"Good morning, Caspian. You slept for five hours and twenty-seven minutes."

Caspian was beginning to tire of being told how little he slept every night.

"We have a mandatory news alert from Port Cyrreine News Network. Please remain near until the end of the broadcast."

"Mandatory?" Caspian reflected. He pulled the bedcovers up to his chest as a shield against the morning's cold as he sat upright. "That can't be good."

"At 10:35pm Friday night, Vale Maximum Security Complex was struck by a series of explosions, and subsequent attack by the Creatures of Grimm. The ensuing chaos resulted in twelve deaths, and the escape of forty-five moderate to high risk prisoners." The Holoscreen showed a face all too familiar to Caspian- the baldheaded woman with heavy eyeliner, black lipstick and a ski jump nose, bruised but grinning for her mugshot. "Among the escaped prisoners is Opal Bivitta, the Red Claw head responsible for the attack on Port Cyrreine in June. Bivitta had recently been moved out of solitary confinement as per orders from Headmaster Skye of Sentinel. Skye has since declined to comment."

"Oh…" Caspian mumbled. "Really not good."

The people of the city probably wouldn't be happy with his dad. Or the school. Any of it, really.

Rowan's voice penetrated his door. "Jeez, Lilly. You look rough! What happened to you?"

"Lazula and I ran into Moka yesterday morning, and she invited us to a party," Lilly explained. Her voice was weak, barely audible through the walls. "Lazula declined, but I decided to go. And now, I have an exceptional hangover."

The guffaw must have been Rowan's "Nice! You went hard then, huh?"

Lilly groaned. "Please, not so loud…"

He heard a trio of knocks. It couldn't have been on his own door, as he had grown to know that sound all too well. It sounded further away.

"Rowan, could you get that?" Lilly asked. "I think I need to nap."

Rowan chuckled. "Sure. You should rest up." After a few seconds, Caspian heard the door open. "What's up?" Rowan asked the visitor.

Caspian could barely hear their voice. It was a girl's, soft and soprano. He thought he heard his name. He hoped his guess was right and stepped to the closet for a cleaner shirt, nudging a used napkin and empty bag of chips in with him, and out of sight.

"Uh, I don't know. I can see if he's awake, but…"

Caspian's open door answered the question. His eyes met Snow's. It had been weeks since he last saw her so close– the fight against Noxis. Her eyes caught him off guard. He didn't remember them ever being so blue.

"Hi, Snow. I don't mind." He looked back into his room. He'd have to remove the dirty clothes from his desk chair, but it wasn't the worst it had been. "You can come in if you want."

Snow nodded, and followed him inside. Caspian left a shoe in the doorway to vent the stale air before clearing off the chair, and taking a seat on the side of his bed.

"Is it okay if I'm here?" she asked.

"Yeah."

For the first time, he felt the freedom his breakup allowed him. He could spend as much time with Snow as he wanted, think whatever he thought without a hint of guilt. She wasn't 'the creepy girl' anymore. She was Snow.

"I left gifts with Lilly yesterday. Did she get them to you?"

Caspian nodded again. "Yeah, she gave them to me right after I woke up. Thanks."

"You're welcome." Her gaze lingered for a few seconds before falling to his floor. Either toward the pile of dirty clothes, or last night's dinner tray. "You should clean your room."

Caspian offered a light chuckle. "You're right, I should. Scary thing is, it was even worse yesterday."

A slight noise accompanied the nod of Snow's head. "Do you want me to help?"

"No, no, I should do it myself," Caspian dismissed. He clutched the comforter balled up at his side. "Thanks for coming to visit, even though I know you were upset with me."

"I was never upset with you," Snow replied. "Cattleya didn't want you to see me. I thought if I avoided you, that would make you happy. And so I did."

Caspian at first pinched his nose and adjusted his glasses, but the gesture progressed until he rubbed his eyes with his palm. "That's… even worse, somehow," he spoke into it.

"I'm sorry," Snow offered.

Caspian shook his head out of his hand. "You shouldn't be the one apologizing. You saved my life– twice, now, and I never even took the time to thank you." He drew the comforter across his lap. "So, thank you."

