Hunters of Justice

by trestwho

Remnant has fallen, its cities captured and its greatest defenders defeated at the hands of the alien conqueror, Brainiac. In the aftermath of his victory, the people of Remnant's last hope lies in the hands of two teams of students, whisked away to another world. A world where Gods walk among them.

63. We Fall Apart

Hunters of Justice (RWBY/DC)

Chapter 46: We Fall Apart

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December 16th, 7:30 AM (Vale Time)

Unknown Solar System

Bottled City of Vale

It seemed nearly a lifetime ago that Sun Wukong would wake up to the sunlight shining in through the window. To the sound of birds, insects, and people simply starting their day. Now, he and the rest of team SSSN were awoken by the sound of his scroll's alarm. He didn't get up at first, none of them did. It was hard to find the motivation to do so. All he wanted was to just lay back and sleep in all day. But he knew they couldn't do that, or they would just keep doing it, and so after a few moments of simply staring up at the ceiling of his team's dorm in Beacon he let out a groan and sat upright.

"Come on, guys. We gotta get up," Sun announced, hopping off his bed.

He was already wearing his casual attire, so it wasn't difficult for him to get ready. The same with the rest of his team, who all let out groans of their own before getting up as well. With bags under their eyes, Scarlet David, Sage Ayana, and Neptune Vasilias looked at him before Neptune sniffed a few times. Bringing up his arm, Neptune sniffed at his armpit before recoiling in disgust.

"Oh, Brothers!" Neptune gagged, trying to get his face away from the source of the foul body odor. "That is nasty! Ugh, it smells like something died in there."

Now that Neptune brought it up, Sun and the rest of his team briefly smelled themselves as well. They each had the exact same reaction, recoiling away and openly gagging at the stench. Scarlet even had a few tears pool up at the corner of his eyes.

"I think it's safe to say we all smell like shit, Neptune," Scarlet pointed out, shaking his body a few times in an attempt to regain his composure.

"We could all use a bath," Sage suggested, then Sun let out a sigh while rubbing the back of his blond head.

"Gotta admit, that does sound nice," Sun admitted, "but we all know we can't."

"Oh, come on. Just one bath wouldn't be so bad," Neptune pleaded, with the others looking at their leader for affirmation, but Sun sadly shook his head and gave at his partner an apologetic grimace.

"Neptune, we don't have enough water pressure to take a bath," Sun reminded him. "With the plumbing having to run at minimum capacity, everyone showering every day is a luxury we can't afford anymore, you know that. It sucks, but we're either gonna have to put up with it for a few more days until our scheduled shower time comes up, or spend a couple hours hiking all the way down to the river if we wanna wash up the old fashioned way. If we finish our training early today we'll probably have enough time to go do that after. How does that sound?"

Neptune and the others let out a mutual groan, hanging their heads while Neptune grumbled, "I really don't want to get anywhere near that huge, flowing current."

"We'll bring some buckets for you so you can stay 'safe' on the bank," Sage offered tiredly. "Guess we should be grateful that Brainiac is maintaining the whole river system for the kingdom at all."

The biggest man on team SSSN let out another groan, then straightened himself and looked right at Sun. Following his example, the others did as well, then Sun nodded at them before walking to the entrance of their room.

"Alright, let's get out there," Sun declared, putting his hand on the doorknob. Before he opened the door, though, he turned back around and held up his finger to his team and said, "But, before we do, make sure you guys put on a smile. No use moping around, got it?"

While Scarlet and Sage rolled their eyes at Sun's order, Neptune smiled slightly and nodded. The other two complied shortly after, which Sun was satisfied with. He opened the door, and all four boys started walking down Beacon's hallways towards what used to be the student cafeteria. Around them, other teams of former Huntsmen and Huntresses-in-Training were waking up, exiting their rooms and going wherever they were supposed to go. Much to Sun's dismay, the halls were far less crowded now than they were when he first arrived.

Despite his own order, Sun's smile faltered as he looked down at the ground. It had been nearly four, maybe five months since Beacon – and the rest of Remnant – fell at the hands of their captor, Brainiac. They had all fought valiantly, but it meant nothing in the end. By the time Vale was captured, about a quarter of the student body was either killed or severely wounded. Sage himself suffered a critical injury to the chest after he was shot by one of Brainiac's drones when his Aura was down. It was touch and go for a while, but he made it through, complete with an impressive scar. Others weren't so lucky.

More had died since then. Sometimes there weren't enough resources to go around, especially in the beginning before things were relatively stabilized. Other times, there were confrontations with the more violent factions controlling Vale. Bandits, Roman's thugs, or perhaps the worst of the lot, Adam Taurus' remaining White Fang. Sun always thought that the White Fang was a bunch of crazy, human-hating cultists, but Adam took it to a whole new level. Despite the fact that now, more than ever, they didn't have time to dwell on their petty differences in order to just survive this ever-present nightmare, Adam seemed determined to keep the fires of hatred alive. Ambushes, supply raids, murders, just an extreme level of violence directed mostly to humans. But he saved the worst of his treatment for other Faunus like Sun himself, whom Adam had denounced as traitors for daring to band together with humans instead of joining him and his band of fellow psychos. More than once had Sun come across one of his victims, who had their Faunus parts cruelly cut off. It made Sun's blood boil. Adam's true colors were shown after Brainiac attacked. He wasn't a fighter for the Faunus as he claimed to be, he was just a monstrous animal who needed to be put down. The only reason why he hadn't yet was because Beacon didn't have the manpower to do so, and the coward never stayed in one place for too long. But they'd get to him eventually, and Sun promised to put a bullet in his head for everything he had done.

At the very least, most of the White Fang saw reason and left when shit hit the fan, like Blake did. Sun had even met the de facto leader of those defectors few times, a chameleon Faunus girl named Ilia Amitola. She was pretty cool, even when Neptune attempted to flirt with her a few times. Scarlet had to bring him aside and tell him he was barking up the wrong tree after that. Sun had to admit, watching Neptune awkwardly apologize, then offer tips on picking up girls, was incredibly amusing. In retrospect, it was obvious that Ilia wasn't interested in guys. More than once he'd caught her staring at Velvet, Coco, Professor Goodwitch, and many of the other attractive girls who called Beacon home. Never openly, though. She didn't give near as much attention to the guys. Still, while Sun couldn't help but groan at himself for not noticing earlier, from his conversations with her he got the sense that Ilia truly pined for someone forever out of reach. He had a feeling he knew who she was talking about, and he sympathized with her.

The worst part was when people just couldn't take it anymore. Couldn't handle losing their friends, their families, their homes, everything that had happened to them. So they ended it. Each time it happened, Professor Ozpin and the rest of Beacon's leadership increased counseling sessions in an attempt to prevent any more. Their efforts had finally paid off, with the suicide rate dropping tremendously, but Sun couldn't help but wonder if that was only because the people who would've done it had already done so.

"Hey, you okay?" Neptune spoke up, breaking Sun from his thoughts. Sun shot his head over to his partner, to see he had a concerned look on his face. So did Scarlet and Sage, although they tried to mask it and were only looking at Sun from the corners of their eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," Sun replied, waving it off. He then closed his eyes and flashed a toothy grin, but Neptune wasn't convinced. He frowned at his leader for a moment, then shook his head.

"Sun, you're a terrible liar," Neptune said, straightening himself while folding his arms behind his spiky blue hair. Sun looked at Neptune as he continued, "You don't need to keep up appearances for our sake."

For a moment, Sun was silent. Then he let out a sigh and admitted, "I know, it's just… Sometimes it's hard."

Sun let out another sigh before straightening himself. Looking at Neptune, he replaced his frown with a small smile and declared, "But we're Huntsmen, so we can't let others see us down."

Before the others had a chance to respond, Sun pressed forward at a faster pace. Neptune watched him go then glanced at his teammates. Both of them seemed concerned, even though they weren't as close to Sun as Neptune was. Regardless, they knew that there wasn't much they could do about it at the moment, and at the same time they knew Sun was right. After Brainiac's victory, Huntsmen were some of the only symbols of safety people had left, so seeing any of them down threatened to harm everyone's morale.

