"You left them behind?!" Ruby screamed angrily as she kept her face millimeters away from Dee's. Dudley was holding back an equally furious Yang next to them, with tears streaming down her face. "How could you?!"

"I didn't want to, but he told me to do it, dammit!" Dee yelled back, clearly agitated with this distraught girl trying to tear into him. "And the whole train was going to be destroyed if we didn't!"

"You just cut the car with him on it! We just needed a few more seconds!" Ruby cried as she shook - or tried to shake the much taller and heavier Dee.

"The thing was gonna keep moving up! If I didn't do it, we'd all be dead!" Dee yelled back as he pushed Ruby off of him. Yang growled as Ruby stumbled back, breaking free from Dudley only to be stopped by Qrow.

"Everyone, calm down right now," Qrow said, quickly pulling Ruby to her feet as he glared at Dee. "Push my niece like that again and you'll regret it."

"Tell her to back off and quit badgering me," Dee said, brushing off his clothes. "We get enough shit dealing with Grimm."

Qrow huffed annoyingly before he turned to face Yang and Ruby, an exasperated look on his face. "He has a point. The thing would've kept moving up the train. We need to put the passengers ahead of ourselves," he scolded. "We can go out and look for him when we get to Argus. But right now we can't afford to slow down, not with the Grimm around us."

Yang growled before shoving Dudley off of her and storming out of the train car at once, Ruby following while calling out to her. Qrow sighed as he looked out the window to the environment rushing past. "Man, I need a drink."

"You're telling me," Dudley sighed tiredly as he rubbed his sore arm from Yang's angry grip.

Yang reached their room before yelling in anger, raising a fist to punch the wall before she clenched her eyes shut and lowered her shaking arm. "We left him behind. Again!" Yang cried as she sat down on the nearest bed, burying her face in her hands. "Why did this have to happen?"

"It's not your fault. You heard what Oscar said. And you were there too," Blake said, lying on the bed. "He chose to stay back there." Sighing, she looked out the window. "Still, I'm gonna scold him like there's no tomorrow when we see him again."

"You mean if we see him again," Yang whispered angrily. Blake didn't say anything back for a while.

Ruby entered the room. "We'll see him again! Emerald went back for him, she'll keep him safe until they get to Argus. And like Qrow said, maybe we can go look for him when we get there! There's no way he'll die so easily," she attempted to comfort the both of them. But even she had a hard time believing her own words.

"Maybe," Blake said softly as she rolled over in bed. "Weiss is trying to get the train to stop, but we all know there's no going back. Not right now, at least. We'll arrive at Argus in a few hours. I'm sure Markus and Emerald can hold out until then."

Yang looked up to see a guilt ridden Ruby walk over and sit next to her, leaning on her older sister for comfort. Yang hugged Ruby tightly as she looked back out the window, the blizzard still going on, but slowly dying out as they reached slightly warmer territory. "They'll be fine," Ruby whispered. "They have to be."

"They are," Yang said as Ruby buried her face into the crook of her neck, Yang stroking Ruby's hair as she hugged her softly. "They're tougher than that."

In the other room, Liya was looking out the room with Oscar. "Think they'll be alright?" Oscar asked quietly. It was no secret he was one of the most worried out of all of them, especially with everything Markus had done for him.

"Yeah, they'll be fine. My partner is tough as nails, and Emerald's no slouch either," Liya said, smiling behind her mask as she ruffled Oscar's hair playfully. Oscar smiled back a little, reassured by Liya's words.

Oscar's smile didn't go away when Ozpin momentarily took control. "Markus may have started off poorly in Beacon, but he's come a long way since then. I have complete and utter faith in his ability to survive," he said. Liya chuckled as Ozpin retreated once again, with Oscar's smile wavered. "I'll never get used to him doing that," he said.

Nonetheless, they wouldn't stop worrying until they reached Argus.

- almost 520 kilometers away from Argus, over one hour later -

Emerald and I gasped as we stumbled into a nearby cave, the freezing temperature having taken away most of our aura. Emerald had woken me up minutes after we crashed, which wasn't too hard seeing as my aura cushioned the impact. We managed to get moving as the snowfall began to diminish the rest of our aura a little bit at a time. Before long, we were dangerously low.

