Later that evening, Blake was seen at the top of the ship, standing above the captain's quarters. She was wearing her black cloak with her hood down, looking over the horizon. Sun, also wearing his brown cloak with his hood down, joined her at the top of the ship.

"I can't believe we've actually made it." Blake smiled. "I honestly thought this would be rougher."

"Don't celebrate too soon. We still have to get off the ship. Then we actually have to find Adam Taurus and defeat him."

"True." The ship began to slow down. "Looks like we're docking. Better ready ourselves."

As the ship docked, the two put their hoods up. The ship slowly sailed less and less as they gathered to the deck. Eventually, the two were let off the ship as they walked off hand in hand. They made their way to a deserted alley and took off their cloaks.

"We made it." Sun smiled as the two took off their cloaks, put them away and walked out into the city.

"Here we are; the village of Vita."

The village consisted of many cottages and small homes, mostly made of stone. The streets were lit by candle-lit street lamps. There were many shops and a few restaurants, most of which were closed at this hour.

"Looks like a nice place."

The catgirl gave a dry smile. "Too bad we can't stay."

The monkeyman raised an eyebrow. "Isn't it getting pretty late?"

Blake looked at her scroll. "Yeah, you're right. We better find a place to stay."

The two made their way through the village of Vita, looking for an inn or motel. It was a small village, and there weren't many skyscrapers, so they didn't have many places to easily loiter and not get caught. As they roamed the streets, Blake looked saw a scratched out White Fang symbol and looked away sadly.

"Is something wrong?"

"Sun... Have you have ever felt that you were doing the right thing, only to later realize you were wrong?"

"Is this about the White Fang?" Sun paused in hesitation. "Or is it Adam?"

But before Blake could answer, a loud masculine shout was heard, along with the sounds of gunfire and swords clashing.

Blake sighed. "Looks like there's no rest for the weary faunus... Let's move!"

The catwoman ran off with the monkeyman in tow.

Back in Mistral, Maura had just called upon her first witness, Maza Bashir to defend her. Now she could only hope that things would turn out for the better. As she stood at the podium, her hands out of sight, she tapped the tips of her fingers to other fingertips, calming herself.

"Ms. Bashir." Bluebell began. "You say that the defendant is not guilty. Explain why she is innocent."

She stopped tapping her fingers. "Well, during our journey to the Catacombs Prison, she stated many times that she was innocent. She mentioned that her lieutenant, or rather, ex-lieutenant, Athena Bruna, backstabbed her by attacking Sanctum Academy against her orders. So I did some research, and according to Nina News, there were a total of 514 faunus who attacked Sanctum Academy. Yet an earlier article stated that there were at least a thousand members known to be a part of Mistral's White Fang branch. So that means 486 plus members were missing in action. If Maura had really authorized the Storming of Sanctum, why would she not send all of her forces?"

Judge Bluebell raised an eyebrow at her. "Ms. Bashir, I see what you're trying to get at, but let me ask you this; What kind of general sends all their forces to one location? And how many of those generals have been successful?"

She lifted her finger and was about to retort, but she found nothing to respond with. So she moved on to her next point. "Well... Here's another thing. I did some analysis on the picture of Maura taken from Argus Harbor Prison and compared it to her prison head shot." The huntress put the pictures forth. One was of Maura at the Argus Harbor Max Security Prison (actually Tawny in disguise), and the other was Maura's prison head shot. "There was approximately fifteen days or slightly over two weeks in between the dates when each photo was taken. I noticed the following; First off, that her hair was not exactly the same length. There is a small yet significant difference between the two, about two to three inches. Hair does not normally grow that fast. I also noticed that Maura's snake scales were not the exact shade of green in both pictures. The Argus Harbor picture scales were lighter than the scales in the prison picture. Also, the Maura in Argus wore her green ribbon in her hair, yet when she was arrested, the ribbon was on her wrist. Due to these factors, I'm suggesting that the Maura seen in Argus Harbor Prison was actually an imposter, a faker."

The prosecuting attorney slammed her fist. "That's preposterous!"

Loud conservation broke out in the court. Bluebell banged the gavel down a few times. "Order! People, Order in the Court!" After the commotion died down, the judge looked back at Maza. "It may sound crazy, but she may have a point. Go on."

Maza smiled and Ayress softly groaned.

The scene switched to Jacques's study, as he and Whitley listened to Iris's story.

"So what happened to Mindy?" Whitley asked.

