Chapter 50

I stepped out of the dressing room, wearing a brand new set of Atlesian Army battle armor. It was more or less a set of black pants and shirt - with the shirt modified to not cover my prosthetic arm. The clothes were insulated, capable of maintaining a natural human or Faunus's body temperature - with a few degrees in terms of flexibility - to keep a soldier operating in all but the extreme cold or heat.

Over those clothes, I had a pair of heavy duty boots with white plates on the fronts and toes, as well as knee and leg plate armor, thigh straps for pouches - which I learned held armor, and a belt with more pouches. Those pouches held things like medical supplies, military grade MREs - or meals ready to eat - and many more utility items.

The thick body armor that came with it had a black abdomen shield, white plate armor that covered the back, upper sides, chest, and collar. Two large angled plates protected my shoulders, and my right flesh and blood hand had a set of armored gloves with the forearm wearing an armored vambrace. Overall, the armor was rather heavy, but it was manageable enough that I wasn't drastically slowed down, or that any movement was a hindrance. I guess that was why the Atlesian armor revealed in the show had no armor on the pants - to promote more in terms of mobility.

I was always curious as to how the helmets worked when I first saw them, but the moment I put it on - I was blown away. I was hit with a heads up display that showed everything in 4K quality, along with a small sensor circle that showed friends and enemies at a small radius around me, a signal relay for communications, thermal and night vision - which helped considering I couldn't use night vision while looking through what was essentially a very high definition camera screen, and the ability to pick specific targets and zoom in on the screen, with proper image amplification as well. The helmet also had a decent amount of space for my ears as well, not squishing them painfully against my head.

I had no problems throwing a few punches or kicks when I put the armor on, the weight not hindering me while also making me feel like my hits would pack a little more power behind them. Then again, I had aura and the training for said aura - so I was pretty sure that it gave me a natural advantage, no offense to people without their aura unlocked.

"What do you think?" Winter asked.

"Wow. I can get used to this," I said, looking down at my hands. "I feel like a soldier. Or a video game player in virtual reality."

"At least you're enjoying something," a voice grumbled next to me. Turning, I spotted Emerald, wearing similar armor as mine with a few changes.

All of the blue highlights on the helmet and armor were now colored a light green, similar to her hair. Her thigh pouches were replaced with the holsters she used to hold Thief's Respite - one on each thigh the way gunslingers mounted their holsters. She also wore her old belts over the standard Atlesian belt.

The abdomen shield on her armor was removed, and the black shirt was also cut to expose her midriff like her last outfit did. And it didn't help that the pants she wore were very slim fitting, accentuating her hips and thighs the same way the tight pants on her old outfit did.

Even with that armored helmet covering all of her head except her mouth and nose, Emerald still looked incredibly HOT. "Uhh, is that such a good idea-" I began, glad that the helmet covered much of my face, because I'm pretty sure it was mostly red right now.

"My choice," Emerald interrupted, and I held up my hands placatingly. Giggling, Emerald walked up and nudged me in the side with her hip. "Besides, I know you like it."

She had never been this forward before, so all I could do was blush at her blatant flirting, despite the hemet hiding most of it. "I, guuuhhh," I stammered.

"That's enough," Winter said. "It's time to go. Team CRDL is ready to go. To avoid detection, teams will be deployed five klicks away from the crater, it'll be quite a walking distance. The last thing we need is a fight between us and the White Fang, especially since we have the Grimm right on our doorstep."

Emerald pouted under her hemet, and I took the time to quickly calm down and nod in agreement. "Alright. To the Mantas, then," she remarked.

We began to walk down the hallway, following Winter as we passed soldiers and various other Atlas personnel in the process. Everything was busy, yet calm - as if everyone weren't panicked over the armada of Grimm ready to invade Atlas.

As we walked, I saw a few people heading our way on the other side of the hallway. Robyn Hill, May Marigold, Fiona Thyme, and Joanna Greenleaf were in their Happy Huntress attire, walking in a line on one side of the hall to maintain room for the others to walk.

As we passed, I grabbed Robyn's arm. "Hey, remember me?" I asked out of nowhere. Winter tensed up and got ready to grab me before Robyn chuckled.

"I don't think I remember you. Hard to do that with a bucket over your head," Robyn remarked. I just grinned and pulled off my head, earning a shocked widening of the eyes and a sharp intake of breath. "Kid," she muttered.