The train cars that were derailed were already half buried in snow from how rough the blizzard was. The wind was howling violently, blowing snow into my eyes and ears, and making navigation difficult. We ended up hitting trees and rocks in our desperate attempt to find shelter before our auras ran out from the harsh weather. After almost an hour of walking, we found a location closed off from the snow for us to warm up in, the cave we'd just entered providing enough of a safe haven that our auras stopped being whittled away.

It was dark, damp, and still very cold. Despite that however, it was much warmer than outside. Shivering, the two of us scooted against the wall and continued to hug each other to fight off the cold.

"Man, having an actual shirt must sound nice right about now, huh?" I asked, shuddering all the while. We were both covered head to toe in snow. Emerald still had the same outfit as before, with her midriff and back exposed to the elements, even with that bomber jacket added to her wardrobe.

"S-s-s-s-shut u-up. I like t-this outfit," Emerald hissed, her teeth chattering all the while. She was covered in snow all over, and she began smacking it off of her in a hurry. "We need a f-fire."

I looked at my bandolier and saw that I barely had any fire Dust left. "I'm almost out. We need a c-campfire or a torch at the very l-least," I whispered. "I'll try and chop down a tree or something..."

Emerald sighed as she looked out of the cave, quickly brushing off the rest of the snow on her. "I'm not g-g-going out there. Can you do that aura a-amp thing that Jaune does?" she asked. "And use it on both of us?"

I blinked. "I...think I can," I said. "Only for a little bit. I don't wanna boost my own aura only to waste it later. And I need to grab wood so we can start a fire-"

"Just f-for a m-minute," Emerald pleaded. "I feel like I-I'm dying here. I think my aura's almost out too."

"Uhh, a-alright," I said, activating my semblance and focusing it on aura amplification. As I began to boost Emerald's aura, I felt her stop shivering almost instantaneously. She let out a sigh of warm relief, and she snuggled against me even closer, her frantic and short breathing slowly calming down.

After around a minute, I quickly stopped boosting Emerald's aura and boosted mine, bringing it up from the brink of depletion to 100% before I stopped my semblance. "It should last us maybe a few more hours. Then I'll boost it again."

"Well...what else can we do?" Emerald asked. I began to think, before remembering there being another semblance that can superheat anything by touch.

"Well, I think I can start a fire. I need wood," I said as I looked back out the mouth of the dark cave. Pulling out my neural Dust, I formed a tendril that reached out towards a particularly thin tree nearby.

Pulling it down was harder than I thought, as I was feeling very tired. Eventually, I managed to uproot it and pull off several thin branches into a pile. Once it was big enough, I activated Cinder's semblance, Scorching Caress, and ignited the pile of firewood into flames large enough to light up the entire cave, which wasn't very big. It probably only had a few dozen meters of area. We were relatively close enough to the entrance that the smoke billowed out without much difficulty, reducing the chances of smoke inhalation.

Emerald sighed and leaned away from me, leaning closer to the much hotter and more comforting fire instead. "Thanks," she whispered as she took off her soaked jacket. As she lay the jacket down, I got a clear look of what was underneath. Her midriff, shoulders, arms, and exposed collar was soaked from the melted snow, which only made her green crop top extra clingy and outline her brea-

I looked away awkwardly and peered down at my own jacket. It was rather thick and tough, meaning that my clothes underneath weren't likely to get soaked. Still, it was wet. Brushing some snow that hadn't completely melted off my head and shoulders, I reached back and pulled off my backpack suitcase - which I hadn't taken off ever since the fight on the train started. Opening it, I began emptying it.

Inside was a sleeping bag, a bunch of food containers from the buffet we'd eaten at before leaving, Wilt and Blush, and a miniature Dust lantern. I was really regretting not buying a first aid kit or matches. "We have food," I said as I opened the containers. The food was all cold and a mess, but that probably meant it was refrigerated in the freezing weather. However, the sandwich was all over the container. "We probably need to ration it."

"What do you have?" Emerald asked as she huddled by the fire. Despite her hair being wet, she looked relatively fine.

"Six sandwiches and eight steaks," I said as I looked through what I'd packed. "I'll cut the steaks later. And we can probably melt snow for water. Should we get going or stay here for now?"

