The forest was calm. No birds were chirping, and not a single sound of movement came from the large span of emerald trees that stretched over the golden hills. And then there was something. A single snap of a branch.

A black haired boy sat on top of a tree. His fluffy black tail held perfectly still, as his eyes observed the trees intently, searching for the source of the noise. His eyes snapped to a flash of red. A slender beowolf emerged from the shadows, growling. The boy smirked.

"Found them." After sending the telepathic message to his teammates, the boy stood up and jumped to the next tree, gripping the branch and falling to the ground. The beowolf's head snapped towards him and it's crimson eyes pulsed with hunger. Then it howled. The boy sprinted across the golden field. He didn't need to look behind him to know more than one was chasing him.


On the other side of the large clearing, his three teammates grabbed their weapons and stood up, alert. "Celeste, D'art, they're here." A raven haired girl said suddenly.

"Yeah thanks Eve, not like we all heard the message or anything." Celeste muttered, rolling up her sleeves. "Still not a fan of this ambushing crap"

"Well I for one am glad that for once we're trying a tactical approach." Eve replied swiftly. "Instead of the usual rushing into a mob of Grimm."

"We could handle it." Celeste huffed.

"Let's go." Said D'art. Instead of heading straight towards the clearing, the three ran through the forest's edge, around the border of the hill. Eve glanced to her left. She could see Owen in the clearing, running away from a large mob of beowolves chasing him down. "Alright, get behind them." D'art said with a grin. The three burst through the treeline.

Owen had stopped running. He was in a battle stance, panting slightly to face the pack of beowolves that were slowly coming closer. Then there was a single howl of pain from the back of the mob. "Finally." Owen huffed. The distraction was a success. Eve, Celeste and D'art spliced through the pack of Beowolves, slicing through their backs and cutting through the crowd. D'art jumped on the back of one, flipping in the air before embedding his tomahawks in the next. With a yell, Celeste drove her blades through the back of a beowolf before yanking them out, dodging a swipe, and slicing another. Eve tossed her chain whip up. Her fingers swiped through the air. The whip immediately dove down, slithering around the legs of around ten Grimm before pulling them together and tightening. D'art and Celeste simultaneously sliced through their necks. Within seconds, ten heads rolled onto the ground.

D'art charged a lightning attack, and shot at Eve's chain whip as she threw it towards the mob. Electricity sparked along the metal, shocking all surrounding Grimm. There was only one beowolf left now. It turned to look at them, a little confused before Celeste calmly strolled up to it and drove her blades through it's two eyes. She kicked it away. The corpse fell onto the ground before disintegrating into the air. Owen stared at them, catching his breath. "Next time…" He panted, "I'm not the bait…" He leaned back and took a deep breath. "One of you three."

"Nice job Owen." D'art said with a grin, patting his friend on the back. "You could be in a marathon."

"Speak…for yourself." Owen huffed, although a slight grin was now on his face.

"That...went pretty great." Celeste said with her lips curled into a slight smile, "Still prefer a head on battle though."

"We can do both." D'art said with a chuckle. "Man I need a bath."

"YOU?!" Owen exclaimed, as he pointed to himself and then the large field he had run through.

"Yeah yeah, okay." D'art said with an uneasy laugh.

"So...can someone carry me…?" Owen asked, clearly milking his role as the bait.

"Oh calm your pants. You didn't run that much." Celeste added.

"I don't think I can make it" Owen said with a overly dramatic sigh. This prompted another response from D'art and the three continued to bicker while they made their way back to the airship with Eve looking on in mild amusement.


Olive dodged out of the way of a beowolf's slash giving Amelia the opportunity to smash its head in with her stone imbued scarf. "How many are left?" Amelia called out to their leader.

"There's five more on the way after these last two," Riliane informed them.

"So what's the plan, Captain?" Olive teleported next to her.

"Well," she stabbed the grimm in front of her through the chest. "Think you could corral them, Nivens?"

Plazma burst through the last beowolf's chest, "Easy. Where do you want 'em?"

"Just lead them back this way and keep them together."

