Kelly had been given a room to stay in at the back corner of the house, which was fine with her, it meant she didn't have to interact with people much, but she thought it was intentional, as her room was a small study with a large couch instead of a bed, even though there were multiple open guest rooms in the large Belladonna estate.

Kelly spent most of her time working on equipment (the saltwater from the trip over wasn't good for most of her stuff) and scouting the area around the house, getting to know it like the back of her hand and, with the permission of Mr. and Mrs. Belladonna, making it a bit more, "defensible."

The House guards didn't really seem to trust this new guest, especially when they realized Kelly was watching as well, albeit unseen, and it creeped most of the guards out and set them on edge. The rumor started circulating that this new guest would prey on lone guards and use them for practice, so they started patrolling in pairs, and more on edge.

Blake eventually heard about it and went to confront Kelly, or at least tell her, and she found the spartan hanging upside down from a crossbeam affixing a thermal camera to the edge of the roof. Blake crossed her arms and leaned against a wall, "Hey Kelly do you know what the guards are saying about you?"

Kelly didn't turn away from her work, "That I'm some Atlesian boogeyman?"

"No, well, uh," Blake sputtered, "That you sneak around and stalk people, and hunt the guards for practice. I'm pretty sure those are unfounded, but I wanted to check with you and make sure you were doing okay, It has got to be hard being probably the only human on the island,"

Kelly shrugged, "I know where the rumor came from, and I'm pretty sure I'm ok, the burns from your assassin friend are healing quickly,"

Blake looked relieved, "that's good,"—"wait," she paused narrowing her eyes, "what do you mean you know how the rumor started?"

Kelly disconnected herself from the ceiling and flipped, landing in front of Blake, "One of the guards, Tucker, catcalled me on my way back to my room from a workout out of armor, I sort of," Kelly paused awkwardly, "stalked him on his balcony watches for a few days, maybe scared him once or twice,"

Blake shook her head, "I want to be mad, but I can't blame you, but now they are all scared of you and patrol in pairs."

Kelly nodded, "good, that'll improve their effectiveness, the second part at least,"

Blake sighed, "Next time just please tell me or my parents,"

Kelly nodded and looked at her scroll to test the new camera as Blake walked out the door.

That night at dinner Mr. Belladonna asked Blake and Sun how their recruitment campaign was going. Blake hung her head in her hands and Sun held up a finger, "Not great, but it can only get better from here,"

Blake replied scathingly, "by that he means we have made no progress and recruited no one,"

Mr. Belladonna continued looking grumpy, and offered no change in facial expression, but Mrs. Belladonna smiled comfortingly, "Don't worry, people will come, just give them time and they will realize what's right,"

Kelly swallowed a bite of food and added, "I've learned to always plan on what you have or less, and never count on more, so it's probably best to come up with at least some plan assuming you can't make any progress, but that's just me."

Sun frowned, "That's just pessimistic,"

Mr. Belladonna fixed the boy with a hard stare, "It's practical."

A few nights later Kelly was walking through the sandy forest behind the house when one of her proximity alarms went off. She checked the cameras, and sure enough, white fang assassins were approaching the house from the south west and the east, Kelly quickly activated her "defenses," alerting the guard captain in the process, and moved quickly to the east and the closer group of assassins.

column of assassins moved through the forest in close formation, clearly still thinking they were undetected.

Kelly knew since these were Faunus the dark did not lend her any advantage, so she had covered herself in sand and was laying perfectly still just along the edge of the path.

As soon as the column passed her, Kelly carefully rose to her feet, ready to spring. She waited for the white fang to advance and set off her cue. She heard the sudden, THUNK as the trap discharged, hydraulically shooting a sharpened metal pole up through the sand and into some poor soul, leaving him impaled through the neck, his comrades all started to run-up to the front of the column to help, except one who spun around to act as a rearguard, weapon raised, she saw Kelly, but it was too late, as the spartan was lunging toward the assassin, knife bared.

The white fang assassins regrouped, looking back and realized that their rearguard was suddenly no longer there. Kelly could see the looks of terror on their faces, good, scared soldiers make bad decisions, she thought to herself.

Kelly watched as they funneled down the path and into a small clearing she had scoped out, and right into the next set of traps, Kelly smiled, and moved quietly to her next position.

