From the Remnants America will rise again!

by the god of wolves

After years of struggle following the destruction of the Poseidon oil rig the enclave finds themselves in a new world with familiar problems, thankfully they happen to be easier than their old ones.

12. Chapter 12

Wolf: welcome back pups!

Bahlgrim: heeelp mee!

Wolf: ignore that, he's here on his own free will :) and I suffered more during this than he did… all for the famously dreaded by us and important chapter 12!

Bahlgrim: Lies!...sigh, anyway. This is the biggest chapter we've ever written.

Wolf: yea, it took a lot. But we planned this scene for chapter 10, we just added more to the earlier chapters and kept pushing this back until we decided we were going to make this one big thing, no more delays and we stuck to that decision… for better or worse

Bahlgrim: I heavily recommend taking breaks along the way. The chapter is almost 24k words!

Wolf: yea, it's a big one. But their is something important I want to announce before you enjoy it, on January 3rd the real life inspiration for General Colwell's canine companion, the real Sandy, my own dog passed away in my arms. So we're releasing this exactly one month later in honor of my baby. I hope you all enjoy while imma be hugging his stuffed animal some more :)

Bahlgrim: RIP Sandy he was the bestest boy.

Wolf: yes he was, and he will be missed. But with the honors to my best friend out of the way, sorry bahl he beat you out in life, we'll meet you at the end of chapter notes.

Bahlgrim: I'll take second place.

GOW

Autumn wished more than ever before that the military were given priority on alcohol rations. Of course, he knew why they weren't. Soldiers would get drunk and cause more problems than they would while sober. It's also why drinking was strictly something done while off duty. Not that it ever stopped any of them from drinking whatever booze they found in the wasteland. The booze that survived the impromptu binge would get put into storage then distributed, most of which would be towards the civilians, rarely ever issued towards the soldiers.

That said he really wished he was selfish enough to order a box of Whiskey to his office, appearances be damned, but his sense of duty always stopped him.

The General of the Army sighed, before scanning his surroundings. The space before him was Conference Room 2, which was used by High Command in formal meetings such as awards, commendations, and more. In this case, however, it would be used for interrogation.

The ceiling was raised high, 30ft or so, and in the walls were plated steel, behind them were several hidden turrets for defense in case of a last stand if Raven Rock was breached. The floor, in this case, was furnished wood, he wasn't sure what type but it looked nice. The desk the generals sat behind was crescent in shape, polished wood and well kept despite its age. There was space made for nine seats but only six were typically used. Autumn was generally at the center of the generals and to his right would be Navarro, if he was here, then to Navarro's right would be Bruja, and to Bruja's right would be Colwell. On Autumn's left was Razz, and on Razz's left was Cornagi.

At the front of the desk, carved on its face was the American Eagle and surrounding it was thirteen stars. Behind the desk, were monitors and sidebar computers with plenty of space to write and review papers. All cleaned and double checked for bugs, as well as blessed.

For the preparation of the interrogation, the room had been thoroughly cleaned out, searched, and religious wards were placed on every surface possible by the Exorcists and Inquisitors. Every protective measure that could be taken was taken to make sure nothing overheard this meeting that wasn't supposed to.

Looking at the generals around him, he was reminded of when the acid storm arrived at Raven Rock. With every single general barring Navarro being present in the room, gathered for an emergency meeting. His eyes flicked over to Razz, who looked more nervous than he should when conducting an interrogation.

"Good, the importance of what we found in the files finally registered."

Autumn turned away from Razz, his gaze making the man more nervous, and focused on the task at hand.

"I now officially call this meeting convened. Thank you all for your patience. I trust that the extra time gave you the chance to finish Colwell's after-action report?" Autumn asked, the room was filled with a chorus of agreement.

"Kinda shocked he actually wrote one." Bruja commented, holding up the paper, glancing at the man, her voice laced with teasing.

"He needs more practice, though. Half of this is just typoes." Cornagi commented with a teasing smile.

"Oh haha, shut up you two. I had to get this done in less than an hour. I didn't have time to edit." Colwell growled, arms crossed.

"Colwell's poor editing ability aside. Bruja, what is the status of the prisoners?" Autumn asked, hoping to get the meeting back in order. They can tease Colwell later.

"They've gone from screenings to cells to science pens. I've instructed the scientists to have a priest or Inquisitor check them out before any tests are done." Bruja explained.

"Good, and their leader?"

"Hellhound is keeping an eye on her. She can't escape from her," Colwell confirmed.

"Good, we'll have Rivers bring her in soon. Before that, Cornagi, how have the scouts been doing?"

"Well, we have eight miles of the surrounding area completely mapped out. Around thirty miles of distance has been traveled but some of the scouts have noticed settlements along the way with imagery sent in, they're holding off contact until we give them the green light though. I've also received reports that more of those mutants have been approaching them in smaller numbers. No problems on that end, they're still weak to our energy weapons. It also looks like the ones attacking the mountain are running out of steam. Defensive teams have reported their numbers have been decreasing exponentially." Cornagi replied, short, sweet, and easy to understand. How he preferred his reports.

"This is absolutely fantastic news so far and, with God's Grace, General Navarro has just regained consciousness. I have already seen fit to inform Doctor Rossevelt of the importance of this meeting and she has told me that he would be fitted with a radio connection so he can participate remotely while his medical evaluation is pending. I will patch him through momentarily, meanwhile Generals Autumn and Razz, I have been made aware of General Colwell's fieldwork, and General Cornagi's stellar handling of scouting operations and am familiar with General Bruja's response to the potential of an OGC. I would like to know what progress you two have been up to during the last few hours." Eden announced the listing of each of the general's contributions, that he noted and praised. A cold shiver went down Autumn's spine when Eden made mention of Razz and himself.

Autumn and Razz locked eyes, not saying anything, hesitant.

"Oh please President, they weren't paving paradise to put up a parking lot. I already told you they were helping out with the breach that happened with the power outage, I doubt it's worth hearing how they took all the muties, and put 'em in a damn museum. Even someone as worthless in field work as Razz shouldn't have had a problem with that." Colwell jumped in, not missing a single beat in the conversation. Autumn couldn't ignore the notable change in his vernacular and tones. He had no clue the reason behind this sudden change but if it was going to save his ass he didn't care where it came from.

"Worthless! Why I never, at least I stayed down there dealing with your mess while you went off and ignored your punishment! You should be cleaning a damn toilet by now." Razz snarled, whether or not he meant to move the conversation away from their findings didn't mean anything to Autumn, it was the excuse he needed to keep Eden away from digging.

"Please, the only reason I called you down there was because all the real soldiers were needed up top," Colwell said, a playful smile facing Razz, and, Autumn deduced, towards one of Eden's cameras directly.

"Behave you two, and wipe that smile off your face Colwell, I may have reduced your punishment for helping with the invasion but I just as easily can put you back on the toilet." Autumn threatened.

"Couldn't you have finished your pissing contest before I woke up?" Navarro's voice called out from the speakers, his voice groggy and notably tired.

"Rise and shine, sleeping ugly." Colwell chirped.

"I'm still prettier than you when you wake up. All that dried drool on your face isn't very appealing, you know." Navarro shot back, still waking up.

"Trust me, It's not drool and it's rarely on my face," Colwell said in a sing-song voice that Autumn was definitely too sober to want to address.

"That makes it even worse." Navarro responded, notable disgust in his voice.

"Well, the girls disagree." Colwell cackled.

"It's not that. It's the fact you don't shower after." Navarro gagged.

"And you're the one getting mad about people having a pissing contest?" Bruja pointed out, leaning into her chair.

Navarro just grunted, in embarrassment.

"Moving on, it's good to hear your voice Navarro. I was told by Deacon McGivens that the Church Elder had prayed over you, he also mentioned putting up wards around your hospital room so you could speak freely and securely." Autumn explained, resisting the urge to sigh. If he had a cap for everytime a dick measuring contest broke out between all his generals he'd have enough to fill Raven Rock twice over, and two of them didn't even have dicks!

"Thanks for telling me, General, it's good to be home. Oh also, Dylan, fuck you." Navarro bluntly stated.

"What'd I do this time?" Colwell's hands raised to his side in confusion.

"For kicking that guy off the vertibird. He came back crying in the medbay with a bent nose. It's how Liz found out what happened." Navarro scolded.

"What are you talking about?" Colwell asked, his face scrunched slightly in confusion

"You can't hide that from me. I clearly remember a guy falling head first when you arrived." Navarro accused, his voice raising slightly.

"Oh, not that. I kicked one of the privates out but the one who landed face first wa-that little shit."

There was a moment of silence as everyone contextualized Colwells words.

"He lied to save face didn't he?" Navarro asked.

"Yup."

"Used your name to cover it up."

"Yup."

There was a pregnant pause.

"He's dead isn't he?"

"He'll probably wish he was when I'm done with him," Colwell stated, his voice as factual as if he were telling someone the weather.

"He's gone so far as to even threaten a soldier in an official high command meeting! How is he still here." Razz's hands were raised, visibly frustrated, motioning towards Colwell.

"I do not believe that was an actual threat against the soldier's life. General Colwell's habits and promises suggest, at most, severe punishment, not death, at the use of his name for personal gain. As for Colwell's admittance to this meeting, it is his duty to fulfill by being a general in this military. His position I must remind you, General Razz, given to him by myself. An apparent good choice after his successful defense of Raven Rock from the unknown native species as well as his successful rescue of General Navarro, and capture of an entire raider camp. Should I also bring up his part in the discovery of an Old God threat or his other feats, that he has garnered in less than 3 days?" President Eden's tone was filled with notable annoyance.

"N-no Sir, I will retract my complaint," Razz said, his face looking like he was swallowing a lemon and about to throw it right back up. Colwell on the other hand looked smug as ever.

Autumn couldn't resist the sign that escaped his lips. His eyes mindlessly glancing at the nearby clock causing his eyes to go wide. Only a few minutes have passed, it felt like hours.

"I need Whiskey after this."

"We have everyone present. Now, I believe it would be an appropriate time to summon the Raider leader. General Navarro, you have spent the most time around her. Is there any information you believe would be prudent to this meeting." Eden asked, while Colwell sent a message on his sidebar computer terminal.

"Before you do anything, Colwell, I need to explain something." Navarro quickly interjected.

"Couldn't you have said that like five seconds ago?" Colwell sighed, shaking his head, having already sent the message. "They're a ways down the hall anyway, should have time to say whatever you want."

"Shit. I'll be quick. I think Raven has been touched by an Old God."

"What!" Razz yelled, standing up from his chair in shock.

"Damn it. I knew I should have just killed her. I had the perfect excuse too." Bruja grumbled, more annoyed than surprised, or even afraid.

"Since Bruja's clearly not going to look at this objectively. How did she pass the tests? She made it through the Star of David, and the dogs test, she should be clear. Is their any evidence that you have to support this Navarro?" Autumn asked, visible worried.

"Bitch didn't clear the dog test. Navarro wanted me to hold off if they barked, which they did." Bruja corrected, her focus slowly returning to the matter at hand, but still visibly frustrated.

"Eh, she basically did. She didn't register as a threat just smelled like some food to the dogs." Colwell explained casually.

"And that didn't seem strange to you?" Navarro questioned.

"Which one of us feeds the dogs regularly?" Colwell asked in a mocking tone, as if he was speaking to a child.

"You do but I fed them at one point as well. They know the difference between radiers and food." Navarro argured.

"Not always," Colwell admitted, "Sometimes people who spend a lot of time with a specific animal start to smell like that animal. It messes with their sensors. I noticed it the first time when we ran into this mutant girl smelling like an ant back in D.C.. I tried to kill her but an army of ants got in the way, remind me to hunt her down after I deal with rocket dick. Oh, speaking of that ass, when I raided his food stores and outposts the dogs registered the cooks as whatever food they were cooking rather than the raider. Hehe, they had those raiders devoured in twice the time it takes them to eat regularly, though I think they were savoring it." Colwell mused, ignorant to the increasing green on Razz's face. The other generals held no such reaction, accustomed to the outcome, most of it from personal experience and in Autumn's case witnessing the end result more than once.

"That's better than I would have thought. This could work. But Raven didn't have any pets back in the camp, yeah she had all those ravens and birds around her chair but they were long dead." Navarro pointed out.

"Even dead animals like those can carry a scent, if she spent enough time around them, which she probably did, she'd still come out of it smelling like a bird." Colwell explained.

"But they were taxidermied, clearly cleaned out of any sharp smells. All thats left is the skin, feathers, and bones." Navarro argured, though not questioning, more inquisitive.

"It might take awhile for the smell to leave the bird itself, and if you're saying she had taxidermies of birds then she might have spent time with the species or killed more for better pieces." Cornagi suggested.

"Fair enough. If that is the case then my theory may be off. I thought the dogs barking confirmed it for me." Navarro sighed with disappointment.

"Quick question ol' buddy, if you thought she was part Old One." Colwell began, a smile painted on his face as he typed on his sideboard once more. "Why would you try to keep her alive?"

"I said touched, not part. Big difference. The way she spoke, her fear, and her questions. It implied she was part of or formerly affiliated with an Old God or its cult. You saw how desperate she was."

"Fair enough, also tell your Knights they're way too paranoid." Colwell replied.

"Huh?"

"Yea, they're guarding the med bay right now. I just heard from Sirius that he isn't being allowed into your wing."

KNOCK KNOCK

Autumn, numb to the antics of Colwell and Navarro, looked towards his sidebar monitors. A camera aimed towards the entrance showed Hellhound, Ghost, Luison, and Minotuar escorting a woman, he presumed was the raider, at the door.

"Yo, I got the prisoner." Hellhound spoke through the intercom at the door.

He ignored his eye twitch at the lack of formality.

"One moment, Colonel." He told her. "Navarro, do you want to start off with the test? What you've said has made me question our security." Autumn asked him, Autumn planned to proceed with another series of tests with Bruja and Deacon McGivens either way but Navarro knew her best. He hoped the little time they spent near each other helped him understand how she would react with an accusation so soon.

"No, I want us to try to lead towards the question, but not start with them right off the bat."

"Understood, and in light of this new information, I would like to put Hellhound and the others as guards, with their full kit." Autumn said looking towards Colwell, ignoring their failure to follow procedure with guarding a prisoner without standard equipment.

"Sounds good, but if you're worried about the dog test, we could just have Sandy give her a good ol'sniff," Colwell said, at the mention of his name the cyber dog's head popped up from his owner's lap with a little yawn.

