Diluation:We of Fireteam Nero apologize for the somewhat long wait. Ptabs' notes threw us for a huge loop. Think of it like derailing a train, and deciding the best way to get it back on the tracks was to take the entire train apart and piece it back together on the rails.

VATS:You could say it kinda RAILROADED them away, eh?

Diluation:And you just derailed the serious- omfg VATS.

Aquilos:You know that above analogy? Yeah, that pun was a second train crashing into the semi repaired train.

Diluation:Not you too! What pun-virus have you infected us with VATS?!

VATS:Well, this went way off the rails.

Aquilos:VIOLENT ANGERY

Diluation:We'll be right back.

Animeguy:...*sigh* god I'm surrounded by pun makers

Diluation:Oi, I didn't do this on purpose, his pun dragged me into it!

Dustinz's answering machine:You have 1; old message; and 37; new messages.

"Great to be back Lord Saladin." Frederick stated feeling ignored.

Saladin then looked to the Huntsmen, a frown and a raised eyebrow visible on his face.

"They're warriors from Remnant sir." Frederick said.

Saladin hummed in thought, analyzing the two huntsmen, before nodding. "I imagine you four have many questions for me?" Saladin replied.

"Well yeah. Several come to mind?" Summer asked.

Saladin looked away, painfully staring at the statues of his fallen friends. Holding out his hand, he summoned his Ghost. It then used the light within it as a flashlight, lighting the stone art along the ceiling.

"For generations the Iron Lords were heralded out of this temple. For many a day during the Dark Age we fought for the people of our settlements, and destroyed those who would abuse the Traveler's gifts to oppress their charges, the Warlords. But we Iron Lords fought for justice. Truth. And the right to life that some have fallen short of with their greed."

He then looked at the stone art of many Guardians assaulting something.

"Many centuries ago, my friend Lord Felwinter found a Clovis Bray technology that could rival that of what we had hoped. We found SIVA. A nano technology that could create colonies. Worlds. And it could be ours for the taking. No need to scavenge for resources when we could make it ourselves. But the promise of such power blinded us from the obstacles ahead. We went to the Cosmodrome with more than a hundred Iron Lords, and met resistance of which we've never went up against before." Saladin grimaced, memories rushing forth as he spoke. Gunfire. Screams. His fallen comrades in arms.

He then looked at the Stone art, where they saw at least seven other individuals. "By the time we reached the Warmind bunker that housed SIVA, Felwinter looked into the database only to meet the one who activated frames and constructs on our earlier trek… Rasputin."

"What? Why would Rasputin do that?" Summer asked.

"To this day I do not know. But his response… was with SIVA. We were swarmed. It infected us...our armor and weapons...like a puppet on strings, it pitted us against one another."

Saladin then looked to the last Stone art, of which was him and a female Titan with a vault door closed and what looked like explosions vapor was enveloping the Female Iron Lord. "And since then, I removed all records of SIVA… only those who where alive at that time know only part of it. It had to be…" Saladin pauses. "Experienced first-hand, to truly understood the horrors we faced that day. That even as strong as we were, our light could still be snuffed out."

They then heard footsteps come into the room. As all eyes fell on the new comer. Saladin gently placed a hand on Lady Jolders statue. As if mourning a lost blood relative.

"But as history says Saladin. Those who do not face there past. Are doomed to repeat it." Said the new voice.

Saladin turned to see the old cryptarch that was his friend Tyra Karn.

"Perhaps what I have to say can be relevant?" Tyra said

"What do you have for me?" Saladin replied.

The old Awoken stepped further into the chamber and held up a tablet of her report.

"There's things that pertain to SIVA in the old Clovis Bray site on Mars. Perhaps our new friends should take a look?" she said while looking at the two Guardians and Huntsmen.

With a nod, Saladin looked up at the four.

"So, Guardian Rose. Ready to get back to work?" Saladin said.

Summer smiled and crossed her arms

"I thought you'd never ask." Summer said to the old Dark Age Iron Lord.

00000

Tai and Qrow started to feel a bit uncomfortable as Frederick went through several racks of personal armor sets that looked quite different from his own. The racks then stopped at a label called "uncommon". He started pulling out armor pieces from the shelfs and tossing them to there feet.

