MARZ Rising

by FandomPariah

It's been thirty years since Ruby Rose saved Remnant from Salem and almost a decade since it was saved again. Salem is gone yet the Creatures of Grimm remain and now a new generation of Hunters are ready to begin their story... By enrolling at the Breaktide Academy of Menagerie where they'll be trained by legends including Team CFVY and Ruby Rose herself. Part 5 of the Spiral-Verse

124. Spread And Infect

RWBY & All associated trademarks are property of Rooster Teeth (RIP Monty Oum)

I claim no ownership of anything except my own original characters.

I am making no money from this.

Chapter 124: Spread and Infect

Whatever battle had come to Pikesreach had reached such a fervour and ferocity that the smoke rising up from within its' walls had blackened enough of the afternoon sky to cast a dark and looming shadow over the settlement and its' surroundings; an ominous sight that was entirely fitting.

Team MARS however still did not know the true nature or extent of what had transpired to instigate the horrors and were instead left confused and horrified by the sight of Cyber-Grimm grappling with one another as they dove and swooped down from the smoke clouds with lasers and machine guns firing or else simply rending each other asunder with claws and horns as they collided; with Stygian's emotional state reaching such a critical condition that the Mouse Faunus had needed to be physically restrained upon seeing the defensive turrets and weapon emplacements of the settlement he had been born and raised in turned inwards, firing into Pikesreach itself in a way which, whilst not entirely indiscriminate still wrought enough damage to ensure that the settlement would likely need to be entirely abandoned or rebuilt regardless of the outcome.

The approaching Hunters were yet to get a true appraisal of the situation as they were yet to breach Pikesreach's walls; instead Team MARS and Coco Adel had ventured through the fields surrounding the town in search of an entry point that Stygian assured them existed, a place that the Mouse Faunus explained served as an unofficial back door which not all of the settlements' populace were aware of but those who, like himself had been trained to defend Pikesreach were privy to. With a mixture of caution and haste the five of them had begun to near the outer walls, making their way through razor-wire mazes and over other obstacles with steadily increasing haste as the cacophony of the ongoing battle grew louder; only for them to be halted once more by the sight of something waiting for them as though it too had known of the weak point the sought to exploit and moved to intercept.

Another Cyber-Grimm variant.

The thing perched upon the ramparts of the outermost defences and peered down at Coco and Team MARS with a singular optic surrounded by sensory equipment not unlike bat-ears all mounted on a cranium at the end of a long and hyper-flexible neck. The things' overall appearance being a blend of insectoid and bat-like elements in addition to the usual bio-mechanical freakishness of the Cyber-Grimm; boasting an abdomen which glowed faintly with the power of some form of propulsion system and illuminated the monstrous thing in a way which made it appear even more ominous, it stood on two multi-jointed and spindly hindlimbs whilst its' upper torso sported four more that were arranged in rotating pairs, two pairs of arms with machine guns mounted on their sides being partially covered by a second pair of arms that had partially collapsed in order to use the long-fingered, bladed bat-wings they incorporated as armour.

The Shroud.

"Looks like we've got another new one!" Astra warned, already aiming Buckshot Ares whilst around them their team-mates did the same.

"Not new" Coco corrected, similarly preparing herself; her voice filled with anger and apprehension as she took aim "One of these is what attacked Halo Academy and tried to assassinate the Professors while the other Cyber-Grimm were in the city….It very nearly succeeded"

"What do we do Professor?" Astra asked, their mind already racing as they considered various options whilst at the same time conceding that they would need a lot more information if they were to effectively combat the thing. Risking glances to either side to ensure that their friends were ready the Deer Faunus saw that Regalia's goggles were once again lowered to cover her eyes though the Racoon Faunus was not using her Semblance, knowing that doing so would make her vulnerable and instead keeping her weapon clutched close and focus firmly on the Cyber-Grimm. On Astra's other side Athena-Jade and Stygian subtly adjusted their stances and the positions of their weapons so that the two partners were both ready to either cover each others' blind spots or weave around one another's blades to strike at a moments' notice.

"From the intel we have it's lighter than the standard Cyber-Grimm than we've seen but it doesn't sacrifice enough in terms of armour for it to be a detriment" Coco explained, urgency being replaced by a sudden coldness as she regarded the beast just as it regarded her "It makes up for it by being faster and a lot more mobile in the air than the others; there're no hidden weapons that we know of but be careful, it's limbs are modular and it can reorient-"

The Shroud leapt from the wall without warning and Coco's words were interrupted as Astra took point and fired, unleashing twin blizzards of gunfire from each half of Buckshot Ares only for the Cyber-Grimm to give a clear example of their professors' warnings; the things insectoid abdomen ignited as it surged through the air and weaved around the streams of bullets and contorted itself as it did so, its' arms rotating onto its' back and merging into a single turret whilst its' secondary limbs folded into the empty sockets and unfurled into vast wings.

"Cut it off! Box it in and don't give it anywhere to go!" Coco barked, already hoisting her own weapon upwards and adding a stream of highly explosive Dust-filled rounds to Astra's efforts, signalling to Team MARS in no uncertain terms that the time for stealth had passed and that they were now free to use any and all weapons and techniques at their disposal. Regalia, seeing the efforts to box in the Shroud hastily unloaded and reloaded Apex Scavenger before she began to fire, the specially made Lightning Dust based composite rounds that she had mixed during Team MARS's Dust handling class filling the air with booming reports which sent pulsing shock-waves ringed with crackling light out through the air and left the metallic portions of the Cyber-Grimm scorched and shuddering in the brief moments that they made contact.

Athena and Stygian locked eyes, sapphire and electric blue meeting for barely a fraction of a second before the two of them lunged into action, with the snowy-haired Bear Faunus being the one to vocalise the plan for the benefit of their team-mates.

"Stitch, Laser Pointer!" Heartbreaker was already shifting in her hands and the moment the weapon was transformed she unleashed a lancing beam of ethereal green light, doing her best to keep her attack focused squarely on the Shroud only for it to twirl and dodge in the air with incredible deftness and an ease that was only boosted when her team-mates and professor ceased fire for a moment. It was in that moment however that Stygian attacked, the Mouse Faunus's Semblance deciding that the most dangerous location for him to teleport into was a point somewhere between Athena's laser and the bladed wings of the Shroud where he promptly lashed out with his katana, the edge of Sharp Cheese being wreathed in a freezing mist which extended out around it the Ice Dust imbued blade grazing the wing of the Shroud and leaving it careening through the air before banking and pulling away as it overcame its' temporarily frozen limb through sheer violent willpower.

"Damn it I only got a glancing hit" Stygian spat as he landed in a crouch, quickly falling back into a defensive position as Team MARS and Coco were collectively forced to take cover when the Shroud rounded on them, turning sharply in their air and unleashing a flurry of gunfire of its' own which was kept at bay by the combined efforts of Astra's hard-light shield and Athena's glyphs.

"Cover Regalia!" the Deer Faunus called out before turning to their partner "Think you can use your Semblance to pick out a weak point on that thing?"

"No need" Coco interjected "It's weakest points are the structures around its' arms and wings and everything that's left exposed whilst its' changing shape and the exposed parts of its' tail thruster"

"Can any of us make a shot like that? It's dodged everything you guys have thrown at it!" Stygian pointed out, the Mouse Faunus already adjusting his grasp on his sword and trying to coordinate his next use of his Semblance so that he could use the knowledge that Professor Adel had imparted on them more effectively.

"We haven't got time to waste trying to be clever about it" Astra shook their head, already raising their shields to cover themselves as they darted out of the formation that the five of them had fallen into.

"Mars what are you planning?" their headmistress demanded with deep and genuine concern.

"Professor can you shoot and distract it?" it was a non-answer but one Coco was forced to accept as her student pressed on "AJ, glyphs; all around it. I'm just gonna need a second"

"Got it!" Athena nodded, lowering her weapon and extending a hand to begin conjuring a cage of interlocking and shimmering surfaces to enclose the still airborne Shroud entirely in a process that was made slightly more difficult as some of her glyphs were caught in Coco's onslaught. The ploy was a success however and the Cyber-Grimm was contained for long enough for Astra to rush into position and give a single gesture which Regalia caught sight of and found herself laughing maniacally as she recognised her partners' intent.

They were going to use their signature move.

Distracted by Glyphs that were replaced as soon as they could be destroyed and its' hide being riddled with bullets the shrieking Cyber-Grimm was caught entirely unawares when Regalia fired her harpoon at Astra and used its' tether to hurl her partner up into the air and over the monstrosity where the Deer Faunus, just as they had during their initiation brought the twin shields of Buckshot Ares together and projected a wall of rose-tinted hard-light as they fell.