"Ah, so that's why Colwell showed up early." Autumn thought, as he knew Colwell pampered that dog, and moving quickly for nap time sounds about right.

"Perhaps, we can lull her with a false sense of security. Drop her guard so when we start asking her questions about her connection to the Old Gods she won't be too hostile in response." Cornagi suggested, rubbing her chin.

"Or, I could tell her my dog is gonna sniff her unless she wants to get shot by me a second time," Colwell suggested, chipper as he ever was while petting his dog's head and holding up his usual, oversized revolver that Autumn was sure he was not supposed to have in this meeting.

"I second that!" Bruja said, raising her hand, quickly.

"Wait, second time?" Razz questioned, confused.

"That could work, I hate that it probably will, but she did seem to be afraid of how much of a punch that thing has. That was actually the first time I saw her afraid of something, Old Gods excluded everyone should be afraid of those." Navarro mused.

"I still think my plan would've been good." Cornagi mumbled.

'I'm surrounded by fucking children,' Autumn grabbed his forehead fearing the next migraine. The smoky flavor of whisky became a fleeting hope in this mess.

"So, am I gonna threaten to put a new hole in her or?" Colwell jiggled his gun in joy, a large smile on his face.

"Do it!" Bruja cheered.

"No, don't put a new hole in her. I'd rather go with Cornagi's plan." Navarro admitted.

"Yes," Cornagi quietly cheered with a small fist pump when Navarro officially gave her his support.

"It's your idea so it's bound to fail." Razz sneered at Colwell.

"I hate saying it, but Colwell's method seems the most solid according to the available information," Autumn said, questioning how he could say that while sober.

"The vote in deciding how we will handle the raider is split 3/3. As President I will weigh in and give my decision on how this will be handled, before I do so however General Navarro, since you have the most experience with this particular woman. Which plan do you believe would be the most effective?" Eden questioned.

Navarro was silent for a few moments before a loud, audible sigh could be heard through the speakers.

"Colwell's plan, her tribe was set in a might makes right dogma. It sounded almost cultural to how things ran there. She'd probably respond to the show of force negatively at first before respecting our strength and giving up everything in the end. " Navarro said, his voice sour.

"Then I will put my support behind General Colwell's plan. Voting has been completed 4/3, in favor of General Colwell's plan of action. You may proceed." Eden announced.

Autumn pressed a button on his sideboard; the door opened in response, and the woman of the hour entered. Autumn was impressed with her clothing. They actually looked functional. Most raiders had half-destroyed scraps of cloth or exclusively wore whatever armor they could find. Or mattresses, for some reason, a lot of them liked wearing them on the East Coast.

"Jesus, you took so long I thought Fenrir was in a threeway." Minotaur said. Hellhound visibly shuttered, as did Autumn, when the thought crossed their minds. Hellhound gave the soldier a smack in the back of his head for it.

"You may sit in the chair provided to you." Autumn motioned towards the singular wooden chair in the center of the crescent-shaped desk where the generals sat behind. The woman glanced at him before calmly walking towards the chair and sat.

"Mutts, head back and grab your gear. You'll be staying for guard duty." Colwell called out to his men.

"What? But we just got done guarding her." Ghost exclaimed.

"Not her, them." A thumb towards the other generals. "They want people who are actually good at their job keeping them safe for once." The generals rolled their eyes at his insult.

"Colwell, just no…" Autumn groaned. "Your presence is required for this meeting, it's why we are requesting you in combat gear." Autumn continued, his hand pressing the ridge of his nose.

Colwell shrugged.

"To each his own, it's all unknown, but my dogs ain't free. You lot need to get dressed and get back here, chop chop. Last one back has to do whatever punishment Eden has for me." Colwell said, his squad deciding against vocalization of any objections if they had any as they jogged out of the room and into the hall.

"I'll have you know, General Colwell, you will still need to do the punishment. You have only placed a member of your squadron to suffer along with you." Eden reminded, his voice laced with amusement.

"Damn it, whatever I'll figure out what it is and how to pawn it off later." Colwell shrugged.

Autumn felt a smile curl onto his lips as he let Colwell think that he's getting out of this.

"Maybe some good could come out of today afterall." Autumn thought before he noticed the small smile across the raider woman's lips knocking his own smile clean off his own. This was not the time to show anything but unified strength.

"Before we officially begin, official introduction ar- Colwell, what the fuck are you doing!?" Autumn stood up from his chair in rage as Colwell, wielding his sidearm in one hand, placed his dog on the table with his other.

"My job. Now Ms. Raven, I'm sure you remember who I am. This, here, is Sandy, my baby boy. You have two options here, option one he's going to go over there and give you a good ol' sniff. Option two, I follow through on my promise from our flight and place a new hole straight in your chest, maybe a second one in your forehead if I'm feeling spicy." Colwell's smile stretched from ear to ear as he showed off his revolver, aiming it at the raider.

"Option two, option two." Bruja chanted quietly from her seat. If she wasn't seated next to Colwell Autumn would have never noticed it. He was too focused on Colwell with his blinding rage induced frustration.

Raven sat frozen as she stared at the revolver in Colwell's hand before her eyes flickered to the dog next to him.

"Option one." She said quickly. Everyone ignored the disappointed boo coming from Bruja as Sandy walked forward after Colwell gave him a quick nudge on the bum.

The dog sauntered on High Command's personal meeting table, the polished and well-treated Old World relic, leaving paw prints onto its furnished woods, along with a few small scratches on top of that before deciding to drop down and walk towards the women in the center.

Autumn nearly cried when he saw the marks, the desk was literally over two hundred years old.

Sandy then made it to Raven and stuck his head out towards her, the woman deciding smartly to not make any sudden moves near this dog. Sandy's nose twitched a few times, before his head turned away and he made a soft whine.

"Poultry." Colwell grunted out.

"How the fuck do you get poultry from that!" Razz cried out.

"Sandy's allergic to poultry." Navarro spoke through the radio.

"Yup and I made sure he got a special programming so he wouldn't get into something that would give him any itchies." Colwell explained.

"It's been in his files and Sandy's publicly known responses for years," Cornagi added.

"It was printed in the memo boards and announcements at least three times last year alone in case anyone was going to come into contact with Sandy." Bruja continued.

"The amount of times I've had to deal with a wounded soldier that had accidentally given some chicken to that dog could keep you in your office for a week." Liz sighed.

"Somehow it's always on the up and up thou-" Autumn began before freezing.

Everyone in the room froze at the realization of who had just spoken.

"Fuck, lady! You just got our asses busted." A young girl's voice scolded over the intercom.

"Oh Vernal, do you have to use that language around your auntie," Liz replied, sounding sad, but clear amusement laced her voice.

"I do when you get us caught!" Vernal shot back.

"Elizabeth, why are you listening into this meeting, and why do you have a child with you?!" Autumn asked, cold fury seeping into his voice.

"Well, I'm still running tests on General Navarro and this little girl is his child so she can't be separated from her father for too long." She sarcastically defended herself.

"You have a daughter?" Cornagi asked with a smile on her lips, keenly interested in the topic.

"Hands off, she's mine." Bruja hissed.

"Yes, I have a daughter, and no she's not yours Bruja, and she is going to be leaving, now, right?"

"I wanna stay though!" Vernal whined.

"Yes, you can't kick us out of the room. I've been told that a suspicious character with a heavy weapon is roaming around the medical bay." Liz pointed out, her voice barely controlling her laughter with every word spoken.

"Please, Sirius isn't roaming, he's patrolling for threats," Colwell muttered.

"I didn't say it was one of yours Colwell." Liz sang her words, and Autumn can safely assume she's having fun with this whole situation.

"I swear to god Liz, if your brother wasn't Navarro." Colwell muttered.

"Can you not threaten or flirt with my sister, please. I can never tell with you." Navarro pleaded.

"I've avoided it-"

"ENOUGH! Head and Chief of the Science Division explain yourself!" Razz ordered, his face red whether it was rage or frustration he wasn't sure, perhaps it was both.

There was a moment of stilled silence.

"As Head and Chief of the Science Division, and according to Enclave Marshal Law, I have a say in some of the regulations and rules established in our government. I've allowed myself to ignore your decisions and lessen my involvement for the past few years but we are now in a new crisis. My medical bay is still not at a 100%, my research and development chambers are a mess, I've lost most of my test subjects, a whole bunch of my scientists are dead, we've been attacked by hordes of mutants, and my brother had been gone for days and I didn't know about it! I'm staying or I'm going to bar all of you from medical assistants from this moment onward." The mirth and laughter touching her words were gone and what remained was hot rage sharpened into a scalpel cutting them into pieces.

"Promise?" Colwell asked, a level of hope in his eyes that shouldn't exist for that threat.

For Autumn's and presumably everyone else's sanity they chose to ignore him.

"I would have preferred to receive a request to join our meeting Ms. Roosevelt, there are still plenty of seats around the table to fill in, instead of stowing away into our conversation." Eden reprimanded, his voice disappointed.

"I was afraid I would be denied access, sir." She replied without shame.

"You would not have. Your mention of Enclave Marshal Law is factual and relevant. Your presence is not necessarily required for a meeting to begin but you being here provides us an important alternative perceptive into the needs of our people. That being said, and for brevity's sake, you shall remain but the young girl Vernal must leave."

"You're not the boss of me!" Vernal cried out.

"No, but I am. Stay outside with my Knight's. They'll take care of you."

"FINE! Mech lady is cooler to hangout with anyway!" Vernal yelled out in a mixture of disappointment and frustration. The noticeable sound of a mechanical door opening and closing ringing through the radio.

"If this keeps up I'm going to love it here." Raven laughed.

'Why don't I go on field missions anymore? There's always some booze out in the wasteland that's just ready to be taken. I'm sure Colwell's found several canisters of the stuff while he's out, bastard doesn't even drink much.' Autumn thought to himself in sorrow before clearing his throat.

"Now then, can we begin with the meeting?" Autumn asked.

"Wait, before we start negotiations I need to know something," Raven began.

God damn it.

"What did Colwell mean when he said you guys are from another world?" Raven asked. Every General in the room froze.

"You mentioned it on the bullhead, something about being in another world unintentionally. How is that even possible?"

"Damn it, Dylan." Cornagi cursed before sighing. Autumn didn't even care about her breach of proper address with how royally fucked they were, even if this wasn't a raider who believed might made right, no self respecting Enclave officer would want to admit they were only in this world by mistake.

"I believe I can answer Ms. Raven. Ah yes, I have yet to introduce myself as introductions were… interrupted. I am John Henry Eden, the President of the United States of America, and the Commander and Chief of the Enclave Military. We as the Enclave High Command determined the safest way for ourselves to operate in a world filled with our enemies would be hidden in the bunker behind a great deal of protection. As for General Colwell's claim, it is true, we are from another world. We have only arrived on this one due to a malfunction in our teleporter." Eden explained.

"That's right," Colwell jumped in. "You see back home, we were setting up in this here mountain when a big ol force of mother fuckers banded together to try and defeat us. Of course, we couldn't let those little shits just do it, so we fought them off, surrounded on all sides by seas and seas of enemies, mutant armies and raiders alike in an endless sea of carnage, all united under the banner of my greatest foe, Crotch Rocket. The raider warlord that I long to meet on the battlefield. If only so I can rip his fucking spine out of his asshole and beat him to death with it." Colwell snarled, oh great he was getting another hate boner against crotch rocket.

"Yes, Colwell, your nemesis had us surrounded. We were able to fight them off, but the numbers were so great that we didn't want to risk running out of our limited food supply, so we tried to activate our teleporter. However, due to how many moving parts needed power during a battle of that magnitude the power grid surged, which overloaded the teleporter causing the space-time distortion to rip a hole through realities and sent us to a whole new world instead of Chicago as we had planned." Autumn finished, with a nod, he hoped wasn't too exaggerated.

"Honestly, all of that sounded like a load horse shit. The only reason I'm inclined to believe you is the hate I see in that man's eyes." Raven said, pointing at Colwell who was damn near foaming at the mouth. Maybe hate boner was too soft a term for this…

"Dylan, you will never hear me say this, but thank you for your obsessive single minded hatred. It's actually fixed a problem for once! Autumn cheered mentally.

"Trust me, Raven. You haven't seen half of it. We've had to deal with Crotch-Rocket for years. Colwell's rage for that raider is stuff of legend at this point." Navarro told her, pointedly playing up the whole charad.

"It's alright, bud, just let it out. We'll be back as soon as possible to turn him into a walking can of meat soup." Bruja tapped Colwell on his shoulder, consoling him.

"Promise?" Colwell managed to say through his rage induced mania.

"Promise."

Soon enough, and with a bit of nuzzling from his dog Colwell calmed down, the foam at his mouth was rubbed away with his uniform sleeves, as he leaned back into his chair cradling his revolver with one hand and rubbing his Dog's head with the other.

"With that out of the way, I think we can, finally, do the introductions?" Cornagi suggested.

"Agreed," Autumn gave her a nod before fixing his collar out of habit.

"My name is Augustus Autumn Jr., General of the Army in charge of the entire Enclave Military." He clasped his hands together in front of him and straightened out his back as he spoke.

"And I am Brigadier General Stephen Razz, Head of the Military Police and Internal Investigations." He gave a Raven a prideful smile from his pale faced lips, his jaw and chin clean shaven but sporting a well trimmed mustache.

"They call me La Reina De Los Bruja's, you can call me Reina. I am the Brigadier General of the Enclave Army, Grand Witch of the Lovecraft Coven, and Commander of Inquisitor Squadron." Bruja straightened herself as well, her arms crossed, and head held high.

"I'm Amani Cornagi, Brigadier General of the Enclave Air Force and the Enclave Airborne. I'm also the Commander of the Valkyrie Squadron." The tall caramel skinned woman bowed her head slightly in greeting.

"I ain't no false prophet better than the early R-"

"General Colwell, a proper greeting, if you would." Eden abruptly interrupted before Autumn could do it himself, neither sure where he was going with that nor did they want to find out.

"Uuggh, fine. Dylan Colwell, Brigadier General of the Enclave Marines, Force Recon, and Commander of the Devil Dogs." Colwell, though annoyed that he couldn't finish what he wanted, still presented himself with his head held high and pride in his voice.

