Setting: Solitas Outskirts

"We're not there yet, Silver!" Kelvin shouted from the ship.

"…What?!" Silver shouted.

"We're not technically on Solitas soil. This is just a massive ice float," Kelvin answered.

"Why are we here? What about Atlas?" Lily asked.

"If none of you have noticed, the kingdom, along with all the other kingdoms in Remnant, have a closed borders policy in place. No one in, no one out. We were able to get out of Vacuo because, let's face it, it's Vacuo. No one cares. Atlas, on the other hand, has troops at every dock and outlining town to keep intruders out. We go to one of them, we'll be attacked on the spot," Kelvin explained.

"He's right," Azura told the others. "If we stay away from the inhabited or heavily guarded areas, we'll be able to get into the kingdom without incident, though…"

"I know," Zelts added. "Solitas is nothing but ice and snow. Good for keeping Grimm at bay, but dangerous and potentially fatal for travelers."

"True, but that also works in our favor. Atlesian military won't be snooping around in areas that people wouldn't be dumb enough to be in," Silver included.

"And we're just dumb enough to do it. Fine by me," Remus said with a serious tone, though he didn't seem to catch how he called himself and everyone else dumb. It wasn't missed by the others who found it amusing.

"Just give me a break before we sail again. I need to rest. You guys take a walk and stretch your legs," Kelvin told the others. He used this time to take a break from sailing and finally check the confines of the new ship they commandeered.

The aquatic faunus left the steering wheel to see if his new ship was truly better than his last and the others simply walked around to get used to solid ground while they could. Remus walked around to survey the area with the others taking a more leisurely stroll. Zelts was wondering if he could find a way to help Remus lighten up a little. He approached his friend in hopes of doing so.

Zelts placed a hand on Remus's shoulder to get his attention. Remus turned around and looked at Zelts with his only eye and normal expression, showing he wasn't brooding all the time which was a relief.

"Yeah?" Remus asked as he continued walking.

"Oh, uh- how are you doing, Remus?" Zelts asked with concern.

"…I've been better," he responded truthfully. "Everything will be fine once we reach Violet."

"...Right," Zelts said and left it at that for now. Whether they'd find Violet was a big unknown, but Zelts thought it was best not to bring it up. He believed Violet was in somewhere Atlas, but they were only going based on a hunch. There was also the chance that she wasn't and they came to Atlas for nothing and how would that affect Remus? For now, Remus seemed fine and Zelts didn't want to pick at an issue that wasn't currently there.

Azura and Lily took the lead in the group with Silver behind them followed by Remus and Zelts. The mass of ice they were on was very large, but none of them planned to explore the entire land, just walking around for a short period of time. The five-man squad came up on an icy hill along their path. Azura climbed the hill first with Silver using Gravity to easily jump to the top in a single bound. He reached the top first with Azura coming in second. The gunman looked at Azura with a triumphant grin while the female Cobalt looked at him with a look of shock.

Before Silver could ask what was wrong, Azura brought out her elemental staff and imbued it with the fire dust on her wrists. Silver brought out Fenrir to fight back, but stopped when he heard a loud strange noise from his backside. He looked over to see a pack of Grimm were occupying the area on the other side of the hill and he understood why Azura brought out her weapon. Silver immediately aimed Fenrir at the Grimm as Lily reached the hilltop with them.

The horde of Grimm consisted of five dozen Beowolves and four Goliaths. The enormous Grimm noticed their presence first, turning their heads in the squad's direction, and the Beowolves followed, growling and gnarling their fangs at them. The team was going to have a fight on their hands. The first person to strike was Silver, firing one shot at a Beowolf, blasting a hole in its skull which killed it. The sound of gunfire alerted Remus, Zelts, and all the Grimm that it was time for battle.

Remus immediately ran toward the top of the frozen hill, leaving Zelts behind with a kicked up cluster of snow and ice to keep him company. Remus reached the top of the hill where everyone was and leaped high in the air over the mass of Grimm. While still airborne, he pulled Romulus out of its sheath and had the blades extend out from its base bo staff form. As he began to fall, Remus separated Romulus into its dual swords form and landed on three Beowolves, killing all three by crushing the head of the Grimm he landed on and running his swords through the heads of the two beside it. The fellow Beowolves surrounding Remus began to pile on top of him, but Remus activated the energy compartment of Romulus to let the energy flow in his swords for increased sharpness and he twirled around to cut down nine more. More Grimm came to attack him and the intensity in Remus's one eye showed he was prepared to take them all down, but fireballs fell from above and bombarded a good handful of Grimm.