All 6 of the remaining white fang had broken into a run as they got to the small clearing, and right into the sights of a certain spartan.

The remaining white fang turned suddenly when one of their members stopped in shock and sank to her knees, before keeling over onto her face with 3 crossbow quarrels sticking out of her back.

The attention was once again on one singular point for all 6 of the assassins, and once again, their rearmost member was grabbed, eliminated, and Kelly and her prey disappeared into the forest.

The final four had had enough, and one of them aimed his rifle into the forest where the automated crossbows had fired, and squeezed the trigger, hoping to hit their stalker, and all four turned and ran towards the city.

Kelly watched as they passed the next trap, and set it off.

The forest was splattered with what remained of the three white fang who couldn't keep up with their leader as the shaped charges blasted explosive force across the forest path.

The final assassin spun and bared his teeth, and he roared, "come out and fight me like a man! I know you're out there!"

Kelly spoke up from directly behind him, "if you insist," and blasted a shotgun shell into the man's back.

His aura flared and he spun, surprising Kelly and slashing with his drawn sword. The hit glanced off her armored shoulder, but she cursed herself for being cocky.

Kelly extended her weapon into the spear mode and held it in her left hand, using the two prongs to trap his sword and force it to the ground, while landing a solid hit with her right to the man's jaw. He tried to draw a pistol with his left hand after being hit, but Kelly was faster, and she drew an SMG from her thigh and unloaded into his chest, dropping his aura and blowing through his chest cavity. Kelly disentangled her spear from his now lifeless sword and arm, before holstering her SMG and heading off at a sprint towards the house.

When Kelly got to the house she just shook her head as she leapt up to one of the balconies, I leave them alone for five minutes and the house is already on fire, this is why we can't have nice things.

Aiming purely for speed Kelly opted to simply crash through the sliding glass doors, she rolled into a crouch and surveyed her surroundings, taking in a very shocked Mrs. Belladonna directly in front of Her taking cover behind an overturned table with one of the house guards, gun in hand. The white fang soldiers stopped firing at the arrival of the spartan for just a second, long enough to see plenty of bodies lying on each side.

Kelly didn't stop to admire the scenery and rolled into cover next to Mrs. Belladonna. Kelly pulled three small grenades from her belt and handed one to Mrs. Belladonna and the guard, while also taking cover with them, telling them to throw them on opposite sides of the room once they heard Kelly's shotgun fire. They each nodded and Kelly gave them one last piece of advice, "Don't look once you've thrown," and spun out of the cover, shooting a quick burst of suppression fire with her SMG.

Kelly blasted the main light fixture in the room while simultaneously rolling her grenade right up to the white fang. She knew that even if you had perfect night vision it still took a second to adjust, and heard a few scoffs from the other side of the room, "You think a little dark will stop us you stupid Atlesian scum?"

Kelly didn't bother giving her position away with a retort as she heard 3 sudden hisses from the other side of the room, and suddenly the entire space was filled with smoke, and silently she counted, then right before she got to 3 the neural lace in her helmet shut off all sight and most of her hearing as the second stage of the grenades went off.

The flash bangs lit the room with the light of an august noon on mercury, and if any of the people in the room didn't have their ears filled with ringing they would hear various yelps and screams of alarm.

Kelly wasted no time and went among the disoriented Faunus, not wasting ammo, she impaled the first with her spear, using a throat rip to crush the windpipe of the next, and her knife to the necks of the next few.

The smoke cleared and the house guards and Mrs. Belladonna cautiously peeked over their cover, seeing only Kelly standing, pulling her spear from the chest of a dead soldier and cleaning the blades before collapsing it to shotgun form.

She quickly ran onto the next room, leaving two of the guards to argue, "I told you man, she's not Baba Yaga, she's who you send to kill Baba Yaga,"

"And your point is?"

"She got six, that means you give me six lien,"

"Shut up Grif,"

Mrs. Belladonna shook her head as she watched the money change hands.

Kelly came upon two white fang trying to breach through a door to the main room, and she didn't slow, blasting one in the face with a slug, and simply lowering her shoulder into the other one and using him as a battering ram into the door.