"Jose Navarro, Brigadier General of the Enclave National Guard and Logistics Division as well as Commander of the Knights of Round Squadron."

"And as I said before. I am John Henry Eden, President and Commander and Chief of the Enclave. Who might you be?"

"Raven, Raven Branwen, also called the Queen of the Bandits, Terror of the Emerald Sea, Grimm Mistress of Ruin, the Omen of Murders, and now, formerly, the Chieftain of the Branwen tribe." Raven held a prideful smile as she went down her lists of titles, more than likely in an attempt to show her strength.

Autumn wasn't impressed. Neither were the other generals.

"So she can call herself all that, but when I wanna be addressed as Death of Murder Mountain it becomes a problem!" Colwell yelled visibly annoyed.

Autumn decided to ignore the whole mess. Just thinking about what he did to earn that title had him hoping for a whisky binge.

"Omen of Murder? Now that's just an outright lie." Navarro commented.

"I quite like Terror of the Emerald Sea, it sounds pretty." Cornagi mentioned.

"Sounds like over compensating to me." Bruja insulted.

"Compensating for what? Look at that rack!" Colwell pointed towards her breasts to emphasize.

"Tits and ass aren't everything, Colwell. Loyalty is far more important and she's more likely to sell her first born son for a few extra bucks. Making up those shit titles makes her feel a little better. Bruja sent Raven a cruel smirk, pointing put the women obvious lack of personal loyalty.

Cornagi winced at the insult, knowing her the idea of giving away a child left her spine in chills.

"Weak." Raven replied with a smirk of her own, but Autumn couldn't help but notice lips twitching. He was unsure of the cause of it.

Bruja scowled at her. She leaned forward from her chair, lips open with a rebuttal in her throat.

"Ms. Branwen, I couldn't help but notice you said Chieftain. Don't you mean Chieftess?" Cornagi interrupted, changing the topic.

"No, I mean Chieftain. Chieftess is used for the spouse, male or female."

"Hah, I wish I could have seen that. A guy being called "Chieftess", would have been hilarious!" Colwell laughed, getting a chuckle out of Bruja and Cornagi. He'll never admit it but Autumn had a small smile himself.

"Queen of Bandits, you called yourself. Was your notoriety that grand that other bandit groups would follow your banner if commanded?" Eden questioned.

"Yup. The Branwen tribe is the most feared tribe in all of Remnant. If you're not with us you're against us. Whole villages would surrender when they caught sight of our banner."

"And it only took eight Enclave soldiers to end it all!" Colwell raised his fist in the air with a wild grin.

"It took one man with his words and two Olds Gods to convince me that my tribe was worthless to protect me." Raven corrected, removing his grin and shifting the tone of the chamber.

The door suddenly slid open revealing an Enclave APA marked with the colors of red and purple, Devil Dogs colors, and a pair of horns welded onto his helmet, rushed into the chamber.

"First! Haha, in your guy's face!" Minotaur laughed at the others who arrived shortly after he did.

"Damn it!"

"Sucks to be you Luison, looks like you got whatever shit boss has to deal with."

"And we're gonna have to do more PT drills. You were lagging so far behind."

"Ach-hem" Autumn sounded, glaring at them. They all responded by slowly turning the table of generals.

"S-sorry sir." Hellhound spoke, taking a step forward.

"Just get into your positions."

"Yes, sir!"

They scrambled and formed up.

Behind Colwell.

"Standard guarding positions," Autumn growled out. He wasn't even looking at them, blankly staring at the door but he could feel their nerves rise.

"Psst…boss. What's that one again?" Minotaur attempted to but failed miserably at whispering to Colwell

"Why, do you lot not remember basic protocol?" Colwell asked, a straind smile on his face

"I-I remember, we split up and cover as much ground as possible?" Ghost tried.

"Then move your ass." Colwell agreed.

"Thanks, boss."

They then scrambled, again, and spread around the room having clear vision of most of the chamber, the only blind spot being behind Colwell. Which was acceptable. They had crossfire positions on Raven which is what he wanted in the end.

Autumn sighed.

"You guys are just hilarious," Raven laughed loudly.

"Think my dogs are funny? Luison, Ghost, give her an Evening Out." Colwell growled out his order, obviously insulted. There was only two seconds of pause before Ghost chuckled in recognition. Then two blasts, one from each of their rifles, sliced her hair in perfect symmetry. The first cutting her long strands that once reached her rear now shortened down to above her shoulders and her bangs were burned off till it was centimeters off her scalp.

Raven looked perturbed for a moment before touching her hair and looking down to the floor.

"The fuck, my hair you asshole!" A lock of her hair in her hands, angry.

"Ahaha, nice one, Dylan!" Liz's laughter echoed through the speaker.

"General Colwell! If you cause one more disruption I will bar you from any missions for a year!" Eden yelled, actually yelled. It was the first time Autumn ever heard the President's, admittedly realistic voice, sound angry. Autumn was taken aback at the advanced A.I.s warranted outburst.

"She started it!" Colwell argued pointing at Raven childishly.

"And you responded to her petty insult with an even pettier act!"

"No I didn't!"

"You cut her hair like a petulant child!"

"Whiskey Whiskey Whiskey" Autumn mentally chanted.

"Navarro, I'm starting to regret making that deal! Other than that show when we arrived it's been shit. I'm starting to think you guys didn't even kill that Old God!" Raven roared out, standing up from her chair aggressively. The guns wielded by the guards now aimed at her.

The room stared down at Raven, the yelling silenced.

She continued, yelling at Colwell.

"Oh now you guys shut up! What?! Did I hurt your feelings~? Is he grumpy about getting called a liar? God, and I actually had respect for him but now he's just a goddamn privileged crybaby. How haven't you guys shot him yet!"

"It's not from lack of want." Razz muttered.

Raven's eyes snapped to the interrupter.

"Shove a dildo in it if I wanted to talk to a pussy I'd take my pants off!"

Bruja and Colwell chuckled at the display

"Oh are you done glaring at me while murdering me in her head for the thousandth time like a jealous bitch. Oh yeah, I heard you say 'love' to Navarro and I also noticed him flinching away. Can't hold on to a man huh, bitch!"

Then Raven turned to Corgnagi and decided to keep the insults rolling, as the smiles faded from the Generals mouths.

"You're the girliest giant woman I've ever seen! Have you ever even fought or did you just watch from your fancy bullhead, while fingering yourself?"

She then glared at Autumn.

"And you're just a doormat. You're supposed to be the boss of this bunch but you let them get away with everything! They insult your authority, your strength, and your position. They make a mockery of you and you say nothing! You just take it like a good bottom bitch waiting for the next spanking."

Now she screamed for the whole room.

"Fuck, the one I respect the most out of all you is the doctor chick!"

"You can take your respect and shove it up your ass, cunt!"

"See! This is why I like her!"

She finished, breathing heavily, while caressing her damaged hair.

Bruja spoke first.

"You can insult us all you want. We've heard it all before, far worse than you can ever dish out. Racists and Xenophobes."

Then Cornagi.

"Inbred fascists and mass murdering baby killers"

Colwell.

"Flag fuckers and Old World humpers"

Razz.

"Liars and thieves.

Autumn.

"Genociders and destroyers.

Navarro.

"Failures and abusers."

Eden.

"You are the one that came before us desperate and afraid and yet call us cowards. You call us weak, unorganized, submissive even and yet you are the one running to us, seeking to hide behind our shadow. You label us liars yet your claims to fame can be just as easily discredited. You have run away, hiding at every turn, and even admitted to using your tribe to protect yourself for your own selfish gain, using your own people as nothing more than fodder. You stand before us shouting that we are failures!"

His voice is loud in oration not in rage.

"No! We are not failures! We have survived and dominated the land to our purposes! We have lived and spread across the entirety of the American Wasteland! We have won, defeating countless of our enemies, crushing their skulls beneath our boots! Wherever we go we survive, we live, and we win!

The lighting of the room changed, dimming low enough to darken most of the chamber. Spot lights, bright and noticeable, shining above Raven Branwen's head, surrounding her, the sole luminating light.

"The Enclave is eternal! For as long as a single member of our numbers lives, the dream lives on! While you are a small speck among the vastness of the cosmos. Alone and afraid and once you're gone you will be forgotten. Never leaving a mark on history or even a small scrape upon the walls of the universe. While we have made our mark! While we have left our scratch onto the cosmos itself! We killed an Old God!

The volume of the speakers surrounding the room rose, his voice drumming to every person's ears.

"For all your claims of strength. For all your swaggering. For all your words! You are the one who is weak. You are the one who is the coward. You are the one who is the failure! Now, behave yourself, all of you, and tell us what you know!"

That was…inspiring. Autumn knew that Eden was designed to conduct speeches and speak to the public directly, due to his ability to be in more than one place at once, but he believed he already experienced the fullest extent of Eden's programming would allow him to go. Apparently, he was wrong and not just wrong but severely mistaken because that was the best speech he's heard in a long time.

His dad's speech on the start of the Walk East was the last good speech he heard.

It also, unsurprisingly, worked as Raven slowly sat back down to her chair looking directly at the blinking red light from the camera behind him.

"If you're their boss why aren't you here?" Raven's voice was polite, almost gentle now. That speech had more of an effect on her than he thought.

"We will ask the questions, speak and respond only when spoken too." Eden said, like a teacher disciplining a rowdy school child.

"What kind of influence do these Old God's have?" Autumn spoke, realizing this was as good a time as any to start the questions, having given a quick skim through Colwell's report again.

Raven shook her head.

"Before I give up the things I got, I need assurances," Raven demanded.

"Pray tell, what are these requests of yours?" Eden's voice was notably exasperated.

"I want protection. I specifically want the bastards who killed the old god to keep me safe from these ones. I want a good comfy room, good food, the works. I also want to bring my daughter here and for her to be given the same thing." Raven listed out.

"Daughter? Who?" Navarro words of confusion echoed through the speakers.

Raven seemed notably agitated at the questioning.

"I left her with her father. I didn't want her to be associated with me and get hunted down."

"Commendable," Eden commented, Autumn and Cornagi nodded as well. It was truly an amazing concept to see a raider care for a child, let alone their own.

"Where is your daughter located? It may take us time to retrieve her." Cornagi questioned.

"In Vale, with her father. On another continent." Raven bluntly stated, getting Cornagi to lean back and glance at the other generals.

"That.. may be difficult to do."

"No need. I have the means to get her." Raven explained.

"I couldn't help but notice you never mentioned taking her father with her. Trouble in paradise, hon?" Bruja pointed out with a smug smirk, causing Raven to frown, deeply.

"I…I was different back then. Before I realized what was out there, that is. He and I never saw eye to eye, but I still believed he was the best person for my daughter to stay with."

"And there she is. The real women beneath that mass murdering exterior. I would call you a hypocrite but I just think you're more of a realist." Navarro sardonic words made Raven physically tense.

So tense not a word left her lips.

"Come on, Raven, where was all that 'strength begets all' talk from back in the camp. Was that all a show? I'd say yes but my gut says you actually believe half that stuff. Which really begs the question. You're alright letting other people's children be abused and raised under the Branwen roof, making those kids 'strong and powerful' when grown, but yours? Either you saw how messed it was in the camp and you didn't want your daughter in that mess or…"

"She's getting different training, Who's the kids' dad, lady." Colwell finished for Navarro, seemingly finishing Navarro's thought. Autumn wasn't surprised, those two always understood each other very well, gave them a common goal and it was scary how in sync they could be.

"...He's a Huntsman." Her voice serious and heavy, intending to provide gravity to her words.

Sucks that no one understood what she meant as the Enclave members looked at each other in visible confusion.

"Sooo, he hunts?" Colwell commented, confused.

"I expected something a little more…" Cornagi began, searching for the words.

"Omph?" Bruja supplied.

"Basically." Cornagi relented.

"Think it through, we don't know what species exist in this new world. Remember how Colwell hunted down Killer Horner's at the border of Canada? Those things were fifteen feet tall and ten feet wide, could tear open Power Armor and were resistant to energy fire. That said, what kind of game is in, where did you call it, Vale?" Autumn jumped in.

"Wait, no, I remember this. Vernal mentioned it to me once. Huntsman is what they call their special forces that specialize in fighting those mutants, the bone and black things. They call them Grimm, by the way." Navarro remarked.

"Oh, I get it, cause they go out and hunt them. I like it." Colwell finished with a strangely childlike smile.

"Yes, Huntsmen and Huntresses are warriors who are trained in hunting and killing Grimm. A single skilled Huntsman can clear out an entire army of Grimm on their own."

"How? Do they know their weaknesses? Are they provided with the best weapons? What forms of training are they given?" Autumn quickly bombarded her with questions. If a single member of this Huntsman Unit can kill what took half of the Enclave to clear, then they will need to understand every aspect of their being, better than even they can.

"In order, they are taught everything on Grimm behavior and weaknesses. Huntsmen, by tradition, make their own weapons, with a few exceptions and training differs. Some people like using axes or spears, but everything is normally a gun. None of that gives them the edge if that's what you're looking for. It's their Aura and Semblance that makes them the strongest people around."

"A what?" Bruja narrowed her eyes, suspicious.

"I remember what you said about Aura, vaguely. Something about it being the physical representation of your soul and how it acts like an energy shield. Got no clue about semblances though." Navarro mused.

"Soul!?" Bruja stood from her chair in surprise.

"It's not Old God related! It's purely biological!" Raven yelled out, quickly trying to clarify.

"Ok, I'm calling bullshit on that. I've experimented on thousands of different types of mutant genotypes all with countless different adoptions and biological components. And not one! Had anything close to what you've just described." Liz butted in, the absurdity in her voice noticeable.

"Yes, mutants from wherever you guy's are from but you're not there anymore. Everyone can unlock their aura here!"

"She does bring up a good point. Maybe their bodies adapted naturally to develop it and their explanation for it is that it's their soul." Razz reasoned.

"To develop fully functional energy shields out of purely biological competents is unheard of! That would require such a drastic rewiring of the nervous system not to mention a shift to brain function to be able to control such a thing by mental command. Joe, have you had any experiences with this?" Liz deductions were sound, from the little Autumn understood of human biology, he was certain if given more time on the subject she would have a fully developed thesis by the end of the month.

"Yes, actually. Several, in fact. When I asked her to prove it the first time she mentioned it. She decided to stab herself to prove it. It stopped above her skin and a reddish glow covered her body, protecting her. Second, was when I had to fight Vernal's former parents in a death match-"

"You what?" Razz asked flabbergasted

"You killed her parents?!" Cornagi shouted, horrified at the thought.

