Three hundred and twenty years have passed since the coven sank in the dark. Lightning; echoing thunder. Flashes of light that melt the flesh and the bone.

The streets of Vale were welcoming enough in the light of day. Once night fell, however, the smartest of Vale's citizens either stuck with the denser areas of Vale, or simply stayed home. Towards the center of town, away from prying eyes, two men stood in a dark alley. The first man simply leaned casually against the brick wall as though he stood here all the time. The other man slowly approached the first man, his hands shaking as tremors occasionally rocked his body. His face was gaunt, and his hair was thin; the signs of a drug addict. Above them, barely lighting the alleyway, was a string of dim light bulbs.

He looked up from the ground at the man against the wall. The man turned and met his gaze before looking away, staring now at nothing. "You got money?" he asked calmly.

"Y-yeah," the junkie said. "Took me a while, but I got enough."

The man, a drug dealer, smiled. "You know...this stuffs getting more and more expensive by the day, right? VPD's been cracking down on the labs. I used to get my product out of ten different places, but now I'm down to three sources. You sure you want to keep doing it? Before too long, even I won't be able to get a hold of any."

"I get that," the junkie stated flatly. He looked around nervously before shoving his shaky left hand into his pocket, pulling out three hundred lien and offering it to the dealer. "I-I need it, man. I gotta have a fix."

The dealer shrugged. "Aight, man. Don't say I didn't warn you." Taking the money, he reached into a bag that was laying next to his feet and pulled out a small sandwich bag full of multicolored crystal like fragments. Handing the bag off, he gave the druggy a warning glance. "Make that batch last, okay? I'll give the VPD a week before they knock down the rest of my suppliers, and that means it will be some time before you can get another fix."

"What would I do without you?" he asked. Without hesitating, he pulled one of the fragments out of the bag and shoved it into his mouth. A few seconds passed, and the short, sudden tremors left his body, and his hands stopped shaking.

The dealer laughed. "You'd probably go cold turkey without me," he said. "I'm the nicest guy you know, I'll bet."

The junkie nodded. "You have no idea. Thanks again." He turned on his heel and began to make his exit.

"Hey, remember to make it last!" the dealer yelled after him. Shaking his head, he returned to leaning against the wall. He didn't have much stock left, but if he knew Vale's citizens like he thought he did, he wouldn't have much trouble selling it. Sure enough, someone else came strolling down the alley a few minutes later.

This one was new; the dealer had never seen him before. His clothes were clean and neat, and he wore his blue hair in a wild, punkish style. If the dealer had to guess, he was some rich man's son who was looking to try drugs for the first time; there was no way that he was a regular user. The young man leaned on the wall opposite from the dealer, and the two stared at each other. "You...you have what I'm looking for."

"Perhaps," the dealer said, misunderstanding the young man's statement as a question. "Depends on what you're looking for. Do you want fragments or whole crystals?"

"Neither," the young man said.

The dealer was caught off guard. "Neither?" he repeated. "Well, if you're looking for something more exotic, I'm afraid I don't have any of the sort. I do know a guy that can hook you up with just about anything else, though. Want me to point you in his direction?"

The young man laughed. "Why would a drug dealer recommend another drug dealer?"

"I just like to see the customer happy, is all. So, what are you looking for?"

The young man paused in thought for a moment. "Well, I don't suppose you'd let me have you, would you?"

The dealer gave him a stern look. "Now look here, son, I may be a drug dealer and one of the lowest of the low, but what makes you think that I'd sell my body?"

"That's fine," the young man said. "I wasn't offering to buy it anyway." The drug dealer was surprised by the sound of glass breaking. Looking up, he saw that several of the light bulbs had shattered. The few that didn't break were glowing brighter than before. "I'm just going to take it."

~Witch Hunter Ruby~

Episode 4: Enjoy The Silence

Ruby was awakened by the sound of her work cell phone ringing on the night stand next to her bed. Groaning, she raised up and grabbed the phone, blindly pressing the answer button. "Hello?" she greeted in a hoarse voice.