"Well strip. Those armor pieces don't go onto your bodies without a Ghost automatically." Frederick stated

He started going through Hunter armor as he was then done getting Tai sone Titan armor. Which was called the Highlander type 1. Qrow shrugged as Tai started getting his "Risen" armor off to put on the better gear. Fred then started to toss Qrow a Hunter set to his feet. It was called the "Snake line 4.5".

"So uhh, Fred was it?" Tai asked getting on the grieves.

"Yeah?" the Titan replied.

While grabbing the grieves to Qrows armor set.

"So you've known Summer for a while right?"

"I've known her for little over five years as a close family friend, yes."

Fred then went over to the weapon racks thinking on what type would be good for the two Huntsman.

"Do you know if she's seeing anyone?"

The weapon racks stopped abruptly, causing the two mortals to shiver in fear, as the cold red visor of Fred's helmet stares at Tai.

"You can not be talking about that now of all times…" Fred replied in surprise and annoyance.

"Look, we're no longer together now, and she's still a close friend-" he was however cut off

"If Cayde didn't make it clear when he punched you, and I know he did, she ain't seeing nobody. Not that I'd let you get near her anyhow." Frederick replied back to Tai with a tone of finality to his voice.

Tossing Tai a uncommon shotgun. Though it was magazine fed, and looked like a odd AK 47. Then he tossed him a brown snake pattern painted like hand cannon. He gave Qrow a long barreled rifle and a SBR scout rifle. The scout and sniper rifle looked like a AK 74 with the magazine in the butt stock and a Dragunov sniper rifle.

"Get to the turrets. We're heading to Mars in a minute."

They watched Frederick leave the small Armory, and slung their weapons onto their backs.

"I guess he knows our dust weapons are pretty much glorified clubs." Qrow stated getting out as well.

"I knew I shouldn't have asked." Tai lamented to himself, before leaving the armory too.

00000

The journey to the surface of Mars was both uneventful and hilarious. Hilarious when they transmatted out of their ships and Tai going headfirst into a sand dune getting a taste of Mars in his mouth. Uneventful when they haven't encountered a single enemy on their way to the City of Freehold. Tai and Qrow looked at the dilapidated and in some cases, sinking city in awe and in solemn silence. Both knowing that this city was a technological wonder, and a tomb for the humans that resided here.

As the group went through the quiet city, Summer frowned.

"What's wrong?" Qrow said, concerned as to why Summer was oddly silent.

"Something's off." She spoke, gauging her surroundings. "Normally this whole area would be swarmed with Cabal."

"What's a Cabal?"

"Cabal are a race of space-rhinos that spanned a large Empire with the sole purpose of conquering world after world. Usually it's for resources, a client race, or because the planet was in their way." She explained

"Ah, so a space alien version of Atlas?" Taiyang pitched in, having figured it out.

Summer nodded. "The reason why we haven't seen any Cabal, is that they lost the entirety of their leadership in the system, yours truly having dealt a big amount of the damage to it." Her silver eyes then shone a bit in mirth, recalling Zavala's introduction on a certain strike she did, which caused her to enter a imperial land tank outside of Rubicon. It was no small feat, as he was well protected, but Summer had the right team, and thus the Cabal warlord was no more, allowing guardian forces to have stronger position in Freehold.

"According to some Cryptarchs, the Cabal consider it taboo to promote oneself without proving themselves in conquest. So all the grunts of the Cabal war machine are following their previous orders of holding several key locations from the Vex, while giving up several others. The city of Freehold is one of the latter." Frederick said as he took in the surroundings before waving them forward. They entered a building that had the sigil of Clovis Bray on it and entered it, Drei giving the two Huntsman commentary.

"The company was founded by Clovis Bray in the early days of the Golden Age. He and his entire family for generations were responsible for numerous technological and scientific discoveries, that range from weapon manufacturing to city development to even the creation of AIs."

"Including this SIVA thing that we're looking for." Qrow said, as his eyes swept through the shadows.

The four warriors walked through the building then scaled down an elevator shaft that led into a plaza area inside the building. What they saw can be only described as massacre.

"I think we found out why we haven't seen any of these Cabal yet?" Tai said as he took in the carnage.