"Damn, you must have really wanted her." Bruja whistled, impressed.

"Awww, that's cute." Liz commented.

"...I'll explain that later. What I was trying to say is that her mother had this protective shield around her. It took me a while to get through it. Plus, I think that shield made her hits tougher. It felt like I was fist fighting a Super Mutant Master again. Which was strange considering the woman was smaller than me!"

"Jesus, you need to hit the gym, buddy. You almost got your ass kicked by an oomp loopa." Colwell snarked.

"Haha, very funny. Anyway, the third time was in the vertibird-

"The Great Devourer," Cowell corrected, with a smug smile.

"...while we were in The Great Devourer, happy?"

"Very."

"Good. Continuing on, Colwell shot her while we were in there, point blank I might add, with his hand cannon. Interesting thing to note, it took only one shot to take her's down." Navarro loudly stated, clearly meant to inform them of the raiders' limits.

"Only one? Our armor can take three before it pierces through." Autumn informed the room, remembering one of the six reports Colwell wrote, which was more of a brag sheet about his family heirloom, but it did provide interesting statistics in APA limit testing.

"Which means their aura is weaker than our armor. So, how the fuck can they kill an entire army on there own?" Bruja shot at the raider.

"Navarro, you missed one." Raven Ignored Bruja's question causing her to growl.

"Ms. Branwen, do I have to remind you of your limitations again?" Eden interjected.

"No! No, I was informing Navarro and answering the question at the same time." Raven quickly explained.

There was a short pause before Eden responded.

"Very well, continue."

"Thank you. Navarro, during your fight, both of them had aura."

"I distinctly remember cutting off that noisy fucks head on my first try."

"Yes, you did but that was because his aura had depleted."

"But… I never hit him." Autumn could just imagine Navarro's famed scrunched face of confusion.

"That's because Aura is not just a shield. It's just the easiest way to explain it to people who don't know about it, which is more than you would think. Anyway, it can be used as a power source to increase your strength, speed, healing, and more."

"What! That implies whatever you have in your biological makeup is attached to every gland, node, muscle, and tendon in your body. That's not just a reworking of the nervous system or even adding another organ. That's an entire physiological makeover. You shouldn't even look human!...Wait, does she look human, I never met her." Liz's screaming quickly turned into confused questioning.

"You saw her in the Hanger Bay when you picked me up. The woman with long black hair." Navarro pointed out.

"Ooh, her. Now I'm sad that Colwell cut her hair off. Those were some beautiful locks of hair. That said, you shouldn't even look human!"

"Look, I don't know the details, ok! I just know the stuff exists and how to use it. If you want to know more, find a book or grab a scientist from Atlas, you'll find your answers there." Raven clarified, defending herself.

"Atlas?" Liz's voice held a tinge of interest.

"Before we move into a different topic, allow her to finish her explanation of these Huntsmen's abilities. Proceed, ." Eden clarified, reaiming the focus of the discussion.

"So, yeah, Omar, the dad, he used up his aura because he supercharged his semblance to work on you."

"Wait, are you talking about his mind control?"

"That wasn't mind control, it was more heavy suggestion. He called it Silver-Tongue, the name implies how it works. He couldn't just outright take over your mind. He needed to give you a phrase or something that implied some form of suggestion to activate it and when he did you would follow whatever suggestion he implied or asked you to do."

"And when he got mad at me for not following it he kept using it and using it until his Aura dried up. Breaking me free and giving me the chance I needed to kill him."

"Exactly."

"And all Huntsman has this ability?" Autumn asked, leering at Raven.

"A Semblance? Yes, but something like Silver-Tongue? That depends. Semblances are unique to each individual who has an unlocked aura. Some say it's an important piece of your soul manifested. Others say it's an ability gained during a time of crisis. Or the last piece needed to complete your soul. There's a thousand and one theories on it so it's anyone's guess how it works."

"What's your Semblance?" Bruja asked, narrow eyed.

"I can make a portal to whomever I've made a bond with."

"Ok, I'm done. I can, maybe, see a feasible explanation behind that guys silver-whatever. A pheromonal release or spores released from his mouth grown in his lungs and a dozen other potential possibilities. But that! No, not possible. If Semblances truly have this level of variety between people then this isn't biological at all. This is magic." Liz declared.

Autumn nodded at her assessment. The more the raider explained the specifics the more it became apparent this wasn't some form of darwinistically deleveopled defense mechinisim but something far more complex.

"It's not magic." Raven monotonically stated.

"It sounds like magic." Bruja responded.

"It's not," Raven insisted.

"Mind Control, Portal making, and Lord knows what else. It's magic." Razz remarked, leaning into his palm, staring at Raven.

"And I'm telling you it's not!" Raven was nearly shouting now.

Autumn narrowed his eyes.

"Why are you so adamant that it isn't?" Autumn asked, curious. There was more at play here.

Raven's eyes bore directly into his, red met steel gray, in a surprise battle of wills. There was something Raven was hiding, of that he was certain, and he'd be damned to let her get away with it.

"What are you hiding?" He pushed, at his words the comforting hum of laser rifles filled the chamber, their safeties clicked off. The square chapped barrel pointed towards Raven for the third time this meeting. She glanced at them for a moment before she met Autumn's eyes again. She held for a few moments more before she shut them and sighed.

"...It's because I have magic."

"I'm pretty sure we just established that. Am I missing something?" Colwell looked around the room in confusion.

"No, I mean actual magic." She repeated.

"Our initial tests showed no magical energy emanating from you." Bruja countered.

"Then your tests are faulty."

"I doubt that. They've had a 100% success rate."

"Then-I- Can I just show you?" Raven requested, glancing at the weapons around her.

"Ms. Branwen, I will allow you to produce a small demonstration. Only a small demonstration. With that said, General Bruja, members of the Devil Dogs, prepare yourselves, if this appears to be in any way an attack against our high command she is to be executed immediately." Eden ordered. The Devil dogs in the room took aim at Raven intently, Colwell pulled his revolver out yet again, pointing it with the hammer back at Raven.

Raven gulped.

"Alright, so my aura is still drained from when Colwell shot me on the bullhead so I can't use my semblance." Raven explained.

"Is there any way we can confirm this?" Bruja interrupted.

"I don't think so, aura being inactive is harder to tell since it's only visible If I'm actively using it to defend myself." Raven explained.

"Sandy, leg." Colwell ordered. The sound of paws on the ground led to Sandy lunging at Raven's leg. Sinking his teeth into it and causing Raven to scream.

"Release." Colwell called towards the dog, instantly he let go and walked back to his owner.

Raven examined her bitten leg, her leggings were torn and small bite marks were visible, some blood leaking out.

"You could have just punched me, you know." Raven growled nursing her wound.

"Not as fun." Colwell's smile was wide.

"And it's proved you have no Aura at the moment." Autumn commented.

"When you're done send her down here. I'll take care of the bite." Liz requested, but Autumn didn't need to see her to know the purpose of her request was about far more than the bite.

"No need." Raven blinked, her blood red eyes shielded from sight, before opening them revealing them brightly glowing. Her hands shined bright white as she gently caressed the bite. After a moment she removed her hand revealing fully healed skin.

"Fascinating." Eden stated.

"Why? What happened?"

"She fixed her leg, Liz. Healed it right up with her magic." Colwell told her.

"Damn," Liz's disappointment, though a whisper, could still be heard through the speakers.

"That certainly proves it but I'm still failing to see how that's different from an Aura and a Semblance." Razz spoke, rubbing his chin.

"Look, they're different. I-"

"Where did you get that power?" Bruja demanded, glaring, her voice leaving no room for counter.

Raven was taken aback by the question.

"What do you mean?" The raider's voice was almost uncertain.

"I mean, where did you get it? Cause that isn't just any old magic. You had no incantations, no use of sigils or symbols, no focus, not even a word of power. That isn't magic learned, that's magic gained." Bruja was giving her an accusatory finger, slowly standing from her chair as she spoke.

"Bruja, before you continue, remember this is a different world. Their magical system could be very different from ours. I mean, I'm in full agreement that Aura and Semblance are part of it. There is no way it's natural but if she's saying she has something other than that then she likely got it a different way." Cornagi interjected before Bruja could continue her accusation.

"Amani, I know you're trying to play the devil's advocate here like you usually do but can you just not today."

"Because you don't like her?"

"Because I really don't like her."

"Then no. No, I won't. We already have one guy going stir crazy. Can't have a rampaging witch get away with doing whatever she wants." Cornagi bluntly stared towards Bruja who glared at her in return.

Autumn wholeheartedly agreed with Cornagi's words. Eden was having a tough time controlling Colwell as is, having Bruja being thrown into the mix would probably lead to something terrible happening.

"Must I now remind you, General Bruja, that the goal for this meeting is to aim the Enclave to the next foreseeable step in furthering our power and influence. Allowing your personal feelings in this matter will only derail us towards the ultimate goal. Therefore, I will allow you to redeem yourself. Reiterate what you aimed to say before General Cornagi stopped you, be the most objective as possible and do not twist your words in order to insinuate or imply a danger originating from her of which would cause us to respond with more force than is appropriate." Eden vaguely threatened, and using a very specific example that was definitely from the psych evals.

He knew writing those reports was gonna be good for something.

Bruja growled in annoyance and even bit into her nails in frustration before spitting a piece out, releasing a sigh along with it.

"Look, I know you guys are arguing and all but I really can't tell the difference between learned magic and gained magic." Colwell exclaimed, looking at Bruja for an answer. The woman glanced at Colwell with pain in her eyes for a moment before answering.

"Learned magic needs a reference point. A connection to a deity, to Nature, or the Void by way of word, focus, or markings. Magic gained is when you gain something to have direct access. Like a key to a door to a pool of power. No reference requirement." Bruja explained, arms crossed as she stared down towards the raider.

"And how do people usually get this key?" Navarro spoke, his voice filled with suspicion.

"I've seen a jewel stabbed into a guy's chest. A madwoman replacing a limb with a supernatural one. Even an old man removing their own eyes dousing them into a magical substance and then eating them. The rarest one is being blessed by a deity."

Raven shook her head so fast the Autumn swore he saw doubled.

"I didn't get it from anything like that!"

"But you did get it right? So this is Gained Magic." Bruja widely grinned at her, ecstatic for being right.

"Ok, yes, it is." Raven brugredely admitted.

"Where did you get it?" Navarro pushed.

Raven paused, looking away, thinking.

"Answer now, would you please." Eden ordered. Likely noticing the same thing Autumn had. She tried to stall. To give her time to think up how to introduce this power without incriminating herself. Of course, they had no direct evidence of this but he's dealt with enough people to tell. The only real way to get as close to the truth is to push them to answer quickly, not allowing them to think.

"Ok, ok. I learned of it from my brother." Raven began.

"His name? We will need to pull him from the cells." Autumn asked, moving his hands to his computer quickly opening the pager program.

"He's not there. He left the Branwen tribe years ago." She explained, causing Autumn to raise an eyebrow.

"And you just let him?" Colwell asked, giving her an exaggerated raised brow himself.

"Course not, my father did."

"He left before you were Chieftain." Navarro stated, clearing up any confusion.

"Yeah, pop's saw Qrow as a weakling but he was still his kid. So he let him leave instead of killing him like we tend to do with the weak links."

"Wait, Crow? And you're named Raven? Aha, was your dad's name Hawk or something?" Bruja laughed with her words.

"...It was Falcon, actually."

"Shit, you were close." Colwell told Bruja with a smile, raising his closed fist for a bump, which she responded in kind.

"Moving on from their interesting naming scheme. Please continue on the origins of this power and how it relates to your brother. You said he was banished. Did he tell you before he left?" Eden pushed the issue back into focus.

"No, I went after him. Wanted to see if I couldn't whip him into shape to get him back into the tribe."

"How familial of you." Cornagi commented. Autumn agreed as it was within her expected action so far. Her interest in her daughter's future showed care for family, blood related primarily, so ignoring her values for their future was within her parameters.

"Yeah, only I was too late."

A cold chill went down Autumn's spine at her words. Her voice carried an undertone of sorrow and fear. Autumn straightened his back in interest, fighting off the chill.

This is what they've been waiting for.

"As in?" Razz asked.

"As in he was already inducted into His cult." Raven stated, causing everyone in the room to twitch. Some leaned forward, others leaned back, most focused intently on her words.

"I assume this His is an Old One?" Eden questioned.

"Before we go further I need us to set the deal straight. Write it on paper, have me sign something. Not giving up anything else until then." Raven stood firm, her arms crossed.

"Agreeable, allow me to recite your conditions. You wish to be given special privileges in living quarters, rations, and acquisitions tokens. You wish to have protection. This protection must be personally attended to by the same squad of soldiers who killed the Old God we have faced before. Furthermore, you want these same privileges to be extended towards your daughter as well. Are these conditions correct?" Eden listed her conditions.

"Yeah, that sounds right." Raven agreed with a nod.

"General Colwell, do you agree to protect Raven Branwen, and her daughter, from any threat, foreign and domestic, ensuring their safety in turn securing the Enclave crucial information vital for its continued success and survival?"

"Wait why-" Raven started, confused.

"I hate babysitting but I wouldn't mind some consistent eye candy." Colwell answered with a smirk.

"A clear and concise response, General." Eden ordered.

Colwell rolled his eyes.

"Yes, I agree to the assignment and I aim to hold my end of the bargain."

"Wait, why is he the one protecting me! I thought Navarro was in charge of the guys who killed it!" Raven argued, pointing at Colwell.

"You are correct. Navarro was the commanding officer of the Canine Brigade during the battle against the Old God. However, Navarro is no longer its leader, in fact, the Canine Brigade no longer exists. Its members have long since divided themselves into smaller facets of our military. The final members turned into the Devil Dogs, who as the most direct descendent of Canine Brigade, will fulfill the obligation as your protectors led by General Colwell. They are one of our best Squadrons in the Enclave. You are in safe hands." Eden consoled her, trying to alleviate her concerns.

"But-I"

"What? You thought Navarro would be in charge of you? Should have been more specific, tits." Colwell said with a cheeky grin.

"The deal's been agreed on. Can't change it now!" Bruja quickly reminded her.

Raven huffed in annoyance.

"Don't worry, I'll give ya shelter from the storm." Colwell said, never once loosing his grin.

