The Dreamer Gate Vol 2: Wartide

by Malignent

Vale has fallen to the forces of the Stormbringer, who's declaration of war has seeded conflict across Remnant. As the now-separated members of Team RWBY each walk their own path to recover from the wounds gained in Vale, they'll be drawn into the complex circle of conflict now coursing through the land. For no matter where they turn, the tides of war will reach every shore.

6. The Friendly Visit

Disclaimer: I do not own Lord of The Rings, the Middle-Earth universe, Shadow of War/Mordor or RWBY.

This work will contain moments of intense violence, dark and dirty humor, and MANY canonical divergences.

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The Friendly Visit

Gatherings like this used to feel regular to Weiss

The people all dressed up, fine drinks and expensive cuisine offered on silver platters. She remembered how genuine her smile used to be during these scenarios, not just out of pride, but of superiority. These were moments to showcase and indulge in the power of position, where one could take comfort in the admiration and jealousy of all those around them. Even when they weren't the ones hosting the celebrations, Jacques Schnee made sure that none could take their eyes off of them.

It felt good, seeing the envy in the eyes of the lesser aristocrats as they pined for their power. It was proof that the Schnees had something they desired, something they yearned for.

She could see it now as she stood beside her parents, the occasional glances that were cast their way or the smiles shared in earnest. Underneath all of them was this sense of hunger that was practically tangible to those versed in the ways of the Atlas elite. Jacques had asserted the dominance of the Schnees over each and every one of the people here, the gap between them and even the second richest family was nearly insurmountable. And for Weiss, she too once took pride in the status her name had acquired.

But not after Beacon, not after she'd known what it truly felt to be admired.

Not for power, not for wealth, not even for her name.

But for her, for her willpower, her ambition.

Compared to the respect of her teammates, the looks coming from those around her hurt. Jacques had told his children numerous times that even a sliver of weakness would prompt the gluttonous elites around them to surge into a feeding frenzy, but Weiss had never truly realized how literal the statement was before. She remembered the impressed look of genuine fascination that Ruby would give her whenever she taught her a lesson, the begrudging respect that Yang gave whenever Weiss predicted the unfortunate outcomes of her more rash decision-making, the competitive chivalry she'd managed to form with Blake when dominating study sessions.

They were nothing like the seething maelstrom of jealousy, spite and lust filtered through the glimmering faces around her.

Weiss knew better than to let her discomfort show. Despite her time at Beacon, she was still fully capable of masking her distaste behind impassive indifference as she enjoyed a glass of fine cider. Her eyes wandered to the side, where her father stood with his wife at his side. They were surrounded by the Atlas Elite, who looked on as Jacques answered questions over the charity event.

Even from where she stood, Weiss could see Willow's shaking hands bring a glass of a much stronger drink to her lips. Upon drinking, her jitters evened out as Jacques rubbed her shoulder.

It was odd now, watching as he spoke to those around them. He'd spent longer recognizing the hunger among the upper crust of Atlas society, had probably recognized the danger they posed long ago. Every word he spoke was annunciated with authority, the gestures of his free hand casually establishing his control of the conversation. Before Weiss thought he was just good at speaking, but now she realized it went farther than that. It was like watching a man order around a pack of hungry lions, commanding them through sheer presence alone.

It was as terrifying as it was impressive.

Looking down at her own glass, Weiss wondered how she looked throwing around her family's name. Compared to the way Jacques pulled the reins on the envious, her own attempts seemed laughable in comparison.

The conversation ran its course, and soon Jacques gestured towards a buffet laid out nearby. The assembly of diplomats, partners and business owners made their way over, giving them space for the first time since the party started. Weiss wasn't sure if she wanted to curse Whitley or be impressed by how quickly he managed to slip away, having disappeared almost as soon as the charity showcase ended.

Once those around them left, Willow's gaze immediately turned towards a passing server with more glasses on his tray. Weiss looked down to see that in the few seconds she'd been paying attention to Jacques, her mother had finished her glass completely. Though she tried to look away as Willow made for the server, she saw as Jacques' hand shot out with haste and subtlety to grab Willow by the elbow before she could get far.

Her mother looked back to him, confusion evident in her hazy gaze. He hadn't looked at her, his own eyes still surveying the crowd before them.

"Moderate yourself in the presence of our guests, honey." he said before turning to look at her "Please."

Willow blinked twice before nodding, "...Of course."

Jacques released her, letting her make for the tray with a much more elegant pace than before. Weiss's fingers tightened around her own glass, her attention only drawn away by the low sigh that Jacques gave under his breath as he folded his arms behind his back.

Weiss saw her chance; it would've been rude to wander off in the midst of a conversation like that, but now she just needed to find Cardin and the others. She'd taken Cardin along as her date, with Ciel acting as her plus one. They were supposed to go over the final stages of their plan together, but of course Weiss had to have been dragged into a discussion with business partners. She had seen glimpses of them throughout the crowd, they couldn't be too far off.

But before she could ask if she could seek them out, her father surprised her by speaking first.

"Leonard Spiltz." he stated seemingly at random "Net Worth 5 billion lien, its almost impressive he managed to network his way into this gathering."

"Excuse me?" Weiss looked up at him, only to find his gaze wandering before locking onto another one of the attendees

"Filianore Fianze," he closed his eyes for a moment "Net Worth fifty Billion Lien. Remember when I tried getting you two to play together as kids?"

Weiss blinked as she followed his gaze to a young woman that Weiss couldn't remember, but her name was instantly recognizable, "No... I know of her family though."

Jacques shrugged "Just goes to show how much of a waste that effort was, then." he hummed to himself before glancing to her "I used to quiz you on them like this, Weiss. Remember?"

Now that, Weiss did remember. Nodding, she looked up to him, "It was for networking, right? Being able to identify so many of the rich-"

"Not rich, Weiss, powerful." Jacques stated "Money is a measurement of power, sure, but influence is more of a concern if you want to properly network."

Forcing herself not to roll her eyes, Weiss nodded, "Obviously."

"Is it obvious?" Jacques asked her before gesturing towards another patron "Tell me then, how much?"

Weiss took a breath before concentrating, "In Net Worth? I'm sure he's one of the Alissons-"

"No," Jacques interrupted "His worth as a person."

Weiss slowly looked up to Jacques, "His... what?"

"He's got a Net Worth of almost thirty billion to his name..." Jacques explained "But he's got no influence that he hasn't stolen from his mother. Untrained in any forms of business, management, or industrial know-how at all. All his actions are dependent on his family, and severed from them he'd be wasting away in a month."

Looking to Weiss, Jacques brought a hand up to himself, "So tell me, Weiss. For people like us, what is our worth in influence?"

Weiss swallowed before cracking a smile at the question, "If you're comparing us to someone like him, then I'd say its innumerable."

"As it should be." Jacques stood straight once more, "I've noticed you haven't sent me any of those updates, so I figured your friends have sated your desire for a private network."

The dramatic shift in the conversation left Weiss unprepared, "Its not that!" she said quickly, "I just don't want to... mess it up. I've got to get myself back in the right mindset."

"If you don't want to do it then simply don't do it." Jacques stated "I've already told you that lying to me is too much of a waste of your time for me to tolerate."

Narrowing her gaze, Weiss looked away, "I'd like to go look for my friends, Father."

Jacques looked to her for a moment, "You mean that girl and the boyfriend you've been holding to?"

"Who else?" Weiss looked around "Besides Whitley, I'm sure there's not many people around here that I could talk to."

Looking back to him, she added, "Besides, me and him are kind of a thing, shouldn't we be seen together?"

To her surprise, Jacques brought a hand up to his mouth and looked down before holding back a chuckle. It was off-putting, her father was not a man to laugh regularly. Every time she heard it, it often meant that he'd won something in some way.

Looking to her, Jacques pulled his hand away and straightened his tie, "Weiss, you go ahead and find your friends. Enjoy yourself for as long as you wish."

Despite the nice words, the way his face returned to that analytical state it was in regularly caused a chill to run along her spine. Just as she turned away to begin her search, her discomfort was confirmed as Jacques spoke again.

"Just know that I don't buy that relationship of yours for a second." he stated evenly.

Weiss looked back at him, unnerved by the ease by which he spoke. Jacques wasn't even looking at her, his gaze still scanning the crowd before stepping away. As he left, he gave a wave behind his back towards Weiss.

"I hope that whatever you think you're using me for is suitably beneficial to you in the long run, Weiss." he said without looking to her "A Schnee knows better than to waste their own time."

The ease with which he said it led Weiss to Stomp away, failing to mask her anger. She talked herself down, he would've been more specific if he was fully on to her. She still had a shot, the plan wasn't ruined. Taking a breath, she held her head up again and began to work her way through the crowd. She knew the pattern, smile and wave whenever you lock eyes with someone. Thankfully, nobody pressed for further conversation, soon she spotted the familiar head of Klein amongst the crowd.

He was talking to two of the catering staff, pointing to the drinks and entrees on their trays before gesturing to a new group of attendees that had formed around Jacques on the other side of the grand room. Weiss couldn't help but feel lucky that she'd managed to get out of getting dragged into that particular assembly. But as she saw the two caterers make their way towards them, she saw an opportunity to approach Klein.

"Ah," he smiled at her approach "are you enjoying yourself, Miss?"

"Its lovely, Klein." she nodded before drawing close "And uh... my Date? Would you happen to know where-?"

Klein held up a hand before nodding towards a glass door which led to the balcony. Outside, she spotted the heads of Cardin and Ciel in fancy attire, partially concealed by several display plants set up near the windows. Weiss gave a sigh of relief before nodding to Klein.

"And you'll be happy to know that things on my end are rather well." he said before giving her a subtle wink and walking off.

Weiss actually found herself smiling at that, it seemed like his part in the plan was ready. That just left the others to check in with, and they were even in a subtle spot given how many people were around. Weiss hiked up her dress a bit and made for the glass door with haste, far more haste than she should've. Halfway there, she bumped into someone who was also speed walking away from a nearby crowd.

Weiss caught herself, looking up with agitation only to grow surprised to see one of the Ace-Ops.

"Ugh, watch where you're-!" the woman looked up, her own anger fading upon recognizing Weiss "You're... Sorry Ma'am, was kind of in a hurry."

"You're with Ace Ops." Weiss turned to her, "Harriet, right?"

"Harriet Bree, Yeah." she said while standing straight and looking past her "Look, Miss, I really gotta get back to my squad so..."

"Oh, right." Weiss stood aside "Sorry about that."

"Nothing to be sorry about, Ma'am." a voice spoke out that drew both of their attention.

Harriet recognized it immediately and gave a salute as a tall man approached "Clover sir, sorry to say but the Buffet was all out of cheesecake."

"Well they know what to go for, I'll give 'em that." He said with a sigh.

Standing not far behind him were the rest of the Ace Ops, a sight which Weiss wasn't prepared to be so close to. Assembled from only the best students from Atlas academy, these five were the gold standard of Military accomplishment. Initially Ace Operatives were just a title given to exceptional Atlas Specialists, such as Clover Ebi. Even among the other Atlas Specialists, his skill and technique had him picked by Ironwood as the first ever Ace Operative.

Slowly her eyes went past him towards Elm Ederni, the second Ace Operative who's sheer brawn and physical capabilities allowed her to rampage her way to the top ranks of the Atlesian Military. She was busy hefting around a large platter of food happily offering it to her compatriots. Marrow and Vine were looking the offerings over with polar opposite reactions. Whereas Marrow Amin seemed confused on where to start, Vine Zeki was trying in vain to display his lack of hunger to his teammate.

"Though no threats to security have presented themselves, we should still focus on keeping aware." he tried telling Elm "There are too many people of note here to simply grow lax with their oversight."

"Bah!" Elm waved him off while holding the massive tray with one hand "There isn't a Scarf, Fang or Uruk capable of getting this far into Atlas without rustling some feathers."

As she spoke, she drew a thick leg of cooked meat from the table "Besides, how can you properly defend something on an empty stomach?! Eat Vine, come on!"

Vine merely shook his head. He was brought into the Ace Ops right after Elm, as the two had been teammates throughout most of their time at Atlas. Though nowhere near as strong as Elm, his quick decision-making, situational awareness and encyclopedic knowledge gave him top scores across the board. Instead of trying to counter her enthusiasm, Vine looked down to Marrow, who was still fretting of what to try first.

Marrow was the most recent member of the Ace Ops, getting recruited into the squad only three years ago. His rise to the top had been influenced almost entirely by Harriet. Having joined the squad a year earlier than him through strength and especially by clever utilization of her semblance, Harriet always had an eye out for other semblances that tickled her fancy. Marrow's was one she'd been fascinated with ever since taking note of him, arguing that a capability like that needed to be used to the fullest of its potential. For his final year at the academy she'd practically heckled him night and day, running him through her own drills and study programs. Though he hated it, Marrow wasn't one to pass up on the opportunity of earning the bragging rights associated with becoming a part of a team like the Ace Ops.

Evening his gaze, Vine nudged him, "You don't have to pick now, the event won't be ending for a while."

"Look, V, the platters in front of me." Marrow stated as he gestured to it with both hands "What am I supposed to NOT eat something?"

Vine blinked slowly, "Yes."

"If you have trouble picking one thing," Elm dragged him close and lowered the entire platter before him "then just take all of it!"

"Not everyone's stomach is as limitless as yours, Elm." Vine pointed out before raising a finger "Marrow's would likely explode before he got halfway through all of that."

"Ah! Wait what?" Marrow spun on him, putting his hands on his hips in indignation "You don't know that!"

"I have eyes, so I do." Vine stated

"I could probably eat just as much as her if not moreso." Marrow looked away with a smug expression, only for it to fade once Elm's hand found his shoulder.

"So," she leaned down to him "I'm thinking this is grounds for a contest if I've ever seen one!"

"What?!" Marrow tried to back away, only for Harriet to call out towards him

"Hey! I hear fear's great for burning calories, gonna need as much room as possible if ya wanna get through that, M!"

"I didn't agree to anything!" he stammered before turning back to Vine "Tell them!"

"Hmm, it seems far too late to diffuse the situation, Marrow." Vine shrugged before looking to him "Would you like for me to call an ambulance now or after the competition? One guarantees a much higher chance of survival than the other."

As Harriet laughed at Marrow's plight, Weiss watched as Clover brought a hand up to his face.

"Not exactly an image matching our notoriety, eh?" he asked as he glanced back to Weiss.

Realizing that she'd been staring, she waved a hand, "No no, I'm still impressed that you guys are here to begin with." Weiss lowered her drink a bit "I mean, I get the showcase, but the after party?"

"Yeah, well its just a precaution." Clover turned to her with a sigh "With how many threats the Blue Scarves have been issuing nowadays, the General wants us looking after every event of this magnitude."

"I seem to recall the Blue Scarves making tons of threats even before they were labeled an active threat." Weiss pointed out

"Yeah, but the bastards keep getting more and more cocky by the day." Harriet turned back to her whilst clenching a fist "Not even two hours ago we had a transport ship go down, entire crew crippled, apparently there were Scarves among the protection detail."

"Wait what?!" Weiss asked, only for Clover to wave a hand in front of her

"That is a situation currently undergoing investigation," Clover stated before side-eyeing Harriet "and not something to worry Civvies with, Bree."

Getting the message, Harriet gave a silent salute as she pressed her lips tightly together.

Clover stepped back before shooting Weiss a smile, "Really, it doesn't have much to do with General Ironwood's decision. He just doesn't want to take any risks when so many cornerstones of Atlas society are gathered like this. And its not like this many powerful people gather together regularly, your Dad certainly has a talent for getting them moving."

Weiss wanted to hear more about the incident with the ship, but knew better than most not to push it. She'd interacted with her sister long enough to know just how impossible it was to get Atlas Specialists to talk about things considered unnecessary for the ears of outsiders. Besides, if everything went well tonight it wouldn't even be her problem to deal with. If Ironwood already had it being looked into, she could at least have faith in him. So, swallowing her curiosity, she nodded to Clover's words.

"Well, I'd try to be humble in the face of such a statement, but..."

Clover smirked before turning away to look over the crowd, "Seriously though, my own parents took me to one of these things when I was a kid. I used to think they were just stuffy gatherings for old folks to posture at. But now? Knowing what I know about the Kingdom? These conversations get way more engaging."

"I mean," Harriet rubbed at the back of her head whilst following his gaze "if that's your thing, sure."

Now it was Weiss' turn to hold back a snicker, instead turning back to look at the rest of the team, "I've probably seen it too many times. To me, seeing you and your friends enjoying yourselves together is far more entertaining."

Though Clover smiled at that, Harriet raised an eyebrow, "Friends?"

Weiss looked back to her, confusion growing on her face, "Are you not? Save for a few outliers, most of the teams I knew at Beacon got real close."

Harriet waved it off, "Pfft, we aren't the best because we're 'friends' or anything like that. We're the best because our abilities compliment each other and our group cohesion is practically unrivaled."

Weiss' face fell, "Oh..."

Shrugging, Harriet walked back to her teammates, "Sorry if it doesn't fit the bill, kid. We get along and can have some fun together no doubt, I just like to keep things professional when working."

As she left, Clover took note of Weiss's expression, "Even if she says that, we're still pretty good acquaintances when we're off the job."

"Yes, but..." Weiss trailed off for a moment before looking up at him "You must have a lot on your plate leading them."

"Its daunting at times, yeah." he shrugged before looking them over "But I like to think experience helps fill in where I'm lacking."

"Of course," Weiss looked down to her glass for a moment before taking a sip and stepping away "I do hope you guys enjoy the party anyway."

Clover waved goodbye to her, but Weiss' smile fell the moment she looked away.

She didn't know why, but seeing the Ace Ops joke around and have fun reminded her of Beacon, when she and all of her friends ate together and chatted about all manner of things. Laughing and arguing with just as much vigor. Yet the way Harriet spoke about her own team, it wasn't the same. Weiss knew she should've known better, that kind of friendship was far more rare in Atlas than she would've hoped. Which was just another reason that she couldn't stay there.

Pushing open the glass door, Cardin immediately pushed himself away from the rail of the balcony and slipped past Ciel to glare at her.

"Where were you?" Cardin demanded "You said you were going to meet us after your Dad was done welcoming guests!"

"Well he got into a discussion right when he finished and I just so happened to be there." Weiss explained while closing the door behind her "Its fine-"

"It is not fine!" Cardin stated before gesturing towards himself "I had to wander around by myself for nearly half an hour getting heckled by the other rich kids around here, and you wanna know the only thing they cared about?"

Weiss sighed, "No but I get the feeling you're going to tell me anyw-"

"You!" Cardin pointed to her before feigning a fancy accent "Oho, that Schnee girl's quite the catch Cardy-boy. However did you two meet? Ya banging yet?"

"Okay they did not ask that." Weiss stated

"Might as well have." Cardin crossed his arms and looked away as Weiss walked by.

"Everybody thinks you're dating the richest Heiress on the planet, Cardin." she looked back to him "Honestly I don't know what you were expecting."

Leaving him to grumble to himself for a second, Weiss looked to Ciel, "How about you? I hope it wasn't too taxing."

"I found all conversations directed towards me easy to reply to, Ma'am." Ciel folded her hands in front of her dress.

Weiss gave a sigh of relief. Unlike Cardin, she could only bring Ciel as a plus one. While Cardin should've had at least some familiarity with social gatherings like this, Ciel was a soldier-type through and through. Weiss had honestly been worried about her the most, but was thankful that things seemed to go by fairly normally.

"What conversations?" Cardin asked as he looked to Ciel "When I found you, you were standing in the back all alone."

"The other attendees seemed to take my concise replies with little gratitude," Ciel admitted as she lowered her gaze "once they left I thought it prudent not to waste anyone else's time with my presence."

"Oh, wow..." Weiss reached out and ever so awkwardly placed a hand on her shoulder "I'm... sorry that happened to you."

"Your condolences are... appreciated." Ciel nodded to her, only for the moment to be ruined by an unexpected voice speaking up.

"Really showing your improvements there, Sis."

Wiess' head immediately snapped towards the other side of the balcony, where Whitley was inspecting some of the display plants, "Whitley? When did you-?"

"Oh I was the one who showed them over here." Whitley stated as he looked up to her with a smirk "The moment I noticed your friend and... hmph, your Darling Boyfriend wandering around like lost lambs I felt obligated to help them out."

Ciel leaned close to Weiss and whispered, "We couldn't get him to leave."

Of course, Weiss should've known better than to underestimate Whitley's ability to get involved in her business, he'd always been far too curious for his own good.

"Honestly, Weiss." Whitley nodded towards Ciel "I'm surprised you dragged her to this thing, I'm not even her friend and I know she doesn't fit in."

"Maybe I just like the company, Whitley." Weiss folded her arms "Ever thought of that?"

"Why yes, I did." Whitley shrugged "But here I was thinking your time at Beacon would make you more compassionate than to force someone into a situation as awkward as this."

Narrowing her eyes, Weiss looked away, "I didn't force anything. Not everyone's so used to bossing around servants as to see it as the default mode interaction."

"Uh oh." Ciel murmured to herself, recognizing fairly quickly what the situation was quickly devolving into. Cardin, on the other hand, didn't seem to get the memo.

"Uh oh?" he looked down to Ciel "What's 'Uh oh'? What's happening here?"

Whitley had thrown down the Gauntlet, the path before Weiss became clear. In order to get him to leave them to their plotting, she'd have to beat him in a single round of verbal sparring. Time was crucial, and already the ball had been tossed from one court to the other several times. But Weiss had anticipated this, knowing he probably had as well. Preparing their forces under the guise of simple retorts, the true battle had yet to begin. It would be the last time Weiss would be able to engage in such warfare with her brother for some time, but she wouldn't let such thoughts provide him weaknesses to exploit.

Truly, neither of them would be holding back this time.

Cardin watched from the sidelines with growing annoyance as he watched Weiss argue with her brother using far too many words for his liking. Nudging Ciel, he leaned down to her.

"Explain, now." he demanded, only for Ciel to give a short sigh.

"Ah, that's right. You usually aren't here for this." she noted as they both watched the siblings toss well-worded insults at each other "I am unsure whether this is a family dynamic or not, but I've seen that these two can go on for hours like this."

That tidbit only seemed to anger Cardin further, "We don't have hours, my plus one could show up at any moment."

"Your what?" Weiss glanced to the side, a foolish move that Whitley quickly capitalized on.

"Oh, not able to keep track of your boytoy, sister?" he asked before suppressing a chuckle "That's adorable."

Weiss subtly gritted her teeth, that one interruption had cost her valuable territory and put her back on the defensive. It wasn't crippling, but she made sure to shoot Cardin a nasty glare before returning to the battle at hand. Even as she resumed the bloody brawl, Weiss couldn't get Cardin's words out of her head. Him bringing a plus one wasn't a part of the plan, making her question why he would do such a thing. But even as she continued to wage war against Whitley, a chilling thought wormed its way into the back of her head.

There was a possibility that it was just that, a horrifying thought.

But not a moment later, the glass door opened...

And soon that thought became reality.

"Ah, finally found you." a distressingly familiar voice spoke as Weiss slowly turned towards it "And the brother too? Lucky me."

Closing the door behind him, Dove Bronzewing smirked at them whilst reaching up to adjust his tie, "I saw you had escaped your father's proximity and figured you'd make your way here eventually."

Weiss whirled on Cardin, "You brought... him?!"

"Now I know what this looks like-!" Cardin held up his hands, only for Whitley to cut in.

"Um, excuse me? Who is this?" he asked, only for Dove to gesture to him with a glass of liquid.

"I'm the guy wondering what kind of party you folks think you're trying to make here." Dove frowned before shaking his head "I've been looking around since it started and there isn't a single woman dancing scantily upon a table."

Whitley blinked, struggling to determine whether he was joking or not. Dove's look of disappointment gave no answers, but it didn't need to for Weiss to already feel a headache coming on.

"Maybe that's because most people have something called shame, Dove." She bit "Ever heard of that?"

Dove tilted his head a bit before snapping his fingers and grinning, "Ah, you mean being boring!"

Weiss groaned, "Shame isn't the same as-"

"Its called 'being Boring' Weiss." Dove interrupted before taking a swig of his drink "I can tolerate it but don't go letting the boring off the hook or else they'll never learn anything."

"You still haven't answered my question." Whitley gestured to him "Who are you to speak ill of our guests like that?"

"Just a personal assistant and nothing more, kid." Dove shrugged, the label causing Whitley to narrow his gaze a bit "Well, not even that. I guess you could say I'm kind of in training for that, but such details are probably nothing to such rich and powerful kiddos like yourselves."

The sheer amount of patronization held in those words led Weiss to turn on Cardin again, "I repeat... You... Brought... HIM?!"

"I needed his help with some..." Cardin coughed into a hand before briefly glancing to Whitley "Stuff... down in Mantle."

"That doesn't explain why he's here, Cardin." Weiss gestured behind her, only for her to glance to the side when one of Dove's hands found her shoulder.

"Oh really? How odd." Dove snickered as he stepped past her and stood beside Cardin "Surely its not strange to invite a close, childhood friend to an event?"

Cardin sighed, "You know that's not what I meant by that, Dove."

Dove shrugged before glancing back to Weiss, "Even so, the fact such an idea seems moot to you is shocking. I thought you had so much fun with those teammates of yours, but I guess that was all for show."

"No, I just don't think I've known one person who'd actually be willing to tolerate you without some kind of caveat." Weiss pointed out before nodding to Cardin "Even at Beacon it seemed your team put up with you out of necessity."

"Such harsh words, I'm actually impressed." Dove snickered before tapping a finger against his cheek "You practice any on the hordes of disenfranchised workers dying in your family's mines, pal?"