The room looked like it had been through five warzones. Corpses of Cabal, Psions and Fallen littered the place, with the two former outnumbering the latter 10 to 1. Scattered here and there were weird constructs that looked like a mass of red tentacles topped with black pyramids surrounded by a red cloud.

Drei scanned a nearby Cabal corpse. "Blast marks match Fallen Shrapnel Launchers, but the damage is far too big for for it." Drei then scanned a fallen corpse. "This one was a House of Kings Vandal. Emphasis on was. Now it's been augmented with biomechanical adaptations. There's an audio log here. I've translated most of it. Archiving it for Grimoire. Playing now."

"Schlllllahhhh!"

"Little King, you shall serve Devil Splicers now."

"Never, loyal to Kings! Kings forever!"

"Your cooperation isn't Consume~Enhance~Replicate required. Soon all shall bow to Devil's Banner. All shall bow to Archon Prime"

After it was finished playing, the four stood in silence until Tai broke it with a mutter. "Great, so these Devil Splicers are forcing their own kind into these things."

Drei then drifted near one of the black pyramid like constructs. As he got closer to it, the red cloud started to solidify into smaller red tentacles that reached out to Drei. As they got closer, he started to stutter and twitch, which made Summer flinch and clutch at her head. Noticing her discomfort, Frederick ran to Drei and swatted him away with his hand. With Drei far away, the red tentacles dissolved and went back to its previous form.

"That is SIVA." Frederick said gesturing to the construct. "This one, according to Lord Saladin is called a SIVA Node. It's basically a miniaturized version of a replication machine that creates SIVA in a localized area." He then pointed his weapon at it and fired a few bursts at it making it exploded into a shower of crimson sparks and retracted into the floor. Where it once was, is now a smaller back pyramid attached to a slim red tentacle. "They are also connected to one another. Where there's one, there is another, and another.

They continued through the plaza following the red tentacle and blasting at any other SIVA Node they come across, and went down a series of stairs through a doorway that led into a room with several large computer screens. Surrounding it were the bodies of Fallen vandals.

Frederick brought out his Ghost and it started to scan the computer, with Summer, Tai and Qrow coving them.

"So, you're the Summer Rose I've been hearing about."

Summer looked towards the voice, and to her surprise saw one of the dead Vandals lift itself from the ground. It then began a metamorphosis before their horrified eyes.

Blood red tendons dotted with small black and red pyramids started to emerge from its wounds, its arms twisted and shifted from organic to biomechanical, and the bullet wound in its head leaked a blood-red cloud, and saw that it healed before their eyes.

"What the hell are you?!" Qrow let out in both shock and fear, pulling out his sword-scythe and aiming it at the undead fallen.

"You can call me Aksis." It said, making a mocking bow towards its enemies.

Summer lifted her eyebrow. "So you're this Archon that's been leading these Devil Splicers I've been hearing about. I thought you'd be taller."

It laughed in a guttural tone, and hacked a glob of ether and SIVA onto the floor. "Oh you mean this?" it said gesturing to its decayed body. "I'm not really here, per say. I'm just using one of my departed as my eyes and mouthpiece, to see and speak to you personally."

Tai nearly threw up in his mouth. This Aksis was speaking through the dead using SIVA as a connection.

Beep~beep~beep

"Oh sidebar…" it said gesturing to a cylinder-like construct in the far corner. "That is a Golden-Age Portable Generator. In the past it could temporarily power this entire building as the main generator is turned off and repaired. I've augmented it personally with the Machine Gift to Consume~Enhance~Replicate to destroy all data in the event of non-Fallen entering this room. And you just triggered it!"

The screens behind them flared to life and the symbol for SIVA appeared on the screens as the beeping sound escalated. Tai, being the one closest to the construct, tried to punch it to oblivion using the butt of his shotgun. As his weapon approached it, a swarm of SIVA nanites surrounded it and attacked him. The shotgun was swarmed by the nanites before it erupted with small red tentacles writhing around. He dropped his weapon in disgust just as he felt a burning sensation on his hand and his Aura flickered around the appendage. He pulled back as the pain was too great and examined his hand. His hand looked like it just recovered from a 2nd degree burn.

"It's deleting everything in the system!" Frederick's ghost cried out. "Everytime I grab a file, three files are deleted. At this rate, there won't be much of anything to recover."