Hurrying after their leader, team SSSN entered the mess hall. Already there were several teams eating their rations alongside plenty of civilians. They also saw Zwei, team RWBY's corgi who was left behind in Vale when they fought Brainiac, hanging around a group of students who were petting him affectionately. While normally it was team CFVY or team SSSN who looked after him when his actual owner wasn't able to, Zwei had become Beacon's unofficial emotional support animal. Sun had to admit, holding him at times was nice.

It was easy to recognize who was who. While everyone had lost a fair amount of body weight since the rationing started, the Huntsmen still maintained a healthy physique and were generally cleaner looking. Not that the civilians were impoverished or anything. Beacon wasn't like Roman's little kingdom, it's just that Huntsmen and Huntresses naturally required more to maintain themselves. Much to Sun's dismay, he recognized quite a few former students who looked much more like the civilians they were supposed to protect rather than Huntsmen, including team NDGO from Shade Academy. Like many of their fellow students, NDGO simply didn't see the point of training anymore. They were still Huntresses and went out on patrols sometimes, but they weren't putting in any effort in maintaining themselves. Already they had lost most of their muscles, and while they weren't skin and bones, it didn't look like they'd be much worth in a fight anymore.

"Hey, where's team CFVY?" Scarlet asked, looking around for their sister team as they were served their rationed stew.

"I think Velvet mentioned that they were visiting her mother and Coco's family in the residential district today," Sun answered, sitting down at a table. He looked at his stew and grimaced slightly. It didn't look particularly appetizing, and from prior experience he knew it had no flavor, but it was packed with enough nutrients to keep them going for the day until it was time for dinner. Lunch was now a luxury they couldn't afford.

Team SSSN had grown close to team CFVY ever since the Fall of Remnant. Bound by shared experiences and a friendship with teams RWBY and JNPR, they were among the most active student teams trying to keep the peace. They were also among the few who didn't stop at just maintaining themselves, and instead actively took the time to train whenever they were able. Sun could only count two other teams he personally knew who did, team FNKI from Atlas and team ABRN from Haven. Both of those teams were on the other side of the cafeteria, eating their food and chatting among themselves. Sun thought about heading over to talk to them, but decided against it as the morning patrol came in.

All of them were dirty, covered in grime and dust. With the lack of rain or wind, it simply accumulated everywhere. They had long since grown used to it, though, and so the patrol simply got into the food line and waited their turn. Among the returning group was team CRDL. Led by Cardin Winchester, Sun couldn't say he was particularly a fan of the team. In fact, he thought they were a bunch of assholes, but at the very least they were doing what they could to maintain the peace. Didn't mean they were friends by any stretch, but Sun could count on them to watch his back in a fight.

Returning to his meal, Sun took small, careful bites. He wanted to savor his food for as long as possible, despite it having no taste and little heat. It was better than nothing. He was so focused on his food that he didn't notice people approaching until he felt the table shift as they sat down. Looking up, Sun saw that it was team CRDL much to his surprise. He stared at them for a moment, then Cardin noticed and glanced up at him.

"What, it was an open table that could fit all of us. Got a problem with that?" Cardin pointedly asked, and Sun shook his head while raising his hands placatingly.

"No, no. It's fine. Just…surprised is all," Sun admitted. "Didn't think you'd want to sit with us."

"Don't get used to it," Cardin replied, then began to focus on eating.

Sun glanced at his team who looked back at him. After a moment, he shrugged and went back to eating. Clearly Cardin wasn't looking to start any trouble, so Sun didn't feel the need to speak up. Several minutes of silence passed by, broken only by the sound of food being chewed or slurped along with the clattering of silverware. Muffled voices could be heard as people at other tables talked about a variety of subjects, which Sun didn't particularly pay much attention to. None of it caught his interest anyway.

Then, out of the blue, Sage coughed into his fist, catching everyone's attention including team CRDL. With everyone looking at him, Sage diplomatically said, "Cardin, since you're here…we were planning on getting some training in before we went out on patrol. Would you care to join us?"

His offer was only met with exasperated groans from the other all-male team, and Sky whined, "We just got back from patrol man, give us a break."

"Oh, not this shit again," Cardin grumbled and shook his head. He looked back up at Sage then asked, "You're telling me you're still wasting your time doing that?"

"It's not wasting time if we're getting better," Scarlet pointed out, frowning slightly. "Sure, it's been slow, but I've made progress on my gliding."

Not convinced, Cardin pointed his spoon at the red-haired boy and replied, "Every minute you're in there training, not just working out to make sure you stay sharp but actually pushing yourself for more fancy moves, is time you're not spending out there helping to protect what's ours."

Cardin pointed at Beacon's nearest wall to illustrate his point. Frowning at his words, Sage replied, "We can't just stagnate, Cardin. If we're not getting better, we might as well be getting worse."

"Worse against what?" Cardin asked, raising his hands slightly. He then added, "We became Huntsmen to fight Grimm. Guess what? There's no Grimm anymore. Probably the only good thing that green-skinned alien bastard did for us. The only people left for us to fight are criminals, most of which barely even know how to fire a gun or swing a sword, much less how to really fight. One good swing or punch and they're down. Sure you have a few exceptions like Black, Sustrai, or Taurus and his animals who actually do know how to fight, but that's what the real Huntsmen are for. So no, we won't be joining you."

The rest of CRDL nodded their heads in agreement with their leader. Sun frowned at his choice of words, which Cardin quickly picked up on. He then scoffed and waved his hand before adding, "Oh, cool your jets, Wukong. I'm not talking about you. Or Scarlatina, if that's who you're thinking about. You and I both know those animals in the White Fang need to be put down, especially their leader."

"Didn't Adam nearly kill you and your team?" Neptune pointed out the hole in Cardin's logic, but he waved it away. "Had Professors Xiao Long and Goodwitch not shown up in time, Adam would have killed you instead of just putting you in the infirmary."

"That coward got lucky and jumped us with twelve other guys," Cardin justified. "Even then, we still took out half of them before the actual Huntsmen scared him off. Taurus is strong and I wouldn't take him one on one, I'm not stupid, but I'm not going to change that with some extra training time before the professors pin him down. It's not worth the effort."

Sun supposed he could see where Cardin was coming from, not that he agreed. If he got beaten so bad that he was hospitalized, he'd make some changes rather than pretend it was some one-off fluke. That would only ensure that he'd get his ass kicked again, and that was never fun.

The monkey Faunus then shrugged, using his prehensile golden tail to bring his cup of water his lips, then remarked, "Well, you do you man. We're going to keep training. That way, when RWBY and JNPR show back up, we'll be ready for them."

Much to Sun's surprise, Cardin growled and glared at him. Snarling, Cardin pointed his finger at his fellow leader and declared, "Okay, that…that just pisses me off."

Shooting his head back, Sun narrowed his eyes then asked, "How does me keeping up hope piss you off?"

"It's pisses me off," Cardin explained through a low growl, then pointed to everyone else, "because by saying 'RWBY and JNPR are fine and are totally getting us help,' you are setting both yourself and, more importantly, everyone else up for disappointment."

Narrowing his eyes as well, Neptune pointed out, "You heard Professor Ozpin. Brainiac himself confirmed that they got out."

"Yeah, and assuming Brainiac wasn't lying his ass off, we have no idea where they ended up," Cardin shot back. "The universe is big, Vasilias. Really, really big, and we don't even know a fraction of what's in it. For all we know, RWBY and JNPR most likely landed in the middle of space. Or on some inhospitable planet, moon, or whatever. Assuming that they did wind up somewhere where they wouldn't die immediately, we don't know who else lives there. Maybe it's a planet full of Brainiacs who'd decide to experiment on them like us. Maybe there aren't any people living there and it's just a bunch of plants and animals. Or maybe it's a planet kind of like ours, and there's no guarantee they'd be happy to let a bunch of aliens run around."

Cardin continued, hunching over to glare at them, "Even if by some Brothers-damned miracle they managed to miraculously land on a planet that they can survive on and with people living there who try to help them, and they somehow find a way back through space to wherever we're going to be, what are they going to do? You know they already fought Brainiac, and they got their asses kicked. Assuming they've trained every day since winding up wherever they landed, which is a pretty big assumption, I sincerely doubt that a kid two years younger than us, her bimbo older sister who explodes if you so much as touch her hair, a delicate princess who only got here thanks to her daddy's money, your girlfriend who can barely take a punch, freaking Jaune, a hyperactive ditz who's obsessed with pancakes, and her robot boyfriend who you're not sure is even awake half the time could save us. The only person on those teams who is actually of any real worth is Nikos. Even then, I severely doubt she'll be enough."

