~0~

This is an Alternate Universe version of the Gray between Black and White. In this story, the four girls that made up RWBY have fallen to their darkest needs and urges, making Vale an even darker place than it was before. Beacon Academy has never existed and the only ray of hope is the independent, military organization called 'Onyx Academy', which readers of the Gray between Black and White will probably know as morally ambiguous…at best.

So without further ado, let's get started!

~0~

"Today is Monday, day one of Onyx' official interference in the capital city known as Vale. All the High-Priority targets are somewhere in the city and our soldiers are ready to go to war. We will drag this hell-hole into the light even if it doesn't want us to."

Lieutenant code-named "Yale", field officer dispatched to Vale.

~0~

Monday, day one, 22:57

Code-name "Lima Two-One" swept his black assault carbine down the street, checking every single hiding spot for potential enemy contacts. The night was darker than usual and even though his green tinted visor was perfectly for him to utilize his natural night-vision, he still couldn't be certain that he was alone in the darkness. From on top of his vantage point near a smoking chimney he could see that the shadows that were casted down by the light of the moon looked vaguely like people. Other chimneys, fire-escapes and even garbage cans warped the night to a frightening degree.

A cold feeling spread itself through the soldier's stomach as he slowly rose to his feet, still keeping his gaze squarely at the street that he was supposed to walk through. He wasn't scared –none of them felt fear in the face of combat. Fear had been one of the first things purged when training started. No, it wasn't fear that he was feeling. It was anticipation. Anticipation for the coming fight –for the messed-up warriors that he might meet in the coming hours. He hadn't been in Vale for more than fifteen months.

His orders had been very clear: engage the enemy with the intent on gathering Intel on their skills and capabilities. That was why he had his helmet-integrated camera streaming every second of his night; in case he didn't make it, command could still watch the vital moments of his downfall and formulate a method to defeat the enemy.

Not fear. Just anticipation. And perhaps he was also a bit nervous.

Two-One approached the edge of the roof and soundlessly dropped down. His powerful senses allowed him to see, hear and smell better than humans could. Nobody should be able to get the drop on him, as long as he kept to the shadows and moved carefully. But he understood that the people he was supposed to be fighting weren't just the best-of-the-best that Vale had to offer, but most of them were also supposed to be psychotic and slightly sociopathic. However, Intel had been wrong before and he did not want to find out in the middle of combat that his foe could make educated and rational decisions. Those things generally got people killed.

He started making his way down the broad street, sweeping his rifle left and right to maintain the proper vigilance. It was his task to engage the enemy, but if he took one misstep the enemy would kill him before he even had a chance to gather the proper intelligence.

And that would suck royally.

Rain started to pour from the cloudy sky as the lone soldier proceeded down the street, his knees slightly bend and his trigger-trigger softly twitching, ready to move in a moment's notice. His black helmet was watertight as his suit was and the streamlined armour plates wouldn't bog him down if the weather grew any worse.

Normally, Lima Two-One disliked the heavy plating that the soldiers had to wear in battle, but recent Operations had done miracles in changing his mind. The Onyx trooper BDU, or Battle Dress Uniform, was a very signature piece of equipment for all of their soldiers. It wasn't too bulky or heavy to move comfortably in combat and it was strong enough to deflect small- to medium-arms fire. It's Titanium and ceramic composite plates enabled the suit to withstand gunfire, explosives and heat-based attacks without buckling. Of course, sustained fire would break through with ease and an armour-piercing round would punch a hole clean through the suit.

But at the moment, he didn't worry about armour-piercing ambushes. He worried about the rain playing havoc with the environment, as smells grew sharper but sounds got different. The bodysuit underneath his armour would keep him at comfortable temperatures, so that part of the rain didn't get to him. No, his biggest problem was the fact that people could eventually sneak up on him by using the rain as cover. And if one of the four could sneak up on him, he'd be dead.

No excuses made.

He contacted that part of command that was devoted to his unit and reported in on his situation. "Monarch, this is Lima Two-One, how copy?"

"Lima Two-One, this is Monarch. We copy all," the old and familiar voice of his chain of command replied matter-of-factly. Monarch was the name of the man that had gotten Cal's team out of more than one hairy situation and he was the one that he trusted the most outside of his team. A veteran captain devoted to logistics and communication, Monarch was one of the more empathic individuals of command, taking care of those that depended on him with singular focus. He was the man that Cal wanted to oversee his strike against the raging elements of crime in Vale.

"I've proceeded to Area of Effect Charlie. Please advise."