"Sorry to wake you so early," Mercury stated on the other end. "We've got a crime scene. Blake and Yang are on their way to pick you up."

Ruby nodded to herself, accepting the fact that her work day was going to be exhausting. "Okay. I guess I'll get ready," she said right before she yawned loudly.

"It's 4AM right now. Blake should be there around 4:30." Without saying anything else, Mercury hung up.

Ruby gave her phone a final passing glance before she glanced at her alarm clock; it was programmed to wake her at 7:30. She had thirty minutes to prepare for work. Maybe I'll wear simpler clothes today, she thought as her gaze passed over her black dress that hung on the wall. Nodding, she collapsed back onto the bed for five more minutes.

Ruby, now fully awake and wearing a pair of black trousers, a white dress shirt, a red tie, and a black vest, approached the taped off alleyway with Blake and Yang walking ahead of her. Three patrol cars from the Vale Police Department were present, most of the officers themselves looked just as sleepy as Ruby was.

As she passed by, she overheard two officers chatting amongst each other. "Is that Beacon? I thought we were waiting on the detective," one said.

"You didn't hear? We're turning this one over. It's officially a Beacon case," replied the other.

"Was the corpse that odd? I didn't see it."

"Yeah. It looked like it'd been set on fire or something."

Yang lifted the police tape up for her fellow hunters to pass under. "Ladies first," she said to Blake with a smile. She and Ruby followed shortly after Blake entered, and the three of them were alone in this dark alley, barely lit by the early morning sunrise. In the middle of the alley, laying face down, was a blackened, charred corpse. "Oh," Yang said, dropping into sarcasm. "That's lovely."

Blake and Ruby approached and knelt on the ground to get a better look. Ruby paused, having noticed that Yang was hanging back. "Aren't you going to examine the body?"

"You know what," Yang replied. "I think you two got this. I'll just be over here...near this dumpster...trying not to puke."

Ruby arched an eyebrow before Blake looked at her with a small smile. "She doesn't have a very strong stomach when it comes to corpses."

"I see," Ruby said quietly. Turning her full attention to the corpse, she and Blake began to take notes as they examined it.

"Looks like it was set on fire," the black haired hunter said.

"It looks that way," Ruby agreed. "But look at the charring. Even I can't produce a flame hot enough to melt flesh like this."

Blake nodded. "You're right. What could produce that much heat if not a fire? Napalm is a solid guess, but we'd see traces of gasoline."

Ruby noticed a plastic bag next to the wall. Grabbing it, she rummaged through it to see what was inside. "What's this?" she asked, holding up a couple of sandwich bags full of multicolored crystals and shards.

Blake gave it one glance before she retrieved it from Ruby to get a closer look. "Dust," she said after a moment. "That's no surprise, I guess; our victim was a drug dealer."

"You think that's why he was killed?"

"Doubt it," Yang called from her safe distance. "Who murders a drug dealer and leaves the drugs?"

"Someone who's not looking for drugs," Ruby said. Standing up, she heard a cracking sound come from beneath her shoe. Looking down, she saw the ground was covered in shards of glass. "Where did that come from?" Slowly she raised her gaze upward until she saw a string of lights; most of them were broken.

Blake followed her gaze, also having noticed the broken glass. "Probably unrelated. The bulbs had probably been busted for months. No one really maintains these alley lights." Sighing, she crouched back down and called for Yang. "Can you control your gag reflex long enough to keep me from hitting the pavement?"

Yang flinched. "Do you really need to do that now? Besides, I might throw up on you."

Blake shook her head. "Wimp. Ruby, could you do me a favor? Keep me from collapsing, okay?"

"Uh...okay." Moving behind Blake, Ruby positioned her hands so that she gave the black haired girl enough support to keep off of the ground.

Removing her right glove, Blake touched the corpse lightly, trying her best to keep her hand as clean as possible. Her vision went dark as she experienced the man's last emotions. After a few seconds, she drew her hand away, panting heavily. "Confusion. And, before that, he was hopeful. I think he was going to sell to the murderer, and he was turned on without provocation."