Driving themselves cleanly through the abdomen of the Shroud.

The thing let out a screaming sound that would be haunting were it not accompanied by a tremendous explosion as multiple important components were crushed or ruptured, with wiring and machinery sparking and igniting fluids that had sent sloshing around the things' interior. Flames engulfed the upper half of the Shroud and nothing remained of its' lower body save jagged pieces of shrapnel that had once been its' legs.

Regalia fired her shotgun into its' fading and blinking optic just to be sure that the thing was dead.

"And that's how you swat a bug!" Astra cheered as they landed, only to quickly cough and clear their throat upon seeing the look on their Headmistress's face.

"I'd say good plan Mars but that doesn't strike me as something with a lot of thought behind it" Coco noted stiffly as her students fell back into place around her, all of them scanning the skies and the battlements of Pikesreach for any further attackers.

"Doesn't always need to be, sometimes you've just gotta swat that damn bug" the Deer Faunus countered, idly toying with the auburn points of the spiky Mohawk before popping the collar of their jacket and adding "Besides we've done that move before"

"I'm well aware, good work" Coco noted "Blue, time is of the essence….Our enemies know we're here; can we get inside faster if we use more direct means than the entrance you suggested"

"We can take out an emplacement and go straight over the walls if we need to….It's how I was gonna do it before" the dark-skinned Mouse Faunus admitted after some consideration, electric blue eyes narrowing as he regarded the fortified positions above them with a grimace "It's gonna be a fight though"

"It's going to be a fight anywhere" Coco shrugged, shouldering her enormous weapon "Let's move!"

With that Team MARS followed Professor Adel into the fray once more, preparing for whatever assaulted them next and at the same time allowing themselves to feel no relief or confidence in their chances of success even in the wake of destroyed an adversary as fearsome as the Shroud Variant so thoroughly.

Each of them knew that their mission would only grow more difficult from here on out.

---

"NUGGET IT'S ME! YOU KNOW ME!" Zirconia screamed from beneath her mask as was forced to leap and vault over the avian and predatory Grimm-Zombie, or whatever other form of malignant hybrid and bastardisation of science and decency her former classmate had become; the thing that had once been Nugget lunging forwards with blinding speed and incredible reach as it swung its' massive sickle-clawed fingers at the Grasshopper Faunus and missed only narrowly. By the time Zirconia had landed and whirled around to face her foe, fumbling with Sunriser Cain and almost dropping the weapon whilst in the grip of a terror that nothing in her training could have hoped to prepare her for the Grimm-Zombie had already rounded on her and was attacking again. It snapped and shrieked, the armoured plates which adorned its' shoulders in place of Nugget's feathers scraping and clacking against one another in a menacing display as the thing leapt, slamming its' foot into the armoured vest Zirconia wore in an attack that resembled a reasonably well executed heel kick and was enough to force her to step back and rapidly shift her stance and balance to avoid by shredded by follow up attacks that were far more vicious and inhuman, the Grimm-Zombie throwing itself forward and lashing out with its' claws again; which Zirconia countered by springing forward into what could vaguely by called its' guard and slamming her own fists and elbows into the creatures' biceps and forearm in an effort to damage its' limbs.

The thing which had once been her classmate answered by drawing its' arms inwards, trying to envelop Zirconia in a razor-edged bear-hug whilst at the same time opening its' fang-filled maw wide in an effort to crush her masked face in its' jaws; Zirconia's mismatched eyes widened in terror for a fraction of a second before she took action and leapt upward, planting a cybernetic and insectoid limb on the chest of the creature and using it to flip backwards out of reach before desperately trying once again to reach some vestige of the Chicken Faunus that might remain in this body.

"Nugget!" she pleaded "You don't want to do this!….We were never friends but your team were, think about-"

"I'm honestly touched" Aefen interrupted, detracting from the fact that the raptorial beast had stilled itself for a moment with her sneering "You think my work was so successful that there's enough left of him for that to work….Perhaps the next version-"

It was Aefen's turn to be silenced as Zirconia let out an uncharacteristically feral and enraged scream; levelling Sunriser Cain at the twisted scientist as she did so.

'Lightning! Gravity' the shot sounded like a thunderclap and damaged the wall where it impacted, sending coruscating lightning crackling across its' surface to singe the spreading Grimm tissue and leave with cringing and thrashing away and yet Aefen herself remained safe as her creation charged and tackled Zirconia with enough blunt force to send the shot wide. From there Zirconia gritted her teeth and tried desperately to weave and dodge around the Grimm-Zombie so that she could take another shot, survival instinct and terror battling against a need to see the sickness Aefen Cruor represented stamped out; her efforts were in vain however as the masked woman managed to slip free of her laboratory entirely and lock its' door behind her, at which point the thing which had once been Nugget unleashed its' own weapon, its' jaws distending and unhinging to allow the chitinous nozzle not unlike shotgun barrel stored under its' tongue to extend forwards and spray a gout of fluids which ignited on contact with the air in an explosion of fire and force.

Zirconia only managed to dodge the assault partially and still hand the wind knocked from her as she was thrown backwards and left sprawling.

"Excellent work Nugget!" Aefen's voice filled the laboratory and Zirconia realised that the older woman was speaking from within the adjacent control room "Now, finish it!"

Nugget was on the attack again in an instant, leaping through the air and reaching Zirconia with a punishing stomping attack which cracked the ground beneath is as the Grasshopper Faunus rolled aside, only to be attacked again before she could return to her feet; though she did manage to transform Sunriser Cain into its' melee form.

'Fire! Lightning!' the synthetic voice declared just as Zirconia was forced to hold her weapon across her body to keep the creatures' claws at bay and as the Grimm-Zombie reached forwards to bite down on her the heat and light from what had become one of her signature attacks washed over them both, leaving Zirconia's Aura flashing around her for a few moments and sending Aefen's creation backwards hissing and spitting as it tried to swat the flames now spreading across its' remaining clothing and the tufts of feathers on its' clawed limbs.

"Nugget, she did this to you, to you team-" Zirconia's efforts to reason with whatever remained of Nugget was aborted as the creature shrieked in what the young woman could only imagine was some lingering scraps of emotional distress and pure, uncontrolled hate and grief before it opened its' mouth again; with Zirconia having just enough time to adjust the dual rotating chambers of her weapon before the attack came.

'Double Hard-Light!' a wall of translucent hexagonal panels of cyan light, denser than those her weapon usually produced was erected just in time to absorb the chemical equivalent of a shotgun blast that the Grimm-Zombie spat at her, though it failed to withstand the follow up attack and Zirconia was left swinging her weapon hastily as the creature simply tackled its' way through the barrier and wrapped its' arms around her midsection to haul her from her feet, entirely uncaring as Zirconia rained blows down on its' back and shoulders with bone-breaking force and simply carrying her towards the furthest end of the gruesome laboratory.

Where the tumorous mass of Grimm-tissue, laden with pulsating mushroom caps which had been formed by Aefen's failed experiments stood.

"Yes Nugget!" Aefen cried, clearly ecstatic at this development "Do it, add her to the others! I want to show the results of the experiment to the Chairman!"

That particular barb was enough for Zirconia to lash out.

"NO!" she screamed eyes flashing dangerously as she brought Sunriser Cain overhead and angled downwards for a final strike.

'Double Lightning!' the weapons' computerised words did no justice to the force and intent behind the blow to the base of the creatures' spine which left the thing flailing and spasming as it dropped her and without hesitation Zirconia leapt over the Grimm-Zombie to put space between herself and the fate that it had intended for her; her stomach turning at the sight of the hungry looks upon the distorted faces and outstretched limbs that had been warped beyond all human recognition. The thing which had once been her classmate recovered and turned to lunge at her again and Zirconia reacted without thinking; striking it across the face with her weapon before delivering a crushing, leaping kick to its' chest to send it hurtling backwards.

Directly into the waiting mass of fungal Grimm tissue which had overtaken the other test-subjects.

"I am so sorry!" Zirconia sobbed, almost sinking to her knees and almost retching at the sight of countless limbs and tendrils beginning to grasp and ensnare the raptorial Grimm-Zombie; only for her blood to run cold as the situation changed in a way which gave it a new, terrifying context.