Weiss stepped forward, only for Cardin to subtly slide in between them. But before Weiss could command him out of the way, Cardin's head snapped towards Dove.

"Damn it man, this isn't what we're here for." Cardin grunted out, clearly holding back his own annoyance "Why the hell do you gotta be pulling this shit now of all times?!"

Dove sighed, drinking some more from his glass, "Honestly, if none of you can figure out that then this isn't going to work."

"What?!" Weiss demanded, only for her to catch a whiff of something, "Wait a minute, is that alcohol in your drink?"

Dove groaned "Of course, how else would I be able to put up with such a boring event? If there's no scantily-clad women on tables, the solution is alcohol seventy-five percent of the time."

Ciel put a finger to her chin, "I doubt such numbers line up."

"No wait," Cardin narrowed his gaze at Dove "I tried getting one of those harder drinks, but the servers said they were for older attendees."

"And you let that stop you? Geez, no wonder you need me." Dove raised a finger "Just find a Faunus Server and threaten to accuse them of stealing something from you if they don't hand over the goods. Works every four out of five times."

"Not sure those line up either." Ciel actually lifted her wrist and began poking at her watch to display several numbers.

"Quite the literal one you have here, Weiss." Dove commented before shrugging "Between her and Cardin, I'd be more appreciative that someone like me can hang around to liven up the scene."

Weiss physically felt her muscles tightening up, but wasn't sure if he was being serious or just trying to piss her off again. It was uncanny how much spite she held for him, as he didn't even realistically rank in the top forty of her biggest problems in life. Yet somehow, at that very moment the sheer irritation he inspired in her outweighed them all. How long had Cardin put up with him? Weren't they childhood friends? It was realizations like that that might have made Weiss pity him if not for the fact that he'd made his problem her's by literally inviting it in.

The sound of clapping drew her attention back to Whitley.

"My my, at first I was wondering how such foul-mouthed ignoramuses managed to get into this event." he said whilst slowly clapping away "But then I remembered they're with you, and then it all just clicked together."

Weiss's eyes widened, but she quickly suppressed it. Dove's sheer abilities of irritation had distracted her from her battle with Whitley, who had seized upon it to gain an oppressive lead.

"Pfft, as if you could lump him in with my companions." She retorted quickly, trying to recapture territory without displaying how badly his play had struck. But tragedy was about to befall her beleaguered and broken forces.

Because Dove just kept on talking.

"Yeah, I'm more like an unfortunate acquaintance for her right now." Dove admitted whilst swirling his drink in his hand "Preferably I wouldn't have to deal with either of you two on a good day."

"Oh please," Whitley tried to wave him off "a nobody such as yourself should be thankful to even stand within our domicile."

"Would you be thankful visiting a gilded dumpster?" Dove wondered before grinning as he looked between him and Weiss "Actually, now that I'm mentioning it, you people would probably be salivating over it."

This time Weiss could see it, Whitley's eyes narrowing as he turned to him, "If by 'you people' you mean-"

"A couple bratty rich kids with shrill voices that would make crows jealous?" Dove interrupted, only stoking Whitley's annoyance further.

"No, I meant-"

"Frail-looking children me and my pals used to stuff into lockers for a good laugh?"

"No, darn it all! I'm saying that I'm-!"

"Wasting your precious time trying to deny the truth?" Dove finished for him, only for another voice to chime in.

"Well what about you Dove!?" Weiss interjected, receiving a glance from both him and Whitley "You want to smack talk us so much, but I've not seen you do or say a single thing that doesn't piss everyone around you off! What, do you get off on being hated?"

"Definitely," both Dove and Cardin stated at the same time, with Cardin openly sighing as he shook his head.

"Ah, so that's what this is." Whitley finally lowered his tone again as he turned a slight glare towards Dove "A sad attempt to fulfill some kind of petty fetish."

He glanced to Weiss, who hardened her own gaze in response. For now, and only now while dealing with dove, things would have to play differently.

They'd have to combine forces.

"Sad attempt, more like pathetic if you ask me." Weiss looked away "Sad would be giving credit it doesn't deserve."

"And I'm not sure even the greediest of loan sharks would be willing to give credit to such a comedic performance." Whitley followed up.

Dove looked in between the two of them before taking another sip of his drink, "Oh wow, you guys are really piling on, aren't you." he glanced around "Anyone else want in on this thing they've got going on? Cardin?"

Cardin glared at him, but shook his head, "No I... I think I know what you're doing."

"What about you sweetheart?" he asked Ciel, who raised a hand in objection.

"I have recently learned to distance myself from long-winded arguments like this." she stated with certainty.

"Hmm, least one of you is quick on the ball." Dove turned back to Weiss and Whitley "So then, was it funny?"

Weiss frowned, trying to discern the movements of his forces, "What?"

"The performance," Dove gestured to Whitley "if it was so comedic then it has to have been funny, right?"

Whitley looked away, folding his arms over his chest, "Well if you're going to pry I suppose I should be honest, that label was mostly me being generous."

"Ah..." Dove nodded for a moment before winking "So this is Schnee Generosity."

Weiss's eyes widened first, she tried to warn Whitley by shooting him a pointed look, but Dove moved first.

"I suppose its better than financial devastation, so I'll take it!" Dove gestured to him before downing the rest of his glass, the sudden smile causing Whitley's smirk to fall.

"Excuse me?" he demanded, only to flinch back as Dove approached.

"Well considering how many lives you people tend to ruin daily, pulling words must mean we're best pals already!" Dove offered his hand as he approached "Guess that means I have to treat you like one now, eh?"

"Don't change the subject, Dove!" Weiss stated

"Hey now, Whitley, your crazy sister's getting all uppity," Dove noted without even looking at Weiss "you sure she's fit to take over the company?"

"Why would that even matter?!" Whitley demanded, flinching as Dove pulled him into a side hug.

"Your right, she doesn't!" Dove gave him a wink before gesturing towards the windows with his glass, waving it over the crowd assembled inside "Let's talk about something more fun, how many of these ladies ya banged?"

Whitley locked up, "I... you... What?!"

"Come on, insanely rich young man in Atlas?" Dove waved his empty glass around "You must be absolutely rampaging through the finer sex around here."

"You don't have to answer that, Whitley!" Weiss shouted

"I...I..." Whitley tried to formulate a response, time Dove used to wave Weiss off again.

"Shouting orders just because he's got no chance of usurping that position from you?" Dove shook his head "Dear Lord, Weiss, I thought you were above bullying family."

Whitley shoved Dove away, "S-She doesn't!"

"Its okay, Whitley!" Dove laughed as he caught his footing "Just us pals here. I'll make sure she never lays a finger on you again! Want me to hook you up with a finer lass in the meantime?"

"No!" Whitley stammered out as he shook his head "You don't get to just do that!"

"I get it, you probably don't need my help given how many beds you're warming." Dove shrugged before jerking a thumb towards himself "Doesn't mean I can't be the best Wingman I can. I've already got over a dozen of them in there thinking I'm the son of a foreign Duke here for public relations. We combine that with your absolutely flawless standing and track record and you'll be getting rode into the ground by nightfall."

"That's it!" Whitley snapped before turning away.

"What?" Weiss spun on him in surprise "What do you mean you're-"

He yanked open the glass door and marched inside in a huff before Weiss could even finish.

She could scarcely believe her eyes; she and Whitley had argued with each other for years, since they were children, even with Winter back when she was the Heiress. Yet even as little kids, she could count the times he actually fled from a conversation on one hand. She tried retracing her steps, figuring out where she'd made her critical error. She and him bounced off of each other seamlessly, yet even still Dove had managed to weather their assault and eliminate one of them with barely any effort.

Had she underestimated him? Was he smarter than she'd thought? Was the power of pissing people off just that damn effective at breaking through reasoned detractions?

All these thoughts and more danced in Weiss' mind as she watched Dove stroll by and close the glass door, and each and every one of them just angered her further.

"I counted about twenty-four." Dove mused as he unfastened the buttons on his suit jacket "Looks like you're in the lead, Weiss."

Sighing, Weiss massaged her temple, "If its a lead for you then I probably need to get it fixed fast."

Dove looked back to her before rolling his eyes and setting aside his glass on a guardrail nearby, "Last time I counted how many buttons I needed to press in order to work you over my count was at Thirty-Seven. He fled after twenty four, so I usually would rank him lower than you. But given how emotional you were getting I suppose I should take a recount after we're done here."

"You're already done, Dove." Weiss closed her eyes and sighed "I don't know why Cardin brought you here but if you think I'm going to let you wander back into that party you're absolutely insane."

Dove paused as he was reaching a hand into his suit pocket, looking to Weiss before shaking his head while pulling out a pack of cigarettes, "Should really keep a lid on that temper, Weiss. Won't do you any good during your escape tonight."

Weiss froze up, those words causing her to look at Dove as he casually pulled out a lighter and lit himself a cigarette. But ever so slowly she turned back around to Cardin.

Knowing what she was about to say, he coughed into a fist, "Look I needed help getting the ship, okay?"

"You told him?!" she questioned with rising panic.

"Oh don't go getting bent at him over it," Dove said whilst patting himself on the chest "Cardin knows better than to try to hide stuff from me, I know him better than he knows himself."

Cardin turned a glare on him, "The hell do you mean by that?"

"Don't pretend you don't know." Dove stated

While they went back and forth for a moment, Weiss was suffering from nothing less than an intense pit of regret forming in his torso. Dove finding out about her plan was so unexpected that she'd never developed a contingency for it, but now that it was happening she was coming to realize that this was one of the worst case scenarios.

"You couldn't pick... anyone else?" Weiss looked to Cardin once more "I can't leave the Manor unsupervised, but you couldn't ask for Klein to help? What about Ciel?"

"How you wound me, woman." Dove said whilst walking by again to take a seat on the rail, "Not even hearing what I bring to the table and already wishing for my absence."

"That's something I just hope for generally, Dove." Weiss corrected him before sighing "But by all means, what is it you're 'Bringing to the Table'?"

"An old Hen Model 8 delivery ship sanctioned for scrapping down in Mantle." He stated whilst plucking the cigarette from his lips and giving a small puff of smoke over the side of the rail "I've had its retrofitting finished early this morning so its just waiting for us to pick it up."

Weiss blinked, leaning up before looking him up and down for a moment, "And this isn't some ploy to piss me off?"

Dove rolled his eyes before gesturing to Cardin and taking another drag from his cigarette, "He can vouch for me."

"Yeah we looked it over together." Cardin nodded, which only made Weiss turn an incredulous expression on him.

"And you couldn't... have done it without Dove?"

"Oh he definitely had the money for it, especially with all those funds you've been ever so slightly sliding his way." Dove noted before leaning back and glancing at Cardin "But if you really believes he has the ability to set up less-than-legal incursions like this, then obviously you don't know him like I do."

"Well then how did you set it up?!" She demanded, not prepared for Dove to close his eyes and speak quickly.

"Winchester Armaments sometimes receives metal scrapped from a scrapyard in Mantle, I happened to pay off several of the workers there to inform me of any old ships going to bat then simply picked out the one that would be most compatible with retrofitting after looking them up on the CCT. Then I snooped around a few hangars, sniffed out some illegal shipments slipping out then used that to blackmail a pilot into letting me use his hangar spot for storage while he was out on delivery, hired a couple underground engineers to fit the H-8 and even hired several underpaid Faunus to help with the labor after-"

Weiss held up a hand, gesturing for him to stop which he surprisingly did, "And you expect me to believe that you did all of that since Cardin told you?"

"No, he's actually really good with helping me with things like this." Cardin rubbed at the back of his head "The second I heard we needed a ship, I kinda figured he'd be the best option."

"The best option?" Weiss reiterated

"The second he came back from the sudden visit with you the first time I was pretty much sure you two were in on something beyond that 'relationship' the media keeps going crazy over." Dove explained "Already had my scroll ready to make calls before he even told me."

Sighing, Weiss stepped away to try and think. It was hard to do where Dove was concerned, because of how much he seemed intent on annoying those around him. Given his track record, she was predisposed to doubt literally every word out of his mouth when she could. But why would Cardin vouch for him? He seemed just as eager to leave as she was, and his distaste for Dove was visible back during the Festival. Honestly, if he had gotten them a ship then she couldn't overlook that, but she still needed more.

Looking to Dove as he enjoyed his cigarette whilst watching her with a raised eyebrow, Weiss turned her attention from him to Cardin. He seemed to recognize the internal debate she was having, sighing before nodding towards Ciel.

Blinking, Weiss turned to her, "Ciel... is he telling the truth?"

Ciel looked up from her wristwatch, "They do have the ship, I've seen it in person." she nodded before looking to Dove "I wasn't aware you were the one who Mr. Winchester had acquire it for him, however. You don't sound like you do over the scroll."

"That's because we were talking business, hon." Dove wagged a finger at her

"Either way, I found the results given far beyond what was acceptable." Ciel looked back to Weiss before projecting a screen from her wristwatch "Commercial ships like the Model-Eight Hen weren't built with proximity triggers, meaning we should be able to avoid alerting Atlas' air traffic control as long as we avoid any patrols. Since I've memorized the patterns they should be using tonight, the only thing left is to ensure you can meet up with us in a timely manner."

So it was true then, and even more helpful than initially thought. Sighing, Weiss looked back to Dove as she folded her arms.

"Then what do you want?"

Dove tilted his head, smirking even as he raised an eyebrow, "Hmm?"

"You helping us without wanting anything in return is impossible." Weiss stated "So what is it you expect to gain from this? And don't try saying its because you two are childhood friends because I won't buy it."

Cardin winced at that, looking away before grumbling "You... aren't going to like it."

That didn't bode well, but Dove patted Cardin on the shoulder with a snicker, "It isn't too much." he noted "You just gotta take me along."

"What?!" Weiss stepped forward before shaking her head a bit "Wait no, why?"

Dove gestured to Cardin, "To keep this one safe, of course. I can't very well let my meal ticket go into danger without a good pal to back him up now can I?"

"You have for years, man." Cardin stated, causing Dove to Shrug.

"Well I used to think all that brawn of yours would've helped you endure most scenarios." Dove's face fell as he looked away "Circumstances have changed."

"No, I get that." Weiss gestured to him "But-"

"Don't go fretting over it, Weiss, I'm going and that's not even a choice." He jerked a thumb to himself "I'm pretty much the only one here who could even fly-"

"Untrue." Ciel stated before folding her arms behind her back "I was the second top grade in my Airship Motion and Maintenance Class."

"What?" Dove glanced to her before grabbing his cigarette and dumping some ashes off the rail with a sigh "Should've told me before I went scouring Mantle for a proper mechanic. Oh well, guess I'll just have to keep an eye on you."

He took another drag before smirking at her, "No bother, not like the view's bad after all."

Ciel nodded before poking at her watch "Oversight during this operation would be tactically advantageous if the situation goes bad."

Dove blinked at her for a moment before rubbing his hands together, "You really are one of those types, eh?"

Ciel looked up from her watch and looked to him for a moment before looking to Weiss and Cardin, "If the ship discussion is done, perhaps we should leave you two to finish the rest of this discussion."

"What?" both Dove and Cardin said as Weiss looked to her with curiosity.

"Seeing a couple alone together doesn't raise suspicions during formal events. But a group this large will eventually draw unwanted attention." Ciel stated before turning to Dove and offering a hand "We can further discuss the modifications you had done, I'll need them for further evaluations."

The idea of Ciel being stuck between a bunch of kids who actively avoided her and Dove Bronzewing made Weiss internally wince for her. It just didn't seem like a fate anyone really deserved.

"Ciel, you don't have to." Weiss offered as Dove gave a short laugh.

"No no, by all means." Dove took Ciel's hand before putting out his cigarette and tossing it over the rail "Not often a girl wants to dance with me before I get to give some honeyed words."

"Dove, try to stay focused." Cardin ordered "Can't exactly stay under the radar if ya can't keep it zipped up."

The implication of that statement made Weiss side-eye him before turning back on Dove, "If you even think about trying something..."

"I will display an appropriate amount of caution." Ciel nodded before making for the door with Dove in tow.

Once they were gone, Weiss sighed and leaned against the rail.

"Okay," Cardin looked down to her before muttering "You heard them, we got the whole ship and leave thing done and ready for. Dove and I have a way over the ocean and Ciel's given us assurances that she'll meet us there for liftoff. Your butler ready?"

Eager not to think about Dove and to get back on track, Weiss nodded, "Yes... right, Klein should drop me off and we'll have time to leave before that blizzard rolls in tonight. Hopefully it'll provide all the cover we need to put distance between us and the city, they'll have to pull Patrols back to the city limits to keep them from flying blind out there."

"And you're sure he can get you out of there all on his own?" Cardin narrowed his gaze "Not to sound ungrateful or anything, but you getting away from your folks with enough time is probably the biggest hurdle we've got left."

"He's got experience with my family," Weiss turned around to lean against the rail, looking over the sprawl of Atlas beyond "if anyone knows how to get something under their nose, it'd be him. But if we don't make it, if something happens that keeps us from meeting up with you all, our escape plan shouldn't go to waste. You can take the ship along with the others and leave, if you want."

"Well, if you say so." Cardin grunted before looking to her "But I'd prefer you joining in, given how much money you sank into this."

"Oh that's pocket change to me." Weiss shook her head "You of all people should know that."

"Hmph." tapping a finger on his arm for a moment, Cardin looked up to the sky above "You know, despite knowing how much he did to help, I still figured you'd give him a harder time for tagging along."

"What am I supposed to do, Cardin?" Weiss groaned "Knowing him he'll just threaten to blow our cover if I don't. Honestly, if he keeps making himself useful then maybe I can even get over how much of an ass he can be."

"That's the way I've been seeing it for a while." Cardin closed his eyes "Back before that whole business with Jaune I didn't even notice how easy it was for him to antagonize people, he was always just hanging out in the background. Then that whole problem with the Ursa happened and suddenly he's saying he's tired of playing subservient lackey."

"Wait, but isn't he still following your orders?" Weiss asked

"Well yeah, in fact he's been better at making things happen for me than ever before." Cardin nodded before narrowing his eyes "He just doesn't hesitate to goad and prod me the entire time."

"Well let's just hope he offers as much during the trip." Weiss ran her fingers through her hair "I'll always prefer Klein's method of helping, but I can tolerate annoyance if its outweighed with competence."

"Heh, you lucked out there, Schnee." Cardin smirked at her "You got yourself a super butler who doesn't back talk you all the time."

"Pretty sure that's how most butlers are." Weiss rolled her eyes before leaning her cheek into her palm "But he really is a super butler. I thought I'd just be getting a way out of the manor, but then he came along offering to get me to the edge of Atlas all on his own."

"Working with those ya trust and those ya don't, trying to circumvent the most advanced military on the planet." Cardin scratched at his chin before raising an eyebrow "I know its rich coming this late into things, but... this isn't just about how annoying Atlas Aristocracy can be, right?"

"Careful Cardin, your intuition is showing." Weiss gave a smile before looking down "I suppose you could say... that I felt sick coming back here. After seeing things beyond Atlas, how things were in Vale... I just couldn't readjust to this place. In order to make us the most powerful family on the planet, my Father willingly made himself almost mechanical in his approach to everything. He taught me and Whitley how to see everything in probabilities, cost-benefit ratios and raw numeric factors."

She looked over to Cardin, "I used to think it made us better than everyone, smarter and more logical than anyone else. But during that first year at Beacon, I saw just how quickly probabilities and logic fell apart when dealing with Grimm. They don't act like people, sure we can predict their targets using their lust for negative emotions but... the forms they can take don't seem to have a limit."

"Yeah," Cardin whistled "you think most are just mindless ravagers like Beowolves and overlook the bigger stuff wandering the lands wiping out villages and caravans. You know Russel once told this story about a Grimm they got along the west coast of Sanus. Said the things could latch onto a person's spine and pilot their bodies around, like I'm talking full-on bending bones around possession-style."

"The first time looking at the current Grimm Index, I was almost in shock." Weiss rubbed at her shoulders "Some of their abilities didn't make any sense, I actually put more stock into that whole theory of them being the spirits of dead animals thing before then."

"You?" Cardin snickered "What happened to logic, cost-benefits and numericals?"

"Even then it seemed like the theory had the most water to me." Weiss shook her head again "But their forms and abilities just didn't add up to that. Fighting them was far more harrowing than I thought it'd be, they didn't follow the nature of beasts. Their only goal is to wipe out as many people as they can, destroy as many of our creations as they can, in whatever modes they had available to them. It was irritating..."

"Oh then I can only imagine how you got along with your team." Cardin looked up again "Man, the first time Dove tried hitting on Yang she practically put him through a wall. The rest of us ragged on him for that for weeks."

"Yeah, her bouts of anger were surprising to me given how irritatingly happy she was most of the time." Weiss lowered her head into her hand again, a small smile forming "I originally thought I'd hate being Ruby's partner, but after seeing how Blake and Yang could be I was eventually counting my blessings. You know I actually thought Blake would be the only other person there taking things seriously at first, but then she started going along with the others and their ideas of fun. It didn't line up with what I expected of her previously, none of them did really... and I resented them for that."

Cardin opened his mouth to speak, but then he saw Weiss turn back to the event going with a smile steeped in sadness. She looked over her father, who was speaking to an ever growing crowd of people who were hanging off of every word, probably following up on more of his words from the display earlier. Then she looked to Willow, who had practically recruited two of the servers to subtly bring her a constant supply of drinks while also removing evidence of her conduct while her husband was busy with the crowd.

She looked to Whitley who was speaking to a smaller crowd of younger attendees in a manner similar to their father. But his agitation from his encounter with Dove was plainly visible to Weiss, his expression tense and his fist clenched tightly at his side as he spoke. Then she looked over to Ciel and Dove by the food table. Ciel was nodding along as Dove spoke with grand gestures, her attention divided between him and a plate of food she'd assembled.

Weiss reached up and rubbed at her eyes for a moment before looking back to Cardin with determination.

"But right now, I miss that kind of irritation... far more than I ever thought I could." she admitted before folding her arms "Having Ciel around helped, but I just don't feel as though I belong in Atlas anymore."

---

Somewhere...?

Anywhere would've been better than here.

That was the thought that flitted through Ruby's mind as she looked through the shattered windows of the Solarian's Bridge. What sat before her was what she was desperately hoping was the coast of Anima.

For the alternative was that she and the remains of the Solarian had washed onto an island in the middle of the ocean.

She'd awoken there only moments ago in a pool of salt water that had formed in the corner of the room, head pounding as she dragged herself up. Still trying to piece together what had happened to render her unconscious, she'd tried surveying the situation from the window only for her situation to grow more despairing the more she looked.

Beached on the shore was only half of the Solarian, the front half where the Bridge was. Ruby wondered briefly whether the rest had been destroyed by Goldie's explosion, but that just led to further questions. She had been fighting with Bubol all across the Bridge when the Sea Serpent exploded, the details afterwards muddled in her head. Goldie's explosion couldn't have done it, because far too much of the ship was still left. Ruby might've been thankful for that if it didn't raise more questions.

Spewing from the Solarian's remains were dozens of cargo containers, many washed up along the shore beside it. But even further, Ruby saw more ships. All of them were smaller than the Solarian, but they were all of different makes and models. It was like a ship graveyard of sorts, and Ruby found quickly that she was not the only one among them.

She saw Grimm among the ships and containers, Manglers. She figured most of them were probably following the remains of the ship after the battle, and counted her blessings that they hadn't located her while she was asleep. The presence of Grimm led her to recognize the absence of something else, and soon she spun around in a panic with her eyes darting around the room trying to locate Crescent Rose. She released a sigh of relief upon spotting it stuck in the door of the Bridge by its blade.

Gripping it tightly, Ruby yanked it out. Feeling much better with her weapon in her hands, Ruby tried to cock it only to find its mechanism jammed. Narrowing her eyes, Ruby sat on the floor and looked over Crescent Rose, thankfully finding her kit still strapped to her waist. After removing only one panel, she found to her dismay that there was sand and salt water jamming up a large portion of the firing apparatus.

She leaned back and released a miserable sigh, cleaning that out and getting her baby set straight again would take hours of dedicated toil. It wasn't as if she couldn't use Crescent Rose, given that it had luckily jammed up whilst in its scythe form. She just wouldn't be able to use it to propel herself or increase the force of her attacks like usual. It still probably wouldn't make much of a difference when fighting Manglers, but Ruby wasn't even sure if they were the only threat nearby.

In fact, she needed to figure out if she was on the mainland or an island of some type. There was a forest beyond the beach that obscured her view of the distance aided by a light fog that made everything far look marred. But she spotted a relatively large mountain a distance away that should give her a far better view of her surroundings. Something felt off, and it wasn't just because of the Grimm.

So many different kinds of boats washing up on a beach like this with not a single other person or sign of life at all? Many of them seemed damaged or weathered in some way, but Ruby supposed the Manglers could've scared others off.

Then there was the tattered bathrobe propped up in the sand just beside the tree-line.

Bubol had to be somewhere nearby, Ruby couldn't think of anyone else who would do something like that. Even in its destroyed state, she could tell from a distance that it was the same one he was sporting during their fight. That just led to more questions, because if he was walking around then how didn't he find her? Ruby was certain they were locked in mortal combat in her final memories before waking up. As much as she hated acknowledging it, his obsession with her ran deep. If he was around, the fact she didn't wake up tied up and suspended over a pit of spikes or fire was downright confusing.

Not that she wasn't ungrateful for it.

Either way, scoping the landscape and putting distance between her and the Mangler-Infested wreck of the Solarian came first. She needed to find somewhere safer where she could risk taking time to fix Crescent Rose, so she slid the panel back into place and got ready to head out.