"Do you think he knew the killer?" Yang asked.

"I dunno. Probably not, but we can't make that assumption yet." Putting the glove back on her hand, she stood up and began to leave the alley, with Ruby and Yang following. "The Factory should be here by now. Let's turn in our initial report before we head to Beacon."

Ruby nodded as she followed, and she suddenly remembered something. "Oh, can we stop by the Malachite Cafe before we go in?"

"Hm?" Blake asked.

"I have to pick something up."

The meeting in the conference room was just beginning, and Mercury sat towards the front of the room, as usual, as he ate a bacon-egg-and-cheese sandwich that Ruby had bought for him. After the final bite was swallowed, Ironwood entered the room, surprised to see everyone already present. "What happened last night?" he asked, understanding that there must have been an unusual murder to warrant everyone to be ready to work so early.

"Morning, Boss," Mercury said. "We were just about to begin."

"Oh, I see. Well, let's get started then."

"Right." A driver's license appeared in front of everyone. "Our victim was Aka Rouge, age twenty-six. He worked part time at a gas station during the day shift, and apparently he was a drug trader by night. Most importantly, he was in our database."

Ruby stared at Mercury in confusion. "He was on our database?"

"You see, we here at Beacon have an extensive system of filing, organization, and networks that identify witches and possible witches. We cross reference new information with older documents concerning previously encountered witches, and any time we come back with a positive match on relation, we add that person to our watch list. Basically, we know that these people have a high chance of awakening as witches."

"So, he was a witch's descendant, but he wasn't a witch himself?"

"That's right," Ironwood said. "We usually ignore the possible witches unless they fit certain criteria during a hunt. Most of the time, they'll go their whole lives without awakening. It's a precautionary measure to try to speed the hunting process should they ever awaken."

"Aka never awakened," Mercury continued. "And this is a large city; murder is an everyday occurrence, so normally this could be considered a coincidence."

"What about the nature of his death?" Ren asked.

"The Factory's autopsy report came in a few minutes ago. It looks like a large electrical force had stopped his heart; he was dead before his skin started melting from the heat."

"Electricity?" Ruby asked. "I noticed some light bulbs that were broken in the alley. Could they be related?"

"Well, when you put too much electricity into a light bulb, the results can be explosive. It's not out of the question to think that whatever killed the victim contained enough voltage to blow out nearby lights."

"So our witch has the power to control electricity?" Yang asked. "That's shocking."

Blake elbowed Yang in the ribs swiftly. "Not now," she whispered.

"Do we have anyone on our list that has this power?" Ren asked.

"We have a few possible candidates, but it might take some time to locate them," Mercury said.

"Then I guess we should get started."

"If I'm not needed," Yang said. "I'll go on home. I didn't get much sleep last night."

"I wonder who's fault that is," Jaune said teasingly glancing between Blake and Yang.

Yang smiled, giving Jaune the thumbs up. "You know it!"

Blake rolled her eyes. "Please. Any prolonged direct contact and I'll go into convulsions. Yang slept on my couch."

"Oh, I'll send you into convulsions alright," Yang whispered with a sly smile on her lips.

"I heard that, you pervert."

"S-sorry."

Blake sighed. "Today's going to be a really long day,"

Ironwood smiled. "Good luck, everyone, and work hard."

As everyone stood up and prepared to leave, either to start investigating or to go home, the hologram display turned a bright red and began to flash warning signals. "What does that mean?" Ruby asked, feeling somewhat worried.

Mercury cursed as he forced everyone in front of him aside, racing towards his desk. Everyone else followed behind him as he started typing away hurriedly on his keyboards. "Son of a bitch!" he yelled.

"Mercury, what's going on?" Ironwood asked.

"We've got a hacker!"

"A hacker?" Ruby asked.

"Someone's trying to break into Beacon's secure network." A moment passed before Mercury's jaw dropped. "They're in!"