The mass did indeed begin to merge and absorb the thing that had once been Nugget into itself, with rubbery ropes of pulsating obsidian tissue already webbing the space between them however the thing that had been Nugget did not so much fight back with its' struggling as try to control the pace and direction of the change; reaching backwards with one of its' extended and clawed limbs to seize at a woman whose ribcage had been reduced to a mass of shifting hooks and claws and violently tear a vast chunk of the torso away in an eruption of inky viscera which would certainly have been fatal of the thing could truly still be called alive.

Zirconia almost lost the contents of her stomach at the sight and that which followed; the fungal tissue began to spread its' way up the arm of the now ensnared creature, its' emaciated shape blistering and ballooning as pulsating and glowing mushroom caps of Grimm tissue began to spread through the gaps in bone armour that had resembled Nugget's old tattoos and then between the clattering panels of armour where his feathers had once resided. In return for allowing the infestation to take hold Nugget, or the thing he had become began to morph the mutilated ribcage into a morning-star of sinew and jagged bone, its' own claws merging with the bladed and hooked ribs it had torn free.

Then, with a piercing shriek that was amplified as it was torn from every mouth within the twisted mass all at once Nugget stepped forwards and dragged the fungal growth with it, peeling tendrils from the walls even as they continued to lash and twitch; it was a torturous pace and clearly required Herculean efforts but it was a terrifying sight all the same which Aefen Cruor's voice only worsened.

"YES!" the scientist shrieked with joy "YES NUGGET! DO IT!"

Zirconia readied her weapon and promised herself that she would make sure that Aefen faced justice for what she had done.

---

Missions for students of Breaktide Academy, primarily Third Year students who were now at a stage in their training where elective courses had been chosen and thought was being given to their careers and future were occurring all across the island of Menagerie and its' waters.

Ruby Rose, leader of Team RWBY, tenured Grimm Studies Professor at Breaktide Academy, Silver-Eyed Warrior, hero or Remnant and living legend was amongst those taking student out for another training mission.

The mission itself was not her usual fare or if she were entirely honest the kind of work Ruby personally preferred to engage in on the opportunities she had to fight the Creatures of Grimm in the field now that she was effectively retired to become a teacher; in truth if the matter of her presence were examined it would most certainly raise questions, especially if Damascus Nero or the agents he clearly had operating across Menagerie and Remnant as a whole were shrewd enough to cross-reference many of the Hunters who had been tasked with taking missions with students or had otherwise recently deployed towards the eastern edge of the island Kingdom's territory.

It was would be clear to an astute eye that Coco Adel had placed people she knew and trusted in several key positions to respond to a very specific threat.

When given the choice and the opportunity Ruby would always prefer to venture out into the wastelands, or even back to woods of Patch, the tundra between Atlas and the Mantle Freeholds where she and Penny had operated for several years in her late teens and twenties or any other desolate place where she could seek out the worst of the monsters that stalked Remnant and take the fight to them. The mission she had found herself overseeing was, by contrast almost the exact opposite and involved her being stationed at a small waypoint that was in reality little more than a fortified service station which had grown into a village in its' own right much like the settlement of Midpoint which had been destroyed by Gestalt-Prime two years ago; with Ruby acting more as an unofficial liaison and extra pair of hands to oversee and support Team LEMN whom Ruby was at least glad to see were taking the mission seriously, though she noted that it was hardly surprising given that whilst the students in question were not the most capable of their year group they were still dedicated and more importantly two of their number came from families who travellers of some description, which meant that waypoints such as the one they were defending of a special importance to them.

Such a change from Ruby's favoured kind of mission was necessary however; she was amongst the Hunters standing by in case Coco's investigation of Pikesreach uncovered anything which required additional forces and with Hammerfall Outpost still grounded and disabled for the foreseeable future communications within the wasteland were limited or outright impossible, forcing Ruby and those in her position to remain stationed aboard airships or within places that had their own CCT uplink relay; a feature which the small settlement prided itself on.

Though currently it was under attack.

"You sure you kids don't need help?" Ruby noted idly, offering more out of politeness as she sat upon a high wall and kicked her booted feet as she dipped a chocolate chip cookie into a bowl of strawberries and cream whilst watching the ongoing skirmish below. A colony of the ant-like Grimm known as 'Infernal Devices' had found the settlement, likely by following incoming vehicles and begun swarming towards it in flowing rivers of scurrying bodies which numbered easily in the thousands and despite their lacking size and individual weakness had begun to make a menace of themselves by combining a level of intelligence that had given Ruby pause for a moment with the ability which gave this particular brand of nightmare made flesh its' name; specifically the ability to latch onto one another and merge and contort their bodies into larger wholes, most often taken the shape of either a larger version of themselves or whirling and crushing masses which vaguely resembled some industrial grinder or primitive siege weapon.

"No thank you Professor" the leader of Team LEMN called up cheerfully from the ground, launching an attack which peeled a dozen or more bodies away from the total mass and destroying them completely as the did so "We've got this, but thank you for the offer"

"If you say so" Ruby called back, unfurling Crescent Rose as a precaution and watching the struggle unfold; in truth she had no doubts that her students would be successful. Infernal Devices were a hazard in Hammerfall Canyon where Team LEMN had been initiated after all, albeit not in such impressive numbers and rarely if ever showing the determination or cunning that this particular colony of horrors was.

Just as she began to wonder what an Alpha of this kind of Grimm might entail and if she had ever slain one without noticing it amongst its' kin Ruby was snapped from her distraction by her scroll vibrating.

"Emergency?" she demanded, suddenly on her feet and fully alert upon seeing that the incoming call was from Velvet and there were very few reasons for the Rabbit Faunus to be reaching out to her at present.

"I think so" Velvet answered with some obvious uncertainty and nervousness but entirely without hesitation "I just received the signal from Coco"

"Do you have any details?" Ruby asked, her focus split between the call and her students.

"No" Velvet admitted "Coco's glasses have plenty of tricks in them, including an SOS beacon that works without the CCT signal; it's more like the radios that the nomad tribes use but all it gave me was a location-"

"She's in Pikesreach….With Team MARS?" Ruby surmised, a brilliant light already beginning to build behind her remaining eye and her one-handed grasp on Crescent Rose tightening at the thought of her niece or her team being at risk; she knew that Coco was amongst the most capable Hunters alive on Remnant and that there were few people that Team MARS would be safer fighting alongside.

But Ruby also knew that she herself was one of those few people.

"Exactly" Velvet nodded, her grimace entirely audible "You're not the nearest but you're the first person I've contacted….You'll get there faster"

"On it" Ruby promises earnestly "I'll settle up here, I've still got students with me"

"I understand….And good luck" with that the call ended and Ruby launched herself into action and gave no thought to the damage she was about to inflict on Team LEMN's confidence by displaying the difference in calibre between them. Her remaining silver eye erupted into a contrail of brilliant white light and that same light travelled along the length of Ruby's arm and the blade of her scythe in turn until she made a single wide and sweeping attack which sent a crescent of pure white tearing through the air to cleave the gathered and combined mass of the ant-Grimm in half; with the target discombobulated Ruby gathered her power and her Semblance together in tandem and launched herself from the wall to rocket into the mass of Infernal Devices where a casual burst of her power consumed all of the remaining Grimm in a blast of light which left nothing in its' wake except for a quartet of awe-struck, if slightly miffed Third Year students.

"I know, you had it….Change of plan" she collapsed her scythe and held her hands up apologetically, not wanting to genuinely hurt the teenagers' feelings.

"We have a bigger problem?" one of the students asked, hopeful and cautious at the same time.

"I have another engagement. Priority" Ruby answered before reaching into the folds of the red cape that was now almost as famous as herself and producing a set of keys which she threw to the team leader "Here's the hotel keys and the keys to the rental car, don't trash either. Report back to the briefing office and explain my absence then ask for reassignment for the remainder of the day; this is not an excuse to slack off"

"Yes Professor Rose" each of the four students answered without hesitation and Ruby couldn't help but smile, happy that she could command respect without being as aloof and imposing as Coco or as downright brutal as Arslan. Such thoughts were for another time however and with nothing left to be said Ruby turned and faced in the direction of Pikesreach, pulling her hood over her face and preparing herself physically and mentally before exploding forwards in a shower of petals and a rush of wind which left her students eardrums popping.

Barely a second later Ruby's remaining eye had reignited and the power of the Silver-Eyed Warrior combined with her Semblance, allowing her to achieve lift-off and take flight across the wasteland.

---

Finally making their way inside Pikesreach offered no respite for Team MARS or Coco Adel and instead simply exposed them to the true horror that had split the place at its' seams.