"S-stay here," Emerald said, yawning. "I'm too pooped to do anything else. Maybe it'll be warmer tomorrow." I packed up the food for later as Emerald turned to face me and eye the containers. "Wait," she said, spotting Adam's weapon leaning on the wall next to me. "Is that Adam's sword? How the fuck-"

"Roman," I said as I unrolled the sleeping bag and laid it out next to the fire. "Smuggled it in my bag before we got back. Figured I could do good with an actual weapon. Plus Adam gave it to me before he died. In a sense. Threw the sword right through my hand and shot me point blank with the gun"

Emerald let out a dry chuckle. "Geez, how nice of him," she said before sighing quietly, her breath visibly coming out before being dissipated by the heat of the fire. "I'm guessing this didn't happen the last time around?"

"Getting stranded in the middle of nowhere after fighting one big angry Grimm bug? Yes and no," I said as I removed my single glove, which still had a hole in it, alongside my metal hand. "Everybody had to fight a giant Sphinx with those Manticores instead the last time, and they ended up stranded near an abandoned farm. That only happened after they went through the tunnel though, so we're out of luck getting there," I continued as I checked my arm for any extra damage, especially the hole in my hand in case the snow messed with anything inside. "We're much farther away so it may take us several days."

When it was clear Emerald wasn't going to respond I carried on with talking. "I've never gone camping either, more of a suburbs kind of guy...so I'm gonna guess you have some experience in camping or something," I said awkwardly.

"I've done my fair share of sleeping in the wilderness," Emerald commented. "Before Cinder picked me up. I didn't always live in back alleys and homeless shelters."

"Well, I'll be counting on you to know what to do," I said. "You wanna go to sleep first?"

"Nah, not right now. The earlier we sleep the harder it'll be to stay awake in sundown," Emerald said. "If we fall asleep at night, when it gets really cold, we'll probably die if no one's awake to keep the fire going."

"So sleep shifts?" I asked. "One of us rests up while the other watches the fire?"

"Yep," Emerald said before looking back at me. "Glad to see you kept your common sense instead of losing it when it seems like all hope is lost."

"Well, you can't really lose hope. Hope is something you have to believe in all the time," I said as I leaned back. "Hope is like the sun. If you only believe in it when you see it, you'll never make it through the night."

Emerald's expression grew surprised. "That...sounds very poetic," she commented.

"Yep. It's one of my favorite quotes," I said. "Back where I'm from, anyway."

"Trademark it," Emerald said, and I barked out in short laughter. Emerald giggled before the two of us fell silent for a few minutes, the only sounds heard being the roaring fire in the cave and the howling wind outside.

"Hey, Em," I muttered. "About that night. After you spooned me to sleep-" I received her still wet jacket thrown to the face, and I laughed for a second. "Seriously. Thanks. It was kinda tiring feeling alone all the time."

"Well, you don't have to. Believe me, I spent most of my life being alone. Even when I was with Cinder. No one to really treat me like you did...normally. Mercury, to some degree. But he was always being a jackass," Emerald said. "But you...you cared. Still care, I mean."

"Duh," I said. "No one should go through the stuff you did. Plus, I wasn't aware you were good with affection."

"Well, you hugged me when I tackled you on Ironwood's ship," Emerald said. "That pretty much told me you'd be a soft boy." I snorted in response to that. "Seriously, I thought you'd beat me up or something when I lost it."

"You were lashing out, no one blames you," I said, scooting closer to Emerald by the fire. "Plus, look how far we've come. We're teammates."

Emerald looked down. "Yeah," she said. "Look, umm...I really appreciate all this. Not leaving me to rot and showing me the truth about Cinder."

"Speaking of which," I chimed in. "Are you alright?"

"...I'm fine," Emerald said. "I've had time to accept it." She chuckled dryly. "You never heard what Cinder said when we saw her again at Haven, did you?"

"No. What happened?" she asked.

"She acted like I wasn't a threat or even worthy of her attention. It was less than a minute before the rest of the fighting broke out. When Raven's bandits began attacking again, everything turned into chaos. But Hazel..." she said, falling into silence.

I was surprised when she brought Hazel up, and she smiled. "Hazel just nodded at me. Like he was proud. Even though I was a traitor," she whispered. "I don't think anyone's ever been really proud of me."

"Hazel cared," I said as I leaned on Emerald's shoulder. "Last time around...he died saving you from Salem. He learns the truth and saves most of our friends."

Emerald's smile turned sad. "Somehow, I don't doubt he'd do that. He never wanted power or riches or even a good life."