"General Autumn, the print, if you please." Eden asked him. Autumn looked to his side, below the table and saw a paper being slowly printed out from the fax machine at his thighs. The symbol of the Enclave, a large 'E' surrounded by thirteen stars, was printed at the very top, it read.

Office of the President

Commander and Chief of the Enclave

and The United States of America

Location: Raven Rock, Unknown

Date: February 3rd, 2249

For the future security of the Enclave, and the future of the United States of America.

I, John Henry Eden, President of the Enclave and United States of America, hereby inscribe whomsoever signs this document as recipient(s), as well as this recipient's dependents, will be provided with unlimited domestic support and supplies of the highest quality available as well as access to extensive medical assistance while under Enclave jurisdiction. Said recipient(s) will also receive personal protection and acting liaison by an officer of the Enclave, by the name of General Dylan Colwell, and his/her unit of command, who will ensure the recipients and dependents, if there are any, survival against any threats, both foreign and domestic.

In exchange, the recipient(s) must become subservient on Enclave law and command. Recipient(s) must indulge in any formal request by the President of the Enclave and the United States of America, current and future, as well as any formal request from Enclave High Command, current and future, as well as any officers acting in the Recipient(s) protection unless said request directly violates an Enclave Law or, in primacy, endangers the Enclave, and the United States of America's, livelihood or safety as a whole or partially.

If the recipient(s) is/are found breaking Enclave Law purposefully or, in primacy, aimed to, or actively has been, endangering the Enclave, and the United States of America's, livelihood or safety as a whole or partially; Then the President of the Enclave and the United States of America, current and future, and the Enclave High Command, current and future, as well as any officers acting in the Recipient(s) protection reserve the right to null this contract.

If the recipient(s) has/have been declared past mortem by complications of health or by natural causes this contract will be nulled and voided and the recipients dependents, if there are any and they continue to be in good health, will not continue to benefit from this contract. There which, the President of the Enclave and United States of America, or the Enclave High Command, present at the time of this event, will decide on what will be done towards the dependents, if any action is necessary. During such period General Dylan Colwell and his/her unit of command will be incharge of the safety and detainment of such dependents.

In decorative cursive.

John Henry Eden

Below that were the dotted lines to sign, along with a section for witnesses.

"Here, I assume you can write." Autumn lowered the paper down over the lip of the desk along with a pen. He withheld The self-satisfied smirk that threatened to escape his lips.

Raven growled at the insult before snatching the papers. She raised her pen to roughly sign on it, using the front panels of the desk for a surface before pausing.

"Why is there a big square on the bottom of this?" She asked confused, pen raised.

"As an officer in the Enclave Military Colonel Sandy Colwell is expected to leave a signature. The space will be where he will leave his paw print." Eden explained, his voice serious.

"You're kidding me." Raven stared at the blinking camera in disbelief.

"We're deathly serious," Colwell spoke from behind Raven in his seat, his eyes in a glare. While Sandy peeked out from beneath the desk searching for whoever called his name.

Raven flinched before she turned back towards the paper and signed it. She returned it to Autumn who then sighed his name in the witness section before handing it to Bruja. Then she did the same before passing to Colwell. After Colwell sighed it he crushed the pen causing the ink to leak out.

"Hey!' Autumn shouted. That was his pen, it was over 200 years old!

Colwell ignored him as he let the ink drip onto the paper.

"Give me your paw, Sandy." Colwell referred to his baby voice as Sandy gave him his paw. Colwell then pressed it kindly onto the paper before he removed it leaving a distinct doggy paw print.

"Now give it to Skylady." Colwell ordered as he let Sandy very lightly gripped the paper between his teeth before he sauntered over to Cornagi without a care in the world.

"Thank you, Sandy." Cornagi thanked him as she scratched him behind the ears with a smile.

After Sandy turned back to Colwell, Cornagi signed the paper with one of her pens before passing it to Minotaur along with her pen, Hellhound, Luison, and Ghost gathered behind him.

By Enclave Law, all officers are eligible to be considered a witness when a witness is needed. Furthermore, when there are more than one officer then each officer in the vicinity are all required to sign as a witness.

Every Enclave member in this room was an officer and, by law, must sign their name onto the document.

It took a minute for the signatures to be fully gathered and the paper to be scanned into the digital systems, as well as Navarro and Roosevelt aending a copy of their signatures to Eden for confirmation, of Raven Rock and cemented as an agreement of the Enclave but it was completed all the same.

"And with that I've got a say on whatever you do, you're under my protection now." Colwell spoke, leaning back with amusement crossed.

"So long as you fulfill your part of the agreement." Bruja brought up, Colwell nodded, looking more satisfied at her interruption than he should.

"So speak up, all or nothing at all." Colwell finished, ominously.

Raven glared at Colwell for a moment before signing, relaxing her shoulders.

"Full disclosure, I never realized the cult my brother got stuck into was a cult in the first place before talking with Navarro."

"What did you think it was at first?" Navarro asked.

"The guy's inner circle. The old god is masquerading as the head of one of the Huntsman Academy's, the one in Vale called Beacon. It's where my brother went to learn how to become a Huntsman while I went to Haven, the Huntsman school here in Mistral."

"Wait, they just accepted you? No questions asked? Wouldn't there need to be some sort of background check or something? Surely they figured out your bandit origins, both you and your brother?" Razz questioned, confused, getting nods of agreement from the rest of the general's.

"Not really. You can use a fake name and they really won't check that deep if you say you grew up in the Grimmlands, it's what we call the area's unsettled by settlements and cities. And if they do dig deep they'll find nothing and it'll work in your favor. It's actually pretty common. You'd be surprised how many people survive out here in small groups. There are hundreds of nomadic tribes roaming around."

There were physical twitches in irritation from Colwell and Bruja. Admittedly, though Autumn didn't have the instinctive reaction of murdering every tribal in sight like those two, the idea of there being hundreds of roaming bands of tribals that could someday just so happen upon Raven Rock didn't sit well with him.

"That makes…sense actually." Razz responded in satisfaction.

However, the idea of an Old God effectively hiding in plain sight is far more terrifying and troubling.

"How are you so sure that this man, the head of this Beacon, is an Old God?" Autumn questioned.

"And how does he connect to the magic you have?" Bruja added.

"Yes, that as well." Autumn nodded at the addition.

"A few things, I didn't connect the dots until I spoke with Navarro plus you confirmed some things for me of how there is magic specifically connected to being given, not something you can learn. My brother was rewarded with magic for his service."

"And that would be?" Bruja pushed.

"Shapeshifting. Specifically to a crow. He was literally designing him to be his enforcer and spy."

The entire High Command looked towards Bruja, expecting elaboration.

"Shapeshifting? That's not directly connected to the Old God, a lot of animal gods give their followers the ability as well, but it doesn't disprove her claim." Bruja explained objectively.

"And you're sure your brother's semblance didn't just change or evolve or something?" Colwell spoke with a raised eyebrow.

"Semblances can't do something like that and even if it could, the change from his semblance to shapeshifting is too drastic of a change to even be conceivable."

"Ok, what's his semblance?"

"It's a passive one. In a radius around him it gives everyone shit luck, himself included."

Autumn blinked, not believing his ears.

"Bruja when we get our hands on someone with a semblance I want you in the room. This is beyond ridiculous at this point." Liz requested, his voice sounding exhausted at the thought of an ability, supposedly biological, that can bend the laws of the universe to affect someone's luck.

"It's true! Qrow's semblance does affect luck. I know most people don't believe luck exists but-"

"No, need, lady. We know luck exists. I'm the luckiest bastard here, with a solid 10+ on my stat." Colwell said with a grin.

"What? Stat?"

"Yes, Luck is one of the seven statistics under the S.P.E.C.I.A.L Algorithm. It's a proven theory that someone can accurately quantify a person's attributes down to a simple to understand number ranging from 1 to 10, however, there have been cases that some would have certain stats above 10. In these cases they are given a '+' at the end to denote it being higher than what we're able to measure, for now." Liz explained clinically.

"Your saying that having an aura and semblance is weird but being able to crunch down someone into a number isn't?"

"It's a proven scientific theory." Liz reminded her, with a hint of defensiveness.

"How?" Raven pushed.

"Because we have clear concrete evidence correlating a stat number to a person's abilities. A man with a strength of 5 can't carry as much as a man with a 6. A man with an agility of 6 is faster than a 5 and so on and so forth. There are concrete experiments proving this theory. While with aura and semblances the best theory there is 'it's there soul'." Liz ended with distaste dripping from her lips.

"Ok, fine. It sounds like you guys can actually do it and I told you to talk to an Aura Expert, they'll know way more."

"Yeah, right." Liz finished with a scoff, Autumn felt the eye roll from here.

"Moving on. With the clarification of your brother's semblance, it's safe to say that the shapeshifting is something very out of the norm for him. However, that doesn't totally rule him serving as an Old God. As Bruja explained other deities can give this ability as well. We have dealt with many different gods, some were benevolent and others malevolent but none carry the amount of raw dangerous power that Old God's do, which is why we treat them as such a serious threat. What else is there?" Autumn refocused the discussion.

"Two things. Navarro mentioned how Old God's can change the mentality of others and I can safely say that It transformed my brother to a man I don't recognize."

"Maybe the guy just realized where he came from and decided to change." Navarro suggested.

"You didn't know my brother before, I did. He was different. If that didn't put alarm bells in your head then this will. He can't die."

That caught their attention.

"Explain," Bruja spoke first.

"That thing. It takes over a different body whenever his current body dies, from old age, in a fight, hell choking on something, it doesn't matter. He shows up a few months later in a different body, awake and ready to take control again. I haven't seen it first hand, but it's happened before. Hell the life he's living now was planned out, he planted himself into the perfect position to become the youngest headmaster in history."

"Killing someone who finds a new body upon death… oh I'm going to have fun." Colwell said, a sinister smile developing on his face, while his dog decided to lick something off the side of his face.

"That sounds different than what we've seen before but Old Gods play by different rules no matter what physical plane the beings use. It sounds like some kind of spiritual parasite to me." Bruja said with a hand on her chin.

"It could be, if aura really is the soul of these people then the old one could be latching onto a soul to control someone, feeding off of it and using the host to expand its influence." Autumn mused.

"For all we know it could kill the host when it takes over, drain the soul and maybe use it as food." Navarro brought up.

"Without knowing how that process works or why it's doing it we won't be able to track it after this life, and without a proper way to track him after death…" Bruja thought aloud.

"That'll be something to think about later, Raven please continue." Autumn advised before pushing forward.

"So, you believe me?" Raven asked, her eyes begging.

"It's not concrete enough for us to officially categorize this…thing as an Old God but we will keep this under consideration. Is there anything else that may make us reconsider this?" Autumn explained.

Raven opened her lips to speak before she stopped, scrunching her face in thought. They waited a few moments before she shook her head.

"There's nothing directly related to him but there's a lot of stuff that paints a pretty enough picture when all the pieces are set in."

"Then, enlighten us with this vision. Please, describe everything relevant at once, and I know many of you enjoy asking questions for clarifications as we discuss but I implore you all to refrain from speaking until she has finished. I want this picture to be as clear as possible." President Eden requested, getting nods from few and pouts from others.

"Thanks. To start off with let me just explain how Huntsman academy's work. There are four, one for each kingdom, and they aren't controlled directly by their governments, some law put in place after the Great War saying they have to be separated. Anyway, these schools are just like any other preppy school. Initiation exams, applications, class, and so on just revolved entirely over fighting and learning how to hunt Grimm. Like I said before, anyone can apply as long as they can prove their skill but there are prep schools all over the place to help.

With all that said, they are still independent factions. They have their own funding with whatever they can get money from, usually big money Huntsman Contracts. Each one led by a Headmaster and then Deputy Headmaster and then the teacher's after them each one a veteran Huntsman, and don't let their age fool you they still train to keep themselves keen. I've heard stories of elderly huntsmen killing Grimm and Huntsman alike at the ripe old age of eighty.

Anyway, what I want to say is that each Academy is independent but they really aren't. The thing in Beacon, he has a shadow council among all the headmaster's. They follow his lead. He's got all of them under his thumb giving him armies of Huntsman And Huntresses at his beck and call. He has them united by giving them a common enemy. Her."

Autumn shifted at the mention of another Old God. He honestly didn't remember if she said there were two or not when they started. It's been a long meeting.

And his throat felt dry.

"Like I told Navarro, I never met her but I've seen pictures of her. The thing in Beacon can hide his true face but she doesn't bother. She takes a humanish shape, a female one, bone white skin, black veins surrounding her body, blood red eyes, the whites of her eye's black as night. I don't even think she even walks, preferring to float above the ground as she moves. She is the most dangerous and deadly thing on this entire planet. Not because of whatever magical power she has but because she's the one who made the Grimm. She is their Queen and Creator.

I have no clue how long they've been fighting but I'm willing to bet they started long before humanity was a thing. Why? I got no clue. Ask them but I do know what they are focused on right now. The Relic's. There are four. Relic of Choice, Creation, Destruction, and Knowledge. I know where Knowledge is at. For the other three I have a pretty good guess but I do know most of them are under His control.

Oh, and she can't die either. Like at all. Utterly and completely immortal." Raven finished with absolute certainty in her voice.

"Now that one. The female sounds like an Old God. Every single Old God has children born from them, twisted and fucked up. This explains why the Grimm are so unnatural. It explains a lot of things actually, anatomy, variety of species, lack of organs. Only thing I don't get is why they keep attacking us. We didn't attack them or mess with them at all when we arrived. They struck first." Bruja expanded, bringing up a very good point. Why were they so fixated on them?

"The why I can answer. It's because of Negativity."

Now that caught them off guard.

"Negativity?" Cornagi parroted.

"You mean like being depressed or something?" Colwell asked.

"Yes and no. If someone does have depression it's a death sentence. They are usually kicked out of whatever group or settlement they are in and left to die. Having anyone with it will cause a massive amount of Grimm to be attracted to you but that is not what I mean by negativity. Of course, it's in the list too but it also involves being angry, envious, jealous and so on. Anything that would make you feel bad usually can attract Grimm." Her words caused everyone to come to a similar realization.

"The teleportation…" Autumn mumbled.

"The experiments!" Colwell declared.

"The people who got sick." Liz stated.