Everyone was glaring at each other now, with both teams frowning heavily. Clenching his fist, Sun replied, "First off, Blake isn't my girlfriend. Second of all, I know them better than you ever did, and believe me when I say that you are seriously underestimating them. Teams RWBY and JNPR were the star teams of our year for a reason, not just because of Pyrrha. How many times did they beat your team during combat class, Cardin? How much better did Jaune get by the time the Vytal Tournament started? I seem to remember him nearly beating you a few times. Do you think you beat him now? If I know my friends, I don't think you could."

Sun placed his silverware on the table, then declared, "You're right, we don't know where RWBY and JNPR ended up. They could very well be dead. But I refuse to believe that. I know that they're out there somewhere, and they're not giving up. They're fighting for us, getting stronger for us, maybe even getting allies. When the time comes, and we're reunited with them, I have every intention of standing by their side as we teach Brainiac a lesson on why he should've never messed with Remnant."

By now, Sun noticed that most of the cafeteria's discussions had ceased in favor of staring at their table silently. Some nodded along with his words, including FNKI and ABRN, but others merely frowned or shook their heads. To Sun's dismay, the latter was easily the larger of the two groups.

Not backing down, Cardin glared right back at Sun and began to whisper. It might as well have been shouting for how quiet the cafeteria was.

"It doesn't matter what you believe, Wukong. What matters is here and now," Cardin pointed out. "Right now, we're stuck in this bottle, and inside this bottle Beacon is the only bastion of law and order that's keeping people safe. I don't have time to chase fantasies or blind hopes when people are starving, are afraid that some thug or one of Adam's lunatics might attack them, or don't even have a roof over their head. Whatever happened to RWBY and JNPR isn't important. What's inside this bottle is. I suggest you remember that."

With that last statement, Cardin went back to eating, no longer interested in continuing this debate. Sun and the rest of his team glared at their fellow team, nostrils flaring. After a few moments, discussion around the cafeteria returned as everyone stopped paying attention to them. Looking down, Sun quickly finished the rest of his meal before getting up and taking it to the disposal bin. The rest of team SSSN was right behind him, and without saying a word they left the cafeteria towards the armory where their weapons were stored and maintained.

"Bunch of jackasses," Neptune complained, and Sun couldn't find it in himself to disagree.

---

Standing on top of a two-story brick building, Emerald Sustrai watched over the street below. The lack of wind or natural sunlight made everything feel stuffy and artificial, but she was all too aware of how real it was. People, both alone and with families, were huddling around steel drums with burning Dust on the inside for warmth. Mothers were trying their best to clean their children, but there was only so much they could do with old rags dampened by saliva. Most of them were heavily impoverished, eating just enough to survive but nothing more.

Emerald let out a sigh and closed her eyes before sitting down, her legs dangling over the side. She was supposed to be keeping watch for any troublemakers, but a simple glance for only a moment told her that nothing was going to happen. With all the armed guards patrolling the area or keeping lookout on watchtowers, it was clear that none of the people would do anything to draw attention to themselves. Not that they even could if they wanted to. These people simply didn't have the energy to make a ruckus. They barely had enough to go about their day.

No, it was clear to Emerald that she wasn't needed here. But, at the same time, she didn't particularly want to leave. Right now, all she wanted was to be left alone. That was why she volunteered for this post before anyone else could pick it up. She knew this was what she'd find. Keeping her eyes on the people, Emerald pulled out a small canteen filled with warm water and a loaf of bread. She took a sip followed by a small bite in silence, content to stew in her thoughts. As she watched people struggling to survive, she couldn't help but let out a sigh.

"This is…kind of sad," Emerald told herself, hanging her head before taking another bite of her bread.

"Brothers, this is boring," a man's voice suddenly rang out, cutting into her thoughts. "Can't believe you volunteered to come out here."

Recognizing it immediately, Emerald looked over her shoulder and narrowed her eyes slightly at her current partner, for lack of a better term, Mercury Black. Compared to the people under their and Roman's protection, Mercury looked far healthier. His black and grey two-tone jacket was mostly intact, with a few patches here and there that he had to have fixed. His grey hair was even maintained, if only barely and a bit longer than he would've preferred. Emerald herself was in the same boat, her outfit mostly unchanged from her time infiltrating Beacon outside of a few patch jobs she did herself on her white pants and green crop top. There was a noticeable burn scar on her abdomen from when she took an unlucky hit from a plasma bolt, but otherwise she looked good. Certainly better than most of the Huntsmen and Huntresses still hanging around Beacon.

"What do you want, Mercury?" Emerald asked, placing her food and drink to the side as she swiveled around to face him. "I thought I made it clear that I wanted to be alone right now."

"Yeah, I know," Mercury answered with a nonchalant shrug, then threw his thumb over his shoulder. "Unfortunately, looks like there was a break-in last night at one of the food stores. Roman wants us to meet up with Neo and check it out."

"Gods, I hate that asshole," Emerald spat in anger and annoyance, but got up regardless. Walking over to her partner after storing her food and drink in a small bag, she asked, "What all was taken? Was anyone hurt?"

"Don't know yet. That's what we're trying to find out," Mercury answered, then walked over to the edge of the building. He sharply tilted his head to the side in the direction they were supposed to go, and Emerald nodded back before they jumped off the building over the alleyway and landed on the roof opposite them.

Running as fast as they could and jumping from building to building, Emerald and Mercury made their way towards the food silo. Unlike Beacon, which controlled both the residential and agricultural districts, Roman's little kingdom didn't have the capability of growing its own food. While they were able to trade with Beacon for most of their needs, it wasn't always enough. Especially with how Roman ensured his enforcers, including Emerald and Mercury themselves, got most of the spoils. Everyone else had to make by with near daily scavenging runs into the city to search for supplies, which was always dangerous, or hunt rats for their meat. More than once had Emerald had the 'pleasure' of eating roasted rat on a stick, bringing her back to those dark times before she met Cinder. Each time she hoped it would be her last, but she knew that wasn't going to happen.

It didn't take long before they arrived at the silo. A number of enforcers, carrying bats, pipes, knives, or pistols were waiting for them, blocking off the area from curious onlookers. Neo was waiting for them, still looking as pristine as ever in her white and pink jacket, brown pants and corset, and white knee-high boots. Emerald didn't know if that was because her status as Roman's right-hand woman afforded her luxuries that the rest didn't have, or if she was simply using her Semblance, Overactive Imagination, to make herself look like she was perfectly fine. The diminutive girl quickly noticed them, then flashed a smirk as she rested her umbrella atop her shoulder.

"Neo," Emerald greeted, crossing her arms over her chest to let her displeasure at being pulled away known. Neopolitan merely smiled wider in response, bringing her umbrella down and placing the tip against the ground while resting her hand on her hip.

Wanting to be done with this, Emerald sighed and twirled her hand around lazily before saying, "Come on, let's get this over with."

Neo promptly adopted a serious expression before nodding. Tilting her head to the side, beckoning them to follow her, they went past the line of enforcers into the storage house itself. Once upon a time, it used to be a warehouse on the port where docked ships could unload their cargo and trucks would almost immediately carry them out. Now, with all the ships that remained either forever docked or outright destroyed in the fighting, with the most stable converted into homes, it would've laid abandoned had they not decided to use it to store food and water. Inside the warehouse itself were several crates of food along with drums of both purified river water desalinated seawater. Most of them looked fairly intact, but it didn't take long before they noticed some that were ripped into, misshapen, or even outright missing.

"Well, I think I see your problem," Mercury sarcastically called out while pointing ahead with his arm outstretched. "Someone cut a hole in your wall."

Indeed, there was a rough hole about two yards tall by two yards wide carved through the brick wall. Several bricks were laying in front of it, telling Emerald that whoever made this hole did so from the outside. The only question that remained was who did it. Her attention quickly locked to one of the bricks, and she kneeled over to pick it up for closer inspection. Immediately she noticed that it was neatly carved in half, and it didn't take long for her to put the pieces together.

"Adam Taurus," Emerald spat, throwing the brick away. She clenched her fist and growled through her teeth, then looked over to Mercury and Neo who were inspecting a pair of bodies that were covered up in blankets.

