A Red Rose in the Blue Wind

by Iron117Prime

Sonic and his friends have come to a new world, one Dr. Eggman hopes to conquer. Meeting new friends? That is to be expected of our heroes. New enemies? Also to be expected. But being caught in a war between two immortals? Not the strangest thing that's happened to them, but definitely something new. (Blood and minor swears)

39. The Dragon, the Echidna, and the Raven

Hi everyone. Welcome back to more of "A Red Rose in the Blue Wind", now we've got a very interesting chapter planned for all of you here today. Which you can guess based on the title of the chapter right here as we get another look at a certain character that I've been working to improve upon her canon counterpart. It'll make more sense as you read it.
Now, with all that out of the way, let's get started!

The Dragon, the Echidna, and the Raven

Shion was a village that resided in the continent of Anima, quite some distance away from the main city of Mistral. Far enough away that the only reasonable means of travel between the village and main city was usually by air-ship. For the most part, it wasn't a particularly large village, but not a small one either, and was usually peaceful.

All except right now, as fires blazed across multiple buildings and the villagers all screamed as their home was now being raided by what looked like a small army of White Fang agents, all armed with guns and crude weapons like machetes, hammers, swords, and axes.

"Round up all the women and kids! Kill anyone who resists!" The leader of the group shouted as all the White Fang members did as they were told.

Homes were broken into, children and women were forcibly dragged out, kicking and screaming the whole time. Anyone who tried to resist was quickly cut or gunned down. One White Fang member in particular smashed a window open with his arm and threw in a Fire Dust grenade, which quickly exploded and caused the house to quickly catch fire.

"Move it, brat!" One raider shoved a little girl to the ground, who was crying and sobbing as she watched her home catch fire.

However, admits the chaos, there appeared to be one person who kept a reasonably cool head as she moved in-between the buildings, sneaking to a certain spot and making sure to avoid catching the attention of the White Fang raiders as she escorted a sobbing little girl.

The person in question was a teenage girl with tan skin, short brown hair and blue eyes. For the most part, she wore a grey robe over her current attire, which was kept hidden.

"Search every house! Don't let a single person escape!" They heard someone call out, causing the older girl to quietly gesture for the little girl to get behind her, putting a finger over mouth as the younger one nodded. They clung to the wall and waited for the raider to pass before it was all clear.

"I'm scared…" The little girl clung to the older one like a lifeline.

"It's okay…" She comforted. "We're almost there."

Peeking her head out from the entrance to the alleyway, the older girl saw that it was all clear and motioned for the little girl to follow her as they went for a brick wall near the outskirts of the village.

Knowing which brick to look for, the older girl removed one from the wall to reveal a red signal-flare device with a black bird emblem etched onto it. Reaching for it quickly, she aimed the signal-flare up high and shot it up into the air. A stream of fire shot straight up, reaching well above the burning village before it exploded outward, taking the form of a giant bird that shined even brighter than the flames of the village below.

The girl grimaced, knowing this would draw attention… but an emergency was still an emergency.

A scream caused her to turn around, the girl glared as she saw the child she was escorting being taken hostage by the White Fang raider, who had a knife to her throat.

"The hell did you do?!" The raider questioned.

"Let her go!" The older girl demanded.

"I don't think so!" He held the knife closer to the little girl's throat, causing her to whimper with tears in her eyes. Grimacing with reluctance, the older girl held up her hands to surrender herself.

---

While most of the village continued to burn, all the surviving women and children were brought to the square of the village and were all huddled close together, all crying and trying to comfort each other as a dozen White Fang raiders surrounded and guarded them.

"W-Why are you doing this…?" One woman muttered in terror as she held her child close to her.

"Cause you're human." One raider spat. "But I bet you'll fetch a pretty high price on the black market, a pretty thing like you."

"Move it!" Another raider joined in as he pushed the same blue-eyed girl and the child she was helping into the group of civilians. "This one sent up some kind of signal!" The raider said to the one who was apparently leading this group.

The leader laughed. "All that good that'll do them. Mistral's called back all the Huntsmen so it's not like anyone's gonna do anything about it."

"T-The Golden Hero…" The leader turned to see the little girl, the one who clung to the older blue-eyed one, muttered. "H-he'll come…"

"What was that, you little brat?!" The leader was about to strike her with the back of his sword, only for the older girl to catch him by the wrist and twist his arm, causing him to grunt in pain as he dropped his weapon, only for said girl to get shot in the side. Her light blue Aura briefly flashed as she fell to her knees.

"This one's got an Aura!" The raider who shot her proclaimed as the leader got back up to look down at the glaring girl.

"I don't like the look in this one's eyes. I'll make an example out of you." The leader glared as he took out his sword, raised it and was ready to cut her down...

Only for a bright red portal to open up in-between the girl and the leader of the raiders, much to his surprise… and even more so as a glowing red blade emerged from the portal to stab the leader through his gut.

Everything then became deathly quiet as the head raider was thrown to the ground, holding the wound in his stomach as he looked up in shock to see a certain black-haired and red-eyed woman step out of the portal, which promptly closed behind her.

"B-Branwen…?!" The head raider hacked up blood in surprise.

"Good work with that signal, Vernal." Raven said, paying a small glance and smile to the blue-eyed girl, who smiled back as she stood up by her leader's side, who turned to glare back at all the surrounding raiders. "Shion Village is part of my territory and attacking it will be the last mistake you'll ever make!"

Immediately, all the dozen raiders drew their weapons with those wielding guns getting ready to shoot her, only for Raven to appear in front of them in a flash of red and draw her sword, Omen, to begin cutting down the gunmen quickly.

Following her lead, Vernal threw off her robe to reveal her attire, which consisted of a black sleeveless and legless shozoku for her upper body with a red sash tied across diagonally, she also wore black leather boots that stretched up to her thighs and red tape wrapped around her forearms with black arm guards. She drew a pair of dual weapons that looked like a mix between hand-guns and crescent-shaped blades. The last piece of detail she added to herself was a Grimm mask that looked like a Beowulf's face.

Acting quickly, Vernal leapt towards the White Fang raiders and fired her guns into two of them before landing and appearing back-to-back with Raven as they were surrounded by the remaining dozen or so.

"I count at least fourteen, but the village is still swarming with more who might try to escape." Vernal reported. "Not to mention the Grimm who'll be drawn here…"

"I know." Raven smiled as she gestured her head upward to the sound an engine's roar.

Glancing upward, all the raiders looked in shock while Vernal smiled underneath her mask at the sight of a Manta Gunship, one that looked like it belonged to the Atlas military, except that it had the emblem of a black bird painted on its underbelly.

---

"Raven's on the ground and made contact with Vernal." The pilot, a skinny man with long dirty blonde hair and gray eyes reported. "You all know the drill, right?"

"Yes, I will take the warriors and clear the village of the enemy." A man dressed in dark grey armor replied. His armor's design gave off the impression of a dark knight as he also wore a short red cape, as well as spiked shoulder pads, gauntlets and grieves. He wielded a large broadsword over his shoulder, and wore a helmet to cover his face, with the helmet bearing the resemblance to the skull of a Grimm Wyvern.

"And as usual, I'll stay here in case any Grimm show up." Another man in the back of the air ship, partially obscured in shadows, said in annoyance.

"Get ready to drop!" The pilot ordered as the Manta descended near a rooftop, one of the few that wasn't burning, before the bay doors opened up. "Sieg, go!"

The armored man with the sword, the one named Sieg, quickly stepped out, along with a dozen men and women, all clad in black and red attire, dressing something equivalent to that of shinobi. Once they were all out, the gunship took to the air to begin patrolling the skies again.

"Do not let a single raider escape!" Sieg ordered leading to all the warriors to quickly leap off the rooftop and into the village to catch and engage the leaders while Sieg himself jumped from the roof and landed on the ground to face off against six White Fang raiders. He already drew his massive broadsword and slammed it on the ground, which caused his armored body to light on fire before advancing on the enemy.

Three of the raiders had guns and already opened fire on Sieg, but the flames around his body protected him from the bullets as he quickly swung his sword to bring down two raiders with one swing before swinging upward in a circular motion to take down the remaining four as they tried to gang up on him.

Throughout the rest of the village, the black-clad warriors leapt from rooftop to rooftop in groups of two or three, quickly moving to intercept any White Fang raider that tried to escape or fight back. A few of these warriors had guns, but the rest all had simpler weapons like swords and daggers and moved with such speed and accuracy that even most professional Huntsmen would have a hard time catching up to them.

One pair of warriors spotted a White Fang agent trying to retreat, only for one warrior to pull out a bolas and throw it to ensnare the agent's legs and trip him up, slowing him down enough for the two agents to leap down and subdue him.

A trio Branwen warriors appeared in the middle of a group of four raiders, all of whom were helpless to defend against the relentless onslaught of punches and blade slashes, bringing them down quickly enough.

---

Back in the center of the village, the fourteen White Fang raiders tried to overwhelm Raven and Vernal, but numbers were the only advantage the enemy appeared to have as the two warriors seemed more than skilled to deal with these enemies.

Vernal quickly ducked under a hatchet slice from one raider and gave a cartwheel kick to his jaw to knock him down while also flipping up in the air to fire her weapons and gun down two that tried to catch her as she landed. Another tried to slice a sword at her, but Vernal caught the sword easily within the rings of her blades and sliced it apart with just the flick of her wrist before lunging her free blade into his stomach to end his life.

Raven appeared surrounded by ten White Fang raiders, but this didn't make her the least bit nervous, even as they all came in at the same time. She ducked and simultaneously changed Omen's blades from red to blue and sliced at the ground to spread out a series of ice spikes to catch all the raiders, getting several of them stuck. With them being immobilized, Raven moved quickly to cut them down one-by-one, dashing from one trapped warrior to another and slashing her sword with each dash. In the blink of an eye, she'd already cut down six of them as the remaining four managed to free themselves. One shot his gun at her, but Raven spun Omen in front of her like a helicopter blade to block the bullets before zooming in to slice her sword and bring him down. She saw the last three attempting to make a run for it, but Raven jumped and soared above the trio, changing out her Dust blades as she did for a yellow one and landed in front of them before dashing past them, her yellow sword held out as all three were electrocuted and brought down.

