Welcome back! This isn't that long of a chapter as there isn't much needed in this one because this is the last chapter before we get to the Solitas Arc! I genuinely can't wait for you all to see it as I think It'll be the longest arc because I plan on trying a few different things within the arc and I hope you all are receptive to them as I said last chapter there's a part in the Solitas Arc that if I execute correctly I think a lot of people would genuinely love it. Anyway, I'm rambling now so I hope you enjoy Chapter XI of The Fallen.

-OtherwiseR00K

The first thing Roman noticed about Argus was that it was cold. The second thing was how clean the city was and how it looked like no one could commit a crime here. Roman didn't trust the look of Argus and maybe that spoke to how he was more comfortable in a crime-ridden Kingdom than a port town like Argus. He was definitely keeping Neo close to him the whole time they were here. Though he doubted anything would happen to them.

Roman glanced back at their tall dark shadow. He wasn't sure what to think of The Black Swordsman; the rumors had made it sound like he was some dark knight that protected the innocent from the Grimm and to be fair he was. Though the rumors could've mentioned he was a terrifying vigilante who took out criminals with disappearing swords.

Roman didn't even know the guy's actual name.

The three continued through Argus, following a main road that sloped down. They walked down it as the trolley was heading in the opposite direction and they needed to go down toward the bay to get to Argus' Airship Station.

Around halfway down the long road, Neo pulled on Roman's hand, jerking him to a stop. He looked down at the young girl, "What, Neo?" Roman asked.

Neo pointed toward a building on the other side of the road. A store called Ace's Wears stood across from Neo's pointing finger. Roman could see the windows had mannequins wearing different sets of clothes presented to anyone who just happened to pass by the store.

Neo pointing out the shop meant only one thing, "Neo, we don't have the lien to waste on clothes." Roman said.

Neo looked up with a deadpan face before taking her hand from Roman's and signing to him.

"Well-it'll be fine," Roman answered, suddenly unsure of himself at his sister's questioning.

Neo simply deadpanned again. Roman sighed knowing she actually had a good point about the attire they had on. Roman and Neo looked like the street rats they were, the only thing that looked nice about them being Melodic Cudgel, and even that looked out of place. It was likely the people running the Airship Terminal would look at them with suspicion and possibly call the authorities on them.

New clothes could fix that easily but Roman and Neo had made it a point to only take enough for a single flight to any place of their choosing. They'd need more but he was hesitant to attempt to rob people in this place. If they were caught that was it.

Lil' Miss would find them and they'd be killed.

"Yeah, you're right, Neo." Roman admitted, "But we only took enough to get spots on the airship and I don't think it's a good idea for us to steal in unknown territory."

Neo looked thoughtful, her hand cupping her chin before her eyes landed behind Roman with a pondering expression before she nodded and pointed. Roman turned and saw their escort looking off toward the roof of a building about a block away. Roman looked back toward Neo and understood what she was getting at.

So with a small huff, Roman turned toward The Black Swordsman, "Uh, sir?" Roman cringed internally at his own tone.

The white-haired man turned to Roman, his golden gaze locked onto Roman.

"Alright, we may have a problem and we need your help."

"Why? You already have what you need from your little scam on the Argus Express." The man answered, his voice droning the question.

"Well, our appearance with the amount of lien we have doesn't exactly square you get me?"

The man looked over Roman's attire and then back at Neo who Roman was sure was making puppy dog eyes. The man then looked back at Roman, "I see what you mean."

"Great, so I've got an idea-"

"I'll deal with it," the man said, interrupting Roman. "You two stay here and don't wander off, I'll be back."

Before Roman could get a word in, the golden-eyed man was already walking off and soon disappeared into the crowd. Roman could only look after the man in slight disbelief before a tap on his side made him turn down to see Neo signing at him.

"Yeah, Neo." Roman says, turning back toward the crowd where their guardian had disappeared, "He is a bit of a dick."

-Storm Turk-

Storm adjusted her scope, her main target having left the two kids behind who were now sitting on a bench near the store entrance. She'd had to duck earlier because her main target had looked her way, she doubted he'd seen her but the guy had been looking at rooftops since he got off the train.