Iris sighed, her eyes still blue. "I knew you would ask that. This is the hardest part of the story to tell."

After surviving the first semester and getting my life on track, I thought that maybe, just maybe, I'd be able to establish an art career while surviving Atlas Academy. Then came July 31st, 78 AGW. It was about a month before second semester finals began... and it was the worst day of my life. Two days prior, we were assigned our first mission- to patrol the southern point of Mantle for three days. We were supposed to keep an eye out for Grimm, and, in the case of an invasion, fight them off and prevent them from getting into the city. Since there were four of us, at least two of us had to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at all times. Unless we were sleeping, then one of us had to stay awake. Everything was fine for the first two days. We would all do our jobs, shifting as necessary. Occasionally some music was played from Cinnamon's scroll to keep morale, and when I wasn't busy patrolling, I was painting.

The scene showed Iris sitting on a stool as Nila and Cinnamon stood guard a few feet from them. On the easel, she had a large canvas painted with mostly dark hues and a visible grey stone wall in the foreground. On the top of the wall in the middle of the canvas stood four women in a circle- these were Iris and her teammates, holding their weapons in hand.

I was actually painting the 66th painting at Atlas and the 666th painting overall. It was called The Night Shift, and was a homage to the four of us doing our patrol work. I had a feeling that it would be one of my greatest pieces yet. I believed everything would come up roses. Unfortunately, I had no idea how wrong I was. As the sun just started to set on the third day, Nila decided to criticize me.

Nila folded her arms. "Iris, why are you still painting?"

Iris held the black tipped paintbrush, her eyes shifting from yellow to green. "Aren't you supposed to be on the lookout for Grimm?"

She folded her arms angrily. "No, my turn ended two hours ago. You were supposed to take my place!"

"Then why didn't you tell me?!" Iris put down the paintbrush. "I would have taken your place if I had known."

"You should have just known regardless. The sun was up there." She pointed her left arm high in the sky. "And now it's there." She lowered it slightly. "Even when you're not on lookout, you're still supposed to be alert, not doing pointless work!"

Iris's eyes turned red. "It's not pointless! I'm creating a masterpiece!"

Mindy, who was watching the post, muttered, "Uh, guys?"

"Iris, for the last time, this isn't art school! You're here to be a huntress! Also, your art isn't even good! It would never sell!"

"That's not true!" Iris retorted. "I've been able to sell my art before!"

"For like how much? Five measly Lien? You'd never make it in the big league."

"How do you know that?" She pointed at her teammate. "You're not an art critic! So try to put your money where your mouth is!"

"Guys..." Mindy started again, only to be ignored.

The argument continued as Nila said, "So why are even here in the first place?"

"Because I was forced to!" Iris quickly lashed out in anger. Cinnamon and Nila looked shocked. Mindy already knew, but was surprised that Iris admitted the truth. "I never wanted to be here! You don't know what's it like to be teased and degraded on a daily basis by your own family! And you?!" The painter pointed at Nila, who was still shocked. "You've only made things worse! You've been treating me like dirt ever since day one, and I have had it!" She got out Prism, loaded with six different kinds of dust, and unleashed a wave of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple dust at her teammate in anger. As Nila was hit with fire, rocks, electricity, wind, ice and gravity dust in one swift motion, she hurtled into the air and flew several feet, screaming before skidding on the ground.

She sat up and glared at Iris with daggers in her eyes and began, "Why you insufferable-!"

"GUYS! Grimm at 12 o'clock! We have a major problem!" Mindy called out.

Cinnamon gasped in disbelief. Iris gasped as her eyes turned from red to purple in a flash.

My blood turned cold as I saw the Grimm coming our way. There were dozens of them and only four of us.

"Aw crap." Nila glared at me. "This is all your fault."

Her eyes turned red. "My fault?!"

"ENOUGH!" Cinnamon ordered. "We have to stop the Grimm before they get through the wall!"

They quickly rammed through the wall, creating a large hole in it. Mindy fearfully spoke, "Too late."

"Then stop them before they get to the main part of the city!"

My blood instantly turned from cold to hot as I forgot all about my grudge with Nila and focused on the mission at hand. We quickly got out our weapons and got to work, pursuing the Grimm.

As team CIMN moved through the city, red flashing lights were shown from buildings along with a blaring alarm. The semi-pro huntresses went to work; Cinnamon fired her silver colored gun, Toaster, launching fire dust bullets at the Grimm, killing many of them. With her red eyes, Iris took Prism and used it to slow down the Grimm with multiple dusts being used at once. Mindy used her wind-dust green snake like whip, Serpentine, to fight back the Grimm, and Nila used her ice dust filled dark blue umbrella, the 'UmBRRella', to try and slow down the Grimm by freezing them.