Area of Effect Charlie was the first of three major hotspots where the big fish of the city were supposed to be active. It was basically a Schnee Dust Company warehouse, where at least two dozen citizens were working in a late nightshift. That place was the closest thing he got to meeting the top-class villains, as the Schnee Dust Company was a popular target for the likes of the White Fang and other crime syndicates. And at least one of the High-Priority targets was a very important member of the White Fang, so if there was going to be any action near AoE Charlie, it would be one of them.

"Sweep teams have shown nothing; radar's clear for now. The rest of your team is standing by near the roofs, ready to spring the trap."

"Roger that. Any idea on which target primary will be waiting for us?"

"No clue, Two-One. Keep a close eye on the shadows and watch your field of fire. Friendlies might be between you and the target."

"Copy," Cal replied and mentally facepalmed. The very first thing he did when stalking his enemy was keeping an eye on the shadows. He had been doing that for the entire damn evening trying to stay alive as he had four High-Priority targets that were ready to murder him the second he lowered his guard…and then there were the roaming gangs, drug dealers and other troublemakers that he had to avoid.

The soldier continued marching down the road, checking each and every shadow that might contain a possible threat. The warehouse was just ahead and from the looks of it, there weren't any large-scaled movements. But that didn't neccesarily have to mean anything.

Another ten meters of wet street, nervous breathing and rain running down his helmet and he had reached the end, stumbling upon an open intersection with a clear view of the harbor. His journey to hunt down one of the four priority targets had taken him to the Docks. To his left stood the tall Schnee Company building and to his right lay a large road that looked like it would be a good place to set up a market during daytime. The Dust Company's building looked a bit like a skyscraper, with a parking lot near the bottom part of the foundations.

In the second that it took him to get a good view of the Warehouse and analyze the situation, he knew he was in trouble.

Three figures were standing in front of the large building. Because the perimeter wasn't guarded by fences or guards, they were able to stand in front of the main entrance and keep to the shadows without being spotted by any passerby's. Two of them were clad in black clothes with a simple piece of white body-armour, with a black hood covering the back of their head. They were identical to each other, but the third person was unique in her appearance, so that had to be their leader. Cal could see that it was a 'she' because of her light-blue skirt that reached halfway down to her thighs. She had long, white boots with hints of red woven throughout their design and long, white sleeves that also had streaks of red running through the white and a red crest on the back of her light-blue jacket, with a black cross across it.

He recognized it as the Family-crest of the Schnee family. The cross meant that this person was against the company, so this was either a terrorist or a member of the White Fang, here to assault the building. Intriguing. Perhaps that one could lead him to one of the four fallen ones?

He could easily shoot the three of them, but he stayed his finger and remained hidden. That wouldn't lead him anywhere. He needed Intel and not dead bodies…and with the weird people hanging out in Vale, these three might as well be three late-night smokers, hanging out to puff a cigar or something like that. If he killed any of them he would have to live with the doubt of never having been sure.

On the other hand…the warehouse was supposed to be empty this late. Nobody should be hanging around the building and all the workers were supposed to be at home. These had to be the hostiles.

Hating himself for what he was about to do, he was about to step out of the shadows and speak to the trio of strangely-clad people, when the middle one –the one with the long, white hair that flowed down over her left shoulder- spoke up herself. It was a voice that was clearly used to command; a voice that was cold as ice and sounded matter-of-factly, but still possessed a quality that only the most battle-hardened officers could possess.

"And now you two can deal with the little bird spying on us."

His pulse quickened and he shot upright, aiming his rifle at the two men standing by the side of the woman as they turned around to face him. They were wearing grey fanglike masks, which identified them as White Fang members. The White Fang was an extremist Faunus organization that killed humans and fought the Schnee Dust company with tooth and nail, succeeding in their stupid civil only by throwing the Dust-distribution into disarray, making the war-effort against the Grimm even bleaker. Behind them, a large bomb was installed against the door, with wires leading up across the wall into the nearest windows. They had rigged the building to blow?

In short, they were targets of opportunity. Cal opened fire before either of them could pull out their rifle or sword and shot them both in their heads. His own armour-piercing round penetrated their feeble masks as easily as they did the silent night and punched right through them, exiting their skulls and causing a fine red spray of blood to stain the air and bricks behind them. The two weapons clattered to the floor a

The girl got some splatters of blood on her white clothes and she sighed, before turning around to face him.

Her face possessed a certain beauty; her attractive features were calm and controlled and the only thing that might disfigure her otherwise striking face was a large scar that ran over her eyelid, starting above her left eye and running down diagonally, ending an inch below the eye. The collar of her jacket was as red as the blood that had stained her skirt and she had a red ribbon around her slim waist, decorating her clothes needlessly.