It was raining outside, much of which spilled into the broken windows and mixed with the puddle in the corner. The second she prepared to hop out and speed over to the forest, she paused as her feeling of confused dread deepened.

The scent of salt wasn't coming from the puddle, it was coming from the rain.

Ruby held out a hand in the drizzle for a moment before bring it back to sniff the captured fluid, a quick lick proved that it was salt water. Immediately her gaze snapped towards the trees in the distance, knowledge of her location becoming more crucial by the second. Utilizing her semblance, she sped through the air high above the beach before skidding to a stop past the bushes.

Looking back to see if any of the Manglers had spotted her, Ruby found that the fog seemed to grow thicker in the distance. She couldn't see too far beyond the wreckage of the Solarian, but the sights of several Manglers swimming through the waters was clear. They didn't give chase, so Ruby turned her attention to the nearest trees.

The salt rain was off-putting enough, throwing out any preconceptions for where she could be. She'd never heard of any place on Remnant where such a phenomenon occurred, but she wasn't sure if it was because of this unnerving location or not. A quick evaluation of the trees revealed that they were just common tropical plants native to Anima's coast, but she'd need to keep an eye on them. If the salt in the rain led them to wilt soon then it wasn't common.

Turning away, Ruby proceeded to make her way deeper into the forest.

Not wanting to over-utilize her semblance and seeing that there were no apparent Grimm nearby, Ruby began walking. Along the way she spotted more tropical trees native to Anima and the islands on its coasts, leading her to remember what she learned from World Geography. She tried to remember every detailed world map she'd ever seen, trying to pinpoint where she could've landed.

She pulled out her scroll, finding that it had miraculously survived both the destruction of the Solarian and her fight with Bubol. Unfortunately she found that she didn't have a single signal, then sighed as she pocketed it again. At least it hadn't broken, given the intensity of that fight Ruby had felt she'd gotten off far better than expected. Her aura had been running fairly low at the end there, and seemed to have been helping her recover from whatever rendered her unconscious.

That thought brought her back to the fight, more details becoming apparent to her. She and Bubol had been locking blades on the bridge when the exploding Serpent had rocked the ship. He'd been facing the window, and she could now remember his manic smile fading into shock before they were both thrown and Ruby's head smacked against a wall. Rubbing at the point of impact, Ruby was only more confused about where he could've gotten to after she was out.

It was about that time when she heard something suddenly snap nearby, loudly enough to be heard over the drizzle. Immediately Ruby hefted Crescent Rose and spun towards the sound, seeing nothing through the foliage or the rain. Just then something small slammed against the back of her head, causing her to stumble forward. Catching her footing, Ruby spun around in time to see a figure diving towards her.

Instinctively, she activated her semblance and sped away, barely missing the bladed edges of Bubol's bow as he buried them into the ground.

"Bubol!" she called out after reforming against a tree and hefting Crescent Rose, eyeing her weapon before rushing towards him. Bubol spun around, halting Crescent Rose on his bow after it slid him back a foot.

"Oh I knew you'd come out o' that metal husk eventually, my sweet!" he snickered before pushing against her "Now that we're the only ones around, guess ya can't go ignoring me anymore, love!"

Though his words gave her that usual sense of revulsion, his mentioning of them being alone gave her pause.

"We're the only ones..." she reiterated, hesitating long enough for Bubol to see his chance.

He suddenly shoved hard to force her back before letting the sharp grappling hook on his bow extend down to the ground, "Too much worry on that creamy soft face of yours." he mused before winking "No problem, I'mma change that real soon."

He whipped his grappling towards her rapidly, forcing Ruby to speed around to avoid its rapid strikes. Darting to the sides at first, she suddenly soared over him before reforming and swinging Crescent rose against his back before he could turn around.

He rolled onto his hands and knees, and Ruby was surprised to see his Aura flicker.

In fact, now that she took the time to look, he didn't look to be in too good of a shape. If his already weakened aura wasn't indicative enough, his bow was in worst shape than Crescent rose, she could actually see the mechanism jammed, which probably explained why he hadn't hit her with an arrow earlier.

"Bubol, we're both nowhere near in good enough shape for this!" she shouted to him "I don't know where we are, no idea what kind of Grimm could be around, our weapons are busted-!"

"All insignificant!" Bubol leaned up before turning to grin at her "True Uruk don't let bein' outnumbered or outgunned keep 'em from wrecking. And I wouldn't want any other tark around to wreck!"

Saying that, he reeled his hook back in before rolling to the side and taking aim as his eyes glowed. Ruby slid out of the way as the hook fired past her, racing towards him as he yanked the hook back, ripping off the branch of a tree behind Ruby and pulling it right back into her. The branch shattered on her back and made her lose her balance, sending her stumbling right towards him as he swung his bow at her.

Desperately grabbing hold of Crescent Rose, Ruby dragged its handle between her and the bow as its blade clanked along it. She slid past Bubol only for his foot to launch out and force her to use her semblance to speed up towards a tree.

"Ugh! We don't have time for this!" she shouted upon reforming on a branch, she turned away and activated her semblance to speed through the trees towards the mountain.

Considering the scenario, Ruby wasn't willing to waste time duking it out with Bubol while she was still unsure about their surroundings. As much as she wanted to take advantage of his weakened state, she wasn't exactly at her best either. This idea lasted about until she noticed the sound of his grappling hook behind her. He wasn't able to catch her, but she knew that at the rate they were going he'd be back on her in moments. She cursed under her breath while taking a breather halfway to the mountain.

If only he'd busted that grappling hook as well, it had always made an already slippery foe irritating to catch. But remembering her last fights with him, she realized that he only had so many cord capsules to use. If his aura was already weakened, then maybe she had a shot of removing that as a factor as well.

She reformed and landed on a broken log that was laying across a deep river. Briefly she wondered if the river was salty as well, but the sound of the rapidly approaching grappling hook tore her attention away just as Bubol swung himself from the trees.

As he swung his bow down towards her, Ruby ducked under him whilst deflecting the strike. He landed and was already swinging that damn hook around in flourishing sweeps. Backing up out of his range, Ruby slid back in to try and cut the cord, only for it to wrap around her handle and yank it down as Bubol swung at her again. Seeing no other option, Ruby formed into another cloud of rose petals which Bubol stumbled through as she reformed behind him in a shoulder tackle that made him roll along the fallen log.

He noted her raising Crescent Rose, and slipped back as its blade punctured through the entire log. It buckled immediately, with Ruby gasping before speeding to the other side with her semblance. Bubol grappled to the falling end of the log and yanked himself towards the other side just as it collapsed behind him. Ruby reformed and glanced back just as he swung at her again. This time hopping back and predicting the next swipe of the grappling hook. A quick spin of Crescent rose severed the cord, causing Bubol to hop back to the edge of the gap as she leveled Crescent Rose at him.

He ejected the cord's pod from his bow and pulled out another one whilst dodging her swings, slipping it in only for him to pause and glance back to the river behind him. Ruby wasn't about to give him the opportunity to set up another trick, lunging forward as he looked back to her with a grin. Suddenly he spread his arms wide and leaped backwards to the river below. Realizing he was trying to egg her towards him, Ruby skidded to a stop just as snake-like Grimm emerged from the edge and immediately began worming their way towards her.

She quickly distanced herself from them, only to become confused once she recognized them. Sharp-Fanged serpents with dozens of insectoid limbs, they were known as Carver eels for the holes they could put in the hulls of passing ships if not cleared.

But as Ruby cut the eels down as they lunged for her, she remembered their herding patterns from Grimm Studies. Weak in small numbers, these small Grimm tended to infest the bodies of larger Grimm when not at sea, spewing from any wounds made in their host to ambush its attacker. At sea they traveled in massive pods that could easily overwhelm small ships unprepared for them.

But five at a time this far inland without a host?

Ruby felt no relief when they were slain, as their presence in this state only furthered her confusion. But looking around, she found no signs of Bubol lurking nearby. She wasn't sure that would last forever, and figured making it to the mountain and taking stock of her situation needed to be expedited. Utilizing her semblance she sped up the side of the small mountain, passing several deep holes that had been uncannily bored into its side and making it to the top.

Upon reaching the mountain's peak, Ruby found to her horror that her worries were true.

She was stranded on an island, with the mountain at its very center. Several miles across in all directions, with multiple ships big and small washed onto most of its shores. The fog prevented any view of the far distance, and the sun above didn't look like it had moved since she woke up.

But the most disconcerting part?

On the other side of the mountain, laid bare before Ruby, was an old looking village that had crumbled along the other side of the mountain. Houses of all shapes and sizes of various stages of disrepair were slanted on the side of the mountain, many crumpled into a pile at the base of it. Much of the debris seemed to spill into the forest below it, but there were still a good number of buildings still built into the rocky ground below.

Finding a broken entry arch still standing at the top of the mountain, Ruby cleared off the grime of age as well as she could, rubbing some of that ungodly salty rain from her face before reading it: Cliffside Village.

Ruby backed away slowly, finding nothing but questions everywhere she turned. Cliffside village was destroyed before she was even born, almost fifty years ago. Literally rooted beside a hearty cliff, the Village was washed away from the west coast of Sanus by a tsunami decades ago.

Yet here was an ancient-looking town bearing its name, stuck on an unknown mountain on an unknown island. A mountain with oddly-systematic looking holes bored into it, inside which were either survivors from the numerous wrecks or the gaping maws of more Grimm. At least some of the houses looked as though they still had usable roofs, with the Solarian infested with Manglers there wasn't much reprieve from the salty rain.

Just as she said that, she heard a deep whale sound emitting from behind her. Looking back, she narrowed her gaze at the unmistakable arms of Bubol as he hauled himself to the top of the mountain. Wiping some sweat from his brow, and looked up with a grin as Ruby readied Crescent Rose.

"Sorry dear, felt I should invite some extra fun to this party!" he stated as he jogged towards her.

Ruby didn't get what he was saying until two fleshy claws the size of large pizzas reached up from behind him and a Grimm the size of a Van hauled itself up after him whilst bellowing that whale sound.

Ruby wasn't even sure what she was seeing at first, it almost looked like an oversized, fleshy crocodile the size of a minivan but without a head. Instead, its entire face consisted of a massive wall of jagged bone that soon slid open to reveal it as a giant, circular mouth with teeth bigger than her.

"A Deep-Maw?!" she gasped as she backed up.

Now if the Cutter Eels were out of place, Deep-Maws were almost entirely ocean-based despite their limbs. These giant underwater mouths capable of swallowing a floating man whole, they were surprisingly stealthy predators despite the sizes they could reach. They often swallowed those who fell overboard, with the largest deep-maws on record swallowing small ships whole.

She realized with some irritation that the tunnels in the mountain were probably caused by it, seeing as Deepmaws tended to burrow through the hulls of ships when they decided to go on the attack.

But why was it here? The same question Ruby could apply to almost everything she'd seen on this island. Deepmaws weren't built for land, and she could see it in the way it moved. It wasn't fast, its meaty limbs carrying its hulking mass forward but nowhere near the speeds it could reach in the water. At its speed Ruby didn't even need her semblance to evade it, making it far less of a problem than the Uruk racing towards her.

Bubol slashed at her as he hopped by, which she deflected only for him to shoulder her closer to the approaching Deepmaw as he turned tail and ran for the village.

Ruby steadied herself and gave a glance towards the approaching teeth of the Deepmaw before jogging away as she spotted Bubol scaling one of the buildings. He pulled out a slingshot of all things before taking aim at her as his eyes glowed. She zipped out of the way as he sent a rock speeding towards her, it ended up burrowing into one of the Deepmaw's teeth, the haunting wail it released far more violent than before. As Ruby gave chase to Bubol, the Deep-Maw's legs dragged it faster to the edge of the summit, it leaned over the side before beginning its descent.

Ruby had cut through two buildings and managed to fling Bubol away from her again before both realized the sounds of the Deepmaw were suddenly very close. They turned to see the Grimm sliding down the side of the mountain towards them, its countless teeth clashing together as it approached. Ruby turned to flee to one of the rooftops when Bubol grabbed her and yanked her towards the approaching beast.

"Don't go lettin' him go hungry, sweetness!" He cackled before she swiped Crescent Rose under his legs and threw him off his feet. She hopped over him only for his grappling hook to catch her cape and fling her against a nearby building. She slammed against the side of it before lunging for him just as the Deepmaw's form tore another building from the mountain.

As it collapsed towards them, Ruby utilized her semblance to dart into the air away from the danger zone. But she wasn't there for long, as Bubol's grappling hook latched to her ankle and dragged her down before slamming her against the roof of the falling building. She crashed through it and the table beneath, aura flashing dangerously as she scrambled to race through a broken window right before the building crashed into the pile of debris at the bottom of the mountain.

She rolled along one of the piles before looking up to see the Deepmaw's widening mouth sliding right towards her. Quickly darting back out of the way in a flash of rose petals, Ruby watched as the Deepmaw slammed face first against the remains of the broken building. But it didn't stop, its mouth opening wide as it began eating its way through the broken building and into the ground below.

Her gaze snapped towards the tilted roof of another building as Bubol arose on it before taking aim at Ruby. Between him and the rumbling of the Deepmaw burrowing its way through the very ground beneath her, Ruby darted into the air in another trail of Roses that Bubol aimed for as it swerved above. The moment Ruby appeared from the roses, Bubol fired another speeding rock that she deflected with the blade of Crescent Rose as she fell towards him.

The Deepmaw quickly exploded from the ground below her as Bubol grappled away, with Ruby twisting in the air in order to plant her foot on the very lip of the Grimm's gaping mouth in order to kick herself away as it thrashed.

She stumbled a bit atop another pile of rubble as the Deepmaw fell to the ground, landing on its back and thrashing around. Ruby was about to leap for its exposed belly when Bubol's hook fired from the other side of the Grimm and slammed against her chest before dragging her towards the fallen beast. Ruby thought quickly and used the pull of his hook to her advantage, raking Crescent Rose along the Deepmaw's belly and spraying Bubol with its rapidly dissipating Blood. Momentarily blinded, he tried hopping backwards only for his hook to drag Ruby right into him and send both of them rolling beside another pile of debris.

As she rose, Ruby had to scramble back as Bubol swiped at her with his bow. Even though his own Aura was flickering desperately to try and stay up, he was still howling with enthusiasm as he pushed himself back to his feet. Ruby reached for the grappling hook stuck to her, only for him to fire the other end to her elbow, quickly her arm was pinned to her own chest as both ends of the hook drew together. She stumbled backwards dragging Crescent Rose whilst trying to tear the grapple hook off.

Bubol licked his lips as he ejected the empty hook cartridge and reached for the other one, the wail of the Deepmaw prompting him to glance back before sliding forward as it chomped at him. Having righted itself, the Deepmaw drew closer as Bubol happily swayed just beyond its reach.

But then it opened its mouth, and Ruby saw a light flicker at the roof of its mouth.

Knowledge from Grimm Studies flashed through her mind as she suddenly squeezed her eyes tight and turned away. Bubol, however, was looking directly at the beast when an ungodly bright light flared from its mouth and immediately blinded him with the force of several flashbangs.

Bubol didn't even get a chance to rub at his eyes, his quick move to put distance between him and the beast a second time far less viable with his sight robbed from him. The Deepmaw turned to its side before its large, crocodilian tail reared up and whipped around. It slammed against Bubol's chest and sent him flying through the ruins of another building.

The Deepmaw began turning away to sniff out Ruby again, but she'd acted first. She sliced through its left arm, leaving a deep gash and causing the Grimm to tilt as she grimaced. If she'd been able to build up force with a dust round, she'd usually be able to cut cleanly through Grimm limbs like that. But the intended result was gained, as the Deepmaw fell on its side while releasing another bellowing wail.

But as she turned to hack at its neck while it was down, she spotted the flesh of its wounds wriggling. She stepped back as several Carverer Eels flung themselves from the Deepmaw's body. She turned and slashed through the air, cutting three in half while being silently thankful that it wasn't the usual flurry they were known for. By the time she was turning back on the fallen Deepmaw, she saw the light in its mouth flickering again. She quickly looked away as it bathed the area in another bright flash, turning into a cloud of roses once more whilst swerving over the shakily rising Grimm.

Reforming, Ruby spun forward before slicing through the side of its neck and carving it open as she landed beside it. She looked away again as the Grimm collapsed and sprayed a black mist that began dissipating almost as quickly as its body began to.

The flash of a Deepmaw was almost specifically for disorienting more resistant prey so they could be easier to swallow. Less like a regular flashbang and more like being maced directly in the eyes out of nowhere, the single flicker was all the warning given before or after. With the Grimm dead, Ruby turned towards the partially crushed building that Bubol had been flung into. He'd taken the flash full force, meaning there was a very good chance he was still blinded.

Tightening her grip on Crescent Rose, Ruby approached the hole Bubol had made when he was sent flying into the building. She immediately noted the sports of black liquid on the ground, she'd fought enough Uruks to recognize it as Uruk-Hai blood. It led to a slightly larger splatter of it in a crumpled corner of the building. She didn't see a body though, but found it fairly quickly when the cord of the grappling hook looped around her neck from behind.

Bubol yanked back, immediately drawing Ruby off her feet as he tightened his grip on the cord, "Surprise! Ha! Even with a couple broken ribs ol' Bubby's still got it, eh love?"

Her feet kicking in the air as he lifted her up, Ruby squeezed her eyes closed and focused. Bubol tightened his hold on the cord as her free hand gripped at it, the other trying and failing to lift Crescent Rose as he dragged her back. Eyes snapping open, Ruby practically exploded into a plume of rose petals. Bubol turned around, recognizing her manuever but unable to bring up his bow before she reformed behind him and slammed the blunt side of Crescent Rose into him and sent him flying against the remains of a broken window that shattered along with his aura as he sailed out of it.

Ruby coughed, massaging her throat whilst steadying her breath and approaching the broken window. To her surprise, Bubol hadn't taken off in the moment she'd taken to catch her breath. Instead, he lied there beyond the broken building, having landed in another heap of debris. He was chuckling to himself, head lolling about as his arm reached over to poke at a large, jagged piece of wood that he'd landed on.

It was emerging from his shoulder, effectively pinning him there as he reached up to rub at his head.

"Ah," he sighed happily as he looked up to Ruby and gestured to her with a blood-covered hand "Ya never fail to get my juices flowing, sweetness."

---

Kuo Kuana

The Shallow Sea was like a village on a pier, more like several piers all branching together above the shallow waters of Kuo Kuana's coast. As Blake made her way along these walkways, she noted several Fish Faunus swimming through the water below. Of course, Sun found this far more entrancing to look at than she did, given how little he'd seen aquatic Faunus beforehand. But even that awe wasn't enough to keep him from looking at Blake as they walked.

"So..." he sighed "you really gonna make me ask?"

"I'm sorry," she shook her head "but we really shouldn't talk about this right now."

Sun narrowed his eyes at that before pausing in place, "You should've told them."

"Sun!" Blake wheeled on him

"Look," he held up his hands "I didn't want to say anything because this is definitely something You need to talk with your folks about, but I'm just not following why you had to put your confession on hold for this Ilia chick."

Blake winced before looking ahead again, "I... I've got to talk to Ilia... and the Twins actually. This thing about them having evidence against Ilia, it shouldn't be possible. She wasn't even there for that mission."

She continued walking forward, rubbing at her arm as she did, "I just can't shake this feeling that something's wrong, that Adam did something."

Sighing, Sun followed whilst folding his arms behind his head, "If you say so, but I'm still not feeling too hot about walking into a White Fang embassy."

As they made their way along the wooden paths of the Shallow Sea, Blake spoke, "As long as the twins are as professional as my Dad says they are, this should be pretty straightforward. I don't know about the people Ilia has with her, but the White Fang branch of Menagerie has always promoted itself as civil and diplomatic. As long as we keep it cool, they should as well."

They came across the embassy at the end of the Shallow Sea, a long bungalow was perched along a large stretch of the pier. Even without Blake indicating it, Sun only needed to see the two boats docked at its sides. They had the White Fang's symbol emblazoned on it, with one of their Grunts leaning on the edge of the deck while speaking to two Faunus standing on the pier. The White Fang grunt had his mask off, gesturing to it as he spoke happily to the other Faunus.

As Blake and Sun made their way into the embassy, the Grunt glanced towards them. His smile fell momentarily upon spotting Blake, but with a huff he returned to speaking to the others.

Inside, the lobby of the embassy looked more like the entrance to a motel. Manning the desk before them was a woman with glasses wearing a red hood. Looking up, she took a breath before folding her hands on the desk before her.

"Ms. Belladonna," she nodded towards her "I'm assuming you're here for the Albains?"

"Yes, actually." Blake tilted her head as she and Sun came to a stop before the desk "How did you know?"

Looking down to adjust several papers, the Woman smiled, "Corsac and Fennec figured that one of the Belladonnas would want to personally follow up on the event yesterday, but I admit to being surprised that it would be you. They just finished a chat in meeting room two, its down the hall on your right across from the bathroom. You should be able to find them there."

Nodding, Blake stepped away before looking behind her, "Thanks!"

As they turned onto the indicated hall, they spotted the door of Meeting Room two opening as two more White Fang grunts exited along with another man wearing a red hood. Making sure to give them a wide berth, Sun and Blake entered the room to find Corsac sitting at the head of an empty table with his head down as Fennec paced beside his brother whilst looking out a window to the Shallow Sea outside.

Their arrival didn't go unnoticed, with Fennec pausing to look at them before smiling and folding his hands behind his back.

"Well, consider this quite the surprise." he noted as his brother glanced at them over his own hands.

"Perhaps it shouldn't be," Corsac noted "Given her passion, interest in the current situation does not seem ill-warranted."

Shrugging, Fennec approached them whilst offering a hand, "Either way, how can we help you two?"

Though Sun hesitated, Blake shook Fennec's hand before coughing into her own, "We're actually not here about that."

"Oh?" Fennec shared a look with his brother before looking back to them "My apologies for assuming, then."

"You guys always this...cordial?" Sun asked, only for Blake to nudge him.

"I want to speak to Illia," she said, noting the looks of concern the brothers gave her "I know things yesterday nearly got out of hand, but... I just want to make sure she's okay."

Fennec looked down for a moment, lost in thought. In the absence of his voice, Corsac leaned up.

"I can't recommend you do that." he said whilst sitting back in his seat "Miss Amitola hasn't completely gotten over yesterday and, well... given your particular history I'd say interacting with her would make things worst before they got better."

Sun tilted his head, "Why did you say 'Particular' like that?"

"Its nothing," Blake brushed it off before stepping towards the table "Look, I know she's probably still mad with me, but this is the first time I've seen her in years. We might never be able to be friends, but I'd at least like to try not to be her enemy."

Corsac tapped his fingers together, "Be that as it may, I would still say that given the volatility of the scenario, such a meeting can't be allowed-"

"Hold on, brother." Fennec turned back to him as his Faunus ears stood up "Perhaps I'm simply a bleeding heart, but I've reconsidered my previous hesitation."

Corsac stared at him for a second before gesturing around, "What could possibly have changed about anything?"

"The White Fang is about Faunus standing together against oppression, Brother." Fennec stated "If we fail to support the unity of our people, then that belief would be nothing less than a falsehood."

Corsac leaned forward and sighed before turning to Blake and Sun, "If you two could wait outside for a moment? I believe my brother wishes to have words."

Seconds later, Blake and Sun were standing in the hallway as the Albain brother spoke. Sun tried to press against the door to listen, but Blake seemed content to lean against the wall across from the door.

"Ugh," Sun stepped away from it "its no use, I can't make out anything."

"Unsurprising," Blake shrugged "this place is probably built with sensitive-eared faunus in mind."

Sun folded his arms behind his head as he stepped away and looked the hall over, "Look, its not that I don't appreciate that badass lie you gave, but there's no way we can trust that they'll let us see her. We should just find her ourselves and-"

"No, we can't." Blake sighed "Even though you've got a point, sneaking around like that's not gonna help anyone if we're found out. Plus, it wasn't a lie."

"Hm?" Sun looked to her

"That thing I said, it wasn't a lie." Blake folded her arms "Ilia and I were friends since I was twelve."

"Oh, oh shit, really?" Sun shook his head "Given how much she was yelling back there I guess I just assumed..."

"We... didn't really leave off on a good note." Blake looked down "She loved the way the White Fang was going, I just got more hesitant about things. We tried to stay friends in spite of that, but... soon enough we couldn't keep a single conversation from turning into a yelling match. She thought that Sienna's way was exactly the kind of aggression the Faunus were lacking, was always begging me to talk my father into supporting it. By the time Adam began gaining support, what was left of our relationship was practically in ruins."

Sun raised an eyebrow, "Remind me again why we're trying to talk to her if she'd that heated over you?"

Blake closed her eyes, "She always did have a hard time holding back when she was angry." she said "I'm not sure if there's anything to learn from the twins, but I know we should be able to get some answers from her."

The look on Sun's face told her he doubted that, but Blake felt that she knew Ilia. Even during that exchange yesterday, she noticed that Ilia was only held back by Adam's words. She was too volatile, moreso under Adam's guidance. If there was anyone they could push to spill information it would be her, but that was if there was any information at all.

As odd as it was, Blake just couldn't believe that Adam only made an appearance to stir up resentment between the people and the Menagerie Guard. He didn't work like that, there had to be more. Her Dad felt as though he had Adam cornered because of the evidence the Albains were getting for him, but Blake just couldn't shake this feeling.

But soon the door opened, with Fennec smiling at them while his brother leaned his head down at the table once more.

"I've managed to sway my brother's opinion." he said before gesturing down the hall "There's a lounge on the left, if you could wait there we can call Ilia up in a moment."