Though she didn't get a chance to celebrate this as a familiar howl was heard in the distance. She immediately contacted the pilot of the circling Manta.

"Shay…"

"I know. Grimm."

"Tell Heraklees it's time."

---

"You heard the lady, big boy!" Shay, the pilot, said to the only remaining man in the manta. "Do what you do best."

Even concealed in the shadows, a smile could be seen on the man's face.

A pack of a dozen Beowolves, along with seven Sabyrs, emerged for the tree line and gunned straight for the burning village, being drawn to the growing fear and panic like moths to a flame. However, before they could even reach Shion's boarder, the Manta flew over them before the doors opened while airborne, allowing for someone to jump out and land with a powerful enough impact that the entire area shook briefly, and all the Grimm stopped in their tracks.

What stood between them and their prey was a single man. An enormous beast of a man who stood well over thirteen feet tall and was covered head-to-toe in muscles. His only attire consisted of a pair of black pants, he didn't even wear shoes as he was barefoot, and a black furred pelt over his back. His chest was completely bare, exposing his oversized muscles, and he also wore a helmet over his head that looked like the skull of a Manticore Grimm with its mouth open to reveal his face and blue eyes.

"Alright. Who wants to go first?" The man named Heraklees challenged the Grimm.

The Beowolf at the front of the pack gave a roar as it charged first, gunning straight for the enormous man, who simply threw his fist outward to shatter the Beowulf's whole head with one hit.

"Next?" He looked unimpressed at the remaining Grimm, all of whom charged him all at once with roars and howls, which only caused him to grin even more. Three Sabyrs and six Beowolves attempted to leap and pile on top of him, but he flexed his arms to send them flying and crashing all around and across the ground hard before the monster of a man ran to throw out his fists in every direction of the Grimm, smashing them all with one hit each. One Sabyr attempted to leap at him from behind and bite his shoulder, only for its teeth and claws to break as soon as they touched his skin. Heraklees then grabbed the de-fanged Grimm by the face and used him to smash two Beowolves attempting to charge him, killing all three instantly. One swing of his arm was enough to tear apart three Beowolves in a single swing. He stomped on a Sabyr's head to crush it before grabbing another one that leapt him by the throat and threw it into another Sabyr and a Beowolf to destroy all of them at once. Only four Beowolves remained and he wasn't about to let them get away and grow to become alphas in the future. He jumped into the air, reaching well above the tree line, raised his fists up high as he came back down with a powerful smash that created a crater upon impact, uprooted several trees from the shockwave alone and sent the last surviving Grimm flying and crashing against the torn up ground before they all disintegrated.

Looking around for any more signs of the Grimm, Heraklees accessed the comms' device in his helmet. "The Grimm are clear."

"Well done, meet us in the village, we're all finished here too." Raven ordered.

---

Meanwhile, several hundred miles away from Shion village, Yang drove her motorcycle through a natural path in the forested landscape as Knuckles rode in the back with her. Currently, Yang had her scroll plugged into a small terminal at the front of the motorcycle with the GPS currently active, guiding her and Knuckles to their destination. And for the most part, their ride had been relative quiet. After shedding a great many tears upon their leaving of Haven Academy, Yang hadn't said a single word, and no doubt had a lot on her mind. Knuckles recognized this state Yang was in, much like their investigation into Merlot, Yang had more-or-less tuned herself out after getting a harsh lesson on her over-reliance on her Semblance; but this felt worse, mainly because of how personal it was. But she needed to get all this out, and someone to listen to her.

"Yang. We need to talk about Qrow." Knuckles began.

"I got nothing to say about him." She replied, keeping her eyes focused on the road.

"And I don't blame you, but don't you think you went too far?" Knuckles questioned.

That's when Yang pulled on her brakes, causing the motorcycle to stop. "Too far…?" She began. "Too far?!" She turned around to reveal her enraged look, her eyes burning red like before. "My uncle… pretty much said to my face… that I'm just another Raven in his eyes! He doesn't see me as his niece, just a do-over for his sister! And he probably feels that way about Ruby too! She's just a carbon copy of Summer to him! How in the hell did you think I was going to take that?!"

"That's not the issue!" Knuckles stated back, not even flinching from her outburst. "You're right to be mad at him! But threatening to kill him?! That crosses a line!"

"So, what? I'm supposed to just let him do whatever the hell he wants?! Let him talk trash about my friends or try to manipulate my sister?!" Yang exclaimed.

"Of course not!" Knuckles replied. "Stand against him all you want, be willing to fight back if he steps out of line! But taking someone's life… especially a member of your family… that is something you can never take back! Ever!" The two stared each other down, blazing red eyes against those of a fierce and unwavering purple. "Yang, be honest with me, right here and now, would you really kill Qrow? For real?"

Yang's eyes remained red for a while, but as she let what Knuckles said process, the glow dyed down as she found herself looking away. "No…" She admitted shamefully. "But… I needed him to take me seriously. Ruby's off limits."

"Do you think he'd actually try to harm her though?" Knuckles asked, causing Yang to balk.

"After what he tried to do with Pyrrha, and what he did to Jaune…!"

"We've already acknowledged that he went too far and betrayed your trust, including Ruby's." Knuckles interrupted. "No point in repeating what we already know and what's already happened. But, even if he was being difficult, he does seem to care about your sister, and she still cares about him."

"Too bad he doesn't feel that way about me." Yang said, looking away in grief, causing Knuckles' look to soften. "Even if he won't hurt her, what's to stop him from trying to take her away form me? She's the only family I have left… I can't lose her…!" She sniffled.

"Even if he did try something like that… do you really think she would? Do you think Ruby would leave you?" Knuckles asked, causing Yang to look at him with tears in her eyes. "I'm serious Yang, do you actually see Ruby abandoning you?"

"No…" Yang muttered. "At least… I don't think so… But… what's to stop Qrow from trying to convince her to leave…?"

"How about herself?" Knuckles responded. "Have you tried talking with Ruby about this? Ask her how she feels…?"

"Are you kidding? You know what she's going through, right now?" Yang questioned. "All our family drama aside, nearly all her friends are gone! Scattered across the world! And that's only after she watched Penny get torn apart and Beacon almost completely destroyed! Not to mention there's a genocidal monster out there who is actively trying to kill her?! Oh, and that's not even getting into all that mysterious crap going on with her eyes that nobody else seems to know the answers to! Not even you guys! She's just a kid! I can't dump all my problems on her and expect her to solve them all on her own!"

"That's not what I'm saying…" Knuckles tried.

"What exactly are you saying then, Knuckles?!" Yang questioned. "What am I supposed to do other than what I've been doing!? I'm the older sister, I'm the one who took care of Ruby when nobody else would! Yeah, I got cheated out of my childhood, but I'm not gonna take that out on her! I have to be strong… For her… Even if it's alone."

Knuckles sighed somewhat. "You know who you sound like right now?"

"Who?" She growled.

"Me." He answered with a half-smile.

Out of all the answers she thought she'd hear… that was the one she did not expect. So much so that it left her surprised and confused enough that her anger began to die down, like a gentle rain falling over a blazing inferno.

"Oh… I… Thanks… I guess…" She had no idea how to respond.

"You already know my story." Knuckles began. "My father was the strongest Echidna I'd ever known. I didn't just love him, I admired him. He was my hero, in the same way you once saw Summer as 'super mom'. And when he died… I felt…lost. Weak. I hated feeling like that. I was the last of my tribe on Angel Island, so I felt it was my responsibility to protect the Master Emerald from that point forward. I thought I was honoring my father and the others by doing so, and I was. But maybe it was also a distraction, a way to focus on something and avoid facing my own helplessness. I trained myself for many years, to grow stronger for all those reasons. I learned to be strong alone. And then I met Sonic and everyone. After our first battle against Eggman, I returned to Angel Island resumed my duties guarding the Emerald. But… it was then… when I slowly began to realize… just how lonely I was living on that island."

Yang looked to him with sympathy and understanding. She remembered being told what had happened to his family before and it was just as heartbreaking to hear it now as it was back then. But now, having been faced with her own problems and loneliness growing up… she couldn't help but see just how similar their childhoods were.

"That… does sound like me sometimes…"

"But even though my past was lonely, that just made my present all the brighter." Knuckles smiled. "The more adventures I went on with Sonic and everyone, the more people I met, the more I began to open up my heart. And I made new connections, new friends. Nobody could ever replace my father or my tribe… but I found a new tribe, people I consider my family. And because of that, I'm stronger now than I ever was. And when it comes to that kind of strength… it's not enough to just protect the people around you… it's about trusting them."

"But… I trust Ruby…" Yang tried.

"You trust her as a leader, yeah. But what about as a sister?" Knuckles asked.

"What are you talking about? Of course, I trust her!" Yang replied.

"Do you trust her to share your burdens though?" Knuckles asked again, causing Yang to look in surprise. "You're right, Ruby is going through a lot, and she might need you to be there for her. But… I think it would mean more to her and you if you open up and share your burdens with her too. You're not dumping your problems on her, your sharing the load. Let her talk to you and let her share her burdens with you, and you do the same. Work through them together. Sonic is going to have Ruby's back no matter what, and I'm going to have yours, all our friends will. But you also gotta open yourself up to her too, that's how you show your true strength, that's how you show that you trust her." He said with a smile, putting a hand on her shoulder.

Yang had listened to every word and felt herself truly touched by all of this, so much so that she was at a complete loss for words. Every word he just said had managed to work their way to her very core.

"Knuckles… I…"

Suddenly, the sounds of beastly roars and explosions had caught their attention, taking them out of the moment. The two focused their senses and could hear the source of the sounds coming further down the road, just up ahead.

Yang got a good look at the map on her scroll. "Looks like we're near that village Lionheart told us about. And someone might be fighting."

"Could be that Huntsman team he sent." Knuckles assumed. "We should help."

"Sorry, I know we're talking but…" Yang muttered.

"I get it." Knuckles assured. "Now let's go crush some skulls." He smirked.

Yang smirked back as she revved up her motorcycle and drove further down the road, going at a much faster pace than before. It didn't even take them five minutes to reach a clearing where they spotted a large spiraling hill with a small village built at the very top of it. But what caught their attention first was the group of four Huntsmen currently battling a swarm of Grimm on the ground at the base of the hill.

