"...Condor."

"You're afraid, Wolf. I can feel it. You always did have sharp instincts."

The lingering darkness was thick around Condor, and rose up from the concrete to swirl around Noxis's hands, tempting his semblance. They wrung purple, knuckles white as bone. "Why are you here? Thought we were just scouting tonight."

"I feel you already know the reason. But I can explain, if you care to hear it." Condor stepped forward. Noxis held his ground, but didn't meet the twin abysses penetrating his skull. "Again and again, huntsmen and androids show up where they shouldn't know to be. I've ruled everyone else out, Wolf. It's only you."

"So, now what?" Noxis grumbled. "After everything, you're just going to throw me out?"

"You were valuable in Python's absence," Condor allowed. He pulled his weapon from beneath folded wings. The clicking and sliding of metallic parts shifting into place occupied the silence as his scythe unfolded. "But now, you're a liability we can no longer afford. And I've come to dispose of you myself."

Noxis's fist opened, then closed again around Renegade.

"It really is a shame, Wolf. Impressive strength, and an almost unmatched passion," Condor said. "There was a time I considered you to succeed me, should something unexpected happen. But now, I see the flaw is in your judgment."

"Save it," Noxis spat. "Guess you're right about my judgment though, considering I followed you for so long."

Condor huffed with something as close to laughter as he could manage. "Defiant until the end. How very like you."

He bolted forward on a flap of his wings and a rush of black energy, flinging his scythe around in a sweeping arc. Noxis took a step back as the smoking black crystal of his aura shielded his neck and chest, and spread down his arms just in time to defend against the blow. Condor bore down behind the strike just as it landed, shattering his subordinate's semblance. The wolf screamed and fell back in a hail of black shards, staggering further when the blunt far end of Condor's scythe whipped across his jaw. His dazed eyes refocused on the weapon with just enough time to raise his own to block it.

The broad hunk of steel bent behind the force.

Noxis pushed it out, then swung to block a storm of flying blades. First four hits to his sides, fifth into the ground. Noxis leapt over Condor's weapon at the opportunity he created, clutching the winged faunus's neck with a semblance-armored hand. His expression shifted– from intent, furious focus to a sadistic smirk.

The curved blade of Condor's scythe split and rotated into itself beneath Noxis's arm, revealing a barrel almost an inch wide. A clattering volley of six shots rattled off into the night, forcing distance and drawing a black mist from the side Noxis clutched. Condor followed him, a crushing blow sweeping toward Noxis from over his shoulder. The wolf held Renegade steady, one hand at its hilt and another to support at the tip.

The attack still flung him across the pavement, bouncing once before slamming into a container with a resounding thud. Condor's scythe rent the blue corrugated steel an inch above Noxis's head as he ducked out of the way, and took off running.

"You know you can't run from me, Wolf," Condor goaded. He didn't raise his weapon, nor move his feet. He stared at the ground in front of Noxis, between the base of a crane and a portable office. The viscous, squelching mass of a Blackened Pool bubbled up from within the road, spreading until the liquid void flooded his path. "You don't want to become like me, do you?"

Noxis slowed, clenching his jaw with weary eyes that watched dark forms stir within. When he turned, they held little of their previous zeal. They were cold. Broken. Tired.

"I just want to be free…" he muttered. He turned to face the vulture behind him. "For once in my life, I want to be free!"

Condor shook his head. Slowly, and subtly. "You know it's too late for that."

Noxis's breaths clouded the air. At first, the usual fog of a cold night. Then, as they deepened, became more desperate, an uncanny greyness tinged them. His hands curled, overtaken by the shadow of his semblance. It was slow to grow across his fingers and palm, but spread faster as it worked its way up his arms with blood red static and smoke, meeting the crystalline armor stretching across his chest and down past his waist.

"Then I'll… I'll kill you. I'll kill you right here. And I'll be free." His breaths hastened further until the armor overtook his neck, and they began to rattle out like the snarls of the Beowolves clawing their way from the tar behind him. Jaws formed. He stumbled forward, but caught his footing as his body was wracked with an uncanny twitch and spines erupted from his back.

He let loose a scream into the night and sprinted. In a burst of darkness he hurtled toward Condor with a swipe of obsidian claws. The crimson glow of his eyes streaked behind him.

