Ch.4

"Are you even sure we are heading the right way?"

"Yes I am sure! God it's like you don't trust me."

"It is because I don't trust you, or the way we are going."

"You know I do not like the way you are typing at me mister."

"Oh why didn't you just leave me back at the tree?"

"I'm starting to wonder the same thing."

With the last word spoken by Qrow, the man quickly and forcefully took the tablet from my arms. Putting it back within his pocket and walking forward with a slight huff. He was practically acting like a child! We have spent the last day walking around without even hitting so much as a trail, even my bio scanners showed nothing even close to human contact. But no, the man continued to go on in his delusion, thinking that he was actually going the right direction. Even I could tell that no human has ever been to this part of the Forever Fall.

Well, at the very least he was keeping us out of the path of Grimm. Having seen none of the midnight colored creatures since my arrival. Not that I couldn't handle it, but they were bothersome in a sense. I wasn't exactly looking for a fight, and with this man the will to fight was drawn down to a minimum.

This man, was on my nerves to no end! Refusing to listen to my advice. Going off of the trail in the first place. And now taking the only thing that has let me communicate within the last few years! This man is insufferable, he was only lucky that he was the ticket for me to return home. It was only a few more days, at best a week before he reached those that Qrow promised could help. I only hoped that it would not take longer than what was needed.

I continued to walk next to Qrow, the forest eerily darkening, clouding building above. Turning the sky a dark gray color, light from the sun barely escaping the thick blanket of clouds, but as it hit the red petals that encompassed the forest, it turned each once blood red petal a dark maroon. The forest losing some of its beauty without the crimson color of blood surrounding the area.

As I stared into the sky, a few sensors on my H.U.D. told me of incoming rain. Shaking my head slightly, I moved next to Qrow tapping him on the shoulder to inform him of my discovery. Shrugging my hand off, the cloaked man turned towards me a slight scowl showing from the bottom half of his face. The light showing some pale skin along with the facial feature, the first time I actually seen his face. Qrow stared at me as if I was stupid before realizing my injury once more, pulling his scroll out quickly before nearly stuffing it in my helmet. I quickly took it before typing into it quickly. "Rain."

Looking upwards, Qrow scoffed slightly and shook his head before stealing the scroll from me and continuing along the 'path'. "Don't worry, the clouds around here get dark all the time. No rain ever comes; come on we are wasting daylight."

In slightly disbelief, I watched as the man continued along his way, satisfied that he was right in his word. But I mean really, how can clouds get like this and yet not rain, does this man even run off a brain? Did he even have the possibility to consider other opinions besides his own? God the only person more insufferable than this was Wyoming and his fucking knock-knock jokes!

Flashes of the man went through my mind, of him before the Director's corruption. Of the man who helped his comrades when needed. The man of, although wrong, stood for what he believed in. They weren't close, probably less than most. But he was a friend, and part of the family all the same. But of what he became, he deserved to die as well as I did. But now, because of his equipment if of why I survived. In some ways I should thank him, and of others I should curse him.

Growling slightly and shaking the thought of the mustached man from my mind, I continued following the hooded man. Blind in his path, and ignorant of others, Qrow continued into the forest. And very, very hesitantly I followed in his wake. Hitting myself in the head of every step I took in his direction, hoping that the rain wouldn't hit before we actually made it back onto the trail or better yet into the city.

I was wrong. I was oh so wrong.

Sitting now crossed legged, holding the tablet in my arms, inside the entrance of a cold and damp cave, watching as the most downpour of rain I had ever seen drop upon the landscape. Thunder booming off in the distance, lightning flashing repeatedly outside the cave. A few droplets landing upon my helmet, the water sliding down the material slowly before dripping upon my chest plate, another then hitting to repeat the process. All the while I stared at Qrow, the man in seemingly disbelief at the course nature took, sitting next to me with his head in hands, his backpack lying next to him. I oozed hatred and annoyance towards the man, the cloaked individual chuckling slightly at me before realizing the intent I was giving off and turned back towards the rain.

I typed into the tablet slowly, each blip sounding out as I hit the button. "So, what do you want to do while we wait?"