And so it was, they ended up sitting at a couch, facing an empty couch whilst waiting for Ilia. They didn't have to wait for her long, soon they could hear her voice arguing with someone down the hall. Looking over the couch, they spotted her approaching with a large man in a mask. Blake recognized him immediately as the White Fang Lieutenant that she and her team had fought with on the train whilst pursuing Torchwick a long time ago.

She tightened her hands, but said nothing as Ilia turned and waved him off. The Lieutenant grumbled something to her before turning and stomping off, with Ilia turning on them with a deep frown. Blake turned ahead as Ilia approached, catching her breath as Sun tracked her all the way to the couch in front of them. She pulled off her mask, revealing a familiar glare before sitting down.

"You got a lotta balls calling me out here, Blake." Ilia scowled, it eventually turned to a grin as she leaned back "If it were anyone else, I'd probably be impressed."

"Well you just come out swinging don't you?" Sun leaned forward, Ilia matched his glare immediately.

"I can do a lot more than swing, monkey-boy." She snipped, only for Blake to cough loudly.

"So how have you been, Ilia?" she asked quickly "I mean, its been nearly two years since I lost saw you so..."

Her interruption had succeeded in stifling the argument before it could start, but now Ilia's glare turned on her. She looked confused by Blake's words, then leaned back as she raised an eyebrow.

"Well well, looks like she actually does care about her people." Ilia shrugged "Would've thought the house pets forgot about us feral types."

"Hey!" Sun stood up "You wanna keep slinging insults or you wanna chill out."

"I'd much rather take this outside and repay you for wasting my time!" Ilia stood up as well

"We didn't come here to fight!" Blake stated

"Well what else would I want with a Traitor?" Ilia demanded "Seriously Blake, you ran from Adam, ran from the White Fang, broke my goddamn heart and now I'm supposed to be all happy and cheery my house pet ex rolls up with some bleach-blonde asshole from nowhere?"

Sun was about to counter her when he paused, "Ex?"

Ilia leaned back before cracking a grin, glancing to Blake before snickering, "Ah, I see... you like keeping your new friends in the dark too, eh?" she looked back to Sun "Never said we were a thing for a while?"

Sun's head snapped towards Blake, "Blake?!"

"I didn't want to make it a big deal!" she stated before looking to Ilia "Look, could you please just tell us why Adam's got you here?"

"You dragged my ass out of bed for that?!" Ilia tilted her head before groaning and folding her arms "Damn it Blake, why can't you make things easier for once? Obviously we're just here to drum up support for the White Fang."

"And that's it?" Blake asked

"The hell do you want from me?" Ilia asked "Sooner or later we're gonna be waging war against those Uruks, Adam needs troops and we sure as hell can't trust Mistral to back us up."

"Well maybe if you guys didn't try attacking Vale, they'd be more supportive?" Sun suggested, drawing her ire once more "You know between you guys and the Grimm, none of it really helped much when those bastards rolled up in Ironwood's ship."

"Nobody figured the Uruks were gonna show, damn it!" Ilia snapped

"But what about the others?" Blake interrupted "A couple friends of mine figured the Uruks were in league with Cinder because of the timing of the attack. But... what about Adam? He showed up at the same time."

"That kinda shit's above my grade, Blake." Ilia stated, glaring at her with disgust "Whatever you're looking for, traitor, I don't have it."

"How can you look at her like that?" Sun asked in disbelief "The way Blake talked about it, you guys were close as can be."

Ilia stood up and walked away, "I'm done. You can take your questions and shove them up your-"

"I wanna confess." Blake stated, causing Ilia to stop in her tracks "About the stolen guns."

Ilia looked back to her, "What?"

"They think you're responsible." Blake continued "A-And we both know that isn't true."

"Blake!?" Sun stammered "Why are you telling her that?"

"Yeah, the hell are you telling me for?" Ilia shook her head "Talking crazy about some shit that doesn't even matter."

"But its about-!"

"Its not gonna change anything, Blake!" Ilia gestured to her "You fucked up, and ruined everything for too many. Some half-assed apology a year after the fact isn't going to fix a damn thing!"

She turned and stomped off.

Sun flinched as he saw the pained look in Blake's expression, and was quick to offer a shoulder on their way out. The Albain brothers offered their sympathy on the way out, expressing their condolences before waving them off as they took their leave. Blake's head was lowered, with Sun grimacing before giving her a reassuring side-hug.

"Look, you did what you could, okay?" he tried "Sure its a sucky situation on all sides, but you put yourself out there and nobody can take that away from you."

Blake didn't speak for a moment, eyes still looking down to her feet as they carried them across the walkways of the shallow sea, "I know..." she finally said "I guess I couldn't stop seeing her as that friend I had from back then. Its hard to imagine how far we've fallen from then."

"Hey, that might true for her, but don't think for a second you can lump yourself in." Sun frowned before pounding a fist to his chest "Way I see it, only one of you's really trying to make up for it, right?"

She didn't answer immediately, but Sun could feel Blake subtly glancing behind her as they moved.

Back at the embassy, Corsac and Fennec made their way back inside once Sun and Blake were out of view. Inside a room further in the back, Ilia was already waiting. Upon the twins' entrance, she spun on them.

"The hell did you let her in for?!" she demanded.

"Testing the waters, in a sense." Fennec shrugged as his brother sighed.

"I was hesitant before," Corsac glanced to him "but now that we know of the situation, there's no way we can ignore it."

"We have to do it now!" Ilia slammed a fist on the table "She's gonna fuck it all up if we don't do something."

"But Adam hasn't finished with Sienna." Fennec stated "If the Fang isn't united we could lose her all together if we go through with it first."

"But we'll have to pull out of Menagerie all together if we lose our leverage now." Corsac shook his head "To let Adam's plan go to waste so thoroughly..."

He trailed off, but the other two recognized the problem they were facing. Even Ilia's rage subsided when faced with the difficulty of the decision before them, but soon it wasn't necessary.

Because a the scroll call they received at that very moment changed everything.

---

The City of Vale...

Yang had spent all day beating Uruks to a pulp, and it had barely changed anything.

Yet again she found herself in a situation where she was dangling a battered and bruised Storm Soldier off of a rooftop whilst demanding information. What she got was largely the same as usual, he was only supposed to provide over watch for the Commercial and Residential Districts meaning he wasn't informed on where any Human Captives would be. To be fair, Yang knew that they had them, but just couldn't pinpoint where they were. She needed Uruks from the Industrial District, but that place was locked down tight.

Almost twice as many bullheads, snipers on every other roof. If she was having trouble staying ahead of the Storm in the rest of the city, the Industrial District would be merciless. But that also meant that the probability of Qrow being held somewhere there was high. She'd need to go in eventually, but doing so without solid information would make it hell to get back out. So far the only thing she'd learned was that there was something serious going down at the Water Treatment Plant that had a lot of Vale's occupiers focusing on it.

Pulling the Soldier back and cracking him in the jaw, Yang took off across the rooftops of Vale once more. She couldn't keep doing it like this, spotting Soldiers and hoping they could tell her about where Qrow is. The Soldiers were just adept enough combatants to keep her on her toes, and their fights usually drew in the attention of roving packs of Palebloods. She was already feeling the exhaustion of prolonged fighting. She had to start looking for more rewarding targets, and so far the only options she had easy access to were the crews piloting those Bullheads that kept patrolling the city.

They had far greater range in terms of what they keep track of, and it was fairly easy to lure them in seeing as they responded almost every time she got into a brawl. It would be difficult, but far from impossible for her.

While looking for a proper place to hide whilst waiting for the response team, Yang once again wondered why she was so uncertain. She'd already gone all-in, practically throwing herself into the lion's den just to get her Uncle back. Yet still she felt an uneasy trepidation over being consistently outnumbered and outgunned. All it would take was one wrong move and she'd be back in chains in no time. She missed how things were back when she initially got accepted for Beacon, this kind of high-octane risk reward style danger was exactly what she remembered wanting from a lifestyle as a Huntress.

"Such a determined look on your face, Lady."

She skidded to a stop atop the roof of a motel, fists already clenched as her eyes snapped towards the roof of a neighboring building. Sitting on its edge with a grin framed by the neon sign of the building, was Krosh.

"You always this reflective?" he wondered before reaching up and rubbing a stiff hand against his bandages, only then did Yang note that he looked absolutely terrible.

There was bandages wrapped around the sides and back of his head, horrifically burned skin showing in the gaps. The rest of his body seemed to be in a similar state, scarred nearly from head to toe. His forearms were incased in thick medical casts that looked as if they too had seen some harsh usage. He almost looked like he was dragged straight from the E.R, if not for the chest piece and metal bracers her wore on his legs.

"The hell happened to you?" Yang wondered, despite maintaining a defensive stance.

"Meh, got blown up by some jackass who thought I was worth circumventing." Krosh waved it off with his cast-covered hand before smirking "But enough about me, lets chat about you, Lady!"

"All this time and you can't even remember my name?"

"Oh I know it, I'm just not using it." he nodded before frowning "Mind telling me why we've got a bunch of soldiers all bruised up talking about you trying to find my asshole father?"

"Much rather prefer you telling me everything you know about what's going on in the Industrial District." Yang stated

Krosh's smirk returned "Oh I was just hoping you'd choose the fun option." he said before casually hopping down to the roof she stood upon "Given how straight-laced this whole one-Tark army stuff was, I was afraid you'd lost the ability to entertain."

He began pacing as he spoke, with Yang gritting her teeth as she watched him carefully, "You really gonna come at me with your hands screwed like that?"

"Oh come on, Lady. Gimme some credit." Krosh looked to her while feigning a pout "I went and tore a guy's eyes out with my feet after being lit up like a goddamn firecracker, least you can do is not go openly doubting my kickass skill."

"You saying that in an 'I'm always better than you' way?" Yang frowned "Or an 'I've got tricks up my sleeve that make the whole busted arms thing unimportant' kinda way?"

Krosh shrugged "Guess I'd go number two, but you already know I ain't the type to go into a fight with tricks on my downtime." he raised a finger "This ain't no fight on the job, so you should prolly know the whole hands-deal led me to switch up my blade stuff. Check it."

He gestured to his arms, only for Yang to realize that he'd modified his upper bracers below the casts encasing his hands. As he flexed, the blades slid out as usual, but they were different. Instead of extending along the end of his forearm and past his fist, these blades extended along the side of his forearm from near his elbow. The blade extended a bit past the side of his fingers.

"Not as nifty as the old ones," he admitted before looking them over "but I can totally work with this."

Yang glared at him as he resumed casually walking around her, "I'm sure you can, thinking about throwing a punch anytime soon?"

"What's the rush, Lady?" Krosh gestured around them "I went and reported you elsewhere, so as long as no Palebloods show up we got all the time in the world to drink this in. Live a little, not every day I get to brawl with an old friend.?"

Yang lowered her hands a bit, raising an eyebrow as she made sure to keep him in sight, "You call everybody you keep captive friends? Cuz' that's screwed in more ways than one."

Krosh sighed, "Just tryin' out new things, Lady, geez." he rolled his eyes "You make it sound so much worst than it was, I didn't go cuttin' you up or anything the others get up to with their slaves."

"All because you wanted to throw me into a pit fight!" she snapped as she tightened her fists again, but Krosh waved it off.

"Nah, I never got into torture in most scenarios." he looked away before leaning against the wall of a neighboring building "What's the point of capturing strong fighters if you don't actually fight em?"

"Is that supposed to make it better?"

"Oh come on, look at you!" Krosh gestured towards her "You're lookin' better than ever! Kicking the crap out of whoever you want, rocking a super sweet robot eye. Full disclosure, you know I'd take the robo-eye over getting blown up any day."

Krosh leaped out of the way as Yang fired at him, her round tearing through the wall as he rolled towards her and slipped past her second blast spinning with his blades. Yang lunged backa s Krosh leaped up and brought his leg down at her, the spikes on its extending as she swerved under him. His foot came down and crushed parts of the roof beneath it as Yang tried to swing at him from behind, only for Krosh to slip underneath her fist and swipe her feet out from under her.

Yang slammed her fist on the roof before looking up to find Krosh squatting down and looking at her from a few yards away.

"Well ain't you pissed today, eh Lady?" he wondered before standing up and resuming pacing "Is that because you're unsettled by these awesome quips of mine?"

"Damn it, Krosh, could you try to at least to pretend to take this seriously!?" Yang demanded before pointing to him "I'm over here trying to kick the shit out of you, and all you seem to be interested in is casual chatter!"

Krosh shrugged again, "Well I don't really have much opportunity to chat normally, Uruk Leaders gotta maintain their image. Can't go setting a bad example for Mince either, she start getting lax and I might lose her."

Yang took several steps back before forcing a smile, "Well if you're feeling chatty, how's about you start telling me about where-"

"Where you can find your Uncle?" Krosh shook his head "Seriously? Can't think of anything more awesome? How's about telling me about that sweet eye? Can't help staring at it the whole time."

Yang frowned, subtly turning her face away, "Well stop, I'm not gonna let you make a big deal about it. Its just an eye, it helps me see the guys I'm beating up, and that's all."

"Wait seriously?" Krosh lost his smile at that "You mean it doesn't have any cool scanning tech, infrared? The hell's the point of a robo-eye if it doesn't have cool shit built in?"

"Its called depth perception, you dick." Yang stated before cocking her arm back.

Krosh sighed before swiping his blade through the air to block the incoming shotgun blast before leaping towards Yang again. He slipped through her strikes again, but this time Yang was ready. Spinning around another sweep of his leg, she blasted his other leg out and grabbed for him as he fell.

She got ahold of his knee and swung him towards the weakened wall, which broke apart as he crashed through. Krosh spun back onto his feet as Yang leaped to the hole and opened fire. Krosh glanced around the spiral staircase they'd broken into before leaping onto the rail as she opened fire on him.

He leaped at her, only for her to block his kick and throw him back before blasting herself towards him. He ducked under her fist before tripping her towards a door. She halted herself and spun around just as Krosh charged. She used Ember Celica to deflect his blades, ducking and swerving around the heavy swings of his legs before rearing back just as he slammed his shoulder into her and forced her back against the door.

She shook off the strike just in time to see him leap her again, with her gasping and crossing her gauntlets in front of her as he dropkicked her through the door into what was clearly an office-space abandoned mid-renovation.

Yang rolled against a table covered in protective wrapping, using it to pull herself to her feet. She threw herself back as Krosh's leg came down and smashed the table, using the chance to slam her fists together and activate her semblance.

Krosh raised a hand to hold back the bright light of her semblance, but was able to see the incoming blaze in time to leap backwards. He went on the defensive, working to slip and slide out of the way of the flurry of blazing fists that sent round after round of shotgun blasts tearing through the room around them.

After getting a feel for her frenzy, Krosh kicked up half of the broken table before slamming it towards her. Yang blasted it to pieces, which served as cover as Krosh leaped through them and spun, slamming his foot into the side of her head. She spun with the strike even as her vision swam, managing to grab hold of his leg before he landed and spin around before sending him flying out of the office space's window.

Krosh struggled to orient himself, but managed to catch himself on the roof of an abandoned diner across the street. The sound of another blast from Ember Celica, prompting him to look up as Yang sailed towards him. He slipped back, as she brought her fists down on the roof, cracking it as she darted towards him.

They traded blows, bobbing and weaving whilst trying to outplay one another. Fists and heavy kicks cracked the roof over and over again, only for it to begin struggling notably. Yang noticed, moving to blast herself off when Krosh's leg slammed against her back and forced her forwards.

Gritting her teeth as she caught herself, Yang cocked Ember Celica again as Krosh leaped for her. She blasted herself backwards into him, sending them both flying through the window of an old law firm just as the diner's roof caved in.

Yang rolled along the floor, grunting and groaning as she got to her hands and pushed herself up. When she looked up, immediately her eyes darted around for Krosh.

"Hot damn!" Krosh called out from the other side of the room "Haven't been able to fight a good duel for a while!"

Yang spun around and spotted him sitting on an overturned desk, massaging his neck with a satisfied grin. She immediately got to her feet and cocked her Gauntlets again, only for Krosh to raise a hand.

"I don't know where your Uncle is or if my bastard dad has him." he stated, "That's what you wanted to know, right?"

Yang paused, "What?"

"Well, I ain't exactly feeling needy anymore." Krosh shrugged "So I figured I'd just come clean. Might be playing it off fine, but with my hands like this my Aura's been pulling double shifts working on it. At this point you might actually beat me, and I wouldn't want to taint your first victory by coming in at half horsepower, you feel me?"

Yang glared at him, irritated by the implication, but she had to focus on her true goal, "So... does that mean you'll tell me anything?"

"Trust me, you're gonna be dissapointed." Krosh shrugged "Already told you that I don't know anything about your Uncle."

"But what about the others?" Yang gestured to the city outside "Vale had a damn big population before you guys took over. They're at the Industrial District, right?"

Krosh tilted his head, "Well, some of them are, sure." he noted as he stretched on the desk "We were supposed to have most of them shipped to Mountain Glenn, but a certain someone's interference with the train's maiden voyage had my pops reconsider. Now the majority of them are being kept on Patch, your old stomping grounds."

"Damn it," Yang cursed before looking to him again, "If my Uncle was being held captive, would he be with them?"

"Don't know," Krosh shrugged before adjusting his armblades "Once they've got security fine tuned over at Glenn they should move a bunch back over, Patch is being converted to a labor camp in the meantime. But your Uncle's the one who actually screwed up the Mech during the Fall right?"

"I don't know," Yang stated "I just know Ratlug had something to do with his disappearance."

Krosh shrugged, "Well then the odds are that he's somewhere in the Industrial District, that's the place that Ratlug's got close to his heart right about now, but you'll need someone who's familiar with it to give directions if you really want t find him."

Yang sighed, after all of that she was still back to where she already was.

"Lucky for you, I know exactly where someone like that might be." Krosh stated, smirking when she looked up at him "Don't know how much you've heard, but we've got us a situation at the Water Treatment Plant."

"I may have heard a couple of your guys mention that," she admitted "how does that help me?"

Krosh held up a hand, "Look, the Master's scholars generally stick to Beacon while Ratlug and his researchers swarm over the Industrial District due to all the machinery there. There's minimal crossover, except for one Scholar who managed to keep up with the researchers in the more mechanical terms: a guy named Naruk."

Krosh slid off of the overturned desk and walked over, "So Naruk's helping Ratlug and his guys out with lots of stuff for a while, then suddenly drops off the face of Remnant. Then, a few days ago, he shows up out of nowhere and he's gone rogue. You should have an easier time stopping him than we've had so far. I can get you a way in."

"Wait wait, if he's going rogue then why shouldn't I help him out?" Yang folded her arms "I'm not much of a big fan of you guys, if you haven't noticed."

"Because he's going to render all of Vale inhospitable if he isn't stopped." Krosh stated

That gave Yang pause, and she raised an eyebrow at him in disbelief, "Excuse me?"

"He managed to weaponize a sample of a disease, you remember Bubol right?" Krosh asked, noting the immediate disgust on Yang's face "Well he's managed to turn that Water Treatment Plant into a giant mixing facility that he's used to make an extremely potent form of that very contagion, and he's threatening to spread it throughout the entire city's water supply and even the bay beyond unless the Shaman speaks to him personally."

"But that'd just make you guys weak enough to take the city back!" Yang said.

"Bubol's disease can spread to humans and animals easily with the amount of tainted water Naruk's got." Krosh stated "If he succeeds there's just gonna be a viral wasteland uninhabitable by anyone."

"Okay fine, but why do you want me to deal with it? Yang demanded "Didn't you mention you guys are trying to stop him?"

"Yang... if we successfully stop Naruk then you guys are screwed." Krosh stated with a grin "We've been unable to infiltrate properly due to a large number of Palebloods roaming the plant, most have been driven into a frenzy by the Plague and Naruk's been directing them against any teams we send in. We've lost a few soldiers, who could even be wandering there in a stupor themselves by now, but its only a matter of time. So if he goes down and Ratlug gets ahold of his weaponized disease, do you think for even a moment he won't immediately turn it on as many of his enemies as possible?"

Yang bit her lip, recognizing the truth to his statement. If Naruk had managed to produce a large quantity of a fluid-based plague, and that plague ended up in Ratlug's hands. There was no telling where he'd end up spreading that stuff. She might be dealing with a worst case scenario if she didn't destroy as much of that stuff as possible. Plus, if Naruk had been as close to Ratlug's forces as Krosh said, he'd be a perfect guide into the Industrial District if she could get ahold of him. But even with all these plus sides, she was still hesitant.

"That doesn't explain why you want me to take care of it." Yang continued "Wouldn't you guys have a massive advantage with this stuff?"

Krosh shrugged, "Isn't the fact that my dad can go fuck himself enough for you?"

"Despite that being true, no." Yang stated

"Well let's just say that he happily failed to warn me in time to avoid getting blown up." Krosh lifted his hands "I'm not exactly keen on him not facing any kind of karmic retribution for that. Besides, Naruk's got one of your classmates held captive."

"Wait what!?" Yang's eyes shot up "Who?"

"Meh, some kid I recognized from the Fall." Krosh patted at his head with his forearm "Can't think of a name, but he's there. Seeing how far you went for Creamtop, I figured you wouldn't be able to leave him to die at this point."

Yang lowered her hands, sighing at the accuracy of his statement. Between the threat Naruk posed, the information he could give her, and the captive he had, Yang couldn't ignore the situation.

"Ugh, fine." she conceded, immediately bringing a smile to Krosh's face.

"Awesome, Lady!" he approached the broken window and pointed out of it "So if you approach the Water Treatment Plant from the Commercial district, there's this car wash that has a canal behind it. You want into the place without getting spotted by either our guys or the diseased? That's your best bet."

With that stated, he readied himself to hop out, "Best of luck to ya, Lady-"

"Wait."

Krosh paused and looked back to her as she raised an eyebrow at him, "Creamtop... is that supposed to be Neo?"

"The treat with the pink and brown hair that you nabbed?" Krosh turned back to her "Who else would it be?"

Easing her breath, Yang asked, "What the hell did you guys do to her?"

At that, Krosh frowned, "Ugh, I wish I had a chance to do something to her. I had dibs, you know? Told everyone that she was mine once she started popping up."

"What?" Yang asked

"She was doing a similar thing to what you're doing now, tearing things up looking for something." he recounted before smirking "I figured out pretty quickly that she was trying to get the drop on the Stormbringer himself. He put down a pal of her's so I guess she had this whole vengeance plot going on? Anyway, the moment I figured out what she was after I was hot on trail of catching her, traced her all the way to Beacon with Mincemeat and was ready to pounce."

"That doesn't explain how she ended up like... like how I found her." Yang stated

"I know, I can't tell you that because I never caught her." Krosh gestured to himself "Apparently my asshole Dad figured her out too then ambushed her right before I could. Don't know how that fight went down, but he immediately claimed 'finder's keepers' and took her all to himself. So no, I don't what happened to her."

Krosh looked away with a groan, "All I know is that it was a waste of a perfectly good slave."

With that, he hopped from the broken window, leaving Yang to turn her attention towards the city beyond.

---

Somewhere...?

Ruby flinched the moment she heard groaning, drawing her legs closer to her as she looked to the side.

Groaning, Bubol tried pushing himself up, only to find his arms firmly bound by tightly wrapped vines. He stretched open his mouth a few times before taking note of the small fire burning nearby. Its flame lit up the inside of a cave, the coloring of the wall telling him that it was inside the mound that the Deepmaw had been burrowing in. His eyes went from that to a large bushel of fruit nearby, then to the tense form of Ruby sat across from him.

"Don't say anything!" she said quickly, lifting a hand from Crescent Rose to point at him "Not unless its actually useful."

Sighing, Bubol laid back down, "Waking up to your scornful demands... ahhh, this dream better not end soon."

"What did I just say?!" Ruby demanded before groaning, wondering why she even bothered.

As much as she wanted to just gag him while he was out, Ruby knew for a fact that he'd had a better view than her when the wave had hit the Solarian. She was desperate for information on where they ended up, and if he had it then he was invaluable.

As loathe as she was to admit it.

Bubol flexed his hands as he rubbed against the vines she'd bound around him, "Comfy, but stinkin' o salt. Couldn't get anything rougher for playtime?"

"Bubol, I need you to cut the obsessive stalker shtick for a second and tell me what happened." Ruby demanded before rubbing at her head "I was knocked out during... when the wave came, you had to have seen something, right?"

Bubol turned his head towards her, grinding the boils on his face against the rough cave floor as he grinned, "I saw you gettin' tossed around all limp and lovely like, Right after the cave appeared."

"What cave?" Ruby asked, only for Bubol to shake his head.

"Now hold on a second, love. I can't rightly give it all up." Bubol grinned, writhing in his bindings before noticing his wrist-bow leaning against the opposing wall "You'll go cuttin' me down once I ain't useful, gotta make this last as long as I-"

"I'm not gonna kill you." Ruby stated before gesturing to his arm "I'm trying to get us both out of here, and to do that I need you to help me figure out where we are."

Bubol shook his head, "Terrible liar, my sweet!"

"I'm not lying!" Ruby stated as she sat up "I might hate you and what you do, but I'm not like you. I can't just kill someone so casually like that."

Bubol rolled his eyes at that, causing Ruby to pout.

"I'm serious, when we're in the middle of battle its different." She reached down and patted Crescent Rose "Now I've got you tied up, you're beat. Once we get back to the mainland I'm handing you over to the authorities. But I can't do that if we end up starving here!"

Standing up, she looked over to the fruit she managed to gather, "That rain... I don't know what's causing it but the salt in it will wipe out all of the trees on this island sooner or later. When that happens, I'll have to risk searching along the coast and seeing if there's fish to eat. If there aren't..."

