A gust of wind rocked the Tuna-Class airship, and a splatter of rain obscured Caspian's view of Port Cyrreine International. He turned away from the window, toward the control desk projecting a hologram of the airport. Seven huntsmen, counting himself. Two main entrances on the East side, facing the attack localized outside Empyrean Tower– arrivals and departures.

It was a Saturday afternoon, just over a week before the Winter Holiday. The less he thought about how many lives were placed squarely in his hands, the better.

A ray of fire dust scanned the window from top to bottom, vaporizing the rain to clear Caspian's view. They had lowered even with the air traffic control tower, and continued to descend. He took a breath, and addressed the six left under his command.

"Alright. If we wanna secure each of the entrances on this side, we'll need to split up," he addressed. "I was thinking we'd split four and three, but I just had a better idea. Laurel. I'll ask my dad to grant permission into the control tower. From there, use your semblance to keep an eye out for Grimm, or anyone who needs help. Ichigo can back you up from the base of the tower, and relay messages to us if needed."

"Sure. Yeah, I can do that," Laurel confirmed. "Grimm run a bit cold, but I can still see them."

"Good."

"Just me at the base of the tower?" Ichigo checked.

"Yeah. If more Grimm do appear, they'll be drawn to the people in the airport itself. They'll probably ignore you."

"Not sure I like that 'probably,' but I'll manage."

Caspian nodded once in acknowledgement. "We're landing just North of arrivals. The rest of us will secure that gate together, and once we take care of any danger, Moka and I will continue South to departures."

Rowan smirked. "You and Moka, all alone together?"

"Not the time, dude."

"Right, sorry."

A jolt to the cabin and all the lights coming on at once let them know the ship had landed. The door slid open, and despite the driving rain and the flash of emergency lights across the glass face of the arrivals gate, all was surprisingly quiet. Abandoned vehicles clogged the road, their hazard lights contributing to the lightshow. The handful of first responders ushering people through the doors were all either human or faunus– none of the androids Caspian had grown to expect.

He gave a quick bid of good luck to Ichigo and Laurel, and continued to the gate with the rest of his crew.

Far past the chain link fence, across the street and into the park surrounding the tower that pierced the clouds, a monstrous shadow lashed at its attacker. The tower approached by the pair of her teammates was tiny in comparison, stark and silent in its watch over a dozen grounded flights.

"The Headmaster says you should be granted access," Caspian's voice reported through Ichigo's Holoband. "Either one of you can press your Holo to the pad outside, and it should unlock."

"Nicely done," Laurel commended. "We won't be expected to re-route any flights, right? I'm not sure I'm certified for that."

Caspian chuckled. "I think the androids inside are taking care of that."

The call closed. Laurel held her Holoband up to the keypad beside the door. No lights or sound welcomed her, beside a click from somewhere inside the doorframe, and a series of thumps from deeper within.

"Did it work?" Ichigo asked on a careful step toward her.

Laurel extended her tattooed arm to the handle. "Don't know. Might as well tr–"

The door exploded on its hinge, flinging back with a burst of noise and rattling against the fullest extent of its swing. A glow of crimson above an Organd's uniform, and Laurel was on the ground. She held Pit Viper between herself and her attacker, who grappled the weapon with one hand and used its other to drive a dust baton into the side of her head.

"Ow! Shit– It's hacked!"

Ichigo froze for just a second– what must have felt like much longer for Laurel– before he pulled Hack n' Slash from his bag and it took on its bullpup form. A magenta tracer met its mark behind the android's head, and with a storm of fingers on keys, it went limp.

A sharp breath escaped Laurel, and she leaned on Pit Viper as she stood to rub the impact site. "Thanks for that." She looked down on the Organd. Every few seconds it would twitch, a sudden seizure of finger, leg, or face. But the glow had left its eyes. "Gods, that's creepy. This can't be good, though. We might be dealing with more than we realized."

Ichigo nodded. "Agreed. But if you're still down to head up the tower, I'll stay down here and poke around in its code. I have a feeling I know who's behind this."

The situation at the arrivals gate was almost peaceful, at least in comparison to what Caspian had come to expect. No Grimm, no Red Claw, nobody trying to kill him. Just a handful of officers outside, and a terrified crowd behind locked doors.

"Were you sent in as backup?" a tall, wide, and bearded officer checked, sliding the door shut manually on the heels of one last elderly couple.

"Yeah. From Sentinel," Caspian answered. "We were told to secure the area, but it looks like you've already done most of the work. Have any Grimm made it this far?"