"What are they trying to do?" Ren asked.

"I can't tell. They've opened hundreds of files, and there's no way to tell which ones they're actually looking at, and which ones are being used as decoys." Quickly, Mercury began typing some sort of code. "Well, if he's gonna hack, then I'll just have to kick him out myself." After a few minutes, the red warning lights dimmed and returned to their native blue color on the holograms in the conference room. "He's...he's gone?"

"Did you evict him?"

"No," Mercury said in disbelief. "He just logged out on his own."

"Can you trace it?" Ren asked.

"Things were so hectic that I lost it trying to keep him out. Maybe if he hacks again I can find him, but as it stands? No."

"Any idea what he's after?"

"What was the last file he opened?" Ironwood asked.

"That's odd," Mercury said as he browsed the files. "The last file he touched was a dossier."

"A dossier?"

"Yeah." Pulling up the file, a driver's license appeared. "Adam Taurus," Mercury read aloud. "He's on our potential witch list."

"Find him," Ren told Mercury. "I'm going to pay Mr. Taurus a visit."

Adam sat in his apartment, drinking slowly from a bottle of beer while he watched an MMA fight on the television. Today was his day off from work, and while this wasn't what he'd prefer to do on his vacation day, it was much better than working. He didn't really recognize either of the fighters on the screen, as he usually watched baseball, but since it was on today he figured he'd watch some of it. Hell, I might just become a fan, he thought to himself as a knockout punch was thrown. Nodding with a slight smile, he sipped lightly at his beer before he heard his doorbell ring.

Not knowing who could possibly be paying him a visit today, he shrugged as he set his beer on the living room table. Standing up and stretching any stiffness out of his legs, he made his way to the door. "Hello?" he asked as he swung it open.

A young man, clearly younger than Adam, stood before him. His clothes were neat, and his hair was a shocking, electric blue. The young man had goggles around his neck. "Are you Adam Taurus?" he asked.

Adam nodded. "Can I help you with something?"

The fluorescent lights in the hallway flickered, and the one behind the young man flashed quickly before it shattered. "As a matter of fact..."

Ren and Jaune stood in the elevator, waiting patiently as it rose higher and higher into the apartment complex, working their way to the seventh floor.. "Why would a hacker be looking for witches?"

Ren shook his head. "Maybe they know about witches and hold some sort of vendetta against them. Maybe he's a former hunter acting as a vigilante. Maybe it's a spy from Headquarters. There are any number of possibilities."

Jaune turned to Ren in shock. "Why would Headquarters send a spy?"

"You've never met the higher ups before, have you?"

"Aside from the Boss, no,"

Ren smiled. "Maybe you should. It'd be a learning experience." The elevator came to a halt, and a low ding rang as the doors opened. "We're looking for room 715," Ren stated as they exited.

The two men walked slowly down the hall, carefully reading off the numbers on each door. "705...707...709..." Jaune read to himself in a low voice.

Halfway down the corridor a door opened slowly; a blue haired youth exited. Noticing the two hunters he paused. Ren looked at the doors immediately around himself, figuring in his head which door the young man had come from. "He's come out of Taurus's apartment," he whispered to Jaune.

Instantly, the young man seemed agitated. Not wanting to fight, he turned and ran down the hall. "Hey!" Jaune called after him as he and Ren gave chase.

"Piss off!" the young man called, pausing to raise his hand. A bolt of lightning shot from his palm, rocketing towards Ren. Instinctively, Ren stopped running and stood still, knowing he didn't have the time to dodge. The Aura pendant around his neck glowed a bright green, and the electricity cracked and sparked all around his body, inches away from electrifying him. Irritated that his power was stopped, the young man cursed and continued to flee into the stairwell.

"Go!" Ren yelled to Jaune, who hesitated when Ren was forced to stop; the electricity still danced around him. "Lead him to the others! Blake and Ruby are waiting outside!"