"Yeah. He only wanted closure for his sister's death. A broken man lost in grief," I said. "Just like Salem."

Emerald fell silent. "What about Mercury?" she asked.

"He cares too," I said as Emerald began rubbing my head, mostly out of boredom. "He tries to convince you that Cinder never cared. Talked about his experience with abusive relationships. I think he saw all the signs that you were technically in one."

Emerald stroked the tuft of my ears."Heh," she mumbled. "Only he can make caring sound like being a jerk." She yawned again. "What time is it?"

"We left after lunch. And I took a nap on the train. It's probably late in the afternoon already," I said as I got up and stretched my legs and arms before making my way to the entrance of the cave. As I peered out, I saw that it was getting dark, and the snowfall had lightened up, as well as the wind. It was still freezing like the North Pole out there, but at least it wasn't annoyingly loud.

I cut down a few trees and chopped them up into medium sized pieces of bark with my neural Dust before heading inside. All in all, I'd say the wood would last us well into the next day. "Well, you should probably get to sleep," I said. "It's pretty much nighttime. We can eat in the morning and go back to walking."

"Yeah...sounds good," Emerald whispered. Turning, I saw she'd already pulled herself into the sleeping bag up to her shoulders. "Thanks...for everything..."

And so she slept, curled up a meter away from the fire. Her jacket lay drying up as well, and I smiled. Emerald really was cute when sleeping, especially wrapped up in that sleeping bag like a blanket burrito - even if it wasn't a blanket.

I looked away for a moment to ponder. Emerald definitely was attractive, but did I really want to get into another relationship so soon? I'd just broken up with Yang-

Alright, I'd say Yang broke up with me several months ago - or three volumes ago - but still, with everything going on with Haven being decimated, the relic and helping out the others, I couldn't dwell on it.

I sat down near the entrance, staying inside the cave. I wasn't sure if Emerald even liked me back. And as awkward as it was to admit it, I was still harboring some degree of feelings for Yang, not entirely romantic, but still something that would get in the way if I were to start dating someone else. To be honest, dating really was such a mess.

Even if Yang and I barely fought before that fateful day. The two of us were inseparable, like an old sappy badass married couple. She stuck up for me on our first date, and we helped each other through thick and thin, awkwardness, and drama-

No, I couldn't keep thinking about that. Whatever Yang and I had was incredibly fun, something to look back on with fondness, but it wasn't happening now. Yang's romantic status with me was through, and it was irreversible. All I could focus on now was moving forward.

I looked back at Emerald, still looking as adorable as she was, even as she snored. Not loudly by any means, but still she snored. Emerald and I both had some issues to work through, and I could see us working through them together. We will just have to see if our bonding would evolve into something romantic or not.

As I tossed more kindling to the flames, I was reminded of my old home, when I'd roast marshmallows over the heat of the fireplace back when I still went to elementary school. Smiling, I closed my eyes and listened to the crackling of the hot fire and the soft whistling of the freezing wind. Once we wake up tomorrow, I'll try to use the portal semblance to get back to the others. It would definitely save some time and-

I looked out at the snowy outside world, and I sighed. "Maybe some quiet time first won't hurt," I whispered. I did kind of want some time alone with Emerald, just to see where things went. It's not like Argus would be destroyed tomorrow, right?

- Argus, 22:30 PM -

Pyrrha tried to push her way through the crowds as many people came over to see the Invincible Girl herself return home. And with the news that she fought and survived both Beacon and Haven, it only riled up crowds even more. Jaune, Nora, and Ren did their best to clear the crowds, but many fangirls and fanboys still slipped through, hugging Pyrrha while taking selfies. All the while, Pyrrha laughed both awkwardly and nostalgically.

While being put up on a pedestal by others definitely annoyed her, she was always charmed by little kids who looked up to her, not by her accomplishments or her skills, but simply for the fact that she was cool.

It was a half hour before they managed to get some peace and quiet. Jaune had already contacted Saphron, letting her know they were on the way.

"So, you gonna visit your family?" Nora asked.

Pyrrha sighed. "Yes. I still know where my house is, so I'll check up on them and get back to you when I can," she said.

"Well, maybe you should spend the night with them," Jaune said. "It's been a while since you saw them, right? They should at least get the time to talk to you. With how important our mission is, we never know if we may get the chance again."