"You're important to me. Of course I would save you." She checked her wrist. "Lazula asked me to spar at noon, so I should be going," she said, beginning to stand. "Mission assignment is tomorrow at 2:00pm. All Sentinel students are required to attend."

"I know..." Caspian grumbled. It would be the most people he had seen since the dance. Many, many more people than he wanted to see. He just hoped CRLN would be assigned a brief mission. He'd sooner drop out than be deprived of his room for five days like first year.

"May I visit again? Maybe after our missions?"

"Yeah. Come by whenever you want."

The lightest smile traced across her lips, and she nodded an affirmation. She made it about halfway to the door before turning with a troubled look.

"Do I seem different to you?"

"Huh?" was Caspian eloquent answer. He looked her over. Her hair? No, as short and neat as usual, parted the same way. She dressed in her new combat uniform, but he had seen it already. Maybe it was her eyes? "Not really," he answered with a shrug. "You just look like Snow to me."

Her smile returned. "I see. I was given a new body after the encounter with Arum Ceddrak."

"Wait, what?"

"The damage to my chest and core was severe, so to ensure proper functionality I'm in a new body. That's why I recovered as quickly as I did."

As if she hadn't just told him she existed in a new body– an identical copy of the one he had known before, she casually made her way out the door.


Snow made it to Sentinel's main sparring arena with her usual timing: exactly five minutes early. During the couple of minutes before Lazula's arrival, she inspected each of her weapon's configurations and ran a quick internal diagnostics check. Everything appeared to be in working order. Lazula bid a brief wave before setting her gym bag by the chain-link gate she shut behind herself, and unzipping the sweater she wore over her combat attire. Snow walked up to greet her.

"Hi," Lazula returned. She fastened her sheath-belt to her waist, tugging on it twice to ensure it stayed in place. "I wanted to train with you because I heard androids have a combat capability setting. Sorry if this is insensitive, but do you?"

"Yes, I do."

"What's it usually set at?"

"In training, sixty-five percent. During high-stakes encounters, I'm authorized to increase it to seventy-five percent. Eighty, if the situation permits it."

Lazula smirked. "Can you do a hundred?"

Snow nodded. "I can, but this combat capability setting carries an unacceptable level of risk for overheating. It is only to be used during emergencies."

Lazula nodded, and her lips drew up into a slight pout. "So that's a no?"

"If you would like to spar at one-hundred percent, we can. I can set a timer for sixty seconds."

Lazula huffed. "Sixty seconds? That's plenty of time for most of my duels."

Snow stepped into the designated position in Sentinel's main sparring arena, forty feet from her opponent. She could make up the distance in one and a half seconds from a standstill. Lazula's sprint was just a bit slower than her own, and she was weighed down slightly by Aegis. By Snow's calculations, they would meet twenty-four feet from her position, roughly .8 seconds from the start of the match.

She readied her weapon.

"Warning: target possesses extreme offensive and defensive capabilities," her internal advisory monologue narrated. "Probability of victory: 1.2%. Proposal: avoid combat."

"Disregard, this is training."

"Affirmative."

The standard countdown began. With a couple of seconds left, Lazula placed her hand on Impetus's hilt and adjusted her footing. Snow grabbed Absolute Zero's handle, and did the same. They closed on each other.

Absolute Zero's Configuration A flashed with the weight of Lazula's first strike, and a gust of wind and focused energy rustled Snow's hair. She met the strike at the perfect angle above her head, and analyzed force distribution.

Outgoing: 18.8%. Incoming: 81.2%.

Snow lowered the tip of her weapon to force Lazula's blade down and to her side, then raised her own again for a series of strikes. Her first three bounced off various parts along Impetus's blade, first and third strikes pushing Snow away with twice her own force added. It was strange how precise each of Lazula's swings were, considering the raw power behind them. And the fact she was human.

But even the best humans made mistakes, like opening their ribs for a ducking slash. Lazula punched Snow's weapon away, and steel clashed with hard-light three times more. After the third, Snow again held off a downward swing with her horizontal blade. Lazula managed to twist her weapon aside and grapple Snow's to an unexpected angle, punching her with Aegis and scoring her side for a combined 20.6% decrease to her EMRF. Snow twirled aside from the next strike, and followed through with four more in rapid succession.