"GET CLEAR!" Stygian bellowed as he provided an entry point for his team in much the same way he had intended to attack the settlement himself, using his Semblance to teleport directly into the path of one of the many weapon emplacements lining the walls of his former home and hurling a crudely rigged makeshift explosive into the barrel of the cannon. Professor Adel and his team-mates were waiting below and ready to follow him up onto the battlements and ramparts at a moments' notice as soon as Athena-Jade was given the signal to create a large enough glyph to carry them all, the Mouse Faunus's warning however had been for the gun-crew manning the weapon.

He had not seen the faces of the people behind the artillery piece and had given them a fair chance to throw themselves out of the way of the coming explosion simply because there was a reasonable chance that they were people he had know and grown up with; he was not the kind of person who could kill in cold blood and he had no intentions of changing himself to be one.

The resulting explosion was massive and Stygian himself was forced to leap clear of its' path to avoid being engulfed by flames or else have his Aura and most likely several ribs shattered by rubble and shrapnel. Before he could fall to the floor a surface appeared beneath him in the form of a glowing glyph which he landed on in something that was part way between a crouch and a flailing sprawl from which he was quickly pulled to his feet by his partner herself.

"Thanks" he gasped out.

"Don't worry about it" Athena answered automatically without ever allowing her focus to waver from the glyph she was maintaining to support her team and Professor Adel alike, with Coco quickly giving her own input.

"Stay focused, once we breach our priority is try and control the situation; save as many lives as possible" there was an urgency in her voice but any panic was crushed into submission by a firmness and determination "The plan is to take out any know members of Nero's faction or anybody visibly acting in a command capacity, alive if possible so that they can be questioned-"

"What about the locals?" Stygian demanded

"If this is an effort by your people to liberate themselves then make contact with their leaders and tell them that Menagerie will offer any and all services to them and that help is on the way" Coco answered without hesitation but paused for a moment to consider before adding "As long as it's safe for you to make contact given your position"

Before Stygian could answer Athena had brought them level with the burning and smouldering remains of the destroyed weapon emplacement and the five of the charged inside, with Astra taking point so that their shields could protect their friends whilst Stygian and Athena brought up the rear; the Mouse Faunus covering his partner as she stepped off of the glyph platform and vanished it and the Bear Faunus then conjuring glyphs to protect them from multiple angles. Once secured they moved out and Stygian got his first look at what had become of his childhood home.

"No" he whispered, taking in a sight that was painful to behold and not only because the smoke that had already darkened the afternoon sky stung his eyes; Pikesreach was being utterly ruined and many of the buildings he knew to be family homes or hubs of the hardy and resilient community were burning or ruined whilst bodies lay in the street, clad in a mixture of black robes, lightweight tactical armour and civilian clothes all whilst the sound of gunfire, yelled orders and shrieking Cyber-Grimm filled the air; with the only small mercy the Mouse Faunus could find being that none of the bodies were people he could readily identify amidst the chaos and from the distance, though it was with a choking tightness in his chest that he realised how quickly that fact might change.

Before his grief and abject horror could overwhelm his a fresh plight came in the form of a yelled warning.

"INCOMING!" it was Regalia who called out, alerting her team to a trio of incoming shapes which Stygian quickly realised were Cyber-Grimm as the burst through one of the countless plumes of smoke obscuring much of Pikesreach and rendering the afternoon sun meaningless within its' walls; the five of them were immediately forced to take cover as the three terrifying amalgamations of Grimm-flesh and metal unleashed punishing barrages from the twin guns mounted atop each of their craniums to vaguely resemble antennae, Auras rippling faintly and drawing pained winces from the Hunters as stray shots managed to graze them.

"Stay down!" Coco yelled, only for Astra to shake their head and point to a part of the battlement they were hiding behind where light was already visible in the wake of bullets that had pierced it.

"It won't help!" the Deer Faunus countered "They can break the wall or just fly over to us!"

"They're right!" Stygian added, having fought the Cyber-Grimm more than anybody else present as it had been Team TRQS to first discover them during a mission "Those things have too many guns and too much muscle, we've gotta go on the attack!"

With that Stygian sprung into motion without waiting for confirmation from Coco, fully prepared to pay the price for the insubordination later provided that he was alive to do so. He ran, coat flying out dramatically behind him and leapt up onto the bullet-scarred inside edge of the wall his team-mates were covering behind before leaping again pivoting in mid-air so that he could see all three of the incoming Cyber-Grimm; time seemed to slow as he watched the lead abomination race ahead with the obvious intention of driving his carapace horn through the defensive wall so that its' two kin could take a clear shot, both of them already visibly priming the more destructive and powerful weapons on their backs.

Then he teleported.

For Stygian the transition between one place and the next was smooth, well-honed instincts allowing him to bring Sharp Cheese slicing downwards in just the right place with a motion that was automatic. He had appeared in a liquid rippling of distorted air at a point close to one of the two Cyber-Grimm that was charging its' main weapon only for the creature in question to be reduced to metallic shrieking that was more rage than pain as the blade of his katana bit through the barrel of the weapon and the arcing, spearing horn it boasted in a single motion.

In the next instant Stygian was reduced to hanging on for dear life as the damaged and injured monster sought to fling him free of it by thrashing and rolling in mid-air, all whilst its' oversized claws reached around to try and grab at him; help came soon enough however and the next metallic scream to escape the Cyber-Grimm was one of unequivocal pain and the thrashing grew more violent but was more limited in range, allowing the struggling Mouse Faunus to see that it was Regalia who had intervened by using the things' distraction and the fact that its' flight was nowhere near as fast or agile as that of the Shroud variant to fire the harpoon of Apex Scavenger directly through its' singular optic.

The remaining pair of Cyber-Grimm were faring little better.

"Open fire!" Coco's bellowed command preceded an onslaught of titanic proportions as she and Astra unleashed everything they had at the lead Cyber-Grimm, its' efforts to bank and evade the incoming fire leaving its' underside exposed for long enough for several critical components to be pierced and shredded, sending the thing careening and spiralling downwards into the lower portions of the perimeter wall with smoke and fluids pouring from it.

Athena-Jade handled another of the trio on her own, the Cyber-Grimm unleashed its' laser weapon only for the attack to be halted by the discharge of light from Heartbreaker, the Bear Faunus anchoring herself in place with four spectral Beowolf limbs which sank into stone and held fast until her foe ceased their attack, at which Point Athena used the stored tension in those phantom claws to hurl herself into the air where she shifted Heartbreaker into its' sword form and brought the oversized blade down on the Cyber-Grimm to tear the thing almost entirely in half with a single powerful strike. It was then then that Stygian snapped to his senses and took full advantage of the opening that Regalia had provided for him, fuelling Sharp Cheese with Fire Dust until its' blade glowed a molten orange and cleaving through the neck of the blinded Cyber-Grimm; allowing Regalia to retract her harpoon and take the severed head of the monstrosity with it whilst the Mouse Faunus leapt from the now falling and headless body and was promptly scooped up by his partner as Athena soared through the air on glowing, phantom limbs.

"Nice save" Stygian managed to breathe out, letting a little of the shakiness that fear and the rush of adrenaline had left him with find its' way into his voice.

"Not the best move you've ever pulled Stitch" Athena shook her head, though she still shot him a bright, if worried smile as the two of them landed in their previous position atop the walls of Pikesreach and she set him down. A moment later Astra and Regalia had closed ranks and the four members of Team MARS checked one another for injuries and assured that they were all okay before their Headmistress joined them, peering over the rim of her sunglasses as she regarded Stygian.

"Gutsy kid, but don't make a habit of taking off on your own without a proper plan"

"Yes Professor"

"Those Cyber-Grimm likely had at least one operator, if they can report back to whoever-"

Coco was cut off by the sound of her fears being realised.

"GREAT GESTALT-PRIME HEAR ME! THE HUNTERS HAVE COME TO DEFILE YOUR GREAT WORK, HEAR ME AND-" the source of the outcry was easily identified as a lone figure clad in the black attire of the Path of the Apex Being stood atop a roof pointing and flailing dramatically upwards at the portion of the wall Coco and Team MARS had taken in an effort to draw attention which was rewarded in the cruellest way possible when a beam of searing crimson lanced upwards from the ground and burned cleanly through almost all of the cultists' body to leave nothing but a pair of smoking and blackened shoes and legs that were severed a little below the knees whilst the beam carried on and reduced a portion of Pikesreach's defences to molten slag.

"GO!" Coco screamed.

