Time to get into the meat and potatoes of Crue's journey through Mistral. I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

The world was wreathed in fire as she stood alone in the ruins of the Beacon cafeteria. People were screaming all around, but the voices were dulled. Numb. Except for one…

"SCHNEE!" Weiss turned to see Adam Taurus running towards her. She tried to move. Tried to run. But she was stuck in place once again.

She tried to lift her rapier, only to find it gone, replaced by a dark rod of cold steel. She barely had time to think before using the item to defend herself. There was an immediate scream of anguish, and the hiss of something bubbling.

Weiss dropped the branding iron with wide eyes as she backed away, leaving Taurus on his knees, cradling his bleeding and burning eye. SDC was scarred onto his face. Because of her.

She tried to speak, to scream, to say anything. Nothing came forth. Suddenly, Adam was back on his feet and wielding his glowing red sword. The world seemed to darken, as the blade became the only thing that stood out.

Weiss knew what would come next, as she desperately tried to move. She looked down and found herself rooted to the spot, held in place by deadly looking claws covered in brown fur.

"Weiss!"

No! Weiss looked back up, just in time to see a flash of blonde jump in front of her, in the way of Adam's attack. "NO!" She screamed, as blood splashed across her pristine white dress. She immediately got down onto her knees and turned over the body before her.

Red eyes glared at her through golden hair. "THIS IS YOUR FAULT!" She screamed, slamming a fist into Weiss' face and sending her flying back.

"THIS IS YOUR FAULT!" A different voice spoke up, with raven hair and a set of cat ears atop her head. She stood apart from the battle, but pointed to the scarred face holding the sword that injured her friend.

They all stood, staring at her as she lay on the ground unable to move. "YOUR FAULT!" The three said as one, before behind them a massive figure grew out of the shadows, filling up to the roof of the cafeteria.

A Monster with dark brown fur and teeth like daggers snarled at her. With a single swipe of its massive claws, those before her were gone. Removed in a bloody slash, leaving nothing but a red pool on the ground, slowly moving towards Weiss.

The Monster got down on all fours, hot fetid air blowing her hair back. Her pale blue eyes were wide as they stared into pockets of molten gold that seemed to literally be dripping along its snarling maw.

"Weissssssss…" It hissed out, the sound not suiting the Monster. "Yourrrr… Faulllttt…" Its mouth opened wide, more teeth than should have been able to fit glinting dangerously.

"Weissssss." The sound came once more, from deep within its throat. "Weissss." It's jaws suddenly lunged forward to clamp down. "Weisss. Weiss! Weiss!"

Pale blue eyes shot open as Weiss snapped upright, hand immediately reaching for whatever weapon she could get her hands on. A pillow was her only defence, as she threw it at her attacker.

A wooden hurley came up with a yelp to deflect it. Weiss blinked slowly at the noise, focusing on the sight before her. Whitely was holding a hurl upright, almost surprised at himself for being able to protect himself.

"Whitley?" Weiss asked, before realising what she had done. "Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry!" She quickly got up from her bed, hovering over her brother and making sure she hadn't injured him.

"I am fine, Weiss." Whitley said, lowering the hurl and leaning on it like one might a cane. "I had come to show you what Klein gifted me, but, you were not responding when I knocked on your door." He looked back to her open doorway.

"I didn't hear. I was… resting." She looked away from Whitley for a moment.

"You did not look particularly restful."

Weiss' eyes tilted downwards in a frown, looking to Whitley and expecting a smug expression that suggested he had never had a nightmare in his life.

The way his blue eyes stared at her with genuine concern had her breath catching in her throat.

"I-." She swallowed, holding back the tears that threatened to escape. "I was remembering Beacon. And, and what our company has done." She took a deep breath, and stared Whitley dead in the eye. "I fought with Adam Taurus. A member of the White Fang."

Whitley's eyes were wide. Weiss had done her best to not mention the events of the Fall, and not for lack of prying from her brother. "T-The White Fang?" He repeated, swallowing a lump in his throat. His body began to shake, actually needing his hurl for support.

He knew that there had been a White Fang presence at the attack. But, to hear it directly from his sister was another thing entirely. And that name. He recognised it. As someone who had killed members of the SDC before. "That, that monster attacked you?"