"Drei, help em out!" Summer said to her ghost, hoping that two ghosts working on it might get twice the information.

"Once it's finished destroying all information, it will unleash a highly concentrated dose of the Machine Gift, killing and infecting all within the room. I've seen what it can do to you Guardians, the results are...glorious. Your deaths will solidify my rule over all fallen in the system. Once word gets out that I've killed not only the Demon of House Devils, but the White Rose herself, all will bow before-"

Whatever he was about to say was interrupted when Qrow whipped out his scythe and sliced the body so fast his arms were a blur. When he was finished his converted it back into sword form as the body fell into tiny pieces, so small that not even SIVA can repair it.

"As I was saying…" The voice of Aksis said as he raised another dead vandal onto its feet as it went through the same metamorphosis as the previous one.

"In the event that you have disabled the device, I'm sending down an old friend of the White Rose down to personally end you all. To be fair, he was dead for several years, so we had to replace a few body parts with... others."

As he finished, something large fell down the elevator shaft. The group looked to it just in time to see their enemy, Riksis, The Devil Returned, getting up from having busted through the entrance. His body now less Fallen than it was machine, having cybernetic arms and legs instead of normal fallen limbs. He now had a SIVA node for a head that was enclosed, preventing damage to his being as it generated a force field of nanites. A bright red battery was on his chest, making it clear how they were going to kill him if they were to get this data out alive.

Riksis released a challenging, bestial roar to Summer Rose, and created a SIVA charge in his hands, before slamming it down into the ground around him, the virus spreading to the dead Fallen and Cabal, resurrecting them to fight at his side.

"You know, you should've looked at the fine print of your contract before accepting them, Riksis." She said, as she popped her arcblade, Boltcaster as the catalyst. "The devil is in the details."

She then dashed forth at the horde of enemies to quickly thin the herd, Tai and Qrow firing at Riksis from afar.

(Play 'Red' - "Who we are")

Frederick however was motionless, shock momentarily taking him as memories flooded through him. The pressure in the air seemed to shift, causing Tai and Qrow to shiver. He then put his rifle on his back and took out his sword. It glowed a bit with solar energy as if it was fueled by its rage. The sight of Riksis ignited a intense rancor, what once was a calm, steadied fire, now a out of control inferno. He brandished his sword for all to see, the eyes of the fallen widening with fear at the sight of that blade with its inscriptions that have torn through Fallen like paper in the past.

"RIKSIS!" He shout in a rage filled roar.

Summer had all but cleared most of the Fallen. But the Cabal were another story. She had made a few good dents to the old Archon she had killed many years prior after having to do so to get a FTL drive from it. Narrowly dodging a swipe from a Cabal's SIVA bladed slug gun, and thrusted her arc blade into its abdomen.

Frederick slashed his sword at a SIVA infected Captain taking its shields and ripped it in half with infected blood splashing against the floor as the upper body cease to exist in a burst of Solar energy. A Vandal tried slashing at his back with its shock blades, only for it to be split in half down the middle by the very same blade. There was no fluidity to his motions. Just pure rage as he barreled through the Fallen in a attempt to rush down Riksis. Riksis looked on in amusement at the two Guardians.

"Finally. Vengeance; a long awaited battle at hand..." It's vocal processor uttered out.

This only enraged the Titan even more, as he joined Summer in the assault. A Phalanx tried to thrust its shield at him. For a moment, the Phalanx thought it had knocked him out.

But fear gripped its biomechanical revived heart when it saw Fred's helm turn to its direction. Red dots glowed brighter than his blood red visor. Tai and Qrow had all but froze at the killing intent that the Titan was letting off now. And it scared them to their core at the Titans eyes. In one fluid motion. They saw the Titan ripped the Phalanx shield from its arm. Taking the limb with it and held in one hand. The Cabal made the mistake of looking into the red eyes of rage. Its own eyes widened.

"So this is why he's known as 'Demon of House Devils'... huh." Aksis thought, momentarily impressed by the sheer pressure he felt from the stare.