"Professor-"

"That's an order Mars!" she cut off Astra's inevitable well-meaning offer of help "Take your team, split up into pairs and carry on with the mission!….I'm going to buy you some time and draw it's attention"

There was a moment where she and her students locked eyes before Astra finally nodded and took their team with them; the four teenagers slipping out of view to find a less obvious place to make their way from the wall and into the war-torn settlement itself whilst Coco remained behind. It was with a feral and unnervingly confident smile that the leader of Team CFVY hoisted herself up onto the wall and regarded the form of Gestalt-Prime, familiar to her after Nero's broadcast to Remnant rising slowly and deliberately menacingly up over the buildings of Pikesreach.

Yatsuhashi had fought this monster and almost fallen, it had led an attack on her city and it had harmed her students.

"YOU HURT SOME OF MY FAVOURITE PEOPLE!" she bellowed her challenge, making sure she had the things' attention "PREPARE TO DIE!"

---

The floor shattered and the laboratory shook as Zirconia evaded another blow from the thing which had once been Nugget.

She had managed to leap aside to avoid being crushed and grasped in the same motion by the morning-star whose head was formed of claws and spikes of bone which seemed to writhe and grasp independently of one another as the truly repugnant creature she now found herself fighting against brought the flailing and sinuous weapon overhead. Landing in a crouch on a wheeled and metallic trolley which carried several tools which ranged from the clearly surgical to some which appeared almost industrial in nature, likely intended to carve through hardened carapace and flesh far denser than that of a human Zirconia saw the outcome of the failed attack; Nugget's mace had left a shallow crater in the floor from which cracks began to spread outwards and whilst they did not reach across the entire width of the room to reach its' walls they had managed to dislodge several of the fleshy and pulsing tendril of fungal Grimm-tissue which had grown like vines and roots across those walls, allowing them to begin flexing and writhing more freely.

"Cruor, call it off!" Zirconia called out, mind desperately searching for a way out the situation and willing to try almost anything with even the faintest chance of working.

"And why exactly would I do that?" Aefen jeered, the voice which issued from a speaker somewhere closer to the viewing window between the laboratory and the control room being filled with a sneering blend of faint amusement and genuine curiosity; with the latter giving Zirconia just enough hope to press on.

"Because your experiment isn't going the way you want it to and your work is getting undone right in front of you!" she threw the words out hastily, hoping to startle Aefen into a realisation "Your failed experiment is eating your proof of concept alive right now!"

Before any response could come the thing which had once been both Nugget and several other people struck again, a single scream being torn from each of its' several mouths as the remains of the Chicken Faunus strode forward, taking a single laboured step and dragging the mass of merged and mutated bodies it had been fused with behind it before pivoting at the waist to fling its' meaty flail out again. Zirconia flipped away from the attack and heard the unmistakable sound of metal crumpling as the trolley she had perched on was utterly crushed. Upon landing in a crouch she saw the fused and amalgamated Grimm-Zombie haul its' weapon back and take the trolley with it which left the Grasshopper Faunus fearful that it might absorb the metal as something like a Geist would and use the surface to produce a shield of some sort for its' other arm; she was given a small amount of mercy however as it appeared that the monstrosity could only absorb living or Grimm tissue and the metal surface was instead sheared to pieces with a painful sound by the multiple twitching spikes that formed the weapons' head.

"You do raise an interesting point, but not so interesting that I can be dissuaded from staying the course and seeing the progress of humanity through to its' conclusion" Aefen chose that point to answer and Zirconia almost took her eyes off of her adversary in a single moment of sheer disbelief.

"It's breaking free of your lab! Do you really think you're safe?" she demanded, gesturing frantically at the tendrils which were continuing to peel themselves from the walls; each of them growing more of the pulsing and ominously glowing fungal caps that filled littered the vast bulk of creature and as the fight went on had begun to envelop it in a faint, hazy cloud of black spores.

"It can be burned and the data will be useful" Aefen answered disinterestedly "I can always begin again….Gestalt-Prime said that Hunters had come, perhaps they'll leave a more experienced specimen alive for me to use as a basis….No Zirconia, you die here and the Hunters attacking us will be used as way to explain away all of today's little misfortunes to the Chairman"

Just as she was forced to confront the sheer hopelessness of trying to reason with Aefen, realising in that moment that the masked cult leader in scientist was every part as devout as the followers she often considered herself above as was likely just as driven and single-mindedly fanatical in her own way as someone like Carmesi Hueso was in his the monster that she had created attacked again; this time letting out a wailing scream that seemed to spew from one of the many mouths within the fused mass of Grimm-Zombies at first before being continued and repeated by the others as the tendrils that had begun to remove themselves from where they had been anchored into their surrounds began to whip and lash inwards, curling and looping on themselves in an obvious effort to ensnare Zirconia

'Fire! Hard-Light!' the sound of her weapons' synthetic voice was almost lost beneath her own wordless and fearful scream as the scent of sickly sweet, rotting flesh underscored by something acrid and bitter assaulting her nostrils broke what little composure she had managed to maintain thus far in the face of the horrors around her. The air was filled with pained screams and the stench of burning as her attack landed, the combination of Dust Zirconia had empowered her wide swing with allowing her carve through several coiling and pulpy tendrils with a glowing plane of Hard-Light that slashed and cauterised with surgical precision.

In response to her attack the part of the amalgamated horror that had once been Nugget attacked her again, throwing it's fleshy morning-star at her for another crushing blow only for Zirconia to avoid it once again with a frantic leap over the weapon; this time however the meaty appendage travelled across the length of the laboratory and almost struck the window between herself and Aefen Cruor before being pulled back, at which point the various tendrils began to weave and snake their way from whence they had first sprouted along the various fleshy connections from Nugget to the rest of the tumorous mass and along the arm that had already been bloated and mutated into a weapon, the ropey tissue forming thick cords of dense muscle until the arm alone was larger than the body it was attached to and the tendrils melted and merged with the spiked head of the morning-star to form fingers on a newly forming and grotesque hand.

And yet despite the primal, visceral reaction Zirconia's body had to such a sight her mind was entirely beyond fear.

She knew what she needed to do now.

'Double Gravity!' Sunrise Cain's voice rang out the moment the weapon had been shifted back into its' pistol form and whilst the Grasshopper Faunus knew she carried only a finite amount of Dust rounds she knew that she had enough for what was required. The shot she fired was an armour piercing round capable of punching a hole, albeit a small one in the hide of even the largest and most resilient of the Creatures of Grimm and rather than waste more ammunition trying to gun down the monstrosity Aefen Cruor had made she simply aimed and fired at the screen the scientist was hiding behind.

The viewing window cracked.

Zirconia was already on the move the moment she raised her weapon, she had seen the burned parts of the laboratory and had no reason to doubt that the twisted woman lurking just out of view would hesitate to do exactly as she had promised and incinerate everything in her laboratory if her hand was forced; with the Grasshopper Faunus's response being to sprint across the room and leap into the day, delivering the most powerful kick her Aura and cybernetic limbs could manage directly to the epicentre of the cracks her shot had created.

The viewing window shattered and Zirconia came hurtling into the small and cramped control room with an uncoordinated and fumbling landing which saw her crashing down on top of Aefen and knocking the masked woman from her seat.

"NO, NO, NO! WHAT HAVE YOU-" Aefen fell silent, the air leaving her in a single terrible gasp of pain and fear as Zirconia scrabbled to her feet and fired a single shot behind her without looking as she simply fled for her life. Zirconia had truthfully meant to be merciful, her shot being intended to pass cleanly through Aefen's skull and both end her own suffering before it could truly begin and prevent her from unleashing any more of hellish creations on the people of Remnant; in actuality she had miscalculated exactly where Aefen had been left strewn after their shared tumble and the round instead struck her below the bottom rib; leaving her looking down in shock at the sight of her own blood staining her hands and the ground beneath as it seeped and spilled through the black clothing.

That shock quickly became terror as she felt something fleshy wrap around her and begin hauling her from the ground.

"NUGGET, NUGGET NO! LISTEN TO ME! NO, NO DAMN IT YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE LOYAL, YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE BETTER!" Aefen's screaming became less coherent and was instead consumed by pain as the tendril-fingers of the bloated arm comprised more of fungal Grimm-flesh than anything truly living dragged her painfully through the shattered window and into the laboratory she had consigned so many others to their fates in, the glass ripped at her and with her screams tapering off to a whimper Aefen realised that even if her mask could somehow protect her from the effects of breathing in the spores being pumped into the air by the hulking mass of fused bodies without the protection of an Aura, the cuts would provide an avenue for her to become infected; somewhere beneath the terror and numbness from the gunshot she could already feel and burning, biting sensation burrowing its' way into her from a dozen or more points.