"Give me a sec then," Nivens darted into the trees and looped around the incoming pack. The girls could hear the metal of his gauntlets snapping and the beowolves howled. Within a few minutes they saw Nivens coming back with the grimm closely following and got into position. Once seeing what the full plan was he passed his teammates hiding spots and jumped up over them, "Cover your ears!" He called out before clapping his hands together and the noise resounded loudly causing the grimm to howl in pain. Before he even landed the girls had begun their attack. Riliane fired off arrows three at a time, Amelia used her dust to create stone spikes beneath them, and Olive was moving so quickly he couldn't even follow her motions as she slashed them.

After just a few seconds the grimm had turned into a large pile of black smoke and the area was silent. "Good job guys," Riliane said.

"Well done indeed," Professor Port was accompanying them and he was a little bit disappointed that ROXA didn't let any get away, so that he'd be able to kill a few. "Well, if that's all settled why don't we head back to Beacon. You can tell your friends of that performance today." He gave a hearty laugh while walking back to the airship.

Careful to speak so that Port couldn't hear her Riliane stepped closer to her partner, "Think you could try to give a bit more notice next time you do that, Nivens?"

"Hm? I didn't think it was that bad." He shrugged, "Guess I could." They continued back to the clearing that they had landed in. Once they had taken off Nivens yawned, "I wonder how Eve's doing."

"Miss Glamis has a very capable team," Port responded. "I'd be surprised if they took much longer in their own elimination mission."

"I know they're all good fighters, I meant emotionally. She was cold to begin with, but ever since," Nivens dug his claws into his arm and winced, "Ever since what happened at that factory she's been distant."

"You're right…" Olive giggled, "You don't usually notice things like that about other people."

"What can I say," His grip relaxed and his aura quickly healed the wound. "There's just something different about that girl."

"Ohoh?" Port playfully punched his shoulder, "Do I smell a young romance brewing?"

"Hmm… Nope, she's too emo even in a good mood. I mean really, what kind of person wears an eyepatch these days." Nivens chuckled at his own comment. As that topic passed Professor Port decided to entertain the students with one of his previous battles, though only Riliane was actually listening to him. Their thoughts all wandered to different places as they watched the scenery slowly become more familiar until they were back at Beacon's airdock. The team began heading back to their dorm, but Riliane stopped when she heard another ship approaching in the distance.

"Is that CODE?" She wondered aloud.

Nivens smirked, "You wanna wait for Celeste?"

"A-and everyone else," She replied with her face turning slightly pink, "but you all can go on ahead if you want."

"Hmm… I don't really have anything better to do, so I'll keep you company. They're about ten minutes out I'd guess."

"I'm probably gonna shower and get back to my history paper," Amelia said.

"Oh, I'm not the only one who didn't finish that," Olive cheered. "We can work on it together then."

"Didn't we choose different topics?"

"Yeah, but Oobleck likes it when people show different opinions on things."

"You do have a point there," Amelia nodded to agree. "We'll see you guys in a bit then."

"Mhm," Nivens waved them off. "Enjoy your shower." Her face turning pink made him chuckle, "You might want to hurry. I can hear more ships coming back."

The two left and Riliane turned roughly to face her partner, "I can't hear any others approaching..?"

"Cause they aren't," He shrugged, "It was just an easy way to make them leave. Though really I don't get why you girls always make such a big deal about showering first."

"That's because you always do it so late, everyone else is already in bed."

"Exactly. There's no line if there isn't anyone else around."

"I guess, but don't you feel gross after a rough training session being all sweaty and tired?"

"If I'm tired then I'll sleep and if it's really that bad I can just towel off."

"Seems like you are just putting it off at that point"

"I think it's just a lot easier that way" Nivens watched the sky and saw the airship slowly grow larger and louder. It landed and the members of CODE piled out along with Professor Peach.

"Man, you guys already finished?" D'art seemed defeated.

"Naturally, you guys spend too much time bickering."

"No we don't," He argued with Nivens.

"Hey there," Celeste said approaching the other leader.

"Welcome back Celeste," Riliane greeted, a smile glowing on her face.