She decreased force output just before the last hit the center of Lazula's shield. She had seen Lazula fight enough to expect the follow-up. The near-unbeatable huntress whirled her blade around with force Snow couldn't counter, in an arc that would slash Snow from hip to shoulder if she didn't move. Her internal targeting reticle honed in on Lazula's side. At her current combat capability rating, she would be able to strike.

Snow accepted its suggestion, ducking aside from Lazula's swing and transforming Absolute Zero to Configuration E. Her speartip tore down Lazula's side, and she twirled it to strike twice at newly-created targets at her hip and stomach. Snow's final strike met Impetus, and she just had enough time to raise her shaft of hard-light against her opponent's shield bash.

The force still sent her back just over fifteen feet. She first flew on a burst of kinetic energy, before catching once on the ground. The concentrated wave of force lifted her again to the air, but her internal positioning meter kept up with her decreased velocity, and she found her footing. She skid the last several feet, Configuration C shredding the floor of the practice arena in front of her.

Unusual. Disregarding her own force magnified by a factor of six, Lazula's strength should have been impossible by any one human being.

Snow had less than one second to ponder it before Lazula would arrive, blade striking somewhere between her hip and shoulder. The android engaged almost every synthetic muscle in her lower body, blinking aside with a speed impossible of a human being. Lazula soared by, Impetus slashing the air. Snow followed her with a lash of her whip. The attack met its target at the huntress's ankle, and as she stumbled, hard-light retracted into a spear.

The weapon screamed through the air, and Lazula barely righted herself in time to bounce the weapon into the air with Aegis. The force of the blow transferred into her legs, and she sprung at Snow even faster than she had come before.

Absolute Zero wouldn't transform in time.

Impetus's steel ran parallel to Snow's body with just a couple inches to spare. The android cartwheeled under another swing as her weapon took form, and met Lazula's next with Configuration A. Again, Lazula began to twist her blade upon Snow's. Snow shifted to Configuration D, and her weapon buckled beneath Impetus's weight. She whipped the steel aside and transformed her weapon again, landing a heavy spear strike across Lazula's ribs. She twirled, following her internal targeting reticle's suggestion of Lazula's gut.

Aegis shifted with improbable timing. The force added to Lazula's next strike was of a magnitude even greater than before. Its full force jabbed her center. Her EMRF integrity decreased by 53.7% in a single blow. It hurt. And again she flung backward on a rush of force, rolling onto her feet and transforming her weapon to Configuration D to lash at her opponent's ankles and wrist on her approach.

Aegis swatted the whip aside with a flash, and Lazula sprung at Snow.

The android disengaged Absolute Zero, and sidestepped the attack the half-second before it hit.
"Sixty seconds have passed."

Lazula slowed to a stop, letting out a breath of her effort and disappointment. "Already?"

"Yes. If I overheat, it will be difficult to explain why you're carrying me to a forced reboot station."

Lazula sheathed Impetus, chuckling at Snow's dry, unintentional humor. "Ah well, that was fun. You and Midas are just about the only people who can keep up with me."

Snow cocked her head, and rested fingers at the center of her chest. An inch beneath them, her core whirred gently. "People?"

Lazula paused, before biting a lip and looking at Snow's side. "Oh, right. What do you prefer I call you?"

Snow smiled. "Person is fine."


The walk to Blue Square for mission assignment was a little bit awkward. To nobody's knowledge, Noxis slept in the dorms that night, appearing in the morning with just a handful of words before holing up in his dorm again until the afternoon. Nobody knew quite what to say to him. Caspian had a few things he wanted to say, wanted to ask. But the tension in the air, strengthened when CRLN found LSLI by chance on their way, was too heavy for Caspian to get the words off his chest.

Near Blue Square, something else demanded Caspian's attention. Shouting, or chanting. He couldn't tell which until he reached the crest of the stairway, and saw a crowd holding megaphones and waving signs with all kinds of things in a red X.

The megaphones assaulted Caspian's ears. "THIS SO-CALLED 'DEFENDER OF TOMORROW' LET CRIMINALS FREE? LET A TERRORIST FREE?" After a disapproving rumble and another megaphone's siren, the shouter picked up again. "FIFTEEN HUNDRED DEAD, THE BLOOD IS ON WHOSE HANDS?"