And then her mask ceased to be an issue at all.

"Please, please no" she whimpered out, knowing that her own pleading would be futile as any of the examples of such begging she had ignored herself as the thing that had once been Nugget, clutching her in a single oversized limb pulled her close enough to be able to reach out with its' other hand and with a gentleness that should not have been possible from the sickle-clawed digits peel away the stylised Grimm mask Aefen had worn for so long.

And then her creations smiled, Aefen letting out a single choked and pained sob as the black veins worming their way agonisingly beneath her pale skin coincided with the dreadful realisation that whilst Nugget was gone some final, festering part of him had managed to influence the Grimm-Zombie that had replaced him and fill the think with an unfathomable, vengeful hatred for her.

Zirconia had fled, avoiding the way she had come and seeking another way out of the building in an entirely different direction and yet despite the distance she had created the Grasshopper Faunus could still hear Aefen's screaming start anew as, within her laboratory Nugget held the scientists' mask aloft like a grisly trophy before marching directly into the waiting mass of merged bodies.

Nugget rejoined Team NUGT in death and dragged Aefen Cruor with him.

---

The latest Cyber-Grimm to fall victim to Athena-Jade and Stygian's combined efforts fell to the ground in pieces, Athena-Jade's glyphs had held the things' limbs in place whilst Stygian tore through flesh and metal with expertly placed blows before dispatching the unnatural creation by turning is' own attempts to escape against it; the Cyber-Grimm had opened the rear of its' armoured carapace to reveal the thruster and angled, gossamer thin wings in an effort to simply power through the Athena's grasp only for Stygian to stab through several vital mechanical components until the thing erupted into flames from within before finally being felled by an explosion which the two Hunters were spared from the worst of by Athena as she threw up a larger glyph directly in front of them.

"Okay, that's another one" she panted out as she considered the burning and mangled pieces strewn across the ground "We're making a difference right, we have to be"

The detached, haunted look on Stygian's face was enough to silence her.

It was true enough that the pair had felled multiple Cyber-Grimm now, each small victory they managed a testament to their skills as individuals and how rapidly their partnership had become not only functional but also effective and efficient and yet the Mouse Faunus took little confidence from them.

He was a former member of Team TRQS which gave him the dubious and unofficial honour of having fought the Cyber-Grimm more than almost any other Hunter and it was with a sinking sense of dread that Stygian realised that his and Athena-Jade's victories thus far could largely be attributed to the fact that the Cyber-Grimm they were encountering in Pikesreach were simply lesser than those he had fought in Neo Vale. His electric blue eyes narrowed for a moment as he silently considered that fact, not wanting to trouble his partner with it until it could be more fully explained; his initial reasoning was that the Cyber-Grimm stationed in his former home were simply less well made and had been inferior to their predecessors from their inception, a facet of them being built or born in less well regulated conditions and exacerbated by a lack of proper repairs or care, he had seen that several of the Cyber-Grimm in Pikesreach sported armour that had been gouged and burned or in several places patched back together which was completely in keeping with his mothers' explanations that Pikesreach had been attacked several times and there had no doubt been further damage done in whatever violence that had erupted prior to Team MARS's arrival.

However in the back of his mind Stygian could only wonder, if if the scientist responsible for the Cyber-Grimm was here in Pikesreach and her creations were so poorly cared for then just what was Aefen Cruor working on.

"Come on, let's go" he breathed out, leaping over the still burning wreckage of his and Athena's latest victory; keeping his katana at the ready in one hand whilst reaching out with the other to take Athena's large, gloved hand and help her follow him. The gesture was polite, if entirely unnecessary and the snowy-haired Bear Faunus readied her own weapon as she returned the favour by pulling her hand free and taking Stygian by the upper arm to pull him into a darkened crevice between two buildings that was the closest thing to proper cover currently available to them in the midst of the smoke-filled and chaotic battlefield they had found themselves in.

"Are you okay?" she asked, wincing as he question was underlined somewhat unkindly by the sound of a shell from one of the perimeter guns hitting the ground and likely inflicting severe injuries on anyone nearby who was not simply eliminated by the impact.

"I….I just….I can't think about anything right now" Stygian answered, the dark-skinned and tattooed young man's eyes widening and losing focus for only the briefest moment before he visibly force his emotions back under control with a few quick breaths "I can't, I need to just do this; finish the mission. I'll think and feel when we're done"

"Okay" Athena nodded slowly "Okay, we can do that….What's next Stitch, what do we do?"

"I don't know who's in charge of anything here, I don't know what's going on right now or what changes have been made to our plans for when we're attacked, fuck we've never been attacked from the inside like this….We need to get answers"

"Okay, who do we talk to?" Athena asked gently, sinking Heartbreakers' blade into the ground and reaching up to take her partner by the shoulders in an effort to help him press onwards.

"Even if the Hunters are gone" Stygian spoke slowly "When they took over Pikesreach they took some of the bigger buildings as their own personal castles and fortresses….They're the biggest and most well defended; someone will be there, someone will know something"

"Good, lead the way" Athena encouraged, taking her weapon again and doing everything she could to keep her own panic at bay.

"There….It was supposed to be a communications tower before Pikesreach became what it is" Stygian pointed to a building which Athena realised upon seeing that she would likely have ascribed some importance to if she had focused on it for more than a moment. With a single shared nod and a look the two of them surged into motion, with Athena shifting Heartbreaker into its' laser cannon mode; sprinting as fast as she could to keep up with her partner whose height and length of limbs gave him something of an advantage and who was also free from the burden of such a heavy weapon however after a few moments the Bear Faunus began simply creating glyphs beneath her feet in order to transform every step into a short leap forwards until she was a few steps ahead of Stygian.

Meaning that she was the first to see when a window shattered several stories above the ground, allowing a figure to leap out of the very same building that Athena and Stygian were trying to reach.

Athena skidded to a halt, her heart feeling as though it had ceased entirely and frozen inside of her at the sight of a familiar silhouette.

"AJ?" Stygian called out to her, skidding to a halt a moment later and rapidly veering from concern to fear at the sight of the look in the Bear Faunus's sapphire blue eyes as she aimed and fired Heartbreaker.

"It's her!" the words came an instant before the beam of jade green light lanced towards the leaping person "ZIRCONIA!"

The figure, whose oddly shaped legs proved in Stygian's mind that they were indeed the treacherous Grasshopper Faunus managed to narrowly avoid the incoming laser-fire by flipping backwards in mid-air and extending a cybernetic limb outwards to brush against the wall of the building, gaining enough traction in doing so that she managed to engage the hidden climbing gear in her legs and run vertically down the wall rather than allow herself to fall. Seeing this Athena let out a low, guttural snarl and charged forwards again, the motion leaving her weapon unsteady as she continued firing; half a dozen lancing beams of purging light leaving holes in the building they had sought to reach only a moment before as the Bear Faunus ran headlong at the woman who had hurt her so severely only to be brought to a halt when, after successive near misses Zirconia did something unexpected and retaliated directly.

'Hard-Light! Gravity!' it was an attack Athena-Jade had seen her former partner and ex-girlfriend use countless times before, with Sunriser Cain in its' close combat form and held out like a rapier whilst the twin Dust chambers unleashed a spearing burst of semi-solid light. Athena's response was to hastily throw a glyph up in front of herself as a shield and then, not content to rely on a single defence she ran directly at her own glyph and used its' shimmering surface as a surface to flip away from and throw herself out of the path of the attack whilst Heartbreaker was shifted into its' blade mode. Zirconia's attack would have failed even without Athena's efforts as Stygian made his presence known, using his own Semblance and limited supply of Hard-Light Dust to teleport directly into the path of the beam of cyan light and deflect it away with a blade that glowed the same colour; making a mockery of physics as it was commonly understood by sending Zirconia's attack gouging into the floor.

For a moment the trio simply stared at one another before Zirconia finally spoke.

"You need to get out of here….You need to-"

"Nobodies' running Hops….None of us, not you, not today" it was Athena who answered, though for a moment the Bear Faunus barely recognised her own voice such was the cold hardness it carried; her thoughts however were a chaotic and jumbled mess as she regarded the partner she had lost, taking in her altered appearance and just how sinister or villainous she would have appeared with her mask which showed nothing of her face save for the scars Athena herself had given her, were it not for the utter wide-eyed terror visible in her visible eye and the fact she barely contained a choked sob at the sound of the shorter woman's voice.