The person responsible for this assault was Azura Cobalt, using the dust circlets in her wrists. Constantly keeping the fire dust active to warm her body meant she couldn't access the other four types of dust imprinted into her body, but Azura could still use the fire dust for attacks. With her elemental staff imbued with flames, Azura jumped into the fray, landing next to Remus and began striking Beowolves with her fiery weapon. Remus cut down Grimm while Azura struck and burned them. The last remaining Cobalts were finally battling side by side, but they weren't the only ones.

Lily, going by her nickname Tigress while in battle, charged forward and attacked the Beowolves in front of her with Flying Eagle. She pierced one Beowolf with her spear while two tried to attack her from her sides. She activated her semblance, Gemini, to split her body into the black and orange Tigress Twins. The orange twin used its spear to stab the Beowolf's neck on the left while the black twin killed the one on the right. The twins deactivated Gemini to come back together as Tigress, who continued to battle the Beowolves while the Goliaths stayed back and watched. Silver stayed on the hill and used Fenrir to shoot down Grimm from a distance. He was able to kill the Beowolves with ease, but his bullets weren't penetrating the thick hide of the Goliaths. He realized they needed more power for that and that's what Zelts was for.

Zelts only had half his Heart of Gold thanks to Blood taking the other for himself, but it didn't faze the defender or make him second guess being in the heat of battle. Wielding his weapon as a wingblade, Zelts slammed it against any Beowolves in his path as he made his way to the closest Goliath. The elephant-like Grimm swung its massive trunk to the side, knocking down several Beowolf allies, then swung it at Zelts. Instinctively, Zelts brought his shield up to block the attack, but with only half his shield, Zelts couldn't completely block the attack and he was still hit by part of the Goliath's trunk. He was knocked onto the ground and his aura took a serious hit. He realized his usual fighting style wouldn't work and he needed to adapt. Zelts swung his wingblade at the Goliath, creating a gust of wind that hit the monster's side, but it wasn't enough to make it budge. With only one wingblade, Zelts couldn't create powerful wind bursts or tornadoes. This was a dilemma for the Knight of the Wind. ahe was having a hard time, but he wasn't the only one.

Remus and Azura were still battling the Beowolves around them, though Remus's moves were erratic. He was swinging his swords too frequently and pivoting his body constantly. With the loss of his bionic eye, Remus lost half his vision and had a huge blind spot on his right side. He had to continuously turn his body to see what was coming and it made him more vulnerable to attacks. In one moment, a Beowolf slashed him on his right side, knocking him down and causing him to tumble a little before he was back on his feet, but another Beowolf repeated the action and clawed his right side, pushing him back and chipping at his aura. The young fighter was getting frustrated and Azura fought close to his right side to compensate. The two of them were able to fend off the Beowolves until a Goliath charged in. Remus grabbed his cousin's arm and activated Checkpoint while looking at the hill they once occupied and teleported to the top of it.

The Golaith continued its stampede toward Remus and Azura, trampling the Beowolves unfortunate enough to be in its way. Tigress was also in the great monster's path and activated Gemini to divide into the Tigress Twins who split apart out of the Goliath's path. Seeing as how the elephant Grimm was heading to the hill where Remus, Silver, and Azura were, the twins tried to halt its progress. Each wielding their own Flying Eagle, the twins began slashing at the Goliath's legs. The natural bulk of the Grimm prevented the twins from cutting its legs to deep or even hard enough to make it flinch. The Goliath continued its stampede and charged into the icy hill.

Remus and Azura jumped back just in time to avoid the impact and Silver used Gravity to jump high in the air. Realizing his normal attacks wouldn't work against this kind of Grimm, Silver used Gravity to increase gravity's effect on him and plummet straight down on top of the Goliath. Silver landed on his target with tremendous force. His attack was strong enough to break and crack the bone plating on the Grimm's head, but not enough to kill it. The amount of pressure Silver put on his body using Gravity to such an extent left him feeling drained. He couldn't do that same move again, so he jumped off the monster and resumed fighting from a distance.