"Go it. No, no Grimm."

"Any Red Claw, or anyone suspicious?"

The officer shook his head again. "None. Last I heard, the attack is about half a mile East of here. We're helping everyone shelter in place as a precaution."

"Right. Thank you." Caspian turned to his teammates, Snow, and Moka. "Now I wonder if they even need us," he noted. "Stick with the plan for now. I'll stay here for a couple of minutes to see if anything changes, then Moka and I will be on our way."

Something came through on the officer's radio. Garbled, but Caspian could tell it was urgent. Halfway through the transmission the officer scrambled for the device on his chest and held it closer to his ear. He looked at Caspian with stony eyes.

"Good timing. Sounds like some of the damned toasters on the West end started acting up. I'll leave this side to you kids."

Before Caspian could reply, the policeman jogged off to his patrol car.

"Something's wrong with the androids?" Caspian pondered. He glanced aside to Snow. She had been silent the whole time. Still. But Caspian noticed the clench of her jaw. She had begun to shake. After a few seconds of a vacant stare ahead, an uncanny groan came from down her throat.

"...Snow?"

With a sudden noise half between a gasp and a shriek, she held the side of her head in one hand and nearly collapsed. She caught herself, hunched forward on bent knees. The scarlet glow of her eyes bathed her palm.

Snow's Internal Targeting Reticle opened without her authorization. Zero threats detected. Static obscured her visual sensors for half a second, and auditory sensors overloaded with a needle-sharp ring.

Her inputs returned to normal, and she heard Caspian calling her name.

Warning: Four external threats detected. Lethal force recommended. Increasing combat capability rating to 90%.

Four threats. Lilliane's lightning dust may interfere with internal functioning. She was to be eliminated first. Disarm her with Configuration D. Switch to A or C, and commence close-range assault. Likelihood of elimination if disarmed: 100%.

No. Lilly isn't a threat.

Moka was physically the strongest, so she would be next. Keeping her at range and chipping away at her aura would be the most effective course of action. Within range, and discounting her lightning dust, Configuration A would have a distinct advantage over her combat style. Likelihood of successful elimination at current combat capability: 84%.

Why can't I move my body?

Why am I reaching for my weapon?

Only Caspian and Rowan would be left. Caspian was particularly likely to be weakened by trauma-based stress. Configuration A also had a reach advantage of 7.5 inches over his blade. Victory against him would be guaranteed, even after decreasing combat capability to 80% to avoid overheating. Rowan's weapon put her at a range disadvantage of 18 inches. But he was slow, and easy to disarm. Estimated total EMRF loss: 57.6%.

Stop. I'm not going to do this.

Attention: manual input overridden. Assuming automatic function.

No. That's– those are my friends. Resume manual input.

That function is momentarily unavailable.

Assess connectivity to Frontline Biomedical servers. Re-establish connection if necessary.

No issues found in connectivity. Re-establishment unnecessary.

Initiate emergency reboot to low-power mode!

That function is momentarily unavailable.

Snow pulled Absolute Zero from her waist.

DON'T MAKE ME DO THIS.

Snow still hunched over, the hand not clawed around the side of her face clutching Absolute Zero. Her thumb nagged at the weapon's activation switch. It would hesitate for a second, then lunge for the switch again only to be stopped right before her weapon flashed to life. Her eyes blinked in and out between their soft blue and an intrusive, garish red. She looked in pain, writhing on her feet like something inside desperately tried to escape.

"Snow, what's wrong?" Caspian called out through a thickening haze.

"Don't– don't come closer," Snow squeaked out. "Leave!"

"My semblance doesn't work on her!" Lilly warned.

"Keep going, it works on me," Caspian replied. "Snow. What's going on?"

She took a step toward him with red eyes, lurching and awkward like a marionette on twisted strings. She stopped herself, and the blue prevailed for another second. "I… I don't want to hurt you!"

"Caspian," his father's voice warned from the Holoband that vibrated with an emergency ping. "I just received word that all androids within a mile of Empyrean Tower are being hacked. There's an empty supply room just to the left of the arrivals gate doors. Get Snow in there before anyone notices."

"Just lock her inside?" Caspian protested. "That doesn't feel right to me."

"We have to do it before she hurts someone, and before someone sees. You know what she's capable of."

As the call closed, Caspian looked to Snow and muttered an apology. It took three of them, Caspian, Rowan, and Moka, to force her toward the door, then inside. She was stronger than she looked, and fighting both against them and herself. The three shoved her in in tandem, locking the door before she could fit her way back out.