One of them was a young Faunus woman with blue eyes and dark blue hair tied back in a ponytail, light skin and blemishes on her face, as well as a pair of blue-furred serval cat legs with three claws on each. Her attire consisted of glasses on her face, a brown leather with brown gloves over a dark blue and black shirt that connected to a pair of shorts. This Faunus woman wielded a pickaxe like weapon, which she used to slice off a Beowolves head with a swing before leaping straight up into the air, twice as high as a normal person would. While airborne, she converted her pickaxe into a crossbow to fire a volley of Fire Dust arrows into a pack of four Beowolves to obliterate them.

The second was a thin, light skinned man with an undercut and goatee and a scar across his left eye. He had short and ragged black hair and orange eyes, and his outfit was that of a black and grey long-sleeved shirt and pants, all covered by minimalist dark grey armor. He ducked under the claw swipe of an Ursa and lunged a hook-like weapon into its arm and used that to swing himself over to land on the Ursa's back, wrapping his arms around its neck before flashing his hands into its face to emit a bright flash of white light, causing it to stumble before he plunged his hook weapon as well as a knife into the Ursa's face and pulled in opposite directions to rip the face apart before sliding off as its body disintegrated.

The third individual was a lion Faunus with olive-colored skin amber-colored eyes and a lean muscular build. He had red hair that looked more like a lion's mane along with a pair of lion ears on his head as well as a growing beard. His attire was an armor that looked like something a Spartan would wear, complete with a red cape. His weapon looked like a pair of gauntlets and shields brought together, which he used to shield himself from the relentless pounding of a Beringel. However, the lion Faunus smirked as when the Beringel raised his fists to try and smash him again, only for the man's shields to retracted as a pair of claw-like extensions appeared on his knuckles, which he used to slice and cut apart the fists of the gorilla-like Grimm before he leapt to run his blades into its chest, pushing the Beringel down before repeatedly slashing and stabbing with his claw weapons until he tore the monster apart.

And finally, the fourth and final Huntsman, was a young man with light tan skin, green eyes and light brown hair styled in a bowl cut. He wore a brown long-sleeved shirt with a yellow dash across the middle, with only one sleeve covering the left arm, while his right arm was much more muscular than that of his right. He also wore a pair of green cargo pants, metallic kneepads and boots. But what stood out the most about him, was that his right and muscular arm was also equipped with a large drill-like weapon, which he used to impale through an incoming Ursa. The drill spun around to completely destroy the Grimm before firing a series of Lightning Dust projectiles from his drill at a group of incoming Sabyrs, killing them all before they even reached him.

"Is that all of them?" The man with the hooks questioned.

"All for this area." The lion Faunus replied.

"Alright, chalk up another victory to Team SAFR!" The man with the drill cheered as he held up his hand for a high-five, which the lion Faunus reciprocated.

"Heads up, looks like we got an audience." The cat Faunus girl said, gesturing to the recently arrived Yang and Knuckles, the former looking with awe at how quickly these pro Huntsmen just wiped out the pack of Grimm, with even Knuckles giving an impressed smile.

"Team SAFR, I'm guessing?" The red Echidna inquired. "I'm Knuckles, this is Yang, Lionheart sent us."

"Oh, nice to meet you. The name's Arrastra Skye." The Cat Faunus girl introduced. "I'm the leader and these are my lackies." She gestured to her teammates behind her with a grin.

"Lackies?" The man with the hook questioned irritably.

"Sunshine over there is Asher Mora." Arrastra gestured before introducing the rest of her team. "The drill man is Pyke Rite, and lion boy is Fenix Nemean."

"Nice to meet you." Pyke greeted with a friendly smile.

"Welcome to the party, but a bit late I'm afraid." Fenix said.

Yang happened to look past them all and spotted something that immediately alarmed her. "You sure? Cause we got an incoming Nevermore!"

Everyone turned around to see a Nevermore descending from the sky, looking ready to smash its head into the ground and pulverize them. All six of them quickly readied themselves for a fight…

However, none of them expected a gray-stripped fur tail to suddenly wrap itself around the neck of the Nevermore and pull up hard on it, forcing the Nevermore to veer up and just over the group of six, much to their surprise. But as the Nevermore curved and struggled in the air, they all spotted someone riding on its back.

It was a slim, female, anthropomorphic ring-tailed lemur with orchid purple eyes and light grey fur. Her clothing consisted of a small, yellow, cropped sleeveless top over a black short-sleeved body suit with orange stripes on the side, amber-colored shoes, yellow sports tape wrapped around her arms, and fingerless gloves.

"Yeehah!" The lemur sung out as she rode the Nevermore that struggled to shake her off. "Can't shake me off that easy, little birdie!"

"Is she… riding a Nevermore…?!" Asher questioned in surprise.

"Seems that way." Fenix nodded before smirking. "Quite the daredevil."

"Yeah, I like her." Arrastra commented with a smile of her own.

"You wanna go down? Okay, let's go down!" The lemur kicked hard on the back of the Nevermore's neck and pulled on her elongated tail so that the Nevermore shot towards the ground, moving at too fast speeds for it to even stop. Once she was close enough, she pulled her tail back and leapt from the Nevermore before it crashed and skidded along the ground, leaving a trail as it went. "Whoo! Perfect landing!" She celebrated, raising her fists up.

However, she failed to notice that the Nevermore was still alive, albeit barely as it lifted its head and looked ready to lunge at her with all its remaining strength…

"Heads up!" She heard a warning as Yang drove her motorcycle toward the downed Nevermore and fired a shot from Ember Cilica to literally punch a hole through the Nevermore's head and finish it off by ramming her motorcycle through what was left of it, killing it all in one shot.

"Wow, thanks for the save. Nice bike, by the way." The lemur complemented.

"Thanks… it's new. You should have seen the old one." Yang said with a slight smile as Knuckles got off.

"Hey… aren't you Knuckles?" The lemur asked the Echidna. "You travel all the time with Sonic the Hedgehog, don't you?"

"That's me." He nodded. "And you are?"

"Tangle the Lemur, nice to meet ya." She offered her elongated tail to shake like a hand.

"Likewise." Knuckles accepted the tail shake like it was no big deal.

"And I'm sure there's probably a reasonable, really cool, and possibly terrifying explanation of why my hometown is suddenly being attacked by these really scary but also kinda-cool-in-an-edgy-kind-of-way monsters, but why don't you give it until after we finished clearing them out?" Tangle offered.

"There's more?" Yang questioned seriously.

"Yeah. A whole bunch of giant wasps are coming in from the sky too." Tangle explained. "I went after the bird first because it was the biggest, but my friends could really use some help right now."

"No time to waste then, let's go." Knuckles said seriously.

"We'll help too." Pyke offered, speaking for the rest of his team.

"Follow me!" Tangle said as she led the group back towards the hill where her village resided. "Oh, welcome to Spiral Hill Village, by the way."

---

Shion Village

Using various Ice and Water Dust crystals, as well as buckets of water from the nearby well, the Branwen tribe worked with the surviving villagers to extinguish all the fire from the burning buildings, as well as recover any injured or the bodies of the deceased.

By the time it was done, more than half the village was a smoldering mess. The bodies of all the deceased villagers were laid out on the ground in the main square with blankets and sheets covering their bodies, while the bodies of the White Fang raiders were thrown into a pile. Raven observed most of this from the center of the village as Sieg approached her, having taken off his Wyvern Grimm helmet to reveal his long silver hair and green eyes.

"Twenty villagers are among the dead, mostly men. My guess, they were planning on selling the women or children, or 'use' them for their own ends." Sieg reported.

"I see…" Raven looked down somewhat.

"But it doesn't make sense though." Sieg commented. "Sienna Khan might not be humanity's biggest fan, but you two have an agreement: keep to each other's turf. If nothing else, she's a woman of her word. And even if she wasn't, I'd see her more targeting an Atlas base or a Huntsman camp, not a village in the middle of nowhere."

"Because she didn't." Raven revealed, much to Sieg's surprise. "This wasn't the White Fang."

Before Sieg could even ask what she meant by that, they heard Heraklees of their warriors call to them. "Hey! Come over here!" They went over to the towering giant as he and several of their black-and-red clad warriors had gathered the bodies of the raiders and removed their masks and equipment, all revealing that not a single one of them were Faunus. "These guys ain't Faunus. They're human."

It was true, despite wearing the attire that was consistent to that of the Faunus militia, none of them had any animal traits, all of them were human.

"Human? I don't get it…" Sieg looked confused. "Why pretend to be the White Fang?"

"Take a closer look." Raven kneeled down to one of the bodies, picking up on the arm and turning it over to reveal a spider-tattoo on the wrist. "Spider."

"Malachite." Heraklees growled.

"Where's their leader?" Raven questioned Sieg.

The trio soon came to Vernal, who stood guard over the leader of the raiders, who had his arms tied behind a support beam of a partially ruined building. The younger girl saw her leader approach and spoke to her.

"I patched up the wound, but he hasn't said a word."

Raven wordlessly put a hand on Vernal's shoulder before leaning down to pry the mask of the leader's face, revealing that he was human too. "You're a part of Spider. Why did Malachite send you here?" The leader looked away, causing Raven to pull him up by his collar. "Answer me! Why did Malachite attack this village?! And why pretend to be the White Fang?! This isn't her territory!"

"Ever think that maybe the city of Mistral's a bit too small for us?" The leader replied. "With golden aliens flying around and wiping out Grimm left and right, and those filthy Faunus thinking that they're able to stand against us humans, we gotta let them know who is really in charge."

"So, you attacked a village that wasn't even primarily Faunus?" Vernal questioned, which only caused the leader to look away again.

"Malachite values money and power above all else, not human supremacy." Raven said, looking unconvinced. "What is she planning?"

The leader scoffed. "What good would it be if I told you? You gonna start a war with someone who's on Mistral's council? Pick a fight with every Huntsmen in the kingdom?"

"Last chance." Raven warned. "Tell me what your boss wants." The leader than spat in her face, causing Raven to drop him before she drew her sword, the blade glowing red. "Fine. I'll figure it out myself." She sliced at his throat, cutting and burning it at the same time before he fell over dead soon after.