The crowd's response was almost intelligible. Caspian could just make out the word "Headmaster."

"AND WHAT ABOUT THOSE ANDROIDS?"

The next word Caspian could define was "useless."

Lazula leaned in toward Snow. "Don't listen to them. You're different."

Snow looked at the protestors with her signature blank stare. Then, up to Lazula. "I know."

Rowan passed by with a derisive smirk and hands in his pockets. "So… let me get this straight. They're saying the Headmaster's doing a bad job, but they're anti-Organd too? Who do they want to defend the city?" he questioned.

"This means everything the Red Claw's doing is working," Noxis commented. "People are starting to talk."

"Oh, shut up."

Skye Hall's main ballroom –with administrative offices off to each wall of white marble brick– was full of the most people Caspian had seen since the dance. Their voices blended together to one loud, indistinct rumble that quieted some when the Headmaster stepped down from his office and onto the landing between two staircases that twirled down toward the audience.

Caspian felt like half the time he saw his own father, he was on a pedestal. Caspian, Lazula, just part of the crowd.

Headmaster Skye's magnified throat clear muted the last, persistent murmurs. He adjusted his tie. He always looked a bit uncomfortable before a crowd, as if public speaking was dead last on his list of reasons for becoming Headmaster.

"These recent times have proven exactly why the world still needs the bravery of huntsmen and huntresses such as yourselves," he began. "And still, as I'm sure you saw on your way in, there are those who undervalue your work. I want to make sure my campus is a place where everyone has a voice. Even those who would use it against me. So please, allow them to speak. But know their voices are directed at me, not you."

He let his words hang in the air before continuing.

"Now, as to the reason you're gathering here today; mission assignment. Usually, second, third, and fourth-year teams have the liberty of selecting their own missions. However, as you know, the city of Port Cyrreine, and the entire Kingdom of Vale, has been facing the kind of times we never thought we would have to experience again. And, as time goes on, it becomes clearer that the threats surrounding the city won't fade away on their own." He adjusted his glasses. "Therefore, we have unfortunately elected to choose your missions ourselves, based on ability and necessity."

The Headmaster's announcement drew a discontented rumble from the crowd, almost like that which came from beyond the building's brick and marble wall. Rowan was one to join.

"First years will still receive standard practice missions. For the rest of you, I do want to stress that in many of your missions, you will come into contact with criminals, members of the Red Claw, and I can't rule out you will come into contact with Creatures of Grimm."

"So we're cleaning up your mess?!" a voice in the crowd questioned. It was met with a murmur of agreement.

"Your assigned mission will show up on your Holoband shortly," Headmaster Skye continued. Judging by how loud the call-out had been, he must've ignored it by choice. "Some of you will depart from our campus's airship docks in the next several hours. Others will depart tomorrow."

Two beeps and a pulse of vibration pulled Caspian's attention away from the stage. He almost didn't want to look, especially after Noxis cursed under his breath and tapped his wrist to expand the mission's details. He'd end up seeing it sooner or later, and figured he'd rather know then if he'd be spending the night somewhere out in Vale's wilderness.

Objective: rout Red Claw Scouting Mission.

Mission Date: 11/21-11/23

Huntsman shadow: Pierce Verdi

According to the map, he wasn't far off. Their mission would be at one of Frontline's auxiliary buildings, a hundred or so miles from the city, next to the River Ambrosius. So he would be forced from his room, thrown into the wilderness and at the Red Claw once again.

He was at least glad he had one more night before he was off to the airship docks.


A/N: Hey all! Sorry this one took a while. I've been busy lately and hit with a solid bout of writers' block. Then, I got snowed in at my parents' place over the holidays with no computer to write with. I recently pledged to myself I wouldn't force myself to write if I felt this decidedly un-creative. Because I feel like you can tell when I am forcing it, as opposed to when I feel genuinely creative. (like, compare the middle of part 1 to the entire arc that kicked off part 3.)

With that being said, I'm going to take a short break. The next arc is a pretty big one and I need a bit of time to flesh out some detail and make sure I'm satisfied with it all, rather than rush it.

Happy holidays, and happy new year! Here's to 2022!