"Yeah. Been a while," I said.

"I, wow," she said. "You got taller. And you have a braid. And-" Her eyes fell to my arm. "What happened?"

"Beacon happened," I replied, earning a "Right, stupid question," from Robyn. I looked to the other three attractive huntresses and smiled awkwardly. "Hi, huge fan," I said.

"Miss Hill, I apologize for him, but we must get going," Winter said.

"Hold on," Robyn said. "What're you doing here?"

"Helping to keep Salem off of Atlas. What about you? Not that you aren't doing the same thing but what are you doing specifically?" I asked.

"More or less coming back from the city. People from Atlas are causing trouble with the people of Mantle for having to share all of their land. Even the general can only do so much regarding this," Robyn said, scoffing. The other three looked pretty disheartened and angry about that as well.

"Honestly, Atlas was just as stuffy as I remember it," Joanna scoffed. "Oh, I can't possibly share my entire house with a few of the people from down there! Oh, my three bedrooms I never use can't possibly handle the crowding!"

"Don't forget the racists," Fiona said, and I had to restrain myself from going over and hugging her from how broken-hearted she sounded. Luckily, Joanna pulled her into a side hug, which Fiona embraced fully.

"She was attacked at a peace rally. She was trying to calm the people and someone threw a brick at her," Robyn explained in a very ticked off tone. Even Winter looked appalled at this, and she barely broke expression unless it was that terrible. Perhaps it was how Atlas behaved that made her so disgusted.

May sighed. "And it's like they can't even see the giant fleet of Grimm just waiting for us. They'd rather live in blissful ignorance instead of helping others. The council isn't doing jack shit either," she said.

"I apologize but these two have a very important mission to handle. They'll miss the Manta if we wait any longer," Winter said.

"What's the mission, kid?" Robyn asked.

"I'm afraid that's classified, Miss Hill-" Winter began just as I spoke up to answer Robyn's question.

"White Fang forces were spotted gathering at the crater below Mantle. Tons of weapons and Dust, so we're being sent to handle it," I said frankly. Winter looked at me as if I'd slapped her in the face, and I shrugged. "It's not like it'll be a big secret anyways when we're done."

"I see," the leader of the Happy Huntresses remarked before shaking my hand. "Good luck, you'll need it."

"Kick their butts!" Fiona said as the four left, before I said there'd be no fighting. Winter's expression was one of raw exasperation, before gesturing for me to move on. I had noticed that Emerald had gone quiet this entire time as well, for some reason. But she stayed ever so close to me.

Winter led us to the hangars, where CDRL was waiting for us. Russel eyed Emerald - whistling appreciatively as she boarded the Manta first. "Nice," he said as he stared at her swaying hips and her legs as she went up the ramp.

Emerald gave no regard to him, simply sitting down and waiting for me to sit as well. I shrugged in apology to Russel before following her in. I didn't particularly mind her ignoring him, but a guy can sympathize. I could see Cardin patting him on the back as I sat next to Emerald on the Manta.

Soon, CRDL entered the Manta as well, all four of them sitting down across from us. On the floor of the airship were several rods, each one a meter long and housing a sort of small spearhead-like protrusion at the top, which had a light at the very tips. They were secured in three bundles, tied by several metal cables.

"These are the beacons," Winter said as she walked into the airship, nudging the bundles of rods with her foot and somehow managing for that gesture to not look lazy. "Plant them to the marker, approximately twenty centimeters into the ground. There is a button on the tip. Press it and it will light up. If it's blue, it's stable. If it is red, it is not. It must point perfectly up, one degree off and it will not be stable."

She reached into her uniform jacket pocket and pulled out two scrolls, handing one to me and the other to Emerald. "Here, you will check the status of each beacon and its location. Each one must be a perfect kilometer apart. You will receive marking locations to make the task easier. Do either of you have any questions?" Winter asked.

"Nope," I said.

"Nuh uh," Emerald remarked.

If Winter was ticked off at not being referred to as "sir" or "ma'am", she didn't show it. She saluted and left the ship, seconds before the Manta retracted its ramp and took off, flying the two of us and our beacons to the next location.

Deciding to make herself comfortable, Emerald decided to cozy up against me. The experience wasn't as intimate with all the armor between us, but the act still managed to gain another blush from me. My helmet fortunately covered it, but I swear she had a sixth sense for when I was embarrassed.