Qrow laughed slightly, turning towards me while shrugging "think about our place in the universe?"

"Ours would have been in a dry house if we actually stuck to the path."

"I said before, we were taking a shortcut."

"To a cave."

"A dry cave."

"A slightly dry cave. How long will this take."

Qrow stood, seemingly observing the rain with a keen interest before gasping loudly, snapping his fingers and putting his hands on his hips before turning to me. "We could run through it."

"You're kidding."

"Nope, wanna try it? Come on, it'll be fun."

"Running through a storm, I don't think so."

"Oh alright your loss. I'm going to take a look at the place, maybe it goes somewhere. Coming?"

I shook my head as an answer, giving back the tablet that Qrow had borrowed to me. The man took it quickly, turning in place and heading towards the deeper part of the cave. He was heading down there, without even a single light source? Maybe the tablet doubled as one, it could certainly do a lot. The tech was certainly above what I had expected this world to have. But it has continued to surprise me, but the biggest surprise came in the form of this man.

God Qrow was more of a challenge to deal with than he initially seemed. Childlike almost in nature, I couldn't actually tell if he was pretending by putting on some form of emotional mask or if this was the real Qrow. And I personally wished that he was hiding behind a mask. At this rate he would be better off taking the pack the man had left behind and trying to find his own way towards the nearest town.

Actually, that plan didn't sound too bad. It wasn't like I couldn't find other people, and if Qrow did truly know where he was going then he should be able to get to the city quickly. The more I thought about it, the more the pack looked to be easily taken. I unconsciously started to shift towards the pack, my arms starting to move towards the object. It wasn't like he was going to miss it, and I could disappear rather effectively. What was the harm, it was only going to do me good by leaving this man.

Before my fingers could reach the pack, I suddenly heard a monstrous thunderclap coming from deep within the cave. Turning just to time to see a wave of dust blow me back slightly, coating my armor in a light brown color. Growling slightly in frustration, I partially wiped some of the dust off my armor, the white color returning to visibility. At that moment my H.U.D. flared up, sending me signals of what seemed to be a small earthquake, a multitude of them, and heading straight towards me. What did Qrow do?

Looking backwards, I watched in the darkness as nothing approached. My sensors however telling me that whatever was coming, was coming fast. This was bad, if it was bigger than me then without my weapon I couldn't do much of anything. Should…should I run, no, I never run. Whatever this beast was, it would meet my wrath.

As the beast approached, something else came in its wake. A scream, one loud and piercing to my ears. It came through the darkness like a blade, piercing my ears, what could have made that. My answer came in the form of a man, of course, flailing his arms and screaming at me in something I couldn't understand. He frantically ran towards me, the yells now growing louder and louder as he blazed through the darkness in a midnight blur. Approaching me quickly, he grabbed my arm and attempted to pull me from my spot, but finding me rooted in place his voice quickly became more distinguishable. "Augusta, we need to leave now!"

I tilted my head in slightly confusion, wondering at just what this man was talking about. Before he shook his head frantically and pointed towards the other end of the cave. In the darkness, I saw light, one bright yellow, it hung upon something swaying back and forth in a hypnotizing way. Was Qrow afraid of just a light, oh god I really need to ditch this guy now. He continued to scream in my ear, telling me we had to leave. I probably should have ran, before I saw what was attached to the light. Only then did I remember my sensors, telling me of the beasts approaching, but I could not have foreseen this. A monstrous creature, taking the form of a scorpion, massive in size and coated in a pale bone-like armor. This…this was defiantly a reason to run.

Reaching for the pack instinctively, I tried to recover what supplies we obtained before suddenly being pulled back by a massive force. Turning and wondering if it was the beast, I half readied a fist but at my surprise at now realizing it was Qrow pulling me along, he screamed out something along the lines of 'leave it' and ran out of the cave and into the storm, with me to follow in his wake.