"I take it everything went well?" Celeste asked, moving closer to Riliane.

"Yes. The mission was a success" Sensing the other girl moving closer she nervously took a step back, "H-how was yours?"

"Wasn't done the way I would have wanted, but we did the job." Celeste answered, not seeming to notice the movement.

"Oh, that's good. I was a bit worried when they told you guys that you had to practice ambushing." Riliane stated with a sigh of relief. Realizing her statement could be taken as an insult she quickly tried to clarify, "S-since it's not really something you tend to do… C-cause the way you fight and uh… N-not that that is a bad thing though, it's just that… um..." She stammered with a small blush.

Noticing the blush, Celeste couldn't help but blush herself. "She's really cute blushing like that. Wait. No. Can't think like that. She's just a friend." Looking away to direct herself she caught Owen looking between her and Riliane. "Did you just?" she thought, directing it at him.

"No I would never listen in on my leaders private thoughts. And I'm hurt that you would think I would do something so devious."

Celeste scowled at her partner and thought of brutal ways of hurting someone. Seeing Own quickly hurry away, she turned her attention back to Riliane. "So what are going to do now?" Celeste asked, letting the still flustered girl know she had not gone anywhere.

"Well the others went to study and do homework, so I thought I might join them." Riliane answered.

"Oh," Celeste said, sounding hurt. Even the blind girl could tell she was frowning.

"We uh... could maybe go together if you want?"

"Really? That sounds-" She coughed, "I mean I didn't really have any other plans today, so I guess I could stop by."

"Great! Come on then." Riliane held her hand out to lead Celeste back to the ROXA dorm. Nivens followed behind them by about a yard and the other members of CODE went on their own way to the bathrooms.


"Welcome back Lainey~" Olive greeted them when they entered the room. Amelia had returned as well and a towel was moving on its own to dry her hair as she worked on her paper. Celeste pulled the chair from Nivens' desk over to Riliane's so the two could sit next to each other. The two talked in hushed tones to try and not bother the others, but there was no helping their giggling. Olive didn't seem too bothered, but Amelia couldn't focus and Nivens rolled his eyes before heading down to the gym, claiming that the mission wasn't enough of a challenge. After the five got diner together Celeste went back to her own dorm and they all got ready for bed.

The next day the students were in the middle of turning in their papers when, in the back of the room, Dan complained loudly, "Why do we still have classes when the Vital festival is just around the corner?"

"Well," Dr. Oobleck said mashing his words together by how fast he was speaking. "You seem to have forgotten that those delegated to participate in the festival are the best our academy as to offer, both in combat abilities and scholastic affairs. So if your goal is to participate in the tournament then I would suggest turning your work in on time. Or you might resolve like Mr. Picto and turn it in early."

"Of course he did," Dan crossed his arms and leaned back. "He could easily write about the Faunus War since his family was part of the cause."

"Actually I shared his paper with Professor Port as it was about the initial discoveries of grimm." The class was filled with hushed questions.

Nivens shrugged and seemed bored of the attention already, "It was more interesting than any of the prompts. Besides, I don't think I could read another book on the Faunus War if I wanted to."

"Now, unless you all would like another assignment I'll ask that we get back on task." Nobody wanted to write another paper for the rest of the year, this last one was five pages after all. "Thank you," Oobleck took a sip from his mug and continued. "Now then where were we..? Ah! Of course, the Great War. Surely somebody can tell what the major causes were." He waited patiently until Moonracer raised his hand. "Yes, Mr. Darude-Lion?"

"Many people like the poetic explanation that it was because of the conflicting ideals between Kingdoms, but the actual declaration of war was because Mantal wanted resources from Vacuo."

"A unique way of putting it young man, but correct nonetheless." Oobleck continued teaching while asking questions regularly. Most of the students were taking notes, but one of the exceptions was Nivens who didn't have nearly the same drive as Xanthic and couldn't stop himself from dozing off.


"...ic… ake up!" Riliane finally resorted to shaking her partner awake.

"What..?" Xanthic yawned and rubbed his eyes. He was still in Oobleck's classroom and a few students were just going out the door. Around him was his team and teacher. "H-how did I..?"