"What's wrong Markus? You're looking really tense," She practically purred. The looks the other guys were giving us wasn't helping, their previous conversation dropped in favour of watching the unfolding scene with clear amusement.

"Uh you k-know, just uh a little nervous about the mission. A lotta White Fang grunts and a lot of dust in those mines," I tried to deflect to save myself.

Fortunately she seemed to have had her fun, taking my answer as it was, but not before making one final remark.

"No getting kidnapped again, OK?" Emerald aid before leaning in close to my ear, enough that her breath washed over it like a blanket. "Liya had the right idea about handcuffing you."

That caused my blush to go nuclear, and I looked down before something else could go wrong. "Why is she so forward!? She used to be so easy to embarrass before!" I cried in my head, as Emerald continued to lean against me.

Talking about the new scrolls given to us, Emerald decided to thankfully use hers to try and pass the time. As Emerald turned her head I could see the satisfied smirk on her face, but also the slight coloration in her own cheeks. Guess she wasn't totally immune yet.

As I shook my head at Emerald's actions, Dove decided to pipe up. "Damn, Markus, first Yang and now her? You've gotta tell us your secret" He smirked my way.

Even though the mention of Yang made me wince on the inside, I decided to humor him, I gave him a mock serious answer. "It's the ears," I said, nodding sagely, like a master to his pupils. "Once a lady touches them they simply can't get enough."

Emerald scoffed. "It ain't the ears," she said before reaching behind me and squeezing. CRDL whooped as I practically jumped out of my seat.

"And here I thought it was because you were a horse faunus the whole time" Cardin laughed, as both me and Emerald didn't know how to respond to the remark, aside from gaping at him.

"It isn't like that!- We haven't even-" Emerald began shouting with a red face, before promptly shutting herself up. This just caused CRDL to roar even harder with laughter.

Once they had calmed down enough, Russel turned to Emerald, who was fuming in anger and embarrassment, yet still leaning against me.

"It's just some fun, no hard feelings. You guys look good together," he said.

"Even got us a little jealous," Sky added in, getting a few shouts and shoves from the others. "What, it's true, don't deny it. The chick's going into battle in a crop top and her tightest leggings."

I frowned at the comment but remained silent, more focused on potentially restraining Emerald if she decided to go after him for that statement. Luckily, she didn't make any moves.

"Fun aside," Cardin stepped in. "Is that wise? You're leaving open a huge target for them, even with your aura, never mind the temperatures. And how'd you get the guys in the armory to customize armor?"

I sighed in relief at the change in topic. "Ironwood gave the OK to do so. Emerald probably just cut a hole in hers. And I can't fit my arm through a shirt so I had that sleeve area removed. And so here we are," I said. "What about you? How'd you guys go from being a team of racist jackholes to this?"

"Oh. Atlas basically beat the shit out of us until we stopped," Sky said, the other three nodding in agreement. "Military stuff and whatnot."

"Plus some of the other Faunus are kind of okayish," Cardin said. "So there's that."

"You can't say that a Faunus is cool?" I asked, and Cardin scowled. The other three just shook their heads and I sighed. "Well, okayish ain't so bad."

Dove just silently mouthed "Don't worry, he's getting there," to us, out of view of Cardin.

- an hour later -

The Manta touched down, several kilometers deep into the wrecked city of Mantle and away from the crater - the whole area covered in snow. The two of us left, beacons tied onto my back while Emerald had her scroll out and ready. The beacons altogether were relatively light to carry.

As the airship left us behind, I sighed and looked over in the direction of Atlas, where the crater was waiting below. Around us were the snowy areas of the wrecked city of Mantle. Getting a good look at it, I could see why Robyn was heartbroken. "Well, this is gonna be a long walk," I mumbled.

Emerald grabbed onto my arm with her free hand. "Good thing we're watching each other's backs then," she said, sounding rather cheeky as she pressed herself against me with no hesitation. I blushed at that, as well as her close proximity to me.

Giggling, we continued our walk - Emerald keeping an eye on the scroll. At this point, I couldn't take it anymore. I was already having feelings for her, and that made things pretty awkward between us - at least for me. But now that she was being blatant with her flirting, I had to do something about it.

"Hey, Em," I muttered. "Uhh, do you like me?"