Storm Turk was a criminally inclined bounty hunter. She went after contracts put up by crime lords and recently a contract was put on the head of The Black Swordsman for three million by Lil' Miss Malachite. It came in this morning as well so Storm's luck must've been feeling nice today.

The description had described a tall human male with white hair and golden eyes wearing a long leather coat with a red scarf and a silver case on his back. All distinct features so it wasn't difficult to find him, the surprising part was he'd come to her.

She'd spotted him as she was heading for the Argus Express and noticed the kids with him as well. They were mentioned and wanted to be brought back to Mistral for Lil' Miss' torture methods and an extra hundred thousand lien in it as well.

It would've been easy had they not come to Argus.

Unlike a lot of other places in Anima, Argus was under the protection of a battalion of Atlas soldiers commanded by one Caroline Cordovin. Cordovin was infamous for being incredibly strict with her soldiers and her absolute devotion to her kingdom so much so it bordered on zealotry. She was known to utterly crush anyone causing trouble in Argus which made sense given her nickname but it also made something abundantly clear to Storm.

Starting anything in Argus would bring the Boot of Atlas down on Storm's head.

Storm had to wait for her moment to strike and it had to come at a point where there weren't a lot of people. That was going to be a tall task in Argus, maybe if she could somehow lure them away from a public space she could-no that wouldn't work. She discarded the thought and instead put her mind on their destination.

She could probably follow them to wherever they were heading, most likely Vacuo as that place was far from Malachite's influence. Storm decided that would be her best bet-

"Hurk!" Before she could finish the thought something had wrapped around her neck and pulled her back. Storm struggled against the chain but it was too late as she was dragged off the roof, dropping her rifle in the process, and fell into the alleyway behind the building. She slammed into a ventilation unit before crashing into the solid concrete that made up the floor of the alley.

Storm attempted to get up but was cut off by a boot stomping down on her chest. It pushed her down and she couldn't help but gasp at the pain now flooding her chest. The weight lifted and for a moment she hoped she could escape but then it crashed down again and her aura shattered along with it.

She screamed for only a moment before she was wrenched up and pushed up against the alley wall. Storm could finally see who was attacking her and it was her target. She suddenly felt very fearful of the golden eyes staring into her own purple ones.

"Why are you following us?" Her target's voice droned, it was close to a dry monotone and it scared her.

"I-I wasn't," Storm tried, "I w-was just-"

"Don't lie to me. I saw you watching us the whole way to the clothing store, you're not very good at sneaking around."

Well shit, there went that possible way out of this.

"I-i, there's a contract out on you." Storm decided it was best just to come clean and hope her target would feel merciful, "Lil' Miss Malachite put a 3 million lien reward on your head. I thought I could cash in and get a loft in Atlas."

That last one was more of a bit Storm had added as she didn't know what she would have done with the reward lien. She was a bit more focused on killing her target first but that wouldn't happen now.

Storm waited as it seemed her target processed that information. She'd been expecting to see a more fearful expression but was greeted with that same flat look he had since the start of this. That look scared her, it made her think he didn't care-

Shink

All thoughts ground to a halt as pain once again flooded her chest. Storm shakily looked down and noted the white blade now sitting in her chest and the hand holding it. It felt like she couldn't breathe…

The man let go of her throat and ripped the blade out allowing her to fall to her side.

Storm slowly slipped away, her heart having been stabbed along with her lung directly behind it. Her vision became hazy and her mind slowly shut down with every second. Storm's last thought was a desperate attempt at rationalizing her death.

"Aren't you supposed to be a hero?"

-Shirou Emiya-

Shirou crouched down and began searching for anything useful on the woman's corpse. He had told Roman he would find some lien and if their tail had some on her that would be convenient and if not then he'd just have to resort to less than legal means. Though his body was mostly on autopilot while his mind was thinking about what the corpse had said.

Lil' Miss Malachite hadn't taken Shirou's word of caution. In all honesty, he hadn't expected her to, she struck him as a very prideful person and someone who was used to getting what she wanted in one way or another. Pride came before the fall and Shirou would make sure she fell hard.