"Looks like these guys were stabbed," Mercury called out. "By a sword, from the size of their wounds. Certainly looks like Adam's handiwork."

Emerald grimaced while shaking her head, then replied, "I can't believe Cinder ever worked with that psychopath. The world's ended, and yet he keeps up his 'crusade?' We should've killed him when we had the chance."

"Adam was more useful to Cinder alive than dead, remember? Vale's White Fang would've never followed a human like her, us, or Roman. Him, though, they'd follow to the ends of Remnant. If Adam told them jumping off a cliff, or working with us, would help the Faunus, they'd do it without question. At least until his brand of crazy got too much for most of them," Mercury reminded her as he moved to inspect a dry, splattered bloodstain on the wall. "Besides, Cinder and Adam were both crazy and power-obsessed. Those kind of people tend to flock together. Probably why they got along so well. That and Adam knew Cinder would kick his ass if he tried anything."

"Cinder's nothing like Adam," Emerald denied, shooting her head towards Mercury who merely scoffed and chuckled.

"Wake up, Em," Mercury said, turning to look at her. "Cinder was a psychopathic bitch who wanted the world to burn. The only difference between her and Adam is that she doesn't have a pair of horns on her head."

Neo chimed in by moving her fingers around her eyes, pantomiming flames. Mercury immediately understood what she was saying and added, "That and Cinder's the Fall Maiden, now at least."

The Fall Maiden, Emerald remembered. One of four women around the world who were gifted vast, practically unlimited amounts of magical power. True magic, not what people could do with Dust or Semblances but something more. She hadn't believed Cinder at first when she recruited her and Mercury, but a single fight with one and Cinder's demonstrations with just half of the power was more than enough to convince her. Maidens were practically demigods, some of the most powerful beings on the planet. Getting the other half of the power from the previous Fall Maiden, a woman named Amber, was one of the main reasons why they infiltrated Beacon to begin with. They were well on their way to enacting the final stages of their plan before Brainiac attacked, which killed Amber and gave Cinder the rest of the power for her. Yet, despite having all that strength, Cinder could barely even put up a fight and was captured on the first day of the invasion. That, more than anything else, told Emerald just how powerful Brainiac truly was. If Cinder was a demigod, Brainiac was a god compared to them.

But she was getting away from the subject at hand, and so with another frown Emerald replied, "You and I both know, Mercury, that Adam never actually cared about the Faunus. If he did, he wouldn't have worked with us. No, the only person he cared about was himself."

"And Cinder didn't?" Mercury rhetorically asked, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow.

"No, she didn't," Emerald answered with a fervent nod. "Cinder actually cared about us, about me—"

"Oh, Gods!" Mercury interjected with a laugh. Smiling incredulously at her, Mercury questioned, "I would've thought that after all this time away from her you'd know better by now. Don't tell me you still believe that?"

Standing up and frowning, Emerald said, "Cinder rescued me, Mercury. Before I met her, I was nothing but a street rat. She gave me food, shelter, purpose, everything. I owe her everything."

Emerald then sighed and looked down, clenching her fist and lightly pounding it against her thigh. She muttered, "Yet now she's nothing more than Brainiac's test subject, and there wasn't a damn thing I could do to stop it. I failed her…"

There was silence at first as no one spoke, then Emerald heard Mercury's prosthetic legs tap against the concrete floor as he made his way over to her. He stopped in front of the verdette girl, looking down with a hard yet sympathetic expression on his face.

"Emerald, you need to understand that Cinder didn't care about us," Mercury declared, causing Emerald to look up at him in surprise and anger. Not giving her the chance to retort, Mercury continued, "We were tools to her, nothing more. The only reason why she 'rescued' you was because she thought your illusion Semblance was useful. The only reason why she recruited me was because I killed my old man, who she actually wanted to recruit. Face it, Emerald. Your care for her was one-sided. If you were captured by Brainiac instead of her, she wouldn't spare you a second thought."

Neo nodded fervently in agreement. Her dislike of Cinder was well known ever since they started working together. Sometimes, it seemed like only Emerald actually appreciated her, and this dismissal infuriated her even more.

"You don't know that!" Emerald retorted, but Mercury's expression hardened as he shook his head.

"Yes, I do," Mercury insisted. "I know your Semblance lets you trick people with illusions, but stop fooling yourself. Not just with Cinder, but with all of this."

Stepping back and narrowing her eyes, Emerald crossed her arms and looked at Mercury with an unimpressed expression on her face. She knew exactly what Mercury was talking about, and so she shot back, "What, so I'm not supposed to be angry about what Brainiac did to us?"

"Oh, I'm not saying that," Mercury clarified with a shake of his head. "Just give me a chance and I'll put him six-feet under. No, what I'm talking about is you trying to convince yourself that what Brainiac did was any different than what we were trying to do."

Offended, Emerald retorted, "We were trying to tear down a corrupt system that gave us nothing. Brainiac shrunk us down into bottles and blew up the planet. What we were doing was completely different."

"On different scales, maybe, and we certainly weren't trying to destroy the world, but we were still trying to destroy Vale," Mercury reminded her. "Just with Grimm instead of alien robots. Had things gone the way we planned, Vale would've fallen and millions would've died. The only real difference between what Brainiac did and what we were trying to do was that he did it first and did it better. Hell, why do you think we're working with Roman instead of staying at Beacon, Emerald? It doesn't matter that Brainiac beat us to the punch, they're not going to care."

Emerald glared at Mercury, wanting to refute everything he said. But, at the same time, she found that she couldn't. In a way, he was right. They were trying to destroy Vale before Brainiac invaded Remnant. It would've been foolish to think that such a thing would've gone down easily. Before the invasion, Emerald thought she could stomach it. Hell, she wanted it, to make those people who had everything feel for just a moment what she felt before Cinder rescued her. To have nothing, and the fear that each moment would be your last. But now that she had seen it firsthand for months, with no end in sight, it was no longer as satisfying as she would've thought.

Walking over to look at the remaining stores of food and water, Emerald thought back to the nearly starving people she had been keeping watch over. Releasing another sigh, Emerald pointed out, "I know food's tight around here, but I think we can afford to give more out to people."

Mercury scoffed while Neo rolled her eyes in exasperation. Mercury then replied, "The more we give out, the less there is for us. Trust me, Emerald. In this world, the only person you can care about is yourself. Everyone else comes second."

Emerald crossed her arms then looked back and Mercury. She then asked, "I assume the same thing goes between you and me?"

Mercury actually looked kind of uncomfortable at that, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck while trying to stay aloof as he replied, "Well yeah, dud. But y'know…I at least have more respect for you than Cinder ever did."

Emerald didn't quite believe that, but she no longer wanted to continue this conversation. In the background, Neopolitan silently gagged while pretending to throw up, clearly done with this discussion as well. Emerald sighed, then walked over to one of the broken into crates of food before pulling out a can of beans.

"Come on, we've got work to do. Before we can take inventory, we need to move these bodies out of here and secure this place. Possibly even relocate our supplies. Can't have Adam breaking back in here," Emerald said. Neo immediately began doing so, while Mercury stared at her for a moment before nodding. Without saying a word, the trio of criminals began to work, trying their best just to get through this.

---

Brainiac's Mothership

Science Labs

It was hard for Qrow to know how long he had been in this room. There wasn't a clock, nor any sun to track the days. Or a window of any kind. Brainiac didn't even bother dimming the sterile lights illuminating his cell to simulate nighttime. The only thing Qrow was confident of was that he had been Brainiac's lab rat for at least a week, probably more. It was hard to definitively say, though. Time just seemed to stretch on forever in this room.

What he was certain of was that this room was the closest approximation to Hell he had ever been in. Not in a fiery, tortuous sense but one that was even worse: simultaneously uncomfortable yet also mind-numbingly boring. Sure, he had sensors and probes sticking to him all over his body, but nothing that was outright invasive or painful. Apparently such methods were 'inefficient,' as Brainiac claimed. Half the time Qrow wasn't even forced to do anything. The other half of the time, he was subjected to a variety of different stimuli. Fluctuations in temperature, atmospheric pressure and contents. A few times he was even transported from this cell to a large obstacle course, forced to complete it while using his Semblance against a variety of threats including combat drones, environmental hazards, turrets, shifting platforms and more. Otherwise, Brainiac seemed content to stick him in a solitary cell, with only a bed, sink, and toilet to relieve himself, and just watch.