"Like...like like? Romance like?" Emerald asked, giving me a look that just screamed 'Did you seriously just ask that?'. Still she sounded pretty casual, but I couldn't ignore the feeling of her grip tightening on my arm.

"Maybe," I said. "I mean, you were flirting pretty openly...and I didn't wanna say or do anything that might be bad so I thought I'd ask."

"Heh. So I was obvious enough," Emerald remarked as she let go, though not stepping away from me. "That's good. If I had to be anymore obvious I might have been risking public indecency."

"So that's a yes," I said. Emerald just giggled and leaned her head on mine - despite there being helmets that were keeping us from feeling each other's touches. "I like you too," I said, deciding to return her feelings properly - through straightforward words. "Ever since we crashed on the way to Argus."

"Was it the snuggling we did on that first night?" Emerald asked. "I could tell you were eyeing me up, all wet and pressed up against you like that."

I flushed at the memory. "S-sorry, I know it was rude, even when we were almost dead," I said.

"Eh, I didn't mind. Plus touching wouldn't have hurt," she said. As if to prove she meant it, she moved my arm to her stomach. I could feel her toned body through the gloves on my hand.

"So, what now?" I asked, after coughing. I was surprised at how casual this confession was. And it wasn't the most romantic situation either - on a mission in full armor, in the freezing temperatures where the only thing keeping us warm was our aura and the armor.

"We get this done, then you and I are gonna have some fun," Emerald said. I blushed brightly at that implication, and she just giggled. Like I said earlier, she has to have a sixth sense for this kind of stuff.

We walked for several hours, the two of us in a comfortable silence over the harsh cold. Thanks to the clothing under the armor, we were kept at a relatively manageable temperature - slowing down the consumption of our aura to protect us from the cold. As we walked, Emerald had her scroll out, a map of the area detailed with the crater and the designated locations for the beacons.

We arrived at the first location, near the edge of the massive crater. The surrounding area was covered in snow, but we could see dozens of overturned containers at the edge, a barbed wire fence that was barely holding itself together in the harsh cold weather, and the slums - dozens upon dozens of old shacks that were frozen or destroyed.

Looking down, I saw my foot near an odd lump in the snow. Picking it up, I saw that it was an old animal plush, frozen and utterly destroyed by the weather. Emerald came over to look at what I was holding, and I could tell that she was unnerved.

"The last time this happened. Without me, that is. Am I a cause of any of this?" Emerald whispered as she looked back to the destroyed city of Mantle. I could tell what she was thinking - that she could've become a monster. That she would have killed more and more people, more than she could possibly comprehend right now.

"No," I said immediately, pulling Emerald into a comforting embrace. "You'd be stuck on Salem's giant floating whale as Cinder and Watts break Ironwood and turn Atlas against Mantle."

Emerald didn't look comforted by that fact, so I just patted her on the shoulder. "It's not a reality here. You aren't with her now. You're here with me. Fighting for everyone here."

Emerald leaned closer against me for a few seconds before she pushed away. "Come on, first spot is over here," she said. I decided not to push the issue - the last thing I wanted was to make her stay on an uncomfortable subject.

We made our way from spot to spot, placing the beacons as we went along. So far it's been easy, with us being able to put the beacons in abandoned home, random holes from what looked like shell fire, etc. We hadn't seen a single Grimm either, so it seemed James wasn't kidding about Salem wanting these guys to finish what they've started.

At the fifth location, she led me to a clearing that looked like it was used as a communal fireplace. Boxes and anything else that could considered a seat, various beverage containers were strewn about, and a stack of burnable junk surrounded the pit.

I could imagine the surrounding houses, the people, coming here for some sort of celebration judging by all the booze and meager decorations. Maybe the General and Robyn's partnership was the reason? I couldn't say, hell they might even have just been drinking for the hell of it.

Giving a brief glance to the area, Emerald returned her attention to the scroll, trying to locate the exact spot the beacon had to be placed.

"Right over…there. I think," She said as she pointed at a spot a few feet from the center of the pit. "That general area is probably best."

"Alright, cool. You think stabbing it into the ground would be enough?" I asked as I got the bundle of beacons off my back.

"Maybe, but I wouldn't risk it and potentially break this thing," Emerald said, giving the ground a quick stomp before grimacing. "Probably going to need your dust to dig this up, weather's frozen the ground solid."

