In the elevator, as I rose to Oz's office, I breathed in and out, willing myself to hold onto my control. Images from the far and recent past were melding together in a whole new nightmare within my mind. Screams echoed in my head.

I could feel the tears rim my waterline but I pressed the back of my left wrist into each eye to prevent the spillage. I would not cry now. Not in front of these people. If I let myself cry then I would drown in my own tears.

Don't think of the little girl…

She was only six years old…

Don't think of her…

She was still alive when…

The elevator dinged and I strode right into the conversation, which had apparently turned to me. I caught the tail end of Oz saying to the others in the room that they weren't the ones who were going to have to deal with me when I was angry.

"There you are wrong, Headmaster. You are all going to have to suck it up and deal with me." I snapped as I strode in. Oz flinched inside at my raw voice but he held his face in check and didn't betray a thing. He sat behind his desk and tried to look mildly interested in what I had to say instead of obsessed.

In the room was Glynda standing next to Oz's desk on my left with her arms crossed across her generous chest, looking surprised and worried at me as I came in. Winter was to the right with her hands clasped behind her back looking startled that I would speak so bluntly. Ironwood stood to Winter's right looking severe but inside he was frightened and nervous about me. As he should be since I was about to lay him out flat.

And then there was Qrow. Dashing, charming, drunken Qrow. The old bastard himself.

"I thought I'd seen a familiar face." The Huntsman said at me but I shot him a look. "I'll talk to you later."

I looked at Qrow and assimilated him back into my memory. He was a handsome, rugged man with spiky, disheveled black hair and piercing red eyes. He had a couple of short spikes that hung down near his face as his bangs and I watched him push them back, a sure sign that he thought there was a fight. It was his little signal. The last time I had seen him he had been shaggier and more unkempt and there were less holes in his clothing. Now his hair was slightly trimmed, his facial hair had been clipped so that it clung relatively neat to his strong jaw. He had more furrow lines at his brow but I also saw laugh lines around his mouth that always seemed to have a crooked smile hovering about the edges. His clothes hadn't changed except for I saw more wear and tear now. He still wore his gray low pocketed dress shirt that was left open enough to reveal his muscled chest, that had a dark gray collar, medium gray lapels going down the front and light gray around the rest of the body, two long tails that reached the backs of his thighs and the sleeves were rolled up to show his wiry muscle forearms. That crooked cross pendant still hung from his neck. Then there was the cloak. He wore a tattered red cloak that came to his hips that still had the hole in it from where I had shot him. He also still wore those black dress pants and his low black combat boots. Rings glinted on his right index and fourth finger of his right hand.

Thankfully, he had left his scythe in his room. It would have made me very tense to see it across his lower back.

"What is your business here?" Winter Schnee said, taking a step towards me. I wonder how you'd feel if you knew that my next assignment after my last one was supposed to be to wipe out your family line.

I turned my head to look at her but I kept my body facing towards the others, showing that I had very little to say to her.

Winter Schnee was beautiful and cold. Now I knew who Weiss tried to imitate whenever she got haughty.

I looked at Winter and saw a future Weiss although Weiss would be comparatively more lovely. Winter had the Schnee white hair, tied in a sock bun at the crown of her head, much like the one I had worn for In Noctem, except for her long bangs which were smooth and swept over her right eye to her chin and leaving a tiny little wave of white that hung down below her left ear and her eyes were the Schnee blue but while Weiss' eyes were pale icy sky blue, Winter's eyes were darker blue; like the center of a glacier. Her outfit was very militaristic mixed with artistic design. It was clear that she emulated much of the General whom she admired above anyone.

She wore a long sleeved white high neck blouse with a tiny section of ruffles coming from the hollow of her throat down to her bust beneath a blue sleeveless vest whose buttons ended at her hips but the sides went down to just above her mid-thigh. Her billowy sleeves were slitted so that her shoulders and the tops of her upper arms were bare and the cuffs were tucked into dark grey fencing gloves. Her pants were white and they were belted up by a leg harness that held up her thigh high boots. Attached to the back of the belt was a flowy drape of sheer fabric that hung to her ankles. Her impressively high boots were silvery grey with flexible knees in dark grey and stacked heels. Her final piece, the one most reminiscent of Ironwood was her coat. It was white with gray trimmings; sleeveless and fit perfectly over her blouse with a high stick collar that clasped at the hollow of her throat with a ruby. From the clasp it opened up, curving around her bust and then buckling tightly around her tiny waist and came down to two points in the middle of her shins. From the front the hem went upward and split in the middle of her back, right where the sheer drape fell beneath. On the back of her waist was a small loop of chain that I couldn't see any purpose for except artistic measures.

I held up my school Scroll. "I have a list for you all." I limped to Oz's desk and placed my Scroll down. Immediately, it pulled the list off.

"This is a list of the people hurt in the battle outside in the courtyard. It tells their names, their injuries, and what school they came from. I thought you might want that, just in case, since some of them were rather severe." I said coldly.