Jaune's tone sounded somber, having thought back to when Markus told him of Pyrrha's fate if nothing had been changed. Pyrrha no doubt thought similarly as she sighed. "I-I will," she said. "Tell your family I said hi?"

Jaune smiled. "I will," he said. Pyrrha and Jaune exchanged a hug and a kiss before she ran off, leaving Jaune, Nora, and Ren to walk by themselves in front of team RWBY, Liya, Qrow, Oscar, and Maria.

Meanwhile, Qrow and Maria were locked in a conversation of their own, Qrow talking about Maria being the Grimm Reaper, with Maria both basking in the glory of recognition as well as scolding him for being such a drunk fanboy. Ozpin had taken over, looking around at the flourishing city of Argus. "It's been so long since I visited," he said. "I was one of the first visitors to the village when it was first settled. That had to have been half a dozen lifetimes ago."

"What was it like?" Liya asked.

"Peaceful and happy. People from both Atlas and Mistral were overjoyed to be a part of long term cooperation between kingdoms," Ozpin said nostalgically. "Alas, we're not here to talk about my experiences. We're here to rest up and prepare to go out and search for your partner."

Liya frowned. "I really hope he's alright," she said.

"Worry not," Ozpin said. "If I recall correctly, he managed to stuff several steaks and sandwiches in to-go containers before leaving for Argus. He should have plenty of food, as well as shelter. The forests and plains by the mountains are full of caves and burrows, after all. I trust in his abilities to survive, as well as Miss Sustrai."

Liya smiled. "Just like you to sound so magnanimous when it comes to us, eh old man?" she snarked.

"I believe I was your headmaster," Ozpin said with a smile on his face. "Please show some respect to your elders."

"Says the youngest boy in our group," Liya said, and the two of them shared a light laugh. This did little to ease Liya's worries over Markus and Emerald, but Ozpin did have an important point made clear to her - she needed to trust that they knew how to take care of themselves.

The group reached the house in little time, and Jaune knocked on the door. "Hopefully they can spare some room," Jaune muttered to himself. He hoped they were alright after the fall of Beacon, especially since contacting them was so hard. He hadn't been able to call them on their trek to Mistral, and his worry only increased when the CCT went down in the Battle of Haven.

So imagine their surprise when Sapphire Arc and two of his sisters greeted them at the door. "Oh, Jaune!" Sapphire cried in surprise. "Dearies, Jaune is here!"

"M-mom? Pearl, Azura, Violet-what are you all doing here?!" Jaune cried as his family was all gesturing for them to get into the house.

"We moved here for now. With Beacon destroyed and Vale overrun, Ansel wasn't safe anymore. Atlas gave us all transport to wherever we wished," Sapphire said before looking at the kitchen. "I still think we could've rented an apartment, dear. I just feel terrible at inconveniencing you."

"I've answered this five hundred times, and I'll say this for the next five hundred times you say it. Hotels and apartments are expensive enough already. And it's the least we could do," Terra said as she walked out of the kitchen. "And you aren't being a bother at all. CCT technicians make quite a bit of money, and I wouldn't let you waste so much when you could be living here free of charge."

"At the cost of no more sexy fun times," Saphron whined, and both Terra and Sapphire smacked Saphron upside the head at that remark. "Dad and Olivia are doing some protection work for Argus right now, since Grimm have been coming around a bit more often. They're coming back in a few hours."

"Well, then there's..." Ruby fell silent as she did the math in her head. "Eleven people living in this place And now we have..." Ruby stopped talking to count some more. "Twelve people here. Maybe we should find somewhere else to-"

"Nonsense, we have plenty of room!" Terra said, before Violet coughed awkwardly, causing her to awkwardly blush. "Alright, maybe not that much, but-"

"No, it's fine," Qrow said. "We can handle a few rooms for a week or two, enough for us to search for our friends."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Saphron asked.

"The train was attacked. Markus and a new friend got stuck on the detached cars a few hundred miles before we reached Argus," Yang said, the Arc family collectively gasping in horror, especially Pearl and Ashley. "We're gonna ask the Argus Military Base to see if they could spare anyone to search for our friends-"

Terra coughed awkwardly. "Umm, about that. Ever since the CCT in Mistral went out, Atlas recalled almost everyone. The Argus base was untouched, but with Atlas no longer in contact, they won't give up anyone or any airships in case of an attack," she said.