Nodding and mentally pulling my dust from my new prosthetic hand, I began making a drill head big enough to make a hole for the beacon.

"Say, do you think your dust is strong enough to hold me up? Maybe lift me in the air?" Emerald asked.

Emerald's comment nearly threw me off, potentially causing the drill to destabilize. The question sounded innocent, but a mental image of how that would look and with her previous teasing, I could immediately tell what she was thinking.

I blushed of course, she had been doing this a lot but I still wasn't used to it. Instead of stammering however, I tried giving my own retort to try and embarrass her.

"Strong enough to contort your pretty little body any way I want" I replied coolly.

Emerald looked back at me. "I was asking about carrying me up to the shipping container up there," she said. "But nice to know where your head's at - pervert."

She sounded absolutely alright with what I had said, but that didn't stop me from burning up in embarrassment. I tried to speak, but I gave up in the end, sighing as I heard her giggles.

Planting the beacon in the newly made hole, I watched as the tip of the beacon lit up blue. It remained that way as I packed the sides of the small pole tightly with snow - securing it in place like all the times before when Emerald spoke up, her tone not surprised or teasing, but concerned.

"Hey Markus…the fire pit's still warm."

Turning towards the aforementioned pit, I saw embers still burning - barely glowing but still easy to see. Reaching a hand out towards them I could still feel some heat like Emerald said. This fire couldn't have been more than half an hour old, not with how harsh the cold was at the moment.

Someone was close - very close.

"You got an open channel to Winter?" I asked Emerald. I had little doubt of who had been here, the potential of it being civilian's were almost impossible.

"Already on it," Emerald said, this situation was just screaming 'disaster in the making', and I knew she'd rather not have a repeat of the bandits. I knew because I really really didn't wanna have a repeat with the bandits either.

"Then let's get a move on before-" I said before gunshots rang out.

"We've got intruders!"

"Shit!" I swore as we were spotted by a White Fang grunt, struggling to run in the snow while firing a submachine gun at us. "Run!" I shouted as I pulled Emerald along, not only to get away before reinforcements arrived, but also to hopefully draw attention away from the beacon.

"Call Winter!" I yelled - having an easier time running thanks to the all weather use boots we wore. As bullets shot our way, I formed a half bubble behind us with my Dust, feeling the bullets impact it as Emerald tapped frantically at her scroll.

"Specialist Schnee here, what's-"

"We've been spotted!" Emerald cut off Winter, who answered the scroll call Emerald set up, which immediately connected to the comms in our helmets. "The White Fang is coming after us! We need to get outta here now!"

"Understood. Follow the highlighted route, we will come and back you up," Winter said, as a map with a new rendezvous was projected on the scroll, before the call was cut off.

We booked it as fast as we could, but more and more grunts were pouring out of the tunnels like ants, rushing towards the crater elevators. There were dozens upon dozens of elevators, and we would be overrun once those terrorists reached the top.

We had no chance of fighting these numbers - the only way we could survive was to scrub the mission and get the hell out of here. I pulled the shield away as Emerald drew Thief's Respite, and she opened fire behind her.

The shots were nowhere close to hitting anyone - but they did cause the first White Fang grunt behind us to jump flat on the snow and cover. Behind me, I could hear the yells of soldiers nearing us. "Shit, where's that route?"

Emerald looked back down at her scroll. "We're not too far, should be a simple sprint dead ahead if we could ditch these guys," she said as more and more gunfire joined the fray. Plenty of them were rushing forward, some of them catching up while still firing their weapons.

Time to pull out all the stops then, since these guys weren't going to be giving us much of a choice. "Use your semblance!" I shouted over the gunfire, grabbing ahold of Emerald again and boosting her Aura, all the while sending back spears and slashes with my Dust at anyone who got close enough.

The boost had the desired effect, with Emerald causing many gunners to fire away from us now. However she took things a sickening step further, by causing many of the Faunus to see their own members as Atlas military, if the slurs were anything to go by.

Even more chaos soon broke out, as the White Fang quickly turned on each other, blood flying as bodies started hitting the floor and people started diving for cover. They slowed down alright, but the friendly fire was very nauseating.

I couldn't say she wasn't effective.