The Goliath Silver attacked wasn't dead, but it recognized a powerful adversary when it encountered one. It let out a loud bellow with its trunk and the other three Goliaths responded. The one Zelts was trying to fight ceased attacking him and charged toward its ally as well as the other two. The Tigress Twins killed four of the last Beowolves before merging back into Tigress herself. She got out of the way of one of the rampaging Goliaths as they headed toward its injured ally. Seeing as how the strongest Grimm were gathering together, Tigress thought it was best to regroup with everyone else and Zelts did the same.

With everyone gathered together, they thought of the next best course of action. Silver suggested they retreated with Tigress agreeing, but Azura thought it was best to keep fighting. Zelts and Remus sided with Azura on this, beating the vote two to three. Tigress wondered why Zelts was going for an aggressive tactic and he answered that he and Remus had a plan. The Goliaths began charging for everyone and they responded by retreating to Kelvin's ship. Remus and Zelts halted their movements to put their plan into action. Silver and the others watched what the two of them were going to do next.

As the Goliaths grew closer, Remus used Checkpoint to teleport to the sky above while changing Romulus into its railgun form and Zelts used Conversion to absorb the dust woven in his shirt to get the physical strength he needed. Remus fired several energy bolts from Romulus that landed onto the frozen foothold between Zelts and the Goliaths. The force of these bolts striking the ice mass caused it to crack and begin to break apart. The Goliath leading the pack stomped on an ice crack and the ground beneath it began to break apart with the massive Grimm beginning to fall in along with its allies. They were trapped in the ice as the large iceberg they were on began to crumble. Zelts's eyes glowed gold, showing his Conversion absorbed as much energy as it could. With the great increase in strength, Zelts swung his wingblades at the Grimm, creating a powerful windstorm that stunned the Goliaths and broke the ice mass even further. Zelts learned from this move that using half Heart of Gold in conjunction with Conversion could make up the difference of having only half his weapon. It was stronger than ordinarily using both wingblades, but not as strong as using both wingblades with Conversion. Remus teleported before Zelts who created a golden wind funnel for Remus to ride inside. Remus shifted Romulus to dual swords with the energy flowing in order for them to execute their plan and team move; Delta Stream evolving into Omega Drive.

Omega Drive, the shimmering jade tornado sword, was heading straight for the Goliaths that were lined up to take the hit. Spinning in the spiraling vortex, Remus had his blades pointed at the large Grimm and drilled through the first Goliath, the one whose bone plating was cracked by Silver. Omega Drive bore through the entire Grimm with ease then did the same for the next one, tunneling through the Grimm's black mass though it took a little longer, and again for the third, but it took much more effort. Omega Drive ended before Remus could reach the last one. With only one wingblades, the team attack wasn't as powerful as it usually was, but it was able to kill three out of four Goliaths. Remus crashed and landed on the bone plated head of the last Goliath. It tried to shake him off, knocking Remus onto the breaking ground which could give at any second.

Remus used the last of his remaining aura to use Checkpoint two more times. The first was to teleport away from the Grimm and to Zelts. The second time was to teleport himself and Zelts to the area near the ship where everyone was waiting for them. They boarded the vessel quickly as the ice mass began to split and break apart. The last Goliath fell through the ice and into the water, drowning to its death as the team sailed away from the shards of ice that remained.

Zelts and Remus sat on the side of ship, feeling satisfied with their victory, but that was short lived thanks to Silver and Lily looked at them with disappointed looks. Azura didn't seem to feel the same and Kelvin resumed sailing the ship to find a place to dock the ship.

"What was that about, Zelts?" Lily asked with a tone of concern mixed with a little anger. "What was the point of doing that? We would've escaped if we just ran."

"…" Zelts looked down because he felt bad about his brash action. He didn't know how he could tell them he did out of pride. Zelts wasn't a prideful person, but he was proud of the fact that he could defend and protect those important to them. He wanted to prove he was still useful to the others, but didn't know how to say it without sounding selfish.

"Yeah. How could you guys do something so reckless?" Silver asked. "And I'm saying this to you guys, and that's saying something! I do a bunch of stupid stuff! What do you have to say to yourselves?"

"I fought back because it was necessary," Remus answered with a serious but honest tone. "I had to prove to myself I could still be useful after losing my eye. I've…been doubting myself a lot after everything that happened in Fortuna. I just needed to see if I can keep moving forward with everyone else."