The Titan ripped the shield out of the Cabal's grasp, and thrusts it into the phalanx. The spikes at the bottom went through the now broken armor, pinning it into the wall. Tai and Qrow were utterly shocked at the sudden shift in the Titan's mood, stopping their ranged assault for a few moments, and allowing 6 stealth vandals the chance to rush them down. Much to their bad luck however, their blades came an inch away from hitting Qrow, and Tai was able to jump in the air doing a double spin kick mid-air that knocks out two of them, and he then grabs a third one, throwing it over him and slamming its head into the ground, breaking its neck.

Qrow reacted almost as fast as Tai did, and shotguns a vandal before transforming into a bird, jumping on top of a boiler, shotgunning a vandal from up on his perch.

As the fight went on, the Fallen and Cabal managed to push Summer into a corner, dozens of them surrounding her.

Or so they thought, as Summer spun in the air with her blade, releasing a wave of arc light that disintegrated them all.

Riksis just narrowed its red glowing eyes and let out a guttural roar again, as its minions had been taken out by Rose. But he was silenced when a mighty roar came from Frederick, as he unleashed his sword's exotic ability. A ball of fire then launched out of the sword, taking the form of a lion's head. The fallen had no time to react, as its fiery fangs plunge deep into the SIVA synthetic flesh, before exploding. Riksis' eyes widen, the fiery explosion having cauterized the wound inside of him, his shoulder now burnt,

The Fallen held its side and shoulder. It glares at the four warriors with disgust for a moment, before two hallway doors opened up and a SIVA tentacle came out of each one and wrapped around the distracted pro huntsmen by the ankle. It then flipped both of them onto the ground with a loud thud. They cried out in both panic and fear as the tentacles pulled them through the doors, closing with them on the other side. Frederick and Summer barely noticed it, and saw them as they went through the doors.

"NO!" Summer yelled out in a panic. She runs to the doors, breaking through them with a swift strike across the door.

Frederick looked at Summer then back to Riksis. Then back to her again. Using his Solar ability. His blade was lit ablaze every once and awhile a lion's head would gleam off of it growling a bit for every head. He then turned to Riksis like he had just killed someone important to him. And held his blade up.

"First you." Riksis pointing at him; a mechanical finger going across his throat. "Then the Rose and her little friends."

"I'm going to make you pay for what you've done." Was all he said, as the two entered a combat stance.

00000

Tai struggled to get his foot free from the SIVA tentacle dragging him along the ground. Sometimes lifting him up a but just to slam him down to daze his body from reacting.

SLAM

It happened again. He then remembered the handcannon at his thigh from early having only ever using the shotgun till he lost it when the tentacle grabbed him and made his grip loose. He pulled out the red handcanon from his thigh holster and took aim at a ball of bloated SIVA that had the nanobots floating around it. He fired three shots into it before it exploded and the tentacle dissipated into nothing. His ankle free he got up and reloaded the gun with a new cylinder. Looking about his new surroundings. He was in an unfamiliar hallway.

"Fucking perfect." He stated to himself.

He then looked about the hall for some sort of reference point. He soon saw arrows pointing down a hall saying "Data storage". Slowly walking about and keeping his gun level. He then came across another hallway that forked off. He then heard a click of a weapon and turned around only to see Qrow.

"Qrow thank the gods. I thought you were something else." Tai said

Qrow however looked over Tais shoulder and saw something behind him.

"GET DOWN!" Qrow shouted to Tai.

Tai did so and Qrow fired three rounds into whatever was walking towards them with his harbinger he managed to keep on him. Though he did lose the sniper rifle when he was grabbed by the tentacle top. The walking thing fell down as its head was blasted off. Tai and Qrow took a second to look at the body. It was human. But SIVA infected it. Qrow and Tai had to remove their helmets to puke.

"What in god's name is that!?" Qrow stated in disgust.

"I think this was once a Guardian... Aksis said that the results on guardians was impressive or something. Maybe they kidnapped regular villagers and experimented on regular people?"

"I swear if this is gonna turn into one of those zombie movies-"

A ding sound was heard and an elevator door opened up. SIVA infected humans, awoken, and exos walked out of it, cries of anguish and hunger filling the room as they poured out, rushing down the huntsmen.

"Resident Remnant Vendetta vibes much?" Tai said in a slightly irritated manner

"You know the way back to Summer and Frederick?" Qrow asked

"I do." Tai replied back, as he aims his hand-cannon at the horde. "Not like I'd wanna be running and screaming for help for something as minor as this to them."

