mantle, before the Grimm struck or those deemed too important to lose who had been airlifted to the island, before air operations had been suspended due to aerial Grimm having attained air dominance had perished, and the whole world watched in horror as it happened – himself included.

The Blackstar landed on a snow-covered field on what once had been a park, hovering a few meters above the ground. The metallic back doors of the dropship opened, and a small ramp mechanically shoot out from within the aircraft's frame, and Felix and his squad disembarked. The squad of twelve fanned out six moving to the left and the other six to the right, to form a circle around the aircraft. The motion sensors detected no movement nearby, yet those armed with M251s Ajax's and MA5C's assault rifles scanned the surrounding buildings through the linkage between their helmets interface and their scopes.

Once they were all out, the ramp withdrew back into the aircraft, the doors slammed shut and the Blackstar took off. Having their only means of escape laying around parked in the open waiting to be ripped apart at any moment by wondering monsters, effectively leaving them stranded in hostile territory was not of sound mind, instead it was much better for everyone involved for the pilots to pick them up once they were done.

Felix wore the same standard issued non-power armored uniform of the Deathwatch as his squad did.

The Deathwatch battle dress uniform was made up of several different components and layers that made the battle uniform what it is: a helmet made of titanium, coated with a temperature resistant material to help disperse extreme heat or cold - the inside was lined with black padding to provide comfort when the user was wearing it. The helmet's V-shape faceplate was made of a strong, glass-like material with the ability to polarize. When polarized, the helmet's faceplate had a dark gray color to it and obscures the wearer's face completely. The helmet had a communicator installed inside of it, it was also equipped with its own thermal imaging, night vision, identification, motion sensors, targeting, aura monitoring and air recycling and filtration systems.

The body suit was made up of several different layers and materials, the inner layer of the black gray undersuit was made up of Kevlar material to aid in protecting the wearer from small arms fire, the inner layer also contains a heating and cooling system which regulates temperatures to keep the wearer warm or cool depending on the weather conditions - the heating and cooling system can also match infrared signatures of the current weather as well as to allow the user to go undetected in hostile locations. The outer layer of the undersuit was coated with a heat resistance material that offered some protection against limited laser or plasma fire. In addition, the body suit also doubles as an airtight pressure suit that in theory should allow the wearer to perform EVAs if needed but had been designed more importantly to protect against deadly airborne pathogens and spores. The outer shell layer was comprised of titanium and ceramic composite armor plating that covered the chest, shoulders, legs and feet.

And lastly came the rucksack which, for all intents and purposes, was an armored backpack that magnetically attached itself to the back of the suits armored vest.

The only iconography that marked them as belonging to the Deathwatch was a small sliver skull with an I-shape letter on its forehead. Typically found on the right shoulder plate.

Without a doubt, the dark color scheme of the suit, matched poorly with the pristine white snow of the terrain, but camouflage had long ago been proven to be useless against an enemy with the ability to sense negative emotions. Plus, more than a few Grimm possessed heighten senses far an above those of mankind. Beowolfs for example could smell prey from over a mile away. Uniforms were more about being able to spot who was on your side than anything else in this day and age.

As they trudged through ankle deep snow, Felix though it strange; you hear 15 million, and you immediately understand you're talking about an extremely large place, but your brain doesn't get it –can't– process just how large that number truly is. Not until you're standing in the ruins of a city that used to be home to that many people.

Not until you see it with you own two eyes.

Even after 26 years of being eroded by freezing arctic wind, water, and other natural agents, Mantle still looked like ground zero for the end of the world. Which in a way it really was, it was after the Fall of Mantle that the Queen of the Grimm Salem revealed herself to the world. And although none would dear admit it out loud, everyone knew that moment had been a death knell for Remnant.

A low crackle sounded in Felix's helmet, and the helmets of all of those in Kill-Team Talon of the Deathwatch. Sergeant Erasmus' voice came through clearly, "Look there to the west. Mantle's CCT tower. That's where the Black Queen made her declaration to the world after devastating the city."

The tower was massive it easily could have been mistaken for some kind of skyscraper it pierced the cloud line in the sky like a knife, oddly enough it appeared to be in a much better state, than the rest of the buildings surrounding it.

"Mantle was the Kingdom that had developed the CCTS and constructed the first CCT tower," continued Sergeant Erasmus. "It's fitting – in a morbid sense that the Queen of the Grimm, would use it to broadcast her speech."