Condor lashed back with an arc of black steel, shattering Noxis's aural armor like glass in a single blow. His screams returned to human as he fell amid the hail of black shrapnel.

"Oh, Wolf. I'd never use a weapon I didn't know how to handle."

The smaller Nevermore perched over Condor's shoulder as he knelt to grab Renegade's twisted shell from the ground. He raised it to the oversized raven that sniffed it with curious eyes before accepting it in its beak. It clamped down, bent and twisted the metal until it clattered upon the ground in three pieces. Noxis's only movements were the desperate rise and fall of his chest, and eyes swiveling to address the forms that continued to rise from the blackened pools next to him.

"I have one final question for you, Wolf," Condor continued. "How much did you tell your team?"

"...Nothing," Noxis choked. "I only told... the Headmaster."

Condor nodded. He turned his back, but looked back past his wings. "Goodbye, Wolf."

As the Creatures of Grimm began to close on Noxis, one last crimson spark flashed off his arm, and a stubborn shell of black began to encase it. The fury returned to his eyes.


Chips of shattered glass scraped beneath the skin of Caspian's forearm, and his blood smeared the ground behind it. The straps of his ravaged armguard still clung to him. Only one of his legs was much help in pushing him away. The other hip had been bruised so badly he couldn't move it without a sharp pang down past his knee, and up into his lungs. Sable finally caught up with his pitiful escape, and knelt beside him. Caspian ripped the dagger from the scraps of steel on his arm, and drove it toward the arm that reached out to grab him.

The faunus twisted the knife from Caspian's hand and flung it aside. With his other fist, he bounced Caspian's head against the ground twice, and drew a stream of crimson from his lip.

His- no. The new Caspian's heroic stand against the Red Claw lasted all of thirty seconds, and was about to end with Sable lifting him by the hair, holding him against the wall, and raising a blade to his throat.

A crack echoed throughout the complex, reverberating off stacked containers and ringing in Caspian's ears. The air screamed with heat and waves of dark aura rippled from the Red Claw Head's shoulder. He whipped around after a second shot, nearly twisting Caspian's neck as he held him as a shield against the bullets.

From halfway up a crane's ladder, Pierce jumped. He fired a line from the handle of his gun halfway through its transformation to a straight-edged blade, and zipped through the air with his weapons ready as fast as the bullets he fired. Sable held Caspian up to the oncoming huntsman's steel, but Caspian let his lips draw into a knowing smirk.

Five feet before impact, disappeared into a plume of black fog. Caspian heard something rush through the air behind him, and the sound of blades tearing leather. Sable's scream of surprise and faltering steps let Caspian know Mr. Verdi's strike landed— a double-bladed strike from shoulder to shoulder.

Sable dropped Caspian. Onto his bad leg, of course. He sat back and lowered his center of gravity between spaced feet, ducking his head under arms raised to strike. His eyes flicked around as he bobbed like a boxer watching for his opponent's next hook. It came as a whirling flash of blades. Sable raised one gauntlet to the strike, but his fist disturbed another puff of fog. Pierce appeared over the punching arm's shoulder, tearing waves of aura off his skin.

Sable swore under his breath, backing away from Caspian as he seeked out the threat. He found it to his right, but raised his fists to both sides of his head. The cloud of smoke regained its form next to Caspian, and with all his initial speed Pierce ripped him from the concrete. The whiplash hit him like a truck and all made him feel a little sick on top of his splitting headache, but he was alive. Alive, and gliding over the shipyard in one of Mr. Verdi's arms.

The huntsman disengaged one hook and, with the same hand so as to not drop Caspian, shot another to the corner of the distribution center. They swung halfway down the building's base and back up, landing on the roof in the sail's shadow.

"You alright?" Mr. Verdi asked, looking him over with stony eyes. One black, the other metallic and silver with a glowing blue pupil as a midpoint for the scar down the right side of his face.

"Yeah, I think so..." Caspian said. He turned over his forearm to discover a shard of glass. "Don't feel great, but I'm alright."

"You got separated? Where are the others?" his interrogation continued.

"Lilly and Rowan went toward the water. There was a Nevermore attacking the ship docked down there," Caspian recalled. "Noxis was heading over to meet them. He's probably there by now."