"Oooh, no worries." Rose rolled over and used his chin to help lift himself onto his knees "Once the sweet bounty o the land runs dry, my flesh'll last ya quite a while if ration it-"

"I'm not doing that," Ruby pointed to him "Just answer me! What happened after I went unconscious? Where are we? Why was your Aura so low?"

Bubol's smile lessened, "You sure you ain't just gonna cut me down afterwards, my sweet?"

"No!" Ruby shook her head "I'm not killing you."

"Even though I went and sold your sis to me pals?" Bubol asked

Ruby tightened a hand into a fist, "No... I'm not."

"Even though if I'd be elbow deep in your insides if this situation were reversed?"

"Dang it Bubol just tell me!"

"Oh come on!" Bubol threw himself on his back "This is a perfect chance for you to take it all out on me in my helpless... vulnerable form!"

"Even if I did you'd probably like it." Ruby rolled her eyes "You're way more useful alive than dead at this point anyway so what would I gain besides screwing myself over?"

"Aw, look at you thinkin' things over." Bubol cooed before frowning "Not good, dearie. Long-Term thinking ain't as fun as just goin with the urges. It'll feel really sweet to just be done with dealin' with me."

"Well sorry to disappoint you, but you aren't Grimm!" Ruby stated, causing Bubol to tilt his head to the side.

"Say what?"

"I can't just let go and start killing you with reckless abandon because you aren't a Grimm." Ruby pouted before stepping to the other side of the cave and sitting down with Crescent Rose again "No matter how much you might be similar, there's a big difference between bloodthirsty jerks and Grimm."

As she spoke, Ruby took pout her weapon's kit and began to work on her precious weapon. She tried to divide her attention between her work and Bubol, noticing his eyes narrowing.

"So that's it then?" he asked "You holding back because I ain't as big and scary as those beasties, then?!"

"No, that's not the point!" Ruby groaned as she got to work on Crescent Rose "God! Its people like you that just ruined everything!"

"Oh so now your just lumping me in with everyone ya hate?!" Bubol gasped "I thought our hate was special!"

"No, I didn't go to Beacon to put up with people like you!" Ruby pointed to him before shaking her head "I signed up to slaughter Grimm, the truest threat to humanity ever. But no, it just couldn't be that simple. Instead of world-threatening evil monsters, I get a bunch of misguided terrorists, gangs of criminals, and then you guys spill out of another freakin' world just to get in the way too!"

She leaned forward before jerking a thumb towards herself, "I had to do a whole lot of soul searching adjusting my awesome Grimm slaying skills for thugs and killers and Uruks like you, so how about instead of complaining about me not killing you, you actually me help as thanks for not leaving you for some random Grimm to gnaw on?"

Bubol narrowed his gaze at Ruby, humming in indecision.

Looking around for a moment, Ruby looked away with a thoughtful expression, "You know... I'd be really appreciative of that kind of help... helpful people always w-were the cutest-"

"Oh honey no, don't try that angle." Bubol winced before snickering "You's so much cuter when ya hate me than whatever that is."

Frowning, Ruby returned to working on Crescent Rose, "Well then, how about I promise to kick you if ya tell me?"

"All I managed to see before that explosion was the cave." Bubol said immediately with a lecherous grin.

Trying to overlook how quickly the promise of pain netted results, Ruby tried to divide her attention between Bubol and her work, "There you go about that cave again."

"Well its true!" Bubol declared "I was pressing that nubile body of yours against the console in that ship, then I got distracted by that Wave heading right for us. I saw a big ole' cave form in that wave right before the front o ya ship went kabloom and threw us around. You went all nice and limp while I got flung out. Was gonna go get real nice and comfy with ya unconscious form but those damn Grimm got in the way. One o' them rammed me into the lower decks and I had to fight my way around them. By the time I got out, we was beached."

"Wait a minute," Ruby shook her head "You're telling me that between the time you got chased into the lower decks and the time you found your way out, we had already gotten to this island?"

"Is how it looks, lover." Bubol slurped at his pustule covered lips "Started raining soon after that. Tried getting back on board to get at that slumbering body o' yours, but those Manglers kept running me off. Luckily for me, you came out all by ya'self. You can probably remember how the rest went."

Though Ruby's hands worked at cleaning Crescent Rose her mind was running. Bubol's account only made things worst, if anything. She'd been doubtful of them just showing up on this mysterious island before, but there was literally no way that they washed up in the time that Bubol was suggesting. And what about that ominous cave? It was part of the Wave? The only thing Ruby could think of was that someone had opened an extremely odd dreamer gate, which could explain them ending up somewhere wildly different. But how would a Portal like that end up there specifically right in the midst of the wave?

"Isn't it ironic?" Bubol's voice interrupted her musings "You want to hunt Grimm more than anything, but they was protecting you from me while you went and slept."

"They were just trying to defend their hunting territory." Ruby rolled her eyes "Believe me, even you Uruks are capable of more empathy than those things ever could be."

"So that's a reason not to let that scythe go roaring?!" Bubol demanded "What do I gotta do to get you to hate me more than those monsters, darling!?"

"Its not about what you do, its about what you can do." Ruby shook her head "Grimm just destroy everything people make by nature, you guys were trained to like it."

"And?" Bubol shook his head "Both of us seem to leave scores of dead in our wake."

"Yeah, but I like to think that even the worst people can change if you just kick em into gear." Ruby looked down at Crescent Rose "Its different with Grimm... there's no chance for them... They need to be wiped out completely to be stopped."

"Lucky sods get to hog all of my darling's spite." Bubol whined "If you's tryin' to make me jealous then congrats!"

Ruby sighed before setting Crescent Rose to the side and standing up. Brushing herself down, she approached Bubol before rearing back and kicking him square in the gut. As he wheezed and chittered with enthusiastic delight, Ruby walked back to Crescent Rose and resumed her work.

"Ohhhh, you sweet starling!" Bubol moaned out

"I keep my promises, so... uh- just focus on that while I try to think here."

"Oh please," he whined "You can't tell me you don't wanna do more, right?"

"Definitely not." Ruby stated "Seriously, you're just going wind up either starving here or getting locked up, so might as well try working with me. Who knows? Maybe some time in Prison could help you calm down."

"Not gonna happen, precious!"

"Oh come on, I've seen people I couldn't stand do amazing one-eighties before!" Ruby cracked a smile as she worked "I mean, none as far gone as you, but it counts! I never would've thought that Blake would enjoy talking to me when we first met."

"The Hybrid?" Bubol raised an eyebrow

"Faunus," Ruby rolled her eyes "or Weiss! Yeah, me and her absolutely hated each other when we first met!"

"Lucky cur." Bubol groaned.

Ignoring him, Ruby continued "But then she became one of the greatest friends I'd ever had! I mean, sure I never had many friends before Beacon but-"

"She's the one who went and slit my mouth right?" Bubol looked to Ruby, killing her reverence immediately.

"You were trying to kill me!" Ruby frowned, causing Bubol to laugh.

"Ohoho, I wouldn't stay fond o' that one, sweetness." Bubol turned his attention to the roof of the cave "She's not long for this world."

Ruby's hands paused over Crescent Rose, "What?"

"She went and killed my Ashy." he rolled to the side to look at her "With how badly Horkie boy got torn up at the Fall, its only a matter of time before he starts using the Shadow again. She'll be targeted sooner or later."

"Wait... you heard about Hork?" Ruby asked

"Everyone heard about Hork!" Bubol snickered "Gundza went and told everyone, saw the state he was in with his own two eyes during his tizzy with ya hybrid friend."

Ruby had seen the horrid state Hork was in back at Amity, the Stormbringer had absolutely decimated him. Krimp had managed to run off with his bleeding form, but in that state...

"He survived?" Ruby looked to Bubol "If you think he's gonna target Weiss, it means you think he survived-"

"He had Krimp with him," Bubol shrugged "Trust me, he's alive. Pugsy went and messed him up all funny-like, so its only a matter of time until Hork calls in the Shadow."

Ruby shook her head as she resumed working on Crescent Rose "Well, even if that's true, Weiss has dealt with Gundza before. Even without our help, I gotta have faith that she'll be fine."

"Gundza?"

Ruby wasn't prepared for the confused way Bubol said his ally's name, and looked up to find him looking at her with confusion. All of a sudden, she saw his eyes widen with revelation as he snickered. He struggled to right himself into a sitting position, smiling wide at her before shaking his head.

"I ain't talking about Gundzie, my sweet. He don't even go by the Shadow no more." Bubol shook his head "Lads call him Gundza the Hunter now, really likes killin' Hybrids to spite that friend o' yours."

"That is so gross, but..." Ruby shivered before tilting her head "Who are you talking about then?"

"Hork's true Shadow, the one that Gundza was promoted to replace." Bubol explained casually

"What?" Ruby shook her head "I thought you guys earned titles because of accomplishments."

"Yeah, and Gundzie was the only one who even got close to being as good of a contract killer as the True Shadow was, so he earned his title."

Ruby blinked before setting down Crescent Rose, "Bubol, you're saying that Hork has an Assassin deadlier than Gundza who he hasn't utilized this entire time?"

"He hasn't used that big bastard for decades now." Bubol stated "Hork tried to forget he ever existed. Now I may be more of a free-spirit nowadays but I'd never forget the way my old Warchief thinks. He may try to act like a stringent commander, but the Shaman must've absolutely shattered whatever was left of his hopes with that little backstab. Without the persona of a loyal soldier to cling to, Hork's gonna have to give in and use the Original Shadow again. He was snatched up with the rest of us, and he's always been eager to get back to work."

"I though Hork was supposed to be militant defense genius guy? Ruby shook her head "Why wouldn't he use an asset like that? It just doesn't fit."

"It fits once you know who it is," Bubol leaned forward "here's a hint. The title of Shadow doesn't actually have anything to do with Stealth, its far more literal in this case."

Ruby frowned, "What?"

"Well what's a Shadow do, my love?" Bubol tilted his head back "Its a reflection of Hork that trails behind him and follows his every whim to a T. Just from that, I know for certain that you can think of an Uruk who fits that description way more than Gundza ever could."

---

Schnee Manor

Today felt longer than it was, but Jacques Schnee still had plenty of work to do.

As the sun began to lower, he made a call for Klein to bring him some finely roasted coffee soon before arriving at his study. The event had lasted for longer than expected, the opportunities to mend and forge relations too great to resist. He was tired, but such was a fact of life. He'd need to do much more before he even considered allowing himself to retire to his bedroom. It was far too early for something like exhaustion to be permitted to have an effect.

He had to log the occurrences that took place during the event, then look over stock reports that came in after the Valkyrie initiative's announcement went through. Such matters were not a challenge, but they needed to be done in a timely manner no matter what.

He was ready to get to work immediately, but paused upon entering his study and taking note of the envelope on his desk. Closing the door behind him, Jacques approached his desk carefully and grabbed a letter opener from a drawer, which he used to flip it over. Upon the envelope was the image of a familiar chess piece, and almost immediately Jacques opened the envelope and retrieved the letter from inside. Stowing the envelope in his desk for now, he booted up his computer while starting to read the letter.

But before he could get too far, there was a knock at his door.

"Sir?" Klein's voice called to him "Your coffee."

Jacques allowed him entry, subtly sticking the letter under other documents whilst taking the offered mug with a nod, "Tell me, Klein. You were heading catering during the entire affair, how was James handling things?"

"He looked exhausted sir." Klein said evenly

"Which is to be expected," Jacques turned to his computer and brought up a feed of stock prices "The General's gotten quite lax with resources in order to rebuild his army...I've had to work double time in order to keep his spending from having a bad impact on the market."

"The Storm's threats have not gone unnoticed then." Klein noted

"Whether they threaten or not, he's the only one to blame for the decimation of his forces." Jacques shook his head "I told him time and time again that sending our military to the other kingdoms was too wasteful. The people there should've been ready to defend themselves, not rely on our intervention. Even the council agreed he was taking too many risks down there."

"With scenarios such as this, erring on the side of caution is often a preferred route." Klein nodded

Jacques brought up another tab showing images of the Valkyrie showcase, "After all of that, he goes and loses an entire fleet in Vacuo. If the Council weren't so easy to sway I'd consider letting them rail against him for this... but the need to replenish those forces is too great at the moment."

Klein didn't respond for a moment, "Do you... ever think about Lady Winter?"

Jacques hand hesitated over the screen, coffee an inch from his lips before he looked to Klein, "What's to think about?" he questioned before taking a sip of soothing coffee "She made her choice, so any troubles she encounters from it are hers to bear. She cut herself from the line of inheritance, so her disappearance can't possibly harm the company."

Klein frowned as he watched Jacques finish the mug for a moment, "So... in the case that she's dead-"

"She's not." Jacques stated before taking one last, deep drink of coffee before handing the mug to Klein "She's a Schnee, whether the name grants her fortune or not."

Not understanding, Klein tilted his head, "Sir?"

"I believe I'm finished, Klein." Jacques turned to his computer and waved him off "Delicious as always."

Recognizing Jacques' indirect way of demanding solitude, Klein bowed, "Of course sir."

As Klein left the study, Jacques reached for the letter and drew it from the other documents.

But Klein was in no position to notice, as once the door closed behind him he was free to send a non-descript message on his scroll.

.{{{{{+-+}}}}}.

Weiss tapped her heels together several times while sitting on her bed, eyes glued to the bags she packed whilst waiting. Her scroll vibrated, and on it she found a simple request from Klein, wondering if she'd like him to pour some tea for her.

It was a go.

Grabbing her bags, she slipped out of her room as quietly as could be, already working to move along the guidelines that Ciel had worked out for her. After staying over so long, Ciel had managed to memorize plenty of the Patrol patterns the SDC personnel took whilst moving about the Manor. There was obviously margin for error, but already Weiss found herself more or less evading the pairs of guards with tense simplicity.

This was the final stage of their plan, and it had to be executed within a certain timeframe. She had to sneak past the guards, then slip into the kitchen where Klein was waiting to smuggle her out of the house. Under the guise of a quick tea-based restocking, he'd get her to the warehouses at the edge of Atlas where the others would be waiting. If they timed it right they could make it past the city's range well before before the blizzard arrived and covered their tracks for them.

All she had to do, was get to the kitchen.

She had time to spare, but wasn't willing to risk anything. The quickest way to the Kitchen was past the garden. Though Weiss found things simple at first, what with the patrol routes being fairly circumventable so far, a great danger appeared in the form of Maxwell.

He wasn't supposed to be anywhere near this part of the manor yet, but she could hear his voice approaching right as she was passing the Garden. He was on his scroll arguing with someone, probably her father, but the noise he was making wouldn't do much to help if he ended up spotting her. Quickly altering her route, she took the hall around the garden instead, finding to her horror that he was approaching this path as well.

Looking around, she caught sight of one of the patrols strolling nearby. At the rate things were going, she was going to wind up boxed in.

But luck was with her in the form of a staff closet in the hall right beside the garden that she could use to hide in. Quickly she slipped in, making sure not to trip on any of the immense number of cleaning equipment inside. She listened carefully in the darkness of the vast staff closet to the footsteps passing outside. Just as they began to fade in the distance, Weiss gave a sigh.

Which was when hands reached out from the darkness behind her and dragged her deeper inside. She tried to struggle, dropping one bag and reaching for the one which held Myrtenaster when a sickeningly familiar voice called out to her.

"Now don't go strugglin' too much, buddy!" Krimp chirped in a nasally whisper "Its just me!"

Weiss froze up, all expectation to escape his hold vanishing immediately. His terrifying lack of presence before grabbing her nearly made her jolt, but she held her ground as Krimp slowly released her.

"There we go," he sniffled before rubbing at his nose "nice and calm-like for me pal."

"Krimp," Weiss scowled despite trying to keep her voice low "I'd ask how you got in here but I know I won't get a good answer, so how about telling me why you're here?"

"Just came around seein' as I got me a job to do." he rubbed at his nose again "Figured dropping in on me good pal, Weissy, would be absolutely wonderful!"

"A-Are you sick?" Weiss asked

Krimp sniffled again, "Yeah, wandered around out in the snow for a while. Easily some o' the harshest cold I ever seen! Even the chill o' Seregost ain't got nothing on this place!"

Weiss found her eyes narrowing immediately, her past interactions with Krimp had taught her that he wasn't prone to lying, but the idea that he'd wandered out in the snow of Solitas and came out with little more than a bad case of the sniffles was almost insulting. Solitas' weather could easily kill those unprepared for it, and Krimp didn't even have an Aura if her memory served correctly. But there was something else that she remembered clear as day.

"We aren't pals Krimp, if the fact that you nearly hospitalized me the last time we met means anything." Weiss glared at him whilst carefully stepping back to her bags.

"Oh I'm really really sorry about that, Weiss, but you was plannin' on gettin' in me bro's way." Krimp shrugged before holding back a sneeze "Couldn't just go 'n let that happen now could I?"

"You let Gundza take me over while I was unconscious!" she bit, hand immediately rubbing at one of her scars "It took weeks to recover from what he did to me, Krimp!"

"Well at that point I was just letting another friend do his thing, but I can see why you's really mad, Weiss." Krimp shook his head "If things were different, I'da bought you a whole bouquet of apology flowers and sent 'em with a nice cake baked with the most love I could find, but I got me job back and gotta set aside apologies like that for now."

Sighing at that, Weiss bent low to grab her bags, "Fine whatever, I'm glad for you. Just stay out of the way Krimp, I've got to do something and you can't interrupt."

"Aw, ain'tcha curious about it though?" Krimp tilted his head to the side "This was me big job back in the day, Weissy, spent half a century masterin' it and all."

Weiss froze, "Fifty... Years?"

"Give or take a month or so~" Krimp cooed "Ain't that exciting?"

"Krimp..." Weiss turned to him "How old are you?"

Krimp pouted immediately, "Ain't they got sayings about ages and whatnot? I wanna be sharing and all, but I don't know how long I got till I gotta get back on the clock."

Weiss looked to him with suspicion, "Krimp, who exactly gave you this job?"

"Me big bro gave it to me back when we was both grunts, and I did it real well until he stopped takin' a liking to it. But now he needs his bro to get cracking, so I get to enjoy me work again!" Krimp sneezed into his arm before imitating Hork "Too many heads need severing, Krimp. You need to slay again, and perhaps when you have some free time you can take care of our brother's slayer."

Weiss locked up as Krimp sneezed again before pointing to her.

"And that's you ain't it?" he asked with a casual tilt of his head "Our Brother's slayer!"

"Krimp..." Weiss stepped closer to the door, forcing a smile "Could you... really do that to a friend?"

"Yeah, its really sad to lose pals in any way!" Krimp nodded in agreement before giving a sad smile and wagging his finger at her "But Big bro's my bestest friend, and I just can't go ignoring an order from him."

Weiss' smile fell as she stepped towards the door again, dread sinking in from every direction as she tried to stay calm. She remembered clearly what happened last time she tried to just get past Krimp, his disproportionate speed making a deadly combination with his strength. Even without aura it had taken her entire team just to break his arm, and that was utilizing Yang's strength and Ruby's planning.

Even besides that, he was fully armed. Despite having settled in to wearing Snow Gear, Krimp still had those oddly shaped hook-blade axes strapped to his back. In between them was that frankly ludicrously sized sword that was easily as tall as he was, Weiss winced at the memory of how stressful dodging that thing had been. She briefly considered the odds of talking him down, Krimp was always easily distracted in the past. At least, he was in most things not concerning his brother.

"You... you'll be surrounded, you know?" she tried a different angle "Father's got emergency contacts in the Atlesian military and a detachment of guards all over the Manor."

"Oh that ain't no matter, because I got me some free time since me last lil' task I did for me bro." Krimp waved off the risks before pointing to her "And like brother said, free time for me means you's gotta go. So, as a pal, I'mma give you the same choice I give all me targets, Weissy. Ohhhh, ain't choices exciting!?"

He reached back and grabbed the hilt of his broadsword, "I could do you a solid and slice ya as fast as I can, makin' it as painless as possible, or... you could try running outta this room."

Weiss froze, "What?"

"Well you could try running," Krimp looked around with a pout "ya ain't got ya weapon in ya hand and I'm kinda dangerous so obviously you's itching to start runnin'. But just know that I ain't gonna have no choice but to try catchin' ya if you go that route."

Weiss could feel her frown deepening, "Krimp..."

"You can take ya time," he raised his free hand and waved with a embarrassed smile "no need to rush it, buddy, its a big choice. I get it."

Why... why...?

He showed up out of nowhere just as Weiss was putting her plan into action, made it seem like it was just his unpredictable antics then blindsided her with a threat to her life.

So why did he still seem so understanding?!

It just didn't add up.

This monster stood before her asking if she'd let him kill her like it was something you ask a coworker around a water cooler.

Krimp took note of her agitation, tilting his head at it, "Want me to get ya some water, friend?"

"Hey!" a voice called out from outside the closet "Who's in there!?"

Weiss immediately turned and bolted for the door, with Krimp tilting his head at the sudden voice.

"Miss Schnee?!" one of the SDC Guards stepped back as Weiss burst from the Staff Closet digging one hand into her bag for Myrtenaster "What are you doing in-?"

"Get back!" Weiss shouted right before the door behind her was torn off its hinges.

She looked back just in time to skip back out of the way as the broken door sailed past her, but when she looked up she gasped upon spotting Krimp.

His sword was already buried through the guard she was just talking to, pinning him against the wall as the other one struggled to report on her radio whilst drawing her sidearm.

"Uh oh," Krimp blinked before looking down at his sword, "Was supposed to be quick for ya, that's my bad!"

He gripped the handle hard before levering it forward through the man's body and ramming the handguard through his face. As he worked, dust rounds broke against the side of his face, causing him to rip the sword from the body and turn on the woman.

"Hey now, I said I was sorry." Krimp pouted as he approached "I'd be a lil' more careful with the shootie shootie, pal. If I hadn't a done him in you might've blasted him, and that don't look good on any kind of reviews."

The remaining guard desperately fired two clips at Krimp, who blocked them with his hand as he raised his sword. He was momentarily distracted by an alarm overhead, which made him look up as Weiss dove for his head with Myrtenaster. Using her Glyphs to gain altitude, she shoved it down towards his head only for her rapier to rub along his leathery skin without making a scratch.

Weiss gasped as Krimp's free hand shot towards her, only for him to pause as the SDC Guard wailed on him with her baton. Weiss used that opportunity to leap back with a Glyph, calling out to the guard only for Krimp to swing his sword around.

Taking the hint from her dead partner, the woman dodged back, but Krimp slipped forward and immediately swung his sword again, slicing through her baton. He spun and kicked her against another wall before ramming his fist against her head and forcing it through the solid wall itself.

Weiss blinked as Krimp rubbed at his neck with another pout, "Aw geez, Weiss." he looked to her as he resumed his approach "How many of our pals you gonna make me kill before its too much?"

Weiss didn't answer, instead immediately dropping her remaining bag before turning and running towards the Garden windows. After using a glyph to shatter the glass, she leaped through only to find three more SDC Guards approaching.

"You have to get back!" she shouted towards them

"Ma'am, you need to get to the Manor's front entrance!" one of them retorted "Maxwell and your father have contingencies for internal-"

He stopped talking as a large crack sounded behind them, and Weiss turned around just as one of the solid stone walls surrounding the garden crumped around Krimp as he strolled through. Didn't even bother with the windows, just walked through the wall like it was tissue paper.

"Oh wow!" Krimp looked around "Why ain't you ever mention how many awesome tree-things you had here, Weiss?"

Weiss was shoved back by the SDC guard, "Go!"

"But he'll-!" Weiss paused for a moment, then turned and sped towards the other side of the Garden.

Krimp noticed her increased speed and blinked before grinning, "Oh oh! We racing then!"

"Get down on your-!"

Krimp kneeled quickly before launching from the ground and speeding past the SDC Guards, many of them flung as he swiped at them on his way by. Weiss just barely managed to hop into the hall before Krimp careened through the window behind her. Using her glyphs she sped ahead with him hot on her trail, racing through the halls of the manor with his unnervingly light footsteps behind her.

The guards wouldn't be able to take him... she wouldn't either, not without proper backup.

Right now the only idea going through her mind was to find Maxwell and hope she and him could hold Krimp off long enough for the Military to roll in with heavier firepower. Her plan was already ruined, but the pleasant tune Krimp was humming as he raced after her wouldn't allow her to bemoan such things. She glanced back just in time to see him rearing back with one of those hook-blade axes. Weiss didn't have much time before he sent it violently spinning towards her, ducking into the nearest door she could just as it carved through the wall beside her.

Looking up, she found herself in the kitchen and cursed the irony as Krimp quickly filled the doorway behind her. She leaped forward as he slashed down at her with one hand while the other caught the spinning hook blade. She dodged to the side as he cleaved through one of the counters, hopping atop a thankfully turned-off stove as he swung at her again. On the other side of the Manor's notably large kitchen was another doorway leading to the halls beyond, but Weiss felt her expression fall upon spotting two more SDC Guards emerge from it and immediately open fire on Krimp.

She didn't have time to warn them, having to slide forward under another swing of that massive sword. By the time she got back on her feet, one of the Guards had drawn his baton and raced to engage Krimp.

"No wait-!" she called back to him, only to watch in horror as Krimp literally walked over the charging man without slowing down, the Guard's aura shattering as his chest caved in under Krimp's weight.

"Sweet fuck... no!" the other guard murmured before throwing himself out of the way as Weiss raced out of the Kitchen, with Krimp in hot pursuit. To her relief, she heard the man yelling over the comms behind them. As she spun corners and drew closer to the front of the manor, she could only hope that they were ready for them.

"There she is!"

Weiss heard Maxwell's voice the moment she skidded into the main entrance from a side hall, she spotted him next to her father who was standing by the open doors. They were flanked by four other SDC security, many of which went wide-eyed as Krimp raced in, hot on Weiss' heels. But Maxwell immediately dropped to one knee as his lance shifted into a long rifle.