"He is a monster of our making." Weiss said, her voice beginning to shake. Before Whitley could open his mouth to disagree, she continued. "I saw his face, Whitley. He, he was…" She swallowed and whispered out her words.

"…branded."

Whitley sucked in a breath as his body froze up. "Y-You mean…" He stammered, reaching up to rest a hand against his own face.

"Our company's name. Across his face." Weiss stated. She would never forget his face. And to think, she once defended her company to Blake. How could she do that now? How could she even look her friend in the eye, knowing her company was responsible for the thing that haunted her nightmares.

Whitley could not find his voice. The idea of branding a living person made him sick to his stomach. He swallowed, forcing down what threatened to come up. "How, how did that not become public knowledge?"

"Because the SDC can do no wrong."

Weiss' words caused Whitley's blood to turn to ice. Their Father had one of the best PR teams in Remnant. And he couldn't help but wonder how many other incidents of this nature were swept under the rug.

What other atrocities was the SDC responsible for? Whitley couldn't say. He wasn't even sure if he wanted to know. He knew the company had been accused of controversial labour practices before, but his father had always told him the same thing when the charges were dropped.

"It's just business." The phrase had never caused such a feeling of nausea in him before. The young boy, and how apt the descriptor felt in that moment, stared at his sister.

"What can we do?" He asked.

Weiss' look of surprised delight was something his mind would forever remember. "You want to help?" She asked, almost unable, or unwilling to hope that he would aid her.

"Yes, if I- if this company is to be fixed, I want to do what I can." He stood a little straighter, not necessarily taller than his sister, but enough for Weiss to see him in a somewhat different light.

She smiled at her brother, glad to have at least some family still with her. And while the thought caused a stab of pain in her heart, separated from her other family, she promised herself she would do right by them. Prevent the tragedy that tore them apart from happening again.

And with her brother by her side, that goal seemed closer than ever.

…

Crue looked out into the town that the ship he was on docked at. The architecture was completely foreign to him. He had never seen anything like this before. Not even in the sh- "Don't think of it as a show." He mumbled to himself, frowning as he shook his head.

"This is real." He looked out to the various buildings, making some comparisons to pictures he had seen of towns and cities in the far east of his own world. "I always thought it'd be more Greeky. Or Romany."

Considering that Pyrrha was from Mistral, he assumed the city would like something right out of Ancient Greece. "I really need to stop assuming shit." He sighed. "Also really need to stop talking to myself…"

Crue waited a moment, checking his surroundings before leaping from the ship and behind a set of conveniently placed crates. When there were no immediate yells of 'stowaway', he casually walked out from his hiding place and acted like he belonged.

No one challenged him as he walked along the docks, people were too busy doing their actual jobs to take notice of a single Faunus making his way towards the town. He paused for a moment to look back at the ship, spotting a pair of heads with pure white hair standing close to the bow.

He raised a hand towards Fionnula and Aodh, saying goodbye to the last people he knew from Vale. They waved back with a nod, before turning back and walking around the ship, shouting instructions to the various workers.

Crue let out a short breath, before turning and walking along the docks and into the town. When he first woke up, he was away from everything he ever knew. But, at least he knew Beacon, even if it was through second hand knowledge of viewing it on a screen.

But Mistral? He had no idea what to expect. And no idea where his friends were. All he knew was that Ruby, along with Jaune, Nora and Ren were on their way to Haven. Which, he at least knew was in Mistral thanks to studying in Beacon.

But, for all Crue knew they might be there already. And he needed to play catch up. Then, find Neo and Blake. Yang was safe, at home with her father. Weiss, while also safe, at home with her father, probably didn't want to be there.

Crue focused his resolve as he marched forward. It didn't matter that he was on his own. It didn't matter how far away the people he cared about were. He would find them once again, and make everything right.

And nothing was going to stop him. Not the distance. Not his enemies. Not Winter. Not even- Wait…

"Winter?" Crue blinked in surprise, coming to a halt as he looked at the woman in front of a small merchant's shop. She appeared to be examining some kind of brooch in her hand. Her head turned, white hair tied back in a bun with a single lock coming down to above her shoulder.

"Holy shit it is you." Crue gave a small laugh of disbelief. "What are you doing here?" He approached, but paused as Winter's body turned completely, her blue eyes looking Crue up and down.