It was also when she decided to change her overall cautious strategy for a much more bellicose one. The Death Queen had grown more bold, sinister and ingenious in her strategies over the last few decades, pushing the Grimm through constant evolution making them stronger, smarter, faster, more powerful and harder to kill than before with each new iteration. And she didn't stop at just evolving older Grimm, she created newer species of Grimm to, previously never seen before, but worse of all were the viral diseases; White Fever, Black Rot, Sweet Dream and a dozen others, but the deadliest of them all was the Plague of Grimm.

"Morbid indeed Erasmus," agreed Felix. "You know, your history well… Though do leave the history lessons for when we're back on the Rock, were its safe, instead of out here, where we can be set upon by monsters at any moment."

"Of, course sir!" replied Erasmus hurriedly. He had the good sense to ignore the chortle coming over the comms from his fellow squamates. "My apologies, Watch Commander. It shall not happen again."

Not the response, Felix had wanted to hear he rather enjoyed Erasmus' talkative character just not out in the field, but it would suffice. They walked in complete silence ignoring the occasional cracking sound when they stepped over bones buried in the snow for half an hour until a specific building came into view. "We are approaching our mission objective. Remember this is a simple salvage operation. The schematics for Mantle's android foot soldiers is all we are after. Nothing more, nothing less. Is that clear?" Time as always was critical, because sooner or later the Grimm would show up. That was no exaggeration, but a fact. And it was best to be long gone, before that happened.

Being too greedy was an excellent way to get yourself killed out here in Grimm country.

"Crystal, sir!" The squad shouted in unison.

"Good. Because we've arrived at our destination gentlemen."

Said destination was Mantle Command Center what once have been the central control center of the City of Mantle and its military. The white structure had a hexagon shape which explained the six façade entrances, it was massive the building spanned thirty acres, while if you didn't include the six acres size courtyard at the heart of the structure.

Thankfully they didn't need to break in since the large blast proof entrance metal doors had been ripped of their hinges and tossed aside like trash or they could have entered through the giant gaping hole at the buildings western side.

Either would have been fine.

"By, the gods," Erasmus uttered at seeing the massive hole. "That's where the Titian- "

"We know Erasmus, we've seen the video to," interjected corporal Theodore Schwarz. "There's no need to waste words refreshing our memories of it brother." It was hard to forget such a legendary moment in history.

In the end they decided on the doors to enter through.

The hallways inside were painted in a grayish white color and littered with debris… and skeletons. Most belonged to soldiers who had valiantly fought for their home until the bitter end, no matter how futile it would have been at that point, but some had belonged to the civilian staff that had simply worked here. The power was out, but thanks to their helmets night vision they could see where they were going, which made the journey easier and much quicker since they could read the signs on the walls directing them where they needed to go.

It took less than twenty minutes to reach the buildings main central command center, it had two floors, the computer room below and a viewing platform above. The computer section was a large room filled with various computer screens, once used to watch over operations in the kingdom and servers, lots and lots of servers.

Which housed a treasure trove of valuable data if one could only access it.

"Alright." Felix said looking at the countless dust covered servers. "We only need one of these up and running again…with some luck we should be done within an hour or two. Let's get to it."

XxX

Lady luck had not smiled on them this day, Felix had been off by at least five hours. It had taken them most of the day getting a single server back up and running again, they had to cannibalize a dozen serves for parts, just to get one in a fairly descant shape to work. Most have been so degraded by the elements, lack of maintenance and the passage of time that they fall apart at the soft touch of a hand.

Downloading the schematics onto a single scroll had taken them almost two hours to complete. Nine hours. They have been here for over nine hours; sunset was less than an hour away and nights on Solitas were brutal.

Not to mention lethal. Their temperature-controlled suits should keep them from dying of hypothermia, but Solitas' cold was infamous for freezing even Grimm and Felix preferred not to test their suits limits.

"Evac is on its way. ETA in forty minutes," Felix informed the squad. They had just arrived at the park where they had been dropped off. "Site tight and wait for it to arrive."

Translation: stay out of sight, keep your eyes focused on your surroundings, finger on your trigger, don't make any sudden movements and fire only at targets you have identified as hostile. Felix crouched next to an overturned bus that had half its frame in the park and the other half on the road. His squad had more or less done the same. Some hid behind vehicles like him, others picked dead trees as their hiding spot and a few simply laid on their stomachs nestled between snow dunes.