Though he had to think of a way to deal with that later. Solitas and the cult's influence within Mantel and Atlas came first and he wasn't willing to compromise that for a petty woman who believed she was untouchable even with his demonstration at the bar. Malachite had sealed her fate, it would just take time for it to catch up with her.

Shirou finally took note of his search of the body. He'd searched her coat and only came up with a scroll and a lighter along with a half-pack of cigarettes. Shirou moved down and searched her pants pocket, coming up with a key to an apartment with the name "Snowy Meadow's".

Shirou looked at the name, committing it to memory before pocketing it and standing up. She hadn't had anything of monetary value on her but her apartment could. Shirou turned around and walked out of the alleyway not even taking a glance at the body he'd left behind.

-Roman-

Roman was maybe being a little bit of a worry wart at the moment but he felt it was warranted considering what Neo had gone through only a day prior. He was currently doing a cursory check over Neo's more prominent bruises and was pleased to see they were healing thanks to her aura.

Neo was complaining about it, her face was all he needed to know that, but Roman couldn't help it. Seeing Neo strapped to that chair with obvious torture tools nearby had nearly given him a heart attack and now that they could breathe a little easier he was worrying about Neo's health in a more typical way than on the Argus Express.

The two hadn't moved far from the clothing store as their guardian had told them to before heading off about an hour prior. They were currently sitting on a bench near a small rectangular fountain that had both Mistral's and Atlas' symbols layered on each other. Roman thought it was a show of camaraderie between the two kingdoms just as Argus' very existence was.

Roman finally relented on his check just as he noticed their guardian appear from the crowd with a purple briefcase in his right hand. Roman stood up and gestured for Neo to follow, the two walked to meet the man who'd protected them.

"This case contains fifteen hundred lien," the man said as he handed it to Roman. "That should be enough for you to get new clothes."

"E-enough? This is enough to buy three tickets to wherever you want to go on Remnant!" Roman stuttered out, shocked at the amount of lien in his arms. It was over the amount he and Neo had taken from the suckers on the Argus Express and was more than they had ever been allowed to have in Mistral.

Roman quickly counted up the numbers in his head and realized they'd have leftover lien once they hit Vale.

"W-where did you get this?" Roman had to ask, his mind going to a new possible enemy.

"Took it from the apartment of our tail after killing her." The white-haired man said.

"Wait, tail!?" Roman exclaimed, Neo had stiffened beside him as well.

"Yes, she'd been following us since we stepped off the train."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"She could have noticed you were nervous, or at least more than you already were being here. Besides, it seemed as if she was waiting for us to go somewhere more isolated to attack but never got the chance."

"Why did we even have a tail? Lil' Miss' Spiders couldn't have gotten here so quickly-"

"There's a bounty on my head for three million lien."

Silence permeated between the three, both Roman and Neo simply bug-eyed at the amount. Roman was the first to pick up his jaw off the ground, "Th-three million? Then our tail was a bounty hunter." Roman realized with dread.

"Yes." The Black Swordsman said, his voice resolute.

"Then they'd come for us too," Roman breathed. His mind tumbled down the rabbit hole of fear for both himself and Neo; what Malachite would do to them both. Each scenario was a new nightmare that couldn't seem to end and his breathing picked up.

Before he could delve deeper into his mind two firm hands gripped his shoulders, "Look at me."

Roman looked up into the molten gold eyes that very recently he'd learned to not fear. For a moment he swore he'd seen them soften into a light amber before they'd returned to their actual color.

"They are not looking for you two. The contract does not make mention of either of you two and only describes me. You two are leaving Anima for a better place and to start somewhere fresh, they will find me but you two will be long gone and no longer have to fear Malachite."

Roman stared at the steely gaze the man was giving him. He felt a tug on his sleeve and looked down to see Neo staring up at him. Roman's mind focused on her eyes, the concerned eyes she had for him. Roman should've been the one concerned.

Roman's expression changed, he looked down at Neo with a smile and then looked back to the man who'd protected them. The man had let go of Roman's arms and backed up slightly, he stared down at Roman with that emotionless gaze.

"Thank you," Roman said before adjusting his grip on the case to one hand and taking Neo's in the other. The two walked into the clothing store and began searching around for something they liked.