"Oh," Nivens took over again. After checking to make sure his hat was still in place he stood up and bowed his head to Oobleck. "Sorry Dr. I didn't realise how tired I was. I'll try not to let it happen again."

"Please do," He bounced on his toes. "And I would like a short report on chapter sixteen to show that you won't fall behind after today."

"Will do." Nivens collected his things and left with the rest of his team.

Once they were in the hall Riliane asked, "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, don't worry about it." Not wanting any more suspicion drawn to him Nivens forced himself to stay awake through the next class before going to lunch.

In the cafeteria they met up with team CODE and Celeste was in a more sour mood than usual, "It's obviously just because of his weapon. I'm a much better fighter than he is…"

"Did somebody upset you?" Riliane asked cautiously.

"Please don't-" Owen was cut off.

"They chose Cobolt to go to Mistral."

"Who's Cobolt?" Olive asked.

"He's my cousin. Y'know the idiot in our grade that wears a suit 'n tie everywhere."

"Oh, so Violet's brother?" Nivens asked for clarification.

"Yeah, that's the one." She aggressively stabbed her salad causing a tomato to burst and spray her. "I mean honestly, I could beat him if I really tried."

"You must have really been looking forward to the tournament," Riliane said empathetically.

"Of course I was! Are you saying you weren't?"

"Honestly we haven't really talked about it."

"Really?" D'art was surprised. "None of you wanted to go? I thought you two especially loved fighting." He pointed at Olive and Nivens.

"Please don't compare us," Nivens sighed. "I did want to, but I guess we'll just have to wait till our third year."

"It really doesn't erk you at all?" Celeste questioned, adding her friends' apathy to the list of things currently annoying her.

"I guess some of us are more mature than to complain about the little things," He shrugged and avoided the croutons that were thrown at his face. Noticing that Owen was being rather quiet Nivens made eye contact with him and focused, "You should know by now, that doesn't work on me."

"Sorry, I just find it hard to believe that you're not at all upset."

"Things will happen as they happen, who am I to try and force something."

"See, like those words just don't fit you. They're way too zen."

"Sounds like that's a you problem."

Owen sighed and went back to eating his sandwich. "You know," Olive suddenly spoke up, "If your cousin does win and you beat him, then you could claim to be stronger than the Vital champion without having to actually participate."

"Yeah, but I'd rather actually earn it." Celeste said after thinking.

"Working on academics could also do that," Eve pointed out as she munched on a bite of salad.

"Oh, like you're a straight A student?"

"...I am." The boys all snickered as Celeste became flustered.

"Overachiever." She muttered, stabbing the remains of her salad vigorously. Spurts of it splattered on Eve's cheek before she slowly wiped it off without looking.

"The way you say it makes it sound like an insult." Eve replied, glancing at her friend. "There's nothing wrong with trying your best." Celeste crossed her arms and did a 'harumph' before the two girls shared a half smile and turned back to their food.

"There was something I wanted to discuss with all of you actually." Eve said finally, setting her fork on the table. The table turned towards her, sensing her serious tone.

"But I would like to discuss it in the dorms where it's private." The raven haired girl added quickly. The group of teens stared at each other.

"Eh? I only just started eating this." Celeste said, pointing at her salad.

"It's barely even a salad now." D'art replied as he peered at it gingerly.

"Oh shut it." Celeste muttered.

Nevertheless, the group threw the rest of their food in the trash and headed up to their dorms.


After reaching CODE's room, they all clambered inside and sat in a makeshift circle around the small living area.

"So what's up?" Olive inquired cheerfully.

"I...wanted to talk about what we're going to do about Humanity." Eve said after a brief pause of hesitation. Nivens, who was sitting across from her froze momentarily before his green eyes flicked towards hers. Riliane sucked in a breath and Amelia stopped fidgeting with her hair. The atmosphere had immediately changed.

"...What about them?" D'art asked, after no one had replied.