Minutes passed one after the other without issue… until a gunshot rang out.

*Bang! *

It was quickly followed by five more.

"Who's firing?!" Felix yelled over the comm link. A flood of 'not I' were soon hurled back at him. All eleven squad members had replied back and said they hadn't discarded their weapon. Another two gunshots sounded back-to-back it sounded close by, but not quite where they were, perhaps a few miles away maybe less, "If it isn't use than who?"

"Another kill-team perhaps?" offered Erasmus.

"I authorized no other kill-teams in this sector for deployment save for ours," Felix replied. "Whoever this is they aren't with us. "

"Scavengers then, come to pick through Mantle's carcass like us," Erasmus said. "Wouldn't, be the first time we crossed paths with another group picking at scraps. That's how we ended with that Sustrai girl from Vale."

Possible, but who would be crazy or more probable desperate enough to brave Solitas' inhospitable frigid tundra to pick through decades old scrape?

…Well besides them that is.

The noise of a combustion engine purring mixed with the loud sound of something metallic crashing against something else and tires screeching resonated in the ears of Kill-Team Talon.

And it was growing louder by the second.

"…That couldn't be what it sounds like… could it?" asked Felix more to himself than anyone else really. No one responded to his question they were all too transfixed with astonishment at the sight that just rolled onto the scene.

The sound belonged to a white military truck with a plow fixed in the front. It plowed straight through the ankle-deep snow with shocking speed. It battered aside cars, bikes and anything else that got in its way. Felix caught sight of the truck's driver, he or she wore a white-gray gasmask and seemed to be holding onto the steering wheel for dear life. The driver wasn't alone a second figure standing on the haul bed fired at something behind them.

"What is he shooting at?" Erasmus wondered out loud as he tried to spot the stranger's target. "I can't see any-"

A black figure running on all fours appeared, it trailed behind the truck similarly to a predator chasing prey.

Its rippling muscles bulged as it ran with alarming speed only legging a handful of meters or so behind its prey, it dodged bullets with a shocking ease that seemed almost effortless. It zig-zagged twisting and turning left or right at random as it dashed on the path plowed by the truck. It looked as if the creature was making itself as difficult a target to get a lock on as it possibly could… and it was working. The gunman on the haul bed had fired over a dozen rounds at the thing and it had dodged all of them.

Sergeant Erasmus raised his rifle and took aim, "Permission to fire." Everyone turned their weapons on the black figure as it sprinted, whether it had noticed them yet or not didn't matter, eventually the thing will, and it would turn its attention onto them. Whiteclaw, Felix's drilled in training told him. One of the new species created by the Black Queen these past few decades. He had seen pictures of them before, but this was the first time Felix had seen one in person.

It has been theorized that the Black Queen's purpose behind creating these newer species of Grimm was to make up for some perceived short comings from the centuries old Grimm. That even with all the forced evolution every few years, there would always be some failing within them at the root no matter what happens. These newer ones had been created differently than the old breed of Grimm, they naturedly evolved faster on their own, grow faster, wilder, stronger, faster and far more intelligent as time passed.

This one stood at 20 feet tall on average, with some becoming far larger. It had a reptilian appearance with a rough scaly hide and white prominent curved horns. Four red eyes gave it superb eyesight. Bipedal and able to walk on two legs, but faster on all fours with five clawed fingers and opposable thumbs on each hand the size of short swords. A barbed whip like tail, their limbs were long and thin, but filled with pure muscle, their musculature nature gave them immense strength, superior speed and incredible resilience. They were infamous for ripping armored vehicles to shreds.

"Granted!" howled Felix taking aim with his own weapon, an FNPX-80 submachine gun. "Shot it!" As one they fired, dust rounds flashing a coruscating kaleidoscopic of colors flew.

They were all veterans with years' worth of combat experience, dozens of missions under their belts and twice that amount worth of training in virtual simulations and live-fire exercises, they all knew where to aim for. The eyes, the throat, the joints that if you were lucky, might take an arm or leg off and any area that appeared to be a soft and unarmored. Yet, even with all that it wasn't a cakewalk to put the damn thing down, it noticed them the moment their guns fired and with lighting reflexes leapt, twisted and dashed about like a fly. It dived and skidded under automatic fire than took cover inside a bombed-out storefront that might had once sold books if the poster of a woman smiling as she read a book in front of the store was any indication.