The great room was flooded with fire when Kelly arrived, and a piece of the roof was being held up barely by Mr. Belladonna and a few glowing clones of Sun over the heads of Blake and the White Fang assassin who had tazed Kelly.

Kelly dropped to her knees in a power slide and came to a stop underneath the massive piece of wood.

She stood up, taking on the weight of the block, her body and armor circuits straining, and she was able to stumble off to the side and barely scramble away from underneath it as she let it fall to the floor.

Everyone in the room started at her with open mouthed awe, and all Kelly said was, "we need to get moving, the building is on fire remember?"

Linda pulled John up to a standing position and took his arm over her shoulder to support him, making sure to support the shoulder that didn't have a gaping wound.

By this point in time team RNJR had been able to rouse themselves completely and were walking back to the truck, heads hung low in defeat, thinking they had lost. Ruby activated her semblance and flew over to the truck, disappearing from sight. The rest of team RNJR paused when they got to the lifeless body, expressions ranging from shock to grim acceptance.

When all five of them managed to get to the truck they saw Ruby burying her face into her Uncle Qrow's chest, and she sobbed, "therewasabodyhanginginthechurch, And—and…" she sniffled, "it was all mutilated then this guy came out of nowhere and tried to kill us, and he hurt John really bad then Linda beat him and she executed him even though I begged her not to,"

Linda looked at Qrow deadly serious, then said, "Ren can show you the body, I'm going to get John some medical attention."

Qrow nodded, then waited until Ruby disengaged from the hug, then nodded to Ren to lead the way, and Nora followed the two back into the town.

Ruby walked over to the truck and grabbed the trauma kit as Linda laid John down in the bed of the truck and removed his helmet before taking off her own.

She asked him to follow her finger as she moved it in various patterns and checked pupil dilation, inspecting him to see if he had a concussion.

Linda then started removing armor pieces and part of the techsuit to better get a look at the wound. "Poison," Linda muttered to herself and she quickly looked up, issuing orders, "Ruby, get some water! Jaune! Start a fire!" The two of them startled at the suddenness of the statement, but quickly scrambled to help.

A few minutes later the wound was rinsed out and water was warming up over a fire to further wash out as much of the toxic substances as they could.

The hot water washed over the wound, and Linda could see the taut muscles in John's shoulder start to relax, and release more of the toxin to be washed away.

Linda sighed and bandaged the wound before putting John's techsuit back and re-attaching the armor pieces, sitting back and knowing she had done all she could do. That frustrated her as she knew she had done nothing but slow the effect of the poison.

Qrow returned with Ren and Nora with no change in his stoic expression. Linda asked the Huntsman, "Can you drive? I need to watch him."

Qrow nodded and moved to the driver's seat as the rest of them piled in, with Ruby piping up enough to call shotgun.

An hour into their drive with John leaning on Linda and she holding him to keep him from falling out of the seat as he was still out of it, Jaune spoke, being the first to say anything since the village, "It needed to be done, he would have just…done whatever he did to that man again,"

Ren looked up from the floor of the truck bed, "yes, thank you, I don't know if I would have had the strength to do it."

Linda just nodded to them both as the truck shook and she had to steady John again.

A few hours later Qrow stopped the truck for the night and the group piled out to make camp, and by that time John was fine except for the shoulder, and whenever the poison would hit him in the next few days, they had no idea of knowing. The seven sat around a fire chewing on tough rations from the truck, and the topic of semblances was brought up, Linda wasn't paying attention, so she didn't know why, but she just listened.

Ruby started, "I've got my Rose Dash, but what's your semblance Ren, I've never seen it,"

"ROSE DASH?" Nora fell over backwards in a fit of laughter as Ruby turned red.

Ren ignored the cackling Valkyrie and responded, "I can suppress or silence negative emotions of myself and others touching me, making me pretty much invisible to Grimm,"

Ruby's face lit up, "have you ever tried to sneak up behind a Grimm and give it a wedgie?"

Ren's face didn't change, "Grimm don't wear pants,"

Nora finally roused herself and sat up, "speaking of semblances, Jaune what's yours? I don't think you've told us"

The knight's head fell, "I, uh, don't have one,"

Ruby smiled at him, "Not right now you don't, but it'll come,"

Nora turned her gaze to the two Spartans, "and you?"