"This is too bold, even for Malachite." Sieg said as the four came together. "She might be on Mistral's council, but starting a war with us or even Sienna Khan's White Fang is gonna cause a lot of damage to her organization."

"Unless…" Vernal thought for a moment before her eyes widened in realization "You don't think she's working for Salem now, do you?"

"Or someone who does work for Salem is using her, like what Eggman did with that punk Adam and Torchwick in Vale." Heraklees guessed. He then noticed a complicated look in Raven's eyes at the mention of Adam. "Sorry, but that punk…"

"He made his choice." Raven commented. "But I should have done better with him. He could have been part of the Four Winds."

"None of us could have suspected that he would actually go to Salem of all people." Sieg stated. "You need not fault yourself for that."

That still did little to deter Raven's own troubling thoughts. She remembered raiding an SDC mining camp for its resources, one that was also known for keeping Faunus slave labor. That's when she found the boy, who was twelve years old at the time, and had an SDC brand on his face. She took him in and saw the anger in his eyes, she thought she could use that in her tribe, so she trained him. When he was older, he said how he wanted to use his skills to help his people and she offered him the choice to either stay with her or go and do what he wanted to help the Faunus, he chose the latter and she respected it. But maybe she should have done more to curb his anger, he always did have a temper. That's another child under her wing that she ruined… only this one turned into a monster, one of her own making. Well, she won't make that mistake again. If she did spot Adam again and he was just as violent as before and on Salem's side, she would kill him. But first things first, they had to figure out what Malachite was planning and if she was truly involved with Salem now.

"Excuse me…" A middle-aged woman approached the group.

"Mayor Greensten." Raven nodded.

"First off, thank you." The mayor nodded. "You saved our village."

"Sorry that we couldn't save everyone." Sieg apologized.

"But you did save most of us. And, I know our deal Raven…" Mayor Greensten began. "You would provide our village protection from the Grimm and other bandits, and we provide you and your tribe with food and resources. It was a good deal, and we both benefited, but…"

"You want to leave, don't you?" Raven already knew where this was going.

"Yes." Greensten confirmed. "Our people can't live here anymore."

"I understand." Raven accepted.

"Where will you go?" Vernal asked.

"Is it true that Vale has been cleared of the Grimm?" Greensten responded with a question of her own. "I've heard the reports but…"

'It's true." Raven confirmed. "I've seen it myself."

"Then that's where we'll go." Greensten said.

"Alright." She snapped her fingers, leading to one of her black-and-red clad warriors to leap down from a nearby rooftop. "Help get all the surviving villagers to Shay and have him fly everyone to Vale, or at least one of the port cities that can get them all there if that's impossible. Once that's done, the rest of us will head back to base."

"Yes ma'am." The warrior nodded as he followed the mayor to begin the evacuation.

"Hard to believe… A continent with no Grimm…" Heraklees said. "I still can't wrap my head around it."

Nor could Raven. She would never forget what she saw in Beacon. A Hedgehog clad in brilliant golden light, shinning brighter like the sun, and carving through an army of Grimm and robots like a hot knife through butter. Not even Ozpin was capable of such a feat. But even more unbelievable… was that he was somehow able to wipe out every Grimm throughout the eastern half of Sanus and see to it that none would ever spawn there again. A part of her wanted to believe it… but it sounded too good to be true. As she thought more about this, she noticed an uncertain look in Vernal's eyes… like the girl wanted to say something but couldn't.

"You want to say something Vernal, then say it." Raven told her.

"Oh… well…" She stumbled a bit. "I was just… thinking. You said that Ozpin had no real plan to stop Salem, that all he was doing was building a wall made from the corpses of his followers. But… this Golden Hero guy… If he could destroy every Grimm in Vale… maybe he could stop Salem permanently. And if he could…"

"We should reach out to him." Sieg realized where she was going. "And I would agree that…"

"We don't know anything about him." Raven interrupted. "Even if he did destroy Salem, how do we know that he's not just going to make Remnant into his own kingdom? How do we know he's no different from her or Ozpin?"

"We could always ask him." Heraklees suggested bluntly, which only caused Raven to glare. "What? It seems the simpler option."

"We also know that your daughter is with him, so is that silver-eyed girl you mentioned." Sieg added. "Maybe…"

"No." Raven shook her head. She then saw Heraklees look at her with a glare and a raised eyebrow. "What?"

"You really don't want your kid here?" He questioned.

"I'm not mother material!" Raven replied. "Look how things turned out with Adam and April!"

"Well… you did a good job with me…" Vernal muttered.

"You're my sister, not my daughter. There's a difference." Raven countered, which only caused Vernal to look down.

"My point is, that your daughter and her sister are with the Golden Hero, right? So maybe that's a sign that he's not bad and we can actually talk to him." Sieg argued.

"Even if that were the case, the last thing I'd want is for mine or Summer's kid involved in all this!" Raven stated.

"Might be too late for that if they're with the Golden Hero. And at least your little girl is still here, which is more than I can say for mine…" Heraklees looked away, which did cause Raven's own expression to soften somewhat.

But before this conversation could continue any further, the same warrior had previously escorted the mayor returned. "Raven! We have a problem!"

"What now?" She growled, being in no mood for any more problems.

"Shay was just attacked!"

That caused Raven and the others to look in surprise.

---

Shay held his head as he tried to steady himself on the Manta that was parked just outside the village with Mayor Greensten helping him up. A red portal opened up next to him as Raven stepped out with Vernal, Heraklees, and Sieg right behind her, all four of them looking ready for a fight.

"Shay, what happened?!" Vernal asked as she came to his side.

"Something… hit me… It was too fast I…" Shay tried to shake the cobwebs from his head.

"Hey, over here! Look!" Sieg caught their attention, pointing to the right wing to see that the engine attached to the edge was missing. "One of the Dust engines is gone!"

"Same over here too!" Heraklees pointed to the left wing on the other side to see that the Dust engine was no longer attached.

Stepping inside the cockpit, Raven looked to see the floor was pried open revealing an empty compartment, the Dust core that provided electricity for the ship was missing too. Taking careful inspection of this spot, as well as the wings, Raven saw that there was no major damage. Nothing was ripped or torn out, more like it was dismantled. Her guess, Shay was probably knocked out which allowed whoever was responsible an opportunity to come in and take what they wanted, with the mayor and her escort only just now stumbling upon them. But to dismantle an Altas vessel… and to do it so quickly and quietly without causing any kind of damage or a commotion… these were no simple thieves, but professionals.

"Who did this?" Raven asked Shay.

"I… I don't know. It all happened so fast…" He rubbed his head.

"I think I saw them…" Mayor Greensten said. "I didn't get too good of a look but there were three of them… Maybe they were Faunus, one of them looked like some kind of bird… and…"

"How did they escape so quickly?" Raven questioned.

"I think… they rode on these… boards… I don't know. But it almost looked like they flew." Mayor Greensten answered. "But I saw them fly off in that direction, heading east."

Raven looked out into the forest with narrowed eyes before coming to a decision. "You three stay here." She gestured to her strongest warriors. "Watch over Shion and its people, I'm going after the thieves."

"We could come with you." Vernal offered. "We're the Four Winds, the strongest of the Branwen tribe!"

"Exactly, that's why I need you here to look after things just in case the Grimm or anybody else comes here to cause trouble." Raven stated. "I can handle myself, now do it."

"Sure, leave it to us." Sieg nodded as he and Mayor Greensten helped Shay. With that, Raven dashed into the forest where she transformed into her bird form and flew into the air.

As she did, Vernal couldn't help but look with worry. She knew her half-sister, the woman who raised her and led this tribe was the strongest person she knew and could definitely handle herself in a fight. But… with how Remnant's been reacting to the Golden Hero and his actions… things have been looking more and more uncertain, and she couldn't help but be concerned.

Vernal then felt a hand on her shoulder, causing her to look up to Heraklees as he gave an assuring smile. "Come on kid, you heard her. We got a job to do." This caused Vernal to smile back as they rejoined the rest of their tribe.

---

Spiral Hill Village

The denizens of this village, all anthropomorphic animals, had sought shelter ever since that flash of light about a week ago had engulfed their village. Not long after that, they appeared in a new and unfamiliar environment, one teeming with deadly and unrelenting monsters. That included the swarm of giant hornet-like monsters that hovered over their town and flew down to slice and skewer at the roof tops with their claws and stingers.

"Quickly, everyone inside!" A female anthropomorphic beetle with light blue skin and pink eyes directed as many of her fellow villagers as she could into her museum. This beetle wore a pink French blazer and skirt with white gloves and black leggings and pink heels. But as she helped bring the last of the villagers inside, she gasped at the sound of rapid buzzing from wings much bigger than hers and quickly looked up with a gasp at an incoming Lancer who flew down to lunge its stinger at her.

Only for said Lancer to get lassoed by an elongated tale, hauled up, and slammed down into a nearby fountain, destroying it and the Lancer in one slam. "Don't hurt my BFF!" Tangle shouted to the disintegrating Lancer. "Jewel, are you okay?!" She immediately went to the beetle's side.

"I'm alright Tangle, but these demon hornets are everywhere!" The beetle named Jewel exclaimed in a panic.

"Don't worry, I brought help." Tangle assured with a smile.

The revving sound of a motorcycle echoed through the air as Yang arrived on the scene on her bike, Knuckles riding behind her. The blonde drove her motorcycle threw the streets as she shot off multiple shotgun shots from Ember Celica to try and shot down the Lancers. Though one did get shot down, the others were quicker to react as they flew up higher to avoid the shots.

During this time, Yang had spun in a constant circle around the destroyed fountain on her bike, gaining momentum with each spin until she gained what she thought was enough. "Fastball special!" Quickly pulling on the brakes and performing a slide on her bike led to it suddenly stopping as well as a vault of the rear to send Knuckles flying straight up to the Lancers. The red Echidna drew both Galatine blades and pointed them forward as he spun like a drill and managed to pierce and eviscerate through two Lancers before coming back down. Using his own natural ability to glide, Knuckles went straight for a third and swung his right axe-blade to completely bisect the Lancer before landing on the closest roof in dramatic fashion.