A vibration from his Holoband— two, maybe three times stronger than normal, grabbed his attention. A red glow surrounded the edges, and Mr. Verdi's matched.

"DISTRESS SIGNAL: URGENT," the Holoband read. Noxis's portrait and empty aura gauge appeared next to a map of the complex. On it, a pulsing red dot inched toward the woods.

"Well shit, there's our answer," Mr. Verdi muttered. His eyes narrowed as he pinched the map to zoom in. "...Why the hell's he running off toward the woods?" He nodded to Caspian, pointed behind him and walked to the edge of the roof. "There's a door inside that way. Stay there until we can regroup."

He stepped off, using free fall to speed him up for a second before firing hooks from both weapons, and jetting off toward Noxis's distress signal.


Noxis's steps were uneven. Left leg was fine, mostly. Badly bruised, but he could still move it. He couldn't put weight on the right for more than half a second. His pant leg was ripped three inches above the knee, four below. A deep gash soaked black denim a shade darker. He clutched a bruised, bloodied, twisted arm with his other hand, fingers tight around his elbow to keep it in one piece with each lurching step. He looked like a zombie– pale face, where it wasn't caked in blood. Wide, dazed eyes, uneven gait. He wandered along Frontline's distribution building until the cargo ship on the river came into view.

A Nevermore perched on the railing of a stairway next to him. Its head twitched to the right to show a single beady red eye. A blink disrupted its intent stare, and it crowed into the night. Noxis looked at the winged horror, then at the ship. He turned. Off toward the trees, away from Lilly and Rowan. Away from Caspian.

Condor knelt down to run his fingers along the scratch in the pavement where he had left Wolf. He looked onward to the splatter of blood a few feet away. A couple more drops trailed into another puddle. The pattern repeated, alongside smeared bootprints.

He pulled his weapon from his back, and steel shifted until he held his rifle. He began to follow the trail.


The cables in Mr. Verdi's weapons, looping through his belt and into the plates of armor on his thigh, screeched with effort. He retracted them at full torque to fling himself forward, hair tousling in the wind as he fired off another set of hooks, and shot ahead even faster. His aluminum eye's pupil widened as it scanned the ground fifty feet below.


Noxis gasped for breath. All below his elbow was soaked with blood– his functional hand and the section of shirt he wiped it on as well. He made it out of the complex. Into the woods, and up the hill a ways. There was a break in the trees right at the crest, and as he struggled on one good leg up to flat ground, a stone caught his foot. He stumbled forward, tripping over his cut leg. On his way down, he ducked to cover his injured arm.

He grimaced at it, bent an angle it never should have been. He pushed himself to his side, and tried to right himself. His heavy breath caught in his throat, and he fell back to the dirt.

At the base of the hill, Condor assessed a footprint and a stone splattered freshly crimson. He looked up to the top, adjusted the grip on his rifle, and followed the trail.

Noxis rolled onto his back, and took in the light of the shattered moon hanging in indigo sky. On the horizon, past the winding river and an ocean of evergreen, the last band of orange faded. He balled a fist up between his eyes, but with the release of a breath opened his hand and lowered it to his side.

"I'm impressed, Wolf. Not many could have survived what you just did. Perhaps I wasn't entirely wrong about you."

Noxis's chest rose and fell with each ragged breath. Shards of the moon reflected in his eyes, hiding their darkness.

Condor raised his gun. "I'm sure replacing you will prove difficult."

His finger nagged the trigger. It hesitated. Condor's head whipped around to a sharp reeling noise— the sound of the cloaked huntsman's grappling cables pulling back in. His weapon transformed as he swung it at his challenger, and severed a black haze in two. Pierce appeared above and behind him, struck with both blades between Condor's wings, and vanished. He appeared to his side with a spray of bullets, then used his semblance once again.

"A true huntsman of old, hm?" Condor called into the twilight. He held his scythe unfolded in front of him. "An honor. I haven't fought one like you yet."

Mr. Verdi stood on the lowest branch of a nearby pine. "And a real piece of shit, just like the old days. Killed plenty like you."

He jumped down, vanishing over a bramble thicket and appearing next to Condor. The faunus thrashed back at the comparably tiny blades of his attacker with a swing of his own. Mr. Verdi flipped backward through the air on the force of the strike, and held an arm out to fire a hook into the tree. He shot toward it, but vanished again, reappearing with all the speed from before to make a whirling pass of blades over Condor's shoulder.