John responded, the first time he had talked except to Linda through TEAMCOM since being knocked out. "We don't have aura or a semblance, for, uh, medical reasons."

Nora snorted, "Are you saying you don't have souls?"

Linda and John shared a quick glance and they both almost responded, but fell silent.

Nora looked at the final remaining member of the crew, Qrow took a final swig from his canteen and sighed, "Fine, I'll tell ya, and no Ruby it isn't where I turn into a bird, that's different," Linda gave him a confused look, and something told her John was doing the same beside her, then things started clicking into place, his ability to seemingly disappear and reappear in combat, especially in dark environments, the name, the crow that had been following them through the city and on the ferry.

Qrow continued, "once you get done staring open mouthed I'll explain," Linda closed her mouth that she didn't realize had been open and whispered to John, "Just another thing to add to the Remnant is weird list,"

Qrow had started talking again, "My semblance is actually something that's more passive, you see I'm bad luck, to everyone, friends, enemies, myself, bystanders. It's why I prefer to work alone."

John looked at the man intensely, "Just make your own luck, take control of situations."

Qrow shook his head and chuckled, "I wish I could kid, I wish I could."'

The next day around noon Ruby announced from the passenger's seat that there would be another town coming up in about an hour, but that she didn't see a clear path to Mistrel from there.

Ren spoke up, "that town will be abandoned, and we'll have to split up to find a mountain pass big enough for the truck,"

John nodded from the driver's seat, "but we should send at least a few people into the town, abandoned or not to see if there is anything worth salvaging."

Qrow raised his head from where he had been staring at the floor, "That works with me, teams are as follows, Ren and Nora are on scouting paths, and so are Linda and Ruby,"

Qrow was interrupted by said huntress in training, "But uncle Qrow I wanna go with you," she said pleadingly.

Qrow sighed, "Ruby I need you two to be able to cover both teams if need be, and you two are the only ones with sniper rifles, plus I've seen Linda shoot, you could learn a thing or two." Ruby harrumphed but didn't complain again, and Qrow continued, "John, Jaune, and I" he interrupted himself, "Damn that's confusing, scraggly blonde Jaune can I just call you Arc?"

Jaune scratched his head nervously, "I—I guess?"

"Good, we'll be in the town trying to salvage. Ren and Linda, you two will communicate by Morse code and these lights," Qrow handed them each a small tight beam flashlight, "and Linda and John can communicate without having to worry about line of sight or scrolls,"

Nora's face lit up, "WOAH! Are you two like telepaths or something!? Can you tell what I'm thinking right now?"

John deadpanned, "I have no idea,"

Nora's eyes widened even more, "WOW! I don't know either!"

Ruby paused for a second, "wait a minute, Ren and Linda you guys know Morse code?"

"Who doesn't?" They both answered simultaneously.

Linda and Ruby were walking up a mountain path when Ruby finally broke the silence, "My uncle said he had seen you shoot before, when did that happen, other than your fight on the rooftops?"

Linda answered quickly and coldly, "He was our huntsman guide on our mission,"

Ruby continued, unfazed by the impersonal response, "What did you guys actually do on your mission? You never actually told us."

Linda answered again with little to no emotion, "we retrieved our equipment, a bit in the Emerald Forest, the rest from a tech cult stronghold, then we ended up in the abandoned tunnels and we killed an ancient, then the train you and your team was on blew past and we rode it until it stopped and we managed to get back to Beacon, both Fred and Kelly got hurt and had to be carried back."

A look of understanding dawned across Ruby's features as pieces of the puzzle started to click into place.

They walked in silence for a bit longer, before Ruby said, "Uncle Qrow also said you might be able to teach me a few things, but how long have you been shooting, if you're already this good?"

"About 8 years why?"

"So you must've started around 10, that's about when I started, but I've only been shooting for 5 years,"

"Uh, Ruby, I did not start when I was 10, it was a bit, uh earlier," Linda said, a bit nervously.

"What do you mean? If that's the case then the math doesn't add up, you've got to be at least 18 right?"

"No, wait, you're 15?" Linda tilted her head ever so slightly, a Spartan gesture.

"Yeah, you got a problem with that?" Ruby said defensively.

Linda smiled behind her helmet, almost giggling, "Well I'm 15 and well," Linda gestured to the almost two foot height difference between the two.