Nodding, Jaune drew his Aura gun and gave chase. Taking a left into the stair well, he followed the sounds of the witches dashing feet and the sound of heavy metal doors being forced open. Said doors lead to the apartments on the fifth floor, two stories down from where he started running. Entering the hallway, he saw the witch standing at the far end of the hall; no stair well was available. "Mercury, have the apartment turn off the elevators; we have the witch cornered," Jaune said into his radio as he slowly approached the witch. Within minutes, the elevator lights all turned red. "You've got nowhere to run!"

The young man looked around for a moment before his gaze stopped on the window behind him. "There's always an escape route," he commented sarcastically to Jaune. Firing off a bolt of electricity to distract Jaune, the witch turned and leapt out of the window.

"No!" Jaune called as the electricity dissipated around him; it was a lower charge than the shot that had been fired at Ren. Dashing to the window, Jaune was shocked to see the witch had grabbed hold of an electrical line and was climbing down a utility pole. Jaune took aim, but noted that the distance and wind variable were too great; he couldn't make the shot with the gas powered Aura guns. "Damn it!"

Minutes later, Ren, Jaune, Ruby, and Blake all stood around Adam's corpse in his apartment. Crime scene tape had been stuck to the door, and the four of them simply stared at the body before them; there was no need to investigate, since they knew what had happened. "Son of a bitch!" Jaune yelled, still angry that another witch escaped him.

"Jaune!" Ren yelled back at him. "Calm yourself. We need to think about this carefully."

"I was right there, Ren! I should have shot the bastard before he had time to jump!"

"What's done is done. We don't expect anyone to be perfect, you had no way to know that he'd be crazy enough to jump from that high."

Ruby stared at the body, confused. "Why?" she asked. "Why is he doing this?"

Ren shook his head. "We should head back to Beacon. We're not going to learn anymore from Mr. Taurus. Mercury, have the police clean this scene up; we're done here."

"You got it," he replied over the radio.

"And retrieve the security camera footage from the apartment complex; our witch wasn't very good at concealing his face."

The witch sat alone in his empty apartment, gasping for air. He felt weak; he'd used his power too much without getting anything back in return. Touching the power lines didn't help either. Had he thought to absorb from them he'd have been fine, but in his haste some of his power was drained by the flowing electrical currents that powered the city. Kneeling in fatigue, he glanced around and saw that his television was plugged into the wall and turned on, with the audio muted. Raising his hand, lightning fired from his palm and danced across the screen. A moment later, the television was overloaded and exploded, with another bolt of lightning returning to his hand.

Feeling the electricity flow through his body, he felt his strength slowly returning. But it wasn't enough. "I need more," he said aloud. "More like the dealer. More like that Adam. I need more." Maybe it was time to find another like himself again. What did those Beacon guys call them again? Witches. He laughed at the term. He didn't see himself as a witch. No, witches were from fairy tales and fantasy stories. No, he felt that he was something greater; he felt he was destined to surpass all of mankind. "I am a god," he whispered. "And as god, I need tribute. I need more power." He stood up, preparing to find his next energy source.

"Have you found anything?" Ren asked as soon as he entered the room. All of the computers were turned off except for Mercury's three separate terminals and his laptop, each of which had a different task running. His right screen was playing the security camera footage.

"Yeah, he's showing his face alright," he said with a smile. Jaune was still somewhat miffed, and he threw himself onto the nearby couch, throwing his legs onto the coffee table in an attempt to relax himself. "Hey, I eat on that table," Mercury chimed.

"Where don't you eat around here? Bite me!" Jaune retaliated.

Jaune was about to close his eyes for a moment, still trying to calm himself, when he saw Neo out of his peripheral vision. She approached with a small tray and set it on the table next to his boots; it was a cup of hot tea and a small cake. "I heard about what happened. I hope this helps a little bit," she said with a smile before turning around and returning to her work.

"Uh...thanks," Jaune said. Removing his feet from the table, he sipped at the tea and ate the cake. Slowly, his mood began to improve.

Mercury shook his head before returning his attention to the others. "I cross referenced the witch's face with our database and city records. Guess what?"