Caspian leaned against the heavy steel door, feeling the pound of fists and shoulder as a hectic, disordered drumline below Snow's muffled shrieks.

Lazula stared down her automaton enemies, crimson painting the rain in front of their eyes. There were sixteen of them. More androids, more people, than she had taken on at once. If they were anything like the hacked androids she had fought before, she'd be okay. Against sixteen Snows, that would be another matter.

The first charged in with an overhead strike and unsettlingly blank face. Lazula blocked its attack with Aegis and her sash of response was enough to shatter its EMRF in one blow. She reversed momentum, and the android wasn't fast enough to block her follow up. Impetus's tip sunk a few inches deep, carving a gash through synthetic flesh and carbon fiber underskin. The android fell, and Lazula turned her direction to the next before she could ponder it too long.

A second dust baton met Aegis's side, and she drove her shield further until its wielder's arm crumpled and a metal skull made her shield ring. She ducked below a strike from her side and turned on the balls of one foot to cut the android's legs at the knee. She stood straight again, blocking another strike without a glance over her shoulder, twirling Impetus's hilt in her hand, and driving its tip through where she knew the fallen Organd's core to be. The android behind her only took a couple more strikes, though she could have sworn it watched her movements more carefully, and moved just the slightest bit faster.

Two more attacked at once; one at each side. The flat edge of Impetus's blade caught one and the spikes atop her shield caught the other. The force of their two blows swirled and mingled within her chest, and out the opposite arm it arrived as she turned to strike her twin assailants with the fullest extent of her semblance. Both fell.

Another replaced them. As had worked for the others she raised her shield and prepared her blade to strike. The android's attack landed, but as Impetus' approached its neck it glanced off the edge of a dust baton. Her swing flipped upward and wide left, leaving her open to a strike from her side and a surprise at the back of her knee that threatened to make her buckle.

The android's blade came faster to meet her next strike, even faster against her hasty, frustrated follow-up. She settled for putting her full weight behind Aegis, and ramming the android off balance before driving her blade through. She turned before the one that hit her knee could strike again, taking its strike into Aegis and flinging an already bloodied blade across its neck.

"I'm the only one like me," Snow's words repeated in her mind. "And if you ever have to fight them again, please remember that."

Maybe they weren't capable of emotion, or independent thought. That much was some weight off her shoulders. But they were capable of learning. She slashed three times toward the next, but it weaved its way aside and between each flash of golden steel, and managed to land a strike at her ribs. Another joined in, then a third. Fighting them like she would with humans– the slashes and strikes that belied her true strength– wouldn't cut it. They had adapted, learned from the series of androids that fought before them.

She took two strikes at once with Aegis's top rim, turned, and let loose with enough force to take down all three at once and cleave another in half where it stood behind them. Two more stumbled their approach, and took a few seconds each to stand.

Five remained of the original sixteen, and Lazula saw more approaching from the airport. She felt a few dull aches where batons left their mark, but her aura held at 86%. The last few wouldn't be a problem, no matter how much they learned from her. She looked out across the mired battlefield, at the bloodied android bodies sparking in the rain. Of those that had fallen, she couldn't tell which had been torn apart by Grimm and which by her.

Either way, they were slain by a monster.

The glow of Ichigo's eyes and the computer screen past them combined into a pinkish haze across his lenses. He would lean nito his laptop for a few seconds at a time, focusing deeply on a string of code before sitting back with a brow furrowed deeper each time.

"Yo," Laurel called through his Holoband. "You figure anything out yet? I don't even see any Grimm anymore. Lazula's just fighting off more androids."

Ichigo shook his head but didn't let the glow leave his eyes. "Nothing," he muttered. "I've seen Kraken's code a few times before, enough for me to get familiar with his style. I don't see a trace of it anywhere."

"Have you looked through all the code? I don't know how this stuff works, man."

"Top to bottom, twice," Ichigo replied. "There's no evidence of outside interference anywhere. From what I can tell, the Organds are working exactly as intended."

A chat box opened unprompted at the corner of his screen.

"That's because they are :)"

"Go away. I'm working."

"How rude. And here I thought we were friends."

"Like I'd be friends with you…" Ichigo grumbled, leaning further into his screen. The legion of code lines stopped, and Ichigo highlighted a string of numbers.

"You should run."

The magenta in Ichigo's eyes blinked out. He paused for a couple of seconds before issuing his one word reply: "Why?"

"Look outside."