"Please AJ, you don't-"

"Don't me call me that. You don't get to call me that any more"

"Please" Zirconia repeated, voice hoarse as though she had already screamed and cried and cracking with tears that threatened to spill at any moment "You don't understand….It's not safe here, we need to get the people out of Pikesreach; right now-"

"There are already more Hunters coming. We're gonna save everyone" Athena answered, keeping her voice low and steely for fear of what might happen if she allowed herself to show any of the maelstrom of feelings coursing through her "Astra, Regalia and Professor Adel are already here helping"

"That's great, we can think of a plan, we can get people out" Zirconia sighed, for a fraction of a second allowing herself to sag and relax a miniscule amount as she simply breathed and at the sight of it Athena nearly came undone; for a single fleeting moment it was as if they were still partners and they would enact whatever plan Coco or Astra concocted together and enjoy each others' company when they were finished with the inevitable debriefing, Athena was certain that if Zirconia had removed her mask at that moment she would have been unable to follow through.

But the moment ended and reality to crashing down upon her like a wave; stealing what little colour remained in the world and leaving bile rising in her throat whilst her heart shattered as though she were experiencing the betrayal for the first time.

"There is no we Zirconia….But we" Athena gestured to herself and Stygian, a calculated and spitefully petty barb "Are bringing you in. You're gonna tell us where Nero is and what he's planning"

"I….I can't….I wish I could but I can't" Zirconia actually cried at that, tears spilling down the tight and discoloured skin of her scarred cheek and once again Athena was nearly overcome by a stomach-churning grief that was physically painful in its' intensity.

It was Stygian who offered a rebuttal, his electric blue eyes narrowed and furious as he brandished his katana.

"After all the people you've hurt" he gestured from Athena outwards to Pikesreach as a whole "Do you think you get a choice?"

With that he and Athena charged and Zirconia, true to form leapt backwards and turned her defence into a fighting retreat.

---

With Coco Adel seemingly willing and able to do the impossible by keeping the monstrous Gestalt-Prime at bay by herself and Athena-Jade and Stygian having disappeared towards another part of Pikesreach, presumably somewhere of importance with a plan of attack already forming the Mouse Faunus's familiarity with the place and knowledge of who would be the likely leaders of a resistance amongst the local being put to use Astra and Regalia quickly realised that it would fall to them to deliver a critical blow against Nero and Aefen's forces.

A role that the two of them were handling with aplomb.

"Got it!" Regalia half-warned, half-cheered as the latest Cyber-Grimm that the two of them had found themselves locked in combat with came swooping down towards them once again, tucking and retracting its' wings back into their armoured casings and yet keeping its' abdomen-mounted thruster alight so that it could drop the ground and gallop forwards on all fours at a speed that was far more threatening that the bobbing and drifting flight that it was capable of; all whilst letting out a shriek like the sound of damaged machinery and unleashing twin bursts of gunfire from its' antennae weapons as it stampeded towards the two Hunters with an obvious intent to crush and impale.

Neither Astra nor Regalia showed an ounce of fear and instead give each other a single look which communicated everything that either of them needed to say, with Astra giving a cocky wink and Regalia returning it with a bright smile whilst her eyes were hidden by her goggles before the two of them split up and moved in opposite directions; the Racoon Faunus firing her harpoon directly at her partner he promptly used their Semblance and engulfed themselves in a growing construct. In the next moment two things happened at once, Regalia infused the cable of her weapons' harpoon with Fire Dust; something that would likely see it require some servicing whilst Astra shifted the size of their Semblance-self to allow for the perfect angle.

The incoming Cyber-Grimm was unable to halt and their momentum saw it not only strike the heated and glowing cable face first, but be sheared neatly in half by it.

"Nice job" Astra beamed as they and their partner regrouped, each making a point to ensure that the others' rear was watched and that there would be no sneak attack from a previously unseen enemy and on finding none the two of them quickly ducked into the nearest available cover, namely a heap of rubble and twisted metal that might have been a building before they arrived where they cautiously listened out for any sign that they might have more to worry about from either side in the ongoing conflict that had erupted in Pikesreach.

"What's the plan?" Regalia asked eventually, checking Apex Scavenger for damage as she did so and seeing that the weapons' harpoon component was luckily not badly affected by her earlier stunt.

"I'm not sure" Astra admitted, words coming slowly as they pondered them with their sea-green eyes losing focus but never their intensity "I was going to ask you to try and use your Semblance and coordinate whatever you come up with against where the Cyber-Grimm are coming from so we can take out their controllers or whoever's giving them orders"

"But?" Regalia cocked her head, seeing the appeal of that idea immediately but understanding that whatever Astra's reason for not following though with it was, it would likely be equally clever; though she could admit that she placed total trust in them regardless.

"The Cyber-Grimm are fighting each other" Astra pointed out the obvious before adding "Which means that there's at least two factions here, maybe three….If we attack one sides' people then we're helping the other side whether we mean to or not. I don't want to help Gestalt-Prime; I think we should try and take out their Cyber-Grimm first and give Professor Adel a fighting chance"

"I can help with that" Regalia assured them, already adjusting their goggles as they prepared to activate Look-See "Cover me?"

"What're you gonna do?" Astra asked, even as they readied the shields, blades and guns or Buckshot Ares to protect Regalia without hesitation.

"I think all of Gestalt-Prime's most important stuff is gonna be wherever the scientist, Doctor Cruor….That cult leader we met is hiding, because she can't fight right? So she's gotta be taking cover?"

"That makes perfect sense" Astra's smile widened at the sight of their girlfriend making a deduction that they themselves had missed, though their expression faltered as they were forced to consider the limitations of Regalia's Semblance and how rarely it worked as a dedicated tracking device "Are you sure you can find her?"

"Trust me?" she asked with an arched eyebrow, to which Astra gave a snorting laugh as they uttered the only possible answer.

"To infinity and beyond" hearing those words Regalia, with all of the climbing skills that a life amongst Clan Aiktishaf had endowed her with scurried up to the top of the rubble that had once been a building in order to find a marginally higher vantage point; the results were not as good as she would have liked but she could still see further and discern more of the settlement through the plumes of smoke and the chaos of the ongoing battle within its' walls and so she took a deep breath to prepare herself, closing her eyes before activating her Semblance and slowly opening them again.

She knew that searching for anything so specific as a name, especially that of a woman she had met once in a training mission and had scarcely interacted with would provide her with nothing useful; Look-See responded to ideas and requests with answers that provided no insight in and of themselves. With that in mind she considered what she knew of Aefen Cruor and why the scientist was present at Pikesreach at all, according to Cornflower Blue the masked woman was treating the place and its' population as a research tool and given everything Aefen had created thus far there was only one word that Racoon Faunus could use to describe her creations.

'Monster'.

Regalia peered around slowly seeing several lights of roughly the same size and mass as a Cyber-Grimm flying in the distance as her Semblance highlighted each of them with a glow that oscillated between gold and purple until, just when she began to consider new ways to phrase the request to herself she spotted something that could only be her goal; a single, indescribable shape whose edges were visible around the other buildings that were partly obscuring it from Regalia's view. Releasing her Semblance and allowing her focus to drift more into her body as a whole she blinked a few times, adjusting to her vision returning to normal and seeing that the building that Look-See was guiding her towards was one of the larger buildings in Pikesreach, a fact which only confirmed her suspicions and saw her leap down from the heap of rubble whilst calling out to Astra over her shoulder.

"This way!" she was already on the ground and in motion "Whatever Aefen is working on is over here, I don't think she'd abandon her work at a time like this!"

"Good work babe!" Astra called out, voice slightly strained as they pushed themselves in order to catch up with her and keep pace. The two Faunus dashing through the streets without incident until finally they found themselves rushing down one final street and realising as they did so that walls on both sides of the street had been heavily scorched to such an extent that stone had flaked and crumbled away like ash in some places whilst at the end of the road stood the building Regalia had been heading towards; its' main entrance torn to shreds with everything beyond it being an utter ruin.

"That's….That's supposed to be the place" the former nomad breathed, confused and wondering for a moment how her Semblance had managed to fail her in such a way until Astra swallowed thickly and nudged her shoulder, their arms to enveloped in the many components of Buckshot Ares to take her hand as they directed her gaze to something beyond the wreckage, which seemed to have been struck with a direct hit from some particularly effective weapon.

"It is….I think we found what Aefen Cruor was working on"

Regalia's eyes widened, just as Astra's words were punctuated by an ominous crimson glow highlighting the edges of some monstrous and colossal form which seemed to be changing shape with every step it took.

Whatever the thing in the darkness was, it let out a scream which sounded like a dozen or more voices at once and shook the air with its' intensity.