The Red Claw's leader transformed his weapon and fired into the night. A full burst anywhere the screeching of Mr. Verdi's cables rang out. Branches shattered and bark splintered before Condor paused his assault, scanning the night one more time before aiming his rifle at Noxis.

He transformed it back before he got the chance to pull the trigger. He lashed and twirled his six foot blade like a baton at Pierce, who zipped back and forth at all angles. About half of his slashes met steel. The rest, skin and cloth.

On one pass, Condor reversed his strike halfway through, catching Mr. Verdi midair. Aura the shade of pines above poured out from shoulder to hip as the tip of Condor's blade tore across the huntsman, finally breaking his shield at his waist and continuing on to cleave his thigh open. He shot into the ground just as fast as he came— rolling, bouncing, until he hit the trunk of a tree. He found his way onto his knees, grunting and gritting his teeth at the gash in his leg. He held out the end of his cape, tore off an emerald swath to tie around his wound, then shot twin hooks into the trees framing his view of Condor. When he vanished, he reappeared next to Noxis, scooped him off the ground, and fled a hail of gunfire.

As the huntsman grappled trunk-to-trunk down the hill, Condor watched on. His feathers rustled in the breeze, then settled.


Caspian spent the next half hour in the care of Frontline's on-site Androids. They had only rudimentary bandages and painkillers for his head, both of which came from the back of their supply closet. No surprise, really. Painkillers had no effect on something that didn't feel pain. They wouldn't bother with first aid, either. If one got damaged, they'd shut it off, and ship it to Port Cyrreine for a replacement.

Humans weren't so easy to replace. For a moment Caspian wished they were, so he could be sent downriver somewhere and a more capable leader would take his place on Team CRLN.

Not long after Pierce helped him escape Sable, a swarm of emergency airships rose over the horizon in a cloud of red and blue. But by the time they arrived, Sable and Condor had long since vanished back into the woods, and neither CRLN nor Mr. Verdi were in any shape to pursue. As the arriving androids cleared out the last of the Grimm, the on-site androids accompanied them out to the airships.

Caspian could barely get a glimpse at Noxis behind the horde of androids surrounding his gurney.

One of them knelt next to Mr. Verdi and his bandaged leg. "You're injured as well. Would you like to be transported to Frontline's primary hospital in Port Cyrreine?" it asked. "We will be able to treat you on the way."

"Just focus on the kid. I'll be alright."

Caspian sat on another folding chair, paying little attention to the android that cleaned broken glass from his back, shoulder, and arm. The night was far too cold to be without a shirt, and the bandages the Organd applied did little to cover him.

He watched the team of Organds treating him on the scene roll the gurney out the front door, handing the faunus off to the team inside the Tuna-Class. The ship's doors closed, and a strip of lights down the side flashed red and blue. It might've been the last glance he ever got of Noxis. Little more than a shock of black hair and weak eyes past blankets and bandages. Noxis's last words to him echoed.

"You're an idiot."

He always did have a gift for cruel honesty. His cuts and bruises, the gash in Mr. Verdi's leg, Noxis on the brink of death, he might as well have been the one behind the blade.

"Excuse me?" the feminine, auburn-haired android treating Caspian addressed. It stepped around to his front, blocking half the view of his catatonic eyes.

"Yeah?"

"The medical transport is now boarding. Please come with me, and I'll continue to monitor you until our arrival."

"Oh, right. Thanks."

Caspian stood, and filled in behind the android that accompanied him in with Mr. Verdi. A pink blot already rose from under the huntsman's bandages. Lilly and Rowan, the only two relatively unscathed, spoke with the police that arrived with the emergency ships. They, at least, did their jobs. The cargo ship was half under the river, but the entire crew escaped with only a few minor injuries, and a dead Nevermore.

Caspian got one final look at Lilly and Rowan's concerned faces as the doors slid shut.

A/N: This is another one I've been waiting a long time (4ish years, I think?) to write. Please feel free to let me know what you think! General reviews are always welcome too.

Also: yes. Pierce Verdi's weapons are blatantly ripped from Attack on Titan. I wasn't creative when I made him at 15. Does that green cloak of his sound familiar too?