We had never stopped running, making it closer and closer to the rendezvous, where I could see a hovering Manta lowering towards the ground sending missiles at the Faunus. As we got closer the hatch opened, Winter and a soldier at the door, the soldier firing the door mounted rotary gun at the Faunus. "Hurry!" Winter said as she stood there and beckoned us closer as she used her glyphs to clear out the path for us and protect the Manta.

Winter pulled out her swords and formed protective glyphs around the Manta the moment the White Fang brought out handheld missile launchers. She did her best to deflect as many of the enemy missiles as possible, succeeding but causing the Manta to only shake a bit from the effect. And there were those that hit - damaging it but not downing the airship. Still, as crude as those missiles were, there were so many of them that the quality of the warheads or Winter's ability to deflect them were rendered irrelevant thanks to the fire coming from all around.

Emerald and I weren't as lucky however as one of the shooters decided we were better targets.

"Take cover!" Winter yelled. Emerald's semblance and my dust quickly wrapping around us helped us avoid the worst of the blast, but we were still sent flying.

"Specialist, the Manta's sustaining too much damage, we need to leave!" We could hear the pilot say through our comms. The soldier by Winter was knocked down by fire as well, losing much of our air support.

"Shit, we're not gonna make it!" Emerald said as we disentangled and scrambled back to our feet, seeing the Manta slowly rising.

"We can still make it. Just hold on," I reassured Emerald as I stopped boosting her - my aura reserves at low. Grabbing her by the back of her armor, my Dust shot out and propelled her to the Manta, Emerald screaming briefly in shock as she shot through the air.

Winter grabbed Emerald, before dropping her inside the Manta. "Hurry up!" she shouted as soon as Emerald was secure - holding out a hand.

I decided not to waste any time, and I aimed my prosthetic down towards the snow - forcing out a long pole of Dust that vaulted me towards the Manta. Gunfire pinged through what little remained of my aura, and I reached out for Winter at once.

The pilot of the Manta veered to the side, and I slammed into the doorway of the Manta, arms grabbing onto the floor while I hung from the airship at Winter's feet. "Pull me up!" I yelped as I felt myself slipping, gunfire still ringing out from below. A rocket zipped by - just missing the airship, and subsequently me by inches.

Winter bent down to haul me up when a series of shots rang out. I cried out in pain as my aura shattered, bullets entering my leg, the back of my arm, and my shoulder. I fell almost immediately as Winter stumbled back, a bullet pinging off her own aura.

I could barely hear Emerald screaming my name as I plummeted, the Manta getting smaller and smaller as the wind bit at my falling body. How high up were we, anyway-

I blacked out as I smashed into the snow.

...

...

...

"What do we do with him?"

...

"We string him up, make an example outta him."

"Kinda sick, don't you think? He's Atlas, sure, but he's also a Faunus like us."

"Traitors don't get leniency. He's as bad as any one of them."

"He's no Schnee."

"Doesn't matter. Tonight, he burns."

I woke up to see three White Fang grunts talking a few meters in front of me. Looking around, I saw the interior of the caves - large jagged rock formations and specks of Dust left and right. There were crates, tents, and a mess of equipment around. Dozens of White Fang members were scattered here and there, several small fires providing warmth.

At the wall of the cave were a dozen or so Atlesian Knight 130s, all of them shut down and painted white and red with the logo of the White Fang on their chests.

"You're awake," one grunt said, coming over to me. I tried to sit up, before I felt a tug and an annoying cutting feeling on my wrist. Looking to both of my sides, I saw that my wrist was cuffed to an old generator, while my left arm - my prosthetic - was missing. My helmet sat next to my feet.

"Not so strong without your fancy Atlas tech, are ya?" the grunt laughed. "Better get comfortable - it'll be night soon. And we'll torch you in front of the others - get their morale up."

"Before you, what, blow up the bottom of Atlas?" I asked as I shifted into a comfortable position - or one as comfortable as I could get.

"I see you aren't a dumb grunt like those other Atlesians," the guy talking to me sneered, earning a few snorts from the others.

"What, like you?" I remarked, earning a kick to the chest - which I didn't even feel considering that I still had my armor on.

"Shut up!" the guy said. "I run the White Fang here in Atlas! You don't wanna keep messing with me!"

I blinked in shock. "Wait. You?" I asked. "You look nothing like a leader. You literally wear the same uniform as everybody else." I'd give more details than the fact he looked like everyone else in the White Fang but, come on. White and black uniform with full sleeves - because of the cold - and basic chest and shoulder armor. Same hood, same mask, and a scarf - which was most definitely a new addition.