"He's on our list?" Ruby asked, feeling hopeful.

"Yep! Neptune Vasilias, age seventeen. He's a high school drop out with above average intelligence, he came from a wealthy family originally, but he lives by himself in a high end apartment. Shame he awakened; his test scores from high school are better than what mine were!"

"Don't nerd out on us," Blake said jokingly.

"I'm just saying; the kid could have gotten into any college in the country if he wanted to. Either he didn't like school or his awakened powers put a damper on it all."

"We have his address?" Ren asked.

"Yeah, but it's no use. I checked with his landlord; he's not been there in months. I do have a plan to find him, though."

"How so?" Ruby asked.

"I doubt it's a coincidence that our hacker pulled up Adam Taurus's dossier and Neptune killed him afterwards. That, coupled with his apparent intelligence, he's most likely the hacker."

"What do you suggest?" Blake asked.

"The next time he hacks us, and I'm almost positive he will, we let him in. We guide him to the information he wants, then we trap him; make it so he can't log out. We trace it to his hideout, and we capture him. I've already run it by the Boss, and I even showed him the footage from the apartment complex. He's got the Factory rushing over some new Aura bullets to try and counter Neptune's electricity more efficiently."

"How long will this take?"

Mercury shrugged. "The only thing we can do is wait now. He may not try again for a few hours, or maybe even a few days."

Ren nodded. "Call Yang back," he said. "No one's going home. We're going to stay on call and wait for him to make his move."

Blake nodded. "I guess I'll get her." Walking away, she pulled out her phone and called the blonde.

Mercury looked at Ruby. "There's a bunk room on the second floor where I sleep; there's enough beds for everyone, so feel free to rest there."

"Oh," Ruby started. "Thanks."

The sound of Neo standing drew everyone's attention. "I suppose I'll stay as well," she said with a gentle smile. "God knows you Hunters won't eat healthy without someone to take care of you. I'll go prepare everyone something to eat."

Mercury shook his head with a smile. "That woman spoils us."

Ren chuckled softly. "She spoils you, you mean. She rarely gets the opportunity to feed the rest of us."

Jaune finished his tea and stretched. "I don't mind. If it means I get paid overtime and I get one of Neo's home cooked meals out of it, I'll stay as long as it takes. Plus, catching this witch is going to be oh so satisfying." The hunters were all taking seats and relaxing, knowing that they might be waiting a very long time.

Ruby woke up in the middle of the night in the bunk room. She never shared a room with so many people before, so the experience was rather interesting to her. Glancing around, she noticed all of her fellow hunters were sleeping still. Ren looked stoic as he slept flat on his back, Jaune was sprawled out on his stomach, Blake was curled into a ball, and Yang's limbs were all over the place; to Ruby, it seemed comical. Even Neo was sleeping in the office, just as she said she would. But Ruby noticed that someone was missing. Where's Mercury? she thought.

Standing up, she made her way up the third floor to see if he was still working; sure enough, he was glued to his monitors, still typing away. Pausing, he glanced up at the sight of Ruby entering the dark room, lit only by his computer screen. He smiled, almost teasingly so, at the younger girl. "Shouldn't you be asleep?" he asked.

"I could say the same to you," she shot back calmly. "Why are you still up?"

"Someone needs to monitor the network to see if he tries to hack it again. Since I'm the only one who knows how to trap him, I have to be the one to monitor him. Anyone else would be too slow."

Ruby nodded. "Want me to get you some coffee?"

"Already got some," he replied, holding up a mug for her to see before sipping at it. Ruby smiled and approached him, taking a seat next to him. He set his mug down and sighed, staring into the screen in thought. "I was a hacker once."

"Huh?"

He nodded. "I wouldn't do anything harmful to the system, mind you. I never stole information or tried to break the foundation of whatever I managed to break into. I just liked to prove that I could gain access to it. One day, however, I found a system that I couldn't get into. I tried and tried and tried but nothing I did worked. The security placed on that system's network was too strong."

"It was Beacon, wasn't it?"