Her face was calmer than his heart was upon realizing just who this female was. He had meant to encounter one of the Four, but only with proper preparation and leverage to use in a fight that he desperately wanted to avoid having. Not blindly stumbling into one of them unexpectedly. One-on-one with any of the High-priority targets and he would die, no doubt about that. He had not expected to be engaging one of them on such a short notice, let alone with him actually taking the initiative.

As he stared at the girl in front of him, who proceeded to stare at him with a cold expression, he started to realize that he was very boned. She wasn't the type to back down or stop after in a fight; she was going to go all the way and detonate the explosives, probably after killing him. To the soldiers of Onyx, she was known as Permafrost.

To the terrorized civilians, she was known as Weiss Schnee. Heiress to the Schnee Dust company, until something had happened that had driven her off her path of becoming a renowned Huntress, driving her into criminality and a streak of terror matched only by the cunning leader of the White Fang.

Lima Two-One felt his heartbeat fasten and despite the warmth of his suit, a chill ran down his spine. Permafrost was many things, but an equal to his prowess she was not. She was by far his greater and the only thing he had was his three-foot long assault rifle. The feeble piece of plastic and metal had lost of all of reassuring qualities and when compared to her might, it might as well been paintball gun.

He swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat and noticed that it had stopped raining, Or at least the area around the warehouse was devoid of rain. Was this due to the Schnee girl's powers? Or just extremely bad luck on his side? The rain would slow Permafrost down and enable him to see things that she couldn't. It would make the fight harder on her…but he wasn't as foolish as to think that simply because she was a girl she would get bogged down by the cold and the wetness. She could probably dance around naked in the middle of a snowy field and not feel a thing…while freezing him to death.

"Permafrost," he spoke to her, remembering the finer details of his mission. Engage, learn and survive. The ultimate result of him having marched through the dark city for two hours, dodging criminals and drug-addicts all the while, was to gather Intel on the four High-Priority targets. Onyx didn't want any of them killed for some reason…but that would make his fight ten times harder.

It was so hard to capture someone that was perfectly willing and capable of killing you in return.

"Another one?" She asked him, her emotionless and cold expression only shifting when she raised an eyebrow in a questioning gesture. "I thought we had killed the last of you…"

Her words, however bored and to the point they might sound, made no sense. Onyx had just arrived in the city and this was the very first conflict with one of the four up to date.

Cal ignored her and continued even though his throat felt dry and his mind was racing to find a way out. "You are wanted for terrorism, robbery, kidnapping and wild vandalism. Your former teammates are also wanted for murder, homicide and…" he hesitated for the last one. "One case of sexual assault."

She sighed again and her eyes locked directly with his, as if they simply ignored the visor that was stuck between them. Her gaze held hidden, deadly intent and he was certain that she would attempt to kill him in the next few seconds. Luckily, she was not the one suspected for sexual assault, but that was probably the least of his worries. He had at least ten meters of distance between him and her, but that wasn't enough to safeguard him.

"You a cop?" She asked him and casually readied her Multi-Action Dust Rapier. "Crack shot. Marksman?"

He didn't answer her and realized that, in order to fight her, he would have to insert the ShockRounds instead of the normal, Armour-Piercing rounds. He estimated the chance of actually scoring a hit at approximately two percent, but he still couldn't risk a stray shit killing her. Onyx wanted her alive so his ass was toasted.

The moment he pressed the button on the side of his rifle and popped the magazine, Permafrost struck at him. Her Rapier flashed through the air and red runes appeared alongside the blade, indicating a Dust-based attack.

The soldier cursed under his breath and jumped to the side, dodging the white-hot torrent of fire that had been summoned out of freaking nowhere. The building behind him exploded into flames as the attack impacted on it and he was pelted by fragments and shards of glass.

He desperately clawed for the ShockRounds attached to his suit and injected them into his rifle, but at that point Permafrost had already cycled her weapon and lunged towards him, crossing the distance between the two of them within two seconds. She attempted to spear him on her rapier and she damn near succeeded too; only because he side-stepped and slammed the butt of his rifle down on her weapon was he able to survive the attack.

The girl then spun her blade around again and with a simple flicker of her wrist, she send him sprawling to the ground. He wasn't bleeding; his armour had saved him from what had to have been an otherwise lethal stab.

But she wasn't done yet. Just as the soldier rolled over his shoulder and jumped up to fire at her, she sent a flare of light-blue Dust through her rapier and sent a wave of ice speeding towards him.

His sizzling shots impacted fruitlessly on the ice and it in turn impacted less fruitlessly on him, blasting him several meters backwards and somehow binding his wrists together. His rifle clattered to the ground, discharged once more and then fell silent.

Cal barely had time to exhale in surprise before Permafrost jumped towards him, delivering a powerful downwards kick to his head and sending him crashing into the ground.