"…"

Remus's confession really hit Silver and Lily. Silver especially because he understood how his friend felt after the end of Fortuna. Getting beaten unconscious and learning one of your friends mysteriously disappeared can make a person feel helpless. Remus questioning his abilities was understandable to Silver because he felt the same way and he knew his friend very well. Battle performance would be a concern for Remus. If he couldn't fight to reach Violet, then he'd feel like a burden.

Lily had her eyes on Zelts because he was silent throughout the whole thing. She observed him during the battle and noticed how he was struggling against the Goliath. He was having difficulty adjusting to using only half his weapon and was probably having doubts just like Remus. The two of them had been hindered because of what they loss, so both of them finished an unnecessary battle to show they won't slow the others down. Their actions may have been foolish, but understandable. Lily decided not to chastise Zelts, but to stay by his side and help him get over this dilemma the best way she knew how.

Kelvin was searching for a place to dock without drawing any too much attention and the others were minding their own business, anxiously biding their time until they reached land. Lily put her plan to helping Zelts into action. The two warriors trained together on the ship's deck with their weapons. Lily told Zelts she would attack him and he would have to find a way to combat her with half his Heart of Gold. Zelts practiced combat with his weapon and he was making gradual progress. When Lily went to jab him with Flying Eagle, Zelts quickly blocked with his weapon as a shield then immediately changed his hold so he could quickly retaliate with it as a wingblade. He was able to parry the partisan away, impressing Lily with the rate of his growth.

"Not bad. You've gotten better in under an hour. But let's see how you handle more than one enemy," Lily said before activating Gemini, separating into the Tigress Twins.

The twins attacked Zelts with a pincer maneuver, striking from both sides. Zelts was able to parry with the orange twin on his right, but the black twin on his left struck his left which was wide open. He learned through battle his usual defensive style wasn't going to work, so Zelts needed to get more aggressive. The twins repeated the same attack formation. Zelts blocked the orange twin with his shield and when the black twin tried to attack, Zelts reacted by catching the twin's spear with his bare hand. The twins came together and Lily looked at Zelts with a smile.

"Impressive. Next time, I'll be a little more aggressive. You feel you're up to it?" Lily asked.

"Yeah. Thanks, Lily. Sorry for making you worry," Zelts apologized.

"Hey. Whenever you stumble, I'll be there help you stand up. Same goes for everyone else here," Lily told him and Zelts smiled. He felt so happy to have Lily by his side.

Two hours passed before Kelvin finally found a port settlement. The port and the town appeared to be a recent addition based on metal buildings still under construction. From observing the port from the ship, it seemed there were fewer troops and Atlesian drones patrolling the area so getting in here would be easier than any other place they could find. Kelvin turned the ship to an iceberg near the port while the others devised a plan on how to get pass security. The members of VRSZ already knew what they were going to do to get in. It was just a matter of everything going according to plan.

After weeks of separation, all four members of Team VRSZ were all on the same continent.


Remus's personality has changed since the end of Volume 5. He shows signs of stoicism at times, usually when he looks back on the end of Fortuna. The way he fights also changed due to a change in personality. He's more ruthless in combat, battling without restraint against all types of opponents. This was caused by a combination of his failure in Fortuna and remembering Zelts telling him to stop holding back, a choice Zelts looks back on with regret.

Zelts has begun to himself now that he lost half of Heart of Gold. He feels like he is failing as the team's shield and can't properly protect everyone from the potential threats they'll encounter. While he harbors these feelings, Lily does support him and makes Zelts feel better. Zelts will try to learn a new fighting style while wielding one wingblade.

Lily's Gemini is similar to Sun's semblance. The twins created when she separates look very similar to Sun's clones in appearance except one is orange and the other is black. While Sun can create up to three or four clones, Lily can only create the two and they share the same pain. If one is hurt, then the other will feel it and the damage will accumulate in Lily when she returns to normal.

Azura's dust circlets are various types of dust illegally placed inside her body. Normally transplanting dust in one's body is dangerous, but Azura only has it embedded into her wrists and ankles and it has successfully integrated into her body. Though she doesn't need to refuel dust used, overusing the dust in her body can prevent her from using it for a duration of time. Azura has fire, ice, lightning, wind and earth dust. She can only use one at a time and can't combine them. With the dust only in her wrists and ankles, Azura can't create large scale attacks, but the versatility makes up for it.