"Yep. That was back when I interned at that company. I worked IT for the Schnee Corporation." Pausing, he took a sip from his coffee. "Suddenly, barely a few hours after I tried to hack into Beacon, my apartment was raided. They were going to kill me right there, afraid that I was an enemy. Boss was there too, and his word saved me. It's because of him that I'm still alive."

"I thought Beacon didn't kill," Ruby stated.

"This was back when Headquarters had a stronger grasp on Beacon. Aura wasn't developed until a year ago. After that incident, I swore to work for Ironwood. I was one of the first to work for the 'new' team. Ren and Nora were already here, and Blake showed up a little after me. Six months later, Aura was developed. By then, Jaune and Yang had joined the team, along with the Chief and Neo." He stretched. "Headquarters hasn't been too happy about our near independence as a witch hunting organization, but the way I see it we're all doing the same job."

Beep. A red icon appeared on Mercury's computer screen. "Got him!" he yelled. "He's trying to hack into the system."

"So now what?"

"I'm going to show him what he wants, and lock him in!" He began to type faster than Ruby had ever thought possible. "Try to hide now, you son of a bitch!" He turned and faced Ruby. "Wake the others. It's time to hunt." As Ruby nodded and made her way to the elevator, she could hear Mercury mumble something; it was likely an insult directed at the witch.

Neptune paced impatiently back and forth in front of his computer; it was frozen. It was a brand new, top of the line computer, and he had taken very good care of it; this wasn't a crash or a virus. He knew that this Beacon organization had figured him out; whoever they were, they'd probably be sending a SWAT team to raid his current home any time now.

What even is Beacon? he asked himself mentally. He knew about witches, since he himself was one, and he had listened very carefully to the city's underground of rogues and undesirables; there were other witches. Some of them knew about Beacon, claiming that the organization kept an eye on witches. That's how he first discovered them. His growing power was voracious, and required energy to feed it and make it grow stronger, but the energy of a witch, awakened or otherwise, was the best he'd ever had.

And he sought Beacon's list in an attempt to satiate his power's endless hunger for energy.

He smiled, thinking back to the fact that a SWAT team was probably on its way. They wouldn't be witches, presumably, but energy was energy when he absolutely needed it. They'd make a fine feast. Turning to face his computer, he made a tough decision; it was useless to him now. Quickly extracting all of the electricity that it contained, he heard a car door slam from outside. Peeking from his window, he saw the same men that had charged him earlier. "Oh," he said. "They were Beacon." Three more appeared from another car, and Neptune smiled. He felt a stronger energy from two of them, and he was going to absorb it. Placing his hands on the window sill, he prepared himself.

"Keep an eye out," Ren said in a hushed voice. "He's in this abandoned building." Everyone nodded and drew their weapons, except for Ruby who simply scanned the area with her eyes, preparing to strike a flame wherever necessary.

A sudden flash of light caught their attention, and the five hunters dashed out of the way of a sudden bolt of lightning that struck before them. A quiet roll of thunder washed over them, and Neptune leapt from his window and into the driveway before them. "Good night to you, friends," he said, sounding like he was going mad.

"Neptune!" Jaune yelled as he steadied his aim. Aiming at the gun, Neptune shot a bolt of lightning, intending to destroy the weapon. Jaune reflexively pulled the trigger, sending an Aura bullet flying towards the electricity. The aura bullet proceeded unimpeded, stopping the lightning in the process, but it missed its target and shattered upon the brick wall behind Neptune.

Neptune was shocked, but became enraged. "How did you do that, you bastard?" He glared at Jaune steadily. "I don't sense any power from you. No, wait, I do...its low, barely a flutter in your body...you haven't awakened yet." He smiled. "However little it is, I want it!" He prepared another charge of lighting. A wall of flame erupted in front of him, making him pause. "What!?"

Ruby stepped forward. "Shoot him!" she yelled before she covered her eyes with her hand in pain; something was wrong.