"It would appear the cause for their constant attack is clear. Our mountain is a, quite literal, mountain of negativity, a beacon for their dark mindless bodies to seek out and destroy." Eden clarified.

"No, it's more than that. If they are actively seeking out negativity it actually explains their appearance. Negative emotions tend to darken our soul, not by much but notable if you're looking for it. If they are the children of this Old God as she claims and the Grimm are searching out for negativity then it's very likely it involves how they reproduce or how she gains more power, perhaps even both." Bruja theorized, writing something down onto a piece of paper.

"Wait. You're saying those things we've been killing for the past few days are the twisted souls of people they ate?" Cornagi looked distraught by the thought.

"Yes." Bruja bluntly stated.

Autumn glanced at Raven and noticed her face grow into horror.

"I…I never thought of it like that. No one has." Raven looked away, her eyes consumed by images.

"Probably because none of you truly understood what you're dealing with." Bruja didn't even look smug. Instead, held a face of stern focus as she continued to write onto the paper.

"It…it makes sense, though. From what we know of Grimm. Growing stronger and smarter the older they get, probably from the souls they've eaten. Why the Queen is focused on killing us but not exterminating us. She's…she fucking farming us. Dear Oum."

"I guess in this world when you're sad and when you're lonely, and you haven't got a friend, we'll need to remember that death is not the end." Colwell said, rubbing Sandy's head while lost in thought.

Raven hands were cupped over her face in horror. Even a bandit as heartless as she still has enough humanity to realize how horrible of a reality they lived in.

"I'm going out on a limb here and saying we will be considering this Queen of Grimm to be categorized as an Old God." Navarro words gave way to nods and grunts of agreement.

"The Enclave High Command and the Office of the President officially recognizes the Queen of Grimm as an Old God and, currently, holds the position of the single biggest threat to our national security." Eden announced. Autumn watched as Raven released a sigh of relief, her body actually loosening from the tension, but the horror behind her eyes remained. She may have been able to convince them of the threat but it seems she wasn't ready for the true scope of her enemy either.

"Hell yeah been waiting to fight another one of those fuckers. When do we organize?" Colwell cheered.

"Hold on, before we do any strategizing we need more information. Let's start off with her name. We're lucky enough to know it already. It's Bruja's Callsign apparently. How'd you learn of it?" Cornagi asked, stopping Colwell's excitement short.

"My brother told me."

"He just blurted it out? No fear?" Razz looked at her in surprise.

"Pretty much. I don't even think he understands the rules either. Hell, the thing probably banks on it. Telling people her name to distract her even slightly so he can sneak stuff around without her noticing."

"Honestly, from an Old God perceptive, that's actually pretty smart. You don't really care for your pawns so having them say her true name will annoy her and cause her attention to focus elsewhere every time it's said. Course that usually means more dead bodies but it's still clever." Bruja complemented.

"How's your brother still alive then?" Colwell asked.

"The Queen doesn't like doing things herself. It's why she has her army of Grimm and loyal cultists to do stuff for her. I can confirm that Qrow has been hunted down by a lot of them but Qrow has been skilled enough to survive each time."

"Sounds like something they'd do." Bruja commented.

"Wait, how many people know her name?" Navarro asked.

"As far as I know, just his followers. The knowledge that she exists in the first place is pretty tightly sealed by them, the rest of the world doesn't know anything about them." Raven admitted.

"But isn't he trying to use everyone as cannon fodder? Why not make it public knowledge?" Colwell asked.

"He's trying to use his followers as bait, he probably doesn't want the truth going out incase he really is one so that his own nature isn't revealed. Or he has some other stake that we're not seeing." Bruja mentioned.

"Do you know where she is located?" Autumn asked.

"No, I don't."

"That's disappointing." Colwell remarked

"But not surprising." Bruja added, before taking her paper and slipping under desk the whirring of a machine was heard before it went silent.

"What was that?" Razz asked.

"I wrote my theory down and sent it to the Clergy. They'll go through the books to see if they can find anything that can counteract the Grimm. Maybe we'll figure out a way to purify their souls wholesale and knock out hundreds of thousands of them in one go."

"That'd be great!" Cornagi exclaimed.

"But less fun." Colwell commented with a pout.

"Hush you there will still be plenty of them to kill… I think? Actually, how much land do Grimm control anyway?" Bruja asked, with a tilt to her head.

"Land and sea. By our books 97% of the planet is under their control."

"Jeaus Christ!" Razz yelled.

"That's way more than I thought." Cornagi responded shocked.

"Well then. I hope we find something in our records. Don't think we have enough bullets for that." Bruja mused.

"Fuck yeah!" Colwell cheered with fists in the air. Joined by a happy yip from his canine companion whose tail wagged at his owner's joy.

"I thought you said there were four Kingdoms? Surely they control more than just three percent?" Autumn swore he remembered kingdoms in the olden day of earth controlling two percent on average.

"They don't. They control less actually, closer to 1%. The other 2% is settled by villages and towns."

"The fuck?" Colwell cursed in confusion.

"How is that possible?" Navarro questioned.

"What do you mean?" Raven questioned back in confusion.

"I'm asking how small are these kingdoms that they control so little land?" Navarro continued.

"Typically, it's just their capital city and few settlements on average. Vale and Vacuo have tried to branch out but they've failed every time. Mistral has a few small cities under their belt, and to be honest it's kinda misleading calling those places cities. They're closer to villages than the capital cities. Atlas, though, is the biggest with a capital city and, technically, two other major cities under their name along with dozens of smaller settlements."

"You're joking." Navarro responded

"Well I guess when you've got nothing you got nothing to lose. But are you people seriously that weak?" Colwell couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"We've fought Kingdoms three times this size back home, and those are the smaller ones!" Bruja stated.

"Why are you yelling at me for I'm not a part of them! And you! I resent that!" Raven finished pointing at Colwell for his weak comment.

"Doesn't matter, lady, we all know who's the top here." Colwell said with a grin, causing Raven to twitch back.

"Moving on, now knowing the size of these kingdoms changes things. I had initially believed them to be far larger and far more powerful. I had placed our standards upon them and that was my mistake. With this in mind, conducting operations here will be far easier. You said that we are currently Mistral? How close are we from the capital?" Autumn felt a sense of relief shift through his spine. A weak neighbor is far better than a powerful one.

"Not close at all to be honest. It's thousands of miles away from here."

"Then why call it Mistral?" Razz asked, confused.

"There are only four Kingdoms and each kingdom is on a separate continent. Well, except for Vale and Vacuo but their continent is the biggest one so they can divide it into two. The Kingdoms tend to lay claim on the entire continent because they are the biggest powers around. That and people tend to generalize the continent by kingdoms connected to it. Which is Anima, by the way, the name of the continent we're on."

"One kingdom per continent? That sounds very low with how large continents generally are. Unless they are smaller here." Cornagi remarked.

"Considering the fact we have to constantly fight against the Grimm every waking moment it's been kinda hard to have too many actual countries."

"But you said you had dozens of settlements all over the place." Razz pointed out.

"With a massive turn over rate. The kingdoms are over populated so a lot of people try and stick it out in the Grimlands, very few actually succeed and even fewer for longer than a few years. For every settlement out there, there are two more that are taken out. Then three more get built up before only one is still standing and-oh, I almost forget I have some maps. Which one of you has my stuff?" Raven asked towards the Devil Dogs guarding then.

Ghost moves from his spot and opens a small sack, her sword standing out disorderly from the opening.

"Only the maps.''Ghost commanded, pulling the bag away for a moment as she reached. Raven nodded grimly. Ghost then held it in front of her allowing her to reach in and pull out a small device, it almost looked like a thinner Pipboy 2000.

"That's it?" Ghost asked.

"Yup."

"Ok then," Ghost closed the bag up and went back to his position.

"You guys have some form of port to connect my scroll into?" Raven asked, pulling a wire out of the side of the device.

"I don't think we have anything that we can attach it to. Our tech is far too different." Autumn declared, noticing how small the plug was. It looks like a needle compared to the large bulb-like plug on their Pipboy 3000's.

"So, what, are we going to have to share it?" Raven spoke with some annoyance in her voice.

"No need, Ms. Branwen, merely hold it in front of you. I will direct my camera feed into the screens around the room." Eden informed her, causing Raven to grumble in further annoyance.

"Fine." She spoke quietly before using her fingers onto the device.

"Wow, touch screen? That's cool!" Colwell exclaimed, fascinated by the device.

"I was wondering how you were going to use it without any analog controls." Razz commented.

"You guys don't have that?" Raven asked, visibly surprised, her finger tapping at her Scroll.

"Nah, we have to use the controls on the side of our Pipboy's, see." Cornagi showed her Pipboy covered hand moving one of the dials on the side.

"Now I find that weird. You guys have laser weapons, plasma weapons, super armor and that weird drug that Navarro used that repaired his body! But you don't have touch screens."

"Nope," Colwell bluntly stated.

"Huh," Raven responded before flipping it over.

"Projecting now." Eden announced followed by the five screens surrounding the room lighting up having a modernity clear image of her map.

"This is the world of Remnant, we're down here at the southern tip of Anima and the official capital city of Mistral is over here. Up north you'll have the continent of Solitas with the capital being the flying city of Atlas, and over here is Vale and Vacuo on Sanus. Menagerie is down south of us, this smaller continent right here, but there's no official kingdom or huntsmen academy set up there, just some settlements that I've heard are pretty shitty but stable enough. Each of the capitals has a huntsman academy, Mistral has Haven, Vale has Beacon, Vacuo has Shade, and Atlas has, well, Atlas Academy. The Headmasters of each academy have a seat on their kingdoms Council, that seat gives them a lot of power already but the Headmasters also tend to function as the main course of communication from the people to the huntsmen, they can administer jobs, negotiate for them, everything. If a Huntsman needs it done the academies and their Headmasters are who you're told to go through." Raven explained.

"And all those Headmasters are part of his inner circle you said?" Autumn asked.

"Exactly." Raven confirmed.

"So this potential Old One, is basically in charge of the global special forces without anyone comprehending what kind of a threat he is? What's he even doing?" Razz asked.

"Yes he is, but he's not just controlling the next generation. Remember those relics I mentioned? They're each hidden in a vault under the schools. Thankfully, he doesn't have access to all of them." Raven explained.

"If they're all under his schools then how does he not have access to them?" Cornagi asked, confused.

"Because I have the only key to the one under Mistral, the Relic of Knowledge is sitting under there."

"Where is the key, I can get my dogs up and launch a smash and grab." Colwell smacked his hand into his open palm.

"We can't risk enemy's being aware of our presence. We should send in the Inquisitors, they can combat any otherworldly threats while sneaking in and out." Navarro pointed out.

"As much as I love your confidence in me Navarro, Colwell might be right. This wouldn't be his first infiltration and a smash and grab wouldn't be the worst idea. If he can cause enough damage then negative emotions will draw Grimm to the area and huntsmen would already be off of him, hell depending on how we do this we can stage it as an attack from the Grimm Queen so headmaster won't be suspicious, and if they can't get into the vault themselves they might not even realize we took this relic." Bruja reasoned.

"It'll be fine, I go to bury, not to raise and I play in blood that's not my own all the time. Besides, if these huntsmen are capable of fighting hordes of Grimm we should have the Devil Dogs go in, most foot soldiers and scouts don't have my squad's capabilities to engage that kind of threat." Colwell recommended.

"There's a problem with your plan. I'm the key." Raven interrupted, all eyes in the room turned back to her.

"You see, the relics aren't just shut in a safe. They're locked in vaults that are opened with magic, very specific magic."

"We never did get the full explanation about this magic of yours," Liz realized out loud.

"Please enlighten us to the situation behind your magic, its origins and relevance if you would." Eden requested.

"Fair warning, I only got a story, and its more like a myth really. Some time ago there was a wizard who lived alone in the wilderness. One day four sisters showed up to his place and tidied it up, cooked him food, and made him happy. Because of that he decided before he died he'd split the magic he has between the four of them. The story says that each of the girls got powers based on the four seasons. Thing is, that magic is still out there. According to my brother the magic passes down through some bullshit rules from one maiden to the next. As in, it's supposed to go to the young woman who was in her thoughts last but if you're not eligible then some convoluted rules decide where the magic goes. I found myself in a unique position to inherit the Spring Maidens power's, which is why I have magic.

Now I don't know much about the why for this part, but each of the maidens is tied into a vault. The vaults can only be opened by the right maiden to get a relic."

"So, we need to take you with us, if we want to get in." Colwell finished.

"Exactly, it's why part of the war between those two things is making sure they have the Maidens under their control, from what I've heard the Maidens normally stay around the area of their vault and with the Headmasters of those academies. Of course, it's not always like that, since I have the power of Spring and my brother mentioned some Maidens being turned over to her side." Raven explained.

"Makes sense, even if he ain't an Old One then controlling these people means control over the relics. And what's important about them?" Autumn asked.

"Individually they're the most powerful things you can think of. I've only personally seen the Relic of Knowledge, it could answer any question asked to it with a limit of three questions every hundred years, but my brother mentioned that they're separated from each other for a reason. Don't ask me what it is though. He never told me that part."

"The Headmaster could've built the schools on top of these vaults to protect them, maybe the Wizard behind the Maiden power's was a neutral party who kept these things out of their hands. Now with him dead, they've been fighting over them however long it's been since his death." Cornagi suggested.

"Do any of you guys think that the male Old God could have been behind the vaults? I mean, if he's been actively controlling the Huntsman Academy's for who knows how long he could be the reason why they're under his control." Razz theorized.

"He's not an Old God yet, Razz. Plus, what your saying is beyond stupid. No way someone who's actively trying to get access to weapons would close them up without a skeleton key for himself." Bruja dismissed.

"It makes the most sense that the Wizard was a separate entity who built the vaults, like Cornagi suggested. Hell, maybe he was the contributing factor into why the Huntsman academy's were built on top of them. What better people to protect all-powerful relic's than an army of special forces. The thing in charge now is just doing a great job in manipulating the current leadership." Navarro chimed in.

"And if the freaky-headmaster was going to make the vaults himself he wouldn't tie the keys to other people, especially without any assurance that the next holder of the power would use it to serve him. It would be the absolute worst tactical decision in history." Colwell added, supporting Navarro and Bruja theories.

"He's right, if Colwell, a guy with an Intelligence score of three can see the flaws, then the headmaster thing, who's way older than all of us, wouldn't be stupid enough to make something like that." Cornagi mentioned getting a grunt and pout out of Colwell.