No respite. She channeled a blue glyph underneath him and his eyes widened when he realized what she was going for. But his hands were tied together and he could only watch in horror as it launched him into the air, rendering him vulnerable for the next attack.

The former Heiress stabbed at him when he came falling down again and he understood that this time, she was going for the kill-move. The shimmering point of her sword tore through the air and time seemed to slow down as it approached his chest, heading straight for his heart.

He didn't want to die yet. He had a duty to do; his very purpose in life had yet to be lived out. He couldn't die there…he would leave a mess behind. Not yet…too soon.

The soldier brought his ice-bound wrists up and forced his armour plated hand towards the rapier as it was about to skewer him mid-air. The very second that he made contact with the point, he pulled it to the side.

But he wasn't fast enough and even as he forced the rapier more to the right of his chest, away from his heart, the point sank deep into his armour and penetrated his flesh with ease. He cried out as the weapon penetrated his hand completely and proceeded deep into his chest, tearing through the composite armour like it was wet paper and embedding itself in his flesh. The point pinged off his ribs and he inhaled sharply as an all-consuming jolt of rain racked his body. Spots of light exploded in front of his vision and the air grew stale and cold.

Permafrost pulled her weapon out with one swift movement and then spun around, slashing at him one more time and sending him crashing into the wall of the building she had set on fire. He could hear the panicked cries of trapped civilians, but there was nothing that he could do to save them. His chest had to be ruined, as he was having difficulty breathing. The bitch had taken him out in a fight that lasted only a few seconds; for all his training and skills, he had been unable to counter her attacks. Was she mad at him for having shot her companions? Or could she care less for them, like the sociopath that some people thought she was?

He took a ragged breath and with trembling hands, reached for the puncture on his suit. Blood was oozing out of the wounds in both his chest and his hand and if he didn't stop the bleeding quick, he would either bleed to death or choke on his own blood.

Goddamn he hurt…his chest felt like it had been split apart and his hand was burning and itching like crazy. He had been stabbed by blades before but…damn.

Footsteps approached him and he slowly raised his head, watching as Weiss Schnee approached him with calm steps, her face betraying no emotions. The red stripes of blood on her clothes were standing out frighteningly from the rest of her outfit. What had happened to the self-aware girl? Why was a girl, barely eighteen years old, not only capable of killing him but also willing to?

He coughed and red droplets of blood hit the inside of his helmet. One of his lungs had been punctured…he was going to choke on his blood after all.

The girl looked at the burning house and then her gaze went downwards, stopping at his prone form. The wild fire was reflected in her eyes, but she was only interested in watching him squirm. Normally, he wouldn't allow such a foe any satisfaction in the victory, but he had no choice now. Through the pain and spastic muscles, he had no choice but to clumsily reach for his chestplate.

"Persistent…" she muttered and knelt down next to him, watching him with her cold eyes. "You are not with the VPD. Who are you? Who sent you?"

He wanted to tell her where she could stick her rapier, but she was still a lady. A crazy, murderous terrorist for a lady, but still a lady. And he was still a man. A teenage, socially incapable soldier for a man, but still a man. He had manners…and he wanted to refrain from pissing off the mean lady.

He coughed again and when he tried to take a deep breath, the only thing that came out was a pained wheeze. So much for replying. Was he dying?

Permafrost got to her feet again. "It seems I have hit your lungs. I aimed for your heart. You should bleed out very soon now…anything you want to say?"

At least that wasn't the clichéd 'any last words' phrase that many cocky foes that spouted throughout the years. And the fact that she sounded serene and composed when speaking made him believe that she had genuinely wanted to kill him without pain. But why was she interested in his last words?

He coughed again and this time, he couldn't stop. More and more blood stuck to the inside of his helmet and the sides of his vision blurred when the flaring pain in his chest intensified again. His hand was throbbing, but that wasn't the worst of it.

The camera…the camera was still recording. It was recording everything that had happened and even now, the people from Onyx were seeing live what was happening to him. Perhaps he could draw out one final piece of information?

Cal slowly fumbled around on his chest and pulled a cylindrical object out of a tightly-secured pocket, feeling if it was ready to be used.

The white-haired girl watched him mess around with the one thing that might prolong his mission and made no attempt to stop him. She had obviously only dealt with the Police at this point…perhaps a normal soldier or two. But she had never met with Onyx troopers and she was about to understand just why they too were called the best-of-the-best.

His fingers stumbled upon the pointed protrusion at the top of the ten-inch tall cylinder and he inserted the tip of the object into the round puncture in his chest, pressing it deep into his ruined flesh until that too hit a bone.