Ruby started to look mad, then confused, "There is no way you're only 15,"

Linda shrugged, "Fred's only 14, though I think his birthday soon, but Kelly is the one that keeps track of that kind of stuff."

Ruby giggled, "I'm older than Fred," she raised her arms in triumph, "I'M FINALLY OLDER THAN SOMEONE!"

They reached a cliff overlooking a valley that could see the mountain Ren and Nora were on, and Linda could see the flashing of Ren's light. She signaled back that she was ready to receive and waited for the message, and relayed it to Ruby as it came in, "They found a good path, but it is long."

Linda gave a quick affirmative and put her light down, ready to head back down and get moving again when an ear piercing shriek split the crisp mountain air.

"What was that?" Linda asked.

Ruby's eyes narrowed, "Grimm, sounded old and big."

Linda brought Ruby back to the overlook they had previously scoped out as their ideal sniping position, and they both flopped down on their stomachs and readied their respective rifles.

Peering through her large scope, Linda assessed the situation.

The Grimm was the first thing she saw, a giant beast that seemed mostly horse like, except the face was too long, and it had what almost looked like a rider, but closer inspection revealed that it actually had a human like torso, head with antlers, and extremely long arms extending from the horse back. Jaune was barely holding up his shield as the strange arms flailed outwards at him and the others, Qrow was attacking it, but he seemed dejected, almost as if he knew he was fighting a losing battle, and Linda understood why when Ren and Nora arrived and all their rounds simply disappeared into its thick hide and had no effect, and the few good wounds they managed to inflict healed within seconds.

Linda voiced her findings to Ruby and added in conclusion, "Aim for sensitive areas only, relax, and fire on an exhale," She saw ruby nod in her peripheral and started to aim, sending John a green acknowledgment light signaling him that she was firing on the enemy and ready to receive orders if he had any.

John felt his shoulder burn as he fought the Nuckelavee, as Ren had called it when he came storming down the mountain, but the spartan pushed on, He saw Linda's light, and knew what he had to do, yelling to Qrow, "Open up targets for Ruby and Linda!"

Qrow nodded and seemed to redouble his efforts knowing that they suddenly had a chance.

John quickly developed a plan, and started making himself a target for those flailing hand things, and he called Nora and Jaune over to him.

He continued dodging and parrying the lunges of the Nuckelavee and waited for his opportunity, there!, he dropped his rifle and grabbed the wrist of the titanic Grimm as it overextended on a single lunge and he yanked the arm over to the side of one of the sturdier buildings.

"Nora! Jaune! Hammer and nail!" John called as he struggled to hold the wrist against the Nuckelavee's attempts to free it.

Jaune ran over and plunged his sword into the back of the claw and Nora was right behind him, swinging her hammer like a baseball bat and slamming the sword through the hand and impaling it deep into the wall.

"Qrow!" John yelled, and the huntsman took the opportunity presented to dash through the extended arm with his scythe.

They looked to see if their ploy had worked, but the arm was still connected, however a large gouge of red was right where the elbow would normally be, a sudden, deep, BOOM sounded, and what remained of the joint was suddenly splattered across the ground in a 50 foot cone of blood and the arm fell limp.

Ren called to them from the other side of the beast, "Destroy the arm! Don't let it regenerate!"

Nora was the first to act, taking the hole created by the sword and shooting a grenade into it before smacking the arm into the sky and watching it explode.

The three stood for slightly too long and the human torso spun, the remaining arm coming across them and slamming all three into the building.

John ordered Linda, "Focus fire on the chest of the human torso, get a hole open before that arm regenerates."

A green acknowledgment light flashed, and he heard a continuous volley of BOOMs and CRACKs even as he could see the arm start to reform at the joint. There was a short pause as the girls reloaded, but the volley started up again quickly, and with the final shot in the second volley, he could see the blood of a hole being punched through the chest of the Grimm ancient.

Activating every bit of speed he could summon he dashed towards the ancient, firing at the head, ducking a sweep of the remaining arm, jumping over a kick of one of the horse legs, and he was riding it.

He took a grenade from his belt and primed it, shoving it into the hole and pushing it deep up into the chest cavity, then taking a second one and doing the same.