"Can we call him something other than thing. We can call the other one Queen or Queen of Grimm but calling this guy thing the whole time is gonna get annoying quick." Colwell remarked, still pouting.

"Fair enough. Raven, dies the guy have any nicknames we could use?" Cornagi asked.

"Not that I know of unless you want to call him the Youngest Headmaster." Raven suggested half heartedly.

"I just realized something. The Queen is far more aggressive and open while the other guy is more secretive. If that is the case, it could be possible that he's not even using his true name publically. Think about it, if everytime your name gets said you get forced to focus on them, no matter how short, it'll be annoying. Then multiply that by being a public figure with you being a household name, that would make it unbearable." Liz mused, causing others to look at each other in hesitant agreement.

"We did just get done saying that abusing the Queen's name to distract her was a viable strategy." Razz reminded them.

"That is true, though the everyman not knowing it… there's still so much unknown about their battle," Bruja agreed, trying to complete the puzzle in her mind.

"So, what. We want to try and say his name and see if we get a reaction." Colwelll suggested.

"Which may or may not even cause anything to happen. We still haven't put this guy in the Old God category. As Bruja said, he sounds more like a parasite than an evil God, but Liz's point still stands. The guy would've never given away his full name so publically. It sounds more and more likely he's using a fake name." Autumn clarified.

"But him potentially being one isn't off the table so we can't just use it without any precautions." Razz added.

"Then maybe we can use half of his name. I know full names call upon the creature but what about half of it?" Cornagi suggested.

"It is possible. Half name's won't call upon its full power but it can still call him if we are not careful." Bruja explained.

"He's taking over bodies isn't he? Wouldn't he just stick to whatever his new host's name is to make it easy to hide?" Colwell mused.

"Dylan makes a good point." Navarro supported.

"Perhaps, I can simplify matters. Provide me his name so I can speak it. Due to my unique defenses the likelihood of being attacked successfully is remarkably low." Eden requested.

"But-sir," Autumn began.

"No need to worry, General, it will be alright. After we know his name then we can create an appropriate pseudonym for him to call him by."

"So, how do you want to do it? I don't think I can email it to you." Raven asked, looking at the camera.

"If possible write it visible enough upon the surface of your device. I will be able to read it from here." Eden explained.

"Alright then." Raven proceeded to touch the screen and after a few taps she flipped It over. It was too small for Autumn to read.

"Hmm. The creature's name, at the moment, is Ozpin." Eden's words caused everyone to tense in anticipation.

"Bruja?" Autumn asked.

"Nothing, sir. None of the sigils have been scratched off one and none of the bolted crosses are burning. No entity had entered the space."

"Then he was not summoned, whether that is due to my defenses or due it not being his real name is uncertain." Eden stated.

"The fact nothing happened at all is answer enough. Your defenses or not. It would have got his attention and those crosses are designed to detect it. They would have started burning when anything starts watching when they shouldn't be." Bruja corrected.

"Then Ozpin isn't its name."Colwell said confidently causing everyone to react, some reached towards their weapons, others growled at Colwell reckless use of the name, while Autumn himself reached for his trusty laser pistol, General's Judgment.

"What the fuck man!" Cornagi cursed, which was out of character for her, attributing to how shocking and sudden Colwell's action was.

"What'd I do? Bruja said it was cleared so I used it and look at that, nothing happened. We're fine." Colwell waved off.

"Stupid as he is, he's right. All the protections are intact but that doesn't mean we're entirely clear. This could mean it isn't his name and is an Old God, was his name and isn't an Old God, or wasn't his name and isn't an Old God. There are still too many unknowns to factor in before we even consider this Ozpin categorized." Bruja explained as she further examined the walls.

"Well, at least Colwell didn't get us all killed, and we can put a name down now." Razz compromised.

"True," Autumn sighed.

"Now with the naming problem solved. I think we've cleaned up on the topic of the Old Gods, right? Cause I can't think of anything else to ask. We know what their sides are, who are their main allies, their current focus, and even some of their capabilities. Raven doesn't know much more about the Queen and it sounds like she's given up everything on this Ozpin. Is there anything else we're missing? Cause I have a question I want to ask that'll derail the entire topic." Liz sounded almost excited at the prospect. Autumn became curious about what she noticed that got her so interested.

"Can't think of anything else." Colwell commented.

"Like you think?" Bruja teased, getting growl out of Colwell.

"Actually, there was something in my mind for a bit. You mentioned how Ozpin had an inner circle and how your brother was involved. I would have thought the inner circle would have been only for the other Headmaster's with that not being the case. Do you know any other agent high enough in the totem pole to worry about?" Cornagi asked.

"There's not too many in his inner circle. I know about them mostly because of my brother and partly from when they tried to recruit me. Aside from Qrow and the other Headmasters he has a few other huntsmen in there. Most of the faculty in Beacon, Glynda Goodwitch, Bartholomew Oobleck, and Peter Port I know are there. I know of one guy from Atlas, he goes by James Ironwood, he was an officer in the Atlas military last I heard. The most dangerous of agents, however, would be Summer Rose, Qrow and her are close, graduated together even, and she is a far better fighter than he is. Plus she has her Silver Eyes."

"Is that the name of her weapon or semblance?" Autumn questioned.

"No, I mean that literally. Her eyes are Silver and they are her greatest weapon."

"Explain." Bruja asked, Interested.

"Silver Eyes is a very rare, and I mean very rare trait. It's so rare in fact that the myth surrounding them has been lost to time to most of the population. And no, no one knows where the origins of this came from but they are still very real. Those of Silver Eyes have inherent magical power and are, quite literally, born to kill Grimm."

"What? They are some kind of natural born killer of grimm?" Colwell commented.

"Sort of, yeah."

"Holy Shit, that's cool."

"She can, I'm not even sure how to describe it but Silver Eyed warriors can make their eyes glow but it's not like a flashlight, their eyes basically make a flashbang that's blinding as shit and can kill most grimm on, contact I guess? Bigger and older grimm are a little more resistant to it though, but not by much. One time I saw her turn a death stalker nearly the size of your bullhead into a statue."

"What's a bullhead?" Razz asked.

"You're flyingships? I have no clue what to call them."

"You mean the Great Devourer? It's my personal vertibird, and I'd appreciate it if you referred to my ship by her proper name." Colwell said with a smile.

"Either way, that power sounds useful. Does it affect humans too or just Grimm?" Autumn asked.

"Just Grimm, though that light can blind anyone and I'm sure after fighting with it forever she's good at ignoring it or something. Maybe even come up with more tricks to use against human opponents." Raven mused.

"Noted, any other agents that would be important to know?"

"Well, I'm not sure how active an agent he is but there is Tai Yang Xiao Long, he's a master at unarmed combat but not as big a deal as Summer or Qrow, the only reason he matters at all is… well he's the father of my kid." Raven admitted.

"That seems like it would have been good to know earlier." Navarro pointed out, annoyed.

"Maybe, but I needed an assurance that my daughter would be getting out from him. I don't want her to end up stuck in that cult." Raven insisted.

"So that's why you wanted to get her out." Razz realized.

"You figured out that instead of her father being a safe place he's just going to sacrifice her on the altar or they plan to make another servant." Bruja supplied.

"Or worse and none of that were fates I could accept for her. So I wanted the assurance that we could bring her here." Raven said.

"It'll be a lot harder now, not only is she on another continent but a servant is incharge of her. We'll need to do extraction fast, efficiently, and quietly." Corgnagi said.

"Oh, getting her won't be a problem. Remember, my semblance lets me create a portal to whomever I have a bond with, by the very nature of her being my daughter I have a bond with her so I can open a portal and bring her here while she's asleep." Raven explained.

"That is a useful ability, if you wouldn't mind quickly going into more detail, how do these 'bonds' work for you?" Eden asked.

"Um, it's not something I've given much thought to, but it's something that my semblance naturally can do to people who become either important or fixtured enough in my life. I can tell where they are if I think about it and if they're in danger I know, it only works if my aura isn't out though. From there I just need to focus on my semblance and I'll make a portal to them. I figured I could portal into Yang's room while she and her dad are asleep and we'll be good to go." Raven explained.

"It sounds like a powerful ability, and I would also like to know if you have any of Ozpin's inner circle listed in your semblance as bonded?" Eden asked, Raven paled at the question. Autumn's frown grew.

"Just Tai Yang, Qrow, and Summer, naturally my brother bonded with me as soon as I unlocked my semblance. Summer was always hanging around him after becoming a Huntsman so we hung out a good amount, and Tai Yang and I dated so we made a bond before we had a baby." Raven relented.

"That means you can alert us if any of them are approaching our territory. I would also like to give you bonding time with the Generals of High command to assist in our ability to defend each other and yourself, this way if you sense one of us in danger you can open a portal for any soldiers near you to assist them or if you yourself are in danger you may portal our soldiers to your side to defend yourself." Eden recommended. Raven nodded along, she might not have been a fan of the idea of helping the other generals, but the idea of being able to summon them to her side if she was being attacked was far to appealing to pass up.

"That'll be a talk for later, we should talk about bringing back the kid first." Colwell brought back up.

"Are there any notes you would like to add to Raven's plan, General Colwell?" Autumn asked.

"Yea, it's efficient but it's too much of a give away. If they just see the kid missing they'll probably know you did it. I'm thinking we have a demo team come with, plant charges and take the kid then send him knocking on heaven's door." Colwell said.

"Why does that sound familiar?" Navarro muttered, it was heard by everyone but ignored for the issue at hand.

"It might not kill him, his aura is top quality." Raven mentioned.

"Then we deal with him another time and the kid going back to her mom is known to no one." Cornagi brought up.

"I think we're good for now. This has gone long enough. Ask your question, Liz, when we finish that we'll wrap this meeting up." Autumn concluded, moving all his paper into one pile.

"Cool, so what did you mean when you said the 'flying city of Atlas'." Liz asked, interested in her voice.

Autumn stopped his organizing, his head springing back to Raven. She said what?

"What? She never said that!" Colwell exclaimed.

"Yes she did! When she was giving us a geography lesson. She clearly said something about a flying city." Liz argued.

"Umm, yeah. The flying city of Atlas, the greatest technological marvel of our world." Raven explained.

"No way! Seriously! Why didn't we have a flying city?!"

"We have a moving mountain, now be quiet. You, Raven, explain." Navarro yelled to Colwell.

"Ok, on this one you'll get almost nothing cause I know jack shit. No one knows except for the people who built it. The only thing I can guess is they somehow used gravity Dust to lift a literal valley and built a city on it."

"Gravity Dust?" Liz specified.

"Ya, they probably used it to levitate up. Got to have been several mountain's worth of the stuff though and it doesn't come cheap but I guess it pays in having the number one producer of Dust in the world be in your backyard." Raven theorized before looking at their faces. Autumn was giving the best deadpan look he could provide.

"What do you not have Dust on your world?" Raven asked.

"Ya think?" Bruja snarked with a raised eyebrow.

"Seriously? How do you do, well anything without it? Don't expect a good explanation on Dust either. I use the stuff but I don't know how it's developed. I only know this. It's underground, comes in a bunch of different types, it's used for everything from generators to guns, and it gets people rich if you own a mine of it, but not many do. Dust mining is lucrative but dangerous."

"How can the same material used for generators be used for making guns?" Colwell leaned forward in curiosity.

"No, not guns, I said that wrong. It's used for bullets."

"That makes even less sense. What the hell is Dust?!" Colwell yelled in frustration.

"I don't know, alright. As for how the bullet part works, I did mention there were different types, didn't I? Gravity Dust is one type, then there is fire, wind, ice, electricity, and so on. There's a dozen naturally developed Dust types and another dozen hand made Dust elements out there, like magma and water. To make a bullet is actually simple. You take a metal shell and pour some dust into it, then you wrap the opening in paper. Course there is a lot of math involved cause you have to be careful with the amount of Dust you put in but it is still simple enough for most people to make on their own. When we ran low on ammo we would make our own in the tribe."

"Hang on, you pour dust into a casing and seal it with paper? How does that shit fire anything." Colwell asked.

"When you pull the trigger the bolt sparks up the paper, igniting the dust then when all the energy is released it gets shot at what you're aiming at, isn't that obvious?" Raven explained.

"No, that's not a bullet. A bullet gets striked in the shell which causes an explosion in the chamber that launches the bullet off of the shell through the barrel and towards what needs to die, this sounds more like a glorified air gun just shooting the shit whole." Colwell said

"It doesn't shoot it whole, just the…dust? It launches that while activating." Raven argued back but she didn't sound convinced herself.

"I hear what you're saying, about people and things. Your bullshit and magic and dumb eldritch beings. But this is where I draw the line, as the person in charge of the tribal leader I deem every bit of ammunition and firearms from her and her tribe to be transferred to Argos immediately for tests and experimentation." Colwell demanded.

"Granted." Autumn accepted, still confused on why Colwell is practically talking in riddles half the time but he still didn't want to deal with it.

He's stressed enough as it is.

"Fire? Ice? Dust sounds like it has a lot of properties, along with defying the laws of physics with gravity Dust thrown in. If this stuff is found like any regular old ore then, whenever possible, I'd like you to list down any major deposits you know of, including type of Dust and density, if you have any idea on the last one that is. Experimentation will require larger amounts than whatever can be found from your camp and among your tribe." Liz's clinical professionalism laced her words. The woman was known for being the premier researcher among R&D, her success was partly the reason behind her elevation in being head of the entire scientific division.

"Uhh. Sure. I'll get right on that." Raven responded, a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

"Ms. Branwen, did you read the contract?" Eden asked, causing Raven to twitch.

"Of course I did." Raven fired back, attempting to appear strong.

"All of it?"

She froze this time.

"...Not all of it." She admitted.

"Then you must have not read the section that detailed you complying to every request from High Command and myself."

She was silent for a moment, her eyes widening in shock before shutting closed.

"Shit." She grunted.

"And though is not a mandatory member she is still a part of High Command as such you are now heavily implored to fulfill her request."

"Heh, I'll admit I didn't read that far either but I'm glad he put that into the contract now. If she wants to stay on our good side then she has to follow whatever we say as well." Autumn thought, a smile gracing his lips as he jovially finished organizing his papers into the folder.

"Hah! Is the contract in the system yet? I'd like to read it." Liz asked, apparently eager to learn about whatever else she could possibly do.