A new shockwave of pain jolted through his body and he inhaled sharply, the blurring around his eyes fading slightly as the pain woke him up somewhat. Gathering his remaining strength, he pressed the trigger hidden at the top of the small canister and inserted a thick fluid into his chest, which chilled him to his very core. The antibacterial, tissue-regenerative foam filled the space in his chest and plugged the hole in his lung, preventing the organ from being damaged further.

The trooper took a deep, ragged breath and pulled his knees up to his chest, testing his newly-repaired muscles. Then he kicked them out again and used that momentum to fling himself back to his feet, where he instantly assumed a martial arts position. The bio-foam felt like a thousand tiny knives stabbing his flesh from the inside, but at the very least he understood that it was doing good to his body. And that was all that he needed to start a round two.

The white fluid leaked through the wound to the outside, where it immediately hardened and formed a small layer on top of his armoured plates.

At that point, his allies should have arrived. Where were they? He had trapped civvies in a burning building and a ticking bomb about to blow the hell out of a Schnee Dust Company building.

Permafrost jumped back the second he got to his feet again and readied her rapier for her own round two.

"Monarch, t-this is Two-One. I need b-back-up ASAP!" He coughed at the communicator, praying that there was an Operative around to counter this level S threat.

"Copy that Lima Two-One, field Agents are en-route to your location. ETA one minute. Make it count!"

He smiled bitterly. Now he just had to keep Weiss Schnee busy for one minute, during which his team could arrive to save his sorry ass. His helmet would muffle his every word unless he wanted to be heard. She didn't know about his reinforcements.

Permafrost grabbed a small electronic device out of some pocket and opened it, revealing a very high-end Scroll.

"You are new," she muttered at him. A sense of arrogance was trickling into her voice. "That's good. In one minute, the bomb will go off and destroy the warehouse. In the same minute, the family inside of that building will burn to death. Take your pick. "

He was starting to get pissed. People could be burning to death right now and she was playing games? What sick bastard had thought of that? Not Permafrost herself, as she had just plucked her Scroll from some cavity to read a message. Someone else had given her those instructions…or at least he hoped so. If the ex-Heiress had gotten so twisted that she could think of that herself, she was beyond redeeming.

With one quick movement, he pulled out his sidearm –filled with the same Armour-Piercing rounds- and opened fire on the bitch, aiming to cap her in the legs so that she wouldn't move as fast when the team came to bring her in. Normally, he wouldn't have risked shooting a target like her with lethals, but things had changed probably around the time she had stabbed him and left a family to burn.

Even though his sight was uneven at best, he still managed to pull the trigger a few times. But Permafrost merely turned her sword towards him and summoned a glyph in the air, blocking all of his rounds save one, which managed to penetrate the strange white symbol and sail past her head harmlessly.

She smiled smugly –a gesture that almost looked alien in appearance- and then launched herself in the air with another one of her Dust-powered abilities, faster than he could follow her with his pistol. Before the soldier knew it, his target had disappeared over the roof of a nearby building, leaving him alone with a ticking bomb and a burning house.

"Be advised, friendlies on your six!" a voice yelled in his ear and it took Cal a few seconds to realize that the voice belonged to Monarch, his communicative officer. Friendlies were coming up on his six…that was…that was behind him, right?

He turned around sluggishly, very aware of the fact that the numbing in his chest wasn't a hundred percent because of the sealing biofoam. In the cover of the night, traversing the rooftops with relative ease, were five soldiers that he could only identify because of the visor-identification that his helmet provided for him. Three of them were the rest of Fireteam Lima, while two of them were unidentified Field Agents. Ranking higher than normal soldiers, the Field Agents that Onyx employed were cleared higher than most troopers. They shared just about as much security clearance as low-ranked officers and any time one of them showed up, they would take command of the present troopers to partake on some classified operation.

Cal could work with them. They weren't as bad as the Operatives were and the few Field Agents that he knew personally were pretty much ok. But they were heavily specialized and their appearance usually meant that things had gotten a bit serious. But seeing as he had just been nailed by Permafrost herself, things already were serious.

He just hoped that one of them knew their bombs.

The two Field Agents jumped off the roof, landed on the ground, rolled over their shoulder and sprinted towards the Schnee warehouse faster than any Police officer or normal soldier could.

So they had picked the bomb above the trapped family? Figures…

"Cal!" Lima Two-Four snapped at him as she too jumped off the roof, closely followed by Two-Two and Two-Three. "Situation report?"

"We got a family in that burning house!" He cried out and pointed at the building in question, where flames were currently licking at the roof. "Get to it!"