Team SAFR quickly joined the fray as Arrastra used her cat-legs to leap up onto a rooftop and converted her weapon, Windlass, into its crossbow mode and fired off more Dust arrows to try and shoot down the swarming Lancers, already taking down two with an Ice and Lightning arrow respectively. Pyke followed her lead, staying on the ground to try and use his drill-weapon to shoot down the Lancers themselves, managing to destroy one.

"Pyke, you and Yang take the south side, and I got the north! Force them in the middle and find a way to ground them!" Arrastra ordered. "The rest of you get ready to roofs and get ready to cut them down!"

"You got it!" Pyke nodded as he got on Yang's motorcycle and she drove it to the south side of the village while Arrastra ran and leapt across to the northern end. Tangle and Jewel both watched as Fenix and Asher climbed up to the roofs surrounding the town square to join Knuckles in preparation for the coming battle.

"Tangle…?" Jewel looked to her questionably. "Who are these people?"

"Oh, one of them's Knuckles, a friend of the legendary Sonic the Hedgehog!" Tangle began. "Not quite sure on the rest, but they seem cool and know what they're doing with these Grimm-things."

"Grimm?" Jewel questioned.

"That's what they call these monsters. Creatures of Grimm." Tangle answered.

"Well… these beasts certainly fit such a terrifying description." Jewel commented, her form shaking.

"Where is everybody?" Tangle asked.

"All taking shelter. Most are in my museum." Jewel replied.

"Good. You keep yourself face with them, I'll help Knuckles and the others clear these Grimm guys out." Tangle said.

"Please be careful." Jewel urged.

"Come on, when have I never been careful?" Tangle asked with a grin, which only caused Jewel to look at her with a questionable and unamused expression. "Uh… rhetorical question." She then coiled her tail like a spring and used it to launch herself up to the rooftops to join the others.

"Hey, over here!" Yang called out as she drove her motorcycle with Pyke riding behind her. "You guys like negativity?! Well, I got a lot right here for ya!" Her eyes glowed red as she let all her pent-up anger to the surface, which drew the attention of all the Lancers in the area, consisting of a total of five.

"Here they come!" Pyke warned as Yang spun her ride around and drove them back towards the town center, all at the same time as Arrastra fired more Dust arrows at the seven Lancers on the northern side, drawing their attention to her as she ran and lured them back to the town square. It didn't take long for her, Yang, and Pyke to meet in the middle again, the Lancers all joining together for a group of twelve, and they were right where the heroes wanted them.

"Now!" Arrastra ordered.

With that, the heroes attacked. Fenix leapt at a Lancer from behind, using his claw-weapons, Pandora's Aegis, to pierce through that Lancer's back and forced it to steer and crash into two more, sending them crashing to the ground where he proceeded to tear them apart with claw slashes and punches.

Asher's weapons, Fortune's Fangs, converted into a combined glaive form, which he used to throw with pinpoint accuracy to slice off the head of one Lancer before using Gravity Dust to call the weapon back, piercing through a second Lancer in the process, to his hand. One Lancer tried to fire its umbilici-stinger at him, but it was quickly shot down by an Ice Dust arrow that froze and shatter it, courtesy of Arrastra, who winked and smiled at him from a nearby rooftop, the man giving a small smile and a nod back in response.

Tangle threw out her tail like a lasso again to ensnare three Lancers together and jumped down off the roof, gaining momentum as she fell before slamming them hard on the ground. One Lancer at the bottom took the brunt of the impact, but the other two were cushioned by the one that had just died. Tangle recoiled her tail and was ready to keep fighting as the Lancers recovered, only for Yang to ram her motorcycle into the back of one and run it over while Pyke lunged his drill, Rasen, into the back of the other to kill that one. All while Tangle watched with stars in her eyes and a wide smile.

Finally, Knuckles leapt to the last three, spinning his body and pointing Galatine forward again to drill through and destroy the Lancer on the right before gliding to the one in the middle to grab and tackle it to the ground, punching and slicing with his blades to smash and tear it apart before they even landed. The last one launched its stinger at him from behind, only for the red Echidna to catch it by its cord with his back turned and used his strength to pull it down into a punch to completely obliterate its head, killing it.

"Woo! Alright!" Tangle cheered as she used her tail to grab Knuckles, Yang, and all of Team SAFR and pull them into a group hug. "Those bugs were no match for these exterminators! Way to go team!"

Before they could celebrate however, the entire village began to shake, as well as much of the surrounding forest, much to their alarm.

"Now what?" Asher complained.

"That's coming from outside the village!" Knuckles stated. The group of seven quickly made their way to the rear end of the village, on the opposite side of the pathway that led up to the entrance. Once at the wall, the group looked in absolute shock at what they were seeing.

The entire ground was being torn apart as something slowly began to rise out of it. Something very large and imposing. Everyone, even the veteran Huntsmen, began to look rather nervous at the sight of a giant towering monolith that appeared to be forming itself from several large boulders that gave it a beastly humanoid shape with its only distinguishing features being two massive arms on its sides, two sturdy stone legs that made it stand about as big as the hill that Spiral Hill Village stood atop, and a single massive boulder that served as the main body. All of these appendages were being connected together by some kind of red energy vein-like markings along the surface of the stone body, all of which led to a pitch-black patch at the very center of the main body where a bone-white mask-like face was seen with a single glowing yellow eye.

"That's a big boy…!" Pyke's said in meek and frightened tone.

"Is… that a Grimm…?!" Tangle exclaimed. "It's huge!"

"It's a Petra Gigas!" Asher stated. "Basically what happens when a ghost-like Grimm called a Geist ends up possessing inorganic matter like rocks and stone to form a body! But there have been none that have ever been this huge before!"

'Now I really wish I hadn't destroyed that necklace.' Asher thought to himself.

"How do you kill this thing?" Knuckles questioned.

"Do enough damage to the center body and force the Geist out." Arrastra answered. "But something that big…?"

'That thing's probably even bigger than the Wyvern back at Beacon… But this time we don't have Super Sonic to save us.' Yang thought as she got a good look at the towering colossus, trying to find some kind of weakness to exploit. 'There's gotta be something I can do! I'm not helpless! Something!'

"Heads up!" Fenix warned as they saw the towering Petra Gigas raise its enormous right arm, ready to bring it down.

"If that thing hits…" Tangle's face went pale. It won't just destroy Spiral Hill Village, it would obliterate the entire hill that the village was built on top of! Everyone would die! Even Jewel!

"All of you! Behind me! NOW!" Knuckles ordered as he put Galatine away and punched out much of the wall that separated the village from the steep slope of the hill and allowed him a chance to step up further, just as the Gigas swung its arm down.

But Knuckles stood his ground, gave a mighty yell and held out his hands to actually catch the Gigas' strike. The resulting shockwave knocked Yang, Tangle, and Team SAFR back. But as they got up, all of them looked in complete and total surprise to see Knuckles actually holding back the massive stone limb of the Gigas Colossus. But even though it was clearly a struggle for the red Echidna, his body shaking as he gnashed his teeth together, he refused to budge an inch. The sight of it looked like the equivalent of a rat pushing up against a person's foot!

"I'll hold it back! You try and go for the joint! Disarm it!" Knuckles told everyone as he continued to push against the limb.

"He's right…! This thing might be big, but it's slow! It can't move too quickly!" Fenix stated.

"Well, you heard the man! Go for the joint!" Arrastra ordered as she jumped high and up onto the Gigas arm with Fenix, Asher, and Pyke right behind her.

"Wait… the joint…!" Yang said in realization. Even as Knuckles kept one arm back, the Gigas Colossus still had its left arm, which it was slowly raising to try and retaliate. Even as quickly as Team SAFR moved up the limb that Knuckles held down, they wouldn't be able to stop the other one. That's when she got an idea.

"Tangle, was it?" Yang addressed the lemur.

"Yeah…?" She responded.

"Launch me at the other joint!" Yang ordered.

The lemur saw the left arm being slowly raised and realized the situation they were in. No time to question it, Tangle looked back to a lamppost and the adjacent building and was quick to stretch out her tail, which acted as a third hand to grab onto the building before running out and wrapping her tail around the lamppost to make a slingshot.

"Hop on!" Tangle told Yang, who leaned herself back on the tail slingshot, stepping back out as far as she could.

"Yang…" Knuckles saw what she was doing and was looking worried.

"Knuckles, trust me. I know what I'm doing." She said seriously.

That look in her eyes, the fierce determination in her usual lilac color… that was all he needed before he smiled. "Show this thing who's boss."

Yang smiled back as she stepped back more.

Meanwhile, Team SAFR ran as hard and as fast as they could up the right arm of the Gigas Colossus, but when Asher looked to the side, he saw the left arm being raised up high and was already pointing straight up.

"It's gonna hit!" He warned.

"I'll go for the joint!" Arrastra used her cat legs to jump out further, making more distance as she neared the shoulder.

"No… she won't make it in time…!" Fenix exclaimed.

'Come on Fate's Hand! We need a high role here!' Pyke prayed, hoping his Semblance would do something… yet he feared the situation being made worse because of it.

"I'm ready!" Yang told Tangle.

"Bon Voyage!" The lemur saluted before letting loose, sending Yang soaring for the left joint as she pulled her fist back.

'I've got a ton of stored up energy inside me since that big fight at Beacon!' Yang thought to herself as she flew. 'I want to let it all loose and smash this thing to pieces! But… that's not the right thing to do here.' Time nearly slowed to a crawl for her as she activated her Semblance. 'I'll use about a third of my power, save the rest for later. Focus, Yang. Fight smarter, not harder. Take a third of your power, and focus it all in your fist.' Her hair began to glow, with only embers at the tips of her hair, but most interesting at all… her Aura began to shine around her right fist, the one she pulled back, and glowed a yellow-orange color as she reached her target.

With a mighty yell Yang thrusted her fist and struck the joint, which unleashed a burst of energy that shot through and obliterated the entire joint of the left arm, causing it all to fall backwards, the Geist giving a ghostly moan as its colossal body took a few steps back.

Arrastra, Pyke, Fenix, and Asher all felt their eyes turn into circles as their jaws hung open. Tangle's jaw almost disconnected from her mouth before a wide smile appeared on her face as stars appeared in her eyes.

And Knuckles… all he did was smile with pride.

Seeing how she was about to fall, Yang fired a shot from her gauntlets to propel herself onto the shoulder of the Gigas Colossus, grabbing onto the stone from with both her hands.