"I'm sorry, do I know you, sir?" She asked, one hand lowering next to her sabre, but not resting it on the hilt.

Crue came to a complete stop, his mind having to take a second to process what she had just said. "Uh." He blinked, holding out his hands for a moment to recompose himself. "You do. But, you clearly don't remember me if you're calling me sir."

Winter raised a single dark eyebrow in confusion. "God, do I look that different from Beacon?" He muttered. He returned his attention to Winter, who was still waiting for Crue to explain himself. The Faunus grew a small smirk.

"What, you don't recognise me when we're not handcuffed together?" He asked, raising his hand and twisting his wrist.

Winter blinked once, before her eyes widened as she took half a step back in shock. "Crue?!"

"The very same." His smirk grew, letting his hands fall and hooking his thumbs into his pockets. "No hard feelings about trying to arrest me that time, huh?" His head tilted to one side.

"You, you're meant to be dead." Winter had finally regained her composure, standing tall and letting her hand grip the hilt of her sword tightly.

"Rumours of my demise have been greatly-" "Tango Whiskey, One Three, Charlie Two." Crue frowned as Winter interrupted his words, before his eyebrow rose as he witnessed Winter pressing a finger against her ear.

Her blue eyes flit to Crue, who wondered who the Hell she was talking to, and what she was even saying. He also wondered something else, as Winter's body turned, her sword hand tilting away from him.

"What do you use for 'I' and 'Q'?" Crue asked. Winter stumbled, though if anyone ever asked her later she would state otherwise.

"What?" She asked, body completely rigid from the absurdity of Crue's question.

"I and Q. In that alphabet. You know, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie." He said with a wave. "Cause, I would use India and Quebec. But, I get the feeling that's not the case here."

Winter looked at Crue like he had grown a second head. She had never heard either of those words before and began to wonder if this wasn't just some strange hallucination. "Indigo. And Quicksilver." She found herself answering his question regardless.

"Huh. Guess that makes sense." Crue scratched the back of his head in thought. As he did so, he noticed two people approaching rapidly, dressed similarly to Winter. As they approached, Crue felt something click.

"Oh, is your Team?" He asked, returning his attention to Winter. "What's the name?" The eldest Schnee looked at Crue like he should have been reacting differently.

"Winter. Is everything alright? Is this him?" A man with short brown hair and teal eyes spoke up. He wore a similar uniform to Winter's, albeit without sleeves. Crue's eye spotted a pin on his label in a shape he recognised.

"Oh hey, a shamrock." He looked back up. "Wait, am I who?" He asked, looking between him and the other person.

A woman with dark skin and dark green hair met his eyes. He blinked, noticing that she was a Faunus. A turtle Faunus, if the shell around her body was any indication. Her eyes were a vibrant shade of orange that analysed him.

"You're The Wolf, aren't cha?" She asked.

Crue's shoulders sagged as he let out a sigh and turned to look at Winter unamusingly. "Really? This shit again?" He groaned, palming his one eye as the gauntlet slid down his face.

"Yes. I was The Wolf." He admitted. Every hand flit to a weapon. Crue saw some, weird contraption with a hook and handle on the man's hip, and a set of nun chucks on the woman's. "I already told Coppertree this, I don't know what the fuck the issue is."

The woman snorted, before the man next to her looked at her with disapproval. "Tortuga…"

"Sorry, sorry." Tortuga waved a hand. "It was just funny. Don't hear too many people describing the General that way." While Crue normally would have taken that as a compliment, and in stride, the name caused a twitch in his eye.

"Your name's Tortuga?" He asked.

"Yep. Tortuga Hamato." She gave a lopsided smile. "You seem pretty chill for someone who's meant to be a criminal." She said, looking Crue up and down.

Crue was glad she thought so, because inwardly he was screaming in rage and mentally kicking a box labelled 'references'. "She's a fucking Adult Faunus Ninja Turtle." He let out a mental sigh, before turning his attention to the taller man.

"Please tell me your name isn't Rock Sham or something."

"No?" He looked decidedly confused at the name. His teal eyes glanced to his teammates, deciding that since there was no danger there would be no issue in revealing his name. "It's Clover. Clover Ebi."