He would have charged off into the flames himself, were it not for his wound. He had been nailed hard enough for his normal prowess to have been reduced severely; he was incapable of performing the normal superhuman feats that were required to rescue those civvies. Their only hope now was the rest of Fireteam Lima.

Two-Three was the first one who moved; as soon as he heard the word 'family' he had turned around and sprinted off towards the burning house, ramming his shoulder into the door and breaking it off its hinges without any trouble. Even though Lima Two-Three wasn't exactly the strongest of their team, the kid was the one with the biggest motivation of saving people. Not that the rest of them weren't motivated, but Three was the one who was the very first to do so. As such, before Four and Two even realized what was going on, Three had already breached the burning house.

Cal breathed in sharply and a lance of pain shot through his hand. He had forgotten that Permafrost had punctured a hole clean through his right hand. The entire situation was messed up and the worst thing was that he didn't even know what it was. Sixteen months ago Onyx had last been to Vale, inspecting the city's affairs to see if everything was still alright.

It hadn't been very good. Anarchy had been reigning in the city and the Vale Police Department had been unable to handle all the crime, terrorism and other corruption that had been tainting the city. Beacon had been abandoned…even before the would-be students could have started the year. As such, all the people that were capable of stopping the anarchy were unavailable. The list of Beacon-attendees had still been in Onyx' hands of course, so they had searched the city for those people that had been about to attend the prestigious combat school.

So many civilians had died…and Onyx had found no more than a handful of people that had been affiliated with the former Beacon Academy. Their Hunter-Killer teams had then banded together with the Operatives and purged the city from all major gang-leaders, crime-syndicates and corrupted politicians. With the head of the corruption cleanly cut off, Onyx had then taken the traumatized and orphaned students and taken them with them, leaving the city to recover from its damage.

But now, a mere day after having returned, the situation was worse than ever. Onyx still had that list of would-be attendees and four names were standing out at the very top, encircled with red. Permafrost was Weiss Schnee, the Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. Onyx knew of her and a few others that weren't supposed to be on the enemy's side; they were supposed to the good guys, keeping the roaming gangs and criminals in check. Yet here she had been…ready to blow up one of her own family's buildings while setting an occupied house in fire. And the rest of the students were, according to witnesses and information-brokers, equally corrupted. But they had only met Permafrost that night and the rest of the "students" at the list were just large unknowns.

Cal turned his attention to the two Field Agents that were working on the bomb. By his count, it should have either gone off already, or it should be about to. If that Schnee building blew up, entire boatloads of Dust wouldn't be transported to the War-zones where they were needed and humanity would be pushed back again by the never-ending hordes of Grimm. These two had better know what they were doing…

The windows behind him exploded and he snapped his side-arm up to engage whatever was going on, purely by instinct. But there were no criminals; no corrupted and psychopathic teenagers. Just the rest of his Fireteam, exiting the building via less conventional means. Two-Two was carrying two unconscious children, Two-Three had an unmoving man on his shoulders and Two-Four was carrying an unconscious woman in her arms. All three of them had jumped out of the windows and all three of them had landed on the ground without buckling or falling. Carrying an average of seventy-five to eighty kilograms on your back while jumping out of a two-story building wasn't something that you were capable of doing on a daily basis…unless you were an Onyx trooper.

Aura went a long way concerning protection and shielding.

"She's not breathing!" Two-Two told Two-Four when he looked down at her civilian.

"No shit!" She snapped at him and started resuscitating the unconscious woman.

"Kids are fine," Three called out.

"This guy will live, he's breathing steadily," Two then added, confirming the well-being of the family caught in the blaze.

"Good work," he breathed out and sat down on the stone street, ice still clinging to his suit. By now the bomb should have detonated already, so the two Field Agents had managed to prevent it from going off. Good…one less problem to think about.

"What the hell happened here Cal?" Two-Four asked him. Overhead, one of Onyx' dropships was approaching their position. It must have been the ship that had transported the two Agents to his location…but that didn't matter. He was thankful to have a place where he could recover. "You were supposed to gather Intel, not set the neighborhood on fire!"

"You're speaking to the teamleader," Two-Three mumbled, but Two-Two punched him in his side and silenced him.

"Yeah, about that," he started to explain and walked towards the dropship while it was touching down next to the warehouse. "Permafrost was there. She had two White Fang members with her and she knew that I was there."

"And then she kicked your ass," Two-Two chuckled as he marched towards the now-defused bomb.

Cal ignored that and entered the dropship, grabbing his chest and groaning in frustration. And pain. Two-Four walked in after him and took her helmet off, letting her long purple hair flow freely in the wind. It was still raining and droplets of water were already clinging to her hair as she sat down next to him. The burning building could be handled by other people. They had to get out fast.

"Let me see," she said and reached for his chest. "What happened?"