Winter had the decency to blush. "Were they given medical attention?" Ironwood asked. Even hearing his voice made me furious. "I healed all their injuries, all forty nine." I said from between clenched teeth. I looked at Oz and forced myself to relax and back up so that I could see them all. "Some of those injuries included frostbite, broken bones, impalement via debris or blades, concussions-" Ironwood cut me off and I nearly threw a book at him.

"We can compensate you if that's-" Compensation?! I was positive that I was about to explode.

"I don't want any of your stupid money!" I yelled, startling all five of the adults. I could feel myself losing control and I was breathing heavily. Oz tried to support me but for once, it didn't work. It was too much. I had seen too much, too fast and it had been a while since I'd had to witness such horrors back to back.

"I don't want your money. I want you to promise me that this will not happen again." I motioned to Winter and Qrow. "I've had a very bad day and it's only going to get worse. I'm here… to make my report." My voice wobbled a bit on the word report.

Don't think of the girl…

Ironwood looked at me confused. So did the other three. "Last light, General. I am to report the situation in Vasilius at last light." I'm not sure if it was the hollowness in my voice or what but Qrow, Glynda, Oz and Ironwood suddenly felt their first trickles of dread.

I have to hold on. I can't fall apart yet.

"I'm here to report but before I begin I want to know… why…" My throat clogged up. "Why… you said it was a minor distress signal… something simple, not a big deal. We were just going to check on the situation. Clear out Grimm and get the power lines back up. You said… that there was no reason to be concerned…" I leaned on Orchid as if she were my only strength. I looked at General Ironwood, with tears shimmering in my eyes. " So tell me… General…"

Why was everyone in that village dead before I arrived?!

The voice that screamed that question didn't belong to a human. It belonged to a wounded animal.

Glynda and Winter gasped, covering their mouths. Ironwood grew pale and stumbled back, hitting Oz's desk. Oz covered his face with his hands and Qrow rubbed his mouth hard before holding his hand there and closing his eyes.

Forget being calm and collected. I was just trying to form the words to the images that raced behind my eyes.

The little girl, all in pieces, couldn't find them all…

Don't think about her…

"It was a slaughter; every person in that village was killed. Every. Last. One. Every man, woman and c-child." Don't think about her little fingers… "Two of my team had to be escorted out of the town because I couldn't let them look at everyone they had ever known piled in the streets, so bloody many were unrecognizable. The girl, Elise, came anyways though. To witness." Her broken little fingernails showing how hard she had fought… "Many chose suicide before the Grimm could get to them. Those bodies we usually f-found whole. A majority of them were not… whole." How could I speak around this rock in my throat? It was growing with every word I spoke.

How much was too much? Do I tell them about the infant's head we found the ravens fighting over? Do I tell them about the bodies we found in the woods of those who tried to escape that were bitten in half and where we could only find pairs of legs scattered around when the King Taijitu got hungry? How much do I tell them? How much do I lock inside my mind and hide in the hidden boxes within me that held all the scary awful things I had seen and heard?

I glanced around the room before settling back on Ironwood who was a maelstrom of guilt and pain.

"It was a small village, no more than seventy people, you told me." I reduced the rock to a slightly smaller size by swallowing a few times. "There were eighty seven people. I know because I had to bury them." The Garden Graveyard now goes on and on. Who will tend it now?

"There was only one survivor." Ironwood pushed to his feet and came very close to me. I closed my eyes so I wouldn't see the hope in them. "The Thayet's mother, Elisa Thayet. She's now in the hands of your 'specialists' who are trying to wake her up so that they can find out what happened." I cut him off before he could ask if she had told me anything.

All Atlas people care about it how they can use others. They don't care if it'll kill them if they have information they want.

I opened my eyes and glared at him, but I found it hard with the tears still in my eyes. Ironwood still wanted her to wake up. "When they found her she was just barely alive, with her innards torn to shreds and her body half buried beneath the rubble that used to be her barn. I stabilized her on the scene as best I could. Your specialists want to wake her up when I can only just keep her heart beating!"

Life is cheap to the man who commands armies, Ryke had said to me. How right he was. Well my life isn't cheap. My team's lives weren't cheap. My friends, my family, the people that I loved; their lives are not cheap and I will not barter with someone for them. Especially not the man who was charged to protect them.

If he wouldn't, I would.

My gaze wandered around the room. How much should I say?

"My team is in shock. I'm doing my best to keep an incredible woman alive and keep the twin's from shanghaiing off the deep end and I come back to find two huntsman fighting in our courtyard, like squabbling children. We are at war, gentlemen, ladies. You just refuse to see it. So if you won't acknowledge it, at least act like it." I said, snapping the last bit. I was trying to rekindle the fire that had kept the tears at bay before.

I couldn't find it. I couldn't find the strength to hide from the memories.

"How can you say we are at war? We've had nearly eighty years of peace, hard earned peace." Glynda said. I looked at her. For nearly the last ten years, I had been murdering people all over Remnant and before me, someone else did the killing. I was not the first person to wear the mask of Faceless. War was the force that drove humanity. The Grimm were just the foot soldiers. "Is that so?" I said rising to leave.