"If I hear another god damn pun I'm going to hit something." Crue thought, eyes going to the pin on Clover's lapel once more.

"Well, that makes more sense now. What the Hell kind of team name can you make with C, T and W though?" He thought aloud.

"You sure this is the same guy who knew 'Atlas Secrets'?" Tortuga asked, looking to Winter who still held a hand on her hilt, ready to draw at a second's notice. "He doesn't even know who we are." Winter's face grew a shade darker at the reminder of her incident.

"Should I?" Crue asked, turning his attention back to Tortuga. "Oh, wait are you guys Specialists?"

"We're the Specialists." Clover said, crossing his arms confidently. "You can call us, the Ace-Ops."

"Aesops." Crue heard. There was the sound of cracking stone, and suddenly the three Specialists had their weapons drawn, standing in line and looking to Crue carefully. The Faunus wondered why they suddenly changed their opinion, before looking to his left arm.

Which was currently embedded in a wall. "Oh fuck!" Crue cursed, quickly bringing his fist back and looking at the damages. A fist shaped dent was now part of the scenery, as Crue let out a sigh.

"Fuckin' puns." He turned his head back to look at Tortuga directly. Her bright orange eyes met his single steely blue. "Right. You're the Tortoise. Where's the Hare?" He asked.

There was a soft gasp, and Crue immediately stepped to the side and stuck out his foot as he saw the eyes of the 'Aesops' flicker over his shoulder. A woman's voice sounded out, followed by the woman who it belonged to letting out a surprised yell and tripping over Crue's leg.

He had a brief glimpse of tanned skin covered in yellow lightning, before the blur of colour went sailing into and over Tortuga, decapitating her.

"AAH!" Crue let out a scream of shock, seeing the headless body standing there.

A head of green hair popped out from the shell, shaking in discomfort. Crue let a hand rest against his heart as he rested a hand on his knee to try and get his breath back. "Tortoise. Right. Jesus fucking Christ."

He stood back up, still resting a hand on his chest. Tortuga was frowning and muttering curses as she fixed her hair. Behind her, a much slimmer woman with shorn hair and a mohawk got to her feet, wiping away a face full of mud that revealed dark pink eyes that glared at Crue.

Ignoring the brief, if somewhat hilarious, image of what was another Specialist getting to their feet, Crue backed up a step. "Any reason in particular she tried to knock my block off?" He asked, flexing his hands but keeping the blades within the gauntlets sheathed.

"That would be your existence." Winter said, pointing her weapon towards Crue, as the others began to spread out. All around them, the members of the town noticed the sudden beginnings of a fight, and quickly made their decision to abandon the immediate area.

"Ugh. And here I thought you weren't racist." Crue responded with a frown. His eye flit to each member, judging their weapons and how easy it would be to avoid or- "Is that a fucking fishing rod?" Crue's posture became slack as he stared at Clover's weapon in disbelief.

"Yeah. And trust me, it's reely good at what it does." He smirked, though the casualness he had shown earlier was gone, replaced by a confidence that caused Crue to revise his earlier decision of avoiding his weapon and deciding to break it.

"Ugh, that one hurt, Clover." Tortuga said, one of the nunchucks spinning lazily as she raised a hand to her mouth. "Let's wrap this up. I'm getting pretty tired." She yawned loudly in Crue's direction.

Crue took a single step forward, and promptly fell to the ground in a heap. For a second, no one said anything, wondering what had happened. Then, a soft snoring began to emanate from the Faunus.

"Tortuga. Please warn us in the future when you're going to use your Semblance." Winter sighed, not putting her weapon away, instead using it to gently prod Crue's shoulder.

"He must be weak, if he went down that easily." The slimmer woman said, approaching the downed Faunus and lifting him up by the hair to look at his face.

"Not weak, Harriet." Tortuga said, crouching down to look at Crue's face. She pointed a finger at his eye. Dark bags could be seen, and Tortuga had a hunch if they moved the eyepatch they'd see even more. "Just tired."

"My Semblance makes people feel tired and sluggish. This is what happens when they're already too tired to function." She took out a Scroll, swiping a few times on it before finding what she wanted. "Might need to update his picture."