"Rapier, puncture," he hissed through his teeth as her probing fingers hit a particularly sore spot. Then he opened his fist and showed her the hole that had been punched clean through it. "She got me good."

"Guys," Two-Two's voice sounded from outside the ship, "the bomb is defused and packed. We can go now."

"Good," he muttered as Two-Three entered the dropship too. The two Field Agents were the last ones to enter the ship, dragging the oversized bomb with them.

"Shit this thing is heavy," the one with the brown armour laughed. She was wearing a helmet with a visor that consisted out of two, glowing eyeholes that looked eerily red in the night. He recognized her armour as that of a Demolitions Expert; someone who excelled at not getting killed while tinkering with bombs. She had been one of the initial teens saved by Onyx. Her armour-plating configuration was adjusted to reduce potential of dismemberment during explosive handling, should things go wrong during her activities. She was wearing a three-foot long, red device on her back.

"At least you got a new toy," the other Agent joked, her voice sounding feminine too. These two sounded too cheerful and outgoing to be experienced Field Agents…both of them had to be part of the would-be students that were going to Beacon. Extraordinarily skilled, but undisciplined and still green.

And they were cleared higher than Fireteam Lima was.

"Soldier," the Demolitions Expert then said with a somewhat more serious tone, "report. What did you see?"

Cal had just taken some painkillers and regenerative fluids to help deal with the wound and when he got back to the Forward Firebase, Onyx would debrief him too. He had no desire to tell the story all over again…but he had little choice. Field Agents were more valuable than troopers were. "It was Permafrost. She had two White Fang members by her side and she was fixing a bomb when I approached. She knew I was there and called me out –I shot her companions and she set fire to the building."

"And then?" The other Agent urged him. She was also wearing her weapon on her back, but her weapon was easier to identify than her partner's. It looked like an underhanded grenade launcher with a large, curving blade at the other end. Cal had seen Operative Blackwood wielding the same sort of weapon one time, but seeing as he was Blackwood, that version was much bigger. The agent, just like the Demolitions Expert, was wearing the same BDU like the regular troopers. It was the helmet that set the Field Agents apart from the rest of the normal soldiers though and this one was no exception. Her visor was larger in the middle and grew smaller when it approached the sides of her helmet. Her armour was a deep tint of green instead of brown.

"Then, I engaged and lost to Permafrost. She pulled out a scroll, read something and then gave me the choice between saving the family or the Warehouse."

"A choice?" Demolitions Expert asked him with surprise. "Why?"

"No idea," he replied.

"What would you have picked?" Two-Four softly asked him.

He turned to face her. She had just donned her helmet again and he couldn't gauge her thoughts. "What?"

"Would you have let the bomb go off?" she reformulated her question.

The soldier scowled when he gave his reply. "Of course. I'm no Operative."

"No Operative? What does that mean?" The green-armoured girl then asked.

Two-Two looked at her and the surprise was evident in his voice. "What? A Field Agent that doesn't know about the Operatives?"

"Yeah, all this secret and silent 'classified' bullshit annoys me, so I only read what I need to," the girl replied sharply. Normally, Lima-Two-Two would have started a fight if someone talked to him like that. The Field Agent's rank and position prevented that from happening though.

"I know that Operatives are chosen to deal with the most extreme risks, but that's about it," the brown-haired girl added. It seemed like she was the more reasonable of the two.

"That's the gist of it," Two-Four replied. "There are three we know of…and all three of them are the types that would let the family burn to death in order to save the warehouse."

"What?" the green-coloured Agent replied with shock and repulsion. "Why?"

"Logistics," Cal grimly replied. "Four lives to potentially hundreds. They make those choices every day and that makes them…hard to work with."

Funny how these kids didn't know anything about Onyx' affairs, while they were cleared higher than those that did.

But he wasn't angry. He didn't have time to be angry. With a hole in his hand and a hole in his chest, he had better things to worry about than two kids running around with a high security clearance that they didn't use. Their professionalism was their own business; if they wanted to be immature children, that was all up to them. As long as they did the job that they were supposed to be doing, things were alright.

The rest of the journey back to the headquarters was spent in silence. The interiors of their large dropship had plenty of space for at least twenty persons, but no windows. Windows were structural weaknesses and the soldiers that were moved around in the ships had other things on their head than a killer-view. The appearance of two Field Agents at once during the same encounter with Permafrost couldn't be a coincidence though. He was sure that certain that there was something else going on…something more important than people let on.

No matter. He would be debriefed and then he would find out the truth.

The dropship lurched downwards and he had to fasten his seat before he got thrown across the cargo-bay. The trip was at an end it was time for the least favorite part of a mission: the debriefing.