Weiss immediately lowered her head as Krimp's footsteps approached, only for Maxwell to fire a round directly at his forehead. An explosion finally halted Krimp's advance, making him step backwards as Weiss darted to Maxwell's side.

"Oh wow!" Krimp mused as he caught himself "Lil' things like that packin' a punch are always so funny to find!"

Maxwell grimaced at his reaction before detaching his rifle's clip and going for a different one, "A thick-Skinned bastard, aren't you?"

Weiss stood at his side, taking a breath of relief at having been able to make it too him, "He's far faster than he looks," she warned "as longa as we come at him from different angles and keep the pressure on we should be able to hold him-"

A hand reached over and swiped Myrtenaster from her grasp, and far too late did Weiss notice before Jacques grabbed her shoulder and pulled her towards the door, "Klein has the limo ready, Weiss." he stated without taking his gaze off of Krimp "Let them do their jobs."

"What?!" Weiss called out as more SDC Guards arrived from the other halls of the manor "But Father, they can't-"

"Are these guys them guards ya mentioned, Weiss?" Krimp questioned as he looked around at all the firearms trained on him, tone still jovial despite the few splatters of blood staining his clothing "They's lookin' pretty intense. Oh! Oh is that ya Old Man?"

The moment his eyes fell on Jacques, they lit up with Interest, "Oh gosh, oh me oh my! You two look so similar its just floorin' me over here!"

Jacques expression was unreadable, he viewed the Uruk before him with the same detached glare Weiss had seen him give during business meetings. Without acknowledging Krimp's sudden fascination with him, he turned and stepped out through the front doors.

"We mustn't take long." he stated despite Weiss' pleas.

"But father-!" she called after him, stepping outside to shout after him

"No worries there, Princess." Maxwell smirked before glaring at Krimp "We planned for a full on tactical assault, one shock trooper isn't about to invade the Kingdom of Atlas without repercussion."

Weis tried again, "But-!"

Maxwell reached back and slammed the massive doors closed on her, stepping in front of them as Krimp raised a hand to his mouth.

"Don't be all worryin' ya'self, buddy!" he called out to Weiss "I'll be catching up real quick!"

Once his new clip was secured, Maxwell looked Krimp up and down. He wasn't moving, letting them surround him without a care in the world. He could see several of the SDC Guards training their weapons on him with shaking hands, but he just waved to a few as he surveyed the sixteen guards surrounding him. It matched the profile that Atlas had on him perfectly.

Krimp the Friendly, an Uruk who seemed to defy the vast quantity of conventions found among the Uruks. Immensely compassionate and defiantly helpful, his title wasn't just for show. There were countless accounts from all over Remnant of people interacting with him, getting chummy with him, hanging out and being helped by him. His uncanny ability to show up seemingly out of nowhere could only be explained by disproportionate stealth and versatility in the usage of Dreamer Gates, so him getting through Atlas security wasn't as such of a surprise as it probably should have been.

All reports from the few who actually managed to engage him in combat stated that even without Aura, his skin provided enough durability to make anything less than immense blunt damage useless. But Maxwell wasn't about to let that dissuade him, for his lance was capable of firing armor-piercing rounds. Even if the Schnees threw a hissy fit over their property being damaged, taking down a wild card like Krimp was too good to pass up.

"Quit the shaking," he ordered the Guards whilst trying to line his shot up "just keep him in sight and-"

"With all do respect, sir." One of the trembling Guards swallowed nervously while locking his gaze to Krimp "He stepped on Berten and folded him like a fuckin' piece of origami!"

"Origami's actually pretty relaxing." Krimp mused as he looked to Maxwell "Really soothes the mind and worries and whatnot! Plenty o' you folk look like you could use somethin' like-"

Maxwell fired his rifle at Krimp, the Uruk ducked as the round punctured the armored knight statue on the other side of the room. The round tore through the knight statue's knee, causing the entire thing to tilt forward as Krimp lunged for Maxwell. The Guards opened fire as Maxwell lunged out of the way, Krimp's blade digging through the floor behind him. Maxwell had to dodge his grasping hand as Krimp flung himself at him, his weight carrying him towards one of the Guards who realized the threat and leaped to the side.

Krimp just leaped into his own stumble, throwing his entire weight onto the Guard and crushing him into the floor. The two nearest Guards slid back as Krimp rose, taking the time to lift a foot and crush his head before leaning out of the way of another one of Maxwell's rounds.

"Sorry to say but ya gotta be quicker than that, buddy~" Krimp cooed before gripping his sword in two hands and swinging it around "I should know, you's lookin' at a five-time Udun Tag champion!"

Maxwell lined up another shot as he gritted his teeth, only to go wide eyed and leap out of the way as Krimp sent his immense sword spinning across the room. Two of the Guards behind him had to step out of the way as the Blade embedded itself in the wall between them. One of the Guards looked back as Maxwell slipped out of the way of Krimp's following charge. He crashed into the wall besides one of those guards who tried to back up while firing on him only for Krimp's hand to lunge out and snatch her by the face.

"You got really silky skin," Krimp mused while rearing back with her trapped in his grasp "One you others gotta tell me how ya be gettin' that moisturization~"

He rammed her mouth-first against the blade embedded in the wall, breaking her aura as he dragged her sharply along the edge and slicing through the back of her head.

As her body fell to the floor, Krimp tossed the upper portion of her head to the side whilst tearing his sword from the wall, "On that note, ya'll make them snazzy uniforms all kinds o' cool!" Krimp mused before charging again "You think they could make 'em in my size or is that a no no?"

Maxwell slipped back, trying to line up a shot only for Krimp's speed to throw his aim off. In what seemed like seconds more Guards were dead and the others were quickly losing morale, he could see it. Krimp just kept the casual chatter up the entire time, spewing compliments and asking about their everyday lives even as he cut them down.

Despite the situation, Maxwell formed a plan rather quickly.

"M-Maxwell?!" one of the Guards called out desperately as Maxwell darted past him, only to go wide-eyed as Krimp's shadow fell over him.

"Sweating like that's usually pretty concernin' givin' how cold it is." Krimp noted as he held his hand up to block dust rounds from his eyes "Need a towel or something?"

The guard desperately tried throwing himself backwards out of the way of Krimp's sword, only for the Uruk's foot to come down on his leg and pin him as he raised the blade again.

But then his head jerked to the side, Krimp's smile tightened for a moment before he tilted forward. Seeing the danger, the guard dragged himself out of the way as Krimp collapsed to his knees before tilting forward. Only once he was down did the Guard notice the massive dust round sticking out from the back of his head.

Maxwell sighed from afar, thankful that his plan worked. The only time in the fight that Krimp slowed down was when he was killing something, it was the only the time he could reasonably land a shot. Standing up, Maxwell looked over the room, only half of the initial defenders were still alive, and it hadn't even been two minutes. The remaining Guards were winded, several with broken auras and two with broken limbs.

Maxwell sighed, "That was the only bogie on site, secure the body." he ordered before turning away "I'll report to Mr. Schnee, maybe they won't have to peel out after all."

"Sir?" One of the guards spoke before pointing.

"What?" Maxwell, turned back, only to freeze at the sight of Krimp pushing himself back up.

Using the massive sword to prop himself up, Krimp's free hand reached back and poked at the large Dust round rammed into the back of his head, "Wow, you got it in there really deep, buddy. Congrats!"

Krimp's thick fingers tightened around the bullet before yanking it sharply out of the back of his head. Standing up a little wobbly, Krimp tossed the bullet aside before rubbing at the hole in the back of his head.

"Didn't want to go crazy or anything given that this job's supposed to be a free time thing, but I guess I just wasn't givin' ol Atlas the respect it deserves." Krimp sighed before clenching his free hand into a fist "But brother gave me an order! So I'm gonna have to step it up!"

He pounded his fist against his chest three, four, five times as Maxwell quickly tried to line up another shot. The fifth time he pounded his fist, he glowed orange. It was a brief glow, but in that time it was there they could all recognize it: Aura. For a moment they saw Krimp engulfed with an Aura far too dense to be natural, causing several of the Guards to back up as Maxwell fired again.

The dust round broke upon Krimp's aura, with Krimp massaging his neck before reaching back and drawing his two hook blades with one hand, "You ready for round two, buddy? Because I'm gettin' all kinds o' giddy to try this Aura business out with all o' you!"

.{{{{{+-+}}}}}.

The outside of the Schnee Estate was long, with a large circular road surrounding a large fountain in the front that led to a massive gate.

"They're going to die in there!" Weiss spoke vehemently as she followed behind her father, a limo parked and waiting for them halfway to the gate "I know Krimp might seem simple but I'm not sure one Specialist could be enough to-"

"Weiss," Jacques didn't slow down as he spoke "I paid those guards and Maxwell to lay down their lives in order to protect me and my family in the case that danger showed up on our doorstep. They are now fulfilling their purpose, so I ask that you try to focus on our safety at this time."

Weiss's eyes snapped to Myrtenaster, "Well... in that case, could I at least have-"

"And let you go running back there in some paltry attempt at helping them?" Jacques lifted the rapier in front of him "I think not."

As they approached the limo, the driver's side door opened and Klein stepped out, "Sir, I'm sorry about the placement." he said immediately with a bow as Whitley poked his head out of a rear window "But the Madam and Sir Whitley were already on their way to the gate and-"

"An issue to discuss once we're safely inside the Academy's walls." Jacques stated before pulling open the rear door of the limo and gesturing for Weiss to enter "Just get us moving as soon as we're in."

At the main gate, Weiss could see two SDC vehicles pulling up. Eight more Guards began emerging from them as Jacques gestured for her to hurry up. But a slamming sound brought her attention back to the front door of the manor, where two of the House Guards stumbled out, splattered with blood. One of them immediately hauled the doors shut behind him, before looking to the other one and frowning.

"The hell are you going?!" she shouted to the other Guard, who had began trying to jog away "Help me hold this closed while backup-"

"Oh hell no!" he shouted whilst stepping back away from the door "Fuck all of whatever the hell that thing is! I was paid to defend a house, not to kill myself damn it!"

The other guard grimaced, "Oh you spineless, traitor motherfu-!"

The massive door ripped from its hinges and tipped forward, crushing the guard underneath it as the other spun around and began running for the gate.

Lying atop the broken door was Maxwell.

Half of him at least.

Everything below his waist was gone, and rammed into each of his eyes were Krimp's hook blades. The owner of those weapons casually strolled atop the broken door, his winter outfit splattered with even more blood as he merrily reached down and grabbed hold of his hook blades. His sword strapped to his back again whilst wielding Maxwell's lance in his free hand, Krimp lifted Maxwell's corpse and waved the lance at Weiss.

"Hey buddy!" he called out to her before nodding to Maxwell "This too much for ya, yet?"

A strong hand grabbed Weiss's shoulder and shoved her into the Limo. Jacques slid in after her, slamming the door shut behind him and calling to Klein.

"Get us moving!" He ordered, with Klein nodding from up front as he hit the gas.

Weiss spun in her seat, looking out the rear of the Limo as Krimp reared back and launched Maxwell's corpse at the limo. At the same time, the fleeing SDC Guard pressed against the window.

"Sir!" he called out, "Please let me in! He can't be outrun! Please!"

Jacques merely shook his head as the limo sped up, with the Guard desperately clinging to the door's handle as Maxwell's body slammed onto the trunk of the limo. Krimp broke into a jog as the limo picked up speed, the vehicle dragging the desperate guard towards the gate which was slowly opening.

The limo slid through the gate, turning with just enough force to send the SDC Guard rolling against one of the parked SDC vehicles. Groaning, he tried looking up just to see the Limo speeding off down the road. One of the other Guards stepped past him before pulling an assault rifle out of the rear of one of the vehicles.

"Close it!" the Guard shouted to the others as they all aimed heavier weaponry towards Krimp. As the gate suddenly began closing, Krimp broke into a full-on sprint. His massive limbs carrying him great distances as he rapidly approached the Gate.

The last remaining House Guard saw the others opening fire on Krimp as he charged, scrambling to pull himself to his feet, "Oh no! Oh no Oh no!"

Krimp tore right through the gate's causing most of the security team to lunge out of the way as he leaped atop one of their vehicles and snapped his gaze towards the limo in the distance. The security team peppered him with machinegun fire and shotgun blasts, his aura defending him him as he leapt off the vehicle and ran after the limo.

The House Guard had tried to crawl out of the way once Krimp arrived, giving a breath of relief after he was gone. That relief was short-lived, as the other SDC security personnel immediately began piling back into their vehicles. One of which grabbed him and pulled him in alongside them.

"W-What are you-!?" He began

"We can't let that thing kill Mr. Schnee!" the driver of the vehicle snapped as he floored it "Who do you think pays us?!"

Up ahead, Whitley rubbed at his head in the backseat of the limo before looking to his father, "So what exactly was so pressing I needed to be hauled away from my studies?"

"Our domicile was infiltrated," Jacques stated "a dangerous individual is in pursuit of us and managed to overcome Maxwell."

Whitley rolled his eyes, "And he called himself a Specialist," he sighed before looking to Willow "At least father was cognizant enough to have a backup plan, right?"

Willow just stared into the glass of wine she clasped in her hands, having spilt some of it on the bathrobe she wore on their way out. At Whitley's comment, she merely nodded, drawing a frown from her son.

"What say you sister?" he turned to Weiss "Think we'll have to pay for more security once this whole thing is dealt with?"

But Weiss wasn't looking at him, instead she was still turned around in her seat.

"He's catching up." she stated with a hint of dread creeping into her tone. Immediately, Jacques turned around to confirm that Krimp's long stride was indeed drawing him closer and closer to the Limo by the second. Prancing along the road behind them at a breakneck pace, Krimp didn't slow even as the SDC Trucks behind him opened fire.

"What is that?!" Whitley gasped at the sight

"Klein, take the next left." Jacques ordered

"But sir," Klein called back "to squeeze between buildings in a vehicle like this-"

"That creature will be on us in seconds if you don't." Jacques stated "It connects to a road that'll lead back to our route, take it!"

Klein swallowed before doing what he was told, swerving to the right a bit to give himself some room before turning on a small side road between two large buildings. Krimp skid to a stop beside right to the side of the road, smiling merrily as he raised his hand to wave at them.

Weiss had a perfect view as one of the SDC trucks slammed into him at full speed, the front of the vehicle crumpling around him before exploding. The light of the blast filled the entire alley, bathing everything in a glow whilst framing Krimp as he strolled out of the explosion before breaking into a run after them again.

"Don't panic." Jacques took note of her expression "As fast as he is, the SDC and Atlesian response teams should hold him off long enough for us to reach the Academy. Once there, it doesn't matter how strong he is, for Ironwood has far too many assets for any individual to take on."

"But from here to the Academy." Weiss looked down "There's plenty of residences between us, we'll be leading him right through a bunch of civilians."

"Hmph," Jacques glanced out the back of the window, watching as an Atlesian Vehicle swerved into Krimp's path. The Uruk didn't slow down, twirling Maxwell's lance into its rifle form as he leaped onto the hood of the vehicle. He slowed down for a split second to take aim and fire two rounds into the driver's side window before hopping off. He resumed his pursuit even as the vehicle spun out beside him and crashed into another building.

Looking away, Jacques shook his head, "Let's hope they slow him down even more."

Weiss looked up at that, recognizing the gruesome play her father was willing to make. It was purely logical of course, if one's goal was to solely ensure their survival. But Weiss couldn't help but grow angry at the idea of leading Krimp through a bunch of random civilians just to have a better chance of escaping.

She looked out of the rear window and saw two Atlesian Soldiers lead a group of AK-Units out of an alley behind them. The droids immediately fired upon Krimp, who twirled his blade to deflect gunfire before spinning amongst them. He didn't slow down this time, cutting down several of the AK-Units and one of the soldiers as he passed.

Weiss couldn't in good conscience let that happen to more people than necessary, and took a breath before looking to her father with a stern expression.

"He's only after me." she stated, prompting both Jacque and Whitley to look at her.

"Quite an ego on you, hm?" her brother teased, trying not to focus on the path of carnage Krimp was carving behind them, but Jacques seemed to be in a far less joking mood.

"Explain." he ordered

"H-He told me," she said "I killed his brother, and he wants me dead. If I leave, he'll follow me and leave the rest of you alone."

"And potentially kill you, which isn't an option." Jacques stated evenly,

"He'll slaughter everything he sees as getting between him and I." Weiss said before gesturing behind them just as Krimp leaped for the limo, only for another sharp turn leading him to just barely miss "I can't... let that happen. And to even have a chance of surviving a chase with him, I need Myrtenaster."

Jacques narrowed his eyes at her, tightening his grip on the rapier, "Do you believe me willing to sacrifice my daughter for a reason so inconsequential as that?"

"Y-Yeah Weiss," Whitley tried to smirk, but Weiss could tell the increasingly tense situation and subject matter was getting to him "I mean, I know you've occasionally had your resignations about the position but-"

"They aren't inconsequential to me!" She declared, seeing Whitley's expression fall completely out of the corner of her gaze "I'm not like that, I couldn't just-"

"Weiss, we've been over this." Jacques shook his head "Your worth comparative to the average citizen of a place of even Atlas's standing is far too great to even consider the notion of-"

"I was planning on running away!"

Jacques stopped and looked over to her, his gaze boring into her as an explosion ripped through the air behind the limo.

"I couldn't take living here anymore," she continued before looking away "I didn't care about what it would mean for me or the company, I just wanted to be somewhere else."

"Madam?!" Klein called back at her words, though his focus was entirely on maneuvering the roads before him with Krimp in pursuit.

"And I'll do it again." Weiss tried to threaten, the sound of Krimp's jolly humming was weakening her resolve just as much as her father's impassable gaze "So if I become... a liability like that, wouldn't getting rid of me now make the most sense?"

"S-Surely you jest, right?" Whitley looked to Jacques "She's just trying to assert authority, I'm sure. There's no need to consider throwing her to that... that thing, right?"

Weiss looked to Whitley in surprise, his hesitant tone made him seem far more worried about her than she'd ever seen before.

"That's it?"

Those weren't the words she expected to hear from her father in response, and she looked to him in surprise as Jacques leaned back. He looked back out of the rear window as another quick turn just barely allowed them to evade Krimp's clutches once again.

"I can't believe..." Jacques trailed off for a moment before stunning his children with a chuckle "that I expected so much worst."

Weiss couldn't keep the confusion from seeping into her expression, the unnatural sound of her father's laughter clearly as eerie to Whitley as it was to her, "You... you what?"

"And here I was worried that you were planning to sell the company out to that worthless Winchester boy out of rebellious spite." He idly mused whilst looking over Myrtenaster "I was ready... ready to annihilate the both of you once the need arose."

"But... that's what you thought I was doing?" Weiss couldn't keep her hand from tightening "Just giving away everything Grandpa worked for?"

"I barely even recognized the girl who was brought back inside this manor." Jacques narrowed his gaze at her before closing his eyes "So much work and training erased by that Academy... it was insufferable. Yet even then, anyone who seeks to thrive in Atlas must prepare for the worst from anyone... even those closest to them."

"Well its a good thing that never came to pass!" Whitley said quickly, steadying himself as the Limo made another harsh turn "What an amusing misunderstanding we've come across! More ammunition to hold over my dear older sister will be invaluable once we all reach the Academy, wouldn't you say?"

It was almost painful to see her brother speak like this, he couldn't even hide his concern for her behind casual teasing. She wanted to tell him that this was the best option in her eyes, that the rest of them wouldn't be at risk anymore once she was gone. But to her surprise, her father spoke first.

"I hope you've been keeping up well, Whitley." Jacques stated as he sat Myrtenaster on the seat beside him "An Heir's responsibility is far greater than that of an aspirant."

He was accepting her terms, for the first time in forever Weiss actually felt as though she'd come out of a deal with him on top. Her hand moved for Myrtenaster, only to flinch as Whitley shook his head.

"You can't be serious, right?" he leaned forward "I mean, this isn't the way I was supposed to get this! You... you can't just give up on everything, right Weiss? You... We're Schnees!"

"I'm not giving up on anything I didn't already believe in." Weiss said whilst grabbing Myrtenaster "You could consider this me branching out towards different ventures."

As her fingers closed around the handle, she looked up to see her father folding his arms and closing his eyes, "An excuse for giving up on something is still an excuse, but any proper businessman knows when to cut his losses."

"B-but she's going to die out there!" Whitley finally shook his head before looking to Willow, halfway through her glass of Wine "Right? We aren't just going to do this, right?!"

Willow's glazed eyes barely looked up from her drink, "If your father says so, then... its not as though we could stop either of them."

"Mother?!" Whitley pleaded

"She's not going to die out there." Jacques stated before looking to Weiss "Even without being an heiress, you're still a Schnee. You know better than to die to something as ridiculous as that creature."

Weiss didn't say anything, merely nodded before sitting up and turning to hug both her mother and brother.

"Y-you aren't really going to..." Whitley's voice trailed off, Willow's only response was to hug her back with one arm and drain the rest of her drink with her other hand. With that finished, Weiss opened the roof window of the limo.

"Miss Schnee?" she halted at the sound of Klein's voice, watching as he nodded to her in the rearview mirror "If the Master's words are to be true, you know who to call once you've escaped."

Weiss nodded, and soon pulled herself up through the roof of the limo.

The moment she looked behind the vehicle, the first thing she spotted was the barrel of Maxwell's rifle being leveled at her. She acted quickly, leaping from the roof as the rifle fired at her. She placed a glyph on a neighboring building to catch herself as the Limo sped away. Weiss didn't have long to watch it, as Krimp immediately hopped atop a nearby parked van and launched himself towards her as Maxwell's rifle formed back into its lance configuration.

Using the glyph, she fired herself across the street as Krimp tore the lance through the side of the building. Only when she landed upon the roof of the building across the street did she take a moment to watch her family turn the corner and vanish into the recesses Atlas. In the distance beyond where they left, she could see the telltale signs of several Atlesian Military Airships heading her way.

She wasn't sure if the soldiers on board would be able to stand a better chance against Krimp than either the SDC Guards or the AK-Unit patrols, but Weiss wasn't willing to bet their lives on it. Instead her eyes turned the other direction, where the immense city gave way to smaller structures and large patches of undeveloped terrain along the edge. Klein was supposed to drive her towards a storage facility where Cardin and the others were waiting with the ship. Though she was late, she had unhindered connection to the CCT beyond the range of Schnee manor.

She could still do this, still get to them and flee the city together if they hadn't gone too far without her.

But there was still one major obstacle between her and that.

"Protecting ya folks by runnin' off all on your own!" Weiss turned around as she watched Krimp pull himself up from the edge of the roof "That's just what makes you so cool, Weiss! You and ya pals at Beacon always were way heroic and stuff. Glad to see that didn't change, ya know?"

Weiss' grip tightened on Myrtenaster, Krimp's insufferably casual demeanor shining through despite the gore he'd covered himself in during his pursuit of her, "I won't let you hurt anyone else tonight, Krimp."

"Aw, it ain't good to make promises ya can't keep Weissy." Krimp shook his head before shrugging "Lottsa pals o mine tend to get hurt when I work. Its just how it is. May not be as good as I was back in the days, lots of off-time can do that to ya, ya know? But don't you worry Buddy! Ol Krimp's working super hard to get back to where he was before, and I'm really glad that you's helping me work on that!"

Weiss couldn't keep her gaze from wandering past Krimp, the path from Schnee Manor to here was riddled with destroyed vehicles, ripped apart AK-Units and bodies of both SDC Guards and Atlesian Patrols. She knew better than to overlook Krimp's words just because of how enthusiastic he was, but the idea of him wreaking havoc worst than what she'd seen so far made her tighten her grip on Myrtenaster.

Quickly summoning a Glyph beneath her, Weiss threw herself to the roof of another building before turning and bolting across it.

"Yeah! Ain't no time for dilly-dallying!" Krimp nodded before leaping back into pursuit "We got us a doozy of a time, ain't we buddy!?"

---

Somewhere..?

"Sorry to say but that sounds way too unbelievable Bubol." Ruby sighed as she aimed Crescent Rose at the cave wall to check the magnification of the scope.

"Aw, just throwing my words away, eh sweetness?" Bubol cackled as he stared at the ceiling from his spot on the floor.

Ever since Ruby had hesitantly put together that Bubol was implicating Krimp as Hork's original shadow, the Uruk had gone on to lavish her with honestly awesome sounding stories of hunting and pursuit that the Original Shadow was capable of. Feats of stealth like no other, high speed combat that would make any comic reader swoon, honestly it sounded more like he was rolling off a series of high-octane action thriller movie synopses than anything else. But the fact that apparently Krimp was the primary focus of all of them just didn't fit.

"All you've told me for the past thirty minutes just sounds crazy!" Ruby exclaimed "I know that Krimp's scarily proficient at fighting and stuff, but even so, the image of him being this like hyper-lethal assassin guy is kinda... you know?"

"Not even pulling your fine-skinned leg here, darling." Bubol cackled "He was a downright terror even when I was just a grunt! Never expected the renowned Shadow of the Black Gate to be such a chipper lad back then."

"But see that, that right there!" Ruby gestured to him "Every time we fought him before, it always seemed like he was playing around, not trying to kill us."

She remembered the Vytal Festival, during which Weiss had suspected that Krimp was just covering up his regular Uruk behavior by feigning childish innocence. While it definitely would fit, something about that conclusion never did seem right to Ruby.

"Well he wasn't tryin' to kill ya, that's for true." Bubol nodded "He ain't killed a single soul in decades, lassie."