There assault had an unintended consequence it panicked the driver and caused him or her to swirl uncountably, the driver tried to regain control, but it was too late as the truck crashed against a huge collapsed water tower instead of liquid water flying out chucks of thick ice and pieces of metal were tossed into the air. The water inside had long ago frozen over into solid ice. The person standing on the haul bed had been unceremoniously thrown into the air, by the force of the impact, the figure screamed as he or she flew for a good minute-maybe more. The scream had a feminine ring to it. The figure than as dictated by the laws of gravity dropped like a sack of bricks, onto the roof of a car not far from where Felix was standing, the figure's aura flashed a light blue as he or she hit the roof, then bounced off and struck the snow-covered pavement face first.

Inches away from Felix's feet.

Felix winced as she struck the asphalt, fortunately her aura held firm and protected her from the worst of the impact, before flickering out. A common sign of aura depletion.

And it was most defiantly she.

Even with the white-gray color gasmask and helmet with blue markings obscuring her face and the body armor that covered her upper body and legs. He could spot the telltale signs of the female figure when it was right there in front of him; the narrow waist, wide hips, although he couldn't find a bust, but that could have been because of the armor or maybe she was just flat chested. She wore black pants, a white belt with pouches, a white and black handgun was strapped to her hips, black gloves and white gray miliary boots. In her right hand she grasped a Multi Action Dust Rapier of exceptional craftsmanship.

She groaned in pain as she laid on the snow-covered ground, she tilted her head slight towards the heavens above and caught sight of him, through glass shattered eye lenses, Felix saw light blue irises and he could have sworn he saw the flickers of hope in her eyes.

"…. H-Help… us… pl-please," she managed to mutter out before going limp collapsing into unconsciousness.

Felix stared at her for a moment, then kneeled down on one knee, extended an arm out towards her throat to grab the thin chain around her neck, he pulled up and out came a pair of dog tags from inside the woman's armored vest and read them. "Weiss Schnee. ID: AM984 – 15 – 0498. SOU. A Positive."

A nine-digit ID number starting with AM, that's Atlas Military alright and if Felix's memory serves him correctly, SOU was the acronym for Atlas' Special Operatives Unit. Which meant only one thing.

"A huntress," stated Erasmus taken aback. "Out here?" Huntsmen and huntresses were valuable assets not typically used frivolously for common tasks such a salvaging. They left that sort of work for the poor bastards in the infantry.

"A mystery for another time sergeant," said Felix letting go of the tags, they dropped onto the woman's vest. The question as to why Atlas would risk someone so valuable for a salvage operation in a decades old ruin would have to remain unanswered for the moment. "Let's focus on the here and now… The Whiteclaw?"

"Still taking cover inside the storefront."

The thing wasn't stupide it knew it was outnumbered and outgunned and wasn't taking any chances, which presented a problem for them, the Blackstar wouldn't land as long as the ground wasn't clear of hostiles. Well, the pilots would if he ordered them to, but Felix wasn't going to risk their ride home being torn to shreds like paper through a shredder.

Which meant they had to kill the damn thing if they wanted to go home, "Then it would have to be baited out of hiding…. cover me."

Without waiting for a replay Felix detached his rucksack from his vest and let it drop onto the ground than took off towards the store the monster had entered, he slung his SMG back across his back and unclipped the massive axe that had been resting magnetically locked to his waist, even after more than a century with the weapon, Felix still couldn't believe he had Gotrek's axe.

He also couldn't believe he could lift the thing; it weighted almost as much as the average size man.

With a casual stride, Felix stopped a good twenty meters before the store's entrance and waited.

It seemed he had made himself too tempting of a target for the Grimm to resist for the creature burst from the wall on the third floor of the building not a minute later and plunged at him. As it fell it raised a claw hand and slashed downwards aiming to kill, Felix swung, and the axe cut straight through four of the five talons as it separated wrist from hand. It let out a howl of pain as it struck the ground, to its credit the Grimm recovered quickly, but not fast enough as Felix severed its tail from its frame, utterly enraged now the Whiteclaw flew into a berserker rage and charged throwing its full weight behind its next attack.

Felix saw the strike coming and sidestepped it, he nearly escaped getting his head bitten off by the Grimm's power jaw as it attempted to snap at him, he saw an opening and swung and joint split from leg and again the monster roared in pain. With half of its limbs gone the Whiteclaw was much slower now and easier to take aim at.