At first, it seemed like we could defeat them. But one by one, things went wrong. First is that Grimm got into the main part of the city.

Grimm were shown attacking the people and buildings of Mantle, some of which were trying to flee from the Grimm. Most of them were able to get away, but others were not so lucky and were slashed by claws of the Grimm.

Second, Cinnamon ran out of bullets in her gun, forcing her to run to try and lead the Grimm away from the city.

Cinnamon was shown trying to fire her gun, only for nothing to come out. She ran away screaming.

Nila noticed this and asked, "Where is she going?!"

"She ran out of ammo!" Iris answered as she pulled her dagger out of the head of a Beowolf. She gasped upon seeing it, her eyes turning purple for a brief moment. "Oh no..."

Third, Prism ran out of dust to use against the Grimm. I wasn't completely defenseless, but it was not helping to the already very bad circumstances.

Her eyes red, Iris held her weapon in her right hand. She used her left to hold a violet aura shield lasting for a few seconds as a Grimm clawed at her. As the shield broke, she backflipped to evade the claws of an Ursa.

And then came the fourth incident. The final nail in the coffin.

Mindy was shown with her whip about thirty feet from her, and she was attempting to push back an Ursa with a green aura shield. But unfortunately, the Grimm scratched through the shield and slashed at the half-blood, breaking her aura and severely wounding her.

Mindy was horribly injured right before my very eyes.

As the painter saw this, her eyes went from red to purple. "Mindy!"

Iris pocketed her dagger and began running over to her best friend, despite Nila's protest. "Iris, focus!"

I blocked out her words and ran over to my best friend. She had very deep slash marks in the stomach and was bleeding all over. I ran to her and held her in my arms as the chaos continued around us. Her eyes looked sunken, and I was trying to help her as best as I could, which unfortunately, is really hard when you have no first aid kit or medical supplies. Still, I refused to abandon her.

"Mindy... Stay with me." Iris took her left hand, her eyes turning blue. "It'll be okay."

"No... it won't be..." Mindy weakly answered. "Not for me..."

One of her eyes turned purple in fear, and the other was blue. "No, please..."

"I fear this is the end for me. Just let me go..."

"Don't give up on me!" Tears began to fill Iris's eyes. It took all her willpower to not cry. She hesitated, her voice beginning to her break. "You're my best friend! And you're one of the only friends I've ever had! Who's ever supported me! You're all have I left! I have to help you!"

Iris began lifting Mindy from the ground, as Mindy answered, "There's no time." The painter began running away from the battle site, trying to hold back tears. "You have to stop the Grimm. Save the innocent, and forget me. Even if help arrives eventually, it'll be too late for me. I can already feel myself fading..."

"No! I won't! You're my best friend. I..."

I wanted to tell her how much she really meant to me, but in the midst of my sorrow and the city being brought to its knees, words had failed me.

For a brief moment, her right blue eye flashed orange, but then it turned back to blue.

"It's no use trying to save me." The half-blood coughed. "Please... let me go..." She coughed again, this time even harder.

"Mindy!"

"Save them." She looked into her best friend's eyes, pleading, "Save the innocent."

Mindy gave her last breath and slowly closed her eyes for the last time. Iris stopped and looked at her, her eyes purple. "Mindy, don't leave me! Mindy!" The emotions hit her all at once. Her eyes turned blue as she screamed. "NO!"

The tears she tried so hard to contain were finally falling. As Iris sobbed over the loss of her best friend, she closed her eyes and let the tears fall, becoming detached from reality.

It was over. Mindy Celandine, the only friend in Atlas Academy I ever really had, was gone. I didn't care if the Grimm had overrun the city at this point. I was too devastated by her loss to really even care about anything. I probably would have been devoured by the Grimm then and there.

Tears continued to fall down her face.

But I wasn't.

"Iris!" a familiar voice exclaimed.

She opened her eyes and found herself about to be eaten by Grimm, only to be saved by Cinnamon throwing a piece of debris at the Grimm and then punching it in the head with aura surrounding her fist for a brief moment.

I wanted to cry and mourn for my friend.

As Iris regained her surroundings, she saw that the chaos was only continuing, but gradually getting worse each minute. She put Mindy's corpse down and wiped away her tears.