"And yet he's supposed to be the deadliest guy his brother has?" Ruby raised an eyebrow

"Its all because of his Brother, ya beautiful idiot." Bubol sighed "After Hork went and got all professional after becoming Warchief, he got sick and tired of having this reminder of his older habits around. Saw Krimp as disgraceful despite how deadly he was, then told him very specifically not go killin' in his name anymore. And since ol' Krimp only ever killed for his brother, he swore off the entirety of it completely. At least... until Hork tells him otherwise, of course."

Ruby couldn't exactly counter that, as she had plenty of memories of Krimp displaying just how much he would do for his brother.

"Honestly, the fact he ain't managed to kill a thing in decades is way more impressive than most o the lads give credit to." Bubol closed his eyes, pustule covered lips stretching into a grin "Many saw this whole no-killin' policy as an invitation to take down the Warchief's greatest weapon. Ol' Krimp went and fought through hordes o' lads afterwards, breaking hundreds but not killin' a soul. Considerin' how used to bleedin' folks he was, I'd call that a downright delicious accomplishment!"

"But..." Ruby shook her head "There's something that just doesn't add up, even if all of that is true. Weiss was convinced that he was lying about all that friendly stuff, but I never could fully come around to that. It just-"

"Oh that? That's all absolutely genuine." Bubol nodded, much to Ruby's surprise.

"What?" she narrowed her gaze "You just spent over half an hour telling me he was this super cool assassin guy!"

"He's that too, funny right?" Bubol tilted his head to the side "Deadliest servant of one bloody professional warchief is one o' the friendliest bastards in the land, almost like a joke that keeps on givin, ain't it?"

"But those two images of him don't fit at all!"

"And that's the joke!" Bubol cackled before looking over to her "And you don't even know how wonderfully entertaining it is. So how about a storytime from your generous lover."

"The confusion of this conversation doesn't make that any less gross, Bubol." Ruby sighed as she lowered Crescent Rose.

"Well I'm sure this'll take ya mind off it." Bubol turned his attention back to the cave ceiling "Did you know that his first ever title was Krimp the Brain Dead?"

Ruby narrowed her eyes.

"Absolutely true! He came outta his pit flawed in a way different than most." Bubol continued "His head never worked like any o the other lads. He was slower to think, slower to act, poor sap couldn't even keep up with his kin if he tried. Even Ashgarn was more of an Uruk than he was, and everyone knew it. Stupidity like that often gets ya killed quick as an Uruk, even though Krimp did have the sheer physical strength to rival his brother's. But that was nothing compared to Hork's guidance."

Leaning up, Bubol pressed his back against the wall of the cave as he smirked at Ruby, "You lot might not believe it, but Horkie boy really was a different Uruk all together back in the day. A wild warrior who sought all kinds of battle and thrived off conflict, a real Uruk's Uruk. He kept Krimp close, since they was brothers and all. Ashgarn always was a glutton, even before I helped him out, but Krimp clung to Hork like an infant tark to its mother's teat. Krimp mighta started slow, but he held information like a sponge, feasting on his brother's example day in and day out until he could stand beside him as a warrior of his own caliber."

"But that doesn't explain this weird dichotomy where he's-!" Ruby was interrupted as Bubol leaned forward sharply.

"I'm gettin' right to it, darlin'!" Bubol shook his head "So greedy you is, eh?"

Leaning back, he continued "Hork used to tell this story like a funny gag, how Krimp picked up this whole friend business. How it goes is that Hork was laughing it up with the lads one day, one of which being a rival he was set to fight to the death the very next morning. When ol' Krimp picked up on that, he went and asked his dear big brother why he was having such a good time with some glob he was preppin' to kill. Ol Hork in a bid of drunken wisdom told his kin that making friends and killing folks were intrinsically intertwined processes. So Krimp, still something of a simple sort, went and internalized that idea, and now represents it to its fullest of humors!"

"I thought you said he wasn't lying about being friendly?" Ruby narrowed her gaze.

"I ain't, he's genuine." Bubol nodded "Krimp sees killin' folk as an inevitability to most genuine friendships he makes, mostly cuz' ol Hork couldn't help himself and kept feeding into that idea. It was funny to him, watching his brother go out and make friends with folk and kill em after a while. Krimp took a while, but eventually he learned how to sympathize and empathize with others to an extent unheard of to Uruks across all o' Mordor! Assuming he's just being deceptive is too naïve, lassie. Friendship just has a different meaning to him than it does to you, or us Uruks in fact. His growing devotion to it on account of his brother's what has so many globs thinking he ain't even a true Uruk."

"So that's just... how friendship is to him?!" Ruby recoiled as Bubol nodded "But I never... that, that's ridiculous!"

"Makes sense to him, lass." Bubol shrugged "Now maybe ya see why ol' Hork got so ashamed of him after becoming Warchief. New, professional Hork saw his brother's Friendly Killing as a reminder of how wild he used to be, and letting a joke such as that stay at his side so long made him fear eventual retribution from the higher ranks on both him and his kin. Because that's what he is, lass. Krimp is nothing more than a joke his brother made decades ago, that just so happens to be a killin' machine. And that is what'll eventually be zeroing in on ya lil' pal, so ya may as well start lookin' for a replacement friend. Maybe someone a lil more... physical?"

As Bubol began thrusting suggestively, rage fueled Ruby's expression at the mere suggestion. Standing up, she raised a hand as she took a step towards Bubol, but upon seeing the giddy look in his diseased eyes, she hesitated.

Dissapointment flitted through Bubol's eyes as RUby lowered her hand.

"J-Just stop talking about that," Ruby turned away "if you understand other Uruks so much, then why not tell me about the Stormbringer? He's your enemy too, isn't he? Why not tell me how to beat him?"

"Oh, that one's pointless." Bubol rolled his eyes before laying back down "Especially given how much stronger he got off your Aura stuff, ya gotta find a way to gather more strength than him before I could even start throwin' possibilities. And trust me, that ain't gonna be easy, lover."

---

The City of Atlas

"Why... can't any of this ever be easy?" Cardin wondered aloud

"There'd be no fun in simplicity," Dove answered as he strolled past the open side door of the airship, looking inside with a grin "though I'd be lying if I said I wasn't seething at how much time we're wasting waiting on the Princess."

Cardin frowned before looking up to the sky. They'd done everything perfectly so far, hauling the retrofitted Hen out of a storage space big enough for massive trucks, getting it ready for liftoff without drawing any attention to themselves. There was only one thing missing from their grand master plan.

Weiss.

Stepping back inside the Hen, Cardin turned to the cockpit, "You get ahold of her yet?"

Ciel was sitting in the cockpit, scroll in one hand while the other kept track of a screen projected from her wristwatch "None, the news reports say that her family made it to the Academy, but both Weiss and Krimp are gone."

"Surprising he'd come straight to the Kingdom of Atlas all on his own." Dove noted before shrugging "But if he hasn't been stopped yet then I guess he was ready for it. Kind of odd seing such a friendly fellow causing such a ruckus."

Cardin gritted his teeth, because Ruckus wasn't even close to how bad this was. Krimp had befriended him and his team back in Beacon, even getting them to bury the hatchet with Jaune over certain events in the past. Out of all the problems Cardin had anticipated for tonight, Krimp showing up out of nowhere and carving his way across the city after Weiss was not one of them. But that didn't change the fact that now they had a choice.

"Connection's getting weaker on certain channels." Ciel noted "That blizzard isn't too far off."

"Meaning that we should be packing up and dipping." Dove shrugged "If Krimp got ahold of her, then we need to honor our close friend's memory by not letting her wonderful plan go to waste, especially after all the fantastic work I did to get this damn ship here. Honestly, if it ends up getting impounded at this rate I might have to ask for compensation for the trauma."

"We aren't leaving unless we know for certain she's not making it." Cardin stated, turning to Ciel again "Have you tried-?"

"Tried again, she's not picking up." Ciel informed him "Tumultuous weather would make our efforts increasingly difficult."

"Exactly," Dove agreed "as much as I would've enjoyed goading her during the trip, I'm not exactly keen on losing so much progress due to her."

"And what about all the money she sank into this?" Cardin asked

"Little hard to appreciate when that backer ain't here to help us round this out, okay?" Dove offered before gesturing to Cardin "I know you can get all caught up in your emotions C-Man, but take a breather and think for a moment. We got lucky that we could put together a plan this good in the timeframe we had, mostly due to my efforts but the fact remains."

Cardin gritted his teeth but turned to Ciel instead, "Anything?"

Ciel lowered her scroll and looked to him, "Cardin, I don't like it anymore than you do," she said evenly "but we may have to at least entertain the options of-"

Her scroll chimed right in the middle of her words, causing her to pause for a moment as Cardin quickly gestured for her to answer.

"Where are you?!" Weiss' voice called out over the scroll's speaker the moment Ciel answered, prompting Cardin to draw closer with anger flitting about his expression.

"That's what we should be asking you!" he bit before grunting "We haven't left storage yet, how long until you-?"

"Get to the Frigid Plains!" Weiss shouted first, prompting Cardin to frown again as he snatched the scroll from Ciel.

"What?!" Cardin shook his head "That's over a dozen blocks over, why there?"

"Krimp's on me and I can't shake him, I'll be coming in hot and I'm trying to get him as far from both Atlas and Mantle as possible!" Weiss tried explaining, her words punctuated by the sound of glyphs and distant laughter.

"How is he keeping up with you?!" Cardin could barely believe it, glancing to the side as Dove hopped into the ship and leaned against the wall beside the cockpit.

"No fun in simplicity, I suppose." he sighed before tilting his head to peak into the cockpit "Need some help up there, hon?"

"Closing the doors would be beneficial to lifting off." Ciel offered whilst flipping several switches "The Frigid Plains aren't hard to reach but any passing patrol there will spot us immediately."

"If Krimp's giving them as much trouble as the news said we might actually be in the clear on that." Dove noted

"Fine," Cardin sighed before holding up the scroll "We're on it Weiss, but you better get your ass over there before that damn blizzard rolls in."

"I'll... do my best!" she replied as the call cut out.

.{{{{{+-+}}}}}.

Krimp was having the time of his life, maybe not the best time or even the funniest time, but he knew in his heart that it was a Time. Hopping from one building to another, pumping his legs harder than they'd been pumped in more years than he could probably count. Up ahead a good friend of his was leading him on a merry chase through a super cool city that looked absolutely stunning in the darkening sky.

He wanted to take a picture! He'd learned how to do it using those nifty scrolls people in Remnant used, but he just wouldn't have the time as long as he was on the hunt. Krimp made a mental note for later to find a special place for him to take a proper scenic picture of the city. He had a friend in the Storm who was getting really into pictures, maybe they could compare once Krimp had a sizeable collection to showcase? The idea of that made him giggle as he fired another rifle round at his good friend Weiss.

She was really fast, mostly because of those awesome looking Glyphs of hers. They did all kinds of things! They shot stuff, sped stuff, created stuff, blew stuff up. And there were even more things they could do if the things he heard about Schnees was true. Right as he swung around the corner of another alley, several icicles shot up at him, but that friendly guy's Lance was really good at breaking through them. Krimp figured he should figure out where that guy had this thing made, write a thankful letter to the crafter for having such reliable workmanship!

But then Krimp wondered if the friendly guy had made it himself, and wondered how he could thank him now that he was dead. Krimp figured he'd probably have to sneak back into Atlas again sometime and leave a thank you letter on his grave for it. It'd be a challenge, but Krimp liked challenges. Especially fun ones like hide and seek, but things like tag were okay too. Poor Weiss didn't know better when she tried giving him the slip, she was playing with a five-time Mordor Champion of tag, only most of Krimp's friends didn't call it that over there.

Krimp watched Weiss stumble through the snow below as she skidded along the sidewalk besides an autoshop. He marveled at how different this part of Atlas was to the big mansions and large parks around where Weiss lived. There were so many warehouses around here that it almost felt like the Industrial District of Vale, but with shinier buildings. Krimp liked that part of Vale because it had a lot of high places with scenic sites of the city. Maybe next time he snuck in he'd try and find similar places here? Krimp discarded that thought, the more commercial part of Atlas had way taller buildings, and he didn't even need really good eyes to see that.

Rubbing at his nose, Krimp held back another sneeze as he dove from the rooftop towards Weiss, plunging the Lance straight through solid asphalt as she narrowly slipped away.

Unfortunately for him, he hadn't been able to find any suitable soup stores on his way to Weiss' house. Every time one of his pals got sick like this he'd offer some soup, since it was really easy to make and could have all kinds of mysterious surprises inside. Solitas sure was colder than anywhere Krimp had ventured before, no frozen land back home could give him a stuffy nose like this. But that just meant he'd have another story to tell friends whenever he'd need to kick up conversation, maybe he could give tips to other Uruks if they make their way up north?

Krimp gave a small laugh at the idea while charging Weiss with the lance, ramming it straight through a large truck as she scaled it. Krimp kept going, tightening his grip before gouging his way through the truck with the lance as Weiss darted away. A glyph appeared on the truck as he tore his way through, and soon it surged red before the entire thing went up in flames.

The heat reminded Krimp of Vacuo, he'd definitely have to get back there once he was done playing with Weiss. Hopping out of the inferno, Krimp rubbed at his neck before trying to sniff at the air. No dice, his usually sharp nose all troubled by his sniffles. Krimp pouted at that, figuring he'd have to remind himself to train up against Solitas' weather next time he came to visit. Conversation starter or not, nobody liked being sick. Well, maybe his odd friend, Bubol. But Bubby liked a whole lot of weird things that made other Uruks hesitant around him. Not Krimp, he enjoyed the weird things about others, made them all memorable in one way or another.

Speaking of which, he forewent sniffing the air and listened for the telltale sound of Weiss using her glyphs. They had a distinct sound about them that Krimp immediately noticed as he turned and charge the wall of the autoshop. He tore straight through the counter, into the garage and right through the large door at the back which led through to a large space between several buildings in the back. Krimp couldn't help smiling at the funny face Weiss made once he burst out. Not being able to hold back, he held the lance in both hands and swung.

"Surprise!" he cheered as he closed in, only for everything to stop once a very loud voice said-

"STAY!"

Weiss gasped and stepped back as Krimp literally froze in mid-air, his happy smile still spreading second by second as she quickly distanced herself from him.

"Elm!"

Weiss looked to the side to see several figures running along the roof of a nearby motel, just as Elm Ederni descended with hammer in hand and charged forward with a yell.

Her hammer slammed into Krimp's gut and sent him flying, smashing into the opposing wall with stifled laughter as the rest of the Ace Ops took position. Marrow gave a breath as he lowered his hand and hefted his own weapon, looking over the edge of the roof as Krimp arose from the rubble of the wall with a curious smile.

"Wow, you hit really hard, miss!" Krimp waved to Elm "You lookin' to join in?"

"Surround and weaken, Ace Ops!" Clover commanded as he stepped in front of Weiss, looking back to her with a smirk "We saw the explosion, good of you to lead him somewhere we can go all out."

Weiss blinked, surprise etched in her features as she watched each of the Ace Ops members take a position. Elm stared Krimp down as Marrow took aim. From the roof of the Autoshop, Vine emerged with Harriet quick to join in. Krimp looked to all of them with equal parts fascination and enthusiasm, tapping at his chin as he looked them all over.

"Hey hey, you're all them Ace folk I heard of!" Krimp cooed in admiration "Ain't you lot really really important?"

"He's pretty mindful for a monster." Harriet noted as she hopped down from the roof of the Autoshop whilst letting the folded up exoskeleton on her back to extend along her arms to her fists "Doesn't make up for invading all on your own though."

"Invading?" Krimp tilted his head "I was just takin' care of some business with a friend o mine. I ain't trying to invade nothing, but I guess I can see how you'd get that mixed up."

Harriet narrowed her eyes, but Vine spoke next, "Orders?"

Clover nodded before pulling his collapsible fishing pole from the back of his waist and gesturing to Weiss, "First order of business, please vacate the area, ma'am."

"But I-" Weiss stopped herself, realizing what a golden opportunity this was. These were the peak of Atlas' combatants, even a single one of them eclipsed a good number of fully equipped soldiers. And here they all were, completely surrounding Krimp and covering him from multiple angles. There couldn't be a better force to take him down, and they were letting her go on top of that. They take down Krimp, she gets to meet up with the others without having him right behind her. It was literally the perfect solution.

So instead of offering to help, she nodded to Clover's words, "Right..." she said while stepping away, watching as Krimp finished looking them over and turned to her.

"Hey Weiss, ain't these guys like super important to this place?" he noted, making her pause.

"Surrender now and save yourself the trouble." Vine stated, but Krimp kept his gaze on Weiss.

"If I wind up killin' a few of 'em," he mused "would that be too much for ya?"

Clover turned back to Weiss to see her expression falling, "Hey!" he said to snap her out of the unofficial staring contest "Make sure you get somewhere safe okay?"

Weiss nodded, still looking somewhat disconcerted, but still turned and ran all the same.

"Aw man, if I take too long tussling with you all it'll take me a while to catch up with her." Krimp pouted again before smiling bashfully "But I really don't wanna let down them eager faces of yours, and big bro did say I could do it during any of my freetime so-"

"Just drop the lance, asshole!" Harriet shouted

"Bree." Elm grunted cautiously, only for Clover to step forward.

"No, she's right." he stated before gesturing to Krimp with his fishing pole "You've killed far too many to be able to take an easy option here."

"Really sorry about that, but they got in the way of my job, which I gotta take very seriously." Krimp apologized "Did you know that Weiss is actually very good at Tag? I knew she was all flighty because of the whole glyph thing, but I was amazed!"

"Cut it out and drop the lance!" Marrow ordered as well, before hastily adding "A-And the other stuff!"

Krimp looked to him with confusion, "But how am I supposed to impress ya if I drop it all?"

Clover narrowed his gaze before stating, "Elm, Bree, flank to the sides."

"With pleasure." Harriet nodded as she took a step forward. The moment she did, Krimp burst into action.

He suddenly sped towards all three of them, both Clover and Elm raising their weapons while Harriet had the speed necessary to dart under the swing of the oncoming Lance. Both Clover and Elm deflected the swing, though the force managed to force Clover back a few steps. Elm stood firm, holding black the strike and rearing back with her hammer only for Krimp to slip past her as she slammed it down and kick her forward whilst spinning the lance. He reached for the handle of his sword on his back whilst the lance transformed into its rifle mode. With it he opened fire, forcing Marrow to spin his own weapon to deflect rounds and chasing Vine off the roof of the Autoshop.

Krimp whipped his sword out as Harriet charged from the side and Clover came at him from behind. He deflected Clover's pole with the sword whilst holding back Harriet's flying kick with the rifle, he gave a giddy squeal of excitement as he shoved them both back before crossing his weapons to hold back Elm's hammer as it slammed down towards him. Leaning back a bit from the force of it, Krimp shoved her hammer backwards. But Elm had rooted herself, and managed to swing it back down immediately, only for Krimp to slip out of the way just in time to get clocked in the back of the head by what looked like a large boomerang.

Krimp looked back to see Marrow catch the boomerang, only for it to transform into his rifle as he lunged down at him. Krimp raised his sword to deflect the oncoming rounds.

"Oh wow! I really like the look o that one!" He mused just as a flying kick from Harriet wrenched his head to the side.

She spun around to swing her fist around, only for Krimp to catch it and yank her off her feet.

Marrow dropped to one knee to take aim, only to roll to the side as Harriet was sent sailing past him. As she caught herself, skidding along the ground from the force, she glared up to see Krimp giving a thumb's up.

"Great orientation, buddy!" Krimp congratulated before darting out of the way as Vine sent a chunk of the Autoshop's roof sailing down at him.

Harriet grimaced before turning to Marrow, "We have to slow him down more."

"But using my semblance that much..." Marrow looked up as Clover and Elm fought Krimp towards the motel.

"I just need some more clean hits in," Harriet grumbled as she bent forward and readied to leap into action "No matter how much aura that asshole's got, he's bound to run out eventually."

.{{{{{+-+}}}}}.

There it was, the Frigid Plains.

Standing atop the roof of a airship docking yard, Weiss could see where the endless storage stations, warehouses, and refueling stations finally ended. The Frigid Plains were in the near distance, an open plain of undeveloped stone that had been pulled up when the city had been sent into the sky. It was covered in snow, about the size of a park, and so far away from the more populated sections of Atlas that even the odds of random workers spotting a conspicuous airship hovering nearby were low.

Catching her breath for what felt like first time since leaving the limo, Weiss slid out her scroll when she didn't immediately spot the Airship. As she went through her contacts, an explosion from far behind her made her turn around for a moment. She briefly wondered how the Ace Ops were doing, as there was no doubt that hadn't come from them. The fact that they could still be fighting Krimp given their numbers and proficiency, it was distressing to even think about. But moreso was that ominous question Krimp had posed to her before she left.

Though she still didn't believe it was possible, the subtle thought of Krimp actually managing to deal major damage to a team like the Ace Ops began worming its way into the back of Weiss' mind. Even if they beat him, Weiss had to accept the possibility that Krimp seemed fully capable of hurting one or more of them, critically-so even. Weiss tightened her grip on her scroll as she looked back towards the direction of the fight.

She knew she shouldn't even consider turning back given how close she was to finally seeing her plan through, the snow intensifying as the blizzard drew near and Ciel and Cardin on the way to get her out of there.

But she couldn't help thinking about it, if even one of the Ace Ops were crippled because of Krimp... Weiss thought back to her own words not too long ago. She'd declared with so much certainty that she wouldn't let him hurt anyone tonight.

It ain't good to make promises ya can't keep Weissy.

The idea of validating that admonishment even a little bit was infuriating. No matter how she tried to talk herself down, no matter how much she tried to convince herself it was just that damn Familial Stubbornness, the urge just kept rising further.

Weiss was snapped from her worrying as her scroll chimed, she fumbled with it for a moment before accepting the call.

"Okay... ah hell." Cardin muttered before speaking up "Okay, Weiss we'll be there in a few minutes, the hell are you?"

Weiss opened her mouth for a moment, only to grimace as another explosion tore through a building far behind her. Weiss groaned to herself before raising her Scroll, "I'm gonna be there in a few minutes." she declared, as she turned around "Keep it hovering and if you feel I'm taking too long then just go."

"Wha-?"

Weiss ended the call whilst internally berating herself for picking up too many altruistic traits from Ruby. She knew that it was the selfless thing to do, but every other part of her hated how stupid she felt for it.

Far in the distance, the motel besides the autoshop was falling apart. Clover hopped from the rubble, slipping in between two separate falling pieces of shattered building as he called out.

"Elm, watch you fire!" he said right before wheeling back with his hook.

"On it sir!" Elm said as she bashed through a piece of falling roof, she turned and swung her hammer around just as Krimp hopped out behind her.

He ducked under her swing and stabbed at her with the lance, only for her to root herself and crack him in the side of the head with the handle of her hammer As he happily stumbled back, she continued spinning and swung her hammer into a falling piece of rubble which shattered onto Krimp in smaller bits of debris. He lunged backwards out of the falling pieces, humming as he did, only for rapid footsteps to prompt him to duck past a swing of Harriet's fist. He reared back with his sword to deflect Marrow's boomerang weapon and chopped down a piece of rubble flung by vine, spinning away before a fishing line wrapped around his mouth and hauled him to the side.

Clover struggled to haul him back, with Krimp planting a foot directly into the ground before spinning into the cord. Clover's eyes widened as Krimp wrapped his forearm in the line before yanking him close. Clover spun into it with his pole as Marrow came at him from the side, with Krimp having to swing both of his weapons to deflect the simultaneous attacks. But that left him open for a high-speed exoskeleton fist to the forehead from Harriet, Krimp leaned back before swinging both his lance and sword toward her, with Harriet hopping over them only for his head to ram into her stomach and fling her away.

She caught herself again, only to look up and see Krimp lunging for her immediately.

"Stay!" Marrow shouted quickly, freezing Krimp above Harriet just long enough for Elm to swing her hammer into him and send him flying into another wall. Marrow caught his breath as Harriet pushed herself up.

"Damn it, his aura isn't even flaring Sir!" she called out, as Clover whipped his hook back to his rod.

"Vine, give me a sitrep on our Aura levels." he called back "Everyone else, spread out again."

Krimp shook his head as parts of the broken wall behind him crumbled onto his head, "Oh geez, I ain't been battered around like this in a long long time, guys! You lot are the real deal, ain'tcha?" he tilted his head for a moment before his eyes went wide with enthusiasm "Almost feel like doing a Jolly Jig. Wanna see? I impressed lots of folks on a dancin' game back in Vale usin' it."

"Shut up!" Harriet snapped as she hopped to the side "Marrow, he stands up again, stop him!"

"Going to need you to dial it down, Bree." Clover asked "Vine?"

"Hmm." Vine hummed in what was blatant discontent as he looked down at his scroll, prompting Elm to look back to him.

"What's happening, V?" she tightened her grip on her hammer, never tearing her gaze from Krimp.

"Despite the damage sustained so far, our Aura levels are far lower than anticipated." he noted evenly

"What?!" Harriet ground her teeth together "We've been kicking his ass all over this place!"

"I'm merely relaying information." Vine stated as he pocketed the scroll "Potential cause could be some kind of enhancements on his weaponry bolstering damage or a semblance, correlation with the target's excessive Aura levels is possible."

"Hey hey!" Krimp slowly arose from the rubble, "I don't need no bolstering, just the company of friendly folks like you."

"Marrow!" Harriet began, only for Clover to hold up a hand.

"Hold onto it for now, Amin!" he said before gesturing to Elm "Root and Ready."

Elm nodded before rooting herself to the ground as Clover began stepping forward.

"Oh! Here I go~" Krimp leaned back before he started whistling a merry tune whilst casually bouncing side to side in place.

