Six months after they had joined Atlas, as she awakened in the morning, Griza received a message stating that she had a "special assignment" and was to report at the launching ground.
James wasn't in the dorm at the moment, having left for a field trip in Atlas's mountains. So she wrote a note to explain the situation and then left.
A few minutes later, she was standing in front of the launching ground, just in time for a small airship to land.
Out of the airship came a lone woman, she seemed old, and yet she moved and acted as if she was in her prime, she had a broadsword on her back and she was in civilian clothing. The woman stopped in front of Griza, took out a small piece of paper and said:
"Due to your academic results, combat abilities, and psychological evaluation, you have been chosen to start your training as an operative. I myself am an accomplished operative and you will follow me during my duties to learn all the tenants of the profession." She said while showing her a small badge with symbols she didn't recognize.
"Do you have any questions ?"
"What the hell is an operative ?"
"That's a tricky question, you see operatives are a great many things, from special forces to bodyguards, explorers, information gatherers... We answer only to the General, and can apply law in his name when needed."
"And you may call me Spectre 6, or Six for short, you will eventually also get your own codename, in the meantime Griza will have to do."
The two got in the airship, and as they were descending into mantle, Six briefed her about their current mission.
"We will start with something simple and easy, a few days ago we received informations about a criminal organization operating near the eastern border of mantle, our job is to investigate it and then, if possible, destroy it."
They then landed inside of mantle, Six led her inside of a ground vehicle, and only a few minutes later they leaved it to continue on foot.
"We first need to link up with our contact, then we will be able to evaluate the threat they pose and act accordingly."
As they slithered through the outskirts of the city, Griza noticed that most of the people living here were faunus, but also that they seemed to purposefully avoid them.
She saw some turn around upon seeing them, others lowering their eyes when walking past them, and she even saw a few taking refuge inside of their home and closing their window's curtains.
Six suddenly came to a stop, and Griza bumped into her, ignoring this and without turning around, Six ordered "Ready your weapon, something isn't right."
She took a glimpse at the shop in front of them, through the glass she could see a dark room with a few old things held on display, the ground was starting to accumulate dust and no one was in sight.
To Griza it seemed like a relatively normal antique shop, but still she held her pistol high as they entered. While she wasn't looking, Six had used some fire dust to create a small flame in her hands. And now that the room was bright she could see that some debris laid on the ground, wich probably wasn't normal.
Not that far away you could see scratches on the counter, and then on the ground. Six signaled her to follow her as she got through the service door. Behind the shop was a storage room, with wooden crates stacked on each other.
Six approached a box, took out a knife, and forced it open. As Griza watched from afar she could see Six lower a hand into the box, to seemingly scratch its bottom.
She then raised her hand and put it under the flame's light, before whispering just loud enough for Griza to hear: "Drugs..."
"It seems our contact wasn't as clean as he wanted us to believe, but anyway we still have to find him, or more likely, what happened to him."
They continued to check the crates, and eventually they found one that seemed full. As Six opened it, Griza held back a scream, for in the crate they had found their contact, or more what was left of him.
The body was unrecognizable, it had been mangled until only the torso and the head remained, the other parts laying all over the crate. She couldn't even see if it was a man or a woman Its hair had been visibly ripped off the head, the latter bathing in a puddle of blood, and the lips were missing. The eyes were floating in the blood, the ears and the nose had been cut off and the head was almost perfectly round.
The detached parts hadn't been spared, as the arms were missing their fingers and when Six found them in the bloody bottom, she noticed that the nails too were missing. The same had happened to the legs, with the difference that their skin had also been cut off.
The corpse's crotch was missing and its stomach had been opened, as Six was examining it, what was left literally fell into pieces, dissolving into an even bigger mess.
Griza was absolutely horrified, she wanted to puke, her hands were trembling and the stench was making her head spin. She felt vomit come into her mouth, but restrained herself, and after a few moments, swallowed it back in her stomach.
Who could have done such a thing ? How could they have done it ? Why had they done it ? How could they justify such a thing ?
Six let out a heavy sigh, before turning around to face her.
"Until this corpse gets examined by a specialist, we can only suppose that this was our contact. The only trail we have left is to hope that the ones who did this left some traces allowing us to track them."
They thus began searching the building, looking for anything even remotely suspicious, but after two hours they still had no clues.
"So let's recap, I dismantled all the things this... person... exposed and found nothing. While I did this you were going through all the drawers in the counter."
"Yes, but there wasn't anything suspicious just a bunch of paperwork tracking his sales."
"WHAT ?! And you didn't thought it could be important ? He literally wrote down all his businesses and you didn't notify me about it ?"
"Well he wasn't going to write down all his illegal business." Replied Griza.