We blazed out of the cave with the creature following. It smashing through the cave and shattering the rock, blasting it in multiple directions, a rather large piece almost taking me out in the process. Quickly moving away from the blast, I quickly got behind Qrow, the hooded man oddly fast, nimbly dodging each branch and piece of rubble that the scorpion sent our way. While my armor absorbed most of the rock that was sent, some of the more sizable pieces having to actually be dodged in order to avoid being crushed. Rain drenching us both as we blazed through the forest, I turned to Qrow, my quick and frantic growls wanting to telling the man what was this thing. And somehow, the man understood, turning to me while dodging and shouting in a frantic voice. "Deathstalker! High level Grimm, normally this wouldn't be a problem for me but uh…I kinda left my weapon back at home."

What! Who in their right mind leaves their weapon behind! Apparently my growls showed my anger towards the man who quickly replied. "I'm sorry, my niece is sending the weapon to me before she leaves for Vale herself. She is a really nice girl, you should meet her. But back to this, we can't win here, keep moving! We have to find some way to get this thing off our trail! There is a small cliff ahead, go for that! We will leave it behind, these things don't do so well downhill!"

Agreeing and more than willing to follow the man's advice, I charged ahead with the man, dodging the rubble the Deathstalker flung at the both of us. Finding it easier and easier to dodge the rocks flung at us. Maybe the beast was tiring, finding us hard to catch. That thought however quickly disappearing as a bolder appeared out of thin air above the both of us, threatening to smash our forms. My armor quickly went to work, activating one of the enhancements and directing most of my power towards it. A heat flowed through my legs, my muscles burning and ready for takeoff. Before the bolder could hit us, Qrow looking upwards at it with fear in his eyes, I dashed forward at an incredible speed, lifting the man off his feet and dodging the bolder effectively. The shockwave made from the rock sent my body flying ahead slightly before I regained my balance and started to run once again, quickly dropping Qrow back upon the ground and deactivating Carolina's enhancement, watching my armor's power level drop significantly as the enhancement was used.

Qrow apparently wasn't expecting the boost of speed, staring at me with a curiosity that I hadn't seen before, accompanied with hard and cold eyes. Disappearing within the second I caught his gaze, he was still observing me, and now found that I still had something to hide. Something that could be bothered with at a later date. The thought also disappearing at the massive crash sounding from behind us, turning just in time to see the Deathstalker charge straight through the massive bolder it threw at us, without so much as a scratch upon it. It really was persistent, bad news for us. With a lightning flash, we were down the road again, the creature quick upon our trail. The thunder ringing through my ears as the shock reached our forms, my H.U.D. flashing slightly at the shock but quickly fixing itself at the minor inconvenience. This storm was dying down, but not anytime soon, the lighting flashing off in the distance more than enough proof of this fact.

We continued to move forward, through the rain and thunder, through the endless lines of blood red trees, waving and moving with the wind. The beast never once giving ground, the beast never once slowing down, it wanted us, it needed us for some reason or another. And i didn't really want to stick around long enough to find out. But still, charging forward, at a seemingly endless road, I half suspected that Qrow was once again leading me on, and this time with a beast that could easily take us both behind us. However that thought, and some of my doubt of Qrow, left by the man's voice rising suddenly and pointing towards the forest ahead. "We're there, get ready to jump!"

I saw it as well, a quite large chasm, dividing the forest seemingly in two. Train tracks running through the center of the cliff, another scene of human interaction, maybe Qrow was leading me in the right direction after all. Quickly rid of this thought, I powered the speed enhancement once more as the power that Qrow held suddenly went towards his feet at a fast rate, maybe he was preparing to hop his way across. Reaching the end of the chasm, I leapt with a force, dust and petals scattering behind me as I leapt the chasm. Turning slightly, I saw that Qrow had accomplished the same, but his jump at a significantly higher height and speed, landing on the other side with grace before I even reached the height of my jump.

Landing next to Qrow with significantly less grace, I stumbled slightly before regaining my footing, thankfully not landing in the mud, leveling my body out and turning to the other end of the cliff. True to Qrow's word, the beast was stuck, the scorpion looking for a way to cross the chasm but finding the way at a loss. The hooded man seemingly smiled smugly under his hood, elbowing me slightly in jest. Even drenched, covered in dirt, and being chased by a monster of a massive size, he still acted like a child. "What'd I tell ya? There is no way he can-."