Roman stepped out of the store while adjusting his new orange waistcoat, the collar had gotten snagged on his new shirt's collar as he was trying to fold it back. Roman liked the orange color on the black dress shirt so had gotten it. He was also wearing a new pair of black slacks and they were tucked into ankle high leather boots. The new look paired well with Melodic Cudgel.

Neo came out behind him with a satisfied grin. She was wearing a white poncho with pink lining down the shoulders. Underneath that was a sleeveless sweater and she had on white dress pants and pink rubber boots. Roman thought it was cute.

The two walked toward the man who'd helped them get here who was sitting on the bench they had been earlier. He stood up as they approached and seemed to study them and the clothing they had on. He nodded and headed off motioning for them to follow.

Roman took Neo's hand and they followed after. They continued down the sloped street they had been going down before Neo had stopped them. For some reason Roman felt lighter, maybe it was the clothes that weren't weighted down by sweat or the grime that marred the other ones. Maybe it was a sense that things would turn out well for them.

Roman didn't know, only that he had to thank…right he didn't actually know the man's name. Roman wasn't even sure if it was a good idea to know it. The man was strong but Lil' Miss Malachite had a lot of manpower on her side, he'd even heard rumors that a full Huntsman team was in her employ.

It may have been paranoid but Roman feared that if he learned the man's name he and Neo would be hunted down. Roman made a choice.

"Um, what's your name?" Roman asked, hoping that this was the right one.

The man didn't answer, didn't even break stride. Roman was disappointed but it may have been for the best that he never learned The Black Swordsman's name.

They eventually arrived at the Argus Airship Terminal, the two siblings would soon be free of Anima and neither had any intention of coming back. Roman looked around and soon found a sign directing passengers to a Vale-bound airship. Roman nodded and squeezed Neo's hand.

He turned to look at their guardian, "Thank you, for everything." Roman said.

Roman didn't mind the stare from those golden eyes and simply turned with Neo toward the desk. Both began walking when a voice spoke up behind them.

"Shirou."

Roman stopped and turned his head toward the white-haired man, a confused expression decorated Roman's face.

"Earlier you asked what my name was. My name is Shirou, Shirou Emiya." The Black Swords-Shirou said.

Roman looked on in surprise before Neo tugged on his arm and he turned back around. A smile formed as he walked toward the desk again, leaving Shirou behind. At least he finally had a name for the man that saved him and Neo.

Shirou Emiya.

That was an interesting name.

-Shirou Emiya-

Why had he done that?

Shirou watched as the siblings walked to the desk and speak with the woman standing behind it. Soon the two were walking further into the terminal and then Shirou lost sight of them after merging into the crowd.

Why had he told Roman his name?

The fact Shirou had said anything at all was out of character for him. That earlier talk with Roman to calm him down had been out of character as well. Shirou didn't know what happened but for a moment he'd felt the steel slip away before it anchored itself back on. It was strange.

Shirou shook his head, he had other things to think about now. He turned and walked through the terminal, passing by others coming into Argus and heading out. Finally, he made it to a small balcony within the terminal that looked out on the icy Argus bay.

It was also a good vantage point for the Atlas Base that was in the middle of the bay.

Shirou knew his way into Atlas was related to the base. Shirou had read up on the entrance to Solitas and found that anyone going on an airship would need an official ID, something that Shirou did not have. Shirou Emiya did not exist on Remnant in any offical capacity.

Sneaking into Atlas wouldn't be too hard, he just had to play his cards right.

Alright, this is it and I'll admit I'm somewhat iffy on the chapter. I feel like I could have done better with certain elements but I did my best and I'll leave the criticism to anyone who reviews. I think I did okay with Roman & Neo's send-off as they had to be sent off for what I plan for Shirou to do in Solitas. Anyway, we also have Storm (RIP) who confirms for Shirou that Lil' Miss Malachite didn't listen to his advice. As such her head is to be on the chopping block within the future.

Now, I'm hoping I kept them all in character and if anything feels out of place please tell me so I can correct it.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed it and if you have any criticism I ask you to give it constructively.