First, he and his team got split up into different cells, where they all had to strip and take off their armour and don the standard military fatigues. Then they had to rejoin with the two Field Agents –both of whom had also dressed formally- and wait in a fancy waiting room, adjacent to a room that could best be described as a theater hall. There was a stage and there were people watching. The only difference was that, while you had to practice the specific words you were going to use, the vast majority of the things you were going to say were decided by the people that were watching you.

The two Field Agents were sitting down in the chairs and the rest of his team quickly took their position on a large sofa.

But just as Cal was about to sit down, the Public Announcement system called his name and he understood that he was the first one to be questioned.

Great.

The soldier marched past his teammates, who threw him reassuring glances. Well, apart from Two-Three, who was a bit oblivious to the situation.

He walked through the door and entered the room that reminded him oh so much of ancient amphitheaters where onlookers could yell at struggling warriors. When he was on the podium, he saw that there were at least four high-intensity lights aimed at him, Behind those lights sat the important officers and military personnel that were going to debrief him. Even with his sensitive eyes, he could not discern who were sitting there.

Cal briefly wondered if Monarch was there too before a loud voice started talking. "You are Lima Two-One, leader of Fireteam Lima in Vale, correct?"

The voice sounded a bit booming…but he still recognized the man who it belonged ti. Lieutenant "Yale", one of the foremost individuals responsible for securing Vale. The man was an enigma, even to the higher-ups that Cal personally knew. Skilled in combat, but even more skilled in analyzing situations and coming up with plans and long-term strategies.

"Yes sir," he answered.

"You are to answer any and all questions put to you to the best extent possible, deliberately withholding vital information is will result in a court-martial or execution. Are you aware of this?"

Court-martial and execution unless he was a Field Agent, or an Operative, or any other important person. "Yes sir."

"Then we shall proceed. Tonight, you encountered someone from the list. Can you elaborate on her identity?"

"Yes sir. Weiss Schnee, code-named Permafrost and ex-Heiress to the Schnee family business."

"Where was she?"

"In front of one of the empty warehouses, near the docks."

"What was she doing there?"

"Working with two White Fang members on installing a bomb, sir."

The voices started whispering at each other and from the looks of it, not everyone agreed with each other. "Why do you suppose she was working with the White Fang?" Yale asked for his opinion.

"Sir, she was wearing the family crest with a large cross over it. Either the family disowned her and she wants revenge, or she separated herself from the family."

Again, the officers started whispering at each other. "How did the engagement go?"

"She knew I was there, so I came out and shot her allies. Then I engaged the target primary and lost in the subsequent battle. During our fight, she set a house on fire. She pulled out a high-tech scroll, read something and gave me the choice of saving the warehouse or the burning house…it had a family in it."

"What did you do then?" the voice asked.

"Sir, my team arrived just in time. They took care of the civilians, while two Field Agents took care of the bomb."

"Yes, Agent Adamant and Agent Auburn."

So those were the two girls that had saved the warehouse? Interesting. He didn't know the name Auburn, but Adamant was quite known.

"Yes sir. They disarmed the bomb and took it with them."

"Anything else, Lima Two-Three? Anything you want to share? Your own opinion"

Cal was done now. He could be quiet and walk away without any consequences… but he couldn't shake the image of Weiss allowing a family to burn out of his head. She couldn't be the only one, as Onyx had four High-Priority targets. There were three other girls like her and if her abilities were any indication, the city was in some major danger.

"Yes sir. Something big must have happened for Permafrost to have fallen so deeply. She can't be much older than eighteen at this point, sir."

"Neither are you, Lima Two-Three. And you have a body-count. People can be killers. You are dismissed. And remember: any and all information handled in this room is to be treated as classified."

He nodded and left the podium, black spots jumping into his eyes the moment they broke contact with the intense lights. That went easier than expected.

Cal opened the door, allowed the next soldier to enter the podium and sat down in a chair when the door closed behind him.

Weiss Schnee…Permafrost…terrorist against the Schnee family. Who else was on that list? Not their code-names, but their actual names? Which would-be students had snapped and descended so deeply into corruption?

~0~

"Onyx has multiple people working in the field. All of them are outfitted with the standard 'soldier' BDU, but their helmet identifies them according to their task and specification. Fireteam Lima are classified as 'troopers' and hold the lowest rank and security clearing. Auburn and Adamant are Field Agents and are specialized warriors with a specific task, holding moderate security clearance and follow orders only from veteran officers. The Operatives have the highest security clearance and answer directly to Yale, General Randall or the Themeluesi himself."

Onyx ranking system, part 1

~0~

Let me know what you think! Leave a review, favorite or follow. See you next time!