"I got the arm! Get the other one while it's stunned!" She called out to Team SAFR.

Fenix was the first to get over his surprise as he bolted up the left arm, Pyke and Asher right behind him. Arrastra had already reached the joint on the shoulder and had her weapon converted into its pick-axe mode, which she used to hack away much of the rocks that surrounded the joint. Fenix had already caught up to her and as she exposed the joint, he the looked to his leader with a nod, who nodded back to him as she put her hand on his shoulder. Using her Semblance, Equilibrium, she took out a Fire Dust crystal and crushed it in her grip. Her aura turned from blue to bright red as she allowed the fire power to be split in half, half of it going to Fenix to heal any damage to his Aura and causing it to light on fire, while the other half of it was re-directed into the exposed joint of Gigas Colossus, causing it to light on fire and severely weaken it. With this boost in literal fire power, Fenix used his claw weapons and his own natural strength to slice and smash up the entire joint just as Asher and Pyke caught up.

Once again, the Geist gave a ghostly moan as the resulting explosion caused its remaining arm to fall off, to which Team SAFR responded by jumping off the limb before it fell and grabbed onto the stones of the main unit, or jammed their weapons in if they couldn't find anything to grab on. Likewise, Knuckles was allowed relief as he let the arm he was holding back fall to the ground, giving him the chance to catch his breath as Tangle came to his side.

"You good?" She asked.

"Yeah…" He stood up straight. "But we're not done yet. We need to take out its legs. Can you tie them together while I kneecap it?"

"Done." Tangle smiled as the two made their way to the ground.

"Quick, go for the Grimm at the center before it reforms its arms!" Arrastra called to Yang, who gave her a thumbs up before letting go to let herself fall closer to the center, using more shots from her gauntlets to control her descent. Upon spotting her target, Yang punched a hole into the stone, appearing next to the mask-like face of the Geist. But right as she did, several clawed stone hands suddenly emerged from the surrounding rock to quickly grab Yang and press her hard against the rocky body. It was trying to crush her.

Fortunately, Fenix, who used his clawed weapons to climb and leap down across the stone like a lion, had appeared to slice many of the clawed arms off just as his teammates arrived.

"I'll try and force it out! Just watch my back!" Pyke said as he used his Rasen to drill into the stone just directly above the Geist's face. But as he did, several more stone hands appeared to try and grab at him, only for Asher and Arrastra to quickly appear and use their own weapons to cut them down and were joined by Yang and Fenix to punch out any stone hands that appeared as well.

Down below, Tangle and Knuckles had made it to the Gigas Colossus' legs and saw it attempt to lift its left leg. "Oh no, you don't!" Tangle threw her tail out ensnare the knee area, which was noticeably thinner than the massive boulder that made up the foot. She then jumped up to the right leg, grabbing onto a piece of stone and quickly climbed up, over, and behind to the rear of the right leg, making sure her tail got tangled up between the knees. "I got it! But I'm not that strong, so I can't hold it long!"

"This is long enough!" Knuckles jumped up onto the left foot and quickly drew Galatine, using axe blades to dig and climb his way up towards the left knee first. Once he was there, he threw his fist out with enough force to shatter the left knee joint and deal significant damage to the right, forcing the left leg to fall apart as its right leg was simultaneously cripped, nearly bring it down completely with only one leg left. But as Knuckles and Tangle got back down, they noticed the boulders from the fallen arms slowly levitating back up to the main body.

"I think it's trying arm itself back up again!" Tangle exclaimed.

"Yang! We're out of time!" Knuckles called up to her. "You and the others need to take that Grimm down now!"

"Working on it!" Yang called back as she used one arm to keep a hold of the stone while using her free hand to punch out and shoot any rock claws that emerged around her, with Arrastra, Asher, and Fenix doing something similar and keeping Pyke safe as he drilled his way deeper above the Geist's face.

"I don't get it! No Geist is supposed to be this powerful!" Fenix exclaimed. "Big body aside, where are all these hands coming from?!"

"Does it matter!? Just keep fighting!" Asher shouted as he cut off another stone hand.

"I got through!" Pyke announced as he finally broke through the stone above the Geist. However, as he did, a bright blue light shinned through the hole, catching his teammates and Yang's attention. Looking through said hole, Pyke was beyond shocked to see a blue gemstone inside, one that was being held by black ghostly hands which likely belonged to the Geist just underneath. "Is… that a… Dust crystal…?"

Yang made her way up and looked into the hole, only to gasp at what she saw. "A Chaos Emerald!"

"Chaos What?" Pyke questioned.

"No time to explain! Just grab it!" Yang reached for the blue Chaos Emerald, but once she grabbed it, the ghostly hands of the Geist reached out to grab her arm and tried to pull her in. She fought back as hard as she could, grabbing onto her arm to pull herself out. Pyke wrapped his free arm around her waist and began to pull as well, followed by the rest of their teammates.

"Ready?! PULL!" Arrastra shouted as they all heaved with all their strength. And with the combined strength of all five of them…

They had yanked out Yang and the blue Chaos Emerald, causing them all to be lunged and fall back away from the stone body of the Gigas Colossus.

The Geist gave a shrill cry as it felt the source of its power being ripped out. It could no longer maintain the strain of such an enormous body and was forced to flee, emerging from the stone to reveal it's ghostly appearance, which caused the red vein-like glow all over the massive stone form to vanish as its body quickly collapsed, all with Yang and Team SAFR falling to the ground.

"Tangle, catch them!" Knuckles ordered.

"On it!" Coiling up her tail, Tangle bounced herself straight up to catch Yang first, along with Team SAFR as they grabbed a hold of each other. And as they fell, Tangle curled up her tail underneath herself. "Heads up, this might hurt a bit!" She warned as all six of them landed hard, Tangle's curled up tail taking the brunt of the impact.

At the same time, Knuckles saw the Geist attempting to fly away, but he also took notice of the falling stones and quickly got an idea. He ran to the nearest rock and jumped to it as it fell and jumped from that to another one to get him closer to the fleeing Geist. But once he got to the second rock, there were no more to close the distance between himself and the fleeing Grimm, but he was close enough. Pounding on the rock he was on with enough force, it not only shattered said rock but even launched himself at the ghost-like Grimm.

Turning around, the last thing the Geist would ever see is Knuckles' fist… shattering its mask-like face and killing it. He then landed on the ground on his feet and one fist as the last of the rocks fell behind him for dramatic effect.

"Victory is ours." The red Echidna said with finality.

"Everyone okay…?" Arrastra asked the group. "Groan if you're alive…"

"Ugh…!" All of her teammates as well as Yang and Tangle groaned in response as they all rolled off each other.

"How's your tail?" Pyke asked Tangle, who held up her tail to show that it was bent and bruised, but still good.

"Might need some ice, but it'll be good as new by tomorrow." She replied as she stood back up and straightened her back.

As everyone else got up, Yang was still on her knees in exhaustion and was soon approached by Knuckles. As soon as she saw him, she held up her right hand, which held the glowing blue Chaos Emerald. Knuckles was momentarily surprised by that before taking the Emerald in one hand and then placing the other on Yang's shoulder and then smiled.

"Nice job."

An emotional smile fell across Yang's face as she wrapped her arms around him, Knuckles doing the same as he patted her back. He could tell that she really needed this, both the support he offered as well as this victory.

"So… it's over, now? Like, for real?" Tangle asked.

"Yeah, it's over." Fenix confirmed.

"Alright, group hug time!" Tangle used her tail to pull everyone into a hug, causing laughs and smiles to be shared by all seven of them. "Let's get back to the village and celebrate! Gotta let the town know it's over!"

"You guys go on ahead…" Yang said. "I… want to talk with Knuckles for a bit."

"Sure, whatever you say." Tangle understood as she let them all go. "Now that the town's no longer in danger, let me show you all around." She said to Team SAFR as they made their way back to Spiral Hill Village. "You should check out Jewel's museum first, it's awesome!"

As they left, Yang and Knuckles were both left to their own business as the blonde sat down in exhaustion. "You okay?" Knuckles asked.

"I… think we have something… with my Semblance." Yang said, causing Knuckles to look at her curiously as she looked at her own hand. "I had a lot of stored up energy since Beacon… and I did what you told me… broke it up and used only about a third of it. That was a lot, I know but… I still got plenty left over. And… when I used it… I felt something with my Aura… like the energy at my fist as I focused it… like my Aura getting stronger there and when I hit… I felt a wave of energy washing over me, over my whole Aura, like the Aura itself absorbed the recoil… I… I think my Aura is getting stronger. Whatever we were doing with my Semblance… it's definitely something."

"From the sound of it, your Semblance could be evolving." Knuckles said. "And you seem to have a much better handle on it than before. You're more aware of the energy you have and how much you're giving. That's some nice progress."

"Thanks… And…" She looked down a bit. "I'm sorry for yelling at you earlier."

"I get it." Knuckles understood. "I don't blame you for being angry. Your whole situation is complicated."

"But why are you so willing to give Qrow another chance?" Yang questioned. "What he did… What he said to me… how he's been treating you and Sonic…"

"It's wrong, there's no question." Knuckles said as he sat down to her level. "You already know that when I first met Sonic, we were enemies. Eggman tricked me into fight him and he stole the Master Emerald, endangered our whole world. But despite me trying to kill him, Sonic gave me a chance to make things right and I took it, fighting alongside him. And it wasn't only then, a lot of our friends and allies were once our enemies, whether it was a misunderstanding or even someone actually wanting to do something really bad… but they saw the error of their ways and wanted to change. Heck, one of my former enemies is guarding the Master Emerald as we speak, the one thing I prioritized above everything else… and I trust her enough to guard it in my stead, that and she also sees it as a form of atonement on her part."

"Her?" Yang wondered before a sly grin formed on her face. "What you got a special lady Echidna in your life?" She nudged his side, causing him to smirk amusingly.

"Not like what you're implying, but yes." Knuckles confirmed. "An Echidna named Shade. She was once in service of a dangerous tyrant hellbent on dominating the world. But once she saw she was on the wrong path, she went to help us and has been a strong and fierce ally ever since. Heck, your own partner, Blake, was part of a terrorist group! But you still trust her, don't you? My point is, we've given a lot of people chances to make things right, and it wouldn't be fair of me if I didn't do the same thing with Qrow."