"That's were you're wrong, he needed a cover for it, and what better cover for shady transactions than a shop. They probably won't be called drugs but it should be pretty easy to find them, after all this is an antique shop, there shouldn't be many similar sales."
Thus they began to rummage through all the paperwork, after a while they had sorted out all the ones that requested a crate. Out of those, half were described as different types of ancient weapons, and even more suspiciously they were all sold to the same person, a certain Mister Pourpre.
They then continued searching, this time looking for the man's personal informations, which they finally found in a dusty folder containing all the shopkeeper's contacts, now they had an address.
Griza and Six then headed to the man's location, and after some walking they finally got in front of what looked like an abandoned warehouse.
"Ready your weapon, they should have aura so don't hold back, but don't start firing first, it may not be necessary." Instructed Six.
They first got around the building, behind which they found a backdoor, after entering the building they noticed a light source coming from deeper inside the building.
Cautiously, they advanced, and when they reached a corner, Six stopped and took a look over it.
A dozen people were either loading crates into a truck or were guarding it. It seemed like Six had just found a gold mine, and she really intended to make the most out of it.
Six took a pebble, and threw it on the ground just loud enough for the guards to hear it. As one of them headed in their direction to check on sound, they retreated behind another corner and waited for the man to arrive.
As soon as the man's head peaked over the corner, Six seized it, put a hand over his mouth, knocked him out, and dragged him further away.
After somewhat hiding the body, Six left a fire dust bomb in the corridor between the two corners, and they rushed out of the building. Only for Six to lead her through the front door, from where they saw three guards heading at the place they where before, to check on their colleague.
As soon as they entered the corridor, a small explosion came into being, but the guard's auras probably absorbed it. Before anyone understood what was happening, Six and Griza jumped out of their cover and started gunning down the remaining guards.
They fell one by one and after under a minute, none remained standing. It's then that she finally noticed it, blood, there was blood everywhere, they didn't have aura, none of them, they were all dead or dying.
Just when she was going to have a panic attack, the shopkeeper's corpse flashed through her mind. Those people were sick, she wouldn't go as far as to say that they deserved to die, but at least their deaths were relatively fast.
"You said that they would have auras !"
"I said should, not would." Six calmly replied.
"Some of them may still be alive, we must at least try to save them."
"The nearest hospital is too far away, they won't make it. I'm gonna contact the HQ, they're gonna deal with this, our job ends here." Six stated as matter of fact.
Six started to leave, and after a few moments, Griza reluctantly followed. But in front of the warehouse, someone was waiting for them, a relatively small cat faunus, armed with two small swords.
"You killed them... Those people were my family... And you killed them... You... monster..."
They barely had time to register this information before the faunus leaped at them. Six jumped back and seized her own sword, while Griza took her whip, the enemy used this time to throw a grenade at Six, blowing her into the building.
With her whip in its rapier form, Griza tried to impale her adversary, to which he responded by blocking her rapier by crossing his swords, then pushing them forward, putting Griza's weapon at an almost vertical angle.
While she was unable to parry or evade, he kicked her in the guts, throwing her a few feets back. He then tried to stab her at the same place, she barely managed to evade this blow, the sword scratching her torso and cutting through her uniform.
But while she was dodging, the faunus had used his other sword to aim for her head, the blow hit and Griza fell on the ground, a third of her aura gone.
Just as he was going to strike again, Six came back, and with her greatsword, launched a huge vertical blow, which their enemy managed to evade.
Six tried to it him again in a similar way, but the faunus just kept dodging, he even managed to land a few small hits on her. But after a few more useless tries, Six stopped attacking and pushed a button on her sword.
In less than one second, her sword's blade separated in two, and with one of them did a half circle rotation around the handle, fixing itself under it. In less than one second, Six had come from holding a greatsword, to holding a double bladed sword.
With a newfound agility, Six resumed her offensive, a flurry of blow assaulting their enemy, he managed to evade some and parry others but many more managed to hit him, he was slowly being pushed back.
As a last blow touched him, his aura finally broke and as it broke, the blade continued on its way, severing the faunus's left hand. He slowly raised his arm, looked at what left of his hand, and started screaming.
As soon as they heard the scream, Griza and Six were paralysed, and forced to watch helplessly as their enemy fled without looking back.
After a few minutes, they were able to move again, and after stumbling around confusedly for a few moments, Six took the severed hand and the sword it had held, put the hand in a small bag, and ordered Griza to carry both.
They then headed back to Atlas, using the same vehicle than before, and then using Six's airship, once they landed, Six opened its door before saying one last word to Griza.
"I think I can leave you here, I will come back in a few days, I have something to finish. When I come to pick you up, we'll go on a longer mission, so pack everything you may need."
Griza didn't knew it, but today she had passed the test that would define the next decade of her life.