"It should be finalized now. When accessing input the words Foreigner Contracts in the search bar to find it, along with the template. Considering our circumstances I thought we would need a basis for further agreements, if the need arises." Eden explained, getting a nod out of Autumn.

That solves one headache of paperwork at least.

"OK, look, I will get you that list whenever we're done here and I've got my daughter safe and sound but I'll give you an easy one so you'll get off my back. To the west of here you'll find Tuofeng Bay, it's a huge one, famous for the Floating Islands of Long Bao. Those same islands are covered in Gravity Dust, completely untapped by anyone. Fair warning though, there are a lot of Lancer Hive's up there, which is why it hasn't been touched. If you guys clear one of those islands up then you'll have plenty to experiment with." Raven explained.

She was met with silence, however, and concerned stares.

"Go back. The names of the stuff. Say them again." Colwell demanded, his voice low and guttural.

Raven looked concerned, Colwell's tone and their stares weren't giving her any sense of safety, nor even calm.

"Tuefong Bay…and the Long Bao Islands?" She was uncertain where their concern was coming from.

But Autumn knew, and understood clearly their concerns for he shared them

Those weren't just any words. They were very specific words that carried with them a similarity, or perhaps even identical, phonetics to a language they were raised to hate.

Words they were raised to search and destroy at the use of them.

A people they were raised to lay all the blame for the horrors they faced.

A nation they were trained against, to learn how to fight and kill, among the many Visiontron Pods they had in Poseidon.

The words were mandarin.

The language of their dreaded enemy.

The People's Republic of China.

"Our concern, Ms. Branwen, is due to the words themselves. They carry with them a remarkable resemblance to the language of our most powerful enemy." Eden explained, and, surprisingly, even the A.I. president held a hint of distaste in his voice.

"And? It's not like it's the same language."

That was a fair point. Though the chance of hearing let alone reading a language that was similar or even the same as a language in a different world would be staggering.

…wait.

"I just realized we share a language." Autumn blurted out, in shock, his surprise uncontrollable to the sheer redicliousness of it as well as the length of time it took for him to notice.

"Oh shit, you're right." Colwell explained.

"How did we miss that?" Cornagi mused.

"We just got here. It's not like we'll instantly register that we are in a different world the entire time." Bruja suggested.

"I, for one, don't know how nor do I care to know, I'm just glad that it's happened. Communication between us and the outsider is a lot easier because of it." Razz commented.

"Speak for yourself, the implications this cou-"

"Liz, I love you but please don't." Navarro interrupted.

"Yea my head's already starting to hurt. I don't want to deal with that shit as well." Colwell agreed.

"Well, theoretically, when SHIELD-"

"With all due respect Mr. President, that discussion is one best saved for after the meeting." Corgnagi interrupted.

"Oh, I suppose you're correct," Eden mentioned.

"We might be a bit busy sadly, but I'm sure Navarro and Liz would be happy to join you in a call while the three of you theorize what this could mean." Colwell chimed in. Autumn wasn't sure if he was trying to distract Eden or if he was just trying to make Navarro suffer, either way it helped.

"Regardless, while the Mandarin is understandably concerning, we should not overreact to it. It is possible the naming convention here is simply similar. I will ask all of you to treat the people of this world with hospitality until given a reason to react with more… direct methods. Do you understand me?" Eden said, a chorus of agreements was heard before silence took over the room as everyone stared at the one general who stayed silent.

"What?" Colwell asked.

"Do you understand these orders General Colwell?" Eden asked again.

"Ugh, fine I understand." Colwell grumbled.

"Excellent, and while I can agree to wait for Dust deposit intel until after we've reclaimed your child I would like you to share any information about the surrounding settlements, we already have troops stationed and patrolling the surrounding area, of which have discovered several settlements already, having an understanding if the locals as soon as possible is preferred." Eden said.

"I guess I can do that real quick. Let's see, if we're here then there aren't too many important places around. There's a town here and here but they're not really well off so hitting them isn't worth it unless shipments are going through. North of us is a pretty new settlement, I can't remember the name but they've got a lot of rich people who didn't like the big city and not a lot of protection." Raven mentioned.

"If the people there are well off financially, why don't they have any protection?" Razz asked.

"They have some protection, just really shit protection. From what I heard they wanted to get out of the city, but the city didn't want them to do that so no official huntsmen cases were issued to them from the academy, and all the less than upright huntsmen are being paid off not to help them." Raven explained.

"Fun, sounds like corruption 101, though not something that sounds too important." Colwell smirked.

"I'm not sure, if they're wealthy and lacking protection then it could be good for us to set up communication with them, see about arranging a deal or something. Whose closest to the area?" Autumn asked.

"I believe we have the Green Mountaineers up there. I can send a message to Captain Allan to make his way there and secure contact if you'd like." Cornagi replied.

"Please do, have him make contact with the locals and tell them that Razz and I will head out soon to strike a deal with their leaders." Autumn said, this would be the perfect chance for Eden to see him and Razz do something and have him off their back and more importantly get them out of base to think about the files they found in the hidden half of the bunker.

"On it sir." Cornagi agreed.

"Anything else around here?" Colwell asked.

"Well, there are those towns, some coastal trade routes here. Oh there is also the Glass Unicorn, it's a hotel a little north east of here that houses a lot of the corrupt and wealthy. It's a trading hub for the underground slave trade too. The downside is that they actually have some decent protection from Huntsmen who don't care about legal jobs so I never was able to raid them. Every now and then we'd be able to catch some unsuspecting travelers who were lax with their protection budget though." Raven mentioned.

"Sounds perfect!" Colwell cheered.

"Seriously Dylan?" Every member of High Command said simultaneously.

"What? It's close enough to our base to serve as a potential threat and we have confirmation not only is it filled with corrupt and rich people but they have an actual armed force that could prove difficult to deal with." Colwell mentioned.

"Eh, when I say they have huntsmen I mean they normally have two on guard outside and two more inside, and Im so sure about quality. Its a roll of dice if a Under-Huntsman is any good or not." Raven admitted.

"Even better! With my luck they'll be shit so handling will be easy and a great way to test our weapons against then before the real work would perfect. Plus, it'll be a good spot for a potential Forward Operating Base." Colwell argued, excited at the prospect of battle against known, and potentially, dangerous threats.

"Admittedly, you're not wrong." Autumn said with all the effort of pulling out his own teeth with a rusty knife.

"Besides, if it's filled with criminals then we'll have some more good test subjects, could even get our hands on some of their caps while we're at it and establish ourselves in a nice public spot with a rebranding or two." Colwell reasons, while Razz was visibly biting his tongue, clearly not wanting to risk a verbal lashing from an unsubstantiated claim against Colwell's plan but unable to think of a good retort.

"This idea does have merit. I can stay with Raven during that time and secure the retrieval of her daughter, as well as begin bonding with her myself for our plan, so that she would be able to return." Cornagi recommended.

"I guess I can go back to fixing the mess on the sixth floor if Colwell's going to be busy. It should also give me time to mull over our new information." Bruja brought up.

"The plans so far appear to be the best we can formulate with the information we know, for now. That said, we must not for-" Eden began.

"Wait, so what are you going to do about them?" Raven asked, referring to, Autumn assumed, about the Old God situation.

"Well, we still don't have enough reason to declare Ozpin as an Old god, his status is unknown and he will be viewed as a potential threat but our priority target between them would be this Mistress of the Grimm." Bruja explained.

"Honestly, if her location is unknown it'll make more sense for us to justify fortifying our defensive lines and wait for her to come to us," Navarro mentioned.

"Wait." Colwell tried to object, but it went ignored.

"It's not likely she's set up on any of the inhabited continents with what we know about their conflict. If they're keeping it from the public and fighting as a proxy war she's either going to be on this supposedly uninhabited continent or hidden in an area that's more or less undiscovered and uninhabited, which leaves our new home likely fine since the continent is relatively small." Eden reasoned.

"Hang on." Colwell tried again.

"Yes, for now we should stick to the surrounding areas that the Branwin Tribe has acknowledged as safe. We can send eye bots equipped with radio transmitters to map out areas and provide scouting that we can confirm with flyovers and our ground armour will secure the area before adding in our own infrastructure." Autumn agreed.

"The fuck are you-"

"It's not fun, but it's the most logical thing to do for now. It'd make more sense to try and stay off her radar and prepare." Bruja chimed in.

"Damn it! Either brace yourself for elimination or else your hearts must have the courage for the assaltin of this bitch!" Colwell cried out.

"We're currently in the most peaceful location we've been in for a long while General Colwell, do you believe risking that to be worth attacking this unknown enemy?" Eden asked.

"Peace will come, with tranquility and splendor on the wheels of fire. But we're earning no rewards till this false idol falls. If she doesn't know we exist then it could be the best time to strike her down." Colwell argued.

"It could, but remember she doesn't know we exist yet. This is the perfect time to get ready before she does know who we are." Navarro pointed out.

"Not only that, but she doesn't know we're the best band of old god killers out there. We don't know where she is so hunting her could just give away everything we have, if we wait here we can set up and prepare for her to come to us." Bruja explained.

"But, there are things to kill." Colwell whined, Raven looked at him through the side of her eyes as if questioning the competence of her new protector. Autumn just felt shame that he probably was the best protector she could've gotten from the council.

"We can put this matter to a vote if needed, General Colwell, though it does appear the outcome will involve waiting and not seeking out the Grimm queen." Eden said.

"Think about it this way Colwell, if we set up for her arrival then she's fighting on our turf. Our troops, our guns, our knowledge. She'll basically be walking into a trap and you'll be able to kill her with more firepower than if you went after her, until then you'll be able to help control the areas and beat up that hotel so we have more room for the trap." Corgnagi reasoned, the younger general lit up at the idea.

"Alright, then it sounds like a plan." Colwell relented.

Thank god this meeting was almost over, and if they finished soon he could probably make it down for happy hour.

"With that being established, Rivers, would you please escort your CO's new ward to a chamber she can reside in? We'll reach out to you with further instructions about what we expect to be done soon. Cornagi will also be there as soon as we've finished so you two may discuss the retrieval of your daughter" Autumn ordered.

After a few moments of gathering themselves and pushing Raven along. The Devil Dog's saluted their general and led Raven out of the room.

"Now that she's gone, there is one other matter that really needs to be addressed, the Ancharge is damaged." Cornagi stated.

"Seriously? How the hell did our moble base get damaged? Its near indestructible." Navarro questioned, disappointed and worried.

"Yes, it looks like traveling between dimensions while being strapped to the side of the mountain took a toll on its frame. It's logged itself into Raven Rock! Thankfully, we can remove it and repair any damage but it'll take some time. Good news is that the inside is relatively intact including our Armored Platoons stored inside. I've already gotten them taken out of the vehicle bay and are almost done with repairs as most of them weren't damaged." Cornagi explained, looking at one of the reports.

"Was Orion damaged?" Colwell asked, curious.

"Nope, your walking train is intact and undamaged." Cornagi answered.

"Alright then, I can take Orion to the Glass Unicorn and have it taken over before day's end." Colwell said.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Navarro asked.

"Don't think twice, it's alright." Colwell replied.

Navarro gasped, as if realizing something.

"Damn it Dylan! Have you seriously been quoting Bob Dylan Lyrics this entire time!?" Navarro yelled.

"What? Eden forced me to stay in and relax before I did my report so I looked through my grandparents' music. Wanted to see why I was named after the guy and decided I could have a little fun. Is that a crime?" Colwell argued. It took every ounce of restraint Autumn had to not get up from the table and walk towards the nearest storage hold.

"General Colwell's… interesting decision aside, what do you plan to take for your mission?" Eden asked.

"I'll take the Devil Dogs with me. I've wanted a whole team mission again for awhile and I'll trust Cornagi not to let anything happen to my ward until I return." Colwell said with a smile, his eyes burning a hole into Cornagi as he said it.

"I'll make sure to protect her how you would until your return." Corgnagi promised.

"Good, I'll probably have the Roughnecks come with me since Rico's always game for some search and destroy but I'll work on capturing alive so we have more test subjects too. Their truck can be taken out and fixed up, right? I'm planning to take that as well." Colwell promised, likely knowing Autumn was about to ask for that very thing.

"Take any you need save for our personals. Other than that, we're good here. We all have our assignments, Razz and I will depart tomorrow by Vertibird to make contact with the wealthy settlement." Autumn clarified.

"I'll head to Floor Six to see what I can do about the remaining problems." Bruja said, beginning to stand up.

"I'll join you, most of my dogs are down there anyway and I need them to arm up." Colwell said, exiting his seat and walking with Bruja out of the meeting.

"I should head to Raven soon, I'm not going to be responsible for something going wrong." Cornagi explained, exiting her own seat to leave.

"I'll sign off from the conference call then, Navarro only has two weeks in the med bay for his check up." Liz said.

"Would you be interested in a direct call while doing so Ms. Roosevelt? I would be interested to discuss theories about the linguistic similarities." Eden requested curiously.

"Sounds fun." Liz agreed.

"Send hel-" Navarro tried, only for the call to be cut off.

"Make sure you're ready to head out tomorrow." Autumn instructed Razz, standing up from his own seat.

"What will you be doing until then?" Razz asked.

"Something important and demanding." Autumn replied cryptically, walking out of the room towards the only bar I'm Raven Rock for happy hour

GOW

Wolf: so so much work. But I do think keeping this all as one chapter was the right choice. I think this way the entire cast was able to shine a lot better than If we broke it up, and it sure was a lot more fluid than if we broke it up too… thoughts bahl?

Bahlgrim: Agreed and that also including all the stuff we still not have the chance to mention. Gonna have to figure how to incorporate that stuff later.

Wolf: that sounds like a future us problem, current us already had to deal with me forgetting Navarro wasn't in the room 5 times… those scenes would've been great too, though Navarro did avoid getting shot because of that.

Bahlgrim:

Wolf: I guess bahl has left the chat for now. Well I do want to mention a few things before I finish up, the first one will be that we're going to do a live reading of this chapter in our discord currently me and bahl are trying to figure out when that'll be but you can hear bahl and I pretend we know how to read out loud and do crappy voice work, I'll make an event in the discord as soon as we finally can get a time down. And we've also compiled some of the cut scenes that we almost added into this chapter before they got cut for whatever reason, the blooper reel for this chapter will be available in the discord right after I publish this. Anything I forgot to mention was bahls job :)