"What if he doesn't want it though?" Yang questioned as her mood became sour again. "I mean… just because some second chances have worked out doesn't mean it always will. Some people are just… bad."

"You're not wrong." Knuckles admitted. "But I'm not gonna deny someone a second chance just because I'm afraid it won't work out."

"If you want to give him a second chance, then fine. That's your call. I just don't know if I can!" Yang stated, looking away.

"And… what if Ruby wants to give him a chance?" Knuckles asked seriously.

There it was. The million-dollar question. Above all else… Yang valued Ruby's safety and well-being, even more so than her own. Qrow has proven that he's willing to do anything and everything to appease Ozpin and if the man asked Qrow to put Ruby in danger… then she feared him doing just that. But… if Ruby really wanted to give him a chance…

"I… Don't… I don't know…" Yang said, looking down as she hugged her own knees. Knuckles understood that as he was by her side and put a comforting hand her shoulder. "I stand by what I said, I don't want to just dump everything on her, especially when she's got stuff she's gotta deal with to. But… maybe I can at least talk with her… let her know what I'm feeling… and listen to what she has to say too."

"Sounds like a plan." Knuckles smiled, patting her shoulder. "And I stand by what I said, I'm going to do everything I can to help you find your mother and get some answers out of her."

While Yang was grateful to hear that, there also came a bit of a worry that she didn't want to face until now. "But… what if she's… not what I hope she is. I mean… she left after the fight at Beacon… without even saying anything…" She growled again. "She's willing to protect us from monsters and psychopaths… but spending five minutes to talk with us is out of the question?!"

Once again, Knuckles listened to Yang's venting and understood how she felt. A part of him wanted to tell her what Taiyang told him, about how her mother tried to take her away as a baby and even fought the rest of her team and family to keep Yang safe, albeit out of sheer misplaced paranoia, but maybe that might be too much for right now. Maybe that might just add on to the burden that Yang's feeling and make it worse. He may tell her later, but not right now. So instead, he just patted her on the shoulder and smiled at her.

"We'll figure out as we go along. And we'll do it together. I got back your Yang, no matter what." He stood up and offered her his hand. Yang looked at him with shaky eyes before a smile appeared on her face as well and she accepted his hand, standing up on her own two feet again.

"Thank you, Knuckles." She wiped the tears from her eyes. "You have no idea… how much that means to me."

With that, the two went back to Spiral Hill Village… Completely unaware that they were being spied on from the surrounding forest.

Two of the trees shifted and changed form, one in the manner of pink glass-like sparkles to reveal the true form of Neopolitan, while the other changed in a more organic manner to reveal Mimic's own real appearance.

"Huh, so the heroes and their pet brats are here too. Why am I not surprised?" Mimic noted. He then took notice of Neo drawing her sword form her parasol. "Hold it, kid." He stopped her from advancing. "You just saw what went down? You wanna go up against a couple beasts like that and a team of Pro Huntsmen?"

Neo turned to glare at him as she took the form of Yang and then Qrow and then Torchwick.

"Yeah, yeah, you want payback." Mimic said. "And maybe killing or kidnapping one of the man's kids would be enough to get him out in the open. But you need to remember that Sonic and his buddies are watching over them, and the fact that they've trounced you every time you fought them, remember?"

That caused Neo to glare hard as she turned back to normal.

"You want revenge? Then you gotta be smart about it, otherwise you're just gonna get yourself killed, and the people you hate the most are gonna walk away and not give you another thought." Mimic told her. "So, let's report back to Malachite. And yeah, I know she's a pain, but she's got resources that we can use. Good things come to those who wait, kid." He looked at her with a sinister smile. "You'll get your revenge, and I'll promise you'll enjoy every delicious minute of it but keep an open mind. An opportunity to cause your enemy unbearable pain may present itself, if your smart enough to see it. Now come on, let's go." He whistled a tune as he made their way back to their hidden vehicle.

If Neo was being honest with herself, she really didn't like Mimic. She could tell right away that he didn't care about her and was probably using her. But at the same time, he was the best way at getting past Sonic and his friends in order to get to her target. The man who killed her Roman. That bimbo with the blonde hair, and that little red whom Roman had fought before, they had some kind of connection to Qrow… and she would use them to get to him. She will kill Qrow and make him suffer before she finished him off. But she knew that Mimic was right, she had to be smart about it. So, she'll play with him and Malachite for now. But the second it looks like he's gonna stab her in the back, he'll be next on her list.

---

Meanwhile, in the skies above Mistral, a single airship soared above the clouds. This airship had the appearance of a metallic zeppelin with a hawk-like figurehead on the front. On each side of the balloon was a propeller engine with double-layer propellers along the sides, and two smaller propellers down below near the gondola. And in the rear was a horizontal rudder on each side of the bottom. But what stood out the most was the unusual symbol painted on each of the engines, a symbol of a lamp with air around it.

This airship served as both a base and a home for a trio of thieves and had everything they needed. A bridge that had its own auto-pilot system built in, a kitchen to cook food, a bedroom for each member, an office for the team's leader, and a laboratory, where all three present members were currently in.

A purple anthropomorphic swallow dressed in white analyzed at the engine parts of that airship they attempted to dismantled, as well as the core that powered it and appeared quite interested in what she was looking at.

"Hmmm, fascinating."

"Well, Wave?" A green anthropomorphic hawk with blue eyes who wore red boots, white gloves, and a green pair of goggles questioned as he and a much larger and bulkier, gray-feathered anthropomorphic albatross with light blue eyes were both in the same lab together, though the bigger individual looked absolutely bored, on the verge of sleeping even.

"The power source for these devices… it's not at all like what we use for our Gears." The female bird named Wave explained. "The fuel for these machines appears to be some kind of crystalized elemental power. I'm primarily seeing electricity in all these microscopic crystals, but I also see other forms like heat and wind…"

"Crystalized elements? That sounds a lot like magic." The leader of the group noted.

"I don't know if its magic, but it's definitely something we can use, Jet." Wave said.

"Ugh this is so boring!" The bigger bird groaned loudly, sliding down along the wall. "When am I gonna punch something?!"

"Well, if those monsters we've seen down on the ground are any indication, soon." Wave commented in annoyance. "But I'd also have an escape plan handy, just in case. You can't just brute force your way out of everything, Storm!"

"Ya-huh!" The one called Storm stood up and protested immaturely. "My fists have always gotten me out of trouble!"

"Only to cause even more trouble for us later on!" Wave argued as she stepped away from her workstation to confront Storm, much to their leader's annoyance.

"If there's trouble, I'll just punch it like always!" Storm continued.

"That's my point! Use your head for once!" Wave exclaimed.

"I can use my head to smash stuff!" Storm argued.

"That's not what I mean!" Wave shouted.

"Stop it!" Jet finally yelled, getting them both to stop arguing.

"Sorry, boss." Storm apologized.

Jet groaned as he began to pace back and forth. "One minute, we're just flying and minding our own business, planning our next big heist. Then the next, we fly right into that giant ball of light and then get zapped to who-knows-where! I'd bet my Extreme Gear that this is all Eggman's fault!"

"I wouldn't be surprised myself if that was the case." Wave agreed. "That idiot's always trying to mess around with stuff he doesn't understand, only to end up nearly destroying the whole world in the process!"

"Oh! Can I punch Eggman if he is behind this?" Storm waved his hand.

Before anyone could respond, the whole ship rocked, which caused all three of them to fall to the ground. "The heck was that?!" Jet questioned.

A wrist-like device on Wave suddenly lit up, alerting her and causing her to gasp as she saw what the alert was for. "The auto-pilot's been turned off! We have an intruder!"

---

The Babylon Rogues sprinted to the bridge of the airship, opening the door to something that caused all three to gasp.

It was a certain black-haired and red-eyed woman, who stood in front of a busted-up console and had one hand on the steering wheel at the helm of the bridge.

"Hello there." Raven greeted with a grin. "You three stole something from me, I'd very much like it back."

"Who the hell are you?! And how did you get on our ship!?" Jet demanded.

"Trade secret." Raven kept up her grin.

Storm laughed. "Oh, you're an even bigger idiot than I am! Nobody busts into the Babylon Rogue's ship without getting a taste of my knuckle sandwich!" He looked ready to charge in.

"Storm, no!" Wave stopped him. "She's got the wheel! Worst case, you could smash the controls and send our whole ship crashing to the ground!"

"Crash to the ground? That sounds like a great idea." Raven sneered as she pushed down on the wheel, causing the ship to veer on the starboard side, nearly tripping up the Babylon Rogues before Raven straightened it out.

"Are you crazy?!" Jet exclaimed. "You'll crash and burn to!"

"No, she won't." Wave said seriously. "If she somehow snuck on the ship without anybody noticing, and made the effort to announce herself to us, then she's probably got her own way off this ship."

"You must be the smart one." Raven granted.

Jet grunted before realizing the point Wave made, which caused him to reach his own conclusion. "That ship we took apart was yours, I'm guessing. But if you really snuck on our ship this quickly, you could have taken your parts back easily. Heck, you could have already sent our ship on a crash course to the ground by now and left with your parts, but… you want something else, don't you?"

"Ah, so there is only one idiot in your crew." Raven commented, looking to Storm who growled hard and looked ready to punch her. "Since we're on the same page now, I do have a question to ask you. You mentioned Eggman… would that mean that you also happen to know a certain enemy of his? A blue Hedgehog?"

Now that caught Jet's attention. "How do you know Sonic?"

A smile crossed Raven's face. These overgrown birds know Sonic, the so-called Golden Hero. Perhaps they may be of use to her, a way in which she can find out if he's really worth the hype he's been selling and not another bringer of false hope like Ozpin.

"You call yourselves the Babylon Rogues, right?" She let go of the steering wheel, allowing for Jet to quickly grab it as Wave moved to repair the autopilot. Storm stepped close and looked ready to punch her at a moment's notice. "You can call me Raven. Let's talk, shall we?"

---

Meanwhile, somewhere else in Mistral, sat a small farm, one that would grow produce to be sold to many surrounding villages. It was a small piece of land, compromised only of a house, a small barn, and a field in which to grow these vegetables. And it was currently home to only two people.