Before it could attempt to strike at Felix again a hail of bullets struck it and dozens of red dust rounds ignited and the Grimm burst into flames. It screeched and howled, leashing out wildly in its death throes, fed up with the things incessant yelling, Felix aimed his SMC at its head and fired putting the Grimm out of its misery.

Sergeant Erasmus and the others made their way towards him, but Felix didn't break his gaze from the burning corpse, the duel had ended on a rather anticlimactic note, that left him with a sour taste in his mouth. Only when it dissipated fully did, he acknowledged them.

"We need to leave. Now. They'll be more of them arriving soon. Whiteclaws hunt in packs of four, this one was a juvenile who must have gotten overeager chasing prey and separated from the pack, but the others should not be too far behind."

Erasmus nodded than jerked his thumb towards the sky, "Than its fortune that our ride is here." The Blackstar touched down in the same exact spot it had first dropped them off.

"Sergeant grab the huntress, we're taking her with us, the driver to if he or she is still amongst the living. And be swift about it, we have disturbed the dead enough for one day."

XxX

When she came too, Weiss found, she was inside a cell laying on a rough bunk bed her gasmask and body armor had been removed, and she was inside of an aircraft of some unknown model, it wasn't a Atlesian Dropship that much she knew. Her hands had been clapped behind her back, she was cuffed, and her weapons were missing.

The people who resecured her weren't taking any chances.

Weiss didn't blame them.

Foreigners were rare and uncommon, and ever since the Plague of Grimm was let loose eight years ago upon Remnant, bypassing walls and other structural fortifications they were typically bad news as well. The plague spread by mycotic spores, once inhaled, worked its way into the circulatory system and grew into a necrotic microorganism that multiped rapidly spreading throughout out the host's body, carried along by the bloodstream. In time the microorganisms take control of the major organs. What came next was not well understood but the infected host essentially flatlines from multiple organ failures and is soon reanimated as a Grimm.

Most settlements flat out refused to take in strangers viewing them as too high of a risk, a few even killed them outright. Better to be safe than risk having Grimm inside your walls as the saying goes.

Willow was in a similar state on the bunk bed above hers, when she noticed her mother was in the cell with her still alive, Weiss let out a sigh of relief, after everything that had happened to them in the past two days, she knew that they should be dead right now.

The door to her cell opened and in walked a tall young man who looked to be no older than twenty with an athletic build. He had fair skin, shoulder length blonde hair and blue eyes. He wore a dark gray bodysuit that appeared as if he had removed portions of.

Weiss stood and dipped a graceful and very deep curtsy with her hands cuffed behind her back, "Thank you for saving our lives! "The gratitude in her voice was palpable, "We greatly appreciate your magnanimous kindness good sir!"

"You're welcome…. Please take a seat. "Felix gestured back to the bunk bed she had vacated, and Weiss sat back down. He had come alone, and, in his hands, he held a tablet that he typed into, "You are-"

"Are you with Vale? "Weiss nearly yelled out, "Vacuo? Or Mistral? Whichever kingdom you belong to I and my mother humbly request sanctuary within your kingdom."

Felix tilted his head slightly puzzled. Why would anyone want to leave the one kingdom, the Grimm had a hard time finding? Atlas unlike the other kingdoms planted on the ground was mobile, a literal city floating through the clouds. Unable to come up with a convincing answer he instead decided to continue where he had been cut off, "-Special Operative Weiss Schnee of Atlas, correct?"

"How do you know my name?"

"I read your tags while you were unconscious."

"Oh, well its formerly of Atlas, sir." Weiss corrected. "Again, I wish to affirm our intent to seek sanctuary within your kingdom sir."

"We'll get to that in a moment… You are a huntress, correct?"

Weiss nodded, "Yes sir. Graduated three months ago from Atlas Academy, top of my class and the youngest cadet to graduate in the academies history."

Felix had no way of knowing if that was true or not. The short pale-skinned young woman with light blue eyes and long white hair pulled back into an off-center ponytail sitting in a cell in front of him wasn't what you would expect a huntress to look like, she was petite and lithe with smooth skin and a far too beautiful visage if it weren't for the scar that ran vertically down her left eye and face, Felix might have assumed she was some Mistralian warlord's prized concubine. Come to think of it wasn't she a little young to be a huntress? She looked to be around sixteen or seventeen and typically, huntsmen and huntresses started their careers at age twenty after being trained incessantly since the age of ten, of course there were exceptions to the norm those with talent and possessing a natural affinity for the craft were known to graduate from the academy a year or maybe two ahead of normal cadets.