I received a hard kick to the face for that - and I snapped back at the sudden pain across my nose. It wasn't broken, but there was one hell of a sting now. I guess my aura was still down from that fight.

"If you're gonna be mouthy here - why are you helping Atlas, anyway? Why betray your brothers and sisters?" the leader asked.

"Yeah! You know what those human bastards did to us?!" someone else shouted.

"Uhh, one. They gave me a new arm after the White Fang lopped it off about a year ago," I said, silencing the riling crowd. "Yeah, I was never in the White Fang. I never betrayed anybody - I was just trying to make it through school at Beacon before all of y'all decided to attack, killing plenty of classmates and crippling a whole lot of others, including ME."

"He's a Beacon student. Wait, does this mean he's transferred to Atlas Academy then?" someone asked.

"You know we had to do it," the leader hissed. "It's the only way to get others to listen!"

"Listen? Listen to what? The academies are there to help you!" I shouted. "They keep the Grimm at bay! Because of the White Fang, Beacon and Haven are wiped off the map! This world will fall, and everything you're doing for equality will be meaningless!"

Some of the others looked rather apprehensive now, and the leader snapped them out of their funk by kicking the generator, jolting me rather badly. "You'll never understand. You won't ever know how hard it is to live a normal life."

"You're right. I won't," I grumbled. "But at least I'm not like you, trying to ruin other people's lives just because you hate your own."

The guy - the leader, sighed before looking back. "We can't wait any longer. We start our attack at sunrise tomorrow. Make sure this area is secure so he can't use anything to escape," the leader said. "I want one guard, two hour shifts."

The others complied, and I watched as they all scattered - already losing track of who was the leader already before I sighed and leaned back on the old generator, feeling the metal creak. As I heard the bustling of the White Fang in the cave tunnel around me, I decided to keep myself occupied.

Like where my prosthetic arm was. That little thing was rather easy to figure out - since I could feel a sort of pull to my neural Dust, and it was rather far - deeper into the caves. I could pull it back to me now, but most likely at risk of damaging the arm trying to navigate the cave, or causing more trouble for me with the White Fang in general.

Despite that, I couldn't help but wonder how funny it would be to see a robot arm floating down the cave with the White Fang panicking left and right. Still, I couldn't help but begin thinking about what else I could do to get out of this mess.

Knowing General Ironwood, he most likely won't attack the crater with me trapped inside - which was both concerning and reassuring. Concerning that he'd risk the safety of me over the entirety of Atlas - and reassuring that I wouldn't die to Atlas friendly fire, as noble as it would be to go down protecting others...as noble as not doing anything in enemy territory can be. Looks like I'd have to find a way out of here, I did promise Em that we'd make it.

I heard footsteps approaching, and I sighed. "So, you're my guard, huh? Listen, don't worry about getting bored because I get chatty and-"

"You!"

I looked up to see someone I hadn't seen in almost forever. "Deery?" I blinked. Indeed, it was the young woman with orange hair and deer antlers. She wore the same White Fang uniform as everyone else here did - including the scarf and basic armor. She held a standard issue Atlesian Military white assault rifle, painted with a jagged red stripe down the side.

Deery blinked. "Uhh, what are you...you remember me?" she asked, quietly. The momentum in her sails grew at the mention of her name.

"Uh, yeah. I didn't know if you survived Beacon or not...so...h-how did you, what are you doing here?" I asked.

"I didn't have anywhere else to go, so I went here. I do backline stuff, like guarding and moving things around," Deery said. "But, why are you-"

"The White Fang are going to attack Atlas from below," I said. "If they do that, it might fall and everyone dies. I was with a few others to come here and try to stop that. Then I got captured. Now I'm glad because I didn't know you were here. And now I know you are."

"A-attack Atlas? Like the entire floating kingdom?" Deery asked, and I couldn't fault the fear in her voice. Did this guy seriously not explain his plan?

"Yeah. Look, we can stop it. I don't think we can save everyone here, but hundreds of thousands are relying on us up there. People innocent of the whole racism with the Faunus thing. The entire city of Mantle lives up there now. Thousands of Faunus, children, dogs, cats, birds-" I said.