Author's Notes:

Oh boy, oh boy oh boy!
Two chapter left of this volume, one for the big final battle and then the wrap up.
Vol.07 has been the "Body Horror" volume….And now we're gonna see the conclusion of it, along with one of the things which I had planned as a rough concept even before I had characters for this story named.
I'm actually writing this chapter before I've even posted the mid-season finale as well, so I'm two months ahead of schedule and I've already made a start on planning Vol.08….I might have to come up with another fic to write between finishing Vol.07 and starting Vol.08 just to stop myself getting burned out on the same project and spice things up a little.

ALSO: Next week's upload is gonna be a tricky one due to most of my families' birthday (Including my own) being in the space of a week or so, I've actualy got plans for both Friday and Saturday but I don't want to have you waiting until Sunday for the final part of this battle...So hopefully I'll be able to find a chance on Friday.

But anyway, let's summarise shall we?:
Massive smoke clouds….Because this battle would have a better ambience in the dark but it's happening just after lunch.
Okay Stitch is allowed to lose his shit a little bit here.
You didn't think I'd forgotten about the Shroud did you? Gestalt-Prime's had one of those spare for a while, even if the other one did get impaled by a Goliath.
So it felt important to me to have Coco give some explanation of what they know about the Shroud, just to make the fact that this one got snuffed out by one Hunter and four students without injuries more believable….The one that Ren, Nora and Qrow fought had the element of surprise and also, let's be honest; Astra and AJ together have better Semblances and AJ, Astra and Coco have far more firepower.
And that is indeed how you swat a bug, I honestly debated having Astra use their Semblance again but it felt like a good time to homage the Scrapmetal variant of the Bumblebee special move.
Surprise, Stygian's abandoned plan is actually gonna get used.
Zirconia is a better fighter than this, but she's had absolutely no sleep; fought Grimm all night, just ran from Gestalt-Prime and then came face to face with everything that's happening in Aefen's lab….She is absolutely at her wits end.
Y'know, if Aefen had just stood there and let herself get shot while she was still in the lab she'd probably be better off than she is now.
The fact 'Nugget' paused when Zirconia mentioned his team should have been an indication that there was still just enough of him left for a revenge kill.
The whole carrying Zirconia thing should have told you what that revenge was gonna look like as well.
Yeah, she didn't like Nugget at all but she knew him and he didn't deserve this….An ass-kicking sure, but not this.
'Nugget' ripping a ribcage out of one the other Grimm-zombies and turning it into a weapon was delightfully gruesome.
But yeah, there was no way Aefen came out of this chapter on top.
Ruby's scene really is the sole moment of respite this chapter gets and even that is because I needed a bit of set up for her to turn up later.
So yeah there's obviously other precautions and back up plans being put in place for if/when Team MARS & Coco's mission goes sideways, all of them using the student training missions as a cover….Coco didn't want Ruby to be the first person into Pikesreach for reasons that were covered; but at the same time if she needs to be called in then it is what it is.
Team LEMN….Total background nobodies, which is what Team NUGT used to be and probably wish they still were.
Also, the Grimm are acting smarter without an Alpha again….Because even if Pantheon isn't actively playing a part in this season finale, their presence is still being felt on Menagerie.
Coco's tricked out glasses providing an answer for how she managed to call for back up….And communication is possible to a limited degree in the wastes even without the CCT, the nomads like Clan Aiktishaf get by; although it is limited.
But Ruby also knew that she herself was one of those few people…..She's allowed to brag, she's earned it.
Yeah there is no way Ruby was actually gonna bring students.
Yeah Stitch is not gonna bomb people he grew up with.
"As long as it's safe for you to make contact given your position"….Yeah, considering what the old leadership of Pikesreach did to Cornflower there's a good chance Stygian still won't exactly be welcome back.
Oh yeah, Pikesreach is pretty much done at this point.
I felt like I had to point it out a couple times in this chapter….team TRQS, or specifically Stygian has more experience than anybody else in fighting against standard model Cyber-Grimm; this is is his third engagement against them.
And there's the problem with Stygian's Semblance...You quite literally cannot get yourself back out of a situation with it.
Stitch is just out here getting back to back saves from AJ….Tiger would have cussed him out by now.
Another advantage of the Cyber-Grimm being given orders from a distance, even getting rid of one doesn't mean that the problem is done.
….Yeah, fuck that cultist; I love watching them getting shown explicitly just how little the Grimm, especially Gestalt-Prime care about their worship.
Coco's prepare to die line is an obvious callback to the line in canon Vol.02….But let's be real, she can do precisely fuck all to Gestalt-Prime at this point.
Cutting back to the Zirconia fight and immediately ramping up the tension by having the fungal mass of fused Grimm-Zombies beginning to untether itself from the walls felt like the best way to start the scene off.
Hops made a better point than trying appeal to Aefen's humanity or just begging for mercy at least.
I actually did debate having Nugget turn the crumpled trolley into a shield with all of the scalpels and other tools still fused to it but honestly it was too much.
"I can always begin again" Aefen really did go full Omni-Man there.
The comparison with Carmesi was absolutely apt.
It's an armoured window….But Zirconia specifically carries armour piercing rounds.
The thing is, Aefen was dead from the moment that window broke….The Grimm thing gives off spores and she doesn't have an unlocked Aura; we've already seen from her failed experiment what would have happened to her eventually.
And that is what the consequences of your own actions feel like.
Nugget holding up the mask like a trophy was a great image in my head.
But remember folks….I described Zombie Nugget as 'Raptorial' more than once and anybody who watched Jurassic park knows one thing about raptors: You are alive when they start to eat you.
So it was mentioned in a previous chapter that the Cyber-Grimm were being given basically slapdash field repairs and I've managed to call back to that here to make the fact that they suddenly seem weaker due to a necessary amount of power creep and villain decay seem more reasonable.
Was the taking AJ's hand to help her over the wreckage completely unneeded, probably, did he do it because he's a gentleman and she's saved his ass multiple times today yes….Did some of y'all enjoy it; absolutely.
Of course Stitch was gonna send himself and AJ towards the exact same building that Aefen used as her base, just as Zirconia was leaving.
….Y'know even with how much Hops has missed her ex, AJ managed to turn up at the one point since last volume that she absolutely didn't want to see her. Classic.
The fact that Hops used that particular move should show desperate she is, that's a finisher.
The whole conversation was a test of AJ's willpower and she very nearly folded, so very nearly walked over there and just gave Zirconia a hug that they both need.
There is no we, but WE….Oh that was absolutely petty and Zirconia is absolutely gonna have to put some sad songs on and have a cry about it later; AJ & Stitch aren't a thing but the implication was there.
And so we get our second AJ vs Hops showdown next chapter.
So Astra and Regalia weren't really fighting the Cyber-Grimm for as long as everyone else in Neo Vale because they were on the move looking for AJ & Zirconia, which means they're a little bit more cocky with it because they've just seen less of what they can do first hand.
Although Regalia is right to be a little cocky, the harpoon moves have been nasty this whole mission.
Fun fact, the whole talk about Astra and Regalia not attacking Cyber-Grimm controllers because they don't want to give Gestalt-Prime an advantage by accident is actually something I realised as I was writing the previous scene; the original plan was for the two of them to storm a room full of Nero's people and go for non-lethal take-downs just for the building to get levelled by a Cyber-Grimm and really drive home how brutal this fight is getting.
But instead we got Regalia showing how much she's learned from the people she admires by pulling off some of Astra's quick thinking.
I really should remind myself of the specifics of exactly how Look-See works more often.
But yeah 'Monster' is the perfect word for her to use; because it could be applied to either Aefen or her creations and well….Funny thing about that.
So the street they ended up running down is clearly the same street that Zirconia ran down last chapter and that was the Cyber-Grimm workshop that was in ruins; but between that and Aefen's lab there was a vat of Grimm-tissue that served as a miniature version of Aefen's forge.
….Next chapter's gonna be fun.

Thank you to MajorBrony95 for their review on the last chapter.
Yep, Chicken boi got turned into a murder-bird.
Oh Aefen's always been crazy, originally she wanted to create Grimm fusions as a medical procedure but when that got her ostracised she went further and further off the deep end. She was originally on Menagerie looks for Grimm samples with her cult, that's why she was at the crater.
Yeah, remember all the assumptions about Nero and Gestalt-Prime's plans are too small at the moment because they're not factoring in Pantheon and the rest of the Grimm; you've gotta think bigger.

As always thank you to everyone that reads this, with a special thanks to those of you that follow, favourite and review.