(Play Flesh & Metal - Doom 2016 0:00)

They then saw behind them more SIVA infected humans. Two SIVA humans tried to rush down Tai, but were quickly dealt with two headshots from Peccadillo's Grace, other he bashed into a wall. Another managed to get their arms around Tai's torso, and push him back with superhuman strength, Tai being forced to hold its head back as it tried to bite him. He shoved his knee up into the attacker's stomach, it howling in pain as it let go of Tai, as he then suplexed the zombie and threw it. He then pulled out the gun, firing a round into its head.

Qrow had dodged a swing from an arm as he fired a round into the chest, causing it to fall. He fired his shotgun as he jumped backwards again and again keeping distance, the zombie horde trying relentlessly to catch him, stumbling over each other. He swapped to his sword, and dashing forward with incredible strength, quickly cleaved through into the horde, blood, guts, and wiring from infected exos flying everywhere, as he flew past them and over into the other side of the room.

"Uh, Qrow?!" Tai called out from where he was, which was the side of the room he just left. "Forgetting about someone over here!?" He continued, as he kept firing into the horde.

"I got a plan!" Was all Qrow said, as he transformed into a bird and went to the elevator, diving in between the cracks.

"WHAT PLAN INVOLVES LEAVING ME TO BE A ONE MAN ARMY?!" Tai cried out, as he emptied all his rounds into the zombies

Qrow then jumped through the elevator hatch, landing in a crouch as he looked to the zombies. "Hey shiteaters!" He goaded with a cocky tone to his voice.

Even though their primary desire was to gobble up Tai and turn him into one of their own, some part of the horde's collective brain made them turn to Qrow, who held his arms out to the sides.

"Come and gets some, freaks!"

The zombies then shifted their attention to Qrow rushing at him. Qrow does nothing but wait for them, as Tai looks on in concern for his friend. Just as the zombies began to board, Qrow jumps through the elevator's hatch, the zombies continuing to pile and flood through the hatch. He transforms once more, and after a few seconds, the elevator begins to creek, before the line snaps, sending the undead screaming back into the abyss, with only a few zombies standing at the edge of the now destroyed elevator entrance.

Seeing his opportunity, Tai rushes forth, and kicks them off the cliff as Qrow slips through, assisting Tai in his venture. As they begin to deal with the last zombie, Summer catches up to them, Gjallarhorn at the ready for whatever big bad enemy she thought would be handling Tai and Qrow. Tai and Qrow look to her.

"Oh I'm sorry, is that what you brought that for?" Tai motions to the zombie, who he holds by the head. Qrow was getting ready to smack it into the abyss with the flat end of his sword, holding it like a bat.

Her Gjallarhorn transmats back into Drei's data storage, as she smiles at them in relief. She looks at the zombie. "I suppose Aksis gotten a little wild with the SIVA?"

"You could say that again." Qrow says, before he bats the body off the head of the zombie, it falling into the abyss. "Remind us to scrub this thing clean of SIVA when we're done. Kinda want it as a trophy."

"I don't think Saladin would approve of that." Drei made to comment. "Either way, we should probably get back to Frederick."

As Drei finishes his sentence, a massive pillar of SIVA then rises out from where the elevator fell, a giant mechanical eye looking at them with a mouth of chainsaw teeth as it filled the entire elevator. Its body mainly composed of the enemies that had fallen below, the jaws of human, awoken, and exo heads sporadically spread out all around the monstrosity.

The three look at each other for a moment, Tai's and Qrow looking at her with a darkened expression. It wasn't long until Summer spoke up, wielding Thorn as she did so. "I'll admit it, this is probably my bad for jinxing it."

(Play Flesh & Metal Doom 2016 2:08)

The eye then fired a series of lasers at them, of which the group dived out of the way, firing at the wall of SIVA with their own weapons, all aiming at the eye. The mouth opened up to let loose droves of mechanical arms, all intending to grab at the huntsmen and Summer.

Qrow rushed to defend, cutting down the arms as they came. Summer, meanwhile, had transmatted the Gjallarhorn back into her hands, and began firing off rounds into the pillar's mouth. The mouth seemed to cringe in pain, before it coughed up three SIVA worms that slid across the floor, flying straight at them. Tai uses his shotgun on one of them, before grabbing the second one by the tail, using it like a club to beat down the third to death. He then throws the second one onto it's back, placing a boot on its underside before firing his shotgun into the head of it.