John felt he had overstayed his welcome when two giant hands seized him, one years old and another formed milliseconds ago and flung him over the front, sending him crashing through a wall just as he heard the explosions.

Linda saw John fly into the building, but lost track of him, and her breath caught, but she saw the human like torso on top of the horse body explode in a shower of black dust and gore, and she saw the horse body start stumbling around almost out of control, then start going crazy, charging everything it could see and brutally kicking anything that came near. Linda threw her rifle on her back and jumped off the hill, sliding downward and breaking into a sprint the moment she caught her footing.

Ruby followed quickly, activating her semblance and catching the spartan quickly, picking her up and taking the spartan up in a shower of green petals.

The two landed heavily, Ruby exhausted from carrying so much weight, but Linda sprung immediately and charged the horse Grimm, drawing her axes, and she saw Ren was doing something similar with some sort of hunting knife.

Linda arrived first, and she buried one axe deep in the side of the Grimm's neck, sliding underneath the thing's head, she took the full force of a stomp to the chest, and she could feel it crack some of her lower ribs.

Linda gritted her teeth and regained her momentum, using the cable on her first axe to swing up and place her other axe in the eye of the beast and yank its head down to the ground and expose its other eye to the killshot from Ren.

The huntsman in training plunged his father's knife deep into the eye, and into the brain of the beast that had taken his family's life, and he didn't stop until he felt the body start to dissolve into black dust.

Linda looked around, seeing everyone else either laying down, sitting, or kneeling in exhaustion, except John, she panicked, and watched him stumble out of the building he had been thrown through.

She rushed over to check on him and almost missed the sound of aircraft descending on their position. Looking back at Team RNJR and Qrow she could see them waving the aircraft and the people inside over, and she stumbled over to the landing craft, set John down inside and pulled off his helmet, checking responsiveness. She took off her own helmet to give him a smile, a real one this time.

The moment was interrupted when Linda coughed, and out came a spurt of blood. John said to her with a raspy voice, "You might want to get that checked out." Then promptly passed out.

Medical personnel immediately descended on the pair, attempting to separate them and put them on stretchers, but Linda was having none of it, and would not stop until they relented and made her promise not to move as long as she could sit right next to John the whole ride to Mistrel, but it wasn't a problem as she drifted off halfway through the flight.

I have had considerably more time to write because of quarantine, and have finally started to watch vol 7.

I'm thinking of starting a new story, and was thinking of either, RvB (Freelancer), Titanfall, Star Wars, or more Halo, so drop any ideas in the reviews, or even just let me know which topic you would want to see first.

Review responses

Negronomicron: Thanks, I will try to keep it up

Psihopatul: Thanks for reading once again, I'm trying to go back and fix those, but first I want to get some chapters out.

I was kinda worried about some of those areas where there was a lot of dialogue getting repetitive or confusing, or both, but I'll check it out and see if I can tweak it in my next batch of editing.

Well, next chapter is here now, so the wait is over, but now to wait for the next one.

Just a Crazy-Man: Thanks, hope you continue to enjoy

Just a Reader: I'm glad you like Honeydew, and I think I will keep her, right now I'm working on vol 7, so I hope to get a bit more info on how Atlas works, and we'll go from there on Ironwood.

And Fred will be trying to figure out exactly who took his knives.

Red October 700: No, Weiss and Fred didn't really hit it off great, but also they didn't really immediately butt heads like Weiss and Linda with the whole tragedy spiel.

Ah yes the Corndog quest, it is not over yet, despite the fact that Fred has obtained 1 corndog and consumed it.

The nuke in someone's face was a reference to Fall of Reach and the first time the Spartans came into contact with the covenant and Sam sacrificed himself to nuke the covie ship from the inside and Kelly cried, and John was sad but didn't show it.

SeanHicks4: Thanks for the feedback, I will try to work on worldbuilding, but this is my first story, so I'm still figuring stuff out.

as for the armors, they did, in fact, use ODST gear in some ops, and ONI issued stealth/infiltration gear, but right before their first contact with the covenant they received a form of MJOLNIR without shielding, (which they have in this story) because it is set just after Sam died, then they received the armor with shields that were developed right before the fall of reach (the event not the book).

I try to make my story line up as much as possible with lore as I can, trust me I got this all figured out