That omnipresent feeling that Qrow was never truly alone never once left his mind. In any other circumstance, that might've felt relieving. If it was the Gods or, preferably, Summer watching over him, making sure he was alright. But right now, that feeling was just oppressive as the only person watching him was Brainiac. Every moment of every day that Qrow was stuck in this cell was recorded and monitored, with absolutely no respect to privacy. In this cell, Qrow didn't feel like a human being. He felt like a lab rat, which he figured was a pretty apt description.

Overhead, one of Brainiac's lights suddenly flickered and popped, momentarily darkening the room. Knowing that the cameras or whatever Brainiac used to watch him were still running, Qrow couldn't help but let out a smirk and sarcastically say, "Looks like I popped another one. So sorry about that."

The only reply he got was the light being fixed, bringing the cell back to its previous state. Mirthlessly chuckling to himself, Qrow got off the bed and stretched out his arms and legs before letting himself fall forward to start doing push-ups. Luckily, Brainiac didn't see any point in making him change into something else, so at least he was able to keep wearing his normal attire. Not that it did anything to alleviate the smell, but he had unfortunately long-since grown used to that by now.

As he continued the simple exercise routine with sit-ups just to alleviate his boredom, Qrow's thoughts drifted back to why he was here in the first place. For as long as he knew, Qrow felt that his Semblance, Bad Luck Charm, was a curse that brought misfortune with him wherever he went. He could never quite turn it off, just mitigate or control it at best. Until he met Tai, Summer, and Ozpin, everyone he knew ostracized him for it other than Raven. But Brainiac felt Qrow's Semblance was interesting, and the fact that it was Qrow's own sister who sold him out just rubbed salt all over the wound.

Just as every moment of every day was being recorded, so were the effects of Qrow's Semblance. Each broken light, sensor malfunction, creak in the bulkhead, and more was being studied and analyzed to satiate Brainiac's twisted curiosity. For what purpose, Qrow didn't know. Part of him didn't want to know, but until Brainiac got every ounce of information he could from him there was no possibility of Qrow being released. Assuming, of course, Brainiac would let him go once he was through with him. Lots of people had been taken over the months. Twins, people with genetic mutations or interesting Semblances. So far, none had returned. Qrow didn't know if that was because Brainiac wasn't through with them yet, or if he was and had disposed of them.

Either way, Qrow doubted that he would ever see the people in Vale again. At least not anytime soon. Qrow could only see three ways he'd be getting out of here. The first, and most likely, was that Brainiac would kill him once he was done with him. He already didn't care about the loss of life, and had outright told Ozpin that once he was done studying Vale he'd 'empty' their bottle to store another city in its place. What was one more human to that? The second was that after however many years of being stuck in solitary confinement and human testing Brainiac would actually let him go. But he doubted that would happen.

The third, and the one Qrow pinned his hopes and sanity on, was that Ozpin was right. That something, he didn't know what, was coming that would give him a chance to escape. If he was lucky, maybe even reunite him with his nieces. He would do anything, give anything, just for one more moment with Ruby and Yang. To hug them and just never let them go. Even if that wasn't on the table, or even possible, Qrow used that hope to keep his spirits up.

With that in mind, Qrow focused his attention and his Semblance on several components of his cell that he had already identified. Cameras, sensors, door controls. Only slightly, as to just cause minor problems or fluctuations and always spaced well apart as to avoid a pattern. Nothing that would draw unwanted attention. He wasn't quite certain which things he would have to break to get out just yet, but he felt he was getting fairly close. Eventually he'd figure it out, that way when the time came he'd be ready to bust out of there. When that happened, Qrow already had his plan of attack.

He had been separated from Harbinger when Raven brought him aboard. It wouldn't make a lot of sense for a prisoner to be allowed easy access to a weapon. But, just as Ozpin described, Brainiac was arrogant enough to show him exactly where it was being kept as he was escorted to his cell. Not too far from where he was pacing, there was a lab containing neatly organized tables of weapons from all across Remnant. From what he could tell, Brainiac was interested in studying both the complicated mechashifting that Huntsmen weapons were notorious for, as well as trying to determine what they meant about the people who made them. Once Qrow broke the door open, he'd make a beeline right towards it and grab his weapon.

After that, he'd follow Ozpin's instructions as best as he could and find Penny, give her the data Ozpin had entrusted him with which had finally passed through his system after a few days despite trying his best to keep it down, forcing him to use his Semblance to glitch out the cameras for a moment so that he could hide it in his pocket, and ensure she got out. Not just so that hopefully all the intel Ozpin had gathered up until that point was successfully given to people who could use it to defeat Brainiac, but for the simple fact that Brainiac was trying to turn her into the Winter Maiden. Right now, all he knew about the Maidens was that they were extremely powerful users of magic, which was enough to demand study. But he didn't know what else the Maidens could unlock for him, something that if he got his hands on would make him truly unbeatable.

Each Maiden served as a living key to massive vaults, one under each Huntsman Academy. Inside those vaults were one of four Relics, given to humanity by the Brother Gods of Light and Darkness to represent the four gifts they imbued humanity with. The Relic of Choice, hidden under Beacon, the Relic of Knowledge under Haven, the Relic of Creation under Atlas, and finally the Relic of Destruction under Shade. By all accounts, so far Brainiac didn't seem to know they existed. Ozpin had made damn sure not to even provide the slightest hint of their existence, and none of the other headmasters or people privy to the conspiracy regarding their existence were keen to share that detail. Perhaps Lionheart might have, but he was killed long before he had the chance to do so.

Brainiac already had the Fall Maiden with Cinder Fall, as well as the Spring Maiden with his sister, Raven. Frankly, Qrow was surprised Raven hadn't already told him about the Relics, but perhaps not even she was willing to divulge that information. The current Summer Maiden was an easy find in Vacuo, which wouldn't make it too difficult to grab her if Brainiac wanted. Finally, the elderly Winter Maiden, Fria, was safely secured with Penny while on her deathbed, and it wasn't hard to guess what Brainiac expected to happen with that set-up. When that happened, and Penny potentially became the Winter Maiden, he would have all four. Qrow knew from the bottom of his heart that him finding out would be catastrophic, especially for Atlas as it was the Relic of Creation that was keeping it up. If Penny was forced to open the vault for him, Atlas would fall. With nowhere to run, everyone in Atlas and Mantle would perish.

Penny, perhaps even more than himself, had to be evacuated. If they could make it impossible for Brainiac to get just one of the Relics, they were infinitely safer. To that end, Qrow continued his nonchalant probing attacks, determined to find a weak spot. When he did, and the time was right, there would be no hesitation.

"So there I was," Fria regaled to an enraptured Penny, "standing in front of the entrance of the collapsed mine. I could hear the trapped miners inside screaming for help, banging their fists and tools against the rocks in a futile effort to escape. All attempts at digging them out weren't working, and in fact were threatening to cause another cave in. They were stuck."

"What did you do?" Penny asked, leaning forward while widening her eyes. Amused at the clear anticipation, Fria chuckled then brought up one of her hands.

"I used my gift," Fria answered as a ball of ice formed over the palm of her hand, her eyes sprouting small blue flames that matched the color of both her Aura and eyes. The ice was constantly in motion, growing and shrinking while simultaneously forming spikes that receded just as soon as they were made.

"Ooh," Penny cooed, her eyes sparkling at the sight. Fria's smile widened slightly, and she gently shot the ice ball into the air where it exploded just before it could hit the ceiling. The room began to lightly snow, and with a wide smile on her face Penny reached up while letting the snow fall over her.

"I became the Winter Maiden when I was young," Fria gently explained as the snow lightly covered her. "With that gift, I was granted vast magical power, far beyond anyone I knew then or since. But with that power, I was given the responsibility of using it wisely, not just for my benefit, and so despite the risk of exposing myself I used my powers to free the trapped miners safely. They were the first of many people I rescued with the powers of Winter."

"All of them?" Penny asked, but Fria sadly frowned and shook her head.

"Unfortunately, no. Many had already perished by the time I arrived. It's something I had to come to terms with over time, that even with these powers, sometimes I can't save everyone. But those I di—"

Fria stopped speaking as yet another coughing fit overtook her. Penny was by her side immediately, offering a cup of water which Fria eagerly took. Downing its contents gently, Fria gasped for breath as the coughing subsided, then gently smiled at Penny.