Not four. Or possibly five. If she turned out to be sixteen.

Or it could have all been bullshit, she had made up to impress him, so he'd have to take her and her mother in, that was what she said she wanted after all.

But what if it was true?

This would be the first time; Felix had encountered someone who had graduated a full four years ahead of schedule from a hunter's academy. A prodigy without a doubt. Someone who came along perhaps once a generation.

He wasn't sure what to make of that.

So, Felix asked her a few more question. Her answers were short and to the point, as the others had been and they all painted Weiss in the best possible light, yet they were mired with discrepancies. Gods, everything about her was a discrepancy. She was calm, but impatient, cool yet temperamental, acquiescent, but with a rebellious streak and respectful, but possessing a biting tongue. Not the usual attitude deserters typically display during questioning usually their anxious as a borrower who's indebted himself to a vicious loan shark that he knows he can't pay back.

But that could have been due to her huntress training.

"My first deployment in the field was with the 5th Special Operatives Unit, "said Weiss. "I was placed in Squad 9 of Bravo Company. Our mission was to locate and eliminate a Geist, that had possessed a large statue of a knight grasping a sword with a suit of armor on and everything… The Grimm attacked a mining facility and eradicated the armored unit guarding the site along with most of the miners there."

"Did you kill it?"

"Of course, I did. I'm standing here having a conversation with you, aren't I?"

"This is really more an interrogation than a conversation. After you took care of the Geist, where were you deployed next? "

"It can be both." insisted Weiss." And after that I was shipped off to Argus to reinforce the Atlas garrison stationed there. They had suffered some losses due to some new evolved Leviathan that broke through Argus' Hard-Light Dust barriers. I stayed there for about a month, I mostly did guard duty with the occasional culling operation in the nearby woodlands to the south of the Argus, here and there."

Twenty minutes into the interrogation Willow Schnee stirred, "Ooh, my head… where I'm I?"

"After Argus," continued Weiss. "I was sent to Forte Castle to put down a-"

"Weiss! " Willow yelled out overjoyed at finding her youngest daughter alive and well. She was so ecstatic that, she failed to take notice of just how close the ceiling was to the top bed that she ended up hitting her head against its metallic surface as she tried to raise up. "Ah! Ow!"

Felix turned to the cell's second occupant. An attractive pale-skinned woman who appeared to be in her late thirties with slate-blue eyes. She wore her long white hair in a low ponytail over her left shoulder. Her attire was a white gray Atlesian officers' field uniform with a dark gray belt and black gloves and boots.

Like her daughter, Willow's gasmask and weapons had also been removed.

Again, Felix couldn't help noticing the discrepancies radiating from the older woman. She wore an officer's uniform yet did not possess the tone muscular figure that came with a lifetime of arduous physical training military officers usually undergo. The tall slender woman with a shapely hourglass figure and large breasts looked more at home striding down a catwalk than leading soldiers on the battlefield. Her skin was smooth, without blemish no scar graced her skin and too well keep.

She was also clumsily not only did she bump here head against the ceiling, but as she tried getting down from the bunk bed, she lost her footing and tripped. She would have landed on her rear had Felix not caught her in time.

He caught her by the waist and steadied her, she glanced back and slate blue eyes stared up into blue ones and she gave a sultry smile that revealed perfect pearl white teeth, "Careful, it's difficult to move while your hands are handcuffed behind your back,"

"Thank you, dear sir, "said Willow leaning into his chest, "I'm Willow, Willow Schnee. And your name sir?"

Felix already knew her name, Erasmus had read her dog tags over the comms, "Felix Jaeger. A pleasure to meet you madam. "

"I assure you the pleasure is all mine. "

"ETA in fifteen minutes," came the pilot's voice over the aircraft's loudspeakers.

An idea crossed his mind and Felix looked to the younger of the two Schnee's and said, "You asked me earlier what kingdom, I belonged to. Follow me and see for yourself." Withdrawing his hand from Willows waist, Felix turned opened the cell door, stepped out and left the door wide open.