Ichigo set aside Hack n' Slash, and inched his way over to the window. Hiding behind the hinge of the door, he peered out the lowest corner. A figure in black approached; armed heavier than a SWAT officer and armored much the same, plus a helmet that reflected all the flashing lights upon its sleek shell. All black, apart from a streak of gold across the brow. Ichigo returned to three more messages.

"Yeah. Him."

"That's not your friend."

"He'll kill you and the girl in the tower."

Caspian was ready for more Grimm to show up. He was ready for the Red Claw to show up, and he was ready to fight them. But that afternoon he learned that no matter how hard you prepare yourself for every possible worst-case-scenario, something else always has the power to go completely sideways.

The arrivals gate, where they still stood, had been locked down by airport security and a few police cruisers that happened to be in the area. The Southeast gate, the drop-off zone for departures, was manned by androids. As per his dad's last communication, they had all been hacked just like Snow, and ran off in the direction of Empyrean Tower.

"Alright. Since it looks like we have this area managed, Moka and I still need to–"

Caspian's announcement was cut off by a slam behind him that rattled the door on its frame and was followed by a shriek of pain, frustration, or both. Two more knocks followed, each a bit weaker than the last.

"...We need to secure the departure gate, since it looks like–"

Another slam.

"Do we really have to keep her locked in there?" Lilly checked. "Maybe there's another way we can help her?"

"It's for the best," Rowan said through a grimace. "Remember when Noxis lost control, Snow was the only one able to stop him? Do you want that turning on us this time?"

Lilly sighed. "You're probably right," she acknowledged. "But it sounds like she's in pain. It hurts to listen to her."

"We have to keep her in there," Caspian agreed. "She might be dangerous right now. But even if she isn't, we can't risk people seeing her. An out-of-uniform android getting hacked wouldn't go over very well. We'd be lucky to ever see her again."

Snow's muffled scream accompanied something scraping against the steel behind Caspian's back.

"But… she's fighting it. I can tell, she doesn't want to hurt us." He turned, and before his teammates' protests could speak to the hesitation budding inside him he put his hand on the doorknob. "We can't let her out, but we can go inside with her."

Moka debated him by leaping to his side and pinching his sleeve. "Cas, wait! She– I know she doesn't mean to be, but she might be dangerous!"

"She might be," Caspian agreed, gently pulling his arm free of her fingers. He wondered if his next words were the truth. "But I'm not afraid of her."

He opened the door and closed it behind himself before Snow could escape. The supply room was dark, but he saw Snow immediately. The red in her eyes, rather, so not her at all. His hand fumbled along the doorframe until he found a lightswitch, which illuminated shelves emptied in a fury, and a trickle of blood running down from Snow's forehead and next to her nose. There was blood on her hands as well, though Caspian couldn't tell from where.

"Cas… no," Snow protested weakly. The external force took over, and she reached for Absolute Zero.

"Snow. It's me. I know this isn't you. I know the androids are getting hacked, but I know you're more than them. Something within you can override this, or push it out, control it, I don't know. But you can do it."

She put her head in her hands without reply, smudging the blood across forehead and cheek.

"I'm not afraid of you. Because I know you won't hurt me. And I know you're stronger than whatever this is."
For a second, it looked as if he had been successful. There was a sudden moment of clarity in sky blue eyes– absent of pain, or fear. Then her whole body seized on another blink of red, and she lurched at him with Absolute Zero flashing to life. He didn't know who, or what, won out in the end. Snow held him in an aggressive embrace against the door, head in his chest and Absolute Zero switched off on the ground behind her.

"That's right. It's me, Snow. And it's you."
Her arms tightened around his ribs. Past comfort, tight enough he could tell she was no longer in control. His spine cracked. He felt blood rush to his head and stay there. His breaths wouldn't come as much more than a squeak from the back of his throat. He could move his arms at the elbow, but if he knocked on the door, he threatened letting Snow escape. She bound him in her vice grip, squeezing him purple. His vision began to grey, and he started to wonder, again, if this is how he'd go. He couldn't stand the thought of Snow coming to, and realizing what she had done.

He put his arms across her back, rested his chin on her shoulder, and trusted she would return.

She gave him back his breath at what felt like the last possible moment. He stumbled back and into the door, gasping for breath like he'd just surfaced from drowning.

"Caspian, I… I'm sorry. Did I hurt you?"

"I'll be okay," Caspian assured. "Welcome back, Snow."

Their moment was interrupted by a red flash at both of their wrists. Ichigo's portrait appeared next to words that always dumped ice into Caspian's veins.

DISTRESS SIGNAL: URGENT