"If we're going to keep chasing them." Eve clarified. Although her face was calm, her hands were clenched tightly in her lap. "If you all want to risk that again, after what happened to Xanthic." Niven's jaw twitched, as if he wanted to make a retort, but he remained silent. For several seconds, no one spoke before Amelia cleared her throat.

"I do." Surprised, the others turned towards her.

"Well we can't just let them roam free can we? Not after what they did at the rally, or what they did to Xanthic."

"I agree." Said D'art with a nod.

"I understand that." Replied Eve. "But Humanity is extremely dangerous. Not only because they're powerful but because we barely know anything about them."

"But we have you." Riliane offered quietly. "You told us information we would never have known otherwise."

"...I really don't know that much though." Eve responded ruefully. "And because of my connection with Yukina, I might put you all in even more danger in the future."

"I want to hunt them down." Olive said firmly. "We can't just stand by as they threaten innocent people." Riliane nodded in agreement to Olive's declaration.

"Besides, it's extra practice right?" Celeste said with a grin. "I want to kick their butts, those pompous pricks really tick me off."

"You've only met their grunts…" Owen said with an exasperated sigh.

"So? Their grunts are annoying too."

Owen rolled his eyes before turning towards the others. "I also want to go after them. I can't forgive them for what they've done to my fellow faunus. And especially what they did to you Eve." Eve blinked, mildly surprised before she nodded slowly.

"Nivens…?" Eve inquired, glancing at him. Nivens was silent before he leaned back.

"I'm fine with it, but if rumors spread about me knowing too much about Humanity, well..." He shrugged as his green eyes flicked to each of his teammates before he smirked. "You're all pretty gutsy you know, wanting to take down an entire organization like this."

"It's what we do best." Said Celeste with a grin. "Life isn't fun without guts."

"Yeah, that's not the right way to say that sentence." D'art murmured. Celeste jabbed him in the side without looking at him.

"I can't pretend that I'm not afraid about this..." Riliane stated hesitantly. "Choosing to come to Beacon was the first time I had ever chose to do something that could potentially put my life on the line… But I enrolled to prove myself and to help others. And by getting rid of Humanity I can accomplish both of those things." Celeste glanced at the blonde, her lips curving upwards warmly. "So I'm in," Riliane finished.

"So it's final." Eve replied, releasing a breath she had been holding. "We continue to hunt them down."

"What about you Eve?" D'art questioned, glancing at his partner. "Do you want to hunt them down?" Eve was pensive for a moment.

"I spent quite a bit of time running from Humanity." Eve responded finally. "And up until now I've always thought of them as unbeatable, as this secret organization that was carefully spreading insidious change wherever they went. But after meeting you all, I've learned that they aren't unbeatable. That they can be hurt, and outsmarted." Eve looked up. "I couldn't do this by myself. But with you guys with me I can, and I want to." The others were silent before D'art sniffled and grabbed a tissue from the bed stand.

"My little Eve's growing up." He said with a rather ridiculous sob.

"Don't call me little." Eve replied, her tone a forbidding warning. D'art pretended to blow his nose and Eve sighed.

"I've told you practically everything I know about Humanity." She said, recovering. "So it'll be hard to continue the search."

"Well we better start somewhere then!" Olive sang, standing up and pumping her fist in the air.

"Your boundless energy never ceases to amaze me." Owen admitted. Olive grinned.

"This isn't even half of it." The blonde replied with a vigorous nod of her head.

"It's true, believe me." Amelia said with a groan. The tension seemed to fade from the air as the group of friends continued to joke and bicker through the night. But as it was beginning to get late, the members of ROXA decided to return to their dorm. Nivens turned to the door as his teammates were walking through, "I'll catch up." He looked back at Eve, "I wanted to ask you a few things." He glanced at the other members of CODE who were still there, "Privately, if I may?"

"Oh?" D'art raised an eyebrow and smirked, "About what?"

"Nothing that concerns you," He replied with a level of annoyance.

"Come on," Celeste grabbed both her male teammates by the wrists and pulled them away.

Eve glanced at him, slightly surprised. "What is it?"

"You mentioned her briefly earlier. But, I wanna know more about that old friend of yours."