I didn't want them to see me break.

"Dahlia. How do you know that we're at war?" Qrow said seriously. I kept walking towards the elevator, keeping my back to them.

Because war is what I was bred for. I've been fighting in a war my entire life. Because I've killed more people than you can even imagine for the sake of that war and before me, someone else did the killing. War was once all I knew.

Qrow knew that. But I wouldn't say that with the others in the room.

So I thought about it and with that came the memories.

Don't think about the little girl…

Don't think about how she died…

Don't…

"I… I found a little girl." I whispered harshly, halting my steps. "Barely a child." My lung constricted and my hands tightened on Orchid till my knuckles went stark white.

"Her head was in a well, with half her face gone, her eyeballs plucked out and her brain eaten. Her arms were across the village, partially eaten while her torso was on the other end with the innards eaten out. We couldn't find her legs though we looked for them." We had searched for her legs everywhere. I had been desperate to put her back together.

I gasped and pressed my left fist to my chest, trying to relieve the pressure. "The wounds show that she was still alive when all that happened. She was alive when the Grimm ripped her apart and ate her."

Another child's scream echoed through my ears, blending with the image of the tattered remains. A new nightmare to add to the old one.

"When we buried her I had to have Elise come identify her as Tammy Brown, daughter of the man and the woman whom we had found bits of in the river; a child who's birthing ceremony Elise had attended when she was young; so that I knew what to write on the grave marker." Little Tammy Brown who's little grave was planted with chrysanthemums that would bloom so brightly in the spring.

Elise had whispered to me that she had been a cheerful child who had liked to draw and sing.

The tears came and they trickled down my pale cheeks in a small but constant flow. Little Tammy Brown with ribbons in her blood drenched blonde hair…

Grief was like a locust swarm in the room. I couldn't turn around though. I couldn't let them see me like this. Oz yes, maybe even Qrow but Ironwood? Never.

I'd come back later to each individual and heal the heart and soul wounds I had dealt this evening but for now, I wanted to let it sink in. Maybe I wanted to teach them a lesson. Or maybe I just didn't want to suffer with this by myself.

"If you don't understand that ladies and gentlemen, you don't know what war really is." The tears continued to fall and the ache in my chest did not fade, no matter how hard I pressed on it.

"Dahlia… I'm sorry I sent you into that…" Ironwood said in a gravelly voice. And he meant it. I could feel that. I chuckled and it was that saddest sound. "I'm glad I went, General. I'm glad it was me and not anyone else. No one else should have had to take care of that… and no one would have taken such care with the villagers. So no, General. I'm glad I was chosen… I just wish to all the Gods that the twins hadn't had to see what had happened to their home…"

Elise, my poor Elise…

The elevator arrived for me and I gingerly stepped inside, as if I would break if I moved too fast.

When I faced them all of them looked haggard. I hated myself for forcing this pain on them. I hated that I had to be the one to tell them that an entire village had been slaughtered without notice. But they were the leaders of Remnant. This was the consequence of power.

When the doors began to close I took a deep breath in and held it. And held it.

Then when I breathed out, all I heard was a jagged sob coming from within my chest. I hadn't realized that the doors hadn't yet closed all the way.

I knew they heard it. I could feel it. Ironwood hated himself, Oz and Qrow both worried for me, Glynda was struggling not to kill Ironwood and Winter was just cold. She was a soldier but she didn't really know what war looked like till she had heard the fate of Tammy Brown.

I wish I could've seen her when she was alive.

I was about half way down when I realized that I was going back up.

There was no way that I was facing them again, so I kicked the bottom safety hatch out, grabbed onto the cable, and fit the piece back in. The elevator kept going upward but I just hung in the middle of the shaft. Let them wonder where I had gone.

I slid down the cable, knowing I'd need to buy new gloves for me but I was grateful for its protection for my hand.

As I went down I quickly and quietly, I reached a certain level and then my ears popped. Then I kept going down and they popped again.

How far down am I? I asked myself, soon realizing that I had past my stop and groaning because going down elevator cables was fun. Climbing up them? Less fun.

But I was curious about what was below. I hadn't seen any indication that there was anything below the school.

The ground came up under me unexpectedly and my right leg shot me through with pain. Before me was another door, just like the dozens of others before but this one was deep underground.

I didn't have the proper equipment to get inside it but I pressed my hand to it and sent out threads. There was only one presence beyond that doors and it was … off.

My scroll then beeped, reminding me that I had to find the twins soon to put them to sleep. It was going to be a rough recovery. Much worse than the last one.

I cast one final look at the doors, promising out loud to come investigate soon and then I began to climb my way up to ground level. My arms hurt and ached with the strain but it felt good. Somehow, it made the pain in my chest recede for a little.

It came back though when I was outside my team's room and I heard Elise screaming and crying. I closed my eyes and sent up a prayer for us but mostly for my teammates.

And I prayed for Mama Thayet. Please help me save her…