Weiss and Willow glanced at each other, then the door, then back to them, it was after a few seconds had passed that Weiss stood up from the bed and walked out of the cell.

Willow following at her heels.

They caught up to Felix who had been waiting for them at the end of a narrow corridor, he pressed a button on a panel and a door slide opened. Reveling a wide hold with seats lined up along the edges, figures in dark suits occupied most of them. They glanced up at them as they entered.

Walking inside Felix asked, "Is the Rock within eyesight yet?"

"Aye, Watch Commander, "replied Erasmus from his seat.

"Then open the side door."

Erasmus didn't ask why; the sergeant nodded and did as he had been ordered. With the press of a button the small side door to the right of the hold slide opened and a column of air rapidly entered inside. Felix stepped towards the door and came to a stop at the edge that separated aircraft from sky. He grabbed hold of a guardrail close to the door with one hand and pointed with his other. "Look there!"

Weiss barely heard him over the howling wind, she slowly inched her way towards where he stood careful not to lose her footing and risk falling to her death. She stopped behind him and glanced out the door and her jaw instantly dropped.

Out there in the sky floated an island and for a heartbeat Weiss panicked thinking it was Atlas, before she noticed the black stone foundation. Atlas' foundation was brown not black. The island was massive, but nowhere near Atlas' size. Along the edges of the island were massive thick towering walls that seemed impregnable. Fortified towers, curtain walls, bastions and even gate towers could be seen scattered throughout the defensive wall. On top of the wall banners, bearing the herald of some unknown nation or forgotten people she did not know, flapped furiously in the wind as hundreds or maybe thousands of armed men stood guard.

"The outer wall!" Explained Felix.

They flew passed it and Weiss spotted fields of crops, some were a bright shade of yellow, orange, or green. She caught sight of rice fields there hallow furrows extended for miles. Rows of trees filled with various fruit lined one after the other creating small patches of forest. They were watered by man-made cannels built of marvel. Shaggy herds of cows, sheep, goat and lambs lazily grazed alongside other farm animals. Small communities of villages made up of cottages dotted the edges and large manor-like farmhouses were more independently spaced out among vast fields of farmland separated by dark green hedges to differentiate fields from one another.

Felix screamed again knowing the best had yet to come, "Wait for it! You don't want to miss this part!"

A second wall appeared same as the first, but instead of an island it surrounded a city of stone. Towers and manors of stunning size and craftsmanship loomed high into the sky, growing taller as they flew pass the wall and made their way into the middle of the city, it was massive and took up every square inch of space. Weiss saw massive structures fly by, large spiral towers and hundreds of smaller buildings. The streets were narrow, the alleyways even more so. In the heart of the city stood a huge black-stone castle, walled off from the rest of the city by thick black walls. The castle was taller and larger than any other structure found on the island and appeared to be their intended destination for the aircraft began to slow.

If she had to take a guess, Weiss would wager the population had to have been somewhere in the tens of thousands.

The aircraft flew inside a hanger on the castle and landed.

Felix turned to the two Schnee women he couldn't help but smirk at their dumbfounded faces," It's not Atlas, but it's home… Welcome to New Solland, but we just call it the Rock."


Before anyone asks, yes, the Plague of Grimm was inspired by the Curse of Unbelief from 40k, with a dash of inspiration from other fictions. Also, the island Weiss and Willow were taken to is called the Drifting Castle, it is a part WF lore, I didn't make it up, but I did embellish a few things.

Some things you need to know:

The Old-World faction from WF, has been in Remnant for 103 years. So, they arrived before the Great War, Felix is one of a few who has lived through the End Times, the Pre-Great War Era (referred to as the Time of Wonder) and the Post-Great War Era (referred to as the Golden Age of Remnant) which lasted until the Fall of Mantle.

Something you guys need to keep in mind here is that Valean, Atlesian, Mistralian and Vaucuan (Is this the correct way to refer to people from Vacuo?) all have different cultures and norms from one another. The Kingdoms have had very little interactions with each other for the past 26 years and that will become apart soon enough.

And don't even get me started on the faunus.

When the concept of a superbeing who controls the Grimm was introduced in RWBY, I asked myself:

Why is Remnant so peaceful? Shouldn't it be a hellhole with Grimm running around burning fields, stopping trade, killing travelers and all that dark stuff?

I mean it isn't that bad.

When you think about it. Salem clearly wasn't trying too hard to win. Until volume 8 came along.