"Shit," Ruby muttered, thankfully quiet enough that the younger kids couldn't hear. "Well, what can we do?"

"We can go out there ourselves," Qrow said as he scratched his head. "Or I will. I dunno, we're too tired to be worried about that. Panicking over this will only make things worse."

"He's right," Ren spoke. "If we cool our heads and get some rest, we can come up with a better plan tomorrow."

"Listen to pretty boy," Qrow said, Ren giving no visible reaction to the nickname. "We'll go find a hotel."

"Uhh, how are you going to afford it?" Sapphire asked, a bit concerned. "Do you need us to lend you some Lien, or-"

"No, we still have a lot," Jaune reassured, waving a hand. "Torchwick left us a lot after Mistral, so we-"

"Torchwick?" Sapphire asked dangerously.

"Roman Torchwick? The Roman Torchwick?" Azura asked, a bit more giddily. The wide rimmed glasses wearing girl had a light pink tint to her cheeks as Scarlet sighed next to her. "You met him?"

"Oh, we stayed with him for a month," Liya said, wearing a shit-eating grin under that mask of hers. "Jaune has all the details."

"I suppose we could stand to have room for one more tonight, if that's alright," Saphron said, wearing an evil smirk that was shared by the rest of Jaune's family.

"Of course, he has a lot of time to catch his family up on the many adventures he'd been going on for months and months on end without letting us know what was going on for so much of that time," Azura said, even as her only brother silently begged his friends to save him from his family. Unfortunately for him, that rescue would never come.

"Good luck, Jaune!" Nora chimed as they left the house, Jaune's many sisters asking their brother about where Pyrrha was while pulling him away from the door as he tried to escape. As the group left the house, things had settled down enough that they weren't constantly drowning in worry for Markus and Emerald.

- several hours later, the next day -

"Wake up."

I groaned as Emerald jostled me awake. It was bright outside, and still very cold, but at least the fire hadn't gone out. There was barely any flame left however, and I could barely feel the warmth. Sleepily, I shimmied out of my sleeping bag and rolled over on the rocky ground, yawning and stretching my body lazily.

As I regained my vision, I turned to see Emerald watching me, her cheeks red and eyes sparkling. Her mouth was covered by one hand as she held up a scroll in the other hand. "What?" I asked awkwardly, and she turned the scroll around to show what was on it.

She'd managed to snap a picture of me on my back, stretching my arms and legs. That in itself wasn't very odd, however. What caught my attention was how it looked, especially with my arms held out in front of me rather than over my head. I looked like an actual cat stretching.

I tried to swipe the scroll away from Emerald to wipe that embarrassing picture off of her photo album, but she was much faster. "Nope!" she said. "I'm keeping this forever and ever."

"Whyyy?" I whined as I lunged at her again, only to be sidestepped, causing me to stumble into the cave wall.

"Because you look cute in it," Emerald said, and my cheeks flared red in retaliation. They blushed even deeper red when she stuck her tongue out at me. And that was the end of that argument.

We heated up one of the steaks in my possession over the fire and cut it into several pieces before we split them evenly for breakfast. They were tough, still greasy, and still incredibly tasty. We collected some snow in the to-go container to melt into water, even if it had that greasy taste from the to-go container.

We left within the hour, trekking through the snow. It wasn't as cold as last night thankfully, but it was still cold enough that our aura would take a hit from the temperature - although very little over the course of a long time. I had Wilt and Blush on my belt, my left hand resting on the hilt of Wilt - hah, rhymes.

As we walked in the direction of Argus - mainly by following the train tracks in the distance - I talked to Emerald about my world, starting with my personal favorite science fiction series in existence - the Expanse. Specifically the books and the television series.

"So, it's basically like if Remnant and the moon were at war?" Emerald said as she processed the several minutes of what I told her about the story so far. "Except if the moon were whole and a whole other planet."

"Yeah. Kinda? I don't really know how many planets your solar system has, but my home has eight. Nine technically. No...no, eight," I said. "Basically, humanity goes and colonizes a planet next to Earth, and they develop their own government, own society. Then the other planet sees themselves superior to Earth, and all sorts of animosity pops up, soon it's two interplanetary governments that hate each other over the course of generations. It's super far into the future."

"Sounds like something that would happen here," Emerald snarked as she stretched her arms above her head. She was wearing her jacket, which was warm and snug when we switched shifts in the middle of the night. "So what happens in this story?"