One of these people was a young boy who currently sat in his room in the house that he shared with his aunt. This boy had slightly tan skin, hazel-colored eyes, freckles on his cheeks, and messy black hair with a slight green undertone. The clothing he wore consisted of a messy white shirt with laces across the chest and olive pants with orange straps to hold up his pants that also had patches on the knee. Currently, he sat on his bed, reading a book when he heard a knock on the door.

"Oscar?" A woman called out from the other side. "You done packing yet?"

"Still working on it." The boy named Oscar called back and not moving from his spot.

"Oscar, I'm respecting your privacy by knocking but also asserting my authority as your aunt and legal guardian by coming in anyway." The door was opened, revealing the woman in question.

She was a tall woman in her mid-to-late thirties with the same skin tone as her nephew with brownish black hair which was kept back by a black hairband and light hazel eyes. Her attire was a simple light blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up and tucked into blue jeans with black boots.

"You haven't even started packing?!" The woman questioned.

"I don't want to leave!" Oscar protested to his aunt, sanding up to his bed. "This is our family's home! You and Dad grew up here! You lived here with Mom! I… I can't just up and leave… Aunt Em!"

Emiliya, Oscar's aunt, gave a sympathetic sigh as she kneeled to her nephew's level and put her hands on his shoulders. "I know. I don't want to leave either. But… you've seen what's been happening outside. The Grimm are getting worse and… all Pro Huntsmen have been called back to the main city. There's literally nobody to protect us anymore. I got my shotgun, but I'm not Huntress material."

Oscar looked away, knowing his aunt was right about all of that and it frustrated him to think of it all. Their family didn't have any problems with the Grimm, except the night his parents died when he was six. And even when things looked uneasy, there was always at least one Huntsman in the neighboring villages to help take care of things. But now… it felt like they were being abandoned. And he felt like he was doing the same to his parents by leaving the house they all lived in together. But there was still one thought that gave him hope…

"But the Golden Hero…"

"Could be a myth, for all we know." Emiliya replied. "Or just some special effects."

"But all the news is going on about how Vale doesn't have any Grimm anymore!" Oscar stated. "That's the reason we're going to Vale in the first place, right? So maybe he is real, and he's going to get rid of all the Grimm in the world!"

"We don't know for sure, and I'm not going to bet your safety on something that I don't know. I'm sorry Oscar, but we are leaving." Emiliya said with sympathy and finality mixed in her voice, leaving no room for argument.

However, he soon felt his gaze being drawn towards the partially open door that led into his bathroom.

For some reason that even he didn't know, Oscar walked away from his aunt, much to her confusion and opened the door all the way to his bathroom, looking directly into the mirror that nailed to the wall.

"Oscar…?" Emiliya stood up, wondering what's gotten into her nephew.

He couldn't quite explain it, but as Oscar looked at his own reflection, he felt like he was looking at the face of someone else. Like someone had just entered into his home, someone who felt both familiar and foreign.

"H-Hello…?"

"Hello. I am Professor Ozpin…" A voice rang in his head, causing Oscar to yell in surprise as he stumbled backwards onto the ground.

"Oscar!" Emiliya was immediately at his side as she helped him up. "Are you okay?! What's wrong?!"

"Aunt Em… there's somebody here…!" He looked around frantically.

"Somebody here…? I didn't hear anything breaking… no one's broken in…" Emiliya tried.

"No! I… I heard a voice in my head!" He clenched his head. "I don't…"

"Oscar, look at me." Emiliya grabbed him by the shoulders and held him firm. "There is nobody here. It's just you and me."

"Look to the mirror." The voice in his head said again, causing his panic to rise once more.

"There it is again!"

"Oscar! Get a grip!" Emiliya tried to calm her nephew down.

"Look to the mirror. She'll see." The voice repeated.

Seeing no other options, Oscar turned his head to his right, in the direction of his bathroom mirror and saw something that made his face go pale.

Emiliya then turned her face as well, looking in the same direction as her nephew, which resulted in the same kind of expression forming on her own face.

They both saw Emiliya Pine's reflection just fine. But, Oscar's reflection… it was still there, but it was also partially covered by the transparent form of another man. A man who turned his own gaze through the mirror to the frightened nephew and aunt and gazed at them with sympathy and understanding.

"Hello." He spoke through the mirror so that both of them could hear. "My name is Professor Ozpin, Headmaster of Beacon Academy. We should talk."

A pair of high-pitched screams echoed throughout the entire farm, scaring away all the birds from a nearby tree in the process.

---

Haven Academy

Professor Lionheart gave a sigh as he looked out the window of his main office. He had given the assignment of his staffed Huntsmen to begin a routine patrol over the city of Mistral and to have any available students join them. This left the city more-or-less empty, just as he had hoped. He wouldn't want anyone being in danger by catching a glimpse of his arriving companions, whom he had only recently received a message on his scroll of their impending arrival.

A knock on the door was heard, leading him to answer it and to greet the three outside. "Gentlemen." He gave a reluctant nod.

"Professor." Hazel nodded back.

"Thank you for clearing out the campus." Tyrian snickered. "It made our arrival so much smoother." He cackled once again.

But as unnerved as he was regarding the presence of two of Salem's associates in his room, he found his own gaze being drawn to the silent yet deadly machine that was known as Metal Sonic, who gazed at him with his own red optics. Leonardo Lionheart has faced against countless Creatures of Grimm in the past, as well as dangerous killers and madmen… but for some reason… this machine terrified him more than anything he's ever faced before.

Sensing the professor's growing and understandable fear of the one-machine army that was Metal Sonic, Hazel stepped up to speak professional. "Let's talk, Professor."

Done.

And thus concludes the introductory phase of the "Across Remnant" arc for the "Hunt for the Chaos Emeralds" Saga! (Yeah, that's the title of this arc for those who work the TVTropes page. We're not in the Nightmare arc yet, but the events of this arc will lead up to it).

On one end, Yang and Knuckles have met not only Team SAFR, but also everyone's favorite tail-girl, Tangle the Lemur! As well as all of Spiral Hill Village, which was also zapped to Remnant because of Chaos Control. For those of you who don't know, Team SAFR is a quartet of playable Huntsmen from the Grimm Campaign series (which is basically the RWBY equivalent for Dungeons and Dragons). Though I'm not necessarily a fan of campaigns like that, I do like the story of the series as it really expands on Mistral, something I felt the main series failed to do. You can certainly expect more references from the campaign here as it is canon to the series, but if you're unfamiliar with anything that happened, you can just skim over the summary on the RWBY wikia page.

Speaking of Knuckles and Yang, they managed to have a chance to talk and relate to each other even more, with the red Echidna continuing to act as the blonde's support which she really needs. Yang is still understandably upset with Qrow and is unable to come up with an answer on whether or not to give him a second chance, even if she does understand what Knuckles is saying (not to mention her partnership with Blake, a former White Fang agent). One could argue that's also reflected in Yang's Semblance on how she can absorb damage from her enemies and even carry up all that stored up energy; like a reflection of Yang carrying so much inner turmoil and emotional pain. But she is working through it, albeit slowly.

Oh, and they also found the blue Chaos Emerald! So that's two Chaos Emeralds accounted for one. The blue one for the heroes, and the red one still currently in Salem's hands. The score is tied! For now.

We also got a look at how Raven is portrayed in this story, as well as the Branwen Tribe as a whole. I've said before multiple times how I feel that Volumes 4 and 5 in the main RWBY series are the weakest of them all, mainly because of how black-and-white the conflict against Salem became, the lack of a moral gray area, and the wasted potential surrounding Raven's character, not to mention the Branwen tribe itself. And I feel I've reestablished the moral gray for this story in that while Raven isn't completely villainous, she's not very heroic either. She's not a bandit this time around, but rather runs something of a protection racket with all the villages in an established territory in the Mistral wilds: she and her tribe provide protection from bandits and the Grimm, and in return, they provide resources, an equivalent exchange.

I also believe I'd helped improve on the Branwen Tribe by adding a few extra original characters such as Heraklees and Sieg, both based off the mythological figures of Hercules from Greek Myth and Siegfried from German folklore respectively, as well as Vernal, who is actually Qrow and Raven's half-sister from their father. Yeah, you read right. There is a big story surrounding that which you will learn about later. These three characters, as well as Raven herself, are known as the Four Winds, the strongest fighters of the Tribe and they each have their own Grimm Masks much like how Raven had one for a Nevermore which was destroyed by Shadow during their battle (Vernal as a Beowolf mask, Heraklees has one of a Manticore, and Sieg has one of a Wyvern). And it's not just them, all of the tribal warriors are capable fighters here. As said before, I feel the canon didn't handle the Branwen Tribe very well. Even if they were meant to be antagonists, they didn't have any major characters that stood out other than Raven and Vernal, and even then, they were rather weak. Which is disappointing as Raven has been leading them for years and training them to be Anti-Huntsmen, and yet they were taken down so easily when Yang arrived in Mistral. But here, they are fierce and dangerous warriors, who were trained to indeed counter Huntsmen in the same sense that ninjas counter samurai, or even how Mandalorians counter Jedi in the Star Wars franchise (both served as inspiration here).

You can also expect to learn more about Raven and the rest of the Branwen Tribe later on, especially now that the Babylon Rogues are in town, having also appeared in Remnant via Chaos Control along with their airship. Yeah, I'm gonna have so much fun with all these guys together.

We also have the appearance of another antagonistic force in the form of the crime syndicate known as Spider being led by Lil' Miss Malachite, who in this story is also a part of the Mistral's governing council and has recently brought in the deadly duo of Mimic and Neopolitan. You can expect them to have a much bigger role in this series than they did in canon.

On a somewhat positive note, Ozpin has returned and has reincarnated into Oscar Pine. We also got to meet Oscar's aunt, Emillya 'Em' Pine, who will have an actual role in this story as opposed to a voice-only one like what was seen in the main story.

But on the negative side of things, Lionheart has now met up with Metal Sonic, Hazel, and Tyrian. Yeah, conflict is about to start up for all our heroes across Remnant and I can't wait to show you all just how badly things are gonna shake up here.

Until then, stay safe and stay healthy out there. Love you.