The eye let loose a series of rapid-fire laser shots as the mouth closed, this time hitting the huntsmen and Summer, who's shields flashed were whittled down to nothing in a matter of seconds as Tai and Qrow flew back from the damage, aura protecting them. Summer grit her teeth, as a couple lasers hit her armor, singing her flesh.

She swaps Gjallarhorn for Thorn, but not before getting grabbed by a mechanical arm that slipped through the beast's mouth. She falls to the floor as Thorn falls out of her grasp, the arm pulling her in. She digs her knife into the floor, metal screeching as the beast's grasp proves strong enough to forcefully pull Summer over regardless.

"Summer!" The two cried out, rushing to their teammates aid without pause. They were too far away, however, as Summer was already beginning to near the beast's mouth.

Much to the beast's bad luck, however, it didn't account for Drei suddenly decloaking, and ramming himself into the Gjallarhorn's trigger, which was conveniently aimed at the beast's mouth. It cries out in agony, releasing Summer of its grasp as she lays at the edge of the doorway. It then attempts to lean forward, trying to take a bite out of the building in order to devour Summer whole. It doesn't get the chance to, as Qrow lunges forwards, digging Harbringer's scythe form into the beast's eye, which was all it could take.

The monster lets out a howling death cry, as the flesh and metal then separates, falling back into the abyss.

The three take a breather as they watch it fall, before looking over to Drei and the Gjallarhorn.

"I… I did it!" Drei replied cheerfully. "I killed it!"

"Nah," Qrow replied back with a smirk, drinking a bit from his bottle. "That was all me."

00000

(Play Red-Release the panic "recalibrated")

Frederick flew across the room and slammed against the wall before crashing into the ground, his pulse rifle clattering out of his hands. Recovering from the impact he sprung back up and rushed at Riksis again, narrowly dodging a blow from the Fallen's fists. Tai took the opportunity grab Fred's pulse rifle and distract the beast with some covering fire. Frederick got three debilitating strikes into Riksis' legs before it slammed its fist into the ground causing Fred to get knocked back. Driving his sword into the ground, Frederick used the makeshift anchor to get back onto his feet.

Riksis then used SIVA to reshape the broken shock cannon into a sword. Clutching it in one of its hands, the Fallen rushed at Frederick in a flurry of blows. Frederick was beaten backwards as he did all he could to avoid getting cut and was finally able to get a solid parry in. With the Fallen momentarily stunned from the parry, Frederick spun around and knocked the sword out of Riksis' grip before making a sweeping cut at the battery housed on the Fallen's chest. The SIVA Archon screeched and fell back, breathing heavily, the shield above his head now gone, leaving him exposed. Frederick and Tai quickly aimed their weapons at its head and started magdumping into it. Bracing under the constant hail of lead, Riksis realized they had found his weakness, and reacted immediately by slamming the ground, releasing a shockwave that once again threw Frederick back. The Titan broke his fall with his sword before skidding to a stop in front of Summer.

"Aim for the battery on his chest!" Frederick said his eyes no longer red with rage, unable to be seen under his visor.

Riksis released a growl as it retrieved his sword and readied into a stance. Frederick ran forward and swung his blade aiming to disarm Riksis. As the Fallen recoiled from the hit, Frederick lobbed a grenade onto the exposed battery, but there was now SIVA metal covering it. The grenade exploded chipping off some armor but left it mostly unaffected. Summer continuously fired at it from afar, doing somewhat damage to the heavily protected battery. Riksis then brought down the broad side of his own blade at Frederick's neck, which the titan expertly countered and responded with his own counterattack.

Frederick thrusts his blade into the Riksis' shin, and the Fallen howled in pain leaving the rest of the battery exposed. Taking the opportunity, Frederick pulled out his holstered sidearm and fired seven rounds into the now again exposed battery. Pain coursed through Riksis' body as the Fallen's legs malfunctioned, forcing him to his knees. Frederick took the chance to empty the rest of his sidearm's magazine into the Fallen at point blank range.