Before Qrow could even finish his sentence the scorpion jumped, much higher and much farther than what Qrow could have seemingly predicted. His smug smile suddenly turning into a jaw dropped expression. I even had a hard time believing what I saw seeing, a ton scorpion, jumping a chasm the size of three buses. It landed hard, scattering dust and rock, the both of us having to block the rock from hitting our respective face protectors.

The dust settled, blood red petals falling from the sky as if they came from the clouds themselves. The creature staring at us with its multiple eyes, gauging us, studying us, before giving off a ear-piercing cry, as if challenging the both of us. Qrow sighed slightly before stepping into a battle stance, his feet apart with one hand resting inside his coat. He turned to me with a more stern aura about him, a commanding presence, one different from the man I watched only moments before. "What, you expect me to do all the work? We can't run from the thing so might as well take it out. Distract it; I have to get a clean shot at its eyes."

I nodded in response, I had no idea how I might take the creature out, and if Qrow had any idea I was certainly going to take it. But alright, all I have to do is distract, and wait for Qrow, hopefully he had something up his sleeve. My power was low, so I had to conserve what I had, hopefully it would be enough to take this thing out. And I would be damned if I was going to be killed by a scorpion.

I launched forward with help of the speed enhancement, ready to charge the beast head on. Reeling back a fist, I tried to hit one of its many eyes, suddenly stopping by a force blocking my arm from the sweet spot. It moved its claw to block my attack, it possessed a higher mind! Its second claw went to crush me, hastily rolling out of its pathway however denied it that pleasure of an easy victory. I charged again, this time now behind the beasts left claw, jumping well above its arm and landing on its head. Smashing my fist repeatedly into its thick armor, trying to make a crack. Each pound sending out a resounding shock-wave, the creature certainly feeling every strike. By the fifth hit its armor split, deep cracks running through the bone white armor.

It let out a powerful roar, swiping the top of its head with a claw and hitting me square on, blasting me back and landing next to Qrow. Before I could even get back up, the man yelled for me to stay down and threw a small vial at the beast. It was a red color, infused with a touch of orange, what good was sand going to do against this thing. My answer...it came in the form of an explosion, the shock-wave hitting me furiously, threatening to send my form back across the chasm. But holding my ground, the explosion still took effect, Qrow somehow unaffected by the blast. Standing infront of the flames as if it were nothing, his cloak blowing back against the wind, but his hood somehow still staying in place. As the flames died however, I rose, standing to see what was left of the beast. And apparently, it was the entire thing. The Deathstalker blocked the blast with both of its claws, both seemingly unaffected by the massive explosion. My eyes widened behind my helmet, even I would have been taken out by that blast, how did the beast survive? Qrow even was at a loss, shrugging slightly at how things turned out. "I really thought that would work."

The beast roared again, moving its claws to see that the scorpion was slightly damaged, a few of his eyes bleeding or destroyed by the shrapnel. But the majority survived, still allowing the beast the ability of sight. What to do now, the beast was damaged but not weakened enough, with no weapon and Qrow seemingly out of the game, what could be done? I looked at the beast once more, observing its every detail…wait, I could barely break its armor, but something heavier could, its stinger. I had to remove it, but how…North, your enhancement may just save me again.

The creature, ready to charge stepped backward slightly, ready to run the both of us down. Before it could move however, I blazed past Qrow, his expression turning slightly grim at my charge but he stayed still, as if wondering what I was going to do. I stopped infront of the beast, still wondering as just why I was doing this I waved my arms around furiously, jumping up and down and trying to anger it in any way I could. It tried to swipe at me with its left claw, slow and sloppy, it was an easy dodge. Same thing with a swipe from its right. But as it finally had enough, it threw its stinger at me, trying to impale my form. But moving only to the left slightly, it crashed into the mud behind me. Taking the chance and grabbing the stinger, the Deathstalker lifted its appendage off the ground, and took me with it.