The flames didn't falter, though, and the other four hunters all began to fire their weapons through the flame. The Aura bullets parted the flames and made contact with Neptune; he screamed. "Enough!" he yelled. He saw Ruby through the flames and began to fire another bolt of lightning at her. Opening her pained eyes, she saw through slightly blurry vision that he was about to attack. Without saying a word, she forced her eyes to focus and she centered the witch, lighting his shirt on fire. He screamed in agony, trying to put the fire out.

Quickly, the others shot him with more Aura to knock him unconscious before they rushed over to put the fire out. Ruby's vision once again became blurry, and she watched from a distance as the obscure forms of her team mates worked and called the Factory. Ren and Yang approached her slowly once they knew the Factory was on its way. "What's wrong?" Ren asked.

"My eyes," she whispered. A moment later, her vision returned to normal. "My vision became worse when I used my power."

"Your eyes are the focus point of your power, are they not?" Ruby nodded in response. "We'll need to get that fixed." As the five of them stood there, the Factory's van approached, and three men wearing what looked like hazmat suits jumped out to secure the witch.

The next morning, Weiss walked into the Schnee Corporation's office building. She was known for being a shrewd business woman, and ruthless in corporate negotiations, but she was friendly enough to her own workers that she was immensely popular within the company; many looked forward to the day that the entire company would work for her, and not just the Vale branch.

She greeted the security guard's with a friendly 'good morning' as she entered the elevator to go upstairs. Arriving onto her floor, she was about to call out 'good morning' to everyone in the room, but then she noticed that everyone was crowded around a single cubicle. She approached from behind, curious to see what the deal was. "What's going on?" she asked.

Everyone turned to face her, each with a solemn look on their faces. One of them, a young lady named Velvet, approached her. "Ms. Schnee...haven't you heard the news yet?"

"What news?"

"It's Adam, Miss. He was found murdered in his apartment yesterday."

Weiss was shocked beyond belief. Why hasn't the news talked about this?"

"We received a notification from the investigative office that found him this morning; they say they've already solved the case, and that they're sorry for our loss. I believe they were called Beacon" Velvet turned to face the others before she stared at the empty cubicle. "We all thought we should pay our respects."

Weiss nodded. "Was anyone here close with Mr. Taurus?" A few raised their hands. "I want you guys to go home and take the day off. Everyone else, work until noon. Someone tell the caretaker to drop the company flag to half mast outside."

Turning to go into her office, she closed the door and sat at her desk, staring at the computer. She felt saddened by Adam's death, but something Velvet said intrigued her. With that errant thought going rampant, she looked up Beacon and found their address.

Song: Enjoy the Silence - Lacuna Coil

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Well, this is a week late. Sorry about that. I meant to have this up and ready by last Friday. Oops. This is why I suck at schedules. So, what do you think so far? I found it somewhat difficult to tie up the hunt for Neptune, but I think I did okay. Also...dat Weiss. Weiss is here, guys! I have things planned for her!

This is the longest chapter so far, and the more of this I write the more it looks like the story will be shorter than I expected; probably 13 or so chapters total. Maybe. Also, I thought it'd be somewhat funny (dark funny) to make Dust a Meth-like drug in this story. Not that it'll be mentioned very much, but I like my subtle, tiny world building details.

Please leave a review, if you don't mind. :D I will try to work somewhat faster for the next chapter. I think it's because these chapters are longer than what I'm used to writing. Possibly. Maybe. Anyway!

FunFact: My on January 21, 2015 my grandmother had brain surgery. She'd had some nerve issues for several years, and a month ago we found out that this surgery would most likely fix it, so we talked her into having it. We were at the hospital from 6AM to about 6PM (roughly), and the Surgery itself lasted for about 5-6 hours. Everything went smoothly, but because she currently has a hole in her skull they've got to keep her in ICU for a few days to let it heal and prevent any sort of infection. She'll most likely go home this weekend. I don't know if this fact was fun...but it sure is interesting! I did get to see her before I left; she was drugged up, so we didn't talk long.

Anyway, till next time!