He then jumped back to avoid Riksis second go at trying to slam its fists onto Frederick. Its face mask was nearly broken. The regenerative barrier was beginning to distort, the mechanical body weakening after a long, drawn out battle...

Realizing his chance to end this now, Frederick threw aside the empty pistol and began to chant in a language that had not been uttered for generations on Earth. Each syllable echoed with a primal power that made the air around the room feel cold. Tai felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on its end he heard Frederick's words. Undecipherable, but they bore their intent as clear as day.

Suddenly, Frederick's body was set ablaze with a brilliant light. Drei looked back at Frederick who was giving off a powerful aura of light he'd never seen, and could only stare in astonishment. Wings of light grew across Frederick's back, and his sword became sheathed in the harsh rays emanating from him. Riksis looked at his challenger, and immediately felt the terrifying presence that Frederick radiated. So explosive was this sudden burst of power that the SIVA battery collapsed from the strain. Riksis felt himself unable to move, his modified heart having finally given out.

Frederick pulled his sword from the concrete and rushed forth, almost looking like he teleported in front of Riksis. The SIVA Archon could only watch as a blast of solar light washed over him, the SIVA augments, unable to adapt to the heat in time began to overheat.

Riksis lifted its head up again to see Frederick, who grabbed him by the neck and threw him into the air with a primal scream of rage. Riksis' eyes widened in fear as Frederick raised his sword. He hurled the Archon into the air, the Archon screaming in his fallen language, as Frederick flew up, and swung his sword upwards through Riksis, cleaving him in two. Frederick watched in the air as Riksis' bisected form fell to the ground. The Archon's eyes had changed back from an infectious red to a calm shade of blue before going out completely.

"Rest easy, Riksis." Frederick stated lowly. He looked back at Tai who was still in awe at what Frederick did. Frederick flew back to the ground and dispelled the wings as Tai handed him back the black pulse rifle.

"What was that?" Summer asked, still stunned by what she saw.

"Nothing for the time being. Don't worry about it." Frederick replied, as Qrow and Tai then rushed in.

"We found some extra data lying around." Tai said, as he walked up to the remains of Riksis, retching a bit. "Nothing too big. Something about the location of a powerful SIVA engine hidden within the Cosmodrome, and how to utilize it to essentially make a never-ending factory of guns." Summer's face visibly lit up at the prospect of that.

"Sounds like something we should make note of." Frederick's ghost commented, as she turned to look at the group. "Drei and I were able to extract some data as to how we're going to do some serious crippling to the splicers. Think we should head back to Saladin?"

"Can I hear more about this endless gun factory?" Summer asked with childish glee.

"Later pipsqueak, we got a planet to save, two if it gets outta hand." Qrow said as he dragged her out by the cape.

Diluation:Right, now that the pun marathon is over, let's get back to it.

As I said before, Ptabs' notes threw us through a buncha loops, because as it turns out, Ptabs' did make plans for the Red War, and plans regarding Rahndel, which effected all of our plans, and caused some serious debate on whether or not we should follow through with the notes.

Aquilos and I also got smacked in the face with finals, which mainly left us to edit the story out and modify some bits of it that just didn't work. So in other words, a lot of the story writing here was done by Animeak and Dustinz, so big thanks for them covering our butts and laying down most of the chapter work.

Animeguy: Aww thanks Diluation you really do care.

Diluation: ...

Animeguy: Oh sorry do continue.

Diluation:We've also decided to do some stuff regarding the tie-ins to Ptabs' work. Don't worry, everyone is still canon at this very moment, the guy in charge of "Mapping A Forgotten World" is still up and going, he just gotten side-tracked by life. We've also went to do some editing for the other fireteam members' tie-ins, which is still very much in progress.

Now, with that out of the way, onto the reviews. We will not be including reviews that were posted in the news chapter, as we intend to respond only to plot-related reviews. Rest assured, however, we have all read your kind words on the news chapter.

Iron lord gore:I will say this, I do want to see team rwby on earth but honestly only for a chapter or 2, if only to kill sepiks (in the strike) or like sepiks Jr ya know? I mean seriously talk about like mother like daughter.

Diluation:Unfortunately, team RWBY isn't going to be heading to Earth.

This has been Fireteam Nero, and we hope you enjoyed the read.

~ In Memory of Ptabs0101 ~