"Thank you, dear. It seems that after all these years of saving others, now I'm the one in need of help," Fria joked, and Penny smiled slightly before looking her up and down. Her eyes briefly shifted, and Fria knew immediately what Penny was doing.

By now, she was well aware that Penny wasn't like normal girls. An android rather than flesh and blood. That didn't mean much in Fria's eyes. Penny had a soul, and that was all the proof she needed. A good, kind soul, one that cared for her and others despite barely even knowing them. Or not even knowing them, as their many conversations showed. After all this time, Fria had come to care for Penny, just as she cared for her.

Fria coughed again, covering up her mouth with her fist. Penny shot up and rushed over to the sink, filling the cup with water. Fria watched her work, a sad frown overtaking her as Penny's back was turned. The coughing was increasingly frequent, and with greater intensity each and every time. Every day, Fria could feel more of her mind slipping away along with the remains of her strength. She was dying, kept alive for the time being by the machinery Brainiac hooked her up to. How much time she had left, she didn't know. Maybe a week, maybe a month. Perhaps even a year if she was lucky. Whenever that happened, the powers of the Winter Maiden would be transferred, much as it had when she received them.

She already knew who would receive this gift and responsibility. Despite only knowing her for a few months, Fria knew Penny was worthy of being the Winter Maiden. While logically the arbitrary criteria the magic worked under might not accept a robot like Penny as a Maiden, and it would then jump to another random girl instead, Fria believed that Penny would take on the mantle. Her own self-doubts about being 'real' that she'd confided to Fria were unfounded. She was kind, thoughtful, protective. She'd become a fine Maiden in due time, but with that came a massive burden. A burden she would have to endure, not just for herself but for everyone. And that was ignoring the entirely alien circumstances they were in.

If and when Penny became the Winter Maiden, there was no telling what cruel experiments Brainiac had in store for her. So far, he had left them alone, but Fria didn't doubt for a second that as soon as Penny succeeded her the next stage of his experiments would begin, with no one there to support the innocent girl through the ordeals as she'd supported Fria. Even worse, she would somehow have to carry out their ultimate duty of protecting the Relic of Creation from being discovered and seized by Brainiac, a foe greater than anything ever faced by previous Maidens, who already had their lives in his unfeeling hands.

With her last remaining days, Fria knew it was her responsibility to prepare Penny for this burden. Because in the end, no matter how much she cared for this sweet, curious, miracle of a child, Penny Polendina would be the last person Fria could not save. She could only pass on the lessons from her own long life, those that she could still recall at least, so that one day Penny may save herself.

---

Bridge

As he had unfortunately long since grown accustomed to, Professor Ozpin was escorted by Raven Branwen through Brainiac's ship. Not a word was spoken, leaving an oppressive air of silence hanging over them. Raven refused to show her face to Ozpin, her back turned to him and looking dead ahead as she continued to walk. Ozpin, occasionally, would glance at her with both anger and disappointment.

Refusing to let this silence continue any longer, Ozpin finally addressed the obvious, "I hope selling out your own twin brother was worth it, Raven."

Raven didn't say anything, but she did momentarily flinch before resuming her walk. Ozpin was able to read it easily enough, and he supposed that was one point in her favor. Just because she felt guilty, however, didn't take away from the fact that she did it in the first place. He wasn't the one she should be apologizing to, though, so he left it at that.

Finally, they made it to the entrance of Brainiac's bridge, where the Coluan warlord was undoubtedly waiting for him. Raven stepped aside, letting Ozpin pass her. Before he reached the door, however, Ozpin paused. He didn't look at her, but his attention was focused on his former pupil all the same.

"It's not too late for you, Raven," Ozpin proffered, staring at the dull grey door with purple lights. "Your decisions, as of late, have been…poor, ill-thought out, and self-centered. I suppose they have been for quite some time now. But there's still an opportunity for you to do what you know is right. For your sake, I hope you take it."

Raven was silent at first, then she sighed and shook her head before replying, "You seem to have an uncanny knack for seeing hope when there is none."

Ozpin shrugged, then stated, "Perhaps. But, in all my years, I've found that hope is always there, as long as you're willing to acknowledge it."

"Is that a lie you tell just to everyone else, or yourself too?"

Ozpin didn't answer her, only closing his eyes, sighing, and shaking his head. Steeling himself, he took a deep breath then moved closer to the door, where it opened automatically for him. Stepping through, the massive door closed behind him, leaving him alone with Brainiac. The Coluan had his back turned to Ozpin, dozens of cables attached to his chest, back, and head. Through the eye-like windows of the mothership's bridge, Ozpin could see yet another planet, a mostly brown world covered in large deserts with dark red seas. The deserts themselves were varied. Some were rocky, others looked to be little more than a sea of sand and dunes.

"This seems arid, like the western half of Sanus," Ozpin noted.

"It is," Brainiac confirmed, his eyes unfocused as thousands of pieces of information were downloaded directly into his mind, courtesy of his vessel's impressive sensor array. "Most of planet F1965H's landmass is desert or arid in climate, with little precipitation year round. Inhospitable, by most of your planet's standards, yet civilization has managed to rise up regardless. My sensors indicate that their people are organized into independent city-states, using bronze tools and weapons to survive. The equivalent of your world's Bronze Age, and much like yours they are currently experiencing a Bronze Age Collapse as a major river valley dries up."

Ozpin didn't say anything, instead walking up to the window and staring out of it. He could see his faint reflection looking back at him, a disappointed face boring into his own. Without looking back at his captor, Ozpin said, "I assume you will be preserving them."

"No, I will not," Brainiac answered, surprising Ozpin. As the headmaster turned around with a raised eyebrow, Brainiac clarified, "As I mentioned before, I only preserve a planet's civilizations when they are on the verge of total collapse. Not regional, or even continental, but planetary collapse with no chance of recovery. This Bronze Age Collapse is only affecting one region of the planet. On the other side of the main continent, another group of civilizations are thriving. In time, the data suggests that the affected region will recover and form new civilizations, repeating the cycle all over again."

"So…you're just going to leave them alone," Ozpin replied, a slightly hopeful tone in his voice, but Brainiac shook his head.

"For now, outside of a few specimens taken for study," Brainiac declared with his ever-present dispassionate tone. "In a few centuries, I will return to analyze their progress and make a decision on what to do with them then."

Ozpin scowled and turned away. Even when he wasn't being a genocidal monster, Brainiac still viewed everyone merely as test subjects. These people may have gotten a reprieve for now, but unless Brainiac was stopped it would only be temporary. Once again, Ozpin glanced at his cane, Long Memory, tempted to use the power stored within over the course of several lifetimes to destroy Brainiac here and now. If anything could kill him, the release of that much magical and kinetic energy all at once would be it. For a moment, Ozpin's fingers tapped against the lever on the front, the temptation growing larger and larger with each passing moment. But he stopped himself and acted as though nothing was amiss. There was no guarantee it would work, and even if it did the consequences would be too great.

Letting out a sigh, Ozpin turned around to face Brainiac just as the alien scientist disconnected himself from the cables with shrill hisses of air. His cold, emotionless purple eyes stared into Ozpin's, then he beckoned the headmaster to follow him to the already laid out table with a holographic chess set displayed.

"You have the white," Brainiac said, sitting down on the chair in front of the black pieces. Ozpin collapsed Long Memory and sat down opposite him, resting his elbows on the table and his chin atop his clenched together hands.

"I will ask the first question," Brainiac continued, staring down at him. "You have been opposed to Salem for several millennia at least. But you indicated that you knew her well before. What is your relationship with her?"

Ozpin let out a regretful sigh and closed his eyes. He thought for a moment, then opened them to stare at Brainiac. He answered, "The answer to that question is…complicated. At one time, she was the dear friend of a man named Ozma, whom he rescued from a life of isolation in her tower. In time, he came to call her lover, then wife. Even after death, Ozma loved her with all his heart, and when he returned to the land of the living he returned to her as well. She became his Queen, he her King, then she became the mother of their children. But that didn't last. Her darker nature had taken hold of her, and eventually it grew too much to bear. Now, Salem is none of the things she used to be. To me, she was only my enemy who needed to be stopped."