Unfortunately, we still had a job to do.

Nila and Cinnamon ran up to the painter and the deceased half-blood. Upon seeing her, Cinnamon asked, "What happened?"

Iris nodded sadly. "She's gone."

Cinnamon's blood turned cold. "No..."

Nila was not effected by this news. Or perhaps she was more focused on the current problem at hand. She looked and saw Grimm coming near them, then turned to the leader of their incomplete team. "What now, boss?"

"I.. I don't know!" Cinnamon answered. The Grimm encircled the three of them in a wide circle. Iris got out her dagger, one of her eyes turning purple. "I'm still out of ammo, Iris has run out of dust, and if we couldn't handle it with four, how could we handle it with three?!" Nila and Iris held up their weapons and Cinnamon reactivated her aura to surround her fists. The creatures of darkness slowly crept in, giving them little room to breathe. They stood shoulder to shoulder. "Iris, Nila, if this is the end, I want to say that it's been an honor fighting with you."

"Great. We're about to go down as the biggest screw-ups in Atlas history." Nila sarcastically remarked.

So here we stood, three Atlas Academy students about to make their last stand. We all believed it would be the end.

Cinnamon punched the Grimm that Nila froze. Iris slashed wildly, her eyes flashing between red and blue, tears leaking from her eyes.

Although our efforts kept some of them at bay, eventually Cinnamon's aura broke, and mine was running dangerously low. But when we needed it most, help had finally arrived.

A group of huntresses came rushing in. The first one was a woman with light blond hair, violet eyes and tanned skin and a crossbow. Three others soon followed. The first woman quickly fired several rounds of three arrows at once, while the other three used their staff-like weapons to fend off and destroy the Grimm.

We quickly knew who our saviors were; Robyn Hill and the Happy Huntresses.

Fiona struck down the last Grimm with Robyn's aid.

Thanks to them, the Grimm had been defeated and the day was saved. Unfortunately, so many lives were lost, Mindy's life among them.

"What happened?" Joanna asked as she put her crossbow away.

Iris didn't know what to say, her eyes shifting between purple and blue.

"We were overrun by Grimm." Cinnamon answered. "Our friend... Mindy..."

Fiona gasped. May appeared to be saddened. "I'm... so sorry for your loss."

"How did this happen?" Robyn asked.

"Yeah..." Nila began, turning to Iris. "How did this happen?"

Iris began to shake. "I..." She refused to answer and ran away.

"Iris!" Cinnamon called out. "Wait! Come back!"

She didn't listen, tears escaping her eyes as she ran. As she ran through the streets of Mantle, Pietro Polendina saw her from the streets, who looked at her worryingly.

Unable to bear the burden of being a semi-pro huntress, and Nila's horrible attitude, I fled the scene. I disregarded orders and snuck on a private airship back to Atlas.

The troubled painter was shown sitting on crate of dust crystals. She was crying, silently sobbing into her knees in the cargo hold of a ship.

Upon the plane landing, I ran back to my dorm room. By the time I had gotten there, night had begun to fall, and the last rays of sun were faintly visible in the sky.

Iris was shown shoving clothes into a suitcase and placing items in a backpack. Her eyes were shown to be blue and tears falling out as she did this. She was shown in Perwinkle's old classroom, still crying as she put paintings into a very big box. She also left the keys behind on a desk along with a note reading, For Professor Perwinkle

She was shown sobbing again as she closed the door to a classroom.

Within thirty minutes, my bags were completely packed, and I wrote out a note telling my teammates and the staff that I was dropping out of Atlas because I couldn't handle the stress of being a huntress trainee. I also gave back Perwinkle's keys and took all my paintings from her old classroom. Everything had been lost. There was no reason to stay. I couldn't hold on. I couldn't go back and change the past, no matter how much I wanted to. I had to move on. With Mindy's death, it was pointless to continue.

Iris stood in the courtyard of Atlas Academy with her backpack on her back. In her arms, she held the box with all of her paintings with her suitcase on top of the box. As she stood in the deserted courtyard, the sun had disappeared, and the sky was now completely dark blue as she took one last look at the school forlornly. She sniffed softly and blue eyes were shown to be red, puffy and swollen from crying. She shed another stream of tears and closed her eyes. "Goodbye Atlas."

She walked away from Atlas and didn't look back. As Iris walked away, Atlas behind her slowly began to fade to white.

And that was it. I couldn't go back. Everything just faded away as I left Atlas Academy behind... forever.