"...Yukina?" Eve asked.

"Yeah, I think that's what you called her." Eve hesitated briefly before sitting on her bed and sighing.

"What do you want to know?"

"What's her deal?"

"Her deal…? You mean what she wants?"

"Yeah, that I guess. But I'm really more curious about her semblance."

"Ah...that." Eve replied. "Yukina has an incredibly powerful semblance. She makes people live through their greatest fear, almost like an illusion of some sorts. But it feels incredibly real."

"So that's what it was… I'm a little surprised it wasn't…"

"Wait…have you experienced it?" Eve questioned.

"Xanthic ran into her that night." Nivens' hands tightened into fists. "She gave him that hallucination then went on her way like nothing happened." Eve was silent for a little before replying.

"You probably hate her, don't you?"

"I can't say she's on my list of favorites, but I can't figure out why she didn't kill us. Obviously she has the stomach for it."

"Yukina is in a terrible mental state right now. It's not her fault, it's-" Her voice trailed off. "I know it'll be hard for you to understand right now, because she's done some terrible things. But there's still a part of her that's good. And that's why she didn't kill us."

"He said… Oh nevermind, I think I've got it."

"What do you mean he? Oh you mean Xanthic." Nivens nodded.

"She's a faunus, right?"

"Yes. We trained together and used to be quite close." Eve said softly. "I don't know what kind though."

"I'd wager a shark by how she is." Nivens grumbled. A smile tugged on Eve's lips but she merely nodded.

"You never know."

"That's true, I've met an eel faunus before." He shrugged, "Cool guy, but a bit snarky. But him and Pinkie aside, I have another thing I wanna ask you about. What do you know about the leaders of Humanity?"

"Not much to be honest." Eve admitted. "We were trained by their grunts and such. But I know the leader of mine."

"Mind sharing a name?"

"Vincent."

Nivens was silent before responding. "Vincent… And what was he like exactly?"

"He would take us on missions and train the faunus who were kidnapped. Growing up you could say he was something like a father."

"Oh? Sounds like you were fond of him." Nivens replied calmly. Eve's eyes narrowed slightly.

"No. Maybe I did at the start. But now I hate him." Her fists clenched. "He put us through so much pain and he's just roaming free, and no one even knows.." She snarled.

"Don't get any stupid ideas in there," Nivens said while reaching up and knocking on Eve's head. Eve, who was still sitting down on her bed, blinked slowly before raising an eyebrow.

"I'm not stupid enough to take him on by myself. I just...want to put him through the same thing he put us through."

"Hm… I guess you two are a good pair." Eve sucked in a breath.

"No. No that's not what I meant." She clarified before sighing. "I'm not like Yukina. I'm different. I can't stoop to her level, I just think he needs some kind of punishment…"

"Sheesh, no wonder your weapon is a chain." He paused to appreciate her confused expression before explaining, "Well you're just so tightly wound up."

Eve looked down emotionlessly. "I wasn't always like this. There was a time when I was as carefree as the others. But this is just who I am now. I know no one liked me all that much at first, and they still might think I'm indifferent now, but I've been trying." Eve looked up at Nivens. "You know that don't you?"

"I know you're a real party pooper most of the time, but that war cry you had just a bit ago wasn't half bad." He made to leave but stopped at the door, "You keep up an attitude like that and I might forget about the eyepatch." Eve's eye twitched in a sign of minor irritation as he strolled out of the room with his hands folded behind his head.

"I really don't understand him sometimes." Eve muttered to herself. She closed the open door and slowly pulled off her eyepatch, throwing it on the bed. It had been a while since she had taken it off, around several months. She calmly walked up to the handheld mirror on the side of the bed and grabbed it, taking a look at her face. Three long scars ran across her eye and upper cheek, where the eyepatch had previously been. Slowly, her left eye opened and peered back at her. She winced. Memories flashed through her mind, recollections of pain and anguish. The mirror slipped out of her hand and fell onto the floor. "I still can't look at it." Eve whispered. She didn't bother picking the mirror back up as she slid the eyepatch back on and slowly walked out of the dorm.