"Huh, you're actually interested?" I asked.

"What, I can find stuff interesting!" Emerald protested. "Just tell me before I decide to find something else to pass our time walking. Like finding ways to make you look stupid."

"War breaks out. A rogue Earth research and development branch attacks a ship of the Belt and a Martian warship, and all sorts of events break out, lots of chaos, and plenty of corruption in both governments," I said, deciding not to question it. "The story was alright, but what I really liked were the spaceships."

"Nerd," Emerald said playfully, and I nudged her shoulder in reply to that little quip. "So what, fancy space weapons and overpowered stuff?"

"Kind of? This world relies too much on Dust, and it doesn't work in space whatsoever, so I guess you're stuck on the planet," I said. "Kind of inconvenient, especially since resources always run out in the end."

"I dunno, Remnant is a big place," Emerald said.

"Doesn't matter how big the planet is. You'll run out of Dust sooner or later. What happened to conventional electricity? Solar or wind power?" I wondered out loud. Sighing, I stretched and cracked fingers lazily. "People use Dust just because it's convenient, it's probably a big reason why there's so little Dust left. Not that the SDC is helping."

"Solar power? Wind power?" Emerald asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, right. Where I'm from, we don't have Dust. So we use other means of producing power and heat. Like the sun. Fancy mirrors that collect the sun's energy and radiation and turn it into electricity," I said.

"...that sounds so much cheaper than Dust," Emerald said, a bit in awe at the thought of power that doesn't operate on Dust. "Not gonna lie, I wanna live in your world now."

"It's expensive. And Earth ain't pretty," I remarked. "You have four kingdoms and several smaller settlements. My world has almost two hundred separate nations each with millions of people, most having their own militaries, as well as enough world-ending weapons to destroy our planet a hundred times over."

Emerald paled. "You're joking."

"Cold War. Decades and decades of nations waiting for each other to attack first. They built intercontinental weapons of mass destruction, fighter craft, brand new military policies, stronger armies, stronger navies, all in the essence of paranoia. When the Cold War finally stopped, we realized we built too many weapons. So we keep them in storage if we ever need to blow each other to bits," I said, before realizing how callous I was sounding.

Emerald seemed to think so as well, shuddering as she looked away. "Sounds like your world sucks," she said.

"Oh, it does. Still, not as much as this one can suck at times. Seriously, you have the spite of gods pissing on it," I said before looking away. "It was my home, though. I don't even know if I can go back."

"Well, if the gods spite it, maybe you can't. Not trying to be mean, but maybe you're stuck here for good," Emerald commented bluntly. "Still. I for one think you've been doing pretty well here."

I chuckled. "Thanks," I said before I was cut off by a sound. The two of us looked around at the surrounding trees, prompting us to slow down as we investigated the cause of the sound. "Great, Grimm..."

"Or worse," Emerald muttered as we stopped walking. She drew Thief's Respite, and I whirled around, looking for any potential enemies. All around us were trees and snow, but that didn't dissuade our worries for one second, especially with how easy it was to ambush us. "Think it's Cinder?"

"No," I said. "She's still in Mistral."

"You sure?" Emerald whispered.

I didn't answer. I couldn't, not after several men and women rushed out of the trees wielding weapons like two-handed hammers, swords, and spears, surrounding us. They were all dressed in different attire, some with coats and regular clothing, some with armor and robes, some Faunus and some not. Either way, they clearly appeared with the intent to kill.

Bandits, it looked like. Emerald clearly thought the same thing as she hissed in annoyance. "Never mind," she grumbled as she peered around, scoping out each and every hostile.

One of the bandits stepped forward. He was wielding a spiked hammer, swinging it about clumsily, no doubt trying to look intimidating. "You're in our territory now, girlies," he said smugly. "You can surrender and give us all your stuff and maybe get out of this alive. Or you can both die here."

Emerald smirked at me, and I rolled my eyes. Yet another unfortunate soul who had mistaken me for a girl. Once I got to Argus, I'm cutting off this braid - even if Weiss would likely be heartbroken at it.

"So what's it gonna be?" the man asked, spinning the hammer in his hands, clearly being flashy with the heavy weapon. Unfortunately for him, it didn't scare us. He didn't react in time as the two of us moved, weapons at the ready.

He didn't even see us coming.