Flailing its stinger in the air, it tried and tried to fling me off. But gripping the appendage hard, I stuck to the thing like glue, also holding onto it for dear life. I climbed up the stinger, eventually reaching the top of the appendage, I gripped the flesh part of the stinger hard and activated the bubble shield. The shield acting like a knife, it severed the stinger in two, then at once releasing the bubble shield, it flew down towards earth, or more appropriately, towards the Deathstalker's head. The armor already cracked from my blows, it completely destroyed the armor, jutting out of the stalker in a very painful way, the beast crying out from the blow as it tried to remove the stinger.

I moved fast, landing upon the stinger, I used the speed enhancement once more, launching from the yellow stinger with a force, I leapt high into the air. I soared through the clouds, the wind and rain blowing past my form, turbulence threatening to pull me away. Water blowing past me at a furious speed before crashing above the clouds and into the sky. I saw high above the forest, an endless blue sea stretching across the sky, an endless red forest stretching along the land. My enemy only a speck along the ground, ready to be squashed. And as high as I flew, I knew that falling was of a much higher level. Gravity taking hold, I launched towards the ground at a high speed, my fist going first as I headed straight for the stinger. One thing was sure about this situation, this was going to hurt. The shockwave that came from my blow was immense, the thunder blowing a few trees off their roots before the actual blast came. Earth ruptured, flying in every direction, bone and what was left of the scorpion flung with it. The last I saw of Qrow was the man ducking for cover.

I breathed heavily, my power level almost nothing from the movements I made, but I felt the creature to be now more. The dust setting, what I predicted was true. The stinger now split the creature in half, a bright red blood oozing from almost every crack in what was its body. The Deathstalker was no more…good riddance.

The dust continued to move, showing me the area in which I devastated. Some of the trees closest to me were completely uprooted and flung across the way, some in the deep pit of the cliff. Others were only partially destroyed, all petals now missing from the tree and falling down in a blood rain, some landing upon my armor, I didn't bother to remove them, the rain would do that for me. I looked for Qrow, finding the man easily, standing in pure view, smiling underneath his hood and actually applauding. "I knew you could do it."

He…he what! I approached the man fast and heavy in step, quickly finding his neck in my hand and his body off the ground. But as that happened, I quickly found a blade at my throat, attached to a pole of some kind, it seemed to be collapsed. Qrow…he did have a weapon and yet refused to help, what was this man's gain? He spoke slowly, as if still able to draw breath under my crushing grip. "You should have trusted me, it would have been easier. Now, this can go one of two ways. One, I can kill you, two, we both settle down and we finally go to Vale. Your choice, but I guarantee that one of them will not work out well for you."

This man…was there a method to his madness? He must have been planning this from the beginning, he caught my lie and wanted to test how far my experience went as a fighter. Taking me to that beast's lair and making me fight it by feigning his new-found personality, this…this was a calculating man. He reminded me much of the Counselor, always watching, always calculating the next move…I didn't like it. But at my current level, I could not best him, I still haven't even seen his abilities yet and he has seen just about all of my own. So, reluctantly, I let go of the man, Qrow landing upon the ground and quickly putting away the bladed weapon before I could get a good look at it. The man smiled, as if nothing had happened. "You made the right choice, and although I still don't know everything about you. I can get a good idea through that battle there. My offer still stands for help with my friends, if you still wish to accept?"

I nodded slowly, my anger showing completely and the man catching it easily. "Trust me, it could have been easier if you just told me everything, but now that I know a few things, this trip should be a lot smoother, I promise no more Grimm. There is a method to my madness. Now come on, we can take the train tracks to Vale easily."

The hooded man turned in place, walking towards the end of the slightly destroyed cliff before launching, landing softly upon the tracks rising above the chasm. He turned to me, waving an arm before calling out to me, hoping to still catch my attention. I did not want to go with this man, he betrayed what little trust I held within the man, but what choice did I have at this moment? And it wasn't like I was entirely truthful within him, I could have easily told him everything. Maybe he would believe, it was only a matter of time before I could try. Looking upon my armor, and then towards the sky, I noticed that the rain had stopped, the storm now gone into the distance. The dark and gloomy clouds giving way to the bright blue sky I had saw before. So with a heavy heart, I launched myself across the crevice, landing next to Qrow heavily, following the man's wake as he blazed a path to Vale, hopefully truthfully this time.