Holding the picture next to the face, it was clear to see how Winter had not recognised him. The boy in the picture had two steely blue eyes and dirty blonde hair that was combed to one side with a set of mirrored sunglasses before a pair of wolf ears.

The man before them had an eyepatch that covered something nasty, if the short scar running out from under it in either direction was any indication. His hair was a mess, wild and free and without the glasses from before.

His jaw had the beginnings of a beard growing, but it was as if his whole face suddenly looked older. "He looks like he's gone through Hell." Tortuga said, standing up and putting her Scroll away. She stared at the prone form. "What do we do with him?"

"Well, you called it in." Clover said, diverting the responsibility to Winter.

Winter frowned as she thought. "I don't think General Ironwood ever suspected that code would ever be needed. He was simply covering his bases." In the distance, she spotted the last two members of the Ace-Ops quickly running towards them.

"Sorry, it's easy to get lost in this place." A mountain of a woman explained. She then noticed the person lying on the ground. "Harriet, did you kill someone already?"

"No! Damn it, Elm! He's The Wolf! Right?" She raised an eyebrow to the three who had interacted with him. She came running as soon as she got the call, but like Elm said, it was easy to get lost.

"Hmm. He does match the description the General gave." A spindly man with a shaved head and a red sash running diagonally across his chest said, examining the fallen Faunus carefully.

"He is. He admitted so himself." Clover nodded. "Though, gotta say, wasn't really expecting to arrest a dead man."

"Well, we can't just leave him here." Tortuga said, frowning as she looked to the sleeping man.

"We will bring him with us. He had information about the Fall of Beacon before it happened. Who knows what other knowledge he has." Winter stated. She looked around, seeing a few villagers begin to emerge and wonder what was going on.

With a sigh, she looked to Elm. "Ederne. If you would…."

Elm glanced down to the prone form, and back up to Winter with a raised eyebrow. "You know, sometimes I hate being the biggest one here." She complained, reaching down and hoisting Crue up and over her shoulder.

"Vine. You mind taking that?" She requested, her brown eyes flickering to the gun holstered to Crue's thigh.

The deathly pale man did so, reaching over and unclasping the weapon. "Is this the only weapon he has?" He asked.

"His other weapon is currently in possession of my sister." Winter said. When each head turned to look at her in surprise, Winter felt her sweat drop. "She believed him dead. And took his weapon as a means to carry on his…" She wouldn't use the word 'legacy'.

"Spirit." She stared at the man currently slumped over Elm's shoulder. Maybe this was the gift she could return to Weiss. The knowledge that Crue had somehow survived the Fall of Beacon. Though, given the fact that he was technically now under arrest, maybe she would hold off on informing her until things were cleared up.

She was distracted by a chuckle from Vine, who was looking at Crue's gun. It looked not dissimilar to the General's own firearm, though less rectangular. "It seems The Wolf has a sense of humour." He held the large revolver out, allowing Winter to read the scratched word across the barrel of the gun.

"Kindness." She read out, as Tortuga let out a snort and covered her mouth and Harriet looked up to her in confusion.

"Killing with Kindness." Tortuga wiped a tear from her eye. "His jokes are way better than yours, Clove."

Clover's nose wrinkled slightly in disagreement, however he too could see the humour. "Well, we don't exactly have somewhere to hold him, so… Guess he's coming with." He looked to Elm apologetically.

"Ugh." She groaned, shifting Crue's weight slightly as he let out a mumble into her back, hands hanging limply down behind her. "This is what I get for getting lost." Despite her complaints, she kept one hand on Crue's back, keeping him in place.

The rest of the Ace-Ops began to move out, making their way out of the town, now with a new addition to their group. As Winter led the group away, she couldn't help but sigh mentally. "Of course, the only thing that could make this more complicated is Crue."

Yeah, if you thought it was just going to be Crue slogging his way through Mistral you've got another thing coming. I think my best chapter in EHL was when he fought against Winter, at least it was the most humorous one.

And what could improve on Crue accidentally pissing off one Atlesian Specialist? Six of them!

Well, I hope that's what will happen. A majority of the story will be focusing on Crue now, alongside the Ace-Ops as they traverse Mistral, fighting with each other, and whatever else they come across.

Hope you liked this chapter, let me know if you did, and as always…

Until Next Time

-Friday