"I get it, I get it!" Deery cried, her voice wavering from the weight of my words. While I was surprised at how quickly she caved, I also remembered that she nearly died in the Breach - and most likely nearly died when Beacon and Vale crumbled to the ground. "O-OK...I'll help you. I didn't wanna do this anymore anyway."

Pulling down her mask, she revealed a pair of bright blue eyes that just screamed fear and apprehension, with noticeable bags under them and stress lines dotting her face. She was rather pretty, but she seemed tired, as if she was just done with everything and going through the motions. That wasn't something to be focused on however. Especially since Emerald wouldn't appreciate me eyeing up other women.

"OK..." I said. "So we need to figure out what to do..."

"I know what you can do."

Deery yelped, and I nearly slammed my head on the back of the generator before looking up. A pair of golden eyes stared back down at me, a giggle being heard. "Tyrian?"

"In the flesh!" the man cackled as he jumped down. I realized he had been on top of a particularly large stack of crates next to the generator, and had somehow snuck his way to us - quietly enough that I couldn't hear him at all. "I was sent on a mission by her grace, when I suddenly came across you! My, what a surprise, captured by the rodents and rabble in a place like this..."

"They had numbers. And missiles," I said, pouting as I looked away from Tyrian's condescendingly creepy smile. Deery had clasped her hand over her mouth, eyes widened in terror as Tyrian's eyes swept towards her.

"Ah, and who's this little one?" Tyrian said, his tail creeping towards her. Deery pressed herself against a box, shaky eyes locked on his venomous stinger. "My, oh, my, what I would do with the fear you exhibit..."

"What're you doing here anyway? Come to recruit these guys? Yeah, we already planned for that," I said before looking down at my cuffed arm. "Not well enough, but planned nonetheless."

"Recruit? These failed revolutionaries? Preposterous!" Tyrian barked, attention drawn away from Deery as he turned to me. "I am here to do what my master knows I do best. Destroy."

Destroy?

Tyrian's destroying the White Fang? What for? Wouldn't Salem benefit from recruiting such a large number of weapons and personnel? I thought them succeeding in their plan would only benefit her, that's why she's keeping the Grimm away right? I'd figure out answers for all of this later.

So I made a stupid decision. "That's what Deery and I are doing. Wanna team up?" I asked.

Tyrian blinked before chuckling. That chuckling turned to laughing. And that laughing would've turned into loud cackling had I not shushed him. "We're still surrounded by thousands of fanatics, plus hundreds of guns and robots."

Tyrian growled in annoyance, but lowered his voice nonetheless. "And why should I team up with you?" he asked.

"You really gonna leave me here to be executed without giving me a fight? And besides, how do you plan on getting through about ten thousand guns and explosives? And all of the Dust still in this mine," I added. "For now, you free me, the three of us blow the place up, we escape, and the two of us get to fight it out. Deal?"

Deery's voice had croaked back to life. "W-w-what are you doing? That's Tyrian! T-the lost serial killer! The-" she said.

Tyrian cackled. "I'm so glad my works of art have gained such fame across Anima! But enough about me. Say I choose to let you out. What then?" he asked.

Normally, I would try to come up with a more cohesive plan, especially when dealing with someone like Tyrian Callows of all people. But I was not in the mood for a cohesive plan, not when the White Fang made me break my promise to the others.

I growled as I remembered Emerald screaming my name before blacking out. "We destroy this place, all of it. Without blowing up the Dust - we need to get outta here alive," I said.

"Oh," Deery said, realizing that by helping us she'd likely be killing everyone here instead. Hopefully that didn't deter her too much, she could really help us in convincing her friends to defect.

"I can get behind that plan," Tyrian chuckled ominously as he leaned right into my face, a slasher smile splitting his face. "My mistress did want me to bring you in after all, can't let these vermin take away what she wants." He continued as his stinger caressed the side of my face.

Shit.

...

Ah, well. I can work out the kinks later. "So, now?" I asked.

Tyrian nodded with a manic grin, and I grinned back. A distant crashing was heard down the cave, as well as yells and cries in the far ends of the tunnels. Before long, my prosthetic arm flew back, slamming into the metal hardpoint on my shoulder. As it secured itself back on my body, a razor thin shard of Dust flew out and ripped out the handcuffs on my other hand.

Flexing both hands, I got up as Tyrian finally began to cackle, Deery chuckling nervously as I grabbed my helmet. "Let's get to work," I said.