Brainiac stared at Ozpin for a moment, contemplating his answer. Then he nodded in satisfaction, and beckoned for him to ask his question with the tilt of his hand. Ozpin already had a question in mind, one that had been plaguing him for some time now.

"What is the current status of Remnant's remaining cities and people?" Ozpin asked. Immediately, Brainiac pulled up a holographic display and typed a few commands in, shifting the holographic chess set into a depiction of Remnant before his arrival.

"Before my preservation, Remnant's global population sat at roughly two-hundred-and-fifty million, spread across four kingdoms," Brainiac answered, and the image shifted to several bottles, each depicting a city or region of the planet that was shrunken and bottled. "Due to local resistance and corralling efforts, the total population was reduced to one-hundred-and-twenty-five million by the time the preservation was complete. The population has remained relatively stable since then, only decreasing by half a million across all bottled cities due to internal strife. Two-hundred-and-five specimens from across all kingdoms are also contained in individual cells in my science labs, selected for study on account of unique Semblances or genetic anomalies."

Ozpin felt sick to his stomach. In just two days, half of Remnant's population was murdered. It was the greatest single loss of life in Remnant's recorded history, second only to the annihilation of the first humanity by the Brother of Darkness. The worst part was that Brainiac just didn't seem to care that he had caused so many deaths. It might've even been better had he just laughed about it, or acted smug. But to him, it was just like reading from a checklist, something to note before moving on. The temptation to kill Brainiac once again rose in Ozpin's soul, but he kept himself composed.

"And the current status?" Ozpin asked, continuing from his previous question. The displayed image once again shifted, each city he had bottled appearing one by one.

"As the first city preserved, Vacuo has remained remarkably intact," Brainiac revealed as Ozpin read the population data about the current state of Vacuo. "The city's population has rallied around Headmaster Theodore as their leader, and with the help of the Summer Maiden and local Huntsmen and Huntresses it has remained relatively stable up until now. There has been, however, conflicts with a rebel group known as the Crown who have been waging an insurrection in an effort to reestablish a central monarchy. I am currently analyzing the situation with interest, but the data suggests that the Crown's efforts are doomed to failure. I plan to retrieve the most interesting and unique members of the Crown for more intensive study when the conclusion is certain."

Ozpin sighed regretfully. Clearly it wasn't just Vale that was having issues, but at least Theodore seemed to have things relatively under control. At the same time, Ozpin supposed it wasn't much of a surprise. Vacuoans, especially those who spent their entire lives in their homeland, were remarkably sturdy people. They wouldn't let something like this break them.

The hologram shifted, revealing Mistral. Text was displayed next to the image, telling Ozpin demographic information, including a constantly updating population number, as well as resource estimates. Food, water, industrial supplies, and more.

Brainiac continued, "With the loss of Headmaster Lionheart, along with the remaining civilian government, Mistral has descended into complete anarchy. Dozens of warlords fight for control over different regions of the city. The two most powerful are a gangster known to her supporters and enemies as Lil' Miss Malachite who controls most of the lower parts of the city. The other, centered around Haven Academy, is Sienna Khan, who managed to evacuate into Mistral before its preservation. Following Lionheart's death, she has attempted to step into his role. Comparatively, her White Fang treats those under their protection with more personal freedoms and accommodations, but with a decidedly Pro-Faunus approach that has driven many humans towards Lil' Miss Malachite. Currently, they are locked in a cold war, focused on consolidating resources and territory, but the likelihood of open warfare increases with each day."

Professor Ozpin studied the hologram closely, sadness gripping his heart. At the very least, he could take solace in the fact that Sienna was actually trying to do some good, unlike her protégé Adam. He wondered what she would think about what he's done. On the one hand, Sienna was the reason why the White Fang turned violent in the first place after growing frustrated with the lack of progress in Faunus Rights, particularly in Atlas and Mistral. Had Ghira Belladonna still been in charge, Adam would've never been placed in command of Vale's branch. But, at the same time, never once had Sienna succumbed to the depths that Adam gleefully dove into. Everything she did was retaliation, not retribution. He wasn't entirely certain what she would've done, but he doubted her actions would've been near as bad as Adam's were.

The hologram changed again, this time depicting the cities of Kuo Kuana followed by Argus. Brainiac explained, "As the de facto capital of Remnant's Faunus population, Kuo Kuana was able to be preserved without much difficulty. Chieftain Ghira Belladonna has fulfilled his role and ensured that the city is the most stable politically in Remnant's preservation. The lack of readily available resources, though, is taking a toll. In Argus, the Atlesian military outpost stationed there is working closely with the city's Mistralian leadership, and so far has proven capable of maintaining peace and order. There have been, however, several incidents of military misconduct, prompting civilian unrest that threatens to plunge the city into unrest that likely would have triggered a significant Grimm incursion in native conditions. These problems are only exacerbated by resource shortages."

"That seems to be a common trend," Ozpin noted, narrowing his eyes. "Perhaps if those were alleviated, things would be better."

"I am providing enough resources to ensure that none of the cities will starve," Brainiac dispassionately proclaimed. "How they use those resources is entirely up to them."

Based off Vale's own experiences, Ozpin didn't quite believe him. Then again, Vale did have perfectly intact farmland, so it's possible that Brainiac didn't see as much need to provide extra resources. Either way, it was obvious that Brainiac would not be convinced to change his stance on this.

A few more cities were shown, with Brainiac giving him a quick explanation on each. Soon, he reached Atlas and Mantle, with him immediately diving into an explanation regarding it.

"Atlas and Mantle received significant damage during preservation, second only to Vale," Brainiac revealed. "Three quarters of the remaining Atlesian fleet was destroyed before the city was successfully contained. Since that time, they have managed to reestablish a working civilian government, however prior tensions between Atlas and Mantle have only increased. The primary cause of this is resource allocation, with Atlas saving the bulk of their disaster relief and medical services for their citizens and military personnel in the immediate aftermath of the battle and bottling, and leaving little for Mantle. Enough to avoid a crisis, but not enough to meet their needs. These tensions have only grown worse as this policy, championed by Jacques Schnee and most the Atlesian upper-class, has continued with no signs of stopping. This prompted the Happy Huntresses, a local team of Huntresses based out of Mantle and led by a human woman named Robyn Hill, to organize Mantle into an embargo of its regular shipments of raw resources, which Atlas is dependent on for its infrastructure, until they are granted more equitable treatment. This has left the industries of both cities at a standstill. It remains to be seen whether the council will acquiesce to Mantle's demands, or to the pushback from Atlas' business leaders to send down the military to 'keep the peace' and 'protect their interests.' Should the situation continue to unfold the way they are going, the possibility of a civil war erupting between Atlas and Mantle rises exponentially."

Ozpin groaned and hung his head. He was naïve to think that the problems that had been plaguing Atlas and Mantle would be worked past now that the situation had changed so much for them. When he had Atlas Academy raised into the sky with the Relic of Creation, he had intended for it to be a symbol for the defeated people of Mantle to look up to after the Great War. That if they could make a city fly, they could do anything. But that symbol of hope was only turned into a symbol of the stark class divides that permeated between them. Yet another mistake he had made across several lifetimes.

With Atlas' situation explained, Brainiac shifted the holographic display back into the chess set. Ozpin made his move immediately, and the two began to play. Much to his satisfaction, Ozpin was able to do substantially better this time, especially when compared to his first few attempts. He even managed to take Brainiac's queen, but as he expected he was put into checkmate just a few moves later. Expecting this outcome, Ozpin leaned back into his chair, waiting for Brainiac's question.

Without missing a beat, Brainiac began, "To follow up from my previous questions about Salem, there has been one conundrum I have been struggling to answer. You have been fighting her for thousands of years, locked in an eternal stalemate. There are periods where she has emerged victorious, bringing Remnant civilization to the brink of extinction. Other times, you manage to push her efforts back, leading to times of peace that last for decades. During all this time, including the eight decades after the end of Remnant's Great War, never once have you actually moved to defeat her for good. You remain content with keeping up the stalemate."

Ozpin's eyes widened as Brainiac leaned in, and he asked, "My question, Professor Ozpin, is what was your plan to defeat Salem?"