Clover held up two fingers, prompting Marrow to drop to one knee as Harriet kneeled before speeding to the side. Krimp bounced from side to side several times before lunging back as Harriet sped past, he noticed Clover breaking into a sprint with his fishing pole raised. Maintaining his whistling, Krimp reared back with his lance and darted forward, with Clover hopping atop the incoming lance and leaping off of it. Krimp noticed the fishing line wrapped around the lance too late as Clover landed against the wall and yanked the lance out of his grasp.

Krimp spun around with his sword to deflect Marrow's bullets, slipping out of the way of Harriet's next speeding fist, only for Clover to leap onto his back and dropkick him towards Elm.

She reared back with her hammer and swung it as Krimp stumbled towards her. Only for him to immediately fall as she swung her hammer. It passed right over him, with Krimp lunging past her the moment it did, dropping his sword in the process. Unprepared for his speed, Elm tried to swing her hammer back towards him, only for Krimp to wrap his arms around her waist and rip her roots and all from the ground before slamming her against the ground. Krimp kicked his sword back up into his grasp and drove it down towards her.

"Stay!" Marrow shouted desperately, the strain of using his semblance taking its toll as his finger trembled in the air. He wouldn't have to hold for long, as Clover sent his fishing hook flying towards Krimp's wrist and yanked him back towards the flying knee of Harriet. Krimp didn't falter, keeping up his whistling as his free hand grabbed hold of her and threw her against a nearby wall before he charged towards Clover. His charge was halted as another piece of debris slammed against him courtesy of Vine, with Krimp spinning and pulling one of his hook-blades free before sending it spinning towards him.

As Vine lunged out of the way, Clover whipped his hook back and ran to get between Krimp and Harriet as she shook off the recent attack.

Krimp lunged towards him whistling away, Clover ducked and dodged swings of his sword before smacking him across the face with his rod. But Krimp reared back with his other hand, inside which was his other hook-blade that locked around Clover's fishing pole and yanked it to the side before Krimp lunged towards him. Clover thought quickly, ducking low and slipping under Krimp's attack as he spotted Harriet readying again.

Before he could try to check for Vine or Elm, Clover heard a whirring noise behind him and stepped to the side as Krimp's other hook-blade came spinning by him. Krimp caught it and reared back with both in one hand before sending them spinning towards both Marrow and Elm. Elm managed to deflect one with her Hammer's handle, while Marrow dodged his before pointing to him.

"S-Stay!" he said again, freezing Krimp as Harriet darted for him.

Clover noticed it first, "Marrow!"

But Marrow didn't move quick enough as the spinning hook-blade came back and slashed along his back. Krimp unfroze just as Harriet leaped for him, free hand shooting forward and slamming into her gut as Krimp spun past her and darted for Marrow. Elm tried getting between them, but Krimp reached up and caught his other Hook-Blade and sent it spinning towards her from the side.

She stepped back out of its way, only for Krimp to reach out with his sword. His Hook-blade caught on the sword as Krimp briefly spun around and sent it flying directly into the oncoming hook that Clover sent his way, with it immediately getting tangled in the line.

"Move Amin!" Clover shouted as he rushed forward.

Marrow looked up to see Krimp rapidly closing distance, but was unable to move before he rammed into him shoulder-first. Lifting Marrow off his feet as he kept running, Krimp bent down to grab his other Hook-blade before crashing through the wall of a building with Marrow still pinned to his shoulder. Though he struggled, Krimp didn't slow down. Wall after wall of two more buildings broken upon Marrow's aura as Krimp rammed him all the way to a street beyond the buildings. Only there did Krimp stomp forward and suddenly halt his charge, sending Marrow crashing against a parked truck.

As Marrow's aura flared dangerously, he grasped for the driver's side mirror to pull himself up. By the time he looked up, Krimp was strolling across the street towards him with that cheerful whistle still emanating from him.

Marrow desperately tried to raise his gun, but Krimp's fingers dug into his hair and rammed his head through the window, shattering the rets of his aura. Only then did Krimp cut the whistling.

"Hm?" he tilted his head before pulling Marrow from the van and planting his sword into the ground beside him "You all done, buddy? Okay! Just want ya to know that ya went and played super good! How's about a celebratory spin to send ya off?"

He laughed to himself before tossing Marrow up only to grab his legs, Marrow tried to aim for him with his rifle, but his head slammed against the asphalt and stunned him as Krimp tightened his grip on his ankles.

"D-Damn it!" Marrow grunted as he tried to aim at Krimp through the blurriness, with Krimp starting to spin him around happily as he did "Why won't you just die-!?"

Krimp spun Marrow neck-first against the sword planted into the ground, decapitating him immediately upon impact.

"Good Game, would've loved another." Krimp slowed down, painting the street around him with Marrow's blood as he did "But a friend can't go playing with ghosts now can he?"

Krimp rubbed at his head and sighed, he went and made one of his new pals lose his top too soon. Maybe it was because of how pumped up he was doing his Jolly Jig, or how well this particular friend was playing, but Krimp just couldn't stop his hands from doing what they do. He'd have to make sure he apologized to his other new friends later. They all seemed to work really well together, and it was never easy losing a friend-

"MARROW!" he heard Harriet scream, prompting him to turn around with Marrow's headless corpse still in his grasp.

"Now I know it looks bad," Krimp gave an embarrassed smile "but just know that I'm really really so-"

Harriet darted towards him fast enough for him to nearly lose track of her, with Krimp going wide-eyed before rearing back and flinging Marrow's corpse at her while reaching for his sword. Her fist slammed into his face before he could yank his blade from the street, with him reaching up to massage at it until a flying kick slammed against the back of his head.

Well, maybe he could've apologized quicker. Krimp tried to reach for his sword again only for her speedy fist to slug him in the jaw again, he reprimanded himself for letting her get all bent out of shape. A good friend is honest with things that he and his friends might disagree about, unless it'd hurt them more to be truthful. There's subtleties of course, but Krimp figured that honesty could still generally be the best policy.

Unable to swipe at her or go for his sword fast enough, Krimp just leaned forward as Harriet's fist sped towards him again.

Then he opened his jaw wide as her fist sailed inside.

Krimp snapped his jaws closed on Harriet's fist, with her going wide-eyed as she reared back with her other fist and slammed it against his head, "You fuck! You fuck! Why won't you fall goddamn-!"

Her words cut off as Krimp tightened his jaws, her aura flaring violently in his mouth as blood began spilling from his jaws.

Krimp tasted a nice, healthy lifestyle as his teeth cut through her aura and ground against the trapped limb. Just the right amount of food groups, solid amount of muscle with just a smidgen of fat to balance it all out. Krimp actually found it rare to find such balanced eating, seeing as many of his Uruk pals had lots of meats to feast on. His new human friends tended to prefer a more diverse pallet, though, which gave him a lot of preferences to keep track of. The last time he had met someone who ate this good, Krimp remembered them being quite a fisherman. Oh! Maybe he could mention it to that fishing pole guy?

"Fucking come on!" Harriet's yells grew louder and more desperate as Krimp sucked more of her arm into his jaws, blood spilling liberally as she pounded her fist against his head. Exoskeleton and flesh alike were chewed apart inside, with Krimp tilting to the side before collapsing atop Harriet as he hummed happily from the flavor. Her legs scraped against the asphalt below as more and more of her arm was sucked in, her aura flaring violently as it failed to keep his jaws from mauling her.

Finally, a fishing line wrapped around the top of Krimp's head, yanking him back along with Harriet as Clover called out, "Vine, get her out of there! Elm, move in!"

Harriet's desperate flailing had weakened considerably as Krimp's teeth reached her shoulder. Only stopping his chewing when Elm's hammer slammed into his side and sent him stumbling to the side with Harriet still stuck to him by what was left of her arm.

"Let her go, damn you!" Elm shouted before raising her hammer.

Krimp lunged back out of the way of it, his teeth snapping together as Harriet fell beside him. Elm's eyes went wide as Krimp reached up to poke at the remains of the broken exoskeleton sticking from his teeth. Krimp leaned back, snapping his jaws several times to chew it down along with the remains of her arm whilst reaching over and ripping his sword from the ground.

"Now that was a pretty good meal!" Krimp patted his stomach appreciatively before smiling at her "You know, I ain't much for eating like that but-"

Krimp lunged to the side as a massive glowing hand crashed against the ground beside him, "You may wish to start moving." Vine suggested as he used his hands to pull Harriet to him.

Clover ran to Elm's side and nodded to her, "No rushing ahead," he suggested, though Elm was stunned to see beads of sweat forming on his brow.

Growling, Elm looked back to Krimp, who seemed caught up with watching as Vine popped open the back of Harriet's exoskeleton to pull out several items, "Woah, she keeps trinkets in that thing? How handy!"

His only reply was Elm's roar of rage as she raced towards him, hammer raised.

Vine took a breath to steady himself as the fight continued, eyes focusing as he checked two different needles before tearing just the tip of a packet off. Harriet's limb had been removed in a messy and grotesque manner, but he had to focus on stopping the bleeding as quickly as possible. She didn't have long with a wound that big, but luckily they had contingencies for just such an occasion.

As the undisputed fastest member of the group, Harriet had been entrusted with the field aid supplies. She had a compartment in the back of her exoskeleton, and Vine was grateful that Krimp hadn't destroyed it when he took her arm. As he worked, he looked up to watch Clover and Elm work to wear Krimp down, their maneuvering and teamwork allowing them to evade his heavy swings.

He'd noticed it early in the fight, this feeling that something was off. It was more than their adversary's completely incompatible pension for friendly banter, and the odd disparity in their aura levels merely convinced him that he was right. For every blow Krimp landed on one of them, they returned five, yet he wasn't losing Aura anywhere near as fast as he should've been. Marrow's had broken too quickly, as had Harriet's. Injecting Harriet's unconscious form, Vine tore the rest of the packet's top off before leaning her to the side and spreading a solution of dust along her stump. Closing his eyes, he pressed a finger to the dust, a quick application of Aura sealing it to the wound as he quickly picked her up and moved her to the side just as Clover was sent flying past him.

Clover gritted his teeth as he spun in air and caught himself, looking up before gasping as he watched Elm's aura flicker as Krimp slashed at it again, "Pull back!"

Elm heard the shout, but she was already swinging her hammer down again. Krimp once again stepped out of the way, but as it slammed against the ground he planted his foot atop it and lunged forward. Elm had to release her hammer and slid back out of the way as the tip of his blade sped towards her. It just barely carved through her aura and along her shoulder. But Clover's hook caught it just as he went to swing again.

Krimp looked back to him as Clover yanked him close, with Krimp leaping into the pull and forcing Clover to slide back out of the way as Krimp crashed into the ground before him and cracked the asphalt with his weight.

Clover deflected two more swipes of his sword as Krimp stood again, only to hear Elm shout, "Move!"

Clover looked away for a split second to spot Elm rooting herself and transforming her hammer into its rocket launcher configuration. Upon spotting it, he immediately swung his hook to the side of a building and pulled himself away as Elm's rocket sped towards Krimp before detonating.

Clover landed with a heavy breath, turning around to look at the explosion before quickly pulling out his scroll to check his aura.

"Harriet's stable." Vine called out from atop a nearby van, as he looked to Elm "You should go with her and wait for backup."

"But-!" Elm wasn't able to speak quickly before a spinning sword was launched from within the blast towards Vine.

He hopped down from the Van just as the sword embedded itself in it, only to spot Krimp charging from within the remnants of the blast. Elm's mouth fell open for a split second as she deactivated her semblance and darted away. Vine followed suit only for a spinning hook-blade to enter his vision from the side. He quickly used his semblance to stretch his arms to the ground and fling himself over the hook, which Krimp caught as he tore his sword from the van.

"Geez lads, you's given' me a right run for me money here!" Krimp congratulated as he gave his sword a few practice swings "Ain't never had a happy fight last this long in a while. so I'm givin' you all an A plus! Ain't that..."

Krimp trailed off before lifting his arm to sneeze into it, "Sorry," he apologized while rubbing at his nose "still a tad stuffy with-"

He ducked as Vine formed a large hand and slammed it against the van where Krimp was, pulling his glowing arm back when Krimp swiped at it in retaliation. This was just the opportunity Clover needed to send his fishing hook flying, with it catching the side of Krimp's mouth and yanking him back as Vine swung again. Meanwhile, Elm was already trying to line up another shot with her rocket launcher. Krimp hooked his hook-blade to his waist before reaching back with his free hand and grabbing hold of the fishing line. Spinning around Vine's aural arm, Krimp quickly looped the fishing line around it and and kicked the hand harshly, causing the fishing line to slice right through it.

Vine gasped and stumbled back as the rest of his extended aura arm returned to him, an opening Krimp seemed eager to exploit as he prepared to run for him. But his ears picked up the sound of Elm firing her rocket launcher again, and so Krimp gave a little hop into the air just before the Van exploded and sent him flying towards Vine. Eyes going wide, Vine slipped past Krimp's sword as the Uruk sailed by, but was nowhere near fast enough to avoid his snapping jaws.

Elm quickly spun around with her rocket launcher, cursing as she saw Vine reel back, his aura flaring harshly as it failed to hold back Krimp's jaws. His hands went up to his face as Krimp rolled along the street, blood spurting from between his fingertips as his breath grew heavy. Krimp casually sat up before crunching down on the meat in his mouth.

"Nice and crunchy, tense coating," Krimp listed off before patting his cheek "nowhere near as balanced a diet as the quick lady, but definitely good to enjoy with pals, right?"

"Fall back, V!" Clover ordered as he walked past Vine "You and Elm just focus on giving support, don't get anywhere near him!"

"But sir-!" Elm shouted

"A good old one on one?" Krimp looked ecstatic as he turned around to face him "Oooh. Whatcha wanna do then?"

He slowly stood up while sneezing into his arm again, "You wanna go first? Choose how you wanna play this?"

"Or how about focusing on the person you're actually supposed to be playing with?"

Surprise filled Clover's expression just as quickly as enthusiasm filled Krimp's, with both of them looking to the nearby roof where Weiss stood.

"Weissy! Ya came back!" Krimp cheered before raising an eyebrow "But ain't that weird? Was me cuttin' up ya kingdom's finest too much for you, buddy? Oh geez, I'm really really sorry about that. They just seemed so eager to tag in, ya know?"

"Miss Schnee!" Clover shouted "You need to get clear of the area!"

Weiss tried not to focus too much on the battered state the Ace Ops were in, time was too limited for regrets. Instead, she focused her attention on Krimp.

"Well how about finishing up your mission before picking a fight with others?!" Weiss folded her arms, looking away indignantly "A friend like you should mind your manners more."

"Miss Schnee?" Clover's confusion only grew as he watched Krimp pout.

"Oh man," Krimp turned to the Ace Ops and rubbed at his head with his free hand "Really sorry guys, but can we pick this up later? I'd really love to keep enjoying this, but she's right! A friend has to keep their promises when they make 'em, I sure did mess up tryin to squeeze fun times with you in as well."

"Hmph," Weiss turned away looking back at him as she gestured with Myrtenaster "Well you better make it up to me then, shouldn't you?"

Slowly, Clover's expression evened out as he realized what she was trying to do, taking a moment to look back to Elm and Vine. Elm had reloaded her rocket launcher, but her heavy breathing indicated that the battle was taking its toll. Vine may have still had his aura, but Krimp chewing through it to tear off his nose left his often rigorous attention diverted to the wound on his face. Harriet was down and Marrow was KIA, and backup was still a way's off.

"Get out of here!" Elm shouted without tearing her glare from Krimp "What he did to Harriet, to Marrow-!"

Sighing, Clover lowered his fishing pole before turning to Weiss, "I can divert the response units to you in about four minutes!" he said, with both Elm and Vine looking to him with surprise. Weiss nodded to his words before turning and speeding out of sight. Krimp immediately gave chase, with Clover holding up a hand to halt Elm when she took aim at him.

But Weiss wasn't planning on sticking around for that long, her scroll had been ringing for a while now and Krimp's footsteps were too close for comfort. As the Frigid Plains came back into view, Weiss could already see the clouds of the blizzard in the distance drawing near. Hopping past the large gate of the industrial dockyard, she spotted the lights of the airship hovering just past the edge of the city.

She finally answered her scroll, only for Cardin's scream to immediately rip out of it, "WHERE?!"

"On my way, just keep past the city limits, Krimp's right on me!" she called out as she heard the gate behind her get torn open.

"You talkin' to more friends?!" Krimp called out before sniffling "Thought we just learned a tasty lesson 'bout making time for different friends!"

Passing along the edge of Atlas, Cardin leaned out of the open side door of the Hen whilst raking his eyes over the Frigid Plains looking for Weiss.

"That blizzard's getting awfully close." Dove noted from the other side of the ship.

"Just shut up and keep- Oh, oh there she is!" Cardin pointed out before calling to Ciel "She's coming in from that dockyard over there!"

"Spotted," Ciel acknowledged as she altered the ship's course "he's right on her. Shouldn't you offer some support, Mr. Bronzewing?"

Dove sighed as he approached Cardin's side, "We don't have weapons on this thing, my rounds won't be able to puncture his skin and Cardin needs a bit more grounding for his blasts, but fine... let's give it a whirl."

He casually drew his sword before pointing it towards them.

Dust rounds whizzed past Weiss towards Krimp, who looked up as they broke upon his aura, "Oh! Those the friends you want to join in now?" he asked Weiss before giggling "Would it be too much for me to rough em up a tad, or-?"

A massive icicle arose from a glyph right behind Weiss, Krimp slammed into it at full force as it shattered around him. He gave a slight stumble, looking up to see Weiss hopping onto another Glyph and flinging herself onto the Airship right past Cardin.

Cardin opened his mouth to speak, but Weiss' immediately waved to the door as she steadied herself, "Pull away!" she called to the cockpit "Pull away before-!"

The entire airship dipped harshly to the side, swinging over the Frigid Plains as Krimp clung to it. Ciel struggled with the controls as Dove gasped, trying to steady himself with one hand and take aim with his sword as Cardin went for his Mace. But Krimp was faster, uncaring for the harsh change in grounding, Krimp lunged for Weiss with his free hand. He slipped past Myrtenaster as she stabbed at him, his fingers slipping into her hair before dragging her out of the other side of the airship along with him.

"Weiss!" Cardin called after her as the two sailed over the edge of Atlas itself.

Weiss watched as the edge of the City sped by, the immense chunk of floating ground passing by quickly. She'd been stunned by the feeling of being yanked right off her feet and into open air, but the roar of the wind speeding by shocked her back into the action as she felt fingers scraping along her head.

"Mighty fine time to fly, ain't it?!" Krimp laughed as Weiss struggled to turn around with her hair clutched in his grasp.

Immediately she stabbed Myrtenaster behind her, its tip raking across Krimp's aura but failing to loosen his grip. As they fell, she reared back to stab again only for Krimp to raise his sword in his other hand. She summoned a glyph between them as his sword crashed against it, wincing at the force required to hold back his blade. She swerved to the side as he crashed through it on the second swing, the two of them spinning through the air as he did. Alas, his grip stayed true, and the moment they steadied in their descent Weiss watched as he reared back with his sword again.

Squeezing her eyes shut for a moment, Weiss's expression hardened as they finally fell past Atlas and continued their descent to the expanse of white snow behind it. As Krimp reared back, Weiss swung Myrtenaster above her and cut through her own hair to sever herself from Krimp. Krimp gasped in surprise as Weiss pulled away in the air. He blinked at the long strands of white hair in his grasp before snapping his gaze to Weiss as she began summoning another Glyph. He moved quickly, spinning forward and carving through the glyph before Weiss could use it to halt her descent.

She Grimaced before spreading her arms wide as more Glyphs appeared in the air around Krimp, his eyes darting around them and smiling as he swung around in the air and sliced away at the jagged ice they launched towards him. Weiss would've created more, if not for spotting the airship approaching from above. She watched as it steadied, falling to match their descent as it swerved back towards them. The side door was open, with Cardin gesturing for her to pull closer. Dove was clinging to the side of the pilot's chair as Ciel tried to match their descent.

Weiss prepared a glyph far below her, aiming for it only for a spinning hook-blade to fly past her right for the ship. Dove reacted first, lunging for the controls and helping Ciel swerve to the side as the spinning blade carved along one of the Airship's wings. Weiss cursed, altering the Glyph below to slow her descent as the ground rapidly approached. Krimp landed in a massive plume of snow, disappearing from sight as Weiss used several more glyphs to halt her descent before landing upon a final glyph several yards above the expanse of snow below.

Immediately she gave cursory glance around for Krimp but couldn't find him among the mounds of snow and ice. Atlas loomed above, with the edge of the massive crater under it not too far away. As Weiss steadied herself upon her glyph, she reached back to grab at her now shortened hair whilst looking around for the Airship.

The massive crater beneath Atlas stretched for many miles on one side, the pale landscape of Solitas on the other. On the other side of the Crater, Mantle's lights show even through the increasingly snowier weather. Outside of Atlas, the change in weather was like night and day. With her aura she could withstand it, but Solitas' merciless cold dominated the area. Snow and ice went on for miles up to the rocky mountains in the distance, most of which were dominated by the massive clouds of the blizzard drawing close.

It was as she witnessed the encroaching blizzard that she spotted the ship steadying its descent before hovering above, though she frowned upon seeing it struggling to maintain flight as small streams of smoke spilling from its now damaged wing.

"I-Is he gone?" Cardin shouted to her whilst steadying himself against the edge of the ship's side door.

"I don't know, how's the ship?" she responded, only for Ciel's voice to come from a speaker.

"Flight suspension damaged, there's excessive drag and a lean." she listed off whilst evening them out "I can keep it floating but the odds of making the journey over the ocean without repairs is not feasible."

"How fast can you guys get it fixed?"

"Depending on the engineer-"

"It won't be able to outpace that blizzard!" Dove's voice interrupted "Either way we'll be stuck here until that thing passes."

"Awww, real sorry about that, pals!"

Weiss froze before looking back as a large form leaned up from the snow, shaking snow off of him before massaging his neck.

"He's still alive?!" Cardin shouted before pulling out his mace "Are you kidding m-?"

"Just get out of here and find somewhere to hunker down!" Weiss shouted to them as she drew Myrtenaster "Get the ship fixed and I'll try and get in contact after the blizzard passes."

"What?!" Cardin shook his head in surprise "Where the hell are you even planning on going?!"

"There's a bunch of old mines up in the mountain, if I make it through the blizzard-"

"You plannin' on tryin' to ditch me there?" Krimp asked as he rose from the snow "Ohoho, I can't wait to see you try pullin' that one off!"

"Are you crazy? There's nothing between here and there but snow and ice!" Cardin shouted "Finding it in the middle of a storm like that-"

"We don't have time for this!" Dove interrupted "Ciel!"

To Cardin's annoyance, Ciel sighed before directing the airship away. He frowned at Dove before looking back at Weiss and Krimp as the blizzard closed in. Krimp waved goodbye, keeping his hand up as his hook-blade spun back into his grasp from above.

"They's good pals, Weissy." Krimp noted as he turned to grin at her, looking up at the immense clouds passing overhead "I'm sure ya friends would rest easy knowing how good you been doing up here."

Weiss didn't say anything, merely frowning as the wind picked up sharply around them. The snow fell harder as the clouds darkened the sky, prompting Weiss to turn and begin leaping from one glyph to the other in the direction of the mountains. Krimp happily darted after her, following her right into the fury of the blizzard.

---

AN: Here it is, another chapter just under a month from the last one.

Still quicker than my usual despite not being anywhere near as quick as the last one, the speed of this chapter came mostly from how much of it I didn't have to come up with on the fly. As a quick look into my writing process, obviously I try to write chapters by continuing plot threads focused on in the previous chapters. But oftentimes when I'm writing I come across other plot threads that just need to be continued in order for the pacing to keep steady. Because of this, many chapters end up way more bloated than I anticipate.

Not for this one, I had a whole lot of this one planned since back in Volume One. Because of this, I was inevitably going to end up with an easier time of things.

Now that that's over we can go over an Uruks who I never even realized I had missed giving an Author's Note to until halfway through this chapter.

Krimp the Friendly.

Friendly Uruks were always an oddity to me in the games, polite in conversation even in combat. Krimp was the same way, and his identical appearance to Hork really threw me off given how different they were. Not helping was that Krimp was just as deadly as his brother even without the Garrison backing him up. He fought with spinning axe-blades that functioned like boomerangs in his hands, could move excessively quick for someone of his size and could pop out of seemingly nowhere whenever he wanted. I actually managed to kill him in SOM, and didn't have a save file for him when I got SOW.

But that didn't even matter.

By some ungodly magic of the Nemesis System, I ran into Krimp again. Same title, same voice, same weaponry. Even with the slightly different character models SOW had it was obviously him, and he was deadlier and friendlier than ever. Forget popping out of nowhere, Krimp ambushed me so many times without a single hint of his presence that I started avoiding the ground entirely whenever he was on a map. He'd follow me to different maps too, getting away from him was nigh impossible. The only breaks I got were when I managed to beat him in battle, I say beat instead of killed because killing him in SOW is literally impossible compared to how he was in the previous game.

Seeing as it fit the character progression that I'd been building for him for some time now, Krimp's role just kept getting bigger in the storyline to reflect that.

After all, how could I not include such a Friendly Fellow?

Anyway, hope you enjoy, any and all criticisms positive or negative are welcomed in full so leave a review or comment if you are so inclined to do. Things you enjoyed about it? Things you hated about it? Any ways you feel I could improve? Expectations for the next Volume? Follow or Favorite at your leisure and I will see you all in the next installment of The Dreamer Gate.

Next Chapter: The Belly of the Beast