He was silent at first, his heartbeat thundering in his chest. Ancient regrets bubbled up from inside him, and he wanted to just refuse to answer or even outright lie. But he knew that wouldn't work. Brainiac would be able to tell if he was completely lying to him. He could barely get away with half-truths, and if he openly broke the rules of their game there was no telling how Brainiac would react. And in the end, revealing this secret didn't really matter anymore, did it? The only consequence of it now would be shame, which was a price he was long familiar with paying. Releasing a sigh, Ozpin knew there was no way around this, and he hung his head.

"The truth is…I didn't have one. Not really," Ozpin revealed, surprising Brainiac.

"You mean to say that you never once devised a strategy to defeat her once and for all?" Brainiac questioned, and Ozpin nodded before looking back up at him.

"Correct. I determined lifetimes ago that actually defeating Salem was impossible," Ozpin explained, a sad frown on his face. "She is completely immortal. You could reduce her to dust and she would get right back up, none the worse for wear. While she was never as good with magic as I was, she was still quite proficient with its use. Ever since I gave away most of my power to create the Maidens, she became the single most powerful individual on Remnant. It didn't matter if you could beat her in a single fight, or even many. Salem had all the time in the world to ensure that she'd eventually emerge victorious."

He released another sigh, then continued, "When I realized that, I settled for the only thing I could do. I shifted from trying to defeat Salem to simply holding her back, keeping up a stalemate and allowing humanity to grow, prosper, and fortify while trying my best to bring humanity closer together. To move past our petty squabbles and become one people, united by our differences instead of divided by them. My hope was that, by doing so, humanity would become too powerful for even Salem and her hordes of Grimm to overcome."

Brainiac was silent at first, his face flat and passive. He then said, "That was illogical. From a practical standpoint, an immortal being like Salem would become too experienced in finding cracks in whatever system you had devised to hold her back. She had already done so by the time I arrived. One good push by her forces is all it would've taken for all of Remnant's civilizations to collapse. It's why I preserved them. Even if you couldn't defeat her in open battle, surely a strategy of containment would've been sufficient."

He paused for a moment, then Brainiac added, "As I understand, your technology level didn't allow for simple solutions such as throwing her into space or another dimension altogether, such as the Phantom Zone. But there were other options available to you. You could have captured her, thrown her into a cage and anchored it to the bottom of the ocean. You could've used the world's military forces to contain her to an isolated region of the world, keeping a constant watch over her and preventing anything from getting out."

Ozpin frowned, then replied, "At one point, I did consider doing just that. But it wasn't obtainable. For you, maybe. You came at Salem from a position of absolute strength, capable of doing things that she had no effective way of countering. For us, though, she could. She was too well entrenched, uncountable hordes of Grimm separating her from us, and she had become a master of both understanding and manipulating us. Were we to attempt an assault to contain her, humanity would suffer tremendous losses that we couldn't afford. Even then, her magic and immortality would make any available containment strategies temporary at best. If we somehow manage to restrain her long enough to entomb her into the ocean, she'll wear down her bindings no matter how many years it might take, struggle her way up from the depths, and reemerge to plague the world. If we try containing her with pure military force, she'd send wave after wave of every Grimm at her disposal, backed by her own personal power. Eventually, a gap would form. Someone might lose focus, another might run out of supplies. There might even be a breakdown in defenses. Nothing lasts forever except for her, and eventually Salem would find that weakness and exploit it in order to escape. Even if we could throw her into space, she'd just use her magic to come back."

The concept of trapping her in another dimension was certainly a possibility, but that ran into the other issues of simply getting her to enter one in the first place. He wasn't going to divulge that information, though. Doing so might provide a clue about the existence of the Relics, which Ozpin had no intention of sharing.

He continued, "I did hope that, perhaps one day, a solution that I hadn't considered would present itself. But that never happened. The game I was forced to play was stacked in Salem's favor from the start, and this was the best I was able to do."

Brainiac was silent as he contemplated Ozpin's answer. After a moment, he replied, "I suppose, from your perspective and situation, your actions were logical. But was telling your followers otherwise wise?"

"I don't see how that's related to the first question," Ozpin pointed out.

"Consider it my first question for the next game," Brainiac clarified, and Ozpin sighed.

"I have been around for so many lifetimes that I have long since lost count. During that time, I have met, befriended, and loved many people. I have trusted many with my life, but just as many times I have been betrayed by those I trusted," Ozpin revealed. "For most, when they discovered the truth about Salem and how she couldn't be beaten, they simply gave up, abandoning or even blaming me for how bad things were. Others outright turned against me, joining Salem in an effort to be on the one side that had a chance of actual victory rather than the stalemate I fought for. Only a handful of times have I found people who continued to fight despite knowing the truth, not enough to make the risk worth it. It was better, for me and everyone else, to let them believe that there was a chance to defeat Salem rather than none."

"Hmm," Brainiac hummed, then beckoned for Ozpin to ask his next question.

He pondered for a moment, then asked, "Were you ever prevented from preserving a planet?"

"Yes," Brainiac answered. "I have been prevented from fully preserving thirty-two planets since I began my work. The most recent occurrence happened sixty-three of your years ago. I was attempting to preserve planet A1938C, which the natives called Krypton. Their highly advanced yet uniform society had grown stagnant, and exploitation of the planet's uranium core left it on the brink of implosion. I attempted to preserve them, but the planet's military forces, aided by members of the Green Lantern Corp, forced me to turn back when my losses grew too high."

Ozpin couldn't help but smile at that news, confirmation that he could be beaten, but it went away as Brainiac continued, "But that was only temporary. Twenty years later, Krypton's unstable core proved unable to be restored, not that the planetary government attempted to repair the damage or even acknowledge it existed. This was in spite of the fact that their chief scientist had apparently uncovered the reason for my attempted preservation in the years that followed. Krypton's isolationist government ignored his warnings, and prevented him from reaching out to other polities, including the Lanterns, for aid. Following a desperate coup attempt by the head of the Kryptonian military during the planet's final days, their defenses were greatly weakened. This allowed me the opportunity to return and preserve the city of Kandor, their cultural, economic, and political capital. The strain proved too much for the core to handle, and the planet subsequently exploded. Their extraplanetary colonies then withered and died, taking the last of the Kryptonians with them."

Ozpin furrowed his brow, then he said, "So, even after they beat you, you came back and killed them anyway."

"I did not kill them, nor did I destroy their planet," Brainiac dispassionately declared. "Krypton's destruction was entirely their fault, not mine. All I did was ensure that their capital survived."

While Ozpin supposed the root cause of the disaster was the fault of the Kryptonians themselves, it didn't refute the fact that he struck the final blow anyway. He also couldn't help but notice that Brainiac didn't talk about preserving those colonies. Since apparently Krypton's culture was so uniform, he probably didn't see the need. If he was truly focused on preserving a species, he would've attempted to save them but he didn't. That, more than anything, belied Brainiac's claims.

Releasing another sigh, the two began to play again. In the background, Ozpin saw Brainiac's mothership depart from the planet they were orbiting, disappearing into the black void of space. Where they were going, Ozpin didn't know, but he could only hope that wherever they arrived might be protected by these Green Lanterns as well.

[~][~]

Hello, everyone! Here's the latest chapter of Hunters of Justice! Special thanks to NaanContributor and Jesse K for their help in bringing this chapter to life.

An entire chapter set in the Bottled City of Vale. We originally intended to show this last chapter, but as you can tell it got a bit too long in the planning stages. So we shuffled it off to here, it's own separate chapter. I felt this was the best option for everyone, especially the story.

Now, I can confirm that I saw The Suicide Squad this past weekend. It was awesome. How it'll impact this story, though, is still in the planning stages. Also, just to remind everyone, I do not write every single omake. Last chapter, the only thing I actually wrote was the Jaune Batcomputer File. Everything else was written by fans, marked accordingly, over on Spacebattles. Moving on, the next Batcomputer File is Blake's. We'll be getting to that when it is most appropriate.

Regarding a potential Injustice Elseworlds, that's certainly something we're looking at. But that's something that's a ways away, given how 'big' it is. It would be perfectly valid to do either an arc based on it or an Elseworlds. Leaning more towards the latter, obviously, but it's still a possibility. Assuming we do it at all. It all depends on what's both available at the time as well as what the story needs. Regardless, do remember that we do not do requests for Elseworlds, characters, or arcs in the story.

Please let us know what you all think of the chapter. Also, if anyone has a TV Tropes account, we could greatly appreciate any help in maintaining the page. See you all next time!